AN EVENING'S DIABLERIE.
Mr. Spurgeon a short time since oracularly placed it on record that,
having hitherto deemed Spiritualism humbug, he now believes it to be the
devil. This sudden conversion is, of course, final; and I proceed to
narrate a somewhat exceptional endorsement of the opinion which has
recently occurred within my own experience. There was a time, how long
ago it boots not to say, when _I_ considered Spiritualism humbug; and a
good deal came in my way which might have led me to the same conclusion
as Mr. Spurgeon, if I had been disposed--which I am not--to go with a
hop, skip, and jump.
The investigator who first presented the "diabolical" theory to my
notice was a French Roman Catholic priest, who had broken discipline so
far as to enter the married state, but retained all the doctrines of his
former faith intact. He had, in fact, anticipated to some extent the
position of Père Hyacinthe; for it was several years ago I first became
acquainted with him. Individually as well as nationally this gentleman,
too, was prone to jump at conclusions. He lost a dear friend, and
immediately proceeded to communicate with the departed by means of
table-turning and rapping. For a few days he was quite convinced of the
identity of the communicating spirit; but then, and all within the
compass of a single week, he pronounced the exorcism of the Catholic
Church on the intelligence, I suppose experimentally in the first
instance; found his challenge not satisfactorily answered, and
immediately jumped to the conclusion that it was the foul fiend himself.
I sat very frequently with this gentleman afterwards, prior to the
experience I am about to narrate; and certainly the intelligence always
gave itself out to be the spirit unmentionable to ears polite, whose
presence my friend had taken for granted.
I once went with this gentleman to the Marshalls, when they were at
their zenith. We arranged previously that he should not sit at the
table, but on one side, and give me a secret signal when he was silently
pronouncing the exorcism. He did so; and certainly all manifestations at
once ceased, though we had been in full converse with the invisibles a
moment before. Old Mrs. M. had to announce with much chagrin, "The
sperrits is gone!"
My other partner in diablerie was a barrister whom I must not mention by
name, but who possessed considerable power as a writing medium. The
presiding intelligence in his case was, however, of a low character, and
given to very bad language. He avowed himself to have been a bargee in
the earth-plane--should one say the water-plane?--and certainly swore
like one.
As for myself, I am destitute of all "medium-power," whatever that may
be, though enthusiastic spirituelle ladies tell me I am "mediumistic"--a
qualification which is still more occult to me. I own to being greatly
interested in spiritualistic inquiries, except as regards dark séances,
which have a tendency to send me to sleep; and I believe that my
presence does not "stop manifestations:" so that I suppose I am not a
hopeless sceptic.
On the occasion of which I am about to speak we met in my study, where I
am in the habit of rearing a few pet snakes. I had just got a fine new
specimen; and having no proper habitation for it, had turned my
waste-basket upside-down on a small chess table, and left him to
tabernacle under it for the night. This was the table we generally used
for séances; and my legal friend, who was writing, immediately began to
use most foul language, on the subject of the snake, exhorting me to
"put him anywhere, put him in the cupboard, old boy." Such was the
edifying style of communication we always got through this worthy limb
of the law, but it was so much worse than usual on the present occasion
as to fairly make us roar at its insane abuse. The gentleman himself, I
ought to add, is by no means prone to profane swearing. My priestly
friend was making a wide-awake hat reply by tilts; and still got his old
reply that his Satanic Majesty was personally present. I did not in the
least credit this assertion, any more than I accepted as proven the
identity of the bargee, though I hold the impersonation in either case
to be a strange psychological fact. That I did not do so is best
evidenced by the circumstance that I said, "This spirit asserts himself
to be his Satanic Majesty. Have you either of you any objection to
communicate with him supposing such to be the case?"
Neither one nor the other had the slightest. My Catholic friend, I knew,
always carried a bottle of holy water in his pocket, and at my entreaty
forbore for the moment to exorcise. The legal gentleman, though a
"writer" himself, was not at all convinced about the phenomena, as was
perhaps natural, seeing the exceedingly bad company to which it
professed to relegate him. As for me, my scepticism was to me robur et
æs triplex. I disposed of the snake, put out the gas; and down we three
sat, amid profound darkness, like three male witches in "Macbeth,"
having previously locked the door to prevent any one disturbing our
hocus-pocus.
Any one who has sat at an ordinary dark séance will recollect the number
of false starts the table makes, the exclamations, "Was that a rap?"
when the wood simply cracks, or, "Did you feel a cold air?" when
somebody breathes a little more heavily than usual. I have myself made
the experiment, though not without adding an open confession
immediately afterwards. I have blown on the fingers of the sitters, and
made them feel sure it was a "spirit aura," have done the neatest of
raps with my index-finger when my little finger has been securely hooked
in that of my next neighbour. In fact, for test purposes, dark séances
are a mistake, though they are admirable for a flirtation.
On this occasion, however, we were very much in earnest, and there was
no waiting--I hope no collusion. I am quite sure I did not myself
consciously produce any manifestation. I can answer for my legal friend,
as far as any one person can answer for another; and we neither of us
suspected--or suspect--the priest of the order of St. Benedict; only we
would rather he had not pronounced such decided opinions; because the
wish might have been father to the thought, or rather the thought might,
in some utterly unaccountable way, have produced the effects that
followed. I have an idea that if Mr. Spurgeon in his present frame of
mind were to sit at a table for manifestations, he would obtain the
clearest assurance that it was "all the devil," just as it is well known
Roman Catholic sitters get communications from Roman Catholic spirits,
theists from theistic, and Mormons from the denizens of some
spiritualistic Utah.
We had not, on this occasion, a moment to wait. The table forthwith
began to plunge and career about the room as though the bargee--or the
other personage himself--had actually been "in possession." It required
all our agility to follow it in its rapid motion about the room. At last
it became comparatively quiet; and I received in reply to a question as
to who was present the exceedingly objectionable name which Mr. Spurgeon
has coupled with the whole subject. Some persons I know entertain a
certain amount of respect, or at all events awe, for the intelligence in
question. For myself I feel nothing of the kind, and therefore I added,
"If you are what you profess to be, give us some proof." We were sitting
with only the tips of our fingers on the table; but it forthwith rose up
quite perpendicularly, and came down with a crash that completely
shivered it in pieces. I have not the slightest idea how it was
done--but it certainly was done. A large portion of the table was
reduced to a condition that fitted it for Messrs. Bryant and May's
manufactory. When we lighted the gas and looked at our watches we found
we had only been sitting a very few minutes.
Of course the obvious explanation will be that the gentleman with the
diabolical theory and the evidently strong will-power (as evidenced in
the dénouement at Mrs. Marshall's) produced the diabolical effects
consciously or unconsciously. I do not think the former was the case;
and if it is possible to get such results unconsciously, that phenomenon
is quite as curious as the spiritualistic explanation. In fact I am not
sure that the psychological is not more difficult than the
pneumatological theory. My own notion is that the "Psychic Force" people
are clearly on the right track, though their cause, as at present
elaborated, is not yet equal to cover all the effects.
Mr. Spurgeon and the "diabolists" concede the whole of the
spiritualistic position. They not only say that the effects are due to
spiritual causes, but they also identify the producing spirit. I have
never been able to get as far as that. I did not feel on the occasion in
question at all as though I had been in communication with his sable
Majesty. If I was, certainly my respect for that potentate is not
increased, for I should have fancied he would have done something much
"bigger" in reply to my challenge than smash up a small chess-table.
However, there was a sort of uncanny feeling about the experience, and
it seemed to me so far illustrative of Mr. Spurgeon's position as to be
worth committing to paper. If that gentleman, however, lends such a
doctrine the sanction of his approval, he will, let him be assured, do
more to confirm the claims of Spiritualism than all the sneers of
Professors Huxley and Tyndall, and the scorn of Mr. George Henry Lewes
can undo.