The first, and certainly the most futile of all the reasons alledged why we should not inquire into the fact or fallacy of Mesmeric and Phrenological phenomena is this. _That the Lecturer is connected with the Chartists_. Had I not heard this myself, and had not Mr. Taylor thrown out in his pamphlet the same insinuation, I confess, I should not have conjectured there was a single individual who could be, at all, influenced by such petty, not to say stupid considerations. Who ever dreamed of inquiring, except as matters of historic interest, in relation to the individuals themselves, whether Newton, Harvey, Franklin, and the various discoverers of the useful Arts and Sciences were Whigs or Tories? and, I presume, that the individuals making this objection ride very comfortably in the vehicles of the Country, undisturbed as to whether the inventors of stage coaches belonged to their own, or to an opposite class of Politicians. For myself, in examining the Theory, I conclude I have as little guarantee for its truth from the Chartism, as I should expect from the Toryism of its Lecturer. In all such matters I judge from the facts, and not the individuals; and am too well assured that no political party stands so high in virtue as to offer me a complete security against fraud and imposture. It is argued, also, _That if there had been any truth in Mesmerism_, _it would since the days of its discoverer_, _have certainly made more progress_. _That_, _it has now been many years before the public_, _and remains_, _as to any useful purpose_, _in its original position_. It were sufficient to reply to this argument, that, if no parallel could be found in the introduction of other discoveries, now held to be useful to the public; that the presumption is quite illogical, that I must not credit what I see, and what my senses assure me to be fact, because similar exhibitions have been before, and often shown to the eyes, and ears, of other persons and they have discarded them. I conceive, the more philosophical mode to be to come to the examination without prejudging it; and to inquire as closely and carefully as if the subject was being introduced for the first time. No person, being at all acquainted with History, needs to be informed by what slow process the most useful discoveries have made way in the world. Every thing new comes to us clothed with suspicion; and the most intelligent and best men are reluctant to forego long cherished ideas and hypothesis in favour of a new doctrine, and too hastily to adopt the novelty, among such persons, is to lose cast in society, and to incur the appellation of Enthusiasts in the world. Farther, when the bare truth of any discovery has been generally allowed, we find, that the movement has been very slow indeed by which it has advanced to perfection.