A DEFENCE
OF
MODERN SPIRITUALISM.
BY
ALFRED R. WALLACE, F. R. S.,
AUTHOR OF “THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO,” “EXPLORATIONS
ON THE AMAZON,” “THE THEORY OF NATURAL SELECTION,” ETC., ETC.
WITH A PREFACE
BY EPES SARGENT.
SECOND THOUSAND.
BOSTON:
COLBY AND RICH,
9 MONTGOMERY PLACE.
1874.
PREFACE.
* * * * *
The signs are, that both the moral and the religious systems of the
future will be greatly modified by the advance of science. They will be
more and more conformed to the facts of nature; not only to the facts
which a diligent Materialism, working in a single direction, has brought
to light, but to the transcendent facts which Modern Spiritualism has
restored and proved. The one order of facts is incomplete without the
other; and Materialism is as surely doomed to be encircled and
transfigured by the wider horizon of Spiritualism, as the Ptolemaic
system of the universe was doomed to be superseded by the Copernican.
Unpopular facts often encounter an opposition quite as persistent as
that which follows unpopular theories; and so intelligent Spiritualists
are not disturbed by the antagonism which their facts have met with from
the Huxleys, Tyndalls, Carpenters, and Büchners of our day. All these
men, working as they are for science in their different ways, though
under the disadvantage of an ignorance of certain phenomena of vast
significance, are welcomed as fellow-laborers in the cause of truth by
Spiritualists; for the latter, relying on their facts, are confident
that genuine Science includes them all, and that every new discovery
must be in harmony with all that they hold as true. Opposition to the
phenomena, proceeding as it does from lack of knowledge, simply
indicates the magnitude and astonishing character of the facts
themselves, which could excite such incredulity in the face of such
overwhelming testimony.
Among the men of science who have either admitted the facts, or both the
facts and the theory, of Spiritualism, are Hare, chemist; Varley, F. R.
S., electrician; Flammarion, astronomer; Crookes, F. R. S., chemist;
Hoefle, author of the “History of Chemistry;” Nichols, chemist; Fichte,
philosopher; Liais, astronomer; Hermann Goldschmidt, astronomer, and the
discoverer of fourteen planets; Von Esenbach, the greatest modern German
botanist; Huggins, F. R. S., astronomer and spectroscopist; De Morgan,
mathematician; Dille, physicist; Elliotson, Ashburner, and Gray,
physicians and surgeons. To no one eminent man of science, however, has
Spiritualism been more indebted than to Alfred Russell Wallace, F. R.
S., distinguished for his researches in natural history, paleontology,
and anthropology. His “Defence of Spiritualism,” here presented,
appeared originally in the London Fortnightly Review for May and June,
1874. Containing as it does the latest facts, no better tract for
Spiritualists to offer as an answer to their opponents has yet appeared.
Mr. Wallace, though he arrived, simultaneously with Mr. Darwin, at
similar conclusions in regard to the origin of species, differs from him
on a most important point; for Mr. Wallace believes that “a superior
intelligence is necessary to account for man.” His acquaintance with the
phenomena of Spiritualism must always give him, in the sweep and
comprehensiveness of his anthropology, a great advantage over Mr.
Darwin. Besides his great work on the “Natural History of the Malay
Archipelago,” and an account of his “Explorations on the Amazon,” Mr.
Wallace is the author of “The Theory of Natural Selection,” and of many
valuable papers in scientific journals. Dr. Hooker, president of the
British Scientific Association, wrote, in 1868, “Of Mr. Wallace, and his
many contributions to philosophical biology, it is not easy to speak
without enthusiasm; for, putting aside their great merits, he,
throughout his many writings, with a modesty as rare as I believe it to
be in him unconscious, forgets his own unquestionable claims to the
honor of having originated, independently of Mr. Darwin, the theories
which he so ably defends.”
The testimony of such an investigator as Mr. Wallace in behalf of the
stupendous phenomena of Spiritualism is not to be lightly put aside or
ignored. What can be said in reply to such an array of facts as he
presents?
E. S.
A DEFENCE
OF
MODERN SPIRITUALISM.
* * * * *
It is with great diffidence, but under an imperative sense of duty, that
the present writer accepts the opportunity afforded him of submitting to
his readers some general account of a widespread movement, which, though
for the most part treated with ridicule or contempt, he believes to
embody truths of the most vital importance to human progress.[1] The
subject to be treated is of such vast extent, the evidence concerning it
is so varied and so extraordinary, the prejudices that surround it are
so inveterate, that it is not possible to do it justice without entering
into considerable detail. The reader who ventures on the perusal of the
succeeding pages may, therefore, have his patience tried; but if he is
able to throw aside his preconceived ideas of what is possible and what
is impossible, and in the acceptance or rejection of the evidence
submitted to him will carefully weigh and be solely guided by the nature
of the concurrent testimony, the writer ventures to believe that he will
not find his time and patience ill bestowed.
Footnote 1:
The following are the more important works which have been used in the
preparation of this article: Judge Edmonds’s “Spiritual Tracts,” New
York, 1858–1860. Robert Dale Owen’s “Footfalls on the Boundary of
Another World,” Trübner & Co., 1861. E. Hardinge’s “Modern American
Spiritualism,” New York, 1870. Robert Dale Owen’s “Debatable Land
between this World and the Next,” Trübner & Co., 1871. “Report on
Spiritualism of the Committee of the London Dialectical Society,”
Longmans & Co., 1871. “Year-Book of Spiritualism,” Boston and London,
1871. Hudson Tuttle’s “Arcana of Spiritualism,” Boston, 1871. The
Spiritual Magazine, 1861–1874. The Spiritualist Newspaper, 1872–1874.
The Medium and Daybreak, 1869–1874.
Few men, in this busy age, have leisure to read massive volumes devoted
to special subjects. They gain much of their general knowledge, outside
the limits of their profession or of any peculiar study, by means of
periodical literature; and, as a rule, they are supplied with copious
and accurate, though general, information. Some of our best thinkers and
workers make known the results of their researches to the readers of
magazines and reviews; and it is seldom that a writer whose information
is meagre, or obtained at second-hand, is permitted to come before the
public in their pages as an authoritative teacher. But as regards the
subject we are now about to consider, this rule has not hitherto been
followed. Those who have devoted many years to an examination of its
phenomena have been, in most cases, refused a hearing; while men who
have bestowed on it no adequate attention, and are almost wholly
ignorant of the researches of others, have alone supplied the
information to which a large proportion of the public have had access.
In support of this statement it is necessary to refer, with brief
comments, to some of the more prominent articles in which the phenomena
and pretensions of Spiritualism have been recently discussed.
At the beginning of the present year the readers of this Review were
treated to “Experiences of Spiritualism,” by a writer of no mean
ability, and of thoroughly advanced views. He assures his readers that
he “conscientiously endeavored to qualify himself for speaking on this
subject” by attending five séances, the details of several of which he
narrates; and he comes to the conclusion that mediums are by no means
ingenious deceivers, but “jugglers of the most vulgar order;” that the
“spiritualistic mind falls a victim to the most patent frauds,” and
greedily “accepts jugglery as manifestations of spirits”; and, lastly,
that the mediums are as credulous as their dupes, and fall straightway
into any trap that is laid for them. Now, on the evidence before him,
and on the assumption that no more or better evidence would have been
forthcoming had he devoted fifty instead of five evenings to the
inquiry, the conclusions of Lord Amberley are perfectly logical; but, so
far from what he witnessed being a “specimen of the kind of
manifestations by which Spiritualists are convinced,” a very little
acquaintance with the literature of the subject would have shown him
that no Spiritualist of any mark was ever convinced by any quantity of
such evidence. In an article published since Lord Amberley’s—in London
Society for February—the author, a barrister and well-known literary
man, says:
“It was difficult for me to give in to the idea that solid objects
could be conveyed, invisibly, through closed doors, or that heavy
furniture could be moved without the interposition of hands.
Philosophers will say these things are absolutely impossible;
nevertheless, it is absolutely certain that they do occur. I have met
in the houses of private friends, as witnesses of these phenomena,
persons whose testimony would go for a good deal in a court of
justice. They have included peers, members of parliament, diplomatists
of the highest rank, judges, barristers, physicians, clergymen,
members of learned societies, chemists, engineers, journalists, and
thinkers of all sorts and degrees. They have suggested and carried
into effect tests of the most rigid and satisfactory character. The
media (all non-professional) have been searched before and after
séances. The precaution has even been taken of providing them
unexpectedly with other apparel. They have been tied; they have been
sealed; they have been secured in every cunning and dexterous manner
that ingenuity could devise, but no deception has been discovered and
no imposture brought to light. Neither was there any motive for
imposture. No fee or reward of any kind depended upon the success or
non-success of the manifestations.”
Now here we have a nice question of probabilities. We must either
believe that Lord Amberley is almost infinitely more acute than Mr.
Dunphy and his host of eminent friends—so that after five séances (most
of them failures) he has got to the bottom of a mystery in which they,
notwithstanding their utmost endeavors, still hopelessly flounder—or,
that the noble lord’s acuteness does not surpass the combined acuteness
of all these persons; in which case their much larger experience, and
their having witnessed many things Lord Amberley has not witnessed, must
be held to have the greater weight, and to show, at all events, that all
mediums are not “jugglers of the most vulgar order.”
In October last the New Quarterly Magazine, in its opening number, had
an article entitled “A Spiritualistic Séance;” but which proved to be an
account of certain ingenious contrivances by which some of the phenomena
usual at séances were imitated, and both Spiritualists and skeptics
deceived and confounded. This appears at first sight to be an exposure
of Spiritualism, but it is really very favorable to its pretensions; for
it goes on the assumption that the marvelous phenomena witnessed do
really occur, but are produced by various mechanical contrivances. In
this case the rooms above, below, and at the side of that in which the
séance was held had to be prepared with specially constructed machinery,
with assistants to work it. The apparatus, as described, would cost at
least £100, and would then only serve to produce a few fixed phenomena,
such as happen frequently in private houses and at the lodgings of
mediums who have not exclusive possession of any of the adjoining rooms,
or the means of obtaining expensive machinery and hired assistants. The
article bears internal evidence of being altogether a fictitious
narrative; but it helps to demonstrate, if any demonstration is
required, that the phenomena which occur under such protean forms and
varied conditions, and in private houses quite as often as at the
apartments of the mediums, are in no way produced by machinery.
Perhaps the most prominent recent attack on Spiritualism was that in the
Quarterly Review for October, 1871, which is known to have been written
by an eminent physiologist, and did much to blind the public to the real
nature of the movement. This article, after giving a light sketch of the
reported phenomena, entered into some details as to planchette-writing
and table-lifting—facts on which no Spiritualist depends as evidence to
a third party—and then proceeded to define its standpoint as follows:
“Our position, then, is that the so-called spiritual communications
come from _within_, not from without, the individuals who suppose
themselves to be the recipients of them; that they belong to the class
termed ‘subjective’ by physiologists and psychologists, and that the
movements by which they are expressed, whether the tilting of tables
or the writing of planchettes, are really produced by their own
muscular action exerted independently of their own wills and quite
unconsciously to themselves.”
Several pages are then devoted to accounts of séances which, like Lord
Amberley’s, were mostly failures; and to the experiences of a Bath
clergyman who believed that the communications came from devils; and,
generally, such weak and inconclusive phenomena only are adduced as can
be easily explained by the well-worn formulæ of “unconscious
cerebration,” “expectant attention,” and “unconscious muscular action.”
A few of the more startling physical phenomena are mentioned merely to
be discredited and the judgment of the witnesses impugned; but no
attempt is made to place before the reader any information as to the
amount or the weight of the testimony to such phenomena, or to the long
series of diverse phenomena which lead up to and confirm them. Some of
the experiments of Prof. Hare and Mr. Crookes are quoted and criticised
in the spirit of assuming that these experienced physicists were
ignorant of the simplest principles of mechanics, and failed to use the
most ordinary precautions. Of the numerous and varied cases on record,
of heavy bodies being moved without direct or indirect contact by any
human being, no notice is taken, except so far as quoting Mr. C. F.
Varley’s statement, that he had seen, in broad daylight, a small table
moved ten feet, with no one near it but himself, and not touched by
him—“as an example of the manner in which minds of this limited order
are apt to become the dupes of their own imaginings.”
This article, like the others here referred to, shows in the writer an
utter forgetfulness of the maxim, that an argument is not answered till
it is answered at its best. Amid the vast mass of recorded facts now
accumulated by Spiritualists, there is, of course, much that is weak and
inconclusive, much that is of no value as evidence, except to those who
have independent reasons for faith in them. From this undigested mass it
is the easiest thing in the world to pick out arguments that can be
refuted and facts that can be explained away; but what is that to the
purpose? It is not these that have convinced any one; but those
weightier, oft-repeated and oft-tested facts which the writers referred
to invariably ignore.
Prof. Tyndall has also given the world (in his “Fragments of Science,”
published in 1871) some account of his attempt to investigate these
phenomena. Again, we have a minute record of a séance which was a
failure, and in which the Professor, like Lord Amberley, easily imposed
on some too credulous Spiritualists by improvising a few manifestations
of his own. The article in question is dated as far back as 1864. We may
therefore conclude that the Professor has not seen much of the subject;
nor can he have made himself acquainted with what others have seen and
carefully verified, or he would hardly have thought his communication
worthy of the place it occupies among original researches and positive
additions to human knowledge. Both its facts and its reasonings have
been well replied to by Mr. Patrick Fraser Alexander, in his little work
entitled “Spiritualism; a Narrative and a Discussion,” which we
recommend to those who care to see how a very acute yet unprejudiced
mind looks at the phenomena, and how inconclusive, even from a
scientific standpoint, are the experiences adduced by Prof. Tyndall.
The discussion in the Pall Mall Gazette in 1868, and a considerable
private correspondence, indicates that scientific men almost invariably
assume that, in this inquiry, they should be permitted, at the very
outset, to impose conditions; and if, under such conditions, nothing
happens, they consider it a proof of imposture or delusion. But they
well know that, in all other branches of research, Nature, not they,
determines the essential conditions, without a compliance with which no
experiment will succeed. These conditions have to be learnt by a patient
questioning of Nature, and they are different for each branch of
science. How much more may they be expected to differ in an inquiry
which deals with subtle forces of the nature of which the physicist is
wholly and absolutely ignorant! To ask to be allowed to deal with these
unknown phenomena as he has hitherto dealt with known phenomena, is
practically to prejudge the question, since it assumes that both are
governed by the same laws.
From the sketch which has now been given of the recent treatment of the
subject by popular and scientific writers, we can summarize pretty
accurately their mental attitude in regard to it. They have seen very
little of the phenomena themselves, and they cannot believe that others
have seen much more. They have encountered people who are easily
deceived by a little unexpected trickery, and they conclude that the
convictions of Spiritualists generally are founded on phenomena
produced, either consciously or unconsciously, in a similar way. They
are so firmly convinced, on _a priori_ grounds, that the more remarkable
phenomena said to happen do not really happen, that they will back their
conviction against the direct testimony of any body of men, preferring
to believe that they are all the victims of some mysterious delusion
whenever imposture is out of the question. To influence persons in this
frame of mind, it is evident that _more_ personal testimony to isolated
facts is utterly useless. They have, to use the admirable expression of
Dr. Carpenter, “no place in the existing fabric of their thought into
which such facts can be fitted.” It is necessary, therefore, to modify
the “fabric of thought” itself; and it appears to the present writer
that this can best be done by a general historic sketch of the subject,
and by showing, by separate lines of inquiry, how wide and varied is the
evidence, and how remarkably these lines converge toward one uniform
conclusion. The endeavor will be made to indicate, by typical examples
of each class of evidence and without unnecessary detail, the cumulative
force of the argument.
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
Modern Spiritualism dates from March, 1848; it being then that, for the
first time, intelligent communications were held with the unknown cause
of the mysterious knockings and other sounds, similar to those which had
disturbed the Mompesson and Wesley families in the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries. This discovery was made by Miss Kate Fox, a girl
of nine years old, and the first recognized example of an extensive
class now known as mediums. It is worthy of remark that this very first
“modern spiritual manifestation” was subjected to the test of unlimited
examination by all the inhabitants of the village of Hydesville, New
York. Though all were utter skeptics, no one could discover any cause
for the noises, which continued, though with less violence, when all the
children had left the house. Nothing is more common than the remark that
it is absurd and illogical to impute noises, of which we cannot discover
the cause, to the agency of spirits. So it undoubtedly is when the
noises are merely noises; but is it so illogical when these noises turn
out to be signals, and signals which spell out a fact, which fact,
though wholly unknown to all present, turns out to be true? Yet, on this
very first occasion, twenty-six years ago, the signals declared that a
murdered man was buried in the cellar of the house; it indicated the
exact spot in the cellar under which the body lay; and upon digging
there, at a depth of six or seven feet, considerable portions of a human
skeleton were found. Yet more: the name of the murdered man was given,
and it was ascertained that such a person had visited that very house
and had disappeared five years before, and had never been heard of
since. The signals further declared that he, the murdered man, was the
signaller; and as all the witnesses had satisfied themselves that the
signals were not made by any living person or by any assignable cause,
the logical conclusion from the facts was, that it _was_ the spirit[2]
of the murdered man; although such a conclusion might be to some in the
highest degree improbable, and to others in the highest degree absurd.
Footnote 2:
It may be as well here to explain that the word “spirit,” which is
often considered to be so objectionable by scientific men, is used
throughout this article (or at all events in the earlier portions of
it) merely to avoid circumlocution, in the sense of the “intelligent
cause of the phenomena,” and not as implying “the spirits of the
dead,” unless so expressly stated.
The Misses Fox now became involuntary mediums, and the family (which had
removed to the city of Rochester) were accused of imposture, and offered
to submit the children to examination by a committee of townsmen
appointed in public meeting. Three committees were successively
appointed; the last, composed of violent skeptics who had accused the
previous committees of stupidity or connivance. But all three, after
unlimited investigation, were forced to declare that the cause of the
phenomena was undiscoverable. The sounds occurred on the wall and floor
while the mediums, after being thoroughly searched by ladies, “stood on
pillows, barefooted, and with their clothes tied round their ankles.”
The last and most skeptical committee reported that, “They had heard
sounds, and failed utterly to discover their origin. They had proved
that neither machinery nor imposture had been used; and their questions,
_many of them being mental_, were answered correctly.” When we consider
that the mediums were two children under twelve years of age, and the
examiners utterly skeptical American citizens, thoroughly resolved to
detect imposture, and urged on by excited public meetings, it may
perhaps be considered that even at this early stage the question of
imposture or delusion was pretty well settled in the negative.
In a short time persons who sat with the Misses Fox found themselves to
have similar powers in a greater or less degree; and in two or three
years the movement had spread over a large part of the United States,
developing into a variety of strange forms, encountering the most
violent skepticism and the most rancorous hostility, yet always
progressing, and making converts even among the most enlightened and
best educated classes. In 1851, some of the most intelligent men in New
York—judges, senators, doctors, lawyers, merchants, clergymen and
authors—formed themselves into a society for investigation. Judge
Edmonds was one of these; and a sketch of the kind and amount of
evidence that was required to convince him will be given further on. In
1854 a second spiritual society was formed in New York. It had the names
of four judges and two physicians among its Vice-Presidents, showing
that the movement had by this time become respectable, and that men in
high social positions were not afraid of identifying themselves with it.
A little later Professor Mapes, an eminent agricultural chemist, was led
to undertake the investigation of Spiritualism. He formed a circle of
twelve friends, most of them men of talent, and skeptics, who bound
themselves to sit together weekly, with a medium, twenty times. For the
first eighteen evenings the phenomena were so trivial and unsatisfactory
that most of the party felt disgusted at the loss of time; but the last
two sittings produced phenomena of so startling a character that the
investigation was continued by the same circle _for four years, and all
became Spiritualists_.
By this time the movement had spread into every part of the Union, and,
notwithstanding that its adherents were abused as impostors or dupes,
that they were in several cases expelled from colleges and churches and
were confined as lunatics, and that the whole thing was “explained” over
and over again—it has continued to spread up to the present hour. The
secret of this appears to have been, that the explanations given never
applied to the phenomena continually occurring, and of which there were
numerous witnesses. A medium was raised in the air in a crowded room in
full daylight. (“Modern American Spiritualism,” p. 279.) A scientific
skeptic prepared a small portable apparatus, by which he could produce
an instantaneous illumination; and, taking it to a dark séance at which
numerous musical instruments were played, suddenly lighted up the room
while a large drum was being violently beaten, in the certain
expectation of revealing the impostor to the whole company. But what
they all saw was the drumstick itself beating the drum, with no human
being near it. It struck a few more blows, then rose into the air and
descended gently on to the shoulder of a lady. (Same work, p. 337.) At
Toronto, Canada, in a well-lighted room, an accompaniment to a song was
played on a closed and locked piano. (Same work, p. 463.) Communications
were given in raised letters on the arm of an ignorant servant girl, who
often could not read them. They sometimes appeared while she was at her
household work, and after being read by her master or mistress would
disappear. (Same work, p. 196.) Letters closed in any number of
envelopes, sealed up of even pasted together over the whole of the
written surface, were read and answered by certain mediums in whom this
special power was developed. It mattered not what language the letters
were written in; and it is upon record that letters in German, Greek,
Hebrew, Arabic, Chinese, French, Welsh and Mexican, have been correctly
answered in the corresponding languages by a medium who knew none of
them. (Judge Edmonds’s “Letters on Spiritualism,” pp. 59–103, Appendix.)
Other mediums drew portraits of deceased persons whom they had never
known or heard of. Others healed diseases. But those who helped most to
spread the belief were, perhaps, the trance-speakers, who, in eloquent
and powerful language, developed the principles and the uses of
Spiritualism, answered objections, spread abroad a knowledge of the
phenomena, and thus induced skeptics to inquire into the facts; and
inquiry was almost invariably followed by conversion. Having repeatedly
listened to three of these speakers who have visited this country, I can
bear witness that they fully equal, and not unfrequently surpass our
best orators and preachers; whether in finished eloquence, in close and
logical argument, or in the readiness with which appropriate and
convincing replies are made to all objectors. They are also remarkable
for the perfect courtesy and suavity of their manner, and for the
extreme patience and gentleness with which they meet the most violent
opposition and the most unjust accusations.
Men of the highest rank and greatest ability became convinced by these
varied phenomena. No amount of education, of legal, medical or
scientific training, was proof against the overwhelming force of the
facts, whenever these facts were systematically and perseveringly
inquired into. The number of Spiritualists in the Union is, according to
those who have the best means of judging, from eight to eleven millions.
This is the estimate of Judge Edmonds, who has had extensive
correspondence on the subject with every part of the United States. The
Hon. R. D. Owen, who has also had great opportunities of knowing the
facts, considers it to be approximately correct; and it is affirmed by
the editors of the “Year-Book of Spiritualism” for 1871. These numbers
have been held to be absurdly exaggerated by persons having less
information, especially by strangers who have made superficial inquiries
in America; but it must be remembered that the Spiritualists are to a
very limited extent an organized body, and that the mass of them make no
public profession of their belief, but still remain members of some
denominational church—circumstances that would greatly deceive an
outsider. Nevertheless, the organization is of considerable extent.
There were in America, in 1870, 20 State Associations and 105 Societies
of Spiritualists, 207 lecturers, and about the same number of public
mediums.
In other parts of the world the movement has progressed more or less
rapidly. Several of the more celebrated American mediums have visited
this country, and not only made converts in all classes of society, but
led to the formation of private circles and the discovery of mediumistic
power in hundreds of families. There is scarcely a city or a
considerable town in Continental Europe at the present moment where
Spiritualists are not reckoned by hundreds, if not by thousands. There
are said, on good authority, to be fifty thousand avowed Spiritualists
in Paris and ten thousand in Lyons; and the numbers in England may be
roughly estimated by the fact that there are four exclusively spiritual
periodicals, one of which has a circulation of five thousand weekly.
DEDUCTIONS FROM THE PRECEDING SKETCH.
Before proceeding to a statement of the evidence which has convinced the
more educated and more skeptical converts, let us consider briefly the
bearing of the undoubted fact, that (to keep within bounds) many
thousands of well-informed men, belonging to all classes of society and
all professions, have, in each of the great civilized nations of the
world, acknowledged the objective reality of these phenomena; although,
almost without exception, they at first viewed them with dislike or
contempt, as impostures or delusions. There is nothing parallel to it in
the history of human thought; because there never before existed so
strong and apparently so well-founded a conviction that phenomena of
this kind never have happened and never can happen. It is often said,
that the number of adherents to a belief is no proof of its truth. This
remark justly applies to most religions whose arguments appeal to the
emotions and the intellect but not to the evidence of the senses. It is
equally just as applied to a great part of modern science. The almost
universal belief in gravitation, and in the undulatory theory of light,
does not render them in any degree more probable; because very few
indeed of the believers have tested the facts which most convincingly
demonstrate those theories, or are able to follow out the reasoning by
which they are demonstrated. It is for the most part a blind belief
accepted upon authority. But with these spiritual phenomena the case is
very different. They are to most men so new, so strange, so incredible,
so opposed to their whole habit of thought, so apparently opposed to the
pervading scientific spirit of the age, that they cannot and do not
accept them on second-hand evidence, as they do almost every other kind
of knowledge. The thousands or millions of Spiritualists, therefore,
represent to a very large extent men who have witnessed, examined, and
tested the evidence for themselves, over and over and over again, till
that which they had at first been unable to admit _could_ be true, they
have at last been compelled to acknowledge _is_ true. This accounts for
the utter failure of all the attempted “exposures” and “explanations” to
convince one solitary believer of his error. The exposers and explainers
have never got beyond those first difficulties which constitute the
_pons asinorum_ of Spiritualism, which every believer has to get over,
but at which early stage of investigation no converts are ever made. By
explaining table-turning, or table-tilting, or raps, you do not
influence a man who was never convinced by these, but who, in broad
daylight, sees objects move without contact, and behave as if guided by
intelligent beings; and who sees this in a variety of forms, in a
variety of places, and under such varied and stringent conditions, as to
make the fact to him just as real as the movement of iron to the magnet.
By explaining automatic writing (which itself convinces no one but the
writer, and not always even him), you do not affect the belief of the
man who has obtained writing when neither pencil nor paper was touched
by any one; or has seen a hand not attached to any human body take up a
pencil and write; or; as Mr. Andrew Leighton, of Liverpool, testifies,
has seen a pencil rise of itself on a table and write the words: “_And
is this world of strife to end in dust at last?_” Thus it is that there
are so few recantations or perverts in Spiritualism; so few, that it may
be truly said there are none. After much inquiry and reading I can find
no example of a man who, having acquired a good personal knowledge of
all the chief phases of the phenomena, has subsequently come to
disbelieve in their reality. If the “explanations” and “exposures” were
good for anything, or if it were an imposture to expose or a delusion to
explain, this could not be the case, because there are numbers of men
who have become convinced of the facts, but who have not accepted the
spiritual theory. These are, for the most part, in an uncomfortable and
unsettled frame of mind, and would gladly welcome an explanation which
really explained anything—but they find it not. As an eminent example of
this class, I may mention Dr. J. Lockhart Robertson, long one of the
editors of the Journal of Mental Science—a physician who, having made
mental disease his special study, would not be easily taken in by any
psychological delusions. The phenomena he witnessed fourteen years ago
were of a violent character; a very strong table being, at his own
request and in his own house, broken to pieces while he held the
medium’s hands. He afterwards himself tried to break a remaining leg of
the table, but failed to do so after exerting all his strength. Another
table was tilted over while all the party sat on it. He subsequently had
a sitting with Mr. Home, and witnessed the usual phenomena occurring
with that extraordinary medium—such as the accordion playing “most
wonderful music without any human agency,” “a shadow hand, not that of
any one present, which lifts a pencil and writes with it,” &c., &c.; and
he says that he can “no more doubt the physical manifestations of
(so-called) Spiritualism than he would any other fact—as, for example,
the fall of an apple to the ground of which his senses informed him.”
His record of these phenomena, with the confirmation by a friend who was
present, is published in the “Dialectical Society’s Report on
Spiritualism,” p. 247; and, at a meeting of Spiritualists in 1870, he
reasserted the facts, but denied their spiritual origin. To such a man
the Quarterly Reviewer’s explanations are worthless; yet it may be
safely said, that every advanced Spiritualist has seen more remarkable,
more varied, and even more inexplicable phenomena than those recorded by
Dr. Robertson, and is therefore still further out of reach of the
arguments referred to, which are indeed only calculated to convince
those who know little or nothing of the matter.
EVIDENCE OF THE FACTS.
The subject of the evidences of the objective phenomena of Spiritualism
is such a large one that it will be only possible here to give a few
typical examples, calculated to show how wide is their range, and how
conclusively they reach every objection that the most skeptical have
brought against them. This may perhaps be best done by giving, in the
first place, an outline of the career of two or three well-known
mediums; and, in the second, a sketch of the experiences and
investigations of a few of the more remarkable converts to Spiritualism.
_Career of Remarkable Mediums._—Miss Kate Fox, the little girl of nine
years old, who, as already stated, was the first “medium” in the modern
sense of the term, has continued to possess the same power for
twenty-six years. At the very earliest stages of the movement, skeptic
after skeptic, committee after committee endeavored to discover “the
trick;” but if it was a trick this little girl baffled them all, and the
proverbial acuteness of the Yankee was of no avail. In 1860, when Dr.
Robert Chambers visited America, he suggested to his friend, Robert Dale
Owen, the use of a balance to test the lifting power. They accordingly,
without preärrangement with the medium, took with them a powerful
steelyard, and suspended from it a dining-table weighing one hundred and
twenty-one pounds. Then, under a bright gas-light, the feet of the two
mediums (Miss Fox and her sister) being both touched by the feet of the
gentlemen, and the hands of all present being held over but not touching
the table, it was made lighter or heavier at request, so as to weigh at
one time only sixty, at another one hundred and thirty-four pounds. This
experiment, be it remembered, was identical with one proposed by Faraday
himself as being conclusive. Mr. Owen had many sittings with Miss Fox,
for the purpose of test, and the precautions he took were extraordinary.
He sat with her alone; he frequently changed the room without notice; he
examined every article of furniture; he locked the doors and fastened
them with strips of paper privately sealed; he held both the hands of
the medium. Under these conditions various phenomena occurred, the most
remarkable being the illumination of a piece of paper (which he had
brought himself, cut of a peculiar size, and privately marked,) showing
a dark hand writing on the floor. The paper afterwards rose up on to the
table with legible writing upon it, containing a promise which was
subsequently verified. (“Debatable Land,” p. 293.)
But Miss Fox’s powers were most remarkably shown in the séances with Mr.
Livermore, a well-known New York banker, and an entire skeptic before
commencing these experiments. These sittings were more than three
hundred in number, extending over five years. They took place in four
different houses (Mr. Livermore’s and the medium’s being both changed
during this period), under tests of the most rigid description. The
chief phenomenon was the appearance of a tangible, visible and audible
figure of Mr. Livermore’s deceased wife, sometimes accompanied by a male
figure, purporting to be Dr. Franklin. The former figure was often most
distinct and absolutely life-like. It moved various objects in the room.
It wrote messages on cards. It was sometimes formed out of a luminous
cloud, and again vanished before the eyes of the witnesses. It allowed a
portion of its dress to be cut off, which, though at first of strong and
apparently gauzy material texture, yet in a short time melted away and
became invisible. Flowers which melted away were also given. These
phenomena occurred best when Mr. L. and the medium were alone; but two
witnesses were occasionally admitted, who tested everything and
confirmed Mr. L.’s testimony. One of these was Mr. Livermore’s
physician, the other his brother-in-law; the latter previously a
skeptic. The details of these wonderful séances were published in the
Spiritual Magazine in 1862 and 1863; and the more remarkable are given
in Owen’s “Debatable Land,” from which work a good idea may be formed of
the great variety of the phenomena that occurred and the stringent
character of the tests employed.
Miss Fox recently came to England, and here also her powers have been
tested by a competent man of science, and found to be all that has been
stated. She is now married to an English barrister, and some of the
strange phenomena which have so long accompanied her attach themselves
to her infant child, even when its mother is away, to the great alarm of
the nurse. We have here, therefore, a career of twenty-six years of
mediumship of the most varied and remarkable character; mediumship which
has been scrutinized and tested from the first hour of its manifestation
down to this day, and with one invariable result—that no imposture or
attempt at imposture has ever been discovered, and no cause ever been
suggested that will account for the phenomena except that advanced by
Spiritualists.
Mr. Daniel D. Home is perhaps the best known medium in the world; and
his powers have been open to examination for at least twenty years.
Nineteen years ago Sir David Brewster and Lord Brougham had a sitting
with him—sufficiently acute and eminent observers, and both, of course
thorough skeptics. In the “Home Life of Sir David Brewster,” we have,
fortunately, his own record of this sitting made _at the time_, although
six months later, in a letter to the Morning Advertiser, he made the
contradictory statement: “I saw enough to satisfy myself they could all
be produced by human hands and feet.” He says: “The table actually rose
from the ground when no hand was upon it;” and “a small hand-bell was
laid down with its mouth on the carpet, and it actually rang when
nothing could have touched it. The bell was then placed on the other
side, still upon the carpet, and it came over to me and placed itself in
my hand. It did the same to Lord Brougham.” And he adds, speaking for
both, “We could give no explanation of them, and could not conjecture
how they could be produced by any kind of mechanism.” Coming from the
author of “Letters on Natural Magic,” this is pretty good testimony.
These and far more marvelous phenomena have been repeated from that day
to this many thousands of times, and almost always in private houses at
which Mr. Home visits. Everybody testifies to the fact that he offers
the most ample facilities for investigation; and to this I can myself
bear witness, having been invited by him to examine as closely as I
pleased an accordion, held by his one hand, keys downward, and in that
position playing very sweetly. But perhaps the best-attested and most
extraordinary phenomenon connected with Mr. Home’s mediumship is what is
called the fire-test. In a state of trance he takes a glowing coal from
the hottest part of a bright fire and carries it round the room, so that
every one may see and feel that it is a real one. This is testified by
Mr. H. D. Jencken, Lord Lindsay, Lord Adare, Miss Douglas, Mr. S. C.
Hall, and many others. But, more strange still, when in this state he
can detect the same power in other persons, or convey it to them. A lump
of red-hot coal was once placed on Mr. S. C. Hall’s head in the presence
of Lord Lindsay and four other persons. Mrs. Hall, in a communication to
the Earl of Dunraven (given in the Spiritual Magazine, 1870, p. 178),
says:
“Mr. Hall was seated nearly opposite to where I sat; and I saw Mr.
Home, after standing about half a minute at the back of Mr. Hall’s
chair, deliberately place the lump of burning coal on his head! I have
often wondered that I was not frightened, but I was not; I had perfect
faith that he would not be injured. Some one said, ‘Is it not hot?’
Mr. Hall answered, ‘Warm, but not hot!’ Mr. Home had moved a little
way, but returned, still in a trance; he smiled, and seemed quite
pleased, and then proceeded to draw up Mr. Hall’s white hair over the
red coal. The white hair had the appearance of silver thread over the
red coal. Mr. Home drew the hair into a sort of pyramid, the coal,
still red, showing beneath the hair.”
When taken off the head—which it had not in the slightest degree injured
or singed the hair—others attempted to touch it, and were burnt. Lord
Lindsay and Miss Douglas have also had hot coals placed in their hands,
and they describe them as feeling rather cold than hot; though at the
same time they burn any one else, and even scorch the face of the holder
if approached too closely. The same witnesses also testify that Mr. Home
has placed red-hot coals inside his waistcoat without scorching his
clothes, and has put his face into the middle of the fire, his hair
falling into the flames, yet not being the least singed. The same power
of resisting fire can be temporarily given to inanimate objects. Mr. H.
Nisbet, of Glasgow, states (“Human Nature,” Feb., 1870) that, in his own
house, in January, 1870, Mr. Home placed a red-hot coal in the hands of
a lady and gentleman, which they only felt warm; and then placed the
same piece on a folded newspaper, burning a hole through eight layers of
paper. He then took a fresh and blazing coal and laid it on the same
newspaper, carrying it about the room for three minutes, when the paper
was found, this time, not to have been the least burnt. Lord Lindsay
further declares—and as one of the few noblemen who do real scientific
work his evidence must be of some value—that on eight occasions he has
had red-hot coals placed on his own hand by Home without injury. Mr. W.
H. Harrison (“Spiritualist,” March 15th, 1870) saw him take a large
coal, which covered the palm of his hand, and stood six or seven inches
high. As he walked about the room it threw a ruddy glow on the walls,
and when he came to the table with it, the heat was felt in the faces of
all present. The coal was thus held for five minutes. These phenomena
have now happened scores of times in the presence of scores of
witnesses. They are facts, of the reality of which there can be no
doubt; and they are altogether inexplicable by the known laws of
physiology and heat.
The powers of Mr. Home have lately been independently tested by Serjeant
Cox and Mr. Crookes, and both these gentlemen emphatically proclaim that
he invites tests and courts examination. Serjeant Cox, in his own house,
has had a new accordion (purchased by himself that very day) play by
itself, in his own hand, while Mr. Home was playing the piano. Mr. Home
then took the accordion in his left hand, holding it with the keys
downwards while playing the piano with his right hand, “and it played
beautifully in accompaniment to the piano, for at least a quarter of an
hour.” (“What Am I?” Vol. II., p. 388.)
As to the possibility of these things being produced by trick, if
further evidence than their mere statement be required, we have the
following by Mr. T. Adolphus Trollope, who says, “I may also mention
that Bosco, one of the greatest professors of legerdemain ever known, in
a conversation with me upon the subject, utterly scouted the idea of the
possibility of such phenomena as I saw produced by Mr. Home being
performed by any of the resources of his art.”
Mr. Home’s life has been to a great extent a public one. He has spent
much of his time as a guest in the houses of people of rank and talent.
He numbers among his friends many who are eminent in science, art, and
literature—men certainly not inferior in perceptive or reasoning power
to those who, not having witnessed the phenomena, disbelieve in their
occurrence. For twenty years he has been exposed to the keen scrutiny
and never-ceasing suspicion of innumerable inquirers; yet no proof has
ever been given of trickery, no particle of machinery or apparatus ever
been detected. But the phenomena are so stupendous that, if impostures,
they could only be performed by machinery of the most elaborate, varied
and cumbrous nature, requiring the aid of several assistants and
confederates. The theory that they are delusions is equally untenable,
unless it is admitted that there is no possible means of distinguishing
delusion from reality.