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Title: Experimental Investigation of the Spirit Manifestations

Author: Robert Hare

Release date: December 28, 2020 [eBook #64160]
Most recently updated: October 18, 2024

Language: English

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK
EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF THE SPIRIT
MANIFESTATIONS ***

Transcriber’s Notes

Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. Variations in hyphenation
have been standardised but all other spelling and punctuation remains unchanged.
There is no anchor for footnote 5 on page 35 (containing paras 122,123 and 124), so
the anchor has been placed at the end of para 122.
Vail has been corrected to veil throughout.
The cover was prepared by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.

EXPERIMENTAL
INVESTIGATION
OF THE
SPIRIT MANIFESTATIONS,
DEMONSTRATING

THE EXISTENCE OF SPIRITS AND THEIR COMMUNION WITH
MORTALS.
DOCTRINE OF THE SPIRIT WORLD RESPECTING HEAVEN,
HELL, MORALITY, AND GOD.
ALSO,

Influence of Scripture on the Morals of Christians.

BY
ROBERT HARE, M.D.
EMERITUS PROFESSOR OF CHEMISTRY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA,
GRADUATE OF YALE COLLEGE AND HARVARD UNIVERSITY, ASSOCIATE OF THE
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTE, AND MEMBER OF VARIOUS LEARNED SOCIETIES.

Verba animi proferre, vitam impendere vero.
Denounce dark Error and bright Truth proclaim, Though ghastly Death oppose, with threat’ning
aim.

NEW YORK:
PARTRIDGE & BRITTAN, 342 BROADWAY.
1855.

Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1855, by
MARGARET B. GOURLAY,
in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Eastern
District of Pennsylvania.

PLATE I.
Engraving and description of the apparatus, which, being contrived for the purpose
of determining whether the manifestations attributed to spirits could be made without
mortal aid, by deciding the question affirmatively, led to the author’s conversion.
(a) PLATE I. Fig. 1, is an engraving from a photograph of the apparatus above
alluded to. The disk A is represented as supported upon a rod of iron forming the axis
on which it turns. To the outer end of this rod, the index B is affixed, so as to be
stationary in a vertical position; the upper termination situated just in front of the
letters. These are placed around the margin of the disk. The cord C encircles the
pulley situated about the centre of the disk, like a hub to a carriage wheel. The ends of
the cord are severally tied to weights, which, when the table is tilted, react against
each other through the pulley; one being so large as to be immovable, the other so
small as to be lifted. Of course a hook in the floor may be substituted for the larger
weight.
PEASE’S APPARATUS.
(b) The relative position of the medium, and that of the screen intercepting her view
of the disk, are too conspicuous to require particularization.
Fig. 2, represents Pease’s disk, or dial apparatus, associated with a vibrating lever
and stand contrived by myself. The whole, thus modified, has been named the
Spiritoscope.
(c) The apparatus thus designated consists of a box F, which is a miniature
representation of a low, square, four sided house, with a single sloping roof, but
without any floor closing it at the bottom.

(d) On the outside of the part serving as the roof, the alphabetic dial is depicted. On
the inner surface of the roof board, the spring, pulley, and strings are attached, by
which the index is made to revolve, so as to point out any letter.
(e) G represents the vibrating lever upon which the medium’s hands are placed.
When test conditions are not requisite, her hands should be situated so as that merely
one-half may be on each side of the fulcrum wire, on which the lever turns. When test
conditions are requisite, the hands should be altogether on the portion of the board
which is between the exterior end of the board and the fulcrum. When thus placed, it
is utterly impossible to move the lever so as to cause it to select letters, or to control
the selection, by any spirit who may be employing them to make a communication.[1]
(f) Not only are the letters of the alphabet printed equidistant, in due order, on the
margin of the disk or dial-face; there are likewise words, the digits, and notes of
music.
(g) The words are as follows: Yes—Doubtful—No—Don’t know—I think so—A
mistake—I’ll spell it over—A message—Done—I’ll come again—Good-bye—I must
leave. These words are printed on equidistant radial lines, nearly dividing the area
between them. The digits are printed on radial lines intermediate between those on
which the words appear.
Five concentric circular lines, dividing the margin into as many smaller portions, as
in music paper, serve for the inditing of musical notes; respecting which the directions
are given by Pease upon a printed slip of paper pasted inside.
(h) The index in this instrument is secured upon the outer end of a pivot supporting
a pulley of about ¾ of an inch in diameter. The spring consists of a coil of brass wire,
of which one end is fastened into the inside of the roof-board (c) of which the outside
forms the surface for the letters, &c., while the other end of the wire is prolonged
beyond the coil to about 2½ inches, and, by means of a loop, has a string of catgut tied
to it securely. This string is fastened to a perforation in the pivot. Another piece of the
same kind of string is fastened to the circumference of the pulley. The pivot being
turned so as to wind upon it the string proceeding from the spring, and thus
constraining it so as to make it capable of effectual recoil from the pulley, the latter
may, with a little care, be made, as the spring recoils, to wind about it another string
duly attached to its circumference. The strings being thus wound, (one to the right, the
other to the left,) when the string attached to the pulley is pulled from the outside of
the box, it is unwound therefrom, and meanwhile winds that attached to the spring
upon the pivot. The reaction of the spring, when left to itself, reverses this process,
producing the opposite revolution in the pulley. The index attached to the pivot of
course turns in one direction or the other, as the pivot is actuated by the drawing out
or retraction of the string which proceeds from it. This, at the outer end, is tied to a
ring, which prevents it from receding into the box.
(i) It is surprising with what readiness a spirit, even when unused to the apparatus,
will, by moving the lever, actuate the index, causing it to point to the letters, words, or
figures distributed on the face of the disk, as above mentioned.
(j) The apparatus of Pease above described, agreeably to the design of the maker,
operates by means of a string extending from the brass ring, in which the pulley string
terminates externally, to a weight situated upon the floor, so as to be taut when at rest.
When this arrangement is made, tilting of the table, by raising the end at which the
box is situated, causes the weight to pull the string, and of course to induce the

revolution of the pulley, its pivot, and corresponding index. The restoration of the
table to its usual position reverses the motion. Hence by these means the index may be
moved either way, as requisite for the selection of the letters required for
communicating.
(k) The other figure in the same plate represents Pease’s disk apparatus, so
arranged, as to be affixed to any table of moderate dimensions. The fulcrum on which
the lever vibrates is so made as to be affixed to one of the table’s edges by clamps,
while the disk, situated in a vertical plane, is supported by a bar which has a clamp to
secure it to the table, while to the disk it is fastened by being introduced into square
staples, made to receive it securely, in a mode resembling that by which a square bolt
is secured. Under the vibrating lever, a hollow wire is fastened by staples, so as to
receive a solid wire, which can be made to slide farther in or out, and thus adjust itself
to the distance.]

PLATE II.
Description of the instrument by which spirits were enabled to move a table under
the influence of mediumship, yet in no wise under the control of the medium
employed, even clairvoyance being nullified.

(i) The table is about six feet in length, and sixteen inches in width, so contrived as
to separate into three parts for conveniency of carriage.
(j) The pair of legs under the right side are upon castors. Those on the left side upon
an axle, passing through perforations suitably made for its reception. The axle consists
of a rod of about ½ of an inch in thickness. The axle serves for two wheels of about
six inches diameter, of which one is grooved. A disk, already described as
appertaining to apparatus in a preceding page, is secured upon a pivot affixed to a
strip of wood, which is made to slide between two other strips attached to the frame of
the table just under the top board. By these means, the band embraces both the hub of
the disk and the wheel; when this turns in consequence of the shoving of the table
horizontally along the floor, the disk turns with the wheel, and as much faster as the
circumference of the groove in the hub, is less than that of the groove in the wheel.
(k) The index is in this apparatus situated precisely as in that described in Plate I.;
and any mortal having due hold of the table, may, by shoving it one way or the other,
bring any letter under the index, so as to spell out any desired word. But no person,
sitting as the medium is in the engraving represented to sit, with the plate on two
balls, can actuate the disk so as to spell out words as above mentioned. Utterly
incapacitated from moving the table, it were manifestly impossible to actuate the disk,
or to interfere with the movements otherwise imparted.
(l) In the employment of the apparatus (Plate I.) it has been suggested that through
clairvoyance the medium might see the letters, despite of the screen, or might learn
them from the mind of the observer; but in this case the medium sees the letters
without the aid of clairvoyancy; but this power does not account for the regulation of
the manifestations; since, even seeing the letters, they cannot control the movements
so as to give to the intuitive power thus exercised any efficacy.
(m) On the surface of the table, on the right, may be seen a board upon castors. This
was contrived as a substitute for the plate on balls. The castors, of course, perform the
same office as the balls in allowing a solid material communication between the
hands of the medium and the table, without giving the power to induce or control the
movement. Evidently, though by any horizontal impulse the medium might cause the
castors to turn and the board to move in consequence, the force necessary to effect
this must fall short of that requisite to move the table.
(n) In point of fact, the board, when under the plate, balls, and hands of the
medium, was often moved rapidly to and fro, without moving the table. To move this
under such conditions without moving the board or tray, required a distinct spiritual
process, of much greater difficulty, and which some spirits were either unwilling or
unable to employ successfully.
See “Mediumship” in this work. See also 164, 166.

PLATE III.
(o) On the opposite page is a representation of an experiment, in which the medium
was prevented from having any other communication with the apparatus, actuated
under his mediumship, excepting through water. Yet under these circumstances the
spring balance indicated the exertion of a force equal to 18 pounds.
(p) A board is supported on a rod so as to make it serve as a fulcrum, as in a see-
saw, excepting that the fulcrum is at the distance of only a foot from one end, while it
is three feet from the other. This end is supported by a spring-balance which indicates
pounds and ounces by a rotary index.
(q) Upon the board, at about six inches from the fulcrum, there is a hole into which
the knob of an inverted glass vase, nine inches in diameter, is inserted.
(r) Upon two iron rods proceeding vertically from a board resting on the floor, so as
to have one on each side of the vase, a cage of wire, such as is used to defend food
from flies, of about five inches diameter, is upheld [inverted] by the rod within the
vase concentrically, so as to leave between it and the sides of the vase an interstice of
an inch nearly, and an interval of an inch and a half between it and the bottom of the
vase.
(s) The vase being filled with water until within an inch of the brim, the medium’s
hands were introduced into the cage and thus secured from touching the vase.

(t) These arrangements being made, the spirits were invoked to show their power,
when repeatedly the spring-balance indicated an augmentation of weight equal to
three pounds. The relative distances of the vase and balance from the fulcrum being as
6 to 36, the force exerted must have been 3 × 6 = 18 pounds; yet the medium did not
appear to be subjected to any reaction, and declared that he experienced none.
(u) It was on stating this result to the Association for the Advancement of Science,
that I met with much the same reception as the King of Ava gave to the Dutch
ambassador, who alleged water to be at times solidified in his country, by cold, so as
to be walked upon.
(v) The belief in spiritual agency was treated as a mental disease, with which I, of
course, had been infected; those who made this charge being perfectly unconscious
that their education has associated morbid incredulity with bigoted and fanatical
credence.

PLATE IV.
(x) The apparatus of which the opposite cuts afford a representation are
spiritoscopes, under modifications to which I resorted subsequently to the contrivance
in which Pease’s dial is employed. For Pease’s “dial,” disks are substituted,
resembling those originally employed by me, as represented in Plates I. and II. These
last mentioned, however, were made to revolve under the index; while in Pease’s
apparatus the index revolves, the disk remaining at rest. The advantage of having the

disk to revolve is, that the letter is always to be looked for, within the same space;
whereas in operating with the other the eye has to follow the index through all its
rapid movements.
(y) The convenience and economy of casting the disks of iron was deemed a
sufficient motive for resorting to the rotation of the index; as when made of that metal
the disk becomes too heavy to be rotated with ease, first one way and then another.
(z) In Fig. 1 the vibrating lever is resorted to, and the process is precisely the same
as that already described, in which Pease’s dial is associated with the same
mechanism.
(aa) The words on the dial faces in Figures 1 and 2 are somewhat abbreviated.[2]
(bb) The rod R slides in staples, so as to be made to extend farther or nearer from
the fulcrum. The legs on which the disk is supported, which are a part of the casing,
terminate below in a socket which fits upon a plug screwed into the base-board; upon
this plug it may be fastened by the set screw (s). By sliding the rod (r) inward, the
disk may be turned half round upon the plug, so as to place the lettered surface out of
the sight of the medium, whose power to influence the communications is thus
nullified. This is one mode of attaining test conditions; in other words, those
conditions which make it impossible that the communications received should be due
to any mortal, (151 to 166,) unless, as gratuitously and erroneously, as I believe,
alleged, the medium by clairvoyancy sees the letters.
(cc) By another method test conditions are obtained which are not exposed to this
evil.
(dd) The method to which I allude has been explained in the description of Plate I.
in reference to the spiritoscope formed with the aid of a Pease’s disk, paragraph (e).
The process is the same in the employment of Fig. 1 Plate IV. under consideration. It
may be better understood in this case, as the illustration of the lever board L is more
conspicuous. In the ordinary mode of operating without test conditions, the hand of
the medium is so situated as to have nearly half of it beyond the fulcrum, marked by
the line F L. When test conditions are imposed, the tips of the fingers only reach to
that line, without going beyond it. Situated as last mentioned, the medium to whom
they appertain cannot move the rod R, because it is already against the lower edge of
the disk, which prevents it from moving upwards. In the opposite direction the
medium can create no pressure, since her efforts could only tend to lift her hand, per
se, from the disk. It is important that the reader should pay attention to this exposition,
as the conditions thus made evident are often appealed to as one proof, among others,
that my information and credentials are from the immortal worthies of the spirit
world.
(ee) Fig. 2 is analogous in its mode of operating, to the apparatus represented in
Plate II. It is in the substitution of a small board for a table that the principal
difference consists.[3] The board requires only to be large enough to allow the hands
to rest upon it in front of the disk. The index is actuated by a horizontal motion to and
fro, which, as in the apparatus, Plate II., causes the rotation of a supporting wheel,
which by means of a band communicates rotation to a pulley supported behind the
disk on the pivot to which the index is secured in front. The sliding pulley P being
fastened at a due distance from the disk (o), is used to keep the band tight.

(ff) This instrument is preferred by the spirits, and is easier for a feeble medium to
employ effectually. I cannot as yet avail myself of Fig. 1; through Fig. 2 I have had
some interesting tests.
(gg) This form, then, is best for incipient mediumship.
(hh) Fig. 2 may be employed under test conditions, by so situating it as that the dial
shall be on the side opposite to that where the medium sits; under these circumstances
she cannot see the index or the letters, and consequently cannot control the spelling of
spirits, so as to give results from her own mind instead of theirs. This mode of testing
does not preclude the subterfuge, so often resorted to, of clairvoyant power, enabling
the medium to see through the cast-iron, or read the letters in the minds of the
bystanders. This power I have never witnessed; yet it is absurdly attributed to media
who, as well as all their friends, are ignorant of the existence of any such power.
(ii) Another mode of testing is that illustrated in Plate II., where a plate upon two
balls supports the hands of the medium, and forms the only means of conducting
communication between the medium and apparatus. It may be easily conceived that
instead of the hands being placed upon the board, the plate and balls being interposed,
the hands of the medium may be supported over the board of Fig. 2. as they are
represented to be supported over the table in Fig. 1, Plate II.
See 167, 169, 172, 177, 196.
(kk) Fig. 3, Plate IV., is a representation of an association of serrated strips of iron
in a wooden frame, which sliding on the lever board of Fig. 1, so as to have the saws
just above the back of the hand of the medium, is found to increase the efficacy of the
mediumship. It is only of importance to use it when test conditions are requisite, as
explained already, Fig. 1, (hh). The rationale, so far as it can be suggested, will be
stated under the head of mediumship. It will be perceived that the size of the frame is
not in due proportion to the lever board, being upon a larger scale. But this renders it
more conspicuous, and the reader can easily conceive its size to be such as to allow
the grooves in the wooden sides of the frame to receive the edges of the lever board L,
and thus to be secured firmly thereupon.

CONTENTS.
PAGE
Preface.—Letter from J. F. Lanning, Esq.—Spiritual communication, through the
mediumship of Mr. Lanning, to the author—Author’s Reply—Communication from an
assembly of eminent spirits, sanctioning, under test conditions, the credentials transmitted
through Mr. Lanning—Postscript by the author—Supplemental Preface 3
Introduction.—The evidence of the existence of a Deity, by the author—Theological Axioms 17
Intuitive Evidence of the Existence of Spirits.—Narrative of the author’s experimental
investigation of Spiritualism—Letter in reply to an inquiry respecting the Influence of
Electricity in Table-Turning—Of Manifestations founded on Movements without contact,
or such contact as cannot be sufficient to cause the result—Hymn chanted, and reply 35
Corroborative Evidence of the Existence of Spirits.—Evidence afforded by the Rev. Allen
Putnam, of Roxbury, Mass.—Evidence of Dr. Bell, of Somerville, near Boston—His
errors, arising from ignorance of facts, (110, 283, 864.) 55
Foreign Corroborative Evidence of the Existence of Spirits.—Manifestations which
occurred in France in 1851—Letter from T. R. P. Ventura—Letter of Dr. Coze—Letter of
M. F. De Saulcy—Spiritualism in Paris—Spiritual Manifestations in France and Germany
—Spiritualism in Great Britain—Letter of Robert Owen, Esq. 66
Communications from the Spirit World.—Remarks introductory to my spirit father’s
communication—My father’s communication—Communication from a spirit son of the
author—Additional communications from spirits who died while infants—
Communication from a very young spirit child to its parents 85
Of Spiritual Birth.—Narratives given by spirits of their translation to the spirit world—
Narrative of his spiritual birth, by W. W., a most benevolent spirit—The spirit Maria’s
narrative—My sister’s account of her translation to the spirit world—My brother’s
account of his spiritual birth, &c. 101
Convocation of Spirits.—Sixty-four queries addressed to a convocation of worthies from the
spirit world; also their replies to the same, (through the mediumship of Mrs. Gourlay,)
confirmed under conditions which no mortal could pervert 113
Exposition of the Information received from the Spirit World 119
Apology for my Conversion.—Reasons for my change of opinion, and belief in the existence
and agency of spirits—On the whereabout of heaven—Correspondence with Mr.
Holcomb, of Southwick, Massachusetts 125
Moral Influence of Spiritualism 136
The Heaven and Hell of Spiritualism contrasted with the Heaven and Hell of Scripture 141
Instinctive Impression as to Heaven being overhead.—Discordance as to the whereabout of
the scriptural heaven 149
“The True Doctrine.”—The Rev. H. Harbaugh’s opinion respecting heaven 151
Of Mediumship 159
Of Counter-Mediumship.—On the influence of the ill-treatment of media on spiritual
manifestations—The author’s discovery of his powers as a medium 166
On Psychological Explanations of Spiritual Manifestations 168

Alphabetic Converse with Spirits.—Modern process for alphabetic converse with spirits as
new as that of electric telegraph 173
Influence of Mundane Wealth in the World to come.—According to the spiritual code,
riches elevate or degrade according to the morality displayed in their acquisition and
employment 176
Mrs. Gourlay’s Narrative of her Conversion to Spiritualism 179
Practical Benefit of Spiritualism.—Illustration of the practical benefit of Spiritualism, in
the happiness imparted by the conversion of an unbeliever to a belief in immortality—
Letter from a spirit daughter—Correspondence with a spirit brother 192
Marriage on Earth and in Heaven.—The hymeneal tie in the spirit world grows out of the
necessity of the connubial union in the mundane sphere—“Free Love” imputation refuted 204
Influence of Scripture on the Morals of Christians.—The morality of Christendom being 206
irreconcilable with the New Testament, cannot be its legitimate offspring—Inspiration can
have no higher authority than the human testimony on which its existence is arrogated—
Injurious influence of unreasonable restriction—No one would believe that a capable
farmer would make such a mistake as to sow garlic instead of wheat; yet God, while
represented as having intended to sow Protestantism, is considered as having caused
throughout Christendom a crop of Catholicism, in the Roman or Grecian form, for more
than a thousand years: those weeds still occupying more than half of the whole soil—
Letter of William Pitt, afterward Earl of Chatham—Offer of guidance by a mundane spirit
—Improper use of the epithet Infidel—On Atonement—On the massacre at Sinope—
Opinions of God held by Sir Isaac Newton—On God and his attributes, by Seneca—On
the better employment of the first day of the week—Additional remarks respecting the
observance of the Sabbath, so called—If creatures be not so created as to love their
neighbours as themselves, precepts can no more alter them in this respect than change the
colour of their hair or the number of cubits in their stature—Attacks upon the authenticity
of Scripture cannot endanger the prevalent morality, which, while superior to that of the
Old Testament, indicates a recklessness of the precepts of Christ, excepting so far as faith
is upheld as a counterpoise for sin—The doctrine of a peculiar belief being necessary to
salvation, and a counterpoise for sin, a source of discord originally confined to Judea,
expanded with Christianity and Islamism: verifying Christ’s allegation, that he came “as a
sword, not as a messenger of peace”—Superior morality and far less questionable
certainty of the communications from the spirit world—Quotation from Mosheim—
Quotation from Gibbon—For more than a thousand years, the Grecian or Roman Catholic
clergy were the solo depositaries of the word of God, so called, and regulators of religious
morals; yet, according to Bishop Hopkins, during that time, the clergy were for the most
part pre-eminent in vice, as compared with the rest of the community; whence it is
inferred that, like Pope Boniface, the wicked clergy in general were unbelievers in the
truth of the gospel—If the morals of the modern clergy are better, it is neither from the
barbarous example furnished them in the Old Testament, nor the ultra precepts of the
gospel; being too much enlightened to be governed by either—Summary made by Bishop
Hopkins—Any religion, like that of Moses, which does not make immortality a primary
consideration, must be chiefly confined to worldly objects, and, of course, unworthy of
consideration. People profess Christianity more from a desire to do right, than they do
right in consequence of their professions—A calumny against human nature to represent
men as wilfully ignorant of the true religion—To appreciate the Jewish representation of
the Deity, a reader should first form an idea of this planet and its inhabitants,
comparatively with the hundred millions of solar systems, and the inconceivable extent of
the space which encompasses them, and which falls within the domain of one common
Deity—Our actions dependent, under God, on organization, education, and the extent to

which we are tempted extraneously—On probation—World least moral when the
Christian church had most sway—Honour and mercantile credit more trusted than
religion. Virtue due more to the heart than to sectarianism. Bigotry acts like an evil spirit
—Progress of literature and science in Arabia, under the Mohammedan pontiffs, called
caliphs
Additional Corroborative Evidence of the Existence of Spirits.—The opinions of MM. de
Mirville and Gasparin on Table Turning and Mediums, (considered in relation to theology
and physics,) examined by the Abbot Almignana, doctor of the common law, theologian,
&c.—Mechanical movements without contact, by Mr. Isaac Rehn, President of the
Harmonial Society, Philadelphia—Communication from J. M. Kennedy, Esq.—
Communication from Wm. West, Esq.—Koons’s Establishment—Communications from
Joseph Hazard, Esq.—A visit to the Spiritualists of Ohio—Letter from John Gage—The
home of the mediums, and the haunts of the spirits—What they did, said, and wrote—The
house of the Spiritualists—Presence of electricity—The room where the spirits manifest
their power—The furniture and occupants—The manifestations commence—The spirits
play on drums, harps, French horns, accordeons, and tamborines—The manifestations
continue, and the head spirit writes a communication—The spirit’s letter—Concluding
remarks—An evening at Koons’s spirit room, by Charles Partridge, Esq., New York—
Experience of the Hon. N. P. Tallmadge—Letter from Mr. D. H. Hume—Spiritualism in
London—Lord Brougham with the spirits—Evidence afforded by the Rev. J. B. Ferguson
—An exposition of views respecting the principal facts, causes, and peculiarities involved
in spiritual manifestations; together with interesting phenomenal statements and
communications, by Adin Ballou—Testimony of the Hon. J. W. Edmonds—Testimony of
Henry Lloyd Garrison.—Testimony of Mr. and Mrs. Newton—Testimony of members of
the New York circle—Testimony of the Rev. D. F. Goddard, Boston—Manifestations at
Stratford, Connecticut, in the house of the Rev. Eliakim Phelps, D.D.—Remarkable
exhibitions of power—Singular occurrences—Image-making—Destruction of furniture—
Incendiary spirits—The spirits identified—Unhappy spirits, from the remembrance of
wrong done in this world—Wrong doing revealed—Directions given for restoring ill-
gotten gains—Discontinuance of the manifestations—Idea of the existence of a spiritual
sun, and a vital spiritual oxygen, found to exist, independently, in the mind of a much-
esteemed author 273
Of Matter, Mind, and Spirit.—Of matter—Strictures on a speculation by Farraday
respecting the nature of matter—On Whewell’s demonstration that all matter is heavy—
Additional remarks on the speculation of Farraday and Exley, above noticed—Of
mundane, ethereal, and ponderable matter, in their chemical relations—Suggestions of
Massotti, respecting the nature of matter—On electro-polarity as the cause of electrical
phenomena—Of mind, as existing independently, and as distinguished from matter—Of
spirit independently, or as distinguished from mind and matter—Of the soul, as
distinguished from mind and matter—On the odic, or odylic force 363
Religious Errors of Mr. Mahan.—Proposition of Mr. Mahan—Of the origin of the Books of 396
Moses no higher evidence exists, according to the testimony of the Bible itself, than that
of an obscure priest and a fanatical king—Scriptural account of the finding of the Books
of Moses by Hilkiah, the high-priest—Account of the finding of the Books of Moses, by
Josephus—If the Pentateuch had been previously known to the Jews, it is incredible that it
could have become obsolete and forgotten prior to the alleged discovery of it in the temple
in the reign of Josiah—Great importance attached to a belief in immortality by Cyrus the
Great, King of Persia, as contrasted with the recklessness of Moses respecting the same
belief—The worship of a book, idolatry—Evidence of Josephus and Gibbon vs. Mr.
Mahan—The worshippers of the golden calf more righteous than their assassins—Just

denunciation of the religious imposture and usurpation of Moses, by noble-minded
Israelites—Remarkable observance of the golden rule by Moses, in his last advice to the
Israelites—Straining at spiritual gnats while swallowing scriptural camels—The evidence
which is insufficient to establish the iniquity of a sinner cannot be sufficient to establish
the divine authority of a book—Word of God, so called, or the golden rule inverted by
God’s alleged commands—Pagan fearlessness of death—Observations of Mr. Huc, a
Christian priest, that it is their religion which makes Christians more fearful of death than
the Chinese—Mr. Huc’s observations—Conclusion of strictures on Mr. Mahan’s religious
errors
Conclusion.—The Pentateuch inconsistently represented as the basis of a belief in human
immortality—Injustice of representing disbelievers in the Bible as not having as good
ground for belief in immortality as those who rest their belief on a work which, by its
silence, tends to discountenance the hope of a future life—Those who uphold the Bible
against Spiritualism, the real antagonists of the only satisfactory evidence ever given to
man of a future habitation in the spirit world 423

APPENDIX.
Letter to the Episcopal Clergy.—Letter from Dr. Hare to the clergy of the Protestant
Episcopal Church, offering to lay before them the new evidence of immortality. (Submitted
to the late convention, Philadelphia, May 15, 1855.) 427
A Letter from Dr. Hare.—Addressed to the Association for the Advancement of Science, at
their meeting, August 18, 1855—Preliminary remarks 430
Farraday’s Speculation.—Speculation touching electric conduction and the nature of matter.
By Farraday 432
Motives for Republishing my Memoir on Electrical Theory 437
Electrical Theory.—Objections to the theories severally of Franklin, Dufay, and Ampere, with
an effort to explain electrical phenomena by statical or undulatory polarization—Supposed
grounds for a theory—Proofs of the existence of an enormous quantity of imponderable
matter in metals—Electrical phenomena attributed to stationary or undulatory polarization—
On the perfect similitude between the polarity communicated to iron filings by a magnetized
steel bar and a galvanized wire—Process by which the ethereo-ponderable atoms within a
galvanic circuit are polarized by the chemical reaction—Difference between electro-ethereal
and ethereo-ponderable polarization—Competency of a wire to convey a galvanic discharge
is as its sectional area, while statical discharges of frictional electricity, preferring the
surface, are promoted by its extension. Yet in proportion as such discharges are heavy, the
ability of a wire to convey them and its magnetic energy become more dependent on its
sectional area, and less upon extent of surface—Difference between frictional electricity and
galvanic does not depend on the one being superior as to quantity, the other as to intensity;
but on the different degrees in which the ethereo-ponderable atoms of the bodies affected are
deranged from their natural state of neutralized polarity—Of ethereo-ponderable
deflagration—Summary. 439

Robt Hare M D.
EMERITUS PROFESSOR OF CHEMISTRY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF
PENNSYLVANIA, GRADUATE OF YALE COLLEGE AND HARVARD
UNIVERSITY, ASSOCIATE OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTE
AND MEMBER OF VARIOUS LEARNED SOCIETIES.
Engraved at J. M. Butlers establishment, 84 Chestnut St. Philada.

PREFACE.
As prefatory to this volume, it may be expedient here to introduce the
credentials which I have lately received from the spirit world. With the
medium of their communication, Mr. Lanning, of this city, No. 124 Arch
St., I have had but little intercourse, knowing him, however, by report, as a
good man and a zealous spiritualist. The communication which I owe to his
mediumship, was utterly unexpected by me, never having, in any way,
hinted to him, directly or indirectly, that it would be desirable to receive
such an indication of confidence and approbation.
The first and only knowledge which I had of this, to me, stirring appeal,
is comprised in the following letter from Lanning. The difference between
the style of his own language, though very good for its purpose, and that
which he ascribes to the spirits, must corroborate his allegation that this
address did not originate in his brain.
On submitting the address to my spirit father, he sanctioned the idea of its
proceeding from spirits.
Philadelphia, June 7, 1855.
Dear Sir: I send you the following communication, and think
it to be an emanation from the spirit life. I feel not a little
reluctance in so doing, for it is seldom I can get any thing for
others. How it may suit your mind, I do not know, nor do I wish
to impose it upon you for any thing worthy your consideration. I
would hesitate much to instruct one so much my senior, and
whose name I esteem, were it not that I love a cause so near
your heart; and I feel that my mind is only the channel through
which I have every evidence, the unseen in the spirit life, at
times give their thoughts to mortals. I have no idea from what
spirit it came, but know it did not originate in my own brain.
Very truly, yours, J. F. Lanning.

To Dr. Robert Hare, Philadelphia:

Prof. Robert Hare—Venerable and much-esteemed friend, it
is an unwonted pleasure with us to number you as a leading
mind in the ranks of this new and better gospel which is being
given to the dwellers of earth. We see the many and perplexing
difficulties which, to you, apparently hinder your progress in
this path to light and love, and we sympathize with you in all
your efforts to unfold your mind and to render it useful and
happy.
Could you see the great glory which is to be the issue of your
labours in the new unfoldings of spiritual science, you would
not despair of your mission, nor weary in your devotion to it.
Let us ask you, If there is any earthly fame or consideration that
could induce you to turn back again to the familiar paths in
which a life of patient labour has been spent? If there is any
earthly joy or brilliant attainment which you have ever enjoyed,
worthy to be compared with the little you have realized since
you commenced your investigations in this the most important
pursuit of your life? Ask yourself how much happiness you have
found in the contemplation of that fact which has been
demonstrated, not only to your wishes, but to your senses, that
the thinking mind never dies; that the grave, which is but the
wardrobe of the cast-off garment of the spirit, has no power over
the soul; that it lives on, lives ever, and must throughout the
ceaseless ages of eternity continue to unfold its powers. Ask
yourself, what is earth, what is fame, what is the endearment to
your present life, when contrasted or compared with the
assurance which you now have, that there is no death, no loss of
your individuality, no severing of the ties of friendship and love
which shall not be renewed again in that fairer land, the home of
the angels, whither you and all you love on earth are tending?
Ponder then, our venerable friend, and ask your thirsting soul, if
this knowledge is not worth more than the cost of diamonds to
you? We, who have laid aside the crumbling casket which
contained the priceless jewel that is never tarnished, know full
well the value of this gem of knowledge which now sparkles on
your vision just opened.

There are many things which we would like to say to you, but
the conditions and circumstances which control our operations
render it impossible for us to present to your mind the light
which it so much seeks. To answer the demands of your spirit is
now impossible to us. Time and the unfoldings of your mind can
only solve the questions you would propound. You are well
aware that the growth of your present knowledge is but the
effect of earnest inquiry, of patient toil, and deep study, and
experiment after experiment in your searchings for truth. Such
was the only way you reached the position which you now
occupy in the science so dear to you. It came in no other way, it
could come in no other. The child is subjected to the necessity of
first learning the alphabet before it is prepared to spell, and must
understand the meaning of words before it can comprehend the
sentence it reads. So in this investigation. That which is
apparently of little meaning must first be learned, the alphabet
must be mastered, hard words pronounced, and all must be
understood before there is a fittedness for progression. The
wisest on earth, aye, the wisest in spirit life, are learners,
students: none but God is perfectly wise; and it is no humiliation
to any mind that it contains not all of wisdom. Let us say to you
that if patient in your investigations, you shall in due time obtain
that which you so earnestly seek. Could we work miracles, (a
thing impossible,) they would astound rather than enlighten your
mind. Could we withdraw the veil which separates the vision
from the things you desire to see in our spheres of life, you have
no data by which you could make plain to yourself or to the eyes
of your fellow-man the sights you would behold.
Go on in your searchings, our good friend: the end is not yet
with you. Brilliant minds with brilliant thoughts are burning to
give utterance to earth through you. You are a selected
instrument of our own choosing, and we are watching and
guiding in the path and to the goal you seek. You may not only
“speak trumpet-tongued to the scientific world,” but in thunder-
tones to those savans who think they are the masters of the keys
of knowledge.

Author’s Reply to the preceding Address.

Philadelphia, June 15, 1855.
To my spirit friends, to whom I owe the preceding address:
It is quite unnecessary for my angel friends to urge upon my
heart, or upon my reason the nothingness of this world, in
comparison with that of which a description has lately been
given to me.
So highly do I estimate the prospect thus awakened, that it
seems almost too good, too desirable to be realized. There are so
many painful ideas awakened in my mind respecting the lot of
humanity, by the events of past and present times, that it is
difficult to conceive that, at the short distance of little more than
the eightieth part of the diameter of our globe, there should be
such a contrast. But to heighten my appreciation of the
inestimable value of such an heirship is utterly uncalled for. If
there be any drawback, it is the misery which pervades this
mundane sphere. The sympathy which, on the one hand, ties you
to this world, must, on the other, cause a participation in the
sufferings which pervade all animated nature. While I am aware
that sympathy, as above suggested, would prevent me from
flying from a perception or contemplation of the wretchedness
in question, it seems as if the heaven of Spiritualism were, in
this phase, in some degree open to the objection to the heaven of
Scripture, founded on its too great proximity to hell. Is not the
spiritual heaven too near this sphere, and too much associated
with it by its sympathy, not to suffer indirectly a portion of its
miseries?
If there were any thing I should deem to be requisite to render
existence in the spirit world happier, it would be the power of
removing the miseries of this lower world, and especially those
arising from Error—the most prolific source of evil. According
to Addison’s allegory, Death admitted the pretensions of
Intemperance to be superior in destructiveness, to those of any
of the numerous diseases which competed for the honour of the
premiership in his cabinet; but might not Error have successfully

competed with Intemperance?—Error, the main cause of
intemperance, of intolerant bigotry, and of war, which destroys
both by the sword and by sickness which it induces?
It is difficult for us to conceive that good, affectionate spirits
are not unhappy at witnessing the distress which they cannot
relieve. The prisoners at Sing Sing are said to undergo mental
torture by the silence imposed upon them. Yet this is imposed
upon spirits, when often a word would prevent fatal events.
Nevertheless, Spiritualism, so far as it prevails, will make all
better: in the first place, by removing error and sectarian
discord, and, in the next place, by making nature the object of
our study, and, indirectly, of our worship, as the work of the
Being who created all.
You need not any more strive to stimulate my estimation of
the high office which you bestow on me as promulgator of the
knowledge given me of the spheres, than to excite my
appreciation of that knowledge. I would not relinquish my
position for any temporal sovereignty. My love of truth, my
desire for human happiness, would be sufficient for my pay in
causing truth to triumph, as that, of course, would be a heaven to
me in contemplating the misery obviated and the happiness
induced.
Doubtless, not to be fairly appreciated would be painful;
while merited applause would be a high gratification; but, were
that my primary motive, I should not deserve applause. All that I
would desire would be, to have that share of honour to which I
might be entitled in common with other colabourers in the cause
of truth: to exist in the spheres on the same plane with the
illustrious Washington and his coadjutors, and associated with
my beloved relatives and friends, having access to the wise and
good men of all ages and nations! That were a heaven indeed!
To be worthy of and enjoy such a heaven, is the only selfish
ambition with which I am actuated, so far as I know myself.
Your truly devoted servant and friend, Robert
Hare.

Having suggested to my spirit father that it would be expedient that some
names should be attached to the credentials with which the preceding
address from the spirits seemed to endow me by appointment, he induced
several spirits of eminence to accompany him to Mrs. Gourlay’s this
morning, (August 4, 1855.) This gave me an opportunity to read Lanning’s
letter, the address which I received through him as above represented, and
my reply. In return I received the subjoined communication.

Communication from an assembly of eminent spirits, sanctioning the
credentials transmitted through the mediumship of Mr. Lanning.

August 4, 1855.
Respected Friend: We cheerfully accompany your father to
sanction the communication given through our medium, Mr.
Lanning, to yourself. My friend, we have sought media in
various localities through whom to accredit you as our minister
to earth’s inhabitants, but owing to unfavourable conditions, we
have, in most instances, failed. We perceive with pleasure that
your heart is fully imbued with the importance of your holy
mission. It needs no fulsome flattery from us to incite you to
action. A principle of right and truth pervades all your
movements in this spiritual campaign. We truly style it a
campaign, since you are battling fearlessly against Error, that
hydra-headed monster who has slain his millions and tens of
millions. We have looked forward to the publication of facts
involved through your experimental investigations with interest.
The communication above referred to was given by one who
stood high in the estimation of the people of our great republic;
but, for personal reasons, he wishes to withhold his name.
Be it known to all who may read these credentials, that we
sanction them, and authorize our names to be affixed thereunto.

Geo. Washington,
J. Q. Adams,
Dr. Chalmers,
Oberlin,

W. E. Channing, and others.

Postscript by the author.

It is a well-known saying that there is “but one step between the sublime
and the ridiculous.” This idea was never verified more fully than in the
position I find myself now occupying, accordingly as those by whom that
position is viewed may consider the manifestations which have given rise to
it in the light wherein they are now viewed by me, or as they were two
years ago viewed by myself, and are now seen by the great majority of my
estimable contemporaries.
I sincerely believe that I have communicated with the spirits of my
parents, sister, brother, and dearest friends, and likewise with the spirits of
the illustrious Washington and other worthies of the spirit world; that I am
by them commissioned, under their auspices, to teach truth and to expose
error. This admitted, I may be reasonably inspired with the sentiment
authorized in the preceding credentials, that I hold my office to be greatly
preferable to that of any mundane appointment, and for the reasons above
given in those credentials. But how vast is the difference between this
estimate and that which must ascribe these impressions to hallucination!
my position being that of a dupe or fanatic. Yet there can be no man of real
integrity and good sense, unimpaired by educational bigotry, who will not
respect sincere devotion to the cause of piety, truth, and human welfare,
here and hereafter, however displayed. Hence, although the foregoing
prefatory pages should have no other influence, they may operate to show
my own deep conviction of the righteousness of my course, founded, as I
believe it to have been, on the most precise, laborious, experimental inquiry,
and built up under the guidance of my sainted father, as well as under the
auspices of Washington and other worthy immortals.
Those who shall give a careful perusal to the following work will find
that there has been some “method in my madness;” and that, if I am a
victim to an intellectual epidemic, my mental constitution did not yield at
once to the miasma. But let not the reader too readily “lay the flattering
unction to his soul” that ’tis my hallucination that is to be impugned, not his
ignorance of facts and his educational errors.

The sanction of the spirits, as above given, was obtained under test
conditions; so that it was utterly out of the power of any mortal to pervert
the result from being a pure emanation from the spirits whose names are
above given.
It ought to be understood that the sanction given by the spirits whose
names are attached to the preceding certificate, was obtained under test
conditions, as explained in paragraph bb., dd., in the description of Plate iv.
Moreover, I placed my hand on the instrument illustrated by Fig. 2 in same
plate, so as to question the spirits directly as to the reliability of the
affirmation, previously given to me, and the fidelity of the medium
generally. In both cases the index moved so as to give an affirmative reply.

SUPPLEMENTAL PREFACE.

The most precise and laborious experiments which I have
made in my investigation of Spiritualism, have been assailed by
the most disparaging suggestions, as respects my capacity to
avoid being the dupe of any medium employed. Had my
conclusions been of the opposite kind, how much fulsome
exaggeration had there been, founded on my experience as an
investigator of science for more than half a century! And now, in
a case when my own direct evidence is adduced, the most
ridiculous surmises as to my probable oversight or indiscretion
are suggested, as the means of escape from the only fair
conclusion.
Having despatched a spirit friend from Cape Island, at one
o’clock on the third of July, to request Mrs. Gourlay, in
Philadelphia, to send her husband to the bank to make an
inquiry, and to report the result to me at half-past 3 o’clock, the
report was made to me as desired. The subject was not
mentioned until after my return to Philadelphia, when, being at
the residence of Mrs. Gourlay, I inquired of her, whether she had
received any message from me during my absence? In reply, it
was stated that while a communication from her spirit mother
was being made to her brother, who was present, my spirit
messenger interrupted it to request her to send her husband to
the bank to make the desired inquiry: that, in consequence, the
application was made at the bank. The note-clerk recollected the
application to him, but appeared to have considered it as too
irregular to merit much attention. Hence the impression received
by the applicants, and communicated to me, was not correct. But
as it did not accord with that existing in my memory, it could not
have been learned from my mind.
Wishing to make this transaction a test, I was particularly
careful to manage so that I might honourably insist upon it as a
test; and, until I learned the fact from Mrs. Gourlay and from the
note-clerk that the inquiry was made, it did not amount to a test

manifestation. But, if I had been ever so indiscreet, would it not
be absurd to imagine a conspiracy between any person at Cape
Island with Dr. and Mrs. Gourlay, her brother, and the note-clerk
at the bank, to deceive me on my return by concurrent
falsehoods?
I submit these facts to the public, as proving that there must
have been an invisible, intelligent being with whom I
communicated at Cape Island, who, bearing my message to this
city, communicated it to Mrs. Gourlay, so as to induce the
application at the bank. Otherwise, what imaginable cause could
have produced the result, especially within the time occupied—
of two and a half hours?
The existence of spirit agency being thus demonstrated, I am
justified in solemnly calling on my contemporaries to give
credence to the important information which I have received
from spirits, respecting the destiny of the human soul after
death. They may be assured that every other object of
consideration sinks into insignificance in comparison with this
information and the bearing it must have upon morals, religion
and politics, whenever it can be known and be believed by
society in general, as it is by me.

INTRODUCTION.
As introductory to this work, I shall make a few brief remarks on the
following topics:—
Objects of religion.—Diversity of opinion as to the means by which they
have been attainable.—Every sect, excepting one, would vote against any
one.—Consequent sentiments of the Author as embodied in verse.—
Reasons for his believing in the existence of a Deity.—American priesthood
eminently honest and pious.—If people who have obtained a belief in
immortality by one route are better and happier therefor, why object that
others, by another route, should attain the same ends.—The table, no less
than our firesides, an object of interest.—Inconsistency of those who make
their Deity pass through all the stages of human existence, from the embryo
to maturity, in objecting to the transient employment of tables.—Use of the
tables soon laid aside in the manifestations to which the Author has
resorted.—Inconsistency of accusing Spiritualists of undue incredulity as to
scriptural miracles, and of the opposite defect as respects spiritual
manifestations.—Of certain savans who strain at spiritual gnats, yet
swallow scriptural camels.—Miracles of Scripture, if they ever occurred,
can never be repeated; but the manifestations of Spiritualism will be
repeated with an improved and a multifarious efficiency.—Religion and
positive or inductive science having, under the guidance of devotion and
atheism, been made to travel in opposite directions, are by Spiritualism so
associated as to travel together in the same direction.—The atheist Comte
would dissolve the union between theology and science.—According to
Comte, where true science begins, the domain of theology terminates, being
only a creature of the imagination.—According to Spiritualism, it is the
domain of ignorance that is lessened, while theology, founded on
knowledge, grows with its growth, and strengthens with its strength.—An
effort to refute the idea of Comte, that the phenomena of the sidereal
creation can be explained by gravitation; which, left to itself, would
consolidate all the matter in the universe into an inert lump.—Suggestions
respecting the devil.—Arguments founded on ignorance.

1. On all sides I presume that it will be admitted that the great objects of
religion are as follows:—
2. To furnish the best evidence of the existence of a Supreme Deity, and
of his attributes.
3. To convey a correct idea of our duty toward that Deity and our fellow
creatures.
4. To impart that knowledge of a state of existence beyond the grave
which will be happier as we are more virtuous in this life, and more
miserable as we are more vicious; this knowledge affording the best
consolation amid temporal sufferings of the righteous, and the strongest
restraint upon the vicious indulgence of passion in the unrighteous.
5. Finally, by these means, to promote morality and the happiness of man
in this world, and prepare him for a blissful position in the world to come.
6. It must result, from these premises, that whichever is most competent
for the attainment of these all-important ends, will be the best religion.
7. The above-mentioned postulates being generally admitted, various
recorded traditions, pretended to have been derived from one or more
deities, have been advanced as best calculated to meet the requisitions in
question. Each of the religious doctrines thus advanced is tenaciously
defended by its appropriate priesthood. If the opinions of the majority of
these advocates of their respective revelations be taken as respects any
creed excepting their own, it will be denounced as originating in error or
fraud. The opinion being taken successively upon any one, by all but those
to whom it appertains, each would be condemned.
8. It was under these impressions that the following verses were written,
more than forty years ago. They have recently been published in a pamphlet
on the better employment of the first day of the week.
They serve to show that my skepticism arose from my love of truth,
instead of that aversion from it, ascribed to skeptics by many well-meaning
bigots.

9. Oh, Truth! if man thy way could find,
Not doomed to stray with error blind,
How much more kind his fate!
But wayward still, he seeks his bane,
Nor can of foul delusion gain
A knowledge till too late.

By sad experience slowly shown,
Thy way at times though plainly known,
Too late repays his care;
While in thy garb dark Error leads,
With best intent, to evil deeds
The bigot to ensnare.

Is there a theme more highly fraught
With matter for our serious thought
Than this reflection sad,
That millions err in different ways,
Yet all their own impressions praise,
Deeming all others bad?

To man it seems no standard’s given,
No scale of Truth hangs down from Heaven
Opinion to assay;
Yet called upon to act and think,
How are we then to shun the brink
O’er which so many stray?

10. How far I was a believer in God may be estimated from the following
opinions, which have appeared in the pamphlet wherein the foregoing
verses were published:

On the Evidence of the Existence of a Deity.
BY THE AUTHOR.

11. The existence of the universe is not more evident than that of the
reasoning power by which it is controlled. The evidence of profound and
ingenious contrivance is more manifested the more we inquire. Yet the
universe, and the reason by which it has been contrived and is regulated, are
not one. Neither is the reason the universe, nor is the universe the reason.
This governing reason, therefore, wherever, or however it may exist, is the
main attribute of the Deity, whom we can only know and estimate by his
works. And surely they are sufficiently sublime, beautiful, magnificent, and
extensive to give the idea of a being who may be considered as infinite in
comparison with man. Yet as the existence of evil displays either a
deficiency of power, or a deficiency of goodness, I adopt the idea of a
deficiency of power in preference.
12. “If,” as Newton rationally infers, “God has no organs,” the person of
man cannot be made after God’s image, since the human image is mostly
made up by the human organs. Man has feet to walk, arms to work with,
eyes for seeing, ears for hearing, a nose for smelling. It were absurd to
attribute such organs to God.
13. It follows that while we have as much evidence of a Deity as we have
of our own, we are utterly incapable of forming any idea of his form, mode
of existence, or his wondrous power. We are as sure of the immensity and
ubiquity of his power as of the existence of the universe, with which he
must at least be coextensive and in separatelyassociated. That his power
must have always existed, we are also certain; since if nothing had ever
prevailed, there never could have been any thing: out of nothing, nothing
can come.
14. The universe, no less than the Deity, must be eternal, since if at any
time, however remote, the Deity existed without a universe, there must have
been an infinite antecedent period during which the divine power must have
been nullified for want of objects for its exercise. A Deity so situated would
be as a king without a kingdom to govern.
15. I am under the impression that mind is at least as essential to the
creation as matter. It seems to me inconceivable that the various elementary

atoms of the chemist could come into existence, with their adaptation to
produce the multiplicity of efficient combinations which they are capable of
forming, without having been modified by one mind. The existence of
adaptation, I think, proves the existence of mind. But even were these atoms
to possess inherently the adaptation which they manifest, of what possible
utility could be the variegated consequences thereof, were there no minds to
perceive, appreciate, or enjoy them. The beauty of colour, the music of
sound, the elegance of curves or angles, could have no existence were there
no perception of them; since those attributes are in a great measure attached
to objects by mind. Independently of mind, music is mere aerial vibration,
colour mere superficial texture, or intestinal arrangement producing
undulatory waves variously polarized, which are the proximate causes,
which would be sterile, were there no mind to be actuated by them through
appropriate organs.
16. Could the universe exist without mind, would not its existence be
nugatory?
17. The following allegations seem to me no less true than the axioms of
Euclid:
18. No evil can endure which any being has both the power and desire to
remove.
19. Any result must ensue which any being has both power and desire to
accomplish.
20. No rational being will strive by trial to ascertain that which he knows
as well before as after trial.
21. If God be both omnipotent and omniscient, he can, of course, make
his creatures exactly to suit his will and fancy, and foresee how they will
fulfil the end for which they are created. Wherefore then subject them to
probation to discover traits which by the premises he must thoroughly
foreknow.
22. Is it not more consistent with divine goodness to infer that we are
placed in this life for progressive improvement, and that there is no evil
which can be avoided consistently with his enormous, though not unlimited,
power?

23. Such an inference coincides with the communications recently
received, from the spirits of departed friends, which it is the object of this
publication to promulgate.
24. Unfortunately, human opinion is very much influenced by passion
and prejudice. Hence in questions respecting property, we often find honest
men differing as to what is just. So when any creed is associated with the
hope of enjoying by its tenure a better, if not exclusive, pretension to eternal
happiness and the favour of God, the sectarian by whom it may be held
becomes honestly tenacious of its despotic supremacy over all others.
25. I have no doubt that a large portion of our American priesthood are
sincere in the advocacy of the tenets respectively held by them. Among
them I have known some of the best of men, and I have generally found
them more tolerant of skepticism than the majority of their followers. It has
not, however, been unfrequently urged by clergymen as a ground of
adherence to Christianity, that without it, there is no authentic evidence of a
future state of existence. I have seen an argument from an able and
respectable Christian writer, urging that there is no refuge for the mass of
mankind to be found in pure deism, unaccompanied by any specific
evidence of a future state.
26. Under these circumstances should Spiritualism afford such a refuge
to those who are utterly dissatisfied with the evidence of the truth of
scriptural revelation, it will certainly be a blessing to them; and those who
have heretofore found this essential comfort in one way, ought not to object
should their neighbours find it in another way.
27. An effort has been made to throw ridicule on spiritual manifestations,
on account of phenomena being effected by means of tables and other
movable furniture; but it should be recollected that, when movements were
to be effected, resort to movable bodies was inevitable; and as generally the
proximity of media, if not the contact, was necessary to facilitate the
movements, there was no body so accessible as tables. But these violent
mechanical manifestations were always merely to draw attention; just as a
person will knock, or even kick, violently at a front door, until some one
looks out of a window to communicate with him. The more violent
manifestations ceased both at Hydesville, at Rochester, and at Stratford in
Connecticut, as soon as the alphabetic mode of communicating was

employed. I never have had any to take place during my intercourse with
my spirit-friends, unless as tests for unbelievers, when intellectual
communications could not be made. It is more than fifteen months since I
have resorted to instruments which have nothing in common with tables. Of
these instruments, engravings and descriptions will be found in this work.
28. But is it not a great error to consider our tables as less sacred than our
firesides? Could any appeal more thoroughly vibrate to the heart of
civilized man than that of any invasion of his rights which should render his
fireside liable to intrusion? Hence, in the Latin motto, “Pro aris et focis,”
the inviolability of the fireside is placed side by side with freedom of
conscience. But, with the passing away of winter, the interest in the fireside
declines: ’tis changeable as the temperature of air. It loses all its force in the
tropics; but, throughout Christendom, the table still draws about it the
inmates of every human dwelling, at all seasons, and in every kind of
weather. Even when not excited by hunger, we value the social meeting
which takes place around it.
29. At tables, moreover, conferences are held, contracts and deeds signed,
and decrees, statute-laws, and ordinances are written. Treaties, also, are
made at tables, on which not the fate of individuals merely, but of nations,
depends.
30. Is the renown of the “knights of the round table” tarnished by their
being only known in connection with the word in question? Is any director
or trustee ashamed of being, with his colleagues, designated as a
“board?”—a humble synonym for table.
31. It was at a table the Declaration of Independence was signed; and in
Trumbull’s picture of its presentation to Congress a table is made to occupy
a conspicuous position. Our tables should be at least as much objects of our
regard as the vicinity of our fireplace.
32. The sarcasms founded on the use of the table in spiritual
manifestations proceed, inconsistently, from those persons who would bring
their deity through all the stages of human life.
33. The human body of Christ must have gone through all the stages from
the embryo to maturity. It was worshipped in a manger, and lived thirty
years in obscurity and inaction. Why all this delay, when the angel, armed

with the power of God, might have addressed Herod, the Roman emperor,
and every other potentate on earth in a single year? The Almighty softening
their hearts, as he hardened that of Pharaoh, the conversion of mankind had
been the inevitable consequence.
34. Alluding to his second advent, Christ used these words:—“They shall
see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory.” Mark
xiii. 26. Wherefore did not his first coming take place in this conspicuous,
glorious, and unquestionable manner?
35. It is often inquired, Wherefore were not these efforts to communicate
with mankind at an earlier period of the world’s duration? but it may be
demanded in return, Wherefore did not Christ come until the earth had been
peopled, even according to Scripture, about four thousand years?
36. Why was not the use of the compass, of gunpowder, printing, the
steam-engine, steamboat, railway, telegraph, daguerreotyping,
electrotyping, contrived earlier in this terrestrial sphere? Let orthodoxy take
the beam out of its own eye first.
37. Had Christ taught these arts, they would not only have had a more
general influence during the era of their accomplishment, but have left a
durable and irrefragable proof of a towering mental superiority. As they
would have gone into use, there could have been no question as to their
accomplishment; so that every intelligent being might have become
intuitively cognizant of their wonderful results.
38. The invention of gunpowder, the telegraph, and the mariner’s
compass might have been the means of preventing the inroads of the Goths
and Vandals, and, subsequently, the success of the Mohammedans; since the
Arabians would hardly have availed themselves of these inventions at the
time the Mohammedan conquests were commenced.
39. How important would have been the art of printing to the
promulgation of a correct knowledge of the revelation which was the
alleged object of Christ’s mission!
40. Of those who believe in revelation, it may be inquired, Why the
Hebrews were preferred, as the receivers of divine inspiration, to the more
civilized Greeks, Romans, Hindoos, or Chinese? If revelation was requisite
to one nation, was it not equally necessary to all?

41. Wherefore, after Christ had undergone crucifixion in order to make
people Christians, should Mohammed have been allowed to massacre or
enslave them for being Christians?
42. There is even now great difficulty in effecting those
intercommunications with spirits in this country of universal legal
tolerance. I say legal, since there is, as Owen alleged, “too much Christian
despotism of another kind.”
43. Almost every editor is, more or less, a censor to the press, and a peon
of popularity. The tendency is not to repress, but to gratify, and, of course,
promote existing bigotry. This bigotry and its Siamese brother, intolerance,
have, in all countries and ages, been exercising a mischievous, though often
a well-intended, vigilance, over any innovation of a nature to emancipate
the human mind from educational error; and, whenever supported by
temporal power, has resorted to persecution—even to the use of the sword,
of the rack, or the fagot; and, in this country of boasted freedom and much-
vaunted liberty of the press, shows its baleful power by defamation, or
alleging disqualification for employment, wherever its influence can be
exerted.
44. A conspicuous printer in this city refused to print an edition of my
recent pamphlet, as he would allow nothing to go through his press which
was against the Bible. This shows how far fanaticism will go, even at this
advanced era of science and in this country of vaunted intellectual freedom.
45. Two hundred years ago, Spiritualism would have been as much
persecuted as witchcraft.
46. In reprobation of unbelief in the scriptural proofs of immortality, it
has been usual for self-complacent believers to urge that the “wish was
father to the thought;” that a sincere desire to perceive the truth could not
exist without conviction; but the opposite must have been the prevailing
weakness among unbelievers in Scripture who have become spiritualists, if
they are now over-credulous in admitting the evidence on which
Spiritualism is founded.
47. I declare solemnly, that I always was intensely anxious to know the
truth; that although, theoretically, I doubted the possibility of changing the
course of things by prayer, yet I did often lift my thoughts up to God,

imploring that some light might be given to me. Of course, as soon as the
facts admitted of no other explanation than that my father, sister, brother,
and other spirit friends, had been engaged in efforts to convince me of their
existence, and of that of the spirit world, the most intense desire arose to
verify the facts tending to settle the all-important question, whether man is
immortal.
48. If the evidence of the truth of revelation were as adequate as
represented by its votaries, my conscientious inability to believe in it would
indicate an undue constitutional skepticism; whence I required more proof
than the great mass of Christians, in order to produce credence. Yet, now
having found the evidence of immortality in the case of Spiritualism
satisfactory, it cannot be urged that my hesitation respecting the evidence of
revelation arose from any unwillingness to believe in a future state, or
unreasonableness as to the evidence requisite to justify belief. Manifestly, it
would be inconsistent to accuse me of disbelieving in the one case from
undue, hard-hearted incredulity, and yet, in the other, yielding from the
opposite characteristics.
49. Fundamentally, my reasons for not believing in revelation have been,
that it violates certain axioms above stated, (18,) which have been as clear
to my mind as those collated by Euclid.
50. It may be shown that the existing system fails to give any evidence
which can be subjected to the intuition of each generation successively. It
rests on the alleged intuition of human beings who existed ages ago, and of
whom we know nothing but what they say of themselves through history or
recorded tradition. It reposes entirely on the testimony of propagandists,
who were interested to give it importance, or on partial human narrators or
compilers. It has been erected on a species of hearsay evidence,
inadmissible in courts of justice. This species of testimony in the case of
Spiritualism is contemptuously set aside. No one will believe in
manifestations unless intuitively observed. Wherefore this faith in ancient
witnesses, this skepticism of those of our own times, even when they are
known to be truthful?
51. On my stating to a distinguished savan a fact which has been
essentially verified since in more than a hundred instances, his reply was—I
would believe you as soon as any man in the world, yet I cannot believe

what you mention. He suggested the idea of its being an epidemic, with
which I was of course infected; nevertheless, that savan, as a professing
Christian, admitted facts vastly more incredible, depending on the alleged
intuition of witnesses who lived two thousand years ago, nearly. This,
doubtless, was the consequence of educational bigotry, which would have
caused a belief in the miracles of any other religion in which he should have
been brought up.
52. Such persons strain at the gnats of Spiritualism, yet swallow the
camels of Scripture.
53. In like manner an Eastern sovereign treated a Dutch ambassador as
deranged, because he alleged that bodies of water, in his country, were
capable of solidification, so as to support people on the surface.
54. But if this skepticism is shown with respect to observers of our day,
how can it be expected that it should not be displayed toward observers of
antiquity?
55. Spiritualism will in this respect have a great advantage, as it will
always be supported by the intuition of its actual votaries. It will not rest on
bygone miracles, never to be repeated, if they ever occurred, but will rest
upon an intercourse with the spirit world which will grow and improve with
time.
56. One of the pre-eminent blessings resulting from this new philosophy
will be its bringing religion within the scope of positive science. This word
positive is employed by the learned atheist Comte to designate science
founded on observation and experiment. It will give the quietus to the cold,
cheerless view of our being’s end and aim presented in his work.
57. Professor Nichol endeavoured, in the following way, to comfort his
Christian auditors against the apparent incompatibility of the phenomena of
the sidereal creation with the language of Scripture: Having drawn two lines
from the same point, making a right angle, the learned lecturer said,
Suppose A sets out and pursues one of these routes, B pursues the other, and
both arrive at certain truths; although these results should not seem to have
any thing to do with each other; yet, said he, if they be truths, they must
come together eventually; they cannot always travel away from each other.
But if any person find that, agreeably to all his experience, the results thus

attained, tend to greater and greater remoteness and inconsistency, there
would be little comfort found in the idea of a possible ultimate
approximation.
58. It is upon this actual fundamental discordancy between scriptural
impressions, and the truths ascertained by experimental and intuitive
investigation, that Comte builds his inference that theology is to be entirely
abandoned. But very different is the position of Spiritualism relative to
positive science. It starts from the same basis of intuition and induction
from facts. It does not controvert any of the results of positive science
within the ponderable material creation, to which the results contemplated
by Comte belong. It superadds new facts respecting the spirit world, which
had so entirely escaped the researches of materialists, that they entertain the
highest incredulity merely upon negative grounds,—merely because the
facts in question have not taken place within the experience of those who
have investigated the laws of ponderable matter and one or two
imponderable principles associated therewith.
59. Such was the ground of my incredulity; which, however, vanished
before intuitive demonstration.
60. It is admitted by Comte that we know nothing of the sources or
causes of nature’s laws; that their origination is so perfectly inscrutable, as
to make it idle to take up time in any scrutiny for that purpose. He treats the
resort to the Deity as the cause, as a mere abstraction tending to comfort the
human mind before it has become acquainted with true science, and
doomed to be laid aside with the advance of positive science.
61. Of course his doctrine makes him avowedly a thorough ignoramus as
to the causes of laws, or the means by which they were established, and can
have no other basis but the negative argument above stated, in objecting to
the facts ascertained in relation to the spiritual creation. Hence when the
spirits allege that by their volition they can neutralize gravity, or vis inertiæ,
[4]
there is nothing in positive science to confute this. The inability of
material beings to neutralize gravitation by their powers is no proof that
spiritual beings cannot effect this change.
62. Thus while allowing the atheist his material dominion, Spiritualism
will erect within and above the same space a dominion of an importance as

much greater as eternity is to the average duration of human life, and as the
boundless regions of the fixed stars are to the habitable area of this globe.
63. But although Comte be a man of great learning, his fundamental
opinions appear to be faulty, and his distribution of the operations of the
mind imaginary.
64. In treating of gravitation as the primary law, does he not commit a
blunder? Is not vis inertiæ above indispensable to gravitation, since it may
be conceived to exist without gravitation, while gravitation cannot exist
without vis inertiæ?
65. The power of a body A to draw B toward it can never exceed that
which is necessary to put it into motion, which must be directly as its vis
inertiæ; and where the one is null, the other must be null.
66. I cannot imagine how any philosopher so learned as Comte should
not perceive the reduction of the phenomena of the universe to “different
aspects” of the one faculty of gravitation to be utterly impossible. In the
first place, it has been shown that gravitation could not be the basis of vis
inertiæ, without which it cannot exist; and in the next place, gravitation has
always, at any given point of time, its possible influence limited to the
power of making a body move toward an appropriate centre of gravity, and
afterward remain forever at rest, unless affected by some extraneous cause.
67. It is alleged also that the phenomena of the universe are explained by
gravitation. I here quote his own words:
68. “Our business is—seeing how vain is any research into what are
called causes, whether first or final—to pursue an accurate discovery of
these laws, with a view to reducing them to the smallest possible number.”
69. How is it possible, I demand, to reduce the orbitual motion of a planet
to fewer causes than vis inertiæ, motion, and gravitation? Vis inertiæ and
motion are necessary to momentum; and momentum thus arising, acting in
a tangential direction to that of gravitation, is indispensable to form, with
the force of gravity, the resultant which constitutes the orbitual curve.
70. Yet from subsequent language in the same paragraph, the idea is
suggested of reducing planetary motions to one cause, gravitation! This will
be perceived from his language, subjoined as follows:

71. “The best illustration of this is in the case of the doctrine of
gravitation. We say that the general phenomena of the universe are
explained by it, because it connects, under one head, the whole immense
variety of astronomical facts, exhibiting the constant tendency of atoms
toward each other in direct proportion to their masses, and in inverse
proportion to the squares of their distance.”
72. How can the revolution of a single planet about the sun be explained
without the centrifugal or tangential force due to momentum? Were not
gravitation resisted by the projectile velocity constituted by motion and vis
inertiæ, would not all the planets fall into their suns, respectively?
73. Are there not three essential elements in such orbitual movements,—
vis inertiæ, motion, and gravitation? Are not these as necessary to an orbit
as three sides are to a triangle? and is it not as great an error to suppose that
such movements can continue by the agency of one of them, as to make one
right line serve to enclose a superficies?
74. Between two philosophers, both equally learned with Comte, one
may be, like him, an atheist, the other, like Newton, a believer in God; and
yet, as respects the whole range of positive science, would there be any
clashing? They would attribute every thing to the same laws, whether these
should be ascribed to a deity or not. The origin of the laws recognised by
both would, by one, be ascribed to an inscrutable God; by the other, to
inscrutability without a God.
75. Because the movements of the heavenly bodies are ascribed to the
three elements above mentioned,—an unknown source of projectile force,
vis inertiæ, by which that force is perpetuated, and gravitation, by which it
is modified into elliptical, orbitual revolution, operating as laws governing
planetary movement,—it does not make the astronomer who adopts this
conception less of a theologian; it only makes him a more enlightened
theologian. We ascribe less to the special interference of the Creator in
proportion as our knowledge enables us to perceive results attained by
general laws. This, Comte conceives, causes theists to be less theological,
and to lessen what he seems to view as the domain which theology is
allowed to have. But is it not more correct to assume that it is only the
domain of ignorance which grows less, while that of theology becomes
simpler and more correct, but not less extensive? It is not that less is

ascribed to God, but that the aggregate is more intelligently ascribed as the
laws through which his agency is recognised are fewer.
76. Newton assumed inertia, gravitation, and motion as the foundation of
his philosophy; but attributed these fundamental properties, or states of
matter, to the will of that governing mind of which he held the existence to
be as evident as that of the matter governed. Comte does not consider that
there is any positive proof of the existence of such a ruling mind, and does
not, therefore, find it necessary to admit the existence of a Deity. Thus, the
states or properties above mentioned are, with Newton, proximate, with
Comte, ultimate, causes. Hence, when we arrive at the foundation of the
Newtonian doctrine, we cannot go deeper without admitting the existence
of a God. Without this admission, we involve ourselves in the irremediable
darkness of atheism.
77. In this respect, I have always been a follower of Newton. Evidently,
both the governing reason and the creation which it rules must have existed
from eternity; since, if nothing ever existed exclusively, it must have
forever endured, and there never could have been any thing. So, if there
ever had been no mind, there never could have been any mind.
78. The human mind, says Comte, by its nature employs, in its progress,
three methods of philosophizing,—the theological, the metaphysical, and
the positive, differing essentially from each other, and even radically
opposed. Hence, he assumes the successive existence of three modes of
contemplating the aggregate phenomena of the universe, any one of which
excludes the others. The first, “is the point of departure of the human
understanding; the third, its ultimate, fixed, definite state; the second,
merely a state of transition from the first to the third.”
79. It seems to be assumed that the intellectual progress of the human
mind must necessarily be through these three stages. Moreover, it is
suggested that each individual, in reviewing the progression of his mind
from childhood to mature age, will perceive that he was a theologian in his
childhood, a metaphysician in his youth, and a natural philosopher in his
manhood. If this did not come from a distinguished philosopher, I should
pronounce it ridiculous. If allowed to be so egotistical, I must say that I am
not aware that I went through these stages in the different periods of my
life.

80. Studying metaphysical works as a part of my education, I took great
interest in the theory of moral sentiments, and published essays on topics of
that nature in the “Portfolio;” but previously, I wrote my “Memoir on the
Blowpipe.” In 1810, my “Brief View of the Policy and Resources of the
United States” was published, in which it was first truly advanced that
credit is money.
81. Subsequently, more than a hundred publications were made by me,
for the most part on chemistry and electricity, yet always intermingled with
political, moral, and financial essays.
82. I am now, more than ever, a theologian; and my first publications
touching that subject date after the attainment of threescore and ten.
83. But theology and religion were subjects always near to my heart; and
were accompanied by the pain arising from the discordancy of my opinions
with those entertained by much-loved relatives and friends.
84. I do not understand how any man of common sense can conceive that
theological, metaphysical, or experimental science can be the separate
object of contemplation; or that the share that either may occupy at any age,
to the exclusion of the others, will not depend on exterior contingencies.
85. I became a believer in God solely from my intuitive perception of the
existence of a governing reason. Of course, all things were to be ascribed to
that reason ultimately, but proximately to the very laws which this author
considers as the object or basis of positive science.
86. He holds that our inquiries should be bounded by the inscrutability of
the well-ascertained physical properties and laws of matter. Coinciding,
practically, with Comte until lately, I held that inquiry should be bounded
by the inscrutability of the Divine Lawgiver, to whom these laws owed
existence. But Spiritualism has opened an avenue to inquiry beyond the
boundary thus practically admitted no less by myself than by Comte. Other
inscrutable laws and phenomena have to be recognised within a region for
the existence of which Comte, in denying spiritual agency, allows no room.
87. Though, practically, this field of inquiry was shut out from me as well
as from Comte, theoretically, it was not excluded by my philosophy.
Although in ascribing the universe to mind, the unity of its design and
harmony of its phenomena led to the inference that it must be due to one

supreme mind, there was still room for the coexistence of any number of
degrees of subordinate mental agency, between that supreme mind and man.
88. Beside those antagonists to Spiritualism, who would set aside the
evidence of persons living at the present time and who are known to be
truthful, by the evidence of others who lived some thousand years since,
spiritualists are assailed by such as admit their facts, but explain them
differently. Thus the Roman Catholic Church has admitted the
manifestations to indicate an invisible physical and rational power which
cannot be attributed to human agency. But instead of ascribing them to
spirits, good or bad, of mortals who have passed the portal of death, they
consider them the work of Old Nick.
89. If this personage ever did influence the acts of any sect, manifestly it
must have been in those instances in which alleged religious error has been
made the ground for persecution, from the time of the extirpation and
spoliation of the Midianites, Canaanites, and others, down to that of the
extirpation of the Albigenses, the auto da fé, inquisition, massacre of St.
Bartholomew, fires of Smithfield, roasting of Servetus, and the persecution
of the Quakers and witches.
90. So far as the devil is only an imaginary embodiment of the evil
passions of men, as conceived by many enlightened Christians, no doubt
those and many other analagous acts were due to the devil; but when the
benevolent language of the spirits respecting sinners is contrasted with the
cruel doctrine of the church in question, as well as by others, it can hardly
be conceived that this language comes from Satan, and that of the churches
from the “benevolent” Jesus Christ.
91. The following verses, which have already appeared in my letter to the
Episcopal clergy, express the sentiments of the spirits—every soul having
the privilege of reforming, and rising proportionally to the improvement
thus obtained:

92. However late, as holy angels teach,
Souls now in Hades, bliss in Heaven may reach.
All whose conduct has been mainly right,
With lightning speed may gain that blissful height;
While those who selfish, sensual ends pursue,
For ages may their vicious conduct rue,
Doom’d in some low and loathsome plane to dwell,
Made through remorse and shame the sinner’s hell;
Yet through contrition and a change of mind,
The means of rising may each sinner find.
The higher spirits their assistance give,
Teaching the contrite how for heaven to live.

93. Let these lines be contrasted with those which are given in the work
on Heaven of the Rev. Dr. Harbaugh—a most excellent orthodox clergyman
of the German Reformed Church—which are as follows:
94. “But the wicked? alas! for him at that awful moment! Oh! my soul,
come not thou into the secret of his sorrows.

“How shocking must thy summons be, O death!
To him.—
In that dread moment, how the frantic soul
Raves round the walls of her clay tenement;
Runs to each avenue, and shrieks for help;
But shrieks in vain! How wishfully she looks
On all she’s leaving, now no longer hers!
A little longer; yet a little longer;
Oh! might she stay to wash away her stains;
And fit her for her passage! Mournful sight!
Her very eyes weep blood, and every groan
She heaves is big with horror. But the foe,
Like a stanch murderer, steady to his purpose,
Pursues her close, through every lane of life,
Nor misses once the track; but presses on,
Till forced at last to the tremendous verge,
At once she sinks to everlasting ruin.”

95. But I conceive that the existence of a devil is irreconcilable with all
goodness and omnipotency; and that, were a devil created by God, the
Creator would be answerable for all the acts of the being so created.
Evidently, the devil could be nothing else but what omnipotence should
make him, and could do nothing but what prescience would foresee. The
acts of the devil would therefore be indirectly those of his maker.
96. I would inquire of those who rely on the Bible as the source of their
opinions, how it happens that Moses makes no allusion to Satan as an agent
in the events of which he is the narrator?
97. Though Milton represents that malevolent being as taking the form of
the serpent, Moses, far from sanctioning that idea, makes not only the
individual snake, but the whole genus forever amenable for the part
performed.
98. In his description of hell, Josephus represents an archangel as the
janitor, which is quite inconsistent with Satan’s being the jailor. Is it
conceivable that an archangel should be doorkeeper to the devil?

99. Moreover, in stating the reasons why the doom of the rich man
(broiling to eternity) was irremediable, no allusion is made to the satanic
despot whose inexorable malevolence would have had to be counteracted.
100. It would seem to be an axiom, that whenever any event does not
take place, it must be because there is no being who has at once the power
and the wish to cause it to happen; and when any event does ensue, there
can exist no being having at once the power and wish to prevent it from
happening. Moreover, consistently, no agent can exist whose destruction is
desired by another being, who, having the right, is competent by mere
volition to destroy that agent.
101. It follows, that if there actually does exist any being, such as is
designated by the words Devil, Satan, Beelzebub, to treat him as the
creature of God, would be inconsistent either with the attribute of all
goodness or of omnipotence.
102. Can any act be more devilish than that of creating a devil? Would it
not be blasphemous to ascribe to a beneficent Deity a measure so truly
diabolical? It has been said that the devil is a necessary agent in God’s
providence. How necessary, if God be omnipotent?
103. Does not the necessity of employing a bad agent involve inability to
create a good agent?
104. The evils which exist in the creation may, to a great extent, be
explained by an inevitable limitation of power. Thus, probably, there could
be no virtue were there no vice; no pleasure, were there no pain. Ecstasy
might become painful by unlimited endurance.
105. Without appetites and passions, an animal would be reduced to the
state of a vegetable, which lives without perception.
106. The language held by certain sectarians on such subjects, seems to
me often contradictory of the idea they strive to enforce. Thus they
represent that our sorrows and our pangs are intended for our amendment,
or designed to prevent some greater evil here or hereafter; but what can
justify a painful remedy, if there be power to adopt one which, while
equally efficacious, would be painless?
107. God is, on one side, represented as the cause of all the
circumstances under which we exist; yet, on the other, is under the necessity

of afflicting us in order to remove or to remedy them! If possessing both
ability and disposition to reform us without causing us to suffer, could
suffering be inflicted consistently with all goodness?
108. Of a most excellent Roman Catholic I inquired whether it was not
held by their church that a belief in their tenets was necessary to salvation?
The reply was in the affirmative. And yet, said I, of all who do believe, only
those can be saved who do their Master’s will,—who add good works to an
orthodox creed? The reply was again affirmative. Of all mankind, then,
there is but a very small number, comparatively, who are not, according to
the creed in question, to go to hell? Again I received an affirmative reply. I
would then (I rejoined) when I die, rather go into an eternal sleep, than
awake in heaven to find so many of my fellow-creatures in endless misery,
the mere knowledge of which would make heaven itself a hell to a good-
hearted angel.
109. Another species of objection to the existence of spirits is, that
although movements of bodies are admitted to take place without any
perceptible or conceivable mortal agency, the existence of spirits as the
cause is to be disbelieved, because the observers have not been successful
in getting replies such as they think would have been given were spirits the
source.
110. Thus a very distinguished physician, Dr. Bell, has alleged that
nothing has in his investigations been communicated which was not
previously in the mind of one or more mortals present. This is one of the
instances in which the assailant of Spiritualism founds his argument in his
error. It is an argument which has no other basis than inaccurate
information, because I am enabled to disprove the truth of the conclusion on
which the inference is founded.
111. Nevertheless, I am not surprised that an inference should have been
made, which holds good as respects certain spirits or media, though not
others. If a pack of cards be so cut that the card exposed cannot be seen by
any mortal present, it may be found that although certain spirits cannot
describe the card, unless seen by some person present, yet other spirits can
describe the card under these circumstances. Among my guardian spirits,
there are two who have repeatedly described the card exposed fortuitously

by cutting a pack, as in the process for determining trumps in a game of
whist.
112. Since reading Dr. Bell’s remarks, cards, taken indiscriminately from
a pack, and laid down behind the medium and myself, the denomination
unseen by any mortal, have been named correctly by one of the spirits
alluded to, although, about the same time, another eminent spirit could not
name cards when similarly employed.
113. Agreeably to my experience in a multitude of cases, spirits have
reported themselves who were wholly unexpected, and when others were
expected. When I was expecting my sister in Boston, my brother reported
himself. Lately, when expecting her, Cadwalader was spelt out, being the
name of an old friend, who forthwith gave me a test, proving his identity.
As this spirit had never visited my disk before, I had not the smallest
expectation of his coming.
114. My spirit brother referred to a confidential conversation had with
my brother Powel, in which the former was alluded to, when nothing was
farther from my mind than that he had been present as an invisible listener.
115. I will now mention a fact of recent occurrence, which completely
refutes Dr. Bell’s inference: Being at Cape May, one of my guardian spirits
was with me frequently.
116. On the 3d instant, at one o’clock a. m., I requested the faithful being
in question to go to my friend Mrs. Gourlay, No. 178 North Tenth street,
Philadelphia, and request her to induce Dr. Gourlay to go to the
Philadelphia Bank to ascertain at what time a note would be due, and that I
would sit at the instrument at half-past three o’clock to receive the answer.
Accordingly, at that time, my spirit friend manifested herself, and gave me
the result of the inquiry.
117. On my return to the city, I learned from Mrs. Gourlay that my
angelic messenger had interrupted a communication, which was taking
place through the spiritoscope, in order to communicate my message, and,
in consequence, her husband and brother went to the bank, and made the
inquiry, of which the result was that communicated to me at half-past three
o’clock by my spirit friend.

118. This differed from the impression which I had from memory, and
was not, of course, obtained from my mind. And it is evident that the
medium could not have known of my message until she was made to
receive it.
119. But independently of the inability to communicate ideas, not pre-
existing in the minds of mortals present, which has been so erroneously
inferred to exist by Dr. Bell, let this eminent physician suggest any
conceivable explanation of the phenomena attested by him, excepting that
founded on the agency of spirits.
120. And, independently of any other proof, the fact that one of my
guardian spirits bore a message from me at Cape May to Mrs. Gourlay at
Philadelphia, so as to induce her to do what was requested, is evidently, of
itself, inexplicable under any other view than that of a spirit having
officiated.
121. To conclude, I hope that while Spiritualism will give a quietus to
atheism, it will be found, agreeably to the facts and reasoning presented in
this book, better sustained by evidence, and to answer the great objects of
religion, as above stated, vastly better than any other religious doctrine.

THEOLOGICAL AXIOMS.

Is not the affirmative of any of these queries, as evidently true as any of
the axioms of Euclid?

Did not that thought from heaven proceed,
According God’s mercy to every creed,
Which however pagan, howe’er untrue,
Is meant to give our Creator his due?
May not devotion to God be shown,
Whether through Christ or Mohammed known?
Whether men die in holy war,
Or kneel to be crushed by Juggernaut’s car?
Mankind would God in error leave,
Yet penally for that error aggrieve.
Did God a special creed require,
Each soul would he not with that creed inspire?

Can a glaring evil endure
Despite of the power and will to cure?
Must not any event arrive
For which both will and power strive?
Will not any result obtain
Which power unites with will to gain?

If God can creatures make to suit his will,
Foresee, if they can, his design fulfil;
Wherefore to trial, those creatures expose,
Traits to discover, which he thus foreknows?

M. B. Gourlay

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:

Brother beloved, of ardent soul,
Striving to reach a heavenly goal;
Wouldst thou attain the blissful height
Where wisdom purifies the sight;
Where God reveals to humblest gaze,
The bliss and beauty of his ways
Incline thine ear to angels bright,
Who radiant from the realms of light,
For ever hover near,
To offer thee, sweet words of cheer.

216. Only the first couplet in these verses differs at all from those which
were given in the impromptu, the words having been too flattering for me,
to have mentioned. Soon after being at the residence of a highly-esteemed
friend, who is a medium, my spirit sister, who manifests much love for this
lady, reporting herself, I told her of the change which I thus desired to have
made. The reply was, “I give you full liberty to alter my verses; you know I
never wrote two lines of poetry while in the flesh.” Miss Ellis is no poetess,
still less is Mrs. P., the medium.
217. After my lecture at the Melodeon, being at the residence of Mrs.
Hayden, an accomplished medium, I requested a repetition of the
experiment, of which I had given an account on that occasion, in which the
view of the disk was cut off from the medium, by the interposition of a
screen; and Mrs. Hayden consenting, an arrangement was made so as to
satisfy the bystanders, as well as myself, that the letters on the disk could
not be seen by her. Under these conditions the name of Washington was
spelt out.
218. I have had this test repeated under Gordon’s mediumship, as well as
that of others, several times. Afterward, Mrs. Hayden sitting aloof, on
making the index move successively to each letter, those required for 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:—

248. Oh! bonissima, oh! carissima
Dulcis soror, amata
Florum regina
In cœlo cognita
Cura, Cura, pro nobis
Cura, cura, pro nobis
Seraph amata intemerata
Cura, cura, pro nobis.

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

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.’
307. “I do not say enough, my dear sir, in pronouncing your work useful;
I might have called it indispensable, had I foreseen the approaching
invasion of that scourge which you so happily designate as a spiritual
epidemic: a scourge whose sudden and universal propagation, in my

opinion, notwithstanding its appearance of puerility, will constitute one of
the greatest events of our age. But how has it been both received and
entertained?
308. “Commencing with your savans, it is impossible not to be alarmed
by the obstinate incredulity which does not allow them to see what at the
present time can be confirmed by anybody. Oculos habent et non vident.[9]
309. “Those individuals alarm me still more, who having given their
attention, and of course seen, shake their heads as a sign of indifference and
pity, as if the phenomenon exhibited was of a low character and beneath
their notice. When they have descended to the foundation, they treat it with
contempt.
310. “Then, finally, and very differently indeed, I feel myself frozen with
terror by certain dispensers of truth, who, in their blindness, trifle without
scruple with their most relentless enemies; so far have they forgotten their
most serious teachings.
311. “I do not profess to be a prophet, sir, and do not know what the
mercy or justice of God is preparing for us; but, like you, I tremble for the
present, and hope for the future; for marvellous lessons are already
presented to us in these passing phenomena.
312. “In fact, the justification of the church and of the faith are emanating
from them: the definite condemnation of a fallen rationalism; and
consequently, the approaching glorification of all the past in the true church,
and even of that Middle Age, so calumniated, so ridiculed, and gratuitously
endowed with so much darkness. The political events of these latter times
have to justify that Middle Age, as respects good sense in the affairs of
government; and behold these facts of a nature entirely foreign, coming to
avenge its accusation of superstitious credulity. This reparation was
necessary, and after all our own age has nothing to fear from it, for certainly
it will not render injustice of any kind to the objective and useful progress
of modern civilization.
313. “As for yourself, sir, you will enjoy the honour of having brought,
by your luminous discussions, a large stone for the construction of this
majestic edifice, and I rejoice in the encouragement I have given you. I
need not enlarge on this subject, for success has spoken, and think I am

sufficiently acquainted with you to know that you did not anticipate one so
brilliant. You have known how to engage the attention of the learned, and
people generally, by making your work attractive while it is instructive—a
quality sufficiently rare to claim my congratulations. I will only add another
word: had this work been confined to the notice of those phenomena whose
advent we deplore, it would probably share their fate; but what will secure
its perpetuity is your discussion of medical science which you put in
apposition with your subject, and which will not long be able to resist the
severe stricture of your logic. Therefore, be assured, it will be the learned,
and especially physicians, that you will first convert to your doctrine.
Philosophers will only surrender after them; but so far there is no doubt that
you will have given rise to most serious reflections in all of them.
314. “I will not speak to you at present of two or three observations
which I have made in reading your book, which we will discuss in private,
and which only relate to some inaccuracy of doctrine, foreign, besides, to
the principal subject of your work.
315. “Finally, my dear sir, I do not doubt that the God of truth will bless
your labours. Continue them, for the subject is vast, and especially do not
suffer yourself to be discouraged by the reasoning of light minds, ‘that in
divulging all these things you favour their promulgation, when they had
better be suppressed, &c. &c.’ A gross error! They might as well accuse the
doctors of causing the cholera. And, beside, it is worthy of remark that all
the cases of insanity lately developed in the midst of these exhibitions are
due to thoughtless enthusiasm succeeding to an absolute state of doubt and
disbelief. It could not well be otherwise; the prodigy which was doubted
yesterday, and to-day is firmly established, will to-morrow be transformed
into God. Truth alone is able to prevent and remedy such disastrous
mishaps.
Receive, my dear sir, the assurance, &c.,
Le P. Ventura De Raulica,
Former General of the Monks, Examiner of the Bishops and of the
Roman clergy.”

Letter of Dr. Coze.

316. “Sir:—You do me the honour to ask my opinion of the book on the
Spirits which you have just published. That opinion I have already
expressed to our mutual friend, the good worthy doctor Paulin; and true it
is, this book has made a strong impression on my mind, for I had arrived at
similar conclusions from the examination of some magnetic phenomena and
the moving of tables. I find in your book a chain of very remarkable facts—
presented, too, with talent and clearness very unusual in this sort of writing.
I see, beside, that science is brought back to the path which cannot mislead
us to that of the sacred writings; there, as I think, are to be found the true
philosophy and the true light.
317. “I do not fancy that my opinion can have any weight with the
learned world. If, however, you think proper to make this public, I consent
with all my heart in behalf of a truth which you so well defend, and the
success of which appears to me infallible.
I have the honour to be, &c.,
R. Coze,
Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Strasbourg.”

Letter of M. F. De Saulcy.

318. “Sir:—You desire me to report to you my opinion in writing which I
have formed as to the strange phenomena, to say the least of them, which
have been conventionally called table turning and table talking. I am not the
man to recoil from what I regard as a truth, whatever sarcasm may be
reserved for such profession of faith, and therefore proceed to satisfy your
inquiry.
319. “It is about eight or ten months since when the public of Paris was
agitated by the late arrival of the fact from America and Germany; a fact
which pure physics was not able to explain a priori. I did as many always
do, and have no doubt done for a long time—received this account with the
most determined incredulity, and, I confess, with ridicule. I considered its
adepts as charlatans or as simpletons, and refused for a long time to bestow
on it the least attention. I became tired of the war, however, and after
hearing many affirm, to whom I could not apply these epithets, the reality
of these facts, I determined to try for myself.

320. “My son and a friend were my two companions: we had the patience
for forty-five minutes, seated at the table, to form what is called the chain,
and were not a little surprised, I assure you, to see at the end of that time the
table on which we were operating, and which was merely the parlour
dinner-table, begin to move, and after some hesitation to contract a rotary
movement, which, accelerating, soon became very rapid. We endeavoured
by pressing to make it strike against the bar and arrest its motion, but could
not succeed.
321. “After repeating the experiment two or three times, I sought to find
some cause in physics for the movement, and battled the whole theory of
Electro-Dynamics with the aid of an electroscope, compass, iron-filings,
iron, &c. As I could not detect the least trace of electricity, I thought then of
impulses due to the volition of the operators, and of which a sort of
integration might cause the motion of the table. On that I stopped, and for
several weeks did not give the smallest attention to a phenomenon which
did not seem to merit any further notice.
322. “Finally was commenced the faculty of talking, and I assure you my
incredulity was considerably greater than when its moving power was
announced. I was sparing, however, in my epithets, for I soon found myself
an investigator. I watched the rogues, as I suspected, for two hours, but left
the room a full believer of its reality, without any further examination,
confirmed too by all subsequent experiments. (1.)
323. “What could be said indeed of the fact witnessed together, that a
crayon, which was fastened to the leg of a table, wrote legible words, while
we were pressing it down with our hands?
324. “It was then, sir, that your book fell into my hands. I have read it
with the most lively interest; have admired your erudition, and the courage
necessary at our epoch to treat such a subject.
325. “I believe in the existence of facts which often volition is unable to
produce, and over which I declare that volition sometimes appears to have a
manifest influence. I believe in the intervention of intelligence different
from our own, and which puts in action means almost ridiculous.

326. “I believe that the Christian religion should not encourage the
practice of these experiments. I believe there is danger in allowing them to

become a habit, and at least we may lose the little reason which has been
granted man by the Giver of all things. I believe, finally, that it is the duty
of an honest man to dissuade others from occupying themselves with it, in
preaching, by example, and not allowing it in the least to occupy himself.
327. “This is the end I have reached after some months’ experience; and,
ask permission to close this letter, already too long, by repeating a very wise
saying of a man of high intelligence: ‘Either these phenomena are, or are
not real; if not, it is disgraceful to lose time with them; if they are, it is
dangerous to invoke them and to make them a pastime.’
Please accept, &c.,
F. De Saulcy,
Member of the Institute.”

Spiritualism in Paris.

[See New York Reformer, September, 1853.]

“We find the following article in the London Illustrated News of July 23;
it is an extract from the News’ Paris correspondence:—
328. “‘An immense sensation was caused here, a few days since, by a
revelation given on the authority of some of the most respected and
influential members of the clergy, headed by the Archbishop of Paris, on the
subject of table movements. The archbishop, being questioned as to his
opinion of the legitimacy, in a religious point of view, of attempting to
communicate with spirits through the medium of the tables, alleged that he
had not sufficiently studied the question to reply definitively; that he
imagined that the effects produced were wholly of the nature of physical
science, and in that case harmless; but that, in order to form a judgment, he
would attend a meeting composed of certain members of the clergy, at a
place appointed to make the usual experiments.
329. “‘The table being put in motion, one of the party demanded it in
reply, by a certain number of raps, if there were a spirit present. The
response was in the affirmative; and in answer to a second question, the
spirit represented herself, by raps indicating certain letters of the alphabet,
to be that of Sœur Francoise, deceased a week previously at the convent of
-—-, Paris. The Abbe B-—- stated that he had confessed the Sœur

Francoise, who had, in fact, died at the time and place named. General
consternation, as may be supposed, ensued when the Abbe L-—-, rising,
commanded the spirit in the name of the Saviour to appear.
330. “‘The report declares that the spirit hereupon actually became
visible, and replied to a variety of questions put to it, but of what import we
are not informed. On the above details we do not pretend to give either
explanation or opinion.
331. “‘Such is the story as related by the members of the Seance, two of
whom were so affected by the events related as to be some days seriously
indisposed, one of them even confined to bed.
332. “‘Various narratives mention that, through the medium of the tables,
communications are held with spirits of all nations. The spirits, happily,
being excellent linguists, find no difficulty in expressing themselves in any
language chosen by the questioner, and reveal the secrets of the prison-
house with a frankness, not to say indiscretion, that would shock the more
reserved ghost in Hamlet, in no way confirming his statement of the horrors
of their temporary abode. Many of them describe in glowing terms the
beauties and delights of their celestial abodes.’”

SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS IN FRANCE AND
GERMANY.

The following contribution, under the preceding head, is translated by my
much esteemed friend, Dr. Geib, from the work of De Mirville, whence the
articles under the designation of Foreign Coroborative Evidence have been
obtained through the same able translator:
333. “Toward the end of the year 1852 the epidemic had been imported
into the North of Scotland by some American mediums; thence it got to
London, where, according to the latest accounts, it must have reached, by
the present time, a pretty extensive development. Seeing its progress in this
way, we were led to say, If it ever reaches Germany, that whole country will
be on fire.

334. “The religious gazette of Augsburg of June 18, 1853, contained an
article from which we make some extracts:
335. “‘Again the world is presented with various marvellous
appearances, which, coming from elevated sources, force themselves on
public notice, and which, in every case, throw a very marked shadow on our
own epoch of civilization. It may be appropriate to communicate some of
those found in the Gazette Générale; and leaving reflection to the reader,
we will give some of the most striking.
336. “‘The Morgan Blatt (Morning Sheet) announces among its novelties
from Palatinat Rhénan, the phenomenon of a young girl not yet pubescent,
who, they say, is able at will to command a rapping spectre, (Klopferle.)
The spectre raps as often as the little girl orders him, being obedient in the
extreme. What is remarkable is, that the spectres of the Old World, as well
as the New, have a strong family likeness, being as much alike as two drops
of water. And the Tribune of New York, printed in the German language,
has lately contained various communications on this subject. But whence
come these rapping spectres, and why make their appearance all at once?’
337. “The Gazette of Augsbourg then refers to several other facts of the
same nature, which, at all times, have caused much embarrassment to the
German authorities, either in giving rise to lengthy inquests, or in causing
the condemnation of persons proved afterward to be entirely innocent; but
as for those of the present time, it fully understands, proclaims, and
demonstrates them to be of the American Affiliation.
338. “The Journal du Magnetisme of the 10th of March, 1853, had
already furnished us with the reported account given in the course of last
January to the tribunal of London, by the rapping spirit of the house of
Sanger; the same phenomena, the same stupefaction, the same impossibility
to discover the jugglers. However, the subject appeared to rest at this point
in Germany, when, in the month of April, the first phenomenon of table
moving reached Bremen, and then the Augsbourg Gazette insisted on its
true origin.
339. “‘For eight days previous,’ it said, ‘our good town has been in an
agitation difficult to describe; it is completely absorbed by a miracle which
was not thought of before the arrival of the steamer from New York—the
Washington. The new phenomenon is imported from America.’

340. “Now a certain Doctor André was the first to describe this first
exhibition of table turning; therefore they called it his discovery. What a
discovery!
341. “‘Having formed a chain,’ he says, ‘of seven or eight persons, the
right little finger of each touching the left one of his neighbour, the table
they surround will commence turning, and continue as long as the chain
remains unbroken, and stop when an individual leaves it.’
342. “A general burst of pleasantry and incredulity first accompanied the
revelation of the doctor. But soon experiment begins, and laughter gives
place to a sort of dejection. Certain savans, professors of the University of
Heidelberg, MM. Mittermouer and Zoepfl, M. Molh, brother of the member
of the Institute, Eschenmajer, Ennemoser, and Kerner, attest the same facts;
and Doctor Lœwe of Vienna undertakes to give the theory of it: ‘This
theory consists, according to him, in the opposite polarity of the right and
left sides of the human body; hence, having formed a chain of human
beings, the contrary poles of which, viz. the right and left, touch each other,
and this chain, exerting upon any body whatever a prolonged action,
conveys to it an electric current, and converts it into a magnet, and thus
polarization is established in that body; and in virtue of its tendency to
magnetic orientation, the south pole of the table impressing it with a
movement to the north, the latter commences a continued rotation, and turns
on its axis as long as the indispensable conditions are continued.’
343. “Unfortunately, the spirits are very soon seen to dispense with these
indispensable conditions. Thus, then, at Bremen, Vienna, and Berlin, there
was not a table at rest on its legs, and still the French press observed a
uniform inexplicable silence!
344. “We ask, however, what would have been said, had we foretold
what began to appear unavoidable, that in less than a month, table and hat
turning would reach Paris. The announcement was scarcely known when it
appears that such a thing has always existed; that it is a law of nature; and
that tables never had any other destiny!
345. “Again we inquire of all serious minds, What is the faculty by which
we predict, among other coming events, the turning of tables, which,
nevertheless, do not turn till after the arrival of a vessel and a medium?
However, silence becoming impossible, the French press has thought proper

to speak. On the 4th of May, the Journal of the Empire, Le Pays, happened
to inform us that ‘from the Baltic to the banks of the Danube, all Germany
was in a fever.’ It became then plainer and plainer that we were going to be
infected, and from that time we hastened to prepare our batteries.
346. “It was high time, for about the end of April, the grand mysterious
army had this time decidedly crossed the Rhine, and in all the large cities of
France—Strasbourg, Marseilles, Bordeaux, Toulouse, &c.—the turning
epidemic broke out like a discharge of musketry; and better to impress the
mind, it only at first attacked stands, tables, hats, seats, &c., for all these
participated in the demonstration.
347. “At Paris especially, in repeating the experiments, they were made a
pastime for a soirée. Children were introduced into the circles, without
considering whether correlative evil might not be coupled with these
mysterious amusements.
348. “It is true they would not allow the smallest Leyden jar to come near
them; but what troubles might have resulted from the action of an electricity
that could raise tables of eighteen dishes like a feather?
349. “It is true, too, that M. Rouilly, maître de pension at Orleans,
undertook to give an answer. In the Moniteur due Loiret, he informs us that
‘at his house, even in the middle of the process, a large young man of
twenty-six was seized with a violent trembling in all his limbs, and that his
left forearm began suddenly to oscillate in a frightful manner, making as
many as a thousand movements in a minute; being able, he said, to utter
only broken syllables; staggered like an intoxicated man; it was necessary
to carry him to bed, and the next day he still felt some nervous trembling.’
M. Rouilly ended in saying ‘that he felt it his duty to report this fact for the
benefit of those who may enter into these experiments without knowing
their possible serious inconveniences.’ Little attention was paid to this, so
much had fashion asserted empire, so much was this pleasure worth its cost.
350. “However, knowing long since all the particulars, we are disposed to
ask ourselves, What is going to result from all this? what will the savans
say? Will they allow themselves to be carried away by electric appearances?
will their philosophy allow them to seek independently of the fluids, which
may be imagined to operate, the real agent of such a variety of effects? No;
they well know, however, that in the sciences—medicine, for example—

every investigation that stops short of phenomena, is of very secondary
value; we may be satisfied, for want of better, but still we do not feel
ourselves in possession of the truth; we still seek it. Why in this case should
we do otherwise? These suppositions were just, but we say without
hesitation our fantastic experimenters committed from the first an
unpardonable fault, philosophically speaking; that is, not to have taken the
least notice of those facts from America which were beginning to sound in
their ears from all sides. When we are visited by the plague, yellow fever, or
cholera, the first care of the faculty is to have it studied in Egypt, Spain, and
Poland. These scourges are investigated even at the place of their birth; we
notice their origin, development, and termination. Well! in doing the same
in this case, these gentlemen would have seen as clear as day that the
Augsbourg Gazette was right in telling them that this animal magnetizing
was received direct from America. But what shall we do? we take no
pleasure in looking at what we do not want to see.
351. “However, this affiliation once well established, well understood, by
thoroughly studying the American prodigies, we should very soon have
reached the assurance that there, at least, the spirits had exhibited
themselves in open day; and there, as they were first concealed in tables or
behind partitions, we could have seen immediately what might be reserved
for us for the future.
352. “But rest assured our French science will not yield; the snare is too
gross; French science has no rival in physics and electricity; it only sees in
this a waggish electricity, and will never consent to be persuaded that it has
slept a hundred years at the side of such truths, or rather at the side of such
enormities in physics.
353. “And then iniquity is exhibited to herself at all times. Sir, then what
becomes of the indispensable conditions of Dr. André? that is to say: ‘All
the effects ceasing on the least interruption of the chain.’
354. “This morning, in a journal of Lorraine, there is a notice of a circle
formed in a first story, round a massive table; as long as the circle continued
nothing was done; but getting tired they all leave for the street, and a few
moments afterward the rebellious table begins to waltz, as if to bid defiance
to the party. What a law of physics, what electricity! Behold, on the other
hand, cities and countries disinherited! Behold the city of Valence, who

laboured all in her power, who followed with angelic patience all the
prescriptions of the new science; nothing could produce the phenomena. Is
it that at Valence, perchance, the human species has no electricity? Mon
Dieu! it has electricity, but it is not of that accidental and local kind, the real
kind for the occasion, and which may be therefore denominated erratic; as
the ancients called those gods that moved about from place to place.
355. “No, Science is not to be so deceived; she is not satisfied with the
explanation of the little fingers, but soon perceives that these little fingers
supply here precisely the part of the famous mesmeric trough, and the chain
that was formed entirely round it. Then, also, the chain was said to be very
important; and the trough, magnet, steel, glass pile all necessary agents.
Very well, what has now become of all these necessities? The magnetic
effects exceed all those of that time, and notwithstanding they are not made
any use of. Much more! since the passes have ceased to be the fashion, the
phenomena have doubled. In Germany, where people go to the bottom of
things, they have desired to look into the heart of it. Each master of the
magnet—and they are pretty plenty there—has constructed his own trough.
That of Walford consists of an iron box, furnished with bottles, iron wire,
ground glass, &c. That of Keiser was made of beech without bottles, and
filled with water, which did not prevent the effects from being precisely the
same in the two cases. Thus it was said: It is magnetism alone which gives
them this power, and they magnetized their best. But one lucky day it was
thought proper not to magnetize, and the trough lost none of its power! ‘Ah!
ah!’ they say, ‘the trough is magnetized by the magnetized patients
themselves, and they put a stout man into it, free from all magnetic
influence, and besides in excellent health. Well, this time! the magnetic
effects exceeded in intensity all the previous experiments, and never had the
phenomena exhibited themselves so brilliantly.’
356. “This is the precise account of the famous report of Bailly, of which
M. Arago spoke so highly in his last memoir; and in one respect he was
right; for these great experimenters did not allow themselves to be caught
by any of these electric seductions, and proclaimed physics to be entirely
innocent of all the effects they witnessed. But at the same time they thought
proper to refer to the imagination these same prodigious effects, which no
one could understand even after having seen them; and there was their great
mistake; they were right as savans, as philosophers inexcusable.

357. “Moreover, this absurd explanation by imagination he renewed
under these circumstances; and that of jugglery is not more fortunate. What
prejudice! These two words rendered much service, and covered many
retreats! That is, however, passed; it will be necessary hereafter, not only to
admit them, but to redeem all analogous precedents, for these are about to
be, at last, explained. Again, what is to be done? It will be necessary to
proclaim that these electric phenomena which are real as an effect, are not
in fact real in their cause; that they lie when they wish the contrary to be
believed, that they joke when they act by turns with and without a chain in a
particular town, and not in some other, &c.
358. “But on the other hand to perceive a capricious and lying cause, is
almost to perceive ... a mind. A mind, grands dieux! You represent yourself
before the whole Academy Arago as recognising spirits, hobgoblins! grand
experiment! But that itself is horrid to contemplate! Not a face at the
Institute can remain uncovered, and that day will forever be regarded as
unlucky for science, as it robs it of a victory which was thought to have
been gained centuries before.
359. “Beware, however, of the first supernal intelligence! for we shall
fall back on our ancient and primitive criterion, our infallible touchstone.
360. “All depends on what it is going to give us; think well of it this time;
an imprudent question might lose all.
361. “And already, what signifies that last phrase of a serious article
which we find in the Courier du Nord? ‘In another house the table, they say,
obeyed the commands of one of the experimenters; took the direction
indicated, danced in measure to the sound of a piano, counted the hours,
and told the age of the assistants,’ &c.
362. “What means that other letter from Bordeaux, in the Guyenne? ‘A
hat submitted to animal magnetism appeared more intelligent even than the
table; it indicated, they say, by little gambols, the age of persons, the
number of pieces of money they had in their pockets, it told the amount of
ladies and gentlemen together in the room,’ &c.
363. “What follows is better still: see in the Journal le Pays, a letter of
M., the Abbé of Moigno, according to which it follows that MM. Seguin

and de Montgolfier, very distinguished engineers, ordered the tables to rest
on this leg and then on the other, and made them beat time, &c.
364. “We read in La Patrie—‘Explanation given by the savans.’ Ah! let
us see! this subject is becoming important. According to this journal the
following is the hypothesis at which the savans have arrived: ‘The table and
hat turners act mostly in good faith, (quite a concession,) but they deceive
themselves; they think they cause the motion of an inanimate object by an
act of volition, or an effusion of magnetic fluid from their fingers; while it
is by muscular action, imperceptible to themselves, or others.’ Ah! take
notice! It is by a vibratory movement coming from thousands of small
nervous branches. Add to this, lassitude, humidity of the hands, and you will
have an explanation, if not entirely satisfactory, at least sufficiently
plausible, of the phenomena which engage our attention. M. Chevreul (of
the Institute) has analyzed this physiological predisposition, and has
illustrated it by the fact familiar to the billiard player, who having struck the
ball, follows it with his eyes, with his shoulders, and with the whole body,
and makes fantastic motions, as if to impel it, though no longer subject to
his direct action, &c.
365. “It is well M. Chevreul has used the phrase ‘as if to impel it,’ for had
he been so unfortunate as to say, and in fact he did impel it, we should have
been lost. In truth we should have been silenced. But that lucky ‘as if,’
saves us from a very bad predicament; it brings back to our memory what
we were about to forget; that is to say, that in the relations of man and
matter, never, up to the present time, has all the muscular effort of the world
been able to influence, in the smallest degree, the direction of an object, not
under its direct action. To the present time all the laws of physics have been
based on the grand primordial law, and the player of ten-pins is not more
successful from such efforts, than he of the billiard ball just named.
366. “How changed are the times! Two years ago, the whole Academy of
Sciences revolted against the Baron de Humboldt for supposing that at a
distance he caused a deviation of the magnetic needle—an experiment, too,
which could never be renewed at Paris; and, behold! in place of needles, all
at once heavy tables are seen waltzing about the room, and obedient to the
will; and all this is easily explained! It is quite plausible! Yes, but this time,
gentlemen Savans, we will not allow you to distort the facts. Since the
commencement of this volume, we have done nothing but establish, on

good evidence, all those which your colleagues arrange agreeably to their
fancy, after having absolutely denied them. But now the half of France rises
with us to convict them, and to say to you: No, your nervous branches will
never explain it; neither the physical phenomena which you would refer to
them, nor the intelligence of our tables which respond to our own questions,
nor the super-intelligence of those which probably to-morrow will reveal to
us what we are ignorant of ourselves.
367. “Attending on the morrow, then! It is truly sorrowful to see a man of
the highest merit, like M. Chevreul, expose himself in this way to the
weakest scholar who, cue in hand, might fairly undertake to answer him.
Those may hereafter believe in physics who wish. It is most horribly
compromised. A science, capable of thus forswearing all its principles,
loses, in our estimation, much of its authority.
368. “La Revue Medicale, cited by La Patrie of May 20th, declares in its
turn ‘the explanation either by imagination or muscular vibrations, as
represented by MM. Corvisart and De Castelnan, entirely nullified by the
fact of the simple change in the relations of the little fingers.’
369. “As for the Medical, they see in it animal magnetism, and exclaim:
‘No one is able to foresee the application of which this discovery is
susceptible. It is an entire world for explanation. Who knows if there is not
at the end of this hint the means of illustrating a whole generation!’
370. “Lucky Magnetism—what a reparation you have a right to demand!
what incense will be bestowed on you to-morrow, by those who yesterday
so cruelly tore you to pieces! But La Presse and L’Union Medicale may do
what they please, no one will hereafter believe them on their word.
371. “A just reward, gentlemen, for things here below. You would not
believe and you are not believed now! We read afresh in La Patrie of May
21st, the recital of ‘tables promenading and upsetting without contact by
pure efforts of volition, or even by a simple magnetic pass—a very
superfluous precaution of the experimenter.’ Very superfluous, indeed! It
could not have been better expressed.
372. “In the presence of such a fact, will the magnetizers still maintain
that the magnetic rapport results from the mixture of the two nervous
atmospheres? The nervous system of tables, (disgueridons,) to use the

language of Reichenbach, must be very sensitive; and in this new dance
without contact—what becomes of the explanation by muscular vibration,
and especially by the humidity of the hands?
373. “We have some very important communications, on the 23d of May,
from M. Bonjean, member of the Royal Academy of Savoy, at Chambéry,
respecting several experiments made at the academy itself, and establishing
the perfect intelligence of the agent in question. M. Bonjean, however,
always refers this intelligence to one uniform process. ‘These responses,’ he
says, ‘are not, and cannot be but the reflection of the thoughts of the person
who causes the phenomena, and the movables are only able to satisfy those
questions whose answers are known, without ever being able to supply an
answer that is not known.’
374. “The idea that the furniture is unable to give satisfaction is
charming! but up to this point it was not understood to be super-
intelligence. Patience, however, for it is bound to happen!
375. “Besides, M. Bonjean does full justice to the muscular movements
of M. Chevreul, by means of that single exception of the table of Strasbourg
turning with all its operators, or certain tables at Lyons moved without
immediate contact. Next, he passes from the physical to the moral question,
which, if to be believed, is certainly not very encouraging. ‘Fathers and
mothers,’ he exclaims, ‘if you do not desire to develope premature feelings
in your daughters, husbands who regard the peace of your wives, be
mistrustful of the magnetic chain in general, and of the dancing of tables in
particular.’
376. “It will be recollected that in the famous secret report of Bailly on
mesmerism, in 1784, exactly the same thing was said. There is under all
this, then, we have good reason to apprehend, a uniform unrepented sin.
377. “In a letter of May 24th from M. Seguin, one of our most
distinguished engineers, to the Abbé Moigno, who had very ably opposed
these experiments in Le Pays, M. Seguin says, ‘When I reason
dispassionately on the real and very positive results which I have obtained,
and seen obtained by others before my eyes, I think myself under the
control of an hallucination which causes me to see things differently to what
they are, so much does my reason refuse to admit them; but when I repeat

my experiments, I find it impossible any longer to resist the force of
evidence, when indeed it confounds and upsets all my opinions.
378. “‘How can you expect me to accept your explanation, when a table
touched very lightly by the ends of the fingers, presses against my hand and
against my legs to such a degree as to repel me and almost break itself?
How believe that the person whose hands touch it could impart to it a force
equal to such efforts, and especially when that person is myself? Accept,
then, freely and with courage, the facts as they are, the facts well seen and
satisfactorily produced by myself, in whom you have, I think, as much
confidence as in yourself. The explanation will come hereafter, rest assured.
Believe firmly that in these phenomena of turning tables there is something
more than you see—a physical reality outside of the imagination and of the
faith of those who appear to make them move.’
379. “It is impossible, as we see, to be more positive, or better to defend
the physical evidence on the ground of facts. M. Seguin has a thousand
times the advantage over his learned antagonist; but let us see if M., the
Abbé Moigno, defeated on this ground, will not take his revenge on another.
380. “Referring to a communication made to the academy by one M.
Vauquelin, about one of these enchanted tables, which in his hands was
able to reply to the most mysterious questions, divine the most secret
thoughts, &c., M. Meigno exclaims in Le Cosmos Revue Encyclopédique
des Sciences: ‘This time it is too strong; we find ourselves definitively at
the mercy of magic, and the moment has come to proclaim it at Rome. Then
there is neither magnetism nor electricity; not even the influence of human
volition on matter; but supposing the fact to be certain—which is hard to
swallow—there must be in it the intervention of spirits, or magic.
Intelligence that can refuse these deductions of common sense, would be
disordered intelligence, as useless to dispute with as with fools. If you have
not been mistaken, if the extraordinary facts which you affirm are true, we
ourselves are believers. The intervention of spirits and of magic became the
sorrowful but great realities.’
381. “M. Agenor De Gasparin, one of our most sedate philosophers,
writes what follows in La Gazette de France:—‘I will not insist on this
point. The phenomenon of rotation, if alone, would not appear to me
entirely satisfactory. I am mistrustful, though not an academician, and, I

admit, that it may be possible (at a pinch) that a mechanical impulsion
might be communicated. But the rotation only serves to present other
phenomena, the explanation of which it is impossible to refer to any kind of
muscular action.
382. “‘Each of us, in his turn, gave orders to the table, which it promptly
obeyed; and I should succeed with difficulty in explaining to you the
strange character of these movements, of blows struck with an exactness,
with a solemnity that fairly frightened us. “Strike three blows; strike ten
blows. Strike with your left foot; with your right foot; with your middle
foot. Rise on two of your feet; on only one foot; remain up; prevent those
on the side raised from returning the table to the floor.” After each
command the table obeyed. It produced movements that no complicity,
involuntary or voluntary, could have induced; for we should have afterward
tried in vain to place it on one foot, and keep it there by the pressure of the
hands, resisting incontestably the efforts to press it down.
383. “‘Each one of us gave orders with equal success. Children were
obeyed as well as grown persons.
384. “‘Still more: it was agreed that the requests should not be audible,
but merely mental, and whispered to a neighbour. Still the table obeyed!
There was in no instance the least error.
385. “‘Each person desired the table to rap the number of years of his
age, and it gave our ages as indicated only in our mind, endeavouring in the
most curious manner to hurry when the number was large. I must own, to
my shame, that I was rebuked by it, for having unintentionally diminished
my age; the table gave forty-three instead of forty-two, because my wife,
with a better memory, had thought of the correct number.
386. “‘Finally, having continued these experiments more than an hour, at
which the neighbours and the servants of the farm were present, I felt that it
was time to stop. I requested the table to raise; to raise again, and turn over
on my side, which it did.
“‘Accept, gentlemen, the assurance of my best consideration,
A. De Gasparin.’
387. “We stop our citations here; for those who are not content with the
testimony we have furnished, emanating as it does from philosophers, or

men of serious minds, the same revelations appearing, too, in all parts of
the world, will not be better satisfied by any thing we could add. A day is
coming, however, that will open every mouth. Then from all those parlours
so reserved before—from all those cabinets in which experiments had been
conducted with closed doors, the truth will burst forth in its full power.
Then it will be known that some of the most esteemed men of Paris, of the
bench, pulpit, and men of letters, have both desired to see and have seen it;
have desired to know and have known it. It will be known that the evil
super-intelligence has been revealed to them, and that if they have been
silent on the subject, or desired to suppress their name, it was only an act of
prudence to restrain public opinion.
388. “But on that day what will Science be doing? We can boldly predict:
the facts of to-day which it does admit, proving to amount to nothing, and
the inadmissible facts being admitted, its faith will change, and its language
become more modest. Like the ancient Augurs, two savants will not be able
to look at each other any more without smiling, and often enough to
exclaim: ‘It has been well said, my dear colleague; it has always been
foretold, that “He, who is outside of pure mathematics, pronounces the
word IMPOSSIBLE, wants prudence.’”
Arago.””

SPIRITUALISM IN GREAT BRITAIN.

Account of Mr. Robert Owen’s Conversion.

389. “While in doubt upon this subject, I heard of the media in this
country, and was casually introduced to Mrs. Hayden, an American
medium, without having any intention to ask a question respecting the
spirits; my object being to purchase a book which Mrs. Hayden had for sale,
written by a valued and most truthful friend of mine in America, Adin
Ballou, who has written a plain, practical, common-sense history of this
new revelation to the human race.

390. “While conversing with Mrs. Hayden, and while we were both
standing before the fire, and talking of our mutual friends, suddenly raps
were heard on a table at some distance from us, no one being near to it. I
was surprised, and as the raps continued and appeared to indicate a strong
desire to attract attention, I asked what was the meaning of the sounds?
Mrs. Hayden said they were spirits anxious to communicate with some one,
and she would inquire who they were. They replied to her, by the alphabet.
that they were friends of mine who were desirous to communicate with me.
Mrs. Hayden then gave me the alphabet and pencil, and I found, according
to their own statements, that the spirits were those of my mother and father.
I tested their truth by various questions, and their answers, all correct,
surprised me exceedingly. I have since had twelve séances, some of long
continuance, and during which, with one exception, I have had prompt and
true answers so far as the past and present, and very rational replies as to
the future; but these last have to be tested by time. The exception was my
own afterward-discovered error.”
391. From the following quotation, it seems that Mr. Owen has not had
any reason to diminish his faith in spiritualism. The manifestations, of
which his account is subjoined, are eminently wonderful; yet they are not
more so than those which are recorded as having been realized under the
influence of the same medium, in this country, or at Koons’s Establishment
in Ohio:—

Letter of Robert Owen to the Yorkshire Spiritual Telegraph.

Seven Oaks, April 23, 1855.
392. “Dear Sir:—Just now, on my return from London, where, last night,
I had been giving a lecture to Mr. Ronge’s party of foreigners and others on
Education, I had the pleasure to receive your 2d Number of ‘The Yorkshire
Spiritual Telegraph.’ I have hastily glanced over it, and I feel much interest
in your proceedings, and wish you all success in the good cause. I say good
cause, for it is sure to lead to great ultimate good, and especially will it
destroy the many evils arising from sectarianism, and other causes of hatred
and ruin between man and nations. I must tell you of what occurred to me
last night, after my return from the lecture, about nine o’clock.

393. “A Mr. Hume, a young Scotchman, who went to America to pursue
his studies as a medical student, four or five years ago, became a medium,
(he is now about twenty years of age,) and soon became a very superior
one. He had engaged to accompany the Haydens and Miss Jay. He took his
passage and came, but the others, for some cause, postponed their voyage,
but may now be daily expected. They arrived on the 22d. I had heard on my
arrival in London, from friends on whom I could depend, of the
extraordinary results by his mediumship. I made arrangements to visit those
friends and Mr. Hume when I finished my lecture, which I did, and found
my two friends and Mr. Hume waiting my arrival. On being seated around a
regular full-sized card table, there were raps immediately, and because I do
not hear very well, the raps increased until they became very loud, but I
heard the first raps distinctly. Many spirits were present; some, relatives of
my friends, and others, my own relations. My wife and daughters, my son
and brother, and also my father and mother, with all of whom I have had
frequent delightful intercourse through various mediums. My two friends
present are husband and wife; and the first new occurrence to me was,
seeing the lady’s silk apron untied by invisible means—a somewhat
complicated operation—and taken from her and given to Mr. Hume,
opposite to her. It was then conveyed backward and forward, from one to
another, and it soon came to me. I held it with much force, but it was drawn
from me with greater force, for I was afraid damage would be done to it.
Next a flower was taken from the table, conveyed away by invisible means,
and brought to me. The flower I kept for being so presented to me. Next I
had my handkerchief out; it was taken from my hands, and in an instant
thrown from the opposite side of the table, not as it was taken, but made
into a large hat, which I also have as a curiosity. Then the spirits came and
touched each of us. I was occasionally touched on one knee, then on the
other, and afterward on both at once; and then one of them shook hands
with me, and I most distinctly felt the fingers of them separately. An
accordeon was then placed under the table, and soon the spirit of the
daughter of the family played most beautifully several tunes and pieces of
music. I asked for one of my favourite Scotch tunes, and it was immediately
played. The instrument was then raised by invisible power, and given first
to one, then to another; it was thus brought to me. The table was then lifted
from the floor; at first, about a foot, and immediately afterward, about three
feet.

394. “After this the medium was put into a trance, during which he saw
beautiful visions of spirits, and one of them spake through him while in that
state sentiments that went to the heart of each of us, giving us advice,
invaluable in its import, and in language beautifully and eloquently
expressed, and calculated to make the deepest impression on our memories.
While reason remains I shall never forget it; and it was given with many
encouraging words, to pursue my course in the measures in which I am
engaged; to endeavour to introduce the millennium, but also stating the
obstacles I should meet, and the great difficulties which were to be
overcome.
395. “Much more occurred, very interesting; but the post time expires,
and I wish you to have this communication by this mail.
“Yours sincerely, Robert Owen.”
396. I subjoin the following narrative of Mr. Rufus Elmer, of Springfield,
Massachusetts, concerning manifestations through Mr. Hume, as
corroborating those described by Mr. Owen. Thus, on both sides of the
Atlantic, we have evidence of analogous striking results by the same
medium:—

Mr. Hume at Springfield.

397. “Rufus Elmer, Esq., of Springfield, informs us that Mr. Hume spent
the nights of March 17th and 18th at his house. On the evening of the 17th,
thirteen persons were present, when a series of most extraordinary
demonstrations took place. First, two large tables standing together, around
which the company were sitting, were lifted from the floor, while all hands
were resting upon their tops. Then an accordeon, held under the table in one
of Mr. Hume’s hands, (the other being on the table,) with the keys
downward, was played in strong tones, three parts being maintained, and
any tune performed that was called for—even foreign music. The
instrument was also played upon while held in the same manner by each
person present,—all hands except the one holding the accordeon being upon
the tables in sight. (These manifestations were all made in a room well
lighted by gas.) A bell, weighing over a pound, was passed about under the
tables, put in the hands of each person, taken away again, passed rapidly
from one end of the tables to the other, a distance of eight feet, knocking

loudly on the under side as it went; and, finally, the tables having been
separated a few inches, and a cloth spread over the aperture, the bell was
held up under the cloth, while the company were allowed to feel the hand
which held it. Next, the bell was slid out on to one of the tables from
beneath the covering, and the hand which grasped it was exposed to the
view of all the company—the hands of each being at the same time in full
view. To gratify one who sat at so great a distance as not to have a clear
view, it was communicated that if all others would for a moment avert their
eyes, so as not to concentrate their magnetism so powerfully upon the
object, it could be more plainly manifested to this one alone. Acting upon
this hint, each person was allowed to look singly at the hand—to the full
satisfaction of all. One of those present, mentally requested, unknown to all
others, that the hand of her spirit-child might be exhibited to her; and,
behold! a child’s hand was presented, while no child in the body was in the
room. One of the company was a coloured domestic in the family of Mr. E-
—-, and she mentally requested that her mother, who had before purported
to communicate to her, if present, would show her hand; when, lo! a black
hand appeared! These are but specimens of what occurred during the
evening.”

COMMUNICATIONS FROM THE SPIRIT WORLD.

Remarks Introductory to my Spirit Father’s Communication.

398. Agreeably to my spirit father’s communication, the manifestations
which of late have given birth to Spiritualism, have been the result of a
deliberate effort, on the part of the inhabitants of the higher spheres, to
break through the partition which has interfered with the attainment, by
mortals, of a correct idea of their destiny after death. To carry out this
intention, a delegation of advanced spirits has been appointed. Referring to
this statement, I inquired how it happened that low spirits were allowed to
interfere in the undertaking? The answer was, that the spirits of the lower
spheres being more competent to make mechanical movements and loud
rappings, their assistance was requisite.
399. Likewise, I inquired why it was deemed expedient to make these
manifestations, in the first instance, at Hydesville, near Rochester, through
the spirit of a murdered man? The answer to this was, that the spirit of a
murdered man would excite more interest, and that a neighbourhood was
chosen where spiritual agency would be more readily credited than in more
learned or fashionable and conspicuous circles, where the prejudice against
supernatural agencies is extremely strong; but that the manifestations had
likewise been made at Stratford, in Connecticut, under other circumstances.
Nor were these the only places. They had been made elsewhere, without
much success in awakening public attention.
400. Thus, it appears that at the outset, the object was to draw attention,
and in the next place to induce communications. It will appear from the
account of the manifestations at Hydesville and Stratford, that as soon as
through an ingenious agreement upon signals rational intercommunication
was established, the manifestations became changed in character. The
mischievousness displayed, in the primitive derangement of furniture,
ceased. This was attributed to the replacement of spirits of inferior grade, by
their superiors.
401. Thus this new and glorious light has come up amid dark clouds, as
we often see the thunder-gust the harbinger of a bright sky.

402. But still there has been another source of temporary degradation, not
arising solely from the spirits, but from the inquirers also. The great motive
in the first instance for witnessing spiritual manifestations was the love of
the marvellous, or the desire to expose what was deemed jugglery. The
mere movements of tables, without any reference to spiritual agency, was
the great object of attention. Though I was present where table turning was
discussed, if I ever heard the idea of spirits being the cause, it left no
impression on my memory, as has already been stated. (134.)
403. But after alphabetical communication commenced, it was performed
so slowly, that the replies were often brief, and made with a view to
establish identity of the spirits with the individual whom it professes to
personate; or to test the existence of a spirit by the replies given to inquirers
respecting facts which could not be known to the medium. At the first
recognition, the spirit would occupy the time mainly with statements very
natural and amiable, but not instructive beyond the degree of confirmation
thus afforded of the great fact of such intercourse being possible on the part
of friends who have quitted this stage of existence.
404. Communications through spelling and writing media very much fell
short of the expectations which the name assumed by the spirit would
awaken.
405. As soon as convinced that the phenomena were due to the shades of
the dead, I looked with eagerness for some consistent information of their
abodes, modes of existence, of the theological doctrines entertained by
them, and the actual diversities of their situation consequent to various
degrees of moral and intellectual merit.
406. It was with regret that I found in the published accounts, nothing
satisfactory, nothing precise, nothing connected. In no publication did I find
any satisfactory statements of the location of the spirit world, or of its
subdivision into spheres.
407. Urging this deficiency of information upon those spirit friends who
seemed to have selected me as an instrument in promulgating the invaluable
truths of Spiritualism, I obtained information, as early as May, 1854,
respecting the situation of the spiritual spheres, or country of spirits,
relatively to the earth; but about the latter part of October my father
commenced writing on the subject through a medium of the other sex, but

the ideas furnished were too much blended with her own prepossessions,
with which her mind was replete. Hence, although many pages had been
written, they were rejected, and resort was had to another medium—Mrs.
Gourlay. The result thus obtained was afterwards read to the author, at the
disk, so as to have every paragraph scrutinized.
408. Under the following head will be found my father’s communication.

My Spirit Father’s Communication.[10]

409. My son, in communicating with you respecting the destiny of man, I
shall endeavour, according to the extent of my capacity and highest
perception of truth, to give you a view, as correct and definite as possible,
of the all-important subject in question.
410. The spirit world lies between sixty and one hundred and twenty
miles from the terrestrial surface; the whole intermediate space, including
that immediately over the earth, the habitation of mortals, is divided into
seven concentric regions called spheres. The region next the earth, the
primary scene of man’s existence, is known as the first or rudimental
sphere.
411. The remaining six may be distinguished as the spiritual spheres.
412. The six spiritual spheres are concentric zones, or circles, of
exceedingly refined matter, encompassing the earth like belts or girdles.
The distance of each from the other is regulated by fixed laws.
413. You will understand, then, they are not shapeless chimeras, or mere
projections of the mind, but absolute entities, as much so indeed as the
planets of the solar system or the globe on which you now reside. They
have latitudes, longitudes, and atmospheres of peculiar vital air, whose soft
and balmy undulating currents produce a most pleasurable and invigorating
effect. Their surfaces are diversified with an immense variety of the most
picturesque landscapes; with lofty mountain ranges, valleys, rivers, lakes,
forests, and the internal correspondence of all the higher phenomena of
earth. The trees and shrubbery, crowned with exquisitely beautiful foliage
and flowers of every colour and variety, send forth their grateful
emanations.

414. The physical economy and arrangements of each sphere differs from
the other; new and striking scenes of grandeur being presented to us in
each, increasing in beauty and sublimity as they ascend.
415. Although the spheres revolve with the earth on a common axis,
forming the same angle with the plane of the ecliptic, and move with it
about the ponderable sun, they are not dependent on that body for either
light or heat, receiving not a perceptible ray from that ponderable source;
but receive those dispensations wholly from his internal or spiritual
correspondence, (a spiritual sun concentric with the sun of your world,)—
from that great central luminary whose native brightness and uninterrupted
splendour baffle description.
416. We have no divisions of time, therefore, into days, weeks, months,
or years; nor alternations of season, caused by the earth’s annual revolution;
those periods being observed with reference only to the affairs of earth.
417. Although we, like you, are constantly progressing toward perfection,
our ideas of time and the seasons differ widely from yours; with you it is
time—with us, eternity. In the terrestrial sphere, a man’s thoughts, being
bounded by time and space, are limited; but with us they are extended in
proportion as we get rid of those restrictions and our perceptions of truth
become more accurate.
418. As order is a primary object in the spheres, there are of course laws
for its preservation. Fundamentally, these proceed through his ministering
angels, from the Divine Lawgiver, who commands the angelic hosts of
heaven and rules the inhabitants of earth; who employs myriads of
ministering angels as the means of intercommunication between their
Supreme Master and his creatures throughout the universe.
419. So far as legislation, subordinate or supplementary to that of the
Supreme Legislator, is required, the government of the spheres is
republican, exercising legislative, judicial, and executive powers. But these
functions are not embarrassed by the necessity of codes indited or printed,
nor by that of physical coercion. The results of these functions are realized
in simultaneous and homogeneous opinions awakened in the minds of the
ruling spirits, as truth takes hold of the minds of mathematicians, pari
passu, as they read the same series of demonstrations. The conclusions in
which the chief spirits thus unanimously concur, are by them impressed

upon their constituents, who, thus impressed, are constitutionally unable to
resist the sentiment which, like a magic spell, operates upon their sense of
right, and overrules any rebellious passion.
420. As, in the rudimental sphere, weighing, measurement, or
mathematical calculation or demonstration, when performed by competent
persons, are rarely disputed, so in the spheres, the decisions of those whose
authority is intuitively evident in moral or legal questions, meet with
acquiescence. It follows, therefore, that neither imprisonment nor fetters are
requisite for the enforcement of moral or legal restrictions.
421. Moreover, it must be evident that in the spheres, wisdom,
knowledge, rectitude, and conscientiousness are the real vicegerents of
God, the higher spirits acting as his media.
422. We acknowledge no aristocracy but that of mind and merit. In our
diplomatic intercourse with our brothers of earth, when affairs of the
greatest importance are to be transacted, (the present dispensation, for
example,) we intrust them to a delegation of the most advanced spirits—
those who are best acquainted with the affairs of the celestial country and of
that to which they are accredited.
423. Our laws are meted out in the scale of exact justice, from whose
awards there is no appeal. Punishments are but the natural consequences of
violated laws; being invariably commensurate with offences, and have
reference as well to the reformation of the offender, as to the prevention of
future crime.
424. The political economy of the spheres has reference only to wealth,
which being unbounded and free as air and light, can of course be
appropriated by each and every member of society, according to his or her
capacity of reception, the supply being always equal to the demand.
425. Wealth consists, upon earth, of those objects of human luxury or
taste, which can only be acquired by means of labour and capital. Other
things being equal, the value is generally in proportion to the cost incurred
in the production. But in the spheres, such objects existing in profusion, the
supply is of course always equal to the demand, though no less necessary
than the air which you breathe; like it, they have no marketable value; there

is no one who has occasion to buy, all being abundantly supplied from a
common inexhaustible stock.
426. Hence it will appear that we have no occasion for gold or silver,
which perisheth with the using, but the currency of moral and intellectual
worth, coined in the mint of divine love, and assayed by the standards of
purity and truth. Our bank, whose charter is eternal, and whose notes are
never subject to fluctuations, and always payable on demand, is none other
than the great bank of heaven, whose capital stock consists of an infinitude
of love, mercy, and benevolence, of which our Heavenly Father is president
and director, and in which his beloved children, the whole human family,
are shareholders.
427. With regard to the social constitutions of the “spheres,” each is
divided into six circles, or societies, in which kindred and congenial spirits
are united and subsist together, agreeably with the law of affinity.
428. Although the members of each society unite as near as may be on
the same plan, agreeing in the most prominent moral and intellectual
features; yet it will be found, on careful analysis, that the varieties of
character, in each society, are almost infinite; being as numerous as the
persons who compose the circle.
429. Each society has teachers from those above, and not unfrequently
from the higher spheres, whose province it is to impart to us the knowledge
acquired from their instructions and experience, in the different departments
of science, and which we in turn transmit to those below. Thus, by receiving
and giving knowledge our moral and intellectual faculties are expanded to
higher conceptions and more exalted views of the great Creator, whose
almighty power is no less displayed in the constitution of spirit worlds, than
in that of the countless resplendent orbs of space.
430. We do not, as many persons in the rudimental state imagine,
abandon the studies which we commenced on earth, which would
presuppose the loss of our reasoning powers, and our consequent inferiority
to yourselves; but on the contrary, we go on progressing in knowledge and
wisdom, and shall progress throughout the boundless ages of eternity. You
being chained down to earth, by the law of gravitation, are comparatively
limited in your resources for information; but we having arrived at a higher
sphere of thought and action, and having a more extensive field of vision,

can soar higher and farther into the wonderful workings of that mysterious
Being, who, owing to the infinity of his perfections, must be forever in
advance of us, his finite creatures, and to whom, of course, we can bear no
relative proportion.
431. Our scientific researches and investigations are extended to all that
pertains to the phenomena of universal nature; to all the wonders of the
heavens and the earth, and to whatever the mind of man is capable of
conceiving: all of which exercise our faculties, and form a considerable part
of our enjoyments. The noble and sublime sciences of astronomy,
chemistry, and mathematics, engage a considerable portion of our attention,
and afford us an inexhaustible subject for study and reflection.
432. Nevertheless, there are millions of spirits who are not yet
sufficiently advanced to take any interest in those pursuits; for you will bear
in mind that the spheres are but so many departments of a great normal
school, for the mental discipline and development of the race, each of
which is reached only by the spiral[11] stages of progression,—the earth
being the first in the series, and the seventh sphere the last; being
preparatory to an entrance into the supernal heaven. You will perceive, then,
that we have an unlimited scope for the prosecution of our studies, and that
whatever knowledge you fail to acquire in the rudimental state, legitimate
thereto, you will have to obtain, in some of the degrees of the spiritual
spheres.
433. We do not study those practical arts, which are so essential to the
earth life, such as mechanics, &c.; for we do not stand in need of their
applications; our studies being wholly of a mental character, we attend to
the fundamental principles only. All the more intellectual branches of the
arts and sciences are cultivated in a much more perfect manner than that to
which we have been accustomed upon earth. The mind being untrammelled
by the gross material body, and having its intellectual energies and
perceptions improved, we can by intuition, as it were, more clearly and
rapidly perceive and understand the principles and truths on which the
sciences are based. We can trace the various relations of each subject, so as
to understand its connective importance; a knowledge at which mortals
arrive only by a long and tedious process.

434. We are not, for good and wise ends, which in due time will be fully
explained, permitted to reveal all our knowledge to those below us, as the
consequences of such a procedure would be perilous to the happiness of all,
and subversive of order.
435. In addition to our studies we have many other sources of
intellectual, moral, and heartfelt enjoyment, from which we derive the most
ineffable pleasure: one of which is social reunions and convivial meetings;
a coming together of dear friends, brothers, sisters, children and parents;
where the liveliest emotion and tenderest affections of our nature are
excited, and the fondest and most endearing reminiscences are awakened;
where spirit meets in unison with spirit, and heart beats responsive to heart.
436. Yet individuals united by the ties of consanguinity are not always
linked together, even here, by the golden chain of love and benevolent
affection, since it not unfrequently happens that there is much more
harmony existing among those who are not members of the same family.
Notwithstanding that persons who were intimately acquainted with each
other in the natural world, and those who are akin, may be and often are
separated, sometimes for long periods, still they do occasionally meet
together; those in the higher degrees and spheres passing to the lower, while
those in the latter never ascend to the former till fully prepared for such a
transition, agreeably to the fixed and unalterable laws of progression. The
periods of such separations vary according to the relative gradations of
intellectual and moral qualities in each.
437. The peculiar connections and relations of parents and children,
brothers and sisters, and all the minor ties of consanguinity, must be forever
maintained, although there may be an indefinite interruption to the
harmonious play of their affinities.
438. As regards the institution of marriage, I would observe that on earth
it is a civil contract, entered into by two persons, male and female, mutually
or otherwise, as the case may be, for and during the term of their natural
lives, but which is legally annulled on the demise of either party; so that
whether or not it be renewed in the spiritual world, is determined by choice,
not obligation.
439. Celestial marriage, however, is quite a different affair: it is the
blending of two minds in one, resulting from an innate reciprocal love in

each; a conjunction of negative and positive principles, forming a true and
indissoluble bond of spiritual union, which human legislation cannot reach:
a marriage which is born of God, and is therefore eternal. It is often asked,
“Will all be married in heaven?” I answer, Yes, most assuredly; it never was
designed for man to be alone, either on earth or in heaven: each will seek
and find their counterpart.
440. Each society has a municipal administration or moral code, subject
to the divine government; submission to the will of God, and obedience to
his laws, whether recognised in nature or revelation, forming the basis of its
constitution. With us philosophy and religion go hand in hand.
441. Evil or misdirected spirits find their affinities in the second sphere,
where the lowest and most undeveloped are associated together, and remain
for indefinite periods, but with all the moral depravity and darkness with
which they are enveloped, through the benign influence exerted over their
perceptive and rational faculties, by higher intelligences, each begins to
feel, sooner or later, the low and degraded position he occupies; moreover,
finding new means of progress, and new sources of contemplation as well
as delight, and his capacity of making perpetual advancement in
knowledge, his intellectual faculties become gradually expanded, and his
moral powers increased. Hence the grovelling propensities of his nature
yielding to the dictates of reason, his grosser passions subside, causing him
to aspire to higher associations and circumstances, which in turn beget new
wants, thoughts, and feelings.
442. We have no sectarian or ecclesiastical feuds; no metaphysical
dogmas; nor are we troubled with those insatiable cravings and inordinate
ambitions, so often manifested by mortals; nor have we any taxation for
religion, the voluntary contributions of intellectual and moral minds being
its meet support.
443. Our religious teachers belong to that class of persons who were
noted, during their probation on earth, for their philanthropy and deeds of
moral bravery; those who, regardless of the scoffs and sneers of the time-
serving multitude, dared to promulgate and defend the doctrines of “civil
and religious liberty.” These practical reformers and saviours of the race,
instead of worrying their hearers, as is the custom with many on earth, with
horrible denunciations and awful threats of eternal vengeance for their

misdoing, admonish and exhort them to higher and nobler aims and
aspirations; to the study of Deity as manifested in his stupendous works.
444. They urge upon them, too, the necessity of their co-operation in the
reformation and advancement of their more degraded brethren, by
instructing them in the divine principles of love, wisdom, and benevolence.
They instruct them in the soul-inspiring and elevating doctrine of universal
and eternal progression, and in the sublime truth that evil is not an
indestructible and positive principle, but a negative condition, a mere
temporary circumstance of their existence; and, furthermore, that suffering
for sin is not a revengeful and malevolent infliction of God, but a necessary
and invariable sequence of violated law.
445. They teach them also that, according to the divine moral economy,
there is no such thing as pardon for sins committed—no immediate mercy
—no possible escape from the natural results of crime, no matter where or
by whom committed; no healing of a diseased moral constitution by any
outward appliances, or ceremonial absurdities; and finally, that the only
way whereby to escape sin and its consequences, is by progressing above
and beyond it.
446. We derive much pleasure from the exercise of our talents in vocal
and instrumental music, which far excels the noblest efforts of musical
genius on earth. When we convene to worship God in our temples, whose
halls and columns beam with inherent celestial light, our voices are blended
together in songs of praise and adoration to the Almighty Author of our
existence, from whom all blessings are derived.
447. From what has been stated, it may be perceived that we are moral,
intellectual, and sensitive creatures. Instead of being, as many of you
imagine, mere shadowy and unsubstantial entities, we are possessed of
definite, tangible, and exquisitely symmetrical forms, with well-rounded
and graceful limbs, and yet so light and elastic that we can glide through the
atmosphere with almost electric speed. The forked lightnings may flash, and
the thunders roll in awful reverberation along the vault of heaven, and the
rain descend in gushing torrents; nevertheless, by the mere act of volition,
we may stand unharmed at your side.
448. We are, moreover, endowed with all the beauty, loveliness, and
vivacity of youth, and are clothed in flowing vestments of effulgent nature

suited to the particular degree of refinement of our bodies. Our raiment
being composed of phosphorescent principles, we have the power of
attracting and absorbing or reflecting the rays evolved, according as our
condition is more or less developed. This accounts for our being seen, by
clairvoyants, in different degrees of brightness, from a dusky hue to the
most intensely brilliant light.
449. The spiritual body is a perfect human form, originating in, and
analogous to, the corporeal organization in its several parts, functions, and
relations. The heart beats in rythmic pulsations, the lungs fulfil their office
of respiration, and the brain generates its vitalized magnetic fluid, whose
life-giving currents permeate every portion of the spiritual organism. Man
in the rudimental state is tripartite, consisting of soul, of spirit, and flesh;
but in the spheres a duality, composed of soul and spirit. Having
approached the portals of death, he disrobes himself of the exterior form as
he would put away a worn-out garment. The gross and cumbrous physical
machine, which was given for the purpose of developing his more beautiful
and excellent spiritual body, and of bringing him into more immediate
relationship with the outward world, can serve his purposes no longer.
450. For your clearer understanding of the modus operandi of our
intercourse with man, you will remember that by our transition to the world
of spirits we part with the body only. We lose none of our intelligence by
the transfer, but, on the contrary, become daily more and more developed in
our knowledge of and power over the forces in nature; so that we are
enabled to perform many feats to you, seemingly wonderful, and which
really appear miraculous to the majority of those who witness them.
451. Having disposed of the external mechanism of flesh, we cannot
come into direct contact with physical matter, but we are able, through the
sphere of the medium, when natural conditions are complied with, not only
to communicate our thoughts and wishes to our friends, but to move solid,
ponderable bodies. By spheres, I mean the particular mental or physical
state, or emanation by which all bodies, organic or inorganic, are
immediately surrounded, and the particular electrical relations which they
sustain to each other, causing repulsions and attractions in man and animals
as well as in chemical reagents.

452. When we wish to impress the mind of the medium, by the effort of
our magic will, (provided always that he or she is in sympathy with or
sustains a negative relation to the operator,) we can dispose and arrange the
magnetic currents of the brain so as to form or fashion them into ideas of
our own. We can also learn to read the thoughts of another—conditions
being favourable—as readily as you can gain a knowledge of the characters
or symbols of a language foreign to your own.
453. Thoughts being motions of the mind, assume specific and definite
forms, and when distinct in the mind can be clearly perceived and
understood by any spirit who is in sympathy with the mind in which they
are generated.
454. To influence, mechanically, the hand of a medium to write, we direct
currents of vitalized spiritual electricity on the particular muscles which we
desire to control. In order to produce the physical manifestations, it is not
by any means requisite that the medium should be possessed of a good
moral character or well-balanced mind, as an individual of small mental
calibre would answer our purpose equally well; but an advanced spirit could
not directly impress or control the organs of a mind with which he is not in
affinity, and vice versâ.
455. We can instantly determine the sphere of a spirit, in or out of the
body, by the particular brilliancy and character of the light in which he is
enveloped, as well as by the peculiar sensation which his presence creates.
456. The raps are produced by voluntary discharges of the vitalized
spiritual electricity, above mentioned, from the spirit, coming in contact
with the animal electricity emanating from the medium. These discharges
we can direct at will to any particular locality, thereby producing sounds or
concussions.
457. The question being often asked, “How do you move solid
substances?” I would partly answer it by asking, How does a magnet attract
and raise from their resting-places certain bodies within whose sphere it is
brought? How does a man move his body and direct it whithersoever it
goeth? How does God, the almighty cause of all causes, move and keep in
perpetual motion the immense systems which revolve in space, and
maintain each in its due relative position? I answer, By the magnetism of a
positive will.

458. We, in common with you and all animals, possess an infinitesimal
portion of this power, varying in degree in different classes and in different
individuals. When you raise your arm, as in the act of lifting or moving a
body, you direct by the force of your will-power galvanic currents on the
muscles required to perform the function. The muscles acting as levers,
through the stimulus of the subtle element, act and react on the more solid
parts, the bones, and thus is the object laid hold of and moved, and still you
do not come into direct contact with the object. Now, this is called a very
simple operation, and so it would appear, but who understands it? Although
advanced spirits are much more conversant with the forces operating in
nature than the most intellectually developed man in the form, still they do
not, nor can they ever, as long as eternity rolls on, understand the hidden
sphere of cause. The operation of the will it is impossible to understand.
Now, as I have said, we are not possessed of physical bodies; still we can
make the imponderable elements subserve our purposes by acting as bones,
nerves, and muscles.
459. Touching our peregrinations and voyages of discovery, about which
so much has been said by spirits, as well as mortals, I will say that it is a
fallacy to suppose that every spirit can visit at will the planets of the solar
system, much less those of the more remote systems, since I am certain that
none but the residents of the seventh sphere, or the angels of the “Supernal
Heavens,” have the power to do so; because each planet, being an inhabited
globe, hath its concentric or spiritual spheres, through all of which in order
to reach it a spirit must pass. It is obvious, therefore, according to the
immutable law of progression, that the transit of a spirit to a distant planet
would require its adaptation to the highest sphere of that body.
460. Having spoken of the angels of the “Supernal Heavens,” I will
explain what is meant by this designation. They are those pure and
comparatively exalted beings who, having advanced beyond the highest
sphere of the planet to which they belonged, and attained a very high state
of moral and intellectual development, have been admitted into that great
and illimitable sphere of progression which lies outside of all other spheres,
and in which the greatest conceivable degree of harmony reigns. It is
composed of one grand harmonial society, whose members are privileged to
go wheresoever they will through the boundless empire of space. They are
principally from the planets Jupiter and Saturn, and hold a much more

distinguished rank in the intellectual, moral, and social system than the
inhabitants of earth. I have not learned that any spirit from our planet has
yet reached the Supernal Heaven.
461. It has been said that spirits hunger, thirst, and stand in need of
repose. It is true that those states do pertain to spirit life agreeably to the
law of spiritual correspondences. The grosser and more undeveloped the
spirit, the closer is the analogy between it and the physical states.
462. Physical laws and substances are gross or externalized spiritual laws
and things. The more refined and developed the spirit, the less it requires of
gross aliment. Refined, intellectual, and moral beings are nourished and
sustained by refined, intellectual, and moral nutriment. Their food is
derived from the “Tree of Knowledge,” and they slake their thirst at the
crystal streams which continually flow from the inexhaustible fountain of
God’s wisdom and love. The lowest undeveloped spirit lives on
comparatively refined aliment to that on which mortals subsist. It consists
of the more refined elements of spiritual fruits and vegetables. The spirit’s
need of rest depends on its particular degree of development, diminishing in
proportion to its advancement from the material plane.
463. Though the principles embodied in our teachings and philosophy
may be regarded, by the majority of mankind, as strange and
incomprehensible, they are, nevertheless, no more so than the principles of
natural science would be to the unlettered mind. As the ability to
comprehend the principles on which the natural sciences are based
increases with the expansion of the intellectual faculties, in like manner is
the power of perceiving spiritual things and relations increased by the
development of the interior or spiritual faculties.
464. As there are no words in the human language in which spiritual
ideas may be embodied so as to convey their literal and exact signification,
we are obliged ofttimes to have recourse to the use of analogisms and
metaphorical modes of expression. In our communion with you we have to
comply with the peculiar structure and rules of your language; but the
genius of our language is such that we can impart more ideas to each other
in a single word than you can possibly convey in a hundred.
465. I have thus given you a general outline of the leading facts
connected with the destiny of the race. I have endeavoured to show you that

man is a progressive being, that he possesses a refined material (449)
organization, which, going with him at death, serves as a medium through
which he may communicate with the visible world. I will here add that,
under certain circumstances, this spiritual organization has the power of
reflecting the rays of light, so as to be rendered visible to the natural eye, as
are certain gaseous bodies.
466. I have attempted to show you, too, that the spirit on entering the
spheres, being governed by its affinity, takes its position in that circle for
which it is morally and intellectually adapted; hence the first sphere is the
abode of all the most degraded spirits, and that their advancement, however
slow it may be, is nevertheless sure, since “onward and upward” is the
motto emblazoned on the spiritual banner.
467. I have endeavoured to show you, also, that the spirit is a finite being
like man in the form, and, therefore, fallible, and that as he advances in
knowledge, he grasps more of truth and drops more of error. I have
attempted to show you that the spirit world is a counterpart of the natural
world, and that we, no less than you, are subject to surrounding conditions
and circumstances. Spirits of congenial minds and opinions are drawn
toward each other and to you, on the principle that “like attracts like.” In
order to receive high moral and intellectual communications, it is
essentially necessary that the medium and circle should be in affinity with
each other, and with the spirits who are capable of giving such
communications.
468. Besides the topics adverted to, I will briefly call your attention to a
few of the most prominent among the beneficial results which will flow
from spiritual intercommunion. It will settle the important question, “If a
man die, shall he live again?” It will reduce the fact of the immortality of
the human spirit to a certainty, so that the world’s knowledge of the fact will
not be the result of a blind faith, but a positive philosophy. It will show the
relation existing between mind and matter. It will make men thinking and
rational beings. It will establish a holy and most delightful intercourse
between the inhabitants of the terrestrial world and their departed spirit
friends. It will expand and liberalize the mind far beyond your present
conceptions. It will fraternize and unite all the members of the human
family in an everlasting bond of spiritual union and harmonial brotherhood.
It will establish the principles of love to God and your fellows. It will do

away with sectarian bigotry. It will show that many of the so-called
religious teachings are but impositions on the credulity of mankind, being
founded on the grossest absurdities and palpable ignorance of the nature of
things.
469. It will give man higher and infinitely more exalted views of God,
and bring him into closer communion with the Author of his being. It will
do away completely with the sting of death, and rob the grave of its terrors.
It will teach the eternal progression of the soul, and show that the time is
fast approaching when the moral condition of the race is to be vastly
improved; when error is to be abolished, and truth is to take its place; when
the glory of the Lord is to be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together! In
fine, it will be a help to the soul in the hour of its adversity, and enable it to
bear up under affliction with noble and heroic fortitude; and when about to
launch its barque on the river of eternal life for the fair and beautiful land of
promise, it will be its stay and sheet-anchor.
Your father, Robert Hare.

Communication from a Spirit Son of the Author.

I have in the spirit world two sons, one of whom died, thirteen months
old, in 1813; the other, five months old, in 1825. Both have been to
communicate with me. I subjoin a letter received from the younger:
470. “My Dear Father:—I made a very brief communication to you
through the medium of Mr. Gordon, which was my first successful effort to
control the human organism. It has been long known to me that spirits could
manifest themselves to mortals; and that they have always held communion
with their brethren in the flesh, is not new to me. The law is as natural as
gravitation, and like it, I presume, will endure forever. But so great has
been, and still is, the superstition of the masses, and to such an extent has
man’s mental vision been obscured by his so-called spiritual teachers, that,
excepting a comparatively few instances, spirits have failed in their
attempts to reveal themselves to the civilized portion of mankind. The
conditions have, for the most part, been wanting, owing to the above
causes, and which have grown out of man’s false notions respecting his
natural and true relation with the unseen world. The less civilized of our
Father’s children, in regard to their communion with spirits, have been

much more highly favoured than their otherwise more fortunate brethren,
since it has not been an uncommon circumstance for them to commune with
their departed friends.
471. “Many years, my dear parent, have elapsed since I entered the bright
abode of the blest—a very little child, yet a very happy one. My first and
second birth rapidly succeeded each other; but so little did I know, from
actual experience, of my rudimental condition, that I have never realized the
change. I have no memory of my earth-life, yet I know from observation
and reflection that I am to some extent the loser by my premature birth into
the spiritual state. I have, it is true, measurably obtained since then that
knowledge of exterior nature which I should have acquired in the flesh, on
the globe which gave me birth, as an independent, individualized existence.
472. “My life here has been a charmed one; enrapturing scenes of beauty
being constantly presented to view, like the ever-varying landscapes
delineated on the canvas by a skilful artist. Now is seen a beautiful silvery
lake on whose translucent bosom floats the graceful swan, bending his
pliant neck, as if proudly conscious of his surpassing beauty; and anon,
among the lilies of this lake, which appear like gems placed on a virgin
brow, shoots a tiny barque, freighted with angelic children. Then is
presented a bolder view, of towering mountains and wide-extended plains,
with the accompanying characteristics of hill and dell.
473. “In answer to a question which would naturally suggest itself to
your mind, respecting the means by which I have become acquainted with
that knowledge of the external world which I should have gained in it, I
would say it has been acquired by frequent visits to the earth. I have been
accustomed to accompany you, father, in your daily walks, and to study,
through you and mother, those elementary lessons which are so essential to
the full development of the spirit. Your son Theodore, though nearly
forgotten by you, has not been far distant. The time is fast approaching, and
is near at hand, when man’s spiritual nature and destiny will be much more
fully comprehended by the world. Then spirit manifestations and spirit
intercourse will be considered as natural as for the sun to rise in the eastern
heavens. Spirits highly elevated in love and wisdom would not descend
from their exalted position except to teach, for their attractions are upward,
but their mission is to instruct those below them, from which they derive
much happiness. You know, father, how much pleasure it gives you to

impart knowledge to others. How much greater then is our enjoyment,
whose minds are intensely more susceptible of real joys! Your spiritual
mission on earth has just begun, and we are endeavouring to impress your
mind with the sacred importance of its fulfilment. Give unto others that we
give unto you, and you shall receive abundantly. I occupy a place which has
not yet been opened to your perception. Prepare yourself, my dear father,
for its higher and more glorious unfoldings, by first gaining that knowledge
which pertains to the lower degrees, and you will thereby become elevated
to the higher spiritual planes, and increase your knowledge of things
celestial, and greatly develop and enlarge your sphere of usefulness.
Theodore.”

Additional Communications from Spirits who died while Infants.

474. The brother of a medium reported himself by spelling out his name
in full—Dewitt Matthias. He had departed this life at the age of thirteen
months. I inquired if he had taught himself to spell. I was instructed, was
his answer.
475. While I was in a state of extreme unbelief, Dewitt’s mother told me
that her son, who died when aged only thirteen months, had communicated
with her; and said that his stature had grown with his age, now sixteen
years. This statement I mentioned as an exemplification of credulity, little
thinking that this wonder would be realized by the existence of my spirit
children being made evident to me by such communications as that from
Theodore, above given.
476. The eldest child of my parents died an infant, yet my elder brother,
Charles, in his account of his spiritual birth, mentions that this brother came
as a full-grown spirit to greet his translation to the spirit world.

Communication from a very young Spirit child to its Parents.

477. The following communications have been received from a spirit
child, as I understand, of about six years old. It will be perceived that it was
assisted by its grandmother. They have been handed to me by the child’s
father, Mr. George Helmick, in whose sincerity I have great confidence.

478. The following message, says Mr. Helmick, came through the
medium of Miss Irish, some eight months since, on an occasion when there
were some twelve or fifteen persons present, nearly all of whom were entire
strangers to me and my wife, who was also present. We had never seen
Miss Irish before, and we know that she had no knowledge of us in any
respect.
479. The fact that we had a child in the spirit world was not known to any
present but myself and wife.
480. “Father, do you not, kind father, feel my soft and gentle touch upon
your brow?[12] Can you not feel my presence, as grandmamma and I, with
care, enfold you in our embrace?
“Mother, gentle, loving mother, do you not feel my angel kiss, as I
imprint it upon your cheek?
“Father, mother, I left you before earth’s errors had a chance to take root
within my young and tender mind.
481. “Then, loving parents, think of me as you do of a gentle moonbeam,
which struggles to bless earth with its presence but for a moment, and then
softly and sweetly returns to heaven again.
“Spirit Child.”
For George Helmick.

The following message was received through Mrs. Gourlay on the 27th
of October last, by the aid of a disk and alphabet as arranged by Dr. Hare:
482. “Dear and loving mother, grandma will help me to write to you.
483. “A calm and holy atmosphere pervades this little company, and
lovely forms are surrounding each earth friend. O thou great God of
goodness! to thee our hearts are raised in thanksgiving for this privilege of
communion with our friends on earth. Gratitude should fill the hearts of all
present. Little children are sporting in this atmosphere of love like gentle
moonbeams, kissing with a gentle touch the brows of their loving parents.

484. “Oh! why should you weep for those who have gone before? Rather
mourn those who are debarred the joys of our celestial homes, where the
weary spirit finds rest from the toils of earth, where all is joy evermore.
485. “Gentle mother, your little seraph-boy is not dead, but liveth. In his
uncontaminated love, find comfort for the ills of life.
486. “Dear father, it was my spirit hand which was placed on thy brow,
which you just felt.
487. “I left earth pure. In this purity I come to my dear parents. Accept
my love, and give me yours in return.
“Little Walter.”
Mrs. Helmick.

OF THE SPIRITUAL BIRTH,[13] CALLED DEATH, OF
HUMAN BEINGS, CALLED MORTALS, ALTHOUGH
IMMORTAL.

Of Spiritual Birth.

488. Having obtained from several of my most valued spirit friends or
relatives, narratives of their translation from this sphere to the world of
spirits, it appears, from their concurrent testimony, that on the death of the
body, the soul finds itself soon afterward awaking from a profound sleep,—
but so much more like dreaming than being awake, as for a short time to
create a doubt whether it be not dreaming. Meanwhile, bright shadowy
forms become more and more distinguishable; and the body which it has
left being perceived apart on its bed, or in whatever position its death
occurred, the conviction is induced that another state of existence has been
attained. As the forms, at first shadowy, become distinct, they are usually
found to be those of the nearest or dearest previously departed friends.

These meet the nascent spirit with every possible manifestation of affection,
while the most ecstatic emotions are awakened.
489. Forthwith the spirit is conducted to his celestial abode: of which the
elevation is greater as the morality of the individual concerned is higher.

Narrative given by Spirits of their translation to the Spirit World, the
abode of human souls in a future state

490. The following narrative is from an excellent spirit philanthropist,
who, though a stranger to me in this world, introduced himself to me at the
session of a small circle, by the communication alleged to be intended for
me, which has already been quoted. (147.)
491. He has since reported himself as the author of those sentiments, and
has held many conversations with me.[14]
492. Subsequently to an address made by me at Franklin Hall, he
expressed himself as follows: “Do not keep your light under a bushel. I was
present and heard you speak last night. I wish you to say more about your
personal experience. That would weigh with the community at large.” I
excused my course by answering, that I wished my experience to be riper
before submitting it to the community.

Narrative of his Spiritual Birth, by W. W-—-, a most benevolent Spirit of
the Fifth Sphere.

493. “Did you ever have a most delightful dream in which you saw your
near and dear friends about you, all seeming happy and contented with their
condition? If you have, then you can form an imperfect idea of my state
when I awoke to the reality of the change which opened upon my entranced
sight on being ushered into the spheres. I had been long sick, and was
subject to periods of unconsciousness. Therefore I did not soon perceive the
change to be real. I felt almost too much happiness for my spirit to bear.
“On looking around, I perceived my mother, with outstretched arms,
ready to receive her welcome son to the mansion prepared for him.

494. “Did I still dream? I asked: no! it was a blessed reality; all pain had
fled, and my spirit rejoiced in new health. I could hardly contain myself
from expressing my gratitude to God in verbal ejaculations. But I soon
found that I had a much more delightful mode of expression. Each
countenance beamed with love and intelligence, and the spirits could
interpret my thoughts as readily as mortals can read a well-printed book.
495. “One spirit, on whose countenance I could read volumes,
approached, and taking me by the hand said, ‘Welcome, dear brother, to this
sinless world, where your progression is sure; no obstacles shall impede
your footsteps; the conditions of time are removed; your feet shall fail not
in the race of progress. Onward and Upward is our motto.’
496. “With willing heart I followed my guide. Every step taken led me up
toward the great Source of light and truth. I never wearied in my journey.
Bright and sparkling waters flowed at my feet, and living flowers sprang up
before me. Each new object gave me courage to proceed. Old familiar faces
met my gaze at every footstep, and cherub forms flitted past me. Golden
clouds rested over the scene, and all nature was refulgent with light and
animation. Huge oaks tossed their giant branches to the pure breezes of
heaven, and lofty pines bowed their heads in love and adoration. The little
birds sent forth their notes of praise, while the air was laden with the
perfume of flowers. Being fond of the beauties of nature while on earth, I
enjoyed this scene much.
497. “I was rejoiced to see so many of my friends present. Each vied with
the other to give me the most cordial welcome.
498. “I soon perceived that I was near my journey’s end, for I had
reached the fifth sphere of spiritual progression. My guide pointed out to
my view the mansion which I was to occupy.
499. “I was told that I could return to earth, when I was so inclined.
Inclination often draws me thither. So long as a spirit has friends on earth,
he will visit them; but when they join him, he loses his attachment for the
rudimental sphere, and seldom thereafter leaves his celestial abode.
500. “My habitation consists of suites of rooms, most beautifully
ornamented with paintings and statues and the most elegant productions of
spirit art. Each individual can have his dwelling to suit his own particular

taste or fancy. The more refined and elevated the spirit, the more refined
and beautiful is the house or home that he inhabits.
501. “The occupations of the higher spirits are of a more intellectual
character than the highest on earth.
502. “Our spheres are types of yours; but we do not have to provide for
the casket which contains the spiritual jewel.”

SPIRITUAL BIRTH OF MARIA.

503. If the reader will turn to my narrative, 192 to 200, he will learn
under what circumstances I became acquainted with Maria, the being of
whose spiritual birth it will, in the next place, be my object to give her own
account.
504. My acquaintance with this truly angelic creature has awakened in
me lively friendship and esteem. These sentiments have been induced by
her devotion to her parents, her affectionate recollection of her children, and
gracious demeanour to others.

The Spirit Maria’s Narrative, as given through the Mediumship of Mrs.
M. B. Gourlay.

505. Dear Father: I promised to give you an account of my entrance into,
and life in the spheres. As I said to you on a former occasion, I felt like one
just awaking from a deep sleep induced by the deadening influence of an
opiate. It was some time before I could collect my scattered senses. On
partially regaining my consciousness, I recollected having been sick, and
the anxiety of my friends for my restoration to health; and I wondered at the
sudden change in my feelings. Those racking pains I experienced had all
fled, and I felt a newness of life which was truly delightful. Indistinct and
shadowy forms flitted before me. On closely inspecting them, I perceived
that they were my departed friends. It was then that I fully realized the

change in my condition. My first and greatest concern was for those who
seemed so inconsolable at my loss, and for whom I still entertained the
most devoted love and affection. My vision becoming gradually clearer, I
perceived, among the group, my brother William ready to receive me. He
was clothed in a garment of living light, and closely resembles you, dear
father, in form and features. He addressed me in the following language:
—“Welcome, thrice welcome, my beloved sister, to the regions of
immortality! I have been your guardian angel through life, and have looked
forward with pleasure to this happy reunion.” I was now informed by him
that I must leave my treasures on earth. This gave me some uneasiness, but
being assured that I should visit them again, I cheerfully accompanied him
in his upward flight.
506. Surprise and delight pervaded my existence when I beheld those
friends bound to me by the ties of consanguinity ready to receive me and
fold me to their hearts.
507. Gliding swiftly upward, on gaining an elevation of some sixty miles
from the earth’s surface, we passed into the second sphere;[15] on entering
which a tremor seized me. A moral darkness pervades the atmosphere,
which renders it gloomy and uncomfortable in the extreme. The inhabitants
are dark and dismal in their appearance, and are continually tortured with
the pangs of a guilty conscience. Here disorder and confusion reign
supreme, each spirit vieing with the other in rendering discord more
discordant. We passed on rapidly, leaving the second sphere and its
undeveloped inhabitants behind.
508. On approaching the third sphere, we were met by a company of
angels from the seventh sphere, among whom I recognised my brothers
who died in infancy. They had attained the stature of men. I now felt that
law of affinity which binds us so closely together, drawing me toward them,
and I was enabled at once to single them out from the multitude which
accompanied them. With smiles they greeted me, saying, “Welcome, dear
sister; another link is added to the chain of love which binds us together.
One by one they shall be removed from earth till the chain is completed
here.”
509. We next entered the third sphere, where comparative order reigns.
There I perceived many spirits intently listening to a teacher, whose theme

was the subject of progression.
510. Anxiously desiring to reach my destiny, we quickly passed to the
fourth sphere. How different the scene! every thing looked bright and
beautiful to my enraptured sight. It seemed like an enchanted land.
Thousands of flowers scented the air with their odoriferous perfume, and
rapturous strains of music thrilled me with delight! We now approached a
beautiful temple devoted to the science of the harmony of sounds. In it
music in all its departments is taught. O, father, could you hear the master
spirits of song, who lived ages ago on earth, attuning their instruments to
harmony, your senses would become entranced. Music, being conceived in
heaven, is sent forth to earth to elevate man, and attract him to our great and
beneficent Father. I perceived that the fourth sphere was to be my abiding-
place for the present.
511. On my return to the second sphere, it looked somewhat different to
me, for, having lost my fear, I could more closely inspect the place and its
inhabitants. The country, as far as my vision could penetrate, seemed like a
vast desert, without a green spot to relieve the eye. Its denizens are seen
straggling here and there, with no fixed object in view. All are seeking to
minister to their perverted tastes. Some are holding forth in loud tones, and
painting in false and gaudy colours the joy of their home; others, who
occupied high stations on earth, hang their heads in confusion, and would
fain hide themselves from view; but they are taunted with rude jests, and
told that their “pride of position will avail them nothing here.” One heart-
sickening feature of this place is the absence of children. No purity can
exist where such evils abound. “The loud laugh, which bespeaks the vacant
mind,” is heard pealing forth in derision, as the teachers from the higher
spheres approach the motley group. Some, in whom the work of
regeneration has commenced, are seen ascending the spiral stairway of
progress which leads to the third sphere.
512. The beauty of the third sphere far transcends that of earth. The
scenery is endlessly diversified with spiritual objects, corresponding to
things of your planet. Mountains and valleys, hills and dales, rivers and
lakes, and trees and plants, lend their enchantment to the scene. The
inhabitants of this sphere are anxious for instruction. The teachers from the
higher degrees are listened to with profound respect and attention.

513. I saw many persons whom I knew in the rudimental state. I met a
spirit yesterday whom I have seen in your company before he left the form.
[16]
I felt attracted to him. On approaching him, he smilingly said, “Why do
you take such an interest in me, fair being? I know you not.” “True,” I
replied, “but I saw you in my father’s company before you left the earth,
and was present once when my brother gave you a communication, which,
by the way, you received with much incredulity; therefore, I feel
constrained to speak to you.” He thanked me, saying, “I never believed in
the immortality of the soul; consequently, it was not strange that I should
doubt the spirits.” “Your skepticism,” I replied, “was honest; therefore you
will rise much sooner in the scale of progression. A sincere unbelief is
better than false professions.” Here I left him, and followed a multitude
who were just entering a magnificent temple, where a teacher was to
address them. This structure is immensely large and exquisitely
symmetrical in its proportions. Many stately columns support its roof, each
surmounted by a cap of chaste design. The material of this temple is similar
in appearance to alabaster, but transparent. The seats are semicircular,
forming an amphitheatre, in the centre of which stood the speaker,
Channing. With uplifted hands he invoked God’s blessing on all mankind.
With what breathless attention all listened to the glowing words of
eloquence which fell from his lips! This is the true worship of the soul. His
text was: “The light that is within you.” He dwelt at some length on the
importance of self-elevation, as a means of progressing others. He spoke of
the moral bond of union which binds the race together. “When one
individual,” said he, “is degraded, all must suffer.” His discourse abounded
with clear and energetic thought.
514. As we passed from this temple, I met my friend of yesterday. He
remarked that he had learned much from the speaker who had just
addressed us. He said that his mind, before entering the spheres, had been
much troubled about the future, although light had begun to dawn on his
mental horizon. “Hope,” said he, “with her cheering countenance, had
almost deserted me, and the world appeared like a dreary wilderness. Sick
and disheartened, I laid me down to recruit my exhausted energies. An
unconscious period intervened, and then burst on my enraptured vision the
glorious morning of the resurrection in all its loveliness; and with it came a
bright messenger of light to bear me onward and upward to the boundless

regions of progressive wisdom, where my untrammelled spirit can soar aloft
to study the wondrous works of Almighty God.”
515. In the fourth sphere the scenery is characterized by still more
beautiful landscapes: the grass appears of a greener green, and the flowers
are more gorgeous in their hue, and the birds sing still more sweetly. Shall I
lead you to this parterre? Here you perceive the lily with its almond-shaped
leaves, and stamens delicately tinted with the faintest crimson; by its side is
the blushing rose. Here you observe the myrtle, the emblem of love, and the
passion-flower, which speaks of a deathless passion. All have an interior
language which spirits alone can fully comprehend. The trees here are
somewhat different from those on earth. This is a strange-looking one. Its
trunk is very straight, and runs up to an immense height without branches;
its top is surmounted by tufts of beautiful spiral-shaped silvery leaves; by
its side stands one of very different appearance, whose depending branches,
like the graceful willow, bend beneath their wealth of leaves, courting one
to repose beneath their grateful shade. Here, too, are sparkling streams,
murmuring cascades, and gushing fountains, and trees bending beneath
their load of golden fruit; and here are temples devoted to the arts and
sciences.
516. Now, dear father, let not a school on earth rise up before your
imagination. Our schools and systems of instruction differ widely from
those in the rudimental sphere, inasmuch as they are far more beautiful. We
use neither books nor charts, but the spirit or substance of each subject is
presented to the student, whose mind at once perceives its internal meaning.
In this way are solved the most difficult problems.
517. Let us enter this building devoted to the teachers from the seventh
sphere. See the multitude thronging its portals. Before we enter, let us
glance at its exterior. It is circular in form, and beautiful in its architectural
design. Its spiral columns are entwined with the richest flowers, which yield
a delicious fragrance. As you enter this temple, its fretted vaults resound
with the soft harmonious symphonies of spirit voices. In the midst of the
group stands the teacher, Melancthon, who suffered in the cause of religious
freedom. His countenance is mild and angelic, but he still retains that
fearless spirit which characterized him on earth.

518. Here comes a band of beautiful children carrying wreaths of flowers
in their hands. They are singing, and they lead by the hand a lovely child
just escaped from earth. How happy it seems! It is quite unconscious of the
change in its condition.
519. Let us now wend our way to the fifth sphere. This state is in a still
greater degree heavenly. As far as the eye can reach are seen lovely villas,
magnificent temples, forest-crowned hills, and gently undulating plains. Let
us go up this avenue, shaded with lofty sycamores: this is the residence of
H. K. White. How enchanting the spot! It is a low cottage embosomed in
the midst of trees and flowers, which, by interlacing, form beautiful arbours
with arched entrances. The grounds about this dwelling are skilfully and
tastefully laid out. The clematis and honeysuckle entwine their tendrils
around the trellis-work of the door. Let us enter. Statues of the most
exquisite finish fill the niches; couches and divans of various forms and
singular devices grace the rooms, and carpets of the softest texture and most
brilliant dyes cover the floors. It is, indeed, the beau ideal of a poet’s home.
In this sphere dwell Channing, Ballou, Murray, the Wesleys, Byron, Burns,
Moore, Shelley, Scott, and Hahnemann, the founder of your school, who is
still engaged in the investigation of scientific truths. I speak of those
persons in particular, because I am personally acquainted with them, being
attracted to them by a congeniality of feeling.
520. The sixth state or sphere far transcends the most gorgeous picture of
oriental splendour. So lovely are the scenes presented to the view there, that
I cannot impress your mind with any thing like a just conception of them. I
receive my ideas of the fifth, sixth, and seventh spheres from the spirits who
dwell therein, having never visited them in person. What a magnificent
panorama is there presented to the spirit’s gaze! There are colossal temples,
and “houses not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” As far as the
vision can extend may be seen cities and palaces, whose lofty domes
sparkle like diamonds in the sunbeams of heaven; oceans and seas with
which yours are mere lakes in comparison; placid lakes and noble rivers
winding their interminable way through valleys clothed with perpetual
verdure.
521. There are gardens there of inconceivable beauty, filled with the
choicest and most aromatic herbs and flowers, and birds with every
conceivable variety of plumage. The parks are of great magnitude, and

abound with the most beautiful animals. The swift antelope, the wild
gazelle, and the graceful deer are seen ranging over the flowery plains.
There the lion and the lamb lie down together in peaceful innocence. There
are congregated millions of spirits, who are associated together like a
harmonious and happy family. The vales are vocal with celestial melody,
and the air is redolent with the perfume of flowers.
522. How shall I describe to you the transcendent glory of the seventh
sphere? Let us contemplate it. In it all the beauties and joys of the lower
degrees are combined, but in a much more refined and sublimated form.
There dwell the spirits of the just made more perfect. Innumerable
companies of children, which constitute the infant army of heaven, are
singing in gladsome strains the love of Him who called them into being,
causing the atmosphere to resound with harmonious shouts of joy. There
dwells Jesus of Nazareth, the great moral reformer, and “John the beloved.”
There reside the apostles, prophets, and martyrs of olden time. There live
Confucius, Seneca, Plato, Socrates, and Solon, with all the philosophers of
ancient Greece and Rome.
523. That sphere is illumined by the refulgent beams of heaven’s great
central sun, in whose genial warmth and golden flood of living light spirits
find life eternal.

My Sister’s account of her Spiritual Birth, or Translation to the Spirit
World.

524. Dear brother: The language of mortals is inadequate to convey to
your mind a tenth part of the joy that I experienced when liberated from the
physical body. You remember well the hour when the summons came. You
did not expect me to depart so soon. The mutual relationship which had
existed between my body and spirit being dissolved, I found myself still a
living, thinking, and intelligent being, and in a world of tangible and eternal
realities.
525. When the last act in the drama of life was finished, and as soon as I
had emerged from the pleasing reverie which succeeded the moment of
dissolution, I found my room filled with bright visitants from the world of
spirits, and my ears were delighted with the sweetest melodies. I now felt

that the great secret was about to be disclosed, and I began to realize that I
had indeed passed from death unto life.
526. Dazzled by the exceeding brilliancy of the light which emanated
from the pure beings who surrounded me, I began to distrust my senses, and
looked about to assure myself that I was not in a dream or trance. I was
soon startled from my musing by a gentle pull at my garment, and on
turning round to discover the cause, I instantly recognised my beloved
father. Oh! imagine my feelings at that joyful moment; no words can
describe them. I now felt a strong desire to leave earth. Father perceiving
this, placed his hand in mine, and said, “My daughter, the battle is fought,
the victory is won; follow me.” He now led me forth into open space. We
were immediately encircled by a magnificent halo of light, and strains of
heavenly music floated on the circumambient air. Here a scene of glory was
revealed to me which human imagination is unable to conceive. As we
penetrated the clear blue depths of ether, myriads of angelic beings crossed
our path, and many greeted me with words of welcome.
527. Having passed beyond earth’s sphere, new and more glorious scenes
burst upon my enraptured vision, and they increased in beauty at each
successive stage of our journey. I felt that a great change had taken place in
my condition, for the most intense sensations of pleasure pervaded my soul.
Father watched my emotions with deep interest, and was delighted with the
startling and happy effect produced on my mind. We passed quickly
through the different stages of our progress, till we arrived at the fifth
spiritual sphere, which is my present home. I am often with my friends on
earth, and would gladly influence them, and prove my identity to them, if
they would render themselves receptive to my power.
528. My present home, in point of beauty, far excels any scene ever
witnessed by mortal eye. The interior of nature is laid open to the spirit’s
perception, and the hidden treasures of earth are exposed to its view. When
we desire to be with our friends on earth, we have only to will it, and our
desire is instantly gratified. We can visit the spheres below, but not those
above us until we are prepared for admission into them by a gradual process
of development.
529. The first spiritual sphere is the abode of those spirits whose desires
are low and sensuous; they pursue those pleasures which are most congenial

to their unrefined and grovelling natures; but as their moral faculties
become strengthened, they lose their taste for debasing pursuits, and rise in
the scale of being. The brightness of the halo which envelopes the spirit is
increased in proportion to its increase of moral and intellectual greatness.
530. Dear Robert, I have looked forward with great pleasure to the time
when I might be enabled to commune with you.
531. All knowledge gained by mortals will be of advantage to them in the
spheres.
532. Each individual in the spirit world is judged and suffers according to
the deeds done in the body. There is no possible escape from the legitimate
consequences of evil actions. The book of God’s judgment is the record
made on the tablets of the mind, and it may be read by all. The hypocrite
can remain hypocrite no longer, as he will inevitably appear in his true
colours; and in this fact, in part, shall his punishment consist.
533. I would say a few words to you concerning the condition of infants.
The infant spirit ascends directly to the seventh sphere, and is given in
charge of a guardian spirit, by whom it is cared for and instructed in those
things which most serve to develop its intellectual powers. It is permitted
occasionally to visit its parents who may be in lower spheres, and to
descend even to earth with its guardian angel, who often communicates for
it.
534. Every individual, at death, is waited on by a congenial spirit, who
escorts him to his home in that sphere to which his merit entitles him.
535. The object of our present mission to the inhabitants of the earth is to
convince millions of doubting mortals of the fact of their immortality, and
of the glorious destiny which awaits them beyond the limits of the tomb.
536. It is thought by many of our brothers in the flesh that we will impart
to them all the knowledge that we possess respecting the mysteries of the
spheres; but on this point let them be undeceived, for it is utterly impossible
for them to comprehend all in their present rudimental state. Our chief
object is to assure them, by unmistakable signs, of the soul’s immortality,
and the conditions necessary to be observed by them in order to obtain a
happy future existence.

537. Notwithstanding the truth of spirit manifestations and spirit
teachings, there are many persons who will not readily perceive it; their
minds are so much cramped and distorted by false teachings, that many
years shall have elapsed before there can be much improvement in them; of
such it hath been said, “They would not believe though one should arise
from the dead.”
538. My brother, I would say a word to you touching your duty in regard
to the present dispensation. You occupy a prominent and important place in
the dissemination of this most glorious gospel; your mind has ever been
desirous of the truth; a uniform consistency of conduct has marked your
course through life: pursue, then, the even tenor of your way, and let love be
the controlling principle of your motives and actions, and if reviled, revile
not again, but bear all things nobly for the truth’s sake, and great will be
your reward. I would say, moreover, let your reason determine the value of
our teachings. You are engrossed to some extent by the cares and
perplexities of earth life; therefore you cannot so fully realize the wondrous
joys which await you in yonder peaceful heaven!
539. My brother, when the lamp of your earthly existence shall begin to
burn dimly, and the objects of earth recede from your view, your spirit
father and sister will be at hand to conduct you into the presence of those
loved friends who are bound to you by the ties of consanguinity and
sympathy.
Martha.

My Brother’s account of his Spiritual Birth.

540. Dear brother Robert: How long I remained in a state of
unconsciousness, previous to my spiritual birth, is unknown to me; suffice it
to say, when the vital cord which bound me to the physical body was
parted, I experienced a full consciousness of my personality. I enjoyed
perfect freedom from pain and sickness, and an unwonted degree of
strength and buoyancy of spirit; sensations of the most exalted character
took possession of me, and a holy calm pervaded the sanctuary of my soul.
It was not, however, until I saw my body lying upon the bed, that the true
nature of my situation flashed across my mind. I shall never forget that
moment of ecstatic bliss. I felt a sudden and indescribable consciousness of

increased mental and physical power, and my body was most beautifully
and symmetrically formed; in fact, I beheld myself a perfect and immortal
man! I perceived, too, that my step was lighter, freer, and more elastic than
usual, and my whole system was singularly rejuvenated. I knew that I was
in eternity, yet I saw that I was upon the earth. As my mind became clear,
and my vision less obstructed, a radiant spirit, whom I had not before
noticed, addressed me in these words: “Brother! welcome, welcome, to the
bright and joyous spirit land, to this blest habitation for the children of men,
to this land of ceaseless progression.” The spirit having spoken thus,
beckoned me away.
541. Having passed beyond the sphere of earth, we entered the regions of
perpetual day, where the foot of mortal never trod; where the brilliant
flowers were never culled by mortal hands; where beautiful spirits, angelic
beings, float in mid air, and sport beside the sparkling fountains; where
harmonious voices mingle with the rich tones of golden harps, and silver
flute-notes ascend to the arching heavens. On our way thither we saw many
companies of ministering angels passing to and fro on their respective
missions. Some, who were assembled in groups, talked earnestly together
upon congenial subjects; while others blended their voices in anthems of
praise, whose echoes were prolonged far up through the realms of space to
blend with still more glorious harmonies in spheres above. Those celestial
beings, though beautiful beyond the conception of finite man, were not of
the highest order of angels. They belong to that class whose mission is to
visit the dwellings of men, and to minister unto the bereaved and afflicted
of earth; to tend the beds of the dying, and to whisper rest to the weary and
hope to the desponding.
542. My brother, I might speak to you of the past, but I prefer to open the
door of the bright and glorious future. Solon said that no one should call
himself happy before death; now, although I do not sanction this advice of
the distinguished sage, I know that there is, comparatively speaking, no
happiness in the rudimentary state; no pleasure equal to that which awaits
the resurrected spirit in those beautiful mansions where it shall forever
bathe in the eternal sunlight of its Father’s love. I cannot find words to
describe to you the magnificent creations of Him from whom all order,
beauty, and harmony proceed.

543. I am surrounded by every thing that can delight the eye, please the
ear, and gratify the taste. I have every facility for studying all the principles
in the vast universe of matter.
544. In the higher spiritual states perfect peace and tranquillity reign: no
strife mars the harmony of the celestial abodes.
545. My mission is to instruct spirits in the lower circles, and to raise
them from their degraded condition.
546. Every spirit follows those pursuits that are most congenial to him.
547. Every spirit has a sphere of utility, and finds his true position on
entering the spheres.
Brother, the years of your external life are drawing to a close. When your
initial term is finished, you will enter upon an unending series of moral and
intellectual developments; then you will be fully compensated for all that
you have endured in the cause of truth on earth. Your present life,
remember, is but the prelude to ineffable joys in the world beyond the
grave. Thank God, your barque is not drifting rudderless and pilotless on
the great ocean of time. No! she is well-manned and equipped, and pursues
her direct course, fearing neither Scylla nor Charybdis.
Robert, you have acted nobly and fearlessly in defending the great cause
of humanity. We are watching your movements with great interest.
Continue to devote your mental energies to the development of spiritual
facts, and we will aid you when conditions favour. Farewell.
C. W. H.

CONVOCATION OF SPIRITS.

Sixty-four Queries addressed to a Convocation of Worthies
from the Spirit World; also, the Replies given by them, and
confirmed under conditions which no mortal could pervert.
548. Having received many pages of communication from my father,
sister, brother, and certain other spirit friends, on the subject of the spirit
world, and having been urged by him and other inhabitants of that world to
publish the information thus communicated, I represented, at a time when
this honoured being reported his presence, that I felt a reluctance at
publishing solely on the authority of my relations; and requested that certain
distinguished spirits, who, as I had been told, had attended one of my
lectures at Boston, should sanction a synopsis of the facts which I had
learned respecting the spirit world. (409 to 547.)
549. The propriety of my request being admitted, it was appointed that on
Monday, the 18th of February, 1855, at nine o’clock, there should be a
convocation of some of the worthies in question at the dwelling of the
excellent medium employed. Accordingly, soon after my arrival there, at the
appointed time, my father reported himself, and the following names were
spelt out as being present:

George Washington,
J. Q. Adams,
Wm. H. Harrison,
A. Jackson,
Henry Clay,
Benjamin Franklin,
W. E. Channing,
H. K. White,
Isaac Newton,
Byron,
Martha Washington,
Besides relatives and friends.

550. The queries subjoined were then read successively, pausing, of
course, for an answer to each in turn.
551. The answers were given through an instrument analogous to that
represented by Fig. 1, Plate 4, and described on the page opposite to the
plate.
552. Finally, after all the queries had been answered agreeably to the
usual conditions, a confirmation of the whole was given under test
conditions, as explained in the page opposite Plate 4.
553. Relying on these conditions as competent to secure the issue against
the control of the medium or that of any other mortal, the question was put,
“Have all the answers been correctly communicated?” In reply, the index
moved so as to point to the word “Yes,” and the following address was
made at the same time:
554. Friend, we have heard your questions, and severally affirm that we
have answered them as recorded by you.
555. It is to be understood that all the subjoined inquiries were answered
simply in the affirmative, excepting where a qualified answer made more
words necessary than the word “Yes,” by itself. The queries having been
previously reduced to writing, the answers were written down by me at
once.
556. (1.) Is it true that within a space lying between the earth and the
lunar orbit there are seven concentric regions, denominated spheres, which
may be called the country of spirits; that this country has all the features of
terrestrial scenery, but with a much greater beauty, even in the third sphere,
while the beauty of the other four spheres is greater in proportion as they
are higher?
Ans. Yes.
557. (2.) Is it true that in those regions there are mountains, plains, rivers,
lakes, brooks, rills, trees, flowers, birds, beasts, and every attribute of the
most admired portions of this lower sphere?
Ans. Yes.
558. (3.) Is it true that, by the higher spirits, music, poetry, and all the
sciences and fine arts, are highly and zealously cultivated, and that the

pleasures of social intercourse are more highly enjoyed than upon earth?
Ans. Yes.
559. (4.) Are the narratives of their translation to the spirit world, which I
have received from my sister, brother, William Wiggins, and the spirit
Maria, to be relied on as coming from them, and as correct in their
representations of the usual process of transference to the spiritual world
after death?
Ans. Yes.
560. (5.) How many spheres are there, this world being the first in the
series?
Ans. Seven.
561. (6.) How many inhabited by spirits?
Ans. Six.
562. (7.) Are there subdivisions? if so, how many in each sphere?
Ans. Six.
563. (8.) Are the subdivisions equidistant?
Ans. Yes.
564. (9.) How are they designated?
Ans. Either as circles or planes.
565. (10.) Are they concentric with each other and with this globe?
Ans. Yes.
566. (11.) At what distance from the terrestrial surface does the lower
boundary of the second sphere, or first spiritual abode, commence?
Ans. Sixty miles.
567. (12.) Are the atmospheres of the spheres more rare in proportion as
they are more elevated?
Ans. Yes.
568. (13.) Do they increase in beauty as they are higher in the series?

Ans. Yes.
569. (14.) How are they illuminated?
Ans. By a peculiar sun within the spiritual spheres.
570. (15.) Is our sun visible in the spirit world?
Ans. No.
571. (16.) If lighted by a peculiar spiritual sun invisible in our mundane
region, do the rays of that sun consist of undulations of an all-pervading
ethereal fluid, analogous to that assumed to exist by the undulationists?
Ans. Yes.
572. (17.) Or do they depend upon the last-mentioned fluid for existence?
Ans. No.
573. (18.) Are there not peculiar elementary principles appropriate,
severally, to the spiritual world, and likewise to the material world?
Ans. Yes.
574. (19.) Is it not an error to suppose that any of the ponderable
elements recognised by chemistry can contribute to the organization of the
person of an imponderable spirit?
Ans. Of course, not without a loss of ponderosity, which involves a loss
of identity or a transformation.
575. (20.) Is it not luminiferous matter which causes the effulgence of
spirits, analogous in its effects to that of luminiferous insects, though
consisting of a spiritual material entirely different from those which enter
into the luminiferous matter of insects?
Ans. Yes.
576. (21.) Are spirits in the lowest level of the second sphere destitute of
effulgence?
Ans. Yes.
577. (22.) Are they absolutely enveloped in a dark halo?
Ans. Yes.

578. (23.) Is reformation indicated first by diminished darkness, and
subsequently by augmented effulgence?
Ans. Yes.
579. (24.) Is the sphere of a spirit known by the relative brightness or
darkness of his halo?
Ans. Yes.
580. (25.) Is the lower circle of the second sphere disagreeable as to its
scenery?
Ans. Yes.
581. (26.) Is spirit Maria’s description of the spheres correct? (505 to
523.)
Ans. Yes.
582. (27.) Does this feature lessen as the circles are higher?
Ans. Yes.
583. (28.) Do the last-mentioned circles present an aspect less agreeable
than that of our sphere?
Ans. Yes.
584. (29.) At what point does the scenery become superior to any in our
world?
Ans. In the third sphere.
585. (30.) What designates the boundaries of the spheres, so as to make
spirits perceive when they are passing through the partition between one
and another?
Ans. Diversity of impression made upon the spirit.
586. (31.) What confines a spirit to his proper level, so that none can
mount above it into a sphere to which he does not belong?
Ans. A moral specific gravity, in which the weight is inversely as the
merit, prevents the spirit from rising above his proper level.

587. (32.) Are spirits of different densities rarer or more refined in
constitution as they are higher in rank?
Ans. Yes.
588. (33.) Has the most dense or most undeveloped spirit any weight? if
not, how are they denser than those who have progressed farther?
Ans. They are in the spheres heavy as compared with other spirits, but
their weight would not influence a scale-beam in this mundane sphere.
589. (34.) If the lowest have no weight, wherefore are they more
competent to give physical manifestations by moving ponderable bodies?
Ans. They do not act by weight, but all spirits, under favourable
conditions and with certain means, possess, in a minute degree, a portion of
that power possessed to an infinite extent by the Deity, of annulling
gravitation and vis inertiæ; and though they cannot exercise such powers
without the aid of a medium, the medium is to them as an implement in the
hands of a human being.
590. (35.) How are such movements produced consistently with the law
that action and reaction are equal and contrary?
Ans. Gravity and vis inertiæ being neutralized, the physical law of action
and reaction does not prevail against the spirit volition.
591. (36.) Do spirits employ their limbs in effecting manifestations?
Ans. Not necessarily.
592. (37.) Have spirits a power of creating that which they desire?
Ans. Yes.
593. (38.) Like the genius of Aladdin’s lamp, can spirits within their
sphere create habitations at their bidding?
Ans. Yes.
594. (39.) Does this creative power exist in the spirits of each sphere, or
is it denied, as I have been informed, to those of the second sphere?
Ans. It is denied.

595. (40.) Is this creative power more extensive as the sphere to which
the spirit belongs is more elevated?
Ans. Yes.
596. (41.) Are the spirits of the third sphere happy?
Ans. Yes.
597. (42.) Does happiness become greater as the rank of the spirit
becomes higher?
Ans. Yes.
598. (43.) Do spirits of infants go to the seventh sphere?
Ans. Yes.
599. (44.) Does an infant dying before noticing any thing go to that
sphere?
Ans. Yes.
600. (45.) Does it require care analogous to that given to infants in this
world?
Ans. It is carefully instructed.
601. (46.) Do infant spirits come down and reside among kindred more
or less, visiting, as it grows older, those mundane scenes which may
compensate it for its loss of opportunities by premature death?
Ans. Yes.
602. (47.) Does not the inability to communicate with its kindred cause it
to be unhappy under these circumstances?
Ans. It is not rendered unhappy, in consequence of the peculiar manner in
which such circumstances act upon the spirit mind.
603. (48.) Do such spirits, as for instance, those going to the other world
while children, but having attained mature age, say forty, become
companions for their parents and friends in the spheres who may have died
after their maturity, or is there a too great simplicity or childishness?
Ans. In purity and simplicity they are contented to live.

604. (49.) Is the love of children, who have died very young, as great to
their parents and relations who remain in this world as if they continued to
live in their society?
Ans. Greater.
605. (50.) Is there a deference shown to spirits on the same plane
commensurate with their superiority in learning, science, and wisdom?
Ans. Yes.
606. (51.) The object of marriage in this world being manifestly the
perpetuation of the species, consistently with the preservation of refinement
and the welfare of offspring, and there being no such motive in the spiritual
world, how can there be any motive for any such indissoluble ties?
Ans. Between spirits joined by matrimony in the spheres there is a greater
blending of mutual self-love into one common sentiment than in any other
friendship.
607. (52.) Have spirits any fluid circulating through an arterial and
venous system, which is subjected to a respiratory process, analogous to
that which our blood undergoes?
Ans. Yes.
608. (53.) As spirits are weightless, is not this fluid devoid of weight?
Ans. Yes.
609. (54.) Has it any colour?
Ans. No.
610. (55.) Does the gaseous or ethereal matter respired by spirits pervade
the mundane sphere?
Ans. Yes.
611. (56.) Do mortals breathe it as a means of sustenance to their spiritual
organization while encased by this “mortal coil?”
Ans. Yes.
612. (57.) Does it supply the nervous system?
Ans. Yes.

613. (58.) Is it communicated to inferior animals?
Ans. Yes.
614. (59.) Do fishes require atmospheric oxygen while swimming, (water
consisting of 8 parts in 9 of pure oxygen,) in order to get at the spiritual gas
associated with the former?
Ans. The spiritual gas imperceptibly accompanying atmospheric air is
especially necessary to fishes.
615. (60.) Creed is alleged to be productive of no obstruction to
ascendency in the spiritual world.
Ans. Belief, being an involuntary act of the mind, has no merit or
culpability attached to it, excepting so far as it is the consequence or is
productive of prejudices; the advance of a spirit is retarded by these defects.
616. (61.) As in the spiritual world there is no necessity, desire, or
passion which spirits can gratify by violence or fraud, on what is virtue
founded? Where there is no motive or power to do wrong, where is the
merit of doing right?
Ans. In the spheres, vice is displayed by the endurance of bad passions;
virtue is manifested by love, purity, and the aspiration for improvement.
617. (62.) As the diversities of human character are clearly the results of
organization and education, neither of which can be controlled by the
human beings whose merit or demerit is the inevitable consequence, how
can there be any culpability? It is true that a man can act as he wills; but is
not his will the creature of his passions and reason jointly? If his passions
be increased, will not reason be less capable of controlling them? and, vice
versâ, if his passions be enfeebled or his reason strengthened, will not his
passions have less sway? Does it not follow that while we must in self-
defence resist or restrain those who cannot govern themselves, should we
not commiserate all who have the misfortune to be so badly constituted?
Ans. We are no more able to answer that than you.
618. (63.) When a being virtuously constituted is murdered by one of the
opposite character, who is most an object of commiseration? which is most
favoured as a creature of God? Is not the difference between these beings
analogous to that between the dog and the wolf? Both creatures of God—

one is to be extirpated, the other cherished, as an inevitable consequence of
the laws of creation?
Ans. The victim is most favoured.
619. (64.) Has not the analogy between a wicked or a savage man, and
one who has the advantage of a good organization and education, a better
exemplification in the case of a wild dog, and one brought up by a kind
master, since the wild dog is reclaimable, may be reformed, and so may the
bad or savage man. Hence, in the spheres, is not punishment or restraint
made with a view to reformation rather than as a retribution for inevitable
defects?
Ans. Correct.

EXPOSITION OF THE INFORMATION RECEIVED FROM
THE SPIRIT WORLD.

620. From the information conveyed by communications submitted in the
preceding pages, as well as others, it appears that there are seven spheres
recognised in the spirit world. The terrestrial abode forms the first or
rudimental sphere.
621. At the distance of about sixty miles from the terrestrial surface, the
spirit world commences. It consists of six bands or zones, designated as
spheres, surrounding the earth, so as to have one common centre with it and
with each other. An idea of these rings may be formed from that of the
planet Saturn, excepting that they are comparatively much nearer to their
planet, and that they have their broad surfaces parallel to the planet, and at
right angles to the ecliptic, instead of being like Saturn’s rings, so arranged
that their surfaces are parallel to the plane in which his ecliptic exists.
622. Supposing the earth to be represented by a globe of thirteen and a
half inches in diameter, the lower surface of the lowest of the spiritual
spheres, if represented in due proportion to the actual distance from the

earth, would be only one-tenth of an inch from the terrestrial surface. The
bands observed over the regions in the planet Jupiter which correspond with
our tropical regions, agree very well in relative position with those which
are assigned to our spiritual spheres. They are probably the spiritual spheres
of that planet.
It having struck me as possible that these bands might be due to spiritual
spheres appertaining to Jupiter, I inquired of the spirits; their reply was
confirmatory.
623. The objection naturally occurs that ours are invisible to us; yet we
know that light may be polarized in passing through transparent masses so
as to produce effects in one case which it does not in others when not so
polarized. It would have to pass through the spheres of Jupiter, and return
through them again. This light, twice subjected to the ordeal of passing
through the spirit world, when contrasted with that which goes and returns
without any such ordeal, may undergo a change of a nature to produce an
effect upon the eye, when, in the absence of this contrast, no visual change
should be perceptible.
624. I am aware that it has been alleged that the bands do not appear
always to occupy the same boundaries, and at times appear separated or
more unequally distributed than at others. This may be due in part to actual
changes which the spiritual essence may undergo as to its relative position,
or optical delusions, if not deviations, resulting from the susceptibility of
polarizing causes.
625. Possibly some peculiarity in the reflecting surface of the planet may
be productive of such polarizing variations in the state of the light as to
cause a difference sufficient for detection.
626. Alum, transparent to the rays of light, intercepts nearly the whole of
the rays of heat. Opaque black glass intercepts the rays of light entirely,
those of heat but partially.
627. Rock salt, a substance analogous to alum, intercepts radiant heat
only to a very small extent.
628. When the rays of the setting sun fall upon the glass of windows, we
see one portion reflected with great effulgence, yet another goes through the
glass. The last-mentioned portion of the rays received on a second pane are

reflected, while those which were reflected will pass through another pane
without reflection.
629. This may demonstrate that the conditions requisite to the
permeability of media by rays is affected by diversities of intestinal
arrangements which are inscrutable to us.
630. The interval between the lower boundaries of the first spiritual
sphere and the second is estimated at thirty miles as a maximum, but this
interval is represented to be less, as the spheres between which it may exist
are more elevated or remote from the terrestrial centre.
631. Each sphere is divided into six “circles” or plains. More properly
these may be described as concentric zones, occupying each about one-sixth
of the space comprised within the boundaries of the sphere. There being six
subdivisions to each of the six spheres, in all there must be thirty-six
gradations.
632. These boundaries are not marked by any visible partition, but spirits
have in this respect a peculiar sense, which makes them feel when they are
passing the boundaries of one sphere in order to get to the next.
633. This allegation of the existence of an invisible spirit world within
the clear azure space intervening between the surface of this globe and the
lunar orbit may startle the reader; and yet this idea may have been presented
by Scripture to the same mind, without awakening skepticism. It was urged
by a spirit friend—Is it more wonderful that you should find our habitations
invisible, than that we are invisible?
634. It is plain that between the lowest degrees of vice, ignorance, and
folly, and the highest degrees of virtue, learning, and wisdom, there are
many gradations. When we are translated to the spheres, we take a rank
proportional to our merit, which seems to be there intuitively susceptible of
estimation by the law above alluded to, of the grossness being greater as the
character is more imperfect. Both the spirits and spheres are represented as
having a gradation in constitutional refinement, so that the sphere to which
a spirit belongs is intuitively manifest. Rank is determined by a sort of
moral specific gravity, in which merit is inversely as weight. Another means
of distinction is a circumambient halo by which every spirit is
accompanied, which passes from a darkness to effulgency as the spirit

belongs to a higher plane. Even mortals are alleged to be surrounded with a
halo visible to spirits, although not to themselves. Intuitively, from the
extent and nature of this halo, spirits perceive the sphere to which any
mundane being belongs. The effulgence of the higher spirits is represented
as splendid. As soon as emancipated from their corporeal tenement, spirits
enter the spheres, and are entitled to a station higher in direct proportion to
their morality, wisdom, knowledge, and intellectual refinement.
635. The first spiritual sphere, or the second in the whole series, is as
large as all the other five above it. This is the hell or Hades of the spirit
world, where all sensual, malevolent, selfish beings reside. The next sphere
above this, or the third in the whole series, is the habitation of all well-
meaning persons, however bigoted, fanatical, or ignorant. Here they are
tolerably happy.
636. In proportion as spirits improve in purity, benevolence, and wisdom,
they ascend. They may ascend as love-spirits, in consequence of the two
first-mentioned attributes; but cannot go up on account of wisdom alone. A
knave, however wise, cannot advance in the spheres. There are, in fact, two
modes of ascent—love, so called, and love and wisdom united. Those who
go up in love are called love-spirits; those who unite both qualifications are
called wisdom-spirits. A feminine spirit, who had been remarkable for her
disinterested devotion to her relatives and friends, ascended almost
forthwith to the fifth sphere. My friend W. W. had an ascent equally rapid to
the same sphere. Yet another spirit, who was fully as free from vice as either
of those above alluded to, took many years to ascend in wisdom to the fifth
sphere, not being satisfied to rise unless accompanied by the attributes of
wisdom, as well as love. Spirit B. alleged that because he was a free-thinker
he went up more quickly than another spirit, A. A., being questioned,
admitted that B. had got on more speedily, in consequence of superior
liberality.
637. Washington is in the seventh sphere.
638. In the spheres, diversity of creed has no influence, excepting so far
as its adoption indicates badness of heart and narrowness of mind, and has
been of a nature to injure the moral and intellectual character.
639. Degradation ensues as an inevitable consequence of vice, and as the
means of reform, not as vindictive punishment. God is represented as all

love, and is never named without the most zealous devotion. Spirits in any
sphere can descend into any sphere below that to which they belong, but
cannot ascend above this sphere. They are surrounded by a halo, which is
brighter in proportion as their sphere is higher. They have an intuitive
power of judging of each other and of mortals. Attachments originating in
this life are strengthened, while hatred passes away. The spirits in the upper
spheres have “ineffable” happiness. The sufferings of those below are
negative, rather than positive. They are made to feel shame at a degradation
which is rendered intuitively evident to themselves and all other spirits. But
all are capable of improvement, so as to have elevation and happiness
within their reach sooner or later. The higher spirits are always ready to
assist sinners by kind admonition. (92.)
640. My brother alleges himself to hold the office of a teacher. By
teachers, spirits fresh from this world, called the “rudimental sphere,” are
examined to determine their rank.
641. Spirits are carried along with our globe by their moral affections and
affinity, which upon them acts as gravitation upon material bodies. They are
just where they wish themselves to be, as they move in obedience to their
moral impulses or aspirations, not having a gross, material body to carry
along with them.
642. Spirits of the higher spheres control more or less those below them
in station, who are sent by them to impress mortals virtuously. Spirits are
not allowed to interpose directly, so as to alter the course of events upon
earth. They are not allowed to aid in any measure to obtain wealth.
643. Blessed spirits are endowed with a power competent to the
gratification of every rational want. They enjoy, as I am authorized to say
by the convocation of spirits to whom allusion has been made, a power like
that ascribed to the genius of Aladdin’s lamp. (593.)
644. There is nothing of the nature of marketable property in the spirit
world, since every inhabitant above the second sphere, or Hades, has as
much as he wants, and needs no more to purchase the requisites for his
enjoyment or subsistence, than we need to buy air to breathe.
645. It ought also to be explained that after spirits reach the highest plain
or circle of the seventh sphere, they are represented as being entitled to

enter the supernal heaven, taking place among the ministering angels of the
Deity.
646. Whether the connubial tie endures or not, is optional. Hence those
who have not found their matrimonial connection a source of happiness in
this world, are at liberty to seek a new hymeneal union in the spirit world.
Where there have been a plurality of husbands or wives, those unite who
find themselves happy in doing so. But, as if to indemnify mortals for the
crosses in marriage or in love, or for the dreariness of mundane celibacy, all
are destined in the spheres to find a counterpart with whom they may be
happy, there being peculiarly ardent pleasurable emotions attached to the
connubial union in the spheres which mortals cannot understand.
647. Infants grow as they would have done upon earth, nearly. They are
nursed and educated, and on account of their higher purity have, in this
point of view, as much elevation as their relatives who attain great worldly
pre-eminence.
648. The alleged motives for our existence in this rudimental sphere, is
the necessity of contrast to enable us to appreciate the immunity from
suffering of the higher spheres. Infants in this respect are at a disadvantage;
but being unable to appreciate their deficiency, do not grieve therefor.
“Where ignorance is bliss, ‘twere folly to be wise.”
649. Allusion has already been made to the condition of those who have
departed from this world during infancy, or prior to maturity. A letter from
one of my sons who died when five months old has been introduced into
this work, (470.) The change which ensues on spiritual birth, has been
described. (488.)
650. Among the most wonderful facts narrated by my spirit father, and
sanctioned by the convocation of spirits, is the existence of a spiritual sun
concentric with ours, and yet emitting independent rays for the spirit world,
not for our world; while the rays of our sun do not reach the world above
mentioned.
651. Further, the fact that spirits respire a vital fluid inscrutable to our
chemists, although it coexists everywhere with oxygen, and furnishes our
spirits, while encased in the flesh, with an appropriate spiritual
nourishment.

652. Thus is there another world, existing concentrically and in some
degree associated with ours, which is of infinitely greater importance to our
enduring existence than that wherein we now abide.
653. After I had written the preceding exposition of the knowledge
imparted to me of the spirit world, I solicited an intercommunion with
Washington, to submit the summary for his sanction. Accordingly, he was
ushered into my presence by a reliable spirit, and my exposition, and the
pages contrasting the heaven of Spiritualism with that of Scripture, were
read, and received his sanction under test conditions. (See Plate 4.)
654. In this, my first interview, I premised that I wished to let him know
that I had always been one of his most devoted political advocates, having
always styled myself a Washington Federalist, and that I had as early as
1812 embodied my sentiments in some verses. He said he was aware that
such verses were written by me, but would wish me to repeat them. I
obeyed his request. They are as follows:

655. Hail glorious day, which gave Washington birth,
To Columbia and liberty dear,
When a guardian angel descended on earth
To shed blessings o’er many a year.

Though heroes and statesmen, by glory enshrined,
May be seen in the temple of fame,
No hero or statesman unblemished we find,
Unless under Washington’s name.

Wealth, titles, and power, were by him ever spurn’d,
Of heroes too often the aim;
From a king or his favours indignant he turn’d,
Only feeling his country’s high claim.

To this ever true, in her trouble’s dark night,
Intent on her welfare alone,
Against her proud tyrants, he urged the dread fight,
Till lie forced them her freedom to own.

Next in France a strange demon uplifted its head,
All the nations of earth to bewray,
And into its snares would Columbia have led,
Had not Washington warn’d her to stay.

Best and wisest of men! when counsell’d by thee,
Could thy people their treasure withhold?
When ruled by another, then could they agree
To lavish their millions untold?

By Genet insulted, by slander aggrieved,
If thy wrongs unrevenged could remain,
For denouncing the men whom false he believed,
By a mob could thy Lingan be slain?

Can the voice of the country for whom he had bled,
E’er sanction a murder so base,
Or the tear-drops of millions piously shed

Or the tear-drops of millions, piously shed,
The deep stain from our annals efface?

656. As soon as the last words in the preceding verses were recited, I was
thrilled by the following effusion:
657. My Friend: How my heart swells with grateful emotion, at hearing
that beautiful effusion from your lips! Yes, my friend, I strove while on
earth, to carry out the impressions which were made on my mind by
superior intelligences, and if I failed, my countrymen will bear testimony.
658. Your noble father is a friend of mine, and I feel a love for you
commensurate with his worth. He is foremost in the ranks of spiritual
intelligences, and ready to act when duty calls.
659. My friend, I sympathize with you in your arduous undertaking; but
let me assure you that your reward will be greater than the suffering you
have endured. Yes, most nobly you have fought against error; and you will
yet place the banner of freedom high upon the battlement of truth. Farewell,
noble scion of a noble man!
Geo. Washington.

APOLOGY FOR MY CONVERSION.

Apology for my change of opinion and belief in the existence and agency
of Spirits.

660. I do not conceive that in my change of opinion I have been involved
in any inconsistency of principle. It always appeared to me that in
explaining the planetary movements, after arriving at the Newtonian
boundary made by momentum and gravitation, there could be no alternative
between appealing to the spiritual power of God, or resorting to atheism. An
appeal to the power of God has always been my choice; nevertheless
holding that wondrous power to be of a nature wholly unintelligible to finite
man. (57 to 87.)

661. Confining the range of my philosophy to the laws of motion,
magnificently illustrated by the innumerable solar systems, but no less
operative in every minute mechanical movement, I hold that I could only
come to the same conclusion as Faraday, that if tables when associated with
human beings moved, it must in some way be due to those beings, since,
agreeably to all experience of the laws of matter in the material world,
inanimate bodies cannot originate motion. But as when the planetary
motions are considered, any hypothesis fails which does not account for the
rationality of the result, and therefore involves the agency not only of a
powerful but a rational cause; so the manifestations of Spiritualism,
involving both reason and power, might consistently justify me in looking
for agents endowed with the reason and power manifested by the
phenomena. This power being invisible and imponderable, and at the same
time rational, there was no alternative but to consider it as spiritual, no less
than that to which planetary motion is due. In its potentiality the power thus
manifested might be extremely minute as compared with the potentiality of
the Creator; still it had to be of the same spiritual nature.
662. It has not appeared unreasonable to infer that the soul in assuming
the spirit form should acquire a power of which material beings are
destitute, and of which they can only conceive an idea from its necessity to
the operations of God. Parting with its material attributes, were the soul not
to acquire others, even if it could exist, it would be perfectly helpless.
Hence, in becoming an immaterial spirit, it must acquire powers
indispensable and appropriate to that state of existence.
663. Since we know that the animal frame for the most part after death,
on the exposure to the air, warmth, and moisture, returns to the atmosphere
whence it is mainly derived, it follows that on undergoing that awful change
the soul must take the spirit form, unless it perish with its material
tenement. So far, then, all who believe in the immortality of the soul, must
concur with spiritualists that on dying we become spirits.
664. It will then be admitted by all who believe in the immortality of the
soul that, as for every mortal that dies a spirit is born, innumerable spirits
must exist. Is it not then reasonable to consider them as agents in producing
phenomena which can only be ascribed to invisible, imponderable, rational,
and affectionate beings, especially when they themselves sanction this
inference by word and deed?

665. Were a tyrant to enclose a human being while alive within a cast-
iron vessel, the aperture through which the introduction should be made
being closed by a stopple soldered in air-tight, all the ponderable elements
of the corporeal body would be retained; but can any one who believes the
soul to survive the body, think that it would remain included in that vessel
so long as it should endure? Cast-iron coats itself with a carbonated
peroxide, vulgarly called rust, and then undergoes no farther change; so that
the corporeal elements might be retained to an infinite time. But could the
soul be thus imprisoned, perhaps to eternity? Could the tyranny of a man
thus imprison an immortal soul? Does it not follow that the soul would not
be confined by the air-tight and apparently impenetrable metallic vessel?

Invisibility of the Soul.

666. The invisibility of the soul in leaving the body, must be admitted,
since, however the dying may be surrounded by their friends and nurses,
and vigilantly guarded after death by watches, as customary with many, the
soul is not seen to leave the body. It must, therefore, be invisible, and
capable of permeating cast-iron or any other material within which, while
alive, an immortal being might be enclosed air-tight.

On the Whereabout of Heaven.

667. The qualities of invisibility and penetrative power being necessarily
conceded to the soul, is it unreasonable to extend this attribute to its
habitation in the skies: to the country of spirits?
668. In communicating with a friendly spirit, I adverted to the difficulty
of inducing people to conceive that in the clear azure space existing
between the earth and moon, there should be scenery like ours, with plains,
hills, mountains, valleys, rivers, lakes, seas, and every variety of edifice in
greater perfection than upon earth. “You do not see us,” said my friend;
“then why should you wonder at not seeing our world?”
669. It is quite evident that no such obstacle stood in the way of belief in
the existence of heaven among the Jews, as it is constantly referred to as
being above; Noah’s deluge came through the windows of heaven; and this

idea has been sustained in the language of Christ, as well as of the Hebrew
prophets.
670. Elijah is represented as having visibly ascended to heaven. That the
vicinity and invisibility of heaven are not at war with Scripture, is alleged in
a recent work by the Rev. Mr. Harbaugh of the German Reformed Church,
of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He quotes approvingly a passage in a work,
entitled “Physicial Theory of Another Life,” by Taylor, which I subjoin:
671. Taylor suggests—“That within the space occupied by the visible and
ponderable universe, and on all sides of us, there is existing and moving
another element, fraught with another species of life, corporeal indeed, and
various in its orders, but not open to the cognízance of those who are
confined to the conditions of animal organization, not to be seen nor heard,
nor to be felt by man.” “Our present conjecture,” remarks the author in
another place, “reaches to the extent of supposing that within the space
encircled by the sidereal revolutions, there exists and moves a second
universe, not less real than the one we are at present conversant with: a
universe elaborate in structure, and replete with life; life agitated with
momentous interests, and perhaps by frivolous interests; a universe
conscious perhaps of the material spheres, or unconscious of them, and
firmly believing (as we do) itself to be the only reality. Our planets in their
sweep do not perforate the structure of this invisible creation; our suns do
not scorch its plains: for the two collateral systems are not connected by any
active affinities.”
672. This would bring “the things which are not seen,” indeed, near to
and around us. To enter the other world would not be so much a removal in
space, as just to be made loose from, or to become insensible to, the
conditions of this life. Death will be only the destruction or disappearance
of human and earthly affinities, and directly we shall be surrounded by
affinities adapted to our new state of existence, and shall find for ourselves
a congenial home in and around our present habitation.
673. Much is argued in favour of this theory. It is said in no place to
interfere with Scripture, but rather to be countenanced by incidental hints
and allusions. It is said to be made highly probable by the known truths of
physical science. An unseen world, in all respects material, inhabited by
corporeal beings, it is said, is possible. There are material elements which

are not cognizable to any of our senses except by a round of research and
experiment, and then only in their remote effects, as, for instance,
electricity. The atmosphere also, and light, are material, and yet so subtle as
almost entirely to evade our unassisted observation; and may there not be
still others as yet to us unknown? We are related to, and become acquainted
with, the external world by the medium of the five senses; but who will say
that there are not other senses hidden in possibility in our nature which may
by means of other affinities communicate with a world far more refined in
its constitution, with which we cannot now come in contact? Science has
discovered living animalculæ in the solidest substances; the air we breathe
and the water we drink are the homes of myriads of beings, and though
unseen by the naked eye, these elements are swarming with miniature life!
It seems to be God’s motto, “Multum in parvo”—life in life, world in world,
universe in universe! With these known facts in science before us, may we
not, it is asked, consider the above theory probable?
674. It is further supposed that this invisible world around us is the after
stage of the present life; and as it is a stage of being in all respects superior
to this, it may be that its inhabitants have a knowledge of us, though we
have not of them, just as we are acquainted with grades of animalcule life
beneath us, when it can hardly be supposed that they know any thing of our
existence. Hence, too, in some exceptive cases it may be possible for them
to break through the veil of separation, and appear in various ways unto
men on the platform of human life. Then we are indeed “surrounded by a
cloud of witnesses,” who stand around, or bend over us, and look with deep
interest upon the struggle of life, and when they see it unequal in the case of
the saints, they break through in their ardour, and become ministering
spirits to those who are heirs of eternal life.
675. It is also supposed that these beings in the world unseen may have
capacities to communicate with the remotest inhabitants of God’s universe.
The facilities of communication may be so great in these ethereal climes,
that space is annihilated, and the different hosts of intelligences in the wide
universe may commune with each other and God as one family in their
“Father’s house.”
676. There is a surprising degree of coincidence between the speculations
comprised in this quotation, and the accounts which I have received
respecting the spirit world from some of those occupying an elevated grade

therein. It has been observed above that if the soul be immortal, it cannot be
imagined to remain in the grave, since the greater part of the human
organization in hot weather escapes through putrefaction, as vapour or gas.
Hence the endurance of the soul after death involves spiritual existence. We
must, therefore, on dying, take an invisible spiritual form.
677. Believers in revelation stare incredulously when mention is made of
a spirit, as if its existence were an impossibility; yet it has been shown, that
according to orthodoxy, death extricating the soul from the body, it must
forthwith commence its spiritual life. The existence of spirits being thus
established, that they should communicate with us would be more probable
than that they should not, excepting that it has not been heretofore generally
known to take place. But spirits allege that the manifestations which have
been taking place for some years have been the result of efforts especially
made by a delegation of philanthropic spirits, to break through the partition
which has so long prevented the communication to mortals of a correct
knowledge of the existence of the human soul after death, and the requisites
to the attainment of celestial happiness.
678. The accomplishment of this object is a step in the progressive
advancement and the means of improvement possessed by the celestial
world, analogous to the invention of printing or of the telegraph in the
mundane sphere.
679. The management is intrusted to advanced spirits acquainted with the
affairs of both worlds. Agreeably to Scripture, heaven is above, over our
heads; to prevent the Tower of Babel from reaching it, a confusion of
tongues was ordained. The second commandment speaks of heaven above
and earth beneath. Christ “descended into hell,” according to the apostles’
creed; of course, hell is below. “Whosoever calls his brother a fool, is in
danger of hell-fire.” That hell and fire should be thus associated is therefore
consistent with the observations of geologists, who infer that the interior of
the earth consists of ignited matter of which volcanoes are the safety-tubes,
however inconsistent with reason to suppose immortal souls to be broiling
therein.
680. But enlightened Christians do not, I believe, locate hell within this
earth, nor call in fire to aid in their conceptions of it. Evidently, the more
rational idea of the future abode of souls is that of its being above every

point on the earth’s surface, and equidistant therefrom. This would involve
that of a space concentric with the earth, and which falls in with the idea of
that comprising the spheres of Spiritualism.
681. If we leave this earth, in order to imagine any location beyond the
range of astronomical bodies, it would place the locality at a distance,
according to Herschel, requiring nineteen hundred thousand years for souls
to travel, moving with the velocity of light, two hundred thousand miles in a
second. In one of my lectures, in 1842, I suggested that heaven might be
situated at that central space about which all the constellations of the
universe have been supposed to revolve.
682. But if we infer a general place of reception for souls, then in that
celestial emporium every soul from all the myriads of planets, of all the
solar systems in the universe, must congregate. Far more rational does it not
seem that our heaven should be associated with our own planet, in the
welfare, the past history, and future prospects of which the souls who were
born upon it, must take pre-eminent interest?
683. The separation of any heaven into spheres seems inevitable, since
the association of spirits according to their virtue and intellectual
acquirements and capacity seems indispensable to harmony and happiness.
Thus the more virtuous, wise, and cultivated spirits are, the higher their
spheres of existence.
684. Let any person contemplate the information respecting the spirit
world given in the preceding pages, in the communications from my spirit
relations and others, and then say whether, in receiving them as true, any
believer in immortality, as vaguely portrayed in the gospel, will not make a
beneficial exchange.
685. How can any person become a spiritualist without forthwith finding
an irresistible impulse to conduct himself in this world, so as to acquire
eminence in the next? For what are we all working? is it not for happiness,
“our being’s end and aim,” the difference being only in the mode by which
it is sought? By some it is through the good of others as well as of
themselves; yet too many seek it without regard to that portion of their
fellow-creatures whom they may deem it their interest to oppress, deceive,
cheat, or rob.

686. But even these will perceive how much better it will be to pursue the
opposite course, since every wrong done by them here, will have to be
expiated by a proportionate penance in the spirit world.
687. By every good action resulting from the wish to do as we would be
done by, we advance a step higher in that heavenly stairway by which we
may ultimately reach the supernal heaven, and become ministering angels
of God.
688. But even during our ascending progression, we shall pass through a
succession of stages wherein every intellectual, social, and amiable
propensity of our nature will be gratified.
689. In justice to myself, and to give more weight to the inferences drawn
from my laborious investigations, I will subjoin the correspondence
between Mr. Holcomb and myself, which succeeded the receipt of the letter
which has been introduced in the commencement of my narrative, (128.) So
far as my judgment goes, there never was a letter written of which the facts
or inferences are more correct; yet it appears that so late as the 8th of
February I was still a doubter. The tenor of the correspondence will show
that if I was conquered, I did not yield the ground undisputed, and was
vanquished only by facts and reasons which, when understood or admitted,
must produce in others the conviction which they created in me. If I was the
victim of an intellectual epidemic, my mental constitution did not yield at
once to the miasma. It took some three months to include me among its
victims.
Philadelphia, January 14, 1854.
690. Dear Sir:—Your letter of the 17th of November met my eye as I was
this morning looking over a file of letters. I am led to write, therefore, that
in consequence of your suggestion, and those of others, I have been giving
my attention to the phenomena to which you alluded. When I come to any
conclusion, I will write again.
691. I still concur with Faraday, and have seen nothing to make me
believe in the spiritual manifestations. Yet I am not surprised that the latter
should be believed in by those who have that belief, as there are phenomena
which I cannot explain yet, any more than many which I have seen resulting
from jugglery. The converts are, however, such worthy persons, that I
cannot bring myself to suspect them of deception. I think you must be

mistaken as respects a table moving when left to itself entirely. The
circumstances for producing this phenomena have been repeatedly made
favourable by the mediums in my presence, but excepting in one instance,
when it was within reach of the feet, no motion ensued.
692. It would, indeed, be a glorious mercy if God would give us some
evidence, which should settle the religious opinions of mankind.
Robert Hare.
Southwick, Mass., Feb. 3d, 1854.
693. Dear Sir: I wish, however, to say something in regard to the subject-
matter of your letter. You say you are not surprised at the belief of many in
Spiritualism, as there are phenomena which you cannot explain. You also
say that you think I must be mistaken “as respects a table moving when left
to itself entirely.” I do not think a table would move if left to itself entirely,
since matter cannot put itself into motion. The great question is, What is the
power that makes the table move? You think it is muscular, and I am certain
that it is something else. When I am looking at the sun in a clear sky, I
know that it shines. No argument would have any influence to make me
doubt the evidence of my senses. There has, no doubt, been a great deal of
jugglery in the world, but shall I doubt the evidence of my senses on that
account? How shall we prove any thing in a court of justice, if the evidence
of our senses is not to be relied upon? While I am looking at a table, it
moves, and I have the same evidence that no body touches it, that I have
that it moves. I see the table tilt up, and poise itself on two of its four legs,
and then on the other two, and finally it wholly rises from the floor, and
seems to float in the air without any visible support whatever; all this time
there are no persons within six feet of it. In a letter of N. P. Talmadge,
published in the Tribune of May 27th last, he gives an account of his seeing
tables move when nothing visible touched them. I mention him, because I
suppose his character and standing would be likely to have weight with you.
It would, however, be very easy to mention a very great many cases, proved
by testimony that would be conclusive in any court of justice. I supposed
that it was too late in the day to doubt facts of this character, as they are
taking place in numerous places in this country and also in Europe. I
suppose this is the reason why Faraday’s explanation has availed so little to
check Spiritualism in England or France.

694. I believe Henry Gordon resides now in Philadelphia. I have no
doubt you can see such things for yourself in his presence by attending a
few times. Our judge of probate, who lives a few miles from me, told me a
few days ago that a young lady of his acquaintance put her hands upon a
table and it moved. He then took hold of the table to prevent the motion, but
he had not strength to do it. The table would slide on the floor,
notwithstanding his utmost efforts to prevent it. Now it is perfectly idle to
say that the young lady unconsciously exerted such a power. The judge
ridicules the idea of its being caused by spirits. He says that it is electricity.
You are too well acquainted with the laws of electricity to believe that under
such circumstances it can produce any such feats. I know of a case, in
Springfield City, in which four respectable merchants, with whom I am
acquainted, testify that a large table, with two of them on it, moved around
the room. In that instance the medium’s hands were on the table. But who
can believe that such a force could be exerted without the movers being
conscious of it. There are cases enough of the same description to fill a
volume.
695. There is another phase of this matter that is worthy of attention, and
that is the intelligence connected with it. You mention cases where the
answers were not correct. Thousands of such cases might be furnished. In
the presence of some of the mediums, almost all the answers will be false;
while in the presence of others, it will be very rare that a wrong answer is
given. Some of the answers being wrong does not prove that there is no
intelligence connected with it. In the presence of a good medium, a question
asked mentally is answered as readily and as correctly as when asked
vocally. I do not depend on the testimony of others for this. I have found it
to be true in my own experience. In the presence of some mediums, mental
questions are not answered. The foregoing are facts that are well settled if
evidence can settle any thing. To say that we are dupes and fools, decides
nothing. I suppose that I can examine a matter as carefully and intricately as
most men, and I know I am not deceived about the facts. But the cause is
quite another matter.
696. I suppose you are acquainted with the various and conflicting
explanations that have been given. They all appear to my mind perfectly
absurd and incredible, and no two of them agree. Rev. Dr. Beecher was
appointed by his association to examine and report. He did so, and decides

that the communications are from the spirits of the dead, but from the evil
or unblest portion of them. If it is from spirits, there is as much evidence
that some of them are good, as that others are evil.
697. I must close. I did not expect an answer, but was glad to hear from
you, and if you make any important discovery, I should be glad to hear from
you again; I am not settled in my mind respecting the cause of these strange
phenomena. I agree with you heartily in your last remark in your letter, that
“it would indeed be a glorious mercy if God would give us some evidence
which should settle the religious opinions of mankind.”
Yours, very respectfully,
Amasa Holcomb.

In reply to the preceding, so much of a letter from the Author as relates
to Spiritualism.

Philadelphia, February 8, 1854.
698. You believe fully that tables move without contact, because you
have seen them move; I am skeptical, because I have never seen them move
without human contact, although I have been at several circles.
699. You have been much more lucky than I have been as to the
manifestations, whether mechanical or mental.
700. I shall lose no opportunity of making further observations. I have no
clue to find Gordon. You ought to give me his address, and communicate all
you know respecting him.
Robt. Hare.
Southwick, February 20, 1854.
701. Dear Sir: Your letter of February 8th is before me. You did not say
whether you believed in the soul’s immortality or not! This is the most
important of all questions to me, and how is it to be settled? If the Bible is
not to be depended upon, and we have no communications from the spirit
world, what evidence have we of our immortality? I have been greatly
afflicted with doubts upon this subject. It has exceeded all other afflictions
that I have met with. You will of course see at once how desirous I am that
these apparent communications should prove to be in reality from the spirit
world, as that would settle the question. I seize upon every thing that seems

to have a bearing upon the question of immortality, and I confess that I have
strong hopes that Spiritualism, as it is termed, will settle this question. If it
be true that there is physical force and intelligence, neither of which
proceed from the medium, how is it to be explained? You doubt these two,
but I am as well assured of them as I can be of any thing.
702. If spirits communicate, it is certain that some of them deceive. It
would appear that there are all sorts of characters, the same as there are in
this world. If you should become satisfied of the two facts that I mentioned,
I should like to have you and other men of science try your skill at
explanation.
703. I will relate what took place at the first sitting that I ever attended. It
was in Boston, and I went as a perfect stranger. Before the sitting
commenced, and but few had collected, a strolling musician came along and
commenced playing at the door, and every tune played at the door was
beaten or rapped on the table. The medium was in the room; I saw her walk
up to the table and lay her hand on it, and then walk away, but it made no
difference with the raps on the table; they continued, without any person
near it, as long as the tunes were played at the door. When it came my turn
to question, I asked, Are any of my relatives present? Ans. Yes. Will you rap
at each letter of your name, if the alphabet is called over. Ans. Yes! The
alphabet was called, and there was a rap at A, one at L, one at F, one at R,
one at E, and one at D,—Alfred: a son that died at the age of twenty-two
years. Among a great many questions, I asked, How many years since you
died. Is it twelve? Is it eleven? Is it ten? Is it nine? Is it eight? Is it seven?
There was a rap at seven, but I asked, Is it six? and instantly there were
rapped........; the seventh was fainter. I said, He probably means that it is six
and a piece, when instantly they were repeated ........; the last the faintest.
The raps were equidistant, like the ticking of a clock, and about as loud. I
supposed at the time that it was less than seven. After the sitting was over,
and we were preparing to leave, I said, It is possible that we may have
mistaken the time since my son’s death? There was instantly a loud rap on
the table. I then asked, Did you mean seven? and there was instantly an
affirmative. I inquired for the odd months, and the answer was four. When I
got home, I found the true time was seven years, four months, and two
days. These last raps were when no person was within six feet of the table. I
confess myself unable to explain the foregoing without admitting that it was

my son who responded. If you could have such an opportunity, and inquire
for some dear friend whom you loved in life, I think you would witness
what would interest you.
704. I mention the foregoing as a specimen. I have received a great many
communications purporting to be both from my son and a daughter, who
died at the age of eighteen, quite as remarkable as the above. Now,
admitting the two facts of physical force and intelligence, I don’t know
even then that spirits are the agents; but it seems probable, because I doubt
whether any other explanation can be given, that will appear at all
reasonable. It is very evident that there is an intelligence that governs the
world; but if that intelligence has given us no revelation excepting what is
in nature, then it appears to me that every thing that can give us any
knowledge of what we are to be hereafter, is valuable beyond all price.
Uncertainty upon this matter is painful, but then we know so little about the
Deity, that I think there is great uncertainty in our views of what he does,
either to prevent or bring to pass the good and evil that we see around us.
Yours, very respectfully,
Amasa Holcomb.

Some parts of a letter to Mr. Holcomb, in reply to the parts of his letter
relating to Spiritualism.

Philadelphia, February 24, 1854.
705. Dear Sir: There is a great resemblance in your sentiments, as
described in your letter of the 20th, (just received,) and those which I
entertain, excepting that while I am very desirous—I may say extremely
desirous—to learn something which may prove another state of existence, I
am not unhappy at my not being able to find out the truth. If I have less
hopes, I have also less fears, than those who have heaven and hell both to
encounter. I do not envy those who are placed in the situation of depending
upon the estimate which may be formed of them hereafter, whether they are
to be placed among the “sheep” or “the goats.”
706. It is true that the gospel holds out the idea on one hand that intense
belief, called faith, will wash away sin; but on the other, it is said, that “he
who knoweth his Master’s will, yet doeth it not,” shall be beaten with many
stripes, while he who is ignorant of that will, and doeth it not, shall be

beaten with few. Under these circumstances, who can escape flagellation?
Who is it that does the will of God, as enumerated by Christ? Who loves his
neighbour as himself? Who presents a second cheek on receiving a blow on
one? Who gives his coat, when his cloak has been taken? Who returns good
for evil? Who acts as if it were as hard for a rich man to go to heaven as for
a camel to get through the eye of a needle?
707. Unless our missionaries can make better Christians abroad than they
leave at home, it were inhuman to add to the number, who are to be pre-
eminently punished for their neglect of their Master’s will, while fully
apprized of it. In many cases a pagan will be better off than his nominally
Christian instructor, although he should not prove a convert to Christianity.
708. My sentiments are much like those which Socrates expressed. I hope
for a future world, and therein to have a happier existence. All those
reasons which have been advanced by wise and good men in favour of such
futurity, operate upon my mind as upon theirs; but if there be no such a state
of future existence, I shall never wake up to feel my disappointment. It will
only be a prolongation of a state of oblivion analogous to that which we
enter upon transiently, every night.
709. The incentives which have acted upon you, act also upon me, and I
have seen some of the manifestations on which you rely; but not so
satisfactorily. The answers which I have received have not been worthy of
the other world.
710. A message from my own father, amounted to this: “Oh, my son,
listen to reason;” and there it ended. Several similar nugatory sentences
have been manifested through the alphabet.
711. I have, however, constructed an instrument to put the question of
independency of intelligence to the test. It works independently of any
control of the medium, as the letters, which must be seen to bring them
correctly under the index, are concealed by a screen. (Plate I.)
712. The sentence above quoted was communicated in this way.
713. I am about, by this contrivance, to test the manifestations farther.
Robert Hare.

MORAL INFLUENCE OF SPIRITUALISM.

714. Among the best precepts afforded by the gospel is that of laying up
treasure in heaven, in preference to seeking to become rich in this world. To
pursue the last-mentioned course has been alleged to disqualify us more or
less for entering heaven. Certainly, however, honest exertion for the
acquisition of wealth is the corner-stone of human prosperity, and money
seems in most instances necessary to the effectual exercise of that fellow-
feeling in the cultivation of which human virtue pre-eminently consists.
(See Influence of Mundane wealth on Celestial Happiness.)
715. How can a man display charity, hospitality, or contribute his means
and time to objects of philanthropy, unless he beforehand lay up wealth?
How could the Samaritan have assisted the traveller who had been
maltreated by thieves, had he not taken care to have something beforehand,
not only for himself, but for the needy? But still the precept, Lay up
treasure for thyself in heaven, is precisely the course which Spiritualism
indicates. Precepts may lead, but examples will draw. Those who have gone
before us to eternal life, furnish us not only precepts, but examples also.
They furnish exemplifications of the consequences of their conduct, if
followed. With few exceptions, my intercourse has been with those only,
who did lay up treasure in heaven, by doing on earth as they would have
others to do unto them. Of the spirits with whom I have communicated,
only two alleged or indicated that they were unhappy. Of these, I was
informed, one bore an ill character upon earth.
716. Another, after having suggested to his inquiring brother some
measures relating to his surviving wife’s temporal concerns, spontaneously
added the following words: “I am not hapey.” The inquiry being made for
the cause of his misery, the resulting reply was, “I did not do rite when I
was in this world.”
717. Another admitted that he was drowned, in consequence of getting
dead drunk. On being asked if he were happy, he answered, “Damned
happy.” In reply to an inquiry whether he was sorry to have quitted this life,
he replied in the affirmative.

718. Having evidently been a seaman, who had sailed under an officer
who was present, he had preserved the usual fondness of sailors for tobacco
and grog. This propensity he could not avoid displaying, notwithstanding
his having passed death’s dread portal, and the obvious inutility of
expressing to mortals his craving for those pernicious stimulants.
719. Thus it appears that in the spirit world one means of retribution for
the indulgence of bad propensities in this life, is subjugation to their
ungratified cravings.
720. Of course, the more of these a spirit carries with him, the greater is
his misery; while the more he founds his happiness on the indulgence of
good propensities, the greater his power and opportunities of enjoyment.
721. As an illustration of the manner in which happiness may arise from
the indulgence of good propensities, one of the enjoyments of a spirit of the
fifth sphere is, as I am informed, in looking after children of relatives and
friends, who have not as yet followed them to the spirit world.
722. Believing in the existence of a spirit world, where there are thirty-
six grades of existence, corresponding to degrees of purity and intellectual
acquirement,—purity alone giving exaltation merely, while cultivation of
mind secures breadth of consideration,—we have, in the first place, to
adhere strictly to truth, honesty, justice, benevolence, and doing as we
would be done by, to reach a sphere higher in proportion as we are more
successful. Yet, among those on the same plane, superiority in mental
attributes gives precedence.
723. Nothing is better known than “while precepts may lead, examples
draw,” and that subjection to bad examples, even when checked by good
precepts, is generally irresistible by the young. But when there are no
precepts to check, but, on the contrary, ill counsel as well as bad example,
few human beings, however well constituted organically, could resist the
tendency of such educational evil. Let bad hereditary propensities be
superadded, and what can ensue but a climax of wickedness? Manifestly,
however, all this is independent of any choice on the part of the victim. A
high degree of virtue may consistently be inferred to result if all these
conditions be inverted, and good precepts, good examples, co-operative in
improving a mind of the opposite kind, one which owes to its progenitors
goodness of heart and high intellectual capacity.

724. Much stress is laid upon free-will, but is will ever free from the joint
control of reason and passion? What is will, if it be not the resultant of the
conflict or co-operation of these? It may be a question whether, without
passions, a man would act at all; but certainly he would act like an idiot or
baby, so far as his will should be entirely independent of his reason.
725. It must be conceded, then, that the prodigious diversity between
virtue and vice is the consequence of contingencies, which are no more
under the control of the individual affected than the colour of his hair or the
number of cubits in his stature.
726. The great features of the spiritual religion are, as I understand them,
as follows:—Its foundation is laid in the belief of an all-good Deity, whose
power is manifested to us by the immensity, profundity, sublimity,
ingenuity, and adaptation of the means to the ends in the creation ascribed
to the co-operation, if not origination, of his mind. The Bible of the
spiritualist is the book of nature—the only one which by inward and
outward evidence can be ascribed to divine authorship.
727. In this book we read, as matters of fact, that there is an infinite
series of gradation in the rank of animals, as well as variety in their
dispositions and propensities. This may be seen, from the half-animal, half-
vegetable known as the polypus, up to man, there being gradations not only
of genera, but of species and varieties. Thus amid men there are various
races, rising one above the other in development, from the Bushman,
Hottentot, or lowest Negro, up to the most highly-developed race of white
men. But when we have passed through the gradation of the races, we have
to enter upon that of individuals, who in the same race are by diversity of
organization or education, or of both, made extremely different as to
intellectual, moral, and scientific pre-eminence.
728. It is difficult for human reason to reconcile with impartiality this
immense diversity in the lot of the creatures of God; but that such is the law
of nature is self-evident: it is an intuitive truth. To reconcile it with the all-
goodness of God, we must suppose a limitation of power, and that it has
been beyond his power to put created beings more nearly upon a level. But,
as Seneca observes, all have received more than they had a claim for. Some
may think that the parable of the hiring of labourers for a vineyard, conveys
an idea like that of the Roman sage.

729. These considerations being premised, it would seem that
punishment in the spirit world is only the carrying out of the same system,
excepting that while the deficiencies or vices which have arisen in this
world become a punishment in the next, they also operate as the means of
improvement, or, to use the language of that world, of “progression.” It may
be inferred that as in this world the power of the Deity, although
commensurate with the all but infinite universe in which we exist, was so
restricted by conditions as to induce that enormous diversity of position in
the scale of animation which has been presented to view. Yet in the world to
come these defects and vices are liable to be remedied; and, though they
react upon their victim, it is with a view to his own ultimate benefit. There
is not a malevolent devil to seize the poor miscreant, and, like the savage
Indian, torture him with a fiend-like pleasure. He is regarded with
compassion, and as soon as contrition is induced, treated with sympathy by
the higher spirits, and assisted by counsel and enlightened by instruction.
Unable any longer to indulge his bad propensities, the desire of rising to a
higher level becomes a passion. Intellectual and social pleasures begin to be
enjoyed. So long as he remains under the influence of his mundane
appetites, he has to consort with spirits who are similarly actuated; they
read each other’s mind, and thus are made acquainted with the deformity of
their own. They eventually thus become instrumental in reciprocal
correction. So soon as an aspiration for a better state is awakened, they rise
to the next plane or circle above that in which they may have been existing;
the only difficulty is in taking the first step. Progression grows with its
growth, and strengthens with its strength, so that all beings may sooner or
later attain to the highest sphere in the spirit world. It should be understood
that there is no pardon for existing sin. Pardon can only exist as a
consequence of reform, and in proportion thereto. (92.)
730. An assailant of Spiritualism, who not long since lectured at Sansom
Street Hall, founded one of his charges on the commiseration felt by good
angels for sinners, agreeably to Spiritualism. But from the examination
above given respecting the origin of the difference between the virtuous and
vicious, does it not appear that the fate of the latter is quite as hard as can be
reconciled with justice, even under the more benign institution of
Spiritualism? According to this, there exist in the spirit world six spheres,
each subdivided into six circles or planes, forming together a succession of
grades in which the soul finds its place according to moral and intellectual

merit. The first of the spheres is throughout comparatively hideous in its
aspect and disgusting in its inhabitants, who are designated by a dark halo
in lieu of the effulgence which distinguishes spirits of the rest of the
spheres. Moreover, this distinguishing effulgence, as well as the beauty of
the spirit world, augments with the grade of the being whom it envelops,
thus making a series of ranks in society founded on real nobility of head
and heart. When it is considered that this immense diversity ensues mainly
from contingency in organization, education, and greater or less exposure to
trial, it must be clear that the difference made between the good and the bad
by Spiritualism does not fall short of the degree which human reason can
reconcile with justice.
731. The assailant of Spiritualism to whom allusion was made, while
admitting the truth of the evidence given of communication with spirits,
explained it by reference to Satan. It is remarkably inconsistent with this
idea that this evidence is of a nature to abrogate the existence, and of course
the sovereignty, of that imaginary arch-fiend. Again, it can hardly be
conceived that the greater commiseration for sinners should come from a
malevolent devil, and the urging for everlasting and cruel torture from a
sincere disciple of the benevolent Jesus Christ. But how much, then, must it
shock one who embraces these views, that in addition to the misfortune of
being badly organized, badly educated, and badly tempted, the being
subjected to these disadvantages is to be exposed eternally to misery,
typified, if not realized, by broiling on burning brimstone! I am aware that
doing away with the more horrible attributes of hell will be alleged to be
subversive of one of the restraints upon criminality; but, in the first place, it
is evident that a man who is restrained from crime solely by the fear of
punishment is only a more prudent villain than one who is not restrained by
that selfish apprehension. When a man is deterred from crime only by
prudence, hope of reward, or fear of punishment, he ought not to have a
higher grade in heaven than the perpetrator of the crime.
732. But, agreeably to experience, of all restraints upon crime, none are
more efficacious than the fear of degradation. The lawyer who will do the
bidding of a caucus (or of a powerful demagogue in the executive office) in
order to get a judicial appointment, when securely seated therein, will not
give a charge which will degrade him in the eyes of the legal profession,
and consequently in that of society, as well as in his own estimation. The

dishonest gambler, who neglects to pay his tradesman’s bill, will not fail to
pay his gambling debts. The debtor who will take every advantage in
getting a high price for his goods, and who will put off any other payment
as long as possible, fails not to pay his note at a bank. Sovereign states, who
pay no other claims, take every means to meet the interest on their funded
obligations. “Failure” in the one case, in the mercantile adaptation, involves
the loss of reputation for good financial faith, abroad as well as at home; but
the just complaints of domestic claimants, not heard upon the exchange, are
unheeded. The great object, in many cases, is not to leave the crime
“undone, but to keep it unknown.” The corrupt, selfish politician, who
would promote war in order to give himself an opportunity of emolument or
official pre-eminence, when facing the enemy in the field of battle will
nominally die for that country whose interests he has sacrificed. But not
from the alleged motive will he die, but either to avoid being degraded as a
coward, or for the hope of popularity which may help him to office.
733. In the spirit world, all are seen through and justly estimated, so that
degradation and vice, or elevation and virtue, are inevitably associated by
spiritual intuition. Yet there is, in my opinion, far more satisfactory proof of
the truth of Spiritualism than of any other creed involving immortality;
while, so far as adopted, it must tend to do away with priestcraft, sectarian
malevolence, and religious intolerance. Man will go to the spirits of his
ancestors for his religion, not to a fanatical, bigoted, or interested priest.
Should spirits actually exist, as supposed, and convey the same religious
knowledge all over the world, all men will agree that virtue is to be the
means of salvation, not bigotry, under the name of faith.
734. It is conceived that Spiritualism has all the desirable attributes of
religion, as stated in the second page of the introduction of this work. It
sanctions the idea of the existence of one Supreme Being, who is
represented as all love to his creatures; while his powers are made known to
us by the sublimity, profundity, magnificence, and inconceivable extent of
the creation which he rules. It does not represent him as selfishly creating
us for the purpose of worshipping him, as capable of jealousy or implacable
wrath for the result of errors which his alleged omnipotence could by a fiat
correct. On the contrary, we have been created to be happy sooner or later;
evil existing not through design, but in consequence of conditions which he
cannot control or cure unless through the operation of general principles.

735. With a view to mutual happiness, reciprocal beneficence is enjoined.
We are required to obey the precepts of acting toward others as we would
have them act toward us.
736. This innate law is appealed to instinctively by any child who is
oppressed by another larger than itself, and was consecrated by Confucius
six hundred years before its judicious sanction by Christ.
737. Spiritualism has the merit pre-eminently not only of furnishing a
knowledge of immortality beyond the grave, but a precise knowledge of the
spirit world in lieu of the silence of the Pentateuch and the vagueness and
inconsistency of the gospel. An effort to establish the truth of these
allegations will be made under the next head.

THE HEAVEN AND HELL OF SPIRITUALISM
CONTRASTED WITH THE HEAVEN AND HELL OF
SCRIPTURE.

738. On the first spiritual manifestations occurring, the great object of the
mass of observers was to see the physical effects. In the next place,
intellectual communications were sought, but these being obtained by a
tedious process, it was deemed sufficiently interesting if a few sentences
could be made out, or even one. It was, moreover, a great object with
inquirers to ascertain by the interchange of language, whether the spirit of a
relation or friend were really present, as alleged by the supposed spirit.
Hence, the communications were very deficient as respects any information
of the spirit world. It is not surprising, therefore, that prejudicial unbelievers
should have taken up the idea that there is nothing inviting in the heaven of
Spiritualism. I hope that, agreeably to the communications from the spirit
world recorded in the preceding pages, there is enough to create an ardent
desire to become a dweller therein.
739. But is it not unreasonable for a person to disdain a state of existence
which is by the spirits themselves described as “ineffably” happy? Alluding

to the progression, which is to carry spirits eventually among the
ministering angels of God, I observed to my spirit friend, Dr. W. E.
Channing, that I did not consider him in heaven yet. “Were you situated as I
am,” said he, “you would not say that!” But let us see how far the ideas of
heaven, as warranted in Scripture, are comparable with those which have
been communicated by spirits.
740. In a work by the Rev. Mr. Harbaugh, of the German Reformed
Church of Lancaster, Pa., a great effort is made to collect all the hints
respecting heaven which have been given in the Old and New Testaments.
This learned divine quotes the following paragraph from Dr. Chalmers:
“The common imagination,” says Dr. Chalmers, “that we have a paradise
on the other side of death, is that of a lofty aerial region, where the inmates
float in ether, or are mysteriously suspended upon nothing—where all the
warm and sensible accompaniments which give such an expression of
strength, and life, and colouring to our present habitation, are attenuated
into a sort of spiritual element; that is, meagre and imperceptible, and
utterly uninviting to the eye of mortals here below; where every vestige of
materialism is done away, and nothing left but unearthly scenes, that have
no power of allurement, and certain unearthly ecstasies, with which it is felt
impossible to sympathize.”
741. After reading and believing the representations of heaven given by
the immortal inhabitants of the spirit world, who can avoid turning in
disgust from the portrait thus cited by Dr. Chalmers?
742. The most favourable idea of heaven given in Scripture seems to be
that which identifies it with Paradise; in other words, a most beautiful
garden. But who would conceive an eternal residence in one garden,
however superlative its attractions, as desirable? The idea of the spheres
assumes a succession of gardens, with every pleasure, every joy of which
the human heart and intellect are capable; and beyond those gardens the
whole universe is open to us, and an ultimate ministration as angels under
our Heavenly Father.
743. The portraiture cited by Chalmers is not approved of by the Rev. Mr.
Harbaugh, but in order to confute it he does not resort to any better picture
given in the Bible, but to reasoning. This shows that, learned as he is, and
idolatrous as he appears in worshipping the Bible as an adequate fountain of

light, he cannot get from the object of this idolatry any passage tending to
prove the inconsistency of the idea quoted from Chalmers with Scripture.
Were there not the greatest poverty of instruction on this all-important
subject, the ideas alleged to exist as above mentioned, upon the high
authority of Dr. Chalmers, could never have had sufficient currency to merit
notice. It may be assumed that no Christians can conceive themselves to be
better entitled to the joys of heaven than the twelve apostles of Christ. In
order to show how far any expectations of a bliss higher than that afforded
by Spiritualism could have been entertained by those disciples consistently
with Scripture, I deem it in point to refer the language held to them by their
Divine Master. I subjoin a few lines from Dr. Harbaugh, wherein he quotes
the query put to that Master, by the twelve, and the consequent reply.
Nothing can be farther from my idea of a happy state than the benefaction
promised to them. The query and reply are subjoined, in order to enable the
reader to judge of both:—Behold, we have left all and followed thee: what
shall we have therefor? The Saviour answered the above query when made
by Peter, as follows:—When the Son of Man shall sit upon the throne of his
glory, ye shall also sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of
Israel. Here is a direct answer by Christ to an inquiry respecting the nature
of the reward which his disciples were to have for their merits as his faithful
devotees. They are to be made severally worldly dignitaries; each is to sit
on a throne, judging a tribe of Israel. That is, they are to have worldly pre-
eminence, accompanied, of course, by all the vexations attendant on such
stations, as well as the uncertainty and limitation arising from liability to
death and disease. How weak and worldly-minded must his disciples have
been, could such a prospect be alluring to them! I ask for any sectarian to
say in candour, whether a governorship over one of the wealthiest States,
the presidency, or any sovereignty in Christendom, would be deemed a
heaven in comparison with that eternity of ineffable happiness enjoyed by
the immortal spirits of the higher spheres? Yet Mr. Harbaugh, with the
simplicity of blind faith, quotes this without perceiving how meagre is the
gospel evidence thus afforded of the joys awaiting the faithful as a reward
for their good conduct in this life.
744. The following remarks, made by Mr. Harbaugh, demonstrate how
partial sectarians are in reading Scripture: “What shall we have therefor?
This is a question that frequently arises in the Christian’s mind, as he
endeavours to cheer his ofttimes drooping spirits with a look toward the

recompense of reward. What shall we have? We have left all for thee, and
by following thee we have confessed that we are pilgrims and strangers
upon earth. In this world we shall have tribulation; but thou didst overcome
the world; what shall those have who overcame with thee?” Harbaugh
remarks: “Here then is curiosity which the Saviour himself approves,
because he satisfies it. The same pious curiosity still manifests itself in the
minds of God’s people in their holiest hours, and shall there be nothing
revealed to satisfy them? Yes, God will approve of such inquiries, and will
grant the influence of that Spirit, who leads unto all truth to all those who
search the Scripture for an answer.” Drawing an eloquent picture of the
aspirations of the soul for some realization of the vague ideas of the rewards
of the faithful in a future state of existence, he exults that this curiosity, as
he calls it, should be sanctioned by Christ, “who approves this curiosity
because he satisfies it.” How does he satisfy it? Is it by holding up the hope
of a judgeship for each? It seems it was not then foreseen that instead of
performing the part of the Jewish Messiah, with which he thus identified
himself, that of gathering together the chosen people of God, he was to put
forth opinions which were to scatter them through the world. “Wo unto you,
Chorazin,” &c., for the heinous offence of not admitting him to be both the
Messiah and the Son of God. The promise of the judgeships was quite
consistent with the former character, and strengthens the idea that he never
pretended to any higher mission. With this the promise in question is
consistent, but is wholly irreconcilable with his divinity, which would make
these judgeships worse than giving a stone for bread or a serpent for a fish.
In order to have bestowed these judgeships, the Roman empire must have
been subverted. It seems that if (as stated by the worthy Mr. Harbaugh) the
curiosity of the disciples was truly and correctly satisfied, that this
satisfaction was the sum total of the heaven with which they were
remunerated; since not the slightest hint is given that they were, like the
penitent thief, to be with their object of devotion in paradise. It would seem,
on the whole, that the rewards of the thief and the beggar Lazarus were of a
more heavenly nature than those promised to the apostles, even had the
latter been susceptible of realization, instead of being irreconcilable with
the doom which awaited the Hebrews, and consequently a mere vox et
præterea nihil. But while, in lieu of an eternal progressive happiness, Christ
holds up the transient, precarious, and limited supremacy from which a
truly pious and wise man would turn in disgust, when hell is to be

represented, we have eternal torments typified by fire, and weeping and
gnashing of teeth in utter darkness, in despite of this fire. The situation
which Christ, the Son of God, was to have, was to bear manifestly a relation
to that of his disciples. His situation would be somewhat analogous to that
of Washington, when he was in the presidential chair, and the thirteen States
were governed by as many of his faithful followers in the Revolutionary
War. Yet Washington did not find his chair worth retaining longer than the
good of the country made it important to remain. I am confident that neither
would that great man leave his position in the seventh sphere for the
presidency, nor any spirit among those who held the gubernatorial dignity,
as suggested, find a governorship now a motive for leaving their bright
abodes in the celestial world.
745. Dr. Harbaugh sanctions the idea that the revolutions of all the
constellations with which telescopic examination has made us acquainted,
may take place about a central sun, bearing the relation to other suns
analogous to that which God has been represented to have to the other
potentates; whence the title of “King of kings.” The existence, then, of a sun
of suns is suggested, about which the constellations formed by inferior
bodies of the same kind revolve. It would seem, then, that a more fitted
allotment had been made if, enthroned by his Father’s side on that sun of
suns, he had allotted to each of his disciples a constellation, than have
assigned to them miserable transitory judgeships in Judea: a speck of
territory, in this speck of a globe, which in a field of vision embracing the
universe, would be imperceptible.
746. There being in Scripture so much more stress laid upon the torments
of hell than the joys of heaven, is probably the reason why the horror of
death is so great among Christians in general. Their practice in this respect
is to speak of death as a great calamity. Here and there may be found a
believer who is thoroughly convinced that the efficacy of his peculiar
tenets, combined with the absence of criminality, and the redeeming
influence of repentance, will insure him a passage to heaven; but the
predominant language is to represent the death of any large number of
human beings as a great calamity. Those who are exposed to danger pray
most earnestly to be saved, and their death is always treated as a cause for
deep regret by surviving friends. Hence the weeping, the grief, and the
mourning called for by custom,—the relations and connections wearing

black for months. Hence the dark hearse, the black pall, and bitter
lamentation over the grave; which shows that it is not realized that death is
only a glorious spiritual birth! I am confident that spiritualists will soon
abandon a custom which must on their part be inconsistent; since they must
look on death as no more a bereavement, than a residence in a foreign
country, the means of communication being within reach, and a happy
reunion foreseen.
747. When on board of a steamer under way at night, the possibility of
her going down occurring to my mind, I felt cheered by the idea that I
should not go down with her, but soar to the spirit world with my immortal
friends, who would flock to meet my apotheosis. (Page 101.)
748. It has been urged that a most substantial idea of heaven, given in the
old Bible, is that of a restoration to Paradise, of which the description gives
the idea of an exquisite, beautiful garden; but Spiritualism gives the idea of
garden above garden, improving in beauty with their elevation. Then there
are thirty-six gradations in all, and in the five happy spheres thirty; so that
there is excitement arising from well-rewarded emulation as a source of
interest. Into the idea of heaven, as suggested in Scripture, intellectual
ability and improvement form no part and give no superiority; whence the
tendency of the more strict constructionists to turn a cold shoulder to every
acquirement which is not coupled with scriptural knowledge. Neither the
Athenæum, nor any library, is to be accessible on Sunday. If the time
devoted at meetings and at church were given to the study of the real book
of God, how much more learned would be those who thus employ their
Sundays! It is held that the lowest and most ignorant person who is
educated to believe implicitly the tenets of a sect, when he would by the
same process as easily be made to believe any other tenets, is in heaven to
be as high as the most enlightened as well as virtuous man, who has the
only merit which can be attached to belief in a high degree—that of ardent
desire for truth, and taking the pains to form an opinion for himself. Nay,
the ignorant bigot is to be higher in heaven, if the free-thinker alluded to,
should not agree with the ghostly adviser, of the devoted sectarian with
whom he is compared.
749. The idea of living in the finest garden which imagination can
conceive, without the enjoyments and progression which my father’s
communication attributes to the spheres, would beget tedium rather than the

ineffable happiness which my spirit friends profess to enjoy. But while one
of the Jewish ideas of heaven in its best form, is thus deficient, the
description given by the learned Josephus of hell is horrible in the extreme,
that of heaven being disgusting. I give it as I find it quoted by the Rev. Mr.
Harbaugh:
750. “Now as to Hades, wherein the souls of the righteous and
unrighteous are detained, it is necessary to speak of it. Hades is a place in
the world not regularly finished, a subterraneous region, wherein the light
of this world does not shine; from which circumstance in this region there
must be perpetual darkness. This region is allotted as a place of custody for
souls, in which angels are appointed as guardians to them, who distribute to
them temporary punishment, agreeably to every one’s behaviour and
manners.
751. “In this region there is a certain place set apart as a lake of
unquenchable fire, whereinto, we suppose, no one hath hitherto been cast,
but it is prepared for a day aforedetermined by God, in which one righteous
sentence shall deservedly be passed upon all men; when the unjust, and
those that have been disobedient to God, and have given honour to such
idols as have been the vain operations of the hands of men as to God
himself, shall be adjudged to this everlasting punishment, as having been
the causes of defilement; while the just shall obtain an incorruptible and
never-fading kingdom. These are now indeed confined in Hades, but not in
the same place wherein the just are confined. For there is one descent in this
region, at whose gate, we believe, there stands an archangel, with a host;
which gate, when those pass through that are conducted down by the angels
appointed over souls, they do not go the same way, but the just are guided
to the right hand, and are led with hymns, sung by the angels appointed
over that place, unto a region of light, in which the just have dwelt from the
beginning of the world, not constrained by necessity, but ever enjoying the
prospect of the good things they see, and rejoicing in the expectation of
those new enjoyments which will be peculiar to every one of them, and
esteeming those things beyond what we have here; with whom there is no
place of toil, no burning heat, no piercing cold, nor any briers there; but the
countenances of the fathers and the just, which they see always, smile upon
them while they wait for the rest, and eternal new life in heaven, which is to
succeed this region. This place we call the bosom of Abraham. But as to the

unjust, they are dragged by force to the left hand, by the angels allotted for
punishment, no longer going with a good will, but as prisoners driven by
violence; to whom are sent the angels appointed over them to reproach
them, and threaten them with their terrible looks, and to thrust them still
downward. Now these angels that are set over these souls drag them into
the neighbourhood of hell itself; who, when they are hard by it, continually
hear the noise of it, and do not stand clear of the hot vapour itself; but when
they have a near view of this spectacle, as of a terrible and exceeding great
prospect of fire, they are struck with a fearful expectation of a future
judgment, and in effect punished thereby; not only so, but when they see the
place (or choir) of the fathers and of the just, even thereby are they
punished, for a chaos deep and large is fixed between them, insomuch that a
just man that hath compassion upon them cannot be admitted, nor can any
one that is unjust, if he were bold enough to attempt it, pass over it.”
752. So much for Josephus. Mr. Harbaugh subjoins as follows: “This
extract is exceedingly interesting. It shows to what extent of distinctness the
Jewish ideas of the future state had attained. The dreamlike underworld is
here considerably illuminated. The righteous and the wicked are separated,
and already share the first fruits of their eternal reward. The righteous are
surrounded with intimations and shadowy promises of better things to
come, in the expectation of which they are already happy; the wicked are
surrounded with tokens and forebodings of more fearful ill, much of which
they already suffer in awful expectation.
753. “Through this picture,” says our good parson, “we see in faint but
terrible glimmerings, in the distance, the region of eternal fire, which awaits
the wicked when the judgment-day shall remove them from Hades; on the
other hand, we see also the dawning of an eternal day for the just, the rest
and eternal new life which is to succeed this region. This kingdom of the
dead, beyond which the thoughts of men in the early ages did not wander, is
considered only as a place of detention for judgment, while the idea of a
final state, both for the righteous and the wicked, is believed to exist beyond
it.”
754. How can any person sincerely pretend that those who rely on a
happy idea of our immortal life are indebted for it to the source from which
this Hebrew Pharisee derived the impressions given in the preceding

quotation? Yet the Pharisees were the only conspicuous Hebrew sect who
believed in heaven. The Sadducees did not believe in immortality.
755. The history of Lazarus and the rich man, (says Harbaugh, page 168,)
“plainly teaches that both the righteous and the wicked on death pass into a
fixed and eternal abode, where no change is possible;” and he further states
(pp. 169-70) that “the misery of the wicked commences immediately after
death, and before the resurrection, and their condition is unchangeably
fixed.” According to St. Luke, (chapter xvi.) in the page alluded to above by
Harbaugh, we are informed that the wicked, while in the torture of hell-fire,
are within the view of the righteous, (verse 23.) The righteous are near
enough to converse with those in torment, and yet there is an impassable
barrier between them. The rich man is not tortured for his sins, but simply
because he had “enjoyed good things.” Yet Abraham, who turned his son
and son’s mother out in the wilderness to starve, and twice exposed his wife
to prostitution, is represented as enjoying the reward due to the righteous.
756. How little sincere, heartfelt belief there can be in the words of
Christ, may be estimated from the fact that scarcely any Christian but seeks
for the good things of this life, instead of qualifying themselves for heaven
by undergoing the rewarded privations of a Lazarus.
757. It is utterly unintelligible to my mind why repentance and
reformation should not avail after, as well as before death, as it is
represented to be in the spirit world.
758. There is a coincidence between these representations of Josephus
and those of the gospel, so far as that both represent the righteous as
witnessing the torments of the wicked. Would not such a situation make
heaven a hell to good-hearted angels?
759. According to Matthew, (chapter xxv. 24,) the blessed, after the day
of judgment, are to inherit the kingdom prepared from the foundation of the
world. Of the joys that kingdom would afford there is no description. But,
as usual, hell is made sufficiently horrible, (chapter xxv. 41,)—“Depart
from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his
angels.”
760. In this respect, if in no other, there is an immense superiority in the
conceptions of futurity given by my immortal advisers, in comparison with

those attributed as above to Christ.
761. It has been urged that human conduct is so much dependent on
organization, education, temptation, and example, neither of which are
within the option of any soul, that the orthodox doctrine respecting sin is
manifestly wrong. But admitting the culpability which that doctrine
imputes, it has been shown that the gradations of sinfulness between the
extremes of vice and virtue are innumerable. Suppose for each gradation a
strand in a ladder, like that of which Jacob dreamed, and human souls
supported severally at elevations commensurate with their respective
pretensions. This adjustment being made, suppose a plane at any level to
divide the vertical row into two portions, all below the plane being
considered as goats, all above the plane as sheep. Evidently, between the
soul just above, and that just below the plane, there would be only a shade
of difference; yet the one would have to go to hell, the other to heaven,
eternally.
762. According to Spiritualism, on entering the spirit world each soul
finds its just level by a sort of moral specific gravity, in which merit is
inversely as weight. Every soul, moreover, has the privilege of reforming,
and rising proportionally to the improvement thus obtained.
763. One of the most agreeable conceptions attending our future
existence in the spheres, is that of being restored to the appearance of
youth; the decrepitude and wrinkles of age, of disease, mutilation,
deformity, ugliness, are all avoided in the spiritual body. The insane are
restored to reason, the idiot gradually improved in mind.

DISCORDANCE AS TO THE WHEREABOUT OF THE
SCRIPTURAL HEAVEN.—INSTINCTIVE IMPRESSION AS
TO HEAVEN BEING OVERHEAD.

764. There is no small degree of contradiction in Scripture respecting the
locality of heaven. In addressing the thief, paradise is identified with heaven

by Christ. “St. Paul is alleged to have been taken up into paradise,” says
Harbaugh; yet, according to the map accompanying the work of Josephus,
Paradise is represented as being upon the river Tigris, near the Persian Gulf.
The idea given of the abode of Adam and Eve, in Genesis, conveys the
impression that it was a terrestrial locality.
765. In the Decalogue the abbreviation of life is threatened as the
punishment for not honouring parents, and God is alleged to have held out
the promised land to Moses, instead of comforting him by a clairvoyant
view of a place of blissful enjoyment in some celestial region.
766. Elijah was carried up to heaven in the sight of Elisha. The
commandment makes heaven above, the earth beneath. Christ was seen
ascending by his disciples, and according to the apostles’ creed, after
descending into hell, he arose on the third day and ascended into heaven.
Yet Josephus consigns both heaven and hell to a subterranean region, like
the Elysian Fields and Erebus of the heathen, but places them on each side
of a lake of everlasting fire. This representation is sanctioned in the allusion
by Christ to Dives, Lazarus, and Abraham; the former, broiling to eternity,
requests that Lazarus should get a little water to cool the tip of his tongue.
This Abraham declares to be impossible. Hence it appears the parties were
so near as to converse with each other, and for those who were blest to
witness the sufferings of the damned. Thus, according to Christ as well as
Josephus, heaven and hell are in immediate proximity, and both must be in
the infernal regions.
767. The actual effects of the old Bible were to produce either
unbelievers in immortality, like the Sadducees, or immoral believers, like
the Pharisees, whom Christ especially denounces as vipers, and internally
corrupt, like whited sepulchres holding dead men’s bones.
768. Christ never singles out the Sadducees for denunciation, but speaks
of the Pharisees particularly as hypocritical and corrupt. But in what did
their hypocrisy consist, if it was not in that insincerity of their professions
as respects belief in futurity which was shown by their worldliness.
769. Thus the evidence of the existence of a future state was such as to
produce avowed unbelievers, or professed believers whose morality was so
deficient as to create an expression that they were corrupt hypocrites, as
odious as vipers.

770. It is not the feebleness of the impressions respecting the existence of
another world, where happiness is proportional to good conduct, that
renders the existing system so inoperative in preventing those vices which it
especially interdicts; as, for instance, combativeness, cupidity, and
revengefulness; so that the course usually pursued by professed Christians,
does not merely amount to a neglect of Christ’s precepts, but renders an
adherence to them disreputable? Nothing is more degrading throughout
Christendom than poverty or tame submission to blows. The last excuse
Christians in general will make for any omission or deficiency is their
poverty.
771. If they really believed that they would broil to eternity, like the rich
man, merely for seeking the good things of this life, would the attainment of
those good things be made the great object of their existence?
772. Notwithstanding the representations of Josephus, sanctioned, as
above shown, by Christ, of the subterranean localization of Elysium, there
seems, nevertheless, an instinctive propensity to assume that heaven is
overhead. Clergymen all look upward when they address God, and the
Thespian artists universally follow their example. Whenever heaven is
referred to, it is customary, I believe, for all devout persons to turn their
eyes in the same direction.
773. But if heaven be above, what does this term above mean? It
practically designates a vertical direction relatively to this globe at any
point over which a speaker who uses the word may stand. Consequently, it
indicates a space overhead, having everywhere the same relative position to
the terrestrial surface; in other words, a region concentric with that surface,
like that within which the clouds float. This floating takes place rarely at a
less distance than two, or more than six, miles.
774. The spiritual spheres are estimated, as already mentioned, as being
between sixty and one hundred and twenty miles from the earth’s surface.
They are, therefore, analogous in position to the region of the clouds,
though at a much greater distance and vastly more capacious.
775. According to Christianity, there is no immortality for animals below
the grade of humanity; but according to Spiritualism, animals that are
favourites of man in this world are his companions in the next. Much stress
is laid on the singing of birds in the account given of the spheres. There is a

line of demarcation below which the privilege of an existence after death is
not enjoyed. Respecting that boundary my information is at present
incomplete.
776. In order to do justice to the excellent and learned clergyman to
whom I have so often referred, I will annex the whole of those pages in
which he conceives himself to give the “true doctrine” respecting heaven.
However unsatisfactory it may be to me, I hope it will be found interesting
to those who, like the author, look only to the Bible for information
respecting their existence beyond the grave.

“THE TRUE DOCTRINE”

Respecting Heaven, according to the Rev. H. Harbaugh, Pastor of the
First German Reformed Church, Lancaster, Penna.

“One gentle sigh their fetter breaks;
We scarce can say, ‘They’re gone!’
Before the willing spirit takes
Her mansion near the throne.”

777. “The different theories by which the souls of saints are supposed to
be detained from entering heaven immediately at death, have now been
exhibited. They have led us a long and dreary chase. The groundlessness of
these theories has been, in part, shown in connection with a statement of
them. They will, however, be more completely overthrown by a statement
of the true doctrine, and by the arguments that may be adduced in its
support. Various arguments that, in passing along, were offered against
these false views, will also substantiate the true doctrine; thus the same
implements that have been used to tear down the old building may be
employed to erect the new. If, therefore, any thing should be presented in
this section, among other things, which may seem to have been presented

before, it must be remembered that though they are the same tools, they are
now used to do a different kind of execution.
778. “We consider the true doctrine of God’s word on this subject to be
this: The saints do immediately, at death, enter that place which is called
heaven, where the body of the Saviour now is, where the divine
manifestations are most clearly and gloriously made, where angels have
their proper home, and where all the heirs of Christ shall finally and
forevermore be assembled.
779. “That the saints pass immediately at death into heaven, is taught in
the symbols in some of the most pious and learned denominations in the
church. We grant that this does not prove it absolutely true; but it has much
weight, as showing how the Scripture on this subject was understood by
many pious and learned men who had the same interest in and motives for
the truth as we have, and were, we may therefore suppose, just as sincerely
anxious to be led into the truth as we can possibly be. The conclusions,
therefore, to which they have come, and which have been adopted by their
numerous successors for centuries, are valuable. Beside furnishing us with
the testimony of so much learning and piety, it serves to show that this is no
new idea, and that it is not the faith of a few, but is the testimony of the
church.
780. “The first symbolical testimony we produce is the Heidelberg
Catechism, published first in 1563. This symbol has been the embodiment
of the reformed faith for more than three centuries. Its influence has been
very extensively respected and felt. It has, since its publication, been
translated and read in at least fourteen different languages; and it is said that
half a million editions of it have been published in Germany alone. In this
country it is received as a symbolic book, both in the Dutch Reformed and
in the German Reformed churches. In the fifty-seventh question it is asked,
What comfort is afforded to us by the doctrine of the resurrection of the
body; and the answer is: ‘That not only my soul after this life shall be
immediately taken up to Christ its head; but also, that my body, being raised
by the power of Christ, shall be reunited with my soul, and be made like
unto the glorious body of Christ.’ Here the doctrine is plainly taught, and
has been responded to with a joyful amen by millions during three hundred
years.

781. “The next is from the Shorter Catechism, received as a symbolic
book in the different branches of the Presbyterian communion. It is in
answer to the thirty-seventh question: ‘What benefits do believers receive
from Christ at death? The souls of believers are at their death made perfect
in holiness, and do immediately pass into glory; and their bodies, being still
united to Christ, do rest in their graves till the resurrection.’ In the eighty-
sixth question of the Larger Catechism this same doctrine is taught in more
words. The following quotation is from the Westminster Confession of
Faith: ‘The bodies of men, after death, return to dust and see corruption; but
their souls, (which neither die nor sleep,) having an immortal substance,
immediately return to God who gave them. The souls of the righteous, being
then made perfect in holiness, are received into the highest heavens, where
they behold the face of God in light and glory, waiting for the full
redemption of their bodies.’ The declaration that they are ‘then made perfect
in holiness,’ is no doubt directly aimed against the idea of a process of
purgatorial or medicinal preparation, mentioned in a previous section. The
declaration that they are then ‘received into the highest heavens,’ is
intended to stand in opposition to the idea of a middle abode in all its forms.
782. “The book of ‘Doctrines and Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal
Church’ is silent on this subject; but, so far as I have been able to learn, the
proper Protestant doctrine on this subject is held in that large communion.
Their views of the nature of justification and sanctification would admit of
no other to be consistently believed among them. It is believed that this is
also the prevailing sentiment among Baptists, and other Congregationalists.
783. “What is here presented from symbols as the united faith of so many
learned and pious men living in different ages, and in different parts of the
world, is also founded on holy Scripture. By no wresting and violence has
the church, in the general stream of its theological views, been turned aside
from this faith. It is vain that men hope to annul, by means of violent and
unnatural interpretations, the plain declarations of Scripture, to serve a
theory.

‘Truth, crush’d to earth, will rise again,
The eternal years of God are hers.’

784. “The Saviour said to the penitent thief on the cross—‘To-day shalt
thou be with me in paradise.’ Now the question arises, Where and what is
that paradise in which the Saviour promised the dying penitent that he
should be with him that day? This can be seen by referring to other passages
in the Scriptures where the word paradise is used, and where its sense
cannot be mistaken. This can be seen by reference to 2 Cor. xii. There it is
said that Paul was caught up into paradise; and in the same passage the
place into which he was taken is called the third heaven—the highest and
holiest place in the universe. In Rev. ii. 7 we are told that the tree of life
stands in the midst of the paradise of God; and in Rev. xxii. 2, we are told
that that same tree of life stands by the side of the river which flows from
the throne of God and the Lamb. From this it is evident that paradise is the
heaven where God dwells and the Lamb. Is then the middle abode, Hades,
the kingdom of shades, the peculiar abode of God and the Lamb?
785. “The objection that the Saviour himself did not go to heaven that
day, but was for forty days afterward on the earth, and that therefore he
could not be with the penitent thief in paradise, has no force. During the
three days that intervened between his death and resurrection, he could as
well be in heaven as in Hades. Indeed, it is evident that he was in heaven
during those three days, from what he says to his disciples shortly before
his death: ‘A little while, and ye shall not see me; and again, a little while,
and ye shall see me, because I go to the Father.’ Moreover, his tarrying on
the earth and appearing among his disciples does not conflict with the idea
that he was also in paradise. When he was yet in the flesh on earth, he could
say: ‘And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but that he came down from
heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.’ In the same way that he
was in heaven at that time, he may have been in heaven with the penitent
thief during the forty days between his death and ascension.
786. “The history of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke xvi.) plainly teaches
that both the righteous and the wicked, at death, pass into a fixed and eternal
abode, where no change is possible. No comment on the passage is
necessary. This portion of Scripture has a thousand times been tortured out
of its meaning by errorists of various kinds, and as often has its testimony
fallen back into the church’s healthful stream of sound views. As a sheep,
carried away from the fold, returns when set free, so this passage always
comes back again; for the voice of a stranger it heareth not, nor followeth!

787. “In the Revelation, John, in his vision, saw the souls of departed
martyrs and saints ‘in heaven,’ ‘under the altar,’ ‘before the throne of God,’
&c., and in the company of each other, of God, of Christ, and of angels, in
the central and highest heavens, and in that place where the saints go no
more out forever. Let it be remembered, also, that all this is before the
resurrection; and if the following passages are carefully considered, they
will leave no doubt on any candid mind that the saints are, immediately
after death, admitted into heaven. To quote them all would be too tedious; a
reference to them is sufficient: Rev. v. 6-14; vi. 9-12; vii. 9-17; xiv. 1-6; xiv.
12, 13.
788. “For further proof still the reader is referred to Acts vii. 59; 2 Cor. v.
1-9; Phil. i. 21-24; 2 Tim. iv. 6-9; Eph. iii. 15. In this last passage, the whole
family of Christ is represented to be at two places, in heaven and on earth;
but according to the other theory, there ought also to be some in Hades, or
the third place.
789. “It may also be remarked that the misery of the wicked commences,
according to the Scripture, immediately after death, and before the
resurrection, and that their condition is unchangeably fixed. This is evident
from Luke xvi.; and also from that passage in Jude where he says that those
who had died impenitent in the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah were,
at the time he wrote, ‘suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.’ In like
manner it is said of the righteous at death, that they are blessed ‘from
henceforth;’ and of those who were clothed in white robes, having come up
through great tribulation, it is said, ‘therefore are they before the throne of
God.’
790. “These passages are plain, and it would, in all probability, never
have been attempted to make them mean any thing different from their plain
sense, were it not for some difficulties, which, it is thought, stood in the
way of the doctrine that the souls of the saints pass immediately at death
into heaven. Let us look at these, and see whether they are not fancied
difficulties, which one glance at the truth ought to remove:
791. (1.) “It is said that the soul, in a state of separation from the body,
cannot be in the same state, nor properly in the same place, as it will be
after the resurrection; and as heaven is to be the eternal abode of the saints
after the resurrection, it cannot be a proper abode for them before. This

objection has, however, no force. There is, for instance, in this world, a
great difference between a person in childhood and old age, yea, before he
is born and after, or between his sleeping and waking state; and yet he is in
all these in the same world, in the same place, and is the same person. The
state and condition of the Saviour differs widely from that of any saint or
angel, and yet both are in heaven. So angels and human spirits differ, and
yet both are in one company and in one place. So in heaven the condition of
the saints before and after the resurrection may differ much, and yet they
may be, in both cases, in the same place.
792. “(2.) The saints cannot enter heaven, it is said, before they are
judged; and as the day of judgment is represented to be after the
resurrection, the saints cannot enter heaven until after that, and
consequently not immediately at death. We may, however, consider, as is
generally done, that the day of judgment is only a public and final
consummation of the decision of man’s destiny. Although God can, and no
doubt, does, for himself, judge and decide for each one when he dies, yet it
seems necessary for the glorious praise of his justice and righteousness that
all other intelligences should see the propriety of his decision. This is
necessary, that every mouth may be stopped; and in order to do this he has
appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by
that man whom he has ordained.
793. “(3.) It is also said that the condition of many is represented in that
day to be undecided. Thus many are said to be disappointed; coming to be
judged, they find that their expectations of heaven are vain, and they say,
‘Have we not prophesied, cast out devils, and done many wonderful works
in Thy name?’ Now it is said that if these persons had been in a fixed state
before, they could not have been in doubt on this matter. The force of this
objection is only apparent. The representations of the judgment are after the
manner of men, and consequently our conceptions of it must be more or
less according to what we are accustomed to see on earth. The Saviour is
warning his hearers not to delay preparation for death; and, in order to
impress his solemn exhortation, tells them that many will find themselves
disappointed in their expectations in reference to the final decision of their
judge, and that their hopes of heaven, being built on the sand, will fail at
last. It does no more exclusively refer to that day than the many warnings to
prepare to meet the Son of Man refer to the time of his second coming. He

is always coming, and to prepare for death is to prepare to meet him. So to
find ourselves deceived at the day of death is the same as to find ourselves
deceived at the day of judgment.
794. “(4.) Again, it is said that in some cases the full effects and
consequences of persons’ actions are not fully worked out when persons
die. Thus, for instance, it is known that the labours and writings of many
infidels, who are long since dead, are still working for evil; and on the other
hand, the labours and writings of many good men are still working out
good. These consequences must, in a certain sense, come into the
consideration of their punishment or reward. Hence it is thought their
destiny cannot immediately be decided. But to this it may be replied that
God, who judges, knows how these consequences will work themselves out,
and is able, therefore, to give a just judgment as well at the day of death as
at the end of the world. At the last day, when all consequences have run out
their history, it will be proper that they should be exhibited in a solemn
public judgment, that all may see for themselves that all his ways are just
and right. Besides, there is nothing unreasonable or unscriptural in the
belief that the happiness of the righteous in heaven, and the misery of the
lost in hell, will increase in exact proportion as the consequences of their
actions on the earth are developing themselves, until the day of judgment,
when the cup will be full, and then the full draught of happiness or misery
will be taken finally and forever! Oh, what a moment will that be!
795. “Some additional considerations will serve more completely still to
answer these and other objections, and reconcile the serious and thoughtful
mind to the idea that the souls of the saints are in heaven before the
resurrection of the body.
796. “We shall only gain proper ideas in reference to this interesting
subject when we have corrected our ideas of heaven, for many of them are
evidently wrong. We are inclined to think of heaven as affording to the
saints a fixed or stereotyped condition, without attaching to it the idea of
degrees and progression. When we maintain that the saints pass
immediately at death into heaven, we do not mean that they enter then upon
their final condition, or into their highest state of perfection, but only that
they enter into that place which is their final abode. When, for instance, a
child is born into the world, it is in the world; but it is limited in its
observations, actions, ideas, capacities, and enjoyments, and yet all these

are in their state perfect; all its faculties occupy their place symmetrically,
and we have in the child a uniform but not a perfect being. Analogous to
this may be the primary stage of our future celestial history. The child is in
the world before it is born and during its infantile years, but how different is
it, and how different is the world to it, from what it will be when all its
faculties are ripe! So in heaven. The child before self-consciousness appears
to enjoy an indistinct and floating life, but happy too; so may it be with our
future condition before the resurrection of the body. The condition of the
disembodied spirit will, no doubt, be somewhat isolated and lonely, (in a
pleasant sense,) its happiness being derived much, though not entirely, from
the flow of its own harmonious existence, and not from its connection with
things external. Its future connection with its body will arrest its floating
condition, and connect it again more consciously with locality and
materiality. Thus it will become more capable of social relations and joys;
just as the child emerging from its floating state in infancy has its social
powers developed by being furnished with self-consciousness and speech,
by which it learns intelligently to separate and distinguish itself from the
general mass of being, which makes its enjoyments higher in their nature
and more acute and sensible in their quality.
797. “Perhaps the state of the saints previous to the resurrection of the
body, and in the first stage of their future being, may be analogous to (but of
course higher than) a state of ordinary sleep, with active, pleasant dreaming.
In dreams, the spirit acts and enjoys, unconscious of the body; and may we
not suppose that the spirit after death may, to a certain extent, act and enjoy
without the body? Perhaps it may in this state pass profitably and pleasantly
through the first stages of its future history. It may, so to say, become
habituated to eternal things, and develop its spiritual capacities to such a
degree as to be prepared, at the time of the resurrection, to enter upon a
more tangible and positive state of existence. It may thus, also, become
acquainted with purely spiritual beings, and with the modes of purely
spiritual existence. This will be useful, because the saints after the
resurrection will be required to hold communion with things material and
immaterial. While the saint is in this world, in the body, he becomes
conversant with material things, and habituated to them; now, in the other
world, in a disembodied state, previous to the resurrection, he will become
conversant with and habituated to purely spiritual existence, so that after the
resurrection, when soul and body are again united, he will be able to hold

converse and communion with either material or immaterial existences at
pleasure.
798. “To this it may be objected that while those who lived in the early
ages of the world would have a long time to remain in this state of celestial
pupilage, those who live in later ages would have less, and those in the last
days scarcely any.
799. “This objection, so far from militating against this idea, most
beautifully illustrates and confirms it. Thus the souls of men are more
developed in spiritual things now, and will be still more in future, than they
were in the earlier ages of the world. Those who lived in the morning of the
world had very limited and indistinct ideas of divine and eternal things.
Their views of a future world, especially, were exceedingly misty and
obscure. As the church advanced, life and immortality were more and more
brought to light. Revelation passed from types, shadows, and ceremonies,
into brighter and clearer realities; and spiritual conceptions gained a firmer
and more distinct hold upon the consciousness of men. The new
dispensation was an advance upon the old, as under the old the age of
prophecy had been upon the law, and the law upon the simple twilight of
the patriarchal age. In what a different light those who lived after the new
dispensation dawned, stood from those under the Old Testament, is clear
from what the Saviour says—‘Among those that are born of women, there
is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist; but he that is least in the
kingdom of God’ (in the new dispensation) ‘is greater than he.’
800. “At the present day, clearer views are enjoyed than were enjoyed in
the early history of the Christian church. Let any one read the history of the
patristic controversies, and he will see how the most learned stumbled
among propositions in search of truth which are now clearly comprehended
by intelligent Sabbath-school children. And so it will go on into the future.
Spiritual ideas which are as giants to us, and the nature and relations of
which we do not see, will be apprehended by our successors at once. Thus,
under the tuition of the Spirit, revelation will show itself progressive, and
new things, as well as old, in reference to the spiritual world, will be
constantly and successively brought out of the treasure of God’s word, of
which the divine Spirit is the commentator. How, you ask, does all this
apply to the subject in hand? Thus the earlier a saint lived in this world, the
longer time for this heavenly pupilage he will have in the next before the

resurrection, and he needs more; the later he lived in this world, the less
will he have in the other before the resurrection, and he needs less. Thus
those who enjoy in this world superior advantages on account of living
under the clearer dispensation of divine truth in the last ages of the church,
shall not have any advantage over those who had less on account of living
in the first ages, since those who had less will have longer time in the future
world before the resurrection.
801. “With this idea in view, the passage in 1 Thess. iv. 15 becomes
beautifully intelligible: ‘For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord,
that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not
prevent’ (that is, shall not go before, anticipate, or have any advantage over)
‘those which are asleep; the dead in Christ shall rise first: then’ (when they
have risen) ‘we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with
them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we be ever with
the Lord.’ Those who shall live in the last moment, having had their spirits
fully enlightened and prepared for a future existence in the brightness of the
latter-day glory before death, shall not ‘sleep’ at all, for there will be no
necessity for it; but ‘shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of
an eye, at the last trump.’ ‘The dead shall be raised incorruptible,’ having
been prepared for their incorruptible body, but ‘we shall be changed.’ 1 Cor.
xv. 51, 52.
802. “This theory may be seen in the same way to illustrate itself
consistently when applied to those who are lost. Those who live last in the
world, when superior light is around them, sin against greater light than
those who lived earlier, and are therefore sooner prepared to have their
doleful station fixed finally in hell, in the union of soul and body.
803. “The doctrine we present in reference to the condition of the spirits
of the saints in heaven, differs from the idea of a middle state, in a third
place, in several important particulars. It excludes the idea of a middle place
entirely, and of course all idea of probation, which is generally attached to it
in some form or other. The state of the spirit in heaven, though imperfect,
being the celestial childhood of the spirit, is nevertheless final, and not
probationary. Our enjoyments there will be in exact proportion to our
capacity; and as fast as our spirits are unfolded, will our joys increase.

‘The more our spirits are enlarged on earth,
The deeper draughts they shall receive of heaven.’

804. “What an interesting moment to the spirit will be the moment after
death! What scenes will open up before it! The friends will stand weeping
over the now tenantless body, but the spirit is—oh!

‘My thoughts pursue it where it flies,
And trace its wondrous way!’

805. “The Christian need have no unpleasant anxiety about what scenes
will open to him, for he knows that the glory which will then break upon his
astonished spirit will exceed his keenest anticipations.”

OF MEDIUMSHIP.

806. The facts which I have noticed in relation to mediumship, are
certainly among the most inexplicable in nature.
807. There are two modes in which spiritual manifestations are made
through the influence or sub-agency of media. In the one mode, they
employ the tongue to speak, the fingers to write, or hands to actuate tables
or instruments for communication; in the other, they act upon ponderable
matter directly, through a halo or aura appertaining to media; so that
although the muscular power may be incapacitated for aiding them, they
will cause a body to move, or produce raps intelligibly so as to select letters
conveying their ideas, uninfluenced by those of the medium.
808. Even where they act through the muscular frame of the media, their
vision may be intercepted by a screen, so that they cannot influence the
selection of the letters requisite to a communication. (Plate I.)

809. Rappings or tappings are made at the distance of many feet from the
medium, and ponderable bodies, such as bells, are moved or made to
undergo the motion requisite to being rang.
810. It will be perceived that my spirit father, in reply to the queries put
in relation to this mystery, asks, “How do you move your limbs—carry the
body wheresoever it goeth? how does God cause the movements of
astronomical orbs?” (457.)
811. Evidently some instrument must intervene between the divine will
and the bodies actuated thereby, and in humble imitation between the
human will and the limbs. Upon the viscera our will has no influence. The
heart moves without the exercise of volition.
812. As there is an ethereal medium by means of which light moves
through space from the remotest visible fixed star to the eye, at the rate of
two hundred thousand miles per second; as through an affection of the same
ether frictional electricity moves, according to Wheatstone’s estimate, with
a velocity exceeding that of light,—so may we not infer that the instrument
of Divine will acts with still greater velocity, and that in making man in this
respect after his own image, so far as necessary to an available existence,
gives him one degree of power over the same element while in the mortal
state, and another higher degree of power in the spiritual state. But if there
be an element through which a spirit within his mortal frame is capable of
actuating that frame, may not this element of actuation be susceptible of
becoming an instrument to the will of another spirit in the immortal state?
813. The aura of a medium which thus enables an immortal spirit to do
within its scope things which it cannot do otherwise, appears to vary with
the human being resorted to; so that only a few are so endowed with this
aura as to be competent as media. Moreover, in those who are so constituted
as to be competent instruments of spiritual actuation, this competency is
various. There is a gradation of competency, by which the nature of the
instrumentality varies from that which empowers violent loud knocking and
the moving of ponderable bodies without actual contact, to the grade which
confers power to make intellectual communications of the higher order
without that of audible knocking. Further, the power to employ these grades
of mediumship varies as the sphere of the spirit varies.

814. It has been stated that mortals have each a halo perceptible to spirits,
by which they are enabled to determine the sphere to which any individual
will go on passing death’s portal. Spirits cannot approach effectively a
medium of a sphere much above, or below that to which they belong.
815. As media, in proportion as they are more capable of serving for the
higher intellectual communication, are less capable of serving for
mechanical demonstration, and as they are more capable of the latter are
less competent for the former, spirits likewise have a higher or lower
capacity to employ media. It has been mentioned that having made a test
apparatus, my spirit sister alleged that it could not be actuated by her
without assistance of spirits from a lower sphere. I inquired whether she
could not meet me again, accompanied by the requisite aid. The reply was
in the affirmative, and accordingly she met me at an appointed hour, and my
apparatus was actuated effectually under test conditions. (Plate 4, dd, ii, kk.)
816. After I had read over an exposition of my information respecting the
spirit world to the spirit of the illustrious Washington, I requested him to
give me a confirmation while the medium should be under test conditions.
(Plate 4, kk.) I placed the hand of the medium upon the board lever of the
instrument, of which a representation has been given, (Plate I, Plate 4,) so
as to be on the outer side of the fulcrum, and requested him to attest the
reliability of the medium during the previous intercommunion. In reply it
was alleged not to be within his power to give me that test; I urged that this
test had been given in his presence. “We had an employee, then,” was his
rejoinder. Fortunately I had contrived a test instrument requiring less of the
mechanical power, so that by means of it he was enabled to perfect the
evidence by bringing the index to the affirmative, under conditions which
put it out of the power of the medium to produce that result. (See Plate 4
and description.)
817. These facts make the subject of mediumship a most complicated
mystery; but the creation teems with mystery, so that inscrutability cannot
be a ground for disbelief of any thing. The only cases wherein there is
absolute incredibility, are those in which the definition of the premises
contradicts those of the inferences or conclusions.
818. It is evident from the creative power which the spirits aver
themselves to possess, that they exercise faculties which they do not

understand. Their explanation of the mysteries of mediumship only
substitutes one mystery for another.
819. If we undertake to generalize, it must come pretty near what I have
said above, that spirits are endowed, as my spirit father alleges, with a
“magic will,” capable of producing, as they allege, wonderful results within
their own world, (452;) nevertheless that this will does not act by itself
directly on mundane bodies. An intermedium is found in the halo or aura
within or without certain human organizations. The halos thus existing are
not all similarly endowed; some having one, some another capability. Some
are better for one object, some for another object. Again, the will-power
varies as the sphere of the spirits is higher or lower, so that the medium
suited for one is not suited for another.
820. Thus the means by which they are capable of communicating is
various, and moreover precarious, according to the health and equanimity
of the mortal being under whose halo they may strive to act.
821. Evidently, the ponderable elements recognised by mundane
chemists cannot contribute to any of the bodies of the spirit world, since
their gravity must disqualify them for use in a world where every thing is,
in comparison with them, weightless. Accordingly, one of the queries put by
me to the convocation of spirits (574) was, whether any of our elements,
being ponderable, could act as such in the imponderable spiritual creation.
The reply was, Not without undergoing a transformation. This would be
equivalent to annihilating them first, and recreating them afterward, when
the process of creating alone would be sufficient. But manifestly it is of no
importance, whether their adaptation to the spirit world be the result of
creation or of transformation.
822. Concerned in the processes of mediumship, it is manifest that there
is none of that kind of electricity or magnetism of which the laws and
phenomena have been the subject of Faraday’s researches, and which are
treated of in books, under the heads of frictional or mechanical electricity,
galvanism, or electro-magnetism.
823. Frictional electricity, such as produced usually by the friction of
glass in an electrical machine, or of aqueous globules generated by steam
escaping from a boiler, is always to be detected by electrometers, or the
spark given to a conducting body when in communication with the earth;

the human knuckle, for instance. When not sufficiently accumulated to
produce these evidences of its presence, it must be in a very feeble state of
excitement. But even in the highest accumulation by human means, as in
the discharge of a powerfully charged Leyden battery, it only acts for a time
inconceivably brief, and does not move ponderable masses as they are
moved in the instance of spiritual manifestation. It is only in transitu, that
frictional electricity displays much power, and then its path is extremely
narrow, and the duration of its influence inconceivably minute. According
to Wheatstone’s experiments and calculations, it would go round the earth
in the tenth part of a second.
824. How infinitely small, then, the period required to go from one side
of a room to another! Besides, there are neither means of generating such
electricity, nor of securing that insulation which must be an indispensable
precursor of accumulation.
825. Galvanic or voltaic electricity does not act at a distance so as to
produce any recognised effects, except in the case of magnetic metals, or in
the state of transition produced by an electric discharge. In these
phenomena the potent effects are attainable only by means of perfect
insulated conductors, as we see in the telegraphic apparatus. No reaction
with imperfect conducting bodies competent to toss them to and fro, or up
and down, can be accomplished. The decomposing influence, called
electrolytic, is only exhibited at insensible distances, within a filament of
the matter affected.
826. It has appeared to me a great error on the part of spirits, as well as
mortals, that they should make efforts to explain the phenomena of the
spirit world by the ponderable or imponderable agents of the temporal
world. The fact that the rays of our sun do not affect the spirit world, and
that there is for that region an appropriate luminary whose rays we do not
perceive, (415) must demonstrate that the imponderable element to which
they owe their peculiar light differs from the ethereal fluid which, according
to the undulatory theory, is the means of producing light in the terrestrial
creation.
827. In one of the replies made by the convocation, (571,) the idea was
sanctioned of the effulgence of the spirit being due to an appropriate
ethereal fluid, analogous to that above alluded to. But it has, I think, been

shown by me, that as light is due to the undulations of our ether, so
electricity is due to waves of polarization. But if undulations produce light
in the ether of the spiritual universe as well as in ours, why may not
polarization produce in the ether of the spirit world an electricity analagous
to ours? Thus, although in spiritual manifestations our electricity takes no
part, their electricity may be the means by which their will is transmitted
effectually in the phenomena which it controls.
828. The words magnetism and magnetic are used in this world in two
different senses. In one, it signifies the magnetism of magnets or
electromagnets; in the other, the animal magnetism of which the existence
was suggested by Mesmer, and which is commonly called Mesmerism.
829. This mesmerical magnetism seems to be dependent rather on
properties which we have as immortals, encased in a corporeal clothing,
than as mortals owing our mental faculties to that frame. If it be the spiritual
portion of our organization which is operative in clairvoyancy, spiritual
electricity may be the intermedium both of that faculty and of mesmeric
influence.
830. All spirits are clairvoyant more or less, and where this faculty is
exercised, it seems to be due to an unusual ascendancy of the spiritual
powers over the corporeal, so that clairvoyants possess some of the faculties
which every spirit, after shuffling off the mortal coil, must possess to a
greater or less extent.
831. In striving to make a test apparatus by which the communication
should be uninfluenced by the muscular power of the medium, through
which alone her will could modify the ideas communicated, an interesting
fact was ascertained. The nullifying of the power of muscular control,
which it is the object of this contrivance to accomplish, is obtained
unexceptionally by means of two balls and a plate, as already illustrated,
(Plate 2,) or by placing the hands of the medium exterior to the fulcrum of
the lever-board, as described in the instance of testing the communication
received from the convocation. But these methods requiring that the
conditions should be favourable, both, as respects the spirit communicating
and the medium, are liable to fail. It struck me that the distance between the
hands and the surface of the table or tray to be moved, by lessening the
influence of the medium on the table or tray, lessened the power of

actuation. My efforts were therefore directed to contrive to have the hand of
the medium near the surface to be moved, without the possibility of contact.
832. With this view I placed a board for receiving the hands of the
medium upon delicate rollers, so that no horizontal movement would affect
the base board supporting the rollers and actuating the index. To give
greater efficacy to the aura, a plate of glass was supported in a wooden
frame or sash by means of four screw rods fixed upright on the base board,
each furnished with two screw nuts. The screw rods passed through four
suitable holes, so as to have one nut beneath, the other above, the sash. Thus
situated, by adjusting the nuts, the sash could be regulated to any horizontal
level, so as to be near the upper surfaces of the hands without any contact
therewith.
833. On trying this arrangement, it was found as difficult for a spirit to
actuate it as if the glazed sash had not been employed.
834. Under these circumstances, I had the glass plate or pane slit
lengthwise into two equal strips. These being restored to the position
previously occupied in the sash, I interposed between their edges a piece of
sheet-tin, with teeth cut in one of its edges, (Plate 4, kk,) so as to make it
look like a long narrow saw, such as are used by sawyers in frames. With
the aid of a leaden joint, (such as is used by glaziers to join glass panes,) to
which the saw was soldered, the teeth of this projected about the eighth of
an inch below the glass, so as to be near the upper surface of any hand,
resting on the sliding board.
835. It was with no small degree of satisfaction that I found the apparatus
now sufficiently susceptible of actuation by my spirit friends.
836. From this result it would seem that the saw-shaped metallic
conductor, operated precisely as it would have acted had it been necessary
to impart to the pane those means of electric discharge of which, as at first
used, it was deficient.
837. As soon as I had introduced the serrated conductor, my spirit father
corroborated the impression that it promoted the influence of the medium.
838. This was the first instance in which I have discovered any analogy
between the laws governing the communication of the medium of the spirit
will-power, and those obeyed by electrical phenomena.

839. An account is given in my narrative of an experiment in which a
board, suspended at one end from a spring-balance, was made to descend
with a force of three pounds, through the instrumentality of a medium who
had no connection with the board, excepting water which was interposed.
Hence, as the hook screwed into the board, by which it was secured to the
hook of the balance, was six times as far from the fulcrum as the hands of
the medium, the force exerted by the officiating spirit was equal to 3 × 6 =
18 pounds. (See Plate 3, and description.) Nevertheless, no upward reaction
was perceptible to me, nor was any experienced by the medium, Henry
Gordon, as he declared.
840. In the case of the boy (Plate 3,) a downward action of seven pounds
was observed, which, multiplied by the difference of distance, amounted to
7 × 6 = 42 pounds, and yet the boy was not perceptibly impelled in the
opposite direction. Nor, when through the same juvenile mediumship, the
whole of the apparatus was thrown upon the floor, did the boy appear to be
impelled in the opposite direction. Nor was there any reaction when the
apparatus was thrown down. Now, agreeably to the laws of nature, as
established by human experience, in all cases of motion or momentum,
there must be an equal force exercised in the opposite direction by the vis
inertiæ of some other matter endowed with that attribute. Hence
Archimedes said, “Give me but where to stand, and I will move the world.”
A point of support, a place of resistance, however, was held to be
indispensable.
841. The only explanation of which I can conceive is, that spirits, by
volition, can deprive bodies of vis inertiæ, and move bodies, as they do
themselves, by their will. But the necessity of the presence of a medium to
the display of this power, granting its existence, is a mystery.
842. That the spirit should, by its “magic” will-power, take possession of
the frame of a human being, so as to make use of its brain and nervous
system, depriving its appropriate owner of control, is a wonderful fact
sufficiently difficult to believe, yet, nevertheless, intelligible. The aura
which surrounds a medium must be imponderable. No volition of the
medium can, through its instrumentality, move ponderable bodies, nor
cause raps or consequent vibrations in the wooden boards. Hence, the
presence of a medium imparts power to spirits which the medium does not
possess.

843. The aura on the one side, and the spirit on the other, are inert unless
associated. Thus the volition of the spirit gives activity to an effluvium, by
itself, so devoid of efficacy that it wholly escapes the perception of the
possessor or the observation of his mundane companions. It has been
already alleged, that the usual reference to mundane electricity must be
wholly unsatisfactory to all acquainted with the phenomena and laws
associated under that name; since no such movements have ever been
produced by such electrical means, nor is it consistent with those mundane
electrical laws, nor the facts which electricians have noticed, that such
movements should be produced. Those movements which have been
produced by electricity have never been effected without surfaces
oppositely charged, nor, of course, without the means of charging them.
Neither are there associated with the spiritual manifestations means at hand
of creating nor of holding charges either much more minute than those
which display perceptible force or cause audible sound.
844. Electro-magnetic phenomena require the use of powerful galvanic
batteries or magnetic metals. Galvanic series, of the most powerful kind, do
not act at the minutest distance without contact.
845. Even lightning could not move a table backward and forward,
though it might shatter it into pieces, if duly interposed in a circuit.
846. Electrical sparks produce snapping sounds in the air, not knockings
or rappings upon sonorous solids.

ON THE INFLUENCE OF THE ILL-TREATMENT OF
MEDIA, ON SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS.—OF
COUNTER-MEDIUMSHIP.

847. Allusion has been above made to the unfavourable influence upon
manifestations of the demeanour and incredulity of the investigator,
displayed in suspicious, cold, scrutinizing looks, such as would be merited
only by a cheat or pickpocket. All this has a deteriorating influence upon

mediumship, and likewise repels the spirits. While communicating through
a medium, a near blood relative, much beloved by the communicating spirit
while in this world, coming into the circle, an immediate departure of the
spirit was the consequence. It was subsequently alleged in explanation that
there existed a repulsiveness between him and the spirit, founded on the
idea that his opinions were under the influence of worldly considerations,
whence a predetermination to disbelieve, as far as possible, by an
unfavourable view of the evidence.
848. An incredulity liable to be overcome by the reason by which it has
been created does not form a bar; but where an impregnable bigotry has
been introduced merely by education, so that the person under its influence
would have been a Catholic, Calvinist, Unitarian, Jew, or Mohammedan by
a change of parentage, cannot usually be changed by any evidence or
argument. Spirits will not spend their time subjecting their manifestations to
such impregnable bigotry, or to predetermined malevolence.
849. On this account such persons find it hard to obtain the
manifestations which they seek with ill-will to Spiritualism, and a
predisposition to ridicule and pervert it.
850. Besides this difficulty, there is no doubt a constitutional state, the
inverse of that which creates a medium. The atmosphere of persons so
constituted, neutralizes that of those who are endowed with that of
mediumship.
851. It were impossible for any one to be more incredulous than I was
when I commenced my investigations; but in the first place, my recorded
religious impressions, founded on more than a half century of intense
reflection, in no respect conflicted with the belief which Spiritualism
required. As I said to a clergyman, I wish I knew as well what I ought to
believe, as I can perceive what I ought not to believe. I was ardently
desirous that the existence of a future state should be established in a way to
conform to positive science, so that they might start together. This was
perceived by my spirit friends, and that they had only to give me sufficient
evidence of the existence of spirits and their world, to make me lay down in
the cause my comparatively worthless mortal life, could I be more useful to
truth in dying than in living.

852. My father and sister, brother and friend Blodget, were therefore not
deterred by my sneers or denunciations. Moreover, I was never predisposed
to suspect any medium of treachery, and therefore never disgusted them by
the display of any such impressions. To the aid of these truly angelic spirits
who were nearly allied with me, came another angel, (whom I will
designate by his initials W. W.,) who, from philanthropic motives, seems to
have selected me to serve in this invaluable dispensation. Hence, his first
annunciation of my destined course, in language which so far, however it
may imply an overestimate of my capacity to serve, shows the more the
partiality with which it seems to have been estimated by him. (47.)

The Author’s Discovery of his powers as a Medium.

853. It occurred to me to try how far the interposition of my hand would
interfere with the powers of the medium to whom I resorted. To my
surprise, it seemed very little to impair the actuation of the index by the
officiating spirit. It next occurred to me to ascertain how far a diminution of
contact, between the hand of the medium and mine, would impair the power
exercised under these conditions. In pursuance of my request, the contact
was diminished by successively lifting the fingers of the medium and the
rest of the hand from mine, until only one finger was left. Finally, this
finger was removed, and yet the power of actuation still continued to exist,
though enfeebled. The officiating spirit, my friend W. W., now was made a
party to this investigation, being requested to estimate the effects as well as
myself.
854. I requested the medium to pick up a pair of scissors which lay on the
table, and, while holding the blades between the finger and thumb, to lay
the rings upon the back of my hand. An increase of power was manifested
to my observation and that of W. W.
855. At a subsequent sitting, having made due preparation, a strip of
sheet tin about two inches wide, and about fifteen inches in length, being
applied to the back of my hand while resting on the base board of the
spiritoscope, (Plate 4, Fig. 2,) the medium held it successively at various
distances. Under these circumstances, the facilitation was greater as the
distance between her hand and mine was diminished.

856. A plate of glass of about four inches square, interposed between the
palm of the hand of the medium and the back of mine, interrupted the
power entirely; but neither cork nor a metallic plate of a similar size much
reduced the power.
857. The frame (Fig. 3, Plate 4) being in situ, as described, paragraph kk
of the description, under these circumstances the removal of the serrated
strips diminished the power more and more as removed.
858. Thus it appears that there is a mesmeric electricity, or spiritual
electricity, which may be considered as appropriate to the spirit world as
their vital air is; but which like that air, may influence our spiritual bodies
while in their mundane tenement. It may, as well as the vital air of the spirit
world, belong in common to the inhabitants of that world and to us as
spirits, being a polarizing affection of the spiritual ethereal medium, of
which the undulations constitute the peculiar rays of their spiritual sun.
859. That this spiritual or mesmeric electricity should be auxiliary to the
efficacy of the magic will-power, of spirits, is of course one of those
mysteries which, like that of gravitation, may be ascertained to prevail, and
yet be to spirits as well as mortals inexplicable.
860. We live in a wonder-working universe, which becomes more and
more wonderful as we learn more of it, instead of being brought more
within our comprehension. When we compare what we know with the
knowledge of savages, it may appear a mountain of learning and science;
but this very learning and science only makes us see still more how great is
our ignorance!

ON PSYCHOLOGICAL EXPLANATIONS OF SPIRITUAL
MANIFESTATIONS.

861. This, for the third time, brings under discussion the report of Dr.
Bell, of Somerville, near Boston, on spiritual manifestations.

862. It is not in reference to this distinguished physician in his individual
capacity that I name him thus often, but in reference to the hypothesis
which his allegations must oblige him to sustain, and of which he may be
considered a most respectable advocate. Dr. Bell not only admits, but
confirms by his own testimony, the important fact of the movement of
heavy bodies without contact. His experience, in this respect, is more
striking than mine, since he has not only seen this phenomena take place
repeatedly, but on one occasion, as before stated, saw tables move fifty feet,
intelligently obedient to his directions. He also admits the reception of such
communications from pretended spirits, as spiritualists would consider as
coming from real spirits. Yet on the negative ground, that agreeably to his
experience, nothing was found to be communicable but what pre-existed in
the mind of some mortal present, he infers that the ideas received are not
derived from spirits, but from the minds of those mortals who are parties to
the process.
863. Of course our distinguished friend thus involves himself in the task
of explaining not only the intellectual, but also the mechanical movements,
by the mental agency of the media who participate in the conditions under
which the manifestations occur.
864. I have already adduced manifestations irreconcilable with the
assumption on which the whole of Dr. Bell’s inference is built, (111 to 288.)
But were his observations verified, in order to make them justify the
abnegation of spirits, it should be shown that any spirit could tell him any
thing which must be known to him, whether known to the spirits or not.
Remembering all the facts communicated to him by his spirit brother, it
should be shown that any other spirit could narrate them as well as his spirit
brother. Any inquiry made of any spirit, of which the answer is known to the
inquirer, should be told on request as well as any other; but it will be found
that answers are given only to those of which the spirit knows the answers
independently, through his own memory. Under favourable circumstances
mental questions are answered; but often, when mental questions cannot be
answered, those put verbally are replied to. I have detected spirit impostors,
by their inability to tell the name of my sister in the spheres.
865. I postponed the discussion on this question until I should have
submitted to the reader the communications which I had received. I trust

that these are of a nature to show that they could not have originated in my
mind, nor in those of the media through whom they were obtained.
866. Whatever want of ability may be shown, by Dr. Bell, to exist in the
communications alleged to come from Paine, Swedenborg, and Bacon, or
from spirits personating those distinguished men, it cannot do away the
valuable information which I have obtained from my spirit father and
others, sanctioned by a convocation of spirits. It has been shown that in a
few pages of that communication, there is vastly more knowledge of our
happy prospects in the future world, than all that can be found in the
Scriptures.
867. Dr. Bell will not, I am sure, suspect me of any want of truthfulness,
and will hardly flatter the media and myself with an unconscious
origination of ideas, which had never before occurred to either.
868. If he finds that in the case of Swedenborg and Bacon the spirits are
below their medial instruments in capacity, he will find that in the instance
of my spirit friends this estimate must be inverted.
869. My experience does not tend to establish that there is less folly or
more wisdom in the inhabitants of the spirit world than in this. I concur
with Dr. Bell in the opinion that the work to which he alludes, attributed to
the spirit of Paine, merits all the denunciation which he bestows on it. I
concur that it must be the work of a mind, whether celestial or mundane,
ignorant of the rudiments of chemical philosophy. But if such a work
coming from a mortal would not disprove the author’s claim to be a mortal
human being, wherefore then should a foolish book coming from a foolish,
ignorant spirit, personating Paine, disprove the author to be a spirit? It only
shows that low, ignorant, foolish spirits personate the spirits of eminent
authors; but does that disprove the existence of spirits? Does madness or
idiocy annihilate the victim of these afflictions? But in all cases where
communications are obtained through speaking or writing media, the minds
of the media are liable, unconsciously, to pervert or repress the sentiments
of the spirits, and therefore are not trusted by me, unless corroborated by
communications through the alphabet.
870. By their existence in the spheres, it seems to me that spirits improve
as to their talents, not as to their reasoning powers. They have a superior
knowledge to that which we possess of their own world, but not of our

sciences, as far as I have had means of judging. Having no great objects to
effect, they have no great incentive to thought or contrivance. It is by
learning, more than by invention, that they rise in the spheres.
871. These inferences are not, however, admitted by the spirits. They
allege that as their medial instruments improve, they will give me reason to
change my opinion. They assume to go deeper and farther into the nature of
things than mortals.
872. To me it seems that their happiness is due in part to self-felicitation
and seeing every thing under a rosy hue. They often advert to the superior
height upon which they stand, without showing that they see more in
consequence.
873. So far as I can judge, in some branches of knowledge, the spirits
will improve by discussion with mortals. They will be cured of some of
their “sky scraping!”
874. They seem to be mainly improved by their reciprocal intercourse.
Thus honest bigots of all sects, find when they get together that in point of
fact none of their records are true!
875. It is by getting rid of error, more than acquiring knowledge, that
they rise in reciprocal estimation.
876. Very soon after my father began to communicate with me, nearly
fourteen months ago, he said—“We know little more in religion than you.”
877. They all agree that good works are solely of importance, creeds only
being good or bad as they induce good or bad deeds.
878. A good man cannot accept a creed which sanctions wickedness; that,
for instance, which authorizes, under certain sophistical pretences,
spoliation, massacre, rape, fraud, &c. Whenever any man brings himself to
believe that his God ever authorized such crimes, or patronized those who
were guilty of them, he becomes more or less immoral. Dr. Berg truly
alleged that “a devotee is assimilated to the God whom he worships.”
879. To assist me, as it were, in exposing the errors of those who with Dr.
Bell admit, for the most part, the facts of Spiritualism, yet ascribe the whole
to the minds of mortals acting as media or inquirers, an advocate of that

side of the question gives this explanation of the fact of my having sent a
message to Mrs. Gourlay by my spirit sister:
880. He alleged it as a fact, that if two snails be placed in proximity, and
afterward apart to a considerable distance, that the contact of one, will
affect the other perceptibly.
881. That Mrs. Gourlay and myself being frequently in each other’s
society, it followed that if at the distance of about a hundred miles I wished
her to induce Dr. Gourlay to apply at the bank, Mrs. Gourlay, although at
the time engaged in receiving a most interesting communication from her
mother for her brother, had so much more snail-like sympathy, with me at
Cape Island, than with the ideas she believed to proceed from her mother,
that she would interrupt the one forthwith, to attend to the other at that
particularly inconvenient time! Meanwhile, the phenomenon of the index of
my disk being moved independently of any effort of mine, so that I can
make oath that no mortal moved it, is not taken into view. Surely if by such
means a message respecting a pecuniary affair could awaken sympathy,
there are many messages which it would be of immensely more importance
to convey, than that which I sent in the instance in question.
882. But how comes it that neither I nor any other of her friends can send
messages to Mrs. Gourlay while in the same city with her? Must her friends
go to Cape Island for the purpose? Will this erudite and ingenious
psychologist inform me by what means I may bring about this object,
which, on business account, would be more convenient than sending notes
by penny post?
883. Am I to go through the same process of sitting down at my
spiritoscope? Will this learned assailant of Spiritualism inform me why I
must do this, and must wait till the index moves? Wherefore should it move
after a quarter of an hour’s invocation, when it will not move at first?
884. Again, I wish the circumstance I am about to mention to be
explained by psychology: I was sitting in my solitary third-story room at
Cape Island, invoking my sister as usual, when to my surprise I saw
Cadwallader spelt out on my disk. “My old friend, General Cadwallader?”
said I. “Yes.” A communication ensued of much interest. But before
concluding, I requested him, as a test, to give me the name of a person
whom I met in an affair of honour more than fifty years ago, when he

(General Cadwallader) was my second. The name was forthwith given, by
the pointing out on the disk the letters requisite to spell it.
885. Now as the spirit of General Cadwallader, during more than fifteen
months that other friends had sought to communicate with me, had never
made me a visit, why should his name have been spelt out when I had not
the remotest hope of his coming, and was expecting another spirit, the only
one who had been with me at the Cape?
886. Further, the breakfast bell having rung, I said, “General, will you
come again after breakfast?” I understood him to consent to this invitation.
Accordingly, when afterward I reseated myself in statu quo, I looked for the
General, but, lo! Martha, my sister’s name, was spelt out!
887. I challenge this psychologist to put his hypothesis on paper, in order
that I may psychologize him into a more consistent assumption of premises
and conclusions.
888. Let him show his hand by reducing his sophistry, as I
conscientiously consider it, to black and white. He may learn the difference
between talent and judgment. I am aware that he shows a vast deal more of
the appropriate ability of his profession in defending the view he has
espoused, than I could hope to exert. It is only in the strength of truth that I
feel strong. “Thrice is he armed that hath his quarrel just.”
889. It is of no small importance that this learned and subtle
psychologist, should explain how my spiritoscope, or any other
instrumental means of alphabetic indication, becomes necessary to effect
the psychologization of a medium at a great distance, so as to convey to her
mind the ideas which it is an object to impart. Why is it necessary that the
index over a disk at Cape May, should revolve to the letters requisite to
spell a message, in order that the index of another disk in Philadelphia,
should revolve at a subsequent time? How does the mechanism in one
place, acquire a power from the remote actuation of another? Will it be
pretended that they are affected analogously to the sympathetic snails;
whence, having kept each other’s company, this miracle ensued? But even
this is not true, since they were not kept together, if ever they were in each
other’s company.

890. Could any process be divined by which an instrument for supposed
alphabetic communication with spirits, could be applied to transmit such
messages as that for which I employed mine, according to this
psychological hypothesis, it would be superior to the existing telegraphic
process, since the ocean could be no barrier to messages which, although
dependent on snail-like sympathy, would have nothing in it of the
proverbial creeping attribute of the animal in question.
891. The following manifestations are of a nature, as it seems to me, to
invalidate Dr. Bell’s notion that the communications received from the spirit
are acquired from the minds of the bystanders:
892. Calling on Miss Ellis, it was found that her time was so pre-
engaged, that she could not, as she said, sit for me till the day but one
succeeding. My spirit sister manifested her desire to communicate, and
conveyed the idea that Miss Ellis could give an hour named next day, if she
would examine her list. This examination being made, the suggestion was
verified.
893. Here was an idea not obtained from the mind of any person present.
It could not exist in the minds of those who, like my friend and myself, had
not seen the list, nor could it have been in Miss Ellis’s mind, as in that case
she would not have had to consult the list, in order to determine the truth of
the suggestion.
894. In this visit, Dr. W. F. Channing, who was my companion, said that
possibly he had better not accompany me. It was left to my spirit sister to
decide. No instrument being ready, as the quickest mode of communication,
the medium was made to take up her pen, and began forthwith to make
figures upon a sheet of paper. When the operation terminated, nothing but
figures were seen to have been written. The medium said she did not know
what to make of it. But under the letters it was written, “Select, from the
alphabet, the letters corresponding, and you have my answer.” This being
done, the following sentence was obtained: “My dear brother, come alone.”
895. It cannot be reasonably imagined that either Miss Ellis, my friend,
or myself suggested this reply, as my friend and myself regretted the result,
and it was not the interest of Miss Ellis to lessen the circle. But none of us
had the ability to have perceived the numbers indicating the relative
position of letters in the alphabetic row, so as to have selected them

correctly. It would take some time to associate the letters with the numbers
duly, and an unusual strength of memory to recollect them.

MODERN PROCESS FOR ALPHABETIC CONVERSE
WITH SPIRITS, AS NEW TO MAN AS THE ELECTRIC
TELEGRAPH.

896. In his instructive work on Spiritualism, the idea is advanced by
Capron, that the species of modern spirit communication, of which his book
mainly treats, dates back to a period of history so early that no age or
country is exempt from accounts of them.
897. To me it seems that I have never read any thing in history in which
intellectual communication was established by sounds or mechanical
movements with invisible beings. Sight has almost always been the sense
most appealed to in evidence of the appearance of ghosts. In the instance of
the Witch of Endor, Samuel is made to come from his grave, not like one of
our happy spirits from his beautiful abode in the spirit world:—
“Then said the woman, Whom shall I bring up unto thee? And he said,
Bring me up Samuel. And when the woman saw Samuel, she cried with a
loud voice: and the woman spake to Saul, saying, Why hast thou deceived
me? for thou art Saul. And the king said unto her, Be not afraid: for what
sawest thou? And the woman said unto Saul, I saw gods ascending out of
the earth. And he said unto her, What form is he of? And she said, An old
man cometh up; and he is covered with a mantle. And Saul perceived that it
was Samuel, and he stooped with his face to the ground, and bowed
himself. And Samuel said to Saul, Why hast thou disquieted me, to bring
me up? And Saul answered, I am sore distressed; for the Philistines make
war against me, and God is departed from me, and answereth me no more,
neither by prophets, nor by dreams: therefore I have called thee, that thou
mayest make known unto me what I shall do. Then said Samuel, Wherefore
then dost thou ask of me, seeing the Lord is departed from thee, and is

become thine enemy? And the Lord hath done to him as he spake by me: for
the Lord hath rent the kingdom out of thine hand, and given it to thy
neighbour, even to David: Because thou obeyedst not the voice of the Lord,
nor executedst his fierce wrath upon Amalek, therefore hath the Lord done
this thing unto thee this day. Moreover, the Lord will also deliver Israel with
thee into the hand of the Philistines: and to-morrow shalt thou and thy sons
be with me: the Lord also shall deliver the host of Israel into the hand of the
Philistines.” 1 Sam. xxviii. 11-19.
898. It is represented in this quotation, that the ghost of Samuel came and
conversed with Saul; that he “ascendeth out of the earth; an old man
cometh up, and he is covered with a mantle.” Where is there any thing in
common between this representation and the process by which I
communicate with my familiar spirits,—not coming up from the grave, or
the disgusting heaven of Josephus, but from their magical abodes in the
skies! I challenge any one to adduce the idea, as having ever been
expressed, that any one had found any mode of conversing with spirits
resembling in its operation that which we now have discovered. This seems
to be as new to the spirits as to us, being as much a novelty as the electric
telegraph. The very limited degree in which it has been recently
accomplished has been attained with very great difficulty. It appears that
efforts were made to establish this intercourse in England at the mansion of
the celebrated Wesley, without any beneficial result. If ever this art had
been discovered, certainly it would not have been lost. Even the idea of
rapping or knocking independently of mortal agency, had the fact ever been
established, could not have been held so incredible as it was, almost
universally, when it took place at Hydesville, or in Great Britain, as above
mentioned.
899. The learned Dr. Priestley, utterly incredulous that the rappings at
Wesley’s could be ascribed to any supermundane agency, attributes it to
some trick on the part of servants, assisted by neighbours. It appears that in
general the most scientific and well-read persons are the most backward in
ascribing such phenomena to invisible spirits. If, therefore, during past ages
such inscrutable noises and movements of bodies had occurred, resembling
those recently noticed, still no such use had been made of them as we now
behold. Such manifestations being once so far demonstrated as to induce
people of sound mind to unite in referring them to the immortal spirits of