Any comment on my part would but weaken the sense of the ludicrous this "explanation" of so great a subject, even from a mere mechanical standpoint, must arouse in the reader. Yet Dr. Holmes's "explanation" is not any more preposterous than that of many other scientists of the present day.
Teachers have said that, not being a teacher, I could not know anything about the voice. As if they had the sole patent right to the voice, and others held their voices but from them, in fee! I, however, took the liberty of looking into my own voice and trying to find out whence it came and what it was made of. It is not much of a voice, to be sure; yet it has the common attributes of all voices. Besides, I should like to know who, in truth, is a teacher. He who over a narrow path follows the footsteps of others, or he who strikes out boldly for the root and the truth of a matter, and, disregarding precedents, goes down to the very bowels of the earth, if need be, to bring it to the surface?
The knowledge of even the best of us is not much more than some froth on the surface of the well of truth. Yet that froth is all these timid souls have dared to examine. They have not had the courage to dive down deep into its fathomless flood. Many a truth has been taught by those who had been considered innocent of any knowledge thereof. I am one of these "innocents," and, on the whole, am not sorry for not having been imbued more with the knowledge, or supposed knowledge, of the present day.
We are so much the slaves of habit that we become reconciled to any condition, almost, no matter how undesirable or absurd it may be. Thus biological science has been going along in a rut for centuries, but little having been ascertained of vital importance; nor could this have been otherwise, considering the modes of investigation. I was not surrounded by so many trees that I could not see the woods. My perspective was as clear as a bird's, that soars above and beyond the smoke of the city and the dust in the eyes of the heirs of generation upon generation of anatomical and physiological research, burying beneath its lumber the clear insight of the soul. Thus, ignorance with me may indeed have been bliss. Yet I do not want to place myself in a position as deprecating science, having the highest appreciation for all its endeavors. I deprecate science only in so far as, dealing with matter, it attempts to draw inspiration therefrom as to spiritual issues; and the voice certainly is a spiritual issue.
The following appears in the Encyclopædia Britannica, under the heading of "Animal Magnetism":
"Mr. Heidenhain, after stating that in conformity with the manner in which one muscle is affected, others become similarly affected, proceeds to say: 'Probably the reflex excitement would extend still farther, but I naturally consider it out of the question to try whether the muscles of respiration would become affected. It is easily understood that such experiments require the greatest caution and may be very seldom carried out.'"
Valiant Mr. Heidenhain, brave explorer on a new and "dangerous" field of research. This is the Ultima Thule which any of these bold adventurers have endeavored to reach. My work began where theirs came to an end. Though I have not reached the "North Pole," I have gone far beyond anyone else.
COMMENTS OF A DISTANT REVIEWER
This entire subject is of so subtle a nature that I must warn the reader to be patient in its study and careful of his judgment. Should the present work, however, also fail to elicit the attention of my fellowmen, some thinker, perhaps, of a future generation, upon discovering a copy of this book on the dusty shelves of an antiquarian, while looking over its time-stained leaves and after struggling with its vernacular, may be struck with some remark coinciding with ideas arrived at by himself and other scientists of that day, and while commenting upon his "find," may possibly deliver himself thus:
"As the nineteenth century of the Christian era was drawing to a close, a citizen of the (then) youthful country of the United States of North America published a book which contained disclosures far in advance of his time and generation—truths, in fact, concerning life and the exercise of our faculties and functions, which, if properly understood, might have eventually led to even the solution of the very mystery of the soul. Though science at that remote period had made marvellous strides forward, its endeavors were mostly of a utilitarian character, or consisted of efforts to explain phenomena from a strictly materialistic standpoint. The author of this book, however, by dint of a combination of extraordinary circumstances, which induced him to search for causes of phenomena within, in place of outside of himself, had succeeded in breaking through the barriers which had, theretofore, separated phenomena which were called 'natural' from those which, by the majority of mankind, were still supposed to be 'supernatural,' or, at least, unexplainable, unknowable, beyond the ken of man.