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not have known that gentlemen acted in such a manner. These gentlemen systematically excluded every letter in favour of Spiritualism, and only admitted Mr. Home's letter as a gentleman turns a rat out of a trap to set his dogs upon it. So the silly letters of Messrs. Tyndall, Palgrave, and Lewes swam together among the apples in a very happy way.

Professor Tyndall, instead of answering the lettters which have been addressed to him, has got the Pall Mall Gazette to reprint some former inconclusive remarks of his. We invite him to give us his remarks upon Mr. Varley's letter. following is Mr Jencken's letter:

"To the Editor of the Pall Mall Gazette.

The

"Sir, I am somewhat surprised that Professor Tyndall should have volunteered to have re-opened the questio vexata of the fact of the happening of spiritual phenomena, but as he has done so it may not be considered out of place to answer his letter by stating some of the phenomena I have witnessed, and which were quite conclusive as to the occurring of these manifestations, without any aid from external human agency. The learned Professor lays great stress upon the fact of his muscles having stopped the movement of the table, and further, that the raps or knocks he heard were not such as to be beyond doubt, sounds produced by agencies not human. I will accept the challenge on these two points, namely, movement of a body and raps or knocks produced by an agency apart from any one in the room. The séance I am about to narrate was held at the house of a lady whose name and position preclude all possibility of connivance. The witnesses present and more particularly the two gentlemen who examined the phenomena as they occurred--were men in a very prominent position in life, and if title can add to the value of testimony of a witness they possess this qualification also. The table we were seated at did not move, but a side table, an oval shaped drawing room table, at a distance of six to seven feet from Mr. Home, tilted, and loud raps were heard upon it. It was then suggested that these two gentlemen should seat themselves on the floor and watch the movements, and which, as the room was well lighted, and the candles so placed as to throw a clear light upon the table, made their investigation satisfactory. The table tilted, then raised itself off the ground 12 to 18 inches, remained suspended in space for about a minute, and then gradually descended. Again it raised itself, tilted, and loud knocks were heard on the pedestal, underneath the leaf of the table, and on the table; and, what added to the interest, mental. questions were answered by knocks upon it. I give the facts as they occurred, and I put it to the fearned professor in what

other way he would have investigated? The unexplained part remains, and until the statements of men such as Mr. Varley and Mr. De Morgan, whose veracity cannot be doubted, are disproved, the public have a right to say that the learned professor has been too hasty in his conclusions.

"Your obedient Servant,

"H. D. JENCKEN."

LETTER FROM PROFESSOR GUNNING.

MR. COLEMAN has sent us for publication the following letter, which he has just received from Professor Gunning, of Boston, the geologist, who is already favourably known to our readers, and in America as an eminent geologist :

"MY DEAR MR. COLEMAN,

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"The memories I cherish of friends I met on your island, and of your faith, prompt me to send you a few wordsnot about' American Spiritualism,' for I am not one of its apostles-I am what in our war times we call a bummer '— that is, I forage for truth on my own account. As to 'American Spiritualism, there is so much abysmal nonsense in it that it takes a brave soul to search through all this for its sense and its philosophy. But this must be done by some one. In the service of the race it must be done. The mole and the bat have their place in the scheme of nature, and must have their place in our zoology. Quite as important are they to science, as the eagle and the lark. As well attempt to read the mole out of existence on à priori views of nature as to read the rap,' or the 'trance' out of existence on à priori views of spirit. I talked with one of your highest English thinkers, and in the course of the conversation he referred to a great naturalist. Mr. Spencer,' said I, do you know that Mr.- has become a Spiritualist ?' 'Yes,' he said, 'and I am greatly surprised.' 'Did you ever look at the phenomena ?' 'No,' he said, 'I never did. I have settled this question in my own mind on à priori grounds.' Now, Herbert Spencer, for whose power as a thinker no one has a higher respect than myself, is writing a great work on psychology ; and he settles these questions of Odyle, of trance, of obsession, involving the very nature of the soul and its powers, on à priori grounds. The savans had settled the impossibility of meteoric stones, à priori. But things settled in that way won't stay settled. I am of such mould that my philosophy must creep along over facts.

"A few weeks ago a gentleman of great intelligence invited me to come to his house and pass an evening. I called accordingly, and he told me that certain strange phenomena occurred in the presence of his little boy Harry who is only seven years old. The evening was already far spent and the child was sleepy. His father placed him on a little chair near a centre table, which he did not touch. No one touched it. Soon we heard raps-a shower of raps all over the table. They continued, loud and strong, for some minutes, and then died away, growing fainter and fainter till they were gone. I observed then that little Harry was asleep. I roused him and the raps began again, strong as at first. Again they grew fainter as the child grew drowsy, and when he fell asleep, they ceased altogether. This was something new to me. I am convinced that it has an important place in the philosophy, which is to explain the 'rapping.' Some wise men will say, it explains the whole thing. When Harry was awake he could rap, when he went to sleep he couldn't.' trim reckoning! but it won't do. Of one thing you may be perfectly sure. The child has no conscious agency in causing

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My host said 'I wish you would talk with that. I think you'll find intelligence at the other end.' We agreed on certain symbols, and the intelligence gave me the name of Eben C. Frost, teacher of music. We had never heard of such a man. Some common places were spelled out and I said, 'Mr Frost, is your wife with you? A loud No! Perhaps I am too fast, were you married?' Three faint, hesitating raps, as if to say ‘Y—e—s—doubtfully-married.' He, it-whatever you please -went on to say that he had been unhappily married, and then he gave me a message to deliver to an eminent reformer living in another part of the State. Sometime after this I spent an evening with this gentleman. I told him I bore a message to him from an old friend. 'Who is it?' he said. I answered, 'Well, I never heard of him; he introduced himself to me as Ében C. Frost.' 'You're certainly mistaken,' said my friend, ' I knew a man of that name, but he died two years ago.' 'Well,' I said, 'this man told me that people called him dead, but he was sure he wasn't dead.' I told my friend what was said about the unhappy marriage, and gave him the message. He told me it was true that Frost had been unhappily married, and had separated from his wife, but that few, even of his friends, knew it. He told me the message was characteristic, and a little incident referred to, was correctly stated.

"Now, what shall we make of all this? Suppose you sit in a telegraph office and a message comes to you. It is clicked or rapped out on the dial as this message was on the table. You

are very sure an intelligence controls the other end. You are not sure who it is. He gives you a name. You have never heard of it. He gives you incidents in his life. You afterwards learn that there is such a man, and the things told you by telegraph were characteristic of him. You will say, now he is identified. But some things he telegraphed to you were trivial, silly, utterly unworthy of him. Here is a perplexity. The cases are parallel. Some things which professed to come from Frost were stupid beyond endurance. At this stage of the investigation many intelligent men are repelled. We have nonsense enough on this side, and do not care for phenomena which seem to prove that if death clothes a man with immortality it strips him of his brains. We can see how the power to telegraph rose and fell with the ebb and flow of Odyle-that vital battery in the organism of the child. How does the battery affect the quality of thought?

"In another letter I shall have something to say about the celestial nonsense of Eben C. Frost, aforetime terrestrial teacher of music, Very truly yours,

W. D. GUNNING.

Boston, U.S.A."

Correspondence.

THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY.

To the Editor of the "Spiritual Magazine."

DEAR SIR,-At your request I reply to the question of "Fideles." I did not reply before, because I did not like his curt demand for "a clear and explicit auswer. I am not in the habit of giving answers that are not "clear and explicit."

First, I do not know whether "the body in which our Divine Saviour rose from the dead" was "the same body in which he suffered and died." I rather think not, especially when I remember that, after his resurrection, when "the doors were shut," he came suddenly "and stood in the midst" of his disciples.

Second, I do not believe that the reference to being raised "in the likeness of His resurrection" has anything to do with any resurrection after death. The passage occurs Romans vi., 5, and any one may see that the apostle is speaking of rising to newness of life here, after baptism.

Third,-I have no "theory concerning a spiritual resurrection only." I only say what St. Paul says when I affirm that "there is a natural body and there is a spiritual body." The first dies, is buried, and disappears for ever: the second "enters into life."

Fourth, I do not know what will become of my body, and I do not care. I only hope I shall never have it back again when I once get rid of it.

Fifth,-When "Fideles" talks of a "spiritual resurrection only," it is to me as though a man talked of bank notes "only" when it was a choice between bank notes and coppers.-Heartily yours,

Dukinfield, July 10, 1869.

JOHN PAGE HOPPS.

THE

Spiritual Magazine.

SEPTEMBER, 1868.

QUESTIONS AND IMPROMPTU ANSWERS.

By MISS HARDinge.

Question.-Is all imagination simply in sight, or is it possible to imagine things which do not really exist.

Answer. Analyze your imagination. Can you point to any idea that is not a reflection of the past, a refraction of the present, or a prophecy of the future? No, there is not in the whole realm of nature one single original idea in the mind of man. When I say "original," I mean that there is no creative power in the mind of man-nothing but a reproductive one, and therefore as all that you can conceive of, imagine, dream, hope, or believe in, must have some shadow of past, or future, or present, so I say that imagination, however wild, is either the intuitional perception of truth, the prophecy of the future, or the broken or refracted light of the present.

Question. (By a Lady.)-There are some ladies very desirous to hear Miss Hardinge say a word about the present standing of woman; that is, the worth of the women of the present age.

Answer. The best evidence we can offer you of what is the work of woman in the present age is the fact that our questioner is a woman, that her question is received with respect rather than with the sneer that a few short years ago would have greeted the tender voice of woman in a public assembly. I consider that the fitting place and mission of woman is to be a helpmeet for man, and when I say this I mean not as the dependent, but as the equal of man. And in equality I signify equality of respect, equality of duty, equality of crime and virtue,

N.S.-III.

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