THE OLD AND NEW. BY JOHN G. WHITTIER. Oh! sometimes gleams upon our sight, We lack but open eye and ear God's love and blessing, then and there, Correspondence. PROFESSOR DE MORGAN'S TESTIMONY. To the Editor of the "Spiritual Magazine." SIR,-As I am not in the habit of taking anything for granted, without what appear to me adequate reasons for so doing;-and, as I was not satisfied with the bare assertion that Professor De Morgan, the eminent living mathematician, had really lent the sanction of his great name to these so-called delusions (of modern Spiritualism), I some months back wrote him a letter on the subject of the book From Matter to Spirit, published anonymously in 1863, and received from him the following reply: - 91, Adelaide Road, N.W., A. B. Tietkens, Esq. April 3rd, 1868. Sir,-It never has been any secret that the book "From Matter to Spirit" was written by my wife, and the preface by myself. For the last two years, I think, Longman has advertiz names. I vouch, of course, for the facts mentioned in the end of the preface; but there are some in the book of of which my knowledge is personal. And of nearly a testify that I heard them long before they were printed they did not grow. Yours faithfully, A. DE So then here we have a living philosopher who tells us, after 15 years of investigation of these phenomena, and patient consideration of their bearing, "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." Such evidence as this, in connection with that of Mr. Varley, Mr. Wallace, and a host of other scientific witnesses, is very significant of the fact that although Professor De Morgan's facts did not grow in the telling, Spiritualism is growing apace. A. B. TIETKENS. A FEW FACTS IN SPIRITUALISM. To the Editor of the "Spiritual Magazine." SIR,-In your July number I gave an account of my first experiences in Spiritualism, and offered to communicate any further results of my inquiry into the subject. Since then, my friend the Rev. F. R. Young has visited America, and come back a healing medium. During his stay in America I was permitted to recognise him in the crystal, and each day to witness some event in his history; the hour of landing and embarking was most minutely given. These facts were authenticated by a comparison of notes on his return. The portrait of Dr. Newton I at once recognised, as that of the person who had laid hands upon Mr. Young. Such manifestations as tipping, rapping, writing, have been going on continuously. About a fortnight ago sounds began in my bed room and in other parts of the house as of a person ascending and descending the stairs. At times the room became half illuminated. Thinking that it might be some departed member of the family wishful to speak to me, I placed a slate and pencil on the table. The next morning I found a flourished circle, in which could fairly be traced the name of a very dear relative. Lights and sounds are nightly seen and heard by us between the hours of twelve and three, they are often most beautiful and pleasant. Our little circle has gained some power in medium writing, for at the Rev. F. R. Y.'s retreat for Spiritualists there is a medium, whose communications are appearing in Daybreak. Our messages are not very lengthy at present, still they have been very comforting to friends for whom they were given, and perhaps as much as we can bear. After some signal manifestations on Monday last-September 28th-I received a letter from an unknown hand, apprising me of the death of my mother, alleging that she had been killed. I immediately telegraphed to my friends in North Staffordshire, but pending the answer, I consulted the spirits and obtained an answer in the negative, which was confirmed by a telegram subsequently received. I may say that I have been entranced several times, but have not had many satisfactory moments to myself at those seasons, as I am not able to remember what I say or see. A few evenings ago I was taken into the higher spheres, where sights and sounds the most ravishing greeted me. So grand was the burst of harmony from the great multitude forming the celestial choir, and so grand was the sight. And whilst I heard in rapture, I could only look in wonder, bow in silence, and adore. When I awoke, I found myself in a state of intense perspiration, cold as death, and tears coursing down my cheek. I cannot say how much this agrees with spirit manifestations in general. I have not, nor have my friends, sought to establish any theory in respect to it. We have the facts, faithfully and honestly attested, which I shall most jealously guard. Meantime, I leave theory to bolder speculators, and such as delight in projecting theories. This I can say, that it has banished doubt and revealed the heaven which lies so near to all of us, and has enabled us to hold communion with those, not lost, but gone before. 2, Providence Road, Swindon, Wilts. W. BANKS. THE Spiritual Magazine. FEBRUARY, 1869. INTERESTING CONTENTS OF THE LAST NUMBERS OF THE REVUE SPIRITUALISTE M. PIERART has for some time been arduously engaged in bringing out his Drame de Waterloo, a volume of 500 pages, in which, with his accustomed love of truth, and an immense amount of research and careful collating of evidence, he has thoroughly exposed and blown to the winds the historic lies and mystifications of Napoleon I. and of Thiers. The work is written with an enthusiasm and eloquence worthy of the subject. M. Piérart, who is a native of that side of France where the last great acts of the dreadful drama of the Napoleonic butcheries were enacted, has gone over all the geographical as well as historic ground of that final conflict; and his work, after all that has been written on the subject, is as fresh and living as if produced in 1818 instead of 1868. But the time so absorbingly devoted to his history has thrown his Revue into arrears. He is now bringing up his issues at the rate of two in a number, and at very short intervals. The present are the 7th and 8th, leaving four yet due for the year. If, however, M. Piérart fills his laggard numbers with matter as interesting as that of the present two, we shall have nothing to complain of. One of the articles of this double number is called The History of a Spiritualist, and that Spiritualist is no other than M. Leon Favre, the Consul-General of France. It is a most remarkable account, and one which is so confirmatory of the principles and constant peculiarities of this mysterious phase of life, that we propose to give it a particular examination after we have noticed some other contents of the Revue, which are very worthy of our attention. N.S.-IV. D A SEANCE WITH MR. HOME. The séance here reported was communicated to M. Piérart by Mr. Gledstanes. It took place in a family circle at Campden Hill. Amongst many of the manifestations at this séance, there was extraordinary music played by the spirits, "The March to Calvary," amid the sound of the tramp of many feet, and "The Resurrection," both executed in a manner only to be conceived by those who heard them. Mr. Home was taken up from the floor, wrapped in the window curtains, and suspended for some time in the air. The spirit of a child appeared; presented each of the company with a flower, and asked Mr. Home to go and see his mother. Again, and a third time Mr. Home was floated in the air, and on the last occasion made a cross on the ceiling with a pencil. A CLAIRVOYANTE ACCUSED OF SORCERY. M. Piérart copies this curious circumstance from Figaro. Nothing is more difficult, even for justice, than to repress the manœuvres of somnambulism and magnetism. Lately a miner of the Rive-de-Gier having lost a watch, went to a pythoness celebrated in that part of the country. After the customary formalities, she gave him this answer :- Your watch is in the mine. He who has taken it cleaves wood and attends to the horses. He wears earrings, and to those earrings is attached a small piece of glass. You ought to know him." "Yes I know him,' said the man. "Enchanted at this revelation, the miner paid her six francs, returned to the mine, and caused Claude Dupuy to be arrested, who gave up the watch to him. In addition to the prosecution of the thief, the magistrate instituted one against the pythoness of the Rive-de-Gier. He did not accuse her of the practice of magnetism as a crime, but he charged her with a fraudulent manœuvre. That she had a woman placed in her waiting-room who pumped the facts from the people who came to consult her, and privately repeated them to the divineress. This was, of course, a mere supposition, that of all the incredulous. The miner asserted with indignant energy that he had held no conversation with any one whatever on the subject, before consulting the magnetist, and that full of doubts himself, he had taken care to tell her herself nothing more than the simple fact of the theft. In the face of these affirmatives the charge against the clairvoyante fell to the ground, and the tribunal acquitted her. The man who stole the watch, brought to justice by these means, was condemned to three months' imprisonment.' REACTION AGAINST MATERIALISM IN FRANCE. M. Piérart notices in different publications and in popular lectures unequivocal symptoms of a reaction against the predominant disease of the age, scientific materialism. He quotes the journal La Solidarité as entering the list boldly and ably against the prevalent doctrines of disbelief. It says:-"We shall not allow the belated disciples of Holbach and Lamettrie to divide the world of thought into two parts betwixt which every reasonable man has only to choose. For our part we pretend neither to class ourselves with the Materialists nor the Catholics; it is pleasant to us to know that we are not obliged to fall into one or the other of these abysses. "Now-a-days there are people who think their follies are sanctioned by the mere name of science. But what science? That of Epicurus, a sage without doubt, but what has he produced? What have his morals created? A society or a herd? The true savants are modest. They do not believe that with a few notions of physics and chemistry they can solve all problems. Especially, they do not confound life with consciousness, and do not demand that after we have withdrawn morality from the prescriptions of theology we should subject it to spiritual law. "You pretend," it continues, addressing the Materialists, "to attach yourselves to our 18th century; but the 18th century as you understand it, the 18th century without Rousseau, whom you continually insult by calling him a weeper, a rhetorician, a mystic, the 18th century would not have been able to accomplish the Revolution. Do you think then in traversing the Revolution, that you can give your hand to certain individuals concerned in it,-Diderot, Helvetius, Holbach and Naigeon, and can personify them only as the 18th century? No, Voltaire stands sadly in your way, and were it not for his work of criticism and of demolition, you would exclude him too. But was he not at times a Deist and a sentimental? "Do you know what you do in proscribing Rousseau and in ignoring Voltaire? In attaching yourselves solely to the naturism of Diderot, the materialism of Holbach, the physicism of Helvetius? You deny the two principles which have constituted the virtue of our fathers, and which since '89 are progressively renewing the face of the world. In Rousseau, you reject equality; in Voltaire, liberty! Call yourselves no longer revolutionists, still less men of progress, for how will you introduce any new thing into the world, if you do not know how, by impregnating fact by idea, science by faith, to cause that which ought to be to spring from that which is? As for you, you are |