New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1852-07-24


hand which caused them, acce pt that fact also,
never dreaming that his Imagination NAV have been
the sinner. By the way, does It not occur 20 YOU
that we put little too much duty on that famous
stall ing horse, the Imagination The Imagination,
whate er may be its power, is certainly not crea'
tive. II has no power to create a sight or sound
When a man tells me that he saw, being WIDE
awake at the time, a figure standing III his
room then saw it slowly going toward the WIN
dow, and finally disappearing through it, cannot
bring myself TO doubt his veracity, unless doubt
it also at other times. cannot pronounce the
experience a product Of Imagination, because
have no conception Of what the Imagination -,
nor of the machinery it works by, nor have found
any person able to throw the least light upon that
inquiry. | can imagine in a case of ethics, per
son acting by different motive from that which
appears. can imagine wall painted blue in
stead Of yellow or rice perSG, and | can imagine
Barnum's band playing Rule Britqagia on tn. IN
Of July. But in the first case my Imagination
does not give actual existence to the motive Ia
question; and in the other cases it gives one no
actuH sight Of the wall, nor any dctui nearing
of the music. Indeed, know no more egregOus
superstition than that which perpetually ascribes
to Imagination the power of giving sensible e5
istence to what has no sensible existence. II is
inexpressibly tedious to hear every solemn foP.
and astringent dunderhead, when presented with
some fact new to his experience, cry out lmtr-
nation! :" at you, and then lapse into complacel 1t
dullness. lIe has not the slightest mental con-
ception answering to the word, aDy more thaa
my neighbor's parrot has when he declares Polly
pretty girl. He has not the faintest glinmer of
the faculty called Imagination, nor Of lis laws Of
operation, and would quite as cheerldi.y spring
the fine word Mesopotamii upon you instead, #
that had been the accepted watchwocd Ola stIts
of wilu mental hebetude. The word, in short, -
used simply as a door, to close the mind az INST
the admission Of light which might otherwise rem
der its cobwebs visible and odious
At The same time, however, or while conf-ssing
the testimony this subject quite credible tony
self DO not hesitate to pronounce the ibs'aaa1
Of it largely c0ntemptibe. Especially It y5I
view the facts H. related to the subject Of imnpr-
tatv, YOU cannot but admit that they exert a
purely dispa,ugiug influence on the prop'~m. |,
immortality mean nothing more than - dsig" tn
Undertaken, and go on repeating IN Otn-r worlds
the dismal platitudes which have wedried ani wpr
red u in this-which IS about the sun OF the
knuckr. bone gosptl-then clearly Immortality =
not what il has been cracked up To be. II sn1ck'
still of the most pestent mortality. Bat ~ TINS
topic demands Il spacious rearment, Will derOte
another letter tOit. Meanwhile Yours, H. j.
Remarks.
We thank II. j. for his statements and
suggestions, which are mainly potent and
forcible; but we will thank him and Others
not to assume again that zoe have any def
mite theory respecting the sO.called Spir-
iiual Manifestations.' 1t is very likely
that we have at some time suggested or
intimated that there is broad margin be-
tween admitting las we do) that the
Manifestations are not produced by any
Trick OF deception on the part of the me
diums' and affirming that they are pro.
duced or impelled by the spirits of oar de-
ceased friends. The broad and mystic
realm of Somnambulism, Mesmerism,
Clairvoyance, Spiritual or Mental Inlu-
ence, &C., &c., contains much truth that
we have not mastered; but some also
that we hare become acquainted with i:
and this suggests to us the possibility of
accounting for the Manifestations other
wise than by assuming that they are
impelled by the spirits of deceased
human beings. But we deny no theory
on the subject, affirm none. Others
may have observed these phenome-
ma sufficiently to enable them to pronounce
Dramatically on their nature and origin:
but we have too much work to do that
will not be put of 20 admito our spending
evening after evening in attendance on
circles and other scenes of the alleged
Spiritual Manifestations We have wit
messed some of these phenomena for which
we were unable to account on any by
pothesis of jugglery or illusion, as well as
others which presented nothing incompati-
bic with the knee-joint and humbug by
pothesis; while we have heard, from wit
nesses of objectionable veracity, nara
tions of Manifestations for which no other
than the Spiritual hypothesis would ad
equately account. In regard to these
cases we say, Our friends the narrators
certainly do not lie; but we do not know
how carefully and searchingly they made
their observations To assure us of an
occurrence so unusual as a communica.
ton from a man long since dead
to his wife or child still inhabitOg
the mortal tenement, we need to know,
not merely that worthy, veracious mqn
belieres it, but that the occurrence trans
PRED in such manner as to leave no pos
sihiliiN of acnnnntinn E,r II on, nn.. o.LA-