126 



TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



ress ; and that, according to the elevation we at- 

 tain in this life by the right use of the powers 

 intrusted to us — " not one jot of what we learn, 

 or think, or strive for here, being lost " — will be 

 the height of the platform (so to speak) from 

 which we shall commence our ascent from the 

 lower to the higher spheres of the next. 



Now, surely "it needs no ghost to tell us 

 that." " To understand that we are spirits, and 

 that we live for immortality, to know and insure 

 its issues," though to spiritualists the last and 

 noblest " bright page which God has revealed to 

 us," is surely a fundamental doctrine of every 

 form of Christianity ; and the particular idea of 

 continuity and progress has been the teaching of 

 the religious community (that of dunning and 

 Martineau) in which I was myself brought up, as 

 far back as I can remember. 



Mrs. Hardinge's new Ten Commandments, 

 a^ain, if an improvement on the old, are only so 

 in as far as they engraft Christian morality upon 

 the Judaic code. And, looking to the exhibi- 

 tions of " envy, hatred, malice, and all unchari- 

 tableness " which are to be found in the quarrels 

 of "mediums," even "advanced" spiritualists 

 would seem not to be at all more free from these 

 faults than ordinary Christians. 



For the following samples of the lower forms 

 of Spiritualistic communications made by " spir- 

 its" who must be still in Mrs. Hardinge's 

 " Hades," I am indebted to Mr. Home. (Op. cit., 

 p. 304.) 



An American " circle 1 ' has been informed by 

 John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of President 

 Lincoln, that " I and Lincoln often have a cozy 

 chat up here. We agree that it was just as well 

 I shot him. You see it was set down in the 

 order of things for me to do it ; and I don't see 

 why I should be blamed for accomplishing my 

 destiny. The world was all the better for it." 



The inspirational source of this philosophy is 

 obviously that doctrine of human automatism 

 of which it seems to me to be the legitimate out- 

 come. Although Mr. Home elsewhere classes 

 me with the " materialists " because I do not 

 accept I/is form of " spiritualism," I am entirely 

 at one with him in the conviction that, were such 

 doctrines as the foregoing generally accepted 

 among spiritualists, " spiritualism would be the 

 greatest curse which could befall mankind ; " the 

 negation of those moral instincts which lie deep- 

 est in our nature being (as I have elsewhere l 



i Preface to the fourth edition of "Principles of 

 Mental Physiology." 



endeavored to show) the most convincing proof 

 of their really unscientific nature. 



The following is a specimen of those elevated 

 teachings which are brought to us by the " spir- 

 its " from " another and a better world," inhab- 

 ited by purer and higher natures than are left in- 

 this : " Wisdom is what is wise. Wisdom is not 

 folly, and folly is not wisdom. Wisdom is not 

 selfishness, and selfishness is not wisdom. Wis- 

 dom is not evil, and evil is not wisdom. All is 

 not wisdom, all is not folly." I have heard of a 

 little boy to whom Sundays were made to be 

 days of gloom and weariness ; and who, when 

 told that heaven would be " all Sundays," replied 

 that if that were the case he should not wish to 

 go there. ,1 quite agree with those who prefer 

 annihilation, if the twaddle just quoted is a true 

 sample of the conversation of the blest. 



As Prof. Huxley said, when invited to take 

 part in the investigations of the Dialectical Soci- 

 ety : " The only good that I can see in a demon- 

 stration of the truth of spiritualism is to furnish 

 an additional argument against suicide. Better 

 live a crossing-sweeper than die and be made to 

 talk twaddle by a ' medium ' hired at a guinea 

 a seance." 



Although the spiritualistic genuineness of the 

 foregoing communications is utterly discredited 

 by Mr. Home, they will probably be regarded by 

 Mr. Wallace, who has a much larger receptivity, 

 as proceeding from " spirits " who have made 

 very little progress since they left the earth. The 

 following, however, cited by Mr. Home from Le 

 Flambeau du Spiritisme, will, I should hope, be 

 too strong even for my quondam friend: 



"'The spirit-authors' are represented as be. 

 ing no less personages than the twelve apostles 

 of Christianity. We are gravely assured that at 

 various periods they dictated this incomparable 

 production to the person who has caused a few 

 copies to be published. The subject is the Life 

 of Christ. The mixture of ribaldry, insanity, and 

 absurdity, is almost incredible. One of the apos- 

 tles favors us with particulars regarding the every- 

 day doings of the twelve. ' We always took a 

 small boy with us to clean our shoes. The Mas- 

 ter liked us all to look well, and he was very par- 

 ticular that our shoes should be nicely blacked.' 

 The ordinary attire of Christ consisted of a flow* 

 in"- robe and ' bright blue boots.' On one occasion 

 he was reviled as an impostor. The incident is 

 thus described : ' How can you call me an impos- 

 tor ? ' said the Master, turning round. ' Don't 

 you see my yellow curly hair and my nice blue 

 boots ? Would I have such things, do you think, 

 if I were an impostor ? ' An apostle gives vari- 



