Chapter I: Part 1

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and transfigured by the wider horizon of Spiritualism, as the Ptolemaic system of the universe was doomed to be superseded by the Copernican.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.

The last medium to whose career I shall call attention is Mrs. Guppy (formerly Miss Nichol), and in this case I can give some personal testimony. I knew Miss Nichol before she had ever heard of Spiritualism, table-rapping, or anything of the kind, and we first discovered her powers on asking her to sit for experiment in my house. This was in November, 1866, and for some months we had constant sittings, and I was able to watch and test the progress of her development. I first satisfied myself of the rising of a small table completely off the floor, when three or four persons (including Miss N.) placed their hands on it. I tested this by secretly attaching threads or thin strips of paper underneath the claws, so that they must be broken if any one attempted to raise the table with their feet, the only available means of doing so. The table still rose a full foot off the floor in broad daylight. In order to show this to friends with less trouble, I made a cylinder of hoops and brown paper, in which I placed the table so as to keep feet and dresses away from it while it rose, which it did as freely as before. Perhaps more marvelous was the placing of Miss N. herself on the table; for although this always happened in the dark, yet, under the conditions to be named, deception was impossible. I will relate one sitting of which I have notes. We sat in a friend’s house, round a centre table, under a glass chandelier. A friend of mine, but a perfect stranger to all the rest, sat next Miss Nichol and held both her hands. Another person had matches ready to strike a light when required. What occurred was as follows: First, Miss Nichol’s chair was drawn away from under her, and she was obliged to stand up, my friend still holding both her hands. In a minute or two more I heard a slight sound, such as might be produced by a person placing a wine-glass on the table, and at the same time a very slight rustling of clothes and tinkling of the glass pendants of the chandelier. Immediately my friend said, “She is gone from me.” A light was at once struck, and we found Miss N. quietly seated in her chair on the centre of the table, her head just touching the chandelier. My friend declared that Miss N. seemed to glide noiselessly out of his hands. She was very stout and heavy, and to get her chair on the table, to get upon it herself, in the dark, noiselessly, and almost instantaneously, with five or six persons close around her, appeared, and still appears to me, knowing her intimately, to be physically impossible.

Another very curious and beautiful phenomenon was the production of delicate musical sounds, without any object calculated to produce them being in the room. On one occasion a German lady, who was a perfect stranger to Miss Nichol, and had never been at a séance before, was present. She sang several German songs, and most delicate music, like a fairy musical-box, accompanied her throughout. She sang four or five different songs of her own choice, and all were so accompanied. This was in the dark, but hands were joined all the time.

The most remarkable feature of this lady’s mediumship is the production of flowers and fruits in closed rooms. The first time this occurred was at my own house at a very early stage of her development. All present were my own friends. Miss Nichol had come early to tea, it being mid-winter, and she had been with us in a very warm gas-lighted room four hours before the flowers appeared. The essential fact is, that upon a bare table in a small room closed and dark (the adjoining room and passage being well lighted), a quantity of flowers appeared, which were not there when we put out the gas a few minutes before. They consisted of anemones, tulips, chrysanthemums, Chinese primroses, and several ferns. All were absolutely fresh, as if just gathered from a conservatory. They were covered with a fine, cold dew. Not a petal was crumpled or broken, not the most delicate point or pinnule of the ferns was out of place. I dried and preserved the whole, and have, attached to them, the attestation of all present that they had no share, as far as they knew, in bringing the flowers into the room. I believed at the time, and still believe, that it was absolutely impossible for Miss N. to have concealed them so long, to have kept them so perfect, and, above all, to produce them covered throughout with a most beautiful coating of dew, just like that which collects on the outside of a tumbler when filled with very cold water on a hot day.