Brother beloved, of ardent soul,Striving to reach a heavenly goal;Wouldst thou attain the blissful heightWhere wisdom purifies the sight;Where God reveals to humblest gaze,The bliss and beauty of his waysIncline thine ear to angels bright,Who radiant from the realms of light,For ever hover near,To offer thee, sweet words of cheer.
Brother beloved, of ardent soul,Striving to reach a heavenly goal;Wouldst thou attain the blissful heightWhere wisdom purifies the sight;Where God reveals to humblest gaze,The bliss and beauty of his waysIncline thine ear to angels bright,Who radiant from the realms of light,For ever hover near,To offer thee, sweet words of cheer.
Brother beloved, of ardent soul,Striving to reach a heavenly goal;Wouldst thou attain the blissful heightWhere wisdom purifies the sight;Where God reveals to humblest gaze,The bliss and beauty of his waysIncline thine ear to angels bright,Who radiant from the realms of light,For ever hover near,To offer thee, sweet words of cheer.
Brother beloved, of ardent soul,
Striving to reach a heavenly goal;
Wouldst thou attain the blissful height
Where wisdom purifies the sight;
Where God reveals to humblest gaze,
The bliss and beauty of his ways
Incline thine ear to angels bright,
Who radiant from the realms of light,
For ever hover near,
To offer thee, sweet words of cheer.
216. Only the first couplet in these verses differs at all from those which were given in the impromptu, the words having been too flattering for me, to have mentioned. Soon after being at the residence of a highly-esteemed friend, who is a medium, my spirit sister, who manifests much love for this lady, reporting herself, I told her of the change which I thus desired to have made. The reply was, “I give you full liberty to alter my verses; you know I never wrote two lines of poetry while in the flesh.” Miss Ellis is no poetess, still less is Mrs. P., the medium.
217. After my lecture at the Melodeon, being at the residence of Mrs. Hayden, an accomplished medium, I requested a repetition of the experiment, of which I had given an account on that occasion, in which the view of the disk was cut off from the medium, by the interposition of a screen; and Mrs. Hayden consenting, an arrangement was made so as to satisfy the bystanders, as well as myself, that the letters on the disk could not be seen by her. Under these conditions the name of Washington was spelt out.
218. I have had this test repeated under Gordon’s mediumship, as well as that of others, several times. Afterward, Mrs. Hayden sitting aloof, on making the index move successively to each letter, those required for thename of Jefferson were selected in due order, by rapping at the one in demand, as it came under the index.
219. Through the influence of Mrs. Hayden, an uncommon test was afforded by my faithful spirit sister.
220. My charming, intelligent friend, Mrs. Eustis, daughter of the late Rev. Dr. W. E. Channing, though not a believer in Spiritualism, became desirous of seeing the manifestations so much relied upon by me. Having accompanied me to the residence of Mrs. Hayden, Mrs. Eustis was sitting beside her, while through her influence my sister was making a communication by means of the apparatus described. (Plate I, Fig. 2.) When the process commenced, the hand of Mrs. Hayden was resting on the lever in the usual position, but was subsequently lifted, so as to allow Mrs. Eustis, as well as myself, to see between it and the wooden surface, without creating any apparent abatement of the power of indicating the requisite letters. (Description ofPlate I, par.e.)
221. While the process still proceeded under these conditions, Mrs. Eustis, having placed her hand upon the surface of the board lever, alleged that she felt it imparting motion to her hand.
222. Dr. W. F. Channing has since informed me that Mrs. Eustis’s account of these manifestations, as given to him, coincide with those given to him by me.
223. Sometime after this feat was performed through Mrs. Hayden, I inquired of my sister if she could not perform it through an excellent medium under whose influence communications were making at the time of this inquiry. It was replied that Mrs. Eustis being unconsciously to a certain extent a medium herself, the power of Mrs. Hayden was augmented by her presence.
224. But as respects the selection of letters without the assistance of the eyes of the medium, I have had many instances of this being done, although the facility of its performance is various, not only with different media and with different spirits, but likewise when the spirit and medium are the same: it varies with the state of the medium. I sat more than an hour with an accomplished medium, during an excessively hot evening, without receiving any communication; in consequence, as I supposed, of the effect of the heat upon her organism.
225. The interposition of water contained in a glass vase, upon the broad part of the lever actuating the index, so that the hands of the medium can touch nothing but the water, has an effect analogous to the lifting of the hand as above described, since the only difference in the conditions is, that in the one case there is air, in the other water, interposed.
226. It has been stated that, by the interposition of water, the power of actuating the index was paralyzed; yet merely warming the water enabled the manifestation to proceed, so as to empower the spirit to spell such names as were called for. (210.)
227. In one instance, I took a book from my pocket which the medium had never seen, and opened it at a page where the heading “Publisher’s Preface” was conspicuous, without allowing the medium to see any thing more than the back of the book. Holding the page exposed to the disk, the spirit spelt out “Publish—,” and then seemed unable to proceed. Meanwhile, the medium called to her little son to be quiet; forthwith the deficient letters,ers, were supplied, so as to finish the word “Publisher’s.”
228. The medium alleged that her mind was imbued with the idea that the word “publishing” was coming forth, and with a view to aid the spirit, lent some muscular aid to the letters necessary to complete that word; but attention to her child causing her mind to be withdrawn, the spirit immediately selected the letters above indited. On the same occasion I opened the same book, keeping the back toward the medium, opposite to an engraving of Jefferson: immediately, Jefferson was spelt out.
229. On my way to Boston, I visited Mrs. Ann Leah Brown, formerly Miss Fox. At about eight in the morning, I found her under very unfavourable circumstances: Mrs. Brown had been watching the previous night with a sick child. Nevertheless, considering me as an advocate of the cause of truth, a short sitting was given to me, during which my faithful spirit sister manifested herself by comparatively loud knockings.
230. Through this I learned that Mrs. Brown was not in condition to make it expedient to resort to her mediumship then, had not the necessity of attending to her sick child formed a sufficient impediment.
231. On my return from Boston, I called again on this interesting medium, and then saw a table, situated at the distance of more than a foot from her person, which was quiescent, make a movement to and fro of at least eight inches. Moreover, as I sat on the opposite side of an intervening table, I felt unexpectedly a slight touch against my leg as if by a human finger.
232. During this visit, Mrs. Brown created much interest by giving a brief account of the trials which herself and her sister had undergone, being on the one hand urged to give their services to the community, as the means of promoting truth, while on the other they were treated as impostors or jugglers. The impression left on my mind was extremely favourable as respects Mrs. Brown’s sincerity in her Spiritualism and in her goodness of heart.
233. In consequence of her invitation, I attended a circle at her house a few days subsequently, when I saw, in addition to all the usual manifestations, the following for the first time: Under a table around which the party was seated, a sheet of paper was deposited on the carpeted floor. A pencil was placed upon the paper; soon after, on examination, I found my name scrawled thereon.
234. Two small bells situated upon the floor beneath the table were rung, and subsequently it was found that one of them had been lifted and seated on the other.
235. My spirit sister has since informed me that my name was written upon the paper by my spirit friend William Blodget.
236. While at Boston, having read to a friend a communication from my father through a writing medium, I placed it in one of my pockets, and proceeded to the Fountain Inn. When there, I felt for it without success. Unexpectedly, I went to Salem by the cars, and returned the same evening. On undressing myself the scroll was missing, and I inferred that it had been lost between the place where it had been read and the inn above named, where I felt for it unsuccessfully. On going next morning to Mrs. Hayden’s, and my spirit father reporting himself, I inquired whether he knew what had become of the scroll. It was answered, that it had been left upon the seat in the car on my quitting it at Salem.
237. Inquiring of the conductor, who was on duty in the car where it had been left, he said that it had been found on the seat, was safe at Portland, and should be returned to me next day. This promise was realized.
238. On one occasion, sitting at the disk with Mrs. Hayden, a spirit gave his initials as C. H. Hare. Not recollecting any one of our relations of that name precisely, I inquired if he were one of them. The reply was affirmative. “Are you a son of my cousin Charles Hare, of St. Johns, New Brunswick?” “Yes,” was spelled out. This spirit then gave me the profession of his grandfather, also that of his father, and the fact of the former having been blown into the water at Toulon, and of the latter having made a miraculous escape from Verdun, where he had been confined until his knowledge of French enabled him to escape by personating in disguise an officer of the customs. Only one mistake was made in referring to my English relatives, respecting an uncle’s name. Other inquiries were correctly answered.
239. Subsequently, the brother of this spirit made us a visit in Philadelphia, and informed us that the mundane career of his brother Charles Henry, had been terminated by shipwreck some few years anterior to the visit made, as mentioned, to me.
240. No one being present beside myself, and the medium ignorant of Latin, my father spelt out upon the disk the words he had pointed out to me in Virgil more than fifty-five years ago, as expressive of the beating Entellus gave Dares, as described by Virgil—“pulsatque versatque;” also the word which so much resembles the sound of horses’ hoofs trampling on the ground, “Quadrupedante.”
241. A spirit of the name of Powel tendered his services, and undertook to spell Cato, but instead of that name, Blodget, my friend, occupied the disk, and spelt his own name, and afterward Cato. On the same occasion Blodget spelt out and designated words without the medium seeing the alphabet.
242. The employment of letters to express ideas neither existing in the mind of the medium nor in mine, cannot evidently be explained byany psychological subterfuge. The name Blodget being indicated by reference to the alphabet, instead of Cato, which was promised, precludes the idea that it was learned from the mind of any mortal present.
243. It must be manifest that the greatest difficulty which I had to overcome during the investigation of which the preceding pages give a history, arose from the necessity of making every observation under such circumstances as to show that I was not deceived by the media.
244. But having latterly acquired the powers of a medium in a sufficient degree to interchange ideas with my spirit friends, I am no longer under the necessity of defending media from the charge of falsehood and deception. It is now my own character only that can be in question.
245. Upon this the occurrence of the manifestation to which I am about to allude rests. (Reference to this has been made in the Introduction to this work, 115.)
246. The fact that my spirit sister undertook at one o’clock, on the 3rd of July, 1855, to convey from the Atlantic Hotel, Cape May Island, a message to Mrs. Gourlay, No. 178 North Tenth street, Philadelphia, requesting that she would induce Dr. Gourlay to go to the Philadelphia Bank to ascertain the time when a note would be due, and report to me at half-past three o’clock; that she did report at the appointed time; and that on my return to Philadelphia, Mrs. Gourlay alleged herself to have received the message, and that her husband and brother went to the bank in consequence. With the idea received by the latter, my sister’s report coincided agreeably to his statement to me. All this proves that a spirit must have officiated, as nothing else can explain the transaction.
247. The note clerk recollects the application, but does not appear to have felt himself called upon to take the trouble to get the register, which was not in his hands at the time. Hence the impression received by the applicants was not correct, but corresponded with the report made to me by my sister, which differed from the impression on my memory, and of course, was not obtained from my mind.
248. My sister having mentioned her name in the spheres, to be Queen of Flowers. I substituted this name translated into Latin in the Sicilian Mariners’ Hymn, replacing virgo by soror, the Latin for sister; seraph for mater; bonissima for piissima; carissima for purissima; and cura for ora. It then read as follows:—
248. Oh! bonissima, oh! carissimaDulcis soror, amataFlorum reginaIn cœlo cognitaCura, Cura, pro nobisCura, cura, pro nobisSeraph amata intemerataCura, cura, pro nobis.
248. Oh! bonissima, oh! carissimaDulcis soror, amataFlorum reginaIn cœlo cognitaCura, Cura, pro nobisCura, cura, pro nobisSeraph amata intemerataCura, cura, pro nobis.
248. Oh! bonissima, oh! carissimaDulcis soror, amataFlorum reginaIn cœlo cognitaCura, Cura, pro nobisCura, cura, pro nobisSeraph amata intemerataCura, cura, pro nobis.
248. Oh! bonissima, oh! carissima
Dulcis soror, amata
Florum regina
In cœlo cognita
Cura, Cura, pro nobis
Cura, cura, pro nobis
Seraph amata intemerata
Cura, cura, pro nobis.
249. As soon as this was chanted, the following reply was given through the spiritoscope, at which I was sitting with Mrs. Gourlay as medium:
250. “Dear Brother:—I answer your prayer by saying I do watch over you, and pray for your welfare. I am grateful for your remembrance, and shall strive to deserve it. O! brother, our cause is a common one, and we feel the same interest in its promulgation. I am daily striving to disseminate its truths, but can make little progress, having so much ignorance to contend against. I know that the truths of progression, with the help of a good and wise God, will ultimately prevail over all the land; but when that happy time comes to earth, your freed spirit will rove the endless fields of immortality with those loved friends who have gone a little while before. Then will we revel in delights which, in comparison with earth’s joys, are far more beautiful and sublime. I wish you could look with the eye of prescience, and see that glorious time, when all nations shall become as a band of brothers.”
251. The evidence of the manifestations adduced in the foregoing narrative does not rest upon myself only, since there have been persons present when they were observed, and they have in my presence been repeated essentially under various modifications, in many instances, not specially alluded to.
252. The evidence may be contemplated under various phases: First, those in which rappings or other noises have been made, which could not be traced to any mortal agency; secondly, those in which sounds were so made as to indicate letters forming grammatical, well-spelt sentences, affording proof that they were under the guidance of some rational being; thirdly, those in which the nature of the communication has been such as to prove that the being causing them must, agreeably to accompanying allegations, be some known acquaintance, friend, or relative of the inquirer.
253. Again, cases in which movements have been made of ponderable bodies, either without any human contact, or with such contact as could not be productive of the resulting motion.
254. Cases in which such movements of bodies have been of a nature to produce intellectual communications, resembling those obtained as above mentioned by sounds.
255. Although the apparatus by which these various proofs were attained,with the greatest possible precaution and precision, modified them as to the manner; essentially all the evidence which I have obtained, tending to the conclusions above mentioned, has likewise been substantiallyobtained by a great number of observers. Many who never sought any spiritual communication, and have not been induced to enroll themselves as spiritualists, will nevertheless not only affirm the existence of the sounds and movements, but also admit their inscrutability.
256. But we have now, in a matter-of-fact, business-like publication, by E. W. Capron, a record of the original manifestations at Hydesville and Rochester, in New York; where, as it is well known, they produced intense interest, excitement, and controversy; which gave rise to successive town-meetings, and the appointment of committees by these meetings for the purpose of ascertaining whether any other cause could be discovered for the manifestations, except the spiritual beings who assumed them to be their doings. Some of the persons appointed to make the investigation, were prepossessed with the belief that the phenomena were due to some juggling contrivance. One alleged that he would throw himself over the Genesee Falls, or prove the knockings due to humbuggery. Another alleged that the media, aware of his prepossession, would not for one hundred dollars have him on the committee; yet both these persons being put on the committee, the latter came out in favour of the inscrutability of the noise; while the former neither accounted for it, “nor threw himself over the falls,” as Mr. Capron pointedly alleges.
257. Subsequently, in the city of New York, the mystery was subjected to the ordeal of a public investigation by a number of distinguished citizens, whose reports confirmed those of the Rochester committees. Fennimore Cooper was among those appointed on the New York committee, and was the means himself of obtaining an unequivocal test. His sister’s death, which had resulted from being thrown from a horse, was correctly stated by her spirit in every particular, in reply to mental inquiries by him made.
258. Again at Stratford, Connecticut, at a house of a minister of the gospel, manifestations were made fully as striking as those which had occurred at Hydesville and Rochester, so as to establish in the mind of this estimable clergyman, and in those of many others acquainted with the facts, a belief in spiritual agency. (1667)
259. As affording support to the testimony which I have given, I deem it expedient to cite that of the Rev. Allen Putnam, formerly a Unitarian clergyman and preacher in Augusta, Maine, having been in the legislature of that State, and for some time editor of the New England Farmer. Mr. Putnam had the advantage of a theological and collegiate education at Harvard. I heard an able and erudite lecture from this worthy spiritualist, at Boston last October.
260. Mr. Putnam entered upon the investigation of the manifestations in July, 1852, nearly eighteen months before my investigation commenced. Like me, he began as an unbeliever, and was converted by communications received from the spirits of his wife and relatives, who had left this life. In a company ignorant of the fact that he had married twice, his first wife had made herself known to him, so as to create a conviction of her identity.
261. In the next place, his ancestors communicated with Mr. Putnam, so as to satisfy his mind that they were the beings they professed to be. I do not enter into the detail of the facts which created conviction in the mind of this respectable observer; my object is to show that other minds have gone through the process which has influenced mine, in order that sceptics may not “lay the flattering unction to their souls” that ’tis mymadnessspeaks infavour, not theirprejudicesthat speakagainst, the conclusions in which investigators of sound understanding have concurred.
262. Mr. Putnam alleges: “Some uncommon movements have occurred in my presence. I have seen a table moved without any visible power applied to it.”
263. The following narrative is taken from the pamphlet published by the author in question. It is quite characteristic of the variety of character found in the spheres. This juvenile spirit owed his education entirely to his schooling in the spirit world. It will be perceived that he died while yet an infant. (Page 34, Paragraph 3.)
264. “Entering a medium’s room one morning, I saw a gentlemanly, intelligent man, apparently about thirty, sitting at the table and putting questions. Soon a tiny rap was heard, and the name Natty was spelled out. ‘Who are you?’ said the man. ‘I am your brother;’ was the answer. ‘No,’ said the man, ‘I had no such brother.’ ‘You had,’ said the rapper. ‘No,’ said the man. ‘Yes,’ said the other. ‘Well, let us see,’ added the man. ‘How old were you, Natty, when you died?’ ‘Five days,‘ was the answer. ‘How long since you died?’ ‘Thirty-five years.’ The gentleman here bit his lip in thought, and said—‘I believe there was an infant brother who died before I was born, but I thought they called him Oliver.’ ‘No,’ was the response, ‘they called him Natty, and I am he.’ ‘Natty,’ said the man, ‘how do you know that I am your brother?’ ‘By love,’ he answered. ‘By love?’ said the questioner; ‘but don’t you love others as well as relatives?’ Ans. ‘We like others, and love relatives!’ ‘What,’ it was then asked—‘what is the difference between love and like?’ The word LOVE was immediately written in large letters, two or three inches long, andlikewas traced under it invery smallletters. ‘Natty,’ continued the man, ‘you are not my brother, but are some one else, attempting to impose upon me.’ ‘I am your brother,’ was the earnest rejoinder. ‘Then, will you tell me what sphere you are in?’ ‘The fourth,’ he said. ‘The fourth, ah? Now I’ve caught you—for as you died in infancy, you was fitted for the seventh sphere when you left the earth.’ ‘I have been there;’ was the response. ‘Have been there, and yet are now in thefourth! how is that? are you moving backward? coming down?’ ‘No, I am an adviser in the fourth.’ ‘Adviser! what is that? a sort of superintendent?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Oh! you are in office, then?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Do you get any pay? We pay well for such things here.’ ‘Yes, I get pay.’ ‘What pay?’ ‘The pleasure of seeing those under me progress.’
265. “I then said to the gentleman stranger, ‘Sir, you have found yourmatch, if not your brother. I think I would own the relationship;’ and in continuance I remarked, that this seemed to be a very bright, cheerful spirit; when there was written—‘I am always laughing.’
266. “My next remark was—‘Natty, I should like to make your acquaintance.’ ‘Hand out your card;’ was the instant response. Finding no card in my pocket, I wrote, secretly, on a slip of paper—‘Mr. Allen Putnam, Eustis St., Roxbury’—turned the paper over, placing the writing down upon the table, kept my hand over the paper, and asked Natty to make a copy. Instantly the medium’s hand wrote—Mr. A. P., U. St. Rox. The writing on my paper had been seen by me alone, and I was looking for a copy in full, but received only abbreviations, and those of every word, Eustis being reduced to the letter U. This closed my first interview with him.
267. “Some weeks afterward, when he was forgotten, the medium’s hand wrote, ‘Mr. A. P., U. St. Rox.—I have used your card.’ ‘Natty,‘ said I, ‘as you left the earth when very young, I would like to know how you learned the English language.’ He answered, ‘My mother knew it, I think;’ and asked, ‘Will you let my mamma come?’ ‘Certainly, with pleasure.’ And the following was written:
268. “‘My friend, you must not be angry with my darling boy. It ofttimes grieves me to have him, so pure, use such wild phrases. I am your friend, as a soldier in the cause.
Elizabeth Y-—-.’
269. “Very often this little bright spark comes out with something unexpected, amusing, or witty; but at all times he manifests a very marked disposition to be obliging and kind. Once, when his communication seemed to be closed, I said, ‘You are not going, Natty?’ ‘Yes—gone—don’t you see the dust fly?’ ‘Where,’ I asked, ‘do you pick up such phrases?’ ‘Hear ‘um.’
270. “On another occasion he said, ‘My friend, you must not put on a long face when you come to talk with supposed ghosts. You must not believe all they tell you to. You must not go to the end of the world and jump off, because they tell you to.’
271. “When once I said to him, ‘How do you go to work, Natty, to use a medium’s hand?’ He said, ‘Why, you see, we just passes a chain of light around the wrist, and that sets it to shaking. The next operation is to make it write, of course. Sometimes the words are allowed to pass through the brains. We now have such a power over this medium, that we can make her shake awfully.’ ‘Try my wrist, Natty,’ said a lady whowas present. ‘Dear, beloved aunty, I’ve got a peck of love for you, but I can’t make you trace my purified thoughts on the clean paper.’”
For those who endeavour to get rid of the evidence of respectable witnesses, such as Mr. Putnam, by representing them as dupes, and the media as impostors, it may be well to quote the following passage from the same publication: (Page 44.)
272. “Within the last fourteen months I have seen twenty-two or three different mediums—all but four of them private ones—taking no pecuniary compensation; and more than half of them are our own citizens, several of whom are now present in this assembly. I have spent very many hours in their presence. Have seen them at their homes—at my own home—and in the parlours of neighbours and friends. I have met and watched them in the broadest sunlight and at evening. Every desirable opportunity has been furnished me for detecting machinery, jugglery, or imposture, and I have faithfully, but in vain, strove to find something mundane a sufficient cause for all these wonders. That trick or humbug is sometimes attempted by pretenders to uncommon susceptibilities, no one will have a wish to deny. But very many of the mediums, private ones, are as much above these things as are the very best persons among the witnesses.
273. “One medium, an active, energetic business man, of more than sixty years, has submitted himself to be used by me at any time, however suddenly called upon, whether in his counting-room or in mine,—whether called in his shirt sleeves from the woodpile, or coalbin, or dressed up and ready for company; and I have used him and watched him daily almost, and that through several successive months. Many mediums have been watched for long periods, and under quite varied circumstances; and, though the power exerted through any of them is very far from being uniform, and though the mode of manifestation is in no two alike, yet I have seen no sign of its being anywhere applied by machinery; or of its being varied by any preparation or act of the mediums themselves.
274. “They deny, one and all, young and old, educated and ignorant alike—they all deny, and that, too, in the most private and friendly circles, where all the thoughts flow out,—they all deny that they exercise their wills at all in the production of these wonders. And I cannot rate that fairness very high which, in the face of such a fact, will persist in saying that all of it is trick, imposture, humbug. More than one hundred thousand witnesses have looked on, and yet are unable to prove to any extent the cheats alleged. More than five thousand mediums in this country unitedly and persistedly declare that they use no machinery and practice no trick.”
275. This charge is utterly futile when we see persons in affluence converted by their own mediumship, as in the case of two of my most esteemed friends.
276. My conversion was effected before I attended any public medium. To the ladies by whom it was effected my requisitions could only have been onerous, had not the desire for truth to oblige me been a strong motive for the pains which they were made to take.
277. It does not seem sufficiently understood by those who object to Spiritualism, upon the ground of the inconsistency of the opinions given by spirits, that our next state of existence is one of progression, and that we go there with all our imperfections, which are removed more or less slowly.
278. “Many men, many minds,” is an old adage: it is equally true as respects the inhabitants of the spirit world, excepting that as their elevation in that world is higher, accordance in opinion is more prevalent. In the spirits of the fifth sphere, and those above that sphere, I find little diversity in important facts or doctrines.
279. Allusion is made to this diversity in some communications from Franklin, to Mr. Putnam, which are as follows:
280. “The mortals of earth expect truth from the spirit land; they think that it is perfect, and that the angels are omnipotent. Oh, how far do they wander in the darkness of their own minds! The spirit home isprogressive, like unto this: the canting hypocrite passes into the heavens with the same thoughts; the simple babe too passes into this new-born life with all its childlike innocence. Each one has to mount the ladder of progression.”
281. “There are millions in the spirit world that know not of the existence of this planet, even as the children of this earth know not of the starry world above. But on beholding angels descend to this hidden planet, they follow, and in wonderment behold a new world, and that world inhabited. Then do they find whence they originated.
282. “Allusion has been made to the one-sided support given to Spiritualism on the part of those who admit many of the most important facts, yet do not ascribe them to the spirits of the departed. These opponents were alleged to be of different features; one ascribing them to Satan, the other disputing their spiritual origination, because agreeably to theirimperfectinformation, certain traits were found to be deficient which should exist, were the intellectual communications due to the spirits of our departed fellow-creatures. The idea of these spiritual manifestations owing their existence to Satan has already been noticed, (88,) but from the communications which will be given in this work must appear still more untenable than they have, as I trust, been proved to be. As one of the most respectable of these, who deny the existence of spirits, the distinguished Dr. Bell, of Somerville, Massachusetts, has been noticed. (110.)
283. “It is conceived that Dr. Bell’s positive evidence in favour of phenomena which he has seen, gives so much more weight in favour of the existence of spirits than his arguments on negative grounds, as to what hehappens not to have seen or learned, that I will quote here his account of the manifestations which he has described, after having observed them with great circumspection:
284. “Dr. Bell commenced (at a meeting of hospital directors) by expressing his surprise that at the meeting, last year, of so large a number of persons whose lives were spent in investigating the reciprocal influences of mind and body, scarcely a single member had given a moment’s attention to a topic directly in their path, which, whether regarded as merely an epidemic mental delusion, or as a new psychological science, was producing such momentous effects upon the world. It was now said to number over two millions of believers, had an extended literature, a talented periodical press in many forms, and had certainly taken fast hold on many minds of soberness and power. He was well aware how easily it was turned to ridicule, and that there were many who would be ready to ask, when they saw hospital directors seriously discussing the spiritual phenomena,Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
285. “But if there was any class of men who had duties in this direction, it was those of our specialty. Our reports contain the record of many cases of insanity said to be produced by it. It was important, whether true or false, or mixed, that its precise depth, length, and nature should be studied out. As is well known, mystery always loses its terrific character when boldly met and opened to the light of noonday.
286. “Dr. Bell remarked, that on his return home from our meeting at Washington, he had a peculiar wish to verify his previous observations on what are technically known as the physical manifestations of this new science. He could not pretend that he could doubt his repeated personal observations, addressed to his sight, hearing, and touch, and separated, as he believed, from any possibility of error or collusive fraud. Yet the offer, by Professor Henry, of a large sum to any person who would make one ofhistables moveinthe Smithsonian Institution, and the obvious incredulity of many of the ‘brethren,’ had induced the desire again to see some full and unequivocal experiment intable-moving.
287. “An opportunity was not long wanting. On the occasion of the visit of a well-known gentleman, long connected with the insane, and who never had seen any of these phenomena at the asylum, Dr. Bell invited him to go to a family where a medium of considerable power was visiting. The family was one of the most respectable of the vicinage, the head of it being a gentleman intrusted with millions of dollars of other people’s money, as the financial manager of a large banking institution. He and his wife had for some years been perfectly convinced of the spiritual character of these manifestations. The medium was a young lady of eighteen or twenty, of very slight figure, weighing eighty or ninety pounds, and had discovered herself to be amediumwhile on a visit to these distant relatives. A family, from character and position, more entirely beyond the suspicionof even winking at any thing like fraud or irregularity, does not exist in the world. They were so fortunate as to find the medium at home, and the circle was made of the five persons mentioned. The ordinary manifestations of raps, beating of musical tunes, and responses to mental and spoken questions, were very completely presented, as well as the movements of the table under the mere contact of fingers’ ends. Finding that things appeared very favourable to a full exhibition of what he wished to see, as evinced by the very facile movements of the table under contact, Dr. Bell proposed trying the grandexperimentum crucisof the physical manifestations—the movement of the table without any human contact, direct or indirect. He was permitted to arrange things to suit himself, and began by opening the table more widely, and inserting two movable table-leaves, which increased the length from about six to perhaps nine or ten feet. This, he felt, also gave him an opportunity to see and upset all wires and mechanism concealed, or, at least, to answer positively as to their non-existence. The table was a solid structure of black walnut, with six carved legs, the whole of such a weight that when the castors were all in the right line of motion, he could just start it by the full grasp of the thumb and fingers of both hands.
288. “The persons stood on thesidesof the table, three and two, and back from its edge about eighteen inches. As Dr. Bell is some six feet two inches in height, he averred that he had no difficulty in seeingbetweenthe table and the persons of all present. The hands were raised over it at about the same height, of a foot and a half.
289. “At a request, the table commenced its motion, with moderate speed, occasionally halting, and then gliding on a foot or two at once. It seemed as if its motion would have been continuous, if the hands above it had followed alongpari passu. On reaching the folding-doors dividing off the two parlours, and which were open, it rose over an iron rod on which the door-trucks traversed, and which projected half or three-quarters of an inch above the level of the carpet. It then entered the other parlour, and went its whole length until it came near the pier glass at its end—a centre-table having been pushed aside by one of the party to allow its free course.
290. “At request, for they during this time spoke as if to actual beings, the motion was reversed, and it returned until it again reached the iron rod. Here it stuck. The table hove, creaked, and struggled, but all in vain; it could not surmount the obstacle. The medium was then ‘impressed by the spirits’ to write, and seizing a pencil, hastily wrote that if the fore legs were lifted over the bar, they (i. e.the spirits) thought they could push the others over. This was done, and the motion kept on. Once or twice Dr. Bell requested all to withdraw a little farther from the table, ‘to see how far the influence would extend.’ It was found that whenever a much greater distance, say two feet, was reached, the movement ceased, and a delay of three or four minutes occurred before it recommenced, giving the idea that, if broken off, a certain reaccumulation of force was needful to put it in motion again. The table reached the upper end of the parlour, from which it had started, but was left some four feet from the medial line of the room. Dr. Bell expressed the thanks of the company for the very complete exhibition with which they had been favoured, but remarked that the obligation would be enhanced if the ‘spirits’ would move the table about four feet at right angles, so that the chairs would come right for their late occupants. This was immediately done, and the performance was deemed so perfectly full and satisfactory that nothing more was asked at this session.
291. “Dr. Bell was understood to say that this made some five or six times in which he had seen the table move without human contact, and all under circumstances apparently as free from suspicion as this just related. He also stated that the Rev. Mr. P., a clergyman of extraordinary sagacious perceptions and mechanical skill, took this same medium to his own house, without previous thought, where she never before had been, and where his own table, in the presence of his own family alone, went through the fullest locomotion without human touch. Dr. Bell mentioned that in his last experiment, that just narrated, the entire space moved through was over fifty feet.
292. “Dr. Bell then passed to the topic of responses to mental and verbal questions, and gave several narratives of long conversations with what purported to be the spirits of persons dead for twenty-five to forty years, in which every question he could devise relating to their domestic history, and to events in it known only to them and him, had been truly answered. Some of the subjects put mentally—i. e., without speaking or writing—had half a dozen correct replies, forbidding, of course, completely, on any doctrine of chances, the contingency of accident or coincidence, as suchmentalquestions,per se, negative the explanation of previous knowledge on the part of the medium.
293. “A brief abstract of one of these will give a general idea of their character: Dr. Bell had frequently remarked to his ‘spiritual’ friends, that if any medium could reproduce the essential particulars of a final interview which had occurred between himself and a deceased brother in 1826, he should be almost compelled to admit that it came from his spirit; because he was sure that he (Dr. Bell) never had communicated it to any living being. Hence, as it never had been known to but two persons, and was of so peculiar, well-marked a character, as not to be capable of being confounded by generalities, he should hardly be able otherwise to explain it. A few weeks afterward what purported to be the spirit of that brother narrated the essential particulars of that interview, the place where, down to the well-recollected factthat he was adjusting the stirrups of his saddle, preparatory to a distant journey, when it was held! Pretty early,however, in his investigations, Dr. Bell began to find that, however correct his spiritual conferees were, in most of their responses, the moment a question was put involving a response the truth of which was unknown to him, uniform failure occurred. Sometimes, where he believed at the time that his questions were truly answered, subsequent information had shown him that he had been mistaken. He had answers which he believed to be true, when the facts were decidedly otherwise.
294. “Pursuing this train of inquiry, he found the ‘spirits,’ while averring that they could see him distinctly, ‘face to face,’ never could read the signature to letters taken from an old file, and unfoldedwithout his having seen the writing. Yet as soon as he had cast his eye upon the signature, without allowing any one else to see it, it was promptly and correctly reproduced by the alphabetical rappings. And again, when he had made a previous arrangement with his family that they should do certain things every quarter of an hour at home—he, of course, not knowing what—while he was to ask the ‘spirit’ what was done at the instant, uniform failure occurred. He proved, too, that the theory of the ‘spiritualists’ to meet such difficulties—viz., that evil or trifling spirits interfered attheirend of the telegraph—was not tenable. For the responses just before and after these gross failures had been eminently and wonderfully accurate, and the ‘spirits’ not only declared that they saw with perfect clearness what was going on at his house, but denied that there had been any interruption or interference.
295. “Dr. Bell also gave examples where test questions, involving repliesunknownto the interrogator, had been designedly intermixed with those which were known. The result uniformly was, that the known responses, however curious and far remote, were correctly reproduced; the unknown were a set of perfectly wild and blundering errors, the responses often being obviously formed out of the phraseology of the question, as astuckschoolboy guesses out a reply!
296. “The result of the inquiries of Dr. Bell and his friends—for several gentlemen of eminently fitting talents pursued the investigation with him—was briefly this:—That what the questioner knows the spirits know; what the questioner does not know, the spirits are entirely ignorant of. In other words, that there are really no superhuman agencies in the matter at all—no connection with another state of existence; but that it bears certain strong analogies to some of the experiences ofclairvoyance, in that mysterious science of animal magnetism, as it has been protruding and receding for the last hundred years. Dr. Bell thought there was some reason to believe that the matter reproduced may come not only from the questioner, but if in the mind of any one at the circle, that it might be evolved. He made some observations upon the evidences of spirit existence, drawn from the character of the matter communicated by the mediums in a state ofimpression, when, as it is believed, spirits expressthemselves through the human agent. Of course, the quality of such composition is more or less a question of taste. Much of it is elevated, indicating high intellectual and moral capacities in the mind to which it owes its origin. Much more is absurd, puerile, and disgusting, infinitely below the grade of the human productions of the same persons from whom it professedly comes. Yet the spiritual revelation has given us nothing of such extraordinary value or novelty as to stamp it, in the judgment of unprejudiced minds, as of supermundane production. Dr. Bell alluded to a treatise which had been put into his hands by an earnest spiritualist, purporting to be the work of Thomas Paine, the author of the Age of Reason, &c., which was thought would carry conviction to anybody, as it purported to be a full explanation of the formation and changes of this earth, by one who, from hissitus, must know all about it. The truth was, that the work was the production of some mind, celestial or mundane, ignorant of the very first rudiments of chemical philosophy, in which the most ridiculous blunders were made on every page in matters which are as demonstrable as mathematics, and where, of course, the answer cannot be made that the revelation was too high for common readers. Nor does Dr. Bell believe, from his observations, that the waters from this fountain ever reach a higher level than their source. The most elevated specimen of the spiritual literature would no doubt be found in the communications from Swedenborg and Lord Bacon in Judge Edmond’s and Dr. Dexter’s first and second volumes. Yet, whoever reads the very elegant and powerful preliminary treatise of these gentlemen, which Dr. Bell thought would compare favourably with any writings of the kind ever published, would not be able to feel that Swedenborg and Lord Bacon, after their nearly one and more than two centuries’ residence, respectively, amid the culture and refined senses of the superior spheres, had more than equalled their unpretending amanuenses still in the ‘vale of tears.’
297. “Dr. Bell concluded by the expression of his full convictions that, while the faith in spirits must be given up as being connected with these facts, it was a topic, whether regarded as a physical novelty or even as a delusion, cutting deeply into the very religious natures of our people, which was worth our fullest examination.There were great, novel, interesting facts here.They had not been treated fairly and respectfully, as they should have been. The effect was, that the community, knowing that here werefacts, if human senses could be trusted at all, went away from those who should have thrown light upon the mysteries, but who would or could not, to those who gave some explanation, even if it was one which uprooted all previous forms of religious faith. He hoped that the members of this association, who were as much required to examine this topic as any order of men, except, perhaps, the clergy, would not be afraid of looking it in the face from any apprehensions of ridicule or of degrading their dignity.”
298. After giving much evidence, showing that physical movements take place without contact, and that communications were made to him which could not have ensued without controlling reason, Dr. Bell finds that in certain instances which have come to his knowledge spirits could not communicate information nor ideas which did not exist in his mind or that of some mortals present. Yet it appears that during a manifestation which my learned friend witnessed, a request to lift the legs of the table was given which did not occur to any mortal present.
299. I have already given a brief reply to these objections of Dr. Bell. Under this head I will only add my regret that my letter to the Episcopal clergy, with a sketch of the information derived from my spirit friends, had not fallen under Dr. Bell’s notice before his conclusions were published. It will be seen that the information thus alluded to is irreconcilable with Dr. Bell’s inferences. I shall, however, postpone this discussion until facts have been more fully presented to the reader. (866)
Some quotations from a work on Spiritual Philosophy, addressed to the Academy of Sciences at Paris, by James C. De Mirville.—Third Edition.
300. There is a great resemblance between the manifestations which have been described by Capron and others as having taken place at the mansion of the Rev. Dr. Phelps, at Stratford, Connecticut, and those which occurred in the Presbytery of Cideville in France, so as to be verified before a court. The facts in this last-mentioned case were verified by the testimony taken during a trial which grew out of the circumstances. Some of the witnesses were persons distinguished by their high character and position in society. None had any interested motives for stating them; but, on the contrary, had to meet the odium which falls upon all who tell truths conflicting with the prejudices of the community within which they reside. Rochefoucault correctly urged that it is more politic, to tell a probable lie than an improbable truth.
301. This impression I have seen to operate in making people backward to admit their belief in spiritual communication.
302. It is remarkable that in the case at Cideville, signals as the means of intellectual communication were employed, independently of their employment made between two and three years before in New York. Of course, those who resorted to this expedient, might have heard previously of the effort in the same way which had been successful in this countryThe signs employed, however, differed. At Rochesterone rapwas taken forno,twofordoubtful,threeforyes. At Cidevilleone rapwas received foryes, andtwoforno. At the former place, the alphabet was directly referred to; at the latter, reference was made by figures indicating the place of the selected letter in the alphabetic card.
303. Of this character is the admission of the Roman Church of the spiritual origin of the manifestations; ascribed, however, todiabolicagency. To this allusion has been already made; but I subjoin some letters and expositions, translated from a French work lately published on Mesmerism, Clairvoyance, and Spiritual Manifestations.
304. The following letters, taken from the work in question, will require no farther introduction.
305. If the Roman clergy thus advance the inference that the manifestations and intellectual communications come from spiritual agency, it will be easy for Spiritualism to show that it is vastly more devoid of diabolic malevolence and inhumanity than the institutions sanctioned by that priesthood.
306. “My Dear Sir: When you came two years ago to consult me as to the merit and propriety of your labours, I hesitated so much the less to encourage their publication, that having myself entertained the same ideas for a long time, I had been several times on the point of proclaiming them from the sacred chair. I do not fear then to affirm ‘that the publication of this important and serious work would be of incontestable usefulness, and tend strongly to enlighten opinion on a mass of curious facts, and thus prepare for the solution of high and important questions; for, I add, it is necessary that all the phases of the subject should be first presented by the laity, in order that the church may thus be enabled to form their judgment with full knowledge of the case.’
307. “I do not say enough, my dear sir, in pronouncing your workuseful; I might have called it indispensable, had I foreseen the approaching invasion of that scourge which you so happily designate as aspiritualepidemic: a scourge whose sudden and universal propagation, in my opinion, notwithstanding its appearance of puerility, will constituteONE OF THE GREATEST EVENTS OF OUR AGE. But how has it been both received and entertained?
308. “Commencing with your savans, it is impossible not to be alarmed by the obstinate incredulity which does not allow them to see what at the present time can be confirmed by anybody.Oculos habent et non vident.[9]
309. “Those individuals alarm me still more, who having given their attention, and of course seen, shake their heads as a sign of indifferenceand pity, as if the phenomenon exhibited was of a low character and beneath their notice. When they have descended to the foundation, they treat it with contempt.
310. “Then, finally, and very differently indeed, I feel myself frozen with terror by certain dispensers of truth, who, in their blindness, trifle without scruple with their most relentless enemies; so far have they forgotten their most serious teachings.
311. “I do not profess to be a prophet, sir, and do not know what the mercy or justice of God is preparing for us; but, like you, I tremble for the present, and hope for the future; for marvellous lessons are already presented to us in these passing phenomena.
312. “In fact, the justification of the church and of the faith are emanating from them: the definite condemnation of a fallen rationalism; and consequently, the approaching glorification of all the past in the true church, and even of that Middle Age, so calumniated, so ridiculed, and gratuitously endowed with so much darkness. The political events of these latter times have to justify that Middle Age, as respects good sense in the affairs of government; and behold these facts of a nature entirely foreign, coming to avenge its accusation of superstitious credulity. This reparation was necessary, and after all our own age has nothing to fear from it, for certainly it will not render injustice of any kind to the objective and useful progress of modern civilization.
313. “As for yourself, sir, you will enjoy the honour of having brought, by your luminous discussions, a large stone for the construction of this majestic edifice, and I rejoice in the encouragement I have given you. I need not enlarge on this subject,FOR SUCCESS HAS SPOKEN, and think I am sufficiently acquainted with you to know that you did not anticipate one so brilliant. You have known how to engage the attention of the learned, and people generally, by making your work attractive while it is instructive—a quality sufficiently rare to claim my congratulations. I will only add another word: had this work been confined to the notice of those phenomena whose advent we deplore, it would probably share their fate; but what will secure its perpetuity is your discussion of medical science which you put in apposition with your subject, and which will not long be able to resist the severe stricture of your logic. Therefore, be assured, it will be the learned, and especially physicians, that you will first convert to your doctrine. Philosophers will only surrender after them; but so far there is no doubt that you will have given rise to most serious reflections in all of them.
314. “I will not speak to you at present of two or three observations which I have made in reading your book, which we will discussin private, and which only relate to some inaccuracy of doctrine, foreign, besides, to the principal subject of your work.
315. “Finally, my dear sir, I do not doubt that the God of truth willbless your labours. Continue them, for the subject is vast, and especially do not suffer yourself to be discouraged by the reasoning of light minds, ‘that in divulging all these things you favour their promulgation, when they had better be suppressed, &c. &c.’ A gross error! They might as well accuse the doctors of causing the cholera. And, beside, it is worthy of remark that all the cases of insanity lately developed in the midst of these exhibitions are due to thoughtless enthusiasm succeeding to an absolute state of doubt and disbelief. It could not well be otherwise; the prodigy which was doubted yesterday, and to-day is firmly established, will to-morrow be transformed intoGod. Truth alone is able to prevent and remedy such disastrous mishaps.
Receive, my dear sir, the assurance, &c.,Le P. Ventura De Raulica,Former General of the Monks, Examiner of the Bishops and of the Roman clergy.”
316. “Sir:—You do me the honour to ask my opinion of the book onthe Spiritswhich you have just published. That opinion I have already expressed to our mutual friend, the good worthy doctor Paulin; and true it is, this book has made a strong impression on my mind, for I had arrived at similar conclusions from the examination of some magnetic phenomena andthe moving of tables. I find in your book a chain of very remarkable facts—presented, too, with talent and clearness very unusual in this sort of writing. I see, beside, that science is brought back to the path which cannot mislead us to that of the sacred writings; there, as I think, are to be found the true philosophy and the true light.
317. “I do not fancy that my opinion can have any weight with the learned world. If, however, you think proper to make this public, I consent with all my heart in behalf of a truth which you so well defend, andTHE SUCCESS OF WHICH APPEARS TO ME INFALLIBLE.
I have the honour to be, &c.,R. Coze,Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Strasbourg.”
318. “Sir:—You desire me to report to you my opinion in writing which I have formed as to the strange phenomena, to say the least of them, which have been conventionally calledtable turningand table talking. I am not the man to recoil from what I regard as a truth, whatever sarcasm may be reserved for such profession of faith, and therefore proceed to satisfy your inquiry.
319. “It is about eight or ten months since when the public of Paris was agitated by the late arrival of the fact from America and Germany; a fact which pure physics was not able to explaina priori. I did as many alwaysdo, and have no doubt done for a long time—received this account with the most determined incredulity, and, I confess, with ridicule. I considered its adepts as charlatans or as simpletons, and refused for a long time to bestow on it the least attention. I became tired of the war, however, and after hearing many affirm, to whom I could not apply these epithets, the reality of these facts, I determined to try for myself.
320. “My son and a friend were my two companions: we had the patience for forty-five minutes, seated at the table, to form what is called the chain, and were not a little surprised, I assure you, to see at the end of that time the table on which we were operating, and which was merely the parlour dinner-table, begin to move, and after some hesitation to contract a rotary movement, which, accelerating, soon became very rapid. We endeavoured by pressing to make it strike against the bar and arrest its motion, but could not succeed.
321. “After repeating the experiment two or three times, I sought to find some cause in physics for the movement, and battled the whole theory of Electro-Dynamics with the aid of an electroscope, compass, iron-filings, iron, &c. As I could not detect the least trace of electricity, I thought then of impulses due to the volition of the operators, and of which a sort of integration might cause the motion of the table. On that I stopped, and for several weeks did not give the smallest attention to a phenomenon which did not seem to merit any further notice.
322. “Finally was commenced the faculty oftalking, and I assure you my incredulity was considerably greater than when its moving power was announced. I was sparing, however, in my epithets, for I soon found myself an investigator. I watched the rogues, as I suspected, for two hours, but left the room a full believer of its reality, without any further examination, confirmed too by all subsequent experiments. (1.)
323. “What could be said indeed of the fact witnessed together, that a crayon, which was fastened to the leg of a table, wrote legible words, while we were pressing it down with our hands?
324. “It was then, sir, that your book fell into my hands. I have read it with the most lively interest; have admired your erudition, and the courage necessary at our epoch to treat such a subject.
325. “I believe in the existence of facts which often volition is unable to produce, and over which I declare that volition sometimes appears to have a manifest influence. I believe in the intervention of intelligenceDIFFERENT FROM OUR OWN, and which puts in action means almost ridiculous.
326. “I believe that the Christian religion should not encourage the practice of these experiments. I believe there is danger in allowing them to become a habit, and at least we may lose the little reason which has been granted man by the Giver of all things. I believe, finally, that it is the duty of an honest man to dissuade others from occupying themselveswith it, in preaching, by example, and not allowing it in the least to occupy himself.
327. “This is the end I have reached after some months’ experience; and, ask permission to close this letter, already too long, by repeating a very wise saying of a man of high intelligence: ‘Either these phenomena are, or are not real; if not, it is disgraceful to lose time with them; if they are, it is dangerous to invoke them and to make them a pastime.’
Please accept, &c.,F. De Saulcy,Member of the Institute.”
[See New York Reformer, September, 1853.]
“We find the following article in the London Illustrated News of July 23; it is an extract from the News’ Paris correspondence:—
328. “‘An immense sensation was caused here, a few days since, by a revelation given on the authority of some of the most respected and influential members of the clergy, headed by the Archbishop of Paris, on the subject of table movements. The archbishop, being questioned as to his opinion of the legitimacy, in a religious point of view, of attempting to communicate with spirits through the medium of the tables, alleged that he had not sufficiently studied the question to reply definitively; that he imagined that the effects produced were wholly of the nature of physical science, and in that case harmless; but that, in order to form a judgment, he would attend a meeting composed of certain members of the clergy, at a place appointed to make the usual experiments.
329. “‘The table being put in motion, one of the party demanded it in reply, by a certain number of raps, if there were a spirit present. The response was in the affirmative; and in answer to a second question, the spirit represented herself, by raps indicating certain letters of the alphabet, to be that ofSœur Francoise, deceased a week previously at the convent of -—-, Paris. The Abbe B-—- stated that he had confessed theSœur Francoise, who had, in fact, died at the time and place named. General consternation, as may be supposed, ensued when the Abbe L-—-, rising, commanded the spirit in the name of the Saviour to appear.
330. “‘The report declares that the spirit hereupon actually became visible, and replied to a variety of questions put to it, but of what import we are not informed. On the above details we do not pretend to give either explanation or opinion.
331. “‘Such is the story as related by the members of theSeance, two of whom were so affected by the events related as to be some days seriously indisposed, one of them even confined to bed.
332. “‘Various narratives mention that, through the medium of the tables, communications are held with spirits of all nations. The spirits, happily, being excellent linguists, find no difficulty in expressing themselves in any language chosen by the questioner, and reveal the secrets of the prison-house with a frankness, not to say indiscretion, that would shock the more reserved ghost in Hamlet, in no way confirming his statement of the horrors of their temporary abode. Many of them describe in glowing terms the beauties and delights of their celestial abodes.’”
Thefollowing contribution, under the preceding head, is translated by my much esteemed friend, Dr. Geib, from the work of De Mirville, whence the articles under the designation ofForeign Coroborative Evidencehave been obtained through the same able translator:
333. “Toward the end of the year 1852 the epidemic had been imported into the North of Scotland by some American mediums; thence it got to London, where, according to the latest accounts, it must have reached, by the present time, a pretty extensive development. Seeing its progress in this way, we were led to say, If it ever reaches Germany, that whole country will be on fire.
334. “The religious gazette of Augsburg of June 18, 1853, contained an article from which we make some extracts:
335. “‘Again the world is presented with various marvellous appearances, which, coming from elevated sources, force themselves on public notice, and which, in every case, throw a very marked shadow on our own epoch of civilization. It may be appropriate to communicate some of those found in theGazette Générale; and leaving reflection to the reader, we will give some of the most striking.
336. “‘The Morgan Blatt(Morning Sheet) announces among its novelties from Palatinat Rhénan, the phenomenon of a young girl not yet pubescent, who, they say, is able at will to command arapping spectre, (Klopferle.) The spectre raps as often as the little girl orders him, being obedient in the extreme. What is remarkable is, that the spectres of the Old World, as well as the New, have astrong family likeness, being as much alike as two drops of water. And the Tribune of New York, printed in the German language, has lately contained various communications on this subject. But whence come these rapping spectres, and why make their appearance all at once?’
337. “The Gazette of Augsbourg then refers to several other facts of the same nature, which, at all times, have caused much embarrassment to the German authorities, either in giving rise to lengthy inquests, or in causing the condemnation of persons proved afterward to be entirely innocent; but as for those of the present time, it fully understands, proclaims, and demonstrates them to be of theAmerican Affiliation.
338. “TheJournal du Magnetismeof the 10th of March, 1853, had already furnished us with the reported account given in the course of last January to the tribunal of London, by therapping spiritof the house of Sanger; the same phenomena, the same stupefaction, the same impossibility to discover the jugglers. However, the subject appeared to rest at this point in Germany, when, in the month of April, the first phenomenon oftable movingreached Bremen, and then theAugsbourg Gazetteinsisted on its true origin.
339. “‘For eight days previous,’ it said, ‘our good town has been in an agitation difficult to describe; it is completely absorbed by a miracle which was not thought of before the arrival of the steamer from New York—the Washington. Thenew phenomenon is imported from America.’
340. “Now a certain Doctor André was the first to describe this first exhibition of table turning; therefore they called it hisdiscovery. What a discovery!
341. “‘Having formed a chain,’ he says, ‘of seven or eight persons, therightlittle finger of each touching theleftone of his neighbour, the table they surround will commence turning, and continue as long as the chain remains unbroken, and stop when an individual leaves it.’
342. “A general burst of pleasantry and incredulity first accompanied the revelation of the doctor. But soon experiment begins, and laughter gives place to a sort of dejection. Certain savans, professors of the University of Heidelberg, MM. Mittermouer and Zoepfl, M. Molh, brother of the member of the Institute, Eschenmajer, Ennemoser, and Kerner, attest the same facts; and Doctor Lœwe of Vienna undertakes to give the theory of it: ‘This theory consists, according to him, in the opposite polarity of the right and left sides of the human body; hence, having formed a chain of human beings, the contrary poles of which, viz. the right and left, touch each other, and this chain, exerting upon any body whatever a prolonged action, conveys to it an electric current, and converts it into a magnet, and thus polarization is established in that body; and in virtue of its tendency to magnetic orientation, the south pole of the table impressing it with a movement to the north, the latter commences a continued rotation, and turns on its axis as long as the indispensable conditions are continued.’