proved ability again observes a large portion of the more extraordinary
phenomena, in his own house, under test conditions, and affirms their
objective reality; and this not after a hasty examination, but after
four years of research? Men “with heavy scientific appendages to their
names” refuse to examine them when invited; the eminent society of which
he is a fellow refuses to record them; and the press cries out that it
wants better witnesses than Mr. Crookes, and that such facts want
“confirmation” before they can be believed. But why more confirmation?
And when again “confirmed,” who is to confirm the confirmer? After the
whole range of the phenomena had been before the world ten years, and
had convinced skeptics by tens of thousands—skeptics, be it remembered,
of common sense and more than common acuteness, Americans of all
classes—they were _confirmed_ by the first chemist in America, Professor
Robert Hare. Two years later they were again confirmed by the elaborate
and persevering inquiries of one of the first American lawyers, Judge
Edmonds. Then by another good chemist, Professor Mapes. In France the
truth of the simpler physical phenomena was _confirmed_ by Count A. de
Gasparin, in 1854; and since then French astronomers, mathematicians and
chemists of high rank have _confirmed_ them. Professor Thury of Geneva
again _confirmed_ them, in 1855. In our own country such men as
Professor de Morgan, Dr. Lockhart Robertson, T. Adolphus Trollope, Dr.
Robert Chambers, Serjeant Cox, Mr. C. F. Yarley, as well as the
skeptical Dialectical Committee, have independently _confirmed_ large
portions of them; and lastly comes Mr. William Crookes, F.R.S., with
four years of research and unrestricted experiment with the two oldest
and most remarkable mediums in the world, and again _confirms_ almost
the whole series! But even this is not all. Through an independent set
of most competent observers we have the crucial test of photography; a
witness which cannot be deceived, which has no preconceived opinions,
which cannot register “subjective” impressions; a thoroughly scientific
witness, who is admitted into our law courts, and whose testimony is
good as against any number of recollections of what did happen or
opinions as to what ought to and must have happened. And what have the
other side brought against this overwhelming array of consistent and
unimpeachable evidence? They have merely made absurd and inadequate
suppositions, but have not disproved or explained away one weighty fact!
My position, therefore, is, that the phenomena of Spiritualism in their
entirety do _not_ require further confirmation. They are proved quite as
well as any facts are proved in other sciences; and it is not denial or
quibbling that can disprove any of them, but only fresh facts and
accurate deductions from those facts. When the opponents of Spiritualism
can give a record of their researches approaching in duration and
completeness to those of its advocates; and when they can discover and
show in detail, either how the phenomena are produced or how the many
sane and able men here referred to have been deluded into a coincident
belief that they have witnessed them: and when they can prove the
correctness of their theory by producing a like belief in a body of
equally sane and able unbelievers—then, and not till then, will it be
necessary for Spiritualists to produce fresh confirmation of facts which
are, and always have been, sufficiently real and indisputable to satisfy
any honest and persevering inquirer.
This being the state of the case as regards evidence and proof, we are
fully justified in taking the _facts_ of Modern Spiritualism (and with
them the spiritual theory as the only tenable one) as being fully
established. It only remains to give a brief account of the more
important uses and teachings of Spiritualism.
HISTORICAL TEACHINGS OF SPIRITUALISM.
The lessons which Modern Spiritualism teaches may be classed under two
heads. In the first place, we find that it gives a rational account of
various phenomena in human history which physical science has been
unable to explain, and has therefore rejected or ignored; and, in the
second, we derive from it some definite information as to man’s nature
and destiny, and, founded on this, an ethical system of great practical
efficacy. The following are some of the more important phenomena of
history and of human nature which science cannot deal with, but which
Spiritualism explains:
1. It is no small thing that the Spiritualist finds himself able to
rehabilitate Socrates as a sane man, and his “demon” as an intelligent
spiritual being who accompanied him through life—in other words, a
guardian spirit. The non-Spiritualist is obliged to look upon one of the
greatest men in human history, not only as subject all his life to a
mental illusion, but as being so weak, foolish, or superstitious as
never to discover that it was an illusion. He is obliged to disbelieve
the fact asserted by contemporaries and by Socrates himself, that it
forewarned him truly of dangers; and to hold that this noble man, this
subtle reasoner, this religious skeptic, who was looked up to with
veneration and love by the great men who were his pupils, was imposed
upon by his own fancies, and never during a long life found out that
they were fancies, and that their supposed monitions were as often wrong
as right. It is a positive mental relief not to have to think thus of
Socrates.
2. Spiritualism allows us to believe that the oracles of antiquity were
not all impostures; that a whole people, perhaps the most intellectually
acute who ever existed, were not all dupes. In discussing the question,
“Why the Prophetess Pythia giveth no Answers now from the Oracle in
Verse,” Plutarch tells us that when kings and states consulted the
oracle on weighty matters that might do harm if made public, the replies
were couched in enigmatical language; but when private persons asked
about their own affairs they got direct answers in the plainest terms,
so that some people even complained of their simplicity and directness,
as being unworthy of a divine origin. And he adds this positive
testimony: “Her answers, though submitted to the severest scrutiny, have
never proved false or incorrect. On the contrary, the verification of
them has filled the temple with gifts from all parts of Greece and
foreign countries.” And again, “The answer of Pythoness proceeds to the
very truth, without any diversion, circuit, fraud, or ambiguity. It has
never yet, in a single instance, been convicted of falsehood.” Would
such statements be made by such a writer, if these oracles were all the
mere guesses of impostors? The fact that they declined and ultimately
failed, is wholly in their favor: for why should imposture cease as the
world became less enlightened and more superstitious? Neither does the
fact that the priests could sometimes be bribed to give out false
oracles prove anything, against such statements as that of Plutarch and
the belief during many generations, supported by ever-recurring
experiences, of the greatest men of antiquity. That belief could only
have been formed by demonstrative facts; and Modern Spiritualism enables
us to understand the nature of those facts.
3. Both the Old and New Testaments are full of Spiritualism, and
Spiritualists alone can read the record with an enlightened belief. The
hand that wrote upon the wall at Belshazzar’s feast, and the three men
unhurt in Nebuchadnezzar’s fiery furnace, are for them actual facts
which they need not explain away. St. Paul’s language about “spiritual
gifts,” and “trying the spirits,” is to them intelligible language, and
the “gift of tongues” a simple fact. When Christ cast out “devils” or
evil spirits, he really did so—not merely startle a madman into
momentary quiescence; and the water changed into wine, as well as the
bread and fishes continually renewed till five thousand men were fed,
are credible as extreme manifestations of a power which is still daily
at work among us.
4. The miracles of the saints, when well attested, come into the same
category. Those of St. Bernard, for instance, were often performed in
broad day before thousands of spectators, and were recorded by
eye-witnesses. He was himself greatly troubled by them, wondering why
this power was bestowed upon him, and fearing lest it should make him
less humble. This was not the frame of mind, nor was St. Bernard’s the
character, of a deluded enthusiast. The Spiritualist need not believe
that all this never happened; or that St. Francis d’Assisi and St.
Theresa were not raised into the air, as eye-witnesses declared they
were.
5. Witchcraft and witchcraft trials have a new interest for the
Spiritualist. He is able to detect hundreds of curious and minute
coincidences with phenomena he has himself witnessed; he is able to
separate the _facts_ from the absurd _inferences_ which people imbued
with the frightful superstition of diabolism drew from them, and from
which false inferences all the horrors of the witchcraft mania arose.
Spiritualism, and Spiritualism alone, gives a rational explanation of
witchcraft, and determines how much of it was objective fact, how much
subjective illusion.
6. Modern Roman Catholic miracles become intelligible facts. Spirits
whose affections and passions are strongly excited in favor of
Catholicism, produce those appearances of the Virgin and of saints which
they know will tend to increased religious fervor. The appearance itself
may be an objective reality; while it is only an inference that it is
the Virgin Mary—an inference which every intelligent Spiritualist would
repudiate as in the highest degree improbable.
7. Second-sight, and many of the so-called superstitions of savages, may
be realities. It is well known that mediumistic power is more frequent
and more energetic in mountainous countries; and as these are generally
inhabited by the less civilized races, the beliefs that are more
prevalent there may be due to facts which are more prevalent, and be
wrongly imputed to the coincident ignorance. It is known to
Spiritualists that the pure dry air of California led to more powerful
and more startling manifestations than in any other part of the United
States.
8. The recently-discussed question of the efficacy of prayer receives a
perfect solution by Spiritualism. Prayer may be often answered, though
not directly, by the Deity. Nor does the answer depend wholly on the
morality or the religion of the petitioner; but as men who are both
moral and religious, and are firm believers in a divine response to
prayer, will pray more frequently, more earnestly and more
disinterestedly, they will attract toward them a number of spiritual
beings who sympathize with them, and who, when the necessary mediumistic
power is present, will be able, as they are often willing, to answer the
prayer. A striking case is that of George Müller, of Bristol, who has
now for forty-four years depended wholly for his own support, and that
of his wonderful charities, on answer to prayer. His “Narrative of Some
of the Lord’s Dealings with George Müller” (6th Ed., 1860), should have
been referred to in the late discussion, since it furnishes a better
demonstration that prayer is sometimes really answered, than the
hospital experiment proposed by Sir Henry Thomson could possibly have
done. In this work we have a precise yearly statement of his receipts
and expenditures for many years. He never asked any one or allowed any
one to be asked, directly or indirectly, for a penny. No subscriptions
or collections were ever made; yet from 1830 (when he married without
any income whatever) he has lived, brought up a family, and established
institutions which have steadily increased, till now four thousand
orphan children are educated and in part supported. It has happened
hundreds of times that there has been no food in his house and no money
to buy any, or no food or milk or sugar for the children; yet he never
took a loaf or any other article on credit even for a day; and during
the thirty years over which his narrative extends, neither he nor the
hundreds of children dependent upon him for their daily food have ever
been without a regular meal! They have lived, literally, from hand to
mouth; and his one and only resource has been secret prayer. Here is a
case which has been going on in the midst of us for forty years, and is
still going on; it has been published to the world for many years, yet a
warm discussion is carried on by eminent men as to the fact of whether
prayer is or is not answered, and not one of them exhibits the least
knowledge of this most pertinent and illustrative phenomenon! The
Spiritualist explains all this as a personal influence. The perfect
simplicity, faith, boundless charity and goodness of George Müller, have
enlisted in his cause beings of a like nature; and his mediumistic
powers have enabled them to work for him by influencing others to send
him money, food, clothes, &c., all arriving, as we should say, just in
the nick of time. The numerous letters he received with these gifts,
describing the sudden and uncontrollable impulse the donors felt to send
him a certain definite sum at a certain fixed time—such being the exact
sum he was in want of and had prayed for—strikingly illustrates the
nature of the power at work. All this might be explained away, if it
were partial and discontinuous; but when it continued to supply the
daily wants of a life of unexampled charity, _for which no provision in
advance was ever made_ (for that Müller considered would show want of
trust in God), no such explanation can cover the facts.
9. Spiritualism enables us to comprehend and find a place for that long
series of disturbances and occult phenomena of various kinds, which
occurred previous to what are termed the Modern Spiritual
Manifestations. Robert Dale Owen’s works give a rather full account of
this class of phenomena, which are most accurately recorded and
philosophically treated by him. This is not the place to refer to them
in detail; but one of them may be mentioned as showing how large an
amount of unexplained mystery there was, even in our own country, before
the world heard anything of Modern Spiritualism. In 1841, Major Edward
Moor, F. R. S., published a little book called “Bealings Bells,” giving
an account of mysterious bell-ringing in his house at Great Bealings,
Suffolk, and which continued for fifty-three days. Every attempt to
discover the cause, by himself, friends, and bell-hangers, were
fruitless; and by no efforts, however violent, could the same clamorous
and rapid ringing be produced. He wrote an account to the newspapers,
requesting information bearing on the subject, when, in addition to
certain wise suggestions—of rats or a monkey as efficient causes—he
received fourteen communications, all relating cases of mysterious bell
ringing in different parts of England, many of them lasting much longer
than Major Moor’s, and all remaining equally unexplained. One lasted
eighteen months; another was in Greenwich Hospital, where neither
clerk-of-the-works, bell-hanger, nor men of science could discover the
cause. One clergyman wrote of disturbances of a most serious kind
continued in his parsonage for _nine years_, and he was able to trace
back their existence in the same house for _sixty years_. Another case
had lasted _twenty years_, and could be traced back for a _century_.
Some of the details of these cases are most instructive. Trick is
absolutely the most incredible of all explanations. Spiritualism
furnishes the explanation by means of analogous facts occurring every
day, and forming part of the great system of phenomena which
demonstrates the spiritual theory. Major Moor’s book is very rare; but a
good abstract of it is given in Owen’s “Debatable Land,” pp. 239–258.
MORAL TEACHINGS OF SPIRITUALISM.
We have now to explain the Theory of Human Nature, which is the outcome
of the phenomena taken in their entirety, and is also more or less
explicitly taught by the communications which purport to come from
spirits. It may be briefly outlined as follows:
1. Man is a duality, consisting of an organized spiritual form, evolved
coincidently with and permeating the physical body, and having
corresponding organs and developments.
2. Death is the separation of this duality, and effects no change in the
spirit, morally or intellectually.
3. Progressive evolution of the intellectual and moral nature is the
destiny of individuals; the knowledge, attainments and experience of
earth-life forming the basis of spirit-life.
4. Spirits can communicate through properly-endowed mediums. They are
attracted to those they love or sympathize with, and strive to warn,
protect, and influence them for good, by mental impression when they
cannot effect any more direct communication; but, as follows from clause
(2), their communications will be fallible, and must be judged and
tested just as we do those of our fellow-men.
The foregoing outline propositions will suggest a number of questions
and difficulties, for the answers to which readers are referred to the
works of R. D. Owen, Hudson Tuttle, Professor Hare, and the records of
Spiritualism _passim_. Here I must pass on to explain with some amount
of detail, how the theory leads to a pure system of morality with
sanctions far more powerful and effective than any which either
religious systems or philosophy have put forth.
This part of the subject cannot perhaps be better introduced than by
referring to some remarks by Professor Huxley in a letter to the
Committee of the Dialectical Society. He says, “But supposing the
phenomena to be genuine—they do not interest me. If anybody would endow
me with the faculty of listening to the chatter of old women and curates
at the nearest cathedral town, I should decline the privilege, having
better things to do. And if the folk in the spiritual world do not talk
more wisely and sensibly than their friends report them to do, I put
them in the same category.” This passage, written with the caustic
satire in which the kind hearted Professor occasionally indulges, can
hardly mean that if it were proved that men really continued to live
after the death of the body, that fact would not interest him, merely
because some of them talked twaddle? Many scientific men deny the
spiritual source of the manifestations, on the ground that real, genuine
spirits might reasonably be expected not to indulge in the commonplace
trivialities which do undoubtedly form the staple of ordinary spiritual
communications. But surely Professor Huxley, as a naturalist and
philosopher, would not admit this to be a reasonable expectation. Does
he not hold the doctrine that there can be no effect, mental or
physical, without an adequate cause? and that mental states, faculties,
and idiosyncrasies, that are the result of gradual development and
life-long—or even ancestral—habit, cannot be suddenly changed by any
known or imaginable cause? And if (as the Professor would probably
admit) a very large majority of those who daily depart this life are
persons addicted to twaddle, persons who spend much of their time in low
or trivial pursuits, persons whose pleasures are sensual rather than
intellectual—whence is to come the transforming power which is suddenly,
at the mere throwing off the physical body, to change these into beings
able to appreciate and delight in high and intellectual pursuits? The
thing would be a miracle, the greatest of miracles, and surely Professor
Huxley is the last man to contemplate innumerable miracles as part of
the order of nature; and all for what? Merely _to save these people from
the necessary consequences of their misspent lives_. For the essential
teaching of Spiritualism is, that we are, all of us, in every act and
thought, helping to build up a “mental fabric,” which will be and
constitute ourselves, more completely after the death of the body than
it does now. Just as this fabric is well or ill built, so will our
progress and happiness be aided or retarded. Just in proportion as we
have developed our higher intellectual and moral nature, or starved it
by disuse and by giving undue prominence to those faculties which secure
us mere physical or selfish enjoyment, shall we be well or ill fitted
for the new life we enter on. The noble teaching of Herbert Spencer,
that men are best educated by being left to suffer the natural
consequences of their actions, is the teaching of Spiritualism as
regards the transition to another phase of life. There will be no
imposed rewards or punishments; but every one will suffer the natural
and inevitable consequences of a well or ill-spent life. The well-spent
life is that in which those faculties which regard our personal physical
well-being are subordinated to those which regard our social and
intellectual well-being, and the well-being of others; and that inherent
feeling—which is so universal and so difficult to account for—that these
latter constitute our higher nature, seems also to point to the
conclusion that we are intended for a condition in which the former will
be almost wholly unnecessary, and will gradually become rudimentary
through disuse, while the latter will receive a corresponding
development.