RCANTIL

THE SPIRITUAL MAGAZINE.

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solely on the ground that neither sense nor science can unravel the mystery. Nor is it to the point to argue that facts attested by unbiassed witnesses are to be contemptuously ignored because impostors make a trade of the credulity of the unwary.

By all means let there be an investigation, and let us account for the manifestations by scientific means, if possible; but do not let us lightly reject the evidence of eyewitnesses of unblemished reputation simply because we conceive that our nineteenth-century enlightenment, and civilisation, and the rest of it, has banished from the world all communication with the unseen and unknown.

I am not going further into the question, but it seems to me that my suggestion may be worthy of some consideration, since we may be upon the eve of some wonderful discovery with which our boasted knowledge has no connection, and our highly vaunted science no share.-I am, Sir, your obedient Servant, Sept. 4. G. H. GUEST.

Appreciating the tone and temper of this letter, I am bound to say that Mr. Guest is not very consistent. He commences by slighting Spiritualism, with which he desires to have little to do, insinuating that it is witchcraft; but, nevertheless, encourages investigation-thinks the subject is an important matter, which is trifled with by its opponents, and suggests that we may be upon the eve of some wonderful discovery, with which science has no connection. It would have been better if Mr. Guest had said, "I am a Roman Catholic, forbidden by my Church to dabble in these matters; but, knowing that some of our saints of the past, and many of our priests of the present day, were and are remarkable mediums, who have had and are still having very marvellous spiritual manifestations, I am anxious that a belief, which is thus sanctioned by my Church, should be substantiated, and the erroneous dogmas of the Protestant Church, which has driven Spiritualism out of it, despite the teaching of Saint Paul, should be thoroughly exposed." If this be a fair interpretation of Mr. Guest's real sentiments and his motive for joining in the controversy, I can only regret that he, "an educated man," should allow himself to be deluded by the erroneous teachings of his own Church, and be led to believe that Spiritualism is Diabolism, and opposed to Christianity.

There are among Spiritualists many shades of religious belief; but, if Mr. Guest be a reader of this Magazine, he must know that its principal contributors aim at the dissemination of pure Christianity; and, as the motto of this Magazine says, Spiritualism recognizes a continuous divine inspiration in man. It aims, through a careful reverent study of facts, at a knowledge of the laws and principles which govern the occult forces of the universe; of the relations of spirit to matter; and of man to God and the spiritual world. It is thus catholic and progressive, leading to true religion as at one with the highest philosophy."

The Morning Herald and Standard are edited by Captain Hamber, a gentleman of undoubted character and intelligence; but who, like most mortals, has his weak side, and exhibits his

prejudices against Spiritualism by the admission into his journals of letters from Mr. John H. Addison, containing statements so thoroughly absurd and untenable as should make the least respectable editor ashamed of his protégé. It would be only charitable to assume, that when Captain Hamber permitted Mr. Addison to commence the controversy in the pages of the Herald and Standard, he could not have seen the oft-recorded decisions of men standing high in the estimation of all Englishmen; William Howitt, Dr. Garth Wilkinson, Dr. Robert Chambers, Cromwell Varley, and many others, who, after years of close study and investigation of Spiritualism and its phenomena, endorse the opinions of Professor De Morgan, the well-known mathematician, who in his masterly preface to Mrs. De Morgan's excellent book, From Matier to Spirit, published by Longmans', says: "I am perfectly convinced that I have both seen and heard, in a manner which should make unbelief impossible, things called spiritual, which cannot be taken by a rational being to be capable of explanation by imposture, coincidence, or mistake. So far I feel the ground firm under me."

Mr. Addison says in his several letters: "My experience has been peculiar and varied. I took up Spiritualism for a year or two as a pastime, and I accomplished many feats which the Spiritualists insist must have been accomplished by spiritual agency." "I hold that no one knows what to call supernatural till he knows what has been accomplished, on the one hand with impudence, and on the other with invention and good acting by confessed tricksters like myself." "I have a table that can be wound up on the alarum principle, to go off at a certain time. It often does so, and wanders about the furniture in such a weird way, that I have been as much astonished by its vagaries as any one present." "I was once the sole unbeliever around a table at a table-moving séance. Nothing satisfied me. At last I declared that I would not believe all was fair, unless I was allowed to go under the table. I did so and directly I got there put my back up and gave the table a lurch, which almost sent the glasses off it, crying out at the same time that some one was tilting the table up. I got up in simulated indignation at being made a fool of." "On one occasion I felt quite remorseful after a trick which I played. I assembled a séance of spinsters, and taking off my boots-made as Spiritualist performer's boots usually are on purpose-I slipped round the room, buffeted the ladies with a sofa pillow, and smashed the tea cups on the table; when lights were brought the poor ladies said it had been "beautiful," and on departing took away bits of the crockery as relics." * "The main difficulty is this: you cannot say to a respectable and educated man, 'Sir, you are

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either a dupe or an accomplice in imposture,' and yet it is true in every case in which Spiritualism is believed in."

The foregoing is a short digest of Mr. Addison's letters to the editor of the Herald and Standard, and as he has accepted and published these remarkable statements without comment or rebuke, it is a legitimate inference that Captain Hamber's own views upon Spiritualism are fairly represented by Mr. Addison; and that he really believes such men as De Morgan, Robert Chambers, and Varley, are either dupes or impostors.

Mr Addison also says Mrs. Marshall is an impostor, and that at a séance with her, he "caught hold of her naked foot with a pencil between her toes," by which the so-called spiritual writing is done. Mrs. Marshall denies this emphatically; she has written to the editor to say she only saw Mr. Addison once about four years ago, and no such thing happened on that or any other occasion. None of the recognised defenders of Spiritualism have thought Mr. Addison's statements worthy of notice, but Mr. Percy Greg, himself a distinguished journalist, well known to Captain Hamber, and until within a short period an entire unbeliever in the spiritual phenomena, has written three letters in opposition to Mr. Addison's, and in support of the integrity of Mrs. Marshall's mediumship, so far as his own experiences have gone. He says, "All that I can testify to is, that tables are moved in an extraordinary way, and by no agency with which we are as yet scientifically acquainted, and to this I can unhesitatingly bear witness." Mr. Addison replied to Mr. Greg in a vein of satirical sympathy, and Mr. Greg's last letter, written in a very dignified and logical tone, contemptuously disposes of Mr. Addison, by telling his friend, the editor:

"Here I leave Mr. Addison: however much mud he may choose, and you permit him, to fling in future, I shall not notice him again." "I believe that Mrs. Marshall's exhibition, so far as I have described it, is not due to trickery of any kind."

The readers of this Magazine know that there is nothing new in the controversy. The facts and philosophy of Spiritualism have been fully stated in its pages throughout the ten years of its existence. We only marvel that Spiritualism should be so little known; that its claims should have been so persistently disregarded by the leaders of public opinion in th literary and scientific world; and that the explanations of practical joker can find a place in decent journals. I have sto amazed and amused at some of the questions put by le members of the Dialectical Society, when cross-ex witnesses, and it has flashed across my mind, co my previous convictions, that after all, much of the of the Press arises from real and not simulated

Indeed, one journalist, who has recently been "reading up" and investigating the facts, in reply to a remark I made that these press writers knew they were misleading the public, said I was mistaken, and gave himself as an instance to the contrary. But they must accept the alternative. They use their power to denounce and deny without enquiry and without knowledge. They are a band of wilfully blind men who have been leading the multitude astray, and we have yet to see how many of them will have the candour to recant their errors.

LORD DUNRAVEN UPON SPIRITUALISM.

Not the least important incident in proof of the spread of Spiritualism in this country is the printing for private circulation of a volume by Viscount Adare, with a preface by Lord Dunraven, in which their experiences with those of others who have, through the mediumship of Mr. Home, witnessed a series of marvellous manifestations, are recorded. It is to be regretted that but a few copies of the book, and those for private circulation only, have been issued. Since their lordships have had the manliness to openly proclaim their adhesion to the truth and reality of Spiritualism, it is difficult to appreciate their motives for confining this knowledge to the circle of their immediate friends, and we may therefore hope that their lordships will change their resolution and permit the book to have a wide circulation.

In addition to the foregoing evidence of the general interest which the subject commands at the present moment in England, there are two gentlemen with whom I am acquainted, connected with scientific journalism, who are closely looking into the facts and varied phases of Spiritualism, and who commenced their investigations with a view of extinguishing "the delusion" which has taken so strong a hold upon the public mind. But "the extinguishers have caught fire." Both have seen enough to satisfy them of a great reality, and one is already promulgating its truths in a quiet way in his own sphere of action; the other is earnestly at work accumulating evidence, and when he is fully fortified I have every reason to believe that he will not only announce his convictions in the pages of a leading journal which are open to him, but he will prepare forthwith a suitable paper to be read to one of the learned bodies of which he is a member; thus we may expect that a fresh stimulus will be given to the controversy, and no one who has calmly considered its claims can doubt that Spiritualism will ere long take its place as an impregnable truth, entitled to the respectful consideration of every thinking man and woman whose minds are not fettered by religious bigotry or scientific fallacies.

A "SITTING" WITH MRS. EVERETT.

Related by Mr. S. C. HALL.

On Friday, July 18th, 1869, I attended a sitting at the house of Mr. and Mrs. Everett, 26, Penton Street, Pentonville.

There were present the Countess de Pomar, Miss Anna Blackwell, Mr. Nesbit (printer), of Glasgow, Mrs. Nesbit, and Mr. Pearce (the three last named I had not previously seen, the two first named accompanied us to the house), and Mr. and Mrs. S. C. Hall.

The room in which we met is small, and the evening was intensely hot; so hot that the usual window curtains had been removed; the "atmosphere" was therefore unfavourable, and more than an hour passed before manifestations commenced.

The peculiar manifestation associated with the mediumMrs. Everett is what has been termed "audible voices;" that is to say, voices apparently human, so far as tone and language are concerned, are heard; not in isolated word, or detached sentences, but in conversations-continuing during an hour or more uninterruptedly. These sittings are always in the dark; there must be, indeed, total darkness. Also, a paper tube is to some extent a necessary accompaniment of these sittings; the spirit who speaks is understood to speak through it. I say, "to some extent❞—for on this occasion (and on a previous occasion) at my request, the spirit spoke for some minutes without the tube, telling me this: "The tube is not necessary; but we condense in it the breath of the medium, and we are thus able to use her for a longer time; we do not, as some think we do, speak by her lips." When the spirit spoke without the tube, it was the same voice, only it had lost the peculiar tone it had received in passing through the tube.

The spirit who speaks by the aid of the medium calls himself "John Watt;" his language is remarkably refined; there is no taint of vulgar intonation or common phraseology, such as we almost invariably meet in persons of comparatively humble condition, and uneducated. On my remarking this, and asking him had he been in a high or low position while in this life, he replied, "I was in what you would call a low position; I was a mechanic engineer; but I have progressed greatly since I left earth." I asked him how long ago that was: he answered, "Of your time it is 32 years, and I had been 30 years on earth when I was called from it." The voice is clear; each word being distinctly heard in a loud whisper; neither slowly nor rapidly; the enunciation is sometimes emphatic, and generally impressive.