With the mysterious operations of vital action, the forces which we have been considering have nothing whatever in common. The powers which are employed in the arrangements of matter are, notwithstanding their subtile character, of far too gross a nature to influence the psychological mysteries which present themselves to the observant mind. It cannot be denied that, by placing a person of even moderate nervous sensibility in a constrained position, and under an unnatural influence of the mind, as acquired by the disciples of Mesmer, a torpor affecting only certain senses is produced. The recognised and undoubted phenomena are in the highest degree curious--but in these the marvels of charlatanry and ignorance are not included;--and the explanation must be sought for by the physiologist among those hidden principles upon which depends all human sensation.[199] Man, like a magician, stands upon a promontory, and surveying the great ocean of the physical forces which involve the material creation, and produce that infinite variety of phenomena which is unceasingly exhibited around him, he extends the wand of intelligence, and bids the “spirits of the vasty deep” obey his evocation. The phenomena recur--the great processes of creation go on--the external manifestations of omnipotent power proceed--effects are again and again produced; but the current of force passes undulating onwards;--and to the proud bidding of the evocator there is no reply but the echo of his own vain voice, which is lost at last in the vast immensity of the unknown which lies beyond him. We see how powerfully the physical forces, in their various modes of action, stir and animate this planetary mass; and amongst these the influence of magnetism appears as a great directing agent, though its origin is unknown to us. That power which, like a potent spirit, guides The sea-wide wanderers over distant tides, Inspiring confidence where’er they roam, By indicating still the pathway home;-- Through nature, quicken’d by the solar beam, Invests each atom with a force supreme, Directs the cavern’d crystal in its birth, And frames the mightiest mountains of the earth; Each leaf and flower by its strong law restrains, And binds the monarch Man within its mystic chains. FOOTNOTES: [170] _Treatise on Magnetism_, by Sir David Brewster. _Cosmos: a Sketch of a Physical description of the Universe_; by Alexander Von Humboldt.--Otté’s Translation. [171] _Expérience Electro-Magnétique._ par M. Œrsted.--Annales de Chimie, vol. xxii. p. 201. De la Rive, _Recherches sur la Distribution de l’Electricité dyn. dans les Corps_.--Genève, 1825. [172] _On the Magnetic power of Soft Iron_: by Mr. Watkins.--Philosophical Transactions, 1833.