The Daily Nashville true Whig. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1851-1855, 1855-08-23


complete exhibition with which they had been IA
vored, but remarked that the obligation would be
enhanced If the "sprits would move the table
about four feet at right angles that the chairs
would come right for their late occupants This
was Immediately done, and the performance was
deemed so perfectly full and satisfactory that moth
ing more was asked at this session
DIR. Bell was understood to say that this made
some five or,six times in which he had seen the Ia
bic move without human contact, and all under cir
cumstances apparently as free from suspicion as
this lust related He also stated that the Rev. Mr.
P a clergyman Of extraordinarily sagacious per
ceptions and mechanical skill, took this same me-
dunn to his own house, without previous thougnt,
where she never before had been, and where bis
own table in the presence of his own family alone,
went through the fullest locomotion without human
tourh DR. Bell mentioned, that, in his last expe
riment-that Just narrated-the entire space moved
through was over fifty feet
DR.. Bell then passed to the topic Of responses TO
mental and verbal questions, and gave several mar
ratiyes Of long conversations with what purported
to be the spirits Of persons dead fer twenty Ave to
forty years, in which every question he could de-
wise relating to their domestic history and to events
in H. known only to them and him, had been truly
answered. Some Of the subjects put mentally.
G.. without speaking or writing--had half dozen
correct replies, fOFbidding, OF course, completely,
on any doctrine Of chances, the contingency OF ac-
clQent or concurrence, HteIH"@ HuCSeHS' V''
Sc negative the explanation of previous knowledge
on the part of the medium.
A brief abstract of one Of these will give gen.
eral idea Of their character. DR.. Bell had freqent-
" remarked to his spiritual" friends, that If any
medium could reproduce the essential particulars OF
a 6nal interview which had occurred between him
self and deceased brother, in 1926, he should be
almost compelled TO admit that it came from his
spirit because he was sure that he DR.. BelD never
4 II -. lauanr hair
as it never had been known to but two persons and
was Of go peculiar, Unmarked a character, as not
10 be capable Of being COMPOUNDED By generates,
be should hardly be able otherwise to explain It,
A few weeks afterwards what purported to be the
spirit Of that brother, narrated the essential par
ticulars of the interview, the place where, down
to the well recolIected fact that he adjusting the
stirrTpS Of his horse preparatory to distant jour
ney, when il was held
Pretty early, however, in his investigations, DR..
Bell began to find that, however correct his spirit
ual conferences were, in most Of their responses,
the moment question was put involving response
the truth of which was unknown to him. uniform
failure occurred. Sometimes, where he believed
at the time that his questions were truly answered,
subsequent information had shown him that he bad
been mistaken. He had answers which he believ-
ed to be true when the facts were decidedly other
wise.
Pursuing this train of inquiry, he found the
"spirits," while averring that they could see him
distinctly, I" face to face" never could read the
signature TO letters taken from an old file, and IN
folded yithout his hauing the Writing Yet
soon rs he had cast his eye upon the signature,
without allowing any one else to see it. it was
promptly and correctly reproduced by the alpha
betical rappings. And again, when be had made
previous arrangement with his family that they
should do certain things every quarter of an hour
at home-he of course, not knowing what-while
he was 10 ask the Esprit" what done at the
instant, uniform failure occurred. He proved too
that the theory Of the "spiritussts 70 meet such
diculties-viz that evil trihing spirits nterfer
ed at their end of the telegraph-was not tenable
For the reasons just before and after these gross
failures had been eminently and wonderfully accu-
rate and the "spirits only declared that they
saw with perfect cearness what was going on at his
house, but denied that there had been any inter-
ference.
Dr. Bell also gave examples where test questions
involving replies unknown to the interrogation had
been designedly intermixed with those which were
known. The result uniformly was that the known
responses, however curious and far remote, were
correctly reproduced, the unknown were a set of
perfectly wild aud laundering errors the responses
after being obviously formed out Of the phraseology
of the question, as stuck school boy guesses out
a reply
The result of the inquiries of DR.. Bell and his
friends-fOr several gentleman OF emnently fitting
talents pursued the investigation with him-was
briefly this--thdt WhGta the queStioner kno'cs
tie spirits kIou Dhdt The q,6Stsoner does not kIOl0
the s,,sls ~-ss.tirsIy tg'soru"t Of Ia other words
that there are really no superhuman agencies in the
matter at all-no connection with an other state OF
existence; but that il bears certain strong analo-
gies to some of the experiences of cldirUoyace in
that mysterious science of animal magnetism, as it
has been proeuding and receding for the last hun
a MI. L 4
to believe that the matter reproduced may
come not ouly from the questioner, but if in the
mind of any one at the circle, that it might be
evolved He made some observations upon the
evidences Of spirit existence, drawn from the char
acter Of the matter communicated by the mediums
in a state of impression when, is believed, spir.
its express themselves through the human agent
OF course, the quality OF such composition is more
or less question of taste. Much of ii is elevated
indicating high intellectual and moral capacities in
the mind TO which it owes its origin. Much more
absurd peurile and disgusting, infinitely below the
grade OF the human productions of the same per.
son from whom il protessedly comes. Yet the
spiritual revelation has given nothing of such
extraordinary value novelty as to stamp it.
in the judgment of unprecedented minds as of super
mundane production. DR.. Bell alluded to q trea-
tise witch had been put into his hands by an ear
nest spritualist purporting TO the work Of Thomas
Paine, the author of the Age of Reason, &c,
which II was thought would carry conviction to any
body, as it purported - be full explanation of the
formation and changes Of this earth, by one who
from his status must know oil about it. The truth
was that the work was the production of some
mind, celestial or mundane, ignorant Of the very
first rudiments Of chemical philosophy, in which
the most ridiculous blunders were made on every
page in matters which are as demonstrable as
mathematics, aud where, of course, the answer
cannot be made that the revelation was too high
for common readers. Nor does DR.. Bell believe,
from his observations, that the waters from this
fountain ever reach q higher level than their
source. The most elevated specimen Of the
spiritual literature would no doubt be found in
the COMMUNICATES fcm Swedenborg and Lord
Bacon, IN judy Ediesns's and DIR. DeIter's first
aud and secons So1dmes. Yet, whoever reads the
very elegant and powerful preliminary treatise of
these gentlemen, which Dr. Bell thought woaId
compare lavorAbly with any writings of the kind
ever published, would not able to feel that Sven
borg and Lord Bacon after their nearly one and
more than two centuries residence, respectively,
~ culture Of the refined senses Of ,he
" a 'h"ir IN.