Besides all this, my brother attacked me by demanding by what means it was that I had transferred my spirit so often, and so easily, from one body to another. And this being a question on which the reader may require satisfaction as well as my brother, I must allow that it presents a difficulty, and a very great one. All that I can say to this is, first, that I did transfer my spirit from body to body, and no less than seven different times; secondly, that these seven translations of spirit indicated in me the possession of a peculiar power to make them; and thirdly, that the existence of such a peculiar power, however wonderful it may appear, is not beyond the bounds of philosophic probability.
No man can be so ignorant or skeptical as to deny, that there are several different faculties of a most marvellous nature, with which a few individuals in the world are mysteriously endowed, while the great mass of men are entirely without them; and to the number of these supernatural endowments there is scarce a year passes by without adding a new one. What can be, or ought to be, considered a more surprising faculty than that of ventriloquism,—the art of throwing the voice into places and things afar from the operator, of taking, as it were, the lungs, glottis, &c. from his body, and clapping them into a chest, log, stone wall, or other inanimate substance, or into the body of another? and how few are there in the world who possess the power of doing so! One man thumps his chin with his fingers, and draws from it pure and agreeable musical tones, and another whistles a melody in parts; while men in general might thump and whistle till their teeth fell out without producing any music worth listening to. What can be more wonderful than the faculty recently developed by the advocates and practitioners of a new system of medicine, who, by shaking a bottle in a peculiar way, give to its contents a medical virtue which did not exist before, and which another man,—the patient, for example,—might shake till doomsday without imparting?*
The Natural Bonesetter is one instance of the possession of a faculty both rare and astonishing, and so is any old woman who can pow-wow the fire out of a burn. Not to multiply inferior instances, however, I will ask the reader if any faculty can be deemed more incredible than that of the magnetizer, who, by flourishing his digits about your body, now cures your rheumatism, and now sets you sound asleep—unless it be that of the magnetized slumberer, who reads a sealed letter laid on his epigastrium, sees through millstones and men's bodies, and renders oraculous responses to any question that may be proposed him, even though it be upon subjects of which, while awake, he is entirely ignorant.
In fine, granting all these things to be true (and who shall dare to doubt them), why should it not be granted that an individual should possess the power of transferring his spirit from body to body at will—a power but little more extraordinary (if indeed it be more extraordinary) than the other faculties which are admitted to have actual existence?
To me it seems that the thing is natural enough, though still, I grant, extremely wonderful. Many persons are thought to possess the ventriloquial, and even the magnetic power, without being conscious of the endowment, accident having been in all cases the cause of their being made acquainted with its existence. In the same way, it is not improbable that other persons besides myself may possess the faculty of reanimating dead bodies, without suspecting it; for I can scarce believe the faculty should be confined entirely to myself.
[CHAPTER IV.]
BEING THE LAST CHAPTER OF ALL.
I never could succeed in convincing my brother-in-law of the truth of my relation—or rather—for I have always thought his incredulity was assumed for the purpose mentioned—I never could overcome his opposition to the design I formed of writing and committing it to the press. For this reason I ceased talking of it more, and even affected to believe the foolish story he had told me of my having conceived my adventures in a mere fit of delirium. This I did not so much out of compliment to him, as from a desire to have him believe I would let nothing divert me from the business of my farm, which, indeed, I immediately addressed myself to in such good earnest as secured his hearty approval and zealous congratulations.