cratic form of government; and when, in our progress as a nation, such a calamity overtakes us, it becomes every citizen to exert his utmost to bring that war to a speedy and honorable termination. Every other consideration should be laid aside, and all energies exerted, to push this war to a speedy end. With a nation like Mexico, with whom no accommodation can be hoped for, and, as sad experience has shown, no faith in treaties, even when made, can be entertained, there can be no end to the war short of her annihilation as a nation. The matter should be taken in hand in the spirit of Bonaparte's Bulletins, in commencing the Prussian war: "The House of Brandenburgh has ceased to reign in Europe." His vigorous strokes ceased not until that edict was apparently accomplished, and a few weeks sufficed for the purpose. Of the same nature should be our proceedings. "The Spaniards have ceased to rule in Mexico," should be the motto, and corps after corps poured in at all quarters, until it is enacted.

The war is not a matter of choice. It exists through the acts of Mexico, without any present prospect of peace. The known obstinacy of the Spanish race, and the want of any respectable head to the Mexican government, indicates that the war can be ultimately terminated only by the seizure of all the large cities, including Mexico, occupying them by strong garrisons, and, while suppressing every species of Mexican military force, protecting the people from every kind of oppression, and, affording security to property, throwing the whole open to the free trade of all nations. Great commercial and industrial interests will then grow up. The capital of Europe, operating upon the great natural resources of that favored region, will soon produce such barriers to military aggressions, that the curse of Mexico, her military mountebanks, must cease to be; once imbued with the spirit of commerce and industry, internal revolutions and external aggressions will become unknown. It is an acknowledged law of nations, that when a country sinks into a state of anarchy, unable to govern itself, and dangerous to its neighbors, it becomes the duty of the most powerful of those neighbors to interfere and settle its affairs. That such is the case with Mexico, no one can deny; and that the anarchy which prevails there, arises from the absence of the great conservative interests of commerce and manufactures, is self-evident. The remedy is to introduce the latter; and it can be done only by overrunning the country, occupying its strong places, and suppressing its turbulent army. No time should be lost in effecting this great object. The coast cannot be held in the sickly season; but once purged of the banditti, and United States troops in possession of the back country, the coast can be left open to trade without fear of disturbance; as, for instance, Vera Cruz may not be occupied by a northern army in the summer months; but the Mexican military once driven out, a small United States force stationed at Jalapa, 70 miles in its rear, overlooking the port, will command and protect it; and that place is described as the most desirable residence.

It is not alone the war and the expense, great though it be, that is to be dreaded. We are rich and industrious, and having plenty of resources, can pay any sums. A protracted war is, however, building up a great military interest, heretofore unknown to our institutions. The great peril which destroyed Mexico we are about to encounter. The long Spanish war of Independence stifled her industry and smothered her commerce. No interest flourished but the military, and her liberties ultimately perished in its giant gripe. This interest having no sympathy with industrial pursuits-in its nature aristocratic, and harmonizing with all the splendid-government theories of the Whig party, is already rapidly growing among us. A few years only will consolidate its strength, and spread its influence through all the ramifications of contractors and employees dependant upon war expendi

when we reflect upon the materials of strife within us, the rancour of party spirit, and the recklessness of fanaticism. Already has this war been prolonged to a needless length. The importance of the case required that the city of Mexico should have been occupied by our troops in the fall, and that the Mexican Congress should have received propositions of peace from the United States government while our troops occupied their capital. There has, however, been but little disposition to push on the war. Twenty millions dollars and many lives have been expended, while comparatively but little has been accomplished. In most countries of Europe, England and France particularly, the "peace establishment" is on a scale which suffices France to conduct a war in Algiers, and England one in China and India, with but little increase of expenditure. In this country, where democratic principles require the revenue to be proportionate only to the economical wants of the government in time of peace, hostilities of any description require an extraordinary outlay, and to procure the means by unusual expedients. At such a time, therefore, every possible expenditure that can be spared or postponed should be stopped while the war lasts. Every effort should be made to raise promptly a sufficiency of means in men and money, and to make the debt necessarily contracted as small as possible. Thus, their improvement of rivers and harbors, how great soever may be its importance to the welfare of the country under ordinary circumstances, sinks into insignificance in time of war, compared with the necessity of speedy peace. Such appropriations should, therefore, be postponed until that peace is acquired.

The war exists. There is no alternative between deep national disgrace and the conquest of territory. The blood and treasure of the whole Union must be expended in the vigorous prosecution of the war. The inevitable results will be the acquisition of territories which will be the common property of all the states. To incur, voluntarily, national dishonor, the dangers of a large military force superadded to enormous expense, with the view of forcing peculiar notions upon one section of the Union, is conduct too nearly allied to the imbecile follies of our miserable neighbor, to meet with countenance or support from the people at large.

MESMER AND SWEDENBORG.*

THE author of this work, for many years one of the most eminent and learned of the clergymen attached to the Presbyterian church, has recently created no little sensation by his abandonment of the doctrines and fellowships to which he has all along adhered. His profound knowledge of the oriental tongues, and his ability and force as a writer, gave him a high position in the Christian sect in whose symbols he professed faith. He was generally known as a most diligent and various student; and by his commentaries on the Scriptures and several other works, displaying no little research and erudition, acquired a reputation beyond the precincts of his own church. We remember to have read, some years since, a book of his on the Millenium, which was marked by great originality; and also a series of Dissertations on the Prophecies, unusually clear and vigorous in their reasonings. A Hebrew Grammar from the same source has been commended to us since, as one of the best of its kind ever published.

Mesmer and Swedenborg; or, the Relation of the Developments of Mesmerism to the Doorines and Disclosures of Swedenborg. By George Bush. John Allen Now. Vork 1947

When, therefore, in the maturity of his age and his fame, Professor Bush completely relinquished the modes of thought that had hitherto governed him, it may reasonably be supposed that his course excited a more than ordinary degree of attention. The first indications of his departure from former standards were given in a treatise on the Resurrection, in which he undertook to combat the tenets now almost universally received by the churches, and to show that they were repugnant to human reason and the commonest facts of science, unsustained by a fair interpretation of Scripture, and pernicious in their bearing on the foundation-principles of morality. With what success he maintained his ground, it is not our province to decide; we simply know that his arguments were put with so much force and acuteness, that the opposite party were induced to issue a great many replies, both in the shape of sermons and books, to counteract their effect. This heresy, however, though regarded by many as fundamental, could have been forgiven him in time, if he had not, a few months afterwards, followed up his original offence by one infinitely greater. He was compelled, in the course of his pursuit of the truth, not only to bring other tenets of his faith into question, but to review the bases of his whole religious belief. In this state of mind, he fell in with the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, an old Swedish prophet and Seer, and they impressed him so deeply, that he gradually surrendered his convictions of the truth of his previous theology and embraced that of the new-found light. A change so thorough and universal, under all the circumstances of the case, was likely to produce a prodigious stir; and we believe, that ever since the announcement of it, Professor Bush has had his hands full of controversies with his old friends. These he has conducted with spirit and enthusiasm, but, so far as our observation extends, in candor and true Christian kindness. If he be in error, as his opponents allege, we are glad to see that his errors do not lead him into that bitterness of bigotry which is ordinarily their accompaniment. No one certainly could have vindicated himself in a new position in a more open, sincere and dignified manner, than Professor Bush has done in every instance.

In the work before us he appears as the defender of Swedenborg on new grounds. His object, as he states in his preface, is to elevate the phenomena of what is called Mesmerism to a higher character than that in which men have been wont to contemplate them, by bringing to their elucidation the spiritual theories of Swedenborg. He assumes, consequently, that the most important facts brought to light in the Mesmeric state are of a spiritual nature, and can only be adequately solved, by being viewed in connection with the state of disembodied spirits, and the laws of their intercourse with each other, as described in the visions of Swedenborg. He does not attempt to demonstrate Mesmerism itself, but throughout his work takes it for granted. He regards its peculiar manifestations as already established by an abundance of evidence; and he simply argues, that their uniform coincidence with what Swedenborg revealed many years ago, is a striking testimony to the truth of his disclosures. If Mesmerism be true, he says, then it follows, as an inevitable inference, that Swedenborg is true, because he has accurately foretold all its results and causes; but the converse of the proposition will not follow, i. e., if Mesmerism be false that Swedenborg is false. For the disclosures of Swedenborg are held to rest upon an independent and substantial footing of their own, so that whatever becomes of the phenomena he is brought forward to explain, the intrinsic truth and rationality of his system is not disturbed.

Prof. Bush's general plan is, first, to display the prominent facts exhibited in the usual Mesmeric experiments, and then adduce such portions of the works of his teacher as coincide with or explain them, and thus show

mena. He relies, for the most part, for his Mesmeric facts, on the accounts given in the works of its disciples, but occasionally he draws from his own experience, for which he claims implicit reliance. He says, that he has long studied the subject; that he has had as good opportunities to decide upon it as any body in the world, and that he is perfectly conscious of having been animated solely in all his researches by a sincere and uncompromising desire to know the truth. Others may have been deceived in their experiments, but he is positive that his own experience has been full and unmistakable.

66

In the first chapter he attempts to determine Swedenborg's own state, which he says was infinitely higher than that attained by any mesmeric patient, and then proceeds to point out the difference in the conditions of their minds." The main facts in the Mesmeric processes," he remarks, are, the agency of one person in producing what is termed the magnetic sleep in another, by means of certain manual and mental operations, and the complete subsequent oblivion, in the subject, of everything that had occurred during the trance. The case of Swedenborg was, in all these respects, entirely the reverse. His state was not a state of sleep-it was not one which any other human being had an agency in producing-nor was it marked by the least absence of recollection upon coming out of it, if, indeed, there was any such thing as coming out. On the contrary, he was in the perfect possession of his senses during the whole time. Unlike the magnetic seers, who are in a state of internal, but not at the same time of external consciousness, Swedenborg was in both at once. His prerogative was the opening of a spiritual sight, which left him still in the enjoyment of his natural sight." Mr. Bush then quotes from Swedenborg a description of his own state, which also refers to other states similar to those of mesmerizees; but we cannot say that we are much impressed by the views propounded in this chapter. The Professor, in his eagerness to maintain a superior and exclusive authority for his teacher, has hurried himself to some unphilosophical conclusions. But it is not our object now to enter into controversy on the numerous questions suggested by his essay-of which we propose simply to give a brief account.

Well, then, after the Professor has determined, satisfactorily to his own mind, the peculiar and pre-eminent claims of Swedenborg, as a divinelycommissioned messenger of God, he enters upon an elaborate discussion of the more obvious mental phenomena of Mesmerism, under the heads of the Transfer of Thought, Phantasy, Spheres, Memory, Clairvoyance, Magnetic Hearing, Repugnance to Names, and Truthfulness. His illustrations of all these points are full of interest. Even the most sceptical reader will find his curiosity kept on the stretch, either by the extracts taken from the works of the Magnetisers, or by the singular applicability of the quotations from Swedenborg, adduced in elucidation. It is certainly one of the most remarkable coincidences on record, to consider it in no higher light, that a man, whose works were written nearly a century since, should have anticipated, with such minuteness, so peculiar a class of developments. Nor is the strangeness of the fact at all diminished, whether we consider the Mesmeric results as genuine or illusive. If the phenomena, said to be elicited in this way, are delusions, on the part either of patients or performers, how is it that they so uniformly agree with the spiritual laws laid down by Swedenborg? On the other hand, if they are the real things they pretend to be, how came Swedenborg by a knowledge of these, many years before Mesmer even was born? The whole subject, therefore, is worthy of serious inquiry, no matter what may be our present impressions of its nature and tendencies.

Appended to these discussions are accounts of “

as the Rev. William Tennent, whose case once excited some attention in this country; of the Seeress of Prevorst, described so graphically in the interesting work of Kerner; and last and latest, though by no means least, the recent revelations of the young man in this city, named Andrew Jackson Davis. What is said of the latter is marvellous in the highest degree. It seems that he is a young man, about twenty years of age, who worked at the trade of shoemaker, until within a year or two past, when he began to exhibit, it is said, great clairvoyant power in regard to disease. This power has grown upon him, until he now lays claim to the higher faculties of spiritual insight. Professor Bush gives this account of him:

"In consequence of what he deems a direct communication from the spirit of Swedenborg, a year or two since-of whose name, by the way, or the fact of his ever having lived, he was then entirely ignorant-he was prompted to enter upon a course of lectures in the Mesmeric state, on a large class of scientific subjects, of which he has thus far delivered about eighty, embracing Cosmology, Ethnology, Astronomy, Geology, Physiology, Language, and various others, upon all which he is profoundly ignorant in his natural state. He is a young man whose educational advantages have been of the most limited character, having never enjoyed, from the age of childhood, but about five months schooling. Up to the period when he entered on his Mesmeric career, he had served as a shoemaker's apprentice; and the gentleman in whose employ he was, is ready, at any time, to testify to his entire unacquaintance with the scientific topics, of which he has treated in his lectures; and that, too, on many points. in a truly masterly manner. Since that date, he has been so constantly occupied in the examination of diseases and in the lectures, that no time has been left him for anything like the connected study, which would be requisite for such elaborate discussions as he goes into, on the entire philosophy of the universe, besides that he considers himself prohibited by an internal dictate, from reading a page or a line on any of the subjects of which he treats. To these inward monitions, or impressions, as he terms them, he uniformly pays a religious deference; and as he acts under the conviction, that his only security for his being made the medium of truth, is his own unimpeachable truthfulness and general moral integrity, I am, for myself, perfectly satisfied that entire confidence is to be reposed in his statements. Having had, for many months, a fair opportunity of acquaintance, and having closely studied the leading traits of his character, I can freely say, that a more simple, guileless, unsophisticated spirit, I have seldom met; or one more utterly incapable of being a party to any scheme of imposture or delusion. He has been, from his earliest years, religiously disposed; and his former employer has certified, in the fullest manner, to his uniformly upright and exemplary conduct, during the time that he was in his service, and an inmate in his family. The same testimony is given by all who have known him from a child. Indeed, were his character, generally, other than it is, I doubt if he would ever have been made the medium of such astounding developments as have uttered themselves through him. He possesses, both physically and mentally, in an eminent degree, the requisites for a clairvoyant of the highest order. But it is the less necessary for me to dwell upon these traits of his character, and his claims to credibility, as his lectures are to be published, in connection with a voluminous mass of testimony, from the most authentic sources, to his absolute incompetency to such revelations, except upon the ground of supernatural agency. This conclusion will probably be confirmed by the purport of the ensuing communication.

"I may here remark, in regard to the series of lectures above mentioned, that while I express no opinion as to the absolute truth of the scientific principles and positions advanced in them, I am fully prepared to bear witness to the fact, of his making correct use of a multitude of technical terms, appropriate to the themes of science, which he is wholly unable to define in his waking state, and which would naturally occur only to one who had been long familiar with the subjects, and with their peculiar nomenclature. Indeed, I have been sometimes amused at his bungling attempts, on casually reading the manuscript, even to pronounce accurately the words which he utters with entire freedom and correctness in the Mesmeric delivery, and which are taken down verbatim by a scribe, with a view to ultimate