NEW PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED. Two Discourses: the Kingdom of the Truth; the Range of Christianity, by A. J. Scott, M. A. London. 1848. 8vo. pp. 48. Letters on the Development of Religious Life in the modern Christian Church (to be completed in six monthly parts,) by Henry Solly. Part I. Luther & Munzer. Part II. Zwingle & Calvin. London. 1849. 12mo. pp. 11. and 98. A Letter to the President of Harvard College, by a Member of the Corporation. Boston. 1849. 8vo. pp. 54. A Plea for Harvard; showing that "the University at Cambridge" was not the name established for this Seminary by the Constitution of Massachusetts, but the name authorized by that instrument was "Harvard University," by an Alumnus. Boston. 1849. 8vo. pp. 30. Requisites to our Country's Glory. A Discourse delivered . at the Annual Election, Wednesday, January 5th, 1849, by John Pierce, D. D., &c., &c. Boston. 1849. 8vo. pp. 62. Philosophy of Space and Time, by G. A. Hammett, M. D. Newport, R. I. 1849. 12mo. pp. 40. Unitarianism and Congregationalism. A Discourse preached at Gloucester, Mass., by A. D. Mayo, Pastor of the Independent Christian Society. Gloucester. 1849. 8vo. pp. 20. The Claims of Seamen. An Address delivered at the annual meeting of the New Bedford Port Society, by Rev. John Weiss, &c., &c. Boston. 1849. 12mo. pp. 36. A Review of the Bishop of Oxford's Counsel to the American Clergy, with Reference to the Institution of Slavery. Also Supplemental Remarks on the Relation of the Wilmot Proviso to the interests of the colored class, by Rev. Philip Berry, &c., &c. Washington. 1848 12mo. pp. 26. Embryology of Nemertes. With an Appendix on the embryologic development of Polynoë, by Edward Desor, &c., &c. Boston. 1848. 8vo. pp. 18. Catalogue of the Pictures of the Old Masters, with a list of the Engravings An Inquiry into the alleged tendency of the Separation of Convicts one from the other, to produce disease and derangement, by a Citizen of Philadelphia. Philadelphia. 1849. 8vo. pp. 160. Republication of Essays upon Art, &c., &c. New York. 1849. 8vo. pp. 40. An Address to the Suffolk North Association of Congregational Ministers, by J. P. Lesley, Minister of the First Evangelical Church, Milton, Mass. With Sermons on the Rule of Faith, the Inspiration of the Scriptures, and the Church. Boston: Wm. Crosby & H. P. Nichols. 1849. 12mo. pp. 130. A Correct Apprehension of God essential to True Worship: or a View of the Trinity as it stands connected with the whole Gospel Scheme, by Rev. J. N. Tarbox, &c., &c. Boston. 1849. Pictures and Painters; Essays upon Art; The Old Masters; and Modern Artists. New York. 1849. 12mo. Poems. By James T. Fields. Boston. 1849. 12mo. pp. VI. and 100. The Soul, her Sorrows and her Aspirations; an Essay towards the natural history of the Soul, as the true basis of Theology. By Francis William Newman, &c. &c. London. 1849. 12mo. pp. x11. and 222. The Journal of Psychological Medicine and Mental Pathology. Edited by Forbes Winslow, M. D. Vol. I. London. 1848. 8vo. pp. VI. and 662. Appended to it is a Monograph I. On the cerebral diseases of children, with regard to their early manifestations and treatment. By Walter C. Druly, Esq. &c. &c. London. 1848. 8vo. pp. 42. A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, by Henry D. Thoreau. Boston. 1849. 12mo. pp. 414. Ten Discourses on Orthodoxy, by Joseph Henry Allen, Pastor of the Unitarian Church, Washington, D. C. Boston. 1849. 12mo. pp. VIII and 228. Ursache und Geschichte der Octoberereignitze zu Wien, von einem Augenzeugen. Leipzig. 1849. 8vo. pp. 36. Ueber Schwärmerei. Historisch-philosophische Betrachtungen mit Rücksicht auf die jetzige Zeit von J. H. von Wessenberg, &c., &c. Heilbronn. 1848. 8vo. pp. VIII. and 554. Hamasa oder die ältesten arabischen Volkslieder, gesammelt von Abu Temmâm, übersetzt und erläutert von Friedrich Rückert. Stuttgart. 1846. 2 vols. 8vo. pp. 428 and 398. MASSACHUSETTS QUARTERLY REVIEW. NO. VIII.-SEPTEMBER, 1849. ART. I.—THE METHODOLOGY OF MESMERISM. THE subject of Mesmerism, considered as a literary phenomenon of the present day, was criticized from the scientific or positive point of view, in the last number of this organ. The multitudinous statements of fact in the science, as held by the majority or average of its expositors and students, were somewhat summarily classified nnder several heads; the so-called phenomena, collected and separated in those classes, were then described with as much individuality and precision as such a plan of procedure admitted of; and a scientific judgment was pronounced upon the external evidences of those phenomena, certainly not without either candor or care. The first of our classific headings distinguished and separated the great fact of the simple trance from the alleged phenomena of phrenomagnetism, community of sensation between the mesmerized person and the operator, community of consciousness, and clearseeing in all its varieties. The trance was admitted: the other things were, each and all, refused admission into the crystal sphere of positive science; and that on account of their appearing not to be eliminated from the chaos of averment and opinion with any thing approaching to the nature of inductive rigor. The higher phenomena were all relegated to another day of judgment and to other judges, being undoubtedly not proven in their present condition. The ingenuous reader would observe, however, that we did by no means commit ourselves against those avowed phenomena. It is impossible to prove them false in the mass. The evidence in their favor is already so various, so luminous, although also so nebulous and dim, as to have left a profound |