{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_69454/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_69454","id":"gutenberg_69454","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/69454","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Spiritualism"],"text":"A DEFENCE\n                                   OF\n                          MODERN SPIRITUALISM.\n\n\n                                    BY\n\n                       ALFRED R. WALLACE, F. R. S.,\n\n AUTHOR OF \u201cTHE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO,\u201d \u201cEXPLORATIONS\n      ON THE AMAZON,\u201d \u201cTHE THEORY OF NATURAL SELECTION,\u201d ETC., ETC.\n\n\n                              WITH A PREFACE\n\n                             BY EPES SARGENT.\n\n                             SECOND THOUSAND.\n\n\n                                 BOSTON:\n\n                             COLBY AND RICH,\n\n                           9 MONTGOMERY PLACE.\n\n                                  1874.\n\n\n\n\n                                PREFACE.\n\n                  *       *       *       *       *\n\n\nThe signs are, that both the moral and the religious systems of the\nfuture will be greatly modified by the advance of science. They will be\nmore and more conformed to the facts of nature; not only to the facts\nwhich a diligent Materialism, working in a single direction, has brought\nto light, but to the transcendent facts which Modern Spiritualism has\nrestored and proved. The one order of facts is incomplete without the\nother; and Materialism is as surely doomed to be encircled and\ntransfigured by the wider horizon of Spiritualism, as the Ptolemaic\nsystem of the universe was doomed to be superseded by the Copernican.\n\nUnpopular facts often encounter an opposition quite as persistent as\nthat which follows unpopular theories; and so intelligent Spiritualists\nare not disturbed by the antagonism which their facts have met with from\nthe Huxleys, Tyndalls, Carpenters, and B\u00fcchners of our day. All these\nmen, working as they are for science in their different ways, though\nunder the disadvantage of an ignorance of certain phenomena of vast\nsignificance, are welcomed as fellow-laborers in the cause of truth by\nSpiritualists; for the latter, relying on their facts, are confident\nthat genuine Science includes them all, and that every new discovery\nmust be in harmony with all that they hold as true. Opposition to the\nphenomena, proceeding as it does from lack of knowledge, simply\nindicates the magnitude and astonishing character of the facts\nthemselves, which could excite such incredulity in the face of such\noverwhelming testimony.\n\nAmong the men of science who have either admitted the facts, or both the\nfacts and the theory, of Spiritualism, are Hare, chemist; Varley, F. R.\nS., electrician; Flammarion, astronomer; Crookes, F. R. S., chemist;\nHoefle, author of the \u201cHistory of Chemistry;\u201d Nichols, chemist; Fichte,\nphilosopher; Liais, astronomer; Hermann Goldschmidt, astronomer, and the\ndiscoverer of fourteen planets; Von Esenbach, the greatest modern German\nbotanist; Huggins, F. R. S., astronomer and spectroscopist; De Morgan,\nmathematician; Dille, physicist; Elliotson, Ashburner, and Gray,\nphysicians and surgeons. To no one eminent man of science, however, has\nSpiritualism been more indebted than to Alfred Russell Wallace, F. R.\nS., distinguished for his researches in natural history, paleontology,\nand anthropology. His \u201cDefence of Spiritualism,\u201d here presented,\nappeared originally in the London Fortnightly Review for May and June,\n1874. Containing as it does the latest facts, no better tract for\nSpiritualists to offer as an answer to their opponents has yet appeared.\n\nMr. Wallace, though he arrived, simultaneously with Mr. Darwin, at\nsimilar conclusions in regard to the origin of species, differs from him\non a most important point; for Mr. Wallace believes that \u201ca superior\nintelligence is necessary to account for man.\u201d His acquaintance with the\nphenomena of Spiritualism must always give him, in the sweep and\ncomprehensiveness of his anthropology, a great advantage over Mr.\nDarwin. Besides his great work on the \u201cNatural History of the Malay\nArchipelago,\u201d and an account of his \u201cExplorations on the Amazon,\u201d Mr.\nWallace is the author of \u201cThe Theory of Natural Selection,\u201d and of many\nvaluable papers in scientific journals. Dr. Hooker, president of the\nBritish Scientific Association, wrote, in 1868, \u201cOf Mr. Wallace, and his\nmany contributions to philosophical biology, it is not easy to speak\nwithout enthusiasm; for, putting aside their great merits, he,\nthroughout his many writings, with a modesty as rare as I believe it to\nbe in him unconscious, forgets his own unquestionable claims to the\nhonor of having originated, independently of Mr. Darwin, the theories\nwhich he so ably defends.\u201d\n\nThe testimony of such an investigator as Mr. Wallace in behalf of the\nstupendous phenomena of Spiritualism is not to be lightly put aside or\nignored. What can be said in reply to such an array of facts as he\npresents?\n\n                                                                   E. S.\n\n\n\n\n                               A DEFENCE\n                                   OF\n                          MODERN SPIRITUALISM.\n\n                  *       *       *       *       *\n\n\nIt is with great diffidence, but under an imperative sense of duty, that\nthe present writer accepts the opportunity afforded him of submitting to\nhis readers some general account of a widespread movement, which, though\nfor the most part treated with ridicule or contempt, he believes to\nembody truths of the most vital importance to human progress.[1] The\nsubject to be treated is of such vast extent, the evidence concerning it\nis so varied and so extraordinary, the prejudices that surround it are\nso inveterate, that it is not possible to do it justice without entering\ninto considerable detail. The reader who ventures on the perusal of the\nsucceeding pages may, therefore, have his patience tried; but if he is\nable to throw aside his preconceived ideas of what is possible and what\nis impossible, and in the acceptance or rejection of the evidence\nsubmitted to him will carefully weigh and be solely guided by the nature\nof the concurrent testimony, the writer ventures to believe that he will\nnot find his time and patience ill bestowed.\n\nFootnote 1:\n\n  The following are the more important works which have been used in the\n  preparation of this article: Judge Edmonds\u2019s \u201cSpiritual Tracts,\u201d New\n  York, 1858\u20131860. Robert Dale Owen\u2019s \u201cFootfalls on the Boundary of\n  Another World,\u201d Tr\u00fcbner & Co., 1861. E. Hardinge\u2019s \u201cModern American\n  Spiritualism,\u201d New York, 1870. Robert Dale Owen\u2019s \u201cDebatable Land\n  between this World and the Next,\u201d Tr\u00fcbner & Co., 1871. \u201cReport on\n  Spiritualism of the Committee of the London Dialectical Society,\u201d\n  Longmans & Co., 1871. \u201cYear-Book of Spiritualism,\u201d Boston and London,\n  1871. Hudson Tuttle\u2019s \u201cArcana of Spiritualism,\u201d Boston, 1871. The\n  Spiritual Magazine, 1861\u20131874. The Spiritualist Newspaper, 1872\u20131874.\n  The Medium and Daybreak, 1869\u20131874.\n\nFew men, in this busy age, have leisure to read massive volumes devoted\nto special subjects. They gain much of their general knowledge, outside\nthe limits of their profession or of any peculiar study, by means of\nperiodical literature; and, as a rule, they are supplied with copious\nand accurate, though general, information. Some of our best thinkers and\nworkers make known the results of their researches to the readers of\nmagazines and reviews; and it is seldom that a writer whose information\nis meagre, or obtained at second-hand, is permitted to come before the\npublic in their pages as an authoritative teacher. But as regards the\nsubject we are now about to consider, this rule has not hitherto been\nfollowed. Those who have devoted many years to an examination of its\nphenomena have been, in most cases, refused a hearing; while men who\nhave bestowed on it no adequate attention, and are almost wholly\nignorant of the researches of others, have alone supplied the\ninformation to which a large proportion of the public have had access.\nIn support of this statement it is necessary to refer, with brief\ncomments, to some of the more prominent articles in which the phenomena\nand pretensions of Spiritualism have been recently discussed.\n\nAt the beginning of the present year the readers of this Review were\ntreated to \u201cExperiences of Spiritualism,\u201d by a writer of no mean\nability, and of thoroughly advanced views. He assures his readers that\nhe \u201cconscientiously endeavored to qualify himself for speaking on this\nsubject\u201d by attending five s\u00e9ances, the details of several of which he\nnarrates; and he comes to the conclusion that mediums are by no means\ningenious deceivers, but \u201cjugglers of the most vulgar order;\u201d that the\n\u201cspiritualistic mind falls a victim to the most patent frauds,\u201d and\ngreedily \u201caccepts jugglery as manifestations of spirits\u201d; and, lastly,\nthat the mediums are as credulous as their dupes, and fall straightway\ninto any trap that is laid for them. Now, on the evidence before him,\nand on the assumption that no more or better evidence would have been\nforthcoming had he devoted fifty instead of five evenings to the\ninquiry, the conclusions of Lord Amberley are perfectly logical; but, so\nfar from what he witnessed being a \u201cspecimen of the kind of\nmanifestations by which Spiritualists are convinced,\u201d a very little\nacquaintance with the literature of the subject would have shown him\nthat no Spiritualist of any mark was ever convinced by any quantity of\nsuch evidence. In an article published since Lord Amberley\u2019s\u2014in London\nSociety for February\u2014the author, a barrister and well-known literary\nman, says:\n\n  \u201cIt was difficult for me to give in to the idea that solid objects\n  could be conveyed, invisibly, through closed doors, or that heavy\n  furniture could be moved without the interposition of hands.\n  Philosophers will say these things are absolutely impossible;\n  nevertheless, it is absolutely certain that they do occur. I have met\n  in the houses of private friends, as witnesses of these phenomena,\n  persons whose testimony would go for a good deal in a court of\n  justice. They have included peers, members of parliament, diplomatists\n  of the highest rank, judges, barristers, physicians, clergymen,\n  members of learned societies, chemists, engineers, journalists, and\n  thinkers of all sorts and degrees. They have suggested and carried\n  into effect tests of the most rigid and satisfactory character. The\n  media (all non-professional) have been searched before and after\n  s\u00e9ances. The precaution has even been taken of providing them\n  unexpectedly with other apparel. They have been tied; they have been\n  sealed; they have been secured in every cunning and dexterous manner\n  that ingenuity could devise, but no deception has been discovered and\n  no imposture brought to light. Neither was there any motive for\n  imposture. No fee or reward of any kind depended upon the success or\n  non-success of the manifestations.\u201d\n\nNow here we have a nice question of probabilities. We must either\nbelieve that Lord Amberley is almost infinitely more acute than Mr.\nDunphy and his host of eminent friends\u2014so that after five s\u00e9ances (most\nof them failures) he has got to the bottom of a mystery in which they,\nnotwithstanding their utmost endeavors, still hopelessly flounder\u2014or,\nthat the noble lord\u2019s acuteness does not surpass the combined acuteness\nof all these persons; in which case their much larger experience, and\ntheir having witnessed many things Lord Amberley has not witnessed, must\nbe held to have the greater weight, and to show, at all events, that all\nmediums are not \u201cjugglers of the most vulgar order.\u201d\n\nIn October last the New Quarterly Magazine, in its opening number, had\nan article entitled \u201cA Spiritualistic S\u00e9ance;\u201d but which proved to be an\naccount of certain ingenious contrivances by which some of the phenomena\nusual at s\u00e9ances were imitated, and both Spiritualists and skeptics\ndeceived and confounded. This appears at first sight to be an exposure\nof Spiritualism, but it is really very favorable to its pretensions; for\nit goes on the assumption that the marvelous phenomena witnessed do\nreally occur, but are produced by various mechanical contrivances. In\nthis case the rooms above, below, and at the side of that in which the\ns\u00e9ance was held had to be prepared with specially constructed machinery,\nwith assistants to work it. The apparatus, as described, would cost at\nleast \u00a3100, and would then only serve to produce a few fixed phenomena,\nsuch as happen frequently in private houses and at the lodgings of\nmediums who have not exclusive possession of any of the adjoining rooms,\nor the means of obtaining expensive machinery and hired assistants. The\narticle bears internal evidence of being altogether a fictitious\nnarrative; but it helps to demonstrate, if any demonstration is\nrequired, that the phenomena which occur under such protean forms and\nvaried conditions, and in private houses quite as often as at the\napartments of the mediums, are in no way produced by machinery.\n\nPerhaps the most prominent recent attack on Spiritualism was that in the\nQuarterly Review for October, 1871, which is known to have been written\nby an eminent physiologist, and did much to blind the public to the real\nnature of the movement. This article, after giving a light sketch of the\nreported phenomena, entered into some details as to planchette-writing\nand table-lifting\u2014facts on which no Spiritualist depends as evidence to\na third party\u2014and then proceeded to define its standpoint as follows:\n\n  \u201cOur position, then, is that the so-called spiritual communications\n  come from _within_, not from without, the individuals who suppose\n  themselves to be the recipients of them; that they belong to the class\n  termed \u2018subjective\u2019 by physiologists and psychologists, and that the\n  movements by which they are expressed, whether the tilting of tables\n  or the writing of planchettes, are really produced by their own\n  muscular action exerted independently of their own wills and quite\n  unconsciously to themselves.\u201d\n\nSeveral pages are then devoted to accounts of s\u00e9ances which, like Lord\nAmberley\u2019s, were mostly failures; and to the experiences of a Bath\nclergyman who believed that the communications came from devils; and,\ngenerally, such weak and inconclusive phenomena only are adduced as can\nbe easily explained by the well-worn formul\u00e6 of \u201cunconscious\ncerebration,\u201d \u201cexpectant attention,\u201d and \u201cunconscious muscular action.\u201d\nA few of the more startling physical phenomena are mentioned merely to\nbe discredited and the judgment of the witnesses impugned; but no\nattempt is made to place before the reader any information as to the\namount or the weight of the testimony to such phenomena, or to the long\nseries of diverse phenomena which lead up to and confirm them. Some of\nthe experiments of Prof. Hare and Mr. Crookes are quoted and criticised\nin the spirit of assuming that these experienced physicists were\nignorant of the simplest principles of mechanics, and failed to use the\nmost ordinary precautions. Of the numerous and varied cases on record,\nof heavy bodies being moved without direct or indirect contact by any\nhuman being, no notice is taken, except so far as quoting Mr. C. F.\nVarley\u2019s statement, that he had seen, in broad daylight, a small table\nmoved ten feet, with no one near it but himself, and not touched by\nhim\u2014\u201cas an example of the manner in which minds of this limited order\nare apt to become the dupes of their own imaginings.\u201d\n\nThis article, like the others here referred to, shows in the writer an\nutter forgetfulness of the maxim, that an argument is not answered till\nit is answered at its best. Amid the vast mass of recorded facts now\naccumulated by Spiritualists, there is, of course, much that is weak and\ninconclusive, much that is of no value as evidence, except to those who\nhave independent reasons for faith in them. From this undigested mass it\nis the easiest thing in the world to pick out arguments that can be\nrefuted and facts that can be explained away; but what is that to the\npurpose? It is not these that have convinced any one; but those\nweightier, oft-repeated and oft-tested facts which the writers referred\nto invariably ignore.\n\nProf. Tyndall has also given the world (in his \u201cFragments of Science,\u201d\npublished in 1871) some account of his attempt to investigate these\nphenomena. Again, we have a minute record of a s\u00e9ance which was a\nfailure, and in which the Professor, like Lord Amberley, easily imposed\non some too credulous Spiritualists by improvising a few manifestations\nof his own. The article in question is dated as far back as 1864. We may\ntherefore conclude that the Professor has not seen much of the subject;\nnor can he have made himself acquainted with what others have seen and\ncarefully verified, or he would hardly have thought his communication\nworthy of the place it occupies among original researches and positive\nadditions to human knowledge. Both its facts and its reasonings have\nbeen well replied to by Mr. Patrick Fraser Alexander, in his little work\nentitled \u201cSpiritualism; a Narrative and a Discussion,\u201d which we\nrecommend to those who care to see how a very acute yet unprejudiced\nmind looks at the phenomena, and how inconclusive, even from a\nscientific standpoint, are the experiences adduced by Prof. Tyndall.\n\nThe discussion in the Pall Mall Gazette in 1868, and a considerable\nprivate correspondence, indicates that scientific men almost invariably\nassume that, in this inquiry, they should be permitted, at the very\noutset, to impose conditions; and if, under such conditions, nothing\nhappens, they consider it a proof of imposture or delusion. But they\nwell know that, in all other branches of research, Nature, not they,\ndetermines the essential conditions, without a compliance with which no\nexperiment will succeed. These conditions have to be learnt by a patient\nquestioning of Nature, and they are different for each branch of\nscience. How much more may they be expected to differ in an inquiry\nwhich deals with subtle forces of the nature of which the physicist is\nwholly and absolutely ignorant! To ask to be allowed to deal with these\nunknown phenomena as he has hitherto dealt with known phenomena, is\npractically to prejudge the question, since it assumes that both are\ngoverned by the same laws.\n\nFrom the sketch which has now been given of the recent treatment of the\nsubject by popular and scientific writers, we can summarize pretty\naccurately their mental attitude in regard to it. They have seen very\nlittle of the phenomena themselves, and they cannot believe that others\nhave seen much more. They have encountered people who are easily\ndeceived by a little unexpected trickery, and they conclude that the\nconvictions of Spiritualists generally are founded on phenomena\nproduced, either consciously or unconsciously, in a similar way. They\nare so firmly convinced, on _a priori_ grounds, that the more remarkable\nphenomena said to happen do not really happen, that they will back their\nconviction against the direct testimony of any body of men, preferring\nto believe that they are all the victims of some mysterious delusion\nwhenever imposture is out of the question. To influence persons in this\nframe of mind, it is evident that _more_ personal testimony to isolated\nfacts is utterly useless. They have, to use the admirable expression of\nDr. Carpenter, \u201cno place in the existing fabric of their thought into\nwhich such facts can be fitted.\u201d It is necessary, therefore, to modify\nthe \u201cfabric of thought\u201d itself; and it appears to the present writer\nthat this can best be done by a general historic sketch of the subject,\nand by showing, by separate lines of inquiry, how wide and varied is the\nevidence, and how remarkably these lines converge toward one uniform\nconclusion. The endeavor will be made to indicate, by typical examples\nof each class of evidence and without unnecessary detail, the cumulative\nforce of the argument.\n\n\n\n\n                           HISTORICAL SKETCH.\n\n\nModern Spiritualism dates from March, 1848; it being then that, for the\nfirst time, intelligent communications were held with the unknown cause\nof the mysterious knockings and other sounds, similar to those which had\ndisturbed the Mompesson and Wesley families in the seventeenth and\neighteenth centuries. This discovery was made by Miss Kate Fox, a girl\nof nine years old, and the first recognized example of an extensive\nclass now known as mediums. It is worthy of remark that this very first\n\u201cmodern spiritual manifestation\u201d was subjected to the test of unlimited\nexamination by all the inhabitants of the village of Hydesville, New\nYork. Though all were utter skeptics, no one could discover any cause\nfor the noises, which continued, though with less violence, when all the\nchildren had left the house. Nothing is more common than the remark that\nit is absurd and illogical to impute noises, of which we cannot discover\nthe cause, to the agency of spirits. So it undoubtedly is when the\nnoises are merely noises; but is it so illogical when these noises turn\nout to be signals, and signals which spell out a fact, which fact,\nthough wholly unknown to all present, turns out to be true? Yet, on this\nvery first occasion, twenty-six years ago, the signals declared that a\nmurdered man was buried in the cellar of the house; it indicated the\nexact spot in the cellar under which the body lay; and upon digging\nthere, at a depth of six or seven feet, considerable portions of a human\nskeleton were found. Yet more: the name of the murdered man was given,\nand it was ascertained that such a person had visited that very house\nand had disappeared five years before, and had never been heard of\nsince. The signals further declared that he, the murdered man, was the\nsignaller; and as all the witnesses had satisfied themselves that the\nsignals were not made by any living person or by any assignable cause,\nthe logical conclusion from the facts was, that it _was_ the spirit[2]\nof the murdered man; although such a conclusion might be to some in the\nhighest degree improbable, and to others in the highest degree absurd.\n\nFootnote 2:\n\n  It may be as well here to explain that the word \u201cspirit,\u201d which is\n  often considered to be so objectionable by scientific men, is used\n  throughout this article (or at all events in the earlier portions of\n  it) merely to avoid circumlocution, in the sense of the \u201cintelligent\n  cause of the phenomena,\u201d and not as implying \u201cthe spirits of the\n  dead,\u201d unless so expressly stated.\n\nThe Misses Fox now became involuntary mediums, and the family (which had\nremoved to the city of Rochester) were accused of imposture, and offered\nto submit the children to examination by a committee of townsmen\nappointed in public meeting. Three committees were successively\nappointed; the last, composed of violent skeptics who had accused the\nprevious committees of stupidity or connivance. But all three, after\nunlimited investigation, were forced to declare that the cause of the\nphenomena was undiscoverable. The sounds occurred on the wall and floor\nwhile the mediums, after being thoroughly searched by ladies, \u201cstood on\npillows, barefooted, and with their clothes tied round their ankles.\u201d\nThe last and most skeptical committee reported that, \u201cThey had heard\nsounds, and failed utterly to discover their origin. They had proved\nthat neither machinery nor imposture had been used; and their questions,\n_many of them being mental_, were answered correctly.\u201d When we consider\nthat the mediums were two children under twelve years of age, and the\nexaminers utterly skeptical American citizens, thoroughly resolved to\ndetect imposture, and urged on by excited public meetings, it may\nperhaps be considered that even at this early stage the question of\nimposture or delusion was pretty well settled in the negative.\n\nIn a short time persons who sat with the Misses Fox found themselves to\nhave similar powers in a greater or less degree; and in two or three\nyears the movement had spread over a large part of the United States,\ndeveloping into a variety of strange forms, encountering the most\nviolent skepticism and the most rancorous hostility, yet always\nprogressing, and making converts even among the most enlightened and\nbest educated classes. In 1851, some of the most intelligent men in New\nYork\u2014judges, senators, doctors, lawyers, merchants, clergymen and\nauthors\u2014formed themselves into a society for investigation. Judge\nEdmonds was one of these; and a sketch of the kind and amount of\nevidence that was required to convince him will be given further on. In\n1854 a second spiritual society was formed in New York. It had the names\nof four judges and two physicians among its Vice-Presidents, showing\nthat the movement had by this time become respectable, and that men in\nhigh social positions were not afraid of identifying themselves with it.\nA little later Professor Mapes, an eminent agricultural chemist, was led\nto undertake the investigation of Spiritualism. He formed a circle of\ntwelve friends, most of them men of talent, and skeptics, who bound\nthemselves to sit together weekly, with a medium, twenty times. For the\nfirst eighteen evenings the phenomena were so trivial and unsatisfactory\nthat most of the party felt disgusted at the loss of time; but the last\ntwo sittings produced phenomena of so startling a character that the\ninvestigation was continued by the same circle _for four years, and all\nbecame Spiritualists_.\n\nBy this time the movement had spread into every part of the Union, and,\nnotwithstanding that its adherents were abused as impostors or dupes,\nthat they were in several cases expelled from colleges and churches and\nwere confined as lunatics, and that the whole thing was \u201cexplained\u201d over\nand over again\u2014it has continued to spread up to the present hour. The\nsecret of this appears to have been, that the explanations given never\napplied to the phenomena continually occurring, and of which there were\nnumerous witnesses. A medium was raised in the air in a crowded room in\nfull daylight. (\u201cModern American Spiritualism,\u201d p. 279.) A scientific\nskeptic prepared a small portable apparatus, by which he could produce\nan instantaneous illumination; and, taking it to a dark s\u00e9ance at which\nnumerous musical instruments were played, suddenly lighted up the room\nwhile a large drum was being violently beaten, in the certain\nexpectation of revealing the impostor to the whole company. But what\nthey all saw was the drumstick itself beating the drum, with no human\nbeing near it. It struck a few more blows, then rose into the air and\ndescended gently on to the shoulder of a lady. (Same work, p. 337.) At\nToronto, Canada, in a well-lighted room, an accompaniment to a song was\nplayed on a closed and locked piano. (Same work, p. 463.) Communications\nwere given in raised letters on the arm of an ignorant servant girl, who\noften could not read them. They sometimes appeared while she was at her\nhousehold work, and after being read by her master or mistress would\ndisappear. (Same work, p. 196.) Letters closed in any number of\nenvelopes, sealed up of even pasted together over the whole of the\nwritten surface, were read and answered by certain mediums in whom this\nspecial power was developed. It mattered not what language the letters\nwere written in; and it is upon record that letters in German, Greek,\nHebrew, Arabic, Chinese, French, Welsh and Mexican, have been correctly\nanswered in the corresponding languages by a medium who knew none of\nthem. (Judge Edmonds\u2019s \u201cLetters on Spiritualism,\u201d pp. 59\u2013103, Appendix.)\nOther mediums drew portraits of deceased persons whom they had never\nknown or heard of. Others healed diseases. But those who helped most to\nspread the belief were, perhaps, the trance-speakers, who, in eloquent\nand powerful language, developed the principles and the uses of\nSpiritualism, answered objections, spread abroad a knowledge of the\nphenomena, and thus induced skeptics to inquire into the facts; and\ninquiry was almost invariably followed by conversion. Having repeatedly\nlistened to three of these speakers who have visited this country, I can\nbear witness that they fully equal, and not unfrequently surpass our\nbest orators and preachers; whether in finished eloquence, in close and\nlogical argument, or in the readiness with which appropriate and\nconvincing replies are made to all objectors. They are also remarkable\nfor the perfect courtesy and suavity of their manner, and for the\nextreme patience and gentleness with which they meet the most violent\nopposition and the most unjust accusations.\n\nMen of the highest rank and greatest ability became convinced by these\nvaried phenomena. No amount of education, of legal, medical or\nscientific training, was proof against the overwhelming force of the\nfacts, whenever these facts were systematically and perseveringly\ninquired into. The number of Spiritualists in the Union is, according to\nthose who have the best means of judging, from eight to eleven millions.\nThis is the estimate of Judge Edmonds, who has had extensive\ncorrespondence on the subject with every part of the United States. The\nHon. R. D. Owen, who has also had great opportunities of knowing the\nfacts, considers it to be approximately correct; and it is affirmed by\nthe editors of the \u201cYear-Book of Spiritualism\u201d for 1871. These numbers\nhave been held to be absurdly exaggerated by persons having less\ninformation, especially by strangers who have made superficial inquiries\nin America; but it must be remembered that the Spiritualists are to a\nvery limited extent an organized body, and that the mass of them make no\npublic profession of their belief, but still remain members of some\ndenominational church\u2014circumstances that would greatly deceive an\noutsider. Nevertheless, the organization is of considerable extent.\nThere were in America, in 1870, 20 State Associations and 105 Societies\nof Spiritualists, 207 lecturers, and about the same number of public\nmediums.\n\nIn other parts of the world the movement has progressed more or less\nrapidly. Several of the more celebrated American mediums have visited\nthis country, and not only made converts in all classes of society, but\nled to the formation of private circles and the discovery of mediumistic\npower in hundreds of families. There is scarcely a city or a\nconsiderable town in Continental Europe at the present moment where\nSpiritualists are not reckoned by hundreds, if not by thousands. There\nare said, on good authority, to be fifty thousand avowed Spiritualists\nin Paris and ten thousand in Lyons; and the numbers in England may be\nroughly estimated by the fact that there are four exclusively spiritual\nperiodicals, one of which has a circulation of five thousand weekly.\n\n\n\n\n                 DEDUCTIONS FROM THE PRECEDING SKETCH.\n\n\nBefore proceeding to a statement of the evidence which has convinced the\nmore educated and more skeptical converts, let us consider briefly the\nbearing of the undoubted fact, that (to keep within bounds) many\nthousands of well-informed men, belonging to all classes of society and\nall professions, have, in each of the great civilized nations of the\nworld, acknowledged the objective reality of these phenomena; although,\nalmost without exception, they at first viewed them with dislike or\ncontempt, as impostures or delusions. There is nothing parallel to it in\nthe history of human thought; because there never before existed so\nstrong and apparently so well-founded a conviction that phenomena of\nthis kind never have happened and never can happen. It is often said,\nthat the number of adherents to a belief is no proof of its truth. This\nremark justly applies to most religions whose arguments appeal to the\nemotions and the intellect but not to the evidence of the senses. It is\nequally just as applied to a great part of modern science. The almost\nuniversal belief in gravitation, and in the undulatory theory of light,\ndoes not render them in any degree more probable; because very few\nindeed of the believers have tested the facts which most convincingly\ndemonstrate those theories, or are able to follow out the reasoning by\nwhich they are demonstrated. It is for the most part a blind belief\naccepted upon authority. But with these spiritual phenomena the case is\nvery different. They are to most men so new, so strange, so incredible,\nso opposed to their whole habit of thought, so apparently opposed to the\npervading scientific spirit of the age, that they cannot and do not\naccept them on second-hand evidence, as they do almost every other kind\nof knowledge. The thousands or millions of Spiritualists, therefore,\nrepresent to a very large extent men who have witnessed, examined, and\ntested the evidence for themselves, over and over and over again, till\nthat which they had at first been unable to admit _could_ be true, they\nhave at last been compelled to acknowledge _is_ true. This accounts for\nthe utter failure of all the attempted \u201cexposures\u201d and \u201cexplanations\u201d to\nconvince one solitary believer of his error. The exposers and explainers\nhave never got beyond those first difficulties which constitute the\n_pons asinorum_ of Spiritualism, which every believer has to get over,\nbut at which early stage of investigation no converts are ever made. By\nexplaining table-turning, or table-tilting, or raps, you do not\ninfluence a man who was never convinced by these, but who, in broad\ndaylight, sees objects move without contact, and behave as if guided by\nintelligent beings; and who sees this in a variety of forms, in a\nvariety of places, and under such varied and stringent conditions, as to\nmake the fact to him just as real as the movement of iron to the magnet.\nBy explaining automatic writing (which itself convinces no one but the\nwriter, and not always even him), you do not affect the belief of the\nman who has obtained writing when neither pencil nor paper was touched\nby any one; or has seen a hand not attached to any human body take up a\npencil and write; or; as Mr. Andrew Leighton, of Liverpool, testifies,\nhas seen a pencil rise of itself on a table and write the words: \u201c_And\nis this world of strife to end in dust at last?_\u201d Thus it is that there\nare so few recantations or perverts in Spiritualism; so few, that it may\nbe truly said there are none. After much inquiry and reading I can find\nno example of a man who, having acquired a good personal knowledge of\nall the chief phases of the phenomena, has subsequently come to\ndisbelieve in their reality. If the \u201cexplanations\u201d and \u201cexposures\u201d were\ngood for anything, or if it were an imposture to expose or a delusion to\nexplain, this could not be the case, because there are numbers of men\nwho have become convinced of the facts, but who have not accepted the\nspiritual theory. These are, for the most part, in an uncomfortable and\nunsettled frame of mind, and would gladly welcome an explanation which\nreally explained anything\u2014but they find it not. As an eminent example of\nthis class, I may mention Dr. J. Lockhart Robertson, long one of the\neditors of the Journal of Mental Science\u2014a physician who, having made\nmental disease his special study, would not be easily taken in by any\npsychological delusions. The phenomena he witnessed fourteen years ago\nwere of a violent character; a very strong table being, at his own\nrequest and in his own house, broken to pieces while he held the\nmedium\u2019s hands. He afterwards himself tried to break a remaining leg of\nthe table, but failed to do so after exerting all his strength. Another\ntable was tilted over while all the party sat on it. He subsequently had\na sitting with Mr. Home, and witnessed the usual phenomena occurring\nwith that extraordinary medium\u2014such as the accordion playing \u201cmost\nwonderful music without any human agency,\u201d \u201ca shadow hand, not that of\nany one present, which lifts a pencil and writes with it,\u201d &c., &c.; and\nhe says that he can \u201cno more doubt the physical manifestations of\n(so-called) Spiritualism than he would any other fact\u2014as, for example,\nthe fall of an apple to the ground of which his senses informed him.\u201d\nHis record of these phenomena, with the confirmation by a friend who was\npresent, is published in the \u201cDialectical Society\u2019s Report on\nSpiritualism,\u201d p. 247; and, at a meeting of Spiritualists in 1870, he\nreasserted the facts, but denied their spiritual origin. To such a man\nthe Quarterly Reviewer\u2019s explanations are worthless; yet it may be\nsafely said, that every advanced Spiritualist has seen more remarkable,\nmore varied, and even more inexplicable phenomena than those recorded by\nDr. Robertson, and is therefore still further out of reach of the\narguments referred to, which are indeed only calculated to convince\nthose who know little or nothing of the matter.\n\n\n\n\n                         EVIDENCE OF THE FACTS.\n\n\nThe subject of the evidences of the objective phenomena of Spiritualism\nis such a large one that it will be only possible here to give a few\ntypical examples, calculated to show how wide is their range, and how\nconclusively they reach every objection that the most skeptical have\nbrought against them. This may perhaps be best done by giving, in the\nfirst place, an outline of the career of two or three well-known\nmediums; and, in the second, a sketch of the experiences and\ninvestigations of a few of the more remarkable converts to Spiritualism.\n\n_Career of Remarkable Mediums._\u2014Miss Kate Fox, the little girl of nine\nyears old, who, as already stated, was the first \u201cmedium\u201d in the modern\nsense of the term, has continued to possess the same power for\ntwenty-six years. At the very earliest stages of the movement, skeptic\nafter skeptic, committee after committee endeavored to discover \u201cthe\ntrick;\u201d but if it was a trick this little girl baffled them all, and the\nproverbial acuteness of the Yankee was of no avail. In 1860, when Dr.\nRobert Chambers visited America, he suggested to his friend, Robert Dale\nOwen, the use of a balance to test the lifting power. They accordingly,\nwithout pre\u00e4rrangement with the medium, took with them a powerful\nsteelyard, and suspended from it a dining-table weighing one hundred and\ntwenty-one pounds. Then, under a bright gas-light, the feet of the two\nmediums (Miss Fox and her sister) being both touched by the feet of the\ngentlemen, and the hands of all present being held over but not touching\nthe table, it was made lighter or heavier at request, so as to weigh at\none time only sixty, at another one hundred and thirty-four pounds. This\nexperiment, be it remembered, was identical with one proposed by Faraday\nhimself as being conclusive. Mr. Owen had many sittings with Miss Fox,\nfor the purpose of test, and the precautions he took were extraordinary.\nHe sat with her alone; he frequently changed the room without notice; he\nexamined every article of furniture; he locked the doors and fastened\nthem with strips of paper privately sealed; he held both the hands of\nthe medium. Under these conditions various phenomena occurred, the most\nremarkable being the illumination of a piece of paper (which he had\nbrought himself, cut of a peculiar size, and privately marked,) showing\na dark hand writing on the floor. The paper afterwards rose up on to the\ntable with legible writing upon it, containing a promise which was\nsubsequently verified. (\u201cDebatable Land,\u201d p. 293.)\n\nBut Miss Fox\u2019s powers were most remarkably shown in the s\u00e9ances with Mr.\nLivermore, a well-known New York banker, and an entire skeptic before\ncommencing these experiments. These sittings were more than three\nhundred in number, extending over five years. They took place in four\ndifferent houses (Mr. Livermore\u2019s and the medium\u2019s being both changed\nduring this period), under tests of the most rigid description. The\nchief phenomenon was the appearance of a tangible, visible and audible\nfigure of Mr. Livermore\u2019s deceased wife, sometimes accompanied by a male\nfigure, purporting to be Dr. Franklin. The former figure was often most\ndistinct and absolutely life-like. It moved various objects in the room.\nIt wrote messages on cards. It was sometimes formed out of a luminous\ncloud, and again vanished before the eyes of the witnesses. It allowed a\nportion of its dress to be cut off, which, though at first of strong and\napparently gauzy material texture, yet in a short time melted away and\nbecame invisible. Flowers which melted away were also given. These\nphenomena occurred best when Mr. L. and the medium were alone; but two\nwitnesses were occasionally admitted, who tested everything and\nconfirmed Mr. L.\u2019s testimony. One of these was Mr. Livermore\u2019s\nphysician, the other his brother-in-law; the latter previously a\nskeptic. The details of these wonderful s\u00e9ances were published in the\nSpiritual Magazine in 1862 and 1863; and the more remarkable are given\nin Owen\u2019s \u201cDebatable Land,\u201d from which work a good idea may be formed of\nthe great variety of the phenomena that occurred and the stringent\ncharacter of the tests employed.\n\nMiss Fox recently came to England, and here also her powers have been\ntested by a competent man of science, and found to be all that has been\nstated. She is now married to an English barrister, and some of the\nstrange phenomena which have so long accompanied her attach themselves\nto her infant child, even when its mother is away, to the great alarm of\nthe nurse. We have here, therefore, a career of twenty-six years of\nmediumship of the most varied and remarkable character; mediumship which\nhas been scrutinized and tested from the first hour of its manifestation\ndown to this day, and with one invariable result\u2014that no imposture or\nattempt at imposture has ever been discovered, and no cause ever been\nsuggested that will account for the phenomena except that advanced by\nSpiritualists.\n\n\nMr. Daniel D. Home is perhaps the best known medium in the world; and\nhis powers have been open to examination for at least twenty years.\nNineteen years ago Sir David Brewster and Lord Brougham had a sitting\nwith him\u2014sufficiently acute and eminent observers, and both, of course\nthorough skeptics. In the \u201cHome Life of Sir David Brewster,\u201d we have,\nfortunately, his own record of this sitting made _at the time_, although\nsix months later, in a letter to the Morning Advertiser, he made the\ncontradictory statement: \u201cI saw enough to satisfy myself they could all\nbe produced by human hands and feet.\u201d He says: \u201cThe table actually rose\nfrom the ground when no hand was upon it;\u201d and \u201ca small hand-bell was\nlaid down with its mouth on the carpet, and it actually rang when\nnothing could have touched it. The bell was then placed on the other\nside, still upon the carpet, and it came over to me and placed itself in\nmy hand. It did the same to Lord Brougham.\u201d And he adds, speaking for\nboth, \u201cWe could give no explanation of them, and could not conjecture\nhow they could be produced by any kind of mechanism.\u201d Coming from the\nauthor of \u201cLetters on Natural Magic,\u201d this is pretty good testimony.\n\nThese and far more marvelous phenomena have been repeated from that day\nto this many thousands of times, and almost always in private houses at\nwhich Mr. Home visits. Everybody testifies to the fact that he offers\nthe most ample facilities for investigation; and to this I can myself\nbear witness, having been invited by him to examine as closely as I\npleased an accordion, held by his one hand, keys downward, and in that\nposition playing very sweetly. But perhaps the best-attested and most\nextraordinary phenomenon connected with Mr. Home\u2019s mediumship is what is\ncalled the fire-test. In a state of trance he takes a glowing coal from\nthe hottest part of a bright fire and carries it round the room, so that\nevery one may see and feel that it is a real one. This is testified by\nMr. H. D. Jencken, Lord Lindsay, Lord Adare, Miss Douglas, Mr. S. C.\nHall, and many others. But, more strange still, when in this state he\ncan detect the same power in other persons, or convey it to them. A lump\nof red-hot coal was once placed on Mr. S. C. Hall\u2019s head in the presence\nof Lord Lindsay and four other persons. Mrs. Hall, in a communication to\nthe Earl of Dunraven (given in the Spiritual Magazine, 1870, p. 178),\nsays:\n\n  \u201cMr. Hall was seated nearly opposite to where I sat; and I saw Mr.\n  Home, after standing about half a minute at the back of Mr. Hall\u2019s\n  chair, deliberately place the lump of burning coal on his head! I have\n  often wondered that I was not frightened, but I was not; I had perfect\n  faith that he would not be injured. Some one said, \u2018Is it not hot?\u2019\n  Mr. Hall answered, \u2018Warm, but not hot!\u2019 Mr. Home had moved a little\n  way, but returned, still in a trance; he smiled, and seemed quite\n  pleased, and then proceeded to draw up Mr. Hall\u2019s white hair over the\n  red coal. The white hair had the appearance of silver thread over the\n  red coal. Mr. Home drew the hair into a sort of pyramid, the coal,\n  still red, showing beneath the hair.\u201d\n\nWhen taken off the head\u2014which it had not in the slightest degree injured\nor singed the hair\u2014others attempted to touch it, and were burnt. Lord\nLindsay and Miss Douglas have also had hot coals placed in their hands,\nand they describe them as feeling rather cold than hot; though at the\nsame time they burn any one else, and even scorch the face of the holder\nif approached too closely. The same witnesses also testify that Mr. Home\nhas placed red-hot coals inside his waistcoat without scorching his\nclothes, and has put his face into the middle of the fire, his hair\nfalling into the flames, yet not being the least singed. The same power\nof resisting fire can be temporarily given to inanimate objects. Mr. H.\nNisbet, of Glasgow, states (\u201cHuman Nature,\u201d Feb., 1870) that, in his own\nhouse, in January, 1870, Mr. Home placed a red-hot coal in the hands of\na lady and gentleman, which they only felt warm; and then placed the\nsame piece on a folded newspaper, burning a hole through eight layers of\npaper. He then took a fresh and blazing coal and laid it on the same\nnewspaper, carrying it about the room for three minutes, when the paper\nwas found, this time, not to have been the least burnt. Lord Lindsay\nfurther declares\u2014and as one of the few noblemen who do real scientific\nwork his evidence must be of some value\u2014that on eight occasions he has\nhad red-hot coals placed on his own hand by Home without injury. Mr. W.\nH. Harrison (\u201cSpiritualist,\u201d March 15th, 1870) saw him take a large\ncoal, which covered the palm of his hand, and stood six or seven inches\nhigh. As he walked about the room it threw a ruddy glow on the walls,\nand when he came to the table with it, the heat was felt in the faces of\nall present. The coal was thus held for five minutes. These phenomena\nhave now happened scores of times in the presence of scores of\nwitnesses. They are facts, of the reality of which there can be no\ndoubt; and they are altogether inexplicable by the known laws of\nphysiology and heat.\n\nThe powers of Mr. Home have lately been independently tested by Serjeant\nCox and Mr. Crookes, and both these gentlemen emphatically proclaim that\nhe invites tests and courts examination. Serjeant Cox, in his own house,\nhas had a new accordion (purchased by himself that very day) play by\nitself, in his own hand, while Mr. Home was playing the piano. Mr. Home\nthen took the accordion in his left hand, holding it with the keys\ndownwards while playing the piano with his right hand, \u201cand it played\nbeautifully in accompaniment to the piano, for at least a quarter of an\nhour.\u201d (\u201cWhat Am I?\u201d Vol. II., p. 388.)\n\nAs to the possibility of these things being produced by trick, if\nfurther evidence than their mere statement be required, we have the\nfollowing by Mr. T. Adolphus Trollope, who says, \u201cI may also mention\nthat Bosco, one of the greatest professors of legerdemain ever known, in\na conversation with me upon the subject, utterly scouted the idea of the\npossibility of such phenomena as I saw produced by Mr. Home being\nperformed by any of the resources of his art.\u201d\n\nMr. Home\u2019s life has been to a great extent a public one. He has spent\nmuch of his time as a guest in the houses of people of rank and talent.\nHe numbers among his friends many who are eminent in science, art, and\nliterature\u2014men certainly not inferior in perceptive or reasoning power\nto those who, not having witnessed the phenomena, disbelieve in their\noccurrence. For twenty years he has been exposed to the keen scrutiny\nand never-ceasing suspicion of innumerable inquirers; yet no proof has\never been given of trickery, no particle of machinery or apparatus ever\nbeen detected. But the phenomena are so stupendous that, if impostures,\nthey could only be performed by machinery of the most elaborate, varied\nand cumbrous nature, requiring the aid of several assistants and\nconfederates. The theory that they are delusions is equally untenable,\nunless it is admitted that there is no possible means of distinguishing\ndelusion from reality.\n\n\nThe last medium to whose career I shall call attention is Mrs. Guppy\n(formerly Miss Nichol), and in this case I can give some personal\ntestimony. I knew Miss Nichol before she had ever heard of Spiritualism,\ntable-rapping, or anything of the kind, and we first discovered her\npowers on asking her to sit for experiment in my house. This was in\nNovember, 1866, and for some months we had constant sittings, and I was\nable to watch and test the progress of her development. I first\nsatisfied myself of the rising of a small table completely off the\nfloor, when three or four persons (including Miss N.) placed their hands\non it. I tested this by secretly attaching threads or thin strips of\npaper underneath the claws, so that they must be broken if any one\nattempted to raise the table with their feet, the only available means\nof doing so. The table still rose a full foot off the floor in broad\ndaylight. In order to show this to friends with less trouble, I made a\ncylinder of hoops and brown paper, in which I placed the table so as to\nkeep feet and dresses away from it while it rose, which it did as freely\nas before. Perhaps more marvelous was the placing of Miss N. herself on\nthe table; for although this always happened in the dark, yet, under the\nconditions to be named, deception was impossible. I will relate one\nsitting of which I have notes. We sat in a friend\u2019s house, round a\ncentre table, under a glass chandelier. A friend of mine, but a perfect\nstranger to all the rest, sat next Miss Nichol and held both her hands.\nAnother person had matches ready to strike a light when required. What\noccurred was as follows: First, Miss Nichol\u2019s chair was drawn away from\nunder her, and she was obliged to stand up, my friend still holding both\nher hands. In a minute or two more I heard a slight sound, such as might\nbe produced by a person placing a wine-glass on the table, and at the\nsame time a very slight rustling of clothes and tinkling of the glass\npendants of the chandelier. Immediately my friend said, \u201cShe is gone\nfrom me.\u201d A light was at once struck, and we found Miss N. quietly\nseated in her chair on the centre of the table, her head just touching\nthe chandelier. My friend declared that Miss N. seemed to glide\nnoiselessly out of his hands. She was very stout and heavy, and to get\nher chair on the table, to get upon it herself, in the dark,\nnoiselessly, and almost instantaneously, with five or six persons close\naround her, appeared, and still appears to me, knowing her intimately,\nto be physically impossible.\n\nAnother very curious and beautiful phenomenon was the production of\ndelicate musical sounds, without any object calculated to produce them\nbeing in the room. On one occasion a German lady, who was a perfect\nstranger to Miss Nichol, and had never been at a s\u00e9ance before, was\npresent. She sang several German songs, and most delicate music, like a\nfairy musical-box, accompanied her throughout. She sang four or five\ndifferent songs of her own choice, and all were so accompanied. This was\nin the dark, but hands were joined all the time.\n\nThe most remarkable feature of this lady\u2019s mediumship is the production\nof flowers and fruits in closed rooms. The first time this occurred was\nat my own house at a very early stage of her development. All present\nwere my own friends. Miss Nichol had come early to tea, it being\nmid-winter, and she had been with us in a very warm gas-lighted room\nfour hours before the flowers appeared. The essential fact is, that upon\na bare table in a small room closed and dark (the adjoining room and\npassage being well lighted), a quantity of flowers appeared, which were\nnot there when we put out the gas a few minutes before. They consisted\nof anemones, tulips, chrysanthemums, Chinese primroses, and several\nferns. All were absolutely fresh, as if just gathered from a\nconservatory. They were covered with a fine, cold dew. Not a petal was\ncrumpled or broken, not the most delicate point or pinnule of the ferns\nwas out of place. I dried and preserved the whole, and have, attached to\nthem, the attestation of all present that they had no share, as far as\nthey knew, in bringing the flowers into the room. I believed at the\ntime, and still believe, that it was absolutely impossible for Miss N.\nto have concealed them so long, to have kept them so perfect, and, above\nall, to produce them covered throughout with a most beautiful coating of\ndew, just like that which collects on the outside of a tumbler when\nfilled with very cold water on a hot day.\n\nSimilar phenomena have occurred hundreds of times since, in many houses\nand under various conditions. Sometimes the flowers have been in vast\nquantities, heaped upon the table. Often flowers or fruits asked for are\nbrought. A friend of mine asked for a sunflower, and one six feet high\nfell upon the table, having a large mass of earth about its roots. One\nof the most striking tests was at Florence, with Mr. T. Adolphus\nTrollope, Mrs. Trollope, Miss Blagden, and Colonel Harvey. The room was\nsearched by the gentlemen; Mrs. Guppy was undressed and redressed by\nMrs. Trollope, every article of her clothing being examined. Mr. and\nMrs. Guppy were both firmly held while at the table. In about ten\nminutes all the party exclaimed that they smelt flowers, and, on\nlighting a candle, both Mrs. Guppy\u2019s and Mr. Trollope\u2019s arms were found\ncovered with jonquils, which filled the room with their odor. Mr. Guppy\nand Mr. Trollope both relate this in substantially the same terms.\n(\u201cDialectical Society\u2019s Report on Spiritualism,\u201d pp. 277 and 372.)\n\nSurely these are phenomena about which there can be no mistake. What\ntheories have ever been proposed by our scientific teachers which even\nattempt to account for them? Delusion it cannot be, for the flowers are\nreal and can be preserved, and imposture under the conditions described\nis even less credible. If the gentlemen who came forward to enlighten\nthe public on the subject of \u201cso-called spiritual manifestations\u201d do not\nknow of the various classes of phenomena that have now been indicated,\nand the weight of the testimony in support of them, they are palpably\nunqualified for the task they have undertaken. That they do know of\nthem, but keep back their knowledge, while putting forward trivialities\neasy to laugh at or expose, is a supposition I cannot for a moment\nentertain. Before leaving this part of the subject, it is well to note\nthe fact of the marked individuality of each medium. They are not copies\nof each other, but each one develops a characteristic set of phenomena\u2014a\nfact highly suggestive of some unconscious occult power in the\nindividual, and wholly opposed to the idea of either imposture or\ndelusion, both of which almost invariably copy pre\u00ebxisting models.\n\n_Investigations by some Notable Skeptics._\u2014In giving some account of how\na few of the more important converts to Spiritualism became convinced,\nwe are of course limited to those who have given their experiences to\nthe public. I will first take the case of the eminent American lawyer,\nthe Hon. J. W. Edmonds, commonly called Judge Edmonds; and it may be as\nwell to let English skeptics know what he is thought of by his\ncountrymen. When he first became a Spiritualist he was greatly abused;\nand it was even declared that he consulted the spirits on his judicial\ndecisions. To defend himself, he published an \u201cAppeal to the Public,\u201d\ngiving a full account of the inquiries which resulted in his conversion.\nIn noticing this, the New York Evening Mirror said: \u201cJohn W. Edmonds,\nthe Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of this District, is an able\nlawyer, an industrious judge and a good citizen. For the last eight\nyears occupying without interruption the highest judicial stations,\nwhatever may be his faults no one can justly accuse him of a lack of\nability, industry, honesty or fearlessness. No one can doubt his general\nsaneness, or can believe for a moment that the ordinary operations of\nhis mind are not as rapid, accurate and reliable as ever. Both by the\npractitioners and suitors at his bar he is recognized as the head, in\nfact and in merit, of the Supreme Court for this District.\u201d A few years\nlater he published a series of letters on Spiritualism in the New York\nTribune; and in the first of these he gives a compact summary of his\nmode of investigation, from which the following passages are extracted.\nIt must be remembered that at the time he commenced the inquiry he was\nin the prime and vigor of intellectual life, being fifty-two years of\nage:\n\n  \u201cIt was in January, 1851, that I first began my investigations, and it\n  was not until April, 1853, that I became a firm believer in the\n  reality of spiritual intercourse. During twenty-three months of those\n  twenty-seven, I witnessed several hundred manifestations in various\n  forms. I kept very minute and careful records of many of them. My\n  practice was, whenever I attended a circle, to keep in pencil a\n  memorandum of all that took place, so far as I could, and, as soon as\n  I returned home, to write out a full account of what I had witnessed.\n  I did all this with as much minuteness and particularity as I had ever\n  kept any record of a trial before me in court. In this way, during\n  that period, I preserved the record of nearly two hundred interviews,\n  running through some one thousand six hundred pages of manuscript. I\n  had these interviews with many different mediums, and under an\n  infinite variety of circumstances. No two interviews were alike. There\n  was always something new, or something different from what had\n  previously occurred; and it very seldom happened that only the same\n  persons were present. The manifestations were of almost every known\n  form, physical or mental; sometimes only one, and sometimes both\n  combined.\n\n  \u201cI resorted to every expedient I could devise to detect imposture and\n  to guard against delusion. I felt in myself, and saw in others, how\n  exciting was the idea that we were actually communing with the dead;\n  and I labored to prevent any undue bias of my judgment. I was at times\n  critical and captious to an unreasonable extreme; and when my belief\n  was challenged, as it was over and over again, I refused to yield,\n  except to evidence that would leave no possible room for cavil.\n\n  \u201cI was severely exacting in my demands, and this would frequently\n  happen. I would go to a circle with some doubt on my mind as to the\n  manifestations at the previous circle, and something would happen\n  aimed directly at that doubt, and completely overthrowing it as it\n  then seemed, so that I had no longer any reason to doubt. But I would\n  go home and write out carefully my minutes of the evening, cogitate\n  over them for several days, compare them with previous records, and\n  finally find some loophole\u2014some possibility that it might have been\n  something else than spiritual influence, and I would go to the next\n  circle with a new doubt, and a new set of queries.\n\n  \u201cI look back sometimes now, with a smile, at the ingenuity I wasted in\n  devising ways and means to avoid the possibility of deception.\n\n  \u201cIt was a remarkable feature of my investigations that every\n  conceivable objection I could raise was, first or last, met and\n  answered.\u201d\n\nThe following extracts are from the \u201cAppeal\u201d:\n\n  \u201cI have seen a mahogany table, having a centre leg, and with a lamp\n  burning upon it, lifted from the floor at least a foot, in spite of\n  the efforts of those present, and shaken backward and forward as one\n  would shake a goblet in his hand, and the lamp retain its place,\n  though its glass pendants rang again.\n\n  \u201cI have known a mahogany chair thrown on its side and moved swiftly\n  back and forth on the floor, no one touching it, through a room where\n  there were at least a dozen people sitting, yet no one was touched;\n  and it was repeatedly stopped within a few inches of me, when it was\n  coming with a violence which, if not arrested, must have broken my\n  legs.\u201d\n\nHaving satisfied himself of the reality of the physical phenomena, he\ncame to the question of whence comes the intelligence that was so\nremarkably connected with them. He says:\n\n  \u201cPreparatory to meeting a circle, I have sat down alone in my room,\n  and carefully prepared a series of questions to be propounded, and I\n  have been surprised to find my questions answered, and in the precise\n  order in which I wrote them, without my even taking my memorandum out\n  of my pocket, and when not a person present knew that I had prepared\n  questions, much less what they were. My most secret thoughts, those\n  which I have never uttered to mortal man or woman, have been freely\n  spoken to as if I had uttered them; and I have been admonished that my\n  every thought was known to, and could be disclosed by, the\n  intelligence which was thus manifesting itself.\n\n  \u201cStill the question occurred, \u2018May not all this have been, by some\n  mysterious operation, the mere reflex of the mind of some one\n  present?\u2019 The answer was, that facts were communicated which were\n  unknown then, but afterwards found to be true; like this, for\n  instance: when I was absent last winter in Central America, my friends\n  in town heard of my whereabouts and of the state of my health several\n  times; and on my return, by comparing their information with the\n  entries in my journal, it was found to be invariably correct. So\n  thoughts have been uttered on subjects not then in my mind and utterly\n  at variance with my own notions. This has often happened to me and to\n  others, so as fully to establish the fact that it was not our minds\n  that gave forth or affected the communication.\u201d\n\nThese few extracts sufficiently show that the writer was aware of the\npossible sources of error in such an inquiry; and the details given in\nthe letters prove that he was constantly on his guard against them. He\nhimself and his daughter became mediums; so that he afterwards obtained\npersonal confirmation of many of the phenomena by himself alone. But all\nthe phenomena referred to in the letters and \u201cAppeal\u201d occurred to him in\nthe presence of others, who testified to them as well, and thus removed\nthe possibility that the phenomena were subjective.\n\nWe have yet to add a notice of what will be perhaps, to many persons,\nthe most startling and convincing of all the Judge\u2019s experiences. His\nown daughter became a medium for speaking foreign languages of which she\nwas totally ignorant. He says: \u201cShe knows no language but her own, and a\nlittle smattering of boarding-school French; yet she has spoken in nine\nor ten different tongues, often for an hour at a time, with the ease and\nfluency of a native. It is not unfrequent that foreigners converse with\ntheir spirit-friends through her in their own language.\u201d One of these\ncases must be given:\n\n  \u201cOne evening, when some twelve or fifteen persons were in my parlor,\n  Mr. E. D. Green, an artist of this city, was shown in, accompanied by\n  a gentleman whom he introduced as Mr. Evangelides, of Greece. Ere long\n  a spirit spoke to him through Laura, in English, and said so many\n  things to him that he identified him as a friend who had died at his\n  house a few years before, but of whom none of us had ever heard.\n  Occasionally, through Laura, the spirit would speak a word or a\n  sentence in Greek, until Mr. E. inquired if he could be understood if\n  he spoke Greek? The residue of the conversation for more than an hour\n  was, on his part, entirely in Greek, and on hers sometimes in Greek\n  and sometimes in English. At times Laura would not understand what was\n  the idea conveyed either by her or him. At other times she would\n  understand him, though he spoke in Greek, and herself while uttering\n  Greek words.\u201d\n\nSeveral other cases are mentioned, and it is stated that this lady has\nspoken Spanish, French, Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Latin, Hungarian and\nIndian; and other languages which were unknown to any person present.\n\nThis is by no means an isolated case, but it is given as being on most\nunexceptionable authority. A man must know whether his own daughter has\nlearnt, so as to speak fluently, eight languages besides her own, or\nnot. Those who carry on the conversation must know whether the language\nis spoken or not; and in several cases\u2014as the Latin, Spanish, and\nIndian\u2014the Judge himself understood the language. And the phenomenon is\nconnected with Spiritualism by the speaking being in the name of, and\npurporting to come from, some deceased person, and the subject matter\nbeing characteristic of that person. Such a case as this, which has been\npublished sixteen years, ought to have been noticed and explained by\nthose who profess to enlighten the public on the subject of\nSpiritualism.\n\n\nOur next example is one of the most recent, but at the same time one of\nthe most useful, converts to the truths of Spiritualism. Dr. George\nSexton, M. D., M. A., L. L. D., was for many years the coadjutor of Mr.\nBradlaugh, and one of the most earnest and energetic of the secularist\nteachers. The celebrated Robert Owen first called his attention to the\nsubject of Spiritualism about twenty years ago. He read books, he saw a\ngood deal of the ordinary physical manifestations, but he always\n\u201csuspected that the mediums played tricks, and that the whole affair was\nnothing but clever conjuring by means of concealed machinery.\u201d He gave\nseveral lectures against Spiritualism in the usual style of\nnon-believers, dwelling much on the absurdity and triviality of the\nphenomena, and ridiculing the idea that they were the work of spirits.\nThen came another old friend and fellow-secularist, Mr. Turley, who,\nafter investigating the subject for the purpose of exposing it, became a\nfirm believer. Dr. Sexton laughed at this conversion, yet it made a deep\nimpression on his mind. Ten years passed away, and his next important\ninvestigation was with the Davenport brothers; and it will be well for\nthose who sneer at these much-abused young men to take note of the\nfollowing account of Dr. Sexton\u2019s proceedings with them, and especially\nof the fact that they cheerfully submitted to every test the doctor\nsuggested. He tells us (in his lecture, \u201cHow I became a Spiritualist,\u201d)\nthat he visited them again and again, trying in vain to find out the\ntrick. Then, he says\u2014\n\n  \u201cMy partner\u2014Dr. Barker\u2014and I invited the Brothers to our houses, and,\n  in order to guard against anything like trickery, we requested them\n  not to bring any ropes, instruments, or other apparatus; all these we\n  ourselves had determined to supply. Moreover, as there were four of\n  them, viz., the two Brothers Davenport, Mr. Fay, and Dr. Ferguson, we\n  suspected that the two who were not tied might really do all that was\n  done. We therefore requested only two to come. They unhesitatingly\n  complied with all these requests.\n\n  \u201cWe formed a circle, consisting entirely of members of our own\n  families and a few private friends, with the one bare exception of\n  Mrs. Fay. In the circle we all joined hands, and as Mrs. Fay sat at\n  one end she had one of her hands free, while I had hold of the other.\n  Thinking that she might be able to assist with the hand that was thus\n  free, I asked, as a favor, that I might be allowed to hold both her\n  hands\u2014a proposition which she at once agreed to. Now, without entering\n  here at all into what took place, suffice it to say that we bound the\n  mediums with our own ropes, placed their feet upon sheets of writing\n  paper, and drew lines around their boots, so that if they moved their\n  feet it should be impossible for them to place them again in the same\n  position; we laid pence on their toes, sealed the ropes, and in every\n  way took precautions against their moving. On the occasion to which I\n  now refer, Mr. Bradlaugh and Mr. Charles Watts were present; and when\n  Mr. Fay\u2019s coat had been taken off, the ropes still remaining on his\n  hands, Mr. Bradlaugh requested that his coat might be placed on Mr.\n  Fay, which was immediately done, the ropes still remaining fastened.\n  We got, on this occasion, all the phenomena that usually occurred in\n  the presence of these extraordinary men, particulars of which I shall\n  probably give on another occasion. Dr. Barker became a believer in\n  Spiritualism from the time that the Brothers visited at his house. I\n  did not see that any proof had been given that disembodied spirits had\n  any hand in producing the phenomena; but I was convinced that no\n  tricks had been played, and that, therefore, these extraordinary\n  physical manifestations were the result of some occult force in Nature\n  which I had no means of explaining in the present state of my\n  knowledge. All the physical phenomena that I had seen now became clear\n  to me; they were not accomplished by trickery, as I had formerly\n  supposed, but were the result of some undiscovered law of Nature,\n  which it was the business of the man of science to use his utmost\n  endeavors to discover.\u201d\n\nWhile he was maintaining this ground, Spiritualists often asked him how\nhe explained the intelligence that was manifested; and he invariably\nreplied that he had not yet seen proofs of any intelligence other than\nwhat might be that of the medium or of some other persons present in the\ncircle, adding, that as soon as he did see proofs of such intelligence\nhe should become a Spiritualist. In this position he stood for many\nyears, till he naturally believed he should never see cause to change\nhis opinion. He continued the inquiry, however, and in 1865 began to\nhold s\u00e9ances at home; but it was years before any mental phenomena\noccurred which were absolutely conclusive, although they were often of\nso startling a nature as would have satisfied any one less skeptical. At\nlength, after fifteen years of enlightened skepticism\u2014a skepticism not\nfounded upon ignorance, but which refused to go one step beyond what the\nfacts so diligently pursued absolutely demonstrated\u2014the needful evidence\ncame:\n\n  \u201cThe proofs that I did ultimately receive are, many of them, of a\n  character that I cannot describe minutely to a public audience, nor\n  indeed have I time to do so. Suffice it to say, that I got in my own\n  house, in the absence of all mediums other than those members of my\n  own family and intimate private friends in whom mediumistic powers\n  became developed, evidence of an irresistible character that the\n  communications came from deceased friends and relatives. Intelligence\n  was again and again displayed which could not possibly have had any\n  other origin than that which it professed to have. Facts were named\n  known to no one in the circle, and left to be verified afterwards. The\n  identity of the spirits communicating was proved in a hundred\n  different ways. Our dear departed ones made themselves palpable both\n  to feeling and to sight; and the doctrine of spirit-communion was\n  proved beyond the shadow of a doubt. I soon found myself in the\n  position of Dr. Fenwick in Lord Lytton\u2019s \u2018Strange Story.\u2019 \u2018Do you\n  believe,\u2019 asked the female attendant of Margrave, \u2018in that which you\n  seek?\u2019 \u2018I have no belief,\u2019 was the answer. \u2018True science has none;\n  true science questions all things, and takes nothing on credit. It\n  knows but three states of mind\u2014denial, conviction, and the vast\n  interval between the two, which is not belief, but the suspension of\n  judgment.\u2019 This describes exactly the phases through which my mind has\n  passed.\u201d\n\nSince Dr. Sexton has become a Spiritualist he has been as energetic an\nadvocate for its truths as he had been before for the negations of\nsecularism. His experience and ability as a lecturer, with his long\nschooling in every form of manifestation, render him one of the most\nvaluable promulgators of its teachings. He has also done excellent\nservice in exposing the pretensions of those conjurers who profess to\nexpose Spiritualism. This he does in the most practical way, not only by\nexplaining how the professed imitations of spiritual manifestations are\nperformed, but by actually performing them before his audience; and at\nthe same time pointing out the important differences between what these\npeople do and what occurs at good s\u00e9ances. Any one who wishes to\ncomprehend how Dr. Lynn, Messrs. Maskelyne and Cook, and Herr Dobler\nperform some of their most curious feats have only to read his lecture,\nentitled, \u201cSpirit Mediums and Conjurers,\u201d before going to witness their\nentertainments. We can hardly believe that the man who does this, and\nwho during fifteen years of observation and experiment held out against\nthe spiritual theory, is one of those who, as Lord Amberley tells us,\n\u201cfall a victim to the most patent frauds, and are imposed upon by\njugglery of the most vulgar order\u201d; or who, as viewed from Prof.\nTyndall\u2019s high scientific standpoint, are in a frame of mind before\nwhich science is utterly powerless\u2014\u201cdupes beyond the reach of proof, who\nlike to believe and do not like to be undeceived.\u201d These be brave words;\nbut we leave our readers to judge whether they come with a very good\ngrace from men who have the most slender and inadequate knowledge of the\nsubject they are criticising, and no knowledge at all of the\nlong-continued and conscientious investigations of many who are included\nin their wholesale animadversions.\n\n\nYet one more witness to these marvelous phenomena we must bring before\nour readers\u2014a trained and experienced physicist, who has experimented in\nhis own laboratory, and has applied tests and measurements of the most\nrigid and conclusive character. When Mr. Crookes\u2014the discoverer of the\nmetal thallium, and a Fellow of the Royal Society\u2014first announced that\nhe was going to investigate so-called spiritual phenomena, many public\nwriters were all approval; for the complaint had long been that men of\nscience were not permitted by mediums to inquire too scrupulously into\nthe facts. One expressed \u201cprofound satisfaction that the subject was\nabout to be investigated by a man so well qualified\u201d; another was\n\u201cgratified to learn that the matter is now receiving the attention of\ncool and clear headed men of recognized position in science\u201d; while a\nthird declared that \u201cno one could doubt Mr. Crookes\u2019s ability to conduct\nthe investigation with rigid philosophical impartiality.\u201d But these\nexpressions were evidently insincere, and were only meant to apply in\ncase the result was in accordance with the writers\u2019 notions of what it\nought to be. Of course, a \u201cscientific investigation\u201d would explode the\nwhole thing. Had not Faraday exploded table-turning? They hailed Mr.\nCrookes as the Daniel come to judgment\u2014as the prophet who would curse\ntheir enemy, Spiritualism, by detecting imposture and illusion. But when\nthe judge, after a patient trial lasting several years, decided against\nthem, and their accepted prophet blessed the hated thing as an undoubted\ntruth, their tone changed; and they began to suspect the judge\u2019s\nability, and to pick holes in the evidence on which he founded his\njudgment.\n\nIn Mr. Crookes\u2019s latest paper, published in the Quarterly Journal of\nScience for January last, we are informed that he has pursued the\ninquiry for four years; and besides attending s\u00e9ances elsewhere, has had\nthe opportunity of making numerous experiments in his own house with the\ntwo remarkable mediums already referred to, Mr. D. D. Home and Miss Kate\nFox. These experiments were almost exclusively made in the light, under\nconditions of his own arranging, and with his own friends as witnesses.\nSuch phenomena as percussive sounds; alteration of the weight of bodies;\nthe rising of heavy bodies in the air without contact by any one; the\nlevitation of human beings; luminous appearances of various kinds; the\nappearance of hands which lift small objects, yet are not the hands of\nany one present; direct writing, by a luminous detached hand or by the\npencil alone; phantom forms and faces; and various mental phenomena\u2014have\nall been tested so variously and so repeatedly that Mr. Crookes is\nthoroughly satisfied of their objective reality. These phenomena are\ngiven in outline in the paper above referred to, and they will be\ndetailed in full in a volume now preparing. I will not, therefore, weary\nmy readers by repeating them here, but will remark, that these\nexperiments have a weight as evidence vastly greater than would be due\nto them as resting on the testimony of any man of science, however\ndistinguished, because they are, in almost every case, confirmations of\nwhat previous witnesses in immense numbers have testified to, in various\nplaces, and under various conditions, during the last twenty years. In\nevery other experimental inquiry, without exception, confirmation of the\nfacts of an earlier observer is held to add so greatly to their value,\nthat no one treats them with the same incredulity with which he might\nhave received them the first time they were announced. And when the\nconfirmation has been repeated by three or four independent observers\nunder favorable conditions, and there is nothing but theory or negative\nevidence against them, the facts are admitted\u2014at least provisionally,\nand until disproved by a greater weight of evidence or by discovering\nthe exact source of the fallacy of preceding observers.\n\nBut here, a totally different\u2014a most unreasonable and a most\nunphilosophical\u2014course is pursued. Each fresh observation, confirming\nprevious evidence, is treated as though it were now put forth for the\n_first_ time; and fresh confirmation is asked of it. And when this fresh\nand independent confirmation comes, yet more confirmation is asked for,\nand so on without end. This is a very clever way to ignore and stifle a\nnew truth; but the facts of Spiritualism are ubiquitous in their\noccurrence and of so indisputable a nature, as to compel conviction in\nevery earnest inquirer. It thus happens that although every fresh\nconvert requires a large proportion of the series of demonstrative facts\nto be reproduced before he will give his assent to them, the number of\nsuch converts has gone on steadily increasing for a quarter of a\ncentury. Clergymen of all sects, literary men and lawyers, physicians in\nlarge numbers, men of science not a few, secularists, philosophical\nskeptics, pure materialists, all have become converts through the\noverwhelming logic of the phenomena which Spiritualism has brought\nbefore them. And what have we _per contra_? Neither science nor\nphilosophy, neither skepticism nor religion, has ever yet in this\nquarter of a century made one single convert from the ranks of\nSpiritualism! This being the case, and fully appreciating the amount of\ncandor and fairness, and knowledge of the subject, that has been\nexhibited by their opponents, is it to be wondered at that a large\nproportion of Spiritualists are now profoundly indifferent to the\nopinion of men of science, and would not go one step out of their way to\nconvince them? They say, that the movement is going on quite fast\nenough; that it is spreading by its own inherent force of truth, and\nslowly permeating all classes of society. It has thriven in spite of\nabuse and persecution, ridicule and argument, and will continue to\nthrive whether endorsed by great names or not. Men of science, like all\nothers, are welcome to enter its ranks; but they must satisfy themselves\nby their own persevering researches, not expect to have its proofs laid\nbefore them. Their rejection of its truths is their own loss, but cannot\nin the slightest degree affect the progress of Spiritualism. The attacks\nand criticisms of the press are borne good-humoredly, and seldom excite\nother feelings than pity for the willful ignorance and contempt for the\noverwhelming presumption of their writers. Such are the sentiments that\nare continually expressed by Spiritualists; and it is as well, perhaps,\nthat the outer world, to whom the literature of the movement is as much\nunknown as the Vedas, should be made acquainted with them.\n\n_Investigation by the Dialectical Committee._\u2014There are many other\ninvestigators who ought to be noticed in any complete sketch of the\nsubject, but we have now only space to allude briefly to the \u201cReport of\nthe Committee of the Dialectical Society.\u201d Of this committee, consisting\nof thirty-three acting members, only eight were, at the commencement,\nbelievers in the reality of the phenomena, while not more than four\naccepted the spiritual theory. During the course of the inquiry at least\ntwelve of the complete skeptics became convinced of the reality of many\nof the physical phenomena through attending the experimental\nsub-committees, and almost wholly by means of the mediumship of members\nof the committee. At least three members who were previously skeptics\npursued their investigations outside the committee meetings, and in\nconsequence have become thorough Spiritualists. My own observation as a\nmember of the committee and of the largest and most active\nsub-committee, enables me to state that the degree of conviction\nproduced in the minds of the various members was, allowing for marked\ndifferences of character, approximately proportionate to the amount of\ntime and care bestowed on the investigation. This fact, which is what\noccurs in all investigations into these phenomena, is a characteristic\nresult of the examination into any natural phenomena. The examination\ninto an imposture or delusion has, invariably, exactly opposite results:\nthose who have slender experience being deceived, while those who\nperseveringly continue the inquiry inevitably find out the source of the\ndeception or the delusion. If this were not so, the discovery of truth\nand the detection of error would be alike impossible. The result of this\ninquiry on the members of the committee themselves is, therefore, of\nmore importance than the actual phenomena they witnessed, since these\nwere far less striking than many of the facts already mentioned. But\nthey are also of importance as confirming, by a body of intelligent and\nunprejudiced men, the results obtained by previous individual inquirers.\n\nBefore leaving this report, I must call attention to the evidence it\nfurnishes of the state of opinion among men of education in France. M.\nCamille Flammarion, the well-known astronomer, sent a communication to\nthe committee which deserves special consideration. Besides declaring\nhis own acceptance of the objective reality of the phenomena after ten\nyears of investigation, he makes the following statement:\n\n  \u201cMy learned teacher and friend, M. Babinet, of the Institute, who has\n  endeavored, with M. E. Liais (now Director of the Observatory of\n  Brazil), and several others of my colleagues of the Observatory of\n  Paris, to ascertain their nature and cause, is not fully convinced of\n  the intervention of spirits in their production; though this\n  hypothesis, by which alone certain categories of these phenomena would\n  seem to be explicable, has been adopted by many of our most esteemed\n  _savants_, among others by Dr. H\u0153ffle, the learned author of the\n  \u2018History of Chemistry,\u2019 and the \u2018General Encyclop\u00e6dia\u2019; and by the\n  diligent laborer in the field of astronomic discovery whose death we\n  have recently had to deplore, M. Hermann Goldschmidt, the discoverer\n  of fourteen planets.\u201d\n\nIt thus appears that in France, as well as in America and in this\ncountry, men of science of no mean rank have investigated these\nphenomena and have found them to be realities; while some of the most\neminent hold the spiritual theory to be the only one that will explain\nthem.\n\nThis seems the proper place to notice the astounding assertion of\ncertain writers, that there is not \u201ca particle of evidence\u201d to support\nthe spiritual theory; that those who accept it betray \u201chopeless\ninability to discriminate between adequate and inadequate proof of\nfacts\u201d; that the theory is \u201cformed apart from facts\u201d; and that those who\naccept it are so unable to reason as to \u201cjump to the conclusion\u201d that it\nmust be spirits that move tables, merely because they do not know how\nelse they can be moved. The preceding account of how converts to\nSpiritualism have been made is a sufficient answer to all this ignorant\nassertion. The spiritual theory, as a rule, has only been adopted as a\nlast resource, when all other theories have hopelessly broken down; and\nwhen fact after fact, phenomenon after phenomenon, has presented itself,\ngiving direct proof that the so-called dead are still alive. The\nspiritual theory is the logical outcome of the whole of the facts. Those\nwho deny it, in every instance with which I am acquainted, either from\nignorance or disbelief, leave half the facts out of view. Take the one\ncase (out of many almost equally conclusive) of Mr. Livermore, who,\nduring five years, on hundreds of occasions, saw, felt and heard the\nmovements of the figure of his dead wife in absolute, unmistakable,\nliving form\u2014a form which could move objects, and which repeatedly wrote\nto him in her own handwriting and her own language, on cards which\nremained after the figure had disappeared; a form which was equally\nvisible and tangible to two friends; which appeared in his own house, in\na room absolutely secured, with the presence of only a young girl, the\nmedium. Had these three men \u201cnot a particle of evidence\u201d for the\nspiritual theory? Is it, in fact, possible to conceive or suggest any\nmore complete proof? The facts must be got rid of before you can abolish\nthe theory; and simple denial or disbelief does not get rid of facts\ntestified during a space of five years by three witnesses, all men in\nresponsible positions, and carrying on their affairs during the whole\nperiod in a manner to win the respect and confidence of their\nfellow-citizens.[3]\n\nFootnote 3:\n\n  The objection will here inevitably be made: \u201cThese wonderful things\n  always happen in America. When they occur in England it will be time\n  enough to inquire into them.\u201d Singularly enough, after this article\n  was in the press the final test was obtained, which demonstrated the\n  occurrence of similar phenomena in London. A short statement may,\n  therefore, be interesting for those who cannot digest American\n  evidence. For some years a young lady, Miss Florence Cook, has\n  exhibited remarkable mediumship, which latterly culminated in the\n  production of an entire female form purporting to be spiritual, and\n  which appeared barefooted and in white flowing robes while she lay\n  entranced, in dark clothing and securely bound, in a cabinet or\n  adjacent room. Notwithstanding that tests of an apparently conclusive\n  character were employed, many visitors, Spiritualists as well as\n  skeptics, got the impression that all was not as it should be; owing,\n  in part, to the resemblance of the supposed spirit to Miss Cook, and\n  also to the fact that the two could not be seen at the same time. Some\n  supposed that Miss C. was an impostor, who managed to conceal a white\n  robe about her (although she was often searched), and who, although\n  she was securely tied with tapes and sealed, was able to get out of\n  her bonds, dress and undress herself, and get into them again, all in\n  the dark, and in so complete and skillful a manner as to defy\n  detection. Others thought that the spirit released her, provided her\n  with a white dress, and sent her forth to personate a ghost. The\n  belief that there was something wrong led one gentleman\u2014an ardent\n  Spiritualist\u2014to seize the supposed spirit and endeavor to hold it, in\n  the hope that some other person would open the cabinet-door and see if\n  Miss Cook was really there. This was, unfortunately, not done; but the\n  great resemblance of the being he seized to Miss Cook, its perfect\n  solidity, and the vigorous struggles it made to escape from him,\n  convinced this gentleman that it was Miss Cook herself, although the\n  rest of the company, a few minutes afterwards, found her bound and\n  sealed just as she had been left an hour before. To determine the\n  question conclusively, experiments have been made within the last few\n  weeks by two scientific men. Mr. C. F. Varley, F. R. S., the eminent\n  electrician, made use of a galvanic battery and cable-testing\n  apparatus, and passed a current through Miss Cook\u2019s body (by fastening\n  sovereigns soldered to wires to her arms). The apparatus was so\n  delicate that any movement whatever was instantly indicated, while it\n  was impossible for the young lady to dress and act as a ghost without\n  breaking the circuit. Yet under these conditions the spirit-form did\n  appear, exhibited its arms, spoke, wrote, and touched several persons;\n  and this happened, be it remembered, not in the medium\u2019s own house,\n  but in that of a private gentleman in the West End of London. For\n  nearly an hour the circuit was never broken, and at the conclusion\n  Miss Cook was found in a deep trance. Since this remarkable experiment\n  Mr. William Crookes, F.R.S., has obtained, if possible, still more\n  satisfactory evidence. He contrived a phosphorus lamp, and, armed with\n  this, was allowed to go into the dark room accompanied by the spirit,\n  and there saw and felt Miss Cook, dressed in black velvet, lying in a\n  trance on the floor, while the spirit-form, in white robes, stood\n  close beside her. During the evening this spirit-form had been for\n  nearly an hour walking and talking with the company; and Mr. Crookes,\n  by permission, clasped the figure in his arms, and found it to be,\n  apparently, a real living woman, just as the skeptical gentleman had\n  done. Yet this figure is not that of Miss Cook, nor of any other human\n  being, since it appeared and disappeared in Mr. Crookes\u2019s own house as\n  completely as in that of the medium herself. The full statements of\n  Messrs. Varley and Crookes, with a mass of interesting detail on the\n  subject, appeared in the \u201cSpiritualist\u201d newspaper in March and April\n  last; and they serve to show that whatever marvels occur in America\n  can be reproduced here, and that men of science are not precluded from\n  investigating these phenomena with scientific instruments and by\n  scientific methods. In the concluding part of this paper we shall be\n  able to show that another class of manifestation which originated in\n  America\u2014that of the so-called spirit photographs\u2014has been first\n  critically examined and completely demonstrated in our own country.\n\n\n\n\n                          SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPHS.\n\n\nWe now approach a subject which cannot be omitted in any impartial\nsketch of the evidences of Spiritualism, since it is that which\nfurnishes perhaps the most unassailable demonstration it is possible to\nobtain, of the objective reality of spiritual forms, and also of the\ntruthful nature of the evidence furnished by seers when they describe\nfigures visible to themselves alone. It has been already indicated\u2014and\nit is a fact, of which the records of Spiritualism furnish ample\nproof\u2014that different individuals possess the power of seeing such forms\nand figures in very variable degrees. Thus, it often happens at a\ns\u00e9ance, that some will see distinct lights of which they will describe\nthe form, appearance and position, while others see nothing at all. If\nonly one or two persons see the lights, the rest will naturally impute\nit to their imagination; but there are cases in which only one or two of\nthose present are unable to see them. There are also cases in which all\nsee them, but in very different degrees of distinctness; yet that they\nsee the same objects is proved by their all agreeing as to the position\nand the movement of the lights. Again, what some see as merely luminous\nclouds, others will see as distinct human forms, either partial or\nentire. In other cases all present see the form\u2014whether hand, face, or\nentire figure\u2014with equal distinctness. Again, the objective reality of\nthese appearances is sometimes proved by their being touched, or by\ntheir being seen to move objects\u2014in some cases heard to speak, in others\nseen to write, by several persons at one and the same time; the figure\nseen or the writing produced being sometimes unmistakably recognizable\nas that of some deceased friend. A volume could easily be filled with\nrecords of this class of appearances, authenticated by place, date, and\nnames of witnesses; and a considerable selection is to be found in the\nworks of Mr. Robert Dale Owen.\n\nNow, at this point, an inquirer, who had not pre-judged the question,\nand who did not believe his own knowledge of the universe to be so\ncomplete as to justify him in rejecting all evidence for facts which he\nhad hitherto considered to be in the highest degree improbable, might\nfairly say, \u201cYour evidence for the appearance of visible, tangible,\nspiritual forms, is very strong; but I should like to have them\nsubmitted to a crucial test, which would quite settle the question of\nthe possibility of their being due to a coincident delusion of several\nsenses of several persons at the same time; and, if satisfactory, would\ndemonstrate their objective reality in a way nothing else can do. If\nthey really reflect or emit light which makes them visible to human\neyes, _they can be photographed_. Photograph them, and you will have an\nunanswerable proof that your human witnesses are trustworthy.\u201d Two years\nago we could only have replied to this very proper suggestion, that we\nbelieved it had been done and could be again done, but that we had no\nsatisfactory evidence to offer. Now, however, we are in a position to\nstate, not only that it has been frequently done, but that the evidence\nis of such a nature as to satisfy any one who will take the trouble\ncarefully to examine it. This evidence we will now lay before our\nreaders, and we venture to think they will acknowledge it to be most\nremarkable.\n\nBefore doing so it may be as well to clear away a popular misconception.\nMr. Lewes advised the Dialectical Committee to distinguish carefully\nbetween \u201cfacts and inferences from facts.\u201d This is especially necessary\nin the case of what are called spirit photographs. The figures which\noccur in these, when not produced by any human agency, may be of\n\u201cspiritual\u201d origin, without being figures \u201cof spirits.\u201d There is much\nevidence to show that they are, in some cases, forms produced by\ninvisible intelligences, but distinct from them. In other cases the\nintelligence appears to clothe itself with matter capable of being\nperceived by us; but even then it does not follow that the form produced\nis the actual image of the spiritual form. It may be but a reproduction\nof the former mortal form with its terrestrial accompaniments, _for\npurposes of recognition_.\n\nMost persons have heard of these \u201cghost-pictures,\u201d and how easily they\ncan be made to order by any photographer, and are therefore disposed to\nthink they can be of no use as evidence. But a little consideration will\nshow them that the means by which sham ghosts can be manufactured being\nso well known to all photographers, it becomes easy to apply tests or\narrange conditions so as to prevent imposition. The following are some\nof the more obvious:\n\n1. If a person with a knowledge of photography takes his own glass\nplates, examines the camera used and all the accessories, and watches\nthe whole process of taking a picture, then, if any definite form\nappears on the negative besides the sitter, it is a proof that some\nobject was present capable of reflecting or emitting the actinic rays,\nalthough invisible to those present. 2. If an unmistakable likeness\nappears of a deceased person totally unknown to the photographer. 3. If\nfigures appear on the negative having a definite relation to the figure\nof the sitter, who chooses his own position, attitude and\naccompaniments, it is a proof that invisible figures were really there.\n4. If a figure appears draped in white, and partly behind the dark body\nof the sitter without in the least showing through, it is a proof that\nthe white figure was there at the same time, because the dark parts of\nthe negative are transparent, and any white picture in any way\nsuperposed would show through. 5. Even should none of these tests be\napplied, yet if a medium, quite independent of the photographer, sees\nand describes a figure during the sitting and an exactly corresponding\nfigure appears on the plate, it is a proof that such a figure was there.\n\nEvery one of these tests have now been successfully applied in our own\ncountry, as the following outline of the facts will show:\n\nThe accounts of spirit-photography in several parts of the United States\ncaused many Spiritualists in this country to make experiments; but for a\nlong time without success. Mr. and Mrs. Guppy, who are both amateur\nphotographers, tried at their own house, and failed. In March, 1872,\nthey went one day to Mr. Hudson\u2019s, a photographer living near them (not\na Spiritualist), to get some _cartes de visite_ of Mrs. Guppy. After the\nsitting the idea suddenly struck Mr. Guppy that he would try for a\nspirit-photograph. He sat down, told Mrs. G. to go behind the\nbackground, and had a picture taken. There came out behind him a large,\nindefinite, oval white patch, somewhat resembling the outline of a\ndraped figure. Mrs. Guppy, behind the background, was dressed in black.\n\nThis is the first spirit-photograph taken in England, and it\u2019s perhaps\nmore satisfactory on account of the suddenness of the impulse under\nwhich it was taken, and the great white patch which no impostor would\nhave attempted to produce, and which, taken by itself, utterly spoils\nthe picture. A few days afterwards, Mr. and Mrs. Guppy and their little\nboy went without any notice. Mrs. Guppy sat on the ground holding the\nboy on a stool. Her husband stood behind looking on. The picture thus\nproduced is most remarkable. A tall female figure, finely draped in\nwhite, gauzy robes, stands directly behind and above the sitters,\nlooking down on them and holding its open hands over their heads, as if\ngiving a benediction. The face is somewhat Eastern, and, with the hands,\nis beautifully defined. The white robes pass behind the sitters\u2019 dark\nfigures without in the least showing through. A second picture was then\ntaken as soon as a plate could be prepared; and it was fortunate it was\nso, for it resulted in a most remarkable test. Mrs. Guppy again knelt\nwith the boy; but this time she did not stoop so much, and her head was\nhigher. The same white figure comes out equally well defined, but _it\nhas changed its position in a manner exactly corresponding to the slight\nchange of Mrs. Guppy\u2019s position_. The hands were before on a level; now\none is raised considerably higher than the other, so as to keep it about\nthe same distance from Mrs. Guppy\u2019s head as it was before. The folds of\nthe drapery all correspondingly differ, and the head is slightly turned.\nHere, then, one of two things is absolutely certain. Either there was a\nliving, intelligent, but invisible being present, or Mr. and Mrs. Guppy,\nthe photographer, and some fourth person, planned a wicked imposture,\nand have maintained it ever since. Knowing Mr. and Mrs. Guppy so well as\nI do, I feel an absolute conviction that they are as incapable of an\nimposture of this kind as any earnest inquirer after truth in the\ndepartment of natural science.\n\nThe report of these pictures soon spread. Spiritualists in great numbers\ncame to try for similar results, with varying degrees of success; till\nafter a time rumor of imposture arose, and it is now firmly believed by\nmany, from suspicious appearances on the pictures and from other\ncircumstances, that a large number of shams have been produced. It is\ncertainly not to be wondered at if it be so. The photographer, remember,\nwas not a Spiritualist, and was utterly puzzled at the pictures above\ndescribed. Scores of persons came to him, and he saw that they were\nsatisfied if they got a second figure with themselves, and dissatisfied\nif they did not. He _may_ have made arrangements by which to satisfy\neverybody. One thing is clear: that if there has been imposture, it was\nat once detected by Spiritualists themselves; if not, then Spiritualists\nhave been quick in noticing what appeared to indicate it. Those,\nhowever, who most strongly assert imposture, allow that a large number\nof genuine pictures have been taken. But, true or not, the cry of\nimposture did good, since it showed the necessity for tests and for\nindependent confirmation of the facts.\n\nThe test of clearly recognizable likenesses of deceased friends has\noften been obtained. Mr. William Howitt, who went without previous\nnotice, obtained likenesses of two sons, many years dead, and of the\nvery existence of one of which even the friend who accompanied Mr.\nHowitt was ignorant. The likenesses were instantly recognized by Mrs.\nHowitt; and Mr. Howitt declares them to be \u201cperfect and unmistakable.\u201d\n(Spiritual Magazine, Oct., 1872.) Dr. Thomson, of Clifton, obtained a\nphotograph of himself, accompanied by that of a lady he did not know. He\nsent it to his uncle in Scotland, simply asking if he recognized a\nresemblance to any of the family deceased. The reply was that it was the\nlikeness of Dr. Thomson\u2019s own mother, who died at his birth; and there\nbeing no picture of her in existence, he had no idea what she was like.\nThe uncle very naturally remarked, that he \u201ccould not understand how it\nwas done.\u201d (Spiritual Magazine, Oct., 1873.) Many other instances of\nrecognition have occurred, but I will only add my personal testimony. A\nfew weeks back I myself went to the same photographer\u2019s for the first\ntime, and obtained a most unmistakable likeness of a deceased relative.\nWe will now pass to a better class of evidence, the private experiments\nof amateurs.\n\nMr. Thomas Slater, an old-established optician in the Euston Road, and\nan amateur photographer, took with him to Mr. Hudson\u2019s a new camera of\nhis own manufacture and his own glasses, saw everything done, and\nobtained a portrait with a second figure on it. He then began\nexperimenting in his own private house, and during last summer obtained\nsome remarkable results. The first of his successes contains two heads\nby the side of a portrait of his sister. One of these heads is\nunmistakably the late Lord Brougham\u2019s; the other, much less distinct, is\nrecognized by Mr. Slater as that of Robert Owen, whom he knew intimately\nup to the time of his death. He has since obtained several excellent\npictures of the same class. One in particular shows a female in black\nand white flowing robes, standing by the side of Mr. Slater. In another\nthe head and bust appears, leaning over his shoulder. The faces of these\ntwo are much alike, and other members of the family recognize them as\nlikenesses of Mr. Slater\u2019s mother, who died when he was an infant. In\nanother a pretty child-figure, also draped, stands beside Mr. Slater\u2019s\nlittle boy. Now, whether these figures are correctly identified or not,\nis not the essential point. The fact that _any_ figures, so clear and\nunmistakably human in appearance as these, should appear on plates taken\nin his own private studio by an experienced optician and amateur\nphotographer, who makes all his apparatus himself, and with no one\npresent but the members of his own family, is the real marvel. In one\ncase a second figure appeared on a plate with himself, taken by Mr.\nSlater when he was absolutely alone\u2014by the simple process of occupying\nthe sitter\u2019s chair after uncapping the camera. He and his family being\nthemselves mediums, they require no extraneous assistance; and this may\nperhaps be the reason why he has succeeded so well. One of the most\nextraordinary pictures obtained by Mr. Slater is a full-length portrait\nof his sister, in which there is no second figure, but the sitter\nappears covered all over with a kind of transparent lace drapery, which\non examination is seen to be wholly made up of shaded circles of\ndifferent sizes, quite unlike any material fabric I have seen or heard\nof.\n\nMr. Slater has himself shown me all these pictures and explained the\nconditions under which they were produced. That they are not impostures\nis certain; and as the first independent confirmations of what had been\npreviously obtained only through professional photographers, their value\nis inestimable.\n\nA less successful but not perhaps on that account less satisfactory\nconfirmation has been obtained by another amateur, who, after eighteen\nmonths of experiment, obtained a partial success. Mr. R. Williams, M.\nA., Ph. D., of Hayward\u2019s Heath, succeeded last summer in obtaining three\nphotographs, each with part of a human form besides the sitter, one\nhaving the features distinctly marked. Subsequently another was\nobtained, with a well-formed figure of a man standing at the side of the\nsitter, but while being developed, this figure faded away entirely. Mr.\nWilliams assures me (in a letter) that in these experiments there was\n\u201cno room for trick or for the production of these figures by any known\nmeans.\u201d\n\nThe editor of the British Journal of Photography has made experiments at\nMr. Hudson\u2019s studio, taking his own collodion and new plates, and doing\neverything himself, yet there were \u201cabnormal appearances\u201d on the\npictures, although no distinct figures.\n\nWe now come to the valuable and conclusive experiments of Mr. John\nBeattie, of Clifton, a retired photographer of twenty years\u2019 experience,\nand of whom the above-mentioned editor says: \u201cEvery one who knows Mr.\nBeattie will give him credit for being a thoughtful, skillful, and\nintelligent photographer, one of the last men in the world to be easily\ndeceived, at least in matters relating to photography, and one quite\nincapable of deceiving others.\u201d\n\nMr. Beattie has been assisted in his researches by Dr. Thomson, an\nEdinburgh M. D., who has practiced photography, as an amateur, for\ntwenty-five years. They experimented at the studio of a friend, who was\nnot a Spiritualist (but who became a medium during the experiments), and\nhad the services of a tradesman\u2014with whom they were well acquainted\u2014as a\nmedium. The whole of the photographic work was done by Messrs. Beattie\nand Thomson, the other two sitting at a small table. The pictures were\ntaken in series of three, within a few seconds of each other, and\nseveral of these series were taken at each sitting. The figures produced\nare, for the most part, not human, but variously-formed and shaded white\npatches, which in successive pictures change their form, and develop, as\nit were, into a more perfect or complete type. Thus, one set of five\nbegins with two white somewhat angular patches over the middle sitter,\nand ends with a rude but unmistakable white female figure, covering the\nlarger part of the plate. The other three show intermediate states,\nindicating a continuous change of form from the first figure to the\nlast. Another set (of four pictures) begins with a white vertical\ncylinder over the body of the medium, and a shorter one on his head.\nThese change their form in the second and third, and in the last become\nlaterally spread out into luminous masses resembling nebul\u00e6. Another set\nof three is very curious. The first has an oblique flowing luminous\npatch from the table to the ground; in the second, this has changed to a\nwhite serpentine column, ending in a point above the medium\u2019s head; in\nthe third, the column has become broader and somewhat double, with the\ncurve in an opposite direction, and with a head-like termination. The\nchange of the curvature may have some connection with a change in the\nposition of the sitters, which is seen to have taken place between the\nsecond and the third of this set. There are two others, taken, like all\nthe preceding, in 1872, but which the medium described during the\nexposure. The first, he said, was a thick white fog; and the picture\ncame out all shaded white, with not a trace of any of the sitters. The\nother was described as a fog with a figure standing in it; and here a\nwhite human figure is alone seen in the almost uniform foggy surface.\nDuring the experiments made in 1873, the medium, _in every case_,\nminutely and correctly described the appearances which afterwards came\nout on the plate. In one there is a luminous-rayed star of large size,\nwith a human face faintly visible in the centre. This is the last of\nthree in which the star developed, and the whole were accurately\ndescribed by the medium. In another set of three, the medium first\ndescribed \u201ca light behind him, coming from the floor.\u201d The next, \u201ca\nlight rising over another person\u2019s arms, coming from his own boot.\u201d The\nthird, \u201cthere is the same light, but now a column comes up through the\ntable, and it is hot to my hands.\u201d Then he suddenly exclaimed, \u201cWhat a\nbright light up there! Can you not see it?\u201d pointing to it with his\nhand. All this most accurately describes the three pictures, and in the\nlast, the medium\u2019s hand is seen pointing to a white patch which appears\noverhead. There are other curious developments, the nature of which is\nalready sufficiently indicated; but one very startling single picture\nmust be mentioned. During the exposure one medium said he saw on the\nbackground a black figure, the other medium saw a light figure by the\nside of the black one. In the picture both these figures appear, the\nlight one very faintly, the black one much more distinctly, of a\ngigantic size, with a massive coarse-featured face and long\nhair.\u2014(_Spiritual Magazine, January and August, 1873_; _Photographic\nNews, June 28th, 1872_.)\n\nMr. Beattie has been so good as to send me for examination a complete\nset of these most extraordinary photographs, thirty-two in number, and\nhas furnished me with any particulars I desired. I have described them\nas correctly as I am able; and Dr. Thomson has authorized me to use his\nname as confirming Mr. Beattie\u2019s account of the conditions under which\nthey appeared. These experiments were not made without labor and\nperseverance. Sometimes twenty consecutive pictures produced absolutely\nnothing unusual. Hundreds have been taken, and more than half have been\ncomplete failures. But the successes have been well worth the labor.\nThey demonstrate the fact that what a medium or sensitive sees (even\nwhere no one else sees anything) may often have an objective existence.\nThey teach us that perhaps the bookseller, Nicolai, of Berlin\u2014whose case\nhas been quoted _ad nauseam_ as the type of a \u201cspectral illusion\u201d\u2014saw\nreal beings after all; and that, had photography been then discovered\nand properly applied, we might now have the portraits of the invisible\nmen and women who crowded his room. They give us hints of a process by\nwhich the figures seen at s\u00e9ances may have to be gradually formed or\ndeveloped, and enable us better to understand the statements repeatedly\nmade by the communicating intelligences, that it is very difficult to\nproduce definite, visible and tangible forms, and that it can only be\ndone under a rare combination of favorable conditions.\n\nWe find, then, that three amateur photographers, working independently\nin different parts of England, separately confirm the fact of\nspirit-photography\u2014already demonstrated to the satisfaction of many who\nhad tested it through professional photographers. The experiments of Mr.\nBeattie and Dr. Thomson are alone absolutely conclusive; and, taken in\nconnection with those of Mr. Slater and Dr. Williams, and the test\nphotographs, like those of Mrs. Guppy, establish as a scientific fact\nthe objective existence of invisible human forms and definite invisible\nactinic images. Before leaving the photographic phenomena we have to\nnotice two curious points in connection with them. The actinic action of\nthe spirit-forms is peculiar, and much more rapid than that of the light\nreflected from ordinary material forms; for the figures start out the\nmoment the developing fluid touches them, while the figure of the sitter\nappears much later. Mr. Beattie noticed this throughout his experiments,\nand I was myself much struck with it when watching the development of\nthree pictures recently taken at Mr. Hudson\u2019s. The second figure, though\nby no means bright, always came out long before any other part of the\npicture. The other singular thing is, the copious drapery in which these\nforms are almost always enveloped, so as to show only just what is\nnecessary for recognition of the face and figure. The explanation given\nof this is, that the human form is more difficult to materialize than\ndrapery. The conventional \u201cwhite-sheeted ghost\u201d was not then all fancy,\nbut had a foundation in fact\u2014a fact, too, of deep significance,\ndependent on the laws of a yet unknown chemistry.\n\n\n\n\n   SUMMARY OF THE MORE IMPORTANT MANIFESTATIONS, PHYSICAL AND MENTAL.\n\n\nAs we have not been able to give an account of many curious facts which\noccur with the various classes of mediums, the following catalogue of\nthe more important and well-characterized phenomena may be useful. They\nmay be grouped provisionally, as, Physical, or those in which material\nobjects are acted on, or apparently material bodies produced; and\nMental, or those which consist in the exhibition, by the medium, of\npowers or faculties not possessed in the normal state.\n\nThe principal physical phenomena are the following:\n\n1. _Simple Physical Phenomena._\u2014Producing sounds of all kinds, from a\ndelicate tick to blows like those of a heavy sledge-hammer. Altering the\nweight of bodies. Moving bodies without human agency. Raising bodies\ninto the air. Conveying bodies to a distance out of and into closed\nrooms. Releasing mediums from every description of bonds, even from\nwelded iron rings, as has happened in America.\n\n2. _Chemical._\u2014Preserving from the effects of fire, as already detailed.\n\n3. _Direct Writing and Drawing._\u2014Producing writing or drawing on marked\npapers, placed in such positions that no human hand (or foot) can touch\nthem. Sometimes, visibly to the spectators, a pencil rising up and\nwriting or drawing apparently by itself. Some of the drawings in many\ncolors have been produced on marked paper in from ten to twenty seconds,\nand the colors found wet. (See Mr. Coleman\u2019s evidence in \u201cDialectical\nReport,\u201d p. 143, confirmed by Lord Borthwick, p. 150.) Mr. Thomas\nSlater, of 136 Euston Road, is now obtaining communication in the\nfollowing manner: A bit of slate pencil an eighth of an inch long is\nlaid on a table; a clean slate is laid over this, in a well-lighted\nroom; the sound of writing is then heard, and in a few minutes a\ncommunication of considerable length is found distinctly written. At\nother times the slate is held between himself and another person, their\nother hands being joined. Some of these communications are philosophical\ndiscussions on the nature of spirit and matter, supporting the usual\nSpiritual theory on this subject.\n\n4. _Musical Phenomena._\u2014Musical instruments, of various kinds, played\nwithout human agency, from a hand-bell to a closed piano. With some\nmediums, and where the conditions are favorable, original musical\ncompositions of a very high character are produced. This occurs with Mr.\nHome.\n\n5. _Spiritual Forms._\u2014These are either luminous appearances, sparks,\nstars, globes of light, luminous clouds, &c.; or, hands, faces, or\nentire human figures, usually covered with flowing drapery, except a\nportion of the face and hands. The human forms are often capable of\nmoving solid objects, and are both visible and tangible to all present.\nIn other cases they are only visible to seers, but when this is the case\nit sometimes happens that the seer describes the figure as lifting a\nflower or a pen, and others present see the flower or the pen apparently\nmove by itself. In some cases they speak distinctly; in others the voice\nis heard by all, the form only seen by the medium. The flowing robes of\nthese forms have in some cases been examined, and pieces cut off, which\nhave in a short time melted away. Flowers are also brought, some of\nwhich fade away and vanish; others are real, and can be kept\nindefinitely. It must not be concluded that any of these forms are\nactual spirits; they are probably only temporary forms produced by\nspirits for purposes of test, or of recognition by their friends. This\nis the account invariably given of them by communications obtained in\nvarious ways; so that the objection once thought to be so crushing\u2014that\nthere can be no \u201cghosts\u201d of clothes, armor, or walking-sticks\u2014ceases to\nhave any weight.\n\n6. _Spiritual Photographs._\u2014These, as just detailed, demonstrate by a\npurely physical experiment the trustworthiness of the preceding class of\nobservations.\n\nWe now come to the mental phenomena, of which the following are the\nchief:\n\n1. _Automatic Writing._\u2014The medium writes involuntarily; often matter\nwhich he is not thinking about, does not expect, and does not like.\nOccasionally definite and correct information is given of facts of which\nthe medium has not, nor ever had, any knowledge. Sometimes future events\nare accurately predicted. The writing takes place either by the hand or\nthrough a planchette. Often the handwriting changes. Sometimes it is\nwritten backwards; sometimes in languages the medium does not\nunderstand.\n\n2. _Seeing, or Clairvoyance and Clairaudience._\u2014This is of various\nkinds. Some mediums see the forms of deceased persons unknown to them,\nand describe their peculiarities so minutely that their friends at once\nrecognize them. They often hear voices, through which they obtain names,\ndate, and place, connected with the individuals so described. Others\nread sealed letters in any language, and write appropriate answers.\n\n3. _Trance-Speaking._\u2014The medium goes into a more or less unconscious\nstate, and then speaks, often on matters and in a style far beyond his\nown capacities. Thus, Serjeant Cox\u2014no mean judge on a matter of literary\nstyle\u2014says, \u201cI have heard an uneducated bar-man, when in a state of\ntrance, maintain a dialogue with a party of philosophers on \u2018Reason and\nForeknowledge, Will and Fate,\u2019 and hold his own against them. I have put\nto him the most difficult questions in psychology, and received answers,\nalways thoughtful, often full of wisdom, and invariably conveyed in\nchoice and elegant language. Nevertheless a quarter of an hour\nafterwards, when released from the trance, he was unable to answer the\nsimplest query on a philosophical subject, and was even at a loss for\nsufficient language to express a commonplace idea,\u201d (\u201cWhat am I?\u201d Vol.\nII., p. 242.) That this is not overstated I can myself testify, from\nrepeated observation of the same medium. And from other\ntrance-speakers\u2014such as Mrs. Hardinge, Mrs. Tappan, and Mr. Peebles\u2014I\nhave heard discourses which, for high and sustained eloquence, noble\nthoughts, and high moral purpose, surpassed the best efforts of any\npreacher or lecturer within my experience.\n\n4. _Impersonation._\u2014This occurs during trance. The medium seems taken\npossession of by another being; speaks, looks and acts the character in\na most marvelous manner; in some cases speaks foreign languages never\neven heard in the normal state; as in the case of Miss Edmonds, already\ngiven. When the influence is violent or painful, the effects are such as\nhave been in all ages imputed to possession by evil spirits.\n\n5. _Healing._\u2014There are various forms of this. Sometimes by mere laying\non of hands, an exalted form of simple mesmeric healing. Sometimes, in\nthe trance state, the medium at once discovers the hidden malady, and\nprescribes for it, often describing very exactly the morbid appearance\nof internal organs.\n\nThe purely mental phenomena are generally of no use as evidence to\nnon-Spiritualists, except in those few cases where rigid tests can be\napplied; but they are so intimately connected with the physical series,\nand often so interwoven with them, that no one who has sufficient\nexperience to satisfy him of the reality of the former, fails to see\nthat the latter form part of the general system, and are dependent on\nthe same agencies.\n\nWith the physical series the case is very different. They form a\nconnected body of evidence, from the simplest to the most complex and\nastounding, every single component fact of which can be and has been\nrepeatedly demonstrated by itself; while each gives weight and\nconfirmation to all the rest. They have all, or nearly all, been before\nthe world for twenty years; the theories and explanations of reviewers\nand critics do not touch them, or in any way satisfy any sane man who\nhas repeatedly witnessed them; they have been tested and examined by\nskeptics of every grade of incredulity, men in every way qualified to\ndetect imposture or to discover natural causes\u2014trained physicists,\nmedical men, lawyers and men of business\u2014but in every case the\ninvestigators have either retired baffled, or become converts.\n\nThere have, it is true, been some impostors who have attempted to\nimitate the phenomena; but such cases are few in number, and have been\ndiscovered by tests far less severe than those to which the genuine\nphenomena have been submitted over and over again; and a large\nproportion of these phenomena have never been imitated, because they are\nbeyond successful imitation.\n\nNow what do our leaders of public opinion say, when a scientific man of\nproved ability again observes a large portion of the more extraordinary\nphenomena, in his own house, under test conditions, and affirms their\nobjective reality; and this not after a hasty examination, but after\nfour years of research? Men \u201cwith heavy scientific appendages to their\nnames\u201d refuse to examine them when invited; the eminent society of which\nhe is a fellow refuses to record them; and the press cries out that it\nwants better witnesses than Mr. Crookes, and that such facts want\n\u201cconfirmation\u201d before they can be believed. But why more confirmation?\nAnd when again \u201cconfirmed,\u201d who is to confirm the confirmer? After the\nwhole range of the phenomena had been before the world ten years, and\nhad convinced skeptics by tens of thousands\u2014skeptics, be it remembered,\nof common sense and more than common acuteness, Americans of all\nclasses\u2014they were _confirmed_ by the first chemist in America, Professor\nRobert Hare. Two years later they were again confirmed by the elaborate\nand persevering inquiries of one of the first American lawyers, Judge\nEdmonds. Then by another good chemist, Professor Mapes. In France the\ntruth of the simpler physical phenomena was _confirmed_ by Count A. de\nGasparin, in 1854; and since then French astronomers, mathematicians and\nchemists of high rank have _confirmed_ them. Professor Thury of Geneva\nagain _confirmed_ them, in 1855. In our own country such men as\nProfessor de Morgan, Dr. Lockhart Robertson, T. Adolphus Trollope, Dr.\nRobert Chambers, Serjeant Cox, Mr. C. F. Yarley, as well as the\nskeptical Dialectical Committee, have independently _confirmed_ large\nportions of them; and lastly comes Mr. William Crookes, F.R.S., with\nfour years of research and unrestricted experiment with the two oldest\nand most remarkable mediums in the world, and again _confirms_ almost\nthe whole series! But even this is not all. Through an independent set\nof most competent observers we have the crucial test of photography; a\nwitness which cannot be deceived, which has no preconceived opinions,\nwhich cannot register \u201csubjective\u201d impressions; a thoroughly scientific\nwitness, who is admitted into our law courts, and whose testimony is\ngood as against any number of recollections of what did happen or\nopinions as to what ought to and must have happened. And what have the\nother side brought against this overwhelming array of consistent and\nunimpeachable evidence? They have merely made absurd and inadequate\nsuppositions, but have not disproved or explained away one weighty fact!\n\nMy position, therefore, is, that the phenomena of Spiritualism in their\nentirety do _not_ require further confirmation. They are proved quite as\nwell as any facts are proved in other sciences; and it is not denial or\nquibbling that can disprove any of them, but only fresh facts and\naccurate deductions from those facts. When the opponents of Spiritualism\ncan give a record of their researches approaching in duration and\ncompleteness to those of its advocates; and when they can discover and\nshow in detail, either how the phenomena are produced or how the many\nsane and able men here referred to have been deluded into a coincident\nbelief that they have witnessed them: and when they can prove the\ncorrectness of their theory by producing a like belief in a body of\nequally sane and able unbelievers\u2014then, and not till then, will it be\nnecessary for Spiritualists to produce fresh confirmation of facts which\nare, and always have been, sufficiently real and indisputable to satisfy\nany honest and persevering inquirer.\n\nThis being the state of the case as regards evidence and proof, we are\nfully justified in taking the _facts_ of Modern Spiritualism (and with\nthem the spiritual theory as the only tenable one) as being fully\nestablished. It only remains to give a brief account of the more\nimportant uses and teachings of Spiritualism.\n\n\n\n\n                 HISTORICAL TEACHINGS OF SPIRITUALISM.\n\n\nThe lessons which Modern Spiritualism teaches may be classed under two\nheads. In the first place, we find that it gives a rational account of\nvarious phenomena in human history which physical science has been\nunable to explain, and has therefore rejected or ignored; and, in the\nsecond, we derive from it some definite information as to man\u2019s nature\nand destiny, and, founded on this, an ethical system of great practical\nefficacy. The following are some of the more important phenomena of\nhistory and of human nature which science cannot deal with, but which\nSpiritualism explains:\n\n1. It is no small thing that the Spiritualist finds himself able to\nrehabilitate Socrates as a sane man, and his \u201cdemon\u201d as an intelligent\nspiritual being who accompanied him through life\u2014in other words, a\nguardian spirit. The non-Spiritualist is obliged to look upon one of the\ngreatest men in human history, not only as subject all his life to a\nmental illusion, but as being so weak, foolish, or superstitious as\nnever to discover that it was an illusion. He is obliged to disbelieve\nthe fact asserted by contemporaries and by Socrates himself, that it\nforewarned him truly of dangers; and to hold that this noble man, this\nsubtle reasoner, this religious skeptic, who was looked up to with\nveneration and love by the great men who were his pupils, was imposed\nupon by his own fancies, and never during a long life found out that\nthey were fancies, and that their supposed monitions were as often wrong\nas right. It is a positive mental relief not to have to think thus of\nSocrates.\n\n2. Spiritualism allows us to believe that the oracles of antiquity were\nnot all impostures; that a whole people, perhaps the most intellectually\nacute who ever existed, were not all dupes. In discussing the question,\n\u201cWhy the Prophetess Pythia giveth no Answers now from the Oracle in\nVerse,\u201d Plutarch tells us that when kings and states consulted the\noracle on weighty matters that might do harm if made public, the replies\nwere couched in enigmatical language; but when private persons asked\nabout their own affairs they got direct answers in the plainest terms,\nso that some people even complained of their simplicity and directness,\nas being unworthy of a divine origin. And he adds this positive\ntestimony: \u201cHer answers, though submitted to the severest scrutiny, have\nnever proved false or incorrect. On the contrary, the verification of\nthem has filled the temple with gifts from all parts of Greece and\nforeign countries.\u201d And again, \u201cThe answer of Pythoness proceeds to the\nvery truth, without any diversion, circuit, fraud, or ambiguity. It has\nnever yet, in a single instance, been convicted of falsehood.\u201d Would\nsuch statements be made by such a writer, if these oracles were all the\nmere guesses of impostors? The fact that they declined and ultimately\nfailed, is wholly in their favor: for why should imposture cease as the\nworld became less enlightened and more superstitious? Neither does the\nfact that the priests could sometimes be bribed to give out false\noracles prove anything, against such statements as that of Plutarch and\nthe belief during many generations, supported by ever-recurring\nexperiences, of the greatest men of antiquity. That belief could only\nhave been formed by demonstrative facts; and Modern Spiritualism enables\nus to understand the nature of those facts.\n\n3. Both the Old and New Testaments are full of Spiritualism, and\nSpiritualists alone can read the record with an enlightened belief. The\nhand that wrote upon the wall at Belshazzar\u2019s feast, and the three men\nunhurt in Nebuchadnezzar\u2019s fiery furnace, are for them actual facts\nwhich they need not explain away. St. Paul\u2019s language about \u201cspiritual\ngifts,\u201d and \u201ctrying the spirits,\u201d is to them intelligible language, and\nthe \u201cgift of tongues\u201d a simple fact. When Christ cast out \u201cdevils\u201d or\nevil spirits, he really did so\u2014not merely startle a madman into\nmomentary quiescence; and the water changed into wine, as well as the\nbread and fishes continually renewed till five thousand men were fed,\nare credible as extreme manifestations of a power which is still daily\nat work among us.\n\n4. The miracles of the saints, when well attested, come into the same\ncategory. Those of St. Bernard, for instance, were often performed in\nbroad day before thousands of spectators, and were recorded by\neye-witnesses. He was himself greatly troubled by them, wondering why\nthis power was bestowed upon him, and fearing lest it should make him\nless humble. This was not the frame of mind, nor was St. Bernard\u2019s the\ncharacter, of a deluded enthusiast. The Spiritualist need not believe\nthat all this never happened; or that St. Francis d\u2019Assisi and St.\nTheresa were not raised into the air, as eye-witnesses declared they\nwere.\n\n5. Witchcraft and witchcraft trials have a new interest for the\nSpiritualist. He is able to detect hundreds of curious and minute\ncoincidences with phenomena he has himself witnessed; he is able to\nseparate the _facts_ from the absurd _inferences_ which people imbued\nwith the frightful superstition of diabolism drew from them, and from\nwhich false inferences all the horrors of the witchcraft mania arose.\nSpiritualism, and Spiritualism alone, gives a rational explanation of\nwitchcraft, and determines how much of it was objective fact, how much\nsubjective illusion.\n\n6. Modern Roman Catholic miracles become intelligible facts. Spirits\nwhose affections and passions are strongly excited in favor of\nCatholicism, produce those appearances of the Virgin and of saints which\nthey know will tend to increased religious fervor. The appearance itself\nmay be an objective reality; while it is only an inference that it is\nthe Virgin Mary\u2014an inference which every intelligent Spiritualist would\nrepudiate as in the highest degree improbable.\n\n7. Second-sight, and many of the so-called superstitions of savages, may\nbe realities. It is well known that mediumistic power is more frequent\nand more energetic in mountainous countries; and as these are generally\ninhabited by the less civilized races, the beliefs that are more\nprevalent there may be due to facts which are more prevalent, and be\nwrongly imputed to the coincident ignorance. It is known to\nSpiritualists that the pure dry air of California led to more powerful\nand more startling manifestations than in any other part of the United\nStates.\n\n8. The recently-discussed question of the efficacy of prayer receives a\nperfect solution by Spiritualism. Prayer may be often answered, though\nnot directly, by the Deity. Nor does the answer depend wholly on the\nmorality or the religion of the petitioner; but as men who are both\nmoral and religious, and are firm believers in a divine response to\nprayer, will pray more frequently, more earnestly and more\ndisinterestedly, they will attract toward them a number of spiritual\nbeings who sympathize with them, and who, when the necessary mediumistic\npower is present, will be able, as they are often willing, to answer the\nprayer. A striking case is that of George M\u00fcller, of Bristol, who has\nnow for forty-four years depended wholly for his own support, and that\nof his wonderful charities, on answer to prayer. His \u201cNarrative of Some\nof the Lord\u2019s Dealings with George M\u00fcller\u201d (6th Ed., 1860), should have\nbeen referred to in the late discussion, since it furnishes a better\ndemonstration that prayer is sometimes really answered, than the\nhospital experiment proposed by Sir Henry Thomson could possibly have\ndone. In this work we have a precise yearly statement of his receipts\nand expenditures for many years. He never asked any one or allowed any\none to be asked, directly or indirectly, for a penny. No subscriptions\nor collections were ever made; yet from 1830 (when he married without\nany income whatever) he has lived, brought up a family, and established\ninstitutions which have steadily increased, till now four thousand\norphan children are educated and in part supported. It has happened\nhundreds of times that there has been no food in his house and no money\nto buy any, or no food or milk or sugar for the children; yet he never\ntook a loaf or any other article on credit even for a day; and during\nthe thirty years over which his narrative extends, neither he nor the\nhundreds of children dependent upon him for their daily food have ever\nbeen without a regular meal! They have lived, literally, from hand to\nmouth; and his one and only resource has been secret prayer. Here is a\ncase which has been going on in the midst of us for forty years, and is\nstill going on; it has been published to the world for many years, yet a\nwarm discussion is carried on by eminent men as to the fact of whether\nprayer is or is not answered, and not one of them exhibits the least\nknowledge of this most pertinent and illustrative phenomenon! The\nSpiritualist explains all this as a personal influence. The perfect\nsimplicity, faith, boundless charity and goodness of George M\u00fcller, have\nenlisted in his cause beings of a like nature; and his mediumistic\npowers have enabled them to work for him by influencing others to send\nhim money, food, clothes, &c., all arriving, as we should say, just in\nthe nick of time. The numerous letters he received with these gifts,\ndescribing the sudden and uncontrollable impulse the donors felt to send\nhim a certain definite sum at a certain fixed time\u2014such being the exact\nsum he was in want of and had prayed for\u2014strikingly illustrates the\nnature of the power at work. All this might be explained away, if it\nwere partial and discontinuous; but when it continued to supply the\ndaily wants of a life of unexampled charity, _for which no provision in\nadvance was ever made_ (for that M\u00fcller considered would show want of\ntrust in God), no such explanation can cover the facts.\n\n9. Spiritualism enables us to comprehend and find a place for that long\nseries of disturbances and occult phenomena of various kinds, which\noccurred previous to what are termed the Modern Spiritual\nManifestations. Robert Dale Owen\u2019s works give a rather full account of\nthis class of phenomena, which are most accurately recorded and\nphilosophically treated by him. This is not the place to refer to them\nin detail; but one of them may be mentioned as showing how large an\namount of unexplained mystery there was, even in our own country, before\nthe world heard anything of Modern Spiritualism. In 1841, Major Edward\nMoor, F. R. S., published a little book called \u201cBealings Bells,\u201d giving\nan account of mysterious bell-ringing in his house at Great Bealings,\nSuffolk, and which continued for fifty-three days. Every attempt to\ndiscover the cause, by himself, friends, and bell-hangers, were\nfruitless; and by no efforts, however violent, could the same clamorous\nand rapid ringing be produced. He wrote an account to the newspapers,\nrequesting information bearing on the subject, when, in addition to\ncertain wise suggestions\u2014of rats or a monkey as efficient causes\u2014he\nreceived fourteen communications, all relating cases of mysterious bell\nringing in different parts of England, many of them lasting much longer\nthan Major Moor\u2019s, and all remaining equally unexplained. One lasted\neighteen months; another was in Greenwich Hospital, where neither\nclerk-of-the-works, bell-hanger, nor men of science could discover the\ncause. One clergyman wrote of disturbances of a most serious kind\ncontinued in his parsonage for _nine years_, and he was able to trace\nback their existence in the same house for _sixty years_. Another case\nhad lasted _twenty years_, and could be traced back for a _century_.\nSome of the details of these cases are most instructive. Trick is\nabsolutely the most incredible of all explanations. Spiritualism\nfurnishes the explanation by means of analogous facts occurring every\nday, and forming part of the great system of phenomena which\ndemonstrates the spiritual theory. Major Moor\u2019s book is very rare; but a\ngood abstract of it is given in Owen\u2019s \u201cDebatable Land,\u201d pp. 239\u2013258.\n\n\n\n\n                    MORAL TEACHINGS OF SPIRITUALISM.\n\n\nWe have now to explain the Theory of Human Nature, which is the outcome\nof the phenomena taken in their entirety, and is also more or less\nexplicitly taught by the communications which purport to come from\nspirits. It may be briefly outlined as follows:\n\n1. Man is a duality, consisting of an organized spiritual form, evolved\ncoincidently with and permeating the physical body, and having\ncorresponding organs and developments.\n\n2. Death is the separation of this duality, and effects no change in the\nspirit, morally or intellectually.\n\n3. Progressive evolution of the intellectual and moral nature is the\ndestiny of individuals; the knowledge, attainments and experience of\nearth-life forming the basis of spirit-life.\n\n4. Spirits can communicate through properly-endowed mediums. They are\nattracted to those they love or sympathize with, and strive to warn,\nprotect, and influence them for good, by mental impression when they\ncannot effect any more direct communication; but, as follows from clause\n(2), their communications will be fallible, and must be judged and\ntested just as we do those of our fellow-men.\n\nThe foregoing outline propositions will suggest a number of questions\nand difficulties, for the answers to which readers are referred to the\nworks of R. D. Owen, Hudson Tuttle, Professor Hare, and the records of\nSpiritualism _passim_. Here I must pass on to explain with some amount\nof detail, how the theory leads to a pure system of morality with\nsanctions far more powerful and effective than any which either\nreligious systems or philosophy have put forth.\n\nThis part of the subject cannot perhaps be better introduced than by\nreferring to some remarks by Professor Huxley in a letter to the\nCommittee of the Dialectical Society. He says, \u201cBut supposing the\nphenomena to be genuine\u2014they do not interest me. If anybody would endow\nme with the faculty of listening to the chatter of old women and curates\nat the nearest cathedral town, I should decline the privilege, having\nbetter things to do. And if the folk in the spiritual world do not talk\nmore wisely and sensibly than their friends report them to do, I put\nthem in the same category.\u201d This passage, written with the caustic\nsatire in which the kind hearted Professor occasionally indulges, can\nhardly mean that if it were proved that men really continued to live\nafter the death of the body, that fact would not interest him, merely\nbecause some of them talked twaddle? Many scientific men deny the\nspiritual source of the manifestations, on the ground that real, genuine\nspirits might reasonably be expected not to indulge in the commonplace\ntrivialities which do undoubtedly form the staple of ordinary spiritual\ncommunications. But surely Professor Huxley, as a naturalist and\nphilosopher, would not admit this to be a reasonable expectation. Does\nhe not hold the doctrine that there can be no effect, mental or\nphysical, without an adequate cause? and that mental states, faculties,\nand idiosyncrasies, that are the result of gradual development and\nlife-long\u2014or even ancestral\u2014habit, cannot be suddenly changed by any\nknown or imaginable cause? And if (as the Professor would probably\nadmit) a very large majority of those who daily depart this life are\npersons addicted to twaddle, persons who spend much of their time in low\nor trivial pursuits, persons whose pleasures are sensual rather than\nintellectual\u2014whence is to come the transforming power which is suddenly,\nat the mere throwing off the physical body, to change these into beings\nable to appreciate and delight in high and intellectual pursuits? The\nthing would be a miracle, the greatest of miracles, and surely Professor\nHuxley is the last man to contemplate innumerable miracles as part of\nthe order of nature; and all for what? Merely _to save these people from\nthe necessary consequences of their misspent lives_. For the essential\nteaching of Spiritualism is, that we are, all of us, in every act and\nthought, helping to build up a \u201cmental fabric,\u201d which will be and\nconstitute ourselves, more completely after the death of the body than\nit does now. Just as this fabric is well or ill built, so will our\nprogress and happiness be aided or retarded. Just in proportion as we\nhave developed our higher intellectual and moral nature, or starved it\nby disuse and by giving undue prominence to those faculties which secure\nus mere physical or selfish enjoyment, shall we be well or ill fitted\nfor the new life we enter on. The noble teaching of Herbert Spencer,\nthat men are best educated by being left to suffer the natural\nconsequences of their actions, is the teaching of Spiritualism as\nregards the transition to another phase of life. There will be no\nimposed rewards or punishments; but every one will suffer the natural\nand inevitable consequences of a well or ill-spent life. The well-spent\nlife is that in which those faculties which regard our personal physical\nwell-being are subordinated to those which regard our social and\nintellectual well-being, and the well-being of others; and that inherent\nfeeling\u2014which is so universal and so difficult to account for\u2014that these\nlatter constitute our higher nature, seems also to point to the\nconclusion that we are intended for a condition in which the former will\nbe almost wholly unnecessary, and will gradually become rudimentary\nthrough disuse, while the latter will receive a corresponding\ndevelopment.\n\nAlthough, therefore, the twaddle and triviality of so many of the\ncommunications is not one whit more interesting to sensible\nSpiritualists than it is to Prof. Huxley, and is never voluntarily\nlistened to, yet the fact that such poor stuff is talked (supposing it\nto come from spirits) is both a fact that might have been anticipated\nand a lesson of deep import. We must remember, too, the character of the\ns\u00e9ances at which these commonplace communications are received. A\nmiscellaneous assemblance of believers of various grades and tastes, but\nmostly in search of an evening\u2019s amusement, and of skeptics who look\nupon all the others as either fools or knaves, is not likely to attract\nto itself the more elevated and refined denizens of the higher spheres,\nwho may well be supposed to feel too much interest in their own new and\ngrand intellectual existence to waste their energies on either class. If\nthe fact is proved, that people continue to talk after they are dead\nwith just as little sense as when alive, but that, being in a state in\nwhich sense, both common and uncommon, is of far greater importance to\nhappiness than it is here (where fools pass very comfortable lives),\nthey suffer the penalty of having neglected to cultivate their minds;\nand being so much out of their element in a world where all pleasures\nare mental, they endeavor to recall old times by gossiping with their\nformer associates whenever they can find the means\u2014Prof. Huxley will not\nfail to see its vast importance as an incentive to that higher education\nwhich he is never weary of advocating. He would assuredly be interested\nin anything having a really practical bearing on the present as well as\non the future condition of men; and it is evident that even these low\nand despised phenomena of Spiritualism, \u201cif true,\u201d have this bearing,\nand, combined with its higher teachings, constitute a great moral agency\nwhich may yet regenerate the world. For the Spiritualist who, by daily\nexperience, gets absolute knowledge of these facts regarding the future\nstate\u2014who knows that, just in proportion as he indulges in passion, or\nselfishness, or the exclusive pursuit of wealth, and neglects to\ncultivate the affections and the varied powers of his mind, so does he\ninevitably prepare for himself misery in a world in which there are no\nphysical wants to be provided for, no sensual enjoyments except those\ndirectly associated with the affections and sympathies, no occupations\nbut those having for their object social and intellectual progress\u2014is\nimpelled toward a pure, a sympathetic, and an intellectual life by\nmotives far stronger than any which either religion or philosophy can\nsupply. He dreads to give way to passion or to falsehood, to selfishness\nor to a life of luxurious physical enjoyment, because he knows that the\nnatural and inevitable consequences of such habits are future misery,\nnecessitating a long and arduous struggle in order to develop anew the\nfaculties, whose exercise long disuse has rendered painful to him. He\nwill be deterred from crime by the knowledge that its unforeseen\nconsequences may cause him ages of remorse; while the bad passions which\nit encourages will be a perpetual torment to himself in a state of being\nin which mental emotions cannot be laid aside or forgotten amid the\nfierce struggles and sensual pleasures of a physical existence. It must\nbe remembered that these beliefs (unlike those of theology) will have a\nliving efficacy, because they depend on _facts_ occurring again and\nagain in the family circle, constantly reiterating the same truths as\nthe result of personal knowledge, and thus bringing home to the mind,\neven of the most obtuse, the absolute reality of that future existence\nin which our degree of happiness or misery will be directly dependent on\nthe \u201cmental fabric\u201d we construct by our daily thoughts and words and\nactions here.\n\nContrast this system of natural and inevitable reward and retribution,\ndependent wholly on the proportionate development of our higher mental\nand moral nature, with the arbitrary system of rewards and punishments\ndependent on stated acts and beliefs only, as set forth by all dogmatic\nreligions, and who can fail to see that the former is in harmony with\nthe whole order of Nature\u2014the latter opposed to it. Yet it is actually\nsaid that Spiritualism is altogether either imposture or delusion, and\nall its teachings but the product of \u201cexpectant attention\u201d and\n\u201cunconscious cerebration\u201d! If none of the long series of demonstrative\nfacts which have been here sketched out, existed, and its only product\nwere this theory of a future state, that alone would negative such a\nsupposition. And when it is considered that mediums of all grades,\nwhether intelligent or ignorant, and having communications given through\nthem in various direct and indirect ways, are absolutely in accord as to\nthe main features of this theory, what becomes of the gross misstatement\nthat nothing is given through mediums but what they know and believe\nthemselves? The mediums have, almost all, been brought up in some of the\nusual Orthodox beliefs. How is it, then, that the usual Orthodox notions\nof heaven are _never_ confirmed through them?\n\nIn the scores of volumes and pamphlets of spiritual literature I have\nread, I have found no statement of a spirit describing \u201cwinged angels,\u201d\nor \u201cgolden harps,\u201d or the \u201cthrone of God\u201d\u2014to which the humblest orthodox\nChristian thinks he will be introduced if he goes to heaven at all.\nThere is no more startling and radical opposition to be found between\nthe most diverse religious creeds, than that between the beliefs in\nwhich the majority of mediums have been brought up and the doctrines as\nto a future life that are delivered through them; there is nothing more\nmarvelous in the history of the human mind than the fact that, whether\nin the back-woods of America or in country towns in England, ignorant\nmen and women having almost all been brought up in the usual sectarian\nnotions of heaven and hell, should, the moment they become seized by the\nstrange power of mediumship, give forth teachings on this subject which\nare philosophical rather than religious, and which differ wholly from\nwhat had been so deeply ingrained into their minds. And this statement\nis not affected by the fact that communications purport to come from\nCatholic or Protestant, Mahometan or Hindoo spirits. Because, while such\ncommunications maintain special _dogmas_ and _doctrines_, yet they\nconfirm the _very facts_ which really constitute the spiritual theory,\nand which in themselves contradict the theory of the sectarian spirits.\nThe Roman Catholic spirit, for instance, does not describe himself as\nbeing in either the orthodox purgatory, heaven, or hell; the Evangelical\nDissenter who died in the firm conviction that he should certainly \u201cgo\nto Jesus,\u201d never describes himself as being with Christ, or as ever\nhaving seen him, and so on throughout. Nothing is more common than for\nreligious people at s\u00e9ances to ask questions about God and Christ. In\nreply they never get more than opinions, or more frequently the\nstatement that they, the spirits, have no more actual knowledge of those\nsubjects than they had while on earth. So that the facts are all\nharmonious; and the very circumstance of there being sectarian spirits\nbears witness in two ways to the truth of the spiritual theory\u2014it shows\nthat the mind, with its ingrained beliefs, is not suddenly changed at\ndeath; and it shows that the communications are not the reflection of\nthe mind of the medium, who is often of the same religion as the\ncommunicating spirit, and, because he does not get his own ideas\nconfirmed, is obliged to call in the aid of \u201cSatanic influence\u201d to\naccount for the anomaly.\n\nThe doctrine of a future state and of the proper preparation for it as\nhere developed, is to be found in the works of all Spiritualists, in the\nutterances of all trance-speakers, in the communications through all\nmediums; and this could be proved, did space permit, by copious\nquotations. But it varies in form and detail in each; and just as the\nhistorian arrives at the opinions or beliefs of any age or nation, by\ncollating the individual opinions of its best and most popular writers,\nso do Spiritualists collate the various statements on the subject. They\nknow well that absolute dependence is to be placed on no individual\ncommunications. They know that these are received by a complex physical\nand mental process, both communicator and recipient influencing the\nresult; and they accept the teachings as to the future state of man only\nso far as they are repeatedly confirmed in substance (though they may\ndiffer in detail) by communications obtained under the most varied\ncircumstances, through mediums of the most different characters and\nacquirements, at different times and in distant places. Fresh converts\nare apt to think that, once satisfied the communications come from their\ndeceased friends, they may implicitly trust to them, and apply them\nuniversally; as if the vast spiritual world was all molded to one\npattern, instead of being, as it almost certainly is, a thousand times\nmore varied than human society on the earth is, or ever has been. The\nfact that the communications do not agree as to the condition,\noccupations, pleasures, and capacities of individual spirits, so far\nfrom being a difficulty, as has been absurdly supposed, is what ought to\nhave been expected; while the agreement on the essential features of\nwhat we have stated to be the spiritual theory of a future state of\nexistence, is all the more striking, and tends to establish that theory\nas a fundamental truth.\n\nThe assertion so often made, that Spiritualism is the survival or\nrevival of old superstitions, is so utterly unfounded as to be hardly\nworth notice. A science of human nature which is founded on observed\nfacts; which appeals only to facts and experiment; which takes no\nbeliefs on trust; which inculcates investigation and self-reliance as\nthe first duties of intelligent beings; which teaches that happiness in\na future life can be secured by cultivating and developing to the utmost\nthe higher faculties of our intellectual and moral nature, _and by no\nother method_\u2014is and must be the natural enemy of all superstition.\nSpiritualism is an experimental science, and affords the only sure\nfoundation for a true philosophy and a pure religion. It abolishes the\nterms \u201csupernatural\u201d and \u201cmiracle\u201d by an extension of the sphere of law\nand the realm of nature; and in doing so it takes up and explains\nwhatever is true in the superstitions and so-called miracles of all\nages. It, and it alone, is able to harmonize conflicting creeds; and it\nmust ultimately lead to concord among mankind in the matter of religion,\nwhich has for so many ages been the source of unceasing discord and\nincalculable evil; and it will be able to do this because it appeals to\nevidence instead of faith, and substitutes facts for opinions; and is\nthus able to demonstrate the source of much of the teaching that men\nhave so often held to be divine.\n\nIt will thus be seen that those who can form no higher conception of the\nuses of Spiritualism, \u201ceven if true,\u201d than to detect crime or to name in\nadvance the winner of the Derby, not only prove their own ignorance of\nthe whole subject, but exhibit in a marked degree that partial mental\nparalysis, the result of a century of materialistic thought, which\nrenders so many men unable seriously to conceive the possibility of a\nnatural continuation of human life after the death of the body. It will\nbe seen also that Spiritualism is no mere \u201cphysiological\u201d curiosity, no\nmere indication of some hitherto unknown \u201claw of nature\u201d; but that it is\na science of vast extent, having the widest, the most important, and the\nmost practical issues, and as such should enlist the sympathies alike of\nmoralists, philosophers and politicians, and of all who have at heart\nthe improvement of society and the permanent elevation of human nature.\n\n\nIn concluding this necessarily imperfect though somewhat lengthy account\nof a subject about which so little is probably known to most of the\nreaders of the Fortnightly Review, I would earnestly beg them not to\nsatisfy themselves with a minute criticism of single facts, the evidence\nfor which, in my brief survey, may be imperfect; but to weigh carefully\nthe mass of evidence I have adduced, considering its wide range and\nvarious bearings. I would ask them to look rather at the results\nproduced by the evidence than at the evidence itself as imperfectly\nstated by me; to consider the long roll of men of ability who,\ncommencing the inquiry as skeptics, left it as believers, and to give\nthese men credit for not having overlooked, during years of patient\ninquiry, difficulties which at once occur to themselves. I would ask\nthem to ponder well on the fact, that no earnest inquirer has ever come\nto a conclusion adverse to the reality of the phenomena; and that no\nSpiritualist has ever yet given them up as false. I would ask them,\nfinally, to dwell upon the long series of facts in human history that\nSpiritualism explains, and on the noble and satisfying theory of a\nfuture life that it unfolds. If they will do this, I feel confident that\nthe result I have alone aimed at will be attained; which is, to remove\nthe prejudices and misconceptions with which the whole subject has been\nsurrounded, and to incite to unbiased and persevering examination of the\nfacts. For the cardinal maxim of Spiritualism is, that every one must\nfind out the truth for himself. It makes no claim to be received on\nhearsay evidence; but, on the other hand, it demands that it be not\nrejected without patient, honest and fearless inquiry.\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n                           Modern Spiritualism.\n\n                             By EPES SARGENT.\n\n\n                   PLANCHETTE: THE DESPAIR OF SCIENCE.\n\n               Being a Full Account of Modern Spiritualism.\n\n PRICE, IN ILLUMINATED PAPER COVERS, $1; IN GREEN CLOTH, $1.25. POSTAGE,\n       16C. A New Edition, just issued by ROBERTS BROTHERS, Boston.\n\n\nThis volume should be properly called \u201cA History of Modern\nSpiritualism,\u201d for it is a thorough and careful survey of the whole\nsubject of well-attested phenomena believed to be spiritual.\n\n=Prof. WM. CROOKES, F. R. S.=, of London, the celebrated chemist, whose\nscientific verifications of the spiritual phenomena are now creating\nsuch a sensation, writes, under date of April 17, 1874,\u2014\n\n\u201c_Planchette_ was the first book I read on Spiritualism, and it still\nremains, in my opinion, the best work to place in the hands of the\nuninitiated.\u201d\n\n=GEO. WM. CURTIS=, in HARPER\u2019S WEEKLY, says of it,\u2014\n\n\u201cIt is a copious and popular but faithful summary of the phenomena and\ntheories. The ample knowledge and literary skill with which the subject\nis treated make this volume an indispensable manual to all who are\nattracted to this speculation, and it will be read with great interest\nby the skeptic as well as by the believer.\u201d\n\n=The Rev. Dr. BELLOWS=, in the LIBERAL CHRISTIAN, says of it,\u2014\n\n\u201cIt sets forth many important considerations with regard to the\nphilosophy of the mind, while its historical notices of the development\nof Spiritualism during the last twenty years give a more complete and\nimpartial view of the phenomena in question than has thus far been\npresented to the public.\u201d\n\n=The New York Express= says,\u2014\n\n\u201cThis is certainly one of the most startling works of our sensational\nage. It purports to give a duly authenticated narration of spiritual\nmanifestations, which are beyond the bounds of credulity by any calm\nthinking reader; and yet the asserted facts are given with such an\napparent truthfulness and distinctness of detail, and the learned and\ndistinguished names connected with the scenes described are of such\nweight, that it is impossible to deny the conviction impressed upon the\nmind that either Spiritualism is one of the greatest delusions of the\nage, or that it is indeed a new manifestation of supernatural power,\ndeserving the investigations of our theologians and teachers. The work,\nfrom its extreme interest, will amply repay a careful perusal.\u201d\n\n=The Boston Journal= says,\u2014\n\n\u201cMr. Sargent has here collected a vast amount of information, and\nwhoever wishes to have an intelligent epitome of the whole history of\nmodern Spiritualism will find it in this volume.\u201d\n\n                              For Sale by\n                            COLBY AND RICH,\n                 No. 9 Montgomery Place, Boston, Mass.\n\n\n\n\n                                NOW READY.\n\n                               A BIOGRAPHY\n\n                                    OF\n\n                            MRS. J. H. CONANT,\n\n              The World\u2019s Medium of the Nineteenth Century.\n\n                       A HISTORY OF HER MEDIUMSHIP\n\n                   From Childhood to the Present Time;\n\n                         BEING A NARRATIVE OF THE\n\n _Personal Experiences, Sharp Trials, and Liberalizing Victories achieved\n          in the cause of Human Reason and Spiritual Knowledge._\n\n\n Let the heart-stricken read it, and be comforted;\n Let the earth-weary peruse it, and be glad;\n Let the world\u2019s workers explore it, and be encouraged;\n Let the doubter scan its incontrovertible testimony, and be confounded;\n Let the true man and woman, wherever abiding, recognize in it the\n    life-line of a _kindred soul_.\n\n                            COLBY AND RICH,\n                              PUBLISHERS,\n                        NO. 9 MONTGOMERY PLACE,\n                             BOSTON, MASS.\n\n\n\n\n                            FLASHES OF LIGHT\n\n                                  FROM\n\n                            THE SPIRIT-LAND,\n\n                       THROUGH THE MEDIUMSHIP OF\n\n                           MRS. J. H. 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Silently corrected obvious typographical errors and variations in\n      spelling.\n 2. Retained archaic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings as printed.\n 3. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.","title":"A defence of modern spiritualism","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":27749}