An energy, a force, whose hidden ties
Bind animate or inanimate in wise
True, order.... Thus are we twain commingled....’
Idylls, Legends and Lyrics.
Perhaps the most wonderful of all the discoveries of this period was that of psycho-magnetic sympathy, or psychic-energy, which was found to pervade the nerve-centres of all human beings, in a greater or lesser degree. In all ages the unseen bond that linked mankind together, with more or less hidden force, had baffled the researches of psychologists, and physiologists to such a degree, that at length the pursuit was abandoned, and left for Charlatans to play with.
Each epoch of the world’s history saw the development of some absurdity; but these were in reality the fructification of the seedling; or infant gropings after that higher knowledge which evidence the spiritual aspirations of the human soul.
In the very early stages of man’s history we find him in full belief of fairies, gnomes, and hobgoblins, which eventually ripened into a literature and folklore dealing with their doings, of quite ample dimensions. And after all, who would like to make away with those delightful stories that inspired his imagination in childhood’s days, filling his mind with awe and wonder, while yet it was all receptive, and when credulity was paramount?
Then followed the belief in the wizards, witch, and magician, who were held to have gotten their supernatural powers from the arch-magician, Satan, himself: and every ill that nature sent humanity was ascribed to the infernal agency of witchcraft.
In these days handsome incomes were occasionally realised by courtly magicians who unfolded the future to the high-born ladies that invoked their aid. Did not Anne Boleyn see her future husband in the magician’s mirror, when quite a girl, and as yet she knew nothing of him? The scene of a masked ball in which King Henry the Eighth was the central figure, and all the people paying him courtly homage, was found reflected in the magic mirror, and the monarch pointed out as her future husband. Still time went rolling onwards bringing its developments of man’s highest aspirations—the desire to fathom that mystery of which he caught but a glimmering.
Then followed Mesmer’s discovery to which was attributed certain psychological developments; these the Charlatan utilised to his own advantage by claiming the power of second sight for some fair sleeper whom he always took care to be provided with.