New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1851-01-04
The spiritual Critic, Criticised.

To ne Edit0- Of The Trtorne
Your correspondent H. j. in bis criticism on
Intercourse with Spirits, freely admits the i'm
portance Of such intercourse as correcting seve-
raj vulgar errors entertained In relation 70 the he
after death and as showing that man In every
sphere finds his circumstances snswerable to the
quality of his life and yet in the very next para
graph he would extinguish ell spiritual inter-
course on account of the vulgar error possessed
by persons who have been educated reiigiously
that all spiritual communication are entitled 70
'unuuestoned credence! = Does II. J. wish to
exercise absolute control over spiritual inter-
course and dictate what vulg errors shall and
what shall not be corrected Or, has he any
vulgar errors or darling theory, which nc Is
afraid will not be corroborated by the spirits
shall take the latter for granted for certainly
he could not have precptated himself into so ao-
surd a position unless he had beea blinded by his
own conceit.
II must be evident, therefore. that bis sppre'
tensions respecting the danger we are IN OF losing
our wits by intercourse with departed spirits,
might safely be dismissed il reference to himself
As 20 people in general, cannot, perhaps speak
go peremptorly as H. ] does, but can say that
IN ,he course of several months investigation oil
this subiect, though have heard OF "numberess
instances" in which the wits have been "lrre-
parably shattered" unfortunately for any iurtner
coincidence of my observations with ID Us,
have never seen one nor do l believe that the
mnn.,berlass instances" will furnish one solitary
case in which ANYTHING of the kind has occurred.
n / NAV claim TO have read Swedenborg with
sttortion Int he certainly cannot be NUMBERED
with those who have read him with adVah.aBe
he would make remorse OF conscience tor criminal
conduct to weigh against the importance OF
snirtual intercourse. Ii this be the "arttul
dodge" which "ghosts are up to- which HID.
annears 10 be so much afraid Of am sure many
will agree with me that the world cannot possibly
be injured by any amount OF just such " artfui
lodging ..,
Again. " ]. demands OF the spirits to DO some
thing for us, something which Science will adopt
into her repertory great mechanical In
yention or d" solution OF some OF the great ques'
tions of the dayn-and almost In the next SEN
tence maintains that the " natural sphere is prop
ery the only sphere OF new things that the
sphere of Nature alone uGioids the wonders OF
creative power'-thus acknowledging himself,
that he demands kind OF evidence that cannot,
from the very nature of things, be given II. j:
has certainly beaten the spirits "clean out Oh
sight" if he has really discovered that the kind oil
evidence which he demands constitutes pecu,
liar proof Of goodness. Teaching the existence oil
Col the Immortality Of the soul, and the law OF
universal love, appear to be matters Of utter in
significance in comparison to an invention like
the Electric Telegraph, solution OF the ques-
tion of Finance" or "cure for the toothache
MAINTAIN. therefore, that II. Us opinion upon
this subject is not entitled to the least degree OF
respect Upon his own showing he is an utter
disbeliever in all spiritual things Did the Al
mighty. did Jesus Christ did the Holy Apostles,
ever give the least particle OF such evidence oil
their existence and mission as is now required oil
the snirits2 Does II. j. mean to say that he
would believe in the spirits if they would destroy
mans free agency by abrogating the laws which
the Creator has already established for the de-
veopment of mechanical inventions, and filing
lead the blind both shall fall into the ditch" W.