Isis Revelata (Volume 1); An Inquiry Into the Origin, Progress, and Present State of Animal Magnetism (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1844. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... INTRODUCTION. It is not uncommon for persons, ignorant of the nature of the alleged phenomena of Animal Magnetism, to denounce them as pretended miracles, and hold them up to ridicule. This is extremely irrational. A miracle is a violation of some general and known law of nature, in consequence of the immediate interposition of a Superior Power; and, in the sense of this definition, it is not pretended hy any of the philosophical adherents of the doctrine, that there are any miracles in Animal Magnetism. The experiments, indeed, by which the reality of its peculiar phenomena has been established, have disclosed a number of extraordinary and most interesting facts; but the occasional occurrence of every fact, however uncommon, is capable of being demonstrated by evidence; it can be shewn to be the result of natural causes; and it then becomes quite un philosophical to regard it as a real or pretended miracle. Previous to the wonderful discoveries which have been made in modern times, relative to the properties and action of Heat, of Electricity, of Galvanism, &c, had any man ventured to anticipate the powers and uses of the Steam-engine, the Electrical Machine, the Voltaic Pile, or of any other of those mighty instruments by means of which the mind of man has acquired so vast a dominion over the world of matter, he would probably have been considered as a visionary or a madman; and had he been able to exhibit the effects of any of these instruments, before the principles which regulate their action had become generally known to philosophers, they would, in all likelihood, have been attributed to supernatural agency; and we should then, perhaps, have heard of the miracles of Mechanical Philosophy, as we now hear of the miracles of Animal Magnetism. In th...