THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.








THE
SPIRIT-R APPER;
AN  AUTOBIOGRAPHY.
BY
O. A. BROWNSON,
AUTHOR OF " CHARLES ELWOOD."
BOSTON:
LITTLE, BROWN AND COMPANY.
LONDON:
CHARLES DOLMAN.
MI.DCCC.LIV.




Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1854, by
LITTLE, BROWN AND COMPANY.
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.
RIVERSIDE, CAMBRIDGE:
PRINTED BY H. O. HOUGHTON AND COMPANY.




PREFACE.
IF the critics undertake to determine, by any recognized rules of art, to what class of literary productions the following unpretending work belongs,
I think they will be sorely puzzled. I am sure I
am puzzled myself to say what it is. It is not a
novel; it is not a romance; it is iJot a biography of
a real individual; it is not a dissertation, an essay,
or a regular treatise; and yet it perhaps has some
elements of them all, thrown together in just such
a way as best suited my convenience, or my purpose.
I wanted to write a book, easy to write and not
precisely hard to read, on the new superstition, or
old superstition under a new name, exciting just
now no little attention at home and abroad; and
I chose such a literary form as I -not, properly
speaking, a literary man —could best manage, and
which would afford me the most facilities for bringing distinctly before the reader the various points
a 




vi                 PREFACE.
to which I wished to direct his attention. If the
critics think that I have chosen badly, they are at
liberty to bestow upon the author as much of the
castigation which, in his capacity of Reviewer, he
has for many years been in the habit of bestowing
upon others, as they think proper. I have thought
it but fair to give those whom I may have offended
by my own criticisms in another place, an opportunity to pay their debts and wipe off old scores.
The book, though affecting some degree of levity,
is serious in its aims, and truthful in its statements.
There is no fiction in it, save its machinery. What
is given as fact, is fact, or at least so regarded by
the author. The facts narrated, or strictly analogous facts, I have either seen myself, or given on
what. I regard as ample evidence. The theory presented as their explanation, and the reasoning by
which it is sustained, speak for themselves, and are
left to the judgment of the reader.
The connection of spirit-rapping, or the spiritmanifestations, with modern philanthropy, visionary
reforms, socialism, and revolutionism, is not an imagination of my own. It is historical, and asserted
by the Spiritists, or Spiritualists themselves, as any
one may satisfy himself who can have the patience
to look through their Library. I have endeavored




PREFACE.                Vii
to be scrupulously exact in all my statements and
representations in this respect. The shafts which
the author shoots at random may perhaps hit some
well-meaning persons who get crotchets in their
heads, or astride of hobbies; but they are not
poisoned with malice, and will titillate the skin,
rather than penetrate the flesh.
I have not aimed at originality, or at displaying
my erudition in the Black Art. I have certainly
read some on the subject, and at one period of my
life made myself acquainted with more "deviltry"
than ever did or ever will do me any good. I have
however drawn very little from " forbidden " sources.
In writing, I have used freely a recent French work,
from which I have taken the larger portion -of my
facts, and many of my arguments, although I
had previously studied the subject for myself, had
learned the same facts, with one or two exceptions,
from other sources, and had adopted the same solution. The work I refer to is entitled, Pneumatologie
des Esprits et de leurs Manifestations fluidiques. By
the Marquis Etudes de M.  Paris, 1853.
There are some views, not unimportant, in this
work, which I am not prepared to accept; but,
upon the whole, it is the only really sensible and
scientific work I have seen on the subject, and I




viii               PREFACE.
freely confess that I have done little more than
transfer its substance to my pages.
The volume when it was begun was intended to
be published anonymously, but my publishers have
preferred to issue it with the name of the author. I
think they have judged unwisely, but as they ought
to know their own trade better than I, and as there
is nothing in it that I am particularly ashamed of
or unwilling to avow, I cheerfully comply with their
request, and send it out with my name, to make or
mar its fortune. If it tend in any degree. to throw
light on the dark facts of history, to check superstition, to rebuke unreasoning scepticism, and to
recall-the age to faith in the Gospel of our Lord,
the purpose, the serious purpose, for which it was
written will be answered, and I shall be content,
whatever reception it may otherwise meet from
the public.
THE AUTHOR.
BOSTON, August 11, 1854.




CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
THE FIRST LESSON......   I
CHAPTER II.
GUESSES.......    10
CHAPTER IIl.
FURTHER EXPERIMENTS.           22
CHAPTER IV.
AN EXPLOSION......    33
CHAPTER V.
SoMIE PROGRESS                               46
CHAPTER VI.
TABLE TURNING......    61
CHAPTER VII.
A LESSON IN PHILANTHROPY.                71




X                  CONTENTS.
CHAPTER VIII.
A LESSON IN WORLD-REFORM...    91
CHAPTER IX.
THE CONSPIRACY                              112
CHAPTER X.
MR. COTTON IS PUZZLED..               133
CHAPTER XI.
WORTH CONSIDERING.....       154
CHAPTER XII.
A MISSIONARY TOUR....         173
CHAPTER Xli.
THE TOUTR CONTINUED.... 184
CHAPTER XIV.
ROME AND THE REVOLUTION.                199
CHAPTER XV.
THE ULTERIOR PROJECT..             218
CHAPTER XVI.
A REBUFF...                      239
CHAPTER XVII.
A GLEAM OF HOPE...          245




CONTENTS.                  xi
CHAPTER XVIII.
RELIGIOUS MONOMANIA....257
CHAPTER XIX.
MESMERISM INSUFFICIENT...           275
CHAPTER XX.
SHEER DEVILTRY                                290
CHAPTER XXI.
SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS...            303
CHAPTER XXII.
SUPERSTITION                                  316
CHAPTER XXIII.
DIFFICULTIES....... 329
CHAPTER XXIV.
LEFT IN THE LURCH......   347
CHAPTE1I XXV.
CONCLUSIONS..                       363
CHAPTER XXVI.
CONVERSION.......   387








THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
CHAPTER I.
THE FIRST LESSON.
MY days are numbered; I am drawing near to
the close of my earthly pilgrimage, and I must soon
take my final departure, -whither, I dread to think.
But before I go I would leave a brief record of some
incidents in my worse than unprofitable life. A few
who have known me, and will have the charity to
breathe a'prayer at my grave, may be glad to possess it; and others of my countrymen, who know
not what to think of the marvellous phenomena
daily and hourly exhibited in their midst, or are
vainly striving to explain them on natural principles,
may find it neither uninteresting. nor uninstructive.
Of my exterior life I have not much to record, for
though few have played a more active or important
part in the great events of the past few years, my
name has rarely been connected with them before
1




2             THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
the public. I was born in a small town in Western
New York. My parents were honest agriculturists
from  Connecticut, and descended from  ancestors
who, with Hooker, founded the colony of Hartford.
They were among the early settlers of what used
to be called the " Holland Purchase," and, till emigrating to the new world west of the Genesee, were
rigid Puritans. Like most emigrants from the land
of "steady habits," they were intelligent, moral, industrious, and economical, and, as a matter of course,
soon prospered in this world's goods, and became
able to give their only son the best education the
State could furnish, and to leave him a competent
estate. I made my preparatory studies at Batavia,
and entered, at seventeen, the Freshman class of
Union College, Schenectady. I remained at college
four years, a diligent, if not a brilliant student, and
graduated at the close with the highest standing,
and the general love and esteem of my classmates.
My early predilection was for the mathematical
and physical sciences. The moral and intellectual
sciences were not much to my taste. I took no
great interest in them. They struck me as vague,
uncertain, and unprofitable. I preferred what M.
Comte has since called Positive Philosophy. I soon
mastered mathematics, mechanics, and physics, as
far as they were taught in our college, but I found
my greatest delight in chemistry, which, by its subtle
analyses, seemed to promise me an approach to the
vital principle and to the essences of things.




THE FIRST LESSON.             3
On leaving college I studied — not very profoundly -medicine, and took my degree, less with
a view to professional practice, in which I never
engaged, than with a view to general science. After
taking my degree as Doctor of Medicine, I resumed
and extended my college studies, entered largely into
the study of natural history, physical geography,
zoology, geology, mineralogy, and indeed all the'ologies, then so fashionable that one must have a smattering of them if he would woo successfully his
sweetheart. I paid some attention to Gall and Spurzheim's new science of Phrenology, when Spurzheim
visited this country, where he died, and was much
interested in it till I had the misfortune to listen to
a course of lectures in its exposition and defence, by
George Combe, Esq., the great Scottish phrenologist. That course upset me, and I have since abandoned Phrenology, save so far as I find it taught by
Plato in his Timaus, and only laughed at its pretensions and its adherents.
I was arrested, for a moment, by Boston Transcendentalism, but I could not make much of it. Its
chiefs told me that I was not spiritual enough to
appreciate it, and that I was too much under the
despotism of the understanding to be able to rise
to those empyrean regions where the soul asserts
her freedom, and sports with infinite delight in all
the luxury of the unintelligible. I thought they
talked metaphysics, what neither their hearers nor
themselves could understand; and finding myself




4             THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
very little enlightened by their intelligible unintelligibility, their dark utterances, and their Orphic
sayings, I gave them up, and returned to my laboratory.
About 1836, I made the acquaintance of Dr.
P- -, or, as he claimed to be, the Marquis de
P —, a native of one of the French West India
Islands, but brought up and educated at Paris,
where he had been a Saint-Simonian, and a chief
of the savans of the new religion. The decision of
the French courts in 1833, that Saint-Simonismn
was not a religion, and therefore that its chiefs were
not priests, and entitled to a salary from the state,
dispersed the new sect, and he soon after came to
the United States, and commenced, though with a
very imperfect knowledge of our language, and very
little facility in speaking it, a course of lectures in
several of our eastern cities, on Mesmerism, or, as
he preferred to call it, Animal Magnetism. His
appearance was by no means prepossessing, and his
manners, though unpretending, were very far from
indicating that exquisite grace and polish which are
supposed, for what reason I know not, to be peculiar to the Frenchman; but he was a serious, earnestminded man, who in several branches of science
had made solid studies. I knew him well, and
esteemed him much.
At that time I had paid not much attention to
Mesmerism. I had heard of Mesmer indeed, of his
extraordinary pretensions, and the wonderful phe



THE FIRST LESSON.             5
nomena which he professed to produce by his rod
and tub; but I had supposed that the matter had
been put at rest for all sensible persons by the
famous report of the French Academy in 1784,
signed, among others, by Bailly the astronomer, and
our own Franklin. I supposed that every scientific
man acquiesced in the conclusion of that report, that
the extraordinary phenomena exhibited by magnetism were to be ascribed to the imagination, and that
from the date of that report magnetism had ceased
to occupy the attention of the scientific. I was
therefore surprised, nay, scandalized, to find a man
of real science, and, as I wished to believe, of real
worth, professing faith in what I had been led to
regard as an exploded humbug, and which, at the
very best, could have no practical utility beyond
illustrating the deceptive power of the imagination,
and the sad consequences which might result to
those weak-minded people who become dupes to
their own disordered fancy.
Dr. P-  assured me that I vas mistaken both
as to the bearing and as to the effect of the famous
report of the French Academy. That report, he said,
concedes the reality of the mesmeric phenomena, and
only declares that the assertion of Mesmer, that they
are produced by means of a subtle fluid analogous to
electricity or magnetism, was not proven or demonstrated by the experiments the commission witnessed; which gives no uneasiness to any animal
magnetist in our day, because now no one pretends
1*




6             THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
to explain those phenomena by means of such a
fluid. It is true, he said, the commission, in their
published report, assert that the phenomena are to
be explained by the imagination; but in a private
report, addressed to the king, they say, that "it is
impossible not to recognize in them a great power
which agitates and subjects the patients, and of
which the magnetizer appears to be the depositary."
This, contended Dr. P   -, is by no means compatible with the theory which ascribes them to the
imagination,' for that theory supposes the cause that
produces them to be in the magnetized, since it is
to their imagination, not to that of the magnetizer,
that they are to be ascribed; but in this secret report,
the power which produces them is assumed to be in
the magnetizer, "of which," it says, " he who magnetizes seems to be the depositary." For these, as
well as other reasons, he said, the report of the
Academy was not regarded by magnetists as any
authority against Animal Magnetism as understood
and practised at the present time.
Moreover, he assured me, that the report of the
Academy had not settled the question, or seriously
checked the cultivation or the progress of Animal
Magnetism. It had at no moment ceased to be
studied and practised, chiefly for its therapeutic
effects, and, as he proved to me, was at the time
firmly held and practised by large numbers of the
most upright, benevolent, learned, and scientific
members of the medical profession in France, Ger



THE FIRST LESSON.             7
many, and Great Britain. It had continued to make
progress, and was now very generally held and respected on the continent of Europe. If I would
not be behind my age, if I would not remain ignorant of a very curious and interesting class of phenomena, I must, he insisted, investigate and make
myself acquainted with Animal Magnetism. I
should do it as a lover of science; I should do it
more especially as a lover of my race, as a friend of
humanity; for I might rest assured that Animal
Magnetism is the most facile and powerful means
ever yet discovered of solacing, and to a great extent curing, a thousand ills that flesh is heir to.
My curiosity, I confess, was excited, and I resolved
to investigate the subject. Dr. P — had picked up,
somewhere in Rhode Island, a somnambulist, an honest, simple-minded young woman, of no great strength
of intellect, and very little education or knowledge.
She was sickly, and suffering fromn some nervous
affection. He had found her very susceptible to the
mesmeric influence, and he made her the subject of
numerous experiments. He had brought her, in the
winter of 1836-7, to Boston, and there exhibited
her to his class. Spending that winter in the same
city, I consented one afternoon to be present at his
experiments. There were some twenty or thirty
gentlemen present on the occasion, mostly lawyers,
physicians, ministers, and literary and scientific gentlemen of distinction, all disbelievers in Mesmerism,




8              THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
and on the alert to detect the least sign of deception
or complicity.
The Doctor introduced his patient, who took
her seat in an arm-chair placed in the centre of the
room, and, without any visible sign from Dr. P,
was in a few minutes apparently fast asleep. Her
breathing was regular, her pulse natural, and her
sleep sound and tranquil. Was it sleep? It was,
as far as we could ascertain, and sleep accompanied
by complete insensibility. We resorted to every
imaginable contrivance to awaken her. One tickled
her nose with a feather, another shook her with all
his might, another discharged a pistol close to her
ear, another stuck pins and needles into her flesh,
all without the least effect. There was no quivering or shrinking, no muscular contraction, and to
the rudest proofs she was as insensible as a corpse.
We all exhausted our inventive powers in vain, and
stood astounded, unwilling to trust our own senses,
and yet unable to detect the least conceivable deception or collusion. We. none of us knew what to
think or say. We were taken all aback.
Various written questions, after we had given over
trying to awaken her, were handed to Dr. P —,
which he put to her mentally, without a word or
sign that we could any of us discern, and to which
she instantly answered. One question was, the
time of the day; she answered, and answered correctly, much more so than most gentlemen's watches
present. To every question put she answered, and




THE FIRST LESSON.             9
so far as any of us knew, or could ascertain, with
perfect accuracy. The Doctor at length told her he
thought she had slept long enough, and would do
well to wake up. Instantly she was wide awake,
and apparently unconscious of all that had passed.
She remained awake for some time, when Dr. Psaid to her, " I will you to go to sleep again for just
fifteen minutes, and then to wake up."  Instantly
she dropped asleep. One. or two of the company
took the Doctor into a different part of the room,
got him into an angry discussion, and made him
forget the order he'had given. I stood by the somnambulist holding my watch in my hand, and to my
astonishment, precisely at the expiration of fifteen
minutes, she awoke. Various other experiments
were tried, various severe tests were put; —some of
them with complete success, others, indeed, proved
total failures; and after a session of about three hours
the party broke up and went to their several homes,
some two or three converted, the greater part satisfied
that there was and could be no collusion or deception,
and yet wholly sceptical as to the alleged magnetic
power.




10
CHAPTER II.
GUESSES.
IT is no easy matter to give full credit to the
reality of the mesmeric phenomena, or to admit the
alleged facts, and when forced to do so by a mass of
testimony which it is impossible to resist, nothing is
more natural than that we should suggest various
hypotheses to account for them. Of all these hypotheses no one, to those who have been eye-witnesses
of the mesmeric phenomena, is less satisfactory than
that which attributes them to a species of juggling
or sleight-of-hand, or to collusion between the magnetized and the magnetizer. Whatever may be the
jugglery or connivance in particular cases, or whatever be the real solution of the problem, we must, as
a general rule, admit the good faith of the parties.
The man who could produce by address or skill, by
art, the wonderful phenomena produced by the mesmerizer, who could so successfully elude the scrutiny
of the most acute and intelligent witnesses, and so
effectually deceive the senses of all classes, would
have no motive to practise mesmerism, for he could
produce more excitement, and gain more notoriety,
and more money as a professed juggler. It is very
easy for those who have never seen the mesmeric phe



GUESSES.                11
nomena, to set them down as a nlere cheat, which
they, if present, could very easily have detected, but
it is very possible that they who have witnessed them
are as able to detect an imposition as would be
these critics themselves, and are far better judges
than they are, not having seen them, unless we are
to suppose that the blind can in some cases see better than those who have eyes. Among the innumerable witnesses of these phenomena there may
be as careful and as intelligent observers as those
who emit their oracles with solemn gravity on
matters of which they confessedly know nothing.
Academicians and members of royal and scientific
societies are no doubt very respectable personages,
but they are not always the best observers in the
world. I would trust "Jack" to distinguish between a seal or horse-mackerel and the sea-serpent,
much quicker than I would Professor Owen or Professor Agassiz. Learned academicians and members of scientific societies, whether of Paris or London, Berlin or Philadelphia, are the easiest people in
the world to impose upon. A clever lad could pass
off upon them a sucker for a pike, and a crawfish
for a lobster. But they need not judge all the world
by themselves. Human testimony is not yet become wholly worthless. There is a cloud both of
competent and of credible witnesses in almost every
country, to the reality of the mesmeric phenomena,
and to the good faith,' the simplicity, and trustworthiness of both mesmerizers and mesmerized.




12            THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
Whatever be the agent that actually produces these
extraordinary phenomena, we must seek it elsewhere
than in mere jugglery, sleight-of-hand, trickery, or
fraud.
I do not give the results of my first experiments
as any thing very wonderful. They would excite
little attention now. Mesmerism is much more advanced than it was in the hands of my French friend.
It is true, there were rumors even then of far more
marvellous phenomena, strange stories of clairvoyance or second-sight were whispered, and strange
revelations of an invisible world, not recognized by
received science, were hinted; but my friend would
not heed them. He was a rationalist, and would
not hear of any thing not explicable on natural principles. But what I witnessed convinced me of the
reality of the magnetic sleep, and of the subjection
of the somnambulist to the will of the mesmrerizer,
or that one person can, under certain circumstances,
exercise an absolute control over the organs of
another, and render the somnambulist, during the
magnetic sleep, absolutely insensible to all save the
mesmerizer. Here was certainly a marvellous power;
what was it? Was it, as Bailly and Franklin's Report of 1784 asserted, the imagination? Singular
effect of imagination that would put a person asleep
at another's will, render her completely insensible -
dead to all the world but the mesmerizer; make
her go to sleep and wake up at the time specified,
answer questions only mentally put, and with a




GUESSES.                13
promptness and an accuracy wholly impossible in her
normal state! A very inexplicable imagination that,
and itself not less puzzling than the mesmeric phenomena themselves.
"No, it is not imagination," insisted Dr. P,
" any more than it is a magnetic fluid, as asserted by
Mesmer. It is the will of the magnetizer operating
immediately on the will of the somnambulist, and
through that on her organs. Or rather, it is the
spiritual being in me operating immediately on the
spiritual being in her, and therefore these phenomena afford an excellent refutation of materialism,
and reveal a great and glorious law of human
nature, recognized, though misconceived, in all ages
and nations; a mighty law, but hitherto denied to
human nature, and supposed to be something lying
out of our sphere, superhuman, and even supernatural. Modern science began by denying the
mysterious facts recorded in history, but it is beginnilng to accept them, and to show that they are
all explicable on the principles of human nature."
"'What strikes me as most remarkable in the
mesmeric phenomena," said Mr. Winslowv, a rather
grave minister of the extreme left of the Unitarian
denomination, who had joined Dr. P-. and myself on our way to my lodgings, "what strikes me
as most remarkable in the - mesmeric phenomena is,
not the kind of power they reveal, but the degree.
Every man who has been accustomed to public
2




14            THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
speaking, if he has observed, is conscious of a kindred power."
"To put his audience asleep," interposed Jack
TWheatley, a young lawyer, who was usually one of
my companions while in the city, " but not always
to make them submissive to his will."
" It is a mysterious power," continued Mr. Winslow, " which the orator seems to have over his audience, a power of which he is conscious, but which
is wholly unintelligible to himself."
" But very intelligible to his hearers," interposed
Jack.
" You are impertinent, sir," replied the minister,
with offended dignity. Sometimes when I have
attempted to preach, I have found myself, though
perfectly familiar with my subject, hardly able to
say a word. My ideas dance around and before
my mind like summer insects, but at such a distance, and with such rapidity, that I strive in vain
to seize them. If I do succeed in saying something, my words penetrate not my hearers; they as
it were rebound, and affect only myself."
" Indeed! " interjected the incorrigible Jack.
"Other times," continued Mr. Winslow, not heeding Jack's exclamation, " my ideas seem to come of
themselves, to flow without effort, and to clothe
themselves, without any thought or intervention of
mine, in the most fitting words. I find myself elevated above myself; I am in intimate relation with




GUESSES.                15
the minds of my hearers. It seems that an electric
current passes from them to me and from me to
them, making us as it were one man. I speak
with their combined force added to my own, and
each of them hears and takes in my words with the
united understanding of all."
" There may be something in that," said Jack.
"You know, Doctor," turning to me, " that I have no
more religion than a horse, and am seldom serious
for five consecutive minutes in my life. Well, being
in the country the other evening, on a visit to a
crotchety old aunt, whose very cat would not dare
to purr or to wash her face on Sunday, and finding it
exceedingly dull, I took it into my head to seek a
little amusement or diversion by attending a Methodist prayer-meeting, or conference, held in a schoolhouse close by. I seldom go'to meeting, but onceand-awhile I like to attend a Methodist evening
gathering. I sometimes find plenty of fun. The
performances this evening had begun before my
arrival, for, as usual, I was rather late. On enter.
ing I found the house crowded almost to suffocation. Ten Qr a dozen men, women, boys, and girls,
were down on their knees, all screaming at once
from the very top of their lungs, and the rest of the
brethren and sisters were groaning, shouting, clapping their hands, in glorious confusion. I worked
my way along to a vacant spot which I spied just
before a blazing fire. Turning my back to the fire,
and holding aside the skirts of my coat so that they




16            THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
should not get scorched, I stood and looked for some
minutes on the scene before me. At first I was
struck with its comical character, and was much
amused; soon, however, I grew serious, became sad,
and then indignant, that beings in human shape,
and endowed, I presumed, with the faculty of reason, should make such fools of themselves. I inwardly resolved that for once I would "speak in
meeting," and that as soon as there should be a
pause or a lull, so that I could stand some chance of
making myself heard, I would give them a piece
of Jack Wheatley's mind. In a word, I resolved to
give them a downright scolding, and to tell them
plainly what fools they were to suppose that they
could please God by acting, like so many bedlamites or howling dervishes.
", Well, after some fifteen or twenty minutes, there
came a slacking up, and I opened my mouth. I remembered what my old rhetoric master had taught
me, though how I came to is a puzzle, and resolved
to begin in a modest and conciliatory manner. It
would not do to shock them in the outset. I must
first gain their ears and their good-will. So I began
with a grave face and a solemn tone, and made
some commonplace remarks on religion, and the
duty to love and worship God, meaning, (after my
preliminary remarks, intended to gain the jury,) to
bring in, with crushing effect, my rebukes. But the
brethren did not wait. Mistaking me for a pious
exhorter, they cried out almost at my first words,




GUESSES.                17
"Amen!" "Glory! "Bless the Lord! " Go on,
brother!" Will you believe it?  Instantly I caught
the enthusiasm, became possessed by the genius loci,
entered in spite of myself into the spirit of the meeting, and gave a most magnificent methodistical exhortation. The brethren and sisters were. edified,
were enraptured, and when the time came for the
meeting to break up, the leader requested me to
close the performances with prayer, which I did
with great fervor and unction. The spell lasted till
I got out of the house into the open air."
" So Saul was among the prophets," remarked
Mr. Winslow, as Jack concluded. " I am not surprised, for something similar occurred to myself
when I first began to preach. There is, I believe,
something infectious in these Methodist gatherings,
and a wise man often finds himself acting in them
as a fool acteth."
"Few wise men, I should think, ever go near
them," I remarked.
" I know not how that may be," replied Mr. Winslow, "but there are few men that are always wise,
or who never find themselves doing a foolish action.
Even the greatest and wisest of'our race sometimes
unbend, and prove that there are points in which
they are united to ordinary humanity. There is in
this secret and invisible influence, to which I refer, of
one man over another that has long arrested my attention. Often have I known both speaker and hearers electrified by a few commonplace words, carried
2 *




18            THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
away, it would seem, by a force not their own; now
melted into tears; now inflamed with a pure and unearthly love; now maddened with rage; now fired
with a lofty enthusiasm, swelling with heroic emotions, and panting to do heroic deeds. In these moments man is more than man; a higher than man
possesses him, and he becomes thaumaturgic, works
miracles, removes mountains, stops the course of
rivers, heals the sick, casts out devils, moves, speaks,
and acts a god. I call it the demonic element of human nature, and I think, if these mesmeric phenomena turn out to be real, they will be found to have
their explanation in this mysterious and even fearful
elmrnent, which the older theologians called faith, and
superstition looks upon as supernatural."
" That there is some analogy between Animal
Magnetism and the class of facts to which you refer,
or which you have in your mind," observed Dr.
P —, " I do not deny. But, after all, what is the
power which produces them? To resolve one class
of facts into another, equally if not moremysterious,
is not to explain them."
" But what more, my dear Doctor," I asked, " do
you yourself do? There are here two distinct questions: Is there really such a class of extraordinary
phenomena as you mesmerizers assert? and if so,
what is the agent or efficient cause in producing
them? As to the first, I am so far satisfied as to
concede that the remarkable phenomena asserted
may be real; but I have not seen enough to war



GUESSES.                19
rant any sound induction as to their cause or general law. I must continue my observation of facts
much longer, and extend it much further, before I
proceed to any induction in the case. You say they
are produced by the will of one acting immediately
on the will of another, and through that on the
organs of the person magnetized, by virtue, as you
allege, of a law of human nature. Yet you do not
tell us what this law is, or what is the nature of that
which my reverend friend calls the demonic power
of man.
" In no case does it belong to man to answer similar questions," replied Dr. P-. " We in no case
know the essences of things. All that men are able
to do is to observe phenomena, and from them to
infer or affirm that there is and must be an agent or
power which produces them. Can you tell me what
is gravitation? All you can tell nme is, that bodies
fall or tend to the centre of the earth, and what are the
laws and conditions of that tendency. What is electricity? You cannot tell me. You can only tell me
that there is a certain class of phenomena, which
you can trace to a certain invisible and imponderable agent, and to that invisible and unknown agent,
that " occult power," as an earlier philosophy would
have called it, you give the name of electricity.
All you can know of it is, its existence, the laws
by which it operates, the means by which you can
avail yourself of it, get power over it, avert it from
your house or barn when it breaks forth in the thun



20             THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
der-gust, or use it to drive your machinery, to convey your messages, or to solace your pain. Science
calls it a fluid, but what it is in itself science knows
not, for it has seen it only in its operations or effects.
So with this power, or law of human nature, to
which I ascribe the magnetic phenomena. All I
pretend to tell is, that the law is a reality, and all I
pretend to demonstrate is, that we may avail ourselves of it, and use it for the most useful and noble
purposes. This is enough. All we need to know
is its existence, or the purposes to which it may be
applied, and how we can apply it or render it serviceable. Let man know that he has it, and then
let him learn how to use it."
"But after all, I am a little frightened at the supposition of this power," remarked Mr. Winslow.
There is something fearful in this complete subjection of one, soul and body, to the will of another.
The somnambulist is, during the mesmeric trance,
the slave of the mesmerizer, as much so as was the
genie to the possessor of the wonderful lamp, and
he may do with him or her what he pleases. Is
there not danger here? May he not use his power
in a base way, to gratify his passions, his lusts, his
hatred, or his revenge, and with complete impunity,
since the somnambulist retains no consciousness or
recollection on returning to the normal state, of what
passed during the magnetic slumber?  Let Animal
Magnetism become generally known and practised,
and who could know when or where he was safe?




GUESSES.                21
Any one of us might at any moment fall a victim,
or be made the blind instrument of the basest and
most malignant passions of others."
"' Those are idle fears," replied Dr. P-; " none
but virtuous men can exercise the power, or if
others can, they can exercise it only for honest and
benevolent purposes."
" That, if true, would be reassuring," I observed;
"but, for myself, I revolt at the bare idea of being
so completely in the power of another, however
honest or well-disposed he may be. I choose to be
my own, and not another's."




22
CHAPTER III.
FURTHER EXPERIMENTS.
DR. P — continued his lectures, private instructions, and experiments for some months, and very
soon they began to produce their natural effect. No
people are more disposed to run after every novelty,
or are naturally more fond of the marvellous than
the Anglo-Americans. They live in a constant state
of excitement, and are always craving some new
stimulant. They have been transplanted from the
old homestead, are without ancestors, traditions, old
associations, or fixed habits transmitted from generation to generation through a long series of ages.
They have descended, in great part, from the sects
that separated in the seventeenth century from the
Anglican Church, which had in the sixteenth century
itself separated from the Church of Rome, and to a
great extent broken with antiquity. They are a new
people,- in many respects a child-people, with the
simplicity, freshness, impressibility, unsteadiness, curiosity, caprice, and waywardness of children. They
must have their playthings, and they no sooner
obtain a new toy than they tire of it, throw it away,
and seek another. Yet are they richly endowed, and
they possess in the highest degree many of the nobler




FURTHER EXPERIMENTS.           23
virtues of our nature. They are a poetical and imaginative, as well as a reasoning and practical people. They have a robust and not unkindly nature,
-are susceptible of deep emotions, and capable of
heroic deeds. They treat few subjects with absolute
indifference, and seldom fail to give any one who
has, or professes to have, something to say, a tolerably fair and patient hearing. Whoever is able to
touch their fancy, stir their feelings, excite their curiosity, or their marvellousness, is pretty sure of having
them run after him - for a time.
Animal Magnetism soon became the fashion, in
the principal towns and villages of the Eastern and
Middle States. Old men and women, young men
and maidens, boys and girls, of all classes and sizes,
were engaged in studying the mesmeric phenomena,
and mesmerizing or being mesmerized, - some declaring themselves believers, some expressing modestly their doubts, the majority, while half believing, loudly declaring themselves inveterate sceptics.
Jack Wheatley very soon became a famous mesmerizer - for sport. He laughed at the whole concern,
and yet he was the most successful of the mesmerizers, and his subjects always behaved with great
propriety, seldorxm, if ever, failing him, or disappointing the wondering' spectators. Mr. Winslow, after
hesitating a while, began to try experiments himself,
and found that he had a wonderful magnetic power,
especially over the young misses and spinsters of his
congregation. He found by actual experiment, often




24            THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
repeated, and fully attested, that he could mesmerize
without being in the same room with his subject,
without any previous communication of his intent,
and even persons with whom he had no acquaintance, and had never spoken. More than once he
had thrown a young lady in an adjoining room into
the magnetic slumber. Of this there could be no
doubt. He knew well his own intention, and hundreds of witnesses were ready to depose to the fact
of: the slumber. At first he tried this experiment
only upon those who had been previously mesmerized, but he afterwards tried it with brilliant success
on others.
But the marvel did not stop here. Mr. Winslow
soon found that he could magnetize material objects, which in turn would magnetize persons. He
wished to mesmerize a young lady, without communicating to her his wish. He mesmerized a glass of
water, which was handed her by a person ignorant
of what he had done, and of his intention. She
drank of it, and in a very few minutes sank into a
profound magnetic slumber, and exhibited the phenomena- usually exhibited in artificial somnambulism. When I first heard of this experiment I
laughed at it, for it seemed to me a wholly inadmissible fact.! I could conceive it possible for mind
to act on mind; for the will of the magnetizer to
affect the will of the magnetized;but it was repugnant to all received science to suppose that mind or
spirit can, without some natural medium, operate on




FURTHER EXPERIMENTS.          25
material objects. But from what I subsequently saw
and did myself, and what I was assured of by others,
both competent and credible, I became convinced
that I must admit it, or reject all human testimony.
Mr. Winslow, once become a mesmerizer, very
soon left Dr. P-    far behind. In pushing forward
his investigations, he found that he could not only
throw persons, not indeed every one, but one in
twenty-five or thirty, into the mesmeric sl.eep, render
them insensible, dead as it were to all the world except himself, but that he could develop in them,
or superinduce upon them, a marvellous physical
strength. I saw him place a weak and sickly boy
in a chair on the platform' of his lecture room, and
so nerve his arm that not two of the strongest men
could move it. He would, by his mental operation,
so nail the chair to the floor that no force applied to
it could raise it. He would throw the boy by the
same operation upon the floor, render his whole
body, neck, legs, arms, fingers, and toes, rigid, and
stiff as a crowbar; then suddenly relax all his limbs,
and render him as flexible as a reed —, now fill him
with rage, make him rave furiously, rush through the
audience as one possessed, overthrowing every thing
and every one in h's way- now recall him, soothe
his rage, make him cry and weep as if afflicted with
the deepest and most inconsolable grief, and now
dry at once his tears, and break forth into the wildest
and maddest joy.
These were singular phenomena. Whence this
3




26           1 THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
apparently superhuman strength?  That certainly
was no effect of complicity, for the boy exhibited a
physical strength far surpassing that of both mesmerizer and mesmerized in their normal state. It
could not be the effect of imagination. "For how,"
said Mr. Winslow, "can you explain by imagination the effect produced on material objects? You
see that I can magnetize a glass of water or a bunch
of flowers. Do you pretend that these are endowed
with imagination; are not only sensitive, but also
intellectual, and even volitive?  Have the most
common material objects sense, intellect, and will?
Imagination, highly excited, may indeed develop
and concentrate the strength which one has, but
how impart a strength which one has not?"
"' I have been studying these wonderful phenomena," said Mr. Increase Mather Cotton, a rigid puritan minister of high standing, and who had accompanied me to see Mr. Winslow's experiments, "and
I think I see in them the works of the devil."
"Why, sir," replied Mr. Winslow, " I do these
things myself. My patients move and act, are paralyzed, laugh, cry, weep, rage, foam, run, fly, fight, or
make love, at my will. Do you think I am the
devil?"
" Be not too confident," replied Mr. Cotton. "You
may yet find that, if not the devil yourself, that it
is a devil, and a very base and wicked devil, that
moves you, and uses you as the instrument of his
malice."




FURTHER EXPERIMENTS.           27
"I have no belief," answered Mr. Winslow,:" in
devils or demons, as separate and intelligent beings."
" I know very well, sir, that you are a Sadducee,
and believe in neither angel nor spirit, although you
would fain pass for a Christian minister," replied,
with a severe tone, the stanch puritan, whose great
ancestor had taken so conspicuous a part in Salem
witchcraft.
"You do me wrong, Mr. Cotton," replied Mr.
Winslow. "I am  a Christian, and no Sadducee.
I believe in the Christian religion as firmly as you
do. I do not deny angel or spirit. By angel I understand what the word itself imports, a messenger,
and by spirit, a power, force, or energy. But I do
not suppose that I am to understand by either an
order of beings distinct and separate from man. I
concede the spiritual power or energy, but it is the
power or energy of the human being; I grant the
demonic character of these phenomena, but the force
that produces them is the demonic force of human
nature itself. There are no personal angels, and no
personal\ devils or demons."
"Ahd no -personal God, you will say next, I presume,;ereplied Mr. Cotton with a sneer.
"God is personal in me, in the human personality," proudly answered Mr. Winslow. "-Personality is a circumscription, a limitation; and God, since
bhe is infinite, incapable of circumscription, cannot
be personal in himself. He can be personal only in




28             THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
creatures, and consequently, only in such creatures
as have personality, that is, men."
" Your notion of personality is of a piece with
your whole miscalled theology," replied Mr. Cotton.
" Personality is the last complement of rational nature. If the nature is rational, that is, capable of
intelligent and voluntary activity, and complete, it
is a person, and if infinite, an infinite person. Your
argument is a mere sophism, founded on a false definition of personality. A little philosophy or common sense would be of great service to such Christian ministers as you are."
"'Let us not," I interposed, "get involved in a
theological discussion. We are to investigate this
subject as men of science, not as theologians. We
have here a scientific subject, and science leaves theologians to their speculations, without presuming to
intervene in their interminable, useless, and wearisome disputes.  If your theology is true, it can
never be in conflict with science."
" If your science be true, or really be science," retorted Mr. Cotton, " it can never be in conflict with
theology. I do not attempt to deduce my science
from my theology, but I make my theology the mistress of mv science. Whatever is inconsistent with
it, I know beforehand cannot be genuine science, or
true philosophy."
"' That may or may not be so," I replied; " but
I am, no theologian. I am an humble cultivator
of science, and I consider myself free to push




FURTHER EXPERIMENTS.           29
my scientific investigations into all subjects independently, without restraint, without leave asked or
obtained either from you or my friend Mr. Winslow. All history has its superstitious and marvellous side. Science has heretofore denied the reality
of that side of history, and regarded the marvellous facts with which ancient and medieval history is filled, as never having really taken place, or
as the result of fraud, trickery, or imposture, exaggerated by the credulity, the ignorance, the wonder,
and the disordered imaginations of the multitude.
These mesmeric phenomena may throw a new light
on that class of facts; they may even relieve history
from the charges which have been brought against
it, and rehabilitate the ages that we have condemned,
so far at least as the facts themselves are concerned,
though not necessarily as to the theories by which
they were in past times generally explained.  I am
myself at present bewildered. I am not willing to
admit the facts, but I am unable to deny them. If
they must be accepted, I incline to the view of my.
friend- Mr. Winslow, and am disposed to assume
that there is in human nature a law not hitherto
well understood, a mysterious power, what he here
calls the demonic power of human nature, the
limits and extent of which science has not as yet
explored."
"*There is something mysterious in man," remarked Mr. Sandborn, a Universalist minister present.
"I remember, some years ago, that one summer 1
3*




30            THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
was very much out of health. I suffered much from
a bowel complaint, which brought me very low.
But my mind was exceedingly active, and I seemed
to myself to have not only more than my ordinary
intellectual power, but also at my command a mass
of information on a great variety of subjects which
I was sure I had never acquired in the course of my
ordinary studies. I seemed familiar with several
physical sciences which I had never studied, and
with facts, real facts too, which I had never learned.
While I was in this state, I was visited at my residence, in the village of Ithaca, New York, by' a
young friend, a brother minister, residing some
eighteen or twenty miles distant.  He saw  my
state, and urged me to go out and spend a few
weeks with him at his boarding-house. The pure
breezes, he said, from the hills would do me good,
revive my languishing body, and restore me to health.
I accepted my young friend's invitation, and the
next morning we took the stage, and after some
three hours' drive were set down at his lodgings.
We were hardly seated in his library, when a servant brought him a letter which had been taken
from the post-office during his absence. I saw a
slight blush on his face as he took the letter, and instantly comprehended that it was from his'ladye
love,' although I was entirely ignorant that he was
paying his attentions to any one, or that he had any
matrimonial intentions. Asking my permission, he
broke the seal, and read his letter in my presence.
When he had done, I said to him,




FURTHER EXPERIMENTS.            31
"'You have there a letter from your sweetheart,
the young lady to whom you are engaged to be
married.'
"' How do you know that?' he asked in reply.
"' 0 that is evident,' I replied.' I see it in your
face. Let me see the letter, and I will tell you her
character.'
"' I would rather not,' he answered.
"'I do not wish to read it,' said I,' I only wish to
look at the handwriting.'
" But can you tell a person's character by seeing
his handwriting.'
"' Certainly, nothing is easier, I replied, although
I had never tried, or even heard of such a thing before.
" He then handed me the letter. I fixed my eye
on the writing for a moment without reading a word
of the letter, and I saw, or seemed to see, standing
before me, at some six or eight feet distant, a very
good-looking young lady, a little below the medium
size, with an agreeable expression of face, apparently
about eighteen years of age, as plainly as I see any
one of you now in this room. I proceeded quietly and
at my ease to describe her to my friend. I told her
age, described her size, her height, her complexion,
the color and texture of her hair, the colors and quality of her dress, indeed her whole external appearance, even to a hardly perceptible mole on her right
cheek. My friend, you may well suppose, listened
to me with surprise, astonishment, and wonder, and




32             THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
several times interrupted me with the question'Are
you really the devil?' He agreed that my description
was accurate, and far more so than he could himself
have given.
"I then proceeded, to my friend's equal astonishment, to describe her moral and intellectual qualities, her disposition, her education, her tastes, her
habits, &c., all of which he declared were correctly
described, as far as he himself knew. I had never
previously seen or heard of the young lady, who
lived in another State, and was actually at the moment some hundred and fifty miles distant. But
this was not all. My friend married the young lady
in the course of two or three months, and two years
afterwards I called at his-house, and was introduced
to a lady whom I instantly recognized as the one
whose image I had previously seen before me.*
There is something in all this, and analogous facts
related and well attested by others, that I cannot
explain."
We all agreed that the case was remarkable, and
apparently inexplicable, on any known principles of
received science.
* A literal fact, in the experience of the author.




33
CHAPTER IV.
AN EXPLOSION.
DR. P — having accomplished his object in visiting this country, and being invited home by his family, took his leave of us in the summer of 1840,
and returned to the West Indies. I have not seen
him since. But he left behind a large. number of
disciples, and we had no lack of mesmerizers, and
mesmerizers to whom he was a mere child. Some
of these made mesmerism a trade, and gave public
lectures and experiments as a means of gaining notoriety and filling their pockets. Others made their
experiments in private circles, and from curiosity, or
in the interests of science, and not unfrequently by
way of amusement. Mr. Winslow devoted much
time to a series of experiments intended to prove the
reality of what he called the demonic element of
human nature. He wished to be able to accept and
explain the miracles recorded in sacred and profane
history on natural principles, without the recognition
of the supernatural. Jack Wheatley continued his
experiments, apparently more in jest than in earnest,
and was remarkably successful. He had no theory
on the subject, said nothing of the use to which
mesmerism might be applied, and never speculated




34            THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
on the cause of the mesmeric phenomena. He contented himself with producing them, and leaving
others to use or explain them as they saw proper.
A year had passed without my seeing Jack. In
the winter of 1840 - 41, while on a visit to Boston,
I met him one day accidentally in the street, and
was startled at his altered appearance. His look
was wild and oppressed, his face was pale and sallow, his youth and bloom were gone, and his body
was wasted to a skeleton. He made as if he would
avoid me, and with reluctance and a certain timidity
replied to my greeting.
"Why, Jack, what is the matter?"
"Don't you see?  I see her night and day," he
replied with a shudder, as if he beheld some strange
and horrible vision from which he would avert his
looks, but could not.
" See what?" said I. "I see nothing."
He trembled all over, and seemed unable to speak.
Seeing that he had either lost his wits. or was fast
losing them, I took his arm in mine, and with gentle
violence led him-to my lodgings, at no great distance,
conducted him to my room, and induced him to repose himself on the sofa. I closed the door, and
seated myself by his side. I took his hand, and
caressed his forehead and temples as if lie had- been
a child. He seemed soothed. "Tell me, Jack,"
said I, in a voice almost as gentle and affectionate
as that of a mother, " tell me what has happened."
" I am lost, I am damned."




AN EXPLOSION.              35
"'Say not that. As long as life lasts no one is
lost, and nothing is irreparable."
"Life no longer lasts. I do not live. I killed
her."
"No, no. But of whom do you speak?"
"You did not know. I never told you. You
seemed to be a cast-iron man, as Miss Martineau
says of Mr. Calhoun, and disposed to put every sentiment in your crucible, and subject it to your retorts
and blowpipes."
" But Mr. Calhoun has a heart, as I have had
ample occasion to prove."
" I was always light and trifling, careless, gay, and
joyous, yet I truly and deeply loved."
"And none the less deeply and truly because gay
and joyous."
"But you know nothing of love?"
"No man is always wise."
" But you will laugh at me."
"My dear Jack, there are few hearts without-some
little romance, in some hidden or unhidden corner.
There are not many persons unwilling to listen to
a story of true and genuine love."
"I was young and foolish, but I laved one, and
one whom I thought every way worthy, a thousand
times worthy, of my love. I felt myself infinitely
her inferior, and unworthy even to kiss the ground
on which she- had trodden."
"That is easily comprehended."
"Now you are laughing at me."




36           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
" No, I am not. But you may leave something
to my imagination, if not to my experience. I do
not doubt that she whom you loved had all imaginable charms, all conceivable graces, and all possible
and impossible perfections."
"' But my Isabel was the most beautiful, sweet,
amiable, and glorious creature that ever gladdened
the earth with her presence."
" Unquestionably. He who doubts that his mistress is an angel, is divine, is a goddess, has his liver
whole, and I will warrant him sound in wind and
limb. The lover never finds his mistress mortal till
after the wedding."
" You are incorrigible.  You promised not to
laugh at me. Indeed, indeed, Doctor, I do not deserve to be laughed at."
" I own it, my dear Jack, and nothing is farther
from my heart than to laugh at you. But do tell
me what has happened. I am really grieved to see
you so afflicted."
" Well, I loved Isabel, and had the happiness of
believing that she returned my love. I gained her
consent, and that of her parents and my own, and
we were only waiting till I was fairly established
in my profession to be married. Notwithstanding
Shakspeare's dictum, the course of our true love did
run smooth. There never was a lover's quarrel between us, and there were no obstacles interposed by
friends, enemies, or fortune. My acquaintance accidentally formed with you brought me into company




AN EXPLOSION.              37
with Dr. P-, and interested me in Animal Magnetism. In mere sport, as a pastime, I began trying
my mesmeric powers on one and another of my
young friends. Capital fun we found it. None of
us dreamed of there being any harm in it, or that
we might not sport with it as we pleased without
any unpleasant consequences. I know not how it
was, but I proved to be a powerful magnetizer, although I was said not to have the right sort of temperament for a mesmerizer. My experiments rarely
failed, and were almost always unusually brilliant.
-" One evening at a friend's house, where some ten
or a dozen of my companions and acquaintances
were assembled, I mesmerized a boy about twelve
years old. I found him completely under my control, and perfectly docile to all my intentions. His
behavior was admirable. I asked him mentally a
large' number of questions which it was certain that
in his normal state he could not answer, and which
he answered explicitly, with surprising accuracy. He
had never been taught music, and in his normal state
could not distinguish even one tune from another.
I willed him to seat himself at the piano, and play
for us a favorite waltz of Mozart. He obeyed, and
performed it with accuracy, with spirit, a delicacy
of touch, and brilliancy of effect, which none of
us had ever heard equalled, or even approached.
I then mentally ordered him to sing us, to his own
accompaniment, one or two songs from Fra Diavolo, which were then in fashion. He obeyed.
4




38            THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
We were all surprised, and began talking among
ourselves of the apparent miracle, when, to our still
greater astonishment, he commenced playing of his
own accord a strange piece, which none of us
knew or had ever heard, and which, for its wild and
unearthly character, for its brilliancy, depth, and
pathos, surpassed all that we had ever conceived of
music. We were all entranced. Here was some
agency not the boy's, not mine, not that of any one
present. Such strains had never had mortal composer.
" I knew not what to think, and so contrived not
to think at all, but enjoyed the music, and looked
no farther. Carpe diem, you know, was my philosophy. I saw I had a brilliant subject, and I resolved to make the most of him. I had heard of the
marvellous powers of clairvoyance and second sight
exhibited by some somnamnbulists. I blindfolded the
boy, and gave him a letter. He read it with ease.
I placed another at the back of his neck, he read that
also; I placed another, folded up, on the back of his
head. He told me who was the writer, described
his appearance, his complexion, size, and character,
with more accuracy than I could have done, although
the writer was well known to me, and must have been
a total stranger to the boy. I took the boy with me
on a journey, that is, mentally. We stopped at Providence, went on to Stonington, took the steamer
for New York, landed and went up Broadway, down
the Bowery, and through several other streets. He




AN EXPLOSION.             39
named the hotels, churches, and other public buildings we passed, and read the signs over the shop
doors. We went up the Hudson, to Albany, froIn
there on to Utica, Rochester, Niagara Falls, and
then returned, and on our way back stopped at your
house in Genesee county, with which you know I
am familiar. We went into the library, and the
laboratory, in each of which he named and accurately described the principal objects. Having come
back, we took an excursion into the other world, of
which he told us strange things, which none of us
believed, for we were all Unitarians, Universalists,
or unbelievers, and his revelations seemed to favor
what is called Orthodoxy.
"' My betrothed was present at all these experiments. She was greatly excited. Time and again
she wished that I would mesmerize her. She wished
this much more after she had heard the boy describe
what he saw in the other world. I know not why,
but I shrunk from complying with her wish. I saw
no harm in others being mesmerized, and I had,
without any scruple, mesmerized young ladies by the
dozen; but some how or other I could not bear to
have my Isabel mesmerized, or even to mesmerize
her myself. I instinctively felt that there would be
something indelicate in it, something hardly modest,
and that it would be a sort of desecration. She was
modest, retiring, even timid, but her curiosity was
excited, and she would brook no denial.
"A true daughter of Eve. Women are timid




40            THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
creatures, but will brave Satan himself to gratify
their curiosity, or their passions."
" That now is malicious."
" Never mind; go on."
" I was at length obliged to consent, but only to
magnetize her at her father's house, and at first only
in presence of her mother or her sister. She yielded
very readily to the mesmeric influence, and became
a remarkable clairvoyant. She had, when in the
magnetic slumber, not only a clear view of remote
terrestrial things, of which she had no previous
knowledge, and which were equally unknown to me,
but also of heaven and hell, and revealed to me
strange things of angels and spirits, of the state of
departed souls, good and bad, and of their intercourse with the living. We both became deeply
interested, and took every opportunity to make our
investigations. We were left much alone, and she
remained in the mesmeric state from one to two
hours almost every day or evening. If I was unable
to visit her, she would, though I knew it not, invite
some female friend to mesmerize her, for gradually
she seemed to wish to live only in the mesmeric state,
and appeared restless and uneasy when out of it.
Her physical system began to suffer. She complained, when awake, of a universal lassitude. The
bloom faded from her cheek, her eye assumed a
wild, lustreless glare, and her motions were heavy
and languid. She was listless, absent, forgetful,
taking little or no interest in anybody or any thing.




AN EXPLOSION.              41
I beheld her, as you may well believe, with great
anxiety and alarm.
" One evening, about two months ago, I visited
her. I found her alone, and in a few minutes threw
her into the mesmeric sleep, for it was only in that
state that her mind retained its strength and brilliancy. She was attacked with convulsions and
spasms as I had never seen her before. I hastened
to awake her. It was too late! I had killed her;
and that countenance which had been so dear to
me, which had so often beamed on me with the
sweet smile of love, nlow bore only the expression of
fear, horror, rage, and anguish. It was the face of a
demon. It froze my blood to behold it.
" I had my own grief to bear, I had to endure the.
tortures of my own remorse and utter despair, and to
face the grief, silent, but deep, of her father, and the
rage of her mother, who cursed me, cursed me as
only a mother in the violence of her wrath and grief
can curse. How I lived through that-dreadful night
I know not. The relations agreed to conceal the circurnstances, of Isabel's death. I followed her to-the
tomb, and returned to my own home, blasted, withered, worse than dead.
"All this was bad enough, but worse followed.
The day after the funeral, while sitting alone in' my
office, I saw, at a few feet from me, partly behind
me, a grayish appearance, without any sharply defined outline. I looked at it for a moment, and it
assumed then the well-known form of her I the day
4*




42            THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
before followed to the grave, and, horror of horrors,
with that fearful expression of face with which she
had dfed. It came nearer to me, I receded; it followed, I rushed into the street; it pursued, I turned
aside my face, it turned as I turned, so as to be
always within my view. From that day to this has
it haunted me; I have scarcely a moment's respite.
Day or night, light or dark, with my eyes opened or
closed, always does it stand before me, and glare on
me with that terrible look. I cannot sleep; I cannot
eat; I have no rest. The only few moments of
quiet I have had are those since I have been with you
in this room. I do not see it now. 0, it was a sad
day for me when I chose Animal Magnetism for a
plaything!"
I was much affected by Jack's sufferings. I was
not surprised at the fatal effects of mesmerism on the
young lady; for death, I had been assured, is no unfrequent result of what the physicians who practise
it call its injudicious use. The form which haunted
him gave me no uneasiness, as it was, in my opinion, clearly a case of hallucination, a species of
monomania, well known to the physicians of our
lunatic hospitals, and our writers on mania or insanity. The shock my young friend had received
had probably produced some slight lesion of the
brain, and the imagination gave shape to the. deceptive appearance, as in dreams we see often reproduced, following us, preceding us, or dancing around
us, the shapes and images which had deeply irn



AN EXPLOSION.              43
pressed us when awake. But I was fond of poor
Jack, and my great anxiety was to console him, and
to prevent what might be only a temporary hallucination from becoming a confirmed insanity. Finding him better when with me, I persuaded him, with
the consent of his family, who understood very little
of his case, and feared for his reason, to accompany
me to my home in Western New York, and to place
himself under my care.
He remained very much depressed for several
months, but gradually his appetite returned; he was
able to get some sleep, and his health began to improve. The vision did not entirely leave him, especially when alone, or not with me, but its visits
became less and less frequent, and less and less appalling. The expression of the face gradually became
less horrible, and more human, but still indicated
great suffering and profound grief. In the course of
a year, however, he seemed to have recovered, and
returned to Boston. But in proportion as he seemed
to be regaining his health and peace of mind, as far
as peace of mind he could hope to have, a very singular change began to come over me.
I had spent my time, since leaving college, in literary ease and scientific pursuits. I had had few
strong or violent passions to trouble me, and few
things had wounded me very deeply. I had had, it
is true, my little romances, but not being of a sentimnental turn, and having a strong constitution and
most excellent health, they had hardly rippled the




44            THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
surface of the ordinarily smooth current of my life.
I had pursued science as a pastime. I took an easy,
pleasant interest in it, but had no passion for it. I
had no enthusiasm, and found in-the pursuit only a
gentle excitement, as in reading one of James's novels, which, by the by, are the best of all novels, for
you can take them up or lay them down when you
please. Spare me, I always say, those much-bepraised works of fiction which deal with strong and
violent passions, which produce in the reader a painfully intense interest, and which, when you once begin reading them, you cannot lay down till you have
read to the end. I avoid reading such a novel, as I
avoid a night's debauch.
But now a change came over me. I became restless, and had an intense longing to explore the
secrets of things, and to look within the veil with
which nature kindly shrouds her laboratory. I longed. to make myself acquainted with the primal elements of being, and to be able to command them;
I burned to enlarge not only my knowledge, but my
forces. I would be able to raise the tempest on the
deep, to fly through the air, to wield the lightning,
to leave and enter my body at will. to succor my
friends or overwhelm my enemies at a distance. I
would read the stars, comprehend their influences,
and command their courses. I envied the old Chaldean sages, the mighty magicians of the East, and
the wizards and weird sisters of the North. Why
should it not be literally true that mind is omnipotent over matter? Is not man called the lord of this




AN EXPLOSION.             45
lower creation? Why then should he fear, or not be
able to exercise his lordship? Had we not seen the
wonders of science? Had not man learned to make
the lightnings his steeds, and flames of fire his ministers? What are the mighty forces of nature? May
not man seize them, use them, and wield their might
at his pleasure?
Such thoughts were new to me, still more new
were those intense longings. The horizon of human
power seemed to enlarge around me, and I seemed
to rise in the majesty and might of my nature. I
was becoming, as it were, a new man. The ethereal fire within had hitherto slumbered. It was now
kindled, and its flames aspired to their native heaven. I would no longer be the puny thing I had
been. Henceforth I would be a man; a man in the
full and lofty sense of the word. Now suddenly my
soul seemed to grow, and to become too large for
my body, against which it beat as the prisoner beats
his head against the walls of his prison-house. I
knew not then the source or nature of these feelings,
and I cherished them as precious intimations of my
affinity with the Origin and Source of all things.
At times I was elated; my eye glowed with an unwonted fire, and sparkled with an unearthly brilliancy; my step was elastic, and my whole frame
seemed to have received new youth and buoyancy,
and to be in some measure withdrawn from the ordinary laws of gravitation. It seemed as if all the
great forces of nature flowed into me, and become
subject to my will. Nothing was impossible to me.




46
CHAPTER V.
SOME PROGRESS.
HITHERTO I had neither been magnetized myself
nor magnetized others. I had read the principal
works which had been written in French and English on the subject, and had witnessed and carefully
analyzed the experiments made by my friends; but
now I madly resolved to make experiments for myself.
A portion of the winter of 1841-2 I spent in
Philadelphia, and as my acquaintance was principally with the Hicksite Quakers, Unitarians, Swedenborgians, Universalists, and open unbelievers in
all religion, I was, as a matter of course, thrown into
the very circles where Animal Magnetism, as well as
all conceivable novelties and absurdities, were the
order of the day. My friends and associates were
nearly all philanthropists and world-reformers. There
were among them seers and seeresses, enthusiasts
and fanatics, socialists and communists, abolitionists
and anti-hangmen, radicals and women's-rights men
of both sexes; all professing the deepest and most
disinterested love for mankind, and claiming to be
moved by the single desire to do good to the race.
All agreed that hitherto every thing had gone wrong;




SOME PROGRESS.             47
all agreed in denouncing all forms of religion and government that had hitherto obtained amongst men;
all agreed in declaiming against the clergy of all denominations, in manifesting their indignation against
all political and civil rule, and whatever tended in
the least to restrain the passions of individuals or
the multitude, in asserting the wonderful progress of
the human race during the last hundred years, and
in predicting that a new era was about to dawn for
the world; but beyond this I could find scarcely a
point on which any two of them were not at loggerheads.
I cannot say that the differences I found among
these excellent people when it concerned their philanthropic projects or their various schemes of worldreform, edified me much, but I was charmed with
their disinterestedness, with their zeal, and their superiority to the restraints of popular prejudice, and
what they stigmatized as conventionalism. I was
above all delighted to observe the new importance
assumed in behalf of woman; and it was a real
pleasure to hear a charming young lady, whose
face a painter might have chosen for his model, in a
sweet musical voice, and a gentle and loving look,
which made you all unconsciously take her hand in
yours, defend our great grandmother Eve, and maintain that her act, which an ungrateful world had
held to have been the source of all the vice, the
crime, the sin and misery of mankind, was an act
of lofty heroism, of noble 1aring, of pure disinterest



48            THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
ed love for man. Adam, but for her, would have
tamely submitted to the tyrannical order he had received, and the race would never have known how
to distinguish between good and evil. How, with the
sweet young lady - I see and hear her now - sitting
on a stool near me, laying her hand in the fervor of
her argument on mine, and looking up with all the
witchery of her eyes into my face, how could I fail
to be convinced that man is cold, calculating, selfish,
and cowardly, and that the world cannot be reformed without the destruction of the male (it might be
called the mal) organization of society, the elevation
of woman to her proper sphere, and the infusion into
the government and management of public and private affairs, some portion of the love, the daring, the
enthusiasm, and disinterestedness of woman's heart?
There was nothing to be said in reply.
But alas! unhappy Saint Simonians; you believed also that the evils endured by the race were owing,
in great measure, to the fact that society had hitherto
been organized and governed by men as distinguished from women, and therefore without the female
element. You would in your reorganization of the
world, avoid this sad mistake. You could not
agree on the definitive organization of mankind till
you had obtai'ned- the voice of woman.'But how
obtain that from woman, the slave of the old male
organization? A PRre supreme you had found, but
a woman to sit by his side as Mere supreme, and to
exercise with him equal authority, you found not,




SOME PROGRESS.             49
and could proceed no further.;tou selected twelve
apostles, and sent them forth in search of a Mere
supreme. They searched France, England, Germany,
Italy, all Europe, even to the harem of the Grand
Turk, but they found her not, and returned and reported their ill-success. Then fear and consternation seized you; then fell despair took possession
of your souls;'then you saw all your hopes blasted,
and you separated and dissolved in thin air. Perhaps, if you had sent your apostles to the United
States, to Philadelphia or Boston, you might have
succeeded, and Pere Enfantin not have vanished
from Paris, the capital of the world, to waste himself as an engineer in the service of Mehemet Ali.
It was a real pleasure to find these men of advanced views, and these women of burning hearts
and strong minds, who had outgrown the narrow
prejudices of their sex, all substituting the love of
mankind for the love of God. They all agreed that
philanthropy was the highest virtue, and the only
-virtue. Charity was an obsolete virtue, no longer
in use, and not suited to our advanced stage of
human progress. That taught us to love man in
God, but we have learned to love God in man; that
is, man himself, without any reference to God. This
was charming, and emancipated us from our thraldom to priests, and all old-fashioned religion. What
was better still, I found that even this noble philanthropy received a very liberal interpretation, and did
not interfere at all with those pleasant passions and




50            THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
vices, called anger, spite, envy, &c. It was only a
love of man in the abstract, the love of mankind in
general, which permitted the most sublime hatred or
indifference to all men in particular.  Wonderful
nineteenth century! I exclaimed; wonderful seers
and seeresses, and most delightful moralists are
these modern world-reformers!
In this pleasant and delightful circle mesmerism
attracted its full share of attention. -I met it in almost every circle where I happened to be present.
It seemed to take the place of cards, music, and
dancing. One evening I was at a friend's house,
where were collected some twenty-five or thirty gentlemen and ladies, or perhaps I should say, ladies
and gentlemen, mainly on my account, for I was, in
a small way, something of a lion, and. our people
are great in lionizing whenever they have an opportunity, as Dickens, Kossuth, Padre Gavazzi, and
others hardly less worthy can abundantly testify.
Indeed, our people are democrats only from  envy
and spite. In their souls they are the most aristocratic people in the world, and would be so avowedly, only they have no legitimate aristocracy. Democracy has its origin in the feeling, —since I am
as good as you, and since I cannot be an aristocrat,
you shall be a democrat with me.
In this private party there were two or three somnambulists, and twice that number of mesmerizers.
My friend, Mr. Winslow, from Boston, was present,
and also Mr. Cotton, who was in the city on some




SOME PROGRESS.              51
business pertaining to holding a world's convention
in London for evangelizing France, Italy, and other
benighted countries of Europe. Mr. Winslow was
in high spirits. He was sure that he was making
out his proofs that there -is a demonic element in
human nature, never once reflecting, that if demonic
it is not human.
" I am," said he, "on the point of rehabilitating
history. Miracles, divinations, sorceries, magic, the
black arts, which surprise us in all history, sacred
and profane, and which are either denied outright,
or ascribed to supernatural agencies, I think I shall
be able to accept, as facts, as real phenomena, and
explain on natural principles. I think I have in
mesmerism an explanation of them all."
" So you imagine that with mesmerism you may
take your place with the magicians of Egypt, and
enter into a s-uccessful contest with Moses," said Mr.
Cotton. "You forget that those magicians were
discomfited, and at the third trial were obliged to
give up and acknowledge themselves beaten.'The
finger of God is here."'
" Moses was a superior mesmerizer, and he mes.
merized for a good, and they for a bad purpose,
which makes all the difference in the world," replied
Mr. Winslow.
"But these magicians, then, could exercise the
mesmeric power up to a certain point, and for evil;
I thought it was a doctrine of mesmerizers, that
none but tirtuous and honest men could mesmerize,




52            THE- SPIRIT-RAPPER.
and these only for a good and honest purpose," said
Mr. Cotton.
" I am not," said I," particularly interested in explaining-what the Germans call the Night-Side of
nature, or- the marvellous-,deeds recorded in sacred
and profane history; I would be able to do those
deeds, reproduce those wonderful phenomena, and
-exert myself a power over the primordial elements
or primitive- forces of nature, be they spirits, be they
what they will. I am tfired of being pent up within
this narrow cage, and of being the slave of every
external influence. I -would master nature; ride
upon the whirlwind and direct the storm. There
may, for aught I know, be an element of truth in
the marvellous machinery of the Arabian Nights
Entertainments, and something more than the;extravagances of an Oriental imagination in those
tales of magic, of good and evil Genii. What, if the
tale of Aladdin's Lamp were true?  Who dare say
that the river and ocean gods, the Naiads, the Dryads, Hamadryads, Pan and his reed,. Apollo and
his lyre, Mercury and his wand, the supernal and
infernal gods of classic poetry, were all mere creatures of the poetic imagination? Perhaps even the
diablerie of modern German romance, of Hoffman,
Baron de Fouqu/e, and others, has more of reality
than most-readers suspect."
"All the gods of the Gentiles were devils," replied
Mr.- Cotton, "and to a, considerable extent -  concede
the-reality you intimate. There are good A-agels and




SOME PROGRESS.             53
bad, and both have intercourse with mankind. The
air swarms with evil spirits, with devils, fallen angels,
endowed with a more than human intelligence, and
a more than human power. These are under a chief
called Lucifer, Beelzebub, Satan, who seeks to seduce men from their allegiance to God, to make them
receive him for their master, to put him in the place
of God, and to pay him divine honors. It was this
fallen angel, the prince of this world as St. Paul
calls him, and the prince of the powers of the air,
who everywhere and unceasingly besieges the Christian, and against whom we have to be constantly on
the guard, that the ancient Gentiles literally worshipped as God, and it is these evil spirits, these
powers of the air, that swarm around us, and infest
all nature, that ancient classic poetry celebrates, and
that your modern philosophers would persuade us
were mere poetic fancies."
" The powers or forces themselves, I concede,"
said Mr. Winslow, "but I do not recognize their
personality, nor their superhuman character."
"Perhaps," said I, "Mr. Winslow is a little too
hasty in supposing them.to be the innate power or
force of human nature. This power exerted-by the
mesmerizer may well be natural and yet not be
human. It may be one of the mighty forces of uni.
versal nature, which the mesmerizer has the secret of
Using or bringing to bear in the accomplishment of
hitsown:purposes. In mesmerism, perhaps, we may
fild the key: to the mysteries of nature, and the secret
-5*




54             THE- SPIRIT-RAPPER.
of rendering practically available all the great and
mighty powers at work in nature's laboratory, so
that a man may learn to strengthen himself with all
the force of the entire universe."
" The power you speak of," said Mr. Wilson, an
ex-Unitarian parson, and who passed for a Transcendentalist," I believe to be very real. We sometimes ascribe it to the will, and, it is true that under
certain relations the will has great energy, and is
well nigh invincible. Yet it is not, I apprehend, so
much the energy of the will itself as of faith, which
brings the will into harmony with the primordial
laws of the universe, and strengthens it by all the
forces of nature.'If ye had faith as a grain of
mustard seed,' said Jesus,'ye could say to this
mountain, be removed and planted in yonder.sea,
and it should obey you.' I am far from being able to
prescribe the limits of full, undoubting, and unwavering faith.:Faith is thaumaturgic, always a miracleworker, and if we could only undertake with a calm
and full confidence of success, I have little doubt but
the meanest of us might work greater miracles than
any.recorded in history.'If ye believe, ye shall do
greater works..than these."'
",There is more in this power of faith than received philosophy has fathomed. By it one's -eyes
are opened, and he seems to penetrate the profoundest mysteries of the universe, even.to the essence of the Godhead. We may mark it in all our
undertakings. Whatever we attempt, nothing doubt



SOME PROGRESS.             55
ing, we are almost sure to accomplish. Let me, as
a public speaker, desire to produce a certain effect,
and let me have full confidence that I shall succeed,
and I am sure not to fail. Let me utter a sentiment,
with my whole soul absorbed in it, confident that it
is going right to the hearts of my hearers, and it
goes there. Whenever I am conscious in what I
am saying, of this calm, undoubting faith, I am sure
of my audience. I no sooner open my lips than I
have them under my control, and I can do with
them as I please. When I have felt this faith in
what I was about to utter, I have felt before uttering
it, its effect upon the assembly, and my whole frame
has been sensible of something like an electric shock,
and it seemed that my audience and I were connected by a magnetic chain. In conversing with a
friend, in whom I have full faith, and to whom I can
speak with full confidence, I have felt the same.
Our souls seem  to be melted into one, to move
with one and the same will, and each to be exalted
and strengthened by the combined power of both.
Then rise we into the upper regions of truth, far
above the unaided flight of either. Heaven opens
to us, and we behold the hidden things of God.
Something the same is felt also when one goes forth
in love with nature, and yields to her gentle and
hallowing influences. We inhale power with her
fragrant odors, become conscious of purer, loftier
and holier thoughts and feelings, and form stronger
and nobler resolutions."
"All that," said Mr. Cotton, " is common enough,




56            THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
but it is easily explained by sympathy and imagination."
"But," Mr. Wilson replied, "what, then, is the
power of sympathy or imagination? That is a question I cannot answer. I yield to the power, enjoy
it, and question it not. Begin to question it, and it
is gone. I know well that philosophers call the
power I speak of under one aspect, love, under
another, sympathy, under anotheri imagination, under still another, faith, but what it is in itself they
cannot tell me. Be it what it will, it is demonic,
supernatural, an element in human nature, of which
men in all ages have had glimpses, -but of which
none of us have as yet had any thing more. The
history of our race everywhere bristles with prodigies. These prodigies were once regarded as miracles, and supposed to be wrought by the finger of
God; now an unbelieving age treats them as impost'res, cheats, fabrications, proving only people's love
of the marvellous, their natural proneness to superstition, and the ease with which they can be gulled
by the crafty and the designing. I believe them, for
the most part, real. I believe that there are times
when man has a power over the elements, and can
make the spirits obey him. Who knows but the
time may come, perhaps is now near, when the law
by which this power operates will be discovered, and
this power, which has hitherto been irregular and
transient in its manifestations, will became common
and regular, and therefore bear the marks of a fixed
and permanent law of nature?




SOME PROGRESS.             57"But, call it what you will, it is not identical
with the human will, nor in my opinion is it, strictly
speaking, a property of human nature. It is an
overshadowing, an all-pervading power, identical,
most likely, with that Power which creates and manifests itself in the universe. We can avail ourselves
of it, not because it is ours, but by placing ourselves
in harmony with it, within its focal range, and suffering its rays to be all, concentred in us'."
" That is substantially my own view," remarked
Mr. Winslow, " and I regard mesmerism as revealing the regular and permanent means by which we
can avail ourselves of that creative and miracleworking power. I do not pretend that man is thaumaturgic in himself, as distinguished from the Being
from whom his life emanates, but by virtue of his
union with the Fountain of All Force."
"I think," said Mr. Sowerby, an ex-Methodist
elder, " that by magnetism, we shall be able to explain the operations of the Holy Ghost, and the
m3steries of regeneration."
"More likely," interrupted Mr. Cotton, " the operations of Satan, and the Mystery of Iniquity."
"Yes, but in a sense thou dost not mean," interposed Obediah Mott, a Hicksite Quaker. " Thou
knowest how difficult it is for thee to explain the
Popish miracles, many of which thou knowest come
exceedingly well attested. Mesmerism will show
thee, that they were wrought by: mesmeric influences."




58            THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
"But I have no wish to explain Popish miracles
on a principle that would take from Christian miracles all their value. I hate popery, but I love the
Gospel more."
The conversation was continued for some time, in
the small circle around me. In another part of the
room they had got a somnambulist, and were making various experiments. When the larger part of
the company had dispersed, I requested Mr. Winslow to try if he could not mesmerize me. He did
not think he should succeed. He thought I had not
the sort of temperament to be magnetized; that I
had too strong a will, too robust a constitution, and
quite too vigorous health. It would at any rate require far more mesmeric power than he had to subdue me. However, he would try, and do what he
could.
I seated myself in an arm chair, with my feet to
the south, and Mr. Winslow began with his passes.
The first ten minutes he produced not the slightest
effect, for I resisted him by the whole force of lny
will. At length I closed my eyes, and resigned myself to his influence. I now became aware of his
passes, though they were made without actually
touching me. It seemed as if slight electric sparks
were emitted from the tips of his fingers, producing
a slight, but agreeable, and as it were a cooling sensation. I felt slight spasmodic affections at the pit
of'my stomach, which gradually became violent.
My arms made involuntary motions, and my legs




SOME PROGRESS.              59
and feet felt light and flew up as he extended his
passes over them. I had not the least inclination to
sleep, but found that he was actually exerting an
influence over my body greater than at all pleased
me. I tried, and found that I could arrest his influence if I willed, and that he had power over me
only so long as I offered no voluntary opposition.
I alternately yielded and resisted, and found that he
had no power to overcome my own will. He operated for about an hour, with no other effects than
those I have mentioned, and gave up the task of
putting me to sleep as hopeless. The most remarkable thing about it, that I recollect, though it did not
much strike me at the time, was, that although my
eyes were closed, I saw or seemed to see distinctly,
slight luminous appearances at the ends of his fin.
gers as he made his passes. These luminous ap.
pearances were in rapid motion, and seemed of a
bluish tinge edged with yellowish white.
There was nothing in the experiment that could
establish the reality of the mesmeric influence to bystanders, but there was enough to satisfy me that it
was neither jugglery nor imagination. I ICould easily see from the experiment, that upon persons differs
ently constituted from myself, less accustomed to
self-control, and to the quiet analysis of their own
feelings, much greater and more striking effect must
have been produced.
I never submitted myself to an experiment of the
sort again. I found that in my own case it was




60            THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
quite unnecessary, and that I could do all that the
mesmerized could without being thrown into the
sornnambulic state. I commenced from that time
to practise mesmerism myself. I entered upon a
course of experiments which carried me much farther than the masters I was acquainted with. I
found, that while no machinery for magnetizing
was absolutely indispensable, yet passes with the
hand were serviceable, and that the tub and rod of
Mesmer, which had been discarded, were of great
assistance. Metallic balls, properly prepared, and
magnetized, and placed in the hand of the person
to be affected, as practised by the Electro-Biologists,
very much facilitated the process. I was thus brought
back to Mesmer, and induced to reject the doctrine
of the ultia-spiritualists, who would have it that the
effects are produced by the simple will acting on the
will of the person to be mesmerized. There was
certainly, a fluid -in the case, whether electric, magnetic, or as the Baron Riechenbach would say, odic,
and whether it is to be regarded as efficient cause or
only as an instrument, as maintained by a recent
French author, who seems to have studied the whole
subject with rare patience, and yet rarer good sense.




61
CHAPTER VI.
TABLE TiRNING.
THE point to which I at first directed my attention was to ascertain the power, which, by means of
mesmerism, I might acquire over the elemental forces
of nature. I found that with-or without actual contact
I could at will paralyze the whole body of another,
subject it in great mea~sre to my own will, and force
it to obey my bidding. I could render it preternaturally weak and preternaturally strong. I found also
that I could produce all these effects at a distance,
by means of magnetized inanimate objects. For
instance, I would magnetize a bunch of flowers, and
a person knowing nothing of what I had done, who
should take them up and smell of them, would exhibit all the usual phenomena of the mesmerized.
Here.it was evident that the mesmeric power, whatever it might be, could act directly on matter, and
lodge- itself in a material object. It was clear then that
the mesmeric phenomena had a real objective cause,
and therefore could not bd the effects either of imagination or hallucination. Here was a-most striking
and important fact, and one which entirely refuted
the ultra spiritualism of the majority of mesmerizers.
My experiments in clairvoyance and second sight
6




62            THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
were equally surprising in their results. The theory
of those who conceded the facts was, that in some
inexplicable way, the somnambulist uses the brain of
him with whom he or she is en rapport, and therefore
is restricted in the clairvoyant power to the images
already in that brain. I mesmerize, say a young
woman. In her mesmeric state she becomes clairvoyant. She can see with my organs of vision whatever I myself can see, or have seen. but nothing else.
She can tell my most secret thoughts and intentions,
or those of any one with whom she is en rapport, but
nothing more. She can answer correctly any question the answer to which is known to the interrogator, but not questions the answer to which is unknown to him. But repeated and well-attested
experiments prove to the contrary. Nothing is more
common than for her to answer correctly questions
equally unknown to herself and to those with
whom she is placed in communication, and in cases
where it is certain the answer could not be known
by any human means to either. The magnetic
power was, then, clearly a medium of knowledge distinct from the brain or mind of the magnetizer, or
individual with whom the magnetized is en rapport.
What tends to confirm this is the surprising fact that
persons mesmerized by a mesmerized glass of water,
or bunch of flowers, manifest equally a superhuman
knowledge. I passed one day by a boarding-school,
and threw over the wall, unseen myself, a bunch of
flowers which I had mesmerized. One of the young




TABLE TURNING.             63
ladies saw it, picked it up, smelled it, and placed it
in her bosom. Almost instantly she became strangely affected, seemed bewitched, acted as one possessed. But what it is important to note is, that she
saw and described, as was clearly proved, things
with perfect accuracy, which none of the inmates of
the school, and neither she nor I, had any human
means of knowing. She had learned no language
but English, and yet could understand and answer
readily in any language in which she was questioned, could and did foretell events, with all the particulars of time and place when they would happen.
Moreover, the poor girl herself complained of feeling
herself under a foreign power, and one which made
her say and do things to which she felt, even at the
moment, the greatest repugnance. It was clear,
then, that the mesmeric power was not a mere blind
force, but acted from intelligence and will, and an intelligence and will foreign to mine, for how could I
lodge my intelligence and will in a bunch of flowers,
and render them there more powerful than in myself?
Clearly the force was not exclusively material, unless
matter can be endowed with intelligence and will.
I was somewhat puzzled, it is true, but I was resolved to continue my experiments, and wrest from
nature, if possible her last secret. I soon found that
it was not necessary to operate with others; that I
had the clairvoyant power myself. With a slight
effort I could throw myself into the mesmeric state.
As soon as I found myself in this state I seemed no




64            THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
longer master of myself.  I suffered in entering
into it, and on coming out of it, convulsions more or
less violent. While in it, I felt oppressed at the pit
of my stomach, and my organs of speech seemed to
be used by another. When I spoke, it was clear to
me that I heard a voice at the pit of my stomach,
speaking the words, and I was perfectly conscious
of struggling not to say things which, nevertheless,
were uttered by my organs. If in this state I sat
down to write, my arm and pen seemed seized upon
by a foreign power, and moved and guided without
any agency of mine. What I wrote I knew not,
and had never had in my mind till it came off the
end of my pen, and I read it as written down. Evidently the power was distinct from me, and operated
by a will not my own.
But I was not at all pleased to find myself subject even momentarily to a foreign power. I did not
choose to let another use my organs, and to suffer
my own will to lie in abeyance. The question
arose, whether the same power could not be made
to operate without using my organs. If I could
mesmerize a material object, and by that mesmerize
persons, why might I not mesmerize by it other material objects, and make them serve as organs to this
power? I tried the experiment. I mesmerized a
bunch of flowers and laid them on a table in my
room, with the will that they should communicate
to the table their mesmeric virtue. Immediately the
table began to move, and to dance round the room,




TABLE TURNING.              65
to raise itself from the floor, to balance itself on two
legs, then on one leg, to come to me or remove from
me as I willed. I was delighted. I found the force
could be communicated to the table. I wished to
ascertain whether this power was intelligent or not.
I required the table, if it could understand me, to
give two raps with one of its feet. Immediately it
did so. Then I required it, by the same sign, to tell
me, whether it understood me by virtue of the mesmeric force. It gave the sign. Then I requested it
to tell me, in the same way, whether this mesmeric
force is one of the forces of nature, like electricity
or magnetism, or whether it is a spirit. There was
no answer. Is it, I asked, a spirit?  No answer.
If not a spirit, let the table, I said, strike with one
foot. No movement. I went to the table, and found
it, as it were, nailed to the floor. I could not move
it. I am a strong man, of far more than ordinary'
physical strength, and was then in its full possession. The table was a light card-table, but-with all
my strength, repeatedly put forth, I could not so
much as raise one end of it. This was extraordinary. I sat down on the sofa at a little distance.
Immediately I began to hear slight raps, apparently
under the table. Very soon they became louder, and
seemed to be sometimes on the table, and sometimes
under it; sometimes they seemed to come from a
corner of the room, and sometimes from under the
floor. I knew not what to make of them, but I felt
no, alarm, and remained calm and undisturbed, in the
6*




66            THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
full possession of all my faculties. In some six or
eight minutes they ceased, and then I saw the bunch
of flowers which still lay on the table, taken up
without visible agency, and carried and placed in
a porcelain vase on the mantle shelf. I was sure I
was surrounded by invisible and mysterious agencies, but I began to apprehend that I was in the
condition of the Magician's apprentice, sung by
Goethe, who had overheard the word by which the
master evoked the spirits, but had forgotten or had
not learned that by which he dismissed them. I
however retained my equanimity, and felt that I had
gained at least something.
The next day I tried my experiments anew. This
time I merely mesmerized the table. It soon began
to move, raising itself about six inches from the
floor, and whirling round like a dancing dervish. It
seemed animated by a capricious or rather a mocking spirit, and it was some time before I could make
it behave with a little sobriety. But I had spent the
greater part of the night in consulting an old work
on magic, which some years before I picked up on
one of the Quais of Paris. It was written chiefly in
characters and hieroglyphics, which at first I could
not decipher; but at length I stumbled upon what
I found to be a key to their meaning, and which
was scarcely any meaning at all. However, I obtained one or two significant hints, and I went armed with a new power. I held a long dialogue with
the table, which, however, I shall not record. I as



TABLE TURNING.             67
certained the origin of the raps, how to produce
them, and how to read them. But this was but a
trifle. I would have the power visible to my eyes,
submissive to my orders, and speak to me in plain
and intelligible language, properly so called. I obtained a promise that this should come in due time,
but that for the present I must suffer the force to remain invisible, and be content with a language of
mere arbitrary signs.
I was informed that I was on the eve of gratifying my most secret and ardent wish, and that I
should have, in full measure, the knowledge and
power I craved. But I was not yet prepared, inasmuch as I craved them for an irreligious end. I was
moved by no noble motive. I was moved by curiosity, and, the love of power, for my own sake, not
from love and sympathy with mankind. I was not
in harmony with the great principles of nature, and
did not seek the real end of the universe. I needed
purification, a sublimation of my affections, and an
elevation of my aims. I had devoted myself to the
physical sciences, which was all very well, but I had
neglected moral science, which was not well. I had
only partially imbibed the spirit of the age, and took
no part in the great movements of the day; felt no
interest in the great questions of social amelioration
and progress. I had no sympathy with the poorest
and most numerous class, and made no efforts to
emancipate the slave, or to elevate woman to her
proper sphere in social and political life. I did not




68            THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
properly love my race, and had no due appreciation
of humanity. I had great talents,, great abilities,
and might, if I would, make myself the Messiah of
the nineteenth centuTy.
But what had I done? What good cause could
boast of having had me for its friend and advocate?
Had I aided the Moral Reform Association? Had
I raised my voice in behalf of the Abolitionists.?
Had Owen or Fourier found me a coadjutor in
time of need? Had I risked my popularity in
defending new and unpopular sects, those prophets
of the future? Or had I given my sympathy to
those noble spirits everywhere moving society, and
risking their lives to overthrow the tyranny of church
and state, to conquer liberty, and to raise up the
down-trodden millions of mankind? No, no; I had
done nothing of all this. I might have been kind
and useful to this or that individual, and sympathized
with suffering when immediately under my eyes, and
removable or mitigable by my individual effort; but
I had not sympathized with humanity, and labored
to relieve the poor and destitute, to enlighten the
ignorant and superstitious of remote and neglected
regions. The age is philanthropic, and love is the
great miracle-worker. of our times. In love you
place yourself in harmony with the source of all
things, make yourself one with God, and possessor
of his omnipotence. Learn to love, associate yourself heart and soul with the movement party of the
times, and you will soon render yourself capable of




TABLE TURNING.             69
receiving an answer to your questions and your
wishes.
It must not be supposed that all this was told me
at once, or in plain, direct teens. It was told me
only a little at a time, and in a very indirect and
cumbersome mode of communication. It required
several weeks daily communing with my mesmerized table, and in spelling out the raps with which
I was favored. But though it reproved me, I was
still delighted. The power was good, and this accorded with my previous conviction. I regarded the
power which, by mesmerism, was brought into play,
as one of the primordial laws or elemental forces of
nature, and as nature was good, as it worked always
to a good end, of course I could hope to avail myself of it only in proportion as I myself became
good and devoted to the end to which nature herself
works. God will work with and for us, only as we
work with and for him; that is, for the end for which
he himself works. As to the intelligence apparently
possessed by this force, that was in harmony with
what of philosophy I had. Is not God infinite, universal intelligence? and is he not the original and
similitude of the universe? What, then, is the universe itself but an emanation of infinite and universal intelligence. All creatures participate their
creator, for they are nothing without him, and therefore all that exists must participate intelligence, or
be a participated intelligence, and, of course, the
higher the order of existence, the greater and more




70            THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
comprehensive its intelligence. All nature bears evidence that its laws are the laws of reason, and that
its primitive forces are intelligent forces. How, then,
should this force not be intelligent, and if intelligent,
far more intelligent than I?
I resolved to prepare. for placing myself in immediate relation with infinite power and intelligence.
I thought I caught a glimpse of a deeper significance in the words, "ye shall be as gods," than had
been generally suspected, and I began to think in
real earnest that my sweet lady friend in Philadelphia, who had so eloquently and lovingly defended
Eve in eating the forbidden fruit, was quite right,
and that her disobedience was really a brave and
heroic act. Man could really become as a god, but
the priests had invented the prohibition to prevent
him. The god of the priests, then, could not be the
true God, and Satan, instead of being regarded as
the enemy, should be, as the author of Festus seems
to teach, loved and honored as the friend of man.
A new light seemed to break in at once upon my
mind. The world had hitherto worshipped a false
god; it had called evil good, and good evil; it had
enshrined in its temples the enemy of man, and
chained to the Caucasian rock that god Prometheus,
who was the true and noble friend and benefactor of
the race.




71
CHAPTER VII.
A LESSON IN PHILANTHROPY.
FULL of my new resolution, I immediately set
myself at work to carry it into effect. The safest
and most expeditious way of doing it, I thought,
would be to place myself at once in communication
with some prominent and well-instructed philanthropist. Accordingly, I started forthwith for Philadelphia, to consult the beautiful and fascinating young
lady, who, in my previous visit, had so warmly and
energetically defended the eating of the forbidden
fruit at the suggestion of that first of.philanthropists, as a brave, heroic, and disinterested act. She,
of all my acquaintances and friends, was unquestionably the one best fitted to complete my initiation- into the mysteries of philanthropy, and to inspire
and direct me in my efforts at world-reform.
This lady, whom, out of respect to the great Montanus, who claimed to be the Paraclete or Comforter,
and professed to have the power of working miracles very much of the character of those wrought by
our modern mesmerizers and spiritualists, I must be
permitted to call Priscilla, had some years before
touched my fancy, and if the truth must be confessed, had made more than an ordinary impression




72            THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
on my heart. She had often visited me in my waking dreams, as a lovely, though flitting vision. She
was at my last visit at least twenty-five years old,
but as fresh and as blooming as at seventeen, when
first I had the pleasure of meeting her. She was a
sweet lady, with a lovely and graceful figure, exquisitely moulded, regular and expressive features,
and as learned, as brilliant, as fascinating, and as
enthusiastic as the celebrated Hypatia of Alexandria, who stirred up the zeal of the good monks
of Nitria, gave so much trouble to Saint Cyrill,
and spread such a halo around expiring paganism.
She had been sent by the Abolition Society as a
delegate to the great Anti-Slavery World's Convention at London, and being denied a seat in
that illustrious body, because a woman, she had
turned her, attention to the question of woman's
rights, and, after travelling a few months on the
continent, had returned home well instructed in
Godwin's Political Justice, and a devout believer in
Mary Wolstonecroft. She was liberal in her views,
and very far from being a "one-idea" woman. Her
mind was large and comprehensive, and her heart
was capacious and loving enough to embrace and
warm all classes of reformers, white, red, black, religious, moral, political, social, and domestic.
The morning after my arrival in the City of Brotherly Love, I called on Priscilla at her residence in
Arch Street, as I supposed with her mother. I found
her surrounded by some ten or a dozen reformers,




A LESSON IN PHILANTHROPY.        73
variously dressed; some in petticoats, some in pantaloons; some with and some without beards; the
majority appearing to be of what grammarians call
the epicene gender. She greeted me kindly, and requested me to be seated; she would be disengaged
in a few moments. I took a seat, and amused myself as well as I could in studying the interesting
group before me, and considering the sort of materials that go to the making up of a world-reformer,
and the charming associates I was likely to have in
my new career. Having listened to their several reports, heard their suggestions, and given them her
directions, Priscilla soon dismissed them with a sweet
smile, and a graceful salute with her hand, that would
have done credit to the grace and dignity of an
empress.  She then seated herself near me, and
welcomed me most cordially and affectionately to
Philadelphia. My visit was an unexpected pleasure,
but all the more welcome. " But," she exclaimed,
looking me more closely in the face, and struck with
my changed and careworn expression, " what in the
world, my friend, has happened to you?"
I was about to reply, when I observed that we
were not alone. An exceedingly meek and submissive-looking man, if man he could be called, had
just entered the room, and seemed to be hesitating
whether to advance or retreat. I looked inquiringly
at Priscilla.
" O, it is only my husband," she replied. Then
turning, with her sweet face to him, with an inde7




74            THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
finable charm in her soft musical tones, said, " You
may leave us, dear James. This gentleman and I
would be alone."
He quietly retreated through the door he had entered, gently closed it, and went away without speaking a word, or betraying the least sign of discontent.
" But, my dear madam," said I, " this takes me by
surprise. I was not aware that you had a husband."
" Possibly not; yet I have been married these five
years."
" What! you were married when I was in the city
last year and had the pleasure of meeting you, and
having that most pleasant and instructive conversation with you?"
" Most assuredly."
"' This alters my plan. I had made up my mind, —"
" Not to marry me yourself? "
" Pardon me, my dear madam, but I own that I
had dreamed of something of the sort."
"You might have done worse. I could have made
you a good wife, but you would never have made
me a good husband."
"'Why not?  I am not precisely a man to be
slightly rejected."
" That may be; and had you proposed in season,
I might not have rejected you. I am glad, however,
that you did not, for 1 might have loved you, and
you alone, and then I should never have become a
philanthropist, and devoted all my sympathies and
energies to the emancipation of my sex, and to the




A LESSON IN PHILANTHROPY.         75
development and progress of my race. You would
have engrossed all my thoughts and affections, and
have been my tyrant."
"But if I had loved you in return, and laid my
own heart at your feet?"
"That would have made the matter worse. In
loving me you would only have loved yourself, and
sought only your own pleasure. Men usually love
only to sacrifice her they love to themselves; while
woman, when she loves, is ready to sacrifice herself
to her beloved. Man's- love is selfish; woman's is
disinterested."''"Women are disinterested creatures, and never
exact any return for their love!"
"They are more disinterested than you believe.
There is nothing that a true woman will not do for
him she loves. She will abandon herself without
reserve to his wishes, go through fire and water, nay,
hell itself, for him, and take delight in damning her
own soul, to please him."
"That is because her love is an instinct, a blind
passion, a sort of madness or frenzy, not a sober,
rational affection."
" Perhaps so; but it is rather because her love is
love. Unhappily, woman feels, she does not reason,
or if she reasons, it is only in the interest of her feeling. Reason is cold, calculating; love is warm and
self-sacrificing. It is heedless of consequences."
"And therefore is the better for having reason or
prudence for a companion."' It is clear that you have never loved."




76            THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
"Perhaps not; but at any rate I think I could:have loved you very much in your own fashion."
"That is not improbable, at least, as far as it is in
your calculating nature; for I have been thought to
have my attractions, and it would not be difficult to
make any man my slave - unless I loved him. Yet
you would always have loved me as a master, and
have always held me in subjection. There are natures born to command. You would never have
loved me as my dear James loves me, and never
have been the meek, submissive, quiet, dear good
man that he is. His love is not tyrannical, and it
imposes no burden on me. He interferes with none
of my plans, restrains none of my movements, and
is satisfied with feeling that he is my husband and
belongs to me, without once presuming to think of
me as his wife and as belonging to him."
"That is charming, and must, no doubt, entirely
satisfy your heart."
" That is my own affair. But I will tell you that
it does not, and that it does."
"But that is a riddle; pray rede it."
" It does not satisfy the deep want of the heart to
love, for no woman can love, with all her heart, a
man she can make her slave, or who does not maintain himself as her master. But as I would not become any one's slave, as I would not that any man
should engross all my affections, and compel me to
live all my life in love's delirium, it satisfies, and
more than satisfies me. It leaves me free to be a
philanthropist, and does not compel me to give up to




A LESSON IN PHILANTHROPY.        77
one what was meant for mankind. If my husband
engrossed all my affections 1 should be happy and
contented at home, and should never seek relief in
going abroad."
"And should it not be so?"
" Consult the parsons and old-fashioned moralists,
and they will tell you that it should. But I am a
philanthropist. My James loves me sincerely, warmly, disinterestedly, consults my wishes, does whatever
I require of him, has full confidence in me, is proud
of me, and never doubts that whatever I do is perfect. That is enough."
" But do you return his love with a disinterestedness and generosity equal to his own?"
"Why should I?  It is enough for him that I
permit him to love me, and to call himself my husband. For myself, I remain free to be a philanthropist. I cannot give my heart to any individual. I
reserve its deepest and holiest affections for mankind."
" But mankind, without individuals, is an abstraction, a nullity; and to love the race, without loving
individuals, is worse than loving a statue or a
shadow."
"Ah! my dear friend, I see that you have not
studied the profound philosophy of Plato, and are
still a Nominalist, and therefore an egotist. You
are still a psychologist, stuck fast in the slough of
individualism."
"It may be so, my dear Priscilla, but I am willing
7V




78            THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
and even anxious to be liberated and set right. I
have resolved, let come what will, to be a philanthropist, and to become a world-reformer; and it is
to solicit your instructions and assistance to this end
that I have visited your city, and sought my interview with you this morning."
She shook her head and looked doubtingly.
" Do not doubt it," I said, " I am serious, never more
serious in my life. I amn or the verge of important
discoveries, and perhaps well-nigh within reach of a
more than human power. But it is necessary that
I at first become a philanthropist, unite myself with
the movement party of the age, and take a decided
and an active part in the great philanthropic reforms
now so widely agitated, and live henceforth for mankind, and not for myself alone."
4" Is this true? "
" Most assuredly; as true as that I am here present."
Slowly conviction seemed to fasten on her mind
as she saw my serious and earnest manner, and indeed my agitation, as I rose from my chair and stood
before her. A brilliant joy suddenly sparkled from
her large, liquid, deep blue eye, and radiated over her
whole face. Springing from her seat, and seizing
me by both my hands, " This is too much," she exclaimed. " This I had wished, had prayed for, but
had not dared hope." Her eyes filled with sweet
tears, and, as if overcome with her emotions, she
sunk into my arms, and rested her head upoh my




A LESSON IN PHILANTHROPY.       79
shoulder. I pressed her to my breast. But she instantly recovered herself, and we both resumed our
seats. After a few moments' silence, Priscilla, with
an animated and contented look, exclaimed:" Now, my dear, dearest friend, I have hope. The
good work will now go bravely on. Pure, noble,
and strong-minded women to cooperate with me, I
have found, but a man; a full-grown man, with a
clear head, and a well-balanced mind, heretofore
found I not. The men who have been ready to
embark with me, are dwarfs, pigmies, simpletons,
needy adventurers, cheats, knaves, or crack-brained
enthusiasts, with but one idea in their heads, and
that only-half an idea. Drill them as I may, I can
make nothing of them."' But," said I, maliciously, " is not your dear James
a philanthropist and reformer?"
" My dear James is my husband," she said, with
dignity and spirit. "But you are slow to comprehend these things. The great and glorious work of
regenerating man and society, cannot be carried on
either by man alone or by woman alone. The two
must be united and cooperate, or there can be no
spiritual, as there can be no natural, offspring. But
in regeneration, in the palingenesia, it is not at all
necessary that they be husband and wife after the
flesh. Married and made one in spirit they must
be, but not married and made one flesh. Man and
woman are each other's half, and they must be
brought together to make a complete, active, and




80               THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
productive whole. But the relation of husband and
wife is a purely domestic relation, and looks solely
to a domestic end. If each finds the complementary
half in the other, both are satisfied, contented, and
neither has any wish or motive to look beyond the
circle of the purely domestic affections."
" That is, they who find their bliss at home have
no need and no temptation to go a-roaming."
" Precisely."
" Then it is unhappiness, discontent, uneasiness,
want, at home,- that makes men and women turn
philanthropists, and take to world-reform?"
" Yes; and herein you learn the deep philosophy of
life, and the significance of that Religion of Sorrow,
of which Carlyle speaks so touchingly, and which
the world has professed for two thousand years, but
which it has never understood. Hear my favorite
poet': —
poet  The Fiend that man harries
Is love of the Best;
Yawns the pit of the Dragon
Lit by rays from the Blest;
The Lethe of nature
Can't trance him again,
Whose soul sees the Perfect,
Which his eyes seek in vain.'Profounder, profounder
Man's spirit must dive;
To his aye-rolling orbit
No goal will arrive;
The heavjls that now draw him,
With sweetness untold,
Once found, — for new heavens
He spurneth the old.




A LESSON IN PHILANTHROPY.                 81' Pride ruined the angels,
Their shame then restores;
And the joy that is sweetest
Lurks in the stings of remorse.
Have I a lover
Who is noble and free?
I would he were nobler
Than to love me.'Eterne alternation,
Now follows, now flies,
Under pain, pleasure,
Under pleasure, pain lies.
Love works at the centre,
Heart-heaving'lway,
Forth speed the strong pulses
To the borders of day.'
"The'love of the Best' is our innate and deathless desire of happiness, our being's end and aim.
Happiness is ever'the coy maiden, that still woos us
onward, and flies ever as pursued,'Man never is, but always to be blest.'
In this deep ever-recurring want of the soul for happiness, the source of all our pain and sorrow, is the
spring and motive of all our activity, and in activity
is all our life and joy.  Hence,'under pain pleasure,
under pleasure pain lies.' All our life and joy have
their root in pain and sorrow, in this eternal craving
of the soul to be what we are not, and to have what
we have not. The pain and sorrow spur us on, and
lead us to acquire and possess. But no possession
satisfies us. The most coveted is no sooner obtained
than it is loathed and cast away.




*82              THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.'The heavens that now draw him,
With sweetness untold,
Once found, -for new heavens
He spurneth the old.'
" Love dies in the wooing. The acquiring is more
than the possessing. All possessing leaves the heart
empty, — an aching void within, which nothing fills
or can fill., This aching void will not let us rest,
will not leave us in repose, which is only another
name fqr inaction, death, but compels us to exert ourselves, to struggle with all our strength and energy
to make new acquisitions. In this struggle, in these
efforts, humanity is developed, and the progress of
the race carried on."
Carried  on, my dear Priscilla, towards what?
Sings not your poet,' Profounder, profounder
Man's spirit must dive,
To his aye-rolling orbit
No goal will arrive?"'
" That is the glorious secret, my dear friend. The
end of man is not the possession, but the pursuit, of
happiness, or rather eternal progress and growth.
By the fact that the pain, the want, the aching void,
remains eternally, there is and must be eternal activity, therefore eternal development and progress of
humanity."
" But as that development and progress leave us
as far as ever from happiness, or fixed and durable
good, I see not in what consists- their value."




A LESSON IN PHILANTHROPY.          83
" Their value is obvious.  Good is relative to the
end of a being, and consists in going to the end for
which it exists. Progress being our end, of course
our good must consist in making progress. This
progress is the progress of the race, and is effected
by the activity of individuals, and to it all the activity of individuals, whether what is called vicious
or virtuous, alike contributes."
" If all our activity, our vices, and crimes, as well
as our virtues, contribute to this progress, or to the
realization of our destiny, I do not see any great
call for us to be world reformers. Moreover, our
destiny seems to be any thing but a cheering one.
Your poet-philosophy is apparently very sad. If we
are destined to chase forever a happiness that flies
us, a good that recedes as we advance, all exertion
seems to me as idle, as useless as that of the child
striving to grasp the rainbow."
" So it may seem to you, for you are, as yet, not a
philanthropist.' You are still affected by your egotism, and unable to appreciate any activity that does
not bring something solid and durable to the individual. Here is the rock on which all old-fashioned
morality splits. Individuals are nothing in themselves; they are real, substantial, only in humanity.
The race is every thing. Individuals die, the race
survives. Men and women have no substantiality
of their own.  They are merely the bubbles that rise
on the surface of the broad ocean of humanity, burst,
disappear, and become as if they had not been.




84            THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
Foolish bubbles, ye forget your own nothingness,
and would arrogate to yourselves all the rights and
prerogatives, glory and happiness of humanity. The
race is not for individuals; individuals are for the
race. They are simply the sensations, sentiments,
and cognitions of the race, in which it manifests its
own inherent virtuality, and through which it is
developed and carried forward in its endless career
through the ages,- through which it grows and
realizes its own eternal and glorious destiny. The
progress you are to seek is not the progress of individuals, for individuals have, properly speaking, no
progress; but the progress of the race, which is and
can be effected only by the activity of individual men
and women."
" Still, I do not comprehend the work there is for
world-reformers."
"Why, you are stupid, Doctor. All activity,
whether called vicious or criminal, is good, for it
aids progress. But nothing is vicious, criminal, or
sinful, except that which represses the free activity
of individuals, and thus hinders the development
and growth of the race. It was, therefore, not a
friend, but an enemy, that imposed upon our first
parents the prohibition to eat the fruit of the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil. It was a friend,
not an enemy, that inspired Eve with the thought
and the courage to disregard that prohibition, to
reach forth her hand and pluck the fruit, and having
eaten thereof, to give it also unto her husband. The
fable was invented by priests and governors as a




A LESSON IN PHILANTHROPY.        85
means of imposing their system of restraints, of
establishing their restrictive policy, to which they
have adhered, as old fogie politicians adhere to protection. They have always had a horror of free
trade, as incompatible with their monopoly, and
have made it their study to repress our native activity, to keep us cabined, cribbed, and confined,
within the narrow enclosure of their hidebound sys.
tems, of their immoral, contracted, galling, and
senseless conventionalism. They will not allow
nature, humanity, fair play. They brand, as from
the enemy of souls, all free activity. The heart
must move according to their rules, and love or hate
as they bid; the mind must run only in the grooves
which they have hollowed out, and never dare search
beneath their solemn shams,' or send sharp and piercing glances into the artificial world they have built up
around us. We must repress our purest and noblest
instincts, and crucify our sweetest and holiest affections. Everywhere restraint, repression, tyranny.
The church tyrannizes over the state; the state
tyrannizes over man and society; man and society
tyrannize over woman, making her a puppet, a toy,
or a drudge. Here, my dear, dear friend, behold
your work, and that of your fellow-reformers.  Go
forth and break down this vast system of tyranny.
Emancipate the state from the church, iman and
society from the state, and woman from man and
society.)"
"But some government, some restraint is neces



86             THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
sary to keep our appetites, passions, and lusts within
bounds, and to maintain peace and order in the community."
"Alas! my friend, how hard it is for you to cease
to be an egotist, and to learn to be a philanthropist.
Know, that philanthropy seeks no individual, no exclusive good, and does not consist in loving and
seeking the welfare of our fellow men and women.
It isthe love of man, not men, and seeks the welfare
of the race, not of individuals. The welfare of the
race consists ill progress, which is effected only by
free activity. All free activity is good, virtuous,
right. Virtue is in action, not in non-action, which
is death, the wages of sin. The only good is free
activity, and every conceivable good is included in
that one word, LIBERTY."
"But liberty, if not sustained and regulated by
authority, may degenerate into license."
" Still, mon pauvre ami, in bondage to the law,
and ignorant of the glorious liberty of the children
of God. Away with your legal cant. By the deeds
of the law no flesh ever was or ever will be justified.
Long had the world groaned in this ignoble bondage,
but know you not that it was to set them free that the
Liberator came?  0, liberty! sweet, sacred liberty!
how I love thee! My heart and soul pant for thee
as the thirsty hind pants for brooks of water. My
flesh cries out for thee.'Thou art my God, and to
thee I consecrate my life, my love, and on thy altar
I offer myself a living holocaust."




A LESSON IN PHILANTHROPY.        87
"Is there really no difference between liberty and
license?"
" Be not the dupe of words.'You seek to be a
philanthropist. Philanthropy, I tell you again and
again, is the love of man, mankind, humanity. Who
that loves humanity would repress any thing human?
If man is the supreme object of your love, how can
you distrust any human tendency, or fear any human
activity? "
" Suppose, my dear Priscilla, who speak to me as
one inspired, I should forget myself so far as not to
remember James, and proceed to make love to his
wife?"
" She would say you have a very short memory,
and no very great sagacity. She would most likely
know how to oppose her activity to yours."
"And thus surrender her doctrine; for in such case
her activity would overcome mine, or mine would
overcome and restrain hers."
" Not necessarily. There would be a struggle of
opposing forces, a free activity on both sides, and
whatever the result, a development and progress of
humanity. But all this is folly. There can be no
love passages between us. We understand each
other on such matters. United, married, if you will,
in spirit, we are, or if not, must be, but we have no
leisure or inclination for dalliance, which would be
foreign to our mission. Our thoughts, I trust, yours
as well as mine, rise higher, and move in a serener
atmosphere. But be not disheartened. Our relation is, and must be, purely spiritual."




88            THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
" I did but ask the question, my dear Priscilla, in
order to see if you were prepared to carry out your
doctrine to its legitimate conclusion."
"That was foolish. No true woman ever stops
half way in her principles, or shrinks from carrying
them out, by a cold and cowardly calculation of
consequences. She leaves that to masculine virtue.
When once women adopt a principle, they are prepared to follow it to its last results, without counting the sacrifice. You men cannot do this. You
are always hesitating, deliberating, craving the ends
but afraid to grasp it, compromising with your reason and your conscience. Recollect Macbeth, and
Lady Macbeth, as painted by Shakspeare, who knew
man's heart and woman's too. Here is the reason
why you always stop half way in your reforms, or
never do more than patch a piece of new cloth on
to an old garment, which only makes the rent worse.
Hence your need of woman's straightforward logic,
her disinterestedness, her singleness of heart, her
constancy of purpose, and her invincible courage."
"But perhaps, my dear lady, women are not seldom rash, and what you commend in them is the
effect of narrowness of view, and not of that clear
and enlarged comprehensiveness, that " many sidedness," to use a Germanism, which is desirable in
a true and trustworthy reformer. Perhaps she lacks
prudence, and may not use sufficient caution in
adopting her principles, and thus may adopt false
principles, and find ruin where she imagines she is
to find only safety."




A LESSON IN PHILANTHROPY.        89
" It is safer to trust her instincts than man's reason. Yet I deny not the danger to which you allude,
and therefore it is that it is never safe to trust her to
act alone. Hence the necessity, in all our movements for reform, of the strict union of man and
woman. She needs him as a drag on her too great
rapidity of motion, and to temper her zeal with his
prudence, and he needs her to inspire him with
courage, energy, and love. Either is only a half
without the other, and both must be united, as I
have already told you, to form a complete and productive whole."
"I think I now understand what is meant by
philanthropy. I have the idea, but as a pure idea it
amounts to nothing. We must realize it, or reduce
it to practice. Our great work is to remodel the
world according to this idea. But how is this to be
done? "
" That is undoubtedly the most difficult question,
although our difficulties will not end even there.
When we have ascertained what we are to do, and
how it is to be done, we have still the difficult task
to do it. But courage, mon ami. Once started, reforms are carried forward by their own momentum,
and, like popular rumor, grow as they go onward.
For myself, I am not exclusive, and have no special
plan of my own. I listen to all sorts of plans, and
countenance all sorts of reforms. None of them
commend themselves in all respects to my understanding any more than to my taste. But all seem
8*




90            THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
to me to be inspired by the same spirit, and in different ways to work to one and the same end. There
is a diversity of gifts. All see not truth under the
same aspect; none, perhaps, see it under all aspects
at once, and each sees it under some special aspect.
We must tolerate them all; for to attempt to bring
them all into order, and to compel them all to think
alike, and to work after one and the same manner,
or in one and the same method, is absurd, and if
successful, would only establish in another, and perhaps in an aggravated form, the very system of
tyranny and repression we are laboring to demolish.
You know something already of our reformers, and
the most prominent are now in the city, holding
conventions.,We have representatives from all the
Northern and Middle States, and several English and
Continental philanthropists. Some of them, I cannot say how many, will meet at my house this evening, and you must meet with them. You will find
their conversation interesting and instructive, and
perhaps you will become acquainted with some who
will give you valuable hints, although, to confess the
truth. I have no very high opinion of any of them,
taken individually. Be sure and not fail me; come
early, at seven o'clock."
So saying, she rose, gave me her hand, au revoir,
and I departed to my lodgings, charmed with the
sweetness and fascinated by the manner of Priscilla,
rather than enlightened by her philosophy or convinced by her reasons.




91
CHAPTER VIII.
A LESSON IN WORLD-REFORM.
WHEN I returned in the evening, I found Priscilla
in high spirits, more radiant and fascinating than
ever. Her company were slowly assembling in her
luxuriously, and even elegantly furnished rooms.
Among the earlier arrivals were my friend, Mr.
Winslow, and strange enough, my Puritan acquaintance, Mr. Cotton, who had recently become a resident of Philadelphia, and pastor of a Presbyterian
church in that city. Others were announced, some
whom I knew, but more whom I knew not. The
majority were from the middle and upper classes,
although all classes of society had their male or
female representatives. The principle on which they
came together was universal philanthropy, and whoever was a philanthropist, and had an idea, or the
smallest fraction of an idea, had the entree, unless
he had African blood in his veins. All were of
course abolitionists, or friends of the blacks, and
therefore excluded studiously the negroes from their
social gatherings. Generally speaking, all professed
universal democracy, and hence were very exclusive
in their feelings, and aristocratic in their tone and
bearing; that is, so far as aristocracy consists in a




92            THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
consciousness, not of one's own worth, but of the
worthlessness of his brother. The company was too
large to have only one centre, and gradually separated into groups according to their special tastes
and tendencies. In the centre of each group was
some male or female reformer, distinguished from
the rest by superior knowledge, volubility, or impudence, and regarded as the oracle of his or her own
set, for however loud people's profession of democratic equality, nature will show itself, and every set
of them will have its chief, honored as my Lord or
my Lady.
Mr. Winslow had been dismissed from his parish,
and having no other means of getting his living, he
had followed the example of Mr. Sowerby, and devoted himself to lecturing and experimenting on
mesmerism. He was urging upon Priscilla the importance of forming mesmeric circles in all the cities.
towns, and villages, of the Union. The first thing
to be done was to organize a philanthropic Ladies'
Aid Society, for the purpose of supporting a mesmeric travelling agent or missionary, whose business
should be to form these circles or associations, instruct some member of each in the art of mesmerizing, and serve as their common centre and bond of
union. If no one more worthy were found he would
himself consent to accept, for a moderate salary,
such agency, or to be such missionary. These circles formed, and affiliated visibly and invisibly to
each other, would become a powerful body, and




A LESSON IN WORLD-REFORM.          93
exert a moral influence which both the church and
the state, politicians and clergymen, would be obliged to respect. In this way he was sure all the elementary forces of nature herself could be brought to
bear on the great and glorious work of world-reform.
Mr. Edgerton, a New England Transcendentalist,
a thin, spare man, with a large nose, and a cast of
Yankee shrewdness in his not unhandsome face,
was not favorable to this plan. "I dislike," he
said, "associations. They absorb the individual, and
establish social despotism. All set plans of worldreform are bad. Every one must have a theory, a
plan, a Morrison's pill. No one trusts to nature.
None are satisfied with wild flowers or native forests.
All seek an artificial garden. They will not hear therobin sing unless it is shut up in'a cage. The rich
undress of nature is an offence, and she must be
decked out in the latest fashion of Paris or London,
and copy the grimaces of a French dancing-master,
or lisp like an Andalusian beauty, before they will
open their hearts to her magic power. Say to all
this, Get behind me, Satan. Dare assert yourselves;
plant yourselves on your imperishable instincts;
sing your own song of joy, your own wail of grief;
speak your own word; tell what your own soul
seeth, and leave the effect to take care of itself.
Eschew the crowd, eschew self-consciousness, form
no plan, propose no end, seek no moral, but speak out
from your own heart; build as builds the bee her cell,
sing as sings the bird, the grasshopper, or the cricket."




94              THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
" So," said Mr. Merton, a young man, with a fine
classic head and face, who seemed to have been
drawn hither by mere curiosity, " so you think the
nearer men approach to birds and insects the better
it will be for the world."
" I never dispute," replied Mr. Edgerton. " I utter
the word given me to utter, and leave it as the
ostrich leaveth her eggs. Men should be seers, not
philosophers; prophets, not reasoners. I never offer
proof of what I say. I could not prove it, if asked.
If it is true, genuine, the, fit word, opportunely
spoken, it will prove itself. If it approves not itself
to you, it is not for you.  You are not prepared to
receive it.  It is not true for you. Be it so. It is
true for me, and for those like me. Fash not yourself about it, but leave us to enjoy it in peace."
" But are we to understand," replied Mr. Merton,
"that truth varies as vary individual minds?"
"Sir, you will excuse me. I am no logician, and
eschew dialectics. Truth is one,? it is the Whole, the
All, the universal Being. It is a reality in, under,
and over all, manifesting itself under an infinite
variety of aspects.  Every one beholds it under
some one of its aspects, no one beholds it under all.
Each mind in that it is real, is itself, is a manifestation of it, but no one is it in its integrity and universality, any more than the bubble on its surface is the
whole ocean. Under each particular bubble lies, however, the whole ocean, and if it will speak not from its
diversity, its bubbleosity, in which sense it is only an




A LESSON IN WORLD-REFORM.         95
apparition, an appearance, a show, an unreality, but
from what is real in it, from its real substantial self, it
may truly call itself the whole ocean. So, under each
individual mind lies all truth, all reality, all being;
and hence, in so far as they are real, all minds are one
and the same. Men are weak, are puny, differ from
one another because they seek to live in their diversity, and to find their truth, their reality, in their individuality. Let them eschew their individuality,
which is to their reality, their real self, only what
the bubbleosity of the bubble is to the ocean, and
fall back on their identity, on the universal truth
which underlies them. If they will be men, real
men, not make-believes, strong men, thinking men,
let them be themselves, sink back into their underlying reality, on the One Man, and suffer the universal Over-Soul to flow into them, and speak
through them without let or impediment."
" We must," said another Transcendentalist, sometimes called the American Orpheus, " return to the
simplicity of childhood.'Except ye be converted
and become as a little child, ye shall in no wise
enter into the kingdom of heaven.' The man who
thinks, Rousseau has well said, is already a depraved
animal. All learning is a forgetting; science and
wisdom  are gathered from  babes and sucklings.
We are not prepared as yet to talk of world-reform.
We must be before we can do; be men before we
can do men's work. All being is in doing; rather
all doing is in being. Ideas are the essences, the




96             THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
realities of things. Seek ideas. They will take to
themselves hands, build them a temple, and instaurate their worship. Seek not ideas from books; they
are lies. Seek them not of the learned and greyhaired; they have lost them. Be docile and childlike; seat yourself by the cradle, at the feet of awful
childhood, and look into babies' eyes."
". What we want to cure the evils of society,"
broke in Mr. Kerrison, -- a tinker, I believe, - a small
man in a snuff-colored frock coat, with sharp grey
eyes, lank cheeks, a short nose, a pointed chin, and
squeaking voice, "is a Children's Protection Society;
a society that shall protect children from the indelicacy, the cruelty, and inhumanity of their brutal
parents. There is nothing more shocking to our
finer sensibilities, or more outrageous to true philanthropy, than to see a full-grown woman, tall and
stout, with a red face, fiery eyes, and a harsh voice, -
or a full-grown man, yet taller and stouter, stern and
awful in his look, terrible in his anger tones, - seize
a poor helpless little boy or girl, — yes, or girl,not more than three or four years old it may be,
and taking him or her across the knee, strike on
the very seat of her or him, blow after blow, till the
poor little thing screams with pain and agony. It
is indelicate, cruel, barbarous. How would the
father or mother like to be treated in the same way?
It blunts the delicate sensibility of the child, sours
his temper, hardens his heart, develops and strengthens all his harsh and angry feelings, and prepares




A LESSON IN WORLD-REFORM.         97
him to be, when he grows up, as bad as was his
father or his mother."
"Our friend," added Mr. Silliman, an amiable
young minister, a Unitarian, I believe, or, as he said,
a Preacher of the religion of Humanity, "has, I
think, gone to the root of the matter. The evils of
individuals and of society have their origin in the
harsh, cruel, unfeeling, and indelicate manner in
which parents bring up their children. Children
should never be restrained, should never be crossed;
they should always be caressed by the soft, delicate
hand of love, be surrounded by sweet and smiling
faces, by lovely and attractive images, live in communion with fresh and fragrant nature, and find life
all one fairy day."
"' Young America," interposed Mr. Merton, "will
thank you both, I have no doubt. The abolition of
corporal chastisement will meet the decided approval of our little folks, and perhaps of our patriots.
It is questionable whether this flogging of children
is not an infringement upon equal rights. I do not
see what the father in my town, universal democrat
as he was, had to reply to the question put to him
the other day by Young America. -A little rascal,
some ten or twelve years old, had done some mischief, for which his father flogged him. Young
America bore it with heroic fortitude, as if the
honor of his country and of the race was at stake
in his person, and when it was over, with the calm
and dignified air of a man and a freeman, folded his
9




98            THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
arms across his breast, looked up to his father, and
asked, —'Father, is not this a free country?''Yes.'' By what right, then, do you flog me?'"
"Parents," said a cross-grained old maid, "are
wholly incapable of bringing up their children.
They have no judgment, no steadiness; at one moment whipping them without rhyme or reason, and
the next soothing them with candy; and smothering
them with caresses. They impart to them their
own tempers, passions, weaknesses, and prejudices.
There should be established infant schools at the
public expense, where all the children, as soon as
twelve months old, should be placed, and brought
up by proper persons trained and prepared in normal
schools for that purpose."
" You will have to go farther back than that, my
good woman," said Mr. Long, an English gentleman just arrived in the country and announced as
the Prophet of the Newness. " Children are born
with an inclination to evil, and are hardly born before they manifest vicious tempers and a fondness
for doing precisely what they ought not to do. If
suffered to have their own way, they would never
live to grow up. They must, as they are now born,
be restrained and even whipped, for their own good.
Here the sins of the parents are visited upon the
children. We must begin with the parents. We
live in a depraved state, and children inherit vitiated
moral and physical constitutions from their fathers
and mothers. We must look to this fact, and sternly




A LESSON IN WORLD-REFORM.         99
prohibit all persons of obviously vitiated moral or
physical constitutions from begetting or bearing
children. After that we must turn our attention to
improving the breed, as our English farmers have
done in the case of their horses, oxen, cows, sheep,
swine, dogs, and hens."
"' That may be rather difficult to manage in a free
country," said Dr. Muzzleton, a professor of Surgery
in a Western medical college, "and can hardly be
tried, except by the master with his negroes on our
Southern plantations. The hopes of philanthropists
must rest on something more practical, and less difficult to be accomplished. The philanthropist's dependence is on dietetic reform. The vitiated moral
and physical constitution of parents, and which they
impart to their children, comes unquestionably from
the use of animal food. It is necessary, therefore,
to abolish the use of animal food, and have people
feed only on a vegetable diet. Nature shows this
in the very construction of the human teeth, which
are very different from those of the lion, the tiger,
and other carniverous animals. Carniverous animals have no grinders, and their teeth are fitted only
for tearing. Man has incisors and molars, which
shows that he was intended to cut and grind his
food."
"But which serve him very well, since he does
not usually eat flesh raw, but cooks it," remarked
Mr. Merton. "But the antediluvians eat no flesh.
They lived on a vegetable diet, were vegetarians,




100           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
and yet they became so corrupt that the Almighty
sent a flood and destroyed them all, with the excep —
tion of eight persons."
"Where do you learn that?" asked Dr. Muzzleton.
" From the Bible and tradition," replied Mr. MertonI.
All stared, and many broke out into a loud laugh,
at the joke of citing the Bible and tradition as
authority in an assembly of philanthropists and reformers. Dr. Muzzleton looked round with great
blandness, and said to Mr. Merton, " You see, my
young friend, the majority is against you. I respect
the Bible in matters pertaining to another world,
but I am speaking now as a man of science, not as
a theologian. I leave theology to the clergy," bowing on his right to Mr. Cotton, and on his left to Mr.
Winslow.
"I respect the Bible in theology no more than I
do in science," said Miss Rose Winter, a strongminded woman, and a decided reformer, of Jewish
descent. " The first thing for all reformers to do is
to destroy the authority of the Bible and emancipate the Christian world from its morality. It is the
great supporter of all abuses, and it and the church
are almost our only obstacles to overcome. It sanctions the use of wine and animal food, slavery and
the restitution of the fugitive slave, war and capital
punishment. It asserts the divine right of government. and forbids resistance to power. It is the




A LESSON IN WORLD-REFORM.        101
fountain of superstition, and the grand bulwark of
priestcraft. It calls woman the weaker vessel, forbids her to speak in meeting, and commands her to
be in subjection to her husband. We are fools and
madmen to talk of our reforms as long as we regard
the Bible as any thing more than a last year's almanac."
"In that I think you are right, my dear lady,"
said Mr. Cotton, dryly.
" I esteem the Bible a good book," said Mr. Winslow. " It contains more genuipe and sublime poetry
than any other book I am acquainted with, not even
excepting Homer. But I do not accept its plenary
inspiration, and I feel bound to believe only the
truths I find in it."
"And these," remarked Mr. Merton, "I suppose
are only what happens to accord with your own
opinions for the time being."
" The Bible," interposed Priscilla, "is a genuine
book, and faithfully records the real experience of
prophets and seers of old times, and is of no value
to us save as interpreted by the facts of each one's
own inner life.  Much of it is local, temporary,
colored by the nation and age that produced it, and
is no longer of any significance for us; but what
there is in it universal, that is the genuine utterance
of universal nature, and true for all persons, times,
and places, should be accepted, as we accept every
genuine word, by whomsoever uttered."
Mr. Merton shrugged his shoulders and said
9*




102           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
nothing; Mr. Cotton looked black, was scandalized,
and muttered, " Rank infidelity." " And what else,"
said a very gentlemanly young man, who had been
talking nonsense for an hour to a bevy, of young
ladies in a corner of the room, and apparently indifferent to the great matters under discussion,
"and what else did his reverence expect in a company of reformers?  Yet we are not really infidels.
We have only thrown off the mask, and ceased to
be hypocrites.  Whatever man's profession, ever
since it was said,'It is not good for man to be
alone,' and Eve was brought blushing to his bower,
woman has been the real shrine at which he has
worshipped. This is our ancestral religion, and true
to the religion of my fathers, I make woman my
Divinity, and lay my offering at Leila's feet."
"' Do not believe him," said a saucy young thing,
with as sparkling eye and pouting lips. " He worships only himself. Here I have been this half hour
trying to convince him that there is something mystic in woman, and that science and religion, as now
organized, are false and mischievous, because they
are the product of man's genius alone., I have said
all the flattering things I could to make him take
up the cause of Woman's Rights, and he has only
laughed at me."
" You wrong me, fair and adorable Leila; woman
reigns supreme now, and we are slaves; what more
can she ask?"
" She should be elevated to be the equal of man,"
said Leila.




A LESSON IN WORLD-REFORM.       103
"Lowered, my Leila would say," replied the
young gentleman.
" And placed in the possession of the same political franchises, have the right to vote at all elections, and be declared eligible to any and every
office political, civil, or military," continued Leila,
without heeding the interruption.
" But that," said Mr. Merton, "would be hardly
fair to us men, and would moreover be dangerous
to republican liberty. Mademoiselle Leila would
of course be a candidate for the Assembly. All the
young men would vote for her, because they would
secure her good graces, and all the old men would
do the same, in order to prove that they are not old,
and have not yet lost their sensibility to female
loveliness and worth; she would be elected unanimously. In the Assembly she would rise to propose some measure, throw aside her veil, beam forth
upon us with all her charms, and for the same reasons all would support her. She would reign as
a despot, which, as a republican, I must protest
against."
" She might have rivals; all men do not see with
the same eyes," sagely remarked a venerable spinster, with a dried and withered form and face,
puckering up her mouth, and endeavoring to look
killing."
"That is well thought of," said Mr. Merton.
"Besides," added Mr. Winslow, " the votes of the
women would be as numerous as those of the men,




104           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
and might be thrown for a candidate of the other
sex."
" And you may trust to the women themselves to
see that no one of their own sex has a monopoly of
power," added, caustically, Mr. Cotton.
" You are hard upon us women," pleaded Priscilla. " Women have their weaknesses as well as
men theirs, but they can love and admire beauty in
their own sex, as much as they do ugliness in men.
I do not suppose that placing them on an equality
in all respects with men will increase their power as
women, but it will increase their power as reasonable
human beings. I think woman would lose much of
her peculiar power as woman over man, and this I
should by no means regret. I would break down
the tyranny of sex as I would that of caste or class.
I would have men and women so trained, that they
could meet, converse, or act together as simple human beings, without ever recurring, even in thought,
to the difference of sex."
"That," said the young worshipper of woman,
" would be cruel. It would be like spreading a pall
over the sun, or extinguishing the lamp of life. Even
the garden of Eden
was a wild,
And man the hermit sighed, till woman smil'd."
"As long as I remember my mother or my sister,"
said Mr. Merton, "I would never meet a woman,
however high or however humble, without taking
note of the fact that she is a woman."




A LESSON IN WORLD-REFORM.        105
" Things are best as God made them," added Mr.
Cotton. " Men and women have each their peculiar
character and sphere. Women would gain nothing
by exchanging the petticoat for the breeches, or men
by exchanging the breeches for the petticoat."
" But I wish," said Leila, poutingly, "to be treated
as a reasonable being, and that the young gentlemen
who do me the honor to address me would treat me
as if I had common sense. I do not want compliments paid to my hands and feet, my face, lips,
nose, eyes, and eyebrows."
" And yet," said I, "my sweet Leila, they are,vell worth complimenting."
She smiled, and seemed not displeased.
"I  suspect," remarked Mr. Cotton, with his Puritan slyness, "that the young lady finds the affluence
of such compliments more endurable than she would
their absence."
"I do not deal much in compliments," said Mr.
Merton, "but I do not much fancy persons who are
always wise, and never open their mouths without
giving utterance to some grave maxim for the conduct of life. There is a time to be silly as well as a
time to be wise. Life is made up of little things,
and he is a sad moralist who has no leniency for
trifles.' I love myself to look upon a pretty face, and
find no great objection to those pleasant nothings
which are the current coin of well-bred conversation
between the sexes. Even a gallant speech, a happily-turned compliment, when it brings no blush to
the cheek of modesty, is quite endurable."




106           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
"I thought you were a parson, Mr. Merton," said
Priscilla, "and am surprised to find you so tolerant
of what it is said your cloth generally condemns."
"The fair Priscilla mav have mistaken my cloth.
I am a man, and I hope a gentleman. I love society, and find an exquisite charm in the social intercourse of cultivated men and women. That charm
would vanish were they to meet and converse, not
as men and women, gentlemen and ladies, but as
simple human beings. Could you carry out your
doctrine, your sex would, I fear, be the first to suffer
from it."
" Perhaps they would," said Priscilla; "but it is
woman's lot to suffer, and she was born to redeem
the race by her private sorrows. She will not shrink
from the sacrifice. You need her at the polls, in the
legislative halls, in the executive chair, on the judge's
bench, as well as in the saloon, to give purity and
elevation to your affections, disinterestedness and
courage to your conduct."
" Rather let her be present to infuse noble qualities into ourhearts in childhood, and to cherish and
invigorate them in our manhood," added Mr. Merton. "Let her mission be by a sweet, quiet, and
gentle influence to form us from our infancy for
lofty and heroic deeds, and let it be ours to do
them."
"I do not like this discussion at all," broke in
Thomas Jefferson Andrew" Jackson Hobbs, a thorough-going radical, with an unshaved and unwashen face, long, lank, uncombed hair, and a gray,




A LESSON IN WORLD-REFORM.      107
patched frock coat, leather pantaloons, a red waistcoat, and a red bandanna handkerchief tied round
his neck for a cravat. " The world can never be
reformed by the instrumentality of government,
whether in the hands of man or woman. The curse
of the world is that it has been governed too much.
That is the best government that governs least, and
a better is that which governs none at all. We want
no government, least of all a government made up
of female politicians and intriguers. There never
yet was a great crime or a great iniquity, but a
woman had a hand in it. The devil, when he would
ruin mankind, always begins by seducing woman,
and making her his accomplice. We must get rid
of all government, break down church and state,
sweep away religion and politics, and exterminate
all priests and politicians, whether in pantaloons or
petticoats, in broadcloth or homespun, and bring
back that state of things which was in Judea,' when
there was no king in Israel, and every man did what
was right in his own eyes."'
"' Boldly said," remarked Signor Giovanni Urbini,
a leader of young Italy,': but it is hardly wise. The
people are not yetj especially in my country, prepared for it. They have so long been the slaves of
power, and the tools of superstition, that they would
be shocked at its bare announcement. They must
have their Madonnas, their San Carlos, their San
Felippos, and their capucin frati. But a thoroughgoing democratic revolution is no doubt needed,




108            T[HE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
and such a revolution will necessarily result in a
no less thorough and radical revolution in religion; but this last we had better leave to come of
itself. You cannot work with purely negative ideas.
You must have something positive, and that must
be the positive idea of the age. Kings, princes, nobles, priests, religions in our times are at a discount,
and the secret, silent, but irresistible tendency is to
bring up the people. Assett, then, boldly everywhere
people-king, people-pontiff; people-god. Fling out
to the breeze the virgin banner of the PEOPLE. Go
forth to war in the name of the people, in the inspiration of the people, and always and everywhere shout THE PEOPLE, THE PEOPLE. Break
the fetters which now bind the people, emancipate
them from their present masters, assert their supremacy, and establish their power, which of course
in the last analysis will be our power over them.
They will then re-organize society, religion, and politics, and every thing else, after the best model, and
in the way which will best meet our wishes."
" I am decidedly opposed to my friend Urbini's
doctrine," frankly asserted M. Beaubien, from the
sunny South of France, " I want no king-people, and
if I must be tyrannized over, I prefer it should be by
one man rather than the many-headed and capricious multitude. The evils under which society
groans is individualism, which now exerts itself in
universal competition, so highly prized by your foolish and stupid political economists. These evils can




A LESSON IN WORLD-REFORM.        109
be removed by no political or religious revolution,
neither by your Luthers nor your Robespierres.
They call be removed only by the pacific organiza~tion of labor, and the arrangement of laborers in
groups and series according to their special tastes
and capacities, on the newly-discovered principle
that'attractions are proportional to destiny."'
"A better plan," suggested M. Icarie, also from la
belle France, " is to abolish all private property, all
private households, industry, and economy, and have
the whole community supported, lodged, fed, clothed,
feasted or nursed, and transported from place to place,
from house to house, at the public expense."
"Admirable," interposed Mr. Cotton, "but who
will support the public, and whence will the public
draw its funds? "
" Singular questions," replied M. Icarie. " The
public will support itself, and draw the necessary
funds from the public treasury, as a matter of
course."
"And where does the treasury get them? " asked,
with a sneer, M. Le Prohne, a native of the ancient
Dauphiny, who towered head and shoulders above
all the rest. "All your schemes are idle and absurd;
property is robbery; abolish it, and all distinction between thine and mine, and establish a grand People's Bank, and give each one an equal credit on its
books."
"And who," sarcastically remarked M. Icarie, " will
take care of the Bank, and be responsible for its
10




110           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
managers, or see that the drafts of individuals are
duly honored?"
" Why not," I asked' in my enthusiasm, "make
an equal division of property among all the members of the community? "
"That would do very well for a -start," suggested
Mr. Cotton, " but he was afraid that come Saturday
night, a good many would demand, like the sailor,
that the property be divided again, as they no longer
retained their proportion."
This produced a smile, and as it was late, the
company broke up and departed. Those who had
had an opportunity of bringing forward their views
were very much edified; others who had been obliged
to listen, or to keep back their own projects, thought
the party exceedingly dull, and could not help thinking that the evening had been spent very unprofitably.
There were, indeed, persons there with plans of
reform as wise, as deep, and as practicable as those
I have taken notice of, and I owe an apology to
their authors for my omissions. These omissions are
the result of no ill feeling, and of no intentional neglect; and I certainly would repair them, but as I am
pressed for time, and am not writing a history of reformers and projected reforms in a thousand volumes
in-folio, the thing is absolutely out of the question.
Let it suffice for me to say, that I have by me still
some thousand and one of these projects, all of
which their authors did me the honor to send me,




A LESSON IN WORLD-REFORM.      111
with their respects, and all of which I examined
with all the care and diligence they deserved.
I returned to my lodgings, not so much enlightened or edified by what I had heard as I might have
desired, though not much disappointed or discouraged. No plan had been suggested that was not
unsatisfactory, and, taken in itself alone, that was
not obviously either mischievous or absurd. But
under them all I saw one and the same spirit, the
spirit of the age, and all were striking indications of
a great and powerful movement in the direction of
something different from what is now the established
order. No one of them would be realized, but it
was well to encourage this movement, to join with
this free and powerful spirit. Something, as Mr.
Micawber was wont to say, " might turn up," and
out of the seeming darkness light might at length
shine, and out of the apparent chaos order might
finally spring forth. I would lend myself to the
spirit working, and trust to future developments.
With that I undressed, went to bed, and dreamed
of Leila, no, Priscilla; no, yes,- it was Priscilla. I
was the victorious champion of reform. She was
binding my brow with the crown of laurel, when I
awoke, and was sad that it was only a dream.




112
CHAPTER IX.
THE CONSPIRACY.
I SLEPT late the next morning, and it was the
middle of the forenoon before I awoke. I arose,
made my toilette, drank a cup of coffee, and went
to arrange my future plans with Priscilla. I found
her sad and apprehensive. She was a true woman,
and had no misgivings as to the excellence of the
cause she had espoused, but she feared that the conversations of the previous evening might have disheartened me, and made me change my resolution.
I set her mind at rest on this point, and assured her
that, though I might often change my methods of
effecting a resolution once taken, yet nothing could
prevent my persistence in it but an absolute conviction of its wickedness, or its absolute impossibility.
I had wedded myself to the spirit of the age for better or for worse, and would, if need be, devote myself body and soul to the cause of World-Reform.
On hearing me say this, her face brightened up,
and shone with a radiance I had never seen it wear
before. She seemed perfectly happy, and turned to
me with a look of perfect satisfaction. I will not
say that at that moment I had not forgotten the
lady's husband, and I will not pretend to say what




THE CONSPIRACY.            113
words of misplaced tenderness might have been uttered or responded to, if we had been left to ourselves. She was young, beautiful, fascinating, and
I was a man in the prime of life. Happily, as the
interview was becoming dangerous, Mr. Merton was
announced. This young man, who seemed to have
thought beyond his years, had deeply interested me
the previous evening.. I knew not who he was,
whence he came, or why he associated with persons
with whom he seemed to have very little sympathy.
He was evidently a gentleman, and well educated.
His dress was rich but plain, his manners were
simple and unpretending. He was tall and well
proportioned, with a classical head, a high, broad
forehead, large, black eyes, and very thick, dark hair.
His features were open and manly, and his voice
low, rich, and musical. It was a pleasure to hear
him speak. His name was English, but he seemed to
be of foreign descent, although I afterwards learned.that he was an American, and even a New Englander, but bred and educated abroad. He apologized for calling, but he could not refrain from paying
his respects to his fair and amiable hostess of the
evening. He hoped that she had enjoyed herself
with her guests, and that she had suffered no idconvenience from the heat of the rooms occasioned by
so great a crowd. He was most happy also to meet
me. He had heard of me, knew and highly esteemed some of my friends, and regretted that he
10*




114           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
had not previously had the honor of making my acquaintance.
He was requested to be seated, and assured that
his call was most agreeable, and that we both hoped
to meet him often and cultivate a further acquaintance. The conversation ran on for some time in an
easy natural way, on a variety of general topics, till
Priscilla, whose soul was absorbed in her philanthropic projects, asked Mr. Merton how it happened
that she had the pleasure of meeting him so often
among reformers. "You evidently," said she, " are
not of us. The quiet remarks, sometimes serious,
sometimes sarcastic, which you every now-and-then
make, prove that you have no sympathy with us."
" I am not surprised, my dear Madam, at your
question," replied Mr. Merton, "yet I too am a reformer, in my way, perhaps not precisely in your
way, nor on so large a scale as that on which you
and your friends propose to carry on reform. I have
not the talent, nor the disposition to engage in any
thing so magnificent. I think reform, like charity,
should begin at home."
"But not end there," said I.
"Certainly not," he replied; " certainly not with
those who have leisure and means to carry it further.
But I find that it is more than I can do, by my unassisted efforts, to reform myself, and if I can succeed
ini saving my own soul, I shall be quite contented.
It is, I fear, more than I shall be able to do."




THE CONSPIRACY.            115
"I see, sir, you are no philanthropist," said Priscilla.
" Perhaps not, I am comparatively a young Inan,
but am quite old-fashioned in many of my notions."
" One of those, I dare say, who have eyes only in
the back side of their heads, and live only among
tombs," said I, in a tone between jesting and
earnest.
" I have not yet sufficiently mastered the wisdom
of antiquity to be authorized to cry out against it,"
he replied. " I make no doubt, however, but you,
dear lady, and you my learned friend, are quite competent to reject the old wisdom for the new."
"On the contrary, I am inclined to think that my
present tendency is to reject the new for the old, the
modern for the ancient. Or, rather, it seems to me
that the progress of modern science is rapidly and
surely leading us back to the ancient wisdom."
" There were in the old world, as there are in the
modern, two wisdoms, the wisdom from above, and
the wisdom from below. May I be permitted to ask
to which of these you regard modern science as conducting?"
"There has been in regard to these ancient wisdoms," said Priscilla, "much misconception. The
world in its nonage was imposed upon, and induced
to call evil good and good evil. The wisdom I assume, and am laboring to diffuse, is that which the
priests have branded as Satanic. Satan is my hero.




116           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
He was a bold and daring rebel, and the first to set
the example of resistance to despotism, and to assert
unbounded freedom.  For this all the priests, all
rulers, despots, all who would hold their brethren in
bondage, have cursed him. I take his part, and hope
to live to see his memory vindicated, and amends
made for the wrong which has been done him."
"That is a candid avowal, my fair lady, and one
which we seldom, especially among your sex, hear
made. I suspect, that Madame Priscilla has listened
or will listen to the modern spiritualism, which
seems to me to be a revival of demonic worship. May
I entreat you, dear lady, to pause and reconsider the
conclusion to which you have come? The ancient
Gentiles deserted the true God, the Creator of heaven and earth, and all things visible and invisible,
and followed strange gods, erected their temples and
consecrated their'altars to devils, to fallen spirits,
and I need not tell you how their minds became
darkened, and their hearts corrupted. Do not, I entreat you, seek to revive the gross, cruel, and obscene
superstitions of the ancient Gentiles, and on which
Christianity has made an unrelenting war from the
first."
"I was sure, Mr. Merton, you were a parson.
Will you deny it now?" said Priscilla.
" I am not aware that I have said any thing but
what any honest Christian or fair-minded man, who
really wishes well to his fellow beings, and who has




THE CONSPIRACY.             117
read history, might not very well say. It is not necessary to be a parson, I should hope, in order to
have good sense and good feeling."
" I do not see, Mr. Merton," said I, " any tendency
to superstition in modern spiritualism. Superstition
is in charging to supernatural intervention what is
explicable on natural principles."
" That is one form of superstition," replied Mr.
Merton, "but there is another, which consists in
ascribing effects to inadequate causes, as where one
augurs good luck from seeing the new moon over
his right shoulder, or bad luck if on the day he sets
out on his travels a red squirrel, crosses his path.
But I interrupt you."
"I believe the spirits which are evoked in otr
days are real, but that they are the primal forces of
nature, and that it is on strictly natural principles
that they are called to our aid," I resumed. " There
is no superstition in this."
" It is not improbable that the ancient Gentiles
thought as much. I am by no means disposed to
ascribe all the phenomena of mesmerism, table-turning, and spiritual rapping to superhuman or preternatural agency. Satan can affect us only through
the natural, but through that he may carry us beyond or drag us below nature. I believe mesmerism, strictly'speaking, is natural, but I believe also
that its practice is always dangerous, and that it
throws its subjects under the power of Satan. In
the so-called mesmeric phenomena there are those




118           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
which are natural, and those which are Satanic, although in the present state of our science it may
not be easy in all cases to distinguish between
them."
Here the conversation, which was beginning to
interest me, (for I had a lurking suspicion that Mr.
Merton was right,) was interrupted by-the entrance
of Signor Urbini, who gave unequivocal signs that
the presence of Mr. Merton was very disagreeable
to him. Mr. Merton, probably not wishing to encounter young Italy, or to enter into a contest with
him at that time, after a few commonplace remarks,
took his leave. Young Italy was full of fire and
enthusiasm, but at the same time, well informed,
subtile, and clear-headed. He had been implicated
in a conspiracy for overthrowing the Austrian government in Milan, and had escaped to England,
where he had concerted with the friends of Italy a
plan for revolutionizing the whole peninsula. He
had come to the United States to enlist as large a
portion of our own people as possible on his side,
and to obtain pecuniary aid in carrying out his revolutionary projects. For himself he had no religion,
and feared neither God nor the devil. At heart, as
does every Italian liberal, he despised Protestantism,
as a religion; but his chief reliance was on Protestant nations, and he made a skilful and adroit appeal
to the Protestant hatred of Popery. Italy was the
stronghold of Popery, and if Italy could be wrested
from the Pope, the whole fabric of superstition and




THE CONSPIRACY.            119
priestcraft would fall to the ground. But this could
not be done by any direct attacks on the national
religion, or any direct advocacy of the doctrines of
the Reformation. Out of Italy the appeal might be
made to the Protestant feeling, but in Italy, and by
all the leaders of the Italian party it must be made
solely to the national sentiment as against Austria,
and to the love of liberty, the democratic sentiment,
as against the Pope and the native princes. War
must be made on the Pope indeed, but ostensibly
on him  only as temporal prince. Overthrown as
temporal prince, and his States declared a Republic,
and maintained as such, the church, as the upholder
of tyranny on the Continent, would be annihilated,
and universal democracy, and a purely democratic
religion could be established throughout the world;
and civilization, arrested by the Goths and Vandals,
who overturned the old Roman Empire, might resume its triumphant march through the ages. Plans
were forming to make the democratic revolution as
nearly simultaneous as possible in France, Austria,
Prussia, and Central Germany; at least to give these
countries sufficient employment at home to render
them unable to go to the assistance of the Pope.
Subsidiary to his purpose, he proposed a grand
World's Convention, composed of delegates from
the whole Protestant world, to be holden as soon as
possible at London. It might be assembled ostensibly for the purpose of bringing about a better feeling and closer union of the various Protestant sects,




120            THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
and none, but those who could be safely trusted'
should be initiated into its ulterior objects. Only
the managers need know its real purpose, or modus
operandi. It might form a Protestant Alliance, and
recommend the formation of Protestant associations
in all Protestant States for the protection of the
Reformation against Popery, the conversion of the
Pope and his Italian subjects. These associations
would have nothing to do but to raise funds, and
meet once a year, hear reports, and listen to flaming
speeches in praise of the Bible and religious liberty,
and against the tyranny, idolatry, and superstition
of Popery. Thus they would, without knowing it,
prepare the way and furnish the means of driving
the foreigner out of Italy, dethroning the Pope,
establishing the Roman Republic, and spreading
liberty throughout the world, and in a way, too, not
to alarm the religious sensibilities of the Italians,
because those-who showed themselves to Italians
would have apparently no connection with the Protestant movement.*
The plan of Young Italy, communicated with
further details, and which was substantially carried
out from 1845 to 1849, when, contrary to all human
foresight, Republican -not Imperial- France suppressed the Roman Republic, and restored the Pope,
struck Priscilla and myself as admirable, and we
" This is in the main historical, and was communicated to the writer
through a mutual friend, by a delegate from Connecticut to the
World's Convention, alluded to in the text.




THE CONSPIRACY.            121
resolved to give it our hearty support. I hoped, by
the new power I had discovered, or was on the point
of discovering, to bring an unexpected force to its
aid. The Signor accepted our pledges, enrolled our
names, administered to us the oath, and gave us the
signs and passwords agreed upon by the government
of Young Italy.
When Signor Urbini had taken his leave of us,
we, that is, Priscilla and myself, came to a mutual
understanding of the respective parts we were to
perform.  We agreed that it was useless for either
to attempt any thing without the other. Our covenant was sealed. Poor Priscilla, little did she foresee what the future had in store for her! But let
me not anticipate. VWe embraced, and I returned
to my lodgings, intending to leave the next day for
my home in western New York. Hardly had I regained my lodgings at the hotel, when I was called
upon by the stanch old puritan, Mr. Cotton.  I
have departed far enough fromn the stand-point of
my puritan ancestors, and have few traces in my
moral constitution of my puritan descent; but, I
care not who knows it, I am proud of these stern
old men, the Bradfords, the Brewsters, the Hookers,
the Davenports, and the stout Miles Standish, who
came forth into a new world to battle with the wilderness, the savage, and the devil. Stern they were,
stout-hearted, and strong of arm, yet not without a
touch of human feeling. They had their loves, their
affections, and their soft moments, when Jonathan
11




122            THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
or Ezekiel wooed his Beulah or his Keziah, who
blushingly responded, to his addresses, and the husband kissed his wife, the mother her boy, if it was
not on the Sabbath. Honor to their memory! They
did man's work, and earned man's wages, and as
well might one of the modern Trasteverini blush
for his old Roman progenitors, as I for my old
puritan ancestors, who brought with them the
bravest hearts and the best laws and the noblest institutions of old England, which they loved so tenderly, thoughtshe sent them forth as the Patriarch's
wife did Hagar and the dear Ismael into the desert.
I liked Mr. Cotton, too, for his great ancestor's sake,
for great, O Cotton Mather, thou wast in thy day;
hard service didst thou against fiends and witches.
and powers invisible; and a noble epic hast thou
left us in thy Magnalia. The college thou lovedst
so well, and which thou didst cherish in thy heart of
hearts, "pro Christo et Ecclesia," may have ceased
to cherish thy memory, and the Second Church, over
which thou wast pastor as colleague with thy father,
has learned to blush at thy memory, and to imagine
it shows its wisdom in calling thee a " learned fool."
I, who have as little sympathy with them as with
thee, honor thee as one of the worthies of my country, and as one who was not, the least among the
worthies of my native land in thy day and generation. Men look upon thee as antiquated, and fancy
that they have become wiser than thou wast. Would
to Heaven they had a little of thy good sense, and




THE CONSPIRACY.            123
of the truth, which thou wast not ashamed to profess
and defend!
But this is quite aside from my purpose, and is
artistically considered a blemish in my narrative.
But few are the writers who, if they, speak out from
warm hearts their true, deep, genuine feelings as
they arise, but will violate some canon of art. I
love art, but I love nature more. I love a smoothly
shaven lawn; I say nothing against your artificial
garden, trim and neat, where each plant and shrub
grows and flowers according to rule; but the wild
forest, with its irregularities, decaying logs, huge
trees, fresh saplings, and tangled underbrush, was as
a boy, when it was my home, and is now I am a
man, much more my delight. By the same token,
I love, Boston, whose streets were laid out by the
cows going through the brushwood to drink, where
you cannot find a square corner, or a street a hundred yards in length without a curve, better than
the city of Penn, laid out by a carpenter's line and
chalk, and presenting only the dull monotony of the
chess-board, without the excitement of the game.
Yet the city of Penn has its merits. Many a pleasant hour have I spent there, and many a sweet
association is entwined in my memory with its rectangles, and its plain, uniform, drab-colored costume.
But I have left Mr. Cotton all this time standing.
It was unintentional, for I was not displeased to see
him. He knew me as the son of an old friend, and
he had, both as a friend and as a minister of religion,




124           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
called to expostulate with me. He was sure that
I was imperilling my soul, and he could not answer
it to his conscience, if he did not solemnly and yet
affectionately warn me of mny danger.
I have been sadly remiss in my faith and in my
conduct, yet never have I allowed myself to treat
with scorn or contumely any professed minister of
religion who addressed me in tones of sincerity and
affectionate earnestness. Mr. Cotton, I was sure,
meant well, although I knew his expostulations
would avail nothing, and his warning be unheeded.
I listened with respect, but untouched. At that time
my heart was hard. I was laboring under a perfect
delusion, and body and soul were under the power
of the Evil One. "; You may not believe it, Doctor,"
said Air. Cotton, "' but I tell you that you are forming a league with the devil.  I know you have
grown wiser than your fathers were; that you deny
the existence of a devil or of evil spirits, but you are
wise only in your own conceit, and you are now
really dealing with the devil, are plotting to do the
devil's work, under pretence of science and world-reform. I have watched you these many months, and
I see where you are going. You are also permitting
yourself to be seduced by a Moabitish woman, and
allowing yourself to be cheated, with your eyes open,
out of your five senses by the sparkle of her eye, and
the ruby of her lip. Why have you suffered her to
bewitch you? Leave her, never see her or speak to
her again, or you are a lost man."




THE CONSPIRACY.             125
I am naturally a very mild-tempered man, and am
not and never was very sensitive to wounds inflicted
by the tongue; and Mr. Cotton might have abused
me or said all manner of hard things against me till
he was exhausted, and I could have remained unmoved; but when he alluded to my relation with
another, especially since I could not defend it, and
called the beautiful, the lovely, the philanthropic
Priscilla a Moabitish woman, and attacked her honor, my blood was up, and I instantly resolved that
he should suffer for it. I however kept this to myself, assured him that he was uncharitable, and
judged an estimable lady rashly; that my relations
with Priscilla were not precisely a matter for his
cognizance, as we were neither of us under his parochial charge. I respected him as an old friend of
my father's, and as a descendant of one of the greatest men of the early Massachusetts Colony. I had
no doubt of his good intentions, and affectionate interest in me and my family; but I was of age, and
competent to take care of myself. What I was
doing I was doing with my eyes open, calmly, deliberately, and from what I held to be justifiable
motives. I was prepared to take the responsibility.
Warnings, expostulations, would avail nothing. I
was resolved to push my scientific investigations to
the furthest limits possible. I would, if I should be
able, wrest from nature her last secret, and avail myself of all her mysterious forces. I did not pretend
to say whether there were devils and evil spirits or
11 *




126           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
not, although I believed God made all things good,
very good; but if there were, I had nothing to do
with them, for I invoked mysterious agencies only
for a good end, in the cause of philanthropy and human progress. If they were spirits I was dealing
with, they must be white spirits rather than black;
and if I studied and'even practised magic, I was
sure it was not black magic, but white.
" All that is very well said," replied Mr. Cotton,
"4 and yet you know that you are carried away by
indiscreet curiosity, by an unholy ambition, and
perhaps by lawless lust, and you dare not, alone in
your closet, ask the blessing of God on your proceedings. Bear with me. I am an old man, and
let my gray hairs plead with you, if not my sacred
profession. I know that the young men of our time
lose their reverence for religion, and turn up their
noses in profound disgust when we speak to them of
duty and the solemn responsibilities of life. I know
they are impatient of restraint, and burning with a
passion for liberty, as they call it. I know they
deemn it wisdom to depart from the old ways, to
forsake the God of their fathers, and to hew out to
themselves cisterns, alas, broken cisterns, which will
hold no water. But let me tell you, my friend, that
they are only sowing the seeds of future sorrow, and
will reap only a too abundant harvest. No man in
-his old age ever regretted that he feared God and
practised virtue in his youth."
"All that may be very true, Mr. Cotton, but much




THE CONSPIRACY.           127
of it comes with no good grace from a Puritan who
has allowed himself the freedom of his own judgment in religious matters. It is not long since your
fathers forsook their fathers' God, and hewed out
cisterns for themselves; whether broken cisterns or
not, it is not for me to say; certainly they departed
from the old ways, followed the new wisdom of their
times, and you honor them for it. Perhaps posterity
will in like manner honor me and my associates for
daring to follow the newy wisdom of our times, and
to incur reproach for my adhesion to the work of
human emancipation. I am enlarging the boundaries of human knowledge, laying open to view the
invisible world, and proving that, under the old doctrine of the communion of saints, there is a great
and glorious truth, cheering and consoling to us in
this life of labor and sorrow. I am freeing the world
from the monster, superstition, and delivering the people from their gloomy fears and terrible apprehensions.
They shall no longer start and tremble at ghosts and
hobgoblins, or be obliged, with the Papists, to cross
themselves, or with our New England youth, to
whistle Yankee Doodle to keep their courage up,
when, after dark, they go by a graveyard.'What
torture did not my superstitious fears cause me in
my childhood! I never have known what it was to
fear any living thing. I have been tried, and have
always found my courage and self-possession equal
to the occasion, and I could alone face an armed
host without trembling; but even now I cannot open




128           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
the door into a dark room without trepidation, without starting back till reason comes to my aid. I
never sit alone in my room reading till twelve o'clock
at night, without having a mysterious awe creep over
me. I am oppressed by the presence of the invisible,
and my very lamp seems to burn blue. All is the
sad effect of the frights I received in my childhood,
occasioned by the ghost and witch stories which old
people would meet together and tell of a long winter's evening. I, a lad, listened with ears erect, and
hair standing on end. My blood seemed to freeze
in my veins, and I dared not look around me lest I
should see the invisible. I was ready to shriek with
agony when sent to bed in the dark, and unless
watched would throw myself into bed without taking
off my clothes, and cover up my head and face in
the bed blanket. How terrible was the dark! The
impression wears not out with time, and will remain
till death. Now I would free the mind from all these
idle fears, and save the people, especially children,
from these terrible sufferings. It is a good work, and
none but white spirits will aid me in it."
"Alas! you seem not to have reflected that the
devil, when he would seduce, can disguise himself as
an angel of light. Human nature is terribly corrupt,
and yet the great mass of mankind ordinarily are
incapable of choosing evil, for the reason that it is
evil. Evil must be presented to them in the guise
of good, or they will not choose it  The devil
knows this, and knows the weak side of every one,




THE CONSPIRACY.             129
and he adapts his temptations accordingly. The
weak side of our age is a morbid sentimentality, a
sickly philanthropy, and the devil tempts us now by
appealing to our dominant weakness. He comes to
us as a philanthropist, and his mouth full of fine
sentiments, and he proposes only what we are
already prepared to approve. Were he to come as
the devil in propria persona, and tell us precisely who
and what he is, there are very few who would not
say,' Get behind me, Satan.' Nothing better serves
his purpose than to have us deny his existence; to
ascribe his influence to imagination, hallucination,
to natural causes or influences, or in fine, to good
spirits, for then he throws us off our guard, and can
operate without being easily detected. Never was
an age more under his influence than our own, and
yet they who pass for its lights and chiefs have
reached that last infirmity of unbelief, the denial of
the existence of the devil. Possessed persons are
insane, epileptic, or lunatic persons, and the wonderful phenomena they exhibit are produced by an electric, magnetic, or odic fluid, and are to be explained
on natural principles, and such as cannot be so explained, are boldly denied, however well attested,
or ascribed to jugglery, knavery, or collusion. The
marvellous answers of the ancient oracles are ascribed to knavery, as if the whole world had lost their
senses, and could not detect a cheat practised before
their very eyes, and so bunglingly, that we who live
two thousand or three thousand years after, ignorant




130           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
of all the,circumstances of the case, can detect it,
and explain how it was done, without the slightest
difficulty. The devil laughs at this.  He would
have it so. Your natural explanations will hereafter
create a suspicion that you are little better than
natural fools. But go your way. I see by. your incredulous smile that the devil has you fast' in his
grip. I have done my duty. My garments are
clean of your blood; and hereafter, when you are
feeling the gnawings of that worm which never dies)
and the burning of that fire which is never quenched,
say not, that no one had forewarned you."
So saying, he took up his hat and cane, and,
slightly bowing, left my room without hearing a
word in reply, or giving me a parting greeting.
When he was gone, I laughed to myself at his
solemn admonition, and renewed my resolution that
he should suffer for the manner in which he alluded
to my dear Priscilla. He should know whether she
was a Moabitish woman or not. Warn me! Pray
what had I done? Where was the harm? Was it
wrong to investigate the principles of nature, to
learn what nature really is, and to call her forces
into play, providing they were not applied to a bad
end? Could it be a good spirit that would debar
u*from acquiring science, or a bad spirit that would
bid us inquire, to learn our strength, and to use it?
Would it be no slight service to relieve the more
mysterious parts of science from the reproaches
cast upon them? Has it not been computed that




THE CONSPIRACY.            131
more than a million of persons alone suffered as
sorcerers and sorceresses; or for dealing with- the
devil, in the sixteenth century and seventeenth
alone? What injury has not been done to genuine
science by the absurd legislation against magic, sorcery, and the so called black arts generally. No
man could rise above the vulgar herd, and produce
some ingenious piece of mechanism, but the rabble
accused him of magic, and it was lucky if he
escaped a criminal prosecution and conviction before the courts of justice. Was not that noble heroine, Joan of Arc, who saved France from becoming
an English province, burnt as a witch? Was not
Friar Bacon, the father of modern science, and the
forerunner of his namesake of Verulam, accused of
magic, imprisoned, and thus scientific discoveries and
useful inventions postponed for centuries? Had not
hundreds of old women, who had nothing of sorcery
about them but their poverty, weakness, and imbecility, been dragged before the courts, and hung or
burnt as witches? What more lamentable page
in our own American history than that of Salem
witchcraft? Is it nothing to disabuse the world, to
save so many innocent victims, remove so great a
hinderance to science and heroic deeds, by bringing
the class of facts, superstitiously interpreted, within
the bounds of nature and legitimate science? Then,
again, what may not be finally obtained for the
human race? Are the resources of nature exhausted? They sought once the philosopher's stone, the




132           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
elixir of life, the fountain of youth; who knows but
these may one day, and that not far distant, be
found, if not in the shape sought, in others, more
simple and convenient?
Thus I resisted the admonitions of the good old
man, and confirmed myself in my resolution. I
meditated a long tim6 as to my future procedure,
and how I could bring my new science, which I
trusted soon to complete, to bear on the great revolutionary movement which the active spirits of the
day had concerted, and which must soon break out.
I could discern my way only dimly, but I trusted
the mist would soon clear away, and my method be
no longer obscure or uncertain. Monarchy must be
overthrown because it upholds religion, and religion
because it upholds monarchy, and imposes vexatious
restraints. So much was clear, and determined on.
Time and events would reveal the rest.
Late in the evening I called at Priscilla's, saw her
a moment, whispered a word in her ear, gave her
one or two directions, pressed her hand, only as my
accomplice, and henceforth my slave. The next
morning I left Philadelphia, and returned home a
much altered man. My body was light and buoyant, and I felt as if I was all spirit. I simply greeted
my mother, but felt that the strong tie which bound
me to her was broken; my sister, whom I had tenderly loved, was indifferent to me, and I hardly
deigned to notice her. I went into my laboratory,
saw that all was right there; from that I passed into
my library to resuime my experiments.




133
CHAPTER X.
MR. COTTON IS PUZZLED.
I PROCEEDED to magnetize my table. It responded
as usual. I put my former questions, but could get
no answer to them, except that the time for the revelation I solicited was not yet come. I asked, if there
was not a more direct mode of communication possible, and was told there was. By speech? Not yet.
By writing? Yes. I took a slate and pencil, and
placed my hand in the attitude to write. Immediately my hand was moved by an invisible force,
and a communication was made in the handwriting
and signed with the name of my father, who had
been dead some eight or nine years. The purport
of it was not much. I did not know but I unconsciously moved the pencil myself. I wished a better test. I-placed the slate on the table, laid the
pencil on it, and called up the power, whoever or
what it might be, to write without my assistance.
Very soon the pencil rose fully up, then fell back,
then rose again, and after vacillating awhile, it became firm in its position and was moved regularly
backwards and forwards, as if directed by the hand
of a scribe. At length it flew up to the ceiling,
whirled round there for a few seconds, and then
12




134           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
placed itself quietly on the slate. I examined the
slate, found a communication on it in the handwriting and signed with the name of Benjamin Franklin.
The communication consisted of one or two proverbs from Poor Richard, and a commonplace remark about electricity. All this was marvellous
enough, but very little to my purpose. It was not
worth while taking so much trouble to get what was
of no use when got.
I sat down in my great arm-chair a few feet from
my table, and fell into a brown study. How long I
remained so I do not know, when I was aroused by
a great racket in my room. My table was cutting
up capers, rising now to the ceiling and now frisking
round the room, anon balancing itself on one leg,
and then going off into a whirl. that would have
broken the heart of the best waltzer, all to a tune
which sonle invisible hand was playing upon my
guitar, — tune I say, but it was rather a capriccio,
and a medley of a dozen different melodies, thrown
together in the wildest disorder. Very soon this
stopped, and then came thundering raps all about
my room, making every thing in it jar. I bid them
be quiet, and not all speak at once, like a lot of
old women at a tea-party. They partially obeyed
me. One rapper however continued, but in a more
gentle and polite manner. I was willing to have
some conversation with him. I asked him who he
was? He would not answer. What did he want?
To communicate. Very well, I would listen; and




MR. COTTON IS PUZZLED.        135
he told me that I was not a good medium myself,
for I held the spirits in awe. Ah, spirits, are you?
said I. "Yes."  Very well; I shall be very happy
to make your acquaintance. "But you must find
us other mediums; we cannot speak freely with you."
Close by me lived the Fox family. There were
three sisters; one was married, and the other two
were simple, honest-minded young girls, one-fifteen,
the other thirteen. As I passed by their house, I
saw them in the yard. I greeted them, and offered
them some flowers which I held in my hand. The
youngest took them, thanked me with a smile, and
I pursued my walk. These were the since worldrenowned Misses Fox. In a short time afterwards
they began to be startled by strange, mysterious
knockings, which they could not account for, and
which greatly annoyed them.  It is not by any
means my intention to follow these girls, in their
course since, with whom I have had very little direct
communication; but I owe it to them antd to the
public to say, that they were simple-minded, honest
girls, utterly incapable of inventing any thing like
these knockings, or of playing any trick upon the
public. The knockings were and are as much a
mystery for them as for others, and they honestly believe that through them actual communication is
held with the spirits of the departed. They are in
good faith, as they some time since evinced by their
wish to become members of the Catholic Church,
which certainly they would not have wished, in this




136           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
country at least, if they looked upon themselves as
impostors, and had only worldly and selfish ends in
view. They are no doubt deceived, not as to the
facts, as to the phenomena of spirit-rappings, but as
to the explanation they give or attempt to give of
them. They have not always been treated, I fear,
with due tenderness, and sufficient pains has not
been taken to enlighten them as to the real nature of
these phenomena.
But who need be surprised at this? Received science rejects every thing of the sort, for it recognizes
no invisible world, believes in neither angel nor spirit,
and explains every thing on natural principles. Even
theologians have to a great extent forgotten the terrible influence, in times past, of demonic agencies,
and, if they do not absolutely reject the instances
recorded in the Bible, they are disposed to treat all
other cases as humbuggery, knavery, deception, or to
class them with epilepsy, insanity, hallucination,
and other diseases to whichwe are subject, and to
dismiss them, when they cannot be denied, with the
physicians, under the heads of mania, monomania,
nymphomania, demonopathy, &c. I have before me
the Dictionaire Infernal of M. Collin de Plancy, approved by the late Archbishop of Paris, — him who
fell so gloriously on the barricades, June, 1848,
whither he had gone as a minister of charity and
peace, - in which, from beginning to end, there is a
studied effort to represent all these dark and mysterious phenomena as explicable without any resort to




MA. COTTON IS PUZZLED.         137
superhuman or diabolical agency. The excellent
author seems to write on the supposition that all
the world, the physicians, the clergy, the magistrates,
the civil and ecclesiastical courts during all past times
were merely old grannies, and had no sound doctrine,
and no capacity for investigating the truth of facts
obvious to their senses. With his mode of reasoning,
and with far less violence, I can explain away all
the miraculous or mysterious relations in Biblical
history. But so strong is the current against Satanic agency in the production of these phenomena,
and such the prevailing and shortsighted incredulity
of our times, that even those who' suspect the true
explanation are, for the most part, deterred from the
ridicule which would be showered upon them from
avowing it.
It is no wonder that no kind, considerate friend
was found to take these poor Fox girls by the hand,
and attempt to rescue them from their dangerous
state. The great mass of those who could have
done so, either paid no attention at all to the mysterious phenomena asserted, or looked upon the whole
matter as mere humbug. It was easier to crack a
joke at the expense of spirit-rappers, than it was to
investigate the facts alleged, or to offer the true and
proper explanation. I had foreseen that it would be
so, or at least, had foreseen that they, whose duty it
is to watch over the interests of religion and morals,
were unprepared to meet the phenomena with success; that they would at first deny and laugh, ahd
12*




138           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
then vituperate and denounce, but would hardly understand and explain-till too late, or till immense
mischief had been done. Even now the first stage
is hardly passed, and the movement I commenced
by a present of flowers to these simple girls has
extended over the whole Union, invaded Great Britain, penetrated France in all directions, carried captive all Scandinavia and a large part of Germany,
and is finding its way into the Italian Peninsula.
There are some three hundred circles or clubs in the
city of Philadelphia alone, and the Spiritualists, as
they call themselves, count nearly a million of believers in our own country. Table-turning, necromancy, divination becomes a religion with some, and
an amusement with others. The infection seizes all
classes, ministers of religion, lawyers, physicians,
judges, comedians, rich and poor, learned and unlearned. The movement has its quarterly, monthly,
and weekly journals, some of them conducted with
great ability, and the spirits, through the writing
mediums, have already furnished it a very considerable library, —yet hardly a serious effort has as yet
been made in this country to comprehend or arrest
it. It is making sad havoc with religion, breaking
up churches, taking its victims from all denominations, with stern impartiality; and yet the great
body of those not under its influence merely deny,
laugh, or cry out, "humbug!"' "delusion!"  Delusion it is. I know it now, but not in their sense.
The public never suspected me of having had any




AIR. COTTON IS PUZZLED.      139
hand in producing the Rappo-Mania; and the Fox
girls, even to this day, suspect no connection between the flowers I gave them and the mysterious
knockings whichthey heard; and nobody has supposed Andrew Jackson Davis, the most distinguished
of the American mediums, of having any relations
with me. He does not suspect it himself, yet he
has been more than once magnetized by me, and it
has been in obedience to my will that he has made
his revelations. The public have never connected
my name with the movement, and even Priscilla
has never -known my full share in it. I have had
my instruments, blind instruments, in all civilized
countries, with whom I have worked, and yet but
few of them have known me, or seen me.
My readers may indeed be incredulous as to the
influence conveyed by flowers; but I shall satisfy
them on that score before completing my Confessions. While the Fox girls were annoyed by these
mysterious knockings, and were beginning to draw
on them the attention of the curious and the credulou.* and while Andrew Jackson Davis, as yet only a
somnambulist, was dictating his wonderful revelations, and learned doctors were disputing whether
he received them from a white or a black spirit,
whether he really saw what he professed to see in
his clairvoyant state, or only reported to the scribe
the lesson which some cunning scamps had previously taught him, and made him commit to memory; my old friend Mr. Cotton was made to




140           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
suffer a severe penalty for the slighting manner
in which he had spoken of Priscilla. Contrary to
her usual custom, Priscilla went one Sunday evening to his evening service.  On leaving the meeting-house, she mingled in the crowd, and so contrived it as to rub against a granddaughter of
Mr. Cotton, an interesting child of some twelve or
thirteen years of age, and without anybody observing it. She then turned a little aside, got into her
carriage, which was waiting, anddrove home. The
next day, the young girl, Clara Starkweather, was
singularly affected. Every thing she touched seemed
to stick fast to her fingers. All the dresses, cloaks,
shawls, in the house seemed to have an irresistible
propensity to fly to her, and arrange themselves on
her back. She went into the kitchen; the poker,
shovel, and tongs, pots, kettles, pails, basins, all set
to dancing towards and around her, and the fryingpan fastened itself on her head as a cap. Her mother
scolded her, and she, poor thing, began to cry, and
declared that she did not do it, but that it was done
by a strange woman, very beautiful, but very wicked,
whom she did not know. The family were all in
consternation. Mr. Cotton was called upon to interpose. He concluded that it was a case of witchcraft, or of diabolical obsession. He summoned all
the inmates of his family to his study. He was a
brave man, and nothing at all loath to come to handgrip with the devil, for whonl, with his orthodoxy,
he fancied himself more than a match. " We must,"




MR. COTTON IS PUZZLED.       -141
he said, "resist the evil one; we must wrestle in
prayer." With that he seated himself before his
table, on which lay a splendid edition of the Bible.
He opened the book, intending to read a chapter,
before making his prayer. But he had hardly opened
it before it was violently closed, and rising, seemingly of itself, hit him a heavy blow in his face,
which knocked him  from  his chair, and nearly
stunned him, and then rested itself on the top of
Clara's head. Mr. Cotton soon rgcovered from the
blow, and stood up, after the manner of his sect, to
pray. He had hardly opened his mouth, before there
was heard such a knocking behind the walls, against
the doors, and under the floor, that every word he
attempted to utter was completely drowned. It was
impossible to proceed amid such a thundering din
and racket, which threatened to pull the house down
about their ears. Forthwith out marched from the
library shelves a complete edition of Scott's Family
Bible. The several volumes drew themselves up on
the floor, and proceeded, with great skill and even
science, to knock one another down, while various
sounds, as of mockery and laughter, were heard from
various quarters. The brave old man was fain to
resume his chair, when lo! he found himself seated
on the heated gridiron. He started up very quick, as
may be imagined, but happily received no serious
injury.
For attraction now succeeded repulsion. All the
objects near Clara, instead of being drawn towards




142          THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
her, were repelled, and moved away from her. Soon
one article of her dress after another flew off, and it
was with th, utmost difficulty that they could keep
enough on her to hide her nakedness. This lasted
an hour it may be, when all was quiet, and every
thing was found restored to its place, and Mr. Cotton
himself- began to think that all was some optical illusion, and to think that he might have been too hasty
in concluding that the devil was engaged in it.
However the annoyances were only suspended,
they were not removed. During the following night
all in the house were awakened by tremendous
knockings heard on the walls and under the floor of
the apartment where Clara slept. All rose, and in
their night-clothes rushed to her room, and found
her lying on her bed sobbing, and apparently in
the greatest agony. The bedclothes and her own
dresses were scattered all about the room, cut into
narrow strips and entirely ruined. The rappings
then were heard in the library. Mr. Cotton took a
light, and went into the room, and was not a little
surprised to find it occupied with some half a dozen
figures of men and women fantastically dressed, all
seated, and listening with grave faces to an inaudible discourse from another figure in Genevan gown
and'band, standing before the table on which Mr.
Cotton's great Bible lay open. Mr. Cotton was a
little startled at first, but he summoned up his courage and advanced. He went straight up to the
figure in gown and band, who seemed to have




MR. COTTON IS PUZZLED.       143
usurped his functions, and boldly laid his hand
upon his shoulder. Immediately his candle was extinguished, and he received a blow which felled him
to the floor. In a moment he recovered, passed into
another room, obtained another light, and returned.
The phantoms were still there, but he now saw
what they were. The seeming minister was a huge
folio of theology, moulded into a human shape by
pieces of carpet, a coat and trousers of his own,
and dressed in his own gown and band. The other
figures were volumes from his library, elongated and
stuffed out in a similar way, and dressed in clothes
belonging to different members of the family. They
were stripped, replaced on the book-shelves, and the
dresses returned to the several wardrobes where
they belonged. There was no more disturbance
that night.
The next day, when the family were all at dinner,
the table, with every thing on it, suddenly rose to
the ceiling, and then suddenly dropped upon the
floor with a noise that shook the whole house, but
without any other injury, or any thing on it being
displaced. In the evening, while they were all seated
around the table, listening to a chapter which Mr.
Cotton was reading from the Bible, terrible knockings were again heard all through the room, and
Clara was seen to be raised as it were by some invisible hand towards the ceiling, and to be borne with
great force through the room, and set down standing on her head. Then, after a moment, she rose




144           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
again and hung suspended to the ceiling by her feet
and her head downwards. After an hour the annoyances ceased, and the family were left quiet. The
annoyances continued, varying in their character
from'day to day, for three weeks.
Priscilla sent me an account of them, and I
thought my old friend had been sufficiently punished. Morever, I did not wish too much eclat to be
given at that time to the fantastic tricks I was playing. Mr. Cotton was sure that it was the work of
the devil, that it was witchcraft, and he did not hesitate to accuse Priscilla. He had tried to get the
authorities to arrest her as a witch, but in this he
had failed; for, although the laws of Pennsylvania,
at that time, if not now, recognized witchcraft as a
punishable offence, no magistrate in the city could
be found who did not look upon witchcraft as imaginary, and suspect the good minister of being in need
of physic and good regimen for entertaining a belief
in its reality. I however did not wish Priscilla's
name to become associated in the gossip of the day
with reported phenomena of the sort, and I sent her
an order to discontinue the annoyances, and to restore every thing which had been injured to its previous condition. The night she received my order,
the noises ceased, Clara rested quietly, and the
family were undisturbed. On rising and going
through the house in the morning, no trace of the
previous disorder was discovered, every thing was
in its place, and the clothing and bedding which




MR. COTTON' IS PUZZLED.       145
had been cut into ribbons, were all restored, and not
a mark of injury was to be found on them. Clara
was well, and retained no recollection of any thing
that had happened to her or to the family during the
period she had been so grievously afflicted. Even
the family, Mr. Cotton among the rest, began to'doubt, if they had not been the sport of some
strange hallucination, and almost to persuade themselves that the annoyances had had no objective
character.
All this may strike many as wholly incredible, but
a thousand instances, as well attested as any facts
can be, of a similar character, can be adduced. Let
me be permitted to relate an instance still more marvellous, which occurred in 1849, at the presbytery or
parsonage of Cideville, France, in the Department of
the Lower Seine, and which became indirectly the
subject of a judicial investigation. The cur6 of Cideville encountered at the house of one of his sick
parishioners, an individual, a Mr. G. —, who had
the reputation of curing diseases in a mysterious
manner. He reproved him severely, and sent him
away. Shortly after, Mr. G- was -arrested and
condemned for his malpractices in other cases, to
two years' imprisonment. The wretched man, recollecting the reproof he had received from the curd,
believed that it was owing to him that he had been
arrested and sent to prison, and, it is said, he threw
out threats of vengeance. One Thorel, a shepherd,
a friend and disciple of the Mr. G-, was also
13




146           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
heard to say, that the curd would be made to repent
of what he had done, and that he (Thorel) would
himself see that his master was avenged, and his
orders executed.
Two boys, one twelve, the other fourteen, were
boarded and educated in the parsonage by the curd.
They were sons of honest, pious, and much esteemed
schoolmasters of the district, and appeared to have
inherited the good qualities of their parents. They
were both intended for the priesthood, and were a
great comfort to the good curd, who loved, cherished,
and instructed them, and perhaps obtained something for their board and tuition to eke out his scanty
means of living.
One day there was a public auction, where a
great crowd were collected, and these boys were
present among the rest.  The shepherd, Thorel,
was there, and seen to approach the younger of
the two, but nothing more was observed. Immediately on the return to the parsonage, a violent
hurricane struck it, followed by blows as from a
hammer in every part of the house, under the floors,
above thie ceiling, and behind the wainscoting.
Sometimes these blows were weak, short, abrupt,
sometimes so violent as to shake the house, and to
threaten to demolish it, as Thorel, in a moment of
rashness had foretold. The blows were heard at the
distance of two kilometres, and a large portion of
the inhabitants of Cideville, a hundred and fifty at
a time, it is said, surrounded the parsonage for hours,




MR. COTTON IS PUZZLED.       147
examining it in all directions, and seeking in vain to
discover whence the blowvs proceeded.
This was not all. Whilst these mysterious knockings continued, and made themselves heard on every
point indicated, they reproduced the exact rhythm of
whatever air was demanded of them; the glass in
the windows were broken, and rattled in every direction; the tables were overturned, or were seen walking about; the chairs were grouped together and suspended in the air; the dogs were thrown crosswise
over one another or were hung by their tails to the
ceiling; knives, brushes, breviaries, flew out by one
window and back through another on the opposite
side; the shovel and tongs quit of themselves the fireplace and walked alone into the room; the andirons,
followed by the fire, recoiled from the chimney even
to the middle of the floor; hammers flew in the air,
and dropped as slowly and as softly as a feather
on the floor; the utensils of the toilet suddenly
quitted the chambranle on which they were placed,
and as suddenly returned of their own accord; enormous desks rushed one against another and were
broken, and one loaded with books approached
rapidly and horizontally close to the forehead of Mr.
R. de Saint V-, and, without touching him, dropped perpendicularly upon its feet.
Madame de Saint V-, whose chateau was
near to the parsonage, whose testimony cannot be
questioned, and who had witnessed a score of similar experiments, felt herself drawn one day by the




148           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
corner of her mantle, without perceiving the invisible hand that drew it. The Mayor of Cideville
received a violent blow on his thigh, and at the cry
forced from him by this violence, he received a gentle
caress, which instantly relieved him from the pain.
A proprietor, residing fourteen leagues distant, and
from whom I hold this relation, came unexpectedly
to Cideville, wholly ignorant of the mysterious events
which were taking place. After a night spent in the
chamber of the boys, he questioned the mysterious
knocking, made it strike in different corners of the
room, and established with it the conditions of a
dialogue. One blow, for example, would say yes,
two blows, no; then the number of blows would
indicate the number of the letter in the alphabet,
&c. This settled, the witness caused to be rapped
out his surname and Christian name, and those of
his children, his age and theirs, to the year, month,
and day, —'the name of his commune, &c. All this
was done with such rapidity that he was obliged to
conjure the rapper to proceed more slowly, that he
might have more leisure to verify the answers, all of
which he found perfectly exact. What is more
striking is, that this gentleman knew nothing at the
time of spirit-rapping, then beginning to excite
attention in the United States, and it was not till
several weeks after that he heard of it.
All this, the sceptics will allege, may be attributed
to jugglery, to the cunning and craft of the juggler,
divining' the thoughts of the interrogator before he




MR. COTTON IS PUZZLED.        149
had detected them himself. But there was something more still; something which the sceptics will
hardly be able to explain. A priest, a vicar of St.
Roch, the Abbd L, came accidentally, and wholly
unlooked for, to Cideville. To similar questions he
received apparently through his brother, like himself
wholly unknown in the place, answers equally.prormpt
and exact, but with this singular difference: In one
instance the questioner himself was ignorant, and
unable to verify the details of the answer obtained.
He was, indeed, told the age and Christian-name of
his mother and his brother, but he had either never
known them or had forgotten them. He however
took a note of the answers, and, on his return to
Paris, consulted the registers, and found them literally exact. What now becomes of the objection
against the previous witness, or the explanation insisted on, that the answer is given by.the brain of
the interrogator?
Two landholders from the town of Eu came all
express to Cideville. They were told their names,
Christian names, the number of their dogs, their
horses, &c. But still more astonishing were the
phenomena that accompanied the boy believed to
have been touched by the shepherd Thorel. He
perceived continually near him the shade, or appearance of a man, in a blouse, whom he did not know,
but whom he identified with Thorel, the first time
he was confronted with that person. Even one of
the ecclesiastics present, when the boy said he saw
13 *




150           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
the phantom, perceived distinctly behind the lad a sort
of grayish column or fluidic vapor, a phenomenon
often observed on similar occasions. One day the
boy fell into convulsions, then into a sort of ecstatic
syncope, from which for several hours nothing could
rouse him, and which caused a fear that he was
dead. Another time he said that he saw a black
hand descending the chimney, and he cried out that
it struck him.  Nobody could see the hand, but
those present heard the blow, and saw its mark on
the face of the child, who in his simplicity ran out
doors, thinking to see this hand come out!the top of
the chimney.
At length several ecclesiastics united at the parsonage, and consulted how they might be disembarrassed of the annoyance.  One proposed one
thing, another proposed another, and a third remarked that he had heard it said that those mysterious
shades feared the point of a sword. At the risk of
a little superstition, they armed themselves with
swords, and stabbed with them wherever the noises
were heard. But it is difficult to hit an agent in
constant and rapid motion, and they were about to
desist, when one of them, having more skilfully pursued one of the noises than the others, all at once a
flame flashed forth, followed by a smoke so dense
that they were obliged to open all the windows to
escape immediate suffocation. The smoke dissipated, and calm succeeding to so terrible an emotion, they resumed their stabbing, and soon they




MR. COTTON IS PUZZLED.       151
heard a groan; they continued, the groaning redoubled, and at length they distinctly heard pronounced the word " pardon."  "Pardon! yes, certainly, we will forgive you; and more than that, we
will pass all the night in praying for you; but on
condition that you come to-morrow, in person, and
beg pardon of this boy." " Will you forgive us
all?" " How many are you?" " We are five, including the shepherd." " We will forgive you all."
All then became quiet in the parsonage; and the
rest of that terrible night was spent calmly in
prayer.
The next day, in the afternoon, Thorel presented
himself at the parsonage. His attitude was humble, his language embarrassed, and he attempted to
conceal with his hat certain bloody excoriations on
his face. The boy, as soon as he perceived him, exclaimed, " That is the man, that is the man who has
followed me this fortnight." He pretended, when
questioned, that he came to get a small organ for
his master. " Not so, Thorel; you know it is not
for that that you have come," he was answered.'" But whence those wounds on your face? who has
given them?"
" That is no business of yours; I will not tell."
" Tell us, then, what you want. Be frank. Have
you not come to beg this boy's pardon? Do it, then.
Down on your knees."
"Well, be it so; pardon then," said Thorel, falling
upon his knees, and even while begging the lad's




152           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
pardon, drew himself along, and tried to seize him
by his blouse. He succeeded; and from that moment the sufferings of the boy, and the mysterious
noises in the parsonage, redoubled. The cur6, however, persuaded him to go to the mayor's office. He
went, and as soon as he entered it, he fell three times
on his knees, without being required, and before all
the witnesses, begged pardon; but, at the same time,
he drew himself along on his knees, and endeavored
to touch the cur6, as he had touched the boy. The
cur6, after retreating to a corner of the room, had,
in self-dehfence, to beat him off with his cane. He
avowed that all was to be referred to M. G —-—,
whom the cur6 had prevented from earning his
bread, and that he could easily disembarrass the parsonage of the annoyances that were passing there,
if made worth his while.
The cur6, in consequence of what had occurred,
said, or was reported to have said, that Thorel was
a sorcerer, and had practised sorcery on the boy at
the parsonage. Thorel brought, in consequence, an
action against him for slander. The cause came to
trial; the curd pleaded the truth in justification, and
was acquitted. On the trial, the facts I have stated,
as well as many others of no less importance, were
testified to under oath, by a large number of highly
intelligent and respectable witnesses, and not one of
them can be denied, if human testimony is in any
case to be taken as conclusive.
Persons of sceptical and critical disposition may




MR. COTTON IS PUZZLED.         153
imagine that Thorel was concealed behind the wainscot, but the persons who used their swords had
sense enough to ascertain whether that was so or
not; besides, to suppose it, were wholly inconsistent
with other well-established facts in the case. An
hypothesis, to be acceptable, must meet and explain
all the facts, not merely a portion of them. It will
not do to adopt a theory, and then, after the manner
of learned academicians and philosophical historians,
reject as inadmissible all the details of the case not
compatible with that theory. But I have introduced
this narrative to prove the credibility of some of my
own doings, not to prove that there is such a thing
as is commonly called sorcery — to prove the validity of an alleged class of phenomena, not their
proper explanation. To this latter point I shall have
occasion, before I close, to speak at full length.
The annoyances, I may add, continued at the parsonage for some time, in fine till the bishop removed
the boys, and the malice of the persecutors had completed the ruin of the cur6.  They then ceased,
when the original reason for producing them had
been answered.*
* Pneumatologie des Esprits, par le Marquis Eudes de M-.




154
CHAPTER XI.
WORTH CONSIDERING.
I FAILED for a long time yet to get any new light
on the essential nature of the agent with which I
was operating. and remained still undecided in my
own mind whether it was a spiritual person, superhuman and invisible, or a simple elemental force of
nature, placed at the command of every man who
knows how to use his own powers. The answers I
obtained to my questions were vague, contradictory,
and unsatisfactory.  I had no doubt that I was
doing what in the eyes of ignorance and superstition
was called dealing with the devil, and practising
what had been denounced, and in former times
punished, by the civil law as sorcery or witchcraft.
So much was clear and undeniable. But had not
all the world misunderstood the real nature of what
it had condemned as witchcraft, sorcery, maleficia,
and magic? Had they not assumed unnecessarily
a preternatural agency, and an evil agent, where
there was really only a natural, a good, and a benevolent- agent?
The bearing of this question on the Christian religion was very obvious, and I well understood the
significance of what Voltaire said, one day, to a




WORTH CONSIDERING.            155
theologian, " Sathan! c'est le Christianisme tout entier; PAS DE SATHAN, PAS DE SAUVEUR'," and I felt
that there was truth in what Bayle, the ablest and
acutest of all modern authors opposed to Christianity, had said: " Prove to unbelievers the existence
of evil spirits, and you will by that alone force them
to concede all your dogmas." In any point of view,
Christianity was pledged to assert the existence of
Satan and his intervention in human affairs, for according to it, Christ was revealed from heaven and
came into the world that he might destroy the devil
and his works. If there was no devil, the mission
of Christ had no motive, no object, and Christianity
is a fable.
Moreover, all Christians, whether Catholics asserting the infallibility and authority of the Church, or
Protestants asserting simply the infallibility and authority of the Bible, were bound to assert the existence of evil spirits, and the reality of demonic
obsession and possession, of witchcraft, sorcery, and
magic, in the common and opprobrious sense of the
terms. As to Catholics, there could be no question.
The Church plainly and unequivocally recognizes
the existence of Satan, as may be gathered from the
prayers and ceremonies of Baptism, as well.as from
the significance of the Sacrament itself; and not only
his existence, but his power over the natural man,
and even material objects.  Thus when the priest,
in administering the Sacrament, breathes gently
three times in the face of the child, he exclaims,




156           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
"Exi ab eo, immunde spiritus, et da locum Spiritui
Sancto Paraclito:" Go out of him, impure spirit,
and give place to the Holy Ghost, the Paraclete;
and also after the prayer Deus patrum nostrorum:
" Exorcizo te, immunde spiritus, in nomine Patris et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti, ut exeas, et recedas
ab hoc famulo Dei. Ipse enim tibi imperat, maledicte damnate qui pedibus super mare ambulavit, et
Petro mergenti dextram porrexit. Ergo, nmaledicte
diabole, recognosce sententiam tuam, et da honorem Deo vivo et vero, da honorem Jesu Christo Filio
ejus, et Spiritui Sancto; et recede ab hoc farnulo Dei,
quia istum sibi Deus et Dominus noster Jesus
Christus ad suam sanctam gratiam, et benedictionem, fontemque, Baptismatis vocari dignatus est."
The candidate, before receiving baptism, is asked,
" Dost thou renounce Satan?" and answers, " I
renounce him." "And all his works?" "I renounce
them." "And all his pomps?" "I renounce them."
So, in blessing the salt which is used in administering
the Sacrament, the priest says, "Exorcizo te, creatura salis, in nomine Dei Patris omnipotentis, et in
charitate Domini nostri Jesu Christi, et in virtute Spiritus Sancti, exorcizo te per Deum vivum, per Deum
verum, per Deum sanctum, &c. The whole proceeds
on the supposition that Satan is to be expelled, dislodged, and the Holy Ghost to be placed, so to speak,
in possession, or the grace of Jesus Christ is to be infused, so that the Holy Ghost shall henceforth dwell
in the heart of the baptized, instead of Satan, who




WORTH CONSIDERING.           157
previously held dominion over it. The Church has
also her exorcists, and her forms of exorcising of evil
spirits.
The Bible is no less clear and explicit on the subject than the Church. It teaches that Satan, in the
form of a serpent, seduced Eve to eat of the forbidden fruit; it relates the doings of the Egyptian
magicians; it forbids necromancy and evocation of
the dead, and commands the Jews not to suffer a
witch to live; declares that all the gods of the Gentiles are devils; tells us that the devil is the prince
of this world, that he goeth about like a roaring
lion, seeking whom he may devour; bids us resist
the devil and he will flee from us. St. Paul speaks
of the prince and the powers of the air that besiege
us, and against whom we must put on the whole
armor of God, and do valiant battle. Moreover it
speaks of dernoniacs, or persons possessed with
devils; and among the marvellous works ascribed to
Jesus Christ, is that of expelling demons, or casting
out devils. All Christians, then, must admit that
there is a devil, and that there are evil spirits, who
may, and who do, interfere with men, harass them,
and sometimes take literal possession of them. A
recent French author, a sincere Christian believer,
has felt this. " The question," he says, "at the
Christian point of view, is by no means indifferent,
but is, as it were, the mother question, tlhe question
of questions. It is no less than to determine whether
the Bible and the Church have or have not been
14




158            THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
really mistaken in one of their fundamental principles. For a man filled with Christian desires, and
cherishing at the same time a respect for evidence,
the question is most grave. It'touches the whole of
faith, neither more nor less; and as it will not do to
admit in the sacred Scriptures, whose language is
assumed to be inspired, what is called manners of
speaking, or complaisances for the age, or remains of
ignorance, we must be permitted to say, that if it
were proved that the Bible in the time of Pharaoh
mistook simple and miserable jugglers for real magicians, poor charlatans for enchanters, a few knavish
and lying priests for the false gods of the Gentiles,
simple mummeries for real evocations, delirious cataleptics for spirits of Python, &c.; if it were proved that
Jesus Christ, in granting to his disciples the gift, and
prescribing to them the rules, of expelling demons,
mistook a fact of pure physiology; if it were proved
that the Church, in instituting exorcism, and prescribing for it precise and learned formulas, and,
moreover, practising it for eighteen centuries, has
been deceived during all that period, — we should
feel that it is all over with Christianity; we should regard it as condemned, and hasten to renounce an authority so little judicious, and so little to be depended
upon."  Christians may, undoubtedly, dispute as to
this or that particular case, and say that the evidence
of demonic intervention, in this or that particular instance, is not conclusive; but they cannot, without
renouncing their faith, and becoming Sadducees,




WORTH CONSIDERING.           159
deny that such intervention is possible, or assert that
it is improbable. They must concede its possibility,
its probability, and its susceptibility of proof; and
therefore when the evidence in any particular instance is sufficient to establish the reality of any
other class of facts, they are bound, as reasonable
beings, to admit it. To them there is, and can be no
dc priori difficulty, for they already believe in the
reality of demonic agents adequate to produce the
mysterious phenomena that they are called upon to
accept. Hence, in those ages and countries in which
nobody doubted Christianity, all men of science,
physicians, magistrates, as well as the clergy and
the people, readily admitted the demonic character of the phenomena like those produced in our
day by mesmerism.
But, if the belief in the reality of demonic intervention is integral in Christianity, the most obvious way of getting rid of Christianity and its
restraints would be to deny that reality, and to explain the phenomena commonly held as evidence of
such intervention, on physiological and other natural
principles. This has been the aiml of science, especially medical science, during the last two hundred
years. This aim was adopted by the so-called wits
and philosophers of the last century, and during this
it has begun to be adopted by jurisprudence, and
even to be acquiesced in by a large portion of professed Christian ministers. Literary men, like Sir
Walter Scott; founders of new sects, like the late




160           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
Hosea Ballou, of Boston; neologist theologians everywhere; and that "fourth estate,"-journalism, have
all combined to reason, explain, or laugh away, every
thing pertaining to demonology, and to make the
world believe that there is no devil, that evil spirits
are only the creatures of a disordered brain, that
apparitions or ghosts are only hallucinations, possession a peculiar kind of madness or insanity, and
magic mere charlatanry or sleight-of-hand. All this,
for an anti-Christian purpose, was admirable, since
even the conservative portion of the clergy seemed
to acquiesce in it.
Nevertheless, this could suffice only to a certain
extent. It might serve to emancipate the intelligent
classes, but could not emancipate the people. The
latter half of the eighteenth century —a century of
anti-Christian light, philosophy, physical science,
and materialism —was more distinguished for the
mysterious phenomena, usually called demoniacal,
than any other period since the Christianizing of the
Roman Empire, with the single exception of the
sixteenth century. Weishaupt, Mesmer, Saint-Martin, and Cagliostro, did far more to produce the
revolutions and convulsions of European society
at the close of that century, than was done by
Voltaire, Rousseau, D'Alembert, Diderot, Mirabeau,
and their associates. These men had no doubt a
bad influence, but it was limited and feeble. It wts
not they who stirred up all classes, produced that
revolutionary madness, that wild ungovernable fury




WORTH CONSIDERING.          161
of the people which we everywhere witnessed, and
nowhere more than in Paris, the politest and most
humane city in the world. The masses were possessed, they were whirled aloft, were driven hither
and thither, and onward in the terrible work of demolition, by a mysterious power they did not comprehend, and by a force they were unable, having once
yielded to it, to resist.
You feel this in reading the history of those terrible events. It seems to you that Satan was unbound,
and hell let loose. The historians of that old French
Revolution, such as Mignet, Thiers, Lamartine, Carlyle, all feel that there was something fatal in it, and
have been led, at least all except the last, to defend
it on the ground of fatalism. The Royalist and
Catholic historians, who oppose it, seem never to
seize its spirit. They declaim, denounce, find fault
here, find fault there, now with this action and now
with that, but they never explain any thing, solve
any problem which comes up, and they. leave the
whole a mystery, or an enigma.
The same phenomena, only on a reduced scale,
were observable in the revolutions of 1848. Everywhere there seemed to be an invisible power at work.
Good, honest Father Bresciani, would explan all this
by the Secret Societies. It is in vain. They did much,
those secret societies; but how explain the existence
of those societies themselves, their horrible principles, and the fidelity of their members in submitting
to what they must know is a thousand times more
14 *




162           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
oppressive than the institutions they are opposing?
Tell me not that all these revolutionists were incarnate devils; that they cooly, and deliberately, from
ordinary human motives and influences, planned and
carried out their revolutionary enterprise.  There
were in their ranks men of the highest intelligence,
the purest virtue, and the humanest feelings; men,
all of whose antecedents, whose tendencies, whose
studies, professions, interests, and, I may say, convictions, placed them in the ranks of the conservatives, were carried away by an invisible force, and
shouted out, Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, and hurled
the brand of the incendiary at temple, palace, and
castle, which sheltered them, as if it was not they
who did it, but a spirit that possessed them. Men
caught the infection, they knew not how, they knew
not when, they knew not where. The revolutionary
spirit seemed to float in the air, as it undoubtedly
did.
Without Weishaupt, Mesmer, Saint-Martin, Cagliostro, you can never explain the revolution of 1789,
and without me and my accomplices you can just
as little explain those of 1848. There was at work in
the former a power that the wits ridiculed, that science
denied, philosophy disproved, and the clergy hardly
dared assert. There was there the mighty power,
whatever it be, which it is said once dared dispute
the empire of heaven with the Omnipotent, and
which all ages have called Satan, whether it is to be
called evil with the Christian, or good with the phi



WORTH CONSIDERING.          163
lanthropist, a person with the believer, or a primitive
and elemental force with the mesmerist. France,
Europe was mesmerized. So was it again in 1848,
though with less terrible external convulsions.
It is impossible to bring the great body of the people of any age to agree with our Voltarian philosophers -to be genuine Sadducees.  In the first
place, the writings of the philosophers and academicians do not reach the mass; and, in the second
place, there are constantly occurring phenomena
which, in their apprehension, give the lie to Sadduceism. At the very time when the philosophers of
pagan Rome were losing all faith in their national religion, doubting almost the existence of the Divinity
and the immortality of the soul, and laughing at
augurs and soothsayers, the people were more superstitious than ever. It was then that magicians
from Asia and Africa flocked to the Eternal City,
and that Isiac, Bacchic, and other Eastern superstitions, with all their impurities and wild fanaticism,
in comparison with which the national religion was
pure, reasonable, and moral, were introduced, and
spread as an epidemic; and the laws of the earlier
emperors show how hard and how ineffectually
authority labored to suppress them.
The enemies of Christianity may accept the mysterious phenomena, commonly regarded as diabolical, and explain them and the miracles of the Bible
and the alleged miracles of the Church on natural
principles, and if they cannot explain them on any




164           THE SPIRIT'-RAPPER.
known natural principles, they may make them the
basis of an induction of a new natural principle; or,
in other words, invent a natural principle to explain
them, as Baron Reichenbach has done —a principle, element, substance, or force, which he calls od.
They may do this, or they may recognize their real
spiritual and superhuman origin, but ascribe them
to good, not to evil spirits, or what is the same
thing, maintain that what the world has hitherto
worshipped as good is evil, and what it has been
taught to avoid as evil is good. That is, that Satan
is God, and God is Satan.
Swedenborg, in founding his New Jerusalem,
or New Church, and Joe Smith, in founding the
Church of the Latter Day Saints, as Mahomet in the
seventh century, virtually adopted the latter course.
Swedenborg became, in the later years of his life, a
somnambulist, and could throw himself into the
state which some mesmerists call sleep-waking, in
which he was a clairvoyant, and had the power of
second sight. He fancied himself a prophet, and
capable of teaching angels as well as men. But he
held the power he found himself able to exercise, to
be good as well as supernatural.
The same was the case with Joe Smith, an idle,
shiftless lad, utterly incapable of conceiving, far less
of executing the project of founding a new church.
He was ignorant, illiterate, and weak, and of bad
reputation. I knew his family, and even him also,
in my boyhood, before he became a prophet. He




WORTH CONSIDERING.           165
was one of those persons in whose hand the diviningrod will operate, and he and others of his family
spent much time in searching with the rod for watercourses, minerals, and hidden treasures. Every
mesmerizer would at once have recognized him as
an impressible subject. He also could throw himself, by artificial means, that of a peculiar kind of
stone, which he called his Urim and Thummim, into
the sleep-waking state, in which only would he or
could he prophesy. In that state he seemed another
man. Ordinarily his look was dull, and heavy, almost
stupid; his eye had an inexpressive glare, and he was
rough, and rather profane. But the moment he consulted his Urim and Thummim, and the spirit was
upon him, his face brightened up, his eye shone and
sparkled as living fire, and he seemed instinct with a
life and energy not his own. He was in those times,
as one of his apostles assured me, " awful to behold."
Much nonsense has been vented by the press
about the origin of his Bible, or the Book of Mormon. The most ridiculous as well as the most
current version of the affair is, that the book was
originally written as a novel, by one Spalding, a
Presbyterian minister in Pennsylvania, and that Joe
got hold of the manuscript and published it as a new
Bible. This version is refuted by a simple perusal
of the book itself, which is too much and too little
to have had such an origin. In his normal state,
Joe Smith could never have written the more striking
passages of the Book of Mormon; and any man capa



166           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
ble of doing it, could never have written any thing
so weak, silly, utterly unmeaning as the rest. No
manll.ever dreamed of writing it as a novel, and whoever had produced it in his normal state, would have
made it either better in its feebler parts, or worse in
its stronger passages.
The origin of the book was explained to me by
one of Joe's own elders, on the authority of the person
who, as Joe's amanuensis, wrote it. From beginning
to end, it was dictated by Joe himself, not translated
from plates, as was generally alleged, btt apparently
from a peculiar stone, which he subsequently called
his Urim and Thumrnmim, and used in his divination.
He placed the stone in his hat, which stood upon a
table, and then taking a seat, he concealed his face
in his hat above it, and commenced dictating in a
sleep-waking state, under the influence of the mysterious power that used or assisted him. i I lived
near the place where the book was produced. I
had subsequently ample means of investigating the
whole case, and I availed myself of them to the
fullest extent. For a considerable time the Mormon
prophets and elders were in the habit of visiting my
house. They hoped to make me a convert, and they
spoke to me with the utmost frankness and unreserve.
Numerous miracles, or what seemed to be miracles- such miracles as evil spirits have power to
perform-rnand certain marvellous cures were alleged
to be wrought by the prayers and laying on of the




WORTH CONSIDERING.          167
hands of the Mormon elders. Some of these were
wrought on persons closely related and well known
to me personally; and I have heard others, confirmed
by persons of known intelligence and veracity, whose
testimony was as conclusive for me as would have
been my own personal observation. That there was
a superhuman power employed in founding the Mormon church, cannot easily be doubted by any scientific and philosophic mind that has investigated the
subject; and just as little can a sober man doubt
that the power employed was not Divine, and that
Mormonism is literally the Synagogue of Satan.
It matters little to the enemies of Christianity,
whether the public deny altogether the marvellous
phenomena heretofore regarded as diabolical, whether
they accept and explain them by means of a primitive
force or primordial law of nature, or simply ascribe
them to Satanic invasion, provided it be held that
Satan is a philanthropist, the friend and benefactor
of the race, not the enemy; for in any case, Christianity is denied or undermined  But the purely
sceptical theory answers only for the few, who, it is
to be remarked, never see any of these marvellous
phenomena, and who, if they did see them, might be
led to embrace Christianity; but it will never suffice
for the many, and can never subserve the views of
reformers who would operate upon the masses.
It however makes no practical difference which
of the other two hypotheses is adopted. For myself, I in some sense adopted both, though, as I have




168           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
said, I inclined to the naturalistic theory.  But
even then I had begun to contemplate an ulterior
object, which might make it more convenient to
adopt the latter hypothesis, 1fo it Might become necessary to overthrow Christiaity by the introduction, apparently by supernatural means, of another
religion -a religion in harmony with the wants of
the flesh. It is impossible to overthrow a positive
religion by a pure negation, or to get rid of Christianity without substituting something positive in its
place; for it is to be remarked, that sceptical ages
are the most credulous, and that as Christian faith
recedes, superstition advances.  Hence we see in
Scandinavia unmistakable evidences of a revival of
the worship of Odin; and only a short time since,
the government had to adopt measures to repress it
in the north of Norway. In many parts of Germany
we see a' decided tendency to revive the superstition
which Christianity supplanted. When men have
no longer religion, they take refuge in superstition;
and when they cease to worship God, they begin to
worship the devil. The most interesting people to
the Englishman Layard that he found in the East,
were the devil-worshippers.
But all this is premature. World-Reform, as I
had "sketched it to myself, had for its object unbounded liberty, and was to be accomplished, on the
one hand, by the overthrow of all existing governments, and the complete disruption of all political
and civil society; and on the other, by the total de



WORTH CONSIDERING.          169
molition of the Christian Church, and extirpation of
the Christian religion. Of course it would not do
to avow all this, for if I did, I should defeat my own
purposes. Faith still lurked in many a heart; and
the persuasion was very general, that some kind of
government, some kind of political, civil, and even
moral restraint was very generally entertained, even
by those whom I must make my accomplices, and
use as my tools. It was necessary to keep one's
own counsel, dr to confide it to the smallest number
possible. To the world it would do to'avow only
the design of divorcing religion from politics, and of
democratizing the church and society. This might
be avowed without shocking the public at large.
For this the public mind was in a measure prepared.
A pious priest could be persuaded to advocate ecclesiastical democracy, as we have seen in the work of
the excellent Rosmini, in the Five Wounds of the
Church.
A. popularizing tendency among Catholics had
been much encouraged by that powerful priest, the
Abbe de La Mennais, and his enthusiastic associates.: It is true, he had fallen under censure, and
had been excommunicated, eo nominze, by Rome;
but the party he formed, though disavowing him,
still retained somewhat of his spirit, and followed
his tendency. There was a growing party in France,
even among the clergy, who wished to divorce the
church from the state, and induce her to abandon
the courts, and cement an intimate alliance with the
15




170           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
people, and lend her powerful influence to the democratic movements of the day. They had much that
was plausible in their favor. The royal and nobiliaire
governments of Europe had always labored to convert the dignitaries of the church into courtiers, and
to make her their tool for enslaving and fleecing the
people. The greatest injury religion had ever received, it had received from courtier bishops, and
the tyranny of the state over the church, equally
fatal to her and to the people. The real interests of
the church would therefore seem to demand of her
to make common cause with the people against
kings and aristocrats, and in favor of democratic
institutions. This conviction was becoming. very
general among the more earnest and influential
Catholic laymen. A corresponding conviction was
also becoming general among the great mass of the
Protestant populations. It was possible, then, to
labor to democratize society without alarming religious convictions; nay, it was possible to enlist them
to a great extent in the same work. Nobody, it is
well known, helped us on more effectually in Europe than many of the most distinguished among
the Catholic clergy and laity. I need only mention
Ventura and Gioberti in Italy, Montalembert, Lacordaire, Cormenin, Maret, and Archbishop Affre, in
France.
But, after all, great movements are never carried
on by simple human means alone, and never get
beyond brilliant theories unless inspired and sus



WORTH CONSIDERING.          171
tained by a superhuman power, either from heaven
or from hell. Christianity had taught us the weakness of human nature, and I found that weakness
confirmed by experience. Between the power to
conceive and to execute there is a distance. Men
might form the most brilliant ideals, bring out the
soundest, most attractive and perfect theories of
reform, but it would avail nothing unless endued
with a power not their own, to realize them in practice. Here was the defect in the plan of Signor
Urbini and Young Italy. It was skilfully devised, it
had all of human wisdom on its side, but it was
ideal, and had no power or energy to realize itself.
No man lifteth himself by his own waistbands.
Without the Whereon to stand, Archimedes, with all
his mechanical contrivances, cannot move the world.
It is necessary to have a support outside of man;
a source of power which is not human, and as the
world would say, either Divine or Satanic, to be able
to accomplish any thing.
But had I not this very power in the agent I had
been experimenting with? What else was this mesmeric agent, whether a primitive, an elemental force
of nature, or indeed a superhuman spirit endowed
with intelligence and will? Mr. Winslow was, in
the main, right. Mesmeric clubs or circles must be
formed on all points on which it is necessary to
operate, and batteries be erected everywhere, so that
anywhere, and at any moment, a mesmeric current
may be sent instantaneously through the masses,




172           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
infusing into them a superhuman resolution and
energy, and making them stand up and march as
one man. This, then, was the first thing to be
done. I would erect my mesmeric batteries in every
country in Europe, all connected by an invisible, but
unbroken magnetic chain.
This plan, as far as I thought it prudent, I forthwith
communicated to Priscilla, without whose cooperation I could not carry it into effect. She approved
it, and was ready to cooperate in any way I wished.
The poor lady, I may remark, had no longer any
will of her own. She had craved liberty, and had
induced me to aid her in establishing it, and was
now only my slave, bound to me in chains, which,
struggle as she might, she could not. of herself alone,
break or unfasten.




173
CHAPTER XII.
A MISSIONARY TOUR.
THE civil and political revolution I wished to
effect, had apparently, to a considerable extent, been
already effected in my own country, and the principal theatre of my operations must be in the Old
World. There is no doubt, that, at bottom, the
American system does not differ from the European.
It is the same system of repression, and, though it
dispenses with kings and nobles, it asserts, with
equal emphasis, the necessity of government, of law,
and morals. The American, in making his revolution,
had no socialistic dreams, no thought of resolving
society into its original elements, denying all authority, rejecting all government, abolishing all religion
and morality, and leaving every man to do freely
whatever seems right in his own eyes, however
wrong it may seem in those of his neighbor. The
authors of the American Revolution, and founders of
the American States and the American Union, were
any thing but democrats in the present prevailing
sense of the word.
But the progress of ideas and events has so modified the American system, and done so much towards restoring a perfect democracy, where the de15*




174           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
magogues have every thing their own way, that the
chance of getting up any considerable revolutionary
party, except to operate abroad, is not worth counting. Indeed, it is not necessary to hasten the march
of things here, which is sufficiently rapid towards
that point where democracy resolves itself either into
complete individualism or into an absolute social
despotism. I saw and felt this, and looked upon
my own country as more ready to assist me in my
philanthropic or Satanic efforts to revolutionize foreign countries than in need of similar efforts on its
own account.
Let me not, however, be misunderstood. Let me
speak as I think and feel as I lie here confined to
my room, from which I am to be removed only to
my grave. I love not democracy, which I regard as
from below, not from above; but I love as little, perhaps much less, absolute or unlimited monarchy,your Czarism, Caesarism, or Imperialism. I may
think it unwise, wrong, wicked even, to attempt to
overthrow by revolutionary violence, an absolute government, where it exists, and is not intolerable in
practice, for the sake of introducing a republic, or
even a constitutional monarchy; but I hold no
government a good one, where one man alone represents the will and the majesty of the nation. I
demand a government of estates, whenever that is
practicable, but always a representative body, with
real legislative power, capable of imposing real and
effective restraints on the administration. I demand




A MISSIONARY TOUR.          175
for the nation the means of making known freely
and effectively, within the limits of the moral law,
its will. I demand freedom of discussion, deliberation, and decision. I demand the freedom of the
press, temperately, and answerable for its abuse,
(which, however, must be a real abuse;) to criticize
publicly the acts of political authority, to point out
the defects of its policy, and to suggest measures
for the public good. I demand a political constitution in which the nation governs through a king or
president, and parliament or legislative body or bodies.
I am, what is sneered at by your imperialists, a parliamentarian, a constitutionalist, and have no sympathy at all with the Cwsarism of either France or
Russia. I am no radical, no revolution it,nrio friend
of sedition, but I love a wise, prudent, well-regulated
liberty, which leaves me all my power to do good,
and therefore, necessarily, to some extent, even to do
evil; for if you so bind me by the civil power that I
can.do no evil, you take from me my manhood,
make me an automaton, and deprive me of all
power to do good and to acquire merit. Such is
my political creed, and therefore let no man dare, because I favor not now -the wild radical movements
of the age, accuse me of being an enemy to liberty,
or a worshipper of Cesarism, or what is called absolutism.
Not seeing much to be done in my own country,
I resolved to go abroad. I required Priscilla to make
herself ready to accompany me, and to take her hus



176           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
band along with her, I know not whether this latter
request pleased her or not. Woman is woman even
when under the power of the Evil One; and that
Priscilla loved me, and loved me madly, she hardly
pretended to conceal. I had, perhaps, loved her, too,
for a moment, when I might do so innocently, and I
loved her still as much as remained in me the power
to love. But love or lust was not precisely my
ruling passion, and I would as soon have taken
another with me as Priscilla, could she have served
my purpose as well. Even in my worst days I was
as much repelled as attracted by a woman who
could betray her husband's honor, and I always
found a woman, mastered by her passion, and ready
to give up all for love, as it is called, a troublesome
rather than an agreeable companion. A man wishes
to find in the woman of his affections a free soul,
moral dignity, —a tender, oving heart, indeed, but
with sufficient strength to stand alone. Lads and
lasses in their teens have very false notions of love,
and this is why love so seldom survives the honeymoon, and why so many complain of unrequited
affection and broken hearts.
But I could not do without Priscilla, and I wished
her husband to accompany her to avoid scandal, and
also to serve as manager, to take charge of all the
arrangements in travelling, residing in one place, or
in going from that to another, for which he was
admirably adapted. I found him far more intelligent,
far more of a man than I had been led to suspect




A MISSIONARY TOUR.         177
from his ready submission to petticoat government.
Priscilla had entirely mistaken him, and might one
day find him more than her master.
In a couple of months our arrangements were
made for' the voyage to Europe, and for a longer or
shorter residence abroad, as we should find it convenient. We embarked from Boston in one of the
Cunard steamers for Liverpool, in May, 1843. We
arrived at Liverpool after a pleasant passage of
thirteen days, and as soon as we could land, and
get our baggage through the custom-house, we departed for London, where we proposed stopping for
some weeks. Let not the reader fear that I am
about to inflict on him a journal of my travels in
England and on the Continent. I did not go abroad
as a curious traveller, to see other lands, and study
the ways, manners, customs, institutions, laws, politics, or religion of other nations. I went for a special
object, and to that I confined myself. I could, if I
would, tell very little more than I might have learned
at home. My mission was not to observe and learn,
but to do, and to prepare, and hasten on the grand
movement I contemplated.
I did not find in England much remaining to be
done, or that I needed to do. I saw very few of her
nobility, and I was not even once invited to dine
with the Queen. The middle classes I found very
much like my own countrymen, with very much the
same culture, ideas, habits, and pursuits. I found,
as at home, a large number of philanthropists, though




178           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
less thoroughgoing than ours, and narrower, and less
comprehensive in their views. The common Englishman is a little insular in his notions, and looks
with disdain or pity on all who do not happen to be
natives of his own island world. The American is
broad and expanded in his views, like his extended
prairies and boundless forests.. No pent up Utica
confines him; the globe is too small for him; and
he- seriously contemplates forming a joint-stock
company for the construction of a railroad to the
moon. He thinks it will prove a good speculation.
They are both proud, equally proud; but with the
Englishman, pride assumes the form of haughtiness,
or a low estimate of others; while with the American, it assumes that of a conscious superiority to all
the rest of creation.
I did not see much chance of a reform or a democratic revolution in England at present. True, she
had at that time a very considerable body of Chartists, and a numerous canaille, but these I counted
for nothing. No revolution is ever made by the proletarian classes. Wat Tyler, Jack Cade, and the
Jacquerie of France have proved that. No people
can ever overthrow a government till the government
betrays itself. In 1789, and in 1848, in every instance the government, with a few whiffs of grapeshot, might have dispersed the mob and suppressed
the revolution. Quem Deus vult perdere, prius demnentat. I placed no reliance on the democracy of
England, yet I did not at all despair of her. She




A MISSIONARY TOUR.          179
had her Reform Bill of 1832, which in due time
would be followed by another, and another, till her
House of Commons would come to be regarded as
representing population, not an estate. The extension of her commerce and manufactures was compelling Sir Robert Peel, an able man, but a shortsighted statesman, to break up the protective system,
establish free trade, and throw the power into the
hands of the urban class. I did not need to mesmerize him; he was doing my work as fast as it
could be done with safety. Lord John Russell, Lord
Palmerston, and their friends, I found had been
visited before me. Mr. Gladstone needed a slight
manipulation-; but I saw that he was an impressible subject, and I foresaw that, when he became
Chancellor of the Exchequer, I should have every
reason to be satisfied with him. Lord Shaftesbury,
then Lord Ashley, I found amply mesmerized by
nature and inheritance.
As to aid from England, in carrying on democratic revolutions on the Continent, especially in
Italy, if not in -France, I might count on it with entire confidence, so far as beginning the movements
and getting into trouble were concerned.  But I
thought possibly I might find her aid like the devil's,
which suffices to help one into a scrape, but leaves
him to get out the best way he can. ~ She had no
interest in helping the reformers to establish democracy, but she was ready enough to throw the
Continental states into confusion and anarchy. Hers




l10           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
has of late years been only a half-way genius.
Nevertheless, I found in her a few choice spirits, and
erected a mesmeric battery, which has since done
some. service to the cause I had at heart. Priscilla was still more successful among the philanthropic ladies and women with whom she was able
to communicate. We made sure, without much
difficulty, of Exeter Hall. It was a battery already
charged, and served, with skill and ability.
We prepared an agent to visit Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, and other considerable English
towns, and, upon the whole, were very well satisfied
with our mother country, and in good spirits left
England for Dublin. We were received there with
true Irish hospitality. The Liberator was then in
his glory, and filled a large space in the eyes of the
world. He had obtained the Catholic Relief Bill,
and opened to his co-religionists of Great Britain and
Ireland a political arena, and was now agitating for
the legislative independence of his native country.
A few months after he was arrested, and sentenced
to a fine and a year's imprisonment, which virtually
put an end to his movement. It broke his heart
both as a patriot and as a lawyer. He received us
very coolly at first, because we were Americans, and
the Americans held negro slaves; but on learning
that we were abolitionists and philanthropists, he
opened his large heart to us, and bid us a hundred
thousand welcomes. We could not, however, make
much of O'Connell. He was an admirable type of




A MISSIONARY TOUR.         181
the general Irish character, and not easily understood.  He struck us as a bundle of opposing
qualities, not usually thrown together in the same
individual. A pious Catholic, he was surrounded
by unbelievers, and the patron of the whole herd of
philanthropists, whose chief aim was to rid the world
of his religion; a man of impulse, as capricious as a
child, wily as a village attorney, and subtle as the most
crafty lawyer, and acting always upon calculation;
a warm-hearted patriot, a genuine lover of his country, yet with a sharp eye to the " rint," and leaving it
doubtful to many minds whether he had any higher
motives in what he did than to gain personal distinction,* and to elevate his family.  He however
interested us as the inventor of "peaceful agitation," an invention which could have been made
only by an Irish lawyer, and it was as a "peaceful
agitator" that we chose to think of him. We found
his "peaceful agitation" might be turned to good
account in the constitutional states of the Continent,
and we took care to introduce it into France, when
we visited that country, with what effect those who
remember the "Reform Banquets" which preceded
the Revolution of February, 1848, need not to be
informed.
From the Liberator, or, as we chose to call him,
the Agitator, we went to meet the chiefs of the
Young Ireland party, still apparently acting in harmrrony with him. We formed no great expectations
of them. They talked too much, and made too
16




182           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
much noise and bluster. We found them in excellent dispositions, but too unsubstantial for our purpose. They were all blaze, and no heat. The devil,
having no creative power, could not himself make
much of them, and gave them up in despair. Hence
their miserable failure four years later at Slievnamon. Indeed, Ireland was a country by no means
to our philanthropic and reforming purpose, and we
made no account of her in preparing our revolutionary movements. We however erected a small
battery in the west, with a view to some ulterior
operations, and which we left in charge of Exeter
Hall. It has produced some temporary effect; but
inasmuch as it has served to arouse the Popish
bishops and clergy to a more diligent discharge of
their duties, in regard to the religious and moral instruction of the people in that hitherto somewhat
neglected district, it is not certain but it will, in the
long run, produce an effect the reverse of that intended. Rome, too, has sent a man after her own
heart to look after'the Irish Church, the present
Archbishop of Dublin and Primate of Ireland; so
the philanthropists have not much to hope from Ireland. Pat will sometimes live and talk as an unbeliever, but he has a singular propensity to die a
Christian.
From Ireland we visited Edinburgh, Glasgow, the
Highlands, and the Hebrides - the Highlands and
the Hebrides, for the purpose of making observations
on the "second sight" of the natives. We were




A MISSIONARY TOUR.          183
much pleased with Scotland. The Scottish character has many admirable features, and there is not
upon the whole a finer race in Europe than the
Scotch, when unperverted. We found nothing to
do among them. There was no need of mesmerizing them. Their own " ingenuum fervidum," a sort
of permanent mesmerization, was amply sufficient
for all our purposes. Besides, there seemed to be a
natural and ample supply of the odic fluid in her
own mountains and glens, which were still peopled
by brownies and fairies.




184
CHAPTER XIII.
THE TOUR CONTINUED.
FINDING all right in Scotland, we visited Norway,
Sweden, and Denmark, the ancient Scandinavia,
the land of Odin, and home of the most stronglymarked devil-worship to be found in history. With
all my study and experiments, I was far below many
mesmerizers I found among the natives of these
countries. I found operative the spirit of the old
Vikings, the Berserkirs, and the Sagas, which had
made the Norsemen the nobility of Europe, and the
plunderers of every maritime district, which had
precipitated Gustavus Adolphus upon the Empire
to perish at Liitzen, and Charles the Twelfth upon
Russian Peter, to meet his fate at Pultowa. It still
survives, hardly restrained by the Christian profession, and capable of being kindled up anew, and set
to work in all its pristine vigor. Of these northern
countries I felt sure, and that I might safely leave
them to themselves.
We passed on to St. Petersburg, and had an interview with the Czar of all the Russias. We found him
one of the noblest-looking men in Europe, simple,
affable, intellectual, and well-informed. He treated
us with distinction on account of our country, with




THE TOUR CONTINUED.         185
which he said he and his predecessors had always
been on friendly terms, and whose unexampled prosperity he saw with pleasure. He could understand
our politics, and respected them, for they were based
on a principle — a wrong principle he believed —
nevertheless a principle, consistently carried out. He
believed the Russian system, under which one man
governs, is far preferable to ours, under which all
govern. However, we might honestly disagree with
him. Apparently he was the most bitter as well as
the most powerful enemy of our revolutionary plans;
but we did not despair of him. He seemed wedded
to the stats quo; but we felt that when once we had
destroyed that, we could make him and his legions
do our work, for we found him a sort of Pope
in his own dominions, and not indisposed to supplant the Pope of Rome. He was, if a friend to
Papacy, the enemy of the real Pope, and that was
enough for us.
The Czar, foreseeing the revolutionary movements
which would be attempted in Western Europe, had
for the moment ceased to favor the Panslavic movement which he previously set on foot; but we saw
that the impulse had been given, and that ultimately
he must return to it, go on with it, or be swept away
by it. This Panslavic movement to unite the whole
Slavic race, numbering upwards of seventy millions, and holding a territory capable of supporting
twice, if not three times that number of inhabitants,
under one Slavic government, imperial or republi16'




186           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
can, would operate, we thought, altogether in our
favor; for it would ruin Austria, the chief support
of the Papacy, and give a decided predominance to
the anti-Catholic powers throughout all Europe.
We therefore favored it, and took care to form various circles in support of it, as we traversed the
Empire from St. Petersburg to Moscow, Ninji Novogorod, Little Russia, to the Black Sea; and also,
among the Serbs of Bulgaria, Servia, Bosnia, in European Turkey; Transylvania, the Banat, Croatia,
Slavonia, and Bohemia, in the Austrian Empire.
We visited, on leaving Russia and Slavic Turkey,
the kingdom of Hungary. There we found! Kossuth, and he answered our purpose. Priscilla formed
a circle among the Magyar ladies, but it was quite
unnecessary. I initiated Kossuth into my plan, and
laid my hand on his head, and breathed into: his
mouth, and left him to take care of the Magyar
race. Highly delighted, we passed from Presburg
to Vienna, where we stayed some weeks. The Itnperial family and high aristocracy were proof against
our arts, but we found the burghers, the employes of
the government, and especially the students of the
University, quite impressible, and we charged them
for a revolution.
From Vienna we passed through Cracow to Warsaw, and from Warsaw we went to Berlin. In all
these places we found every thing favorable. We
passed through the capitals of several of the smaller
German States and principalities, stopped a few




THE TOUR CONTINUED.         187
days in the Grand Duchy of Baden, and then hastened to take up our residence at Geneva, in Switzerland. We did not visit Munich, but sent Lola
Montes there, whom Priscilla, at my order, had prepared. She did very well, but not so well as I expected. She used her extraordinary powers too
much for her ownh aggrandizement. She should
never have suffered King Louis to. have made her a
countess. She was too vain and ostentatious.
We arrived in Geneva, late in the'autumn of
1844, and made it our principal residence till the
spring of 1846. We had nlade no prolonged stay
in Poland, for we found the Poles already mesmerized. Cold and callous as I had become, I yet had
a tear for poor Poland, and, let my conservative
brethren say what they will, I still weep her fate. I
am not affected by the prevailing Russo-phobia, and
in the contest now raging between Russia and the
Western powers, I believe that she has the advan.
tage on the score of justice, though now that they
have been mad and foolish enough to wage war
against her, the interests of Europe perhaps demand
their success; for if they fail, she becomes quite too
powerful., There are traits in the Russian character
I like, but I can never forgive the murder of Poland.
Catherine, Frederic, and Maria Theresa, in that
crime opened the way to modern revolutions, and
deprived crowned heads, to a powerful extent, of the
sympathy of the friends of justice and order. The
Poles had their faults, great and grievous, but the




188          THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
partition of their kingdom by the three powers of
Russia, Prussia, and Austria, was a crime that no
faults could' justify, and, what some would say is
worse, a political blunder. Since then, the Polish
nobles have been, and will long continue to be, their
evil genius.
We did -not remain long in Germany, for we
found most of the German states already prepared,
and already in close communication, after the German fashion, with the powers of the air. The German genius is mystic, and plunges either into the
profoundest depths of'Christian mysticism, which
unites the soul with God, or into the demoniacal
mysticism, which unites it in strictest union with
Satan. The German, whatever his efforts, can never
make himself a pure rationalist. He has too much
religiosity for that. He must worship, and when he
worships not God, he worships the devil, and either
through the elevating power of the Holy Ghost rises
to heaven, or, through the depressing power of Satan,
sinks to hell. You never find him standing on the
simple plane of human nature, and he is always
either superhumanly good or superhumanly wicked.
For an Englishman, an American, an Irishman, there
is a medium, a possibility of compromise, a sort of
split-the-difference character   now saying, good
Lord, and now saying, " good devil," —a via media
genius, which offends both extremes, and satisfies
nobody. I like the German genius better. If the
Lord be God, then serve him, if Baal be God, then




THE TOUR CONTINUED.          189
in Satan's name serve Baal. Be either cold or hot,
not lukewarm. Ernst ist das Leben is the German's
motto, and whatever he proposes to do, whether
good or evil, he sets about it in downright earnest.
There is more to hope, and more to fear from the
German or Teutonic race than any other in Europe,
for it has very little of the Italian and French, or
the English and American frivolezza, that curse of
modern society.
At Geneva we met Mazzini, a remarkable man,
in his way, the very genius of intrigue, and wholly
sold to the devil. We also met there the Abbate
Gioberti, a Piedmontese, who had been exiled as a
liberal by the government of Carlo Alberto, the cidevant Carbonaro. He was a Catholic priest, and
though under the censure of the government, and
distrusted by the Jesuits, nay, violently opposed by
them, he had not at that time, so far as I could
learn, fallen under the censure of his church. He
was one of the ablest men we met in our European travels, and a fine specimen of the higher
order of Italian genius. Though comparatively
young, not much over forty, he was deeply and
solidly learned, and as a writer on political and philosophical subjects, had, saying nothing of his peculiar views, no superior, and hardly an equal in all
Italy, if indeed in all Europe.
Gioberti affected to be an Ultramontane, a rigid
Catholic, a thoroughgoing Papist; yet his sympathies were with the liberal or revolutionary party.




190           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
He was, first of all, an Italian, and held that the
moral, civil, and political primacy of the world belonged to Italy, and it was because God had, from
remote ages, given to her this primacy, that the
Papal chair was established at Rome. The primacy
belonged to the successors of St. Peter in their
quality of Roman pontiffs, who, as such, were heritors of'the Italian primato. The Papal authority
was founded in divine right, but mediately through
the divine right of the Italians as heritors of the old
Roman sacerdocy, and Italo-Greek civilization. According to him, the Papacy did not so much continue the synagogue, as the old Roman priesthood,
or rather, the Jewish and Pagan priesthoods both
meet and become one in the Papacy -the summit
and representative of the Christian priesthood.
His plan, therefore, was, first of all, Italian unity,
not the republican or democratic unity of Mazzini
and Young Italy, nor yet a monarchical unity, under
a purely secular prince; but a federative union under
the moderatorship of the Pope, made one in the
Papacy. The Romans, he held, at least from the
time of Numa, had been an armed priesthood,
and should now resume, under the Pope, their old
character and mission. Italy thus united, thus or
ganized, under the moderatorship of the Pope, could
reassert her primacy, and carry on the work of civilization. With her twenty-five millions of inhabitants, the natural superiority of her genius, the
moral weight of the Papacy, her peculiar geographi



THE TOUR CONTINUED.          191
cal position, and the productiveness of her soil, she
would be impregnable to attack, and more than able
to cope single-handed with any one of the great
European powers. In other words, he sought for
the Pope and the Italians what Nicholas is supposed
to seek for the Czar and the Russians.
The rock on which he split, and I told him so at
the time, was in assuming the intrinsic compatibility of Gentilisin and Christianity. He wished
to combine the antique pagan and the modern
Christian spirit, and to train youth to be devout
Catholics, and yet, at the same time, proud, daring,
and energetic Gentiles. He did not agree at all with
the Abb6 Gaume and the, party laboring to exclude
the Greek and Roman classics from our colleges and
universities; he had no very high opinion of the
fathers of the Church, with the exception of St.
Augustine, and no patience with the medieval
knights and doctors. He waged unrelenting war
on the philosophy taught by the Jesuits, and, indeed, upon the whole system of education pursued
by those renowned religious religions, which, he contended, had practically emasculated the European
mind, deprived it of all depth and originality, and of
all free and vigorous activity. Its effect had been
to produce, in nearly all Europe, a universal frivolezza, or frivolity of thought and action.
But he forgot to note, that Gentilism and Christianity are directly opposed one to the other. Christianity educates for heaven, Gentilism for earth; the




192           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
former is based on pride, the latter on humility; the
one exalts God, the other exalts man. The Gospel
teaches us to despise what Gentilism honors, and to
honor what Gentilism despises, and to possess the
world by rising above it, and trampling it under our
feet. A Christian- discipline has for its end, to mortify the flesh, and to make men live as if dead to
the world, and to overcome the world by dying,
not by slaying, by relying on the wisdom and power
of God, not on their own. Gentile discipline trains
men primarily for the world, develops the nobility of
pride, not the higher nobility of humility — trains
men to act, by their own wisdom and sagacity, on
men, to be artful and overreaching statesmen, intrepid soldiers, able and invincible commanders. It
is obvious to every one that these two systems can
never be combined, and made to work harmoniously
together. Ye cannot serve God and Mammon.
Taking the Gentile standard, taking a Fabricius, a
Scipio, -a Cato, a Caesar, instead of a St. Bruno or a
St. Francis, of Assisium, as a model man; or a Cornelia instead of Santa Clara or a Santa Theresa, for
a model woman, there can be no doubt of the vast
superiority of ancient Gentilism over modern Catholicity, or even Christianity itself, and, in this sense, the
devout Irishman was right when he said, " Religion
has been the ruin of us," and more especially as it
regards Catholics. Non-Catholics, as to the empire
of this world, display a wisdom, an energy, and a
decision, which you seldom find in strictly Catholic




THE TOUR CONTINUED.          193
states, and the only cases in which so-called Catholic states approach them, is when they put their
religion in their pocket, war on the Pope, or for
purely secular ends, on purely earthly principles.
The French Republic, in putting an end to the
Mazzinian Reign of Terror, and restoring Pius the
Ninth to his temporal, estates, professed no religious
motives, and would have failed if it had. It acted
from worldly policy, and avowedly for the purpose
of watching Austria and maintaining French influence" in the Peninsula.
The question is not as Gioberti conceives it; it is
not a question of the fusion of -Christian and Gentile virtues, but a question between Gentilism and
Christianity itself. It is not how to train our youth
to, be great, noble, energetic, according to the ItaloGreek standard, but whether we are or are not to be
Christians. If Christianity be true, there can be no
question that our youth should be trained for heaven
and not for the world, and taught to be meek, humble, self-denying, unworldly- to die to the world,
and live only to God — to prepare themselves for
dying and living eternally hereafter in heaven. If
so trained, they will not exhibit those traits of character which you so much admire in the great men of
pagan antiquity; they will meditate when you will
think they should act, pray when you would have
thenl fight, and run to the church when you would
have them run against the enemy. But, at the same
time, if Christianity be true, there can be no ques17




194           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
tion that the management of earthly affairs on
Christian principles and for a Christian end, would
be decidedly for the interests of society as well as
for the salvation of the soul. " Seek first the kingdom of God and his justice, and all these things
shall be added unto you."
There is an innate and irreconcilable antagonism
between Italo-Greek.Gentilism and Christianity.
According to Christianity, the world by wisdom
knows not God; and the whole economy of the
Gospel is undeniably to discard the wisdom of this
world, and to rely solely on the wisdom from above,
to trust not ourselves, but God alone.  The Gospel reverses all the maxims of Gentile wisdom, and
blesses what it curses, and curses what it blesses.
Gentilism had said, Blessed are the proud, the distinguished, they who are honored and abound in
this world's goods; the Gospel says, Blessed are the
poor in spirit, that is, they who are humble, lowlyminded, and despise riches and honors. Gentilism
had said, Blessed are they who are quick to resent
and avenge their real or imaginary wrongs; the
Gospel says, Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the land. The former had said, Blessed are
they that rejoice; the latter says, Blessed are they
that mourn. Gentilism had said, Blessed are they
who thirst for fame, for honor, power, and who live
in luxury, who eat, drink, and are merry; the Gospel says, Blessed are they who hunger and thirst
after justice, Blessed are the merciful, and Blessed




THE TOUR CONTINUED.           195
are the clean of heart. Gentilisrr had said, Blessed
is the man who delights in arms, whom no one dares
attack, whom none slander, revile, or persecute, and,rho, by- his force, craft, or wisdom, has triumphed
over all his enemies, and subjugated them to his
will; the Gospel says, Blessed are the peacemakers,
Blessed are they that suffer persecution for.justice'
sake, Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, and
persecute you, and say all manner of evil against
you falsely for my sake: rejoice and be exceeding
glad, for great is your reward in heaven.
The principle of Christianity is humility, meekness, gentleness, forgiveness of injuries, love of enemies, self-denial, detachment from the world, and a
delight in living, suffering, and dying for the glory
of the cross. In every respect, the principle. of Gentilism is the direct contradictory. Look at the Gospel as you will, and its direct denial of heathenism
everywhere strikes you. Its Author came into the
world not in the pride, pomp, and power of an earthborn majesty. He came in the form of a servant, a
slave, the reputed son of a poor carpenter, at whose
craft he worked with his own hands. The foxes of
the earth have holes, and the fowls of the air have
nests, but poorer than they, he had not where to lay
his head. Of the rich, the proud, the great, and
honored, none were with him. His disciples were poor
fishermen and publicans. He sought and accepted
no earthly honors; and when the people, in a fit of
momentary enthusiasm, would make him perforce




196           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
their king, he withdrew, retired into the mountains,
concealed himself, and prayed to his Father. When
betrayed by one of his followers, and delivered into
the hands of his enemies, he made no resistance,
and permitted none to be made. He patiently endures insults, mockeries, and revilings, and opens
not his. mouth in his defence, when confronted with
his accusers before the bar of Pilate, but meekly
submits to the unjust sentence pronounced against
him, suffers himself to be led unresistingly, bearing
his cross, to the plaece of execution, and to be crucified between two thieves.
Here is the whole spirit, the whole economy of
Christianity. If Christianity be from God, this means
something, and proves that if Christians are sincere
and in earnest, they cannot adopt or even value the
wisdom of the world; and it must always be true,
that the children of this world are wiser in their
generation than the children of light. Concede the
Gospel to be true, and you must own that Christian
asceticism is the highest wisdom, and Gentile wisdom,
or the wisdom of this world, the sublimest foolishness. This St. Paul well understood, and hence he
says, " We preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a
stumbling-block, and to the Greeks foolishness; but
to them that are called, Jews and Greeks, Christ
the power of God, and the wisdom of God. The
foolish things of the world hath God chosen to confound the wise, and the weak things of the world
hath God chosen that he may confound the strong;




THE TOUR CONTINUED.         197
and base things of the world, and things contemptible hath God chosen, and the things that are not,
that he might bring to nought the things which
are."
There is no denying this, and hence the error of
Gioberti. He would be both a Christian priest and a
Gentile philosopher, at once a disciple of the Gospel
and of the Portico, and he labored with an ability and
a subtlety to demonstrate by means of a philosophy,
considered apart from the use he made of it, worthy
of profound esteem, that this was not only possible,
but demanded by the deepest and truest principles
of ontological science. I do not think that he was
at that time an unbeliever, or that he entertained
any doubts of the religion he professed. But he
had little of the sacerdotal character or the Christian
spirit, and I think he was disgusted with what he
considered the weakness, tameness, abjectness, the
frivolezza of the Catholic populations of France and
Italy, and out of patience with seeing them crouching before the haughty infidel, and the domineering heretic or schismatic. He wished to see them
men, men of lofty and daring souls, scorning to be
trampled on, and indignantly hurling back the invading hosts of barbarians, and boldly and triumphantly asserting the proud prerogatives which belong to them as possessors and guardians of the
truth of God. He was right after the wisdom of
men, but wrong after the wisdom of God, if Christianity is our standard, and was animated by the spirit
17 *




198            THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
of Gentilism, not by the spirit of the Gospel.  He
failed, for he was too pagan for a Christian, and too
Christian for a pagan.
The remedy, if remedy is needed, is the return of
modern society to real, earnest, living faith in the
Gospel. The age is'frivolous, because it is educated
to be Christian, and is at heart unbelieving. It is
not heresy or schism that needs now to be attacked,
but unbelief — a moral and intellectual scepticism,
which books and schools do not teach us to attack
successfully. Here schoolmen, men of routine, with
their probos, respondeos, and objectiones solvunturs,
stand us in poor stead. Exquisite polish, gracefullyturned periods, charming pleasantries, pretty conceits, and soft, sweet sentimentality for boys and
girls in their teens, will stand us in just as little. It
is necessary to abandon routine, the easy habit of
speaking memoriter, and learn to think, to master, not
merely repeat, what others have said, but to master
for ourselves the principles involved, and to speak out
in a tone of strong, impassioned reasoning, in free,
bold, and energetic language, in defence of the Gospel itself.




199
CHAPTER XIV.
ROME AND THE REVOLUTION.
IN June, 1846, the death of Gregory the Sixteenth,
and the election of Cardinal Mastai and his elevation to the Papacy, under the name of Pius the
Ninth, summoned us to Rome, the Eternal city. I
felt a momentary grief, as I saw the mouldering
ruins of pagan Rome, the ancient capital of Gentilism, and felt indignation at beholding the diminutive Rome that had supplanted it; but 1 felt sure
that the old gods lingered still in those ruins of the
Capitoline and Palatine hills, and that the time was
drawing near when we might evoke Jupiter Tonans
and the fiery Mars, and the Goddess of Victory, from
their slumber of centuries; revive the old Roman
spirit, and reestablish the old Republic, so long triumphed over by the barbarism of the cross. Never
before had I felt how thoroughly alienated from the
Christian world, and assimilated in my feelings to
the old Gentile world I had become. I was in the
capital of the Christian world, the centre of Christian art, and of the most glorious Christian associations for two thousand years, and my heart was
touched only at sight of the monuments of pagan




200            THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
antiquity, which time and the still more destructive
hand of man had spared.
But we had no leisure for sight-seeing, and still
less for sentimentalizing over the ruins of that stupendous superstition of which Rome was the capital,
and which had gradually supplanted the patriarchal
Christianity, only slightly corrupted, of the primitive
Romans. The superficial politicians, Catholic and
non-Catholic, regard the Papacy as comparatively of
little political or social significancy in our times;
but whoever looks a little below the surface of things,
knows very well that the Pope, though weak as to
his temporal states, is not only the oldest but the
most influential sovereign in Europe. The death of
one Pope and the accession of another, is an event
which reverberates through the whole civilized world;
and the policy of the sovereign pontiff, the feeble
old man of the Vatican, with hardly a regiment of
guards, has not seldom the preponderating weight in
the councils of princes, although unseen, unrecognized- so much the more inexplicable, as there no
longer remains a truly Catholic government on the
globe, and not a Catholic nation in whose heart lives
and breathes the old Catholic faith. Not a nation
in Europe would, to-day, for the sake of religion
alone, rush to the assistance of the Pope; yet the
Papacy is everywhere, and not a court in Europe
but trembles when it thinks of the Pope, even weak
and unsupported as he is.
All the Liberals throughout the world held a jubi



ROME AND THE REVOLUTION.       201
lee as soon as they heard of the death of the old
Pope, who had, no one could tell how, held them in
check. The whole world seemed to have been suddenly relieved of an invisible burden, and bounded with
a wild and frantic joy. The good time that had been
a-coming, now could come. This joy grew wilder
and more frantic still, when it was l hown that Cardinal Mastai was the new Pope. He was known to
be gentle and humane, kind-hearted and pious, and
suspected of leaning to liberal views, and of being
a Giobertian; and nobody doubted that he would
attempt a policy the reverse of Gregory's. We, who
were in the secret, knew that he was not the choice
of Austria, and had no doubt that he would incline
to France, and follow, to no inconsiderable extent,
the advice of Count Rossi, the French Ambassador,
and one of our friends.
At that time Guizot was at the head of the government of France under Louis Philippe, a Protestant and a quasi-conservative statesman, but with
many sympathies with the Europeaij Liberals. He
believed, or professed to believe, that a change in the
institutions of the monarchical states in Europe,
giving the people a moderate share in the government, was demanded by the exigencies of European
society, and if freely offered by authority, and not
given as a concession to the people in arms to effect
it, would be a wise and beneficial public measure, and
in an eminent degree politic too, as it would tend to
extract the point from the declamations of the radi



202           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
cals, and prevent, or at least indefinitely postpone, the
revolution with which all Western and Central Europe was threatened. He had urged this policy
upon Prussia, perhaps upon Austria, certainly upon
the smaller German states which had not yet adopted
the constitutional regime, and upon the Pope and the
other Italian princes.
We were perfectly well aware of Guizot's policy,
and knew equally well how to turn it to our account.
Your doctrinaire, juste-milieu, or via-media statesmen, who follow expediency, and govern without
principle, are generally regarded as wise, prudent,
and eminently practical, but they are among the
shortest-sighted mortals to be encountered, and are
as miserable humbugs as the Genevan banker, M.
Necker, who could never understand that government was any thing more than a question of finance,
or its administration any thing more than the administration of a joint-stock bank. When there is no
serious discontent on the part of subjects, and not
the least danger of revolution or insurrection, authorrity may modify without danger, immediate danger
at least, the constitution, in favor of popular power,
as the English government did in 1832; but when
there isgrave discontent, with or without just cause,
and a secret conspiracy is forming in behalf of liberal
or popular institutions, nothing is less wise or statesmanlike than for authority to make popular concessions with a view of forestalling and disarming it.
The disaffected attribute such concessions solely to




ROME AND THE REVOLUTION.         203
the weakness and fears of the government, and only
rise in their demands, and conspire with the more
energy and courage.
The government, in times of general discontent,
as was the case in Europe from 1839 to 1848, should
either concede all and abdicate itself, or concede
nothing, because, if it is to defend itself it needs all
its prerogatives and the concentration of all its powers. The advice of Guizot was fitted only to weaken
the powers that entertained it, and to render them, in
the hour of trial, timid and undecided; and it is only
where authority is timid, hesitating, and undecided,
that a popular revolution can ever succeed. The
only wise and even merciful way in such times is,
to make, on the first outbreak, a free use.of grapeshot and the bayonet. There will be no second outbreak, however powerful or well concerted the conspiracy may have been. Napoleon understood this,
and his nephew understands it, also, tolerably well.
No man understands it better than Nicholas, Autocrat of all the Russias, although his single unarmed
presence is ordinarily all that is necessary to quell
an insurrection in his capital.
There is no doubt that Pius the Ninth, during the
first days of his pontificate, followed, in temporal
matters, the advice of the French government,
which, as far as I have been able to learn, never,
since Philip the Fair, has been guilty of giving the
Pontiff advice not to his own hurt. France advised
the fatal amnesty and some sort of quasi-popular




204           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
institutions. The former was granted, the latter were
promised, and the world was made to believe that for
once it had a liberal Pope. There was nothing heard
but Evviva Pio Nono! throughout Rome, Italy,
France, England, and the United States. Radicals,
Infidels, Protestants, and even the Grand Turk,
united in one grand chorus of loud and prolonged
exultation. It seemed, to those who saw only the external manifestation, that all hostility to the Papacy
had ceased, and that all the world were on the eve
of becoming Papists. Rome became one perpetual
festival. Songs, hymns, processions, benedictions,
speeches, addresses, congratulations, became the
regular order of the day. Multitudes of Catholics,
honest, simnple souls, really felt that the day of
heresy and schism, of conflict and trial, for the
Church, was over. Some shrewd old cardinals
at Rome took their pinch of snuff; shrugged their
shoulders, and retired to their palaces. We, who
knew what agencies were at'work, laughed in our
sleeve, and, with all the chiefs of the liberal party,
called upon all the powers which we had prepared,
visible and invisible, to aid in increasing the general
intoxication, not doubting but the Papacy was at
its last gasp. For we felt sure that if, by flattery,
by enthusiasm, by loud, long, and reiterated shouts
of Evviva Pio Nono! we could get the Pope fairly to
enter the path of reform, or what was, we supposed,
the same thing for us, make the Catholic world
believe he had entered it, it was all over with the




ROME AND THE REVOLUTION.      205
Papacy, therefore with Christianity, law, and social
order.
No doubt some of the enthusiasm manifested was
real, but a great deal of it was feigned, for the precise
purpose of imposing upon the public. We were not
ourselves for a moment deceived. We felt sure that
Mastai was a genuine Pope, that he could hardly be
deceived by the demonstrations which must have
been painful to him; which, in fact, gave him no
rest, and which, under pretence of unbounded devotion to him, were becoming unmanageable, secretly
undermining his throne, and growing into a real conspiracy against his freedom of action. We knew
well there must come a point beyond which he could
make no further concession, and our plan was to get
the Catholic populations of Europe so committed to
the cause we pretended he favored, that when that
point was reached, we could turn the popular enthusiasm against him, and he find himself disarmed
and powerless to resist it. In this it is well known
that we fully succeeded.
We should not have gone so far, and succeeded
so rapidly, perhaps, had we not been aided by English politics. Lord John Russell and Lord Palmerston did not disappoint my expectations. At the
time of our visit to Rome, the government of Louis
Philippe was in the zenith of its glory. The wily
monarch seemed to have fully confirmed his throne,
and his prime minister was successful in urging upon
a large number of princes constitutional reforms, and
18




206           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
it seemed likely, for a moment, that the revolutionary
party would spend its fury harmlessly under the lead
of the sovereigns themselves. But he deeply offended
England by the Spanish match, the marriage of the
Due de Montpensier with an Infanta of Spain. By
this marriage, he seemed to have completed his circle
of alliances, and to have made himself too powerful
for English politics, and was rendering himself still
more so by the constitutional reforms he was urging
upon German and Italian princes. It was necessary
to thwart him, and put an end to his illegitimate
reign. Lord Minto was despatched, and other agents
instructed to confer with the chiefs of the revolutionary party in Italy, and also in France, and encourage
them to insist on reforms effected by the people from
below, and to refuse to be satisfied with reforms
effected from above by the princes. These chiefs
were assured of the sympathy, perhaps they were
promised the assistance, of the English government,
which makes it a point to support a revolutionary
party in every foreign state.
In the mean time, all the batteries we had erected
were opened. Exeter Hall, and the Protestant Alliance were in full operation, and I thought it quite
certain that a force was accumulated and brought
to bear on the Rock of Peter that would shiver it
into ten thousand atoms. Our presence was no
longer necessary at Rome, and after Easter of 1847,
we went to Paris, to fire a train in that city of combustibles. We were not needed there, for having




ROME AND THE REVOLUTION.       207
had interviews with the chiefs of the revolutionary
party in Geneva, we had already prepared them.
They had more than profited by our instructions;
they had even improved on them, and stood in closer
relation to the Unknown Force than we did ourselves.
All we could do to aid on the revolution which broke
out the following February, was to persuade some
of the leading Liberals to introduce the " peaceful
agitation," reduced to so perfect a system by O'Connell in Ireland, which was done in what were called
the " Reform Banquets."
All France at that moment was, in some sense,
revolutionary. Guizot, at the head of the government, was a reformer, as I have shown, but only on
condition that authority took the initiative. But,
to admit the necessity or propriety of, any reforms
or changes was a tacit concession altogether to the
prejudice of the existing order. After Guizot and
his party, came the dynastique reformers, such as
Thiers and Odillon-Barrot, who wished the Orleans
family to possess the throne, but to deprive the
throne of all effective power, and to establish a parliamentary despotism. - The watchword of these at
that moment was, the extension of the electoral
franchise. There were at that time, out of a population of thirty-six millions, only about two hundred
thousand electors. After the dynastique reformers,
came the Catholic party, led on by the noble, learned,
eloquent, and singularly pure-minded Montalembert,
a man of principle, of faith and conscience, with




208           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
whom religion was a living and all-pervading principle.'This party consulted, first'of all, the freedom
and'independence of the church, and was comparatively indifferent to the dynastique question. Its
drapeau was neither that of Henri Cinque nor that
of the House of Orleans, but'religion and social
order. The watchword at that time,was, Freedom
of Education, denied by the monopoly secured to
the University, which educated in a pantheistic, Voltarian, or an irreligious sense. As the government
sustained the University, and denied freedom of Education guarantied by the constitution, they opposed
the government.
Behind these came the Legitimists, the adherents
of the elder branch of the Bourbons, filled with old
Gallican reminiscences, and whose watchword was
Henri Cinque. They were opposed to the existing
government,;ready to take active measures to overthrow it, and were ready to support the church, in so
far as she demanded nothing for herself, and would
lend all her resources to uphold and decorate the
throne. They were a set of superannuated old gentlemen, with polished manners and courtly address,
decorated with some very respectable prejudices, but
wholly ignorant of their times, and incapable of
learning. They were a clog on the Catholic party,
and were chiefly answerable for the reiSstablishment
of the Bonapartists and the present Napoleonic
Cmsarism in their beautiful country. However, they
were opposed to Louis Philippe, and ready to effect
a change.




ROME AND THE REVOLUTION.       209
After the Legitimists, who were royalists and
opposed to the existing government, came the Republicans, moderate and immoderate; the moderates
having for their organ Le National, the immoderates
La Rtdforme. These, however, were all opposed to
monarchy, whether in the elder- or younger branch
of the Bourbons, and wished- the rdpublique, —
some, as Lamartine, Arago, with the Girondins, those
phrase-mongers of the old revolution, the r6publique of the respectables, of the Bourgeoisie, attorneys,
professors, and hommes de lettres; others, such as
Ledru-Rollin, and the Montagnards,. a rdpublique
democratique, une et indivisible, with Robespierre,
Couthon, Saint-Just, Danton, and Marat; while
others still, too numerous to mention, wished, with
Barbeuf, La RWpublique ddmocratique et sociale;
and not a few wished no government, no political or
social order at all. These were the Subterraneans,
reformers after our own hearts, and on whom we
chiefly operated, and through whom we brought the
odic force to bear on the revolutionary movement.,
Aside from all these, but ready to cooperate, for the
moment, with any or all of them, as would best serve
their purposes, were the Imperialists, the Bonapartists. After the fall of Napoleon, and the Restoration
of the Bourbons, the Bonapartists had affected liberal, I may say, democratic ideas, and had lent their
powerful influence throughout.Europe to democratize the public mind; and at the time of which I
speak,: the chief of the family was very nearly an
18'




210           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
avowed socialist, and was hand-and-glove with the
Subterraneans. They knew well that they could be
healed only when the waters should be troubled; and,
whether they were troubled by an angel of light or
an angel of darkness, was a matter of perfect indifference, unless, indeed, they had more confidence in
the latter than in the former.
Add to these parties the intrigues of England,
who could not forgive the Spanish match, that crowning act of the Philippine policy, also the illusions
we were able to keep up as to the views and intentions of Pius the Ninth, and it required no messenger from another world to announce that France
was on the eve of a tremendous convulsion; that
the days of the King of the Barricades were numbered; and that, whatever might be the afterclap,
the reigning dynasty must fall, with a crash that
would be reverberated throughout all Europe. The
only care of our party was to push forward in front
the more moderate reformers, more especially the
dynastique reformers, while we organized- a Subterraneafn force that would drive them, in the moment
of their success, beyond the point at which they
aimed, and compel them to accept the Rdpublique,
which, if proclaimed at Paris, we felt certain that we
could, during the panic which would succeed, fasten
upon the nation.
The history of the events that followed is well
known, and need not be repeated. The old king, in
the moment of peril, proved that he was a true




ROME AND THE REVOLUTION.       211
Bourbon, incapable of a wise decision or an energetic act. All at once he had a horror of bloodshed,
sacrificed his ministry, called to his council Thiers,
Odillon-Barrot, and other dynastiques, who, vainly
imagining that their bare names would allay the
storm which they still more vainly imagined that
they had conjured up, ordered the troops back to
their barracks, and gave up the king and his dynasty
to the armed and infuriated mob. The king abdicated; the Regency, under the Duchess of Orleans,
was scouted; the royal family scampered for their
lives towards England, that refugium peccatorunm;
monarchy was abolished; the Rdpublique was proclaimed; a provisional government was organized
impromptu, and a convention of delegates, to be
chosen by universal suffrage, was ordered to meet
and give France a regular political organization.
But a few days elapsed before the movement in
Paris was followed by insurrections in Berlin,'Vienna, and a large number of the smaller German states.
The Italian peninsula was all in a blaze; democracy
was in the ascendant in all Europe, except Russia,
Spain, Belgium, and Holland. Hungary demanded
independence of Austria; the Slavic populations of
the Austrian Empire at Prague and Agram were
preparing to join in a panslavic movement; Pius
the Ninth was deprived of all freedom of action, and
held virtually imprisoned; Naples and Sicily were
in full revolt, and the king ready to concede every
thing, and, Bourbon-like thwarting every effort- of




212           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
his loyal subjects to protect him; Charles Albert
declared himself the sword of the Holy See; the
Lombardo-Venetian kingdom rejected Austrian supremacy, and chose him for king.'He marched at
the head of his troops, swelled by contingents from
all Italy, to drive the barbarians back over the mountains, and to clear the peninsula of every vestige of
foreign dominion.
We were elated; we felt that success was sure,
and that our grand philanthropic World-Reform was
on the point of being completely realized. But
alas! homo proponit, Deus disponit. The spirits had
deceived us. Pius the Ninth displayed a passive
courage that we had not counted on, and nothing
could induce him to sanction the war against Austria; and in spite of all we could do, it finally leaked
out, that he had not sanctioned it, and that the revolutionists had belied him, and entirely misrepresented
his principles,, conduct, and wishes. Old Radetzky,
after retreating before Charles Albert till he had
obtained reenforcements, turned upon his pursuer,
defeated him, and drove him, with shame and loss,
out of Lombardy. Prince Windishgratz beat the
rebels in Prague; the lazzaroni flogged the-republican heroes in Naples, and the people seized the
throne, in spite of its weak and pusillanimous occupant. In fine, Cavaignac, after four days of hard
fighting, prostrated the Subterraneans of Paris, and
became Dictator of the Republic. We were no longer
in the years of grace'91,'92, or'93. The age was




ROME AND THE REVOLUTION.       213
not as far gone in unbelief as we had reckoned, and
the friends of religion and society were more numerous and more energetic than we had believed.
Our hopes were damped, but not extinguished.
We had thus far used the Pope, but we could use
him no longer, and we must get rid of -him, and
completely secularize the Roman government. We
had used the Italian princes; we must now reject
them, and abandon Gioberti for Mazzini. We succeeded in wresting the government entirely from the
Pope, but he himself escaped us, and fled to Gaeta,
which was a serious injury to our cause. The Pope
in exile is more powerful than in the Vatican. We
meant to have confined him in his palace, and held
him as a! puppet in our hands, and still for a time
continued the use of his name; but in this his flight
defeated us. We were obliged to proclaim the Roman Republic, and the temporal deposition of the
Pope, prematurely; but still we hoped, as we took
care not to touch his person or his spiritual prerogatives, that we should not lose the sympathy of the
Catholic public.
But it was all in vain. Our magic failed us; a
more powerful magioian than we intervened, and
everywhere the reaction gained ground against us.
Austria, whom we thought we had disposed of, rose
Anteus-like from the ground; the Giobertians, predominant in the Subalpine kingdom, would not own
us. Florence was deserting us; Venice held out,
indeed, but Lombardy was chained by old Radetzky.




214           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
Great Britain wished us well, gave us good advice,
but came not to our aid; and Spain and Portugal,
that we thought dead, suddenly started into life
against us. Russia, though she loved not the Papacy, detested us, and was ready to interpose to
bring Prussia to her senses, and to assist Austria.
And last of all, the French Republic, which we had
been the principal agents in creating, fearing the
preponderance of Austria, and anxious to have
an outpost in the Eternal City, sent her troops
against us.
It was in vain to struggle. I saw clearly that the
battle was against us, and that we should never succeed, by political and social revolutions, in effecting
our purpose; and I made up my mind at once to
have nothing more to do with them. I resolved to
return home, and fall back on what I have hinted as
an ulterior project. It was in the Autumn of 1849.
The abortive attempt to reorganize the German Empire had failed, and not to our regret, since we saw,
if reorganized at all, it would not be on democratic
principles; the authority of St. Peter was reestablished at Rome; the Magyars were forever prostrated in Hungary, and our friend Kossuth had taken
refuge with his friends the Mussulmans, and France
was becoming an orderly government under the Presidency of Louis Napoleon and the conservative majority of the Legislative Assembly. There was
nothing more that we could do.
It is true, that many of our friends thought differ



ROME AND THE REVOLUTION.        215
ently from me, and wished to continue the struggle;
but I told them that, if they did, they must do so
without my active cooSperation; that I should leave
them to their simple human strength, and they would
find all their plans miscarry. The time is not opportune. Christianity has yet a stronger hold on
the European populations than you or I had calculated, and the Christian party can no longer be duped
and made to fight for us. They thrill with horror
now to hear us say, "Christianity is democracy, and
Jesus Christ was the first democrat." They are beginning to see, as clearly as we do, that all this is at
best absurd, and that our movement is essentially
anti-Christian. They see, they admit, they deplore
a certain number of political and social abuses; but
they believe these abuses more tolerable than the
reforms we would effect.
We have given the bishops, the clergy, and the
pious laity a horrid fright; and you will see them,
almost to a man, before three years expire, exultingly
consenting to the reestablishment of pure Caesarism, in order to be relieved of their fears of us.
Louis Napoleon will succeed in making himself,
almost with the unanimous voice of France, proclaimed Emperor, with absolute, or virtually absolute
power, with no effective check on his arbitrary will;
parliamentary government will be scouted, as hardly
a step removed from Subterranean democracy; free
discussion of public affairs will be closed; the press
will be muzzled, and no voice will be heard through



216            THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
out the empire, save a voice in praise or flattery of
the new Emperor.
But herein is our consolation and our hope for the
future. The new Emperor will have to deal with
Frenchmen; and he counts without his host, if he
thinks he can, for any great length of time, silence
thirty-six millions of French voices, or make them
all speak one way. Mortal man cannot do it. Satan himself could not do it; and only One, whom
we name not here, could do it. Now they are afraid
of us, and have had even an excess of talk. They
will consent for a time, even as a novelty, to be
silent, or shout, as an admirable change, Vive l'Empereur, instead of Vive la Rdpublique d&mocratique
et sociale, --  bas les Democrates, instead of a bas
l'Aristocrates, or l'Aristocrates d la lantern, and d bas
les socialistes, instead of d bas les Rois. But rely
upon it, that after a brief repose, these same Frenchmen will be desirous of mouvement, and will by no
means be pleased to find themselves doomed to the
silence and stillness bf death.  Then will be our
time once more, and perhaps then we may be more
successful. Till then I engage no more in political
and social reforms. I shall take myself to that which
underlies all political and social ideas, and slowly,
perhaps, but surely, prepare a glorious future. You
will hear from me again, or if not, you will feel the
influence of what I shall do.
With remarks like these, I took my leave of my
European revolutionary friends. I communicated




ROME AND THE REVOLUTION.       217
to Priscilla, who had faithfully served me throughout
the time I had been abroad, and powerfully contributed to such successes as we had had, my design
of returning home. We were in Paris. She would,
perhaps, have rather returned to Rome. She had,
in fact, began to droop, and to be weary of the part
I had forced her to play. She had, during our stay
in Rome, become a mother, and new feelings and
affections had been awakened in her heart. Her
husband had treated her kindly, forbearingly, but
he had much changed, and no longer favored philanthropy or reform, and it was rumored that he had
become devout. Priscilla evidently began to turn
to him with something approaching the love and
esteem she owed him, and would gladly have broken
her liaison with me. But I would not hear of it;
she must return with me.
19




218
CHAPTER XV.
THE ULTERIOR PROJECT.
IT may be asked why I wished Priscilla to return
with me, against her will, since I had no passion for
her, and' respected the honor of her husband.  I
wished it partly from spite, and partly because it
was necessary to my purpose. She had induced
me, or had had more influence to induce me than
any one else, to embark in a cause which I loathed,
and which at the same time I felt myself totally
unable to abandon, and I wished to make her suffer
with me. Then, again, I could do nothing without
an accomplice, and that accomplice a woman. I
travelled abroad in the character of a simple American gentleman, not as a mesmerizer, a magician,
or one who commands invisible powers. Nobody
abroad, or even at home, ever suspected me, unless
it was good old Mr. Cotton, of any thing of the sort.
In all cases when the mysterious force was to be
exerted, as long as she was connected with me, I employed Priscilla as my agent. I gave her my orders,
which she, without exciting any suspicion against
her or myself, seldom failed to execute to the letter.
Even after her own views and feelings began to
change, and she felt the slavery and degradation of




THE ULTERIOR PROJECT.         219
her position, she dared not disobey me. She stood
in awe of my power, and knew well the merciless
punishment that awaited her. Often, often has she
begged me, with tears and in the deepest agony, to
undo my spell over her, and to let her go free. I
would not. Had she not declared her spirit eternally
wedded to mine? The truth is, I was half afraid to
undo the spell, and emancipate her. She knew too
many of my secrets, might expose me, and defeat
all my plans; and once freed from me, once restored
to the empire of reason, she would feel herself bound
in conscience to do so; and when a woman once
takes it into her head to act from conscience, she is,
whether she have a good or a false conscience, as
unmanageable as if she were in love. She is as
headstrong under conscience as under passion, and
of course absolutely uncontrollable, because in either
case she uses her reason simply in the service of her
feelings. Then, again, I did not like accepting a
new accomplice.
Priscilla, not daring to resist, finally persuaded
her husband to consent to return home. We crossed
the Channel to England, and hastened to embark at
Liverpool on board a steamer for New York. We
had a stormy passage, and came near being cast
away; but at length arrived in port, and soon found
ourselves in Philadelphia, after an absence of six
years and six months amidst scenes and events of
the most exciting character. We were all changed
in looks, but still more in feelings. The fire of our




220           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
enthusiasm was extinct, the freshness and sanguine
hopes of youth had fled forever; our labor had been
in vain, and there was no bright or cheering prospect before us. I took my leave of Priscilla at the
public-house where we stopped. When I saw her
faded cheek, her sunken eye and withered form, the
wrinkles gathering on her brow, and heard her, in a
broken voice, renew her oft-repeated request, and
remembered what she was some ten or twelve years
before, and thought of what I was too at that time,
and what I was now, I had a touch of human feeling, and pressing her hand to my lips —I had not
the heart to refuse — I told her I would consider it,
perhaps I would, and hurried out of the room, to
conceal my emotion, not sorry, after all, to find that
I had not wholly ceased to be human.
The next day, I started for my home in Western
New York.  Home, alas! no longer. The house
was desolate. During my prolonged absence, my
mother and my only sister had died, and all my
family were gone. My library and my laboratory
remained as I had left them. They had no charms
for me now. I looked out upon the familiar scenes
of my childhood; they seemed changed all, and
were tame and listless. I met some companions of
my earlier life; there was nothing in common between them and me. Their voices sounded strange,
and grated on my ears. The sad conviction, for the
first time in my life, forced itself upon me, that I
was alone, and deeply I felt my loneness. I had




THE ULTERIOR PROJECT.         221
lost my childhood's faith, which, though meagre and
but a shadow, yet was something. I had no Father
in heaven, no brother or sister on earth. I believed
in neither angel nor spirit. All existence, all being,
had dwindled into one invisible, elemental, impersonal Force, which indeed I could wield, but to what
end?
In my loneness, I felt that the vulgar belief in the
devil, in ghosts, and goblins damned, would be a
solace. They would be something, and any thing
is better than nothing. Better is a living dog than
a dead lion. Alas, I had sold myself, and my redemption was far off. Strange enough, I felt something like passion revive in my guilty breast. I felt, I
even regretted Priscilla's absence; and it seemed that
she was dear to me, and that I could not endure life
without her. I pictured her to myself as I had first
known her, and I wept as I remembered how for
long years I had enslaved her. A voice whispered
in my heart, emancipate her. A momentary feeling
of generosity possessed me. I summoned her, as I
knew how, to my presence. She appeared, instantaneously.
"Priscilla," said I, " I am sad and weary. Life
has lost its charms for me, and I care not how soon
I die. I have nothing to live for. You are a wife
and a mother. I absolve you from your pact; be
free; return, and devote yourself to your husband,
who is worthy of you, and to your boy. I have, and
will no longer have, power over you."
19*




222           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
A gleam of joy spread over her face, a smile of
gratitude played on her lips, and a look of love shot
from her eyes, and the place where she stood was
vacant. She had vanished; but a chattering, as of
a thousand mocking voices, filled my room, and
then impish, mocking faces were seen all around;
making mouths at me. I cared not for these. I
silenced the former, and sent away the latter with a
word. I retained my magic force still. But there
was joy as well as sorrow in that house in Arch
street, Philadelphia. Priscilla, the day of returning
to her own house, had been taken ill; her husband
was alarmed, and called a physician, who could understand nothing of her case. She grew worse and
worse; and during the time I had summoned her to
me, she fell into a sort of stupor, a complete trance,
and to all except her husband, who had seen her in
that state before, and knew that she was subject to
trances, she seemed to be dead. The moment I had
absolved her, she came to herself, a sweet smile on
her face, with the hue of perfect health. She arose
in bed, embraced her husband with a warmth and
sincerity of affection which he had never before
known, and for the first time since his birth looked
upon her boy with the glad joy of a mother's heart.
But at this moment her husband was more to her
than her babe. She hung on his neck, she pressed
him to her heart, she half-smothered him with kisses,
spoke in the terms and tones of the tenderest and
sweetest affection, and it seemed as if she would




THE ULTERIOR PROJECT.        223
pour out upon him, in a single moment, the loaded
affections of a lifetime. "My dear husband, you
must forget and forgive the past. I am yours, yours
now, yours alone; heart, soul, and body, forever.
The spell is broken. The delusion is gone; take
me, take me, dear James, to your heart."
James was a man. He had been dazzled by the
beauty and accomplishments of Priscilla, and thought
it enough to be accepted as her husband, without
much scrutiny into the state of her affections. She
had, for a moment, imposed upon him, and he had
accepted her notions of woman's rights, philan.
thropy, and world reform. But he did not lack good
sense; he had even a strong mind, firm principles at
bottom, and all the elements of an upright, manly
character. A few months' practical experience served
to cure him of a good deal of his philanthropy, and
to damp the ardor of his zeal for reform. He was,
of course, displeased with my intimacy with Priscilla,
and he owed me, it must be owned, no good will.
But his observation pretty soon satisfied him, that
whatever the bond of that intimacy, it was not what
directly affected his honor as a husband, and he resolved that he would seem not to regard it. It was
a bitter trial to him.
His tour abroad, his observation, and his conversations with gentlemen and ladies, not always of our
clique, had opened his eyes to many things, and
made him a stanch conservative. He abandoned all
the loose notions he had previously entertained, re



224           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
nounced his Quaker quietism, and had become sincerely converted to a real objective Christian faith.
His first thought and care were to reclaim his wife,
and, if possible, to release her from the mysterious
power which I seemed to have over her. He found
her as anxious to be released as he was to release
her, and he thought he discovered in her, at times,
a growing affection for himself. It was a difficult
case to manage, but he thought it best to be pru.
dent and discreet, and to avoid every thing that could
excite remark, or that he himself might afterwards
regret.
Feeling now that he had himself not been entirely
free from blame, that he was bound to be forgiving,
that Priscilla was really his wife, the mother of his
child, and that she probably was freed, though he
knew not how, and did now really love him, he
responded with a warmth nearly equal to her own,
to her strong expressions of love, frankly forgave her
all, and pressed her to his heart as his own, his truly
beloved wife. It was for both the happiest moment
they had ever known, and in that one moment James
seemed to have been compensated for his patience,
forbearance, and suffering, for so many years.
Priscilla immediately regained her health and
cheerfulness, and resolved, if possible, to recover me
from the bondage in which she knew I was held.
How she sped in this, and what new trials, if any,
awaited her, will appear as I proceed in my narrative.




THE ULTERIOR PROJECT.         225
My own feeling of loneness, of desolation, was
not relieved by my release of the woman I had so
long held spell-bound, but was aggravated by the
constant annoyance of a passion which I had seldom
before experienced, or which, without much trouble,
I had always been able to subdue. As Priscilla became purified and less unworthy of her husband, and
as she seemed the more completely to have escaped
me and to be lost to me forever, the more did I feel
that I could not live without her, and the more impossible did I find it quietly to endure her absence.
I was mad. I called her. The charm was broken,
and she came not; I saw only a vague, undefined
form, flit before my eyes, and heard only a wild
mocking laugh.
Weeks passed, but they seemed ages. Priscilla,
in all her loveliness, in all her gracefulness and
dignity, in all the brilliancy of youth and beauty,
was constantly present to my morbid fancy by day,
and to my dreams at night. I was completely unmanned,-wept now as a child over a lost toy, or
now raved as a madman. I could not eat, I could not
sleep. I could endure it no longer. I sold my house
and furniture, disposed of my laboratory and scientific apparatus, packed up my library, and resolved
that henceforth I would take up my residence in
Philadelphia.
I had no sooner established myself in my new
home, than I called in Arch street to see Priscilla.




226           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
Instead of her I found James. He received me
civilly, even kindly, conversed with me of what we
had seen abroad, but Priscilla did not appear. No
matter, I would call again. Did so; saw Priscilla
only in presence of her husband. She was looking
well, was affectionate in her tone and manner, but
offered me not her hand, and seemed to take care
that I should not so much as touch her dress. Well,
said I to myself, be it so. The weakness shall last
no longer. I will be myself again, and resume the
project I had contemplated. I went home, not cured,
but resolved, and immediately commenced my evocation, and communicated my orders to all the circles I had established throughout Europe.
I have already hinted what this new project was.
It was clear to me, from my historical reading and
my personal observations amid the exciting scenes of
the more recent European revolutions, that the grand
support of social order, and what I have somewhere
called the system of restraint and repression, is
Christianity, and that the political and social reformers can never fully carry out their reforms till
they have totally rooted out from modern society all
belief in the Gospel, and all peculiar reverence for
its Author. This is more than hinted by Mazzini
and Kossuth, although the latter is a vice-president
of the American Bible Society, boldly avowed by
M. Proudhon, and stoutly contended for by the
German Turnverein and Freimanner. If you con



THE ULTERIOR PROJECT.          227
cede the Christian idea of God, says Proudhon,
you must at once and forever abandon your idea of
liberty.
It was equally clear to me, that the attempt, by
means of political organizations, and revolutions
directed against the papacy, or any church organization, Catholic or Protestant, to root out Christianity
from the hearts of the people, must at last prove a
failure. After all, there is a natural religiosity in
man, and though he will often restrain and mortify
it, and act only in view of purely secular ends,practically live as if there were no God, and no
hereafter,-he will almost always return to the
order of religious ideas, and adopt or institute some
kind of religious worship to which he will subordinate his political ideas, and his secular ends. An
Epicurus may deny Providence, a Lucretius may
sing, in no mean poetry, that it is irmipossible, "revocare defunctos," and even Cicero may laugh at augurs and aruspices, and doubt the immortality of
the soul, yet the sentiment of an invisible Force, of
a mysterious Power that overshadows us, is universal, and the sceptical philosopher feels an indefinable shudder of awe, perhaps of fear, whenever
he finds himself alone in the dark. Everywhere the
shades of Acheron wander or flit around and before
him.
Even in the midst of our pleasures the thought of
the invisible and the supernal intrude unbidden to
mar our festivities, and to dash our joy with an inde



228            THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
finable sadness, shame, and remorse. Even a Voltaire trembles and blasphemes in dying, at the
thought of being denied Christian burial, and a
Volney, who resolves God into blind Nature, and
Christianity into astrology or astronomy, prays lustily to the God he disowns, in a storm on Lake Erie.
Do what we will, we cannot divest ourselves of the
belief or apprehension of invisible powers, who hold
our destiny in their hands; and a people absolutely
without any religion, or at least superstition, is never
to be found.
Never had unbelievers a fairer chance for rooting
out Christianity by political and social revolutions,
than in the eighteenth century. The laugh was
everywhere against religion and the clergy, a decided materialistic and infidel philosophy pervaded
literature, possessed the schools, ruled in the courts,
and domineered over thought and intellect. There
was lukewarmness in the religious, there were scandals among the clergy, there were abuses in the
state, and therefore an imperious call for reform.
The reformers directed all their movements against
religion, and their means were democratic and social
revolution. They were strong, they were overwhelmning in their power. At their bidding, down went
throne and altar, and in ten years the religion they
had abolished was reestablished, the churches they
had closed were reopened at the order of the soldier
they had made their chief, and for democracy in the
state they had an incipient Cesarism, which, two




THE ULTnRIOR PROJECT.         229
years later, became a fully developed and perfect
Casarism. The same result had followed our own
movement. In January, 1850, religion was far more
vigorous in Europe, than in January, 1840, and democracy at a far greater discount.
It was idle, then, to hope either to destroy political
and social authority in the name of absolute unbelief and irreligion, or to root out Christianity by
political and social movements. Christianity could
be eradicated only by means of a rival religion, and
a religion which could appeal to a supernatural origin, and sustain itself by prodigies, or what the
vulgar would regard as miracles. I had suspected
this from the beginning, and resolved now, that instead of working with the purely secular passions of
men, I would make my appeal to their religiosity.
Mahomet, in the seventh century, had done this
admirably for his time and the East, but had incautiously fixed his superstition in the Koran, and made
it unalterable, and therefore incapable of adapting
itself to the new face which things might assume in
the vicissitude of events, the development of society,
and the progress of the race.
Swedenborg had done better, and so had Joe
Smith, but neither had sufficiently provided for the
progressiveness of the race, or with sufficient explicitness consecrated the principle of innovation
and change, and both had retained too many conceptions taken from the old religion. Yet Swedenborg was to be taken as our starting point, and we
20




230          THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
were only to avoid his mistakes, the principal of
which was a too strict and rigid church organization.
When I returned from Europe, I found the directions I had given, before going abroad, had been
pretty faithfully followed; and mesmeric revelations,
through Andrew Jackson Davis, and spiritual communications, through the Foxes, were beginning to
attract public attention. The spirits were becoming
exceedingly anxious to communicate, and made, as
it was supposed, many important revelations. In a
few months, spiritual knockings were becoming quite
common, and mediums were found in all parts of
the country. At first, intercourse with the spirits
was obtained only in the somnambulic state, or
through the slow and toilsome medium of raps, but at
the same time intimations and assurances were given
that before a great while a more easy and direct
method of communication would be vouchsafed;
but, as yet, the public and individuals were not prepared for that more direct method. The spirits were
willing, but the mediums were not sufficiently advanced, nor sufficiently spiritualized; and the public
was too gross, too materialistic, and too sceptical. As
soon as minds should become more refined, spiritual,
and believing, open vision would be permitted them,
and easy and regular communication would be established, and whoever wished would have as free
and familiar intercourse with the spirit-world as
with the world of the flesh.




THE ULTERIOR PROJECT.        231
At first the great object was to establish the reality of the spiritual communications. This was to
be done by the communication of secrets, either
known only to the interrogator, or incapable of being known to the medium in any ordinary human or
natural way. Sometimes the spirits played the part
of fortune-tellers; sometimes they assumed to be
prophets, and ventured to predict future events, but
always events which either depended on them, or
lay in the natural order, and which a knowledge of
natural causes and effects could easily enable them
to foresee.
As the spiritual intercourse extended, and believers
multiplied, the somnambulic and rapping mediums
ceased to be the only mediums. The artificial somnambulic mediums, or mesmerized mediums, disappeared almost wholly, and to the rapping mediums
were added writing mediums and speaking mediums,
and in some instances the spirits became actually
visible to the seers, and telegraphed their messages
by visible symbols, and occasionally in words. Spiritual telegraphing, in some one or all these ways,
became, in a few months, common in all parts of
the country; and, at the expiration of two years,
there were three hundred spiritual circles or clubs in
the single city of Philadelphia, and more than half a
million of believers in the United States. The epidemic had broken out in the North of England and
Wales, had spread all over Norway, Denmark, and




232            THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
Sweden, and Northern and Central Germany, penetrated France in all directions, and made its appearance even at Rome. In France and Italy, where
the population is either profoundly Christian or profoundly infidel, the spiritual manifestation had to
adopt more discreet and less startling forms than in
our own and some other countries, and to give place
at first to doubt whether it was not mere trickery, or
explicable on recognized scientific principles; and
confined itself, to a great extent, to the phenomena of
table-turning, which excited curiosity without alarming conscience; In France, in the most polished,
fashionable, and, I may almost say, most Catholic
society, table-turning became an amusement.
The next point to be attended to, was the doctrines, the philosophy or religion, that the spirits were
to teach. It would not do to attack the Gospel too
openly, and it was necessary to undermine, rather
than to bombard it. In some respects even, it was
advisable to seem to confirm, as it were by one rising
from the dead, some portions of Christian belief, —
such as the immortality of the soul, and the reality
of an invisible spirit-world. The latter was doubted
by the free-thinkers; but it was essential to my project that the free-thinkers, in this respect, should be
converted, for their conversion and acknowledgment of belief in God and a spirit-world would do
much to commend our spiritualism to a large body
of silly and ill-informed Christian believers, who,




THE ULTERIOR- PROJECT.        233
seeing such apparently good effects resulting from it,
would conclude that there could be nothing bad in
it. By their fruits shall ye know them.
In the American community, to a very great extent, the belief in the immortality of the soul is
supposed to be identical with the belief in the resurrection of the dead, taught by Christianity; and our
Unitarians, with their rationalistic erudition, very
generally hold that the peculiar and distinctive doctrine taught by our Lord was the immortality of the
soul. But the immortality of the soul was believed
by the whole ancient world, Gentile as well as Jewish; and, though questioned by some ancient and
modern sophists, there never has been found a people
who, as a body, were ignorant of it, or that denied
it. All the ancient, as all modern superstitions
recognize it. All believe the soul is imperishable, though many suppose it will be absorbed in the
Great Fountain of Life, as a drop in the ocean - a
misinterpretation of the Christian doctrine of union
with God in the Light of Glory, as the ultimate end
or final beatitude of the just. The doubt was as to
the body, or the umbra, the material envelope and
companion and external medium of the soul in this
life. The gross outward body they believed returned
to dust, and mingled with its kindred elements; but
this umbra, shade, the manes of the dead, which all
antiquity carefully distinguished from the soul, was
also, for the most part, believed to be imperishable;
but its reunion with the soul, I do not find the
20o




234            THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
heathen world ever clearly asserting. In other words,
the ancient heathen world, though it retained the
primitive belief in the immortality of the soul, had
lost belief in the resurrection of the body, and the
reunion of soul and body, or at least only retained
some traces of it in their doctrine of metempsychosis, or transmigration of souls.
The peculiar Christian doctrine, or the doctrine so
insisted on by the Apostles, was not the immortality
of the soul, which was always presupposed, but the
resurrection of the dead, the return to life, not of that
which had not ceased to live, but of that which had
died, to wit, the body. Hence the article in the
Apostles' Creed is not, I believe the immortality of
the soul, but, I believe the resurrection of the body,
resurrectionem carnis, the resurrection of the flesh;
and to this belief, it must be remarked, that the
spirit-manifestations afford no confirmation, and indeed they virtually contradict it.
The distinguishing trait of Christian morality is
charity, which is distinguished from philanthropy or
benevolence, as a supernaturally infused virtue is
distinguished from a mere human sentiment, but,
in the minds of but too many of those who call
themselves Christians, really confounded with it.
The spirits were then, under the hame of charity,
to teach a philanthropic, sentimental, and purely
human morality, for in doing so, they would seem
to the mass of superficial Christians to be confirming the distinctive trait of Christian morality, and




THE ULTERIOR PROJECT.         235
at the same time appealing to the morbid spirit of
the age.
Bald, naked Universalism is not popular; but
there is a very general disbelief, among the leading
men of the times, in the old orthodox doctrines of
heaven and hell, of the last judgment, the everlasting punishment of the wicked, or that our eternal
state is fixed by that in which we die. Swedenborg
had greatly modified these doctrines, and taught that
the punishment of the wicked is purely negative;
that men are in hell only inasmuch as they are not
in harmony with God; and not to be in harmony
with God, that is, good, is to be out of the Divine
protection, and exposed to all the sufferings incident
to our abandonment to the natural order of things.
He had also recognized different heavens, rising one
above another, and different hells, one below another;
and had hinted or asserted the possibility of the
inhabitants of each improving, and advancing in
wisdom and virtue, by their intercourse with the
inhabitants of this world. He had himself even instructed angels, and assisted feeble and undeveloped
souls. Here were the germs of all that was required.
The spirits were to teach that there are different
circles in the other world, into which souls are admitted according to their respective tastes and degrees
of development, with the chance to rise in due time, if
faithful, from the lowest to the highest. In the lower
circles, they are improved by intercourse with us, as




236            THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
we are ourselves improved by intercourse with spirits
of the higher circle.
The dominant doctrine of our age is that of progress; that the universe started from certain rude
and imperfect beginnings, and, by a continued series
of developments and transformations, is eternally advancing towards perfection, without however reaching it; and that man, beginning, if not in the oyster
or the tadpole, at least in a feeble and helpless
infancy, develops and advances towards perfect
manhood. This doctrine, which a few facts in natural history, in geology, and anthropology, at first
sight seem to favor, is at bottom wholly repugnant
to the Christian doctrine of a fixed creed, of final
repose or beatitude in God, of final causes, and the
final consummation of all things. So the spirits
are to accept it, systematize it, and propose, as the
highest reward of virtue, to be placed on the plane
of eternal progression.
The age is indifferent, syncretic, and disposed to
accept all religions and superstitions as true under
certain aspects, and as false under others, and to
pronounce one about as good and about as bad as
another. The spirits, therefore, make no direct war
on any of them. In some places they teach that
the Catholic Church is the truest and best of prevailing religions, but that Protestantism is nevertheless a safe way of salvation, and that the, spirits do
not, in the other world, think so much about differ



THE ULTERIOR PROJECT.        237
ences of churches and creeds, as they did when in
this world. In other places they teach that the
Catholic Church is false; that it is wicked, the enemy of moral and social progress, and that effectual
means should be taken to prevent its extension in
the United States. They do not deny the Bible, nor
affirm its inspiration, but take, to a great extent, the
neological view of it, conceding it to be truthful in
many respects, but maintaining it to be unreliable
in others. It was very well when men had nothing
better, and no surer means of information in regard
to the spirit-world.
Such is a brief outline of the new religion, which
was intended to supplant Christianity, and to open
the way for that "good time a coming," for which
all our philanthropists and reformers are looking, as
any one may satisfy himself by reading the Shekinah, the Spiritual Telegraph, or Judge Edmands's
work, from the prolific press of Partridge & Brittan,
New York. This new religion, which, indeed, contains nothing new, and which it certainly needed no
ghost from the other world to teach or to suggest,
would amount to very little if promulgated on mere
human authority, unsupported by any prodigies,
mysterious or marvellous facts; but, communicated
mysteriously from alleged denizens of another world,
bearing the imposing names of William Penn,
George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas
Jefferson, and Thomas Paine, assumes in the minds
of the vulgar a high importance, and can hardly




238           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
fail to be regarded as overriding Moses and the
prophets, our Lord and his Apostles. It strikes at
the foundation of Christianity itself, and once accepted, it will seem to have a directness and a completeness of evidence that will entirely set aside, in
the minds of the spiritualists, that in favor of the
Gospel. This is what I intended, and what I hoped.
Having set the so-called spirits in motion, and
through them set afloat a system which I fancied
would supplant Christianity, whether in its Catholic
or its sounder Protestant forms, my work seemed
done, and I could retire from my labors. My superintendence was no longer necessary, and whether
the agents I employed were really the spirits or souls
of the dead, as they themselves asserted, or mere
elemental forces of nature, as I was inclined to believe or had wished to persuade myself, became to
me a question of no interest. The work would go
on of itself now, and in a few years Christianity and
the Church would be undermined and fall of themselves. Then monarchy, aristocracy, republicanism,
all forms of civil government, would crumble to
pieces, and universal freedom, leaving every one to
believe and do what seems right in his own eyes,
will be realized, and all here, as well as those not
here, will be placed on the plane of eternal progression - progression towards - what?




239
CHAPTER XVI.
A REBUFF,
I ASKED not the question, for in fact it did not
occur to me; but I asked another question, What
shall I do with myself?  A grave question this.
Do what I would, turn the matter over as I might,
there was, now the novelty of the idea had worn off,
nothing inspiring in this idea of eternal progression;- this ever learning, and never coming to the
knowledge of the truth — this everlasting chase after
good, and never coming up with it. Why continue
a pursuit which you know beforehand will bring you
never any nearer the object than you are, for as you
pursue, it flies. Is not this evil rather than good,
hell rather than heaven? Is not this the punishment of Ixion? — That war -of the Titans upon the
gods, has it not a deep significance? The Titans, the
Giants, the Earthborn, Terrce filii, would dethrone
the gods, the heaven-born, the divine, and were lefeated and doomed to punishment, to turn forever a
wheel, to roll a huge stone up the steep hill, and just
as it is about to reach the summit, have it slip from
the hands and roll down with a thundering sound; to
a task never completed, and always to be renewed,
or to hunger, with food ever in sight, and always




240           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
just beyond reach; to thirst, standing to the neck in
water, and have it recede always as approached with
the lips. Is not, after all, this the doom that they
bring on themselves who reject the wisdom from
above and follow what my friend Mr. Merton calls
the wisdom from below?
I can very well understand progress towards an
end' towards a goal that is fixed and permanent, but
a progress towards nothing, or towards a movable
goal, a goal that recedes as approached, is to me
quite unintelligible, and, when I think of it, it
seems as absurd as the supposition of an infinite
series. Infinite progression is, in reality, an infinite
absurdity. The origin and end of all things must
be perfect, fixed, and immovable. Every mechanic
knows that he cannot generate motion without a
something which is at rest, which can cause or
produce motion without moving itself. Without
the immovable,.there is and can be no movable.
In like manner, no motion towards what is not itnmovable, for if the two bodies remain in the same
position relative to each other, neither, in relation to
the other, has moved.
Progress is morally motion towards an end, and
if there is no approximation to the end, there is
no progress. As progress is inconceivable without
some end, so it is equally inconceivable without a
shortening of the distance between the progressing
agent and the end. If this distance can be shortened,
however little, if not more than a line in a million of




A REBUFF.               241
ages, it is not infinite, and the progress cannot be
eternal. This infinite or eternal progression is, then,
only a lying dream.
At the bottom of this idea of progress, which our
modern reformers prate about, is the foolish notion
that man is born an inchoate, an incipient God,
and that his destiny is to grow into or become the
infinite God; that he is to grow or develop into
the Almighty; that, to be God, is his ultimate
destiny; and, as God is infinite, he is to be eternally
developing and realizing more and more of God,,without ever realizing him in his infinity. The
bubble does not burst and lose itself in the ocean,
but by virtue of its bubbleosity it grows and absorbs
more and more of the ocean into itself.
I cannot understand this eternal absorbing process, which, though always absorbing or assimilating,
leaves always the same quantity, physical or moral,
to be absorbed or assimilated. It is impossible to
be satisfied with such a destiny. To be always
seeking and never finding, to be always desiring,
craving, and never filled, is not heaven, it is hell, and
the severest hell, in comparison with which the pain
of sense, or natural fire and brimstone were a solace.
Man is not moved to act by desire. His desire to
attain must become hope of'attaining, before it can
move him, and when you deprive him of that hope,
you take from him all courage, all energy, and all
motive to act. Desire to possess the beloved, may
remain and torment the lover, but it can never suf21




242           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
fice to make him continue his pursuit when all hope
of success has been extinguished. I do not say love
cannot survive hope, but I do say that love's efforts
cannot, and it is seldom that even love itself does.
The Christian is stimulated to constant activity,
not by charity or love of God alone, but by hope;
and the hope of possessing God, of being filled with
his love, of reposing in the arms of all-sufficing
charity, stimulates onward from grace to grace, and
from one degree of perfection to another. Though
he finds not yet perfect repose, though he is not yet
filled, though he has not yet attained, yet he is upheld, buoyed up and onward by the sure promise,
the steadfast hope of attaining, of at last finding
repose, rest in the bosom of his love and his God.
He may feel the clogs of flesh, he may feel that he
is absent from his love, and sigh to reach his home
and embrace the spouse of his soul, but he grows
not weary, faints not, and knows nothing of the
ennui, that listlessness of spirit, that disgust of life,
and disrelish for every pursuit, which he feels who
has no object, no hope, and sees not even in the
most distant future any chance of finding that fulness and repose which his soul never ceases in this
life to crave. In losing sight of God as final cause,
in losing the hope of possessing God as the supreme
good, in substituting endless progression for endless
beatitude, full and complete, I had lost all stimulus to exertion, all motive to exert myself for any
thing.




A REBUFF.               243
Why should I act? What had I to gain? Money
I did not want; I had more than I could use. Fame
I despised. It was a mere word, born and dying in
the very sound that made it. Power, I had it. If
I had more, it could procure me nothing more than
I already possessed. Pleasures? The richest dishes
and the most precious wines palled upon my taste.
There remained another kind of pleasure; but we
can even grow weary of women, and loathe what
the morbid senses continue to crave. Still nothing
else remained for me. Yet I had outlived love in
any virtuous or innocent sense of the word, and
early training, and some remains of self-respect,
made any other love far more of a torment than a
pleasure.
The simple truth was, that I could reconcile myself neither to the philosophy of the Portico nor the
philosophy of the Garden, and was alike disgusted
with the Cynics and the Academicians. I was a
man, and could not live on air, or feed on garbage;
I had a soul, and could not satisfy it by living for
the body alone, and having no God, no heaven, no
hope of beatitude, and no fear of hell, I saw nothing
to seek, nothing to gain, and I could only exclaim,
Vanitas vanitatum, et omnia vanitas. I could not say,
with young and thoughtless sinners, in the heyday
of their youth, and the full flow of their animal
spirits,- -" Come on, therefore, and let us enjoy the
good things that are present, let us use the creatures
as in youth. Let us fill ourselves with costly wine




244           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
and ointments, and let not the flower of the spring
pass by us. Let us crown ourselves with roses before they be withered, and let no meadow escape
our riot. Let none of us go without his part in
voluptuousness, and let us leave tokens of our joy
in every place, for this is our portion and our lot."
For of all vanities I had learned that this was the
most empty. Even the devil himself is said to
loathe the sensualist, and to find his stench intolerable. Still Priscilla -I had lost her perhaps. That
touched my pride.  We often grieve that lost, which
possessed, was not valued.




245
CHAPTER XVII.
A GLEAM OF HOPE.
I HAD not seen Priscilla for over a year, and had
struggled hard against the madness that possessed
me. Finding myself out of work, having completed
what I had undertaken, as far as depended on
me, I felt that passion, which I even loathed, reviving within me. Nothing would do but I must
see my former accomplice again. I called as an old
friend, and this time found her alone. She received
me with ease, grace, and cordiality.
There are those who believe that a woman who
has once lost even the modesty and chastity of
thought, can never regain them, and become a truly
modest and pure-minded woman. They are greatly
mistaken. The Magdalene had fallen lower than
that, and yet those were pure tears with which she
washed our Lord's feet, and but one purer heart than
hers beat in the breasts of those holy women who
stood near the cross, and heard the loud cry of the
God-Man, as he bowed his head and consummated
the world's redemption. The Fountain, which
that rude soldier opened with his spear that day,
suffices to cleanse from the deepest filth, to wash
away the foulest stains, and to make clean and fra21 *




246            THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
grant the most polluted soul.  O ye fallen ones,
whether women or men, bathe in that fountain!
and if your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white
as snow, and if they be red as crimson, they shall be
white as wool.
I had never seen Priscilla more beautiful.  The
bloom had returned to her cheek; her form had regained its roundness, and her complexion its richness. Her eyes were serene and tranquil, and her
countenance wore a sweet, pure, and peaceful expression. She had no need to fear me at that moment, for I stood, not repelled, but awed, and felt
myself in the presence of virtue, not haughty, austere, and repellant, but lovely, chaste, and affectionate; natural, easy, and wholly unconscious of itself.
1" I am glad to see you, Doctor," said she, with a
sweet smile. " Sit down. I have been hoping that
you would call, but I was afraid that you had entirely deserted us."
" You are changed, Priscilla, since I last saw you;
and I should think my presence would now be even
more disagreeable than then."
" Not at all. I was never more glad to see you
in my life, and I never met you with kinder or more
pleasant feelings."
I did not understand this speech, and began to
draw, in my own mind, certain very foolish conclusions.
" Yes," she resumed, " I wished to see you, and
to see you as I now do, alone. It is of no use refer



A GLEAM OF HOPE.           247
ring to what we were for so many years to each
other; but I wanted to tell you that I did you no
little wrong. You were not innocent, but I was the
most guilty. We were both miserable; and you,
you, my dear friend, are unhappy still."
"I make no complaint. Nobody has heard me
whine or whimper over my own lot. If I have suffered, I have done so in silence."
" That may be. But you have not forgotten our
sojourn at Rome in the winter of 1848-49?"
"Forgotten it? no, and shall not, as long as I
live."
"Do you remember an old Franciscan monk,
that my husband concealed in our house for some
weeks? "
"I do."
"He was an old man, nearly fourscore. His head
was almost perfectly bald, only a few gray hairs escaped from beneath his calotte, and partially shaded
his temples; his form, which had been tall and
manly, was now bent with years, labors, and mortifications; but his feelings seemed as fresh and playful as those of a child; and the expression of his
face was calm, sweet, and affectionate. It was a
peculiar expression, not often met with, but like that
which, you may remember, we one day remarked in
the face of Pius the Ninth. It was an expression of
exceeding peace and celestial love, of a pure and
holy soul shining through a pure and chaste body.
The expression is indescribable, but once seen, can




248           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
never be forgotten, and seems to be that which
Italian painters seek to give to their saints, especially to the Madonna.
"This venerable old man had, as you may recollect, been denounced, by the Circulo del Populo, as
an obscurantist, an enemy to the republic, and an
adherent to the Pontifical authority. It was intended to include him in the number of priests and religious massacred at San Callisto. My husband had
formed an acquaintance with him, and, having
learned his danger, smuggled him into our house,
where it was presumed nobody would think of looking for a proscribed priest."
"I remember him; I did not at all like him, and,
had I cared much about him, would have betrayed
him to the Club; for I had the wish of Voltaire in
my heart, that'the last king might be strangled
with the guts of the last priest.' But, as he seemed
old and harmless, and generally kept out of my way,
I let him pass."
" He was a quiet, inoffensive man, and I own I
was not sorry that he should escape the cruel death
to which philanthropists and sworn friends of liberty
doomed so many of his brethren. I was not cruel
by nature, and my soul recoiled from the part I was
often compelled to take. I thought it was hardly
consistent for us, who advocated unbounded freedomn of thought and action, to send the dagger to
the heart, or coolly sever the carotid artery in the
neck of those who chose to think and act differently




A GLEAM OF HOPE.           249
from us; but I was held then by a force I could not
resist."
"You mean, Priscilla, now to reproach me."
"No, my friend, no; I reproach only myself. Had
I not originally consented, no power could have held
rne in that terrible thraldom. The agents you employed have no such power over us against our will;
though, when we have once assented to their dominion, it is not always in our own power alone to
reassert our liberty. My husband grew very fond of
the venerable old man, and they spent hours, and
even days, together. What was the subject of their
conversation, I knew not, and did not inquire.
"You returned to Paris, to prevent, if possible, the
French from interfering to suppress the Roman Republic, by organizing a new insurrection of the Subterraneans, and by reminding the Prince-President
of his previous republican and socialistic professions,
and making it evident to him that the reestablishment of the Pope would be fatal to the supremacy
of the state, whether republican or imperial. During
your absence you left me tranquil, and I began, for
the first time since my marriage, to enjoy the sweets
and tranquillity of domestic life. The good Franciscan would sometimes spend an evening with me
and my husband. He was of a childlike simplicity,
and of most winning manners, but a man of a cultivated mind, extensive information, and various and
profound erudition. He discoursed much on the old
Roman Republic and Empire, on the grasping am



250           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
bition and tyranny of the government, the hollowness
of the Roman virtues and the old Roman people,
the cruel and impure nature of their religion, and
the looseness and profligacy of their manners.
"He sketched then the introduction of Christianity,
showed what enemies it had to encounter, why it
was opposed, the change it introduced into the moral
and social life of the people, its triumphs over paganism, its conversion and civilization of the northern
barbarians, and the chastity, peace, and happiness
it had introduced into the cottage of-the peasant,
the castle of the noble, and even the palace of the
monarch. His views seemed clear and precise, and
his mind seemed to be enlightened, and singularly
free from the cant of his profession, and from that
credulity, ignorance, and superstition which you and
I had been accustomed, to associate with the name
of monk. To every question I asked, he had a clear
and intelligent answer; and he was always able to
give a reason, and what appeared a good reason, for
whatever judgment he hazarded. He was evidently
a man of an order of intellect, ideas, and cultufre
entirely different from any that had fallen under my
observation; and I must own that when I listened
to him, I was charmed. I seemed to be under the
gentle but superior influence of a good spirit. I felt
calm and tranquil, and I wished that I too might
believe, be pure, holy, a Christian like him.
"Weeks passed on. At length- we had a chance
to send him in safety to Portici, where the Holy




A GLEAM OF HOPE.           251
Father then held his court. The evening before he
was to leave us, he came into the sittting-room, and
sat down by me.'My dear lady,' said he,' I leave
you to-morrow, and I shall not see you after to-night.
You must permit me to thank you for your kindness
to the poor old proscribed monk, and your evident
desire to procure him comfort; all so much the more
commendable in you, since you are a stranger, and
not of my religion. I give you my thanks and my
blessing; they are all I have to give; and I shall
not cease to pray the good God. who is no respecter
of persons, to reward you for your goodness, and to
grant you his grace.
"'But, my dear lady, I am a priest; I am also an
old man, and have not many days to tarry here.
Let me speak to you in all sincerity and freedom.'
"Do so, my father, said I, as my eyes filled with
tears.
"' You are still young and beautiful,' said he;'you have naturally a kind and warm heart, an enthusiastic disposition, and a sincere love of truth and
justice. But, my dear child, your education has
been sadly neglected, and you have been trained to
walk in a path that leadeth where you would not
go. You have fallen among evil counsellors and
evil doers, and you are entangled in the meshes of the
adversary of souls. This cause, to which you give
your heart, soul, and body, is not what you think it.
You sought liberty, you have found slavery; you
sought love, and you have found only hatred; you




252''HE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
sought virtue, disinterestedness, fidelity, -you have
found only vice, selfishness, and treachery; you
sought peace and social regeneration, — you have
found only strife, war, murder, assassination, confusion, anarchy, and oppression. For yourself personally, the only peaceful days you have known for
years have been during the last few weeks; and
your present peace is disturbed by a mysterious
dread, that I need not name or explain to you.'' Ask yourself, my child, and answer to yourself,
honestly, if you have not been deceived, and been
acting under a fatal delusion. Ask yourself if it was
not a terrible mistake you committed, when you took
Satan for the principle of good, and the Christian's
God for the principle of evil.'
"'But, padre mio,. what shall I do?  I have a
suspicion that what you say is true. I have been a
proud, vain, rash, wicked woman. But what shall
I do? I am bound in chains; I am damned.
"' Damned, not yet, my child. As long as there
is life, there is hope. Those chains must be broken.'
"But they are too strong for me.:" True, true, my child, but not too strong for the
Lion of the tribe of Judah. You must be assisted'
"At that moment the door was burst open; a
gang of ruffians rushed in, and fell upon the aged
monk. The old man gave me one look, made
rapidly the sign of the cross over my head, as I had
dropped on my knees to implore them not to harm




A GLEAM OF HOPE.           253
him. I might as well have pleaded to my marble
jambs. They threw him down. He rose upon his
knees, folded his hands across his breast, and with a
bright, celestial expression, exclaimed, O God, pardon them, and lay not this sin to their charge, for
they know not what they do, -when the leader of
the gang plunged a dagger to his heart. His blood
flowed out into my face, and over my dress. After a
minute, they took up the body, and removed it and
themselves from my house. Though protected, to
some extent, by our American character, we did not
think it prudent to remain longer in Rome, under
the Republic; and the next day we started for Paris,
where we rejoined you."
"But you never told me of the fate of that old
monk before."
"True, why should I?  I could not, before we
had separated, have spoken of him to you without
arousing your indignation, and inducing you to send
me again on some of those terrible secret missions
on which you had so often sent me, and which I so
abhorred. But I can speak calmly now, and without fear; and let me beg you to ask yourself the
question the old monk urged me to ask myself.
Truth is truth, let it be spoken by whom it may;
and there is nop reason why we should not follow
good advice, because given by a monk, even if monks
have been all our lifetime the object of our wrath,
or of our derision."
"' Priscilla, 1I have asked myself that question; but
22




254           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
it is of no use. I have pledged myself, body and
soul, and sworn that, come what might, I would
never repent."
" But that oath was unlawful, and cannot bind.
He who has your pledge is a deceiver, had no right
to ask it, has no right to hold it."
"But I cannot free myself from these chains of
death and hell which bind me."
" Such as you have been, such as I fear you are,
I am told seldom find mercy; but the deliverance is
not impossible. I, worse than you, have found it."'' That is not so certain. You are free, only because I, in a sudden fit of despair, freed you. But I
have but to will, and you are as completely in my
power as ever."'" That I doubt. Except when you called me to
emancipate me, you have exerted no power over me,
since the good old priest was received into our house
in Rome."
" That is owing to my forbearance."
"Will you swear that? Will you swear that,
within twenty-four hours after you had declared me
free, you did not use all your art to enthrall me
again? Did you not call again and again, within a
month, at my house, for that very purpose?"
"-But you avoided me, and I could not so much
as touch the hem of your robe."
" Very true, for I feared you, and I dare not defy
you even now; but I feel very certain that, under
the protection of a name at which even devils must
bow, I am safe from all your arts."




A GLEAM OF HOPE.           255
As she said that I rose, walked once or twice
across the room, came up before her, took her hand
unresistingly, and placed my hand on her head. I
trembled. I was struck dumb, for I perceived at
once that I had no power there; and, though I
evoked them, no spirits came to my aid. But before
I had let go her hand, her husband came into the
room, saw us, feared what I might do, drew his
dagger, and before Priscilla could stop him, or offer
a word of explanation, aimed a blow at my heart.
Priscilla attempted to avert it, and so far succeeded,
as to change somewhat its direction. It penetrated,
however, the chest, reached the lungs, and inflicted
a wound which, though it is apparently healed, and
I seem to myself to be suffering only from pulmnonary consumption, which wastes me away slowly
but surely, my surgeon tells me will yet prove the
occasion of my death.
The moment James, a man of peace, and not at
all given to striking, had struck the blow, he was
filled with terror at what he had done. I assured
him, for I retained my presence of mind, which I
never yet lost in any case in my life, that so far as I
was concerned, he need not blame himself, for I deserved the blow, and had long foreseen that sooner
or later his hand must deal it; but, had he delayed
a moment, he would have found it unnecessary,
that-his wife was safe from my annoyances, and
proof against any art I possessed. Priscilla, as soon
as she recovered from her fright, rather than swoon,




256           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
told him as much; and we both did all in our power
to reassure and console him. But the matter must
not be bruited abroad, and he must conceal it for
his and Priscilla's sake. It was concluded that I
must remain for the present in their house. James
did what he could to stanch my wound, aided me
to remove to another room, and sent immediately
for a surgeon whom we both knew and could trust.
For several weeks I lay at their house, nursed with
great care and tenderness, till I was able to be removed to my own house. It was rumored that I
had been stabbed in the street, but such things not
being rare in our cities, it excited very little remark;
and suspicion, though it fell on the secret societies
known to exist, fell upon no individual in particular,
and no pains were taken to ferret out the supposed
assassin. The fact was noted in the journals, and
was instantly forgotten.




257
CHAPTER XVIII.
RELIGIOUS MONOMANIA.
I HAD 110 sooner been removed to my own house,
than my old acquaintances and friends came to see
me. Mr. Cotton, the stern but well-meaning old
Puritan, who had infinitely more mind and heart
than Young America, that has learned to laugh
at him, had indeed died during my absence abroad.
Mr. Winslow and the others whom I have already
introduced, remained. Poor Jack'had recovered, -not
his former gayety, but his health and tranquillity,
and was entirely freed from the vision wvhich had
haunted him, and which I have no reason to believe
was any thing more than a simple hallucination,
occasioned by a powerful shock to his nerves, producing a diseased state of the imagination. He had
returned to Boston, given up mesmerism, confined
himself to the law, and had prospered in his profession. When he heard of the accident which had
befallen me, he came immediately to see me, and
to render me such assistance as his warm heart
prompted. He is still my chief nurse, and declares
that he will not leave me as long as my life lasts. I
have remembered him in my will, and bequeathed
him the bulk of my estate, though he knows it not, -
22*




258           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
a poor compensation for the blight I brought upon
his early hopes.
Mr. Merton, returning to the city about the time
of my being wounded, lost no time, after my removal to my own house, in renewing our former
acquaintance. Mr. Winslow, and Mr. Sowerby, and
Leila and her admirer, who had become husband
and wife, and a sober and sensible couple, were frequently in the sick man's room. Nobody deserted
me; and never in my life have I had occasion to
complain of ingratitude, or the loss of a friend. The
world is bad enough, but after all not so bad as
sometimes represented. I have always been treated
infinitely better than my deserts; and I have found
good sense, warm hearts, and noble virtues, where
least I expected them. I have reproaches only for
myself. I have done a world of wrong, and no
good; and yet I have found myself, from my childhood, surrounded by generous and disinterested
affection. People, speaking generally, are far better
individually than they are collectively; andO many
private virtues may be found, even in bands of revolutionists, robbers, and assassins, —virtues which do
not rise above the natural order indeed, and have no
promise of reward in heaven, but which nevertheless are virtues. My observation has taught me to
distrust the censorious, those who rail in good set
terms at all mankind or womankind, although no
man living was ever further than I am from believing in the sinlessness of the race, or from joining in




RELIGIOUS MONOMANIA.         259
the modern worship of woman, prompted too often
by an innate pruriency unconscious of itself.
As I became able to bear conversation, and to
take part in it occasionally, mesmerism and the
Spirit-Manifestations were a frequent topic of discourse. Jack sturdily maintained that it was all
humbug. There were indeed strange things, some
phenomena which he could not explain, but he set
his face against the whole movement, had no belief
in it, and would have nothing to do with it. There
was, though he might be unable to detect it, some
cheat or trickery at the bottom.
Mr. Winslow held fast to his belief in the connection between mesmerism and all the marvellous,
prodigious, or miraculous facts recorded in history.
He accepted those facts substantially as related, but
did not accept their usual explanation. The miracles of sacred history, and the marvellous facts of
profane history, were to be explained on natural
principles, by the mesmeric agent, or by whatever
other name we might call it.
Mr. Merton argued that, if the phenomena usually called Satanic, obsession, possession, witchcraft,
black magic, ghosts or apparitions, clairvoyance
and second sight, could be explained without resort
to the supernatural, the other class of facts, the
miracles of sacred history, could be also explained
without the supposition of the special intervention
of Divine power. He thought, if we could account




260           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
for the former without Satan, we could for the latter
without the supernatural intervention of God.
Mr. Sowerby held with Mr. Winslow as to the
reality of the phenomena, and their natural explanation, but thought they should be divided into two
classes, one good and the other bad, as produced for
a good or a bad purpose. When produced in a
good cause, for a good end, they might be called
Divine; when in a bad cause, for a bad purpose,
they might be called Satanic or diabolical. The
agent is in both cases the same, and the difference
is in the mind or will that employs it.
Dr. Corning, my physician, who was a distinguished manigraph, and had written a work, highly
esteemed by the profession, on Insanity, was quite
ready to concede the phenomena called spiritual, or
rather demoniacal, and thought we were bound
to do so, or to give up all human testimony. He
also conceded the connection contended for by mesmerists between mesmerism and so-called demonic
phenomena, —a connection, in his judgment, very
evident, and wholly undeniable; but he contended,
with the most eminent manigraphs of France, and
indeed with the members of the profession generally,
that the marvellous phenomena recorded were those
of mania, monomania, theosophania, nymphomania,
demonopathy, and all to be explained pathologically.
He included them all under the general head of insanity, and regarded their variety only as so many




RELIGIOUS MONOMANIA.          261
different sorts of madness. He had himself witnessed the greater part of them in his practice, and
treated them as symptoms of mania.
" That," said Mr. Merton, " would be very satisfactory, if the limits of madness or insanity were
well defined, and if physicians could never mistake,
and treat as insane one who is only possessed or obsessed by the devil. To include the marvellous facts
of history under the head of insanity, without having first established their pathological character, and
settled it that there is no generic or specific difference between them and acknowledged pathological
symptoms, is not to explain them. How do you
prove that a person, otherwise in perfect health, with
no disturbance of the pulse, of the digestive, or any
other organs to be detected, who on all subjects
speaks rationally, but who tells you that a spirit has
possession of hi'm, speaks through his organs, throws
him down, and otherwise maltreats him, is insane?
I do not say that such a man is not insane, but how
do you prove him insane?
" Why, he exhibits the symptoms of insanity, for
none but an insane man would utter such nonsense."
"Perhaps so, and perhaps not so. He exhibits
symptoms of what you are pleased to call insanity;
but how do you know that you have not called insanity what you ought to call by another name,
possession, for instance?"
"I do not believe in possession."




2262           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
" Precisely, and therefore when you meet what is
called possession or obsession, you call it insanity.
That is a convenient way of reasoning, and not uncommon with learned physicians and physicists;
but it is a begging of the question, not its solution.
You reason from a foregone conclusion. As you
yourself and all the profession treat insanity as a
disease, as symptomatic of some lesion or alteration of the physical system, or of the organs on
which the manifestations of the mind depend, I
should suppose it necessary to establish the fact of
such lesion or alteration, before concluding the presence of actual insanity."
" Insanity, in such case, would be found to be very
rare."
" Very possibly, and perhaps it is much rarer than
is commonly supposed. It is not impossible that a
large proportion of those you call insane, and treat
as lunatics, are as sound of body or mind as you or
I. Where we find, physically considered, all the
symptoms of health, we cannot, from purely mental
phenomena, infer disease. That the vulgar have often
regarded as under the influence of Satan persons
who were merely epileptic, cataleptic, or insane, is no
doubt very true; but it is not impossible that the
learned and scientific have committed not unfrequently a contrary mistake, and regarded as insane,
cataleptics, or epileptics, persons who were totally
free from  all pathological symptoms.  How  will
you, dear Doctor, explain by insanity a case taken




RELIGIOUS MONOMANIA.         263
from a thousand similar ones, which I chanced to
be reading this morning, and which is well attested.
Allow me to relate it as given by Dr. Calmeil, one
of your own profession, a learned and highly esteemed manigraph, author of a work, De la Folie,*
and who entertains the same views that you do.
Missionaries who now, says M. Calmeil,t cross the
seas to shed the light of faith in the New World,
are frequently surprised to meet energumenes among
their neophytes, whilst they acknowledge that it is
seldom that the devil takes possession of the faith.
ful in the mother country. The letter which I am
about to report, addressed to Winslow, a celebrated
physician, in 1738, by a worthy missionary, proves
that the delirium of demonopathy may everywhere
become the lot of feeble and timorous souls.
" I cannot refuse, at your earnest request," writes
the missionary Lecour, to write you a detailed account of what took place in the case of the Cochinchinese who was possessed, and of whom I had the
honor to speak to you. In May or.June, 1733, being
in the province of Cham, in the kingdom of Cochin
China, in the church of a burgh called Cheta, about
half a league distant from the capital of the province, there was brought to me a young man from
eighteen to nineteen years of age, and who was a
Christian. His parents told me that he was pos.
* Paris, Chez Balliere, 1845. 2 vol. gr. in-8vo.
t T. 2, p. 417.




264           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
sessed by a demon. A little incredulous, I might
say to my confusion, quite too much so, in consequence of my little experience at that time in such
things, of which I had never seen an example,
although I had often heard other Christians speak
of them, I examined them to ascertain if there were
not simplicity or malice in their statement. The
substance of what was gathered from them was,
that the young man had made an unworthy communion, and after that had disappeared from the
village, had retired to the mountains, and called himself only the traitor Judas."
" On this statement, and after some difficulties,"
resumes the missionary, "I went to the hospital
where the young man was detained, fully resolved
to believe nothing, unless I saw marks of something
superhuman. I began by questioning him'in Latin,
a language of which I knew he had not the least
tincture. Extended as he was on the ground, frothing at his mouth, and violently shaken, he rose
immediately on his seat, and answered me very distinctly, Ego nescio loqui latine. I was so astonished
and frightened that I withdrew, with no courage to
question him any further.
" However, some days after, I recommenced with
some probationary commands, taking care to speak
always in Latin, of which the young man was ignorant. Among other commands, I ordered the demon
to throw him forthwith upon the floor. I was instantly
obeyed, but he was thrown down with so much vio



RELIGIOUS MONOMANIA.        265
lence, all his limbs being stretched out and rigid
as a crowbar, that the noise was rather that of a
falling beam than of a man. Wearied and exhausted, I thought I would follow the example of
the Bishop of Tilopolis on a similar occasion. In
the exorcism, I commanded the demon, in Latin,
to bear him to the ceiling of the church, feet up and
head down. Forthwith his body became stiff, he
was drawn into the church to a column, his feet
joined together, his back set against the column,
and, without the aid of his hands, he was run up to
the ceiling in a twinkling, as if drawn up by a pulley, without any act or motion of his own, suspended
with his feet glued to the ceiling, and his head hanging downwards. I made the demon confess, as I
intended to confound and humble him, and to compel him to quit his hold, the falsity of the pagan
religion. I made him confess that he was -a deceiver, and at the same time compelled him to
acknowledge the sanctity of our religion. I held
him suspended in the air, his feet adhering to the
ceiling and his head down, for more than half an
hour, but not having sufficient constancy, so much
was I frightened at what I saw, to continue him there
for a longer time, I ordered the demon to place him
at my feet without harming him. He forthwith cast
him down, as a bundle of dirty linen, but without
his receiving the least injury. From that day the
young man, though not entirely delivered, was much
relieved, and his vexations daily diminished, espe23




266           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
cially when I was in the house, and after about five
months he was wholly released, and is now perhaps
the best Christian in Cochin China."
"Pass over the effect of the exorcism, if you
please," resumed Mr. Merton, " and tell me what
you think, Doctor, of the facts in this case, which
Dr. Calmeil concedes, and which, if he did not, it
would not amount to any thing, for this is only one
case out of a thousand."
"' I will say," replied the Doctor, " with M. Calmeil,
that I am very much obliged to the good missionary
for not withholding his account, for he has described,
without knowing it, the phenomena of religious monomania."
"It strikes me," replied Mr. Merton, "that Dr.
Corning has not well examined the case. That
some of the phenomena may be regarded as symptoms of insanity, I do not question, but if I understand insanity, it is a derangement, an access of
what properly belongs to one in his normal state,
but not the accession of' something preternatural.
It may, in some respects, sharpen the senses, revive the memory, and render the faculties, or at
least some of them, morbidly active; but I have
never understood that it could enable a man to understand and speak a language which he had never
learned, and of which, in the full possession of all
his faculties, he knew not a word. I can easily
understand that in delirium a man may fancy that
he is possessed, and act on the conviction that he is,




RELIGIOUS MONOMANIA.         267
but I do not understand how delirium alone can enable a man, however agile, to climb to the ceiling of
a church, his back against a column, with his feet
fastened together, and without using his hands or
arms, and to remain by the simple application of his
feet to the ceiling for one half an hour with his head
down, carrying on all the time a close controversy
in this very inconvenient position, and finally dropping upon the pavement without the least injury.
Such a delirium would, to say the least, be very extraordinary, and I suspect the Doctor has never found
a similar delirium amongst any of his numerous
patients who were unquestionably insane. I will
venture to say that however striking the delirium,
the thing is -absolutely impossible without superhuman aid."
"' Part of it is hallucination," replied the Doctor.
" Whose hallucination? The young man's, or the
missionary's?" asked Mr. Merton. "Not the missionary's, for there is no pretence that he was insane;
and not the young man's, because the question turns
not on what he saw, or fancied, or imagined, but on
what another person, the missionary, saw."
" Probably the facts are much exaggerated," replied
Dr. Corning. " The missionary confesses that he was
greatly frightened, and being so, he may, without impeachment of his honesty, have failed to be strictly
accurate as to the details."
" Then you question the relation. That alters the
case. Let us take, then, the case, also well attested,




268           THE SPIRIT-RA-PPER.
of the nuns of Uvertet, which, about 1550, caused
for a long time so much astonishment in Brandenburg, Holland, Italy, and especially in Germany.
The nuns were at first awakened and startled by
plaintive moanings.... Sometimes they were
dragged from their beds, and along the floor, as if
drawn by their legs.... Their arms and lower
extremities were twisted in every direction...
Sometimes they bounded in the air and fell with
violence upon the ground..... In moments in
which they appeared to enjoy a perfect calm, they
would suddenly fall backwards and be deprived of
speech..... Some of them, on the contrary,
would amuse themselves in climbing to the tops of
trees, when they would descend, their feet in the air
and their heads down. These attacks began to lose
their violence after a duration of three years. A
very singular madness this, which, as the Dictionnaire des Sciences MXdicales says,'extended over all
the convents of women in Germany, particularly in
Saxony and Brandenburg, and gained even Holland,'
and it might have added, also, Italy.'All the miracles,' it continues,'of the Convulsionaires, or of
Animal Magnetism, were familiar to these nonnains,
who were regarded as possessed. They all foretold
future events, leaped and capered, ran up the sides
of walls, spoke foreign languages, &c.' You may
read the fourteen well authenticated cases recorded
by Cotton Mather in his Magnalia, and you will
find that all these, and similar phenomena, were ex



RELIGIOUS MONOMANIA.         269
hibited by the bewitched or possessed in Massachusetts near the close of the seventeenth century, and
known under the name of' Salem witchcraft,'
though only a portion of them occurred in that
famous town. Do you include all these under-the
head of insanity?"
"' Cotton Mather was a pedant, vain, arrogant, and
ambitious of power, and I did not expect to hear
him cited as an authority," replied the Doctor, in
evident vexation.
"Cotton Mather," Mr. Merton replied, was one of
the most learned and distinguished men in New
England in his time, and, though I am of another
parish, I respect his memory. I do not cite his
opinions; I merely cite him as the recorder of facts
which either he himself had witnessed with his own
eyes, or which had been confessed or proved before
the courts of the colony, and thus far at least his
authority is sufficient. But I will ask you to explain on your hypothesis the phenomena exhibited
by the Ursuline Nuns of Loudun, France, in the
seventeenth century, and the authenticity of which
both Bertrand and Calmeil, as well as others, admit
were triumphantly vindicated."
" I know the case to which you refer," answered
Dr. Corning. " It is the case of a certain number
of nuns who took it into their heads that they were
bewitched by one Urban Grandier, whom they had
refused to accept as their director, —a man of a
scandalous life, a great criminal, who deserved to be
23 *




270           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
executed as he was, if not for sorcery, at least for his
crimes. I see nothing in this case but the usual symptoms of demonopathy, or religious monomania."
" The physicians of the time thought differently,
and there were then and there physicians of great
eminence who were consulted, and required to make
to the authorities twenty-five or thirty elaborate
reports on the case. But let us recall some of the
facts.
" Shortly after, Grandier, a bad priest, was refused
by these ladies as their director; he passed by the
convent, and threw a bouquet of flowers over the
wall, which was taken up and smelt of by several of
the nuns. From  that moment the disorder commenced. Up to that moment all these ladies were
in the enjoyment of the most perfect health, and
strictly correct in their deportment.  They were
all connected with families of distinction and of
high birth, and had been carefully brought up, and
yielded to none in their education, their intelligence,
their piety, their virtues, and their accomplishments.
"After some weeks of silence, in which they had
sought relief from their vexations by religious exercises, prayers, fasts, and macerations, without avail,
recourse was had to exorcism. The phenomena
then assumed gigantic proportions. One religious,
lying stretched out oil her belly, and her arms twisted
over her back, defied the priest who pursued her with
the Holy Sacrament; another doubled over backwards, contrived to walk with the nape of her neck




RELIGIOUS MONOMANIA.        271
resting on her heels; another still, shook her head in
the most singular and violent manner. The exorcist
says he had frequently seen them bent over backwards, with the nape of their neck resting on their
heels, walk with surprising swiftness. He saw one
of them, rising from that posture, strike rapidly her
shoulders and breast with her head. They cried out
as the howlings of the damned, as enraged wolves,
as terrible beasts, with a force that exceeds the power
of imagination. Their tongues hung out black,
swollen, dry, and hard, and became soft and natural
the moment they were drawn back into the mouth.
" During the intervals of repose, the afflicted ladies
sought to return to their religious exercises, to resume
their industry and the deportment proper to their rank
and their state. But on the arrival of the exorcist
nothing was any longer heard but blasphemies and
imprecations. Then the nuns would rise, pass their
feet over their heads, throw their legs apart, with
entire forgetfulness of modesty. Then. came what
Dr. Calmeil calls hallucinations, which made them
attribute their state to the presence and obsession of
evil spirits. The Abbess, Madame Belfiel, while
replying to the questions of the exorcist, heard a
living being speaking in her own body, as it were a
foreign voice emanating from her pharynx. They
all heard a voice distinctly articulated, proceeding
from within them, stating that evil angels had taken
possession of their person, and indicating the names,
the number, and the residences of the demons.




272           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
" In the month of August, 1635, Gaston, Duke of
Orleans, brother of Louis the Thirteenth, wishing
to judge for himself of the state of the Ursulines,
went to Loudun, and was present at several sessions
of the exorcists. The Superioress at first worshipped
the Holy Sacrament, giving all the signs of a violent
despair. The Abb6 Surin, the exorcist, repeated the
command he had given her, and forthwith her body
was thrown into convulsions, running out a tongue
horribly deformed, black, and granulated as morocco,
and without being pressed at all by the teeth.
Among other postures they remarked an extension
of the legs, so great that there were seven feet from
one foot to the other. The Superioress remained in
this position a very long time, with strange trembling,
touching the ground only with her belly. Having
risen from this position, the demon was commanded
again to approach the Holy Sacrament, when she
became more furious than ever, biting her arms, &c.
Then, after a little time, the agitation ceased, and
she returned to herself, with her pulse as tranquil
as if nothing extraordinary had happened.
"' The Abbe Surin himself, while he was speaking
to the Duke, and about to make the exorcism, was
attacked and twice thrown upon his back, and when
he had risen and proceeded anew to the combat,
P/re Tranquille demanded of the supposed demon
wherefore he had dared attack Pere Surin. He
answered with the organs of the latter, and as if
addressing him:' I have done so to avenge myself




RELIGIOUS MONOMANIA.        273
on you.' VWas the Abb6 Surin insane? or did he
simulate delirium?
"The Superioress, at the end of the exorcism, executed an order which the Duke had just communicated secretly to the exorcist. In a hundred instances
it appeared that the energumenes read the thoughts
of the priest charged with the exorcism.  They
answered in whatever language they were addressed,
in Greek, Latin, Spanish, Italian, and Turkish. They
even answered M. de Launay de Razelly in the dialects of several tribes of American savages, very pertinently, and revealed to him things that had passed
in America. Urban Grandier, when commanded by
his bishop to take the stole and exorcise the Mother
Superior, who he said knew Latin, refused, although
challenged to do it, to question her in Greek, and
remained quite confused. Also, the Mother Superior remained for some considerable time suspended
in the air, at an elevation of about two feet above
the ground. In about three months of exorcism the
trouble ceased, and the Ursulines were restored, and
resumed in peace their pious exercises and their
usual labors."
" I see no reason to change my opinion," remarked
the Doctor, at the conclusion of this recital. "It
was a case of monomania, if the facts were as
stated."
" The facts," replied Mr. Merton, " are unquestionable. They have all the authenticity that facts can
have, and there is not the least ground for suspecting




274           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
the good faith of the parties. They were all in perfect health, with no symptoms of any disease about
them. Now, as insanity, of whatever variety, cannot render a man more than human, I demand, if
these facts can all be brought within the humanly
possible? Does insanity enable one to assume such
difficult postures as are described? Does it enable
one to bend over backwards and walk rapidly with
the nape of the neck resting on his heels; to have the
extraordinary extension of legs mentioned; to read
the thoughts of others not expressed; to tell what is
passing fifteen hundred leagues off; to understand
and speak languages never learned or before heard;
and to remain for some time suspended unsupported
in the air? And, above all, is insanity or madness
cured by exorcisms?  No, no, Doctor. The facts in
the case, that is, if you take not one or two, but all
of them, are certainly inexplicable without the presence of a superhuman power."
The Doctor was not at all pleased with this conclusion, which he would by no means admit. He
said the conversation, if continued, might injure his
patient, and giving me a few directions, took his hat
and cane and departed, apparently in a very unpleasant humor, and muttering something about superstition, Salem witchcraft, and the absurdity of educated men in the nineteenth century believing in
such nonsense.




275
CHAPTER XIX.
MESMERISM INSUFFICIENT.
INSANITY explains abnormal, but not superhuman
phenomena. It is a disease of the body, not of the
mind itself. The mind, being a simple spiritual or
immaterial substance, is not susceptible of physical
derangement, and mental alienation proceeds from
the lesion or alteration of the bodily organs or
conditions on which the mnind is dependent in its
manifestations. It is cured, when curable, by medical, not by purely spiritual treatment; by physic
and good regimen, not by exorcisms.
A few days after the conversation I have detailed,
my friends being again present, the subject was resumed, Dr. Corning sustained his hypothesis triumphantly by selecting such facts in the cases
brought forward as it would explain, and by denying
all the rest, -a very convenient and common practice of theorizers, - even out of. the medical profession.
Mr. Sowerby, who had made a fortune by mesmerism and spirit-rapping, thought that only a mo.
nomaniac would attempt to explain the mysterious
phenomena. in question by insanity. There was in
the cases not a symptom of mania, and the persons




276           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
affected, in their moments of repose, and even while
the affection lasted, weire in the normal exercise of
their faculties, and indicated no signs of mental alienation, answering always, when answering at' all,
pertinently, never at random, consecutively, never
incoherently, as is the case with the insane. He explained them, not by mental alienation, but by the
accumulation or increased activity of a great and all
pervading principle, perhaps the vital principle itself,
called the mesmeric or odic principle. He had himself produced phenomena analogous to the most
extraordinary recorded in history.
Mr. Dodson, an ex-Universalist minister, mentioned on a former occasion, and who had just published a book on spirit-manifestations, in refutation
of Judge Edmands's work oil the same subject, -a
great and original thinker, and most profound philosopher,- in his own estimation, —thought that
they were all to be explained by phreno-mesmerism,
or electro-psychology. He had an original theory,
borrowed in part from Gall and Spurzheim, who
might, to a certain extent, have borrowed it from
the Timeus of Plato, that the back part of the brain
is the seat of involuntary motion, instinct, and unconscious consciousness, that the anterior part is the
seat of voluntary motion and reflection. The phenomeria are artificially produced by psychologizing
the subject, or paralyzing the anterior lobe of the
brain, and leaving the posterior active, and, naturally,
by a person's sitting down quietly and suppressing the




MESMERISM INSUFFICIENT.       277
activity of the frontal brain, and giving free scope
to the occipital. There was no devil, and no odic
agent in the case, It was all explained by phrenomesmerism, or by the passivity of some, and the
increased activity of other portions of the brain.
But he was asked how this could enable a person
to foretell future events, to read the unexpressed
thoughts of others, to manifest extraordinary physical strength, to understand and speak languages
never learned, to tell what is passing in distant
places, and to remain suspended in the air in defiance of the laws of gravitation. He said all these
were psychological phenomena, or, as Dr. Corning
called them, hallucinations, nothing of the sort really
taking place.
Mr. Sowerby would not listen to him, and there
was almost a quarrel between the two ex-ministers.
But their rage being finally mollified by a witticism
from Jack,. the conversation resumed its pacific character.
" You say, Mr. Sowerby," said Dr. Corning, "that
you have produced phenomena analogous to those
recorded in history? "'
" Certainly," answered Mr. Sowerby.'And by the mesmeric or odic principle?"
c" Undoubtedly."
" What is your evidence of the existence of such
a principle? or your proof that such a principle
exists? "
24




278           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
"The phenomena I produce or find produced
by it."
" So, you take the phenomena to prove the principle, and the principle to explain the phenomena,"
said Dr. Corning, who could reason as well as anybody when it concerned the refutation of a theory
not his own.:"I am not disposed to question the existence of
such a principle," said Mr. Merton, "except in the
form asserted by Mr. Dodson, or when it is explained
as the immediate action of the mind or will of the
mesmerizer upon the mesmerized..The fluid asserted by Mesmer, after the animal magnetists of
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, as Wirdig,
Fludd, Maxwell, Kircher, Van Helmont, simply revised by Baron Reichenbach with a great show of
demonstration, though denied by Deleuze and some
other mesmerists, I have no good reason for doubting. I am willing to concede the fact, that this fluid
or agent exists and is employed by Mr. Sowerby in
his experiments. I am willing to concede that there
is a fluid or agent, not electricity, not magnetism,
but analogous to them, contended for by Baron
Reichenbach, that pervades a numerous class of
bodies, and may be artificially accumulated, or stim.ulated to increased activity. But suppose this;
suppose the mesmerizer, wizard, sorcerer, witch, magicianl, actually uses it, I must still ask Mr. Sowverby
to tell me how he proves it to be the sole principle




MESMERISM INSUFFICIENT.        279
of the phenomena produced? That in most of the
cases recorded, if not in all, there are proper mesmeric or odic phenomena, naturally or artificially
produced, is, I think, undeniable. The flowers used
by Grandier, in the case of the nuns of Loudan, and
the fumigations and sufflations of the old magicians,
all prove the resort to magnetism. The rod and tub
of Mesmer, and the cumbrous machinery he used,
though not indispensable, every magnetizer knows
are a useful mean. But as these are only subsidiary, how is it to be demonstrated that mesmerism
itself is the sole efficient cause, not merely of some
of the accessory phenomena, but of them all? In
the phenomena of table-turning, so extensively witnessed, magnetism is not absolutely essential. They
began, as all the recent spirit-manifestadtions, in mesmerism, and at first the table was mesmerized by a
circle-formed round it, joining their hands and resting them on it."
" The tables are turned," said Dr. Corning, " by
the involuntary and unconscious muscular contraction of the hands pressing upon it. This has
been proved."
"So says a French Academician, and so also says
Professor Farraday, and tables, very likely, may be
turned in some such way; but the table is frequently
known to turn and cut up its capers without any
circle being formed, without any person being near
it, or visible hand touching it."
"That is true," said 1, "for I have myself seen




280            THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
the most extraordinary phenomena of table-turning
when it was certain no pressure, voluntary or involuntary, had been applied to it by any person visible in the room. I have seen a table turn in spite of
the efforts of four strong men to hold it still, rise up
without any visible agency, fly over the heads of the
company, rush with violence from one end of the
room to the other, spin round like a top, balance
itself on one leg and then on another, —in fine,
move along some inches on the floor with the weight
of a dozen men resting on it, raise itself from the
floor with them, and remain suspended a foot above
it, for some minutes."
" There can be no doubt of that," said Mr. Merton. " In Cochin China, we are told on good authority, that in the time of the predecessors of Gia-long,
it was a custom in the province of Xu-Ngu6, on certain solemnities, to invite the most celebrated tutelar
genii of the towns and villages of the kingdom to
games and a public trial of their strength. A long
and heavy bark, with eight benches of oars, was
placed dry in the centre of a large hall, and the trial
consisted in seeing which of these could move it
farthest or with the greatest ease. The judges and
spectators took their stand at a little distance, and
saw, as they called the names and titles of the genii
placed on the bark, the huge machine tip one side
and then the other, and finally advance and then
recede. Some of the genii would push it forward
several feet, others only a few inches. But one who




MESMERISM INSUFFICIENT,       281
made it come and go with the greatest facility,
was the tutelar genius of the maritime village of
Ke-Chan, worshipped under the name of Hon-LeoHanh, whose temple was in consequence thronged
with pilgrims, and enriched with votive offerings."
"But conceding," continued Mr. Merton, "that
mesmerism plays its part, I wish to know how Mr.
Sowerby proves that it alone suffices for the production of the phenomena? Is it not possible that
another power steps in, and, either alone pr in concurrence, produces them? May it not be that mesmerism only facilitates or prepares the way for the
demonic action, produces the state or condition of
the human subject favorable to Satanic invasion,
and therefore is to be regarded rather as the occa-.
sion than as the efficient cause of the phenomena?"
"But I admit no devil; I do not believe that there
are any demons," said Mr. Sowerby.
"I am aware of that," said Mr. Merton, "but I
suppose that, notwithstanding your disbelief, there
may be a devil, the prince of this world, as the Scriptures plainly teach. It is possible that there are
whole legions of devils, that the air swarms with
them, and that they have power to tempt and to vex
and harass those they would seduce from allegiance
to the Most High. Their non-existence, at least their
non-intervention, must be proved before you are entitled-to conclude that your mesmeric or odic agent is
the sole efficient cause of the phenomena."
24*




282            THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
" But that," said Mr. Dodson, "would overthrow
all the so-called inductive sciences."
i' If so, I cannot help it," replied Mr. Merton.
"The inductive philosophers have accumulated a
mass of rich and valuable facts by their observations
and experiments, for which I am grateful to them;
but I set no great store by the ever-changing theories which they imagine or invent to explain these
facts. But let this pass. If Mr. Sowerby's mesmeric
or odic force does not explain all'the phenomena in
the case, I presume that he will concede that it is
not the sole principle of their production."
"Certainly," replied Mr. Sowerby.
"This odic agent, is it not a simple natural principle or force, and without reason or intelligence?"
" It is in itself unintelligent, I admit."
"But in the phenomena there are evident marks
of intelligence, which proceed neither from the mesmerizer nor the mesmerized. How do you explain
that?"
", The intelligence is the instinctive or involuntary
intelligence proceeding from the back part of the
brain," answered Mr. Dodson.
"Back part of whose brain?" asked Mr. Merton.
"The mesmerized or psychologized," replied that
philosophic gentleman.
"But there cannot proceed, voluntarily or involuntarily, instinctively or rationally, from the back brain
or the front brain, what is not in it, or an intelligence




MESM]RISM INSUFFICIENT.       283
which its owner does not'possess. I do not now
speak of the intelligence of either the operator or the
one operated upon, but of an intelligence of a third
party. In the recorded and undeniable phenomena to
be explained there appears a third party, which acts
intelligently, and gives information unknown to
either of the other parties. Take the case of the
spectre that appeared to Brutus before the battle of
Pharsalia, or that which appeared to Julian on the
eve of the battle in which he fell mortally wounded,
and hundreds of similar cases."
"' They are mere hallucinations," interposed Dr.
Corning.
"What proves the contrary," replied Mr. Merton,
"is the fact that they had accurate knowledge of
future events, which hallucinations have not. I
place no stress on the fact that a prediction was
uttered, or seemingly uttered, for that might be a
hallucination; the point to be attended to is its
literal fulfilment, showing a knowledge of the future
not possessed by the individual to whom the prediction was made, nor, supposing mesmerism employed,
by the mesmerizer. Here was an intelligent third
party.
~ "There is a very well authenticated case of -a
domestic, in the German village of Kleische, who,
returning one evening from a place near by, where
she had been sent of an errand, saw a little gray
man;, not larger than an infant, who, because she
would neither go with him nor answer him, threat



284           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
ened her, and told her, as she reached the threshold
of her master's house, that she should be blind and
dumb for four days. The prediction was exactly
fulfilled. Instances enough are on record of persons
afflicted, as they supposed, by evil spirits, who have
foretold the day and hour when they would be delivered. In the case of the parsonage of Cideville,
whichjin 1849 made so much noise in France, the
agent that rapped was intelligent, for the raps gave
distinct and intelligent answers to the questions
addressed to it, and communicated facts unknown
to the questioner and to all the persons present.
" The ancient pagan oracles may be cited. They
did not, I concede, foretell what belongs exclusively
to the supernatural providence of God, but they did
foretell, clearly and distinctly,- events belonging to the
natural order, beyond the reach of ordinary human
foresight. That many of the responses were false,
that many of them were ambiguous and suited to
the event, let it turn out which way it might, I by
no means deny, but this cannot be said of all of
t.hem. The contrary is evident from the great reputation they enjoyed, and the long ages that they were
consulted, not by the vulgar only, but- by kings,
princes, nobles, and philosophers, of the most learned
and polite nations of Gentile antiquity. Men are
deceived, deluded, but never by pure falsehood. It
is the truth mingled with the falsehood that deceives
or misleads them."
"But the whole," said Jack, "was a system of




MESMERISM INSUFFICIENT.       285
jugglery, cheatery, and knavery, of the heathen
priests."
"I do not defend," replied Mr. Merton, "the ancient pagan superstitions, nor the strict honesty, any
more than the immaculate purity, of the ancient
priesthoods; but I have learned not to explain great
effects by petty causes, like the shallow-pated philosophers of the last century, and the historians of
the school of Voltaire, Hume, and Robertson, who
had no more comprehension of the real causes and
concatenation of events than a respectable goose.
All heathenism was founded on delusion, but not a
delusion originating with, and kept up by, the trickery and jugglery of priests, who were often greater
dupes than any others. No art, craft, jugglery, or
fraud, could be carried on for three thousand years in
the bosom of cultivated nations without detection.
There were men in ancient heathendom  as able
and as willing to detect human imposture, as are
our modern philosophers, who tell us so gravely in
their elaborate works how the priests contrived to
work their miracles, and to keep the people in subjection. The only sound philosophy proceeds on
the assumption of the general good faith of mankind, or that they dupe and are duped, save in individual cases, without malice prepense.
"In these oracles there was a superhuman intelligence, and an intelligence which was neither that of
those who consulted nor that of those who gave the
response, and it tells you itself why the oracles after




286             THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
the birth of our Saviour and the spread of Christianity, became mute.
Me puer Hebraeus, divos Deus ipse gubernans,
Cedere sede jubet, tristemque redire sub Orcum;
Aris ergo dehinc tacitus abscedito nostris.
The Hebrew youth, himself God and master of the
gods, had reduced them to silence. Whence this
third intelligence? It cannot come from the odic
agent, for that is unintelligent."
"I do not agree with Mr. Sowerby," said Mr.
Winslow. " I believe all existence is intelligent, and
all forces intelligent forces. God is infinite intelligence. He is the principle and similitude of all
things, and therefore every thing must, like him, be
intelligent."
" That was my view," said I, " or else I should
have had no hesitation in explaining a large portion
of the mysterious phenomena by the old notion of
demonic invasion."
"Yet this view," replied Mr. Merton, " is decidedly
untenable. God, in the sense of creator, is the prinple of all things, and in the sense that the ideas or
types after which he creates them are in his eternal
reason, he is their similitude; but it is not necessary
to suppose that every creature imitates him in all
his attributes, which would suppose that a cabbage
has intellect and will, and a granite block is endowed
with charity. The infinite intelligence of God supposes that all are created, ordered, and governed by,
and according to, intelligence, but not that every




MESMERISM INSUFFICIENT.       287
creature is intelligent, or an intelligence. ~ We might
as well say that every creature is infinite, for God is
infinity, as well as intelligence.
"In the phenomena of demonopathy the patient
is distinctly conscious of an intelligence not his own.
The Mother Superior in the convent of Loudun was
-distinctly conscious that the words spoken by her
organs did not proceed from her intelligence, and
that they were uttered, not by her will, but against
it. There is a thousand times more evidence of this
third intelligence, and that it is personal, than Baron
Reichenbach has adduced in proof of his odic agent.
The nuns of Loudun knew what they did, and they
struggled with all their might against the power that
afflicted them. They knew as well that their words
and actions proceeded from a foreign personality, and
not from themselves, as you know that my words
and actions do not proceed from you. They held in
the greatest horror the blasphemous words their
organs were made (to utter, and the indecent postures they were made to assume, and sought deliverance by prayer and pious practices. That does
not proceed from one's own will, which he holds in
horror, and struggles against."
"The will and intelligence was that of Grandier,.who mesmerized them. He, by the mesmeric agent,
had placed himself in relation -with them, and he
moved them as a mesmerizer does his somnambulist,":said Mr. Sowerby.
"That Grandier persecuted them, and was in some




288           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
sense near them, is what they uniformly asserted,
and what I am not disposed to deny, but that it was
he who possessed them, and used their organs, is not
to be supposed; because one human being cannot
thus possess another, and because the intelligence
and will displayed surpassed his own. Grandier, if
he afflicted them, did it only by means of a foreign
power, foreign both to his personality and theirs, as
even Mr. Sowerby contends; but this foreign power
must have had, as is evident from the recorded phenomena, intelligenceand will of its own."
After a long discussion on this point, which I had
hardly for a moment questioned, for I had proved it
by my experiments with Priscilla, and with tables
and inanimate objects, time and again, though I
saw not all that it involved, all except the Doctor
and Jack agreed that it must be so. The Doctor
would not make an admission thati required him to
modify what he had written and published on insanity, and Jack would not hear a word on the subject. His experience was explicable on the assumption of hallucination, and he would not believe anybody had had a more marvellous experience than his
own.
"But," said Mr. Merton, "this wonder-working
power, if it have intelligence and will, must be a
spirit, good or bad, and, also a superhuman spirit,
since the phenomena are superhuman."
" So," said Dr. Corning, " here we are in the middle of the' nineteenth century, in this age of science,




MESMERISM INSUFFICIENT.         289
after so much has been said and written against the
folly, ignorance, barbarism, and superstition of past
ages, back in the old superstitious belief in demons,
good and bad angels, ghosts and hobgoblins, fairies
and ghouls, witches and witchcraft, sorcery and
magic. Well, gentlemen, I have done. I am inclined to believe there must be a devil, for if there
were no devil we could hardly have such poor success in bringing the world to reason, and curing it of
superstition."
" There may be more truth in what you say than
you suspect," said Mr. Merton. "The devil is the
father of ignorance, credulity, and superstition, no
less than of false science, infidelity, and irreligion."




290
CHAPTER XX.
SHEER DEVILTRY.
A FEW days after this last conversation, I was
visited by Judge Preston, whom I had slightly
known in former years,- a man of very respectable
gifts and attainments, and of high standing in the
community. He had been a politician, lawyer, legislator, and was now a Justice of the Supreme Court
of his native State. He was moral, upright, candid, and sincere, but like too many of his class, as
well as of mine, had grown up and lived without
any fixed or determinate views of religion. To say
he had rejected Christianity, would be hardly just;
but he had only vague notions of what is Christianity, and if he did not absolutely disbelieve a
future state, he had no firm belief in the immortality
of the soul. He rather wished than hoped to live
again. He had not long before lost his wife, whom
he tenderly loved, and her death had plunged him
into an inconsolable grief. He wept, and refused to
be comforted. A friend drew him one evening into
a circle of Spiritualists or Spiritists, and after much
persuasion, induced him to seek through a medium
an interview with his deceased wife. What he saw
and heard convinced him, and he soon found that




SHEER DEVILTRY.           291
he was himself a medium — a writing medium, I
believe.
Judge Preston, in connection with a physician of
some eminence, and his friend Van Schaick, formerly
a member of the United States Senate, a prominent politician a few years since, and in religion a
Swedenborgian, had just published a work, of large
dimensions as well as pretensions, on Spiritualism
and Spirit-manifestations, very well written, and not
without interest to those who would investigate the
subject of demonic invasion.
He said that he had called to see me in obedience
to an order given him by Benjamin Franklin, who
assured him that I could, if I chose, give him some
information on the subject of the spirit-manifestations, for I had had more to do with them than any
man living.
I replied that I was very glad to see him; but, as
to the conversation on spirit-manifestations, I must
decline taking part in it -myself. I was very weak,
and I did not think I could give him any information of importance. He could probably learn much
more from the shades of Franklin, William Penn, or
George Washington, than from me. George Fox
and Oliver Cromwell could tell him many things;
Swedenborg and Joe Smith more yet. I advised
him to call up the Mormon prophet, who could probably give him more light on the subject than any
one who had gone to the spirit-world since Mahomet. I should, however, be most happy to hear




292           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
him and my highly esteemed friend Mr. Merton, who
was present, converse on the subject.
"Mr. Merton," said the Judge, " I perceive is not
a believer, and I am not fond of conversing with
sceptics."
"Judge Preston," said Mr. Merton, "can hardly
call me a sceptic, and I think, were we to compare
notes, he would find me believing too much rather
than too little."
" It may be so," said the Judge, " but I feel as
if I was in the presence of an unbeliever, and an
enemy of the spirits."
"We -must not place too much reliance on our
feelings; and the habit of carefully noting them, and
taking them as our guides, is not to be encouraged,"
answbred Mr. Merton. " Our feelings become warped, obscure our perceptions, and mislead our judgment. I certainly do not deny the facts, or the
phenomena which you call spirit-manifestations,
although I may not, and probably do not, admit
your explanation of them, nor the doctrines concerning God, the uniVerse, and man and his destiny,
which I find in your book."
"But do you believe that spirits from the other
world do really communicate with the living? "
" That there is in rnmay of the phenomena, I say
not in all, which you call spirit-manifestations, a
real spiritual invasion, I do not doubt; but whether
the spirits are the souls of the departed, or really
demons or devils personating them, is a question to




SHEER DEVILTRY.           293
which you do not seem to me, from your book, to
have paid sufficient attention.  You are necromancers, diviners with the spirits of the dead.
Necromancers are almost as old as history. We
find them alluded to in Genesis.  Moses forbids
necromancy, or the evocation of the dead, and commands that necromancers shall be put to death. In
all ancient and modern pagan nations, necromancy
is-found to be a very common species of divination.
The African magicians found at Cairo practise it
even at the present time, as we find testified to by
an English nobleman and a French academician,
though by a seeing medium, not, as is the case with
you, by. rapping, talking, and writing mediums. The
famous Count de Cagliostro, or rather Giuseppo Balsamo, at the close of the last century, professed to
enable persons of distinction to converse with the
spirits of eminent individuals, long since dead; and
evocation of the dead has long been practised at
Paris by students of the University. You are real
diviners, attempting, by means of evoking the dead,
to divine secrets, whether of the past or the future,
unknown to the living. You practise what the
world has always called divination, and that species
of divination called necromancy. Thus far, all is
plain, certain, undeniable, and therefore you do that
which the Christian world has always held to be
unlawful, and a dealing with the devils. This, however, is nothing to you, for you place the authority
of the spirits above that of Jesus Christ, and do not
25 *




294           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
hesitate to make Christianity give place to spiritism. But what I wish you to tell me is, the evidence on which you assert that the invading or
communicating spirits are really the souls of men
and women who once lived in the flesh'?"
"They themselves expressly affirm it, and prove
it by proving that they have the knowledge of the
earthly lives of the persons they say they are, which
we should expect them to have in case they were
those very persons.";" The question, you will perceive, my dear Judge,
is one of identity —a question with which, as a
lawyer and a judge, you must have often had occasion to deal. Is the evidence you assign sufficient?"
" On my professional honor and reputation, I say
it is."
" Do you find the spirits always tell the truth?"
", No. I have said in my book they frequently
lie."
" Then the simple fact that a spirit says he is
Franklin, Adams, Jefferson, Washington, George
Fox, William Penn, or Martin Luther, is not a sufficient proof that he is."
"I concede it. But I do not rely on his word
alone. I: examine the spirit, and I conclude he is
identically Franklin only when I find that he has
that intimate acquaintance with the earthly life of
Franklin which I should expect to find in case he
really were Franklin."




SHEER DEVILTRY.            295
"But that intimate acquaintance does not establish the identity, unless you know beforehand
that the spirit could not have it, unless he were
Franklin. The spirits, I find by consulting your
book, have told you the most secret things of your
own past life, and secrets which could by no human
means be known to any one but yourself. Yet the
spirit who knew these secrets was not yourself, but
an intelligence distinct from you. Now, if the spirit
could show himself thus intimately acquainted with
your earthly life without being you, why might he
not be intimately acquainted with Franklin's earthly
life without being Franklin?"
" That is a point of view under which I have not
considered the question. But, nevertheless, I have
subjected the spirits to severe tests, and compelled
them to confirm what they say by extraordinary
visible manifestations."
" But the difficulty I find is, that there is nothing
in those manifestations that necessarily establishes
the identity pretended; for they do not necessarily establish the credibility of the power exhibiting them,
as you yourself allow, when you acknowledge that
the spirits are untruthful, and not unfrequently lie
to you. Miracles accredit the miracle-worker, establish his credibility, only when they are such as can
be performed only by the finger of God. If they are
such as can be performed by a created power, without special Divine intervention, or such as might be
perfornmed by a lying spirit, they prove nothing as




296           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
to the credibility of their author. A messenger, or
a person claiming to be a messenger from God, performs a miracle which can be performed only by the
hand of God, and thus establishes his credibility, because he proves by the miracle that God is with
him, vouches for what he says; and God, we know,
can neither deceive nor be deceived, and therefore
will not endorse a deceiver. But prodigies, though
superhuman, which do not transcend the powers of
created intelligence, do not accredit the agent who
performs them, certainly not when it is conceded
the agent can, and in many cases does, lie and deceive. I must think, my dear Judge, that you have
been hasty in concluding the identity pretended. All
you can conclude, from the phenomena in the case,
is, that there is present a superhuman spirit, personating or pretending to be Bacon, Franklin, Penn,
Swedenborg, or some other well known person who
has lived in the flesh, and is able to speak and act
in the character assumed."'" My attention, I grant, has not been so specially
turned to the question of identity of the spirit with
the individual personated, as it has been to establishing the reality of the spiritual presence," said
the Judge.
" And you have been mainly intent on and carried
away, I presume, by the revelatidns you have received, or doctrines on the greatest of all topics
taught you by the spirits."
"r That is true. I have been much more impressed




SHEER DEVILTRY.            297
and confirmed by them than by the visible or physical manifestations which I have witnessed. The
sublime doctrines and pure morality which the spirits
teach have chiefly won my conviction."
" But these, however much they may seem to you,
are very little to the Christian believer. In their
most favorable light, they do not approach in sublimity and purity, human reason alone being judge,
the Gospel of our Lord. There is nothing new in
your spiritual philosophy, and your morality merely
travesties a few principles of Christian morality.
You assert the immortality of the soul, never, in
ancient or modern times, denied by the heathen
world; but the peculiar Christian doctrine of the
resurrection of the dead, and of future rewards and
punishments, you do not recognize. You hardly
stand on a level with Cicero or Seneca. You travestie the Christian doctrine of charity, or substitute
for it a watery philanthropy, or a sickly sentimentality. There is in your system some subtilty, some
cunning, chicanery, and ingenuity, but no deep
philosophy, no lofty wisdom, no broad, comprehensive principles, no robust, manly virtue. The point
on which you place the most importance is that of
infinite progression, which is an infinite absurdity;
and inasmuch as it denies the doctrine of final
causes, denies God himself, and is, in the last analysis, pure atheism.
"That some true and good things are said by the
spirits, I do not deny. The devil can disguise him



298           TrIE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
self and appear as an angel of light. He is a great
fool, no doubt, but not fool enough to attempt to
seduce men by evil as evil. He must present falsehood in the guise of truth, and evil in the guise of
good, if he would do evil. It is not likely that he
would begin by shocking the moral sense of the community, and we should expect him to recognize and
appeal to the moral sentiments and dominant beliefs
of the men of the age; and this is all that you can
say of the teachings of the spirits. But, except the
confirmation of the fact taught by religion in all
ages, that there are spiritual beings, superior to man,
who surround us and may invade us, nothing they
teach can be relied on, because their veracity is not
established, and their unveracious and lying character is conceded."
" There are'lying spirits, I concede, but all are
not," interposed the Judge.
" Be that as it may, in what transcends your
own knowledge, or is verifiable by your own natural powers, you have no means of distinguishing
them, or of determining when the communication is
true, or when it is false. When a spirit unfolds to
you a system of the universe,- a system  which
comes not within the range of scientific investigation, -you cannot say that he is not deluding you,
and giving you fairy gold, which will turn out to
be chips or vile stubble."
"You think us deluded, then? "
" In what you see and hear, no; in regard to what




SHEER DEVILTRY.            299
lies beyond, yes. I believe you honest; I believe
you really receive communications from invisible
spirits; I believe you fabricate, simulate nothing. I
give you full credit so far as regards the mysterious
phenomena you relate; I agree with you in the conclusion that these phenomena are produced by
spirits; but I regard as not proved the identity of
these spirits with the spirits who were once united
as human souls to bodies; and what they teach of
God, the universe, and human destiny, I regard as a
delusion - a Satanic delusion, designed to seduce
you from, or to prevent you from returning to, your
allegiance to God and his Christ."
" That this is the fact," said 1, " I am quite sure.
If any proof of it were wanting, it might be found
in the fact that these spirit-manifestations are even
by Judge Preston himself identified with those which
have always been opposed to Christianity, and by it
pronounced Sata'nic; and by~ the further fact, that
they teach as truth the principal doctrines which the
movement party of the day oppose to the Gospel.
Take the doctrines set forth by the Seer Davis, those
which you find in the Shekinah, and even in Judge
Preston's own book, and you find them in substance
the prevailing infidelity of the times, dressed out in
a spiritual garb.  I have very good reasons for
knowing that these spirit-manifestations have been
started for the very purpose of overthrowing Christianity by means of an infidel superstition. The
prime mover had precisely this object, and no other."




300           THE, SPIRIT-RAPPER.
" We have," said the Judge, " only your w-ord for
that. I regard these phenomena from God."
"So the devil wishes you to regard them, for he
seeks, by means of them, to carry on his war against
the Christian's God, and to get himself worshipped
as God,": said I.
"The devil," said Mr. Merton, "can go only the
length of his chain, and that chain is much shorter
than it was in old heathen times. He can do only
what he is permitted, and it is very possible that
what he is now doing will turn out to his signal discomfiture. It will give a serious blow to the materialism and Sadducism of the age, lead men to
believe in the reality of the spirit-world, and when
that is done, they will have made one step towards
believing in Christ. The age is so infirm as to deny
the existence of the devil; and even becoming able
to believe once more in the reality of his Satanic
majesty, will be a symptom, slight though it may be,
of convalescence."
" We," remarked the Judge, "are no Sadducees.
We believe in both angel and spirit, in good angels
and bad angels."
"That is something," said Mr. Merton; "and, if
you open your hearts, and keep them open to the
light,, you may in time believe more, and escape the
meshes in which Satan has now entangled you.
Your great mistake is in supposing that these good
and bad angels are departed souls. I do not say
that departed souls may not revisit the earth; they




SHEER DEVILTRY.            301
have done so, and they may continue to do so, but
the human soul never becomes an angel or a demon. It is all very well to say of a departed dear
one, he or she is an angel in heaven, but taken literally, it is never true. In the resurrection, our Lord
says the just are like the angels of God, in the respect
that they are neither male nor female, and Iieither
marry nor are given in marriage, but he does not say
that they are angels; and the Scriptures distinguish
between the company of the angels and the spirits
of just men made perfect. Men were created a little
lower than the angels, and they are of a different
order. The demons or devils are not wicked souls
separated from their bodies, and wandering on this
or'the other side of the dark-flowing Acheron, but
the angels who kept not their first estate, and were
cast out of heaven.
"These fallen angels, under their chief, Lucifer or
Satan, carry on their rebellion against God by seeking to seduce men frorn their allegiance to their
rightful sovereign. They can and do invade men,
because they are superior to men, and are malicious
enough to do it. But the good angels never do it,
for they work not by violence, but by moral, persuasive, peaceful, and gentle influences; and human
souls cannot do it, for the strong keepeth the house
till a stronger comes and binds him. Nothing remains then, my dear Judge, but to regard these
spirit-manifestations, in so far as real, as the invasions of Satan, as produced, not by good angels or
26




302            THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
departed souls, but by the fallen angels, called-demnons by the Gentiles, and therefore, all these mysterious phenomena, in so far as they are not produced
by natural agencies, as sheer deviltry. This is the
only conclusion to which I, as a Christian philosopher, can come respecting them."




303
CHAPTER  XXI.
SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS.
MR. MIERTON'S conclusion did not precisely please
me, although I had suspected it from the first. Yet
it troubled me, and I would gladly have escaped it.
The next day, when Mr. Merton called to see me,
as he did every day, I told him that I did not like
his conclusion, and I wished he would give me his
real thoughts on the subject.
"Without recurring to the teachings of Christianity, which I have the happiness of believing, I
could not," said he, "explain these mysterious spiritmanifestations, and I should not know what to think
of them. I might be tempted to deny them, as does
our friend Jack — to believe them produced by some
inexplicable jugglery, even against my better judgment; or I might try to acquiesce in the belief of
our friend the Judge, that they are the souls of the
departed. Most likely, I should treat them simply
as inexplicable, and attempt to construct no theory
for their solution.
"I am  unwilling to suppose the supernatural,
and will not, where I cannot satisfactorily demonstrate the insufficiency of the natural. The whole
history of our race bristles with prodigies, with mar



304            THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
vellous facts, clearly divisible into two distinct and
even opposite orders. The one seem to have for
their object to draw men towards God, and assist
them in ascending to him as their last end and
supreme good; the other seem to have for their object to draw men away from God, and to aid men
in descending into the depths of night and darkness.:Man has a double nature, is composed of body and
soul, and on the one side has a natural aspiration to
God, and on the other a natural tendency from God,
towards the c'reature, and thence towards night and
chaos. A supernatural power assists him to rise;
a preternatural power assists him, so to speak, to
descend. But whether in the ascending or in the
descending scale, it is not easy to say where the
natural ends and the supernatural begins, for in both
cases the foreign power presupposes the natural, and
blends in with it, and simply transforms the action.
"' There is, no doubt, much in either order set down
by the vulgar to foreign intervention, that is really
explicable on natural principles. Good, pious people
cry out' a miracle,' not seldom where no miracle is;
and I should be sorry to be obliged to make an act
of faith in all the miracles recorded in the legends of
the saints. I should be equally sorry to be obliged
to believe every tale that is told of Satanic invasion.
I have a deep and settled horror of scepticism, but
also a horror no less of superstition. I would no
more be credulous than incredulous. I do not flke
to undertake the rjefuitation of those who explain the




SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS.        305
facts of the night-side of nature on natural principles, for it is hard to do it, without giving more or
less occasion in many minds to superstition. It is
only in cases, like the present, where the disease is
an epidemic, more destructive than the cholera or
the plague, that I am willing to do what I can to
draw attention to their real character.
" In regard to the dark prodigies, if I may so call
them, I think not a few included by the vulgar under
this head should be dismissed as mere jugglery;
others may be explained by animal magnetism, and
imply neither fraud nor dealing with devils, but are
not innocent, because produced not by a justifiable
motive, and are in all cases to be discountenanced
because of dangerous tendency; others still may,
perhaps, be explicable by natural causes, which science has not yet investigated, and of which we are
ignorant.
"But a residuum remains which it is impossible
to explain without the assumption of Satanic intervention. Such are some of the cases which you
have heard me relate. Such are many of the phenomena which you yourself must have witnessed,
and perhaps been instrumental in producing. Such,
too, is the inspiration of Mahornet, if we may rely
on the account given us by his friends, as well as
the demon of Socrates, and such are evidently the
well known cases of the Camisards or Tremblers of
the Cevennes in 16S8, George Fox and the early
26*




306            THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
Quakers, Swedenborg, and the trance or ectasy of the
Methodists, and finally Joe Smith and the Mormon
prophets. In all these cases there are evident marks
of superhuman intervention, and which no man in
his sober senses, and instrueted in the Christian religion, can pretend is the intervention of the Holy
Ghost, or of good angels. The perturbation, the
disorder, the trembling, the falling backwards, the
foaming at the mouth, the violence which always in
these cases accompany the presence'of the spirit, are
so many sure indications that it is an evil, not a good
spirit. The Lord was not in the strong wind that rent
the mountain; he was not in the fire that wrapt it
in flames; but in the still small voice that made the
prophet step forth from his cave to listen. When the
Lord comes in his gracious visitations all is sweetness and peace. No disturbance of the physical
system, no whirling and howling, no storm or tempest, no wringing and twisting of the arms and legs,
no violent or indecent postures, no abnormal development or exercise of the faculties, mark the incoming
of the Holy Ghost. All is calm  and serene; the
understanding is illuminated, the heart is warmed,
the will is strengthened, and the whole soul is elevated by the infusion of a supernatural grace. There
is no crisis, no forgetfulness on awaking from  a,
trance. But whenever it is the reverse, wherever
there is violence, distortion, quaking, trembling, and
disturbance, we know that if any spirit is present it




SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS.       307
is an evil spirit, which delights in violence and disorder, and displays power without love, force without
goodness, knowledge without gentleness.
" Everybody has heard, I suppose, of the prodigies
wrought by touching the tomb of the Deacon Paris,
the famous Jansenist saint, and the violent controversy they occasioned between the Jansenists and
the Jesuits, the former trying to magnify them into
miracles to the honor of their sect, and the Jesuits
very unnecessarily and very unwisely, in my judgment, laboring to disprove or discredit them as facts.
The prodigies are well authenticated, and I see no
way of denying them without throwing doubt on all
human testimony. Among them I select those which
indicate, on the part of the affected, a surprising
power of physical resistance, and among these I select only one, that of Jeanne Monlu, a young woman,
from twenty-two to twenty-three years of age, given
by the Dictionnaire des Sciences M~dicales. This
young woman, in her convulsions, was placed with
her back against a wall, and a man of great strength
took an andiron weighing some twenty-five pounds,
and struck her on her stomach several blows in suc-cession with all his strength, sometimes to the number of one hundred blows and over. A brother gave
her:sixty blows, and afterwards, trying his blows
against the wall, it gave way at the twenty-fifth
blow. It was in vain, says Carre de Montgeron,. a
grave magistrate, that I struck with all my force, the
convulsionary complained that my blows brought her




308           THE SPIHIT-RAPPER.
no relief, and obliged me to place the andiron in the
hands of a large and very strong man found among
the spectators. He spared nothing, but put forth all
his strength, and dealt such terrible blows on the pit
of her stomach that they shook the wall against
which she was supported. She made him give her
the hundred blows which she had demanded at first,
counting for nothing the sixty she had received from
me. When the andiron sunk so deep into the pit of
her stomach as to seem to reach her back, the young
woman would exclaim,' That relieves me. Courage,
my brother; strike harder, if you can.' The blows
wvere struck on the naked skin, but without bruising
or breaking it in the least. The convulsionary, after
this, lay on the floor, and there was placed upon her
a heavy plank on which stood a score or more of
persons, weighing all together at least four thousand
pounds. Then a flints tone, weighing twenty-two
pounds, was hurled with full force a hundred times
in succession upon her bosom. At each blow, the
whole room shook, the floor trembled, and the spectators shuddered at the sound of the frightful blows.' There were other phenomena of a character no
less extraordinary, but I pass them over, all of which
were -notorious, and witnessed by half, one writer
says, all Paris. Hume says that they have all the
authenticity that human testimony can give, and
that we can deny them only on the ground that such
things are absolutely impossible. Humanly impossible I concede, but, as they are, not of a character to




SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS.        309
come from God, I must believe them to be Satanic,
and that the persons were really possessed and sustained by evil spirits.
" The case of frequent occurrence among the lower
class of the Lamas, related by M. Huc in his travels
in Mongolia, Thibet, and China, is one that cannot
be explained save on the ground of Satanic intervention, —that of a Loma, a sort of Boudhist monk,
who opens his belly, takes out his entrails, and
places them before him, and then returns immedi.
ately to his former state.
"', When the appointed hour has:arrived,', says MI.
Hue,'the whole multitude of pilgrims repair toa the
great court of the Lama convent, wheresan, altar is
erected. At length the Bokte makes hisappparanee;
he advances gravely amid the acclamations of the
crowd, seats himself on the altar, and taking a cut.
lass from his girdle, places it between his knees,
while the crowd of Lamas, ranged in a circle at his
feet, commence the terrible invocations that prelude
this frightful ceremony. By degrees, as they proceed in their'recital, the Bokte seems to tremble in
every limb, and gradually fall into strong convulsions.  Then the song of the Lamas becomes
wilder and more animated, and the recitation is
changed for cries and howlings. Suddenly the
Bokte flings away the scarf which he has worn,
snatches off his girdle, and with the sacred cutlass
rips himself entirely open. As the blood gushes out,
the multitude prostrate themselves before the horrid




310           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
spectacle, and the sufferer is immediately interrogated concerning future events and things concealed
from human knowledge. His answers to these questions are regarded as oracles.
"' As soon as the devout curiosity of the pilgrims
is satisfied, the Lamas resume their recitations and
prayers; and the Bokte, taking up in his right hand
a quantity of his blood, carries it to his mouth, blows
three times on it, and casts it, with a loud cry, into
the air. He then passes his hand rapidly over his
stomach, and it becomes whole as it was before,
without the slightest trace being left of the diabolical operation, with the exception of an extreme lassitude.'
" Occurrences like these are not rare, and I could
fill volumes with phenomena equally extraordinary,
which: I cannot deny, and which cannot be explained
without the assumption of a superhuman agent, and
I may add,-a diabolical agent. Dupotet exhibits, by
means4 of his magic ring, almost daily in Paris, the
most extraordinary magic wonders, and he confesses
that he does it by means of a mental evocation, and
by virtue of a PACT.
"- Now these, and facts like these, instructed as I
amn in the Christian faith, and holding it without
any doubt, prove to me that the Satanic invasion,
demonic possession, and obsession, are no fables, but
facts not to be denied, though each particular case
must stand on its own merits, and be received or
rejected according'to the evidence. In general I am




SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS.         311
slow to believe this or that particular case is diabolic, and I require clear and irrefragable proof,
strong and perfectly reliable testimony.
"The criteria of demonic invasion or obsession,
as laid down by the Christian church, for the guidanlce of exorcists, are seven:
1. Power of knowing the unexpressed thoughts of
others.
2. Understanding of unknown languages.
3. Power of speaking unknown or foreign languages.
4. Knowledge of future events.
5. Knowledge of things passing inr distant places.
6. Exhibition of superior physical strength.
7. Suspension of the body in the air during a considerable time.
"Now I find all these in the recent spirit-manifestations, clearly and distinctly testified to by such occular witnesses as Dr. Dexter, Judge Edmands, and
the Hon. N. P. Talmadge, not to mention any others.
The Spiritualists or Spiritists do not deny,-they assert
that the manifestations they witness are strictly analogous to the class of facts which have been always regarded as Satanic. At first, the spirits communicated
by rapping and moving furniture. Inut now, besides
rapping mediums, there are writing mediums, seeing
mediums, and speaking mediums. In these last
three cases they admit the fact of spiritual invasion,
and even call it possession.  In the case of the
speaking medium particularly, I find it contended




312           THIE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
that the spirit takes possession of the medium, generally a woman, maltreats her at times, throws her
down, gives her convulsipns, and forces her to do
things which she is unwilling to do, and compels
her organs to utter words to which she has the
greatest repugnance.
" fear Judge Edmands.' I have frequently known
mental questions answered, that is, questions merely
framed in the Iind of the interrogator, and not revealed by him or known to others. Preparatory to
meeting a circle, I have sat down alone in my
room, and carefully prepared a series of questions
to be propounded, and I have been surprised to find
my. questions answered, and in the precise order
in which I wrote them, without my even taking
my memorandum out of my pocket; and when I
knew not a person present even knew that I had
prepared questions, much less what they were. My
most secret thoughts, those which I never uttered
to mortal man or woman, have been freely spoken
to, as if I had uttered them. Purposes which I have
privately entertained have been publicly revealed,
and I have once and again been admonished that my
every thought was known to, and could be disclosed
by, the intelligence which was thus manifesting
itself.
"'I have heard the mediums use Greek, Latin,
Spanish, and French, when I knew that they had no
knowledge of any language but their own; and it is
a fact that can be attested by many, that often there




SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS.        313
has been speaking and writing in foreign languages
and unknown tongues by those who were unacquainted with either.'
"Dr. Dexter is explicit to the same purpose. I
need not multiply citations. The books of the spiritualists are full of instances in point. And as it is
clear, from the phenomena presented, that the superhuman intelligence and power manifested are not
Divine, I can, as a rational man, only conclude that
they are Satanic. I believe the persons engaged in
the unhallowed intercourse are, to a great extent, in
good faith, and have no suspicion that they are really
dealing with devils."
"6 I believe you are right," said I. " One thing is
certain, that even in mesmerizing, there is always an
implicit mental evocation, and without it, I venture
to say, no one was ever able to exhibit the mesmeric
phenomena. The effort of the will which the mesmerizer makes, whether he uses passes or not, is at
bottom an evocation, a calling up of the mesmeric
spirit; and he who set the spirits a rapping, you
may be sure, had made a virtual, if not an explicit,
a tacit, if not an express compact with the devil.
But there is one thing farther I would have you explain, that is, the connection of spirit-manifestations
with so-called animal magnetism."
- " That is a great subject, and would lead me too
far for my time and for your strength. There are
different spirits that besiege us or invade us, but
27




314           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
those that usually do so -probably, after the language
of St. Paul, swarm in the air, and inhabit what the
ancients called Ether. Many of the fathers, and
sonme later doctors of the Church have believed
that they are created with and inhabit fine ethereal
bodies. However this may be, they no doubt, in
their operation, assume such bodies, and consequently find their operations facilitated by a subtile
material medium, such as the mesmeric fluid. Hence
I do not regard mesmerism itself as Satanic, but as
facilitating demonic invasion.
" There is also in man what the ancients called
the umbra, the shade, which is not the soul, nor the
body in its mere outward sense. It is, as it were,
the interior lining of the body, capable, to a certain
extent, of being detached from it, without however
losing its relation to it. Hence the phenomena of
bi-location, so frequently noticed in the annals of
sorcery or witchcraft, can be conceived as possible.
The body lies in a trance, and the soul with its umbra is able to carry on, by the assistance of the
demon, its deviltry, even at a distance; and the
wounds given to the shade will reappear on the
body, as has been often observed.
"' But you must excuse me from entering further
into this intricate and mysterious subject. Many
ingenious theories have been devised, but I wish to
deal as little with them as possible. There is a
laudable curiosity, there is also an unlawful curi



SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS.         315
osity, and there is a science which is not desirable.
I have been obliged, in the way of my calling, to
study it; but I never touch it, without regretting its
necessity. Spare me. The knowledge that cannot
enlighten, that cannot aid virtue, and only leads
astray, should never be sought."




316
CHAPTER XXII.
SUPERSTITION.
I HAD, almost from the first, suspected Mr. Merton's conclusion, and should never for a moment
have doubted it, had I not grown up in the disbelief
of evil spirits. Science, or what passes for science,
had long denied all supernatural and all superhuman
intervention in the affairs of mankind; and I, like
the majority of my contemporaries, had grown up a
complete Epicurean. There was, perhaps, a God
who had created the world, but having created it,
and impressed upon it certain fixed and invariable
laws, he left it to take care of itself. I denied his
providence, or, what is the same thing, resolved it
into the uniform and inflexible laws of nature, and
like my friends of the French Eclectic school, saw
the Divine intervention only in the necessary and
immutable elements of human history. God was
for me simply Fate, Invincible Necessity, and therefore no free person, no object of reverence, love, or
worship.
Having excluded Providence, I necessarily rejected
the ministry of angels. I resolved ail nature into a
collection of forces operative by intrinsic and necessary laws. Man is one of these forces, neither the




SUPERSTITION.              317
strongest nor the weakest.  In his own intrinsic
strength he is not much, but by placing himself in
a right position with regard to the other forces of
nature, he may make them work in him and for
him, and thus increase his strength by the whole of
theirs, as the millwright makes use of the force of
the stream to turn his mill, theinventor of the magnetic telegraph of the lightning to convey his messages, or as the sailor avails himself of the wind to
propel his ship.
Belief in the free or voluntary intervention of the
Divinity in human affairs, I had been taught by received science to regard as superstition. Religion,
Christian or Mahometan, Jewish or Pagan, inasmuch as it always presupposes the supernatural,'or
the intervention of God extra naturam, or otherwise
than in and through the laws of nature, was superstition. The ministry of angels was superstition.
The assertion of Satanic interposition was, beyond
all doubt, superstition.  The facts which had led
to the supposition of Divitre providence, and of the
ministry of good and evil angels, were, no doubt,
real; but ignorant of the laws of nature, men had
misinterpreted them, and assigned them causes which
are unreal. All religion has, I said, its origin in
ignorance, and necessarily recedes as science advances. Hence I felt that it would be only a proof
of my ignorance and superstition to ascribe the mysterious phenomena to any spiritual or supernatural
agency.
27 a




318           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
Even after the explanations of Mr. Merton, and
after my reason was silenced, I was unwilling to
abandon my prejudices, and accept his conclusion.
What, should I, in this nineteenth century, in this
age of genuine science, which has done so much to
roll back the clouds and dissipate the darkness which
enveloped past ages, consent to adopt the vulgar belief of the sixteenth century, when men were but
just escaping from the thraldom of Romanism - of
the thirteenth century, when they were but just beginning to emerge from barbarism — of the first
century, when still buried in the night of heathenism? My pride of science, my pride of intellect,
revolted at the thought. What ridicule would not
be showered upon me by the wits and free-thinkers
of the age, should it be known, or even suspected!
I hesitated long, for I saw at once, that if I admitted the existence and influence of Satan, I must
go farther, and concede the Christian mysteries. I
must abandon liberal Christianity, deny the supposed progress of recent-times in religious notions,
and return to old-fashioned orthodoxy. Perhaps I
should find it necessary to go even further back than
the orthodoxy of my own country. This was no
pleasant thought. To unlearn all I had learned, to
regard all my most cherished convictions as so many
delusions, to become in reality as a little child, and
to commence life anew, as Jesus Christ taught we
must do, if we would enter into the kingdom of
heaven, was too humiliating to be contemplated wit h




SUPERSTITION.            319
pleasure even on my dying bed, and when the world
was fast disappearing from my view. What would
have been the result of my internal struggle, if I
had been left wholly to myself, I will not pretend to
say. But I was not so left. Mr. Merton was with
me almost daily, and seemed always to read my
thoughts before I expressed them, and to comprehend my difficulties.
" Your great mistake," said he to me one day,
when the subject came up, "is in supposing that
religion is the offspring of ignorance, and stands
opposed to science. Your assumption that man began in ignorance, and has attained to science only
by long and patient research and laborious experiment, is at best gratuitous. Some things, of course,
have been acquired only in process of time. Man
has made progress in the knowledge of all that
which he himself has done, or has suffered; but
nothing requires you to assume that his progress in
knowledge is any thing more than progress in the
knowledge of his own doing and suffering. It is
not likely that Adam knew the history of the battle
of Pharsalia, of Hastings, Bovines, or Waterloo;
it is not probable that he was acquainted with the
steam-engine, the cotton-gin, the spinning-jenny, the
power-loom, or the lightning telegraph. But he may
have received from his Maker, as religion teaches, a
knowledge of the nature and causes of things, and
of his moral relations and duties, equal to that possessed by the most enlightened of his posterity.




320           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
" Historically considered," proceeded Mr. Merton,
"the earliest belief of mankind was the existence,
unity, and free providence of God —a belief-in strict
accordance with the deductions of genuine science
in every age. Every language under heaven bears
indelible traces of that belief, and would be unintelligible, absolutely insignificant, if it were denied.
Yet all languages are radically one and the same,
and must, in some form,, have been given supernaturally to man, for man speaks only as he has learned
to speak; and it would have required language to
invent language."
" But if all languages are radically the same, how
do ydu explain their manifest differences?" I asked.
" That is a question which I leave to the philologists; but they, I believe, very easily prove that
these differences are not radical, and that they are
due principally to the differences of pursuits, of circumstances, temperaments, and pronunciation of different tribes having little or no intercourse with one
another. However great or small' they may be, or
whatever their causes, it has been proved that they
are only modifications of one and the same original
tongue."
" But you know," said 1, "that religion is progressive, and that the earliest religion of mankind was
a gross fetichism, a worship of animals and inanimate things. From that gross superstition we can
trace its gradual purification and progress towards
the sublime monotheism of Moses, Socrates, Plato,




SUPERSTITION.            321
and Jesus, moulded by the Church fathers into
Christian theology."
" I-know no such thing," replied Mr. Merton, " and
St. Paul, who was a good philosopher as well as an
inspired apostle, tells us that men left the true God
to worship creeping things and four-footed beasts.
The monotheism you speak of is historically older
than the fetichism of which you would make it a
development. What you are pleased to call the monotheism of Moses, was older than that lawgiver.
Moses, under Divine inspiration and direction, founded the Jewish state, or commonwealth, and instituted
the Jewish worship, but he did not introduce a new
faith or -theology. The faith or doctrine he taught
concerning God and moral duty, was that of the
old patriarchs, and the same which had been held
from Adam. Christian faith and theology have come
down to us through the line of the patriarchs and
the Jews, not through that of the Gentiles, and, if a
development at all, is not a development of heathenism, but of the earlier patriarchal religion preserved
in the synagogue. Hence St. Augustine says, that
faith has not changed; as believed the fathers, so we
believe - only they believed in a Christ who was to
come, and we believe in a Christ who has come.
"Then, again, the monotheism, if monotheism it
was, of Socrates and Plato, was not a development
or gradual purification of fetichism or of the gross
forms of nature-worship. They themselves tell you
as much, and. always claim to be restorers, not inno




322           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
vators. In asserting the unity of God, they profess
always to revive -the belief or the wisdom of the
ancients. No one can have studied the various
forms of heathenism without finding in them ample
evidence that they are not primitive formations.
They all bear witness to a type which is not in
themselves-a type from which they have departed,
not a type which. they are approaching or realizing.
They bear the deep traces of corruption, and are
evidently travesties of the old patriarchal or primitive religion, without a knowledge of which they are
absolutely inexplicable. The memory of the loss of
its primitive perfection, all heathenism retains in its
heart. All heathenism is imprinted with profound
grief for a lost good, and never does it show signs
of a true joy. There is sadness in all its rites,
gay and joyous as it tries to make them. Its joy
is a drunken joy, and its boisterous mirth is the
wild laugh of the maniac.  But over the whole
of heathenism, even in its grossest forms, there
hovers always the primitive monotheism.  It retains always some reminiscence of the belief in one
supreme God, Father of gods /nd men. Anaxagoras, Socrates, Plato, and others, acquainted with
the Jewish belief, and meditating on this reminiscence, undoubtedly rose to sublimer and more
rational views of the Divinity than those which
were entertained by the vulgar; but this says nothing in favor of that gradual development and
purification of heathenism, which you and a well




SUPERSTITION.              323
known modern school assert, and assert without one
single fact to support you.
" You must rely on history," continued Mr. Merton, " for your theory professes to be historical, and
to sustain itself by facts. But history has been
tolerably authentic for some thousands of years.
How happens it, if your theory be correct, that we
find no instance of this gradual development and
purification of heathenism? In all the cases where
the history can be traced, it is undeniable that the
purest or the least deformed state of any heathen superstition is its earliest; and the grossest, the most
corrupt and revolting, is always its latest. Nothing
in this world ever reforms itself, and the inevitable
tendency of all error, as of all vice, is from bad to
worse. Compare the popular religion of Rome under
the kings, with the popular religion under the pagan
emperors, and you will find this proved.
"Indeed, my friend, your whole theory is false.
Never yet has religion receded before the advance of
true science, and religion, as you well say, has always
asserted the supernatural, the interposition of God
in human affairs, extra naturam. Always, too, has
it asserted the existence of good and bad angels,
and their intervention on the one hand by Divine
command, and on the other by Divine permission, in
the affairs of mankind. This belief of all ages is
itself a phenomenon to be explained, accounted for;
and you will find it impossible to explain it, or
account for it, without admitting its substantial




324            THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
truth. Men may err in supposing a supernatural or
superhuman intervention where none takes place,
and undoubtedly they have so erred time and again;
but they could not have so erred if they had not
already had the idea or belief of such interposition.
Whence comes that idea or belief? If that is false,
explain whence comes the general error before the
particular? A general d priori error is impossible.
All error is in the misapplication of truth. A general
error is nothing but a generalization by way of induction of particular errors, or misapplications of
truth to particulars. and is therefore necessarily subsequent to them.  If there were in reality no true
religion, there could be no false religion, as if there
were no genuine, there could be no counterfeit coin.
Always is the true prior to the false; and how then
could mankind come to assert a false supernatural
interposition, if they had no prior belief in a true
supernatural interposition, or believe in such an interposition, if no such interposition had ever taken
place?"
"But how will you clear this belief in Satanic
interposition from  the charge of superstition?" I
asked.
"Superstition, my friend, is a word oftener used,"
replied Mr. Merton, " than understood. The heathen
religions were all superstitions, I grant, because they
all ascribed effects to unreal or inadequate causes.
To believe in the existence of good and bad angels
is not superstition, if good and bad angels really ex



SUPERSTITION.               325
ist, any more than it is to believe in the existence of
men and women, horses or oxen. Where there is no
error, there is no superstition. Suppose a fairy really
to exist, there is no superstition in believing the fact.
Suppose the ministry of angels to be a fact, there is
nothing superstitious, unreasonable, or unscientific
in believing it, or in ascribing to that ministry real
effects. Suppose fallen angels or wicked spirits do
really exist, do really tempt us, and by Divine permission, do really besiege or possess us, there is no
superstition in believing it, in taking the proper precautions against them, or the proper measures to
disperse or expel them. If the real origin of the
phenomena we have been considering is diabolical,
nothing is more reasonable than to believe it; and
to ascribe them to natural causes, would be unscientific, and itself a sort of superstition.  Undoubtedly,
the spirit-rappers, or spiritualists, as they call themselves, are superstitious. What they call spiritualism is rank superstition, because they believe the
phenomena are produced by the shades or spirits of
the dead, and the word superstition was originally
used, I believe, to-imply a belief in, and a dread of,
the influence of the departed on the living; but to
ascribe them to fallen angels, if such they are, is no
superstition at all, for then they are ascribed to an
adequate cause, and to their real cause.
" There are two opposite errors," concluded Mr.
Merton, "both equally hostile to religion and to
good sense, —superstition and irreligion. Each is an
28




326           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
abuse, as the schoolmen say, art excess in a contrary
direction; and unhappily, the tendency of most men
is to one or the other. Nothing is more bertain than
that in every age much superstition has been connected with the doctrine I have contended for."
"That," said I, "is what makes me dread and
hesitate to accept it."
"I know," Mr. Merton replied,- " all that you would
say on that score. I have myself read history, and,
no less than you, been shocked by its abuses. But
there is no truth that cannot be or that has not been
abused. I am as much opposed to these abuses as
you are. It will not do to suppose that every event
a little out of the range of our ordinary experience,
is a miracle, or effected, if good, by Angelic, if bad,
by Satanic agency. Every time a murrain prevails
among the cattle, it will not do to ascribe it to sorcery, or when the butter will not come, to lay the
blame upon Robin Goodfellow. The tendency to
do so is undoubtedly a superstitious tendency. But
the contrary, or Sadducean tendency, to believe in
neither angel nor spirit, is even more dangerous. I
do not believe every tale of witchcraft I hear, and I
am slow to believe in actual Satanic invasion in any
particular case that may be alleged. The Church
has always asserted the possibility of such invasion,
but she does not permit a resort to exorcism on every
apparent instance of it. She demands previous consultation, long examination, and the judgment of
the most rigid science. While the greatest caution




SUPERSTITION.              327
should be exercised as to every case of supposed
actual Satanic invasion, we should guard equally
against running into the contrary error of denying
that such invasion ever takes place. An unreasonable scepticism is as far removed from true wisdom
and virtue, as an unreasonable belief. Modern science is sceptical; and it is more important just now
to guard against scepticism and its irreligion, than
it is to guard against superstition.
"Yet we deceive ourselves, if we suppose that
the scepticism of science has penetrated far into the
popular mind, even in our own country. Science
can never root out popular superstitions. While
the few laugh at the superstition of the vulgar, that
superstition, though modified perhaps as to its forms,
continues to thrive, and attains, not unfrequently,
even a more vigorous growth. The old popular superstitions, brought hither by our ancestors, still live
in the heart of the people, and in forms as gross and
as revolting as in the seventeenth century. Superstition is cured, not by a sceptical science, denying
altogether the spirit-world, but by religion, which,
while it recognizes that world, teaches us to draw
accurately the line of demarcation between genuine
and counterfeit spirit-manifestations.  The people
cannot live in absolute irreligion; and where they
have not religion, they will have superstition. The
tendency of modern science is to destroy all reli-d
gious faith, and therefore to promote, indirectly, the
very evil it proposes to cure,-the common, effect




328           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
of all unbaptized science, as of all unbaptized philanthropy."
" There is some truth in that, I must own," I remarked. " I know not why it is so, but every effort
made, although with the purest and best intentions
in the world, outside of Christianity, seem always to
fail, or to end only in aggravating the very evils
they were intended to cure. There is less real liberty
in France to-day than there was before the meeting
of the States-General in May, 1789. The revolutions which, during the last sixty or seventy years,
have so terribly raged on European soil, though
made in behalf of liberty or of popular representation, have resulted only in depriving each nation in
which they have taken place of its former too feeble
checks on power, and in rendering the monarchy
more absolute. The same may be said in principle
of all our efforts at philanthropic reform on a smaller
scale."
" Undoubtedly," replied Mr. Merton; "and the
reason is, that the glory of whatever is good is due
to God, and he will suffer no plans to succeed that
would rob him of his due. He has himself given us
his law, and provided us the means of salvation,
temporal and eternal; and whosoever seeks salvation
by any other means, or in contempt of that law,
must fail, and shamefully fail."




329
CHAPTER XXIII.
DIFFICULTIES.
" WHAT yOU say, Mr. Merton," said Jack, " may
be very plausible, but you will never convince me
that Almighty God, the loving Father of us all,
would ever permit his children to be exposed to Satanic invasion. It would impeach either his wisdom
and love, or his power."
" Why more than his permission of the same
vexations and afflictions by any other agency?"
asked Mr. Merton, very quietly. " The facts, the
phenomena themselves are undeniable, and must be
produced by some agency, and by Divine permission
too. While they remain the same, I cannot see
how their production by Satan, any more than their
production by some other created or secondary cause:
is incompatible with the Divine perfection."
"I do not pretend to be able todsay how that is,"
replied Jack, " but I will never believe that God will
allow the devil, or any other being subject to his
power, to have such influence over the children he
loves. It is contrary to common sense. It is nonsense, absurdity, blasphemy."
"I am very much of Jack's opinion," interposed
28 *




330            THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
Dr. Corning, who had for a long time ceased to take
any part in our conversations. " If there is a God, a
God who is Lord Omnipotent, the devil, if devil
there be, must be subject to him, and unable to do
any thing without his permission. Can any reasonable man believe that God would permit the
devil to harass and afflict, besiege and possess his
children? Would a human father permit, if he could
help it, an enemy to exercise a corresponding power
over his own offspring? God is love, and love
worketh no ill, and, as far as in its power to prevent,
suffers no ill to be worked to any one."
"All that," replied Mr. Merton, "would be very
conclusive, if the facts or phenomena did not exist to
give it a flat denial. Here are the facts, and whatever origin you assign them, they remain, in themselves considered, the same. You assign insanity as
their origin. Be it so. But would a God who is
love, who is wisdom, who is omnipotence, suffer his
children to be afflicted with so grievous a disease as
insanity, one so terrible and so humiliating in its
effects? Insanity must be subject to his dominion;
and why then does he suffer any one to become insane?"
"'Many of these facts, as you call them, are the
result of mere jugglery and sheer imposture," answered the Doctor, " and do not deserve a moment's
consideration." 
"Be it so," replied Mr. Merton. "But how can
God permit such-jugglery and imposture?"




DIFFICULTIES.            331
" They are the works of man, and the results of
evil passions," promptly replied Dr. Corning.
"Very good," said Mr. Merton; "but whence
these evil passions? and how can God, consistently
with his perfections, permit them to produce such
pernicious effects?  You see, my dear Doctor, turn
which way you will, take what ground you please,
your argument can always be retorted. As far as,
the Divine perfection is concerned, it makes no
difference, since the facts really exist, whether you
ascribe them to Satanic invasion or to insanity, to
the evil passions of man, or to the elemental forces
or inherent laws of nature; for, on any of these
suppositions, you ascribe them to a created cause,
dependent on God as first cause for its very existence, and therefore a cause that cannot'operate
without his permission. The whole question resolves
itself into the old question, then, of the origin of evil.
Evil certainly could not exist without the permission
of God; and yet you yourself concede that evil does
exist. How can God, consistently with his perfections, permit it? This is the question; and, if he
oan permit it at all, he can as well permit it when
produced by one agent, as when produced by another."
" But that," said Dr. Corning, "is a question for
you to answer, as well as for me."
"Not in the case before qs," rejoined AIr. Merton,
"because your objection concedes the existence of
evil, and only denies it as the work of a particular




332           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
agent. But let that pass. I can answer the question only in the light of Christian theology. According to that theology, there is no real evil but
sin; and sin is always voluntary on the part of the
sinner. God chose to create men and angels free
moral agents, that they might be capaible of virtue,
and of meriting the rewards of obedience. He could
not so create us without making us capable of abusing our freedom, for obedience is not and cannot be
meritorious where there is no power of disobedience,
as disobedience is not culpable where there is no
power of obedience. Hence the saints in heaven,
having no longer the power of disobedience, do not
merit by their obedience, and simply enjoy the rewards of their obedience in their state of probation
on earth. If any do not obtain the rewards of obedience, the fault is their own, and they have no one
to blame but themselves. Their failure is voluntary; they fail only because they choose to fail.
"In regard to the Satanic vexations," continued
Mr. Merton, " we must bear in mind that Satan has
no power to harm us -not even a hair of our head -
against our free will or deliberate assent.  It is
always in our power to resist him, and even to turn
his machinations and vexations against him, and to
make them occasions of merit.'Count it all joy,
my brethren,' says the blessed Apostle St. James,'when ye fall into divers temptations,' that is, trials
and afflictions. The evil is not in the temptation
even to sin, but in the free, voluntary assent; it is




DIFFICULTIES.             333
not in the vexations and afflictions, obsessions and
possessions, but in our voluntary abuse of them, or
failure to turn them to a good account. God suffers
no one to be tempted or tried or harassed beyond
what he can bear. Always is his grace sufficient
for all straits. Always stands firm his promise,' My
grace is sufficient for thee;' and this sustains and
coilsoles us in the midst of our greatest distress, our
severest trials, and our most perfect abandonment.
We may always, if we will, come forth from the
furnace of affliction purified as gold tried in the fire.
It depends on our own free will whether the vexations of Satan shall do its good or harm. If we
choose, we can always prevent his wiles from doing
us evil, and derive profit from his malice. This is a
sufficient answer to the objection drawn from the
perfection of God. It is no impeachment of Divine
Love to let loose an enemy against us for our good,
or to. give us an opportunity to acquire merit, any
more than it is to Divine Justice to permit an enemy
to harass us as a punishment for our sins. Satanic
temptations and invasions are sometimes permitted
for the one purpose, and sometimes for the other,
and in either case are perfectly compatible with the
attributes of God."
"I think I can understand that," I remarked, " and
I think also I can see in it a manifestation of Divine
love. God, in permitting these vexations against
the wicked, manifests his justice; but in permitting
them against the good, he manifests his love, and




334           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
turns the malice of Satan against himself. What
Satan intends shall work our ruin, by the grace of
God is made to work our higher perfection; and
thus God overcomes Satan by educing good from
evil."
"Undoubtedly," added Mr. Merton, " God often
permits Satan to afflict the faithful, to prove them, -
sometimes to humble them, to chastise their spiritual pride, and to become their occasion of rising
to a purer and loftier virtue; and in such cases we
may say he educes good from evil, and makes the
malice qf Satan redound to his own glory. In the
cases where he permits Satan to harass by way of
penalty, he equally makes the Satanic malice redound to his glory, for God's glory is no less interested, so to speak, in justice than in love. There is
no discrepancy between the Divine attributes; and
the manifestation of his justice is no less essential
to his glory, or the good of his creatures, than the
manifestation of his love or mercy. The beginning
of love is the love of justice, equity, right."
" But be that as it may," said Jack, " I have heard
it contended by theologians tlfat Satan has been
bound since the coming of Christ, and has no longer
any power, since Christ triumphed over him on the
cross, to besiege or to possess men, as it is supposed
he had before."
"I am not answerable," replied Mr. Merton, "for
what you may have heard theologians maintain. I
concede that our Lord, on his part, triumphed over




DIFFICULTIES.             335
Satan on the cross; I also concede, that since the
coming of our Lord, and the spread of Christianity,
the power of Satan has been greatly curtailed; but
I know no authority for saying that he does not
continue to go about'as a roaring lion, seeking
whom he may devour,' or that he has not power
still to besiege men, and literally take possession of
them. The Church, whether Catholic or Protestant,
has a form of exorcism, and continues to practise it.
The faithful are daily winning victories over him,
and if God gives them the grace of perseverance,
they will finally overcome him, and. obtain a triumph; but their warfare with him ceases not so long
as they remain in the flesh. Satan, it is true, has no
power to harm us against our deliberate consent,
and it is far easier to resist him now, than it was
before our Lord died on the cross, because grace is
more abundant; but still he may besiege and actually possess the holiest of men, the most devoted
followers of the Lord, at least so far as it is given to
men to judge. He cannot harm us without our own
fault; but he may vex, afflict, even possess us, without any blame on our part, as a man may become
sick, or even insane,'without any fault of his own.
"Out of the Christian society," continued Mr.
Merton, "where there are wanting the means which
Christians have to defend themselves against his
approaches, and to drive him away, his power is, no
doubt, far greater. Among Mahometans, and among
the pagan tribes of Asia, Africa, and America, inhabit.




336           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
ing a land which has, so to speak, never been baptized, or sprinkled with holy water, his power is still
very great; and, if we may credit the well-attested
reports of our missionaries, almost as great as ever.
He recovers his power, too, in Christian. nations in
proportion as they recede from the faith and piety of
the Gospel, and fall anew into heathenism."
"But there are some difficulties, under the point
of view of jurisprudence, in the way of your doctrine of Satanic invasion," interposed Jack. " Suppose a man possessed by a devil kills another, or
commits some act which the law regards as a crime,
is the man guilty, and to be punished?"
"' You are a lawyer," replied Mr. Merton, "and
nothing is more natural than that you should ask
that question. The difficulties you suggest, however, are no greater on the supposition of Satanic
invasion than on any other theory. They are the
same, whether we contend that the person is subjected by Satan or by mesmerism, by a primitive or
elemental force of nature, or by what some manigraphs call madness without delirium, or instinctive
insanity. The question turns on the fact whether
the man is involuntarily and completely subjugated,
or whether he retains the exercise of his free will;
or, in other words, whether the actions are really his,
or those of the power that oppresses or subjugates
him. For myself, I think our courts are beginning
to adopt a very dangerous doctrine with regard to
insanity, and are admitting the plea of insanity




DIFFICULTIES.:337
where it ought not to be entertained. In an Eastern city, not long since, it was gravely contended by
counsel, that a man must be held to be insane and
irresponsible, because his crimes were so aggravated.
Under this lies a dangerous principle, which, in its
development, will lead to the conclusion that all great
criminals are insane and irresponsible. But in regard to another class of cases, cases in which there
obviously is no inebriety, ill health, or delirium, and
yet in which the person seems to himself to be irresistibly urged by a foreign power, against his will,
to th'e commission of horrible acts, I think the law,
or the practice of the courts, is quite too severe. I
take a case cited to my hand by a respectable French
writer, that of a father who killed his young son.
The father was an honest, temperate, and industrious man, of a mild and affectionate disposition, and
it is clear that he loved his son with great tenderness.
"'The night in which I did the deed,' says the
unhappy father,'I was to agitated, that I trembled
in my whole body......  I am unable to conceive how I could commit a crime so atrocious. I
was so agitated, so troubled in my brain, and felt
something within me so irresistible, that I was
obliged to commit the deed. I was fasting. I was
not sick; and I am wholly unable to explain how it
was possible for me to do it. Twice before I had
had the horrible inclination to kill my child. The
first time was last winter, about six weeks before
29




338           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
Easter. I was at work making a sledge, and my
boy, as usual, was playing near me. In his playfulness, he climbed upon my back, and clasped me
round the neck. My wife, thinking he would hinder
me from working, called him away; but I loved him
so much, that I patiently endured all his frolicsome
tricks. I took him upon my knees to play with
him, and in that very moment I thought I heard a
voice within me, saying,' You cannot help it. Your
child must die, and you must kill him.' I was
startled, seized with fear, my heart palpitated, and
I instantly set him down, rushed out of the room,
and went to the mill, where I stayed till nightfall,
till my evil thought passed away.
"' The second time was one morning a few days
before Easter. My wife was busy with the affairs
of the house, and I was lying on the bed, with my
child near me. He asked me for some bread, and I
gave him a cake, which he eat with great pleasure.
At that moment, as I was watching him with tender
affection, I thought I heard again a voice within me,
saying, in a low tone,' You must kill him.' I shuddered at myself, experienced violent palpitations, and
felt a heavy oppression within my breast.' I instantly
jumped from the bed, and ran out of the house. I
began saying my prayers, went to the stable, and
busied myself with various labors, and did all in my
power to drive away the evil thoughts that beset
me. I finally succeeded, but not till midday, in regaining the mastery of myself, and in recovering my




DIFFICULTIES.              339
tranquillity. In neither of these cases was I drunk,
or had been for many weeks previous; nor was I at
the third access, when I took the life of my child.'*;' Now here was a man who was not sick, who
was not in liquor, who was not delirious, who was
evidently a mild and loving father, and who yet, in
consequence of an impression, killed his child, whom
evidently he loved with all a father's fondness.
This man the courts condemn as a horrid murderer."
" And why not?" said Jack. "It is evident his
free will remained. Twice he resisted the temptation, and regained the mastery of himself; and
nothing proves that he might not have done so the
third time, if he had done his best."
"It is possible," replied Mr. Merton, "and therefore I do not say theI man was absolutely innocent.
But we see he did struggle against the evil thought,
and twice successfully; and he yielded even at last
only from an impression, all but irresistible at the
moment, and therefore he cannot be said to have
had the full possession of his freedom. In proportion
as his power of external resistance was diminished
by the impression, or the mysterious influence that
acted on him, was diminished his responsibility.
He who yields only to a powerful temptation, is less
guilty than he who does the same deed under only a
slight or feeble temptation. The courts should take
*Pneumatalogie des Esprits, p. 186 et seq.




340           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
cognizance of the strength of the impression under
which the man acts, and take into the account the
more or less resistance that was possible. If the
man succumbs only after a long and severe struggle,
that should go to mitigate his guilt.
"Dr. Cazeauvielh relates the case of a woman
who attempted to kill her infant sleeping in the
cradle.'I am,' said she to the doctor,'the most
miserable of beings. Never was anybody like me.
The other day I approached the cradle, and I looked
upon my darling. Fearing I should do him harm, I
went away to the house of my neighbor.  Then,
in spite of myself, I returned, for something seemed
to push me. I went near my infant, and attempted
to choke it with my hands, but my legs failed me,
and I became senseless.'  This woman, Dr. Cazeauvielh tells us, loved her relations and her child,
and her-intellectual faculties were not injured. It is
true he regards her as insane; but how can there be
insanity, with the full possession of the intellectual
faculties? She struggled against the something that
pushed her, and had a horror of the crime; the law
ought, therefore, to treat her with indulgence, yet it
does not, because there really is here no delirium.
In the middle ages, which you regard as so barbarous and cruel, she would not have been held responsible, because her act would have been explained
as the result of a foreign power, which for the time
being overcame her resistance, and pushed her to do
that for which she had a natural horror.




DIFFICULTIES.             341
"Yet a difference should no doubt be made between cases like these, where the unhappy person
commits a deed for which he has a natural horror,
and against which he struggles, and those in which
the criminal, so to speak, has a natural relish for his
crime, delights, and persists in it. Take the case of
Gilles Garnier, which occupied the attention of all
France in the reign of Louis the Thirteenth.'This
man-wolf,' (loup-garou,) says Bodin,' carried away
a girl from ten to twelve years of age, killed her
with his hands and teeth, and eat the flesh from her
thighs and arms. Some time afterwards he strangled
a boy ten. years old, and eat his flesh. Still later he
killed another boy, from twelve to thirteen, with the
intention of eating him, but was prevented.' He
was arrested, convicted, and burnt alive. There was
here no insanity; the horrid deeds were all avowed
with the minutest circumstances, the intention was
express, and the crime was repeated and persisted
in. I cannot regard this monster as innocent, for I
cannot discover that he resisted or struggled against
the diabolical impulse.
"1 Take the case of Leger, a recent case, related
by Dr. Cazeauvielh, from the monster's own confessions. He lived in a cave, and had an unnatural craving to feed on human flesh. One day he perceived
a little girl, ran to her, passed a handkerchief around
her body, threw her upon his back, plunged into
the woods and hastened to his cave, where he killed
and buried her. Arrested three days after, he im29 *




342            THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
mediately told his name, where he lived, and said
that having received a blow on his head, he had
left his country and his family. In his prison he
related how he had lived in caverns in the rocks.' Wretch,' said the physician to him,' you have eaten
the heart of this little girl. Confess the truth.' He
then answered in trembling,' Yes, I did so, but not
all at once.' After that he sought no longer to conceal his crimes, and with great coolness and indifference related a long series of horrible deeds which
he had committed. He revealed them, even to the
minutest particulars; he produced the proofs, and
pointed out to the court the place of the crime, and
the manner in which it had been consummated.
The judge had no need to question him, for he himself disclosed all of his own accord. On the trial,
his features wore a mild and placid aspect. lIe
seemed quite unconcerned and insensible, except
his face assumed an air of gayety and satisfaction
during the reading of the indictment. After about
half an hour's deliberation, the court rejected the
plea of insanity, and declared him guilty of homicide, with premeditation and lying in wait. He
heard his sentence with the same placid indifference,
and was executed a few days after. This seems to
me to prove that the middle ages were not more
severe than we are to-day."
" But Leger," said Dr. Corning, "was evidently a
madman. Georget is right in saying that he was a
madman, because none but a madman would say




DIFFICULTIES.             343
that he had been led to commit murder by a blind
and irresistible will."
" That might do to say, if we were certain of the
truth of the materialistic doctrines taught at Paris
some forty or fifty years ago, but which are now
generally rejected. Dr. Cazeauvielh, however, concedes that persons of this description, without being
deprived'by their madness of free will, are yet carried away, driven onward by an idea, by something
indefinable, which is precisely what theologians mean
by obsession. The court decided correctly, I think,
in rejecting the plea of insanity in the case of the
monster Leger, and in condemning him to death,
though evidently under Satanic influence when he
committed his horrible and disgusting crimes —
crimes which recall the Ghouls of the Arabian
Nights —because there was no struggle of the human person against the invading spirit.
" Satan can by Divine permission enter our bodies,
compel, as it were, the human person to stand aside,
and use our organs himself, and do whatever he
pleases with them; but he cannot annihilate the human person, or take from the soul free. will. Always
is it in the power of the possessed to resist, morally
and effectually, the evil intentions of the devil. The
possessed retains his own consciousness, his own intellectual and moral faculties unimpaired, and never
confounds himself with the spirit that possesses him.
Always, then, does he retain the power of internal
protest and struggle. Wherever this power is exer



344            THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
cised, and there is clearly a struggle, there is no
responsibility attaching to him, whatever the crimes
the body, through the possession of the devil, is
made to commit. But it may often happen that
this power to protest is not exercised, and the possessed yields his moral assent to the crimes committed by the demon that possesses him. He then
becomes a partaker of their guilt. Wherever it is
clear that he has not internally resisted, that he
has not struggled against the demon, and protested
against his iniquity, the law should punish him for
the crimes as severely as if there had been no possession at all. The error of modern jurisprudence is
that, not recognizing the fact of possession, it punishes alike both classes, or it lets off both under the
plea of insanity. In the latter case justice becomes
too lax, and the greater the criminal, the more enormous his crime, the less likely is he to be punished;
in the former case justice is too severe, and persons
really innocent, and meritorious even, are condemned
as the basest of criminals. The law in the middle
ages, or before the wonderful progress of intelligence
and humanity in modern times, distinguished between the two classes, and knew how to acquit the
innocent and to punish the guilty. Now the tendency is either to acquit or to condemn both indiscriminately."
Dr. Corning and Mr. Merton, after this, revived
their former discussion of the question of insanity;
but as nothing was really added on either side to




DIFFICULTIES.            345
what had been previously said, I do not think it
necessary to record their conversation. For myself,
it seemed to me that the question between the
theory which explains the phenomena by insanity,
and that which explains them by Satanic invasion,
is of immense practical importance. When the old
doctrine was rejected, the law became excessively
severe, and humanity was shocked. Philosophers
and philanthropists sought to mitigate it by asserting the doctrine of necessity, of materialism, of the
inherent goodness of the soul, and by ascribing all
misdeeds to external influences, to the action of nature, society, government, &c. In other words, they
sought to mitigate the law by denying all moral
turpitude.
But latterly the older doctrine of spiritualism, as
opposed to materialism, and of freedom as opposed
to necessity, has revived, and the old severity of the
law must return, unless some new way can be discovered of escaping it. This new way is the plea
of insanity. The tendency now is to make insanity
a plea for every crime of some little magnitude.
Our lunatic hospitals are crowded; new ones are
constructed, and no inconsiderable portion of our
population are likely to become their inmates. Physicians, carried away by their false science and
mistaken humanity, discard all the old criteria of
lunacy, and the courts, following them, will soon
find that all persons brought before them for trial
are insane and irresponsible. The guilty will go




346           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
unwhipt of justice, because no guilt will be recognized. If the phenomena in question are to be explained by insanity, I do not see what crime it will
not cover.
The subject deserves serious consideration. For
my part, I cannot recognize insanity where the person evidently retains his intellectual powers underanged or unimpaired, where he retains the faculty
of reasoning and judging correctly, however he may
be driven by foreign influences to this or that crime.
When he tells me that he was obliged by something
to do this or that, and that when he did it, it seemed
to him that it was not he, but some power impelling
him, I raise no question of insanity, but simply, as
Merton suggests we should, the question of internal
resistance, and measure him by the greater or less
energy and persistence of that-internal resistance.




347
CHAPTER XXIV.
LEFT IN THE LURCH.
THOUGH I remained an invalid, there were times
when I revived, and almost flattered myself that I
might yet, in spite of the prognostications of my
physician, recover. I was still comparatively young,
and I did not precisely like the thought of dying.
The simple pain of dying did, not affright me; nor
had I much reluctance to leave the world, where
there was little that had any charm for me. But I
could not help sending now and then uneasy glances
beyond the tomb. There might be a spirit-world
beyond, and death might not after all extinguish the
life of the soul. I might, perhaps, live in that unknown world, retain my personal identity, and distinct consciousness and memory. I might, too, at
least I could not say it was impossible, be punished
there for my sins in this world, and be condemned
to have for my companions those very devils whose
acquaintance I had so assiduously cultivated here.
That might not be pleasant. Indeed, I began to
have many painful reflections, and to ask myself if
I had not been all my life making a fool of myself.
I had been promised great things, but what had I
obtained?




348           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
" Your experience, my dear friend," said Mr. Merton, A" I doubt not, proves the truth of the old saying,
the devil always, sooner or later, leaves his followers
in the lurch. You remember, probably, I called the
morning after my introduction to you, to' give you
and Priscilla a warning as to what awaited you.
You were then too elated, too full of hope, to listen
to any thing I could say; at least, so it seemed to
me at the time."
" Yet you were mistaken. The few words you
said interested me much, and I wished at the time
to hear more."
" Alas! it is one of the miseries of the world, that
the wicked are much more active for mischief, than
the virtuous are for good. Would to God that the
followers of Christ had a tithe of.the industry and
energy of the followers of Satan. If I had been
more earnest, more ready to sacrifice my own ease
and my own pride, perhaps -.  But that is idle.
You will, I presume, readily concede now that you
were then laboring under a delusion, and indulged
hopes which have not been realized?"
"Undoubtedly."
" So it is. Satan never keeps his promises."
" I wish you to explain," said Jack, who that moment entered the room, -" I wish you to explain
how it is, if Satan is as powerful, and does as many
marvellous things as you pretend, that they who
give themselves up soul and body to him, always
fail at last. Your mighty sorcerers and magicians




LEFT IN THE LURCH.           349
always find their master failing them when it comes
to the pinch. Ninety-nine times the devil enables
the sorcerer to open the prison doors, to become invisible to the sight or impervious to -the sword of
his enemies, to overwhelm them, or to escape them
by flying away through the keyhole; but the hundredth time fails him, and leaves him to be captured,
to confess his crimes, and to be burnt. alive. According to all accounts, your witches are the most
miserable old hags one ever meets — wretched old
crones, living in the most abject poverty, and hardly
able to procure the food necessary to keep soul and
body together. The devil never comes when wanted,
never makes his appearance before competent and
credible witnesses. - He performs his wonders in the
dark; and when one would really prove the fact of
his presence, he is away, and nobody can get a
glimpse of him."
" And what else," replied Mr. Merton, " should be
expected of the devil? And yet I would not treat
your objection lightly, for it is one which has at
times raised doubts in my own mind, and it makes
me rather sceptical as to most of the tales of witchcraft, ghosts, and hobgoblins I hear or read of. But
you should bear in mind that the devils are capricious as well as malicious, or rather, their malice
itself is full of caprice. The devil, in all his invasions, seeks only to get himself worshipped, and to
ruin souls. When he has made a soul his slave,
made sure of its destruction in hell, his end is an30




350           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
swered. He is a liar from the beginning, and the
father of lies. He is the inveterate enemy of truth,
and if he sometimes tells it, it is because compelled
by a higher power; or if now and then, of his own
accord, it is only because it serves his purpose of
deception better than falsehood. If he sometimes
keeps his promises, and seems to db the best he can
for his slaves, it is for the same reason. Then, again,
he is not omnipotent, he is not the supreme Lord;
and however powerful he may be, there is One
mightier than he, who can thwart him when he
pleases. He can, as I often say, go only the length
of his chain. It may comport with the purposes of
God to suffer him to do many marvellous deeds, but
never to suffer him to do them so uniformly or in
such a manner that his victims shall not be able to
detect the impostor, and know, if they will, that it
is a foul and lying spirit they follow. Satan's delight is in deceiving, and he delights as much in
deceiving those already his slaves, as those he would
make such; and God so orders it, that his deceptions shall be discoverable by all not wilfully blind.
" The devil is called the prince of this world, but
he is not its absolute lord. He can even here do
only what he is. for the purposes of love or -justice,
permitted to do. It may turn out, then, that he is
forbidden to come to the assistance of his servants
in the nick of time, even when he himself is disposed to do so. He may raise the storm, but there
is. One asleep in the barlk, who can at any instant




LEFT IN THE LURCH.          351
awake, and say to the winds and the waves, Peace,
be still. It is not fitting that Satan should be able
to keep his promises in the great majority of cases
to the last, for that would leave too little chance of
detecting his delusions, and would confirm his worship. His failures prove his malice, and also that
his power is not his own, therefore that he is not
God. They serve, too, as punishments to his dupes,
for it is fitting that they who, through evil inclination and undue love of the world or of pleasure, trust
to him, should ultimately fail in the very goods promised.
"The principles of God's providence are always
and everywhere the same, and there is a close analogy between the natural and the supernatural. God
has given to the universe its law. He has placed
before man a real, substantial, and desirable good;
but he has made this good attainable pnly in one
way, by obedience to his law, which is not an arbitrary law, but a law founded in his own eternal
reason, in his own infinite, eternal, and immutable
justice. He who attempts to attain his good, his
beatitude, by any other means, invariably and inevitably fails. It is as our Lord said, —'I am the
door;' and'he that entereth not by the door, but
climbeth up another way, the same is a thief and a
robber.' Whoever seeks entrance into the fold of
happiness by another than the God-appointed way,
whatever that way may be, is predoomed to disappointment. All experience proves it. The depart



352           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
ure by the ancient Gentiles from the patriarchal or
primitive religion, led to the confusion of their understandings, and to the a'doption and practice of
the grossest and most abominable superstitions -the
extreme of moral or spiritual misery. The man who
seeks happiness, even in this life, from acquiring or
possessing riches and honor, always fails, even when
he apparently succeeds. The most miserable of men
are they who make pleasure their sole pursuit. The
reason is, that beatitude is not promised to those
pursuits, lies not on their plane, and is not attainable by following them. He who attempts to attain
it in any of those ways is no wiser than those philosophers of Laputa who sought to extract sunbeams
from cucumbers. It is only in accordance with the
same principle, that they who seek worldly felicity,
by consorting with devils, should in like manner be
disappointed."
"All that is very wise, and would do very well for
a sermon," said Jack. "It may, for aught I know,
be very true. I have no knowledge on the subject,
and no acquaintance with the devil or his angels.
But I wish you would tell me how it happens that
the witnesses to these marvellous phenomena are
seldom if ever men of real science, well known, and
of name in the scientific world? "
" I thought you were one of those who would not
admit authority even in matters of' faith, and yet
you demand authority in matters of science," replied
Mr. Merton, in a tone slightly sarcastic. " You




LEFT IN THE LURCH.          353
would have the French Academy, for instance, in
science what Rome claims to be in religion, and
admit a historical fact or a scientific conclusion only
on academic authority."
"But you know," replied Jack, "that scientific
commissions appointed to investigate and report on
particular cases in France, never succeed in getting
a sight of those marvellous facts which are so readily
exhibited to others. Is not this a suspicious circumstance? "
" Not in my mind," replied Mr. Merton. "Your
learned academicians generally commence their investigations with the persuasion that all facts of the
kind alleged are impossible, and they seldom pay
attention to the actual phenomena passing before
them. They are busy only with their scepticism,
and do not see what really takes place. Their study
is simply how to explain away the phenomena they
do see, without admitting their supernatural or superhuman character. Lawyers are said to be the
worst witnesses in the world. Academicians are the
very worst people in the world to observe facts. I
would trust, in what depends on the senses, a plain,
honest, unscientific peasant, much quicker than I
would an Arago or a Babinet, for he has no theory
to disturb him, no conclusion to establish or refute.
The science of all your learned academies is infidel
in regard to religion. Babinet, of the Institute, has
just written an Essay in the Revue des Deux Mondes,
in which he pronounces the phenomena alleged by
30 *




354            THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
our recent spiritists impossible, because they contradict the laws of gravitation. Poor man! he reasons
as if the phenomena repugnant to the laws of gravitation are supposed to be produced by it, or at'least
without a power that overcomes it. Why, the very
marvellousness of the phenomenon is that it is contrary to the law of gravitation; and because it is
contrary to the law of gravitation, wle infer that it is
preternatural.  The learned member of the Institute
argues that the fact is impossible, because it would
be preternatural, and the preternatural is impossible,
because the preternatural would be preternatural!
When I see a man raised, without any visible means,
to the ceiling, and held there by his feet with his
head downwards for half an hour or more without
a visible support, I do not pretend that it is in accordance with the law of gravitation, but the essence
of the fact is precisely in that it is not. Now, to
deny the fact for that reason, is to say that the law
of gravitation cannot be overcome or suspended,
and precisely to beg the question. When I throw a
stone into the air, my force, in some sense, overcomes that of gravitation. How does M. Babinet
know that there are not invisible powers who can
take a man and hold him up with his feet to the
ceiling, or a table, as easily as I can a little child?
The fact of the rising of a table or a man to the
ceiling is one that is easily verified by the senses,
and if attested by witnesses of ordinary capacity
and credibility, must be admitted. That it is con



LEFT IN THE LURCH.            355
trary to the law of gravitation, proves not that it is
impossible, but that it is possible only preternaturally. It would be a real relief to find a distinguished
academician who had learned practically the elements of logic.
" The devils, again," continued Mr. Merton, " may
not choose to exhibit their superhuman powers before your scientific commissions. It might be against
their interest. He is sure of the commissioners as
long as he can'keep them in their scepticism; but
were he to suffer them' to escape it, he might lose
them. Compelled to acknowledge the existence of
Satan, they might go further and acknowledge that
of Christ, and become Christians, and labor to harmonize science with faith. Even God himself may
choose to let them remain in their scepticism as a
just punishment of their intellectual pride, their indocility, and their preferring their own darkness to
his light. They take pleasure in sin, and he gives
them up to their own delusions, and permits them to
believe a lie, that they may be damned, as they deserve, for their sins. The malice, the cunning, the
astuteness, the caprice of the devils, the prepossessions of the scientific, and the purposes of God are
amply sufficient to account for the fact that these
commissions never succeed in witnessing the preternatural or superhuman phenomena said to be witnessed by others."," But how am I," asked Jack, " to believe that a
poor old crone, who is half dying of starvation, is




356            THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
in league with the devil? Why does she not make
use of her power to procure decent clothing and
maintenance? "
" The devil is by no means a trustworthy or a
kind and generous friend. He is a philanthropist,
and never relieves the suffering under his nose, or
cares for that of individuals.".
" I have read," Jack went on, " a great many witch
stories, and descriptions of witch feasts, and I cannot discover what there is in them to attach these
hell-cats to their alleged orgies. I came across, yesterday, an account of the witches' sabbath. I can
conceive nothing more absurd, ridiculous, or rather
disgusting. The acquaintances of the devil generally represent him as respectable at least for his
intellect, and many insist that he is a gentleman.
But if all accounts are true, he is very low and vulgar in his tastes, has very little sense of dignity, and
is in fact a very shabby fellow. In these orgies he
appears, it is said, sometimes in the form of a big
negro, more generally under the form of a black ram
with immense horns, and in that form is very indecently kissed and worshipped by Mesdames the
witches. We know from Tam O'Shanter that on
these occasions there is much fiddling and dancing,
but I cannot conceive how there can be much pleasure. The whole scene is fitted only to turn one's
stomach."
~ "There is no doubt of that," replied Mr. Merton.
"' The devil and his worshippers certainly cut a very




LEFT IN THE LURCH.          357
sorry figure in these nocturnal orgies, as they are
represented; but I am not certain that that should
be regarded as good ground of scepticism. I never
understood that the devil was a clean spirit, and I
should naturally expect some degree of filthiness in
his worshippers. You must know something of the
sins or moral diseases of mankind. Has it not
sometimes occurred to you that some apparently
very respectable people, - people who go well dressed
and wear clean linen, -under the influence of their
passions, acting out their natures, cut, to-an impartial spectator, about as sorry a figure as Master
Leonard and his witches? In the eyes of Infinite
Holiness, I am inclined to think there is much that
passes in refined and cultivated society that does
not -appear at all more clean and /respectable than
do these nocturnal orgies in yours. I do not vouch
for the correctness of the popular descriptions of
these orgies, but they are in accordance with the
well known principles of depraved nature. The indulgence of any of our morbid passions degrades
us; and in following our lusts, there is no beastliness which is not for the.moment charming to us.
How much more, then, when to our natural passions, rendered morbid by indulgence, is added the
superhuman influence of unclean spirits! The sensualist lives constantly in a state as disgusting as
ever the nocturnal orgies of witches were represented
to be. It is the law of all vice to descend, and consequently, the more intimate we are with the devil,




358           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
only the more rapid and deep is our descent. The
moral of the witches' orgies is true, whether the
particular descriptions be or not.  He who takes
the devil for God, must expect to have hell for his
heaven."
"The academicians are right," I remarked, "in
telling us that the whole of the alleged diablerie is
all a delusion or an imposition."
"Not precisely in their sense, however," interrupted Mr. Merton. " The whole is unquestionably
a delusion, a sheer imposture, but of the devil, not
always of man. The devil promises according to
the respective inclinations of his servants-to some
riches and honors, to some sensual pleasures, to
others power, dominion over men, and the secrets of
nature. I doubt not that he knows more than men,
but he can never be relied on, for he so mingles his
lies with the truth, that we cannot separate the one
from the other."
"That is true," I remarked;" and those secrets
he promises we never gain. We grow proud, we
assume airs, wev feel that we are making marvellous
discoveries; we talk large, use big swelling words,
and seem to penetrate the secret of the universe;
but we have only clutched at the air, and when we
open our hand, it is empty. We had made no advance, we had found no vein of knowledge; and
when the spell was broken, we found ourselves
weaker and more ignorant than ever. The fairy
gold was chips and stubble. The palace of wisdom




LEFT IN THEI LURCH.         359
we saw before us, and in which we proposed to live
with the Sultan's fair daughter, disappears, carries her
away in it, and leaves us only empty space. I well
remember some of my early aspirations. I thought
I was illurrined by a more than natural light. The
clouds rolled back before my searching glance; the
darkness disappeared; there was no dread Unknown
to confront me; I rose to the empyrean; I was all
intelligence; I looked, as a lady of my acquaintance expressed it,'into the very abyss of Being.'
Yet it was all illusion - a devilish illusion - and
my understanding was all the time darkened, and
my eyes closed to the plainest and most obvious
truths before me."
" It was a deception practised upon you- a deception practised alike upon all who would attain
to a forbidden knowledge, or to knowledge by ways
not permitted by the Supreme Intelligence - upon
the Neoplatonists, the Gnostics, the Transcendentalists, and false mystics of every age," added Mr. Merton. " The light we hail in those forbidden ways
or aspirations, is the light which we see when our
eyes are shut. It is a preternatural hallucination,
and he who follows it is sure not only to go astray,
but to fall into the greatest absurdities, and to utter
the most ridiculous nonsense."
"The same principle," I added, "is true with
regard to the promised power over men. These
Satanic revolutions, and the terrible doings of our
revolutionary Berserkirs, all prove failures in the




360           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
end. Cromwell supplants Hampden, and Napoleon Lafayette. The devil always leaves us in the
lurch."
"This fact should be borne in mind," added Mr.
Merton, "and if so, might save the world from much
superstition. The superstition is not in believing in
the reality of demonic invasions, or in believing that
the devil sometimes exhibits a superhuman power,
tells us, in dreams, visions, necromancy, or other
forms of divination, facts of which we were ignorant; but in practising these forms, in confiding in
the communications, and in seeking to avail ourselves of the power displayed. No reliance can ever
be placed upon them, for supposing the demonic
presence real, we have still only a lying spirit on
which to depend.  The dream of yesternight has
come true, that of to-night will prove false. The
medium you consulted the other day foretold correctly what was to happen; to-day her familiar spirit
is a lying spirit, and her tale is false in all its parts.
The predictions of the fortune-teller last year have
been fulfilled; his predictions of to-day are a tissue
of lies. If Ahab goes up to battle, he shall not die;
yet is shot by a bow drawn at a venture. To trust
in these things is gross superstition, and tends only
to degrade, to render immoral, weak, timid, and
miserable. The way of wisdom is to let them alone,
turn your back on them, and never suffer your mind
or imagination to run on them."
"It is worthy of remark, that the men who de



LEFT IN THE LURCH.          361
claim the most against superstition are unbelievers
in Christianity, and who, under pretext of making
war on superstition, attack religion itself. And yet
the Church has always forbidden all superstitious
practices, and she commands her children to have
no dealings with the devil, to forbear all resort to
fortune-tellers or divination, and to pay no attention
to dreams, omens, &c. Of course all such things
are wrong, are sin, are treason against God; but
they are also, and because treason against God, and
a dealing with the enemy, unwise and degrading.
There is no saying to what depths he may fall who
gives way to them, or the misery and wretchedness
he may bring upon himself, and even upon those
dear to him. I could, were I disposed, draw proofs
enough from my own experience, while I was a prey
to the superstitions still so rife in our country; but
I will not trouble you with them. But of this be
sure, that you will never root out that superstition
by denying, the existence and influefice of demons.
The- remedy is in religious faith, in cultivating a
firm trust in God, in obedience to his commands,
and in the firm persuasion that all dealings with
devils is unlawful, and that all regard paid to signs,
dreams, and omens is superstitious and sinful, and,
what will weigh perhaps still more with our age,
wholly unprofitable. No good can come from seeking knowledge by forbidden paths, and much evil is
sure to come."
" I am glad," said Jack, " that Mr. Merton has the
31




362            THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
grace to admit so much. It would have been a
blessed thing for me, if I had been taught to regard
mesmerism as unlawful; better still, if it had never
been recommended to me as a legitimate science.
I do not believe in Satanic invasions; but I do believe little good comes from departing from the old
ways, and attempting to be wiser than our fathers
were."




363
CHAPTER XXV.
CONCLUSIONS.
OUR conversations were continued, but they threw
no additional light on the main subject of our investigations, and I may well dispense myself from
the labor of recording them. I found my early suspicion confirmed, and finally adopted Mr. Merton's
conclusion, that the class of phenomena which had
for several years occupied my attention, and to
which, according to the spiritists themselves, the recent spirit-manifestations belong, are real, are facts
which actually take place, and are, under certain
relations and to a certain extent, superhuman in
their origin and character. As these phenomena
cannot be ascribed to God or to good angels, they
must be ascribed to Satan, to evil spirits, the enemies
of God and man.
I am well aware that this conclusion will be received by my brother savans with great derision,
and that they will look upon me as having lost my
wits. Even many who are not savans, who are sincere and firm believers in Christianity, and who, in
a general way, admit the fact of Satanic invasion,
will laugh at the supposition that the phenomena of




364            THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
spirit-rapping, table-turning, &c., are any thing more
than very bungling pieces of humbuggery and sleightof-hand. Be it so. Their good or bad opinion, their
esteem or contempt, is of very little importance to
me, who have not many days to live, and who have
so soon to face another and a far different Judge.
He who fears God, cannot fear man. My conclusion has not been hastily adopted, and it is, as far as
I can see, the only conclusion to which a Christian
philosopher can come.
Mr. Cotton had preserved, what so many have
lost, the Christian tradition as to evil spirits, and
was right in the main. His error was in ascribing
all the phenomena exhibited by the practice of mesmerism to the devil and his angels. Mesmerism,
though abnormal, is to a certain extent susceptible
of a satisfactory explanation on natural principles.
Man, as Mr. Merton, after the elder GiJrres, maintained, has a twofold development, the one normal,
in which he rises to spiritual freedom by union with
God, the other abnormal, in which he descends to
spiritual slavery by descending to union with created
nature. In the former he tends continually to escape
from the fatalism of nature, and to ascend to the
pure and serene atmosphere of spiritual freedom, in
which the spirit becomes supreme over the body.
In the latter he follows the laws of fatal or unfree
nature, loses his spiritual dominion, becomes, or
tends to become, subject in his soul to his body,
while the body falls under the operation of the gene



CONCLUSIONS.                    365
ral forces of necessary nature, and responds fatally,
or without freedom, to the pulses of the external
universe.
In the ascending development, by the aid of grace
and good angels, the man, the Christian mystic, like
St. Catharine, St. Theresa, or St. Bernardine of
Sienna, and so many others of the saints of the
Church, rises to spiritual freedom, and even to a
certain extent, liberates the body from the fatalism
of nature. The body itself seems to enter into the
freedom of the spirit, and, through the free soul
informing it,- to be able to resist the action of necessary or unfree nature, as the vital principle enables
the living body to resist and overcome the action of
chemical affinity. The body is as it were spiritualized, not absolutely indeed, but partially, as if in
anticipation of the resurrection, or rather, as pointing to a resurrection and its glorious transformation
hereafter. It is baptized, participates, if I may so
say, in the sanctifying grace infused into the soul,
becomes pure, and even when the soul leaves it,
emits a fragrant odor.*
In the descending development, that is, in the
* I do not forget here, nor do I intend to assert any thing against
the doctrine of the Holy Council of Trent, that concupiscence remains
after baptism, for the combat, or that the fomes of sin remain, and
that as long as one lives there is the possibility of sin. The body, in
this life, is never wholly liberated and restored to its integral state;
but that it is liberated in some measure, and that it in the saints, (in
some saints at least,) in a degree participates, even this side the grave,
in the freedom of the soul, I think is undeniable.
31*




366           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
abnormal development, in which we turn our backs
on our Maker, who is at once our Original and End,
our Creator and our Supreme Good, and tend in the
direction from him, our soul lets go its mastery, and
our body falls under the dominion of unfree nature,
enters into the series of its laws, and is exposed to
all its necessary and invincible forces. We become
not merely sensual, but, in some sense, physical men,
and act under and with the great physical agents of
the universe. We become feeble and strong as the
lightning whose bolt rends the oak, and is turned
aside by a silken thread. Now to this abnormal development, mesmerism, in my judgment, belongs;
and therefore, though abnormal, it is not necessarily
preternatural.  It belongs not to healthy but unhealthy nature, and its phenomena are never exhibited except in a subject naturally or artificially
diseased. I have never known a person of vigorous
constitution and robust health mesmerized. The experiments of Baron Reichenbach were all made on
persons in ill health, for the most part on patients
under medical treatment. The seeress of Provost
was sickly, and suffering from an incurable malady;
and it may be asserted as a general rule, that no one
is a subject of mesmerism whose constitution, especially the nervous constitution, is in its normal state.
I have no doubt that many of the phenomena
regarded by the vulgar as the effect of Satanic invasion, are to be explained by reference to this abnormal development, without the supposition of any




CONCLUSIONS.             367
direct agency of evil spirits. The precise limits of
the power of this abnormal development we do not
know, and therefore we are always to be exceedingly
slow to assume the direct invasion of the devil to
explain this or that extraordinary phenomenon, as
Mr. Merton has already explained. The error of
Mr. Cotton was in not distinguishing between abnormal phenomena artificially produced, and the
phenomena of real demonic presence. He asked too
much of us, and we gave him nothing. He failed
to command from us the respect he deserved, and I
am sorry for it. He was a worthy man in his way,
and far less superstitious, and far more philosophical than those who thought it a mark of their superiority to ridicule him. But he is gone, and has
in his own denomination left few behind who are
worthy to step into his shoes.
Nevertheless, it would be wrong to infer, from the
fact that the proper mesmeric phenomena are explicable on natural principles, that the practice of mesmerism is lawful or not dangerous. It is an artificial
disease, and injurious to the physical constitution.
It moreover facilitates the Satanic invasion. Satan has no creative power, and can operate only on
a nature created to his hands, and in accordance
with conditions of which he has not the sovereign
control. Ordinarily, he can invade our bodies only
as they are in an abnormal state, and by availing
himself of some natural force, it may be some fluid,
or some invisible and imponderable agent like elec



368           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
tricity, or what Baron Reichenbach calls od, and
Mesmer animal magnetism, and the older magnetists called spirit of the world. The practice of mesmerism brings into play this force, and thus gives
occasion to the devil, or exposes us to his malice
and invasions.
But, though it is unwise, as well as unscientific,'to ascribe to Satan what is explicable on natural
principles, the contrary error is the one which in our
times is the most necessary to be guarded against.
Nothing is more unphilosophical than to treat the
dark facts of human history as unreal, or to attempt
to explain them all without resort to demonic influence. Many of the facts recorded, no doubt, never
took place. Many were the result of fraud, imposture, jugglery, and many are explicable by reference
to the abnormal development of human nature; but
after making all reasonable deductions for these,
there remains a residuum, as Mr. Merton has said,
which it is as absurd to attempt to explain without
the action of evil spirits, as to explain the light of
day without the sun, or the existence and preservation of the universe without God. Not otherwise
can you ever succeed in explaining the introduction,
establishment, persistence, and power of the various
cruel, filthy, and revolting superstitions of the ancient heathen world, or of pagan nations in modern
times. No genuine philosopher will attempt to explain them on natural principles alone.
They reveal a more than human power, and we




CONCLUSIONS.             369
have no alternative but to ascribe them either to
God or to the devil. We cannot ascribe them to
God, for they were too foul and filthy, too deleterious
in their effects, too' debasing and enslaving in their
influence, to be ascribed to a good source. They
were, then, from Satan, operating upon man's morbid nature, and permitted by Infinite Justice as a
deserved punishment upon the Gentiles for their
hatred of truth, and their apostasy from the primitive religion. Men left to themselves, to human
nature alone, however low they might be prone to
descend, never could descend so low as to worship
wood and stone, four-footed beasts, and creeping
things. To do this needs Satanic delusion.
The same must be said of Mahometanism. The
old theory, which made Mahomet an out-and-out
impostor, who said, deliberately, "with malice aforethought," " Go to now, let us make a new religion
and impose it upon the world," no man, accustomed to philosophize, can for a moment entertain.
No man ever yet went to work deliberately to devise
and impose a false religion, or if any one ever did,
he never succeeded. He who founds a new religion
is never an impostor in his own eyes. He works
" in a sad sincerity," and imposes on himself before
imposing on others. Mahomet evidently believed
in himself, in the sanctity of his own mission, and
worked from an earnest conviction, not from simple
craft or calculation. I am pleased to find the author
of that admirable poem, Mohammed, a Tragedy in




370            THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
Five Acts, a work of rare sagacity and true poetic
genius, rejecting the old theory of downright imposture. The estimable author maintains that he was
sincere in part, and in part insincere. He was sincere in his assertion of the unity of God, and in his
hostility to idolatry, but insincere in the assertion of
his prophetic mission. I am not, however, satisfied
with this. I do not deny that men may be half sincere, and half knavish, or that they be sincere and
earnest as to the end, and wholly unscrupulous as
to the means. But in nothing was Mahomet more
sincere than in his belief in his own mission, and in
the supernatural origin of the Koran. Never, without that conviction, could he have inspired his followers with it, or have himself persevered for so
many years, amid the ill success and discouragements that he experienced. His gratitude, evidently
unfeigned, to Cadijah, his first consort, and to Medina, which received him on his flight from Mecca,
cherished to the last moment of his life, proves that
he believed in his own mission.
The same thing is proved by his open vice and profligacy after his success. A man conscious that he is
playing a part, that he has a character to sustain,
that he is acting the prophet, would have been more
circumspect, more wary in the indulgence of his
lusts, and affected a life of more rigid asceticism. He
would have been on his guard against scandalizing
his followers, and would never have dared insert in
his Koran those scandalous provisions which spe



CONCLUSIONS.             371
cially exempt him from obedience to the laws which
he professed, by Divine authority, to impose upon
his followers. Imposture can never afford to abandon itself openly to the empire of the passions.
Heretics are usually more careful than the orthodox
in regard to appearances. They usually affect great
purity of life, a decorous exterior, and a grave and
sanctimonious face and tone. Hypocrisy is austere,
maintains in its look and tone an awful gravity, and
never relaxes in public. It is only innocence that
dares be light and frolicsome, and yield to its varying impulses. Nobody is so shocked with the imaginary impurities of Convents and Nunneries as
your debauched old sinners, steeped in corruption,
and the miserable slaves of their own morbid passions and prurient imagination.
What deceives the excellent and gifted author
of the Tragedy, is the fact that so far as Mahomet
asserted the unity of God against the polytheism
of the unconverted Arabs, and opposed idolatry,
he was on the side of truth and religion, and consequently was so far opposed to Satan. He thinks
that thus far he could not have been under the influence of an evil spirit. Has he forgotten the demon
of Socrates? Has he forgotten that the devil can
disguise himself as an angel of light? Paganism,
in its old form, was doomed. Christianity had silenced the oracles and driven the devils back to hell.
How was the devil to reestablish his worship on
earth, and carry on his war against the son of God?




372           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
Evidently only by changing his tactics, and ttrning
the truth into a lie. There is nothing to hinder us
from believing that Satan himself taught Mahomet
the unity of God, and inspired him with horror of
the prevailing forms of idolatry. The strong keeps
the house, as our Lord says, till a stronger binds
him and enters into possession. The devil would expel polytheism and the grosser forms of idolatry, no
longer in harmony with the gpirit of the times, that
he might make the last state worse than the first;
and whoever has studied history knows that Mahometanism has proved a far more formidable enemy to Christianity than was the paganism braved by
the Apostles. The truths of the Koran are introduced only to sanction its errors, and its moral
precepts, many of which are good, only to give
countenance to its immorality, to its Satanic abominations.
Mahomet in his life was subject to what we call
in these days the mesmeric trance, as was Socrates.
He would often be suddenly arrested, fall prostrate
upon the earth, and in this attitude and in these
trances he professed to receive his revelations. Here
are evidently the mesmeric phenomena which in
some form always accompany the presence and invasion of demons. Mr. Miles has introduced these,
and described them with great spirit, truth, and propriety, in the opening scene of his tragedy. The
time is the night of Al Kadir, the place is the Cave
of Hara, three miles from Mecca, where Mahomet




CONCLUSIONS.                      373
was accustomed to resort and spend much time
alone. Mahomrnet is seen prostrate upon the slope
of a rock, resembling a rude pedestal, his face concealed by his turban. He is visited by Cadijah, his
affectionate and beloved wife. To her he seems
asleep.  She calls him, she approaches him, she embraces him, and tries to awaken him. All in vain.
Finding her efforts fruitless, she exclaims,; Alas, this is not sleep! Some evil spirit
O'ershadows thee."
When finally the vision departs, and Mahomet
awakes, he breaks out,
" Gone! gone! celestial messenger,
Angel of light!..... Yes-'twas there-'twas there
The angel stood, in more than mortal splendor,
Before my dazzled vision! —I have heard thee,
Ambassador from Allah to my soul,
Have heard and will obey."
To  the question  of Cadijah, "What mystery is
this?" he answers,
" Ah! the tremendous recollection bursts
So vividly upon me, that my.tongue
Grows cold and speechless. I was here alone,
Expecting thee, when, suddenly, I heard
My name pronounced, with voice more musical
Than Peri warbling in my ear.
Ravish'd, I turned, and saw upon that rock,
Resplendent hovering there, an angel form;
I knew'twas Gabriel, Allah's messenger.
32




374                THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
Celestial glories compassedhim around;
Arched o'er his splendid head, his glistening wings
Shed light, and musk, and melody. No more
I saw — no more my mortal eye could bear.
Prone on myface Ifell, and, from the dust,
Besought him quench his superhuman radiance.' Look up,' he said; I stole a trembling glance;
And then, a beauteous youth, he stood and smiled.
Then, as his ruby lips unclosed, I heard-' Go teach what mortals know not yet, - THIERE IS
No GOD BUT ONE-MOHAMMEID IS HIS PROPHET!'
E'en as he spoke, his mantling glories burst
With such transporting brightness, that, o'erawed,
I sunk in dizzy trance, which still might thrall
My inmost soul, had not those impious names.
Breathing of hell, dispelled it."'
Here are presented, very clearly, the phenomena
which precede or accompany the demonic approach
and invasion.  When the false god took possession
of Balaam, he threw him to the earth; and it was
in a sort of somnambulic state that he prophesied,
or rather that the demon in him was compelled,
against his will, to bless instead of cursing Israel,
and to prophesy his glory.  "There is no God but
one," in the sense intended by Mahomet, and understood by his followers, is by no means a truth, for
in  that sense, it denies not merely polytheism, but
was intended more especially to deny the Christian
doctrine of the Trinity. The Koran repeatedly so
explains it, and therefore the unity of God, as taught
by the false prophet, is not a truth but a lie, and the
llohammzed, a Tragedy in Five Acts.  By George H. Miles.
Boston, 1850, pp. 1 -6.




CONCLUSIONS.              375
Mahometans worship not the true God, but a false
god, as do all who deny that God is at once three
distinct persons in one Divine Essence or Being.
Nothing is less philosophical than the tendency in
modern times, especially since the time of Voltaire,
to explain great effects by petty causes, as the peace
of Utrecht by Mrs. Masham's spilling a little water
on the Duchess of Marlborough's dress. The stream
cannot rise higher than the fountain, or the effect
exceed the cause. A little fire can kindle a great
matter, but that little fire is the occasion, not the
cause of the wide-spread conflagration. Nothing
more surely indicates a narrow, superficial, and unphilosophical spirit than the attempt, as is the case
with most writers, to explain the origin, progress,
and power of Mahometanism by the fanaticism, the
cunning, the craft, or the superior genius and ability
of Mahomet, even though we suppose him aided by
a Jew and a Nestorian monk. There were fraud,
craft, trickery, and all the means of imposition employed; yet never can they suffice alone to account
for the terrible phenomena of Islamism, which for
twelve hundred years has waged battle with the
cross, and possessed itself of the fairest regions of
the globe. Whoever studies it calmly and profoundly must come to the conclusion that there has
been at work in it a more than human power, and
that, if not, as the Moslems believe, from God, it
must be from the devil.
Do not ascribe so much to mere human power,




376            THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
wisdom, craft, fraud, dexterity, or skill. These are
far feebler than it is customary in our days to regard
them. In general men are duped themselves before
they undertake to dupe others. Never yet was there
a noted heresiarch who did not believe in his own
heresy, and hence there is no instance on record of
a real heresiarch, the originator and founder of a
new heresy, being reclaimed to the orthodox faith,
unless we except the doubtful case of Berengarius.
I have never been able to sympathize with those
Catholic writers who would persuade us that the
Protestant Reformation originated in petty jealousies and rivalries between the Dominican and Augustinian monks.  That view is too narrow and
superficial; nor can we ascribe it to the pride, the
vanity, and the ambition, or the intelligence, the
virtue, the wisdom, and the sanctity of the monk
Luther. Luther was a man terribly in earnest, a
genuine man, and no sham, as Carlyle would say;
and so were all the prominent chiefs in that terrible movement of the sixteenth century. The cool,
subtle, dark, persevering Calvin, the fiery, energetic,
and ferocious John Knox and their compeers were
no petty tricksters, no dilettanti, no shrewd calculating hypocrites.' They were terribly in earnest;
they believed in themselves; they believed in the
spirit that moved them, that spoke in their words,
and struck in their blows against the old Papal
edifice. It is nonsense to repeat, age after age,
that the denial by the Holy See of the divorce so



CONCLUSIONS.              377
licited by Henry the Eighth, caused the separation
of England from Catholic unity. That wily and
lustful monarch, who must live in history as the
" wife-slayer," found in that denial only an occasion
of withdrawing his kingdom from its spiritual subjection to Rome, and of uniting in the crown the
pontifical with the royal authority. Whoever looks
beneath the surface of things, whoever studies, in
a truly philosophical spirit, that fearful Protestant movement, must recognize in it a superhuman power, and say that either the finger of God,
or the hand of the devil is here, and that its chiefs
must have been inspired by the Holy Ghost, or
driven onward by infuriated demons.
So, it seems to me, we must reason with regard
to Cromwell and the stern old Puritans, fierce and
terrible as the old Berserkirs from the North. There
was something superhuman in the English rebellion
and revolution of the seventeenth century; and if
Cromwell and his party were not specially moved
by the Holy Spirit, as they believed, they must have
been animated and driven on by the old Norse demon. So also of the old French Revolution, and
of all those terrible convulsions which have ruined
nations and shaken the world. Men are indeed in
them, with their wisdom and their folly, their beliefs
and their doubts, their virtues and their vices, but
there is more in them than these. There is in them
the fierce conflict of invisible powers, ever renewing and carrying on that fierce and unrelenting wrar
32 *




378           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
which Lucifer and his rebel host dared wage against
the Most High, and which must continue till time
be no more. All history, if we did but understand
it, is little else but the history of the conflict between
these invisible powers; and till we learn this fact, in
vain shall we pride ourselves on our philosophies of
History.
Carlyle has well exposed the shallow philosophy
and absurd theories of our popular historians. Would
he had himself gone deeper, and recognized the demonic and also the providential element in history,
and not have attempted to explain its philosophy on
human nature alone. Your Odins, Thors, Socrateses, Mahomets, Cromnwells, Bonapartes, are not
simply exponents of true, living, energetic manhood,
and owe not their success, or their place in history
to their clear perception and their instinctive adherence to the laws of true and genuine nature, as
Carlyle would have us believe. The nature he bids
us worship is the devil, the dark, subterranean Demon, that seizes us, blinds our eyes, and carries us
onward, whither we know not, and by a power
which we are not. It is the demon of the storm,
the whirlwind, and the tempest, the volcano and the
earthquake, and the Carlylean heroes are energumenes, Berserkirs, who spread devastation around
them, who quaff the blood of their enemies, from
human skulls, in the orgies of Valhalla, and leave as
their monuments the ruins of nations. Carlyle has
himself been touched with a German devil, and re



CONCLUSIONS.              379
ceived a slight manipulation from  the old Norse
demon. But he has done well to say, " No sham
can live;" he might have added, No sham is or can
be productive. It is not by petty passions and petty
tricks that nations are shaken to their centre, and
fearful revolutions, which change the face of the
world, are effected. Only what is real is, and only
what is, can do. Under all the heavings and tossings
of nature, there is a reality of some sort; and only
by means of that reality can you explain the historical phenomena that arrest your attention.
I have just been reading, in order to relieve my
weariness, Sir Walter Scott's Woodstock, not surely
one of his best, but one of his most serious novels, in
which he has endeavored to be something of the philosopher, as well as the unrivalled romancer. Poor
man! wizard of the north, as he has been called,
his magician's wand fails him here. How was he,
with the shallow philosophy of the eighteenth century, to explain such a phenomenon as Cromwell and
his Major Generals, those furious Berserkirs, true
descendants of the old Vikings of the North? To
say that Oliver and the Independents were mere
long-faced, psalm-singing hypocrites, moved only by
the ordinary motives and passions of human beings,
is a libel on history. Long-faced, sanctimonious,
and long-winded, famous for their dark cloaks and
steeple-crowned hats, their psalm-singing, their Biblical phraseology, their speaking through the nose,
and turning up the white of the eye, they certainly




380            THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
were; but whoso supposes they were so by virtue of
subtle, calculating hypocrisy, knows them not. Whatever else Cromwell and the Puritans were, they were
no hypocrites; their manners, their dress, and address,
however objectionable we may choose to regard them,
were not affected to cloak conscious vice or iniquity,
or to deceive either their friends or their enemies.
Never were men more serious, more deeply in earnest; and it was in obedience to what they held to
be the voice of God that they preached, fasted, sung
psalms, prayed, and-kept their powder dry.  It
was not by their snivel, their nasal twang, their Biblical phraseology, nor by an affectation of piety and
dependence on the Lord, nor by any form of hypocrisy or cant, that they made mincemeat of the drinking, swearing rakehell, but brave and loyal cavaliers at Marston Moor, Edgehill, and Worcester. A
chorus of spirits, black or white, joined in their
psalm-singing, and invisible powers sped their balls
to the hearts of their enemies, and gave force to the
wvell-aimed strokes of their swords.
Certainly the hand of Providence in the affairs of
nations is not to be denied, and certain it is that
God visits nations in mercy and in judgment. A
sound theology, an enlightened piety sees the providence of God in the growth of the infant colony, in
the prosperity of states, and the revolutions and fall
of empires. But he works by ministries; and the
most terrible exhibitions of his wrath, the most fearful of his judgments are those in which he lets loose




CONCLUSIONS.             381
the demons, and permits a people to fall under their
power. These demons work their own will, but are
at the same time the executors of his vengeance -of
his justice. The good, even in the greatest national
calamities, are never injured, for nothing but sin
ever injures; but the wicked are punished. They
had chosen the devil for their master, and it is fitting
that he whom they had falsely worshipped as God,
who is no God, should be made the instrument of
their punishment. The national sins of England
were great; her kings had betrayed their trusthad led the people into error, and forgotten what
they owed to the King of kings and Lord of lords.
The Lord had a controversy with them, and he permitted the old Puritans to triumph over them; and
whether they did so by simple human strength, or
by the willing assistance of evil spirits, inflaming
them with a preternatural courage, and driving them
on by a preternatural fury, the principle is one and
the same. So also of France, in her terrible revolution of 1789, and of Europe in 1848.
I read with sorrow the puny attempts of the author of Woodstock to explain away, as mere jugglery
or trickery, the strange phenomena which disturbed
the sequestrators of the Royal Lodge. He would,
on the strength of an anonymous pamphlet, explain
them as a trick played off upon the parliamentary
commissioners by Dr. Rochecliff, Albert, Tompkins,
Joceline, and Phebe. It may have been so; but the
machinery he supposes is clearly inadequate to ex



382            THIE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
plain all the mysterious phenomena he acknowledges.
The trick could hardly have failed, if trick there
was, to be detected either by Colonel Everard or the
Commissioners.  But even, if his explanation of
that particular case is to be accepted, or if a thousand instances are to be referred to trickery, it says
nothing as to the general fact of demonic vexations
and invasions. As Christians, we know that we
are constantly beset by evil spirits, and the mysterious occurrences at the Royal Lodge of Woodstock,
even if real, are only a step beyond ordinary Satanic
temptations, as possession is only a further extension of obsession.
If much harm is done by superstition, perhaps
even more is done by the denial of all demonic influence and invasion, and the attempt to explain all
the so-called Satanic phenomena on natural principles. It generates a sceptical turn of mind, and the
rationalism resorted to will in the end be turned
against the supernatural facts of religion, and the
same process which is adopted to explain away the
Satanic prodigies, will be made use of to explain
away the miracles of the Old and New Testaments.
In fact it has been so done, and we have seen grave
commentators laboring, as they believed, to explain
these very miracles on natural principles; thus reducing Christianity from its high character of a supernatural religion to a system of mere naturalism, at
best a simple human philosophy, perhaps inferior to
many other systems. Jefferson, writing to Priestley,




CONCLUSIONS.              383
speaks, as he supposes, very xvell of our Lord, but
disputes his merits as a philosopher, and says,
in substance, " Jesus was a spiritualist, I am a materialist."  How  many men in our days regard
themselves as very commendable Christians because
they recognize the beauty and worth of certain moral
precepts of the Gospel, precepts which are only the
universal dictates of reason, and recognized by the
common sense of all nations-heathen as well as
Christian! Thomas Paine was more honest, for
though he could say Jesus taught very pure morals,
which have never been excelled, he refused to call
himself a Christian. I have met many a professed
minister of the Gospel who would find Tom Paine's
creed, meagre as it was, too big for him:'" I believe
in one God and no more, and I hope for happiness
beyond this life. I believe that religious duties consist in justice and mercy, and endeavoring to make
our fellow-creatures happy." The Gospel, as it is
preached by some " godly," ministers in New England, is too meagre to have satisfied a Rousseau, or
even a Voltaire.
In the case of the Spiritists of our own times, much
harm is done by telling them the spirit-manifestations are all humbuggery, imagination, fraud, or
trickery. These people know that it is not so. They
know that they are not knaves, that they practise no
trickery, and have no wish to deceive or be deceived.
They are not conscious of any dishonest intentions,
and they have no reason to think that they are less




384           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
intelligent or less sharp-sighted than they who abuse
them as impostors, or ridicule them as dupes. The
worst way in the world to convert a man from his
errors is to begin by abusing him, and denying what
he knows to be true. Except in the teachings of
God, or what is the same thing, the teachings of
men appointed, instructed, and supernaturally assisted by him to teach, we never find unmixed truth.
for to err is human; and on the other hand, we never
find pure, unmixed falsehood. Unmixed falsehood
is universal negation, and no negation is possible
but by an affirmation. Error is the misapplication
of the true. These Spiritists are deceived, are deluded, I grant, for they are the sport of a lying and
deceiving spirit; but they are not deceived or deluded as to the phenomena to which they testify,
nor, as a general thing, do they wish to deceive
others. Among them there may be knaves and fools,
there may be quacks and impostors, but I have no
reason to suppose that the mass of them are not as
intelligent and as honest as the common run of men,
as the world goes. Their error is in their explication of the phenomena, not in asserting the reality of
the phenomena; and to begin by telling them that no
such phenomena have ever occurred, that the spiritmanifestations are all humbug, is, to say the least, a
very unwise proceeding. If you are a minister of
religion, by doing so you are only playing into the
hands of the devil, for you outrage the natural
sense of justice and truth which these people still




CONCLUSIONS.             385
retain, and dispose them in turn to look upon religion itself, as held by the Christian Church, as a
humrbug.
I have known many apparently sincere and pious
persons driven to apostasy by the scepticism with
regard to the phenomena they have themselves seen.
The very worst way in the world to deliver ourselves or others from the power of Satan, is to deny
his existence. Resist the devil, and he will flee from
you; laugh at him, if you will, and he will hie himself back to hell, for he cannot endure contempt;
but deny his existence, persuade yourselves that
there exists no devil, and he in turn will laugh at
you, and take quiet possession of you. Oppose the
Spiritists we certainly should, but not where they are
strong and we are weak. The true way is to concede the facts, concede all that they really and
honestly observe, concede even their mysterious and
superhuman character, and then explain to them
their principle and origin, and show them that they
proceed not from good angels, even when apparently
they are pure and unobjectionable, but from the enemies of Christ, from Satan and his angels carrying
on, with devilish malice, their never-ending war
against Heaven.
Such at least are the conclusions which I have
been forced in my own mind to adopt, and such, it
seems to me, all must adopt who study the question
in the light of Christian theology. I am at least
33




386             THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
honest in these conclusions, and, though I may err
now, as I have so often erred before, yet I am  not
more likely to err than others.  Err indeed I may,
but, if 1 must err at all, I would rather err on the
side of superstition, than on the side of scepticism
and irreligion.




387
CHAPTER XXVI.
CONVERSION.
MY story, like my life, draws to its close. The
change which my religious views have undergone
has been more than once hinted. On religion, as
on most other subjects, I no longer think or feel as
I did in the day when I fancied I possessed more
than human science, and wielded a more than human power.
I grew up without any decided religious doctrines,
though inclining to what was called Liberal Christianity, that is, a Christianity kept up with the times,
and conformed to the ever-changing spirit of the
age. I was not an avowed unbeliever; I was not
an open scoffer; I even thought it well to pay a
decent external respect to religion, to attend church
when convenient, and to patronize the Gospel, providing it was not preached with too much earnestness and devotedness, and not promulgated as a law
which must govern all my thoughts, words, and
deeds, but was proposed simply as a speculation, as
a theory, or as an opinion, which I was at liberty to
accept, modify, or reject, as seemed to me good.
Before my mesmeric experiments and acquaint



388           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
ance with Priscilla, I was a sort of Rationalist, accepting Christianity in name, and explaining its
miracles and mysteries on purely natural principles.
Afterwards, after my philanthropic schemes had miscarried, my worship of humanity as God had proved
a failure, and my belief in progress had expired in
the crucible of experience, I fell into a sort of despair, and would fain have persuaded myself that I
believed in nothing. If I did not absolutely deny
God, my belief in him became so obscured by the
mists of my speculations and the corruptions of my
heart, that I was in reality no better than an atheist.
The devil was a bugbear invented by the priests,
and men were mere motes in the sunbeam. I have
already described the state into which I fell —a
state from which I would risk my life to save my
bitterest enemy.
Prior to the absolute crushing of all my hopes,
which followed my having fini'shed all the work
I had marked out for myself to do, and found it
nought, I regarded myself as a Free-Thinker, because i had either allowed myself to think, or had
made myself acquainted with the thoughts of others,
against religion. My freedom and independence of
mind were in denying, not in believing. I was not
free to think in favor of religion, nor sufficiently
independent to believe Christianity, and labor in
earnest to serve God and save my own soul. To
have done so would have been sheer superstition,
would have been sinking myself to the level of the




CONVERSION.              389
vulgar, and to have exposed myself to the gibes and
sneers of my scientific associates.
Nevertheless, my unbelief, my scepticism, and'my
radicalism, were a sort of violence done to my own
better feelings and graver judgment. They never
came natural to me, and I am sure I was never cut
out for a philanthropist or a world-reformer. There
was always something in the views and practices of
my associates that disgusted me, and often was I
obliged to hold my nose when they were discussed, as
it is said Satan does when he encounters a confirmed
sensualist. I had no natural relish for "'the Newness," and when at worst retained a secret reverence
for the past, and dwelt with pleasure on the timehallowed, over which for ages had flowed the stream
of human affection, human joy, and human sorrow.
I stood in awe before the shadow of the hoary Eld,
and wished always to find myself bound by indissoluble ties to what had gone before me, as well as to
what might come after me. Half in spite, and half
under the charm of Priscilla, I embraced philanthropy, but not inwardly, for her sophistry never for
a moment deceived me. Never was there a moment when I did not see through the philanthropists,
radicals, and revolutionists with whom I associated,
or when with a breath I could not have swept away
their cobweb theories; never for a moment was I
deceived as to the actual character of the devilish
movements I myself set on foot.
It may be thought strange, such being the fact,
33 *




390           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
that I could or would have played the part I did.
It might be enough to say Satan had power over
me; but I associated with the prophets of "the
Newness," and led on the movement, partly because
I did not know what else to do, and partly because
I could not endure absolute idleness. I saw indeed
the destructive character of my movements, but I
cherished a hope that by making things worse, I
should prepare the way for making them better.
You must demolish, I said, the old edifice, and clear
away its rubbish, before you carl erect a new, a more
beautiful, or a more convenient structure on its site.
I accepted, after a manner, the opinions and theories
of the Neologists, not because they satisfied me,
but because I knew not what else to accept; and,
though not true, they might conduct me to truth.
The road to the temple of Purity runs through the
Bower of Bliss, the path to heaven crosses the devil's
territory, and error is the prodrome of truth. Such
were the maxims I adopted, not indeed because I
believed them, but because they were convenient,
and because I saw not otherwise how to justify myself, or solve the problem of experience. I adhered
to my philanthropy, infidelity, and radicalism, not
because I loved or believed them, but because I saw
nothing true in the principles and reasonings I
was accustomed to hear opposed to them.  The
religious and conservative people I knew, and I
supposed them the most enlightened and the least
irrational of their class, seemed to believe and retain




CONVERSION.              391
either too much or too little. On one side they
seemed to accept and act on the principles which I
and my party professed, and on the other to insist
on conclusions which could be logically obtained
only from  a contradictory set of principles, and
which they with one voice condemned as false, mischievous, and leading only to superstition, idolatry,
and spiritual thraldom. Their denials struck me as
too sweeping for their affirmations, and their affirmations as quite too broad for their denials. I found
myself in the unpleasant predicament, either of divinizing humanity, or of embracing a religion which
they held to be worse than the rankest infidelity.
For a time, while I was in good health, while I
possessed and wielded a more than human power,
and had not yet exhausted the world in which I did
believe, or despaired of recasting it after my own
image, I got along without much difficulty; but
when I no longer saw any object in life, when there
was from my own point of view no longer any work
for me to do, and I was thrown back on my own
failing godship, and left to devour my own heart, I
became wretched, more wretched than I can express.
The blow which prostrated me, and the disease
which it developed, and brought me to handgrips
with Death, changed the current of my thoughts,
but unhappily only to render them for the time still
more painful. "You know, 0 Socrates," says Cephalus in Plato's Republic, "that when a man thinks
that he is drawing near to death, certain things, as




392           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
to which he had previously been very tranquil,
awaken in his bosom anxiety and alarm. What
has been told him of hell and the punishment of
the wicked, the stories at which he had formerly
laughed or mocked, now fill his soul with trouble.
He fears that they may prove true. Enfeebled by
age, or brought nearer to the frightful abodes, he
seems to perceive them with greater clearness and
force, and is the;efore disturbed by doubts and apprehensions. He reviews his past life, and seeks
what evil he may have done. If he finds, on examination, that his life has been iniquitous, he awakes
often in the night, agitated and shuddering, as a
child, with sudden terrors, trembles and lives in
fearful expectation; " or, as I may add with St. Paul,
" a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery
indignation."  As I found myself on my dying bed,
things began to wear to me a very different aspect
from what they did when I was in the heyday of
youth, in the full flow of my animal spirits, or filled
with the vain and delusive hope of subjecting all
nature to my will. The lessons which I had heard
in my childhood, and which I had ridiculed or forgotten, came back with startling power; and in my
lonely reflections I was forced to ask what, if that
which they tell us of death and judgment, of heaven
and hell, the rewards of the good and the punishment of the wicked, should turn out to be true?
My trouble, my anxiety, and my alarm increased
in proportion as Mr. Merton forced upon me, by his




CONVERSION.              393
conversations, the full conviction that I had really
been dealing with devils, that Satan is really a personal existence, and that I had made a covenant
with him, and had acted under his influence. My
rationalism had led me to question his personal existence, and to attempt to explain the demonic phenomena without the supposition of his interposition.
Denying Satan, I had denied Christ; and being now
forced to recognize Satan, I was forced to confess
Christ, and all the Christian mysteries. By the same
process by which I had explained away the demonic
phenomena, I had explained away the miracles and
the supernatural character of Christianity. By that
same process of reasoning by which Mr. Merton
compelled me to admit the false miracles, the lying
signs and wonders of Satan, I was forced to admit
the true miracles, therefore the Divine commission,
and therefore the Divinity of Christ, because Christ
claimed to be the Son of God.
Here is, I apprehend, the principal source of that
difficulty which so many people find in admitting
the reality of the demonic phenomena. They cannot admit Satan and his works, without admitting
Christ and redemption, purchased with his own
blood on the cross, —in a word, without admitting
all the Christian mysteries and dogmas, — Christianity itself, and that not as an opinion, not as a
speculation, but as the law of God for conscience.
Most men have, at least, a dim perception of this
fact; and as they do not like to admit Christianity




394            THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
in a Christian sense, they will not suffer themselves
to believe that there is any thing Satanic in the dark
phenomena of human history. For, whatever may
be the professions we hear, whatever the apparent
zeal displayed in the cause of a bastard Christianity,
our age is an unbelieving age, and hates, I may say,
with a perfect hatred, Christ and his Church. The
age is blind to the perception of Christian truth, but
sharp-sighted to whatever is requisite to prevent that
truth from making its way to the heart. It sees very
clearly what it must concede, if it accepts Mr. Merton's doctrine; and therefore, with all its energy and
astuteness, it insists on explaining the demonic phenomena on natural principles, or on denying them
outright.
But detached from the world by experience of its
hollowness, and by my mortal illness, I became less
disposed to resist the grace of God, and in some
measure prepared to listen with candor to Mr. Merton's reasoning. I very soon became convinced that
I had really fallen into the error of calling good evil,
and evil good. I had really substituted Satan for
God, and in doing so had committed the precise error
the Christian clergy had always laid to my charge.
I saw that they had been right in advocating what
I called, with Priscilla, the system of repression, and I
wrong in advocating the contrary system. I saw
that, as a reasonable man, I must abandon the whole
order of ideas which I had cherished in my Satanic
pride and lust, and embrace that order of ideas




CONVERSION.              395
which I had hitherto rejected as false and mischievous. There was no room for compromise. I must
say decidedly either " Good Lord" or " Good Devil,"
and as I could no longer say the latter, I must say
the former.
Many people, knowing my order of thinking when
I was well and in the world, may blame a change
so complete and so universal; but only because they
are people of confused, incomplete, and disjointed
thought, whose views are always dim, obscure, and
incoherent, and who can never understand the operations of a mind that reduces all its views to their
fundamental principle, to a clear, well-defined, and
self-coherent whole, so that any change at all must
be change of principle, and involve an entire change
of system. Philosophical and logical minds may
err, but in their premises, not in their conclusions
from them. No question with them is ever a question of detail, and none ever turns on a collateral
issue. If they start from infidel premises, they will
come to the conclusion that Satan is God, and adjust their theory of the universe accordingly.  If
they assume, as their point of departure, that liberty
is in the absence of all restraint, and that liberty in
this sense is good, they must come to the conclusion
so earnestly insisted upon by my instructress Priscilla,
and of course reject that whole order of ideas which
asserts the need of law, the utility of government,
or the necessity of restraint. That, in doing so, they
go against common sense, they are as well aware




396            THIE SPIRIT-RAPP]R.
as are their opponents; but that fact cannot move
them, for the legitimate conclusion from it, if their
premises are right, is that so-called common sense
is wrong, and needs to be corrected. If the common
opinions, doctrines, or judgments of mankind are
against them, they are indemnified by finding a common feeling, a secret but real feeling, of all men in
their favor; for the very fact that restraint is necessary, proves that perverse nature demands, when
left to itself, universal liberty or unbounded license.
They have but to adopt the doctrine of the innate
purity and sanctity of nature, to call this natural
feeling a pure and holy instinct, and bid us follow
nature, in order to make out their complete logical
justification. They are simply consequent, to use a
logical term; and their opponents, who accept their
premises but deny their conclusions, are inconsequent.
The common run of men, who oppose this class
of thinkers and speculators, not by a complete and
coherent system constructed on the principle of law
and authority, and who are constantly saying Good
Lord and Good Devil, Good Devil and Good Lord,
trying forever to conciliate both at the same time,
and endeavoring with all their might to serve both
God and Mammon, which He who " spake as never
man spake " declares to be impossible. whenever
they are hard pushed, cry out against them as
logic-choppers, hair-splitters, narrow-minded systemmongers, and represent them as wanting in broad




CONVERSION.               397
and comprehensive views, in liberal and generous
feelings, as mere theorists, destitute of plain, practical common sense. What is really a merit in them,
is denounced as folly or crime, and the whole pack,
" Tray, Blanche, Sweetheart, little dogs and all,"
are let loose against them. This is wrong. Either
our feeling, our sensitive and affective nature, is to
be made subordinate and subservient to our reason,
or our reason is to be subordinated and made subservient to feeling. To attempt to maintain them
as two equal, coordinate, and mutually independent
powers, after the manner of the Gallicans in relation to Church and State, is only to prepare the way
for internal anarchy and disorder. The fool makes
reason subservient to his feelings, emotions, affections, or passions, and as to his proper manhood,
lives as a slave; the wise man subjects these to his
reason, that is, to understanding and will, and lives,
moves, and acts as a freeman.
Now I had one of those minds which reduce their
views to system, or to their fundamental principle.
My starting-point, my fundamental principle was
false, and therefore my whole system or theory of
the universe was false.  This once discovered, I
necessarily embraced the opposing principle, and as
necessarily embraced it in all its legitimate consequences. I never was so constituted as to be able
to strike a balance between truth and falsehood, or
to accept a principle and deny its consequences. In
34




398           THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
matters of practice, I can understand, where no principle is sacrificed, what are called compromises, and
I have never needed to be told that true prudence
usually forbids us to push matters to extremes.
When we act, we must consider the practicable, and
the expedient, as far as principle leaves us any discretionary power; but in asserting principles, in the
question between truth and falsehood, right and
wrong, I have always felt it necessary to be on one
side or the other. It ought not therefore to be considered strange that, forced by Mr. Merton and my
own serious reflections to deny that Satan is God, I
should swing round to the other extreme, and assert
that God is God; or that, starting from this bold
proposition as a first principle, I should adjust, or
endeavor to adjust my whole order of thought to it.
I am aware that my having done so will, with the
mass of my countrymen, bring reproach upon my
memory, and induce some who may cherish a regard for me to attempt to apologize for my want of
inconsistency and incoherency; but, happily, the
praises or the censures of men cannot affect me
any longer, and I shall soon be where they cannot
reach me.
Brought back to an intellectual conviction of the
truth of Christianity, my trouble increased; for if
Christianity be true, it is not simply the revelation
of a truth to be believed, but also of a truth to be
practised —of a law to be obeyed. I had not obeyed
that law; I had deliberately, systematically violated




CONVERSION.              399
all its precepts for years, and had taught others to
do the same. I had fallen under its condemnation,
and had incurred its severest penalties. The prospect that now opened before me was not pleasing.
There was a vision of blackness and despair. The
judgment I derided, the heaven I had scorned, the
hell I had braved or treated as a fiction, were all
realities. I must soon appear before my Judge,
loaded with crimes and sins innumerable, and of
the blackest dye. It was impossible to imagine one
more wicked or guilty than myself. I could plead
nothing in excuse or extenuation of my guilt. I
had proved myself the enemy of my race, a foulmoutlied and black-hearted rebel against God, my
sovereign, who had done nothing to me but load me
with benefits. It was no pleasant thought. I had
consorted with devils. I had chosen them for my
associates, and what more fitting than that I should
be left to my own choice, to reap the fruits of my
own doings, and be doomed to dwell eternally with
them in hell?  It was what I deserved, what immaculate Justice might well inflict. The thought
was not to be endured.
I had made a covenant with death. I had entered into an agreement with hell, and had by a
solemn pact given myself to the devil, and who had
ever heard that such a one had ever received grace
to repent?  Had I not blasphemed the Holy Ghost,
committed the unpardonable sin? My accomplice
had been rescued, it was true, but she had been less




400            THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
guilty than I. She had been deceived, seduced by
the wiles of the serpent, and struggled to break the
meshes he had cast around her as soon as she fully
understood their real character. Guilty she certainly
had been, but there was some limit to her guilt. I
can hardly say that I was deceived. From the first
I suspected the truth, and when I remained blind, I
remained so wilfully. I had acted deliberately;not from the strength of feeling, or the heat of passion, but coolly, from calculation, with full assent.
There was a great difference between us. What
hope, then, remained for me?
The world will laugh at me for all this, and wag
their heads at the mighty magician starting back
with fear of death and dread of hell. The world
has no faith. If it can make sure of this life, it
thinks we may jump, as Macbeth proposed, that
which is to come. But the world is nothing to me
now, and I am  not moved by its mockeries. I am
not ashamed to own my fears. I fear not dying. I
fear what may come after death. I fear the last
judgment. I fear hell. I fear being condemned to
dwell forever with the danmned. The salvation of
my soul to me now is the great, the all-absorbing
question —the question of questions.
Mr. Merton continued to visit me, and to unfold to me the scheme of Christian Redemption,
and assured me that, if I willed it, there was salvation even for me, for Christ had died for all, had
made ample satisfaction on the cross for the sins




CONVERSION.             401
of the whole world, and that great as my sins were,
they were surpassed by the Divine Mercy. He instructed me ill what I had to believe, and in what
I had to do. The baptismal waters were poured over
me, and I was confirmed by the Holy Chrism, and I
hope that my pact with Satan is broken, and my
soul delivered. But I know not whether it be so
or not; I knowx not whether I deserve love or hatred.
I still fear and tremble, but will not despair. I am
trying, as far as in my power, to undo the wrong I
have done, and have dictated with that view these
my confessions, which will see the light as soon as
may be after I am no more.
All are kind to me. My friends, those who have
known ine in my pride and wickedness, strange to
say, do not desert me; and those I love best are
constantly near me, and do all they can to relieve
my pain, and to strengthen my good resolutions.
Priscilla is not unfrequently my nurse, and James is
most kind and affectionate to me. If human aid or
sympathy could avail me, I should have nothing to
fear. But here I lie waiting my departure. How it
will fare with me hereafter, God only knows. His
will be done.
My story is told. My confessions, as far as I can
make them to the public, are made. Let no man
see in me an example to be followed, or regard me
otherwise than as a miserable wretch who, in rnanhood and health, abused all God's gifts, and has
nothing to relieve his character from utter detesta



402            THE SPIRIT-RAPPER.
tation but a late death-bed repentance.  My life
can serve as a beacon; let it so serve. Yet I beg
all whom I have wronged to forgive me, for I would,
as far as possible, die in peace with all the world.
I have nothing to forgive, for I have received no
wrongs. I have done wrong to the world, but I
have suffered no wrong from it. I cannot ask that
my memory should be cherished, for it deserves only
to be execrated. Yet is it pleasant to feel that there
are some who, bad as I have been, still love me, and
will drop a tear of sincere grief over my lifeless remains. There are, too, some who, from the abundance of their charity, will, as they pass by my final
resting-place, breathe the prayer; so consoling to
the living at least,-" May his soul rest in peace."
After all, good is greater than evil, and love stronger
than hell.
THE END.