In the first section of this work it has been my endeavor to make clear the phenomena of hypnotism, to enable the reader to understand it, to divest it, as has been said before, of superstition.

This present portion of our work will be devoted entirely to theoretical considerations and to the history of hypnotism, a part which I am well aware is difficult to make at once interesting and concise. Men are ever prone to theorizing, and these theories become with many persons hobbies, aye, even idols, for they bow down and worship them.

A Frenchman is quoted as saying, "My theory is true, and if the facts do not fit it, so much the worse for the facts."

Theories are good only when they help us to understand the nature of the facts. We are more apt to think the reverse, however.

Theories are very likely, if wrong, to cause an application of the facts which is detrimental to human progress.

The soul - what a magic word! In what a widely different manner it is used by different individuals! Men have laid down their lives to save their souls. They have tortured themselves and others for the same object. The followers of Mohammed would compel the infidel dogs to believe their religion if they had to force it into their hearts at the dagger's point. The history of religious persecution of all kinds is at once the most disgusting and the saddest chapter in all the history of the world.

Thanks to our enlightened modern civilization, the rack and thumbscrew, and the burning fagots around the stake are gone, but, Phcenix-like, arising from the ashes of burned martyrs and witches the hideous monster, intolerance, rears its head once more. But this time the monster is in a different guise. It is not clothed with a sword but instead has a milder drees. Its guise is now scientific dogmatism.

The would-be scientist assumes the right by reason of his great knowledge to do the thinking for the rest of the world. The professor of chemistry, because he is an expert in this line, assumes that he is competent to judge about that of which he knows nothing.

Mathematicians calculate accurately enormous distances, consequently they assume that they, too, have the right of judging for their fellow-men about matters of which they are ignorant.

The physicist, with his atomic theory and molecular vibration, has found the key to the universe, but, alas! the key is only in his own conceit.

One thing should be said, however, in justice to all these, that men who have been trained to careful observation and logical close reasoning are better adapted to study and to pronounce judgment upon many subjects, because they have learned to think accurately and logically upon one.

It is, indeed, astonishing how few men or women possess this power of reasoning clearly and of observing carefully. Prejudice colors to a fearful extent the opinions of all classes.

To-day we are passing through an epoch in which evolution is the dominant theory. Every biological resemblance between different species, whether it be morphological or physiological, is construed into an evidence that something came from something else, the two being widely different from each other. We have such lucid terms as "protoplasmic differentiation," "embryonic resemblances," and many others that could be mentioned.

Now, that evolution has played a large part in the world's history is very apparent, and yet, when it is dogmatically assumed that it is the principle of the construction and development of all living things, it seems to me that matters are carried rather too far. Many influences have altered existing types, and hence are evolutionary, but there is much to be found out, much to he known.

Again, certain dominant psychological and ethical ideas are shaping to an undue degree the thought of mankind, and, "if the facts do not fit them, why, so much the worse for the facta." Such methods of thought must prove detrimental to scientific advancement. I would rather believe nothing than to believe an error. I do not believe that a bad creed is better than no creed at all, whether the term creed is made to apply either to scientific or religious theories, so I wish to be plainly understood; I have no theory to explain the hypnotic phenomena.

I do not know that the mind is something different from matter. The only manifestation I know of mind is through the material world. I do not know that mind is the product of matter; but I do know that without matter I cannot, with any means at the present within my power, communicate with mind. I do not know that the brain is entirely the seat of the mind. Experiments point that way, however.

Destruction or disease of a part of the brain is often, but not always, accompanied by mental deterioration. Mental deterioration does exist without discoverable disease or injury of the brain.

I recognize on every hand not only the infinity of space, but the infinite possibilities in everything in the universe. We know that planets revolve in their orbits and that they have done so for ages, and that they are millions and millions of miles apart, and that wonderful little camera, the eye, unaided by any instrument, reflects the minute image of them upon the consciousness of man. Aided by the telescope, these images are enormously enlarged. Had the telescope not existed, the worlds would have sailed in their orbits just the same, but for us they would have only existed as bright spots in the inky darkness of the night.

What man can say that there may not be yet developed means of divining the now unknowable? Forces everywhere operate around us, possibly, of whose existence we are, as yet, entirely ignorant.

Only yesterday another substance was found in the atmosphere; it is, possibly, another element. Its" effects are yet unstudied, and its purpose is undetermined. Of the ultimate essence of things we are entirely ignorant. 17

Systems of religion and philosophy have come and have disappeared like dreams in the night. Love, kneeling, has ever wept over and kissed the dewy brow of the dying, and prayer has winged its way into the great unknown. These things are universal. I do not argue that what is universally believed must be true, but it is well worth the proving. Because all men have believed certain things does not necessarily prove them to be true. We believe that which is brought into our consciousness, or deductions drawn therefrom.

We fit imaginary states to our own ideals. We clothe the Divine with the best, and sometimes with the worst, of our own attributes. A man's God exists for him in the perfection of his own ideal. This seems to me the universal law of the conception of things.

In regard to hypnotism, our conception of it, and our theories about it, will be formed around our knowledge of its phenomena. They will be accurate or inaccurate in a direct ratio to our understanding of the results of hypnosis. Therefore, I believe at the present time, that a careful study of the phenomena will help us to ultimately understand it, and lead us to more correct results than will speculation and theorizing about the results already obtained.

The principal authors upon the subject shall be given a hearing, each in turn, and, so far as space will permit, their own theories will be told in their own language.

Should ray comments upon them seem at times severe, it is not with any disrespect that these are made, but only for the purpose of showing the utter futility of using high-sounding phrases and imagining that they explain something which they many times only mystify. To say that the phenomena of hypnotism are only imaginary is a misstatement of the case. To say that they are the result of suggestion, is simply to state that a man does something because he is told to do it. To say that they are the result of self-suggestion, auto-hypnotism, means simply to say that a man told himself to do something. To say that they are the result of animal magnetism, is to impute them to a force of whose qualities we know, at present, little or nothing.

We have no instruments for measuring this force, no chemical tests for analyzing it, and it exists, if it exists at all, as a phenomenon, plus a preconceived notion of it.

It does not resemble the magnetism of the electro-magnet. That one mind affects another in many ways no one will deny. Analyze it if you can, and if you analyze it simply by observation you will at once be convinced that it is composed of, not one, but of many factors. So such an analysis of the hypnotic state has led me to believe that it is composed of many diverse and, at times, opposite conditions.

After stating the theories advanced by the leading authors, I shall give an analysis of the mental factors which seem to me to compose it, but shall make no attempt to say what these mental factors emanate from, or of what they consist. Therefore I now confess my ignorance of the essence of the mind, as did Dr. Foster in the beginning of one of his editions of his famous "System of Physiology."

He says in effect that we know the products formed by the death of the protoplasmic cell. We know that during life it has the power of assimilating and utilizing elements different from itself, and of eliminating the waste products of its metabolism, but of that thing we call vitality, in other words how the protoplasmic cell does this, we do not know. So we know that the hypnotic state and similar phenomena exist. We are familiar with the faculties and qualities of the mind only by their manifestations, and we know that they are in-disseverably linked with the nervous system, and that is all we do know on this subject. Hence I should advise every one to study hypnotism and the allied psychical phenomena, and form no conclusion until he has finished his labors.