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"^:Jfi			JEWETT, PROCTOR & WORTHINGTON.	
' 811			LONDON: LOW & CO.	
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DISCUSSION
AUTOMATIC   POWERS
THE  BRAIN;
BEING A
DEFENCE AGAINST REV. CHARLES BEECHER'S ATTACK UPON
   THE PHILOSOPHY OF MYSTERIOUS AGENTS, IN HIS
      REVIEW OF "SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS."
BY E.  C.  ROGERS,
 Render unto Ceesar the things that are Csesar's, and unto God the things that are
God's. - Christ._______________ y ^^j|j-*SO/>N




                 BOSTON: ^LlBBj.

   JOHN P. JEWETT AND COMPANY.
             CLEVELAND,  OHIO:
       JEWETT, PROCTOR & WORTHINGTON.
          LONDON:  LOW &  CO.
                    1853. 
3F   .
 I*? 53
      Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1853, by
              John P. Jewett and Company,
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts 
PEEFACE.
  In accounting for the phenomena of the present day (by
some attributed to spirits in another state of existence), the
author has  never, from the  beginning, made it his aim  to
originate a theory.  His object has been to  find the truth,
without respect to preconceived notions either of his own
mind or that of others, whether ancient or modern.  " The
Philosophy of Mysterious Agents" is, in part, the result
of his honest endeavors.
  The favor with which it  has been received by a large
class of  discriminating minds, the demand for additional
facts, the confirmation which the author has  of late received
from one of the most distinguished physiologists of Europe
as to cerebral automatic powers  in man,  and the attack
that has  just been made upon precisely this principle  by
a learned clergyman of the Congregational church,— these
have induced the  author to put forth the present pamphlet.
   The author can demand of the reader simply his  candid
attention; but  will beg in  addition,  and as a favor,  his
thorough investigation before  rejecting what are  presented
as demonstrated propositions.
38861S 
 
CHAPTER  I.
  Allowing the phenomena of the "Manifestations'' and
their analogies in past history, what can be proved 1
  In order to discover the immediate cause of any of the
phenomena that appear in nature, science has always found
it necessary to follow certain rules — not arbitrarily estab-
lished by dogmatic minds, but growing out of laws of rela-
tion between mind  itself and the  principles of external
nature,  and  the  relations of external nature  to herself.
Before  these  rules were  much known and  followed,  the
progress of the race in the arts and sciences was exceed-
ingly slow, and men were learned mostly in one another's
a priori processes, and the conjectures and poetical fancy-
ings of  classical imaginations.
  Now, one of the most important of these rules  of  scien-
tific research is the following, which we have  endeavored
to follow in our investigations into the present phenomena.
We give it in the language of the  great Herschel:   " If
the analogy of two phenomena be very close  and  striking,
while, at the same time, the cause of one is very obvious,
it becomes scarcely possible to refuse to admit the action
of  an analogous cause in the other\ though not so ob-
vious in itself."
  In the modern phenomena, we have one  class consist-
ing in  the movement of  objects,— such as tables,  chairs
and the like,— on the mere  proximity of certain persons,
without their contact.  Let this class be represented by an
individual, and call  it  a phenomenon, consisting in  the
movement of objects on the proximity of a particular per-
               1* 
6
CEREBRAL  AUTOMATIC  ACTION.
son; let us then bring down our rule for finding its cause.
To do this, we must cast about for another analogous case,
very close and striking in the likeness, " while at the same
time its cause appears obvious;" and here we are met with
the case of Angelique Cottin.   She, when standing in rela-
tion to the earth, became so charged with a physical  power
as to sensibly affect tables, chairs and the like, on coming
into proximity with  them, so that without  contact they
moved — nay, were  overthrown, at  times, with great  vio-
lence.  Not only her organism, but her dress, partook of it;
so that, on passing  a chair, the  touch of her apron was
sufficient to  cause a  discharge  that would overthrow the
former.   Now, if the  phenomena in the two cases are to
be admitted at all, this last explains thus much, undeniably
— that  the immediate cause is physical.
  For the legitimacy of this deduction (admitting the two
phenomena)  we appeal to the decision of  the  scientific
world,— not  excepting our friend Davis, who  has offered
the thousand dollars reward for a natural theory of expla-
nation.*
   Now, as we have shown in the " Philosophy of Mysteri-
ous Agents," if it be admitted that these phenomena have
and do still occur, it must be by virtue of some hitherto un-
known law of relation existing  between the organism and
external objects, and between  the earth  and  the organism ;
and that, inasmuch as the phenomena take place only with
particular persons, and only when these persons are  under
peculiar conditions, as in mediums after certain processes of
nervous induction, and the bewitched after nervous derange-
ment, it must  be by some hitherto undiscovered relation
between this  physical agent and the  nervous system.   This
we have demonstrated, in  the  '' Philosophy of Mysterious

  * We would here say, in justice to Mr. Daniel Davis, above alluded to
that, without our own seeking, he called upon us  after the publication of
the second number of" The Philosophy of Mysterious Agents," and pri-
vately renewed his assurances that the sum offered was in perfect good
faith, and should be forthcoming when we had satisfied any fair number
of disinterested scientific minds that we had given an adequate natural
theory.  He did not require that they be convinced that the phenomena
really occurred. 
CEREBRAL  AUTOMATIC ACTION.            7
Agents," by a  close analysis  and comparison of the  phe-
nomena, allowing their veritability.
   Having thus arrived at the  immediate agent of the phe-
nomena, and found  it a physical power belonging to the
earth and to man's body,— that it charges the human organ-
ism from the earth, and acts with the physical forces of the
body, and from this  point, under a certain modified form,
reacts upon objects standing in relation to the body; that it
has association  with  the nerve-force of the sympathetic, the
spinal, and the  cephalic or brain centres, according to their
conditions,— it seems somewhat apparent that the outward
action of the agent must be more or less, according to the
state and action of  the nerve-centres  where it stands at
the time in the closest relation.   If, for instance, it be the
sympathetic and spinal systems, and these are in a state of
derangement,   as  in hysteria and  chorea  (exhibited  in
spasms),  the phenomena of  the agent will  be  irregular,
spasmodic,— the things will more or less move by starts and
sudden jerks.   Accordingly,  we find precisely  these cor-
respondent  movements  to have taken place  in  Angelique
Cottin.  (For  the details of this very curious case, see
"Philosophy of Mysterious Agents," Chap.  II.)  And as
for similar  correspondences  in  the case of  mediums,  we
have invariably observed that in all these cases  where the
movements  of objects have taken place in the proximity of
spasmodic mediums, they have acted by jerks, rather than
by steady movements, as when the medium's nervous sys-
tem is more harmonious.   This has not only been observed
by ourself, but every candid and  intelligent  spiritualist
who has spoken upon these matters has declared the same
thing.
   If this correspondence between the  subjective and  ob-
 jective phenomena  obtains by virtue of a law  of relation
between the agent  that acts upon external things and  the
nervous system, it should hold good as well of the cerebral
centre as of the sympathetic  and spinal.
   Accordingly, we  find that precisely as we  have the har-
monious cerebral condition, will be the harmonious results
in the objective phenomena; thus proving that the objective 
 8           CEREBRAL  AUTOMATIC ACTION.

 physical agent corresponds in  its action to the subjective
 "play  impulse" of the brain.  For  example, when any
 tune is played in a circle  where the phenomena  are con-
 fused and irregular, it has been everywhere observed that
 the  phenomena  would fall in  the harmony  of measured
 time.   Now, it is impossible to play a tune in a circle with-
 out at once exciting the action  of that part of the brain at
 which centre and from which  radiate  the regular succes-
 sion of time impulses; and every brain in the circle  standing
 in the mundane relation, or in relation with the " medium "
 brain, will  propagate the  time impulse; hence, there will be
 more unitary action in the brains of the circle during  the
 performance of timely airs than at any other period.   Hence,
 too,  it is everywhere  observed that those circles succeed
 the best which have the least discrepant feeling.
   Thus, by a new class of observations, and their legitimate
 deduction,  we have  arrived at precisely the same result as
 in the previous course, namely, we have found that the object-
 ive phenomena  are the  representative of cerebral action.
 This is admitted by all the spiritualists who acknowledge
 that the  harmony or discord of the phenomena have been
 observed to correspond to the harmony and  unitary action
 of the  "circle," or  that no  consonant results  can  be
 obtained by an  unharmonious  circle;  and  nearly every
 spiritual work containing  anything on the rules and con-
 duct of  "circles" touches more or less upon these  facts.
   Now, it  matters not  by what name you call the physical
 agent that  we have thus found to act directly in the pro-
duction of the outward phenomena,— be it electricity, od
magnetism, diamagnetism, nerve-force; it is settled that its
actions represent cerebral or cerebro-spinal movement ac-
cording  to whichsoever  the agent stands most  in  relation
at the time, or according to whichever is most prominently
disturbed.                                            J
   Having arrived at the brain and spinal centres  as the
points of action  in  the disturbance of the physical agent
whose action produces the phenomena  under consideration
it now comes  up as a  matter of inquiry, concerning the
nature  and  power of the  nerve-centres,  Do they possess 
CEREBRAL  AUTOMATIC ACTION.           9
within themselves a power of action?   In other words,
have  they automatic functions ?  If so, how far are they
modified in their action by external influences, and how far
may one nervous  system  be  sympathetically related to
another?   These,  and many  other related questions of
great importance, come  up  before us for investigation.
Most of these, however, have been already discussed, more
or less,  in the "Philosophy of Mysterious Agents."
   The great question we would wish to settle here is that
of cerebral automatic action.   The facts and deductions put
forth by us in  our work on this  subject have lately been
attacked by Rev. Charles  Beecher, in his  paper read be-
fore  the  Congregational  Association of New  York and
Brooklyn,  and demand some attention. 
CHAPTER  II.
REVIEW OP REV. CHARLES BEECHER'S ARGUMENT AGAINST
  THE AUTOMATIC  POWERS OF THE CEREBRUM, AS  EX-
  HIBITED IN THE MODERN SO CALLED  " SPIRITUAL MANI-
  FESTATIONS."

  Rev. Charles  Beecher's only argument  against the
natural explanation I have given of the  "modern phenome-
na," and their like, is that presented to overthrow the fact of
automatic  cerebral action.  He admits " the odylic (mes-
meric-magnetic) character of the phenomena," but assumes
"that spirits act in their production by odylic  law."
  The numerous phenomena presented in the " Philosophy
of Mysterious Agents," demonstrating automatic and " un-
conscious  cerebration," seem  to have  had no convincing
weight in his mind; and  I am sorry to say that he does
not exhibit an over-abundance of fairness in presenting the
facts and arguments I have offered on  this subject.   This
will be particularly noticed, as we  review his objections.
  In Chap.  IV. of his pamphlet, he  sets forth the spirit-
ual argument against the natural, thus:
  "The theory of automatic cerebral  action is objection-
able :
  "1. Because it is equally valid against the existence of
the soul as distinct from the brain.   If God has endowed
that form  of matter which composes the brain, the organs
of the mind, with exactly those properties which enable it
under whatever irritant, to  represent in its  action pre-
cisely those  characteristics which the mind possesses  then
external irritants alone can account for all mental phe- 
CEREBRAL  AUTOMATIC ACTION.          11
nomena.  True, there may be an internal spiritual irritant,
a soul.   Dr. Rogers believes there is one.   But "a posse
ad esse non valet consequential'   It is as  unphilosophical
to suppose a spiritual irritant or soul for all  mental phe-
nomena, as to suppose spiritual irritants for the manifesta-
tions, provided both can be accounted for without."
   Now, every person of common  sense  knows  that  no a
priori  argument can overthrow a fact of nature.   If
it can be proved, then, that automatic cerebral action is a
fact of physiology, the reverend gentleman's a priori objec-
tion can only  prejudice  the  minds  of a  few individuals
against it, as certain  facts in geology and  astronomy,* as
well as in physiology, have been served before it.
   It  remains,  then, as a question  of fact,  as  a  matter of
rigid  scientific scrutiny, whether automatic function is a
property of the brain.  The decision  of the  theologian
cannot affect this question in itself;  and, as it is a matter
of science, an appeal to Scripture cannot alter it.
   What Mr. B.  says about  this  cerebral  power being a
valid argument against the separate  existence of the soul
is as premature and uncalled for as the like objection made
against certain  facts in astronomy  and geology.   If his a
priori argument for his soul cannot be sustained without his
denying a palpable  fact of nature, an  admitted fact  in
science, his argument must be a rotten one, or he has  no
soul.   For nature never lies, but  a prioris are  extremely
fallible, since they are commonly founded upon conjectural
or hypothetical bases.   This fact may afford him  some hope
of finding that he has a soul.
   Had Mr. B. taken the part of a disinterested investi-
gator, instead of that of an interested and prejudiced advo-
cate, he would  have seen a great gulf between the character
and tendency of my  views and the arguments of absolute
materialism.   I have  exhibited two  distinct classes of hu-
man phenomena:
   1.  Those of a responsible personal agent.
  * The  theory of the earth's revolution, when first propounded, was
met with a theological a priori.  The latter, for a time, frightened
many timid minds, but soon grew stale, and the philosopher prevailed,
for he had merely asserted a simple fact of nature. 
12          CEREBRAL  AUTOMATIC ACTION.
   2. Those of an irresponsible automaton, or machine.
   The former is as distinct from the latter as  it is possible
 for distinction to be made; and the whole argument against
 the pneumatic hypothesis of the modern phenomena I have
 built upon the facts of this distinction.   But Mr.  Beecher
 nowhere states this in his attempted criticism of my explan-
 ation.   In this he is like all the other spiritual advocates
 who have  offered  it combat — never the thing, but  their
 hasty and distorted idea of it.
   Mr. B. says (how may it frighten the Christian world !)
 Dr. Rogers' is precisely the argument against the " mani-
 festations " that avowed materialists' is against the soul.  To
 prove  this, he quotes a paragraph  from the "Philosophy
 of Mysterious Agents," and then places in juxtaposition
 with it a quotation  from  the celebrated Thomas Cooper,
 M. D. (formerly President of South Carolina College), in
 his translation of  Broussais on Insanity.   He  then goes
 on to say, " Were  there time, it might be shown that every
 point made against ' the spirits' by Dr. Rogers — for ex-
 ample, from drugs, sickness, insanity,  intoxication,  &c. &c.
 — is made with equal force by Dr. Cooper against the soul.
 The  same  keen  thrusts are made  by both.  Thus,  to a
 medium,  a  physician "at once prescribed a few blue pills,
and then a dose of  calomel and rhei;  it is sufficient to say
that  through the medium  of  these smart  cathartics the
spirits made their exit, in high dudgeon.' "  By the side of
this is  given a quotation, made by Dr. Cooper, from Judge
 C, in his Medical Jurisprudence: — " ' How can  you ex-
hibit a dose of glauber-salts to the soul ?' Nor is Dr Cooper
alone," he  continues.   "So reason  Hartley, Cabanis,
Destut, Tracey, Lawrence, and  others  of  physiological
W-so  the  whole  class of psycho-pannichists,  from
Priestly down to Dobney.   Nor could  the disciples of the
latter school in any way more effectually promote their ends
than by  a  republication of Dr. Rogers' book  condensed,
with Dr. Cooper's  tracts  on materialism appended   The
 argument,  therefore,  proves too  much,  and falls'to  the
ground."                                             c
   Now,  the  truth is,  that neither  Broussais,  Cooper, 
CEREBRAL AUTOMATIC ACTION.          13
Hartley, Cabanis, Destut Tracey, Lawrence, nor  any of
the like class of materialists, made that thorough analysis
of human phenomena that true philosophy requires.  Like
my reverend reviewer, they "lumped the whole."   But
having tested a few, and found them cerebral material, they
inferred that all were material — the mere play of nervous
matter,  which, when decomposed, left no trace of an imma-
terial entity.
   Now,  the only difference  between Mr. Beecher  and the
material philosophers  is in the  idea he entertains that all
the phenomena originating in the brain are from a spiritual
and immortal entity.   But he entirely agrees with them in
supposing but  one class  of phenomena  in  this direction.
Here is just  where  Mr. B. becomes  infidel to me; for
here it  is he sides with the materialists against me.  The
truth is, that my view is no more opposed by Mr. B. than
by the materialists themselves, excepting where  the latter
have taken more care  to study and understand my views,
and have more faithfully represented them.
   So far, then, instead of my philosophy being  consonant
with that of materialists, it is Mr. Beecher that sides with
them, in opposition to me.   Why, then, should he represent
me as a materialist, or as advocating  materialism, denying
to man an immortal spirit 1   What reason had he for hitch-
ing upon me that name, at which all Christendom hisses and
utters anathemas ?  Why, he saw that on one side of my
analysis of human phenomena  there was a  class of facts
which materialists have been wont to quote as evidence that
man has no " soul."   Forthwith he is frightened,— smells
the stench of  sepulchres, dead men's  bones,— stops not to
examine  further, but flies precipitately.  He  had seen
enough, scented enough; 't is all death,  sheer annihilation,
complete destruction,  and  he must report it to the world;
and so he tells the spiritual rappers and community that the
disciples of the material school could not " in any way more
effectually promote  their ends than by a republication of
Dr. Rogers' book condensed, with Dr.  Cooper's  tracts on
materialism  appended."   From this,  he learnedly con-
cludes  that "the argument for  the natural theory of the
               2 
14           CEREBRAL AUTOMATIC ACTION.
 ' manifestations,' without disembodied spirits,  falls to the
 ground."
   Strange  to  say,  Mr.  B's.  fright and flight  precipitate
 takes  place at the  sight of a class of facts * that  at  this
 moment is being admitted, not by the material physiologists
 merely,  but even by many who are as orthodox as  himself,
 and as firmly hold to a distinct spiritual entity constituting
 man's immortal nobility.   Among these, I may quote Wilk-
 inson and Carpenter.
   Is it not quite too late to raise an alarm on  matters of
 science ?  Are not facts too broad-cast ?  Have not men heard
 the sound infidel materialist too often repeated, in reference
 to -scientific facts,  to  suspect  much evil?   Do not these
 names appear now rather as badges of honor ?  Are not dis-
 coverers growing proud of these titles ?  For, on all extra
 occasions of their bestowment, is it  not for  some new and
 very important discovery in the sciences, or  its advocacy ?
 Have  not people  thought  somewhat of  Galileo and  the
 Pope,  Harvey  and  his brethren, geology and the  clergy ?
 Have not too many good things been called bad names ?
   It is certain, then, judging from the history of the past
 in these  matters, that all  opinion must be tried in foro con-
 scientiaz.   hi hoc signo spes mea.
   A second objection  made by Mr.  Beecher ao-ainst  the
 automatic argument is, that it fails, because  " automatic
 contingent operations  involve a self-contradiction "  This
 will be reviewed  in a  future chapter, where the  fact  of
 automatic cerebral power is  further explained.

 befoSthe^ToSfSJ'i™0^ materialism> ^ Joh* ^iss,  delivered
 betore the i 11st Congregational Society in New Bedford, July 28 lSi>->
 I find quite an opposite course pursued to that generally by the cler^'
 mae^sfs'Ssriir01/"  V1 8^^g^e/acVadva^^
 matenalists against the independent existence of the  soul Mr Wri<w
  JS'it i   o T*l? me ^t U iS aS -P-tanUoS JeZe
 „'{.'?* ll J?  t0  denV the ™e that is made  of them • for thev fill
many a chasm in our scientific knowledge and tWw;r  *♦  y
promise to increase our welf,™ »  a „ •   '   , •     legitimate uses
treating the materialist  he;s™ ■ « lt?   ' T*"!8 °f the manner of
of both  bis facts and hi conclusions- hK  T^, V™*™* dmial
if possible, the stubborn facts ''Bv An «-.lfatal  t0 him to acoePt»
gentleman has enabled hSif to uiKTS ^ °°UrSe'the  reverend
Lents against materialism Ihav^evt\Z    ' * ^ P°Werful ar8U~ 
CHAPTER  III.
A PRIORI  EVIDENCE FOR THE LIVING AUTOMATON;  AND
   FOR A SEPARATE ENTITY, CALLED SOUL OR SPIRIT.

  The word Automaton is from autos, self, and rnao, to
move, and is  generally  applied to  a machine that  has
within itself the power of motion;  thus, a clock is an au-
tomaton.  So, by means  of  mechanical  contrivances, M.
Vaucanson constructed a  flute-player, and a tabor-player,
whose performances were, in some  respects, superior to
those of living men.   One of these curious  musicians was
capable of playing twenty or more tunes, and in every re-
spect its external performances were as apparently human
as human nature  itself.   The action of the lips and of the
tongue, and  the movements of the fingers, had all the char-
acteristic appearance of the most accomplished living per-
formers.    Strangers to  these wooden gentlemen,  when
introduced,  bowed  very respectfully — listened  to  their
tunes with the most absorbing interest.
   Now, no  one will deny that these men, made of  wood,
iron and  sheep-skin, really represented intelligence in
their movements, although there was not a whit of spirit-
ual agency in them.  True, the intelligent representation
in these  unreasoning,  involuntary,  and  unconscious
machines, was owing to a particular arrangement of matter.
   Would it not  appear  a little  strange (if we  may be
allowed to view the matter a priori) that man may con-
struct an automaton out of inanimate matter, and the Deity
not be able  to make, in  every respect, a superior one out 
  16          CEREBRAL  AUTOMATIC ACTION.

  of animate matter ?  To admit this, is to grant, a priori,
  my argument;  to deny it, is to grant to man superior powers
  than to the Deity.
    It beino- possible, then, for Deity to make a living autom-
  aton, there is nothing at all to render the thing improba-
  ble, since it is, in  itself, neither unholy nor unwise.   In
  Vaucanson it was considered an evidence of the  greatest
  constructive or mechanical genius; and he was quite deified
<  by many people in Paris, where he exhibited the fruits of
  his talents.
    It is possible, then, and not at all improbable, that  Deity
  may construct  living automatons, as M. Vaucanson con-
  structed dead ones.   And it is extremely probable  that the
  living ones could be made, all in all, very much superior to
  the dead ones.
    Now, in case the Deity has formed a living automaton,
  we might find,  on examing its internals, a somewhat differ-
  ent set of organs from those of Vaucanson's; for,  in order
  to get moving power to make his creatures perform, Vaucan-
  son had to resort to the law of  gravity.  He made use of
  suspended weights, and the elasticity of bodies, as in springs;
  and both of these, every  now and then,  had to be " wound
  up."   Thus, the internals of Vaucanson's automatons were
  weights, pulleys, springs, levers,  &c.  &c.   The living
  automaton, however, would not have such gross machinery,
  but  something  more refined,— organs  built up of minute
  cells, closely knit together by means of minute fibres,— and,
  very likely, it would take a little longer to find out all  about
  it than to comprehend Vaucanson's.  In short,  according
  to our poor notion, the creature of the Deity would be very
  likely to  have the  characteristics and construction  of an
  animal.   I can see no reason why it should not.
    It is certain, then, that, a priori, there is  no  argument
  against the idea that the animal is a living automaton •
  — a living machine, having within itself the power of motion
  It follows, therefore, undeniably, that,  a priori  so far as
  man is an animal, he may be but a living automaton
    One step more   In so far as man may be more  than an
  animal, he may be more than a living automaton  • and 
CEREBRAL  AUTOMATIC ACTION.          17
this  more  than the living automaton may be a separate
entity,— separate from, though for the time being related to,
the living automaton.
   Now, if this separate entity embodies any higher law
than  that of the living automaton with which it is for
the  time being associated, it  must of consequence follow
that the separate entity, with its  higher law, holds the
precedence of right, from whose decisions there is no ap-
peal, except to the maker — the Deity.   Here, then, we
come at once to personal reason, personal will, personal
conscience, as so many elements of the separate entity,
thus  being  a volitional, personal,  conscious, responsible
agent.
   Now for the argument that this separate entity shall pre-
serve itself after the living automaton with which it is  asso-
ciated for the time  being has fallen away.
   Neither the boor nor the philosopher has yet  found a lie
in the mouth of nature.   Never  has there been  an instinct
created without reference to an object fitted for its  grati-
fication.   Every   primary want  has  been  scrupulously
provided for, from the beginning; so that not a germ of de-
velopment in the race is left without its appropriate aliment.
Christians  and infidels may quibble  about tenets, and
notions, and dogmas; but neither can deny the above prop-
osition, with  honesty to conscience.   Had there  been  no
ambient air where  birds might bathe their wings  in ether,
then had the  birds' instincts for joyous flight been a lie of
nature.   Had no crystal water been created,— no lake, no
river, no ocean,— then had the instincts of fishes, and of the
sea-fowls, been monstrous falsehoods of nature.   But the
naturalist finds nothing of this to mar the blessedness of his
researches.   Everything proves  design in adaptation.  If
nature tells no falsehoods to the birds, the fishes, not even
to the worm, does she mock thee, 0 man !   Endowed thee
with powers above  the rest of creation, created primary de-
sires boundless, unending, has she  left  thee to be  mocked?
Given  thee  primary hopes of a life in an unknown and
boundless future,  where no  life,  no future  awaits thee ?
Then art  thou the only falsehood, the only abortion, of
                      2* 
18          CEREBRAL  AUTOMATIC ACTION.
creative wisdom: and in the future to answer_ the ends
which thy higher hopes demand (His  own creation), ±lis
wisdom sinks into commonplace human short-sightedness,
and his goodness and his power of goodness into imbecility.
This argument may prove nothing to the scoffing infidel;
but,  to the honest doubter, it will be sufficient to turn  his
mind into  the  channel of hopeful thought,  and  to  the
springs of a pure Christian faith.
  To return to  the living automaton.   This being the ani-
mal  machine, having within itself  the power  of motion,
must, judging a  priori,  have its centres of animal action
exactly in the brain and spinal centres.   If the animal, then,
including  the physical man, be  an automaton, we should
be able inductively to arrive at this fact from an observance
of phenomena.   Our question, then, turns  upon the fact
of automatic action in man as an animal.
  In order  to be as definite and precise  as possible,  the
reader  will note that, according  to  the true sense  of  the
term automatic, it includes all those actions which are  not
voluntary — not depending on the will.   Says Webster,
"Automatic — not voluntary; not depending on the will;
applied to animal motions."  Thus, even in  seeking  au-
thority for the definition of the word, the reader obtains
the evidence of the truth of my  position.
   Probably,  however,  Mr.  Beecher  has  no  objection to
considering  mere animal  motions as automatic.  He will
doubtless  grant that the  spinal centres of even man  are
automatic, since their construction and function is precisely
on  the same principle of all vertebrated animals.  And
since,  also, the sensorium of man  is like the same  nerve-
centres of other animals, he may be willing to grant that,
in one, this animal power may be  as automatic as  in  the
other.
   But when we  come to the cerebrum of man, possessed
alike by the whole tribe  of  mammalia, and by some other
animals below  it, Mr. Beecher  shrinks from  comparative
physiology in the matter of automatic functions, and makes
man's cerebrum  an  exception to the general law.   Thus
 his  argument is,  virtually, — If it be granted on the part 
            CEREBRAL AUTOMATIC  ACTION.          19

of the human cerebrum, why, farewell to the doctrine of a
separate entity for the soul.   The sophistry of this reason-
ing has been sufficiently exposed.  It may be well to add,
however, as it will offer some consolation to those who may
fear that if  this fact is fact man may have no soul, that
in seeking  out the phenomena of human cerebral  auto-
matic action, a residual class of facts is left, that cannot
be  accounted for by any legitimate process,  without  ad-
mitting a separate entity, a spiritual, personal, responsible
agent,— not a  mere "fluid irritant in the  brain,"  but a
veritable governor, controller, master of automatic func-
tions.  This fact I have everywhere recognized and built
upon, in the " Philosophy of Mysterious Agents;" but Mr.
Beecher disingenuously hides it in his review, supplying the
omission with inimical insinuations and prejudicial compari-
sons, as if designing  to make  the  doctrine of automatic
cerebration, with all its facts, "a by-word and a hissing"
among  Christian people.   If it must be so, " chacun d
son gout." 
CHAPTER  IV.
 TESTIMONY OF PHYSIOLOGY FOR  AUTOMATIC CEREBRAL
                        ACTION.

Cerebral Elaborations. — Composite Results from the Cerebrum, with-
  out the Mind's Action. — Distinction between the pure Pneumatic
  Power and Automatic Cerebration.

  In Chapter Fourth, Part Second, of the "Philosophy of
Mysterious Agents," the author has  given the following
as a deduction from  stated facts: " That, inasmuch as the
brain may, under peculiar conditions, act independently of
the wish and the will of  the 'medium,' and even in oppo-
sition  to them, it follows that communications  [or re-
sponses]  may be obtained in direct opposition to the will of
the ' medium? without the (supposed) influence of departed
spirits."   This automatic responsiveness on  the part of the
cerebrum we have shown to result precisely according to
the specific prevailing impression on the brain  at the time,
and according  to  its  preestablished conditions.  The  pre-
established conditions are, first,  a wow-controlling state of
the voluntary agency (the mind, the will) over the brain.
Second,  a consequent readiness  on the part  of the brain to
receive impression.   Third,  a promptness of the  brain to
give forth in reflex actions the  language of these impres-
sions through  the medium of the automatic apparatus of
the spinal centres, or by telegraphic propagation  through
the odylic medium, which exist in material association with
the brain, as well as with external things.  See " Philosophy
of Mysterious Agents,"  § 372.   It has also been shown 
CEREBRAL AUTOMATIC ACTION.          21
" that so far as the brain can be made to act independently
of the mind of a subject, so far that person will be tin-
conscious  of the cerebral action: that those 'media/
therefore, who become most' independent' (as the spiritual-
ists term it),  —that is, whose cerebral organs  are  excited
most perfectly without the controlling power of their own
minds,— will  be the least conscious of the real relation
which they sustain to the phenomena."   Ibid, § 407; see,
also, § 423.
  The above  position is sustained in every point by Car-
penter, the celebrated physiologist of England.  His lan-
guage, quoted  in §§419-20 of  "Mysterious  Agents,"
exhibits but a moiety of what he has of late expressed in
the new edition of his " Principles of Human Physiology."
In all that I have said  of the automatic powers of the cere-
brum, I have nowhere  used any stronger or more definite
language than  the  following,  which I am happy to quote
for the benefit of those minds that ask for the authority of
great names.    " There is evidence," says he, "that even
the cerebrum may respond, as  it were, automatically to
impressions  fitted  to excite  it to reflex actions, when
from any cause the will is in abeyance, and  its  power
cannot be exerted over the muscular system,  or over the
direction of the thoughts."*
  Here it will be seen, that when the condition, the " abey-
ance of the will," or when the power of the will "cannot
be exerted, either over the  the muscular system, or over the
direction of  the thoughts,"  then,  by  impressions made
upon the cerebrum,  it  may be prompted to respond auto-
matically to those impressions, if they happen to be fitted
to excite the  " reflex " action of the cerebrum.   Now, this
statement covers the vast majority of mesmeric, pathematic,
and the modern so-called spiritual phenomena.
  Nothing was said by Carpenter, in his former edition, of
the necessary condition here  so unequivocally expressed:
namely, the abeyance  of the will, which, the reader  must
perceive, is the same in meaning as that  used by the author

  * See Carpenter's Principles of Human Physiology, edition of 1853,
§684. 
0 9
CEREBRAL AUTOMATIC ACTION.
of this, namely, the " wow-controlling state  of the mmd,
or of the will," and that also made use of by mesmerisers
and spiritualists,  namely, "passiveness of will," —" pas-
sive state," and the like.
   I am ashamed to have repeated so  prominent a fact so
many times, without having excited the attention of Mr.
Beecher and other spiritualists  to  its consideration.   He
and they have nowhere met it, nowhere named it; and I am
forced to consider that both have designedly stepped aside
here to  avoid the gulf fatal to all their objections.   And I
hereby call upon the whole community to witness, that I
honorably repeat  the challenge for any spiritual advocate,
or any  of the  purported communications of " media," to
meet this  argument as it demands; for it is fatal to the
whole  theory  of  spiritual  influence,  in  the involuntary
writing, speaking,  and  pantomime of "media," and the
quasi intelligence in the "rappings."   It makes the cere-
bral condition  of the so-called "media" analogous to that
of  the  mesmerized patient,— that  of a mere automatic
machine;  the same, also, as  the brain of the clairvoyant, the
dreamer, the somnambule, the insane.
   Speaking  of these  conditions,  Carpenter  says,  that,
"whether spontaneously or artificially induced," as in
the medium  and  mesmeric patients,  "so  long as these
psychical  operations take place at the mere suggestion of
antecedent impressions, so long  must the actions proceed-
ing from them be considered as manifestations of the re-
flex poicer of the  cerebrum,, and consequently as no less
automatic in  their character than are those which result
from the  reflex power of the cranio-spinal axis,"* or spinal
marrow.
   The above  statements of this  eminent physiologist, just
made  before  the  medical  and  scientific  world, express
precisely  the  views advanced by the author several months
ago,  as a further  application of  the  principle expressed
by Carpenter in  1850, quoted  in  § 419  of the "Phi-
 losophy of Mysterious Agents," thus : " Automatic action

          * Carpenter's Principles, §  684, edition of 18C3. 
CEREBRAL  AUTOMATIC ACTION.          23
may be excited in  man when the  cerebrum is in a state
of functional inactivity,  as  in  sleep, or  coma;  or when
the  power  is  concentrated  upon itself,  as in  profound
thought, such as cannot be called forth when the cerebrum
is in active operation, and in complete connection with the
automatic  centres  in the  spine."  Again, speaking  of
strongly excited  emotions, he says, they "may act down-
ward upon the muscles,  through the medium  of the au-
tomatic apparatus,  quite  independently of the will, and
even in opposition to it; thus constituting a  sort  of
REFLEX ACTION of the CEREBRAL GANGLIA." *
   Now, the  cerebral  ganglia  constitute the whole upper
and outer portion  of  the brain,  found in all  the higher
animals.  They  are composed  of globulous matter,  from
which innumerable fibres or threads extend towards the
centre  of the brain.   In  this  globulous  matter of the
cerebrum  all psycho-nervous action originates, and to it
all communications are  made that in any way affect the
psychical agent.   It is  this portion of  the  brain that
constitutes  nearly all  the  organs assigned  to  man  in
the science of Gall; and, according to Baellarger, its entire
surface, when its convolutions are  unfolded, is six hundred
and seventy square inches.   Moreover, the  cerebral hem-
ispheres  of  man  include an  amount of  nervous matter
which is four times that of all the rest of the cranio-spinal
mass;—more  than eight times  that of the cerebellum, or
little brain,  thirteen times that  of the medulla oblongata,
and twenty-four times that of the spinal chord.f   And when
the cerebrum of different animals is compared, it is found
to be possessed in a superior degree  by those animals most
elevated  in their psychical developments.   It is also found
that  for each additional convolution of the cerebrum some
additional psychical function is  found: thus showing that
every particular centre  of the  cerebrum has a particular
psychical function, whose law is to propagate its influence

   * Carpenter's Principles, edition of 1850; §§ 236—470.  See, also,
Dunglinson, vol. i. pp. 99, 100.   Also Brit, and For. Med. Rev., Jan.,
1845, " Wilkinson^ Human Body and  its Connections," p. 40.
   t Carpenter's Principles, last edit., p. 747. 
24
CEREBRAL  AUTOMATIC ACTION.
 down to lower centres  of nervous force, such as those of
 the sensorium and the cranio-spinal-axis, or spinal marrow,
 — thence to appropriate combinations of muscles, where the
 outward expression takes place.
   Now, the whole  of this  process  may be  gone through
 with, from first to last,  without the slightest  action of one's
 conscious self,— without will and without reason.   Nay,
 even elaborate processes may take place  in the convolutions
 of the cerebrum, equal  to anything the mind itself  might
 execute, and  all without the least voluntary  effort,  and
 without the slightest knowledge, on the part of our own
 mind.   Such  processes, in fact,  take  place between  the
 cerebral organs every day;  and, so far as the mere animal
 is endowed with the higher  form of brain, so far  these
 cerebral processes take place.   Hence, their  results  are
 nothing more than the relative influences of various cere-
 bral impressions, without any real process of reasoning, such
 as are entered into when  man voluntarily and consciously
 brings  those impressions of the  cerebrum  to the test of
 absolute and eternal principle.
  Many, doubtless, will stare  at  my statement, and fear
 for  consequences; but the above is based upon innumerable
 facts, and,  besides, it  makes the  only distinction between
 man's spiritual and  animal nature that can be made; —
 allowing the one to be rational, voluntary, conscious, personal,
and responsible; the other irrational, involuntary, sensing
animal,  irresponsible.
  Many assert that  some animals go  through  reasoning
processes,—as the dog, the horse, the elephant.   This we
deny, because  it is  evident  that reason is a rational  per-
sonal, voluntary power; whereas, the real phenomena of
 the animal thus  attributed  to reason   are  involuntary
 impersonal.   Certainly, no  one can conceive that an ani-
 mal however  wise  apparently, is  a person.  Nay,  it  is
 in  the  nature of things  impossible for the animal to
 become a person, a responsible individuality,  as it is  for a
 bramble to  become an  oak.   It is merely an irresponsible
 mdividuality.  And  the whole history of the huTn raCe
 shows that, as at has approached  the  animal  in its charac- 
CEREBRAL  AUTOMATIC ACTION.          25
teristics, it has been destitute of moral responsibility, and
rational self-government.
   So far as the animal brain is impressed by the external
world  through the various  avenues of the senses,  so far
there is no difference between  man and  the mere animal.
When the impression happens to reach no further than the
centres  of the  spinal column, there will  be a change of
matter at that point, which, like the motion of an excited
machine, will  take place by virtue of an inherent power that
belongs to that form of matter.   This is called spinal au-
tomatic action;  and the influence is reflexed or propagated
back to appropriate muscles, which, being excited thereby,
contract, and thus represent  the  influence exerted upon
them.    But  if the  impressions  made   upon the  outer
senses  extend to the sensorium,  without stopping  below
that point, then, providing the  impression does not extend
itself above the sensorium, a reflex  action will be awakened
here, which, passing down  to  the  spinal  centres, will act
itself  out,  as  already described above.   This  also belongs
to the nervous power in man,  as well as in other animals,
and may be termed senso-motor, senso-spinal automatic
action.
   Should, however,  the  impressions  reach the cerebrum,
a totally different process will take place.  For, whatever
may be  the impression, it will  propagate itself only to that
point of the cerebrum to which it is most  nearly related in
character.   Supposing  it takes a point  in philoprogeni-
tiveness ; at that point it excites a state of peculiar cerebral
action, that may,  in  the lapse of  an instant, have started
up related influences  in  a hundred different points of the
cerebrum,  all radiating to a given centre, and as perfect as
any process of crystallization.   This will all be an autom-
atic process, and the whole  of it may be totally beyond the
power of the  mind itself to control; and it shall beautifully
represent a train of connected cerebral impressions,— some
made yesterday, and others " long, long ago."
   Now, if this process of cerebral elaboration, thrown into
a unit, be  propagated upon the organ of language, with-
out the consciousness, and thence  to  the  vocal organs, you
               3 
26          CEREBRAL  AUTOMATIC ACTION.
will have the phenomena of a somniloquist, or a "speaking
medium;"  but, if there is no outward development of this
cerebral' process, it  will be simple dreaming.  If  it be
propagated to the nerve-centres, exercised in the process of
writing, then the phenomenon  will  be  that  of a  somno-
grapher, or of a "writing medium."  If the cerebral process
plays upon imitation, and  thence upon  the general mus-
cular system,  the  phenomenon will  be  that  of a  somno-
pantomimic, or of a "pantomimic medium."  If, however,
the physical conditions are favorable for the propagation of
the cerebral influence upon the  mundane agent (as exhib-
ited  in "Philosophy of  Mysterious Agents"), then the
phenomena will be  those of the  " rapping medium."
  NowT, that such an unconscious process of cerebral elab-
oration may, and even does, take  place without the  influ-
ence of spirits, may be  seen from the following language
of the celebrated  Christian physiologist  whom  I  have
already so freely quoted as authority; — " The cerebrum,"
says he, "may act upon impressions transmitted to it, and
may elaborate results, such as we might have attained by
the purposive  direction of our  minds to the subject,
without any consciousness  on our own parts." *
  The difficulty of finding  any appropriate common term
by  which  to  express  this important fact  of elaborate
cerebral automatic action led Carpenter to choose that of
"unconscious  cerebration."  These  processes, says he,
" can scarcely be designated as  reasoning processes, since
' unconscious reasoning'  is a  contradiction in terms.
The designation unconscious  cerebration is perhaps less
objectionable than any other." f
   Now, a composite of any number of related cerebral im-
pressions, or any number of related  acts of the automatic
cerebral  centres, will represent  a complex  idea.   Such
composites  are frequently   "elaborated"  in the cerebral
centres,  independently of our  own  spiritual agency; and
often,  when they make  their appearance to the mind,  as
when we  become conscious of  them, we may endeavor to

    * Carpenter's Principles, edit, of 1853, § 818.  t Ibid., § 819. 
CEREBRAL  AUTOMATIC  ACTION.          27
banish them,  and with success, if the mind has  control
over the automatic processes of the brain.   If it has not,
then the process of automatic "cerebration," in working out
simple or  complex ideas, will continue, in spite of the spir-
itual  power.   Hence originate the thousand  foolish ideas
that,  as is commonly expressed,  "pop into one's  head."
Thus a man may involuntarily have a plan of dishonest gain
"rush to his mind."   Whence came it?   Why,  surely,
not from  his  own voluntary agency, which is his real and
spiritual self,  but from the animal power of his brain; and,
as it presents  itself before the gaze of  the mind, the latter
may cherish  it, and sanction  its influence,  and determine
upon carrying it out,— or it may condemn  it, and  veto its
further passage.  Thus again we see the vast, the immeas-
urable odds between the spiritual, personal self, and the
cerebral or animal  automaton.   And here let the reader
carefully  notice that the materialists  represent  man. as
altogether the latter,— as altogether an animal automaton,—
while the spiritualists deny that  man  is an automaton in
the least,  but that  all the agency of his organism is spir-
itual, and  consequently that  every act is a spiritual  act.
Neither, therefore, analyze the  phenomena of man,  and
seek  for a legitimate classification, and  by a rigid induc-
tion seek  for the laws of human action.
   Avoiding  both these extremes, the  author has sought
the true principles of all human phenomena, not excepting
the  "Mysterious Manifestations."  And  here he would
frankly appeal to the sound common sense and  cool judg-
ment of candid  men,  if on the present bases does not rest a
satisfactory explanation of all the well-attested phenomena
of the present day, as well as of  the similar phenomena in
mesmerism, pathetism, witchcraft, preaching mania,  French
prophets,  &c. &c.
   But, says  Rev.  Charles Beecher, and others who advo-
cate  the  spiritual theory, "cerebral  automatic  contin-
gent action  is  an impossibility.  Therefore it can have
nothing to do with  the ' manifestations,' as they are con-
tingent"   This objection is very logical in form,  but ex-
tremely sophistical in fact.  This will be seen in what fol-
lows. 
CHAPTER  V.
CAN CEREBRAL AUTOMATIC OPERATIONS BE CONTINGENT?
  ANSWER TO REV. C. BEECHER'S  SECOND OBJECTION.

  Rev. Charles  Beecher, in his pamphlet, lays down,
as a second objection to my explanation of modern phenom-
ena, that "the  argument fails  because automatic contin-
gent operations involve a self-contradiction.   For brain,"
he  continues, "to' discharge sentences  drilled in,  is one
thing; to adapt answers not drilled in, is quite another."
He  then refers to Vaucanson's  automatic  duck, that could
quack, waddle, eat, digest, but  not  be frightened; also, to
automatic musical performers, and then mixes up the whole
with  "galvanic  helices," "electric clouds," "odic cur-
rents,"  "helix circles;"  but adds,   "If it were  conceded
possible (automatic contingent  action),  its probability is
infinitesimally small, not affecting the calculus." *
  Now, although  this learned  reviewer has given, in his
second chapter,  a truthful (but very partial) outline of the
author's theory, he has in other parts exhibited a very pro-
found ignorance of the important details of the subject he
attempts to treat.   The least-informed spiritualist has never
exhibited to the writer  so great a  want  of cautious dis-
crimination and analytical judgment as Mr. B., in this his
second objection.
  By a little careful examination, the sophistry of his whole
argument will appear.
  The  reader should notice, first,  that his premise, as a

     * Review of the "Spiritual Manifestations," &c., pp. 26-7. 
CEREBRAL  AUTOMATIC ACTION.          29
universal one, is not true.  It is not fact that " automatic
contingent operations involve a self-contradiction."   If
his assertion were applied to the automatic performances
of an inanimate machine, it would be true then only in a
limited sense.  For a contingent action is simply an unex-
pected, unlooked-for event, or an operation not anticipated,
or not  capable  of being  calculated upon.   It is by no
means an event without a cause ; but an occurrence whose
cause is hidden  from  sight,— whose conditions are  un-
known, or uncertain.
   Who will pretend to  deny  that even a machine, an inor-
ganic automaton, may  be  so arranged that, to every one
but the  contriver, its operations  shall be contingent, even
apparently fortuitous, and  yet, absolutely, every operation
be as certain, under  the  circumstances, as the  revolution
of a  planet ?  True, a contingent event is an uncertain
occurrence, made so  by its dependence upon  other uncer-
tain  events.  But, absolutely, there is no uncertain event.
Hence, absolutely, there are no contingencies.  The word
therefore expresses, simply, the ignorance and fallibility of
man in judging of operations whose minute complex causes
lie hid from his  calculation.   Thus, many  events are now
regarded as  certain which were once considered as contin-
gent.   The more complicated  the  causation,  the  more
apparently fortuitous or contingent is the result.   So, also,
when a thousand interposing  influences are constantly liable
to slide in,  and vary results, the appearance of contingency
is increased.  Yet to one whose  spiritual  power  grasped
within the circle of its knowledge every thread of causa-
tion, even  the minutest interposing influence, there would
be no idea  of contingency.
   Mr. Beecher's proposition, therefore, applies only to a
simple inanimate machine, whose construction involves but
a very few principles of mechanical motion,  well perceived,
and  whose resultant operations can readily be predicted,—
a machine  not liable  to be influenced or affected by varied
external influences.   Of the automatic operations of such
a mechanical structure,  he may well assert that " automatic
contingent operations  involve a self-contradiction."   But
                 3* 
30          CEREBRAL AUTOMATIC ACTION.
when his proposition is made to apply to animal automatic
operations, it is  like poor Peter's contrary quilt, that, on
being pulled over his  shoulders, would leave  his legs  to
freeze.  As I have before shown, the principle really to be
considered in this discussion is  not touched by Mr. B.
He hastily throws up a fortification where there is no call
for war, and shoots at subjective  goblins, when the real foe
— a fact of nature — stands bolt upright on the parapet,
challenging an arbitration by reason.
   Although, as already stated, there can be no such thing
as absolute contingence in nature, yet  in  complex  causa-
tion there is an appearance  of  such to  the human mind,
instances of which will be increased in proportion to human
short-sightedness.   Mr. B.  gives a case  of contingent
"rapping" phenomena.   This,  he concludes, could  have
had nothing to do with any automatic cerebral  operations,
as he had already decided that automatic cerebral contin-
gencies are impossible, or "involve a self-contradiction."
   The case is stated thus: " In a circle, the table addresses
itself to a young man, A'  B,  and says,  ' I met you in
Rome, George Inman.'   A  B  remembers no such person.
The table is asked to  assist his memory,  and  replies,—
' Cigars not  burn.'  Yet A B  remains oblivious.   Nor
can any of his  friends  who  travelled with  him recall any
person of that name, nor any incident suggestive of incom-
bustible cigars."
   Now, what contingency was  there in all this ?  Why,
simply in the unexpected phenomena,  and the unknown
cause. Mr. B. must admit that A B, being in  Rome, and fall-
ing in sympathy with an individual named  George Inman,
would certainly, in case of the latter executing any remark-
able thing at the time, make  an impression upon  A B's
cerebrum; and the event (be it a trick  with an incombus-
tible  cigar) would be as faithfully impressed upon the
cerebrum as the Greek, Latin, and  Hebrew  sentences on
the brain of the servant-girl in the family  of the German
student.   And the trick of George  Inman would be im-
pressed, together with his characteristics, and also his name
upon the brain of  A B.   In fact, the brain of A B would 
CEREBRAL  AUTOMATIC ACTION.          31
have a phantasmic representation of the whole affair, which,
at first, might be cognizable to  his mind, but, after the
lapse of months, or years, would be, from its trivial char-
acter, dropped, as a matter of thought, and be forgotten;
still, it would be retained as an impress upon the brain, as
a scar  may remain for a lifetime.   Here, then, is an old
cerebral impression,'but  as exact and definite as if made
but  yesterday.  Now, does Mr.  Beecher assert  that it  is
impossible, in the nature of things, for this impression  to
be transmitted or reflected from A B's brain, without his
knowledge,  to the brain of a person whose cerebral condi-
tion is exactly in sympathy with that of A B ?  There  is
nothing a priori to oppose this.   It is neither impossible
nor improbable.   On the other hand, it is  extremely prob-
able, since,  by the law  of physical sympathy, when two
bodies stand in a given relation to each other, the affection
of one will give  an impression of  likeness,  for the time
being, to the other.
   It is  only required, then, that a precise relation should
subsist between a " medium's " cerebrum and that of A B,
— that the sympathy shall be  at that point where the old
impression rests of  G I's  trick at Rome;  then, by the
law  of cerebral sympathetic relation, or rapport, the exact
representative impression will be made to the  " medium's "
brain, without the consciousness of either party;  for the
knowledge of the mind  is not the  action or impression  of
the  brain,  but of the spiritual,  thinking entity.
   The reader must now  see that the only contingency,  or
 uncertainty, at this point, is in regard to the establishment of
this form of specific cerebral relation or sympathy between
the  two individuals.  That being  given,  all contingency
vanishes;  but, as that cannot  be predetermined, as is well
known, in the phenomena of mesmerism, pathetism, modern
manifestations, there  is  apparent  contingency as to any
given result.
   But again; the mutual cerebral sympathy having become
established, and  its  specific  character determined, in any
given case, it becomes certain that at that instant an im-
pression will be made  by  one brain  upon the other.   Thus 
32          CEREBRAL AUTOMATIC ACTION.
the " medium," when a medium at all, becomes cerebrally
impressed with the notes  which subsequently become de-
veloped in  the responses.  For, as Carpenter  says, " The
cerebrum may respond, as it were, automatically to im-
pressions fitted to  excite  it to reflex actions, when
from any cause the WILL IS IN ABEYANCE."
   Here the reader will notice the two important conditions
mentioned as necessary to exist for this  form of cerebral
automatic action.
   First — The abeyance of the will.
   Second— The influence of an impression fitted  to
excite the reflex action of the cerebral ganglia.
   Are these two  conditions  fulfilled in the "medium,"  in
cases of responses ?  If so, the automatic argument is con-
clusive.  Let us see.
   1. The  abeyance of the will.  It has been demonstrated
in the " Philosophy of Mysterious Agents," and every work
published by the spiritualists promulgates (where directions
are given with regard to " mediums "), that the all-neces-
sary condition for the obtainment of the phenomena of the
manifestations is,   "abeyance  of  the will,"  a  "passive
state of the mind,"  a  " non-interference of the will."
   2. An  impression  upon the cerebrum  of the  medium,
fitted to excite its reflex action, is necessary for automatic
responses  from the cerebrum.  Does  such an impression
exist ?   What is  it ?  It  is  that of obtaining responses,
and that of being  a "medium" for  responses from the
supposed persons of  disembodied  spirits.  This   impres-
sion upon  the cerebrum is of that specific character that
inevitably gives the general tone to the automatic  phenom-
ena.  This argument is conclusive, and shows the perfect
silliness of Mr. Beecher's talk about  "how improbable"
it may be "that automatic breaks of the odic current"
should take place, and the impossibility that one  out of a
myriad impressions made on a brain in the Eternal City
should be  " rapped out."   Certainly,  all this,  and a great
deal more,  mixed and crude, might well appear improbable
as objective realities, and would rather be attributed   to
the flippant play of the brain, than to tr^e calm, protracted 
CEREBRAL  AUTOMATIC ACTION.          33
patient  ratiocination of the  mind  upon  the relation  of
facts.
   If Mr. B. had studied the natural principles advanced in
the  "Philosophy of Mysterious Agents,"  he  would not
have found himself so puzzled as to how  " a fictitious per-
sonality should obstinately reveal itself, at several successive
sittings, to the chagrin of all, and should not be able to be
recalled to the memory."   For the whole may easily be
supposed to have been but  the persistence of the cerebral
impression.  Its not being remembered  may be accounted
for by the  fact that countless  impressions are  made upon
the  brain   that  are  only momentarily  perceived  by the
mind, and  are then dropped from it.  What Mr.  B. says
with regard to  the  fictitious  personality taking "a circuit
through medium and table, back to the brain whence it
started," exhibits very well the part he is disposed to act,
— as  an  ingenious advocate,  not  as  a cautious,  candid
investigator.
   Again. — It would be well for the reader to notice an-
other sophistry in Mr. B.'s objection.   He says, " For the
brain  to  discharge  sentences  drilled in, is  one thing;  to
adopt answers not drilled in, is quite another."   Now,  the
truth is, that the brain of  a man needs no more drilling,
to become impressed indelibly with a  circumstance that
occurs  to his hearing or his eyesight, than the brain  of a dog
requires the same to smell a  bone, or  to  scent  a  track.
The canine brain, however,  would require "drilling" to
receive a distinctive impression of the letters of the alpha-
bet.   But  the  healthy cerebrum of an  adult man is pri-
marilv constituted to  receive distinctive impressions from
everything  reflected upon  the retina  by  light, upon  the
drum  of the ear by atmospheric vibrations, &c.  &c. &c.
To  talk, then, about drilling in sentences, in order to have
an  automatic response from the human cerebrum, is to
exhibit the want of a knowledge of facts  and principles
exhibited in human every-day life.
   Among the numberless phenomena of mesmerism, there
are thousands of instances  showing that the most casual 
34          CEREBRAL AUTOMATIC ACTION.
impressions, scarcely perceptible by the mind at the time of
beino- made, have been automatically thrown out as responses.
   Now, as to the contingency or uncertainty of any particu-
lar impression being thrown out in response, when cerebral
reflex action is  excited, it  is what any  naturalist would
reason out a priori, from the above, and  from connected
data.   Thus, it is shown that, instead of Mr. B.'s  propo-
sition proving any objection, it is not only false  as a whole,
but the elements of truth that it does contain demonstrate
conclusively the  verity and  harmony of my theory of ex-
planation, and that the latter is founded in the  nature of
things.
   For example;  if it  were known  before-hand, by the
members of a circle, precisely what influence would call
forth specific responses, and they had the voluntary com-
mand of those influences, then there would be not the
slightest  contingency or uncertainty in  the  results.   But
this is not the case,  as a whole.   The specific impressions
can be known only in a very limited number of instances,
— those  in which the will of one of the party can indi-
rectly, though certainly, by  cerebral sympathy, control the
cerebrum of the " medium."  In this case, the uncertainty
or contingency of the results are infinitely lessened, though
not entirely removed.
   Thus, I have known a case where a gentleman in a room
with a circle  (the  latter being seated around a centre-
table, the  former  in a  distant part of the  room) silently,
and unknown to the medium and the circle, dictated every
response.   When any question was  asked  by a  member,
pertaining  to  a  supposed spirit, the response  was given
verbatim, as the  gentleman wrote  it at  the instant.  All
but the gentleman  imagined that  the supposed spirit was
making the response, as it purported to come from that
fictitious source.
   This gentleman found, by mere accident, that his organ-
ism stood in strong sympathetic relation with the  medium's •
and, though a firm spiritual believer, and having faith that
he had  previously  received  communications  from  his
departed companion, was  induced to make these experi- 
CEREBRAL  AUTOMATIC ACTION.           35
ments, which, unexpectedly succeeding, led him to further
observations and study.   The results forced him to abandon
the spiritual theory.  I  could  give the  names of half a
dozen similar cases that have come to my knowledge within
a very short time.
   It  is  evident  that the law  of sympathy, upon which
the modern responses are so vastly dependent, being that
of the  specific relation  of cerebrum  with  cerebrum (as
that of one magnetic pole to another), and  this being a
matter entirely beyond  consciousness,  or  out of the mind,
and entirely uncertain till known by accident, as above, the
whole phenomena resulting  therefrom, through automatic
cerebration, are in the highest degree uncertain, or contin-
gent.   Especially is this the  case when the brain of a
medium is in  more  or  less  sympathy with numerous
others,  and subject to responsive or automatic reflex action
from the unconscious  cerebral influence of uncertain indi-
viduals.  And still more especially when the  apparently
accidental presence of a friend  prevents  the establishment
of a sympathetic relation between the responsive brain of
the medium and that  of another, necessary to the autom-
atic responsive play.
   For example: I have known the responses in a circle to
be proceeding very promptly, then all at  once cease.   On
sending one and another out of  the circle, it has been found
that the presence of a particular person  (a member of the
circle) had,  on  taking his usual seat,  cut short the re-
sponses.   Here  was the introduction of an  unexpected
cross cerebral influence.   It broke in  upon the established
 cerebral sympathy  between two brains, or susceptible ma-
 terial points.   This is  why persons  are so  often disap-
 pointed on going to a  medium for  responses; and  wny
 some can obtain responses, and  others none.
   A gentleman  in Boston —who,  by the way, is a strong-
 fisted spiritualist—informed the author, a short time since,
 that on goino- to the  circle on one occasion, he was sur-
 prised that the responses were entirely silenced, merely on
 his proximity  to the  circle.   When he went  out,  the
 responses went  on,  commencing where  they had ceased.
 On his entering again, they ceased  for the second time. 
36           CEREBRAL AUTOMATIC  ACTION.
Not one in the circle had any objections to his presence, and
he was very desirous of taking a part.  Here, again, was
an  instance  of cross cerebral  sympathy — a  neutralizing
power.
  The same observation  has always been made  by prac-
tised  mesmerizers.   They know that nothing  can be done
with some (otherwise good) subjects when certain persons
are present.   "The presence  of one  such person " (who
may be prejudiced), says Professor Gregory, in his excel-
lent treatise, "will  often deprive a lucid subject of his
lucidity;  nay," he  continues,  "this may  occur from the
presence of one, who, without  being so prejudiced,  exerts,
without knowing it, an influence on the subject stronger
than  that of his  magnetizer,  which is thus  neutralized.
All this," he proceeds, "has often been stated by authors
on Animal Magnetism, and  every prudent  exhibitor  will
bear  it in mind.   I have been informed," he continues,
" on perfectly good authority, of the case of a lady, highly
susceptible to the magnetic influence,  who could never be
magnetized if a certain person were present." *
  Hence, again, the same law of cerebral sympathy, which
obtains alike in mesmerism and  the  so-called  spiritual
manifestations.
  Thus I have demonstrated that human, cerebral, autom-
atic operations upon  the law of sympathy,  are uncertain,—
contingent; and,  therefore, that  Rev.  Charles Beecher's
second objection to the natural  explanation of the  so-called
spiritual phenomena is entirely impotent against, but, in so
far as it has  truth, is in favor of it.

  * Letters to a Candid Inquirer on Animal Magnetism, by Wm.
Gregory, M.D., F.R.S.E., Professor of Chemistry in the University of
Edinburgh.  Philadelphia : Blanchard and Lea, 1851. pp. 39, 40.
  Professor G., on page 383, details a very curious instance, where,
from the presence of a number of susceptible subjects and  two operators,
the results varied in a very wonderful manner.  Sir David Brewster
and other distinguished personages, were present to witness.  The pro-
fessor  concludes that "where  a powerful magnetizer is in the same
room with several susceptible persons, the results are very apt  to be
very much confused, and experiments fail which  would succeed per-
fectly if only one susceptible subject were present."  So it is well known
that when several, susceptible mediums are present the results are sub-
ject to great confusion, and often entirely fail. 
CHAPTER  VI.
REVIEW OF  REV. CHARLES BEECHER'S THIRD ARGUMENT,
    OPPOSED TO AUTOMATIC  CEREBRAL OPERATIONS.

  The third argument of Rev. Mr. Beecher, in opposition
to my explanations,  is  based upon  the  proposition that
the attempt  to carry out the principle (automatic cerebral
action)  consistently, pushes  the  mind into extravagance.
This argument would be conclusive, if the notions that he
represents me as advocating, in what follows  his proposi-
tion, were, in reality, what I have upheld.   Nowhere in
the " Pnilosophy of Mysterious Agents," nor in any other
form, has the author of this represented that,  '' the brain
can push a door open at a distance, or project (in the sense
Mr. B. indicates) odic pectra visible and audible to distant
observers,"  &c.
  The following is  what I have advanced, and is the near-
est approach to what Mr. B. represents me as advocating
in the " Philosophy of Mysterious Agents."  Thus, " Dr.
Binns relates that a gentleman dreamed that he was push-
in or violently against the door of a certain room, in a house
with which  he was well acquainted;  while the people in
that room were, at  the same time, actually alarmed by the
violent pushing against the door, which it  required  their
utmost  force effectually  to  resist."   Nothing  was  dis-
covered  by  these persons to account for  the  disturbance.
This  account (which it was not  my purpose  to verify)
beinf taken for granted  as a  fact,  is attempted  to be
accounted for in accordance with  the principle of cerebral
               4 
38           CEREBRAL AUTOMATIC ACTION.

representation, through the agency of a mundane  impon-
derable.   The following is what I have said  on it,  out  of
which Mr. B. weaves his web of description :
  " In  the  act of  dreaming,  as previously shown,  the
mind, the responsible agent, is suspended as the controlling
power, and the brain, under the influence of an irritant,
plays automatically.   In the case above, the brain was act-
ing in relation to a particular point of matter.   Now, it is
certain that the simple action  of the brain WAS not suf-
ficient  to resist the muscular force  of those persons.
But the mundane imponderable, in which  the brain  had its
play, was sufficient to have raised the house from its found-
ation, if thrown into  concentrated action." *
  Now, wherein is the likeness between this  and what the rev-
erend gentleman represents me as advocating as a "fact" ?
  And what  great extravagance is there in all this, if we
grant the  phenomenon and  the coincident dream, and that
one had any relation  to the other?   But Mr. B. would
rather have it  that  it was altogether  by the action of a
spiritual  agent, a going out of the soul from  the body,
and its contact writh  the  door,— notwithstanding the fact
that the cause of dreaming  is the brain's automatic action,
while the mind's action is suspended; —butaH facts must
be kicked  out of the  way, and rational views, plainly stated,
must be distorted, in order to make room  for the spiritual
theory.
  It is not to my purpose to overthrow the theory of the
soul's locomotion out of the body, to accomplish feats  of
strength prodigiously beyond  its power  while  within  its
clay tenement.  " Cicero " may " recognize it," Gamblichus
build upon it, Homer sing it, Socrates and Plato learnedly
discourse  upon  it,  Hippocrates doctor  upon it, Aristotle
philosophize  it  very acutely,  and  Mr. B. may quote  all
this heathen classical authority  to  support  a  modern
Christian's opinion  against the modern  scientific  fact of
"cerebral automatic  operations;"  but  it is the fact  the
veritable pr'mciple, that should be sought in this as in  all
* Philosophy of Mysterious Agents, § 584. 
CEREBRAL  AUTOMATIC ACTION.          39
other matters.   Sooner or later it " must come."   Blind-
ing men with the quotations of classical or scriptural opin-
ion against a modern physiological  principle will have its
influence  momentarily  upon a  few minds; but what  is
truth will be  the  universal cry, and science — the devel-
opment  of the laws  of nature — must triumph, even at the
hazard of every cherished opinion, however  dear, that has
not its basis in the nature of things.
   If the candid inquirer  will carefully compare Mr. B.'s
representations of what he calls the "automatic theory,"
contained in his paper, Chap. IV. with what  the author has
presented in the "Philosophy of Mysterious Agents," the
extravagances that he talks so much of  will appear rather
as  the  creatures of  his  imagination;  for,  in  justice  to
myself,  I must say, that this  gentleman has represented
neither  my statements nor my views.  I have endeavored,
in my poor way, always to state every fact  explicitly, and
make every deduction legitimate.  If he honorably endeav-
ored to  overthrow  any of these,  there was  a proper,  a
just method, certainly, to attempt it,— namely, to state
fairly the author's position, and then offer some sort of
arguments in refutation.
   I have seen  distortions of my views,  similar to those  I
now complain  of, before;  but the  source  has,  in  every
instance,  been too contemptibly low to  merit  attention.
But when the like things come  from a gentleman, an
accredited Christian teacher, one appointed to examine and
make a just report  upon the most  important and  exciting
phenomena of the age, I cannot let the occasion  pass with-
out some  rebuke, as public as the offence.   But even this
might be  passed in  silence, like the others mentioned, were
it not for the fact that precisely that class of persons who,
all along, have pursued this  course of  low prejudice and
contemptible  subterfuge, now quote  this gentleman as of
their  party,  and make extensive   use  of  his  name as
authority.
   But to return.   Mr. B., after referring to Gilbert len-
nent and  Mrs. Hauffe  as cases where mortals  have held
converse with the dead, then says:  " If such converse with 
40           CEREBRAL AUTOMATIC ACTION.
 the  dead  be admitted, in  even  one  well-authenticated
 instance, the whole apneumatic (anti-spiritual)  argument
 fails.  With all the gross consequences,  then, of the cere-
 bral hypothesis, it is the only alternative."  Then, speak-
 ing of the author's course, he  considers  him as judging
 " wisely, that the only effectual  defence  against pneumatic
 agency is to make the phenomena material altogether."
   Before proceeding further, it should be stated, explicitly,
 that the author holds,  and has  ever held,  through the
 whole of his investigations on  this subject, to a spiritual
 world, and to spiritual  communications  from that world;
 and  that these are made not to the brain, but to the spiritual
 entity in man;  and that the only fitting condition for that
 communion or intercommunication is holiness of spirit,—
 a pure will, a loving heart, and a teachable understanding,
 without which  there is  no  true spiritualism, no heaven;
 with which, earth itself is heaven.
   Will  Mr.  B.  consider  that  this  doctrine destroys the
 "apneumatic argument"?   True, it is  not "communing
 with the dead,"  which he so strenuously contends for, but
 communion with  the  living.   Not by "rappings," "tip-
 pings,"  breaking furniture, fits, spasms, catalepsies, swoons,
 "trances," dreams of the night, or dreams of  the day,—
 not by these, but by " holiness, without which no man shall
 see the Lord,"—by free, conscious communing,— the go-
 ing forth, so to  speak, of the " spiritual mind "  into the
 spiritual  heavens.
 _  Are these  " gross consequences of the cerebral  hypothe-
 sis"?   Where is the grossness? —and yet  it is every whit
 opposed to  that  really  gross, that vulgarly sensuous idea
 of the spiritual world, inculcated in the " rapping,"  "jerk-
ing," "table-moving"  theory he so  learnedly Advocates.
If the one class of facts are spiritual,  inward, known only
to  the consciousness of the man who experiences them  the
other is  gross,  sensuous, material,  and  are materially
discerned.  The theory  that is  opposed to  the spirituality
of the latter,  and calls them  by their right name__mate-
rial—is it necessarily  opposed to the  other  class,  callino-
them also material ?                                    ° 
            cerebral automatic action.         41

  Is it fair argument, then, when Mr. B. represents my
views as  virtually "implying an  impossibility of estab-
lishing the reality of spirit communication,"  &c. ?  The
phenomena  of the  "rappings" are  to  be tried by the
same rigid law of philosophizing as those  of  any depart-
ment  of nature.   They are as gross, outward, palpable
things, as any in chemistry, pathology or  mechanics.  Is
the philosopher to be frightened  at them because of their
anomalous character; and shun their touch, because, like
many of their  predecessors, they are  stared at by gaping
mortals as evidences of demoniacal  powers ? And what if,
on a rigid analysis and  careful classification,  it be found
that the whole body  of the present  phenomena is most
naturally accounted for by means of powers that lie within
the sphere of this world,— does it follow that this overthrows
all  spiritual intercourse ?   We can answer that it would
be  only  an exceedingly  gross and material  spiritualism
that would find itself demolished, over which who would be
the mourners ?
               4* 
CHAPTER  VII.
The character of Mr. Beecher's theory — Its extravagance — Its dan-
   gerous influence, if believed in and carried out in practical life.

  Rev. Mr. Beecher, in quoting Cicero on the absurdities
of philosophers, did not think,  perhaps, that the Roman
orator might have made use of the same language  in refer-
ence to  the "notions" of theologians.   Insinuations, how-
ever, prove nothing.   Fact is what is demanded now; and,
where there is much of the latter to support  an argument,
the less room will be left for the former.
  There are several important  points  developed in the
pamphlet under review, that every person should examine
carefully before accepting.  It should be noticed,
  First, That the theory of  Mr. B. is exceedingly alarm-
ing  to  every honest orthodox mind, and places it  in the
most painful position.
   On  one side, he represents  all natural solution  of the
phenomena as absurd,  extravagant, material,  infidel.  On
the  other, the spiritual theory  as  alone consistent; but
making it the work of low, designing demons, "under the
masterly guidance of some  one mind (Satan) of fathomless
ability, and  fathomless  guile;"  weaving "the  spell of
exciting novelty;"  exciting  "the  vague presentiment of
boundless discovery; " and unveiling  " a dazzlino- horizon
of an elysium without a cross, where mankind shall be as
gods, knowing good and  evil."  Thus,  according to Mr.
B.,  " Satan is making the  people drunk with this°elixir • " 
CEREBRAL  AUTOMATIC ACTION.
43
making "the millions surrender themselves to the implicit
sway " of these demoniacal and diabolical powers. *
  These powers, says he,f " seek impressible subjects,—
those, namely, in whom the odylic bond between soul and
body is less firmly fastened, and capable of partial disad-
justment.  Having once been incarnate, they retain  ves-
tiges of  odylic  [mesmeric]  adaptation;  they invade, they
dispossess in part, the  rightful occupant, and prey upon
his odylic energy.   Around such  subjects they  throng
eagerly."  He even goes so far as  to  assert  their taking
possession of the  "optic  nerve, causing blindness;" also
" of the auditory, vocal, sensational, or motor nerves,  pro-
ducing  deafness, dumbness, palsy, contractions," &c.;  or
"the whole brain  and nervous system, producing fierce
and furious delirium."
   Let this idea  be impressed  upon the brain of a nervous
patient, and it would render  all remedial  influence nuga-
tory ; for every person having  an abnormal  condition  of
the  nervous  system  is extremely impressible;  in other
words, "is in an odylic condition," according to Mr.  B.
Thousands upon thousands of such may be found through-
out the United States, — how many throughout the world?
All these, according to  the  reverend gentleman's doctrine,
are certain to become, in one way or another, possessed of
demons;  for, "mark,"  says he, uwhenever odylic  con-
ditions are right, spirits can no more be repressed from
communicating than  water from, jetting through the
crevices of a dyke." %   And again, he says:
   " Demoniac possessions,  as really as eclipses, have  their
law;  and their  law is,  that spirits of  the departed,  rest-
less and  miserable, and longing to get back into life, will
thrust themselves in, whenever and wherever odylic
conditions of  the organism will let them/ "$
   A sad dilemma is thus created by Mr. Beecher for every
sincere orthodox  mind; for, if his representations of my
views, and his arguments against them, are relied upon as
just and conclusive, then, either the poison of my supposed

 * Mr. Beecher's paper, p. 74.    t p.  54.    $ Ibid, p. 46.   § p. 52. 
44          CEREBRAL AUTOMATIC ACTION.
materialism  must  be  accepted, which is certain  moral
death, or his must be accepted, which frightens to mortal
death, if heartily  embraced.   This is, certainly, a fearful
alternative.   It is, however, entirely demolished, when the
mind understands the true idea I have, in my poor way,
tried to present to the reader.   Let him study it carefully,
candidly, in all its bearings;  and if then  he is forced to
adopt heartily the demoniacal theory, let him not complain
at the sad consequences upon body and brain,— let him not
be  surprised at increased spasmodic  affections, insanity,
suicide.
  I would create no unnecessary alarm; but  I would warn
persons unacquainted with the terrible history of nervous
manias  not  to  promulgate such doctrines  as  I have just
quoted.  Let  the zealous action of Cotton Mather,  in
1691—2, and its sad, nay, terrible effects, be a warning to
clergymen.  For, when  the nervous tornado is once raised,
it is impossible to tell where and when it shall end.
  The stand Mr.  B. has  taken, in this matter, so far as
doctrinal opinion is concerned, is precisely that of Cotton
Mather, and the Salem clergy and justices, in  the witch-
craft mania of Salem.
  Just so far as the  clerical and general opinion, in those
days, favored the notion that the phenomena arose from the
influence of demons, with Satan at the head,  did its rav-
ages extend.   And as soon as this cerebral impression was
disturbed, and ministers and people began to  doubt, the
phenomena  began to subside.  At last,  when Calef,  a
merchant of Boston, struck the final blow at the delusion,
by attacking Mr. Mather,  in the case of Margaret Bule,—
whom Mr. M.  asserted to be under the power of demons,
— the whole  delusion was crushed.    Not  another case
occurred to disturb the peace of the colony.
  As in the days of witchcraft, so now, it will  be  found
that as soon as people become convinced that the cause is a
natural one,— so soon as  its  supernatural  advocates have
ceased to inflame  the imagination of the  people and to
excite those  cerebral "impressions that awaken automatic
reflex action,"—precisely at that moment will  the present 
CEREBRAL  AUTOMATIC  ACTION.
45
nervous mania go  down.  For the law of the present  is
exactly that  of all the  nervous  epidemics  that  have
preceded it.
  Let every minister in the  Union preach the doctrines
inculcated  in Mr. Beecher's  pamphlet,— let  the  above
doctrines of his  be urged home upon the  imagination and
brain of a  believing people, as Rev. Cotton Mather, Rev.
Messrs. Parris,  Noyes,  Hill,  and  others, did, from their
pulpits, in  the  days of Salem witchcraft,— and as  cer-
tain  as the laws  of nature  are  the unbending  laws of
God, so certain there would  be one  of the most terrible
moral desolations sweep over this  land that  it has  ever
known.
   And is it not  an  enlightened  public sentiment  that
prevents so fearful a ravage?   It is only so far as men's
reasons have become exercised, and their intellects  stored
with facts  and principles of nature, that  they are  able to
resist the  tide  of  fanaticism.  But  even these  counter-
influences have  not been sufficient to prevent many  from
running wild with demoniacal  notions.  The old witchcraft-
faith elements are  too  deeply inwrought in the texture of
some  organisms to be  lost in a few generations, or rooted
out, even by science, in a hundred years.
   Yet a very great change has been produced.  Once the
great body of the  people, high and low,  attributed every
unusual  phenomenon,  that  the existing  light could not
readily explain,  to  the  agency of spirits.   Every man  of
forty years can now look back to the ghostly nursery tales,
and the thousand wonders told by grand-parents and  aged
nurses, servants by the kitchen-corner,— the  mysteries
of  spiritual  powers,  the ghost, Molly Cary, and  Molly
Pitcher and Captain Kidd.   Every locality had its goblin ;
and no church-yard could be passed by  a  child after the
twilight hour.   These terrifying impressions, within a few
Years, had been wonderfully counteracted by more enlight-
ened views of nature and her relations, till  the " rappmgs."
Enlightened men  and   reformers were  rejoicing  that the
spreading  light, and the expanding influences of civiliza-
tion, were doing away  entirely with  the  false influences 
46          CEREBRAL AUTOMATIC ACTION.
bequeathed by unscientific forefathers.  But this could not
be  effectually executed.   Phenomena originating under
abnormal conditions in former times  are  being repeated in
the present age; and, having passed unaccounted for, now
seize upon us like an incubus.  Confounded, we stand and
stare;  and the more we stare, the more we are fascinated
and enchained.  No one can call the wonder by its real
name;  all  repeat  the  old — "wonders  of  the invisible
world," "powers of spirits."
  Lawyers, judges,  ministers  and  doctors,  walk up to
scrutinize the mysterious creature.  Some see it not, and
forthwith go  away crying "Moonshine!"   Others see
something,— watch it,  catch responses, as from dead fa-
thers,  mothers,  brothers, sisters,  wives or children.   The
charm takes.   Ah !  this wonderful fascination ! — it is
that of the  domestic affections.   The whisper of astonish-
ment is heard.   " 0,  these  are  the  spirits ! "— " This is
my dear one  talking to me ! "— " I am remembered ! "—
"I have a guardian spirit! "
  And these all went to investigate.  They  heard,  saw,
felt, and — what ? — went  home  believers, each  man to
proselyte another,  or  a dozen others.  And where is the
investigation?  Why, is it not enough that all  saiv, heard,
felt, and believed ?  You must not reason, but believe.
  For, when the question is seriously asked of any one of
the crowd of believers  in this kind of " spiritual communi-
cations " what  reason they have  for believing that the
agency is that of disembodied spirit-influence, and not  some
power within the circle of nature, they profoundly answer
it is easier to believe it is ; — as if it is not also easier, in
our ignorance, to believe  that the world is flat,  that the sun
rises and sets, since it  is all in  accordance with the plain
testimony of  our senses.  All a  man has to do is to look
and see, and  that easily proves it; and " he must believe
accordingly!"
  Upon this  procedure it is extremely easy to misunder-
stand the teachings of nature, and to attribute even the
most  common phenomena to the  most unnatural  causes.
It is no  more absurd to  suppose  or  believe that the earth 
            CEREBRAL  AUTOMATIC ACTION.           47

is  flat,  and _ that  the sun  actually rises  and  sets, be-
cause there is the appearance  of these things, than to
suppose or believe  that  spirigs  respond through modern
" media" because there is an appearance of it, and because
it is easier to suppose so than to find  out the real cause.
No  doubt the  Pope was as shocked at the  idea of the
earth's revolution as Mr. Beecher and  the spiritual breth-
ren  seem to  be at  the  idea of cerebral automatic action.
And, no doubt, many  were, in those days, as completely
disabled, by their anciently inherited opinion, from care-
fully examining and comprehending the  new reasoning and
conclusions, as  some in  modern times  are  from  the same
cause. 
•
                CHAPTER VIII.

WHEREIN THE  SPIRITUAL THEORY FAILS TO  ACCOUNT
  FOR ANYTHING  IN THESE  PHENOMENA,  AND OTHER
  MATTERS  OF IMPORTANCE TO BE CONSIDERED.

  Mr. Beecher, after representing the "cerebral hypothe-
sis" as favoring pure materialism, says:  "If, then, such
difficulties embarrass  the apneumatic hypothesis, why not
adopt the  pneumatic?"  then immediately  adds, "It  is an
admitted principle of science,  that that theory is preferable
which  accounts  most naturally for  all the facts  known.
The pneumatic  (spiritual) theory  accounts for all  facts
alleged by the other theories as  well  as  either of them,
for  some better, and for many which they cannot  account
for  at all without absurdity."
  Now, to speak of my own theory, I protest that Mr. B.
has not represented it,  but something else in my name,
which  he in  the  end  calls  absurd.  This having  been
shown,  and his objections  completely demolished,  and
having shown  the  terrible  consequences of a  rigid appli-
cation  of  his  positions, and  their  extreme inconsistency
with the principles  of society,  I  shall now turn to consider
the impossibility of philosophically or reasonably accounting
for  any of the  phenomena of nature by the modern spiritual
method of attributing them to the agency of demons.
  Mr. Beecher  states that "the  pneumatic  or  spiritual
theory accounts for all facts alleged by the  other theories "
&c._ As to this, it maybe answered, in the outset, that, 'so
far  is this from being the case, that no attempt,  even has 
CEREBRAL AUTOMATIC  ACTION.          49
been made to account for some particular phenomena that
have appeared  in  the " circles."  Nay, indeed, they have
been ignored, and  in many instances been carefully hidden
from the  public eye  and ear,— in only one instance pub-
licly acknowledged, in part, by spiritual leaders, and then
unaccounted for;  and Mr.  B. nowhere touches them in his
report, not even by a  hint,  himself appearing to be ignorant
of them,— showing thereby either a want of discrimination
and  careful observation, or a moral delinquence of which
I would not think him guilty.
   Mr. Beecher asserts too  much, then,  when he says  that
the spiritual theory accounts for all that the other theories
account for.  I deny  that there has even been an attempt
to account for all the phenomena by the so-called spiritual
or pneumatic theory.
   Again, I will take  one  other  step,  and  deny that it is
possible to account rationally for  any of the  modern phe-
nomena by the supposed agency of spirits; for I venture
to assert, and think  it  can  be made  clear to the  candid
mind, that to refer an event to a cause  above the inherent
powers  of nature  gives it no rational solution,  but only
" darkens counsel with words without knowledge."
   The truth of the above is evident from the fact that the
supposed  personal spiritual influence here  considered  can-
not be an intrinsic force of nature, operating as gravity,
magnetism, electricity, light, heat, od,  and the like,  but an
extrinsic agent, introducing its exceptional causative powers
on  the  outside of nature,— which, being contrary to the
order of nature, is miraculous.
   Now, although a  miraculous power may account, so to
speak, to faith, it does nothing for the reason,  and there-
fore gives no rational solution of any phenomenon.
   True, the spiritualists deny that there is anything mirac-
ulous in  the influence of spirits of the dead, in producing
what otherwise are natural phenomena.  But that denial
amounts to nothing, since in the  same breath they deny it
to be an  intrinsic force of nature,  which  is to admit its
miraculous character.
   To illustrate; suppose that, on the falling of a meteoric 
50           CEREBRAL AUTOMATIC ACTION.
stone, it be asserted that a spirit threw it down from heaven,
this would be to refer it to an extrinsic, and  therefore a
miraculous cause ; and not one whit of change in the char-
acter of this would be produced by asserting that it was no
miracle, in that the spirit effected it by natural powers.
This would be  begging the question,  and running in a
circle.   The  assertion  that it  was  effected by a spirit
throwing it from heaven would still stand as an assertion
of miracle, in no way accounting for the  phenomena to the
reason, but leaving it as a matter of imagination and faith,
without reason, without intrinsic naturaMaw.
  To suppose that the earth is  upheld upon  the backs of
myriads  of spirits, would be to suppose a miracle, inas-
much as it supposes some other than an  intrinsic natural
law affects it.
  Hence, when Deity allows or ordains an extrinsic cause
to operate upon  any point of  nature, the result is a
miracle;  and this,  being an  exception to  the laws of nature
and of reason (which are intrinsic), appeals to faith and the
imagination.   It is impossible, therefore,  to account ration-
ally for any phenomenon in nature by attributing it to the
agency of departed spirits, or to  demons, or to the devil,
all of which are  extrinsic to natural causation,  and,  there-
fore, to nature in her phenomenal developments.
  How  preposterous and absurd,  then, to talk  of " ac-
counting  naturally for  all the facts" of  the so-called
" spiritual rappings," by attributing them to disembodied
or departed spirits!
  Mr. Beecher  commits suicide when he says, to support
himself, " It  is an admitted principle of science  that that
theory is preferable which accounts most naturally for  all
the facts  known." *   For,  by the pneumatic  theory,  he
can "most naturally account" for none  of these phe-
nomena,  since it is most natural to account for the facts
of  nature  by  referring   them  to  adequate  mtrinsic
causation.
  The method chosen by Mr. B., and the spirituals whom
* See his paper, p. 33. 
CEREBRAL AUTOMATIC .ACTION.          51
he so ably supports, snatches the work of philosophers out
of legitimate hands, where, by analysis  and classification,
specific results are arrived at, and thrusts  it into  the hop-
per of a vulgar credulity, into which has  run a  constant
stream of filthy superstition, since the birth of man.   The
only  difference  in  the  "muss"  now, from  its condition
when King James I., Baxter, Glenvil and Mather, "tend-
ed" the  hopper, in the witchcraft issue, seems  to be, that
in the late revival of the stream, though the contents are
the same, a thin, gauzy film is cast  over it, called  "spir-
itual philosophy" or "pneumatics,"  that accommodates it
to the times.  From some cause or  other,  the absorb-
ent powers, however, have  become much slower  than of
old.
   One of the most  important methods of making out a case,
in  this  book under review, is  that of quoting  heathen
authority for the support of the opinion of demoniacal pow-
ers and  their influence upon man ;  as if a most sublime
heathen  whim,  new vamped,  could  be  demonstrated by
quoting  a heathen's  opinion  of it.   Mr.  B.'s highest
authority seems to be one into " whom," he says, " seems
distilled the quintessence of Egyptian and Chaldee, not to
say Hebrew, Greek and Roman, doctrine on this  matter."
Jamblichus, a disciple of  "the arch-pagan,  Porphyry,"
" after describing the  epiphanies of the seven orders of
superior  beings, thus speaks of the effects on the mediums :
   " ' Some are agitated throughout the whole body; others
in some of their members; others, again, are entirely quiet.
Sometimes there are pleasing harmonies, dances and accord-
ing voices, and  sometimes  the  reverse.  Again,  the body
either appears taller, or  larger, or is borne aloft through
the air. or is affected by the opposite of these.' *
   " From the characteristics here and  elsewhere  noted by
1678
  * Jamblichus, De Mysteriis.  Oxonii, E. Theatre Sheldoniano, a. d.
io78   Sec iii  c 5 — See Review of the Spiritual Manifestations, react
before the Congregational Association of New York and Brooklyn.  By
Charles Beecher, |astor  of the First Congregational Church, Newark,
New Jersey. 
52
CEREBRAL  AUTOMATIC ACTION.
 this author j it is evident that the {mediums ' now are like
 those of the remotest antiquity.
   "Did Jamblichus, then, writing in the name of all anti-
 quity, imagine these phenomena to result merely from a
 disturbance of  the  nervous  principle ?  c If prophecy be
 only the liberation  of the  diviner part of  the soul,'  he
 answers, ' or a sequestration or intensification of mind, or a
 more forcible and exaggerated grade of action or passion,
 or an acuter or more concentrated  thought or fervor  of
 soul, then  might inspiration be accounted  subjective.'
 'Moreover, if the body, in virtue of temperament, e. g.,
 bilious or other;  or  on account of innate heat, cold,  moist-
 ure, or any quality composite of these; or by some ethe-
 real fluid, or by excess or defect of all these; — be consid-
 ered the cause  of the inspired rapture, then it might be
 regarded as a corporeal phenomenon, and accounted  for by
 natural causes.   Or,  if it takes its  origin from soul  and
 body both, viewed as a compound, still it would be con-
 nected with both parts.' "
  Even Jamblichus then indicates the possibility that cer-
tain ^ phenomena  (now  called "clairvoyance,"  "spiritual
manifestations," which were common   in  the  priestesses
of heathen temples) were possibly to be accounted  for  by
natural causes, " if they depended upon conditions of soul or
body, or both."  Had the facts of the brain's powers, under
peculiar conditions, and the natural character  of the phe-
nomena of mesmerism, clairvoyance, and the like, been known
to him, he probably would have adopted the natural expla-
nation, if his heathenism had  not taken  too rank a hold
upon him, as  it seems  to upon many at  the present day,
who, having eyes, see not,  and ears, hear  not, lest their
minds should be convinced, and science should heal them.
  But Jamblichus lived in an age when the science of phys-
iology, with all  its startling facts of modern times, was
not  known.  There were no  enlightening rays from  the
heavens of  investigation,  to penetrate  his heathen  mind.
Superstition held  the sway, and all phenomena that  the
physician could not readily,  by his dim  taper, see  to pro-
ceed from abnormal bodily functions, were at once referred 
             CEREBRAL  AUTOMATIC ACTION.          53

to the obsession or possession of demons.  Epilepsy, chorea,
hysteria^ sleep-talking, sleep-writing,  sleep-dancing, run-
ning, biting and barking, were all  attributed, at one time,
to the power  of demons; more especially when the phe-
nomenon of  clairvoyance became mixed  with the others.
Of the latter, the unenlightened heathen Jamblichus and
our enlightened Christian  teacher  of  the  nineteenth cen-
tury, amid the blaze  of the sun  of  science, say, "The
cause is not  in man, but  in  the influence of demons on
man."   The  only difference that seems to subsist between
these antipode religious representatives  is, that Jambli-
chus, the  heathen,  refers  reverently to the  gods  as the
originating cause, and the Christian, Mr. B., to the devil.
But, as our Christian teacher regards the heathen gods as
devils, the difference vanishes, and the extremes meet.  It
follows,  therefore, if our  Christian teacher's views in  his
pamphlet are the exponent of the truth of Christianity, the
latter is identical with heathenism.   Thus heathenism and
Christianity meet together, and Rev. Charles Beecher and
Jamblichus kiss each other.
o* 
CHAPTER  IX.
Phenomena of Cerebral Automatic Action further considered — Analogy
  of  the modern "Manifestations" with  the Preaching Mania of
  Sweden — Important facts developed.

   "Unconscious cerebration,"  according to Carpenter,
is that complex  action  of  the cerebral organs, that tajtes
place automatically, and without the  least conscious knowl-
edge on  the  part  of  the  mind during the process.   The
results of  such cerebral complex processes  are  of  that
nature  that, when finally made manifest to the mind,
appear like  processes of reasoning, or the combination of
ideas, depending for relation and  coherence  upon the  par-
ticular parts of the brain which play as centres.
   When any one of these automatic processes of  the cere-
brum is thrown  down upon any of the automatic centres of
the spinal system,  it is expressed  or represented in the  play
of appropriate muscles, as  is seen in  the  somnambule, the
mesmerized  subject, the insane,  and  the  medium of the
present day.  Hence we have our  speaking mediums  and
our  pantomimic mediums, as well as our "rappers" and
 " tippers."
   Now, it is well known to every one familiar with the his-
tory  of  medicine that nearly  every  form  of  nervous
derangement, especially those involving the spinal  centres
exhibited in spasmodic symptoms,  &c. &c,  may  become
epidemic.   Hecker,  in his celebrated  work on the nerv-
ous  epidemics  of  the  middle ages, exhibits a great abun- 
CEREBRAL  AUTOMATIC ACTION.          55
dance of  facts,  which show that  even  the  cerebrum of
many persons may become sympathetically affected  in  the
same manner.
   Indeed, it is a fact manifest in every case where uncon-
scious cerebration assumes the form of an epidemic disease,
that the derangement first makes its appearance in irrita-
tions of the spinal centres, giving  rise to irregular, invol-
untary  motions,  leaping  and jumping, spasms and  con-
vulsions.
   The disease sometimes will extend no  further upward
than the medulla oblongata, sometimes  as far upward as
the sensorium.  But when it reaches the  convolutions of
the brain — the cerebrum — the  irregular spasms cease,
and thenceforth the action of the muscles exhibits the char-
acteristics of psychical influence.
   In an age of ignorance, or in a community  where  science
has not  shed  her  light,  it  is  to be  expected that  such
strange  phenomena as naturally  appear  in nervous  epi-
demics, or even in single cases, where unconscious cerebra-
tion takes place to any prominent abnormal degree, would
be attributed to supernatural agencies, to holy or  diabol-
ical demons, or  to the Supreme Deity.  Hence the  phe-
nomena of the French prophets, of witchcraft, and of mod-
ern manifestations,  have their supernatural advocates.
   It would be an interesting consideration here  to observe
those phenomena of automatic cerebration which show the
influence of popular notions on the cerebral organs.  In the
days of witchcraft, for instance,  the phenomena of  that
epidemic perfectly represented the impressions which  had
been made upon the brains of children in the  nursery.  At
the present day we have  exhibited (in the general  phe-
nomena) the general notion  impressed upon  the "medi-

   But it is  my design here to show the involuntary and
unconscious cerebration in another  form  of nervous  epi-
demic, namely, the preaching mania of Sweden —a very
interesting account of which has been given by the learned
and judicious  Dr.  J. A. Butsch,  Bishop  of Skura, in
 Westgothland. 
56           CEREBRAL AUTOMATIC ACTION.

  The bishop noticed that the preaching phenomena ac-
companied a certain bodily sickness; but  he unfortunately
has given us but a few of the symptoms of the  latter.  He,
however, states that its phenomena were  "like the effects
of animal magnetism."
  With regard to its origin and history something may be
said hereafter.   It is sufficient to observe, at  present, that
it commenced under a religious excitement, and spread like
an epidemic.   Starting from a point in Southern Sweden,
it extended itself rapidly in  every direction.   One person
would be seized with it on  seeing another  affected.   From
its  peculiar characteristic  phenomenon, it was  called  the
preaching epidemic.
  The bishop mentions that  one of the most  sriking and
early symptoms was, that the persons were affected against
their will, with quaking fits; and  then, he says, when
subject to immediate medical treatment, soon recovered.
  In describing the commencement of  their state, they
complained of certain pains, and other  physical symptoms.
He says that  he "carefully studied the  effect of sulphur
and the magnet upon several of the sick persons; and found
symptoms of the preaching epidemic to correspond with the
effect of animal magnetism, as  given in Kluge's work on
that subject.
  "In both cases," he  says, "there was an  increase of
activity of the nervous and  muscular system, prickling
sensation in the extremities (analogous symptoms to those
experienced by our " mediums "), " convulsions and quak-
ings, and they seemed predisposed for  visions and  predi-
lections.   Some families were more predisposed to it than
others, and it prevailed more among children and females
than in  grown-up  persons  and  men.   Among the men,
those of a sanguine, choleric  temperament  seemed most
susceptible," which appears to be generally the case in the
present epidemic of this country.
  As to the character of the language used in the "preach-
ing " he says: "Whatever the origin  of  the  disease may
be,  it characterizes itself by Christian language, and makes
its  appearance with many truly Christian  thoughts and 
             CEREBRAL AUTOMATIC ACTION.          57

feelings;'' and that, " probably, the disease has universal-
ly met with something Christian, previously implanted
in the heart, to which it has, in an exciting way, allied
itselfV  And he adds, in another place, "that to give a
complete and detailed  description of the nature of  the dis-
ease would be difficult, because, like animal magnetism,
it seems to be  infinite in  its modification and form."
We see this in the present "manifestations."
  As in the present  phenomena, most  of those who  be-
came inducted (as our  "mediums" are) were generally
affected in the outset with " certain quakings and irregu-
lar involuntary movements, and the spasms or  motions
were instigated at the  mention of certain tcords, the in-
troduction of certain ideas, and  especially that  of their
being inspired of God, influenced by guardian spirits wTith
us."  This of itself was sufficient to induct some.  Sus-
ceptible persons become mediums by merely being told that
they will be  "mediums,"  or  by simply giving them  the
"Spiritual Philosopher" to read, or "Supernal  Theolo-
gy," or any like reading; or by telling them they are be-
ing magnetized by spirits.  The  brains of some of those
affected with the "preaching mania" became  so suscepti-
ble to the  influence of certain words, that, when spoken,
the children acted as if under the power of demons.   The
word no affected them all, and was  described  by them  as
'•'■one of the worst demons, tied with the chains of dark-
ness, in the  deepest  abyss.  It  was remarked, also, that
they frequently acted  as  if they had a strong temptation
to speak falsehood."  The  same phenomenon  appears
amongst us.
  Let us mark here, particularly, that in this form of  the
phenomena all  the movements and motions and  speeches
were entirely without the will and consciousness; so that
the persons thus affected, on coming out of this  condition,
were not aware of what had been done, except in some par-
ticular instances, and  then they would say they  could not
nelp it.   This is according to the  law of " unconscious
cerebration."
  There were two stages  of  the  disease : the  nrst was 
58          CEREBRAL AUTOMATIC  ACTION.
pantomimic, or that in which gestures  and certain  repre-
sentative movements of the body prevailed.   The first part
of this was  characterized  by irregular  movements, and
this passed  into  the  regular, where every action  became
beautiful in the  extreme,  in many cases.   Of this  stage
of the disorder wTe are to  speak  more  particularly in an-
other work,  where I shall  treat upon the pantomimic phe-
nomena in the manifestations of the present day.
  The  second  stage  was that  which characterizes the
" speaking  mediums "  among us.   " This  was  char-
acterized,"   says Mrs. Mary HoAvitt,* " by  a beautiful
calmness and quietness  of demeanor and countenance,
and with (as in  the case  of one child)  her arms  folded
meekly  on her bi^ast,  she  began  to  preach.  Her manner
in speaking was that of the parest oratory ;  her tones were
earnest and  solemn."   The language -was of  an  elevated
character, much  above what could have  been uttered in the
normal condition, indicating an intense excitement  of the
organs of ideality, language and  reverence.
  "  The bishop tells us that these children  were cured
by medicines which  he himself procured for them."
Here we see the  fact which  we have  exhibited in the
" Philosophy of Mysterious Agents," namely, that the ab-
normal state, wherein the organs of the cerebrum are made
to play automatically upon the spinal  centres,  depends in
all cases upon a specific condition of the nervous centres,
wherein the will, reason and consciousness, have nothing
to do, being thrown  into a neutral  or  inactive state; and
that  as  soon  as the  voluntary agency is by any  means
(by disease or the influence  of individuals) made passive,
all the organs of the brain are left to  the  perfect control
of whatsoever specific  impressions have been or are made,
at the time, upon the  brain.  Then its  automatic action is
inevitable.
  Now,  we have already  seen that not only may a little
medicine, which  acts  specifically on those nerve-centres,
produce  that condition, but, when they are in that condi-

  * See Appendix, A A, in Man's Nature, &c, by Atkinson &  Marti-
neau, page 392. 
CEREBRAL  AUTOMATIC ACTION.          59
tion, a simple dose will often remove it; and, as in the case
of Julia, the medium mentioned  in  Supernal Theology, a
specific form of disease setting in will destroy the power of
the medium.
   Another thing proving the sympathetic influence of sur-
rounding  persons is,  that,  when these individuals  are
removed from  all those  who  entertain a  superstitious
notion with regard to the  phenomena, or from those who,
by their special attention, show  a desire  to  have them
manifested, the  phenomena invariably decline, unless aris-
ing from some form of settled chronic disease of the brain.
  °Those  subjects of the  preaching epidemic, mentioned
by the bishop, "that were carried to the hospital, imme-
diately recovered."   Thus, he says,  " Many of the  ' quak-
ing  people' were  taken  to  the hospital,  and,  on their
arrival, they were found to be free from any symptoms
of the disease whatever ; but, scarcely had they returned
home"  he continues, "when it again appeared in its
 full force."  This i3 exactly the case with many forms of
insanity; and we have seen it in cases of the manifestations.
 There is' an influence in certain  associations  which  is sure,
 under favorable circumstances, to induce powerful uncon-
 scious cerebration in some persons.   Indeed, every action
 of a man that is not determined in his consciousness by his
 will is  automatic,  according to  the  demonstrations of
 Carpenter; and is more or less a departure from the law of
 his manhood, according  to the extent to which it governs
 and controls  his life.
    Where the brain is in its normal condition, or undiseasecl,
 and we know — as we always should endeavor to — what
 are the influences that are operating upon us from without,
 that noble power, the will, can easily withstand  the influ-
 ence that would break down  our manhood, and convert us
 into automatons.   Hence the  bishop's remark:   Many
 individuals, by means of a  firing and a faithful en-
 deavor to counteract it,  succeeded in doing so.   Others
 on the contrary, from their belief of the disuse being of
 a divine  character [as  though God would demolish his
 noblest workmanship, the governing power of the person], 
60          CEREBRAL AUTOMATIC ACTION.
 became predisposed for the contagion, both  bodily  and
 mentally;  and  thus, being  attacked, helped to make  it
 worse, by their own superstition, and submission to it."
   And this is precisely the fact of all nervous epidemics.
 The  subjects of it bow to  the  influence, as if it  were
 from God  or spirits of the  dead, and immediately fall a
 prey.
   The  preaching epidemic, like the manifestations of the
 present, depended upon a submissio?i of the self-conscious
 governing  power of the  mind.  This was the necessary
 condition upon which it commenced;  and  its continuance
 depends upon the fulfilment  of such sensuous conditions.
 Not a phenomenon of the "manifestations" could be evolved
 without them.
   The  like  we  have  shown  to  hold  good of mesmeric
 phenomena;  and, indeed,  of all  automatic action  of the
 brain,— namely,  non-interference of the will.   Hence
 it matters not whether a man believes he is being magne-
 tized by a man or by a spirit.  The submission to an im-
pression is the thing; and the physical result depends upon
it; so that the outward instrument is only a small part.  The
means may be insignificant; — only the tick of an insect,
if  the reason and the will  yield to the  cerebral impression,
which is involuntarily suggested, may convert him into
a  puling,  druling idiot.  Or, it  may be  that  the mere
twitching of a muscle, or the spasm of the little finger, may
suggest to ideality  and  wonder that a spirit  is trying to
magnetize the body; and, if  the self-conscious  reason and
governing will are made  passive, or suspended in their gov-
ernment, that idea, that impression, will do the work, even
were there no spirits in the wide universe.   It is manifest
folly, then, to attribute that to spirits which has been done
thousands  of times without them.   See the following :
  A writer from Bridgeport (Ct.) says:* "The  spirits
entrance numbers of the  circle.   Last night we  met  at
Brother Mettler's,  and  the spirits entranced Rev. S. B.
* See Spirit World, -vol. n. p. 22. 
CEREBRAL  AUTOMATIC  ACTION.          61
Brittain; and he gave a beautiful lecture while in that state.
Mrs. Mettler is also often entranced by spirits," &c.
  Now, S. B. Brittain is naturally a lecturer.   His cere-
bral organs  are  very active; and we do not see why they
may not as  readily play  automatically as any other brain,
especially when he tamely resigns his personal government,
his  will and reason, as a  common mesmeric subject.
              6 
CONCLUSION.
  Having extended this discussion as far as present limits
will  allow,  without  scarcely  touching the  magazine  of
reserved facts the author possesses on this subject, he may
notice that,  at some  future period, he will present to the
public what  he has in store.   Meantime, it  should be felt
by every one who has any interest in these phenomena, and
witnesses  them,  to move cautiously, and in no  case press
the condition of  " mediumship " too far, as it is dangerous.
Let it be  marked that  it is tampering with the brain.
An abundance of facts demonstrating its insane and idiotic
tendency  can  be offered.   These  facts shall in due  time
appear.   Men in  responsible  stations,  who  advocate  the
spiritual theory  in these things,  incur  a fearful  responsi-
bility.   "Posterity will  have more  light to judge  ye;
honest," they may say; " but, weak and-------   Let the
children fill that  blank.   Remember the impetuous  but
honest Cotton Mather, Sir Matthew Hale, Richard Baxter  !
  Before  closing, I may say something of the animal indi-
viduality of the brain, in contradistinction from the spiritual
personality that  inhabits  it in man, and  constitutes his
nobility.
  It is  in the nature of every nervous organization to have
a sense of individuality;  and this corresponds to the
mind's conscious personality.
  The brain of  man has its sense of individuality, in the
same manner  that every other animal  has.   This propo-
sition cannot be  denied,  since sensuous individuality is pre-
dicate  of every cerebral conformation,  and  becomes more
notoriously apparent in phenomenal exhibition in proportion 
CEREBRAL  AUTOMATIC  ACTION.
63
to the extent and elevated  character of the cerebral convo-
lutions.
   It follows from this that man's cerebral sense of individ-
uality is as much more extensive, as to the range of cerebral
functions which it embraces beyond  the lower animals, as
the cerebrum of man is more  comprehensive than that of
the animals below him.
   The sense of individuality stands for the animal what
the sense of personality stands for  in the spirit of man.
Still, in the man, there abides the animal sense of individu-
ality  with  the spirit's   consciousness of  personality.   It
must, therefore, follow, from this, that, when the  latter acts
in perfect harmony with the former,—when, in other words,
the spirit's consciousness of personality acts in the animai
sense of individuality,—the two parts, or beings, that consti-
tute man, act as one being, as one responsible personality.
   There are conditions, however, wherein the action of the
personal self is suspended, and the animal individuality is
left to act without  it; —  that is, the  animal  organs,  the
convolutions of the brain, play their part without the per-
sonal sanctions.   In all such cases  there  is not the least
responsibility in the  deeds  performed.  This is seen in  the
states of insanity, natural  or spontaneous somnambulism
and clairvoyance, mesmeric phenomena, and the phenomena
of the modern and ancient  medium.
   It is only when the personality determines the act that
there is any responsibility  in it; for no other are  rational
actions:  no other have the sanctions of the responsible I,
myself,  the spiritual nature.   The  outward act must be
performed  by the animal  force, in  every case;  but it is
only when the  personal, spiritual  self, acts in or with and
prompts  the  individual, animal self,  that the outward act
has any moral character.
   The moral character  of any deed lies in the fact that  the
personal, spiritual self has prompted or sanctioned it.
Hence it is seen that the mere excitement of the brain, and
its exhibitions  in  phenomenal display, are by no means
spiritual even  though  the phenomena may exhibit never
so great'an amount of intelligent representation;  for the 
64          CEREBRAL AUTOMATIC ACTION.

brain has the inherent power of intelligent representation
in every act it performs upon the spinal  axis.  And how
much more has it the power of intelligent representation in
its acts, since manifold  and innumerable impressions have
been made upon it, both by the external world and by the
previous acts of the mind itself!
  Mystics  and ignorant persons are apt to attribute the
acts of the brain to the acts of the mind,— as if the brain
was the mind, or the mind the brain.   A superficial class
of philosophers do  the same thing.   They talk of immor-
tality in the language  of  materialists, and deny, with the
latter, that nature  gives evidence  of the immortality of the
soul.
  Nature never lies.   If she teaches only materiality, it is
useless  to seek any evidence against her testimony;  for
there is  nothing in time  that does not stand within  the
circle of nature.   A revelation  from Heaven must come
within this circle, or it cannot come to the mind of man;
for  the  mind of man stands as  a power  in nature, and
whatever comes  to it must,  therefore, come  into nature.
Hence, to deny that nature  teaches the immortality of the
soul, is to deny that anything in time teaches it. 
 
ELECTRICITY   IN   DISEASE.
             DR.   E   C.   ROGERS,

                   MEDICAL ELECTRICIAN,

      NO.   34  TREMONT  ROW,  BOSTON,

Would respectfully inform his friends and the public, that he has
opened his Office in the city for the purpose of applying imponderable
agencies in cases of disease.  As he has devoted great care and
attention to the action of Electricity, Electro-Magnetism, Magnetism,
Dia-magnetism or Od, and Magnetic Electricity, to the organism, and
observed the curative as well as abnormal effects in a great number of
cases, he feels assured of exciting the attention of discriminating
minds to his method, which differs, as a whole, from that of all other
medical electricians, being the result of his own experiments and
observations for several years :—
  In the first place, as to the manner  of applying the secondary
current of the common electro-magnetic machine in nervous and
rheumatic affections. Second : As to the method of making use of the
primary current of the galvanic batter}'—making use of volume and
intensity according to  the peculiarity of the case.  In order to reap
all the advantages possible in this department of electric  treatment,
he has constructed a  battery of over  fifty elements,  divided  into
numerous series, any number of which may be applied to the patient
with the most perfect ease, and with the most happy results.
  Third: In  whatever form he applies the electric agency, whether
in the pure galvanic, the electro-magnetic, the magneto-electric, or
the magnetic, he can direct it  upon the most nervous patients,
effectually,  without the least  sense of  shock or discomfort — an
extremely important consideration in all such cases.
  The following  affections he has found most readily to yield under
his method.   Nervous debility, with sinking about  the  pit of the
stomach, trembling, vertigo; pain in the head; weakness and pain in
the back and loins ;  chlorosis ;  constipation ; suppression of other
natural discharges,  as well as too frequent or abundant; piles,  blind
and  bleeding; spasms, where not the  result of organic  disease ;
incipient curvation of the spine ; cramps of the muscles; rheumatism;
gout; paralysis;  many diseases  of the eyes  and ears ; ague; tardy
recovery from bruises  and sprains; many affections of the  throat;
bronchitis;  soreness and pain of the muscles of the chest; nervous
cough;  neuralgia; sleep  waking, and  other functional disorders of
the brain and nerves, &c.
OFFICE HOURS from 9 A. M. to 4>£ P. M.
    N. B. — Physicians are cordially invited to call and examine
instruments.  All cases they may deem proper  to place under his
care, as to the application of electricity, shall be treated with strict
reference to professional etiquette.

                               E.  C.  ROGERS,
                                            Med. Electrician. 
 
 
 
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