648 



SPIRITUALISM 



testa, with apparatus of hi- own devising. proved 

 that he hail to ileal with a great reality. He 

 accordingly trieil to induce the legislature to 

 appoint a committee to examine and re]>rt on 

 the experiments, and failin.- to succeed in this 

 published his results in a volt ...... entitled Experi- 



mental Examination of the Spiritual Mini ijrstiitiotu. 



Judge Edmonds, one of the most acute and pains- 

 taking of American lawyers, devoted years to a 

 thorough examination of the phenomena, with the 

 assistance of the most intelligent men of science 

 and education among his acquaintance. He him- 

 self became a medium, as did his daughter ; and 

 this young lady, though possessing only the or- 

 dinary American school acquirements, was able 

 when in a trance to speak many foreign languages, 

 including modern Greek, and to hold conversations 

 in them with native-. 



Professors Mapes and I/oomis, both chemists, 

 assisted by two physicians and other friends, tested 

 the Davenport brothers, and found that the 

 phenomena occurring with them were in no way- 

 due to conjuring. This verdict was confirmed by 

 many inquirers in England, among others by the 

 late Sir Kit-hard Burton, the last man to be im- 

 posed upon by conjuring, and to endorse it as 

 reality. Yet he says, in a published letter, ' I have 

 now witnessed four of the so-called dark seances. 

 These were all in private houses one of them in 

 my own lodgings. We rejected all believers, and 

 chose the most sceptical and hard-headed of our 

 friends and acquaintances, some of whom had 

 prepared the severest tests. We provided care- 

 tully against all possibility of confederates, and 

 brought our own cords, sealing-wax, tape, dia- 

 chylon, musical instruments, and so fortn. . . . 

 Sparks of red and pale fire have fallen from the 

 ceiling, sometimes perpendicularly, at other times 

 crossing the room. Mr Fay's coat was removed 

 whilst be was securely fastened hand and foot, and 

 a lucifer match was struck at the same instant 

 showing us the two gentlemen fast bound and the 

 coat in the air on its way to the other end of the 

 room. ... I have spent a great part of my life in 

 oriental lands, and have seen there many magicians. 

 ... I have read ami listened to every explanation 

 of the Davenport "tricks" hitherto placed before 

 the public, and if anything would make me take 

 that tremendous leap " from matter to spirit," it is 

 the utter and complete unreason of the reasons by 

 which the manifestations are explained.' 



Among other investigators of known integrity 

 and ability are Robert Dale Iwen and Dr Robert 

 Chambers, who investigated the phenomena with 

 Kate Fox in New York, while the latter was the 

 friend of Home, and rote for him the introductory 

 chapter and the appendix to his Incidents (if /;/// 

 Life. Dr (ieor^e Sexton, an earnest secularist 



teacher and lecturer, was converted by phenomena 

 occurring in his own house and through mediums 

 who were memliers of his own family or personal 

 friends; and he afterwards investigated the ma 

 terialisation phenomena occurring through Miss 

 Cook. Mr Cromwell Varley, the electrician, tc-ied 

 the same phenomena by means of electrical appar- 

 atus. Dr Lockhart Kohinson, after a long ex|>eri- 

 ence in the treatment of the insane, am) having 

 been a violent opponent of spiritualism as wholly 

 founded on ini|xisture and delusion, was converted 

 by phenomena occurring in his own house in the 

 presenceof the American medium Squire. Professor 

 /ollner of Leipzig, in his work 



, has described the most marvellous pheno- 

 mena occurring in his own study and under the 

 strictest test conditions, in the presence of the 

 medium Slade with some of his fellow-professors as 

 witnesses. And lastly, we have Mr William 

 Crookes, one of the first chemists and physicists in 



Europe, who for several years (from 1*70 to 1874) 

 devoted a considerable portion of his time to the 

 investigation of the phenomena, and had the 

 courage to make public these experiments ami their 

 results. With several dinVrent mediums, in his 

 own house and subject to the conditions of scien- 

 tific experiment, be satisfied himself of the reality 

 of the whole range of tin- phenomena here briefly 



described. >- enth a- |ss!l he has published 



his notes of several seance- with Mr Home, in the 

 introductory observations to which he makes this 

 important statement: 'Their publication will at 

 any rate show that I have not changed my mind ; 

 that on dispassionate review of statements put 

 forth by me nearly twenty years ago I find 

 nothing to retract or to alter. I have discovered 

 no flaw in the experiments then made, or in Un- 

 reasoning I based upon them.' 



The Value of these I'ln n<nii>'nii. \n view of this 

 long series of investigations by men of special 

 training in science and of the highest reputation, 

 spiritualists urge that the facts on which their 

 beliefs are based are proved to be realities beyond 

 all reasonable doubt. It may be asked, however. 

 as many do ask, what is the meaning or the use of 

 these strange phenomena? We feel no interest 

 in moving furniture, floating bodies, lire-tests, or 

 slate-writing. The answer is that to a very large 

 nnml>er of minds these physical phen ena, how- 

 ever low and trivial they may seem, are the most 

 effectual and often the only means of compelling 

 attention to the subject, and this is more par- 

 ticularly the case with those imbued with the 

 teachings of modern science. The moment such 

 persons are really convinced that physical pheno- 

 mena occur which they have always held and 

 declared to be impossible, they see that there is 

 something more in the matter than imposture or 

 delusion, and further inquiry shows them that this 

 class of facts constitute the mere outskirts of the 

 subject. Almost all the agnostics and students of 

 physical science who have become spiritnali-t- 

 iind they are to be counted by hundreds in e\en 

 civilised country have begun the investigation 

 because they have been convinced that some of 

 these lower physical phenomena are realities ; and 

 this fact is a complete answer to those who urge 

 that such phenomena are trivial, degrading, and 

 unspiritual. If they are so, it shows that men of 

 the nighest education and greatest knowledge are 

 attracted by these verv qualities. 



The Teaching iiml Philosophy of Spirit u<i- 

 But whenever we pass beyond tliese phenomena, 

 and carefully examine the teachings and the 

 philosophy to be found in the deliverances of 

 automatic writers and trance-speakers, as well as 

 in the normal writings of those who have long 

 accepted ami thoroughly assimilated these teach- 

 ings, we enter upon a phase of the subject which 

 no unprejudiced person will pronounce to l>e either 

 useless or commonplace. Tlie universal teaching 

 of modern spiritualism is that the world and the 

 whole material universe exist for the purpose of 

 developing spiritual beings that death is simply 

 a transition from material existence to tin- first 

 grade of spirit-life and that our happiness and the 

 degree of our progress will IK> wholly dependent 

 iipini tin- use we have made of our faculties and 

 opportunities here. It is urged that the present life 

 will assume a new value and interest when men 

 are brought up not merely in the vascillating and 

 questionable belief, but in the settled , indubitable 

 i-ii/ii-irtion, that our existence in this world is really 

 but one of the stages in an endless career, and 

 that the thoughts we think and the deeds we do 

 here will certainly affect our condition and the 

 very form and organic expression of our personality 

 hereafter. 



