Long as clairvoyance has remained the riddle, jest and wonder of the
world, it is questioned by none why the established philosophy of
this superiorly enlightened age is incompetent to account for this
or any other mesmerically produced phenomenon, or afford the least
glimmer of light by which it were possible to arrive at the physiology.
Why the philosophy of Aristotle, Bacon, Newton, Des Cartes, Davy,
Liebig--honoured names, and most justly, as the ancient and modern
fathers in science--can afford no scintillation whereby to lessen the
obscurity in which this most interesting subject is involved, should
appear strange and unaccountable to all lovers of philosophy. By
Professors the question should be answered. To consider it unworthy
of being looked into, would be a tacit confession that Professors are
indifferent to the natural truth; which proves all such to be but half
reasoners, and not philosophers, notwithstanding all their mathematical
learning and experimental experience.
It should have been questioned long since, whether the philosophy be
not untrue which leaves all mankind in the dark, in a mere physical
case, however mysterious the psychological result, the effect of manual
application, and in the power of almost every person to produce. The
mesmerising operation and effect includes nothing of necromancy or
trick; is openly performed, and produced mechanically; and although the
passes make a living being appear as if in a novel state of existence,
the immediate effect, polarisation of the extremities of the body, is
the same precisely as is effected on the iron bar when passed along
the poles of a loadstone. This, and numerous other physical phenomena,
which to the present day remain unexplained, and as if inexplicable,
afford much reason for at least the conjecture, that modern philosophy
is not the philosophy of physical nature; which, if not, it must be
false and misleading, inasmuch as there can be but one philosophy,
by reason of there being but one species of matter throughout all
nature, and but one cause of action,--_the general pressure_. From
which it follows, that as the philosophy of nature is that of matter
universally, there can be no physical phenomenon which it does not
explain. Therefore, the phenomena which modern philosophy has neither
laws nor rules competent to explain, are so many proofs that the
established philosophy of the age is false philosophy; which is
provable throughout all its particulars, however rash and adventurous
may appear the announcement. Besides, at the present day, there are
several different philosophies maintained; every profession has its
own; which is proof of the strongest nature that not one is true,
dissent from the truly natural being impossible, so universally is it
applicable. Eventually it will be admitted that the philosophy of the
nineteenth century is founded on the crude ideas of the imperfectly
learned in the earliest days of science, ever since adopted, and
never investigated, instead of being deduced solely from the INERT
NATURE OF MATTER, the only true basis. On modern philosophy, Davy
makes the shrewd remark, that "it is no better than a mere compilation
of isolated facts and circumstances, differently accounted for, and
leading to no general theory:" such is not the philosophy of nature.
That matter is _inert_, is made manifest in there being nothing
whatever throughout the whole of inanimate nature which can act or
move of itself. Matter does nothing, cannot act; it is the passive
patient of the general pressure, which alone can act; and pressure is
universal, because of matter being _inert_. Matter is not only _inert_,
but _unalterable_; on which principles the constancy of the order
and laws of nature depend. Inert, unalterable matter can suffer no
change but of a local nature--change of place, which implies motion,
for which there is no analogous cause but impulsive pressure. These
unquestionable physical truisms are stated in advance, from being
intimately connected with every physical change, in order to serve as a
standard of comparison from which to form an opinion while canvassing
the principles and laws by which the scientific world has been for
centuries not only governed, but misled.
Newton admits the _principle_ of _inertia_, but considers it an innate
_passive_ power, which _enables_ a body to resist against being moved;
and when in motion, enables it _to resist_ that which would put it
out of motion. _Inertia_, a passive power, is as death, being passive
animation; and _inertia enabling_ a body to _act_ against force, is
nothing short of _active inertia_, or _vis inertiæ_, which means the
force of inability. This monstrous perversion of a natural fundamental
principle, and by such high authority, pervades the whole of the
established philosophy. It makes the planets, which are but clumps of
deadly inert matter, gravitate themselves through space; and makes
_inert_ atoms competent to perform attraction on each other wherever
they exist. A more absurd article of _belief_ has no place in the
Athanasian code of mind-perverting dogmas; yet admitted as true by
the most eminently talented and highly learned of the present age.
While such inconsistent principles of common-place use are gravely
defended, the _known facts_ of mesmerism are obstinately and ignorantly
denied; and only because of not being understood; that, were it not
for the good sense and philanthropic perseverance of the enlightened,
noble-minded Elliotsons, Ashburners, and Esdailes, of the British
empire--honourable, heroic champions and victors in the cause of truth,
humanity and science, in despite of the self-conceit which affects
the knowledge of the limits of possibility; that, were it not for the
magnanimity of those superiors belonging to the learned profession,
this heaven-bestowed boon, carrying healing on the wing to suffering
humanity, would have been contemptuously received, ungratefully
acknowledged, and long since consigned to the rubbish of oblivion. Yet
all have claim to the common apology, _false scientific education_,
excepting those who have assented to what they have seen with wonder,
and afterwards denied their admission.
The established philosophy cannot account for the boy's marble going
farther through the air than the fullest extent of the impelling
thumb. The proposition may appear trifling and insignificant, yet is
it worthy the consideration of the Chair of Knowledge, from which it
has never been explained nor there understood, as involving the cause
of planetary motion; for, _in all nature there are not two causes of
motion_. That the marble "_partakes_" of the _force_, and "partakes" of
the _motion_ of that by which it is impelled, is an absurd idea; the
force and motion of a body were not, and cannot become, the force and
motion of any other body.
The established philosophy cannot account for the splinters of a stone
having motion out of the direction of impulse, nor for having motion
in every direction but that of the stone-breaker's impelling hammer,
which appears at variance with the natural, immutable dynamic law,
which says, that _as a body cannot move itself_, so must it have motion
in the direction only of that by which it is being moved. Neither is
there any philosophy extant, which explains why the stone at Texteth of
one hundred tons should rise, as if of itself, six inches in the air,
under which the quarrymen could have shoved a hand and withdrawn it
safely, before the immense mass fell crushingly on the former bed.
On the other hand, what the established philosophy undertakes to
explain, it explains erroneously. Beside maintaining the transfer of a
local casualty, in accounting for continuous motion, it teaches that
the power of steam consists in heat, and that cold congeals water:
whereas heat and cold have no physical existence; each is a sensation,
anything similar to which it is impossible for either fire or water to
possess. So that to the present day the power of steam, the cause of
combustion and of congelation has in each instance remained unknown.
So simple is nature, so few her laws, that were any one of her
phenomena known throughout all its bearings, it would be found that
the knowledge includes the philosophy of the whole of matter. Of this
Aristotle was aware when announcing, that he who is unacquainted with
motion, is ignorant of all things in true philosophy. Motion being the
_only effect_ producible on _inert, unalterable matter_, the knowledge
of the phenomenon includes that of all effect. The substance of all
things being of the same species, and the power of Nature consisting
in universal pressure, the formations in general nature and in the
laboratory of art can have but the same principles, laws, theory, and
philosophy. Paul may plant and Apollos water; nature germinates, the
weather or climate grows and fructifies. The chymist's fire does
not burn itself; in the absence of air and its pressure there is no
combustion; neither is there growth, respiration, nor life.
According to the philosophy of the astronomer, the earth has projectile
motion, from "impulse once impressed, at the beginning, and not since
renewed;" which is effect six thousand times, at least, greater
than the cause. Then, again, as motion must be in the direction of
impulse and cease out of that direction, the earth, from "impulse
once impressed," goes round the sun without being impelled; or of
its own accord, and should be centripetally attracted to the sun, if
solar attraction were possible. It needs no mathematical calculation
to prove, that, from such philosophy being wholly independent of all
consideration of natural cause, it is untrue, and at variance with
common sense.
The philosophy of the chymist is of every-day make. It assumes
different species of matter; chymical matter and matter not chymical;
attractions innumerable, such as chymical, electric, galvanic,
capillary, and attraction of cohesion; likewise magnetic forces,
chymical affinities, and affections of matter--"while as yet there
is none of them"--matter being _inert_ naturally. To mechanical
nature the entire is useless and foreign, and their value lies solely
in being terms of professional application in the highly important
chymical art; but to the discovery of true philosophy they are an
insurmountable obstacle. How chymical matter differs from the common
matter of the world, no chymist can say or conceive; nor is there any
difference in the substance and nature of inert matter: as well might
it be maintained that motion is not always mechanical, but sometimes
chymical. The true philosophy of chymistry is dynamic, the basis
inertia, the laws those of quantity and relative position.
The philosophy of the anatomist and physiologist is semi-natural,
semi-spiritual, mechanical and vital. Life, throughout all belonging
to the frame, does not suffice; the heart and blood have each an
imputed, distinct, living principle; the nerves are sensitive, the
muscles irritable; the flesh has its susceptibility, according to
the modern physiology. The sainted health-preserver shudders at the
irreligious notion of the economy being philosophised on at all; more
especially according to the laws of hydrostatics; it being "impious
beyond measure" to reason on the work of God's own hand, formed after
his own image and likeness, (malformations excepted,) as on human
mechanism. Yet, where are any of these vitalities and living principles
when respiration is suddenly stopped? Verily, these professionals
endow, most gratuitously, the animal frame with as many vitalities
and living principles as the lives bestowed on the tailor's--so much
the more unfortunate--cat. As every organ of the body is inert; no
organ, of itself, performs the function; every function is mechanically
performed, and every effect analogous to impulsive pressure, whether
consisting in formation, intermixture, or dissolution, all depend
on elementary local change. The contrary is not in the power of the
anatomist and physiologist to prove of inert, unalterable, atomic
substance; nor should more causes be assumed than what are natural,
common, sufficient, and analogous to effects. Spiritual principles for
mechanical purposes are as little requisite for animal organism as for
the steam-engine, or the performances of a watch.
The last on the list of professional philosophies is that of the
Therapeutist; the least misleading, from being the most concise. The
word ACTION includes the whole. There is no inquiry to which the word
_action_ is not the deeply-learned significant reply; being indefinite,
it stands for a dead-stop silencer. The doctor knows best--with much
room for knowing better. The doctor knows, and assures from his own
certain knowledge, that the _action_ of the dose on the stomach
upheaves the sac; but rather than be thought positive, allows that the
effect may be from the _action_ of the stomach on the dose. The good
easy man of M.D. celebrity, or mediocrity, has to learn, that the dose
is as _inert_ as when in the tea-cup, and the stomach as _inert_ as
when it has arrived at the predicted destiny, the dissecting table.
Again, the _action_ of the pain prevents the _action_ of the physic,
otherwise the cure would have been immediate. Such philosophy is
harmless, if so to the patient; from its insignificance it corrupts
neither pathology, osteology, nor dynamics. Not so the learning,
published on high surgical authority, to enlighten ward-walking
noviciates--that "pain may exist in the _flesh_ and bones without
being felt, owing to the _insensible_ sensibility of the part,"
which amounts to an excruciating, painless toothache, and, the being
unconscious of excited consciousness. Pain is not in the diseased or
wounded part, being the consequence of cerebral excitement; pain is one
of the objects of perception belonging to the scenery of the sensorium,
from which it cannot migrate. The disorganised part is but the apparent
place of pain; and wisely such, or else all remedial applications
would be to the brain. As to the dose and stomach _action_, it stands
corrected by the diagnosis; the stomach is lifted in consequence of
the equilibrium of pressure being destroyed by means of the dose,
notwithstanding its additional weight, within the stomach. Chymical
action of the dose and self-lifting muscles are all of Esculapian
surmise. The faculty should cease to identify feeling, pain, sensation,
with organic ailments and disorganization of the flesh.