The Sun.
London, England, 1854-04-11 00:00:00

LITERA T URE.

The Zoist. No. XLV.

A curious and singularly attractive series of papers
relating to the living and dead brain of the late
Benjamin Robert Haydon, the historical painter,
constitute the chief matter of interest in the quar-
terly journal of " Mesmerism and Cerebral Phy-
siology." There are some other contributions of
various ability, but this group of papers relating
to Haydon constitutes, we repeat, the principal
charm of the new number of the Zoist for the
quarter just commenced. The article on " Table
Moving and Spiritual Manifestations" is admirable
as an intellectual onslaught upon one of the most
recent, as it is also one of the most extravagant, of
all popular displays, of superstition. The review
of Mr. Townshend's last publication on " Mes-
merism" is worthy of particular attention as a di-
rect reply to a late, and, to our thinking in many
respects, a very masterly analysis of that subject
in the Quarterly. Subject for reflection will be
found in the record, penned by Mr. B. B. Mor-
rison, of mesmeric cures, among other diseases, of
palsy, deafness, convulsions, and apparent con-
sumption. several other mesmeric cases are men-
tioned further on by Dr. Esdaile in another contri-
bution., Mr. Ratter's treatise on " Human Elec-
tricity is examined by Philaletbes. There are
accounts of two mesmeric cures of ganglion by Mr.
Capern, of St. John's Wood, and by Mr. Lloyd,
of Fulford, in Yorkshire. Beside which there is a
brief announcement, at the close of this number of
the Zoist, of the progress made by the cause of
" Mesmerism in Edinburgh." Readable as all
these papers undoubtedly are, some of them, in-
deed possessing a singular attraction, the group of
papers relating to Mr. Haydon, the historical
. painter, will be found, we believe, with the gene-
rality of readers, the most curious and most inte-
resting of all the contributions. They form a
strange pendant to " Autobiography edited by
Mr. Tom Taylor. They tend appreciably towards
the elucidation of the complex character of the un-
fortunate artist. The engraving accompanying
them represents three views from a cast of the head
of Mr. Haydon—the comprehension of which is
aided by a phrenological account of the "propor-
tions" discernible in the " development." Ob-
serve what Dr. Elliotson himself has written (pp.
62, 63) in reference to the poor suicide :--
"I knew Mr. Haydon, from having been requested by
him to visit some of his family in sickness, and I always
cheerfully gave them my professional assistance. At
the time of his suicide, Mr. Walter Bryant, of the Edg-
ware-road, invited me, with great good feeling, to assist
in the inspection of the body. It was a frightful sight
to behold him on the floor, with a gun-shot wouna in his
head, a deep gash 3n each side of his throat, and a half-
opened bloody razor at his side. The melancholy of.the
scene was increased by the strong marks of vanity in the
arrangement of the death show—the body lying in his
painting room, before an imperfect picture on his easel,
a portrait of his wife placed opposite, and his diary open
and just completed. When it is considered that a
prayer-book also lay open at the gospel for the sixth
Sunday after the Epiphany, and there were affectionate
letters addressed to his wife and children, and a paper of
directions, confessing distraction and wildly expressed
insane vanity—' I have done nothing all my life that
will render me fearful of appearing before the awful con-
sciousness of my invisible God, or hesitate to explain
my actions !'—and a hope that his worthy and unworthy
creditors would forgive him—the whole was harrowing,
and an epitome of his previous life. Imperfection in his
art inordinate vanity—selfishness—strong domestic
affection—bitterness, moral unscrupulousness, which is
surely unprincipledness—violence—only moderate intel-
ligence, pharisaical airs, and superstition, characterised
him. His religion was very different from genuine
piety. It was the feeling and conduct which might be
shown towards a very powerful person who could inflict
misery, and grant him what he wished—grant that his
son should get through the examination at Cambridge,
that he might sell two of his pictures, and that people
should flock to the exhibition of his pictures—to effect
which purpose he wrote also strong and vulgar puffs."
From a postscript to the second article in the Zoist
for the new quarter, we extract the following as
another illustration of the folly of belief in this
monstrous humbug of table-rapping and spiritual
manifestations. The writer has been protesting
against this humbug, and designating every be-
liever in it " a blockhead." Whereupon he adds—
" We have also given examples, alas ! too numerous,
in our last number, of insanity produced by these igno-
rant fancies ; and now we have to record another, in
the person of a well-known authoress, who always had
indulged in such superstitions, and has of course adopted
all the recent spirit fancies. She has gone stark mad
and stark naked on the spirit-rapping. She was found
the other day in the open street, as her mother bore her,
except that she had a pocket handkerchief in one hand
and a card in the other. She said the spirits had in-
formed her that, if slie,walked out so prepared, she would
be invisible. She is now in a madhouse."

So much for the blessin,63 produced by this new
importation from Yankeeland.