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history of credulity would be the most singular page in the great history of mankind. From those vast beliefs which have founded religions and empires, down to the inventions that garnish the last new murder, there has always been a tendency in the human mind to believe with as little expense of the reasoning faculty as possible. A few useful doubters have certainly existed, and we cannot but agree with a late periodical writer, who says, "a doubt is a benefit to the truth;" generally speaking, however, doubt requires to be sharpened by vanity or by interest before it becomes an effective agent—the original leaning is the other way. When I left England the wondrous effects of animal magnetism usually came in to be discussed with the fish and soup; and if Sir Walter could have heard the miracles recorded, and the miracles credited and accredited by "the most respectable witnesses," he might not have thought it necessary to apologize for making his German charlatan an instrument in