_Reader._ May I ask, doctor, what you think of spiritism?
_Büchner._ I think it to be a fraud.
_Reader._ Of course, when a man denies the existence of spiritual
substances, he cannot but deny their manifestation. Yet the phenomena of
spiritism are so well known that we can scarcely be of your opinion.
_Büchner._ “Some of these phenomena, _clairvoyance_ especially, have been
laid hold of to prove the existence of supernatural and supersensual
phenomena. They were considered as the link of connection between the
spiritual and the material world; and it was surmised that these phenomena
opened a gate through which man might pass, and succeed in obtaining some
immediate clue regarding transcendental existence, personal continuance,
and the laws of the spirit. All these things are now, by science and an
investigation of the facts, considered as idle fancies which human nature
is so much inclined to indulge in to satisfy its longing after what
appears miraculous and supersensual” (p. 149).
_Reader._ I apprehend, doctor, that science has no means of showing that
“all these things are idle fancies.” Materialism, of course, assumes,
though it cannot show, that spirits do not exist; but materialism is no
science at all; and if the “investigation of the facts” has been conducted
by materialists, we may well be sure that their verdict was not unbiassed.
On the other hand, men of science, who are not materialists, a great
number of physicians, philosophers, and theologians, are convinced that
the phenomena of spiritism are neither inventions nor delusions. And,
though human nature feels a certain propensity to believe what is
wonderful, we cannot assume that learned and prudent men yield to this
propensity without good reasons.
_Büchner._ “This propensity has given rise to the most curious errors of
the human mind. Though it sometimes appears that the progress of science
arrests its development in some place, it suddenly breaks forth with
greater force at some other place where it was less expected. The events
of the last few years afford a striking example. What the belief in
sorcery, witchcraft, demoniac possession, vampirism, etc., was in former
centuries, reappears now under the agreeable forms of table‐moving,
spirit‐rapping, psychography, somnambulism, etc.” (p. 150).
_Reader._ You are right. Spiritism is only a new form of old superstitions
and diabolic manifestations. But you are mistaken, if you believe that
science can show such manifestations to have been fables. Your scientific
argument against spiritual manifestations is, you must own it,
inconsistent with your scientific process. Your process requires a basis
of facts; for it is from facts that science draws its generalizations. You
should, therefore, first ascertain that sorcery, witchcraft, etc., never
existed in the world, and that not one of the thousand facts narrated in
profane, sacred, or ecclesiastical history has ever happened; and then you
might conclude that all mankind have been very stupid to believe such
absurdities. But you follow quite a different course. You argue _à
priori_, and say: Spiritual manifestations are an impossibility; therefore
all the pretended facts of spiritism are impositions. This manner of
arguing is not scientific; for evidently it is not based on facts, and the
assumption that spiritual manifestations are impossible cannot be granted;
for it cannot be proved. Hence not only the ignorant classes, but also
educated persons, as you complain, believe in spiritual manifestations, in
spite of your pretended science; for, when they see the facts, they will
only smile at your denial of their possibility.
_Büchner._ But the facts themselves are incredible. “Magnetic sleep,
induced either by continued passes on the body, or spontaneously without
external means, as in idiosomnambulism, is stated to be frequently
attended by an intellectual ecstasy, which in certain privileged persons,
chiefly females, rises to what is called _clairvoyance_. In this state
those persons are said to exhibit mental faculties not natural to them, to
speak fluently foreign languages, and to discuss things perfectly unknown
to them in the waking state.... The person perceives things beyond the
sphere of his senses, he reads sealed letters, guesses the thoughts of
other persons, reveals the past, etc. Finally, such individuals sometimes
give us information about the arrangements in heaven and hell, our state
after death, and so forth; but we cannot help mentioning that these
revelations are ever in remarkable harmony with the religious views of the
church, or of the priest under whose influence the patient may be for the
time” (p. 151).
_Reader._ Poor Doctor Büchner! You are most unlucky in your allusion to
the church. Spiritism is not a priestly invention, nor is it practised
under the influence of the priest. The whole world knows that the practice
of spiritism is utterly forbidden by the church; and you cannot be
ignorant that your insinuation of the contrary is a slander. Perhaps your
Masonic conscience allows you to tell lies; but is it wise to do so when
the lie is so patent that no one can believe it?
_Büchner._ “There can be no doubt that all pretended cases of clairvoyance
rest upon fraud or illusion. Clairvoyance—that is, a perception of
external objects without the use of the senses—is an impossibility. It is
a law of nature which cannot be gainsaid that we require our eyes to see,
our ears to hear, and that these senses are limited in their action by
space. No one can read an opaque sealed letter, extend his vision to
America, see with closed eyes what passes around him, look into the
future, or guess the thoughts of others. These truths rest upon natural
laws which are irrefutable, and admit, like other natural laws, of no
exception. All that we know we know by the medium of our senses. There
exist no supersensual and supernatural things and capacities, and they
never can exist, as the eternal conformity of the laws of nature would
thereby be suspended. As little as a stone can ever fall in any other
direction than towards the centre of the earth, so little can a man see
without using his eyes” (p. 152).
_Reader._ Your reasoning is not sound, doctor. The stone can fall in any
direction, if it receives an impetus in that direction; it is only when it
is left to itself that it must fall directly towards the centre of the
earth. So also a man, when left to himself and his natural powers, cannot
see without using his eyes; but if acted on by a preternatural agency, he
may be made acquainted with what his eyes cannot see. Your mention of
natural laws is uncalled for. You will certainly not pretend that the
natural laws, which hold in regard to this visible world, can be assumed
to rule the world of the spirits. Moreover, when you say that “there exist
no supersensual and supernatural things,” because “the eternal conformity
of the laws of nature would thereby be suspended,” you merely make a
gratuitous assertion. For as you can raise a weight without suspending the
law of gravitation, so can other agents do other things conflicting with
the uniform execution of natural laws without the natural laws becoming
suspended. Thus your assertion that “there exist no supersensual and
supernatural things” is wholly gratuitous, and therefore cannot be the
basis of a sound argument against the facts of spiritism. “There is no
fighting against facts; it is like kicking against the pricks,” as you say
in one of your prefaces (p. xviii.)
_Büchner._ “Ghosts and spirits have hitherto only been seen by children,
or ignorant and superstitious individuals” (p. 152).
_Reader._ Did not Saul see the ghost of Samuel?
_Büchner._ “All that has been narrated of the visits of departed spirits
is sheer nonsense; never has a dead man returned to this world. There are
neither table‐spirits nor any other spirits” (p. 153).
_Reader._ How can you account for such a singular assertion?
_Büchner._ “The naturalist entertains, from observation and experience, no
doubt as to these truths; a constant intercourse with nature and its laws
has convinced him that they admit of no exception” (p. 153).
_Reader._ This is not true. Naturalists, with their observation and
experience of natural things, do not and cannot reject facts of a higher
order, though they have not observed them. Their non‐observation is no
argument, especially when we have other witnesses of the facts, and when
we know that the naturalists of your school are pledged to materialism,
and therefore shut their eyes to the facts which oppose their theory. The
majority of educated persons admit the facts; not indeed _all_ the facts
narrated, but many of them which no critical rule allows us to reject.
_Büchner._ Where are those facts? “The scientific impossibility of
clairvoyance has been confirmed by an examination of the facts by sober
and unprejudiced observers, and were proved to be deceptions and
illusions” (p. 153).
_Reader._ Of course there are juggleries and impositions; but what of
that? Would you maintain that there can be no doctors because there are
quacks? I appeal to your logic.
_Büchner._ “The faculty of medicine of Paris many years ago took the
trouble of submitting a number of such cases to a scientific examination;
they were all proved to be deceptions, nor could a single case be
established of a perception without the use of the senses. In 1837 the
same academy offered a prize of 3,000 francs to any one who could read
through a board. No one gained the prize” (_ibid._)
_Reader._ You forget, doctor, that in 1837 spiritism was as yet most
imperfectly known. It was only about ten years later that it developed
throughout America and Europe. Let the medical faculty of Paris again
offer a prize to any one who can read through a board; and no one doubts
there would be no lack of competitors. When we see that physicians and
others, owing to their own experience of spiritual manifestations, were
compelled to repudiate their previous materialistic opinions; when we know
that infidels by the same manifestations were brought to believe the
immortality of the soul; when the learned and the ignorant, the rich and
the poor, the layman and the churchman, the diplomatist, the philosopher,
and the theologian, bear witness to the reality of the spiritual
phenomena, and are ready to bring forward innumerable facts in support of
their affirmation, we do not care what the faculty of medicine of Paris
may have pronounced many years ago. You say that the faculty “submitted a
number of such cases to a scientific examination,” and that “they were all
proved to be deceptions”; but you would be very much embarrassed to say in
what that “scientific examination” consisted. On the other hand, the
proofs of the deception have never appeared; and the simple truth is that
the spiritual phenomena were _à priori_ rejected, as clashing with the
materialistic theory of the faculty. You pretend that “whenever the proper
means were employed to prevent deception, clairvoyance was at an end” (p.
153). Such an assertion proves that you are completely ignorant of what is
going on in the world, or that you are determined obstinately to ignore
whatever could compel you to acknowledge the existence of spiritual
substances.
_Büchner._ “I have had the opportunity of examining a clairvoyant, of whom
remarkable things were told, under circumstances when a deception on the
part of the magnetizer was out of the question. The lady failed in all her
indications; they were either absolutely false or so expressed that
nothing could be made of them. She, moreover, made the most ridiculous
excuses for her shortcomings. As she failed in her clairvoyance, she
preferred to fall into a state of heavenly ecstasy, in which she
discoursed with her _ange_ or tutelar genius, and recited religious
verses. In reciting a poem of this kind she once stopped short, and
recommenced the verse to assist her memory. She manifested, withal, in
this ecstasy, no superior mental capacities; her language was common, and
her manner awkward. I left with the conviction that the lady was an
impostor who deceived her patron. Still, several gentlemen present were by
no means convinced of the deception practised on them” (p. 154).
_Reader._ If these gentlemen could by no means be convinced of the
deception, must we not presume that there was no deception, and that your
peculiar construction of the case was brought about by a strong desire of
not being disturbed in your fixed idea that there is nothing but matter?
If “the lady failed in all her indications,” if “she made the most
ridiculous excuses for her shortcomings,” if “she manifested no superior
capacities,” it should have been evident to those “several gentlemen” that
she was a fraud. Their inability to be convinced of the deception would
therefore show that the lady did not fail in all her indications, but
manifested superior capacities. Be this as it may, the truth and reality
of spiritual manifestations cannot be disproved by particular attempts at
imposition. Spiritualists admit that many impositions have been practised
under the name of spiritual manifestations, but they aver that in most
instances cheats could not have been palmed off, even if designed; and
that in other cases there could be no possible motive for deception, as
the investigations were carried on in private families where the mediums
were their own sons and daughters.(50) Spirit‐rapping is a fact. Table‐
turning is a fact. Clairvoyance is a fact. Thousands of all conditions,
sects, and nations have witnessed, watched, and examined all such facts
with a degree of attention, suspicion, and incredulity proportionate to
their novelty, strangeness, and unnaturalness. What has been the result? A
verdict acknowledging the reality of the facts and the impossibility of
accounting for them without intelligent preternatural agencies. This
verdict disposes of your materialism. To deny the facts in order to save
materialism is so much time lost. Facts speak for themselves.