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LIGHTS AND SHADOWS
SPIRITUALISM
LIGHTS AND SHADOWS
SPIRITUALISM
Bv D. D.
" Light
S/^COXD
more light
HOME
"
!
Goethe
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cS:
CO., Limited,
26,
PVrERNOSTER ROW
1S78
[,i//
R lights rcsct-ved\
IVY LANE
tti'JC.
PSYCH.
TO MY WIFE,
Whose
loving sympathy and constant care have soothed
many hours
of trial and pain, and
aided
mo
l)Iace
a much-insulted
in
composing a work, the end and aim of which
what she
is,
I,
in
whose superior counsels have

is
to
Truth on a plane where honest lovers of
such Truth would not have cause to blush

to be
mo
a Christian
and a
IN AFFECTION
in
avowing themselves
Spiritualist,
AM) KSTKEM,
DttJicate
THIS BOOK.
286
CONTENTS.
PAET
I.
ANCIENT SriRITUAI.LSM,
CHAPTER
THE FAITHS
01'
spiritualism as old as mu- Planot.
I.
ANCIKNT PEOPLES.
PAOK
Fjights
and Shadows
of Piigaii
Times
CHAPTER
II.
ASSYIUA, CHALDEA, EGYPT, AND PERSIA.
" Ghaldca's Sccrs were good."

(113.
The
Prophecy of Alexandor'a Death.
Shadow of
Sethon and Psammetithe Pyramids.

Prophecies regarding Cyrus. The " Golden Star " of Persia .
Spiritualism in the
CHAPTER
INDIA
III.
AND CHINA.
ApoUonius and the Brahmins. The Creed of "Nirvana."

and Confucius. Present Corruption of the Chinese
CHAPTER
liao-tsi;
.
^0
IV.
GREECE AND ROME.
Famous Spiritualists of Hellas. Communion between World and

World Three Thousiind Years ago. The Delj)hian Oracle. Pausanias
and the Bj'zantinu Captive. " Groat Pan is Dead." Socrates and his
Attendant Spirit. Vespasian at Alexandria. A Haunted House at
Athens. Valcns and the Greek Theur-nsts. The Days of the Ca-saiM
Tlic
27
CONTENTS.
VUl
PART
II.
SPIRITUALISM IN THE JEWISH AND CHRISTIAN ERAS.
CHAPTER
I,
THE SrmiTUALISM OF THE
BIBLE.
I'AciK
Science versus Religion. Similarity of Modern and Ancient Phenomena. The Siege of Jerusalem. '' The Light of the "World."
Unseen Armies who aided
in the
Trinmiih of the Cross
CHAPTER
...
51
II.
THE Sn RITUAL IX THE EAKLY CHRISTIAN" CHURCH.

Sign8 and "Wonders in the Days of
Poly carp.
Faith.
The
Eetum
the Fathers.
Evagrius
The Philosophy of Alexandiia
of
CHAPTER
Martyrdom of
Augustine's
Death.
after
71
III.
SPIRITUALISM IX CATHOLIC AGES.
The
Countei-feitiug of Miracles.
selle
Periier.
Saints.
The
Tomb
St. Bernard. The Case of MademoiAbbe Paris. The Lives of the
of the
Levitation. Prophecy of
the Death of Ganganelli
CHAPTER
8.5
IV.
THE SHADOW OF CATHOLIC SPIRITUALISM.

<
'limes of the Papacy.

.Alai-tyrdom of
Joan
The Record of the Dark Ages. Mission and

of Arc. The Career of Savonarola Death of
Urban Grandier
CHAPTER
Knd
OG
AXI) CAMISARDS.
Arnaud's
of the Alps. Ten
The Deeds of Laporte and Cavallier. The Ordeal of Fire.
Centuries of
Israel
March.
V.
THE SPIRITUALISM OF THE WALDEXSES
The
of the Cevennois
War
Persecution.
126
CHAPTER
VI.
I'llOTESTANT .si'UUTf ALIbM.
and Satan. Calvin. Wisharl's

Martyrdom. AVitcluTaft. Famous AurountH of Appaiitioiis.
rrocinsovs of
tlic
HuTiyaTi, ]'\)x,
Krfoniiation.
.........
and Wesley
)>A(1K
T.iitluT
CHAPTEK
.THE SriKIlUALlSM
Ol'
143
VII.
CKIUAIN GREAT SEERS.
"The Ivcveriosof Jacob Bclrmcn." Swcdenborg's Character and Te;iehings.

Narratives regarding his Sijiritual Gifts. Jung-StUliug.
His Unconquerable Faith, and the Providences accorded Ilim.
Zschokke, Uberlin, and the Secrcss of Prcvorst
TAET
102
III.
MODERN SPmiTUALISM.
CHAPTER
I.
INTKODVCTOKV
177
CHAPTER
II.
IJELUSIOXS.
Two ex-Reverends claim to be the Witnesses

John. "The New Jerusalem." A .Strange Episode in
the History of Geneva. "The New Jlotor I'ower." A Society
formed for the Attainment of earthly Immortality
American False Prophets.

foretold
by
St.
CHAPTER
....
190
111.
DELUSIONS [continued).
Allan Kardec's Communication

Fancied Fvocation of the Spirit of a Sleeper. Fallacies
of Kardecisra. The TheosOphical Society. Its vain Quest for Sylphs
and Cinomcs. Chemical Processes for the !Manul'actuie of Spirits.
'J'he
Revival of Pythagorean Dreams.
after Death.
ilagician
Wanted
223
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER
IV.
PAIIIC
MANIA
21;)
CHAPTER
V.
PEOPLE FROM THB OTHER WORLD.
Pseudo-Investigator.
was
Gropings in the Dark. The Spirit whose naniL-
Strange Logic and stranger Theories
Yusof.-
CHAPTER
SCEPTICS
Mistaken
washing of Ethiopians
Spii-itualists.'
AND
Libels on the
.
CHAPTER
'2;>2
VT.
TESTS.
Spirit- World.
.
The
Wliitc.
'lid
VII.
ABSURDITIES.
Greek meets Greek." The Spirit-Costume of Oliver Cromwell.

Distinguished Visitors to Italian
A Servant and Prophet
A Ghost's Tea-party. A Dream of Mary
of God. Con^-ivial
Stuart. The Ideas of a Homicide concerning his own Execution. An
Exceedingly Gifted INIedium. The Crystal Palaces of Jupiter.
incarnative Literature. The Mission of John King. A penniless
Archangel. A Spirit with a Taste for Diamonds. The most wonder-
When
si'auces.
Spirits.
Hc--
ful
Medium
in the
World
2'X.
CHAPTER
TRICKERY AND
ITS
VIII.
EXPOSURE.
The Concealment of
IJope-tying and Handcuffs. Narratives of Exposed Imposture. Various Modes of Fraud
Dark
Stances.
Letter from Serjeant Cox.
'Spirit-drapery.'
CHAPTER
TRICKERY AND
ITS
IX.
EXPOSURE
[continued).
Tlu! Passing of Matter through Matter.

"Spirit-brought" Flowers.
Tlu; ordinary dark Seance.
Variations of " phenomenal " Trickery.
" Spii-it-Photography." Moulds of ghostly Hands and Feet. Baron
Kirkup's Experience.
The
reading of Sealed Letters
<')24
cox TENTS.
CHAl'TER
THE HIGHEn ASPECTS OF
'I'iie
Tlieological Heaven.
with
'
faiiiiis
I^.jM.'
ill
Geneva
XI
X.
SriUITUAT.lSM.
Story regarding a Coffin.
An
I'AOE
luciileiit
..........
London Drama.
lilackwood'f Magazine
and soiwo
;;7
ClIAPTER XL
THE HIGHER ASPECTS OK SPIHITCALI6M
(coilfillUed).
"S(rlla"
AiiiADix
396
............
40,5
LIGHTS
AND SHADOWS OF
PAET
SDIRITUALTSM.
I.
ANCIENT SPIRITUALISM.
CHAPTER
I.
THE FAITHS OF AXCIENT PEOPLES.
Theke descend
to us,
among
the fragmentary records vrbicli, with
shattered temples and decaying
cities,
form the only remaining
proofs that such nations as the Assyrian and the Egyptian were
once great upon the earth,
which
earlier
light
many
evidences of the vividness with
from another world broke in upon
ages of our
Eveiy
own.
spiritual
man
during the
phenomenon which
has in the present day startled the Christians of the West was,
centuries
common
ago,
familiar
to
the
On
Pagans of the East.
tho
foundation of a belief that spirit visits were neither few
nor far between every mythology of those far-back times was

based.
The most superhuman
virtues,
and abominable crimes, of
Chaldean, Phoenician, Egyptian, Hebrew, Greek, and Roman, arc

ti-aceable to
For then,
a spiritual source.
as since, the
the truth that
man
cannot "
lives eternally,
was
at times largely perverted to evil.
side with noble natures,
made
die, to
live
yet higher and purer by
with high and pure minds that no longer tenanted the
demons doing the behests
of
demons
B
good of
again," but, living once,
evil creatures of
Side
by
communion
flesh,
were
both sexes,
A.\'CIENT SPIRITUALISM.
and
ages and conditions, wlio, instigated by spirits
all
worked ceaselessly
By
to
with
intercoui'se
grave
of their
men seeking
brethren had
and nations, and the dark
times
all
with
brightened
Through intercourse with

sacrifice
assurance of immortality
spirits the cheerful
was perpetuated through

vestibule of the
fouler,
still
the earth with bloodshed and uncleanness.
fill
awful
appease imaginary
to
birth.
rite
of
human
by the murder
deities
was natural
It
from beyond.
glory
also the
spirits
when,
that
at the
touch of the departed, the clouds that^veil our hereafter shrank
away, man, gazing on the newly revealed morning-land, should
Thus the power
imagine he saw gods walking there.

for
good and
evil
the Greeks rushing
The
became immeasurable.
down upon
of the spirits
valiant phalanx of
the Persian multitude at Marathon,
every breast thrilling with the thought that around thronged the
spirits of their ancestors,
a,nd encouraging
them
and the
deities of their nation, inspiring
The same Greeks,
best phase of spiritual influence.
hewing
example of the
to the combat, supplies an
in pieces or burying alive
unhappy
captives,
would, they supposed, win them favour in the sight of
may
crringly exalted into deities,
of
faith
which
Even when we know

that
return of
the
primaaval
else of
little
corner-stone
the
evil
of
departed.
its
beings
stand as an instance of the worst.
dark and the bright phases alike witness
But the
intensity
solemnly-
whose torments
man had in the

a nation we know
mythology
Heroes and
Avas
to
the
invisible.
generally
a belief
in
sages were not,
the
Vvhen
death snatched them, lamented as having for ever passed awa}'.
Their
served
spirits
:
at
hovered
still
above the land they had loved and
times visibly appearing to
the
they were adored, counselling them in the

leading on their hosts to victory.
posterity
moment
If a spirit
by whom
of danger, or
were frequent
in his
appearances and mighty in the services he rendered, he speedily
became worshipped as a god.
Again,
when
only in the presence of certain persons could

selves, these
mediums were
Immortal man
is
was discovered
spirits
The
that
manifest them-
set apart, 'and priesthood
immortally ambitious
mislead and be misled.
it
peculiarly
had
its origin.
liable also to
priest speedily aspired to bo the
FAITHS OF AXCIKXT IFiOPLKS.
'HIE
romulcr of a sect
or government.
of tliem
the
builder up
some system
of
He walked among men
as ono with
clothed with distinctive garments
of
tlict)lo!::;y
tbcm but not
hedged round by the
From among
sanctity of mysterious rites.
--,
the invisibles
who
surrounded him he selected as his peculiar guardians and guides

those whoso
wore agreeable
counsels
dubious impression of the majority of
find altars dripping with
as
ruthlessly,
human
acceptable
with licentiousness
luted
blood
offerings
;
all
communion between world and world

with
-alike
men were
gods
the
so.
temples pol-
'?
It
now, the messengers of God
the most
abuses for which spirits
the beings anciently wor-
If
by
devils
beings depraved to the lowest pitch, then
might be accounted
war butchered
sprang from the abuses of
Were
blamablc.
shipped as gods in reality devils
human
prisoners of
to
in
we have knowledge we
the most unblushing vice
These things
systematic cruelty.
and mediums
spirits
ancient days, that in every land of which
It leaves a
his soul.
to
we understand
many probably
not to be doubted that then, as
is
high, holy, and
pure
spirits
con-
stantly
watched over and communicated with the better children of
earth.
But
to that
end mediums were necessary, and the mediums
were usually ambitious and often depraved.

servants of the spirits, they foohshly and
The
govern them.
entreaties
and admonitions of
were neglected and contemned,
and seemed
who
to
Loth
until
to be but the
uselessly aspired to
their
good angels
these in grief held aloof,
The dangerous beings
have forsaken the earth.
counselled pleasant things, and, while seeming pliant to the
slightest Avish, held their victims firmly to
reigned almost unchecked.
the service of
evil,
Dwellers in darkness, they desired,
with the malignity of unrepentant wretchedness, that souls yet on

earth should enter the spirit-realm tainted with a leprosy deep as
their
own.
Through
priests, nation
God
to
after
their
fancied masters and real tools, the
nation was led
away from
What
worship his creatures.
faith in the
Ono
were,
the
these deities
records that have descended to us irrefragably prove.
Eesembling
men, they are depicted as possessing the passions and attributes

of fiends.
In every mythology
it
B 2
was a
cardinal point that to
ANCIENT
SPIRITC'ALIS.}r.
was necessary.
avert their wrath hlood
Fearful penalties were-
Among^
denounced against such as offended these pseudo-gods.
the light lively peoples of the South of Europe the idea of punish-
ment
took the shape of confinement in silence and
after death
eternal night
faces looking
with sterner nations
that have disgraced our
own
age
very foundations of society,
inculcated
by these
doctrines which
its filthy
deities
unhappy
a vision of
The infamous doctrines

seek to sap the
and, taking from love
beautiful and endearing, leave only
were
was
it
up from a hurning tomb.
all
that
is
and debasing mockery
enforced in their temples by
precept and example, and disseminated through nations with the
What
effects of a pestilence.
society
was two thousand years ago
Good, and good
history witnesses but too well.
The
almost to have fled from the earth.

All temples of all deities
everj'where.
eye of heaven
many
spirits,
seemed
servants of evil were
had become offences to the
The
plague-spots of bloodshed and Hcentiousness.
accepted, as they have in
all
ages done, the deities offered ta
them, and, obedient to their behests, cultivated the
The
nature and carefully repressed the good.
evil of
man's
and
intelligent
gifted perceived that, living or fabled, the beings to
whom
the
nations erected temples were assuredly not gods, and the creators
of the
universe
creatures
of
but
scale
themselves moved.
monsters of the imagination,
either
somewhat
They sought
beneath
that
grew
to
its
happiness of man.
Then the
began once more to
stir.
was the nadir of the morality and
zenith,
ness and convulsed with
At length the
life.
That period when the Eoman
an unendurable height.
power had attained
or
they
refuge accordingly in epicurean
negation, and attention to the things of this

evil
on which
forces of
Upon an
strife
good
in the invisible
world
earth enervated with wicked-
upon nations where the most
hideous vices stalked the land openly and unashamed
upon
nations where the stake, the cross, and the scourge were in hourly
use,
and where man plotted how to be most inhuman
man
upon the century of
Tiberius,
Messalina, Agrippina, and Locusta,

-Christian gospel
dawned.
Founded
the
Caligula,
to his fellow-
and Nero,
of
great awakening of the
in miracle, attested
by prodigy,
THE
OF AXCIEXT PEOPLES.
FAIJ'liS
Spread by apostles "wliose touch healed the

caused the
maimed
sick,
become whole, and the
to
whose words
cripple to arise
and
walk, and to whose eyes was revealed the whole radiance of the
l'nseen,it conquered rapidly region after region, setting at defiance
and the common, and discovering by burning proofs
the possible
that the ladder which Jacob beheld
was but
faintly typical of that
immortal one stretching, from earth to heaven by which multitudes of the departed have in
all
ages continually ascended and
<lescended.
I
have said that since the founding of our world communion
with another has existed, and that in every fragmentary history

of an ancient nation
its
Among
tokens peep through.
the very
lew legends that Time has floated down to us respecting the

mysterious Etruscans
is
one which ascribes to them devotion to
magic, and the power of raising the dead.
Their cognate race,
the almost equally mysterious Phoenicians, had in the highest
both in
degi-ee the belief
and beneficent
evil
evocation by means of wild and complicated
of whose mythologies
the Scythians
iSarmatians appear
and the
faith.
and
in their
Other nations,
but the most slender scraps have been
down
liauded
spirits
rites.
In France and our
for
example, the Gauls, the Teutons
also to have cherished this universal
own
isles the
Druids were acquainted
with the phenomena of clairvoyance and animal magnetism

cultivated the trance,
into futurity.
The
Persia, of Greece
spiritualism.
the
Hebrew
the head
and through visions sought

Egypt, Assyria,
histories of
Chaldca and
in
In a later portion of this work I shall dwell upon
of ancient
It will
be sufficient that at present
spiritualism,
named
devote
my
spirits,
witnessed in our
I,
attention
under
to
the
that I bring from the storehouse
history the best-attested incidents illustrating the
struct
they
an insight
and Home, of India and China, are steeped
annals.
countries already
men and
for
communion
of
of
and make
clear their relation to the phenomena,
own
I confess that
age.
from the imperfect
it is
impossible to con-
relics of ancient chroniclers narratives of
such weight and authenticity as are available from the rich materials
of
more modern times;
but
enough remains
to
anqly
ANCIKX'J' SPIRITUALISM.
f)
illustrate
and
introduction to
verify
my
whatever I Lave already asserted
task.
I shall seek to
show
in
this
that the occurrences-
received with stuhborn incredulity in the nineteenth centurj- Avere

familiar to the
first,
and perhaps equally familiar
anterior to the Christian era.
supermundane entertained by
ages,
and rank as
spiritual
Hesiod and Pindar

Tacitus
belief in
the
the mightiest minds of these ancient

believers
as Alexander
to centuries long
I shall point to the
such giants as
and Csesar
as Cicero, Seneca, Pliny, Plutarch,
Homer,
as Virgil
and
and a hundred more.
Finally,
having pointed out the vivid resemblance which the
spiritual
phenomena
of to-day, I shall
of the past bear to the spiritual
call
phenomena
attention to the fact that the outbreaks
of evil which of old convulsed the earth, were heralded by just
such clouds
come
as, at first
no bigger than
man's hand, have rapidly
to overcast the present spiritual horizon.
CHAPTER
II.
ASSYraA, OHALDEA, KCiYPT, AND PKRSIA.
Tin; uncountable j'oars that have elapsed since Xinus shared his
sceptre Avith Semirainis, and the
of the
Tower
of Belus, have
sage watched on the summit
first
but whirled away with them into
all
oblivion the history of the Assyrian realm
From
ancient world.
the
mightiest of the
the scanty fragments of Berosus, and the
more copious remains of Herodotus, together with the Hebrew

do we
scriptures,
remarkable people
recounts
From
unless
what
knoAvn to us of this
is
dare trust the Greek historian
added
disinterred Xineveh
to
our knowledge of this antique race.
come
to
us the pictures, the picture-
and the sculptures of the mighty Assyrian warriors
scourges of
who
The researches of Layard and Smith, indeed,
men.
late greatly
A\Titings,
glean
we
Semiramis invaded India with an army of two
that
millions of
have of
chielly
;
neighbouring nations.
all
We
have by
their
the
own
hands portraits of the men who devastated Egypt, and carried the
Ten Tribes
power over
we know
Hebrews
of the
was the Assyrian
their fellow
little
respected by
men
all
for
camp
by
late
of an angel
Sennacherib's
terrible
their
gift
of looking into the future.
of the division of the Assyrian empire our infor-
power recorded
confirmed
more
Of the most ancient among them
men.
Pre-eminent
mation begins to increase.

spiritual
And, formidable as
priests wielded a yet
save that they Avero devoted soothsayers, and
With the period
into captivity.
soldiery, the
the
researches
who
army
in
Hebrew
the
is
that awful instance of

annals,
and apparently
passing above the Assyrian
destroyed silently, and in a single night,
of a
hundred and eighty thousand men.
AXCJEXT SrJ RITUALISM.
We know
from Ilcrodolus and others that when the Babyloiiian
empire was in the glory of
its
sages had also attained
zenith.
man had
its
pov/er, the influence of the Chaldean
Every
which
secret of nature
unveiled, the whole knowledge then acquired respecting
was locked
the visible and the invisible,
famous philosphers.
They held
bosoms of these
in the
Babylonian commonwealth
in the
a station equally dignified with that held in a neighbouring country

l)y
They guided the
the powerful magicians of Egypt.
of the
young
just entering
upon
this present
life
the passage of the old just departing to another.

their es^êcial study, and,
by
The astronomers
stars.
and nineteenth, and the astrologers

teenth
centuries
nightly searched the Assyrian heavens.
lonian
empire
fell
They
before
the
of the eighteenth
predecessors
inquiring spirits, Avho from the summit of the
survived.
to
of the sixteenth and seven-
recognise
alike
a.d.,
what they believed
Especially were they famous
be a complete system of divination.
watchings of the
Futurity was
comparing and interpreting
diligent
of dreams and prodigies, they had established
for their
footsteps
they smoothed
shafts
of
those
in
Tower of Belus
Even when
the Mede
the Babythe
magi
flourished in Babylon in unchecked power, from
the era of Cyrus to that of the Darius
and they made one of
whom
Alexander subdued,
most remarkable prophecies
to
the
At the distance of three hundred furlongs from the great
city
their
Macedonian hero himself.
Alexander was encountered by a deputation of the most famcus
These warned him that he should on no account presume
magi.
to enter Babylon, as the gods

v/alls
he must assuredly
moved by
die.
had decreed that once within the
So deeply
this prediction that, while
]3abylon, he
himself encamped
furlongs from the walls.
at
Vvâs
the conqueror of Asia
sending his chief friends into

a
distance
of two
But the Grecian philosophers
hundred
who accom-
panied him, the doubting disciples of Anaxagoras and others, went

into the King's presence,
cifaced
from his mind
all
and by their
respect for the
Alexander entered Babylon, and

his fathers.
in a
lively ridicule temporarily
wisdom
of the Chaldeans.
few months was gathered
to
Various other omens had foreboded the disappearance
.LXC/ENT
of this
sifter
roy;il
SJ'/RJVl'A/./S.]/.
moteor from the earth ^vhich
lie
Shortly
astonishcil.
tho maL^niliccnt obsequies of his favourite Hepbaostion, a
Babylonian who bad been placed in coniinement was found by tho
King dressed
and seated on the throne.
in the royal robes
man who had
ander, amazed, demanded of the
The intruder answered simply
act.
found himself there."

to death
but the
to
to this
bow ho
bo knew not
V^y the advice of the soothsayers
omen sank deeply
Not long afterwards he

flotilla,
that, "
Alex-
him
advised
be was put
into the conqueror's mind.
sailed forth,
accompanied by a small
view the harbour of Babylon.
Alexander's vessel was parted from the rest.
storm arose, and
After tossing on the
waters for several days refuge was found in a narrow creek choked
The King's diadem was plucked from
with overhanging shrubs.

his
head by a projecting bough, and flung into the Avaves.
swimming from the

his
own brow
more speedily
the
Alexander and the Chaldeans
this
ominous, and be was counselled
At the
feast
to
A sailor
and placed
vessel recovered the crowm,
reach the ship.
it
on
Both by
second prognostic was considered

to ofler
sacrifices
which accompanied tho proposed
to the gods.
rites
the
great
-conqueror quafl'ed at a draught a huge goblet of wine, sighed,
appeared smitten with an overwhelming sickness, and was assisted

forth to
bis
Two
deathbed.
philosopher, had,
days before, Calanus, an Indian
on ascending his funeral pyre, announced to
Alexander that the
latter
must prepare
to speedily follow
him
to
the Shades.
The philosophy
of
Egypt
divides
with that of Chaldea the
honour of being the most ancient of which we moderns have

luiowledge.
So many centuries have been numbered with the
past since even the decay of either of these civilisations, that
it
almost ranks with the impossible to decide on which nation the

light of learning first
such as that evidence
dawned.
is,
The preponderance
inclines to the side of
of evidence,
Egypt.
Zonaras,
indeed, asserts that the Egyptians derived their mythology from

the Chaldeans, but this
any
modern researches
case, incontestible that the
and the most magnificent
contradict.
It is, in
Egyptian priesthood was the wisest
of the ancient earth.
In dignity they
AXCIENT SPIRITUALISM.
10
equal to
Avcre
theii-
surpassed them.
brethren of Chaldea, in wisdom they even
What
awful ruins of
their temples were, the
Karnac, the city of shrines, even
sphynxes extend for miles
now
the desert
The avenues
witness.
whose massiveness no other nation can
of
crested with columns
is
In these stupen-
equal.
dous recesses was once hived that wisdom a few fragments of

which, despite the sleepless jealousy of
bore back to
own
theii'
land,
The splendour
philosophy.
its
guardians, Gi'eek sages
and embodied
of the
in Greece's sublimest
that remains causes us
little
by the erring
the more to regret that mass of knowledge which,
system of the Egyptians,
is
For here,
irrecoverably lost.
as in each
of the great empires of the East, the few enlightened ones in
whose keeping was the wisdom and the science of the
age, far
from striving to disseminate the seeds of knowledge among the
body of the people, jealously
gi-eat
knowledge to
restricted that
themselves and their descendants, leaving the outer world in
The mass
hopeless darkness.
cattle, the
were estimated as
of the nation
puppets of the nobles and the magi,
only for con-
fit
temptuous abandonment to the worship of apes and
beetles.
In
the temples, on the contrary, the utmost striving after discovery
was
aîparent
an
intellectual
The
activity that never ceased.
paintings which Denis and Montfaucon have copied from theii*
make manifest
walls
that
mesmerism
familiar things with the magicians of
or other
spirits,
and
Egypt
clairvoyance
;
were
that through these
means they obtained communication with the world of
and practised wuth
spirit-aid
the art of hcalmg.
In the
temples were placed representations of the more miraculous cures.
These seem to have been chiefly procured by aid of the trance or

mesmeric
sleep, in
usually operated.
which, without doubt,
To induce
this
spii'its
influence Avas assisted b}' the soft music of lyres.
above
its
men
Its
Elevated thus
material prison, the soul for a space held free
with the spiritual Avorld.
communion
King Rhampsitimus, the magi of Egypt
asserted to Herodotus, descended by such

t>f
less than
was used.
no
sleep incense
means
to the
mansions
the dead, held converse with the gods, and returned after awhile
to the upper day.
AM)
ASSVAW.l, CIIAI.DEA, EUVri,

Into I\L;ypt wriit
J?ytli:i,'4t)ras,
of that country the wisdom

lUit so rii^'idly did tbo
that not
magi
Ww. ^'rcatcr stores
iucri'asL' frt)iii
It)
Avliich
lio
ii
Lad ucquircd
Greece.
in
own
restrict all learning to their
caste,
ho had passed from temple to temple, and had
ur.lil
undergone disciplinary
initiations
philosopher, after twenty-two
more and more
was
severe,
tlie
years of patience, admitted to the
Kcturning to (Irccce, he became the martyr of
inner mysteries.
the spiritual truths with which he
astonished
madman, he passed over
him
countrymen.
his
out.
Everywhere
into Italy
and wandered
Delos, Sparta, Elis, and Crete, in turn cast
derided as a
I'liKSIA.
through the magnificent colony of Magna Grfccia, teaching and
working miracles
in
pursued him.
At Crotona the
burned down his school, and forty neophytes perished
Hunted by enemies
llames.
The
Crotona, Ehegium, and Metapontus.
fate of the prophets of all ages
thirsty for
his
mob
the
in
he immured
life,
himself in the Temple of the Muses at Metapontus, and was there

suffered to die of want.
But
his
doctrines,
him
painful years passed in Egypt, endured after

tlio
From
truth.
transmigration,
the soul of
man
inculcated
to the
books
if
life.
of
During the
latter centuries of this curious
was supposed
to
Thus
represented a being particularly close to eternal felicity

nearer.
A modification of this
was taught by Pythagoras, exaggerated

and
absurdities.
finally
extinguished
portion
of
this
work
to
treat
grossncss of
to say,
a cat
a beetle
marvellous religion
after his departure
in the
Our own century, strange
resurrection of this ancient folly.
in those
reside
animals which the Egyptians held peculiarly sacred.
disciples,
The
animal.
the pui'ity or
Three thousand years were passed
of purgatory, the soul
still
spirit
then sufficiently purified, the spirit ascended
immortal gods.
was perhaps
Hermes
Sometimes the
manner, and
species
sacred
to these strange metaphysics,
human being sometimes as an

new receptacle was determined by
wickedness of the former

in this
the
in
passed into another body.
reappeared as a
nature of the
of the
fruits
the error with
the Egyptians he had acquired the theory of
as
At death, according
Trismegistus.
the
by
its
bis
own
has witnessed the
I shall take occasion in a later
of the
belief
of those
apers
of'
12
antiquity who, discardiug the animals, have unearthed from their
dusty receptacle the remaining
relics of the
Pythagorean system,
own
and, clothing these with the fantasies of their
imaginations,
have suhmitted to the notice of a bewildered world the identityconfounding chima;i-a of re-incarnation.
Our information respecting the Egyptian

of the ample knowledge accorded
famous
can
it,
oracles, falls far short
however, be held an oracle of Egypt
renowned temple buried
in the solitudes of the
consecrated to Jupiter
Ammon.
plentitude of his power, visited
'?
was that
Libyan Desert, and
Alexander of Macedon, in the
it
to interrogate the deity
on some
Question and answer were alike kept
subject near to his heart.

secret
The most
to us of the Grecian.
but the magnificence of the conqueror's offerings intimated
was
that he
satisfied
with the response accorded him.
very few
predictions of less celebrated oracles have been preserved
Greek
Among
historians.
by the
such, two singularly-fulfilled prophecies
deserve notice.
Whilst Sethon, formerly a priest of Vulcan, held the Egyptian

sceptre,
he was dismayed by the approach of that Sennacherib
whose invasion of Judaea heaven so

by the warrior
tribe,
Deserted
terribly frustrated.
he betook himself to the temple of Vulcan,
and implored against the Assyrians the aid of the deity
As he stood before the image a
had served.
whom
he
came upon
Vulcan, he dreamed, spoke, and bade him be of good cheer,
him.
for that
upon
vision
he himself would
tight in his worshipper's behalf.
Sethon, gathering courage, marched
cherib.
He was
mechanics
at
.followed only
sight of
to
encounter Senna-
by a rabble of tradespeople and
whom
the Assyrian laughed, accounting
On
the morning of the battle, however,
himself certain of victory.
Sennacherib found that he was overthrown before the
menced.
Here-
strife
com-
During the night myriads of field-mice had entered the
Assyrian camp, and devouring the bowstrings and

warriors, had left
them almost
defenceless.
The
quivers of the
victory of the
Egyptians was easy and complete.
Herodotus
kings reigned
tells
in
us that after the death of this Sethon twelve

the
dificrent
provinces
of Egj-pt.
An
oracle
aniioiuiooil tbiit
AXD
FA!Yn\
.ISSVJ:L1, CllAT.DI.A,
PKRSIA.
bo who, in the temple of Yulcau,
})oureil
15
:i
liluition
from a brazen vessel, should expel his fellows and reign as solo
On
monarch.
the occasion of a certain sacrifice, Psammeticus, one
of the twelve, having found himself without the accustomed golden

{up, filled
a brazen helmet with wine and
made
On
his libation.
remaining kings banished him to the marshes of the coast.
this tho
how he
Jiurning with indignation, ho consulted the oracle as to
might best avenge the

be accorded him
injur}-.
was
It
replied that vengeance Avould
when brazen men
answer was naturally held
b}'
The
arose from the deep.
Psammeticus a mockery.
Shortly
afterwards, however, certain pirates clad in brass armour appeared

in
Egypt from Ionia and
These strangers Psammeticus
Caria.
took into his pay, and having, by their
become
aid,
sole ruler of
was most curiously accom-
the Eg}'ptians, the oracle's prediction

plished.
From the dim magnificences of the race who reared the pyramids
we pass to Persia and Zoroaster. Even before the time of that
mighty iconoclast the history of his country bears interesting traces
Cyrus, tho subduer of Asia,
of intercourse with another sphere.
was heralded and attended by prophecy, both

the Jews.
in Persia
and among
Astyages, his grandfather, saw in vision a vine proceed
from his daughter Mandane, by which the whole of Asia was over-
The soothsayers explained
shadovv'ed.
would be delivered of a son
of the East.
Fearing
who
this to
mean
should conquer
all
that
Mandane
the kingdoms
he himself might be among the rulers
lest
deposed, tho jealous monarch wedded his daughter, not, as was the
usage, to a prince of the Modes, but to Cambyses, a native of tho
subject
kingdom
of Persia.
He
again dreamed of the vino that
overshadowed Asia, and again received the explanation of

pointing to the coming of a conqueror
under
On
foot.
this the
whom
should tread
King determined
the marriage the instant that
Cyrus,
who
it
saw the
to
all
its
nations
destroy the fruit of
light.
The
fruit
was
Astyages commanded Harpalus, his chief captain, to
take with him and put to death.
Harpalus, reluctant to execute
the foul mandate, sent the babe to be reared far from the court, in
the
rude
Highlands of
Persia.
Arrived
at
mardiood,
Cvrus
14
speedily approved the truth of the prophecy, and, deposing Astyages, reigned over Persia
and Media
He conquered
in his stead.
Croesus of Lydia, and, overthrowing the Babylonian cnapire, per-
mitted the
captive
Jews
Josei)hus this favour

to
return to
to
Palestine.
was won by the Jews
Cyrus the prophecy wherein Isaiah alludes
forty-fifth chapter of the
Lord
whose
right
to
subdue nations before him
to
open before him the two-leaved gates
be shut
straight
I will go before
and
thee,
him by name. The
to
prophet thus opens
to his anointed, to Cyrus,
According to
Babylon displaying
at
" Thus
I will loose the loins of kings

;
and the gates
sunder the bars of iron
And
shall not
and make the crooked paths
I will break in pieces the gates of brass,
saith the
hand I have holden,
and cut in
I will give thee the treasures of dark-
and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know^
ness,
that I, the Lord,
For Jacob
Israel.
which
call
thee by thy name,
my servant's
sake,
and
Israel
am
mine
the
God
elect, I
of
have
even called thee by thy name, though thou hast not known me."
Cyrus, continues Josephus, on being shown this prediction, and
the equally remarkable one contained in the twenty-eighth verse of
the
preceding chapter, acknowledged that the Jehovah of the
Hebrews was indeed the God of
nations, and that from
Him he
received the sceptre of the "world.
Nor was
the close of the mighty conqueror's career unaccom-
panied by prodigy.
Invading Scythia, he dreamed that Darius, the
son of Hystaspes, stood before him with wings springing from his
shoulders
Asia.
of
which the one overshadowed Europe, the other
Believing that the gods had thus warned him of a plot
against his throne, he sent Hystaspes back to Persia, to watch over
Darius until he should himself return.
But, although the son of
Hystaspes was in reality destined as his successor, no conspiracy
The vision given to Cyrus was an admonition

own approaching death. He was vanquished and slain in a
had been implied.

of his
battle with
Tomyris, queen of the Massageta3
Persia descended to Cambyses, his son.
monarch anarchy
inspired
distracted the empire,
by various omens, stood
forth
On
and the sceptre of

the death of that
and Darius Hystaspes,
as a competitor
for
the
jssvA'u, CHAi.nEA,
Overpowering
throne.
j.vn
/cn'/'V,
r/:A's/.i.
is
ho assumed that imperial
bis rival SmerJis,
purple to which he had not been born, and began a reign of prosperity almost unequalled in his country's annals.
In the time of this Darius, Zeri'thoschtro, the " Golden Star " of
dawned
Persia,
Zoroaster,
upon
to
us
through
mother Dogdo,
his
By
was
powers
of Persia.
he boast
Poroschasp, says
Djemschid, the
whom Ormuzd
and who was, according
fabulous
with
gifted
creative
to Persian legends, fifth in line
Of omens vouchsafed immediately before and
from Noah.
birth of Zoroaster, the Easterns
into
both lines of ancestry, as well
from that
descended
of Istakhar,
embellisher
softened
mightiest religious
as his fiither Poroschasp, could
of descent from the remote kings

tradition,
of the
as that
reformer of the ancient East.
name,
His
world.
the
familiar
is
after the
have many most marvellous
tales.
His mother, being pregnant, saw in vision a being glorious as
who
Djemschid,
.spirits
The
with
assailed
the
or devs
djins
the
Persian
evil
a sacred writing, before which they fled in terror.
interpretation of the
whom
magian to
she applied, was that
among women by bearing a son to whom

and who should spread them
known
his laws
Ormuzd would make
she should be favoured
through
all
Against this son every power of
the East.
Tried by
be in arms.
afflictions
and
phet would ultimately drive his foes before him

receive even in his
own country
evil
would
perils innumerable, the prolike
chafi',
A king
the utmost honour.
and
should
who would accept his sacred writings as the word of

truth, and make them the law of Persia everywhere the new religion
would prevail Zoroaster would ascend to the side of Ormuzd
be raised up
in the highest heaven,
Alarmed
lest
the
and his foes sink
to
Ahriman and
hell.
prophet whose advent was thus heralded
should prove the destroyer of their order, certain
among
conspired to slay him immediately upon his birth.
the magi
Darius, Avhose
ear they had gained, becoming possessed with an evil spirit, rode
off"
in search of the babe.
Less fortunate than ilcrod, he
covered the object of his hatred, and, on

in pieces the infant Zoroaster, the
was withered
to the shoulder,
arm
lifting his
sword
that grasped the
and the King
fled
to
dis-
hew
weapon
convulsed with
Disappointed in their opening plot, the magi
and agony.
terror
On
speedily took heart a second time to attempt murder.
this
occasion they were themselves the agents of their evil wishes.
having heen kindled, the embryo reformer was stolen from
fire
his mother's dwelling,
on
and cast
sides for her son, found
all
him
his fiery couch, as if in a cradle,
As he grew
compass
was
to
at length lying peacefully
cast to wolves,
He was
all
the
this
were made
eilorts
way
placed in the
and fed with victuals
Through
been mingled.
in
years of age his mission began.
which poison had
spirits
Quitting
journeyed towards the court of Iran
whose
to
his
into
Ormuzd
He was
up
lifted
make
to
the mountains of the Albordi.

Avere revealed to
and beheld
to the highest heaven,
in his glory, encircled
he
native place
but being warned in a vision
There the things which "eye had never seen"

his gaze.
service
At thirty
which the magi and devs combined waited
of an attack
to-
of savage bulls,
Zoroaster had been consecrated supported him unhurt.
upon him, he turned aside
on
and carried him home uninjured.
manhood numerous other
his death.
Dogdo, seeking
into the flames.
by the hosts of the
Food
angels.
sweet as honey was given to him, on eating which his eyes were
opened
to all
that passed in the
heavens and
He
inmost secrets of nature
of the stars
felicity of
learned the
the influences
the greatness of the six chief angels of
the beatified
went down
the revolutions of worlds
into hell
The
the earth.
darkness of the future was made to him as day.
God
the terrible condition of the sinful.
and there looked on the
Finally, having received from
Ormuzd
evil
the
He
one face to face.
the Divine gospel which
should illumine the East, ho was bidden to return to earth, and

teach
it
to all conditions of
mankind.
Celestial fire
him, to be kept burning as a symbol of the glory of

city
where
his teachings
were received.
was given
God
to
in every
Placed again upon the
mountains of Albordi or the Balkan, Zoroaster reared
in a cavern
an altar to the Creator, and kindled upon
sparkles of
the sacred flame.
As he resumed
devs and magi beset him,

avesta
the
gospel which
his
it
the
first
journey a host of furious
and sought
to
destroy the
Ormuzd had committed
to
Zend-
his care.
CHALDEA. EGYPT, AND PERSIA.
ASSV/^/A,
Tlicso the prophet put to lligbt b)' proiiouaciiig
He
the sacred book.
verses from
continued his course to Balkh, and, being
denied admittance to the lung,
cleft
the roof of the palace, and
descended into the midst of the court.
All save
The King caused them
himself fled in terror.
by a ring
Zoroaster, encircled
some
17
the monarcli
to re-assemble,
and
and magi, expounded
of courtiers
with vehement eloquence the doctrines ho had been sent upon
The magicians present then endeavoured to
earth to spread.
confound him with the learning of which their minds Avcre tho
repositories
but the prophet solved with the utmost case tho
most abstruse problems of
their science,
himself a convert to the
Many
his court.
and broke through every
Hereupon the monarch declared
mental net that could be spread.
new religion, and was
by others of
follovv-ed
Persians, however, including the whole
body
of
the magi, were stirred to rage by the thought that a single daring
and successful reformer should succeed
in subverting beliefs
the prophet's history
destroy his
and
life
is
which
For years
had endured from an antiquity almost immemorial.
that of attempts on the part of enemies to
credit,
and of the miracles by which he
At length the good cause triumphed.
put their rage at defiance.
Opposition was beaten down, and Zoroaster became to the Persians
whatever, at a yet more ancient date, Moses had been to Israel.
His law,
gical
and
Hebrew prophet, was
like that of the
The
civil.
and the Vendidad.
among
general code of laws, are
drawn up
hair or nails
for
the Izeschne, the
Litany, a Liturgy, and a
the matters included.
even the most
before
These again are parted into sections
too numerous to be here mentioned.
are
once theolo-
portion remaining to us of the Zend-avesta,
or Living "Word, has three grand divisions

Yisfered,
at
trifling
making pastry
after sneezing
on
killing
vermin
and
petitions are to be reiterated
The theology
at a
cutting
on seeing a
leprous person, mountains, a cemetery, a city, the sea

cattle
Prayers
On
occasions.
on
killing
thousand other times, verbose
by the devout.
of Zoroaster is far
Calvinistic section of Christendom.
more
The
tolerant than that of tho
eternal hell to Avhich
all
but the elect are to be consigned, makes no appearance in his

c
i8
ANCIENT SPIRITUALIS^L
Even Ahriman and
religion.
The
pardoned and restored.
Ormuzd and Ahriman,
with the world
end
in the
are
ground of the universe
good and the
the
for a space of twelve
At the end of
this period
Armageddon,
in
which Ahriman and
overthrown.
The
evil
comes a
Christian
the
his subordinates are
utterly-
one hereon repents, and, in presence of the
purged, and through
hilated.
may mention
all
that Zoroaster
Such
revelation
Zoroaster's place
is
was
of
The
men, even
all
vilest eternally.
truth
spiritual
and
Mahommed
high above that of
of the founders of faiths.
condemns
but none are to be chastised
and not even the
their deserts,
Hell
creation sin and sorrow are anni-
the best, for a space to his inferno
beyond
evil
thousand years.
conflict like
Eternal, enters into a solemn league of amity with Ormuzd.

itself is
he
to
These, with their respective hosts, shall contend on the
principle.
battle
his devils
Creator, he teaches, formed together
disciples of the
sublime.
ranks
in the
Koran
did, indeed,
vanquish and subvert to a newer creed the disciples of the Zendbut the event was no miracle.
avesta,
When,
in the seventh
century after Christ,, this conquest took place, the Zoroastrian
system had endured for near twelve hundred years.
by the founder
As shaped
moral teachings were pure and beautiful, and
its
idea of the Divine
One high and
But with
just.
centuries abuses began, like foul parasites, to cling to and
As with
noble structure.
all
its
the passing of
mar the
other systems of the ancient world,
the evil portion of the unseen beings around us, having under-
mined with malignant patience,
work
ing the
found before
temples
all
where
altars,
given at
first to
to
be
they defaced with vice after vice the
burned
constantly
indulgence, against which
anathemas, made foul the
at length succeeded in overthrow-
Aided by the unworthy servants
of the good.
the
sacred
Sensual
fire.
Zoroaster had launched his sternest
lives of his descendants.
The adoration
the unseen Creator, was lavished in process of time
on the
visible objects
sacred
fire
He had
were the gods of
created.
this
new
The
sun, the stars and the
idolatry.
Thus the great
decay went on.
The
with success.
Licentiousness desecrated the temples
evil
influences without
worked mightily and

;
human
CIIALDEA, EGYPT,
.'iSSVy^'/.l,
began
sacrifices
make
to
AND
At
foul the altars.
PERSIA.
last,
iq
when hypocrisy
liad replaced piety,
and sensuality and
spiritual zeal, there
poured down on Persia that ardent multitude
of fanatics
The
choice
points
by
hasted to
tied
whom Mahommed's intolerant
enthusiasm had inflamed.
was the Koran or the sword.

internal
its fall.
corruption,
At
the
present
or,
Sapped already
at all
the edifice Zoroaster had reared
The few who
from Persia for ever,
death.
sloth stood in the place of
refused to abjure their religion
remaining, were relentlessly put to
day the numerous Parsees scattered
through Hindostan and other countries of the far East are the
dispersed relics which remain of that
once mighty and uniteiL
brotherhood which revered the teachings of the " Golden Star."
CHAPTER
III.
INDIA AND CHIXA.

*'
HAVE seen," says Apollonius of Tyana, "the Bralimius of India
dwelling on the earth, and not on the earth, living forlilied without
possessing nothing, and yet everything."
The
" dwelling on the earth, and not on the earth " alludes to their
fortifications,
being frequently levitated.
Apollonius had journeyed into Hindo-
The
stan to seek admittance to the treasury of Indian wisdom.
supermundane attainments of the Brahmins were displayed
him
to
He
immediately that the object of his mission became known.
was brought
into the presence of the chief sage of the caste,
addressed him in the following words
who
others to inquire of those
what purpose they come

is
that
we
his
life
named
"
It
fii'st
who come
and
for
Thereupon
to us."
the families both of his father and of his mother

at
iEgae
what means Damis had become the companion of

all
are,
evidence of wisdom
recounted to Apollonius the most notable events of
what the philosopher had done
repeated
the custom of
is
them who they
but with us the
are not ignorant of those
this clairvoyant
related
visit
who
that they
described
his journey,
had heard and talked of by the way.
bj-
and
Awed
and humbled by knowledge so unearthly, the astonished Greek

earnestly besought to be admitted to
length of waiting
its secrets.
After the usual
he became duly illuminated, and returning,
astonished Europe with his piercing clairvoyance and wondrous
powers of healing.
Lecturing at Ephesus the words suddenly died
upon
He
his tongue.
bent forward amazedly, and, gazing into
space, exclaimed, " Strike
atrikc the tyrant
"
Then, turning to
the bewildered audience, he continued, " Domitian
is
no more
AND
IXDTA
the world
da)^
from
is clelivorcd
CHINA.
bitterest oppressor."
its
and hour when Apollonius beheld
the despot assassinated at

If a stranger acquired
z\
Iii
this vision at
tbo very
Ephesus was
Rome.
such
gifts chiefly
from a sojourn
in tbo
temples of the Brahmins, what must have been the spiritual wealth
of those
Brahmins themselves
The aim
'?
of their religion Avas to
and place
the soul above the thraldom of the senses
God.
b}-
Like the Platouists, they judged that the
a form of luminous ether
arira," a finer body.
as the
A multitude
body
the soul migi-ates from
in unify
it,
to
command.
" sukshonas-
body
to
in a
and these
Sent into earthly
most marvellous and
These incarnations ended, the
truly Pythagorean manner.
lift
with
enveloped
spirit is
Vedas have
of sensations perplex us,
"buddhi," or reason, was created

life,
it
spirit
As
appears before Yamas, the Minos of the Brahminical theology.

its
actions have been righteous or unjust, so
condemned
pai'adise of Indra, or
is it
translated to the
to various of the purifying hells.
Final beatitude, according to the ideas of both Brahmin and Buddhist, consists in absorption into the
By Europeans
with God.
Divine nature and eternal union
this creed
betokening a species of annihilation
and pleasures would seem

Eastern "just
unchangeably preserved.
but one path conducts
of
To
the heavenly felicity
Mann
winter
to shiver
to pass
naked
as
from these
is
"
of " Nirvana
mortification of the spirit and
minutely prescribe the
inflictions
summer
before the
To
which the devotee must endure.

hottest fires
commonly regarded
perfect," the individuality of each
unceasing
The laws
the body.
is
but although violent pains
to be immortally banished
made
spirits
in
scorch in
running streams in the depth of
hours buried in ant-nests, or writhing on couches
studded with numerous spikes
to be clad in the
bark of
trees,
and
have for food leaves and roots, and for drink impure water; to deny
the tongue
its
use
to
the flesh of the back
swing suspended by hooks passed through

these are
some
of the torments in which
from immemorial antiquity Hindoo existences have been spent.

In the day of Alexander of Macedon such penances flourished in
full rigour,
and they have contmued unremittingly popular down
to the present time.
AXCIEXT SPIRITUALISM.
C2
Brahmins and Buddhists ahkc teach that the Deity has repeatedly
descended in human shape to purify the woild.
however,
dechue to
avatars.
They
filled
with
describe the deity
demon
as a species of
evil,
"
By
whom
The Brahmins,
amongst
one
as
when
and elevated than
their
know them."
masquerading as an angel of
strictly forbidden,
own.
Despite the holy
light.
and was
inspired
it
he
nonce
for the
His teaching Christians cannot
The wasting
of
in sacrifice is
life
and even the blood of animals
The
more
vastly
is
demon
If a
his condition,
but recognise as wise and pure.
pretext, be spilt.
Thus an
between the followers of the two great
their fruits ye shall
had undeniably forgotten
was
the earth
to arise and lead the wicked astray.
horror of the Brahmins, the faith of the Buddhists

spiritual
these
the Buddhists worship
permitted, at a time
irreconcilable enmity exists
creeds.
Buddha
recognise
may
not,
on any
faithful are earnestly entreated to live at
peace with their fellow-men, and to keep themselves in the words

of St. James,
of flesh
is
"pure and unspotted from the world."
The
eating
prohibited, and the doing injury to even the smallest
creature which God's hand has formed held a sin.
The Vedas and
Puranas of the Brahmins Buddha altogether
and reprobates
rejects,
By
these writings for their unholy advocacy of living sacrifices.
so stern a denunciation of the darker
among
its
more
doctrines the
was moved to fury. They drove the

new heresy from Hindostan Proper, and relentlesslj'
who dared re-enter that peninsula. But beyond
ancient sect of the Brahmins
converts of the
persecuted
all
the Ganges, and east and north of the Himalayas,

mightily.
Overspreading,
and becoming the
Xepaul, Thibet, and Affghanistan, of
and Japan,
number
it
Buddhism waxed
state
of
religion
Burmah China, Mongolia,
stands at the present day foremost, as regards the
of devotees,
among
this splendid fabric is
in various of these lands
of unblushing foulness
That
the great religions of the earth.
more imposingly vast than
China and Burmah
solidly real
in especial
that
systema
and hideous cruelty usurp the pure name
Buddhism, arc incontrovertible
facts.
But a
faith that
of
has had so
unequalled an influence on the destinies of the East well deserves

notice,
and the space can hardly be wasted that
is
accorded to a
IXDIA
brief nsiime of
tlio
AXD
biliefs prevalent
CHINA.
23
auaong this miglity family of
spiritualists.
An
article of faith constantly iterated in tho
that departed souls have in
all
Buddhist writings
ages returned to our world.
is
Like
Milton in his thousand times quoted avowal, these scriptures say

that
" Millions of spiritual beings
walk the earth
Unseen, both when Ave Avake and Avhen
Ave sleep."
Countless numbers are continually ascending and descending on tho
Some
missions of the gods.

individuals
are the guardians of cities, others of
others again haunt by night caverns, forests, and
of the gloAving imagination of the East
and
fro
among men wrapped
is
beautiful than those of mortals.
and
brilliant
Avith
all
They
the
brightest of the stars are less clear
and the
They pass
expended.
an ethereal
Avith
conceal from earthly eyes their forms,
floAvers,
all
In describing these unseen beings every resource
solitary spots.
to
and thus
veil,
more
a thousand times
are croAvned Avith unfading
glories
of
The
Paradise.
and radiant than
their eyes,
garments in Avhich they are robed emit the most
Avhite
Some
delicious perfumes.
are kindly, others fierce
but
all
wield
the mightiest influence over the destinies of mankind.
As
Avas natural in the case of beings so attractively depicted,
and Avhose presence

continually
it
is
probable
that
tokens Avere
spiritual
making manifest, the mass of the people have
process of time come to adore them as divinities.

there are probably
some hundreds of millions of
in the niches of the
Brahma
of
are
By
deities set
up
the kindred sect
to be adored.
find in Thibet,
Avherc
Buddhism
flourishes in the fullest
vigour, a startling copy of the ritual and ceremonies of the
Church.
in
day
this
three hundred and thirty millions of these false gods
computed
We
Buddhist Pantheon.
At
Tho
priests
rosaries for prayer,
and
are
tell
tonsured.
Tho
faithful
their
the beads as zealously as any Spaniard.
Monasteries have multiplied to such a degi'ee that

priests are held to be in
Roman
haA'o
number almost
monks and
a moiety of the population.
AXCIEA'T SPIRITUALISM.
2.4
The priesthood, maguiliceutly robed, sometimes
some-
in yellow,
times in purple and gold, pass on festival days to the temples,
attended by bursts of barbaric music, canopied with banners, and
surrounded by censers heavy
Avith incense
the faithful
as the
Holy
procession moves by prostrating themselves in the dust.
water
abundant throughout the temples, baptisms continually
is
occur, and relics
of saints
Howitt in
his
" around
" History of the Supernatural
"
whom,"
when
Catholic Church, that,
Thibet,
to
two of
land
that far
their
home
indignantly wrote
and
first
says Mr.
" families unaccount-
ably spring up, and are styled nephews and nieces."

parallel are the customs, social
Indeed, so
ecclesiastical, to those of
the
her emissaries obtained entrance
number. Fathers Griibcr and Maffie,
up
to accuse the devil of having "set
most blasphemous mockery of the
The
be found everywhere.
are to
priests are permitted housekeepers,
rites
in
and
paraphernalia of the true faith."
In China of old the worship of a single Supreme Being seems

to. have
Gradually falling from this original Theism, the
obtained.
adoration of the visible objects of creation, and of a host of invisible
of
the
powers, became in process of ages the theological taints

Spirits
Celestials.
presiding
over the
recognised, and temples erected to each.

deified,
and annual
festivals instituted at
homage
v/hich in former days their sceptres
had swayed.
With the increase of

was eaten up with
latter
years
of
Spiritual faith
all
that
of that mighty empu'e
grew and
idolatry abuses of every kind
in the
until,
seventh century before
Christ,
imaginable error and corruption.
drew around him the few inquirers

still
this
vehemently, as
fell
present
Lao-tse
into the problems of futurity
remained, and strove with their aid to awaken a longing
after spiritual things in the
he
China
In the
century the reformer Lao-tse appeared.
had been almost extinguished, and
world was the only one of which the Chinese took heed.
who
were
which the progenitors of
the reigning monarch received the
multiplied,
elements
Ancestors, too, were
all
bosoms
prophets of
all
of his countrymen.
eras
Persecuted
and kingdoms have been,
into a disgust with his mission, and, shaking the dust of
JXDIA AND CHINA.

cities
IVom Lis
in religious
retired
foct.
25
pass the remainder of
to
calm.
from the sowing of the seed, the harvest of such

iilready
made was
his
Yet, altliough the hibourer had turned
in
no long time reaped.
elibrts as
lifo
IjucIc
ho had
awakening
religious
took place, and the sceptical and vicious public mind was stirred
Then appeared Confucius, the
to its inmost depths.
of the morals of the empire, as Lao-tse had been of
He
in every business of
duties, of keeping faith
the laws of
of actively fulfilling all social
traditions speak like the
had
down
truthful
and natural
with others, and of rendering obedience to
man and God.
In his waitings the most striking of the
modern
ancient Chinese legends are transmitted to
the hurling
metaphysics.
bemg
inculcated the necessity of honouring parents, of

life,
great purilier
its
Hebrew
into misery
Scriptures of the
These
times.
fall
of
man, and
and darkness of an angelic host who
rebelled against the Supreme.
Lao-tse and Confucius are alike in their deep belief in the nearness of the spiritual world.
All truth respecting the future state,
says the former, has been brought
down
to
man by the messengers
Prayer and self-denial arc the charms which open the
of God.
eyes of the mind to the spiritual beings around us.
have occured since the creation of the globe.
Apparitions
Invisible to the
dim
eyes of the flesh, spirits, evil and good, constantly hover above
the
earth,
limitless
advancement of man.
checking or aiding the
universe
but
constitutes
one family
earth,
The
heaven,
the spu'its yet in the flesh, the spirits of the dead, form a single
The beings
empire ordered by the eternal reason of Schang-ti.

ver near
man watch
constantly his deeds.
evil, the evil spirits enter,
and become strong within
of their ufliuity to the darkness of our souls.

tion,
we
drive from us these demons,
stantly attend us,
Do we
If,
give
us,
way
to
by reason
despising tempta-
ministering angels
and cherish within our bosoms a
con-
light
that
gleams brighter and brighter unto the perfect day.
Such were the high and wise teachings of the two chief prophets
of the Celestial Empire.
to implant in Chinese
if
They
so
bosoms a
fiir
succeeded in their mission as
faith in the
supermundane which,
anything, has grown stronger with the lapse of ages.
Inter-
26
course with the world of spirits
is
daily sought after in every temple
But, whatever the state of
of the greatest empire of the East.

health
spii-itual
may have
beeu^
when
the teachings of Lao-tse
and Confucius had yet the eloquence of novelty, the present

degx'adation of this unfortunate race appears almost irremediable.
Guardian angels seem for a space to have abandoned the Chinese,
and the whispers of demons tempting to
from the
of
tunities
observation
are
almost
board
measure hidden.
America
of
But
inundated
known
itself
in the cities of the
of
years
late
oppor-
Europeans,
and
to be extreme, are
at present treat of
Pacific sea-
by uncountable
whole measure of
and dwarfish virtues may be observed.
their gigantic wickednesses
The most
to
the
thousands of the race I
only messages
In China
denied
the corruptions of the empire, though

in great
evil are the
listened to to-day.
invisible
rapidly enlarging portion of San Francisco consists of a
rookery of wretched dwellings styled the Chinese Quarter.
There
the vices which chroniclers shudder to name, and which
among
even the most fallen of European races, lurk but by stealth in the
darkest and foulest dens, walk abroad openly and unashamed.
Murder
is
too
moment. Truth
The
unknown.
common
in
more than the
to excite
man, and chastity
in
of the dwellings
filth
woman,
is
such that hogs or pole-
cats could scarcely be at ease within them.

ful
attention of a
are virtues equally
Children die in fright-
numbers, or are placidly put out of the way should the parents
find
them inconvenient
is frugal,
gentle, industrious,
iniquity is concealed.
to Califormia
descend.
all
and prepossessing
The
refuse of
this the
Chinaman
in appearance
and
to
which
Europe and America has been
and Utah by the
wretches among the white

iniquity
And with
But beneath the varnished outside crust a sink of
manners.
drawn
to keep.
men
thirst of gold, yet the veriest
stand amazed at the depths of
their yellow rivals can,
without compunction,
CHAPTER
IV.
GREECE AND ROME.

I PASS
now from
the traditions
Asia to Europe, and from the faint grandeur of
preserved respecting the empires which were the
mistresses of the ancient East
the
to
fuller
and more
reliable
information possessed respecting those civilizations of the
enthroned by the Egean and upon the Tiber.
Greece"
M'as
The "glory
West
that
was
indeed irrecoverably extinct, and the "grandeur that
is
Rome,"
fallen into
an almost hopeless decay.
Empires have
been founded, have flourished, and have perished, since the
last of
the Delphian Pythonesses drew a last response from the spirits
whom
she
was appomted
the birth of
Mahommed
to serve.
It
was centuries
that the last public reading of the books of
the Cumasan Sibyl took place in the temples of
array of mighty spirits
anterior to
who shone with
Rome.
But the
so immortal a lustre on
the City of the Violet Crown, the City of the Seven Hills, and
other cities and commonwealths of the Grecian and

nions, have bequeathed to us
works
in
Roman
domi-
whose undying pages the
actions and the thoughts, the worship and beliefs of the Italians
of
two thousand and the Greeks of almost three thousand years
ago, are as
undyingly preserved.
few exceptions believers
These great writers were with
in the return of the departed.
a poet or philosopher amongst
them
Scarcely
but, whilst busied with the
things of this present world, had as active a faith in, and
anxiously inquisitive respecting, the things
And
the great historians of Greek times
in especial
fulfilled
when
was
as
of the hfe to come.
Herodotus and Xenophon
giving account of apparitions or marvellously
prophecies, do not present them as paradoxes which are
to-
28
be received
wonder and
distrust
but rather relate tbem as
known and accepted from time immemorial by
truisms
whom
-witli
Let me,
they wrote.
the race for
support of the views I have
in
advanced, select some proofs of the extent to which belief in the

presence of an eternal and invisible order of things side by side
with this temporal and visible creation, prevailed amongst the

Greeks.
open with the poets
I shall
in
all
nations the voices of
the popular faith.
" The gods," says Homer, " like strangers from some foreign
assuming
land,
wander through
different forms,
furies
who haunt
the ill-disposed, as there are gods
protectors of the poor."
watching
cities,
There are avenging demons and
the injustice and justice of men.
{}'><l!j^ê]j,
who
are the
Says Tlesiod
xvii. 475).
" Invisil)le the gods are ever nigh,
Pass tkrovigh the mist, and bend the all-seeing eye.

The men. who grind the poor, who \ATest the right
Aweless of heaven's revenge, stand naked to their sight

For thrice ten thousand holy demons rove
Tills breathing world, the delegates of Jove
Guardians of man, their glance alike surveys
The upright judgments and the imrighteous ways."
Works and Days.

Sophocles
It is
passage
"
who
supplies
my
death.
They drink purer draughts and

wê
me with
I fondly thought of happier
nothing else than
Can
Elton's Translation, p. 32.
term
this
To
the following beautiful

daj's,
whilst
denoted
it
the dead there arc no
aught but the spiritual teaching of the nine-
teenth century anticipated.
And hearken
to Pindar
"But the
good, enjoying eternal sunshine night and day, pass a
from labour
toils.
continually ascend higher."
life
free
never stirring the earth by strength of hand, nor yet
the crystal waters of the sea in that blessed abode, but with the
honoured of the gods
all
such as lived true
lives,
and took
pleasure in keeping their faith, spend in the heavens a tearless

existence."
man
secret things,
doctrine of Socrates
was the same.
" Spirits," says Pythagoras, " announce to
and foretell the future."
The
GREECE AND ROME.

''
know
Socrates thought that tho gods
said, Avhat is doiio.
and
present,
Avhorc
Jhrnorab.
is
men
to
everything."
of
Strange and appal-
the Titans and the Furies move

He
sion across his pages.
darkness
in
shadowy proces-
loves to contemplate the supermundane;
tho supermundane in
l)ut it is
is
^schylus are throughout
that remain to us of
with the mysteries of another world.
ling beings
both what
are cvcry-
meditated in silence
-warnings
give
things
all
1.
i.
The fragments
instinct
and what
29-
its
gloomiest guise: " a land of dark-
and where the
as
darkness."
ness,
as
From
the grim sublimity of such tragedies as the Prometheus,
itself,
pleasant to turn to tho
more
Greek
truly
light
Homer
by the
describing,
The Greeks,
Greek conviction of the
shall content
Parnassus
Egean
which they represent as having prevailed
then,
saw gods everywhere.
The
eternal
the thousand isles nestling in the blue waters of
and Marathon,: each and

thousand
all
deities received
the Supreme,
whom
in a
thousand temples.
Christianity adores,
Socrates taught
To
God," said the inscription which Paul found
at
To
deity governed the universe.
true,
were not disposed
From
knowing
Unknown
Athens.
The
was a mental
the picture of a single mighty spirit controlling
the destinies of creation
unseen
ithc
to receive such a doctrine.
the light, lively Greek a pantheon of divinities
necessity.
Yet
was by the higher minds

"
is
the
One God, the Uncreated and
of tho nation perceived " as in a glass, darkly."

that a single
the solemn fields of Plat?ea
of these had their attendant sprites.
homage
amidst this error the form of that
it
snows of
the fragrant groves where philosophers disputed
shadowed by plane-trees
fountains
people,
myself with
and other great brethren of the
the marble temples of Athens glistening in the rays of
a Southern sun
in the
age and land.
in their
the
and
aid of these,
guild of poets, the faiths
Homer, and
and Sophocles have been already
called as witnesses to the intensity of the
nearness of spiritual things,
it is
beliefs preserved in the
plays and poetry of Sophocles, Euripides, and
philosophy of Plato.
is
all,
yet
everywhere present, yet everywhere
known
of none
eternal, invisible,
and
.ô
incomprehensible,
the
Gods who
multitude shrank in disgust.
mingled visibly in the actions of
man
who
clothed themselves
with material forms to lead on to victory the hosts of the countries

they cherished
pathised with
who
shared the passions of humanity and sym-
its infirmities
who, while controlling the present,
gave omens of the future of nations and individuals

the beings to
whom,
in love or fear, the
these were
Greek bowed down.
His
poets represented one god as appearing angrily in the clouds, and
hurling
down
the earth
thunderbolts into the midst of armies contending on
another as wandering in the shape of a beardless youth
and challenging men to contend with him on the
from
city to city,
lyre
which he loved
goddess as snatching from out the
this
midst of the battle an endangered warrior, of whose] stately form

she had become enamoured
from capital to capital to
commonwealth
that
stir
was the
that, as urging her celestial steeds
up the surrounding nations against a
And
object of her hate.
the| legends
of these gods, which with the vulgar were objects of devout credit,
were by the philosopher made the vehicles of a higher purpose

allegories for the delicate
shadowing forth of
spiritual things.
The
sage had been struck by the thought that the soul perhaps came
from an existence
in
some
distant
and
difi'erent
world to be incar-
nated here, and he hid his idea in the lovely myth of the love and
union of Cupid and Psyche.
mankind
power
He saw
that the great benefactors of
the increasers of the world's stock of mental or physical
were
uniformly tormented
by that world
it
his theft of fire
from heaven for the benefit of man
after death.
on Mount Caucasus, and unconquerable

oppressed him
with
all
the
in
life,
of his torture
defiance of the deity
of his ultimate deliverance and triumph, arose.

fables
of
the
and
Thus the legend of Prometheus and
worshipped by
Greeks.
Through
mythology constantly breaks the radiance of the
this
who
So
beautiful
spiritual
world
even as the eyes of Athenian actors gleamed through the openings

of their masks.
intellect
how
We
untiring
learn from a hundred master-pieces of the
was
that spirit of restless inquiry with
which
every people of Hellas searched into the secrets of the unseen.
No
city
was founded
no army marched forth to
battle
no vessels
GREECE AND ROME.

huk-n with emigrants set
sail
The
and the
fiery imagination,
once suhtle and vigorous of the Greeks, peculiarly
intellect at
To
Minor without
Italy or Asia
for
consulting the oracles of the gods.
them
from the
for the reception of impressions
fitted
invisible world.
the profouuder realities of such intercourse, indeed, they seem
never to have penetrated.
The
secrets hived in those imperishable
temples where were celebrated the rites of the mystic
Isis,
entered
not into the philosophy of Hellas, or entered only through such
men
as Pythagoras,
who,
and imitated
revered
by
and persecuted
scoffed at
their
countrymen
after
But,
death.
although the more startling of spiritual phenomena were not

the
were
in life,
among
Greeks things of daily occurrence, no race more generally
impressionable to spiritual influence existed in the ancient world.

It is
through the Grecian nature that the Grecian name has become
Know-ledge was not here,
immortal.
as
the
in
great Asiatic
empires, regarded as a lamp of inestimable rarity, to be
carefull}"^
reserved for guiding the footsteps of a few, while the mass of their
Like the
fellows wândered in darkness.
The philosopher
the
whispers
men
the
of attendant
ideas which fermented in his brain.
fell
everywhere.
by
all
Inspired by the
Are not poets, philosophers, and
geniuses, knowingly or unknowingly the subjects of
all
from another world
inspiration
numerous
it
hastened to publish to
spirits,
whispers of attendant spirits

indeed
rain,
or poet, inspired consciously or unconsciously
To what but
spirits influencing a single
the promptings of
mighty imagination can bo
ascribed the marvellous creations which glow in the dramas of
Shakspeare
From whence
but
the sphere of
all
light
could
proceed the Divine gleams that crossed the brain of a Raphael
And
the citizen
of Attica
was
countrymen peculiarly fortunate.
in
respect
of supremely "gifted
For him the inspirations of a
hundred minds had taken imperishable shape.
"
He
saw," says
Lord Macaulay, " the plays of Sophocles and Aristophanes
he
walked amidst the friezes of Phidias and the paintings of Zeuxis

he
knew by
heart
the
choruses of .^schylus
he heard the
rhapsodist at the corner of the street reciting the shield of Achilles

or the death of Argus."
And Homer,
iEschylus, and Zeuxis
32
Phidias and Sophocles, alike inculcated Avith
the strength of
all
their magnificent genius the constant interference of spirits in the
men
of
affiiirs
ualists
Had
the Greeks missed being a nation of spirit-
had indeed been a
it
as those
philosophers
But,
miracle.
save with
Atomic school, the
of the
such
in the
belief
immortality of the soul and the return of departed spirits to watch
over those yet on earth was, as I have endeavoured to show,
Every nature
deep and universal.

the
judicial to such a mission,
of a shrine of
more or
fairest portion
less
virgins presided over the
renown.
from influences pre-
care
and consecrated
were of the
be the instrument of
fitted to
was secluded with jealous
spirits
as the life-long servant
The majority
of such media
of the fairer sex.
succession of
most renowned oracle of Greece, that of
the Delphic god, and received from another world the messages of
prophetic import
And
individuals.
lesser
destined,
now
for
commonwealths, now
Even
fame were scattered through Hellas.
these shrines blazed with jewels and gold
anxious devotees.
its
dark no less than
altars
Memphis.
was not
Brilliant
redeemed
this intercourse
night," said Leonidas to the three
sup with the immortal gods."
was the
fathers
Hundreds
us of the
From
you
spirits
it
and
magnificent acts
of
" To-
with the unseen.
hundred of Thermopyla3, " we

" On, sons of the Greeks
battle-cry of Marathon, " above
watch the blows which,
desecration,
departed
But the corruption
as the corruption of Nineveh, Babylon,
virtues
heroism were inspired by
shall
all
Human
glorious side.
its
were frequently elevated mto imaginary gods.

of the Greeks
had, as in
spii'itual influence,
sometimes made horrible Grecian
sacrifices
the smallest of
the gifts of crowds of
This ceaseless hunger for communion with the
unseen, and constant exposure to

lands and ages,
for
besides that of Delphos a hundred oracles of
you the
spirits
to preserve their
"
!
of your
tombs from
strike to-day."
of well-attested instances have been handed
manner
in
which the
oracles of Hellas
were
down
to
fulfilled.
these I shall select such as are not only most striking iu
themselves, but best supported by outward evidence.
already mentioned, the
As has been
Delphic oracle far outstripped
all
com-
GREECE AM) ROME.

pctitors in
"It
and the
and trutbfulncs3 of
wouUi be impossible
known, that
it
facts of
to
prophecies.
its
enumerate
all
the
proved her power of foretelling
in -wbich the Pytbia
instances
events
importanco
the
Says Phitarch
33
themselves are so well and so generally
would be useless
Her answers, though submitted
new
to bring forth
evidences.
to the severest scrutiny,
And he
never proved false or incorrect."
have
amongst other
relates,
proofs of his assertions, that she predicted the eruption of lava and
ashes with which Vesuvius overwhelmed the
cities of
Pompeii and
Herculancum.
To Delphi
when uneasy
sent Croesus of Lydia,
growth of the Persian power.
He had
previously despatched ambas-
sadors to the most renowned shrines of the ago
demand
of the oracles on a certain
moment employed.
at the
unknown, but
" See
The
at the rapid
day
in
bidding them
what work the
god ran as follows
that from the Delphic
Kng
was
from other temples are
replies
I number the sands

I fathom the depths of the ocean
Hear even the dumb comprehend, too, the tlioiights of tlie silent.
!
Now
As
perceive I an odour, an odoiu-
boiling
Brass
The
is
it
seetheth
beneath, and with brass
divination
was
it
seemeth of lamb's
commixed with the

is it
flesh
flesh of a tortoise
covered over."
in all respects complete.
At the appointed
hour CrcEsus had retired alone into an inner apartment of his

palace
and there had, indeed, cut
to pieces a
lamb and a
afterwards cooking the flesh in a vessel of brass.
tortoise
Awed by
the
proof of superhuman knowledge which the Delphic oracle vouchsafed,
he sought by magnificent
god.
The embassy which bore
three thousand oxen,

lion, a
gifts to
his
obtain the favour of the
second question had in charge
numerous gold and
silver vessels, a
golden
hundred and seventy ingots of the same metal, and a statue

and adorned with girdle and necklace of incredible
also in
gold,
value.
Depositing these before the shrine of the god, the ambas-
sadors
of
Croesus
demp.ndcd
whether
should march against the Persians.

thus
it
The
were
well
that
he
oracle's response ran
21
" If Crcesus pass the Halys he shall destroy a great empire."
Unconscious that the empire indicated was his own, Croesus already
exulted in the thought of suhjugating Pei'sia, and at once prepared
and yet more magnificent embassy, bore from
for
war.
him
a gift to every inhabitant of Delphi,
rale
third
The
should long continue.
and a demand whether his
"When
oracle replied,
becomes the ruler of the Persian people, then,

Lydian,
flee to
the rocky banks of the
Hermos
a mule
tender-footed
make no
halt,
and
care not to blush for thy cowardice."
Croesus smiled at a pleasantry which appeared to him to confirm

the impossibility of any interruption to that success which had
attended the earlier actions of his
he crossed the Halys,
and,
At the head of a vast host
life.
encountering the
under
Persians
Cyrus, was made captive, his army annihilated, and his kingdom
reduced to the condition of a province of the Persian empire.

despair he reproached the Delphic god for luring
predictions utterly false.
But the
to the last of its
and
In
to ruin
by
oracle replied that, through his
oAvn carelessness in not seeking the
name
of the empire over which
was he brought low
destruction impended,
him
and
with regard
that,
responses, Cyrus, the son of a Median princess
Persian of humble condition, was the ruler prefigured under
the type of a mule.
Xerxes, the monarch M'hom the combined
Greece van-
fleets of
quished at Salamis, crossed the Hellespont at the head of the
Dismayed by the myriads
mightiest host Europe had ever seen.
who marched under
the orders of the Persian king, the Athenians
sent to beg counsel from the chief oracle of Hellas.
god replied:
" Unfortunates, wherefore
the verge of the earth
your wheel-shaped
city.
For neither docs the head abide firm
nor aught of the middle remain
feet,
all is
deliver
cities,
not yours
many temples
alone
ruined.
For
fire
and guiding
many other
and to the devouring flamo
of the immortals,
ping with sweat; shaken with fear.
nor therefore the hands,
driving the Syriac car, overturn her, and destroy
towering
Fly to
forsake your houses and the lofty crags of
nor docs the body, nor the lowest
]\Iars,
The Delphic
seat yourselves ?
which even now stand
Down
drip-
from the topmost roof
GREECE AXD ROME.

trickles black blood
the shrine, and pour
35
token of woe unavoidable.
Bcgouo then from
balm of courage into the wound of calamity."
tlio
This prediction, and the counsels which accompanied
No
the Athenians to despair.
more beloved by
To
die,
sword
in
to a flight, the
embassy
its
its
humbly beseeching
whither.
that the immortal gods
was inspired
in
hill
would not
'"When
add:
to
and that the decrees
Yet for the comfort of the

all
is
taken'_that
and the fastnesses of
contains,
itself
a second
But the Pythoness rephed that
to change its purpose,
of the deities were as adamant.

suppliants she
Crown.
preferable
destruction and desecration their hearths,
their fathers.
Heaven knew not how
doom far
They sent
defence, seemed a
knew not
citizens
command them to leave to
Cecrops'
was over
inhabitants than that of the Violet
hand, in
and the tombs of
reduced
it,
ancient or modern,
city,
sacred
Oithceron, wide-knowing Jove gives unto the goddess Triton-born
a wooden wall alone to abide inexpugnable
and your
that invades your land
time shall be
Salamis
this
shall
save
you
Await not quietly the throng of horse and foot
children.
when you
but turn your backs and withdraw

too will stand against the foe.
thou shalt see tho sons of
women
fall,
tho
Godly
whether Ceres be
scattered or collected."
Never was prediction more exactly
fulfilled.
The mighty host
of the Persians, having disembarked from their ships at the nearest

point available for an attack,
marched against Athens.
As the
heads of the enemy's columns came in sight the Greek galleys put
to sea.
The
cit}^
was deserted, save by a few desperate
patriots
who, knowing that the Acropolis had once been encircled by a

hedge, and vainly imagining that this might be the
wooden wall of
which the god had spoken, determined to defend that portion of

Athens to the
common
last.
They
fell
to a
man
Persians, and,
after
fighting with the valour
Athens was entered by tho
to the Hellenes of the age.
having been plundered, destroyed by
Then the invading host returned through

pillaging
whatever lay
in the w'ay.
for the sacking of distant
to theu' ships.
towns
and
Expeditions were despatched
and
finally the Asiatics
Off Salamis, in accordance
D 2
Attica, burning
fire.
^îth
returned
the prophecy of
AKCIEXT SPIRITUALISM.
3^>
the oracle, the combined navies of Greece encountered them
and, by reason chiefly of the burning valour which animated the
Athenian portion of the
fleet,
and the
skill
vdth M'hich Themistocles,
the Athenian admiral, manoeuvred his ships, a complete victory
was
An
obtained, and the freedom of Greece achieved.
Boeotia had,
we
oracle of
termn
learn, predicted this event in equally clear
Avith that of Delphi.
I have mentioned that expeditions
were despatched by Xerxes
for the destroying of towns distant from the line of
by
lour thousand
men marched
lu'ing into the treasury of the
Unprepared
there.
for
hood demanded of the
any
march adopted
Amongst other squadrons, one
the main body of his army.
to pillage the shrine of Delphi,
of
and
Persian King the vast riches collected

defence, the alarmed priest-
eflectual
oracle whether they should flee with the
treasures of the temple to
some more secure
treasures in the precincts of the shrine
itself.
bury those
spot, or
The
deity replied
that he would himself preserve his property, and forbade even
the least of the offerings consecrated to him to be moved.

this all, save the Pythoness,
On
and a few of the boldest dwellers in
Delphi, departed to seek refuge in the mountains.
Speedily the
Persian legion came in sight, and pressed forward exultingly to the

pillage of the wealthiest fane of the ancient world.
first
remained
sought
silent as the grave.
to ascend the crag on
gathered
overhead,
which
it
voice
was heard
at
stood, clouds suddenly
from which unceasing
flashes
broke forth, accompanied by deafening thunders.
human
The temple
When, however, the barbarians
to proceed
of lightMing
Then a super-
from the shrine, and huge
rocks, loosened from the summits of Parnassus, crashed through
the ranks of the invaders, and levelled them like grass.

the remnant turned and
heart,
and
hastily
fled.
On
this the
snatching weapons,
Appalled,
Delphiaus gathered
descended from
hiding-places, and pursued the fugitives for miles.
their
Such was the
slaughter occasioned in the Persian ranks by lightnings, falling

crags,
and the spears of the Greeks, that of the whole four thou-
tand scarcely a man escaped.
The foregoing instances
are gathered
from Herodotus.
have
GREECE AND ROME.

chosen them because, occurriug (save
narrative of
37
in the case of Croesus, (ho
whoso intercourse with the Delphian
oracle
own
historians conlirm) at no great distance from his
othc r
time, the
Father of History was well qualihod to judge of the truth or
hood of these portions of
false-
And, when not deceived by
work.
his
evidence merely hearsay, no ancient author adhered more rigidly
Says Professor Gaisford, his
to facts.
truth
would be equally scrupulous
truth to his reader
who have been

liar
translator:
who took such
hardly be doubted that one
in the habit of hearing

to
know
it
may sound
but the
to those
Herodotus stigmatised as a
better, there is
probably na
author, ancient or modern, the inspired writers excepted,
deserves to be placed before

racy."
(Introduction,
him
can
pains to ascertain the
in offering nothing
and, indeed, strange as
by persons who ought
"It
who
and accu-
in the scale of truth
p. xxxi.)
Pausanias, Plutarch, and a somewhat loss trustworthy writer,
Diodorus Siculus, are equally
of the supermundane,
full
and equally
emphatic ia asserting the veracity of the narratives they give.

the Laconics of Pausanias
is to
most picturesque
pagan times
stories of
that of his
lung of Sparta, who commanded the Greeks

Plata3a,
and
Cleonice
the
Byzantine
maid.
unknowingly by the monarch who had enslaved

forward the haunter of his
life
Plutarch also has the
groundwork
furnished the
Byron's " Manfred

*'
An
tlie
tale.
her, v/as thence-
when any great evil

woe that was about to
In modern times
"
nionarcii di'ew
Byzantine maid's unsleeping
He
spirit
slew
That which he loved, unknowing what he slew.

died unpardoned though he called in aid
The Phyxian Jove, and in Pliigalia roused
The Arcadian evocators to compel
The indignant shadow to depose her wrath,
Or
of
slain
it
has
one of the noblest passages of
answer, and his de^:tiny.
And
battle
Clconice,
The Spartan
From
for
namesake the
at the
appearing
menaced Pausanias, and predicting the

happen.
In
be found one of the weirdest and
tix her term of vengeance

she replied
In words, of dubious import, but fulfilled.
:
38
The
prcdictiou
Cleonico
which the poet
to
intlicated
tho
Pausania?, after rendering

detected in
sanctuary.
trates,
it,
was
of her
in
which
slayer's
death.
that
was
services to tho state,
and
fled
to a temple
for
In Laccdasmon the kings were merely elective magis-
such as in more modern times have heen the doges of
The oligarchy
Venice.
and outlawed
in
many eminent
conspiracy against
refers
manner
ghastly
their
which he had taken
entombed
alive, the
of Sparta assembled, and, having deposed
monarch, caused every opening of the temple
Thus
refuge, to be hermetically closed.
unhappy Pausanias perished
of want.
Space forbids that I should quote more than a very few of the
The
instances to be gathered from Plutarch and Diodorus.
markable narrative which succeeds

"
Pan
is
is
given by the former
port for one
in
Italy.
writer.
Dead."
In the reign of Tiberius certain mariners had set

Asiatic
re-
from an
sail
As they lay becalmed
Echinades, an unearthly voice was heard thrice to
Thamus, an Egyptian of the company, and,
call
off
the
upon one
after the third time, to
bid him that as the ship passed Palodes, he should declare loudly
that " the great
Pan was dead."
Thamus, having consulted with
his fellows, resolved that, should a steady gale be blowing
the vessel reached Palodes, he would journey on silently

if
when
but that
becalmed there, he would speak that which the voice had com-
As the mariners gained the charmed spot tho wind
manded.
Then
again died away, and the bark lay idly on a smooth sea.
Thamus, looking
forth towards Palodes, cried with a loud voice
*0/xeyas Ilai' TeOvrjKf.
" The great Pan
is
dead."
This ho had no
sooner done than there broke forth the sound of
many
uttering mighty lamentations, intermingled however, as
it
Then a breeze sprang up, and the

Thamus and his companions were borne
voices,
seemed,
of
with shouts of triumph.
sails
the vessel
rapidly
away.
filling,
The date assigned
to
this
occurrence
is
that
of
Our
Saviour's death.
Tiberius, says Plutarch,
was extremely concerned
to discover
the truth or falsehood of this narrative, and, having made search-
GREECE AND ROME.

iiig
39
had taken
inquiries, fully satisfied himself that those events
place exactly as described.
According to Diodorus, Altlia?mencs, the son of a king of Crete,

"Was
warned by the oracle
that he
would unknowingly slay Catrcus
his father.
Dreading the fulfilmeut of the prophecy, ho quitted
his country,
and
Rhodes, hoped to escape so horrible a
settling at
In course of time, his father became extremely old, and
fote.
longing to see his son once agam before he died, set
Having landed during the
the place of his_ exile.
commenced between
for
sail
night, a fray
his attendants
and some persons of the town.
The unhappy Althajmcnes, coming
angrily forth to end the riot,
slew one of the strangers in the heat of passion, and looking
on the face of the dead man perceived
From
the
same writer we learn
his father.
that Philip of
Macedon, when he
consulted an oracle respecting his ambitious design of attacking

Persia,
was bidden
to
remember
that the ox being
crowned and
garlanded implied his end to bo at hand, and that
prepared to
sacrifice
to the thought that
He
Persians.
was
in.
reality his
more than royal magnificence, and having
him
in
drew
company with
own.
and struck him
But
As, clothed with
image borne before
his
statues of the gods,
the
^gea, Pausanias, an
a dagger,
stood
he should seize and slay the monarch of tho
began, therefore, mighty preparations for war.
the death foreshadowed
theatre at
men
This enigma Philip's wish made father
him.
he entered tho
esquire of his body-guard, suddenly

to the heart.
I cannot better close this portion of
my
than with
subject
a reference to the spiritual guidance vouchsafed to the noblest
mind
of
all
pagan antiquity.
Socrates, as every one in the slightest
degree acquainted with Grecian history must be aware, w'as from

his earliest
but to restram from
evil.
momentous and the most

Corinth;
when he
when he
Xantippe
lifted a
it)
when
" Divme
attended him, not to urge to good,
It
was equally busy
trifling actions
of
life.
in
the
most
At Athens,
at
spear against the enemies of his country
bore with meekness

;
youth the object of unearthl}- monitions.
voice " (as he himself terms
the
revilings
in the height of his success
of
the
shrewish
he stood surrounded
40
by
Plato, Alcibiadcs, aud others of the noblest youth of Greece
when
die
old, feeble,
the voice was
ever with him.
It did not advise respecting
conduct of any action in which he was
the
and persecuted, he calmly prepared himself to
engaged, but
it
uniformly warned him against taking any step which might have
proved prejudicial or
This has been ^made the ground for
evil.
interpreting the history of the unearthly monitor as nothing
than an allegorical representation of conscience.

science of Socrates
was unlikely
to
endeavour
to prevent
obtained from the
probable that
it
it.
voice
of unknown dangers
when any of those friends
warn him
awaiting himself or his friends, nor,
meditated a crime, was
moro
But the con-
it
Yet Xenophon
and imparted
would perceive and
testifies
that
Socrates
to his intimates
many
foreshadowings of perils which awaited them, and was never convicted
of
error.
Yet Plato relates that Timarchus,
noble
Athenian, being at a feast in company with Socrates, and rising
was peremptorily bidden by the
to depart,
"For,"
sign
said he,
"the
spirit
latter to reseat himself.
has just given
some danger menaces you."
that
me
Some
the accustomed
little
time after
Timarchus offered agaui to be gone, and was again stayed by

Socrates,
who had heard the warning repeated. Taking advantage,

moment when the philosopher was absorbed in earnest
at length, of a
discourse, Timarchus stole off unobserved, and a few minutes after-
wards committed a murder, for which being carried to execution,

his last words wêre, " that he had come to that untimely end by
not obeying the
As
bemg
spirit of Socrates."
the Quarterhj Review once remarked,
the careers of Socrates and Joan of Arc.
French heroine were

controlled
obedience.
origin
alike
by heavenly
Both rendered
hear.
at
it is
impossible to avoid
struck by the extreme similarity between certain points of
The Greek sage and the
accustomed from early childhood to be
voices,
to
which none but themselves could
those
counsellors
In cither case the voices
by undeniable tokens.
The
Each demonstrated by
most
implicit
subject of such monitions
times in vision the radiant beings by
guided.
the
approved their unearthly
whom
savtT
he or she was
a noble and blameless
life
the
GREECE AND ROME.
41
heavcnl)' nature of those beings, and the purity of their teachings.

I>oth were
warned by the
would
careers
who guarded them
invisibles
close in the reception of the
that their
crown of martyrdom.
Both, amid the execrations of the mob, passed by roads terrible to
from
travel
parallel
a world that
How
ends.
thousand three hundred

centur}' after Christ
was not worthy
Here the
of them.
immeasurably beneath the Greece of two

j'cars
ago was the Europe of the fifteenth
Socrates, though execrated as the attempted
was
overturner of his country's religion,
away
suffered to pass
the gentlest manner consistent with a sudden end.
in
Indeed the
death he died can hardly be described as a violent one, or bitter to
be endured.
Surrounded by attached friends, he took from a
weeping executioner the cup of poison, and draining
departed
it,
calmly, and almost painlessly, to be with the immortals.
and immodestly used
reviled, tormented,
endured
Joan
for
months
a bitterness deeper than the bitterness of any death, and in death

the utmost agony of which the
and abused
human frame
mocked by enemies with
false
Lied to
capable.
is
hopes of
life,
and by
pretended friends with false hopes of succour, her torment of

suspense was only ended by that other agony of the stake of
which even
think
to
is
From the
may we
to sicken with horror.
of Socrates no less than that of the French heroine

the lesson of the blindness of
But no other narrative

fully
man
in all ages to spiritual light
in the world's repertory reveals so
and awfully as that of the
fate
reap
saintly
mourn-
maiden of Domremy the
unrelieved darkness of those depths to which,
when
it
misconceives
the origin of that light, humanity can descend.
In liome
among
we
find
reproduced the spiritual
the Greeks, but darkened and
beliefs
made more
prevalent
severe, to accord
with the darker and severer natures of the masters of the ancient
world.
with
The
poets, like the poets of Greece,
ortraits of the dwellers in the invisible.
the spiritual as
in miracle.
Homer
As
crowd
their pages
Virgil is as rich in
Ovid, Horace, and Lucan deal throughout
in Htllas, the
gods descend among men, and arc
described as displaying passions akiu to the passions of man.

love
which was
in
Greece the chief motive for the
visits of
But
the.o
AXCIEXT SPIRITUALISM.
42
deities,
who,
like
brethren described in Genesis,
were
that they
To wreak
absent.
them;
tlicir
men
daughters of
fair,''
was
Eome
in
"saw
wrath on nations which had oiiended
their
on to conquest peoples that stood high
to lead
in then*
favour; to enjoy the tumult and carnage of the battle-field
by which the
arc the motives
national
among
to earth.
The
It is
th&
altogether
these
Italian poets represent the truly
their goJs as invariably actuated in their descents

lust of pleasure is supplanted
by the
lust of blood.
such a difference as exists between the good-natured amorous
Zeus wcr.,hipped by the Greeks, and the stern majesty

Jupiter of the
Roman
of the
people.
Yet from Greece came the whole of the philosophy and arts of
The
Home.
were revered
oracles of Greece
in Italy,
and up to
the very time of their becoming finally silent did emperors and
senates send to consult them.
As Horace
tells
us
"Capta ferum
victorem CLpit." Greece, enslaved by the swords of the Romans^

ruled yet by supremacy of mind.
Nor should we
sation
immutable
those of Egypt, brightened
The mesmeric treatment

was but an apish
spiritual
the
of the sick practised in
reflex of that
all
Roman
Emperor Vespasian
in Greece.
Roman
temples
deep knowledge of magnetic and

priests.
Nay, the
miracles, the extraordinary cure b>'
of a
blind
wrought on Egyptian ground.

contemporaiy historians
The metaphysics of
by a sojourn
phenomena possessed by Egyptian
most celebrated of
civili-
more ancient one whose almost
far
slowly moulder by the Nile.
relics
Eome were
between the
forget the peculiar connection
and that
of Italy
man and
This
Pliny, and
event,
paralytic,
was
which two great
the sceptical Tacitus
have
described from the narratives of eye-witnesses, and Avhich David
JIume, in his "Essay on Miracles," declares the best attested

instance of the supermundane in
magnificent Egyptian city named
quote the story
all
historj-,
after
took place in that
Alexander the Great.
" Vespasian spent
pomp months
at Alexandria.
Daring
his residence
number of incidents out of tlie ordinary course

murk liini as the particular favourite of the gods.
in that city a
of naturii
seemed
A man
to
ol'
GREECE AND ROME.

mean
('(1111111
his oyo.
Alexandria, liaJ
ion, liorii at
1I(!
prosoiited
Id.st. Iii.s
43
m'^\\
liiiuselt" bci'orc; \\'si)a.sian,
by
und,
a ilclliixidii
ialliiij^
on
])r(i.-;tiatt;
implored tlu; EniptTor to administer u cure for liis lilindcame, he said, by the admonition of Serapis, the god wliom
superstition of the Ej^yptians holds in the highest veneration.
Tht;
oil tlie j^round,
He
ucss.
l]i(>
re(piest
was that the Emperor with

jioor man's face and the
would condescend to
Another who
hand, inspired by the same god, begged that he
moisten the
his spittle
balls of his eyes.
had lost the use of his

wimld tread on the part atiVcted. Vespasian smiled at a rerpiest so
absurd and wild. The wrcitched objects persisted to implore iiis aid.
He
dreaded the ridicnle of a vain attempt
men, and the crowd of
Hatterers, prevailed
but the Jm])ortiinity of
npon the prince not
thi-
entirely
to disregard their petition.

*'
He
one,
ordered the physicians to consider whetlier the
and the paralytic
human
assistance.
aflection of
The
other,
lie
))liiiduess of
were within the
the
reacli of
result of the consultation was, that the organs
by removing the film or cataract,

by prosier applicati(ins and invigorating medicines, it was not impossible to restore it to its
former toiu>. The gods, perhaps, intended a special remedy, and chose
of sight were not so injured but that,
As
the patient might recover.
to the disabled limb,
\'espasiau as the instrument of their dispensations.
If a cure took
would add new lustre to the name of Ca'sar, if

otherwise, the poor men would bear the jests and raillery of the people.
Vespasian, in the tide of lus affairs, began to think that there was
nothing so great and wonderful, nothing so improbable or even incredible,
whicli his good fortune could not accomj^lish.
In the presence of a
prodigious multitude, all erect with expectation, he advanced with an air
of severity, and hazarded the experiment. The paralytic hand recovered
By living
in fimctions, and the blind man saw the light of the sun.
witnesses who were actually on the spot l)oth events are confirmed at
this hour, when deceit and flattery can hope for no reward."
place the glory of
it
The hour alluded
to
was
that at
which Tacitus wrote.
Ves-
pasian was dead, and the imperial tiara had passed for ever from
his fomily.
Nothing remained to impede the exposure of deception,

deception there had been
with
whom
to profit
if
nothing could make those witnesses
the historian conferred fear to speak the truth, or hope
by a
lie.
It deserves to
be mentioned that Straho and
Huetonius, as well as Pliny, confirm this narrative of the greatest

of the
Roman
annalists.
species of apparition of
which
have myself been made the
subject occurred to this same Emperor.
lie sav/ in a temple at
44
Alexandria the double of ouo BasiliJo^, tuen living, and
have been at a considerable distance from the place.

tale as Tacitus relates
"Vespasian
Avas nov.'
it
known
Here
is
to
the
determined to
sanctuary of Serapis, in
Having;
visit the
order to consult the god about the future fortune of the empire.
remove all intruders, he entered the temple. "While Ik-.

adored the deity of the place he perceived, in the midst of his devotion^,
a man of principal note amongst the Egyptians advancing behind him.
^given orders to
The name
was
of this person
to be detained
by
Basilides,
who,
moment, was known
at that
illness at the distance of
many
Vespasian,
miles.
whether they had seen Basilides that day in. tht'.

temple.
He asked a number of others whether they had met him in
At length, fi-om messengers whom he despatched
âny part of the city.
<ni horseback, he received certain intelligence that Basilides was not less
incpiired of the priests
He
llian foiirteen miles distant fi-om Alexandria.
therefore concludeil
had favoured him with the preternatural vision, and fi-om

the import of the word Basilides (royal), he inferred an interpretation oi
that the gods
the decrees of heaven in hxvour of
Pliny
among which
Athenodorus
is
the most remarkable.
on his arrival
at
being out of
The lowness
it
At midnight
a noise
Athenodorus,
a rusty chain.
its
irons,
The philosopher calmly signed
with his task.
had
bought the mansion,
and.
As, at midnight, he sat writing, the
spectre appeared, and clanking

follow.
in the case.
figure of a skeleton passed through the
story, philosophically
himself therein.
and beauty of the
the history of the events which
various apartments, dragging with
undaunted by the
fair
terms demanded,
was some mystery
former tenants from the house.
was heard, and the ghastly
installed
of the
proportion with the size
all
inquired, and received

all
Athenodorus, having occa-
Athens to purchase a house, a large and
nnansion, he perceived that there
driven
numerous accounts of
to us
stories that respecting the philosopher
one was shown to him.
He
future reign."
Younger has preserved
tlie
apparitions,
fîon
liis
motioned that he should
to
it
to wait,
and proceeded
At length, when the entreaty had been several
times repeated, he rose, and intimated himself ready to follow
where
it
desired.
-court of the
On
this
the spirit preceded
mansion, and there vanished.
him
to
Athenodorus
an inner
laid
some
GREECE AXD ROME.

mark
loaves and grass to
the spot, and rctnrncil to bis studios.
Tho next morning ho sought

was
searcli
instituted,
45
tho magistrates
of the
cit}'.
and a skeleton loaded with rusty chains
discovered beneath the place marked.
This having been interred
in a proper spot, the philosopher placidly pursued his labours in
the house he had purchased, unvisitcd for the future
by such
grisly guests.
Trajan, says Macrobius, previous to his invasion of Parthia,

invited to consult the oracle of Heliopolis,
inquiry was by sealed packets.

deity,
Incredulous as to the power of the
he forwarded a packet and desired a sealed reply.
arriving,
This
The
and being opened, a blank paper only was found.
courtiers expressed
was
where the method of
amazement, but the Emperor confessed
that,
being sceptical as to the wisdom of the oracle, he had placed
nothing in his
own packet but

now
therefore apt, and Trajan
cation by sending ambassadors to
demand whether from
Parthia he should return safely to Rome.
and wrapped
manner
a linen cloth
in
He
of his return.
The response was
a blank sheet.
confessed his curiosity and mystifi-
was sent him,
his
war
in
vine cut in pieces

as symbolising tho
died in the East, and even so were his
remains brought back to Italy.

I shall cite
to the
now some
instances of
phenomena occurring
coals without injury
in our
phenomena
own
strikingly similar
The handling
day.
of live
a manifestation which has frequently occurred
was witnessed also in these ancient times.
to myself
Strabo and
Pliny unite in assuring us that in the reign of Augustus the priests
Mount Soracte dedicated to the goddess

known to v/alk bare-footed over great quantities
of glowing embers.
The same ordeal, says Strabo, was practised
of a temple at the foot of

Feronia, had been
by the
priestesses of the goddess Asta Bala in Cappadocia.
That a mode of conversing with
was known and used
in
Roman
spirits
by means of tho alphabet
times, the historian
Marccllinus proves by the following narrative

" In the days of
tlie
Emperor Yaleni?, a.d.
of theurgy, -who in those days usurped the
brought to
trial
for
having attempted
371,
Ammianus
some Greek
name
cultivators
of philosophers, were
to ascertain the successor to the
46
The s^mall table or tripod which they

arts.
purpose was produced in court, and on being submitted to the torture, they gave tlie following account of their proceedthrone by means of magical
had nsed
ings
"
:
*We
for this
most venerable judges,
constructed,
this small ill-omened table
with wood
Having duly consecrated it by
muttering over it secret spells, and by many and protracted manipulations,
we succeeded at last in making it move. Now, whenever we consulted it.
about secrets, the process for making it move was as follows. It was
placed in the centre of a house which had been purified by Arabian
incense on every side
a round dish composed of various metallic
On the
substances, being, with the needful purifications, set upon it.
circular run of this dish the four-and-twenty characters of the ali)habet
Avere cut \A\h. much art, and placed at equal intervals, whicb had been
which
yo;i behold, after the likeness of the Delpliian tripod,
and with solemn
of laurel,
auspices.
measured with perfect exactness. A person clad in linen garments, in

made of linen, with a light turban wreathed about Ids head,
-and carrjdng branches of the sacred laurel in liis hand, having propitiated
slippers also
the deity
who
gives the responses, in certain prescribed forms of invoca-
tion, according to the rules of ceremonial science, sets this dish
fine liiien
tion.
upon the
a suspended ring attached to the end (^f a very

thread, which also had previoiisly undergone a mystic initia-
tripod, balancing over
it
This ring, darting out, and striking at distant intervals the
particular letters that attract
it,
makes out heroic
verses, in accordance
with the questions put, as complete in mode and measure as those

uttered by the Pythoness or the oracles of the Branchidte.
"'As we were, then and there, inquiring who should succeed tlie
present Emperor, since it was declared that he would be a finished
darting out, had touciied the
GEO, with, the final addition of the letter A (making
Theod), some one present exclaimed, that Theodoras Avas announced as
appointed by fate. Nor did we jiursue our inquiries any further int(>
the matter, for we were all satisfied that Theodoras was the person we
character in every respect, the ring,
syllables
v.-ere
asking
It is
for.'
amusing to note the pedantic minuteness with whicli these
fincient tlieurgists detail the rites
their
intercourse
obtained.
with
Of the
with another
fact
and invocations through which

world was, as they supposed,
that their intense
spirits alone attracted spirits to
desire for
them they seem
communion
to
have been
bhssfully ignorant.
It is quite within the limits of probability that
from the
spirit
workl would bo obtained by a
genuine messages
circle
which should
GREECE AND ROME.

repeat with the
same solemn
faith the
rhyme
the Druids, the nursery
of
47
" dcrry tlown " chorus of
"Mother Hubbard."
or Ibe
theosophical nonsense of the present day.
The story has a
The tyrant
and remarkable sequel.
tragical
Yalcns, fearing for his throne, caused Thcodorus, thougli a
cmment
and attainments, to be
for his virtues
Nor was
death.
alarm
his jealous
satisfied
man
once put to
at
with a single victim.
The pagan philosophers were
also judicially
many whose names commenced
with the letters " Theod " as the
emperor could get into his power.

spite of
Yet the prediction was,
answer so
answer had boon suffered to
far as that
proceed, succeeded Yalens upon the throne of the West.

story of Marcellinus, I
historians
in
Theodosius, whoso name was similar to the
all, fulfilled.
letters of the
murdered, and as
may
add,
is
The
confirmed by the early Church
Socrates, Scholasticus, Sozomen, &c.
In view of that similarity of phenomena, as an instance of
which the foregoing narrative

Tertullian
is
the pagans of his age
Do
"
is
given, a passage to be found in
The
very striking.
Christian father thus reproaches
not your magicians
ghosts and
call
departed souls from the shades below, and by their infernal charms
represent an infinite
number
by the
forni all this, but
which they are able
to
inahc stools
object of Tcrtullian's book, like
destroy paganism,
things as the
it
work
And how do they
of delusions ?
pei-
assistance of evil angels and spirits,
and
that of his
was natural
whole
life,
by
The
being to
that he should represent these
AVhether
of fiends.
tables j^vophrs;/!''
evil spirits or
good were
concerned, the fact that fifteen centuries ago seances were held
with tables remains a most remarkable one.
Space
death
Brutus
in a
fails
me
to describe the
omens that attended
Caesar's
and how the apparition of that Ca;sar was beheld by

at Philippi
dream
and
how
Caracalla
was foreshown
his assassination
Sylla, the night before he died,
the manner of his end.
saw
in a vision
These, moreover, are things that have a
thousand times been described.
Nor can
I find
spiritual in the lives of Scipio, Marius, Cicero,
and other famous Romans.
room
to tell of the
Antony, Augustus,
have now depicted intercourse with
48
another world as
it
existed in the various ancient nations, and
have given the principal and best-authenticated instances to be

found in the history of each people
but,
were the whole of the
supermundane occurrences that old historians
relate to be collected
and commented upon, we might suppose with the apostle that tho
world
could hardly contain the
books which should be
With some remarks on Eoman
spiritualism in its relation
itself
written.
to the social condition of the people, I shall therefore close.
The worst and most
was
frightful time
that of the twelve Cassars.
of heathen misgovernment,
During the whole of
this period
the foulest vices and the most hideous cruelties stalked abroad
Nothing
arm-in-arm.
era
neither
Charles
in
the nineteen centuries of the Christian
the Italy of Alexander
VI.,
nor the England of
nor tho France of the Regent Philip
11.,
Eome
found to equal the
of Nero
has
and Tiberius.
jêt
been
The hard,
systematic, unblushing vices and ferocities of the Italians of that
age remain unapproachable.

highest of
was
all
gospels
As the
so the
Christian revelation
low
An
tho
time of the dawning of that light
And why had
the darkest in the history of the world.
fallen so
is
earth
impartial student of history will answer, as I
answer. Because of tho corruptions of those
ments for intercourse with
spiritual
father the devil, and do his works," said
priesthood of His day.
who
beings.
served as instru-
" Ye are of your
Christ to the Judtean
The same reproach might be applied
the priesthood of imperial
Rome, and more
to
or less, as I have
already endeavoured to show, to every hierarchy of the ancient
world.
Only
yet more evil than themselves could manifest
spirits
through beings so corrupted as these consecrated mediums gradually became.
Every wickedness that can be committed by beings
merely human, was on the head of the wretched sacerdos of

the
Roman Empire.
that the true spiritual

difficult to obtain.
them by
It
had been found
phenomena were
in a long course of ages
exhaustive, infrequent, and
Attention was therefore directed to simulating
falsehood, and priest after priest toiled with a misdirected
ingenuity to invent or perfect the machinery of imposture.
By
time of Augustus this system of deceit was in
It con-
full flow.
the
GREECE AXD ROME.

tinned so
Ixoman power
than in our
decaying only
centuries,
for
decay of the
the
Avilli
Exposures, doubtless, v/ere
itself.
own
49
The medium power
age.
loss frequent
of the ancient world
chiefly to bo found in the ranks of the priesthood
it is
was
chiefly to
Thus the whole weight
bo found outside those ranks at present.
of sacrcdness and authority might of old bo allied with fraud.
But, although fowxr and further between, exposures did come,
and
their cflect
was exceedingly
The
great.
and teachings of
lives
the priests, too, were causes of endless scandal and demoralisation.
What were
the intelligent to think of a
man whose
life was one

when ho was
long career of hypocrisy and vice, interrupted only

asleep or drunk
palming
whoso temple was
from a succession of
false pretences to
think of the deities
whom
and who,
medial powers, had come at
almost to disbelieve in their existence
last
with contrivances for
tilled
the vilest impostures on a credulous public
oli"
What were they
to
these priests were appointed to serve
who cried constantly for human sacrifices who saw their

made receptacles for the foulest vice, and smiled
'approvingly
who gave teachings inciting to every form of
deities
temples
immorality and bloodshed
The
intelligent stigmatised the priests
as utterly worthless impostors, whose deities wêre the hideous

creatures of their
own day have

there
own
foul minds.
They
first to
was no God, neither any immortality
this chaos rose the foundations of the
Church.
It
shall seek to
show, by
first
to
whom
spiritual signs
our
that
Suddenly,
Christian
as in the succeeding part of this
men
in
last a lie
man.
for
from out
was founded,
many
cried, as so
done, that religion was from
work I
and wonders
were as their daily bread, and whose pure minds held communion
only with the beneficent portion of the dwellers in another vforld.
To
my
the spiritualism of the Christian era will
devoted.
It suffices to say, in
munion with another sphere

corruptions, through
Roman and
next chapters bo
concluding this description of com-
as practised in
which the pretensions
pagan times, that the

to
mediumship of the
other priesthoods ultimately came to bo received with
such derision, are rampant among the mediums of our
How
often
do
we
see
men
ay, and
women
own
age.
who, although
50
possessed of medial powers, Lave degraded themselves and the nohlfr

cause to which they should he devoted, hy the vilest and most
unblushing fraud
How
of impostors
class
often, too,
do wo perceive a
lower
still
who, destitute of the slightest pretensions
to-
mediumship, earn a shameful livelihood hy the simulation of certain

forms of
spiritual
And what among the lives

who consented to deify Nero, could
phenomena
teachings of the flamens
and.
sur-
pass in foulness the antic iilthinesses of a few creatures of our ovrn
who have
age,
introduced themselves like ghouls into the spiritual
ranks, disgusting and repelling the pure-minded and the thoughtful ?
Is
modern
spiritualism a Divine revelation given for the elevat-
Then how
ing and brightening of the world ?
are v/e to estimate
the impostors mentioned above, whether they mingle medial gifts
with their deceit, or confine themselves to falsehood unrelieved
any gleam
How
of truth ?
we
are
to regard the vile
by
and foolish
teachings which have of late years been produced in such plenty,
through these and their kindred harpies
Above
manner may we regard the weak-minded

these evils are encouraged and perpetuated
jibsurd
who
what
in
whom
accept the most
and vicious doctrines with a kind of inspired idiocy of
belief,
which,
tains
who, as regards
all,
enthusiasts by
unparalleled
if
not able to remove, can at least gulp down,

spiritual
in ancient
or
phenomena, display a
modern times
exalt
him
guide
M'ere willing
mounalmost
Avhom any boy can
delude with imposture, and any madman with absurdity
whether that boy or madman
folly
and Avho,
or unwilling,
would
to the rank of a pi-ophet,
It
is
these
who
will
and revere him as a spiritual

accept " explanations " of whose
supreme ridiculousness an Australian savage might be ashamed,

rather than admit that a
medium can
reject the admonition to " try the
and thus bar the door

it is
at once
from these and the knaves
deceive.
spirits " as
on
scientific
whom .they
Si)Iritualism emphatically ren[uires to
It is these
who
a needless insult,
research.
Finally
encourage that modern
be delivered.
PART
II.
SPIRITUALISM IX THE JEWISH
CHAPTER
AND CHRISTIAN
ERAS.
I.
THE SPIEITUALISII OF THE BIBLE.

I HAVE separated the Hebrews from the peoples dealt with in the
former portion of
this
work because
it
has appeared to
the spiritualism of the Testaments, Old and
The
treated of as one great whole.
signs
New, would
mo
that
best bo
and wonders recorded by
the prophets and apostles of Israel, from Moses to St. John, are
indubitably the mightiest and most famous which the Creator has
vouchsafed to mankind.
I
do not, however, propose to devote to them any very great
proportion of these pages, and

sufficient.
my
reasons will, I trust, be held
Ninety-nine out of every hundred of
my
readers arc as
familiarly acquainted with the histories of the signs accorded to
Abraham, and the miracles wrought through Moses,
own
the chief events of their
earthly lives.
as with
any of
The commentaries
on the prophecies of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and others
would require a
lifetime
to
number.
on the miraculous events recorded

his
apostles
libraries
chief
as
might,
large
as
if
collected
the
in
and
Alexandrian.
The sermons preached

the lives of Christ and
printed,
Were
wonders of Hebrew times, as recorded
in
fill
to
hundred
quote the
our own noble
version of the Scriptures, I should be simply deluging the reader
with histories, magnificent indeed, but the
tritest
of
tlie
trite.
JEWISH AND CHRISTIAN ERAS.
52
Were
my own language a description of

how poor would such efforts seem beside those
these
I to attempt in
occurrences,
inspired Avriters
I shall confine
of the
myself to the citation of certain
remarkable instances, and to an inquiry into their influence, and
The few
the circumstances of then- origin.

at
any length
phenomena
discoveries of
The assumption which,
since
men, that the physical laws of the universe are
Such an assumption
eternal and immutable, here has no place.
admitted, reduces the Hebrew^ Scriptures to a collection
of fables, and not even " fables cunningly devised."
condition of the scientific world

effects.
The present
example of
affords a striking
its
In no other age has research into the mysteries of creation
been so diligently pursued.

set
the mighty
Newton, has been constantly becoming more rooted
scientific
if
upon
upon the
foundation stone of the Biblical writings to be
everywhere miracle.
indeed,
less
of to-day.
"We find the
among
incidents dwelt
found incidents bearing more or
will be
In no other age has the disposition to
up the "laws of nature" as a species of
The natural consequence has been
strong.
have progressed from a disbelief
idol,
appeared so
in miracle in general to a disbelief
in the particular miracles recorded in the Bible,
and from a
belief in the Bible appear rapidl}^ progressing to a disbelief in
In 1874 we had Professor Tyndall's Belfast address.

likely that in a very
few years
men
that our scientific
this
It
dis-
God.
appears
minute and studied oration will
be openly received by the school which the Professor represents,

I search
as an able exposition of their articles of faith.

for
any indication of a
whom
this
scientist
belief in a Personal
would appear
The
God.
in secret
to
it
in vain
deities to
bow down,
are
known to him and his fellow- adorers by the awe-inspiring titles of

Atom and Molecule. Not yet, however, are the penetralia of the
temple to be unveiled to the outer world.
Such
a casting of pearls
unto swine would utterly misbecome a
man
of the Professor's
acumen.
For the uninitiated he has a kind of convenient shadow
known
"Nature," which he interposes between
as
their gaze
and
the inmost secrets of his philosophy, and respecting which he dis-
courses in a most excessively mystic jargon.
Nature appears to
OF THE
rilE SPIRITUALISM
lUIU.E.
5?
On
servo him as she served the Arbaccs of Lord Lyttoii's novel.
bor shoulders
may
be laid the burden of
all
that docs not accord
Avith the philosopher's idea of the litness of things.
unjust to say that the whole of tho scientific
one with Professor Tyndall
men
is
would bo
of the age arc at
But, although
in his peculiar theology.
tho law of tho physical sciences
It
progress, the law governing
tlio
ideas of devotees to those sciences respecting religion, both natural
and revealed, would seem

deity
whom
to be as
undoubtedly retrogression. Tho
even the the most religious of such
men worship
nothing more than an imitation of the Zeus of tho Greeks

limited in
power
That
this is
would prove.
that
so, qûotations
as
of Christianity they totally
from a hundred authorities
I shall content myself with citing part of a critique
directed, in the early years
phenomena occurring
through
whom
they occurred
movement, against
of the spiritual
certain
"
Zeus, and governed like him by an
The Omnipotent God
inexorable Fate.
reject.
as
is
at
Ealing, I
being
the
medium
fiicts, and it is allowing a great deal to say that we

Rymer to be in earnest in stating his belief iu tliiini. For
we entirely disbelieve them, and shall gladly give anyone the
These are strong
think Mr.
ourselves
opportunity of convincing us.

" In the meanwhile we venture to recommend to IMr. Rynier's attentive
study an old-fashioned college text-book, which we suspect he has never
Pratt's ' Mechanical Philosophy.'
opened
He will there learn of
:
those iimnutable laws which the unchanging
and
for ever
on creation
God has impressed once

harmony and
and, reading of the wondrous
by their operation throughout the wide bounds of creahe may perhaps come to share our doubt and disbelief of those
imaginings which tell us of their violation in moving tables and shaking
lamps and dancing chairs, and he may, perchance, should his study
order which reign

tion,
which those nurtured

on the strong meat of the inductive philosophy within the very courts
and halls that a Newton trod, view these sickly spiritualist dreamei's,
thus drunk with the new wine of folly and credulity."
prosper, catch also a sense of the pitying scorn with
Such
is
a fair specimen of the
mode
in
which theso Sir Oracles
discourse on subjects not in accordance with their
philosophy.
gods.
may answer them through
It is tolerably certain that,
own systems of
own
the mouths of their
nigh two hundred years ago.
54
Newton was
to Descartes
and others of the renowned
the age " a sickly dreamer drunk with the

credulity,"
many
It
is
more
still
jihilosophers of the time of
that " Ship of Fools" to
philosophy
which
calmly consigns
so
new wine
certain that Francis
James
I.,
scientists of
of folly
and
Bacon was, by
allotted a place in
this
admirer of Bacon's inductive
the
spiritualists
the
of
era
of
Victoria.
As regards any and every system

friendship of such
men more dangerous
diligently search for
of Christianity,
not the
is
than their hostility
They
and remove from between the covers of the
Bible whatever the scientific
mind cannot
grasp.
They gravely
assure us that the laws of the universe are not to be altered or
superseded even by the Deity
who
instituted
them
thus
at
once
depriving that Deity of his attribute of Omnipotence, and reducing

the Creator to be subject to the created.
float
Was the shadow

Hezekiah ? Was Aaron's
on water
dial of
'?
changed into a
Did Elisha cause iron
rod, on his throwing
of " the
The worshippers
serpent ?
to
of the sun turned back on the

it
down,
laws of
Nature " would consider themselves besotted did they credit any
such absurdities.
They
are not as the early Christians were.
are assuredly not followers of the Christ
God
all
things are possible."
who, taught that "with
The theory
that there are every-
where throughout the universe wheels within wheels

Avhich that of gravity
invisible forces
may
Clreeks of the first
laws by
be modilied or temporarily set aside
which exert power over matter
to the scientific Christian
They
such a theory
what the creed he professes was
century
foolishness.
He
calmly
It
to the
assumes
of God in the governing of the worlds

now known to man, and he stops his ears
against any evidence to the contrary.
He dismisses, as I have
said, from that Bible which he professes to reverence as the Word
of God, whatever niaj^ be considered as savouring of miracle.
To
what extents this demolition proceeds I shall now endeavour to
show. Christianity, deprived of all but what may be explained by
that the whole of the

v.hich
He
ways
has made are
the knoxcn laws of creation, and exposed in such a condition to the

assaults of sceptics, resembles a vessel which, having been care-
THE sriRiruALiSM OF
Wo
glory,
siio
Testament of God appcarinf^
man, and speaking with him face to
Exodus
da
sent to sea to encounter a storm.
is
are told frequently in the Old
visibly to
Ho
man
that,
when
mo and
to be reconciled ?
How
live."
Yet we road
face.
behold the Lord in
]\roscs desired to
" Thou canst not sec
replied,
sec
i5
masts, and compass, and pierced wi'Ai
of n;cIdor,
(Icniuleil
r;illy
inmimei'able boles,
TJiE ni/uj:.
my
face
all
.iIi^J
for there shall
arc the apparent contradictions
them by
Spiritualists rcsconcilc
their
knowledge
of the countless ministering spirits which constantly watch over

earth,
of
and ceaselessly pass
spirits.
and
to
on the errands of the Master
fro
Such, clothed in a material form,
God's commands regarding Adam.

iand
were seen by him,
in
towards evening, he sat
Such
in the
have executed
Such wrestled with Jacob,
trance,
between heaven and earth.
may
ascending and
appeared
Such
carried the
commands
of
God
as
Such delivered
door of his tent.
Lot from the destruction which impended over the

Plain.
descending
Abraham
to
Cities of the
to his servant
Moses,
guided that Moses to the presence of the Egyptian King, and
wrought, by means of the powers accorded to them, the whole of
By
the wonders related in the Pentateuch.
Gideon prompted
spirits like these
was the mighty host
To
of Sennacherib destroyed.
of these spirits were the eyes of Elisha's servant

the Syrians sought the
of
the
man
of
God was
encompassed the
servant
city
said unto
life
not
than they that be with them.
pray thee open his eyes that
tain
was
full
my
Alas,
man
of horses
master
equal
when
the servant
forth, behold, a host
how
shall
And his
we do ?
for they that be with us are
And Elisha
he may see.
was
spirits
the beholding
made
And when
and gone
such
both with horses and chariots.
him,
the eyes of the young
"
of his master.
risen early,
And he answered, Fear

I
By
to his mission of deliverance.
more
prayed, and said. Lord
And
the Lord opened
and he saw: and, behold, the mounand
chariots
of
fire
round
about
Elisha."
We
to
have here a striking proof that the human eye can be made
perceive spirits.
-explaining away.
see
no room
for
The prophet prayed
sceptical cavilling,
that his
servant's
or
cycs
SCy
might bo opened, and God opened them, so that
saw
this Israelite
the glories of the spiritual beings around. " Clairvoyant " he -would
have been termed

scientific
But the
or rejected in
eye
condemn
stantial
That
Hebrew
the
is
another term for dreamer.
have quoted
from writings
is
all
be accepted
It requires to
Professing Christians must admit that
behold
occasionally
chronicler
as
the
beings,
spiritual
narrator
of
or
circum-
lie.
spirits can, in the present day, operate
powers similar
llesh is
can
day, and as such, ridiculed by the
word
to be sacred.
entirety.
its
man
of
that
story
particular
European Churches hold
the
own
our
in
men with whom
to those possessed
upon matter with
by human beings
the
in
still
an assertion received with derisive incredulity by myriads
who profess every sabbath their belief that such occurrences were
common from two to four thousand years ago. The tens of
thousands of clergymen who have preached against such facts of
modern
spiritualism as the
moving of material
agency, and the millions of listeners
objects without visible
who have
sermons, would doubtless be indignant were

disbelieved in the loosing
by an angel
away by another angel of

With what
sepulchre of Christ.
rolling
it
agreed with their

asserted that thoy
of the chains of Peter, or the-
the stone which secured the-
intense
scorn,
too,
are
the
testimonies regarding that levitation by spirit power of which I
and others have
by Christians
of
of their Bibles
in
modern times been the
subjects,
received
Europe and America who may read on one page
how
the apostle Philip was suddenly snatched
from out the sight of the eunuch
whom
conveyed from Gaza
distance of thirty miles
to Azotus, a
another place the verses in which Ezekiel tells

the
Lord
lifted
which was
full
how
the
iu
hand of
him, and carried him into the midst of the valley

of bones.
Again, the appearances of
und hands which have so frequently occurred

are
up
he had baptized, and
spirit
forms
in the present age,
heard of with absolute incredulity, and the vouchings of
witnesses of the highest standing, intellectual and social, calmly

set
aside.
Yet one of the most picturesque
Old Testament
is
that wherein Daniel recounts
chapters
how
of the
the " liucrers
THE SPIRITUALISM OF THE
BIBLE.
57
of a man's baiul," at tho impious feast of Jnlsliazzar, -wore seen
by the monarch himself and

upon the
fiery characters
approaching doom
a thousand of Lis satraps, to write in
of tho palace an intimation of the
"wall
And
of Babylon.
beheld a spirit-band, and the
roll
Ezckiel recounts
the hand spread out the book before him,
As
and without.
the action of
fire,
why should
Is the
was written within
in tho midst of the flaming furnace
works were done two thousand
If such mighty
ago,
it
human body being made insusceptible to

have we not Daniel's history of the three Jewish
to the
who walked unhurt
youths
how ho
wh n
of a book therein, and that,
five
hundred years
not lesser wonders be witnessed in our
arm of God grown
less
been asked, but never responded
mighty
own
time ?
The question has
'?
often
Science cannot, and religion
to.
dare not answer in the negative.
How
science treats
the
particular
phenomena
spiritual
How
already endeavoured to show.
phenomena
of
general,
in
have
she behaves with rcgai'd to
which I have just spoken was
instanced in the Qnarlerhj Ucvick, of October, 1871.
Tho
on spiritualism contained therein has been praised as
logical
Yet the argument
able.
this
B,
was written
it
whose occurrence
has
to happen,
It is highly
The premise
and the premise that
when put
is
this
science
And has
Were such arguments
on the opposite
brethren have re-discovered that "

"
logical conclusions ?
I
rei.urn to tho
Bible.
is
The
first
that such events are
has never
known
that
an utter impossibility, and
bis narrative therefore worthless.
sophy come to
and to
improbable that
together produce the inference
their occurrence in the presence of
of
is
in the presence of A,
testified.
such phenomena should occur.

unlikely to happen,
man
enforce
and
simply
the author of the essay, has never witnessed certain
phenomena which have occurred
them
to
article
side,
the inductive philoto be
advanced by a
would not
many dogs can
examination of miracle
his
hostile
arrive at
as contained
more
in
the
passage on which I light (1 Chrou. xxviii. 19)
a remarkable illustration of the inspirational writing and drawing
of the present day.
David had given
to
Solomon
his
son the
JEWISH AXD CHRISTIAN ERAS.
58
patterns of the temple, and

*'
'
it
was
to
be furnished.
Lord made mc vinderstand
the
by His hand upon mo, even
".vriting,
which
all \\'A\\
These things," said he,
a.l
would seem that a ypecies of divination practised
It
East
to
How
are
this
unless
15
among
"Is
to understand
Gen.
xliv.
the Hebrews.
not this
as an intimation that the obtaining of visions

into
stedfastly
in the
it by
"
Lord driuketh, and whereby, indeed. He divineth
my
which
very day was kno\Yu of old
we
in
the works of this pattern."
cup
filled
with wine
by looking
was a
or other liquor,
species of clairvoj'ance practised in the days of Joseph ?
Had
and did the patience of the reader permit, I
I space,
might proceed to minutely analyse the prophecies contained
in the
writings of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and the lesser seers.
The
and
chief of these prophecies

all
who have
coming of Christ,
related to the
ever searched the Scriptures
wore the forebodings of
Of
advent.
his
know how
lesser
exact
intorost
are
those mystical predictions given
bj*
Daniel and others, on Avhich.
ingenuity of theologians of
all
nations and ages has been
the
Perhaps the
expended.
fruitlessly
which the prophecies

invested,
may
most awful
which should
the
God
excuse
my
lingering over
that description given
is
befall
attractiveness with
terrible
relating to the last siege of Jerusalem are
the
them
for a
moment.
The
by Moses of the calamities
Hebrews when they had
utterly forsaken
and space for repentance was no longer
of their fathers,
This denunciation, the bitterest ever spoken by a prophe^,
allowed.
occurs in the tv/enty-eighth chapter of the book of Deuteronomy.
Before Jerusalem was taken by Titus every item of
had come
to pass.
us with no such
by the doomed
^'
When
And
literal
presentment of the miseries to be endured
race, are solemnly significant of the wrath to come.
ye shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by
them which be
in Judaja
And woe unto them who
are with
For then
shall bo
Daniel, stand in the holy place, then let

flee
unto the mountains.
child,
and who give suck
^reat tribulation, such
world to
horrors
its
the words of Christ, though they shock
this time, no,
in those days.
as
was not from the beginning
nor ever shall be " (Matt. xxiv.).
of the
Again,
THE SPIRITUALISM OT
TIIK niDU:.
5<>
" And Avhcu yc shall sco Jerusalem coinpasscd by anuies, Ibcii

For these bo tho
know that the desolation thereof is nigh.
days of vengeance, that all things which arc written may bo
fulfilled.
And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and
and Jerusalem shall be
shall be led away captive into all nations
trodden down by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles
.
sh;di be fulfilled "
(Luke
xxi.).
Seventy years after the Crucifixion came
marched
legions of Titus
mistress of the world
for long
still
reigned as
attained its
deemed themselves secure
was the strongest of
all
power
ciaes
vowed
of the Empire, and
which the Maccabees had

fighting
the
to
and
false
Their city
of triumph.
prophets were not want-
Thus encouraged, they
ing to delude them.
fall
Rome
power had scarcely
into Palestine.
indeed, her
The conquests of Trajan lay yet in the womb of the

when those of tho son of Vespasian were made. Yet the
zenith.
future,
Jews
Tho
great woo.
this
fiercely defied tho
to recover that independence
died^ to preserve, or like those heroes
Did not the whole Christian world
last.
regard the miseries of Jerusalem as chastisements sent of God,
how
frequently would the
superhuman endurance of her children
be quoted to instance what can be borne by nations striving to be

free
In
In no other siege was the valour displayed so frantic.
no other siege did the attacked seem so completely to have
The Romans were
triumphed over death.
make
3
captives of such as
early
life
all
fell
cases, preferred death in defence of the
of ignominious servitude, and
And what they

intlict.
at first disposed
into their power.
were no
this,
ready to
less
to display in its
most refined
All
Jews who
into their hands alive were crucified in view of the city, and
perished in torment, with their dying eyes fixed on

friends.
unto
to a
and the determined resistance of
Romans proceeded
form, the cruelty seldom absent from their wars.
came
Holy City
their enemies as they captured they remorselessly
Enraged by
put to death.
the besieged, the
to
these, in
fought desperately to the last.
so stoically endured, they
Such of
But
Even
them.
At
as their fathers
lencrth
home and
had done unto Christ, was
came the end.
Wall
after wall
it
done
had been
Co
carrietl, until
the last stronghold of the
Jews was reached.
human
the city no food remained save
Moses had prophesied, slew and
"Within
Even mothers,
flesh.
ate their children in the
as-
madness
Many Jews had franticalh" endeavoured to break

Roman lines, and, being taken, were crucified in such
numbers, that wood became scarce, and no more crosses could be
of hunger.
through the
Then followed the capture
made.
with a sudden frenzy, the
from every
in firebrands
Roman
if
inspired
soldiers rushed forward, flinging-
Titus,
side.
As
of the temple.
who
desired the preservation
of so magnificent a shrine, in vain ordered his guards to beat them
The
oft'.
consecrated to Jehovah was burnt to the ground,
fiibric
and over against what had been

legionaries set
hail Titus as
up
Roman
eastern gate did the
them,
Imperator with " acclamations of the greatest joy."^
The most awful

end.
its
their standards, and, oflcring sacrifices to
siege recorded in the world's history
Eleven hundred thousand of the Jews had been
was
at
nn
Sa
slain.
many were carried into captivity that the markets became glutted,
and the Roman soldiery sought in vain to find purchasers for their
slaves. I think none who read of these events but must endorse the
pathetic assertion of Josephus
"It appears to me that the misfor:
tunes of
all
men, from the beginning of the world,
if
they be com-
pared to these of the Jews, are not so considerable as they were."
So
fearfully
had the predictions of Christ and Moses been
In quitting the Old Testament for the

is
to
be noticed a remarkable
New
similarity
let
me
fulfilled.
say that there
between the miracles
recorded of the Jewish prophets and those afterwards performed
by
Christ.
The rendering inexhaustible by

and barrel of meal,
Elijah of the widow's cruse of
is
a parallel on a lesser scale to the mii-acle
of the loaves and fishes.
So with the means by which Elisha fed
oil
a hundred men.
The
restoration to
life
of an only child
of these prophets recalls the raising from the dead
young man
widow."
sufficient
of that
of Nain, " the only son of his mother, and she was a
Naaman, who was healed

to
by each
by Jesus
of leprosy
upon having
obey Ehsha's mandate of washing
reminds us of several of the miracles of Christ.
in the
And,
faith
Jordan,
finally,
the

man whose dead body was
narrative of the
up
Elisha, and sprang

is
revivified
LIBLi:.
Ci
tomb
cast into the
of
on touching the prophet's bones,
New
a marvel almost equalling anything that the
Testament
contains.
One other
incident in Old Testament spiritualism deserves to be
Although such marvellous tokens of
noticed.
spiritual
power were
vouchsafed to the Jews, the Levitical law forbade theni to seek
The reason
intercourse with the spirits of the departed.

to
difficult
Jehovah feared
find.
is
not
nations around
like the
that,
them, his people would bo drawn from the worship of the One
God
adore a multitude of the beings
to
On
Nor were restrictions unnecessary.

we hear of the Jews hastening to
and
this
had created.
hundred occasions do
"
the record of a continued
is
forms of
far grosser
As Macauluy with great justness remarks,
idolatr)-.
history
whom He
a
their
whole
between pure
struggle
theism, supported by the most terrible sanctions, and the strangely

fascinating desire of having
adoration."
Hebrew mind
know
some
that the
visible
and tangible object of
European mind
of to-day and the
of three thousand years back have
That childish savagery which could

outward symbol of
disappeared from
spiritual things
among
civilised
the danger out of which
all
little
as something
common.
with the image of a
men.
But
for a
idolatry springs
still
exists.
Ye
that the Levitical law
was dhccted.
a whole nation was at
all
It
was against
With
times ready to
the
fall
Jews
with the
Yet
all
who wish
whom
of old almost
into error
to-day comparatively few are led into such
behoves
There
this great evil
spiritualists of
it
has
are gods,"
more than human, those through
tokens of their presence are given.
some
calf,
few weak minds
are not wanting enthusiasts to say to the spirits, "
and revere,
in
satisfy the craving for
folly.
well to our cause to raise their voices
earnestly against these things, and, impressing upon their weaker
brethren that mediums and spirits are alike but
fallible,
urge that
to neither should this unreasoning faith and baseless reverence be
accorded.
It is
from the abuse of the faculty of veneration that such things
in great part spring.
By minds
in
which that faculty was exceed-
AXD CHRISTIAN
JEIVISII
62
ERAS.
ingly strong, and caution and judgment correspondingly weak,
tlie
wildest extravagances of religious history have been perpetrated.
The
this
sceptical typo of intellect, "which can perceive nothing
and
world,
present
testimony relatmg to a future
whose weakness
may
life,
all
be accepted as a character
The mass
the antipodes of that just described.
is
beyond
with the greatest disdain
rejects
of mankind hold a course equally distant from the two extremes,.
and are neither disposed
Yet there come periods when almost the
without investigation.
whole world seems
to accept without testimony nor to reject
to
be infected with one or other of these
Just at present the second
diseases.
by which
deadliest foe
essence of the religion of Jesus
accompanied him throughoiit

the chief marvel in
all
the tidings
final
history, yet
He had come upon
From
called unto
Him
unclean
and
them, saying
cast
to
all
freely
Christ prophesied, these
name's sake
them
manner
Heal the
cast out devils
and
He
to
and
out,
Jericho.
was His He
whom He sent out
"And when He had
sick, cleanse
heal
to
manner of
all
the lepers, raise the dead,
ye have received, freely give."
men were
hated of
all
whom
Himself the nation
sat
For
Yet, as
the world for His
His mission
They saw Him
raise the
give sight to the blind, and cause the
They received from Him teachings such
thorns and the cross.
Lord;
by the mightiest
And He commanded
never before heard, and they rewarded
man who
His
gave them power against
of disease
dead, and cleanse the leper
of the
of
to enforce
the power that
particularly concerned gave only death.
lame to walk.
commencement
marvellous works.
His twelve disciples
spirits
sickness,
many
do
the
earth to proclaim
And
is.
almost matched by what
In His name the apostles
kept not to Himself.

to
is
it
the
of His birth
agony of the cross He continued
works that earth had ever seen.

were made
The account
is
For the
and wonders
miracle, and signs
is
his career.
occurred at and after His death.

mission until the
rampant, and
is
Christianity can be menaced.
Him
their condition
as ear had
with the crown of
was worse than that
by the wayside as Christ went out from
Bartimeus, through
all
but the chiefs of the
his darkness, could recognise his
people,
though spiiitually blind.
THE
desired
OF THE
SPIRITUALl.-^M
nini.E.
not that their eyes might bo opened
6j.
and,
nnaldo
comprehend tho Light of thu WorUl, thoy sought

guish
tho
when,
Caiaphas,
liigh-pricst
his
"^vith
mocl;cd the victim stretched upon tho cross, saying
himself he
come
there shouhl
God
the Sou of
cannot save
"
;
and
had
this
He
"
man been
Romans had never dreamed
whence then went
fortli
authority of pontiffs
who deemed
tho
as vicegerents of this Christ
saved
tokl that
every country over which the

yet vaster regions, of
in
he
acolytes,
:
victim would be worshipped as
a day ^vhcn his
in almost
sceptre extended
those
to
extin-
it.
Had
others
to
that in tho very city from
wouhl be
fiats of Cajsar,
it
Roman
whose existence
their all
on earth
set
up the
to be revered
that the ancient glory of Jerusalem
should be extinguished, and even the foundations of her temple

almost pass from view
and that a scanty remnant of the once
mighty and flourishing nation of the Jews should wander from
by the triumphant
to city of realms possessed
who
expecting to behold the Messiah
and ever disappointed
their woes,
prophecy as a madman's dream
of Trajan, he wrote Avith pitying
should deliver them from
would he not have scorned the
Had
city
ever
Christians,
Lucian, when, in the reign
wonder
of that contempt of death
which the Christians displayed, been informed that the statue of

that very Trajan
erected as
its
would be one day hurled from the noble column

and an efBgy of a chief among these Chris-
pedestal,
tians take its place, with
what
have laughed down such a
a display of lively ridicule
tale
And
would he
could the incredulity of
Was
cither have been held matter for surprise ?
it
probable in the
days of Caiaphas that the teachings of Christ would ever spread
beyond Judaea
Was
it
probable in the days of Lucian that this
carpenter, and son of a carpenter,
the nations of the Gentiles ?
would be adored as God by
IIow comes
the heads of such uncountable millions
The Protestant
religion
was
preserved
miracle,
it.
all
will
answer
then that at his
it
bow
'?
that, Christ being
God, the
Christi:in
of God, and that, therefore lie has nourished
But how has

history replies.
it
is
an
eas}'
thing
now
and
Ly
that
men
been nourished and preserved

It
all
uamo
64
should accept the faith which their fathers have from time imme-
The matter
morial accepted.
%Yas
Xero, Trnjan, and Diocletian.

only in secret, and hy a few
tion or a foolishness.
Avith those
otherwise iu the days of
Then, Christianity was professed

being held by the
were as noble
Its ethics
deities
whom Greek
acceptance of Christ as
God
of the
nature
but
faints
pomps and
and Roman worshipped, and the
to
inflictions
The
contemplate.
to
vanities of this world
With the embracing
but
rejection of the
and he or she who did so accept
Him, became thereby immediately exposed
human
many an abominaas at present
was inseparably connected the
ethics
hundreds of
far
such as
renunciation
was then no vain form.
of the Christian religion the certainty of a
of privation and suffering
was
also
life
accepted, and the peril of a
To encounter the constant opposition of
death of agony dared.
those they loved, and provoke the hatred of their nearest and
dearest
be
to
authorities
to
continual
in
meet
for
danger
these were some of the things which
was well
It
if
at a
denunciation to
of
the
worship only in deserts and catacombs
meeting
Christians endured.
all
and prayer the
for praise
con-
little
gregation were not broken in upon by bands of fierce soldiery, and

minister and hearers involved in one
common massacre
if
an
assembling to celebrate the supper of the Lord did not end in those
who had partaken

the
arena
if
of that love-feast being thrown to the beasts of
from the funeral
rites
of
some brother or
away
departed, the mourners were not snatched
to
sister
be smeared
How
with pitch and set up as torches in the garden of Nero.
many
Christians perished
by
these,
and modes of death equally
dreadful, in the three centuries that followed the Crucifixion,
impossible to compute.
their agonies
faith.
as
the
were
However
insufficient to
great the
number
check the progress of the
new
Kay, these agonies were even coveted by man}^ converts

most glorious mode of finishing
Numbers denounced themselves
their
fate.
town
in Asia,
earthly
to the authorities,
deaths of lingering torture with triumphant joy.

lation of a small
such a
it is
of martyrs,
we
career.
and passed to
The whole popu-
learn from Tertullian, sought
Having heard that the emperor had issued an
edict
JEUISII AXJ^ C//RJSTIAY ERAS.

commanding
body
Christians to bo put to doatb, tlicy flocked in
all
to tbo proconsul,
now
tlio
On
faith.
and afknowlcdgcd themselves adlierents
Roman
this the
chief men, and dismissed tbo
departed
Cj
;i
ol"
deputy executed a few of tbo
others to their homes.
And they
not lamenting that their friends had como to so terrible
an end, but that they themselves had been deemed unworthy to

receive the solemn
crown of martyrdom
had escaped dying
in unutterable torture, but
of their
not rejoiced because they
number had obtained admittance
because a select few
into the noble host of
those whose blood was shed in the service of God.

St.
have met death
my
departure
finished
up
The words
of
Paul express the sentiment with which every martyr seems to
for
my
me
'
:
am now
at hand.
is
course
ready to bo offered, and the time of
have fought a good
have kept the
fixith
fight
have
henceforth there
is
laid
crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous
me
judge, shall give
And why were
day."
at that
the Christians of the
devoted to their creed than those
came
it
tions
men had
first
century so
the
of
much more
nineteenth
How
most bloody and unsparing persecu-
that, in spite of the
ever groaned under, the
new
creed spread with
What was it
men bigoted in
of men bigoted in
rapidity over the whole of the then civilised world ?
by which
zealot
and atheist
the
prejudices of
favour of their old religion, and the prejudices
favour of their no-religion
conquered
Was
it
were
alike so speedily
and so thoroughly
not in great measure by the continual work-
ing of signs and wonders
'?
by
the impetus which the unceasing
intervention of spiritual beings gave to the advancement of the

Christian religion
supported by
Could a creed whose high teachings were
such striking
internal evidences, indeed,

faith
to
mended
But those
be of God.
to such
miracles
were alone
men
likely
to
fail ?
The
siifficient
to
prove
this
be
internal evidences
as Paul, John, and Peter,
were recom-
by the power
which they themselves possessed of working mighty

the
marvels which
many
of
of their belief accomplish, by the frequent descent
the Spirit of God, by the
things,
by
them had seen the great Founder
gift
upon them of
of miraculously healing,
by the
06
Nor was
understanding mau}' and diverse tongues.
ability of
to the apostles alone that spiritual things
The
BIBLE.
were brought so
and
of such of their successors as Polycarp, Ignatius,
faith
it
close.
Justin Martyr, as TertuUian, Cyprian, Ambrose, Augustine, and

a hundred others, was strengthened
equally
Nor
gixat.
are
The noblest Christians

them.
may
It
of
these
all
by
and wonders almost
signs
and wonders yet
signs
extinct.
ages have sought for and received
be affirmed, without danger of the assertion being
disapproved, that there never was a truly great
man
of
any church
one distinguished by the intensity of his faith and the nobility of

his
life
but knew himself to be attended constantly

Such was the
spirits.
faith of Savonarola, of
whom
Fenelon, of Wesley, and of numerous others
Nor
space to name.
is it
of an
guides
spu'itual
less,
men
probable that such
Torquemada were unsupplied with
ministering
bj'-
Loyola, of Bunyan, of
spiritual guides
I have not
and
as Calvin
though, doubt-
exceedingly undeveloped class.
purpose in
my
of miracle
runs through the history of the early Fathers, and
how
traces of miracle have
in every
how
next chapters to point out
down
continued
Church worthy the name of
a constant vein
day
to the present
Christian.
Not now, indeed,
does faith " subdue kingdoms, stop the mouths of lions, quench
the violence of
fire,
Those countless thousands who

the
Romans went
to death as
in
to
had spoken with them face
time
the
they
to face
made
these
strong."
power of
of the
did not heliere that
a bridal,
the faith they professed was the truth

Spirits
By
escape the edge of the sword."
things were the early Christians " out of weakness
knetv
it
to
be such.
they had been permitted
while yet on earth to catch a glimpse of the glories of the hereafter.
It
mattered not what
the soul an
incorruptible
that death
is
against the
up
body
for
Such
in heaven.
a " bourne whence no traveller returns."
thousand incidents of their

Signs that a
over the
laid
would have heard with mute amazement the assertion
Christians
afiforded
men might do
crown was
them
lives
Thomas could not have doubted wore

of the
By
were such teachings disproved.

continually
watch which those who had gone before kept
disciples of
the true faith yet
on earth.
Some,
like

Stephen, saw
Man
of
in the
67
hour of death the heavens open, and the Son
stand at the right hand of God.
deHvcred from hondagc and the
peril of
Others, Hko Peter, were
death
h}- spiritual
hands.
Like Polycarp they stood in the midst of llames and were not
harmed.
strong,
Like Polycarp, too, voices whispered to them to ho
and
horno by
thrown
quit themselves like
through the
spirits
into ecstatic trances,
With Montanus, they were
and delivered messages from another
With John, they were
world.
As Ammon, they were
men.
air.
circled at times
by the glory of
the inner heaven, and those that looked on them saw their faces
"as
the faces of angels."
It Avas
by men
like these
men strong
with an unshakable certainty of the truth of what they taught

Christianity
was
carried to the farthest ends of the earth.
thus that the philosophy of Greece and the pride of

-overthrown, that incense ceased to
and Poseidon and
Isis
I do not advance
were
smoke on the
that
It
was
Rome were
altar of Jupiter,
laid prostrate in the dust.
these views
They
as theories.
are
facts,
But there
as every genuine Christian will be ready to admit.
are numbers of men, professing to be Christians, who, denying

that such things have happened, will stigmatise these great truths
For Christ
as dreams of the
most baseless kind.
more than
uncomprehendcd by many who
of old,
is
now, even
call
themselves
his disciples.
They "understand not the sayings which He speaks
unto them."
It
Upon
Judaea.
was
thus, as every Evangelist proves to us, in
the earth to which he
peace and goodwill the Son of

stood
Him
came
Man walked
not, nor Joseph, nor they
to bear tidings
who, according
to the belief
He
of the Jews, were the sisters and brothers of this Jesus.
began
his mission,
faintly
and the nation
Even
stood him not.
comprehend and sympathize with
selves, saying,
his
whom He
'
and " being
What manner
teachings,
preached under-
the most beloved of his disciples could but
perceived his miracles,
to
to
of
Mary under-
alone.
of
man
is
They
spoke among them-
this ?
and "wist not of what
Master.
their
afraid,
'
"
He
They
talked."
listened
They
approved their charity by forbidding others to cast devils out in

the
name
of Christ, and the extent of their faith
f2
by
failing to
do
THE SPIRITUALISM OF THE BIDLE.
68
SO themselves.
"Whether Christ walked in Jerusalem or in
desert, surrounded
hy his
disciples, or absent
The
as regards this world, equally alone.
man, not even John
drew
to
AVhilst
He became
Him
He
were not
forsaken
me
? "
So was
He
God,
my
it
before Pilate.
80 when
why hast Thou

head. He said " It is
God,
his
And
temple was rent in twain.
The
been truly understood of men.
it
that
gave up the ghost, the earth quaked and the
Christ remain unto the present day.
in the darkness,
light shineth
with-
afflictions
to the cross.
So when, having bowed
finished," and, as
veil of the
"My
cried:
garden
He
which the twelve could enter.
trials into
So when passing from the judgment-seat
He
bore to
spirit in
"When, in the
" sorrowful even unto death,"
suffered, his disciples slept.
on that cross
He
The
The
the-
men, He was,
love that
endure that mighty agony alone.
tormented
all
or Peter could understand.
which He taught none could perceive.

of Gethsemane,
from
equally solitary does
Never have
m-aster
is still
his teachings
"The
alone.
and the darkness comprehendeth
not."
Had
it
been better comprehended
how
the history of the whole Christian world
different
would have been
Then Athanasius and
Arius would not have cursed each other both for this
life
and the
Then Constantine would not have been accepted as a fitting

head for the Church of Christ. Then Julian would not have been
next.
driven in despair to the worn-out philosophies of pagan times.
Then rehgion would not have been found throughout
the dark
ages uniformly on the side of might, and ever straying further
from what was right and

have been
bodies of
lived.
men
true.
The career of Becket could never
Dominic would not have believed
to save their souls
from eternal
would never have desolated the world.

Eot have been established.
The
in burning the
Keligious wars
Inquisition
would
Such natures as those of Torquemada
and Calvin would have been viewed

climes and creeds.
lire.
v/ith
abhorrence by
In the pages of history
we should
men
of
read of
all
no
Buch laws as those established in the sixteenth century at Geneva

of no such
reigns as
Charles IX. of France.
those of
Henry YIH.
The touch
of England, and
of Borgia or of
Leo would not
yEUVSn
have
tleClcil
bracing
6<>
lio
might, at this day, be seen a single Church cm-
Christendom.
all
Lh'.lS.
Instead of sects too numerous to
the papal tiara.
countcil, there
CJIK/ST/AN
.I.V7)
Instead of brethren inflamed against
each other by causeless hatred there might be found that unity
which the Psalmist

gigantic wars,
tells
us
it is
so pleasant to
Instead of
see.
and rumours of wars, we might be
living in the
midst of the reigu of universal peace, the " federation of the
Controversy would be a name forgotten, and the pens
v>orld.''
i\nd
works of polemical divines moulder
oblivion
in
and dust.
But these speculations are indeed dreams.

time that this chapter should conclude.
It is
how
best to prove
many books
by tearing
intimately miracle
of the Bible, and
all
miracle awaj".
how
my
have done
bound up with each of the
is
total
would be the ruin
effected
have sought also to point out the
resemblance between certain phenomena of Jewish times and the
phenomena
me from
vented
Want
of the present day.
of space, indeed, has pre-
doing the subject justice.
Besides the instances
adduced, there are numerous others scattered through every book,
from Genesis to the Revelation of John.
But these any searcher
of the Scriptures can readily find for himself.
make
think, find sufficient evidence to
of
Hebrew
spiritualism
plain to
He
deities
God had
a tendency which the most terrible threats and chastiseinsufficient to restrain.
solely against this

dii-ected.
He
He
Avill
agree with
me
will also agree
me
by
rejecting whatever
inexplicable
by known laws, or
men make
the prophets and
with
Testaments, Old or New,
is
apparently opposed to those laws,
are to believe that so
much
have we that the rest
is
Holy Writ
of this
what then
to say that those
would
that
tendency were the terrors of the Levitical law

that
chroniclers liars and the teachings of Christ of no authority.
we
to
the whispers of evil spirits, and exalt those spirits into
ments proved
in the
also, I
was the tendency which, even more than
Assyrians, Egyptians, or Persians, the race chosen of

listen to
will
him that the shadow
of Scripture
true ?
A
to
If
what security
single error admitted injures
mass of error
who, professing
is false,
It is
but cold truth
be worshippers of Christianity,
either totally deprive the Bible of miracle or accept only the
70
BIBLE.
miracles attributed to Christ, treat the chief of religions as of old
the soldiers of Pilate treated her Foiinder.

the vestments that so well become her.
They deprive her of
Having
plaited a
crown
of thorns and shaped a sceptre from a reed, they adorn her with
these.
Then, bowing the knee before her, they expose her
state to the derision of the nations.
in this
CHAPTER
II.
THE SPIRITUAL IN THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CHURCH.
FAVOURITE dictum with
We
the apostoHc age.

signs
and wonders occurred
divines
that miracle ceased with
is,
the last of the
after
twelve had
Learned bishops have not been ashamed
departed from earth.

to
many
have no certain evidence, say they, that
employ the whole force of
their ecclesiastical eloquence in en-
deavouring to prove this hypothesis a certainty.
Yet the
fact
undeniably
is
that, as regards external
and others, are better supported than anything the

contains.
weight
is,
The
internal evidence
weaker
of course,
which
men
of these narratives.
The
Testament
first
admit the authenticity
to
we must
us that
tells
such
Yet, con-
has proved sufficient to
it
Locke and Grotius
as
New
in the Bible carries
in the case of the Fathers.
joined with the historical testimony,
induce such
evidence,
by Athanasius, Augustine,
certain miraculous occurrences recorded
allow the
by denying that they occurred, destroy the authority

the Fathers, and even] their reputation for common honesty.
miracles, or,
of
The second not only warmly defends the
spiritual in the early
Church, but avows his entire belief that such things had continued
down
to his
own
day.
Johnson, and a host of

or other of these
Milton, Cudworth, Bacon, Addison, Dr.
men
opinions.
Christians can do otherwise.
equally distinguished, have held one
Indeed,
is
it
difficult
to see
The words used by Christ
are,
how
He
"
that believeth on me, the works that I do shall ho do also, and

greater works than these shall he
do."
deny that such works are now done,
They
are of opinion that
men have
is
If
Protestant
divines
not the inference plain
ceased to believe in Christ.
AXD
-jEll'ISJI
72
Not
was the
sucli
Church.
How
subject
So
men
CHRISTIAN' ERAS.
faith of early
ami fervent members of tha
hardy seem the expressions of TertulUan on the
earuestl}^ did
he hohl to the text above quoted, that
asserting themselves to be Christians,
who
yet could not
" Let
expel a demon, were in his judgment, worthy of death.
some one be brought forward here

seat,
who,
it
manded by
is
agreed,
is
your judgment-
falsely a god.
some one be brought forward

acted upon
b}^
a god.
demons, not daring to
lie
of those
who
In like manner
The words of
St.
are believed to bo
unto a Christian, then shed upon the
is
gifts of
miracles
healing by the same spirit
to another
prophecy
a curious passage
gifts,
of the TertuUian above quoted
"We
is
...
For
to another the
As regards the
to be
found in the
last
''
to
to another
working of
to another discerning of spirits
another divers kinds of tongues."

these
"Concerning
would not have you ignorant.
given by the Spirit the word of wisdom.
one
(Apol. 23.)
Paul to the Corinthians are:
spiritual gifts, brethren, I
let
Unless these confess themselves to be
spot the blood of that most impudent Christian."
the
"When com-
an}- Christian to speak, that spirit shall as truly declare
demon, as elsewhere
itself a
at the foot of
possessed of a demon.
to
but one of
De Anima
"
liad a liglil,"' fâys tlie great orator, " after
what was
iâid
by
St.
John, to expect prophesyings

and we not only acknowledge these
spiritual gifts, but we are permitted to enjoy the gifts of a prophetess.
;
There is a sister amongst us who possesses the faculty of i-evelation.

Slie commonly, during our religious service on the Sabbatli, falls into a
crisis or trance.
She has then intercourse with the angels, sees someti iiies the Lord himself, sees and hears Divine mysteries, and discovers
the hearts of some persons
administers medicine to such as desire it,
and, when the Scriptures are read, or psalms are being sung, or prayers
are being ofiered up, subjects from thence are ministered to her visions.
We had once some discourse toucliing the soul while this sister was in
the spirit. When the public services were over, and most of the people
gone, she acquainted us with what she had seen in her ecstasy, as the
custom was for these things are heedfully digested that tliey may be
Among (jthcr things, she told us that she had seen a soul
(hily proved.
in a bodily shape, and that the spirit liad appeared mi to her, not empty
or formless and wanting a living constitution, but rather such as might
delicate, and of the colour of light and air
in everything
be handled
;
resembling the
human
form."
THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CHURCH.

Thus,
ill
the early Cluistiivn Church,
clakvoyauco, the
part of the
wo have an
It
is
exact couulcr-
speaking, and the healing
trance
luediumship of the present day.
73
also
noteworthy that what
Tcrtullian calls the " corporeal soul," or " soul iu hodily shape,"
minutely coincides with the spirit-form as beheld

of ancient and
<i '
modern
luciform ctherial vehicle,"' St. Paul calls
.Swedenborg the " spiritual man," the

''
it
voyants, in short, convey, under
ditl'erent
it
as
the " spiritual body,"

of Prevorst
scercss
nerve spirit," and Davis the " inner being."
same
in the visions
Pythagoras and Plato speak of
seers.
the
All genuine clair-
forms of expression, the
idea.
At the age of eighty-six took place the martyrdom of Polycarp.
few nights previous, whilst praying
had perceived
This he
day
knew
his pillow
to be
man."
pile
On
the
the disciple and friend of the
a spirit voice
was heard by
all
to
Polycarp, and quit thyself like a
'Be strong,
"When the
consumed.
of Christians attended to the place
As they went
Apostle John.
:
number
who had been
of execution one
in fire, without being
an omen of approaching martyrdom.
of his departure a
cry loudly
wrapped
aged saint
in his bed, the
was
lighted the flames refused to touch
him, and curved outward on
sides
all
was
scent, as of aromatic drugs,
from
his form.
diffused around,
fragrant
and the martyr,
with a glorious countenance, stood quietly in the midst of the

fire,
appearing to the beholders like a figure of burnished gold.
In dismay, the
executioner
thrust
him through with
There died with him other believers, respecting

of
Smyrna
says
" While
whom
a sword.
the Church
they were under torments the Lord
Jesus Christ stood by, and, conversing with them, revealed things
to
them inconceivable by man."
Such were the experiences of
the early saints.
Sozomen and
Socrates, the
Church
historians, relate
two
striking
instances of information obtained from the departed respecting
matters which had troubled the living.

Spiridion, Bishop of Trimithon,
of
Irene, the daughter of
had been entrusted by a member
her father's flock with the keeping of a large
Shortly afterwards she died
and the owner came
sum
of
money.
to Spiridion fur
AND CHRISTIAN ERAS.
yEJVISH
74
the return of the deposit,
knowing nothing
Spiridion,
the
of
matter, searched in vain every spot where his daughter might
have placed such a

the
money could
trust,
and was forced
On
not be found.
and exhibited the
to inform his visitor that
this the
man
tore his hair,
His pastor bade him be calm,
gi-eatcst distress.
and proceeding to the grave of Irene, solemnly called upon her

She at once responded to the summons, and
spirit to appear.
informed her father that she had buried the money for greater
There
security in a certain corner of the house.
by
Spiridion,
and immediately restored
But the second narrative
is
by Synesius, Bishop
life,
He
peculiar manner.
large
sum
in gold,
Even
converted to
after his con-
doubts as to the certainty of
felt
and these doubts he, on
Evagrius, a
difficulty,
of Cyrene.
version he would appear to have
a future
much
was found
owner.
to the rightful
yet more interesting.
Grecian philosopher, had been, with

Christianity
it
his death-bed, expressed in a
gave to Synesius a bag containing a very
which sum he requested him to apply
benefit of the poor of the city,
and
to the
desired, moreover, that the
Bishop would give him an acknowledgment of the debt, and a

promise that Christ would repay him in another world.
willingly subscribed to these terms,
with the legacy.
Synesius
and the poor were made happy
But Evagrius had no sooner passed away than
his heirs brought an action against the Bishop for the recovery of
the debt, a
memorandum
of which they had discovered
papers of the deceased philosopher.

the circumstances of the case
among
the
In vain did Synesius plead
and, proving that the
gift
was
for
the poor, relate the expectation of his creditor that Christ would
repay him
the heirs,
in
another world.
when
Judgment was about
a visit from the spirit of the departed relieved the
Bishop of their claims.
At dead of night Evagrius appeared, and
with a joyful voice, confessed that the Lord had

in full.
him
He
that he
to be given for
satisfied the
debt
further bade Synesius go to his sepulchre, and told
would there
find a quittance for the
sum.
Next day,
the Bishop, accompanied by the heirs of Evagrius, and

authorities of the city, proceeded to the grave, and caused
opened.
it
to
the
be
In the hand of the corpse was found a paper, subscribed
THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CHURCH.

follows,
as
"
I,
undonbtcd lianclwriling of the departed:
the
in
Evngrius the pbilosopbcr,
Syr.csius, greeting.
is
written with tby band, and
am
and
satisfied;
Lisbop
Sir,
in this
paper
have no action
gold which I gave to thee, and by thee,
God and
our
most boly
to Ibce,
have received the debt which
against tbeo for the

to Christ,
75
The
Saviour."
upon which
bill
this
appeared was the acknowledgment made by Synesius, at the time

of receiving the gold.
It
had been placed within the tomb,
heirs of Evagrius admitted, in accordance
as the
Avith their father's
dying
re(|uest.
But they solemnly denied that the extraordinary wordti
by which the debt was cancelled had then been present on the
paper.
The receipt thus remains, like the sentences interpreted by
Daniel, an instance of that direct spirit-writing so
much
cavilled at
in the present day.
Numerous other miracles occurred

Church which
have only space to name.
The
to have raised the dead.
stantino and his army,
the reader
is
Pre-eminent are those
and Ambrose, the second of
of Anthony, Martin,
is
of the
early ages
in the
whom
is
reported
cross seen in the heavens
by Con-
a spiritual sign with the history of
So with
probably familiar.
which
rcgai-d to the discovery,
by the Empress Helena, of the sepulchre wherein Christ bad

Marvels equally deserving of notice are to
through the
pages
of
Athanasius, Theodoret,
Origen,
Ireuneus,
and Evagrius.
be
lain.
found scattered
Tcrtullian,
Eusebius,
Ainongst these are the
narratives of miraculous incidents which occurred during the relentless persecutions of
Maximian and
those Christians of Carthage

the Vandal, and
fluency.
who
Regarding
and the history of
yet continued to speak with
this last event, the
that concerning any incident in

feeling too
Diocletian,
whose tongues were cut out by Hunneric
modern
much embarrassed by
testimony
history.
all
their former
is
as perfect as
Bishop Douglas,
the weight of evidence to deny
the occurrence of this wonder, and yet anxious to reconcile

liis
it
with
pet theory of the confinement of miracle to apostolic times, had
the pleasing audacity to assure his readers that nothing was
common
than that
their speech.
The
men
more
w^ho had lost their tongues should retain
right reverend father in
God was
unfortunate
JEWISH AND CHRIST/AX ERAS.
76
formed a
His statement would have
century or so too Boon.
iu living a
pendant
fitting
to the theories of certain scientists of tho
present day.
"
Wc
might easily prove by citations from the fathers," says a
writer in the "Encyclopaedia Metropolitaua," "that one object of
was
the experiences to which the Christian neophyte was subjected,

his inti'oduction
communion with
lawful
the spirits of tho
Indeed, nothing
In this assertion I heartily concur.
departed."
more amazing than the ignorance displayed by those
can be
who
men
to a
communion with
to seek
divines
day inform us that the Mosaic law forbidding
at the present
the departed, has, in
been
ages,
all
Have they the
observed by the Christian Church.
slightest
ftcquaintance with the writings of the fathers of that Church

so,
are they not aware that, besides the
instances
If
from
cited
Tertullian in the opening of this chapter, a score of others might
be given
to
prove that, while vehemently condemning spiritualism
by the Pagans, the
US practised
devoted to
mediums
manifesting
Thej' anathematized
practices ?
spiritualistic
of the
early Christians were themselves
heathen because they believed that the
the
spirits
through them were uniformly
evil.
They sought
communion with another world by means of their
earnestly for
who gave
own mediums, because they perceived the spirits
token
of their presence through these to be departed friends, and believed
them, without exception, angelic beings
natures glorified and
happy.
The outpouring of
this
"
gift to
discern spirits,"
was coveted by
every congregation of Christians, whether Asiatic or European, of
Even when occurring amongst those
the East or of the "West.
whom
the orthodox
rejoiced
deemed
heretical brethren
it
was not the
less
Montanus, though tho body of the Church held his
in.
teachings in the highest degree pernicious,
was connived
many on
Two
account of his spiritual
followers, the
ladies Maximilla
and
gifts.
Priscilla,
of
his
were held
at
by
female
in
such
esteem as prophetesses and clairvoyants, that the protection of tho
Papacy
The
itself
was granted them against
!}iIontanists, it is true,
their enemies.
appear to have been far worthier of
THE EARLY
reverence than
majorify of those
tlic
CHURCH.
C.'/RISTEIIV
persecuted
"wlio
groat purposes of their leader wore to put
and
vices of the period,
down
77
The
tlieiii.
the
follies
and
reform the discipline of the Church.
to
"Wherever a church of INIontanists arose, there appeared numerous
energumons,
we now
or, as
say,
mediums.
In the midst of the
congregation these would pass into an ecstatic state, and deliver
addresses
whilst
enti'anced.
Such
alluded to hy the most eminent
speaker was the
discijjle
sister
of Montanus, the great
Tcrtullian.
Nothing can hotter express the confidence which the early

Christians had in the continual protection of guardian spirits than
the beautiful words of St. Augustine
"
They watch," says the son of Monica "they watch over and guard
with great care and diligence in all places and at all hoiirs, assisting,
providing for onr necessities with solicitudes
they intervene betweeii
us and Thee, O Lord, conveying to Thee our sighs and groans, and
bringing do^^Ti to ns the dearest blessings of Thy grace. They Avalk
with us in all our ways they go in and out with ns, attentively observing how we convei-se with piety in the midst of a jierA-erse generatioi;,
with vvhat ardour we seek Thy kingdom and its justice, and with what
fear and awe Ave serve Thee.
They assist ns in our labours they prothey crown us in
tect us in oiu- rest
they encourage xis in battle
and they
victories
they rejoice in ns when we rejoice in Thee
compassionately attend us when we suffer or are afflicted for Thee,
lis
and great
(xreat is their care of us,
is
the effect of their charity for n^.
they guard him whom Then bcthey forsake those from whom Thou withlioldest with tenderness
drawest Thyself and they hate them that work iniquity, because they
are h;itefufto Thee."
They
love
him whom Thou
lovest
So
living
was the
centuries ago
Church
faith of Christians
from fourteen to eighteen
Disputes on other points of faith might distract the
in these early ages
Homoiousians
rage against
Homo-
ousians. Gnostics anathematize Sabellians, the Arian Constantius
persecute the followers of Athanasius, the Athanasian Theodosius

persecute the Arians
creed equally clung

the possibility of
but to one strong stay the devotees of either

that of the nearness of the spirit world,
communion between
those
still
on
and
this side the
grave and those who had known the change called death.
Origan,
JEIVISH
78
might
AND CHRISTIAN
ERAS.
from Cyril as to whether the condition of the devil
differ
were hopeless or not
hut he could agree with him that multitudes
of spiritual heings, benignant and malevolent, continually surrounded
spiritual presence
spiritual eyes
Pillars of
The
and himself.
his brother Christian
certainty of a continual
the consciousness of the
were common
ceaseless watching of
to every flock of believers,
from the
Hercules to the shores of the Persian Gulf, and from the
cornfields of Sicily to the forests of the
Grampians.
It
mattered
not whether their condition in this Avorld were one of happiness or
In the
pain.
Nero as
first
century or the fourth, as well in the reign of
in that of Coustantiue, the
the believer in
life
same angelic whispers upheld
and strengthened him
same Christ stood ready
in the
hour of death
to bid the faithful servant
welcome
the
to the
Such men could say with Paul, that neither
glory of his Lord.

principalities
nor powers might wrest from them the great joy of
their faith.
To
was
live
and
Christ,
The pleasures
to die gain.
and pains of earth they equally despised.
All
their
hopes were
concentred on the glorious mansions wherein was prepared for
them a
an
place
all
eternal crown.
was devoted
their ambition
mighty mark towards which they pressed.
by the gloom
Whether surrounded
of the catacombs or the glory of the palace, they
lived less in this world than in the next.
things which by other
them more
men were
wrought.
save, they
this
might
be, a
were snatched from the mouths of
who had gone
they wandered
in
"When
all
a world
lions,
is
mighty to
and protected
them continual tokens of
unworthy of them,
who should hold
God should wipe away
fixed
fast to the end.
in the arena, at the stake, voices
where
hundred miracles
God
"afflicted, destitute,
withdrawn from the things of earth, and

awaiting
were to
Lest their faith should wax weak, the
fire.
before gave to
nearness and their love.
all,
Vanity Fair wherein for a
Lest they should forget that
amidst the violence of

spirits
That
Already the heavenly
seen faintly, or not at
real than the turmoil of that
space their lot Avas cast.

vvêre
to the brightness of
In honour or in lowliness, they saw only the
all
their
tormented,"
their vision
was
on the glories
Before the judges,
whispered to them of the realm

tears,
and
in the ecstasy of the
THE EARLY CHRISTIAN

mind the body's agonies were
CIIURC/f.
79
Triumphant over death,
forgotten.
serene amidst the extremity of pain, their radiant countenances
how
witnessed to their enemies of
whom
the spiritual
Upon such
malice of man.
against those to
avail
little
had been brought so close was the
fiercest
the splendours of the world of light
Whilst
could not break with a brightness altogether unconceived.
Their eyes were
yet on earth they tasted of the joys to come.
opened
to the glories of their future
with
music.
its
Their
home.
enjoyed
spirits
they encounlored victoriously
all
its
Their ears were
filled
Thus supported,
peace.
the obstacles of their pilgrimage,
and, " faithful unto death," passed to enjoy the crown of
had been ever before
which, throughout that pilgrimage,
life
their
gaze.
I
am
not sure that in a chapter respecting spiritualism in the
Church the Alexandrian school of
of the Christian
early ages
philosophy should find a place
my
forbid
but the inexorable limits of space
devoting to Plotinus, lamblichus, and the rest of the
Neo-Platouists a
full
chapter, while
Of
not be passed unnoticed.
all
it is
India
more intimately resembles, are those
still
nnd Brahma
and
much
theirs
it
of the
was imperative that

philosophy
men must
most nearly
Doctrines, indeed, which Neo-
approached the religion of Christ.

Platonism
certain that such
Pagan systems
of the
this
of
Buddha
should be, since from
school
was confessedly
drawn.
The teachuig
successors in
its
of Nirvana
was held
To
sublimest form.
by Ammonius and
the lessons
his
drawn from the
East they added the noblest portions of the wisdom of Plato, and
mingled with the whole fragments both of the truth and error of
Pythagoras.
The philosophy thus formed
schools of Greece, and became,

ethics, the
spiritual
grandeur of
gifts
its
when
the
by reason of the nobleness
speculations,
were possessed by
rival to the Christian faith.
It
men who had been
that Neo-Platonism finally
The prophet
of the
fell
its
was not
its
and the extent
first
its
to
of
its
which
teachers, a formidable
until the reign of Justinian,
chief glories
from
school
flourished long in the
had long departed,
high estate.
was Apollonius
of
Tyana.
As
So
mentioned
theurgic
in
former chapter of
wisdom almost wholly
"work
this
acquired
lie
He was
in the East.
liis
a native of
Tyana, in Asia Minor, and nearly contemporary with Christ.
Numerous miracles
He
of the highest class are attrihutcd to him.
cured by spiritual means the most violent
frequent predictions of future events.

sion,
where a bridegroom
bier of his
young
diseases.,
and gave
Meeting a funeral proces-
an agony of despair followed the
in
wife, he caused the procession to stop,
succeeded in recalling the dead
to
girl
and
At Corinth ho
life.
became the hero of that legend which has formed the subject of
Keats's " Lamia."
Apollonius was greatly attached to a young
Greek named Menippus, who
persisted, contrary to the wishes of
the philosopher, in marrying a rich and beautiful

city.
lonius, iinbidden,
walked
demon which animated

After a
fruitless
confessed
their midst,
into
of the
struggle,
and commanded tho
body of the bride
the
it
is
said,
the
to
come
forth.
complied, and
spirit
an cmpuse or vampire, whose intention was to
itself
have destroyed Menippus
By
woman
"When the guests were assembled for the wedding, Apol-
in his sleep.
temperance and purity the earthly life of this sage was

" My mode of living," he
prolonged to almost a hundred years.
wrote, "is very different ta that of other people.

little
food,
and
fresh and unimpaired, as
it
keeps everything that
them, so that I can see the present and future, as

clear mirror.
I take
a secret remedy, maintains
this, like
The sage need not wait
for the
is
it
my
very
senses
dark from
were, in a
vapours of the
earth and the corruptions of the air to foresee plagues and fevers
he must know them later than God, but
The gods
coming.
see the future,
This
senses, or
able things
vinced that
mode
of
men
life
earlier
than the people.
the present, sages that which
if,
produces such an acuteness of the
some other power, that the greatest and most remark-
may be performed. I am, therefore, perfectly conGod reveals his intentions to holy and wise men." By
" acuteness of
the
senses
or
evidently implied clairvoyance.
was developed
in
some other
How
him numerous events
power " Apollonius
wonderfully this attribute

in his history prove.
At
'rilE
EARLY CHRISTIAN
Epbcsus, as related in
made known
chapter on
Iiulia,
Lo perceived and
many
Rome.
beings less highly gifted, this philosopher never
He was
sought to assume a dictatorship over the souls of men.

undcsirous
totally
become the founder of a
to
mission was to bring nearer to
man
and the only preparation
Avorld,
when
the assassination of Domitian in the very hour
that event occurred at
Unlike
my
CIIURCfl.
His
rcligiou.
the glories of the spiritual
which ho
that world
for
felt
himself empowered to inculcate was purity, physical and moral.
He
lived revered
by
all
Greece and
Italy,
honour
The Emperor Hadrian
collected his
and every authentic document which existed respecting his
These, having long been carefully preserved, were finally
delivered
tratus,
was
a species of memorial which he could scarcely
have expected or desired.

letters,
life.
after his death
At Tyana a temple was
regarded with yet higher veneration.

built in his
and
by the Empress
who
Julia, the
mother of Scverus, to Philos-
constructed from them his
work which
all
well-informed
critics
life
of the great theurgist
have agreed in regarding as
authentic.
Long
after the death of Apollonius
the true
arose
Ammonius Sacchas,
founder of the Neo-Platonic school.
His successors,
each of them more famous than Ammonius himself, were Plotinus,
Porphyry, Proclus, and lamblichus.
was
rapidly carried to
this school professed
its
By
these
men Neo-Platonism
As
highest development.
have
said,
extreme respect for the deeds and writings
of the philosopher of Tyana.
He
had, however,
nothing
loft
behind him which could justify his being exalted into a Messiah,
and no such attempt was made.
Indeed,
high
as
was
the
admiration of the Neo-Platonists for Apollonius, they appear to
have
felt
an equally high, perhaps higher, admiration for Christ.
They admit
his miracles, and
his teachings.
It
was
itself that it failed to
Xor need we wonder

is
weed
trace of antagonism to
Church
absorb the Alexandrian philosophers.
in those early ages intolerance
it
show no
chiefly the fault of the Christian
Even
had sprung up and become strong.
at this, since, once rooted in
any
religion,
that attains maturity as rapidly as Jonah's gourd.
82
Plotinus and lamblichus were
Church of
the
so
that
they could
perceive
by the help of these
and,
Christians, perceiving that irre-
adopted the priestly tactics of

spirits
have purified the soul
to
among
fragable proof of spiritual gifts existed
showing that the
enemies to
libelled as deadly
spirits,
The
perform miracles.
spirits,
now
They claimed
Christ.
ages
all
the Neo-Platonists,
and
"Without
faiths.
who communed with Ammonius and

mediums
followers were evil, they denounced the
his
of Alexandria
Forgetting the reply of Christ to that reproach,
as sorcerers.
they hurled against them the cry of the Pharisees, " Ye cast out
by Beelzebub, the prince of the
devils
in all ages defiled the
Alexandria (Cyril,
if
"
Nay, even
this
At the head of a rabble of such bigots as
did not content them.
have
devils
pure name of Christian, a Bishop of
remember
aright), succeeded in seizing
and
murdering a beautiful and saintly maiden named Hypatia, whose
The outrage was
teachings were esteemed throughout the city.
attended by circumstances of the foulest horror.

fellow- disgracers of the
hewed her almost
in pieces,
triumph through the

trated
by Calvin
ecclesiastical
for the
human
and his
and dragged the mangled remains in
streets.
No worse
Yet there can be
monster and his
crime was ever perpe-
little
satellites
doubt but that the
returned thanks to
work He had permitted them
great
Cyril,
form, having stripped their victim,
with the blood of the victim yet fresh on his hands, Cyril
have found matter for a very eloquent sermon

" Thou shalt not
this
were rare
sufi'er
a witch to live."
in the early ages of the
Church had ceased
God
to accomplish, and,
in the
may
command,
Happily, such crimes as
Church.
to struggle for existence,
Not
until that
and was become
in
her turn dominant, did murder assume a clearly defined position
amongst the duties of her servants.

Plotinus, the successor of
of Neo-Platonism,
was
Ammonius Sacchas
in the leadership
as deeply tinged with asceticism as
Christian hermit of ancient ages.
He
whose length and frequency tasked
to the
powers, and displayed clairvoyance in
any
lived sparely, held fasts
its
utmost his bodily

highest
form.
The
minds of men, he repeatedly proved, were to him as open books.
THE EARLY CHRIST/AN

As recounted by Porphyry,
his teachings
of the Indian Brahmins and Buddhists.
He
only without but within us.
from Him.
from
Spirits released
is
revelations of
modern
all
by resembling Him
we
munion
spurits
confirm.
to
work of
the
eidolen of Heraclitus.
obtained in ecstasy
it
all
attended by a guardian
him
sensitiveness,
power, working thus signs and
his theurgic
healing
the most hope-
Like Socrates, he knew himself to be constantly
diseases.
inspired
Such com-
earth.
ecstasy being almost invariably the
Avbnders, predicting future events, and

less
with light
To community with
possessed this ecstatic
Plotinus
spirits.
and drew from
filled
Out of that source flow increasing
light.
all
Plotinus
bo attained
Withdrawn from
and disposition.
by despising the things of
arrive
is
which the
God might
the sensual attractions of earth the spirit became
from the Source of
who warned him from
spirit,
evil
which the
materials from
compiled an account of
it
clung to the
this Plotinus, naturally
He
doctrines of so enlightened a master.

life
industriously collected
of Plotinus might be written,
with the greatest care.
Himself
guished less by medial power than by intellectual
gifts,
most truly
spiritual
of
all
the
he was
to
some
of the
blameless and exalted
life.
and power of healing

styled the " divine."
that,
It
errors
of Pythagoras,
So famous was he for

in process of time,
was
this
lie
From
Albeit
lived
his learning
he came to bo
lamblichus who, according to
Eunapius,
"
man
This was
Neo-Platonists.
lamblichus, one of the greatest seers of the ancient earth.

still
and
distin-
succeeded in the du-ectiou of Alexandrian philosophy by a
clinging
and
to good.
Porphyry, the disciple of
the
fleo
In the words I have
spiritualism go
in quality
men
If such difference
qualities.
taught, moreover, that a perfect union with
these
to be not
yet
all,
great Nco-PIatonist expresses a truth
the
shapes and
God
held
the body are not divided by space,
cease they are immediately near to each other.

italicised
83
resembled exactly those
He
present to
and moral
but by the ditference of tneiital
CIIURCir.
out their fountain dwellings raised
Eros and Anteros at Gadara."
JEIVISH
84
AND CHRISTIAN
ERAS.
Indeed, no magian of Egypt ap^Dcars to have liad a closer inter-
course Avith the world of

familiar with the
spirits.
phenomena
resounded in his ears.
queutl}-
weapons and the touch of
He
Vv'as,
fire.
He
perfection the three cardinal virtues,

his
all
brethren,
liis
Divine mnsic
fre-
endured unhurt the blows of
His
abstraction from the things of earth.
and
above
of clairvoyance.
life
He
was passed
in a total
displayed in the highest
faith,
hope, and
charity,
remarks on prayer are worthy of the noblest Christian.
"With those remarks I shall conclude the present chapter
" Prayer constitute.s a portion of the sacred service, and confers a

advantage on religion, by creating an unerring connection
univei'sal
letween the priests and God. It conducts us to a perfect laiowledge of

heavenly things.
It procures us that inexpressible devotion which
places its whole strength in God above, and thus imparts to our souls a
blessed repose. No act prospers in the ser^dce of God, where prayer is
omitted. Daily repeated prayer nourishes the understanding, and prepares our hearts for sacred things ; opens to man the Divine, and
1
accustoms him by degrees to the glory of the DiA^ne light. It enables

to bear ovx sufferings, and the weaknesses that are human ; attracts,
oiu" sentiments gradually upwards, and unites them with the Di'vine ;
enkindles whatever is holy A\-ithin our souls. It purges away all waywardness of mind it generates true hope and faith. In a Avord, it heljis
those to an intimate conAêi'sation with spirits Avho exercise it diligently
u.s
and
often.
How
effectual it is
Hoav prayer and
sacrifice
invigorate each other, impart the sacred poAver of religion and
mutually
make
it
becomes us not therefore to contemn prayer, or only to

employ a little of it, and throw away the rest. No Avholly must Ave r:se
it
and aboAê all things must they practise it who desire to unite themêh'es sincerely Avith God."
jêrfect
It
CHAPTER
III.
SPIRITUALISH IN CATUOLIC AGES.

I
HAVE now
to deiil
with that portion of
world's history ia
tlio
"which the light kindled in the early Christian

stantly becoming
rounded
No
it.
dimmer by reason
record
is
Church was con-
of the gross vapours that sm*-
written in blacker characters than that
of the seven centuries which followed the assumption of the crown
The demon
of the West by Charlemagne.

forth for a space
by the pure teachings
of Intolerance, driven
of Christ,
seemed
have
to
returned, bringing with him seven other devils Avorse than himself.
Hypocrisy was there, and murder, and crimes and vices which
men shudder
name.
to
The
cession of degraded pontifis
The
decessor.
profligacy of
filled
by a suc-
more worthless than
churchmen became
than a priest " vâs one of the
Europe
was
chair of St. Peter
each
appalling.
his pre'
'
Yiler
common expressions of Southern

Those who styled themselves the
in the twelfth century.
keepers of the Gospel sneered in secret at the teachings which that
Oospel contained.
profligacy,
Nay, they appeared, with the perverseness of
pride themselves
to
upon shaping
diametrical opposition to the rules laid
Christ
and the
Because the Messiah was meek and lowly, the prelates of
Twelve.
his
their conduct in
down by
Church displayed themselves through a succession of ages
proudest
of the
hungered
after
foulest vice.
servants
proud.
righteousness,
Because
made
Because
He had
He had
blessed
those
tlie
who
they plunged defyingly into the
praised the merciful, these corrupted
their hearts hard as the nether millstone.
Because
Paul had said that a bishop should be blameless, just, and temperate,
able with sound doctrine to exhort and convince, they
made a
Sb
luock of the episcopal dignity by bestowing
and men
to speak,
For dogmas
worst.
on children just able
it
Nor was
beneath the brutes.
fallen
no
in W'hich they put
this the
faith, for ethics that
they did not reduce to practice, the rulers of the Church were
yet ready to
inflict
death in
kingdom was not of

tioners the victim
all
this world,
whom
in the
they handed over to secular execu-
might be shown.
The mode of slaying
Since the Gospel forbade the shedding
was already determined.
ministers thought
its
most
they had sentenced, with a jocular request
possible tenderness
of blood,
And
Because the Christian
cruelty the blackest hypocrisy.
hideous
that
most horrible form.
its
of such death they contrived to unite with the
infliction
it
well to substitute for a short and
easy death the unendurable agony of the stake.
To such men
manifest
it
was impossible
that beneficent spirits should
numerous
Accordingly, in
themselves.
instances,
the
miracles of the Catholic Church were accomplished through the
whom
undeveloped beings
or, if
such resources
Few
plished fraud.
the evil natures of
failed,
its
priests attracted^
were simulated by means of accom-
readers of history need to be reminded of the
exposures made in our
own country at
The winking Madonnas, the roods

and bending images, were dragged
the time of the Reformation.
of grace, the talking heads,
into the light of
day and their
concealed machinery exjiosed to the disgust and derision of men.
And
the inner secrets of monasteries and convents were exposed
"with equal
ruthlessness
and found equally
and that extremely mild,
instance,
Furness, from which
summary
Thomas Cromwell
foul.
To
beautiful
ejected the
take one
Abbey
of
monks by the
process of demolishing the roof, strange things were
brought to
light.
The magnificent
valley, nestling amidst ancient trees,
shielded
that
in
in a
charming
and so situated as
to be well
pile
and hidden by rising ground.
Newstead,
its
lies
low
Like the architects
of'
holy founders
" Preferred a hill behind
To
This
earthly
shelter their devotion
paradise,
about
the
from the wind."
meridian
of
Henry
VIII.'s-
SriRITUALISM AV CATHOLIC AGES.

reign,
was inbalntcd by numerous men outwardly
Adam
sumably each was as

unlike him, cut
Cromwell and
otl"
from
all
the wealthiest in England.

dull predecessors
and brethren had
to disestablish
Tired of the
on the vows of
expenditure
They learned
on
literal
fasting
and
interpretation put
silence, the abbots
compatible
with
an
immense
wine and provisions, and their solitude was
enlivened by the introduction of the

to such lengths
had long been one of
on means whereby to render those vows
hit
Fasting they found
agreeable.
Yet what did
expectation of an Evo.
came
Pre-
saintly.
days in Eden, but,
first
bis subordinate iconoclasts discover ?
that the society they
by
during bis
87
had they gone
fair
Nay,
sex into the abbey.
with paramours,
that, unsatisfied
they had ventured the introduction of their necks into the
bidden noose of matrimony.
two wives, although
for a priest to
Church canons, a deadly
to
for-
Kogerus Pele, the then abbot, had

have even one was, according
sin.
holy subordinate,
fired
with
the ambition of surpassing his superior, had encumbered himself
with
the
fair
helpmeets to the number of no
less
than
five.
Such, in
some of the milder abuses
sixteenth century, were
of the
Church.
I
have alluded to the prevalence of mock miracle
when
was
Catholic power
at
its
height.
It
in the
was disgust
days
at this
rank growth of tares which caused the Eeformers of the sixteenth

century to reject the whole spiritual harvest as worthless.
reason might have discovered to them that with so

there
was assuredly mingled a
nations destitute of a coinage
Yet
much imposture
In
certain proportion of truth.
the
counterfeiting
of
money
is
Where a coinage exists base money is certain to be also

circulation.
The more esteemed the products of the true mint,
impossible.
in
the more numerous will the spurious imitations become.
thus with the

miracle.
occurrences
Were
real
Why
false.
Had
for upholding a faith
Eomish Church would

extent.
come under the
It
definition
is
of
miracles impossible the world would never
have been vexed with
mighty engine
that
not miracle been found a
and extending
its
limits, the
scarcely have played the cheat to such an
the counterfeit signs and wonders so greatly out-
88
numbcrccl the true
may
easily be
An
shown.
undetected imposture
was equally advantageous to the Church with a work really
wrought by
Rome,
readily obtained of the two.
protection
number
and the imposture was the more
hands,
spiritual
of
coiners
ordered that their production

miracle.
Such a
of the broad and easy
Were
a government
feiters
among
ways that
proved
suicidal.
as
genuine
It
was one
end lead to destruction.
in the
to collect secretly the
subjects,
its
phenomena, and
spiritual
should pass current
policy, of course,
under her
therefore, received
of
most
skilful counter-
and keeping them, unknown
to the rest
of the community, employed in the constant manufacture of base

coin, send forth large quantities of spurious
certain proportion of genuine,
of all civilised
men when
how
great
money mixed with a
would be the amazement
deed was brought to light
the
spiritual
matters, exactly the course which
The
Yet such was, in
idea seems too wild for the wildest fiction.
the
Papacy of old
adopted, and even since the Reformation has, in a modified degree,
continued to follow.
followed
when
As was
natural, a
tremendous retribution
Laymen who
things had reached their worst.
perceived the chicanery that was sought to be practised on them,
and priests disgusted with the chicanery they were
requii'ed
to
practise, joined in the mighty outbreak of the sixteenth century.
From all countries' ripe for Protestantism the false prophets of

Rome were expelled Avith contumely and disgust. The tools of
And
their nefarious trade were publicly exposed and destroyed.
as in the
vehemence of reaction against such a government
have imagined,
to
its
injured subjects might,
as I
when they had brought
condign punishment the corrupters of their coinage, resolve
that, to prevent the recurrence of an event so disastrous,
issue of genuine
money should be made
has ordered that wherever
The
its
illegal,
even the
so Protestantism
rule extends miracle shall cease.
natural result has followed.
Those whose
faith
demands
imperatively the support of the spu-itual seek that Church where

the spiritual
is
to be found.
They may know
that
Rome
is still
often guilty of fraud, but they prefer running the risk of
money to wanting money
altogether.
false
The Church which manufac-
SPIRITUALISM IN CATHOLIC
tures miriiclo
is
no pretensions
AGi:S.
Church
iu ihcir c3^cs far preferable to the
are made.
to miracle
new
languishes everywhere,
89
iu
which
Thus, while Protestantism
converts
are
daily flocking to that
hierarchy which claims to hold unceasing intercourse with another

world,
which,
vrheu
phenomena
better-attested
whom
ignorant peasant boys to
and enthusiastic country maidens marked with the

Supported by these and nobler
Christ.
maj', in the
words of a great
when some
traveller
from
critic,
New
devoutly to be wished, but
be not in
shall, in the
A Church
doomed.
This
turn
its
doctrines, answers
We
themselves.
to
not a consummation
reformed.
Protestantism
If
is
cannot long make head against such scepticism
as that of the present day, which,

proofs of
is
midst of a
London Bridge
decidedly one to be feared.
is
it
its
wounds of
"exist in undiminished vigour,
Zealand
sketch the ruins of St. Paul's."
five
Church of Rome
aids, the
vast solitude, take his stand on a broken arch of
Protestantism
discovers
fail,
the Virgin has revealed herself,
see
when
countries like
in
assailed on
all
sides for
only that those doctrines prove
Germany and England
constantly growing inclination to separate the ethics of Christianity
from
its
dogmas.
That which men want to-day
a foundation for
is
their faith.
Such a foundation many have had

the
Roman
" damned
in even the darkest ages of
Dominic, Torquemada, and Borgia might be
Church.
to everlasting
fame
"
pilloried in the
for the scaring of future generations
pages of histoiy
from the Catholic
faith,
but
coeval with these workers of iniquity, whose evil deeds have lived
for centuries after them,
was
the chief of these
were doers of the noblest good.

St.
record of the marvellous.

literal
do shall he do also."
the lame walked.
A
is
relates
how
life
Among
one continual
is
He
that bcHeveth in me, the
his prayer the blind
man
saw and
has been com-
His prejudices against the
spiritual
seem
nevertheless staggered by the facts which, as
u faithful biographer, he
He
At
biography of this great
by a Mr. Morison.
inveterate, but he
His
Wherever he went he approved the
exactness of Christ's words, "
works that
piled
Bernard.
is
bound
to record.
visions of the future
were granted
to Bernard,
90
aud how he thus predicted with the most marvellous accuracy that
which should come
He
to pass.
through the Ehino country was
describes
glorified
In one day
of miraculous powers.
at
how
the saint's journey
by a constant exhibition
Constance his prayers, and
the imposition of his hands, restored sight to eleven persons totally

blind,
and acquired
for eighteen cripples the use of their limbs.
At Cologne he healed twelve lame
who were dumb
to speak,
were these things done

suspicion to enter.
It
citizens, besides causing three
and ten deaf persons
secretly,
and
to hear.
in a fashion that left
Nor
room
for
was before mighty multitudes, and under
the scrutiny of innumerable eyes, that Bernard worked.
The
testimony of ten of these eye-witnesses remains to what they saw.
Herman, Bishop of Constance, and nine
others, kept a diary of the
miraculous cures accomplished before them.
This account, as Mr.
Morison remarks, would seem to have been drawn up with the

express purpose of avoiding cavU, whilst attracting attention.
names and the condition
solemnly make oath that they witnessed with their
They
miracles recorded.
deaf,
prayed,
made
When
The
day
tlie
eyes the
all
parts to be touched
him he simply
the sign of the cross upon the part affected, and the
cure was perfect.

in a single
" In the
own
the halt, the blind, the
the patient was presented to
wrought
and
how
describe
and the dumb were brought from
by Bernard.
The
of these witnesses are given, and they
Church of
(lunil) fi'om his
St.
following extract contains the wonders
John, at Cambray, after the
mai?s, a
boy deaf
mother's woml) received his hearing and spoke, aud
people wondered.
He had
sat
down
beside nie deaf and dimib, and
liaving been presented to Bernard, in the self-same
hour he both spoke
and heard. Tlie joyful excitement was scarcely over before a lame old
man was raised up and Avalked. But now a miracle occurred which,
beyond all others, filled us with astonishment. A boy bUnd from his
bii'th, whose eyes were covered with a white substance
if, indeed, those
could be called eyes in. which there was neither colour nor use, nor even
so
much
as the usual cavity of
an eye
this boy received his
We
siglit
from
by umuerous
proofs, hardly believing our senses that in such eyes as his any sight
coi;ld reside.
In the same place a woman who had a withered hand
was healed. In the town of Rosuay they brought to him in a waggon a
the imposition of Bernard's hand.
ascertained the
fiict
SPIRITUALISM LV CATHOLIC AGES.

ami
whom
91
ncomed to rcniiiin but tlio j:jriive.

ami soldiery Bernard placed his hands
upon him, and innnodiately he walked without difficulty, and, to the
astonishment of all, followed on foot the vehicle in which he had just
Tiirin
ill
Bel'oiv
;i
frrhlc, fur
imthinj^
iiuiuliiT d' the Lili/.ens
before been carriLMl."
Next year,
in France, the
Bernard passed.
witness of one
"
At
same marvels were wrought wherever
I venture to quote the narrative
among
by an eye-
the most striking of these miracles
Toulouse, in the church of
St. Satiu-ninus,
was a certain regular
canon named John.
John had kept his bed for saven months, and was
so reduced that his death was expected daily. His legs were so shrunken
that they were scarcely larger than a child's arms. He was quite una])lc
to rise to satisfy the wants of nature. At last his brother canons refused
to tolerate his presence any longer among, them, and thrust him out into
When the poor creature heard of Bernard's

proximity he implored to be taken to him. Six men, therefore, carrying
him as he lay in bed, brought hun into a room close to that in which we
were lodged
Bernard mentally prayed to God, Behold, O Lord,
they seek for a sign, and our words avail nothing unless they be confirmed with signs following.' He then blessed him and left the chamber,
and so did we all. In that very hour the sick man arose from his couch,
and running after Bernard, kissetl his feet with a devotion which cannot
be imagined by any one who did not see it. One of the canons meeting
him nearly fainted with fright, tliinking he had seen a spectre. John
the neighbouring village.
'
and
and in a Te
his brethren then retired to the church,
Deum
gave
praise to God."
I might describe
many
other marvellous cures which Bernard
performed, but the above notable and strongly attested instances

are sufficient.
They
will carry conviction of his spiritual gifts to
any unprejudiced mind.
Of
later events of the kind the cure of
Mademoiselle Perricr, niece to the celebrated Pascal,
wrought
in
of these
wonders occurred
W'as, at the time,
and
in
still
more marvellous.
fistula,
half,
her
the malignant
left
The
Mademoiselle Pcrrier
1G5G.
between ten and eleven years
age of three years and a

a lachrymal
also,
1731, and subsequent years, at the tomb of the Abbo
Paris, are equally well-attested,

first
a mar-
is
The miracles
vellous and invulnerably w'ell-attested case.
old.
Since the
eye had been consumed by
humour
of
the bone of the nose and that of the palate.
which had decayed

So
offensive
was the
52
disease, that the nuns of Port Eoyal, in
from tbo
rest of tbeir
to
young charges.
keep ber
As a
and
determined to try the actual cautery,

girl's father
famous
Vv'liich
become a boarder, were forced
slic laad
forlorn
for this
institution,
strictly apart
hope
it
was
purpose the
came, accompanied by a surgeon, to Port Royal.
But,
immediately before the time fixed for the operation, the nuns were
iusph-ed to touch the eye of the sufi'erer with a thorn, held in high
To the
veneration as a professed relic from the crown of Christ.
awe and amazement

instantly firm
of
and sound, the
upon
and wept
for joy.
effusion of
humour
The
an instant.
trace of disease vanished in
miracle,
present the decayed bones became
all
ceased, and all
father beheld the
The surgeon who had come
to operate
this apparently hopeless case, scarcely dared trust his sight.
Eleven other surgeons and physicians of eminence afterwards
examined Mademoiselle Perrier, and confessed, without exception,
The
the miraculous nature of her cure.
court, though
it
bore to
Port Eoyal a deadly hate, and had ordered the destruction of that
seminary of Jansenism, was compelled also to admit the authenticity of the marvel.
of the young
girl, to
A mass
in
music was instituted by the parents
be celebrated for ever in the Cathedral of
Clermont, on March 24th of each year, the anniversary of their
daughter's instantaneous recovery.
placed in the church of Port Royal.
picture of the event
was
Racine droAV up a narrative
of the case, which Pascal, Arnauld, and Felix
The
attested.
Archbishop of Paris, and the doctors of the Sorbonne, investigated

with the severest scrutiny of malice the whole of the circumstances,
and were forced,
to admit that " this cure
omnipotence of God."
in Catholic
many
in their sentence of
October 22nd, 1656,
was supernatural, and a miracle
of the
Benedict XIII. forever consecrated the case
eyes by quoting
it
in his printed Homilies as one of
proofs that miracles had not ceased.
Finally, during the
twenty-five years which Mademoiselle Perrier lived after being
thus suddenly healed, the malady showed no signs of return.
volume would be required
wrought at the grave of the
to
treat in detail of the
Abbe
Paris.
Salisbury, employed great part of a dull
work
miracles
Douglas, Bishop of
in
simply seeking to
SPlRITUALISM! IX CATIIOI.IC
weaken the
his theory
credit attacbcd to thorn.
that
AG US.
93
Destitute of facts to support
the cures were in some instances performed by
ordinary means, in others merely pretended to bo performed

strove,
by suppressing various authentic
the remainder, to show
may
arguments which David

miracles
how
Ho employed
be.
dishonest a sn-ptic a Christian divine
against these particular miracles the very
Hume
had previously employed against
Churchman
strange weapons for a
chief axioms of his
work are:
to use
at
place where,
to be false if in the time
they are said to have
as false
the time when, and
where, they are said to have occurred.
must suspect them
all
The two
That we must suspoct
1.
asserted miracles which are not published

in the place
ho
narratives, and mis-stating
That wo
2.
when, and
at the
occurred, they might bo
supposed to pass without examination.
Were
the authority of
these rules conceded they have yet absohxtcly no bearing on the

cases the Bishop designs to attack.
the
Abbe
The miracles
at the
tomb
of
Paris took place chiefly in 1731, and the three or four
They were published at the time when

The Abbe had been a
Far therefore from allowing them to pass without
years next in sequence.
and in the place where they happened.

Jansenist.
examination, the mis-named Order of Jesus, with whose tyranny
France was
still
by every means, allowable or
strove
cursed,
iniquitous, to cover these alleged miracles with disgrace,
upholders with confusion.
resisted the utmost efforts of calumny.
making them doubted
in
England,
and suppression of testimony.

casuists might have been
it
If
their
proud
to
judgment of
all
facts
Douglas succeeded in
was by shameless perversion
The most unscrupulous
own
least candid of Protestant divines should

It is suflficient, in the
and
Yet the solemn truth of the
the Bishop's
of Jesuit
work
the
have blushed to write
who know the
it.
facts, to pillory
the author on " infamy's high stage " forever,
Carre do Montgeron was a dissipated courtier of the " siecle do
Louis Quinze."
His father had been Master of Bequests under
Louis XIY.
mother was a daughter of Field-Marshal Diery.
Wealthy and
his
idle,
M. de Montgeron plunged headlong
sensuality of the court.
into all the
His conscience was the sole thing which
AND CHRISTIAN
JEIVISH
94
troubled him, and this he
into
a conseiller mi Parlement whilst the
and death struggle of the long war between the Jesuits
final life
and the Jansenists was raging.

them, but might was on the
Royal
by educating himself
stifled
He became
determined Deist,
ERAS.
The Jansenists had
side" of the
right with
Order of Jesus.
Port
and the supporters of the bad cause rejoiced.
fell,
That
cause had, however, received deadly wounds in the conflict, and

after languishing long,
succumbed
It does not appear that
M. de Montgeron took more thau
interest in the struggle
and
to the first attack of a
issue
its
but he drew from
inference that the doctrines which the Jesuits
Pope Clement XI., condemned
new
as heretical,
and
foe.
a languid
it
the
their supporter,
were among the chief
Thus he became convinced
foundations of the Christian religion.
that the professedly orthodox thought secretly as he did himself,
and that
religion
was only
He went on
vice.
a cloak with
confirmed in his
until the year 1731.
In that year he heard,
tomb
the miracles performing at the
cemetery of
mass of evidence advanced

with a fear
were
true.
lest,
He
At
Medard.
St.
which hypocrites covered
own immorality aud
after
of the
Abbe
He
the teachings of the Christian faith
determined to
first
him
in favour of their reality troubled
all,
visit
completel}^ the imposture,
practised.
Paris, in the
he ridiculed them, then the
first
the scene of these alleged
wonders, and by calling to his aid the chief medical
unmask
infidelity
like all Parisians, of
went
to the
if
men
of Paris,
an imposture were being
churchyard alone.
The
ex-
traordinary scenes which greeted him, the multitude of afflicted,
and the fervour of their prayers, touched

in
many
fell
on
his heart for the first
years with a sentiment of religious awe.
his knees
time
Perplexed, he
by the edge of the tomb, and petitioned
that, if
there were indeed an immortality for man, light from that future
world might shine

diately,
he
tells
poured upon him

before.
He
in
upon the darkness of
his mind.
Imme-
us, reasons for crediting the teachings of Christ

in vivid succession with a force
rose a changed man.
he had never
felt
For four hours had he remained
kneeling beside the tomb, heedless of the pressure of the crowds

around.
Day
after day,
he
now
returned to the churchyard, and
SPIRITUALISM IN CATHOLIC AGES.

By
investigated the miracles there wrought.

Avas stirred with these evcuts.
works should ho wrought

to the
power.
civil
at the
De
De
par
le T(oi,
en ce
The remark
of the great infidel that
by
that miracles
the
fact
still
the
tomb were
Voltaire, that
some wit
defense
faire miracles
to
that such
had recourse
of a Jansenist,
was theu, says
It
inscribed on the churchyard wall

"
tomh
this time all Paris
maddened
Jesuits,
avenues of access
All
ordered to be closed.
The
95
Dieu
i\
lieu."
God obeyed
contradicted
is
continued to be performed for a
space of at least twenty years.
Meanwhile M. de Montgeron had selected from above a hundred

well- authenticated cases nine in
been of so
which the
injuries or diseases
terrible a character that the physicians
had
had adjudged a
cure hopeless, and in which the cure by means of prayer at the
tomb had been widely published, and put past doubt by medical
and other evidences.
He
sought with indefatigable industry
the attestations available on the subject.
mony
He
miraculously healed sufferers
of the
procured the
themselves, of their
and surgeons,
friends, of their enemies, of celebrated physicians
of magistrates, notaries, courtiers and
priests.
The whole he
published in a quarto volume] dedicated to the King.

sonally
presented
a copy of the work.
all
testi-
He
per-
was received with
It
apparent favour, but the same night M. do Montgeron was re-
warded
for
his
fearless
advocacy of the cause of truth with a
lodging in the Bastile.

I shall
now
attempt to give in a brief compass the history of
seven of these nine cases.
Dom
Dom
The
first
on our author's
list is
that of
Alphonse de Palacios, a young nobleman of Spain, son of
Joseph de Palacios, councillor of
He was
state to the
in Paris to seek relief for his right eye.
Spanish King.
His
left
had been
destroyed six years before by a fluxion succeeded by inflammation.
The
right
had been since injured by a blow, and another cause
had now made
its
state apparently hopeless.
ing up of the optic nerve of the lost eye.
This was the wither-
The nervo
of the
96
remaining eye, being in couection with
it,
began to wither
The famous
Sight by rapid degi-ecs disappeared.
examined the right eye, and pronounced recovery not

for;
the
At
of his days.
Dom
must submit
sufferer
blindness
be hoped
to
for the
rest
penned by
this stage, according to the narrative
Alphonse himself, the eye more resembled a crushed mul-
berry than an eye

pain
total
to
also.
Gendron,
oculist,
a ray of light falling on
unhappy youth was driven
the
with his
it
caused intolerable
to sit in
darkened rooms
For seven days before the
eye carefully bandaged.
miracle he was ^\'ithout sight.
He
heard of the marvellous cures wrought in the cemetery
of Saint
Medard, and besought
of bringing
down on
Inquisition caused his attendants
At length
EoUin, to hesitate.
wrung
forth
his
He was
consent.
The journey was not made

in full daylight give
and his
tutor, the celebrated
agony and unceasing prayers

carried
to the Abbe's tomb.
On
the instant the sight
in vain.
fiat
away
had doomed him to a
bandage
his
He went two
thanks to God.
whose
to the great oculist
fear
wrath of the Pope and the
of the right eye returned, and he could cast
and
The
be taken there.
to
his family the
days after
of dark-
life
On seeing his late patient Gendron desired in amazement

to know what had happened. The story was told, and the surgeon
declared that no man on earth could have restored Dom Palacios
ness.
to sight,
and that a
startling miracle
had been accomphshed.
full
statement of the facts was drawn up, and deposited with
the
notary public.
concerned.
Dom
At once the clergy began to persecute

Palacios returned
to
Spain, and
of the Inquisition were let loose on him.

asserted
Church dignitary
the
was
at
in
last, in spite
miracle.
Inquiry being made,
ail
terrors
one time
by the Archbishop of Paris that he had signed a
ment denying the
To
It
the
the
state-
highest
France appeared to have deliberately
lied.
of menaces, imprisonment, and the ruin of his
worldly prospects, the grateful young nobleman continued to avow

that he had been cured
of sight
was
in
by the hand of God, and that
no way owing
witnesses supported him.
to the
skill
Gendron, the
his recovery
of man.
oculist, Rollin,
Numerous
Hector of
CATHOLIC AGES.
SPIRITUALIS.}f LV
97
the Uuivorsity of Paris, Sir Kchvanl Aston, the cclebratocl surgeons
who had
Demantevillc and Souoliay, Linguct, a physician
attended
the young Spaniard, and his relation M. Linguet of the College of
Dom
Navarre, publicly attested the veracity of
Alphonse's state-
ments, and made depositions as to their knowledge of the case

before and after the cure.
more than
The
Priestly power,
M. de Montgeron's
sixth of
Pierre Gaultier
The small-pox had
left
of vision.
its
power
some harness,
in
retina,
and
scars
cases
is
also
one of blindness.
on the pupil of
his left eye
"Whilst busied one
which
day with a knot
yielded unexpectedly, and an awl which ho
other eye.
the
into
him with no
left
which disease
By
it
was plunged
though used with
as a reed against the truth.
saddler's apprentice in avillageof Langucdoc.
was a
weakened
held
was
priestly intolerance,
had
It
pierced even to
the
vision but that of the defective eye
The surgeons could do nothing.
injured.
the advice of his confessor Gaultier journeyed to Paris, and
He
famous tomb.
visited the
returned with the sight of that eye
which the awl had blinded perfectly restored.

scars of the left eye
still
At once the priesthood was

consulted,
who examined
of the other
doubt.
The two small-pox
remained.
in
Famous
arms.
were
oculists
the eyes and declared that had the scars
been removed, the miracle would have been past
These scars could not be obliterated by any mortal
Again the confessor advised Gaultier

followed the advice.
perfect restoration
to
skill.
go to Paris, and again ho
This second journey to the tomb resulted in

the scars totally disappeared.
The
sight of
both eyes was fully regained.
A new
method
of attack
was now adopted by the
the instance of his father, a baker to the
man had gone

of the scars
pellier, a
to join
him.
was
army
was reported
was merely pretended, and
warm
of Italy, the
young
that the disappearance
that the Bishop of
lest the truth
Mont-
might become known.
that, on hearing of the cure, the Bishop
investigation,
and only when perfectly
he attested
in a letter to the
it
At
defender of the miracle, had caused Gaultier to be
hidden from observation

fact
It
Jesuits.
satisfied of its reality
Archbishop of Sens.
The
had made careful
had
His superior
98
now
The
reproached him with lending himself to an imposture.
accused, a
man
noble character was esteemed through-
Avhose
out the South of France, caused a search to be instituted, and
soon had the satisfaction of discovering Gaultier amongst the forty
He was
thousand soldiers at the time in Italy.
and his sight was demonstrated
The Order
put down.
arrest of Gaultier
Once
being healed by miracle.

a dungeon for
he
that
still
published.
to
to be perfect.
of Jesus, though beaten at
The
brought back,
points,
all
was procured
was not
to be
for the crime of
he was threatened with
in prison,
In terror, he consented to sign a statement
life.
saw but very
The statement was
imperfectly.
His father proved
All his relations denied its truth.
the intendant the reality
and obtained his
of the miracle,
The Jesuits now turned their attention to the conwho had advised the journey to Paris. He and another
priest who affirmed the miracle, were dismissed from their benefices.
son's release.
fessor
The
had
plea was, that they
grief,
their congregations,
lent themselves to
imposture.
In
by Avhom they were greatly beloved,
appealed to the Bishop of Agde.
He
took up the case, and
demonstrating the innocence of the deprived clergymen, procured

their restoration.
The
flocks.
They returned amidst the
Jesuits were
exultations of their
now humbled effectually,
Gaultier, freed
from his dread of their power, publicly recanted the statement fear
had wrung from him, and described by what menaces and
cruelties
the pretended confession had been obtained.
In the
fifth of
these cases the Jesuits once more demonstrated
the truth of the assertion contained in
M. de Montgeron's
dedica-
tory preface, that they had used the most unscrupulous means to
suppress the proofs of the miracles.

carder
named
his limbs, ho
Philippe Sergent.
was admitted
and took him
case
was that
of a woolin all
Dieu as incurable.
His
to the Hotel
friends, hearing of the miracles,
hospital,
The
Having become paralyzed
demanded
in a cart to the
his discharge
Abbe's grave.
from the
Instantly
recovering the use of his limbs, he sprang on the tombstone unassisted,
and sang a Te Deum.
hospital
he took a
cellar,
After
showing
and recommenced
himself at
his
business.
the
99
stranger called on him, ami otVorod a Jiundrcd pistoles

sign a declaration that ho had not hccn cured.
and a persecution
indignantly,
driven from Paris, and settled at llheims.
Still
After fleeing successively to Dinant,
his track.
he would
Ho was
commenced.
once
at
if
Sergcnt refused
Liege, he returned in despair to Paris.
enemies were on
Namur, Mous, and
There, finding that the
priesthood were circulating lying statements respecting his case,
ho
holdly
make
proceeded to
evidence of the doctors
who
deposition
puhlic
miraculous circumstances of the cure.
as
the
to
Besides this testimony the
attended him
given by Montgeron.
is
I have gone at such length into these three instances that I can
do
little
more than allude
under
Two
to the remaining miracles.
Mcsdemoiselles
sufferers,
Thibault
of the
and Courrouncau, laboured

and dropsy.
fearful complications of paralysis
Despite that
famous physicians had pronounced
their disorders incurable, they
were wholly healed by
tomb.
patient,
visits to the
The case
of the eighth
Marie Cartin, resembled that of the Mademoiselle Porrier
before alluded to
she also was pronounced incurable.
Not only,
however, was the disease which consumed her face eradicated, but
one half of her body, after being paralysed for twelve years,
recovered fully
its
vigour.
I shall
mention one more miracle
some respects the most extraordinary of the

Mademoiselle Coirin had
cancer in the
came away
left
in a
breast.
mass
science
affected pai't
horrible.
had abandoned the case as hopeless, a
tomb obtained an
The
admitted that they had
it
was
perfect.
free
medical
all,
the breast
from even the
Their testimony was decisive.
known
incurable by any merely earthly
was
left
When
royal physician, with others of the profession,
inquired into the miracle.
cure
with a
single visit to the
Most wonderful of
entire cure.
and nipple were perfectly restored, and

sHghtest scar.
afilicted
was destroyed, and
and the disease had tainted the blood of
The effluvium was
the whole system.
in
nine.
been twelve years
The
skill.
No human hand had
to be ascribed to the
They
the case, and had pronounced

It
it
was now cured, and the
accomplished the marvel
hand of God.
" The restoration of a
nipple absolutely destroyed, and separated from the breast," said
h2
AND CHRISTIAN
JFAVISH
lOO
M. Goulard, the King's

nipple
is
an actual
is
cr(?a(/o
for a
not merely a continuity of the vessels of the breast, but a
which
particular body,
may
wrought
physician, "
ERAS.
here take
my
tomb
at his
is
and peculiar organization."
of a distinct
leave of the
Abbe
No
miraculous healing in history.
If the
Paris.
arc to be rejected, there
is
wonders
an end of
all
In favour of the reality of these cures,
miracles of Scripture.
the
such evidence supports the
we
have the attestations of the suifcrers themselves, the depositions

unwillingly
others,
the
Against
all
wrung from some doctors and

reluctant
frankly granted
and the court.
clergy
testimony of the
by
these are set only the unscrupulous fabrications of
Jesuit malice
the calumnies of an order which yet more than that
of Dominic has disgraced the Catholic Church.
It
on such
is
last that the dishonest Bishop of Salisbury would
testimony as the
persuade us the assertors of these miracles were yet more dishonest
than himself.
Credat Jinhcus
The "Lives
and
of the Saints" are one
The Pharisee
testant minds.
of
ridiculed
all
contempt on the devotee who believes that
pitying
restored the dead to
life,
and that
dry land by his prayers.
It is
by Pro-
England or Prussia looks with
St.
not
St.
Martin
Gregory turned a lake into
my
business to take up the
cudgels on behalf of a Church so well able to defend itself as that

of
Rome.
I shall content myself with quoting
from the work of
Mr. Howitt a few of the more remarkable miracles attributed
to
her saints.
Xavier raised various people from the dead.
St. Francis
St.
Winifreda healed numbers of diseases at her miraculous well.

St.
Gregory stayed a flood by striking
which
staff
the poet Horace,

tree.
St. Martin, like
was miraculously protected from the
Such protection, as described
"Incidents,'"
Borromeo was
the
in
first
fired
at whilst performing mass,
evil enthusiast
by prayer restored
fell
who founded
a
nobleman
falling of a
volume of
have myself been favoured with.
merely struck upon his rochet, and

Dominic, the
to have
his staff into the ground,
thereon took root and became a tree.
St.
my
Charles
but the bullet
harmless to the ground.

the Inquisition,
to
life.
is
asserted
One would think

that
by
if
the prayers of such a nature
spirits equally dark.
8t.
were
heart!,
lOI
could only bo
it
Hyacinth crossed the Vistula, when
because of a Hood no boat dared venture, by walking,' on the surface

of the waves.
side the live
The
last
St. Francis of Assissiuui bore in his hands, feet,
wounds
and
of Christ.
phenomenon has occurred
in all ages of the
never more strikingly than at the present day.

to Louise Lateau, the Belgian stigmatist, to
has baffled medical science.
Church, and
need only refer
mention a case which
Equally celebrated in their
own
times
were such stigmatists as Saints Catherine, Hildegarde, Brigitta of
Sweden, and Pasithea.
More recent
cases are those of Catherine
Emmerich, Maria von Mori, and Dominica Lazari.
mark
the
of the
crown of thorns, and was besides clairvoyant.
Her attendant physician published
a description of the case in tho
Dominica also bore them,
Maria had the stigmata.
year 1815.
Catherine bore
Her marks, says Ennemoscr, bled on the
and more prominently.

Friday of every week.
It is natui-al that I should
manifestation, of
Catholic saints.
air.
the facts, but

all
in the lives of
being raised from the ground by
I refer to tho
Such a phenomenon
days by persons
that
which abundant instances arc given
and held, without any physical support,
spirit-power,
the
bo deeply interested in a 'particular
is
who have had no
whose
prompts them
and earth are known
The most convincing evidence

most unimpeachable witnesses
own
opportunity for observation of
illimitable conceit
things in heaven
floating in
denied and derided in our
is
to
imagine
to their philosophy.
The
dismissed as worthless.
are reviled as not to be trusted.
few sneers, and the usual parrot jargon regarding " the violation
of
known
physical laws," end the matter, and the reviewer retires
amidst the plaudits of his brethren.
Yet such violations of physical
laws are reported as having occurred since the age of Enoch, and
may have
occurred for
have
they were frequent amongst those on
said,
honours of
the
subject
Rome were
of
unknown thousands
conferred.
such experiences.
St.
of years before.
whom the
As
canonical
Theresa was many times
She
relates
that
frequently
during her devotions an unseen power raised her, and held her
102
suspended above the ground.
bishop, a Dominican, and the
sisterhood of her convent attest as witnesses her rising in the
In the year
1036,
Richard,
Abbot
of
St.
air.
Vanne do Verdun
" appeared elevated from the ground as he was saying mass in
Duke Galizon and
presence of
lords
and
and a great number of his
his sons,
Savonarola, of
soldiers.
whom
I shall
have occasion to
speak in the following chapter, was beheld, a short time before his
martyrdom, to
pended
slowly from the ground, and " remain sus-
rise
considerable height from the floor of his dungeon,
at a
absorbed in devotion."
Mr. Madden
in his life of this great
most truly observes, " To any one conversant with the

the saints
will
it
man,
lives of
be well known that similar phenomena are
recorded in numerous instances, and that the evidence on which
some
of
them
rest
is
as reliable as
any human testimony can be."
In the case of Savonarola, the evidence, as Elihu Eich points out,

is
peculiarly authentic.
Those who recorded the phenomenon
were the very men who condemned him
"Was
to the flames.
probable that they would seek by a circumstantial
lie to glorify
it
the
object of their hate ?
Calmet
tells
us that he "
knew
a good
monk who
rose sometimes
from the ground, and remained suspended without wishing or seeking
on seeing some devotional imago, or hearing some devout
it,
prayer, such as
Gloria in excelsis Deo.' "
been acquainted with a nun "
to
whom
it
Also he claims to have

has happened in spite of
herself to bo thus raised up in the air to a certain distance from the
earth
was neither from choice nor from any wish
it
guish herself, fortruly she was confounded at
happened
and
St.
ground
it."
to distin-
The same thing
in the cases of St. Philip Neri, St. Catherine Colembina,
Ignatius Loyola, which last

to the height of
two
feet,
was "
raised
up from the
while his body shone like light."
may be remarked that this luminosity of the human form a not

uncommon manifestation of modern spiritualism has also been
It
noticed from extremely ancient times.
lamblichus rose frequently
to the height of ten feet from the earth,
and
such occasions assumed the colour of gold.
his
body and dress on
But the most
narratives of the kind are to be found in Scripture.
striking
need
cite

but few other instances of ecclesiastical lovitations.
u
was observed
before bis death,
little
approaching end.
St.
it,
Dunstan,
all
who
witnessed tho
he spoke, and predicted bis
Albert of Sicily, during prayer, was elevated
to a height of three cubits.
and
at
St.
in the presence of several
persons to rise from the ground, and, whilst
phenomenon were yet astonished
103
St.
Cajetanus, St. Bernard Ptolomci,
Benitas were also seen frequently thus to rise from
St. Philip
To end with two cases not clerical and somewhat

own time, tho celebrated Anna Maria Fleischer was
beheld during the period of tho Thirty Years War in Germany to be
tho earth.
nearer to our
frequently lifted by invisible
a half, so that
windows."
it
means "
appeared as
In days
still
if
and
to the height of nine ells
she would have flown tbi'ough the
more modern
similar
phenomena were
reported of the Seeress of Prevorst.

It
cannot be said that the whole, or even the half of the miracles
claimed by the Catholic Church, are worthy tho faith of reasoning
He who
men.
puts credence in
equally foolish with the
mediums
selves
who
in our
disbelieves that
come out
Eomo
of
all
she asserts to have occurred
is
man who believes that all calling themown times have spu-itual gifts. But he
any " signs and wonders

very one
the
is
spiritualism of the present
who
"
can ever have
will
denounce the
day as nothing more than a gigantic
imposture, and will, sometimes openly, but more often in secret,
hold
all
miracle impossible, and look upon every record of spiritual
phenomena, whether contained

untrue.
To such natures
than nothing.
in
or
Scripture
historical evidence
Sceptics so pronounced
is
may
elsewhere,
as
nothing, and less
indeed be at times
converted to a belief in the truth by wonders occurring in their
own
presence
but they are far more
The absurd
vuice.
inference
drawn
difficult
in
than
such men should be shunned by every good

zealously excluded from
watch
for trickery in the
all stânces
Thomas
the present day
to conis,
spiritualist,
that
and
because they are ever on tho
medium, and when successful
in discover-
ing such trickery immediately set up a shout of triumph, and call

the attention of the general public to tho imposture they have un-
masked.
Would not
the better course for spiritualists be to set
104
man
their faces as one
against fraudulent
mediums, and
to send after
" and the gospel according to
Behmen
the "reveries of Jacob
Smith those wretched " explanations " of the simulation of
phenomena which
But
articles of faith ?
cludmg portion of
I shall pass
now
it is
sought to make pass current as
will
be more in place.
to the darkest phase of Catholic spiritualism

its
having
left
the deepest stain on the Pioman
In ending this chapter of less tragical occurrences a most
remarkable prophecy, delivered and

ago, deserves to be given.
Abbe Proyaid,
on foot
XYL
above a century
fulfilled a little
It is recorded, says
" Louis
in his
Mr. Howitt, by the
detrone avant d'etre Roi," and
inquiry which Cardinal
was confirmed by an
set
such matters the con-
for the discussion of
work
this
dark in the sense of
Church.
now
just
Joe
spiritual
Maury caused
to
be
in 180-i.
Bernardine Renzi, a simple peasant
girl of
Valentano, predicted
with much confidence, in the year 1774, the approaching death of

Ganganelli,
who then
filled
prise or
will liberate
me
"
;
Bernardine quietly
and the cure informed the
prisoner that this seizure had been three
times predicted by the young prophetess.
some papers
delivered up
in
which were
At the same time he

set
down
prophecy of the Pope's death and the date when

but the day of his
own
ganelli's
last
the
The day
on earth was September 22nd,

still
the
it
arrest, the duration of his
and the date when he should be released.
approached, and
of Valentano
Neither manifested the slightest sur-
girl.
who made him
hearing of
utterer to be arrested and
alarm when the arrest took place.
remarked " Braschi

officer
its
With her was seized the cure
cast into prison.
the confessor of the
On
the chair of St. Peter,
the prophecy his Holiness caused
Pope
morning of the 22nd of
felt
no sickness.
not only the

should occur,
imprisonment,
fixed as
1774
Gan-
but this
At ten o'clock on
however, Bernardine
September,
accosted the superior of the convent of Montefiascone, in which she
had been placed
as a prisoner, with the words,
your community to
dead."
tidings.
By
the
first
ofi"er
up prayers
courier
for the
Holy Father.
came a confirmation
The Pope had died suddenly
at
"You may
order
He
is
of these startling
eight in the morning,
SPIRITUALISM LV CATHOLIC AGES.

that
is
to
say,
somo two hours hcforo the
prophecy having hcen
plishment of her second prediction was,

of notice.
if
Cardinal Braschi, although none,
had dreamed of making him
girl's
^was delivered.
fulfilled
pontill",
have been elected to the vacant
intimation of her
And
possible,
when
the accom-
still
worthier
the conclave met,
was found when
scat.
105
it
parted to
Yet his success seemed to
hold out no hope of ]5ernardine's liberation.
Angered by tho
pasquinades circulated on his owing the tiara to the influence of a

village
girl,
Braschi determined to render her second prophecy a
lying one, and prove that she would not be freed through him.
He
appointed as her judges
and instructed them
rely,
and
still
ment
to
men on whom ho thought ho
Bernardine triumphed.
Tho
could
was
tried,
So manifest had been the
fulfil-
condemn
her.
case
of her prediction regarding Ganganelli that even partisanship
could do nothing.
as innocent of
any
The
girl
and the confessor were both acquitted,
evil design.
accurately accompHshed as tho
Thus the second prophecy was as

first,
and Braschi and
his tools
were
driven to console themselves by pronouncing that Bernardino had
been under the influence of
a fiend.
CHAPTER
ly.
To
that convenient accusation of
working miracles by the help of
demons, we owe the blackest crimes which disgrace the annals
Rome.
of the Church of
just and the unjust
Was
it
It
weapon misused
for
Then
the stigma of heresy could
did that Church act.
to the
If the
As^the occurrences
temporal power of the Church, so
phenomena could be made subservient
she canonised the
to her purposes,
him
spiritual manifestations
any particular region
were useful or injurious
by the
the charge of sorcery speedily sent
Did a sudden outbreak of
to the stake.
excite the inhabitants of
alike
but impotent for good.
evil,
man on whom
desired to ruin a
not be fastened
was
mighty
mediums
as saints
if
they
appeared to militate against those purposes, she burnt the mediums

as wizards.
Nay, so
entirely
was her recognition
governed by worldly policy, that the same
of the spiritual
man might
time extolled as inspired by the angels of God, and a
denounced as
in league
as I have shown,
with the powers of darkness.
had recognised that miracle
for the
advancement of a
spirits
who was
also
faith.
When
is
be at one
little
later
The Papacy,
a mighty
weapon
she found a servant of the
content to be her slave, she, to borrow a
metaphor from the language of Scripture, clothed him with a robe

of pride, and set
it
be done to the
him
in a high place, proclaiming that thus should
man whom
the Church delighted to honour.
that he faithfully devoted his medial

of the
other
Catholic religion,
respects
it
might be.
powers
to the
So
advancement
mattered not what his character in
(An arch-fiend of cruelty such as
Dominic, and a nature gentle as
St. Bernard's, a
pure creature

St. Catborino,
like
Their
prizeil.
worshipped
and
a brutivl
names were
wretch
were equally
like Francis,
glorified
during
107
and
life,
all
The magnificent sepulchres
after death.
but
that on-
shrinod their bones witnessed daily the prayers of tho faithful.
But was tho man who formed tho
link
between
this
and tho
future world a high-minded and frcc-spiritcd being, disposed to
become neither tho
serf of spirits nor of
Catholic religion only
the innumerable abuses which defaced^ it,

rola
short ?
in
He might
Then tho Vatican
perhaps be
men;
taking from tho
what was good, and making manful war on
such
let loose
a one as Savona-
on him
barely tolerated, while his line of
terrors.
its
conduct did
not diverge too widely from the line of policy marked out by tho
Church
but on tho instant that he raised his voice against her
made ready
wi'ong-doing there were

stake.
Another victim was added
for
him the
faggots and the
which are
to tho long list in
enrolled such names as Savonarola and Jeanne D'Arc
and Rome
took hypocritical credit to herself for having punished one more
among
the millions of
unhappy
beings destroyed as wizards and witches, there wore
numbers
servant of the devil.
really
Doubtless,
under the influence of
evil
Nothing
spirits.
else
can
explain the frantic outbreaks which so often dismayed Europe
during the Middle Ages.
Our
fathers,
having greater faith than
ourselves as regards spiritual tilings, were both better qualified to
judge of the phenomena and more ready to admit their
reality.
Their eyes were not carefully closed against light from another
world, but anxiously strained to perceive
They
often,
origin of that light,
most
its
gleams.
faintest
however, committed the deadly error of mistaking the
frantic
and such mistakes were made excuses
cruelty and intolerance.
The
for
great criminal
the
was
the Catholic Church, though as I shall have occasion to point out

in
a future
chapter Protestant Churches also
themselves with the crime of murder.

chiefly that tho
But
it
deeply burdened
is
against
blood shed during the Dark Ages
thi'oughout Europe cries out for vengeance.

spiritualism outside her
own
in
Rome
torrents
She denounced
pale as magic, and
its
all
adherents as
workers of wonders by means of the power of Satan.
Yet she
io8
had a kind of magic of
word with which she
licr
owu, and that same " Satau
conjured.
It
was
the Church was ascribed to God.
was
or injured the Church
which
is
account of the Prince of
we may
detest the cruelty
founded in bigotry and misplaced zeal
detestation should be reserved for the cruelty
of cold
but a far deeper
which
and calculating hypocrisy.
worldliness
brought into
miracle which benefited
miracle which embarrassed
laid to the
But this was not the worst
Evil.
laid aside or
commanded.
play, as circumstances
" "^'as the
the effect
is
Such was,
in
perhaps the majority of instances, the cruelty of the Church of
She lighted her pyres and launched her anathemas, not
Eome.
because she really beUeved burning the bodies of
men
to be for
the advantage of their souls, but because she considered persecuof preserving her temporal power.
Her
tion a necessary
means
two
were "Heresy" and "Sorcery," and whenever
the
battle-cries
first failed
was unsparingly used.
the second
Of the demoniac fury with which the Church of Rome formerly
much has been
persecuted heretics
Protestant authors of
in painting
like
in describing
how Torquemada
a subordinate fiend commissioned
Darkness to make that
and man
The eloquence
and how
fair
are praiseworthy
contained in
country hideous in the sight of
God
the burning of Latimer and Ridley lighted a
Such
diatribes
the effects of a revolt of the best principles
human
nature against inhuman cruelty.
in truth, easy to be too
of heretics.
ruled over
by the Prince of
flame in England which has never been put out.
ment
of
sects and every age has been employed
such martyrdoms as those of Huss, Oldcastle, Anne
Askew, and Coligni

Spain
all
written.
vehement
It is not,
in attacking the Catholic treat-
That treatment was, over and over again, such
as Nero would have shuddered
at.
But of the yet more
frightful
scenes enacted under the pretence of punishing sorcery strangely

little
has been said.
history of the past.
This indifierence
It
is
is
scarcely too
puzzling, in view of the
much
to assert that
the
persecutions for witchcraft were to the persecutions for heresy as

the CathoUc Hell to the Catholic Purgatory
to a
whip of cords.
as a whip of scorpions
Nine millions of persons are computed to
THE SHADOW OF CATHOLIC

have been
buriUHl,
responsible for
109
hanged, or drowned for sorcery under the
various
auspices of the
SriRITUALIS.V.
Churches of Christ,
Protestantism
is
some hundreds of thousands of these deaths, but
immeasurably the greater number of the victims were victims of

In every country of Europe witchcraft was of old the
Eome.
charge which committed the hugcst number of sufferers to the
hands of the executioner.
To quote
a few lines from Leckey's
chapter on the subject in his " History of Rationalism,"
"Seven
thousand victims are said to have been burnt at Treves.
Decrees
were passed on the subject by the parliaments of Paris, Toulouse,

Bordeaux, Rheims, Rouen, Dijon, and Rennes, and they were
The executions which took
followed by a harvest of blood.

Paris were, in the emphatic
in
words of an old writer,
'
all
place
almost
In Italy a thousand persons were executed in a single
infinite.'
year in the province of Como, and in other parts of the countrj-,

the severity of the inquisitors at last created an absolute rebel-
Multiply the instances similar to these almost to infinity,
lion."
and, taking into consideration the hundreds of years for which the
devilish
work
wênt on, that total of nine millions,
which
have
quoted from a German authority on the subject, will no longer

appear
It is
difficult of
worthy
of
credence.
remark that the years
in
which persecution for
witchcraft raged most wildly were years in which

distracted
by great
Death the excesses wrought

heathen history contains.
of the French towns
in
Chinon,
Christendom were beyond anything
if I
caused the pestilence by magic
remember
spells.
aright
the
number
of
It is
them
The whole
of the
two hundred, were
of having
less
from
but popular fury knows
doomed race wdthin
seized.
at
not to be supposed
numbers, the Jews suffered
the Black Death than the Christians
nothing of logic.
one
the populace
single instance will suffice
rose on their usual victims, the Jews, and accused
that, in proportion to their
Europe was
During the period of the Black
calamities.
vast trench
reach, to
was dug.
In this trench straw, fagots, and other combustibles were heaped

fire
was put
close.
to the mass,
and the captives bound and brought
Then, when the flames were
at
their fiercest, the
unfor-
no
tunates were raised one by one and cast upon the pyre.
Infants
and old men, xuotbers, husbands, and children, j'oung men and
The eloquence
maidens, perished together.
of Cicero could add
" I
nothing to the horrors of the bare description.
" that ye love one another."
said Christ,
name
defiling the
Some may
of Christian, execute that
command
Thus
ye,"
did certain,
command.
object that the persecutions for sorcery were the
outcome of an unenlightened age, and that the Church, unable

arrest the
But
movement, was forced
to be content with directing
mind against
history testifies that the fury of the popular
all
was the sequence, and the
witchcraft
certain teachings
to
it.
sequence,
inevitable
of
which the Papacy had adopted and exaggerated

law Christ came
to
supersede, and of other
laws which she had invented for herself.
" Thou shalt not sufler
fi'om that Levitical
a witch to live,"
signs
commanded Moses.
"All workers of spmtual
and wonders, save those stamped with
my
approbation, are
wizards and witches," was the decree of Eome.
She promul-
gated the two teachings, as requiring the obedience of
owned her supremacy, and horrors such
as earth
all
who
had never before
witnessed were the result.
The learning
of
Europe was,
almost wholly confined to the
represented the brain, and the
moves.
were
To
the priesthood
subservient.
alike
the two powers which
men
Rome,
move
the invention of printing,
until
The
cloister.
civil
of the law and

therefore,
force.
Ahriman and Ormuzd had
battles,
and were united
mistress.
men
had
spirits,
pontiffs
detestable of
polluted.
sword
command
for
common
space
subjection
all
intellectual
ceased
to
their
might}^
Until the printing-press of Guttenburg overturned this
It will scarcely
Her
at her
brute and
condition of things the Papacy was, for good or
world of
of the
the world, and which, in almost
ages of the world, have been found at war
in
power
ecclesiastical
the arm which that brain
evil,
omnipotent.
be denied that, as regarded intercourse with the

she pei-verted her limitless power steadily to
and priests were,
mankind
in
unnumbered
instances, the
creatures whom every possible
evil.
most
crime had
Their lives arc inconceivable on the supposition that

tboy put the least credence
Heaven,
charge.
IIcll,
SPIRITUALIS^f.
Scriptures committed to their
in the
and Purgatory wcro
them the various
to
parts of a cunningly devised fable, invented for tho purpose of
money
bringing
In Satan and his
into tho coffers of tho Church.
subordinate fiends they put not the slightest faith
They were aware
devil.
bim
believed
knew
they
nowhere expressly inculcates the dogma of a personal
that Christ
to be,
was
Eomc.
the purposes of
that the devil, such as the multitude
a gigantic shadow, manufactured to suit
The Prince
of Darkness then,
they did
if
not exactly, like one of Shakspeare's characters, pronounce him a
gentleman, was in their eyes a useful though
who
puppet,
be made available
could
They wondered
purposes.
at
ugly
rather
variety
of
evil
the fear the multitude had of the
and jested much over that
ligure,
for
among themselves
fear
but
they did not hesitate to turn the awe of the vulgar to account,
and
way
in
Under cover
that
without number.
making
has
blackened
If they believed
compact with Satan was
their
of a charge of sorcery they
names
everlastingly.
wreaked private grudges
anything,
was
it
as impossible as the
compact with the forms one sees
a dream.
in
that
Yet for this
impossible crime they consigned millions to the executioner.
my
space permit
passing from the general to
the
making a
Did
the particular, I
could show, by hundreds of examples, that the Catholic law con-
demning sorcerers
was but an engine by which the
to the flames
priesthood defended their temporal power from attack, stayed the
reform of
vile
their malice
ordinary
abuses and the march of
on those they hated.
men had
Church thought
the
devil "
it
perfected
fire.
with indignation the
evil
such scandals.
fit
state for
world.
genius surpassing that of
matter, and
"
inventor
reformer had arisen
life
communion with
compact with
and invention
who witnessed
to
end
had, perhaps, brought him
into
lives of the clergy,
His own pure
satisfied
some great invention which tho
to its interest to suppress.
explained the
perished in the same
and
intellect,
and sought
the better dwellers in the spirit
At once the Church seized on him
projected reforms ended at the stake.
as a wizard,
and
his
prelate desired pretext
112
for robbing
some wealthy layman
perhaps of
both
sorcery
fair
member
what
priest
had
in vain
of his flock
of
property or his
liis
than
contrive
to
easier
life
charge
of
endeavoured to lead astray some
what more thorough revenge could
disappointed lust imagine than to procure her punishment as a
witch
They were
Such infomies are not dreams.
Mixed with them
facts of existence three or four centuries ago.
were other causes predisposing
waste of
There were
life.
was the
multitude, there
the ignorant passions of the
who
to the
the every-day
believed witchcraft
furious
possible
bigotry
of those
crime.
There were continual outbreaks of strange and hideous
phenomena, such
as
sincerely
only the
most degraded
through congenial media, could have produced

cient to
fill
By means
even the most liberal of
men with
more
of these instruments the
They dragged
sioned persecutors worked.
spirits,
working
phenomena
suflfi-
horror and disgust.
astute and unimpas-
the worst phases of
spiritualism conspicuously into the light, and in this and other
ways stimulated popular fury
to
They encouraged their brethren

pretended a similar zeal,
if
who
they had
more ungovernable
pitch.
persecuted from zeal, and

it
Europe was
not.
filled
with bloodshed, from Lisbon to the confines of Muscovy, and the

authors of this bloodshed contemplated their work with satisfied
complacency, as a masterpiece of polity.

halter they
had tamed the
spiritual.
By means
and
of stake
Lawful miracle was
to
be
found only within the bounds of the Church, and r.nder such conditions
ranked among the mightiest of her weapons.
Koman
pale
all
miracle Avas illegal.
Outside the
Intercourse with the spirit-
world, which, properly directed, would have speedily delivered the
human mind from
the thraldom of Papal error,
the works of the devil.
was
classed as of
Industriously drilled by the priesthood
to that belief, the idea of a suppositious supervision constantly
exercised by a suppositious Satan over
mundane
at last a chief article in the creed of the vulgar.
of Evil every event in the least
uncommon was
Hoger Bacon discovered gunpowder,
method
of
butter-making
superior
or an old
to
that
affairs
To
became
the Prince
ascribed.
woman
hit
practised
If a
upon a
by her

noigbbours,
a Guttoubcrg
if
cow produced
uj
S^/RITUALIS^f.
tbc art of ])rinting, or a
invented
Bacon and tbc old dame, Guttec-
a five-legged calf,
burg and tbe cow, were equally denounced as emissaries of
Nay, tbe
separatists rejected
Rome's tcacbing
and wonders, but
eigns
to
bavo been
Tbe
Protestant,
from Satan would appear
faitb in miracles
stronger tban tbe faitb in miracles from God.
belief
of tbc continuance of celestial
marvels was too
infernal
in
bell.
in-
Ministering angels were repudiated by
grained to be destroyed.
Lutber and Knox, but tempting demons were solemnly recog-
and tbeir supposed servants on eartb persecuted witb a
nised,
fury
born of
and
antipatby
company wbere Lutber was
unreasoning
present,
In a certain
fear.
tbe
talk
on witcbcs
fell
" I would bavo no compassion on tbcse witcbes,"
spoiling eggs.
remarked tbe great reformer, " I would burn
of tbem.
Yet
be was one of tbe most enligbtened Protestants of bis day.
Tbe
first
all
winnowiug-macbino introduced into Scotland was denounced
from many pulpits as a demoniac invention wbicb brougbt witb

literally
communion
And
One reverend
"blasts from bell."

to all
wbo bad
accepted tbis
tbe devil to man.
gift of
tbe folly of rusbing to Satau for an explanation of anytbing
unusual or miraculous, wbicb folly

inspire
culous
and
foster,
sermons,
pbenomena
of
agency of tbe
Tbe notion
to
it
Calvinist refused tbe
tbat
Ecelzebub
tbat
is
to
is
Son
was tbe
of tbe
Rome
policy of
In wbat a number of
bave
Catbolic,
day been attributed
present
fallen
all
and
Protestant
tbe
it
continues.
still
Morning and
tbe
to
bis
to
ridi-
spiritual
tbe
direct
myrmidons
media not clerical bave given tbemselves over
evidently
still
say, witb tbe
strong
among
peasants and priests
two most unenligbtcncd
classes of
mankind.
famous
among
tale of borror
tbc
many
witcbcraft wbicb bistory bas preserved,
noblest virgin of tbe Middle Ages

of ligbt,
was condemned
of soldiers
and
priests
accounts of
Jeanne d'Arc.
as a fiend of darkness
:
trials for
tbe burning
is
of tbe
Joan, an angel
by a mixed
tribunal
tbe former inspired to tbeir cruelty by
batrod, tbe latter by policy.
Tbe reproacb
once tbe glory and tbe sbame of France.

I
of England, sbc
Cburcbmcn
of ber
is
at
own
yElVISH
114
AND CHRISTIAN
ERAS.
country sat amoug the judges ^Yho decided on ber murder

king and the nobles
had led
whom
not a
to victory, stirred
the
step to
For the
save her.
England and France were equally enraged against
chieftains of
Burgundy were
Talbot, Bedford, and
the inspired shepherdess.
wrathful that, before this
they, the successors to the victor
girl
of Agincourt, should have been forced to flee like sheep
and Orleans chafed
more timid
peasant
she had saved, the army which she
to think that
soldiers,
and
less
Charles
than a simple
generals,
skilful
French and English
girl.
they had approved themselves
knew, indeed, that she
alike
They had
had done these things by a power not her own.
witnessed her penetrating clairvoyance, they had beheld her ever}'
prophecy
fulfilled
and when the brief and
brilliant
mission of the
wonderful maid was accomplished
to the Mediterranean, the invaders
were beaten back
when,
after
advancing almost
to the shores
of the English Channel, her foes, having seized her,
and slew
her,
as in league with
devils,
and
condemned
her false friends
appeared, by their inaction and silence, to acquiesce in the truth

of the verdict
and the
justice
Neither jDarty
of the sentence.
thought of recognising in the deliverance of France the hand of
The
God.
vented
doubtful sort of halo which
her recognition
as
saint.
hung around Joan

Instead
of
pre-
wasting her
existence in a convent she rode at the head of armies.
Instead of
the sable garments of a nun, she wore the glittering armour of a

knight.
She was no
by Heaven
tool of the
to accomplish the
was scarcely
Papacy, but an imtrument shaped

deliverance of her fatherland.
possible that a corrupted
Church could recognise
her one of the noblest of the daughters of

held true to
its
traditions.
of the Evil One,

this policy
At
first
it
God
It
in
and the Church
denounced her as a servant
and when the sure changes of time had rendered
unsound, and English and French were alike busy in
"gleaning up into the golden urn of history" the ashes of her
whom
aloof,
their forefathers
and
of that
slew, the
lent neither aid nor
Church of Rome stood sullenly
countenance to the work.
bishop
Church had been one of the foremost among the murderers
of Joan, and by Ilomish ecclesiastics the perjuries were sworn,

nud
and put
cruoltics phiimcd
iudigiiitios ;ind
tlio
SP/R/TUALIS^f.
115
of
action,
in
that long agouy, worse than death, which preceded the fiery ascent
Domremy
of the Virgin of
These churchmen acted
when
strange indeed,
obtained,
lie
if
much
so
her on high.
to the place prepared for
after their kind.
It
would have been
was
of the infamy of persecution
the priesthood had not contrived to
come
to
in for the
largest share.
Joan belonged
to the village of
sounded
Domremy,
in
what
is
now
the
In early childhood unearthly voices
department of the Yosges.
in her cars whilst she
tended sheep in the
Soon
fields.
majestic forms, which she believed to be those of St. Margaret and

St. Catherine,
They were
appeared to her in
sent
appointed task.
and most
to
the glory of another world.
all
the
little
peasant maiden for her
During the next few years Joan
spii'itual
of lives
She drank
of earth.
prepare
life
her guides, and gazed with
in the lessons of
She was clasped
reverent delight on their glorious forms.
arms, and
felt
in their
the loving kisses and embraces of these sisters gone
Were they
before.
lived the happiest
that could scarcely be considered
absent from her, she passed the hours in an
expectant longing for their presence, and kissed frequently the turf
whereon they had appeared

her guides
to stand.
Her every thought was
of
her single prayer to be for ever with them in the land
where there are no more
""When
tears.
saw
my
saints," said
she to the tribunal which murdered her, " I wished to follow
them
to Paradise."
At length
was
to
this
happy existence ceased.
Henceforth her
voice like a trumpet announced to her one day that the
was
ready, and the hour for attempting
means the banner of

that of St. George to
by Heaven the
but
life
be one of action and endurance, of glory, agony, despair.
still
St.
fall
her
Denis was to advance to victory, and
from
its
high estate.
deliveress of Fi-ance.
greater pain.
it
work
By
at hand.
She was appointed
Great renown would be hers,
Yet, in the darkest as the brightest hour,
ministering spirits would be by her side, and voices, not of earth,
would whisper comfort.
must be ever
in her
And
mind.
the example of the
Man
As Christ had expired

I
'1
of
Sorrows
in
agony,
il6
mocked and
by
insulted
was appointed
terrible
power of enemies
As was
She might be
crown.
shudders
nature
be her
martyrdom equally
She would
fall
her cross, so hereafter
tried
into the
she should
to
spirit
would bo
with agonies such as
conceive, but
to
from those agonies
lot.
her body they might destroy, but the
no malice could harm.

her
around, so
all
to
human
pass
assuredly
be one of the greatest in the kingdom of
heaven.
How
she accomplished her mission
is
characters in the history of the world.
mission
is
it
written with imperishablo
The importance
Without Jeanne d'Arc
to over-estimate.
difficult
of that
Charles YII. would never have been crowned at Rheims, and the
English Henry YI. might have reigned peacefully at Paris.

the conquest
of France, England, alike with her victim,
have l)cen ruined.
All the
conquered would have
fallen
miseries which usually attend
The
on the conqueror.
In
would
the
desire of a
yet further aggrandisement would have occupied the sovereigns

of the unwieldy empire which, at first that of Great Britain
and
France, must speedily have become that of France and Great,

Constantly forced to
Britain.
visit the
continent,
some succeeding monarch, would have ended by

government there.
Henry
His descendants would have become more and
more alien from England, and more and more attached
The
larger countrj''
would have been exalted
Another war would have
expense.
VI., ov
fixing the seat of
arisen.
at
its
to France.
neighbour's
The Erglish, disgusted
with the injuries of their country, and ill-disposed to recognise as

its
princes
fathers
men born and
bred in a land which the valour of their
had conquered, would have sprung
to arms.
After years
of desolation and bloodshed the conflict would have ended, as such

conflicts
must
of necessity end, in the separation of the
two realms.
England would have been again the England of Henry IV., and,
as consolation for a ruined commerce, a depopulated territory, and
an empty treasury, would have had
the
statues of the victor of Agincourt had been
walls of Paris, and that
for a space
the necks of their neighbours.
miserable boast that

erected within the
Englishmen had trodden on
The miseries
of an unnatural
and

sickly union
l)o(woon
from each other, and
two kingdoms intonded

tlie
For
to llourisli
would have hecn attended, Joan's
two nations sho was
this great henelit to the
England hurncd her, and France
rewarded with the stake.
apart
sharper miseries with which tho
still
violent dissolution of (hat union
deeds averted.
117
stirred
not a linger to avert her death.
With
the various stages of her career every schoolboy
8he made known her mission.

by
At a glance she selected him
was obtained.
from the crowd of courtiers, amongst whom,

about
She proclaimed
crowned
at iiheims,
to
to
to himself alone.
lofty faith.
"
No
him
him
a secret
She spoke of her mission
King
remain to spin by the side of
But go
"And who is
in a tone of
of Scots, no one but myself,
to recover this realm of France.
"work for me.
of Orleans bo
citj'
which he had thought
one upon this earth, neither king nor duke, nor
tho daughter of the
Joan
had
that through her should he bo
and that by her would the
She declared
relieved.
it."
in a dress that
no indication of his rank, Charles had purposely hidden
it
himself.
known
familiar.
an interview with tho Dauphin
ridicule, she pressed her suit for
until that interview
is
ITndaunted by threats, unimpressed
my
Yet
poor mother
the Lord your Master
"
Lord
I must, because the
appointed
is
could more willingly
"
for
war seems no
my
The King
Master
of
wills
Heaven,"
replied.
After long and tedious examinations, and after giving various
proofs of knowledge
was permitted
more than mortal, the Virgin
to clothe herself in
Domremy
of
armour, to place at her side an
ancient sword which spirits had directed her to take from the
church where
it
was
iDreserved,
and to depart at the head of
a brigade destined for the relief of Orleans.

stronghold of note which
its last
gasp.
would capture
This
the single
city,
yet held out against tho English,
The besiegers had confidently announced

it
by a certain day.
It
was the
crisis
was
at
that they
of the fate
of France.
Joan arrived before the walls of Orleans.
She succeeded
conveying food to the beleaguered and starving garrison.
head of
a small
in
At tho
body of troops she threw herself within the
city.
Il8
She
aud revived the fainting courage of the
purified the morals,
By
soldiery.
evidences
the
of her inspiration from
gave
she
"When
another worki she gradually roused them to enthusiasm.
minds were prepared
theii"
invaders.
The English were
Until
and forced to raise the
now
the
men
of Agincourt
had been considered invincible.
the forces of England and France met, the latter fought
half-heartedly
The
defeated,
In that victory Joan's country was saved.
siege.
When
she led them against the
for battle
relief of
and were beaten almost before the
Orleans dissolved the
had disdainfully vowed
battle began.
Before a city which they
spell.
to take within a certain time, the
had met with sudden and
striking
disaster
defeat at the hands of a foe inferior in strength, and
driven to raise the siege with ignominy.
was no more of the
might cause anxiety, but
Among
old panic fear.
in the
in
main things went
Bedford were turned

of nineteen.
to promise
The
vain.
to
At length
skill
foolishness
all
before
by
country maiden
At Rheims, in the old
his side.
at the feet of the
that
she
new-made
by which she had been guided

silent.
sovereign, aud
might be allowed to
was accomplished, and
suddenly become
Dame, Charles was solemnly crowned king
Joan threw herself
voices
followed,
The invaders were beaten back
of France, the holy maid standing
mission, she said,
Wherever
which her guides had commanded her
was accomplished.
earnestly implored
well.
implicitly
and valour of Talbot and
to the provinces of the extreme north.
cathedral of Notre
her armies
Occasional reverses
Joan commanded, and her counsels were
England strove
had been
Thenceforth the tide
of fortune ran strongly in favour of France.
there
retire.
the
in her career of victory
had
token of
In violation of the duties
of gratitude Charles refused the desired permission to

still
in
maid should drive them
France.
forth.
It
was necessary
to
the attempt.
depart.
that the holy
Sadly and reluctantly, but over-
powered by the warmth of her patriotism, Joan

become pledged
Her
this,
in
She could no longer be of use, and
awful misfortunes threatened her.
The English were
English
they had suffered
She went
suffered herself to
forth,
knowing that

it
was
to certain death.
Lad
ITcr spirit-couusollors
with them had departed
The worst
success.
119
and
left licr,
came.
speedily
Pcscrted by her troops, she was made prisoner, and placed in
continement whilst her captors

be her
as
deliberated
Her treatment henceforth until

it
as blots on the human
fate.
concerned in
all
was threatened with the rack

and exposed
what should
death, has stamped
Now
species.
she
noAV forced to assume male attire,
to the brutal insults of the
She was one day
men-at-arms.
to
English and Burgundian
told that the
morrow should
see
her led to the stake, the next soothed with lying oaths that her
life
At length the fiends around her were weary
should be spared.
They determined, with one crowning deed
of their sport.
cruelty, to release their victim
of
from the earth, whereon they had
caused her to sutler horrors equalling anything in the Inferno

of Dante, and in that deed to hold themselves up to the detestaof
tion
Weeping
of Rouen.
the
posterity.
all
stake wâs
bitterly,
unhappy maiden
fixed
and clasping a
market-place
the
in
crucifix to her breast,,
of nineteen passed to the scene of death..
She was chained to the post, and brushwood heaped around her.
The captains
England and Burgundy, and certain churchmen of
of
France, looked on with the implacability of a cold and unmanly
The
hate.
pile
dense smoke
was kindled, and the flames
hid for
ever from sight the form of the noblest
martyr of the dark ages
The
last
passion.
the most
Her ashes were
The man
of
unhappy heroine
of
all
time.
cry heard to issue from Joan's lips was the one word
"Jesus."
name
Speedily the
rose.
or
woman
is
collected,
little
and thrown into the Seine.
to bo envied in
whose breast
Jeanne d'Arc excites no sentiment of
interest or
The author has irremediably blackened
stoops to assail her
memory with
distortion of facts.
lesser degree
it
soils
multitude.
all
com-
fame who
and unprincipled
to Voltaire.
even the great name of Shakspeare.
principal fault of the poet of
passions of the
ribald sneers,
Such a stigma attaches
his
the-
In a
The
time was a ready pandering to the
Where
his
audience had a strong
prejudice respecting an historical character he depicted that character to suit, indifierent whether the portrait Avtrc a likeness or a
I20
In the present instance the English detested the
caricature.
memory
Joan as that of a strumpet and a witch
of
Shakspeare drew her.
was pure
in
History gives the slander the
every respect, and the purest of
The misdirected genius
to her.
spirits
as such
She
lie.
ministered
of even the prince of dramatists
cannot sully her fame, far less the ribald calumnies of Voltaire.
She declared
In everything she approved herself sent of Heaven.
that spiritual beings had commissioned her to save Orleans, and
cause Charles YII. to be crowned at Rheims.

task until the prophecy
was
She persisted
in
her
She then declared that her
fulfilled.
guides had departed, warning her to return at once to her quiet

village
home,
The king
she would avoid a hideous fate.
if
ruled her wishes, and victory at once wênt and
Whilst
spirits
guided her she triumphed over obstacles that accord-
human
ing to
When
were insurmountable.
calculations
counsellors were gone she attempted a
less
difficult
An
sought to account by her enthusiasm for her success.
was
siast she truly
highest degree pernicious.
enthusiasm which
another world
is
diseased mind.
enthu-
human
There
is
progress, the other in the
the noble
and unconquerable
founded on the certainty of inspiration from
there
enthusiasm which
is
It is
is,
moreover,
attributable
to
and
the
irrational
the
unstable fancies of a
flighty
easy to discern that Joan's inspiration was
Nothing of her prophecies remained unful-
of the former sort.
but the wild vaticinations of madness are not thus accom-
plished.
of France.
simple
country
girl,
she
led
to
battle
the armies
Herself possessed of not au acre of ground, she gave
to Charles YII. a
kingdom.
At an age when most
beginning to be occupied with

affairs of state.
imperishable renown.
when he
afiaii's
of love, she
girls are just
was busied with
At an age when such conquerors as Cajsar and
Napoleon were yet obscure
her as
and
but there are two species of such natures
the one wonderfully useful to
those
task,
Historians have termed her an enthusiast, and have
perished.
filled
over-
death came.
citizens, she
The angel
shone, a pillar of
astonished Israelites.
Not
less
of the
fire,
had covered herself with
Lord was
as visibly with
on the night journeys of the
than Enoch did she walk with

Ciod.
Mosos sbo
Tjiko
SPIRITUALIS^f.
\z\
house of bondage,
led a nation out from the
and the translation of Ehjah pales before the
tragic
grandeur of
Ibat flaming chariot in which she "was whirled
away
to hear the
words, "Well done, good and faithful servant!"' and to receive

the diadem of unspeakable brightness promised to
all
who
in the
cause of truth endure steadfastly unto the end.
Jerome Savonarola was born

took orders as a Dominican
man
greatest
commenced
friar,
at
and became speedily the best and
of that corrupt order.
his mission
was one
Ho
Fcrrara in the year 1452.
The time when Savonarola
of those
which are the reproaches
The priesthood with few exceptions wâllowed
of history.
An abnormal
sea of vice.
in a
monster, having every vice of Belial
without his graces, and the cruelty and craft of Lucifer without
his courage,
the
had
Italy with his genius

for the
and
sight of his eyes
His son, Caesar Borgia, was astounding

his crimes.
Savonarola became "
He
which he saw."
attempt a reform of discipline and morals.
Ho had
not wanting.
and listened constantly
The
prospered.
of a
man
under
foisted himself into the chair of St. Peter
of Alexander YI.
title
in great
Spiritual counsel
measure the
gifts of
At
to voices not of earth.
citizens of Florence
mad
stood forward to
was
mediumship,
first his
design
were awed by the eloquence
Avho denounced their sins with the energy of an Ezekiel,
or one of the witnesses foretold in the Apocalypse.
The most
spacious buildings were too small for the crowds that listened with
tears
and
Capua
of
cries of
repentance
when Savonarola preached.
the Arno seemed rapidly becoming
of frivolity
and
vice.
He whose
purified
from
The gay
all taint
eloquence had wrought these
marvels
contemplated them with astonishment and joy.
desire of
still
greater triumphs arose in his mind.
He would
The
be to
liome, her prelates and her pontiff, as Jonah had of old been to
He would make of Haly a land pure in

Armed with spiritual weapons, surrounded by
the princes of Nineveh.

the sight of God,
the heavenly host, he would arrest the progress of those myriads

of invaders
who were descending from
plains and rich cities of Tuscany,
attempt was made.
Ho journeyed
the
Alps on the
Lombardy, and Yenetia.

to the
camp
fertile
Tho
of Charles YIII.,
122
and rebuked
by
liim with the authority of
striking predictions
commissioned
supported
warnings which he beUevcd himself
the
The king was
to deliver.
He
an apostle.
so
far
influenced
by
the speedy fulfilment of one of these prophecies as to abandon

his projected siege of Florence, since Savonarola
mind
But
of that city.
Spain and Switzerland,
his army,
still
was the master-
and the companion vultures of
retained their grasp on Italy, and
still
battled for possession of the prey on
which they had pounced.
Disappointed
Savonarola turned
in
his
patriotic
hopes,
ardently than ever to his religious projects.
Pope, and called on
all
him from the throne which he
He
disgraced.
Like Luther, Savonarola
With two
with the most dauntless fortitude.
it
he was seized and imprisoned.
disciples
lashed with vehement
storm arose such as at a
day broke upon the head of Luther.
faced
the
true servants of Christ to join in hurling
eloquence the vices of the priests.

later
more
He denounced
It
of his chief
was impossible that
against so devout a Catholic a charge of heresy could be sustained.
The Church had

terrible
weapon.
recourse, therefore, to
its
other and yet
more
There was ample proof that Savonarola held
He had uttered
He had a miraculous
intercourse with the dwellers in another world.
prophecies and they had been
fulfilled.
power of reading the thoughts of men.

been seen to
rise
In his dungeon he had
slowly from the ground, and remain without any
support suspended in the
air.
Evidence not a hundredth part as
strong had procured the deaths of countless thousands.

rola
was condemned
as a sorcerer,
and
in
Savona-
companj^ with his two
adherents died at the stake.
The one other martyrdom

of
Urban Grandier.
I think
it
the apparently inadequate
illustrated
necessary to quote
In the career of Joan of Arc
sometimes accomplishes
its
designs
in
the fate of
efi"orts
of the
imbue the mind of Christendom with an unreasoning
to
belief in
that
means with which heaven
mightiest
Savonarola the entire success that had attended the
Papacy
is
we behold
the omnipotence of the devil.
monk, learned, pious,
accepting fervently every doctrine of the Catholic Church, blameless

in morals,
and powerful throughout the north of
Italy, is
accused

of being a wizard.
The
servant of the Evil
One exactly resembles
cviilcnco on
which he
is
12;,
condemned
as a
that on which Theresa
But the Church
and Loyola were pronounced
saints of
reason for the distinction.
Ignatius and Theresa were the sub-
God.
missive tools of the pontiff for the time being
The Papacy decided
his vices.
saw-
Savonarola attacked
which
that manifestations
in the
one case were produced by angels, were in the other the work of
Reduced
devils.
to its simplest form, the decree
was
that, in the
matter of spiritual manifestations as in every other, the Catholic
Church was
black
it
infallible,
and that when she pronounced white
must be accepted
did so accept
And
as such.
for centuries all
to
be
Europe
it
Grandier's case instances the ease with which,
when
ecclesiastics
high in the Church desired to crush an enemy, a lying accusation

of sorcery might be fastened on
man
absolutely destitute of
This victim was, during the reign of Louis XIII.
medial powers.
His success in
parish priest of Loudun, in the diocese of Poitiers.
the pulpit induced the jealousy of other priests, and a conspiracy
was formed
nuns.
to ruin him.
In Loudun was a convent of Ursuline
women were
instructed to feign themselves possessed
These
and
l)y devils,
to charge
Grandier with having brought about the
The Archbishop
possession.
of
and acquitted the accused of
Bordeaux investigated the
all
He
the charges.
case,
advised him,
however, to resign his benefice, and remove from the neighbour-
hood of
his
implacable enemies.
Another plot was formed.

satu'e
on Richelieu, then the
that the priest of
Grandier obstinately refused.
Some unknown
real ruler of
Loudun was
the author.
wit had produced a
France.
It
was declared
The malicious
cardinal
resolved on an action worthy any devil of heathen or Christian
Grandier was tried once more on the old charge, and,
theology.
in
defiance
of
all
justice,
condemned.
approaching evidence was oftered.

repeatedly,
became the victim of that
which the
last
watched
ilesh
and worst of the
inflicted
Nothing
The martyr,
into a
the
least
infernal torture of the boot
evil
Stuart dynasty afterwards
on the Scottish Covenanters.
had been crushed
in
after being racked
When
bones and
mangled mass, Grandier was carried
124
to the place of execution,
and burnt
summoned Father
ho
Avas lighted
At the instant the
alive.
pile
Lactance, a chief amongst his
murderers, to meet him in a month before the judgment-seat of

the Eternal God.
Lactance, perfectly well
was delivered, died
at
when
the
summons
The nuns who had
the prescribed time.
been tutored to act the possessed continued to behave as thougli

insph'ed
Beelzebub
bj'
appear to
have known
cardinal's
punishment
Of the
himself.
concerned in the murder of
Grandier,
repentance
neither
was
various
reserved
would
nor remorse.
The
the
for
ecclesiastics
alone
Richelieu
hour when,
in
another world, he and his victim should again be brought face

to face.
These three narratives may be accepted

of the crimes done
by Home under cover
as striking illustrations
of the charge of sorcery.
Yet the instances I have given can by no means be put forward as
The blood
the worst.
of millions of other victims cries
ground against the Papacy.
from the
In whatever market-place the symbol
of the cross was upreared during the Middle Ages a stake and a
The number
gallows appeared on either hand.
of victims handed
over by the priesthood to the secular arm, with a charitable prayer

that
all
possible tenderness might be shown, Avould about equal
the united populations of Scotland and Ireland at the present day.
Demons more
of these
cruel than Richelieu
doomed ones
by Grandier.
may have
Natures as noble as that of Jeanne d'Arc
made no
perished and
sign.
We
may have
we know
little.
There
hideous records of these ancient horrors scattered
indeed
through various
cities
of Europe
into
the wish or the opportunity to penetrate.
of history
lies
from Avhat
are, that the
men
on many
have the history of the persecu-
tion as a whole, but of particular agonies

jire
inflicted
tortures even surpassing the tortures endured
usually on the surface.
which records few have

Fortunately, the moral
The
lessons to be deduced
have described as the Shadow of Catholic Spiritualism
inhumanity of a priesthood surpasses that of other
as the malice of a fiend might be supposed to surpass the
malice of an
elf,
and that never has the Church of Rome known
respect for the rights of
men
or
sympathy with
their sufferings

when
SPJR/TUAL/S^r.
the ailvaiiccment of bor power, temporal or spiritual,
125
was
to
bo obtained by increasing those sutrerings or disregarding those

rights.
The Greek Church, more
equally rich
in
spiritual
gifts,
truly Christian,
exercises,
exercised, a tolerant and nobler policy.
and has
and
at
least
for centuries
CHAPTER
V.
THE SPIRITUALISM OF THE WALDENSES AND THE CAMISARDS.
Few
churches have heen more evidently protected of
that Uttle
God than
hand of hrothers whose sufferings inspired Milton to the
cry
" Avenge,
Lord
Thy
slaughtered saints, whose bones
Lie hleacliiug on the Alpine
The Waldenses were
moimtams
justly designated "
cold
The
Israel of the Alps."
They preserved through centuries their independence and their

faith,
albeit
weakest of
surrounded on
whom
the power and
by
nations,
hostile
their resources.
the
Against
the cruelty of France and Savoy they bore up
unyieldingly, supported simply
They
sides
all
had a hundred times
by
spiritual aid.
wêre neither to be exterminated
nor subdued.
In the
darkest hours of their fortunes light from another world cheered
them, and when they seemed

raised
men
them up.
As
in the
fallen to the
Hebrew
As
driving armies before them.
very earth spirit-hands
we
scriptures,
read of a few
in Palestine, the deliverances
of the oppressed were frequently so miraculous that the oppressors

cried in astonishment, " This
The Vaudois,
is
the hand of
God
"
!
or Waldenses, are sometimes asserted to
have
originated in the twelfth century, and to have had for their first
leader a Peter
Waldo
of Lyons.
from these ancient Protestants

Waldo, he drew
his
own from
The truth seems

taking their
the Waldenses.
fourth century that their schism from
Rome
to be that, far
designation
It
from
was during the
took place.
At
first
they disclaimed the desire of a total separation, and contented
THE
SPIRITL'ALIS.U
OF THE JFALDE.VSES.
The Church,
themselves with strong protests against abuses.

with the hipso of time,
little
The
them.
attached to
yet more widely from apostolic
tlopartt'd
traditious, whilst the "Waldenscs
had become but the more strongly
gradually widened.
split
127
At length the
Piedmoutese congregation withdrew wholly from communion
with Rome,
and was thenceforth persecuted with unrelenting
I'ury.
The
most romantic of
separatists sought refuge in one of the
They peopled the higher valleys of the

Piedmontese Alps, and there vowed to defend their religion to the
last.
We may imagine them, as Mrs. Hemans has imagined,
nature's strongholds.
exclaiming
"Thou
hast placed our ark of refuge
"\^^êê
the spoiler's foot ne'er trod
For the strength
of our hills
Oiu- God, our fathers'
God
we
bless Thee,
"
I
For above ten centuries the attack and defence continued.
Rome
gave no
heretics
not
Her
quarter.
to convert them.
her command, the attempt
desire
With
was
all
extirpate
to
the forces of
these
Europe
at
The Waldenses were a Church
failed.
Avhen Charlemagne sat on the throne of the West, and they were a
Church when Napoleon surpassed the conquests of Charlemagne.
They beheld the kindred heresy
of the Albigenses arise,
menace
the supremacy of the Papacy, and become extinguished in the seas
by De Montfort and Dominic.
of blood shed
for existence
Piome
when
when
sepulchre
battling
Wickliffe thundered against the corruptions of
bones were torn with ignominy from their
his
when
They were
his disciples
were hunted with
fire
and sword.
Whilst Savonarola was raising his voice against Papal abuses, the
Papacy was hounding on France and Savoy

valleys
where the Vaudois had
crying for
all
who
so long dwelt.
truly worshipped Christ to
to
Then came the Huguenot wars

straggles in
Germany.
The
among
the
Whilst Luther was
come out from the
Pioman Babylon, and range themselves by his

persecution was doing his worst
lay waste
side, the devil
of
the Piedmontese Alps.
of France, and the fierce religious
attention of
Rome was
directed to a
128
greater schism, and an immensely more imminent clanger.
space the Waldenses
tilled their fields
and celebrated
Church blew over.
of the Catholic
Protestantism, after progi'ess-
was driven back almost
ing to the shores of the Mediterranean,
The Papacy could turn
the Baltic.
community which had been

mountains of Northern
its
a thorn in
length the
spears
of
news
its
in the devilish
women
The
ages.
for
The
Catholic princes not
work looked approvingly
of maidens dishonoured
ripped up, or hurled
in defence of then-
side
In those Eden-like recesses scenes
Italy.
of the wildest horror were perpetrated.
engaged
down
homes witnessing with
whole families burned
rocks
of
men
voice of the
was given
that
The
her
stop
destinies of
Sullenly
cease.
As
the
mandate
sullenly
was
lilie
a wolf
overawed by the interference of
lordly animal, remained watching the
no long time the opportunity was granted.
English Protector
coward
France and
Duke
his wise
Rome
of Savoy.
it
Savoy retired from the valleys which ho
ruler of
moment when
he might with impunity rush once more on the coveted prey.
the
and
Europe was not one against
ears.
should
persecution
had devastated, and,
some more
soldier of
first
Rome might
obeyed.
controlled the
of
Cromwell stood forth as the champion of the Vaudois.
England.
which
who then
slain
their last glance their
their burning dwellings, reached
roused the heroic usurper
At
on.
of children tossed on
wives and daughters exposed to horrors worse than death
The
to
attention again to the little
once more raged furiously amongst the
of persecution
actively
:i
But the storm "which had menaced the very existence
in peace.
flames
For
worship
their
In
Death struck down
passed to a debauchee and
his throne
and magnanimous policy was abandoned.
hastened to give the signal to their
An army was
nesses of Northern Piedmont.
tool, the
once more marched into the
The
last
fast-
and most merciless of the
Waldensean persecutions commenced.

Nothi..g in
modern
historv, unless
it
be the triumphs
years later by the Protestants of the Cevennes,
marvels which the Yaudois
wars we
now
accomplished.
have but scanty accounts.
won
a few
can equal the
Of
their former
Judging by the disproportion
THE SriRITUALIS^r OF THE WALDENSES.

between
their strength
ami
tliat
129
of their enemies, even the first of
these crusades should have ended in the extirpation of the Wal-
Yet century
denses.
still
in
We
resisting.
of that great struggle
histories
which they were occupied duriug a portion of Louis XIV.'s
reign,
and can no longer wonder that the
community was enabled

some
those narratives,
by
and beheld them
after century passed by,
turn to the
their persecutors,
defend
to
are given
some by
Of
long and so well.
by the Vaudois themselves, some

In almost every page
their friends.
We
-occur traces of spiritual aid.
itself so
Picdmonteso
little
read
how
seventeen of the per-
secuted encountered and defeated a force of near nine hundred
men.
We
how
read
the
little
hamlet of Rora, containing but
fifty
houses, was held for a while against ten thousand regular troops,
and how, when
smoking ruins were no longer tenable, the
its
gallant handful of defenders
made good
their retreat.
It is told
ns that when their implacable enemies had closed with heaps of
brushwood the mouths of the caverns wherein certain Vaudois had

taken refuge, and had endeavoured by lighting the piles to suflbcate
them
them
or burn
alive, the
imprisoned mountaineers, bursting
suddenly through the fiery barrier, chased before them

their
number
of French and Savoyards,
who
that the heretics were aided by the powers of hell.
which
in the darkest night
for victory
which they triumphed over death,
times
fled,
precipices
the hard-
the miraculous
which they were sometimes supplied with food

which they thanked God
they
The
they traversed without hurt
ships they endured Avithout succumbing
fifty
cried, as
way
in
the fervour with
the serene enthusiasm with
all
are there.
" I have wit-
nessed," said Ai'naud, their pastor and leader, "prodigies beyond

the course of nature, or the natural strength of man."
In April, 1G8G, came the
crisis.
As Savoy was unequal
to the
conquest single-handed, the vast resources of France were joined

to hers.
The
allies,
having united their forces, made a
on the doomed race.
Waldenses
laid
down
final
swoop
After two days of desperate fighting the

their arms.
into various prisons; of
whom
Fourteen thousand were cast
eleven thousand perished.
extremes of cold, heat, hunger and
thirst,
were the
ills
The
which slew
!30
these unhappy captives.
Such unconquerable
had
spirits as
dis-
dained submission betook themselves to Switzerland or the Protestant States of
Among
Germany.
these last
was
a chosen troop of between eight and nino
hundred men, headed by the great Waldensean pastor, Henri

Arnaud.
their
to
Three years
Piedmont
later this
to attempt a return
They crossed Lake Leman on the
valleys.
night of August 16th, 1G89.

in
band resolved
It w\as the
commencement
march
of a
some respects more marvellous than that of Xenophon.

band of brothers succeeded
little
France, Savoy, and the Catholic cantons of Switzerland.
days eighteen battles were fought. The
men
allies lost several
the Waldensean killed amounted to seventy.
of Sababertran, they forced a passage against
hundred well-entrenched troops.

slain.
The enemy's
loss
was
In ten
thousand
At the bridge
two thousand
five
Of the Vaudois, fourteen were
at least six
"
hundred.
Who
is
so
Arnaud, "as not to see that God alone could give
dull," cries
victory to
mere parcel of men, without money, and almost
without arms, against the King of France, before
trembled
The
in baffling the united forces of
? "
whom
all
Europe
For the heroic achievers of these marvels were a few
hundreds of fainting wretches, clothed

sleeping usually on the earth.
roots and herbs.
in scarcely decent rags,
and
Their drink was water, their food
Against them were arrayed over twenty thousand
of the finest troops of France
and Northern
Italy
abundantly
provided with arms, ammunition, and provisions, and accompanied
by mules burdened with ropes
No
for the
hangmg
balance could have been more unequal
Heaven was
cast into the lighter scale,
weighing of the other.

soldiers
peasants.
of
Europe
The
halters
fled before
With
but the sword of
men might have
tears of joy
Waldenses entered the familiar
sufficed for the out-
remained unused.
were dislodged by a few.
Alps were reached.
it
The best
a handful of ill-armed starving
In passes where a few
at bay, thousands
and
of captured Vaudois.
valleys.
held thousands
At length the Italian
and exulting hymns the

Their brethren
who had
been spared in the persecution eagerly welcomed them.

expected, however, that the endeavours to crush the
little
It
was
congre-
THE SPIRITUALISM OF THE U'ALDENSES.

gation \vonlcl speedily recommence.
gi'oundlcss.
Amadeus
Fortunately the fear proved
Discord arose between France and Savoy, and Duko
allied
"William III. he
himself with
At the request of
English.
the
grudgingly conceded to his AValdonscan subjects
certain rights over their lives

enlisted
131
by thousands under
and properties. The grateful Vaudois

his banner,
The war ended
against the French.
and did excellent service
in the discomfiture of Louis.
Immediately the Duke hastened to oppress his Protestant subjects

once more.
Three thousand persons not born in the valleys
wTrc banished.
The remaining Vaudois endured the weight
numerous oppressive
past.
of
But the worst of the persecution was
Catholic princes dared no longer gratify their appetite for
murder of women and
intolerance with the

sale
edicts.
occasionally venture on the burning of a
but laymen were not
now robbed
their rights over their property
children, or the whole-
The Duke
massacre of defenceless men.
of
of their lives.
came
Savoy might
still
Waldensean pastor or two,
By
slow degrees
also to be recognised.
The
persecution which exterminates had ceased, and the persecution
which
irritates also in process of
time drew to an end.
not, however, until late in the present century that the
of
Piedmont
finally
ceased from vexing that
whose behalf such great things were done

In the extreme South of France
Cevennes.
lies
little
It
was
government
Alpine Israel in
of old.
the beautiful region of the
Mountains green with vines, delightful valleys, a

.
cloudless sky, and a delicious climate, combine to create one of
the most charming of
European
From
paradises.
the summits of
the higher peaks the magnificent expanse of the Mediterranean

visible.
Roads are few, and often of the rudest character.
is
The
dwellers in this primitive region mostly hold the Protestant faith.
The
villages arc old
and picturesque.
Sometimes, in the remoter
recesses of the mountains, a congregation assembled in a sohtaiy
nook surprises the eye of the
traveller.
The pastor stands on a
fragment of rock under the shadow of some ancient

little
flock gathered
round him
or join in the simple
tree.
The
listen reverently to his eloquence,
and monotonous ps^dmody of the
Minister and hearers belong to some
villaf^c
district.
nich at hand that
is
132
destitute of a church.
It
was destroyed probably during the war
of the Cevennes.
Nothing
in the annals of
Franco can interest a
than the events of that wonderful struggle.

spiritual intervention are
still
more complete than those
the persecution of the Vaudois.
whom
There were clairvoyants
enemy were
secrets of the
afforded
There were men among the
Camisard army of three thousand

bullets pierce.
whom
the most hidden
and ambushes were detected, the route and numbers
royal
army
seemed transfigured.
and a bravery
In battle the
They were endowed with
far surpassing those of their
numbered a hundred
to
seers
of the
leaders spoke in their
its
tents carried to the leaders of the Protestant host.

patriots
little
Through these
spies
words which
of
by
would not burn nor
fire
to
as an open book.
revealed, and the
more
spiritualist
The evidences
a strength
Out-
calmer hours.
one, they disdained the defensive and
Yet a more incongruous rabble
pressed eagerly on to the attack.
than the Cevennois heroes never moved the laughter of regular
Boys
troops.
men
of twelve fought in their ranks side
prime of
in the
The Samson
life.
side
of the Camisards
There was but one leader who had previously

Yet
seen anything of w\ar.
in the counsels of these strange gene-
rahssimos nothing but harmony and wisdom prevailed.

their spiritually directed
was turned
Amongst
existed.
movements the
craft of the oldest
Before
marshals
to foolishness.
the peasants
vine-dresser
who adored and
followed Piowland the
and Cavallier the baker, the strangest
diversities
At the beginning of the war the majority were
of everything.
was an
His associates in authority were bakers and
vine-dresser.
carders of wool.
of France
with
The commander-in-chief
under-sized slender youth of seventeen.
was a
by
few had guns
armed with swords or scythes.
in
want
of the remainder most were
The others contented themselves
with such weapons as David employed in doing battle with Goliath.

Like David too they endowed themselves with the arms of the
enemy and
more
clothed themselves in his spoil.
soldierly
the
appearance
of
the
Every new
Camisards.
replaced by coats, and staves by muskets.
The
field
made
Bags were
chiefs
adorned
THE SPIRITUALISM OF THE IVALDENSES.

thomsclvos with the broud ami featborcd bats ami
forms of
ruby and diamond.
rings of
Villars
prowess on former
Tbcy charged
and
the ranks of Montrevcl
Gaps were
fields of fight.
The
in the Protestant ranks.
oxbibited
scarlet uni-
tlie
glittered with gold cbains
mounted ou magniliccnt chargers, the mementoes
and
tbcir
made
They
sbxiu king's ofliccrs.
133
recruits
who
to
of
some degree
these gaps
filled
the squalor which had characterized their brethren at
all
the
commencement
the
little
Thus the motley appearance of
of the war.
army was never wholly
cllaccd.
Beside
men
splendid
with uniforms torn from the dead captains of Louis the Great
fought hungry peasants clad in
who mowed
at
little
more than
the legs of the horses with
formerly served to reap their
fields.
(juestionably less formidable
when
And
their
a tattered blouse,
weapons that had
the Camisards were un-
means of defence became
apparently increased, than when, naked, half-armed, and starving,
they charged desperately upon the
were achieved by
less
little
The power
men.
of another world
whom a single company of
went with them, and those
dragoons might have seemed
scatter, defied successfully the
Madame Maintenon
and Protestant France owed

half a million of citizens,
The
heretics
faith.
to
to her the expatriation or slaughter of
and the
letting loose of tens of
on a peaceful and inoffensive race.
Languedoc
are to look
that coveted increase of power,
thousands
The government
chiefly directed its crusading efforts to the Cevenncs.
of
we
The Catholic priesthood owed
for the cause of the rebellion.
the influence of
sufiicient to
whole might of France.
revocation of the Edict of Nantes that
It is to the
of soldiers
Their mightiest victories
foe.
bands of undisciplined and almost weapon-
That portion
oftered an enticing field for attempts at conversion.
were numerous, and enthusiastically attached
to their
Accordingly Louis dispatched to them missionaries in the
shape of regiment after regiment of his best troops.

apostles
showed themselves as benevolently zealous
ing as their master could have desired.
These armed
in proselytiz-
They quartered them-
selves perforce on the objects of their solicitude.
They commenced
industriously to furnish materials for that page of history infamous

as the " Dragonnades of the
Cevcnnes."
The Inquisition
it
se
134
have taken lessons from them
miglit
Some
in the art of cruelt}'.
of their catechumens they rolled naked over floors covered with
broken
Some they anointed with
glass.
oil,
and held before
fierce
the vain hope of thus indoctrinating
half-roasted, in
fires
until
them
in the mysteries of the Eucharist.
They impressed on women
the necessity of attending mass by tearing the dresses from their

backs, and flogging
Men who were
until their shoulders streamed with blood.
them
mutinous they shot.
Maidens who were good-
looking they dishonoured.
The prisons overflowed with

died by thousands
into
which the sun never penetrated, choked with
with snakes and toads
destroying
life,
want of
light,
down with
residue were
toiled for life
work
A happy
to reach
ofi"
at
few
America, or
condemned
oar
at the
to the galleys
or
some were
let
ropes into the filthy pits which were to be their places
of captivity
some pined
nor stand upright.
them
The
Some
alive
The gibbet and the wheel
find a grave in the depths of the ocean.
imprisonment.
and
were constantly
room could not be found.
suflicient
were placed under hatches, and shipped
disposed of others.
filth
although malaria, insuflicient and impure
food, cold, dampness, and
to
Although the captives
victims.
although their dungeons were hideous depths
for food.
their skin peeled
in cells
where they could neither lie down
Carrion and the garbage of cattle were flung
Their bodies swelled to an incredible extent

ofi";
such as were liberated issued
like living
corpses from the hideous dens in which they had been caged.
The
features of
hair or teeth
men.
It
many were
unrecognisable
others again had
others had lost their
become imbeciles or raving mad-
seemed that even a few weeks' confinement
these Infernos was enough to take from the
in one of
immured wretch
all
semblance of humanity.
Yet the
Cevennois
remained
unconquerable,
and
patiently
endured whatever the mgenious malice of their tormentors could

inflict.
wheel
Imprisonment, torture,
all
were
in turn tried,
pillage, the rack, the gallows, the
and
all
proved
the noble obstinacy of the oppressed race.
Louis reported the failure of their
efibrts.
It
insufficient to
tame
The missionaries of
was owing
to
no lack
THE SPIRITUALISM OF THE WALDENSES.

of zeal that such a failure had to bo confessed.
stroyed villages by the score, and taken lives
allbouj^h so
many
be shown.
It
autbdrisod.
heretics
They had
by the thousand.
de-
Yet,
had perished, scarcely a convert could
was necessary
The
135
decisive measures should be
that
true course for a Catholic king evidently was, to
had treated the inhabitants
treat his Protestant subjects as Israel
of Jericho and Ai
exterminate the heretics, and
their places
could be supplied by a colony of the faithful.
Extermination was resolved upon.
Marshal Montrcvel and the
Intendant Lamoignon de Baville received orders
doomed
territory into sections,
of soldiers,
who
and
to
The
work began, and
diabolical
length rose in rebellion.
field,
embrace
to
the Cevennois at
brigade of between two and three
thousand men was organized, and

rience,
the
to distribute to each its troop
should rase every house, lay Mâste every
and slay every man, woman, and child who refused

Catholicism.
divide
this little
army, without expe-
and almost without weapons, ventured
to
take the field
against a host of sixty thousand veteran troops, trained La the
most approved
discipline of the time,
and seasoned by more than
one war.
For ten years the struggle went on
wrought by the Cevennois continiied
for ten years the deeds
to astonish
Europe.
Every
oppressed had cried to heaven, and the cry was heard.
day some new
spu-itual manifestation
Many became mediums, and

cations from another world.
occurred amongst them.
thus served as channels for communi-
They spoke,
whilst in the trance, not
the ordinary patois of the district, but the purest French.

revealed the plans of the
approaching
battles,
enemy
they warned their brethren of
forth in triumph to their
martyrdom,
assured that death would bring to them a glorious reward.
Camisards who issued from the

their preservation to
shirts
who
They
and named those of the Camisards who would
Such invariably went
fall.
The
miracle.
conflict
Bullets were found within
which had flattened against the
The
unhurt frequently owed
skin.
The swords
theii'
of those
struck at them flew from their bodies as from a coat of mail.
And, whilst the weapons of the persecutors thus
failed to bold, the
136
sword of every Camisard carved tlirough the royal ranks

In battle the inspired
of a destroying angel.
The veteran
fatigue.
soldier of
heat and burden of the conflict
on steadily
to the end.
angelic host,
exceeded
in
of
beneath the
but his peasant adversary fought
were
hand
at
to strengthen the
and saw that the space around was
who imparted
The
not of earth.
faint
arm
Often, in the fiercest of the fight, the Camisard
of every patriot.
seers looked up,
Spirits
France might
like that
knew nothing
with an
have said, never at any one time
patriots, as I
number
filled
to the onset of the oppressed a strength
They slew
three thousand men.
in the ten
years that the war lasted, one-third of the royal army.
Laporte was the brain of the Camisards, and Cavallier their
The former was a man
arm.
right
of forty,
endowed by nature
with a considerable share of intelligence, which constant intercourse with spirits brightened gradually into astonishing wisdom.
Through
each
his exertions all
man had
troops
of
whom
he was
prophesied in their midst.

in
was orderly
exhorted continually the
commander-in-chief;
he prayed and
He caused magazines
to be constructed
the caverns of the rocks and in the depths of
Here abundant
and wine
all
taken from the enemy
lasted
long,
were
was speedily apparent.
every Cevennois
the forests..
and clothing, of
stores of provisions
of the precaution
laid up.
cattle,
of Laporte, the
Before the war had
town and
Nor was
starved.
the spiritually
it
insurgents
corn
The wisdom
village
was
in
Save for the store-houses, whose existence was owing
wisdom
and
in the Protestant ranks,
He
his fitting place.
ashes.
to
the
must have surrendered or
only in the matter of provisions that, through
directed
genius
extraordinary man, the
of this
persecutors were, against their will, compelled to be of service to

the persecuted.
The
patriots, like
the Christ
shipped, had not where to lay their heads.

for abodes the castles
had been constructed
and chateaux of
for the
wounded
ances and medicines were wanting.

furnish
all.
means of
whom
their enemies.
the patriots
Retreats
but beds, surgical appli-
He
forced the Catholics to-
At times the royal generals sought
negotiation,
they wor-
Laporte gave them
whom
to entrap,
by
they could not crush,.
THE SPIRITUALISM OF THE U'ALDENSES.

r>ut
oppose to the commanding sagacity of Laporto Ibo craft
to
was seeking
of diplomacy,
Tbe
cob-\veb.
through
first
entangle an eagle by means of a
-to
thickest
weaker head, but a yet stronger heart.
sword was the
brandished
his
"Where
Camisards.
boy
enemy
the chosen troops of the
itself a terrible
clustered
At the right hand of the young
path.
man
hero rode his friend llavcnel, a

a
In
principal^ standard of the
round their banners, there that sword was ever seen
carving for
left
broke
strength
exertion of bis
disdainful
all.
Cavallier bad a
battle
137
of gigantic stature
at his
Behind
younger than himself, his brother Daniel.
still
came the cavalry of the Camisards, almost every man mounted on

had formerly been backed by some
a horse that
king.
Cavallier himself rode a noble charger,
in battle
from
its
successful single
royalist master, Colonel
La
exploits.
doomed
to death,
The
royalists
Whatever opponent he
selected
was
as certainly
he and his followers charged,
were scattered
This
Jonquiere.
combat was but one of many similar
as though the sword were already in his throat.
whom
soldier of the
which he had torn
as with the
if
not above three to one,
shock of a thunderbolt.
As a cavalry
leader Cavallier seems to have excelled both Paipcrt and Murat.
Their exploits were achieved against foes seldom more numerous,

often
less disciplined,
squadrons.
The
and never better armed than
force that the
Camisard hero
led
own
mob of
their
was
undisciplined peasants, unskilled in the science of war, and unac-
quainted with the use of the weapons they wielded.
To remount
themselves, or equip recruits, they had only the horses which they
captured from the enemy.

these
It
was
raw countrymen, when each
two of the best
a fortunate
patriot
soldiers of the age.
circumstance for
had opposed
Such
wâs
to
him only
the force which,
under the command of Cavallier, achieved exploits more astounding than those attributed to any fabulous hero of old romance.
Out-numbered, sometimes seven to one, they yet remained masters

of the field of battle.
tured fastnesses which
Dismounted, they, without
artillery, cap-
might have withstood a regular
For ten years they continued
siege.
to prove themselves superior to the
f38
fiercest cflorts of the
whole chivalry of Catholic Franco.
not until disunion rose amongst them,
they despised the counsel of their spiritual guides,

corruption supplanted piety and abstemiousness,
proudly styled themselves dukes and counts,

outwitted, and
Eowland Laporte
was
It
up with success
puflfed
till
till
till
luxury and
their leaders
was
Cavallier
till
suffered himself to be betrayed,
that their glory departed.
And
the hero under
triumphs
adored,
was not
were wanting,
in
in
their
most
every foe dreaded, and every friend
one in whom,
this Cavallier
skill
way
marvellous
whose guidance they achieved
he whom
terrible
arms might
which he fought
some degree explain the
to
?
strength of body
if
The only
candid inquirer into his history can return,
is,
verdict
which a
was
that never
warrior so apparently incapable of the marvels attributed to him.
He was
but nineteen
when
and the son of a peasant, he had received not the

tion
A peasant,
his career of glory ended.
slightest educa-
he knew nothing of the management of any Aveapon
stature
was low,
almost child-like.
his
his
frame slender, his countenance simple and
Save during his career
in
the Cevennes, he
accomplished no exploit which, in the slightest degree, deserves

to be termed striking.
cated, and
still
Clive, with
And how came
it
then that, whilst unedu-
a boy, he led armies to battle with
more than the valour of Murat
all
the
skill
of
answer, as he
himself would have answered, and as every unprejudiced student
war must answer, because he was veritably a

" heaven-born general," an instrument controlled by spirits and
of the Camisard
chosen of God.
While he listened
was
"When he came
invincible.
to the voices of his guides
to rely
he
on his own strength he
fell.
In
common with many
of his followers Cavallier
Once, at a place between Nair and
La Cour de
was clairvoyant.
Creviez, he started
as from a dream, and cried that he had seen Marshal Montrcvel at

Allez,
who gave
to a messenger, to carry to
Nismes,
taining important plans against the Camisards.
He
letters
con-
described the
dress and features of the courier, the colour of his horse, and the
numbers
and
appearance
of
the
escort
which attended
him.

"Ride
"and you
speed," said ho,
full
]\'ALDENSES.
139
cncouuler Ibem
\vill
at the
At onco a numhci' of Camisards sprauy
ford of the Gardou."
the saddle, aud the messenger
was captured
to
at the place indicated.
His appeai'auce aud surroundings were as Cavallier had seen them

in his vision.
The
letters
found upon him contained a complete
These the Cevennois could now
exposition of Montrcvers plans.
take steps to bafilc.
most wondrous manifestation recorded of the Camisards
]]ut the
is
the
well-attested
resisting the
undergone
power which some among them possessed
action of
by a medium named Clary,
at Serignan,
many
of Colonel Cavallier aud
1703.
"Whilst entranced, he
spectators,
in the pi'csence
some time
was commanded by
place himself in the midst of a large
fire.
Ai'ound rose a natural amphitheatre of low
guides to
his
spot
August,
in
was
selected.
where the crowds
hills,
assembled could arrange themselves to behold the event.
A large
dry branches having been collected, Clary placed himself
pile of
upon
of
an instance the ordeal
I select as
fire.
The pyre was kindled
it.
the flames speedily shot up
above the head of the apparent martyr, and he stood enwrapped

with
In this position he remained until
fire.
When
consumed.
unhurt.
All
the
wood was
rushed to congratulate him on the wonderful
cation of his faith.
"I was
writes an eye-witness;
Having
one of the
to
first
justifi-
embrace him,"
"his white blouse was not in the
injured by the action of the
not singed."
all
the last flicker had died away, he walked forth
fire.
satisfied
examined
his hair,
and
it
least
was
themselves that Clary was wholly
unscathed, the Camisards around burst forth into a Huguenot

version of the hundred and fourth Psalm
men
" Beni.s le Seigneur,
Seigneur
Siu"
Tu
niaitre des dieux, roL de reteniitL',
ton trone eclatant, ceint d'un manteau de flammo,

regnes, couronne de gloire et de beaute
In 1704-5, came the
some years
rime
fall
of the
Camisards.
"
!
Marshal
Yillars,
later the antagonist of
Marlborough, was dispatched to
cope with Laporte and Cavallier.
After the defeat of Blenheim
I40
the presence of the troops hitherto employed against the Cevennois
had become imperatively necessary outside France.
new
favoured the arts of the
royalist
Cavallier to appoint a meeting at Nismes, and
the safetj^ of the young hero.
The marshal exerted
dangers menacing France,
it
was time that
form of them a regiment
Who was
so
this fratricidal
fit
for service against the
commander
to be the
English.
of this battalion as the
hero Cavallier, whose sword had a hundred times led the

to victory,
whose name was famous from Lisbon
Cavallier listened
more
He demanded
and wavered.
certain guarantees.
to
other privileges
He had
in
suffi-
majesty's goodness was infinite.
expressed himself willing that the Cevennois should pray
own
their
churches.
when
responded that, by a gentleman
Villars
Besides, his
way
Vienna
and loyal subject the word of a king was always accounted

cient guarantee.
war
to offer liberty of
His majesty desired, more-
conscience to the brave Cevennois.

over, to
ofi\
In presence of the
The king had empowered him
should cease.
induced
gave hostages for
The conference duly came
utmost subtlety.
his
Fortune
He
commander.
fashion,
but not that they should rebuild
their
doubt, however, but
that,
Could Colonel
Cavallier
Louis the Great found his brave Protestant subjects ready to
march against Marlborough and Eugene, he would accord them

whatsoever privileges they desired
Laporte and the spirit-guides of Cavallier were alike absent.
The weak youth
He
jdelded.
signed the contract binding the
Camisards to lay down arms, and departed to summon

fields of
glory the heroic few
deliverer sent of
of the
God.
He announced
treaty.
so long followed
him as a
roar of execration greeted his statement
henceforth to be granted.
"What
who had
to other
that
liberty of
conscience
was
At once Laporte started forward.
liberty?" cried the indignant chief.
"No!
unless the
Camisards have liberty to worship God, not in deserts and caverns

only, but in their oAvn churches, with
of citizens, they will live
The
rage
of
the
and
die with
Camisards
all
the rights and guarantees
arms
grew
in their
frantic.
"Betrayer!" shouted the thousands whom,
until
hands."
" Traitor
"
!
now, the voice
OF THE WALDENSES.
rilE SPIRITUALISM
of Cavallior had stirred like a trumpet,
who had
again and again
Ho
followed him cheerfully to apparently certain death.
strove to
Then
Fresh clamours instantly drowned his voice.
explain.
llowland again made himself heard.
" Though
with our deluded hrother," said he, "
let
Silently,
and for the
last time,
to follow
agree
us not part in anger."
The
They thought
days
was
Cavallier
wo cannot
he emhraced his fellow-chief.
Camisards melted.
the
of
hearts
when
141
of tho
rush on to victory
to
when
his
sword had heeu as tho sword of Azrael, and the charges that ho
led
had scattered armies.
crowded round
With sobs and
moment: " Let
unfortunate Cavallier seized the

follow
me
tears the little host
to bid adieu for ever to its beloved leader.
" he cried.
all
who
Tho
love me*
Forty came forth from the ranks, the rest
The
remained with Rowland.
was with
pity of the Camisards
their former hero, but no longer their obedience.
camp
Cavallier and his melancholy troop sought the
They were
instantly sent
Louis destined them
On
Brisac.
the
way
of Villars.
Thence
under guard to Versailles.
a life-long captivity in the fortress of
to
thither they escaped,
and crossed the
frontier
in safety.
A few
Laporte,
words
will relate the
subsequent history of the Camisards.
having become proud, despised the warnings of the
spirits,
and did what was agreeable
himself
Duke
his,
won by
them went
of the Cevennes,
his sword.
victory.
in his
own
His guardian angels
Lured
sight.
He
styled
and boasted that the country was
into an
tunate hero died, fighting to the
left
him, and with
ambush by
a traitor, the unfor-
Two
subordinate chiefs,
last.
Ravenel and Catenat, were burnt alive at Nismes, almost within sight
of the battle-field where, two years before, the Camisard patriots
had triumphed over the royal forces commanded by the Comte de

Broglie.
Cavallier
had gone
Huguenot refugees
war
to Holland.
There he collected a regiment of
for service against the
over, he betook himself to England,
of the island of Jersey.
It is
never returned to the Cevennes.
French
and died
in Spain.
in 1740,
Tho
governor
scarcely necessary to add that ho
142
With Laporte and Cavallier departed
The army
Cevennes.
split itself into
were overpowered and slaughtered

quitted the country,
in
Some Camisards
detail.
some were made prisoners and hanged, burnt,
or broken slowly on the wheel.
martyrdom
the independence of the
numerous petty bands, which
For nearly a century the renewed
of the mountaineers continued.
At length the humanity of

ance of the Church.
their efforts,
and
irreligion
triumphed over the
intoler-
Voltaire, Rousseau, and Diderot arose
the efforts of theu' followers,
cessation of the long agony of the
was owing
Camisards.
to
the final
Men who
dis-
believed in Christ procured for their Protestant fellow-countrymen

the right of worshipping Christ in peace.
CHAPTER
VI.
PKOTESTANT SPIEITUALISJI.
If there were heroes before Agamemnon, there were also reformers
before Luther.
Waldenses
I have instanced the
oklcst separatists from
sent has abounded.
came out from her
Eome
but in
all
The ManichaDans,
Pelagians, and Montanists
In the twelfth century the
in early times.
heresy of the Albigenses shook the Papacy to
was only extirpated by means

called
to
her aid.
little
later
Gerhard
at a
Segarelli,
slow
fire in
whose
His creed seems
the year 1300.
It
to
was burnt
have greatly
The doctrines
were derived from corruptions of
the Scriptures worse than any indulged in by
accepted the assertion of St. Paul, that those
Eome herself. They

who are in Christ are
license for all imaginable crime
After spreading through most of the kingdoms of
and committing everywhere
the wildest
sinning,
was convulsed gave
unsparing
license
fiercely-
occurred the unique pestilence of 1318

earth.
an
Whilst the Beghards were
and the Catholic Church was as
which ever devastated
orgies,
and
Germany
To uncontrolled
persecution finally exterminated them.
succeeded maniacal penances.
Italy.
was founded on the gospel
and was well worthy of commendation.
no longer under the law, as a
was
locale of the first
teachings led to this schism,
of the Beghards, on the contrary,
vice.
foundations, and
arose the minor sects of the
The
resembled that of the Waldenses.

in its purity,
its
Norman swords which Eomo
of the
Apostolikers and the Beghards.
among the
as
ages of that Church dis-
fiercely persecuting
;
the most
them,
awful sickness
The great agony by which Europe
birth to the sect of the Flagellants.
They
proclaimed that the Almighty was wroth with the wickedness of
144
man, and that the Black Death was the awful token
Only unceasing
pleasure.
Him
the mortifications of an anchorite, could induce
hand
They
of the destroyer.
the}' passed
from
The
all
powers against the new
its
leaders were seized and hurnt, their followers were
dispersed hy main force.
Again, however, they re-assembled, and
penetrated even into Spain and Italy, despite

Inquisition.
''
Dies
found in their ranks.
mania ended.
It
ii-ae,"
was not
It
They outdid
in
wildness even
Half-naked, and crowned with
madly through the
gi-eat cities of
They considered themselves
and the Netherlands.
the Church reviled
1481 that the Flagellant
until
of the Flagellants.
garlands, they danced
Although
they created everywhere au
had lasted one hundred and thirty-two years.
In 1374 appeared the Dancers.
angels
the seventy of the
Princes, and even prelates, were to be
extraordinary excitement.
actions
all
Scourging themselves until the blood streamed down,
and chanting wildly the
the
with cords twisted
under the severity of the discipline.
expired
At length the Vatican directed

mania.
to arrest the
stripped themselves to the waist,
city to city lashing themselves
Many
with wire.
of his dis-
and mortifications exceeding
praj-er,
them
Germany
by
inspired
as under the influence of demons.
infinite licentiousness resulted
from their own
orgies, the
Dancers professed extreme disgust for the corruptions of the

Papacy.
They
new Church
cried loudly for a
monasteries and sIcav priests.

the aid of the secular
they plundered
Exorcism having been
tried in vain,
With much slaughter
power was invoked.
the heretical mania wâs, about the year 1418, finally put
Among
Lollards.
to Calvin
down.
the noblest
precursors of the Reformation were the
Their leader,
Wickliflfe,
and Knox, and
with Luther or Zwinglius.
was assuredly
will scarcely sufi"er
infinitely superior
even by comparison
The imperfect accounts
of his career
remaining to us do not permit of any very confident statements

regarding his possession of spiritual
a prophet sent of
certain.
God
to
gifts.
That he deemed himself
rebuke the corruptions of the Church
That he raised against himself a storm yet more
than that which sent Savonarola to the stake,
he was throughout
life
is
also clear.
is
terrible
"Whether
supported in his task by communion with
PROTESTAXT
It m:iy,
spirits is unknoAvii.
able
SPJRITUALL'IM.
145
liowovcr, be asserted with consider-
confidence that sulUeient evidence remains to indicate bis
having been on more than one occasion dchvercd from imminent
danger by power not of earth.
The
Like a
of Protestantism
undoubtedly Luther.
is
unshakably on some mighty rock, the
lighthouse fixed
Saxon towers up from the troubled sea of the sixteenth
giant
Against that solid form the hurricane of religious fury
century.
struck in vain
stoutly forth
his keeping.
to
figure
central
solitary,
but unconciucrable, he continued to hold
amid the tempest the
light that
had been given
Sometimes
be found.
it
streamed brightly forth, lighting up
Some-
with a radiance as of noonday the tossing waters around.

times
seemed ready
it
caiised
it
Prejudices
to expire.
and
to flicker unsteadily to
clear as a diamond,
later
into
In himself the only potent enemy of that light was
fro
dimmed
it
passions
the lamp, at one time
and fed with the purest
oil,
would a
little
appear untrimmed, almost empty, and choked with murky
vapours.
But, in darkness or in day, Luther could not bo other
than great.
The
lighthouse, rising like a pillar of
midst of the raging waves,
is
fire
from the
an object at once noble and useful.
The same lighthouse left with but a feeble spark to indicate

whence that blaze once issued which had directed the course of so
many
ships,
stately.
is
an object no longer serviceable, indeed, but
What was
a pillar
of flame has become a
The glory has departed, but the
still
pillar of cloud.
possibility of that glory is yet
there.
Perhaps the justest comparison of Luther's character would be

to a statue, magnificent indeed, but iinfinished.
the features which
makes us
chisel
regret the
the master's
hand has
more the crudity
The
nobility of
carefully elaborated
of those parts on which the
seems scarcely to have been employed.
We
see magnifi-
cence and deformity side by side.
The Luther
Socrates,
familiar
at
one moment exalted almost to the level
appears at another
of the Inquisition.
of
sunk to au equality with some

It
is
as
though the statue
have
compared him to should contain some strokes more than worthy

L
146
which would disgrace the
of Phidias, and others

that ever hacked
declared
it
Can we recognise the Eeformer who
marble.
Holy Ghost
to be against the will of the
who beheved
in the bigot
bad sealed with his blood
was damned
his attachment to the Protestant faith,
for all eternity, simply because
he differed in a single
do nothing against conscience
could
burn heretic,
to
ZwiugUus, although he
that the hero
Was
point from the Wittenberg idea of Scripture ?
who "
huuglcr
vilest
"
the Luther
Luther who,
the
because Erasmus claimed for himself that same liberty of conscience,
" Erasmus of Rotterdam
furiously,
cried
miscreant that ever disgraced the earth
believed that he
was
is
the vilest
Whenever
I pray, I
" ?
pray for a curse upon Erasmus
He
in
justified
rejecting the Epistle of
In such rejection there was nothing blamable.
James.
gentle teachings of
James accorded
ill
The
with the austerity of the
Lutheran scheme of salvation, and the great Reformer rejected

them. " I hold," said he, " that this epistle is of none authority."
As ho
with
dealt
He
writers.
altogether
James,
admitted that
"
infallible.
he
so
good
These
with
other
and
teachers
true
searchers,'' says he, in speaking of the prophets, "
upon hay and
He
stones."
straw,
took,
own
hastily slurred
over.
it
fell
from
the
precious
whatever
Scriptures
and denounced the rest as
belief,
The
Christ he worshipped
Christ of the four Gospels, but the Christ of Paul.
he claimed for himself he denied to others.
him ho welcomed with hearty
geniality.
All
and
sometimes
sometimes on pure gold and
therefore,
accorded with his
scriptural
absurd to regard the Bible as
is
it
dealt
error, or
was not the
Yet the liberty
who agreed with

he
His opponents
cursed and damned with the fury of Athanasius or Doctor Slop.
He
declared
He
dead.
literally
as his
it
blasphemy
declared
to assert that faith without
that those
the wine
as
not receive the bread
blood,
deny Him, and bring
his
upon themselves the doom, "Depart, ye cursed,

lire."
is
who
who do
present in the Eucharist,
body and
works
do not believe Christ to be
into everlasting
'He was unwilling that heretics should be burnt.
however, no objection to their being banished.
He
He
saw,
defiounced
PROTESTANT SPIRITUALISM.
the polioy of the Chnrcli of
He
private judgment.
would spccuhxte
works with
he reviled every
spirit that visited
when not misled by
their devihsh
"who
whys and
evil,
made perfect;"
He was
as a devil.
liberal
when no
yet
just
prejudice
In short, like other men, he was
wonderfully made "
good and
souls
him
and
bigotry,
impelled him to be otherwise.
" fearfully and
exorcise of
tlio
believed in the omnipotence of God, and in the
communion with "just
possibility of
truth, of
foibitlding
in
raged with equal fury against those
into God's
He
wherefores."
Rome
147
in which,
whirlpool of error and
however, the good decidedly
l)redominated.
"What was the secret of his wonderful success
have been that the
do
their
work
I think
it
to
who surrounded him forced him to

himself.
He had a warm and impres-
spirits
in spite of
sionable nature, indomitable courage, and fiery eloquence.
His
his vii'tues, were those of a high soul.

He was not
mean or cruel. He was simply domineering, hot tempered, and
somewhat despotic and harsh. The spirits whose servant ho was
faults, like
could not eradicate his vices
they were forced to content them-
selves with turning his virtues to the best account.
They kindled
a flame in his breast that no persecution could quench
they
thrust into his hand the standard of reform, and clothed him with
the armour of
Thus equipped, they sent him
faith.
forth to
do
manful battle against the corrupt domination of Rome.
Through-
When
he fainted
out that long conflict they were at his
they inspired him

raised
him up
Xo wonder
side.
when he was surrounded by dangers they
friends.
that his
No wonder
that his deeds were great.
words were, as Longfellow has described
them, " half-battles for the free."
He
treated these spiritual guides scurvily enough.
The thoughts
with which they inspired him he accepted as from God.

however, a
spirit
manifest,
was
it
contrived to
at
make
its
presence
once objurgated as a fiend.
never absent from Luther's thoughts.
more
The
If,
directly
devil
As a medium he
was
could
not avoid receiving constant and striking tokens of the nearness

of the spirit-world.
Yut ho
detested
L 2
those
tokens.
Ho had
148
directed
the rudo energy of bis rhetoric against
all
He had taught that

permitted
how was he to
miracles of the Catholic Church.
Tvonders were no longer

this theory
mode
was
signs
Luther's
The
by making a scapegoat of Satan.
and
reconcile
with their constant occurrence to himself
of escape
sham-
tlie
devil,,
he maintained, was, as a miracle-worker, more powerful than
Good
God.
ever, ranged
spirits
could no longer
up and down
himself continually
tempted him to
tormented.
evil
he was
him
On
pit.
in fervent prayer, there
it
was
Good Friday,
appeared to him
visitor
eqûally a
whilst
chamber
in his
vouchsafed him with tears
tells us,
Far from
of joj' ?
" I thought
on the inestimable
Did he not welcome the spectacle
benefits of the Saviour's death.
it
to good,
a certain
the apparition, ecstatically dwelling, he
Presently I reflected that
bad ones, how-
such he supposed-
Luther was, at the very moment of
a bright vision of Christ.
sight," says he,
By
Whether the unearthly
or exhorted
waif from the bottomless
earth
visit
at their will.
it
it
had been some
must needs be an
it.
"At
first
celestial vision.
illusion
and juggling-
of the devil, wherefore I spoke to the vision thus: 'Avoid thee,
confounded devil!' whereon the image vanished,
whence
it
At Wartburg he hurled
had
clcarlj^
visited
his inkstand
him with the view
at
a demon's head, who-
of interrupting his translation
In the same castle some
the Scriptures,
all
this
tells
in the flesh could
down
of
spirits disturbed in his-
chamber two bags of nuts, and made noises on the

no one
showing
came."
when'
stairs
Luther vengefuUy set
have been there,
to the credit side of his account with Satan.
He
us that whilst he was in bed his Satanic Majesty often
visited him.
He would make
noises as of
would hurl things about the room

Eeformer as
if
with a
human hand.
with the pranks of undeveloped

day, but they can hardly
be
some one walking.
he would
considered
''
at
Hethe
These things exactly accord
spirits, as
witnessed in our
in
keeping with
character of that
Who
strike
Chief,
led th' embattled seraphim to war."
own
the-
PROTESTAXT SPIRITUALISM.
149
Yet, Avhilst attributing to Satan sucli petty practical jokes, Lutlicr
Lad the bigbost respect

not,
for
is
it
tbat,
all
"
for the vigour of bis iutellcct.
Ho
is
true, exactly a doctor -who bas taken bis degrees, but,
ho
Ho
very learned and expert.
is
has not been
carrying on his business these thousands of years for nothing."
"If the
Again,
He
how
relates
Satan vanquished him
mass
habit of doing so for
nearl}'-
The
to him.
Lord's Supper
The
discuss.
fifteen
a spirit
as the Prince
it
regarding the sacrament of the
body and blood
belief that
of Christ.
rebuked
It
such a change could take place
for celebrating alone,
and
in
private, a rite
be public, and partaken of by the whole congregation.
quoted numerous apposite passages of
It
One night
years.
maintained that the wafer and Avine were not
rebuked him also

to
an argument about the
strange subject, one would think, for Satan to
spirit
Luther for his foolish
meant
became convinced.
private masses.
From
that
Luther
Scripture.
He acknowledged humbly
the right, and a sounder Christian than
that Satan
was
the
devil
in
himself with regard to
day he never again celebrated one.
His pride was not so stubborn that he would refuse to serve

because
his
Luther had been in tho
great Reformer at once hailed
really converted into the
it
in
privately.
An argument commenced
of Evil.
men with
strangle
events, with his pressing arguments."
all
practice of celebrating
came
come and
devil cannot
claws, he can do so, at
bade him.
It
is
God
mind
strange that such a
should have been so completely the victim of a maniacal delusion

regarding the omnipotence of
question
evil.
spmt-communion,
of
Once confronted with the

powers
Luther's
reasoning
of
He saw nothing unlikely in Satan's seeking to do

God. He forgot that Christ had said, " Every tree
deserted him.
the
is
work
of
known by
its
fruits."
stereotyped verdict,
It is,
Calvin.
small.
"Ye
For
all spiritual
phenomena he had the
are of your father, the devil."
however, with regret that the mind turns from Luther to
The
faults
He wanted
of the
great Saxon were
courtesy,
charity,
and
neither
patience,
admirers can afford to admit that he wanted them.
few nor
and
The
his
errors
Ihat stain his career were but those of a Titan v>ho, after long
150
way through
confinement in darkness, has beaten for himself a
the wall of his dungeon, and reels to and fro, blinded with excess
History, placing in the one scale his vices and mistakes,
of light.
and
in the other his virtues
balance
fly
and mighty deeds, sees the former

and
upward,
rapidly
cries,
"This was
His single virtue
Calvin, on the contrary-, resembled an iceberg.
was
which
to
horrible,
He
doctrines
logically
by the
nothing without
can accomplish
Predestination
led.
Calvin admits
the author of evil.
All sin occurs
does.
Satan
will of the Deity.
that
horrors
the
All
will.
Old Testament were the work of God.
in the
detailed
his
consequence, however
from no
shrank
God becomes
being accepted,
that
He
consistency.
man."
absurd to pronounce
Him
a loving father
human
the
It
is
race are,
Unborn myriads,
with few exceptions, hated by their creator.
before they have accomplished a single good or evil action, are
Eepentance for
predestined to eternal misery.
human
righteousness
of humanity
are
in
is
useless
is
The most splendid deeds
a filthy rag.
themselves
sin
but wickedness.
Unsanctified
workers of good deeds merit no reward, but rather punishment.
But man cannot
of himself
Paradise for a few,

of the world
more joy
all
others are
heaven,"
in
become
God
sanctified.
who were chosen by Him

doomed
said
has reserved
before the creation
" There
to damnation.
Christ,
" over
one
sinner
that
repenteth, than over ninety-and-nine just persons that need
"Man,"
repentance."
said
Calvin,
odious and abominable to God.
can
Him
incite
to bless them.
He
"is
his
in
I stop not
to notice those fanatics
finds nothing in
o0"ered equally to all."
He
one
feels
that
life
laws
inspired
the
strangest
earth
is
profit earth ?
Studying the details of his
Their cruellies reached only
Calvin's iron rigour pressed equally on

is
curse
to its destruction.
would have been more endurable
under a Henry VIII. or a Domitian.

a few.
men which
pretend that grace
Could such a teacher
lay like an incubus on Geneva.
tyrannj',
who
no
whole nature
Grace delivers from the
and wrath of God a few, but leaves the world
is
ever
knew
by Puck, sometimes by Moloch.
it
The
all.
seems
His code of
sometimes
fantastic
and the
One law was
directed against sumptuousncss in dress
breeches were forbidden
with gold cord
mannoi* at once ludicrous and painful.
in a
liorrible arc lilcndocl
151
was made
illegal to
were no longer
brides
gay robes and floating
it
adorn themselves with
to
Wedding
tresses.
slashed
fasten nosegays
revelry
was prohibited
not more than a single course of meat could bo set on the table
and
a marriage-dinner,
at
most, one
The
tart.
prescribed.
bonfire
cards in the city.
Every
this
was
bo followed by, at the
to
was
fashion in which hair
was made
of
all
to be
Sunday became the only holiday.
indiscretion
was
a criminal offence.
young
girl
received
a severe whipping for singing to a psalm-tune in church the
A man was
of a song.
when an
was
cut
the romances and playing-
words
banished from the city for remarking,

" he sang a pretty psalm."
ass brayed, that
worst remains behind.
But the
law was passed condemning children
Avho disobeyed or cursed their parents to the punishment of death.
In 15G8 a
gu-1
who had
struck her mother
was beheaded
at
another time a boy, for merely threatening to strike a parent,

received sentence of death.
even
And this
infernal legislation there are,
at the present day, partisans of Calvin left to praise
find "great beauty in the earnestness with
was defended."
Not so did the people
They
which parental authority
of
As
Geneva.
speedily
as might be after his death they reversed the Keformer's laws.
No
reverence was paid to his
erected in his honour
memory
no statue has ever been
a plain stone with the letters
I.
C. marks
In Geneva at the present day few names are more
his grave.
detested.
He had
spiritual
gifts.
On December
15C2, a vision
lOlh,
occurred to him of the great battle between the Guisians and the
Protestants then raging not far from Paris.
Besides being
many
voyant he had the prophetic faculty, and predicted
which duly came to pass.
But a
spiritualist
can
feel little desire
to claim the murderer of Servetus as a useful ally.
the
name
of one
whose nature was
as adamant.
imagine Calvin ever to have smiled, unless
came
it
clair-
events
His name
Wc
is
can hardly
were when the news
that at length the author of the " Ptestitutio Christianismi
152
was
power.
in his
mount with
I think of that little
the heap of
green oak-wood, of the kindle.1 fagots, of the long agony, lasting
some say almost two hours, and

through
less higot
whom
tion as one can well find the
earth
some
with him
thi'ee
how
I find the
memory
hundred years
infinitely
memory
of the remorse-
Servetus died, as provocative of indignaof a
since.
man who departed from

Had his doctrines died
happier and better the world would be at
the present day

I could wish, did the limits of
spiritual
my
task permit, to trace out the
The
the lives of other great Reformers.
in
scholarly
Erasmus, the gentle Melancthon, Knox, the patriot and iconoclast,
who knew
the
neither the fear of
meek Hamilton,
whom
martyr,
man
nor the courtesy due to woman,
the headlong Zisca, Zwinglius, the hero
the utmost fury of
Rome
churlish injustice of Luther render intolerant
from the
these examples of spirit-communion might be drawn.
moment
to
do homage
to the last great
man.
than that of Zwinglius never consecrated earth.
lives of all
I pause a
nobler nature
Less towering
than the soul of Luther, his soul was far freer from error.
are few
more
faithful,
and the
vii'tuous,"
their
On
all
and the upright and
to the truest Christian of the sixteenth century
the red field of Cappel died a
every thinker
who
man
of Ulrich Zwinglius
As
in battle his place
Zurich, so in liberality he
was be
entitled to the reverence of
believes that the love of
The name
to that of Calvin.
time.
the saintly, the
creeds and every era dwell for ever in the presence of
God. Honour
children.
all
where the patriarchs of
Israel shall mingle with the sages of Greece,
holy of
There
beautiful aspirations than that Confession of Faith in
which he anticipates " the future assembly of

heroic, the
and the
could not daunt, nor the
may
God
is
over
all his
well serve for a
was before the ranks
ore all the
foil
of
theologians of his
There are few divines, even in the present day, who have
attained that elevated platform of thought which
was the stand-
point of the gallant Switzer.
In Britain the Reformation had

instances
may
its
share of miracle.
be found in McCrie's "Life of Knox."
most striking of
thefce
is
Certain
Among the
the prophecy of the Scottish apostle
J'KOTESTANr SPIRITUALISM.
Led
Wlsbart.
lixed
bis
by Ibc order of Cardinal Bcatoun, bo
lo tbo stake
turrot-window from wbiob tbat prclato
oyos ou tbc
watcbod tbe
Tbo
tragical scene.
was
tiro
fastened to tbe martyr's body blew up.

nlivo, tbo captain 01 tbe castle
my
batb not daunted
it
bcboldetb
same
ligbted,
and tbo powder
Perceiving bim to bo
me
spirit
my
body,
be wbo from yonder
A week
or
but
place
with such pride shall within a few days
as ignominiously as he
two
is
later the castle
still
drew near and bade bim be of good
"Wisbart answered, " Tbis flame batb rcacbed (0
bcart.
yet
153
now
in tbe
lie
seen proudly to rest himself."
was stormed by
band of Protes-
and tbc body of tbc cardinal suspended from that
tant conspirators,
very window whence he had witnessed the martyrdom of Wisbart.
Numerous
spiritual manifestations occurred in
England and Scot-
They were
land during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
almost without exception attributed to the agency of the
The Protestantism
of the
two countries had adopted
devil.
their
in
entirety Luther's ideas of tbe cessation of miracles from God, and the
increase of miracles from Satan.
The tragedies of the continent were re-enacted on a
witchcraft.
smaller
Hideous laws were passed against
scale,
and
for
briefer
To
period.
tbe burnings and
hangings of Britain and the American Colonics
have written
secutions
in a
resembled
essentially
On
Spiritualism.
tbe
much
of
what
shadow
chief
of
Catholic
tbe basis of certain startling facts the wildest
theories were reared.
kind of insane panic seized the nation.
The various Protestant Churches, hke the Catholic Church, found

jDolitic
to encourage that panic.
witchcraft
and
for
was
whose
as
much an
folly
no
Elizabeth and Bruce.

on.
lie
possessed.
his patronage
King James determined
The
virtue of tbe
to expel
result
is
and attached
sufficient
to
powers Avhich ho
them by
well
some domestic pet such
justification for a death warrant.
of
murder went merrily

virtue of tbo
known.
Fearful
To be
old,
as a cat or dog,
was
tragedies were enacted in every part of tbe island.

frail,
it
whom
was too absurd, united tbe crowns
demons by
and the stake.
drivelling pedant, with
article of faith as tbe mission of Christ,
Under
Christ had expelled
tar-barrel
These Protestant per-
former chapter will apply.
Unfortunate beings
154
who
understood their situation just well enough to
were about
to be
burned
alive,
underwent solemn
know
that they
before the
trials
highest judicial dignitaries of the realm, and were then as solemnly-
conducted to
*'
Students who, in Macaulay's phrase,
execution.
have the heart to go through the sickening details,"
certain of the
to
larity
phenomena described
spiritual
clahvoyance,
phenomena
will find in
at these trials a striking simi-
There are
present day.
of the
moving
trance-speaking, the
of heavj' articles
unseen means, the levitation of human bodies, apparitions of
hands and
With these
spirit-forms, raps, lights, voices, &c.
was unable
The custom
one and the other, and accepted both.
day
is
to carefully
to distinguish
are
The
mingled narratives of the wildest and most incredible kind.

judicial science of the age
by
spirit-
between the
of the present
keep out of sight the immense weight of evi-
dence by which certain of the occurrences were attested, and to

bring prominently forward whatever
these latter the supply
is
is
horrible or absurd.
The
plentiful.
senility of
Of
most of the
accused, the stupid bigotry of the accusers, the prejudices of the
judges, the passions of the mob,
the villanies of the professed
hunters for witchcraft, the detestable cruelty of the judicial murders
enacted
such things furnish unequalled themes for ridicule and
The
invective.
folly of
It is also certain that
was
laid
much
some
of the evidence
of the
were attributable
to
may be
admitted.
phenomena on which great
what
are
now known
stress
as "natural
causes."
Yet when these and other deductions have been maê
there
remains a respectable residue of occurrences which a
still
spiritualist
by
may
with confidence claim as manifestations produced
dwellers in another world.
As was
natural, the clergy
were the master-spirits of every
cruelty perpetrated under the pretence of awarding punishment to
servants of Satan.
sight
of a
the stake
The
own heart.
human being
after Calvin's
was
to
divines of Scotland, especially,
Whether Presbyterian
were men
or Episcopal, the
dangling on the gallows or writhing at
them an
exquisite delight.
pleasure to the death of a witch
wretched sufferer hand and
was her
The next highest
torture.
To bind the
foot, and, in this condition,
drag her
PROTESTANT STIRITUALISM.
tlirongli a luill-pond until lialf
iu her flesh
to
deaJ
whip her through
to thrust
i)iiis
up
to the
head
their i)aribhc.s at the cart's
these were the daily amusements of their lives.
tail,
With even more
Tweed
reluctance than their brethren south of the
did they consent
In England the slaughter of supposed sorcerers
abandon them.
to
155
had almost ceased by the commencement
of AVilliam III.'s reign
height.
in Scotland
it
was scarcely yet
at its
Nor were the
black-coated tormentors beyond the xVtlautic less expert in their
One
work.
most
of the
frightful episodes in the history of per-
secution for witchcraft was that Avhich cast a gloom over Salem in
autumn
the
Numbers
of 1G92.
wore hanged.
of supposed wizards and witches
wretched patriarch of eighty was crushed to
death by means of a board loaded with heavy stones
two days
for
in horrible torture before the merciful
released him.
And
he lingered
hand
of death
such atrocities as these Puritan divines con-
sidered deeds done to the glor}^ of God, and complacently chronicled
worthy of imitation by succeeding ages
as
afibrd
room
name
the
score of volumes, each larger than the present,
James
of trials for witchcraft.
I.,
How
and the Westminster Sanhedrim " damned themselves
how
what infamous modes
of torture wei-e resorted to,
the vilest of witnesses were believed,
the gibbet was erected and the tar-barrel, blazed,
fill
under
Hopkins, Cotton Mather,
to everlasting fame,"
does not
would scarcely
for full treatment of the iniquities perpetrated
fall
within
my
province to treat
of.
how
frequently
these
Nor can
things
it
I afford to
chapter after chapter with the instances of miraculous pheno-
mena which have occurred

See of Rome.
strongly
It will
be
in Britain since her revolt
from the
sufficient that I briefly notice
attested cases, and
draw attention
to the
certain
Spiritual
in
the lives of various famous Protestants.
Few
readers of Clarendon's noble history will have forgotten tho
account of the apparition of Buckingham's father shortly before

the death of " the Wicked Duke."
The spirit manifested himself
to a
gentleman
in
no way related
to the
Buckingham
desired this person to visit his son, and to inform
family.
him
that, if
He
ho
did not turn from his sins, his career would be cut short bv a
156
The
terrible fate.
and
selected messenger promised to act as desii'ed,
The
failed to fulfil his promise.
upbraided him with his breach of
spirit
and
speedily returned,
Again he consented to
faith.
The
spirit
once more appeared, and spoke more angrily than before.
This
carry out
mission, and again broke his word.
the
continued for seme time

sleep
medium could
the persecuted
the menaces of the apparition became terrible.
the object of
its
solemnly that,
if
some
were made known
secret
At length
He
no longer.
visitations could hold out
obtain no
to him,
declared
by
reveal-
ing which he might conquer the ridicule that would probably greet
was ready
narrative, he
his
The
spirit
went next morning
and
obey the behest of his
to
made
consented, and
to Villiers
He
House.
obtained an audience,
Buckingham
related the whole facts of the case to the duke.
was astounded, and confessed the

tials of the
messenger
He
and himself.
to be
which formed the creden-
one he had thought known only to
No
exacted a promise of silence.
followed, however, and a few
life
secret
visitor.
The medium
a communication.
months
later
God
reform of his
fell
by the dagger
Donne
of a double of
he
of Felton.
Equally striking
his
wife,
living
(jangcr
the apparition to Doctor
is
as related
Donne accepted
for
by the poet himself.
This doppel-
an indication of his wife's death, but
he found on reaching home that his child and not his spouse was
dead.
visit
There
is,
moreover, the famous history of Lord Tyrone's
death to Lady Beresford, the dame
after
who "wore,
for
evermore, a covering on her wrist," rendered necessary because of

the indelible marks impressed there by the grasp of the
To Lord
Lyttelton came, with a
mother of a young
him
girl
whom
menacing
face,
spirit.
the departed
he had "seduced, and announced to
the day and hour of his death.
His friends strove in vain to
vanquish the deep melancholy which at once seized on the doomed
nobleman, and
at the
appointed time he died.
Lady Diana
whilst walking in the garden of Holland House,
counterpart of herself, and passed
Waltham
in
Essex a
spirit
away
announced
Rich,
saw an exact
shortly afterwards.
At
to Sir Charles Lee's daughter
her approaching death, which took place with the utmost sudden-
ness at the hour inclicatcd.
157
In tbo reign of William TIL a Catholic
gentleman named Prendcrgast gave information to tbo king which

led to the discovery of the Assassination Plot, and the execution
of
many of the conspirators, among them Sir John Friend. Years

when Prendergast was fighting under Marlborough, Friend
later,
appeared to him, and predicted his death on a certain day.
doomed man made known what had occurred

appointed
brother
and a
day came,
Prendergast
still
ollicer.
" I shall
was fought;
battle
" "What
lived.
die
to
of
at
now
ghost
the
Tbo
Tbo
hiia.
close
its
"
said
to-day, notwithstanding," replied
Even
gravely the object of the prophecy.
as he spoke a shot
was
dispatched from a French battery which the order to cease firing
had not reached, and Prendergast
fell
dead.
host of other
instances might be quoted.
One
of the noblest of spiritualists
whole career he was the subject of

life
was
The world
come was
to
At one time, indeed,
Avorld he lived in.
brought so close that he became as
was then that he wrote " The
it
writings do
the
we
at his side.
any resemblance
trace
affords
some
traces of the genius
have been
to
inhabitants.
its
Pilgrim's Progress."
"Pilgrimage of Christian."
His
heard voices
as real as the
seems
it
were one of
region where the glory of God's countenance
were continually
He
him
to
in Bedford gaol, he could explore freely the
Spirits
During his
spiritual manifestations.
several times miraculously preserved.
he saw visions.
It
was Bunyan.
captive
mysteries of that
makes
eternal day.
In few of his subsequent

to the wonderful story of
The "Holy War," perhaps,

which beams so resplendently
from every page of Bunyan's masterpiece
but
how
faint
are
those traces compared with the marvellous manner and matter of

that allegory
which
City of Destruction
tells
;
how Christian
hasted to set forth from the
how, looking from the land of Beulah on the
Everlasting City, he sickened with desire to taste of
how
how,
its
his soul fainted in the black depths of the Kiver of

to the
sound of
celestial
glories
Death
music and canopied by the wings of
the Shining Ones, he passed with Hopeful through the heavenly

gate,
and embraced
in
presence of the angels that Ftiitbful
whom
JEIVISH
158
the fiery chariot of
and turmoil
martyrdom had home upward from
of A^'anity Fair
The "
Pilgrim's Progress "
Never did another author drink
works.
spiritual of
AXD CHRISTIAN ERAS.
ration from the invisible world.
the noise
the most
is
such inspi-
in
Never again was that inspiration
He had
granted in equal measure to Bunyan.
accomplished his
work
Surrenderiug himself to the service of his Maker, a
task.
had been produced which can be forgotten only when
lesser light
" This man, the
was George Fox.
memory
among men.
of the English language shall have perished from
all
first
of the
Quakers, and by trade a shoemaker, was one of those,"
verse
pleased to manifest
is
ignorance
itself,
and, across
accounted
prophets,
towards the light resembled,
It is his fortune to
depreciated.
God-possessed."
in the fine
have
Reasons equally strong
has been directed
attention
tricities,
absurdity of
in,
much
struggles
his cave."
may
be advanced for revering
madman.
Those whose
his eccen-
the wild vagaries of his talk, the meaningless
that he has written, have turned
who have contemplated

him
Fox's
language of Burns, " the
solely to his ignorance,
spectacle in disgust, or pointed at
for
unspeakable
therefore are
the strange garb which he adopted, the strange actions
which he persisted
warmth
who
been always either over-praised or unjustly
a prophet or reviling him as a
as
the hulls of
in
Homer's Cyclops round the walls of
blind gropings of
him
all
and earthly degradation, shine forth
awfulness, unspeakable beauty, on their souls

rightly
says
"to Avhom under ruder form the divine idea of the uni-
Carlyle,
him the
only the
from the
Those
finger of scorn.
fervour
of
his
religion,
the
of his heart, the greatness of his fortitude, have claimed

a place
among
the foremost of mankind.
They alone
judge such a man justly who, taking into consideration both the
strength and the weakness of his nature, pronounce
it
the gigantic development of certain qualities renders

the dwarfish proportions of others.
fortitude
Fox
and heroic
Fox
sincerity, deserves
as an
one
in
more
which
striking
example of heroic
our admiration and respect.
as a teacher, requires to be followed with ceaseless vigilance
and suspicion.
His
life
is
one long record of communion with
spirits.
His
O TESTAXT SPIRITUALISM.
/'A'
His power of magnetic healing wag great.
wcro countless.
visions
'59
At Twycross ho healed a sick person by prayer.

restored to a
man
At Arnsido ho
when
it
had long
At Ulvcrstono ho was himself instantly made
been impotent.
whole by
the use of one of his arms,
his spirit-guardians after having
been beaten almost to
death by a ferocious mob.
lie frequently proved himself possessed
of the power of i)rophecy.
Several years before the occurrence of
that great
which consumed half London
fire
He warned
Fox.
it
was predicted by
several of his persecutors that
judgments would
shortly befall them, and in
These
escape.
down
vigour
spiritual gifts
to the period
no case did the person so warned
seem
when,
to
full
have continued
in
unabated
of years, and surrounded
by
a circle of attached disciples, the apostle of the (Quakers died

peacefully in his bed.
The rappiugs
in the
parsonage of Epworth have been too often
described for a detailed history of them to be necessary here.

first
The
lengthy account of these disturbances was published by John
Wesley
Magazine.
in the Aniiinian
Had
the father of the famous
Methodist but thought of questioning the

alphabet, a great spiritual
in the reign of
George
of the present day.
by an
refrain
intelligent
I.
spirits by means of the

movement might have convulsed England
The knoc kings exactly resembled those
They gave
the same proofs of being governed
When
power.
Mrs. Wesley desired the
spirit to
from vexing her devotions the knocks instantly ceased.
At
evening prayers raps were heard everywhere in the room whilst

the prayer for the king
attended the " Amen."

to
was being repeated, and the loudest rap

This circumstance had evident reference
an unfulfilled vow of Mr. Wesley, sen.
John Wesley's words.

father observed that
for the king.
my
mother did not say
She said she could
Prince of Orange was king.
with her
till t-he
did.
Here
is
He
Amen
my
to the prayer
not, for she did not believe the
He vowed he would
never cohabit
then took his horse and rode away, nor
did she hear anything of him for a twelvemonth.
back and lived with her as before, but

forgotten before God."
the story in
" The year before King William died
I fear his
He then came
vow was not
iCo
Having frightened the
claugliters of
Mr. Wesley the
spirit
was
hidden hy him " to cease vexing those children and come to him
in his stud}-,
it,
who was
man."
at
He
obeyed.
begged of
The
Samuel, to give three raps.
the spirit of his son
if
knocking
It readily
Strangely enough no other questions
once ceased.
When, however, any of the family stamped with the

number of noises was repeated. A gentle tapping
were put.
foot the exact

at the
bed-head of the children began
night.
At length the
Towards
the end of
He
of
its
fruitless eflforts.
endeavours to communicate the raps and
its
Mr. Wesley was advised
other noises were constant.
house.
same hour every
at the
grew weary
spirit
Suddenly
steadily refused.
to quit the
disturbance ceased.
all
" Old Jeffery," as the children named the invisible Icnocker, had
discovered that the vicar's mind was not of a calibre to compre-
hend
his
He
system of spirit-telegraphy.
therefore retired in
disgust.
Spiritual gifts
were common
founders of Methodism
Wesley healed numerous

of hands.
Mary
He
John Wesley and the other
to
Whitefield,
and Fletcher of Madeley.
sick persons
by prayer and the imposition
records the instantaneous cure of a
defence and advocacy

in our
own
of Spiritualism.
their (the unbelievers')
know no
woman named
last
sermon was a
To those who,
like
many
day, cried, " Cui bono ?" Wesley makes answer, "If
but one account of the intercourse of
His
Special of cancer in both breasts.
whole
reason, therefore,
men with
spirits
be admitted,
castle in the air falls to the
why we
should
suflfer this
ground.
weapon
to
be wrested out of our hands."
Here
this chapter
must
close.
have passed in review various
of the lights of the Reformation in
Germany and England
mighty Luther, the noble Zwinglius,
Calvin,
inhumanity, the stern Knox, the fervent Wishart,

that the spiritual
phenomena
so
common
in
have shown
Catholic ages have
occurred with equal frequency in Protestant times and lands.

simple difference
represses them.
demon
is,
that the one
When
the
with his hateful
The
Church encourages and the other
Protestantism succeeds in casting out
the'
of unbelief that has at present full possession of her various
sects she
for the first time be able to receive
Avill
The
the teachings of Christ.

ascribed all spiritual
to the
and comprehend
two centuries ago,
credulity -which,
phenomena
l6l
devil,
was bad.
The
materialism which at the present day denies that the dead can
return
ment
is
still
worse.
We may
bear with equanimity the
of his Satanic Majesty into the
background
position will cause few any deep concern.
denies the possibility of
infidelity.
public
mind
The
in
retire-
Lucifer's de-
But a Church which
communion between
those yet on earth simply prepares the
way
the departed and
for the
triumph of
fruit of her doctrines, as the present state of the
England and Germany amply
testifies, is
spread disbelief in a hereafter and an open denial of God.
a wide-
CHAPTER
YII.
THE SriRITUALlSM OF CERTAIN GREAT SEERS,
"There
a small market-town iu the
is
Upper Lusatia
Old
called
Seidenburg, distant from Gurlitz about a mile and a half, in which

lived a
man whose name was
Ursula.
sort,
yet of sober and
In the year 1575 they had a son
honest behaviour.
name was
Jacob, and his wife's
People they were of the poorest
whom
This was the divinely illuminated Jacob
called Jacob.
the Teutonic philosopher
whom God
of the mystery of nature and grace,
raised
up
to
they
Behmcn
show the ground
and open the wonders of His
wisdom."
Such
Behmen
the
is
enthusiastic
language which the biographer of
holds towards the object of his idolatry.
If
Jacob were
" raised up to expound the mysteries of nature and grace," he succeeded but
ill
he wrapped
it
He seems
which his
in his task.
Far from casting
in deeper gloom.
like a blind
of
affliction
it
on the subject,
giant pressing eagerly towards
darkness forbids him to
stumbling over every obstacle that

as
light
Yet he was certainly a great man.
some mark
lies in his path.
His works are
were the misty nebula) of that to which Swedenborg
wards gave shape and consistence.

admirers.
Charles
I.
praised them
and
discover,
after-
They found anciently many

George Fox " read and com-
mended them " extracts from them were discovered amongst

MSS. of Isaac Newton. The Rev. William Law, author of
the
" Serious Call," was a zealous disciple of Behmen.
de-
formed Titan has had
his day.
Few
But the
the
are to be found in the present
age willing to wander in the misty region of Jacob's spiritual

experience
his signs, his teachings,
and
his
dreams.
THE SPIRITUALISM OF CERTAIN GREAT SEERS.

Sixty-four years after the death of
and a greater
in
Behmen was born
way for a revolution

homo of man which is
1G88, prepared the
Ho was
accomplished.
a truer
Emanuel Swedenborg, who saw the hght
propliet.
rogardiug the future
163
of the popular idea
being
silently
perhaps the mightiest seer of
modern
still
times.
During twonty-cight years the clearness of his spiritual
vision
was such that he beheld constantly the scenes and the
mankind by describing
lie astonished
beings of another world,
that world as having an intimate resemblance to our own.
Its
inhabitants he found employed in a

'
Than
loafing
The golden harps were

retned
into
spiritual industry
Futurity was
and
invisible,
For
space.
infinite
and the palm-branches had
was
there
idleness
beatified
for eternal stagnation, endless progress.
peopled as earth
men and women, and
Better business
around the throne."
these
is
There were
peopled.
men and women
still
retained the aspi-
rations, the joys, the sorrows, the affections of
The
humanity.
just were busy in the service of good, the wicked in the service
of
The
evil.
high, while teaching the low, continued themselves
to soar into regions of a
grandeur more and more supreme
the low panted upward in their footsteps.

Socrates,
to-day stood Aristophanes.
summit
instant on the
to Avhich
and
Where yesterday was
Galileo,
resting
for
an
he had just attained, might see at
the foot of the mountain some one of his ancient persecutors painfully
commencing the
strife
of earth.
No
vival of the fittest."

to ascend,
There was nothing of the
prophet preached the doctrine of the
Man
remedy
was darkness
trampled under
selfish
*'
sur-
learned at length that his destiny
was
and that eternity was given him
of that destiny.
as the
ascent.
false
for the
accomplishment
Sin was recognised as a disease, and suflering

of that disease.
Progress was light
stagnation
every good deed accomplished, every bad passion

foot,
brought the soul a degree nearer to God.
Those children alone knew true happiness who did constantly the
work
of the Father.
yEUISH AND CHRISTIAN ERAS.
1^4
Such arc the teachings which have hy degrees hecome the suh-
modern thought.
stance of
meate
The
society.
They continue more and more
to per-
modern spirituahsm are
at one-
revelations of
with the doctrines of Swedenhorg.

seer on the
mind of man
more palpable tokens
influence of the Swedish
not to be judged of by the outer and
is
of that influence.
The
the vulgar judge.
The
by such things that
It is
material portion of the world reverence
only heroes as material as themselves.
Had
a creature of this sort
been asked a hundred years ago to decide between the relative

claims to greatness of Swedenborg and Frederic II. of Prussia,
with what derision would he have dismissed the pretensions of the

former
Was
ci^dlised
world
not the
name
of Frederic famous throughout the
"Was he not the foremost soldier of his age
Had
not he resisted successfully the combined efforts of France, Austria,
Sweden
Russia, Saxony, and
He was
'?
dreaded and admired in
every court of Europe, from that of St. Petersburg to that of

Lisbon,
were
Portraits of the potentate of Berlin

cities.
of eminent writers
were employed
to
be
more enviable
visions
Yet the prophet
Swedenborg
is
is
likely to be
Could any
poor
fool
lot
who saw
mentioned with reverence when
The work
forgotten.
other has but just coiumenced.
Frederic
may
of the
one
is
ended, that
AYhat docs earth owe to
series of desolating wars, as causeless as dreadful-
"What does his history teach us

vices
The pens
and di'eamed dreams.
the conqueror
of the
And
found in a
defame him.
canonise or
Could any name be more secure of immortality

?
to be
Statues rose in his honour.
thousand towns and
That
gi-eat
be found united in a single mind
a tyrant also to be a hero
that a
qualities
that
is
it
and great
possible for
crowned robber may hold so
gallantly to the booty he has snatched as to render useless the

elibrts of half-a-dozeu of his
example
is
neighbours to recover
that of successful wickedness.
to the hindering of progress,
" That they should take
And
His
and the making
they shoulil keep
who have
who cjin."
it
efforts
it.
were
His exdirected
law among men
the power,
Fortunately the confusion created by those
efibrts
has long spent

Trcadcrs in Frederic's footsteps have arisen
itself.
himself trod in the footsteps of Alexander and CaDsar
XIV.
of England, and Louis
interest
the other
we
the example.
of
Henry V.
The one has
lost
Earth has recovered
could well spare.
War
War of
even ns he
But of Frederic himself
of France.
name and
there remain only the

its
ibe,
from the shock of the
of the Pragmatic Sanction, and the
greater shock of the
the Seven Years.
Every
fought at Eosbacli.
None
are left
who
trace of the horrible cai'nage enacted
there has vanished from the fields of Leuthen and Kunersdorf.
century ago Europe had an cuthralling interest in such events.
The thrones
jects,
of kings, the lives of tens of thousands of their sub-
the boundaries of nations, were
But that
Frederic and of Prussia.
volcano has spent
rage.
its
We
involved in the fate
interest
Even
in
Germany
b}'
a tactician and at
the events of the Seven
Years arc in themselves no longer productive of joy or
No
Eussian armj- threatens Berlin.

tributions.
To
of
The
extinguished.
learn with equal indifference that
Fontenoy the French were commanded
at
Eosbacli by a dunce.
is
Austrian host
is
No
grief.
levj-ing con-
These things were the miseries of a far-past day.
the Prussian of the present age they are
"the shadow
of a
shade."
The
diiference then
difference
temporal
between Frederic and Swedenborg
between a body and a
soul.
The one
the other intangible, but eternal.
is
is
the
tangible, but
The warrior
for a
brief space influenced matter; the seer continues eternally to influ-
ence mind.
lX)wer
What
the multitude consider the necessary insignia of
may, indeed, be wanting
as its founder.
No eloquent pens and

No mighty sect reverences him
in his case.
tongues have celebrated his praise.
Such a reverence would have been repulsive
nature of Swedenborg.
His teachings were
for all
to the
not for a few.
He made no attempts to collect followers. He desired no dictatorship over human minds.

His mission was simply with his whole
soul and strength to proclaim the truth.
Having done
so he left
own way, secure that " the eternal years of

Those, then, who base their judgment of a man
that truth to fight her
God
are hers."
solely
on externals
will
pronounce that Swedenborg has never
i6G
greatly influenced humanity, and
who
The most eloquent

borgianism.
The
' moved the minds

is
it
now
almost forgotten.
Those
divines tincture their sermons with Sweden-
greatest writers, both in poetry
He
in a diflferent fashion.
it
is
look deeper will perceive everywhere tokens of his power.
in
has, as
who have moved
great measure
and prose, preach
Macaulay says of Bacon,
To Swedenborg
the world."
owing that the
heaven,
old unnatural
the old revolting hell, have, at the present day,
all
but vanished
into air.
The favourable testimony
of an
enemy
than the favourable testimony of a friend.

the
is
always of more weight

I select therefore
from
numerous narratives respecting the proofs given by Sweden-
borg of his spiritual powers, that of Immanuel Kant.
form of a
letter to a certain Friiulein
von Knobloch
It is in the
" In order, most gracious Friiulein, to give you a few evidences of

what the whole living piiblic are witnesses of, and which the gentleman
who sends them to me has carefully verified oii the spot, allow nie to lay
Ijefore yoii the two following incidents
" Madame Harteville, the widow of the Dutch envoy in Stockholm,
:
some tune after the death of her husband, received a
demand from
the
goldsmith, Croon, for payment for a silver service which her husband
had ordered from him. The widow was confidently persuaded that her
husband had been much too orderly to allow this debt to remain
unpaid Imt she could discover no receipt. In this trouble, and since
tlie amoiint was considerable, she begged Baron Swedenboig to give her
a call. After some apologies she -^-entured to say to him that if he had
;
the extraordinary
gift, as all
men
affirmed, of conversi^vg with departed
hoped that he would have the goodness to inquire of her

husband how it stood Avith the demand for the silver sendee. SwedenTliree days after this
l)org made no difficulty in meeting her wishes.
Barou
tlie lady had a company of fi'iends taking coffee with her
S\;'edenborg entered, and in his matter-of-fact way informed her that he
had spoken with her husband that the debt had been discharged some
months before his death, and that the receipt was in a certain caliinet
which she would find in an ui^per room. The lady replied that this
cabinet had been completely emptied, and amongst the Avliole of the
Swedenborg said that her
papers this receipt could not be found.
husband had described to him that, if they drew forth a drawer on the
left side they would see a board, Avhich Ijeing pushed aside, they would
find a concealed drawer in which was kept his secret correspondence
On this repreAvith Holland, and there this receipt A^'ould be found.
souls, she

sentatiiiu tlie lady
room.
of
betook herseU', with
Tlie cabinet
was opened
all
1O7
the company, to the uiipi
they i'ound the secret drawer described,
which she had hitherto known nothing, and in

amazement of all present.
it
the recpiired paper,
to tlie intense
'"
The
following circumstance, however, ajipears to nie to possess the
greatest strength of evidence of all these cases,
and actually takes away
every conceivable issue of doubt.

" In the year 1756, as Baron Swedenborg, towards the end of the
month
of September, at four o'clock on a Saturday evening, landed in

Gottenburg fi'om England, Mr. William Castel invited him to his house
Avith fifteen other persons. About six o'clock in the evening Swedenborg
went out and returned shortly to the company, pale and disturbed. He
said that at that
Stockholm, on
moment
the
there was a terrible conflagration raging in

Siidermalm, and that the fire was increasing.
Gottenlnirg lies three hundred miles from Stockhohn. He was uneasy,

and frequently went out. He said that the house of one of his fi-iends,
whom he named, was already laid in ashes, tuul that his own house was
in danger. At eight o'clock, after he had again gone out, he said
joyfull}', God be praised
the fire is extinguished, the third door from
'
my very
This information occasioned the greatest excitement in

the company and throughout the whole city, and the statement was
Next morning he sent for
carried to the Governor the same evening.
Swedenborg, and asked him aliout the matter. Swedenborg described
exactly the conflagration hoAV it had begun, and the time of its continuance. As the Governor had given attention to the storj', it occasioned a still gi'eater commotion throughout the city, where many were
On
in great concern on account of their friends and their propertj".
Monday evening arrived in Gottenburg a courier who had been
dispatched by the merchants of Stockhohn during the fire.
In the
letters brought Ijy him the conflagration was described exactly as
Swedenborg liad stated it. On the Tuesday morning a royal courier
came to the Governor Avith the accoimt of the fire, of the loss it had
occasioned, and of the houses which it had attacked
not in the least
diflering from the statement made by Swedenborg at the moment of its
occurrence, for the fire had been extinguished at eight o'clock.
" Now, what can any one oppose to the credibility of these occurThe friend who writes these things to me lias not only
rences ?
examined into them in Stockholm, but al)out two months ago in Gottenhouse.'
burg, where he Avas Avell
known
to the
most distinguished
Avhere he could completely infonn himself from a whole
the short interA'al fi-om 1750

still living.
He
left
ftmiilies,
citj',
and
in wliich
the greater part of the eye-Avitnesscs
has at the same time given
me an
accoimt of the ]uode
in Avhich, according to the asserticm of Baron SAvedenborg, his ordinary

intercourse Avith other spirits takes place, as Avell as the idea which he
giA'es of
the condition of departed souls."
i68
With
and
feelings of admiration
Swedish
gi'eat
scor.
But, taking him on the whole, he was a Saul
head and shoulders above his generation.

v.-orl;
have not yet studied the
them
advise
him
as an
of the usual failings
His character was disfigured by strange eccentri-
of humanity.
cities.
leave of the
to canonise
He had many
example of perfect excellence.
my
aficctiou I take
make no attempt
do
to
pleasurable task
secure
delay,
this
they comprehend
Carlyle "that never until then did
when the
with Thomas
that,
accomplished, they will confess
is
who towered
any readers of
and writings of Swedenborg,
life
without
so
If
how
great a
prophet had been among mankind."
The most marked

and unquenchable
Providence of
God
another world.
characteristic of Jung-Stilling
He had
faith.
was
his intense
the strongest confidence in the
the most vivid conception of the nearness of
His career
is
one of the few Avhich from the
outset to the close are delightful to contemplate.
"Let
this
be
thy greatest honour in the world,"' said his grandfather to him,

" that thy forefathers were
men who, though they had
all
under their command out of

beloved
and honoured by
words.
He
all
men."
Stilling
never forgot the
and died beloved and honoured by
lived
nothing
their house, were, notwithstanding,
all
whose
love and honour were worthy to be prized.
From
the humbleness
of a seat on a tailor's shop-board he
struggled through the various grades of merchant's clerk, school-
master, and family tutor,
sum
entered with the
till
he reached the university, which he
of one dollar in his pocket.
His
fought against the deepest poverty.
with
fire,
and proved
rences sustained
itself
At times marvellous occur-
genuine.
He commenced
it.
his studies, as I
with a single rix-dollar for capital.
thousand dollars were necessary.

raise
the
fiftieth
part
of
the
For years be
faith Avas veritably tried
Stilling
sum.
He met an
" Where," said this

"
From God," was
acquaintance
last,
the
whom
anxiety
in
to
which
God
to
he terms Leibmann.
" do you get money
Stilling's reply.
said,
knew not where
Yet
tormented him did not for an instant cause his trust

waver.
have
For the whole course a
for
your studies
" I," said Leibmann, "
"
am one

of CunVs stewards," aiul
liaiulccl
hundred.
the penniless youth Ihirty-tlireo
him
IIo al'ter\vavds sent
dollars.
a further remittance
and similar
B)' these
acts
enabled to struggle on until he had

then
married,
was
capital
The
fight
was sharp.
In the midst of his
The
thought.
He
to him.
He
Ilis
difficulties
he con-
and greatest of these
first
urged him to write memoirs
Through the kindly
hundred and
sold for a
his difficulties.
Goethe the
offices of
It
fifteen rix-dollars.
turning-point of the author's career.
The money
lifted
was the
him out
appointed Professor of Agriculture at Eittcrsberg.
hundred
of
The book made him famous.
Elberfeld, Avhere he had. settled to practise as a physician, he

eight
was
Stilling consented, and, in a period of great adversity,
accomplished the task.
He was
diploma.
acquaintance with Goethe, Herder, and others
German
of the leaders of
work was
obtained his
five rix-dollars.
became warmly attached

life.
of throe
of Idndncss, Stilling
and commenced practice as a physician,
tracted an intimate
of his
169
and knew not how
dollars,
In
owed
to defray the debt.
Certain of the chief merchants, however, hearing that he intended

quitting the town,
sum
made him parthig
thus obtained, and found
more nor
ditors,
later,
less,
it
hundred
counted the
dollars,
neither
sufficed exactly, therefore, to satisfy his cre-
lit
and with an empty purse he
the place.
left
few years
he became famous for the cure of cataract, and at the same
He was
time debt again pressed heavily on him.
perform operations in Switzerland.
and
He
presents.
eight
sent for, to
six
hundred
gulden were paid to him, exactly the amount that he
fifty
owed.
One thousand
His v/hole
abounds with such instances of pressing
life
need, and providential supply.
The most famous

dictation.
World."
Stilling
Of the
His
a feeling of serenity
works were written under
spiritual
Nostalgia," and " Scenes in the Invisible
''
latter
experienced
indescribable.
felicity
of his
These are
we
learn that " the state of
whilst
spirit
was
labouring at
this
work
mind which
is
utterly
as if elevated into ethereal regions
and peace pervaded him, and he enjoyed a
which words cannot express.
When
he began to work.
I70
him
ideas glistcnccl past bis soul, which animated
could scarcely
so
much
that he
so rapidly as the flow of thought required.
-svrite
This was also the reason
why
the whole
work took
quite another
form, and the composition quite another tendency, to that which
Of the " Nostalgia
he had proposed at the comraenccment."

are
told:
"There
was besides another
singular
"
we
phenomenon.
In the state between sleeping and waking, the most beautiful and
as
it
He
were heavenly imagery presented
attempted to delineate
imagery there was always a feeling connected,
which
all
season
inward sense.
itself to his
but found this impossible
it,
the joys of sense are as nothing.
with the
compared with
It
was
a blissful
"
The " Nostalgia
"
The author
was received with enthusiasm.
found that certain scenes in his work, which he had supposed to

be
fiction,
how
were actual
fact.
Stilling could only reply that the
was unknown
says
great prince wrote,
demanding
he had learned the particulars of a certain secret association.
was
One day
to him.
the celebrated
very existence of the association

a
handsome young man
name, entered his apartment.

"
he
This visitor saluted the author of
the " Nostalgia," as his secret superior.
the imputed honour.
whom
but leaves his readers to guess the
How
Stilling utterly disclaimed
then," said the stranger, "did you
contrive so accurately to describe the great and venerable brother-
hood
in the East, to point out our
salem
? "
" All fiction," answered
the other, " that cannot be
you have described
it
In a
the matter
is
letter,
that
Switzer.
Exactly
that
He
thi-ee
in truth
and
reality as
"
Stilling
predicted
violent
the
death of
day, to Antistes Hess, of Zurich, he
informed him that, whilst writing, he had

impression
" Pardon me," cried
Stilling.
such a thing cannot have come by chance
And he retired, dissatisfied.

On the 13th of July, 1799,
Lavater.
rendezvous in Egj-pt, in Mount
monastery of Canobin, and under the temple of Jeru-
Sinai, in the
and
felt
suddenly a deep
bloody end awaited the great
desired that this might be communicated to him.
months
later the
and Lavater was shot down
at
army
his
of
own
Massena stormed Zurich^

door.
Other of
Stilling's
THE SPIRITUALISM OF CERTA/X GREAT SEERS.

prosontiments
nmubcr
j-et
lint
to
as
am
mad
fimatics
on.
do
so,
arc reckoned fools and ignoramuses, or set
Our Lord and Master
one.
all
is
it
himself was pronounced such.

his
and others,
Ilauirr,
forced to pass
an apology for the author's spiritual
forcible
" Whether we
down
Madame
Zscbokko, Obcrlin,
be noticed, and
uhich contains so
faith
might bo adduced from bis " Pncuma-
noblo ])assage from " Scenes in the Invisible World,"
citing that
Did space permit, a
unoniiiL,'.
e(iu:illy
of interesting cases
tology."
have
provoJ
171
Let us go out
to
Him, and bear
shame."
Zschokke was by birth
He
German, by adoption a Swiss.
combined the almost irreconcilable attributes of a profound thinker

and an energetic man of
of his
life,
to the
action.
public
intense patriotism yet allowed
permitted, the
Devoted, during the greater part

of the
service
him
equally intense
Helvetian Republic, his
to gratify, so far as oi:)portunity
desire
which possessed him
He was
knoAvledge respecting the things of another world.

self
gifted
Avith
experiences of
to his
peculiar
phase
for
him-
The past
of mediumship.
many with whom he conversed were
presented
mind.
" It has hapjjened to
me
my
sometimes," says he, " on
first
meeting
former
A\ith strangers, that, as I listened silently to their discourse, their
some particular scene in that
life, has passed, quite involuntarily

were dream-like, before me. During this time I usually feel so
absorbed in contemplation of the stranger life that I no longer see
nor disclearly the face of the unknown, wherein I undesignedly look
tinctly hear the vuites of the speakers, which before served in some
measure as a ccjuimentary to tlie text of their features. For a long time
I held such visions as delusions of the fancy
the more so that they
showed me even the dress and motions of the actors, the rooms, furniture?
life,
or
and
as it
and other
accessories.
By way
of test I once, in a familiar family circle
at Kirchberg, related the secret history of a seamstress
who had
just left
room and the house. I had never seen her before in my life. People
were astonished, and laughed
but were not to be persuaded that I cUd
not previously know the relations of which I spoke
for what I had
On my part I was no less astonished that
uttered was the literal truth.
my dream-pictures were confiimed by the reality. I became more
attentive to the subject, and when propriety admitted it, I woidd relate
to those whose life thus passed before me the sîbjcct of my vision, that
the
172
imglit tliereby obtain eonfirmutiou or refutation of
\arially ratified, not \ntliout con^^ternation
you
inspires
Must
on
again Ijelieve in possession
Joliann von Riga, wlien, in the
It
it.
tlicir part.
'
was
oxcluinied
'
\
in-
What demon
tlio
hour of oiu- acquaintance,

I related his past life to liim.
We speculated long on the enigma, but
even his penetration could not solve it.
I myself had less confidence
than any one in this mental jugglerj'. As often as I revealed my visionary
gifts to any new person I regularly expected to hear the answer, It was
not so.' I felt a secret .sliudder when my auditors replied that it was
.fpiritual
first
'
when
true, or
tlieir
my accuracy
astonishment betrayed
before I asked.
mention one example which pre-eminently astounded me. One

fair day, in the City of Waldshut, I entered the .Vine Inn in company
Antli two young student foresters. We supped with a nîmerous company
at the taljle d'hote, where the guests were making Aêry merry with the
peculiarities and eccentricities of tlie Smss
witli ]\Iesmer's magnetism,
Lavater's physiognomy, &c.
One of my companions, wbose national
pride was wounded by their mockery, begged me to make some reply,
lârticularly to a handsome young man who sat opposite to me, and who
allowed liimseK extraordinary license. This man's former life was at
that moment jjresented to my mind. I turned to him and asked whether
lie would answer me candidly if I related to him some of the most secret
passages of his life
I knowing as little of him personally as he did of
me That would be going a little further, I thoiight, than the physiognomy of La-\-ater. He promised, if I were correct in my information,
to admit it frankly. I then related what my vision bad sbo-nii me, and
the whole company were made acquainted with the private history of
the young merchant, his school years, his youthful errors, and lastly,
I
Avill
mth
I
a fault conunitted in reference to the strong-box of his principal.
described to
him
the right of the
the uninhabited
brown
room with whitened
walls,
where
to
door, on a table, stood a black money-box, &c.
dead silence prevailed during the whole narrative, which I alone

by inquiring whether I spoke the truth
The
startled young man confirmed every particular, and even, what I had
scarcely expected, the last mentioned. Touched by his candour, I shook
hands with him over the table and said no more."
occasionally interrupted
On
the 22nd of Febraary, 1862, passed from earth Dr. Justinius
Distinguished both as a physician and a poet, he interests
Kerner.
us yet more on account of his patient,
known
as " the
Seeress of Prevorst."
Madame
Hautfe, widely
Kerncr's account of this
extraordinary ease was published in 1829, and went through three

editions.
Pseudo-scientists, as
easy derision.
was
natural, received
it
Observers more worthy of the name,
much
who had
with
taken the trouble to inquire into the facts of the case, confirmed

all
that the doctor L;ul stated.
as Kaut, Schubert,
Amoni:; these last were such luon
Eschcmnayer, Gnrrcs,
without exception, pi'onouucod
Madame
the highest order, "
who
lived
Her
soul
was retained
the physical.''
173
more
and Werner.
Hauft'r
They,
a clairvoyautc of
in the spiritual
in its casket
world than in
by the
frailest
of threads.
She was twenty-five when she came under the care of Kerncr,
and twenty-eight when she passed from earth.
child she
sive
proved herself a medium.

shuddered
she
at
the
Her
Even while
sensitiveness
neighbourhood of graves, and
church could not remain below, but went up to the
twenty she married, and went
gloomy
village, lying
yet a
was exces-
to live at
Kurnbach, a
and
solitary
embosomed among savage mountains.
in
At
loft.
Here
her ill-health and her spiritual development increased together.
The physicians were bewildered with her
case.
Several considered
her illness hypochondriacal, and her visions and prophecies wilful
Her
imposture.
relations
became prejudiced against
treated her with the utmost harshness.
her to
carried
"Weinsberg,
and
As
and
her,
a last resource they
constituted
her
patient
of
Kerner.
This was on November 25th, 182G.
reached her
new abode more dead than
The unfortunate woman

alive.
It
was imperative
to give her every few minutes a spoonful of soup, to prevent her
swooning away.
Kerner's rebukes increased her misery
he had
been prejudiced against her by the reports that had reached his
ears,
and considered her a compound of hysteria and cunning.
He now
informed her, with the utmost sternness, that her pre-
tences of clairvoyance and magnetic slumber must at once cease.
He was
determined to listen to nothing which she said whilst
assuming
to
be
in
such a
state.
His opinion speedily altered.
During two and a half years he
continued to observe the manifestations which occurred to

Hauffe, becoming every day more
origin.
convinced
Like other clairvoyants she read
Madame
of their spiritual
letters
laid
upon her
body, which were enclosed between thick sheets of paper.
made many
predictions, and the predictions
were always
She
fulfilled.
174
Numerous
spirits
rendered themselves visible to her, and were
By means
recognised from the descriptions which she gave.
communications from one of these
up which had continued

any about
cause unpleasantness for nearly six
to
Eevelations were
beyond the scope of her

received
unknown
She executed various remarkable drawings under
her.
spirit-influence.
of
mystery was cleared
"Whilst in the magnetic sleep she spoke a language
years.
to
visitors, a
made through her immeasurably

normal
intellect in its
modicum
but the scantiest
She had
state.
of education
yet, without
ever having heard of those leaders of thought, she gave teachings

mystically resembling
attended her
certain
house in which she dwelt
of Pythagoras,
theories
Various physical manifestations
were thrown by
articles
abstruse
and Swedenborg.
Plato, Leibnitz,
invisible
hands about the
furniture rose and floated in the air
she was herself levitated several times.
On one
appeared a figure surrounded by a bluish
light,
occasion there
which
visible to all present.
All
who
" She was more than half a

;
was
is
not
candidly examine into the facts of the case
must agree with the great German's verdict regarding
spirits
it
became a firm
surprising that Kerner, from a determined sceptic,

spiritualist.
figure
In the face of evidence so strong
spirit,
and belonged
his patient.
to a wôrld of
she belonged to a world after death, and was more than
In her sleep only was she truly awake
half dead.
was the connection between
soul
and body
nay, so loose
that, like
Swedenborg,
she often went out of the body and could contemplate
it
sepa-
rately."
Obcrlin, the great pastor of Alsace, found, on
evangelical
labours
in
Steinthal,
commencing
that the people
belief in the return of the departed.
He was
his
had a devout
intensely grieved
that his parishioners should be attached to what he regarded as a
pernicious and degrading superstition.
from the pulpit
down
he reproved
the chimera.
facts caused
him
spirit-communion.
times
to
it
in private
He denounced
;
their fiiith
he set himself to reason
Far from succeeding, the stubborn
logic of
become himself a most earnest believer

His
departed wife
appeared to him
in
many
almost daily she sat conversing with him, and, describing

tbc coiulitions of
in the next world, counselled liim rof:,'iirding
life
Occasionally she was visible to others of
Lis undertakings in this.
These
the household.
175
continued for nine years;
visits
him
spirit-mcssago reached the good pastor, informing
then a
that his
wife had passed to a higher sphere, and could return no more.
Deprived of the comfort of her presence, Oberlin found a certain
upon the events of that long communion so
solace in meditation
In a simple and afiecting narrative
suddenly brought to an end.
he has recorded the particulars.

I
might extend
chapter
this
an incredible length by the
to
introduction, from the lives of other famous men, of spiritual facts
The renowned
highly worthy of notice.
therapeutist Gassner, the
Escheumayer, the
gentle and philosophic Lavater, the enlightened
learned and conscientious Schubert
youth the
Gcirrcs, in
liery
worshipper of freedom, in age the eloquent defender of Spiritualism;
the diligent
Ennemoser, the brilliant Kant, the great
greater Goethe,
to all these the next
their faith in its realities
made more
moments
that world being at
by the
vivid
partially
hemisphere,
spiritualists,
withdrawn.
In our
equally distinguished, have in
stood forth boldly from the

truth.
Want
common run
me
all
want
own
ages
of admiration for
doing honour to then" names.
nature of the task I have taken upon myself
is
opposed
frequent descent from the general to the particular.
The
to
I turn, there-
from the dim greatness of the past, casting, as I withdraw,
a look of lingering regard upon that noble

I
and
of men, and done battle
of space, and no
their valour, alone forbids
fore,
close,
which drapes
veil
France, in Italy, in Kussia, in every land of either
coiintry, in
for the
Schiller, the
world was brought
have been busied.
From
company amongst whom
the lights and shadows which exist
for us but in history, I turn to the living realities of the present.
With what pleasure docs the eye

believers long departed
in
which they
from earth
of the
!
How many
of us,
if
on the great
rest
Compared with
trod, the pilgrimage of a
"through pleasant meadows, and by the
mind
spiritualist
the
paths
of to-day
is
side of refreshing waters."
placed in the situation of these old heroes and
heroines, would cast
down every weapon and
flee
ignominiously
176
from the
fastly
light
to
the
How
end
few would have the heart

Servants
of
God were
to
endure stead-
they,
for
whom,
assuredly, the Master had reserved crowns of righteousness, and

to
whom,
nobler
as they passed into His presence,
army
of martyrs
earth has
gathered from every country and era.

gentle, the patriotic
are there.
with a
He
"
said " Well done
They
seldom seen.
The wise, the
Socrates, Polycarp, Hypatia,
are
pious, the
Savonarola
all
But, purest of the pure, greatest of the great, clothed
celestial glory, radiant
with an everlasting fame, towers up
foremost of that indomitable host the empress of womanhood, the

fear of England, the thunderbolt of France, the
age, the reproach of her
own.
hyperbole to say that every virtue had met.
high teacher of Plato
rises
features, of the daughter of
wonder
In that mind
it
is
of every
scarcely a
High above even the
the stately form, shine the beautiful
Heaven, Jeanne d'Arc.
Note. In composing the first and second parts of my \vork great assistance
has been afforded me 'hy Mr. "W. Hewitt's valuable " History of the Supernatural."
TAET
MODERN
III.
SPIRITUALISM.
CHAPTER
I.
INTRODUCTORY.
The
chapters
my
readers, the
For
yeai's I
a cause in
now opening
are to myself, and I trust will prove to
most interesting and important of the volume.
have seen with pain abuse
whose
service
my
after abuse attach itself to
has been passed, and with which
life
such foulnesses have nothing in common.
So wonderfully have
these parasites increased and mixltiplied, that, like a pearl crusted
with gpots of
dirt,
the purity and beauty of the original
at present almost hidden
my
and
conviction, that between spiritualism
abuses
b}*
which
it
is
disgraced there
as between a precious stone

cling to
seem
I cannot too strongly reiterate
is
and the majority

just as
little
in
of the
common
and the mud which may happen
to
Perceiving this, and guided by promptings altogether
it.
apart from
my own
whilst the
beauty and radiance
mind, I determined to write a work in which,

of the truth
were
sufficiently
dwelt upon, the corruptions ever striving to darken and degrade

were, in the interests of that truth, analyzed and exposed.
it
An
experience exceedingly varied, and
extending over a period of
five-and-twenty years, gives me, to
my own
me
to the
title
to
mind, and will give
minds of the reasoning portion of humanity,
be heard.
have none.
The
sufficient
Pecuniary motives in publishing this work

desire to create a sensation
is
equally far from
MODERN
178
As a duty
influencing me.
I accepted the task,
and as a duty
endeavour dispassionately and unshrinkingly to
shall
no attacks
shall level
and making
facts,
truth will be
tricksters
upon
who
my
am
honest and intelligent lovers of that
all
am
side I
That
certain.
any way bigoted
ing impostui'e, will join in a
common
to or
the dupes and
all
concerned in uphold-
chorus of fury against me,
Indeed, of the verity of both hypotheses I
also conscious.
have already been afforded convincing proof.
made known by an advertisement
briefly
it.
attempt
the philosophy of those facts,
That
are in
fulfil
but will simply, by recording
at individuals,
plain
to serve the truth.
SPIRITUALISM.
the
Some time back I

in which I was
work
engaged, and asked for assistance in points where I considered
Not
that assistance might be of service.
tioned or even hinted at
a single
name was men-
not an allusion made which could be
considered as directed against the fame of any individual in the

Generalities were
old world or the new.
that I dealt in,
all
seldom have generalities raised such a storm.
was
and
assailed,
both openly and anonymously, with slander, lying charges, foul

personalities,
venomous abuse
in short with every weapon which
most unscrupulous partisan hatred can
the
object of
its
It
hostility.
been forewarned
of.
was what
If the attacks
moments, the support
I expected,
the
efi'ect
and
vvhat I
the
had
made on me have moved me
at
have received from within and without,
and the consciousness of the rectitude of
made
direct against
but that of a moment.
my
The
intentions,
have
few, but of course
unpleasant anonymous letters sent me, I pass over with contempt.
To
carry such emanations to the nearest fireplace
human being can
ordinary
Of
do.
my
life
the evil spoken of
me by
matter of extreme indifi'erence.
who have
large cu'cle of friends,
from
my
desire
no more.
childhood.
of calumny,
that
there
it
is
Had
that an
open, and thus more
respectable enemies, I need say almost equally
my
all
is
little.
All through
me a
am fortunate in possessing a
in many instances known me
outsiders has been to
Their esteem and resjêct I have, and I

that esteem been vulnerable to the assaults
would have been shaken long

scarcely
ere
now.
I believe
any crime, or any mode of deception,
INTR OD UCTOR Y.
79
Some
possiMo or impossible, which has not been imputed to mc.
of these I might have accomplishetl unaided, but in by far the

greater
number accomplices wouhl have been imperatively neces-
sary.
The
impossibility of
had these accomplices

contrive
me
dealt
in the
my, under the circumstances, having

which scandal-mongers invariably
a point
have said that when a cowardly stab
forget.
to
is
dark I bear
quietly
it
having confidence in the
good sense of my friends, and caring nothing
may
to
think, or profess to think.
my
There
moral character.
medium
As
and the new.
hended by myself,
is
enemies
It is far
contempt on " the
impugned.
when my
otherwise
am
In this I
the exponent
adherents by millions in both the old world
its
the servant of a
I
my
belong to myself, and conscious
small whispers of the paltry few."
of a cause counting
what
for
speak this simply with reference
of their baselessness, can look with forgiving
character as a
is
am
power outside
of,
and uncompre-
compelled to protect this phase of
racter from misconception
and misrepresentation.
my
cha-
Where, through
the malignancy of enemies, libels tending to throw" suspicion on

particular manifestations occurring through
I
have uniformly,
if
me have been
able to trace those libels
succeeded in proving them groundless.
their
to
If in the case of
inquirers doubt has arisen, I have always found
my
best
I like,
and honest
and have always
sceptic.
rule, pertinent
phenomena
with reason
is
liked, to
meet with an
The questions asked by such
and natural.
to
may
intelligent
a one are, as a
His reluctance to accept untested
only the natural reluctance which
feel
honest
remedy
would be repeated through me, and repeated
under conditions utterly precluding the idea of trickery.
add that
source,
Again and again the particular manifesta-
to be perfect passivity.
tion called in question
circulated,
commit themselves
all
beings gifted
blind faith in the
to a
unknown, and readily vanishes when that unknown becomes the
known and proved. I have never myself found the spu-it-world

" up in arms," when confronted with a doubter of this class.
Can there by any possibility be a more illogical cry than that
vociferated
everywhere
at
the
present
appears and re-appears under a hundred
N 2
day
ditl'erent
The same
shapes,
folly
" Make
MODERN
i8o
cries one, " to
no attempt,"
SPIRITUALISM.
" Let us
desire no converts," adds a second.
enthusiastic and easily
duped from our
Such are the insane utterances which

sensible spiritualists,
" The
bring over sceptics."

sliut
out
up
dii-ectly
spirits
but the
proposes a third.
seances,''
at present grieve
and which lead
all
and disgust
to the frauds it
my aim to denounce and expose. I am confident of reckoning

on my side all whose ej'es are fairly opened to the imminence of the
is
evils
which menace our cause.
inimical to
its
The
best friends of spiritualism are
Men
present aspect.
who have
of science
investi-
gated or would desire to investigate the subject, arc repelled by

the attitude which certain calling themselves spiritualists assume,
and by the seething mass of
and imposture which every
folly
This condition of things has
attempt at examination discloses.

long been to
me
I determined
wonder and
After
a grief.
apprised various friends of
consideration,
intention,
it,
and requested their
Those opinions were in the majority of
counsel and opinions.

instances favourable.
my
much
Before commencing
on the present work.
was pleased
to find that a wide-spread
conviction existed, both of the necessity of such a protest as this
volume constitutes, and of
To
my
fitness for the task of uttering
it.
give the whole, or even the greater part, of the letters which
have encouraged
me
is
impossible
returning thanks to their writers.

spiritualists, old
Aveight in the
and I content myself with
But there are
movement, whose expressions of opinion
and have obtained permission to quote.

the reader the sentiments of
The former writes
"My beak
"
certain prominent
and much valued friends of mine, and names of
to
my
me (under
friends,
Let
me
I desire,
submit
Mr. and Mrs.
first
to
S. C. Hall.
date 11th January, 1876)
Daxiel.
know that you have been called upon to do this

an inspired call
that you are the only person
who could do it, and that you will be aided by holy, good, and pure
Christian spirits and angels sent direct by God.
1 shall pray fervently
for help to yoii in your holy work.
" Spiritualism now is in a sad state of disorder, and is producing
frightfully evil work. It may be
released
1 trust and believe it will be
Wfirk
rejoice to
believe
it is
INTR OD UCTOR V.
iiiid
relieved from the burilt'u of filth that weighs
18
it (lo\vii,
and,
repent,
do the work so ettectuully as you can.

" You will pray you have prayed for the guidance of God and our
Lord Clirist, and the direct help of lieatified angels. You ^vill have
nobody liviug
in tlus life eau
all these, I
am
very sure.
M. and I had much talk over this matter last night, when your
letter came
and she bids me say, witli her alfoctionate regards, that she
takes exactly the same view as I do and with im- ])iays that Clod will
lie your guide.
We are fully sure He will be.
"
"
The excuse for trickery I now

come in,' and do th(; tricks
spirits
I'esponsible
fraud
find to be that evil or ileceptive
for which the medium
'
that in a normal state he or she
is
really not
would be incapable of
that the spirits do the cheating independently of them.
But surely such spirits, such Acaiiccs, such persons, are to be

avoided
each and all shunned, in private or in public circles. It is the
'
pitch that cannot be touched without defilement.
"
Ever your
friend,
" S. C. Hall."
" It is clear to us, my dear Daniel," writes Mrs. Hall, " that (xod has
spared you for the express purpose of proving pure spiritualisnr to be
the handmaid of Christianity
that is what I always believed it
:
to be."
The following
lines are
from the pen of that eloquent defender
of true spiritualism, Mr. William Howitt

" This,
my
Home, is what I said so much disgusted me with

The petty clicpies, the low aims, the spites and
spiritualists; the lying mediums and- hdng spirits who speak
dear Mr.
the spiritualists.
factions of
through them, confirm everything that the outsiders say of spiritualism

being from the devil. The materialists, Cai"penter, G. H. Lewes, the
Times, are always writing against spiritualism, but they produce no
effect.
The thing lives in spite of them but, if anything can kill it, it
will be the follies and contemptible meannesses of the spiritualists
;
themselves."
" I have been informed by two or three people," Dr. Sexton tells me
(June 6th, 1876), " that you have given up the idea of publisliing your
new book. Is that so 1 I hope not. The need for such a work increases
day by day in fact, if something be not done and speedily to put an
:
end
to the outrageous trickery that passes cuiTent
under the guise of
whole thing will be ruined.

The worst part of it is
mediums who have been caught cheating are still tolerated in the
movement, and defended by men whose sole business ought to be to
drive them out of our ranks.
I have to suffer terrililv for the course I
spiritualism, the
that
MODERN
82
SPIRITUALISM.
my advocacy
avoided and shunned hy great numbers, and
Still I shall go on doing what I
denounced a.s a traitor to tlie cause.
believe to be riglit, and leave the issue to God."
Avith
my
of Cliristianity, I
am
What
take.
In a previous
denunciation of the tricksters, and
letter
he says
" It is really heart-breaking that a noble cause should be thus di-agged
mud.
in the
you saw the
If
know
that you feel
it
would grieve more
keenly as
it is."
has been again and again repeated to
It
medium
other
extracts
in favour of
which would seem
on the subject from

tlian you do, and I
letters that I receive
good, pious, Chi'istian men, you
my
work.
me that I should find no

me submit a couple of
Let
In a letter
to disprove this assertion.
dated February 17th, 1876, Mrs. K. Fox-Jencken thus expresses
her sympathy with the objects I have in view

''My
dear Mr. Home,
"I
was very happy to hear from you, and to learn that you
were writing such an important book. I am truly glad, and I think it
Anything that I
will be one of tlie most valuable works ever written.
can do to aid you in bringing it forth I will do with all my heart. No
one has dared to do this except yourself I was myseK contemplating it
but thought I woidd wait. Some good spirit must have admonished you
to do it.
;
" Yours,
" K. F. Jencken."
*'
I know," writes Mrs. jF. Sunderland Cooper to me, " that
are doing a
work which
and truthful medium

propose to do.
tations in
New
is
will give
England.
call
and
I think
you
every honest
you a helping hand.
was then a mere
all
And
this I
('
child.
My
father
paper ever published in the
you have no doubt heard of him.
spiritualism are
and dark seancism
them) are
just,
first spiritual
Dr. Laroy Sunderland
But the pioneers of

gibberish,
and
I gave the first public seance for spiritual manifes-
edited and published the
world
right
pushed on one
Punch and Judy
side,
and Indian
shows,'
as
these dark circles, no matter
investigators for the truth, arc allowed to go on, and upheld
some
you
And the mediums who have

how many times they are exposed by
the rage now.
of the spiritual papers of the day."
by
INTRODUCTORY.
With these qnotations
persons styling themselves
185
may rest content. There are variouf?

"mediums" whose approbation I should
be veiy sorry to have for any work of mine, but whose opposition
I consider a striking testimony to its value.
To
Only a fortnight back there
return to pleasanter themes.
reached me, from an esteemed co-worker in the cause of truth,
accompanying expression of opinion
the
"
My
kkspected Friend,
''iiei)t 1st,
187G.
" Your most unexpected, but, I must assure you, most welcome
came two weeks ago, but found me sufferin,!^' from fever, from
letter,
which
to
at
.sit
have only so
my
time to be able
been otherwise 1 should have \vTitten by
far recovered as to-day for the first
Had
desk.
it
return mail a Godspeed to the great and needed enterprise in which

are engaged.
prepare
is
so
make them
We here
is
you
needed, and no one can
are in a .strange state of transition
by the mediums the

The demand for marvels
the larger the camel oflered
for the credulous
insatiate
to
me
you propose
like that
better than you.
seems to
aiul it
l)(;tter
it
A book
mass of swallowers.
great that, like

greater.
a class propose to shut
tlieii'
eyes
Hpiritualism will run a brief career to ruin
it
on faci.^,
well observed and recorded, and the mass of loose observations which
In my connection as re\iewer ^vith
passes for such is of little account.
the press, I am amazed at the mass of rubbish borne on this great tide.
this tide is not at once stayed.
It is a gi-eat science.
'
It rests
Most fraternally yours,

"
Hudson
Tuttle."'
Such are samples of the communications. which have from time

to time cheered
me
friendly opinion of
whilst I laboured on the present work.
my
task,
Every
however, has not been so favourable.
Of the dissuasive counsels tendered me, some have evidently proceeded from a misconception of
William Crookes, writes to
me
my
aims.
Thus
my
friend,
Mr.
" Jan. 2lst, 1876.

"I
<l<i
am
any
(loul)tful
real good.
whether such
book
as yoTi propose to publish will
You know mediums have
the reputation of being
êry jealous one of another, and conse(|Ucntly, any accusations whicli

m;iy be brought l)y one against another, however well sujiported they
may be by facts, are explained away in this manner. And even when
two partners f[uan-el, and one makes a clean breast of it, or when one
medium makes a confession of fraud, and explains how it is done, very
MODERN
l84
few
SPIRITUALISM.
them, but will rather
tliorougli-goiiig spiritualists will Relieve
the agency of Ixid
call in
spiiits, trance, &c.
"Another thing you must bear
mind
in
you,
or
any other
or
I,
may
be perfectly sure that cheating is

being perpetrated by some professed mediiun we may even liave had a
tolerablj' clear-headed observer
by the medium that the whole thing is a frand yet it

may be so difficult as to amount practically to an impossibility to bring
this fraud home to the impostor in so clear a manner as would compensate one for the vexation and trouble which would thereby be caused."
full confession
have no intention of making charges against particular persons.
I simply design to put the array of facts
which
have collected
in
so clear and strong a light that the reasoning portion of the world
may
find
it
easy tp draw conclusions from the said
the unreasoning portion of humanity

that
such outbursts as
is
it
should proceed.
following
the
From
facts.
of course quite natural
remarked that the writer is of mature years, and claims the

" a leading American spiritualist.'"
Be
it
title
of
" March lOth, 1876.

SURPRISE
Marvel
Have the heavens fallen
upon you, Mr. Home, and crushed out j-onr humanity
Have you
" AsTOXiSHJiENT
forgotten the golden rule of Confricius
Do
HaveDo you
been in vain 1
believe in one of the unvarying laws of God compensation ?
" You may be taldng the bull by the horns,' Ijut you are certainly
entering the field, as it were, of the deadly rattlesnake, that warns you,,
ami does not strike without a warning. Your road befoi'e you is a
T)road one,' but it leads to destruction
for, as sine as there is a God, as
sure as justice, sooner or later, hoimds o\it malice and evil, so siu'e you
will be called to account for your slanders and I write advisedly.
" I cannot think of a more ungracious, ill-repaying tusk than that of
Christ's teachings,
'
Love one
'
unto
others,' &c.
another,' &c.,
'
'
exposing the faults of others. ' I will repay,' says the Lord, and can
you not trast to Him ] Every ' exposure,' however true and u-ell-sitstained
it
may
])ath.
be,
will only be a thorn
a sharp, a cnxel thornin your future
YoTir alliance with the Russian nobility, yoiu' high social position
in England, will not shield yoii. You will fall like Lucifer, and, if not
with a bullet through your head,* I believe it will he with shame and
soiTOW in your heart. You will go down to your graAe mourned by few
iKit despised by many
whereas you have it in your power no, you had
it, to make the world rejoice that you had lived
You Anil doubt-
* Did Lucifer fall " with a bullet through his
head?"
hardly bo surprised at .Shaksjioare's assurance that those

Lucifer,
"never
to rise again."
If so,
who
we need
fall, fall
like
INTRODUCTORY.
say that you only ])romul^Mti'.
loss
spoken
man
at all times
or a
imih.
tlic
truth to-day
is
imth even
Is the
may
to be
not be so to-morrow.
be immoral this year, and as pure as an
the
anj^'el
upon tlie eross Avas I'orj^'iven at the last moment.

eondemn thee, neither do I," was the beautiful exj)reKsiou
Him who loved so much, and saiil, Let hiniwho is witlioiit sin throw
Xone
(if
woman may
The
next.
What
185
thief
of these
'
the
first
was a
]>erson
many 'revivals' mean that the

now become good and while you might
converted ones, You are a vile wretch, u
Conversions at our
stone.'
sinner,
and
lias
have said of some of these

drunkard, a slanderer (meaning you were '), yoii would have done a
great A\Tong and spoken falsely, whereas a little while before it might
'
'
'
liave l)een the truth.
'But really what have
to
ire
dn with
tlic
faults
what did he say
(if
others?
Pluck
When
beam,"
Mind your own Inisiness, and let your
(.^c.
and this im})lied more
irother alone
and if you had done this, Mr. Home, you would have
withlield a stinging shaft that will return to you, a bitter draught you
will sooner or later be obliged (or your memory will) to accept
Now, Îr. Home, .... I cannot but ask God to forgive you, for you
know not what you do.' The interior 'light' of which Christ spoke, I
am morally certain you do not possess, and I beg of you, wnth all the
earnestness I can command, with nuudi admiration of the good you have
done as a wonderful medium, to seek that light. Moses, Plato, Jesus,
Apollonius, Plotinus, Pythagoras, Porphyrins
and in more modern
times. Bacon, Flood, Cagliostro, the Fakirs of India, had this light, and
It is God's divine truth
tlie Fakirs have it now.
the absolute wisdom
Christ turned to the back-biters
:
'
tlie
'
; '
'
and perfect
"
....
intelligence of the Buddhists.

I
pray for your health and happiness.

" G.
Such
si)nile
is,
."
with the exception of a few omitted sentences, a
of this incomparable production.
charity leads
him
so benevolently to pray for
enough
in return to abstain
on his
letter is,
from giving
his
me, I
name.
of course, almost impossible.
am
benevolent
To comment
I cannot refrain,
however, from lingering a moment over that astonishing

" possessors of the mterior
from such a comparison,
J'ac-
Since the writer's large
list
of
light."'
Omitting the name of Christ
may we
not expect to hear soon that
"Socrates, Solomon, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Nebuchadnezzar in

ancient times
and Sir Isaac Newton, Dr. Mesmer, Joe Smith,
and Messrs. Maskelyne and Cooke
in
more modern days, were pro-
phets of God, and Maskelyne and Cooke are his prophets
now"?
MODERN
86
SPIRITUALISM.
Unsatisfied with inflicting on
the writer
Here
written pages.
You
"
say you
which excellently
illustrate
a great invalid.
ai'e
paralyzed,
still
such a letter as the foregoing,
are a few extracts
the character of then- author
man
me
hard-hearted enough to add a postscript of two closely
is
who came by
person told
me
that
knew a
One day
lie
his misfortune in this wise.
he had been abusing unmercifully a child left to his care by a deceased

brother ; and, as the man, or brute, passed out of the room, the deceased
brother met him in the hall (so he says) and with a mighty blow felled
him to the earth. He arose paralyzed, and still sits thus in his chaii'.
' Wliom
the gods wish to destroy,' &c. God, v-ill not, our c/ood loving God,
will not help you to publish your book
" Now, Îr. Home, as a brother spiritualist, as one who wishes you
well, as one
who
will pray for your liberation fi'om these lui-Christ-like
who
(habolical spirits, as one
is
much your
senior in years, take
advice and abandon, the idea and the practice of exposing
others,
my
and you
and thank God, and the loving, forgiving Jesus, for being
see already how you are accused publicly of being
of the Jesuits
and hosts A\'iU believe it, and hate you
will thank me,

led to do
now
for
'
You
it.
a tool
'
it.
"
God
enlighten you
is
the prayer of
" Yours,
" G.
man
Strange that a
letters
such as this
and pass on.
seems
I
to
."
should reduce himself to the writing of
Let us blush once more
To be angry with the
me sunk
human
for
efi"usion is
natui'e,
impossible, for
it
even beneath the level of contempt.
might quote other
letters of the
as the foregoing, they
would
pall.
kind
but, after such a jewel
I content myself, therefore,
with remarking that the intellectual capacity of
all
these corre-
spondents appears to be of about the same calibre, and that the

said calibre
is
The moral
not extensive.
status of such people
mental capacity.
is
as little satisfactory as their
Like Sheridan's Sir Benjamin, they have a
pretty turn for slander.
If
no falsehoods are
hand, they set themselves to coin a few.

audacity to print these fabrications.
to he
had second-
They even have the
Towards the
close of
187G
there appeared in an American newspaper, the Cincinnati
Com-
INTRODUCTORY.
187
an attack upon myself, purporting to be furnisbod by
mcrcliil,
English correspondent, a Unitarian preacher.
known
am
for th(! assertions attributed to
unable to say authoritatively
In any case,
that they are not.
None
its
the well-
authors whose names this obscure journalist makes use of
any way responsible
aio in
Whether
deny the
whether
said assertions in toln.
my
of the adventures fabricated for the injury of
tion ever occurred,
them
but I should decidedly fancy
at Florence or elsewhere
repulu-
and
I (an
only regret that the correspondent of a journal of any standing (to

Avhich class I
to the
imagme the Commercial
to belong) should descend
ungentlemanly behaviour of giving
he must surely
know
to be
cii'culation to stories that
His
without authority or foundation.
animosity against spiritualism
no doubt great, but
is
can hardl}'
be expected to admit that as an excuse.

lie
One person writes
docs not stand alone.
Avcll-kuown fact of the hand of Napoleon
a icance
is
He
me
that the
occuiTence of the manifestation in question.
may have
who
name,
his
adds that he placed himself
munication with the late Emperor of the French,
business connections
to
having been seen, during
up a pen and inscribe
at the Tuilcries, to take
an invention of mine.
I.
in
com-
denied the
Possibly this person's
brought him into communication
with some one in the Emperor's culinary department.
doubt the possibility of such a correspondence as
last
this
do not
;
but
that his Majesty should have condescended to gratify the personal

dislike of the individual in question
towards
hood
My
I both doubt
I published the
and
disbelieve.
the
telling a false-
account of the phenomenon in question
Had no such
before the death of Napoleon III.
occurred,
me by
correspondent forgets that
assertion
many
years
manifestation
would not long have remained uncon-
tradicted.
A
a
would-be controller of both
threatening
letter
spirits
from America.
and spiritualism writes mo

After piling slander
upon
slander and falsehood on falsehood, he crowns the editice with the
promise of publishing " a complete history of the
he wish to spare
in the second
me
trouble
'?
Lyou
case."
Does
have published half the evidence
volume of " Incidents
in
My
Life," and I intend that
MODERN
88
SPIRITUALISM.
the remainder, togetlicr witli the judgment of Y.-C. Giffard, shall
appear in the third.
For there are many
with
opinions afloat regarding this same
false
Thus, a London magistrate, when favouring the world
case.
and justice
of law
ideas
hia
must perforce
me
introduce
and a " professional medium."
of the injuring party in the suit
was
I never
medium.
a professional
are I have
doubly incorrect character
the
in
Against
men and women
For myself, however,
have
through
all
gift
bestowed on me.
but
it
gives me, I think, a
title to
but a single
for
and they have been invariably refused.

;
an invincible
felt
life
Large sums of money have been offered me
of the fact
vvho
nothing to say, provided that they be but honest.
repugnance to making merchandise of the
scanrc,
of Dr. Slade,
case
the
in
make no boast
utter such a protest
against the abuses of spiritualism as these chapters constitute.
And now
my
I proceed to
task.
am
If I
bound up
apart,
to
advance whose mighty truths I have laboured
An
quarter of a century past.

like a
wrong
inflicted
on myself.
I utter
my
true spiritualists to action and unity.

to a noble corn-field.
thereon, so shall
we
it
and
may
The wide
plain
is
before us.
Lovers of the truth
reap.
the one
enemy
but a thousand enemies, whose delight
We,
the tares of falsehood.

right to
"
uproot these.
111
as the
to a
than the
Children
whose one
last,
As
will desire
There are
of the scriptural wheat-field,

it
is
to be ever scattering
weeds grow apace," and,

life
if
left
to
from the delicate corn.
rank maturity, and flaunt everywhere their gaudily
coloured flowers.
spiritualists
all
husbandmen, have a perfect
flourish unchecked, speedily sap the
They come
I utter
rouse
Spiritualism can well be
that the harvest should consist solely of that truth.
among us, however, not
for a
protest, then, against
that protest as a species of alarum which, I hope,
we sow
is
injury done to that cause, I feel
the follies and knaveries which at present disgrace
compared
only
err
whole being
an exponent of which I was early set
in the cause as
and
wrong, I
My
through the sincere desire of doing good.
or those
desire
and who
may
is
credulous and enthusiastic
some new marvel more
fitly
incredible
be compared to children
are
IXTRODUCrORY.
attracted
by the worthless
189
plauis, and, trampIiDg
down
with contempt, hasten to secure the showy toys.
them of
convince
their
error
When
Among
known mo
recollection
shall
any
W.
ours to
weed has been

in its full glory,
point with pride to the cheering sight before us, and cry,
" See that for which

Note.
the last
Truth smiles
extirpated, and the golden harvest of
liave
the wheat
is
and, while seeking to convince,
destroy the causes of that error.
wc may
It
striven
"
!
the readers of those pages will doubtless be
my
many who
and who may preserve the

of interesting incidents which have escaped my memory.
1
consider
details
we have
at varioiis periods of
it
a personal favour
of these bygone
Crookes, Esq.,
F.R
S,, 20,
if
career,
such will kindly furnish
mo
with
manifestations, &c,, addressed to the care of
IMornington Road, N.W., London, England.
CHAPTER
11.
DELUSIONS.
One
of the most delicate yet
my work
momentous portions of
that "with which I deal in this and the following chapter.
hard to know
how
In
dishonest.
hest to treat of those who, themselves deluded,
Such
delude others.
is
It is
many
culprits
against
progress need
not
be
instances a latent and perhaps unsuspected
insanity lurks at the bottom of the whole; in others, overweening

pride, or love of rule, forms the motive
on
to
ruin.
But
power of the wild rush
the subtly mingled causes
to analyze
of the
disastrous effects which have from time to time brought misery to
many and
work
of
all
astonishment to
like this.
pohties
and
religions.
point out the graves where
must expect
all,
These wrecks
lie
would be beyond the scope of a

lie
scattered through the histories
They
arc the tombstones
which
buried the errors of the past.
to find such in spiritualism.
We
Let us, then, turn our
attention to them, not in curiosity, not in contemptuous scorn,
but with a desire to shape from these landmarks of ruin, beacons
which may warn the future from such dangerous ground.

In every instance where a dictatorship
lished in spiritual matters,
it
is
sought to be estab-
behoves lovers of the truth to join
in resistance to an attempt so inimical to the dearest interests of
that truth.
The weaker portion of mankind have ever been but
too ready to kneel in worship before such gods of clay, and the
one course that their stronger brethren can take

the hideousness and impotence of the idol.
is,
demonstrate
to
Had
method of
searching scrutiny and prompt denunciation of unfounded claims
been instituted by the undeceived portion of those
to
Avhom such
DELUSIONS.
were
claims
many movements, mistakenly termed

There aro
might have been checked at the outset.
religious,
men
subniittcil,
191
and
women
injustice
that
crowns.
In
not less often than
should
they
all
who have
not
men
who
hold
striven to found sects or communities,
and establish themselves as the high-priests of such,

dominant,
has been
teristic
which
enthusiasm,
grosa
it
have been born to mitres or
aids
in
conjoined
usually
attracting
minds
this charac-
with a certain
though
weaker,
Such always
perhaps yet more enthusiastic, than their own.
render blind submission to the energy which has fascinated them,
become the
and
prophetess,
blindest
I recall
adorers
an instance
in
pseudo-prophet
the
of
or
which a young man of good
position, possessed of high literary gifts, and, in his earlier years,
of sound judgment,
was submitted
to
an ordeal
have
sufficient to
He emerged
utterly
overwhelmed any ordinary organization.
from
with his intellectual power almost unscathed, but the
it
a reason once eminently masculine
injur}' Avhich
was
sufficiently
evinced.
adherent of one
tioning
He became
among
the
the
had undergone
humble and unques-
pseudo-religious charlatans
referred to.
It is not to be
at
doubted that these " God-inspired" beings arc
times sincere in their wild visions and impracticable theories.
who, being yet more advanced
So are those
sincere,
idiosyncrasies,
and having them
less
their
in
under control, are entitled
"dangerous madmen,"' and restrained
in
asylums.
Yet
the
much
insanity partially swayed by reason of the one
is,
more dangerous than the raging madness,
which no suspicion
of reason enters, of the
nor,
if
other.
into
in reality,
Bedlam makes no proselytes
the whole of the tenants of asylums were let loose in a
body, could they do more than appal, disgust, and perhaps injure
bodily, those of
mankind who encountered them.
teems with the mischief which minds,

but
still
But
all
history
less disordered than these,
disordered, and accompanied with an energetic will and
a restless thirst for domination, can do to natures weaker than

their
own.
might produce instances from every century of the
Christian era, but a reference to the nineteenth will be sufficient
MODERN
192
my
for
SPIRITUALISM.
Joanna Southcote and Joe Smith,
purpose.
instances out of many, lived and worked
Of
unfinished.
harm
one where such as
beliefs spiritualism is the
all
may most
choose to assume to themselves a prophetic character
We
readily expect to find adherents.
are granted proofs of the
who have been
continued existence of the loved and lost ones

released from the fetters of earth, and
those through
upon
whom
as gifted with
such proof
some
We who
This
mediums have
are
natures of others.
It is,
it
is
not unnatural that
granted should be looked
is
quality of soul superior to the
ments of their fellow-men.
is
two
to select
in the century yet
endow-
a sad and most fatal error.
no way natures stronger than the
in
on the contrary, unquestionable, that the
supersensitiveness of our organization causes us to be but
more
through a medium should be tried by the most searching
and rejected or accepted as

sense and reason.
may
Naturally I regard the humbler

is,
to
my
ordinary
experience, a
fijres
of
tests,
common
on manifesting, may simply describe
spirit,
himself as John Smith, or
bears the refining
it
the
Every teaching obtained
and led astray.
easily influenced
assure
me
name with
that he
is
Socrates.
the less suspicion.
more probable thing
It
that he should be an
Englishman than a great Greek.
Besides,
as
John
Smith he may, without making pretension to superior wisdom,

give to
Mary Smith,
his mother,
overwhelming proofs of
Here the outside world can have no pretext
identity.
for interference.
Should he, however, arrogate to himself the position of a teacher,

others than
Mary Smith must be allowed
validity of his claims.
the great truth that death
is
to decide respecting the
enough
All fortunate
are interested in deciding whether spirits or

that
evil
is
good and
folly
to
be convinced of
rather an awakening than a sleep,
wisdom
that
mediums who teach
man
is
destined
to
undergo transformations as numerous as those of the harlequin in

a pantomime, and, returning continually to the stage of earthly
life,
play more parts there than Shakspeare ever dreamed of; or
that doing evil that good
God
may come
or that beings in either world
is
acceptable in the sight of
who appear by
and doctrines children of darkness are
their actions
in reality angels of light;
DELUSIONS.
shall
bo permittcil with impunity to poison the muuls of those
weak enough
I
193
know
and admire.
to listen
own cause
that not in our
Crimes and vices of a hue often
to be found.
solely is evil
than anything which
far darker
has disgraced spiritualism are to be met disgracing
religious
denominations everywhere throughout the world, for the same

rules
beliefs
which apply
to
mediums apply
having reference to a
mass of
life
to
the
to
priests, pastors, rabbis, or
exponents of
What
come.
whatsoever these shepherds
of souls choose to be termed, have inculcated in
and centuries, the
religious
of infamy in
with inconceivable crimes bear witness.
possibility of
it.
Has not
It is,
whom,
and sword
fire
w^hen
town
and
was
how
these Christians
in its origin so beautiful
thousand years, a mockery and a
'?
Was
of thirty
to
heretics
not the legate Arnold,,
it
thousand inhabitants, part
The task
of the Catholic host for instructions ?
Roman
fold
With a blasphemy unmatched
the Gordian knot.
many
!
had been taken by storm, came the captains
the Albigenses the sheep of the
all
but too true
Did Dominic and De Montfort preach
heretic part Catholic,
Solomon.
alas,
the saying, " See
true, been, for at least a
with aught but
faith in the
But what of the adherents of every
love one another," a saying which
by-word
common
regard each other, in
spirits,
It
spiritualists excessive
professing a
deadliest hate.
deeply do I regret
orthodox faith
men
communion with
cases, with the
to
among
pointed out by our enemies that
disunion exists, and that
and so
at
the depths
which ministers of every creed have plunged them-
selves, annals stained

is
To
times been convulsed sufficiently prove.
diflferent
countries
all
by which the world has
strifes
all
teachings
fatal
of selecting from
might have perplexed
in history,
Arnold cut
"Kill them," said the holy man, "kill them
the Lord can choose his own."

Did not Torquemada, again, burn,
in an inquisitoriate of less
than the tenth part of a century, above five thousand unhappy

wretches, and torture and imprison ten times the
he slew
Did not
a pontiff of the
number
whom
Catholic* Church decree a
solemn thanksgiving because some sixty thousand heretics had

o
MODERN
194
been
massacred
Bouchier
France
in
SPIRITUALISM.
Did
Cranmer
not
Did not Calvin burn Servetus
hang, draw, and quarter every Catholic priest
hands
Have not
Catholics
Joan
burn
Did not Elizabeth
who
into her
fell
persecuted Protestants, Calvinists
persecuted Lutherans, Puritans persecuted Papists, with a fury

utterly antagonistic to the teachings of Christ
it
And,
finally, is
not altogether certain that there exist bigots in every Church
who, did the greater enlightenment of their brethren permit,
would plant the stake
None can
regret
movement whose
spiritual
But what
mediums
little
welfare
as
Are they not as
sacred trusts confided to
"modern
more than
liable
them
as
The
spiritualism " sprang into prominence
quarter of a century since.
day
which degrade that
evils
have so much at heart.
of the clergy of to-day ?

to betray the
movement known
a
in the market-places of the present
more than myself the
During that
quarter of a century nu.merous wickednesses have unquestionably
been committed by men and

diums.
And what
women
or
really
of clergymen within the
professedly me-
same period
Have
not murder and every imaginable crime been committed over and
over again within the

of orthodox folds ?
last
twenty- five
Have they
forgotten the sacredness of the
by the shepherds
years
not, in but too
work
to
many
and brought ruin and infamy into once happy homes

their immorality a proverb in
many
by the greed of gold and the

commit deeds recorded
it
countries ?
lust
instances,
which they are devoted,

?
Is not
Have they
not,
of power, been tempted to
in characters of everlasting blackness ?
Is
not their mission to preach peace, and have they not often by
every means in their power incited to the shedding of blood
Within the past

flag of declared
fifteen
war
years I have
known clergymen
nail the
sermons delivered
to their steeples, and, in
within walls dedicated to the worship of a loving God, prompt

his children to
who were
mutual slaughter.
faithful servants
worked earnestly below

to come.
It
is
to
I have
known clergymen also,

men and true, who
of Christ, good
fit
themselves and others for the
life
not as an attack on the Churches that I have
written the paragraphs to be found above
simply desire to
DELUSIONS.
point
the
old
moral that to err
195
human, ami,
is
a certain
as
analogy exists between the position of the clergy and that of
mediums,
parison.
Similar temptations try both classes.
have selected the clergy for the purposes of com-
Both are
liable
seek to become masters where, in fitness, they should serve.
to
The same
duties arc incumbent
of congregations
that
crowd
them expound the Divine
to hoar
who
word, and on the medium
on the men who sway the minds
has, in the order of nature, been
apart as a chosen instrument through
set
zation
is
come
to
whose peculiar organi-
the refutation of the fallacy that the things
pcz'mittcd
are " unheard, unfelt,
whom
and unseen," and through
the realities of the next world are brought close to those
who
have not yet experienced the change called death, that, inspired
higher and holier actions, the " i)laces "
to
ones which, according to
may
be honourable
them
merits, shall be prepared for
theii"
there.
"In my
"I
house are many mansions,"
Father's
go to prepare a place for you."
said
Christ;
all
denomi-
'Christians of
nations are too apt to lose sight of this great fundamental truth.
most perfect explanation and reconciliation of the supposed

teachings
discrepancies of spiritual
save the peculiar

refuse to believe.
were spoken.
of fanatics
class
The darkest hour
Hebrews approached
Messiah
fell
the
contained
who deny
shadow
"
its
Father's
house
was
in the life of
at
The
hand.
consummation
Yet,
of the cross.
and,
rejoicing,
mansions" and the "places" there

? "
Him
above
can
"
who had
great crime
already upon
when
of
the
earth yielded
his nearness to
"
many
men
many mansions," and why
thought
of
to be prepared.
be made alike at death what need of "

seek to " prepare a place
the
hereafter
no ray of love or hope, Christ rejoiced because of

the
in
under which they
Eecall the circumstances
not where to lay his head

the
is
That they were inspired, none
heavenly and inspired words.
"Were the
dogma
the
If all
correct, that
from
earth the "elect" depart to a uniform assembling point, "before
the throne of God," there, arrayed in the same white robes and
wearing
the
same golden crowns,

o 2
to
wave palm-branches
in
MODERN
196
SPIRITUALISM.
concert througli a wearisome eternity, and

as
uniformly depart into a
fire,
tliat
"
the " reprobated
unquenchable
darkness lurid with
That
the meaning of the Messiah's words would be lost.
they were not without meaning

revelations of this age have
and
the
a mighty one
made amply
spiritual
We
manifest.
find in
the world of the future a diversity of conditions endless as
Everywhere good and
our own.
everywhere humanity
to
is
are in ceaseless
evil
sinking farther from or advancing nearer

as a whole,
But the prospect, considered
God.
its
There
is
reaction here and there.
Wisdom and
goes steadily on.
in
activity,
is
cheering.
The
great progress, however,
virtue
continue to expand, and
with the passing of each year or period of years the cry of the
majority of spirits
!
Thee "
is
Thus, in
humanity continues
the triumphal one,
eternity
as
on
For the love of the Father
The
is,
it
is
many
is
harmony not under-
of us produce from the
the province of
The children who, whilst on
earth,
God
to blend into
have misconceived
his attributes, are certain of enlightenment hereafter.
only until they seek
of
Him
" All
omnipresent.
like Himself,
jarring notes which so
instrument termed Life,

accordance.
watchword
the
earth,
to
to be " Excelsior."
discord," as a great poet wisely tells us, "
stood."
God,
"Nearer,
in humility to be instructed.
He waits
Man must
human philosophy becomes ridicuTo such

intellectual all in all."
when
He
said,
Christ
allud.e
did
foolishness
learn before he can teach, and
lous
when
it
assumes to be an "
v/isdom perverted to
" Thou hast hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and
hast revealed
them unto babes."
Judtea was
with men, who,
filled
too proud to obey God, thought themselves fitted to

fellows.
command
their
Doubtless places calculated to afford the lessons they so
much needed were

Spiritualists
prepared for them in a future world.
have had among them
many such
erring brethren.
Discontented with equality, these pretenders aspu-ed to lead.
The
majority were stopped at the outset of their career.

directed against them, or the
common
sense of those
sought to dupe, proved insurmountable obstacles.
whom
Others,
ever, succeeded in pushing their struggles for domination far
The
ridicule
they
how-
enough
DELUSIONS.
more
to cfiuse
formed
197
They drew together
or loss of barm.
followers,
upon themselves, these would-be builders invariably found
The flimsy
exertions lead to ruin.
more
distigured our cause did
all
to injure
than the
it
their
which they
absurdities with
iiercest attacks
Their conduct and "revelations" were
of enemies from Avithout.
the grief of
and
Utterly incompetent for the task tliey had taken
sects.
sincere spiritualists and the laughing-stocks of the
sceptical world.
Two
prominent prophets of
The names they condescended

were Scott and Harris
Mr. Scott had long been a shining

Baptists,
pit.
known by
be
both rejoiced in the
year 1850.
this class arose in the
to
light
whilst on earth
title
of " Eeverend."
among
New York
the
and Mr. Harris had held forth from a Universalist pul-
Their secession to spiritualism appears to have taken place
about the same time, and the events I shall now* narrate led to an
intimate acquaintance between the two converts.
In the toAvn of Auburn, N.Y., a
had been formed.

and the attendant
circle
known
"
as the " ApostoHc
The medium secured was

spirits
a Mrs. Benedict,
belonged to the most select
chief rule of the association forbade the receipt

tions from
any born out of Judaea
Christian era.
or after the
St.
utter lack of
meaning was
year of the
ap-
John and the prophet
Daniel became the directors of the favoured
whose
first
The beings whose presence was desiderated
peared highly to appreciate this resolve.
tions,
class.
communica-
of
set off
circle.
Communica-
by bad grammar and
worse orthography, speedily showered down on happy Auburn.

Nevertheless, matters prospered
to
not
a heartless world refused
waste attention on the Apostolic Circle, behaved
strangely.
and found.
spiritualists
In this
emergency a fresh
,By advice
summoned
of
it
never so
champion was sought,
"John" and "Daniel"
the
Auburn
the Kev. J. D. Scott to put his hand io
the plough.
He
came, and lent himself with enthusiasm to the work.
Paul" was speedily added
" St.
to the other guides of Mrs. Benedict;
and improvements of grammar and orthography displayed themselves in the messages received.
One
of these messa;?es
fell
into
MODERN
198
SPIRITUALISM.
the hands of the Rev. T. L. Harris.
The
idea of being put in
communication with such an apostle as Paul greatly excited him
and Scott and Mrs. Benedict were sent
Hebrew
Auburn he went with them
manifestation on his
mouthpiece of
A
from
St.
way
to
their
Damascus.
spiritual
Scott claimed to be the
John.
was
periodical
at once started
The two
the Interior.
themselves at
On
as the " oracle " of that
Hebrews who experienced such a mighty
of the
the aid of these
Mr. Harris became " remodelled."
spiritual sponsors
return to
By
for.
under the
editors, Harris
of Disclosures
title
and
Scott, contented
with being known as " chosen vessels."
first
Soon
presumption, and the unlimited folly of their dupes, tempted them

a
step farther.
They claimed
the celestial regions in
to visit
Whatever they spoke, wrote, or thought, was the
trance.
ration of a chosen
inspi-
band of apostles and prophets directed by " the
Lord Himself."
The outcry grew strong
in
Auburn.
disgusted, and withdrew from
all
Sensible spiritualists were
communion with
The extravagances
Reverends and their flock.
however, only waxed the wilder.
" chosen vessels " became unsafe.
plan,
and
full
The
of Scott
The
spirits
entered
warmly
instructions were received from them.
which unworthy Auburn had
person than Isaiah would guide the
chosen spot;
position
which,
spiritual residence.
it
All
of the
Under these circumstances an
Cove, Fayette County, Virginia, was to be the

of that ark
and Harris,
Threats of mobbing were made
by the rougher among the unbehevers.

exodus was resolved upon.
the two ex-
little
appeared, was
new
into the
Mountain
resting-place
No
less a
band of brothers
to the
cast forth.
the
prophet's favourite
property was to be in common.
The
golden day of " liberty, fraternity, and equality," had at length

arrived.
About one hundred persons accompanied Mr. Scott
Cove
Harris for the present held aloof.
speedily soared to a height of blasphemy such as few
have attained before or since.

spised as
human and
created.
to
Mountain
His brother " vessel
human
"'
beings
Prophets and apostles were de-
Nothing would content the reverend
DELUSIONS.
199
In his
gentleman but the Creator Himself.
own words be " came
Full authority was

even unto the counsels of the Most
"
social, religious, and financial;
(lelegatoJ lo him in all matters
Iligb."
On
temporal or eternal."
the 2nd December,
together the faithful and informed
them
Moses, he had conversed "face to face with
and the
his words,
ineffable idiots
whom
1B51, ho
called
that, in the fashion of
God
"
Such were
he had gathered together
heard them with credulous awe.

Scott
appointed himself "
now
medium
Nothing but
absolute."
pure truth, he gave his followers to understand, could or would
Whoever dared
be received through him.
henceforth
ex-
to
press a doubt of that truth must be cast forth as an unworthyheretic.
Notwithstanding these claims dissensions arose.

licentiousness was preferred against the "
tigated
it
cent.
himself,
Still
faithful,
mous
the unpleasantness continued.
work.
in declining
He
God,"
Money ran
Several families
left
had been purchased was returned
payments on
it
that Scott should have a
New
of
and promptly decided the accused
inves-
to be inno-
The
short.
whatever their disagreements in other matters, were unani-
tation which
as the
man
charge of
It
was necessary
"I must
vision,
plan-
former owner,
could not be met.
new
the place.
to its
go," said he, " to
York, and seek there minds for the carrying-on of the Lord's
work,"
Arrived in
persons
estate
New
York he resumed
The confederates succeeded
Harris,
property
of
to
was repurchased.
the
his old connection

in
enterprise.
bringing
The
with
over several
Mountain
Cove
In May, 1852, the Rev, T. L, Harris
proceeded there, accompanied by his family and his dupes.

fresh gleam of worldly prosperity shone on " the
the
New
cally
termed
Jerusalem," as the partakers of

it.
The arrogance
its
joys enthusiasti-
of the reunited prophets and the
were stretched to the utmost.

claimed that God had chosen Scott and Harris " as
credulity of the faithful
through
whom He
minds were
to
It
his
was promediums,
might communicate with man on earth."
become blended
Holy Mountain
into
spiritual unity.
The
Their
utter-
MODERN
200
ances proceeding from their

people
woiild "instruct and comfort the
lips
Neither of the prophets could
Lord."
of the
SPIRITUALISM.
besides being infallible they were supreme

of
Truth.
the
from the
received their inspiration
the
devil,
and
only
children
be
mediums
claiming to
persons
other
All
lie
and ranked
among
his servants.
the following
I find
sentences given
specimen of the
as
and com-
revelations -with which the faithful were "instructed
They are from an address spoken in the " interior con-
forted."
dition "
by Scott
" I read, written in letters of

tliou believe
Not an
Who,
angel, for
he
led
is
created existence, for that
thee to the mountain
am
fire,
'
Dost thou believe % and what dost
thinkest thou, called thee here
inquh-eth of thee
is
not a seraph, for he
Who
is
controlled
inspireth
not
"Wlio, then, thinkest thou, called
inspired.
but God inspireth V

and prepare to answer thou
Who
am
that I
None
Lie.
other
None other than He who

than God, thy Eedeemer, calleth thee.
hath the keys of Death and Hell addresseth you through one of your
members.'
Even
this
was mild compared with what
The redemp-
declared Mountain Cove to be the gate of Heaven.

tion of
man
place.
"
was
to
be driven from the holy
For such outcasts there remained no longer any hope of
Not even himself

Heaven " to them.
salvation.
gate of
Whoever opposed
could only be accomplished there.
"the two perfect prophets
Harris
followed.
or Scott could
" the
again open
The house wherein the two prophets dwelt Harris pronounced

"
the veritahle house
should be added to
called.
it.
Him
It
was necessary
that
an estate
Accordingly, the seers indulged in yet
The Lord
another vision.
leased to
of God.'''
desired a certain piece of land to be
as his heritage.
meeting of the
faithful
was
Harris and Scott pointed out that as they, and they alone,
were the "chosen vessels of God," the

their names.
The
request
lease
was too reasonable
worthy stewards commenced forthwith
to
they had acquired in so spiritual a manner.
must be drawn
for refusal,
in
and the
administer the
estate
DELUSIONS.
Tho crowning
stroke of impioty
Persecutions
bad been
was
201
at hand.
against
directed
domination of tbo "perfect mediums."

the
to
to pieces,
fall
"New
As the
community.
little
1852,
their
Endless discord convulsed
Jerusalem" seemed ready
an assumption was resolved on whose boldness
should awe even the most mutinous.

of
from the
rebels
all
and
Harris
therefore,
amazed followers
autumn
in the
themselves
revealed
two witnesses spoken of
the
as
Some time
Scott
to
the
in
eleventh chapter of Eevelations.
They claimed
super-mundane
these witnesses by St. John.
Power
from
to send fire
enemies
power
blood,
to
weapons were
them except
at the
"holy mountain"
righteousness,
all
mouths
ICC
do
but
turn
not
their
power
to
men with
smite
command
of the
es-
did not, indeed, design

If the dwellers
again
"
might yet be well.
consume
it
rained not
to
at the
last extremity.
would
on the
way
the
into
of
Lord," said Harris,
rebukes to the chosen hundred, " Thou
in one of his prayerful

k)ioiccst
it
and
They
Universalist and the ex-Baptist.

to use
the whole of the
mouths, and with
heaven so that
of earth
these
all
thcii"
to shut
turn the waters
plagues
assigned to
gifts
wisJi
to
destroy
man
from
our
listeners
were
with Jirc
"
!
Blasphemy could
hardl}' go
however, accorded
"witnesses."
The
Several
farther.
disgusted, and withdrew from the
brotherhood.
The
majority,
credence to the claims of the reverend
full
state of
mind of these
believers
is
a thing to
be contemplated with wonder and awe.
But a
was
dissolution
inevitable.
Even
Though there were dwellers in the "
tender points.
has
fanaticism
New
its
Jeru-
salem " for whose utter and abject credulity no impiety was too
impious and no folly too foolish, a test of faith was
made an onslaught on
justly remarked,
demandeth external
fore, to yield
or otherwise.
up
the pockets of the faithful.
" operate
to
from the
benefit."
He
him the whole
" Come
interior
called
now
insisted
The Eev. Mr. Scott
on which even these could not support.
on
but
" Spirits," he
man
in clay
his followers, there-
of their possessions, pecuniary
" cried he,
" with thy substance
give
it
MODERN
202
The
Lord."
to the
manifested in
its
the appeal the
gift,
became
made
all
Mountain
vestiges of fraternity.
The New
saith
succeeded
Quarrel
against the two prophets of the community.
when
Virginian
the
of
At length,
any but
scarcely
Israel
to
charges were
Various
departure.
to
responded to
not.
Pandemonium.
be made to heaven as
to
How many
movement
history of the
and departure
quarrel,
was
of course,
servant, Mr. Scott.
Cove, however, lost at once
Jerusalem
SPIRITUALISM.
leaders
the
remained, those leaders recognised the necessity of causing their

light
They struck
shine elsewhere.
to
Of the wealth of the
remained.
Such was the end of one of the darkest
modern
Had
farthing
follies
of
a sufficient degree of opposition been organized against

outset,
at its
Even
extensive harm.
the
scarcely
spiritualism.
movement
this
faithful
and
accordingly,
tents
departed.
steady and
could never have worked such
it
Mountain Cove,
after the settlement at
unfaltering
of
resistance
the
more
sensible
brethren to the dictatorial claims of Scott and Harris might have
But such brethren were few, and they contented
done much.
themselves with quitting the place in disgust.
The attempts
mutiny were desultory and
their
was
to incite the reverend
sustained, and
ill
"witnesses"
blasphemous antics that ever made
With the
cern.
some
to
The name
of his fellow-prophet, however, continued, even
Mountain Cove
flock, to
linked with spii-itualism, both in America and

his
mediumship was
once
at
brilliant
be intimately
of the Golden Age," "
Morning Land," &c.

he asserted
to
departed.
compositions
An
The
For a
England.
and
published in rapid succession a series of fine poems
great
most
of the
spirits or spii'itualists blush.
career of Mr. J. L. Scott I have henceforth no con-
after the dispersion of the
few years
at
only effect
" A
Epic of the Starry Heavens,"

spirits
who
He
useful.
Lyric
"The
inspired these productions
be Byron, Shelley, Coleridge, and others of the
Unequal and,
in
given by Mr. Harris
places,
to
slightly
turgid,
the world bore
the
the im-
press of high spiritual inspiration and masterly poetic power.
But
so
commendable a course could not long be persisted
in
by
DELUSIONS.
Ho
the restless "prophet."
himself into that
field
203
away
cast
of action for
the pen, and, thrusting
which ho was so
qualified,
ill
commenced a career of the wildest apostasy and excess.

On his return to New York from the deserted paradise
Mountain Cove he had,
of
for a short while, figured as a lecturer.
In this capacity he poured forth floods of virulent abuse against
None who
Christ and the Christian Gospel.
attacks can have foi'gotten their vehemence.
listened to those
was myself
pre-
sent on one occasion and, rising in utter disgust, left the building.
''They were too strong," says Mr. C. Partridge, "even
whom
now denounces
Mr. Harris
human weathercock
For, in no long time, this
of Scripture."
again veered round.
He was
for those
as rejecting the divine authority
determined, at any cost, to have a
His
church, and to be to that church a dictator and a prophet.

first
New York
attempt was made with those
spiritualists
They could
been edified by his diatribes against the Bible.
Ready
however, be tempted.
Cove was
as
its
From an
devoted champion.
ardent spiritualist
He
he became an equally ardent denouncer of spu'itualism.

preached to
its
small congregation
gathering was
He
known
as "
It
new
York.
This
first
little
Whilst acting
Mr.
Harris had
masquerading
snares he
come down
production, "
The Song
of
contained an elaborate exposition of the devil-theory
The Byron,
regarding spiritual manifestations.
fiends
New
father the prophet sent forth another epic to the world.
Satan."
then-
in
The Sacred Family."
very reasonably styled this
whom
tactics.
the coarse assailant of Christianity he transformed himself
once more into
as
Moun-
sufficient.
Disappointed in this quarter, Mr. Harris changed his
From
not,
as a speaker, they
One such experiment
declined to find a master in him.

tain
him
to engage
who had
formerly been
in the
was now
guise
free.
of those
select
to take charge of the " Sacred
All other spirits manifesting
the bottomless
Coleridge, &c.,
controlled,
by
were merely
From
great poets.
cohort of angels had
Family
"
and
its
leader.
anywhere on earth were waifs from
pit.
Soon the prophet grew weary of
his
New
York
flock.
He
MODERN
204
SPIRITUALISM.
determined to travel, and fixed on England as the country to be

noAv illuminated.
Calling
" Sacred Family " together, he
tlie
informed them that he had become developed above their com-
The Lord had
prehension.
him
instructed
to proceed to
Europe,
and disseminate there the supernal wisdom which burdened his
He made
mind.
plane of teaching," and set
Arrived in London,
wisdom
was
"
New York
choice of a successor " fitted for the

off.
" supernal
speedily appeared that the
it
with which English spiritualists were to be favoured
upon
their
brethren in America, which attacks were usually of the
most
comprised
baseless nature.
through these
in
rancorous
of
series
Having succeeded
libels,
attacks
much
in creating
ill-feeling
Mr. Harris considered his mission satisfacbeing developed above American
torily disposed of, and, despite his
comprehension, condescended to favour the States once more with
his presence.
in
its,
ginian
doubtless,
New
second "Sacred Family " was inaugurated, and
happy bosom the
Jerusalem
children," I
may
remains.
still
remark, contain
one would have thought
little
perfect
among them persons whom

bow to the yoke of an
No
extravagance, however,
of his later attempt at sect-founding has as

in
which Mr. Harris indulged
Almost contemporary with
was
this
at
j'et
approached the
Mountain Cove.
American insanity, a movement
carried on in the city of Geneva, the freaks of
equalled
blasphemies
the
of the Vir-
likely to
unstable and brain-sick enthusiast.
madnesses
medium
His converts and "spiritual
of
Harris
and
Scott
whose founder
;
whilst
the
creduHty of the dupes even surpassed the confidingness of the

disciples.
The little table through which " St.
Paul " gave directions for the founding of the Virginian " New
Mountain Cove
Jerusalem," was the prototype

venerated
more highly by
still
of a table,
equally small, and
certain dwellers in the staid city of
Calvin.
Towards the
close of
throughout the world
and tipping of
tables."
about this period.
1853 persons could be found everywhere
who
took
great interest in the " turning
Professor Faraday's vei-dict was delivered
As regards
spiritualism in
its
entirety, that
DELUSIONS.
was an
verdict
205
essentially foolish one, for
on no bettor f^rounds
than the data furnished by a few hasty observations, Faraday
condemn
considered himself competent to
the whole subject.
am
convinced, however, that as regards the particular instances of
phenomena which came under

The
more I have seen
his scrutiny, his theory
mediums," the more unable
known
persons
of the
was
just.
" tipping
as
have been to trace the movements
of the table and the messages communicated through those move-
ments
Yet
any other source than the so-called mediums themselves.
to
in at least one-half of the cases
concerned were innocent of
all
observed by me, the persons
wish or
deceive.
effort to
They
simply laboured under undue excitement of the nervous system,
and every attempt
to dispel their hallucinations failed.
knew once an
old lady who, before dining, invariably seated
small table, and
herself at
commenced
to tip
supposed to stand as representative for the
When
husband.
was
the
tipping
may
I eat fish to-day ?
The
it.
fairly started,
table
was
her deceased
spirit of
interrogatories
began.
" Dear Charles,
The
"
table
would execute
Thank you, dear
desu'e to
have
affirmative motions.
Charles, I thought I might, for I
fish for
At times the response was
"Ah!
I
son
Then came some-
in the negative.
I thought so, Charles!
I felt one of
my
chills
me when I have my chills."

never knew an instance when the answer was not in
with her own wishes. This delusion extended itself
and
fish is
action of her
bad
life,
a strong
felt
dinner."
thing like the following
on,
"
coming
for
full uni-
to every
and I had to proceed with great caution
in
attempting to convince her that the " dear Charles " of the table
was simply
a fantasy due to
unconscious muscular exertion and
an excited brain.
I recall
Lord
another case.
.
In
I800, I was one day dining with
well-known baronet was
at table.
Spiritualism
inquired
became the subject of conversation, and

whether
I could
Sir
obtain manifestations at will.
I told him, as is
MODERN
2c6
Ho
the truth, that I could not.
medium than you then
better
SPIRITUALISM.
am
laughed, and remarked, " I
for I can tip the tables at pleasure."
I replied that I had not the slightest doubt of his ability to do so,
and continued, " Perhaps you
No
show us
will
this talent after dinner."
we reached the draAving-room than he selected

known as a " Avhat-not." He seated him-
sooner had
the species of small table

self,
,"
The
It
he accomplished
"you
I said,
your hand
between
and
Nothing could have been more
and the tipping commenced.
evident than that
will
allow
and the table
" Perhaps, Su*
himself.
it
me
to place a sheet of paper
He
"
gave
permission,
spread out the sheet, so that his hands would rest on
no longer tipped, but the paper moved very
table
to me
I
Home was
was afterwards reported

had
Ft
"
said,
Oh
hope, incorrectly
jealous of
my
it.
visiblj'.
that
power
Sir
as a
medium."
Were
it
necessary, I could subjoin to these two instances hun-
In none was the motive power traceable to
dreds equally striking.
Regarding " writing mediums," the same thing
spirits.
maybe
said in ninety cases of every hundred.
In the early stages of
my own
Little
career I
was a writing medium.
by
little,
to reason respecting the messages given through me.
them strongly tinged with

ceased
seeking
such
for
only written medially

matically, and
my
my own
bias of thought
communications.
was
and
began
found
I at
once
Since then I have
when my hand has moved
attention
altogether auto-
so completely diverted that I
could not catch the faintest inkling of what was written.

I should not,
tippings
as
is
it
true, be
results of deliberate imposture
they constituted
spirits
warranted in asserting even such
those of Harris and Scott's " St. Paul
had not the
all spiritual
am
"to be
the
perfectly satisfied that
monstrous delusion, in which disembodied

slightest share.
the Mountain Cove leaders as did

of
but I
tokens
is
St.
Tom
Paul as
Jones.
little
controlled
The same absence
discernible in the wildly blasphemous
attempt at spiritual dictatorship which I
am now
about to de-
scribe.
The method
of obtaining communications
was through
a very
DELUSIONS.
The medium
small table.
bands on tbe said
means of tbe alpbabet.
tipped out messages by
110
person was in contact
lu the American
folly,
and
it
not a
is
ivith it.
Harris and Scott never went beyond St.
Their higher flights of
Paul, as a servant for tipping purposes.
blasphemy they reserved
moments.
Our
They solemnly conse-
for their inspirational
Genevan enthusiasts took a bolder stand.

crated
their
and proclaimed that
table,
They
Messiah himself.
chair
table,
There
instance of the table liavimj been levitated, or of a movement
{<i)ii/lt'
when
laid bis
207
was supposed
be invisibly
to
ventured even farther than
was introduced
pilfered
as
was tipped by the
it
set a chair apart at their meetings,
this.
by
filled
On one
Christ.
occasion
God
which
Nay, they
the Father
communicating a miserable species of homily,
from various portions of
The
Scripture.
messages,
whether pronounced to emanate from Raphael, from Gabriel, or

from the persons of the Trinity, were received with credulous
ecstasy, preserved, arranged,
and published
in
volume shape.
have copies of two of these precious productions.

following
title-]iage
One bears the
" POST TENEBEAS LUX.
EOaiE, GENfiVE,
ET
L'EGLISE DE CHRIST.
DlCTE AU MOYEN d'uNE TaBLE PAR LE FiLS DE DiEU,
Le
Saux'eur du Monde,
Seul Mediateur entre Dieu et les Hommes.

1856."
do not print the names of the persons concerned
movement, but they are

investigating the case.
dcLusion.
They
at the service of
in
this
any desirous of privately
These unfortunates have abandoned their
are reduced from positions of comfort and even
of wealth to a condition bordering in instances on absolute want.
To-day, October 5th, 187G, I had an interview with tbe deepest
MODERN
2o8
sufferer of
them
in patience
and hope.
SPIRITUALISM.
At the age of seventy-two she
all.
As she narrated
the peaceful smile that
me
to
is still
young
her losses and
trials
her face was the very gleam one might
lit
suppose to irradiate the countenance of some martyr, while, with

his last accents, he breathed forgiveness to his enemies.
the notes I took whilst listening to her,
memory, proceed
retentive
my
history in almost
"It
it,
but, as
grant that
" I
am
you
should
it
Perhaps
sir.
truly say,
would be well to seek to
it
may
it
news reached
some
little girls
We
us.
heard that, at the house
had become developed as writing

himself had great power over a
He was
through which messages were given.
music, and a good and truly pious man,
we
(Oh
a teacher of
he was honest, as
Well, out of curiosity I went to see these things,
were.)
all
God
others.
mediums, and that Mr.

table,
warn
serve to
unable to give you the exact date, but some time in 1853
a strange piece of
of a Mr.
own words.
informant's
a sad story,
is
forget
of Genevese
item
lay bare this
to
From
with the help of a
I,
and, finding that the seances began with prayer, and that
all
the
messages given were pure and good, I came home, and asked
my
husband
has he
said, 'It
was you who
were not said complainingly,
We
thought
now,
I can only say that,
sir,
all
man
that he
if it
These words
any of us
were a delusion, I
had been Professor of Mathematics
it
still
my
living in case
poor
little
room,
and luxury.
sir
God, and that consoles me.)
by our Saviour; but now,
need only say
in the college here.
but
Mr.
it
(I see
you
B}''
by 'the table '"
(the
are looking
must have been the

said his table
in looking back, I
will of
was moved
wonder how we
We were
words she used were " the Saviour,"
could have been foolish enough to credit such a thing.

told
believe
My husband
however, he no longer taught.
to,
to
of fortunate speculations he had acquired a large fortune,
and we were
round
times since then
it.'
right have
of great intelligence, and in proof of
At the time alluded
number
what
into
our object was to glorify Him.
will pity us, for
for
me
led
first
we were doing God's work, and even
complain
God
was
How many
to investigate the matter.
DELUSIONS.
but this constant repetition of a holy
209
name
is
so repulsive that, for
the remainder of the narrative, I substitute " the table,") "that
wo must
take Mr.
his father, mother, &c., to reside in our
house, and share with them the fortune

us.
my
said to
husband,
it
ready money instead, and ask them to

tastes are not mine,
and
husband answered,
The
self-abnegation,
at
'
had pleased God
Let us give them a largo
'
to ^'iva
sum
My
could not be happy with them.'
life
of the
and we must
One we worship was a
in all things
of
elsewhere; for their
live
copy Him.
life
of
Overcome
once these worldly prejudices, and your sacrifice will prove
your willingness to obey the Master.'
Of course
seven additions were made to our household.
money.
of utter recklessness as regards
Not only
the house.
work on the house
decorators were set to
however
made us
rich
was
told,
with newer and
had nine
still
Painters
which we lived
more
be,
'
and
and,
the table
costly articles.
'
(All
to be done that our mansion might be worthy to
One whom we
receive the
were
it
life
ordered us
'
We
was.
it
and beautiful our furniture might
replace
this, sir,
table
that, but 'the table' ordered us
Very expensive
to build a steamboat.
The
and four new horses.
to purchase another carriage
servants
'
and
I consented,
Then began
too,
by
'
came
foolishly believed
the table
that
'
it
to
it.)
We
was necessary everything
bhould be made as ostentatious as possible to attract the notice of
We
the outside world.
house.
The
did as
we were
ordered.
We
kept open
were what might have been expected.
results
came, and made a pretence of being convinced.
People
Young men and
women visited us, and the table ordered them to be married.

When they consented, the necessary outfits were furnished at our
'
Not only
expense.
that, sir,
children, the children
remember
Mr.
At
X
last,
together.
we
'
that at one time

,
no
too, married,
less
but as often as these couples had
were sent
to us to be
we had
brought up, and I well
eleven infants in the house.
and his family went on increasing
itself.
than thirty of us regularly sat down at table
This continued for three or four years, until one day
discovered that
oui-
told us to go to Paris,
means were nearly
and
'
He would
'
all
gone.
'
The
provide for us there.
table
'
We
MODERN
2IO
ttênt, find
my
He
and
did so,
few
husband was bidden
we had
Still
lost.
in the family,
how.
SPIRITUALISM.
we
As there were now but
contrived to live on,
Heaven only knows
have been for days together without other food than a
crust of dry bread and a glass of water.
you,
on the Bourse.
to speculate
faith.
must not
Geneva we had been bidden
that whilst in
sir,
forget to
tell
to administer
the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, and that there were some-
A monk
times from three to four hundred communicants at table.
from
Ai'govie, too, left the
convent of which he was Superior, and
renounced the Catholic religion
You
to join us.
see, sir,
we were
not alone in our blindness.
"Even
during our
would not return
the table
had sent us there, and that he
'
Geneva without
to
'
his
was then that we
fully realised
and those who had profited

the
first to
we might
tell
you
fancies,
'
the table
'
"You are looking at that large

doubt, how it comes to have a place
during the height of our
artistic
ideas, but, strange
them.
The
what
at the
in
my
Mr.
was engaged,
had cost
it
humble room.
was
's
moment when our Lord
was
us.
Well,
inspired with
expression to
therefore,
That large engraving
his visions.
place
engraving, and wonder, no
to say, could not give
the picture which represented

is
folly,
professional painter
him
to
and
We
bade us buy a manufactory in France.
sold for ten thousand francs, not a tenth of
described to
spirit,
amongst other wild
almost forgotten to relate that,
did so, and the undertaking proved a total failure.
sir,
sir,
murmur.
I have no right to
"I had
were
lasted
it
do wrong, though,
betokens a restless and complaining
this, for it
we
Ah
last
return.
"We were poor,
our position.
by our fortune whilst
turn their backs upon us.
At
permission.
'
asked for that permission, and were told

it
My
our faith held firm.
in Paris
trials
husband often said that
is
and
taken from
idea of the Crucifixion.
says,
'
I thirst.'
The
It
original
painting was sold at auction by our creditors, with our house, and
whatever
else
remained to us.
from that day.
living together,
He
No,
married
sir,
we have
my
niece whilst
and had four children by her.
never seen Mr.
we were
all
She was called by
DELUSIONS.
GoJ,
aiul
Why
little
has married again, and,
should he
ho
poor
is
thing which has happened
from giving
"Indeed
thing as this.
about
God
am
wicked,
bow my head
Even
husband"
[the unfortunate
Oh
to the past.
am
our connection with this
began
to
woTk with
the brain so.

is at
to have
"
him
It is a
is
affair
my
that
sir,
it
allusion
was not
He
which deprived him of reason.
control.
Still I
sad story, as you say, but
what
believed ourselves
avc
wish
could be allowed
we were
all
could have given.
fear,
we
beautiful,
quite
Well, the day of
shall read the riddle.
that
sir,
even when
we
most humble, there was a strong tinge of
of the Lord.
wc
I
move past me, with

shall
obey
striving to
thought to be a high and holy power.
all,
of course, believed ourselves
remember
its
that
often,
'
have no such ordeal to endure
told us that, as the chosen of the Lord,
Ah
;
'
for
how happy
'
the table
we should none
death, but be translated bodily to 'his' Father's home.

that neither Mr.
on seeing a
gloomy hearse and trappings of
sorrow, I have said to myself exultingly,
it
'
is
had
of us see
Kcmcmber,
nor any others of those concerned
made, or sought to make, money out of the

all
my
very hard not to have him with mo, but
vanity in our thoughts, for
sir,
pardon
head very young, and mathematics fatigue
Speaking of those messages, I
we
silent
a sinful old
"never makes
you some of the messages were very
the chosen
am
here, and care for him.
superior to what Mr.
that
in his wanderings,
insane)
Hfe will soon terminate for us, and then
funeral
have been
it.
perfectly convinced,
It is very,
times beyond
the dictates of
assure
his
man
have told you such a
to
in all humility to ask heaven's
speaking such harsh words.
well
is
which her narrative
in
sir,
or four
narrator
of the
to sec
you one
the credit of
I ought to
come
tell
the past three
all to
manner
me
forgive
I will
Please, please forget that I told
it.
woman, and
for
he
within
The character
it.
displayed by the self-rebuking

terminated.)
us.
like
(The incident not being at
months."
refrain
never alhules to
I hoar,
Yes, he has heon in Geneva, but ho did not
the past.
us.
211
of us honest in our convictions.
p 2
Wc
afiair.
We
were
bear our crosses chcer-
MODERN
212
cannot but think that, although
fully, therefore I
Lord
erred, the
SPIRITUALISM.
repay
will
we
since
us,
we may have
erred out of love for
Him."
room with a heavy
I left that little
hensible thing
human
is
nature
What an incompre-
heart.
A man
seats himself before a
table a foot or so ui diameter, and tips out blasphemies to the
This, only thh,
laborious calling of the alphabet.
is
sufficient to
cast people, pious, intelligent, honest, of high social position and

large fortunes, into a delirious ecstasy of credulity, from
they awake only to utter ruin
We
even then.
against hope
that
their
tending to warrant
through
whom
me
seems to
fall
they
till
who
it
in the
they have been despoiled of their
in all ages of the world,
more and more
fanatics
were their dupes.
much
possessed of
mode
his
foundation
man
That man
all.
and who, whilst deluding
into the habit of deluding themselves,
may end by becoming
originally
more fervent than those
Certainly there
intelligence, or
meditated schemes.
it
hoping
blind to the character of the
the proceedings of this person to warrant
and
still
may have had some
faith
still
above narrative
one of the strange beings, half fanatic, half impostor,
who abound
others,
them
see
which
Nay, they hardly awake from
was nothing
in
our supposing him
any capacity
for
weaving deeply
His blasphemies were of the rankest kind
of operations
was baldly
simple.
have just obtained some further light as to the origin of the
" messages."
was amongst
man
old
this
hard-shell Calvinist, pastor of a
the deluded worshippers of the

(he
is
now
eighty-four)
Genevan church,
little
table.
With
very recently, had an
I,
interview.
"You
give
arc
most welcome," said he, "to any information
but I have
little
to
tell.
I took the
messages given were in perfect accord with Scripture

last
dropped
it,
On
the
affiiir,
and
I at
because some ideas were communicated which did
not harmonize with the Bible and

it.
can
matter up because the
my
belief.
the contrary, I had, at the outset of
I gained nothing
my
by
connection with
a good income, and I returned to Geneva from that
Paris journey Avith only two hundred francs
the world.
DELUSIONS,
consider
certainly
and the peculiarly Biblical
the matter,
that
213
could
my
ideas than
formation of the messages, were superior to Avhat Mr.
have given.
his.
My
think
it
be
The
'?
Do
hands were usually on the table too.
blasphemy
He came
all
The communications more resembled
Why
Certainly not.
manger before
to a
very strange
and
why
not to a table
medium
there
now
was
It
nonsense to talk about the messages
is
it
Why,
proceeding from the mind of some one present.
now
Lible has bidden us expect a second coming of Christ.
not even a
a
not
should not such things
am
not a medium.
Mr.
was
there
is
not
Xo he had not an excitable nature."

The memory of the old gentleman must have played him false.
Irom childhood, and
have questioned persons who knew X
medium.
"
their testimony is uniformly the same.
most impulsive nature,
He
with very kind instincts, but self-deluded.
and himself shared
to ruin,
and would brook no demur.
brought his friends
His vanity was
their fate.
He, or his
angry when any one rejected or desired
flattered,
table, invariably
became
to calmly investigate his
monstrous pretensions."
preface to the volume of " messages" confirms strongly the
The
truth of the above description.
It is
supposed to be dictated by
the angel Gabriel, and contains the following
" And whosoever
laughs in his heart " (at the contents of the book) "
is
a blasphemer,
and must not remain with us."

In the volume
ing threats
itself
" Look
care of himself.
We
see miracles
like to
done, for believers.
and
miracles,
father,
and he
in the
Sinner
will
I did not
my
is
introduced as uttering the follow-
cross
but
him who mocks
let
it
take
You would
are not on Calvary here
Miracles were only done, and will only be
When
I replied,
everlasting
!
Christ
at
make
'
was on earth men asked me
to do
Generation of vipers, begone to your
He
miracles for you.
flames Avhich consume
come here to-night
is
waiting for you
him and
to ask
his angels.'
your belief
in the
phenomenon you have before your eyes." (Wonderful phenomenon

truly
it,
tips
A
it
man, seated
at a small table,
with his hands placed upon
monotonously towards himself.
child ten
months old
MODERN
214
SPIRITUALISM.
might have done the same, and a theologically-mclined boy of ten
who had mastered
years,
the Bible as interpreted by Calvin, could
with ease have constructed the " messages
and puppet-shows of the present day

wishes to investigate
you
believers."
Had such
The honest
deridingly informed
is
miracles, do
").
analogy in the above to the dark
Is there not a certain
"
scaiices
sceptic
You want
who
to see
Miracles are done with us only for the true

a course been pursued at the outset of the
movement, would spiritualism to-day have counted twenty adherents

in
any country
to
my
of the old world or the
new
But
must return
old pastor.
" Mr.
,"
calm when
were, at
we
first,
sat
" was a musician, and very
be informed me,
term that excitable.
I do not
enthusiastic.
around the
As
table.
we were
I think
have
said, the
holy, heavenly, and perfectly in accordance with
"What caused
views of the Bible.
me
to retire
was
all
messages
my
that I found
the table afterwards become rather uncertain on various points.
To
this day,
however, I
am
convinced that those beautiful com-
munications could not have proceeded from the mind of Mr.
The
affair
The
chief
mystery
it
presents
cerned to the most palpable
was
it
is
facts.
The
B
He made
old pastor, Mr.
custom to open every seance with prayer.
generally kept up a running

ceedings.
the blindness of the dupes con-
a thorough Biblical scholar of the school of Calvin.
his
remains a deep mystery to me."
fire
of theology
all
Besides
this,
he
through the pro-
These scraps of Calvinism the " medium "
had
only to treasure up, and, reproducing them through the table,
behold the messages
No wonder
that those messages agreed so
completely with the Scriptural views of the old pastor.
No wonder
he was flattered to find that heaven and he were so completely
one on the questions of
whole thing
is
election, predestination,
at
and so forth. The
simply a reproduction of the case of Allan Kardec,
with the exception that Kardec 's interpreters wrote down his ideas
instead of spelling
was honest,
Be
it
them out by means
but, for
remarked that
all
that,
in the
it
of a table.
The
delusion
must be pronounced a delusion.
Genevan episode not only was the
DELUSIONS.
personal vanity of
pride,
chosen
to be the
all
concerned
ilatlerccl,
their ix'ligious sympathies
and
of destruction.
find
Home
:
Behold the lamp of the demon
Rome.
Geneva was
tottered on the verge
the volume of Avhich I have spoken
in
messages describing the two as follows

"
but also their national
and antipathies.
Lord, and
city of the
215
"
!
" Geneva.
The Eternal hath chosen it, from whence to reveal Himself

whole of mankind as a God, jealous and forgiving. God in his
goochiess lighted in Geneva a torch of Truth and Life. God gave Geneva
as a retreat for the Bible.
The Eternal recûired a new Bethlehem. He
chose Geneva. And yet the new Betldehem, though glorious, can only
to tlie
ofl'er
that
Yon
the Little Child a tahh for shelter.
are so highly placed that

tlie
Such
Son
is
laugli, readei-.
of Gcul should speak through
a fair sample of the incomparable homilies
considered so far beyond the capacity of Mr.

of the TForks in
my
lunatic asylum.
It
Yes,
you
Is it not truly vulgar

"
a simple table %
you can disdain Me.
which were
The second
possession might also well be credited to a
has the following
title
page
"REVELATIONS DIVINE ET MYST^RIEUSE,

ou
CoMilUNICATIOXS EKTRE LE ClEL ET LA TeEEE
Par
moj-cn d'une table.
le
Geneve, 1855."
In
Various of the communications are too unpleasant to quote.
one place the angel Gabriel manifests, and informs the adorers of
the table that
God
speak through
it.
Persons so heralded.
the Father and
Then
God
the Son are about to
follows a dialogue between the Divine
This can never be termed spiritualism.

ravings of those lunatics
who
Just as soon might the
moon
declare the
to
come down
every night and whip them, be deemed doctrines inherent to our

cause.
As
I study this incident of religious
more and more
clearly that the only
spirits
monomania,
concerned in
kindred folHes are the twin-demons of Vanity and Pride.
with Kardecian dreams and
fallacies.
The
I discern
this
It
and
is
so
votaries of those doc-
trines are, almost without exception, to be found in the
working
MODERN
2i6
aud
They console themselves
hoiiri/cois classes.
position and contracted

before, and
may
SPIRITUALISM.
minds by the
humble
for their
they have been
reflection that
men
be again, powerful potentates, or
mark
of
in
the realms of action and thought.
Perhaps the strangest shadow which ever darkened spiritualism
was that
cast
upon
it
by the
" the new motive power."
utterly absurd incident
John M. Spear, medium and Universalist minister

Hewitt, editor of the Neir Era
her husband, Mr.
seem
failings
If
Mrs. A. E.
we
as
human
These were the Rev.
persons were chiefly concerned.
folly four
known
In this extraordinary display of
his friend,
Mr.
of Boston,
and
except Mr. Hewitt, whose chief
have been gushingness and credulity, the mind of
to
each of the above persons was marked by extraordinary idiosyncrasies.
John M. Spear's enthusiasm was

" lived by
faith
and trusted
aud
financial resources
His mind was occupied with confused
invisible world."
to the
He
of the philosophical sort.
for direction
ideas regarding the possibility of inter blending matter and spirit.
The
result
was extraordinary.
owe its birth.

The mother of " The Thing,"
machine
it
in the
To
these ideas did the " holy motor
as
Mr. Hewitt reverentially termed
"
columns of the
J-]ra,
was Mrs.
John M. Spear
constructed the machine, and this lady engaged to

perpetual motion.
the)'
Spirits,
"would make
endow
it
with
she declared, had informed her that
of her a second Mar)'', and she should
a distinguished mother in Israel."
become
Although two children had
already been born of her in an ordinary manner, she believed herself destined to bring a third into the world,
existence to no earthly father.
which should owe
its
This " spirit-babe " was to be the
motive power of John M. Spear's machine.
Mrs.
at the
became pregnant.
Mr. Spear
toiled industriously
frame which was to contain the " power," and
Themachme was
finished his task.
Mass., a place
made
more than one
ridiculous,
language of the
carried to
in
due course
High Rock,
in
Lynn,
celebrated in American spiritual annals
and
at least one tragical event.
New Era became
glowing.
It
by
The
was announced
DELUSfOxYS.
ubuut to reveal
gift to
of Elcctrizcrs " in the
" association
that an
to
mankind
The
man."
'"
217
a "
spirit-splicrcs woi'e
new motive power, God's
Thing" once bom, wonld "
last,
best
revolutionize the
Avorld."
At length the hour drew nigh.
John M.
Hock.
Mrs.
went down
to
High
Spear, the machine, and various attendants from
earth and the spirit- world, awaited her there.
In presence of this
devoted band the mystical delivery of the wondrous babe took

place
in other
moved
It
the
words, " the power was imparted to the machine."
John M. Spear shouted
slightly.
yew Era
hastened back to his
from which the following are extracts
for joy.
The
editor of
and indited an
office,
article,
We
are prepared to announce to the world

" First, That s]nritsi have revealed a wholly ]iu\v motive power, to take
'
all other motive ]iowers.

"Second, That this revelation has been emlKjdicd in a model machine,
by human co-operation with the powers above.
" Third, That results are, thus far, satisfactory to its wannest friends.
" THE THING MOVES.
" "We have the birth of a new science, a new philosophy, and a new
lite.
The time of deliverance has come at last, and, henceforth, the
career of hrmianity is ujiward and onward
a mighty, ;i noble, a godlike career.
All the revelations of spiritualism heretofore
all the control of spirits over mortals, and the instruction and disciphne they ha\-e
gi\en us, have only paved the way, as it were, for the advent of a
great practical movement, such as the world little dreams of
though
it has long deeply yearned for it, and agonised, and groaned away its
life because it did not come sooner.
And this new motive power is to
lead the way in the great speedily coming salvation.
It is to be the
the place of
physical saviour of the race.
and
The
liistory of its inception, its various
Avill show the world a most beautiand significant analogy to the advent of Jesus as the spiritual saviouiof the race.
Hence we most confidently assert that the advent of
the science of all sciences, the philosophy of all philosophies, and the art
of all arts, has now fairly commenced.
The child is l)orn not long
stages of progress,
its
completion,
ful
hence he will go alone. Then he will dispute with the doctors in the
"
temples of science, and then
!
Breath failed the editor, and other fanatics took up the cry.
The machine was
hailed as the
pher's Stone," the " Act of
all
"
New
Creation," the "Philoso-
Acts," the " Greatest Revelation of
MODERN
2i8
John M. Spear
Age."
the
SPIRITUALISM.
heaven, and Mrs.
sat
for
already
moment
felt
the
seventh
in the
halo of a
Madonna
encu'cling her bro"w.
Alas for the "wonderful infant!"

devotees, and the
away
money and
to
its
" remained, as
it
moment
of
The Thing
The motion perceived
inert.
was confined
birth
of "
The main mechanism
had ever been,
Alas for the folly of
they had so uselessly thrown
faith
at
a few balls suspended
the
by wires.
These
oscillations, as a Massachusetts spiritualist plaintively remarked,
could scarcely be considered sufficient to constitute a "physical
Common
saviour."
sense spiritualism declined to recognise the
" Advent."
Several prominent spiritualists, amongst
whom was Andrew JackThey
son Davis, visited High Rock, and inspected the machine.

agreed as to
was
that
its
its
The
utter uselessness.
general opinion, however,
construction had certainly been directed by spirits
and that John M. Spear and the other parties to the
aflair
deserved
pity rather than the blame
now
With
and can endorse the foUo^ving expres-
this verdict I coincide,
sions of Mrs. Hardinge

spiritual
origin for the
" That Mr. Spear honestly believed
various
remarkable part he played, none

relations with
missions
in a
he undertook, and the
'
who have
ever
come
The unwavering
into personal
with
fidelity
and the patience with which he
to his purposes,
endured reproach and odium

sincerity,
'
him can question.
which he adhered
showered upon them.
liberally
for their execution,
were other evidence wanting."
It
would
attest his
must ever bo
re-
gretted that an excellent heart should have been so often and so

far led astray
by the
perversities of the
head with which
it
was
connected.
" Let the machine," one spiritualist wrote, " stand at High
as a lasting evidence of
human
ings and echo his words.
been
left there,
credulity."
How
Rock
I appreciate his feel-
appropriately, had the machine
might the " Punch and Judy
" cabinets of the
present day, and the insignia of the Theosophical Society, be collected together at the
same
place.
But
it
was not
to be.
The
worshippers of the " holy infant " trusted that a change of scene
DELUSIONS.
woultl develop the power they
21C,
supposed to ho latent within
still
it.
" The machine," says Mr. Spear, " was moved to Randolph, N(iw
York, that
it
might have the advantage of that lofty
Such advantage
tion."
it
did not long enjoy.
electrical posi-
Ribald paragraphs
The
respecting the transaction had gone the round of the press.
mystifying and revolting story of a perpetual motive power born

of a
woman
comments
The
furnished space for endless invective and satire.
of the journals stimulated the public to fury.
and disorderly crowd entered
at night the structure
large
which had been
raised as a temporary cradle for Mr. Spear's " physical saviour."
They
tore the
machine
and scattered them
to
in pieces,
trampled the shreds under
From
the winds.
foot,
the threats uttered,
it
seems that a similar fate was reserved for the constructors of the
" Thing,"
could the furious
mob have
seized them.
Such was the
ignominious end of the metal Frankenstein destined to revolu-
The
the American world.
The frame lay in atoms.
mysterious " motive power " was relegated to an obscurity more
tionize
perplexing than ever.

the Era, and John
A fond
No new
pagans gladdened the subscribers to
M. Spear turned sadly
to less glowing schemes.
hope, however, remained to him that time would yet behold
the realisation of his cherished idea.
"Thank God," he
wrote,
"the principles which have been presented, and the philosophy
beyond the reach
Avhich has been communicated, are
of the
mob,
and cannot be harmed by the slanders of the pulpit or the
And, consoling himself with the
misrepresentations of the press."

line
" Trutli crushed to earth shall rise again,"
the servant of the " Associated Electrizers " departed from the
spot where
was extinguished the " Greatest Revelation
of the
Age."
So
rose, progressed,
and
fell,
three of the wildest follies which
have disgraced modern spiritualism.

have since occurred.
There were
in
Other insanities of the kind
America the Kiantoue move-
ment, the " Sacred Order of Unionists," the Cincinnati " Patriarchs," and, worst of
Hardinge describes
all,
the " Harmonial Society."
this last as
'*
Mrs. E.
one of the most extraordinary
MODERN
= 20
evidences of
human
SPIRITUALISM.
impudent assumption, and
credulity,
folly,
blasphemous pretension that the records of any movement can

show."
The " Society
On
the contrary,
" did not directly originate through spirituahsm.

it
was simply a
movement by
that
Cove the leading
tain
parasitical excrescence foisted
As
interested persons.
was an ex-Reverend.
spirit
upon
Moun-
in the case of
certain T. E.
Bpeucer, formerly pastor of a Methodist flock, planned, and, with

the aid of his wife, carried out this infiimous
styled
" Harmony Springs
Arkansas.
"
was
All applications for
to his " controlling angels."
formed
affair.
settlement
Benton County,
in
membership Mr. Spencer submitted
These displayed a worldliness of mind
hardly to be expected from such elevated beings.
Rich dupes were
eagerly welcomed into the
Harmonial paradise
remained inexorably closed on the poor.
but
gates
its
Once admitted, the
neophyte found his wealth melt with wonderful
The
rapidity.
Spencers, like Dives, clothed themselves in tine linen, and fared
sumptuously every day.
Their followers were enforced to content
themselves with an extremely meagre vegetarian diet
ment
the induce-
do so being the hope of earthly immortality. For the

doctrines of the " Harmonial Society " were extremely curious.
to
Many spirits, Mr.
Spencer taught, perished with the body.
Others
languished for a short time after the separation, and then expired.
Only human beings who followed the Spencerian system could

arrive at immortality,
which immortality should be earthly.
an indispensable condition of the system was that

should have
full
Springs.
not, Spencer
immoral.
And
promulgator
control of the property of his dupes.
In a year or two the bubble burst.
Harmony
its
and
It
Dark rumours
issued from
appeared certain that, whether immortal or
his followers,
Dissension, too,
was
male and female, were extremely

rife
among
the community.
For
a time Mrs. Spencer quieted recusants by diatribes on the annihilation
which awaited them should they
conduct.
"Death," she remarked, "
persist
in
their
mutinous
is
the prying into things that
are of the world, and acquisitiveness,
and keeping anything to
yourselves, and looking into things too
much
for
your knowledge,
DELUSIONS.
and inquiring
tioning
221
into things that the angels only hint at,
what the angels say or
up sepurnte dishes for yourselves
and ques-
and doubting much, and Jimuj
do,
"
!
Despite this sublime philosophy matters continued to grow worse.

Several
members determined
what was
left
to
measures
for the recovery
Spencers gathered together
the
They were pursued,
of the spoil, and fled.
and sentenced
tried,
to take legal
On learnmg thu
of their cash.
Of
imprisonment.
.the
arrested,
sums
large
that
had been embarked in the " Harmonial Society," scarcely a dollar

remained.
In
this, as in all
other enterprises of the kind, ridicule, disap-
pointment, and ruin, were the portion of the dupes.
compassionate them very highly.

leave of
claim
common
and
sense,
was too absurd
They appeared
The extraordinary
for credence.
them were accepted without the
credulity,
spiritual
Avith
into which, according to their bias,
Two
diet,
the faithful
plainest evidence, that spirits can
human
very opposite errors
mankind
one side wc have the bigoted sceptic
that
that earthly immortality
life,
Nor, reviewing the long record of
need we be surprised.
over
That two
slightest examination.
by immoral practices and spare
religiously believed.
Xo
who domineered
be the witnesses foretold by John,
ex-reverends could
machine might be endowed

attainable
have taken
to be utterly destitute of reason.
pretensions of the self-constituted prophets
was
Nor can one

to
who
are liable to
exist,
On
fall.
disbelieves, in face of the
communicate with man.
The
father of such an one ridiculed the notion of an electric telegi-aph

his grandfather laughed at
Watt and Stephenson, and wrote
in
when railway travelling was first proposed,

an hour As well trust one's self to be tired otf from
the Quarterhj Bevicw,

"
Twenty
miles
a Congreve mortar."
Others of his ancestors imprisoned Solomon
de Cans in a madhouse, and
As a contrast
to
this
bigoted enthusiast,
nation,
and
put faith in
who
all
but broke the heart of Columbus.

deformity
we have
the
accepts the %vildest dreams without exami-
feels insulted
enthusiasts adored
all
species of mental
should any one speak of proof.
Joanna Southcote
as a prophetess
the lies of Titus Oates.
Such
and such
During the Middle Ages
MODERN
222
SPIRITUALISM.
tbey searched for the philosopher's stone
dames who rode on broomsticks, and kept

shape of
cats.
Prester John.
island
and persecuted old
familiar
demons
in the
In Mandeville's time they sent ambassadors to

In the era of Procopius they knew Britain to be an
inhabited only by the invisible spirits of the dead.
present one class of such persons put faith in Papal
At
Infallibility,
and another, under the name of " Re-incarnationists," vamp up the

worn-out
follies
of Brahminical India,
exploded theories of Pythagoras.
and seek
to reconstruct the
CHAPTER
DELUSIONS
I CLASS
III.
{cO)lti)llU'd).
Kardecism amongst the delusions of the world, and I have
excellent reasons for the course I take.
knew
or rather the reviver, of this phase of paganism.

of purpose I do not for a
moment
well the founder,
His entire honesty
He was
douht.
perfectly con-
vinced that he had dug from the grave of Pythagoras a light which
This intensity of conviction mastered
should illumine the world.

not only himself but others.
His earnestness was projected on the
minds of the sensitive magnetic subjects
mediums.
The thoughts thus forced
committed
to
whom
own
paper, and Kardec received his
Had
messages from the spirit-world.
he termed his
into their brains, their hands
doctrines as
these teachings really ema-
nated from the great minds which were professedly their authors,
would they have taken the shape they did
How
chus to be such a master of good modern French
came lambli-
Through what
cause had Pythagoras so completely forgotten his native Greek

If,
too, these
spirits,
title
by what
right does "
page of every volume
Are they truths

truths
communications were really the Avork of disembodied
Par Allan Kardec " appear on the
And then
If so, let us
the teachings promulgated.
have some fact in support of these
the wild dreams of believers and the revelations of clair-
voyants will not
suffice.
am
well
known
to be a clairvoyant,
and have the right and the power to speak with confidence regarding this particular phase of psychology.
tion
are aware
entitled
that
All students of the ques-
two forms of clairvoyance
exist
" naturaV" the other induced by magnetism.
the
I
one
have
never yet met with a case of magnetic clairvoyance where the
MODERN
224
SPIRITUALISM.
subject did not reflect directly or indirectly the ideas of the magnetiser.
This
Kardec.
Under
is
most strikingly
illustrated in the instance of Allan
the influence of his energetic will his clairvoj'ants
were so many wiiting machines that gave

have them.
If at times the doctrines
in accordance
wishes.
It
with his wishes, he corrected them to meet those

or ought to be, well
is,
not hhmel/ a medium.
minds
frailer
his ideas as he desired to
promulgated were not exactly
and more
fact that, before I
He
known
that Allan Kardec was
simply magnetized or psychologized
own.
sensitive than his
knew, or could by any
I can testify to the
possibility
have known,
of his passing from earth, I received, in presence of the Earl of
Dunraven, then Viscount Adare, a message, saying

have taught the
spirite ({ocixme.
Allan Kardec."
d'avou- enseigne la doctrine spirite.
" I regret to
(" Je rcgrette
By com-
Allan Kardec")
parison of the minute of this occurrence with the minute of his
passing away, the interval between the two was found so short as
utterly to preclude the idea that even a telegram could have reached
me
regarding his departure from earth.
was preceded by no
illness,
never been for a moment present to

receiving
it,
As, moreover, his decease
the possibihty of that decease had
at first credit the
my
I could not, on
mind.
above message.
It
was
not, I
may
remark, received during a seance, but suddenly interrupted a conversation
beween Lord Adare and myself.
The subjoined most remarkable communication was

through M. Morin,
whom
in earth-life Allan
To say
of his best mediums, and relied on greatly.
dictated
Kardec considered one

the least
it
is
reasonable, and bears the impress of truth.

"All. Kardec,
"
"
M. Morin, medium, somnambule
Conmnniicant chez M. Caussin, Ki;e
parlant,
St. Denis^, 345,
du 6me novenib.,
18(39.
" All. Kardec parlant par la ImucIic de Morin.
Sa confession posthume.
"
Dans
les deriiicres
annees
j'ai travaille
avec soin a eloigner toutes
honmies entoures de I'estime public et qui,

travaillant t\ la science spirite, eussent pu accaparer pour eux une partie
des benefices que je voulais pour moi seiil.
les intelligences, tous les
imLUSIONS.
" Ccpendant, j)lusieurs, d'entrc. eux,
second rang, mais dans nion
rester soul a la tete
jUuct'.s ties liaut
dansles sciences et
contents en se devouant an spiritisme de hrillcr
les lettrcs, so seriiient

ail
225
eftroi d'etre eclipse, je prtiferai
du niouvenioiit
spiritc
I'li
toujoms
etrc a la inis la tete qui
pt'iise et le liras (ûi agit.
"Oui, je lavoue, c'est nia fante si le spiriiisnu' u"a juscpi'a cc jonr

compte dans ses rangs anciiii de ees ihani])i()ns princes de la ])urole ou de
la pensee
chez nioi Fhonmie avait donipte I'esprit."
;
Sur
I'avenir
du
spiritisme, tcl qn'il I'avait concu, ct sur Ics conse-
quences actuclles
'
De
nil
111
vivant, ]espiritisnie,telque je le concevais,
me parfiissait ce<pie
riiuiume pourrait rever de plus grand, de phis vaste ; ma raison. s'egarait.

" Miiintenant que, debarrasse de Tenveloppe materielle, je regarde I'im-
mensitd des mondes, je
manteau de
moil
I'liumanite.
me demande comment j'ai pu me draper dans

me croLre uu deuxieme Sauveur de
demi-dievi,
Orgueil inseuse que je deplore amerement.
que
'Je vols le sjiiritisme tel
je Favaia con(;u,
eloigne, dans ses parties niGmes les

f[u'il
moins
si
petit, si restreint, si
impari'aites,
des perfections
doit atteindre.
" Coiisiderant les resuUats ]ii'oduits par la ]tr()pagation des idees spirites,
que
"
vois-je a present
Le
spii'itisme traiiie
dans
les bas-fonds
du
ridicule, represente jiar
xTinfimes persoiinalites que j'ai trop elevees nioi-ineme.
"En
voulant produire
eni'aiite le
le
bien
j'ai
motive beaucoup d'aberration
(|ui
mal.
" All point de
vue de la philosophic, ])eu de resultat. Pcjur quelqiies

combien tVignorants
" All point de ^^ê religieux, que de superstitieux sortis d'une superstition pour tomber dans uiie autre
" Consequences de mori egoisme.
intelligences
"Si
je n'avais pas ecarte les intelligences transcendentales le spirit-
ualisme ne serait pas exclusivement represente dans la majorite des

adherens par des adepts pris an sein des classes laborieux, les seules chez
lesquelles moii elocjuence et
mon
savoir out
pu avoir
"
append a translation of the above
acces.
Allan Kardec."
All. Kardec.
" M. Morin, inspii-ational medium.

"
Communication given
Eue
St.
at the
house of M. Caussin,
Denis, 345, Nov. 6th, 1869.
" Allan Kardec speaking through
M. Morin.
His posthumous confession.
" During the last few years df

in the background all
men
my
life,
of intelligence
sought with care to keep

merited public esteem,
who
MODERN
226
SPIRITUALISM.
and might liave takenwished for myself alone.

" Nevertheless, many of these, occiipying high positions in literature
and science, would have been perfectly satisfied, in devoting themselves
hut, in my fear of being
to spiritisme, to have shone in the second rank
eclipsed, I preferred to remain alone at the head of the movement, to be
wlio were investigators of the science of
s2n'nîs?/?e,
which
for themselves a share of the l)enefit
at once the tliinking brain
and
tlie
arm
of action.
acknowledge it to be my fault if sinritisme to the present day has

iiuuibered in its ranks none of those champions princes of language or of
thought -with me the man (or my humanity) overcame my intelligence."
" Yes,
In speaking of the future of spiritisme, as he had understood
and of the actual position
" Whilst I lived spiritisme, as I
mankind could imagine
it^
had conceived it, seemed to me all that

and most vast my reason was be-
of grandest
wildered.
" Now that, free from the material envelope, I look on the immensity
of the different worlds, I ask how I could have clothed myself in the
mantle, as it were, of a demi-god ; belie-\dng myself to be a second
Saviour of humanity. Monstrous pride which I bitterly regret.
"I
now
had imagined it, so small, so confrom (even in the least imperfect of its teachings) the perfections it ought to attain.
" Taking into consideration the results produced by the propagation of
the ideas spirite, what do I now see
" Spiritisme dragged to the lowest depth of ridicule, and represented
only by puny personalities, which I had striven too much to elevate.
" In seeking to do good I have incited much aberration productive
see spiritisme, such as I
tracted, so far
'?
only of
evil.
For
So far as the philosophy is concerned how small the results
the few intelligences it has reached, how many are unaware of its
''
existence
" From a religious point of view
!
we
find the sixperstitious leaving one
superstition only to fall into another.
" Consequences of my egotism.

" Had I not kept in the shade all superior intelligences, spiritisme
would not be
represented, as
it
is
elo(iuence
and
my
by
to the majority of its adlierents,
adepts taken from amongst the working classes, the only one where
my
learning coiild gain access.
"Allan Kardec."
Such
of
is
the message submitted to us through the instrumentality
M. Morin, and claimed
pass
now
to
be from his former hierophant.
to an examination of the philosophy,
deserves to be termed, unfolded in "
Le Livre des
if
philosophy
Esprits."
I
it
DELUSIONS.
" Q.
227
Wbnt foundation there for the doctrine of re-incarnation

The justice of God and revelation.
is
" A.
" Q.
" A.
What the aim of re-incarnation

Expiation progressive improvement of mankind.
?
is
Without
where would be
this aim,
its
"
justice ?
The Spirits Bonk.
Justice and Expiation are thus the key-notes of that fantasia
with which Allan Kardec would have bewildered the brain of man.
His .scheme of creation

Christianity
but
is
a plagiary from the severer schools of
plagiary which
omits
their
central figure,
For the Messiah he substitutes an endless dream of
Christ.
change.
He
relates to
man's entrance into the bodies of animals
the theory of Pythagoras, so
discards
far
as
it
but he dis-
cards this only to accept and refine upon other parts of the Pytha-
Like most theologians he finds in the Deity more
gorean system.
of anger than of love.
Knox.
His Father
the Father of Calvin and of
is
These, however, teach that God's wrath
is
pacified
by the
Kardec informs us that God
pacifies his
wrath by confusing the identity of his creatures.
The order
sacrifice
of his
which reigns
Son.
in
spiritual things.
the material universe finds no counterpart in
The
quiet
harmony with which system wheels
round system serves only to mock the confusion prevalent among

the souls for
whom
those systems were created.
that the happiness of just
men made
perfect
is,
It
would seem
in the
heaven, coincident on their ha-\dng at last found out "
may
The
possibly be."
for the
Biblical assurance that
wicked," acquires a
new and
"there
Kardecian
who they
is
no rest
from the
startling significance
title of Re-incaruation.
Unhappy
we learn, spend a considerable portion of eternity in findout how much " worse confounded " their confusion may
views put forward under the

spirits,
ing
become.
Their constant dread
of their earthly lives, they
those
The
lives,
and so be sent back
incarnations,
numerous."
it
lose
its
that, in forgetting the incidents
to
also forgotten the lessons of
them more
learn
perfectly.
seems, which spirits undergo " are always very
Yet the soul " never loses
stated, the Kardecian
must
is
may have
its
individuality."
argument would appear
individuality in order to find
q2
it.
Fairly
to be that a soul
MODERN
228
There
no
is
monstrous perplexities which continued
limit to the
incarnations involve.
SPIRITUALISM.
It
justice of
God
The Nero
of the first century
that a grandmother
The
eighteenth.
'*
good man.
If he
Kardec, part of the
according to
is,
may be
own granddaughter.
her
becomes the Madame Guyon of the
man can become
soul of a bad
the soul of a
have repented, his new incarnation
the
is
reward of his efibrts at amendment." On the question being put,

" Can a spirit who has animated the body of a man, animate that
woman
of a
new
in a
vice versa / "
and
existence,
the reply was,
" Yes."
From such
propositions as these an almost infinite succession
may
of revolting corollaries
We
indicate.
following
Some among
be deduced.
of a nature which I dare hardly
corollaries are
might, for instance, meet with such a case as the
Two
persons marry.
Children having been born to
They
them, the parents in due course pass from earth.
more incarnated.
In
existence,
this
however, the
become the woman, and the woman the man.

marry,
how
these
do more than
are
we
are once
man
has
Should they again
to read the riddle of their relationship,
and the
relationship of their children ?
The doctrine
of re-incarnation, in fact, destroys
away whatever binds
It takes
love has
cuts
rately
lost
its
himself
What
from
"
And
the
tlie
We,
crushes the
when
hope
of
being
that
all
re-incarnationist
The touch
it
may not be
fate awaits ourselves.
too,
will
delibe-
more
once
Biblical heroes
lot.
hand
is still."
to the clasp of
still,
We,
must spend eternity

next be our
of a vanished
sound of a voice that
The hand has vanished from us

the voice, though
what
It
to us
by
rejoiced
same
is left
The
identity ?
ofl'
relationship.
society together.
holiest feelings of our nature.
we
all
somebody
too,
must pass away and
in a sort of bewildered
We
who had "no
else,
has forgotten us for ever.
and
The
forget.
wonder
as to
are more i:nhappy than the old
abiding place on earth."
They
looked for an eternal dwelling-place hereafter, and crowns which

should
never
fade
away.
But we,
if
Kardec
and
Kardec's
DELUSIONS.
229
'spirits" prophesy aright, possess no continuing city cither on
We
earth ov in heaven.
And we
ment.
doomed
arc
Such words have
daughter.
tionist is
the
father,
share his punish-
We
brother,
sister,
their moaning.
lost
own
we
men and women.
are no longer
longer wife, husband, mother,
not even masters of our
and unhappy
to a ceaseless
Innocent of the crime of Cain,
wandering.
The world
souls.
have no
son,
or
we
are
Indeed,
of the re-incarna-
simply a stage from which puppets dance on and
showman
off as
With each change of scene the
pulls the strings.
puppets are taken to pieces and thrown into a promiscuous heap,
from which new dolls are constructed as casually as the shifting
Yet Kardec asserts that
figures of the kaleidoscope.

is
"at once eminently consolatory and
this doctrine
strictly confoi'mablo
with
the most rigorous justice," and thousands of enthusiasts endorse

his assertion.
It is evident,
accept the
new
however, that even the warmest of these disciples
logical
Human
with sweeping reservations.
faith
revolts from re-incarnation in
outcome of the system
Kardccian entirety.
its
nature
For the
an annihilation as complete as
is
that anticipated by the hardest Materialist, and far
more
painful.
In a few thousand years there would remain nothing of a world

conducted under re-incarnationist
The
of confusion.
children
The only thing remaining
from the fathers.

frantic
save
conditions,
in
endeavour to grasp some tangible idea.
fanaticism shrinks from this.
from surveying their creed

portions which
may
an insanity
would have become undistinguishable

life
would be a
Naturally, even
lle-incarnationists, therefore, far

in
full
its
scope,
grasp
only at
be moulded to suit the wishes they have in
view.
Treated in this manner, Kardecism becomes a truly plastic
faith.
Even
tion
the maternal heart can find comfort in re-incarna-
by resolutely refusing
and attending only

lady,
is
to note the direction of the great
Thus we hear
minor eddies.
whose only daughter
born to her.
first.
to
dies while
The second
girl
still
quite a child.
receives the
wave,
of a French
Another
same name as the
Surprised by the coincidence, friends naturally question
the mother as to the reasons that
mav
exist for such a re-naming.
MODERN
230
She explains that there

the second daughter
She
God.
knee,
it
tells
how
is
SPIRITUALISM.
nothing of re-naming in the matter
simply the
is
suddenly spoke, and said
am
? "
who
find
breath to reply,
first
given back to her
by
one day, whilst she held the baby on her
Mamma,
"
do you not know
Startled by such an occurrence, she could scarcely
"No, my
child."
"I am your
little
j\[i))ii,"
dear
"and I have come back to you. Look at me,

mamma, and you will see that I am really your Mimi."
And
the mother looked, and
was
the answer,
were assuredly those of her
saw
that the features of the child
lost daughter.
Such are the fond
dreams for which, even in re-incarnation, the heart of a
mother
will find scope.
There
a touching something in the above incident.
is
What,
however, save bewilderment, can be extracted from the narrative

I
now
give
It
appears here, as
of September 18th, 1874
"
As The
it
appeared in the
Sjiiritualist
Spiritualist, Vol. V.,
No.
8,
page 85, contains Miss Kisliug-
bury's very judicious remarks about the two contending theories in
my
turn, to conununicate to
spiritualism, allow
me, in
seems strongly
corroborate
happened
to
me
to
my
l)elief
you a
fact,
which
in re-incarnation, and which
in the sunmier of 1869.
A very distinguished
had
French A\Titing medium, IMadame C
and we had
spend some weeks at my house, at N
asked oiur leading spirits whether it was possible or not to evoke, during
the sleep of the body, the spirit of a person now alive 1 Soon after
was
there fell from the ceiling, on the table where Madame C
writing under spiritual control, a small oval bronze medal, quite
tarnished, with some dry yellow earth sticking to it, bearing on one
side the likeness of Christ, on the other one that of the Virgin Mary,
and seeming, by its style, to Ijelong to the sixteenth century. We were
then told that this medal had been buried a long time ago, with a
person who had constantly worn it, and who had died a violent death
"
come
to
now re-incarnated in Germany that an object

which had belonged to her formerly was necessary to establish between
her and us a fluidical connection, which might enable her to come
and appeal to us for assistance against a sort of painful obsession under
which she was labouring that her name began Avith an A and that
we were to call her In memory of the toivn of Dreux.'
" Accordingly, on the following and some other evenings we set to
(whom I had mesmerised to sleep for better
work, Madame C
that this person was
'
DELUSIONS.
control) holding the pencil
hasty ^VTiting
"'Quest.
'
am
How
and luesently
231
tlic
spirit wrote, in
fliiiull,
here.'
is it
aheady asleep
that you are
(It
i'
was only ten
o'clock.)
am in bed, of
Can you us your present name
wore the medal
An^. Not yet. Wlien
" * Ans.
" Quest.
'
"
lever.'
ill
tell
was in France in the

was killed by a man who was carrying oft" a lady
from the monastery where I was a nun.'
" Quest. \Y[ij did he kill you ]'
" 'Ans.
He did so unintentionally. I had just returned from Dreux,
where I had been sent on an errand by our Abbess. 1 overtook them
unawares, and threatened to scream he then struck me on the head
Avith the ponnuel of his sword, in order to stun me into silence, and
I
'
reign of Louis
XIV.
'
killed me.'
How did he manage to enter the convent

By bribing the man who kept our doors, and
"
'
Quest.
"
'
Ans.
who
feigned
be asleep while they were stealing his keys. When he saw that
I was dead he was fe-ightened.
He and his servant bore me off
and buried me in the first place they found fit. There are now
houses built all over it, but my gi-ave exists, still unknown, iii a
t(j
garden.'
"
Quest. M^lvdt place was
'
"'Am.Tlui
it
Pre-aux-Clercs, Paris.'
Ans. A novice of
" ' Qi(st. Was the man who killed yon a nobleman
" ' Ans. Yes. He belonged to the Lesdignieres.'
" ' Quest. Who was the nun he can-ied off ]
"
He
had led her already to a

he
intended to take they were to meet again later.. So she knew nothing
about my death.
They fled to foreign countries. She died soon
'
coach,
which was
a noble family.
to carry her off in another du-ection than the one
after.'
What did your

hastened straight
do when it left your body

our Abbess, but she was terribly
frightened when she saw me, thinking it was a nightmare.
I then
roamed about the chapel, always thinking myself alive still. I only
undei-stood that I was dead when those who were burying me said a
prayer Ijefore covering my body with earth. A great trouble overcame
"
'
Quest.
'
Ans.
"
me
spirit
then, and I felt
<'ulty in
it
obeying your
to
a hard task to pardon them.

call,
because as soon as
have great
I anr asleep, I
am
diffi-
usually
to haunt the church under my former

do before my present incarnation. It is a ten-ible
subjection, a constant hindrance to my progress, as it paralj'zes all my
efforts to come into contact with the good spirits who guide and comfort
those who are in the flesh and asleep.
Emile
You must help me to
forced to return to
Dreux and
aspect, as I used to
free mvself.'
MODERN
232
SPIRITUALISM.
my
" After some words of advice and eiKJoiu-agemeut, and
help her,
we continued
pmmi.se
t.i
was yonr monastery situated

In which
Under the patronage of whicli saint
"
'
Quest.
"
'
Yl?is. Rue de I'Abbaye.'
"
"
'
Quest.
street at Pariri
'
yl?(.-t.
Of
Bruno
St.
congregation
the
Ladies
the
of
the
of
Passion.'
"
"
"
Does the monastery

Destroyed plundered during the revolution.'
'
Quest.
'
Ans.
''
still exist
now remaining
Quest. lii there an\i;hing
'
Ans.A
'
of
it
wall.'
" [Ha^dng, after
this,
written to Paris for information, the friend to
that, after many long searches, he had

indeed found out, incrusted between houses, an old wall, which once, as
was said, belonged to a lady's monastery.]
" ' Quest. Have yoii, in your present incarnation, any recollection of
the one gone by 1
" ' Ans. I have a sort of apprehension, as if I were to die of a violent
I
death an injiiry to the head. It makes me very nervous at times
I also dream of phantoms
see now that it is only a reflex of the past.
Avhom we wrote informed us
'
in monastic gowns, and of murderers rushing at them
also of a spectre
in an ancient di-ess, who grins at me.'

" Quest.
Do yoa live far oft'?'
'
"
"
'
'^
'
"
'
"
'
"
'
"
Fu.
In Germany.'
your name a German one
Ans. Yes. Those questions hurt me
know you V
Quest. Do
Ans. To be sure you do
Where do you
A)is.
'
Quest.
Is
live
Quest.
The medium then begins to trace with great difticvdty

F
... I exclaim, under sudden inspiration, Ftdda ! and at
:
tiie
gives a shriek and a viislent start, nearly

same moment ^ladame C
upsetting her chair.
She says she felt a commotion, as of a strong
electric discharge.
is
that of
(a
small
my
understand at once
that the controlling spirit
cousin, the Countess Amelie of Y.
town about
five
hours'
journey
who
lives in
away by the
Fulda
railway),
Avhere she occupies a high charge in a Protestant Cha])ter of noble ladies.
"'Quest, {after a Innq )m'Kse.)Wh\ did v<m
shock?'
" ' Ans.
"
'
"
'
I did not want you know

Did your body awake
was
Ans. No but
to
Quest.
the
medium such
yet.'
"While we were
i^'ive
startled.'
(Madame C
and I) debating whether

were really my cousin or not, the medium's hand unconsciously
wrote do-HTi a name whicli cut short all my doubts, as it referred to ti
secret known only to the Countess of Y
and myself.
it
.still
DELUSIOXS.
233
Ho-\\' iuu I to ascertain your ilentity, and make sure that.

"'(?^t^.^^
VdU are not a frivolous spirit, mocking us V
havi; any
"'-Ihx.
AVhen you meet me, before Kmi,', ask whether
i
I shall say no,

seems to me as if I wt-re killed
dream sometimes of a priest murdered hy ruffians. You
dreams, in wliich
anil add, tliat I
may
me
also sliow
it
tlir nu'(lal
sliall
fnl then as
if
known
liml
it
l)efore.'
"
liad
With
we
cimimimieutiou
this
closed our evocations of Anielie, wliiili
taken us several evouings.
A few months later
met my cunsin
Amelie, as was her wont,
])egaii
at
joking with
my sister's country seat,

me about my faith iii
I bore
it was all delusion and deception.
merry attacks merrily, defending, however, my theories about
dreams, reminiscences, s])irit messages, and so on, till I came to ask, as
in a joke, whether she, for example, never dreamt that she was being
miu-dered
She answered No,' adding, after a slight pause, that, in
fact, she had sometimes a disagreeable di'eam, always the same
a sort
of idglitniiU'e
which made her nervous and uncomfortable foi- the
Avhole day after.
On my insisting upon receiving the particulars, sliesaid at last, that she dreamt of a Catholic priest in sacerdotal dress,
Hying from a burning church, with armed men at his heels, who wanted
to kill him.
After changing the conversation, I took the medal out of
my pocket and showed it to lier, feigning to have bought it at an auti((uaiy's.
She handled it about for scnne moments, and then began to
examine it so long and so closely that I, at last, asked lier "Wliat was
spiritualism, declaring tliat
her
'
'
whereuiôn she answeretl that she could imt understand

how that object seemed as familiar as if she had possessed or seen it
ibnnerly, although she could not, for the world, recollect under what
the matter
'
'
circumstances
" I now told her
!
and she, lieing very much

shown the medial writing.
This writing, I had thought, was not like her ow^l. I had known
Iters only by her lettei-s, in German, written with pen and ink, while
When
the former, traced by a French medium, was written in French.
she saw it she exclaimed that it was positively her Avriting, when she
used a pencil instead of a pen and forthwith she wrote some words
which I dictated, and which proved to be exactly like the original.
" She got into a great fi-ight at the thought of her soul haunting an
old church, and I advised her, in order to paralyze the attraction, to
piay every evening for help to her guardian angel, and to say three
times aloud, before going to bed, / v:Ul not go !
" Since she has done this, I was informed by my leading spirits
struck
by
my
all
about
OTir
evocations
narrative, requested to be
'
'
that she has entirely succeeded in ridding herself of the aforesaid subjection.
'This,
enough
my
dear
sir,
is
my
personal experience of a
think, to find a space iu your columns
fact,
and
interesting
would be
MODERN
234
SPIRITUALISM.
thankful for every explanation of
it,
given in the non-reincarnationist
French proverb which
sense, in favour of the
Du
says,
choc des ojnnions
jaillit la v&ite."
There
nothing in the above which can be construed as a
is
proof of re-incarnation.
The whole may be explained by the
theory that the Countess of
same
sensitives, the
spirit
on the brain of each

latter lady.
however,
it,
and Madame C
to impress the
being
same ideas
with greater clearness in the case of the
do not advance
advance
had contrived
as
this supposition as the true one.
more
once
at
and more
plausible
reasonable than the theory which attributes such dim reminis-
cences
transmigration
to
offered covers the
far-fetched.
of such
tion
is
It
of
facts of the
The hypothesis
remains, and
it
always
the present instance.
must remain,
It
illogical are the
To speak
Ee-incarna-
whose very
a theory
delusions into which
it
it
logically leads,
betrays
its
votaries
evidently impossible that the particular qualities of
is
have
incapable of proof.
Putting aside the revolting confusion to which
how
It is less
accords better with proved phenomena.
useless, indeed, in
nature renders
souls.
case at least as well.
mind
which, nineteen centuries ago, were put together to constitute

Julius Csesar, can be reproduced through
wôman
lady
may
or
And, although a
be firmly convinced that, in a former incarnation, she
was the consort
of an emperor or king,
when one encounters

siastic,
more than one man
at a time, even in this age of wonders.
The
becomes perplexing
half-a-dozen other persons equally enthu-
and equally certain of
or queen.
it
souls of
their identity with the said
empress
famous men and women Avould appear
cut up into more fragments than the
wood
I remarked once in a published letter of mine
"
to
As
of the true cross.
have had the
pleasure of meeting at least twelve Marie Antoinettes, six or seven
Marys
of Scotland, a whole host of [Louis and other kings, about
twenty Great
would indeed
Alexanders, but never a plain
John Smith.'
like to cage the latter curiosity."
M. Kardec's mesmerised mediums

degenerate.
'
" Can a man,"
it
tell
us that spirits nevei"
was asked, " descend
in his
new
DELUSIONS.
existence to a lower poiut
tliiin
235
which he has already reached
that
The reply came promptly, "As regards

hut
not
as
Alexanders and Cresars with
his social position, yes,
of progress
(hyree
his
rc(jarih
whom we
The
a spirit."
ns
arc inundated have thus
advanced to a higher degree of intelligence than when they

tered the hosts of Darius, or drove
Why
plain.
then, in the
accomplish so
agony,
country's
and a
disaster,
From
all
Hannibals,
the
warlike patriot have
among "
is
Pompey from
of all that
is
the
whom
in the
day of
down
the
France possesses, could not one
come forward
Either want
as her saviour ?
must
the impurities which spirits
strip
mind has
we can
place
themselves of."
Perhaps, indeed, the soul becomes bewildered with
Thus,
on
walls of Paris ?
a Kardecian virtue, or greatness of
plicity of existences.
their
only
Charlemagnes,
the
Scipios,
scat-
the Pharsalian
mystifying, do they
were these heroes
when French eagles looked

German army lay outside the
Turennes, the Condes,
of patriotism
name
"WTiere
little ?
"
?
well conceive that
its
multiafter
if,
having figured on earth's stage as Nero, Constantine, Mahomet,
Charlemagne, Friar Bacon, &c., a
may
Pierre Dubois, he
find
spirit
should be incarnated as
even three-score years and ten,
if
he
be allowed so much, insufficient to determine whether he shall set

Paris and fiddle whilst
fire to
polis of
it
is
burning
transfer the metro-
France from the banks of the Seine to the shores of the
Gulf of Lyons, or the Bay of Biscay
collect Catholics, Voltairians,
Protestants and Positivists under the banner of a
new
religion
or
invent some material of murder which shall be to gunpowder as
gunpowder was
Is
it
surprising
into one small

his
or
to the spears
if,
and axes of the fourteenth century.
much genius
men spends
confused by the entrance of so
mind, the unfortunate mixture of great
might more appropriately say
their time, in
perplexedly
And
Mahomet or
trying to determine to what he had best turn his powers ?

before he has settled whether there
is
more
of the
the Friar Bacon in him, death knocks, and the world finds that
has
profited
profits
by
this
particular
re-incarnationist
by the philosophy of re-incarnation
What
as
little
as
it
it
in general.
miserable times must the poor nondescripts have in the
MODERN
236
spirit-world
SPIR/TUALFSM.
Imagine two collections of existences meeting, and
perplexedly iterating to each other
Perhaps,
my friend, I'm
my friend, you
Perhaps,
we
" Perhaps,
And
'tis
you
me
arc
somebody
hotli are
else
puzzling, you'll agree."
In this very dilemma
lies
Kardecian philosophy.
the essence and the drawback of the
But the
spirits
may
console themselves
with memories and anticipations of their greatness, past and

For, as I have remarked,
future.
ordinary run of
human minds
very, very seldom that the
it is
Your heroes and
are re-incarnated.
geniuses seem to reserve to themselves "the right of re-admission

to
How
earth."
lamentable
it is
that their last state here should
be so worthless in comparison with their
first
But, no doubt,
it
consoles the frivolous lounger of Parisian salons to assume that he
was
at a far
back day Conde or Moliere, and that, as " sphits
cannot degenerate," he must now, although he appears a dunce,
be raised above the mental platform on which he stood as victor

of
Rocroy or author
What becomes
of "
Le Misantrope."
of ordinary
Shakspere and Sophocles
souls ?
must be very weary of the many parts they have

curtain never rises for the entrance of plain
and earth knows him no more.

spirits M. Kardec tells us of, " who
No
dies,
instinctive
existence,
developed."
is
developed
member
The
play
but the
doubt he
their origin
is
have only an
spirit
it is
only
little
But where does
by
little
that their intelli-
that intelligence
become
cannot, surely, depart from earth a plain
of the Smith family, to return in a year or two a
blown Alexander
He
one of the
and have scarcely any consciousness of
themselves or their acts
gence
at
to
John Smith.
Has Dame Nature,
then,
some
fur- oif
full-
planetary
workshop, where the raw material of a hundred butchers or

bakers
is
kneaded into one conqueror or inventor
mass of humanity be composed of
Or can the
insignificant, jog-trot creatures
content to be born in an ordinary manner, to live an ordinary

to possess the ordinary hope of immortality,
life,
and to depart from
earth with the vulgar expectation of finding " a place prepared for
DELUSIONS.
them," according
supposition
merits
to their
I sincerely trust that this last
the correct oue.
is
237
If
it
be,
we
unfortunates
whom
the re-incarnationist pities as suckled in the outworn creed that
no individual can possess more than one
We
our kaleidoscopic brethren.

as Cicero-Napoleon-Joncs
or
if
however obscure our identity may

"We are
unperplexed.
visions
as
that
stifle
by
it
reflecting thai,
from
feminine
such
nightmare
re-incarnationist
These souls pass a confused
various planets.
They change from sex
series of existences in
After a series
to sex.
of pei-plexities, always absurd, and often disgusting, the soul
moment
happens
at that precise
earth.
In her previous
to be the
woman
is
which
summoned
sometimes
has
she
existences
to
two com-
describe to the world the monstrous intertwinements of

plicated souls.
and
be, that identity is peaceful
moreover,
safe,
which caused
when
a touch of longing thrill us
we may
contemplating his greatness,
need hardly envy
soul,
need not lament that we are not
to
been
married to her fellow Tiresias, but, ofteuer, has dispensed with

the
Hymeneal
knot.
However, she contrives
born.
much-
to forget her
incarnated lover, and weds with an ordinar}' mortal.
child
is
Confusion madder than the maddest intricacy of an insane
The discarded
brain ensues.
iover,
watching his opportunity of
revenge, has appeared on earth in the form of the said child.
Through the carelessness of a nurse, however, he

still
young.
His mother- wife
is
is killed
whilst
reported to have married again,
very recently, and to remain at present in an agreeable state of
doubt as
Such
this
to
is
whether she have not
quoted.
madder and
is
There
sketched above.
ingenuity they display.
turn of material
souls, fitting
much more
of
chiefly
have
by the perverted
second feminine disciple of Kardec has
life
are
one within another
Should one of
is
There are works
more disgusting than anything
There are others distinguished
elaborated a theory of emanations.

Avait their
wedded her grandmother.
re-incarnationist literature.
kind of thing than
infinitely
literally
made
like
Disincarnated beings
up,
we
learn, of
who
numerous
the ivory balls of China.
this strange race of beings
wish
to
communicate
with mankind, he throws forth a soul, which throws forth another,
MODERN
238
SPIRITUALISM.
whicla continues the emanating process until
Then
these curious links hand up and
down
earth
reached.
is
the electric chain they
have formed their own communications and those of the human
whom
beings with
The task
they arc in sympathy.
finished,
they
and creep once more the one within the other.
uncoil,
These theories
The more absurd and
find accepters.
contradic-
tory they appear to ordinary minds, the more do they delight
Nor need
enthusiasts.
up everywhere
be wondered
this
in the revelations of
accepts those revelations evidently has a
How
credulity.
Contradictions crop
at.
Kardec himself, and whosoever

vigorous
puzzling must spiritualists
who
capacity
of
are not " Spirit-
ists" consider such doctrines as the following:
employ any time in transporting themselves through

Do
Yes, but their motion as rapid as that of thought.
"
Is not thoiight the movement of the soul
a transportation
of the soul to the object thought of by
" A. Wlierever the thought
there the soul
since
the soul
that
Thought
an
"
properly so
Is the
without a covering or
as
some declare, surrounded by a substance of some kind
enveloped in a substance which would apjêar to
A. The
" Q.
spirits
space ?
" A.
is
Q.
itself,
it %
is
thiixks.
Q.
it
is,
is
attribute.
is
called,
spirit,
is
it,
''
spirit is
you as mere vapour, but which, nevertheless, appears very gross to us,
though it is sufficiently [vaporous to allow the spirit to float in the
atmosphere and transport himseK through space at pleasure."
If
"wherever the thought

inform us that
spirits
thought
instantaneous.
is
is,
there the soul is,"
travel ?
spirits
how
can these
Travel implies time, and
Perhaps, indeed, they would answer
that the duration of a journey
is
equivalent to the time occupied
spirit
wishes to traverse a distance of some millions of miles,
and,
in the formation of a thought regarding that journey.
presto
it is
But,
if
so,
accomplished.
why
that of thought ? "
The wish and
the deed were one.
say that " the motion of
spirits is as
rapid as
According to the teachers whose utterances are
supposed to be given to the world by Kardec, that motion

thought.
spirit
If a spirit
finds
itself
is
can but form an idea of any sphere, the said
instantly
there.
Distance matters
nothing.
DELUSIOXS.
Distance
239
nothing, for to thought distance
is
select au earthly
and therefore familiar
man
thing as regards time occupied whether a
He
Brighton or of Queensland.
fifteen
To
inappreciahlc.
is
illustration,
in
it
the
is
London
samo
thinks of
forms a thought of the province
thousand miles away just as rapidly as of the town from
which ho
only
is
miles
fifty
Thought, then, knows
distant.
nothing of time or space.
But matter does, and the Kardecian
swiftly as thought ?
traverse
to
What
appears very gross to us."
less,
spirits
then enables
Even vapour must
a given distance,
in
it,
neverthe-
it
to race as
take au appreciable time
and that time increases with the
But
increase of the distance to be traversed.
tance of the farthest star
clothed
arc
" It would appear to you mere vapour, but
matter.
to thought the dis-
as inappreciable as that of the nearest
is
planet.
Evidently, then, these Kardecian teachings are incon-
gruous.
The dilemma they present
the next world spirits are

travel with
still
the following one.
is
the rapidity of thought.
they travel with the
rapidity of thought they cannot be enveloped in matter.
other of these statements must necessarily be

I pretend not to decide which.
why
If in
enveloped in matter, they cannot
One
or
false.
Neither can I pi'etend to decide
Kardec's mesmerised clau-voyants and writers have advanced
such doctrines as the following:
"All
spirits are
created equal,
not knowing whence they come, for their free-will must have
fling.
They progress more

The
morality.
or less rapidly in intelligence as
its
in
state of the soul at its first incarnation is a state
analogous to that of infancy.
In proportion as
they understand what has retarded their progress.
spirits
advance
spirit
may
remain stationary, but he never deteriorates."

Is the
Greece of to-day more intelligent than the Greece of
Homer and
Socrates
Is the
France of our century more moral
than the France of fifteen centuries back
who answers
Even
Yes.
if
spirits
He
will be a bold
man
not, can the change be called progress?
a Kardecist will scarcely claim
whole nations of
we
And
"?
may
it
as such.
Why
then, if
deteriorate in particular respects, are
told that spirits never deteriorate ?
MODERN
240
The mistake
SPIRITUALISM.
arises evidently
from the mistaken view
He saw
took of the civilisation of to-day.
What he did
whole, has progressed.
He
that progress.
accounts for
more enlightened
earth in a
men
Reasonable
to
by pointing out
that
is
it
the
that the heritage of knowledge
we
greater than that
from our
inherit
words, that mankind progress in proportion as
in other
is
spirits return to
with each successive incarnation.
accumulate
leave to our children
fathers
state
not see was the true source of
by supposing that
will account for it
tendency of truths
we
it
-author
its
that the world, as a
they laugh at the teachings of Kardec and follow those of Bacon.
The
assertion that
all
in connection
certainly a
is
with other parts of the
Homer, Socrates, Shakspeare, GalUeo, New-
re-incarnative theory.
ton,
created equal
spirits arc
when taken
convenient one
and their fellow monarchs of mind, were, of course, simply
who had reached
incarnated beings
The drunkard
incarnation.
their twentieth
present age
of the
or thirtieth
no doubt a
is
The missionary who
returned drinker of the days of the Caesars.
preaches to Hindoos or South Sea Islanders in the nineteenth
century probably preached to Ephesian or Corinthian Pagans in

the
men
The
first.
exhibit
different qualities
stages
different
thus
are
of
and powers which the minds of
dismissed
as
being nothing
more than
many
development, induced by the few or
incarnations which the exhibitors have passed through.
And here be
it
noted that M. Kardec's mediums assert the
moral quaUties of the parent to have no
effect
on the moral
qualities of the child.
" Q.
children
Parents
;
often
transmit
physical
resemblance
" A. No
their
to
do they also transmit to them moral resemblance
because they have diflerent souls or spirits."
So the experience of centuries
is
as nothing
The
millions of
instances in which proof has been given that virtues and vices can
be transmitted
that drunkenness in the parent induces drunken-
ness in the child
that fear experienced
will impress timidity
by the pregnant mother
and nervousness on the mind of her infant
that particular talents
may
descend from father to
particular forms of insanity can be inherited
these,
son
that
and countless
DELUSIONS.
241
other cviilcuccs of moral resemblance arc calmly set aside by the
KarJcciuu " Nay."

mental pathology
I fear
Avill
physical resemblance
few who have made any study of
bow
be inclined to
to
the doctrine that
a parent can transmit.
is all
Of the many other contradictions which re-incarnation presents,

have space to notice but few. It
the " Spirits' Book " that " incarnated
is
Yet, in
of the past."
following
" Q.
dogma
admitted, for example, in
remembrance
spirits lose the
another part of the same volume we
find the
who
Is the spirit of a child
dies in infancy as
advanced as
that of an adult ?
",-1.
He
sometimes much more so;
is
for
may
he
previously
have lived longer, and acquired more experience, especially

be a spirit
who has
Such doctrines
They
made
already
They
if
that the child
be
stated.
remem-
who
dies in infancy
may
absurd then to
tell
us
be more advanced than an
previously have lived longer and acquired
Put succinctly,
nature.
How
may
The contradiction involved
more experience.
to
the experience of former lives?
is
they had never been.
adult, because he
more than
If the incarnated spirit loses the
brance of the past, of what value

are as
ho
considerable progress."
really require little
refute themselves.
if
as follows
is
it
is
of the plainest
" This
child
is
wiser
"
than you, because he knows something that he has forgotten!
" Q.
Do
the beings
whom we
call
angels,
archangels, and
serapliim form a special category, of a nature difierent from that
of otber spirits ?
"J.
all
No
they are
spirits
who have
purified themselves
from
imperfection, have reached the highest degree of the scale of
progress, and united in themselves all species of perfection."
"What
is
left
to
God when
his
children " reach the
degree of the scale of progress and unite in themselves

of perfection? "
The created become equal
the authors of this doctrine
tell
of God, just as a machine
is
us also that
the
work
all
highest
species
to the Creator.
Yet
" Spirits are the work
of the mechanician
who
made it the machine is the man's work, but it is not the man."
And since when has the work of the mechanician been estimated
;
MODERN
242
maker
as bighly as the
man's work
SPIRITUALISJL
Since
to progress to
when has
it
been the custom of
an equality with man himself?
compared
are given to understand that man, here
can uplift himself to an equality with his maker,

It will
new
be
many
to
that re-incarnation
body which Scripture speaks
of the
his
it
in
termed in the
is
supports by a most astonishing argument
opinion as to "the doctrine of the plurality of existences"
being " the anchor of safety which

for
the resurrection
" do not believe
re-incarnation, the resurrection of the Jicsh, as
And M. Kardec
God
is
Yet we
machine,
" English spiritualists,"
of.
remarks a distinguished re-incarnationist,
Bible."
to a
"The words
mankind."
the truth of this last assertion

of the
God
Gospel according to
St.
for
we
mercy has provided
read in the thu'd chapter
John
Nicodemus, thus expressed Himself:

thee,
in his
of Jesus Himself are explicit as to
replying
that Jesus,
ta
Verily, veril}', I say unto
'
Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of
And when Nicodemus inquired, How can a man be born

when he is old ? Can he enter again into his mother's womb, and
God.'
'
be born a second time

of water and of the
That which
the spirit
spirit,
born of the
is
'
Except a man be born
he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
flesh
is flesh,
and that which
is
born of
Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be
is spirit.
born again.' "
Jesus replied,
'
And
the above
texts
are
gravely advanced as
Scriptural supports to the theory of a " plurality of existences
Truly, that theory rests on adamantine foundations
We
even,
a single proof
say to the re-incarnationist, " Give us proof

if
it
be decisive and well- attested, that the
advance are
following
"
"
!
When
facts."
He meets
us with
dogmas you
such evidence as the
first
pathy drew us
saw Katie, a veiy extraordinaiy and spontaneous sym-
all at
once to each other.
asked
my leading
sprrits
about
and they told me that some hundred years ago we had intimately met in Turkey, where she was a slave named Suhn^, who died
young, of a ^dolent death. ... In the letter mentioned just now, I tried,
without stating anything more positive, to rouse her remembrance, in
lêgging her earnestly to look into her past existence, and to try to
recollect ine, in a country far away (of which I described the prmcipal
its cause,
DELUSIONS.
iVatuvos), askiiiL,' lur, at
any
waki'
licit
tliTou^li Î. di
My
llic siiiic tiiiic,
Iut mind.
cclin in
243
wlictluT
Ik-ro is
tlii>
nani!' of SiiIiik' did
answer
tliu
1,'nt
IVdin licr,
you l)ei'oie 1 go.

remember anytliiiig iiLout a fonner
existence, biit foucy I have known you before.
Try to recollect if we
have met. Tlie name you mentioned scoms familiar to me wliy cannot
remember
iKar
Iriiiul,
Can yon come
wniild wish very niucli to see
to nic
I eaiinot
"'
period before that

"
be had slept
To
man who was convinced

eventful dug when
have known a
Came
From
in the
that, at
forth the elect, the Ascitliau,
the mixture of sea and of slime,"
bosom
of the earth as the mineral. Sulphur.
unfortunate circumstance, and the
this
some misty
having been subse-
quently incarnated as a tiger, he attributed the fiery temperament
man who remembered

having been of old a piece of steel. Perhaps I may place with
these the laundry-woman who once spoke to me regarding " the
ho possessed.
fiiint
And
recollection she
have known another
had of having been a queen."
Does re-incarnation
offer
ns nothing save these less than
in support of its gigantic assumptions,
as daring ?
Absolutely nothing.
but a vision, and, like

of the
are
all
most baseless
The whole system
visions, the fabrics

sort.
trifles
and speculations as revolting
may
is,
indeed,
which constitute
it
confidently affirm that
there never was an incident advanced as testimony in favour of

that system
which would not more
easily
and naturally bear an
explanation other than the explanation sought to be placed on
The
It
it.
doctrine carries within itself the seeds of inevitable decay.
may, by
its
startling nature, captivate
weak
or
enthusiastic
minds, even as a modification of the same teachings captivated
men
in the far-back
reason
its
fiat
it
against
theology, require
reason
day of Pythagoras
appears miserably wanting.
why
dogmas
men
Avhich,
to
in
but brought to the
test of
True philosophy launches
the very spirit of mediaeval
accord faith to them, but render no
such faith should be accorded.
Upon
the active
life
and the guided thought of the nineteenth century, re-incarnation
r2
MODERN
244
SPIRITUALISM.
intrudes itself as the fossilized skeleton of some schoolman
who
swore by'Aquinas, and disputed according to the rules of Aristotle,
might intrude upon a party of
My
proclaiming, "
scroll
working by means
scientists busily
of the light which Bacon afforded.
mission
is
In
its
dead hand
Christ, and I confound the identity of
carries a
it
I take the place of
twofold,
And
man."
Avhen the
new
doctrine has been expounded, and the startled listener inquires,
" What proof do you
whether
offer
me
How
of all this?
have lived before on earth or not
incarnated spirit
lose
the
can I discover
T[7(//
dots
the
rcmeynhrancc of his past.'" the spectre
turns over the leaves of the " Spirits' Book," and points to the
page where
it
was
"
Man
is
first
dogma
stereotyped the old, old formula, old as the
invented to support, old as Superstition herself;
cannot and
may
know everything; God
not
in his
wisdom
has so ordained."
who have
It is the di'eary belief of re-incarnationists that spirits
not completed their appointed number of " expiations," wander

hither and thither during the years or ages which intervene between
each incarnation, wondering, with a sort of vacuous perplexity,
what
will
happen next.
There have
arisen,
however, certain
mighty inquirers who, by turning the antiquated telescopes of

Paracelsus and the
made marvellous
Rosicrucians on these unhappy beings, have
discoveries,
and arrived at marvellous conclusions.
It was, indeed, the wildest of poor
M. Kardec's many
delusions to
suppose that these shadows had before dwelt on earth.
" They
are the emanations of matter thrown off in the efforts of Mother
Nature to produce her noblest offspring
They have
the
neither souls nor consciences,
sentient
human
being.
and are thus devoid of
Let an awe-struck world listen to these

moral restraint."
solemn revealings of America's chief Occultist, and " in reverent
bow."
Having " neither souls nor consciences,"
silence
to imagine
material
what elementaries can
substances
it is
consist of.
one or more
of
the
somewhat puzzling
Had they been very

species
would have
assuredly been caged at the numerous seances which,
they attend.
Are they too small
we
learn,
for the microscope to reach ?
DELUSIONS.
Arc tho atoms of uliioh
buiig toLjether for the
24s
tliey consist too refiiieil
j^'rasp
of jiiortal eye or
and too loosoly-
hand
Arc these
weu'd creatures iUustrations of Tyndall's moh'cuhir theory, or of

the doctrine of spontaneous generation
know,
man
"
that,
know
outwitted, their beginning and end
is
wondrous
" organized
scheme of
hunt down and
to
little
imps.
The
in the city of
a fisher-
to
them."
This
a society enthusiastically
bottle
(litenilh/)
said learned body,
New
hut this I
They have not yet given any
on the species.
sign of seconding the crazy
whom
smoke.
They second every crazy scheme propounded
I consider a libel
constituted
not
Hke the genie of the Arabian Nights,
it
one of
these
appears,
was
York, October 30th, 1875, and the
inaugural address of the president of the society delivered at Mott
Memorial Hall,
Never did
the city of
in
more astounding
whom
York, November 17, 1875."
trumpets sound in the form
The learned and worthy president
of an inaugural address.
played the second
New
flourish of
officer
of the society as a
dis-
phenomenon, before
Kepler would fade into nothingness and even Galileo and
Newton grow dim

'
Withoiit claiming to be a theurgist, a mesmerist, or a spiritualist,
onr vice-president promises, by siniiile chemical appliances, to exhibit to
us, as he has to others before, the races of l)eings
eyes, people the elements.
Think for a moment
which, invisible to our
of this astounding claim
Fancy the consequences of the practical demonstration of its truth, for

which Mr. Felt is now preparing the requisite apparatus
What ^\^ll
the cluu'ch say of a whole world of beings within her territt)ry, but without her jurisdiction
What will the academy say of this crushing proof
of an unseen universe given by the most unimaginative of its sciences ?
!
What will
the positivists say,
of there being
who have been
prating of the impossibility
any entity which cannot be weighed in
scales, filtered
through funnels, tested with litmus, or carved with a scaljjel ? What will
the spiritualists say, when through the column of saturated vapour flit the
whom, in their blindness, they have in a thousand cases revered and babbled to as the returning shades of their relatives
and friends? Alas poor spiritualists editors and coiTespondents who
have made themselves jocund over my impudence and apostasy
Alas
sleek scientists, overswollen with the wind of popular applause
The
day of reckoning is close at hand, and the name of the, Theosophical
Society will, if Mr. Felt's experiments result favourably, hold its place
dreadful shapes of beings
in history as that of the body which
first
exhibited the
'
Elementaiy
MODERN
246
SPIRITUALISM.
Sjnrits' in this niiieteentli century of conceit and

never mentioned for any other reason "
infulclity,
even
if it l)e
Never mentioned
any other reason
for
Society need entertain no
occupy a niche
in history
The Theosophical
dread of oblivion.
destined to
It is
between the Lagadan College of Swift
and the philosopher who planned to extract gold from sunbeams.

" Think of our astounding claims " cries the president.
The
!
world has thought them over for above a year now, and
are
claims.
The
appliances are there
swings
high-priest
anguishedly to Adon-Ai
the
and
censer
his
and
vice-president
still
his
prays
chemical
the saturated vapour ascends, and the whole
array of Theosophists kneel around; but the " clementaries

*'
The
brain.
Mr.
they
dreadful shapes "
flit
"
as yet only through the high-priest's
Distorted and eerie shapes they indeed are.

" prepare the requisite apparatus.'"
Vainly does
The "races which
people the elements" refuse to people his laboratory;
and the
world grows impatient, and the Theosophists are in the position of

the priests of Baal.
They have called on the elementaries " from
morning even
voice, neither
until
noon, saying, Hear us
The
any that answered."
have contemned are converted into so
but there was no
spiritualists
many
Elijahs,
whom
they
"
mock
who
them, saying. Cry aloud, for are they not your servants
they are talking, or pursuing, or on a journey
must be awaked."
the bitter end
in front of their
either
or they sleep
and
Will not the society carry out the parallel to
We
shall hear of
them, perhaps, dancing wildly
Memorial Hall, or building
altars in
some New York
park, and hacking themselves with knives and lancets.

that day of anticipated triumph,
when
Alas for
the president, clad with a
at the head of
Broadway, crushing the " editors and correspondents" who had
robe of Tyrian dye, should have taken his stand
made themselves merry over
his pretensions,
by the exhibition of a
stoppered phial, neatly labelled " spirits," and tenanted by that
" shadow of a shade," an elementary
The most perplexing thing
of
all is,
that the said elementaries
have been previously caught and commented on.

president promises to exhibit
them
" Our vice-
to us, as he has to others before."
DELUSIOyS.
And when
down
previous exhibition take
did this
of the
corner
In \vhat
place ?
were the unhappy "emanations" hunted
earth
"What occultist
247
or
enjoyed the privilege of
occultists
" babbling over" the "dreadful shapes?"
Did they
with litmus, or carve them cunningly with scalpels, or
through funnels, or weigh them with scales

taries
test
them
filter
them
Possibly the elcmcn-
were disgusted with the shabby treatment they received, and

In that case
decline a second visit.
it is
not to be wondered at
the " columns of saturated vapour," like the
ascend uselessly to heaven
and
that,
smoke of Baal's
though high-priest and vice-
president pray and prophesy with due fervour from

until the time of the
any
voice, nor
evening
to answer, nor
tions of matter "
sacrifice, there
mornmg even
should be " neither
The " emana-
any that regarded."
may have no
if
altar,
souls, but they arc altogether too
smart for the Theosophical Society.
And
the society appears to have discovered this
vice-president's promises are saturated vapour
and, since the
and nothing more,
his chief has ordered, regardless of expense, the best thing in the
way of magicians
member" has been
iind Eg}-pt.
The
" dreadful shapes

4ire
that Africa can furnish.
"newly-affiliated
dispatched to those haunts of sorcerers, Tunis

little
of the chemical apparatus
fiasco
" is ignored.
The
high-priest's
" One of these African
as wordily-grandiloquent as ever.
show you images
sorcerers will, for a small fee,
of the dead,
enable you to converse with them in audible voice.

w'alk, self-levitated, in mid-air
and the
rhodomontades
They
and
will
climb poles which rest upon no-
thing, until they positively go out of sight " (the poles, or the con-
jurers
'?),
injury.
" and dismember themselves even to decapitation without

.
You"
(the newly-affiliated
member) "have the
tunity to introduce to western scientists, under the

restrictions,
and guarantees of a
of occult powers, for lack of
scientific (?) society,
which they have been
oppoi*-
patronage,
those proofs
drifting into
materialism and infidelity."

"
The Theosophical
itself to
pay
New York World,* "engages

That seems to us unnecessary.
Society," remarks the
for bringing the fiend over.
August
4,
1876.
MODERN
248
Let
Iiiiu levitate,
and
together hovering over

lieavens, a
new
liitch
and confess a new
assemhled on Pier No.
No
aloft.
Old Socrates
Mr. S
Let them appear
on behind.
New York from
the eastern sky, a true sign in the
consteUation of the Gemini, whereat the multitude shall
flop confounded,
them
SPIRITUALISM.
1,
faith,
while the Theosophical Society,.

down from joining
hold the president forcibly
true philosophy can, at tins day, be kept selfishly secret.
killed this esoteric business.
It will be the square thing to
whole people, and his time ought to be

taken at both ends. We don't often get a fiend pure and simple. Let
us not entreat this one so shabbily that no more will come to us."
let the fiend float in sight of the
And when
the
cu-cle
will the first fiend arrive ?
No
doubt the day after
has been squared, and the philosopher's stone dis-
covered.
The
tree
which Mr.
Felt planted and African magicians are to water
may
be pretty,
The
but
it
idle
outcome of occultism
is
brag.
bears only an enormous crop of empty promises.
Words
words, are the stock in trade of the society, from the president
down
if
single
to the
youngest member.
such unproductive
folly
equally idle and equally empty.
termed "Art Magic."
The
literature of the
movement,,
deserve to be termed a movement,

It consists
This book
is
so far of a
made up
partly of descrip-
tions of travel, partly of stories respecting Oriental jugglers
dervishes, and partly of rubbish
is.
volume
and
dug from the forgotten works of
Cornelius Agrippa and his medieval compeers.
The only
spirit I
have yet heard of as evoked by a perusal of "Art Magic"
is
the
spirit of credulity.
faith
that promises
unlikely to have
may
much
everything and accomplishes nothing
influence on the future of the world.
is
We
look with pitying indifference, therefore, on these English-
speaking fetichists
"
who
stand frantically inviting us to
Come and worship Mixmbo Jumbo

In the mountains of the moon."
CHAl^TER IV
Since mental disease has been made the subject of careful study,
the difficulty of determining
where the
We
ceases has vastly increased.
by induction
characters of others,
responsibility for an action
reason, with reference to the

;
assuming from the knowledge
we possess of certain of its qualities what the mind as a whole

may be. But in the most logically conducted process the absence
of necessary data may lead to a false conclusion, and in inquiries
conducted with regard to the human mind we arc peculiarly liable
to
No
go astray.
subject of inquiry has so fascinated philosophers
as that of pure metaphysics,

It
less.
is,
and none has ever proved so value-
the language of Bacon, a tree with a magnificent
in
display of leaves,
but never producing
inquiries purely metaphysical,
another world, has in
The
strife.
inquiries
if
The outcome of
fruit.
unsupported by revelations from
ages been endless bewilderment and
all
conducted into the deeper subtleties of
insanity seem, at the present day, to have plunged physicians into

a
The
soul
for the dissection of
even
bewilderment almost equally profound.
fully
and wonderfully made
peculiarities
by merely human hands.
If a
marked, indeed, doctors seldom disagree.

that a
man who
requires to be restrained
It
by
case
is
a doubt.
other
It is
some
retains
The
what he does.
when
her throne
be
morbid
strongly
easy to decide
from doing
is
irrespon-
indications here are too decisive for
a multitude of facts and
apparently
its
force
meaningless injury to his fellow creatures or himself

sible for
too fear-
is
irresistibly
symptoms
proving
that
jostle
reason
each
still
others as clearly demonstrating her over-
MODERN
250
throw
that medical
give deplorable proofs of their inability
whether or not they are dealing with a mind diseased.
to decide
There
minds
men
exist,
and have existed since the creation of our species,
which some
in
quality increases
brilliant
and splendour, while the
stature
stunted or commonplace.
the
SPIRITUALISM.
some
first,
taint of
rest
of the
There arc other minds
unsoundness has place,
enlarging, usurps at last the place of reason
permeates every action of
unhappily constituted as these last that

frequently at fault.
so afflicted
life
is
sane.
whom
estates, to carry
every-day
life
speak
them
there,
working
little
some
arrived,
human philosophy
life is,
and
is
most
to all seeming, the ordinary
they are competent to marr}^ to inherit
on businesses, to transact
Even
or nothing that
When,
the affairs of the
all
their nearest
is
peculiar.
[ûnseen beneath the surface,
action of existence.
as an adviser,
magistrate would reject the testimony of
of the world.
see in
that, constantly
every test that can be applied the person
His or her
No
of humanity.
those of
By
remain
which, from
in
with regard to beings so
It is
life.
constantly in
faculties
and dearest may
Yet the poison
is
and influencing every
at length, the crisis of the
fearful action startles those around,
malady has
and a thousand
tongues and pens begin busily and unavailingly to discuss the
mental condition of the doer of the deed.

such malad}- of the soul, a
<?ases of
am
is,
in
most
not aware that in England, or on the Continent of Europe,
any instances
Even
That deed
self-inflicted death.
of suicide have been plainly traceable to spiritualism.
America the number of victims has not been
in
the subject
is
a dangerous one for those mentally
large.
afflicted.
spot which I have alluded to as tainting certain minds
is
in
But
The
many
instances a species of false enthusiasm which, with the lapse of

years,
becomes but the
unreflecting.
perils to
less regulated
and the more excitable and
In the case of communion wuth another world the
such a class of minds are peculiarly
gi'cat.
By
their
fervid imaginations that world is depicted in the brightest of hues.
In eveiy one of the countless

earthly
life
they
fly for
trials
and miseries which beset our
refuge to the thought of the happiness to
be found in another sphere.
Thus
the longing for the imagined
joys of immortality, and the temptation to seek by suicide to attain
J/.LVLl.
tbcm, become, by continual growtb,
baril to be
trial
longers for a future

the
tragic iutei'est
of the
No
the suicides
by professed
by the
At once a mournful end invests with
name
befallen.
is
man
or
woman whom
Of
which have been recorded,
spiritualists
evil
suggestions of disembodied beings can be supported by
a fragment of anything deserving the
may
name
of evidence.
spirits
who
By
such
it is
may have
ranks,
unknowingly,
to
But
purpose of
for the
it
life,
who have been found
do not think
it,
is,
have admitted,
general, at
in
in the
knowiuglj^ or
suflered themselves,
The b3pothesis
be guided.
a possible one.
are watchful for the
possible that the more impression-
able of the victims to a disgust of

spiritualist
do not
and who, having acquired influence over
evil,
the minds of those yet on earth, will use
leading astray.
There may b3
not have taken place.
debased beings in the world of

opportunity of doing
such a
spiritual interference is necessary.
not one in which the theory that death was brought about
say that such tempting
bable
bapjjcn
really great afllictioii,
endured, darkens tbe present path of these
life.
sorrow has
there
may
It
irresistible.
process of time, tbe gloom of some
tbiit, in
some
251
all
pro-
nor, with regard to the various cases I might lay before the
reader,* would the testimony be found to bear
it
Delirious
out.
broodings, exaggerated in a particular direction at the expense of

all
other attributes, until the balance of the
mind had been over-
thrown, and the suflerer was, for eveiy action committed under
the influence of that delii'ium, practically irresponsible, were the
tempters that hurried these victims to their sad and untimely

graves.
That bringing near of another world, which
to so
many
has been the source of consolation unspeakably divine, was with
them the innocent means
more
of intensifying to a
the original disease of their minds.
terrible pitch
In the wild hope of thereby
at once participating in the joys of the next world they rebelliously
abandoned
the
most
this present one,
terrible
of
all
to
and passing
travel,
have
by a road
into futurity
left
their histories as
melancholy examples of the mischief that ensues when a mind,
weak but
enthusiastic, unresistingly
and absorbing
*
abandons
itself to
one insane
idea.
They
are omitted, on account of their tragic nature.
CHAPTER
V.
" PEOPLE PROM THE OTHER WORLD."
There
are
works purporting
to be contributions to the literature of
spiritualism whicli reflect mucli discredit on the writers
The one thing kept throughout
duced them.
Superficially
Critically
view
in
is
pro-
effect.
compositions appear valuable.
glanced over, these
The impression
examined, they prove worthless.
a book of this class on the mind of a careless reader

attained by the most unworthy means.
as facts.
who
left
by
usually
is
Theories are palmed off
ends which the author has in
Trifles favourable to the
mountains of evidence.
Inconvenient
view are magnified
into
truths are suppressed.
Where suppression is impossible, the disresorted to.

The writer appears to consider
tortion of the truth
him
is
or herself engaged in the construction of an edifice in which a
certain effect has,
by
fair
means or
materials proper for the task
foul, to be
seem opposed
they are at once rejected, however sound.

rubbish forthcoming, provided that
the builder's service.
it
obtained.
If the
to the desired result,
In their place the
be but showy,
Legends which, however
is
first
pressed into
attractive, bear
too often in themselves the marks of their falsehood and unsubstantiality,

facts.
fill
When
the gaps caused
buildings seen on the stage.
proper light, the thing
and examine
it
is
Viewed
charming.
by the clearness
once, and for ever.
What was
a miserable composition
single
by the
casting aside of unpleasant
completed, the work exactly resembles the makeshift
blow would
of
of
at a little distance,
But
noon
ajiproach
:
we
it
and
more
in a
closely,
are disenchanted at
at first sight a fairy palace,
is
daubed canvas and pasteboard,
suffice to lay the
whole structure
in ruins.
now
A
So
''PEOPLE FROM*TJ/E OTHER H'OKLD."

tho llinisy productions I treat
VN'ith
exceedingly taking,
when beheld by
But expose them
to
tawdriuess
Before the
goes down, and utter
The
is
become
once apparent.
at
the unstable fabric
the ruin thereof.
my
book which furnishes the subject of
fairly take
general,
of credulity.
weakness which those
the
hide,
to
assault of a competent critic
first
in
sober daylight of reason, the paltry
the
were intended
decorations
arc,
the false glare
decorations, and
of the
They
of.
253
present chapter
rank as one of the worst compositions of this bad
Let me, before euterhig on

supposition some readers
examination, guard myself against a
its
may
am
entertain, that I
representing
such wi'itings as peculiar to spiritualism.
They
everywhere, and infest
of literature.
their iulluence
is
all
departments
xVt
are to be
met with
In some
in others,
com-
times, indeed, they are allowable.
No
in the highest
paratively harmless.
may
class.
degree pernicious
one, for example, expects strict consistency and unswerving accu-
racy of statement in a novelist or a poet.
meet with exaggeration

papers.
But
in
works that claim
that are put forth
demand
ward
works of
to be
as records of facts,
strictness in
It surprises
us
little
in the leader-writing of sensational
we
are
to
news-
science, in records
surely entitled to
examining evidence, caution
in
putting for-
or endorsing statements, a careful separation of the true from
the false, and the proved from the merely probable, a judicial
coming
impartiality in
to
decisions
in
short,
common-sense,
Not one of these
candour, and honesty of purpose.
regret to say, can be considered as attaching to the
Had
me.
the author of
'
attributes, I
work
before
People from the Other World " put
forward that volume as a romance, one might have been content
with remarkuig that
it
was sometimes
and would have been a better book

pains.
But
it is
large.
scientific care,
It is
dull
and sometimes absurd,
the writer had taken
observations of recondite phenomena,
and published
in the interests of the
dedicated to two English scientific men.
page bears the words of Bacon

to ourselves to
more
gravely advanced as a truthful and dispassionate
narrative of certain
with
if
examine things
"
We
to the
have set
it
down
made
world at
The
title-
as a
law
bottom, and not to receive
MODERN
254
upon
credit, or reject
SPIRITUALISM.
upon improbabilities,
until there bath passed
a due examination."
In " People from the Other "World " the author has observed
cue, and but one, of the laws here laid
He
philosophers.
improbabilities."
upon
abso-
This, however,
For the
title-page of such a
folly
with which I
to myself to
the contrary, his depth of credulity
desiderated, nor
investigation.
the prince of
On
lutely fathomless.
which Bacon
down by
certainly cannot be accused of " rejecting
submit, one proper to scientific
such a motto on the
rest, the placing of
book
am
not the condition of mind
is
is it, I
is
is
one of the most laughable displays of
" I have set
acquainted.
man who
assumption on the part of a
us
tells
down
it
How
examine things to the bottom."
as a
modest
law
this
342, " People
(p.
from the Other World ") that the manifestations, as a record of

which he constructed his book, " were not happenuig under testconditions, and hence
would not
philosophical experiments;" and
that his readers " will bear

efforts
was no place
him out
in
scientists in the
would commence
view of such an avowal as the
investigation, or pseudo-investigation
is
to try
(p.
409)
in the statement that all his
On
'?
p.
child's pla)'."
the value of his
last, is
414 of
The
kind enough to answer the question.
phenomena
real investigations, in
comparison to which these made by himself are but
What,
him
for
who sums up by hoping
have been to interest American
to such an extent that they
mind;" who
satisfy the judicial
confesses (p. 347) that " Chittenden
his
work he
narratives that he
gives are sufficient " to arouse the gi'eatest wonder."
Could less
be said of the histories of Munchausen, or the equally veritable

tales of the
man
Thousand and One Nights
Is
it ijot
too
much
that a
should trumpet himself forth as a devotee of science who, in
reality,
and by
showman
his
own
confession,
to a coiiple of persons
is
merely seeking to act as
whose claims
does nothing cither to prove or to negative
" I do not receive upon credit," says he.
due examination."
Such
is
the assertion
of Bacon as one suited to his
own
to
mediumship he
"There must pass
made
in taking the
circumstances.
He
motto
reiterates
that assertion with even greater distmctness in the pages of his
FROM THE OTHER irORLDr
''PEOPLE
"
l)c)t)k.
Wc
should take nothing for granted, and respect no mun's
judgment who
"We should demand from the spiritualist as
does.
receiving his theory, or from Tyndall,
any of the dogmas propounded
We
takes things on faith.

the spiritualist
The
and science.
nothing to us, for
phenomena
I agree
want none
to set his creed above
"VYe
in the balances,
"
other creeds
mediums
and
reject
whatsoever appears
my
The doctrines
whole
career, I
have
find in " People
from
tm*n from theory to fact
from the
author's magnificent sentiments to his pitiful practice ?

Surface's
life
third of the
of
Joseph
and language were not more contradictory.
volume
it
should weigh the mediums and
But what do we
when we
are
would seek
most cordially with every word.
never ceased inculcating.
World
all
arc in quest of the truth, and
here repeated are doctrines which, during
the Other
A philosophy
No real investigator
of.
and tested by every appliance of reason
even at the bottom of a well.
false."
ho would have us accept
individual preferences or fears of
wc
before
should flout at and cease debate with
who assumes
as too sacred to be tried
if
in his Belfast address.
that shrinks from crucial tests I
their
wc do from Huxley
a basis of facts for our belief as
broad
255
One-
devoted to stories received at second-hand,
is
whoso truth or falsehood the writer knows nothing, and which
are, therefore, utterly worthless as evidence.
equally yalueless.
women's
tales."
They come
Internally they are
exactly under the definition of " old
Wîth just such narratives niayMrs. Sairey
Gamp
have enlivened over the tea-table the sullen moods of Mrs. Betsey
Prig.
The " investigator," indeed, to whose taste for authorship
we owe "
People from the Other World " would appear to have a
great deal of the
Gamp
about him.
All through his
book he con-
tinues to direct rapturous apostrophes to a certain " science," con-
spicuous by her absence from his writings.
cannot venture to
remark, as the vehement and uugrammatical Mrs. Prig remarked

of Mrs. Harris, that " I don't believe there's no such person."
this,
however, I
am
that,
certain,
doubtedly exists, the writer with

nothing at
Had
his
all
Of
though the said science un-
whom
am
dealing
knows
about her.
mind been of the
scientific
cast he vrould
never have
256
filled
to
MODERN
paragraph upon paragraph with records of phenomena, only
remark uaively
may
SPIRITUALISM.
narrating this
affair,
Not
The
such suspicious circumstances.
paper."
first
am
satisfied
with
ho accompanies his account with a fac-mnile
of the truly " wretched Latin and bad
probably the
no value.
that, after all, these records are of
instance the story given on page 234.
Enghsh
'"
obtained under
excuse offered
is
that
it
"is
thing of the kind which has appeared in a news-
not aware whether the
New York
these sensational narratives were in the
had before
inflicted
interest.
Certainly, however,
first
dailies for
whom
instance constructed
on their readers illustrations of such doubtful

" the
it is
thing of the kind
first
which has adorned the pages of any work professedly devoted
And
philosophical investigation.
styled " the picture of a
as he has acted here, so does
young
girl,
with her head and shoulders
emerging from a sort of fog or steamy vapour."
accompanying
'
spirit
author's).
''I
it
a copy " of one of Mumler's so-
have no confidence in this jncture,'' he continues, " or,
from
of spiritual origin.'"
and engraved
the
(The inverted commas are our
photographs.' "
in fact, in any emanatimj

directJij
is
I turn to
There I find
an explanation.
letter-press for
recorded that this engraving

called
to
Facing page 148 will be found what
this writer act all through.

is
"
in a
same
the
Why
as directhj or in-
source,
then cause
volume which has not the
it
be engraved,
to
slightest reference to
the genuine or fraudulent nature of alleged spirit-photographs ?
The author seems
He
to anticipate that
such a question
seeks, therefore, to guard against
it
may
be asked.
by a maudlin dissertation
on the Holmeses, Dr. Child, the Hon. Eobert Dale Owen,

tenden spirit who, " losing power, sank into the floor up
waist,"
a Chitto her
and " certain communications " sent him from various
persons, " attesting to the fact of their seeing materialized spirit-
forms dissolve."
It is difficult for a plain
man
to extract the
grains of meaning concealed in this bushel of rigmarole.
few
Put
in
the clearest form, however, the drift of these paragraphs and others
of a kindred nature
public, have very
little
evidently
is,
"
to ofier that is
convenient that I should swell
my
I,
who now
worth the
volume
address
the
offering.
It is
to a certain size.
This
"PEOPLE FRO.y THE OTHER IVORLDr

I accomplish
jit
by inserting a number of worthless
ever, that I
reader
may do
slightest
This
am weak enough
faith
in
them."
man who
the
is
he or she please
so, if
And
this
a scientific investigator!
is
takes mottoes from Bacon, and dedicates his

!
The
dullest school-boy
The most
to contradict himself thus.
that Satire ever pilloried
abject dunce
would be ashamed of the company of such
a philosopher.
That any human being should have the
construct such a
work
structed
strange enough.
is
he should consider
it,
words of a great
folly to
That, after having con-
a Avork of philosophical reseai'ch,
it
and under that designation send

in the
The
but I myself have not the
worthless speculations to Mr. Crookes
would blush
these stories.
to believe in
up
stories picked
Don't think, how-
from various people.
soeonti or third-hand
257
it
forth into the Avorld,
essayist, " to
is
make us ashamed
enough,
of our
species."'
As
a composition
reasoning
it is
is
it
altogether beneath contempt.
a display of
This last proposition
have occasion presently to substantiate.
I shall
As
almost below criticism.
For the present I
confine myself to a few words regarding the literary demerits of
the volume before me, and to a brief exposition of the motives
which have led me

less
to attempt the
examination of this most worth-
and most dishonest book.
It
would be waste of space
The supply
literary shortcomings.
lowing
to discuss at
its
endless
of such. sentences as the fol-
" Poor Mrs. Eddy's mhj'ortmies
almost inexhaustible.
is
any length
followed her even into the grave, as she one day told the children
would."
"
He
man, who took them

States,
and
hired three or four of the children out to one showto nearly all the principal cities cf the
to another
who
took them to London."
United
Grammatically
considered, this sentence leaves us in an agreeable state of doubt

as to
whether one showman took the children to another, or one
city of the
United States took the children to London.
writer probably
meant
v.as, that
receiving back his olive branches from the
them out
"I am
What
the
the father of the Eddys, after

first
showman, hired
to a second.
quite aware of the fact that, as a scientific experiment,

s
MODERN
2S8
SPIRITUALISM.
the procuring of the second set of
was present when
medium
was
It
names has no value
written, or can affirm
But what
himself, so I let that pass.
it
for
no one
was not by the
shall be said of the
cards written in the light-circle before twenty people, which bear
marked a resemblance to tlicm, / " To what does the word

" them " apply ? After careful consideration, the only meaning I
so
can arrive at in the sentence
marked resemblance
given
last
to the twenty people
what the writer intended
that the cards bore a
is,
This
to convey, but his
is
evidently not
mind seems too con-
tracted to have
much
some a
have selected these charming specimens of compo-
sition
task.
from pages which I had marked
wade through the whole volume

dities of
grammar,
But enough of
grasp of language.
for
other purposes.
in search of its
To
thousand absur-
would be more than human nature
&c.,
so tire-
is
capa-
ble of bearing.
"Why
devote space, then, to the dissection of so worthless a

? "
performance
the reader will ask.
I grant that, intrinsically,
volume has no value whatever,
this
meaningless than the gospel of
that
Mormon,
But things which are
Joanna Southcote.
often deserve attention on account of the
grow
faster than the corn into
require, therefore,
This book
is
it
is
or the
ten times
more
speculations of
in themselves valueless
harm they work.
Weeds
which they intrude themselves, and
be rooted up, or they spoil the harvest.
to
emphatically a weed, and one of the worst, perhaps
the very worst, of
Other productions of the kind
species.
its
but there are few which display such an
infest spiritual literature
utter lack of principle
such a happy audacity in assertion, or so
complete a disregard of
facts.
certain cleverness in distorting
occurrences to whatever form the peculiar genius of the writer

considei's desirable, renders the
for
is
making what
is
work dangerous.
more than half a
This capacity
fabrication resemble the truth
invariably inherent in certain dispositions.
When
had succeeded
Other World
pity.
The
"
my
first
in struggling
feeling
was one
through " People from the

of mingled
amusement and
lackadaisical sentimentality of the style
feebleness of the reflections,
made me
set
down
the maudlin
the writer as a
"PEOPLE PROM THE OTHER U'ORLDr

good, easy blue-stocking of
who was
fifty,
Very
luuliT a masculine )iom dc i>\nmc.
intensely gushing,
more credulous, and
still
had thrust herself
position she
concealing
foolish she
my
covered, and can assure
into.
me,
disis
man, he arrogates
of a
he could ho guilty of such
a production as " People from the Other AVorld "
He
to
totally unfit for the
have since, however,
title
How
to himself that of a philosopher.
deepest of mysteries.
licr identity
seemed
readers, that the author in question
Besides the
really of the sterner sex.
259
therefore, the
is,
me
has written three letters to
since the
appearance of his book, which letters I hope will be published

in c.vtenso in the
forthcoming volume of " Incidents in
me from
Self-respect prevented
To adopt
nications.
answering the
My
last of these
Life."
commu-
language he hurls at others,
to this writer the
he " sheds a magnetism as disagreeable as dirty
Avater, or the per-
fume of the Fetis Americaruis."

Yet he has
the
Now
he
Now
is
he
is
His self-conceit
ridiculous qualities.
is
to pose himself in
is
somo impres-
the adorer and benefactor of mediums.
the lofty denouncer of " calumnious behaviour leserved
is
for blackguards
time he
its
His dearest pleasure
sive attitude.
much amusement
attributes of such a mind,
might be derived from

iuetlable.
Could we but put out of view
his ludicrous side.
more unpleasant
and mediums."
(The
italics
are his own).
Atone
putting on his paper armour, and taking pen in hand, to
do battle for the Eddys against the world.
little later
we
find
him, according to his own confession, " waiting patiently for a
grand exposure " of the same Eddys.

admirer
orf
spiritualism
and science
Now
he
is
the humble
and, clinging to the coat-tails
of distinguished spiritualists and scientists, pathetically implores
these people to
lift
him
the public as a sort of

iuf;\nts in
"heathen
investigator
Dailies
whom
into notice.
at the
he
is
to suckle
grown up
is
the smart
" the conductors of two of the great
New York
outworn."
Again, he
to investigate
and describe the phe-
Eddy homestead, had they supposed him
unsound mind, credulous,
Now
he starts forth before
Pagan wet-nurse, ready
fantasies
would not have engaged
nomena
Now
a spiritualist
partial,
now he
s2
is
dishonest,
or
either of
incompetent."
not a spiritualist.
In short,
MODERN
260
SPIRITUALISM.
Through
his changes are Protean.
all,
however, he seems troubled
with an uneasy consciousness of absurdity.
he be a Bottom, he
If
For a moment
at least suspects himself to possess an ass's head.
the particular attitude he
appears to him the perfection of
is talcing
Presently doubts arise, and he begs earnestly the opinion
grace.
The next
of bystanders as to his position and get-up.
behold him dismounted from his late pedestal, and in
instant
full
we
career
towards son.e new hobby-horse.

probable that nine-tenths of
It is
my readers
fectly acquainted, or not acquainted at
of this
career
spiritualists
phenomenon.
literary
may
proud
be
with the Chittenden
That career
of.
all,
are but very imper-
shall
is
not one
therefore,
seek,
in
sketching the circumstances under which " People from the Other
World
"
was
to
written,
accomplish
my
task with the utmost
brevity.
The author
Eddy
of the
work
in question was,
he
tells us,
ghost-court in his capacity of newspaper paragraphist.
appointment was lucrative, and
its
and
during
" are convinced
mind
to
see
" Both Mrs.
an American friend of mine, who was present at
I," writes
Chittenden
The
holder in no hurry to terminate
This idea has struck others besides myself.
it.
sent to the
this
now
pseudo-investigator's
that there
was
" investigations,"
a determined resolve in his
and hear nothing that lessened the chances of his
lucrative position there."
He
possesses a fervid imagination, and brilliant powers of inven-
who can
There are few
tion.
This imagination
is
" Arabian Nights.''
scarfs,
farther through a stone wall.
The "glamour"
nothing in comparison.
gowns,
see
as powerful a talisman as
Not
any mentioned
of mediaDval
only, under
its
in the
magic was as
influence,
do night-
and smoking-caps figure as " magnificent costumes,"
but incidents are descriled which never occurred, and portraits are
given without the faces supposed to be copied in those portraits
having ever been seen.
And
able blemishes of the book
how
unblushing
is
here come under notice the irremedithose which, above
the assurance of
its
all,
demonstrate
author.
" The light has been very dim," says he, on page 163, " and I
PEOPLE EKO.U THE OTHER WORLD.-
"
liavc
On
a
c6r
not bcou able to recognise the features of a single face."
the next page I
number
of lines
lincl,
" What go
to constitute a likeness are
about the eyes, nose, and mouth, as thin as a
knife-blade's edge; the expression of eye, shape of features, colour,
and hau'
these, in such a light as
this,
The paragraph immediately following
tells
us that the light
is
so
" one cannot, with untrained eye, distinguish accurately
poor,
between forms varying as much as

avow'als occur
six inches in height."
through the book.
all
at
Chittenden was a
is
Similar
may
Strong as they
the testimony of unprejudiced observers

light
are indistinguishable."
appear,
stronger.
still
The
on the term " darkness visible."
libel
"What, in view of such a fact, can be the value of the engi'avings of
" materialised " forms, &c., with which the volume

decorated
a portrait.
Not one has the
They
are,
their works.
It
is
slightest pretension to be considered
not thus that
assured
occurred
It is
artist.
men
But, putting this aside,
numerous recognitions of departed

solemnly
profusely
without exception, fancy sketches evolved
from the inner consciousness of the

are illustrated.
is
xvliat
was
value of the
the
and friends vhich we are
relatives
Does not every
.'
thus romances
truly scientific illustrate
answer, as I answer, that they w-ere valueless
candid
reasoner
Even had
these
would serve
so-called recognitions been honestly described, they
only to prove the insane enthusiasm of persons able to conjure up

departed relatives in figures whose features tliey could not discern,
and whose voices they did not hear.
now about to show,

On page 271, we
are not honest.
friend of a lady wêll
known
learn
how
in
when
lady,
magazine literature as
strained
bows
was
in
Arab
build,
is
'
am
Aunt Sue.""
glowing.
"
He was
and his very salaam
to the
marked contrast with the con-
of the Indians, and the
salutations of the whites.

in a
said
and wiry
recognised,
descriptions, as I
there appeared " an Arab, an old
Our author's description of the

of short stature, slight
But the
His name
is
more
or less ungraceful
He was
Yusef.
dressed
white tunic, gathered at the waist by a sash, and the skirt
ornamented with three equi-distant bands of

width.
On
his
head was the national
fe/,
red,
and
in
of the
his
same
sash Wiis
MODERN
262
thrust a
SPIRITUALISM.
weapon of some kind which
number
propounded
questions
of
same
answered by
him were
to
respectful bows, and his parting obeisance

but, at the
I could not see distinctly.
was
of that deferential,
time, self-respecting character, that
is
peculiar to
the people of the Orient."
Why
answer questions by respectful bows
Either this taciturn
Eastern had forgotten his native tongue in another world, or had

forgotten to materialise organs of speech
But now
occurred.
and salaams of
visit
what
this
obsequious
this
lady writes
me
returning to this.
"Aunt Sue
furnished by the very
It is
when
unvarnished" account of what really
"plain,
for
spirit
My dear
whom
the
Here
is
May
"
"
" to
were directed.
I5th, 1876.
Dan,
" You shall have my experience with pleasure.

Mrs. C. and I
read" (our author's) "glowing description of ghosts and things in the
and we said, Let's go it is
vicinity of, and at the Eddy homestead
among the lovely liills of Vermont, and we Avill have a good time any
way.' And we went. We were introduced to the Eddy brothers, and
shown to our room. You don't want to hear about the peculiarities of
'
the manage there. Suffice it to say we went prepared to accept a gridiron

for a bed, and a stove pipe for a pillow, if necessary, and to take all
and we took them.
creatirre discomforts philosophically
" The evening came, and we all sat about after tea in the sitting;
and mostly nothing else),

awaiting the announcement that the Hall the large room iip-stah's over
Up we went, and sat on the
the dining-room was ready for us.
benches prepared for us. All on the fi'ont row joined hands to make a
magnetic chain,' though where the magnetic cm-rent went at either end,
The
The man with the violin played vigorously.
I don't know.
light, back of us all, was turned so low that it was impossible to distinguish features two feet from us. When the curtain over the door of the
the
cabinet was lifted, and a form appeared, the violin was hushed
< form
was mum, until the front bench, beginning with No. 1, comFor me 1 until
menced to ask the stereotyped question For me
Oh for me said No. 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, as the case might
the form bowed.
still silent.
Is it
Is it uncle
no response.
Is it father ]
be.
room
(so-called because there vvêre chairs in
it,
'
'
'
'
'
'
'
you
!'
nised,
Then
the form
it is
and that
is
'
'
'
'
'
Charlie Myrtle?'
'?
']
'
bows.
'Why,
all
there was of
'
was
tlistinctly recog-
What I
specially noticed
reported that 'Charlie MjT^tle
about
'
Charlie, I'm so glad to see
it.
'
' materialised
by ' Honto,' a light one and
a dark one, were always of exactly the same length ; the Light one about
was, that the shawls and scarfs
'
FROM THE OTHER WORLD."
''PEOPLE
263
Tlio nia^nilicent
throe yards long, and tlu' dark one alxnit two yards.
costumes seemed to be composed of a loose, Avlute wrapper (nightgown ?);
dark calico tunic, some scarfs and Indian caps (smoking ones ?), which
'
'
made
different combinations
cpiite
a variety of costumes
defy any one to describe them minutely by the

always appeared.
One evening the ' For me
answered, until
bowed.
At
'
it
came
Is it Rulofi'e
to
my
turn.
asked
The
I inquired.
'
?'s
'
me
but
I ^vould
in which they
had been negatively

me % and the figure
slowly nodded assent.
For
figure
the close of the seanca " (our author) " asked
dim light
'
concerning
'
Rulofi'e.'
had been told, mediumistically, that one ui my

spu'it-guides was an Arabian called
Ruloffe.'
He remarked tliat
' Rulofte was
not an Arabian name, and Yusef A\-ould be more appropriate.
I replied, smiling, that one name would answer my purjiose as
well as another so it was Graphic
ally announced that Atint Sue
had had an interview with one Yusef.' And that is the true and veriI
infonued him that
'
'
'
'
'
'
'
'
'
'
table history of that little episode.
Mr.
'
Ruloffe
'
or
light should be as
'
Yusef
dim
'
certainly shall never recognise
meet him on the tliither shore,

it was at Chittenden.
if I
there as
"
Aunt
if
the
Sue."
In view of such a misfortune the author of " People from the

Other World " kindly supplies a no doubt correct portrait of
" Yusrf"
in his
work
which portrait may serve
"Aunt Sue," when
friend
as a guide to
my
she encounters her spirit-visitor of Chit-
tenden on the " thither shore."
How much
philosopher
sively
court
credit such revelations
whom "two
do to the ingenuity of that
of the great
New York
dailies " succes-
engaged as special correspondent to the Chittenden spiritCertainly he is by no means " incompetent " as a sensa-
tional
joui'nalist.
As
an investigator, however,
pronounced " credulous, partial," and, above
would beg him,
all,
therefore, to " spare himself the
public the annoyance," of inflicting
he must be
incorrect.
trouble,
and the
upon a much enduring world
any further volume of such unattested absurdities as " People from
World " mainly consists of.

There was present with " Aunt Sue "
the Other
that lady
of the
Mrs. C
She has kindly furnished me with notes
" materialisations " witnessed
follomng are extracts.

herself.
at Chittenden a friend of
Mrs.
during her stay, and the

speaks for " Aunt Sue " and
MODERN
264
"
We could (Ze<ec<
no fraud,
SPIRITUALIS^f.
as all
rml oppdrtuuity
for investigation
had
notA\-itlistanding the clumsy expedients resorted
"been dexterously cut off
to
by"
(the author of " People from the Other AVorlfl") "as 'tests
hut that
;'
were in the jiresence of real spirits we never for once believed. The
only persons alhnved to take a seat upon the platform were a Mr. Pritchard and a Mrs. Cleveland dear old gullible souls -who could be readily
psychologized into believing that they were eating a piece of the moon
in shape of ' green cheese.'
These both touched and conversed A\-itli
the substantial shadoAvs which stepped cautiously fi'oni the door of the
cabinet, as if making sure that some investigator were not ready to spring
upon them
and occasionally Avent through the shuffling manoeuvres
characterised by (oiu- author) as dancing ! Avhile no one of the audiencecii'cle Avas permitted to advance near enough to ilistinguish their featiu'es
in the distressingly subdued light of the solitary lamp, acting its part in
H-e
the fraud upon a distant table.

" EA'ery eA'ening Mr.
Mr.
had a \isit fi'om his aged mother attired

was thus attired, not he. EA'ery evening
and she repHedr
saluted her with a Good eA'ening, mother
in a rohe de nuit,
she, iinderstand,
'
in a husky whisper,
Good
'
my
son
Ea'cit eA'ening she added,
'
and then asked, ' Why didn't Mary
I am glad to see you, my son
come 1 EAêry eA-ening she Avas blandly assured that Mary Avas not in
but still the question was renewed, and
health, and could not be there
'
eA'ening,
'
'
'
then the aged
disappeared through the door
spirit shuffled back, aiul
he recognised his mother

admitted tliat he did not
but he had not seen her for the
see much likeness as he remembered-, her
two or three years before her death, and no doubt she had altered.'
" (our author) " Avould brook no antagonism in couA'ersation
" Mr.
nor cA-en lend an cai' to the suggestion
to the methods of the media
of the cabinet.
beyond
I asked this
all peradA'enture
gentleman
in this
if
He
spirit.
'
of
any doubts
of their honesty."
So unphilosophically did
on the Chittenden stage

trying and amusing
Some
to
this
pseudo-philosopher strut his hour
The
spectacle
the
ordinary
must have been
men and
Others might have ruffled the temper of
HoAV our investigator assumed the chief direction of Avhat
Job.
he appropriately styles the " performances;
hoAv he courted the
""
"The
Avonder of the public with such programmes as
Ghost
once
drawn a smile from
of the antics they Avitnessed Avould have
the Wandering JeAv.
at
AA'omen present.
"
" Mystery of Mysteries
"'
!
"The Smoking Squaw! " " Wonderful Feats "

the Power?" "Four Hundred Spirits!" &c.
!
for " intrusive
Spinning
" The Malicious Barber

"
"
!
Whence comes
"went
hoAv he
sceptics; hoAv he acted as the trumpetcr-forth of
''
prophecies
rEOPLE FROM
Avhieli
wore never
OTHER UVRLDr
I'lIE
fulfilled
how ho
2f>5
any
iu'ccptinl
Avhich anyhocly present chose to relate to him, so that
go to contu-m the spiritual origin of the manifest
hought scales with which to weigh the

a
new mode
tiymg them)
of
;tions
spirits (this
storj'
did hut
it
how ho
being certainly
how, Avhen he was refused permis-
sion to use the scales himself, that " dear old soul," Mr. Pritchard
called
oft"
the weights for
him
"has excluded from
he
can
that
not
all
these things written in his
Behold him there, "standing"

his
is built
trickery," arc
of
"Other World" chronicles?

Napoleonic attitude)
(in a
phenomena observed, with
story of
whose house
I
hypothesis
all this,
phenomenon
every individual
upon the
explained
he
and how, notwithstanding
his case
the confidence
"upon
of
one
upon a sure foundation."
have now to notice the
brilliant displays
of reasoning with
which this " investigator " has favoured the world, both in his
book and subsequentlj-
to its publication.
For most
utterances.
whatever
in the
The reader
human minds been
that seldom before have
M'ill
no place
of these absurdities I can find
whole system of
logic.
contradicts one previously tendered.
were surely never resorted
confess
astonished with such
"
Every new " explanation
Such
conflicting sophisms
to before or since, unless
by a mono-
maniac or a Theosophist.
"Nor
will
it
escape the notice of the mtelligeut," I find, in the
preface to "People from the Other World," "that the Philadelphia

tests
if
go
far
towards corroborating the Chittenden experiences,
" materialisation " can occur in one place,
it
may
in
hence the supposition that real ghosts were seen at the

house
is
alacrity
made
shown by
conditions
the
Holmeses
makes the behaviour
to
that
the
author's
Eddy
cheerful
submit themselves to crucial test
of the
respondingly unfavourable light.

Chittenden,
The
to appear only half as improbable.
for,
many, and
It
Eddy boys appear

was
in a cor-
alleged as an excuse at
magnetism was so positive and
repellent to the spu'its as to prevent their bearing his near approach,
whereas the
them,
to
fact appears to be that they can allow
gaze into their faces from a distance of
him
to
handle
six inches,
and
otherwise to come to closest quarters, without causing them the
MODERN
266
slightest inconvenience."
mean
this:
"The
If
SPIRITUALISM.
mean
these words
Holmeses allowed certain
might have allowed those
and ought
tests,
to
Therefore, as the Holmeses are mediums, the
anything, they
The Eddys
tests.
have allowed them.
Eddys
mediums
are
Truly, an owl of any standing would be ashamed of coming
also."
to such conclusions.
I might extract
my
many such gems from
the
work before me.
AVill
readers believe that on p. 168 of "People from the Other

" the author laments that
World
it
was impossible
him
for
make
to
his experiments at Chittenden under test conditions,
and that he
afterwards coolly heads p. 213, "Another Test?"
What, more-
over, are
capitals
we
to
think of the investigator who, after placing
iii
over p. 307 " Abundant Tests," and entitling Chapter
XXIII. " Tests continued,"
tells us,
on p. 342, " The things I saw
were not happening under
test
haved
so did he behave after
in the
volume
itself,
Chapter XV. of his book

" Philosophical Tests."
is
And,
conditions."
as
he has be-
its
publication.
an account of what, he
Yet in a
letter
us,
tells
were
published January
1st,
1876, in the columns of the Banner of Light, he confesses his

belief in the Eddy spirits to be " the result of intuition, not of
absolute demonstration,"" and
demands
"What
piteously,
tests
did I have that would be deemed conclusive to a scientific association ?"
And
are not " philosophical tests "
deemed conclusive by
the scientific associations of either Europe or America ?

tests science
employs are not philosophical what
"j-e
they
If the
Surely
never before did any being capable of using a pen so completely

stultify himself.
When such contradictory nonsense is brought
forward as " a sure foundation " on which this writer may rest his
claims to be considered
what can we do but

and contempt
"an
investigator in the interests of science,"
treat the
assumption with mingled derision
Since the appearance of " People from the Other
author has favoured our

reveal
* "
still
No
World,
T^.
more
own
""
its
planet with displays of absurdity that
vividly the utter absence from his
real investigator takes things
170.
World
on
faith."
rco2jlc
mind
from
of
all
the Other
EKOM THE OTHER WOIU.DP
''PEOPLE
reasoning power.
was
frieuds
had slated
city in
tell
me
somewhere
else in the years iS.jO
his style of
argument
On
"
" the
person in question was
Such
and 180U.
p.
418 of " People from the Other World
does the reader say when I

September 28th, I saw the spirit
The reader
will
Not
it.
no doubt say
at all
he asks,
him
of a
woman who was murdered
that,
on the evening
at Williston, Vt. ?
that, if this writer
saw the
spirit,
"
ho
In letters published since the appearance of
his book, he has burst
discoverer.
"
tell
on the night of Sunday, August 27th, 1865,
saw
invariahly
is
What
of
lie
nothing whatever of contradicting himself point-
thinks
}Ie
Mank.
his
oi'
year 1858.
the
who completely demolishes
rejoined, with the iierco triumpli of one
a calumny, that " ho could
mine that one
in a letter of
European
in a certain
267
upon the world
in the
The discovery he has perfected
is
attitude of a great
that the spirits
who
produce the physical phenomena at stances are none of them
They
human.
on earth.
lived
are sylphs, gnomes, elementaries,
"It
is
''
is
a phj'sical
materialisa-
phenomenon. Therefore, according
to the rules
of logic, the spirit that materialised
on the evening of September
Never having
28th, 187-4, had never lived on earth.

it
could not have been the soul of a
whilst
the
to
Mark,
lived
woman murdered
on earth
there,
and
above-quoted passage remains uncontradicted in the
book before me the author
knows
"who
But "
produce the phenomena of physical mediums."

tion
and have never
these bemgs," he wrote to me,
is
deliberately endorsing
what he now
be incorrect.
too,
what graceful compliments
reviver of Paganism pays to spiritualists
not the productions of departed
human
this nineteenth-
century
Physical phenomena are
beings.
All the "exhibi-
tions of tender pathos," therefore, at Chittenden, the " sobs, wails,
and ciitbursts," the " reunion of those parted by death," the

" mothers weeping with joy
at the
sight of their beloved ones,"
Avere simply sad mistakes, the results of mischievous frauds enacted
by beings altogether alien
to
humanity, and who contrived to deceive
certain fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, &c.,
the shapes of their departed relatives
by masquerading
in
But the author of " People
MODERN
268
from the Other World "
SPIRITUALISM.
not satisfied with exhibiting himself as
is
He remembers
the abettor of so shameless and "wicked a deed.
phenomena
that there are other spiritual
He
" physical."
Trihune. *
writes,
therefore,
besides those classed as
the
to
letter
New
York
In this he informs the world that nine-tenths of
iiciunne spirit-jiuimfcstatious nhatvver
men
owe
origin
their
women from
all
to beings
which "are not
spirits
something quite
diiferent,
future world."
Surely then, that poor tithe of phenomena remam-
of
ing to us must be produced by

Surely,
if
so
or
the
but
earth,
and something that does not inhabit our
human
of a high order
spirits
few of her children return to earth, those few must
be earth's dearest and best
" The wise, the pure,
By no means.
the just, the heroic souls, Avho have passed on before us into the silent
land," continues the author of " People from the Other AVorld,"
in his letter to the Tribune, " cannot,
and do
Let me, in the name of the spirituahsts of

thank
What
calumniator.
this
come back
not,
all
"
!
times and countries,
the beloved ones
who have
given
us such glorious tokens of their presence were none of them "wise,

pure, just or heroic souls
? "
The few
species ?
this particular spirit as

sarily
in
the refuse of our
vile,
such convincing proofs of
If a departed friend give
identity that even the philosopher I
human which
spirits really
attend at seances are then the vilest of the
am
dealing with cannot claim
an " elementary," he or she must neces-
have been on earth a drunkard, a
some way stained with shocking
libertine, a
vice or crim-)
murderer, or
And the
author
of this shameless libel on the spirit-friends so dear to us has the
pleasing audacity to reproach

likely to say about
mediums
me
"
in print
This, too,
that he could have the faintest inkling of
To
turn his
own words
against him, "
is
with what I " seem
when
what
it
was impossible
I intended to say.
not the worst " truth I
ever uttered regarding deceitful or pretended mediums (for with
honest brethren I
am
in perfect
than the mildest accusation which this self-elected
minated against our spirit-guardians
And
the crowning
*
wonder of
About the end
all
all
harmony), incomparably milder
is
critic
in his published
has
ful-
diatribes ?
that he loves the spirits
of Sopteraber or beginning of October, 1S75.
whom
PEOPLE FROJf THE OTHER ]VORLDr
"
he slanders
lu one of bis letters to nie he describes spiritualism
which
as a cause to
he really
merely profess to be devoted, but to which
devoted, heart and soul.
is
For he
is
" If to have
most ardent type.
a spiritualist of the
acknowledged that phenomena occur
lon^f
269
presence
the
in
of
mediums which are not the effects of legerdemain," says he, " (uul
admit that they rooted fast and
to
makes mc a
sonl's iinmortalitij,
many
for
my
As
years."
stronij mi/ faith in
friend,
God, ami
iinj
then I have been one
spiritualist,
Mr. Roberts,, of Burlington, N.J.,
well remarks, in his caustic criticism of the Tribune letter, these
sentiments,
if
honestly spoken, show their author to be a spirituahst
in the only sense to
which that term
his letters this staunch spiritualist explains
account of the manifestations at Chittenden.
much
this
as
book has been donated by him
seemed most judicious."
may
be small, but he
"The
The value
What
are
a reasoning being
we
who,
my
arms.
Will
" I beg pardon, I

I
have
187G.
in
my
book, calls
me
quoted, he writes,
is
a spiritualist, and so
more opposed
be
one and the same
in
am undoubtedly
one
little
behaviour,"
mediums.'"
he
Yet we
way concerned
for a crushing reproach,
me,
find
"
is
be
"It
is
possession a letter from him, dated
tells
it
further on,
March
Enraged by certain utterances of mine (which,

communication
the
to
Can
letter, says,
a spiritualist," and, a
"
remark, parenthetically, in no
in this
be believed that, in
it
to think of such inconsistency ?
am
altogether false that I
of that brother
Wurhl, and classed him accordingly.

in
have long acknowledged "
World, reviewing
"
such ways
believers in the return of
have other papers, whereas nothing could

truth
more than
Tribune from which the sentence begin-
the very letter to the
" If to
for
undoubtedly a spirituahst.
is
New York
So thought the
we
Surely
At once our author was up
ning,
him
to
to help that cause, in
have here a brother
the departed
why he published an
Ho "wanted to do
Moreover, " every cent paid him as copyright for
twenty years."
his
had been dear
for a cause that
In another of
applicable.
is
reserved
1st,
may
him), he casts about
and
for
finds
it.
blackguards
him, March 8th (only a week
" Such
and
later)
MODERN
270
SPIRITUALISM.
writing to the Banner of Liijht,
"
{and hhichcjuards, of course).
more
All this for a class of people
clasts."
to humanity
fact,
mediums
mediums "
the friend of
go farther, or sacrifice
will
to protect
whom
them from icono-
he esteems disgi-aces
on
own showing,
his
impossible that he can consider
it is
While under control
theii'
of such persons
own
" They
are slaves.
and their actions,
will is set aside,
their speech, and their very consciousness, are directed
another."
whom are we
whom nine-tenths
And
" of
author,
dearest delight
to
is
the very dregs of the
must the servants be
mediums"
of
ludist
are lying
human race."
Good does
28th, 1876,
If
"a
This " fiiend
evil.
says he, in the Spirit-
is,"
calamity to
direful
There
Mediums
this.
is
are
certainly
first
cheat, and indulge in
spirits act thus,
"
make
immoral practices."
of their victims ?
it
this
who
lie,
will not be
cheat,
control them, a
is
Hunt
I
behind
and indulge
just as false as his
homely proverb, which
I need not particularize, would here be in point.
however, though
of
writer declares himself the friend!
not that his estimate of mediums
estimate of the spirits
is,
nme-tenths of the
if
among them,
Yet of people who "
in wickedness.
immoral practices,"
Were
And,
seems, "to
it
Such conduct
sure that the other tenth, having no
wise, pure, just, or heroic souls "
hand
in
we may be
in
But, to return to our main
what use do the " elementaries
course, quite natural in such beings.
*'
the
no small share of absurdity
Our philosopher informs us: they teach mediums,

lie,
is
defined as, of necessity, slaves, and
then reproached for being slaves.

inquiry,
yield to
It
to give one's self over as the helpless slave of the
elementaries."
all
whose
such are the masters, what
physical mediumship to the extent of perfect passivity.
same as saying
our
the remainder consisting of
"It
by that of
spirits," says
elementaries,'
'
not serve
confesses as much.
of January
"To
slaves ?
mankind
to deceive
Here
and irredeemably bad.
as otherwise than utterly
the definition he gives
is
No man
money,
of time, of labour, or of
In
"lam
do not quote
it,
remember,
a passage wi-itten by Leigh
regarding one of Wycherley's heroes.
may
turn from this part of
my
subject.
If our
Pagan
friend is
''PEOPLE
to
be
the
credited,
FROM THE OTHER U'ORLDr

whom
"
spirits
27
bo loves " are nine-tentbs
onomies to humanity, and the other tenth disgraces to humanity.

be credited, the mediums of
It" hi'
is to
he
" the friend, the
is
warm and
nantly and wrongfully as ho
does he judge
impudence
"
all spirits
write
to
The worst thing
incomparably
less
and
myself in particular,
mediums. Yet he has the exquisite

:
" ever said against mediums
I " (our author)
is
harmful to them than the best this self-elected
Christ's to the Pharisees,
Our author
language,
As malig-
cheat, &c.
lie,
book."
likely to put in his
"Ye
Cool, cer-
much such words
addressing a whole class in
tainly, after
own
Banvrr of Lv/ht regarding me
to the
and purger seems
purist
to
has judged
all
in his
apjn-eciative friend," are slaves to
them
these spirits, and learn from
whom,
as
are of your father, the Devil."
acts at present in the capacity of president to the
very peculiar body known as the " Theosophical Society."
''
As
such he has recently given one more proof of his utter disregard
The
for consistency.
in
member with
member
society has dispatched a
quest of a magician.
The president
Avrites
"You
importance of his mission.
the
to Africa
to impress
this
have the
opportunity," he remarks magniloquently, "to introduce to western

scientists those proofs of occult
powers
been drifting into materialism and

to a confession that
no one
for lack of
which they have
This
infidelity."
at present affiliated to the
equivalent
is
Theosophical
Society can afford to a scientist " proofs of occult powers."

in " People
theosophist
will,
is
it
"Whatever
" Instead of being controlled by spirits to do their
she
may
who seems
to control
me
to
doubt the fact."
tion too sweeping.
words
trolled
in
His third
part.
occultists
spirits, controls
I failed to
to
do her bidding.
them.
* See Chapter
ii.,
me
contains the following

,
This I
should
had too many proofs
afterwards found this asser-
that
discriminate
have control.
I have
it
He
letter to
"I certainly did assert

by
them
be the secret by which this power has been attained
I cannot say, but that she possesses

to permit
Yet,
from the Other World " the author writes of a fellow
instead of being con-
now
find to be true only
as to the spirits
have
said
on "Delusions."
that
over
whom
no one can
MODERN
272
dominate real Uiutuin
spiiits,
SPIRITUALISM.
but only the clcmentaries."
fellow theosophist can " dominate elementaries "
If this
what need
wizard from Tunis or Egypt to "dominate" them?
" wonders occur in her presence,"
America by
why
of a
If such
not every scientist in
is
Evidently facts and statements
this time a convert ?
do not agree.
Indeed, what the president diplomatically terms his "blunders"
are,
on
most remarkable mediums
the
medium;" "She
"
;
an adept in occultism;"
What
occult powers."
is
I quite accept our author's
own
" She controls
"She
my
'
human
assumed
doubt he
is
spirits
all
"
;
this ?
the
he
responsible."
when he
published the above
" I called her, in
one of the most remarkable mediums in the

" At that very time
knew
to classify her, without her consent, as I did."
also enth-ely responsible for the following assertion
regarding the same person, which assertion occurs in his
me: "It was her

"who made her do the crazy
letter
do
to
spirits
she denied the possession of mediumship, but, thinking I
No
no
is
twenty-five;"
" They are expressions,"
world,' " he says of this sister in occultism.
better, I
one of
fall
am
confession he knew,
book,
is
" She
never claims to possess
statements, that certain of them were untrue.
writing
"
remark that on his head must
wrote to me, " for which I alone

his
world
an amazed reader to think of
weight of these contradictions.
By
" This lady
" She never pretended to control
her bidding; "

is
until the age of
" She conquered her mediumship
"She
the
in
medium
hy/s a
few of his statements
I subjoin a
this subject, piteous.
respecting the fellow theosophist alluded to
to
spirit-controls'' (underlined
first
by him)
Will the president
things she did."
enter the plea here, " Another lihuuier of mine
? "
It is, to
say
the least, curious that he should talk of the spirit-controls of a
person who, he
On page 355
a
tells us,
of his
more astounding
Then
controls the spirits.
book he " doubts
spiritual feat
if
any
than that he
circle ever
is
follows a sensational account of a buckle brought
spirit-power from a Russian grave.
and printed about
this occurrence.
Much
witnessed
about to relate."
by
alleged
has since been said
The matter
is
not worthy of
''PEOPLE
any extended notice
impossibility of
FROM
OTHER WORLD:'
TIJE
but I desire to state that I
"with
all
The
said
"This," says the
other medals and crosses, must have been
buried with the body, as
In Russia
the universal custom."
is
Until vei'y recently,
decorations are never buried with the dead.

the}'
maintain the
still
any such manifestation having occurred.
buckle formed part of a Russian decoration.

narrator,
273
were, without exception, returned to the government.
Not
feeling very strong
on
summoned
point, our author
this
Baron de Palm,
his aid another theosophist, the
whom
to
the Society
a few months later were called on to gratify with pagan funeral

This person wrote a letter which the president caused to
rites.
be published.
Baron de Palm confesses that on the demise of the
wearer of any order the insignia arc returned to the sovereign by
whom
they were
"But," he continues, "almost
conferred.
invariably the recipient has duplicate and
The
decorations.
little
triplicate set is buried
with
accjuaintance
the
triplicate sets of
with the body."
his
have
customs of the Baron's country,
Bavaria, and do not feel called on to speak authoritatively of what

is
unknown
to
me.
would have been well had others imitated
It
In making public Baron de Palm's
this carefulness.
letter, the
author of " People from the Other World " proved strikingly
unfamiliar Russian customs are (as the Baron has
whom wc
of people
call
snobs."
Nowhere
it)
in the Czar's
dominions
The
can duplicate and triplicate sets of decorations bo found.
wearer has invariably but a single

"
common
how
" to a class
This suffices alike
set.
for
wear, select occasions, and urdiid temie," since Russian
holders
of insignia
servants
by
whom
On page 452
talks of "
are
usually able
their decorations
to
may
afford
of " People from the Other
M. Aksakow, the eminent
former tutor to the Czarowitch."
the expense
of
be kept in order.
World
" the
author
St. Petersburg publisher,
M. Aksakow
is
not,
and never
was, a publisher, and never was tutor to the Czarowitch.
And now
for a brief
language, " Let us see
summing-up.
how
far
In this writer's
w6 have
gotten on our
own judicial
way towards
the truth."
It
will
be perceived that his "investigations" (so-called) at

T
MODERN
274
SPIRITUALISM.
He
Chittenden were utterly worthless.
most
carried
them
on, for the
part, in darkness so great that the features of a face could
Bot be distinguished at the distance of even two
approach wdthin
permitted to
" spirit-forms."
none of the
He was
feet.
times that distance
On
mounted the platform while the "forms"
these tAvo
"dear old
gullible
souls" our philo-
He saw
sophical theosophist mainly depended for his " facts."
very
little
he did
He
himself.
With
see.
verified nothing
the aid
style
reflects
it
as
produce a
at
not very
scientific observations
was the acme
still
little
clever, indeed,
that
but
credit on his ingenuity than his candour.
an account of
of the truth
ditions
more
whatever of the
of hearsay and exaggeration he has
succeeded in producing a romance
which
not
of the
Except a Mr. Pritchard and a Mrs. Cleveland,
sitters ever
"were there.
five
of absurdity.
made
To
in the interests
Given the same con-
Chittenden, a writer equally unscrupulous could
more
from the
startling narrative
feats of those very
clever conjurors Maskelyne and Cooke, or from the feats of
other chiefs of the juggling fraternity.

the darkness of the
Eddy homestead
It is
any
not in darkness like
that the facts
which are the
Nor, though
"
"
People from the Other World
the author of
becomes owlish
true stays of Spiritualism require to be groped
enough when exposed
for.
to the clear light of truth, does
have that bird's capacity for seeing when
all light is
he seem ta
wanting.
On
the contrary, the greater the darkness outside, the more ludicrous
is
The most palpable snares
are fatal
I ofler no theory as to the origin of the manifestations
which he
the confusion of his mind.
to our poor philosopher.
In spite of jealously-preserved darkness and utter
has recorded.
want
of tests the
suspicious
alone.
Eddys may be mediums.
but no reasonable
man will
The work before me counts
The conditions are
base a verdict on suspicion
as simply nothing.
It pre-
sents not a single proved fact either for or against the " materiali-
Vermont homestead. How worthless the author

"
People from the Other World " knew that book to be, one can
of
sations " of the
sufficiently estimate
tion,
he wrote
from the
to the
fact that,
New York Hwi
not long after
its
publica-
(Nov. 30th, 1875) respecting
"PEOPLE EROM THE OTHER IVORl.nr

" the grand exposure of the
he, in
Eddy
common with the whole
spiritnul
pul)lic\ h;id
275
inanifostations wliieh
been patiently waiting
for.-
Note. There is to be found in 'Tcoplo from the Other World " a misstatement regarding myself which, as Leing a jiorsonal matter, may, I conwith in the forthcoming volume of
sider, lie more appropriately dealt
''
Incidents in
My
Life."
T 2
CHAPTER
VI.
SCEPTICS AND TESTS.
Certain
ing
it
method of proving the
No
to debar all possibility of proof.

seances.
world by inform-
spiritualists have, of late, astonished the
that the best
No
light
is
to be allowed
only to persons whose credulity
siasm has been put past
all
is
facts of spiritualism is
tests are to
admittance
is
be imposed at
to
be accorded
unmistakable, and whose enthu-
doubt.
It is
from
this
happy
class that
the champions of suspicious phenomena, and more than suspected
media come
forth.
" I Avas pleased to learn," remarks one Quixote, " that the sensitive
Mrs.
has decided not to admit any person to
has not been previously handed*
lier stances
Avhose
name
submitted to her controlling band,

and approved of by them. Faith that spirits return is now so widely
Jield, that public approbation will be given to any refined, delicate, and
in,
mediums, whom a breath of suspicion or a disparaging word will

and temporarily unlit for spirit control, if they bar out
from access to themselves the suspicious, hypercritical, rude, and ill-mannered, and husband their peace and forces for use in the presence of none
but those devoid of hostiUty to spirit-advent and mediumship."
sensitive
agitate, agonise,
The
Mrs.
best
commentary on the
above
is
that
the
sensitive
has since been detected in unmistakable imposture.
" Itwas really refreshing," A\Tites another of thegeuus enthusiast, variety

gushing, " to read in last week's Banner the two conununications fi'om
and Mrs.
With the aid of such able defenders, I
Professor
hope the long and sorely persecuted materializing mediums Avill soon
feel themselves able to dispense at seances not only with all testing
scientific enemies, but witli what are still more cavilling, scientific and
would-be scientific friends. Let all such be deljarred the ])rivilege of
joining in spirit-circles, until they become humble enough in their minds
.
AND
SCEPTICS
TESTS.
277
hy the
needs luid capacities to
to bo willing to receive spiritual truth in crunih.^^ appoitioneil
guardian
spirits of the mecliuni.s to their respective
swallow and
Anyone
digest."
desirous of doing
utmost harm
the
jiossiblc
our
to
cause need only write or collect a score or two of such effusions us
and submit them
these,
world as principles adopted by
to the
The perniciousness
spiritualists.
of the doctrine
every mind whose share of sense

Spiritualism
is
is
palpable to
is
of the size of a mustard-seed.
so utterly at variance with
many popular
ideas, that
a hundred various schools of belief which agree in nothing else
agree in directing their antagonism against
must build
therefore,
of the
two houses
as proof
who
Avith
is
tr}' all
whose search
There
exist,
to be the
their design to
devoted to
by the
whom
their
built
whose
spiritualists,
upon the sand.
They
advance the cause of Truth
is,
injury on that truth.
ideal
would
us that
tell
it is
yet their lives are
No
material
Out of dark
is
too
seances,
and unreliable phenomena, and
foolish reports of the same,
So
unlimited enthusiasm, they contrive to construct their house.

that the effect of the whole
the component parts

credulity to hold
sight with
all
shame and
The
proud.
are devoted
efforts
flimsily unreliable for builders of this class.
and
is
upon a rock."
however, other
inflicting
who
swayed by partisan-
or
the spirit-world
whose advancement
house
doubt
strictest tests
and nothing but the truth
for the truth,
is
indeed, a " house built
seem
spirits
all
away by enthusiasm
these are the spiritualists of

spiritualism to
Those who accept nothing
tiniest loophole for the entrance of
mediums and
refuse to be carried
ship
The New Testament parable
adamant.
here applicable.
which leaves the
adherents,
Its
it.
may
glaring,
is
be
together.
disgust,
whom
there
it
is
matters
little
how shaky
enough of the mortar of
Sensible persons turn from the
and
strive to convince of their error
Such
how-
is
owing.
ever well-intended, are usually vain.
More
obstinate than their
Scriptural compeer, the spiritualists of
whom
I treat are not to
the enthusiasts to
that sight
convinced of their folly even
when
efforts,
the flood has swept
be
away the
flimsy erection on which they have wasted time and pains.
They
MODERN
2-8
SPIRITUALISM.
industriously proceed to rear another edifice of the
pointing to
Some, indeed, have contrived
may
Their house
process.
new
of rearing a
building
is
same kind, and,
ask triumphantly what harm has been done.
it,
still
to
improve even on the above
be destroyed, but, to save the labour
mankind
one, they quietly assure
By
there.
these expressions I
the theory of such an enthusiast
that the old
mean
when
that,
demolished, or his pet-medium
is
convicted on the plainest evidence of fraud, he will find you, in
which
half the time

earth,
"reasons"
tending
demolished,
it
"would
occupied Puck to put a girdle round the
it
explanations "
**
is
prove
to
imposture to enter,
if
wide every door
"
method
who
persons
still
more
to say, instead
of leaving
at all, like a thief in the night,
they would
is
for its admission.
The most cowardly thing

the
That
be
theory
his
these are the
dispense at seances with scientific enemies, and
cavilling scientific friends
fling
medium, and
of the
although
that,
And
sound.
still
behaviour
the
of
in the
system of such philosophers
by which they "explain" imposture.
is
such
call
"explanations" cowardly because they have the un-Saxon-like

quality of attacking
those
who
cannot
order to whitewash some Ethiopian of a
There
spirit-world.
is
is
defend themselves.
In
medium they blacken
the
proof that imposture was committed
no evidence that any but incarnated men and
cerned in
it
there
women were
yet spirits are accused as the criminals
con-
are tried
without being present, and condemned, though not a shadow of

testimony
is
duct equals
advanced against them.

its
The
Our opponents have not been slow

and the
"Are
folly of these theories.
remarks one attacker of spiritualism.

'
materialized
'
passive
?
'
revealing the
his
*
bonds
'
form bear too
Bad
spirits
medium
Bad
ofl'
spii-its
to recognise
the weakness
told in
the circle?"
lies
" Bad
a
striking
spirits
Does the
resemblance
to
the
Is the bull's eye turned on too quickly,
his seat,
!
starry hosts " a drunkard ?
through.
stupidity of such con-
wickedness.
and endeavouring
to escape
Is the sensitive being favoured
Bad
spirits,
Blind faith is the only royal road
undoubtedly
:
So
from
by the
it is all
proof you cannot have."
AND
SCEPT/CS
Happily
it is
by no means thus
most prominent workers
TESTS.
279
Tbo
through spiritualism.
all
for the cause resolutely refuse to accept
blind foith as the only " royal road."
proceed to give
is
The weighty and judicious
from the eloquent pen of Hudson
-article
Tuttle,
and well expresses the views entertained on the subject by
every thinking spiritualist
HIGH-PRIESTHOOD OF MEDIUMS.
"
un article from T. R.
most mischievous tendencies. What
has boldly spoken
makes the matter still woi-se is the fact that Mr.
what a large class of spiritualists really think, but fail to articulate. It
has been repeated that sjjiritual phenomena were for the expi-ess puqxjse
of convincing the sceptic.
To convince, they must be given under test
*'
The Banner
which
is
of February 26tli, 1876, contains
fraught with
tlie
conditions, such as do not violate the laws of their manifestations
in the face of all science, Mr.

says
" I hope that the day is not far distant
yet
'
rule, will acquire strength
when mediums,
and independence
as a general
sufticient to enable
them
to
any way whatever.'

" This is the first intimation we have had that mediiuns had special
What does this lead
Divine power, too holy and sacred to be gainsaid
deny altogether having
their divine powers tested in
To
be a class set apart like the

Levites of old time, who are to set themselves above the rules governing
others, and are we to accept whatever they please to call spiiitual with^\Tiy, an infallible Pope is a pigmy to such a colossus,
out question
wliich would bestride the judgment, bandage the eyes of reason, and
make its votaries Punch and Jiidy figures to dance as the medium pulled
If this be the end of spiritualism, to receive its greatest
the wire
mediimis, its career is short,
strength from untested,' untrammeled
and it runs s"\\ift to rain.
" We venture to assert that the strictly test conditions imposed by
Prof. Crookes, and his acciu-acy of observation, have done more to impress
the learned world with the claims of spiritualism than the haphazard
us to
mediiun-worsliip
Is there to
'
'
'
observations and laudating letters of any
number
of
common
observers.
world points with just pride to his splendid

"Wlio qiu)tes the wonder-tale of any one who has sat in
investigations.
a dark circle, when the conditions were those of fraud, and no safeguard imposed to prevent deception ]
" No luuount of such ex-idence that can or may ever be produced has a
Eveiy
spiritualist in the
'
feather's
weight with the
'
sceptic.
Yet
it is
claimed that for the benefit
of the sceptic the manifestutions are given to the world.

" I have studied the laws of spiritual phenomena somewhat,
one
^vill
accuse
me
_given the best hours of
my
life,
which
and no
I have
nor of knowingly endeavouring to insti-
of seeking the injury of the cause to
MODERN
28o
SPIRITUALISM.
tute conditions contrary to the spirit-foTcc.

is
why
would
strip it of all this falsehood,
Because I love spiritualisnv

its skirts of the
and cleanse
stain of deception.
"Prof. Crookes placed a wire cage over the musical instruments, and
tunes were played upon them, by which it is ])roA'ed that the spirit-force
can act through such wire cages.
\Vhy not place a wire cage over the

and then there could be no
dispute if they were played upon % Or in case of the medium disappeai-ing, place such a cage over her, or over the paraffin in the 'mould'
exjjeriment ? "^^^ly must there be always some weak place left to excite
instruments, in
all cases
the scepticism of those
honest investigator
liailed as a
"
Judas
who
sealed to the table,
whom
it is
desirable to convince
will not
comply with conditions that
have no desire to confer further

Wliy the honest medium should rebel against such
them
the
know by my
the recorded experience of others, are not detrimental
to the manifestations, I
I (ionfess I
is
When mediums
own experience, and

"
Why
proposes such absolute test conditions at once
do not understand.
\vith
'
them.
test conditions
Certainly nothing can be of more value
and the placing of

every observation on absolute grounds. Because a medium has been
tested once does not prove the genuineness of any other manifestation
to
or the cause than thorough investigation,
received under less stringent conditions.

" Science is the classification of accurately obser\-ed
facts. Spiiitualism
claims to rank as a deiaartment of science, and the task of spiritualists
for the present
and future is to make good its claims. This can be

l)v making the conditions of every manifestation as
accomplished only
strictly test as possible.
After those have been established, of course
others not under test conditions haA'e a significance and value, depending, however, not on themselves, l>ut on those of like character which
have been established.
" In opposition to this course of slowly winning our certain way by
Mr.
as champion of a mediumship
which scorns to be trammeled and tested, arrogates a divine sanctity^
which at once places the whole subject beyond investigation, and leaves
llie investigator outside bound hand and foot, privileged only to ojien his
mouth and receive what is given by the 'spirits.'
" The constant exposures of the tricks of mediums throw obloquy and
patient, honest investigation,
'
reproach
The
ow.
all,
for
become
when one
is
exposed
it is
'
thought others
may
be.
and every spiritualist should feel it his duty,

while defending the true and honest, to expose imposture. The genuine
medium should court rather than shun test conditions, and refuse to hold
usances under any other.
Then there would be an end to fraud, and the
manifestations would have value in the records of science.
" Let no s])iritualist believing with Mr. H
accuse ' men of science'
of 3'efusing to investigate.
He advises mediums to deny altogether
having their divine power tested,' and how can any one investigate ? If
evil has
great,
'
SCEPTICS
wo
wo
acHi'iiL lliat,
AND
TESTS.
luorit llio scorn of all tliiiikiiig
281
iiioii,
and
will bo swift
in rocoiviiij,' it."
Side by side with the above protest must the following excellent
uttcraucos of the Uoston Spiriliidl Scientist be placed
HOW QUESTIONABLE MEDIUMSHIP
IS
SUPPORTED.
a veteran'
In a recent article relating to ^laterialization T.
spiritualist, as none of our i-eadoi's c:an doubt, onibraccs the opportunity
'
'
'
'
continue his practice of manufacturing sentiment in favour of 'conadnut of trickery on the j)art of the medium, either
to
ditions' that will
in a
normal
state or as
He
says that the
ing
t]u\t
the unconscious instrument of .spirit-power.
conductor of the circle on the spirit side (?) was willprofessional sceptics should examine all the surroundings of the
'
'
circle-room and cabinet provided some truthful spiritualist was with
them
at the
time
and
further, that
he wouhl ])ormit them to be
])resent
they would occupy positions outside of the circle, apart

from the wire, and ])ermit themselves, after being searched, to be
securely tied, hands and feet, and placed in a strong w'ire cage with a
at the sifances if
ro2)e or
small chain put tightly about their nocks and fastened to an iron
ring in the wall.

" Mr.
may have written the above in an attempt to be funny
if so,
the old saying that
ai)plicablo
for
mediums 'and
it
'many
certainly
a true
word
is
spoken in
the attitude of
expresses
jest 'is quite
'
questionable
their 'veteran' supporters toward a class of spiritualists
who, standing between the public and those who ii:oidd be representative
mediums, labour to sejiarate the true fi'om the false and endeavour to
discover wdiat portion of the manifestations can be accepted as having a
spiritual origin.
They would also experiment to know more of the laws
governing the phenomena of Spiritualism. These are intelligent investigators
but Mr. H
and other 'veteran' supporters of questionable
mediumship, are pleased to term them ' professional sceptics.'
"
The
individuals
who
possess this
'
questionable mediumship' are
usually wanting in the mental development that would enable

to
them
appreciate the vast importance of the principles of the spiritual
They cling t(j spiritualism for the loaves and fishes' the
and cents that it ccmtributos to their pockets and they are
slirowd enough to discern what conditions are conducive to best results
philosophy.
'
ddllars
in this tUrection.
*
First, it is necessary to secure the
veteran.' spiritualists
creduhnis wonder-seekers,
attendance of a few
who
can
\vrite
a fair
The more credulous these

'veterans' are, the more they are in demand and the more wonderful
are the manifestations that they witness.
They are given front seats
descriptive article of what they think they see.
in all circles,
FREE, and from this time forth are the particular favoimtes
who greet them with loud caresses, permit
of the materialized spirits
MODERN
282
SPIRITUALISM.
them
to cut locks of hair from their lieads, examine drapery, and do

other things to the end of the catalogue of wonders that have been
chronicled in the columns of papers ever open to such trash. These

veterans ' form a body-guard around these mediums, and defend them
from charges of fraud, and deny any ]icrson the right to test their
divine powers.'
" The arrogant assumptions of both mediums and veterans are supported by another class of 'representative' spiritualists who are in some
'
'
'
way dependent upon
spiritualism and the favour of its adherents for

These are obliged to sail with the tide if they wouhl
win popularity they must be in advance when the public feeling is to
be moulded in any particular case.
The cheapest stock for an investment of ideas in case of an extempore speech is to give out a weak senti-
<in easy living.
ment
<ul
of charity for the
'
world's saviours,' the
'
veterans
'
persecuted media,' &c.
nauseam.
"
The opinions
of the
tatives' find their
interests of those
and the speeches of the
'
'
represen-
way into print because they are Ijest suited to

who might publish a journal 'for money not
the
for
Should the people be taught to think for themselves the

wonderful stories would lose their interest, and spiritualists would donate
that money to spiritualism which is now given in support of shams.
" See then what spiritualism is struggling against.
See why many
spiritualism.'
true spiritualists are prevented fi-om identifying themselves Avith a cause
they truly love.
They wish
of truths, to preach, that
to serve the bread of
all
may
life,
to teach the truth
hear, the joyful tidings of a future
and communion between the two states proven

but their
impeded by those who would control spiritualism for their own
selfish advancement
opinions contrary to their expressed Aîews are
denounced
investigation is discountenanced.
Believe everything,'
they say, and you are accepted as one of us. Reject anything, and
we and the rest of the veterans will class you as a professional
sceptic' " *
existence
efibrts are
'
'
'
* I
am
classed,
'
'
not only as a " professional sceptic," tut as "jealous of
all
mediums." The latter accusation is hmledat me wherever I attempt to utter

a word of warning'. Only a few months ago Mr. Berjamin Coleman, in
writing to the Spiritualist, said:
"The opposition which the Davenport
brothers met with in this country a few years ago was stimulated by the
bitter hostility of a rival
medium who
refused to witness their exhibition,
but loudly condemned them as impostors."

Should Mr. Coleman have the intention of styling mo a "rival" of the
Davenports, I must beg to repudiate the proffered honour. I believe the
whole statement to be simiily a wild assertion on the part of the writer, If
he did point it at me, I can correct his bad memory by assuring him tluit the
Davenports gave their last "exhibition" April 8, I8G0, and that I arrived
from America (where I had been during the whole period of the Davenports'
stay in England) towards the end of May, 1865.
SCEPTICS .LVD TESTS.

Surely the uadir
credible that
folly is
ol'
reached at
last
any human being professing
senses should
283
It
seems scarcely
to he in possession of his
gravely enunciate such a proposition as
the
one
regarding " professional sceptics," commented upon in the above
So Professor Huxley
article.
spiritualist,"
to be searched
by some "
truthful
attend a sraucc, and Dr. Carpenter can
he
should
is
only be permitted to attempt the verification of his "unconscious

cerebration " theory under the uncomfortable conditions consequent
on being "
hand and
tied securely
and placed
foot,
a strong
in
wire cage, with a rope or small chain put tightly about his neck,
and fastened
an iron ring
to
in the wall
"
The mind must be
thoroughly reason-proof which considers spiritualism benefited by

absurdity such as
this.
A somewhat more
enlightened view of the subject
contamed
is
one of the leading articles of the SpiritnaUat for June 23rd,
in
The soundest portions
187G.
follows
" Experience
of the teachings advanced are as
has proved that, so far as physical mani-
festations at seances are concerned,
under very
the
facts.
strict test
.
The
it is
necessary to obtain them
conditions whenever
of
facts
it is
materialization
intended to publish
arc
of too
much
importance to rest upon doubtful evidence so far as publication
concerned
hence experienced
spiritualists
in
this
is
country will
never commit themselves to publicly recognising as genuine any

full-form manifestations
of the
So
medium,
good
far
chiefly leading
unsound
in
but
him
" The
tations are, for the
sometimes
fight
which may be witnessed on the premises
which an ordinary room

reasons which
the
is
used as a cabmet."
the writer submits as
my
to advocate stringent tests are, in

spirits
most
their
who produce
part, tricky.
way
in,
materialization
Uuprogressed
opinion,
manifes-
spirits will
and, by means of spirit-hands and
arms, impose upon the best friends of the mediums, at one end of
a room, by producing that which
und
all
the time the
end of the apartment.
medium
him."
is
medium may be
not what they state

in a
dead trance
at
it
to be,
the other
It is also a strange fact that, if a physical
resolve to play tricks, there are spirits
who
will
help
MODERN
284
Is
a fact ?
it
It
" Jedbro justice
'"
may
be
SPIRITUALISM.
but where are tbe proofs
dealt out to
spirits
hard upon each other
this
but the evidence which should support
never forthcoming.
is
by behaviour such as
Accusation and condemnation press
out-Jedwoods even Jedwood.
them
The
It
only within the last few years
is
spu-its "
that these " tricky materialization
have been heard
of.
when a trickster was detected in the

phenomena he accepted his fate resign-
Fifteen or twenty jêars back,

act of simulating spiritual
edly
on
and bore
in submissive silence the
Why
his villauy.
late
consequences attendant
need he have done so
If the frauds of
brought to light be mainly referable to the influence of bad
spirits, is it
not more than probable that the frauds which disfigure
movement
the earlier history of the spiritual
Buch
And can we
influence ?
mediums
ments
believe
are also referable to
that,
if
the fraudulent
of those earlier days had been simply unconscious instru-
hands of
in the
evil beings,
and proclaimed so exonerating
they would not have discovered
a fact ?
Or are we
to
suppose that
they were conscious of innocence, but sacrificed their

tions to shield the reputations of their guardians ?
is
absurd.
The simple
realities of the case are
foolish
We
enough
hear
or did not suppose that there
itself,
to accept
much
such
libels
of " Fathers of
on the
reputa-
and
that, fifteen
twenty years ago, imposture either had not discovered

of cloaking
own
Either theory
this
were
method
spiritualists
spirit- world.
Enghsh
If the
Spii-itualism."
paternity be genuine, I must needs be the grandfather, for they

are,
almost without exception,
symbolical sense,
the position of
my
offspring.
investigations,
my
many
children.
parents
With me,
m}'
I
converts
and thus,
must confess
in
that I stand in
being heartily ashamed of some of
their father, they
were thorough
in theii*
and based conviction only on absolute certainty.
Now, they have
cast caution aside,
insane pleasure in being duped.

their folly they turn
on
me
and seem to experience an
Should I try to convince them of
in fury
and,
if
unable to injure
me
otherwise, degrade themselves by inventing and circulating monstrous falsehoods, which they trust will
racter.
Truly, I
am
damage
an unfortunate father.
my
moral cha-
Happily, however.
AND
SCEPTICS
my
this class of
may
majority I
cbildrcu
These
well be proud.
were the
assertive brethren,
^85
decided minority
in
is
TESTS.
last,
and of tho
and not
real founders of our
their
pscudo-" Fathers of spiritualism " blow the trumpet of their
Some
worked.
praise, others
self-
While
cause.
own
of those workers have retired with
sorrow and disgust from the wilderness of puppet-shows at present

Others are rejoicing in the change which
miscalled spiritualism.
has freed them from the cares of earth.
Amongst these
me name
my
with affectionate remembrance
Jermyn
of
birth,
he was, by thought and
subject arose into prominence,
it
came
to
him as
from every country, and he the best of hosts
an unworthy action
We owe
first
a grateful tribute to
name should not be
the very soul of truth.
David Brewster falsehood he
defence.
Thus, when the
act, a spiritualist.
a familiar, rather
His house was a home for mediums arriving
than a novel guest.
Sir
last, let
Mr. William
Years before modern spiritualism had
Co.x,
Street.
friend,
forgotten.
But
man
incapable of
At the time of the
took up the cudgels in
men
of his stamp,
must turn from
my
and his
this pleasant
theme.
The
first
" discovery " made in the interests of mediums was,
that " colouring matter might be transmitted from the materialized
hand or form
to the
medium."
Various committees had hit upon
the plan of secretly placing paint on the instruments used at dark

ficanccs.
The
said instruments having been actively
swung and
sounded, stains of paint would be found on the " medium's" hands.
For
time spiritualists no less
than
denounce such persons as impostors.
were content
sceptics
to
At length some veteran
dupe delighted his fellow-enthusiasts with the ingenious " explanation " above mentioned.
It
was the
obtained a rapturous reception.

emulation.
There arose a race of
first
thing of the kind, and
Such success naturally excited

spiritualists
whose
lives
were
devoted to the upholding of the extraordinary theory that because
when
fraud
was committed, the mediums concerned appeared
be the guilty parties, they must needs be innocent

spirits
now
appeared to be innocent, Lhey were assuredly guilty.
these " explanations "
fall
upon us " thick as
to
and because the
And
autumn leaves
MODERN
286
Here
in Vallombrosa."
SPIRITUALISM.
a sample of the class; extracted from
is
the columns of the Banner of Light

in jest to such a
"
The
iise
assimied to
paper
(was not such a
?)
of a medimn's physical organs in the performance of what
Tjc
it
exclude admission that some spirit

now, and let us reason together,' and do it logically.
" It is a general habit to regard all sane men and
actual authors
of,
is
may engender suspicions

the medium fraudulent, nor does it
produces the witnessed result.
Come
a spirit-manifestation, though
of fraud, does not of itself prove
'
women
as being
and, therefore, responsible for whatever their tongues
utter or their hands perform,
that the
given
title
wisdom and
and
this habit
is
so prevalent
and
so active
justice of its pronii)tings are usually conceded
without question or consideration.
who
generally just toward those
What
this habit exacts
may
be
are non-mediumistic, or relatively so
toward all whose physical organs are never controlled by

other Avill-power than that of their legitimate owners. But the latter
class does not embrace all mortals, and consequently there may be
may be
jvist
persons
whom
"
Whether
public habit condemns unjustifiably.
a medium's hands are iised in distributing flowers about a
room, in prociiring rag-babies, in obtaining paraffin moulds, and other

which engender suspicions of fraiid and falsehood (though made a
primal question by the world's halut), has really but little, if any, pertinency in the case of a genuine and well-unfolded medium. If the
acts
limbs of one who is meanwhile entranced to absolute unconsciousness be

used by a spirit, the work performed by using them is just as much that
of a controlling spirit as the same would be if he performed it without
and the medium's denial of any participation in

have lieen seen performing, may be made
in all sincerity, honesty, and tnithfulness, because the fact that the body
was subject to the will of an oiitside intelligence involves a presunqjtion
that the o^^'ner of the body was not in condition to operate through it
nor to know what was done through it."
the use of those
lindis,
or knowledge of
what
There
is
his limbs
just one flaw in the above delicious morsel of logic.
The foundation on which

reared with so
much
care
this superstructure of
is,
in reality,
argument has been
no foundation at
weakness of the proposition with which our author

that an attack directed against
it
is
contained in the sentence
a medium's physical organs," &c.

of his position, and attempts to
starts is
such
sends the Avhole theory instantly
to the ground.
That proposition
The
all.
" The
The arguer knows
mask
it
use of
the weakness
in the following
manner:
SCEPTICS
'
Whether
AND
TESTS.
medium's hands are used
zSf
in distrihuliug llowcrs aljout
a room, iu procuring rag-hahies, iu obtaining paraflin moulds
has
but
really
little,
any,
if
pertinency."
Indeed
Suppose
oven that the point were conceded of mediums being sometimes
" entranced to absolute unconsciousness " whilst acts of fraud are

committed, our enthusiast
is
no nearer than before
he
to the points
seeks to establish. Ample evidence remains to convict the mediums
Whence come
of conscious imposture.
the flowers, the rag-babies,
the paraffin moulds, the masks, the shawls, &c., which constitute
the paraphernalia of fraud ?
jilaces
Evidently and undeniably from the
where they have been concealed by the pretended medium,
previous to the
commencement
of the seance.
Was
the impostor,
at the time of concealment, in a state of '"absolutely unconscious
existence
"
When,
veils for
man
'*
woman
before a sitting, a
with her intended dupes
laughs and talks
having paraffin moulds, or shawls and
materialization " concealed about her person;
carries
newspapers
and has one thin
fabric
work
of spirits
The impostor
'?
a
"
concealed iu his neck-tie, and another
arranged to appear the lining of some article of dress,

the
when
in his pocket to eke out a " spirit- dress
not even pretend to be in a trance.
is
is
all
He
not in a trance.
this
does
Yet, should a careful search
be instituted at that moment, the destined apparatus of fraud
is
discovered hidden about the person of the " medium," or in the

cabinet where he intends to " manifest."
occurred.
They
will, I
These discoveries have
suppose, occur again.
What,
in face of
such damning testimony, becomes of the " bad spirit" hypothesis?

Its place is
with
last year's
snow.
And
yet, should fraud be dis-
covered at the close of a seance, instead of just before the com-
mencement,
spirits,
and not mediums, are to be held responsible
for introducing the shawls,
the brains of
some
masks, or rag-babies seized
spiritualists are fearfully
Since the chai-ges against the other world break
and "evidence there

us
imaginary
spirits
is
Verily,
and wonderfully made.
down
so utterly,
none," certain persons seek to introduce to
confessing imaginary sins.
Thus we
have-
(always in the Jjcinner of lArjht) the following puerile nonsense

saddled on a " controlling spirit "
MODERN
288
SPIRITUALISM.
may you learn many of tlie laws of

While you are looking with distrust on those who are
giving physical manifestations, and are endeavouring to pick everything
to pieces lest yoii should not get the truth, the whole truth, and notliing
" Frieudri, in the lessons of to-day
spirit-control.
but the truth, we bid you, as we have once before bade (sic) you, be careful
what you do. "We Avarn those who, vnth the hammer calling itself truth,
are pounding to pieces the very souls of our mediums in different parts
We say to them, Step lightly, walk carefully. ... I
of the country.
know this that many tinuis mediiuns are moved like automatons in
Even those who may be used for bringing flowers, or foi'
their circle.
other manifestations, often move their arms or muscles in obedience to
Hence there has been the cry of humbug.' Mediums
our world.
have been called humbugs when they were really truthful to themselves,
and could not tell why it was so. We have once before called your attention to this subject, and we would again impress it upon your minds to
'
be cautious, to look well before you wound by the deadly shaft of slander
the good name of those who are trying to do all they can for the spiritworld."
One
is
driven to the conclusion that,
ceeded from a
spirit,
that spirit
returned to cry out once more, "
But
know
of nothing
mundane
The same may be
Rev. Mr.
the
friends,
which should lead us
what
is
Chadband
Terewth
"
to attribute such folly
The whole communication has a mundane, an
to the spirit-world.
excessively
was
My
the above really pro-
if
air.
said of almost
all
the messages received in the
Banner of Light circle-room. Ninety-nine out of every hundred

" I went out of the
spirits have the same peculiarity of speech.
the world,"
is
the
stereotyped
morning or afternoon."
remark,
may add
" on such and
that I
knew
such a
intimately two of
the persons whose spirits have been represented as communicating.
Nothing could be more unlike their styles of thinking and expressing themselves than the " messages " attributed to them.
The
of
position taken
"Bad
by an enthusiast who
gives vent to the cry
He makes certain
men and women who have departed this life.
fundamental maxim of every impartial legal code that
Spirits!"
is
that of an
accuser.
charges against the
Now,
it is
the onus pruhnndi should rest with

sufficient that the
manifest.
the prosecution.
It
is
not
accused should be unable to make his innocence
His accusers must demonstrate his
guilt.
AND
SCEPTICS
whom
But the philosophers with
Nay
this process.
TESTS.
am
289
dealing totally revcrso
they do more than reverse
whom
they condemn those against
no evidence
they acquit persons of whose guilt the evidence
Not only do
it.
brought
but
conclusive.
In
is
is
every exposure which has been " explained" by some
libel
on the
medium has been
spirit-world the evidence against the inculpated
such as would have ensured his or her conviction ten times over
most impartial court of justice. Specimens of that evidence

be found in my chapters on " Trickery and its exposure."
in the
will
Yet these enthusiasts coolly put
such testimony aside.
all
would rather believe the purest dwellers
They
in the spirit- world guilty
of slacked and meaningless fraud, than admit that the lowest wretch
who
ever advanced pretensions to the possession of medial powers
will act the hj-pocrite,
make
it
lost''
only come
when
to his interest to
and cheat.
lie
down from
" speak
hundred circumstances combine to
And
hypocrisy," and revel
Golden Gates,
to
It is difficult to think calmly of
to
in
lies
speak with patience of
its
professors.
men
be
less
prone to the vice in question
liars, let
temptations
and
the Beautiful City, and through the
meanest sin
so our " loved
If,
in
the
such a doctrine, or
as
David
said, all
us at least have the consolation that those are
My own
of earth.
who have
passed from the
very varied and extended ex-
perience has always gone to prove such the case.
peculiarly-illogical
mediums
" vindicators
of
folly
" remains to be noticed.
of
The circumstances
persecuted
vrhich lead
Some "persecuted" being has

been detected in plain and unmistakable fraud. Perhaps it was
in the "paraffin mould" business
perhaps in the "materializup
to
it
are usually as follows
ing"
line of life.
The
detectors of the fraud, having their senses
about them, and feeling naturally indignant
at
the imposition
sought to be practised, testify publicly to what they have seen.
Should the medium, or pretended medium, concerned be of any

note, indignant enthusiasts rush
seance
is
instantly convened
Some mild
test is
from
all
all
quarters to the spot.
but the faithful are excluded.
imposed to give a certain colour to the report
that " manifestations were obtained under the severest test-con-
MODERN
290
Tlie eveuuig passes merrily
ditions imaginable."
Perhaps a half-dozen
magnificent.
appear; perhaps the carpet

sitters
SPIRITUALISM.
paper" rushes
The
present.
all
to his
ofiice,
" Yes
name
of
common
in question, the manifestations
and
in big type a brief
was completely vindicated
cated, in the
some "leading sphitual
editor of
and prints
brilliant pa3an like the following
interesting
and receives the adoratory con-
uplifted to the seventh heaven,
gratulations of
The
medium is
moulds.
littered with paraffin
is
The persecuted and
are jubilant.
the results are
"materialized forms"
of
sense
How
last night."
Even
viadi-
on the evening
if,
were genuine, by what strange pro-
cess of reasoning can this be considered to invalidate the fact that
fraud was detected and exposed at a previous seance ?

precisely the
manner
in
which
Yet such
is
nine "vindications " out of ten are
accomplished.
We
two
see then
On one
classes of spiritualists.
side
the
is
searcher for truth, on the other the whitewasher of falsehood.
The
first
The
to test."
under
day
is
given
first
says, "
not far distant
examine a
the victory
The second
when mediums
remain
to
your
of
though never
little,
us,
tells
"I hope
deny having
will
the
their
With which
divine powers tested in any Avaj^ whatever."

is
proofs
the
and
These phenomena should be observed
conditions."
scientific
to
if
says, " Believe,
enthusiastic
sufficiently
you may be permitted
and. then,
test,
The second
suflicient, believe."
when you have

credulity
"Examine,
says to the sceptic,
evidence be
class
In which host are the worthiest
warriors ranked ?
The
first
says,
"I know
Irrefutable evidence
compels
pretenders to mediumship
who
and that men and women
when
yet stoop,
defraud.
goodness of
is to
God
work
humanity
is
liable
exist
who, being truly mediums,
manifestations are not forthcoming, to
Therefore,
it
to
err.
to admit both that there are
possess no medial gifts whatever
believe, too, that in
and not worse.
intent
that
me
another world
seems
to
me
lie
we grow
vn.ll
and to
better
improbable that the
should permit spirits to return to us whose sole

evil.
If this be so, prove
it
I see
no evidence
AND
SCEPTICS
TESTS.
291
that spirits plan and carry out the deceptions often practised at
seances
but I sec ample testimony that
of such frauds.
I prefer, therefore, to
human
beings aro guilty
condemn
this
world rather
than the next."
The second
tells
beyond the grave
us,
arc, almost
Their dearest delight
They
is
blame the
with flowers
return to you from
to deceive spiritualists,
they
fill
is
and cheats.
inflict
injury
discovered at a
exhibit them.
the pockets of the
they introduce paraffin moulds
liars
and
They make masks and
spirits.
up rag-babies
dress
who
without exception,
Whenever, therefore, imposture
on mediums.
seance,
" Your friends
medium
they will simulate
materialized forms with shawls and veils, and afterwards hide the
shawls and veils carefully away

the legs of a
decorate him
have we of
they will
newspapers around
tie
medium, or cover him with
'
spirit-drapery,'
with false whiskers and a turban.

all
this ?
Oh, none
requires faith rather than proof.
Bo
but
it
is
much weakening
a subject
which
assured that you had better
believe all acts of imposture spirit-manifestations.
so
or
"What proof
Unless you do
of the foundations of spiritualism will bo
effected."
As one
or other of these doctrines prevails so will be the future
of spu'itualism.
If
we wish
the
name
to
become a by-word and
a mockery, and the cause a rank field of corruption,
let
us hold
our sednccs only in the deepest darlmess, and drive far
off all
we wish that our beUef

should conquer, and its truth be made manifest, let us court
examination, and do all things in the light.
Where there is
secrecy there will be suspicion.
To have no concealments is the
enquiry and every species of
one
effectual
test.
method of defeating
If
fraud.
CHAPTEE
VII.
ABSURDITIES.
In dealing witli spiritualism
minds to break loose from
it
the custom of a certain class of
is
*'
all restraint.
and enthusiasm strong, the very thought
of
Eeason being weak,"
communion with the
dwellers in another world appears to intoxicate these unfortunates
Their vagaries are often scarcely distinguish-
almost to madness.
able from those beheld in madhouses, or at the
The
revival meetings.
Some
ways.
disease manifests itself in a variety of
men and women
of the
mlder kind of
attacked by
it
pin them-
which
selves to a particular delusion, with a fanatical tenacity
nothing can
One
*'
more
or
of the
materialization "
guish features.
of
war"
is
Others
affect.
class
seance
flit
where
off.
every
at
the light is too poor to distin-
this
When
from mania to mania.
invariably be found
will
Should two of
never far
tirelessly
kind of Greek meet, the " tug
the
first indistinct
both are ready to recognise a relative in
it.
form appears
With equal vehemence
do they
" Swear from out the press
They know
He is
Is sure
If
we
he
and one can swear

upon which another
hiin perfectly,
his father,
is
his mother's sister's brother."
are to believe the conjurors, Maskelyne and Cooke, such
visitors are frequent at the Egyptian Hall.
spirit' there,"
they
tell
" The
us, "is often addressed in
'
materialized
an imploring
tone by some of the faithful amongst the audience, with
John
It is
speak to your old friend, John
'
John
'
always at dark seances that this form of
folly
blossoms in
ABSURDITIES.
Tho "phenomena" witnessed
highest perfection.
the
gatherings arc, in hut too
shame
of sceptics, and the
many
at
such
laughing-stocks
instances, tho
Satirical
of every sensible spiritualist.
Our opponents remind us
been directed at them.
verse has
293
that
" Shakspeare's spirit visits earth, to
tell
How
he and Washington are very well

And Lindley Murray, from the body free,
Can't make his verbs and nominatives agree."
The reproach
These
is
mild.
Spiritual journals have again
communications whose absurdity
published
follies are
usually of the same type.
and again
simply sublime.
is
great spirit has, for
no conceivable reason, earthly or heavenly, descended from his
home
high
How
perform strange
to
And how wofuUy
spiritualists.
wonderfully they are clad
antics
before
little
circle
of
these spirits have deteriorated
The
favourite costume of Oliver
Cromwell when " materializing " himself consists, we learn, of a

" white muslin skull-cap, black velvet suit, and yellow top-boots."
liis
shoemakers, however, understand their business but badly,
since in giving,
by
particular desire, " the stamp that dissolved
an English Parliament,"
iitting
the
Oliver altogether
disarranged his
" tops," and was forced to stoop and adjust them.
spirit
shuffled
ill-
Then
with awkward dignity round the table, and
after solemnly kissing the
whole of the
male and female,
sitters,
bore back his skull-cap and yellow boots to the summer-land.

Italy
would seem
number and
it.
to surpass
both England and America in the
quality of the " people from another world"
In " Notes of a Seance held at Naples "
the spirits
who
disincarnated
we
who
visit
find that, "
Of
manifested three were in the flesh, and amongst the

the
most noteworthy were Margherita Pusterla,
Dionysius of Syracuse, Genseric, Cleopatra,

Lion, Aladdin,
Belcadel, Guerrazzi,
Manin,
Eichard
Ca3ur
and Vico."
de
After
these came " Abraham, Melchisedec, Jacob, Moses, David, Sennacherib, Elisha, Joachim, Judith, Jael,
Magdalene, St. Paul,
St.
Peter, and
St.
Samuel, Daniel, Mary
John."
Even
this con-
MODERN
294
course did not
SPIRITUALISM.
"The
suffice.
preceded him,
we
Biblical spirits,"
one after another, before the Nazarene.
"came
are told,
John immediately
St.
us that he came to purify us before receiv-
telling
Comment
ing the Great Master."
as unnecessary as impos-
is
sible.
America,
it
appears, rejoices in a spiritualist terming himself
" the prophet and servant of God."
This valuable exponent of our
cause lately drew together in Philadelphia other enthusiasts as
crazy as himself, and styled the astonishing assembly
Convention."
benevolent one.
drew from
own
His
"A National
was
part in the said convention
Before the reformers
whom
his pocket a frightened pigeon, and, tossing
roof, proclaimed
last arrived,
that
and
a truly
he had gathered he
it
up
to the
the era of universal brotherhood had at
token thereof, he
that, in
let
loose the dove of
peace.
Many
years ago I had an experience with this man, which,
I think, deserves to be placed on record.
was
at the time
very
young, not being above eighteen, and was staying with friends in
One day,
Hartford, Conn.
whilst the younger
members
of the
family and myself were together, the servant brought word that
" a strange-looking man had
called,
that one of
me.
my
friends
drawing-room I found a
my
visitor
He was
what surprised me.
was unable
would see him, and learn
Presently I changed
and a generally- cataleptic
air
don't
motioned
want you;
me away
I regarded
him
to come,
and
his business with
mind, and went myself.
In the
whose singular appearance some-
standing with his eyes tightly closed,
pervading him.
much time to study his looks. At the sound

moved slightly, and, without opening his eyes,
"I
Home."
asking to see Mr.
I sent back a message to the effect that I
However, I had not

of
my
footsteps ho
ejaculated
have come for Daniel
Home!"
and
with his hand.
quietly for a
moment, and then asked, " What
is
your business with Daniel Homo ? "

" I can't tell you let him come himself."
;
" Unless you
tell
me, he
hear what you want."
will
know
nothing about
it
let
me
ABSURDITIES.
" 1 am
of his mother, speahiiiii
the sjiiiit
I hive come
and make a charge of
come
will
The
this
uiediiim.
me
let
ta-enty-five cents
speak tcith Daniel,
my
of the house from his feet, and
will shake the dust
sou
ruin."
to
disgust and anger I experienced
myself to reply.
trust
you
Unless
for admission to his seances.
medium
lln-oitifh
Daniel that he imtst travel throiujh the conntnj
to toll
with this brother in the cause,
the
295
were such that I did not

room, and begged
I silentl}- left the
He was
friends to get the fellow out.
sent from the house
my
and
probably remains to this day in ignorance that, whilst he supposed

himself addressing
some one of the family whose guest
pretended message was really delivered to the person
I was, his
whom
it
most
Hearing, whilst in
New
concerned.
few years
later I
met him
again.
York, that he was giving seances in Fourth Avenue, I determined

Hartford
to return his
table, not
much above
and
my
name, and he was thus
left
medium.
whether
He
received
to
ask the
I should like
The
I signified that I should.
" Will this brother be a rapping
The
which
table he caused to
table tipped once.
given.
I withheld
without the faintest conception as
to the identity of his visitor.
enquii-ed
manner "spirit-messages" were
tip,
in this
found him seated before a small
call.
a foot across
me
farce
medium
graciously,
and
were a
spirits if I
commenced.
"
" No, dear brother, you will not be a
rapping medium."
"
"Will
The
he be a writing medium
table gave
two
"
This, as
tips.
sidered to signify " doubtful."
be a writing medium."
" But," said I, " the table always
the spirits tip
it
m an
As
his
hands were
"
!
know,
tips towards you.
opposite direction ?
" Oh, certainly they will

desired.
all spiritualists
is
con-
" Perhaps, dear brother, you will
He commenced
laid flat
Will not
"
on the
table,
trying to tip as
and had no pur-
chase, they naturally slid along the top without efi"ecting anything.
He
looked towards me.
"
If
you
will put
your foot against the leg of the table nearest
MODERN
296
you
SPIRITUALISM.
" (and, of course, farthest
from the medium), " the
spirits,
my
dear brother, will tip as you wish."
The coolness
amused me.
of the request
me
towards
in
the
manner
liveliest
My
I did as desired.
and the table began
foot afibrded the requisite fulcrum,
possible.
experiences with the " prophet and servant of
God
to
tip
Such were
my
"
who
addressed
the " Philadelphian Convention" of July, 1876.
The wildest imaginings of the Catholic children, who beheld

" the Virgin washing her feet in a brook," have been more thaa
amongst
paralleled
rejoiced in a "
The
ago
years
" of twelve years old,
our
who was
band was no
chief of the
personage than the
less a
Virgin.
Herself and coadjutors possessed,
insatiate
appetite for plum-pudding
was
it
declared, an
and dried
fruits.
myself heard the uncle of the lad in question
relate,
gravest conviction,
how
cause
assuredly
Angels of the most select class guarded
a highly-favoured boy.
him.
Some
spu-itualists.
medium
at their smCf's spirit-voices
speak from out the darkness,
The Virgin Mary's coming,
telling the sitters,
get out
have
with the
would suddenly
" Here
we
are
sherry wine, and
the
the
raisins."
It
would seem, indeed, that materialized
spirits
developing a taste for the good things of earth.
by timid
sips
from glasses of water.
band who had advanced so

and water," and who, "
far as to
to the sitters."
Next we hear of an angel
for several years,
sufficiently
Nor
rapidly
" mix glasses of very nice gin
always had a Christmas,
party, at which they used to sHce up, and
pudding
are
They commenced
did they,
it
hand round the plum-
seems, forget " to partake
themselves of the good things provided."
The
habits-
Champagne formed an
of these strange beings were convivial.
invariable element of their Christmas feasts, and they
would "
care-
fully
unwire corks, and extract them by means of the screw."
This
feat,
we
performed in
are told, acquired additional interest from being

total darkness.
In
fact,
all
for
which the
sitters
could vouch was, that dinner, dessert, and wine had been duly
honoured.
consumption
Spirits,
;
they were assured, had borne their part in the
they bcHcved
it,
and were happy.
ABSURDITIES.
Not always, however,
(he spiritual presence left so entirely to
is
become too
has
faith.
Matcriali/ation
ailocted
by daylight, or the human eye.
three enthusiasts
described
solid
Thus
gathered together in a North of England
phenomena," which one of the party
terms as
"a most astounding and perfect

" Materialization Extraordinary in
Substantial
Tea, Milk and Sugar;
(The
bo
was that two or
"
in frantic
Partakes of a
process to
a
it
who had
town, were treated to

'
297
Good
seance.
The
Daylight.
Spirit
Repast of Well-Buttered Tea-Cakes,
He
with His Guests Specially Invited.
Also Bountifully Extending Said Good Things to All
Spirit)
the Sitters (Eleven in
Number)
Whose Names
are
Hereunto
Attached in Solemn Attestation of the Truth of the Following
Becord."
After this display of capitals the chronicler proceeds to remark
" shall ofler no
that he
excuse
or
apology to Mr. Editor for
and forwarding the report which follows."
writing
course,
in consideration of its value.
is
It
This,
would be
make
indeed, to over-estimate the impi*ession which such reports
on sceptical minds, and the immense success they have

over sensible
men
to our
cause.
From
of
difficult,
in bringing
the one in question I
glean the following particulars respecting " this most lengthy and
momentous
seance,
which extended over the long period of three
hours and twenty minutes."
Speaking from the cabinet, the
spirit instructed
prepare tea whilst he " materialized."
work.
" Soon the table was
All
set near the centre
curtains, with chair for our celestial host
and
the sitters to
were immediately
at
opening of the
visitor to sit
on
and
soon the table was adorned with table-cloth, teacups and saucers,
sugar and milk vessels with contents, a fine lot of well-buttered teacakes,
warm and ready for
fi'agrant contents,
beverage
use, a large Britannia-metal teapot, with
and spoons nithal
which required
to be
to sivceten the same.''
sweetened with spoons
the sugar humanity ordinarily uses.

* Medium, August 18th, 1876.
Strange
in place of
MODERN
298
Singing,
it
and
our
stood
there
The
lip.
down, and soon began
at
table,
brother,
celestial
Instantly
open, as
to
was
all
by
if
its
silent
John King,'
'
The
silence.
spirit
reception, and the solemn yet joyous greeting burst forth
bowed a
from every heart and

sat
seemed
curtains
dressed for the occasion.
it,
" In the fluidic element of
appears, followed.
delightful cadence, the
magic,
SPIRITUALISM.
and invited them
how
manners, in watching our host, to see
complement
cupful, with due
he partook of these
And, when we had
and earthly things.
substantial
or less) of bad
guilty (more
all
company
not forgetting to set the
begin,
to
Of course, we were
example.
took his chair and, adjusting
spirit
to be talkative as well as the
all
finished one
our friend the
of tea-cake,
spirit
seized the teapot in the usual way, and poured out to each a
second cup, inviting
to proceed
all
then, handing round the plate
of cake, which, as a matter of course,
accept
of,
cake and the tea to
all
as
and
you take
said,
'
or are
it,
observed, 'It will
my
to
Whilst
right-hand friend, Mr.
you completely and

'
am
fully materialized ?
Then
fully materialized.'
be dissipated when the form
the tea-party had ended, the table
the spirit remaining materialized

table
seemed eagerly
John, do you de-materialize your tea and cake
To which he answered,
When
all
room, by special notice.
in the
engaged with our second cup,

queried,
we
he did not forget himself; and then he extended the
is
was soon cleared away,
the while.
all
was
it
de-materialized.'
had been taken away, the door was
still
When
the
On
wide open.
enquiry, the spirit said he could stand the light, and he walked
about in
more
it,
light
And Mr. P
and
said,
'
now-a-days.
gave
all
Give us more
Men
say they want
.'
the light that could stream into the
room
Let us have more hght, Mr.
by the door and the hall-window

triumph."
light.
The giving more
and the
light
was
spirit
walked about
certainly
in
commendable,
but there would appear to have been something of darkness in the
mind of the genius who penned the foregoing account.

impression of the si-ancc
glorious
communion,
simplicity
in
was that
it
His
final
constituted a " pentecostal and
which he had been bathed with heavenly
and love during the long period of three hours and
ABSURDITIES.
Exhausted by
t^vcuty minutes."
299
outburst of eloquence, ho
this
hastes to conchidc the report which ho had " undertaken to give
on behalf of the
invisible
and the
" Thus," he perorates,
beings."
and momentous
stuiire
life
thus ended the most remarkable
ever witnessed by any one present at the
same ... a season of truth and

long as mortal
brotherhood of immortal
visible
''
reality never to be forgotten so
continues."
This writer has at least one brother spiritualist as gifted as

himself.
"
tempora,
mores,
mutantur
! " cries
either with surplice
on shoulder, or
Now
old clim-ch pew.
with due solemnity, in the
seated,
by
I find myself,
polite invitation, seated in
we
the dra"s\'ing-room of Mrs.
Here, in
arrival of our otliciating priest.
No
priestly robes wears he,
shaven head
repair
is
by twos,
we
withdraw
rise,
tliLs
vestry,
await the
no cowl, no
Sei-vice-tune arrived, without the tolling of a bell,
like iinsui|5liced choristers, to the dining-room.
to be our church for the evening.
lU'ound which
"A fmv
the second enthusiast.
Sunday evening would have found me
years ago the hour of seven on
sit,
not kneel
to the side,
....
Our only
visiljle altar,
A pause.
Oiu" host
we
Tliat
the table,
and hostess
and return with flowers of chastest
Avliite.
make theii" first oifeiing of the evening to Mrs.

as
priestess of the new communion.
Not with thanks from mortal lips
alone Avere they received .... Our little congregation waited on the
spiiit-Avorld for directions.
They came. We sang
The lights are
lowered
Be patient. [Medium, go into that corner recess called
a cabinet." (O, shades of Punch and Judy !)
With
these they
"
We
sit
awhile gazing at the
ciu'tain.
face appears.
It is a lovely
aglow with life and lêauty. An angelic smile is upon the lip ;
the eye is alight with sweetest tenderness the whole expression is one
of irniversal love. Upon the forehead is a star of glistening jewels. The
diamond, ruby, sapphire, chrysolite, and oriental pearl sparkle and
blend, and Idend and sparkle in sjnnbolic harmom'."
face, all
Truly,
it
was an unkind cut on the part of the spirit to " deThe " glistening jewels " would, doubtless,
materialize " that star.
have been an acceptable present to the
circle,
writer of the sentimentahty above quoted,
on other occasions of the interest he takes
But by what name are we
to hail the
and especially
who has
in precious stones.
wearer of the star
enthusiast proceeds glowingly to enlighten us.
to the
given evidence
Our
" The form retires
MODERN
300
and
many
reai^pears
The hand
beauty.
shaped arm
SPIRITUALISM.
times, each time grooving in brightness

is
waved
projected, with
is
its
is
the form of Mary,
tion surprised me.
Queen
And
of Scots
"
finger is
Certainly, this revela-
with some six or seven Marys of Scotland.

reincarnated in a less exalted condition of
when
and
well-
there before
had the honour of speaking face
I have
recollection of the days
The
pendant drapery.
placed upon the jewelled star on the forehead.
us
The
in graceful salutation.
to face
Each
of them, although
life,
retained a distinct
she feasted with her courtiers in
Holyrood, or listened yieldingly to the suit of Both well. These

" sad, discrowned queens '" were of all ages and appearances, and
the only thing
difficult to
discern amongst
trace of anything queenly.
number
there are any
of
them was the
Besides these substantial
Marys yet
we have
at last hit
Stuarts
whose presence
in spirit-land,
has been manifested at a thousand different
however,
slightest
Mary
Surely,
circles.
The
upon the consort of Darnley.
reporter of the seance in question exhausts a whole vocabulary of
amazed negatives
"
No wonder
in
raptures regarding the "
that such beauty led captive the hearts of
wonder that a Bothwell could
No wonder
form.
spirit's "
No
intrigue to possess himself of such a
that a Norfolk paved his
scaffold to call her wife.
charms.
men.
No wonder
should be jealous of such a Scotch
own way
to the
that an ugly English queen
sister.
No wonder
that history
played out so tragical a drama in the person of one from whose
human beauty shone forth.

know not,
back again among us in material
every feature such gleams of other than
There she was
Mary
the
Stuart of what precise date I
but some time before a.d. 1587,
form, after nearly three centuries of spirit

again
lips
Nay, more
come words
ages as
'
I,
audibly so.
few,
it
is
She speaks
true, but
Is
Visibly back
to us.
From
those
sounding to us across the
Marie Stuart, whose head was laid upon the block,
and whose blood was lapped by a dog,

for ever.'
life
it
possible ?
Can
this
am
not dead, but alive
be a real
Strange doubt to intrude on such a mind
"
spirit
Watch
form
that aper-
ture in the curtain," continues our interlocutor, authoritatively.

*'
The
invisible spirit clothes itself
with a visible form before our
very eyes.
AVo trace
growth
its
watch
yet longer."
In the
attitude of " watching yet longer " I leave the reporter in question.
second Truthful James, he stands exclaiming
Do I slecip do 1 di-eaiu
Do I wonder and douht
"
Are things what they seem

Or arc Aîsions about 1
Such
folly.
of
and such incidents do harm chiefly by their
spiritualists
There are, however, absurdities, purporting to bo the work
spii'its,
which appear to every sensible human being
They would bo
degrading and mischievous.

not so disgusting.
plentiful shower.
Of
they have fallen on spiritualism in a
late
I select a
few which appear
to
Towards the end of 1875 a man was executed

cold and cowardly murder.
before a
medium announced
question to control her.
once
at
ludicrous were they
me
the worst.
England
for a
The execution had hardly taken
placo
in
the coming of the estimable being in
This, however,
was not enough.
It
seemed good that a worthy and venerable name, respected by

spiritualists as that of
cause,
should
homicide.
an early and courageous supporter of our
name of the
Edmonds Avas intro-
be dragged into contact with the
Accordingly a self-styled Judge
duced as his sponsor in the spirit-world.
The following edifying
extract from a " spiritual " journal describes the results of the first
"control":
" I
was receiving a communication from a spirit-friend, through Mrs.

when the utterance of the medium was impeded and her face
assumed the fixed appearance of a corpse. Her companion was much
alanned, but knowing that she was in good hands I waited the result
with interest. Soon the mediimi's hands were used to manipulate her
neck and chest, and she gasped convulsively for breath. At a signal I
approached the medium, and also made some passes over the region of
the neck and throat. The spu'it tiow inchcated, in reply to qnestions,
that he had met with a violent termination to i^hysical lii'o, and further
indicated that he was
The animation now somewhat returned
to the medium's face, and looking upwards the spirit said that he beheld
his mother, but at such a distance from liim that there was no conununication between them.
He complained of the intense cold and darkness
of his situation.
I spoke to him encoirragingly, and the influence whick
,
'
.'
MODERN
302
he derived from our
spliere
him
He
to existence.
SPIRITUALISM.
somewhat subdued
his despair
and reconciled
relinquished control -wdth thanks for what had
been done for liim.

" Judge Edmonds now spoke in a hearty, friendly manner, stating
that he had brought the spirit there, kno-ning that liis effort to aid him
would be seconded, and thanking me frjr the assistance I had rendered.
was an intelligent and mediumistic spfrit, and Avould
He said
His
in time become very usefril in the work of himian progress.
personal condition was not due to grossness, but to moral influences,
"
from which he would rapidly emerge after that inter^^.ew
"The conversation was at last rather abruptly terminated, as the
' Judge
stated he had exhausted so much power in bringing
that he hiid none left whereby to enable him to express his views, but he
promised fiu'ther intercourse on a more suitable occasion."
'
'
'
'
'
'
'
further intercourse did or did not take place I have
Whether the
Some months
not been able to discover.
communication was published which

received from the same assassin.
am
the case, I think I
later,
Looking
justified
in
however, a lengthy
been
purported to have
at the various facts of
calling
it
one of the most
revolting things ever seen in print.
Our murderer commences by remarking that when the drop

he " seemed to
rise
He
brighter and purer atmosphere."
become plain
things have
fell
above the fog and smoke of London into some
to
goes on to
tell
many
us that
him which were dim and obscure
" I woiild endeavour, for the instruction and benefit of

fellow-countrymen," says he, " to make known my mature
before.
my
conclusions and convictions as to the murder, and
my own
execu-
tion for it."
The
first
conclusion he arrives at
in question.
is
that he committed the deed
" I confess the murder.
I confess that, driven to
the last extreme of difficulty by the importunities of the poor

I was led to shoot her.
sorrow that I confess
This I confess
Repent, indeed
fellow-creature.
it is
girl,
with the deepest
it."
Scarcely has he said this before
The world may
and
it
appears to him too sweeping.
be led to entertain the absurd idea that he repents.

!
of such a
The
notion, or dissipate
trifle
as deliberately taking the
spirit energetically
it if
it
life
of a
hastens to prevent the
be already formed.
"
My
sorrow
is,
in
ABSURDITIES.
another than the onlinary scuso,
ashamed,' for I
am
'
tho
303
sorrow that makcth not
educatod enough, and have thought enough to
see clearly that, granting tho previous chain of mevitahlo events,

could not have done otherwise; that
the
viet'on-
0/ liniierious, ineineiblo law, worhuuj
and nnseen
2>itiless
I was and am,
ends.
But, though I
am
at
o)i
men
as all
for ever towards
one with the philo-
sophers and deep, hard thinkers of modern times, so far

I
am
by
relieved
this strong
though
assurance of the imperishable necessity
of things from the tumult of wild reasonless remorse
though
the thoughtless and the vulgar

larger, clearer
are,
which
assails
now, speaking
in
atmosphere than that of the Old Bailey, and before
judges other than poor pompous Cockburn, and eyes other than
those of the leering, jeering, heai'tless and brainless spectators of
my
trial
withdraw,
confession,
to
some
extent, that last confused and partial
wrung from mc by
and the well-meant prayers and
bitter
mental and physical agony,
entreaties of the chaplain
friends, while, on the other hand, confessing
my
the term goes) in reference to the murder,
more
therein
though
I feel
and do
am, notwithstanding, placed
all this
at last
and
my
complete guUt (as
than I did
fully
keenly and unwaveringly, I
(as all
men
will
one day be
placed) on a platform of lucid thought sufficiently high to enable
me
at
to experience the most heartfelt sorrow for
the same time possessing
the 2)ure calm of
my
sad offence, while
an absolute certainty
that that crime, in the essential nature of things, could never have
been avoided,
and
un deviating fate
I was
that
but an instrument in the rigid hands of
'
One hardly knows how
to deal with such mischievous nonsense.
What
could lead this orator to talk of "deep, hard thinkers?"
There
is little
trace of deep thought in the tangled
ness displayed above.
He
tells
web
of foolish-
us that he was " the victim of
imperious law, an instrument in the iron hands of undeviating

fate."
Then he expresses "
What
ofience."
the most heartfelt sorrow for his sad
should lead an instrument to express sorrow ?
Does the gun express sorrow

kills ?
However,
ashamed."'
This
his
is
to its
sorrow "
is
employer
the
for the
number
it
sorrow that maketh not
equivalent to telling us,
"I
feel
no remorse
MODERN
304
for the crime I
SPIRITUALISM.
Nor does
committed."
"I am
he.
by
relieved
from
this strong assurance of the imperishable necessity of things
the tumult of wild, reasonless remorse which assails the vulgar."
seems strange that
It
contradictory,
this
materialism
illogical
should have been admitted to the j)ages of a spiritual journal.
What
Was
did he think of in the hour immediately preceding death ?
there any
"I
Listen!
dim horror
of meeting his victim haunting
him
woman) "too, but not
thought of" (the murdered
with such marked sadness, as I expected to meet her soon, and go
many
through
comforting explanations."
Ai-e
man
to believe that at such a time such a
we
really requested
could have a thought
like this ?
This strange being read the various London newspapers con-
" By-the-bye,
taining accounts of his execution!

in
it]
seen to be carefully combed.
This
is
was
my
one paper that when I approached the scafibld
stated
hair
was
And, further on, he
true."
remarks concerning "the two swift glances which the reporters

told
you
It
I took
with his
nearly
towards the spectators."
not surprising that he should be thoroughly dissatisfied
is
fate.
" Capital punishment was, in
modern
all
blunder
my
cases, a profoundly barbarous
I rejoice to think
that
my
case,
and
is
in
and pernicious
case will
be looked
back upon in history as one of the crucial cases which helped

materially to disclose to the nation the utter folly of the whole
thing,
and so
for ever to
put an end to
Would
it."
to
heaven one
could for ever put an end to pseudo-spirit-communications such

as this
The above
a
certain
assassin does not stand alone in his theories
John Wilkes Booth
teachings.
American
sufficiently
circle.
is
The remorse
that besets
judged of from his communication.
"
he remarked, " often have a cosy chat up here.

it
was
just as well I shot him.
order of things for
blamed
mc
to
for accomplishing
better for it."
do
it,
my
and
reported to have manifested to
You
see,
and
I don't see
destiny.
it
was
I,
We
set
him can be
and Lincoln,"
agree that
down
why
in the
I should be
The world was
all
the
ABSURDITIES.
The world
is
not
Were they
these.
much
305
the better for such communications
among
generally accepted
spiritualists,
a<?
spiri-
tualism wouUI be the greiitcst curse \Yhich could befall mankind.
They
are by no means, however, to be regarded as doctrhies
to our
cause.
germane
Only a few crack-brained and perverse-minded
enthusiasts promulgate such nauseous folly, and only a few vicious
and
responsibility has
crime
dismissed
with
it.
The wickedness
Picture a world from which
of moral
is
by
are attracted
listeners
silly
belief equals its stupidity.
" once in Christ " he can sin no more.
who
Indeed,
it
maintains that
goes further.
Maniacal Christians assert only that for the elect crime
The
from
am
for
alternating
blamable for succeeding the
and
free-will a delusion.
as this, one
is
man, they teach,
good with
than
evil
Humanity
daj-.
is
is
the
no more
night
is
simply a machine,
Contemplating such a scheme of creation
" If
It is one, at least,
it
be true indeed.
vicious have a comfortable creed."
which few ordinary men and women
any person the possession

heart,
impos-
driven to remark that
The
whole
is
dealing with dismiss crime altogether
idea of the universe.
theii-
blamable
fanatics
sense
been withdrawn, and in which all

the one remark, " Destiny."
Such
fatalism resembles that of the wild enthusiast
sible.
of the
all
against
of.
saddling of
the
will
envy
however, with
my
such earthly trash
on
protest,
spirits.
less
revolting
absurdity, but one
equally baseless,
which puts forward mediums as a race of
whom
heavily-laden spirits
may come, and
tian
"
spirit
calling
that
to
One
of
find relief.
these gifted beings describes in the Sjnntualist,
" a singular experience with a
is
inferior saviours
June
5th, 1874,
himself an Egyp-
"
He
looked," aha tells us, ' a
tall, dark spirit, wearing robes, his eyes

countenance sullenly serious ; except when he indulged
in mocking laughter, which he frequently did.
I had mucli mental,
or perhaps I might say voiceless, conversation Avith him, in which the
glittering, his
306
MODERN
SPIRITUALISM.
was
oiu; of considerate
attitude I bore towarJ.s liiiu
regard and pity.
spoke to liim reasoniugly, even affectionately. No doubt my feelings

were inspired. I will not dwell upon the different arguments I used,
inspiretl by my guides, to induce him to change his manner of life, and
seek to rise.
But I felt after a time lie was moved. He relented,
dreAv nearer to me, and seemed to regard me with a deep interest.
He seemed to search me, and at length a humbled, grateful, softened
feeling ajipeared to be creeping over him, which lie sullenly refused to
yield to entirely.
knew
it
my dear guides,
towards him, whicli were grachxally
was the loving sphere of
as well as the feelings they gave
me
influencing him.
" ^ly wliole soul from
the
first
had
l)een
filled
with an
Just at this moment, as if carried

beyond himself, he Avrote energetically, 'Dear, dear woman, I thank
you mucli I love you
"I shrank at tliis, but continued
earnest, pitying desire to help him.
"'J am
you, to love
(jlad you. love
me, Thotlo
; it
will do
yon
(jood.
But I imnt
my guidrJ
"
I do love your guide.'

^" Do you hnow him ? do you, see livm
" I do know him I see him.'
'
'
"
He
'
and
will help you, TJwth, if you icish to rise out of your 2^resent state,
will try to do
"
'
so.'
I will try.'
" 'I
am
see that I
You
glad, Tlioth.
am most
Hereon the
me
give
great happiness.
am
sure you
anxious for your good.' "
spirit
proceeds to inform the medium that he
intends making a confession.

" I have been in this world," he tells her, " upwards of three thouI have not progressed, because I Avas of a
sand years of your time.
I am a stubborn one.
dark nature by choice. I loved evil
It
is not easy to change a nature that for three thousand years has groA\ii
wrong."
Yet the " dear, dear

the space of three days
"
repent" writes the
these words from me.
endure, if needful.
woman"
"
You know
not what it is to wring

beginning
A hell will I
the sjiark has been fired.
The voice of
spirit.
At
accomplishes that change in about
mean
last
it
it is
which I have resisted all these ages, at last I have heeded.

1
And you have touched me in the right
become an angel then
You are Thoth's saviour !"
place.
love,
am
to
There are persons Avho accept
all
this,
but
who cannot
accept
ABSURDITIES.
a
belief in Christ.
(Iocs not,
'J'bcy
dcnounco the
307
chiinis of the
Gospel.
It
however, appear startling to them that a few minutes of
such conversation as
given above should dissipate the darknctjs
is
The cheering
of three thousand years.
belief of spiritualists is
that the ministering spirits of light are eternally busied in urging

to better things their suftering
and
centuries,
And
Thoth.
all
and erring brethren.
made no
medium subdued him with an
the hosts of Ilcavon had
this
would be invaluable as a
Surely she
establishments whose
wickedness and iron.
impression on
hour's talk
visitress to
inmates
unfortunate
Yet thirty
If a sinner of three
those 'penal
bound
fast
sit
in
thousand years' stand-
ing can be cured by her in so short a time, she would assuredly
make sharp work
of pickpockets of ten years" experience, or burg-
twenty.
lars of
The communications
attributed to spirits arc, the reader will
perceive, sometimes ludicrous in their absurdity, sometimes revolt-
ing.
few "messages,"
soundness
is
however, contain teachings whose

past question.
Of this class is the " Essay on
Wisdom," which
is
not
and
and
folly,
tells
selfishness is not
not wisdom.
"Wisdom is what is wise. Wisdom

Wisdom is not selfishness,
wisdom. Wisdom is not evil, and evil is
us that
folly is
All
is
not wisdom.
not wisdom
all is
not folly."
with which this inspired being philosophises
is
The caution
particularly
com-
mendable.
Some are more daring in their utterances. Thus we have a

who unlooses you tlie Gordian knot of planetary life; "familiar as his (earthly) garter."
His chosen medium gives the benefit
spirit
of this scientifically-minded being's experiences in a small

phlet of inestimable value.
On
Jupiter,
necessity of a comfortable existence.
and placed as ornaments
in the
it
seems, glass
The dead
houses of the
is
pam-
the one
are cased in glass,

living.
The
said
houses are themselves constructed of glass (stones being, presumably, never

is
the
We
thrown
in the planet).
name by which
" Lcmena," the
spirit tells us,
these rows of Crystal Palaces are known.
hear also of a mysterious kind of sacrament which, about once
in seven years, is rolled
through the glass

X 2
cities
on a glass car.
MODERN
308
The
dwellers in these
SPIRITUALISM.
and partakers of the said sacrament,,
cities,
As household
are from seven to eight feet high.
pets they have
a useful race of parrots, which vary in height from two to three
feet.
any
visitor to
glass houses of Jupiter invariably
of the
finds " a parrot sitting behind the door, knitting night-caps.''
mediums and other
There
spirits.
by other
have been paralleled
These interesting discoveries
is
"sphere" where
the ele-
vated portion of the inhabitants feast monotonously on pork and
What
beans.
selves with,
the "vulgar herd" are enforced to content them-
our informant saith
particulars respecting
memory
soil
serves
me
life
rightl}-.
Another
not.
a certain planet
in
The production best adapted
and climate of that world
like
it,
pher, " a self-sufficient all-in-all."
It
enjoy in perfection
when young,
invest,
individual
among
Then,
perty.
in
we
otium cum
a rice-swamp.
are told, to a
The Mercurial being
He
must
dignitate
selects a
the gigantic stalks which have
like the
It is
Wordsworth's philoso-
grows,
height exceeding that of an English oak.

to
my
Favourable influences, and agri-
cultural skill, have united to render
desires
if
to the
appears, the rice-plant.
is, it
no longer, however, a "plant."
who
dictates
spirit
Mercury,
particular
become
his pro-
Jack of beanstalk fame, he proceeds
to
capabilities.
Arrived at the gigantic and
cauliflower-like head of the plant,
he contrives to burrow out an
exercise his climbing
abode for himself.
There, after the fashion of a rat in a Cheshire
cheese, he remains
till
ready to
fall
food
is
he decides on making tracks

Surely
it
is
to
Hindoo
exhausted, and his house seems
His
about his ears.
for
last
rice-pudding duly honoured,
"fresh stalks and dinners new."
spirit
that
we owe
this
remarkable
dream.
These "spirit-teachings" are not always content with being

simply absurd or astonishing.
fervid
re-incarnationist,
and
devoted disciple of Allan Kardec, has given to the world a volume

("
Le Flambeau duSpiritismc
to be matched
by any
")
whose blasphemous
publication in any language.
folly is
There
hardly
is
not
a page of the work but must excite the heartiest disgust in the
mind
of
any ordinary person.
Yet to read
it
without laughter
ABSURDiriES.
is
The
impossible.
that of
ii
French
lispiug
child six years
in
309
which
written seems
is
it
The " spirit-authors," however, are
oltl.
represented as being no less personages than the twelve ApoHtles
AVc arc gravely assured that at various periods
of Christianity.
who
they dictated this incomparable production to the person
caused a few copies to be published.

Christ.
The mixture
One
incredible.
of
The
subject
of ribaldry, insanity, and absurdity
to look well,
all
of
almost
is
"
We
always
The Master
took a small boy with us to clean our shoes.
has
life
with pai*ticulars
us
favours
Apostles
the
regarding the every-day doings of the Twelve.
us
the
is
liked
and he was very particular that our shoes
of a
The ordinarj- attire of Christ consisted

flowng robe, and " bright blue boots." On one occasion He
was
reviled as an impostor.
should be nicely blacked."
"How
roand.
can you
'
blue boots
Would
of the
life
my
is
thus described
said the Master, turning
and
curly yellow hair,
have such things, do you think,
my
nice
were
if
"
?
gives
apostle
Jerusalem.
incident
me an impostor?"
Don't you see
an impostor
An
call
The
"
We
various
'"facts"
a journey
respecting
were very poor, and we sold
and doings of Jesus to bring us
in
to
pamphlets
little
We
money.
made
great haste to get to Jerusalem, for fear that the newspapers
should get hold of om* coming, and announce
my readers
Lest
it."
should doubt then- eyes, I hasten to assure them that this
is
an
exact translation of the passage in question.
The eleven
Arrived in Jerusalem, matters become even worse.
other apostles are discontented that Judas should carry the bag,
" as he was always a very loose

after a supper,
hint at,
very cold day.
" The Master,"
"joins in a round dance with his Apostles and
Mary Magdalene."
even
sort of character."
and
Various incidents
tlieu
comes the
The Apostles, we
governor for leaving Christ to
sit
trial
follow which I dare not
before Pilate.
It
was a
are told, remonstrated with the
on the stone of the pavement,
and, bringing in rushes, strewed them there.
Then, turning to
Pilate,
they hoped he would not take otfence at what had been
done.
Let our " spirit-author " relate the sequel
'
Oh, that's
MODERN
3IO
all right,"' said
SPIRITUALISM.
mind you," he continued, turning

here:'
But^
the governor; '-I have no objection to that.

to Christ,
"none of your
viiraclea
And
this
carnation
book was published

It
to
tionist possessing a
spark of sense expressed disgust on
ance.
For there are parts which
Such a
tissue of folly
brain of a
laauseous
advance the doctrine of re-in-
must be confessed, indeed, that every re-incarna-
it
its
appear-
simply impossible to quote.
is
and blasphemy was surely woven from the
And
madman.
there arc
Jmndred pages of the
three
stuflf.
Other works almost equally astounding have proceeded from

the pens of re-incarnationists.
them
here.
theme
the
Let
me
do not, however, design to notice
direct the reader's attention to a pleasanter
nobleness of the mission which a particular
sent on earth to
His appearance
fulfil.
is
the grandeur of his task, and the purity of his mind.
beholder thus describes him

"
IiIh
A radiant figure
face
and beauty
mediumistic
stood in our midst directly in front of
more beautiful than

iinsiu'passable
spirit is
quite in keeping with
had ever seen
me
with a .spirit delicacy

the regular features wearing an expression
I
it,
of God-like majesty, the eyes shining like stars, and the flesh abnost
all, shone the cross, formed
behind which John's figure,
clothed in radiant white, seemed almost to cbsapi:)ear and be lost although
shining brightly itself, it appeared as if it would be refined away into
the very brightness of life, and yet the noble face, witli the long black
transparently luminous.
But, brighter than
of long rays of light, brilliant as the sun
and beard, and beaming eyes, was intensely vivid. The sight was
and filled me witli such delight that it was some little time
befon; I could be brought down to the more ordinary st.age of writing,
iMider control, the following explanation given by John King of tlie
liair
ravishing,
Cross of Light in A.'s picture

" ' It means the pû'ity of
my
bear a ci-oss in coming

you all, and my cross is
pure and good
and I bear my
nussion.
to earth, because I endure a good deal for
pure and white, because

cross
upon
my
face, as it
my work
is
were, because
it is
a Divine mission, in Avhioli
my glorythe glory of an angel. Therefore the cross is lumiI love my Avork for its good and use, and upon the cross's arms
It is no burthen
1 lightly rest my upraised hands to indicate that love.
upon my shoulders, but, Ijorne lêfore me, becomes the insignia, or
Jiadge of my office in the spirit worlil, and is my support, consolaI find
nous.
ABSURDITIES.
lion,
joy,
nplit'lii'
juitl
I'ur
liy
states of jnuity llmm^'li
liiL,'her
work, to
ixiil
iipliflin^
in
my
il
smil
mortal
iiiaki'S
pior^rcfs into
it.^
nf that Imnianity for
Iii\c
tlic
31
man
to
kiiowlwlj^c
which
of
.spirit
life.'"'
Sublime
How pure
"
in heart,
and sonnd
in IkikI,
With what divine affeetions hold,

Must he the mail whose tliou<fhts must hdld
An hour's commuuicm with >ûch dead I"'
This devoted missionary desires
liumble alias of "
Now,
at once his
it is
He
men.
is
His
sad.
is
be
to
On
John King."
known
earth he
was
man by
to
the
and famous.
evil
duty and his pleasure to do good to his fellow-
the reprover of the sinful, and the comforter of the
a divine mission, and in
it
he finds his
glorj-,
"the
glory of an angel."
Imagine the sanctity
of the
Imagine
reverent
spirit.
the
the words of
listen to
wisdom
atmosphere which surrounds this
awe
which
with
all
that he communicates.
present
Imagine
his
" Voiceless prayer,

Soft rebukes, in blessings ended,
Breathing from his
And
lips of air."
then imagine him throwing a sofa-cushion at the head of a
Imagine him looking beamingly on, whilst his subordi-
sceptic.
nate, "Peter," pulls the noses of those present in the circle,
beats people about the head with pasteboard tubes.
and
Imagine him
rubbing a paper tube over an inquirer's cranium, and remarking,

" This
hair-brushing by machinery."
is
Imagine him, whilst
in
"materialized" form, presiding over a tea-party of enthusiastic

women, " seizing the tea-pot in the usual way, and pouring
old
out to each a second cup."
Such
enlivens
sider
the
is
it
*'
Divine mission in which he finds his glory."
occasionally
by
little
of
what some
(Heaven save the mark!) " facetiousness."
what," he remarked to one
gentleman,
Ho
spiritualists con-
"I'll tell
you
" you ought to find
MODERN
312
you a song of
sing
my
" I wish
I
"Have you
Look here now
I'm jolly enough.
spiritualism a jolly tLiiig.

I'll
SPIRITUALISM.
o-\vn
composition
hud a bird
would
stick it
on a spit" (and so on
ad,
nauseam).
"have you not
not," he asked on another occasion,
seen the swift-running tide. Bending with violence the firm gutterside
'?
"
Over which question, no doubt, the recipient ruminated
perplexedly.
" Regular baths, and a bottle of Guinness's stout every day

after
duaner,"
tone of
mind
John considers
efficacious in bringing
its
" Look here,
uplifter."
it
fit
when he "loved
work
for
his "support, consolation, joy,
and
subject are not always so lofty as
good and use," and found
about a
His own ideas on the
for inquiring into spiritualism.
,"
his
he remarked on one occasion,
" I've been put to do this work of convincing mortals for a certain
number
to
do
of years, to
then,"
work out
I think it's as well to
it,
says Mr.
kind of way."
Such
is
my own
salvation, and, as I
make myself
" began
jolly over it."
to ^vhistle
the fashion in which
in
have
"He
devil-may-care
John lung " makes
his progress to higher states of purity."
I have already called attention to the select nature of the spirit-
band which favours Italy with
its
presence.
The "
bright, parti-
cular star" of that band has, however, departed from an ungrateful

earth.
Our planet
Archangel Gabriel.
is
no longer illuminated with the glory of the
Once Naples was
his chosen
mundane
resi-
dence, but he has been forced to shake the dust of that city from
his celestial shoes.
The events which
distinguished a visitor were,
London Echo,
"
A M.
as follows
led to the departure of so
some years back, narrated by the
Valente, of Xaj^les, has just been condemned by the Correc-
imprisonment for ' sisiritistic

This Valente, formerly an ofKcer in the service of liis Bourbonic Majesty, was, says a Naples correspondent, the spiritual medium
of a small but select gathering. Valente, when in his state of ecstatic
coma, was favoured by visits limn no less a person than the Archangel
tional Coiut of that city to six months'
swindling.
Gabriel, a dignitary
whose
celestial
I'unctions
do not,
it
seems, afford
ABSURDITJES.
liiui
was
the UK'iins
aii<l ili'livi'ivd
a])iilii'(l
as lie
the cashier
oi"
lu'
still tliiit
making;
Avantcd
111
Ixilli
iiioiu'.y,
cuds
ami
313
Inudcn of
uu'cl, lur the
tliL'
mom-y was
liis soii;^
al\va_v r(irllu;omijig,
Vak'ute fur transmission to the. Archan^M.-!, or to be

direct.
In this way Valente became by dej^-ees
mii,'lit
ot"[tlie
society, and, incredilde as it
may
appear,
its richest,
and most I'ervent adept, one A<,nllo Eraga, suffered Imuself to be

strippeil by degrees of all his Avorldly possessions, being, however, duly
i-ewarded for his self-denial by the receipt of an archangelic diploma,
conferring n]ion him the dignity of Niuitius or Grand Master of the
little community.
Valente had the keys of the money-chest, and wlicu
poor Eraga w'anted a pocket-comb or twopence to replenish his
siiuH-box, he had to prefer his request in writing for jnvsentation to
the ArchiUigel.
But, while in the heyday of his prcjsperity, our Valente
fell a vittim to the passion that rules the coiirt, the cottage, and the
canqi.
In an c\il hour f(>i- liiiii a widow lady, one Geronimo Merici,
in age soiuewhcre upon the contines (jf gorgeous suimner and mellow
autumn, was admitted among the members of the society.
8he was
ji widoAV of recent date, and all her tlioughts "vvere set upon one object,
to be put in commuiucation Avith the spiiit of her departed lord.
The
^\j'changel was willing to arrange the mattei'ujion the payment of certain
stipulated fees, and at last, thanks to the liberality f)f the widow and to
the intercession of Valente, it was settled that the visitor fr(mi the spirit
world should appeiir on a certain night in the lady's chamber, borrowing
for the nonce the terrestrial semlilance of Valente himself.
Enthralled
Valente, in this thou reckonedst without th}* host
The widow hesitated, suspected, and finally declined to receive her visitor except in a
jnirely ghostly and immaterial shape.
Valente, finding her inflexible
on this point, dropped upon his knees, confessed his impostui'e and the
intensity of his passion, and offered his hand and Ids rich booty to
the charming widow, on condition of her helping him to make a clean
sweep of Avhat remained in the pockets of the spiritist community.
Another and a worse mistake. The lady betrayed him to Eraga, A\ho
after a severe internal struggle opened his feeble mind to conviction,
and applied for a legal remedy. The trial, which occupied some days,
The Court, in consideration of the
was full of amusing incidents.
softest,
'
'
temptation afforded to the swindler by the colossal stupidity of his

dupes, took a lenient view of the case,
six
months with the addition of a
and sent Valente
Colossal as the stupidity of these dupes appears,
equal
it
in
England.
for themselves,
mediums.
the fact.
If
we have
we have
Italian
to prison for.
fine of 51 fi'ancs."
wo can almost
money
not archangels demanding
inferior spirits
begging jewels for their
spiritualists fully recognise
the importance of
" Where were you," an enthusiast dating from the very
MODERN
314
city
SPIRITUALISM.
where " Gabriel " dwelt, asks
Lis opponent,
" when, in the
twenty-seventh year of Modern Spiritualism, in the City of London, there took place one of the most memorable seances since the
? "
beginning of our era

aifair in
The only memorable
As
saddled on the spirit said to have manifested.

itself,
*'
points about the
question are the false doctrines and the strange demands
simply
it
ranks
many hundred
with
There were no
materializations."
tests,
and
to the seance
other
assumed
infinite credulity
and enthusiasm.
Numerous appearances
This, however,
occurred.
supposed
of the
was
spirit
had previously
to be his final visit.
About a
fort-
night before he had announced himself as the recipient of a call ta

" Just the night previous we had had his most
a higher sphere.
perfect embodiment,
King
with
lamp
'
when he had appeared
fully lighting i;p his face
life-like
activity
and
ease,
to us with a
John
moving about the room
and conversing with us with
the freedom of one in the body, like ourselves.
we were
'
... To
all
hear that
never again to have such a pleasure was like another
death, and
fell
upon our hearts
desolately, like an ice-cold freez-
ing rain, killing the tender buds of our newly-awakened hopes."
special seance
form " might bid a
was arranged
final
in order that this
adieu to his brother."
very material
The meeting came
ofi'.
" Tlie
spirit,"
we
are told,* " materialized with unusual
He. brought with
power and
him his lamp, and remained with us
in continued conversation for the space of an hour, if not more. His voice was
stronger than ever before, and he spoke in the most solemn and impresstrength.
manner regarding certain things he wished his brother to do for him.

lis upon one knee, with one hand held by each of us, as
Ave leaned over to draw as near to his face as possible, after earnestly
enjoining upon liis brother the accomplislunent of a certain duty wliich
he wished him to undertake, he made a most startling disclosure to us.
" I have to inform you,' he said, that my last life on earth was a re-
sive
Kneeling before
'
'
In a former existence I was a I'ersian prince, and lived

upon this earth some Imndreds of years before Clirist. In that life I was
p(.)3sessed of a quantity of beautiful and valuable jewels.
Strange to say,
1 have become aware of the existence of some of those jewels in this
incarnation.
* Mediwn, August 13th, 1875.
ABSURDITIES.
\'K'\'\
city of Londiiii.
'I'lii'.y
of
ai;' iliaiii(>ii<ls
315
purosL wati-r und luil-
tlit?
moronvov, tlioy aiv cluirinod stones, and wonld tlu-rofon; lu^

T wish yon, my dear lirotlu-r, lo
inestimable value to their possessor.
liaiicy, aiul,
ol"
Tlii-y are for sale
l)ecome the piirchaser of those stones.

I
city.
know
name
But you must
of
lose
are,
in
.-d
man, the name of the
tlie
no time,
'n\
a shop in this
and the iiricp a
Tliey are five diauiuinls
beneatli their vahic.
give you the
where they
exai-tly
;i
hnnji
and the
them, and
street,
for there is a person after
much
])rice
rin^'.
can
price.
if
yon
do not purchase them hy eleven o'clock to-morrow you will lose them.'
He then gave us the most circumstantial directions as to the sitiuilinii
name
of the shop, the
of the jeweller, the cxait
window, even going
in the
take to bring
me
so far as to tell
to the spot, that
liis
of the
jiosilidii
me what omnibus
my
brother might have
rin;j,
was
to
aid in
(Well-informed " spirit ") ' Be sure,' he continued,

'that you say nothing to the man as to tlic value of those stones
value beyond all earthly price, indeed, for they have been endowed with
rare virtues of a spiritual kind.
This ring, my dear brother, I wish
you to present to our medium, as a testimonial of my gi-atitude to him
for his services in enabling me to materialize Ibr you.
It has given me
a \&^\ great pleasure to return in tliis way and confer with you again.
!
linding the ring."
'
You
we .spirits can all that a medium gives up for

and I feel I cannot thank him enough for giving
and strength to our service. Therefore I wish him
cannot estimate as
these materializations,
so unselfishly his
life
have the ring. It will be a talisman to protect him it ^\all increase

his power as a meiliiun, anil with that ring he can never want for a
I %\-ish you also
IViend indeed, he Avill bear a species of charmed life.
to
to
make
a formal public presentation to
more was
Our
said.
him
of that ring.'
adieux, tender and affecting, as to one
Much
we were
never to see again (except clairvoyantly), were made, and again ami
Ms solemn injunctions repeated. We were only permitted
to kiss his hands, his head he would not allow us to touch, and our dear
Ijrother, rising to a standing position, slowly retired from us, repeatiiig
Farewell
in solemn tones Farewell
again were
'
Whatever disclosures the "

little
'
spirit"
may have made,
jealously reticent, viz., Oie nchhrss of the jcireUer

7vas bought.
their present
are
vhom
therbttj
gems," far from having existed in
form for over two thousand years, would turn out
to have been cut in

it
one
I maintain, as I have all along maintained, that, could
this be procured, the "flashing
and
frciii
is
affair
there
point on which the earth-dwellers concerned in this
Amsterdam.
has been refused to mo.
have asked
for the said address,
I can see nothing to alter, there-
MODERN
3i6
fore, in the following letter.
SPIRITUALISM.
It first
appeared in the Medium of
August 20lh, 1875:

"
My dear
Mr. Burns,
am, and unfit for letter-WTitiug, it is my duty to make

contained
a protest against such a statement as the tuie by C
in the Medium of August 13th. As a spiritualist, it is a duty to say
that I have neA'er, in the whole course of my experience, met with a
spirit teaching the old doctrine of Pj-thagoras, lately re-advocated hj
"
111 as I
Allan Kardec, Avho, more than twenty years ago, tried to convert me
to his Avay of thinking (I say this advisedly, for he told me it was by
a careful study of the Pythagorean philosophy that he had been induced
to believe as he tlid').
This absurd statement first teaches re-incarnation
and then makes a present of precious stones (the which, I Avill wager,
can be traced to having been cut in Amsterdam). If spii'its, after being
twice incarnated, have still nothing better to do than to give 'the
exact position of the ring in the window,' and the omnibus one is
to take, then God help us, for it is a fearful absurdity, to say the least
is a most decided sensitive, and I can well account for
Mrs.
of it.
her seeing the imagined dual presence.
Let her Ije in a clairvoyant
state away from the influences at that time surrounding her, and she
will then explain the Avhole affair.
We must use the reason God has
endowed us with, and such statements are only calculated to do great
harm to the cause Ave advocate. It is almost as bad as one case in my
knowledge, where the person very solemnly declares that a spirit visits
her frequently, and she gives details so disgusting that they are unfit to
be heard. All this is the effect of a poor diseased brain. Spiritualism
'
'
and glorious
'
but this side of the cpiestion shows its

it behoves us to lift up a warning
cry.
I know nothing of Mr.
but if I were in his place I would
sooner wear a serpent's poisoned fang than a ring given imder such
circumstances. Yours,
has
its
great
uses,
abuses to the very fullest extent, and

,
"D. D. Home."
[" It is well
known," adds the
Edit(jr of the
Medium,
'-that
Mr.
Home
has received from various crowned heads, as well as persons of note,

most valuable presents of jewels, but they were never given or suggested
by spirit-intercourse. This was the ground taken by Mrs. Lyon, but she
signally fciilcd to prove
The
it,
as all the
was presented
ring
plained " the
whole business
Chancery records can
testify."]
the presumed spirit glowingly " exin the following speech:
In this work of repeated materializations f)f my spiiitbecause, being called to a higher

plane of existence, I shall never more clothe my spirit in temporary
" Friends
form, which I have just completed
AD<;URDITIES.
tlr-^li
your
;it,
Chie
oircli's
tlu' tieUls ot"
ol'
was oonimi.-isiom-d
prugrcss opened tu
l\v
317
band
me was
of
lii^'licr sj)irit-i.
workinj^ for the good of
your circles.
We always raise onrselves when we try to
1 have to reveal to you, my fiiends, that I, the spirit who
has (.s-i'c) SI) freipu'utly materialized here in London, was a re-incarnation
upon this planet. In my fonner existence I was a Prince of Persia ;
my name was Hafi.-: Hcmkhplm, and I was a descendant of Kai Kaoos,
mankind
at
raise otliei-s.
Cyaxares I. by the Greeks, of the Kaianian dynasty, some six

Imndred or seven lumdred years before (Hirist. I was not aware of this
called
previons existence
when
tirst
entered the spirit-world after
my
last
knowledge that I had

ilonbtless lived before.
Witliin tlie last few days of your time, since,
indeed, I received my call to ascend fi-om the earth-sphere, I have lived
through an eternity, and entered upon an eternity's stores of knowledge,
principally by the aid of a Avondroiisly \Adse Jewdsh spirit, or, more pro])erly speaking, angel, who has revealed to me, and awakened witliin
They are mostly
me, the recollection of former states of existence.
undeserving of being dwelt U]ion here the principal one, and the one
lu'fore the last, having lieen that of a Persian Princ<'.
Tlising from that
re-incarnation, l)ut liy degrees 1 entered into the
life
to a state of great hapi)iness in the spirit-world, the desire for re-
incarnation Avas not awakened within
my
soul felt its necessities
me
for a long period.
At length
the planet had advanced to a state of higher
civiUsation.
I required new experiences of mortal life, new conc|uests
over self and the grossness of matter. This also is too vast a subject
to dwell upon this evening.
Wlio can read the secrets of a man's
life ? who can judge of the unfoldments of a soul, and its necessities
'I
Only God, and that soul itself. I descended to earth again, and was
bom of American parents. What I gained l)y that existence I know
somewhat, but not yet all, for the soul of man is wonderful, and himself is revealed to
lation
is
.spirits,
himself in the slow progress of eternities.
a part of
of
whom
tlie
work
was deputed
to
This reveperform by the higher
have spoken.
" Aud now, friends, I can never more materialize.

to those
who have left the
It is
not permitted
earth-sphere and risen highei-, unless
by a parti-
cular dispensation for purposes of usefulness to mankind.
Indeed it is tcô
painful a process lor the more etherealized inhabitants of our world to
resume those garments of lieaA-iness, as I have so frequently done. And
nijw
I "will say, FareA\i-'ll
Was
^ly blessings upon you
ever "spirit-communication"
As taught by
Haii-.
licnmhpha,
alias
more
all
painfully ridiculous ?
,
alias
the
doctrine of re-incaruation defines the next world to be a place
where
souls deteriorate.
Some
twenty-five hundred
years ago
MODERN
3i8
SPIRITUALISM.
Hafiz rose from earth " to a state of great happiness in the

After
world,""
a long
period
bUssful
of
spirit-
he became
idleness
embarrassments of his position. Earth had got

ahead of heaven. The life which we " incarnated" beings some-
awakened
to the
times find so weary and so trying
is, it
seems, contemplated by
the " pilgi'ims of eternity " with envy and reverence.

the necessities of the soul,"
to
To "
satisfy
make "new conquests over
self,"
poor humanity must, perforce, skip backwards and forwards between

this sphere
and the next
through his
trap-doors.
Not only are we

happiness.
to lose
What
"
is
like
the harlequin of a pantomime
Certainly,
this
is
cheerful creed.
trace of identity, but
all
the use of
prospect of
all
any longer singing that
We are going on a journey

To
"
a bright and better land %
The "better land" is, we find, a savage desert, from which souls
much as an Asiatic might
come back to civihse themselves
;
journey to England for the instruction his native land could not
afford him.
The angel-spmts who guard us
whom they guard.
of humanity than those

to
which
shadow, with the string of
this
are lower in the scale
Such are the chimajras

aliases,
would have us
bow,
I need not linger over the subordinate absurdities of his speech.
Any little slips are atoned for by the fine concluding

" What I gained by that existence I know somewhat,
all, for the soul of man is wonderful, and himseli is
himself in the slow progress of eternities."
once lucid and sublime
"
eternities "
many
(whatever they
may
be) for a
As
revealed to
Certainly, this
man
I entertain
but not yet
the spirit meant, no doubt, that
other persons he has been.
making such
outburst
it
out
to find
is
at
takes
how
no hope of ever
a discovery myself, I quite agree with
him
that, in
the majority of cases, the "progress" of such a revelation will
probably be slow.
The whole thing has
most unpleasant look.
Is
this
bad
example of enticing enthusiastic believers to bestow presents of
much
value on
mediums
the only example which " Hafiz " can set?
ABSURDITIES.
absunl doclrinc
Is the
spirit- world
flu'
(if
319
hriui,'
whcro
place
;i
everybody jtrogresses backward the only doetriuc ho can teach

If so,
indeed well that he has retired for ever from
it is
and can
**
on the garments of heaviness,"
shuffle
"materialization." no more.
friend, cannot
order to
loiufJif,
and
*'
settle for
fnnii.
irh(ii
tlir
liave not space
the suddenness of the prophet's
gourd, flourish for an hour, and as rapidly decay.
are
part of the
is
sometimes snatches
follies
be,
and
no more part of our movement
body
which
to
at spiritualism as a theatre
Needy sharpers turn
antics.
its
They
spiritual.
would
It
however, an utter misnomer to term these wretched
than the polype
riiuj ivaa
ever the question as to Amsterdam.
They crop up with
wickednesses
of
clothe the spirit in temporary flesh " just once, in
There are rank harvests of absurdities which I

to notice.
way
in the
us,
Pity though that ho, or his Jewish
us the nume of the jcivcUcr
tell
among
theii'
clings.
Insanity
whereon
to display
it
attention to
as a thing
it
money may be made. It is such lamentable occurrences that make the cause unpopular.
The sacredness attaching
to a communion with the departed renders even the thought of
out of which
the
and vices with which
follies
munion
infinitely
that day
absurdity, and fraud, fraud

stupidity
How
maddening.
men and women
is
it
after
sought to sully that com-
painful then
is it
"Still they come."
for reasoning
day absurdity should succeed
which disgusts us one week,
is
Where
natural anti-climax of wickedness.
The climax of
next week sot

there
is
so
by
its
much
of
off
brainless enthusiasm, there are certain to be persons ready to prey

on that
The damaging
enthusiasm.
chapter lead smoothly up to the

treated of in the next.
fires.
by a
On
Thus
the one side she
hostile world.
is
absurdities treated of in this
still
more damaging exposures
spiritualism
assailed
by
placed between two
is
false friends,
on the other
have no fears regarding the result
but the
circumstances of the battle are hard.

"What, for instance, can be done with such spiritualists as a
Frenchman
Count Z
of rank,
.
and advanced
in
years,
During the winter of 1875
whom
will stylo
heard that he had
been boasting much of a wonderful medium just discovered by him,
MODERN
320
and that he was holding
SPIRITUALISM.
seances with the
knowled<,'c,
It
seemed
mediumship must be pretended.
I said
and a dozen parrot-voices
is
jealous!
In
so
fact,
certain
but who, to
even then professed atheistical doctrines.
to me, therefore, that this
so
"medium"
said
my
gentleman of position and good family
at
once took up the old cry.
much had
Home
endure regarding
to
my
jealous5> that I determined to obtain convincing proof of the true
Meeting Count Z
nature of the mediumship in question.
" medium "
in the south of France, I interrogated this
on the subject, and obtained from him a

following
is
literal translation
certificate, of
resj)oiise to
which the
'
" In
's
gentleman
the desire of Mr.
Home,
I declare
9th May, 1876.
by the present docu-
ment
On
that I have never assumed to myself the i)ower of mediumship.

the contrary, I have always, in those private gatherings where people
with spiritualism, and where it was sought to make me

medium, denied being one uud lia^'e pointed out that, as I
am a materialist and atheist, it is impossible for me to believe in the
amuse
themselves
pass for a
doctrine of spiiitualism.
"Frederic S
."
I sincerely wish the writer of the foregoing a speedy deliverance
from that atheism on which he

Certainly, however,
the
at present appears to pride himself.
" spiritualism
mixed up was unlikely to conduce to

His own account of
immortalitj'.
Coimt Z
" I told
nessed in
my presence
and had no
it
that the whole of the
'
'
ful
"
It is
medium
When
same
not you,
it is
manifostations
'
he wit-
medium,
am sure you
that I Avas not a
Yes, yes,' he replied,
'
you do these things yourself but I know

tlu' dear spirits, and you are the most wonder-
are <piite honest in thinking

better.
which he became
ran as follows
resulted ft-om trickery
belief in the thing.
in
"
his conversion to a belief in
in the world.'
began in Paris, I and some ladies who stayed in the

went into fits of laughter over the Count's credulity.
together, one of us would slily pat his head, or pinch liis
all this
hotel, often
Whilst
sitting
knee.
'
Dear, dear
spirits,'
he used then to remark, please do that again.'

would watch for an oppor'
Often, too, the person nearest the fireplace
tunity of giving the sheet-iron screen a kick.
Always, when this occurred,

The dear spmts are
the Count would cry out in an exultant voice,

iiiiitatiu'' tluinder.'
'
ABSURDITIES.
"
Ni)t.
only have
amuseniont, but
t'dv
told
liiiii
tliiit
explained to
32 r
things were done
tliesi-
him how they were
hy ourselves
'Those
done.
which wore found on the table last evening

and placed there.' Still the (July reply was, Yes,
yes, you thiidv so, but 1 know better
it was the dear spiiits, and you
are the most wonderful medium in the world.' Nothing eoidd convince
diiwors,'
I
would
him
say,
'
ntlierwise."
Yet Count Z
otir
'
my pocket
took IVoni
cause
lict
me
and such as he, are considered supporters of
with a few words dismiss the people and the actions that
There are
remain to be noticed under the present heading.

"
spirits "
who,
after
having been " reduced to the necessity of
release " from earth, return there to
self-
make such communications
on behalf of " materializing mediums" as the following

" Far be it from me to keep silence, while the behttled and
:
doing their best to disgrace and ruin a band
belittling croakers are
of as true and noble workers as the age
may
and
boast of
the reason that their sphere of faith, sight and action,
Do
above and beyond the reach of microscopic eyes.

a-liner journalists,
and
the obscene birds for
all
know, or think, what they are about

did,
for
quite
these penny-
whom
they cater,
If they
I believe not.
they would see themselves murderers of the most malignant
They
type.
and then, with long faces
foul the finest character,
and solemn drawl, pronounce
own
all
is
carrion
it
and. they taint with their
After this the spirit remarks that
foul breath the purest air."
" were his voice clothed with thunder, and

lightning, he
would make
all
these skin-deep exposers shiver in
Manner and matter continue equally beneath con-
their shoes."
tempt through the whole communication.
What
and proceed.
trash
pen armed with
his
I have given
may
which the most degraded of
I dismiss
it,
therefore,
serve as a specimen of the
must blush
spirits
to
find
attributed to them.
England, and
tisements
daily,
"
as
marriage, &c.
"
still
more, America, have numbers of such adver-
Madame
on the events of
life
"
;
"
on
Clairvoyant
" Professor
Astrologer,
Madame
Y
business,
may
love,
be consulted
magnetic treatment,
MODERN
322
love powder, one dollar."
SPIRITUALISM.
These
can in no sense be considered
setters of traps for the foolish
The only
spiritualists.
blamable in the matter are the one or two editors
announcements
to their columns.
I have ah'eady
world
"
are
shown what perplexing " people from the other
occasionally
reported
presenting themselves
as
at
One or two other examples deserve to be touched upon.
secmces.
The
spiritualists
who admit such
following extract introduces and explains itself
monthly has appeared in Boston a novelty in tlie periodical

Nor
it professes to be edited by a tUsembodied essence.
are the spii-its content with the spiritual du-ection, for with an eye to
the loaves and fishes, one of the number acts as business manager; though
the visible person, the amanuensis and pubHsher, is a physician. There
are angels of darkness as well as angels of light, and in the Voice a strict
impartiality is preserved, for one of the first angels who has come upon
the stage is James Fisk, jun., and now we learn the secret of that specu'
world, for
lator's life.
He
unconscious
medium
describes himself as having been,

of a
band of
reckless spirits
when in the tlesh, the

who manipulated him
and he could
no more help doing what he did than could the instrument discoursing
The editor in chief has that spiritual penetrathe music of the operator.
tion into the weakness of humanity which tells him that if he would interest the p\iblic he has to give voice to the bad spirits rather than to the
People want to know what the rascal did and why he did it and
good.
Fisk, jun., was a good siibject to commence with."
as a skilful pianist handles the keys of his instrument,
Possibly those beings were

a particular seance, caused
power
"
their
members
of the above band,
the instruments to
favourite tunes;
who,
play by "
the said tunes being " Durang's
Hornpipe," "Yankee Doodle," and " The Devil's Dream."

hear, too, of a spirit
on
it,
"wrote a
and mailed
it
We
whose " ordinary manifestations are working
a sewing-machine, and playing upon a mouth-organ."

celestial visitor
at
spirit-
letter, directed the
Another
envelope, put a stamp
in the iron-box at the street corner."
But
such stories are numberless.
They have as little of the spiritual in them as have the wild

dances in which " mediums " (generally females) indulge under
the influence of imaginary Indian controls.
Like these, they are
the products of over-heated and morbid minds.
the
many and
glaring absurdities
I believe that of
upon which I have commented
ABSURD/'JVES.
111
323
this chapter, not a twcutictb arc attributable to spu'its.
It is
not to driuk tea ami pbiy on the liddlo, to give blaspbomouslybulicrous communications regarding Christ
strut about in skull-caps
head with paper tubes,
and His
x\postlcs, to
and yellow boots, to beat people over the
throw cushions
to
murderers as respectable objects, to
tell
up
at sceptics, to hold
people by what omni-
buses to travel, or to describe the next world as a place where
humanity deteriorates, that departed

mission
is
great
spirits
return to earth.
their opportunities are limited.
What
Their
time have
they then to waste in idiotisms, of which a school-boy would
ashamed
insanity,
some
Let us refer such to their proper sources
many to
to knavery'
this Avorld,
few
feci
some
to
to the next.
Let us recognise the height and the holiness of phenomena which
show how
" Tlie l)eloved, the true-hearted,
Revisit earth once more."
Let us put from our path
all
Avhich savours of folly or of fraud,
and press, steadfastly and undeviatingly, towards the

full
truth.
time that the errors I have been treating of should " die
their worshippers."
It is
among
CHAPTER Vm.
TRICKERY AND ITS EXPOSURE.
*'
The most
severe
blows that spiritualism has sustained have
been those aimed by unprincipled and avaricious mediums, who,
when
the manifestations failed to
come
as freely as the cu'cum-
stances required, practised imposition to supply the deficiency."
So wrote Mrs. Hardinge,
her " History of American Spiri-
in
tualism," and every year fresh evidence testifies to the truth of
her assertion.
Wherever the
facts of spiritualism
lying imitations of those facts
may
be found.
have penetrated
The producers
divided into three classes.
The
while really possessing medial

resort to fraud.
The second
first is
gifts,
of
They may be
such imitations are of both sexes, and every age.
made up of persons who,

when much tempted,
will,
section consists also of
mediums
but of mediums who, being utterly unprincipled, rather prefer
and who will, therefore,

when no encouragement exists to do so.
to cheat than not,
the most frequent and
seldom expert conjurors.
lie
and deceive even
It is
with such that
damaging exposures occur.
The
difference
between the
the genuine phenomena witnessed in their presence

to escape the notice of
is
They
are
false
and
too glaring
any person not blinded by folly and credulity.
Soon, therefore, some decisive exposure crushes the faith of
all
but the insanely enthusiastic, and Othello, in the shape of the

untrustworthy medium, finds his occupation for the present gone. It
is true that
by
his
he almost invariably resumes
rascality has
blown over
it
when
the storm caused
but meanwhile our cause has
received another wound, and the broad and easy
mediumship has been once more demonstrated
way
of fraudulent
to lead to destruction.
325
lu the third class I ph\co those charhitaiis who, though destitute

of
any
to the
real claim
title
medium,
of
find
impose themselves as such upon credulous

imitate
it
phenomena by methods of more or
the
This species of impostor usually varies the
by showing how those frauds were
prolitablc
to
and
to
spiritualists,
less
monotony
dexterity.
of his frauds
accomplished, and,
after
who have received him as an exponent

who receive him as an exposer
of his own villainy.
disgracing the spiritualists
of truth, disgraces the unbelievers
not of spiritualism, but

The
any very tangible hope of reforma-
class alone afibrds
first
Mediums who have been
tion.
led
are, in general, capable of repentance
by temptation into
and amendment.
ill-doing
It is true
that even these persons well deserve both rebuke and punishment
but their guilt
is
not so glaring as
swindler
that of the
who
habitually mixes genuine mediumship with fraud, or as that of the

still
more degraded creature who makes a lying pretence
of which he possesses not the slightest share.

it
to gifts
Against these last
behoves every honest searcher for the Truth to be up in arms,
and
to strike with
no hesitating blows.
For the evU has assumed gigantic proportions.

and
its
light.
natui'al
ally,
with pleasure that I see signs of an organized attempt
It is
to abate the nuisance.
few
(alas
Dishonesty,
darkness, are arrayed against honesty and
Certain enlightened spiritualists, and a
a very few) select
mediums who,
in the consciousness
of their honesty, can afford to encounter fearlessly investigation
and
the sun, are banding themselves against those "children of the
night" who
which
all
affect
carefully-darkened rooms, and seances
opportunity for enquiiy
is
excluded.
To
aid
from
in this
down imposture and destroying abuses my

The battle in which I and other honest
written.
noble work of putting

present volume
men
are
is
engaged
will
no doubt bo hard.
Experience has orga-
nized trickery to a high pitch, and the dupes are many.

lovers of the truth, then, do their best to cast light
places with which spiritualism
is
cursed.
Let
upon the dark
have acquired from
which certain
now
to detail the
various sources information regarding the fashion
impositions are accomplished, and I proceed
MODERN
326
modus
SPIRITUALISM.
uperividi of such fraudulent manifestations.
may
to these cheats, investigators
Once awakened
with case guard against their
being practised.
The form
To be
a spu'it form or forms.

requu'es the aid of a
lighted at
most
of fraud at present
room
in
vogue
the simulation of
successful such simulation usually
so ill-lighted as practically not to be
a " cabinet " into -which the
all,
is
medium withdraws from
the view of the sitters, and various other " conditions " of the sort.
AVhen the rules of such seances are broken, awkward discoveries

occur.
Sometimes the
medium
revealed in his or her "spirit-dress."
" spirit-form "
medium.
Figures
The
the
medium
sceptics
little
me commence
clad
in
flowing
and parti-coloured
Yet when
Whence has
"the
it
vanished
The
have de-materialized
spirits
it."
probably examine the cabinet, and are astonished
light
Perhaps the evidence I have to
ofler
maj'
on the concealments sometimes practised.
with the narrative of an unimpeachable witness,
friend Seijeant
Cox
"Dear Home,
" I am
IS
Sometimes the
searched at the conclusion of the seance no trace of
is
that they find nothing.
still
suddenly, and the
display of drapery seems most extensive.
believers present reply that
throw a
turned up
go well, the credulous are often highly
all
appear,
drapery can be found.
this
The
is
grasped, and found to be none other than the
But should
gratified.
robes.
is
light
practised.
Let-
my
satisfied that a large
Some
of
it
is,
amount
of frtud lias lieen
doubtless, deliberately planned
and
and
But some is, I tliink, done while the medium is in a state of

somnambulism, and therefore unconscioiis. As all familiar with tlie
phenomena of somnambulism are aware, the patient acts to perfectionany part suggested to his mind, but wholly without seK-perception at the
time, or memory afterwards.
But such an explanation serves only to
executed.
acfjuit
the
medium
of deliberate inipostiu"e
that the apparent nuuiifestation
is
it
does not affect the fact
not genuine.
been offered by the production aiul

All the conditions imposed are as
if carefiilly designed to favour fraud if contemplated, and even to tempt
to impostm-e.
The curtain is giiarded at either end by some friend.
The light is so dim that the features cannot be distinctly seen. A white
''The great field for fraud has
])rcsentation of alleged spirit-fonns.
TRICKERY AND
^lil
over
tliiowii
liody
tlir
ITS EXPOSURE.
licud
t'ldiii
inniufTit, Mini uivcs the in'cessaiy uspeot
roiiml
Iliad
and
once conceals
at
rliiii
Id
fixil
nl'
s]iirituality.
is
hair,
tlir
considorabk' interval precedes the appearance
necessary for the preparations.

of the torTu hefore the cahinet
is
))ut
and
327
anil
<in
iid"
Awhile,
disi^'ui.sos
_just sncli
as
in
:i
J)an(l
the lace.
would he
like interval succeeds the retirement
permitted to he opened for ins]iection.
This just enables the ordinary dress to he restored. While tlie ])i'eparation is going on behind the curtain the roni]iaiiy are always vehemently
exhorted to sing. This would conveniently conceal any sounds of
motion in the act of preparation. The spectators are made to promise
not to peep behind the curtain, and not to grasp the form.
They are
solemnly told that if they were to seize the s])irit they would kill the
metlimn. This is an obvious contrivance to deter the onlookers from
doing anything that might cause detection.
It is not tnie.
Several
.spirits have been grasped, and no nu'dium has died of it
although in
each case the suj)posed spirit was found to he the medium. That the
;
medium was somewhat
detected
and exposure
disturlied in health after such a public
all surprising.
Every one of the live*
nitdiums Avho have heen actually seized in the act of personating a spirit
is now alive and well.
There need be no fear for the consequences in
putting them to the proof.
detection
is
not at
" But I have learned

tion of
The
it
how the trick is done. I have seen the descripmedium to another medium who desired instruction.
her own handwriting, and the whole style of it showed
given by a
letter
was
in
be genuine.
" She informs
it to
lier
friend that she comes to the seance prepared with a
She says it may be

done in two or three minutes.
She wears two shifts (probably for
warmth). She brings a muslin veil of thin material (she gives its name,
which I forget). It is carried in her drawers ! It can be compressed
into a small space, althoiigh when spread it covers the whole person.
])ocket-handkerchief pinned round the head keeps back the hair.
She
states that she takes off all her clotlies except the two shifts, and is
dress that
is
easily taken off with a little practice.
covered by the
the pillows.
veil.
The gowTi
is
out.
the spiritualists whom she thus gulls,

anything but complimentary.
" This explains the whole business.
before
in the
was
upon the sofa over

She makes very merry with
and her language about them is
sjiread carefully
In this array she comes
The
where the robe could be carried
bosom
or in a sleeve.
drawers.
" But it will bo asked
Nobody seems
how we
cjûestion so
It could not
to
can explain the
often asked
be contained
have tliought of the

fact that
some persons
* Since this was written by Serjeant Cox the numbers have greatly
I doubt if there remain now five "materializing- mediums"
been seized in the act of personating a spirit-form.
increased.
have
not
who
MODERN
328
SPIRITUALISM.
been peniiitted to go beliind tlie curtain wlieii tlie lonn was before
I am sorry to
asserted tliat they saw or felt the uiediiun.
say the confession to which I liave referred states without reser\'e that
I am,
tliese persons knew that it was a trick, and lent themselves to it.
of course, reluctant to adopt such a formidable conclusion, although the
so-called 'confession' was a confidential communication fi-om one
mediimi to another niediiun who had asked to be instructed how the
trick was done.
I prefer to adopt the more charitable conclusion that
they were imposed upon, and it is easy to find how this was likely to be.
The same suspicious precautions against detection were always adopted.
The favoured Aasitor was an assured friend
one who, if detecting
tiickery, would shrink from proclaiming the cheat.
But one was permitted to enter. A light was not allowed. There was nothing but the
darkness visible of the lowered gas rays struggling through the
curtain.
I have noted that no one of them ever was permitted to see
The
the face of the medium.
It was always wrapped in a shawl.'
hands felt a di'ess, and imagination did the rest. The revealer of the
secret above referred to says that, when she took off her goA^Ti to put on
the white veil, she spread it upon the sofa or chair with jîllows or something under it, and this is what they felt and took for her body
" The lesson to be learned from all this is, that no phenomena should
be accepted as genuine that are not produced under strict test conditions.
Investigators should be satisfied ^\ith no evidence short of the very best
that the circiunstances A\'ill jiennit.
"\\1iy accept the doubtful testimony
of one person gropuig in the dark >\-hen the (question can be decided
beyond dispute once and for ever by the siaiple process of drawing back
the curtain while tlie alleged spirit is outside, and showing the mediiuu
inside to the eyes of all present ? \Vhere absolute tests are refused upon
any pretence whatever, and where the conditions imposed are just such
as are calculated to prevent detection if trickery is designed, we are
bound to look w\\\\ the utmost suspicion upon all that is done, and,
indeed, we should refuse to take part in any such unsatisfactory
liave
it,
and have
'
'
experiment.
" In the investigations in which you so kindly assisted me there was
nothing of this precaution and mystery. You sat with me anpvhere, at
any time in my garden, and in my house by day and by night ; Ijut
always, with one memorable exception, in full light. You objected to
;
on the contrary you invited them. I was permitted the full

my senses. The experiments were made in every form
ingenuity could de^dse, and you were as desirous to learn the truth and
the meaning of it as I was. You sat alone with me, and things were
done which, if" foiu- confederates had been present, their united eftbrts
could not have accomplished. Sometimes there were phenomena, sometimes there were none.
When they occurred they Avere often such as no
human hand could liave produced without the machinery of the
Egyptian Hull. But these were in my own drawing-room, and library,
no
tests
use of
all
TRICA'EKY
iind garclen,
where no
that I arrived at
tlic
AND
iiiechaiiisni
conviction
/7S EXPOSURE.
was
In this manner
possible.
opposed to
my
all
329
it
prejudices and
was
jire-
tliat llicrc arc forces about ns of some kind, having butli

power and inlelligencc, l)Ut impercei>)i])le to our senses, except under
some imperreith-known conditions. 1 did not, and with subsequent
extended intjuiry I cannot now arrive at the conclusion you have come
conceptions
to,
that tliese invisible agents are spirits of the dead.
am
the more 1 see of their ojjerations the more I
The
not such.
solution that most presses
upon
On
the contrary,
satisfied that
my mind
is
they are
that this
is iidiabited by aiinthcr race of beings, imperceptible to vis in

normal conditions, probably our inferiors in intelligence, by whom what
we witness is done. If it be not this the agent is the spirit of the
mediiun more or less separated from the body. But whosoever that
agent may be, the mediiuu through which it is enabled to manifest its
presence, and to operate upon molecular matter is the Psychic (that is to
say, the soul) force of the assembled sitters.
But now that the phenomena themselves, or some of them, have received general acceptation as
facts in nature, it may be hoped that many observant minds will investigate them with a view to learn their precise natiu'e and extent, as
Itroduced imder absolute tests.
Then we shall be in a position to
inquire what they are, whence they come, and to what they point.
" It is a gi'eat misfortune to the cause of truth that your state of health
])revents you from contributing to this great work.
But I hope still
that your recovery may enable you to do something more to promote
honest investigation into the greatest and the grandest mystery that
could engage the human mind.
" Yours most truly,
earth
"
''March
The
Edward
Wji. Cox.
8th, 187()."
narrative above given bears a
peculiar vahie
from the
circumstances attending the confession of imposture to

refers.
which
it
The exposure meets even the conditions demanded by
believe one
who would rather libel

medium guilty of trickery.
proof that a
medium has
those enthusiasts
a
'
hundred
spirits
perpetrated fraud," a philosopher of this
class writes, " is proof that the physical organs of the
acted in obedience to his or her
own
will
and purposes
when
the seemingly fraudulent acts were performed."
the "
medium
may
medium
at the
time
This proof
" in question herself allbrds.
Ikit there are

this class
than
The only conclusive
numerous other methods by which impostors of
successfully conceal the materials necessary for the
MODERN
330
deceptions tlicy
which the Spiritual
in
was
To expose those
contemplate.
Rclif/io-Philosophical Journal
these serials
SPIRITUALISM.
in
methods the
some months back printed an
Scientist
promptly copied.
article
The course
of
honourable contrast to that uniformly pursued
such cases by the least creditable of Amei'ican spiritual publica-
the miscalled Banner of
tions
IJi/ht.
" All the material for l)C)gus mediums to imitate spirit manifestationscan be so concealed about the person," the Eeliriio-Fhilosojjhical Journal
points out, " that the most rigid search may fail to find it. A common
silk neck-tie tied
around the neck imder a paper
collar, will conceal
gauze-like texture, white silk handkerchief, &c., sufficient to produce
your sister, mother, or daughter, as the case may be. The expert, too,
can conceal them in the lining of his pants, vest, and coat, ndth thi-eads
so arranged as to deceive the eye, and in a moment's time they can be
taken ovit and replaced. Those who have never investigated this matter*
would be astonished at the small space required for the articles necessary
to materialize a fii'st-class spirit.
" Tissue paper also acts an important part in bogus materialization, it

being used on the head and various parts of the body to complete the
dress.
It can be concealed in the lining of the vest, coat, or pants, and
you may search
for it
but
Avail
not discover
matter to deceive three out of five
who
it
It is
easily.
an easy
attend these bogus circles
Some people like to be himibugged they take

did who attended G
's circles in New York."
;
pleasure in
it,
as those
Such are the means by which pretended materializations are
The ordinary mode,
accomplished.
will be
it
conceal the "spirit-dress" about the person.
not invariably done.
perceived,
press, was accustomed to operate
would be
to
On
is
different,
spiritual
but equally
first
request
"Cabinets" usually contain a
The " medium,"
himself on one or the other, and

tion.
in
entering the seance-room his
see the "cabinet."
chair or a couch.
to
notorious trickster, whope exposure and
punishment occupied some time back the attention of the
elaborate manner.
is
This, however,
after a glance round, seated
commenced
a desultory conversa-
Presently he rose, with some such remark as "It's growing
we had
better begin the seance.
late
me
retire Avith
some
of
First," he
you and be searched."
and the search duly took place.
would add, "
let
The retirement
Nothing could be found.
The
TKICk'ERV
medium
ro-ontcred
the
AND
recess,
/TS EXPOSURI-:.
the
iiiul
circle
331
was
arranged.
Presently the curtains parted, and a much-draped form appeared.
AVas
it
possihle that
all
he accomplished hy imposture
this could
After various of these exhihitions had taken place, the question
That conversation
received an answer in the affirmative.
in the
cabinet had a deeper significance than might at first have been

"Whilst the impostor's
supposed.
by no means
to afibrd
The
idle.
him time
he started was merely intended
for concealing
somewhere about the couch or
chair on which he sat a tight
This
trappings."
Shawl,
vain.
parcel containing his " spiritual
little
he was,
accomplished,
ready to be searched.
was
tongue was busy his hands were
light talk
The most
veil, &c., all
of
course,
perfectly
rigid investigation of his dress
of the lightest and thinnest fabric,
awaited him in the cabinet.
The number
of such swindlers
do our cause
remarks, in
'
It
would
number
is
l>c
As the Spiritual
incalculable.
leading article of
its
astonishing.
is
March
interesting intonnatioii
of darkened parhnirs
on back
if
The harm they

Scientist
IGth, 1876
any one could
well
tell u.s of
the
streets that are the scenes of fre-
A description
([uent seances for spirit-materializations.
of the 'wonders'
would be liighly interesting to credulous people,

but a careful investigator would ask more particiilarly concerning the
conditions under which these manifestations are obtained.
A few words
tell the story.
They are patterned one after the other the original
that are here witnessed
being the one that has been the longest in the business. The indi^*idual
will) would attend these shows is obliged to make a personal application
;
homo who
infninis tlie humble applicant that his petition will be referred to John
King.
(Jolin King is the familiar name for the manager on the
spiritual (?) side of the show.)
The answer of John King will be given
to the applicant if he will call at some future day
and, it may be said,,
the .success or failure of his attempt to enter the charmed circle will
depend greatly on his personal appearance, and the number of ladies that
are to be present on a:iy evening he may wish to gain admittance.
These shrewd managers have found that the best conditions are obtained
when the ladies are in a large majority, and the number of men j)resent
does not exceed one to every two friends of the operator or medium.
If
lie
is
met
at
the door
by a strong specimen
of the genus
an applicant should gain admittance he
room the front

The sitters in the
part of the
spirits.
is
assigned to a seat in the back
seats are reserved for the tried friends of the
front
row hold in
their hands,
and are held
MODERN
332
SPIRITUALISM.
by, a stout wire bent in the form of a horseslioe
Mend
of the
The mediuui
medium.
enters
at eitlier
she
end
sits a
a small,
may be
slender, middle-aged hidy, or one that is fat, fair, and forty.

She takes
her seat in one corner of the room or behind a paii- of foldinj^ doors in a
dark ante-room, or in an alcove furnished -with doors opening into
Any
closets.
of these are favoiuite conditions
and a
coiTect tjê of
several of the apartments of 'materializing mediiims' in this city.
ciutain noAv conceals the
cordant noise which
The standard
is
medium from
called singing
Someone
view.
starts
a dis-
and the manifestations commence.
stock in trade consists of the materialized forms of an old
woman and a sailor these you will find at nearly all the sâncas. In addition each medium has an attendant materialization,' whose office corre;
'
sponds to that of the (jenus homo in the circle he keeps things in order.
" The above is no exaggeration ; it is a faitliful representation of the
majority of the so-called materializiug stances in Boston. Woe to the
man
or
woman
Avho ventiu-es to suggest other conditions
sent to Coventry iimnediately,

ii
and
is
he or she
is
upon
as
ever afterwards looked
suspected person whose presence endangers the success of the enter-
prise.
There are enough patrons
fi-oni
among
the
weak and credulous
phenomenalists people wlio mil recognise in the materialized old lady

the shade of theii' grautlmother.
Better make a few dollars and be safe,
than endeavour to make a few more by admitting sensible people who
will readily iliscover the imijosture.
" It is a reflection upon spiritualists that test
mediums who
are always
able to give some message, token of love or valuable information from
the dwellers-in-the-spii"it, should be neglected for a darkened room where
forms that
may be
inflated masks, or scmiething else,
flit
in an uncertain
and then vanish, leaving the minds

(jf the audience in a state of unpleasant uncertainty.
It is no wonder
that spiritualism languishes, and that its adlierents are unable to support
a single coiu'se of lectures in Boston. The causes are apparent." *
light at intervals for about
An
article like the
au
hoiu-
above
and cheering reading for
all
is
at
once honourable to the writer,
lovers of the truth.
It contrasts
well
with the shameless and foolish manner in which other spiritual

papers (so-called) have sometimes attempted to explain
away
the
most glaring fraud.

" Light" was the dying cry of Goethe.
*
Every true
spiritualist
"Light"' should be the
owes a debt of gratitude
editor of the Spiritual Scicntint (18,
Exchange
and manly stand against the impostures of the
Brown,
au honest
to E. Gerrj'
Street, Boston), for
Unlike spiritual editors

ho has preferred to run his
excellently conducted journal in the interests of pure spiritualism.
May the
success he has deserved crown his efiforts.
(so-culled)
who "run
daj^.
their jiapers for monej-,"
TRICKERY AND
demand
it is
of ovcry spirilualist
a test which can and
is
By no
must be given.
Where
the possibility of imposture, and
or deception can creep
is
darkness
the certainty of sus-
The
in.
sceptic has
you
advocate the
to
my
friend. Dr.
suppression
of
8exton
at the
dark seances has been repeated over and over again in the
and I now deeply regret ever having had other than
What we used
in very
to
term darkness consisted
instances, have the fire
light seances.
the. curtains, or,
(which,
lit
few
light,
in extinguishing the
room, and then we used to open
many
dark senvces.
Every form of phenomena ever occurring through me
lights in the
fullest
with himself.
In October, 1875, I wrote as follows to

implore
opportunity for the
Should he refrain from applying the
senses.
all his
tests, the responsibility is
"I
other means are
there
In the light no loop-hole remains at which either doubt
picion.
use of
333
the single test necessary, and
it is
enquirers to bo convinced.
scientific
there
ITS EXPOSURE.
if
burning, was
never extinguished), when we could with perfect ease distinguish

the outline form of every one in the room."
Of another
class are the dark seances at present held.
times the pitchiest blackness prevails

antly
voices
through
bellow
Nothing
degree be
as
considered
instruments rattle discord-
paste-board
Persons in various parts of the
supposed spirit-hands.
circle
is
Some-
speaking-trumpets.
by
are touched or patted
oifered that can in the slightest
approaching a
often of the baldest and grossest character
the imposture
is
yet the " medium "
is
test
;
congratulated on the success of the seance, and credulous fools are
happy.
in
Perhaps the
sitting is for
such case the proceedings
are
character of the persons present.
regarded as possessing a
well.
The
circle is
fair
" materialized " forms or faces;

regulated
share of
common
Such
is
is
the
The cabinet
is
distressingly tiny ray of light having been
introduced " materialization " takes place.

present can perceive
to
sense, nothing goes
described as " inharmonious."
jealously guarded.
are none.
according
Should these be unknown, or
something white
All that the persons
shape or features there
a faithful portraiture of perhaps the majority
of sittings for " spirit forms."
MODERN
334
SPIRITUALISM.
however, the audience consist of known and enthusiastic
If,
dupes, conditions are at once pronounced favourable.

share of light
among
is
admitted
Their credulity rapidly mounts to
the believers present.
Patched and darned shawls are discovered
fever-heat.
"robes of
texture
delicate
larger
the form appears, and moves about
and
to
be
surpassing gorgeousness."
kerchief twisted round the head becomes an unmistakable turban
whiskers and Indian ink produce " a manly and noble face;"
false
rouge and pearl-powder, in conjunction with a skilfully-arranged

head-dress, are sufficient to send the credulous into raptures over
"the
The
vision of surpassmg loveliness" presented.
of the spiritual visitors
is
charming;
seat themselves at the tea-table,
familiarity
they have been Imown to
and make a hearty meal, "enquir-
They have
ing jocularly whether the muffins were well buttered."
mixed
stiif
glasses of grog for the sitters, and, not satisfied with
In such
mixmg, have themselves partaken of them.

unions tests
are
never employed
mentioned.
or
little
re-
Not a dupe
present but would rather perish than take a suspicious peep into
the cabinet whilst the " materialized form "
Not
about the room.
be cut
off at the wrist
form.
The
spirit
and out of the cabinet as he or she
The darkness
the sitters.
of the seance
Where
out,
and moving
than grasp, in detective fashion, the said
in every respect at
is
is
hand among the party but would rather
is
scepticism
home, and may walk
thus proportioned to the sense of

is rife
the most jealous precautions
are adopted lest that scepticism should behold too much.

this condition of things various
If
supposed
tests
unmask, usually declines them.
they appear such as
may be
they are at once adopted.

the
If,
Such tyings are simply

to
by mediums
jurors have not also been submitted.

the
is
to fasten
often painful, and, almost without
no binding submitted
in
they are
eluded by jugglery or confederacy,
exception, imperfect.
Maskelyne and Cooke
whom
on the other hand,
The most common method
medium by some means
To meet
have been devised.
they be of an inconvenient nature, the impostor,
intended to
in
lists.
way
to
useless.
There
is
which professional con-
The
feats
accomplished by
of releasing themselves
from

ropes,
kc, have been such
most audaciously
to a
335
as to drive certain crtHluIous spiritualists
These persons had agaiu
foolish expedient.
and again put forth jubilant utterances respecthig the rapidity with
which
i)ct
mediums
were released by " the spirits" from
of theirs
JLiskelyne and his partner proceeded to yield to a
their bonds.
tying at least equally severe
Some
gi'eater rapidity.
they released themselves with even
enthusiast, jealous for the reputation of
medium, lighted on what was considered a happy
his favourite
The amazed jugglers were gravely congratulated on the
idea.
mediumship
excellence of their physical
In spite of
all
denial availed nothing.
they could say, print, or prove, rabid credulity con-
them
tinues to rejoice over
as " the best of living
production of strong physical manifestations."
must have
fiiUen
for the
very low, when a couple of professed conjurors
are hailed by spiritualists themselves as

I
mediums
Surely spiritualism
best exponents.
its
need not dwell long on the point which at present occupies
Almost every sensible person knows how easy
me.
it is
hands
for
of a particular shape to release themselves from even the
The
complicated fastenings.
The
larger the wrist,
trick is seen every
day
and the narrower and slenderer the hand and
fingers, the better suited are they for this particular
glery.
Other aids are also forthcoming
be done by a confederate.
arranged that,
most
in the street.
at times the tying
may
In this case the fastenings are so
apparently
whilst
form of jug-
tight,
they become
at
once
relaxed on a particular drawing-together of the body, and
may be
slipped off with the utmost celerity.
Uneasy workings
of the
hands and arms are often employed
derange the operation of
fastening,
and may succeed
the tyer and the person
somewhat
analogous
adopt, a gun
knots
In fact
that
he binds are placed in a position

of
armoured
.ships
and heavy
Whatever thickness of plating the Admiralty may
ordnance.
the
to a greater or less extent.
whom
to
to
is
presently devised to pierce
it.
However cunning
employed, jugglery speedily contrives some mode of
overcoming them.
Handcuffs have often been advocated
other forms of binding.
they are as useless as
Keys may be carried
in the
mouth, and
MODERN
336
When, however,
opened.
cuft's
SPIRITUALISM.
the hands are of the shape I hava
indicated they slip from such fastenings as readily as from ropes.
take
it
from the columns of the Beligio-Philosophical Journal
" After this Mrs.

the door
in a
At
of course).
made
went back
done by
(all
and closed
into the cabinet,
spirits,
without removing the
cuffs,
one of our party asked to take the
this point
was granted.
the request
minute the door was opened, and we found an iron
arm
ring upon her
handcufls
extract details the result of a test of this kind.
The following
unknown
inside each cuff (entirely
stripe of black paint
to the
was
medium), and they
were carefully replaced on her wrists, so that the paint was not
seen by her; then the door was closed, and she proceeded to put
When
the ring on again.
was opened
the door
all
were able to
see paint on the medium's hand, from the wrist to the ends of
her fingers.
all
This closed our investigation and the performance
One
of the
the L Daili/ Courier of
Christ-
Exposures, indeed, occur with great frequency.
most decisive was reported
in
After describing the "manifestations" Avitnessed
mas Day, 1875.
how
at previous seances the journal' thus narrates
the evening of the catastrophe
matters went on
" Several gentlemen had formed a very strong opinion as
remaining, and that
not
achieved a great result.

tions,
and the
spirits
the
However, the
circle
were
in other direc-
gathered together for a final
The stock-broker was
there, hoping, probably, to
get some augury that would help in his speculations

individual
carterish
with great relish
was
also present,
there, likewise,
man who had come
in his
the master-
drinking in the wonders
gymnasium
noted ex-pugilist named King, with
was the dapper young

dress,
believed, under the delusion that the gigantic
set-to.'
would have
spiritualists
fates
themselves must have played against the
The eager
spirit-conjurors.
manifestation.
availing
to the
There was but one chance
whole thing.
utter imposture of the
'
were well taken aback by the discoveries made."
whom
gentle-
labouring,
spirit
it
is
was that of a
he was eager
to
have a
"
Near the cabinet
sat " a strange
man
in
spectacles."
The
TRICKERY AND JTS EXPOSURE.
337
"Poor Old Joe," and

"a baby-spirit, believed
occurrences of the cveuiag were varied:

the
''
Brown chorus," brought
Job)!
by the
forth
nothing more than a newspaper sheet."
sceptical to be
harmony
Shortly afterwards a trifling discord marred the
were interrupted
for a time, but
harmony was
restored,
tube of paper was handed out, presumably by a

the form of
'
John King
;
'
as
first,
and eventually appearing
his position,
and the
"A
The end, however, approached.
came again."
baby-spirit
came
of the
" Some one having tampered with the gas, manifestations
circle.
and then
spirit,
tentatively selecting
if
at the aperture in the
full
moment
man
curtains.
This was the
critical
spectacles
bounded
panther towards the cabinet, and made
a grab at the spirit.
was seen
could
it
like a
The white drapery, or whatever
to shrivel up, as if vanishing
be a
the strange
spirit after all ?
away.
'
it
in
might be,
Gracious heavens
was the question that overwhelmed
'
moment the minds of the spectators. But, at the same

brawny person, already described as a master-carter,
sprang from his seat, and seized the medium on the left-hand side;
for
instant, the
so that the hapless impostor
terror escaped
his lips,
was thus caught
and, as the gas was
another conspirator against the spirits

iind brought the Avholc
was handed
out,
made
tied loose a
A howl
floor.
The mediiim
About
and disclosed a most ludicrous make-up.
in front
newspaper
down
both
his
head turban-wise,
On
to the thighs.
each leg was
copies of the Daihj Courier
these served as the spirit's pantaloons
of
being turned on,
a dash at the cabinet
arrangement to the
two yards of tarlatan was arranged round
and covered him
in a vice.
in the full blaze
and
of the
gaslight they reminded one of the top-boots of a brigand in a melo-
drama.
When
dragged into the light the
terrified
medium was
still
clutching one end of the strip of tarlatan, doubtless thinking his

spirit- dress
would be some protection
to
him
against the violence
of the sceptics."
It
would appear that the
irate
chastisement of the impostor.

as being wasted on a decided
meeting resorted to personal
Such punishment was rcgretable,
unworthy
object.
done to the few persons directly concerned was

z
Indeed, the
trifling
harm
compared
MODERN
338
SPIRITUALISM.
with the harm done to a great cause.
In
all
cases like the fore-
going the press pounces on the exposure with journalistic alacrity.
The newspaper happy enough
to get the first grasp at the facts of
the case, draws up a strong account, interspersed with sneering
comments on the
This account
is
folly of people
Persons
another.
to investigate
who
who were on
the threshold of being persuaded
is
immensely strengthened.
enthusiasm of the more rabid among

ten to one that
it is
The
read the narrative, and draw back.
dulity of sceptics
and
arc " dupes to spiritualism."
bandied about from one organ of public opinion to
spu-itualists
some such rush
becomes roused,
into print with blatant
" explanations " of imposture so palpable as to disgust

ing adherents to the cause.
a
word
to offer in his
own
incre-
Meanwhile the
all
reason-
The fraudulent medium may not have

behalf, but misguided
admirers will
assuredly utter a thousand.

I have
the
remarked upon the readiness with which journals outside
movement
and the length
call attention to flaws in
at
which they
the fabric of spiritualism,
on the said flaws.
dilate
It
would
be well had the press honesty enough to be equally unreserved

regarding the long array of tested facts which are the pillars of
our cause, and which spiritualists can render as reasons for their
belief.
publish
Perhaps
it
evidence
is
in
the reluctance of adverse newspapers to
our
favour
that
makes various
spiritual
narrative
journals so slow to insert exposures of imposture.
has been sent me, with the names of seven witnesses appended,
which was refused publication by one of the journals

Yet the trickery
it
refers to
detection thorough and
convincing.
I quote
question the description of the catastrophe

"
We
in question.
was of the most shameless

from the
sort,
and
letter in
o'clock, conunencij'ig mtli a luTim from

'James Lombard' was the first presentation,
who, after calling several of the sitters some very objectionable names,
Wlien this
retired to make way for the manifestation of John King.
gentleman Avas annoimced, he beckoned the sitters one bj"" one, and
having pretouched their hands and faces.
My friend, Miss
viously resolved on her course of action, reqi;ested to be touched on the
hand, and was touched accordingly. She then asked the spuit (i) to
sat as usual at
C'i,L,'ht
the "Spiritual Lyre."

be
339
Tlic ic(HU'st: was f^'raiitetl

Iml sli(>. wan
come too near, or she wouhl melt him. She ^'ras])wl the
offered liaml tightly, and lilted the eurlain
llu; li.L,dit (whieh at all the
materialization stances Avas alldWi'd to Imrn dindy) was immediately
turned up, and Mr. R
stood discovered, with one hand held by
Miss
the other engaged in taking from his head and face a pair
of false wliiskoi'S d la John King, and some white muslin which had
served as a head-dress.
Not even being entranced, he entreated the
pei-sons present not to expose liira
"Wlien eoimsclled by us to give
allinvt'il
to sjiakr hands.
told not. to
o\-er his nefarious practices,
he replied that he should do no such thing.

to work while a living could be got so
Did we think he was going

easily by this means ]'
'
The above impostor, although he "had no
intention of
working"
while a living could be obtained by trickery, appears no longer to

find dishonesty a
The cheats he resorted
paying policy.
so clumsy, and their exposure
was
were
so frequent, as to disgust even
the most credulous of enthusiasts.

that ho
to
be remarked
It deserves to
was the companion and pupil
of the
"medium" whose
newspaper trappings and tarlatan turban were dragged into the

light at
More than one " materializing medium," indeed, has learned the
tricks of his trade frona the same personator of John King.
Thus
an ambitious teacher of
sphitual journal
let
us say
drawing, who advertised
he would give art-lessons
that
in
in a
return for
" development," was taken in hand by the person in question.
The process appears

days
after its
have been at once simple and easy.
to
commencement
the world a full-blown "
phernalia of "
Eight
the teacher of drawing burst forth on
medium
His para-
for materialization."
Punch and Judy box," darkened room,
&c.,
were as
excellently devised to prevent investigation as the most thorough-
going enthusiast could desire.
and
select.
His guardian angels were numerous
Queens and princes, Jews and Persians,
s^nrits
thousand years older than the advent of Christ, and others whose
incarnation adorned our
around him.
There
the brilliant band.
is,
own
century, group themselves gracefully
however, just one perplexing peculiarity in
The medium has
and every individual
of the
a slight defect in his speech,
substantial
z 2
'
shoal of shades "
who
MODERN
340
SPIRITUALISM.
throng to his cabinet labours under identically the same defect.

Strange
to say the least.
If such be the pupil,
what
master
of the
He must
be a
decidedly highly favoured mortal who, from the superabundance

of his spiritual
gifts,
can create a "fully-powered
talented developer
is,
to put
it
medium"
in a
Yet the reputation borne by this
space so short as eight days.
mildly, unenviable.
He
appears to
have been once on the point of making an engagement with a

music-hall proprietor, under whose auspices he might expose, not
by which he had imposed on a
spiritualism, but the gross frauds
It is certain that in the
portion of the adherents to that cause.
presence
of various
spiritualists
he avowed the
"phenomena"
witnessed through him to have been the results of trickery, and
it
he gave mock seances with the object of injuring

who had been most kind to him, and who is well known as an
honest man, but whose mcdiumship this impostor wished to make
is certain, too, that
one
appear of the same fraudulent type as his own.

finally, that
It is certain,
the editor of a spiritual paper wrote and printed an
article declaring the estimable being in question to
to his
own
make a
living
be " according
confession a professional cheat, and quite willing to
by receiving money under
false pretences,"
What
the value of " mediumship " developed at a source so foul ?

aspirant after spiritual gifts
is
The
takes as hierophant a " profes-
who
sional cheat," need hardly be surprised
if spiritualists
acquainted
with the character of the master look suspiciously on the
That master has assuredly done
his little
utmost
disciple.
to injure the
truth.
Perhaps he consoles himself for the more than tainting of his
name by
the reflection that he
The hardest
spiritualists
trial
is
are called on to endure
accessions to the already long
list
I pen these lines journals reach
"materializing"
United States.
and
all
but " one of a goodly company."
which those who truly deserve the name of
involve
exposures;
is
the constant outcome of
of detected tricksters.
me
Even
as
with tidings of three additional
one in England, the others in the
All are connected with "cabinet manifestations,"
the
personation
of materialized
forms by the
TRICKERY AND
Of the
mctliuin.
first
ll
is
[ilcasaut
t(i
iinli'
341
American imbroglio the New York Times
opines as follows (August 28ri1, 1S70)

'
EXPOSURE.
/'IS
(liat
Mr.
('-
(jf
RocIr'sUt, has finally
the good sense to begin the hisk ol investigating the materializing
ness in the only rational manner.
Îrs. 'M
medium
liuil
jjusi-
extra-
ol"
ordinary powers, undertook to e.xJubit a company of select and first-class

ghosts to a Kocliester audience a few nights since.
assisted
by Mr.
who acted
M
was
and introducetl
Mrs.
as master of ceremonies
the ghosts with brief and complimentar}' biographical sketches.
medium was
tied with tlie usual ropes in the usual cabinet,
audience sang hymns, in accordance with Mr.
The
and the
's request, doubtless

order to prevent the ghosts from cherishing any longing to permanently return to a woild where people who can't sing are always ready
in
to try to sing.
out of the
After the spirit of Daniel Webster had tlirust his head

of the cabinet, and made the astonishing revelation
window
was *a Mr. Smith' in the audience, and lliat he rather

thought he had met a Mr. Smith w hiU' in tlic body, the ghost of ' Sarah'
that there
walked out upon the platform, clad in while, materialized to the apparent
This was the moment for which
Îr. C
had waited. He leaped on the platfonn and seized Sarah in
his arms.
The ghost, regarding this as a lil)erty, slirieked loudly Mr.
caught up a chair and knocked the investigator down, and Sarah,
escaping into the cabinet, Avas seen no more.
" There was, of course, a tremendous uproar.
My.
loudly proposed to destroy Mr. C
on the spot, as a villain who had laid his
hand on a female ghost in other than a spu-it of kindness. Mr. C
argued that his destruction was imnecessary and undesirable and the
audience was divided in opinion as to whether C
or
was the
person who stood in need of immediate destruction. The presence of
nlind of Daniel Webster happily restored order. That eminent ghost
yelled out of the cabinet window that the metlium would die if the audience
didn't everlastingly sing something,' and some sympathetic spiritualist
suddenly striking up that jiathetic hymn beginning Tramp, tram]), tramp,'
the audience joined in, and Mr.
postponed his bloody resolution.
"With the singing of the hjTnn the exliibition ended. Mrs.
was found in the cabinet still tightly bound, and with her face covered
A\ith blood, which, as Mr.
explained, was in some vague way the
result of Sarah's hasty * de-materialization
of herself.
At any rate,
no wound coidd be found upon her person, and though Mr.
,
with great liberality, offered to put a bullet through ]\Ir. C
or to
provide him with an additional and obviously superfluous head, he
finally decided that his first duty was to wasli Mrs.
and to send
Daniel Webster to inc[uiie whether Sarah had sustained any serious
extent of a hundred and fifty pounds.
'
'
'
M
,
injmy."
MODERN
342
The
fiual
SPIRITUALISM.
scene of this eventful history I find to be "the preferring
of charges against the husband of the pretended medium, his con-
and sentence
viction,
months
in the
and
dollars,
or three
in his "
medium-
county gaol."
The second
materializer
had much
The town favoured with
ship."
of twenty -five
a fine
to
method
his presence
though short, seems
his career,
of
to
was Rochester, N.Y.,
have been decidedly
brilliant.
Nemesis, in the shape of sceptical investigators, pursued him,
when
however, and,
at
afiidavit of the
entrapped " medium " made clear to whoever cared
to read
length,
the mystery of his shows.
it
the document in question
" The
ingenuity availed no longer, the
first
I extract the chief points of
seance I held after
it
became known
to the Rochester
people that I was a medium," our penitent illusionist writes, " a
me
gentleman from Chicago recognised his daughter Lizzie in

I
had covered
my
and reduced the
cloth,
hung up
commenced
He
size of
my face with
back of the cabinet.
in the
this
a shawl I had purposely
From
this sitting
my
fame
to spread."
procured a confederate.
which
after
small moustache with a piece of flesh-coloured
secret closet
was arranged
in
person could be hidden on seance occasions, and from
which he came forth

rialization " the
in the character of
two worthies considered
any
spirit
whose "mate-
The entrance
desirable.
to this closet being undiscoverable, confederacy appeared impos-
and as the "medium" submitted to the severest tests,

;
every " form " which glided into view of the audience was, to use
sible
his
own words,
In the
" a staggerer for doubters."
day-time
both
and medium rehearsed
spirit
"
evening's performance.
My
for
the
accomplice used false hair, wigs,
beards, &c., and put flour on his hands to give a ghostly appearance.
For baby
faces
we had
small round hole cut out.
a piece of black velveteen, with a
This, placed over the face, gave the
appearance of the tiny features of a babe."
The " medium,"

spirit
way
faces, the
himself.
would seem, sometimes did a
it
"
had
my
accomplice paint
little
me
one a man's, the other that of a woman.
in
the
a couple of
I
then pro-
TRICA'ER V
posoil
AND
havo two apertures
to
was
doors, which
On
clone.
ITS EXPOSURE.
in the cabinet,
343
one on each of the
the night in question I entered the
and the singing and music commenced.
cabinet,
out a piece of wire, attached one of tho faces to
it,
I straightened
rolled the
through the screen, and then unrolled
up, poked
it
the wire.
I also
had a piece of
thick, dark,
worsted cloth which
So on
used as a beard for myself
mask
by turning
it
night two faces
this
appeared at once, and almost threw the meeting into ecstasies."
Being at another time hard pressed (whether for time or

guises I don't know), the " spirit " merely held his coat-tails
form a pair of whiskers
his chin, to
ture.
as
dis-
up to
he peered through the aper-
presence of mind that, which, as Lord Dundreary (whose
ghost was doubtless being presented) would say, "few impothtaws
cwould imitwate."
But
this genius
^'J
,"
no longer adorns the scene of his triumphs.
the
says
Spiritual
Sciciitifit,
With a
Rochester, for obvious reasons."

this
left
the
had intended
however,
have been
us also pass on.
to describe at least one additional instance of
In view of the present position of " materializa-
detected fraud.
tion,"
let
of
city
regret that the talents
pretended medium evidently possessed should
wasted in such unworthy deceptions

I
"has
this chapter is
One can
already sufficiently long.
hardly take up a newspaper, whether English or American, without

lighting on the history of
some new exposure.
myself to the notice of a point on which
I therefore confine
much misconception
prevails.
Nothing can be more unjust than the often-repeated assertion

that spiritualists,
however honest,
invariably disposed to
which such
is
hush
it
are,
up
when made pubHc, inflict on the

fact that, of the many exposures of
histories,
an indubitable
materializing
mediums recorded,
to the case of
spiritualists.
Henry Gordon
of
add, however, that Gordon was assuredly,

^'enuine
medium.
harm
cause.
It
fraudulent
the most noteworthy have been
accomplished or aided by prominent
an example
on discovering imposture,
their reason being the
New
when
may
York.
I
point as
Let
me
knew him,
Becoming surrounded by various of the euthu-
MODERN
344
who
siastic (johcmouchcs
SPIRITUALISM.
care nothing for scientific investigation,
but Avho insist on sensational phenomena, he Avas led to attempt

the fraudulent practices which entlod so fatally for him.
His exposers were
medium* whose
So were the exposers of a
spiritualists.
malpractices came to light in that very building
where, a few weeks
later, the
on being turned up, revealed
gas,
the too thoroughlj^ materialized John King of the tarlatan turban^
and newspaper wraps.
noticeable featui'e in the case
resemblance to that of Henry Gordon.
is
To my knowledge
its
the
person chiefly concerned was, in past years, possessed of genuine
The same
medial powers.
Gordon came round
this
class of enthusiasts
medium
also,
who
voracious appetite for marvels, tempted him to ruin.
menced
tiers
dark seances
to hold
Nothing
is
more astonishing
Thus,
are often deluded.
we
light of a candle held in his
in a
maj' read of a
still
in the
hand
calling
up each one of the
seemingly picking up from the carpet a length
light,
of pink tarlatan, which visiblj-
and de-materializing
receded before us
of their brethren
medium "
and subsequentlj-, luider the same control,
turn,
in his
good
to reasoning spiritualists than the
and exhibiting the materialized spuit by the
trance, walking about,
company
He com-
ranks of rope-
behold the end
by which the credulous portion
gross imposture
and
allied himself to the
and " cabinet mediums," and
encircled
and, by their folly and
in
it
grew
in his
the open
room
hands; materializing
as he advanced
and
waving, twisting, and wreathing " (what a
wealth of incomplete participles), "waving, twisting, and wreathing

it
as if in sport,
and
our very eyes."
" Mrs.
finally causing
it
to disappear in the air before
And an American paper once
asked the
spirit
the visitors as she had done on former occasions.
rogatory she
made
described
whether she could disappear
To
how
before-
this inter-
the same reply as she had to the other, and,
surprising to relate, gradually faded

until not a vestige of her
was
away
into thin air before us
to be seen."
* Since the above was written, at least three additional instances of

discovered fraud have been put on record, where the discoverers were spiritualists.
A^D
TRICA-JiRV
Surprising indeed
by which these
form"
is
results
wonihri'iil
found more surprising
34S
menus
rohito the simplicity of tlio
to
V>\\[
/TS EXrOSUR/i.
are
iittained
"will
The disappearance
still.
usually accomplished as "follows
possibly bo
of the " spirit
l>ehind the cabinet curtains stands the concealed form of the
In his hand he has a length of some gossamer-
pretended medium.
arranged to simulate a robe, and gathered at the top
like fabric,
into
something
shape of a head, or surmounted by a mask.
like the
This puppet-like construction he cautiously advances through the
opening of the cabinet until
in
it is
view of the
sitters.
Let any
reader attempt the process, and the completeness of the deception

will
With
amaze him.
from the cabinet, and
Should any very enthusiastic
spectator need not be surprised

relative,
sitters at
some distance
have the closest resemblance to a
this unsubstantial doll will
form.
down, the
lights
expectation wrought to the highest pitch,
and declare the form
another world in spite of
all
if
spiritualists
human
be present, the
two or three at once recognise a
to be a materialized visitor
from
the evidence to the contrary that can
be offered them.
But we
wall
suppose the fraudulent medium
keeps the " form " in sight for some

first
sated
by the marvel
of
its
dimly reveal the dear
us?"
to dwindle
air.
and
fade.
spirit
then credulous old
sank into the
women
floor
presence, find
The dim
up
spirit,"
it
is
asked,
light is just sufficient to
nodding assent. The figure commences
The drapery seems
The head sinks down
we were treating of
The company, at
an appetite for now
time.
" Can the dear
wonders growing on them.

"de-materialize before
little
until
tell
it
rests
to
dissipate into thin
upon the ground.
And
us of " spirits who, losing power,
to the waist," or
remark that " the head
remained some time after the rest of the form was de-materialized."
Let us see
When
how such
de-materialization
is
accomplished.
the impostor has caused his puppet to nod assent to the
request that
it
may
fade
away
in sight of the
company, he com-
mences cautiously to draw towards him the lower extremity of the

" spirit-robe," and at the same time lowers the upper part of the
form towards the
floor.
His own person,
it
must be remembered,
MODERN
346
is
The
wholly concealed.
awed company
see
SPIRITUALISM.
and dwindles, and the
figure dwindles
by degrees growing "beautifully less." At

The mask, or
the robe is withm the cabinet.
it
length the whole of
gathered part which simulates the head, rests on the ground close
These masks, be
to the entrance.
inflate or shrink together, as
be employed, therefore, the
form " consist of

simply allows
draws
cranium supplied to the " materialized
Should the
collapse.
it
some gauzy
gathered into a bunch, he
fabric
on the
to spread out
it
observed, are constructed to
it
may become necessary. Should one

"medium" has only to cause it to
floor,
and then dexterously
In cither case the deception
towards him.
is
complete.
The head appears to have suddenly crumbled into nothing.
The
audience are enthusiastic with delight and amazement.
"But,"
it
be remarked,
will
"we
read often of the matcriaUzed
form and the medium appearing together
cabinet and other surroundings

of the
may
be held, a triumphant proof
Can
of materialization ?
"
explained on the theory of fraud '?
reality
Easily
The medium
enough.
within the cabinet.
form he holds upright by his side

to a position outside the curtains.
these
(so-called)
dummy which
The
and confederacy was an
such a semice, however suspicious the
Is not
impossible thing.
and appearing where no
secret ingress to the cabinet could exist,
is
occurrences be
perhaps seated
does duty as a materialized
or may even thrust it forward

And such puppets any impostor
can, with slight practice, cause to bow, dance, and walk a step or
two, in an exceedingly
ance be clumsy
it
investigator have
place
whatever
is
gnats.
have myself
lifelike
matters
unless
some
among watchers.
oflered to them,
and
sceptical spiritualist or
Gnhemouches swallow
strain neither at camels nor at
sat as spectator at a seance
displayed were simply so

ture.
Even should the perform-
manner.
little,
many masks
where the faces
presented before an aper-
I called the attention of a credulous spuitualist beside
the empty and
eyeless sockets.
with a certain triumph

materialize the eyes."
to practise
on
" The
Is
it
folly like this
'?
me
to
His reply came promptly, and

dear spirits have not had time to
surprising that cheats should be found

To return
are
still
medium and his " forms." Thcrfi

two methods by which " spirit" and mortal may
to ourmatoriali/iug
at least
The
bo made to appear at the same moment.

ciently exposed
by
the letter of Serjeant Cox.
Both forms bow, advance, recede
the usual pantomime.
and
is
is
Such are the
part in the deception.
its
through
between the two,
arm by which the impostor
outstretched
this conceals the
apart from the angel

go, in short,
curtain, however,
enabling his puppet to play
first trick is suffi-
In the instance yet
medium stands somewhat
to be described the
visitor.
345r
duplicated figures which adorn the materializing stage.
And
the " tests "
fraudulent
which are
to prevent these deceptions
mediums must be astonished by the
preventatives sometimes applied.
we
Thus, in. the case of a female,
are often informed that her dress
be
pant
at
is
an
found
fastened as
it
end,
the
calmly
enter
sitters
seated
was fastened
was
the seance
the
her
in
is
cabinet.
announced
occu-
Its
The
chair.
commencement
at the
The
nailed to the floor.
When
usual very material forms appear.

to
Truly
simplicity of the
dress
is
of the seance.
Everybody
feels secure.
Should a report be issued, it concludes
by stating that " whatever may be thought of the forms seen, they
were not personations by the medium."

that they were.
The occupant
Yet
her dress at the waist, and stepped out from

rises
it is
next to certain
of the cabinet has simply unfastened

it.
Then
the curtain
on the usual John or Katie King.
Of ropes, handcuffs,
have already given
&c., I
release himself from such
bonds
is
my
opinion.
To
part of the stock-in-trade of
every third-rate conjuror.

Noise, however,
is
often caused during the process,
might excite suspicion.

sing.
The worse the
loudly they comply.
The audience are
we
if
heard
therefore requested to
voices of those present, the
" Yes,
and
more readily and
will gather at the river,"
makes
night hideous, and efiectually precludes the possibility of detection.
Whilst the rest of the apartment
is
thus
filled
with a gush of most
excruciating harmony, the cabinet becomes for the nonce a dressing-
room.
Possibly the
without
may
strike
medium
is
woman.
on her ears, but the
fair
The
doleful
sounds
bemg heeds them
not.
MODERN
348
Like Jezebel she

simple strip of
SPIRITUALISM.
pocket-handkerchief or a
musHn bound round the face
recognition almost impossible in the
preserved.
her head,
is tiring
dim
light
Let the reader put this to the
window-curtains, and step behind them
alters
it
so as to render
which
test.
is religiously-
Pin together the
pass around the face such
a band as I have mentioned, and take care that the hair
by
is
concealed
A little cosmetic or rouge may be employed to heighten the

Now turn up the eyes in approved " dying-duck " fashion,
it.
effect.
and expose the face
to those outside.
but impostors arrayed
The change from its ordinary
Half-darkness
expression will be startling.

in the
manner
is,
of course, desirable
known
described, have been
to expose themselves even to a strong light without detection.'''
If the " spirit-form " displayed be masculine,
face
is,
of course, desirable
cunningly concealed.
carried
them fastened
me
that
So
other paraphernalia of " materiahzation."
india-rubber masks employed

of faces, females
their hair.
may
when it
is
to
on the
hair
hollow under his arm.
One person confessed

in the
some
may be
and whiskers and moustaches
he had
-with
The exceedingly
the
fine
desired to exhibit a variety
hide in the gathers of their dress, or even in
Indeed, should the audience be sufficiently enthusiastic,
and countenances only on the programme, those countenances
may
bo furnished by so simple a means as a few engravings.
Though
the likeness held up to the cabinet-aperture be that of a
"Wellington, one excited
beholder will recognise in
his
it
much-
loved grandmother, and another dispute the claim by pronouncing

it
the face of her equally venerated aunt.
have witnessed these
sad exhibitions, and know, therefore, of what I speak.
The duty performed

agreeable one.
Like
in this
all
and the succeeding chapter
duties,
however,
it
is
should be accomplished, and accomplished thoroughly.
my
hand
to the plough,
well what awaits me.
and do not intend

All
who
to turn back.
fury.
not an
it
have put
I
know
are interested in the upholding of
such practices as I here seek to expose wUl join in a
howl of
is
necessary that
common
Punch-puppets of " John Kings " will be made to
Deformed hands and
feet are
sometimes given to " spirit-forms " by the
simple process of bending back a few fingers or
toes.
TRICKERY AND
ITS EXPOSURE.
349
squeak out indignant anathemas IVoni the depths of their jealously-
The mouths
guarded hoxes.
-widel}- than ever to omit reproaches ou my

upholders of the " divine rights of mediums " will
conduct
Let the storm exhaust
astonished horror.
in
sciousness of right
man,
I insist
is
wilh me, and, as a
do wc owe the wave of imposture which
most
and shocked
hands
their
lift
The con-
itself.
medium and an honest
on heing heard.
I say, then, that to the credulous enthusiasts
visit
open more
will
ijahrmoiiehcs
of
to obliterate the
whom
denounce
at present threatens al-
I say that I will
landmarks of spiritualism.
the kitchen of any such, and, should the scullery-maid be one
degree removed from helpless idiocy, will teach her in a single
hour
go through the usual repertory of dark seance tricks
to
undetected by her masters.
If I, however, afterwards inform those
masters that the whole thing
is
will be
imposture, the doors of that house
immediately and for ever closed upon the utterer of such a
The scullery-maid
calumny.
put forward by one party as
will be
"Home
an additional proof that
is
jealous of mediums," and by
the Occultists and Kardecists as conclusive testimony of
been " bought over by the Jesuit party

I defy
injure spiritualism."
circulated respecting
me
in the
my
having
Church of Rome
any one acquainted with the
in the past to
to
libels
pronounce the above picture
overdrawn.
Let
it
not be thought that I pronounce what
is
known
I firmly believe such a
materialization impossible.
have occurred through the mediumship of others, and

have occurred through
my
as spirit-
phenomenon
I
know
Through me, indeed, the
own.
it
to
to
first
phases of this species of manifestation were witnessed.
I allude
may qualify
this state-
to the years 1852, '53,
ment by saying
in the
case.
throiujJi uiij
medium,
my
it is
presence of the
was the
of
that
and
'54.
Perhaps I
possible forms
Fox
girls
had been seen previously
but I
In every instance when
these
am
own mediumship no preparations
icas seated
friend,
Mr.
among
not aware that such
plicnomcna have occurred

ivere
made, and
S. C. Hall, the first materialization
I, as
At the house
the other persons present.
which can bo
construed as involving the use of a curtain occurred.
The
figuro
MODERN
350
was
seen
distinctly
SPIRITUALISM.
appear above the
to
curtain
in
question.
Speedily curtains were the rage, and they have terminated in the
" Punch and Judy shows" now
first, that
in a
teas held
it
mediidii, w/is
I need hardly point out
how
there are two 2)romi-
its 2>la(jiarists
u-ell-lir/hted
curtain,
Iieforc the
But
in use.
nent features of the said seance ivhich
room
and in full
fail to copy
the
the other that I, as
sight of all present.
idly-useless in a case like this
would
have been the indignities of rope-tying, sewing in a sack, &c.

When the materializing mediums of to-day " go and do likewise,"
I shall cease to
denounce
more
their seances as
or less cunningly-
contrived vehicles of deception.
Concerning genuine materialization,
need hardly remind
my
readers that the carefully-conducted experiences of Mr. Crookes
with Miss Cook were repaid by evidence giving undeniable certainty

of the
whom
Other mediums might be named through
phenomenon.
well-attested
kind have occurred.
manifestations of the
we
be stunned with the foolish outcries against
tests,
fulminated by rabid enthusiasts Avho would
Why,
then, should
light,
and against
exclude investigation and admit falsehood
Why
should seances
be converted into puppet-shows, where greedily-venal impostors

instal themselves as the
made more and more

such that
its
showmen
Why
should spiritualism be
a mockery and a by- word,
whose reproach
is
best friends are compelled, despite themselves, to
shrink sorrowfully from the subject ?
Why
should weak-minded
dupes be permitted to arouse the derision of the outer world by
which make every reasoning
follies
of us
who
seance
up
is
by
spiritualist
love the truth be up and doing.
mediums has abandoned
as a third-rate conjuror,
blush
When
Let those
the last of dark-
his or her vocation in order to set
and the
last puppet-box, alias cabinet,
demolished, or preserved in some convenient place, as a gauge
which posterity may estimate
their fathers
when
this
of our cause's triumph
the credulity of
certain
of
has been accomplished the golden day
may
be accounted at hand.
CHAPTER
TRICKERY
I
IX.
EXPOSURE,
A>tD ITS
(CoiltinHCd.)
HAVE never yet beheld anything which could cause me
the asserted
phenomenon
instances witnessed
this
was said
by me (and they have been many),
have occurred, could one and
to
less far-fetched
theories.
All through
impossible.
my
life
I think the
who pronounces
demand
very truth accom2:)lished by
they bring
may
be
left
be explained by
is
the world
reasonable, that,
if
mate.
it
I simply
such feats be in
the next live eels and lobsters
spirits,
imbedded in the re-integrated
for the convincing of a sceptical
Or, perhaps,
world
wall, instead
circle is held.
would be better were the objects fetched
inani-
block of ice imbedded in the wall, and " weeping
And how
away," would be a striking object.

ripened gooseberry
or
two
is
impossible'
'
a bold man."
of being brought through into the room where the
Then
The
which
have been cordially of the
outside the domain of pure mathematics
and
all
in
do not siy that the phenomenon
opinion of Arago, that " he
ask,
to accept
of matter passing through matter.
coyly peeping
itself
pleasant to find a
from
the
plaster
Pleasanter, certainly, than to be greeted with the disenchanting
discovery that the articles in question had assuredly
pocket of the " medium."

half a pint of the
dark.
"There,"
manifestation ?
above-named
cried the
" could
fruit
was thrown on a
Don't you think
when
table in the
it's
had the berries
in
that a beautiful
"
perfectly astonishing ?
the two other persons present
find nothing astonishing in it."

I
which about
"medium," "is not
burst of indignation ensued
" you think
come from the
I recall an instance in
my
" What," said the wonder,

pocket, do
you
"
And
to
MODERN
352
prove the honesty of
wrath, the said pocket was turned
this
all
Alas for the result
inside out.
those
SPIRITUALISM.
The " medium " had
withered ends (the botanical name
little
At
adhere to the gooseberry.
least a
dozen of these were disen-
tombed from the depths of that pocket.

escape
Oh yes
Up came
forgotten
escapes me), which
Was
there no
method of
that ever-ready excuse, " Evil spirits
must have placed them there."

Alas for the evil spirits
Surely as they do their marketing
they laugh over the cxedulity of
or a fishmonger's, she
steal the
doing
so)
would hardly,
in the first instance,
to the
boy
as
she certainly would not
and, in the second place,
convey them
from Covent
in question (though spirits are represented
articles
;
If a mother, whilst
to bring her son eels or gooseberries
on earth, desired
Garden
spiritualists.
in such a questionable
manner
that, to
prevent his suspecting her of deception and falsehood, she would

be driven to engage the services of some gifted Bedlamite
who
might bewilder the child with theories regarding " the disintegration
by
of matter
and the power another world
spirit-aura,"
possesses of passing rabbits, onions, &c., through the solid walls
and locked doors of

Let
me
this.
give an idea of
darkened room
is
how
the bringing fruit, fish, &c., into a
will suppose, is seated
round the
gushes forth as usual.
Presently the
ladies'
table.
'
The stream
medium
of
speculate as to
what they
of the
" spirits."
will bring.
seance the dear spirits brought in
were to bring
lilies
Oh, dear no
" Let
harmony
" (generally a lady
AVo must no^ ask for
Let us think of something
else.
me
have
lilies
The "medium
to
see! At our last
Suppose they
how
nice that
lilies
of the valley.
"
of you like ?
What would any
Naturally a voice proceeds from some one in the circle, "

like to
and
She commences
some cabbages.
of the valley * this time,
we
circle,
dresses ofier such facilities for concealment,) feels,
announces, the presence
be.
The expectant
often accomplished.
would
I would
of the valley."
" energetically repudiates the suggestion.
"Per-
* Provided ulway the}' are in season. The " spirits" never bring flowers
which are out of season, or the products of distant lands.
TRICKERY AND
liaps tlu' dear spirit^ cduKI not bring

"
such out-of-the-way thhigs
mo
" If they bring
EXPOSURE.
ITS
Why
them.
353
vill
you ask
for
of the valley,
lilies
consider
I shall
it
test."
instant a scattering sound
The next
Wc
probably announces, "
the table
have brought the
" spirit-voice "
heard.
since
lilies,
And, sure enough, on a
them so much."
for
is
And
found strewed with the flowers in question.
is
you wish
light being struck
the
next issue of some spiritual journal describes, as a " good test,"

that " at Mrs.
for
some
Such
is
lilies
's
with
which the
a specimen of the suggestive
at times contrive to
seance a few days ago, Mr.
of the valley,
wished
spirits instantly
brought."
methods by which "mediums "
mould the wishes of the
accordance
circle into
theirs.
There are other ways of accomplishing the

will even be
produced after a
Some
who was
greatly favoured with
and objects
the room, and
strict investigation of
the person of the asserted medium.
person
trick,
years ago I
phenomena
knew
of a
of this kind.
In more than one instance, after the most rigid scrutiny of her
dress had been made, flowers, and even small branches of shrubs
with the leaves attached, were brought

course.
gentleman known
to
leaves.
The
circle
phantly exhibited
total
darkness,
of
arrived one evening too late
to allow of the passage of flowers
terminated
and
in
chamber where walls or windows
for admittance to the mystic
were being de-materialized
me
the
the " dear
floral
and
trophies were trium-
medium" was complimented
in
most honeyed terms.
An
aunt of the gentleman I have mentioned
gave him one of the
little
" spirit-brought " branches to examine.
Just at that moment the " dear medium

one.
"
turned to speak to some
did so the attention of the gentleman
As she
was drawn
to
a leaf hanging from the lower part of the red opera-cloak she
wore.
It
corresponded exactly with the leaves on the twig he
held in his hand.

to
all
He
caught at
it,
hold up the cloak, and showed
present that the " spirit-productions " had been concealed in
the lining.
It
longer " dear
'")
was then remembered
that the
"medium"
(no
had, after being well searched, complained of
A A
MODERN
354
and had requested permission
feeling chilly,
opera-cloak which she had
Her
the hall.
SPIRITUALISM.
was paid
fee
a cab was called; and she departed,
leaving another exposure to go the rounds of
The dark
which investigators may
"svith
made
His
left
"medium."
hand grasps the
hand
left
of C.
right
warm, or
hand of A, and
will
it
in all four
Should
declare
monious," and desire that their places
nearer.
Suddenly a
it
is
may
and C hard-
them "inhar-
be taken by other
Should they consent, the performance
of the circle.
hands
be as well not to hold his
entire hand, but simply the little finger.
proceeds as follows.
his right
suggests that, as
heartedly refuse, "the spirits" speedily
members
is this trick,
seated between
These end
Presently
some other reason,
for
Here
is
series of violent twitchings follow, of
course on the part of the medium.
being brought very close.
the vehicles of a deception
The impostor'B
as to the dark cu'cle born.
and the
ease prevent, unless confederates be
present, and have seats next the
hand the
society.'''
Kvancea held for the rattling of tambourines,
antics of pasteboard tubes, are
and C.
on the red
to put
promiscuously, of course) in
left (quite
approaches the hands of
more
t^vitch
and C
still
violent than the preceding ones
unexpectedly releases one of the "medium's" hands, generally

the right.
The
sitter
from
whom
it
and encounters what he supposes

There
viously held.
was withdrawn gropes
to
no more twitching.
is
begin to perform in lively style.
for
it,
be the finger that he pre-
The instruments
Instead of recapturing that
little
finger of B's right hand ivhich he 2}reviomhj held, -.C has been given
the
thumb or forefinger of
momentary
the
release of one
the change.
When
hand whose
little fingei'
careful watching of the
trick impossible, the teeth are often resorted to
and Paris bitten
relics of
grasps.
hand enabled the "medium"
such seances
may
hands renders
;
and
in
The
to effect
this
Amsterdam
be seen.
Variations of the particular imposture in question have lately
been devised.
The
said variations
even dare " with their darkness
* Confederates play a great part

these deceptions. I have even known
of cases where the servants of the house were bribed into acting as accomplices.
TRICKER Y AND ITS EXPOSURE.

afiVont the light
" a tiny ray of light, that
make
the oxposurc of such frauds I
two
letters written
The
spondent.
mediums
the
me
first
is.
355
As an example of
the following extracts from
in the spring of
187G by an English corre-
describes the performances of the asserted
second
proof
gives
of
trickery
the
perpe-
trated.
"A green baize curtain was drawn uctdss that cdruer of the room
stood in fi'ont of the curtain, and
which formed the cabinet. Mr.
opened it after eacli manifestation. The younger boy was considered,
the most niodiumistic, and the greater part of the phenomena took place
with him alone. His coat was taken otf, his liands were placed behind
liis l)aik, and Iris sliii't-sleeves sewn together about two inches al)ove the
The elbows of his sleeves were
button, and then sewn to his trousers.
He was then
also seAvn together, and stitched to the back of liis vest.
put in a bag made by the lady of the house, the strings of which were
A rope
draA\ni tightly aroimd his neck, and fastened to the chair-back.
was also tied round his legs, and the legs of the chair, and he was then,
lifted into the cabinet.
A few seconds after the closing of the curtains
the bell, tambourines, &c., which had been laid on his knees, conuueuced
Rings taken from his lap were found in his pockets, on his
to sound.
A jug of water and.
all within a few seconds.
fingers, and in liis boots
Some of the sitters then thrust their
glasses were placed on his knee.
liauds Ijetween the curtains, and the glasses were given to them filled.
A slate was put on the boy's knee. The sound of writing was lieard,
aiul on the slate's being examined -rtiiting was found.
" These tilings were repeated at each seance, and up to the last evening
we all felt delighted. Towards the close of the seance in question ....
five or six persons declare that they saw the boy's head move several
times towarcls the wall, as though he struck it sideways with the hat"'
" Of coui-se several
(]ila(ed on his head for the spirits to rap upon).
This was
spoke, and wished both boys to be moved from the wall.
done, and raps were again given but they were totally difterent from
those heard a few moments before, and sounded exactly as though the
;
boy knocked his hat against that of the brother sitting by his side. 1
need hardly tell you that we were not satisfied, and after the boy's denial
that he did or could move his head were compelled to feel suspicious, and
to (loubt tbc genuineness of llie otlier jilienouiena."
One
said
whole of the
of the sitters ultimately discovered that the
phenomena might be produced with the aid
of a
little
manual
dexterity, and, after no long practice, succeeded in conclusively
demonstrating
this.
wrote,
making
A A 2
inquiry
regarding
the
MODERN
356
methods
SPIRITUALISM.
of accomplisbiug the feats,
and received the subjoined
reply :
" March
"Dear
Tii]i,\%'i%.
Sir,
" Yoiir favour of the 14tli came safely to hand.
fomieel Mr.
of yonr desire to
know how he performed
in-
his tricks,
and was requested by him to explain to you the modus operandi. He was
secured in the same way as the boys (see above). He is then put
into a bag
the strings drawn round his neck, and the ends fastened
;
You
to the chair-back against Avhich he reclines.
can also
tie
cords round
his legs below the knees.
" Whilst being put into the cabinet, or behind a cirrtain, he unbuttons
one of his sleeves Avith tlie fingers of the other hand. He then lowers the
arm as much as possible, and gets the sleeve and sewings ahove the
The hand and arm can then, as you will easily see, be brought
elbow.
to the
through the bag, take a bell or any such article from liis lap,
and ring it. If a tray be put in his lap, with a jug of water and glasses,
he can easily poiu- the liquor from the jug into the glasses. "With a little
practice the glass may be worked by the hand ujj the bag as far as the
mouth, and he may drink. He then lets it slide doA\ni into Ms lap.
Eings laid in his lap are alfpo worked up the bag by means of the
He then grasps the article between
fingers, until his mouth is reached.
his teeth; passes his fingers through the neck of the bag; and, taking
Mr.
the ring from his mouth, puts it on his finger, or in his pocket.
did this repeatedly in from nine to twelve seconds. I think you
will perceive fi'om this that the feats in question, although they may
a])pear to the uninitiated S'ery wonderful,' and 'beyond himian power
front, and,
to accomplish,' prove, like
many
other things, quite simple,
when you
comprehend how they are done."

Simple, indeed
modes
And absurdly
The persons
to
simple, too, are certain other
sometimes resorted to
of imposture
be duped are ranged in a
" medium
"
sits
the
The
extinguishing of the lights follows.
guitar,
bells,
in the
circle.
&c.,
all
dark seance.
Inside this circle

well vyithin reach.
The medium commences
to clap his or her hands "with a steady, rhythmical beat."
Guitar-
strumming, bell-ringing, patting by " spirit-hands," and other per-
formances of the kind follow.

without a
thought
moment's
perfection
marriage-bells,"
awkward
until
fact that
Yet the clapping of hands continues
intermission.
and
the
The "test" was
guitars,
some unduped
&c.,
" went
investigator
lit
at
first
merry as
upon the
" the vUippimj of one hand on the cheek, the fore-

hfitd, or
same souiuh
other
hand
pari of the hodij, inndd produce c.vaclhj
c.riKisrd
(1)11/
<is (lie
free to
'
cUtppnui of l/ie
"
.'
jiahiis, (did leare
" But oh dear no
" contiuues a small
"the best of
as
living
volume
whom
rabid
mediums
strong physical manifestations."
the dojiis of the
the medium's
hands
bell
To show the
now
be allowed to
Simply thus
How
mouth
(his
Miss
then can
hands being held), which
'?
to a confederate's
he will shake as a
boot operates upon the guitar-
terrier does a rat, the while his
strings
bell
one shall
fair
be accomplished
this
all
pass a bell
will
bo
a guitar
rhig,
shall
of
strummed, and possibly the gentleman holding the

have his face fanned.
sing
for the production
" But oh dear no
still
by
lately issued
spiritualists
impossibilily of such a thing, one gentleman shall
hold
the
ynanij'eat
one of the conjuring firm over

pteans
357
and produces the thrumming
and the medium, with a fan
held between her teeth, will gently wave
it
in the face of
him who
holds her hands.
"Before I quit
name how Miss

which
letters
money
the
our conjuror,
this subject," continues
's
now
have
made an
business agent
in
my
possession, that for
medium should expose
the whole
not properly supported by the spiritualists;
suppose he means "implicating"
F.R.S. people.
and
is
immense
the best
Miss
;
is
"at
now
mediums
in
London, and gets
complicatuKj'
was
'^
six big guns, the
least
every night materializing,
another point I will give, she
be big to work upon."
as she
aflfair,
'
"I must
me by
a sum of
offer to
is in
letters
The managerial
ofier
the
Ring of
all
every day that will
was not accepted
by me.
I desire, apropos of these
call attention to the
of
late
endui'ed.
and other professional jugglers, to
persecution which
Not
only have
attacked him, because of his manful
my
friend, Dr. Sexton, has
wrong-headed
spiritualists
war on pretended mediums
but his exposures of the carefully prepared tricks which conjurors

pass
off
on then* audiences as reproductions of spiritual manifesta-
tions (they resemble
^n
the
genume phenomena about
artichoke does a moss-rose) have
as closely as
drawn on him the wrath of
MODERN
353
SPIRITUALISM.
the wliole sleiglit-of-hand fraternity, on account of the injury done

their
to
point of a
that tender
business, and consequently to
Since these exposures, the jugglers have,
sho"vvman, the pocket.
To
with steady malignity, done their worst to injure Dr. Sexton.
me
seems that the honest part which he has had courage to
it
play deserves to attract the sympathy and cordial support of
worthy the name of
another variation of " phenomenal " trickery.
And now
once asked to
mena
in the
visit a
and found that the degree of
the boy took his seat
Close to the entrance of this
and any revelation of what went on
easily reach every article the recess con-
free could
I asked to be allowed to
a stranger to
present, save
all
lookers-on,
my
of the boy,
who had now
foot
request
we were most
inside
The boy's
the cabinet was prevented by a green baize curtain.
tained.
light
of cabinet concealed the musical instru-
species
ments, &c., to be operated upon.
arm when
was
jealously restricted to the outside of the theatre of
operations.
" boy " who obtained most wonderful phenoI went;
Ilfjht.
permitted was
all
spiritualist.
next the medium
sit
two persons who were
was granted.
and, being
like
myself
was placed on the
taken off his jacket
left
and from neck to
carefully concealed from the view of the spec-
tators by a heavy woollen shawl, the end of which was attached to
that green baize curtain I have described as hanging before the
As
entrance to the cabinet.

to get his right
arm
Avill
be observed, the boy had only
at liberty, to
ance " without fear of detection.
were given,
grasped
his knee,
my
carry on a "cabinet perform-
Of course, however, "tests"
to prevent the possibility of his acting thus.
right
began a
arm with both
his hands,
series of twitchings,
my arm
Avas almost
it
He
upon
accompanied with pinchings

After about five minutes of
and pressures of the captive arm.

such treatment
and drawing
numbed.
His own right hand
my wrist to my elbow,
my wrist, and with the
continually shifted with great rapidity from
and
vice versa.
His
left
hand grasped
elbow of the same arm he would again and again press mine,
at length, I could hardly distinguish
my
until,
whether both hands were on
arm, or whether I was not simply touched hj the
elboic
and one

Suddenly the
h(i)h\.
the cabinet
boll in
movement
tbe
distinctly felt
of tbc
I replied, as
and a
"
common
to
rinj?.
I
it.
hccii
made
to press )inj anti
.sj/i-
dnrhuj
The audience asked me where the boy's hands
the perfoniuntce.
wore
elbow which had
bccard
boy's body as ho rang
hand of the "medium" was
Tlien, with i;roat rapidity, the right

stitnti'd for tluit left
was
359
Oh
was the
how
my arm
truth, that they grasped
wonderful
"
My
was heard.
poor arm
endured another series of twitchings and squeezings, and then I

again
felt
the boy's
me
grasped
elbow pressing
left
Had
near the wrist.
it,
whilst his
attention I should have believed that both his hands
arm.
His right arm was
a second time rang
at liberty,
were on
my
and the
bell
banjo being also sounded on this occa-
Then the " medium's " right hand again grasped me, and
sion.
The
silence ensued.
my
now once more
the
hand
left
I not been giving the strictest
" manifestations
"
was
trick
quiescence having in
all
became quite prolonged.
mc, " Have you his hands
? "
No
darted back to that position on
" At
been doing duty for
it.
thing in the tone of
my
At
several times repeated.
probability given
It
the
was again asked
sooner said than the right hand
my arm
this
last
him courage
where the
moment
left
I have," said
elbow had
Some-
I.
voice must have aroused suspicion.
manifestations totally ceased
The
was voted "not harmonious;"
and the seance closed.
Thus
There
far
dark seances in the various phases of their development.
exists,
however, a species of imposture which, strange to
say, imperatively
demands
for its
considerable degi'ee of light.
showered of
graphs of spirit-forms
The exposures
public.
successful
accomplishment a
I allude to the pretended photolate
years on the spiritual
of the fraudulent nature of
many
peculiar cartes have been so convincing that a reasoning
put but
little faith
butable to spirits,
in the
is
of these
man
That they may be
unexposed few.
can
attri-
the most one can say.
Baron Ivirkup of Florence has had much experience with these

productions, and the "
what he
writes
me on
mediums " who produce them.
the subject, Aug. 3, 1876
served a specimen of each sham photo.
Hero
is
" I have pre-
There were four
diflferent
MODERN
360
SPIRITUALISM.
scamps who forged them.

numbers.
believe
It
is
my
in
'
am
opinion that they used double
Moreover, I have found out
glass negatives.
spirit-figures
'
have been cheats, and I
four to
all
two were.
certain that
They produced
who posed
for the
spirits.
"Your
sincere friend,
" Seymour Kiekup."
Amongst the photographs
possession are two
same
Identically the
duty as the " spirit-form " in each.

(in
my
of this class in
taken by the notorious Buguet.
figure does
near relative
It serves as the
one instance the father), of two natives of different countries
men who
besides
How many enthusiasts
never saw or heard of each other.
have recognised a relation in the same dummy,
may
Heaven only knows.

During
Certain words of the said Buguet deserve to be quoted.
the legal inquiry into his swindling transactions, the magistrate
reproached him with having worked upon the credulity of a " certain portion of the public,"
me
Je
surplus,
il
n'y avait pas
arretees,
ils
to
"Monsieur,"
the spiritualists.
Une
a les contredhe.
n'eu veulent plus demordre.
comme
eux."
That
make any one
believe
is
to
say,
anything.
to
contradict
Once
them.
Je n'avais done qu' a
have rather restrained

Moreover,
their
ideas
nothing could make them relinquish those ideas.

necessary was for
me
to agree
leurs idees
fois
" Sir, I have never tried
than flattered the madness of the believers.

impossible
Au
manie des croyants.
suis borne a flatter la
personne.
dire
i.e.,
reply, " moi, je n'ai jamais cherche a faire rien crone a
was the
it
was
were fixed
All
that
with whatever they said."
was
The
evident truth of the estimable photographer's words renders
it
wholly unnecessary to comment upon them.
From America comes
the following explanation of the methods
whereby "spirit-artists" contrive

camera.
The author
of the article
is
to
extract
ghosts
from the
himself a professional photo-
grapher, and has evidently examined with care and keenness into
the trickery
which certain black sheep among
his brethren
employ

To
for the deluding of the public.
tion
give tbo whole of his descrip-
space' than I can well afford, but 1
would occupy more
omit nothing which bears at

lire
361
sbuU
Hero
importantly on the subject.
all
our investigator's ideas of certain "spirit-photos" which
in his
way
fell
"A number of rpioer monstrusitie.s and nondescripts M'ere also exhibited

work of the spirits. Among these we examined a photograph
to us as the
face came out black and the hair white, while the
was normal the photograph of a gentleman without a
head, a ghost having decapitated the negative, and a photogTaph of some
in which the
sittei-'s
rest of the tigiu'e
person of the masculine gender, enveloped in a coil of ropes.

it isn't spirits,'
observed Mr.
'
I'd
Uke
to
know what
'
is
Now,
it.
if
It's
contrai-y to all the chemical laws of photography.'
" We obsei-ved, however, that there were certain characteristics of uniformity about the whole collection of spirit pictures, which indubitably
attested that their production was governed by chenucal laws of some
kind.
careful exanunation of the ghostly stock revealed the fact that
the spirit figure in nine cases out of ten appeared before the figure of the
sitter, and overlapped it
and a further examination led to the discovery
;
that in all cases where the figm'e appeared to be hehind the sitterand embrac-
ing hiju, only the arms, shoiilders, and head of the spectre were visible.
There was no trace of flowing raiment behind the chair, no a]ipearance

bosom
the Embracing Ghost was invariably bodiless.
In other cases where the figure appeared beliind the sitter, but did not
embrace him, it melted into air at a high altitude, never descending to
the back of the chair.
In one case we thought that the end of a lounge
on which a ghost was lying, and which according to rules of persjtective should have been at least twenty feet to the rear of the sitter,
of breast or
'
'
actually overlapped the figure of the latter.
Indeed, in a laige
number
of cases the perspective of these spirit pictui-es seemed all out of joint, so
the mediiun would probably explain on the

have a tendency to idios}Ticrasy. We further obsen'ed
that in the cases of spiritual embrace, abo\'e spoken of, the arms of the
ghost were invariably either handless or shapeless the fingers of the
hands were never visiT)le they never clasped naturally and where the
hands should join was marked by a shadowy blurr, even while the rest
This, if the work of a human being,
of the anus were strongly defined.
would evince clumsiness or lack of shrewdness but who can account for
the whims of spirits
An examination of the ]diotogTaph previously
alluded to, in which a figirre appears hidden by a tangle of ropes, revealed to us the fact that the ropes were simply cotton tmne well
7)hotographed
and that their apparent size by comparison with the
figure, was owing to the fact that the jjieces of t'nine and the figure were
to speak
ground that
fact wliich
spirits
'
'
MODERN
3^32
pliotographed with different
SPIRITUALISM.
I'ocuser^.
On
the -whole the result of our in-
vestigation con^'inced us
" Firstly.
That spirits have nothing to do -with
business at
" Secondly.
sitters,
'
tlie spirit
photograph
Street.
That the
although
\'isil)le
tigures of the gliosts
same
in the
and those
of the living
pictiue, are the result of separate
ini])ressions.'
" Thirdly.
the
sitter, it is
That inasmiich as the spectre generally appears in front of

generally the last of tAvo impressions taken separately on
the plate, but de\-eloped together.
" Foiu'thly.
That even in cases where the spirit appears to be in the

embracing him, &c., it would actually appear in front
the fact that only its arms and head are ever produced.
rear of the sitter
of liim, but for

" As a general rule, believers in spirit jihotogi-aphy are people
know notlung
who
of jihotogxaphy, although occasionally spiritualists with
some inkling of the business will allow themselves to be duped by the

most transparent fi-auds of tliis description. To no class of people is the
old ]iroverb
Convince a man against his will,' &c., more applicable
and our remarks in the present instance are rather intended for those
whose ignorance of photography might lead them to 1 eUeve in a very
commonplace humbug. There are no more than half a dozen processes
knowTi to photogTaphers by which spirit photographs may be manufactitredperhaps not that many but each of these processes is capable of
numerous modifications, and every professional spiiit photographer has
his special moditications. But there is no trick kno-wTi to these tricksters
Avhich an experienced photographer could not perform for the amusement
of an audience with equal success.
In order to give our readers some
idea of the method in which these fi'auds are practised, it will be neces:
'
The
sary to describe a part of the ordinary process of photography.
most important preparation of the glass plate for the negative is termed
sensitizing
and is effected as follows The operator, holding the clean
glass plate horizontally on his left hand, carefully pourS;.upon it sufficient
collodion a preparation of gun-cotton dissolved in a mixture of ether
and alcohol to cover the whole surface, and leave thereon a thin transj)arent film when poiired off.
Wlien this coating has settled to a gummy
consistency, it is placed on an instrimient called a dipper a species of
book made of glass, porcelain or rubber and deposited in a bath containing a suhition of nitrate of silver, where it is left for perhaps two
;
minutes.
a pocket
The bath
'
flask,
'
'
'
generally a vertical glass vessel, flat-sided like
is
but uncovered.
The
plate
is
so placed in the bath, that
no portion of the colodionized surface touches the sides of the vessel.

\Mien the plate is lifted out on the dipper, its face is covered with a
creamy, opacpie film, and it is then fully sensitized,' that is, prepared to
retteive impressions through the camera.
This preparation must be completed in the dark room
inasnn;ch as the plate is more or less sensitive
from the moment of entering the bath, and exposure to light would ruin
'
AND
TRfCk'ERY
The
it.
tlk'
ill
of the
eu^ûin;^' jiarl
dark
slide
and
who have
'
him
tive
it
tlie
365
jilauing of the ])late
to the ciuuera, focusiii},', exposLii}:f
dark njoiu, has
lieeii
witnessed by
iiio.st
and
people
luid a picture taken.
After
the dark
retiiriiinj; to
and pours over the
the slide,
]in)L'oss, iiK.ludiiii;-
eanyiiii;
vetuiuiiiLj the plate to the
ITS EXrOSUR/-:.
a solution
room the operator
sirrface
still
takes the jilule from
covered w
itii
the wliite sensi-
of iron, called in photograiihic teclmicology the
developer.
This ii'on precipitates the silver here and there the creamy
white of the film fades away, black shadows come forth, and the picture
LTidWS out from the pallid surface, fii-st in pale shadows, which ultimately
devehip to strong reliefs of white and black, like the shadows on a
;
wizard's mirror.
'The plate
tlie
is
liable to impressions fi-oni the
moment
of immersion in
nitrate of silver bath until the develoimient of the picture
is comany intermediate stage of the negative-making process it

produce ghosts on the picture, as we shall shortly explain.
plete, so that at
is jiossible
But even
to
after the negative is
made
there are large opportunities for
ghost manufacture during the making of the positive, which

fi'om the negative
on albumenized
pajier,
is printed
rendered sensitive to light by
immersion in a nitrate of silver solution. The sunlight acting through

the glass negative on the sensitive paper makes the jiositive picture for
the
'
card-2)hotograph.'
"There
of
'
is
considerable opportunity for
humbug
retouching' the negative before printing.
covers a multitude of
means
liy
during the operation
The term 'retouching'
which smoothness,
clearness,
tran-
sparency of shadows, strength of colour, &c., are given to prints, freckles

removed, boils eliminated, scars obliterated, beauty bestowed, and the
original of the portrait gracefully flattered to his heart's content. Further
description of the process will not be essential to our purpose of show-
ing that in the dark room, before exposiu'e, in the operating room during
exposure, in the dark room after exposui'e, in the development of the
negative, in the retouching of the negative, and in printing from the
negative, fraud may be successfully practised by spiiit-mongers.
Ghost
pictures may also be taken in the ambrotyije and ferrotj-pe processes
but the medium's opportunities are less numerous and promising of
success, as the ambrotype is but a thin negatiA-e, taken on glass, and the
fen'otvpe a negative on varnished sheet iron.
" N(nv for the process of Ghost INIanufacture.
The plate upon which
one negative has been made may subsefûently serve for scores of others,
if carefully washed
and in all photograph galleries numbers of old.
negatives are washed out from time to time and used afresh. The washing must be very thorough, else the old impression will come out faint
and misty with the new" one. It is consequently a common expression
in photograph galleries, Wash these plates cleaner
old impressions arecoming out.' Well, some Eastern jihotographer had at one time Ijlng in
his dark room an old negative of a picture reinesenting a fair girl in her
;
'
MODERN
364
snowy
bridal dress, ileecy veil
The dust
so suppose.
of years
SPIRITUALISM.
and
had
orange flowers-
fi-csli
at least, we will
noiselessly envelojied the old negative
with its ashy molecules the bridal dress had passed in fragments into
the grimy bags of some great I'ag merchant and the very memory of the
;
wearer had passed away like the fragrance of her bridal flowers from the
nmsk-liaunted atmosphere of fashionable society. So there was no more
use for the old negative and they bade a boy wash it out. The glass
;
was freed from dust and film and the shadowy presence that had dwelt
there and the sunlight sparkled through it as through crystal. And it
came to pass ere long tliat a beaided man came to have his picture taken
and wlien it was developed by the strange magic of chemistry, behold
the shadow presence had returned, fainter, indeed, l)ut still lovely and
it floated in pale light by the figure of the bearded stranger.
Probably the
careless apprentice was scolded for his carelessness, and a new plate procured but the strange pictiu'e, haimted by the gentle shadow, all in
diaphanous roljes of samite, and wreathed with ghostly flowers, was preserved l^y reason of its Aveird beauty. And one day the junior partner
of the firm, while gazing upon it, suddenly slapped his thigh, and cried
;
aloud, By G
d, Jim, let's go into the spirit-manufacturing business
" By imperfect cleansing of the plates the most eerie effects can be
'
About a year and a half ago a poor Indiana photograi^her

by the production of spirit photographs
manner, his success being in great part owing to the skill of a
produced.
created a tremendous sensation
in this
shrewd retoucher in
who
utilized the shadows of dead

This fellow might have made a
fortune had not the trickery been exposed a little too soon. The best of
spirit photographs seem to have been made by various modifications of
this process, portions of the old negatives being thoroughly washed out,
The knave's dupe is deceived by
so as to admit of proper adjustment.
'
'
his employ,
negatives in a truly admiralile manner.
being allowed to handle and examine the apparently clean plate in the
instance, and afterwards to follow it tkrough all its peregrinations.
Whenever the ghost impression is thus made the spirit figure will appear
first
behind the sitter luiless, indeed, the old impression be so strong as to

aft'ect the development of the new.
In brief we may say that all ghost
impressions
the camera
made
before exposure
will come
oiit
that
is,
before the plate
is
exposed in
apparently in the rear of the living figure
and when the ghost figure is created subsequent to exposure, the spectre
will seem to stand in front of the person photographed. As the spectres
at
's lair abnost invariably stand in front of the sitter, we must conclude that the ghost impression is almost invariably made subsequent to
exposure.
This is not rendered any more likely, however, from the fact
that
's
patrons are requested to bring their
and mark them
carefully, for
we have
be practised in the dark room
already
own
plates with them,
shown that the fraud may
after sensitizing, liefore exposure, after
expovsure, or during ex])osure.
"
By
the old
method above
described,
by Avhich both an old and a new
TRICKERY AND ITS EXTOSimE.

improssiDn arc
toj;otlioi-
(lovclnped from
tlu'
saiuc
])liit(', il
365
i.-<
far casiov to
Botlithe inipCTlectly washod-oiitf^liost fii^'urcand
iiiakogooil,L,diostpk'tiiri's.
impression are negative riupression.s, and produce good positives

But the figure of a ghost impressed upon the sensitive plate
hy another negative, -will produce a positive in development and a negathe
tVosli
in printing.
tive in printing
so that in the card photograph the living figure
coim; out as a positive

iov certain ghosts
and the ghost
as a negative.
would
Tliis will acc(nint
with hlack faces and white raiment, whose acquain-
we had the good fortune to make.

sideration we must conclude that when
Taking these things into con-
tance
produces ghosts subsequent
to the preparation of the plate for exposure, the secret of his art lies in
Thus the ghosts

and both figures will be printed as
positives.
This operation requires great judgment in focusing.
" While the plate is in the bath impressions may be made upon it,
which will remain unperceived until the exposure has been made and
the plate developed. A well-known photographer was not long since
bothered considerably by finding that every plate dipped into a certain
nitrate of silver bath in his dark room came out in developing with the
across the face of the picture.
It was finally disletters P. Smith
the manufacture of ghosts from transparent positives.
become negatives in the new
'
pictiu-e,
'
covered that a ray of light passing through a tiny crevice in the wall of
the dark room struck the side of the glass bath on Avhich the
the
maker was stamped in
the face of the sensitive plate.
wonderful frauds in the
spirit
name
of
were thus impressed on

With a glass bath and a concealed Uglit
line can be practised, and, by placing a
relief,
and the
letters
transparent positive between the light and the plate in the bath, splendid
ghosts could be made, even while the dupe
that he cannot be fooled.
the bath, but
it ^^^ll
is
We might dilate at
not be necessary.
looking on in the belief

great length on this use of
After exposure, the plate
may be
retiu'ued to the bath for a short time without fear of injuring the impres-
and the ghost figure then impressed upon it.

" Another method is to hold itp the sensitive plate (either before or
sion,
one or two seconds before a jet of gaslight, in the

dark room, or even before the yellow-paned windows, as though to
examine the coating of the plate, holding between it and the window or
gaslight an old negative, transparent positive, or magic lantern trans-
after operating) for
parency.
Two
or three seconds will
sviffice
for the clearest of impres-
and the looker-on Avoidd probaljly never dream of deception,

supposing that the operator was simply examining the plate, to see if it
was all right.' According to the distance between the two plates the
sions
'
ghost figure
-will
be stronger or
fainter.
We
-vntnessed last Thiu-sday, a
splendid operation of this kind at the Boston Gallery, in which two

seconds sufficed for the production of a ghost figure by gaslight.
may be impressed with

on the way to or from the
clever device the sensitive plate
ghost while in the dark
slide,
or even while in the camera
itself.
By
the figure of a
operating room,
Indeed, twenty difierent varieties of
MODERN
366
may be
deceptions
SPIRITUALISM.
practised during exposure.
A common
artifice is to
place a microscopic, picture Avitldn the camera box, so that
by means
f)f
a small magnifying lens its image may be thrown upon the plate. Spectral effects may also be produced by covering the back of a sensitive
plate with pieces of cut paper, and using artifices well known to retouchers.
The ' rope ' picture, described in our account of the photogrnplis,
nnght have been produced by the adroit use of cotton twine,
before or in the camera duiiiig exposure, or might have been produced
by
Exti-aordinary spectral eftects, such as that of a

shaking hands witli liis omti ghost, cutting off his o'mi head, or
followed by his own dojipel (jaiif/ei; may be produced by ' masking,' a
doul)le printing.
man
process which
it would take too long to describe here.

There is scarcely
any conceivable absui-dity in portraiture which may not be accomplished
by the camera and the peculiarities of the business are so extraordinary?
the ojiportunities for humbug so excellent, the methods and modifications
of metliods whereby spirit photographs may be manufactured so numei'ous,
that it is hopeless for any peison totally ignorant of photography to detect
;
a fellow like
in the act of fraud.
Indeed,
often takes an expert
it
in photography to detect certain classes of deception.
limited
by time and space in
this article
colmnns with an account of the many
we
Were we not
could readily
artifices practised
by
fill
forty
spirit-photo-
graphers."
The length and thoroughness

nor need for additions.
of the above leave neither space
I shall pass, therefore, to other subjects
trusting that the ray of light thus thrown
upon the mystery of
the " spirit-artist's " operations will not be thrown in vain.

It
would seem that the substantiality of "materialized forms "
while outside the curtain, and the suddenness and totality of their
disappearance
when once more
safely esconced within the depths
of their " cabinet," have tempted admirers to seek for
memorial of these
in question,
we
solid yet fleeting ghosts.
One
some
solid
of the geniuses
learn, after thoughtful consideration of a paraffin
candle, suddenly started,
and
cried,
"Eureka! I have
hit it."
Forthwith his discovery was made public, and became popular.
Mediums
who gave
arose,
were tables with
seances, the necessary adjuncts to
which
sliding leaves in the centre, pails of hot water,
packets of paraffin, careful precautions against too-close scrutiny,
dim
light,
an utter absence of
tests, and, it
would appear,
of hands and feet, carefully packed in cotton-ivool
The more than
to
inonlda
prevent breakatjes.
suspicious disclosures presented during such seances
In England " ugly green slippers " have been
arc past counting.

left
367
on the carpet, and have turned out to be moulds taken from a
foot which, if that of a spirit,
part of the medium's.
was strangely enough
the counter-
Other gatherings have resulted in parafliu
moulds avowedly taken from a spirit-hand, which "spirit-hand"

appeared on examination of the mould to have presented
But the most striking story of the kind
shape of a plaster-cast.
comes from America, and the events

transpired
among
distinguished
itself in
the spiritualists of
which
to
New
it
has reference
York.
medium for paraffin mould effects gave a course

The first of the series was " on the whole,
of seances in that city.
considered satisfactory," despite the perplexing fact that a piece of

dri/
cotton- wool displayed itself within the
posed
to
which a
Two
mould
spirits
were sup-
have formed from the paraffin dissolved in boilmg water,
pail placed
below the seance table contained.
days afterwards a second seduce took place.
" About thirty people were present.*

viously prepared
by Mr.
.small
pine table wa.i pre-
an opening across the

was so closely fitted, that, though
,
\ni\\
centre, into
which a l>oard or leaf

it could be
removed with one hand, it woiild re(piiie both to replace it. The pail
containing the paraffin and water was sustained^by one arm of a scalebeam, which was suspended fi'om the frame of the table in such a way,
that while the pail was under the table, the other arm, supporting the
nicely balanced weights, was outside, and in full -view of the audience,
passing tlirough a slot in the black glazed-muslui bag, which enclosed
the table and its contents. The seams of the muslin bag were sewed by
a lockstitch machine, and over the table were thrown blankets to exclude
the light.
" Mr. A
had some coloui'ed paraffin which he desii-ed to use, but

was declined. No light was allowed in the room, and only a moderate
amount from an adjoining one, as the 'spirits' complained that the conditions were not fiivourable. Very soon a slight motion of the outsitle beam
was increased to such a degree as to throw the weights from their place,
it
Avhich naturally attracted the gaze of all to this point, except that of
]\Ir.
finally
and two other gentlemen who were intent upon the fact that
hand under the blanket and
the motion became so attractive to her, that she rose many times,
frecûently introduced her left
]\Irs.
From
a statement subscribed
and published
by seven leading
March 30,
in the Spiritual Scientist of
New York
187G.
spiritualists,
MODERN
368
and
SPIRITUALISM.
over the luLle to observe
Iciiined
it,
but mver failed to pass ber hand
niider tlie blanket at the same time.

" The last time of this leaning over a violent motion to the outside
beam
indicated the siime to the pail -within, and on the instant a light
some substance dropping inside upon the carpet.

hand of ilrs.
Avas withdi-awn, and the blanket, previously
left rumpled, was now carelessly smoothed out, and it was soon indicated
that the work was finished. Upon remoA-ing the blanket Mr. A
found the muslin pinned differently upon the top of table from the way
he had pinned it, tind having, in the spot Avhere the left hand had been
hidden, a strained apjiearance and the middle hoard was found displaced.
A paraffin mould was lying upon the bottom of the bag, a little under
*
thud
The
-was heaixl as of
'
left
the edge of the bowl."
However
by the
the said paraffin
little
present at
spiritualists
its
mould may 'have been prized
production, they did not yet con-
But
sider the evidence sufficient to warrant a verdict of fraud.
testimony quickly accumulated.
"On Wednesday
husband were coming
husband being quite
who was
*
Why,
Mrs.
it,
and both
carrying that bag
hand
;
'
he
'
ought to
mould
being
for
know
quickly,
so
careless
that the top
'
about
was Uable
to
there would not be paraffin enough
to-night.'
Mrs.
She exclaimed,
Mr. and
had, just
M^'s.
house, denied that they had any
"s
moulds with them."
The evening's
seance duly
came
off.
"Dr.
&c., declared to Mrs.

toes three times,
were showing hands.

the Thursday
and Mrs. S
when
ladies
paraffin
They informed her
'
occupied
spirit-hands,'
that he assuredly
professed that the spirits
Present thirty people.
some
" saw the lingers of a
medium
the
who
a favourable position during the materializations of
dress."
the
up pieces from the fragments.
husband
to form another
before leaving
'
hxdies picked
now perhaps
On
The medium, returning
spring open; and
saw
his wife next; Mrs.
where the medium had just passed.
scokled her
paraffin
and
the medium, and her
house of Mrs.
to a seance at the
in advance,
there's a paraffin
crushed
saw, in crossing the street, a paraffin mould Ipng
last,
in the gutter,
evening, as Mrs.
who were
Lights very dim."
talking Avith the
medium
mould protruding from beneath her
of Avhat they
had discovered.
" She
TRICKERY AXD ITS EXPOSURE.
The
Ihcm mistaken."
hastily concealed the mould, iiud di'cliired
One
same evening a third seance was held.
369
of the sitters glanced
beneath the table while "manifestations" were going on, and

" saw the medium's foot manipulating the
bell."
Saturday, March 18th, beheld the winding up of the series of

si-anccs,
and the acquirement of
for use
Taking
that
at
an apothecary near by, he had
to
it
and the weight, which was 11

the
Mrs.
wi-apper.
to
it.
in their pre-
and others, was placed in a

.
The
lights
were required
be of no avail in the back parlour, at the extreme rear
of which sat the
medium, facing her audience. No one was allowed
The mould
within a semicircle of five or six feet from the table.
was soon declared

novice, as
it
finished,
and on being quickly examined (by a
happened), another
within the orifice of the wrist

first, in
The
kept this packet
was shaved up
it
and hot water poured upon
low as
accurately weighed,
it
4 oz. avoirdupois, marked on
lbs.
when
sence, and before them, Mr.
so
of paraffin designed
and Mrs. S
sacredly until the evening,
pail,
A packet
was received by Mr.
seance
evening's
and conclusive evidence
final
"
respecting the trickery practised.
bit of
dru cotton-wool was found
which Mr.
Thirty-five people
his possession.
paraffin in the pail
was
has, with the
were present."
carefully collected.
weighed on the same
Mr.
when
took the package, and had
it
balanced exactly at 11
4 oz. avoirdupois, the same as before
He
the seance.
Mrs.
lbs.
also received the parafiin
and Mrs. S
avoirdupois.
The
and found
its
scales,
it
mould or glove from

weight to be 2^ ozs.
druggist performed the weighing
in
both
in-
stances.
" Mrs.
was unaccountably annoyed by
about her carpets, while the
bits of cotton-icool
medium and her husband were with
her.
"
Upon Sunday,
worn
ings,
the 19th, Mrs.
saw the medium's
the previous evening at Mrs,
two inches below the
toe
tltey
icere
cut
's
seance
stock-
at about
across the sole, a)ul lef
opoi.
'
Each can draw
his inferences
from the
facts
we
state.
We
MODERN
370
subscribe our
names
SPIRITUALISM.
to verify
what
attributed to us in this state-
is
ment." (Here follow the seven names.)
How
was
The
a narrative like the above to be disposed of?
inculpated medium, or rather her husband, contemptuously swept

it
out of the way.
" Most of the charges are too insignificant and
ridiculous to claim notice
the
Into
"
!
voluminous corresjiondence and disputes which
matter involved, and the desperate attempts of "veteran
this
spirit-
ualists" to whitewash the reputation of the inculpated Mrs.
I think
it
unnecessary to enter.
of the
clung to her " through glory and shame " deserves
believers
who
notice.
" If not the
duced
One demand, however,
work
how were
of spirits,
the moulds pro-
"
" Agreeably to promise," says the Boston Herald, of April 9th,

187G, " one among the signers of the so-called expose of Mrs.
favours the Herald with his theory of producing paraffin
moulds.
seance
Briefly stated, he says the
by dipping
hand
a mortal
mould may be made before the

This mould
into wax.
medium may break
darkness, the
sack, and through
be
the thread at the seam of the
an aperture thus formed
the floor, after which she
may
Aided by time and
secreted in the pocket of the medium's dress.
may sew up
let
the
mould
the broken seam.
slide to
Taking
a small quantity of water from Ihe bucket with a syringe or sponge,

to account for difference of weight, completes the job.
who may
medium
not be a moulding
? "
There, now,
(Who, indeed
?)
" If two mediums," says the Spiritualist of August 11th, 1870,

*'
would
sit to
get letters written
by
many
sceptics, regularly carried in
Baron Kirkup
a few minutes between
circles
cf Florence once
would be a most useful manifestation, and
did,
it
miles apart, as
a death-blow to the psychic force theory."

friend
Baron
Ivirkup's
own
his letters Avere carried.
April 29th, 187G, " to
"
You
now
Let us see what
my
of the
means by which
shall be free,"
he writes to mo,
opinion
is
make any use you
like of
what
I shall tell
you."
The pseudo-manifestations which

highly were,
one
and
all,
the
the
results
Spiritualist
of
values
conspiracy.
so
"My
TRICKERY AND
ITS EXPOSURE.
daughter," writes the Baron to mc,

stranger against
my wishes.
I took
May
them
Itli,
into
371
187G, "married a
my house
where they perfoiincd a correspondence, pretended

agency of
direct
my
deposited
spirits
my
of the frauds of
she
not a spnitualist at
thought
prove
letters in the tribunate to
much
is
my
wife
who
"
spirits
with us.
She has explained many things to
all.
the chief, and
walked through
have since found
The various
out
my
I supposed,
rooms, and shook hinds
who
the
persons were that
The conspirators were
which
all
Italians.
They
for a time.
and
his property,
promise.
'
ready money
were supposed
My
have carried, succeeded so
have a keeper appointed over the Baon
after
two lawsuits he was forced
in
my
the lawsuits, and I began to feel

I
had no resource but
daughter and her husband have
my small
my house I
a part of
left
into
like the
to accept a
now
com-
found," he writes to me, " that I had spent
liberty for a ransom,
they
to
also strove persistently to obtahi the control of
getting dangerous.
.
by producing the
parties to this shameless fraud,
spirits
far in their object as to
table, whilst,
English and American friends were taken in like myself."
letters
saw so
impossible could be trickery-
it
enacted this comedy
My
insane
In the year 1871 I v/as favoured with materialization,
untouched.
'
mo
for six years
daughter and her Italian friends, that
most frequent, being the responses of the

and two
by the
and, stealing the said correspondence,
have since learned much from
me which
for a year,
to bo
all
my
situation
compromise.
agreed to
sell
me my
brigands of Calabria, and I have paid
fortune to save the
rest.
From
have heard or seen no more of
the
day
spirits."
Despite the persecution and the cruel deceptions he has endured
Baron Kirkup
phenomena
is
He
yet a spmtualist.
of spiritualism
repudiates, not the whole
but the fraudulent manifestations which
he was deceived into believmg genuine.
who were
writer,
digies
''
interested in the subject give

as a total delusion.
enough
in
twenty years.
millions of competent witnesses.
mediums
that has been
my
bane."
it
do not.
I
" Some of
up," he
I
tells
my
friends
the present
have witnessed pro-
have seen much, and so have

It
is
the
treachery of kIkwi
MODERN
372
Under such
sions
" Correspondence
lieadings as
and Dupes,"
SPIRITUALISM.
&c., the
New
very merry over the misdeeds of a "

others
"
still
He
JVeiy
knowing
it,
lately
medium" who
do, to answer scaled letters
respected, Tvitliout
Spmts," " Delu-
witli
York press has

by
made
itself
professed, as
spirit-aid.
the Horatian maxim," says the
"and woiddn't disturb a ghost on any ordinary ocWith much propriety and patience he submitted the sealed
York World.,
casion.
envelopes containing these precious inquiries to the sweet influences of

a kettle-spout imtil the steam opened them, and then he answered them
hunself with neatness and despatch. Being an illiterate man, and perhaps
not imaginative, though benevolent, he kept a phrase-book, or complete
put into the answers, such

journey along together my (" brother," " sister,"
or "love," as the case might be), -ttdth hands joined, one on either side
of the curtain that falls between yoiu-s and mine.'
Or this
I have
walked with you upon the western side of life, and Avill soon meet you
upon tliis.' Some hundreds of these tidbits he had carefully written out,
ready for reference and use
What ought to be done to him ? It is
too hard a question for us. We shoiild rather like to leave it to his clients.
... As we have said, there are thousands of letters. We can't print all
of them but surely in what we have given is matter for much and not
wholly pleasing meditation on the world we live in."
celestial letter-writer, full of nice things to
as this
'
We
shall
'
The
displayed in
taste
addresses, of those
journalistic
hands
whose
printing
letters to the
certainly
is
names, and
the
impostor had fallen into
more than questionable.
be confessed, though, that the letters themselves are
One smart Yankee addresses

business-like fashion
what
soon.
We
best plan
the
is
What
spiritualism ?
are engaged in
to
adopt to make
do to make
shall I
my
it
wife a
pay a
happy
Inform
profit
me
very
believer in
to ask the spirit of Daniel
for legal advice regarding certain lawsuits against insur-
ance companies.
whether he
marry a Miss
and go
making Nature's Hair
"
Another correspondent makes bold
Webster
must
Will j'ou give us your personal attention
Restorer.
It
curious.
a deceased relative in the following
" Brother William,
the
often
to
shall
third writes to his deceased wife to inquire
Europe with
his patent rails.
if
he
may
"
To
all
sell his
farm,
which queries,"
TRICKER Y AND ITS EXPOSURE.

says The Worlil, " the
letter 'No.'
Here
'
medium
'
amiotatos in
margin of
tlio
tlio
"
this portion of
chapter to a
much
my
task must end.
might stretch
this
greater length hy a few additional selections
from the accounts of exposed fraud before me; but

tired of
373
so uncongenial a task.
am
Enough has been
hartily
written and
quoted in the foregoing pages to display the reality and magnitude

of the evils which act as incubi to sphitualism.
it
my
ence
have conceived
duty to reveal their nature and to protest against their existbut,
while I wish the
protest
to
be
would not have
revelations to the point, I
effective,
either
and the
cumbrous or
diffuse.
Can no good thing come out

cause in
its
made up
entirety
of the sph-itual Nazareth ?
Is our
of legerdemain accomplished under
cover of darkness, of credulous dupes, of impostors ever on the
watch
as
it
light,
to entrap
such dupes
pleases fate
and,
Far from
abandoning
cloud, cheer a
silver lining.
little
this
our
in short, of
it.
knavery and
folly
mixed
Let us turn from darkness into
study of
the
gloomy
face
of
depressed hearts in contemplating
a
its
CHAPTER
X.
THE HIGHER ASPECTS OF SPIRITUALISM.
As
I have in other portions
names, I
There
are, indeed,
be
my
work
refrained from giving
my
present chapter.
numerous reasons why the incidents about
should be
described
of
adopt the same practice in
shall
to
The
under partial obscurity.
veiled
persons concerned are, in most instances, opposed more or less

strongly to their
names being made
certain that such publication
I shall therefore preserve a

in these interesting dramas.
in every case, names, dates,
made use
session, to be
will
find place in
does not appear
It
strict incognito
It is
my
regarding the actors
duty to add, however, that
and other testimony, are
in
of as necessity shall dictate.
have
at
indeed,
was the one thing necessary.
subjects truth
is
verity
my command
ample means of dispelling such doubt, and of proving that

instance reality has been strictly adhered
pos-
Nothing
Should any doubt be
testify.
upon the truth of these narratives,
my
whose
the ensuing pages but facts to
witness after witness yet living can

cast
public.
would answer any useful purpose.
to.
in
every
faithful record,
In spiritualism above
stranger than fiction.
all
The wonderful legends
which credulous enthusiasts can construct with the aid of darkened
rooms and puppet-shows, are as nothing compared to the facta

wliich from time to time the spirit-world furnishes under conditions
whose
The
perfection of evidence renders doubt impossible.
incident I
commence with occurred
some twenty-three or twenty-four years

an answer
spirits
to a question often asked.
visit
us,
and
indicate
"
I give the story as
Why,"
an interest
Hartford, Conn.,
in
ago.
it is
in
said, "
those
should
everyday
HIGHER ASPECTS OF SPIRITUALISM.

triviiilities
of earthly
ever
it
Is
'.'
life
375
from which the gravo parts them for
uot excessively undignified that eternity should be

"'
"wasted thus ?
Undiguitiod indeed,
we
if
never taught by Christ
death
a magician whose potent
is
men and
touch changes us with the rapidity of lightning from
Avomen
to
case ?
The golden crowns
angels
or
lulling
symphony
and the
What
fiends.
And
lyres in our hands.
future?
the past
earth to
is
the
disregarded dream.
What
of eternal song.
we
shall
golden
The
peaceful slumber in the lap of beatified idleness
afflictions of
And
in such
us
on our f(u-eheads
are
to us are the stumbles
brothers and sisters yet on earth
darkness be never so deep in which they wander

light.
myth
are to entertain the old, old
that
Let the
we have
endless
return, to cheer with whispers of affection,
and assurances of brighter days, that pilgrimage which, long ago,
wo
ourselves found so dreary and so long
shudders
Rather
the thought.
at
the spotless robes which
mask
with Pharisaical ostentation,
we
The
oficr
Him
fact that
with whatever
Such
is
for
let
Sanctified selfishness
us wrap closer around us
the deformity of our minds, and,
call
God's attention to the praises
having made us other than the worms of earth.
we were once
else
it is
ourselves
worms may be
Mrs. Grundy's heaven.
The good
primly in her cushioned pew, and drinking in

the words of
self
commissioned, in virtue of so
per annum, to deliver to a
^vith
rains), seated
orthodox rap-
way
respectable family indeed.
many hundred pounds
thii-sty flock.
pins her faith to anything that
grandfather
it
which a fashionable preacher has found him-
tui'c
accordance with the
can be
old lady
found with due regularity every Sabbath (unless
life
forgotten,
convenient to forget.
is
sterling
For Mrs. Grundy never
not strictly orthodox, and in
of the world.
She comes of a very
Eighteen centuries ago her great-great-
made broad his phylactery, and enlarged the borders

was called of men Rabbi, Rabbi, and loved
of his garments, and
the chief seat in the synagogue, and the uppermost room at feasts.
He
it
was, and no other, whose saintly indignation against the
iconoclast of Nazareth found vent in the cry, " This
man
eateth
MODERN
3/6
with publicans and sinners

of the
present
SPIRITUALISM.
"
His wife, the venerated ancestress

skirts shud-
Grundy, doubtless di'ew her
Mrs.
Mary Magdalen passed her
deringly together whenever
and may
have remarked, on hearing of a certain incident of which
all
the
world has heard, that had she been in the temple on the memorable morning in question, she
To come
a stone.
it
was
to
would have
felt it
a worthy, though,
who, on hearing that the
her duty to cast
am convinced that
doubtless, erring woman of the family
steep path to heaven v/as common to
more modern times,
had been
herself and her footman, and that no carriage-road
apart
people
for
quality,
of
martyr of her respectability, and not go
But we must return
heaven at
to
Grundy
to the Mrs.
all.
of the present age.
her the perfections of the whole race of Grundys have centred.
more estimable woman

is
as orthodox as the
practice
the
is
it
would be impossible
most
pomps and
She renounces
vanities of the world in a dress from
uncharitableness
all
is
Worth.
Her
offered
up by
the same tongue which a few hours before talked scandal of
Her
dear friend.
favourite pastor tells her that the
blessed; she listens, assents, and goes
Since she does
her
and she
pew on Sundays, gorgeous with
and just a touch of rouge

informs
all
whom
it
may
to scold
many more,
these things, and
all
perfectly respectable and pious
home
sits,
A
Her
demand.
rigid of divines can
In
Her creed
to find.
equally exemplary with her precepts.
prayer to be delivered from
set
nobly determined to become the
some
meek
are
her maid.
she feels herself
as I have said, in
false hair, a Parisian
bonnet,
and, in the nicest of falsetto voices,
concern that she

"
Wants to be an angel,
with the angels stand
A cro%vn upon her forehead,
A palm-branch in her hand."
And
One day she

sown we
will
reap.
awake and
find
all
a dream.
As we have
Death may be the golden gate of a world divinely
beautiful, or the black portal of
where the
it
" a land as darkness
light is as darkness," but
identity of earth.
it
itself,
and
destroys nothing of the
Rather would the great change seem, with a

revivifying touch,
brighten into fresh
to
remembrance green may bring sorrow

earth's children
of
fiuled
Such a keeping of
some, but for the majority
to
must be the source
it
every
existence
memory.
character on the blotted pages of
377
of unspeakable joy.
AVhat golden crown could glitter ])rightly enough to console the
mother, did she find heaven a jewel-bedecked prison, in whose

gates of pearl and jasper walls she nmst vainly search for one tiny
chink through which
behind
Her
life
love,
for
catch a glimpse of the loved ones
to
left
Did she forget them, immortality would be a dream.
was
Destroy that
in the love she bore for her offspring.
and her identity
is
An
destroyed.
white raiment and endless psalms
Let us thank
God
need tremble
of
fitted
gone.
His love
is
over
all
His works, and
own,
Nono
eternal.
darkness of oblivion shadow their dying bed.
lest the
temporal state to an eternal one leave
this
only the dross of earthly
life
and from that
communion with
all
children's love, like His
Those who pass from
is still theirs,
but
may remain,
the woman is
that in His universe this selfish heaven of
forgctfulness has no place.
He would have His
angel
The pure gold of
behind.
afiection
affection
they weave a bright chain of
the loved of earth.
That chain
is in
general
when at times a few linkg

become revealed, why should those who see them only afar off
complain that they seem trivial and slight ? To the persons
our darkened vision, but
invisible to
intimately concerned in such revelation the apparent trivialities
may
bear a value which the outside world can never estimate.
The circumstances
the
wisdom
of the communication are
all in all.
There are
commonplace word may say more than would
hearts to which a
of Plato.
Little
everyday incidents
from which the
may
with that
life
which
do more to prove identity than would the most
will
description of the
life
to
spirit
come.
has passed, the recallment of
It is in
these apparent
the greatest strength of spiritualism has lain.
which
it
is
impossible to doubt
barbed with conviction.

plishes
so
much
Why
Why
They
call
that
little
brilliant
trifles
that
are evidences
arrows which cannot
then
all
be connected
fail
to
bo
which accom-
think undignified what contributes so
mightily to the victory of the truth
MODERN
378
For many years

with care,
SPIRITUALISM.
have scrutinised anxiously, and treasured up
even the most
incidents testifying to the con-
trifling
The only supports
tinuance of identity after death.
me
possession, one or two which appear to
The events
to
which the
occurrence was, as I have
theii*
Conn., U.S.A.
who
At the time in question the medium

in the ensuing history
was staying
bed by a severe attack of
to his
when
a spirit
in Springfield, Mass., confined
train to Hartford.
made known
It is
its
consulted.
mined
to the family,
advancement of the cause.
we
The occurrence was
direct."
and the medical man recalled and
be on
"
be.
his
own
head."
As he got out
at
And
the
that
moment; but I think you

he was indeed the person
come
medium
knowing what
this
" Strange
"
unconits
end
gentleman, " and then only
are Mr.
in question
said his interlocutor,
The other
."
;
and added, "
here to Hartford, but for what reason I
rant."
left,
Hartford a stranger came up to him.
never saw you but once," said
for a
" His
conformance with the message received.
scious of the import of his journey, and not
would
take the after-
" Let him go," said he, on finding his patient deter-
to act in
death will
will
important for the present and future
but do as
questions,
made known
man had
presence to his patient,
" You
"welfare of yourself, as well as for the
Ask no
His medical
illness.
and delivered the following message
noon
bears a principal part
Hardly was the door closed upon
just paid his customary visit.
the doctor,
of the greatest interest.
has reference occurred in 1852 or the
first
following year, and the scene of

said, Hartford,
my
from among the narratives in
I select, therefore,
are facts.
of theories
am
replied
I
have
perfectly igno-
" I was waiting here
that I might take the next train to Springfield in quest of you."
He
were anxious
how
a well-known and influential family
had
of investigating the subject of spiritualism,
and
then explained
become desirous
for a visit
from the very medium whose departure
from Springfield had taken place under such peculiar circumstances.

Here, then, was a foreshadowing of the object of the journey.
What had
before.
yet to happen rested, however, in as
much mystery
as
HIGHER ASPECTS OF
SPlRfTUALISAf.
379
After a pleasant drive the residence of the family alluded to
came
The master
view.
in
was by chance
of the house
at the
to a guest
whom
he had not expected before the morrow at the soonest.
The
door just then, and thus gave the
medium
entered the hall
welcome
first
and, as he did so, a sound resembling
He
the rustling of a heavy silk dress struck on his ear.
glanced round, and was surprised to see no one.
naturally
Without, how-
making any
allusion to the incident, he passed on into one of
the sitting-rooms.
There he again heard the rustling of the dress,
ever,
and was again unable

for
such a sound.
to discover anything
which might account
would seem that the surprise he
It
felt
was
depicted in his look, for his host remarked, "
What
? "
has startled you
which might,
after all,
Unwilling to
You seem frightened.

make much of an afiair
prove explicable by quite ordinary means,
the other replied that, having been very
was undoubtedly out of order
more
of the journey he vv'ould feel
nervous system
his
ill,
but once reposed from the fatigue

at ease.
Hardly were the words uttered when, looking back

the
medium saw standing
there
bright,
The
explanation of the apparent mystery.

this
member
of the
little
Here then was an
elderly lady, clad in a heavj- dress of grey silk.
movements of
to the hall,
active-looking,
had heard the
visitor
household, but had missed
catching sight of her until now.
This time the sound was audible both
Again the dress rustled.

to the
medium and
rustling might
mean.
The
to his host.
"
Oh
latter inquired
!" said his visitor,
dress of that elderly lady in the grey silk
"Who
may
she be
"
"
it's
whom
what such
caused by the
I see in the hall.
For the appearance was one
of such perfect
distinctness that he entertained not the slightest suspicion of the

little
old lady being other than a creature of flesh
The host made no reply
medium was
to
diverted from any further remark on the subject by
being presented to the small family
Once
at table,
lady in grey
now began
and blood.
the question asked him, and the
it
circle.
Dinner was announced.
surprised the guest to see no such person as the
silk present.
His curiosity became roused, and she
seriously to occupy his thoughts.
MODERN
38o
As
all
were leaving the dining-room the rustling of a
made
again
SPIRITUALISM.
itself
audible to the medium.
silk dress
This time nothing could
be seen, but he very distinctly heard a voice utter the words,
am
"I
displeased that a coffin should have been placed above mine.
What
is
more, I won't have
it."
This strange message was communicated to the head of the
For a moment the pair stared
family and his wife.

in
at
each other
mute astonishment, and then the gentleman broke
" The
style of dress," said he,
the peculiar colour, and heavy texture
being placed on hers

perplexed
medium
but this regarding a coffin
The
once absurd and incorrect."
at
is
silence.
" %ve can perfectly identify, even to
could, of course,
answer nothing.
on quitting the dining-room had been
That speech
his first intimation as to the
old lady of the grey silk having passed
from earth, and he was not
even aware in what relation she stood to his host.
An hour
Suddenly the self-same voice came once
slipped by.
more, uttering precisely the same words.

added, " What's more, S
had no
'
This time, however,
Again the medium made known what he had heard.
My
very strange.
this is
The master
" Certainly," said he,
of the house seemed greatly perplexed.
"
brother S
did cut
down
which rather obstructed the view from the old homestead

all said at
the time that the one
not have consented to his felling

rest of the message,
however,
is
who
it
it
down."
right to cut that tree
a tree
and we
claims to speak to you would
had she been on
earth.
The
sheer nonsense."
Just before retiring the same communication was a third time

given,
and again the assertion as
unhesitating contradiction.
greatly depressed.
received through
close
coffin
undignified.
the coffin
was met by an
to his
room, feeling
Never before had an untrue message been

;
and, even were the statement correct, such
on the part of a liberated
attention
another
him
to
The medium went
spirit to the fact that
had been placed above hers seemed ridiculously

Golden crowns, spotless raiment, endless harpings,
anything or everything was preferable to
this.
He
thought of the
occurrence through the whole of a sleepless night.
The morning
arrived,
and the medium made known to
his host

bow
deeply the
affair
bad
if
We
mistaken.
were the
it
spirit
to do so,
The sexton was sent
ceeded to the cemetery.
He came
the key of the vault in question.
As ho placed the key
open the door.
"
By
baby
first
's
coffin,
I suppose
there.
have asked you
for, since
about
to
however, he
it's all
was
there
as
have placed the
right,
I only did
it.
My
"
turned to him, and said,
The same evening the

presence.
God,
spirit
but perhaps I should
was anxious
to convince
make you
sure that I
my
you of
am
now
bis host
"
true
it is all
once more
coffins to
just a
coffin of
yesterday."
it
" Think not," ran the message
would care were a pjTramid of
same
to
he had
and proceeded
Never did that medium forget the look with which
to
sadly
once pro-
at
in the lock,
the way, Mr.
room above Mrs.

's
is
to recollect something, and, turning round, said, in a half
apologetic tone,
little
it
would be impossible
it
Host and guest
place another coihn above hers."
seemed
purports to be,
it
be
to con-
go together to the family vault, and you shall
will
had we desired
see that, even
replied that
and added, "I am now going
Avas himself just as sorry,
viuee you that
The other
affected bim.
381
made known her

delivered, " that I
be piled on mine.
identity once
and
for ever
a living, reasoning being, and the
For that reason alone have I
that I always was.
acted thus."'
He
to
whom
her
visit
was
chiefly directed has since joined her
His deeds were as noble as his nature, and his
in another world.
whole career was purity, unspotted by any

of the best of America's sons
bier of one
many
whose
taint of
Some
was
life
and death
The
actions of the just
it
felt
added another to the
proofs that
"
Smell sweet, and blossom in the
Spiritualism
knew
wrong.
and daughters gathered around the
it
was
to
to be real.
easy credence.
him
a glory
and
a joy.
du>;t."
He had
tested
it,
and
Yet he was never deluded into enthusiasm or
With the whole strength of
his
manly
intellect did
MODERN
382
^riRITUALISM.
he winnow the wheat from the
was worthless, hold firmly
away whatsoever
chaff, and, casting
Now
good and true.
to the
he
re-
course that he ran on earth, and,
joices in the reward of the
having " outsoared the shadow of our night," can behold clearly
things which are dim to mortal eyes.
by him shortly
determined
whom
have known
so charac-
is
extracts from
to print
the message
was received could by no
here.
it
relate to family affau-s, of which the
The remaining portions

through
from our world
after his departure
that I have
teristic
message communicated
medium
possibility
anything, and which served to relatives as excellent
proofs of the identity of the author.
" Well,
thing,
that
little
now
even
it is
more
and those who are
further than ever from me.
still
on earth
mine
Is
and hence utterly unfitted
moment
enshrouded
make
but to
/ am, We
tion.
it
are
in the
it
for
another
I
so to others
but the
it
confident
benefit you,
not rather a natural or
From my
prised at the lack of distinctness.

;
had
it.
am
but will
inclined to this view of the matter.
perfectly clear
to
it
same
to the actual condition of the identical
adapted only
spiritual influx
tell
to just the
of this, but, bless you, I rather feel
will eventually be
the knowledge
spirit,
comes
it
and has exactly the same mystery attached
hoped to solve a
we
the same old story, and whether
it's
on earth or from the eternal home
is
why and
am no
am
for the
longer sur-
point of view
wherefore remain
haze of the great unexplored future.
however, a great revelation to
know
that
it
is
quite another ques-
we
exist, for
still
It is,
existence
betokens activity, and must include the development or unfolding

of wisdom.
mutual
All this is
I
existence.
an incentive to well-doing in every stage of
have seen those I loved, and the recognition was
no hesitancy, no shadow of doubt.
Personal God.
What
may
see I
know
not.
have seen no
I
lift
thoughts in prayerful praise to a great and benign Creator

feel
my
up
;
for I
assured that a creative and harmoniously-constructed power
does exist
but what that
I wait to be taught
why undevelopment
may
be
is
not as yet
but, in being taught, I
made
must
clear to
me,
also ascertain
stands side by side with a higher perfection
HIGHER ASPECTS OF SPIRTTUALTSM.

known,
nm
two
as the
produce both
asking just as
clear.
If I
arc, as
Good and
used to
now
only I hope
like natur(>,
to have them made
can frame in clcarly-to-bc-undcrstood language the
replies I have, or rather the
Of one thing
to you.
Does the sanao power
Evil.
This, and in.my questions of a
383
am
knowledge
I gain, I will give
already certain
them
am
all
unchanged."
The following
narrative
friend Mrs. S. C. Hall, in
would furnish me,
if
was written
answer
for
me by my
to a request I
possible, Avith
which might constitute au addition
dearly-valued
had made that she
some well-attested incident

" Lights
to the
" of
my
work.
" Several ye;ir.s ago, when some persons looked 011 spiritualism us a
myth, others considered it a jest, others a snare of the evil one, ami many
wise and well loved friends entreated us to have nothing to do w illi it,
or its
'
prof)hets
we
striving
'
to convince us
it
was a
peril to
mind and
a very long time heard, saw, and listened, and doubted \

but at last meeting with Daniel Home, and also with Miss Andrews,
better known as L. M.,' we gi-adually became convinced of the existence
of a great truth, clear and incontrovertible as the sun at noonday and
we felt it a delightful privilege to enjoy the society of both those unprofessional' mediums, at intervals, when they could escape from otlicr
soul
for
'
'
friends.
" Mr.
Home had
at liberty, as she
initil
some time
"'
to, but
L. Î. w.w
was not chained by them, and was not married
loving domestic duties to attend
more
after the incident I
am
about to
One afternoon when Miss Andrews was our
'
'
relate.
guest, I
was
sitting in
the sunshine in our pleassuit drawing-room in Ashley Place, accompanied
by the sweet and gentle little woman, who had gained great reputation
medium. As I have said, when first we met her, we had laughed
at the wonderful things we had heard of
L. M.,' and not even lier
beautiful hair, her soft eyes, and gentle plaintive voice had won us
to put faith in her miraculous power
still she gained uj)on us, and
the more we knew the more we loved her, and up to this very hour
we have never lost faith in the fragile delicate woman whose faith in the
lighteofis Lord has enabled her to bear physical suffering 1 could not
attempt to describe. In those days she was in the enjcjyiuent of better
liwilth than she has since known
and I well remember that on that
sunny morning we were recajntulating the enjoyments of the past
evening, when the servant announced a gentleman of high repute iu
the literary world and whom we frequently met iu fashionable as well
as Uterary circles.
I see no reason why I should not give his name
that of Colley Grattan is well known and much esteemed.
He was tlie
as a
'
MODERN
.384
SPIRITUALISM.
author of some -works of miicli interest and value ; and had been for some
time Consul both at Antwerji and Boston, U.S.A.
" After the usual salutations he inquii-ed his laughing eyes fixed on
my onignonne friend, whose pale face had become serious when he entered
' Well, mademoiselle
have you had any visitors from the spirit world
you been obliged to content yourself with us ^poor

miserable worldlings
come do not continue silent, but confess you
have seen nothing heard nothing worth recording.'
" I see,' she said, a spirit standing beside you at this very moment,
and her words drop from her lips apparently in letters of gold she says
lately
or haAê
'
'
her name
is
Emma
.'
'
L. M.' spoke slowly, but, as she
always did,
and the gentleman, Colley Grattan, sprang from his and

Emma Emma
say
" He stood trembling before her. She continued She says she follows
distinctly
repeated,
seat,
'
on.'
'
you to protect you often against yourself, in gi'atitude for the benevolence
you and your wife showed her, when but for it she must have lieen sacrido you remember drawing her
ficed to the brutality of her husband
your hall door out of the rain one stormy night into
your house when she became insensible, and your wife folded her in
her arms on her bosom, and you mulled the wine she poured into her lips 1
Do you remember how you challenged liim for his brutal cowardice 1
When L. M.' had said this, Mr. Grattan exclaimed, There there
cannot bear it I must go, I must go. Poor Emma poor sufferer that
man, though a member of Parliament, was the greatest brute unhung
but I can hear no more nowMiss Andrews I will never scoff again."
"Mr. Grattan stumbled out of the room. I followed him into the
corridor and found him sitting on one of the sofas almost fainting.
" I daresay she may tell you more Ijut I cannot bear it that dear
creature was my wife's dearest fiiend,' he exclaimed, but that fact which
occurred soon after midnight outside our hall door was knowai only to
my wife and myself.'
" When I returned to the drawing-room, ' She has followed liim, for
she feels it a duty,' she says, 'to help liim sometimes. Will you tell him
that poor Emma
died of cancer,' L. M. continued, he knows that,
but he does not laiow that the cancer was caused Ijy a bloAV inflicted by
her husliand
" Two or three days after, Mr. Grattan's visit was repeated, Imt then
* L. M.' had gone home.
" He questioned me very closely to learn what she had said after he
left the room, and was gi-eatly struck when I told him that her death
We knew,' he said,
was caused by a blow inflicted by her husband.'
* she died of cancer, but she never told us it was so produced.'
" Oblige me,' he added, when you next see Miss Andrews, by teUing
her she will never again hear me scoff' at spiritualism.'
fi'om the step of
'
'
'
'
'
'
'
'
'
'
If the following incident read like a
romance the reader may be

assured that
it
was
most prosaic of
romauco of
at least a
possible cities
all
reality,
3^5
enacted ia that
A medium v/lio
London.
it
matters not
bad
found himself, on the evening when the events
in question
came
to pass, a guest at a party given in a country
Suddenly, ancT
house on the outskirts of the modern Babylon.
without the least premonition, a spirit-voice spoke to him, bidding
him
He
once leave, and return home.
at
Piccadilly,
Passing alon^'
obeyed.
and when almost in front of Apsley House, a miserable
Crouched against a
group arrested his gaze.
and almost
wall,
hidden by the night and the obscurity of the position they had
were two most wretched
selected,
Their squalor
figures.
medium
whom
which
of
whom
I speak doubts to this
he saw were real

spirits
halted,
had created
and looked
did the same.
day whether the figures
and blood, or a phantasmagoria
flesh
and a young man who was passing
At that instant the
made itself
new mandate,
The medium
you."
but, by way of obeyagain
spii-it- voice
" Speak to the person beside you," ran the
heard.
V and on no account suffer him to escape

could conceive no reason for such a dictate
;
ing,
However, ho
own.
for purposes of their
them
at
and
Indeed, the
earth.
hideousness seemed scarcely to belong to
he turned to the stranger with the remark,
"Is
it
not sad
that such miserj^ as this should exist in a wealthy city like Lou-
don
? "
tion as
The other
if
replied that
it
"
to continue his route.
said his interlocutor.
sad, and made a moYou are going my way, I think,"
was indeed
" Let us walk on together."
seemed embarrassed, and evidently wished
The young mau
to evade compliance
but the other was determined to carry out the directions he had
received.
fashion,
The two,
and arrived
the voice spoke.
medium turned
therefore, passed on, conversing in a desultory

finally before the
" Invite
to his
him
companion
pressed for time, I suppose
some supper with me."

were addressed
do you invite
"
No
me
started,
? "
"
The young man
"
Come
to
in."
c c
The
and take
in,
whom
the wordy
and appeared greatly surprised.
Come
Again
" You arc not particularly
said he.
he questioned.
matter for that.
medium's lodgings.
in," ran this third message.
"Why
MODERN
SPIRITUALISM.
you afterwards.
Come with me
386
'<Butn%?"
" I will
tell
we can
more
talk
at our ease inside the house."
The stranger
at last accepted the invi-
Once within the house, he continued anxiously
medium
to press the
and
hesitated, reflected,
tation given him.
as to
why
Not
he had asked him to supper.
being as yet able to furnish any sufficient reason for having done
so, the other at first
from
and made a
The
will
go back
speedily relieved
once more spoke,
spirit-voice
communication.
strange
sufficiently
addressed his companion
" You
He was
evaded answering.
his perplexity, however.
The medium
to the city in the
morning," he
The
said.
other started from his scat.

" In heaven's name," said he,
"
are you ?
"who
you?
are
Tell
me
that
who
" Never mind
morning."'
" But,
impossible
me
for
who I am. Go back to the city in the

if you know so much, you must know that it is
go back."
to
" Not at all. Go just as usual, and all

The conversation continued for some
made
last
ties
clear those parts of his storj-
will
be arranged."
a sad
narrative from
which the spirit-voice had not revealed.
were
The young man
time.
^Yhat the
which he had become involved need not be
in
first
would return as usual next morning
employment in the
now
the
sofa
in the
accepted.
city
and pledged
The medium,
late.
He
armed with
left
new
together.
said, "
new knowledge,
the
;
He
has not told you
was then explained, and,
medium awaited the other's

sat down at table
and the two
After tea the conversation ran on the subject of the
other's affairs,
not told
It
bed on
acquaintance.
the youth had kept back

this
eft'ect.
early in the morning, promising to return that
His guest was punctual
return.
to that
therefore, ofiered his guest a
Hardly was he gone when the voice
What
word
to his
drawing-room for the night, which the other
evening, and take tea with his
all."
his
He
told.
at length agreed that he
"was
to
difficul-
me
and the host suddenly remarked, " But you have
all."

'
Oil yes
" was the
repl}'.
387
Evcrythiug."
''
" No," said the medium, " you did not
tell
mc
when
that
spoke
to you yesterday evening you were about to commit suicide."
" For a
"
moment
Great heaven
'
How
true.
ceive
'
other
seemed too astounded
when he had recovered
you have discovered
it
Thauies.'
iltc
the
havo in a former chapter remarked,
it is
on m\j irmj
ivas
it
has given
With Mrs. M. Sunderland Cooper,
light.
to
"
pleasure of late to notice a growing desire to obtain

in
reply.
to
speech,
cannot by any possibility con-
but last evening Avhcn you met mc, /
tlirow miisclf into
As
the
said he
mo much
phenomena
for
instance,
materialised hands and other manifestations are reported as wit-
nessed "in the

ship
is
warm sunlight
of a cloudless day."
the only one worth valuing.
The
Such medium-
slightest
phenomenon
regarding whose occurrence the proofs are complete, outweighs,

the estimation of
all
in
reasonable men, a whole conjuror's sabbath of
dark seances.
In BlacJnrood's Matjdziiic for March, 1870, appeared a remarkable article entitled "
Powers of the Air ;" the
furnished by certain phenomena occurring in
had been described
to the writer.
text for
my
which was
presence, that
As, however, the sketch given
decidedly incomplete, I have obtained from the lady to
is
the article in question alludes an account, in her
what she witnessed

interspersing
for
it
and
this I
now
own
whom
words, of
design to oiler to the reader,
with such extracts from Blackicood as
may
serve
commentaries and introduction.
The
writer in
Maga commences
%\'ith
an echo of the regrets to
which Macanlay long ago gave utterance, regarding the small

success which this world has had in piercing the mysteries of the
next
"It
lamentable and discouraging," he or she says, "to reflect

progress the human intellect has been able to make towards
the solution of some qiiestions among the most important that can
occupy it. One of these questions, the existence or non-existence of
spirit in the universe, was disputed between the Pharisees and Sadducees in the days of the apostles, has been disputed ever since, and, in
these latter days, has separated disputants more widely than when the
is
how little
c c 2
jMODERX
388
SF/Ji/Tl/AL/S.lf.
argument was young. Por altliough. one must suppose that tlie
extreme of materialism had been reached by the Sadducees, who
denied the resurrection of the dead, and acknowledged the being of
neither angel nor spirit, it is certain that until the last century no
l^hilosopher went so far in the opposite dii-ection as to deny altogether
the existence of matter, and to affirm of sjîrit what the materialists
affii'm of substance
namely, that it is alone sufficient to account for
everything in nature. Idealism, or the doctrine of the non-existence

of matter, has had very little success, because men can hardly be persuaded to discredit the evidence of theii' senses.
" ' AVhen Bishop Berkeley said there was no matter
And
proved
Thoy say
Too
And
'twas no matter what he said

in vain to batter,
'tis
subtle for the airiest
who can
yet
it
his sj'stem
believe
human head
it ?
'
wrote one of our wittiest poets and Materialism, or the doctrine of

the non-existence of spirit or soul, also finds it difficult to make converts, because men refuse to surrender an internal conviction that they
are in part immortal.
" Between idealism and materialism there have been very numerous
shades of opinion more, probably, than I ever heard of, and far
more than I could i^resume to claim acquaintance with. I cannot
write philosophically about any but about two doctrines, which are
more or less attracting attention at present, I should like to set down
a few words.
The former of these is Spiritualism. We hear constantly that the
existence of innumerable spirits is easily and frequently made plain
that our atmosphere is thick with spirits who, under
to the senses
certain conditions, can be seen, heard and felt.
;
'
'
.;:
>;:
:^
::<
mention the last striking narrative that has come in my

way, not doubting that it will be found closely to resemble the majority of modern experiences in the same field.
"It happened that, a few months since, I was in a foreign city
where a well-known medium was also residing. He was frequently
to be seen in public; but I did not, during his stay, hear of any
appointed seance, or any spiritual manifestation in that city. After
his departure it chanced that I sojourned in the hotel where he had
been stapng, and where many of those who had been his fellow
guests still remained. A few days after my commencing my residence there, some other new-comer complained at dinner of noises
echoed half-a-dozon
which disturbed his rest at night.
Noises
voices
why, it is the quietest house in the city notoriously so.'
The stranger didn't know he could only say he heard people constantly moving about in the night, and the oddest sounds, as of things
thrown or dragged about, workmen at their work, persons shouting or
"I
will
'
'
'
38.)
lauphing fit a littlo distance, and so on. At this there was ((uito an
excitement, tho majority of the hearers, jealous for the peaceful
character of tho house, protesting in earnest tones that the new-comor
must bo mistaken. lie, however, was not going to be talked out of
and tho contention waxed warm,
belief in the evidence of his senses
and might have become angry, had not an elderly lady interposed by
asking tho complainant if ho did not inhabit a certain number on a
certain flat ? "When he said that those were his number and Haije, she
answered quietly, Yes, I thought so. Those are tho apartments
(tho medium).
\\hich were inhabited last by Mr.
I am not
surprised at 3-our hearing noises there.' Then a general conviction
lighted on all tho champions of tho house,
Oh, if it's that,' said
they, of course it's another thing those noises are different.' Little
by little, then, it came to bo mentioned how the great medium had
really desired perfect quiet during his stay but the spirits would not
lot him rest, and were always calling his attention'" night and day
there used to be such curious sounds about those rooms
I ventiu-ed
to observe that as the medium was now in another and a distant
place, that was a reason why the spirits who were so fond of his company should not make noises in the hotel. But all tho answer I got
to this was, Yes, you would think so
but they arc not quick to
leave a place once they get used to it.' It certainly seemed to me
that the conduct of the spirits would have been more consistent if they
had not remained to make themselves disagreeable after he for whose
sake they came had departed. And I thought but littlo more on tho
subject, these vulgar nocturnal disturbances not recommending spiritiialism to my consideration at all.
"Some days later I and one or two more of the latelj'-arrived
guests sat together in the salon conversing, when we were joined by a
lady who had been resident in tho house for two or three months.
She happened to mention the medium, whereupon we asked whether
she had known much about him while thej' were in the house together ; and she said that she had been acquainted with him since the
time of her coming thither, and that towards the end of his stay she
had known him rather intimately. We asked whether she believed
that the nightly noises had any connection with him, and she said she
really could r.ot tell; everything about tho spiritual world was so
strange that she did not know what to think.
Had sho ever
witnessed any of these strange things
wo asked. Well, yes she
liad witnessed a great many strange things.
Let me state in brief
that she did not at first answer at all readily to our inquiries, but that
she yielded by degrees to pressui-e, spoke after a time with less
reserve, and finally became communicative.
The substance of what
she told was as follows
The company in the house, knowing that
they had a person of some celebrity among them, greatly desired to
witness some manifestation of his power. They besought him to hold
;
'
'
'
'
'
'i
* This
13
sliffht exasri^cration.
D.
D.
II.
MODERN
390
SPIRITUALISM.
But this he pei'sistcntly refused to do saying that he was

repose, indeed, from those very seances, which had
there for repose
been wearing his nervous system more than he could endure. Howbeit, though this was his answer to the guests as a body, he had some
few intimate acquaintances whom he invited occasionally to spend an
seances.
evening with him, and to whom he would say that, although he could
do nothing calculated to bring sjîrits to meet them, yet they must not
be surprised at anything thej' might see, as spirits would present
The
themselves imbidden sometimes, and be very demonstrative.
strange things which occurred at these reunions were a good deal
talked about in whispers, and led the excluded portion of the guests
to make strong eiforts to obtain the entree to the medium's rooms.
Very few, however, succeeded in this. The lady who narrated these
things made no endeavour to be admitted, but rather shrank from
that which so many desired being inclined to look on spiritualism
as imposture, and having a great dislike to tricks and surprises.
But a friend of hers who had been greatly impressed by what
she had seen on her visits (being one of the elite) induced the
medium to invite her, and then importuned her until she accepted
;
the invitation."
The above account
is slightly
of the introduction, and the
me
ing seances, are described for

the BlacJavood article alludes
"
incorrect.
The
real circumstances
phenomena which passed

as follows,
at the ensu-
by the lady
to
whom
My first experience was as striking as unexpected.
I had arrived
an entire
I found the absorbing topic of the di-awing-room the
strange phenomena witnessed at a recent private seance given by Mr.
Home. I expressed a desire to converse with the great medium,
which favour was accorded me, and eventuated in an invitation to bo
at a hotel in one of the cities of continental Euroiê
stranger.
present at a seance to be held that evening.

"
were a party of seven, all strangers to myself, and all having
mot Mr. llome only within a few days.
sat about a large table,
with the hands lying carelessly upon it, and chatted on indifferent
subjects.
At the end of perhaps a quarter of an hour a sensible vibration of the table was apparent, and shortly after several of tho
cii'cle were startled by the sensation of being repeatedly touched where
no hands were visible. Then came five distinct raps upon the table ;
We
We
supposed to be a call for the alphabet whereupon, Mr. Home

repeated the letters the rappings being transferred to mj"- knee, and
in such rapid succession as to render it impossible to mark the letters
indicated.
There being apparently two influences, each striving for
expression, Mr. Home requested that they would rap more slowly, and
upon the table. All to no elfect. At last he asked, ' Will you then
reply upon the accordeon ?
Immediately that instrument which
;
'

lying upon
391
expanded, apparently
of itself; giving out

supposed to indieato assent. Tho replies
to questions were, for tho remainder of (he evening, all given by raps
ujion tho woodwork of the instrument.
With tho consent of Mr.
Homo I put my hand under the tabic, requesting that it might bo
touched. Each linger of the open hand was touched in succession and
a hand giving tho sensation of being as warm as mj' own was placed
in the open palm.
I quietly closed my fingers upon it
it remained
(luiesceut for the space of perhaps a minute, and then
was gone
how, 1 cannot say. It was not ivithdraivii, nor did it a2)pear to diminish
gradually. Since then, I have, in an open and frequented thoroughfare, felt, whilst accompanied by Mr. Home, the same strange touch
the circumstances being such that ho could by no contrivance,
mechanical or othei'wise, have sircceedod in producing it.
request was rapped out that Mr. Homo should take the
accordeon. Ho accordingly took it in one hand, the end having the
kej's dropping almost to the iloor
the music jiroduced was beautiful
beyond description, like the strains one sometimes hears in dreams,
which can never bo repeated, At Mr. Home's suggestion two lights
were placed upon the floor, that W"e might watch tho instrument,
which continued to dilate and contract, and tho keys to rise and fall
with the music, without the intervention of any visible touch.
"\^^len tho music ceased Mr. Homo withdrew his hand
the
.accordeon, still remaining open, moved slowly
as if by attraction
to tho person seated beside him
against whose knee it rested, swaying
like a balloon, during the remainder of the seance
From first to last
the room was not only lighted, but well lighted.
"By ^}e/7nis5i'o;i I put several, mental questions, each of tvhich ivus
promptly and correctly answered ; with the fall names of friends and
tt-as
tlio
tabic
tlireo clear, separate notes
"A
'
'
and circumstances tvhich could not have been known to

any of those present ; all, as I have stated, having been previous to the past
relatives deceased,
twenty-four hours strangers to me.

" Finally, Mr. Home, passing into a trance, described the personal
appearance, and narrated correctly the incidents of the illness and
death, of a relative of one of the party present.
"The following evening I was iiresent by invitation of Mr. Home
at the house of an artist friend, where tho phenomena w'ere somewhat
different in character.
The circle numbered as before seven to myself a new set of strangers.
The first notable circumstance was that
the table around which we had been seated for perhaps twenty
minutes commenced slowly rising from the floor, with a swaying motion like that of a boat riding upon the waves
six pairs of hands
being upon the table Mr. Home sitting a little out of the cii-cle, with
arms folded. When about a foot from the iloor the table righted
itself, and moved steadily upward
our hands resting upon it till it
passed out of reach. It rose till within a foot of the ceiling, and then
commenced slowly descending.
Tho lady of the house sprang
nervously forward to grasp a petroleum lamp which seemed in immi-
MODERN
392
SPIRITUALISM.
nent danger of sliding ofi' tlic Jiow yliinting table Mr. Ilomc said
tbe tabl&
calmly, Do not be alarmed no accident will ]iai)pen
came down with, a bang, but not one of the numerous articles upon it
was disturbed. Again it rose within a foot of the ceiling, descending
A third time it mounted with no
this time as lightlj' as a feather.
visible hand upon it, making its way back so gentlj' that one might
have heard a pin drop as it touched the floor.
" Shortly after, several of the party saw hands mo^-ing along the
edge of the table. I confess I could not see them, although I could
Four successive times flowers were taken
distinctly feel theii' touch.
from a vase and placed in my hand how, I cannot saj', the agency
was invisible. Once a hand holding a flower was placed upon my
forehead the flower being repeatedly di"awn backward and forward
over the face. A watch-chain worn by one of the party was repeatedly
pulled T\dth such force as to cause the wearer to bend with the moveon the following day the links were found so stretched apart
ment
as to have reduced the chain to pieces. All took place in full light.
" In the course of the evening an accordeon lying upon the floor
began discoursing beautiful music in the midst of which a railroad
train rushed screaming by, winding up its salute with three piercing
shrieks.
The music ceased abruptly, the accordeon took up the long
demoniac cry of the engine, with its three wild notes of warning, in
such a manner that one would have declared it an actual echo then
the quiet, soothing melody was resumed, growing gradually more and
more faint, yet every note distinct, till it seemed to fade away in the
distance like the music of a retreating band.
" Presently the chair in which Mr. Home was seated was by an
invisible force moved slowly back, a distance of perhaps two feet,
placing him quite out of the cii'cle. A moment after a hand appeared
<m the knee of one of the party, distant about four feet from the
medium, a hand like that of a tall, powerful man the fingers long,,
the joints strong and large, the finger-ends bent slightly backward,
the fingers in constant motion, oj^cning and shutting, as they lay upon
the knee, like a fan. This appearance remained from three to five
minutes I should say, although the time appeared to us much longer.
All rose, and gathered round, watching the phenomenon, Mr. Home
'
'
apparently as much interested as the others. When it disappeared no

one could say how it went it did not fade out gradually, nor did it
glide away we knew only that it was no longer there.
" Only a few of the prominent incidents of these two seajiccs are here
given much that was interesting and striking was of too personal a
natiire to be with proprietj- introduced.
" One occurrence impressed mo verj- mixch. Mr. Home, whilst in a
trance, turned to me and said, There is a portrait of his mother.' I
made no reply; but my thought was, 'There is no portrait of her.'
Scarcely could the idea have taken form in my mind, when Mr. Homo
said,
Oh yes, there is a portrait.' I was determined to give no clue,
and I still said nothing but I thought to myself, Strange as all the
;
'
'
'
HIGHER ASPECTS OE SPIRirUALISM.

rest
has been, ycni arc mistaken in
'
tliis.'
I'.ut
wc
393
aro not mistaken,'
Mr. Homo instantly, as thongli in answer to my iinexprossod

thought
there is a picture of her with an open Bible upon her knee.'
I then remembered that somo thirty years before there wa& a picture
taken of his mother, and, at his request, with her open Bible in her
lap.
Had Mr. Homo made use of the word ^>/c<j<re instead of portrait
in the first instance the fact might have been at once recalled but I
was classing portrait more as an oil painting. The picture in question had never been in my possession, and I had not seen it for many
years.
These circimistancos, also, may help to account for the fact of
its existence having faded from memory.
" It is imijossible that Mr. Ilomo can ever have seen the dagucrrcoEven had ho seen it, however, it would have been
tyiô in question.
equally impossible that ho should have discovered the small, indistinctly-copied book there represented to be a Bible."
sail!
'
'
much
It is
'
communications
to be regi'etted that various of the
received at these seances
"svere,
as
remarks, " of too
Mrs.
private and personal a nature to be with propriety introduced here."
This esoteric spiritualism, w-hile furnishing the strongest

proofs
possible
general,
by
side world.
to
its
to
those
of all
immediately concerned, remains,
in
circumstances and character, valueless to the out-
There arc few who have
sufficient strength of
mind
come forward, and, with the sure knowledge that the course
they take
will
expose
them
to
ridicule,
misconception,
and
calumny, make public the evidence of man's immortality which

has been granted to them.
The
greater honour then to that small
band of noble men and women who, from a sense of duty, have
gallantly dared the storm of popular prejudice, before
and the timid
sensitive
The
secret nature of
which the
recoil.
many communications, and
with which various persons
whom
these
the repugnance
communications
have
convinced shrink from identifying themselves publicly with a cause

so
unpopular as spiritualism and defaced by so
should be held prominently in view by every

impartially with the subject.
H-i)0(l
writer seems
remarks
somewhat
They
to
critic
many
abuses,
wdio would deal
are points which the Black-
lose sight of
in
the following
" I think it ought to be taken as proved that very many things have
been, and are continually being, witnessed which are not traceable to
MODERN
394
SPIRITUALISM.
any known terrestrial agency, yet wliicli must proceed from rational
beings. Once this is admitted, the existence of spirits -will hardly be
but, against the materialist, not
;
I don't care whether or not
say
I say that there is no need of
spirits may exist somewhere in nature
spirits to account for anything we know or experience.'
"I might here be reminded that he who believes these spiritual
manifestations to be genuine, has the witness of the spirits themselves
as to many of them being the souls of human beings who once lived
This
denied.
much.
is
For the
something gained
may
latter
still
'
earth.
But I have not let slip the recollection of their testiI am only troubled with doubt concerning it I think there is
question of their credibiUty. The fondness of the spirits for darkened
rooms " (let me once more repeat that all the manifestations recorded
on the
mony
in this
and
my
concluding chapter took place in full
Ivjht)
"their
and unsatisfactory
communications, and the utter uselessness of many of their most
decidedlj' mysterious proceedings, their sparing
startling deeds, are fatal to confidence.
Thus
spii'ituaHsm does not, I
prove that which many believers would be glad to prove; namely,

that those who have preceded us on the earth certainly had souls
that matter
that there are sjiirits who influence and control matter
fear,
is
the creation of spirit."

If the occurrences
article
do not prove
which form the groundwork of the Maga

spirits to
they be considered as proving
have control over matter, what can

'?
If the narrative with
which
my
book concludes, does not show that those who preceded us on

the earth certainly had souls,
man ?
I am glad
what hope
is
there of an immortality
for
Air"
is,
to notice, however, that the author of "
in general, both Uberal
of the subject.
and
The following remarks
to all unprejudiced
minds
as,
Powers of the
thoughtful in his treatment of

will
commend themselves
on the whole, just
" I have read sometimes of philosophical persons attending seances

with the intention of testing the reality of the apparitions but they
would appear to have tested the media, not the spirits. The trials
were as to whether the media were or were not impostors and mere
;
But these philosophical persons,

practisers upon human credulity.
though they maj- have damaged the reputation of some of the mediums,
have not succeeded in proving spiritualism itself to be mere imposture."
" I ought to state that, although I appear to favour belief in spiritme to be candid
its favour; and
My
ualism, I do so entirely in deference to what seems to

testimony.
natural bias did not prejudice me in
IIIGJIER
ASPECTS OF SPIRITUAUSM.
395
my litb iittcmled a seance. Tho cvidcnco seems strong, iiiid

has never been fairly rebutted. If wo rt>ject testimony simply becuuso
it witnesses something disagreeable to us, or something that we arbitrarily pronounce to bo false because it is extraordinary, how much
are wo bettor than those opponents of Christianity who have decided
to reject the mu-acles of Scripture because they are contrary to cxWo reasonably expect that the record of eye-witnesses
perieuco'":'
and contemporaries should have more weight than a philosophic idea
or axiom which a mau may have taken into his mind. By tho same
rule, if unimpeachable testimony of tho existence of these spirits can
be adduced, we must not put it aside except on still stronger testimony
which can show the first to be mistaken."
1 uever iu
'
That evidence could hardly be considered
which "
still
I dare assert,
'*
unimpeachable
stronger testimony should sho\v to
however, that "unimpeachable"
strong a vrord to bo applied to

spiritualism has placed
many
on record.
is
be mistaken."
by no means too
of the facts which
They have been
most searching scrutiny, and with the severest
tests,
tried
and
from the furnace they have come forth from the ordeal
brightness of sterling truth.
light of another
world that
It is to these glorious
we may
"
modern
by the
like gold
in all the
gleams of the
turn for consolation from the
blackness which at present overcasts our cause.
CHAPTER XL
THE HIGHER ASPECTS OF SPIEITUALISM.
In the episode which furnishes a subject for
of
my work
am
one, of
by consulting
ing of
tlie
spiritual seance really is,
confirmation
'
idea, or but
may
They
the following narrative.
trifles into
simple statement of events
is
That the narrator to
an imperfect
enlighten themselves
will find
no magnify-
strong as Holy Writ
glare of enthusiasm, no wealth of ci'cdulity, no
curred.
conchtding chapter
complete authentication of the facts
Those who have formed no
what a
this
fortunately able to give every name, date, and
cu'cumstancc necessary for

recorded.
(Continued.)
want
;
'
no
false
of tests.
made, exactly as those events oc-
whom
the
spmt-world was thus
unexpectedly brought so close should have been rendered happy
with complete certainty of the existence of that world and the

possibility of
communion between
its
inhabitants and ourselves,
Avas the natural result of the perfect evidence of identity
loved ones
The lady
whom
which the
she had lost accorded her.
in question,
and the author of the following account,
me full permission to publish her name and address. I thank

much for the courageous course she has taken, impelled by a
high sense of duty, which I could wish were more common than
gives
her
popular prejudices upon the subject of spiritualism have rendered

it.
She
is
Madame
la
Comtcsse Caterina Lugano
Jacopo da Diacceto, No.
8, Florence.
di Panigai,
Via
As her narrative has
completeness and an interest to which no words of mine would
add anything,
speaks.
need say no more.
It is the
Countess
who now
HiailER ASPECTS OF SriRITUAI.lSM.
397
'Tho evening of July 7tli, 1S71, 1 had the good fortune to bo

present at a scauce given by Mr. D. D. Home. Ilis celebrity is so
extended, and bis position and bigb moral -north are so thoroughly
recognised by a very largo circle of friends, whoso standing in society
renders it impossible for oven a breath of suspicion to rest iqion their
testimony, that any attempt to portray him here 'would bo superfluous.
"We seated ourselves towards eight p.m. around a large table,

belonging to the hotel -where Mr. Home was staj'ing. The persons
present were the Murchionoss Bartolomci I'asscrini, Mrs. Webster,
the Chevalier SofFietti, Mr. Monnicr, Mrs. and Mr. D. J). Home, and
myself.
which we grouped ourselves stood in the centre of

In a corner of the apartment, and quite away from
the company, -was a second table, small and square in shape. Two
wax candles stood on the table where we were seated and on the
other and smaller one was placed a petroleum lamp. The lamp and
"The
table about
the di-awing-room.
candles together rendered the room perfectly light.

" Madame Passerini and mj-self were on either side of Mr. Homo
she to the right, I to the left. Whilst seating ourselves, and before
Ml'. Home had done so, a singular tremulous motion of the table
became perceptible, to -^'hich I, -svho had placed my hand on the
The motion continued to increase until it
surface, called attention.
was distinctly felt by all present. Then the table rose first one side
lifting itself from the ground and then another, until this had been
;
done in every direction. Eappings commenced, and were in some

instances very loud. They sounded, not alone on the table, but in
various parts of the room on the floor, and even on our chaii'S. At
last five distinct but tiny raps were heard directly under my hands.
Mr. Home said that this was an indication of the alphabet being
required, and commenced to repeat it whilst another of the party
wrote do-wn the letters at which the rappings.came. My astonishment
may be conceived, when I found the name of Stella given in this
manner. I was an utter stranger to Mr. and Mrs. Home. They had
been but a few days in Florence, and had heard my name for the first
time when an hoiu" or two before a fi'iend asked permission for me to
he present at the seance. And now was given in this strange manner
a name most i^rccious to me that of a dearly-loved child who, at the
tender age of five years and ten months, had been torn from me after
a few days of cruel suffering. Time had elapsed sinca her jiassing
from earth, and in my dress there was nothing to indicate the mourning of my bei'eaved heart. I spoke asking whether it could be that
God in his mercy allowed the angel once so entirely and fondly mine,
A
but' now for ever freed from earth and its sorrows, to be near me.
perfect shower of gladsome little raps was the instant response.
I
then begged that, if it were indeed my child, her age at death might
be given. It was at once rapped out correctly.
" My strained attention bent itself -with all the eagerness of maternal
;
MODERN
398
SPIRITUALISM.
love on tlioso sounds

sounds vi'liicli brouglit, as it -were, faint eehoo*
of the music of heaven to cheer my sad heart. Tears, that even the
presence of strangers could not restrain, coursed plentifully down my
cheeks. I thought myself in a dream, and feared every instant that
I would awaken, aud the celestial vision vanish, leaving only an
aching void.
" The rappings continued, and the alphabet was again made use of.
The message this time was, You must not weep, dear mamma.' At
the same time the handkerchief that I had taken forth to dry my tears,
'
and which now lay before me on the table, moved slowly to the tableedge, and was then drawn underneath. Whilst this was passing the
form of my darling seemed to stand beside me. I could distinctly feel,
as it were, the pressure of her body, and the folds of my silk dress were
disturbed, and rustled so as to be heard by all present.
" But a few seconds had elapsed from the disappearance of the
handkerchief when I felt what seemed the touch of a baby hand on
my right knee. Almost instinctively I placed my own

To my surprise the handkerchief was at once laid in it;
hand there.
and a little
hand grasped mine, so jjerfectly corresponding to the hand of the tiny
form which the grave had hidden from me that I felt my precious one
and no other was beside me. Would the heart of every sorrow-stricken
mother could be gladdened with a ray of the deep joy mine experienced
then!
" I had not expected such a touch I had not been told that I might
experience it, and therefore it could bj- no possibility be the phantasm
of an overwrought imagination.
" Mr. Home's name was, of course, one that I had heard before. I
had heard of him but had never read any details of his sennccs. On
coming, therefore, to the one in question, my supposition was that we
would be enshrouded in that utter darkness which I knew to be frequently demanded by those terming themselves mediums. Had I sat
Tinder such conditions the most palpable touch would have loft no
other imijression on my mind than the suspicion of trickery. My disappointment was pleasant. I sat in a well-lighted raom, and could
make full use of my ejês. Alreadj^ within the short space of half an
hour, I had heard sounds which could not have been imitated by a
number of electric batteries combined I had seen movements of the
table that even the confederacy of half the persons present could not
under the circumstances have accomplished; and now came this
thrilling touch.
I may state that when the table's movements were
most active, Mr. Home, placing a light on the floor, not only invited,
but urgently desired us to look under. So marked was the request,
that even had curiosity not prompted us, good breeding would have
necessitated com2)liance with the evident wish of oiir host.
One and
all obeyed, and saw the table lift from the floor, but nothing which
;
could solve the mystery.

"There came another token of my darling's presence. On my left
wi'ist
the one farthest from Mr. Home ; whose hands, as the hands
HIGHER. ASPECTS OE SPIRITUALISM.
3o<>
all present, rested on tlio table, I felt the touch of tinj' fingers.
I looked, but saw nothing although my eyes were strained on the
One of my lace sleeves was
spot where the pressure still continued.
and one of the parly
next gently grasped. All jn-csent saw this
exclaimed, The Countess's sleeve is being puUetl
" Our attention would seem to have been over-concentrated. For
the space of several minutes manifestations ceased, and all was as
void of a spiritual j^resence as our ordinary everyday, px'osaic life.
We were roused bj- sounds jn-oceeding from the smaller table, which J
have mentioned as standing in the corner of the room. All present
saw it move slowly from its place, and approach the tablo at which
of
'
we sat.
"Again
rappings made themselves heard, and a second name, also

that of one very near and dear to me, was spelt out by means of the
alphabet. An accordeon lay on the tablo. It did not belong to Mr.
Home, but had been brought by one of the guests present. Mr. Homo
now desired me to take this instrument in one hand, that it might bo
seen whether the spirits could play upon it. Hardly had I touched
the accordeon
issued from it
instrnmciit,
when
;
and
it
began
to
move
then sweet, long-drawn sounds
finalh' a military air
and could
see that
no
otiter
was
plaj'ed, wliiU
person touched
held the
it.
" The alphabet was here called for. This time, instead of the usual
rappings on the table, the message was communicated through distinct
movements of my dress. The words were words of consolation and

love, and their reference was to an incident known only to the nearest
of my relatives, and which none of my fellow-guests at the smnce in
question could by any possibility have been acquainted with.
" Just after this communication had been made, my eyes rested for
a moment on a most beautiful rose worn by Madame Passerini. I said
mentally, If you are in reality the spirit yoii claim to be, I ask you
to take that rose from Henrietta, and bring it to me.'
The thought
had hardly taken shape in my mind, when a hand, visible to every one
present, the large, nervous hand of a man, grasped the rose, and disengaging it, brought it to me, and placed it in my fingers. This was
not done in darkness, or in a dim light. The room was well lit, the
hands of eveiy person present rested on the table, and there hovered
in the air before us a hand as perfect in fonn as human hand can be.
Not only was it perfect in form, but it had shown its capability for
physical action bj' the unfastening of the rose from the lace to which
that rose was securely attached, and the carrying it a distance of two
or three feet. And further, that action indicated the presence of an
intelligence able to comprehend a mental request, for I had not uttered
'
a woi'd. I grant most willinglj- that all this is strmxjc, but I affirm
most solemnly that it is true. We were in presence of beings who
could even read our thoughts. The names of those long since summoned from earth were given and the most hidden things connected
with their earthly lives recapitulated. Not to me alone did these
things happen, but to cverj' one. In some instances there had even
;
MODERN
400
SPIRITUALISM.
been forgetfulncss on the part of the person addressed, and attendant

circumstances were given that the incident might be recalled. Thus
Mr. Home, passing into a trance, said to the Chevalier Soffietti, There
is an old nurse of yours standing beside you
a negro woman.' The
Chevalier could recall no such person.
She says you ought not to
forget her,' continued Mr. Home, for she saved your life when j'ou
were but three and a half years of age. You fell into a stream of
water near a mill, and were just about to be drawn into a water-wheel
when she rescued you.' Chevalier Sofiietti now recalled the whole,
and acknowledged the communication to be perfectly correct. He had
been wholly unknown to Mr. Home till -R-ithin three hours of the
message being given, and not one of the remaining guests knew of the
incident in question. I narrate this to show that others were like
myself made hapj)}- by proofs of the continued existence of those dear
If, indeed, all these things be explainable by some hidden
to us.
force or forces of nature, then God have pity on the shipwreck of our
hopes of immortality. If they be dreams, then must our present also
I to
bo a dream, and our future but that dream's continuation.
believe that they were so many i<jncs futui, leading only to destruction?
Prove to me, or to any other jsresent at that most memorable seance,
that we were deluded, and I will prove to you that I have not written
these words, and that you are not reading them.
" As I have said, Mr. Home passed into a trance. After the communication to Chevalier Soffietti he addressed himself to me, and
gave facts which not only could he by no possibility have previously known, but which were in some instances unknown to any
person in the world save myseK. He told me he saw various members
of my family. That he did in reality see them I am unable to affirm
but that he gave me their names, and most accurately described them,
Stella is present,' he said, and she says
I do affirm.
The words
given need not be placed on record. To me they were most touching
and precious to the world they would be unmeaning. / understood
them, and greatly do I thank God that in His mercy He permitted
them to be given me for they have made the burden of life seem
lighter, and I can await now more patiently the joy of endless reunion
with those I love.
" I im'll, however, give the conclusion of the message. My darling
' And
thus finished what she had to say
I know, mamma, that you
took the last jjnir of loots I wore, and hid them aivay vnth my little tvhite
dress in a hex that you had ordered for the ^yurpose.
You locked them in
that hox, and tvhen you are quite alone you take them out, and shed such
sad, sad tears over them !
This must not he, for Stella is not dead. I am
living, and I love you.
I am to tell you that you will have a very distinct
2)r oof of my presence, and that it tvill he given you to-morrow.
You must
not again oiên the drawer where the hox is pilaced irhich contains what you
c(dl your treasures, until you hear distinct raps on the hureau.''
" Not even my family knew anything of this box. I had kept the
contents as to me most sacred relics ; showing them to no one, and
'
'
'
Am
'
'
'
401
by any chauco ulhiding to their existence. Mothcrci who have

been afflicted like luo will alouo bo able to approciato the sentiment by
which I was guided.
" The seance ended. I naturally wished to tliauk Mr. Homo for
iiovtT
having- been the means of giving mo so great a joy. He refused to

accept my thanks, and said that ho was simply an investigator like
others, and just as deeply interested in tho thorough examination of
the subject as I or my friends could be. Tho phenomena we had
witnessed purported to bo duo to his presence but ho was, as wo

could all well testify, simply a jiassivo agent
deep interest, or a
strong desire for phenomena on his part, rather tending to prevent
than to bring about manifestations.
"Everything had been foreign to my preconceived id(>as. I had
expected darkness, or, at tho least, very little light and some kind
of dictatorial arrangement called conditions.' I was most agreeably
disappointed.
Mr. Homo showed himself even uioro anxious for
thorough investigation than were his guests. He was a confirmed
invalid, and had just undergone a course of severe treatment.
Ho
suffered from a nervous paralj'sis, which rendered his limbs almost
powerless. I think it well to mention these facts having of lato read
and heard of some of the cxti-aordinary theories whereby persons
ignorant of the subject seek to show the world how tho wonderful
things occiirring in Mr. Homo's presence are accomplished. Mr.
Home conld not have moved a down pillow with his feet, and tho
largo table at which we sat
and which, I may add, rose entirely
from the ground more than once in the course of the evening was an
exceedingly heavy one. We all looked under tho table when it
became suspended in the air, and nothing whatever earthly was in
contact with it. As to the hand all present saw being a stuffed glove,
I shall believe that when I have become convinced that the hand I now
write with is a stuffed glove also.
" I went homo a happy woman. My jirayers that night were tho
overflowings of a heart filled with gratitude to heaven, and the
intensest joy.
Sleep was banished from my eyelids and the hours
passed in a waking dream of delight. Ever and again my thoughts
turned to the new proof of her presence that my darling had pi'omiscd,
and I busied mj'sclf with wondering speculations as to what that
I asked nothing more
for already my soul was
l)roof would be.
satisfied beyond the possibility of doubt
but I felt, and rejoiced to
feel, that some fresh token would be granted me
and so I tried to
concpier my impatience, and to await tho revelation with the calmness
of assured hope.
"In the early morning I wrote a few words to a dearly-valued
friend, asking her to come to me at once.
She arrived and as soon
as we were together I began a recital of the marvels I had seen and
heard. The half was not told when my friend pointed to the bureau,
and said, Did you not hear rappings on that piece of furniture ?
Instantly they were repeated.
It is the signal,' I exclaimed, and it
;
'
'
'
'
JIODERi\ SPIRITUALIS^f.
^02
there the box is hidden.' The key of that drawci' of the bureau
which contained my treasures was in my dressinj^-room. I ran to get
it, and, unlocking the drawer, took out the box, which also was
locked.
With trembling fingers I turned the second key, and lifted
the lid. The little boots
they are light summer ones lay there,
with the white silk elastic uppermost. On the elusiic of one hoot ivas
imprinted a iierfect star, mid in the centre of the star an ei/e. The substance with which it is drawn is black. It has since faded slightly,
but remains still thoroughly distinct. So mathematically perfect is
the drawing that great skill and precision are necessary for an accurate copy to be taken. I have had an engraving made of it, which
Mr. Home will give." (See o^^positc page.) " It is an Gxact facsimile
<)i that cherished token.
At each of the six points there is, as will be
seen, a letter.
United, they form the name of my darling.
" I ordered my carriage at once, and drove to the hotel where Mr.
Home was staying. Let me here state that not only had he never
been within my house, but that u^ to the time of compiling this
account more than two years later from my memoranda taken at
that time, he has not even seen the house to my knowledge or his
own.
While I was showing him my little treasure now doubly
dear manifestations again took place. Naturally I hoped and expected that they would i:)roceed from the one whose life and love had
now become so glorious a certainty to me. Instead, a singular medical
receipt was given, and I was told to use it for my eyes.
I had been,
long a sufferer through an inflammation of the eyelids, and was at
that very time under medical treatment. I made use of the remedy
thus strangely provided, and with most beneficial result; inasmuch
iis I cxiêrienced within only a few days a relief which celebrated
oculists had failed to procure me during a long course of advice.
Thus, apart from that inestimable and never-to-bo-forgotten consolation which God, in His mercy, granted to my soul, I was jihysically
is
benefited.
" I have decided to give these facts to the world from a deep sense
of duty, and from that alone. They will answer, I hope, the Cui
bono ? I have heard of. My darling's visit has come to me as a
ray of the glory of that kingdom where there is neither parting nor
sorrow, where all tears are wiped away, and God alone gives light.
I have not belief, but certitude. The shadows of earth maj' gather
darkly, but through them all pierces the clear splendour of that
star which gleams where He who doeth all things well has in His love
placed it, and lifting my eyes to the bright messenger I can say
with a rejoicing heart
'
'
"I TIIAXK
T3IEE, O
LORD
"
!
APrENDIX.
"
OUR FATHER."
Between two and three years aiô I ivad in a Sîiritualist

Medium and Daybreak, a slioi't poem iâifl to have heen
pnblicatinn.
dictated
hv
There was true poetry in the composition, and

memories were awakened in its jieriisal. It seemed a Avaif from the
,;reat ocean of thontfht, tliat liad drifted down, and found a resting-place.
I knew notliing of the niedium, or liis ^loîtion in life, hut I felt an
irresistil)le desire to write to him.
I reasoned thus
If he is in reality
a medium, my friendly counsels may he of use to him at least, in
teaching him to avoid certain (piicksands where fond hopes have, before
now, been engulfed. I also thought that, if he were not a medium,
and himsi>lf possessed the talent of Avriting such a production as the one
alluded to, it would be only doing right to encourage him in continuing
the spirit of Chattcrton.
develop so beautiful a
terminated in his becoming a
to
gift.
member
correspondence
ensiied,
whicli
my
household in the capacity

I have had most am])le opportunity of stvidying the yoimg
of secretary.
man, and without hesitancy I affirm that I fully believe his poetic talent
Ilisgift is not under his control, and whether
to be a direct inspiration.
and I can see no reason Avhy it sliould not
it be Chattcrton who guides
be the spirit it claims I am well convinced the poetry is not the proof
duction of the medium.
The poem fi-om which 1 am now about to make extracts was partly
when he came to me, and it is (inly very lately that the com-
written
pletion has been given.

(Jhatterton
It purjiorts, as will
through the medium.
"One shadow
still
u])on
J.
my
be seen, to be dictated
life is cast.
One fragment of the sorrows of the past

The hated chain of memorj' links me yet
With days whose deeds I've striven to forget.
Wan from the gulf of Time thej'' rise again
The dead years heavy with that weight of pain
:
by
APPENDIX.
4o6
Whose
When,
presence galled
in
my
me
to sueli Litter mirth.
misery, I walked the earth.
" jMy birth in England was, and England gave

hapless clay the shelter of the grave
T\[y
AVould pity guide a pilgrim to that tonih
By
time eftaced,
But
it
Tully's skull
shares the
was reared
common doom
the Forum o'er,
And
Cromwell's mould'ring frame a gibbet bore

If earth thus fail her mightiest dust to keep,
pauper's bones could scarce in safety sleep
And branded so, 'twould seem, did worms receive
The all I, dying, to man's care could leave.
:
III.
" The deadliest
was that Fate could deal

The single wound my soul was formed to feel.
Secrire I moved from ever^' dart beside
In harness fashioned of despair and pride
And careless where my clay in death should dwell
As is the eaglet of his broken shell.
Had it been laid where birds their carols sing,
stal> it
And
fair flow'rs
leap to greet the fairer spring
Or, on some field that slaughtered thousands saw,

The wild dog gorged, and filled the vulture's maw
Or journeyed
slow^ the
solemn
aisle
along
To where repose the happier sons of song

Had it, where highways met, endured, unfelt,
;
Such shame
Had
as never Avas
each bleached bone
on Nero dealt
proud fate beneath the surge!
Mixed with the dust for which the sea makes dirge,
The rites assigned nor blame nor praise had won
Earth had her earth, and I my life lived on.
Enough, the Furies found a loathlier tomb.
And
left
me
leprous with the paixper's doom.
IV.
"
Soul
and can these
Thy broken
trifles gall
thee yet
shackles wherefore not forget
lieneath the turf
is
laid
now
all
the clay
That moved above it in my fleshly day

Empires since then have ended mighty
Are crumbled utterly as those few bones
throne^t
APPENDIX.
Thai
(iiicf
And now
The
The
its
woi's Inckt'd last,
soul,
undying
i'aci'
east
as the stars, burns on
longings, quenchless as
<,'()ne,
itself,
doth nurse,
pierce the mysteries of the universe."
little furtlirr
mi
tlie
pneni
[jasses IVoiii tlic ])artir,ular to
the general,
as follows the obstructors of progress in the Past:
and sketches
'
ami
are atDUis oVr the eartli's
du.st is utterly as Pindar's
And
To
a spiiiL
407
Such were the bigots whose fierce rage, of old,

Burdened the earth with horrors manifold
Spending in slaughter half their fleshly day.
And
seeming devils clothed awhile with
clay.
Tidings of love and peace' they preached, and came

Ujjon such mission armed with steel and ilanie
'
A city razing for a dogma's sake

And
answering reason with the ready stake.

lands bled their victims yet they still
AfRnned sucb slaughter as their ^Master's will
That deep thougli flowed the sea of human blood,
Christ smiled applause, and Heaven their works held good
And louder, livelier, rang each seraph's lyre
"VVlien chaiuM limits writhed in the consuming fire.
Nor ceased \\\\\\ death the bigot's hate he gave
In
all
The soul to other flames beyond the grave

Made hell of heretics the certain doom
And showed
eternity a fiery toml),
A^liere prisoned soids should endless horrors
While,
pitiless,
know,
the Father watched their woe.
A fable 'twas by every Church received,-

A lie the holiest bosoms half believed
;
Till e'en the martyr, dying, smiled to think
His
foes,
woe must sink.

watch by quencliless
departing, needs to
And hoped
from lieaven
to
fire
The hands enwrapped that lit the funeral pyre.

if bitter to mankind it prove
Alas
To vex with punishment the things they love,
How deep tlic wiie that Deity Avould own
To list unceasing to His children's moan
To mark, still jarring with the seraph's strain.
The (TV of spirits fixed in fiery ])ain.
!
And, glancing doAvnward (ju their torment fell.

See Heaven groAv tarnished with the smoke of Hell
*
Forgive them, Father,' Christ,
if (Christ
Could shine serene among the sons of men
again
APPENDIX.
4oS
Forgive
'
tlicni Lord,'
But passions
would
Jes;i plead,
Qxil as tlieir o'wti
'
who
in Tliee
see
Tliey that, misguided, tliink the falsehood true
Thou, foe to
sin,
must loathe the sinner too
Who, -when Truth heams
the brightest, hold
it
night,
would give their fellowssight';

Forgive them, Father, if they have not known
Thy children's joys and sorrows are Thine own ;
That, wild as sweeps Eternity's wide sea,
Thy love, eolipseless, points a path to Thee
And,
lilind themselves,
And
every chastisement to eiTor given
A balsam is that heals
some soul
for Heaven.'
Aftfr various spirited and beautiful passages which I am reluctantly

In omit, the creeds of humanity are considered in their
compelled
I'elation to
the actual facts of
at his passing
"
from
And
Avhat
is't
spirit-life,
and the view that opens on man
world to the next
this
is
thus described
Constantines or Ctesars find
A judge relentless,
or a father kind
wrought below
some fragment of man's bliss or woe
That perfect in a moment none can be,
Nor hopeless any for eternity;
They learn that of the thousand creeds of earth
Was none that all in error had its birth.
For, cheerful aye through Superstition's night
The glories break of Truth's undying light,
And ethics fair may through foul dogmas show
They
find with every action
Is linked
Like golden threads that in the dull rock glow.

veriest bigot who a text can make
Pretence for all the torment of the stake.
From the same scripture draws command moi-e pure
To clothe and aid the naked and the poor
The Turk, whose Koran's with nncleanness fraught,
That law yet rescues from the drunkard's fault
The Black, the Mongol, each coxild pick at need
The
True jewels from the dunghill of his creed

Pearls radiant with a purity divine.
And
cherished somewhat e'en by Vice's swine.
'Tis thus the various faiths of earth live on.
When
far
from earth their pioneers are gone
Though many an error mars the picture's grace

Some faint shoAV hath it of the Father face.
Some happy trait, by intuition caught.
si
Outweighs the
lines
with priestly falsehood fraught
APPENDIX.
Olisiuivil
ami
And
roi;i;ct llic
hair
what
Thi've iollow.s lunv

IKH'Ui.
if
Ilk'
many
In
to various
still
we view,
wortlik'ss in llie IriR-."
is
assuredly the best portion of the whuU-
liiu's oi" j^reat ibrt'C
l>rarlilcs an' described
and
and
my
and actions
interest the Leliet's
criticized.
authors and divines of
of the C'hurch
luMuty
nH.hIiI, tliat
/5,o'y
have read these stan/as
ac(iuaintance^ncludin<,' a bishop
and even those who dissent most strongly from the views
niil'uMcd agree that they
have seldom heard a finer com])osition.
con-
less
thai i myself incline rather to tlie soft beauty of the concluding
l)art
of the
poem than
lence of the lines
tûcli .space a.s (luite
to the tragic
past question.
is
it
few lines
from an apostrophe
my i] noting it here and it st-ems a pity

content myself, therefore, with (pioting a
as specimens of the many omitted.
Tliey are
;
to the Deity regarding the actions of the
Jews ou
their entrance into Palestine.
''The
Thy
cities
wluTciu heathens
liad
enjoyed
went dowii, and e'en the sites were void

Their masters' clay was cast in bloody graves,
gifts,
Their mistresses remained the murd'rers' slaves

to Gibeah the work was done.
And Israel rested in the vineyards won.
From Dan
Of nations
The maids
wlio
tlieii"
masters late had reigned
alone, to worse than death, remained.
Their lust on these the peojile of the Lord

when each male was smitten with the sword.
For crimes thus vile were Hebrew i)a>ans sung,
For such, have blissful shouts through Jewiy rung
Her prophets praised Thee as a Sii-e wiio joyed
Wj-eaked,
To
see
Thy
sons
by other sons destroyed

Thy throne in Heaven looked down
"Wlio grateful from
As
many a heathen town,

held that servant at the highest worth
rose the .smoke from
And
Whose sword most
fearfully had scoiu-ged the earth.

Such faith the wand'rers had their scriptures still
Bear record that Thy mandate was to kill
In solemn fashion is the story told
Of murder to Thy glory done of old.
And bright as Orient gems the verses glow
That sing of Israel'-s triumphs o'er the ibe.
Skilled was each poet-prophet to impart
The light that dwells within the minstreFs

But yet the glory to those pages given
Was
scarce a
excel-
Tlu> description, however, occupies
to preclude
by extracts.
which may serve
to nuitilate
power here displayed, but the
gleam that had
its
heart,
source in lica\ en."
APPENDIX.
4IO
Tlie first part of " Our Father " eiuls by describing how the conceiitions
regarding the attributes of the Deity which the Hebrew has formed on
earth are gradually abandoned by him on his entrance to a higher life.
The
" change that conies o'er the spirit of his
follows
dream"
is
summed up
as
"
He
with each advance his soul
finds,
A brighter glory round the

In
spirit
And
'
show,
turns he to that heavenly ray
basks in
Then
may
Godhead flow;
cries,
No more
all
the splendour of the day,
enraptured, to the Sire above,
I fear
Thee, Lord, for
Thou
art
Love
"
'
The second part of the poem wants the tragic elevation of the first
is amply compensated by its beauty, and depth of thought.
Here is how the oljsciirement of Christianity by priestcraft is dealt
;
but this
with
:
"
The
mightiest sceptre conqueror ever grasped
That hand now wields which to the Cross was clasped

With lordly diadems doth Earth adorn
The brow that kneAv the piercing of the thorn
;
And when
iii
prayer her children's voices blend,
Thy name, O Cluist

To Thee the incense
And
floats of
many
a shrine,
nations hail Thee as a Prince divine.
-*
55-
Yet
the loudest doth ascend
scarce the purple flung
-;'-
vr
Thy form around
of a secret wound,
though Earth's diadem doth weight it
Judsea's thorns were easier to Thy brow,
Can hide the rankling
And
Nor
all
now
the incense darkling in Tliy praise
May veil from man the sadness of Thy gaze.

He knows Thee not, and sects with sects unite
.-.
In anxious
And
souls
strife to
who
shut Thee from his sight
plead to see Thee as thou art
Are showTi some monster of the
priestly heart
A Christ that never on the earth's face trod,

A hybrid shape, witli naught of man or God."
The mission
to define
"
it
'
of Chiist then
as follows
I come,' of old
To
comes under consideration, and he
thou
saidst,
'
to give earth light,
guide the stumbling steps of
And
man
aright,
whilst this joy o'er others' years I cast
In unshared sorrow must
my own be
pass'd
is
made
APPENDIX.
W'l'iii'v till' );illi,
iuui, wlii-ii lliat ])al1i
'Tis luinc in jujony to pass to
O, MttiT jxirtiou
God
but my pity
Can
\vlii>]Hi' lilessings
The
love that stnvs
bo trod,
still
on the blind wlio
me
thron<^h the
Shall find exitressioii with
And
41
kill
woe
death
ol"
my parting' bi-eath,
my sjiirit stuns,
plead, as Hatred's roar
'Father,
l'or<îve,
for
they too are
Thy
sons
'"
Such stooped on Palestine the Heavenly Uove

His portion, poverty his weapon. Love
man He
The
olive branch of peace to
And
slretvlied that scejjtre every nation o'er
bore,
His partinjf smile Avas joy, his dying prayer

Breathed hojie his murderers that joy naight share.
If oft, whilst adding weary year to year,
Big from his eye would roll the burning tear,
His owni woe never did such drops betray
'Twas that he yearned all tears to wi))e away.
And l)ore and gladly bore the pangs of earth
That others' joy might from his pain have birth
His starry life a bright cxanij)le, given
;
To
point the erring
t()
the i)eace of heaven."
Next we liave a review of the corruptions wliich .gradually crept into

It concludes with the following tine lines
the Churcli.
"
'
His Church's way

I bid ye love,' said Christ,
To read siich Scripture was, He bids Me slay.'
Her dogmas shaped she liiiman doubts to test.
'
And
butchered rebels with a holy zest
And, lest the Hell she preached in myths had birth,

For ages sti'ove to make a hell of earth
The hideous stake she reared, and bleared the sun
With smoke from pyres where devilry was done
And still an imreal Satan cursed, nor knew
Herself was fouler than the Shape she drew.
The Heaven she promised was an arbour, blest
:
With all the languor of eternal rest.

Where lazy saints some droning psalm might
To match the thrillings of a golden lute
suit
Or, journeying slow through never-ending spheres,
In blissful idlesse spend their wealth of years:

Their single task in concert palms to Haunt,
And, gathered round God's throne, Hosannas chant.
Prompt, should Hell's mouths send forth too weird a groan,
With anthems loud to hide the hon-id tone.
APPENDIX.
412
Hull
the terrors round
Alus,
tluit
Were
sucli as ne'er in older Topliets
C^lasped to one liiu'ning bosom, son
it set
met
and sire
Writhe hopelessly in never-slack'ning
fire
The air is flame, the only language, cries

Of tortured spirits howling blasphemies
;
And, mingling with Ihcfê sounds, the serpent's hiss

Or demon's laugh tk)ats wild from the abyss.
And deathless tire is wrapped each heart around,
And every brow with knotted snakes is bound
Whilst livid Furies hang the sufl'erers o'er,
And cry' This torment is for evermore.'
;
No tears are knoAvn for how may tears be shed

Whilst brow and brain seem charged with molten lead
No tears are seen ; but each pale wretch his eye
May lift despairing to a distant sky,

And view, enthroned 'mid Paradise's glow,
An iiumoved Sire who coldly scans his woe
And catch, as zephyrs bear them from above.
;
The echoings
"
And Love Thou

"
anthem God
'
is love.'
truh' art !" proceeds the poet
And Love
As
of the
"
Tlinu truly art
nor ever gave
limit of that boundless love the Grave.
I bow, and thank Tliee, Father, that no sea

Of flame and darkness shuts my soul from Thee
Wide
Yet
are the heavens that of
all too
narrow
Thy
glory
tell,
for the bigot's hell
And still the chastisements Thou shapest prove

Thy justice tempered with exceeding love
;
A love that shall at length be understood

"Wlien all of
Here
my
extracts
ill
hath blossomed into good."
must
The conclusion
cease.
anything given by me, but
.5'
is
at least equal to
can accord no more sj)ace and I trusl,

besides, that some brother spiritualists who can discern nobler things
in spiritualism than dark stances, puppet-shows, and tliii'd-rate jugglery,
will unite to find means whereby so beautiful a composition, and one
that cannot
world in
fail
to reflect
its entii-ety.
honour on our
The fragments
what the poein is

enough elevation of sentiment lunongst
to indicate
poem
cause,
may
be given to the
have printed here will serveas a whole, and I trust there remains
I
spiritualists
to prevent that
])eing lost.
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Daniel Dunglas Home - Lights and Shadows of Spiritualism

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LIGHTS AND SHADOWS

LIGHTS AND SHADOWS

AXD CHEAPER EDITIOX

loving sympathy and constant care have soothed

of trial and pain, and

composing a work, the end and aim of which

whose superior counsels have

Truth on a plane where honest lovers of

such Truth would not have cause to blush

spiritualism as old as mu- Planot.

ASSYIUA, CHALDEA, EGYPT, AND PERSIA.

" Ghaldca's Sccrs were good."

Prophecy of Alexandor'a Death.

Sethon and Psammetithe Pyramids.

ApoUonius and the Brahmins. The Creed of "Nirvana."

GREECE AND ROME.

Famous Spiritualists of Hellas. Communion between World and

SPIRITUALISM IN THE JEWISH AND CHRISTIAN ERAS.

THE SrmiTUALISM OF THE

Unseen Armies who aided

Trinmiih of the Cross

THE Sn RITUAL IX THE EAKLY CHRISTIAN" CHURCH.

SPIRITUALISM IX CATHOLIC AGES.

St. Bernard. The Case of MademoiAbbe Paris. The Lives of the

the Death of Ganganelli

THE SHADOW OF CATHOLIC SPIRITUALISM.

'limes of the Papacy.

The Record of the Dark Ages. Mission and

THE SPIRITUALISM OF THE WALDEXSES

I'llOTESTANT .si'UUTf ALIbM.

and Satan. Calvin. Wisharl's

CKIUAIN GREAT SEERS.

"The Ivcveriosof Jacob Bclrmcn." Swcdenborg's Character and Te;iehings.

Two ex-Reverends claim to be the Witnesses

American False Prophets.

Allan Kardec's Communication

Revival of Pythagorean Dreams.

PEOPLE FROM THB OTHER WORLD.

Gropings in the Dark. The Spirit whose naniL-

Strange Logic and stranger Theories

Greek meets Greek." The Spirit-Costume of Oliver Cromwell.

Letter from Serjeant Cox.

Tlu! Passing of Matter through Matter.

reading of Sealed Letters

Story regarding a Coffin.

THE FAITHS OF AXCIENT PEOPLES.

the fragmentary records vrbicli, with

shattered temples and decaying

form the only remaining

once great upon the earth,

evidences of the vividness with

from another world broke in upon

Pagans of the East.

foundation of a belief that spirit visits were neither few

nor far between every mythology of those far-back times was

The most superhuman

and abominable crimes, of

Chaldean, Phoenician, Egyptian, Hebrew, Greek, and Roman, arc

the truth that

at times largely perverted to evil.

side with noble natures,

yet higher and purer by

with high and pure minds that no longer tenanted the