WHAT IS 7 / / A f l f )■ WHO ARE SPIRITUALISTS?, r ifSL Ml HI dBtf ,- /./:,., . .,:■ y, , :■■/ ,:..;; :1 ■:: : l ■: I ' Class _l Book Copyright If COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. WHAT IS SPIRITUALISM? Who Arc These Spiritualists? AND WHAT CAN SPIRITUALISM DO FOR THE WORLD? By J. M. PEEBLES, M. D„ M. A.. PH. D. FIFTH EDITION Revised and Enlarged Author of "The Seers of the Ages," "Immortality, and Our Future Homes and Employments," "The Christ Question Settled," "Five Journeys Around the World," "Demonism of the Ages," "Death De- feated or the Psychic Secret of How to Keep Young," "Spiritualism versus Materialism," "The Path- way of the Spirit," "Spirit Mates," etc., etc. PEEBLES PUBLISHING CO., BATTLE CREEK, MICHIGAN, U. S. A. ■y **> Entered According to Act of Gongress in the Year iqio by J. M. PEEBLES, M.D. In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, Washington, D, (3, All Rights Reserved ©GI.A2755g INDEX Abbott, 94 Acevedo, 181 Aksakof, 150 Alexander, Prof. ; 146 Alexander II. 104 Anthony, 29 Apostles, 27 Apuleius, 17 Arnold, 152 Ashburner, 147 Austin, 156 Babbitt, 148 Bacon, 169 Baissao, 179 Ballou, 59 Baraduc, 178, 197 Barker, 78 Barkas, 159 Barrett, H. D., 143 Barrett, J. O., 157 Barrett, W. F., 116 Bede, 22 Beecher, H. W., 75 Beecher, T. K., 75 Beighle, 165 Belfiore, 149 Bellashini, 174 Benito, 110 Berigny, 149 Berosus, 16 Blake, 149 Blavatsky, 172 Bonnamere, 175 Bonnamy, 177 Bosc, 176 Bostook, 30 Bottazzi, 145 Bucher, 178 Boutlerow, 104 Bouvery, 177 Braokett, 200 Bright, A., 163 Bright, J., 101 Britten, 52 Britten, 165 Broferio, 146 Bronte, 161 Brougham, 150 Brown, J. P., 140 Brown, H. J., 161 Browne, 169 Browning, 153 Brunton, 141 Buchanan, 113 Bodalles, 180 Bull, 154 Bush, 165 Cadwallader, 167 Caillie, 162 Caithness, 165 Cahagnet, 147 Calcan, 160 CampbeU, Rev. J., 133 Campbell, Rev. R.J. ,167 Capuana, 149 Capellaro, 178 Carey, 182 Carpenter, 160 Cassal, 146 Castelar, 119 Cellini, 30 Celsus, 25 Challis, 129 Channing, 158 Chalmers, 188 Chambers, 68 Chiaia, 109 Chopin, 186 Cicero, 21 Clark, A., 43 Clark, J. G., 76 Clark, T. M., 91 Coleman, B. W., 165 Coleman, W. E., 143 Colley, 157 Colville, 168 Constantine, 150 Cooper, 109 Coppee, 154 Corson, 189 Costa, 95 Coste, 177 Cordurie, 178 Coues, 145 Cox, Sgt., 130 Cox, E. W., 165 Crawford, 144 Cromwell, 30 Crookes, 123 Crouzet, 178 Crowe, 147 Crowell, 149 Czar, 214 D'Aiglun, 175 D'Alesi, 175 Dailey, 106 Dariex, 220 Davenport, 223 Da vies, 158 Davis, 49 Dean, 169 Delanne, 177 Denis, 178 Denovan, 165 Denton, 145 Descartes, 30 Dickens, 63 Drayson, 151 Dionys, 176 Dow, 191 Dueasse, 177 Dumas, 155 Dupony, 178 Eadon, 168 Edison, 193 Edland* 146 Edmonds, 50 Edward VII, 185 II Index. Eito, 180 Elliotson, 144 Emerson, 182 Eollenhoff, 153 Epimenides, 17 Ermacio, 14G Ermacora, 179 Esdaile, 149 Esenbach, 117 Evans, 47 Faget, 178 Falcomer, 111, 147 Fallows, 174 Fancher, 107 Farjeon, 174 Farnum, 143 Fauvety, 153 Favre, 127 Fay, 223 Fechner, 113 Felix, 24 Ferguson, 97 Fichte, 128 Figuier, 154 Fishbough, 60] Fixeii, 159 Flammanon, 129 Flascheon, 178 Fletcher, 98 Flourney, 130 Flower, 143 Fogozzi, 154 Fox, G., 33 Fox Sisters, 49 Francis, 142 Garrison, 64 George, 78 Gerosa, 149 Ghose, 173 Gibier, 147 Gladstone, 113 Godin, 178 Goethe, 29 Grange, 178 Greeley, 54 Greenbury, 168 Gregory, 119 Grimard, 162 Grood, 160 Gros, 178 Guaranga, 173 Guldenstubble, 150 Gully, 148 Hall, 163 Hall, 118 Hallock, 150 Hamilton, 174 Hare, 52 Harter, 141 Hausman, 165 Hawies, 88 Hay, 140 Hellenbach, 151 Hepworth, 138 Hermes. 16 Hesiod, 18 Hickson, 149 Higginson, 169 Hitchman, 148 Hoffman, 119 Hodgson, 147 Hobson, 38 Holmes, 182 Home, 101 Homer, 17 Hopps, 118 Hosmer, 65 Houdin, 174 Houssaye, 176 Howden, 104 Howitt, G., 149 Howitt, Wm, 69 Howitt, M., 73 Hugo, 131 Humboldt, 188 Hume, 18 Hyde, 41 Hyslop, 199 Ignatius, 28 Irving, 161 Isham, 153 Jacobs, 174 James, 164 Jefferson, 149 Jenken. 165 Johnson, B., 30 Johnson, Dr., 29 Johnson, O., 120 Jones, 143 Kant, 76 Kendall, H., 168 Kendall, W. C, 168 Kerner, 149 Kerr, 158 Kiddle, 187 Kirkup, 93 Lacordaire, 179 Ladame, 178 Landsdorff, 165 Landseer, 160 Larkin, 168 Lauer, 140 Lee, 46 Lewmarie, 178 Lincoln, 60 Lindsay, 104 Lippitt, 164 Lodge, 143 Loef, 160 Longfellow, 115 Lombroso, 108 Lopez, 180 Lowell, 185 Louis XVI, 47 Loyola, 29 Lucan, 21 Lyn'd hurst, 153 Lytton, 153 Macarthy, 213 Maclaren, 159 Macintosh, 33 Marconi, 195 Mapes, 147 Magnai, 220 Marghieri, 112 Marryatt, 155 Marsh, 113 Martin, 180 Mason, 100 Massey, 96 Masucci, 179 Mayo, 144 Metzger, 176 Milton, 64 Momerie, 219 Montannus, 29 Montant, 178 Monvoisin, 178 Moody, 97 Moreland, 96 Morgan, Prof., 128 Morgan, Mrs., 147 Morse, 142 Morselli, 146 Moses, 162 Motherwell, 149 Moulton, 165 Index. in Mowatt, 160 Mueller, 149 Myers, 160 Napoleon, 152 Napoleon, Emp., 105 Newman, 136 Newton, H., 157 Newton, W., 160 Nicholas, 153 Nicholls, 150 Noeggarath, 164 Noel, 152 Nus, 152 Ochorowicz, 101 Olcott, 172 Oliphant, 151 Origen, 25 Owen, 155 Owen, 169 Oxley, 160 Parker, 55 Parkyn, 158 Parson, 165 Perty, 146 Pictet, 110 Pierpont, 120 Pix, 175 Plato, 19 Plutarch, 18 Pope 29 Porphyry, 20 Powers, 119 Posts, 50 Prel, 150, 195 Prudhomme, 139 Putnam, 161 Puvis, 178 Pythagoras, 20 Radnor, 153 Ramasami, 174 Randolph, 161 Raoul, 161 Ravlin, 158 Rayleigh, 119 Reed, 190 Reichel, 212 Reichendach 118 Reichet, 178 Rhys, 174 Richardson; 149 Richmond, 159 Robertson, Dr., 130 Robertson, Jas., 168 Roca, 179 Rochas, 220 Rogers, 142 Rohner, 149 Ruskin 78 Sabbatier, 146 Sanborn, 158 Santangelo, 178 Sardou, 89 Sargent, 120 Savage, 157 Schaff, 138 Scheibner, 119 Secchi, 181 Seiling, 111 Seling, 146 Sexton, 148 Shakespeare, 45 Sharpe, 165 Shelley, 48 Sherer, 44 Smith, 164 Speer, 149 Socrates, 18 Solanot, 180 Soriano, 180 Southey, 42 Stanford, L„ 203 Stanford, T. W. 206 Stead, 161, 195 Stock, 152 Stoddart, 149 Stowe, 74 Strabo, 16 Sullivan, 120 Swedenborg, 43 Talmage, 119 Tasso, 30 Tatian, 29 Taylor, 164 Tennyson, 183 Tertulian, 26 Terry, 163 Thackeray, 118 Thales, 17 Thiers. 129 Thomas, 130 Thompson, 119 Tiffany, 96 Tissot, 100 Tolstoy, 105 Tommolo, 181 Tornebom, 146 Torto, 220 Tours, 178 Trollope, 154 Tuttle, E. R. 143 Tuttle, H., 151 Underwood, 155 Vacquerie, 174 Valles, 178 Varley, 127 Vives, 181 Wade, 116 Wagner, 119 Wallace, 121 Wallace, Mrs., 164 Wallis, 142 Walters, 174 Ware, 168 Watson, 158 Weaver, 140 Weber, 116 Weil, 165 Wesley, 36 Whateley, 188 Whipple, 162 Whiting, 94 Whittier, 113 Wicksteed, 165 Wilberforce, 155 Wilcox, 86 Wilder, 143 Wilkinson, 147 Willard, 166 Williams, R, H., 161 Williams, V., 168 Willis, 149 Wilson, 164 Windeyer, 164 Woodman, 161 Wright, D., 142 Wright, H. C, 96 Wyld, 152 Zeno, 17 Zollner, 116 PREFACE TO THE FIFTH EDITION The unexpected success attending the demand for this original booklet, "Who Are These Spiritualists V — growing in size through each edition into the present bound volume, has far exceeded my most sanguine expec- tations; calling from my heart's depths, grateful appre- ciation towards personal inquirers and all of our pa- trons so promptly securing copies. The rapidly increasing demand for Spiritualistic lit- erature of a rational and religious character, is a marked and significant sign, showing the progress* and the search-light purposes of the times. Naturally shrinking from the chill and silence of death, nothing of greater importance can possibly occupy the human mind than the present proofs — the incontest- able proofs of a conscious life beyond the grave. With this book goes forth from my soul thousands of good wishes and richest of heaven's blessings. J. M. P. INTRODUCTION Considering the inspirational gems and poetical pearls, as well as the more sober, serious lines of prose pulsing freshly in the warm heart of Robert Burns, no one, critic or inspired seer, can fail to do homage at his shrine. His hopes and doubts alternated like sunbeams and shadows. His clouded life history touching a future world, is the history of millions today. He was not an atheist nor a materialist, but a genial, fraternal, warm- souled agnostic, who, when writing to a lady friend, said :— i ' Can it be possible that when I resign this frail, fever- ish being, I shall still find myself in conscious existence? When the last gasp of agony has announced that I am no more to those who knew me, when the cold, stiffened ghastly corpse is consigned into the earth to be the prey of unsightly reptiles, and in time become a trodden clod, shall I be yet warm in life, seeing and being seen, enjoy- ing and enjoyed? A thousand timies have I made this apostrophe to the departed sons of men, but not one of them has thought fit to answer. Oh, that some courteous ghost would blab it out. But it cannot be. You and I, my friend, must make the experiment, by ourselves and for ourselves. In vain I seek, in vain I call; the ghosts are all silent.' ' Again he writes thus of immortality: — " Would to God I as firmly believed it as I ardently wish it. There I should meet an aged parent. There I IV Introduction should recognize, with speechless rapture, my lost, my ever-dear Mary!" There are multitudes of good, earnest inquiring per- sons today, standing where Eobert Burns stood when writing his inspirational poems, standing under a cloud at the portal doorway of doubts and fears regarding a future life; and nothing but Spiritualism can lift that cloud and show us the dwellers in that radiant summer- land of life and progress and blessedness. Over the portal of the Temple of Sais, said Iamibli- chus, "was inscribed these words, — 'I am all that has heen^and shall be; and my peplum, or veil, no mortal hath yet withdrawn.' " "Man dieth, wasteth away, giv- eth up the ghost, and where is he*?" was an Old Testa- ment writer's inquiry. The thought of immortality was ever before the minds of the ancients, and measurably unanswered. They saw through a glass darkly; but, thanks to God and the good angels, Spiritualism has lifted and drawn aside that veil, demonstrating a future, conscious existence, and thereby intimately acquainting us with the conditions and occupations of those whose bodies are wasting away beneath the grasses and the weeping willows of the valley. "Have any of the scribes and the Pharisees believed on Him," the Nazarene? was the common question in the city of Jerusalem, in Galilee, and the regions beyond Jor- dan in the early days of that inspired man-martyr of Palestine. Human nature, whether Turanian, Semitic, or Ary- anic, is the same in all ages. The masses seek fame, pelf, power. The ever-recurring question of this mate- Introduction V rialistic generation is not — is this demonstrated fact of a future life true?— is this newly conceived truth that in- visible intelligences exist and communicate with us really true? — but, is it respectable, is it popular, have the churches — have the Pharisees of fashion accepted it? Do the rich and aristocratic patronize it? Such is largely the poor, piteous obliquity of today's mental and religious condition. To meet the needs of such inglorious specimens of humanity — such babes in the scale of a royally-unfolded manhood, — has this collection of noted names been gath- ered from press articles, books, and magazine essays — and booked; and in the collection I have been greatly aided by that distinguished writer, author, and book-re- viewer, W. H. Terry and the late Chevalier James Smith, of Melbourne, Australia. Some of those, whose names are herein recorded, illumined the pages of long- ago history,— such as Socrates, Lucan, Origen, etc. Certain others mentioned, though investigating the spir- itual phenomena and the psychic forces in man for years, have not openly avowed their adhesion to Spiritualism, but with hyper-cautiousness, they announce themselves as "investigators." The great majority, however, have been adherents to the Harmonial Philosophy and angel ministries or are today acknowledged and avowed Spir- itualists, and I may add, very many of them I have per- sonally met in my extensive travels in foreign lands. Some few mistakes there may be. These, if pointed out, will be promptly corrected in future editions. J. M. PEEBLES, M. D. Battle Creek, Michigan. WHAT IS SPIRITUALISM? Spiritualism is the philosophy of life — and the direct opposite of materialism. If the illustrious Tyndall saw the "potency and promise" of all life in matter, Spirit- ualists, with all rationalistic idealists, see the potency and promise of all life and evolutionary unfoldment in Spirit, which Spirit permeates and energizes the matter of all the subordinate kingdoms, mineral, vegetable and animal. Thinking — meditating, Columbus concluded that if there was a "this side," there must necessarily be a "that side" to the world. And so sailing on and still onward toward the western sunset under the inspiration of a lofty faith, he discovered the new world, — and, like a flash, faith became fruition. And so students of the occult: Spiritualists of the last century, meditating, investigating, discovered, or rather, re-discovered the spirit world — the Spiritualism of the elder ages. Intuition and the soul's higher senses, with the outreaching ideal, are ever prophesying of the incoming real. The today's, afire with life and love, assure us of a coming tomorrow. This world indicates another — a future world, which Spiritualists have not only rediscovered, but have quite fully described. Spiritualism does not create truth, but is a living wit- ness to the truth of a future existence. It reveals it — demonstrates it, describing its inhabitants — their occu- pations and characteristics. Who Are These Spiritualists? 7 Hannibal crossed the Alps twenty centuries before Napoleon did. Napoleon reasoned that what man had done, man could do, so with flags and banners unfurled he led the conquering French over the snow-capped Alps. And through all the centuries before and since Hanni- bal 's time, through all the historic ages there were rifts in the clouds — there were visions and voices from the better land of immortality. Inspired mystics and phi- losophers testified alike to the reality of apparitions, the appearance of good angels and the fulfilment of dreams. An angel — a spiritual being — appeared to Joseph in a dream announcing the coming of Jesus. Patriarchs, prophets, and seers in Abraham's and Isaiah's time conversed with spirits and angels accord- ing to the Scriptures. Apostles, disciples, and the early Christians before and after John and Paul's time, con- sciously communed with the spirits of those they had known on earth — and why should not we! Neither God nor his laws have changed. The reputed wise man, Solomon, said: 1 ' The thing that had been, is that which shall be, and that which is done is that which shall be done, . . . and whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever." (Eccl. 3:14.) Is God dead? Are angel lips padlocked? There were visions, trances, apparitions, spiritual gifts, and conscious spirit communications all through the past ages — why not now? Have the heavens over us become brass? and have angel tongues become palsied? These things did happen in the past — and they occur today. And few, if any, except the most illiterate— except the atheist, the impudent bigot and the iron-clad, creed-bound 8 What Is Spiritualism? sectarists deny it. Spiritualism is the most unpopular among the ignorant. It is also very unpopular in sec- tarian club rooms, idiotic infirmaries, and State peniten- tiaries. When that highly inspired man of Nazareth preached his radical doctrines in Palestine, and performed his astonishing mediumistic works, crowds following him, some of the doubting cautious conservatives of those times asked the question: "Have any of the rulers of the Pharisees believed on him?" That is to say, have any of the reputed great and wise believed on him? If so, we, the driftwood — we, the putty-headed policy men- will fall in line. Human nature is the same in all ages, and cowards are ever the same shrinking, apologizing, oily-tongued moral cowards. SPIRITUALISM IS NOT SPIRITISM Spiritualism must be differentiated from spiritism. The terminologies of the two words absolutely necessi- tate, as every scholar knows, entirely different meanings. Chinese, Indians, and Utah Mormons are spiritists, be- lieving in present spirit communications. Most of the African tribes of the Dark Continent worship demons and believe in spirit converse, but certainly they are not in- telligent, religious Spiritualists. Spiritism is a psychological science — a fact — a sort of modernized Babylonian necromancy. The baser portion of its devotees, hypnotized by the unembodied denizens of Hades, divine for dollars. It is promiscuous spirit commerce with a high tariff. It is from the lower Who Are These Spiritualists? 9 spheres, and morally gravitates toward the dark. It has its legerdemain, its tricksters, frauds, and traveling tramps. They should be exposed and shunned as you would shun dens of adders. Spiritism, I repeat, is a fact ; so is geology, so is mesmerism, so is telepathy, and so, also, is a rattlesnake 's bite. Facts may be morally true or false. They may serve for purposes of good or direst ill. As an exhibition of wonders — as pabulum for skep- tical atheists, who demand visible sight of the invisible infinite One, and insist upon a terrific clap of thunder to convince them of the existence of electricity, commercial spiritism with its seeking for gold-fields, and hunting for " social affinities," with its attending, shadowy hosts, manifesting in ill-ventilated seance rooms, may be a tem- porary necessity and to a degree useful, but it legiti- mately belongs, with such kindred subjects as mesmer- ism, to the category of the sciences. But Spiritualism, originating in God who is Spirit, and grounded in man's moral nature, is a substantial fact, and infinitely more — a fact plus reason and con- science; a fact relating to moral and religious culture — a sublime spiritual truth ultimating in consecration to the good, the beautiful, and the heavenly. Spiritualism — a grand, moral science, and a wisdom religion — proffers the key that unlocks the mysteries of the ages. It constituted the foundation stones of all the ancient faiths. It was the vitalizing soul of all past relig- ions. It was the mighty uplifting force that gave to the world in all ages, its inspired teachers and immortal leaders. Rightly translated, the direct words of Jesus are 10 What Is Spiritualism? (John 4:24)— "Spirit is God." The spiritual is the real and the substantial. The spiritually minded are reveren- tial. They are religions. Their life is a prayer. "The fruit of the Spirit,' ' said the apostle to the Gentiles, "is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. ' ' Spiritualism, by what- ever name known, without the fruit of the Spirit, with- out religion and moral growth, is but the veriest rust and rubbish; and religion, by whatever name known, in any age, without Spiritualism and its accompanying spiritual gifts, is only an empty shell — an offensive creedal cadaver that should be buried without ecclesias- tical formalities. NOT PHENOMENA ALONE Spirit is God. And Spiritualism, while inhering in and originating from God, does not center alone, nor rest entirely upon phenomena, but upon spirit — upon the spiritual and moral constitution of man, which consti- tution requires such spiritual sustenance as inspiration, prayer, vision, trance, clairvoyance, and heavenly im- pressions from the divine sphere of love and wisdom. Spiritualists, like the primitive Christians, believe in God the Father and in the brotherhood of the races. They acknowledge the living Christ; they feel the influx of the Holy Spirit ; they converse with angels ; they culti- vate the religious emotions; they open their seances, many of them, with prayer. They are richly blessed with visions and calm, uplifting ministrations from angelic homes. They see in every pure crystal stream a Jordan, Who Are These Spiritualists? 11 in every verdure-clad mountain a present Olivet, and in every well-cultivated prairie a Canaan flowing with the milk and honey of spiritual truth — love to Ood and love to man. Spiritualism teaches salvation by character; or by the life, as did Paul in his higher inspired moments, who said, " Being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life." (Romans 5:10.) Spirit is God. And neither matter nor sea-slime nor protoplasm constitutes the basis of conscious life, but spirit — that is to say, spiritual or divine substance. Spirituality is the substantial reality. And man is a spirit now — a spirit living in a material body, which body bears something of the same relation to the real, conscious, invisible man, that the husk bears to the corn, —chaff to the wheat. Evidently man is a trinity in unity, constituted of a physical body, a soul, or soul body, and a conscious, un- dying spirit — one uncompounded, indestructive divine substance — the Divine Ego. Advanced spirits are de- nominated angels. Spirits are but men and women di- vested of their mortal bodies. They have taken with them consciousness, memory, reason, sympathy, char- acter. They walk by our side often, and yet unseen. Philosophically considered, there is but one world, and that one world embraces the yesterdays, the todays, and the innumerable tomorrows of eternity. ALL MEN ARE INNATELY IMMORTAL Spiritualism, with its signs, wonders, visions, and heal- ing gifts, was the religion of the apostles; of the post- 12 What Is Spiritualism,® apostolic fathers, and of the primitive Christians up to the reign of Constantine, the murderous Roman Em- peror. Spiritualism has not only positively demonstrated a future life, but it has explained the philosophy and psy- chic methods of spirit intercourse; it has greatly liberal- ized the religious mind; it has encouraged the philan- thropic reforms of the age, and it has given us a revised geography of the heavens and the hells. Mortals enter the future world with as absolutely substantial bodies as we have here, only more refined and etherealized. There are different degrees of happiness there. Memory is the undying worm. There is intense mental suffering in those lower Cimmerian spheres. And yet, God builds no hells; he burns no man's fingers here, damns no souls hereafter. Men are the architects of their own hells; they reap what they sow. Every child born into this world is a possible archangel or a possible demon; his head touching the world of light, his feet the world of darkness. Man is a rational, moral and responsible being, having the power of choice. Punishment follows sin, as cause and effect. There is no escape. Divine punishment is disciplinary in all worlds. Christ Jesus and other martyred reformers still preach to undeveloped impris- oned spirits. The angels call, and souls are constantly coming up through tribulation deep. The door of mercy is not shut; there is ever the opportunity of progress from darkness to light. God is love. Modern Spiritualism, of which Swedenborg was the John the Baptist, and those Christian people, " believers,' ' derisively called " Shakers,' ' were the first organized Who Are These Spiritualists? 13 body of men and women in Anierica to fully realize the true meaning of the spiritual phenomena — which has disclosed some of the unspeakable beauties awaiting U3 in the many mansioned house of the Father. These man- sions — aural spheres, enzoning stars and planets — are real, substantial, and adaptively fitted for the abodes of spirits, angels, and archangels. These, aflame with love, are ever active in some educational or redemptive work. Heaven's rest is not idleness; the soul's activities are in- tensified by the transition. The future life is a social life, a progressive life, a heavenly life of growth, of love, of wisdom, and of truth. NEGATIVELY Intelligent, cultured Spiritualists do not deny the existence of God — do not deny the existence of Jesus of Nazareth, the mediumistic man and martyr, overshad- owed and infilled with the Christ-spirit — do not deny the Holy Spirit of love and wisdom, the quickening Spirit of truth — do not deny the necessity of repentance, of prayer, of faith, of religion, of abiding trust, and the importance of living a conscious, spiritual and holy life. Spiritualism is not, as aforesaid, materialism ; but on the contrary, is right the reverse of materialism, consid- ering Spirit the basic foundation of all things, in all worlds. Spiritualism, I repeat, is not spiritism, that is, talking with the dead for curiosity, for fleshly gratification, for selfish gain, for ambitious ends, or for unworthy, amus- 14 What Is Spiritualism? ing, and irreligious purposes. If this was the witch- spiritism that Moses condemned or disapproved of, he did well. It should be discouraged, condemned today as unworthy of rational royal-souled men and women. Spiritualism is not secular socialism, in the anarchistic sense of that word; but Spiritualism is of God, and the mightiest, divinest word in the universe, except God or the Christ of God. The corner-stone, the foundation pil- lar of Spiritualism is Spirit; and God is Spirit, essen- tial and immutable. The philological scale runs thus: Spirit, spiritual, Spiritualism. The spiritually-minded man is more than a mere, conscious spirit-man. All are spirit-men now, living in a spirit or etheric world, but not in a spiritual world, not in that exalted heavenly state of love and purity. Spiritualism, in its broadest sense, is a knowledge of everything pertaining to the spiritual nature of human beings. It is cosmopolitan, eclectic, uplifting and heaven- inspiring. Spiritualists, being believers in the Christ, have the New Testament promised spiritual gifts — the gift of converse with the so-called dead, the gift of heal- ing, the gift of tongues, the gift of clairvoyantly "dis" cerning the spirits," and other gifts spoken of in the ancient Scriptures. Spiritualists believe in the great law of evolution. They teach that there is sweet reward for well-doing and certain punishment for every wrong ac- tion; and that all the good and divine that is attained here, will be retained when entering the spiritual world ; that we are building now, by our conduct and characters, our homes in the future state of immortality. When the genuine Spiritualism is generally recog- Who Are These Spiritualists? 15 nized, and becomes, as it will, the universal religion, — when it becomes actualized and out-wrought through the personal lives of earth's surging millions, it will no longer be selfishly said, "mine — mine," but "ours, yours," and for all who appropriate it for holy uses. This is the resurrection — a spiritually exalted resurrec- tion state in this present life. It is Christ— the living Christ within. It is divine altruism. I repeat, when Spiritualism in its divinest aspects is literally practiced, our country will be the universe, our home the world, our rest wherever a human heart beats in sympathy with our own, and the highest happiness of each will be altruism. Then, when this Chris tly Spirit- ualism abounds, will the soil be as free for all to cultivate as the air to breathe; gardens will blossom and bear fruit for the most humble; and orphans will find homes of tenderest sympathy in all houses. This is Spiritual- ism, pure, simple, and practical. I invite other sectarian religionists, as well as devil-intoxicated Seventh-day Ad- ventists, to ground their ecclesiastical weapons of rebel- lion, to do works meet for repentance, and to come to us — America's Mount Zion— and we will do them good. In the above statements or definitions of Spiritualism, I speak for myself only — not others. Spiritualists have no Roman Pope — no Anglican bishop — no Mrs. Eddy, and they desire to build up no new sect or institute a cast-iron creed. Though Spiritualists number millions upon mil- lions in all enlightened countries — and though there are more or less Spiritualists in every church in the land (unless it be that little seven-by-nine side issue, 16 What Is Spiritualism? the Seventh-day Second Adventists), there are those who ask half sneeringly, "Who are these Spiritual- ists V My brief reply is, They constitute the thoughtful brains of the world. I repeat, the brainiest people of the world today are straight out-and-out Spiritualists, or favorably inclined to Spiritualism. They are the cul- tured. They are the inspired. They stand upon the mountain top. They live in the sunlight of eternal truth. SPIRITUALISTS— ANCIENT AND MODERN In Ancient Egypt, Spiritualism was the very founda- tion of the national religion. Their heirophants taught the initiated that the soul is immortal; that during sev- eral lives, it passed through several zoether zones, all of which were processes of purification. HERMES taught that the visible is but a picture of the invisible world — that this earth was surrounded by cir- cles of ether, and that in these ether circles the souls of the dead lived and guarded mortals. STRABO states that in the temple of Serapis at Cano- pus, "great worship was performed and many miracu- lous works wrought, which the most eminent men be- lieved and practiced, while others devoted themselves to the sacred sleep," that is, the unconscious trance. The consecrated temple at Alexandria was still more famous for its oracles, consecrated sleep, and the healing of invalids. BEROSUS, in transcribing the early legends of Baby- lonia and Chaldea, describes the gods of heaven and the lower elementaries who were in sympathy with them, Who Are These Spiritualists? 17 and often influenced the inhabitants of earth both for good and ill. They had magical directions for dispos- sessing disturbing demons and for inviting the protection of the good genii — in other words, the more exalted spirits. A tablet in the library at Nineveh describes seven supreme gods, fifty great gods of heaven and earth , three hundred spirits of the lower heavens, and six hun- dred of the earth. These latter were invoked to bring messages from the invisible shores of immortality. The master minds of Greece, such as Thales, who lived some six hundred years b. c, thought that the universe was peopled with daimons, who were the spiritual guides of human beings and the invisible witnesses of all their thoughts and actions. EPIMENIDES, the contemporary of Solon, frequently received divine revelations from the spiritual heavens. ZENO declared that tutelary, or guardian, spirits in- spired his speech and directed his actions. APULEIUS, the Roman historian, assured the people that the souls of men, when detached from their bodies and freed from their physical functions, became a spe- cies of daimon, or lemurs, who gratified their beneficence in watchfully guarding individuals, families, and cities. HOMER, in the twenty-third book of the Iliad, de- scribes the spirit of Patroclus as appearing to Achilles, and adjuring him to bestow the last funeral rites upon the body of his friend, that he might the sooner com- mence his spiritual advancement. In the eleventh book of the Odyssey, Ulysses is de- picted as visiting the underworld regions of the Cimme- 18 What Is Spiritualism? rians, and as conversing with the spirit of Tyresius El- penor and his own mother, from whom he received most encouraging tidings. HESIOD, the poet, whose verses were so prized by the old Greeks that they committed them to memory, be- lieved that each conscious soul was a potential portion of God, the "OveTsoul." Recognizing the conscious exist- ence of these souls, or spirits, he thought they were drawn earthward from the higher regions by the desires of their friends. PLUTABCH informs us that those who aspired to be brought into sympathetic communion with the higher in- telligences of the shiadowlands were expected to renounce the follies of the world and to practice self-denial, and to bring the lower functions and faculties of their na- tures into complete subjection to the spiritual. SOCRATES was constantly .attended with a " divine voice* ' to admonish, guard, and guide him in the events of his daily life; while it urged to good deeds he declared that it "restrained from evil." It sustained him to bear unrepiningly the revilings of the ill-tempered Xantippe, and with an unfaltering trust to drain the fatal cup. When asked by his disciple, Crito, "Where shall we bury you, ' ' he replied, in substance, ' ' Bury me just where you please, if you can only catch me," and then he fur- ther added, "Have I not told you and the wise men that the body is not Socrates V 9 In the palmy and prosperous days of Greece, Spirit- ualism was the only religion that inspired to the higher life. Hence, HUME says: "We learn from a hundred mas- terpieces of the intellect, how untiring was that spirit of Who Are These Spiritualists? 19 restless inquiry with which every people of Hellas searched into the secrets of the unseen. No city was founded; no army marched forth to battle; no vessels laden with emigrants set sail for Italy or Asia Minor without consulting the oracles of the gods." PLATO, the favorite pupil of Socrates and prince of philosophers, held precisely the same ideas in regard to spirits and their communion with mortals as did his great teacher. " There are," he said, "daimons, the souls of those who have died ; and each human being has a particular spirit with him, to be his tutelary and guid- ing genius during his mortal lifetime; and when the physical life is ended, this spirit receives and accompan- ies the enfranchised one to its future destiny, the Elys- ian Fields of immortality. Deity has no immediate in- tercourse with men. All communication between gods and mortals is carried on by means of demons, both in sleeping and waking. They are clothed with air, wander through heaven, hover over the stars, and abide on the earth." Between God and man are the spirits, who are al- ways near us, though commonly invisible to us, and who know all our thoughts. They are intermediate between gods and men. He also says : * ' The demons direct man often in the quality of guardian spirits, in all his actions, as witness the demon of Socrates." (Apol., p. 31-40.) Again he says: "A deity has deprived them (the poets) of their senses, and employs them as his ministers and oracle-singers and divine prophets, in order that when we hear them we may know it is they to whom sense is not present and who speak what is valuable, but the god 20 What Is Spiritualism? himself who speaks, and through them addresses us; . . . poets are nothing else but interpreters of the gods (or spirits) possessed by whatever deity they may hap- pen to be." POKPHYBY, a Greek philosopher of the Neo-Platonic school, was known to say : ' ' Spirits are invisible, never- theless they reveal themselves sometimes in visible form. " PYTHAGORAS, who visited India, Persia, and Egypt, and who had been initiated into the inner court of Isis, was one of the most astonishing mediums of antiquity. His psychic powers were attested by such writers as Claudius .ZEian, Porphyry of Tyre, the Greek philoso- pher, and Jamblichus, the Neo-Platonist. Pythagoras as- serted that souls, immortal and pre-existent, were real entities distinct from the body in which they may for a time be enveloped. He declares that "the intelligent soul has a subtile body of its own, which protects it from the gross outer body, and which may at times talk with the gods. ' f LAO-TSE and CONFUCIUS, early Chinese philosophers and teachers, who antedate the Christian era more than five hundred years, inculcate the worship of spirits and ceremonial observances to the souls of ancestors. Howitt says: "They taught that there existed guardian spirits; that the visible world is in constant rapport with the invisible; that both good and evil spirits surround us — nay, are within us; they are cognizant of our in- most thoughts, and recount them in heaven; that house- hold spirits, or penates, record all our actions and de- Who Are These Spiritualists? 21 liver in their account to heaven on the last day of every moon." LUCAN, born 38 a. d., a nephew of the Philosopher Seeneea, and educated at Rome, in his ' ' Pharsalia, ' ' when lamenting the loss of oracles, says, "The greatest mis- fortune of our age is to have lost that admirable gift of heaven. The oracle of Delphi has become silent since kings feared the future, and no longer desired to hear the verdict of the gods." The eminent William Howitt, in writing of Lucan, says: "Anterior to Christianity, the whole system of the ancients is one of divine supervision and interference in the affairs of man. The gods not only direct human events by their counsels, but personally appear to men and co-operate in their aims and achievements. No nation ever gave up the belief in the existence of spirits acting with them and for them. The nearness of the spirit-world maintained its consciousness imperish- ably in the human soul." TITUS, Emperor of Rome, born 40 a. d., in a speech to his soldiers, encouraging them to deeds of valor, is re- ported as saying :"For what man of virtue is there who does not know that those souls which are severed from their fleshly bodies in battles by the sword, and receive by the ether, that purest of elements, and joined to that company which are placed among the stars — that they become good demons (spirits) and propitious heroes, and show themselves as such to their posterity afterward?" CICERO tells us that the mysteries, which were symbol- ically allied to spiritual invisible presences, enkindled and inspired a knowledge of the future life, and made 22 What Is Spiritualism? this life more pleasant by filling the mind of the dying with beautiful ideas of cheerfulness and resignation. "They whose minds, scorning the limitations of tne body, .... behold things which they predict. ... The worship of the gods is not to be imputed to chance or folly, but to the frequent appearance of the gods them- selves. Their voices have been often heard, and they have appeared in forms so visible that he who doubts it must be partly bereft of reason. * * * I dare not myself say anything in contradiction of oracles, nor do I approve it in others.' ' This great orator further says: "Of these descrip- tions are the gods and the oracles* — not such as are grounded on acquired signs, but those which arise from an inner and a divine source." If we laugh at pre- dictions, . . . if we turn to ridicule the Babylonians, and Caucasians, who believe in celestial signs and who observe the number and course of the stars; if, as I have said, we condemn all these for their superstition and folly, which, as they maintain, is founded upon the experience of fifty centuries and a half, let us, in that case, also call the belief of ages imposture; let us burn our records and say that everything was but imagina-* tion. 'But is the history of Greece a lie, when Apollo foretold the future through the oracles of the Lacede- monians and made other prophecies from the guardian BEDE, the Venerable.— (Born 673, Durham, England) ecclesiastical historian, author, commentator, and met- aphysician, exhibited his clairvoyance — his spiritual trust and spiritual life in dying. It was a calm, peaceful even- Who Are These Spiritualists? 23 ing in the spring of 735 — the evening of Ascension Day — and in his quiet cell in the monastery of Jarrow, as the historian informs us, an aged monk lay dying. With labored utterance he tried to dictate to his scribe, while a group of fair-haired Saxon youths stood sorrowfully by with tears, beseeching their dear master to rest. This retiring recluse was the most famous scholar of his day in Western Europe. Through him, Jarrow-on- the-Tyne had become the great center of literature and science, hundreds of eager students crowding yearly to its halls to learn of the illustrious Bede. He was deeply versed in the literature of Greece and Rome, — he had written on medicine, science, astronomy, rhetoric, and was an advocate of the noblest thoughts of his age. His "Ecclesiastical History' * is still the chief source of our knowledge of ancient England. But none of his studies were to him equal to the study of religion. None of his books were of so great importance as his " Com- ment aries" on spiritual subjects. Even then as he lay on his deathbed he was feebly dictating to his scribe his superior translation of St. John's Gospel. "I don't want my boys to read an error," he said, "or to work to no purpose after I am gone." And these young men seem to have deeply loved the gentle old man. An epistle has come down to us from his disciple, Cuthbert, telling of what had happened on this noted Ascension Day. "Our father and spiritual master," he says, "seems especially illumined, and has translated the gospel of St. John as far as 'what are these among so many.' " "He began to suffer much in his breath, and a swell- 24 What Is Spiritualism? ing came in his feet; but seemingly inspired, he went on dictating to his scribe. 'Go on rapidly,' he said, 'I know not how long I shall hold out, or how soon the Master will send his angels for me.' "All night long he lay awake, and when day dawned he commanded us to write with all speed what he had begun. ... Angels are waiting. a i There remains but one chapter, Master,' said the anxious scribe, 'but it seems very hard for you to speak. ' " 'Nay, it is easy-— for the good angels give me strength/ replied Bede. 'Take up thy pen and write quickly. ' "Amid blinding tears the young scribe wrote on. " 'And now, father,' said he, as he eagerly caught the last words from the quivering lips, ' only one sentence remains.' Bede dictated it, and then looking up, ex- claimed, 'Oh, the brightness of their coming — how sweet their music!' " 'It is finished, master,' cried the youth, raising his head as the last word was written. " 'Ay, it is truly finished,' echoed the dying saint, his face the meanwhile seemingly illumined with more than spiritual brightness. 'Lift me up; place me at that window of my cell where I have so often prayed to the Father of lights, and to the ministering angels that do the Father's will.' And with these words his beautiful spirit passed on to meet those loved ones who inspired him to the last moment of his life." MINUCIUS FEUX, a Roman author (about 198 a. d.), in the "Octavius," Chap. XXIX, writes thus: "There are Who Are These Spiritualists? 25 some insincere and vagrant spirits, degraded from their heavenly vigor by earthly stains and lusts. Now these spirits, after having lost the simplicity of their nature by being weighed down and immersed in vices for a sol- ace for their calamities, cease not, now that they are ruined themselves, to ruin others; and being depraved themselves, to infuse into others the error of their de- pravity. The poets know that these spirits are demons, and the philosophers discourse of them. The Magi also know that they are demons, and that whatever miracles they affect to perform, they do by means of bad demons. By their aspirations and communications they show their wondrous tricks, making either those things to appear which are not, or those things not to appear which are. Of those magicians, the first, both in eloquence and in deeds, is Sosthenes." ORIGEN, a celebrated bishop, and one of the most learned and illustrious that graced the early Christian centuries, wrote thus in his "De Principiis : ' ' "What shall we say of the Diviners, from whom — by the work- ing of those spirits (demons) who have the mastery over them— answers are given (to those who consult them) in carefully-constructed verses'? Those persons, too, whom they term Magi (magicians) frequently, by invoking demons over boys of tender years, have made them re- peat poetical compositions and give poetical improvisa- tions which were the admiration and amazement of all. Now these effects, we suppose, are brought about in the following manner: As. holy and immaculate souls after devoting themselves to God with all perfection and pu- rity, and preserving themselves from the contagion of 26 What Is Spiritualism? evil spirits, and purifying themselves by long absti- nence, by these means they assume a portion of divinity and earn the grace of prophecy and other divine gifts. The result of this is that they are filled with the work- ing of those spirits to whose service they have subjected themselves." This erudite Christian Father, Origen, in writing against his atheist antagonist, Celsus (200 a. d.), says: "Celsus has compared the miracles (spiritual manifesta- tions) of Jesus, to the tricks of jugglers and the magic of Egyptians, and there would indeed be a resemblance between them if Jesus, like the practitioners of magic arts, had performed His works only for show or worldly gain." TERTULIAN, another celebrated Christian Father (date about 200 a. d.), in his "De Spectaculis," writing against the public shows, says: " Those who attend them become accessible to evil spirits," and states: "We have the case of the woman — the Lord himself is witness — who went to the theater and came back possessed. In the outcasting (by exorcism) accordingly, when the unclean creature was upbraided for having dared to attack a Christian believer, he firmly replied: 'And, in truth, I did it, and most righteously, for I found her in my domain. ' " In his "Apologeticus," Tertulian, in speaking of ob- sessing spirits, says: "They disclaim being unclean spirits, which yet we must hold as being indubitably proved by their relish for the blood and fumes and fetid carcasses of sacrificial animals, and even by the vile lan- guage of their ministers (mediums)." Who Are These Spiritualists f 27 In his celebrated work, "De Anima," Tertulian fur- ther says: "We had a right to anticipate prophecies and the continuance of spiritual gifts, and we are now per- mitted to enjoy the gift of a prophetess. There is a sis- ter among us who possesses the faculty of revelation. Commonly, during religious service, she falls into a trance, holding then communion with angels, beholding Jesus himself, hearing divine mysteries explained, read- ing the hearts of some persons, and administering to such as require it. When the Scriptures are read, or psalms sung, spiritual beings minister visions to her. We were speaking of the soul once when our sister was in the spirit (entranced), and, the people departing, she then communicated to us what she had seen in her ecstacy, which was afterward closely inquired into and tested. She declared she 'had seen a soul in bodily shape, which appeared to be a spirit, neither empty nor formless, but so real and substantial that it might be touched. It wasi tender, shining, of the color of the air, but in everything resembling the human form. , " For three hundred years after the apostles, visions, apparitions, healing gifts and spiritual marvels abounded in all Christian countries. Believers, in the name of Christ, cast out demons, made the lame to walk and the blind to see. And all along down the centuries to the Reformation there were rifts in the clouds, lights from above, and messages from the invisible world. The Old and New Testaments, the Apocrypha, and the Talmudic writings — all abound, more or less, in angel ministries, spirit communications, trances, visions, and apparitions. 28 What Is Spiritualism? THE APOSTLES AND DISCIPLES of Jesus Christ were Spiritualists. Jesus chose tEem Because they had mediumistic or spiritual gifts. Paul heard the spirit voice. Both Paul and Peter had trances, as do the me- diums of today. And Jesus expressly said: "He that believeth in me, the works that I do, shall he do also, and greater works than these shall he do." Again he said: "These signs (various spiritual manifestations) shall follow them that believe." And these signs, gifts, and demonstrations of the future life did follow the early Christians for the first three centuries. Mosheim con- firms this view, saying: — "It is easier to conceive than to express how much the spiritual powers and the extraordinary divine gifts which the early Christians exercised on various occa- sions, contributed to extend the limits of the church. . . . Though the gift of foreign tongues appears to have grad- ually ceased, yet other spiritual gifts, healings, prophe- cies, visions, and the discerning of spirits with which God favored the rising church, were, as we learn from numerous testimonies of the ancients, continued to some extent for several centuries." IGNATIUS, native of Syria and pupil of Polycarp, declares that — "Some in the church most certainly have a divine knowledge of things to come. Some have visions ; others utter prophecies, and heal the sick by laying on of hands ; and others still speak in many tongues, bringing to light the secret things of men, angels, and expounding the mys- teries of God." Many confirmatory testimonies might be quoted from Who Are These Spiritualists? 29 Clement of Rome, Barnabas, Papias, Justin Apoliinaris, Cyprian, Lactantius, and others of the earlier Fathers. The Phrygian Montannus affirms with great emphasis that " these continuous prophecies, healing gifts, tongues, and visions are the divine inheritance of the true Chris- tian," quoting, in confirmation, the old Scripture words, ' ' Where there is no vision the people perish. ' ' ST. ANTHONY, in one of his fiery sermons, exclaimed : — "We walk in the midst of demons, who give us evil thoughts; and also in the midst of good angels, who give us heavenly thoughts. When these latter are especially present, there is no disturbance, no contention, no clamor; but something so calm and gentle that it fills the soul with gladness. The Lord is my witness that after many tears and fastings I have been surrounded by a band of angels, good spirits, and joyfully joined in singing with them." TATIAN, in his orations against the Greeks, said: — "Your poetess, Sappho, was an impudent courtesan, and sung her own wantonness; but our women, full of faith in Christ, are chaste, and our virgins, at the distaff, utter divine oracles, see visions, and sing the holy words that are given them by inspiration. ' ' GOETHE states that he one day saw the exact counter- part of himself coming toward him. This was his double. When in the valley of meditation he had ' ' night visions. ' 9 POPE saw an arm apparently come through the wall, and made inquiries after its owner. DR. JOHNSON heard his mother call his name in a clear voice, though she was at the time in another city. LOYOLA, lying wounded during the seige of Pampe- 30 ' What Is Spiritualism? lima, saw, one who encouraged him to prosecute his mission* DESCARTES was followed by an invisible person, whose voice he heard urging him to continue his re- searches after truth. OLIVER CROMWELL, lying sleeping on his couch, saw the curtains open and a gigantic woman appear who told him he would become the greatest man in England. REN JOHNSON spent the watches of the night an inter- ested spectator of a crowd of Tartars, Turks, and Roman Catholics, who rose and spiritually fought round his arm- chair till sunrise. ROSTOCK, the physiologist, saw figures and faces, and there was one human face constantly before him for twen- ty-four hours, the features and headgear as distinct as those of a living person. RENVENUTO CELLINI, imprisoned at Rome, resolved to free himself by self-destruction, but was deterred by the apparition of a young woman of wondrous beauty, whose reproaches turned him from his purpose. T0RQUAT0 TASSO.— To those well read in Italian his- tory, Tasso 's remarkable visions are well known. He was called the epic poet of his age. Corresponding with his friends, he frequently spoke of his spiritual visitations. Good spirits strengthened and encouraged him, and bad ones vexed or tormented him ; in fact, like many mediums today, he was at times obsessed. Here is what he wrote to a friend: — "This day, being the last but one of the year, the brother of the Rev. Licino has brought me two letters from Vostra Signoria, but one disappeared Who Are These Spiritualists? 31 after I had read it, and I think the Spirit (il folletto) has carried it away, because it is that letter in which he is mentioned. This is one of those miracles which I have frequently seen in the hospital (of St. Ann, which was his prison), on which account I feel certain that it is the work of some sorcerer (mago) and I have many other proofs of it, but particularly of a roll of bread taken from before me, visibly, half an hour before sunset (a ventrite ore) ; of a plate of fruit taken from before me the other day when that amiable young Pole so worthy of admiration came to see me; and of several other ar- ticles of food to which at other times the same thing oc- curred when no one entered my prison; of a pair of gloves, of letters, and of books taken out of boxes that were shut and found on the ground in the morning, and others that were never found, and I know not what be- came of them. ' l I will not conceal my miseries, that you, signor, may help me with all your force, with all your diligence, and with all your good faith. Know then that besides these miracles of the folletta, which I can describe at length on some other occasion, there are many noctur- nal terrors, for being awake, small flames (flamette) seem to appear in the air; and sometimes my eyes sparkle in such a manner that I have feared losing my sight — sparks have flown out of them visibly. I have seen likewise in the middle of the head of the bed, shadows of mice which from any natural causes could not happen in that place; and often I have heard whistles, tinklings, bells, and the sound of a clock which has often struck one." In a letter by Torquato Tasso, 1544, he says: — 32 What Is Spiritualism,? "You know that I have been ill and have never been entirely cured; perhaps I have greater need of an ex- orciser than of a physician, because the illness is owing to magical art. Compassion ought to be felt for my long suffering. Of the folletto (spirit) I will still tell you some more particulars. The little thief has robbed me of many scudi; I don't know how many, because I do not keep any account of them as misers do, but perhaps they amount to twenty. He overturns my books, opens my boxes, steals my keys that I cannot defend myself from him. I am unhappy at all times, but most at night.' f (See Baron Seymour Kirkup's letter, Florence, May 26, 1862. S. Magasin, London.) Again he writes on the same subject: "I cannot de- fend anything from my enemies, nor from the demons except my will, with which I will never consent to learn anything from them or their followers, or have any fa- miliarity with them or with magicians. ' ' After more than seven years ' confinement, he suddenly recovered from his affliction, and was released. He at- tributed his recovery to the spirit aid given him by the Virgin Mary in a vision, which he thus describes: " Amidst so many terrors and pains, there appeared to me, in the air, the image of the glorious Virgin, with her Son in her arms, encircled with clouds of many colors, so that I might by trust and faith in her and to minister- ing spirits of grace, know of their power and of a future that never dies." The Roman Catholic Church has never denied the miracles- — the spiritual manifestations of the ages. All the religious movements of the past, originated in spirit- Who Are These Spiritualists? 33 ual manifestations. Take, as a sample, George Fox, the founder of Quakerism; Ann Lee, the founder of Shaker- ism; the Wesleys, founders of Methodism, and Sweden- borg, the founder of the Swedenborgian or New Church. Swedenborg held open intercourse with the spiritual world during the period of twenty-seven years. The world's religious epoch-builders were all possessed of marvelous spiritual gifts. Elder Frederick Evans, a distinguished American Shaker preacher, used to often say, ' ' Quakerism began in the spirit, but is ending in the flesh and in the worldliness of the world. ' ' SIR JAMES MACINTOSH says of Fox's Journal: "It is one of the most extraordinary and instructive narratives in the world — which no reader of competent judgment can peruse without revering the eminent virtue of the writer. ' ' This Journal reminds us of, and is a fitting compan- ion to, Swedenborg 's Diary. The following statements are condensed f rom it : GEORGE FOX, born in July, 1624, was naturally, when young, of rather grave deportment. When about nine- teen, he became annoyed by the frivolous and profane conversation of the young, and spending a night in prayer, he heard a voice saying : ' ' Thou seest how young people go together in vanity and old people into their graves ; thou must forsake, be a stranger to all, and be guided by the spirit. ' ' Traveling to London, and listening by the way to many preachers, he remarks : " I was afraid of them, for I was sensible that they did not possess what they pro- fessed. r ' After relating to the clergymen that at times 34 What Is Spiritualism ? he " heard voices and felt the presence of spirits' ' one of these jolly old clergymen of the Anglican Church told him to " smoke tobacco and sing psalms." Another ad- vised him to "go to a surgeon and lose some blood." Turning to the Dissenters, he "found them also blind guides. ' ' Wandering often in quiet places, fasting frequently with Bible in hand, meditating and battling with doubts and temptations, he at last ' ' fell into a trance that lasted fourteen days, and many who came to see him during that time, wondered to see his countenance so changed, for he not only had the appearance of a dead man, but seemed to them to be really dead. But after this, his mind was relieved of its sorrows, so that he could have wept night and day with tears of joy, in humility and brokenness of heart. In this state," he says, "I saw into that which is without end, and things which cannot be uttered, and of the greatness and infiniteness of the love of God." When at Mansfield, he "was struck blind," so that he could not see ; after which, he says, •' ' I went to a village and many people accompanied me. And as I was sitting in a house full of people, I cast my eyes upon a woman and discerned in her an unclean (undeveloped) spirit. Moved to speak sharply, I told her she was under the influence of an unclean spirit. Having the gift of dis- cerning spirits, I many times saw the states and condi- tions of people, and could try their spirits." He frequently healed the sick by laying on of hands. To Eichard Myer, who had long had a very lame, rheu- matic arm, he said: "Stand upon thy legs and stretch Who Are These Spiritualists? 35 out thine arm." He did so, and Fox exclaimed: "Be it known unto you and to all people that this day you are healed/ ' Although Macauley sneers at Fox's casting out devils and performing miracles, many remarkable cases of this kind are recorded in his Journal, and were wit- nessed by thousands of people. In his "Life Sketches' ' he uses "Lord," "angels," and "spirits" interchange- ably, as do the old biblical writers. "Coming to within a mile of Litchfield, where shep- herds were keeping their sheep, I was commanded," he says, "by the Lord to put off my shoes. I stood still, for it was winter, and the word of the Lord was like a fire in me. So I put off my shoes and left them with the shep- herds, and the poor shepherds trembled and were aston- ished. Then I walked on about a mile, and as soon as I was within the city, the word of the Lord came to me again, saying, 'Cry, Woe unto the bloody city of Litch- field!' So I went up and down the streets, crying with a loud voice, 'Woe to the bloody city of Litchfield!' It being market day, I went into the market place, and to and fro in the several parts of it, and made stands, cry- ing as before, 'Woe to the bloody city of Litchfield!' And no one laid hands on me ; but as I went thus crying through the streets, there seemed to be a channel of blood running down the streets, and the market place appeared like a pool of blood. When I had declared what the spirit put upon me, I felt myself clear. I went out of the town in peace, and, returning to the shepherds, gave them some money and took my shoes of them. "After this, a deep consideration came upon me. Why, or for what reason, should I be sent against that city and 36 What Is Spiritualism? call it 'the bloody cityV But afterward I came to un- derstand that in the Emperor Diocletian's time a thou- sand Christians were martyred here in Litchfield. So I was to go without my shoes, through the channel of their blood in the market place, that I might raise up the me- morial of the blood of those martyrs which had been shed a thousand years before. The sense of their blood was upon me." These were among the common sayings of the in- spired George Fox while preaching : ' ' Verily, I heard a voice ; ' 9 ' ' The spirit was upon me ; " "I saw in visions ; ' ' "The prophecies were open to me." "When, at a meet- ing of Friends in Derby, there was such a mighty power of spirit felt," says Fox, "that the people were shaken and many mouths were opened to testify that the angels of God do minister unto mortal men. ' ' The original Quakers, like the post-Apostolic Chris- tians, were Spiritualists; but our latter-day Quakers denying or deadening their spiritual gifts by selfishness and worldliness, have crystalized, and so are a dying re- ligious sect. JOHN WESLEY, the founder of Methodism, was a firm believer in the spiritual phenomena. In the old Wesley residence, Epworth, England, marked spiritual manifestations occurred for years. An account of these was written by the Eev. Mr. Hooley, of Haxey, by Dr. Adam Clarke, by a writer in the Armini- an Magazine, and others. It is pitiable that modern Methodist preachers do not mention them as among the present demonstrations of a future existence. From a large volume by John Wesley, entitled "The Invisible Who Are These Spiritualists? 37 World, ' ' published over a hundred years ago, I make the following quotations : "What pretense have I to deny well-attested facts because I cannot comprehend them! It is true that the English in general, indeed, most of the men of learning in Europe, have given up all accounts of witches and apparitions as mere old wives' fables. I am sorry for it, and I willingly take this opportunity of entering my solemn protest against this violent compliment which so many that believe the Bible pay to those who do not believe it. I owe them no such service. I take knowledge these are at the bottom of the outcry which has been raised, and with such inso- lence spread throughout the nation ; and in direct op- position, not only to the Bible, but to the suffrage of the wisest and best of men in all ages and nations. They well know (whether Christians know it or not) that the giving up of witchcraft (the control of undeveloped spir- its) is in effect, giving up the Bible. And they know, on the other hand, that if but one account of men with sep- arate spirits be admitted, their whole castle in the air (deism, atheism, and materialism) falls to the ground. One of the capital objections to all the accounts, which I have known urged over and over, is this, 'Did you ever see an apparition yourself?' No, nor did I ever see a murder, yet I believe there is such a thing. Yea, and in one place or another murder is committed every day. Therefore I cannot, as a reasonable being, deny the fact, though I never saw it, and perhaps never may. The testimony of unexceptionable witnesses fully convinces me of both the one and the other. With my last breath 38 What Is Spiritualism? will I bear testimony against giving np to infidels one of the greatest proofs of the invisible world — I mean that of apparitions confirmed by the testimony of all ages." (Page 2.) ELIZABETH HOBSON was born in Snnderland in the year 1774. Her father dying when she was three or four years old, her uncle, Thomas Eea, a pious man, brought her up as his daughter. She was a serious child and grew up in the fear of God ; yet she had a deep and sharp conviction of sin until she was about sixteen years of age, when she found peace with God, and from that time the whole tenor of her behavior was suitable to her profession. On Wednesday, May 23, 1788, and the three following days, I talked with her at large. But it was with difficulty that I could prevail upon her to speak. The substance of what she said was as follows: " 'From my childhood, when any of my neighbors died, whether men, women, or children, I used to see them just before, or when they died, and I was not at all frightened, it was so common ; indeed, I did not then know they were dead. I saw many of them by day and many of them by night. Those that came when it was dark brought light with them. I observed that little children and many grown persons had a bright, glorious light around them, but many had a gloomy, dismal light and a dusky cloud over them.' " (Page 3.) "Perhaps the glorified spirits of just men made per- fect, may, like the angels, be employed in carrying on the purposes of God in the world. It is said of them, 'His servant shall serve 11™.' " (Heb. 22.) "Possibly, as ministering spirits, they may minister Who Are These Spiritualists? 39 unto the heirs of salvation, and watch over the interests of those who on earth were dear to them, either by the ties of nature or religion. One of them was employed to converse with the Apostle John and explain to him the wonderful things he saw in his visions." (Rev. 22.) "The sentiment for which we are pleading, has the sanction of the highest antiquity. Philo speaks of it as a received notion of the Jews that the souls of good men officiate as ministering spirits. The Pagans, in the earli- est ages, imagined that the spirits of their deceased friends continued near them, and were frequently en- gaged in performing acts of kindness, hence the deifica- tion of their kings and heroes, and the custom of invok- ing the names of those who were dear to them.'* "Cicero makes a better use of the doctrine, when he endeavors to comfort a father for the loss of a son by the thought that he might still be engaged in performing kind offices for him. And it is not improbable that the idea, though' perverted by the heathen for the purpose of idolatry, might, like the doctrine of the immortality of the soul, be derived from a divine source." (Page 30.) "A few years ago, a gentleman of most correct char- acter and serious carriage, who resided near St. James and lived very happily with his wife, was taken sick and died, which so affected his dear left companion that she sickened also and kept her bed. "In about ten days after her husband's death, as she was sitting upright in bed, and a friend and near rela- tion sitting near her, she looked steadfastly toward the foot of the bed, and said with a cheerful voice, 'My dear, I will be with you in two hours. ' The gentlewoman 40 What Is Spiritualism? that was with her (and who firmly attested the same as most true) said to her, ' Child, to whom do you speak!' (for she saw nobody). She answered, 'It is my hus- band, who came to call me hence, and I am going to him;' which surprised her friend very much, who, thinking she was a little light-headed, called in someone else, to whom she spoke very cheerfully and told the same story; but before the two hours were expired she went on and up to her dear companion, to be happy to- gether forever, to the great surprise of all present. "The soul receives not its perfections or activity from the body, but can live and act out of the body ; yea, much better, having then its perfect liberty, divested of that heavy incumbrance which only clogged and fet- tered it. 'Doubtless,' saith Tertulian, 'when the soul is separated from the body it comes out of darkness into its own pure and perfect light, and quickly finds itself a substantial being, able to act freely in that light and participate in heavenly joys.' " (Page 48.) # # * The former historical references prove that the facts and the fundamental truths of Spiritualism were in re- motest antiquity, similar to those of today. And why not? — since there is but one God, one law, one Divine purpose, one historical continuity, one brotherhood, ' ' one spirit, ' ' with, as Paul says, ' ' a diversity of gifts. ' ' A traveler in nearly all latitudes 'neath the northern star, or summering under the Southern Cross, I have seen neither races nor tribes, white, brown-skinned, or black, without sympathy for their kindred — without cemeteries for their dead — without altars, however Who Are These Spiritualists? 41 rude, for their worship, and without dreams, appari- tions, visions, and methods of some sort for communi- cating wth the dead. Uncouth, vague, if not rude and vulgar to us, they may have been ; yet, they foreshadowed the soul's immortality, and brought to sorrowing, trust- ing souls that peace of mind that passeth understand- ing. PROF. A. B HYDE, D. D., author and professor of Greek in the Denver University, says in his work on Method- ism: "During these years, strange ' noises' were heard at the Epworth parsonage. They were heard like the whistling of the wind outside. Latches were lifted; win- dows rattled, and all metallic substances rang tunefully. In a room where people talked, sang, or made any noise, its hollow tones gave all the louder accompaniment. There was a sound of doors slamming, of curtains draw- ing, of shoes dancing without a wearer. When any one wished to pass a door, its latch was politely lifted for him before they touched it. A trencher, untouched upon the table, danced to unheard music. At family prayers the 'goblin' gave thundering knocks at the amen, and when Mr. Wesley prayed for the King, the disloyal being pushed him violently in anger. The stout rector shamed it for annoying children, and dared it to meet him alone in his study, and pick up the gauntlet there. Many, then and since, have tried to explain the cause. It was thought to be a spirit strayed beyond its home and clime, as an Arabian locust has been found in Hyde Park. Of such things this writer has no theory. There are more things in heaven and earth than his knowledge of phi- losophy can compass. Only he is sure that outside of 42 What Is Spiritualism? this world lies a spiritual domain, and it is not strange that there should be intercommunication. 1 ' The noises were first heard one winter's day in 1715 by Mrs. Susanna Wesley, John Wesley's mother. She was in the bedroom and was startled suddenly by a clat- tering of the windows and doors, followed by several dis- tinct knocks, three by three. At the same time her maid servant, Nancy Marshall, heard in the dining-room some- thing that sounded like the groans of a dying man. The young women of the family became greatly alarmed. Mrs. Wesley informed her husband, Samuel Wesley, of the circumstances and insinuated her belief in their supernatural character. ROBERT SOUTHEY, in his "Life of the Wesleys," when speaking of these spiritual manifestations, states that they continued in the Wesley family for some thirty years, commencing in 1716. Dr. Priestly, the discoverer of oxy- gen, speaks of the Wesleyan phenomena as among the most remarkable in history. There is a record of them in the Bibliotheca Topographica Britannica by Samuel Babcock. Here is the closing paragraph: — "I know not what became of the ghost of Epworth; unless, considered as a prelude to the noise Mr. John Wesley made on a more ample stage, it ceased to speak when he began to act." John Wesley 's journal contains a number of most thrilling accounts of spiritual phenomena. Some con- sidered them miraculous, and a proof of Wesley's divine mission. It is a pity that so many Methodist preachers of today have so " fallen from grace" — the grace and wisdom of Wesley — as to deny present spirit- Who Are These Spiritualists? 43 ual manifestations. It is a further pity, if not a sort of religious dishonesty, that the later biographers of John Wesley omit direct reference to these marvelous phe- DR. ADAM CLARK, the distinguished Methodist Com- mentator, was a Spiritualist. In commenting upon Saul and Samuel (see his Commentaries, pp. 298, 299), he nomena, in which the Wesleys were firm believers. says : — "I believe Samuel did actually appear to Saul; and that he was sent to warn this infatuated king of his ap- proaching death, that he might have an opportunity to make his peace with his Maker/ ' "I believe there is a supernatural or spiritual world in which HUMAN spirits, both good and bad, live in a state of consciousness." "I believe that any of these spirits may, according to the order of God, in the laws of their place of residence, have intercourse with this world and become visible to mortals." EMANUEL SWEDENBQRG, the son of a Swedish clergy- man, announced in the year 1743 that he had come into spiritual converse with a world of spirits, and he soon began publishing their revelations, and detailing their conversations with him. He declared that he had seen and conversed with some of the apostles, especially Paul, with Luther and others dwelling in a spiritual state of existence. "I have," he says, "for these twenty years or more, conversed daily with spirits and angels. They have human forms, the appearance of men, as I have a thousand times seen; for I have spoken with them as a man with other men — often with several together — and 44 What Is Spiritualism? I have seen nothing in the least to distinguish them from other men. . . . Lest any one should call this an illusion, or imaginary perception, it is to be understood that I am accustomed to see them when perfectly wide awake, and in the full exercise of my observation. The speech of an angel or a spirit sounds like and as loud as that of a man; but it is not heard by the bystanders. The rea- son is that the speech of an angel or a spirit finds en- trance, first, into a man's thoughts, and reaches his or- gans of hearing from within.' ' In 1758 a revolution was attempted in Sweden. On the twenty-third of July in that year Swedenborg was in Stockholm. On that day Count Brahe and Baron Horn were executed in the capital. Sweden- borg did not lose sight of Brahe when he was be- yond the axe, as the following passage in Scriptural Diary shows: — " Brahe was beheaded at ten o'clock in the morning, and he spoke with me at ten at night; that is to say, twelve hours after the execution. He was with me al- most without interruption for several days. In two days ' time he began to return to his former life, which con- sisted in loving worldly things ; and after three days he became as he was before in the world, and was carried into the evils he had made his own before he died." PROFESSOR SHERER relates this: "Conversing with a companion one evening in Stockholm about the spiritual work, one of those present, as a test, said: 'Tell us who will die first.' Swedenborg at first refused to answer. Then, after seeming to be for a time in silent and pro- found meditation, he replied: 'Olof Olofsohn will die Who Are These Spiritualists? 45 tomorrow morning at forty-five minutes past four o'clock.' This prediction greatly excited the company, and one gentleman, a friend of Olof Olofsohn, resolved to go on the following morning at the time mentioned by Swed- enborg to the house of Olof Olofsohn, in order to see whether Swedenborg's prediction was* fulfilled. On the way thither he met the well-known servant of Olofsohn, who told him that his master had just then died — a fit of apoplexy had seized him and had suddenly put an end to his life. The clock in Olofsohn 's dwelling apartment stopped at the very moment in which he had expired, and the hand pointed at the time. SHAKESPEARE.— Poets are naturally Spiritualists, and the most striking and dramatic portions of Shakes- peare 's writings depend upon characters drawn from the world of spirits. Physical phenomena are but the alpha- bet of Spiritualism. Shakespeare of Avon evidently be- lieved in the relations that he instituted between the ma- terial and the spiritual world. In his Midsummer Night's Dream, he makes the fairies sing: "Now it is the time of 'night That the graves are gaping wide, Every one lets forth his sprite, In the church-way paths to glide." And again, Hamlet and Horatio say: Hamlet. "What hour now? Horatio. I think it lacks of twelve." • * «< Hamlet. "Angels and ministers of grace defend us! Be thou a Spirit of health, or goblin damned, 46 What Is Spiritualism? Bring with thee airs of heaven or blasts from hell — Be thy intents wicked or charitable, Thou comest in such questionable shape That I will speak to thee:" And again in Hamlet, the stricken murderer swears : "If I stand here I saw him — . . The times have been, That when the brains were out, the man was dead, And there an end; but now they rise again" "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in our philosophy." ANN LEE, honored by her admirers with the appella- tions, "Sainted Mother/' and "Sister," overshadowed by angels of purity, and enlightened by the descent of celestial influences, received her heavenly commission in 1758, near Manchester, England. Her visions were re- markable; her prophecies, oracles. The physical mani- festations, relating to herself and adherents, consisted of These exercises and spiritual gifts called down upon them the hostility of the Church. Priests and magis- trates, who have ever sought to gag the truth, dungeon conscience, and impeach the inductions of science, charged them with disorder and Sabbath-breaking. The religious authorities slandered, fined, and imprisoned them. In 1774, inspired by the "Christ of the new order," she received a revelation to immigrate to America. A few pure-purposed, loving souls clustered around her as a central teacher directed by angel ministers. This new church — the "Shakers"— much resembles the Essenes of Philo's time. The Nazarene had but Who Are These Spiritualists? 47 three hundred followers when martyred upon Calvary. The increase of the Shaker fraternity has not been rapid, but is permanent. Holding that God is dual, eternal, Father and Mother in deific manifestations, they practically teach the strict equality of the sexes. "First pure, then peaceable, ' ' they profess to live in the ' ' resur- rection state," and preach to those "without" — the Gen- tiles—to raise few and better children. They all believe in spirit manifestations and revelations. ELDER E. W. EVANS wrote Robert Owen, in 1856, that, "seven years previous to the advent of Spiritualism, the Shakers had predicted its rise and progress, the phenom- ena precisely as they have occurred, and that the Shaker order is the great medium betwixt this world and the world of spirits. . . . Physical manifestations, visions, revelations, prophecies, and gifts of various kinds, of which voluminous records are kept, and, indeed, 'divers operations, but all of the same spirit,' were as common among us as gold in California." LOUIS XVI, benevolent and reformatory, has been styled "noblest of all the reigning Bourbons." "Coming to his own, his own received him not. ' ? Arraigned, tried by a boisterous assembly, he was heartlessly condemned to the block. Seeing the courier sent to inform him of his fate, he exclaimed — "I know it all! I know it all! Last night I saw a female form clothed in stainless white, walking these solitary apartments. "When the reigning powers of the throne behold a vision of this character, they know that prince or king is to be dethroned and slain. Tell my accusers to prepare to meet me in the land of the just!" 48 What Is Spiritualism? SHELLEY — This inspired and ether ealized soul of poetry and worshipper at the shrine of nature, struggled, considering the world's imperfections, to make himself believe in a sort of atheistic materialism, and no doubt be- came stung to the quick by the taunting words perpetu- ally hurled at him by the ecclesiastics of the church. Their tongues termed him an atheist and his only resort for rest was in meditating upon the gorgeous glories of nature and the realms of the invisible. At times of mortal distress he fell into ecstacies and had visons. In his revolt of Islam, Prometheus, Queen Mab and Adonais, his passionate language was but the wrestling of a broader, higher thought than his time could compre- hend—wrestlings against materialism — wrestlings with a burning desire for fellowship with the departed. In a sort of semi-trance he saw the soul of Adonais (his friend Keats) : "Outsoar the shadow of our night; Envy and calumny, and hate and pain, And that unrest which men miscall delight, Can touch him not and torture not again. * * « He lives, he wakes — 'tis Death is dead, not he; Mourn not for Adonais. — Thou young Dawn, Turn all thy dew to splendor, for from thee The spirit thou lamentest is not gone. Again : "My soul is an enchanted hoat, Which, like a sleeping swan, doth float Upon the silver waves of thy sweet singing; And thine doth like an angel sit Besides the helm conducting it!" Who Are These Spiritualists? 49 The record stands undisputed that Swedenborg, just before his departure to spirit life in 1772, prophesied that in about eighty years, wonderful phenomena of a spirit- ual nature would occur on the earth. The fourscore years expired in 1852. In 1846, some two or three years before the faintest translatable echo from the summer-land had reached an American ear, A. J. Davis stated, and it stands recorded in his "Divine Revelations ' ' (p. 175), that the shining intelligences of the second sphere of existence were soon to hold tangible communion with the people of earth. These were his prophetic words — "It is a truth that the spirits of the higher spheres commune with persons in the body by influx, although they are unconscious of the fact. This truth will ere long present itself in the form of a living demonstration. . . . And the world will hail with delight the ushering in of the era ! ' ' He is the author of some twenty-seven volumes upon the Harmonial Philosophy. THE DAWN OF MODERN SPIRITUALISM THE FOX SISTERS — Prophecy is a natural law. Coming events cast their shadows before, ghostly apparitions, materialized forms, weird visions, noises, rappings and serious disturbances have troubled people from remotest times. Of this, history is in evidence. Later, the Wes- ley family, the Dr. Phelps family and the Shaker families were perturbed by strange unaccountable noises. Still later, these noises — occult intonations— were heard in the Fox family as early as 1848 and regarded as torment- 50 * What Is Spiritualism? ing scourges. Neither prayer nor curses could hush the sounds into silence. It was evident to every thoughtful listener that the causes of these rappings were invisible. But what or who caused them? That was a solemn inquiry. Finally, little Katie Fox, eleven years of age, was no doubt influenced to say: " What are you? Who are you? — Eap now as many times as I do." Various numbers were named by the sisters, the mother and others, and the numbers specified were re- peated without a failure. The key was discovered! There was intelligence behind the persisting noises. This was March 31, 1848. THE POSTS, a family of Hicksite Quakers, hearing of the communications, invited the Fox sisters to their home in Eochester, N. Y. These excellent people almost im- mediately became converts. Writing to Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune, of the phenomena and the messages, the sisters were invited to New York where Horace Greeley, Charles Partridge and others attended the Eev. Edwin H. Chapin's church. The phenomena were marvelous and thrillingly interesting, spreading like wind-swept prairie fires. From the muffled rappings came trances, visions and multiplied manifestations. Al- though they demonstrated a future life and urged the people to live nobler and purer Christ-like lives, the priests pronounced them the works of the devil. JUDGE J. W. EDMONDS was born in Hudson, N. Y., 1799, and in 1819 entered the law office of ex-President Martin Van Buren. In 1831 he was elected a New York State Who Are These Spiritualists? 51 Senator. In 1843 he was appointed the Sing Sing State Prison Inspector. In 1845 he was appointed Circuit Judge. In 1847 he was elected Judge of the Supreme Court, and finally in 1851 took his seat upon the bench in the Court of Appeals. In the discharge of his judicial duties and fear- less independent decisions, he was often compared to Sir Matthew Hale. Theologically, he was considered an ag- nostic or a materialist, doubting any future existence. Hearing of the spiritual intercourse, he was inclined to treat it with dignified disfavor. But in November, 1850, his wife died and he began to think more seriously of a future life, and reasons for faith in it. On one occa- sion he was alone reading, about midnight, when he heard the voice of his wife distinctly. To use his own words, "I started as if I had been shot." He looked around him; his lamp was lighted and the fire burning cheerfully in the grate. Studying and analyzing the operations of his mind, he distinctly heard the voice again. It was a new experience. He began from this time to in- vestigate the subject candidly, and even critically through various mediums; and near the close of 1851 he became quite fully developed himself as a medium for visions, allegorical pictures, and direct communications from the spirit world written through his own hand. His daughter Laura also became a writing medium, and a trance me- dium with the gift of tongues. The Judge now openly avowed his Spiritualism, lectured upon it in public, and wrote articles for it in the American and foreign press. He says that "Spiritualism has deepened my faith in God, and the spiritual life and teachings of Christ. It has also inspired me with the most kindly Christian feel- 52 What Is Spiritualism 9 ings toward all conscientious religionists of whatever name or party." The pride, as he was, of the New York bar for years, a jurist of unimpeachable integrity and keen discernment, as well as an authority on interna- tional law, Judge Edmonds was not only a Spiritualist, but a spiritual medium with fine clairvoyant gifts. Sit- ting in his seance by the hour on Thursday evenings, and other evenings, I listened with intensest delight to the recital of his visions, as exalted as those of Peter or Paul, or of the inspired ecstatics appearing in the pre-Constan- tine period. PROF. S. B. BRITTAN,— A distinguished Universalist clergyman, classic essayist, linguist, editor of the Univercoelum and Spiritual Philosopher published in 1848, compiler of Brittan's and Richmond's Discussion, author of the Shekinah volumes, "Man and His Eela ? tions," etc., and was a prominent Spiritualist lecturer. PROF. ROBERT HARE, chemist, physicist, and scien- tist, was born in Philadelphia, Jan. 17, 1781. In early life he became a student, in the physical sciences, and before twenty years of age, joined the Chemical So- ciety of Philadelphia. He discovered a year or two after- wards, the oxy-hydrogen blow-pipe; named by Pro- fessor Silliman, the compound blow-pipe. He was the first to render irridium and platinum fusible in any con- siderable quantity, and also strontium without any alloy of mercury. He also proved that steam was not conden- sible when combined in equal parts with the vapor of carbon. In 1818 Dr. Hare was appointed Professor of Chemistry in the University of Pennsylvania, holding the office till he resigned in 1847. His course of instruc- Who Are These Spiritualists? 53 tion was marked by great originality, and crowned with many discoveries. In 1816 he invented the calorimotor. Professor Faraday acknowledged the great superiority of Dr. Hare 's instrument for intensifying heat. He was a frequent contributor to the American Journal of Science, and he invented machinery for the purpose of exposing the spiritual phenomena. But through careful and protracted study and investigation, he became a con- firmed Spiritualist, though he had previously been not merely an agnostic, but a downright materialist, believing in no hereafter. A few years after writing his great work in defense of Spiritualism, he said:— "Far from abating my confidence in the inferences respecting the agencies of the spirits of deceased mor- tals, in the manifestations of which I have given an account in my work, I have had even more striking evi- dence of that agency than those given in the working question.' ' JUDGE EDMONDS, in a letter dated New York, Feb. 12, 1861, says: "I received a letter from Dr. Hare express- ing a wish to see me on the subject of Spiritualism;. He came and spent several days with me. Our investiga- tions were somewhat different. He investigated as a scientist and a natural philosopher, and I as a lawyer, but we both arrived at the same result. And what was singular was that we had both of us gone into the in- vestigation of what we thought was a humbug, and which we were confident we could detect and expose, and this without any preconcert between us, and without either of us knowing the purpose of the other. 54 What Is Spiritualism? "He told me that he had been all his life an enemy of the Christian religion, a denier of the possibility of reve- lation, a disbeliever in God, or in our immortality. He fold me that he had gone so far as to collate and publish offensive extracts from the Bible in order to impeach the validity of ihe so-called revelations. He brought the sub- ject of Spiritualism before the American Scientific Asso- ciation, meeting in Albany, and would have been treated rudely by his compeers had it not been for the interf er- once of Agassiz." This distinguished scientist, Agassiz, prevailed upon them, says the Judge, ' ' on account of his high character and important scientific attainments to hear what he had to say. ... I have said to him, 'Dr. Hare has all his life been an honest, sincere, but inveterate disbeliever in the Christian religion. Later in life Spiritualism comes to him, and in a short time works in his mind the convic- tion of the existence of God, and of his own immortality. r . . . He had reasoned thus: If my sister lives, as she has proven to me, I shall live also, and there is an immor- tality, and if an immortality, there must be, — there is a God. 'But,' said he, 'Judge, I do not stop there; I be- lieve in revelation, and in a revelation through Jesus of Nazareth. I am a Christian V . . . That evening I at- tended one of our public meetings with him. We both addressed it, and he made a public avowal of his belief in the revelations of the Bible, and in the Christian re- ligion. ' ' HORACE GREELEY, editor of the New York Tribune,, said : "I have sat with three others around a small table, Who Are These Spiritualists? 55 with every one of our eight hands lying plainly, palpably on the table, and heard rapid writing with a pencil on paper, which, perfectly white, we had just previously placed under the table ; and have the next minute picked up that paper with a sensible, straight-forward message of twenty to fifty words fairly written thereon. . . . Yet, I am quite confident that none of the persons pres- ent, who were visible to mortal eyes, wrote it." REV. THEODORE PARKER'S testimony : This individual, so self -poised and towering in intel- lect, was the man-colossus among American clergy. As- cended, he is living and speaking still, through our media. Assuming that revelation was no green-house exotic, but perpetual as cycling ages, and that inspiration, native to the postures of the soul, is cognate with the races, he prop- agated a religious philosophy that will stream in in- creasing beauty through all the future eras of free thought. His grave is a Mecca under the mellow skies of Florence. Considered mentally he was thoroughly self-conscious of his greatness. "Tend this head well," says Mirabeau, on his death- bed; "it is the greatest head in France." "God gave me great powers," says the expiring Parker, "and I have but half used them." The coincidence was singu- lar, while saying in his last hours — ' ' There are two The- odore Parkers, the one here sick and struggling, and the other at work at home. ' ' There was a friend reading at the time, one of his great sermons in Music Hall, Boston. There were "two Theodore Parkers" — the shadow and the substance, for man is dual, aye, trinal. The papers thought him "wandering a little." The Jews evidently 56 What Is Spiritualism? thought Paul was "wandering" when "caught up to the third heaven,' ' not knowing whether he was in the body or out. In thought and speech, relative to the Spiritual Phi- losophy, he was manly and heroic. In notes made for a sermon we find the following: "In 1856 it seems more likely that Spiritualism would become the religion of America, than in 156 that Chris- tianity would become the religion of the Roman empire, or in 756 that Mohammedanism would be that of the Arabian populations: "1. It has more evidence for its wonders than any historic form of religion hitherto. "2. It is thoroughly democratic, with no hierarchy; but inspiration is open to all. "3. It is no fixed fact — has no punctum< stans, but is a punctum fluens. "4. It admits all the truths of religion and morality in all the world-sects. ' ' "Shall we know our friends again? For my own part I cannot doubt it; least of all, when I drop a tear over their recent dust. Death does not separate them from us here. Can life in heaven do it!" The succeeding paragraphs we transcribe from quo- tations from Wm. Howitt's "History of the Supernat- ural." Who but Theodore Parker could have written thus upon Spiritualism? "Let others judge the merits and defects of this scheme; it has never organized a church — yet, in all ages, from the earliest, men have more or less freely Who Are These Spiritualists? 57 set forth its doctrines. We find these men amongst the despised and forsaken; the world was not ready to re- ceive them. They have been stoned and spit upon in all the streets of the world. The ' pious' have burned them as haters of God and man ; the wicked called them bad names and let them go. They have served to flash the swords of the Catholic Church, and fed the fires of the Protestants; but flames and steel will not consume them; the seed they have sown is quick in many a heart — their memory blessed by such as live divine. These are men at whom the world opens wide the mouth, and draws out the tongue, and utters its impertinent laugh; but they received the fires of God on their altars, and kept living its sacred flame. They go on, the forlorn hope of the race; but Truth puts a wall of fire about them, and holds the shield over their heads in the day of trouble. The battle of truth seems often lost, but is always won. Her enemies but erect the blood scaffold- ing where the workmen of God go up and down, and, with divine hands, build wiser than they know. When the scaffolding falls, the temple will appear.' ' . . . "This party has an idea wider and deeper than that of the Catholic or Protestant; namely, that God still in- spires men as much as ever; that he is imminent in spirit as in space. For the present purpose, and to avoid circumlocution, this doctrine may be called Spiritualism. This relies on no church tradition, or scripture, as the last ground and infallible rule. It counts these things teachers, if they teach — not masters ; helps, if they help us* — not authorities. It relies on the divine presence in the soul of men— the eternal word of God, which is 58 What Is Spiritualism? Truth, as it speaks through the faculties he has given. It believes God is near the soul as matter to the sense; thinks the canon of revelation not yet closed, nor God exhausted. It sees him in Nature's perfect work; hears him in all true Scriptures, Jewish or Phoenician; feels him in the inspiration of the heart; stoops at the same fountain with Moses and Jesus, and is filled with living water. It calls God, Father, not King; Christ, brother, not redeemer; Heaven, home; Eeligion, Nature! It loves and trusts, but does not fear. It sees in Jesus a man, living, man-like; highly gifted and living with blameless and beautiful fidelity to God — stepping thou- sands of years before the race of men — the profoundest religious genius that God has raised up; whose words and works help us to form and develop the native idea of a complete religious man„ But he lived for himself, died for himself, worked out his own salvation, and we must do the same; for one man cannot live for another, more than he can eat or sleep for him. It lays down no creed, asks no symbol, reverences exclusively no time nor place, and therefore can use all time and every place. It reckons forms useful to such as they help. Its temple is all space, its shrine the good heart, its creed all truth, its ritual works of love and utility, its profession of faith a divine life, works without faith, within love of God and man. It takes all the helps it can get; counts no good word profane, though a heathen spoke it — nof lie sacred, though the greatest prophet had said the word. Its redeemer is within, its salvation within, its heaven and its oracle of God. It falls back on perfect religion — asks no more, is satisfied with no less." Who Are These Spiritualists? 59 ADIN BALLOU, Hopedale, Mass. — When lecturing, in the year 1870, to the Spiritualist society in Cambridge- port, Mass., I exchanged Sunday services with the Rev. Adin Ballou of Hopedale, Mass., whom Count Tolstoy pronounces one of the "greatest and noblest men of America." Adin Ballou, though a clergyman, had the moral bravery and independence to investigate Spirit- ualism, and when receiving evidences of its reality, he was courageous enough to express publicly his convic- tions. In his book he says: "I have seen tables and light stands of various sizes moved about in the most astonishing manner by invisible agencies, with only the gentle and passive resting of the hands and finger tips of the medium on one of their edges. Also many dis- tinct movings of such objects by request without the touch of the medium at all. I have sat and conversed by the hour together with the authors of these sounds and motions, by means of signals first agreed upon; ask- ing questions and obtaining answers — receiving com- munications spelled out by the alphabet — discussing propositions sometimes made by them to me, and vice versa. I have witnessed the asking of mental questions by inquirers, who received as prompt and correct an- swers as when the questions were asked audibly to the cognition of the medium. "I have known these invisibles by request to write their names with a common plumbago pencil on a clean sheet of paper, — a half dozen of them, each in a differ- ent hand. ... I have requested what purported to be the spirit of a friend many years deceased, to go to a particular place, several miles distant from that of the 60 What Is Spiritualism? sitting and to bring back intelligence respecting the then health and doings of a certain relative well known to the party. In three minutes of time, the intelligence was obtained, numerous particulars given, some of them rather improbable, but every one exactly confirmed the next day by personal inquiries made for that purpose. "I have been requested by the invisibles to speak on a particular subject, at a given time and place, with the assurance that responses should be made on the occa- sion by knockings, approving the truths uttered, — all of which was strikingly verified.' ' REV. WILLIAM FISHB0UGH, distinguished Universalist clergyman, extensive writer, early Spiritualist, author of several books and the scribe of Andrew Jackson Davis ' Divine Eevelations, who, revising, prepared them for publication. ABRAHAM LINCOLN, the martyred President, was a Spiritualist. He frequently attended seances at the residence of the Lauries in Washington. The daughter was a medium. It was in this same family that Miss Nettie Coburn was entranced by spirits purporting to be Jefferson, and the fathers of our country, and who plead of President Lincoln to free those four million slaves in bondage. (See Mrs. Nettie Coburn-Maynard's work, entitled, "Abraham Lincoln, a Spiritualist." ) Lincoln's emancipation message was an inspiration from the spirit world. Judge Edmonds, delivering an oration in Hope Chapel, N. Y., upon the life of Lincoln, gave the proofs of this. It is undeniable. In Judge Pierpont's address to the jury at the Sur- ratt trial he said; "I now come to a strange act in this Who Are These Spiritualists? 61 dark drama — strange, though not new —