1379. There is, moreover, much reason to infer that a man who could pass his wife as his sister, and send her to a palace in order to gain influence with a king, did not lose sight of himself when he contemplated killing his son to propitiate the King of kings. But no human testimony should induce us to credit such imputations against Jehovah. Nothing is more probable than that priests should invent this absurd fable, and nothing more improbable than that an omniscient God, who could read Abraham’s inmost thoughts, should have found it necessary to ask such a barbarous sacrifice, in order to determine the extent and sincerity of that devotion of which he must have already known the precise limits.
1380. I have already made objections to the idea that we can be placed in this world for the purpose of probation. I will here make use of additional arguments in support of those objections. Spiritualism assumes that we are placed here for progression. It has, in this aspect, a self-evident ascendency over the scriptural doctrine.
1381. A finite being has need to subject his works to trial, in order to learn whether they have the requisite perfection; but how can an omnipotent and omniscient Deity be under any necessity oftryinghis works? In the first place, they must be precisely what he has designed; in the next place, foreseeing the result of any experiment he may make, he has no motive for the trial. Thus, before placing Adam and Eve in Paradise, God must have known that Adam would be incompetent to resist his wife, his wife the serpent, and that the apple would be eaten. How useless then was the experiment! How can it be reconciled with omniscience and omnipotence? The crime would not have taken place had God made woman less inquisitive; her husband strong enough morally to resist temptation and his wife’s seductive influence; or had not the serpent or Satan, under the form of this reptile, been allowed to tempt Eve. And yet in consequence of that act, not only the soul of the first man, but thatof all his posterity, are considered by orthodoxy as having fallen, as being doomed to eternal punishment, unless by being morally regenerated, principally by a blind belief in the allegation of certain priests, who do not agree among themselves as to what we are to believe.
1382. But what had souls unborn to do with the acts of Adam and Eve? Is it conceivable that the soul of the child is begotten by the souls of its parents, or to be inferred that it is a spiritual being, created by God for the body, which the progenitors beget in their corporeal capacity? (See Seneca’s opinion, 1230.) How could a dumb snake, belonging to the class of reptiles, very low comparatively in intellectual capacity, acquire power of speech and reason without a special miracle on the part of God, eitherdirectlyorindirectlythrough Satan, acting with the cognizance of his divine master. This reptile, previously created without feet, because the devil merely assumed his form, is doomed as apunishmentto crawl on his belly, in the only way in which he could move consistently with his organization, independently of the sentence!!! Would it be any greater punishment to cause snakes to creep on their bellies than quadrupeds to go on their feet? Since none of the genera of serpents are endowed with reason or speech, how could they be responsible for the acts of an animal which, being endowed with those attributes, would not belong to their order? It must have been a peculiar reptile, in the form of a snake, created for the special purpose of tempting Eve. If, with Milton, it be assumed that it was Satan, in the form of a serpent, who tempted her? how could serpents be responsible for the crime?
1383. It will be perceived, that when the church had the world most completely under its sway, there was the least morality; but as the arts and sciences grew up, in despite of religious intolerance, morality improved. Thus a system has been established, which while violating, more especially the most emphatic monitions of Christ, tends to enforce those rules of conduct which are necessary to the welfare of society. But an auxiliary principle—honour—has come into operation, which often restrains those who are not influenced by religion, nor by pure morality. Honour, like the fear of hell, may make a man act more nobly, or more honestly, without improving his religious principles or his heart. Hence the saying, “Honour among thieves,” and likewise among unprincipled gamblers.
1384. Mercantile honour, under the name of mercantile credit, is another important substitute for real heartfelt integrity. The ill consequences of a loss of worldly consideration, or of those advantages which result from the ability toborrow, or topostponepayment with consent of the creditor, is a motive for punctual payment, when a debt equally due,in honesty, would be neglected. This goes much farther as an element of the prevailing morality in securing punctual payment, than religion.
1385. That religion has actually very little to do with mercantile morals, must be evident,since it is never, on change, an object of inquiry. When men are about to trust large sums, they do not inquire how often the other party goes to church, nor to what church he goes. It has never been my lot to know any one whom I thought better for his religion. I have known many whom I thought better through native goodness of heart than they would have been if left to the influence of their bigoted opinions alone. I heard a clergyman, distinguished for his amiability and liberality in social intercourse, speak from the pulpit of infidelity as “the work of the devil.”
1386. There are allegations of this kind made from the pulpit which to me appear to be absolutely calumnious, though those who make them do not conceive themselves to be calumniators. It is, in truth, their false religion which speaks; they are possessed as if by an evil spirit, yet the goodness of their hearts prevents them from realizing any such calumnies in their personal intercourse with society. Dr. Berg said it was nothe(Dr. Berg) that spoke when he used ill language to Barker, but the Bible. There is a want of Christian moderation in the language of Christ, and John the Baptist, and in some of the Psalms, which seems inconsistent with Christ’s precepts. John, addressing the Pharisees as “vipers fleeing from the wrath to come,” representing them as poisonous reptiles, and God asenragedagainst them. The language of Christ respecting some of the same sect, to which allusion has been made, is even more abusive.
1387. But among the calumnies to which I have alluded, are those which represent the human heart as innately wicked, and only to be corrected by religious regeneration. All the souls created since Adam ate the apple, must be born anew, thus drawing a marked distinction between those who have gone through this second birth, and such as myself, who have not undergone this recuperative process. But what man of common sense draws a line between those who are thought to have been born over again, and those who have not? The great majority of those who call themselves Christians, do not put any more trust in one who has gone through this second birth, than in one who is not deemed to have been thus regenerated.
1388. While the science and literature of the Roman Empire sank under the influence of the Christian pontiff (pope) into ignorance, superstition, and vice, the Arabians, under the influence of their Mohammedan pontiffs, (caliphs,) arose from barbarism to a comparatively superior stateof intellectual acquirement, as the following quotation, from “Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,” will show:
1389. “After their civil and domestic wars, the subjects of the Abbassides, awakening from this mental lethargy, found leisure and felt curiosity for the acquisition of profane science. This spirit was first encouraged by the Caliph Almansor, who, besides his knowledge of the Mohammedan law, had applied himself with success to the study of astronomy, but when the sceptre devolved to Almamon, the seventh of the Abbassides, he completed the designs of his grandfather, and invited the muses from their ancient seats. His ambassadors at Constantinople, his agents in Armenia, Syria, and Egypt, collected the volumes of Grecian science: at his command they were translated by the most skilful interpreters into the Arabic language; his subjects were exhorted assiduously to peruse these instructive writings; and the successor of Mohammed assisted with pleasure and modesty at the assemblies and disputations of the learned. ‘He was not ignorant,’ says Abulpharagius, ‘thattheyare the elect of God, his best and most useful servants, whose lives are devoted to the improvement of their rational faculties. The mean ambition of the Chinese or the Turk may glory in the industry of their hands, or the indulgence of their brutal appetites. Yet these dexterous artists must view, with hopeless emulation, the hexagons and pyramids of the cells of a bee-hive: these fortitudinous heroes are awed by the superior fierceness of the lions and tigers; and in their amorous enjoyments, they are much inferior to the vigour of the grossest and most sordid quadrupeds. The teachers of wisdom are the true luminaries and legislators of a world, which, without their aid, would again sink in ignorance and barbarism.’ The zeal and curiosity of Almamon were imitated by succeeding princes of the line of Abbas: their rivals, the Fatimites of Africa and the Ommiades of Spain, were the patrons of the learned, as well as the commanders of the faithful: the same royal prerogative was claimed by their independent emirs of the provinces; and their emulation diffused the taste and the rewards of science from Samarcand and Bochara to Fez and Cordova. The vizir of a sultan consecrated a sum of two hundred thousand pieces of gold to the foundation of a college at Bagdad, which he endowed with an annual revenue of fifteen thousand dinars. The fruits of instruction were communicated, perhaps at different times, to six thousand disciples of every degree, from the son of the noble to that of the mechanic: a sufficient allowance was provided for the indigent scholars; and the merit or industry of the professors was repaid with adequate stipends. In every city the productions of Arabic literature were copied and collected by the curiosity of the studious and the vanity of the rich. A private doctor refused the invitation of the sultan of Bochara, because the carriage of his books would have required four hundred camels. The royal library of the Fatimites consisted of one hundred thousand manuscripts, elegantly transcribed and splendidly bound, which were lent, without jealousy or avarice, to the students of Cairo. Yet this collection must appear moderate, if we can believe that the Ommiades of Spain had formed a library of six hundred thousand volumes, forty-four of which were employed in the mere catalogue. Their capital, Cordova, with the adjacent towns of Malaga, Almeria, and Murcia, had given birth to more than three hundred writers, and above seventy public libraries were opened in the cities of the Andalusian kingdom. The age of Arabian learning continued about five hundred years, till the great eruption of the Moguls, and was coeval with the darkest and most slothful period of European annals; but since the sun of science has arisen in the West, it should seem that the Oriental studies have languished and declined.”
1389. “After their civil and domestic wars, the subjects of the Abbassides, awakening from this mental lethargy, found leisure and felt curiosity for the acquisition of profane science. This spirit was first encouraged by the Caliph Almansor, who, besides his knowledge of the Mohammedan law, had applied himself with success to the study of astronomy, but when the sceptre devolved to Almamon, the seventh of the Abbassides, he completed the designs of his grandfather, and invited the muses from their ancient seats. His ambassadors at Constantinople, his agents in Armenia, Syria, and Egypt, collected the volumes of Grecian science: at his command they were translated by the most skilful interpreters into the Arabic language; his subjects were exhorted assiduously to peruse these instructive writings; and the successor of Mohammed assisted with pleasure and modesty at the assemblies and disputations of the learned. ‘He was not ignorant,’ says Abulpharagius, ‘thattheyare the elect of God, his best and most useful servants, whose lives are devoted to the improvement of their rational faculties. The mean ambition of the Chinese or the Turk may glory in the industry of their hands, or the indulgence of their brutal appetites. Yet these dexterous artists must view, with hopeless emulation, the hexagons and pyramids of the cells of a bee-hive: these fortitudinous heroes are awed by the superior fierceness of the lions and tigers; and in their amorous enjoyments, they are much inferior to the vigour of the grossest and most sordid quadrupeds. The teachers of wisdom are the true luminaries and legislators of a world, which, without their aid, would again sink in ignorance and barbarism.’ The zeal and curiosity of Almamon were imitated by succeeding princes of the line of Abbas: their rivals, the Fatimites of Africa and the Ommiades of Spain, were the patrons of the learned, as well as the commanders of the faithful: the same royal prerogative was claimed by their independent emirs of the provinces; and their emulation diffused the taste and the rewards of science from Samarcand and Bochara to Fez and Cordova. The vizir of a sultan consecrated a sum of two hundred thousand pieces of gold to the foundation of a college at Bagdad, which he endowed with an annual revenue of fifteen thousand dinars. The fruits of instruction were communicated, perhaps at different times, to six thousand disciples of every degree, from the son of the noble to that of the mechanic: a sufficient allowance was provided for the indigent scholars; and the merit or industry of the professors was repaid with adequate stipends. In every city the productions of Arabic literature were copied and collected by the curiosity of the studious and the vanity of the rich. A private doctor refused the invitation of the sultan of Bochara, because the carriage of his books would have required four hundred camels. The royal library of the Fatimites consisted of one hundred thousand manuscripts, elegantly transcribed and splendidly bound, which were lent, without jealousy or avarice, to the students of Cairo. Yet this collection must appear moderate, if we can believe that the Ommiades of Spain had formed a library of six hundred thousand volumes, forty-four of which were employed in the mere catalogue. Their capital, Cordova, with the adjacent towns of Malaga, Almeria, and Murcia, had given birth to more than three hundred writers, and above seventy public libraries were opened in the cities of the Andalusian kingdom. The age of Arabian learning continued about five hundred years, till the great eruption of the Moguls, and was coeval with the darkest and most slothful period of European annals; but since the sun of science has arisen in the West, it should seem that the Oriental studies have languished and declined.”
1390. I here close my remarks upon the Influence of Scripture on the Morals of Christians. They have proceeded from a desire to promulgate what I deem to be truth, and to expose the errors by which I conceive it to be environed. It is inconsistent with my nature to state less than the truth when treating on any subject. I shall be sorry for any pain which I may give to those whose hearts are so associated with their opinions, that whatever conflicts with the one is painful to the other; yet I wish any persons so wounded to reflect how little denunciation has been spared, not only as respects opinions, but as respects motives, where “infidels,” unjustly so called, have been held up to view. I have not assailed themotivesof any one; even as respectsopinions, I have withheld or modified sarcasms which, as I think, might have been justly employed, or used without modification.
1391. Subsequently to the printing of the articles under the head of Corroborative Evidence, a pamphlet was received from which the subjoined pages are translated, by my friend, Dr. Geib. It serves to show the impression made by spirit manifestations in another part of Christendom, upon one who belongs to the church.
1392. “Mesmerism, table turning, and mediumship being phenomena which, in my estimation, demand serious investigation before pronouncing judgment on them, as soon as this became known to me, as an ocular witness, far from judging of them,ex abrupto, as so many have done under the same circumstances, I confined myself to make numerous experiments, with the hope that they might in time furnish me with some very useful facts, in searching for the cause of these wonderful phenomena.
1393. “Being in possession of some of these facts, I thought the present an opportune time for their publication, when twosavansof the elite, such as the Marquis de Mirville and the Count de Gasparin, are engaged in a scientific contest on this subject.
1394. “I consider the present moment the more opportune, that the facts furnished by my investigation, being at variance with certain leading points in the doctrines contained in thePneumatologyof M. de Mirville, and theSupernatural in Generalof M. de Gasparin, may induce those writers to give a new complexion to their doctrines, by taking counsel from my facts. These, shedding a new light on the triple phenomena, would powerfully aid in the solution of a problem which, up to the present time, does not appear to have been solved in a manner as clear and positive, as the interests of truth, science, and religion demand. Such has been and is now my belief, as well as that of many others whom I thought proper to consult before undertaking the task in which I have engaged.
1395. “Simple as my language is, it will be seen to have issued from the pen of a man who boldly seeks the truth, and is not to be arrested in his course by any worldly interests. Persuaded that in view of my position, my readers will grant me the indulgence which in a similar case I could not refuse them, I will proceed to the main question without further preliminaries. I divide my monograph into two parts; facts opposed to the Pneumatology of M. de Mirville, and the Supernatural in General of M. de Gasparin.
1396. “Table turning and mediumship are nothing more, in the opinion of M. de Mirville, than the work of the devil! I give an abstract of his doctrine as found in his Pneumatology. ‘In the letter,’ he says, ‘which I had the honour to address to theSociete Mesmerismeof Paris on the non-intervention of the devil in therapeutic mesmerism, dated Sept. 20, 1847, and published in numbers 54, 56, and 57 of the Journal ofMagnetism, I established the existence of the devil, with the attributes given him in the Scriptures, as well as the power he possesses, with divine permission, to act morally and physically on mankind, as set forth in the same holy books.’
1397. “In view of what I have just said, I cannot be mistaken by M. de Mirville with respect to demonology. But while admitting the existence of a devil, and his power over man, I cannot agree with the opinion of M. de Mirville in hisPneumatology, which admits the direct intervention of the devil in table turning and table talking, as well as in the powers of mediums; a view of the subject which I hold to be at variance with the teachings of the Catholic Church on the possessed, and the manner of deliverance therefrom, the evil spirit, which I proceed to explain.
1398. “It is an axiom as old as the world—in proportion as the cause is removed the effect ceases;sublata causa tollitur effectus. The truth of this maxim, in reference also to diabolical possessions, is found to be explicitly proved in the Holy Scriptures. A mute is presented to Christ to be cured:oblatus est ei mutus. The Divine Master, knowing that dumbness is caused by the devil, hastens to remove the cause, by chasing the evil spirit from the body of the possessed, which being done, the mute spoke in the midst of the people ravished with admiration. ‘And he was casting out a devil, and it was dumb. And it came to pass when the devil was gone out, the dumb spake, and the people wondered.’ St. Luke xi. 14.
1399. “There was at Philippi, in Macedonia, a girl who, being possessed of the evil spirit, had the gift of divination to such an extent, that people came from all parts to consult her, much to the benefit of her masters. St. Paul having chased the demon from the body of the possessed, she lost the gift of divination; which exasperating her masters, they dragged St. Paul before a magistrate like a malefactor. (Acts xv.) Admitting these principles, it follows that if the devil intervenes directly in tables and mediums, as Christ drove him from the mute, and St. Paul from the girl of Philippi, then,a fortiori, should clairvoyants lose their lucidity, tables be made to stand still, and mediums be deprived the power of tracing a line however short;sublata causa tollitur effectus. The cause being removed, the effect must cease.
1400. “Our next object is to refer to the means for removing the evil spirit wherever found; and consulting the Catholic ritual affords us thisknowledge. In fact, agreeably to these teachings, demons are driven off by the sacred names of God and Jesus, by prayer, the sign of the cross, by holy water, and exorcisms; and these means being known, I am going to report the effect of these means on clairvoyant subjects, tables, and mediums.
1403. “Having witnessed some extraordinary phenomena, and desiring to assure myself as to the presence of a diabolical agency in these manifestations, as I had been persuaded to believe—profiting by the opportunity offered by some mediums magnetized by others, and not by myself—I was induced to pray to invoke the sacred names of God and Jesus, to make the sign of the cross on the subjects, and went so far as to sprinkle them with holy water, with the design of driving out the devil, should he have taken possession of them. However, as not one of these mediums lost, in my presence, the smallest part of their powers, I was led to infer that the devil had nothing to do with the phenomena.
1404. “The following fact should attract the attention of all observers holding the orthodox faith: A youth of thirteen, put to sleep by his mother, at my house, gave proof of the greatest clairvoyance, even so far as to be in communion with supermundane beings. Alarmed, as I acknowledge I was, at what passed under my eyes, and suspecting, as I did, that the devil might be the agent of those phenomena, I took my crucifix, and presenting it to the clairvoyant, conjured him in the holy name of Jesus. But in place of repelling it, as I expected, he seized the cross in the most affectionate manner, and, smiling, pressed it to his lips; as much to the edification of his mother as of myself. Should M. de Mirville desire the address of the parties, he can have it.
1405. “The means thus employed by me to discover if the evil spirit actuated mesmeric subjects, have been employed also by other persons with the same view, and with similar results. Should M. de Mirville desire to know some of these persons, I will be happy to facilitate the acquaintance. As to exorcism, it is known by the biography of the celebrated clairvoyant Prudence, that although exorcised on several occasions, the exorcisms failed to deprive him, in the smallest degree, of his great clairvoyance. To the facts which I have just reported in support of the non-intervention of the devil, some new facts of another kind will be adjoined, which in some measure confirm the first.
1406. “One of the models of sacred eloquence, the R. P. Lacordaire, speaking of mesmerism in 1846, far from qualifying it assatanical, as M. de Mirville has done, proclaimed from the pulpit of truth, in the church ofNotre Dameof Paris, that this phenomenon belonged to the order of prophecy, and that it was a provision of the divinity to humble the pride of materialism. This language, descended from the summit of the sacred tribune, is known to have received the public approbation of Mgr. Affre, the centre of Catholicism of the diocese of Paris, who, addressing thefaithful, said to them: ‘My brothers, it is God who speaks with the mouth of the illustrious Dominican.’
1407. A very pious female, abandoned by her medical adviser, being in a state of despair, was magnetized by one of her parents, and fell into the most complete trance. In one of her first sleeps, she said she saw a person who, according to the description she gave of him, appeared to be the clairvoyant’s great-grandfather, deceased several years before the birth of his grand-daughter. The latter was cured by the advice received during her trance condition from the said great-grandfather. This fact appeared to me so grave in its nature, and so interesting to science and religion, that I thought proper to publish it in number nineteen of theMagnetisme Spiritualiste, with an appeal to all those who, by their knowledge, might be able to explain this phenomenon.
1408. Among those to whom our appeal was made, figured the theologians, to whom, in speaking of the person who appeared to the clairvoyant, I said: ‘Should this not be considered the devil, who, assuming a fantastic personation, took that of the great-grandfather of M. R., and appearing thus to him, cured him of a disease which he himself had originated?’
1409. Some copies of the number of the journal in question were sent to the sovereign pontiff, through his apostolic nuncio at Paris, to Mgr. the archbishop of Paris, to the faculty of theology at Sorbonne, to RR. PP. Jesuits of theRue des Postes, to R. P. Lacordaire, and to the Calvinistic Consistory of Paris, begging them to enlighten me on a fact of such grave importance. But to the present time, a period of three years, not one of these great personages has informed me that the phenomenon to which I invited their attention is the work of the devil, which proves that, in their opinion, the evil one is a stranger to this phenomenon; for otherwise they would not have failed to answer my inquiry, if only from interest for religion, or through charity to myself. Should M. de Mirville desire to know the clairvoyant I refer to, he can be conducted to his domicile.
1410. Mgr. Sibour, on mesmerism, andLa Grandeur, if interrogated, will tell you that the thoughts expressed by clairvoyants are only reflections from their magnetizers, without saying a single word to you about the devil. But we have said enough on clairvoyants, and will pass to the tables.
1411. I have made a great many experiments in table-turning and table-talking with pious laymen and with ecclesiastics, men of prayer and serious habits, and even with a venerable bishop, and always in a very serious manner; desiring to know, for the sake of religion and our souls, if the devil is in reality the agent who conveys movement and language to the tables. Besides exorcism, we have employed all the means taught and prescribed in the Catholic Church to drive out the devil, and we havenever obtained any results; for neither prayer, nor the sacred names of God and Jesus, nor the sign of the cross made on the tables, nor the crucifix, nor the chapelet, (the beads,) nor the Gospels, nor the image of Christ placed on the tables, nor holy water, could stop their turnings, knockings, and replying to our questions. But far from it, and much to our astonishment, we have seen the table turn over before the image of Christ crucified. I will say no more. In the experiments made with the bishop just named, and the person with whom I was boarding, it was the venerable bishop himself that made the sign of the cross on a stand, without in the least retarding the motion of that small piece of furniture. Monseigneur then asked the stand if it loved the cross, and it replying in the affirmative, it was with surprise that Monseigneur saw the stand turn over before hiscroix pastorale, and speak to him in orthodox language of a future life.
1412. If, according to all the facts which I have just reported, it be necessary to reason agreeably to M. de Mirville, behold what that reasoning must be. The teachings of the Catholic ritual give to prayer, to the sacred names of God and Jesus, to the sign of the cross, to the holy water, and the exorcisms, the virtue of driving the devil (le démon) out of the possessed. Now, as neither prayer, the sacred names, the sign of the cross, &c. are able to drive the spirit out of mediums, nor out of tables, which, according to M. de Mirville, are also victims, then the Catholic Instructor, which assigns these means for removing evil spirits, must be in error. Then the Scripture, the SS. PP., and the Church, authorities on which the Catholic teachings are based on the subject of possessions, and the manner of delivering the possessed of the evil spirit, (les démons,) are in error.[31]And what true Catholic dare entertain this language? It is then to avoid getting into so unfortunate a position, that I have thought proper to reject the opinion of M. de Mirville on the manifestations of spirits. I shall be told that if the prescribed means sometimes fail, it is from want of faith on the part of those who employ them. This is my reply to that objection. The peasants do not possess a large quantity of faith, and, notwithstanding, Origen says the name of God, pronounced even by a peasant, chases the demons.—Origines contra celsum.
1413. There are a great many people, and among them figure some pious ecclesiastics and laymen, who quite frequently partake of the sacrament, who have experimented with me, who have prayed with me, haveinvoked with me the sacred names of God and Jesus, &c.; is it then credible that among these persons, not one should be found possessing a portion of faith equal to that of a peasant, which is able, according to Origen, to drive out the devil in the name of God? I am unable to believe it. What! the venerable bishop, who experimented with me during four years, had sacrificed himself in propagating the faith in distant lands, should he not have as much faith as a peasant, in order to be able to remove an evil spirit in the name of God? This would be to insult the sacred labour of propagating the faith in the person of one of its most distinguished apostles.
1414. But this is not enough; notice how St. John teaches us to know if a spirit is of God or not. ‘My well beloved, this is how to know that a spirit is of God: all spirits who confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, are of God, and those who do not confess that he is come in the flesh, are not of God.’ (1 John ix.) Instructed by St. John in the manner of knowing the spirits of God, to assure myself further on the nature of spirits or occult forces, exhibited in the movement and language of tables, I have used the method indicated by St. John. It was with this view that, my little table being in motion, I addressed to it the following questions: Do you confess that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh? Yes, it replied. The same question, repeated several times, produced uniformly the same answer. Having this experiment alone at my house, I was desirous of seeing whether the same results would be obtained in company. With this design I went to the houses of persons acquainted with these phenomena, and begged a gentleman, a medium, to place his hands with mine on a stand. The movement of the stand being felt, the same question was answered in the same manner. And after this experience can I conscientiously believe in the intervention of the devil in the turning and speaking of the tables, without regarding the testimony of St. John as erroneous; and should I regard it as such? It is for M. de Mirville to answer.
1415. But I do not stop here. It is said in the ritual of Paris and others, in the chapter of the possessed, as follows:Signa energumenorum sunt. Ignota lingua liogni idque, maxima serie verborum quæ previderi non potuerunt velita loquentem intelligere distantia, et oculta patefacere et vires supra etatis suæ naturam ostendere.Very well, if demons, as the ritual says, speak all languages, even those unknown, after the great number of experiments which I have made, I am prepared to declare that tables do not speak all languages, even the known ones, nor do they understand them. Let some one who does not understand Greek, addressing a question to the table in French, request it to reply in Greek, and we will see if the table does it. Let a stranger give to an inquirer at the table a question in a language unknown to him, limiting himself to merely reading it, and we will see if the table respond; I defy all the tables in the world to do it. If M. de Mirville desires to make these experiments with me, I am entirely at his service.
1416. I have endeavoured to discover if tables have the faculty which, according to the ritual, is possessed by the devil (les démons) to penetrate the hidden and the future, and I have found in this direction more error than truth. As to the superior physical force which, according to the ritual, is possessed by the devil, (les démons,) there is not a single turning table in the world, whose movement cannot be arrested or retarded by enveloping the hands of the experimenters in silk; which proves that the tables have not a powersupra naturam, and that of course it could not be the devil who furnishes the momentum. But what gives more force to the reasons on which I rest, for not referring the motive-power to an evil spirit, is this: that having made them separately known to four prelates of the church of France, three of whom are conspicuous in the religious investigation of these phenomena, begging a due examination and report if my opinion is in error, that I may retract and write against the tables, not one of these prelates has pronounced me wrong, nor in the least blamed my exposition of facts. And in case it may become necessary to establish this fact, I retain the letters of these prelates. Let us now pass to the consideration of the mediums.[32]
1417. Hearing that there were persons whose hands, without their will, were made to write some very extraordinary things, and that these persons were called ‘mediums,’ one day, in order to assure myself of the fact, I took a crayon in my hand, and placing it on paper, concentrated myself as much as possible. But a few minutes had passed, when I felt my hand controlled without my will, and saw it trace some lines, letters,and words. This experiment being repeated often with the same success, I have therefore become a medium, though of a secondary degree.
1418. Desiring to know whether, in this phenomenon, there might not be some diabolical agency, in order to satisfy my mind on that subject, I asked of the occult power, or the spirit that controlled my hand, if it was the devil; being answered in the negative, I requested to have proof of it. Scarcely were those words uttered, when my hand, moving with energy, drew a large cross. Seeing this, I put the same questions about J. C. that were put at my table, and the answers, being written, were the same; from which I concluded that the agency in the writing of mediums is the same as in moving the tables, which, in my opinion, is not that of the devil, as already said. However, in order to confirm my assurance of the non-intervention of the devil in the phenomena of mediums, I desired to add another experiment, which follows:
1419. As the devil speaks all languages, according to the ritual, even those unknown, to see whether the occult power or spirit which caused me to write possessed this satanic attribute, which, being so, would prove the intervention of the devil in the performance of mediums, I asked the invisible agent if it would cause the Lord’s prayer to be written in several languages, and was answered in the affirmative. Yielding my hand with a pen to the motive power, thePaterwas written in two ways, which the same power, also by writing, said was in Valaque and in Russian. Then requesting the same to be written in French, Spanish, Italian, and Latin, it was immediately done; when requesting it to be written in English and German, was answered it could not be done. Why not? I inquired. Because you neither speak nor write those two languages, which is necessary.
1420. In what languages then, I asked, are you able to make me write? In the languages which I spoke on earth, as the Valaque and Russian, and those which you speak. ThePater, thus written, I had the honour to present it personally to Monseigneur the Archbishop of Paris, by his request. Having mentioned this, I was advised to request my spirit friend to write something in Valaque, and have it submitted to some one acquainted with that language, in order to determine the fact of its being so; which proposal I willingly accepted.
1421. But, returned to my house, the idea occurred to me to make an experiment to control my familiar spirit myself. I wrote on a piece of paper a phrase in French, and took a separate copy of it on another piece of paper. I read this phrase to my spirit, and requested him to render it in Valaque. The spirit, having made some lines, told me by writing that the translation was already made. I requested him to do the same with it in Spanish, Italian, and Latin, and it was done. Requesting him further to write the same in English, he replied it could not be done, as I did not speak that language. Allowing a few minutes to pass, I took thecopy of the phrase, and requested the spirit to do the same with it that he had done with the original. The spirit having caused me to write, as he professed, the same phrase in the same languages as he had caused me to write it in previously, I hastened to compare the two translations; but what was my surprise when finding the Spanish, Italian, and Latin translations of the copy like those of the original; I found the Valaque translation of the original and that of the copy not at all alike!
1422. “Convinced, then, that my spirit did not understand theValaque, which proved to me, according to the ritual, that it was not a devil, (un démon,) but that notwithstanding he had deceived me, I gave him a severe reprimand, treating him as an infamous cheat, and driving him from my presence. At this juncture, my hand was caused to tremble excessively, which terminated by writing in large characters: ‘I am the devil, and you are a bad preacher that seeks to find out the secrets of God!’ Very well, I said; your proclamation in large letters that you are the devil, is no reason why I should believe it. The devil, according to the ritual, speaks all languages, and you do not speak the Valaque nor English, and therefore you are not the devil. If I am a bad preacher, that does not concern you. It is God who will judge me, and I submit to his holy will. Could I see you as I feel you, I would fix you well; but as it is, I decline any further correspondence with you.
1423. “Scarcely had I expressed these words, when my hand, being influenced, wrote as follows: ‘Pardon! pardon! I am not the devil. If I said so, it was to frighten you, because you continued to plague me with your questions; but I see you are a man that fears nothing. You are not a bad preacher, but a great thinker. Continue then to experiment with me, and I will always tell you the truth!’
1424. “Very well, I pardon you, and request you to say, without deceiving me, what languages you do speak? ‘I speak no other languages than those which you speak, and if I did otherwise, it was for amusement.’ Then what are the languages which the spirits speak? ‘Those of the communing person, and no others.’[33]And this ended the meeting.
1425. “Wishing still to test what had been said to me by my spirit, I went to the house of a writing medium, like myself, and begged him to try some experiments in writing. In the midst of our experiments, I wrote the following words on a small piece of paper in Spanish:Como té llamos?and without making their signification known to the medium in French, requested him to read them to the spirit friend. This was done, but the spirit was silent. The medium, however, insisting on an answer, was impressed by the spirit to write the wordmalheur, (misfortune.) Thereply not agreeing with the question, I told the medium to say to his spirit that he had badly replied. Then the spirit made the medium write as follows: ‘If I have not complied with your request, it is because I do not understand that language.’
1426. As the medium did not understand what had been read to the spirit, which in French would mean,Comment vous appelez-vous?(What is your name?) I perceived that if the spirit did not reply to the Spanish, it was because the medium neither spoke nor understood that tongue; which agreed with what my spirit had told me. Then I requested the medium to ask his spirit to make me write. On the affirmative response of the spirit, I took the pen, and addressing the same question to him:Como te llamos?he replied in Spanish—Benito. Answer me in French—Benoit. In Latin—Benedictus.
1427. This experiment confirming what my spirit had told me, that the spirits could produce only the language of those with whom they communed, was a new proof for me of the non-intervention of the devil; seeing, according to the ritual, that he is master of all languages, and that mediums only write those they understand, and have previously learnt.[34]If M. de Mirville desires to make some such experiments with me, it will afford me great pleasure to do so.
1428.Nota bene: What merits particular regard in the information received from my spirit friend as to the language used by spirits in communing with men is, that the same was said one hundred and five years since by the ecstatic Swedenborg. See No. 236 of his Treatise on Heaven and Hell, by Le Boys des Guays.
1429. This will suffice for the present for M. de Mirville. It remains for him to explain the facts we have reported, and to reconcile them with hisPneumatology: in expectation I proceed to notice theSupernatural in Generalof M. de Gasparin.”
1430. “All the prodigies of the mesmeric subjects of clairvoyants, the sorcery, haunting spirits, apparitions, visions, &c., owe their origin, according to M. de Gasparin, to nervous excitement, fluidic action, and sometimes are hallucinations. As I do not design here to make a critical analysis of M. de Gasparin’s work, not considering myself capable, and leaving this honour to those who are in some scientific line, I design merely occupying myself with some facts which refer personally to me, and which appear to me to oppose some points in the doctrine of M. de Gasparin in his table-turning, orSupernatural in General, as already noticed in the introduction to the monograph, and I commence with the subject of ecstasy.
1431. “Speaking of ecstatics, M. de Gasparin explains himself as follows: ‘As to their intellectual faculties, they are capable in those cases of prodigious development. The ecstatics declare themselves that they have two souls; that a voice foreign to their own causes them to speak; that they suddenly receive ideas entirely unknown to them, and terms of expression entirely strange to them. It happens even that the peasant accustomed topatois, speaks French, and that illiterate men express themselves in Latin. Now, have we something here that issupernatural? Certainly not; it is a physiological state, or often the treasures of reminiscence, which the subject possessed, though in fact not aware of it. The peasant may have known how to speak French; she may not have known it, and still it may all have been engraved on the deep recesses of the memory, where nothing is ever really effaced. Exalted or sick, she finds herself in possession of the French language. A merchant, who has scarcely passed the first classes, and who never knew Latin, finds himself the possessor of the Latin language, and embarrasses his doctor, whom he addresses in that tongue.’
1432. “According to this ecstatic theory of M. de Gasparin, it follows that the ideas expressed by the subjects, and which were unknown to them in their normal state, are nothing more than reminiscences. I admit, with M. de Gasparin, that reminiscence is only the return of the soul to the recollection of a thing or an idea, which, though engraven on the memory, was forgotten. This return, however, does not happen without some remarks, which, from the recollection of some ideas or incidents, conduct the mind to the recollection of what was forgotten.
1433. “I am a medium: according to the received opinion, a medium is a waking magnetic subject. Now, every magnetic subject is in a degree ecstatic; therefore I, being a medium, am ecstatic. Well, I being ecstatic, take a pencil, and concentrating myself in that state, request the occult power that moves my hand without my volition to cause it to write, if it is possible, something on the creation. The last word is scarcely pronounced when my hand proceeds to write, without interruption, something true or false, on the creation, which surprises me.
1434. “This interview terminates, and desiring to know if these ideas on the creation come from reminiscences, I seek to discover if they could have been engraven on my memory, either from reading or hearing themrelated. With this view I commenced by reading religious and philosophic books that would be likely to discuss the question, but could find nothing like what I had written. I consulted the public libraries, and they contained nothing on the creation similar to what my hand had communicated. Not a professor, philosopher, naturalist, physiologist, theologian, or historian, with whom I had ever had any intercourse, could recollect any thing of the kind.
1435. “After this, I reason as follows: having examined all the means by which what was written by my hand on the creation could have been impressed on my memory, nothing appears to warrant that belief; therefore, these notions on the creation cannot be regarded as reminiscences.
1436. “But it is not enough, we have said, that in reminiscence, are necessary, which, by the recollection of an object, idea, or notion, we are led to the further recollection of something forgotten. That this should take place, some time is required, however little it may be. However, in the case related, not a moment was required, and this breaks up the required process, in order to respond to the theory of M. de Gasparin.
1437. “Now, if these ideas on the creation are not reminiscences—if they do not emanate from the devil, who, agreeably to our author, is an entire stranger to these phenomena—if it is not the soul of a deceased person that controlled my hand, as M. de Gasparin, being a Protestant, does not believe in returning spirits nor in communion with the dead, who then caused to be written by my hand such strange things, without my knowledge or assistance? And I beg M. de Gasparin to be so good as to explain this phenomenon, which appears to be in opposition with his theory on the prodigies of ecstatic subjects. Should M. de Gasparin desire to see what I have written, he can be gratified. But what will he say, when having requested my spirit to reply in writing on some subject familiar to my mind, he is unable to do it, or replies contrary to my thoughts and convictions? Can this be called reminiscence? I pass now to consider mesmerism.
1438. “In speaking on this subject, theSupernaturalof M. de Gasparin says, ‘The clairvoyance of mesmerism appears in general to have only the character of an echo. Its wonders are those of reminiscence or perception of images and thoughts, which occupy the intelligence of the person with whom the clairvoyant is in rapport. This appears to be the balance-sheet of animal magnetism, and it has changed but little since its origin.’ (Tome ii. page 311.)
1439. “According to what M. de Gasparin has just told us, it follows, that when a clairvoyant tells us in his sleep that he sees the spirit of a deceased person, and gives us an exact description of his person, we are not to regard it as the deceased person that the clairvoyant sees, but his image impressed on the memory of that clairvoyant from acquaintance with the defunct when living, or in the memory of the consulting visitor inrapport; so that the clairvoyant, in these apparitions of the dead, is governed only by reminiscence or the reflection of images or of thoughts. Now, having allowed M. de Gasparin to speak, I desire in my turn to speak also.
1440. “In January, 1848, a work was published, entitledLes Arcanes de la Vie Future Révelée: The Arcana of a Future Life Revealed. My attention being attracted by the title of this work, it was procured, and proved to be nothing but a collection of the apparitions of deceased persons to clairvoyants.
1441. “On so delicate a question, I thought it best to consult the Scriptures, to see whether the appearance of the dead to the living was admitted by the sacred volumes. I opened, then, the Bible, and the first passage that met my eye was the chap. xxvii. of the first book of Kings, where it said that Samuel had appeared to the witch of Endor, and that, by the intermediation of the latter, the prophet spoke to Samuel; an apparition on which were sketched those reported by M. Cahagnet in hisArcana. I saw afterward in the second book of Maccabees, the high-priest Onias and the prophet Jeremiah appearing to Judas Maccabeus. I see in St. Matthew, chap. xvii., the apparition of Moses and Elias to Peter, John, and James on the Tabor. Finally, I read, in chap. xxviii. of the said St. Matthew, that at the death of our Saviour Jesus Christ, many of the dead appeared to a great number of the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
1442. “Convinced by the holy volume of the possibility, or rather of the reality, of the apparition of the dead to the living, I put to myself this question: Can these apparitions of the dead to the living which, according to the Bible, took place in former times, be permitted to occur at the present time? In order to resolve that question, I desired again to consult the Bible, and found the Holy Spirit, in Ecclesiastes, holding the following language: ‘What has been, is what shall be; and what has been done, is what shall be done again.’
1443. “Then, I said to myself, the appearance of the dead to the living has taken place, according to the Bible; therefore, agreeably to the same sacred volume, what has existed at one time may exist at another. Therefore, there is no reason for rejecting the doctrine of communion of spirits, God willing, at the present time.
1444. “But it is to be found out whether the apparitions reported in theArcanawere realities, or were only illusions, so called. The solution of this problem belongs to me. And with this view I found myself at the house of the author of theArcana, where a very serious discussion took place between him and myself on his work, which ended with the apparition of my brother Joseph, the third one that figures in the second volume of theArcana. In fact, I called for the apparition of my late brother, and scarcely had a few minutes passed when the clairvoyant,Adile, told me she saw a gentleman, and by the description she gave of the stature, costume, character, the cause and place of the death of the person appearing, I could not avoid recognising in the said person that of my brother Joseph.
1445. “This apparition had such an effect on me, as to keep me awake the whole night, seeking to explain the phenomenon. But becoming fatigued with researches, I thought, as a magnetizer, to be able to explain these apparitions by the same means as M. de Gasparin pretends to explain them at the present time. I said to myself that clairvoyants saw the image of things impressed on the memory of the persons with whom they were in rapport; the image of my late brother being engraved on my memory, it was enough for M. Cahagnet to put me, by an act of his will, in rapport with his clairvoyant, for the latter to have seen the image of my brother on the tablets of my memory.
1446. “With this impression, I wrote to M. Cahagnet, saying to him, that in spite of my assurance yesterday of the reality of the apparition of my brother, my knowledge of magnetism had caused me to-day to think otherwise, and that further evidence would be necessary to convince me of its reality. M. Cahagnet having complied, two spirits were evoked; one of my aforesaid brother Joseph, and the other of Antoinette Carré, the sister of my domestic; apparitions reported in the second volume of theArcana, and the description given by the clairvoyant could not have been more correct. But as I still entertained the idea that these images could not be traced by the clairvoyant in my mind, this meeting produced no results. Curious, however, to know whether other clairvoyants possessed the same faculty as the clairvoyant of M. Cahagnet in regard to these apparitions, in the sense I understand them, I begged M. Lecocq, clockmaker of the navy, living at Argenteuil, to try some experiments with his sister, a very lucid clairvoyant.
1447. “Five apparitions appeared, of whom three were unknown to him or his clairvoyant, knowing only their names; and their identity was determined by the assistance of other persons present who had known them, as reported from two sources, the letter written me by M. Lecocq, which M. de Gasparin can see, and the report made by the former to M. Cahagnet, which was published in the second volume of theArcana, page 244. In view of this fact, and others of the same nature come to my knowledge, my opinion as to the derivation of appearances and thoughts from the mind of communicants through the clairvoyant begins to be modified. However, to be entirely convinced of the reality of these apparitions, I should require similar facts to be presented to my own eyes.
1448. “Animated by these sentiments, I requested a person in whom I reposed entire confidence, to give me the name of a defunct, entirely unknown to me, and that of Joseph Moral was given. The young clairvoyant of thirteen years, whom I named at the beginning of this monograph, being one day put to sleep by his mother at my house, I used the opportunity to request the subject to invoke the spirit of Joseph Moral. Scarcely had two minutes elapsed, when the young clairvoyant announced the presence of a person, whom she described. Having never seen the said Joseph Moral, and therefore not able to say any thing about him, I was limited to writing down a faithful account of him as given by the clairvoyant.
1449. “The meeting ended, I sought the person who had furnished the name, and reading the description, and much surprised to find it correct, she said to me, ‘How, sir, were you able to give such an exact description of M. Joseph Moral, whom you never knew and have never seen?’
1450. “This fact was for me a positive conviction that clairvoyants, in their communion with the dead, do not simply see the image of the deceased in the memory of the consulting party, but that they see the veritablesoulsof the departed, as the witch of Endor saw the soul of Samuel, according to our creed, called the Holy Spirit of the Ecclesiastic. And should M. de Gasparin desire to know the person who gave me the name of M. Joseph Moral, it will give me pleasure to wait on him to her house.
1451. “Here is another fact like the preceding, but still more interesting. M. de Sarrio, of Alicant, in Spain, a cavalier of Malta, gave to my brother Joseph, of whom I have already spoken, fifteen thousand francs, to be distributed among the poor; for which sum my brother aforesaid gave a receipt to the benevolent donor. At the death of M. de Sarrio, his brother, the Marquis of Algolfa, becoming his heir, found this receipt among the papers of the deceased. At the death of my brother, the Marquis desiring to know if all the amount had been disbursed, addressed my sister, who became his heir, on the subject. But my sister, being unacquainted with his affairs, not having lived with him, submitted to the marquis the schedule of the deceased; which, showing only the distribution of half the amount, the other half was claimed by the marquis, and finally made the subject of a lawsuit.
1452. “My sister, much aggrieved, made me a party to her troubles, in a letter from Alicant. Discomforted by what had happened to my sister, I visited my young clairvoyant and demanded the presence of my brother, who, as she had said, had several times been with her. He was reported present, and I questioned him in relation to the money received from M. de Sarrio, reproaching him in regard to the reversion of the said balance, and the pain he had caused my sister.
1453. “My brother, astounded at my language, said, that he owed nothing to anybody; and as to the amount referred to, he had given it to Father Mario before dying, to be distributed to the poor; to prove which it would be necessary to call Father Mario. Scarcely had my brother said this, when the clairvoyant said she saw a man with my brother, and from the description she gave of him, I thought I recognised a Capuchin friar, who, interrogated by my brother, confirmed what he had said.
1454. “Having never heard the name of Father Mario, as I had left Alicant thirty years before, I requested some particulars of his country and family, and was told he belonged to St. Vincent du Respect, one league from Alicant, &c., and I put the following questions to my sister, by letter: Was your brother Joseph visited in his sickness by a priest named Father Mario, having a sister at St. Vincent du Respect? and do you know if this Father Mario is dead? Following is the answer:
1455. “‘As to Father Mario, he left this country several years since, and it is not known if he is in France or America. He did not visit our brother in his last sickness, because he had left some years before. He has two sisters, one was in Algeria, and the other went with him.’ The letters written by me to my sister on this subject, and her replies, with other details, were published in the third volume of theArcana. The originals are at the disposal of M. de Gasparin, and I would desire to ask that gentleman one question: Whether the apparition of Father Mario, as established by the letters of my sister, confirming the existence of Father Mario, is not a positive fact, and not an hallucination? Whether, as this monk had never been seen nor known by me, his image could possibly have been perceived by the clairvoyant through any impression made upon my mind? Of course, it could not have been the devil who personated Father Mario, if M. de Gasparincorrectlyrepudiates the intervention of Satan in spiritual manifestations.
1456. “Can M. de Gasparin explain to me the appearance of Father Mario consistently with hisPsychological hypothesis in General. These are the facts which I have at present to oppose to thePsychological Rationaleof M. de Gasparin. At a future time I shall be prepared to say more to him as well as to M. de Mirville, both on mesmerism and table-turning, as well as in regard to mediums.
1457. “If the marquis and count do not respond to my call, their silence will do great injury to the cause of truth, science, and religion. It is, then, in order not to act against interests so sacred, that I take pleasure in hoping that these gentlemen will comply with my wishes.”
1458. Among the most distinguished and eloquent advocates of Spiritualism in Philadelphia, is Mr. Isaac Rehn, President of the Harmonial Society. It is said that a good countenance is a constant letter ofrecommendation. The truth of this adage is conspicuously realized in the instance of this sensible and agreeable spiritualist. There is an air of good feeling and sincerity in Mr. Rehn’s tones and expression, which would cause him to be viewed as a reliable witness before any honest and intelligent jury.
1459. The fact of mechanical movements being inducedwithout muscular contact, directorindirect, is one of the phenomena which scarcely any one will believe without intuitive proof. It will be seen that on the third of February, 1854, after I had been engaged in the investigation of spiritual manifestations for more than two months, I was still so incredulous as to employ this language to Mr. Holcomb: “You believe fully that tables move without contact, because you have seen them thus moved; I am skeptical, because I have not seen them move without human contact, although I have been at several circles.”
1460. But one of the forms of this phenomenon, which has excited the most wonder and incredulity, is that of the carrying of Mr. Henry Gordon, a medium, through the air without the contact of any mundane body. Mr. Rehn having been among the witnesses of this fact, I requested him to give me a statement of it, as well as of others of a similar kind. Subjoined is a letter, written in consequence of my request:
Philadelphia, August 1, 1855.
Professor Robert Hare:
1461.Dear Sir: In obedience to your invitation, I will proceed to make a brief statement of the more prominent facts supporting the hypothesis, that the spirits of those who once dwelt with us do still hold intercourse with mortals.
1462. During the early part of the year 1850, some friends of mine, in whom I had full confidence, stated to me the result of several intercommunions had with these mysterious agents, by which I was led to a determination to test the matter for myself; and, accordingly, on the fifth day of July, in company with a friend, I visited New York, that being the only accessible point known to us at which to gain the object of our visit. The Fox family, consisting of Mrs. Fox, Mrs. Fish, (afterward Mrs. Brown,) Catherine and Margaret Fox were then at Barnum’s Hotel, giving to the public opportunities to test the reality or imposture of the so-called spiritual phenomena. We called at the rooms of the family, and obtained a sitting during the afternoon of the same day. A dozen or more persons were present at the sitting, the result of which was the conviction that the sounds were not a deception on the part of the mediums, but the result of some occult force and intelligence, independent of the ladies themselves.
1463. Without entering into any detail of the incidents of the visit above referred to, or speculations upon the general subject under consideration, I propose to cite incidents in my own experience, which go to establish the truth of spiritual intercourse.
1464. Shortly after the commencement of the sounds in the first circle instituted in this city, and of which I was, from the first, a member, demonstrations in the form of movements of tables, chairs, and other articles commenced. Many times they were very violent, but in most instances it was necessary that the hands of the company, and especially those of the medium, should be upon the table. During the session of a circle, however, held in the afternoon—and of course in daylight—these movements became unusually violent. Two card-tables, around which the company sat, having been drawn to the centre of the floor, were thrown backward and forward with great force. After moving thus for some minutes, one of the tables started toward some two or three of the company, and pressed heavily against them, causing them to recede until they had reached the wall; the table would then retreat to the centre of the floor, and, as it were, charge some two or three more, whom in like manner it would press back. Thus it continued retreating and attacking, until the entire company were seated around at the sides of the room.
1465. Having thus cleared the floor in the central part of the room, the table rose deliberately at the side next to myself, and so continued until it had turned some distance beyond the point of equilibrium, with the evident design of performing a revolution.
1466. These and other manifestations were at the time so wonderful and strange to that part of the company present which had never before met in a circle, as to cause great terror. One lady became so much alarmed during the performance of the spirits with the table as above described, that she screamed aloud, which interfering with the requisite conditions for success, the table fell heavily upon the floor, breaking off the top.
1467. During the rising of the table on the side toward myself, I reached my hand and pressed upon it, with the view of seeing what force was employed in raising it. Upon removing my hand, it would spring up as if it were suspended from the ceiling by an elastic cord.
1468. At the time this phenomenon was occurring, a friend of mine, Mr. J. A. Cutting, of Boston, Massachusetts, being seated by my side, found himself moved, as though some one had drawn the chair on which he was sitting. He then placed his feet upon the front round of the chair, so as to entirely insulate himself from the floor, and while in this position he was raised from the floor, chair and all. This gentleman was quite large and stout, weighing, I should think, not less than one hundred and seventy pounds.
1469. I would here state particularly and emphatically, that at the time of these most violent movements of the table,no hands were upon them, nor was there any physical contact with the objects moved.
1470. At the same session, a tumbler and pitcher being upon a washstand in a corner of the room, some five feet distant from any person present, suddenly a crash was heard in the direction in which those articleswere situated. Upon examination, the tumbler was found to be broken into several hundred pieces, and what is still more strange, the pieces were not scattered around, but occupied a spot which did not exceed eight or ten inches in diameter! It seemed as if the tumbler hadcollapsed; even the bottom, thick as it was, was broken into many pieces. These facts occurred at the house of Mr. George D. Henck, dentist, in Arch street, who, with the other persons present on that occasion, will at any time corroborate these statements.
1471. On another occasion, at the house of Mr. J. Thompson, of this city, during a sitting, I requested, among other things, that the spirits would move the table without physical contact. Mrs. Thompson, Mrs. R-—-, and myself, the only persons in the room, drew back from the table, and it was then moved some six or eight inches. In addition to this, it moved from various points, and objects were retained on the table, when under ordinary circumstances, from the inclination of the table, they must have fallen off.
1472. At a sitting at my own residence, some two years since, some very strange phenomena occurred. At the close of the session, a young man, of slender frame and constitution, (Mr. H. C. Gordon,) had his hand thrown violently upon the centre of a large dining-table, weighing not less than eighty or ninety pounds. Some of the company were requested to raise Mr. Gordon’s hand from the table. This, after much effort, was accomplished, and, strange to relate, the table accompanied the hand until it was entirely isolated from the floor. This was a result which I would have doubted, had it not come under my own personal observation.
1473. About the same time, a company of persons, whose names, as far as I can recollect, I shall mention, were seated around two tables, joined together, in order to furnish room sufficient to seat the party. The house in which I then lived had two parlours, with folding doors. The two tables referred to occupied the entire length of the front parlour, leaving barely room enough for the chairs at the front end of the room; the other end of the table extended quite to the folding doors, leaving, of course, no passage on either end. It so happened that I was seated at that end of the table projecting into the doorway. The medium, Mr. Gordon, was seated about midway of the tables, on the left, the other seats being occupied by the rest of the company.
1474. After a variety of manifestations had occurred, the medium was raised from his seat by an invisible power, and, after some apparent resistance on his part, was carried through the doorway between the parlours, directly over my head, and his head being bumped along the ceiling, he passed to the farther end of the back room, in which there was no one beside himself.
1475. Although all the individuals present had not equally good opportunity of ascertaining the facts in this case, the room having been somewhat darkened, still his transit over the end of the table at which I was seated, and the utter impossibility of the medium passing out in other way than over our heads, his continued conversation while thus suspended, and his position, as indicated by the sound, with other facts in the case, leave no reasonable doubt of the performance of the feat.
1476. There were present on the occasion alluded to, the following persons, viz.: Aaron Comfort, George D. Henck, Rebecca Thomas, Naomi Thomas, Marianne Thomas, Esther Henck, Mrs. Rehn, J. S. Mintzer, M. D., and many others.
Respectfully,I. Rehn.
1477. The truth of the elevation and carriage of this medium aloft, by invisible agency, from one part of a room to another, does not depend on the testimony of one set of observers; several other respectable eye-witnesses have alleged the occurrence of a similar manifestation in their presence.
1478. One of our most zealous and eloquent spiritualists, is my friend, J. M. Kennedy. He has done me the favour, out of many striking manifestations observed by him, to communicate two, which are among the most demonstrative of a physical power and mental intelligence, and which cannot be ascribed to mortal agency. That in which the magnetic needle was moved by his request, without physical contact, is, as I conceive, pre-eminently interesting.
Philadelphia, August, 1855.
“Professor Hare:
1479. “Sir: You ask me to state some facts I have witnessed, which tended to convince my mind that the varied phenomena, occurring among us, are truly ascribable to the direct action of disembodied spirits. I will state two matters, remarking, however, that I have had other and different forms of evidence equally satisfactory to me.
1480. “About two years since, I was invited to meet a private circle to witness physical manifestations. I met them at the house of a near neighbour, whose lady is a medium. There were about ten persons present. The circle being seated, the movement of the table and tipping in answer to questions occurred. I now asked for a communication with myself, which was assented to. I then inquired if the spirits would move the table, despite of my power to hold it still, the company to withdraw from the table, excepting the medium and myself. The answer was, ‘We will!’ The company all arose, and removed their chairs; I stood up and took hold of the table, exercising my best judgment as to the use of my strength in the pending contest. The medium having placed her hand on the table, I promptly announced,‘I am ready.’ At once, the movement of the table commenced, despite of my efforts to prevent it, and having slightly pushed me backward, it began to draw me in the opposite direction. It moved entirely across the room, dragging me along with it, my feet sliding on the carpet. I resisted the motion of the table with all the power I could command, and no visible being but myself had any contact with it, excepting the medium, whose hand (nothands) was on the top of the table.
1481. “I then said, ‘If I sit on the table, will you throw me off?’Answer.Yes. I at once sat on it, and the medium placing her hand as before, I said, ‘I am ready,’ and almost instantaneously the table was turned over on its side, of course, throwing me off. All this occurred at a private house; the room was light enough to read small print, and there was entire freedom to search for trick, machinery, &c. There was to me evidence of an intelligent, invisible power, giving us the tests we suggested and asked for, to prove its presence and power.
1482. “On another occasion, there were present, at the dwelling of another friend of mine, my friend and his lady, also a lad learning business with him, and myself, the apprentice lad being the medium. We sat in the parlour in the afternoon, windows open, room well lighted.
1483. “Among other manifestations which occurred was this: I placed on the centre of the large dining-table a glass tumbler, on which I placed a compass, the needle being one foot in length. On the periphery of the compass, the alphabet, as well as the various points, was painted, and at each letter there was a small metallic pin permanently fixed. After changing the compass freely, to see if the needle worked free and true, I left it so placed that the needle pointed due north, according to the points marked therefor. We then removed our chairs from the table some distance, no one being in contact with it. My friend was on the east, his lady on the south, the medium on the west, and myself on the north side of the table. I then requested that the spirits would move the compass needle to such points as we might designate; and naming north, south, east, west, north-east, south-west, &c., perhaps, in all, nearly twenty different points, I saw the needle promptly and quickly moved to each point, as and when designated by me, and there held steadily for a brief time; and on each occasion, after having been thus held, I saw it fly back to the north point. I also requested that they (the spirits) would spellJohnby moving the needle to the letters, and I saw the needle promptly moved to the several letters required to spell the name, stopping at each, tipping and touching the small pin opposite the letter, and then immediately returning to its position due north.