Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1853-05-04
From the National mtelisepcer.
Impostures and DelusiOns.


less it were in the early part of the fifth century,
at the periods of the Hunnist irrupton and the
grand systematic attempt to reconvert the world
to Paganism, has there been such tendency oil
the human mind to break out into new and strange
schsms and heresies as in the present boasted eia
of civilization and mental illumination, wherein II
is the popular argument that errorcannot eAis uh-
detected in this nineteenth century. -
1t is within the memory of most OF US, that, Ill
the great and intelligent city of New York,a cen
tire ofarts and learning, vulgar, Ignorant, uheo-
ucated adventurer succeeded in passing hlnsetl
off to number of persons, men and women aar 2
boye the average standard of culture and hnder-
standing, as Jehovah himself, created consldera-
BILE sect, and actually deuded his votares INTO the
unheard-of madness of forcing their wives 10 MS
the impostor's bed, in the blasphemous hope that
some one of them might become the mother Of
Messiah.
The imposture of the insane millennlallst, Mil
Ter, is of too recent occurrence to have been Tor
gotten by any of us, with its miserable dupes
numbering literally their hundreds of thousands
The spread of MormoniSm, that gross imposi-
ton, has been more rapid than the early growth
of Mahometanism. and wider perhaps than ever
would have been that of the Arabian imposture,
had the latter not called in the sword to aid its
age pregnant with wpndsrsG and what shall be its
results where the terminus of its extension, us yet
in the womb of time
Close on the heels of these travelled host OF
new delusens or old herssies revamped under new
titles mesmerism, phrenOmagnetism, ctdirvoy-
ance, and last not least the arch imposture of the
day, spirtualsm-all differing in degree between
themselves, but all having one general object and
tendency, more or less openly, avowed-that OF
subverting and abolishing the authority of the BIZ
BILE, overthrowing the whole Christian system and
erecting in its place phantasm ofnatural rel
giCn. A.
At this last heresy it is useless now to laugh or
to treat with levity, or even contemplate, a delu-
sion which however absurd and desplcable 1t may
appear to of siund reason and resUlute cenvlc-
tions, is spreading itself like pestilence through
our borders, carrying with it the madness of inf
delity of sensuous maeriallsm if not actual athc-
sm and disractng the minds of the nervous, the
feeble wtted, and the timid into actual insanity.
1t is not our purpose to inquire, at present, into
the nature of this delusion; whether it be unac-
cOuntabie or no; whether it be in all cases mere
imposture; or whether, as is perhaps more proba-
by the case it shall turn out to be natural phe-
nomenon. arising from diseased and highly eX-
cited nervous diathesis analogous to that form OF
mania which afflicted the energumeuoi or possess-
ed of the Scriptures, and the many various suffer
ers OF the middle ages, lycantcropists. vampires,
and spiritual fanatics Of many denominations, not
forgetting the victims of the Salem witchcrait in
our own country. ~.~
That there was sameting of fact, something OF
tangible reality mixed up with alltbose delusons,
is not now doubted though the fact was not that
the perslns tormented by these strange and high
ly contagious disorders of the imagination and the
nervous system, were capable of changing them
selves into wolves, or were actually possessed by
the spirit of evil, any more than that the assumed
spirtuasts of the present day are capable Of hold
ing communications with departed souls, or with
any disembodied spirits whatever. In many OF
the frantic fanaticismS, some of them celebrated
with horrible and obscene orgies and saturnaa OF
implety and madness, II was found necessary, es-
pecially on the continent of Europe towards the
close Of the dark ages, to call i'll the aid of the law,
and to resort even 10 wholesale punishment of the
utmost severity, not excepting the mfiction of
DEATH in order to check their perilops and demor-
alizng propagation.
And in the present century, during which SO
much light has been thrown by science on the va
rous and almost inexplicable possessions of the
human mind, under various conditions Of disease,
and their apparently supernatural and really alb
normal effects on material bodies, it has been eff
ieesvely urged BY luminous scientific writer,
that, although the Salem hangings were cruel,
useless, and illegjtima,e as punishments for crime
-nure particularly tlr Il crime which did not eX-
ist communication with the demon-they might
vet have been necessary in order to cut short the
growth Of horrible aud contagious species Of ms
, nomania; and that there may yet arise at future
periods similar or analogous disorders Of the pop
ular mind invading and corruptiug the whole body
polite, which it may in like manner become ne
cessary to suppress by the streng hand of the law.
Indeed. he might point, as already coming within
this category, the Rochester knockingS with their
kindred train of rascalites and abominations.
|, is perlous thing IN any body polite to in
woke the powers of the State in relation to matters
apper;ainiug to religion, and involving the recog
milton or maintenance of peculiar sectS or church
es; and to the policy of the United States it is
particularly foreign and averse, the utmost jeal-
ousy prevailing concerning any thing that seems
to SAVIOR Of { conneXion between Church and
} State .e
The probability, however, is, that in the case
of Mornonsm, some of the practices of which,
poiygamy in particular, are directly at varience
with moral law, and with the statute laws of the
several States sooner or later some Legislative ac-
ton will be taken and coerciye measures adopted,
either to restrain the practices sanctioned and en-
juned by that socalled religion, or in default of
that, to suppress and prohibit the religion itself
, with which such criminal malpractices co7exist
In like manner it is the general opinion of well
informed and deep-thinking persons, that it is al
, ready high time to call in Legislative aid, if the
/, execution Of no existing statutes can reach the
present evil for the suppression Of this perilous inn
posture, or yet more perlouS contagion Of morbid
minds.
! BY such far-sighted thinkers, heaction is high
ly, approved of the Massachusetts, Legislature,
which has recently recommended it to the atten7
ton of the Committee on Education to consider
! whether the nterpostion Of Legislative enactmens
is not needed for the suppression of the nposnre
of spirualisn and, If 1t be deemed, to inquire
what measures may te best, and most eliectually
taken for its arrest.
1t is true. indeed, that in such measures be
taken, the spritualists will raise cry of persecu
tion and such cry is wont to tend to the in
crease rather than the check Of the sect alleged to
be prosecuted. Still, it is generally thought at
the Eastward that the evil is of such magnitude,
and is increasing to an extent 50 alarming-lite-
rally filling the lunac asylums tOan uuprecedent-
ed degree with raviDg victims to this unholy de
luslOn-that it is better to risk the chance OF CIV
Ing 1t temporary stimuous by allowing 1t to con-
siitute sel! prosecuted creed. than to permit 1t
to dIfuse itself more widely since it is evident
that no arguments OF reason, common sense, Or re-
ligion have any weight OF Influence to prevail a
galnst II; and since no degree of social or even
mental elevation seems to be proof against 1t In
! evidence ct which men cite the adhesion to this
insanity Of celebrated member of the New York
Judiciary, and his alleged consultation Of spiritual
mediums IN reference te the delivery of judicial o.
} pnionsa fact which, if it can be established,
would GO very tar to show that the application of