Or the nature and character of a work like the following nothing need be said. It is enough, that at a moment when the public mind occupies itself with the class of subjects on which it treats, the researches of an earnest and indefatigable student cannot be unimportant, even though the reader may not always arrive at the same conclusions that he has done. To those curious in literary history it may not be uninteresting to know that this translation occupied my husband and our eldest son during their voyage to Australia in 1852. And perhaps the Dream of Pre-vision mentioned at page 416 of the Appendix may be explained in part by the mind of the Translator being occupied at the time by the peculiar views of Ennemoser, which predisposed it for occult inpressions. This explanation, it appears to me, is rendered still more probable by another little circumstance, which, being no way irrelevant to the subject, I will mention. The printing of this Ennemoser translation had commenced,—and to a certain extent my mind was imbued with the views and speculations of the author,-when, on the night of the 12th of March, 1853, I dreamed that I received a letter from my eldest son. In my dream I eagerly broke open the seal, and saw a closely written sheet of paper, but my eye caught only these words in the middle of the first page, written larger than the rest and underdrawn, "My father is very ill." The utmost distress vivid, that it was long before I could The first thing I did the following morn mence a letter to my husband, relating dream. Six days afterwards, on the 18 mail came in and brought me a letter,I received by that mail, and not from a but from a gentleman in Australia with acquainted. This letter was addressed "Immediate," and with a trembling h and, true enough, the first words I written larger than the rest in the mid and underdrawn,-were " Mr. Howitt i context of these terrible words was, h hear that Mr. Howitt is very ill, let this he is better;" but the only emphatic which I saw in my dream, and the slightly varying, as, from some cause o mental impressions, spirit revelations, sayings, generally do, from the truth o seem to reflect. Thus it appears to. me, that while the extraordinary psychological pheno familiar to the experience of every hu are yet capable of a certain explanati are enabled to arrive at the circumstan the mind receptive of such impressions bility either of individuals or bodies of influences, seems to presuppose an abn In the Appendix will be found som derived in many cases from old and sources, and given, for the most part, the original authors. London, May 1854. h, an Australian nd I opened it; n being, they Infected Imaginations of the Lapps, etc. Pictures and Statues relating to Magnetism Magnetic Power recorded in the Bible State of the World at the Christian Era 220 As it is customary for everyone on going into foreign countries to take a passport, in order to ensure his unim- peded progress, in like manner it has also been the usage. from time immemorial, for books to carry before them such a document of legitimacy in order to ensure for themselves a favourable reception: this book requires all the more such preliminary authentication, as its very name has something suspicious about it, and its contents are amongst the things which are generally considered contraband, and are often subjected to confiscation, or even, as blasphemies, to the tender mercies of the Inquisition. Different readers will look at this book from very different points of view. By some it will be esteemed only as a curiosity, others will find matter for further research; one will wish to learn magic arts from it, and another will draw from it philosophical conclusions. All will be welcome and will find, I believe, if not instruction, at least amuse- ment and ample food for reflection; for it treats of re- markable phenomena and uncommon effects, which have certainly hitherto been looked upon as mere phantoms, or as belonging to a sphere quite unconnected with nature, but which nevertheless are a portion of history, and surely on that account are of universal interest. Magnetism, by its remarkable phenomena, in modern 451 times has led us into a sphere which still, like a closed 457 book, contains secrets of a higher order of things lying |