The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1853-11-10

DcucV63 tId5u-tudt
1oem or substance can write-that Washington has
become dwelling IDIOT and Shelley has lost all his
power Of rythm, and has degenerated into scrlbber
of senselees illusions.
called spiritual manifestations, and the whole ques
ton lies in nutshell. Let us admit that there are
many natural agencies with which we are imper
1eCtly acquainted-let us admit that many OF the
phenomena of animal magnetism and electricity are
utterly beyond our comprehension-le US even ad-
NIT Reichenbachs theory Of what he calls the odic
force or the mesmeric influence, SO to speak pro-
duced by human agency upon AMI mate and mani
mate objects. But between this and travelling into
smother world to seek for the causes Of those phe-
nomena which are produced here, what an immeas-
urable gap There are people who find an unna,
tural cause In everything. A heavy storm OF hau
binary light in the sky is convocation Of demons
the Pickering of candle Is premonitory symptom
Of an earthquake, or tickling behind the ear DO
notes that you will shortly be visited BY your grand
with similar decisions The theories brought for
ward in favor of nesmeric influences are examples
Every new scientific discovery seems to suggest at
once TO vul gar minds some connexion with the In
visible world. Thus is 1t with our sprituasts to day
Ignorant Of the first principles Of science and obstinate
in their ignorance they insist upon attrbuting certain
effects to supernatural causes. They have cast aside
the light Of reason, and have entered blindfold into
pfesumptuous speculations, contrary alike to the
theories ofreyealed religion and the dictates Of COM
mon senae. Has there been an attempt at any loyi-
ol argument f-any reasonable deduction dra wn
nom these mapping phenomena, to prove that they
are evidence Of spiritual intervention? We see
nothing OF the kind in any of the works we have
mentioned. Although the onus probandr lies with
those who have advanced these startling PROPOSE.
1ions they have failed in making out the shadow Of
q case. BY their own showing, questions are an
0wcred through an absurd and suspicious method of
alphabetical rappings and the bulk Of these answers
re admitted to be failures. Spirits are summoned
which lie like troopers, and proved to be both
norally and Intellectually the interiors Of mortas.
Does not this on the face of IT, look like deliberate
inposture?
But suppose these rappings and table tumings TO
be bona fds do the believers in spiritualism mean
g. nv that there can be no natural agency at work
Of which they themselves know little or nothing? II
they discard the theory Of Faraday and treat with
contempt the possibility that mesmersm, eectrism,
Magnef ism, or odism, may have something TO do in
the matter they must establish their claims to spir
itual intercourse beyond all peradventure, or the
world will rightly Judge them 70 be fools or knaves
They are mise rable spectres, after all. They have
not equaIled yet the very ordinary feat OF the Chi
nese wizard, who plantsVn orange seed and makes
y grow into tree which buds, blossoms, and bear.
fruit In the space OF fifteen minutes! They SEEM In
Act, TO be nothing than the presiding deities
over intoxicated furniture, exultng In the wreck OF
tables and the crash of chairs Sometimes las In
The case of the ghosts Of Poe Byron, and Shelley
they return TO the world to deliver themselves OF .
pot nestsm edition 9f execgab.e poetry, Every one