# LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.! 
 
 f UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 
 
 t 
 

\ * * 
 
 
THE 
 
 SIGNS OF THE TIMES: 
 
 COMPRISING 
 
 A HISTORY 
 
 SPIRIT-RAPPINGS, 
 
 IN CINCINNATI AND OTHER PLACES; 
 
 WITH NOTES OF CLAIRVOYANT REVEALMENTS, 
 
 WILLIAM T. COGGSHALL. 
 
 " There is a fount about to stream, 
 There is a light about to beam, 
 There is a warmth about to flow, 
 There is a flower about to blow, 
 There is a midnight blackness changing 
 
 Into gray : 
 Men of thought, and men of action, 
 
 Clear the way !" 
 
 t 
 
 CINCINNATI: 
 
 PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR. 
 1851. 
 
? \^ 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1851, by 
 
 WILLIAM T. COGGSHALL, 
 
 in the Clerk's office of the District Court of the United States for the 
 
 District of Ohio. 
 
 BEN FRANKLIN BOOK AND JOB PRINTING OFFICE. 
 
TO 
 
 THOSE WHO WOULD UNDERSTAND, 
 
 AND UNDERSTANDING, 
 DARE DEFEND, 
 
 INDEPENDENT OP BIGOTRY AND TRADITION, 
 
 THIS WORK 
 is 
 
 RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED. 
 
 <( All rests with those who read. A work or thought 
 Is what each makes it to himself, and may 
 Be full of great, dark meanings, like the sea, 
 With shoals of life rushing : or like the air, 
 Benighted with the wing of the wild dove, 
 Sweeping miles broad o'er the far western woods, 
 With mighty glimpses of the central light — 
 Or may be nothing — bodiless, spiritless. 
 Now, therefore, to this work and to the world 
 The writer bids God speed 1 It matters not 
 If they agree or differ." 
 
 Proem to Festus. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 Preface 5 
 
 Introduction 7 
 
 MYSTERIOUS NOISES. 
 
 Part I. — General History 15 
 
 Part II. — Cincinnati Rappings 25 
 
 SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 
 
 Part I. — Clairvoyant Revealments 73 
 
 Part II. — Facts and Opinions 107 
 
 Part III. —Spirit-Power 127 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 In presenting the following work to the public, the author 
 is fully aware of the unpopularity of the subject. As the first 
 individual who brought the Rapping " manifestations" 7 direct- 
 ly before the readers of Cincinnati newspapers, he has heard 
 enough, in the last three months, to know that he may expect 
 censure and ridicule from all those who have not given can- 
 did attention to the '-mysterious manifestations" — who re- 
 gard the Rapping stories as unfounded tales, connected with 
 u haunted houses" — or, as gross deceptions, growing out of 
 the excited imaginations of persons who seek after, and de- 
 light in the marvellous ; but he has seen enough of this world 
 not to heed opposition from either those who follow it to 
 gratify evil propensities, or from those who have creeds and 
 opinions to sustain, that their defenders must not allow to 
 be examined by any other than the light (?) of tradition, if 
 they would have them in general favor. 
 
 In the following pages there are many statements, and 
 many admissions, perilous very to one who is not of stern 
 enough stuff to endure the satire and ridicule of this world — 
 even when he knows fie is right — but, while skeptios and 
 scoffers enjoy their jeers and gibes, the writer shall await 
 promised "glad tidings" patiently. 
 
 If, as the majority declare, the " manifestations" are all 
 delusion, he shall find it out, in the course he has marked 
 out for himself — that of candid investigation — much sooner 
 than those who, with their eyes blind-folded, cry " humbug;" 
 and if, as he is impressed, there is true philosophy in the 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 new-light, he shall aid in the spreading of truths which must 
 teach all men to believe rationally, what many good men 
 would now receive, who are driven to heretic ground, on 
 account of the bigotry and superstition of the times, and the 
 inconsistencies of the professed followers of Christ, viz : that 
 there is a hereafter — that there is life above this world, in 
 which the justice and mercy of God are divinely manifested. 
 
 Those who think for themselves — who are not under dic- 
 tation of any description, and who, with fair evidence, would 
 believe that the friends departed, for whom they weep, can- 
 not be " forever and forever" shut apart from them, either in 
 glory or torment, will thank the author for the " labor of love" 
 which, to him, the following work has been. 
 
 For their sake would it were worthier. It has been writ- 
 ten amid cares and perplexities growing out of the exacting 
 duties of the post of Assistant Editor in the office of a daily 
 newspaper, and the author has only been able to give it calm 
 reflection at such odd hours as could be snatched from other 
 pressing literary engagements. It is, therefore, necessarily 
 imperfect, in the style of its preparation ; and crude, no doubt, 
 to a very great degree, in many of the theories it suggests. 
 
 In this respect, of carping critics, the author may ask chari- 
 ty — in all other respects, he neither expects nor desires sym- 
 thy from the mass — and perhaps should hardly anticipate 
 aught else than angry persecution on the part of the majority 
 — but " truth is mighty and must prevail." 
 
 Cincinnati, 1851. 
 
INTRODUCTION, 
 
 " What if cherished creeds must fade ? 
 
 Faith will never leave us ; 
 God preserves what God has made — 
 
 Nor can Truth deceive us. 
 
 Let in Light — the holy Light ! 
 Brothers, fear it never ! 
 
 Darkness smiles, and Wrong grows Right- 
 Let in Light forever ! 
 
 Let in Light 1 When this shall be 
 
 Safe and pleasant duty, 
 Men in common things shall see 
 
 Goodness, Truth and Beauty." 
 
 In the summer of 1845, I became, from peculiar cir- 
 cumstances, interested in the subject of human magnet- 
 ism. I had an excellent opportunity to witness experi- 
 ments, and was soon impressed that there was something 
 more in the developments, than the mere paralyzing of 
 an arm or the exciting of phrenological organs. I ex- 
 perimented, myself, upon various Subjects, and was im- 
 mediately led to the thought that, perhaps, beneath this 
 unpopular and much ridiculed magnetism, might lie the 
 true science oi mind — that by it, developments would 
 some day be made, which would clearly demonstrate the 
 relations of mind to body, and the relations of the spirit- 
 ual to the material or physical world. The mure I re- 
 flected upon the questions involved in this theory, the 
 more firmly was I convinced that my opinions were well 
 founded. As I have watched the "progress" of magne- 
 
SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 
 
 tism, from the common manifestations of an Operator's 
 power over the Subject's muscles, to the higher develop- 
 ments of clairvoyance, I have felt that those investi- 
 gating candidly, were being led towards a field of exami- 
 nation that would bring the philosophy of mental opera- 
 tion nearer to the comprehension of the people generally, 
 than the wise men of olden time had ever dreamed. I 
 have observed the course of public clairvoyants with 
 deep interest : I have endeavored, by all proper means 
 in my power, to learn from them, while they were in the 
 superior condition ; and when the newspapers of New 
 York published accounts of the "mysterious noises/' I 
 was not disposed to treat them with ridicule, but to read 
 and endeavor to understand, and was ready to believe, as 
 far as the "manifestations" appeared to be well authen- 
 ticated, and consistent with themselves and reason ; not 
 reason from tradition or prejudice, but reason from na- 
 ture, and the laws which, through magnetism, I had been 
 taught, govern mind. In the statement that mind, es- 
 caped from the body, does communicate with mind yet 
 connected with the body, there was nothing that con- 
 flicted with any theological notions I held, and whenever 
 I witnessed " manifestations" that I was satisfied were 
 not produced by mortal agencies, I was prepared to be- 
 lieve that they might be " spiritual manifestations." 
 
 Early in life I thought much upon spiritual matters. 
 All men, I believe who think at all, can say with Festus, 
 in the Poem of this name, by Philip James Bailey — 
 
 "In sp'te of all we suffer and enjoy 
 The-e comes this question, over and over again, 
 Driven in o the brain as a pile is driven — 
 What, -hall become of us hereafter 1 what 
 Is it we shall do— how feel, how be V 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 While thinking these thoughts, 1 could not admit the 
 generally received orthodox opinions, that the Spirit- 
 world was a place to which we must travel — " a bourne 
 whence no traveler e'er returns .' ' Although strictly taught 
 that if there were spiritual influences in this world, they 
 proceeded from God through his messengers — the Angels 
 that dwelt in heaven ere the world was created — I could 
 never understand, either from the Bible or other sources, 
 why a man's guardian Angels might not be the spiritual 
 existences of those who, in the flesh, knew and loved 
 him. I felt that the history of the world showed that 
 "manifestations" from departed Spirits had oAen been 
 made, and I knew no reason why they might not now be 
 made. Therefore, when " manifestations" were address- 
 ed to me, and I was confident, from various circum- 
 stances, as well as from the nature of the communication, 
 that the sounds were not produced by any of the com- 
 pany of embodied Spirits around me, I was impressed that 
 they were produced by disembodied Spirits around me, 
 and I became deeply and permanently interested in them. 
 
 I have said thus much in relation to my convictions, 
 that the reader may appreciate my position in the prepa- 
 ration of the history of the "Mysterious Noises" which I 
 have heard, and about which I have been reliably in- 
 formed. 
 
 Why may not the Spirit-world be around and about 
 us ? May our world not be within it, as the world of the 
 animal is within ours ; and while we know no more of 
 the true condition of the Spirit- world than the ox knows 
 of our mental world, is it not a most glorious thought 
 that revelations can be made to us, through which we 
 
10 SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 
 
 may see and know that those who die are not dead — 
 taken from us — but that they are with us, in superior 
 wisdom, watching over us — instructing us, hoping that 
 we will so live, in harmony with nature, that they may 
 commune freely with us in " our daily walk," and show 
 us that we may truly begin to live in Heaven, before 
 we pass the change called death. 
 
 It is objected that the Mappings are too low an order 
 of "manifestations" to come from the Spirit-world — that 
 if they were Spiritual manifestations, they would be 
 made to all men, under all circumstances. 
 
 That a communication cannot be sent instantaneously 
 along hickory poles, from Cincinnati to New York, is 
 because hickory poles are not a medium of electrical 
 transmission — that every man and every woman does 
 not receive intelligent "manifestations," may be that 
 neither every man nor every woman is a medium for the 
 reception of Spiritual new-lights. If Spiritual "manifes- 
 tations" were more generally made, they would rarely 
 be received — the midnight blackness has not yet changed 
 to gray. There is abroad over the land a holy and a 
 superstitious horror of direct influences from the Spirits 
 of the bodily entomed. How are the "manifestations," 
 purporting to come from the Spirit-world, now regarded by 
 the mass ? — the " precious few" only acknowledge them. 
 Witness the ridicule, the scorn, the contempt, everywhere 
 excited against them among the prejudiced, tradition- 
 led and unthinking. Of what service would Spirit- 
 ual manifestations be, at this crisis, in every dwelling of 
 the land, further than the awakening of a curiosity for 
 the odd and strange, the new and wonderful, which is 
 
INTRODUCTION. 11 
 
 akin to that curiosity that makes boys delight in a panto- 
 mime, a puppet show, or a farce. Although the history 
 of the world's unpopular movements teaches that "mani- 
 festations" from the Spirit-world have been made in all 
 ao-es, and the records of witchcraft show that hundreds 
 of the unfortunate have been sacrificed to bigotry and 
 superstition, for being the mere passing witnesses of what 
 may have been true "manifestations" from the Spirit- 
 world, mankind are yet benighted, and the foremost in 
 the ranks of the persevering seekers after truth have but 
 reached the porch of that great temple in which are con- 
 tained the heavenly elevating explanations that belong to 
 the perfect philosophy of mind and its hereafter — to be 
 opened to the world, perhaps by means of discoveries 
 that may be made through the contemned "mysterious 
 noises." The "manifestations" are yet but raps, per- 
 chance because it is for man's good. Popular super- 
 stition still conjures fearful visions at the mention of 
 " haunted houses." He who would wish to see a ghost 
 is fool-hardy. Unquiet graves are yet feared by the 
 most consistently pious of the orthodox faith, and church- 
 yards, where the murdered rest, are, at midnight, the 
 dread of thousands in every community ; and yet peo- 
 ple hoot at the very mention of spiritual manifestations. 
 A strange and confused idea indeed, is the prevailing one 
 in relation to Spirits and the Spirit-world. 
 
 Communications highly important to the persons re- 
 ceiving them, have repeatedly been made in Cincinnati, 
 Rochester, £Tew York and other places. When the 
 world has confidence — when the world has comprehen- 
 sion, important communications may be made to it. 
 
12 SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 
 
 When we talk to children who are learning the letters of 
 the alphabet, we do not give them explanations of Astron- 
 omy, Geology, Music, Painting or Elocution. When we 
 address or communicate with the mass of tender mind 
 in a Sabbath-school, we do not speak as does Daniel 
 Webster, before the United States Senate, on questions 
 involved in the permanency of the Union. A mind that 
 reasoned well from cause to effect, was led to the theory 
 of gravitation by the falling of an apple — another, to the 
 discovery of the power of steam by the lifting of a tea- 
 kettle 1 lid. That the art of Printing was not ascertained 
 centuries before Guttenburg, was not because moveable 
 types could not be constructed, but because the manner 
 of their use was not known — that the steam engine was 
 not discovered a century before Worcester, Watt or Ful- 
 ton, was not because the power of steam did not exist, 
 but because its power was not known — that we were not 
 able to have instant communication with cities, thousands 
 of miles distant, a century before Morse, was not because 
 the magnetic fluid did not travel thus rapidly, but because 
 men did not understand the manner of employing its 
 speed — that the mode of communication from the Spirit- 
 world was not recognized by "noises" long before the 
 Hydesville " manifestations, " was not because " noises" 
 had not previously been made, but because it did not 
 happen that any one was so impressed by them as to 
 properly follow out indications. 
 
 Clairvoyants are impressed that the " Kappings" are 
 the lowest order of manifestations ; but if we follow out 
 their indications, we shall surely be led to such commu- 
 nings with the Spirit-world as we cannot fail to recog- 
 
INTRODUCTION. 13 
 
 nize — such as will not merely reply to trivial questions, 
 but such as shall give us instructions that must purify 
 and elevate all who receive them. Those who are near- 
 est the proper mental and moral condition, will receive 
 the earliest satisfactory communings with the higher cir- 
 cles of the Spirit-world, while those who now " grope in 
 thick darkness'' will be the recipients only of glimmer- 
 ings of light from the first or lowest of the Spirit-spheres. 
 Wordsworth, in bis poetic appreciation of the simplest 
 of nature's impressions, says : — 
 
 " She can so inform 
 The mind that is within us, so impress 
 With quietness and beauty, and so feed 
 With lofty thoughts, that neither evil tongues, 
 Rash judgments, nor the sneers of selfish men, 
 Nor greetings where no kindness is, nor all 
 The dreary intercourse of daily life, 
 Shall e'er prevail against us, or disturb 
 Our cheerful faith, that all which we behold 
 Is full of blessings." 
 
 And again be says of one " who never felt the witchery 
 of the soft blue sky'' — 
 
 " A primrose by the river's brim, 
 A yellow primrose was to him — 
 And it was nothing more." 
 
 And in times past, to those who heard the M mysteri- 
 ous noises," they were raps, and nothing more than raps 
 — nor more than that, nor even that, to many are they 
 now. But by the few who ^ 
 
 " Have felt 
 A presence that disturbes them with the joy 
 Of elevated thoughts ; a sense sublime 
 Of something still more deeply interfused^ 
 
 they are regarded as the feeble utterances of a principle 
 that has been long struo-cHjrio' against ignorance for ap- 
 
14 SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 
 
 propriate recognition, and which is, at no distant period, 
 to reveal luminous explanations of the human soul's great 
 mysteries, and teach to all men, who are not wretchedly- 
 perverse, the divine relations of that within them which 
 is immortal. 
 
 We give our impressions and convictions thus pre- 
 paratory to the history we have to relate, fully sensible 
 that they may expose us to severe censure and bitter 
 ridicule; but having enlisted in this "work" we have 
 nothing to conceal ; and while we hope that all who have 
 traveled thus far with us will journey on, we can assure 
 each reader that, from title page to index, he will find 
 the book bates not 
 
 " One tittle of the truth 
 To smoothe its way to favor with the fearful." 
 
HISTORY 
 
 MYSTERIOUS NOISES. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 ' Tis sweet to fee] we are encircled here 
 
 By breath of Angels, as the stars by Heaven ; 
 
 And the soul's own relations, all divine, 
 
 As kind as even those of blood ; — and thns 
 
 While friends and kin, like Saturn's double rings, 
 
 Cheer us along our orbit, we may feel 
 
 We are not lone in life, but that earth's part 
 
 Of Heaven and all things. Festus. 
 
 GENERAL HISTORY. 
 
 The accounts given in the newspapers of the rapping 
 "manifestations/' have excited great interest in all parts 
 of the country. The writer has credible authority for a 
 conviction that they have been heard in Cincinnati for 
 at least three years, among people who have been much 
 perplexed and troubled by them ; and he has no doubt 
 they have been heard in other cities and in other coun- 
 tries ; but the first sounds to which general attention was 
 called, and by which communications w^ere made in this 
 country, were heard in a small village named Hydesville, 
 in the town of Arcadia, Wayne county, New York. It 
 has been stated in all the Pamphlets, which give a his- 
 
16 SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 
 
 tory of these sounds, that those at Hydesville were the 
 first by which communications were ever made to the 
 people of this earth. Such, on examination, does not ap- 
 pear to be the fact. It is well authenticated that in the 
 year 1835, at the house of a captain Molesworth, situ- 
 ated at Trinity, about two miles distant from Edinburg, 
 Scotland, mysterious sounds were heard, which caused 
 the inmates of the house much trouble. The occupant 
 supposed them to be occasioned by the owner, a Mr. 
 Webster, but after every possible search, was unable to 
 ascertain their origin. Sometimes, if a question were ad- 
 dressed which could be answered numerically, as, " How 
 many persons are in the room?" correct answers would 
 be given by the required number of sounds. Captain 
 Molesworth had two daughters, one of whom had lately 
 died, and the other, a girl about fourteen years of age, 
 was feeble, and confined to her bed a great part of the 
 time. The noises were heard most frequently in her 
 presence. Captain Molesworth, determined to ascertain 
 the cause of the sounds, tore up the floors of the house, 
 broke the walls, burned the wainscots, but all to no pur- 
 pose. The owner of the house brought suit for damages, 
 and the case was unsettled for two years. Meantime, 
 the young daughter and Captain Molesworth left the 
 house, and those that have since occupied it have not 
 been disturbed by mysterious sounds. 
 
 The account of these Rappings is given at page 410 
 of Catherine Crowe's work, entitled the " Night side of 
 Nature." 
 
 The house in which the Hydesville Rappings were 
 heard, was occupied during a part of the years of 1846 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 17 
 
 and 1847, by Mr. Michael Weekman. Mr. W. states 
 that, one evening, about nine o'clock, as he was pre- 
 paring to retire for the night, he heard a rapping on the 
 out-side door. He opened it, but saw no one. In a few 
 moments, the rapping on the door was repeated, and was 
 louder than at first. He immediately stepped to the door, 
 and opened it ; no person was to be seen. He went into 
 the street and looked about the house, and returned, 
 without seeing any one. Soon the noise was repeated, 
 and, failing to see any person, he placed his hand on the 
 latch of the door, in order to open it immediately, should 
 the annoyance be continued. Again the rapping was 
 heard — he felt the door jar, and sprang into the street. 
 No person was to be seen anywhere in the vicinity. 
 
 The family of Mr. John D. Fox moved into the house 
 on the 11th of December, 1847. They heard the rap- 
 ping for the first time during the latter part of March, 
 1848, one evening, after they had retired for the night. 
 It seemed to be in one of the bed rooms, and sounded as 
 though some one was knocking on the floor, moving 
 chairs, &c. Four or five members of the family were at 
 home, and they all got up, to ascertain the cause of the 
 noise. Every part of the house was searched, yet no- 
 thing could be discovered. A perceptible jar was felt by 
 putiing the hand on the bedsteads and chairs ; a jar 
 was also experienced while standing on the floor. The 
 noise was continued, that night as Ion or as any one was 
 awake, in the house. The following evening they were 
 heard as before, and on the evening of the 31st of March, 
 the neighbors were called in for the first time. 
 
 The following is an extract from Mrs. Fox's state- 
 
18 SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 
 
 ment, made soon after the occurrences narrated took 
 place. It is quoted from a pamphlet on the Mysterious 
 Noises, published by D. M. Dewey, of Rochester, N. Y : 
 
 " On Friday night, we concluded to go to bed early, 
 and not let it disturb us ; if it came we thought, we would 
 not mind it, but tr}~ and get a good night's rest. My 
 husband was here on all these occasions, heard the noise 
 and helped search. It was very early when .we went to 
 bed on this night ; hardly dark. We went to bed so 
 early, because we had been broken so much of our rest 
 that I was almost sick. 
 
 " My husband had not gone to bed when we first heard 
 the noise on this evening. I had just laid down. It 
 commenced as usual. I knew it from all other noises I 
 had ever heard in the house. The girls, who slept in 
 the other bed in the room, heard the noise, and tried to 
 make a similar noise by snapping their fingers. The 
 youngest girl is about twelve years old ; she is the one 
 who made her hand go. As fast as she made the noise 
 with her hands or fingers, the sound was followed up in 
 the room. It did not sound any different at that time, 
 only it made the same number of noises that the girl did. 
 When she stopped, the sound itself stopped for a short 
 time. 
 
 " The other girl, who is in her fifteenth year, then 
 spoke in sport, and said, 'Now do just as I do. Count 
 one, two, three, four,' &c, striking one hand in the 
 other at the same time. The blows which she made 
 were repeated as before. It appeared to answer her by 
 repeating every blow that she made. She only did so 
 once. She then began to be startled ; and then I spoke 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 19 
 
 and said to the noise, ' count ten/ and it made ten strokes 
 or noises. Then I asked the ages of my different child- 
 ren successively, and it gave a number of raps, corres- 
 ponding to the ages of my children. 
 
 a I then asked if it was a human being that was making 
 the noise ? and if it was, to manifest it by the same noise. 
 There was no noise. I then asked if it was a spirit ? and 
 if it was, to manifest it by two sounds. I heard two 
 sounds as soon as the words were spoken." 
 
 These "manifestations" caused great excitement in 
 the village, and mairy persons called at the house of 
 Mr. Fox to hear the noises. Many questions were asked 
 and answered by raps correctly. Sounds were only made 
 when an affirmative answer was the correct one to a 
 question, or when numbers were to be designated. Ac- 
 cording to the pamphlet before quoted, at one time, when 
 those investigating wished to ascertain a certain name, 
 the Spirit was asked if it would rap for the initial letters 
 when they were named. The reply was in the affirma- 
 tive ; and when the alphabet was called over, there was 
 rapping at particular letters. Soon the experiment was 
 carried still further, and by request, entire names and 
 sentences of considerable length were swelled out. A 
 
 O J. 
 
 signal for the alphabet was soon understood to be five 
 raps in quick succession. 
 
 In a few months after the manifestations were first 
 heard by the Fox family, several of the members re- 
 moved from Hydesville to Rochester, and resided with a 
 married sister, Mrs. Fish. The sounds were here heard 
 in the presence of Margaretta Fox and Mrs. Fish. They 
 were talked about, and elicited general attention — got 
 
20 SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 
 
 into the newspapers, and were immediately speculated 
 upon in all parts of the Union. The third town in which 
 the raps were heard, was Auburn, 1ST. Y. Cathaiiae, 
 the youngest daughter of Mr. Fox, visited this place, and 
 the sounds were made at the houses she visited. In 
 Rochester, the raps have not been confined to the Fox 
 Family. Since the " manifestations" in Auburn, they 
 have been communicated with in Greece, Monroe county, 
 N. Y., in Sennett, Cayuga county, N. Y., in New York 
 city, on Long Island, at Troy, N. Y., at Boston and 
 Springfield, Mass., and a number of other towns and 
 cities. 
 
 On one occasion, in Nov., 1849, at Rochester, the 
 sounds communicated the following sentences to certain 
 persons assembled for investigation : 
 
 " You have all a duty to perform. We want you to 
 make this matter public." 
 
 Objections were made by several individuals against 
 being personally engaged in the calling out of the sounds 
 before a promiscuous auditory ; ' but finally a Hall was 
 engaged and lectures were delivered by E. W. Capron, 
 of Auburn, N. Y. An account of this public investiga- 
 tion was published in the New York Weekly Tribune, of 
 Dec. 8th, 1849. In this account, the Committee of In- 
 vestigation, consisting of A. J. Combs, Daniel Marsh, 
 Nathaniel Clark, Esq., A. Judson, and Edwin Jones, 
 reported, " That without the knowledge of the persons 
 in whose presence the manifestations are made, the Com- 
 mittee selected the hall of the Sons of Temperance for 
 investigation — that the sound on the floor near where the 
 two ladies stood, was heard as distinctly as at other 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 21 
 
 places, and that part of the Committee heard the rapping 
 on the wall behind them — that a number of questions 
 were asked which were answered, not altogether right 
 nor altogether wrong — that in the afternoon they went 
 to the house of a private citizen, and while there the 
 sounds were heard on the outside, (apparently,) of the 
 front door, after they had entered, and on the door of a 
 closet. By placing the hand upon the door, there was a 
 sensible jar felt when the rapping was heard. One of 
 the Committee placed one of his hands upon the feet of 
 the ladies and the other on the floor, and though the 
 feet were not moved, there was a distinct jar on the floor. 
 On the pavement, and on the ground, the same sound 
 was heard ; a kind of double rap, as a stroke and a re- 
 bound, were distinguishable. When the ladies were 
 separated at a distance, no sound was heard, but when 
 a third person was interposed between them, the sounds 
 were heard. The ladies seemed to give every opportu- 
 nity to the Committee to investigate the cause fully, and 
 would submit to a thorough investigation by a Committee 
 of ladies, if desired. They all agreed that the sounds 
 were heard, hut they entirely failed to discover any means 
 by ivJiich it coidd be done" 
 
 Subsequently, another Committee of responsible men 
 was appointed to investigate the " mystery." This Com- 
 mittee met at the rooms of Dr. Gates, at the Rochester 
 House, and appointed a Committee of ladies, who took 
 the young women into a room, disrobed them and ex- 
 amined their persons and clothing, to be sure that there 
 were no fixtures about them that could produce the sounds. 
 When satisfied on this point, the Committee of ladies 
 
22 SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 
 
 tried some other experiments, and gave the young ladies 
 the following certificate : 
 
 " When they were standing on pillows, with a hand- 
 kerchief tied around the bottoms of their dresses, tight to 
 the ankles, we all heard the rapping on the wall and 
 floor distinctly." 
 
 (Signed,) Mrs. STONE, 
 
 Mrs. J. GATES, 
 Miss. M. P. LAWRENCE. 
 
 Various other measures were taken to ascertain if the 
 sounds were produced by the persons in whose presence 
 they were manifested, and each investigation only served 
 to show more conclusively, that if there were any de- 
 ception, the ladies were deceived — that they did not pro- 
 duce the " noises," and if they did, they could not cor- 
 rectly have answered a tithe of the questions propounded, 
 even by their most intimate acquaintances. 
 
 When Mrs. Fish and the Misses Fox visited New 
 York city, every possible test was made to satisfy the 
 sceptical and curious, as to the cause of the mysterious 
 noises, and everything was calculated to increase confi- 
 dence in the honesty of the ladies. There, as in Roches- 
 ter, they were disrobed, and examined by a Committee 
 of ladies, who reported that the sounds could not have 
 been made by Mrs. Fish or either of the Misses Fox. 
 Horace Greely, Editor of the New York Tribune, after 
 an acquaintance with the Misses Fox, one of whom has 
 spent some time in his family, said over his own initials 
 in his paper — " We vouch for the perfect honesty and 
 good faith of the Fox family. There we stop, awaiting 
 more evidence. That some influence, outside and un- 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 23 
 
 connected with the volition of the family, causes these 
 ' manifestations,' we are confident ; what it is, we have 
 yet to be assured. ****** 
 
 Our columns are still open to statements of fact tend- 
 ing to shed light on these singular occurrences, whether 
 on one side or the other. And it is but justice to the 
 Fox family to state that at present there are not less 
 than forty or fifty families — probably many more — in 
 which \ manifestations' are from time to time taking 
 place, similar, in general character, to those reported as 
 occurring in theirs. Several of these families had never 
 heard of the 'Rochester Mappings' when the like first 
 commenced in their own dwellings. If all this can be 
 the result of imposition and collusion, then it w'ill be 
 hard to rely on human observation or human integrity 
 hereafter." 
 
 The writer of a pamphlet on the "Rappings," pub- 
 lished in New York, who signs himself "A Dweller in 
 the Temple," known to be an able psychological writer, 
 says in reference to the influences which cause the raps, 
 t; Men of the most acute discrimination have long been 
 engaged in the investigation. Intelligence and skepti- 
 cism, sharpened by the suspicion of fraud, have not 
 failed to institute every ordeal afforded by the resources 
 of science and art, till sensible and candid men have 
 been forced to abandon all idea of tracing the mysterious 
 phenomena to any human device. Thus the names of 
 innocent persons, who were threatened with the loss of 
 reputation and the dearest earthly interests, have been 
 vindicated ; their characters are seen to be untarnished 
 by alleged acts of fraud and hypocrisy, w T hi!e foul sus- 
 
24 SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 
 
 picion is left at last to sting the heart that did gender it." 
 The Home Journal, edited by N. P. Willis, entirely 
 acquitted the Fox family of the charge of producing the 
 sounds, when the Editor heard them in New York, in 
 company with William Cullen Bryant, J. Fennimore 
 Cooper, and others of the Gotham literati. 
 
 Several weeks since, the papers of New York stated 
 that the Tappings were being heard in numerous houses 
 in that city, the inmates of which kept the matter secret 
 for fear of the dread public and the ridicule of unthink- 
 ing sceptics. 
 
 But I have occupied already to much space in this 
 general bistary, and must hasten to record Cincinnati 
 " manifestations," with the remark, that if the statements 
 of Clairvoyants are to be relied upon, these "manifesta- 
 tions" are not to be confined to any family, or to any 
 town or city, but will be known and acknowledged in all 
 parts of our country, and, as previously stated, are but 
 to pave the way for higher manifestations, which will 
 brino- the dwellers on earth into almost immediate con- 
 verse with the dwellers in the Spirit- world. 
 
CINCINNATI RAPPINGS. 25 
 
 PART II. 
 
 There is a porch wherefrom is something seen 
 Of the mam dome beyond. Though shadows cross 
 Each other's path, yet let us go through it : 
 
 ********* 
 
 Let us think ! 
 What mean we by the dead t The dead have life= 
 The changed : and, if they come, it is to show 
 Their change is for the better. Festus, 
 
 Why come not spirits from the realms of glory 
 
 To visit earth as in the days of old— 
 The times of ancient writ and sacred story? 
 
 Is heaven more distant, or has earth grown cold 1 
 ********* 
 
 To Bethlehem's sky has their last anthem risen 
 
 When other stars before the One grew dim 1 
 Was their last presence known in Peter's prison 1 
 
 Or where exulting martyrs raised their hymn ? 
 
 Julia Wallace, 
 
 CINCINNATI "RAPPINGS," 
 
 Cincinnati having been generally favored with all the 
 demonstrations strange and wonderful, all the exhibi- 
 tions curious or mysterious, that have visited our coun* 
 try, we believed, when we first heard about the " mys' 
 terious noises" in Rochester, that if they were to spread 
 at all, it would not be many months before they would 
 be witnessed in the " Queen City." There was much 
 talk in this city in reference to them, and it was re* 
 ported that they had been heard many weeks previous 
 
26 SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 
 
 to the period at which " manifestations" were actually 
 made. 
 
 From what has been said previously in these pages, 
 and from the numerous instructive articles in the news- 
 papers, the mass of the people understand something of 
 the manner in which communications are made by 
 means of raps : yet it may be well enough here to give 
 a few words of explanation. The " manifestations" oc- 
 cur where there is what is termed a magnetic circle. 
 Sometimes one person is a sufficient medium, sometimes 
 several are necessary. The media are persons known 
 as clairvoyants, or impressible persons — those who come 
 readily under magnetic influence. The sounds are given 
 in answer to questions when an affimative is required. 
 As previously explained in Part 1., five continuous sounds 
 are understood to be a call for the alphabet. The letters 
 of the alphabet are repeated, and those necessary for 
 the spelling of the words required to form the sentences 
 which the Spirit would " manifest," are designated by a 
 rap. For instance, if George Washington were giving 
 the communication, and he wished himself known — as 
 the alp' abet was called over, A. B. C. D. E. F. G., a t 
 " G " there would be a rap. As the letters were re- 
 peated, the next rap would be at "E," &c. 
 
 The only general medium for the Rappings yet known 
 in Cincinnati, is Mrs. B. G. Bushnell, a clairvoyant of 
 remarkable power, from the western part of Nov/ York. 
 Mrs. B. had heard the " mysterious noises" before her 
 visit to Cincinnati, and had communicated with them at 
 Rochester, Cleveland, and other places. She visited 
 Cincinnati in the pursuit of her profession — making medi- 
 
 
CINCINNATI RAPPINGS. 27 
 
 cal examinations and prescribing for diseases while in 
 the clairvoyant state. We heard much cf her useful- 
 ness, by means of her examinations and prescriptions, 
 before we met her, and had become very much interested 
 in her pursuits. 
 
 On the evening of the 26th of September, 1850, we 
 had the pleasure of meeting her with a select party, at 
 the house of Prof. J. R. Buchanan, the well known 
 Neurologist, and Editor of the Journal of Man, publish- 
 ed in this city. During the course of the evening, Mrs. 
 B. was impressed by the Professor, She made gener- 
 ally accurate phrenological examinations of several gen- 
 tlemen present, whom she had never seen before that 
 evening, and who sat, during the examination, at the 
 opposite side of the room from her. When Dr. Buchanan 
 was about to awaken her from the clairvoyant state, she 
 bid him stop, and entered upon a description of the ap- 
 pearance and character of the D.r's father, many years 
 deceased. She gave a very correct description of his 
 personal appearance, as compared with a portrait that 
 was afterwards shown the company. After speaking of 
 the Dr.'s father as spiritually present to her, she entered 
 upon a lecture on spiritual conditions. We request- 
 ed permission to ask the lady a {"ew questions. It was 
 granted. We inquired if we had recently lost a relative. 
 She said we had — that it was a person heavier than we 
 are — that he was at a distance west — that he was going 
 farther west — that he resembled us very much — that he 
 must be a brother — that he died suddenly of a disease 
 of the stomach. She described his appearance perfectly 
 — gave the peculiarities of his mind, and stated that he 
 
28 SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 
 
 was in pursuit of an object by which he hoped to " shine 
 In the world"— that when he died he expressed many 
 regrets— -and she described effects and mementoes which 
 we know he had with him, as perfectly as we could have 
 done it. Her impressions of all the matters in reference 
 to him, of which she spoke, were correct, as near as we 
 can judge. 
 
 After this interview, we had several opportunities of 
 testing Mrs. B.'s clairvoyant powers, and we became 
 convinced that, in many respects, and for many pur- 
 poses, they were remarkable. During the interviews we 
 had with Mrs. B., for clairvoyant investigations, we 
 learned from her that the " mysterious noises" had often 
 been made in her presence, and that she had communi- 
 cated with Spirits by means of them. Our curiosity 
 was excited, and we expressed a strong desire to witness 
 the " manifestations." On two occasions the sounds 
 were heard by Mrs. B. in our company, but were not 
 communicative. The first positive " manifestations" 
 were heard on the night of the 14th of October, at the 
 house of a gentleman with whom Mrs. Bushnell was 
 boarding. The only intelligible communication received 
 at this time was the following :— " Your battery is not 
 strong enough ." 
 
 The account of this demonstration having spread to 
 some extent, there was much speculation in regard to it, 
 and much interest manifested to call out further demon- 
 strations, The supposition that these rappings are "man= 
 ifestations" from the Spirit-world, employed for the pur= 
 pose of communicating messages to mortals, having 
 excited great interest in them, and awakened intense 
 
CINCINNATI RAPPINGS. 29 
 
 curiosity wherever they have been heard, it is not strange 
 that when it was reported they had been heard in Cin- 
 cinnati, there was a multitude of people anxious to be 
 among the favored, who had opportunities to receive 
 communications from friends that had passed through 
 " the dark valley and shadow of death." 
 
 On Wednesday evening, October 16th, a number of 
 persons had assembled for the purpose of receiving the 
 benefit of Mrs. Bushnell's medical examinations, when 
 the mysterious sounds were again heard. Questions 
 were asked, and correct rapping replies were given to 
 a number of interrogatories, which, we are informed, 
 could not have been correctly answered by any mortal. 
 The report of this meeting awakened intense curiosity, 
 and on the following evening a larger company assem- 
 bled at the same place. A circle was formed, and the 
 Tappings commenced. Among the gentlemen of this 
 circle, were Mr. Samuel Goodin, of Goodin's building, 
 Court street; G. W. Ball, stove-founder, of Covington, 
 Ky.; Dr. J. P. Gatchell, of the Eclectic Medical College ; 
 Mr. Anson Atwood, of Troy, New York ; Mr. Augustus 
 Wattles, of Rural, Ohio; Dr. William Owens, of the 
 Eclectic College ; Mr. Norton, stove-dealer, on Main 
 street; and a number of other gentlemen, together with 
 some ladies with whom we were not acquainted. 
 
 The alphabet was called by one of the gentlemen, 
 who understood the modus operandi of communicaiton 9 
 and the persons in the circle took turns in putting ques- 
 tions. It would not be proper to detail all the questions 
 and answers ; many of them were unimportant, and 
 many though perhaps important to the persons interest- 
 
30 SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 
 
 ed, are not worthy of public narration. When it came 
 Mr. Goodin's turn to interrogate the Spirits, he inquired : 
 " Is there a Spirit present that will communicate with 
 me?" Rap. 
 
 " Can I know what Spirit answers?" Rap. 
 
 The alphabet was then called, and the following sen- 
 tence spelled : 
 
 " 1 am your own child." 
 
 " The youngest ?" inquired Mr. Goodin. No answer. 
 
 " The second ?" No sound. 
 
 " The eldest ?" Rap. 
 
 The alphabet was again called, and the following sen- 
 tence spelled : 
 
 " 1 love you now as well as ever." 
 
 " Do you love your mother V 9 Rap. 
 
 " Are you happy ?" Rap. 
 
 " Are your sisters with you {." Rap. 
 
 " Are they happy ?" Rap. 
 
 44 Can I do anything to make you more happy?" 
 Rap. 
 
 Again the alphabet was called, and the following sen- 
 tence spelled : 
 
 " Be patient and don't fret about the calomel 99 
 
 A friend, at this communication, remarked, that " Mr. 
 Goodin reflected on himself in reference to the child's 
 medical treatment during her sickness." As if in re- 
 sponse to this, repeated raps were heard. 
 
 Mr. Goodin then inquired — " Did you die in conse- 
 quence of taking calomel ?" Rap. 
 
 After some further questions and replies of a private 
 character, it came Mr. Augustus Wattles' turn to make 
 
CINCINNATI RAPPINGS 31 
 
 interrogatories. He inquired — i,% Is there a spirit present 
 that will converse with me?" Rap. 
 
 " Can I know the person V 9 Rap. 
 
 "Will you spell the name V 9 No sound. 
 
 " Will you give the initials ?" Rap. 
 
 The alphabet was then called, and " W. W." was 
 designated. 
 
 " Is it the spirit of my brother, Wm. Wattles V 9 Rap. 
 
 " Do you intend that I should understand that my 
 brother, Wm. Wattles, is dead?" Rap. 
 
 " Did he die in California !" No sound. 
 
 " Did he die near California ?" Rap. 
 
 " Were ycu well taken care of?" Rap. 
 
 "What disease did you die of?" Alphabet called 
 for by several, quickly repeated raps, and the word 
 " diarrhoea" spelled. 
 
 " When shall I hear of this in the common way V 9 
 Nq sound. 
 
 " Will it be within one year ?" Rap. 
 
 " Will it be within nine months?" Rap. 
 
 " Will it be within six months ?" No sound. 
 
 A young man from Kentucky, whose name we did 
 not learn, had now the opportunity of spiritual converse. 
 
 He inquired, " Will any spirit converse with me?" 
 Rap. 
 
 Alphabet called, and the following sentences spelled : 
 
 " I am your mother." Do not oppose him anymore. 
 He loill he married" 
 
 This communication excited quite a laugh at the 
 young man's expense, and considerable discussion en- 
 sued, during which the rappings continued, as if to sig- 
 
32 SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 
 
 nify that there were more communications to be made. 
 The alphabet was again called, and the following sen- 
 tence spelled : 
 
 " It will all come out right." 
 
 Some one inquired, " Is there any meaning to this V f 
 
 Mr. Ball answered, "Yes, there is great meaning in 
 it to us." 
 
 Before the company dispersed, some one inquired if 
 all the Spirits in the room would rap on the table. In 
 response, there was a great number of sounds made at 
 the same moment upon the table — some loud, some 
 feeble, some sharp, and some prolonged. 
 
 During Friday and Saturday of this week, most of the 
 persons who visited Mrs. Bushnell for medical consulta- 
 tion, heard the mysterious sounds, and many astonish- 
 ing communications were given, if the testimony of re- 
 spectable persons is to be credited. 
 
 On Saturday evening, October 19th, we had an oppor- 
 tunity of hearing the wonderful demonstrations at the 
 house of J. F. Taylor, the gentleman with whose family 
 we make our home, a man deeply interested in Spiritual 
 investigation, and in whose house there would be no 
 deception allowed, under any circumstances. 
 
 A company had been invited to hear Mrs. B. lecture 
 on Spiritualism. Among the persons present were Major 
 Gano, clerk of the Supreme Court of Cincinnati ; Dr. J. 
 S. Garretson ; Dr. Wm. Owens, of the Eclectic College ; 
 Dr. Childs, of Walnut Hills; Mr. Augustus Wattles; 
 Dr. I. Wilson, Botanic Physician, and many other gen- 
 tlemen whose names it is unnecessary to mention, to- 
 gether with a large number of ladies. There were three 
 
CINCINNATI RAPPINGS. 33 
 
 known clairvoyants in the company. While the lecture 
 was proceeding, the sounds were heard, apparently, un- 
 der the floor, near the speaker. The clairvoyant spoke 
 of the rappings, calling them electrical vibrations, and 
 said communications might be had from the Spirit-world 
 if a battery was formed. Inquiry was made how a bat- 
 tery could be formed. The reply was, " By sitting around 
 a table." 
 
 The lecturer, with two other persons designated, seated 
 themselves together at one corner of the table. Sounds 
 were distinctly heard under the floor, directly beneath 
 these persons. The alphabet was called, and the word 
 Cornell was spelled— the sounds occurring as the letters 
 were spoken, in repeating the alphabet. 
 
 It was asked, if it was the Spirit of Mr. Cornell that 
 communicated ? Rap. 
 
 A few unimportant questions were asked, when a 
 " manifestation" that startled the entire company was 
 made : suddenly the left arm of one of the ladies at the 
 table, was drawn back with great force, as if it had been 
 grasped between the elbow and the shoulder. Several 
 persons undertook to relieve the arm by magnetic passes, 
 but without effect. The inquiry was made — " Is it the 
 Spirit of Mr. Cornell that affects the lady?" Rap. 
 
 "Will the Spirit relieve her ?" No sound ; but sud- 
 denly the arm was thrown forward, and the lady was 
 entirely relieved. 
 
 We had been conversing with the lady during the 
 day, in reference to the manifestations, and we remark- 
 ed to the company that she had observed that she would 
 not believe the rappings were by Spirits unless soma 
 
34 SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 
 
 Spirit should take hold of her. At this there were 
 several raps near the lady, as if to signify that the Spirit 
 had made an effort to convince her. 
 
 The question was put — " Will the Spirit take hold of 
 the lady again ?" JVo sound; but the lady says that 
 her fingers were pressed together, as if a powerful hand 
 had grasped them. She describes the sensation on her 
 arm, as if it had been so vigorously grasped between the 
 elbow and shoulder, that she was unable to open or shut 
 her hand. 
 
 We were satisfied at the time, that this manifestation 
 was not the effect of magnetism, as generally understood, 
 because the muscles of the arm were not contracted — 
 the arm was merely drawn, or pulled back, as described. 
 
 When the alphabet was again called for and repeated, 
 the following sentences were spelled : 
 
 a IvMl convince you all. Mrs. Buslinell will he mag- 
 netized in one minute" 
 
 Several watches were immediately on the table. Mrs. 
 B. said she would not be magnetized, and was ridiculing 
 the communication, when at the instant the minute ex- 
 pired, with a shock as if a dozen electric batteries had 
 operated upon her, her eyes closed, and she became 
 rigid. In another minute, with another shock, her eyes 
 opened, and the rigidity passed off instantly. 
 
 Again the alphabet was called for, and the following 
 sentence spelled — " Go home." 
 
 After some general conversation and much specula- 
 tion on the demonstrations of the evening, the com- 
 pany dispersed — many expressing themselves astonished, 
 others posed, and some convinced that Spirits do com- 
 
CINCINNATI RAPPINGS. 35 
 
 municate with mortals. On this occasion the sounds 
 could not have been produced, we are satisfied, by any 
 sort of collusion among any of the company. If any 
 were deceived, all were. The manifestations purported 
 to be from only one Spirit, that of John P. Cornell, a 
 lawyer of some distinction, in Cincinnati, who died of 
 cholera in the summer of 1849. 
 
 In this life, Mr. Cornell had carefully and extensively 
 made clairvoyant investigations ; he was a firm believer 
 in, and pubic advocate of the doctrine that spiritual 
 manifestations can be made through clairvoyants, and 
 had been identified with a society organized for the pur- 
 pose of both physical and spiritual investigations, through 
 clairvoyance. It is consistent, then, that on the occa- 
 sion referred to, as there were several persons in the 
 company who had been closely identified with him in 
 this world, that his Spirit should take advantage of cir- 
 cumstances and make astounding demonstrations. 
 
 On Monday afternoon, October 21st, in company with 
 Mrs. Bushnell, the clairvoyant, "and our " better half," 
 we paid a visit to the family of a well known, elcquent 
 Temperance Advocate, re?iding several miles from the 
 city. At the request of the gentleman, Mrs. Bushnell 
 was thrown into the clairvoyant state, under our infl- 
 ence. She examined his head, giving, so far as we 
 know his character, a very correct estimate. She was 
 then requested to describe a lady, whose initials only 
 were given. Neither Mrs. Bushnell, nor ourself, had 
 ever heard of, or about her. 
 
 According to the gentleman's acknowledgment, she 
 described the lady and her husband, and the lady's 
 
36 SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 
 
 ailments perfectly. While Mrs. B. was making this ex- 
 amination, she began to speak of spiritual matters, as 
 she is always prone to do in her clairvoyant state, and 
 remarked that she saw a Spirit which seemed to be the 
 attendant angel of the household. She gave a descrip- 
 tion of this Spirit, which answered the description of the 
 gentleman's first wife, some three or four years de- 
 ceased, and stated that this Spirit wished to communi- 
 cate with the family. 
 
 " Why," said Mrs. Bushnell, " she is magnetising 
 Mrs ." 
 
 The lady mentioned had been for several minutes 
 much agitated, and was evidently under magnetic influ- 
 ence, and continued so for nearly half an hour. 
 
 At the supper-table, Mrs. Bushnell and this lady sat 
 directly opposite each other. The mysterious rappings 
 were heard under the table, very distinctly. A series 
 of questions and retyping replies followed. 
 
 "Will the Spirit communicate ?" Rap. 
 
 " Shall the alphabet be called V' Rap. 
 
 We repeated the letters of the alphabet, and the fol- 
 lowing sentence was spelled : 
 
 " 1 am your friend Louisa." 
 
 We inquired of the gentleman, who, he supposed, was 
 meant, and he answered that Louisa was the christian 
 name of his first wife. No one present but the members 
 of the family, was aw T are of this fact. They were all 
 much astonished at the demonstration, and several were 
 considerably alarmed. 
 
 The question was put — " Are there any more com- 
 munications to be made ?" Rap, 
 
CINCINNATI BAPFINGS* 87 
 
 The letters of the alphabet were repeated, and the 
 following sentences spelled : 
 
 M 1 am happy— I am with you here often" 
 
 The astonishment of the family was increased, and 
 there was a general conversation in relation to the mys- 
 terious sounds, much of which was of a sceptical charac- 
 ter, when again the raps were heard, 
 
 " Shall the alphabet be called ?" said one of the com- 
 pany. Rap, 
 
 The following sentence was spelled : 
 
 " Will you be satisfied?" 
 
 No sounds were heard after the communication of 
 this sentence, until the ladies had retired from the sup- 
 per-room and were gathered in the parlor. Here re- 
 peated raps were distinctly heard, but it was growing 
 late, we had six miles to drive, and business to attend 
 to in the city, and were obliged to forego the pleasure of 
 farther spiritual intercourse. 
 
 This was treating the Spiritual communicants quite 
 cavalierly, but our circumstances were such, it could 
 not justifiably have been avoided. 
 
 On Tuesday and Wednesday, the rappings were heard 
 frequently at the house where Mrs. Bushnell was stop- 
 ping, and a large number of persons held conversations 
 with the rappers. On Wednesday evening, Mrs. Bush- 
 nell met a select circle at the house of Prof. J. R, Bu- 
 chanan, and communications were received by raps 
 from the father of Dr. Buchanan, many years deceased, 
 and from Dr. T. V, Morrow, a few months deceased, for* 
 merly Dean of the Eclectic Medical College. 
 
 Circles were subsequently formed in various parts of 
 
38 SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 
 
 the city, for the purpose of calling out the " manifesta- 
 tions," but no communications were received. 
 
 On Saturday, October 26ih } Mrs. Bushnell left Cincin- 
 nati, on a visit to her home, in the western part of New 
 York, and did not return for nearly four weeks. During 
 her absence there were no rapping " manifes ations" 
 with which communication was had, although many 
 clairvoyant investigations of deep interest were made, 
 by means of several excellent subjects. Some account 
 of the revelations made, will be given in Part III of 
 this work. 
 
 The substance of the History we have thus far de- 
 tailed, was published, from day to day, in the Daily 
 Times ; it excited great curiosity, and occasioned a great 
 deal of speculation. 
 
 It is the nature of the subject. Direct communication 
 with the Spirit-world is a matter on which there is so 
 much scepticism — a matter so astonishing, judged by 
 the common teachings on the subject, that it would be 
 strange if articles detailing correspondence with Spirits, 
 did not "make talk." Some persons treated the rap- 
 pings with scorn — some as a successful humbug-wonder 
 —some denounced all who had any communication 
 w r ith them, as villains; and some appeared to think that 
 lving Spirits do communicate, and very piously affirmed, 
 that it is prophesied that in " these latter days" there 
 shall be " signs and wonders ;" which, if it were possi- 
 ble, would deceive the & ' very elect." Many thought that 
 Cincinnati had just been visited by a grand humbug, 
 which had " run out" at the Eastern cities. A few were 
 disposed to treat the mysterious matter candidly, and 
 
CINCINNATI MAPPINGS. 39 
 
 honestly investigate it. The Press of the city generally 
 ridiculed the whole affair, and two or three papers de- 
 nounced the raspings as a decided and outrageous hum- 
 bug. They were alluded to in several sermons, but 
 were only spoken of directly from an orthodox pulpit on 
 one occasion. 
 
 On Sabbath evening, November 3d, Rev. C. B. Boyn- 
 ton, of the Vine street Congregational Church, lectured 
 on Spiritualism, with reference to the " manifestations." 
 He considered them demon- sir axiom, literally. He traced 
 through history many remarkable manifestations, which 
 he ascribed to the same influences as those producing 
 the " RappAngs" He expressed an opinion that the 
 astrologers and magicians of olden time received their 
 power of magic and divination from Spirits — that is 
 to say, wicked Spirits ; and the influences of the present 
 day he judged to be from the same source. 
 
 Legions of demons encompass, in his opinion, the 
 atmosphere about us, and have the power to make " man- 
 ifestations' 9 through man. They might enter man and 
 personify other spirits — spirits of friends deceased, or of 
 Prophets or Apostles. The Prince of Darkness had the 
 power of the air, and if a Spirit should speak to him, 
 (Mr. B.,) representing itself as the ethereal essence of 
 his dearest departed friend, discrediting, in any particu- 
 lar, the doctrines and prophecies of the Bible, as now 
 understood, he should believe it a lying Spirit, assuming 
 shapes that did not belong to it, for evil purposes. We 
 must try the Spirits by the teachings of Christ and his 
 Apostles. 
 
 If, from the demonstrations now being made, a sect 
 
40 SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 
 
 of spiritualists should grow up that discredited establish* 
 ed theology, and that sect should " increase and multi- 
 ply/' he should consider that the period was commencing, 
 which he conceived to be foretold in the Bible, when the 
 Prince of Darkness shall for a time have dominion, and 
 the wicked shall triumph, prior to the winding up of 
 terrestrial affairs, when the saints shall prevail, and 
 Christ shall come in the clouds with his holy Angels to 
 judge the world. 
 
 A short time subsequent to this discourse, Prof. Locke, 
 of Cincinnati, in a lecture, introductory to a course, before 
 the Ohio Medical College, took occasion, as many people 
 supposed, to expose the " knocking humbug," scientifi- 
 cally. The learned Dr. declared the whole thing a 
 well- played, juggling scheme, and to his satisfaction, 
 described how magnets and wires might be so disposed 
 upon the person of a woman, that she could produce 
 mysterious sounds at pleasure. This lecture was a great 
 relief to a certain class of minds; and, as it did them no 
 harm to be relieved, we are not sorry they found a Doc- 
 tor who could prescribe for their peculiar ailments. 
 
 No further public attention was called to the " Knock- 
 ings," except by us in the Daily Times ^ until about the 
 middle of December, when Prof. Gatchell of the Ec- 
 lectic College, delivered two lectures at the Hall of the 
 Institute. He gave a sketch of Spiritual manifestations 
 in various ages of the world, and presented his views 
 upon their philosophy, 
 
 On Sabbath evening, Dec. 22i, Rev. J. P. Stuart, of 
 the New Jerusalem Society (Swedenborgian) announced 
 a course of lectures on " the communications between 
 
CINCINNATI RAPPINGS. ,-. 
 
 men and Spiritual beings in another sphere.' ' His in- 
 troductory was reported in full, by J. D. Taylor, Editor 
 of the Daily Times. 
 
 He commenced by referring to early Biblical history 
 for the first facts bearing on the subject. At the earliest 
 period, Angels and Spirits appeared to men, and always 
 excited fear and apprehension. The presence of a Spirit 
 was a token of evil — voices speaking from the invisible 
 world — visions of spiritual things filled the minds even 
 of good men with calamitous forebodings, while the evil 
 would be utterly overwhelmed. Belshazzar, while drink- 
 ing wine from the sacred vessels brought from Jerusalem 
 with his wives and concubines, and praising their Gods, 
 witnessed the hand-writing on the wall and trembled. 
 When the Lord appeared to Adam in the Garden, he 
 was afraid. The usual commencement of the message 
 of the Angel of the Lord was, ' Fear not.' The word of 
 the Lord came unto Abraham in a vision, saying, ' Fear 
 not, I am thy shield* &c. The Angel of the Lord called 
 to Hagar and said unto her, • Fear not, for the Lord hath 
 heard the voice of the lad/ &c. The Lord appeared to 
 Isaac and said, 'Fear not, for I am with thee/ &c. 
 Moses said, ' Fear not, for God has come nigh to prove 
 you/ &c. The Angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon 
 and said, ' Peace be with thee ; fear not, thou shalt not 
 die/ &e. Gabriel appeared to Mary to make the annun- 
 ciation, and said to her, ( Fear not, for thou hast found 
 favor with God/ &c. Other passages, from the New 
 Testament, were quoted, to prove the fact, as announced, 
 that fear was common on the occasion of these commu- 
 nications. John of Patmos, was so addressed; 'Fear 
 4 
 
42 SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 
 
 not, I am the first and the last,' &c. Within the last 
 hundred years this fear had vanished ; the visit of a 
 Spirit had now no terrors to any one ; it disturbed neither 
 men, women, nor children. All this was well ; it showed 
 at least that we are not afraid. Whoever he is that 
 speaks from the " night side of nature/' we are not afraid 
 of his voice. Angel, Spirit, or Demon, let him speak, we 
 neither hide our eyes, nor shudder at his presence ; on 
 the contrary, we seek them out — we say, give us the 
 proof of their presence — let us hear their oracles — if they 
 are divine, let us worship and adore — if they are miracu- 
 lous, let us adore them — if magical or mesmeric, let us 
 see them — if galvanic or electrical, let us demonstrate 
 them. 
 
 The ambition of bold adventure in spiritual things, 
 characterized the spiritual philosophers and their attend- 
 ant disciples at the present day. The Lecturer acknow- 
 ledged the universal presence of the spiritual world, and 
 declared his belief that communication with that world 
 was neither impossible nor improbable. The apparitions 
 of Angels and Spirits, the visions of Prophets and Apos- 
 tles, and the coming of our Lord, were proofs of this com- 
 munication, and they were continued when any good and 
 useful end might be gained by them. 
 
 The attention called to the " manifestations' 9 by Mr. 
 Stuart's lectures, led to a discussion at the Franklin 
 Rooms, corner of Yine and Center streets. A large num- 
 ber of persons attended, showing that with however much 
 ridicule people may treat these subjects, they have deep 
 interest in all that pertains to them. 
 
 The speakers on this occasion, were Mr. J. B. Bums, 
 
CINCINNATI RAPPINGS. 43 
 
 Phonographic Teacher, and ours elf, on the affirmative ; 
 D, Reddington, Homoeopathic Physician, and Isaac 
 Straub, Machinist, on the negative. The discussion was 
 not one that elicited any new views. It was continued 
 for several successive Sunday evenings with interest, and 
 we presume with profit. 
 
 Mr. Stuart's lectures were all listened to with eager 
 attention by very large audiences. He is a man who 
 speaks from his heart on these subjects. He is keenly 
 susceptible to the elevating influences of the new philos- 
 ophy, and is an earnest and intelligent seeker after its 
 deepest revelations. In the appropriate Parts of our 
 book, we make notes of several lectures by him. 
 
 We now go back and take up the thread of the " rap- 
 ping" narrative in regular succession. We made an 
 "advance step," in order to bring Mr. Boynton's, Dr. 
 Locke's and Mr. Stuart's views in juxtaposition. 
 
 The details of no "manifestations" had been made 
 public for sometime, and the wise and witty were having 
 rare sport at the expense of the " humbug that had ex- 
 ploded." Meantime, Mrs. Bushnell returned to the city. 
 A few days after her arrival, sounds were heard in the 
 house where she was stopping, but no communications 
 were had, till one afternoon, Mr. James Goodin, before 
 referred to, and Dr. A. Curtis, of the Botanical Medical 
 College, called upon her. Sounds were heard near the 
 Dr.'s chair. He inquired— 
 
 " Is there a Spirit present that will communicate with 
 me V 9 Rap, 
 
 The alphabet was called for by repeated sounds, and 
 at the calling over of the letters, such were designated 
 
44 SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 
 
 by raps as spelled the following words : "It is your 
 wife, H. A. C. You know you thought I felt hard some- 
 times. I did not intend any harm. I am happy now, 
 and with you. I am your guardian angel. I have been 
 with you all the time. Good evening." 
 
 Mr. Goodin then inquired — 
 
 ** Will any spirit communicate with me ?" Rap. 
 
 The following communication was received by the 
 usual method : 
 
 " It is your daughter, Anna G . I love my dear 
 
 father. You are most happy with me around the table. 
 I answer for all our family. I am your guardian angel." 
 
 On the evening following that on which these " mani- 
 festations" were given, another party assembled at the 
 same place. A young lady inquired if any Spirit would 
 communicate with her ? Distinct raps were given, and 
 the following communication made : 
 
 "Be content at your present home. I am with you 
 often. It is my pleasure to be with you. Be certain, 
 my sister, we are all happy here. I have done as I 
 agreed." 
 
 On the announcement of the last sentence, the young 
 lady was startled, and she then told the company that 
 she had been in Rochester with her sister when rapping 
 "manifestations" were being made in the family of Mrs. 
 Fish. They did not believe them to be Spiritual " mani- 
 festations ;" and when they parted, they mutually agreed 
 that whichever died first should visit the other in Spirit, 
 and make raps, if it were possible. The sister went to 
 Wisconsin, and died. She had come to her sister, in 
 Ohio, in Spirit, and fulfilled the promise made in the flesh. 
 
CINCINNATI RAPPINGS. 45 
 
 Mr. Norton, before spoken of, was one of the circle. 
 He inquired if any Spirit would communicate with him ? 
 Rap. The following communication was received : 
 
 " I am your brother, David. My mission is to con- 
 vince you that I exist in Spirit. Never make a public 
 demonstration of it, but publish the communications made 
 in private circles. My dear brother, you may consider 
 yourself a favored person, as with a proper medium, you 
 can communicate with me and others. Use no more 
 means to settle my affairs. All is done that can be 
 done. I am satisfied with the course you adopted, and 
 with the manner my business was closed by George. 
 Be happy and contented — I am with you always. Good 
 evening." 
 
 Other raps were now heard. The alphabet was called, 
 and the following communication given to the same gen- 
 man : 
 
 "lam your father. I am here to communicate with 
 you and the rest of the folks, but I am not here often — 
 my care is for your brother, Washington. No more to- 
 night." 
 
 These communications were exceedingly gratifying to 
 this gentleman. He had been his brother's administra- 
 tor. His own business had obliged him to give the set- 
 tlement into a younger brother's hands. It was truly 
 gratifying to learn that all had been arranged satisfactorily. 
 
 Other communications were had, but they were not of 
 a character proper for publication. At a meeting of a 
 circle, subsequent to both the above mentioned, a com- 
 munication was made to a gentleman of our city, which 
 was exceedingly important to him and friends. 
 
46 SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 
 
 Some years ago, a young lady was missing from a 
 neighboring city. Part of her clothing was found on 
 bushes near the bank of the river. It was supposed that 
 she had committed suicide by drowning herself. Her 
 family have always believed that such was the fact. On 
 the evening referred to, when the gentleman spoken of 
 enquired if he could have communication from a Spirit, 
 very positive raps were heard, and the following sen- 
 tences spelled : 
 
 " It is M. J. McC . I died with disease in the 
 
 South — at Natchez. I went away with a young man, a 
 mate on a steamboat. Tell father, Miss A. H. and Mr. 
 T.'s family. I threw my clothes on the bushes to make 
 people believe I was drowned. I will make the clair- 
 voyant my medium to communicate all about my death." 
 
 It would not be proper to publish the revelation made 
 through the clairvoyant. 
 
 On the evening of November 6th, it was our privilege 
 to be one of a small circle in which were two clairvoy- 
 ants. The mysterious noises were heard frequently with 
 more distinctness, than any " rappings" that it had been 
 our privilege to hear previously. The floor of the room 
 seemed to vibrate. The company gathered around a 
 table, when in the usual method, by questions and raps, 
 at the call of the alphabet, the following communications, 
 addressed to us, were received : 
 
 " Will you publish all I tell you ? I am your brother, 
 James D. Coggshall. I am satisfied with my treatment 
 on the way to California. I have been home often. I 
 am with you often. I died of Cholera. I am entirely 
 satisfied with my death, and have seen the justice of your 
 
CINCINNATI RAPPINGS. 47 
 
 course about it. I have made manifestations about your 
 house. I will speak to you through a clairvoyant." 
 
 In a few moments, one of the clairvoyants was thrown 
 with a shock into the magnetic state, and spoke nearly 
 as follows : 
 
 " You will understand that it is me, your brother 
 James. To converse by sounds is irksome and tedious. 
 1 cannot tell you all I wish by rappings, and I cannot 
 speak to you except through the organs of clay ; there- 
 fore I impress a clairvoyant, who speaks as I dictate. 
 
 I wish you to remember what I say, and publish it. 
 Say that it is from our brother. When I left my friends 
 for a distant country, I was led by strong ambitious im- 
 pulses. I had a great anxiety for novelty, a burning de- 
 sire to see the sights and engage in the adventures of the 
 journey. I wished to make myself rich in California. I 
 felt deep regret to leave my friends, but the desire to 
 reach California was stronger. You have had appre- 
 hensions that all was not right about my death. I want 
 you to be satisfied. I did not die at Fort Laramie, as 
 you heard, but at a place three days journey distant from 
 the fort, near an Indian settlement which has no English 
 name. 
 
 When I knew that I must die, it seemed hard indeed, 
 that I must give up my life away from friends, and be 
 buried in that wilderness. I thought of all my friends, 
 but especially of my mother, and of her feelings when I 
 left home. It was so grievous that I must die away from 
 home, and that the news must go back to her. I feared 
 that she would grieve peculiarly, believing that there was 
 something dreadful about my death. I feared death, 
 
48 SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 
 
 but the pain in my bowels and stomach was intense, and 
 soon my Spirit was liberated. All was dark for a mo- 
 ment ; then I was happy. 
 
 In a moment I was with yon and at home. I am hap- 
 py ; I am satisfied with the change. I will tell you 
 much of spiritual influences and conditions, but cannot 
 do so now. My deceased friends are with me ; we are 
 all happy ; I shall make manifestations to your family." 
 
 The references to our fears in relation to this brother's 
 death, were just, but it is a matter that had not been 
 talked about anywhere except in our own family. The 
 clairvoyant knew no more about his death — the place or 
 manner of it, than the readers of the Cincinnati papers 
 generally— an obituary having been published in several 
 of them. 
 
 This brother was a young man of decided energy of 
 character, who left a pleasant home with high hopes, and 
 a full determination to gather a fortune in the gold re- 
 gion of California ; but in the endurance of hardship he 
 was suddenly stricken down, ere he had journeyed half- 
 way to the golden-sanded shores, against which the 
 mighty Pacific beat. 
 
 In his communication quoted above, he states that 
 when he knew he must die, it seemed hard to give up 
 life away from friends, and be buried in the wilderness. 
 As we were informed, by letter, his last words were — 
 This is Hard. 
 
 Under the impressions given by the popular teachings, 
 in reference to death, and the life after it, it is hard to 
 die in the summer of this life, when the tender buds of 
 hope are promising to burst forth into flowers that will 
 
CINCINNATI RAPPINGS. 49 
 
 exhale sweetest odors. When bright gleams of sunshine 
 flash along the path of the future, with no heavy shadows 
 fallino- between, it is hard to realize that the life currents 
 flow with uncertain impulse, and that the fearful and won- 
 derful machinery of the body must soon be at rest. 
 
 Under any philosophy, in the winter of life, when the 
 frosts of age have gathered, and the blood winds its way 
 slowly through shriveled veins — in the decline, subse- 
 quent to the period at which the ambitions of life are 
 over, man may resignedly take the journey through the 
 "dark valley and shadow of death" — but when all the 
 hopes that make existence dear, lie earthward in the 
 future, if fell disease fasten upon the frame of expectant 
 youth, it requires the resignation of Him, who shed drops 
 of blood in Gethsemane, to meet the universal victor 
 without unavailing regrets, and saddest expressions of 
 most overwhelming disappointment. 
 
 With the darkest prospect of the most unsatisfactory 
 and inconsistent theology before them, the lonely and 
 friendless, who have treasures in Heaven, may exclaim — 
 
 " Death is a road our dearest friends have gone, 
 Why with such leaders fear to say, lead on !" 
 
 bidding welcome to the summons that prepares them to 
 meet these friends ; but those who are called to seek the 
 river of life, flowing through Spirit-land, while earth is 
 the home of the sweetest loves of childhood, and the 
 nearest friends of riper years, may sigh with their latest 
 breath, '• This is hard" if they believe that between 
 them and their friends there is to be an impassable gulf 
 until the " Great Day of Resurrection," when they may 
 only meet, to be again separated "forever and forever " 
 
50 SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 
 
 Those who have faith in the Spiritual philosophy now 
 dawning clearly on the world — who believe that the 
 Spirits of the so-called dead are the ministering angels of 
 the friends they have left in the flesh, and who receive 
 the doctrine that men may so live, that on earth, they 
 may have visions of Heaven, can at any period of life, re- 
 signedly pass the change which introduces them to the 
 Spiritual spheres, confident that from the Spirit-world it 
 will be their privilege to visit the cherished of this world, 
 and engage in the glorious work of leading them nearer 
 and nearer, as time rolls on, to' that perfection which gives 
 the Prophets and the Apostles the richness of Spiritual 
 happiness — which is the universal boon of the "just made 
 perfect" in the fulfillment of the hereafter to be properly 
 recognized law, that — 
 
 " It is much less what we do 
 Than what we think, which fits us for the future." 
 
 There were many things connected with the " manifes- 
 tations" from our brother that were peculiarly convincing, 
 which cannot properly be made public. 
 
 On the same evening, there were "manifestations" 
 from two other Spirits, that of Mr. J. P. Cornell and that 
 of Rev. James H. Perkins, the well known philanthropist 
 and Unitarian preacher, of Cincinnati, who met an un- 
 timely death in the winter of 1849. Mr. Cornell's com- 
 munication was of no particular interest. The substance 
 of Mr. Perkins' was, that we were to send word to 
 his family that they were not to grieve about his death, 
 nor the manner of it. The sounds on this evening were 
 all different and in different parts of the room. From 
 our brother, they were on the table, so near and so 
 
CINCINNATI RAPPINGS. 51 
 
 powerful that we could feel the vibrations — from Mr. 
 Perkins, they were on the floor, under the table — from 
 Mr. Cornell, on the floor, at one side of the table. 
 
 As the particulars of these Spiritual interviews became 
 known, the interest in them deepened, and we began to 
 hear of demonstrations in various quarters of the city. 
 Great curiosity was manifested by believers and unbe- 
 lievers, to meet Mrs. Bushnell, and hear the "mysteri- 
 ous noises ;" but, as yet, only a small portion of the 
 curious in Cincinnati have been among the privileged. 
 
 About the first of December, we heard of "rappings" 
 in several portions of the city. A Miss B , on Cut- 
 ter street, had frequently heard them, but had never 
 communicated with them, and her family considered them 
 
 forerunners of calamity. A Miss M , had heard the 
 
 sounds repeatedly before Mrs. Bushnell visited the city. 
 
 A Miss H , had often heard them. They were first 
 
 manifested about two years ago. They alarmed her 
 father and mother. They endeavored to ascertain the 
 cause, but without success, and could never understand 
 them until they heard of the " Rochester Knockings." 
 Dr. Wm. Owens, of the Eclectic Medical College, had 
 frequently heard them, and had occasionally received 
 answers to mental questions from the Spirit of Dr. Mor- 
 row. During the last week of November, several per- 
 sons held communications with the sounds, while con- 
 sulting Mrs. Bushnell for medical purposes. Prof. B. L. 
 Hill received, by means of raps, what he considers a 
 very important communication, in reference to medical 
 science. A lady, whose husband had been some months 
 deceased, received a communication from him, in refer- 
 
52 SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 
 
 ence to the settlement of business, and the deception of 
 certain persons who were administrating his estate, 
 which has proved of great importance to her. A young 
 man, of this city, informs us that his sister, a Miss J. 
 who died a few months since, told her family on her 
 death-bed, that if the " rappings" were not a delusion, 
 she would communicate with them. To her brother-in- 
 law, she said — " I will visit you when I leave the body, 
 if I can, and make a sound that you will recognize." 
 
 A few weeks ago, a sister of this lady had an oppor- 
 tunity to hear the raps, and she received communica- 
 tions which convinced her that her sister, who had de- 
 parted from this sphere, had fulfilled her promise. The 
 brother-in-law has heard sounds for which he cannot 
 account. We give this as told us in good faith, by a 
 respectable and responsible man — one who would not 
 be likely to jest about the return of a departed sister, to 
 his family, in such a manner that her presence was be- 
 lieved. 
 
 Dr. Silsbee, a gentleman of Cincinnati, who is much 
 interested in the New-Light Philosophy, was, on one 
 occasion, making clairvoyant examinations, in company 
 with a friend, named Allen, when rapping communica- 
 tions were given him, purporting to come from his father. 
 The character of the communication was such, that he 
 endeavored, subsequently, on several occasions, to get 
 into a circle through which the sounds could be made. 
 
 He was, one afternoon, sittting in his office, in com- 
 pany with his brother, a lad about fourteen years of age, 
 when he heard the sounds distinctly. He called his 
 brother to the table, at which he was writing, when the 
 
CINCINNATI RAPPINGS. 53 
 
 "noises" were manifested loudly. He requested that 
 if it were a Spirit manifesting, it would make two raps. 
 The sounds came so positively that he felt the vibration. 
 He inquired if his brother was a medium, and if he 
 would receive " manifestations" through him, and was 
 answered by raps affirmatory ; after which he could call 
 out no more sounds. 
 
 These " manifestations" induced the Dr. to bring his 
 brother into the company of a clairvoyant. He was 
 told that the lad had often had " manifestations" — that 
 he had heard sounds and seen lights, and that he was 
 under the influence of the Spirit of a lady who, in this 
 sphere, had been an intimate friend of his family. The 
 lad verified the clairvoyant's impressions by stating that 
 he had often seen lights and heard what were called 
 rapping s. 
 
 The names and references of all the persons alluded to 
 in these communications are not given, because it would 
 be improper to connect them or their affairs more inti- 
 mately with the matter. We have the statements from 
 reliable sources, or we should not refer to them ; and 
 only do so at all, to show that the " manifestations" 
 have not been confined to a particular individual in all 
 respects. 
 
 On account of the ridicule thrown upon all who were 
 in any way identified with the " rapping manifestations," 
 and because the curiosity they excited brough; so many 
 persons to her house, that her business — making medical 
 examinations — was materially interfered with,Mry.Bush- 
 nell decided, positively, about the first of Decembers that 
 she would, under no circumstances, place herself in a 
 
54 SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 
 
 circle for the purpose of receiving the " manifestations." 
 With a few exceptions, of a private nature, she has 
 maintained her position. All the "manifestations," pro 
 and con, belonging to this part of our History, which 
 were reported for several weeks, will be found in the 
 following article, written by us for the Daily Times, of 
 Dec. 13th, under the caption of 
 
 MORE ABOUT THE MYSTERIOUS "MANIFESTATIONS." 
 
 " For several weeks there have been no communica- 
 tions in the Times, in reference to the " mysterious 
 noises" which not many moons ago caused something 
 of " a stir" in the city. People now say, "done with" 
 " blown over"—" bust up"—" gone by the board." 
 
 Not so. We have more evidence to convince us that 
 they are spreading and becoming of increased impor- 
 tance, than did the jury which convicted Dr. Webster, 
 that he was guilty of the crime charged. The " myste- 
 rious noises" are now heard in many families in this 
 city, who keep the matter sacredly secret lest the gos- 
 sipping public may say they live in " haunted houses." 
 
 But a few of these " manifestations" have been com- 
 municative, and such communications as have been re* 
 ceived cannot yet be given to the public— all in due season* 
 
 It may not be improper to state, however, that within 
 a couple of weeks, numerous "manifestations" have 
 been made by persons of note in the world, some years 
 deceased. Among them, we may mention Morgan, 
 about whose death was created, many years ago, the 
 wild, Anti-Mason excitement which agitated the country 
 from Maine to Florida, 
 
CINCINNATI RAPPINGS. 55 
 
 Morgan, by raps, stated to a circle that he joined the 
 Free-Masons for a selfish purpose — that he made his 
 " Expose" for a speculation, and that he published more 
 lies than truths — that he had been the cause of much 
 harm in the world, and that he was now endeavoring to do 
 what good he could, by removing wrong impressions." 
 
 This communication was addressed to a prominent 
 Free-Mason, who had sought, by clairvoyance, to in- 
 vestigate the Morgan affair. Iu due time he will make 
 the detail public. 
 
 During the first week of December, the following 
 article appeared in the Chronicle and Atlas, of Cin- 
 cinnati : 
 
 "KNOCKINGS," 
 
 "Mr. W. T. C, which, most probably, may be inter- 
 preted William Turner Coggshall— I beg pardon if I am 
 in error. 
 
 I wish to address myself to W. T. C, a contributor 
 for the columns of the "Daily Times," on the subject 
 of sundry mysterious " Knockings," said to have taken 
 place in our city lately. 
 
 Surely, you are aware that the newspaper press is the 
 most important channel through which to enlighten and 
 improve the public mind in all the branches of know- 
 ledge ; there is no branch of science, ethics, or philoso- 
 phy, for the dissemination and promotion of which, a 
 well-conducted newspaper does not largely contribute. 
 
 It sometimes happens, however, that morbid commu- 
 nications creep into the public press—such as will not 
 stand the test of sound philosophy, reason, or common 
 sense. Trifling, harmless items may innocently amuse 
 
56 SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 
 
 the light minded ; but to urge, with sober sincerity, 
 the ridiculous humbug and folly of spirit " knockings," 
 and a pretended converse with the spirits of the dead, 
 ought, in my opinion, be put to the test of reason. 
 
 And first : What is a spirit ? Why. it is nothing, 
 in substance — it is something, in metaphysics — it is the 
 immortal part of man, called the mind — after death, it 
 is called the soul, or spirit. 
 
 Second: What is a " knock ?" It is a noise ; and 
 what is a noise ? it is the result of matter operating 
 upon matter. From the loudest rumbling thunder-cloud 
 to the softest notes of the flute — from the frightful roar 
 of the lion to the plaintive warbling of the nightingale, 
 is nothing more or less, than the result of the action of 
 matter on matter. You might as well tell your mind to 
 take a nail hammer and drive a ten-penny nail, and ex- 
 pect the result, as to expect a " knock," or noise of any- 
 kind, from an immortal spirit. If it were not considered 
 rash, I would defy ail the spirits in the wide world to 
 make one single " knock" that could be heard by the 
 drum of mortal ear ; because it requires matter to act 
 on matter to be heard by the natural ear. If you can 
 prove to the contrary, I will call you an able Ontolo- 
 gystic Doctor. 
 
 A few exceptions to this general principle are recorded 
 in holy writ, for wise, good, and important objects. 
 
 Jehovah spake to man ; but the idea of spirits speak- 
 ing to us, through the agency of a woman, playing off 
 her exhibitions for money — it seems to me, ought to 
 • disgust you and others — and you are about collecting, in 
 pamphlet form, a history of all the " knockings." Had 
 
CINCINNATI RAPPINGS. 57 
 
 you not rather publish a new edition of the "Arabian 
 Nights' Entertainments ?" — for be it known that an in- 
 nocent fiction is far better than an injurious humbug. 
 Respectfully yours, 
 
 ISAAC STRAUB. 
 
 We did not deem it proper to answer Mr. Straub's 
 communication, by attempting to argue that his premises 
 were not well founded ; but we published a brief com- 
 munication in the Daily Times, in which, after telling 
 Mr. Straub that we believed, before one century, his 
 positions would be considered as unfounded as the wild- 
 est Arabian romance, we denied, positively, his insulting 
 insinuation that the "manifestations" were "through 
 the agency of a woman playing off her exhibitions for 
 money." 
 
 This denial we requested the publishers of the Chron- 
 icle and Atlas, Messrs. Foster & Corwine, to copy, and 
 were answered in the following paragraph : 
 
 " If there was a single kernel to be found in the bushel 
 of chaff which W. T\ C. asks us to insert in the Chroni- 
 cle and Atlas, we would comply with the request. As 
 it is, we prefer to serve up something more substantial 
 for our readers." 
 
 To this we retorted that we had thought the Proprie- 
 tors of the Chronicle and Atlas fairer men than such 
 as would publish a positive libel in their columns, and 
 then refuse to give place to its refutation. After several 
 newspaper squibs, back and forth, the Atlas condescend- 
 ed to copy from the Times a statement that to our know- 
 ledge, no person in Cincinnati had been connected with 
 
58 SIGNS OF THE TIMES, 
 
 the " rappings" for the purpose of making money — fur- 
 ther than was implied in our intention to publish a 
 pamphlet for sale. 
 
 We mention this afFair to show how " even-handed 
 justice" is meted out in orthodox "spheres," to those 
 who are in any way connected with the new spiritual 
 philosophy, or who have dared to declare that the "rap- 
 ping" manifestations are not essential humbug. 
 
 There is in the world pride of position — pride of pro- 
 fession, and most manifestly, a pride of being on the 
 popular side. Whatever comes not from the " Schools," 
 theological, medical, scientific, or political, must neces- 
 sarily be humbug — whatever comes from them, must be 
 received as truth, let it be, in itself, ever so inconsistent 
 and ridiculous. Mrs. Crowe, in her " Night side of 
 Nature" — a book that should be generally read*- — utters 
 the following just sentiments in relation to theories that 
 may not happen to be endorsed by the Disciples of the 
 "Schools:" 
 
 " They (the philosophers) do not quarrel with a new 
 metal or a new plant, and even a new comet, or a new 
 island stands a fair chance of being well received ; 
 while phrenology and mesmerism testify that any dis- 
 covery tending to throw light on what most deeply con- 
 cerns us, namely, our own being, must be prepared to 
 encounter a storm of angry persecution. And one of 
 the evils of this hasty and precipitate opposition is, that 
 the passions and interests of opposers become involved 
 in the dispute ; instead of investigators, they become 
 partisans ; having declared against it in the outset, it is 
 
 * For sale by J. A. & U. P. James, Cincinnati. 
 
CINCINNATI RAPPINGS. 59 
 
 important to their petty interests that the thing shall not 
 be true, and they determine it shall not be if they can 
 help it. Hence these hasty, angry investigations of new 
 facts, and the triumph with which failures are recorded ; 
 and hence the willful overlooking of the axiom, that a 
 thousand negatives cannot overthrow the evidence of 
 one affirmative experiment." 
 
 We quoted Mr. Straub's article in full, and we feel 
 impressed to make a few remarks in reply to it, not be- 
 cause we consider it an effusion that, unless shown to be 
 based upon false premises may do great mischief, but be- 
 cause it fairly represents the opinions of a class of people 
 who should be taught that there are " more things in 
 Heaven and earth than are dreamed of in their philoso- 
 phy." We believe Mr. Straub honest in his views, as 
 firmly as we believe him grossly deceived in reference 
 to the philosophy of spiritual things, or as firmly as, at 
 the time he wrote the article in question, he believed us 
 the victim of a " base delusion." We knew him in our 
 youth, and have sincere respect for him. We desire to 
 see him, and all others of his school, in the "right 
 track," therefore we shall examine a few of his proposi- 
 tions by the new-light. 
 
 We admit fully all the importance which Mr. Straub 
 concedes the newspaper press, and on account of what 
 we believe its influence, we have taken pains to publish 
 our investigations, very mnch at length, in the newspa- 
 pers. 
 
 The Orthodox Church teaches, as Mr. S. declares, 
 that Spirit is no-thing, in substance, but some-thing, in 
 metaphysics, Now what is metaphysics, and what does 
 
60 SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 
 
 Mr. Straub know of it further than the views given him 
 by the "Schools?" He believes what the books tell 
 him, and nothing more. Why does he believe this 1 
 Because he has never taken pains to try the philosophy 
 fairly by the test of independent reason. 
 
 The Spiritual has form as well as the material — the 
 Spiritual is the inmost, the material the outmost form — 
 the Spiritual is the essence, the material the substance. 
 
 Mr. Straub asks — " What is a ' knock V It is a noise. 
 And what is a noise 1 It is the result of matter opera- 
 ting upon matter." 
 
 Very true ; but what is matter and what is not 1 
 Noises are made by electricity. What is electricity ? 
 — matter ? If so, what are its relations to iron ? The 
 " Schools" answer this in their teachings. Now Spirit 
 out of the corporeal body has a relation to Soul in it, 
 which forms a medium of attraction, somewhat as iron 
 has an attraction for the influences of the natural mag- 
 net. While mind is connected with the corporeal body, 
 it employs its power to make forces of any kind through 
 the 'mediums' which that body furnishes — it strikes with 
 the hand — it sees with the eye — it hears with the ear — it 
 speaks with the voice. No one pretends to say that the 
 eye wsees — it is but the window of the soul. 
 
 When the soul has been released from the tenement 
 of clay in which it was developed in its Spiritual form, 
 it employs such 'mediums' as lie in its power, for the effect 
 of forces. The medium is electricity, and through its at- 
 tractions in appropriate spheres, Spirit can move mate- 
 rial objects by effects on their essences, and can produce 
 sounds by bringing the Spiritual essence of electricity in 
 
CINCINNATI RAPPINGS. 61 
 
 contact with the material of electricity, which belongs to 
 man in his state preparatory to the dwelling among the 
 essences, or in what orthodox philosophy calls the imma- 
 terial sphere. In Part I. of the second Section of our work, 
 will be found some views on this point, by Rev. J.P.Stuart. 
 How much Mr. Straub intended to accede, when he 
 admitted that exceptions to the general principle he laid 
 down were " recorded in Holy writ for wise, good and 
 important objects," we would not pretend to say ; but 
 it appears to us that if the " immateriality" of which he 
 speaks ever made u a 'knock,' or noise of any kind," no 
 matter at what age of the world, or for what purpose, 
 the whole theory Mr. Straub advances, and all the creeds, 
 (from which he took it,) that in keeping with it, belong 
 to the established Churches and Schools, are proven 
 fallacies. We need not argue these points further. 
 The entire philosophy of which our book treats, is an 
 argument against views of a similar character. 
 To Mr. Straub 's article was added the following : 
 "P. S. — Should you have any more demonstrations 
 with the Spirit-world, (as you call it,) please invite me 
 one of your select party. I pledge myself to expose the 
 trick you are trying to play off on community. I. S." 
 
 This was quite gentlemanly, but disregarding the in- 
 sult, we publicly promised Mr. Straub an opportunity to 
 " expose the humbug" at our earliest convenience. Be- 
 fore we met him, a friend sent us the following note : 
 
 " Friend Coggshall : — Your old friend, Straub, since 
 writing his article, has had some reason to believe that 
 he does not clearly understand all he wrote about. 
 
62 SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 
 
 When I see you I will give some particulars in regard 
 to friend Isaac, that will amuse, if not edify you. If 
 you are roving about town, just drop in at my office — I 
 would like to see you. Yours, Spiritually, &c. 
 
 We called at this friend's office, and learned that Mr. 
 Straub acknowledged that he had heard some sounds, at 
 a certain house, which were very mysterious. He could 
 not account for them — nor could he either imitate or 
 explain them. He had determined to publish an article 
 that would put us hors du combat, but after hearing the 
 sounds referred to, he concluded not to be hasty. He 
 is investigating, and we hope if the thing is all humbug, 
 he may be able to expose it. He is not a man easily 
 satisfied nor readily humbugged. When he decides in 
 favor of the Wrappings," it will be something of impor- 
 tance in their defense. We shall publish his decision 
 with pleasure. 
 
 Of one of the important " manifestations" referred to 
 in the extract from the Daily Times, we may give the 
 following account : 
 
 On the 27th of November, we received the subjoined 
 letter from a gentleman of the highest respectability. 
 It was addressed to the publisher of the Daily Times : 
 
 " C. W. Starbuck — Sir: — I have noticed lately, sever- 
 al articles in the Daily Times about " Mysterious Knock- 
 ings," and as I am in possession of some queer facts in 
 regard to certain " manifestations" of that kind, I would 
 like to know who the writer of said communications is, 
 and also see him. 1 merely write you this note, in 
 order that it may be shown the writer ; and if he thinks 
 
CINCINNATI KAPPINGS. 63 
 
 it worth while to call on me, I think he would be amply 
 repaid for the time spent. I have for at least two years, 
 until lately, endeavored to account for certain strange 
 noises, &c, at a certain house in this city, supposing 
 they were to be accounted for by natural causes, but 
 latterly I have given that up. 
 
 I am no believer in Spiritual U manifestations," witch- 
 es or ghosts, but there are some strange things happen- 
 ing at the house I refer to, that are yet all mystery to 
 the inhabitants thereof, as well as the casual visitor. 
 
 These " manifestations" are not confined to any par- 
 ticular time — they are heard during the day as well as 
 through all hours of the night — are not of such charac- 
 ter as in any way to disturb the family quiet, but are 
 clear, distinct raps — at one time directly overhead, again 
 in the adjoining room, then apparently in the room at 
 the farthest end of the house, then in the room where 
 the family is seated, &c, &c. I have frequently felt 
 the jar or vibration on the floor or door-jam, caused by 
 these knocks, when I knew, positively, there was no 
 living person in or about the room or place from whence 
 they seemed to come, &c, &c. More on this subject I 
 need not write ; I propose to the writer on "Spiritual 
 Knockings" a visit to the premises, where, if he has 
 any knowledge on that subject, he may help us to clear 
 up the mystery. Yours, * * * n 
 
 We called upon this gentleman, and after conversing 
 with him for a couple of hours, made an engagement to 
 meet him at the house to which he referred. We were 
 accompanied by a reliable clairvoyant. We were in- 
 formed that the sounds had been heard for nearly three 
 
64 SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 
 
 years, but that since something of an excitement had 
 been awakened in the city in reference to such " mani- 
 festations," they had been much more frequent and 
 much louder. The gentleman of the house was a de- 
 cided disbeliever in "ghosts," and conceiving that there 
 must be some cause for the sounds which he could as- 
 certain by careful watching and patient investigation, he 
 had many times searched the house from garret to cel- 
 lar, while the sounds followed him as if to defy investi- 
 gation. He was compelled to give it up — to declare 
 that he could not ascertain the cause. When he read 
 of the rapping " manifestations" in Cincinnati, the 
 thought struck him that perhaps the sounds about his 
 house might be explained. He was sceptical, but to 
 satisfy his mind he made arrangements to meet some of 
 those who had heard the raps, and give them an oppor- 
 tunity to compare the sounds at his house with those that 
 had been made in other places. 
 
 On the first evening that we visited the house, but 
 few sounds were made, and these were very indistinct. 
 The clairvoyant that accompanied us said they were 
 produced by an elderly man, who was making them for 
 the purpose of calling the attention of the family to a 
 wrong that had been committed upon a person they 
 knew, and in whose welfare they felt an interest. The 
 Spirit was described so accurately by the clairvoyant, 
 that the family recognized an acquaintance several years 
 deceased. 
 
 On the day following these investigations, we visited 
 another clairvoyant in the city who knew nothing of 
 the "manifestations" at the house in question, when 
 
CINCINNATI RAPPINGS. 65 
 
 the impressions of the first clairvoyant were confirmed 
 in all essential particulars. 
 
 We paid a second visit to the house. There were 
 two clairvcyants in the company. The sounds were 
 heard in various parts of the house. They sometimes 
 resembled the noise made by a mechanic fashioning a 
 wedge, and at other times appeared to be distinct raps 
 on the wall, ceiling and floor. A circle was formed, 
 and raps were heard beneath the table. The alphabet 
 was called over and a number of communications were 
 received, confirming in the main, the statements of the 
 clairvoyants, and revealing many matters of which the 
 strangers present were entirely ignorant, and many that 
 were new and important to the family and their friends. 
 
 It would be improper to make the communications 
 public, nor are we permitted, were it our wish, to make 
 any reference to the family ; but we can state that if it 
 ever becomes necessary, the truthfulness of our narra- 
 tion can be substantiated by many witnesses. 
 
 During the early part of January, 1851, a clairvoyant, 
 formerly of Cincinnati, paid a visit to some friends in 
 Indiana. At the house in which she stopped, at Rich- 
 mond, Wayne county, the mysterious sounds were heard 
 so loudly that the persons belonging there were alarmed. 
 At Winchester, la., she communicated with friends by 
 means of raps, readily and satisfactorily. Her father, 
 who was entirely sceptical in reference to Spiritual 
 " manifestations" on earth, was fully satisfied, by severe 
 test questions, that the Spirit of his brother communed 
 with him. 
 
 When this clairvoyant is among her intimate friends, 
 
66 SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 
 
 near Cincinnati, the raps are never made to her. She 
 holds more direct communion with Spirits, and her 
 friends have confidence. 
 
 When in Indiana, the Spirits told her that it was ne- 
 cessary there should be " manifestations" apparently 
 independent of her, that her friends there could have 
 such evidence as must win their confidence, if they were 
 candid. 
 
 Here is explained the general object of the rapping 
 manifestations — the low order of communication at 
 which scepticism hurls its pointed javelins. Before the 
 music student can expect to call from the piano the melo- 
 dy belonging to the notes of Mozart's divinest composi- 
 tions, he must have intimate knowledge of the gamut, m 
 harmony with the laws of which, his music exercise has 
 been constructed. Parents never expect their children 
 to read until they have been taught the alphabet. 
 
 We might extend this Part of our work many pages, 
 with the detail of rapping " manifestations," but it is 
 perhaps unnecessary. We have much yet to record of 
 a different character. As we have before stated, higher 
 than rapping u manifestations" are expected. We shall 
 watch the " signs of the times," and as soon as circum- 
 stances justify, and the " cause" shall demand further 
 labor, a Sequel to this work will be published, giving 
 full details of what may hereafter be " manifested." 
 
 It is the impression of clairvoyants always, in the in- 
 ternal condition, that Spirits are manifested to them, and 
 they are ever prone to describe them and talk about 
 Spiritual matters. 
 
 It is universal clairvoyant conviction, that the Spirit- 
 
CINCINNATI RAPPINGS. 67 
 
 world is around and about us; that the Spirits of 
 the departed are the ministering Angels of this world. 
 Whenever persons think intently of departed friends, 
 the Spirits of these friends are attracted to them ; there- 
 fore, in magnetic circles, those Spirits communicate 
 generally, which in life were near and dear, in friend- 
 ship or relation, to those making inquiries. It is imma- 
 terial, when the magnetic circle is properly formed, 
 whether the questions are spoken or made mentally. 
 It is the impression of clairvoyants, that the Spirits of 
 prominent persons of the past generation are teaching 
 the minds of reformers of the present day. They are 
 to have more and more satisfactory communings with 
 the Spirit-world. The demonstrations are now becoming 
 more distinct and satisfactory ; and it will not be many 
 years before great numbers of persons will hold audible 
 converse with the Spirits of friends departed. It was a 
 great step in progress when the genius of Morse made a 
 post-boy of electric currents, and so directed them, that 
 with the rapidity of thought they transmit intelligence 
 from one hemisphere to another; but how much greater 
 a step, in magnetic and moral progress is it, if through 
 electric detonations, mortals can receive messages from 
 beneficent Spirits of the invisible world, which, it has 
 ever been supposed, could only be communicated with, 
 through that dreaded change men call death. 
 
 " The times have been 
 That when the brains were out, the man would die ; 
 And there an end ; — but now they rise again." 
 
 And will it not be a glorious era, when the world 
 shall recognize this truly, and men believe, philosophi- 
 
05 SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 
 
 cally, that when our friends are silent in the clay, 
 
 " They do not die 
 Nor lose their mortal sympathy, 
 Nor change to us, although they change." 
 
 The communications reported in the foregoing pages, 
 purporting to have come from the Spirit- world, do not 
 teach great scientific truths — they announce no new 
 geological theories — they point out no planets which the 
 Ross telescope has not yet discovered — they do not lo- 
 cate a new golconda in any portion of the globe; and 
 if they did, what then 1 Where could be found the 
 crazed individual that would give the revelation confi- 
 dence for one moment. Is it not enough that the new 
 philosophy has to contend against an impression, well- 
 nigh as hoary with age as Time, that when the body 
 dies, the Spirit knows no more of earth forever, and, 
 perchance, knows nothing, until a day of general resur- 
 rection — it may be millions of ages yet beyond the 
 nineteenth century. 
 
 It is indeed a hard fight to do successful battle, even 
 against such superstition as Shakspeare describes, when 
 he makes the philosophic Dane say 
 
 " that the dread of something after death — 
 
 The undiscovered country from whose bourne 
 No traveler returns, — puzzles the will, 
 And makes us rather bear those ills we have, 
 Than fly to others that we know not of. 
 
 It will be a great advance in Spiritual recognition, 
 when one-third of the people shall believe that the 
 Spirits of the departed can visit earth and "do some- 
 thing here." 
 
 Again, the Spirits communicating, as we have re- 
 
CINCINNATI RAPPINGS. 69 
 
 ported, have not generally been those of men who were 
 leaders in this world — men who had comprehensive 
 views — and they have been privileged to communicate 
 only in private circles ; and such communications were 
 made as were best calculated to impress the persons ad- 
 dressed, that they came from the Spirits of those whom 
 they had known in this world. 
 
 A stumbling-block in the way of many who might 
 recognize the " manifestations," but who know nothing 
 of magnetism and its wonders, is the fact that all people 
 do not have " revealments" — that the sounds are not 
 heard in all circles. 
 
 Clairvoyants call the Spirits electric beings. We 
 know that natural electricity always travels with a 
 spiral movement, so to speak, in circles. It never 
 leaves home till there is a way to get back, It is clair- 
 voyant impression, that circles in the Spirit-world are 
 operating on circles in this world, through electric 'medi- 
 ums.' They can only be brought within " manifesting" 
 communion by means of magnetic attraction, Franklin 
 might have stood in the field and heard the thunder roll 
 and watched the lightning flash, for an age, without 
 " manifestations" from it ; but when he threw his kite 
 upon the breeze and it was borne near the thunder-laden 
 cloud, a medium was established : then when his knuckle 
 touched the key at the end of the string, the electric 
 spark — the " manifestation" — was recognized by him. 
 
 Roman mythology teaches that Jupiter was the God 
 of Thunder, and that from the top of mighty Olympus 
 he hurled his fiery bolts upon the subjects that offended 
 him — for punishment and to show his power, he pro- 
 
70 SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 
 
 duced electric detonations that alarmed the world. If 
 clairvoyant "revealments" be well founded, Spirits of 
 the. other world have the power of thunder in a pro- 
 scribed form, and they are making electric detonations 
 not to alarm, not to excite, but to quiet ; and when im- 
 pressions that cling tenaciously, because they " have 
 come down from former generations/' are removed, and 
 mankind will acknowledge the immediate relations of 
 the Spiritual to the physical world, communications are 
 to come, according to the declaration of Spirits who now 
 Rap, which will lead mind, while it sojourns in the body, 
 into the arcana of nature so minutely and consistently, 
 that the mysteries of mentality shall all be demonstrated. 
 
 To those who accept the orthodox belief, that Heaven 
 is a place to which the Spirit must travel, as on a jour- 
 ney, it is a striking proposition that the life- hereafter of 
 their friends departed from earth, is in any manner of 
 communion with their thoughts or emotions — that there 
 should be an invisible world inhabited by Spirits around 
 our world, is an idea preposterous — Angel visits to 
 earth are " few and far between," and can never be, 
 only under special dispensation of Jehovah, when He 
 has a divine message to man. 
 
 What is the Invisible world ? Mrs. Crowe's idea, in 
 her "Night side of Nature," is one of rationality. She 
 says : 
 
 " With respect to the term, invisible world, I beg to 
 remind my readers, that what we call seeing, is merely 
 the function of an organ constructed for that purpose, 
 in relation to the external world ; and so limited are its 
 powers, that we are surrounded by many things in that 
 
CINCINNATI RAPPINGS. 71 
 
 world which we cannot see without the aid of artificial 
 appliances, and many other things which we cannot see 
 even with them ; the atmosphere in which we live, for 
 example, although its weight and mechanical forces are 
 the subjects of calculation, is entirely imperceptible to 
 our visual organs. Thus the fact that we do not com- 
 monly see them, forms no legitimate objection to the 
 hypothesis of our being surrounded by a world of Spirits, 
 or of that world being inter-diffused among us." 
 
 To the uncultivated mind, a detailed account of the 
 wonderful "sights" of the microscope, is as much like a 
 fable or a delusion, as to the minds of people generally,, 
 clairvoyant views of the Spirit-world have ever been. 
 Magnetism is the microscopic lens which opens to the 
 mind's eye, views of the Spiritual world. In all circles 
 where the " rapping" communications are given, pow- 
 erful magnetic influences, independent of the company 
 of embodied Spirits, are always at work, and all easily 
 impressed persons recognize them. 
 
 In a pamphlet published by Eliab W. Capron and 
 Henry D. Barron, of Auburn, N. Y., which gives many 
 most interesting and convincing particulars, in relation 
 to the " mysterious noises," much evidence, in support 
 of our impressions on this point, is presented. We quote 
 a paragraph from page 69. 
 
 '•This feeling of electricity seems to pervade nearly 
 everything connected with these phenomena. When 
 the rapping is heard, the peculiar jar is felt — differing 
 from the jar produced by a blow — and in various other 
 ways we are reminded of the use of this subtle agent. 
 We often see in a dark room, bright electric flashes on 
 
72 SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 
 
 the wall and other places. We, and all who have taken 
 pains to get at the truth of all these demonstrations, 
 have frequently had a hand laid on their arms, shoul- 
 ders or head, when no person would or could do it, 
 having all their hands held by each other. These de- 
 monstrations, like the others, generally leave a feeling 
 of electricity where they touch. The hand feels much 
 like one who is in a magnetic sleep, being colder (gen- 
 erally) than the hand of persons in a normal state, and 
 having a moisture like a cold perspiration upon it. 
 There is not, usually, any feeling like that of a hard 
 hand, or one made up with the usual amount of bones 
 in it." 
 
 Further consideration of these topics will be had in 
 the succeeding Parts of this work. 
 
THE 
 
 SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 We know in day-time there are stars abont ns 
 
 Just as at night, and name them what and where, 
 
 By sight of science ; so by faith we know, 
 
 Although we may not see them till our night, 
 
 That Spirits are about us, and believe, 
 
 That to a Spirit's eye all Heaven may be 
 
 As full of Angels as a beam of light 
 
 Of motes. Festus. 
 
 " Could we lift the fleshy veil, 
 
 Could we for a moment witness 
 Those unnumbered hosts that stand, 
 Calm and bright, on either hand ; 
 Oh, what joyful hope would cheer ! 
 
 Oh, what faith serene would guide us ! 
 Oh, what reverent heed would then 
 Watch our footsteps among men !" 
 
 CLAIRVOYANT "RE VE ALMENTS." 
 
 By the term " clairvoyant revealments," as employed 
 in the caption to this Part of our book, we mean princi- 
 pally, such revelations as have been made to clairvoy- 
 ants by the communion of thought with thought. Many 
 interesting communications have been made to us by 
 clairvoyants, which they declaied were at the dictation 
 of Spirits they saw, and by whom they were magnet- 
 ically impressed. Of these and various non-communi- 
 cative physical demonstrations, we now propose speaking. 
 6 
 
74 SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 
 
 On Thursday evening, October 17th, while Mrs. Bush- 
 nell was the medium of communication by means of 
 raps, for a circle, a sentence, purporting to be from the 
 Spirit of John P. Cornell, was spelled out, which de- 
 clared Mrs. Bushnell would be magnetized by him in 
 two minutes and a half, and that he would speak through 
 her to the circle. 
 
 Precisely at the time appointed, Mrs. B. was thrown 
 with a shock into the magnetic state. She sat upright, 
 and said, " I am Mr. Cornell." Her bearing is reported 
 to have been precisely that of the gentleman while in 
 life. He spoke through the magnetic subject upon mat- 
 ters of business in which his friends were interested; 
 replied to many questions relating to the condition of 
 Spirits in the other world, and then said that as there 
 were persons present who wished to communicate with 
 friends, he would retire for an hour, when at a signal, 
 he would again magnetize Mrs. B. 
 
 When Mrs. B. was relieved from the magnetic influ- 
 ence, nothing was said to her, by the company, of what 
 had been communicated through her. At the conclu- 
 sion of an hour, the signal — a distinct rap — was given. 
 
 "There's the signal," said one of the company. 
 
 " What signal?" said Mrs. B. 
 
 No reply was made, and in a second, she was again 
 thrown into the clairvoyant state. The Spirit of Mr. C. 
 again communicated through her. He told what his 
 business had been in this world, and what his objects 
 were in these communications. After a very interesting 
 lecture on Spiritualism, he said that demonstrations of 
 the kind just witnessed, would be frequently mani- 
 
CLAIRVOYANT REVEALMENTS. 75 
 
 fested, and people would be much instructed by them. 
 
 About this time, Mrs. Bushnell's health became much 
 impaired. One evening, as she was passing from one 
 room to another, in the house at which she boarded, a 
 very loud rap was heard on the door near her. She 
 started, as if suddenly shocked — in a second became 
 
 rigid, and said — " Dr. , why do you magnetize 
 
 me ?" (referring to the person by whom she was first 
 magnetized, several years deceased.) 
 
 She was silent a moment, and then said — " He tells 
 me I work too hard. 1 am magnetized too often. T 
 will kill myself. I will wake in thirty seconds." 
 
 At the expiration of this period she was relieved, and 
 inquired of the company if they could tell who had 
 magnetized her. What she had said was repeated, and 
 she was urged to heed the advice given. Her friends 
 in this world had frequently told her the same thing, 
 but she did not regard their counsel. 
 
 On Friday evening, October 25th, we witnessed a 
 second manifestation of the character first spoken of. 
 Mrs. Bushnell had been talking about Spiritual matters 
 in the clairvoyant state for half an hour, when she de- 
 clared that a Spirit wi-hed to make her a direct medium 
 of communication. She was aroused from the magnetic 
 state, and conversed some ten minutes with a gentleman 
 who sat near her, when, in the middle of a sentence, 
 she ceased speaking — started with a shock, and instantly 
 her limbs became rigid, as those of persons under the 
 influence of magnetism generally do. In a few mo- 
 ments, Mrs. B. began to talk, and speaking in the first 
 person, she lectured for fifteen minutes on subjects 
 
76 SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 
 
 which we know were the favorite topics, in life, of 
 the man, whose Spirit she declared had magnetized 
 her. 
 
 It will be remembered that in Part II. on the " Myste- 
 rious Noises," we spoke of a lady whose arm was sudden- 
 ly drawn back, as it was stated by raps, at the will, or 
 by the power of a Spirit. Subsequently, this lady was 
 frequently thrown into the clairvoyant state by what pur- 
 ported to be Spiritual influences. 
 
 A few evenings after the " manifestation," through 
 Mrs. Bushnell, above related, while Mrs. B., in a clair- 
 voyant state, under our influence, was lecturing in a 
 private circle on Spiritualism, a gentleman undertook to 
 magnetize the lady referred to, when, with a shock, she 
 was taken from under his influence. She arose from 
 her seat, walked across the room to where Mrs. Bush- 
 nell was sitting, and placed her hand upon the lecturer's 
 head. We directed Mrs. B.'s attention to her. She 
 said the lady was magnetized by a Spirit, and would 
 wake in a minute. Presently the lady started and 
 awoke, much astonished to find herself at the side of 
 the room opposite that on which she had seated herself, 
 when Mrs. Bushnell was magnetized. We requested 
 Mrs. Bushnell to ask the Spirit to magnetize the lady 
 again, and will her to remember what she saw. In an- 
 swer to this, Mrs. B. said the lady would be thrown into 
 the magnetic state in two minutes. At the expiration of 
 the time precisely, the lady received a shock. She 
 slept two minutes, awoke, and described what she had 
 seen as a face peering through fleecy clouds. The fea- 
 tures, as described, were those of John P. Cornell. The 
 
CLAIRVOYANT REVEALMEXTS. 77 
 
 lady never saw him while living, we are confident from 
 personal knowledge. 
 
 On the morning following these developments, Mrs. 
 Bushnell was making a medical examination for the 
 lady who had been Spiritually magnetized, when she 
 said to her in our presence — u Here is that gentleman 
 that magnetized you. You will go to sleep to-night at 
 eight o'clock, and will see your sister's spirit: and you 
 will go to sleep also at 8 o'clock on Monday night next." 
 
 The lady was entirely skeptical on the matter ? and 
 declared positively, at half-past 7 o'clock on Saturday 
 evening, that she had no idea of going to sleep : but 
 precisely at eight, she received a shock, and passed into 
 a magnetic sleep. While she was in this state, she wept 
 freely, and shook her head frequently, but would not 
 converse. She slept fifteen minutes, as Mrs. Bushnell 
 said she would, and when she awoke, stated that she 
 had seen her sister and two gentlemen ; and the reason 
 she wept was because, when she endeavored to embrace 
 her sister, she receded. On being asked why she shook 
 her head with such determination, she replied that the 
 Spirits wished her to be a medium of communication by 
 sounds, and she refused. 
 
 On Monday evening, at precisely 8 o'clock, the lady's 
 appearance gave evidence that she was impressed, but 
 she so sternly resisted the influence, that she did not go 
 to sleep for half an hour. 
 
 She slept about fifteen minutes, and when she awoke, 
 said that she had seen the Spirits" of her father and 
 sister, and described the one that magnetized her pre- 
 cisely as she had previously done. That there was no 
 
78 SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 
 
 deception on the part of this lady, we are confident. 
 We know her to be one of those women whose noble- 
 ness of mind never can permit them to descend to base 
 deception and low trickery ; and we are satisfied that 
 Mrs. Bushnell did not affect her, because Mrs. B. is 
 much more susceptible to magnetic influences than she 
 is, and can be magnetized by her, as had previously 
 been ascertained by experiment. We do not give her 
 name in this history, because she does not wish it 
 known, as she has never, in any way, been publicly con- 
 nected with magnetism or clairvoyance, although she 
 has long been a clairvoyant of remarkable independence 
 and power in many respects. 
 
 We were, one afternoon, about the first of November, 
 in a company assembled to hear a gentleman clairvoy- 
 ant of this city — a man generally esteemed and every- 
 where regarded sincere — report his impressions of Spirit- 
 ual existences and their influences ; when he explained 
 to the company that he was taught by the Spirits of 
 those who had tasted the bitter fruits of the life we im- 
 patiently lead, and who had vowed that after death, if it 
 were their privilege, they would revisit earth and im- 
 press the mortals they had left behind, that there is 
 Spiri'ual watchfulness over, around, and about them, 
 seeking to purify and elevate. 
 
 The demonstrations that had been, and were being 
 made, were designed to prepare the human mind for high- 
 er and holier — more immediate— heavenly "manifes- 
 tations." From the throne of God, through Christ and 
 the Spirits of "just men made perfect," light was now 
 flowing to circles of the Spirit-world, which could com- 
 
CLAIRVOYANT REVEALMENTS. 79 
 
 municate with the earth-born, and which were endeavor- 
 ing to lead men to close communion with them, that 
 there might be established, upon our planet, an order of 
 society that would lead its inhabitants nearer and nearer 
 to the sphere of those beings who enjoy the almost im- 
 mediate presence of Jehovah. 
 
 Through the crude impulses of true general reform, 
 now agitating the world, these Spiritual circles had 
 operated, until the period had arrived at which it was 
 proper that direct and definite " manifestations" should 
 be made. They had been made to a great extent in the 
 eastern portions of our country, and were spreading 
 through the western portions. This was new soil — 
 here prejudices were not as deeply rooted as in older 
 established countries — here were more honest inquiring 
 minds — in Cincinnati, the highest demonstrations were 
 to be made. Within a few months there were to be 
 Spiritual " manifestations," which the mass of the people 
 should recognize — should know to be from the Spirit- 
 world. 
 
 The " manifestations" that had been made, and those 
 which were immediately to follow, with convicting 
 power, were forerunners of that time prophesied in holy 
 writ, as the second coming of Christ. He would be mani- 
 fested with his holy angels through those circles of spirits s, 
 which shall cause the demonstrations spoken of. We 
 were opening upon the great era of the world's history. 
 There were coming up in the vista of the future, great 
 poets, orators and writers, who would dwell, with won- 
 derful power, beauty and majesty, upon the era just 
 opening. 
 
80 SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 
 
 These were decided clairvoyant impressions, reported 
 in an emphatic manner. Note was made by us of 
 them, and they were published in the Daily Times. 
 Much discussion was had about them in our city, and 
 they were copied into several religious papers, and se- 
 verely commented upon, as the teachings oflying spirits 
 — of devils. As these discussions spread, " talk" was 
 created about the strange things happening in these 
 u latter days," and reports were started of" other mani- 
 festations" in various quarters of the city. We heard 
 of many that could not be relied upon ; but among those 
 which came from creditable sources, the most singular 
 was the following : 
 
 We are not at liberty to give names or localities, but 
 we can state that it is some two years since the " man- 
 ifestations" were first witnessed. 
 
 A mother, who had a mother's strongest affection for 
 her children, was, by disease, brought near the change 
 called death. When about to leave this world, she re- 
 quested her husband never to marry again, because the 
 children might be abused by a step-mother ; and she 
 declared that if he did marry, and the children were 
 abused, she would haunt the house, if her Spirit lived 
 after the death of the body and had power to be on the 
 earth. 
 
 In due course of time, the husband did marry, and 
 the children were not treated as their deceased mother 
 would have treated them. Tasks were put upon them 
 which they were unable to perform in the time allotted. 
 Many times they have retired to bed, leaving their work 
 half done. The house was locked — no person could 
 
CLAIRVOYANT REVEALMEXTS. 81 
 
 easily gain admittance — there are no known somnam- 
 bulists in the family- — no noises were heard in any part 
 of the house ; but the children's tasks have repeatedly 
 been mysteriously completed when the family arose in 
 the morning. 
 
 During the week on which these things were reported 
 to us, various " manifestations" were made about the 
 house — tables moved, rooms swept, &e. One night, the 
 kitchen table was moved back by an invisible power. 
 Another time, the family retired to bed, leaving the 
 chairs standing promiscuously about the sitting room. 
 The first person who arose in the morning, found them 
 all in proper order against the wall. 
 
 Many singular " manifestations'' have been made, 
 which could not have been produced by common mortal 
 agencies. Others might readily have been made by 
 any person acquainted with the peculiar circumstances 
 of the family. 
 
 When we heard of these " manifestations," we con- 
 sulted a clairvoyant in reference to them. She de- 
 scribed them, without previous knowledge, as they had 
 been described to us, and gave the locality of the house 
 in which they were made, when, at the time, we did not 
 know where the house was situated. 
 
 These " manifestations" are something similar to those 
 that have been made, in the house of E,ev. Mr. Phelps, 
 of Stratford, Connecticut, for a number of months, and 
 about which, there has been so much said in the news- 
 papers. Those of which we speak, have been, however, 
 if at all, for a definite purpose, understood and talked 
 about in the family. Mr. Phelps declares that he can 
 
82 SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 
 
 conceive no reason why the demonstrations should be 
 made at his house. He is as much at a loss to account 
 for them, as a man residing in a small village on the 
 Ohio river, near Wheeling, Va., to account for de- 
 monstrations made at his house, in October last, as re- 
 ported by him to a friend of our acquaintance, in Cin- 
 cinnati. 
 
 He said there was a room in the house, in which all 
 kinds of strange capers were cut up. He determined to 
 find the cause, if possible. He examined the room till 
 he was satisfied there could be no mortal in it. He 
 then locked the door and put the key in his pocket. 
 Presently he heard strange noises. It seemed as if 
 somebody was turning everything upside down. He 
 entered the room suddenly — everything was in confu- 
 sion — and an old broom-stick, with a ragged bonnet 
 upon it, was dancing about the floor. He was dumb- 
 founded. When relating the affair, he said — " I tell 
 you the thing as it happened ; you can take it for what 
 it is worth. I'll take my oath, I saw what I tell you ; 
 but I don't believe a bit of it myself." 
 
 In Salem Witchcraft times, what a terrible excite- 
 ment occurrences of this character would have created 
 in a country village. 
 
 One evening, in the second week of November, we 
 had an opportunity to make some clairvoyant investiga- 
 tions, when the person magnetized began to speak of, and 
 describe Spirits about her. 
 
 She described, accurately, Manley Chapin, a lawyer 
 of Cincinnati, who died of cholera in the summer of 
 1849 ; John K. Lord, Pastor of the First Orthodox Con- 
 
CLAIRVOYANT REYEALMENT3. 83 
 
 gregational Church, Cincinnati, who also died of cholera, 
 in the summer of 1849 ; Moses Cornell, and John P., of 
 whom we have previously several times spoken. She 
 had never seen either of these persons in life, excepting 
 Mr. Lord. Her descriptions of all of them were very- 
 graphic. Mr. Chapin was a man of peculiarities. She 
 pictured them in a striking manner. At this time, she 
 also saw Rev. James H. Perkins, the well known Philan- 
 thropist and popular Unitarian preacher. His peculiar 
 state of mind at the time of his death, was referred to, 
 and the statement made that though he drowned him- 
 self, he did not commit suicide. 
 
 It was stated that he was impressing individuals to 
 carry out the benevolent and philanthropic movements in 
 which he had been engaged on earth : that he had led a 
 distinguished divine of this city, who occupies a peculiar 
 position in reference to the church, (Rev. T. H. Stock- 
 ton) that he drowned himself under the influence of a 
 sudden freak, caused by an over action of his mental 
 powers — a mental impulse to accomplish more than was 
 within the power of the physical man, and that his death 
 was not to be lamented. 
 
 Mr. Perkins's personal appearance and manner were 
 accurately described, and we well know that the clair- 
 voyant — the lady of whom we have repeatedly spoken 
 as impressible to Spiritual influences — never saw Mr- 
 Perkins to know him, while he sojourned in the body on 
 this earth. 
 
 A few days after we had this interview, we met an- 
 other clairvoyant, a Mrs. P., an elderly lady, who stated 
 that she had seen and- recognized many Spirits while in 
 
84 SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 
 
 the clairvoyant si ate, and that when free from magnetic 
 influence, she had often, within the last two years, had 
 demonstrations from her deceased son. He was distant 
 from her on the night of his death, and at the time, she 
 told a lady living with her, that she knew her son had 
 died within twenty-four hours, because she had seen him 
 a corpse. The sad intelligence come by due course of 
 the common modes of the conveyance of news, and Mrs. 
 P.'s impressions were verified — her son died on the night 
 she saw him in his grave clothes. Since that time, she 
 says, he has made numerous "manifestations" to her. 
 She declares herself confident that he is with her always. 
 
 A Miss B , residing on Cutter street, Cincinnati, 
 
 has, within a year, had a number of " manifestations, " 
 which she declares she is impressed most powerfully, 
 were from friends who have gone before her to the Spirit- 
 world. 
 
 A Miss , of Cincinnati, living on Eighth street, 
 
 has heard, within six months, a number of "mysterious 
 noises." She expresses herself convinced that no human 
 agency produced them. 
 
 A few weeks since, " manifestations' ' were made to a 
 Mr. W , of our city, which struck him as very sin- 
 gular, and which were singular, because similar l( mani- 
 festations' ' were made to his wife, and neither knew of 
 the other's experience until they compared notes. 
 
 We mention these things only in support of clairvoyant 
 revelations, east and west, that the "manifestations" are 
 not to be confined to particular persons nor particular 
 places. 
 
 On the evening spoken of in Pajrt II. of the first Sec- 
 
CLAIRVOYANT KEVEALMENTS. 85 
 
 tion of this work, when our brother James communicated 
 to us, by raps, a lady in the circle, whom we shall call 
 Mrs. A., was told, by a rap-sentence, that within one day 
 she would see her brother-in-law. 
 
 About three o'clock, the following morning, when per- 
 fectly awake, she saw a light in her room, which she 
 knew was not caused by any common agencies. She 
 was sceptical, and endeavored, by every possible means, 
 to account, rationally, for the " manifestation, " without 
 ascribing it to Spiritual influences, but was unable to 
 satisfy her mind, and, on meeting us, she requested us to 
 
 visit Mrs. Bushnell, and ask her if she, Mrs. A , 
 
 had ever had any " manifestations/' She did not tell us 
 what she had had, nor give her reasons for the request. 
 We called on Mrs. B., and when in the clairvoyant state, 
 she gave a description which compared, in all particu- 
 lars, with the one given by the lady, of her vision to us 
 afterwards. Since that night, this lady has had a num- 
 ber of "manifestations.'' She has seen the strange light 
 in different parts of her room, and has heard raps upon 
 the table, ceiling, wall and floor, when she was alone. 
 
 A Mrs. C , relates to us that one evening, after 
 
 she had retired to bed, a hand was placed upon her side 
 in such a manner as to hold the bed-clothing. She re- 
 quested that if she were not deceived, the impression 
 would remain till she slept. When she was lost in for- 
 getfulness, the clothes were still held. She says it was 
 no illusion. She felt the hand as distinctly as if one from 
 a coporeal body had been placed there. A clairvoyant 
 has since told her that it was the hand of her father, 
 who watches over her little son. 
 
86 SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 
 
 A Mrs. A., informs us that one evening, after havino- 
 
 been making clairvoyant investigations, a candle, sitting 
 upon her table, was lighted, and blown out again twice, 
 by some mysterious agency. The flame was very dif- 
 ferent from any one she had ever seen before. On the 
 same night, she saw a spectral light in her room, which 
 she was impressed was exhibited by Spiritual influences. 
 
 A few weeks since, a Mrs. P , who has never 
 
 been clairvoyant, visited Mrs. Bushnell, and her little 
 boy, some months deceased, was perfectly described to 
 her. On returning home she was thinking intently of 
 her babe, and desired, if he was with her, that some 
 "manifestation" be made — when her dress was gently 
 pulled to one side, as if some one had taken hold of it 
 with thumb and finger. She was alone, and she knows 
 her dress was not moved by imagination — that some- 
 times very wild, again, very tame — sometimes very im- 
 potent, and again, all-powerful attribute of the human 
 mind. 
 
 One evening, while a number of ladies and gentlemen 
 were making clairvoyant investigations, a lady, who was 
 entirely sceptical in reference to the " rapping V 1° test 
 the matter, after a few sounds had been heard, requested, 
 mentally, that if the Spirits of her children were present, 
 they would make it known to her. She heard no sounds, 
 but felt distinct vibrations under her feet. She thought 
 it a delusion, and repeated the questions. Again she 
 felt the vibrations. Still she was not satisfied, and again 
 put the question, mentally, with the same result. In a 
 short time, the clairvoyant spoke of the children of this 
 lady, and described them — said they had made "mani- 
 
CLAIRVOYANT REVEALMENTS. 87 
 
 festations," and pointed out what she had felt. The lady 
 was astonished, and at once renounced her scepticism. 
 
 We know a woman who has had a cough of ten years 
 standing, cured, by what she declares she knows to have 
 been Spiritually magnetic influences upon her. Clair- 
 voyants have described her as under Spiritual influences. 
 
 A young man of our acquaintance, who was an infidel, 
 and who was going to the grave on account of a bowel 
 complaint, was brought under electrical influences, in 
 connection with a clairvoyant — had messages from the 
 Spiritual world, and felt the influence of magnetism, for 
 which the clairvoyant was a medium ; and he has been 
 cured, mentally and physically — his health is restored, 
 and he is now a firm believer in Spiritual existences, and 
 their power to "manifest" on earth. 
 
 A few weeks since, a gentleman of our acquaintance, 
 a clairvoyant, was in a promiscuous company, when, for 
 a moment, he appeared abstracted, then he started to 
 his feet, and exclaimed to his wife, ''some one is picking 
 my trunk." His wife wished him to go into the internal 
 condition and follow out the impression ; but he said it 
 was unpleasant, and he wished to drive it from his mind. 
 He did not believe much had been taken. 
 
 On the night in question, a room, some 80 or 90 miles 
 distant, in which his wife had a lot of valuable goods, 
 was forcibly entered, and a trunk, precisely of the de- 
 scription of one belonging to him individually, was 
 broken open, and a few things stolen; but many valua- 
 bles were left unmolested. This is a remarkable coinci- 
 dence, to say the least. 
 
 Many " coincidences" of this character have been pub- 
 
88 SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 
 
 lislied. It is unnecessary to refer to them generally, but 
 it may not be inappropriate to quote the following, as 
 they are " coincidences," observed in the fall of 1850 : 
 
 "Singular. — The 'Boston Transcript' mentions, as a 
 well authenticated fact, that a young lady in that city 
 had a frightful dream, on a Saturday night, that her 
 absent brother had been killed, and she saw his body 
 dreadfully mangled. She awoke, by her cries, a lady 
 who slept next her, to whom she related her dream. 
 The lady endeavored to soothe her fears, and finally per- 
 suaded her to retire once more to bed, and try to forget 
 the dream . The next Monday morning, the young lady 
 received a telegraphic despatch, announcing that her 
 brother, a brakeman on the Western Railroad, had fallen 
 from the cars on one of the freight trains, and been 
 run over and instantly killed. The accident happened 
 about the time of the dream." 
 
 The ' Portland Pleasure Boat' adds — " The above is 
 singular only so far as people are Spiritually blind. If 
 mankind were in that state that it is their duty and 
 privilege to be in, they would see occurrences like the 
 above, when awake. But the animal nature rules the 
 Spiritual. It is only when it is jaded out, and falls asleep, 
 that the Spirit can rise above it, and even then, it is fet- 
 tered in its action by the gross sensuality of the body. 
 
 "If all people would live aright, they could, with 
 Spiritual eyes, see absent friends, when in trouble, as 
 clearly as they can see their bodies with the outer eye, 
 when near. This is singular only because man is not 
 what he should be. The body rules and rides the Spirit ; 
 whereas the Spirit should rule and ride the body." 
 
CLAIRVOYANT REVEALMENTS. 89 
 
 "A Dream Verified. — Messrs. Fuller & Colton, 311 
 Washington street, left their store at 1 2 o'clock at night, 
 for their sleeping apartments, in Summer street. During 
 the night, Mr. Colton dreamed that their store was broken 
 into by robbers, who were stealing silk cravats. So 
 powerfully was his mind wrought upon by this vision, 
 that he became almost crazed, and jumped up and caught 
 hold of his partner, (who was asleep in the same room,) 
 thinking he was the man. Mr. Fuller told him he was 
 crazy ; that he was dreaming, &c, and induced him again 
 to go to sleep. In a few moments the same scene was 
 again enacted. 
 
 The next morning, when these gentlemen went to their 
 store, they found it had been broken open during the 
 night, and fifteen hundred dollars in goods stolen — and 
 more than a thousand dollars in silk cravats!- — Boston 
 Transcript" 
 
 A gentleman of our acquaintance, Mr. W., was, one 
 evening, in consultation with a clairvoyant, when she said 
 to him — " Here is your grand-mother. She tells me that 
 she has often made " manifestations" to you. She called 
 you once when you were a boy, at work in the corn- 
 field. She has shown you lights. You have been 
 frightened by them. You need not be alarmed." 
 
 The gentleman was much astonished. He states that 
 when a boy, he often saw strange lights, and that they 
 alarmed him, He was, one day, at work in the corn- 
 field, when his name was distinctly called. He en- 
 deavored, in every way, to ascertain from whence the 
 call proceeded, but without success. He was impressed 
 at the time, that there was somethtng peculiar about it. 
 
90 SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 
 
 and he had never mentioned it even to his mother or 
 wife. It had passed from his memory, and was recalled 
 by the clairvoyant. 
 
 A lady of this city heard strange noises about her, 
 several years ago, and remarked, at the time, that she 
 believed she was sometimes impressed by Spiritual influ- 
 ences that would one day be recognized. When ac- 
 counts of the "Rochester Knockings" were published, 
 she said to her daughter — M There, did I not tell you 
 that God would bring it out all in his own good time." 
 
 We could fill many pages with details of this charac- 
 ter, but must hasten to a conclusion. 
 
 Pythagoras taught, and many of the ancients believed 
 in the doctrine of the transmigration of the soul. There 
 were countless clearly apparent absurdities connected 
 with it; but in this, as in many other doctrines expounded 
 by the philosophers before Christ, were there not some 
 glimmerings of truth ? Who has not wondered at the 
 soul-sympathy human magnetism establishes and exhi- 
 bits ? We have reported clairvoyant impersonations 
 which seem almost like the transmigration of the soul. 
 The proposition is a startling one — the spiritual essences 
 of those who are known to have left the corporeal body, 
 by means of the magnetic rapport, manifest themselves 
 in other bodies, and speak as of themselves, by the or- 
 gans of clay, to the friends who cannot see them in 
 Spirit. When this shall be believed by the endorsers of 
 the sciences that the world recognizes, will there not be 
 an over-turning and an up-heaving of ancient forms and 
 opinions ? 
 
 Among the " manifestations' ' going to show that the 
 
CLAIRVOYANT REVEALMENTS. 91 
 
 u wonders" of which we hint may be what they appear, 
 the following has importance : 
 
 The son of a clairvoyant of our acquaintance, about 
 six years of age, within a few weeks, has manifested a 
 great passion for music. He teases his mother inces- 
 santly for an old accordeon. When he is engaged forcing 
 discordant sounds from it, he is perfectly contented. He 
 will sit upon the floor for hours, and play with this in- 
 strument. The passion was a sudden one, and his 
 mother could not account for it, till one day, in company 
 with a friend, when she entered the clairvoyant state, she 
 saw the Spirit of an elderly man standing near her son. 
 She turned to the friend and said — " Here is a man who 
 tells me he is your father. He is impressing my boy. 
 It is that which gives him such a passion for the accor- 
 deon. ,, 
 
 " Describe him," said her friend. 
 
 A satisfactory description was given, when the friend 
 remarked — 
 
 "It would be just like him if, in Spirit, he ever did 
 anything in this world, for he was a great musician." 
 
 The clairvoyant had never seen the father of this 
 friend in our world, and knew nothing of his peculiari- 
 ties. 
 
 The friend asked the clairvoyant — 
 
 " Has father any message to send me ?" 
 
 " He wishes you to give your daughter an opportunity 
 to study music. He does not wish the art to die out in 
 the family." 
 
 " I have intended to give her a musical education. I 
 have a notion to buy a melodeon." 
 
92 SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 
 
 " Your father tells me that he put the notion into your 
 head," answered the clairvoyant. 
 
 This " manifestation' ' is very similar to those witnessed 
 by the Hutchinson family, when they conversed with 
 Spirits at Rochester. Their friends in the Spirit-world 
 sang the hymn "All is Well." Jesse Hutchinson writes 
 to LaRoy Sunderland, Boston, Mass., that since this inter- 
 view, his brother, Judson, who was falsely said to have 
 been deranged by the influence of magnetism, " has had 
 some most divine and heavenly revelations," in reference 
 to music. 
 
 The first time that we had rapping communication 
 with our brother James, he said that he had made " man- 
 ifestations" about our house — that he had rung our door- 
 bell, and that he would make sounds frequently. The 
 door-bell had rung, many times, when we knew there 
 could be nobody near the door ; but we supposed that 
 the rats caused the vibration, by running over the wire, 
 and becoming accustomed to the sound, it did not annoy 
 us. But if our supposition was correct, it was strange 
 the bell never rung mysteriously until after there had 
 been rapping "manifestations" at the house; and it is 
 equally as strange that it has rung but a few times since 
 we were told what caused it. It has rung many times 
 under very peculiar circumstances, such as were calcu- 
 lated to impress one that there was method in the mystery. 
 
 This "manifestation" is not uncommon. We have 
 reliable evidences that it has been witnessed at other 
 houses in this city. 
 
 At page 386 of her «' Night side of Nature," Mrs, 
 Crowe says :— " I meet with numerous extraordinary 
 
CLAIRVOYANT REVEALMENTS. 93 
 
 records of a preternatural ringing of all the bells in a 
 house ; sometimes occurring periodically for a considera- 
 ble time, and continuing after precautions have been 
 taken which precluded the possibility of trick or decep- 
 tion — the wires being cut and vigilant eyes watching 
 them ; and yet they rung by day or night, just the same." 
 
 There have been many strange sounds heard at our 
 house — in our particular room — at the desk on which this 
 book was written — on the floor near it — on the table — on 
 the wall, and on the ceiling. Our brother's signal we 
 know to be three raps which have a peculiar sound. 
 We have heard it in the night — on the floor, just as we 
 have been retiring to bed — on the head of the bed and 
 on the foot. Clairvoyants who have heard nothing about 
 the a manifestation," have described it repeatedly. We 
 
 have heard it, in company with Mrs. C , at several 
 
 other places, as well as in our own room. We are told 
 that it is intended to give us confidence that the Spirit of 
 our brother is with us. We have never been able to 
 communicate with him by raps, except in company with 
 two or more clairvoyants. 
 
 Much has been said in sermons about music in 
 Heaven. When making clairvoyant investigations one 
 evening, the clairvoyant began to beat time with her 
 hand, as if she heard music. " Do you know what I 
 did that for," said she. We answered that we should 
 like to know ; when she replied — " My sister, whom I 
 see in Spirit, is singing with your sister a beautiful song. 
 I will sing with them." She immediately commenced 
 and sang most beautifully, several stanzas of a song, 
 entitled "The Infant's Dream." When she had con- 
 
94 SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 
 
 eluded she said — " I could sing better than sister when 
 she was in the body, but now she sings much better than 
 I can. Oh, we shall all sing in the Spirit- world." 
 
 Presently the clairvoyant was gently drawn to one 
 side, and so much affected that the tears streamed from 
 her eyes. She was drawn over her chair so far that 
 she would have fallen to the floor, had she not been 
 caught hold of and held up. When she recovered her- 
 self, she said — " Sister had her arms around my neck 
 and almost drew me over. It is strange she can touch 
 me and I cannot touch her. 
 
 This lady has several times since sang the song of 
 the " Infant's Dream," in company with her Spiritual 
 sisters. We copy several of the happiest verses of this 
 song, believing that, in this connection, they will be read 
 with interest. The infant is represented as telling a 
 dream of Heaven to its mother. 
 
 " Do you mind when sister Jane, mamma, 
 
 Lay dead a short time agone, 
 O, you gazed on that sad and lovely wreck 
 With a full flood of wo you could not check ; 
 And your heart was so sore you wished it would break, 
 
 But you loved and you, aye, sobbed on. 
 
 But O ! had you been with me, mamma, 
 
 In realms unknown to care, 
 And seen what I saw you ne'er had cried 
 Though they buried pretty Jane in the grave when she died ; 
 For shining with the blest and adorned like a bride, 
 
 Sweet sister Jane was there. 
 
 Do you mind that good old man, mamma, 
 
 Who came so late to our door — 
 The night was dark, and the tempest loud, 
 And his heart was weak, but his soul was proud, 
 And his ragged old mantle served for his shroud 3 
 
 Ere the midnight watch was o'er 
 
CLAIRVOYANT REVEALMENTS. 95 
 
 And think what a weight of wo, mamma, 
 
 Made heavy each loug-drawn sigh 
 As the good man sat on papa's old chair 
 While the rain dropped from his thin grey hair 
 As fast as the big tear of speechless care 
 
 Ran down from each glazing eye. 
 
 And think what a heavenward look, mamma, 
 
 Flashed through each trembling eye, 
 As he told how he went to the Baron's stronghold, 
 Saying O let me in for the night is so cold ; 
 But the rich man cried go sleep in the fold, 
 
 For we shield no beggars here. 
 
 Well, he was in glory too, mamma, 
 
 As happy as the blest can be ; 
 He needed no alms in the mansions of light, 
 For he sat with the patriarchs, clothed in white, 
 And no seraph there had a crown more bright 
 
 Or a costlier robe than he." 
 
 One evening, when making investigations in Spiritual 
 clairvoyance with this lady, a circle of friends, whom 
 we have in the Spirit-world, was described, and the 
 clairvoyant remarked — " Here is a little girl, your sister 
 Annstress, who saw Spirits before she died. Oh ! she 
 is so beautiful, so happy." 
 
 The reference to this child's vision was correct. We 
 recollect distinctly the story told at home about Ann- 
 stress' strange vision before she died. About one year 
 ago, we wrote an article for the Columbian and Great 
 West, of Cincinnati, in reference to it. We have no 
 doubt a majority of those who read it, supposed it a 
 vagary^ written upon the Poem from which lines were 
 quoted. The clairvoyant who described our sister, 
 had seen the article, but did not know the child's 
 name. It is proper to quote the article. It was en- 
 titled 
 
96 SIGNS OF THE TIMES- 
 
 THE AJVGEL VISITOR— A FRAGMENT. 
 
 "It is a beautiful belief, 
 That ever round the head 
 
 Are hovering, on noiseless wing, 
 The spirits of the dead." 
 
 These lines, written by a christian philanthropist, 
 Rev. James H. Perkins, whose sad end is not forgotten 
 by the poor and unfortunate of Cincinnati, bring to my 
 mind memories of a desolate heart, consoled with a 
 mother's feeling in the 
 
 " Beautiful belief, 
 
 When ended our career 
 That it will be our ministry 
 
 To watch o'er others here. 
 
 To bear away, from ills of clay , 
 The infant to its Heaven" 
 
 An only daughter, a sweet, meek-eyed child, one on 
 whose golden hair the suns of but four summers had 
 shone, met her mother on a Sunday afternoon, at the 
 door of their home, as she returned from church, and 
 with happiness beaming from every feature, lisped — 
 
 " Oh ! mamma, I had such a pretty visitor, while you 
 was at meeting. It had shining wings, mamma, and it 
 flew in the door and sat by my little chair. Oh ! mamma, 
 it was so handsome, and it said I would go to Heaven, 
 and be like it. Don't you wish I was like it, mamma ? 
 
 And the innocent prattler looked up into her mother's 
 face, expecting a prompt answer, but she was disap- 
 pointed, for the mother knew not what to think of the 
 child's strange vision. 
 
 In a few days the child sickened — the mother knew 
 that a Spirit had come 
 
 " To bear it away from ills of clay," 
 
CLAIRVOYANT REVEALMENTS. 97 
 
 and she bent over her couch, and the warm tear fell 
 upon the child's fevered brow. 
 
 " Do not cry, mamma," she said, " that little Angel has 
 come for me, and I am going to Heaven. Oh ! mamma, 
 there are other Angels with it, and they all hold out 
 their hands for me. I must go, mamma. The little 
 Angels will bring me to see you often." 
 
 And with outstretched arms, as if to receive the an- 
 gelic host, the Spiritual child was borne away to the 
 " Father which is in Heaven," who said, "Suffer little 
 children to come unto me." 
 
 To that mother, is it not 
 
 "A beautiful belief 
 
 That ever round her head 
 Is hovering, on noiseless wing, 
 
 The Spirit of the dead." 
 
 When the pure Spirit of James H. Perkins takes cog- 
 nizance of things here below, must its joy not be seraphic, 
 to witness the growth of the sentiment expressed in the 
 Poem from which the lines above are quoted, written 
 when the Poet's eye had waking vision, almost, of that 
 which the world is now asked to recognize in the Rap- 
 pings and in clairvoyant "manifestations." 
 
 In this connection, the following extracts from Capron 
 and Barron's pamphlet, will be read with interest. They 
 are from E. W. Capron's private journal. All the 
 phenomena there recorded took place in presence of a 
 number of witnesses, who are ready to testify to the 
 facts when called upon. The occurrences happened in 
 Auburn : 
 
 " Wednesday Evening, June 20th. — Present six per- 
 
98 SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 
 
 sons, and none of the family of Mr. Fox in town. The 
 rapping was heard very freely by all. The table moved 
 on the floor with no person touching it — moved to the 
 distance of a foot or more and back, in various direc- 
 tions. At our request, the table, (which was a very 
 light one,) was held down to the floor so that it required 
 the whole strength of a man to move it from its position. 
 We also held one side, and requested, if there was 
 power to do it, that it would be drawn away from us ; 
 this was done, and our strength was not sufficient to 
 hold it." 
 
 " Sunday Evening, Oct. 7th. — This evening we were 
 directed to go into the hall and take the guitar. We 
 went, and while there the guitar was played by unseen 
 hands, and played so exquisitely too, that it seemed more 
 like far distant music to one just aroused from midnight 
 slumbers, than the music of an instrument a few feet 
 from us. Several tunes were thus played, while not a 
 person in the room knew how to play a tune on that or 
 any other instrument." 
 
 " Tuesday Evening, Oct. 16th. — Several persons pre- 
 sent at the house of D. C. Miller. We were directed to 
 take the guitar into a dark room and it would be played. 
 We accordingly did so, and many tunes were played, 
 and in such positions that we knew no one could do it if 
 there had been any one present who knew how, but there 
 was not. There were none there whc could play a tune 
 in the light, much less in the dark, the owner not being 
 there. Besides this, they, (the Spirits,) moved books 
 and other articles to different parts of the room." 
 
 " On one occasion, when several persons were present, 
 
CLAIRVOYANT REVEALMENTS. 99 
 
 the guitar was taken from the hands of those who held 
 it, (they taking hold of hands,) and put in tune, and 
 commenced playing while it passed around the room 
 above their heads. It was also taken from one person 
 and passed to others in the room. In this way, for 
 nearly two hours, it continued to play and keep time 
 with the singing; and the guitar taken by this unseen 
 power to different parts of the room while playing. " 
 
 " On one occasion we were getting the guitar played 
 by these unseen musicians, and were directed to sing 
 several different tunes, among which were " Get off the 
 Track" and " The Old Granite State." The guitar was 
 played as the song went on, in company with the voices. 
 While it was playing, Dr. H. Robinson passed his hand 
 over the whole length of the strings several times within 
 half an inch of them, to see if it was possible that any 
 one present was playing it and trying to deceive. There 
 was no difference when he passed his hand over." 
 
 "Not long since, Judge Hascall, of LeRoy, related to 
 E. W. Capron a fact that came under his notice while 
 examining into these phenomena in company with Mr. 
 Summerfield, a lawyer of the same place, which strongly 
 illustrates the power of whatever makes these sounds, to 
 produce any sound by their will. He, (Judge H.,) stated 
 that they were at the house of the Fox family and went 
 into a dark room. They called for the sounds to be 
 made like a band of martial music. As they requested, 
 the sounds were produced in a most beautiful and thrill- 
 ing manner. The playing of the instruments and the 
 heavy beating of the base drum was perfectly imitated, 
 together with the sound of the roar of distant cannon. 
 
100 SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 
 
 Both Mr. Summerfield and Judge Hascall agreed in say- 
 ing that the whole thing was so truthfully and exactly 
 imitated that the effect produced on the hearers was of 
 the most thrilling character." 
 
 We previously mentioned the lectures of Rev. J. P. 
 Stuart, of the Cincinnati New Church. He gave his 
 views clearly on the philosophy of such " manifesta- 
 tions" as those we have just quoted. These physical 
 demonstrations have excited great wonder. Forgetting 
 what was done by Angels, as recorded in holy writ, 
 men cry out fiercely against any account of the moving 
 of tables, the opening or shutting of doors, the ringing 
 of bells, etc. Mr. Stuart's views are profitably sugges- 
 tive. We give extracts from a report by the Editor of 
 the Daily Times : 
 
 " Mr. Stuart holds that in times long gone by, it was 
 common for Angels and Spirits to speak to the human 
 race, and by means of their messages, prophets and 
 apostles had communication with the Spiritual world. 
 The Abrahamie dispensation is strongly marked by mi- 
 raculous communications with Spirits by means of in- 
 spired prophets. Mr. Stuart cited the visit of the Angels 
 to Lot, at Sodom, who struck the mob with blindness. 
 The fact that they were Angels was no hinderance to 
 the exercise of their power among men. A man may 
 work with a sledge-hammer — an Angel with the es- 
 sences of the same, the galvanic and electrical attrac- 
 tion and repulsion. The case of Balaam, when he 
 went with the princes of Moab, can only be explained, 
 if explained at all, by the doctrine, that brute beasts and 
 brute matter have Spiritual essences and forces as their 
 
CLAIRVOYANT REVEALMENTS. 101 
 
 inner forms, and that into these there may be the play 
 of Spiritual affinities— the flow of Spiritual intelligence. 
 
 " Instances were given from the New Testament — the 
 Angel rolling away the stone from the sepulchre and 
 speaking to the women — the deliverance of the Apostles 
 who had been cast into prison by the High Priest — ■ 
 also, of Peter, whom Herod had imprisoned. By what 
 means, then, may Angels exercise their pow r er in this 
 outward world ? Evidently their power, however great, 
 cannot flow down into uhimates without a medium, 
 Then what is this medium of action ? How do Spirits 
 act here 1 
 
 '* Mr. Stuart advanced his own ideas on the subject, to 
 excite investigation, as suggestive rather than dogmatic. 
 It seems clear that an Angel or Spirit may see and feel 
 the outward world by the transfer to himself of the sen- 
 sation of one in the natural world, provided the Spiritual 
 sight and perceptions of that one are opened, hut not other- 
 wise. But even when a Spirit does perceive the objects 
 of this world, then how shall he get hold of them and 
 move them How can an Angel or Spirit unbar a bolted 
 door, or roll away a stone 7 
 
 " In the transfer of menial impressions, the Angel may 
 possess himself most fully of all that the man has in his 
 thought and in his memory. But neither thought, memo- 
 ry, nor emotion, will enable a man to lift a rock— then 
 how will these enable an Angel to do it ] It is said 
 that the Angel flows into the sphere of the man's 
 strength — but how ? we again ask. There are two 
 worlds, the natural and the Spiritual, Angels and Spirits 
 are in one, men in the other. The natural world is the 
 
102 SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 
 
 world of effects, the causes of which are in the Spiritual 
 world ; are we not warranted in going one step farther, 
 and declaring that the essences of every object known 
 here, and which in this world are hid, and even as 
 Locke says, utterly unknown, that the essences are 
 really the forms which the same objects have in the 
 Spiritual world. There is here a block of iron, wood, 
 or stone — this is an effect — this is the form of some 
 essence. The cause of this effect, and the essence of 
 this form are in the Spiritual world. If this be so, may 
 we not go a step farther and declare that the form this 
 object assumes in the Spiritual world is as cognizable 
 there as the form, which it assumes here, is in this world, 
 and that the Angel or Spirit whose thought is directed to 
 it, sees the one as easily as we do the other ; moreover, 
 may not the Angel handle and hold the essence and the 
 cause of this real iron block, as readily and as familiarly 
 as we do the actual iron block here. 
 
 " Again, is not the one as much an object of sense in 
 one world as in the other? And further, a change in 
 the farm implies a corresponding change in the essence, 
 and vice versa. From these premises the conclusion 
 would be clear, but for a new element that here comes 
 in. The Angels are not in the ideas of times and spaces 
 that we are, and hence they cannot exert any power that 
 involves these ideas, except the same medium will sup- 
 ply them with the same. But it is known that these 
 ideas are necessarily involved in the very constitution 
 of the objects of the natural world, and hence, also, in 
 every change that is effected in these objects. There- 
 fore, although the Angels have power to mo e rocks, 
 
CLAIRVOYANT REVEALMENTS. 103 
 
 &c, as readily and far more efficiently than we, still the 
 very idea of moving a rock does not enter their minds, 
 except by the perception of times and spaces, and this 
 can only be effected by the Angels becoming adjoined 
 to men, and the consequent transfer of their minds, &c. 
 
 " These natural ideas the Angels may imbibe from 
 man, while at the same time they hold their power over 
 the essences and causes, and by this means are able to 
 exert themselves among the objects of this world as di- 
 rectly, and far more efficiently, than men can who 
 are still in the body. The confirmation of this hypothe- 
 sis is, that an angel does these things when he is in 
 mental communication with some man." 
 
 We will not attempt to consider Mr. Stuart's theory at 
 length. His hypothesis that Angel-manifestations are 
 made when the Spirit, distinct from the corporeal body, 
 has mental communication with Spirit in it, is, we con- 
 ceive, the correct theory. As previously explained, we 
 regard the medium of communication electrical — mag- 
 netic rapport bringing the Spiritual out of, and the Spirit- 
 ual in the corporeal body, into direct communing rela- 
 tions — and thus it is clairvoyants give to, and receive 
 impressions from Angels. 
 
 In this Lecture, Mr. Stuart should have defined his 
 views upon Spirits or Angels. As reported, he leaves 
 the reader to infer that he regards them as different 
 classes of beings. The inquiring mind will desire to 
 know definitely, whether he considers the Angels of 
 which he speaks, the Spirits of men departed from this 
 globe — the Spirits of beings who dwelt on other planets, 
 or Spiritual beings created for, and never having ex- 
 
104 SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 
 
 istence anywhere but in Heaven — the Spirit-world, 
 It is the popular belief that Heaven was the dwelling- 
 place of Angels ere man was created — Angels which 
 were Heaven's native inhabitants, so to speak, and 
 among which there was a rebellion that caused certain 
 bad Spirits to be " cast out," who, with their leader — 
 the ubiquitous Lucifer, that "gentleman in black," with 
 fiery eyes, frightful horns, a cloven foot, and a tell-tale 
 caudal extremity, who has been employed so much to 
 frighten people into religious belief — were the earliest in- 
 dwellers of what the Orthodox Church calls Hell. 
 
 We know that Mr. Stuart entertains no views of this 
 irrational description. He regards the Swedenborgian 
 philosophy of Heaven and Hell the true one ; and it is 
 Swedenborg revelation, emphatically, that all Angels, 
 all Demons and all Devils, are from the human race, 
 and once lived on this earth or some other earth in the 
 universe — that future life is a continuation of the pre- 
 sent — -that good men become Angels and evil men Devils. 
 " The Scripture everywhere teaches that Angels are 
 men, and that they are from the human race. Thus, of 
 the three Angels that appeared to Abraham, it is said 
 that, ■' He looked, and lo ! three men stood by him" 
 When Jacob wrestled with the Angel, it is said that? 
 M there wrestled a man with him tmtil the breaking of the 
 day" When Joshua was at Jericho," he lifted up his 
 eyes, and there stood a man over against him with a drawn 
 sword in his hand" who declared himself to be the cap* 
 tain of the hosts of the Lord, Of the Angel who ap* 
 peared to the wife of Manoah, she said, " A man of God 
 came to me f and his ccuntenance was like the countenance 
 
CLAIRVOYANT EEVEALMENTS. 105 
 
 of an Angel of God." The M Angel Gabriel," who was 
 sent to Daniel, is called the "man Gabriel." Zecha- 
 riah saw a man riding upon a red horse, who is after- 
 ward called the Angel of the Lord. When the women 
 went to the sepulcher of the Lord, they saw, according 
 to Luke, two men in shining garments, who according 
 to John, were two Angels in white. In the Revela- 
 tion, we learn that the Angel measured the wall of the 
 New Jerusalem one hundred and forty-four cubits, " ac- 
 cording to the measure of a man, that is the Angel." The 
 Angel at whose feet John fell down to worship, said to 
 him, u See thou do it not, for I am thy fellow servant, 
 and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them that keep 
 the sayings of this book; worship God." 
 
 These are quotations from Scripture which conflict 
 most happily with the materiality and immateriality 
 taught in orthodox creeds, and so blindly believed by 
 orthodox schools. 
 
 One of the happiest indications of the age, is the 
 growing tendency to estimate doctrines according to their 
 inherent truthfulness, judged by themselves and for 
 themselves — not by old philosophies nor for the salva- 
 tion of old opinions. That such influences may con- 
 tinue to work with "power and might," is one among 
 the fervent prayers we can utter for the support of light 
 and truth. 
 
 We do not believe that the indications of which we 
 speak are false or ephemeral — they " grow with the 
 growth and strengthen with the strength" of time; and 
 unless all clairvoyance be delusion, they are, before 
 many years, to make light and truth shine more tri- 
 
 i 
 
106 SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 
 
 umphantly than they have ever done. Earnest, zealous, 
 intelligent and eloquent men are springing up in all 
 parts of the country, with convincing evidence in defense 
 of the new Spiritual Philosophy; and it is clairvoyant 
 impression that Spirits are now impressing children in 
 many families, who will grow up strong in the faith of 
 this Philosophy, and who will fight against bigotry and 
 prejudice, and enlist others to fight manfully, until a new 
 order of things is established — until it shall be believed 
 by the majority, that the Spirits of the earth-born, when 
 the body dies, live still with the friends who continue to 
 dwell in the flesh. Hasten the day, say we. We join 
 most heartily in Tennyson's New Year song : 
 
 " Ring out the grief that saps the mind 
 For those that here we see no more, 
 Ring out the fued of rich and poor, 
 Ring in redress to all mankind. 
 
 Ring out a slowly dying cause, 
 And ancient forms of party strife, 
 Ring in the nobler modes of life, 
 With sweeter manners, purer laws.'' 
 
FACTS AND OPINIONS. 107 
 
 PART II. 
 
 1t Know that to celestial eyes 
 
 Divinest daylight never dies, 
 
 And Saints defend the things they love 
 
 As God protects the Saints above." Bailey, 
 
 u There are more things in Heaven and earth, Horatio, 
 Than are dreamed of in yonr philosophy." Hamlit 
 
 FACTS AND OPINIONS, 
 
 The world is full of Horatios who never have, either 
 sleeping or waking, visions or impressions of philosophy 
 that is not favored with the mark of popular recognition, 
 
 Believing that this work will go into the hands of 
 many who need instruction, and of many who seek it, 
 we shall give in this Part a compilation of facts and 
 opinions on Spirituality, from reliable sources. 
 
 We shall commence with selections from the Journal 
 of Man, a periodical published in Cincinnati, which 
 should be much more extensively read than it has been. 
 If people generally would peruse its pages, and invests 
 gate the subjects on which it teaches, much of the blind 
 superstition now leading men astray, would vanish be- 
 fore the light of rational mental philosophy. The Edi- 
 tor of this Journal, Prof. J, R, Buchanan, Dean of the 
 Eclectic Medical Institute, is an earnest and intellectual 
 mokQX after truth, who has passed a " fiery ordeal," 
 
108 SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 
 
 He knows what it is to defend an unpopular theory of 
 mental relations and conditions, but he is now gaining 
 ground every day ; and unless our calculations for the 
 future, from the indications of the present, are entirely 
 out of character, the time is coming when he will be 
 regarded as a true philosopher by all thinking men in 
 the established orders of Society, 
 
 We say these things because we believe them, and 
 because they are due a man who has fought many a 
 hard fight for what the " wise people" of the world have 
 been pleased to sneer at as " new fangled notions;" just 
 as in olden time they sneered at Galileo's theory of the 
 earth's revolution — at Harvey's opinions in reference to 
 the circulation of the blood — at Newton's views of gravi- 
 tation — at Franklin's speculations on electricity — at 
 Fitch and Fulton's grand mechanical discoveries — at 
 Gall and Spurzhiem, at Mesmer, at Swedenborg and 
 Hahnneman — just as they sneer now, with " pious fer- 
 vor," at the presumption of Spiritual communication to 
 those who do not recognize God in the " questionable 
 shapes" by which his attributes are presented in the 
 acknowledged theology. 
 
 We quote from the Journal of Man, for February, 
 
 1850, on 
 
 SPIRITUALITY. 
 
 " Under the excitement of Spirituality, the mind is ele- 
 vated to a more Spiritual state. Its attention turns away 
 from gross matter, and it acquires an extraordinary power of 
 recognizing mind, until at length even disembodied mind is 
 distinctly perceived. Thus the subject will enter into com- 
 munication with the dead and with various Spiritual beings, 
 of whom he w T ill speak, and with whom he appears to hold 
 an interesting intercourse. Sometimes he will report that he 
 
FACTS AND OPINIONS. 109 
 
 is too gross and incapable of this exalted communion — that 
 Spiritual beings are beyond his reach, and will not commune 
 with him. Mr. > a man of fine talent, but of little re- 
 ligious faith, was astonished and overwhelmed when he first 
 underwent this experiment, and perceived as holding an in- 
 dependent existence, what he had before regarded as mere 
 creatures of his own mind. He at length communed with 
 his deceased father, but reported that his father now with- 
 drew from him with a stern countenance, as if he was unfit 
 
 for such association. Mrs. , a firm disbeliever of 
 
 Christianity and of all Spiritualism, was overwhelmed with 
 wonder and delight when I excited her Spirituality, and 
 soon entered into familiar communication with various Spirit- 
 ual beings. In some cases, her Spiritual vision was suffi- 
 cient to enable her to describe correctly the appearance of 
 deceased persons whom she had never seen or heard de- 
 scribed. Many others, under these experiments, have re- 
 ported communications held with the deceased, and some- 
 times messages of advice, etc., have been sent t® their sur- 
 viving friends. 
 
 "A lady of great intelligence, moral worth and practical 
 energy, told me confidentially that she had, for a great por- 
 tion of her life, been subject to Spiritual visions which she 
 dared not mention to any one, lest her sanity should be 
 doubted. These celestial visitants came to her in the day- 
 time when her mind was perfectly calm, clear and free from 
 excitement: the communion was pleasant and elevating. 
 They appeared to be angelic beings of an exalted nature, 
 with whom she was conscious that she would in a future 
 life become more intimate. Their visits occurred more fre- 
 quently when her moral faculties were in their highest condi- 
 tion, and became very rare when she became too much en- 
 grossed in worldly affairs to the neglect of her duties. Dr. 
 H., an intelligent practitioner of medicine in one of our At- 
 lantic cities, believes himself to be in daily intercourse, of 
 the most intimate character, with the Spirit of a departed 
 friend. There are many who entertain the persuasion that 
 they commune with the departed, who are unwilling to speak 
 of a matter which they regard as sacred, and which they 
 would not desecrate by exposure to idle comment. 
 
 u The belief in guardian Spirits, which is expressed by poets 
 and orators, with a half real, half metaphorical meaning, and 
 
110 SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 
 
 which is to some a matter of religious sentiment, is sanctioned 
 by the results of many experiments upon subjects in whom 
 the Spiritual faculties have been excited. They have often 
 spoken of guardian Spirits, who preside over particular per- 
 sons; and sometimes specified certain influences exerted by 
 them for their benefit. The guardian Spirit is most generally 
 a deceased friend, and his influence is exerted through the 
 minds upon which the Spiritual influence operates." 
 
 We shall next give a few extracts from the published 
 opinions of men who have never been in any manner 
 connected with magnetic or clairvoyant investigations, 
 or identified with psychological science. 
 
 After the Misses Fox had visited New York, and he 
 had had fair opportunities, at his own house, to hear the 
 " Rappings," Horace Greeley wrote a carefully worded 
 article for the Tribune, in which he said : 
 
 11 He must be well acquainted with the arcana of the uni- 
 verse, who shall presume dogmatically to decide that these 
 " manifestations" are natural or supernatural. The ladies 
 say that they are informed that this is but the beginning of a 
 new era, or economy, in which Spirits, clothed in flesh, are 
 to be more closely and palpably connected with those which 
 have put on immortality — that the u manifestation*" have al- 
 ready appeared in many other families, and are destined to 
 be diffused and rendered clearer, until all who will, may 
 communicate freely and beneficially with their friends who 
 have i shuffled off this mortal coil.' Of all this we know 
 nothing, and shall guess nothing. But, if we were simply to 
 print, (which we shall not,) the questions we asked, and the 
 answers we received, during a two hours 7 uninterrupted con- 
 ference with the l Rappers/ we should at once be accused of 
 having done so expressly to sustain the theory which regards 
 these '•' manifestations" as the utterances of departed Spirits. 
 
 N. P. Willis, in a handsome editorial in the Home 
 Journal, after he had heard the " Rappings," said : 
 
 " The suggestions and * outside' bearings of this matter are 
 many and curious. If these knocking answers to questions 
 
FACTS AND OPINIONS. Ill 
 
 are made, (as many insist.) by electric detonations, and if dis- 
 embodied Spirits are still moving, consciously, among us, 
 and have thus found an agent, at last, electricity, by which 
 they can communicate with the world they have left, it must soon, 
 in the progressive nature of things, ripen to an intercourse 
 between this and the Spirit-world. * * * * 
 
 " There seems an alphabet to learn, in this as in other new 
 fields of knowledge; and, indeed, — considering the confu- 
 sion of ideas in the minds of those who visit and try to talk 
 off-hand, with these newly discovered l natives/" — it is won- 
 derful that the l Knockers' make themselves as well under- 
 stood as they already do. If Providence designed to subject 
 an intelligent power to our service — (in addition to the unin- 
 telligent miracle-workers, Steam and Electricity, which have 
 successively been given us,) — the beginnings would, by all 
 precedent, be at least as imperfect and dimly understood as 
 these are." 
 
 The following is an extract from a letter written by a 
 gentleman in New York, to the Editor of the Sandusky 
 (Erie Co. 0.) Democrat. The Editor endorses his cor- 
 respondent's intelligence and candor. 
 
 u Before closing this letter, I will add a word on the subject 
 of the spiritual light, which many are expecting will soon illu- 
 minate the world. Knowing your desire after truth. I will 
 give you a word as to my own experience. A few days 
 
 since in this city, I sat talking with the Hon. C L , 
 
 of L . A boy come from the P. 0. and gave me a 
 
 letter from brother L . Mr. L placed his hand on 
 
 the letter, and bade me think intently of the writer, and shut- 
 ting up his eyes, spelt out the name, commencing with the 
 christian name. The same day, on relating this to an intelli- 
 gent Quaker friend of mine, he informed me confidentially that 
 the knockings were following his little brother and sister at 
 his house. He gave me a most interesting relation, as fol- 
 lows: " Last evening we sat down in my parlor, and my 
 father-in-law, who is very aged, and a staunch Presbyterian, 
 undertook to explore and explode these knockings. He in- 
 quired if the spirit he was thinking of was present. There 
 were three loud raps in reply. Now, says the old gentleman, 
 if you are here, you know I am skeptical and cannot believe. 
 
112 SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 
 
 Will you give me a special manifestation and spell out your 
 own name. The raps spelt out " Clary. 77 Who is " Clary ?" 
 inquired his son. He was my bosom friend for twenty-five 
 years, and a Pre&byterian clergyman, replied the old man, 
 turning as white as a sheet. Having recovered the old gen- 
 tleman begged the privilege of propounding some questions, 
 which was granted. ( These questions involved some dif- 
 ference of opinion between the old gentleman and his Quaker 
 son-in-law, as you would doubtless surmise, and the replies 
 were patiently spelt out by the raps, using the letters of the 
 alphabet as follows:) l Is the Sabbath holy time V No. All 
 days are holy. Is it not wrong to transact secular business 
 on the Sabbath? 'Relatively it is • not in itself.' Is the Bible 
 true? 'Yes; but it is wrongly translated, and you do not un- 
 stand it. 7 #**##### 
 
 B. asked his old friend G., with whom he was conversing, 
 who died in California, as follows : " If this is really you C, 
 just rap that old tune you used to sing in my office. ( This 
 was a peculiar strain of two staves of doggerel, the only 
 thing that G. was ever known to sing. It was at once rapped 
 out. Are you happy, G. ? Yes. What is your condition ? 
 Almost exactly like yours, only I am in an atmosphere better 
 fitted for improvement. 
 
 The annexed corroborative "items," from the Cleve- 
 land Plain Dealer of Jan. 6, 1851 are important. 
 
 MORE SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENTS, 
 
 "I know thee not — I never heard thy voice ; 
 
 Yet could I choose a friend from all mankind, 
 Thy spirit high should be my spirit's choice, 
 
 Thy heart should guide my heart, thy mind my mind ." 
 
 Since the two worlds have been introduced through the 
 agency of Spiritualists, daily communications are had be- 
 tween the living and the dead. At this time in different parts 
 of our city, these communications are going on revealing- 
 some things too strange for our philsophy. 
 
 A German clergyman had the curiosity, the other day, to 
 visit a clairvoyant who, it was reported, was familiar with 
 inhabitants of the spirit-land. He inquired after a departed 
 friend, who in the old country, had been his college mate. 
 He was astonished to find his Spirit here, hovering about him, 
 
FACTS AND OPINIONS. 113 
 
 and through the clairvoyant, actually conversed with him in 
 his, the Spirit's native tongue, Italian, not one word of which 
 language could the clairvoyant speak in a waking state The 
 German also spoke the Italian, and had a most interesting in- 
 terview with his long lost friend. The circumstances were 
 so strange as to quite overcome him, and he wept like a 
 child. 
 
 Another case is known, more remarkable still, and which 
 borders too much on the miraculous to insure belief. A little 
 boy, three years old, living on Johnson street, has frequent 
 spiritual impressions from his father, who died a lew months 
 ago. The first that was known of it, he came running into 
 the house one day and told his mother that she must go right 
 off and pay a neighbor — calling him by name — a certain sum 
 of borrowed money, which his father had just told him was 
 due. The mother questioned him about the matter, as a 
 mere freak of the child's fancy, but she soon ascertained that 
 said money was due, and the amount stated. The lender 
 says he had never mentioned the fact to any one, and the 
 amount being so small, he never intended to mention it. 
 
 At another time he was found, in the dead of the night, 
 sitting up alone with an empty chair beside him. His mother, 
 alarmed at this, knowing he was a great coward, and never 
 dared to sleep alone much less be up in a dark room alone, 
 called to him several times but got no answer. At length the 
 mother got up and lighted a candle, when suddenly the boy 
 spoke and asked his mother what she wanted to light a can- 
 dle for ? He said his father had been sitting beside him in 
 the empty chair, until the light came, and then he fled. 
 
 To some, these revelations appear like sublimated non- 
 sense, to others, the unsealing of divine mysteries; to the 
 Greeks foolishness, to [the Jews a stumbling block. He is 
 wisest who penetrates the future deepest." 
 
 Extracts of this character, giving the opinions of can- 
 did editors and disinterested correspondents, might be 
 continued for many pages. They are coming before the 
 world every day, in different parts of the country. 
 
 We now invite the attention of the reader again to ac- 
 counts of the investigations of men who are deeply inter- 
 
114 SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 
 
 ested in, and have no fear of being publicly identified with 
 Spiritual Science. 
 
 One of the authors of the pamphlet on the "Mysterious 
 Noises," published at Auburn, N. Y., gives his first ex- 
 perience as follows: 
 
 "On the 23d of November. 184s, I went to the city of 
 Rochester on business. I had previously made up my mind 
 to investigate this so-called mystery, if I should have an op- 
 portunity, in doing so, 1 had no doubt but what I possessed 
 shrewdness enough to detect the trick, as I strongly suspect- 
 ed it to be, or to discover the cause of the noise if it should 
 be known to the inmates of the house. 
 
 " A friend of mine whom I had long known as a skeptic 
 in regard to any such wonders, invited me to go with him to 
 hear it. I accepted the invitation with a feeling that was far 
 from serious apprehension of communicating with anything 
 beyond my power to discover. 
 
 "Before I heard the sound, we seated ourselves around a 
 table. As soon as we got quiet, I heard a slight but distinct 
 rapping on the floor, apparently on the under side. Although 
 I concluded that such a sound might be made by machinery, 
 I could see no possible motive in the family taking so much 
 pains to deceive people, as they received nothing but an- 
 noyance and trouble in return for their pains. I proceeded 
 to ask some questions, and they were answered very treely 
 and correctly. I asked if it would rap my age ? It was done 
 correctly. I then took my memorandum book from my 
 pocket and wrote my questions so that no other person could 
 know the nature of the questions. 1 would write, l rap four 
 times • rap one : rap six ; rap seven '/ and to each and every 
 such question I got a correct answer. 1 then laid aside my 
 book and proceeded to ask similar test questions mentally, 
 and, as before, received correct answers. 
 
 " I could not believe that persons present had the power 
 to discern my thoughts and make these sounds in answer, for 
 the sounds haye a peculiarity not easily imitated To sup- 
 pose this to be the case, would make the matter a still great- 
 er mystery. 1 knew they could not give those answers, for 
 there were questions answered which they could not know 
 anything about. 
 
FACTS AND OPINIONS. 115 
 
 H At another time I tried the experiment of counting in the 
 following manner. I took several shells from a card basket 
 on the table (small lake shells), closed my hand and placed 
 it under the table entirely out of sight, and requested as many 
 raps as there were shells. It was done correctly. As I knew 
 how many shells there were m my hand, I resolvod to test it 
 in another way, to see if there was a possibility of my mind 
 having any influence in the matter. I took a handful of 
 shells without knowing how many I took myself. Still the 
 answers were correct. I then requested a friend who sat by 
 the table, to put his hand in the basket, take out some shells 
 without knowing the number^ and pass them into my hand; 
 which I immediately closed and placed in a position where 
 none could see it. The number was told as correctly as be- 
 fore. We continued this class of experiments for a long time 
 without the least failure in getting correct answers." 
 
 The fo'lowing appeared in the Rochester Magnet — 
 The gentlemen, whose names are signed to the state- 
 ment, are well known to the citizens of Rochester, and 
 are entirely above practising any intentional deception on 
 the public. An appointment had been made by a Spirit, 
 purporting to be that of Dr. Franklin, for a meeting, at 
 which he would show that it was practicable to get com- 
 munications between two distant points by means of 'rap- 
 pings — by a rap -telegraph : 
 To the Editor of the Daily Magnet : 
 
 Pursuant to the notice, we, the undersigned, met at the 
 house of Mr. N. Draper, on Friday, the loth inst., about 4 
 o ; clock, P. M. We inquired for directions, and were an- 
 swered by alphabet, ' Let Mrs. Draper be magnetized.' — 
 Through her, the two young ladies were directed to retire to 
 another room. The directions then were for Mr. Jervis, Mrs. 
 Fox, and Catharine Fox, to be placed in a room at the oppo- 
 site end of the house, and for Mr. Jervis to take notes. — 
 Margaretta Fox should be with the company in the parlor, 
 and Mr. Draper take notes. This was done. The sounds 
 were then heard in both rooms, by either company, exactly 
 similar to the sounds heard in the telegraph office. 
 
116 SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 
 
 u Question to the clairvoyant. — What does that rapping 
 mean, unlike any other sounds before heard, by rapping'? 
 Answer : He is trying the batteries. The signal for the al- 
 phabet was heard, and on calling the letters, w r as spelled, 
 4 She must be waked in ten minutes. 7 A watch was placed 
 on the table, after noting the time, and covered up, and the 
 question asked, if we could have a signal, by sounds, at the 
 exact time, and was answered affirmatively. At the precise 
 time, the signal was heard. The question was then asked, 
 i Who shall wake her?' and she was instantly awakened 
 with an apparent electric shock. 
 
 " At this point, there was much interruption, by persons 
 coming into both rooms. The question w r as asked for further 
 directions, and the answer was, by alphabet, ' Things are not 
 as I directed, therefore, you cannot proceed at this time.' — 
 There should be but four in each room. Mr. Jervis and com- 
 pany came into the parlor, and his notes read as follows: 
 ' Things are not as 1 directed them, therefore, you cannot 
 proceed at this time.' Q. — Can we have another opportuni- 
 ty? A. — If I set the time and name the company, there 
 shall be no fail. Q. — Shall the appointment be now made ? 
 Answered affirmatively. The following persons w T ero then 
 named by alphabet: — Mr. Jervis, Mr. Jones, Mr. Draper, Mr. 
 Willets, Mrs. Jervis, Mrs. Draper, Mrs. Brown, Mrs. Fox, 
 Margaretta Fox, and Catharine Fox, Q. — May we know 
 the time? A. — Wednesday next, at 4 o'clock, P. M. Q. — 
 The place? A. — Here. 
 
 11 On the day appointed, Feb. 20th, the above named per- 
 sons convened ; some of the company were late, and as soon 
 as order was observed, the question was asked : What are 
 the directions of Benjamin Franklin? A. — Hurry ; first mag- 
 netize Mrs. Draper. This was done, she immediately say- 
 ing: He says we are behind the time, but he will forgive us 
 this time ; we must do better in future. The company were 
 divided as follows : Mr. Jervis, Mr. Jones, Mrs. Fox, Mrs. 
 Brown, and Catharine Fox, in a retired rcom, with two doors 
 closed between them Mrs. Draper, Mrs. Jervis, Mr. Draper, 
 Mr. Willets, and Margaretta Fox, remained in the parlor. 
 Sounds unusually loud, were heard in either room by either 
 company, as before, resembling telegraphic sounds. They 
 were so unusual, that Miss Fox became alarmed and said, 
 " W^hat does all this mean ,? ? Mrs Draper ; while her counte- 
 
FACTS AND OPINIONS. 117 
 
 nance was irradiated with animation, replied, " He is trying 
 the batteries. 57 Soon there was a signal for the alphabet, and 
 the following communication was spelled to the company 
 in the parlor: -Now I am ready, my friends. There will be 
 great changes in the nineteenth century. Things that now 
 look dark and mysterious to you, will be laid plain before your 
 sight. Mysteries are going to be revealed. The world will be 
 enlightened. I sign my name Benjamin Franklin. Do not 
 go into the other room. 7 
 
 " After waiting a few minutes, Mr. Jervis came into the 
 parlor, saying that he was directed by the sounds to come 
 and compare notes. They read as follows : Q. — Are we all 
 right? Answer affirmatively, signal for alphabet, and the 
 following was spelled: - There will be great changes in the 
 nineteenth century. Things that now look dark and mysteri- 
 ous to you, will be laid plain before your sight. Mysteries are 
 going to be revealed. The world will be enlightened. I sign 
 my name Benjamin Franklin. Go into the parlor and compare 
 notes. 7 Mr. Jervis returned to his company, and, by alphabet, 
 was spelled : 'Now all go in the parlor. 7 The notes were 
 then compared, in the presence of the whole company. Q. — 
 Is there anything more from Dr. Franklin? A. — 1 think 1 
 have given tests enough for this day. Q. — Will it not be bet- 
 ter to keep this matter private ? A. — No : it should be pub- 
 lished. Q. — In Democrat or Magnet. Q. — Who shall prepare 
 it for publication? A. — George Willets. Time and place 
 were then designated for the same company to meet again, 
 with two other persons added to their number. 
 
 We sign our names as no parties, but as witnesses. If our 
 testimony is incredible, impeach, and reject it ; if admissible, 
 hand it over to the judge and jurors — the public — and charge 
 them, that we claim no interest, aside from their own, in 
 their verdict. 
 
 Rev. Asahel Jervis, Nathaniel Draper, 
 Edward Jones, George Willets, 
 
 Rachael Draper, Mary Jervis, 
 
 Mary Brown, Margaret Fox, 
 
 Rochester, Feb. 23, 1850. 
 
 A pamphlet published by D. M. Dewey, at Rochester, 
 N. Y., from which we have previously quoted, contains 
 much interesting matter in reference to the " Rappings." 
 
118 SIGNS OF THE TIMES, 
 
 We copy from it the following statement, from observa- 
 tion, by Rev. C. Hammond, of Rochester, which seems 
 worth looking into. Mr. Hammond had been once to 
 the house where these " manifestations" are mainly 
 made, heard nothing extraordinary, beyond the mere 
 fact of the " Rappings," and went away as skeptical as 
 he came, but returned afterward with the following re- 
 sult : 
 
 " I had prepared my mind with certain questions, touch- 
 ing events unknown to the family, and of a remote date. 
 The sounds told me my age precisely, though my appear- 
 ance is such as to indicate a difference of eight or ten years. 
 The names of six of my nearest deceased relatives were 
 given me. 1 then inquired; l Will the Spirit, who now makes 
 These sounds, give me its name?' Five sounds directed me 
 to the alphabet, which 1 repeated until the name of ( Charles' 
 appeared^ which answered to an infant child whom we con- 
 signed to the grave in March, 1843. To my inquiries, it 
 gave me a true arswer in regard to the time it had been in 
 the Spirit-land, and also the period since my eldest sister's 
 death; which was nearly eighteen years; the latter fact not 
 being recollected then, I found true by dates on my return 
 home. Many other test questions were correctly answered ] 
 and yet, notwithstanding the origin of these sounds seemed 
 inexplicable, I was inclined to impute them to mesmerism 
 or clairvoyance. However, as the Spirit promised to satisfy 
 me by other demonstrations, when I came again, I patiently 
 awaited the opportunity. 
 
 "On the third visit; I was selected from a half-dozen gen- 
 tlemen, and directed by these sounds to retire to another 
 room, in company with the ' three sisters' and their aged 
 mother. It was about eight o'clock in the evening. A 
 lighted candle was placed on a large table, and we seated 
 ourselves around it. I occupied one side of the table, the 
 mother and the youngest daughter the right, and two oi the 
 sisters the left, leaving the opposite side of the table vacant* 
 On taking our positions the sounds were heard, and continued 
 to multiply and become more violent until every part of the 
 room trembled with their demonstration!!* Th©y war© unlike 
 
FACTS AND OPINIONS* 119 
 
 any I had heard before. Suddenly, as we were all resting 
 on the table, I felt the side next to me move upward. 1 
 pressed upon it heavily, but soon it passed out of the reach 
 of us all, full six feet from me, and at least four from the 
 nearest person to it. I saw distinctly its position j not a 
 thread could have connected it with any of the company 
 without my notice, for I had come to detect imposition, if it 
 could be found. In this position we were situated, when the 
 question was asked, i Will the Spirit move the table back 
 where it was before ?'— *and back it came, as though it were 
 carried on the head of some one, who had not suited his po- 
 sition to a perfect equipoise, the balance being sometimes in 
 favor of one side and then the other. But it regained its first 
 position. In the meantime the l demon strations ; grew louder 
 and louder. The family commenced and sung the f Spirit's 
 song, 7 and several other pieces of sacred music, during which 
 accurate time was marked on the table, causing it to vibrate ; 
 a transparent hand, resembling a shadow, presented itself 
 before my face ; I felt fingers taking hold of a lock of hair 
 on the left side of my head, causing an inclination of several 
 inches; then a cold, death-like hand was drawn designedly 
 over my face ) three gentle raps on my left knee ; my right 
 limb forcibly pulled, against strong resistance, under the ta- 
 ble ; a violent shaking, as though two hands were applied to 
 my shoulders ; myself and chair uplifted and moved back a 
 few inches j and several slaps, as with a hand, on the side of 
 my head, which were repeated on each one of the company, 
 more rapid than I could count. During these l manifesta- 
 tions, 7 a piece of pasteboard, nearly a foot square, was swung 
 with such velocity before us as to throw a strong current of 
 air in our faces ; a. paper curtain attached to one of the win- 
 dows was rolled up and unrolled twice; a lounge, immedi* 
 ately behind me, was shaken violently; two small drawers in 
 a bureau played back and forth with inconceivable rapidity; 
 a sound resembling a man sawing boards, and planing them, 
 was heard under the table; a common spinning-wheel seem- 
 ed to be in motion, making a very natural buzz of the spindle 3 
 a reel articulated each knot wound upon it; while the sound 
 of a rocking cradle indicated maternal care for the infants 
 slumbers. These were among many other demonstrations 
 which I witnessed that evening, amid which I felt a perfect 
 self*possession ; and in no instance the slightest embarrass- 
 
120 SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 
 
 ment. except a momentary chili when the cold hand was ap- 
 plied to my face, similar to a sensation I have realized when 
 touching a dead body. That any of the company could have 
 performed these things, under the circumstances in which we 
 were situated, would require a greater stretch of credulity on 
 my part, than it w r ould be to believe it was the work of 
 Spirits. It could not, by at.y possibility, have been done by 
 them, nor even attempted, without detection. And I may 
 add that near the close of the demonstrations at this visit, 
 there was a vibration of the floor, as though several tons in 
 weight had been uplifted and suddenly fallen again upon it. 
 This caused everything in the room to shake most violently 
 for several minutes, when the force was withdrawn. 
 
 " 1 have also tested the intelligence of these Spirits in 
 every way my ingenuity could invent. On one occasion, I 
 wrote a word on a slip of paper privately, placed it in my 
 wallet, went there, and the sounds, through the alphabet, 
 spelled that word correctly as 1 had written it. That word 
 was ' Sibyl.' 
 
 "On the 20th of February, inst, the two youngest listers 
 made my family a visit. Here the sounds were heard — 
 questions involving subjects wholly unknown to them were 
 answered — a large heavy dining table was moved several 
 times — and on expressing thanks at the table to the Giver of 
 all good, some six or eight sounds responded to every sen- 
 tence I uttered, by making loud and distinct sounds in va- 
 rious parts of the room. Yours, truly, 
 
 Rochester, Feb. 22d, 1850. C. HAMMOND. 77 
 
 We designed giving a brief account of the " manifes- 
 tations " at the house of Rev. Dr. Phelps, Stratford, Con- 
 necticut, as a matter of record ; but our limits are nar- 
 row, and we can only say that for many months the fam- 
 ily has been much annoyed by the breaking of windows 
 and the hurling of missiles, by invisible agencies. There 
 are, also, various strange sounds; and mysterious notes 
 are left in different parts of the house. Communications 
 have sometimes been received, but Mr. Phelps being, as 
 the editor of the Spirit Messenger says, " a Presbyterian 
 
FACTS AND OPINIONS. 121 
 
 clergyman, of 'many year s* standing, and his lady, also, be- 
 ing a member of the same sect, they have long believed 
 in the existence of a devil and evil Spirits, and do not 
 hesitate to express the opinion, that the Spirits who man- 
 ifest their presence in their house, are evil Spirits. Hence 
 they feel very much annoyed in view of the manifesta- 
 tions which they cannot prevent, and occasionally indi- 
 cate to their spiritual visitors, in no select terms, that 
 K their room is preferable to their company." The at- 
 traction of affinity, or some other law of nature, it seems, 
 will not permit the Spirits to yield to the passionate im- 
 pulses of the Doctor and his lady, and they still remain, 
 in spite of the marked discourtesy with which they are 
 received. One of the Angel visitants, who often attempts 
 to communicate, and who has succeeded already in im- 
 parting much valuable information to the family, is the 
 Spirit of Mr. Nicholson, the husband of Mrs. Phelps, and 
 the father of the two children whose systems furnish the 
 peculiar electrical medium, through which Spirits can 
 act upon grosser substances, and transmit, as by the 
 electric telegraph, intelligence to their friends in the 
 body. This affectionate Spirit — this soul of love and 
 life, who still lingers around the objects of his early af- 
 fection — we are sorry to say, has often been repulsed by 
 his former companion, who, on one occasion, is said to 
 have informed him, in answer to his expressed desire to 
 communicate further with her, that she regarded him as 
 an evil Spirit ; that she knew from the Bible, that such 
 Spirits were suffering the torments o? hell !" 
 
 LaRoy Sunderland, the well-known Pathetist, Editor 
 of the Spirit- World, published at Boston, has visited Dr~ 
 9 
 
122 SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 
 
 Phelps' house, and gives the following statement in re- 
 ference to peculiar " manifestations" at this and other 
 places, under the caption of 
 
 WRITING BY SPIRITS. 
 
 •'The Rev. Dr. Phelps informed me that about one hun- 
 dred communications had been made, in characters and 
 writing, since March 10th, 1850, at his house, purporting to 
 come from Spirits. The cap pants and handkerchief of one 
 of the family, had been written on, in characters. I saw one 
 paper at Dr. Phelps 7 , not quite as wide, but longer than a 
 sheet of foolscap, coveted with characters in perpendicular 
 lines. Some were in Hebrew, and most of the characters 
 appeared like Arabic. They were well made, and looked as 
 if written with a pen and ink. A smaller paper, covered 
 with Hebrew and similar characters, was written with ink, 
 as the family saw it when it fell from the air, and Mrs. P. 
 noticed that the ink was not dry, and she pointed out to me 
 one of the letters which blotted a little by her touching before 
 it was dry. 
 
 " L have now before me, three pieces of paper, badly 
 written upon, which Mr. Phelps and family assured me were 
 thrown down from the air in their house, by those invisible 
 agents. One is signed ''H. P. Devil," and the other by a 
 man's name who is dead, but who was previously known to 
 the family. And Mr. P. showed me letters, covering one 
 page of letter paper, which had been thrown down from the 
 air by the same invisible hand, but which were signed with 
 the names of orthodox clergymen living in Philadelphia. 
 These letters are somewhat curious. 
 
 " I saw another specimen of writing by a Spirit, in Au- 
 burn, N. Y. Mrs. G. B. Bennett showed me a slip of paper, 
 written on by the Spirit of her mother, and thrown down by 
 her side in such a manner as left no room to doubt but that 
 it was from the invisible Spirit of her mother. Indeed, it 
 was in her mother's hand- writing, and bore her signature, as 
 she formerly wrote it when in the external body, and con- 
 tained an error in the orthography peculiar to her previous 
 method of spelling ! 1 have far more evidence to prove to 
 my own mind, that that slip of paper shown me by Mrs. 
 Bennett, was really written upon by the Spirit of her mother, 
 
FACTS AND OPINIONS. 123 
 
 than I have to prove that the Epistle to the Hebrews was 
 written by St. Paul. 
 
 u Dr. Wellington, (associated with Dr. Shew, in the water- 
 cure. New York,) showed me two pieces of paper, written 
 on, as he believes, by Spirits, without human hands. And I 
 admit, that if what the Dr. stated to me, as to the manner in 
 which they were first presented to human knowledge be 
 true, why they must have been written by Spirits. 
 
 "As to the way. the manner, or means. I know nothing. 
 But, that I have seen writings, letters and characters which 
 were written, without human hands, I as firmly believe as 
 that I am now myself engaged in writing, and that ray mind 
 is in a state suitable for judging accurately of what I see and 
 hear. The time was, when 1 could not have believed what 
 1 here state, as possible ; but I am older to-day than I was a 
 year ago. 77 
 
 There have yet been no " manifestations" of the 
 character described by Mr. Sunderland, in Cincinnati. 
 
 We shall conclude this Part with a few extracts from 
 a letter addressed to Messrs. Capron and Barron, by 
 John O. Wattles, of West Point, Indiana, after he had 
 read their pamphlet. 
 
 Mr. Wattles has been, for many years, a spontaneous 
 clairvoyant — that is, he enters the clairvoyant state by 
 the power of his own will. He is, so to speak, an emi- 
 nently spiritual-minded man. He is one of the " chosen 
 few" of this world who dare punish the flesh for the 
 good of the Spirit — who can suffer much for opinion's 
 sake, and who " will be honest though the Heavens fall." 
 He is a man of education— -an original thinker and a 
 careful investigator; but a man who has many rare ec- 
 centricities. They are such, however, as show a devo- 
 tion to principle, and win confidence among all who 
 can appreciate a man whose whole nature, physical, 
 mental and moral, is antagonistic to selfishness in the 
 
124 SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 
 
 broadest signification of what social Keformers under- 
 stand by selfishness. 
 
 With this explanation of the writer's peculiarly, we 
 subjoin the extracts : 
 
 li That we are surrounded by mental beings at all times 
 and in all places, is a fact so easily explained, that the great 
 mystery is why everybody don't know it. That the Omnipo- 
 tent Spirit of God envelopes our minds as the atmosphere 
 does our bodies, is a fact denied only by Atheists, whether 
 in the Church or out. That the distance between the Spirits 
 within us and the Spirits around us, is only the thickness 
 of our bodies, is a necessary conclusion from such admis- 
 sions. * * But the bodies of some are so thick that their 
 minds could scarcely hear the resurrection trumpet, much 
 less the silence of Spirit-talk. There are ten thousand fathoms 
 of dead animals' carcasses closely packed, five thousand 
 leagues of grease, gravy, rum, tea, coffee and tobacco, and 
 millions of miles of filth and corruption too impure to be 
 talked of, between them and all mind. No wonder that men- 
 tal beings have to move chairs, tables, &c. The wonder is 
 that they don't move mountains and rocks, and bury the 
 dirty, filthy, doubting wretches deep in oblivion. That is 
 evidence enough to me that they are 'good spirits. 7 
 
 u Before this generation shall have passed away, the ¥ great 
 gulf between mind and mind shall be bridged; heaven and 
 earth shall be united; the shores of Time and the plains of 
 Eternity shall touch together, and preliminary to the time 
 when none shall say to his brother, " Know the Lord," but 
 all shall know Him, from the least to the greatest. The great 
 reforms of the age are fast tending to this great end, and man 
 is about entering upon a higher sphere of existence than he 
 has ever, as a whole, enjoyed before. 
 
 * * * * * * 
 
 " Purity , both physical and mental, must precede any great 
 mental ( manifestation. 7 Without it, it will soon dwindle into 
 insignificance and folly. Less of the physical evidence and 
 more of the mental will be better. Knowledge for the great 
 work of progression and human elevation should be sought 
 after — directions for the most successful and best efforts to 
 bring humanity to a glorious consummation — unity of man 
 
FACTS AND OPINIONS. 125 
 
 with man, man with angels, and all with God. If these 
 heavenly messengers have come to visit us. let us use them for 
 the elevation and redemption of Man. If thej have not come 
 for that purpose, they may as well stay away. But they 
 have. They have been bending over us, and flocking around 
 the world, peering into every crevice in the cold, cast-iron 
 heart of man, beating at the door of every mental temple for 
 admittance, and shouting at the top of their voices to the 
 walking corpses that stalk above ground, ever since they have 
 Left their bodies. They labor as intently now for the good of 
 man as they did in the body, and perhaps more so, and only 
 need access to man to guide him out of the wilderness, over 
 the desert and up the hill-tops to the land of Redemption. 
 So don ; t let us bother them about minor matters, but go right 
 into the great work at once. That eventually will furnish 
 the world wtth the best evidence that they are from God, and 
 ail will seek to be with them, or rather, enjoy and realize 
 their presence. 
 
 u Above all things, keep it from being made a. mercenary 
 matter. There is nothing so deadening to Spirit life as venali- 
 ty, unless it be the denial of ever present Angel Spirits. Beg, 
 dig, grub and starve, but don 7 t traffic in Angel intercourse. 
 If the gate of Heaven has been opened, don't let us have 
 Mammon for gate-keeper. If Franklin, or Rogers, or Swe- 
 denborg, or Gabriel have come to our aid, don't let us set 
 them on the auction block to sell to the highest bidder. 
 
 *LL ^' •££, ^f, .afc. *4£- <£? 
 
 W *7? W flP 7^ W *K* 
 
 (i Let us seek such information as shall enable all the race 
 to come up and talk with them face to face, behold their 
 glories and to be like them. Get knowledge of them with 
 reference to the great principles of the government of God, 
 or whether there are such principles — with reference to phy- 
 siological science, or whether there is such a science — of 
 mental science, or whether there is mental science — whether 
 obedience to each and all of these will produce harmony of 
 character and final unity of the race — the means to be used 
 to bring the constitution of man to harmony with itself, with 
 nature and with God — when there shall be but one moving 
 motive — one great central heart — one infinite, pervading soul 
 that fills the mighty universe, when each shall be himself, 
 and God be all in all. 
 
 "Let us try to get up to them, and not bring them down to 
 
126 SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 
 
 us, lest they become wearied of our sensuality, and so leave 
 lis in oar corruption. Cling to them that you may be in- 
 structed, so may the world be blest, and their mission be 
 fulfilled." 
 
 These are the sentiments which should actuate every 
 man engaged in Spiritual investigation. With their im- 
 pressions upon the mind of the reader, we hasten to 
 Part III. of the " Signs of the Times," in which are 
 some views expressed in relation to Spirit and its power 
 of " manifestation." 
 
SPIRIT POWER. 127 
 
 PART III. 
 
 " Truth, crushed to earth, will rise again, 
 
 The eternal years of God are hers." Bryant. 
 
 ** Truth is eternal, but her effluence, 
 With endless change, is fitted to the hour ; 
 Her mirror is turned forward, to reflect 
 The promise of the future, not the past." 
 
 J. R. Lowell. 
 
 SPIRIT-POWER. 
 
 The " manifestations," of which we have given some 
 account in the foregoing pages, are not a thing " new 
 under the sun," as most people suppose. They were 
 heard and excited wonder many years ago, in England, 
 in Germany, and in France, as well in this country — 
 but until the Hydesville " manifestations," they were 
 never ascertained to be for the communication, to mor- 
 tals, of the thoughts of the departed. 
 
 We have well authenticated accounts of "knockings" 
 in Germany as far back as the year 1135 — more than 
 seven hundred years ago. They were heard in 1620, 
 at the town of Oppenheim, and at St. Maur, near Paris, 
 in 1706. 
 
 The account of the " manifestations" — mysterious 
 noises — in the Wesley family, as early as 1716, written 
 by Rev. John Wesley, founder of Methodism, has been 
 extensively published and generally read. 
 
128 SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 
 
 In 1740, there were " manifestations" in a Printing 
 office, at Constance, England, which created intense ex- 
 citement. Very curious and remarkable " manifesta- 
 tions" were made at Stockwell, England, in 1772. 
 
 Justinus Kerner, in a work entitled the "Seeress 
 of Provorst," relates that precisely similar occurrences 
 took place at Winesburg, Germany, in 1825 and 1828 — 
 also at Slawensick Castle, Silesia. Many other instances 
 of " mysterious manifestations" might be cited. 
 
 We have shown in the Part on "Cincinnati Rap- 
 pings," that the " knockings" were heard in this city 
 three years ago. We have reliable testimony that they 
 were heard in Chittenden Co., Vt., ten years ago — also 
 in several parts of Pennsylvania, fifteen years ago ; and 
 in 1834, the Ontario Repository, published at Canandai- 
 gua, New York, gave a lengthy account of " knockings" 
 which continued for several days in a house in that 
 town. They created great excitement, but on the most 
 rigid scrutiny, could not be accounted for. 
 
 The Indians of the Rocky Mountains, as we have 
 been informed by a Trapper who lived several years 
 among them, have ancient traditions of what may be 
 called Wrappings," which they believe to come from a 
 Spirit called " Great Bear," who gives warnings of ca- 
 lamities. 
 
 We have no doubt " mysterious manifestations" have 
 been heard during the present century, in many parts of 
 our country, which have been a " nine days wonder" in 
 the neighborhood, and then died away, without being 
 brought before the public ; but we believe not only that 
 the " manifestations" are not now to cease and be for- 
 
SPIRIT POWER. 129 
 
 gotten, but as confidence grows that they are Spiritual 
 " manifestations," they will become more positive, more 
 important, more wonderful, higher in order, and more 
 general. 
 
 For clairvoyants to see Spirits, is by no means a pe- 
 culiarity of these times. German writers have publish- 
 ed much upon the *' mystery," and they furnish exam- 
 ples of '•Spiritual manifestations" which stagger those 
 who grope in the blind belief that all Spirits, released 
 from the body, are in some sort of bondage, and must re- 
 main so until " the end of the world." Mrs. Crowe, in 
 her work entitled the "Night Side of Nature," gives an 
 array of exampl es of ghost-seeing, presentiments, wraiths, 
 and warnings, most formidable to those who would not 
 have faith that there are guardian Spirits, and that these 
 Spirits were once embodied in clay, over whose dust, as 
 it moulders in the silent tomb, they may often shed bit- 
 ter, unavailing tears. 
 
 The Shaking Quakers of our country, have, for years, 
 had " manifestations" among them, by means of which 
 revelations are made, that although tinged to a con- 
 siderable degree with the peculiar doctrines of these 
 people, in their general principles give evidence of 
 Spiritual influences. This shows that contemned sects 
 may be in advance of those most dearly beloved and 
 most scrupulously cherished in the gay world. 
 
 William Fishbough, of New York, an able writer on 
 psychology says: — "In all ages and nations, there has 
 been a widely prevailing belief in the influence of Spirits 
 upon the affairs of men, and volumes might be filled 
 with apparently the best authenticated instances of Spirits 
 
130 SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 
 
 manifesting their presence to men in the body, in various 
 ways. Confucius taught that the Spirits of the departed 
 returned frequently to the halls of their ancestors. Zo- 
 roaster claimed to have intercourse with beings of the 
 other world. The learned are aware that Pythagoras 
 and Plato taught the doctrine of guardian Spirits ; So- 
 crates professed to be under the constant guidance of 
 such a monitor. The ancient Egyptians and Hebrews 
 entertained essentially the same views respecting inter- 
 positions of the inhabitants of the Spiritual world. 
 ****** 
 
 u It is only in these latter days, characterized by a very 
 sensuous mode of philosophizing, that a portion of the 
 christian church has asserted that intercourse with the 
 Spirits of the other world ceased with the days of the 
 Apostles." 
 
 A. J. Davis' " Revealments" have been extensively 
 published. At least four years ago, we were minutely 
 advised of descriptions given by a clairvoyant in Cin- 
 cinnati, of Spirits seen in the Spirit-world. 
 
 Many interesting statements are made in a work en- 
 titled the " Seeress of Prevorst," which contains the 
 experience of Madam Hauffe, of Prevorst, in Wirtem- 
 burg. The following is an extract from her statement : 
 
 u Unfortunately ; my life is now so constituted, that my soul, 
 as well as my Spirit, sees into the Spiritual world — which is, 
 however, indeed upon the earth; and I see them, not only 
 singly, but frequently, in multitudes, and of different kinds : 
 and many departed souls. 
 
 c - 1 see many with whom 1 come into no approximation, and 
 others who come to me, with whom I converge, and who re- 
 main near me for months; I see them at various times, by 
 day and night, whether I am alone, or in company. * # 
 
SPIRIT POWER. 131 
 
 "1 observe frequently, that when a ghost visits me be- 
 night, those who sleep in the same room with me, are, by 
 their dreams, made aware of its presence; they speak after- 
 wards of the apparition they saw in their dream, though I 
 have not breathed a syllable on the subject to them. Whilst 
 the ghosts are with me, I see and hear everything around me 
 as usual, and can think of other subjects; and though I can 
 avert my eyes from them, it is difficult for me to do it; I 
 feel in a sort of magnetic rapport with them. They appear 
 to me like a thin cloud, that one could see through, which, 
 however, I cannot do. * * The forms of the good 
 Spirits appear bright; those of the evil, dusky. 
 
 •'Their gait is like the gait of the living, only that the bet- 
 ter Spirits seem to float, and the evil ones tread heavier; so 
 that their footsteps may sometimes be heard, not by me 
 alone, but by those who are with me. They have various 
 ways of attracting attention by other sounds besides speech; 
 and this faculty they exercise frequently on those who can 
 neither see them nor hear their voices. These sounds con- 
 sist in sighing, knocking, noises as of the throwing of sand, or 
 gravel, rustling of paper, rolling of a ball, shuffling as in slip- 
 pers, &c, &c. They are also able to move heavy articles, 
 and to open and shut doors, although they can pass through 
 them unopened, or through the walls. I observe that the 
 darker a spectre is, the stronger is his voice, and the more 
 ghostly powers of making noises, and so forth, he seems to 
 have. The sounds they produce are by means of the air, 
 and the nerve-spirit, w T hich is still in them. * " * I 
 observe that the happy Spirits have the same difficulty in 
 answering questions regarding earthly matters, as the evil 
 ones have in doing it with respect to heavenly ones; the first 
 belong not to earth, nor the last to heaven." 
 
 In the Arcana Celestia, page 448, Emanuel Sweden- 
 
 borg says : 
 
 "1 have conversed with many after their decease, with 
 whom I was acquainted during their life in the body ; and 
 such conversation has been of long continuance, sometimes 
 for months, sometimes for a whole year; and with as clear 
 and distinct a voice, but internal, as with friends in the 
 world. The subject of our discourse has sometimes turned 
 on the state of man after death; and they have greatly won- 
 
132 SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 
 
 dered that no one in the life of the body knows, or believes, 
 that he is to live in such a manner after the life of the body ; 
 when, nevertheless, it is a continuation of life, and that of 
 such a nature, that the deceased passes from an obscure life 
 into a clear and distinct one ; and they w T ho are in faith to- 
 wards the Lord, into a life more and more clear and distinct." 
 
 The following is from an English work, entitled 
 "Psychology; or. the Science of the Soul, by Joseph 
 Haddock, M. D.," giving an account of the sights of a 
 lady who was a spontaneous clairvoyant : 
 
 " Her general statements represent man as a Spiritual be- 
 ing, rising from the shell of the dead body immediately after 
 death, a perfectly organized existence, and having a com- 
 plete sensational perception of his iellow Spiritual beings, and 
 of the beautiful scenery of the Spiritual spheres; that is, pro- 
 vided he possessed, during his natural life, a moral state, in 
 harmony with those spheres. The male and female sex, re- 
 taining all the characteristics necessary to a Spiritual state of 
 existence, and living together in a state of angelic union. 
 Those who have been interiorly united here, coming again 
 into a state of union hereafter. She represents male and 
 female Spiritual beings, thus united, as appearing at a dis- 
 tance as one, and says that they are not called two, nor the 
 married, but the one. Infants and young children, who have 
 passed from this world by death, are stated to grow to a state 
 of adolescence, but more speedily than in the natural world. 
 During infancy and early childhood, they are confided to the 
 care of good female Spirits, or Angels, whose delight it is to 
 instruct them by various methods, especially by representatives 
 of things. These Spiritual spheres, and their Spiritual inhabi- 
 tants, are in close association with us, and exercise an influ- 
 ence over us, although we are unconscious of it. All that is 
 wanted to have a sensational knowledge of their existence, is 
 the closing of the external consciousness, and a full awaken- 
 ing of the internal consciousness. In the highest state of 
 trance, she appeared to herself to be among Spiritual beings, 
 as one of themselves ; at other times she appeared to them 
 more shadowy. The first receptacle of the departed Spirit, 
 she describes as a sort of middle place or state, from which 
 the good gradually ascend to higher and more delightful 
 
SPIRIT POWER. 133 
 
 places; those that are the best having higher abodes than the 
 others." 
 
 It has ever been a doctrine of the established Church, 
 and one most eloquently enforced, that this life is a 
 probationary one — that in this sphere men are to pre- 
 pare for a higher order of being. Clairvoyant revelations 
 make this doctrine practical, and show us what the high- 
 er sphere is, and what we must do to attain an exalted 
 position in it. If we believe that there are Spiritual 
 advisers ever hovering near us, and we hearken unto 
 their counsels, we shall come in close communion with 
 them, and we shall so live on earth that we may almost 
 end our probation, and, like Enoch and Elijah, be pre- 
 pared for the Spirit-world, ere the temporal body's de- 
 cease. 
 
 The New York Tribune, of Dec. 27th 1850 contained 
 the report of " a talk with a deceased friend through a 
 clairvoyant," which as Horace Greeley says, should be 
 published, to refute the assumption that " nothing is ever 
 communicated from the spirit world by these new agen- 
 cies that is of the slightest importance." The responses, 
 it is said, are uniformly frivolous, useless, and uninterest- 
 ing. 
 
 With Mr. Greeley we can say, that, so far as we have 
 observed, they are about as worthy of regard as the 
 questions to which they are replies will permit them to be. 
 
 The deceased Mr. C, who purports to be the commu- 
 nicator, was, the Tribune states, a man of decided in- 
 telligence, energy, and philanthropy ; and these respon- 
 ses are very like his manner of speaking while on earth. 
 
134 SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 
 
 "Question. — Mr. C had the human race a conscious exist- 
 ence before we came upon this earth ? Answer. — Soul-mat- 
 ter had an existence, but not a conscious existence. Q. — Are 
 there any spirits which exert an evil or malignant influence 
 on human actions and conditions? A. — Yes; but not because 
 they desire to do so, but because of their inferior or gross 
 organization. Q. — Are there any human spirits which h?ve 
 passed from earth which are not in a state of progress or im- 
 provement. A. — No; but some progress slowly having a 
 very <;ross organization to begin with. * * * 
 
 Q. — Are there any spirits in a state of misery or pain, so 
 as to feel their existence a burden'? A. — There are some 
 who have mental suffering, because they did not improve [or 
 misused] their advantages while on earth. Q. — Are there 
 any so separated from their friends as to cause them unhappi- 
 ness — not being allowed the society of those they love best? 
 A. — If the} 7 might [now] have been associated with those 
 friends by improving their advantages [when] on earth then 
 they are unhappy. Q. — Are there any who despair of 
 ever attaining the condition of the blest? A. — They may at 
 times but not lastingly. Q. — Does the state in which Mr. C. 
 now is seem more immediately, palpably under the Divine 
 Government than our condition ? A. — Its inhabitants see 
 more clearly, as they have progressed farther. Q. — Are 
 there any in that state who disbelieve the existence of the 
 Deity. A. — They do not disbelieve it, but some do not com- 
 prehend it. Q. — Then the Deity is not visible in that sphere? 
 A- — He is nowhere visible. We receive impressions from 
 Him, but do not see Him. Q — Are the Apostles and founders 
 of Christianity visible to Mr. C? A. — No: None who are in 
 a higher sphere are visible to those in a lower. Q. — Can 
 those in a higher sphere communicate to those in a lower? 
 A. — Yes. Q. — When Clairvoyants suppose they see Apostles 
 &c, are they deceived ? or do they really see as they sup- 
 pose? A. — Many of them think they see Apostle Paul, or 
 whoever else they wish to communicate with, when they 
 really do not. Q. — When a mother, who dearly loves her 
 good child, but who has lived unworthily, goes to the spirit 
 world, is she, or is she not, permitted to see her child before 
 she has attained his sphere ? A. — She does not see him. but 
 receives impressions from him Q. — Does he see her ? A. — 
 Y r es; he communicates to her ? and watches over her. Q. — 
 
SPIRIT POWER. 135 
 
 Have former generations passed away, so that they cannot be 
 seen from Mr. C . 7 s present sphere? A. — Some have, and 
 some have not . Q — Could Mr. C. see Adam and the ancient 
 Patriarchs? A. — No. Q. — Is this new ability on our part to 
 communicate witn the Spirit World a consequence of any 
 change or improvemen in the Human Family? A. — Yes: 
 the Human Race have become more refined and susceptible 
 [to impression from the Spirit World] thanformerly. [It was 
 here casually stated by some one present that Mr. C. had 
 stated on former occasions, that Idiots have no immortal ex- 
 istence. — The present querists demured to this, and asked] 
 Q. — Do children, who die in conscious infancy, live in the 
 Future State ? A. — The moment an infant has been ushered 
 into the world, an individuality has been formed, which con- 
 tinues to exist, poviding the physical constitution was per- 
 fected — not otherwise. Q. — Then why do not animals have 
 an immortal existence ? A. — Man has a peculiar formation, 
 which animals have not. To all who have that formation, 
 Soul adheres — not to others. Q. — Can Mr. C. give us any idea 
 of his present location in space — whether it is on any particu- 
 lar planet, or around this earth? A. — Human spirits love to 
 hover around this earth, but they are not confined to it Q. — 
 Are the planets visible to Mr. C. ? A. — Yes. Q. — Does Mr. 
 C. see this outer material earth? Does he see it as we do, 
 with our material eyes ?. A. — He perceives the earth as a 
 highly material body. [On another occasion, it was staled, 
 in reply to a question, that all created existences are first 
 clothed in material bodies, passing thence into purer and 
 more spiritual forms, and that the inhabitants of the higher 
 planets, like Saturn, pass through a change from the material 
 to the purely spiritual state equivalent to our Death, but one 
 unattended by pain, and which is not desired, nor dreaded." 
 
 Many of the answers above quoted give precisely the 
 philosophy in relation to spiritual matters which we have 
 frequently received through clairvoyants. All persons, who, 
 in the internal condition have power to speak intelligently of 
 the planets, agree that the inhabitants of Saturn are in a 
 highly spiritual condition. 
 
 It is the impression of some clairvoyants, different from 
 the revelation quoted, that the Spirits have knowledge of 
 
136 SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 
 
 each other in all the spheres; that a Spirit may form part of 
 a family circle in one sphere, and also form a part of another 
 circle in a much higher sphere. Those in the lower have, 
 however, but glimpses of the happiness and elevation of the 
 higher spheres, and know Spirits in them, only as intellects 
 of inferior order know intellects of a high order in this world. 
 
 The Cleveland Plain Dealer of January 13th, 1851, con- 
 tained the report of a conversation with a clairvoyant, from 
 which we extract the following questions and answers. It 
 will be seen that they correspond w T ith views given us by 
 clairvoyants. If this can all be imagination — imagination is 
 truly a wonder, and the world yet knows but little of its 
 u mysteries." 
 
 cc Q. — Is the spirit of a human being ever lost ? A. — Never. 
 All that once live, always live, and grow better and brighter 
 in the spiritual state. There is no such state as spiritual tor- 
 ment. That is a mistake of the Church teachers. Nature has 
 provided no such place, but spirits enjoy different degrees of 
 happiness, owing to their different degrees of knowledge or 
 development. Q. — Do persons dying insane have rational 
 spirits ? A. — To be sure they do. Insanity is produced by 
 unfortunate material organization or diseases of the body, and 
 when the spirit leaves the body these material causes are remo- 
 ved and the spirit is free. Q. — Do spirits ever become so per- 
 fect as|to loose their connection with this earth ? A. — Do peo- 
 ple ever get so old as to forget their youth ? Q. — Do spirits wor- 
 ship a superior being? A. — They all reverence perfection in 
 nature and acknowledge a superior power, or the "great Posi- 
 tive," but know nothing about a being that they must both fear 
 and love, as taught by orthordox creeds of the day. Every 
 spirit strives to make itself and others better and are con- 
 stantly exerting an unseen influence to elevate their friends 
 on earth in the great scale of perfection. Q. — Then there is no 
 such place as hell in another world. A. — no, but the better 
 we are here, the happier we shall be there. Q. — Do our guardian 
 spirits know our thoughts ? A. — Indeed they do. Thoughts 
 are things to them easily searched out. Q. — Do spirits re- 
 tain a tangible form ? A. — They do. Their identity is never 
 lost. — They appear a kind of sublimated essence ; can move 
 themselves by will and receive impressions from one another 
 by undulations of the atmosphere, the same as sound is convey- 
 ed here. Q. — Is there any such thing as marrying in another 
 
SPIRIT POWER, 137 
 
 world ? A. — There is such a thing as mating, which is a very 
 different thing from marrying. Every spirit has its mate, a 
 congenial spirit, and if not properly mated here, will be there. 
 Q. — Is death what it appears to us, the " King of Terrors?" 
 A. — Oh, no. When the spirit leaves the body there is no pain. 
 There may before that period, while the body is struggling to 
 retain the spirit. * * * * * 
 
 Q. — Are the "Spirit Tappings' ' genuine communications 
 from the spirit land? A. — They are. No deception has yet 
 been detected ; none can be, for there is none in them. They 
 will soon be more common. New lights are now dawning upon 
 the world which are going to work great revolutions in a very 
 short space of time. You will be wiser, very soon. Your pre- 
 judices are giving way and the truth is beginning to make you 
 free." 
 
 From the Plain Dealer of Jan. 1st, 1851, we learn that 
 Thomas Paine has been conversing to a clairvoyant in Cleve- 
 land. As the clairvoyant reported, he said : 
 
 u 1 died in great bodily agony, but full in the faith that that 
 was the last of me. Judge my surprise to find himself in the 
 spirit-land, among friends and acquaintances, who seemed 
 overjoyed to see me. I could not believe I was dead. 1 sup- 
 posed my spirit must have re-entered my body, but on look- 
 ing, 1 saw I had no body. It was some time before I became 
 reconciled to my new condition. But here I am, happy in the 
 enjoyment of progress and truth. My friends here do not 
 condemn me for my belief on earth. I was honest in that 
 belief. I could not help it. You will soon believe as I now 
 do; for you will mark the infidels, as they are called on the 
 earth, will be first to embrace the truth, having no opposing 
 creeds or prejudices to prevent them." 
 
 Investigations of this character should be pursued, and in- 
 vestigators should "compare- notes," and publish convic- 
 tions, until the power of Spirit in its manifestation to earth 
 is understood— until the world shall appreciate the important 
 truths that, from the " revelations" of these times, appear to 
 have been long struggling for popular recognition. We have 
 no idea of the sw^er-naturai about these manifestations. 
 
 We are impressed that they are through electric u medi- 
 ums," as previously argued. For this impression we give 
 10 
 
138 SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 
 
 our reasons in various connections in this work. We hope 
 the bearings of these reasons will be taken, and their force 
 critically examined, and that competent men will inquire into 
 this electric theory, until Spiritual Electricity — Spiritual Mag- 
 netism — can be clearly explained — until the wonderful sym- 
 pathy, power and elevation which human magnetism affords 
 is not only understood but recognized. 
 
 We have said, that where the raps are heard, impressive 
 persons always perceive electric influences. Those who 
 cause the sounds, as clairvoyants declare, state them to be 
 electric, but how i Mr. Fishbough says : 
 
 " Spirits still connected with, but owing to some abnormal 
 condition, capable of acting in measurable independence of the 
 body, have sometimes been able to attract, and act upon the 
 refined ingredients of the atmosphere, and especially upon the 
 electric element. The writer is acquainted with a man who is 
 subject to many remarkable psychological experiences, and who 
 is (or was two years ago) able, by the mere effort of his will, to 
 fill his hair so full of electricity, that on passing a comb through 
 it, it would appear to be almost in a continuous flame, emitting 
 sparks, and slight, but distinctly perceptible shocks, when the 
 knuckle of another person was presented. On diverting his 
 mind from the object, the electricity would, in half a minute, all 
 disappear, so that not a single spark could be generated, how- 
 ever violent the friction. Then on assuming the previous men- 
 tal condition again, the electricity would gradually appear, 
 until his hair was charged as before. The writer saw this ex- 
 periment repeated several times, and under circumstances which 
 excluded ail possibility of mistake. There was, at the time, 
 no electric machine in the room, or in the house, and the man 
 was standing, or walking about, on a woolen carpet. He ex- 
 plained, in vague terms, how he did it, but it was altogether by 
 a psychological process, of which anyone in a perfectly normal 
 condition, would be incapable. " 
 
 Dr. Emerich, professor of theology, at Strasburgh, had a 
 sister, who, having been injured by a fright, fell into a state 
 of somnambulism, accompanied by a high degree of lucidity, 
 (or clairvoyance,) and her body became so surcharged with 
 electricity, that she sometimes imparted strong shocks to those 
 standing near her, although the latter frequently did not touch 
 her. Professor Emerich mentioned, also, that she sent him a 
 
SPIRIT POWER. 139 
 
 smart shock one day, when she was several rooms off. He 
 started up, and rushed into her chamber, where she was in 
 bed, and as soon as she saw him ; she said ; laughing, " Ah, 
 you felt it, did you V 7 
 
 On the evening of the 11th of January, 1851, we were in 
 company with a clairvoyant, who is regarded by all who 
 know her as a lady of strict veracity — one whose line of con- 
 duct is governed by a degree of conscientiousness that is not 
 very common. In the early part of the evening, she gave 
 marked, evidences of being spiritually impressed. She soon 
 passed into the clairvoyant state, and remarked that she was 
 under new influences — that there was around her a circle of 
 Spirits, higher than any with which she had ever before come 
 in close communion. 
 
 Question. — Can you describe any of these Spirits'? An- 
 swer. — One of them is a physician. Q. — Was he an emi- 
 nent man 1 A. — He was one of the greatest surgeons of his 
 time. Q. — Where did he live 1 A. — In England. Q. — Can 
 you ascertain his name? A.— Sir — (after a pause) — Astley 
 (another pause) Cowper. Q. — Are you sure there ever was 
 such a man ? A. — Yes. His name was changed. In the 
 old Saxon it was Cowper — he was called Cooper. Q. — Why 
 is he here ? A. — He comes in his own time. He has used 
 Dr. Bennet as his medium to communicate with me, till he 
 can now give me direct impressions. Q. — Does Dr. Bennet 
 see and know him ? A. — Bennet is in a much lower sphere- 
 He knows Sir Cooper is here, but does not appreciate his 
 happiness. Q. — Will Bennet ever be in as high a sphere as 
 Sir Astley is ? A. — Yes — then Sir Astley will be much high- 
 er. Spheres have all their relative distances, but as Spirits 
 approach perfection, the distances between their spheres 
 lessen. Q. — What is the highest sphere? A. — Spirits pro- 
 gress till they get to Christ — then to God : when they are all 
 one, yet distinct. We are each a portion of the divine 
 
140 SIGJSS OF THE TIMES. 
 
 mind — that portion is the germ of the Soul. Q. — Does that 
 secure an immortality? A. — Soul is the home of that germ, 
 as the body is the home of the Soul. Q. — Will you explain ? 
 A. — The Spirit is the outer home of the Soul, as nature is the 
 home of the body — but the three harmonise, as the body 
 should harmonise with nature; for if the body does harmon- 
 ise with nature, then the Soul harmonises with the body, and 
 we have a perfect man. Q. — It has recently been discovered 
 that oxygen has a magnetic property. What of it? A. — 
 Oxygenized air is nothing more than electrical air. There is 
 a portion of electricity thrown off from the body every second 
 of time, and all the inhalations that are made are the taking 
 in of the principle that sustains life. This is carried through 
 the system and supplies all the ducts. Each particle is a 
 tube. Q. — What has electricity to do with the sustaining of 
 life 1 A. — It connects the Soul with, or binds the Soul to, 
 the body. As long as there is electricity in the body the 
 Soul remains with it. Q. — It has been ascertained by deli- 
 cate experiment, that the human will can move the mag- 
 netic needle. Can you explain why ? A. — Theie is an 
 affinity — on the same principle that Spirits move matter. 
 The Spiritual electricity, thrown off by volition, comes in con- 
 tact with the electricity of matter. Q. — What is the medium 
 of your impressions'? A. — Electricity. Q. — Can you des- 
 cribe Sir Astley Cooper'? A. — He appears to me a large 
 man, but he may look to me larger than he was when he 
 left this world. He has an expansive forehead — a bright, 
 piercing eye, and is rather homely looking. He has great 
 benevolence. He is eccentric. He would visit a poor pa- 
 tient as soon as a rich one, but he would not charge the poor 
 one as he would the rich. He was conscientious about this; 
 however. He believed that God intended the rich should be 
 pay-masters for the poor. Q. — Did you ever read anything 
 about this person ? A. — I only know that he was a great 
 
SPIRIT POWER. 141 
 
 surgeon. I have an external impression that he was physi- 
 cian to the royal household. I know nothing more of his 
 character. I have done. I have been taken among the 
 Spiritual spheres. Sir Cooper brings me back. 
 
 The clairvoyant would answer no more questions, and in 
 a few minutes resumed the normal condition. 
 
 It may be well to examine the electrical theory of this 
 " revealment." 
 
 Alfred Smee, F. R. S., surgeon of the Bank of England, 
 delivered a lecture on the " Voltaic Mechanism of Man." at 
 the London Institute, in 1849, in which he contended, that 
 delicate Voltaic currents are produced in man by the action 
 of the blood upon the brain and nervous system. He stated 
 that he had been able to detect these currents in animals by 
 a delicate galvanometer. He gave it as his opinion, that all 
 our sensations and muscular actions originate galvanic cur- 
 rents in the nervous system, and that all organs of sensation 
 constitute the positive pole. 
 
 Professor Faraday, at a late meeting of the Royal Institu- 
 tion, announced his discovery that oxygen is magnetic, that 
 this property of the gas is affected by heat, and that he be- 
 lieved the diurnal variation of the needle to be due to the 
 action of sola? heat on this newly discovered characteristic of 
 oxygen — the important constituent of the atmosphere. 
 
 It is stated, also, that Buquerell, a distinguished French 
 Professor, has recently directed attention to a similar discov- 
 ery. He communicated to the Academy of Sciences, at 
 Paris, that oxygen is magnetic in relation to other gases as 
 iron is to the other metals. He infered that it is probable, or 
 possible, that diurnal variation may be connected with this 
 property of oxygen. 
 
 Our question in reference to the force of the human will, 
 was suggested by a report of a curious experiment, the result 
 of which was announced to the Academy of Sciences, at 
 
142 SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 
 
 Paiis ? on the 21st of May, 1849. It was satisfactorily demon- 
 strated, that deviation of the needle of a sensitive galvan- 
 ometer could be produced by volition. The oscillations were 
 found to vary from thirty to fifty degrees, according to the 
 power of will possessed by the individual trying the experi- 
 ment. 
 
 We are convinced, it will some day be ascertained, beyond 
 reasonable doubt, that electricity has much more intimate 
 lelations to, and connection with, humanity — as well as much 
 more force and character, that may be employed for useful 
 purposes, than even the most progressive of learned Profes- 
 sors will now grant it. 
 
 In reference to the clairvoyant's external impressions on 
 the subjects of which she spoke, we can confidently say that 
 she is incompetent to answer the questions propounded. 
 We have substantial reasons for this statement. We are 
 satisfied from her conversations that she knew, externally, no 
 more of Sir Astley Cooper than she expressed, and we know 
 from an intimate acquaintance, that the electrical theory is 
 new to her. 
 
 The Dr. Ben net referred to, is a Spiritual friend of whom 
 she knew nothing in this world. She first met him, in Spi- 
 rit, while making clairvoyant examinations in company with 
 a lady friend of remarkable power, who knew the Dr. when 
 he lived on earth. 
 
 Any person who will take the trouble to examine the bio- 
 graphy of Sir Astley Cooper, by his nephew, will find that 
 the clairvoyant's account of his peculiarities is correct. Sir 
 Astley was surgeon to George IV. of England. 
 
 In the above theories and suggestions, there is food for the 
 candid and thoughtful, as well as for the curious and sceptical* 
 
 We have felt positive electrical influences from clairvoy- 
 ants, who declared that it was exerted through them by the 
 will of Spirits which they described near them. We have 
 
SPIRIT POWER. 143 
 
 never yet met a person of sufficient magnetic power to im- 
 impress us ; and we are not perceptibly susceptible to the 
 influence of the magnet. 
 
 At the present time what is termed " electrical circles ;: 
 are are being formed every week in Cincinnati for the bene- 
 fit of persons whose systems require additional electrical 
 power 7 and clairvoyants declare that, in these circles, the 
 dwellers in the Spirit-world exert upon these persons the in- 
 fluences which their debilitated systems demand. We have 
 seen several women so powerfully electrised in these circles 
 that the same effects were produced upon them which would 
 have been had they been isolated, in connection with a gal- 
 vanic battery. We are acquainted with a number of indi- 
 viduals, who, by receiving the influence of u electrical cir- 
 cles 7; and obeying the instructions given by clairvoyants, at 
 the dictation of Spirits, have been more efficiently strength- 
 ened than by any prescriptions, they could, probably, have re- 
 ceived from the M. D.'s of this world, It is clairvoyant con- 
 viction that physicians who have gone to the other world, are 
 electrically impressing " progress ;; minds of this age for the 
 developments of deeper and truer physiological laws than 
 are now recognized by many medical colleges. 
 
 Such clairvoyant communications admitted, it must be 
 confessed that science has yet taught very little of electricity 
 and magnetism, or of their importance to human nature — 
 nor can it be said that physicians generally understand the 
 bodies on which they practice — to say nothing of the Souls as- 
 sociated with these bodies that must be sensibly affected when- 
 ever the frames in which they dwell are diseased. 
 
 Some of the communications which Spirits give, show that 
 they have a general interest in affairs of earth. Many ex 
 press great desire for the promulgation of the new spiritual 
 views. While engaged upon this book clairvoyants have 
 given us many encouraging communications, purporting to be 
 
144 SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 
 
 from men who were of note in this world. At one time we 
 were ill, from over work and a number of friends in the 
 Spirit-world, whom we never knew in this, sent us advice and 
 admonition. The Dr. Bennett, referred to in other pages? 
 took particular interest in our health. J. P. Cornell sent us 
 several messages, and, on one occasion, Benjamin Franklin 
 ordered a clairvoyant to communicate the following aphorism ; 
 " Economy of time, is not to do the most in an hour, but the most 
 in a life-time: 7 
 
 If this is not like " Poor Richard " we do not understand 
 him. The clairvoyant, who reported this, is incapable of ex- 
 pressing herself, in the normal condition, with anything like 
 this force. 
 
 To most persons this is sublimated nonsense, but to our 
 views of Spiritual matters, there is nothing about it incom- 
 patible with propriety or sound sense. 
 
 If clairvoyance and the reported " Spiritual manifestations 7: 
 be not a delusion there are Revolutions now preparing in the 
 Science and Theology of the world, which shall cause a wider- 
 spread and more glorious up-heaving than any mankind has 
 yet witnessed; these are the Revolutions which shall usher in 
 the 
 
 u good time coming." 
 
 In conclusion we disclaim, in any part of this work, the 
 position of a teacher. We have thrown out such explanations 
 and suggestions as occurred to us, fully conscious that like all 
 men who write on but partially understood theories, we are 
 liable to improper inferences and hasty conclusions, but if we 
 shall succeed in so interesting a few candid minds in the West 
 that they will give just heed to the u signs of the times " and 
 patiently investigate, with pure motives and open hearts we 
 will have been well paid for our labor. 
 
Deacidified using the Bookkeeper procesJ 
 Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
 Treatment Date: Nov. 2004 
 
 PreservationTechnologies 
 
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