BRIGHT LITERATURE.--New publications have just been received which
express the bright mental activity of the present time. The first
number of _The New Christianity_, which has just appeared, bears the
editorial names of B. F. Barrett and S. H. Spencer, and is issued by
the Swedenborg Publishing Association, Philadelphia, published every
Thursday in sixteen large pages, at $2 per annum. At so moderate a
price it should have a large circulation. The name of Rev. B. F.
BARRETT is a sufficient guarantee of the literary excellence, profound
thought and liberal aims of this weekly. The Association, of which Mr.
Barrett is president, holds "the good of life to be paramount to the
truth of doctrine; charity superior to faith; doctrine (though it be
from the Lord out of heaven) to be of no value save as a _means_ to
this divine end--purity of heart and righteousness of life." Hence,
they have been more intent on diffusing their principles than building
up a religious establishment. The Association has condensed
Swedenborg's writings into ten small volumes, in about one-tenth of
the compass of the unabridged works, and has sold about 37,000
volumes, besides many thousands given away.
The Boston _Herald_ says of this publication that it "deserves a
cordial welcome as an attempt to express, through the religious press,
a wider interest in the things of this world than most of the New
Church papers have aimed at, ... a broader treatment of what concerns
our common Christianity than has been heretofore attempted in this
religious connection, and thus satisfy the New Church people, who
realize that they are still in the world, as well as the no-church
people, who prefer smaller doses from the abstract writings of
Swedenborg, and more of the thought of New Churchmen about what all
men are thinking of."
THE TWO WORLDS, published weekly, at 61 George Street, Chatham Hill,
Manchester, England, at 2d. a number, 2s., 2d. for thirteen weeks, or
8s., 8d. per annum in advance, is under the editorial control of _Mrs.
Emma Hardinge Britten_ and _E. M. Wallis_. The first number is dated
Nov. 18, 1887. The names of its editors are a sufficient guarantee of
its ability and its noble aims. They are admired and honored in
America as well as Europe, and have thousands of friends. The first
number fully sustains the expectations raised by their names. There is
a brightness, vigor, independence and eloquence in the editorials
which are refreshing. The salutatory says: "We do not propose to
inflict on readers searching for light from the higher world matter
_beneath_ instead of beyond the reader's previous status of thought
and education. The spiritual rostrum should be the sphere of
instruction alike to listener and reader,--not the school in which
unfledged and half-developed mediums seek to entertain their audiences
by practicing the A B C of the oratorical art."
They say, also, "That the scope of this journal may not be
misunderstood, we desire to state at once, and in advance of our
future issues, that we propose to traverse, as far as possible, the
wide and varied fields of human interests that might be vitalized and
exalted by that knowledge of the life hereafter, which spirits alone
can demonstrate. Instead of confining ourselves, therefore, to the
relation of phenomenal facts and speculative philosophy, we shall
endeavor to show how beneficially the spiritualistic revelations of
the nineteenth century might operate through such departments of earth
life as reform, science, theology, politics, occultism and the only
true and practical religion, viz.: goodness and truth in the life here
as a preparation for heaven and happiness in the life hereafter." As
to Occultism and Theosophy, they say: "Every article that will appear
in these columns will be written by _one who knows_, and who will deal
with those subjects from the standpoint of practical experience." The
article on this subject in the first number is extremely interesting
and instructive, in fact, the first clear and satisfactory statement
that has been published. Among other facts it mentions that "Lord
Lytton, the Earl of Stanhope, and Lieut. Morrison (better known as
Zadkiel), and the author of Art Magic, belonged to this society,"--a
secret Occult society in England, successor to the ancient societies
of Egypt, Greece and India.
There is no reason to doubt that the _Two Worlds_ will have a
brilliant career, and do much to elevate the tone and enhance the
reputation of spiritual science. The inspiration of Emma Hardinge
Britten is of a high order, and flows into a mind which has also a
strong grasp on external life. Either on the rostrum or through the
press she is a distinguished leader in the spiritual movement. Mr.
Wallis has also earned a high rank as an exponent of Spiritualism on
its highest ethical plane.
FOOTE'S HEALTH MONTHLY.--If any of my readers are not already
acquainted with _Foote's Health Monthly_, published at New York, at 50
cents a year, they will find it worthy of their attention. Dr. E. B.
Foote is one of the most conspicuous and worthy of America's medical
reformers. His "Plain Home Talk," when first issued on a smaller scale
as "Medical Common Sense," sold to the amount of 250,000 copies, now
under the title of "Plain Home Talk," containing 935 pages, with 200
illustrations, the publishing company say that they issue 2000 or more
copies every month. Its vast circulation is not surprising when we
consider that it is almost a cyclopedia of medical information for the
people at the amazingly low price of $1.50. Copies of this valuable
work may be obtained from the editor of the JOURNAL OF MAN, or from
Dr. E. B. Foote, 120 Lexington Avenue, New York. The people need
medical information, and Dr. Foote has for many years been the leader
in popular medical enlightenment.
PSYCHIC THEORIES.--An esteemed correspondent says, "I trust you will
soon have space and time in which to fully discuss theosophy, and its
bold assertion that Spiritualism is but the manifestation of dangerous
elementals or of the souls of those sent untimely from this life as
suicides and executed criminals, who until their selfish desires are
gratified, make use of 'astral shells' of the real spirits of our dead
friends, in order to wickedly deceive us, a discouraging view."
Theosophy or divine wisdom does not make such assertions. They are but
traditional dogmas which did not originate in scientific
investigation. Those who make such assertions may call themselves
theosophists, but they have no exclusive right to such a name, which
belongs to all seekers of divine wisdom. American theosophy as
represented by the JOURNAL OF MAN makes no such assertions, and relies
upon investigation, never receiving the speculative notions of darker
ages without evidence, whether they relate to Metempsychosis, or the
garden of Eden, the burning hell, the purgatory, or the various
pictures of the infernal and supernal regions which had been current
in the old world before such realms were ever investigated.
When my readers hear any such theories advanced, let them quietly ask
for the evidence, _what are the facts_ on which such opinions are
based, when were they discovered, who were the investigators, and what
was their method of investigation? If such questions cannot be
answered, the theories deserve little attention.
TWENTIETH CENTURY SCIENCE, DAWNING AT THE END OF THE NINETEENTH.--In
the 20th century, Psychometry will become the guide of the nations.
The world will understand itself. Every mile on the surface of the
globe will be familiarly known.
An important event anywhere will be immediately known everywhere. The
planets and their inhabitants will be known, and much more known that
need not be mentioned at present. The healing art will approximate
perfection. Criminals will be reformed. Their number will be
diminished. The juvenile nations of the earth will be more or less
under the care of the adolescent and peace will be maintained.
These are not psychometric forecasts, but rational inferences, from
our increasing rate of progress.
COMPARATIVE SPEED OF LIGHT AND ELECTRICITY.--The French physicist
Fizeau calculated the velocity of light at 185,157 miles a second;
Cornu, another Frenchman, calculated it at 185,420, and Michelson
obtained 186,380 as the result of his calculation. Wheatstone, the
English electrician, found that free electricity travelled 288,000
miles a second; Kirchoff concluded, from theoretical considerations,
that an electrical current sent through a wire in which it meets no
resistance has the velocity of 192,924 miles a second. The velocity of
an electric current sent through iron wire is 62,100 miles a second;
through copper wire, 111,780 miles. We think justice will be done by
deciding that electricity is the faster.--_N. Y. Sun_.
Yet practically speaking, electricity in wires is much slower. Prof.
Gould found that telegraph wires at a moderate height, transmit
signals at the rate of 12,000 miles a second; but if the wires are
suspended high enough, the velocity may be raised to 16,000 or even
24,000 feet a second. Subterranean wires and submarine cables transmit
slowly. Wheatstone's experiments were made fifty-four years ago, and
have not since been confirmed. I would say light is the faster, for
electric currents are always retarded by the medium.
WONDERFUL PHOTOGRAPHY.--Dr. H. G. Piffard exhibited in New York to a
society of amateur photographers a new method of taking instantaneous
photographs by means of a brilliant light made by sprinkling ten or
fifteen grains of magnesium powder on about six grains of gun-cotton.
When this is flashed in a dark apartment it gives light enough to take
a good photograph. It will do the same if flashed out of a pistol; so
that a citizen may have his revolver with a small camera on the barrel
and by flashing the gun-cotton out of his pistol he can make a
photograph of any burglar or robber in the dark before he fires a
bullet.
WOODEN CLOTH.--An Austrian has patented a process for boiling wood and
cleaving it into fibres that may be spun into threads which may be
woven.
THE PHYLLOXERA pest, which has wrought such havoc among vineyards
throughout Europe, has invaded California also. France has lost many
millions, and has offered a reward of 300,000 francs for the discovery
of a remedy. A Turkish farmer is said to have discovered accidentally
that the remedy is to plant Sorghum or sugar-cane between the vines,
which draws the phylloxera from the grapevines. It is said to have
been successfully adopted already in Turkey, Croatia, Dalmatia and
Eastern Italy.
FALLING RENTS, in England.--While landlords are battling for rents
foreign rivalry is destroying rent, and it is still going down. Large
estates have a difficulty in getting either tenants or purchasers. The
fall in prices and rents extends all over England. On a farm of 2,700
acres, in Lancashire, the tenant had been paying five dollars an acre,
but he refused to take it for 1887 at two dollars and a half. Lands in
1876 were commonly valued at $260 per acre; but they would not bring
over $150 to-day. The Court Journal says:
The depreciation in the value of English land is witnessed by one or
two statements published last week. We are, in the first place, told
that within a radius of twelve miles around Louth, in Lincolnshire,
there are now 22,400 acres of land without tenants. In the same shire
the largest farm in England has been thrown on the owner's hands. It
is 2,700 acres in extent and the tenant paid L1 per acre. This year a
reduction of 50 per cent was made to him, but finding that although an
experienced and energetic farmer, that even at this reduction he could
not make two ends meet, he has thrown up his farm.
BOSTON CIVILIZATION.--During the four years ending Sept. 30, 1884,
there were 971 liquor sellers condemned for violating the law, who
appealed to the superior court. Of the entire number, only 19 were
fined, and 729 were allowed to escape by dropping the prosecution. But
the law against preaching on the Boston Common is enforced with
faithful severity, and Rev. W. F. Davis has been sentenced to a year's
imprisonment for preaching without a permit. Evidently rum-selling is
more popular than Protestant preaching, and pugilism is more popular
than either, as the mayor and some councilmen participated in putting
a $10,000 belt on John L. Sullivan, the slugger, before the largest
audience the Boston Theatre would hold, on the 9th of August, 1887.
But perhaps other cities are no better. Cincinnati has one
liquor-selling shop to every twenty voters. The cities will not
tolerate prohibition, but it is successful elsewhere.
PSYCHIC BLUNDERING.--The Psychical Research Society held a meeting a
few weeks since in Boston. Their first communication was on Thought
Transferrence, by Dr. H. B. Bowditch.
"It was stated that a large number of experiments had been made, but
the results were of a negative value. The attempt to establish the
reality of thought transferrence had not been very successful." What
else but negative results are to be expected from negative
people,--people who have been in this matter mere negations for
forty-five years, during which discoveries have been in progress all
around them, which they have refused to look at, and refused to test
by experiment. Still, if the march of mind for half a century can
finally rouse the sluggard class, it is well. For "while the lamp
holds out to burn," etc. It was a Dr. Bowditch who, in 1843, certified
as secretary of a committee to the facts which demonstrate the science
of Anthropology, and then relapsed into an agnostic slumber and forgot
all about it.
BEECHER'S MEDIUMSHIP.--It has been generally believed in spiritual
circles that Henry Ward Beecher had the inspiration which belongs to
mediumship. This quality appears to have been inherited from his
mother. On one occasion she was suddenly impelled to leave her
apartment and rush out to an old carriage house, where she arrived in
time to save the life of her youngest child, which had fallen through
a carriage top and was caught in such a way that if she had not
arrived then he would have been strangled.
A SCIENTIFIC CATARACT.--The blindness of the old school medical
profession to modern progress is due to what may be called a cataract
formed by medical bigotry. It will require half a century to remove
this cataract. We are reminded of its existence by a paragraph in the
Boston Herald speaking of the cancer in the throat of the crown prince
of Germany, which the faculty expect to prove fatal, which it calls "a
physical disorder for which medical science has yet to discover a
remedy; it is not at all likely that this fortunate discovery will
occur soon enough to be of service to the heir-apparent." This flat
denial of the curability of cancer is in the same columns in which an
enlightened correspondent gave ample proof of cures with names and
dates. Such denials are published in a city where a diligent inquiry
would reveal about three hundred cases of successful cure of cancer
well attested. But alas! these cures were not made under the authority
or by the disciplined followers of the old school American Medical
Association and therefore they cannot be recognized or heard of. There
is a dignity which cannot see or feel anything it does not wish to see
or feel; which reminds us of a story of two ladies. Said Madam F., a
Swiss lady, to Madam R., a French woman, "I was surprised to see you
walking with Col. M. yesterday. Do you not know that he was publicly
horsewhipped by Capt. D. of the Infantry?" "I do not mind such remarks
at all (said Madam R.,) for I know that Col. M. is a man of honor and
too dignified a gentleman to notice anything going on behind his
back."
Speaking of cancer, the press and the political world are greatly
concerned at the probable fate of the crown prince of Germany,
attacked with cancer in the larynx, and with little or no hope of
surviving. They announce as the result of the great scientific
investigation prompted by this fact, a "_great discovery concerning
cancer_." Is it a discovery of a cure--oh no, they think they have
discovered the _cancer bacillus_. That is science, but as for
destroying the cancer bacillus they leave that to the physicians whom
they call quacks for curing what the professors cannot cure.
OBSTREPEROUS AND PRAGMATIC VULGARITY.--The house of Knoedler & Co.,
leading art dealers in New York, has been arrested by Comstock for
selling photographs of celebrated paintings from the art galleries of
Paris. It is a foul mind which sees obscenity in that which cultivated
people admire, and the Hoboken Evening News says very appropriately,
"Of all the cranky Pharisees allowed to run at large, Anthony Comstock
is the chief. He is a most unmitigated nuisance and requires most
emphatic and summary suppression."
The N. Y. _Home Journal_, in a well considered editorial, says:
"The need of a revision of the law regarding immoral
publications in literature and art becomes every day more
manifest. There is required especially a precise definition of
what the statute is designed to prohibit. At present there is no
uniform criterion. It is just what the local Dogberry and the
scratch jury happen to find. Books that have had an established
place in literature for generations and are found in all the
great libraries of the world; pictures that represent the
highest skill attained in the leading schools of Europe;
reproductions of works that adorn the national and royal
galleries cherished as monuments of genius to reflect the glory
of the time,--these are quite likely to be brought up and
solemnly condemned by our tribunals as unfit for the
contemplation of our superior American virtue. But the real
injustice of the proceeding follows in the infliction of fines
or imprisonment on the unsuspecting vendors of the works, who
naturally imagine that merchandise current in all the other
markets of the civilized world would be current also here. The
most respectable houses, known throughout the length and breadth
of the country for their honorable dealings, are exposed to
legal prosecution any moment that an officious fanatic or
jealous rival pleases to bring a charge that certain works in
their store have an immoral tendency."
Judge Brady, of the Supreme Court, says, "If I had been a legislator I
would never have voted for this law.... It is evident that mere nudity
in painting and sculpture is not obscenity. It is a false delicacy and
mere prudery which would condemn and banish from sight all such
objects." Public opinion should be directed against the vice society
which employs and pays such a tool as Comstock. The prosecution which
he instigated against Mrs. Elmina Slenker, of Virginia, resulted in
her acquittal.
The _N. Y. Evening Post_ says, "If there is to be a prosecution in
this Knoedler case, and these prints should send some one to jail, we
for our part think Anthony Comstock should be the man."
HYGIENE.--Sir Spencer Wells, in an address to the Medico-Chirurgical
Society of Nottingham, England, referred to sanitary improvements
which had reduced the annual death rate from twenty-nine in a thousand
to nineteen, and said that it ought to be reduced to fifteen or
twelve. He then said, "And if we have--as we really have--seen the
average duration of human life in Great Britain advance from thirty
years (which it was half a century ago) to forty-nine years (which it
is now, according to life tables), why may we not witness a still
further advance? Why should seventy or eighty years remain as the
usual limit of human life? Why should its natural duration under
perfectly healthy surrounding conditions not be at least 100 years,
with an occasional extension of some ten or fifteen years more?"
"When people are made to understand that at least nine-tenths of the
deaths in England are premature, the representatives of the most
parsimonious rate payers will be compelled by the criticism of the
public to remember that they also represent the more sacred interests
of human life and happiness, and that resistance to sanitary
improvements is punished by preventable disease and premature death.
High local mortality is largely due to want of local information. For
the tens or hundreds who are killed by murder or manslaughter, or by
accident, or in battles on land or sea, thousands and millions are
victims of preventable disease. When this is fully understood, no
imperial Government, no local authority, will dare to incur the
responsibility of such a national disgrace."
Dr. Wells then forcibly illustrated the dangerous and pestilential
results of our system of burying the dead, planting the germs of
diseases in the ground to come forth again, and corrupting the water
supply. London alone uses 2,200 acres of land for cemeteries, and
England and Wales have 11,000 cemeteries, costing for the land over
$600 per acre, all dangerous to health, while about $25,000,000 are
annually expended on funerals. For all this cremation was the remedy.
A distinguished English physician, addressing the International
Hygiene Society at Vienna, said that the gain to England in the last
fifty years from improvement in health was equal to $1,500,000,000.
QUININE.--This famous drug, which was once as high as $5 an ounce, has
become very cheap by preserving the trees which were formerly
destroyed in gathering "Peruvian Bark." The drug may now be purchased
in quantities at half a dollar an ounce. The trees now yield a crop of
bark every year. The fashionable sulphate of quinine, which is most
extensively used, I consider the most objectionable form of the drug.
My favorite form is the dextro-quinine, made by Keasby & Matteson,
Philadelphia. But quinine is not at all a necessity. It could be
satisfactorily replaced by Declat's syrup of Phenic Acid, a French
preparation, which is free from the objectionable qualities of
quinine. But even that is not _necessary_, for we have in the willow,
the dogwood, and the apple tree, three American barks, which might
well replace Peruvian bark by their fluid extracts and alkaloids. To
these we may add Gnaphalium (or Life Everlasting), an admirable remedy
in fever, and other medicines and combinations of value. Our slavish
dependence on Peruvian bark has been due to our ignorance.
LIFE AND DEATH.--Perilous is the fisherman's life. In the past year,
ending October, 1887, Gloucester, Mass., has lost 17 vessels and 127
lives of fishermen, leaving 60 widows and 61 fatherless children.
The Mayville family of Wakefield, Mass., begin small. Mrs. Mayville
weighed but two pounds when born. Her son of 17 years, weighing 160
pounds, weighed but 24 ounces when born, and she has lately had a male
baby, weighing only eight ounces. It was born Nov. 13, and appeared
dead, but was revived. It was ten inches long and measured eight
inches round the head and was perfectly formed. It died in two weeks,
from irritation of the bowels.
Mrs. Charlotte Tubbs of Caroline County, Md., recently gave birth to
four babies, all of whom are alive. This addition to her family makes
her the mother of nine children, all of whom were born within five
years. Among the older children are two pairs of twins.--_Cin. Enq._
Mrs. Wm. Wright, of New Castle, Ind., recently gave birth to four
children, making in all a family of fourteen children, including five
pairs of twins. Who was it said that he'd rather be Wright than be
President? We wouldn't.--_Norristown Herald_.
DOROTHEA L. DIX.--This noted philanthropist, whose labors in
establishing asylums for the insane in America and Europe were never
equalled, died last summer in New Jersey. An interesting tribute to
her memory was delivered in Boston by the Rev. JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE,
and I regret that the limited space of the Journal forbids its full
republication. I can only quote this. "Being asked how she achieved
such noble results in her work, she answered that she went to those
whose duty it was to aid in any particular work, and was always sure
that though at first they might refuse to do what they were asked,
they would gradually become interested and _end by doing whatever was
needed_." May her example in this be followed by all friends of
progress.
THE DRIFT OF CATHOLICISM.--The purpose of the Catholic party to break
up our unsectarian school system has been realized in Stearns Co.,
Minnesota, where their church property exceeds a million of dollars.
The Catholic catechism is taught daily in nearly three-fourths of the
public schools. Many of the schools are conducted in the German
language, and some of the schools taught by the Benedictine sisters.
JUGGERNAUT.--It is a singular fact that at the late procession of the
idol Juggernaut in India, instead of the thousand devotees who used to
drag at the ropes to haul his chariot from the temple to the river,
hired coolies had to be substituted, and the victims who willingly
threw themselves under the ponderous wheels to be crushed to death,
were entirely wanting.--_Commonwealth_.