abyss, a molten Vortex, by whose ceaseless evolutions one wave succeeds to another to all eternity. We repeat; this being his favorite theme we must tolerate his eloquent strain. And now we will leave him in the midst of his fire-songback again, where he first began.

REFLECTIONS.

From the peculiar character of this Work, it will be natural to enquire, what the real state was that Mr. Davis occupied, what caused that condition; and also, what principles were engaged in the inspiration of his lectures. As an introduction to our suggestions, the reader is referred to the prefatory remarks on pp. 43-4, A. P. In addition, we observe, that according to the laws governing the mesmeric state, the subject is not the author, and therefore not responsible for what he may say or do. He must, however possess an organism adapted to the development or reflection of whatever is produced. Farther than this, his being has no part in the phenomena, he is only a passive agent for the work. Dr. Lyon, Rev. Mr. Fishbough, and others immediately associated with the magnetizee, were the authors of N. D. R., rather than Mr. Davis. It is hardly necessary to appeal to the science or its demonstrations to confirm this position. Every Magnetizer, and Psychologist, by each trial

or exhibition supports this idea. Indeed, otherwise, there would be no such science. By the laws of mesmerism or psychology realities may be rendered as fictitious or as substantial. A phantom may be made to appear as most divine. All is the same to the subject. He speaks and does what the circumstances inspire or the position mentally controlling him prompts. While in the magnificent and illumined Hall he may be made to believe himself in some subterraneous vault tormented by fiery demons. He may seem to gather ripe clusters of fruit from trees of Paradise, which he imagines stand in luxuriant growth around him. He can ride Pegasus to the remotest star, or paddle his canoe in the raging sea. The dunce may be made to suppose himself Demosthenes, or Galileo; Cæsar, Bonaparte, Washington or a blooming sylph. The man of sense can be made to imitate the booby, or believe himself a monarch and issuing his murderous edict; an humble peasant or a doomed inhabitant of lost worlds; or even in the presence of the great I AM. And all this can be produced by one controlling mind. The subject then, is, by the nature of his condition, compelled to speak what the circumstances inspire, hence what he cannot avoid. All being a work of necessity induces in him a sense of right, and especially so since he cannot conceive of pow

er to move in an opposite direction. To him the influence of his sphere is Omnipotent. It encompasses and pervades his being, and therefore he feels its immensity. The force of mind operating with him overcomes him, and the influx upon his sensitive soul is so overwhelming that he supposes himself the recipient of divine breathings. His spirit is quickened, his perceptions become exceedingly active, and he fancies himself sipping at the fountain of Wisdom. Such was evidently the case with Mr. Davis when in his superior condition. The united minds about him encompassed him, and he existed beneath it as beneath a divine pavilion. Its compass transcended the capacity of his intellect, hence he deemed himself in an exalted sphere of intellectual immensity, whose movement appeared as the ceaseless breath of infinite thought. He roamed beneath a magnificent dome of inconceivable magnitude. The currents of mentalized nervaura converging upon him caused him to believe himself in the immediate sphere of the Divine, the presence of the Unknown. The magnetizer and his group, ignorant of the real state of the subject, and awed by the novelty of the scene, imagined the sleeper in the presence of new and more exalted modes of existence, and become impatient for the revelations. This desire changed the form of Mr. Davis' sphere, and he be

came impressed that he must bestow upon man some of his divine conceptions. Obedient, therefore he began. His novel condition, induced a somewhat novel mode of expression. Thus interested, his circle, of necessity, began to anticipate superior disclosures, the exposition of nature and the character of causes. By this mu tual operation upon each other, extreme transcendentalism was induced, hence the Revelations. Nor did the subject for a moment conceive his sphere composed of the elements immediately connected with his mundane nature. In other words, that he rested upon the mental apex of his magnetizer, which was sublimated by marvelous and imaginary excitement, and his magnetizer upon that of the friends around him. And that from this position he was gathering the fruit of that mind sphere. Neither did the circle for one moment imagine themselves recording their own thoughts, somewhat transformed by the circumstances, and uttered by the instrument of their united minds.

Such are the consequences of mental illumination by means of animal magnetism. And Mr. Davis' Works prove such to have been his condition, and the major causes of his inspiration. Upon these principles alone can the vague complexity and contradictory nature of the lectures be accounted for. True, he claims sympathy,

yea, direct converse with super-mundane spheres; but however much man's nature renders him capable of such sympathy, N. D. Revelations evince very little, if any, of that attainment. The entire philosophy, seems only a repetition of the knowledge or the notions of men; and that, upon which so much is expended, viz.: the ignorance of the young man, Mr. Davis, is merely a play upon the marvelous. Time was when this extraordinary claim might pass, but modern developments are revealing the mystery, as the result of the most common laws of human existence.

Mr. Lyon was a disbeliever in revealed relig ion, and the Rev. Mr. Fishbough was a man of superior literary and scientific attainments, as his writings abundantly reveal. Add to these,other men of noted ability who were in almost constant attendance, and the marvel is accounted for, and upon principles connected with the mind and magnetic nature of man, and without calling to aid the higher spheres. The Book has awed into profound reverence its thousands, but the day cometh when its marvel-mask will be removed by the familiarity of the phenomena of mental sympathy, then men will wonder why well informed minds became so easily led by it.

We only add, that although the Work admonishes the world to discard the marvelous, and