INTRODUCTION.

faculties to form a perfectly balanced character; and as all his faculties are in a nearly equal state of development, he is remarkably free from exaggeration or "angular forms of thought." He is disposed to give to each subject which he comprehends all the importance which really and naturally belongs to it, but no more. Hence, his judgment is matured to a degree seldom witnessed in those of a more mature age. What is perhaps still more remarkable than all is that all his leading mental operations and outward actions appear to be governed by a species of interior prompting. Upon the whole, therefore, he may be considered a most amiable, simple-hearted, truth-loving, and unsophisticated young man. He is disconnected from all sects, parties, creeds, and denominations, and is governed solely by his own intuitions.

Such is a description of his character while in his normal state, as it has appeared to us during daily intercourse with him for the last eighteen months. It is owing to his peculiar physical and mental constitution that he has been enabled, by the assistance of magnetism In this context, "magnetism" refers to "animal magnetism" or mesmerism, a 19th-century precursor to hypnotism believed to induce a trance state., to abstract himself from the gross tangibilities of the outer world. This has allowed him to enter that state of exceeding spiritual exaltation and mental expansion that has enabled him to dictate the book now submitted to the world.

But a mind given mainly to sensuous original: "sensuous"; here meaning reasoning based strictly on the physical senses and evidence. processes of reasoning will require some account of Mr. Davis's past history to feel justified in reposing full confidence in the authenticity of this book. They will want to know of his acquirements through ordinary processes of education and mental discipline, and of the origin and production of this book—details which he may either verify or refute. This reasonable demand shall be gratified to the extent of our present ability, and the main facts shall be substantiated by the testimony of disinterested persons.

A singular instance showing Mr. Davis's indifference to things of no practical importance is the fact that he did not, until recently, know where he was born. At the earliest period to which his recollection extends, he resided with his parents in the township of Hyde Park, Dutchess County, New York. During two summers of his residence in that township, he was also employed by Mr. W. W. Woodworth as a keeper of cattle. However, his father recently informed us that he was born in Blooming Grove, Orange County, New York, and that on August 11, 1847, he will be twenty-one years of age—according to which he must have been born on August 11, 1826. From Hyde Park he moved with his father to Poughkeepsie on September 1, 1838. For about eighteen months after that, he worked with his father at his trade. Immediately following this, he was employed in the grocery store of Mr. Nicholas Lawrence; his father subsequently purchased this store, and he continued there until the spring of 1841, when he bound himself as an apprentice to Mr. Ira Armstrong.

His father is a simple-hearted, unsophisticated man who follows the respectable occupation of a shoemaker; as far as this world's goods are concerned, he has always been very poor. His mother (long since deceased), we are informed, was one of those gentle beings whose supreme delight is to mingle in scenes of sickness and sorrow and to administer to the relief of suffering humanity. Neither father nor mother was particularly inclined to intellectual pursuits; hence, they felt no anxiety to provide an education for their son extending beyond the simplest rudiments that may be acquired in a common school. Owing to this fact, in connection with their straitened financial...