ner become a desert, in which there was little to cheer him amidst the gloom of neglect and the blast of penury; where he was continually tormented by the importunities of clamorous creditors, and pursued with unrelaxing severity by the harpies of the law. Harassed by continual vexations, at a period when nature stands in need of repose and indulgence, it was not much to be wondered, that a man so long accustomed to convivial pleasures, should seek relief from the pressure of increasing embarrassments in the intoxicating means of forgetfulness. Unhappily, the early habits of Mr. Sheridan had been of a description that unfitted him to endure misfortune with that firmness, which, if it does not remove trouble, takes away its sting. When, therefore, the trying season came, it found him unprepared to resist the violence of the storm, and unable to direct his steps by any plan that could secure him from future calamity. In such a bewildered state, he increased his difficulties by the efforts which he made to elude them, and accelerated his dissolution, in endeavouring to drown the sense of his misery. Such is the fate of unhappy, eccentric genius, when unbridled by the restraints of prudence! as the winter of age approaches, we experience the mutability of political connexions, when reliance is placed on them alone, and the folly of neglecting those resources which can alone support the mind in every exigency, and minister to its comforts in the dreariness of solitude. Home, though the abode of domestic virtue and affection, was no longer safe to a person so well known and so much sought after by numerous applicants to avoid whose troublesome exigencies, and to gain a respite from anxiety, he passed much of his time abroad. Intemperance attended this course of life, and the effect of it upon his constitution, which had been naturally a very robust one, soon appeared in his countenance and manners, he was now sinking rapidly into the lowest state of human declension! at length his digestive powers were completely impaired, his memory was affected, and the symptoms of organic disease manifested themselves in a swelling of the extremities which soon left nothing for hope. The complication of disorders multiplied rapidly, and he was confined to his room, where, to aggravate the wretchedness of his situation, and the distress of his family, an officer forced his way and arrested him in his bed. After remaining a few days in the house, this callous being signified his intention of removing the dying prisoner to a spunging-house, which resolution he was only prevented from carrying into execution by the interposition of Dr. Bain, the physician, who said that his patient was in such an extremely weak and exhausted state, that to move him at all, even in his own house, would most probably be fatal; but that if he were to be taken away in a violent manner, the agitation would most certainly be attended with immediate death, in which case he should feel it to be his duty to prosecute the officer for murder. This declaration had the proper effect, and the unfortunate victim was suffered to remain in the bosom of his afflicted family, from whom he received every kind attention and all the comfort that could be administered. It is too generally believed to admit of much doubt that the patriot was destitute of even the common necessaries suited to his melancholy situation, and the unfeeling apathy of persons of high distinction in slighting an old favourite in distress, admits of no excuse. The plea of a want of means, if urged, ought to be exposed.* As far as sympathetic solicitude could administer relief or comfort, Mr. Sheridan received every consolation from the kind attention of a numerous acquaintance and an affectionate family. But there is abundant reason to hope that his last moments were cheered by the more abundant consolation that alone springs from faith and repentance. Some days before his death, the bishop of London, who is a near relation of Mrs. Sheridan, desired Dr. Bain to ask if it would be agreeable to his patient to have prayers offered up by his bed side. When the commission was imparted to the sick, he assented with such an expression of fervent desire, that the bishop was instantly sent for, who lost no time in attending to the solemn call, and, accompanied by the physician, read several offices of devotion suited to the awful occasion. these prayers, Mr. Sheridan appeared to join with humility and aspiration, clasping his hands, bending his head, and lifting up his eyes, significant of that penitential frame of mind which becomes every human spirit in its passage out of time into eternity. After this he seemed to possess much internal tranquillity until life ebbed gradually away, and he departed, without any apparent struggle or agony, in the arms of his affectionate consort, on Sunday, at noon, July the seventh, 1816, in the sixty-fifth year of his age. In His remains were interred in Westminster Abbey between those of his friend and patron, the immortal Garrick, and Cumberland a dramatic writer of rival fame. A plain flat stone records the spot where his body lies, with this simple inscription: RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN, Born 1751, Died 7th July, 1816. This marble is the tribute of an attached friend, *The income of the Prince Regent is not precisely known. He has latterly been induced, in order to appease the clamours of the people, to relinquish a fifth part of his allowance from parliament, estimated about 50,000l. sterling; but, by the extent of his sales from the king's lands, and an unbounded revenue arising out of fines for the renewal of leases of his majesty's farms, his aggregate receipts are greatly swollen. The protracted indisposition of the monarch favours this state of things. Added to which, farther sources of supply, by borrowing on every possible ground of credit, and incurring debt for goods furnished, on the faith of ultimately ascending the throne, with an increase of allowances, extend the means of princely munificence. But, it is a just remark that, the more luxurious the individual, the less ebaritable, frequently, is his heart. A distinguished votary of the muses could not witness the setting of such a star, without paying some tribute to its lost splendor. And, to the sympathy of political sentiment, lord Byron felt, in addition, the endearing warmth of private friendship for the deceased. ART. VI.-Observations on Animal Magnetism. (From the Edinburgh Monthly Magazine.) MR. EDITOR-There is now before me the First Part of the first volume of a work, entitled, Archives of Animal Magnetism, * published in the commencement of the present year, in the German language, at Altenburg and Leipsic. This work is to be continued periodically; and the conduct of it has been undertaken by three medical professors in the respectable universities of Tubingen, Jena, and Halle, viz. Drs. Eschenmayer, Kieser, and Nasse. No other proof than this is necessary, that a system which sound philosophy had, more than thirty years ago, pronounced to be a delusion, has again been revived in Germany; and has obtained credit, not merely with the vulgar, but with the more intelligent classes of society; and has even gained the belief of some, who, from their having been elevated to the situation of teachers in the highest seminaries of learning, may be presumed to possess a certain reputation among men of science. pre It was my intention, in the present communication, to have sented your readers with such extracts from this journal as might enable them to judge for themselves of the nature and spirit of those doctrines, which are said to have excited so much interest abroad, and to hold out the prospect, in their ultimate improvement, of so much mental, as well as corporeal, good to man. On farther reflection, however, I have thought it better to defer this task till another opportunity, and to occupy the present paper with a few remarks relative to the history of this singular species of magnetic agency, such as may not be unaccessible to those who have little leisure or inclination for research, in subjects so remote from the common path of useful study. The great teacher and practical administrator of animal magnetism in modern times, was a German physician named Mesmer. This individual first distinguished himself by a dissertation on the Influence of the Stars on the Human Body, which he printed at Vienna, in 1766, and publicly defended as a thesis in that university. But Father Hehl, à German philosopher, having, in 1774, strongly recommended the use of the loadstone in the art of healing, Mesmer immediately became a convert to his doctrines, and actually carried them into practice with success. In the midst, however, of his attention to the utility of the loadstone, he was led to the adoption of a new set of principles, which he conceived to be much more general and important in their application. He accordingly laid aside the use of the loadstone, and entered on the cure of disease on this more improved system. This apostacy * Archiv für Thierischen Magnetismus. 8vo. 1817. involved him in a quarrel with Father Hehl, and with the celebrated Ingenhouz, by whom he had formerly been patronised; and as their credit in Vienna was extremely high, and their exertions against him indefatigable, his system almost immediately sunk into general disrepute. To parry their opposition, he appealed in 1776, to the Academy of Sciences at Berlin. Here, however, his principles were rejected" as destitute of foundation, and unworthy of the smallest attention." Undismayed by these important miscarriages, he made a progress through several towns of Germany, still practising magnetism, and publishing, from time to time, accounts of the cures he accomplished, which were as regularly followed by a denial on the part of his opponents. He returned to Vienna a second time, and made another attempt to obtain a favourable reception for his doctrines, but with no better success than formerly; so that, wholly disconcerted by these uninterrupted defeats in his native country, he left Germany, and arrived in Paris in the beginning of the year 1778. Here his prospects soon began to brighten. Having retired to Creteil with a few patients (one of them a paralytic woman,) he restored them to perfect health in a few months; and in consequence of this success, the numbers of those who applied to him for relief increased rapidly, and his cures were of the most astonishing nature. A numerous company was daily assembled at his house in Paris, where the magnetism was publicly administered; and M. Deslon, one of his pupils, is said to have cleared, during this tide of success, no less a sum than 100,000l. In 1779, he published a Memoir on Animal Magnetism, and promised a complete system upon the subject, which should make as great a revolution in philosophy as it had already done in medicine. Struck, as it is said, with the clearness and accuracy of his reasonings, the magnificence of his pretensions, and the extraordinary and unquestionable cures he performed, some of the greatest physicians and most enlightened philosophers of France became his converts. He was patronised by people of the first rank; his system became an affair of bon ton; and animal magnetism was warmly espoused by the fashionable world. Nevertheless, the new doctrine was not without its opponents. Some of the ablest pens in France were employed in refutation of it; and in particular Thouret Regont, physician of the Faculty of Paris, and member of the Royal Society of Medicine, greatly distinguished himself by a work which he published, entitled, Inquiries and Doubts respecting the Animal Magnetism. Mesmer, in his Memoir already mentioned, described the agent which he professed to have discovered, and to which he gave the appellation of Animal Magnetism, in the following manner:-" It is a fluid universally diffused; the vehicle of a mutual influence between the celestial bodies, the earth, and the bodies of animated beings; it is so continued as to admit of no vacuum; its subtlety does not admit of illustration; it is capable of receiving, propagating, and communicating, all the impressions that are incident to mo tion; it is susceptible of flux and reflux. The animal body is subject to the effects of this agent; and these effects are immediately produced by the agent insinuating itself into the substance of the nerves. We particularly discover, in the human body, qualities analagous to those of the loadstone; we distinguish in it, poles different and opposite. The action and the virtue of the animal magnetism are capable of being communicated from one body to another, animated or inanimate; they exert themselves to considerable distances, and without the least assistance from any intermediate bodies; this action is increased and reflected by mirrors; it is communicated, propagated, and augmented by sound; and the virtue itself is capable of being accumulated, concentrated, and transferred. Though the fluid be universal, all animal bodies are not equally susceptible of it; there even are some, though very few, of so opposite a nature, as by their mere presence to supersede its effects upon any other contiguous bodies. The animal magnetism is capable of curing, immediately, diseases of the nerves, and mediately, other distempers. It improves the action of medicines; it forwards and directs the salutary crises, so as to subject them totally to the government of the judgment; by means of it the physician becomes acquainted with the state of health of each individual, and decides with certainty upon the causes, the nature, and the progress of the most complicated distempers; it prevents their increase, and effects their extirpation, without at any time exposing the patient, whatever be his sex, age, or constitution, to alarming consequences. In the influence of the magnetism, nature holds out to us a sovereign instrument for securing the health and lengthening the existence of mankind." The apparatus necessary for the administration of the magnetism, and the method in which it was employed, were the following. In the centre of a large apartment was a circular box made of oak, and about a foot or a foot and a half deep, which was called the bucket. The lid of this box was pierced with a number of holes, in which were inserted branches of iron, elbowed and moveable. The patients were arranged in ranks about this bucket, and each had his branch of iron, which, by means of the elbow, might be applied immediately to the part affected. A cord passed round their bodies, connected the one with the other. Sometimes a second means of communication was introduced, by the insertion of the thumb of each patient between the fore finger and the thumb of the patient next him. The thumb thus inserted was pressed by the person holding it. The impression received by the left hand of the patient was communicated through his right, and thus passed through the whole circle. A piano forte was placed in one corner of the apartment, and different airs were played, with various degrees of rapidity. Vocal music was sometimes added to the instrumental. The persons who superintended the process had each of them an iron rod in his hand, from ten to twelve inches in length. This rod was a conductor of the magnetism, and had the power of concentring it at its point, and of |