The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1886-06-02
Thomght Recalling.

( lcullOu Ol TIE people Ol IlOlOluIuJ
/ the feats OF Professor Anderson
| forming topic Of general discus
/ sion. \ few Impressions formed from
/ an interview with that eminent thought
reader, Mr. Stuart Cumberland, some
two years or so ago in London, may
therefore prove OF interest to investi-
/ gators. Is it enough ior man to know
! tine great truth that virtue alone is hap
/ piness below? Can he hope to discover
! the path which no fowl knoweth and
which the vulture's eye hath not seen g.?
And if his patient investigation should
enable him to bind the sweet influences
OF the Pleiades, or loose the bands OF
/ Orion, would his welfare be improved
thereby? Thus musing, reached the
abode OF a gentleman who claims the
power, little short of miraculous as it
seems to human capacities, of placing
himself in communication with the vast
and hitherto unknown sense underlying
the five usually attributed to genus
homo, and absorbing by species OF fill
tration a portion OF the contents of the
bottle to which Il man has been not un-
APPLY compared, to be broken by the
hand of death, its contents merged into
the sea OF its surroundings, and recon-
stituted at some future epoch.
Mr.. Cumberland, with whom l had u
prolonged interview, is i gentleman
hardly yet of middle age, fair and florid,
and of nervous temperament. Lineally
descended from the Richard Cumber
land immortalized in Goldsmith's Re
taliation,'' and by education, as well as
birth, gentleman, his great experience
OF men and things entitle his views to
attention and respect, especially as there
is nothing of the Charlatan about him,
and he simply lays claim to superior
acuteness in divining thoughts to what
the thinkers themselves furnish the in
dication and clue. To use his own
words, "mere abstract ideas not ma
terialized and colored by the magma
ton remain in the brain OF their origina
tor, and it is idle on the part OF another
person to attempt to figure them" To
arrive at a just conclusion, the seer and
the subject must not only be en- rapport,
but the former must be acquainted with
the subject matter of the ideas passing
through the brain OF the patient, and
/ competent to express an opinion thereon.
The mental process involved is familiar
to every whist player, who, when he has
ascertained the position of the cards,
can picture the perplexitie5 of his part
ner or adversaries as accurately as they
can themselves But until that infor
nation is gained all is mere guesswork.
Thus, when l limited to Mr. Cumber-
land that he should endeavor to
enunciate and work out a quadratic
equation with which l chose
to burden my mind, he laughed at the
idea In short, the thinker must him
self .unconsciously supply the thought
j~aader with his material Mr..
Cumberland's theory is reasonable and
plausible enough What he says is in
effect that, as every one knows, the
mind acts upon tie body in an arbitrary
and irresponsible manner; thus many a
man has risen from bed in the best
health and spirits, but before sitting
down to breakfast disagreeable letter
mas taken his appetite entirely away. In
the same way an impressiOnable subject
cannot refrain from conveying to the
sensorium Of an acute observer some cor
poreal indication of the subject which
agitates his mind. These, in brief, are
that gentleman's claims, and while they
should not be overstated, ut the same
time they ought not 10 be undervalued,
for it is an undeniable fact that most
successful persons owe a good part OF
| their good fortune to the practice OF
! studying and influencing others who are
Supremacy unconscious OF any such pro-
cess. Mr. Cumberland is believer in
the power of volition, granting the con-
ditions Thus he thinks that if two per-
sons were playing at cribbage, the man
twith a strong will might induce his adj
sversary to play Il certain card; provided,
I firstly, that he held it in his hand; and,
I secondly, that some influence could be
1 exercised over him, either by actual con
tact or the power of the eye. But these
manifestations are the outcome OF very
/ considerable mental effort, and Mr..
( Cumberland informed me that although
ne proposed giving a few more seances, it
WAS his intention after their conclusion to
+ leave philosophy alone and devote him
self to politics-in my opinion 4 wiser
and, no doubt, more profitable under
taking" A. 3.
! The Alden Fruit and Taro Company's
( office, IDS Fort street, was the scene Of
great activity during the whole of last
week. not less than 1000 people calling
there to receive instruction as to the uses
taro flour can be put. Many prominent
ladies were among those who called, and
went away well pleased after testing the
various dishes. They declared that they
would never be without Taro Flour in their
homes.
( New beer Of the celebrated draught Boca
! bear al tho Comm, arciaI this evening