In that passive and impressionable condition which is called hypnotic, mesmeric, somnambulic, or somniloquent, it has long been known that the subject may be absolutely controlled by the operator, or by a simple command or suggestion, or by his own imagination. This has been so often demonstrated before many hundred thousands of spectators, that it is a matter of general knowledge everywhere among intelligent people,--everywhere except, perhaps, in the thick darkness of medical colleges, where ignorance upon such subjects has long been made the criterion of respectability, and perhaps among a few very orthodox congregations, where such things have been associated with the idea of witchcraft, and considered very offensive to the Lord. Such was the doctrine of my old contemporary at Cincinnati, Dr. Wilson, at the head of the leading orthodox congregation; and it was equally offensive to the champion debater of Presbyterian orthodoxy, the Rev. N. L. Rice, whom I arraigned before a vast audience for his antiquated falsehoods. If the church and the college are getting a _little_ more enlightened now, I cannot forget the condition in which I found them, of stubborn hostility to scientific progress, and these things _should not be forgotten_ until they have repented, reformed, and ceased to be a stationary obstruction. We are not accustomed to look to a Catholic country like France for advanced thought, yet, in these instances just mentioned, we find French scientists entertaining advanced ideas which the leaders of American science treat with either indifference or hostility. The _Popular Science Monthly_ and medical journals generally treat all such matters with stubborn aversion and injustice. The learned collaborators of Johnson's Cyclopedia were unwilling even to have the science of psychometry mentioned in it, and it was introduced by the publisher against their protest. These things I mention now, that the great public to which I appeal may better understand the real value of the opinions of those who stand in positions of authority and influence.