could be quoted; but almost every family knows, experimentally, something of the state, and much of its symptomatic peculiarities.

Apparent death is not always accompanied by a suspension of consciousness, for in some cases the mental faculties have been engaged in an exalted manner, a singular and well authenticated instance of which is related in the Psychological Magazine. "A young lady, after lying ill some time, to all appearance died. She was laid in her coffin, and the day of the funeral was fixed. When the lid of the coffin was about to be nailed down, a perspiration was observed on the body; life soon after appeared; at length she opened her eyes and uttered a most pitiable shriek. She said it seemed to her, as if in a dream, that she was really dead; yet she was perfectly conscious of all that happened around her in this dreadful state. She distinctly heard her friends speaking, and lamenting her death, at the side of her coffin. She felt them pull on the dead-clothing, and lay her in it. This feeling produced a mental anxiety which was indescribable; she tried to cry, but her soul was without power, and could not act on her body. She had the contradictory feeling as if she were in her body, and yet not in it, at one and the same time. It was equally impossible for her to stretch out her arm, or to open her eyes, or to cry, although she continually endeavored to do so. The internal anguish of her mind was, however, at its utmost height, when the funeral hymns began to be sung, and when the lid of the coffin was about to be nailed on. The thought that she was to be buried alive was the one that gave activity to her soul, and caused it to operate on her corporeal frame." It has been asserted by several very honest persons, that they have experienced a consciousness of being out of the body.

Perhaps the clearest and most positive testimony to the fact, is that given by Dr. Adam Clarke, the learned Wesleyan, who, when relating his recovery from drowning, stated to Dr. Lettsom, that during the period of his apparent unconsciousness, he felt a new

kind of life. These are his words:- "All my views and ideas seemed instantly and entirely changed, and I had sensations of the most perfect felicity that it is possible, independently of rapture, for the human mind to feel. I had no pain from the moment I was submerged; a kind of green color became visible to me; a multitude of objects were seen, not one of which, however, bore the least analogy to any thing I had ever beheld before." When preaching in aid of the Humane Society, at the City-road Chapel, in London, he said, 'I was submerged a sufficiently long time, according to my apprehensions, and the knowledge I now have of physiology, for me to have been so completely dead as never more to exist in this world, had it not been for that Providence which, as it were, once more breathed into me the breath of this life."

It has been my impression to furnish you the rationale of this incipient manifestation of the interior senses of the mind, concerning which you will each know more when you are raised in a spiritual body to the corresponding world beyond us.

A subject which takes our affections into its strong embrace, and empowers the reasoning faculties with a fresh proclivity to probe the deep depths of truth, must be approached and fostered with a religious reverence. When you approach it, I admonish you to trifle not, but take off your shoes, for it is holy ground. It refers to our deepest vitality. It touches gently the finest feelings of the mind, and throws a deep magnificence and a grand beauty over the whole arcanum of our future destiny! The double nature of man is proved to a demonstration. The external man corresponds to the internal man. And the eyes of the mind put on the material organs in order to see the external world. But magnetism, like an angel from the sphere of knowledge, plays upon the material sense-bids the living principle to go within-shuts the outer doors of the temple-locks the sentinels in the depths of sleep; and touches the spirit of wisdom in the soul, and, lo! the secrets of

Nature are revealed, and the human mind is illuminated with light reflected from a world of new realities.

Human magnetism is not forced to rely upon any one solitary and partial claim to notice and consideration. Its roots are running far beneath, and extensively throughout, the general ground of humanity. It holds the tendrils of many hearts in its power. And the noblest theories are forced to do homage to this new science, because its light is greater and more positive. It invests the temple of Nature with a new significance. It brings the planets nearer, and begets a friendship within us for their beautiful inhabitants. Beautiful and grand realities are being disclosed to us from the granite sides of creation, which were formerly prison-houses and the hiding-places of innumerable mysteries; and the black clouds that have for ages concealed from our vision the sweet joys which pertain to our future, are penetrated and removed from off the firmament's face which now smiles upon us like a new-born babe! stand," says a celebrated German physician, "before the dawning of a new day for science and humanity, a new discovery awaits us, far surpassing any that has been hitherto made, which promises to afford us a key to some of the most recondite secrets of Nature, and to open up to our view a new world." In the simple phenomena of ordinary somnambulism we behold the glimmerings of a spiritual reality,—the incipient manifestation of a higher power. For, even so, in the bud we see indications of the coming flower; in the child the future man; in the man the angel, which is tending progressively toward higher and happier destinations!

"We

LECTURE XIX.

THE MENTAL

FACULTIES CONSIDERED IN RELATION

то

CLAIRVOYANCE.

In the religious department of man's mental constitution are to be found some of the most mysterious laws of his nature. His mind, like his muscles, has expansive and contractive powers-faculties which receive and impart; ebb and flow like the ocean tides.

Phrenological science has discovered, classified, and named the mental faculties, and very truthfully, too, to a great extent. The mind is ascertained to possess faculties which guard and protect the whole economy, and faculties, also, which refine and expand all the subordinate sensibilities of the soul, and convey them upward to states and spheres which pertain to higher and holier existences. For instance, while Alimentiveness, Secretiveness, and Acquisitiveness operate in the mental economy as guardians and conservators of the internal welfare of the individualism; Ideality, Benevolence, and Veneration act, on the other hand, as angels which open the blinded eyes of the mind, invigorate its aspirations, lead it out beyond the changeful earth, and point upward to that Eternal Mind, which lights with a brilliant glory the temple of the universe.

These contractive and expansive faculties of the mind preserve,when they are properly developed and harmoniously exercised, its health and equilibrium. While one group of faculties watch the personal interests of the physical and spiritual organism; the other group counteract the tendency to extremes, and teach the mind to expand its sphere of enjoyments as wide as the ocean of human existence. One combination of mental powers renders the individual

exceedingly selfish and egotistical, while the higher combination causes the individual to forget self, as self locally considered, and expands his sensibilities to the sphere of all human sensation and sympathy. It matters not, however, how expansive the mental sympathies are, they may still all be summed up in the word, SELF-which is the center and circumference of the individualism. If the individual is unfolded enough to elevate his thoughts above the local wants and contracted desires of the body and mind, then he has simply expanded himself into a larger sphere of existence. The mind that has grown large enough to love the neighbor as himself, has then simply enlarged the scope of its individuality. It seeks its enjoyments in a wider field. Self has widened its circle so that the neighbor is embraced; but it is still self notwithstanding. This is a law of the individualism, and it is not possible to escape its legitimate workings.

The contractive faculties of the mental economy exert a strong restraining influence upon all the physical functions, while the expansive faculties act in the capacity of moral reformers. The latter give rise to all the high and magnanimous sentiments which dilate the soul. They originate also the religious aspirations, and urge the mind to seek its happiness far beyond the mere locality of the body and its selfish demands. They show that enjoyment consists, not in those little and trifling affairs which pertain to physical and merely personal comforts, but in the free and full exercise of the reasoning faculties in the boundless fields of humanity and nature. They likewise render the soul clairvoyant by opening its interior senses, which can detect and trace out the life of things. The truly illuminated mind is one whose contractive powers are constantly under the positive control of the expansive faculties, just as the strong arm is big with muscle and with all the appendages which expand and give power. The conclusions, therefore, to which, on this occasion, I am impressed to lead you, are these: First, that a