first quarter; it moved across the room and disappeared; then arose from the same place, and ascended to the ceiling, a most beautiful constellation of stars, as many as ten or twelve in number, all twinkling brightly, appearing and disappearing so that it was impossible to count them from the quickness of their motion; then came a comet like Halley's with two streams of light diverging from the head, and another, and another; so that there were several of them near the centre of the room. And then, in another part of the room, a much larger light appeared, and remained near the ceiling; in front of it there was a dark embankment of clouds, and from behind them this light streamed up continuously, similar to what may be seen sometimes before the rising of the sun. This we were told represented the dawning of Spiritualism; and it is worthy of remark, that the heads of the comets were turned towards this great light.

"John Watt" kept asking us how we liked the lights, and told us to keep our eyes open, as we should see more wonders; and so it was, something fresh was continually presented-a spirit hand, a spirit arm, a spirit form, was seen to pass through the light, or appear above our heads. The lights were seen for full an hour by the 12 persons who were present, and who testify to the truth of this statement. "John Watt" told us that we should in time see spirits and angels in that light which they themselves produce. At his suggestion we then concluded the séance with prayer.

I append the names and addresses of those present; namely,—

Mr. & Mrs. Everitt, 26, Penton Street, Pentonville.

Mr. Charles Everitt,

Mr. White, 30, Rahere Street, Goswell Road.

Mrs. Wise,

Mr. Jones, 34, Rahere Street, Goswell Road.

Miss Jones,

Mr. Towns, 32, Lloyd's Row, St. John Street Road.
Mr. Davis, Old Street Road.

Mrs. Ridley, 11, Brunswick Square, Hackney Road.
Mrs. Childs, 21, Offord Road, Caledonian Road.
Mrs. Sparey, 3, Cambridge Place, Kingsland Road.
Yours faithfully,

THOS. EVERITT.

To the Editor of the " Spiritual Magazine."

SIE,-After a careful perusal of the defence in your last number, which the writer of the review of Mr. Harris's new works gives of some of his statements, in your number for January, I feel myself uncalled upon, by the facts of the case, to modify any sentence in my former letter. I deliberately re-affirm every statement I have made. If, indeed, my allegation had been that he was the original inventor of certain charges against Mr. Harris, which it was not, his last article would have shewn that I was mistaken, and that he was only the last of a series, but nothing beyond in justification of the statements made; and still more especially nothing in justification of the passage I selected for criticism. I will, therefore, cheerfully leave that part of the subject, as it stands, to the judgment of your intelligent readers.

In the interest, however, of celestial Spiritualism, I do feel called upon to notice a somewhat curious passage, involving, as it seems to me, an utter misunderstanding of Mr. Harris's position in relation to open breathing. The writer says "Mr. Robson says that Mr. Harris's career reveals a new Spiritualism. We are at a loss to conceive in what this consists. It cannot be the discovery of the inner breathing, for we have shewn that it was known to Swedenborg long before, and to Jacob Böhme still earlier," &c., &c., p. 122.

Now admitting that Swedenborg was intromitted into the state of open breathing, it is, I think, beyond doubt, by any one who has studied his writings

that, with him the state was, as many other of his experiences were, only temporary, granted to him for some present purpose, and suspended when that purpose was accomplished. But, with Mr. Harris, this state of open breathing, with its associated powers, has become an organic fact; and is at once the text and measure and reward of his past and present faithfulness to duty and to God; as in the new age it is to be to unnumbered millions of the human race. Mr. Harris is the first, in point of time, who has received this gift from the Lord in its fulness as an organic fact, since the period when it was withdrawn from the inhabitants of this earth, which, according to Swedenborg's testimony, was at the time of the flood; and so its renewal now in this form of organic fact becomes the dividing line of the ages, the herald and sign of the advent of the new, and of the beginning of the end of the old. For, be it remembered, that Mr. Harris teaches that the gift is to become universal, opening a door of permanent divine communication between the receiver and the Lord.

Already it has been received in some or other of its degrees by many who are independent witnesses of its truth and reality, in America, in Europe, and in Asia,-first fruits of the great harvest of organic righteousness soon to ripen on the earth. And so my counsel to the reviewer is that of Gamaliel of old, Repair from these men and let them alone. If this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought, but if it be of God ye cannot overthrow it, lest haply ye be found ever to be fighting against God."

Yours faithfully,

W. ROBSON.

With great respect for Mr. Robson, we give his letter, and there leave the question. We have put our views of Mr. Harris's writings fully before our readers and from assurances received from many quarters, much to their satisfaction. We have stated our views of the inner breathing with perfect distinctness, and as Mr. Robson must have seen, with this difference from Mr. Harris, that whereas, Mr. Harris, according to Mr. Robson, teaches that "this gift is to become universal," we assert it to be universal now, and to have been so from the creation downwards. We have to apologize to some of our readers for quoting a few stanzas from Mr. Harris's "Song of Satan," in order to shew its real character. One clergyman, a sound Spiritualist, assures us that he was so horrified at the passages that he cut them out of the Magazine, and instantly burnt them lest any of his family should see them. If half a dozen stanzas of this Carmen infernale be so shocking to right-minded people, what must the whole composition be? We are quite willing to follow Mr. Robson's and Gamaliel's advice with regard to the New Brotherhood, for as it appears, by the statement of one of its members, that it consists of "half a dozen" individuals, it can not be worth much consideration any way. Requiescat in pace. We have received another letter on this subject from Dr. S., but have not space for it. [ED.]

LECTURE ON MODERN SPIRITUALISM.-On Wednesday, March 18th, Mrs. EMMA HARDINGE gave a Lecture on "Modern Spiritualism," at the Cambridge Hall, Newman Street, at which nearly a thousand persons were present. The Lecture was listened to with marked attention; and at its close several questions were asked which were answered by the Lecturer, and apparently gave general satisfaction. It was announced that Mrs. Hardinge would lecture again at the same place, Wednesday, April the 1st, at 8 o'Clock, on "Spirit Mediums." We understand that it is contemplated to make arrangements for Mrs. Hardinge to Lecture on Spiritualism in various parts of the Metropolis. We know of no one so well qualified for this work, and with a little co-operation much might be done in this way to make the truths of Spiritualism better known amongst us.

THE

Spiritual Magazine.

MAY, 1868.

EVIDENCES OF SPIRITUALISM IN MODERN WORKS OF HISTORY AND LITERATURE.

PART I.

NOTHING in our daily reading is more striking than the fact, that on all sides and in all works written within a comparatively recent period, and many of them down to the present date, we are met by the most palpable evidences of spiritual phenomena. We can get through no history, and no literary journal, without encountering such facts at almost every step. I have lately had occasion to examine the volumes of the Gentleman's Magazine, from its commencement in 1731. Seeing a constant succession of cases of the supernatural, I took out the most remarkable ones, and here they are. I believe it would be just the same if we examined the series of any other journal, or the Annual Register, during the same period. It is thus a curious fact that whilst literary journalists have been repudiating supernatural agency and appearances as mere superstition, they have been themselves steadily and regularly accumulating the evidences of these things; nature being in them stronger than education. WILLIAM HOWITT.

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EXTRACT FROM THE GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE," VOL. I. The following narrative, given by a gentleman of unexceptionable honour and veracity, has been lately published at Edinburgh:

"One William Sutor, aged about 37, a farmer in Middlemanse, belonging to the laird of Balgown, near Craighal, being, about the month of December, 1728, in the fields with his servants,

N.S.-III.

N

near his own house, overheard at some distance, as it were, an uncommon shrieking and noise; and they, following the voice, fancied they saw a dark grey-coloured dog, but as it was a dark night, they concluded that it was a fox, and accordingly were for setting on their dogs; but it was very observable that not one of them would so much as point his head that way. About a month after, the said Sutor being occasionally in the same spot, and much about the same time of night, it appeared to him again, and passing, touched him so smartly on the thigh that he felt a pain all that night. In December, 1729, it again cast up to him at about the same place, and passed him at some distance. In June, 1730, it appeared to him as formerly, and it was now he began to judge it was something extraordinary. On the last Monday of November, 1730, about sky-setting, as he was coming from Drumlochy, this officious visitor passed him as formerly, and in passing he distinctly heard it speak these words :-" Within eight or ten days, do or die ;" and instantly disappeared, leaving him not a little perplexed. Next morning he came to his brother James's house, and gave him a particular account of all that had happened; and that night about ten o'clock, these two brothers, having been visiting their sister at Glanhallow, and returning home, stepped aside to see the remarkable spot, where they had no sooner arrived than it appeared to William, who, pointing his finger to it, desired his brother and a servant who was with them to look at it, but neither of them could see any such thing. Next Saturday evening, as William was at his sheepfold, it came up to him and audibly uttered these words :-"Come to the spot of ground within half an hour." Whereupon he went home, and taking a staff in his hand, came to the ground, being at last determined to see the issue. He had scarcely encircled himself with a line of circumvallation, when his troublesome familiar came up to him, and he asked it, "In the name of God, who are you?" It answered, "I am David Sutor, George Sutor's brother. I killed a man more than 35 years ago, at a bush by east of the road as you go into the hole." He said to it, "David Sutor was a man, and you appear as a dog." It answered, "I killed him with a dog, and am made to speak out of the mouth of a dog; and I tell you to go and bury these bones."

"This coming to the ears of the minister of Blair, the lairds Glascloon and Rychalzie and about forty men went together to the said hole, but after opening ground in several places found no bones. On the 2nd of December, about midnight, when William was in bed, it came to his door, and said, "Come away, you will find the bones at the side of the withered bush, and there are but eight of them left;" and told him at the same time for a sign, that he would find the print of a cross impressed on

the ground. Next day William and his brother, with about forty or fifty people, who had followed out of curiosity, came to the place, where they discovered the bush and the cross by it, and upon digging the ground about a foot down, found the eight bones; all which they immediately wrapped in clean linen, and being put into a coffin with a mort cloth over it, were interred that evening in the churchyard of Blair, attended by about a hundred persons.

"N.B.-Several people in that country remember to have seen this David Sutor, and that he 'listed for a soldier, and went abroad about 34 or 35 years ago. See a like story, p. 304."

The story here alluded to is that of the discovery of the murderer of Stockden, the publican of Cripplegate, who was murdered in his own house, December 16, 1695. Magazine, Vol. II. New Series, p. 44.

See this

AN ACT RESEMBLING THAT OF THE INDIAN JUGGLERS.

There must have been in London in 1731, a person who could perform the same magical feats as the Indian fakirs. The Gentleman's Magazine, Vol. I., p. 79, says: "The Algerine ambassadors went to see Mr. Fawkes, who, at their request, showed them a prospect of Algiers, and raised up an apple tree which bore ripe apples in less than a minute's time, which several of the company tasted of."

32

A HEALING MIRACLE.

Amongst the foreign intelligence in the Gentleman's Magazine, Vol. III., p. 217, is the following:-" From Brescia.-The master of a band of music belonging to the cathedral of that city died there after a life so abstemious, that he had eaten nothing for years past but herbs boiled with a little salt over a lamp, having never once in that time had any fire. His dead body being exposed to the view of the populace, a woman who had been a long time lame in both her hands, no sooner touched the corpse but she was immediately cured, and several others many years blind. A guard of soldiers was obliged to be set over the body, as it would have been soon cut to pieces by the populace for relics."

VOICE SUPERNATURALLY HEARD.

A certain young woman living in Bristol was taken ill of the small-pox. Her mother attended her in her illness. Her father was a clergyman living more than twenty miles from the city.