This theory apparently has both merits and difficulties, which at
present we can only briefly notice. Among the strong points in its
favor, the first and most conspicuous one is, that it accords with
what this mysterious intelligence, in all its numerous forms of
manifestation, has steadily, against all opposition, persisted in
claiming _for itself_, from its first appearance, over twenty years
ago, till this day. And singularly enough, it appears as a fact
which, perhaps, should be stated as a portion of the history of these
phenomena, that years before public attention and investigation were
challenged by the first physical manifestation that claimed a spiritual
origin, an approaching and general revisitation of departed human
spirits was, in several instances, the burden of _remarkable
predictions_. I have in my possession a little book, or bound pamphlet,
entitled, "A Return of Departed Spirits," and bearing the imprint,
"Philadelphia: Published by J. R. Colon, 203½ Chestnut Street, 1843,"
in which is contained an account of strange phenomena which occurred
among the Shakers at New Lebanon, N. Y., during the early part of that
year. In the language of the author: "Disembodied spirits began to take
possession of the bodies of the brethren and sisters; and thus, by using
them as instruments, made themselves known by speaking through the
individuals whom they had got into." The writer then goes on to describe
what purported to be the visitations of hundreds in that way, from
different nations and tribes that had lived on earth in different
ages--the consistency of the phenomena being maintained throughout. I
have conversed with leading men among the Shakers of the United States
concerning this affair, and they tell me that the visitation was not
confined to New Lebanon, but extended, more or less, to all the Shaker
communities in the United States--not spreading from one to another,
but appearing nearly simultaneously in all. They also tell me that the
phenomena ceased about as suddenly as they appeared; and that when the
brethren were assembled, by previous appointment, to take leave of their
spirit-guests, they were exhorted by the latter to treasure up these
things in their hearts; to say nothing about them to the world's people,
but to wait patiently, and soon they (the spirits) would return, and
make their presence known to the world generally.
During the interval between the autumn of 1845 and the spring of 1847,
a book, wonderful for its inculcations both of truth and error, was
dictated in the mesmeric state by an uneducated boy--A. J. Davis--in
which the following similar prediction occurs:
"It is a truth that spirits commune with one another while one is in
the body and the other in the higher spheres--and this, too, when
the person in the body is unconscious of the influx, and hence can
not be convinced of the fact; and this truth will ere long present
itself in the form of a living demonstration. And the world will
hail with delight the ushering in of that era when the interiors of
men will be opened, and the spiritual communion will be established,
such as is now being enjoyed by the inhabitants of Mars, Jupiter,
and Saturn."--_Nat. Div. Rev., pp. 675, 676._
Eight months after the book containing this passage was published, and
more than a year after the words here quoted were dictated and written,
strange rapping sounds were heard in an obscure family in an obscure
village in the western part of New York. On investigation, those sounds
were found to be connected with intelligence, which, rapping at certain
letters of the alphabet as it was called over, spelled sentences, and
claimed to be a _spirit_. The phenomena increased, assumed many other
forms, extended to other mediums, and rapidly spread, not only all
over this country, but over the civilized world. And wherever this
intelligence has been interrogated under conditions which _itself_
prescribes for proper answers, its great leading and persistent response
to the question, "What are you?" has been, "_We are spirits!_" Candor
also compels us to admit that this claim has been perseveringly
maintained against the combined opposition of the great mass of
intelligent and scientific minds to whom the world has looked for its
guidance; and so successfully has it been maintained, that its converts
are now numbered by millions, gathered, not from the ranks of the
ignorant and superstitious, but consisting mostly of the intelligent
and thinking middle classes, and of many persons occupying the highest
positions in civil and social life.
At first its opponents met it with expressions of utter contempt and
cries of "humbug." Many ingenious and scientific persons volunteered
their efforts to expose the "trick;" and if they seemed, in some
instances, to meet with momentary success in solving the mystery, the
next day would bring with it some _new_ form of the phenomenon to
which none of their theories would apply. Being finally discouraged by
repeated failures to explain the hidden cause of these wonders, they
withdrew from the field, and for many years allowed the matter to go by
default; and only within the last twelvemonth has investigation of the
subject been re-aroused by the introduction into this country of the
little instrument called "the Planchette"--an instrument which, to our
certain knowledge, was used at least ten years ago in France, and that,
too, as a supposed means of communicating with departed spirits.
This little board has been welcomed as a "toy" or a "game" into
thousands of families, without suspicion of its having the remotest
connection with so-called "Spiritualism." The cry has been raised,
"Quidquid id est, timeo Danaos et dona ferentes,"
but too late! The Trojan walls are everywhere down; the wooden horse is
already dragged into the city with all the armed heroes concealed in its
bowels; the battle has commenced, and must be fought out to the bitter
end, as best it may be; and in the numerous magazine and newspaper
articles that have lately appeared on the subject, we have probably
only the beginning of a clash of arms which must terminate one way or
another.
Should our grave and learned philosophers find themselves overcome by
this little three-legged spider, it will be mortifying; but in order to
avoid that result, we fear they will have to do better than they have
done yet.
On the other hand, before the Spiritualists can be allowed to claim the
final victory in this contest, they should, it seems to me, be required
to answer the following questions in a manner satisfactory to the
highest intelligence and the better moral and religious sense of the
community:
Why is it that "spirits" communicating through your mediums, by
Planchette or otherwise, can not relate, plainly and circumstantially,
_any_ required incident of their lives, as a man would relate his
history to a friend, instead of dealing so much in vague and ambiguous
generalities, as they almost always do, and that, too, often in the bad
grammar or bad spelling of the medium? Or, as a question allied to this,
why is it that what purports to be the _same_ spirit, generally, if not
_always_, fails, when trial is made, to identify himself in the _same
manner_ through any two different mediums? Or, as another question still
allied to the above, why is it that your Websters, Clays, Calhouns, and
others, speaking through mediums, so universally give the idea that they
have deteriorated in intellect since they passed into the spirit-world?
And why is it that so little discourse or writing that possesses real
merit, and so much that is mere drivel, has come through your mediums,
if _spirits_ are the authors? And why does it so often happen that the
spirits--if they _are_ spirits--can not communicate anything except what
is already in the mind of the medium, or at least of some other person
present? It does not quite answer these questions to say that the
medium is "_undeveloped_" unless you explain to us precisely on what
principle the undevelopment affects the case. A speaking-trumpet may
be "undeveloped"--cracked or wanting in some of its parts, so as to
deteriorate the sound made through it; but we should at least expect
that a man speaking through it would speak his own thoughts, and not the
thoughts of the trumpet.
And then, looking at this subject in its _moral_ and _social_ aspects,
the question should be answered: Why, on the supposition that these
communications really come from immortal spirits, have they made so
little progress, during the twenty years that they have been with
us, in elevating the moral and social standard of human nature, in
making better husbands and wives, parents and children, citizens and
philanthropists, in drawing mankind together in harmony and charity, and
founding and endowing great institutions for the elevation of the race?
Rather may we not ask, in all kindness, why is it that the Spiritualist
community has been little more than a Babel from the beginning to the
present moment?
Or, ascending to the class of themes that come under the head of
Religion: Why is it that prayer is so generally ignored, and the worship
of God regarded as an unworthy superstition? Why is it that in the
diatribes, dissertations, and speeches of those who profess to act under
the sanction of the "spirits," we have a reproduction of so much of
the slang and ribaldry of the infidels of the last century, and of the
German Rationalism of the present, which is now being rejected by the
Germans themselves? And why is it that in their references to the great
lights of the world, we so often have Confucius, Jesus Christ, and
William Shakspeare jumbled up into indistinguishability?
I do not say that all these questions may not be answered consistently
with the claims of the spiritual hypothesis, but I _do_ say that before
our Spiritualist friends can have a _right_ to expect the better portion
of mankind to drink down this draft of philosophy which they have mixed,
they must at least satisfy them that there is _no poison_ in it.
Having thus exhibited these several theories, and, to an extent,
discussed them _pro et contra_, it is but fair that we should now ask
Planchette--using that name in a liberal sense--what is _her_ theory of
the whole matter? Perhaps it may be said that after raising this world
of curiosity and doubt in the public mind as to its own origin and
true nature, we have some semblance of a right to hold this mysterious
intelligence responsible for a solution of the difficulty it has
created; and perhaps if we are a little skillful in putting our
questions, and occasionally call in the aid of Planchette's brothers and
sisters, and other members of this mysterious family, we may obtain some
satisfactory results.