Progress of animal magnetism in New England : being a collection of experiments, reports and certificates, from the most respectable sources : preceded by a dissertation on the proofs of animal magnetism / by Charles Poyen, St. Sauveur.

  • Poyen, Charles.
Date:
1837
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Progress of animal magnetism in New England : being a collection of experiments, reports and certificates, from the most respectable sources : preceded by a dissertation on the proofs of animal magnetism / by Charles Poyen, St. Sauveur. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    equally inexplicable to him, the existence of which cannot be doubted, and has ever been universally acknowledged. He knows, besides, that He alone who has made every thing, and comprehends all that is possible, is competent to pronounce one thing to be impossible ! He knows, from the history of his own species, that the circle of possibility has always been enlarging, according to the moral and physical development of mankind. Neither will a true philoso- pher condemn or ridicule a new discovery, because the alleged facts seem contrary to the laics of nature; for he knows, in the first place, that a law has no real existence by itself; that it is nothing but a conception of the human mind, an inference from the observation of certain analogous facts; finally, a mere abstraction ; that consequently the discovery of new facts renders ne- cessary either a total suppression of the law, or at least, an alteration in the manner in which it is expressed. This is sufficiently demonstrated by the history of the progress of physical sciences. In the next place, a true philosopher is wise and enlightened enough to believe that his understanding does not yet embrace all that is in nature; he is aware of the exceedingly small compass of his intellect, in comparison with the infinite variety, multiplicity, and complication of natural phe- nomena; he knows, finally, that what is natural or un- natural for one generation, will not be so for the following, on account of the progressive changes that man is allowed to make, day by day, in the knowledge of himself and of the external world. From the foregoing general considerations the reader will infer that the opposition hitherto made against Animal Magnetism, is not a sufficient reason for re- jecting it as untrue, and condemning it as an imposi- tion ; he will infer, that, like many other important 2* -i