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THE VISION, 
 
 in i8oi, 
 
 OK 
 
 JOSEPH HOAG 
 
 a recorded minister in the Society of Friends 
 
 REPRINTED, FROM A TEXT OF 1854, WITH 
 COLLATIONS AND COMMENTARY 
 
 BY 
 
 ALBERT J. EDJVEUNDS 
 
 Behold, days are coming, saith the Lord, when I will send a famine against the land — 
 not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water ; but a famine of hearing the word of the Lord. 
 And they shall fluctuate as water from sea to sea, and run to and fro ; from Xorth to East 
 seeking the word of the Lord, and shall not find it. {Amos VIII, 11, 12, in the Septuagint of 
 Charles Thomson, Secretary of the Continental Congress : Hebrew, Tekoa, about B. C. 763 ; Greek, 
 Alexandria, about B. C. 200 ; English, Philadelphia, 1808.) 
 
 PHILADELPHIA : 
 
 Innes and Sons, 129-135 North Twelfth Street 
 
 191S 
 

 A>3laioSl« 
 
 THIS VISION, WHICH HAS BEEN IN PRINT SINCE 1854 AND PERHAPS 
 
 EARLIER, IS NOT COPYRIGHT. 
 
 Commentary Only 
 COPYRIGHT 1915 
 
 BY 
 
 ALBERT J. EDMUNDS* 
 
 ♦Author of Buddhist and Christian Gospels Compared from the Originals (Tokyo, 1905; Philadelphia, 1908- 
 1909, with Postscripts, 1912 and 1914; Palermo, 1913.) This book has been criticized and quoted by scholars in 
 Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, Holland, India, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzer- 
 land and other nations. Professor Richard Garbe, University of Tuebingen, has made important use thereof in 
 his great work on the part played by India in the formation of the Christian religion. See The Monist. Chicago, 
 1911-1915, especially October, 1914. Buddhist and Christian Gospels is edited by Professor Anesaki, of Tokyo and 
 Harvard Universities. The Holy Scriptures of all religions are quoted therein in heavy type like the passage from 
 Amos on this title-page. 
 
JOSEPH HOAG'S VISION: 1803 
 
 Differences in the Au- 
 burn Text : 1861. 
 
 THE NEGRO TEXT: 1854 
 
 (1) 
 
 Insert : 
 
 probably 
 
 (2) fields 
 
 
 (3) 
 
 Insert : 
 
 that 
 
 (4) 
 
 the brightness of its 
 
 shining 
 
 
 (S) 
 
 Insert 
 
 : it seemed 
 
 as if 
 
 
 
 (6) 
 
 Insert : 
 
 laid 
 
 (7) 
 
 that 
 
 
 (8) 
 
 Insert : 
 
 the 
 
 (9) 
 
 now follows have 
 
 In the year 1803, (1) in the eighth or ninth month, I was one day alone in the 
 field, (2) and observed (3) the sun shone clear, but (3) a mist eclipsed its (4) bright- 
 ness. As I reflected upon the singularity of the event, my mind was struck into 
 a silence the most solemn I ever remember to have witnessed; for (5) all my fac- 
 ulties were (6) low, and unusually brought into deep silence. I said to myself, what 
 can all this mean? I do not recollect ever before to have been sensible of such feel- 
 ings. And I heard a voice from Heaven say: "This which (7) thou seest which 
 dims the brightness of the sun is a sign of (8) present and coming times. I took the 
 forefathers of this country from a land of oppression. I planted them here among 
 the people of the forest. I sustained them, and while they were humble, I blessed 
 them and fed them, and they became a numerous people; but now (9) they have be- 
 come proud and lifted up, and have forgotten me who nourished them and protected 
 
 (10) Insert : /. [This them in the wilderness and are running into every abomination and evil practice of 
 important doct^hie hang" wMch the oM couutries are guilty, and (10) have taken quietude from the land, and 
 ingupononeietter.forthe guffcrcd a dividing Spirit to comc amoug them. Lift up thine eyes and behold." And 
 Mun^makestheDeityThe ' ^^^ them dividing lu great heat. This division began in the Church on (11) points 
 author of evil. Neither of doctriue. It commcuced in the Presbyterian Society, and went through the vari- 
 the Glasgow nor the In- ^^^ rcUgious denominations, and in its progress and close its effects were (12) the 
 
 diana text supports this 7 r o 
 
 reading.] Same. Thosc that (13) dissented went off with high heads and taunting language; 
 
 (11) upon and those who kept to their original (14) sentiments appeared exercised and sorrow- 
 
 (13) who ^^ "'"'^"^'^^^ ful; and when the (15) dividing spirit entered the Society of Friends, it raged in as 
 
 (14) organized high a degree as in any I had before discovered. (16) As before, those who kept to 
 (16) itsert and as be- ^'^^^ aucieut principles retired by themselves. 
 
 fore, those who separated It (17) appeared iu (8) Lodgcs of (8) Freemasous. (18) It broke out in ap- 
 went with lofty looks and pearauce like a volcano, inasmuch as it set the country in an uproar for a length of 
 guage. 'nose who, etc. time. Then it entered politics in (19) the United States, and did not stop until it 
 [itissignificantthatsome produccd a civil War, and (20) abundance of human blood was shed in (8) course of 
 lUnldtZ.tt^^LTeZ'^s the combat. The Southern States lost their power and slavery was annihilated from 
 not in the autograph.] their bordcrs. Thcu a monarchical power arose — ^took the government of the States 
 
 C17) Insert : next 
 (18) Insert : and 
 
 — established a national religion, and made all the people (21) tributary to support 
 
 (19) throughout its cxpeuscs. I saw them take property from Friends to a large amount. I was 
 
 (20) Insert : a« amazcd at bchoMing all tWs, and I heard E voice proclaim: "This power shall not 
 the) ^"^ '" °™' °^ always stand, but with it (22) I shall (23) chastise my Church until they return to 
 
 (22) this Power the f aithfulucss of their forefathers. Thou seest what is coming on thy native land 
 
 fu)7heir iniquity ^^^ i^^ iniquities (24) and the blood of Africa, the remembrance of which has come 
 (25) Insert : down up bcf orc mc. This visioH is yet for many days." 
 
 (27) in2rt JOSEPH ' ^^^ ^^ ^^®^ ®^ Writing it (25) for many years, until it became such a burthen 
 HOAG. (26) that for my own relief I have written it. (27). — Copied^ by request^ from Frederick 
 
 (28) Omit: Copied by Douglass's Paper {28). 
 
 request, etc. 
 
COMMENTARY. 
 
 The two earliest American printed texts are : 
 
 1. The one in Frederick Douglass's Paper, Rochester, N. Y., copied by Friends' 
 Intelligencer, Philadelphia, Twelfth Month 2, 1854, and reprinted, at my suggestion, 
 by the same magazine, Seventh Month 31, 1915. This I call THE NEGRO TEXT. 
 
 2. The one in the official edition of Hoag's (29) Journal, Auburn, 1861. 
 
 The heavy type above signifies agreement between these two. The Auburn text 
 is inserted at the end of the Journal with this note: "As the subjects alluded to in 
 the following vision are of general interest, and much expression having been given in 
 favor of its being appended to this journal, it is concluded to do so: — " (Text follows.) 
 The official minute of New York Yearly Meeting authorizing the publication of the 
 Journal is dated from Poplar Ridge, Cayuga County, N. Y., Fifth Month 29, 1861. The 
 Journal contains no title for the Vision, which it prints out of sequence with that apolo- 
 getic note; but the London reprint (A. W. Bennett, 1862) adds to the title-page the 
 words : 
 
 The Negro text, as reprinted in Friends' Intelligencer, 1854, has for title : Vision 
 of Joseph Hoag, deceased, who was an eminent Minister of the Society of Friends. It 
 ends with the significant ascription of source reprinted above, thus disclaiming respon- 
 sibility for publication, on the part of the Liberal Quakers who, since 1844, have con- 
 ducted Friends' Intelligencer. Similarly, the Vision was never printed in The Friend, 
 of Philadelphia (known as "The Square Friend," in honor of its shape and its ortho- 
 doxy) until 1885. Moreover, for forty years (1827-1867) there is no mention of Hoag 
 in the indices to The Friend, except a brief obituary, which omits all mention of 'the 
 Vision. The next edition of the Journal ought to print this under the year 1803.- 
 
 Joseph Hoag is by no means lonesome as a Quaker prophet whose honor is problem- 
 atic. Students of religion love the Society of Friends as a dream of "the lost City of 
 God" (Rendel Harris's epithet for the Apostolic Church) ; but truth is forever obscured 
 by officialism, which is the organ of the average man (30). Well has an American 
 prophet declared: 
 
 God is in the individual and the Devil is in the institutions. 
 
 George Fox's Journal is acknowledged to be a religious classic alike by Thomas 
 Carlyle and a bishop of Durham Cathedral. From 1694 to 1911 that Journal was offi- 
 cially garbled by the Quaker Society, and Fox was not allowed to appear as a rain- 
 maker, a psychic healer and a seer of two spirits of executed criminals, who assured 
 him that they were happy. My note on Fox as a rain-maker may be read in London 
 Notes and Queries for June 15, 1912. The passage about the happy ghosts is dated 
 1650, and may be found at Vol. I, p. 14, of the Editio Princeps of the genuine Journal 
 
 (29) The name is two syllables. In the International Alphabet it would be written Houcsg in classical 
 English. 
 
 (30) Bishop White, in his unpublisht work on Quakerism, exprest surprise at the hierarchical power of 
 the Elders. (See Quaker Literature in the Libraries of Philadelphia in The Westonian, Eleventh Month, 1907.) 
 John Hoag Dillingham once said to me that an Elder was an unspiritual person who was set to keep spiritual ones 
 in order. 
 
(31), printed in 1911 at the University of Cambridge, by whose students, in 1655, the 
 mystic had been mobbed. 
 
 Another garbled classic is the Journal of Thomas Shillitoe (London, 1839, 2 vols., 
 8vo) . This worthy, who died at Tottenham in 1836, had a literary misfortune in the 
 United States, for his Journal was at once reprinted in Philadelphia by William and 
 Thomas Evans. Under date of January 10, 1828, they omit John Woolman's prediction 
 that Mount Holly meeting would dwindle for drawing the color line. They suppress 
 the remarkable address to professing Christians in 1831, wherein Shillitoe protests 
 against their accumulating fortunes, "trying to make a heaven here below." They 
 suppress his statement in Exeter Hall, May, 1833, that for thirty years he had been 
 a vegetarian, and also his mild Zoroastrian and Swedenborgian belief that the Devil in- 
 vented rum. (32) 
 
 The Auburn text of Hoag's Vision was dictated to his granddaughter, Narcissa 
 Battey, some time before his death, in November, 1846, and apparently in 1845. This 
 was because the original autograph had been lost. A Quaker attestation at the His- 
 torical Society of Pennsylvania (given in full in my unpublisht University lectures) 
 carries back the knowledge of the Vision to the decade of the Twenties. Independently 
 of the Auburn text a copy appeared at Glasgow on June 1, 1861 {The British Friend, 
 Sixth Month 1, 1861). The principal differences in this text are: 
 
 1. (After Note 7). Omit: which dims the brightness of the sun. 
 
 2. (After Note 9). Omit: and lifted up. 
 
 3. (Just before Note 11). Omit: in the Church. 
 
 4. (Note 16). Read: as in any I had noticed or before discovered, and, as be- 
 fore, those who separated went off with lofty looks and taunting, censuring language. 
 Those who kept, etc. , 
 
 5. (Between Notes 20 and 21). Read: sprang up, instead of: arose. 
 
 6. (After Note 21). Omit: to a large amount. 
 
 7. (After Note 24). Quotation-marks end at: before me, with new paragraph 
 following. 
 
 An Indiana text by David Marshall (Carthage, 1889) omits the phrases: 
 
 It broke out in appearance like a volcano, 
 and: 
 took the government of the States. 
 
 Apart from minor differences of wording, the important thing about this Indiana 
 text is an extra slip of paper added after the tract was on the market. This slip quotes 
 "some very old copies" as reading : 
 
 Then a monarchial (sic) power arose in this government and establisht, etc. 
 
 Lindley Murray Hoag, a son of the seer, and William H. Dean, a friend of both, 
 have maintained that the whole passage about a monarchical government and its 
 establisht religion was not in the autograph. ( The Friend and Friends' Intelligencer, 
 both of Philadelphia, for 1892.) Joseph Hoag had many visions, and it appears that, 
 during the twenty years that elapst between the vision of 1803 and the autograph, 
 another vision had been experienced and then added to the great one. 
 
 Moreover, the last paragraph, about the committal to writing, is lacking in the 
 Indiana text. These differences may point to a manuscript transmission, in the Cen- 
 tral States, from the original autograph, before the dictation to Narcissa Battey, about 
 184-5. My sister, Lucy Edmunds, on behalf of the Society for Psychical Research, went 
 
 (31) This is not quite accurate, for the opening of the Journal is lacking in the manuscript. Consequently 
 we shall never know exactly what Fox wrote about his early life. 
 
 (32) It is true that Zoroaster attaches a sanctity to haoma, and Swedenborg to wine; but both these proph- 
 ets postulate an evil power in nature (Vendidad I; Divine Love and Wisdom, 338-342. Fermentation-bacteria would 
 come under the noxions animalcules of No. 342. 
 
to Nantucket in 1892 and obtained the attestation of Narcissa Battey Coffin about this 
 dictation from her grandfather. My sister's notes and some of my own were given to 
 John Hoag Dillingham, who meant to use them in a monograph on his kinsman. The 
 busy life of that well-known Quaker saint prevented this. After he became editor of 
 The Friend, I urged him to bring forth the matter in his paper. To this he agreed, 
 but died in 1910 before his promise was fulfilled. (Et servi ejus servient illi, et vide- 
 bunt faciem ejus : et nomen ejus in frontibus eorum.) 
 
 For fuller information, see the article by Thomas C. Battey in The Friend, Phila- 
 delphia, Eleventh Month 12, 1892. 
 
 The fact that Hoag did not write out the Vision "for many years," as he tells us 
 himself, or "until he was an old man," as his son has told us {The Friend, Ninth 
 Month 24, 1892) is very provoking. For it allows the Sadducee to say that the com- 
 mittal to writing was after the following items were fulfilled : 
 
 1. Cumberland Presbyterian schism, 1810. 
 
 2. Quaker schism, 1827-1829. 
 
 3. Anti-Masonic agitation following the disappearance of Morgan in 1826. 
 
 The manuscript attestation at the Historical Society, dated 1878, says that re- 
 spectable Quakers voucht for the existence of the Vision for "forty to fifty-five years" 
 before that date. Let us put beside this the statement of Lindley Murray Hoag afore- 
 said. Now, an elderly son would hardly regard his father as "an old man" till after 
 sixty. It is, therefore, probable that the committal to writing took place in the decade 
 of the Twenties. The seer was born at NinePartners, Dutchess County, N. Y., in 1762, 
 and was sixty in 1822. It is quite possible that the Quaker schism of 1827 was the 
 immediate incitement to write. 
 
 After my Fellowship lectures in the University of Pennsylvania, May, 1914, 
 wherein I quoted the Vision, a challenge from sceptical scholars inquired : "Can you 
 produce a copy older than the Civil War?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 "Very well, theji ; we hold that the Vision was written after the war." 
 
 By the sudden recovery of the Negro text of 1854 all this is changed. The fact 
 remains, however, that science can only build upon the later items : 
 
 4. Civil War, 1861-1865. 
 
 5. Defeat of the South, 1865. 
 
 6. Abolition of slavery, 1865. 
 
 7. Monarchical government. 
 
 8. Establisht religion. 
 
 9. Overthrow of 7 and 8. 
 
 When these last three items are fulfilled, Hoag's Vision will rank second to none 
 in the history of seership, and may yet be page one of some American Sibylline 
 Leaves. 
 
 One of the best-dated visions in the Old Testament is that of the farmer Amos, two 
 years before the earthquake (33), in the reign of the Judean Uzziah, a period of 
 fifty-two years (34), in the eighth century before Christ. With the farmer of Tekoa 
 we may confidently parallel the farmer of Charlotte, Vermont. (35) 
 
 It is not too much to affirm that if Old Testament scholars could accept the tra- 
 ditional facts about this American Amos, modern prophetic criticism would be revo- 
 
 (33) Amos 1:1. 
 (84) II Chron. 26:3. 
 
 (35) I regret that in History Simplified (Philadelphia, 1914, p. 6) I have made a mistake about Hoag's resi- 
 dence in 1803. 
 
lutionized (36). The theory that all prophecies are after the event would have to be 
 abandoned. In religion, as in geology, we should become uniformitarians (allow- 
 ing, of course, that some past cataclysms exceeded any present ones). Materialists 
 would be compelled to admit a visionary power in man, capable of seeing dramatically 
 into the future. No political guesswork by a backwoodsman (as he calls himself in 
 his Journal) in a sect that was hostile to newspapers (37), could have hit upon all 
 these things in 1803. Yes, 1803, for the Quaker tradition maintains that the Vision 
 was well known to Hoag's family and friends "before any part of it was fulfilled." (38) 
 
 The untrained sceptic imagines that he can pooh-pooh cases like Hoag's by what 
 he calls "coincidence:" millions of guesses contain one good one. But the scientific 
 thinker knows that before he can fall back upon coincidence he has to eliminate all 
 cases that do not conform to the prophetic type. Arranging those that do, he per- 
 ceives that the coincidence is like that between fiash and peal : there is a causal nexus 
 between them. He objects to the kind of physicist who would note down all sounds 
 that might resemble thunder, and then, when they failed to be accompanied by 
 lightning, use them to discredit the genuine phenomenon ! 
 
 William James, in his Varieties of Religious Experience, quotes the modern vis- 
 ion of Richard Maurice Bucke. (39) This was accompanied by a strong subjective 
 light, so strong as to become objective, occupy space, and make it appear that London 
 was in flames. Bucke himself, in his Cosmic Consciousness (Philadelphia, 1901) dem- 
 onstrates that his experience falls into line with that of the seers of all ages. The 
 book is rough-hewn; French and Pali words are misprinted; but scholars of the cali- 
 ber (40) of James will always take account of it. It is unfortunate that the author 
 was unacquainted with the literature of the Society of Friends. Here he would have 
 found the same phenomena which he has gathered from Hebrew, Hindu and Catholic. 
 Joseph Hoag's Vision fulfills all the requirements laid down by Dr. Bucke. The seer 
 was in his prime, forty-one ; leading a healthy outdoor life ; profound ecstasy was ac- 
 companied by a subjective light so intense that it appeared to occupy space and dimmed 
 the brightness of the sun; a Voice accompanied the light, and finally, the matter com- 
 municated had a high moral bearing, totally different from the ravings of a lunatic. 
 
 Hoag, in a prediction, delivered in 1837, of a further Quaker schism, due to the in- 
 crease of snobbery and wealth, declared : "I have seen it in that light that never de- 
 ceived me!" (41) 
 
 (36) It is imperatively necessary to interpret ancient religious phenomena by present ones. In my forth- 
 coming edition of the Gospel of Mark, Hoag's Vision will be reprinted as a modern oracle illustrative of Chapter 
 XIII, and Bucke's as illustrative of I, 10, 11. 
 
 (37) George Fox's Journal, under date of 1688; Thomas Shillitoe, in 1832, objected to Sunday newspapers 
 and news-rooms. (Philadelphia reprint of [a large part of] his Journal, in the series called The Friends' Library, 
 edited by William and Thomas Evans, Philadelphia, 1839, p. 482.) 
 
 (38) Official or semi-official note by the Society of Friends to the undated reprint which is sold at their 
 bookstore. This leaflet is poorly printed. Probably the first edition of the Vision in type that was worthy thereof 
 was the one appended to the alleged Vision of the World-War, by Leo Tolstoy (Philadelphia, 1914). We must 
 note that the expression in the Quaker leaflet, "many years before any part of it was fulfilled," is incorrect; for the 
 Cumberland Presbyterian schism was in 1810, seven years after the Vision ; and seven is not "many." 
 
 (39) This vision has been dramatized in A Duet with Omar (Philadelphia, 1913.) Sir Oliver Lodge askt 
 for two more copies of this poem, which the "literary" reviews of the United States will not even mention. 
 
 (40) English friends will please note that this spelling is a relic of the American Revolution. Our great 
 lexicographer, Noah Webster (1758-1843) took advantage of the temporary alienation of American thought from 
 English obscurantism to make these reforms. See the chapter on Reformed SpelUng in the Prolegomena to Bud- 
 dhist and Christian Gospels. (This essay is in the Philadelphian edition only. It is not to be found in those of 
 Tokyo and Palermo.) 
 
 (41) The Friend, Philadelphia, Tenth Month 31, 1885. These words are not in the Journal. They are also 
 ascribed to James Dickinson in the seventeenth century. {Annual Monitor for 1816.) They certainly refer to 
 Bucke's "Brahmic Splendor." The Buddhist Scriptures also have a technical name for this light. See note in A 
 Duet with Omar, p. 29. 
 
Another point to be noticed is the fact that Hoag uses the past tense just as the 
 Old Testament prophets do. In 1803 he can say that the Southern States lost their 
 power : the event had already happened in the ideal world. 
 
 A point yet to be settled by psychical science is : How far ahead did the Hebrew 
 prophets see? It is certain that they did not see into our own times, for they could 
 not have mist so portentous a phenomenon as airships dropping frightful explosives on 
 a city bigger than Babylon. It is premature to discuss the subject now, but we may 
 hazard the guess that science will finally admit that they did discern the giant figure 
 of Jesus Christ. 
 
 FINAL NOTE. 
 
 I have failed to find a copy of Frederick Douglass's Paper. The only complete file 
 was burnt with his house at Rochester. I also apologize for the spice of advertise- 
 ment herein. It is a military necessity, especially now that the world-war has stopt the 
 wheels of international literature. 
 
 My hope is that the present research will stimulate the thinkers of the Society of 
 Friends to hunt out old copies of the Vision and then have the whole matter investi- 
 gated by some wealthy scholar who will command their respect. 
 
 Historical Society of Pennsylvania, August, 1915. 
 
„_^_ Cornell University Library 
 arY510 
 
 The vision in 1803 of Joseph Hoag 
 
 ,. 3 1924 032 173 878 
 olin.anx 
 
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