communications is not one whit more interesting to sensible
Spiritualists than it is to Prof. Huxley, and is never voluntarily
listened to, yet the fact that such poor stuff is talked (supposing it
to come from spirits) is both a fact that might have been anticipated
and a lesson of deep import. We must remember, too, the character of the
séances at which these commonplace communications are received. A
miscellaneous assemblance of believers of various grades and tastes, but
mostly in search of an evening’s amusement, and of skeptics who look
upon all the others as either fools or knaves, is not likely to attract
to itself the more elevated and refined denizens of the higher spheres,
who may well be supposed to feel too much interest in their own new and
grand intellectual existence to waste their energies on either class. If
the fact is proved, that people continue to talk after they are dead
with just as little sense as when alive, but that, being in a state in
which sense, both common and uncommon, is of far greater importance to
happiness than it is here (where fools pass very comfortable lives),
they suffer the penalty of having neglected to cultivate their minds;
and being so much out of their element in a world where all pleasures
are mental, they endeavor to recall old times by gossiping with their
former associates whenever they can find the means—Prof. Huxley will not
fail to see its vast importance as an incentive to that higher education
which he is never weary of advocating. He would assuredly be interested
in anything having a really practical bearing on the present as well as
on the future condition of men; and it is evident that even these low
and despised phenomena of Spiritualism, “if true,” have this bearing,
and, combined with its higher teachings, constitute a great moral agency
which may yet regenerate the world. For the Spiritualist who, by daily
experience, gets absolute knowledge of these facts regarding the future
state—who knows that, just in proportion as he indulges in passion, or
selfishness, or the exclusive pursuit of wealth, and neglects to
cultivate the affections and the varied powers of his mind, so does he
inevitably prepare for himself misery in a world in which there are no
physical wants to be provided for, no sensual enjoyments except those
directly associated with the affections and sympathies, no occupations
but those having for their object social and intellectual progress—is
impelled toward a pure, a sympathetic, and an intellectual life by
motives far stronger than any which either religion or philosophy can
supply. He dreads to give way to passion or to falsehood, to selfishness
or to a life of luxurious physical enjoyment, because he knows that the
natural and inevitable consequences of such habits are future misery,
necessitating a long and arduous struggle in order to develop anew the
faculties, whose exercise long disuse has rendered painful to him. He
will be deterred from crime by the knowledge that its unforeseen
consequences may cause him ages of remorse; while the bad passions which
it encourages will be a perpetual torment to himself in a state of being
in which mental emotions cannot be laid aside or forgotten amid the
fierce struggles and sensual pleasures of a physical existence. It must
be remembered that these beliefs (unlike those of theology) will have a
living efficacy, because they depend on _facts_ occurring again and
again in the family circle, constantly reiterating the same truths as
the result of personal knowledge, and thus bringing home to the mind,
even of the most obtuse, the absolute reality of that future existence
in which our degree of happiness or misery will be directly dependent on
the “mental fabric” we construct by our daily thoughts and words and
actions here.
Contrast this system of natural and inevitable reward and retribution,
dependent wholly on the proportionate development of our higher mental
and moral nature, with the arbitrary system of rewards and punishments
dependent on stated acts and beliefs only, as set forth by all dogmatic
religions, and who can fail to see that the former is in harmony with
the whole order of Nature—the latter opposed to it. Yet it is actually
said that Spiritualism is altogether either imposture or delusion, and
all its teachings but the product of “expectant attention” and
“unconscious cerebration”! If none of the long series of demonstrative
facts which have been here sketched out, existed, and its only product
were this theory of a future state, that alone would negative such a
supposition. And when it is considered that mediums of all grades,
whether intelligent or ignorant, and having communications given through
them in various direct and indirect ways, are absolutely in accord as to
the main features of this theory, what becomes of the gross misstatement
that nothing is given through mediums but what they know and believe
themselves? The mediums have, almost all, been brought up in some of the
usual Orthodox beliefs. How is it, then, that the usual Orthodox notions
of heaven are _never_ confirmed through them?
In the scores of volumes and pamphlets of spiritual literature I have
read, I have found no statement of a spirit describing “winged angels,”
or “golden harps,” or the “throne of God”—to which the humblest orthodox
Christian thinks he will be introduced if he goes to heaven at all.
There is no more startling and radical opposition to be found between
the most diverse religious creeds, than that between the beliefs in
which the majority of mediums have been brought up and the doctrines as
to a future life that are delivered through them; there is nothing more
marvelous in the history of the human mind than the fact that, whether
in the back-woods of America or in country towns in England, ignorant
men and women having almost all been brought up in the usual sectarian
notions of heaven and hell, should, the moment they become seized by the
strange power of mediumship, give forth teachings on this subject which
are philosophical rather than religious, and which differ wholly from
what had been so deeply ingrained into their minds. And this statement
is not affected by the fact that communications purport to come from
Catholic or Protestant, Mahometan or Hindoo spirits. Because, while such
communications maintain special _dogmas_ and _doctrines_, yet they
confirm the _very facts_ which really constitute the spiritual theory,
and which in themselves contradict the theory of the sectarian spirits.
The Roman Catholic spirit, for instance, does not describe himself as
being in either the orthodox purgatory, heaven, or hell; the Evangelical
Dissenter who died in the firm conviction that he should certainly “go
to Jesus,” never describes himself as being with Christ, or as ever
having seen him, and so on throughout. Nothing is more common than for
religious people at séances to ask questions about God and Christ. In
reply they never get more than opinions, or more frequently the
statement that they, the spirits, have no more actual knowledge of those
subjects than they had while on earth. So that the facts are all
harmonious; and the very circumstance of there being sectarian spirits
bears witness in two ways to the truth of the spiritual theory—it shows
that the mind, with its ingrained beliefs, is not suddenly changed at
death; and it shows that the communications are not the reflection of
the mind of the medium, who is often of the same religion as the
communicating spirit, and, because he does not get his own ideas
confirmed, is obliged to call in the aid of “Satanic influence” to
account for the anomaly.
The doctrine of a future state and of the proper preparation for it as
here developed, is to be found in the works of all Spiritualists, in the
utterances of all trance-speakers, in the communications through all
mediums; and this could be proved, did space permit, by copious
quotations. But it varies in form and detail in each; and just as the
historian arrives at the opinions or beliefs of any age or nation, by
collating the individual opinions of its best and most popular writers,
so do Spiritualists collate the various statements on the subject. They
know well that absolute dependence is to be placed on no individual
communications. They know that these are received by a complex physical
and mental process, both communicator and recipient influencing the
result; and they accept the teachings as to the future state of man only
so far as they are repeatedly confirmed in substance (though they may
differ in detail) by communications obtained under the most varied
circumstances, through mediums of the most different characters and
acquirements, at different times and in distant places. Fresh converts
are apt to think that, once satisfied the communications come from their
deceased friends, they may implicitly trust to them, and apply them
universally; as if the vast spiritual world was all molded to one
pattern, instead of being, as it almost certainly is, a thousand times
more varied than human society on the earth is, or ever has been. The
fact that the communications do not agree as to the condition,
occupations, pleasures, and capacities of individual spirits, so far
from being a difficulty, as has been absurdly supposed, is what ought to
have been expected; while the agreement on the essential features of
what we have stated to be the spiritual theory of a future state of
existence, is all the more striking, and tends to establish that theory
as a fundamental truth.
The assertion so often made, that Spiritualism is the survival or
revival of old superstitions, is so utterly unfounded as to be hardly
worth notice. A science of human nature which is founded on observed
facts; which appeals only to facts and experiment; which takes no
beliefs on trust; which inculcates investigation and self-reliance as
the first duties of intelligent beings; which teaches that happiness in
a future life can be secured by cultivating and developing to the utmost
the higher faculties of our intellectual and moral nature, _and by no
other method_—is and must be the natural enemy of all superstition.
Spiritualism is an experimental science, and affords the only sure
foundation for a true philosophy and a pure religion. It abolishes the
terms “supernatural” and “miracle” by an extension of the sphere of law
and the realm of nature; and in doing so it takes up and explains
whatever is true in the superstitions and so-called miracles of all
ages. It, and it alone, is able to harmonize conflicting creeds; and it
must ultimately lead to concord among mankind in the matter of religion,
which has for so many ages been the source of unceasing discord and
incalculable evil; and it will be able to do this because it appeals to
evidence instead of faith, and substitutes facts for opinions; and is
thus able to demonstrate the source of much of the teaching that men
have so often held to be divine.
It will thus be seen that those who can form no higher conception of the
uses of Spiritualism, “even if true,” than to detect crime or to name in
advance the winner of the Derby, not only prove their own ignorance of
the whole subject, but exhibit in a marked degree that partial mental
paralysis, the result of a century of materialistic thought, which
renders so many men unable seriously to conceive the possibility of a
natural continuation of human life after the death of the body. It will
be seen also that Spiritualism is no mere “physiological” curiosity, no
mere indication of some hitherto unknown “law of nature”; but that it is
a science of vast extent, having the widest, the most important, and the
most practical issues, and as such should enlist the sympathies alike of
moralists, philosophers and politicians, and of all who have at heart
the improvement of society and the permanent elevation of human nature.
In concluding this necessarily imperfect though somewhat lengthy account
of a subject about which so little is probably known to most of the
readers of the Fortnightly Review, I would earnestly beg them not to
satisfy themselves with a minute criticism of single facts, the evidence
for which, in my brief survey, may be imperfect; but to weigh carefully
the mass of evidence I have adduced, considering its wide range and
various bearings. I would ask them to look rather at the results
produced by the evidence than at the evidence itself as imperfectly
stated by me; to consider the long roll of men of ability who,
commencing the inquiry as skeptics, left it as believers, and to give
these men credit for not having overlooked, during years of patient
inquiry, difficulties which at once occur to themselves. I would ask
them to ponder well on the fact, that no earnest inquirer has ever come
to a conclusion adverse to the reality of the phenomena; and that no
Spiritualist has ever yet given them up as false. I would ask them,
finally, to dwell upon the long series of facts in human history that
Spiritualism explains, and on the noble and satisfying theory of a
future life that it unfolds. If they will do this, I feel confident that
the result I have alone aimed at will be attained; which is, to remove
the prejudices and misconceptions with which the whole subject has been
surrounded, and to incite to unbiased and persevering examination of the
facts. For the cardinal maxim of Spiritualism is, that every one must
find out the truth for himself. It makes no claim to be received on
hearsay evidence; but, on the other hand, it demands that it be not
rejected without patient, honest and fearless inquiry.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Modern Spiritualism.
By EPES SARGENT.
PLANCHETTE: THE DESPAIR OF SCIENCE.
Being a Full Account of Modern Spiritualism.
PRICE, IN ILLUMINATED PAPER COVERS, $1; IN GREEN CLOTH, $1.25. POSTAGE,
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This volume should be properly called “A History of Modern
Spiritualism,” for it is a thorough and careful survey of the whole
subject of well-attested phenomena believed to be spiritual.
=Prof. WM. CROOKES, F. R. S.=, of London, the celebrated chemist, whose
scientific verifications of the spiritual phenomena are now creating
such a sensation, writes, under date of April 17, 1874,—
“_Planchette_ was the first book I read on Spiritualism, and it still
remains, in my opinion, the best work to place in the hands of the
uninitiated.”
=GEO. WM. CURTIS=, in HARPER’S WEEKLY, says of it,—
“It is a copious and popular but faithful summary of the phenomena and
theories. The ample knowledge and literary skill with which the subject
is treated make this volume an indispensable manual to all who are
attracted to this speculation, and it will be read with great interest
by the skeptic as well as by the believer.”
=The Rev. Dr. BELLOWS=, in the LIBERAL CHRISTIAN, says of it,—
“It sets forth many important considerations with regard to the
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of Spiritualism during the last twenty years give a more complete and
impartial view of the phenomena in question than has thus far been
presented to the public.”
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thinking reader; and yet the asserted facts are given with such an
apparent truthfulness and distinctness of detail, and the learned and
distinguished names connected with the scenes described are of such
weight, that it is impossible to deny the conviction impressed upon the
mind that either Spiritualism is one of the greatest delusions of the
age, or that it is indeed a new manifestation of supernatural power,
deserving the investigations of our theologians and teachers. The work,
from its extreme interest, will amply repay a careful perusal.”
=The Boston Journal= says,—
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TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
1. Silently corrected obvious typographical errors and variations in
spelling.
2. Retained archaic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings as printed.
3. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.