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lous, circumstantially related by eye-witnesses, "amongst others by the medical attendant of the family, a most respectable and intelligent friend" of Dr. Noble's own. As he remained unsatisfied, Dr. Noble was invited to come and judge for himself, proposing whatever test he pleased. "Now, had we visited the house," he says, we should have felt dissatisfied with any result," knowing "that the presence of a visitor or the occurrence of anything unusual was sure to excite expectation of some mesmeric process.' 'We therefore proposed," he proceeds, “that the experiment should be carried on at our own residence ; and it was made under the following circumstances:-The gentleman early one evening wrote a note, as if on business, directing it to ourselves. He thereupon summoned the female servant (the mesmeric subject), requesting her to convey the note to its destination, and to wait for an answer. The gentleman himself, in her hearing, ordered a cab, stating that if any one called he was going to a place named, but was expected to return by a certain hour. Whilst the female servant was dressing for her errand, the master placed himself in the vehicle, and rapidly arrived at our dwelling. In about ten minutes after, the note arrived, the gentleman in the mean time being secreted in an adjoining apartment, we requested the young woman, who had been shown into our study, to take a seat whilst we wrote the answer; at the same time placing the chair with its back to the door leading into the next room, which was left ajar. It had been agreed that after the admission of the girl into the place where we were, the magnetiser, approaching the door in silence on the other side, should commence operations. There, then, was the patient or 'subject, placed within two feet of her magnetiser-a door only intervening, and that but partially closed-but she, all the while, perfectly free from all idea of what was going on. We were careful to avoid any unnecessary conversation with the girl, or even to look towards her, lest we should raise some suspicion in her own mind. We wrote our letter

(as if in answer) for nearly a quarter of an hour, once or twice only making an indifferent remark; and on leaving the room for a light to seal the supposed letter, we beckoned the operator away. No effect whatever had been produced, although we had been told that two or three minutes were sufficient, even when mesmerising from the drawing-room, through walls and apartments into the kitchen. In our own experiment the intervening distance had been very much less, and only one solid substance intervened, and that not completely; but here we suspect was the difference-the 'subject' was unconscious of the magnetism, and expected nothing."

In another case Dr. Noble tried the converse experiment, with equally convincing results. Being in company one evening with a young lady said to be of high mesmeric susceptibility, he requested and received permission to test this quality in her. In one of the usual ways he "magnetised" her, and having so far satisfied himself, he "demagnetized" her. He next proceeded to "hypnotise" her, adopting Mr.

Braid's method of directing the stare at a fixed point. "The result varied in no respect from that which had taken place in the foregoing experiment; the duration of the process was the same, and its intensity of effect neither greater nor less." "De-hypnotisation" again restored the young lady to herself. "And now," says Dr. Noble, we requested our patient to rest quietly at the fire-place, to think of just what she liked, and to look where she pleased, excepting at ourselves, who retreated behind her chair, saying that a new mode was about to be tried, and that her turning round would disturb the process. We very composedly took up a volume which lay upon a table, and amused ourselves with it for about five minutes; when, on raising our eyes, we could see, by the excited features of other members of the party, that the young lady was once more magnetised. We were informed by those who had attentively watched her during the progress of our little experiment, that all had been in every respect just as before. The lady herself, before she was undeceived, expressed a distinct consciousness of having felt our unseen passes streaming down the neck."

In a similar way, Mr. Bertrand, who was the first (Dr. Carpenter tells us) to undertake a really scientific investigation of the phenomena of mesmerism, proved that the supposed effect of a magnetised letter from him to a female somnambule was entirely the work of her own lively imagination. He magnetised a letter first, which on receipt was placed at his suggestion upon the epigastrium of the patient, who was thrown into the magnetic sleep with all the customary phenomena. He then wrote another letter which he did not magnetise, and again the same effect was produced. Lastly, he set about an experiment which should determine the real state of the case. "I asked one of my friends," he says, write a few lines in my place, and to strive to imitate my writing, so that those who should read the letter should mistake it for mine (I knew he could do so). he did this; our stratagem succeeded; and the sleep was produced just as it would have been by one of my own letters."

"to

It is hardly necessary to say, perhaps, that none of the phenomena of hypnotism require, as indeed none of them, rightly understood, suggest, the action of any such occult forces as spiritualists believe in. On the other hand, I believe that many of the phenomena recorded by spiritualists as having occurred under their actual observation are very readily to be explained as phenomena of hypnotism. Of course I would not for a moment deny that in the great majority of cases much grosser forms of deception are employed. But in others, and especially in those where the concentration of the attention for some time is a necessary preliminary to the exhibition of the phenomena (which suitable "subjects only are privileged to see), I regard the resulting self-deception as hypnotic.

We may regard the phenomena of hypnotism in two aspectsfirst and chiefly as illustrating the influence of imagination on the functions of the body; secondly as showing under what conditions

the imagination may be most readily brought to bear in producing such influence. These phenomena deserve far closer and at the same time far wider attention than they have yet received. Doubt has been thrown upon them because they have been associated with false theories, and in many cases with fraud and delusion. But, rightly viewed, they are at once instructive and valuable. On the one hand they throw light on some of the most interesting problems of mental physiology; on the other they promise to afford valuable means of curing certain ailments, and of influencing in useful ways certain powers and functions of the body. All that is necessary, it should seem, to give hypnotic researches their full value, is that all association of these purely mental phenomena with charlatanry and fraud should be abruptly and definitely broken off. Those who make practical application of the phenomena of hypnotism should not only divest their own minds of all idea that some occult and as it were extra-natural force is at work, but should encourage no belief in such force in those on whom the hypnotic method is employed. Their influence on the patient will not be lessened, I believe, by the fullest knowledge on the patient's part that all which is to happen to him is purely natural-that, in fact, advantage is simply to be taken of an observed property of the imagination to obtain an influence not otherwise attainable over the body as a whole (as when the so-called magnetic sleep is to be produced), or over special parts of the body. Whether advantage might not be taken of other than the curative influences of hypnotism is a question which will probably have occurred to some who may have followed the curious accounts given in the preceding pages. If special powers may be obtained, even for a short time, by the hypnotised subject, these powers might be systematically used for other purposes than mere experiment. If, again, the repetition of hypnotic curative processes eventually leads to a complete and lasting change in the condition of certain parts or organs of the body, the repetition of the exercise of special powers during the hypnotic state may after a while lead to the definite acquisition of such powers. As it now appears that the hypnotic control may be obtained without any effort on the part of the operator, the effort formerly supposed to be required being purely imaginary, and the hypnotic state being in fact readily attainable without any operation whatever, we seem to recognise possibilities which, duly developed, might be found of extreme value to the human race. In fine, it would seem that man possesses a power which has hitherto lain almost entirely dormant, by which, under the influence of properly-guided imaginations, the will can be so concentrated on special actions that feats of strength, dexterity, artistic (and even perhaps scientific) skill may be accomplished by persons who, in the ordinary state, are quite incapable of such achievements. RICHARD A. PROCTOR, in Belgravia.

THE PROGRESS OF GREECE.

"A STRUGGLE, equal in duration to the war which Homer sung, and in individual valour not perhaps inferior, has at last drawn to a glorious close; and Greece, though her future destiny be as yet obscure, has emerged from the trial regenerate and free. Like the star of Merope, all sad and lustreless, her darkness has at length disappeared, and her European sisters haste to greet the returning brightness of the beautiful and long-lost Pleiad." These are the closing words of a book which, since the appearance of Finlay's work, has probably had few English readers, Emerson's " History of Modern Creece;" when they were written in 1830 Capodistria was still President of the new State, and three years were yet to pass before King Otho should arrive at Nauplia. During the half-century which has nearly elapsed since then, "the European sisters" have not always been so gracious to "the long-lost Pleiad;" indeed they have sometimes been on the verge of hinting that the constellation which they adorn would have been nearly as brilliant without her. But at least there can no longer be any excuse for alleging that Greece has been a failure without examining the facts. Her record is before the world. The necessary statistics are easy of access to any one who may desire to form an independent judgment. The last few years have been especially fertile in works replete with information on the political, social and economical condition of the country. Among these may be mentioned the work of M. Moraitinis, "La Grèce telle qu'elle est;" the work of M. Mansolas, "La Grèce à l' Exposition Universelle de Paris en 1878;" the essay of M. Tombasis, "La Grèce sous le point de vue agricole ;" and an interesting little book, full of information and of acute criticism, by Mr. Tuckerman, formerly Minister of the United States at Athens, "The Greeks of To-day." It is often instructive to compare Mr. Tuckerman's observations with those made more than twenty years ago by his countryman, Mr. H. M. Baird, who, after residing for a year at Athens and travelling both in Northern Greece and in the Morea, embodied the results in his "Modern Greece." Lastly, Mr. Lewis Sergeant, in his "New Greece, has essayed a double task-to show statistically how far Greece has advanced, and to show historically why it has advanced no further. Detailed criticism would be out of place here. Mr. Sergeant's book cannot fail to be useful in making the broad facts concerning Greece better known to the British public. It is the only compendium of recent information on Greece which exists in English; and we welcome it accordingly.

In the following pages only a few of the salient points in the condition of modern Greece can be noticed. The facts and views presented

They

here are derived both from study and from personal observation. are offered merely in the hope that some readers may be induced to seek fuller sources of knowledge regarding a people who, by general consent, are destined to play a part of increasing importance in the East.

The prosperity of Greece must always depend mainly on agriculture. No question is more vital for Greece at this moment than that of recognising the causes which have checked progress in this direction, and doing what can be done to remove them. It was with agriculture as with every other form of national effort in the newly estab lished kingdom; it had to begin almost at the beginning. The Turks had left the land a wilderness. The Egyptian troops in the Peloponnesus, after burning the olives and other inflammable trees, had cut down those which, like the fig-trees, could less easily be destroyed by fire. There was scarcely a family in the country which had not lost some of its members. The Greek peasantry was too poor and too wretched to aim at more than a bare subsistence by the rudest methods of husbandry. It should never be forgotten in estimating what Greece has done in this department, as in others during the last forty years, that in the earlier part of this period progress was necessarily very slow. The first workers had to construct everything for themselves, or even to undo the work of the past before they could get a clear start. Hence, when the rate of recent progress is found to have been rapid, the favourable inference is strengthened. Including both the Ionian and the Ægean islands, the Kingdom of Greece contains about fourteen millions and a half of acres. Nearly one-half of this total area is occupied by forests, marshes, or rocky tracts, and is not at present susceptible of cultivation. An inquirer who asks what proportion of the total area is actually under cultivation is surprised at first sight by the discrepancy of the different answers. Thus, to take two extremes, M. Mansolas says "nearly one-third," Mr. Tuckerman says "one-seventh," though it must be remembered that Mr. Tuckerman is writing six years earlier than M. Mansolas. The chief source of such discrepancies is that the higher estimates include the fallows, while the lower exclude them. M. Tombasis, who has written specially on Greek agriculture, is probably a safe authority on this point. According to him, one-fourth of the total area is under cultivation, but of this nearly one-half is always fallow. Hence not much more than one-seventh of the total area is productive at any given time. One-fourth, therefore, of the territory which might be cultivated is not under cultivation at all. But it is satisfactory to learn from M. Mansolas that some 500,000 acres have been brought under cultivation within the last fifteen years. The population of the Kingdom is about a million and a half. It is computed that from one-third to one-fourth of this population is engaged in agricultural or pastoral pursuits. The increase since 1830 has been large in all the staple agricultural products, and in some it has been remarkable. The cultivation of olives has increased about three-fold since 1830; of