Six lectures on the philosophy of mesmerism : delivered in the Marlboro' Chapel, Boston / by John Bovee Dods ; reported by a hearer.

  • John Bovee Dods
Date:
1849
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Six lectures on the philosophy of mesmerism : delivered in the Marlboro' Chapel, Boston / by John Bovee Dods ; reported by a hearer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    brain, a nonentity, a nothing ! Does Deity fill all space ? Then he is of course a substance, a real, living, acting and thinking being ; otherwise, as Christians, we use words without knowledge, when we say that he fills im- mensity with his presence. But it may be said that mind is thought, reason, and understanding, and then be asked, whether thought, reason, understanding, etc., occupy any space ? But I deny that these are mind. Thought, reason, and understanding are not mind, but the effects of mind. Mind is something supremely higher than all these. I yet ask what is that which thinks, reasons, and understands ? It is the mind. Then mind is something distinct from those effects by which it is made manifest. What, then, it may be asked, is mind ? I answer, it is that substance which has innate or living motion; and the result of that motion is thought, reason, understanding, and, therefore, power. As electricity is the highest and most subtil of inert substances, as it fastens on mind, and is, therefore, more easily moved than any other inert substance in being, so mind is the next step above electricity, is the crowning perfection of all other substances in immensity—is liv- ing motion ; and the result of that motion is thought and power. It is the living Spirit from whom emanates electricity, and who, out of that electricity, has created all worlds. Hence, the Creator is a real substance or being, possessing personal identity, and is infinite in every perfection of his adorable character. Electricity, which is an atmospheric emanation from God, and which is moved by his will, is that substance out of which all worlds and their splendid appendages were made. Hence, it will be perceived, that electricity contains all the original properties of all the various
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