I remember Priestly opined that _phlogiston_ in our bodies _produced_ electricity, which was destined for our own purposes merely. But as the _silurus_ and the _torpedo_ possess the power of _imparting theirs_, although at the expense of their animal power, I presume to think that concentrated mind _may_ impart our own nervous influence to others. EV. I admire the acuteness of your question, Astrophel; but you are now come down from your clouds; you are descending unawares to _physiology_. There are, doubtless, many peculiar states of the nervous system at present inexplicable. I grant it is _possible_ that the influence of the nervous energy may become so eccentric as to illustrate the phenomena of magnetism, if, as some believe, this influence depends on a subtle fluid analogous to light, heat, and electricity; the nerve conveying this fluid as the wire conducts the electric. Thus an influence, which is apparently _physical_, may be, in reality, _mental_, for there is usually _consciousness_ of the contact. M. Bertrand believed that the mind alone of the patient was acted on, and this is strengthened by the experiments of the Abbé Faria, who produced many of these phenomena by merely exclaiming to his sensitive visitors, “_Dormez_.” ASTR. Well, you are drawing the influences of mind and body very closely together, Evelyn. If animal magnetism be not the universal influence of sensitive beings, what is _personal sympathy_? EV. It is not that mysterious freemasonry of the senses which may impart a superhuman knowledge, or confer a power of personal recognition. Yet we are required to believe such stories. ASTR. And are there not many well attested? There was a Monsieur de la Tour Landrie, a nobleman of France, who so powerfully influenced a young shoemaker by whom he was measured, that the youth fell into a senseless syncope, and profuse hæmorrhage succeeded it. This influence was repeated, and excited so deep an interest in the mind of the noble, that he instituted an inquiry regarding his birth and fortunes. And the result was, that Monsieur de la Tour discovered in the humble mechanic the son of his sister, the Baronne de Vesines.