and, as he supposed, had no concern with it. It was regarded as not "essential to a full illustration" of his subject.

Thus we have shown many possible ways (we might have pointed out others) in which Col. Stone may have been mistaken, either of which is many thousand times, and some one of which many million times more probable than the monstrous absurdity which the Colonel asserts. This we say, notwithstanding our author so often gives us his word, that there was no collusion, trick, fraud, or deception, in the case. We are unwilling to reject the word of any credible and honorable man; but when it is given for that which cannot, in the nature of things, be true, we must pause before receiving it. Are we not entitled to do so?

It appears plainly, then, that Col. Stone's proof is imperfect and defective. And can defective proof prove a contradiction? Let the world judge whose position is strongest, the Colonel's

or our own.

The Doctor now again transferred (willed) his patient into the hands of Col. S. "Quick as a flash," says the Colonel, "we were restored to the place and position occupied at the moment of the Doctor's intervention." They then visited Trinity Church, where Miss B. astonished her guide, as usual, but nothing occurred worthy of particular notice. Afterwards, our author took her back again to his own house, and asked her to look at a picture in his "snuggery," a breakfast-room. She smiled, but would not describe it. The Doctor now told him, that if he would charge her to remember what she saw, and tell him when she waked, she would do so. The Colonel did as he had been instructed, and when she was awaked soon after by Dr. Capron, "by the peculiar process of Animal Magnetism, together with a few brushes of the hand over the forehead," our author inquired of her what she saw in his "basement room."

'She laughed outright, as she replied, "It was a funny looking fellow pulling a cat's ear."

This was another remarkable answer. The picture in question is an old and admirable painting, recently purchased by my friend, the Rev. J. C. Brigham, and loaned to me. Its existence, I am perfectly confident, was unknown to any of the party present but myself; and the subject, that of a sly, mischievous fellow, full of wicked laughter, as he is teazing some antiquated lady, by pulling or pinching the ears of her favorite tabby!' p. 49.

We have extracted this case for the purpose of giving the reader all Col. Stone's facts. We have nothing to say regard

ing it, in addition to what has been said concerning other cases like it.

Col. Stone's visit to New York occupied "nearly four hours." In returning to Providence, his "most interesting companion" chose again, that they should "fly." The Colonel, of course, acceded to the proposal, and waited on her as politely as he had done before. After their return, Miss B. was waked in the manner alluded to.

On leaving Providence, Col. Stone determined on one more experiment, to test the powers of Miss B. He left a note "carefully folded, so as to preclude the possibility of reading it, by the natural sight, without opening, and sealed it with seven wafers, and two seals of wax, with my own private signet." When the note was returned, "the seals were unbroken, and exactly in the condition I had left them, with the answer written on the outside." The note, the latter part of it printed, was as follows:

The following is the title, equally quaint and amusing, of a book which was published in England in the time of Oliver Cromwell: " Eggs of Charity, layed by the Chickens of the Covenant, and boiled by the waters of Divine Love. Take ye and eat."

I subjoin the answer, sent by Miss B. through an intimate friend: "The following is a title, equally amazing (or amusing) and quaint, of a book published in England in the time of Oliver Cromwell: Eggs of Charity.

Miss B. does not know whether the word is amazing or amusing. Something is written after the "eggs of charity," which she cannot make out. p. 53.

Col. Stone gives another similar case, (which he, however, did not witness,) in which Miss B. read a note, "composed of several envelopes," without breaking the seals, which was sent from Troy, N. Y., by Mr. Stephen Covill, for the purpose of exercising her powers.

Thus we have been determined to give our author a fair hearing. We have presented everything which is at all important, that his letter contains.

With regard to the sealed notes, we have room but for a few remarks. The fact stated is improbable, to say the least, in the highest degree, but not so palpably absurd and contradictory as some other parts of the narrative. The Colonel, of course, is confident, that there was "no foul" play in the case; but we have little doubt, that there was, notwithstanding this confident declaration. We, perhaps, need not mention ways

in which there may have been mistake; but we would ask the reader to notice the following suspicious circumstances:

1. Nobody appears to have seen Miss B. read either of the

notes.

2. Col. Stone's note was prepared and left in a great hurry, when appearances, perhaps, were not so familiar as they might have been, had the thing been done more deliberately. It was probably left when the wafers were still fresh, and afforded no security. Respecting the private seal, which could not be counterfeited, we have never seen it, and do not know. However, there are more persons that can prepare and apply counterfeit seals, than can read notes in the manner that Mis B. is affirmed to have done.

3. Miss B. was obliged to take Mr. Covill's note to bed with her before reading it. So says Col. Stone. The Providence experimenters say, that she took it into a dark room alone. Why could she not read it before company, and in the presence of daylight?

4. The Providence experimenters,* in the case of Mr. Covill's note, and in an account published before the note had been returned to Mr. C., and before its contents were known, except from the declaration of Miss Brackett, give us the particulars (as it were in a moment of forgetfulness) about the manner in which the note was prepared and folded, apparently for the purpose of showing the difficulty of the exploit; and this, when there seems to have been no honest way in which they could have obtained their information! They say, that the note was placed "between two thick cards, folded in a deep blue sheet of paper," sealed with his own seal and a number of wafers, and the whole put into a large sheet!

5. In the case of both the notes, the somnambulist pretended, that she could not read the whole; when it is obvious, that if she could read a part of such notes, she could read all.

In an appendix to the work before us, there is an extract from the notes to the book already referred to in a note. The

* See a work recently published in Providence, entitled “Practical Instruction in Animal Magnetism, by J. P. F. Deleuze, translated by Thomas C. Hartshorn," with notes by the translator. We say nothing of the book. The notes contain additional statements concerning the Providence somnambulists, in which the names of Dr. Capron, Dr. Brownell, Dr. Webb, &c., are introduced as so many vouchers for truth. They ought to be bound up in the same volume with Col. Stone's Letter. Regarding some of the most wonderful of the facts which these notes contain, it is alledged, that they are "substantiated beyond the possibility of a doubt;" and it is farther added, as a most satisfactory disposal of the question of proof-" as may be learned by any one passing through Providence,' What an extinguisher to the hopes of cavilers and scep

tics!

extract relates chiefly to a female, a patient of Dr. Brownell, who, while in a state of somnambulism, was requested to examine another patient of the Doctor, at the distance of a mile and a quarter, (who was supposed to be affected with a diseased liver,) and to "tell what the disease was." She looked over the man's internal organs, described some of them, (though she had never seen them, or plates of them, or heard them described before,) and said, that the liver was not diseased, but that the spleen was enlarged. Ten days after this, the man died. Sixteen physicians, says Dr. Brownell, besides himself, examined the body after death, and declared they could discover no enlargement of the spleen. "I then opened the body, (says Dr. B.,) and, to the utter astonishment of the physicians present, found the spleen so enlarged as to weigh fifty-seven ounces. Its usual weight is from four to six ounces." "No other disease was perceptible."

Concerning this case, we have only to say, that if its statements are true, we cannot have a very high opinion of the Providence physicians. If Dr. Brownell and his sixteen associates could not, either before or after death, discover an enlarged spleen, ten or twelve times its natural size, and weighing fifty-seven ounces, they certainly ought not to have published their shame.

That there may not be some truth in some parts of Col. Stone's narrative is more than we dare say. Some portions of it are credible; but the error and extravagance which make up the largest and most essential part of it, throw an air of doubt over the whole. That the Animal Magnetism of Providence is a most miserable delusion, there can be no question; and that another generation will look upon it as such, we as confidently believe. We have all heard the story of the farfamed "Salem Witchcraft." Animal Magnetism is no more respectable. It rests on no better evidence, is sanctioned by no higher authority, and has hitherto kept no better company. The unfortunate beings who, in either case, have fully illustrated its power, have been weak, diseased, nervous, and irritable females, who sometimes have been of questionable honor. Its dupes have almost ever been fools, and certain credulous gentlemen, of shattered mind and memory, its professors mountebanks, and its instigators knaves. Its progress has hitherto been the progress of credulity, imposture, guilt, and shame.

P. S. Since the foregoing article was written, the "science" of Animal Magnetism has received a very effectual exposure,

in a pamphlet by C. F. Durant, who, by seemingly aiming to establish a theory of his own on the subject, was enabled to unfold some of its mysteries and account for its alledged facts. We presume, that any farther notice of its pretensions, for the present at least, will bet hought entirely unnecessary; and had the exposure in question been previously published, we might have saved ourselves the trouble of preparing the above.

MISCELLANEOUS NOTICES.

Confessions of a French Catholic Priest, &c.: Edited by S. F. B. Morse, A. M., Professor, &c. New York: John S. Taylor.

We have no clew to guide us in determining who is the author of this volume; but in the absence of this, we are furnished with the assurance, that he is known to the editor, Prof. S. F. B. Morse, and that the work has been subjected to his revision. Such a guarantee was needful, not so much on account of the facts which it contains, as for the reason, that the present age is one given to imposture and credulity. These pages bear the marks of truth, and in them are depicted the struggles of a conscientious spirit against the soul-contaminating tendencies of a system which, for its artfulness and its knowledge of the corrupt inclinations of human nature, may well be termed the masterpiece of the arch-enemy of man.

From the days of Pascal and his admirable Provincial Letters to the present time, there have been individuals well acquainted with the wicked casuistry and the slavish bondage of Popery, who have not hesitated to expose its foul abominations and its dangerous influences. But a little of its real vileness has been or can be spread before the christian public; yet enough is known to show, that it seeks, by an unnatural warfare against the best affections of humanity, to debase the soul, which, aided by its social state, and ennobled by a participation in the divine nature, was created for better aims and purposes. We speak of the Roman Catholic religion, where it exerts its appropriate influence, and its true tendencies are brought out into operation by the predominating strength which it has acquired over the minds of men. We might mention the effects of this influence in Spain, as depicted by Blanco White, or in Italy, by Scipio Ricci, and in France, by numerous writers. We are not yet disposed to believe, that the same evils, to their