PSYCHOLOGICAL CURIOSITIES OF SPIRITUALISE. 



Ill 



PSYCHOLOGICAL CUKIOSITIES OF SPIRITUALISM. 



By WILLIAM B. CARPENTER, C. B., M. D., LL.D., F. R. S. 



SINCE the publication in Fraser of the two 

 lectures on " Mesmerism, Spiritualism, etc.," 

 which I delivered at the London Institution near 

 the close of last year, I have learned much more 

 than I had previously known, both of the extent 

 of what I hold to be a most mischievous epidemic 

 delusion, comparable to the witchcraft epidemic 

 of the seventeenth century ; and of the very gen- 

 eral existence of a peculiar state of mind, which 

 as much predisposes to attacks of spiritualism 

 as did the almost universal belief in Biblical au- 

 thority for the existence of witches determine 

 the witch-persecution in Puritan New England. 



A friend residing at Boston (United States) 

 has kindly sent me a number of excerpts from 

 its newspapers, which give very curious indica- 

 tions, alike in their " advertisements " and in 

 their " intelligence," of what has been lately tak- 

 ing place in that centre of enlightenment and 

 progress. And another friend, who has recently 

 visited that city, informs me that its " Trades' 

 Directory " has whole columns of the names of 

 professors of the different forms of spiritualistic 

 " mediumship " — rapping mediums, writing me- 

 diums, drawing mediums, materializing mediums, 

 test mediums, photographic mediums, trance me- 

 diums, healing mediums, and the like. Many of 

 these professors occupy some of the best houses 

 in Boston ; and must be carrying on a first-class 

 business among the " upper then thousand." 

 Others practise in a humbler sphere ; but, though 

 receiving lower fees, get so many of them as to 

 be driving a very profitable trade in " interview- 

 ing the spirits." I understand the like to be 

 true, in a greater or less degree, of many other 

 towns, small as well as large (New York being a 

 conspicuous example), in the United States. 



A most unexpected revelation of another kind 

 has been made by the perusal of the recently- 

 published "Lights and Shadows of Spiritualism," 

 by Mr. D. D. Home, reputed in the outer world 

 as the arch-priest of this new religion ; who, pro- 

 fessing an earnest desire to purify the system from 

 " the seething mass of foil;! and imposture which 

 every attempt at examination discloses" devotes 

 not less than 200 octavo pages to such an ex- 

 posure of the " Delusions," the " Absurdities," 

 and the " Trickeries " of modern spiritualism, as, 

 if made by any scientific opponent, would have 



most assuredly subjected him to a crushing fire 

 of the most tremendous expletives that even 

 spiritualistic language (choice samples of which 

 I shall presently give) can convey. No unpre- 

 judiced reader can rise from the perusal of Mr. 

 Home's pages without the melancholy convic- 

 tion that the honest believers, who (to use his 

 words) " accept nothing as proof which leaves 

 the tiniest loop-hole for the entrance of doubt ; 

 who try all mediums and all spirits by the strict- 

 est tests ; who refuse to be carried away by en- 

 thusiasm or swayed by partisanship," are few 

 indeed in comparison, on the one hand, with the 

 knavish impostors who practise on the folly and 

 credulity of their victims, and, on the other, with 

 the gobe-mouches who (as Mr. Home says) "swal- 

 low whatever is offered them, and strain neither 

 at camels nor at gnats." 



My knowledge has been further extended by 

 an elaborate review of my lectures, contributed 

 by Mr. Wallace to the July number of the Quar- 

 terly Journal of Science. As Mr. Crookes is the 

 editor of that journal, I may fairly regard this 

 review as representing his own ideas upon the 

 subject, as well as those of Mr. Wallace, who 

 continually refers to him ; and I regard it as a 

 very curious revelation of the state of mind to 

 which two honest men, both highly distinguished 

 in the scientific world, can bring themselves, by 

 continually dwelling on their own conclusions, 

 and discoursing of them only with sympathizers ; 

 without bringing them to the test of calm dis- 

 cussion with other men of science, who are cer- 

 tainly no less competent for the investigation 

 than themselves, and who have given a large 

 amount of time and attention to it. According 

 to Mr. Wallace, no one who really examines the 

 evidence in its favor can honestly refuse to ac- 

 cept the facts of mesmerism from a distance and 

 of clairvoyance ; or can fail to see, with Mr. Wal- 

 lace himself, that Mr. Hewes's " Jack," who was 

 so completely detected in Manchester that his 

 patron at once gave him up, was all the while a 

 genuine clairvoyant. And so, every one who can- 

 not see, as Mr. Wallace does, that the flowers, 

 fruits, etc., " produced " at spiritualistic seances, 

 are "demonstrably not brought in by the me- 

 diums," is open to the charge of willfully shutting 

 his eyes to the most conclusive proofs. Further, 



