The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1853-01-12

| Was sentence passed. and Justice came, but
Mercy interposed.
Death skunk back of his sting despoiled-
The dying savd, and Hell was fold.
EVANSVILLE, Jan. 10, 1853.
Dangers of Yielding to Excessive Ner-
vOus Fxciteme
( We heartily and earnestly recommend to
our readers the following extract from work
lately published in Boston, by Traverse Old
field, on the spiritual medium" mania. The
views expressed are more reasonable than
any we have before seen.
| 1t is dangerous to experiment with our
own vital organism; especially with our ner-
vous energy. The whole history of similar
Developments in distant ages and nations
seems to indicate that these manifestations
are the workings of our nervous organization.
The whole process of their excitement, the
character of the persons affected, the mode
of inducing the influence by forming circle
of post yes an negatives, the sitting in fixed
abstraction, during which the generated err
vous influence must accumulate in the sys-
TEN, as in an isolated Leyden jar, the cores
% ,ndence of the character of the responses
given to the inquiries made, the whole pro-
cess of the excitement, confirms the convic-
ton that the agent is the nervous principle
Most of all, the effect of this influence on the
persons practicing it is precisely that of other
| modes of nervous excitement. The poet, the
orator, writing under strong self aroused
enthusiasm, the raving Sybfl, the mesmer-
izer, the practiser of the spiritual rappings,
all alike find a nervous exhaustion to be the
same result.
| Now, it is dangerous to experiment thus
with our nervous principle. 1t was placed
within us by the Creator to be steady, con-
slant and mighty, but perfectly comfortable
movement OF the body, which is now he
minds machinery. If 1 use it carefully,
never overcharging the delicate organs in
which it is generated, and by which it is con-
dncted through my frame, all will last and
keep time like clock work. Let me allow
/ myself to excite this influence till it over
flows and escapes from my fingers, or other
organs, in snaps like electricity from the
bands of factory wheel, or Till it sets my
arm 10 quivering in ungovernabe spasms,
1 and shall find that might as safely ry the
Experiment OF overheating and overstraining
a steamboiler. Mark the invariable RS alt of
any undue mental excitement; and especial
| iy of persevering attendance on the circles
| now So common in our community. On first
entering, no impression is made upon U.S.
| Soon, however, cur nervous organization be-
gins to feel the general impulse. There is a
magnetic crawling and creeping sensation in
the larger muscles, as of the arm; till it in
creases as we become more impressed. As
we daily come IN to join the circle, the infu-
ence is not felt till we have waited for its
generations; and then, every time, more read
lily and more powerfully is it excited; raps
echo for US, and The table moves at our will,
And now the confirmed medium cannot rid
himself of the influence when away from the
circle. He is nervous. A II his senses being
unnatural acute, he naturally and necessar-
/ ily hears strange sounds, sees strange sights,
and feels strange sensations, Hisnind being
disturbed i'm its calm workings, he cannot fix
thou hts on his business, and he is all I'M
Z. settled. His moral affections soon feel the
Influence. In the circle intent on spri-
tual manifestations, religion was all his
theme; but at home he speaks hastily; he
feels conscious that the ties of his attach
ment TO those who should be most dear to him
are weakening; and he finds his impressions
of duty to his family and friends and neigh
bors growing biunted and dimmed. Finally
his religious nature feels the soaring blight;
his faith is all afoat, rocking and tossing;
the anchor of his hope is broken off at the
fiukes; and driven starless and heavenless by
every wind If doctrine, even the white wings
of his Christian charity, which once bore
him to every chamber of suffering, are now
riven as pestientiaI gale. Ere he Is aware,
he is lost! You would be surprised to see
how the most accurate students of the human
mind, even the Arabian phil sophers, have
described the dangerous influence arising from
these causes; ranking it as diseased mem
tai bias, much TO be guarded agai.ist as a
tendency to pulmonary consumption. |
would sooner experiment with my digestive
organs, or my bloodvessels, than with my ner-
vous princi lie; for, the body's arrangement
is less fearful than that of the mind. | beg
OF you to think of this, if you have yielded
to craving curiosity in following up these ex-
periments. Be wise before it is too late
! But, what is far more important, as much
so society is more important than an indi-
vidual, remember that all these excitements
are epidemics. Widespread excitement of a
nervous nature 90 and come in waves ebbing
and flowing like the tide, swelling with every
breeze, and rolling on till they dash and break
in terrific ruin. Using the fearful figure of
the pestilence, such men as Virgil and Tertu-
liam describe the sweep of deranging excite
ments in their day. Mental disease, like any
contagious disease, prevails when the whole
atmosphere and the general condition of the
individual system is prepared for it. A whole
/. community, like that of Paris i'm the DAYS of