Minnesota weekly times. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1854-1859, 1855-12-22

uuCousstVsD AAOblOu. W uOt say uAos IOls
lowed Faseday. formed the opinion myself:
a eydty mn must who understands i intAak
view who tSdeavors to explain it b he wsll{
known law q motion. E8 \
isAxb oo1sl1BEs AT FIRST WITH 1xtADAr. 3
& Accordingly, published my ,oplhiQ@ III
support Of those OF Faraday. Perhaps from
my long acquaintance with the laws Of motion
and chemical and mechanical action, was so
Immediately conscious that the result could not
be arrived at through any of these raasesz-1
that there was no physical cause under the
name Of electricity or odic force, or anything
Of the kind that could account for those motions
that 4 was on that account thezmore yeadytos
join with ,Faraday, aud say that, If they took
place, they must have taken place from the on.
ly moving power that was present. Ff.s g'sr
MS OPINIONS BEGIN TO Waves.
But practical mana man who had the in
genuity to make very excellent telescope
which he brought TO Philadelphia to exhibit,
wrote to me and sale, :" Doctor, you ought to
look into this thing. You assume that the Ia.
bles are moved by human beings. Now, !
know it is not so. Ihave seen them move
without it. | have seen, them move without
any human contact There never was more
sensible letter. There never was a letter which
in the event proved more true than this letter,
written by Mr.. Amasa Helcomb, Of Southwick,
Mass. AT the same tiine-that this appeal was
made to Inc. a friend called and offered to take
me to the circles where d'could see for myself.
Accordingly went 10 the circle. and found a
number OF people sitting around q table, all
exceedingly honest-looking, well.meaning peo-
pie. 1t was no mercenary circle. 1t was
or III IF - .loI.
where people met periodically fof the purpose
Of having those spiritual manifestations which
il is my object TO treat of. was asked to take
a seat at the table. All was SILENT; q hymn
was sung. whereupon, raps came under the ta-
Bile, apparently. 1t was utterly impossible for
me to account for these rappings. was all
vigilance; thorough unbeliever, hoping that
should find out the explanation agreeably to
the laws of science. was on the qua vive to
see how these raps could be accounted for.-
But afterwards, seeing how incredulous was,
a table was selected small table, from which
took out the drawer, turned it up and exam.
lined it, and found it was nothing but board
below as we'll as above, Two ladies sat down,
one at each end Of this small table, and be.
tween them, and there came these raps, utterly
confounding my capacity to explain them l
came afterwards to the same place. The me-
dium-a very disinterested, artless creature,
who was so disinterested she would not even
allow me to make present to her child-this
lady was sitting on the sofa when raps came on
the partition between the room she was sitting
in and the next. walked into the other
room, searched, and could see nothing: She
then took up a flute and put it on the door, and
the raps came to the flute. That evening !
brought an open glass tube and brass rod, and
the medium, standing on the carpet, with these
instruments successfully in her hand, the raps
came as before. lsqasIl; sl.l s. ano dcIdu
The lecturer here. narrated some singular
table-moving experiences Of his, with num-
Der of ladies'. 1900 ...r l,...i..
By means Of the alphabetic communications,
he continued, many extraordinary revelations
are made. My relations came and reported
themselves. But when at that time, was an
unbeliever, I'could not explain the thing when
! could not make myself believe 1t was the re-
suit produced BY my spirit friend. had to
make myself 60 through long process Of proof
before got from the extreme incredibly in
which commenced to actual belief On one
occasion, sitting at a small table, with a lawyer
of eminence-an orthodox Christian, and an
entire unbelever in Spiritualism-the medium
on the left, the gentleman at the right of the
table with the aIphabetic card, and he passing
his pencil over il, and another gentleman taxi
ing down the letters. the following words came
out: Light is dawning on the mind Of your
the scientific world, and add new link to that
chain of evidence on which our hope Of mans
salvation is founded" [Applause. The on
1,t vplo Ill
could give was that the person who took down
the letters was both capable Of jugglery and
willing 10 exercise it. But knew him well,
aid could not bring myself to suspect him of
any deception. +" s-.. aa.
HE SUBJECTS THE REVELATIONS TO TEST.
But now determined to have the thing
within reach OF my own hands, and under
those circumstances ! made the apparatus
which you now see here. The lecturer pro-
ceeded to explain the first mechanical appara.
tus he had invented for removing the chances
of imposture in these communications.
ss..4g.,t THE RESULT. sfg s
Under these circumstances, he continued.
set the medium, most excellent and accom-
plished lady, down behind the screen, where
she could not see the disc, and Of course, she
COutu see TIC tcuciS i sat IN fIO0t Oh IL,
and said, 'If there be spirit present let him
bring the letter Y under the index" in order
to indicate the presence Of the spirit by the let
ter Y as yes. Accordingly it revolved to the
letter Y. =;
"Will the spirit be so good as to give, his
ini,ials7" fh3 <is s.aHS ma.' 1901
1t revolved Immediately to r and to H.
What" said /, "my father "f' :"
sit revolved again to the letter Y, indica-
ting the affirmative. slsf'
''Wrl you be So good as, to arrange those
letters in aiphabetiC. order2 -" And forthwith
the disc began to move the letters were ar
ranged successfully from the confusion in al.
phabetic order. When it had got about half
through the alphabet, slid l. "Will YOU now
spell the name Of Washington pr Fstl.i''a
The name Of Washington was spelt. "WiIl
you spell the nameief Franklin :" The name
of Franklin was spet. "Will you spell my
name 2" My name was spelt Now, said the
Doctor, you must give up; you made this in
strument to disprove spiritualism, and you see
it confirms it. Said /, this is the most impor-
tant experiment that I ever performed, if It is
proving that spirit is present-that the shade
Of my honored father is here. What an aw.
full idea that the spirit Of my honorrd father
was there, moving that disc! Compressed
iaughter.) Said I, it is too much to acknowl-
edge at once; you must allow me time to repeat
the experiment. The medium said she would
not sit for me again. / was 80 incredulous