เ from the other. If,' said the late W. J. Fox, heaven be indeed a dream, then it is one of nature's dreams, whose visions are prophecies. We understand Dr. Sexton is preparing a work on "The Relations of Spiritualism to Free-thought;" and which we have no doubt will deserve the best attention of those who call themselves "free-thinkers," but who in general might more properly be called "loose-thinkers," and who, so far from being free," are fast bound in the triple chain of error, ignorance, and prejudice : They are the freemen whom the Truth makes free, A PROPHETIC DREAM. A correspondent, a lady of the Roman Catholic communion, writes: "I dreamt-it was in the summer of 1868-that I was visiting a Catholic family somewhere, and that the house was very old-fashioned with spacious landings, apartments, &c.; and that on retiring to rest I noticed large doors, so large that I asked the attendant if they were doors to other rooms; she said they were doors of large cupboards, and so I found them. My dream went on that I was awakened out of my sleep by a hand touching me on the shoulder, and that I fell asleep again only to be awakened by the same touch, when looking I saw a hand beckoning. Getting out of bed, I, still in my dream, followed the beckoning hand out of the room, down the stairs, through the kitchen, towards another door, when a terror came over me, and I woke. "This dream made such a vivid impression on my mind that I talked of it to my family and friends, but by and bye it passed off. A few months afterwards I was unexpectedly invited to join my married daughter, at Margate, where her husband had taken a furnished house for a month. I went. The house, on entering it, seemed to me familiar, and when I retired to rest, this impression was stronger at the sight of large old-fashioned doors to some closets in the room. On composing myself to sleep, I felt a hand touch me; I looked, but saw nothing. The next night the same thing occurred. I sat up, and then saw a hand beckoning as in my dream months before. I had hitherto had the feeble glimmer of a night light in the room, but the next night I resolved to have a wax candle. At the usual time there was the hand. I did not see it so clearly, because of the stronger light from the candle, but there it was beckoning. But I could not follow it from fear, and hid my face under the clothes. "Next morning, my son remarked to me, that the Litany to the Blessed Virgin was hanging up in his room. Then I thought we must be in a Catholic house, and felt confirmed in associating my three nights' experience with my dream. I sent for the landlady, who I found was of the Catholic church, and to reconcile me to stay, she proposed that her young daughter, a sweet maiden, should sleep in my room. I gladly agreed, and was not disturbed afterwards. I have often felt regret that I had not more courage at the time, for perhaps I missed an occasion for helping in some way some poor suffering soul." Notices of Books. INFLUENCE OF THE MIND UPON THE BODY IN HEALTH AND DISEASE.* THE objects of this work are thus stated in the Preface: "1st. To collect together in one volume, authentic illustrations of the influence of the mind upon the body, scattered through various medical and other works, however familiar to many these cases may be, supplemented by those falling within my own knowledge. "2nd. To give these cases fresh interest and value by arranging them on a definite physiological basis. "3rd. To show the power and extent of this influence not only in health in causing disorders of sensation, motion, and the organic functions, but also its importance as a practical remedy in disease. "4th. To ascertain as far as possible the changes through, and the mode by which this influence is exerted. "5th. To elucidate by this enquiry, the nature and action of what is usually understood as the imagination." From the days of Hippocrates, the father of medicine, down to nearly the present time, the practitioners of the healing art have attached much greater importance to the action of drugs, nostrums, and various manipulations upon the body, than to the force of the natural constitution to repair the lesions of disease, or the action of the mind itself upon the body. The last half * Illustrations of the Influence of the Mind upon the Body in Health and Disease, designed to elucidate the Action of the Imagination. By DANIEL HACK Tuke, M.D., M.R.C.P., &c. (pp. 444.) century, however, has witnessed a gradual change in the medical profession, an inclination to look a little more to the spiritual side of nature, to those mighty forces which underlie the visible and sensuous, and through the brain and nervous system, exert the most powerful influence on the bodily health. Hence a marked diminution is apparent in the doses of poisonous drugs, the use of the lancet, and all violent remedies. The work we are now reviewing may be said almost to mark an era in the progress of medical science by its exclusive attention to the influence of the passions and emotions on the body; marking also, with great precision, the locality of that influence-the peculiar nerves and organs which are chiefly affected by these spiritual currents. The writer, whilst avoiding all interference with the department either of theology or Spiritualism, has nevertheless produced a work founded on fact and experience, which may prove of the highest value to both, by enabling us to distinguish the hallucinations of a disordered or over-excited mind from a supernatural influence external to itself. The perusal of the work seems to suggest the query-Have not all diseases their origin in some disorder of the mind, either hereditary or otherwise? In allusion to cures said to be the work of imagination, the writer puts the following case:-"I hold a ruler in my hand and point it to the painful region of the body of a patient, who entertains the opinion that I am about to relieve the pain. The patient imagining that the ruler will be the means of curing her, believes in a force which does not exist-the curative power passing from the ruler to the body-and is relieved. What cured her? Merely to say it was the imagination is no solution of the problem. What really happened was, that her attention was arrested and forcibly directed to the part, the permanent idea being the firm conviction that the morbid symptoms would pass away." The writer adopts Professor Stewart's definition of the imagination as the most practical, and objects to the extension of it by Mr. Ruskin, who would make it include the gift of prophecy, and the discovery of truths not otherwise attainable. But without imagination we can scarcely be said to have any mind at all. It seems therefore necessary in considering the phenomena of Spiritualism, to take the more extended view of the functions of this faculty, and even to approach much nearer to the philosophy of Berkeley and Swedenborg, in order to interpret the well-attested facts already collected. The function of imagination is exercised when I see a chair or other object before me, for all the evidence I have of the chair's existence is the image of it in my own mind; if I proceed to touch it-it is only the impress of another sensation added to the former, and so we may reason on, and arrive at the conclusion that there is no proof of the existence of a world external to the mind itself, the mind operating subjectively or by reflex action, objectively through the senses. Out of the large number of interesting cases contained in this work, we may select the following: "A young farmer in Warwickshire, finding his hedges broken and the sticks carried away during a frosty season, determined to watch for the thief. He lay many cold hours under a haystack, and at length an old woman, like a witch in a play, approached, and began to pull up the hedge; he waited until she had tied up her bundle of sticks, and was carrying them off, that he might convict her of the theft, and then springing from his concealment he seized his prey with violent threats. After some altercation in which her load was left upon the ground, she kneeled upon the bundle of sticks, and raising her arms to heaven beneath the bright moon, then at the full, spoke to the farmer, already shivering with cold,' Heaven grant that thou never mayst know again the blessing to be warm.' complained of cold all the next day, and wore an upper coat, and in a few days another, and in a fortnight took to his bed, always saying nothing made him warm. He covered himself with very many blankets, and had a seive over his face as he lay; and from this one insane idea he kept his bed above twenty years, for fear of the cold air, till at length he died." He Some years ago metallic tractors were used with remarkable success in the cure of diseases. The late Dr. Alderson and other medical gentlemen, suspecting the cures were the result of expectant faith on the part of the patients, made trial of the process, but used wooden tractors instead of metal ones, and to their great satisfaction performed cures with equal success. Dr. Carpenter states that he has seen a man remarkable for the poverty of his muscular development, who shrank from the least exertion in his ordinary state, lift a 28-pound weight upon his little finger alone, and swing it round his head with the greatest facility. Now this was due (first) to a mental condition rendered acutely susceptible to impressions, and then to the action of the imagination, when the subject was assured that the weight was a mere trifle, and that he could lift it easily. This idea, by affecting the muscular sense of resistance, produced the same effect as actually lessening the weight would have done. Again, to the same individual; when in the same impressible state, a handkerchief placed on the table felt so heavy that he could not raise it after repeated attempts to do so. In the case of the Warwickshire farmer, we may observe that our ancestors were not far wrong in their belief in witchcraft, however mistaken they may have been as to its real cause. There was at least the influence of the old woman's mind upon the farmer, call it animal magnetism, psychic force, or any name we please. On considering many facts in the annals of Spiritualism, we see no difficulty in the way of supposing that, since the farmer by his attack upon the woman had placed himself within the sphere of her influence, an evil spirit in connexion with her had obsessed the farmer and induced the insane idea alluded to which proved so obstinate and of such long duration. As regards the tractors, it seems sufficiently proved that mineral magnetism was not the cause, since wood proved equally efficacious with metal in effecting cures. We may go further and suppose that without any tractor at all the practitioner would have effected the cures, provided he had had sufficient influence over the mind of his patient. We know more by experience of affinity and antipathy as they operate in the world of mind than we do of the more recently discovered phenomena of chemistry; and what is chemistry but the extension of that spiritual law into the sphere of nature? With respect to the man of weak muscles but impressible mind, quoted on the authority of Dr. Carpenter, we would recommend any one to try the experiment whether the persuasion of its lightness would in itself enable him to raise a 28-pound weight with the little finger and swing it round his head. We presume the man had been hypnotised, though this is only implied in the narrative. In relating a case from our own experience, we may premise that we are not of that impressible nature as readily to believe anything on the mere assertion of others, and that we never were mesmerised. After listening to some very remarkable communications of a trance-medium, verified by our own exclusively private knowledge of what was revealed regarding the past, on the séance being concluded we accompanied her into an adjoining room, in the middle of which stood a very light fourlegged table. She said, "Let us see whether the spirits can make this table light and heavy." On hearing this we easily lifted it half from the floor with one finger, but at the next trial it required both hands to do the same, and this alternation occurred several times. This experiment impressed us with a strong conviction that the cause was something quite external to both our minds, for no one could persuade us, in our waking state, that a 28-pound weight was light or a handkerchief heavy. The acceptance of well-attested facts even when they appear to weaken or destroy our cherished convictions, is the characteristic which distinguishes the philosopher from the sophist; we |