INTUITIVE EVIDENCE OF THE EXISTENCE OF SPIRITS.

NARRATIVE OF THE AUTHOR’S EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF SPIRITUALISM.

122. The first fruit of my attention to the phenomena of table turning, was the following letter. I trust I shall not be considered as self-complacent, when I allege it to be an exemplification of wise ignorance, which is about equivalent to folly. The wisest man who speaks in ignorance, speaks foolishly to the ears of those who perceive his ignorance. The great mass of men of science appear in this light to spiritualists when they argue against Spiritualism. Men who are only nominally Know Nothings have proved a formidable party in politics; unfortunately, Spiritualism has, in its most active opponents, real Know Nothings, who will not admit any fact of a spiritual origin, unless such as they have been educated to believe. In that case, many have powers of intellectual deglutition rivalling those of the anaconda in the physical way.[5]

Letter in reply to an Inquiry respecting the influence of Electricity in Table Turning.

Philadelphia, July 27, 1853.

123. “Dear Sir: I am of opinion that it is utterly impossible for six or eight, or any number of persons, seated around a table, to produce an electric current. Moreover, I am confident that if by any adequate means an electrical current were created, however forcible, it could not be productive of table turning. A dry wooden table is almost a non-conductor, but if forming a link necessary to complete a circuit between the sky and earth, it might possibly be shattered by a stroke of lightning; but if the power of all the galvanic apparatus ever made was to be collected in one current, there would be no power to move or otherwise affect such a table.

124. “Frictional electricity, such as produced by electric machines, must first be accumulated and then discharged, in order to produce any striking effect. It is in transitu that its power is seen and felt.

125. “Insulated conductors, whether inanimate, or in the form of animals, may be electrified by the most powerful means, without being injured or seriously incommoded. Before a spark of lightning passes, every object on the terrestrial surface, for a great distance around, is subjected to a portion of the requisite previous accumulation. Yet it is only those objects which are made the medium of discharge that are sensibly affected.

126. “Powerful galvanic accumulation can only be produced by those appropriate arrangements which concentrate upon a comparatively small filament of particles their peculiar polarizing power; but nothing seems to me more inconsistent with experience than to suppose a table moved by any possible form or mode of galvanic reaction. It was ascertained by Gaziot that one of the most powerful galvanic batteries ever made could not give a spark before contact to a conductor presented to it, at the smallest distance which could be made by a delicate micrometer. If there is any law which is pre-eminent for its invariability, it is, that inanimate matter cannot, per se, change its state as respects motion or rest. Were this law liable to any variation, we should be proportionably liable to perish; since in that case the revolutions and rotations of our planet and its satellite might undergo perturbations by which the ocean might inundate the land, or the too great proximity or remoteness of the sun cause us to be scorched or frozen. If the globe did not carry the Pacific more steadily than the most competent person could carry a basin of water, we should be drowned by the overflow of the land. I recommend to your attention, and that of others interested in this hallucination, Faraday’s observations and experiments, recently published in some of our respectable newspapers. I entirely concur in the conclusions of that distinguished experimental expounder of Nature’s riddles.

Robert Hare.”

127. This publication drew forth the following remonstrance in the subjoined letter, which does great credit to the correctness of the author’s observation and sagacity. It contributed, together with a personal invitation from Dr. Comstock to attend a circle, to induce the investigation upon which I entered immediately afterward.

Southwick, Mass., Nov. 17, 1853.

128. “Dear Sir: I had the pleasure of a slight acquaintance with you, something less than twenty years ago, when I exhibited telescopes in Philadelphia. You will, I trust, excuse the liberty I take in writing to you now. I have seen your letter to the Philadelphia Inquirer upon table moving. I never believed it was caused by electricity or galvanism, but is it not as likely to be these, as muscular force? You agree with Professor Faraday that the table is moved by the hands that are on it. Now I know, as certainly as I can know any thing, that this is not true in general, if it is in any instance. There is as much evidence that tables sometimes move without any person near them, as that they sometimes move with hands on them. I cannot in this case doubt the evidence of my senses. I have seen tables move, and heard tunes beat on them, when no person was within several feet of them. This fact is proof positive that the force or power is not muscular.

129. “If any further evidence was necessary to set aside Professor Faraday’s explanation, it is found in abundance in the great variety of other facts taking place through the country, such as musical instruments being played upon without any hands touching them, and a great variety of other heavy articles being moved without any visible cause. If tables never moved except when hands were on them, the case would be different; but as they do move, both with and without hands, it is plain that the true cause remains yet to be discovered.

130. “I wish, sir, that you had leisure and opportunity to witness some other phases of this matter, which seem not yet to have fallen under your notice, and I think you would be satisfied that there is less ‘hallucination’ and ‘self-deception’ about it, than you have imagined. The intelligence connected with these movements has not been accounted for.

131. “If these things can be accounted for on scientific principles, would it not be a great acquisition to science, to discover what those principles are? If, however, science cannot discover them, the public are deeply interested in knowing the fact. It is certainly of great importance that these strange things that are taking place everywhere should be explained. It is affecting the churches seriously; whether for good or for evil is uncertain until the truth is known. No cause has yet been assigned that does not imply a greater absurdity than even to believe, as many do, that it is caused by spirits either good or bad, or both.

132. “I have examined this matter for the last three years with as much carefulness as possible, and am not satisfied. If the force is not muscular, as it is certain that it is not, I wish science to try again.

“Yours, respectfully, Amasa Holcombe.”

133. It will be perceived that the letter alluded to by Mr. Holcombe, written in reply to some inquiries respecting my opinion of the cause of table turning, was published in the Philadelphia Inquirer, in July, 1853. This letter will show that I was at that time utterly incredulous of any cause of the phenomena excepting unconscious muscular action on the part of the persons with whom the phenomena were associated. The inferences of Faraday, tending to the same conclusion, I thoroughly sanctioned.

134. As no allusion to spirits as the cause had been made by this Herculean investigator in the letter which drew forth mine, they were not contemplated in my view of the subject. Had I ever heard spiritual agency assigned as a cause, so great was my disbelief of any such agency, that it would have made no impression on my memory.

135. Though present on several occasions when table turning was the subject of discussion, it was not, within my hearing, attributed to spiritual agency. In common with almost all educated persons of the nineteenth century, I had been brought up deaf to any testimony which claimed assistance from supernatural causes, such as ghosts, magic, or witchcraft.

136. Subsequently to my publication corroborating the inferences of Faraday, having, in obedience to solicitations already cited, consented to visit circles in which spiritual manifestations were alleged to be made, I was conducted to a private house at which meetings for spiritual inquiry were occasionally held.

137. Seated at a table with half a dozen persons, a hymn was sung with religious zeal and solemnity. Soon afterward tappings were distinctly heard as if made beneath and against the table, which, from the perfect stillness of every one of the party, could not be attributed to any one among them. Apparently, the sounds were such as could only be made with some hard instrument, or with the ends of fingers aided by the nails.

138. I learned that simple queries were answered by means of these manifestations; one tap being considered as equivalent to a negative; two, to doubtful; and three, to an affirmative. With the greatest apparent sincerity, questions were put and answers taken and recorded, as if all concerned considered them as coming from a rational though invisible agent.

139. Subsequently, two media sat down at a small table, (drawer removed,) which, upon careful examination, I found to present to my inspection nothing but the surface of a bare board, on the under side as well as upon the upper. Yet the taps were heard as before, seemingly against the table. Even assuming the people by whom I was surrounded, to be capable of deception, and the feat to be due to jugglery, it was still inexplicable. But manifestly I was in a company of worthy people, who were themselves under a deception if these sounds did not proceed from spiritual agency.

140. On a subsequent occasion, at the same house, I heard similar tapping on a partition between two parlours. I opened the door between the parlours, and passed to that adjoining the one in which I had been sitting. Nothing could be seen which could account for the sounds.

141. The medium to whose presence these manifestations were due, then held a flute against the panel of the door, and invited me to listen. On putting my ear near to the flute, tapping was quite audible. On the ensuing evening, I carried with me a sealed glass tube, a hollow tube of the same material, and a brass rod. These being successively held against the door panel, similarly to the holding of the flute, the rapping was again heard.[6]

142. I have much reason to confide in the disinterestedness of the medium through whose assistance these facts were observed. She would not allow me even to make a present to her child; and her sitting for me was deemed prejudicial to her comfort and health, so that by the advice of her physician it was finally discontinued. Her parents believed the manifestations obtained through her influence to be caused by spirits.

143. Sitting at another mansion, in company with an able lawyer, (an unbeliever in Spiritualism,) as well as an accomplished female medium and two other persons, sounds were heard like those above mentioned. The lawyer alluded to, though from his profession accustomed to distrust and to scrutinize evidence, admitted that he found it utterly impossible to account for these sounds by any visible agency.

144. In order to make my narrative of the evidence upon the subject of rapping continuous, I would state that during the evening of my first visit to the circle of spiritualists, as above mentioned, while grasping with my utmost energy a table at which I was seated, two female media, by merely placing their hands upon the surface of the table on the opposite side, caused it to move to and fro, in despite of my utmost exertions.

145. Visiting another circle under the influence of another medium, I found that tilting a table was substituted for the sounds as a means of manifestation. As one rap signifies no, two, doubtful, and three, affirmative, so is it with the motions, or tippings, as they are usually called.

146. Passing the fingers over the letters upon an alphabetic pasteboard, like those to assist children in learning their letters, when it comes over the required letter, its selection is indicated either by a tapping or tilting. By this process, when the medium’s eyes were directed to the ceiling, as independently observed by the legal friend above mentioned, as well as myself, the following communication was given:

147. “Light is dawning on the mind of your friend; soon he will speak trumpet-tongued to the scientific world, and add a new link to that chain of evidence on which our hope of man’s salvation is founded.”

148. The lawyer declared that he was utterly unable to conceive how, by the human means apparently employed, such sentences could be elaborated. Legerdemain on the part of the person who took down the manifestation was the only way to get rid of this evidence without resorting to the agency of some invisible intelligent being, who, by operating upon the tables, at once exercised physical force and mental power.

149. But assigning the result to legerdemain was altogether opposed to my knowledge of his character. This gentleman, and the circle to which he belonged, spent about three hours, twice or thrice a week, in getting communications through the alphabet, by the process to which the lines above mentioned were due. This would not have taken place, had they not had implicit confidence, that the information thus obtained proceeded from spirits.

150. Subsequently, I contrived an apparatus which, if spirits were actually concerned in the phenomena, would enable them to manifest their physical and intellectual power independently of control by any medium. (See Engraving and description, Plate I.)

151. Upon a pasteboard disk, more than a foot in diameter, the letters cut out from an alphabet card were nailed around the circumference, as much as possible deranged from the usual alphabetic order. About the centre a small pulley was secured of two and a half inches diameter, fitting on an axletree, which passed through the legs of the table, about six inches from the top. Two weights were provided—one of about eight pounds, the other about two pounds. These were attached one to each end of a cord wound about the pulley, and placed upon the floor immediately under it. Upon the table a screen of sheet zinc was fastened, behind which the medium was to be seated, so that she could not see the letters on the disk. A stationary vertical wire, attached to the axle, served for an index.

152. On tilting the table, the cord would be unwound from the pulley on the side of the larger weight, being wound up simultaneously to an equivalent extent on the side of the small weight, causing the pulley and disk to rotate about the axle. Restoring the table to its normal position, the smaller weight being allowed to act unresisted upon the cord and pulley, the rotation would be reversed. Of course, any person actuating the table and seeing the letters, could cause the disk so to rotate as to bring any letter under the index; but should the letters be concealed from the operator, no letter required could be brought under the index at will.

153. Hence it was so contrived that neither the medium seated at the table behind the screen, nor any other person so seated, could, by tilting the table, bring any letter of the alphabet under the index, nor spell out any word requested.

154. These arrangements being made, an accomplished lady, capable of serving in the required capacity, was so kind as to assist me by taking her seat behind the screen, while I took my seat in front of the disk.

155. I then said, “If there be any spirit present, please to indicate the affirmative by causing the letter Y to come under the index.” Forthwith this letter was brought under the index.

156. “Will the spirit do us the favour to give the initials of his name?” The letters R H were successively brought under the index. “My honoured father?” said I. The letter Y was again brought under the index.

157. “Will my father do me the favour to bring the letters under the index successively in alphabetical order?” Immediately the disk began to revolve so as to produce the desired result. After it had proceeded as far as the middle of the alphabet, I requested that “the name of Washington should be spelt out by the same process.” This feat was accordingly performed, as well as others of a like nature.

158. The company consisted of but few persons besides the medium, who now urged that I could no longer refuse to come over to their belief. Under these circumstances the following communication was made by the revolving of the disk: “Oh, my son, listen to reason!”

159. I urged that the experiment was of immense importance, if considered as proving a spirit to be present, and to have actuated the apparatus; affording thus precise experimental proof of the immortality of the soul: that a matter of such moment should not be considered as conclusively decided until every possible additional means of verification should be employed.

160. This led my companions to accuse me of extreme incredulity. The medium said she “should not deem it worth while to sit for me again,” and one of the gentlemen sat himself down by the fireside, declaring me “to be insusceptible of conviction, and that he would now give me up.”

161. Nevertheless, the medium, relenting, gave me another sitting at her own dwelling a few days afterward; when I had improved the apparatus by employing two stationary weights by which the cord actuating the pulley, as in the drill-bow process, was made to pull it round by a horizontal motion of the table supported on castors, instead of the tilting motion.

162. The results confirmed those previously received, my father reporting himself again. He said that my mother and sister were with him, but not my brother. I inquired “if they were happy.” The disk revolved so as to bring the letter Y under the index, signifying the affirmation.

163. On the following week, I took my apparatus to the house of a spiritualist, where a circle was to meet. The apparatus being duly arranged, a lady whom I had never before noticed, and by whom my apparatus was seen for the first time, sat down at my table behind the screen. The spirit of an uncle who had left this life was invoked by this medium. Her invocation being successful, the spirit spelt his name out in full; other names were spelt out at request.

164. Although the requisite letters were ultimately found, there was evidently some difficulty, as if there was some groping for them with an imperfect light. This has been explained since by my father’s spirit. He alleges that preferably the eyes of the medium would be employed, but that, although with difficulty, he used mine as a substitute.

165. But although, with a view to convince the skeptical, spirits will occasionally give manifestations when the vision or muscular control of the medium is nullified, it is more difficult for them to operate in this way; moreover, it is more difficult for some spirits than for others.

166. Those spirits by whom I obtained my test manifestations were interested in my success. Others have refused to aid me in like manner. One who has assisted me with much zeal, has communicated that he would work my apparatus when arranged for a test; but, that as it caused much more exertion, and, of course, retardation, he advised that the test arrangement should not be interposed when it could be avoided.

167.[7]The table, at this stage of my inquiry, was not more than thirty inches in length. I had improved the construction in the following way:

168. Two of the legs were furnished with castors, through holes duly bored. Through perforations in the other two legs a rod was introduced, serving as an axle to two wheels of about five inches diameter. One of these wheels was grooved, so as to carry a band which extended around the pulley of the disk. Hence, pushing the table nine inches horizontally by the necessary rotation of the supporting wheels, caused the disk to make a complete revolution. It was while the table was of the size above mentioned, that I first saw the violent action to which they might be subjected without any corresponding or commensurate visible cause. The hand of the medium being laid on the table at about half-way between the centre and the nearest edge, it moved as if it were animated, jumping like a restive horse.

169. Having my apparatus thus prepared, a medium sat at my table, the screen intercepting her view of the disk. No manifestation took place through the disk, though other indications of the presence of spirits were given. Hence, inducing the medium to sit at an ordinary table, I inquired if any change could be made which would enable them to communicate through my apparatus? The reply through the alphabetic card was, “Let the medium see the letters.” At first it struck me that this would make the experiment abortive, as it would remove the condition by which alone independency of interference by the medium was secured. However, it soon occurred that by means of a metallic plate, made quite true, and some brass balls, like billiard balls, with which I was provided, I could neutralize the power of the medium to move the table, so that she could not influence the selection of the letters, though permitted to see them.

170. Accordingly, as soon almost as the medium placed her hands on the plate resting on the ball, and without any other communication with the table, the disk began to revolve in such a way as to bring the letters under the index in due alphabetic order. Afterward various names were spelled, and communications were made. At subsequent sittings, the grandfather and brother of the medium manifested their presence successively by spelling their names on the disk. My father, by means of this apparatus, gave me the name of an uncle who was killed by the Arabs nearly seventy years ago. In order that, without any possibility of contact with the legs, the medium might sit at the table, the length was subsequently extended to six feet, being so made as to separate into three parts, for convenience in carrying from one place to another. It is under this modification that it is represented in Plate 2 accompanied by a description, with the medium sitting as when employed in obtaining some of the manifestations herein mentioned. On the left may be seen the wheels and axle. The front wheel may be distinguished, with its groove securing the band which embraces it, together with the pulley on the disk.

171. The disk represented in this figure differs from the one represented above, (employed in my first investigations,) in having the alphabet in the usual order. But they are so made as that one can be made to replace the other, when requisite.

172. On one side of the long table, Plate 2, a board or tray on castors is represented. This was used sometimes as a support for the hands of the medium, by its being interposed between them and the table. On one occasion, where the hands of the medium were supported by the plate and ball upon this tray, it was moved briskly to and fro upon the table, the hands of the medium and the ball and plate accompanying the motion.

173. On various subsequent occasions I have had this experiment of putting the hands of the medium on a plate and balls repeated, and with the same result. The interposition of the plate and balls makes it much more difficult for spirits to move a table than when the hands are directly applied. In the latter case, the spirits actuate the hands primarily, and the table or apparatus secondarily; but when the hands are incapacitated from influencing the motion, the spirit has to assail the inanimate matter directly, assisted only by an emanation from the medium. In this attack upon ponderable matter, the spirits of the second sphere are the most capable; but even with their assistance, the condition of the medium must be very favourable to render success possible.

174. I next resorted to an apparatus like the plaything called a see-saw, excepting that the fulcrum, instead of being under the middle of the board, was situated at one-fourth of the whole length from one end. There was one foot on one side of the fulcrum, and three feet on the other. The disk and its axle was transferred from the table, Plate I, near to the longer end of this seesaw-like apparatus. The cord attached to two weights was employed as above described, so that as the disk was made to rise or fall with the vibration of the board by the action of the cord, a revolution took place, bringing the letters successively under the index, as already explained to have resulted from the movements of the table.

175. The disk being situated edgewise to the medium, the letters could not be seen. Under these circumstances, the hands of the medium were placed upon the surface of the smaller portion of the board outside of the fulcrum. The disk revolved to and fro, so as to bring the letters under the index in due alphabetic order. Moreover, while this process was under way, to render the result more unquestionable, I interposed a screen between the disk, and the eyes of the medium, without causing any arrestation of the process.[8]

176. Afterward upon the table supported on wheels or castors, and moving the disk by a band, I used a tray on castors to support the hand of the medium.

177. When the hands of the medium, or those of any other operator, were placed upon this tray, it was impossible to move the table by means of it, because much less force would make it move on its castors than would move the table. Sometimes the tray would be moved backward and forward with rapidity, the table remaining quite still. Yet, on urging that the table should be moved, this desideratum would be conceded, and the tray would become stationary, relatively, to the table. On one occasion, when an intelligent spirit was manifesting, I interposed a brass ball (Plate I.) and plate between the tray and the hands of the medium, and then requested that the tray might be moved. My request was obeyed; the tray moved repeatedly about a foot to and fro, accompanied by the hand of the medium, the ball remaining at rest, relatively, to the tray.

178. Having my apparatus at the residence of the lady by whom it had been actuated in the third trial above mentioned, (172) this lady sitting at the table as a medium, my sister reported herself. As a test question, I inquired “What was the name of a partner in business, of my father, who, when he had left the city with the Americans during the Revolutionary war, came out with the British, and took care of the joint property?” The disk revolved successively to letters correctly indicating the name to be Warren. I then inquired the name of the partner of my English grandfather, who died in London more than seventy years ago. The true name was given by the same process.

179. The medium and all present were strangers to my family, and I had never heard either name mentioned, except by my father. Even my younger brother did not remember that of my father’s partner.

180. Subsequently, in the presence of a medium utterly unacquainted with my family, to whom I was first introduced in December, 1853, and who had only within two years previously removed to our city from Maine, I inquired of my father the name of an English cousin who had married an admiral. The name was spelled out. In like manner the maiden name of an English brother’s wife was given—an unusual name, Clargess.

181. The principle of my apparatus for spiritual manifestations has been employed on a smaller scale by Mr. Isaac T. Pease, of Thompsonville, Connecticut, substituting the reaction of a spring for that of a weight, and making the index revolve instead of the disk. (Plate I.)

182. By the modification which I made for the employment of this smaller instrument communication was greatly facilitated. I had subsequently a copious interchange of ideas with my father, brother, and sister, and other friendly spirits. (See engraving and description, Plate I, Fig. 2.)

183. At the house of a spiritualist who had been holding circles for more than a year, I had confirmatory evidence of the intelligence by which spirit rapping is regulated. I was allowed to subject the table employed to a strict scrutiny, removing the drawer to obtain a more thorough inspection. This table was nevertheless repeatedly agitated with an energy which could not be ascribed to the hands placed quietly upon its surface by a circle of persons perfectly quiescent. Often at this circle, and at others during the chanting of hymns, have I seen a table thus situated keeping time by its vibratory movements with a sympathetic tremour.

184. The spirit friend of a medium present, who called herself Amanda Ford, used on request to make a sound like that of the hammering by blacksmiths, designated as “ten-pounds-ten.” This sound would be shifted to that of sawing or sweeping. Doubtless, these manifestations might be imitated by certain ventriloquists; but I had not the smallest reason to suspect ventriloquism, and Amanda gave me the following unquestionable proofs of her spiritual existence:

185. Taking up the alphabetic card, and holding it up near my face, in a feeble light, with the back toward the medium, so as not to be inspected by any one else, I asked Amanda, as I should pass my fingers over the letters, to indicate those necessary for spelling out her name, by the usual manifestation. The name was in this way correctly spelt out.

186. In the next place, at the same time and under the same circumstances, I asked her then to spell the name of Washington. Passing my fingers over the letters of the alphabet, not regularly but zigzag, and stopping a short time at the letters adjoining the right ones, that much-revered name was correctly spelt out, with one single error, the omission of the G.

187. Suspicion that the rapping or tapping could arise from any mechanism concealed in the table, was precluded when they were made under my own tables, fitted up with my own hands.

Of manifestations founded on table movements without contact, or such contact, as cannot be sufficient to cause the result.

188. It was at the same mansion, where the above-mentioned manifestations were observed, that I first saw a table continue in motion when every person had withdrawn to about the distance of a foot; so that no one touched it; and while thus agitated on our host saying, “Move the table toward Dr. Hare,” it moved toward me and back again. At the same premises, when between the hands of each of two media and a small table a plate upon a brass ball was interposed, without any other communication with it, the table was violently overset, so as to have its legs uppermost. Yet while thus upside down, it continued to vibrate, a single finger of a medium girl, about twelve years of age, being the sole means of human contact therewith. This I ascertained, with the greatest care, by kneeling on the floor and causing the finger of the medium, by the tip of which alone her touch was effected, to be situated between me and the light of a lamp.

189. In the observations above stated, respecting the movements of the table when untouched, I was aided by the presence of my friend Joseph Hazard, Esq., of Narragansett, Rhode Island, who occupied a seat opposite to mine on the other side of the table; so that while he saw all clear on one side, I saw all clear on the other. In my narrative I have adverted to two recent instances in which severally, in the presence only of the medium and myself, the table moved, as I could judge, about eight inches, being at the same time untouched by either of us.

190. Next in importance to the movements of tables which take place without any contact, are those in which the table rises under the hands of the medium laid gently upon it. On one occasion I saw a large circular table, supported by three massive claws on castors, overset several times by the influence of three ladies, who were media. In order to have this experiment performed with as much precision as circumstances would permit, I seated myself on one side of the table, so as to be equidistant from two of the three claws by which it was supported. The intermediate medium, was directly opposite the third claw, while the others stood one on each side of her. My relative position was such, that as they were standing upright before me, I could look at their persons partially below as well as above the table. These arrangements having been made, the three media laid their hands on the table a little beyond the margin, so that they could not apply their thumbs below the edge and thus assist the table to raise. Under these circumstances I was enabled to watch the media above as well as below the table, by casting my eyes upward and downward alternately, they being all on their feet, and standing upright. It was under these conditions, that the table, in three successive trials, came over toward me and went back to its normal position.

191. It did not slam down quickly, when on arriving at such a position, as to make it impossible for the ladies to resist its farther descent; but descended gently, rising slowly in recovering its usual upright position.

192. I called one morning at the dwelling of a medium to whom allusion has been made more than once in my narrative. I sat down at a table with the medium, her father, and a gentleman who accompanied me. I inquired if any of my spirit friends were present; the table tilted negatively. “Will the spirit give its initials through the alphabetic card?” In reply the letters M C were indicated. My companion, whose attention had been withdrawn, on hearing the result, said: “They are the initials of my daughter’s name;” exclaiming, “Maria, are you here?”

193. The table tilted in the affirmative, vivaciously, as if the daughter’s heart were in the movement.

194. Maria proving to be a sprightly spirit, a lively conversation ensued. I inquired if she could not work my apparatus; she answered through the card, “It is impossible for a spirit to work your apparatus; I am very sorry.” I replied that evidently it was not impossible, since it had been actuated by spirits successfully several times. “You mean to say,” I added, “that it is difficult.” To this she replied affirmatively by three tilts of the table.

195. As through the influence of the medium, who sat at the table with us, communications had been received through my apparatus several times, the alphabet arranged from a state of disarrangement, and names spelt out by the revolution of the disk, it cannot be imagined that the medium could have influenced the alphabetical communications in this instance, since the medium, even if prone to deception, would have perceived it ridiculous to allege it impossible to work an apparatus which had on several occasions under her influence, proved the opposite to be true, in the presence of her father as well as myself.

196. It has been already mentioned in the narrative (164.) that my spirit father, and spirit friend W. W., had alleged that they worked my apparatus with great difficulty when under test conditions, from their great desire to make me a convert to Spiritualism. It was, therefore, quite consistent that a spirit, who had no such powerful motive, should have preferred to find an apology for not actuating my apparatus, rather than to have studied, or sought for the means of surmounting the obstacles.

197. As all the manifestations, observed on this occasion, were by the tilting or partial lifting of the table, I urged the spirit to aid me in obtaining a test that these manifestations came not from the medium, but from herself, a spirit. I immediately procured from a basket which I had previously brought to the premises, a brass ball, turned truly spherical, like a billiard ball, and a plate of zinc which had been ground quite true. I placed the ball on the table, the plate on the ball, and the hands of the medium on the plate. She had no other communication with the table than that which was thus established. Pressing on the ball when situated between perpendicular lines falling inside of all the legs of the table, would of course only press it downward more firmly on its feet.

198. Things being thus arranged, I solicited Maria to repeat the upward jerks which she had employed in the communication which she had been making. Her father joined his solicitation to mine, pointing out that my object was to obtain evidence, which would satisfy the scientific world that such manifestations were due to the agency of spirits.

199. After a little delay the table rose under the ball, the plate, and the hands of the medium, with greater force than had been displayed in any of the foregoing movements.

200. Subsequently, being in company with Maria’s father, at the dwelling of a spiritualist, and sitting with a medium at the table supporting an apparatus for alphabetical communications, the spirit of Maria, who seems to follow her worthy father with much filial affection, reported herself. I inquired whether she remembered our previous meeting, and what means I resorted to as a test. She replied, “You used a plate and ball to support the hands of the medium, which I knocked away.”

201. While receiving communications from my spirit sister, the table tilting toward the medium, so as to cause the cord actuating the index, by being through a string tied to a weight on the floor, alternately to be withdrawn and returned, consequently, winding off and on the pulley which turned the index, I suggested that the relative position of the medium should be reversed, so that she should be on the same side with the apparatus. By this change the table would have to rise under the hands of the medium. The proposed modification was successfully carried out.

202. I asked my sister how a spirit could work an apparatus with the medium’s hands on the upper surface of the table; the reply was, that the presence of the hands of the medium enabled the spirit to act in opposition to them.

203. Under this head comes the experiment in which a board was supported so as to turn on a fulcrum, one foot of the board being on one side of the fulcrum, and three feet on the other, the longer end suspended on a spring balance. When a medium, eleven years old, placed his hands on the short end, that end rose while the other, of course, went down; in some instances, showing an increase of downward pressure on the balance, equivalent to seven pounds.

204. This experiment was subsequently repeated at my laboratory, in the presence of John M. Kennedy, Esq. Having a basin of water on the board, the boy’s hands being merely immersed in the water, and not touching the parietes of the containing vessel; the balance was affected as in the experiment above described, although not to so great an extent.

205. In one case, Mr. Kennedy satisfied himself, that the medium did not touch the vessel, by placing his own hands below those of the medium.

206. My much-esteemed friend, Prof. Henry, having treated this result as incredible, I was induced to repeat it with the greatest precision and precaution, as represented in Plate 3. The board, as already described, being about four feet in length, is supported by a rod as a fulcrum at about one foot from one end, and, of course, three feet from the other; a glass vase, about nine inches in diameter and five inches in height, having a knob to hold it by when inverted, had this knob inserted in a hole made in the board, six inches nearly from the fulcrum. Thus, the vase rested on the board, the mouth upward. A wire-gauze cage, such as is used to keep flies from sugar, was so arranged by well-known means, as to slide up or down on two iron rods, one on each side of the trestle supporting the fulcrum. By these arrangements it was so adjusted as to descend into the vase until within an inch and a half of the bottom, while the inferiority of its dimensions prevented it from coming elsewhere within an inch of the parietes of the vase. Water was poured into the vase so as to rise into the cage till within about an inch and a half of the brim.

207. A well-known medium (Gordon) was induced to plunge his hands, clasped together, to the bottom of the cage, holding them perfectly still. As soon as these conditions were attained, the apparatus being untouched by any one excepting the medium as described, I invoked the aid of my spirit friends. A downward force was repeatedly exerted upon the end of the board appended to the balance equal to three pounds’ weight nearly.

208. It will be perceived that in this manifestation, the medium had no means of communication with the board, beside the water. It was not until he became quite still, that the invocation was made. Nevertheless, he did not appear to be subjected to any reacting force. Yet, the distance of the hook of the balance from the fulcrum on which the board turned, was six times as great as the cage in which the hands were situated. Consequently, a force of 3 × 6 = 18 pounds must have been exerted. The board would probably have been depressed much more, but that the water had been spilled by any farther inclination of the vase.

209. This experiment has since been repeated again and again, but on a smaller scale, when, not only the downward force was exercised, but the spelling of words was accomplished.

210. On one occasion, when no result ensued, it appeared to arise from the water being so cold as to chill the medium, because, on warming it up to a comfortable temperature, the desired manifestations were obtained.

211. At the same time and place, after the manifestation by means of the spring balances above described (207) had been accomplished, I requested my spirit friends to repeat that which has been above mentioned, as performed by putting the hands of a medium upon a plate and ball supported by a tea-table. (pari passu.)

212. Accordingly, the attending medium being placed under exactly the same circumstances and conditions, a similar violent tilting ensued.

213. Dr. Child, together with the same medium and myself, placed our finger ends all reciprocally in contact, and about a quarter of an inch above a tea-table. After an interval of about two minutes, the table rose, and was tossed from the legs on one side to those on the other forcibly.

214. During a visit to New York, I entered the apartment where one of the Misses Fox was sitting. There were more than half a dozen persons present. On my entrance, I inquired, “Does any one here recognise me, so as to know my name?” No person answered that I was known. As soon, however, as I inquired, my spirit sister announced herself, and indicated my name.

215. During a visit made to Boston last autumn, on sitting with a medium, my sister addressed me in the following way, by spelling the words out upon the disk apparatus just described:

216. Only the first couplet in these verses differs at all from those which were given in the impromptu, the words having been too flattering for me, to have mentioned. Soon after being at the residence of a highly-esteemed friend, who is a medium, my spirit sister, who manifests much love for this lady, reporting herself, I told her of the change which I thus desired to have made. The reply was, “I give you full liberty to alter my verses; you know I never wrote two lines of poetry while in the flesh.” Miss Ellis is no poetess, still less is Mrs. P., the medium.

217. After my lecture at the Melodeon, being at the residence of Mrs. Hayden, an accomplished medium, I requested a repetition of the experiment, of which I had given an account on that occasion, in which the view of the disk was cut off from the medium, by the interposition of a screen; and Mrs. Hayden consenting, an arrangement was made so as to satisfy the bystanders, as well as myself, that the letters on the disk could not be seen by her. Under these conditions the name of Washington was spelt out.

218. I have had this test repeated under Gordon’s mediumship, as well as that of others, several times. Afterward, Mrs. Hayden sitting aloof, on making the index move successively to each letter, those required for the name of Jefferson were selected in due order, by rapping at the one in demand, as it came under the index.

219. Through the influence of Mrs. Hayden, an uncommon test was afforded by my faithful spirit sister.

220. My charming, intelligent friend, Mrs. Eustis, daughter of the late Rev. Dr. W. E. Channing, though not a believer in Spiritualism, became desirous of seeing the manifestations so much relied upon by me. Having accompanied me to the residence of Mrs. Hayden, Mrs. Eustis was sitting beside her, while through her influence my sister was making a communication by means of the apparatus described. (Plate I, Fig. 2.) When the process commenced, the hand of Mrs. Hayden was resting on the lever in the usual position, but was subsequently lifted, so as to allow Mrs. Eustis, as well as myself, to see between it and the wooden surface, without creating any apparent abatement of the power of indicating the requisite letters. (Description of Plate I, par. e.)

221. While the process still proceeded under these conditions, Mrs. Eustis, having placed her hand upon the surface of the board lever, alleged that she felt it imparting motion to her hand.

222. Dr. W. F. Channing has since informed me that Mrs. Eustis’s account of these manifestations, as given to him, coincide with those given to him by me.

223. Sometime after this feat was performed through Mrs. Hayden, I inquired of my sister if she could not perform it through an excellent medium under whose influence communications were making at the time of this inquiry. It was replied that Mrs. Eustis being unconsciously to a certain extent a medium herself, the power of Mrs. Hayden was augmented by her presence.

224. But as respects the selection of letters without the assistance of the eyes of the medium, I have had many instances of this being done, although the facility of its performance is various, not only with different media and with different spirits, but likewise when the spirit and medium are the same: it varies with the state of the medium. I sat more than an hour with an accomplished medium, during an excessively hot evening, without receiving any communication; in consequence, as I supposed, of the effect of the heat upon her organism.

225. The interposition of water contained in a glass vase, upon the broad part of the lever actuating the index, so that the hands of the medium can touch nothing but the water, has an effect analogous to the lifting of the hand as above described, since the only difference in the conditions is, that in the one case there is air, in the other water, interposed.

226. It has been stated that, by the interposition of water, the power of actuating the index was paralyzed; yet merely warming the water enabled the manifestation to proceed, so as to empower the spirit to spell such names as were called for. (210.)

227. In one instance, I took a book from my pocket which the medium had never seen, and opened it at a page where the heading “Publisher’s Preface” was conspicuous, without allowing the medium to see any thing more than the back of the book. Holding the page exposed to the disk, the spirit spelt out “Publish—,” and then seemed unable to proceed. Meanwhile, the medium called to her little son to be quiet; forthwith the deficient letters, ers, were supplied, so as to finish the word “Publisher’s.”

228. The medium alleged that her mind was imbued with the idea that the word “publishing” was coming forth, and with a view to aid the spirit, lent some muscular aid to the letters necessary to complete that word; but attention to her child causing her mind to be withdrawn, the spirit immediately selected the letters above indited. On the same occasion I opened the same book, keeping the back toward the medium, opposite to an engraving of Jefferson: immediately, Jefferson was spelt out.

229. On my way to Boston, I visited Mrs. Ann Leah Brown, formerly Miss Fox. At about eight in the morning, I found her under very unfavourable circumstances: Mrs. Brown had been watching the previous night with a sick child. Nevertheless, considering me as an advocate of the cause of truth, a short sitting was given to me, during which my faithful spirit sister manifested herself by comparatively loud knockings.

230. Through this I learned that Mrs. Brown was not in condition to make it expedient to resort to her mediumship then, had not the necessity of attending to her sick child formed a sufficient impediment.

231. On my return from Boston, I called again on this interesting medium, and then saw a table, situated at the distance of more than a foot from her person, which was quiescent, make a movement to and fro of at least eight inches. Moreover, as I sat on the opposite side of an intervening table, I felt unexpectedly a slight touch against my leg as if by a human finger.

232. During this visit, Mrs. Brown created much interest by giving a brief account of the trials which herself and her sister had undergone, being on the one hand urged to give their services to the community, as the means of promoting truth, while on the other they were treated as impostors or jugglers. The impression left on my mind was extremely favourable as respects Mrs. Brown’s sincerity in her Spiritualism and in her goodness of heart.

233. In consequence of her invitation, I attended a circle at her house a few days subsequently, when I saw, in addition to all the usual manifestations, the following for the first time: Under a table around which the party was seated, a sheet of paper was deposited on the carpeted floor. A pencil was placed upon the paper; soon after, on examination, I found my name scrawled thereon.

234. Two small bells situated upon the floor beneath the table were rung, and subsequently it was found that one of them had been lifted and seated on the other.

235. My spirit sister has since informed me that my name was written upon the paper by my spirit friend William Blodget.

236. While at Boston, having read to a friend a communication from my father through a writing medium, I placed it in one of my pockets, and proceeded to the Fountain Inn. When there, I felt for it without success. Unexpectedly, I went to Salem by the cars, and returned the same evening. On undressing myself the scroll was missing, and I inferred that it had been lost between the place where it had been read and the inn above named, where I felt for it unsuccessfully. On going next morning to Mrs. Hayden’s, and my spirit father reporting himself, I inquired whether he knew what had become of the scroll. It was answered, that it had been left upon the seat in the car on my quitting it at Salem.

237. Inquiring of the conductor, who was on duty in the car where it had been left, he said that it had been found on the seat, was safe at Portland, and should be returned to me next day. This promise was realized.

238. On one occasion, sitting at the disk with Mrs. Hayden, a spirit gave his initials as C. H. Hare. Not recollecting any one of our relations of that name precisely, I inquired if he were one of them. The reply was affirmative. “Are you a son of my cousin Charles Hare, of St. Johns, New Brunswick?” “Yes,” was spelled out. This spirit then gave me the profession of his grandfather, also that of his father, and the fact of the former having been blown into the water at Toulon, and of the latter having made a miraculous escape from Verdun, where he had been confined until his knowledge of French enabled him to escape by personating in disguise an officer of the customs. Only one mistake was made in referring to my English relatives, respecting an uncle’s name. Other inquiries were correctly answered.

239. Subsequently, the brother of this spirit made us a visit in Philadelphia, and informed us that the mundane career of his brother Charles Henry, had been terminated by shipwreck some few years anterior to the visit made, as mentioned, to me.

240. No one being present beside myself, and the medium ignorant of Latin, my father spelt out upon the disk the words he had pointed out to me in Virgil more than fifty-five years ago, as expressive of the beating Entellus gave Dares, as described by Virgil—“pulsatque versatque;” also the word which so much resembles the sound of horses’ hoofs trampling on the ground, “Quadrupedante.”

241. A spirit of the name of Powel tendered his services, and undertook to spell Cato, but instead of that name, Blodget, my friend, occupied the disk, and spelt his own name, and afterward Cato. On the same occasion Blodget spelt out and designated words without the medium seeing the alphabet.

242. The employment of letters to express ideas neither existing in the mind of the medium nor in mine, cannot evidently be explained by any psychological subterfuge. The name Blodget being indicated by reference to the alphabet, instead of Cato, which was promised, precludes the idea that it was learned from the mind of any mortal present.

243. It must be manifest that the greatest difficulty which I had to overcome during the investigation of which the preceding pages give a history, arose from the necessity of making every observation under such circumstances as to show that I was not deceived by the media.

244. But having latterly acquired the powers of a medium in a sufficient degree to interchange ideas with my spirit friends, I am no longer under the necessity of defending media from the charge of falsehood and deception. It is now my own character only that can be in question.

245. Upon this the occurrence of the manifestation to which I am about to allude rests. (Reference to this has been made in the Introduction to this work, 115.)

246. The fact that my spirit sister undertook at one o’clock, on the 3rd of July, 1855, to convey from the Atlantic Hotel, Cape May Island, a message to Mrs. Gourlay, No. 178 North Tenth street, Philadelphia, requesting that she would induce Dr. Gourlay to go to the Philadelphia Bank to ascertain the time when a note would be due, and report to me at half-past three o’clock; that she did report at the appointed time; and that on my return to Philadelphia, Mrs. Gourlay alleged herself to have received the message, and that her husband and brother went to the bank in consequence. With the idea received by the latter, my sister’s report coincided agreeably to his statement to me. All this proves that a spirit must have officiated, as nothing else can explain the transaction.

247. The note clerk recollects the application, but does not appear to have felt himself called upon to take the trouble to get the register, which was not in his hands at the time. Hence the impression received by the applicants was not correct, but corresponded with the report made to me by my sister, which differed from the impression on my memory, and of course, was not obtained from my mind.

HYMN CHANTED TO MY SISTER, AND HER REPLY.

248. My sister having mentioned her name in the spheres, to be Queen of Flowers. I substituted this name translated into Latin in the Sicilian Mariners’ Hymn, replacing virgo by soror, the Latin for sister; seraph for mater; bonissima for piissima; carissima for purissima; and cura for ora. It then read as follows:—

249. As soon as this was chanted, the following reply was given through the spiritoscope, at which I was sitting with Mrs. Gourlay as medium:

250. “Dear Brother:—I answer your prayer by saying I do watch over you, and pray for your welfare. I am grateful for your remembrance, and shall strive to deserve it. O! brother, our cause is a common one, and we feel the same interest in its promulgation. I am daily striving to disseminate its truths, but can make little progress, having so much ignorance to contend against. I know that the truths of progression, with the help of a good and wise God, will ultimately prevail over all the land; but when that happy time comes to earth, your freed spirit will rove the endless fields of immortality with those loved friends who have gone a little while before. Then will we revel in delights which, in comparison with earth’s joys, are far more beautiful and sublime. I wish you could look with the eye of prescience, and see that glorious time, when all nations shall become as a band of brothers.”

CORROBORATIVE EVIDENCE OF THE EXISTENCE OF SPIRITS.

251. The evidence of the manifestations adduced in the foregoing narrative does not rest upon myself only, since there have been persons present when they were observed, and they have in my presence been repeated essentially under various modifications, in many instances, not specially alluded to.

252. The evidence may be contemplated under various phases: First, those in which rappings or other noises have been made, which could not be traced to any mortal agency; secondly, those in which sounds were so made as to indicate letters forming grammatical, well-spelt sentences, affording proof that they were under the guidance of some rational being; thirdly, those in which the nature of the communication has been such as to prove that the being causing them must, agreeably to accompanying allegations, be some known acquaintance, friend, or relative of the inquirer.

253. Again, cases in which movements have been made of ponderable bodies, either without any human contact, or with such contact as could not be productive of the resulting motion.

254. Cases in which such movements of bodies have been of a nature to produce intellectual communications, resembling those obtained as above mentioned by sounds.

255. Although the apparatus by which these various proofs were attained, with the greatest possible precaution and precision, modified them as to the manner; essentially all the evidence which I have obtained, tending to the conclusions above mentioned, has likewise been substantially obtained by a great number of observers. Many who never sought any spiritual communication, and have not been induced to enroll themselves as spiritualists, will nevertheless not only affirm the existence of the sounds and movements, but also admit their inscrutability.

256. But we have now, in a matter-of-fact, business-like publication, by E. W. Capron, a record of the original manifestations at Hydesville and Rochester, in New York; where, as it is well known, they produced intense interest, excitement, and controversy; which gave rise to successive town-meetings, and the appointment of committees by these meetings for the purpose of ascertaining whether any other cause could be discovered for the manifestations, except the spiritual beings who assumed them to be their doings. Some of the persons appointed to make the investigation, were prepossessed with the belief that the phenomena were due to some juggling contrivance. One alleged that he would throw himself over the Genesee Falls, or prove the knockings due to humbuggery. Another alleged that the media, aware of his prepossession, would not for one hundred dollars have him on the committee; yet both these persons being put on the committee, the latter came out in favour of the inscrutability of the noise; while the former neither accounted for it, “nor threw himself over the falls,” as Mr. Capron pointedly alleges.

257. Subsequently, in the city of New York, the mystery was subjected to the ordeal of a public investigation by a number of distinguished citizens, whose reports confirmed those of the Rochester committees. Fennimore Cooper was among those appointed on the New York committee, and was the means himself of obtaining an unequivocal test. His sister’s death, which had resulted from being thrown from a horse, was correctly stated by her spirit in every particular, in reply to mental inquiries by him made.

258. Again at Stratford, Connecticut, at a house of a minister of the gospel, manifestations were made fully as striking as those which had occurred at Hydesville and Rochester, so as to establish in the mind of this estimable clergyman, and in those of many others acquainted with the facts, a belief in spiritual agency. (1667)

Corroborative evidence by the Rev. Allen Putnam, of Roxbury, Mass.

259. As affording support to the testimony which I have given, I deem it expedient to cite that of the Rev. Allen Putnam, formerly a Unitarian clergyman and preacher in Augusta, Maine, having been in the legislature of that State, and for some time editor of the New England Farmer. Mr. Putnam had the advantage of a theological and collegiate education at Harvard. I heard an able and erudite lecture from this worthy spiritualist, at Boston last October.

260. Mr. Putnam entered upon the investigation of the manifestations in July, 1852, nearly eighteen months before my investigation commenced. Like me, he began as an unbeliever, and was converted by communications received from the spirits of his wife and relatives, who had left this life. In a company ignorant of the fact that he had married twice, his first wife had made herself known to him, so as to create a conviction of her identity.

261. In the next place, his ancestors communicated with Mr. Putnam, so as to satisfy his mind that they were the beings they professed to be. I do not enter into the detail of the facts which created conviction in the mind of this respectable observer; my object is to show that other minds have gone through the process which has influenced mine, in order that sceptics may not “lay the flattering unction to their souls” that ’tis my madness speaks in favour, not their prejudices that speak against, the conclusions in which investigators of sound understanding have concurred.

262. Mr. Putnam alleges: “Some uncommon movements have occurred in my presence. I have seen a table moved without any visible power applied to it.”

263. The following narrative is taken from the pamphlet published by the author in question. It is quite characteristic of the variety of character found in the spheres. This juvenile spirit owed his education entirely to his schooling in the spirit world. It will be perceived that he died while yet an infant. (Page 34, Paragraph 3.)

264. “Entering a medium’s room one morning, I saw a gentlemanly, intelligent man, apparently about thirty, sitting at the table and putting questions. Soon a tiny rap was heard, and the name Natty was spelled out. ‘Who are you?’ said the man. ‘I am your brother;’ was the answer. ‘No,’ said the man, ‘I had no such brother.’ ‘You had,’ said the rapper. ‘No,’ said the man. ‘Yes,’ said the other. ‘Well, let us see,’ added the man. ‘How old were you, Natty, when you died?’ ‘Five days,‘ was the answer. ‘How long since you died?’ ‘Thirty-five years.’ The gentleman here bit his lip in thought, and said—‘I believe there was an infant brother who died before I was born, but I thought they called him Oliver.’ ‘No,’ was the response, ‘they called him Natty, and I am he.’ ‘Natty,’ said the man, ‘how do you know that I am your brother?’ ‘By love,’ he answered. ‘By love?’ said the questioner; ‘but don’t you love others as well as relatives?’ Ans. ‘We like others, and love relatives!’ ‘What,’ it was then asked—‘what is the difference between love and like?’ The word LOVE was immediately written in large letters, two or three inches long, and like was traced under it in very small letters. ‘Natty,’ continued the man, ‘you are not my brother, but are some one else, attempting to impose upon me.’ ‘I am your brother,’ was the earnest rejoinder. ‘Then, will you tell me what sphere you are in?’ ‘The fourth,’ he said. ‘The fourth, ah? Now I’ve caught you—for as you died in infancy, you was fitted for the seventh sphere when you left the earth.’ ‘I have been there;’ was the response. ‘Have been there, and yet are now in the fourth! how is that? are you moving backward? coming down?’ ‘No, I am an adviser in the fourth.’ ‘Adviser! what is that? a sort of superintendent?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Oh! you are in office, then?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Do you get any pay? We pay well for such things here.’ ‘Yes, I get pay.’ ‘What pay?’ ‘The pleasure of seeing those under me progress.’

265. “I then said to the gentleman stranger, ‘Sir, you have found your match, if not your brother. I think I would own the relationship;’ and in continuance I remarked, that this seemed to be a very bright, cheerful spirit; when there was written—‘I am always laughing.’

266. “My next remark was—‘Natty, I should like to make your acquaintance.’ ‘Hand out your card;’ was the instant response. Finding no card in my pocket, I wrote, secretly, on a slip of paper—‘Mr. Allen Putnam, Eustis St., Roxbury’—turned the paper over, placing the writing down upon the table, kept my hand over the paper, and asked Natty to make a copy. Instantly the medium’s hand wrote—Mr. A. P., U. St. Rox. The writing on my paper had been seen by me alone, and I was looking for a copy in full, but received only abbreviations, and those of every word, Eustis being reduced to the letter U. This closed my first interview with him.

267. “Some weeks afterward, when he was forgotten, the medium’s hand wrote, ‘Mr. A. P., U. St. Rox.—I have used your card.’ ‘Natty,‘ said I, ‘as you left the earth when very young, I would like to know how you learned the English language.’ He answered, ‘My mother knew it, I think;’ and asked, ‘Will you let my mamma come?’ ‘Certainly, with pleasure.’ And the following was written:

268. “‘My friend, you must not be angry with my darling boy. It ofttimes grieves me to have him, so pure, use such wild phrases. I am your friend, as a soldier in the cause.

Elizabeth Y-—-.’

269. “Very often this little bright spark comes out with something unexpected, amusing, or witty; but at all times he manifests a very marked disposition to be obliging and kind. Once, when his communication seemed to be closed, I said, ‘You are not going, Natty?’ ‘Yes—gone—don’t you see the dust fly?’ ‘Where,’ I asked, ‘do you pick up such phrases?’ ‘Hear ‘um.’

270. “On another occasion he said, ‘My friend, you must not put on a long face when you come to talk with supposed ghosts. You must not believe all they tell you to. You must not go to the end of the world and jump off, because they tell you to.’

271. “When once I said to him, ‘How do you go to work, Natty, to use a medium’s hand?’ He said, ‘Why, you see, we just passes a chain of light around the wrist, and that sets it to shaking. The next operation is to make it write, of course. Sometimes the words are allowed to pass through the brains. We now have such a power over this medium, that we can make her shake awfully.’ ‘Try my wrist, Natty,’ said a lady who was present. ‘Dear, beloved aunty, I’ve got a peck of love for you, but I can’t make you trace my purified thoughts on the clean paper.’”

For those who endeavour to get rid of the evidence of respectable witnesses, such as Mr. Putnam, by representing them as dupes, and the media as impostors, it may be well to quote the following passage from the same publication: (Page 44.)

272. “Within the last fourteen months I have seen twenty-two or three different mediums—all but four of them private ones—taking no pecuniary compensation; and more than half of them are our own citizens, several of whom are now present in this assembly. I have spent very many hours in their presence. Have seen them at their homes—at my own home—and in the parlours of neighbours and friends. I have met and watched them in the broadest sunlight and at evening. Every desirable opportunity has been furnished me for detecting machinery, jugglery, or imposture, and I have faithfully, but in vain, strove to find something mundane a sufficient cause for all these wonders. That trick or humbug is sometimes attempted by pretenders to uncommon susceptibilities, no one will have a wish to deny. But very many of the mediums, private ones, are as much above these things as are the very best persons among the witnesses.

273. “One medium, an active, energetic business man, of more than sixty years, has submitted himself to be used by me at any time, however suddenly called upon, whether in his counting-room or in mine,—whether called in his shirt sleeves from the woodpile, or coalbin, or dressed up and ready for company; and I have used him and watched him daily almost, and that through several successive months. Many mediums have been watched for long periods, and under quite varied circumstances; and, though the power exerted through any of them is very far from being uniform, and though the mode of manifestation is in no two alike, yet I have seen no sign of its being anywhere applied by machinery; or of its being varied by any preparation or act of the mediums themselves.

274. “They deny, one and all, young and old, educated and ignorant alike—they all deny, and that, too, in the most private and friendly circles, where all the thoughts flow out,—they all deny that they exercise their wills at all in the production of these wonders. And I cannot rate that fairness very high which, in the face of such a fact, will persist in saying that all of it is trick, imposture, humbug. More than one hundred thousand witnesses have looked on, and yet are unable to prove to any extent the cheats alleged. More than five thousand mediums in this country unitedly and persistedly declare that they use no machinery and practice no trick.”

275. This charge is utterly futile when we see persons in affluence converted by their own mediumship, as in the case of two of my most esteemed friends.

276. My conversion was effected before I attended any public medium. To the ladies by whom it was effected my requisitions could only have been onerous, had not the desire for truth to oblige me been a strong motive for the pains which they were made to take.

277. It does not seem sufficiently understood by those who object to Spiritualism, upon the ground of the inconsistency of the opinions given by spirits, that our next state of existence is one of progression, and that we go there with all our imperfections, which are removed more or less slowly.

278. “Many men, many minds,” is an old adage: it is equally true as respects the inhabitants of the spirit world, excepting that as their elevation in that world is higher, accordance in opinion is more prevalent. In the spirits of the fifth sphere, and those above that sphere, I find little diversity in important facts or doctrines.

279. Allusion is made to this diversity in some communications from Franklin, to Mr. Putnam, which are as follows:

280. “The mortals of earth expect truth from the spirit land; they think that it is perfect, and that the angels are omnipotent. Oh, how far do they wander in the darkness of their own minds! The spirit home is progressive, like unto this: the canting hypocrite passes into the heavens with the same thoughts; the simple babe too passes into this new-born life with all its childlike innocence. Each one has to mount the ladder of progression.”

281. “There are millions in the spirit world that know not of the existence of this planet, even as the children of this earth know not of the starry world above. But on beholding angels descend to this hidden planet, they follow, and in wonderment behold a new world, and that world inhabited. Then do they find whence they originated.

282. “Allusion has been made to the one-sided support given to Spiritualism on the part of those who admit many of the most important facts, yet do not ascribe them to the spirits of the departed. These opponents were alleged to be of different features; one ascribing them to Satan, the other disputing their spiritual origination, because agreeably to their imperfect information, certain traits were found to be deficient which should exist, were the intellectual communications due to the spirits of our departed fellow-creatures. The idea of these spiritual manifestations owing their existence to Satan has already been noticed, (88,) but from the communications which will be given in this work must appear still more untenable than they have, as I trust, been proved to be. As one of the most respectable of these, who deny the existence of spirits, the distinguished Dr. Bell, of Somerville, Massachusetts, has been noticed. (110.)

283. “It is conceived that Dr. Bell’s positive evidence in favour of phenomena which he has seen, gives so much more weight in favour of the existence of spirits than his arguments on negative grounds, as to what he happens not to have seen or learned, that I will quote here his account of the manifestations which he has described, after having observed them with great circumspection:

284. “Dr. Bell commenced (at a meeting of hospital directors) by expressing his surprise that at the meeting, last year, of so large a number of persons whose lives were spent in investigating the reciprocal influences of mind and body, scarcely a single member had given a moment’s attention to a topic directly in their path, which, whether regarded as merely an epidemic mental delusion, or as a new psychological science, was producing such momentous effects upon the world. It was now said to number over two millions of believers, had an extended literature, a talented periodical press in many forms, and had certainly taken fast hold on many minds of soberness and power. He was well aware how easily it was turned to ridicule, and that there were many who would be ready to ask, when they saw hospital directors seriously discussing the spiritual phenomena, Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

285. “But if there was any class of men who had duties in this direction, it was those of our specialty. Our reports contain the record of many cases of insanity said to be produced by it. It was important, whether true or false, or mixed, that its precise depth, length, and nature should be studied out. As is well known, mystery always loses its terrific character when boldly met and opened to the light of noonday.

286. “Dr. Bell remarked, that on his return home from our meeting at Washington, he had a peculiar wish to verify his previous observations on what are technically known as the physical manifestations of this new science. He could not pretend that he could doubt his repeated personal observations, addressed to his sight, hearing, and touch, and separated, as he believed, from any possibility of error or collusive fraud. Yet the offer, by Professor Henry, of a large sum to any person who would make one of his tables move in the Smithsonian Institution, and the obvious incredulity of many of the ‘brethren,’ had induced the desire again to see some full and unequivocal experiment in table-moving.

287. “An opportunity was not long wanting. On the occasion of the visit of a well-known gentleman, long connected with the insane, and who never had seen any of these phenomena at the asylum, Dr. Bell invited him to go to a family where a medium of considerable power was visiting. The family was one of the most respectable of the vicinage, the head of it being a gentleman intrusted with millions of dollars of other people’s money, as the financial manager of a large banking institution. He and his wife had for some years been perfectly convinced of the spiritual character of these manifestations. The medium was a young lady of eighteen or twenty, of very slight figure, weighing eighty or ninety pounds, and had discovered herself to be a medium while on a visit to these distant relatives. A family, from character and position, more entirely beyond the suspicion of even winking at any thing like fraud or irregularity, does not exist in the world. They were so fortunate as to find the medium at home, and the circle was made of the five persons mentioned. The ordinary manifestations of raps, beating of musical tunes, and responses to mental and spoken questions, were very completely presented, as well as the movements of the table under the mere contact of fingers’ ends. Finding that things appeared very favourable to a full exhibition of what he wished to see, as evinced by the very facile movements of the table under contact, Dr. Bell proposed trying the grand experimentum crucis of the physical manifestations—the movement of the table without any human contact, direct or indirect. He was permitted to arrange things to suit himself, and began by opening the table more widely, and inserting two movable table-leaves, which increased the length from about six to perhaps nine or ten feet. This, he felt, also gave him an opportunity to see and upset all wires and mechanism concealed, or, at least, to answer positively as to their non-existence. The table was a solid structure of black walnut, with six carved legs, the whole of such a weight that when the castors were all in the right line of motion, he could just start it by the full grasp of the thumb and fingers of both hands.

288. “The persons stood on the sides of the table, three and two, and back from its edge about eighteen inches. As Dr. Bell is some six feet two inches in height, he averred that he had no difficulty in seeing between the table and the persons of all present. The hands were raised over it at about the same height, of a foot and a half.

289. “At a request, the table commenced its motion, with moderate speed, occasionally halting, and then gliding on a foot or two at once. It seemed as if its motion would have been continuous, if the hands above it had followed along pari passu. On reaching the folding-doors dividing off the two parlours, and which were open, it rose over an iron rod on which the door-trucks traversed, and which projected half or three-quarters of an inch above the level of the carpet. It then entered the other parlour, and went its whole length until it came near the pier glass at its end—a centre-table having been pushed aside by one of the party to allow its free course.

290. “At request, for they during this time spoke as if to actual beings, the motion was reversed, and it returned until it again reached the iron rod. Here it stuck. The table hove, creaked, and struggled, but all in vain; it could not surmount the obstacle. The medium was then ‘impressed by the spirits’ to write, and seizing a pencil, hastily wrote that if the fore legs were lifted over the bar, they (i. e. the spirits) thought they could push the others over. This was done, and the motion kept on. Once or twice Dr. Bell requested all to withdraw a little farther from the table, ‘to see how far the influence would extend.’ It was found that whenever a much greater distance, say two feet, was reached, the movement ceased, and a delay of three or four minutes occurred before it recommenced, giving the idea that, if broken off, a certain reaccumulation of force was needful to put it in motion again. The table reached the upper end of the parlour, from which it had started, but was left some four feet from the medial line of the room. Dr. Bell expressed the thanks of the company for the very complete exhibition with which they had been favoured, but remarked that the obligation would be enhanced if the ‘spirits’ would move the table about four feet at right angles, so that the chairs would come right for their late occupants. This was immediately done, and the performance was deemed so perfectly full and satisfactory that nothing more was asked at this session.

291. “Dr. Bell was understood to say that this made some five or six times in which he had seen the table move without human contact, and all under circumstances apparently as free from suspicion as this just related. He also stated that the Rev. Mr. P., a clergyman of extraordinary sagacious perceptions and mechanical skill, took this same medium to his own house, without previous thought, where she never before had been, and where his own table, in the presence of his own family alone, went through the fullest locomotion without human touch. Dr. Bell mentioned that in his last experiment, that just narrated, the entire space moved through was over fifty feet.

292. “Dr. Bell then passed to the topic of responses to mental and verbal questions, and gave several narratives of long conversations with what purported to be the spirits of persons dead for twenty-five to forty years, in which every question he could devise relating to their domestic history, and to events in it known only to them and him, had been truly answered. Some of the subjects put mentally—i. e., without speaking or writing—had half a dozen correct replies, forbidding, of course, completely, on any doctrine of chances, the contingency of accident or coincidence, as 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 supermundane production. Dr. Bell alluded to a treatise which had been put into his hands by an earnest spiritualist, purporting to be the work of Thomas Paine, the author of the Age of Reason, &c., which was thought would carry conviction to anybody, as it purported to be a full explanation of the formation and changes of this earth, by one who, from 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.’