M. Desor, yesterday, in a visit which he made to Berne, invited Mr.

Townshend, who had previously mesmerized him, to accompany him to Neufchatel and try to mesmerize me. "These gentlemen arrived here with the evening courier, and informed me of their arrival. At eight o'clock I went to them. We continued at supper till half-past nine o'clock, and about ten Mr. Townshend commenced operating on me. While we sat opposite to each other, he, in the first place, only took hold of my hands and looked at me fixedly. I was firmly resolved to arrive at a knowledge of the truth, whatever it might be; and therefore, the moment I saw him endeavoring to exert an action upon me, _I silently addressed the Author of all things, beseeching him to give me the power to resist the influence, and to be conscientious in regard to myself, as well as in regard to the facts._ "I then fixed my eyes upon Mr. Townshend, attentive to whatever passed. I was in very suitable circumstances: the hour being early, and one at which I was in the habit of studying, was far from disposing me to sleep. I was sufficiently master of myself to experience no emotion, and to repress all flights of imagination, even if I had been less calm; accordingly it was a long time before I felt any effect from the presence of Mr. Townshend opposite me. However, after at least a quarter of an hour, I felt a sensation of a current through all my limbs, and from that moment my eye-lids grew heavy. I then saw Mr. Townshend extend his hands before my eyes, as if he were about to plunge his fingers into them; and then make different circular movements around my eyes, which caused my eye-lids to become still heavier. "I had the idea that he was endeavoring to make me close my eyes, and yet it was not as if some one had threatened my eyes, and in the waking state I had closed them to prevent him. It was an irresistible heaviness of the lids which compelled me to shut them, and, by degrees, I found that I had no longer the power of keeping them open, but did not the less retain my consciousness of what was going on around me, so that I heard M. Desor speak to Mr. Townshend, understood what they said, and heard what questions they asked me, just as if I had been awake, but I had not the power of answering. I endeavored in vain several times to do so, and, when I succeeded, I perceived that I was passing out of the state of torpor in which I had been, and which was rather agreeable than painful. "In this state, I heard the watchman cry ten o'clock; then I heard it strike a quarter-past; but afterward I fell into a deeper sleep, although I never entirely lost my consciousness. It appeared to me that Mr. Townshend was endeavoring to put me into a sound sleep. My movements seemed under his control; for I wished several times to change the position of my arms, but had not sufficient power to do it, or even really to will it; while I felt my head carried to the right or left shoulder, and backward or forward, without wishing it, and, indeed, in spite of the resistance which I endeavored to oppose; and this happened several times. "I experienced at the same time a feeling of great pleasure in giving way to the attraction which dragged me sometimes to one side, sometimes to the other; then a kind of surprise on feeling my head fall into Mr. Townshend's hand, who appeared to me from that time to be the cause of the attraction. To his inquiry if I were well, and what I felt, I found I could not answer, but I smiled; I felt that my features expanded in spite of my resistance. I was inwardly confused at experiencing pleasure _from an influence which was mysterious to me_. From this moment I wished to wake, and was less at my ease; and yet, on Mr. Townshend asking me whether I wished to be awakened, I made a hesitating movement with my shoulders. Mr. Townshend then repeated some frictions which increased my sleep, yet I was always conscious of what was passing around me. "He then asked me if I wished to become lucid, at the same time continuing, as I felt, the frictions from the face to the arms. I then experienced an indescribable sensation of delight, and for an instant saw before me rays of dazzling light, which instantly disappeared. I was then inwardly sorrowful at this state being prolonged. It appeared to me that enough had been done with me. I wished to awake, but could not; yet when Mr. Townshend and Mr. Desor spoke, I heard them. I also heard the clock, and the watchman cry, but I did not know what hour he cried. Mr. Townshend then presented his watch to me, and asked me if I could see the time, and if I saw him; but I could distinguish nothing. I heard the clock strike the quarter, but could not get out of my sleepy state. Mr. Townshend then woke me with some quick transverse movements from the middle of the face outward, which instantly caused my eyes to open; and at the same time I got up, saying to him, 'I thank you.' It was a quarter past eleven. He then told me--and M. Desor repeated the same thing--that the only fact which had satisfied them that I was in a state of mesmeric sleep was the facility with which my head followed all the movements of his hand, although he did not touch me, and the pleasure which I appeared to feel at the moment when, after several repetitions of friction, he thus moved my head at pleasure. "(Signed) AGASSIZ." On the above quoted statement of Agassiz himself, Mr. Allan Putnam, in his pamphlet on "Agassiz and Spiritualism," remarks: "We are distinctly taught, in the above (see pages 6, 7, 8, and 9), that as philosopher and scientist, then in the full vigor of manhood, Agassiz 'had for a long time sought' for such an opportunity to be mesmerized as Dr. Townshend's visit afforded. This professor, even then eminent--this man, gifted with gigantic mental and strong physical powers--reverently and prayerfully, as well as philosophically, sat calmly down, not to welcome and imbibe, but '_to resist the mesmeric influence_.' Then Greek met Greek, scientist met scientist, in calm but resolute measurement of the strength and efficiency of their respective weapons and forces. Agassiz says his purpose was to _resist_. The whole tone of his account, however, indicates that his resistance was in no degree captious, but designed simply to measure the strength and enable him to note the action of mesmeric force. The vigorous professor then called into exercise all his own great inherent powers of resistance, and such further aid as his earnest aspiration could bring to his support, and yet was forced to yield up to another's will all command over his own physical organs. A stronger than he entered and ruled over his peculiar domain. The Author of all things, though besought, did not so co-operate as to countervail the legitimate action of natural powers. Invisible forces, emitted and directed by another man's mind, against which his own robust intellect was planted in calm and firm resistance, penetrated even the compact Agassiz, and caused him, "1st. To feel the sensation of a current through all his limbs. "2d. To close his eye-lids from necessity. "3d. To lose his powers of utterance. "4th. To lose power to change the position of his arms. "5th. To lose power to even _will_ to move his arms. "6th. To lack power to prevent movements of his own head by another's will. "7th. To experience great pleasure in giving way to the attraction upon him. "8th. To feel surprised at the contact of his head with another's hand. "9th. To find the operator the cause of the attraction. "10th. To be confused at experiencing _pleasure_ from an influence that was _mysterious_ to him. "11th. To see for an instant dazzling rays of light. "12th. To be unable to awake, even though he wished to. "Similar experiences have become so common that they are now devoid of strangeness. Thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands, have had their like since 1839. But no other Agassiz has described the sensations and facts attending the subduing operations. The character of their reporter gives his experiences exceptional value. "It is true and readily admitted that this keen and exact observer was then dominated by _mesmeric_, which many assume to be widely different from _Spirit_, force. The belief is prevalent to-day that those two adjectives describe one and the same thing. Few persons who have sought to discover the relations between mesmerism and Spiritualism, hesitate to indorse the following statement, made by Cromwell F. Varley before a committee of the London Dialectical Society, which was substantially this, viz., 'I believe that the mesmeric force and the Spiritual force are the same--the only difference being that in one case the producing agent is in a material body, and in the other is out of such a body.' Mr. Varley's competency to give a valuable opinion may be inferred from the fact that the great Atlantic Telegraph Company elected him from among England's eminent electricians, to supervise and control the constructors and operators of their vast and delicate apparatus for flashing knowledge under the waters, from continent to continent, and he made their project a success. We add, that Spiritualism had, for years, been manifested in striking forms and much distinctness, both through himself and other members of his own family, and that he had been an extensive observer and scientific student of its phenomena, and a careful tester of its forces. He had reached the conclusion, not only that the chief force employed in producing both the mesmeric and the Spiritualistic entrancement was the same, but also that it was distinct from either electricity or magnetism. From Mr. Varley's views the conclusion may be fairly deduced that Agassiz, in middle life, experienced much that is undistinguishable from the sensations and perceptions of modern mediums, and that he was subdued by use of the same force by which they are controlled. As a general rule, though possibly subject to a few exceptions, persons who have once yielded to mesmeric, afterward are very liable to succumb to Spirit force. This rule will have important bearings when we come to view the deportment of Agassiz as a member of the Harvard investigating committee. What we have already adduced suggests the probability that, if unresisted by himself, Spirits could have controlled him with much facility, had he consented to be calm and unresisting while he was within the auras or spheres of persons whose emanations and constituent elements were helpful to the control of physical forms by Spirits." The great naturalist probably was mesmerized at other times than the one of which his own pen furnished an account. For Townshend, p. 344, says: "Prof. Agassiz, who, when mesmerized, could not of himself stir a muscle, moved like an automaton across the room when impelled by me. Even while retaining his consciousness enough _to resist my efforts_ to move his limbs by mere gestures, without contact of any kind, he subsequently owned that he was actually compelled into such motions as I wished him to perform."