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1st. That we are not to look for a special inspiration to prove to us the truth of Christianity, or the facts recorded respecting Jesus Christ. If any man was ever favoured with inspiration from Heaven, it was John the Baptist; but yet, if the preceding view be correct, John was either not informed, or not fully informed, by inspiration, that Jesus was the Messiah: nor was he satisfied of the fact till any intimations he might have had of it from other sources were confirmed by the exercise of the faculties which God had bestowed upon him, and till his reason had led him, from the plain evidence of the facts, to conclude that Jesus could be no other than the person pointed out by the Scriptures. A faith thus based, had it proceeded no further, would have been indeed only what divines call historical, and not saving faith ;-a faith by which we believe that Christ was the Messiah, much as we believe that Titus Vespasian besieged Jerusalem; and which could be of no avail to salvation, without that faith which is the gift of the Holy Spirit, by which, says St. John, we believe that Jesus is the Christ. It is not, therefore, intended to confound the office of reason with that of faith, or the work of the Holy Spirit with the results of candid investigation; but only to shew what is the inference from the narrative, as to one part of the question, leaving to the other its undiminished and essential importance. This remark seemed necessary to prevent misconception of the present and the succeeding inference. 2d. That Jesus, in the mode he took to satisfy John that he was the Messiah (not by an authoritative declaration of the fact, but by referring to his actions, and impliedly calling upon him to compare them with the Scriptures), intended to invite us to the full and free exercise of our reason in investigating the evidences of religion, and not to look for supernatural illuminations to disclose what is already plainly revealed in the written word. The

necessity for the Holy Spirit's influences remains the same; but light is thus thrown upon their practical application. We see, for example, that, though faith is the gift of God, the infidel is inexcusable in his rejection of revelation; the evidences for which are as abundantly convincing, to any man who uses his reason to investigate them, as was the Messiahship of Christ to any person who candidly examined his actions, and compared them with the record of Prophecy.

3d. We may perhaps further infer, that it is useless to speculate beforehand on the particular manner in which any prophecy will be fulfilled. The fulfilment will probably disappoint our prejudices, our passions, our imaginations, but it will be amply sufficient to satisfy our reason. Circumstances which in a prophecy appear casual, trifling, and unimportant, may in the fulfilment become those of the greatest moment; and the contrary: so that the event, when it arrives, may be altogether different from the idea of it which we had conceived from our interpretations of the prophecy, but still may bear such an exact conformity, upon close and minute comparison, as to force us to acknowledge that the source from whence it flowed must have been the Divine prescience. And, indeed, it appears to be the true object and intent of prophecy, rather to prove in retrospection the Divine knowledge of its Author than, generally at least, to instruct us beforehand in future events. The obscurity and ambiguity in which prophecy is involved, till its fulfilment, are wisely contrived to ensure our conviction of the Divine knowledge of its Author, without leaving it in our power to calculate beforehand upon the events to arise, so as to frame our actions accordingly.

The substance of the above was written above twenty years ago; but the author has since found his opinion, that the message was intended for the satisfaction of John himself,

supported by Mr. Benson, in his Hulsean Lectures, though rather differently accounted for.

ON MIRACULOUS CURES,

states of disease which, in the instance of Prince Hohenlohe, and in all other instances of similar cure, are the most favourable for treatment-namely, those which originally result from, or are kept up by, disorder of the nervous function.

INFLUENCE OF MIND ON THE BODY, Astonishing effects are often pro

&c. &c.

(Continued from p. 74.)

IT is manifest that the essential ingredient in the success of Prince Hohenlohe consisted in the agency of his means upon the mind, and on the re-action of the mind upon the body, produced and kept up through the influence of the nervous system; -a medium of communication every where distributed with the minutest care and in the richest profusion; while its various parts and subordinate systems are so closely, so carefully, and so astonishingly connected with each other, as to indicate most clearly the perfection of Divine wisdom displayed in preserving its uninterrupted and harmonious intercourse, and securing the most general impression. Not the minutest sensation occurs at the extremity of the system, but is instantaneously propagated to its centre: not a desire is excited in the mind, but a corresponding action is set up in the organ destined for its gratification: and the endless variety of communication with its several regions, through the medium of plexus, ganglion, interlacing and decussation of fibres, separate twigs of intercourse, and the one agency of the great sympathetic nerve, is such as to overwhelm the mind with astonishment.

In some particular forms of malady this intimate union and communication may be suspended; yet it can never altogether cease, but with life and in a great number of diseases there appears to be such an excitation of the nervous system as to give to the influence of mind upon body a greater power than it would obtain in a perfectly healthy condition; and these are precisely the

duced through this medium: witness the influence of music on certain functions of the body, and its supposed agency in curing the bite of the tarantula : witness the influence of poetry on certain other bodily organs; the universal sensation of tears during the performance of a tragedy; the diffusion of laughter from comic representations; the profuse flow of saliva, from the prospective contemplation of food; the wasting atrophy of grief; the paralysing agency of terror; the sudden effect of surprise, and still more of anger, in producing disease; the consequence of depressing passions to stomach and other maladies, and in preventing recovery, as well as the great assistance of a happy mind in struggling against disorder: witness also the effect of strong mental emotion in suspending pain, or at least in so modifying it, that it shall no longer be felt; the usual and beneficial influence of moderate excitement, and its inevitable consequence, when carried a little too far, of exhausting the feeble organ of the body, producing in the first place simple diminution of energy, then torpor, then alteration of function, then structural disease, and, as a consequence of its destructive progress, death itself: witness, again, the agency of fear in making the feeble energetic, and able to accomplish that which they would have unhesitatingly pronounced impossible: and lastly, witness the operation of shame, and the unparalleled bodily efforts to which this principle has given occasion; effects which could not have been produced except under a similar stimulus.

Without this hold upon the mental system of patients, the physician would in vain prescribe all the known

remedies of the Materia Medica. These form only one class of curative measures; important certainly, but less important than the influence of the medical practitioner upon the mind, and his knowledge of the moral and mental manifestations of the sick. So that, in the greatest number of instances, the cure of disease might be well said to be dependent on miraculous agency, if the essential character of such agency were defined to consist in every thing which exists beyond the ordinary bounds of human intelligence, which is beyond our power to explain, and which exceeds the limits of perception through the medium of the senses. And thus modern miracles rest upon this natural law-namely, the predominating influence of mind upon body. To this Prince Hohenlohe's miracles may be clearly traced, as has been shewn in the circumstances of extraordinary excitement already mentioned; to which should be added the freedom from remuneration and the disinterestedness which obtained in these cures; supported as they were by individuals who quoted the sacred Scriptures as their authority for the performance of miracles and for the gift of healing through the agency of faith.

Once more: it must be remembered, that in most instances of supposed miraculous cure women have and been generally its subjects: and why? but because their nervous system is more readily excitable, more easily subjected to those influences which are necessary to awaken it to such a pitch of excitation as that they should become favourable patients for the operation of such curative measures.

I shall now illustrate, by some cases, wherein this power of excitability consists, and by what circumstances it is limited; and also estimate the influence which is thrown over events that are involved in mystery-which is of itself one most important means of excitement and superstitious error.

In order to shew this state, I shall mention a case which occurred to me not long since. I was summoned to visit a child at an early hour one morning, and found it dead upon my arrival. It was about six months old, and had been one of the healthiest and finest infants; of it it might have been truly said, that from its birth it had not known a day's illness. Upon the minutest inquiry no sufficient cause could be discovered for its death; but it was clear to my mind that the vital spark had fled before it was discovered that any thing ailed the child; and yet the report of its most careful and confidential nurse was, that all was well to within a quarter of an hour of her first alarm. It was a most mysterious death; and I hate mysteries, when the light of science can chase away the darkness. It was precisely one of those cases in which it might be said that death had taken place by a special act of the sovereignty of God, without the intervention of apparent means. If we knew all the circumstances of these supposed events, we should find, as in the present instance, that it was our ignorance which induced us to imagine this especial interference with established laws, and which threw a mystery over events which would be explicable, did we possess more knowledge, and a more intimate acquaintance with the laws which God has established in his creation. Dissection shewed that this beautiful and healthy infant died from suffocation; and thus the mystery vanished.

In the following narratives, the first is an instance of cure through the excitement of the nervous system acted upon by mental impression through the medium of fear; the second is a curious case, which might perhaps admit of similar relief; and the two latter are instances in which excitement must fail, and wherein nothing but miracle could effect a cure.

First, A. B. had been confined to her bed for several years with va

rious symptoms of the nervous order, of which a total loss of muscular power of the lower limbs formed the principal characteristic. A fire occurred in the house in which she lived; and she was found by a near relative actively engaged at the pump, and remained well ever after.

Again: a young lady in my neighbourhood has been subject for many years to a malady, of which the following symptoms constitute the chief characteristic. There is an entire suspension of the function of volition, so far as regards the muscles usually called voluntary, during the greater part of the day; and there is a disordered performance of that function towards other muscles which are partly voluntary and partly involuntary. If we were to class these symptoms, we should call them cataleptic, as being more nearly allied to that form of malady than to any other. At a certain hour daily-that is, about ten in the evening-the limbs become suddenly and immovably fixed in the position in which they happen to be at the moment of seizure: if bent to the utmost, or fully extended, so they remain, without the slightest power of alteration of position on her part: and if a byestander attempt to vary that position, he would find it impossible, first, from the rigidity of the muscles, and next from the pain it would occasion; for wherever this suspension of voluntary power occurs, there is a simultaneous exaltation of the sensibility of the nerves, affording a beautiful illustration of the distinctness of the two orders of nervous fibre, of sensation and volition. At a particular hour-namely, within a few minutes of seven o'clock in the evening-the right hand and arm are instantaneously released from their bondage. I have repeatedly witnessed this phenomenon; and the hand which at the present moment has been fixed beyond the power of active or passive motion, has in five minutes been extended, for the purpose of shaking hands with me. Then follows a solution of the rigidity of

the left hand and arm, and subsequently of the lower limbs; these changes following in rapid succession, and occupying only a very few minutes. With the return of voluntary power the excited sensibility has fled; and her friends, who are aware of all these changes, now know that she may be removed from the bed to the sofa, and she continues to enjoy the use of her limbs till nearly ten, when the same circle of morbid phenomena recommences. So far with regard to the purely voluntary muscles; those which are partly involuntary-particularly the respiratory muscles, those of the chest and abdomen, the diaphragm, the muscles of the neck, &c.-are the constant subject of convulsive movements, not all together, but in inconceivably rapid succession, so as to afford a combined example of all the Protean forms of muscular disturbance, which happen in the ever-changing variations of hysteria; and during all these mutations the patient evidently suffers a great deal of pain. To watch these changes is a most interesting employment; the more so because inexplicable; but it is one of the most severe cases of suffering to which human nature is exposed. During all these changes the internal functions of digestion, nutrition, sanguification, &c. &c. proceed without material interruption; it is the nervous function only which forms the seat of disturbance. Then, the effect upon the intellectual manifestations is not to be overlooked. These remain unimpaired when the patient is herself. She commonly rouses with a smile; talks of her situation with great good sense, composure, and resignation to the will of God; and enters cheerfully into conversation for a few minutes; when she suddenly falls into cataleptic somnolence, continues to talk on on the subject of the last idea, but without that perfect coherence previously exhibited: and this is then completely superseded by the various muscular disorders which I have mentioned;

these remaining for a few minutes, and again giving way to her last state, to be again interrupted by the usual circle of morbid changes; which together forms one of the most curious and puzzling collection of phenomena that can be witnessed. Her intellect seems perfectly unimpaired in her brighter moments; and her general health is infinitely better than could have been expected, considering the powerfully disturbing remedial agents to which she has been subjected, and which might have almost broken the stoutest health; yet hers is still good. And there is not the slightest prospect of a termination of this state. Every powerful agent has been tried in this case, without the slightest real influence. Yet

there does not seem to be any thing like organic disease of the brain or nervous system: this, therefore, is one of those cases in which some powerful impression upon that system might operate a cure apparently miraculous. The essential character of the malady is disorder of the function of volition; it has existed fourteen years; and, so far as can be traced, is independent of primary or sympathetic organic disease-at least beyond that which consists in morbid babit. If the mind could be sufficiently wrought upon, so as to inspire a very powerful exercise of the will upon the most momentous of all subjects, I should have great hope; but that hope would consist in the remedial agency of known principles addressed to the function in disorder, and not to any interference with established laws by which the world is regulated.

The two following are cases of a different description :-The first, a child of ten years old, who had been subject to head ache for a year and a half before I saw it; and from the first visit I pronounced the case a hopeless one, and that organic disease of the brain existed to a considerable extent. The alterations of intellectual manifestaCHRIST. OBSERV. No. 345.

tion had not been great, so that the parents believed none had taken place; but upon inquiry I could find that there existed a torpor of function, as the general characteristic of morbid action of the affected organ. The most likely remedies were employed without effect: the little patient became blind, deaf, insensible to impression, and died in a few months. Examination of the head shewed great organic changes, of which the chief consisted in a very large effusion of water in the natural cavities of the brain. In this case, the symptoms of blindness, &c. could not have been relieved by nervous excitement, because they were not dependent upon interruption of function, but alteration of structure.

A young gentleman had passed a considerable portion of the period usually allotted to college residence, more under the excitement of gay society, and its consequences, than in successful reading. Under this high stimulation, the brain really gave way. The first indications that were observed of this altered condition, were a great degree of listlessness and inactivity there was no getting him up in the morning to any rational breakfast hour: every pursuit was engaged in with languor: there was an inertness, not to say obtuseness, of feeling, about him, and an absence of energy in thought and action; and these were attributed to disappointment, and other mental causes. Next came a want of interest in all that surrounded him, and in every plan that was proposed for his present and future comfort: then followed a vacancy of manner, a sluggishness of intellectual manifestation, which gave to a character of naturally good parts an appearance of stupidity; his habits of listless indulgence became more inveterate: then arose the expression of a confusion of thought, which prevented his reasoning correctly or consecutively, or remembering any thing with advantage: after this there U

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