so to speak, his nerve-influence or forces upon the medium, until the medium sinking down comes to his key; and then he by his forces insulates the system, and the individual passes rapidly into the condition of mesmerism; but do any thing to disturb that medium, so as to make the points of nerve-tension unyielding, and the operator may work till doomsday in vain. It is not till the points have yielded and the vibrations harmonize with his that he can produce the effect upon the medium. This is on the same principle with the phenomena exhibited in experiments with the string, which is a type of the law of communication in every sphere—the vibration of the string represents the entire law.
Take one string whose points of tension are unyielding, and another whose points of tension are yielding; then cause one of them to undulate, and it will impart its motion to the atmosphere, when the atmosphere will strike upon the other; and if it have the same points of tension that the other has, it will undulate; but if it have not the same tension, it will receive the influence of the atmosphere, the tendency of which will be to depress it and bring it to its own vibration; thus eventually the two strings will be made to harmonize. So when we sit down to mesmerize a person, he may be so positive that we do not at first succeed, perhaps, in producing the least impression upon him. We try again and again, and at last succeed in controlling the nerve-system, and through that the mental system of the subject. We are each time we try reducing the nerve-system to our key or standard, and the moment it is reduced to that point, the subject is
