366. “How changed are the times! Two years ago, the whole Academy of Sciences revolted against the Baron de Humboldt for supposing that at a distance he caused a deviation of the magnetic needle—an experiment, too, which could _never_ be renewed at Paris; and, behold! in place of needles, all at once heavy tables are seen _waltzing about the room, and obedient to the will_; and all this is easily explained! It is _quite plausible_! Yes, but this time, gentlemen Savans, we will not allow you to distort the facts. Since the commencement of this volume, we have done nothing but establish, on good evidence, all those which your colleagues arrange agreeably to their fancy, after having absolutely denied them. But now the half of France rises with us to convict them, and to say to you: No, your _nervous branches_ will never explain it; neither the physical phenomena which you would refer to them, nor the intelligence of our tables which respond to our own questions, nor the _super-intelligence_ of those which probably to-morrow will reveal to us what we are ignorant of ourselves. 367. “Attending on the morrow, then! It is truly sorrowful to see a man of the highest merit, like M. Chevreul, expose himself in this way to the weakest scholar who, _cue in hand_, might fairly undertake to answer him. Those may hereafter believe in physics who wish. It is most horribly compromised. A science, capable of thus forswearing all its principles, loses, in our estimation, much of its authority. 368. “_La Revue Medicale_, cited by _La Patrie_ of May 20th, declares in its turn ‘the explanation either by _imagination_ or _muscular vibrations_, as represented by MM. Corvisart and De Castelnan, _entirely nullified_ by the fact of the simple change in the relations of the _little fingers_.’ 369. “As for the Medical, they see in it _animal magnetism_, and exclaim: ‘No one is able to foresee the application of which this discovery is susceptible. It is an entire world for explanation. Who knows if there is not at the end of this hint the means of illustrating a whole generation!’ 370. “Lucky Magnetism—what a reparation you have a right to demand! what incense will be bestowed on you to-morrow, by those who yesterday so cruelly tore you to pieces! But _La Presse_ and _L’Union Medicale_ may do what they please, no one will hereafter believe them on their word. 371. “A just reward, gentlemen, for things here below. You would not believe and you are not believed now! We read afresh in _La Patrie_ of May 21st, the recital of ‘tables promenading and upsetting _without contact by pure efforts of volition_, or even by a simple magnetic _pass_—a very _superfluous_ precaution of the experimenter.’ Very superfluous, indeed! It could not have been better expressed.