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can be made at will, and very readily from lead in connection with certain other substances, in kind and in
proportions, unknown.'
Speculation, of course, is busy as to the immediate and ultimate results of this discovery -- a discovery which
few thinking persons will hesitate in referring to an increased interest in the matter of gold generally, by the
late developments in California; and this reflection brings us inevitably to another -- the exceeding
inopportuneness of Von Kempelen's analysis. If many were prevented from adventuring to California, by the
mere apprehension that gold would so materially diminish in value, on account of its plentifulness in the
mines there, as to render the speculation of going so far in search of it a doubtful one -- what impression will
be wrought now, upon the minds of those about to emigrate, and especially upon the minds of those actually
in the mineral region, by the announcement of this astounding discovery of Von Kempelen? a discovery
which declares, in so many words, that beyond its intrinsic worth for manufacturing purposes (whatever that
worth may be), gold now is, or at least soon will be (for it cannot be supposed that Von Kempelen can long
retain his secret), of no greater value than lead, and of far inferior value to silver. It is, indeed, exceedingly
difficult to speculate prospectively upon the consequences of the discovery, but one thing may be positively
maintained -- that the announcement of the discovery six months ago would have had material influence in
Information prepared by the Project Gutenberg legal advisor 37
regard to the settlement of California.
In Europe, as yet, the most noticeable results have been a rise of two hundred per cent. in the price of lead,
and nearly twenty-five per cent. that of silver.
~~~ End of Text ~~~
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MESMERIC REVELATION
WHATEVER doubt may still envelop the rationale of mesmerism, its startling facts are now almost
universally admitted. Of these latter, those who doubt, are your mere doubters by profession - an unprofitable
and disreputable tribe. There can be no more absolute waste of time than the attempt to prove, at the present
day, that man, by mere exercise of will, can so impress his fellow, as to cast him into an abnormal condition,
of which the phenomena resemble very closely those of death, or at least resemble them more nearly than they
do the phenomena of any other normal condition within our cognizance; that, while in this state, the person so
impressed employs only with effort, and then feebly, the external organs of sense, yet perceives, with keenly
refined perception, and through channels supposed unknown, matters beyond the scope of the physical organs;
that, moreover, his intellectual faculties are wonderfully exalted and invigorated; that his sympathies with the
person so impressing him are profound; and, finally, that his susceptibility to the impression increases with its
frequency, while, in the same proportion, the peculiar phenomena elicited are more extended and more
pronounced.
I say that these - which are the laws of mesmerism in its general features - it would be supererogation to
demonstrate; nor shall I inflict upon my readers so needless a demonstration; to-day. My purpose at present is
a very different one indeed. I am impelled, even in the teeth of a world of prejudice, to detail without
comment the very remarkable substance of a colloquy, occurring between a sleep-waker and myself.
I had been long in the habit of mesmerizing the person in question, (Mr. Vankirk,) and the usual acute
susceptibility and exaltation of the mesmeric perception had supervened. For many months he had been
laboring under confirmed phthisis, the more distressing effects of which had been relieved by my
manipulations; and on the night of Wednesday, the fifteenth instant, I was summoned to his bedside.
The invalid was suffering with acute pain in the region of the heart, and breathed with great difficulty, having
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