1851.]

Familiar Table Talk.

romance. The Mormons, according to the picture your Journal gives of them, are a more extraordinary people than either the Brobdignags (I believe that is the name of them) or the Lilliputians. And during these marvel-loving times, it is impossible to tell or even conjecture to what number and political or religious power they may attain.

"Your cure of blindness by Mesmerism, though not new, is a very interesting

case.

"Of your Spiritual Sermon I cannot speak in terms of such approbation.

Pray, what is thought, by the wise ones, of the explanatory hypothesis, that ladies make the spirit-noise by the dislocation of the knee-joint? Is that doctrine thought less marvellous than messages sent from the spirit state of existence?" G. A. B. of Oakland, Ohio, says, (March 3d):

Having read the first volumes of your exceedingly interesting 'Journal of Man,' I was much amused with the novelty of your Psychometric experiments, so incredible were they, that I could not believe, and yet I was confounded with the evidence adduced.

"A few days since, I had an opportunity of demonstrating the truth of Psychoa lady of great impressibility, possessing an metry, in the person of Mrs. J acuteness of perception and fluency of speech eminently fitting her for Psychometric experiments.

"I placed in her hands manuscripts, the contents of which she could have known nothing, as they were folded, in a manner that forbid the possibility even of their containing any writing.

"I placed in her hand a letter from Miss W. She immediately (without any prompting) described the intellectual, moral, and social faculties of the author correctly. In a few minutes I placed in her hand another letter from the same person without her knowing the fact, yet the second delineation of character corresponded precisely with the first.

"I next placed in her hand a letter I had received a few days previous from the Hon. L. D. Campbell. I shall give her impressions of Mr. Campbell's letter in her own language:

"This manuscript impresses one very forcibly. This man has an expansive intellect, a very active mind. He has great fluency and force of expression. His perceptive faculties are large and give him a good effective business talent.

"His benevolence is large, he has active sympathies. His conscientiousness is large and his firmness is full. He has much dignity of character and continuity. He He has strong attachments to his friends. He has a great deal of moral courage. likes to accumulate, has large acquisitiveness. This man has powerful propelling powers, he has large combativeness and destructiveness, has great energy and determination of character. He is always ready for the conflict.'

"This person possesses a superior mind, and one that will make itself felt, etc. The correctness of her description of Mr. Campbell's character, so far as I am able to judge, satisfied me of Mrs. J.'s psycometric powers.

"Is not this impressibility common to all persons in a greater or less degree? If so, may it not be developed by magnetism?

Dr. D. A. M. of Greenville, Ill., says:

"It would be truly an intellectual feast to be able again to spend a term in the Eclectic Institute, which I intend to do, as soon as practicable. I hope to be able to visit Cincinnati next summer or winter.

"I have tried and proved most of the experiments given in the Journal of Man, with which I have been more than satisfied."

E. L. C. of Buffalo, says:

"In the main, I think that craniological observations verify (though that means were not sufficient to discover) the newly discovered functions of the brain. I was deeply impressed with the inadequacy of the old system during the lecture of Mr. L. N. F. lately in this city. Having an opportunity of examining his cranium, and of recording the result, I was struck with the correspondence between his external developments and what the man appears to be, from other indications, a correspondence which does not appear by the system he teaches."

LITERARY NOTICES.-From Nauvoo, Illinois, I have received a weekly newspaper [$1.50 per annum] entitled the "Popular Tribune,-Journal of Reform and Social Reorganization-Organ of the Icarian Community, under the direction of M. E. Cabet, formerly Attorney General and Deputy of France, and now President of

the above community." The doctrines of this Icarian Community, which is composed of emigrants from France, are contained in two works of M. E. Cabet, entted "Travels in Icaria" and "True Christianity." The communism which is attempted by this society is a bold attempt to realize a high ideal of life. Such attempts require a great deal of generous and amiable sentiment. In some respects, the French are better adapted to the community life than the Americans. Every philanthropist must wish success to this enterprise.

M. Cabet appears to have had much persecution from his enemies in France, backed by the power of the government. He is going back to Paris to meet them, and rebut their accusations. The Tribune is edited with very respectable ability, through its editor is not yet entirely familiarized with our language. M. Cabet is a zealous opponent of Jesuitism of which he has seen and felt the evils in Europe. Under the head of "Danger from Jesuitism," he says:

"We stated in No. 4 of our journal that Jesuitism was the most powerful organization on the face of the earth, and the most dangerous to liberty.

"This danger is manifest as regards Europe; for the Jesuits, the staff officers of the Catholic army, are undauntedly and continually struggling to augment the power of the Pope; and the Pope at their head is every day advancing nearer to object of universal dominion, and even at this moment he heads the coalition of kings against Republicanism and Democracy. And should foreign invasion succeed in re-establishing despotism in France, it will most assuredly be at the insugation and owing to the manoeuvres of the Jesuits.

"Hence the endeavors of all the Republicans in France, the most intelligent men, the numerous learned bodies of the universities of education, the most popular writers, such as Eugene Sue, Eugene Pelletan, Michelet, Quinet, Victor Hugo, Thiers even, Genin, professor of Philosophy at Strasburg, Bouche de Cluny, etc., etc., who never cease to signalize the enemy and point out danger!

"As to us, we are convinced a thousand times over, that the kings only put themselves into the hands of the Jesuits for the reason that they consider them now zo be their principal supporters; in consequence of this junction, this Jesuitic conspiracy is in our eyes the most formidable of conspiracies; because it is thus etabled to direct the armies of Europe and to unite force to cunning and all other species of treason.”

"THE CELESTIAL TELEGRAPH."-The researches of M. Cahagnet of France, alluded to in my lecture on the relations of body and mind, have been republished in English by J. S. Redfield, of New York, under the following title:

"THE CELESTIAL TELEGRAPH; or Secrets of the life to come, revealed through Magnetism; Wherein the existence, the form, the occupations of the soul after its separation from the body, are proved by many years' experiments, by the means of Eight Exstatic Somnambulists, who had Eighty perceptions of Thirty-six Deceased Persons of various conditions: A Description of them, their conversation, etc., with proofs of their existence in the spiritual world. By L. ALPH. CAHAGNET. First American edition. New York: J. S. Redfield, Clinton Hall, corner Nassau and Beekman sts. For sale by W. B. Zieber, Philadelphia.

"THE AMERICAN VEGETARIAN and Health Journal," Philadelphia-A monthly of 16 pages, at $1 a year, by Rev. Wm. Metcalf, is a vigorous advocate of vegetable food, well worth reading and quite instructive.

MISS MARTINEAU'S NEW BOOK.-A new work, the joint production of Miss Martineau and H. G. Atkinson, F. G. S., has recently appeared in England. It is entitled" Letters on the Laws of Man's Nature and Development." This book will certainly rouse the thinking faculties of its readers; but it will startle and shock not a few of that lady's former admirers. It is understood to advocate a system of total skeptcism in reference to the reality or personality of all spiritual, divine, or supernatural things. It has been the fashion heretofore to receive all such doctrines with an infinite amount of scorn and reviling, not only against the works but against their authors. Perhaps the honorable and eminent position of Miss M., and the more tolerant character of the present age may secure for her work a more gentle reception. Works upon the unpopular side of every question ought to be shielded and cherished by every friend of human improvement, no matter how much he may object to their contents. The world can never be freed from bigotry and falsehood until every side of every question may be fearlessly defended. When we have the truth, we have

no fear of discussion, and so long as the oppressed classes in the minority are scoffed out of the arena of free discussion, we may be sure we have not yet reached a proper position. The following well-written extract from the work presents Miss Martineau's views in reference to theories of God and creation:

"Of all the people I have ever known, how few there are who can suspend their opinion on so vast a subject as the origin and progression of the universe! How few there are who have ever thought of suspending their opinion! How few who would not think it a sin so to suspend their opinion! To me, however, it seems absolutely necessary, as well as the greatest possible relief, to come to a plain understanding about it; and deep and sweet is the repose of having done so. There is no theory of a God, of an author of Nature, of an origin of the universe, which is not utterly repugnant to my faculties: which is not (to my feelings) so irreverent as to make me blush; so misleading as to make me mourn. I can now hardly believe that it was I who once read Milton with scarcely any recoil from the theology; or Paley's Natural Theology with pleasure at the ingenuity of the mechanic-god he thought he was recommending to the admiration of his readers. To think what the God of the multitude is,-morally, as well as physically! To think what the God of the spiritualist is! and to remember the admission of the best of that class, that God is a projection of their own ideal faculty, recognisable only through that class of faculties, and by no means through any external evidence! to see that they give the same account of the origin of Idols; and simply pronounce that the first is an external reality, and the last an internal illusion! To think they begin with the superstition of supposing a God of essentially their own nature, who is their friend and in sympathy with them, and the director of all the events of their lives, and the thoughts of their minds; and how, when driven from this grosser superstition by the evidence of laws which are all around them, they remove their God a stage from them, and talk of a general instead of a particular Providence, and a necessity which modifies the character of the prayer; and how, next, when the absolute dominion of law opens more and more to their perception, excluding all notions of revelation and personal intercourse between a God and man, and of sameness of nature in God and man;-to think that when men have reached this point under the guidance of science, they should yet cling to the baseless notion of a single conscious Being, outside of nature-himself unaccounted for, and not himself accounting for nature!

"How far happier is it to see--how much wiser to admit--that we know nothing whatever about the matter! And, from the moment when we begin to discover the superstition of our childhood to be melting away-to discover how absurd and shocking it is to be talking every day about our own passing moods and paltry interests to a supposed author and guide of the universe-how well it would be for us to set our minds free altogether-to open them wide to evidence of what is true and what is not! Till this is done, there is every danger of confusion in our faculties of reverence, of conscience, of moral perception, and of the pursuit and practice of truth. When it is done, what repose begins to pervade the mind! What clearness of moral purpose naturally ensues! and what healthful activity of the moral faculties! When we have finally dismissed all notion of a subjection to a supreme lawless will, all the perplexing notions about sin and about responsibility, and arbitrary reward and punishment-and stand free to see where we are, and to study our own nature, and recognize our own conditions-the relief is like that of coming out of a cave full of painted shadows under the free sky, with the earth open around us to the horizon. What a new perception we obtain of the beauty of holiness'-the loveliness of a healthful moral condition-accordant with the laws of nature, and not with the requisitions of theology! What a new sense of reverence awakens in us when, dismissing the image of a creator bringing the universe out of nothing, we clearly perceive that the very conception of its origin is too great for us, and that deeper and deeper down in the abyss of time, further and further away in the vistas of the ages, all was still what we see now-a system of ever-working forces, producing forms, uniform in certain lines and largely various in the whole, and all under the operation of immutable law."

FEMALE PROGRESS.-There can be no doubt of the fact that woman is gradually looking up, and determined to enter upon a wider sphere of life than she has heretofore occupied. The attendance of female students in medical colleges is one of the most signfiicant indications of the times. Three are at present attending the Spring session of the Eclectic Medical Institute. Several ladies are delivering popular lectures with credit to themselves. Miss Coates has delivered several courses upon

Physiology in Ohio and Pennsylvania. Mrs. E. R. Coe has lectured once in this ey upon the elevation of woman, and her lecture was highly commended. A number of ladies are beginning to act upon the new ideas in referance to female apparel. Awi educated young lady at the East has been for some time wearing the male attire and carrying on farming operations. The newspapers refer to a party of females in ra attire recently seen at St. Louis. Mrs. Bloomer of Seneca Falls, N. Y., who eČI the Lily, has adopted the short dress and trowsers, and some of the ladies of the village are beginning to imitate her example. She says:

"Those who think we look 'queer,' would do well to look back a few years, to the time when they wore ten or fifteen pounds of petticoat and bustle around the body, and balloons on their arms, and then imagine who cut the quecrest frate, they or we. We care not for the frowns of over fastidious gentlemen; we have those of better taste and less questionable morals to sustain us. If men think they would be comfortable in long, heavy skirts, let them put them on-we have to objection. We are more comfortable without them, and so have left thera of. We do not say we shall wear this dress and no other, but we shall wear it for a com mon dress: and we hope it may become so fashionable that we may wear a all times, and in all places, without being thought singular. We have already become so attached to it that we dislike changing to a long one."

The Syracuse [N. Y.] Standard, says:

"The new fashion for ladies dresses is being introduced into our city. Several ladies appeared in the streets yesterday with dresses of a very laconic pattern, and pantaloons a la Turk. The new style looks decidedly tidy and neat, and imparts to the wearer quite a sprightly and youthful appearance."

LAW REFORMS.-Great reforms in law are now in progress. Reformed codes have been adopted in New York, Kentucky, Missouri, Iowa, Mississippi, and Califoraa New York has virtually abolished the old system of militia training; and she has probably passed, by this time, the law against gambling-a law so stringent and searching as to make it pretty sure that it will totally abolish the practice. Oh, by her last legislature, has abolished the sale of ardent spirits by tippling shops Nine cheers for this age of progress! Law reformed! Flogging in the Navy abolished! Militia trainings going out of fashion! Gambling put down by law' Grogshops closed forever! Homestead exemptions spreading through the Cion! Land limitation beginning to be feasible! Universal education ręce nized as a right! Woman's Rights advancing in legislative bodies, and discussed in conventions! Woman herself waking up to her great mission! Anthropology asserting its place at the head of science!

Nine cheers for the triumphs of common sense!

CLAIRVOYANCE AT MILWAUKIE.-"So many interesting cases of clairvoyance are cosstantly coming under our observation, that we have ceased to regard them with much more interest than we would take in many other ordinary occurrences. It has occu red to us, however, that many into whose hands our paper will fall, may not be quite so familiar with such matters, as, from peculiar circumstances, we are oursenes, and that an occasional statement of a case might not be unacceptable.

"Take the following: A few days ago Mrs. M—, of this city, being very skertcal in both clairvoyance and spiritual rappings, called at the house of Mr. Locus, and proposed, as a test, that Ann (a girl 12 years old, who, by the way, is the medum of that family for spirit rappings) should be mesmerized, and tell what property had been stolen from her and where it could be found. The former request was mediately complied with, and to the great surprise of Mrs. M-, she correctly de scribed and named every article, stating they had been stolen by her hired giri and were locked up in a trunk in a particular room of a house belonging to an old Ge man woman. (Mrs. M-, from the minute desciption, recognized the house re ed to.) She stated further, that by getting that trunk she would find all the art cles, excepting a string of beads which she would never recover, as she (her girl had given them to a friend. The trunk was immediately sent for, and taken into the pre sence of the person implicated and upon explaining their object, she instantly acknowedged the theft. The trunk was opened, and every article found as described. The beads were minus, and, as a matter of course, there being no positive evidence, sa took the ground of not guilty of ever taking them.

"Any one doubting the truth of this, can, by calling at this office, obtain the full names of the parties interested."-Milwaukie Anthropologist.

BUCHANAN'S

JOURNAL OF MAN.

VOL. II, NO. 11--MAY, 1851.

ART. I.-WHAT IS YOUR APOLOGY?

TRUTH, in her first visits to earth, has ever been scornfully received. Her messengers have been murdered, stoned, imprisoned, disgraced-or scoffed and hooted away from human society. But when her brave heralds have secured a foothold on earth, her messages have been derided in all the high places of the world, and compelled to circulate among the poor, the humble, and oppressed. The ruling classes of this world-who are indebted for all they really enjoy, to the share of truth which they possess look down with infinite scorn upon the generous and gifted few who wish to give them more.

To conquer nations with the sword and bayonet-to ravage, burn, and rob-to live by rapine, like the most ferocious beasts, is esteemed honorable, noble, lordly, and god-like. The journeymen butchers of mankind are "the very head and front" of civilized society, in civilized and professedly Christianized Europe. To accumulate wealth by honest means, by labor, by skill, by the actual creation of wealth and not by robbery, is deemed ignoble and degrading.*

To bring forward the purest and highest truths which would abolish all ignorance, misery and crime, and introduce endless ages of human happiness, is an offense against which mobs arise, armies bristle with bayonets, and the fires of the inquisition are kindled. The laws of Eternal Justice and Truth are reversed. The highest virtue is esteemed the highest crime, while crime itself is almost canonized.

*The officers of the U. S. ship, St. Lawrence, were ostracised from a London military club, because this ship brought over the American's contribution to the World's Fair.

VOL. II.-T.