Richmond daily Whig. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1842-1861, 1845-11-25

To csFisia Jss. Nssrs u. s. NsvyDs
ks-l think you have shown courage Ia your letter OF
Saturday, which does you the honoTss great a.
You had carried your ship right into the hottest OF The
hfe end selected threedecker to engage. The moral
courage which is required stand by unpopular trufA
and encounter you have donc the storm o oPular
udce worthy OF all admiration. IL is higher order OF
courage than that which marches willingly to the battle
field. 49,.
The sncer. Of Peasants. the contumey OF Warner,
and the denunciaons Of wiekhsm, will be forgotten,
but Magnetism Mesmersu. will flourish and more
as time grows older. Truth is great and will triumph
n hope the Editor. Of the Wing will publish, notwh-
standing the alusion to one OF them. Al
90 The editors publish accordingly, willing to
show that they are not afraid of this great truth,
which is going to be established, and which they
will be willing to acknowledge truth when it is
proved to be truth, and not before Ii is no light
thing to ask of men. of societies, Of nations, and
OF the world, to believe upon few imperfect, if
not wholly fallacious, experiments, to relinqush
all they had believed in, and to believe in what
they had regarded (without the intervention Of mi
racles) asimpossible. Iftruc Philosophy requires
of you not to reject, because you cannot under
stand, it equally requires that you shall not re-
ceive with blind credulity, all that is brought
forward as natural truth, but which may in reality,
and has every probability stamped upon it Of
being, nothing more than falsehood disguised
truth.
If tho Phenomena OF Clairpoyd.cs be esab.
lished, that People can without eyes, and that
negro children 8 years old can understand the
learned languages, never having heard them be-
fore, and learnedly and correctly respond to ques
tons asked Of them in those languages-why it
seems to us clear, that there is an end Of Mira
cies, the basis upon which the Revelations Of the
old and new Testament rest. They record no
greater miracle, for one miracle is just great
another, every miracle requiring suspension of
tue laws Of nature--in other words of the laws
OF God. 1t is certainly this, and nothing short of
this to our apprehension, which Clairpoyance de.
mands Of our faith. 1t is just easy to believe,
upon natural principles, that Moses divided the
Red Sea, that Joshua arrested the world in its
transit found the sun, that negro child s years
DID, who had never heard French before, could
understand French the first time she heard it and
learnedly respond to interrogativcs put in it We
say that the establishment of Clairroyance over.
throws Miracles, the sanction of divine Legation
from God to man!
And this consequence is already anticipated by
some, who give out that the resurrection Of Laza.
rus was mere Mesmeric affair!
Still lift is truth, let TRUTH prevail But in
Heavens name, let us first be convinced before
we required to believe, that this so incredible
and astounding truth, is truth We ask for er.
pernents that shall be conclusive We ask for
"signs !"
"Our army swore terribly in Flanders ~
Mankind, in all ages, have been the victims Of
deluson and mposture-greedy and willing dupes
to their imaginations, to juggery and to preten.
sion! But never heavy and unconsconable
draft as Clarroyance made upon their faith be.
fore 1t actually requires of them, as we eompre.
bend it, TO surrender their religious faith, their com
mon sense, their experience, their reason, all that
they have believedor imagined to be truce suppo.
sed TO be possible or impossible, at fell swoop'
"Sneer" indeed Yes, we will sneer at this in.
comprehensive and impossible pretenson That
it has upright ndenlightened followers we know
and the more the wonder--but II ought not to be-
and therefore it cannot be true. Its honest vo-
taries will themselves discover in time, that there
is trick in it. Were not the Egyptian jugglers
1000 years ago, great Did they not hold pow
erful contention with Aaronl Are they not great
still Let US believe nothing which conflicts with
the ascertancd laws of matter and mind. and with
the revealed will of God At least, let us have
unanswerable proof before we believe.