ment ceased, and a delay of three or four minutes occurred before it recommenced, giving the idea that, if broken off, a certain reaccumulation of force was needful to put it in motion again. The table reached the upper end of the parlour, from which it had started, but was left some four feet from the medial line of the room. Dr. Bell expressed the thanks of the company for the very complete exhibition with which they had been favoured, but remarked that the obligation would be enhanced if the 'spirits' would move the table about four feet at right angles, so that the chairs would come right for their late occupants. This was immediately done, and the performance was deemed so perfectly full and satisfactory that nothing more was asked at this session. 291. "Dr. Bell was understood to say that this made some five or six times in which he had seen the table move without human contact, and all under circumstances apparently as free from suspicion as this just related. He also stated that the Rev. Mr. P., a clergyman of extraordinary sagacious perceptions and mechanical skill, took this same medium to his own house, without previous thought, where she never before had been, and where his own table, in the presence of his own family alone, went through the fullest locomotion without human touch. Dr. Bell mentioned that in his last experiment, that just narrated, the entire space moved through was over fifty feet. 292. "Dr. Bell then passed to the topic of responses to mental and verbal questions, and gave several narratives of long conversations with what purported to be the spirits of persons dead for twenty-five to forty years, in which every question he could devise relating to their domestic history, and to events in it known only to them and him, had been truly answered. Some of the subjects put mentally-i. e., without speaking or writing-had half a dozen correct replies, forbidding, of course, completely, on any doctrine of chances, the contingency of accident or coincidence, as such mental questions, per se, negative the explanation of previous knowledge on the part of the medium. 293. "A brief abstract of one of these will give a general idea of their character: Dr. Bell had frequently remarked to his 'spiritual' friends, that if any medium could reproduce the essential particulars of a final interview which had occurred between himself and a deceased brother in 1826, he should be almost compelled to admit that it came from his spirit; because he was sure that he (Dr. Bell) never had communicated it to any living being. Hence, as it never had been known to but two persons, and was of so peculiar, well-marked a character, as not to be capable of being confounded by generalities, he should hardly be able otherwise to explain it. A few weeks afterward what purported to be the spirit of that brother narrated the essential particulars of that interview, the place where, down to the well-recollected fact that he was adjusting the stirrups of his saddle, preparatory to a distant journey, when it was held! Pretty early, however, in his investigations, Dr. Bell began to find that, however correct his spiritual conferees were, in most of their responses, the moment a question was put involving a response the truth of which was unknown to him, uniform failure occurred. Sometimes, where he believed at the time that his questions were truly answered, subsequent information had shown him that he had been mistaken. He had answers which he believed to be true, when the facts were decidedly otherwise. 294. "Pursuing this train of inquiry, he found the 'spirits,' while averring that they could see him distinctly, 'face to face,' never could. read the signature to letters taken from an old file, and unfolded without his having seen the writing. Yet as soon as he had cast his eye upon the signature, without allowing any one else to see it, it was promptly and correctly reproduced by the alphabetical rappings. And again, when he had made a previous arrangement with his family that they should do certain things every quarter of an hour at home-he, of course, not knowing what while he was to ask the 'spirit' what was done at the instant, uniform failure occurred. He proved, too, that the theory of the 'spiritualists' to meet such difficulties-viz., that evil or trifling spirits interfered at their end of the telegraph-was not tenable. For the responses just before and after these gross failures had been eminently and wonderfully accurate, and the 'spirits' not only declared that they saw with perfect clearness what was going on at his house, but denied that there had been any interruption or interference. 295. "Dr. Bell also gave examples where test questions, involving replies unknown to the interrogator, had been designedly intermixed with those which were known. The result uniformly was, that the known responses, however curious and far remote, were correctly reproduced; the unknown were a set of perfectly wild and blundering errors, the responses often being obviously formed out of the phraseology of the question, as a stuck schoolboy guesses out a reply! 296. "The result of the inquiries of Dr. Bell and his friends-for several gentlemen of eminently fitting talents pursued the investigation with him was briefly this:-That what the questioner knows the spirits know; what the questioner does not know, the spirits are entirely ignorant of. In other words, that there are really no superhuman agencies in the matter at all-no connection with another state of existence; but that it bears certain strong analogies to some of the experiences of clairvoyance, in that mysterious science of animal magnetism, as it has been protruding and receding for the last hundred years. Dr. Bell thought there was some reason to believe that the matter reproduced may come not only from the questioner, but if in the mind of any one at the circle, that it might be evolved. He made some observations upon the evidences of spirit existence, drawn from the character of the matter communicated by the mediums in a state of impression, when, as it is believed, spirits express themselves through the human agent. Of course, the quality of such composition is more or less a question of taste. Much of it is elevated, indicating high intellectual and moral capacities in the mind to which it owes its origin. Much more is absurd, puerile, and disgusting, infinitely below the grade of the human productions of the same persons from whom it professedly comes. Yet the spiritual revelation has given us nothing of such extraordinary value or novelty as to stamp it, in the judgment of unprejudiced minds, as of super-mundane production. Dr. Bell alluded to a treatise which had been put into his hands by an earnest spiritualist, purporting to be the work of Thomas Paine, the author of the Age of Reason, &c., which was thought would carry conviction to anybody, as it purported to be a full explanation of the formation and changes of this earth, by one who, from his situs, must know all about it. The truth was, that the work was the production of some mind, celestial or mundane, ignorant of the very first rudiments of chemical philosophy, in which the most ridiculous blunders were made on every page in matters which are as demonstrable as mathematics, and where, of course, the answer cannot be made that the revelation was too high for common readers. Nor does Dr. Bell believe, from his observations, that the waters from this fountain ever reach a higher level than their source. The most elevated specimen of the spiritual literature would no doubt be found in the communications from Swedenborg and Lord Bacon in Judge Edmond's and Dr. Dexter's first and second volumes. Yet, whoever reads the very elegant and powerful preliminary treatise of these gentlemen, which Dr. Bell thought would compare favourably with any writings of the kind ever published, would not be able to feel that Swedenborg and Lord Bacon, after their nearly one and more than two centuries' residence, respectively, amid the culture and refined senses of the superior spheres, had more than equalled their unpretending amanuenses still in the 'vale of tears.' 297. "Dr. Bell concluded by the expression of his full convictions that, while the faith in spirits must be given up as being connected with these facts, it was a topic, whether regarded as a physical novelty or even as a delusion, cutting deeply into the very religious natures of our people, which was worth our fullest examination. There were great, novel, interesting facts here. They had not been treated fairly and respectfully, as they should have been. The effect was, that the community, knowing that here were facts, if human senses could be trusted at all, went away from those who should have thrown light upon the mysteries, but who would or could not, to those who gave some explanation, even if it was one which uprooted all previous forms of religious faith. He hoped that the members of this association, who were as much required to examine this topic as any order of men, except, perhaps, the clergy, would not be afraid of looking it in the face from any apprehensions of ridicule or of degrading their dignity." 298. After giving much evidence, showing that physical movements take place without contact, and that communications were made to him which could not have ensued without controlling reason, Dr. Bell finds that in certain instances which have come to his knowledge spirits could not communicate information nor ideas which did not exist in his mind or that of some mortals present. Yet it appears that during a manifestation which my learned friend witnessed, a request to lift the legs of the table was given which did not occur to any mortal present. 299. I have already given a brief reply to these objections of Dr. Bell. Under this head I will only add my regret that my letter to the Episcopal clergy, with a sketch of the information derived from my spirit friends, had not fallen under Dr. Bell's notice before his conclusions were published. It will be seen that the information thus alluded to is irreconcilable with Dr. Bell's inferences. I shall, however, postpone this discussion until facts have been more fully presented to the reader. (866) FOREIGN CORROBORATIVE EVIDENCE. Some quotations from a work on Spiritual Philosophy, addressed to the Academy of Sciences at Paris, by James C. De Mirville.-Third Edition. Manifestations which occurred in France, in 1851. 300. There is a great resemblance between the manifestations which have been described by Capron and others as having taken place at the mansion of the Rev. Dr. Phelps, at Stratford, Connecticut, and those which occurred in the Presbytery of Cideville in France, so as to be verified before a court. The facts in this last-mentioned case were verified by the testimony taken during a trial which grew out of the circumstances. Some of the witnesses were persons distinguished by their high character and position in society. None had any interested motives for stating them; but, on the contrary, had to meet the odium which falls upon all who tell truths conflicting with the prejudices of the community within which they reside. Rochefoucault correctly urged that it is more politic, to tell a probable lie than an improbable truth. 301. This impression I have seen to operate in making people backward to admit their belief in spiritual communication. 302. It is remarkable that in the case at Cideville, signals as the means of intellectual communication were employed, independently of their employment made between two and three years before in New York. Of course, those who resorted to this expedient, might have heard previously of the effort in the same way which had been successful in this country The signs employed, however, differed. At Rochester one rap was taken for no, two for doubtful, three for yes. At Cideville one rap was received for yes, and two for no. At the former place, the alphabet was directly referred to; at the latter, reference was made by figures indicating the place of the selected letter in the alphabetic card. 303. Of this character is the admission of the Roman Church of the spiritual origin of the manifestations; ascribed, however, to diabolic agency To this allusion has been already made; but I subjoin some letters and expositions, translated from a French work lately published on Mesmerism, Clairvoyance, and Spiritual Manifestations. 304. The following letters, taken from the work in question, will require no farther introduction. 305. If the Roman clergy thus advance the inference that the manifestations and intellectual communications come from spiritual agency, it will be easy for Spiritualism to show that it is vastly more devoid of diabolic malevolence and inhumanity than the institutions sanctioned by that priesthood. Letter from T. R. P. Ventura. 306. "My Dear Sir: When you came two years ago to consult me as to the merit and propriety of your labours, I hesitated so much the less to encourage their publication, that having myself entertained the same ideas for a long time, I had been several times on the point of proclaiming them from the sacred chair. I do not fear then to affirm that the publication of this important and serious work would be of incontestable usefulness, and tend strongly to enlighten opinion on a mass of curious facts, and thus prepare for the solution of high and important questions; for, I add, it is necessary that all the phases of the subject should be first presented by the laity, in order that the church may thus be enabled to form their judgment with full knowledge of the case.' 307. "I do not say enough, my dear sir, in pronouncing your work useful; I might have called it indispensable, had I foreseen the approaching invasion of that scourge which you so happily designate as a spiritual epidemic: a scourge whose sudden and universal propagation, in my opinion, notwithstanding its appearance of puerility, will constitute ONE OF THE GREATEST EVENTS OF OUR AGE. But how has it been both received and entertained? 308. "Commencing with your savans, it is impossible not to be alarmed by the obstinate incredulity which does not allow them to see what at the present time can be confirmed by anybody. Oculos habent et non vident.* 309. "Those individulals alarm me still more, who having given their attention, and of course seen, shake their heads as a sign of indifference * Though gifted with vision, they are, nevertheless, blind. |