The Nevada journal., 1857-11-06
S fInITuALIsM AND ITS OPPONENTS.

began to be developed in this country
III he shape of the Rochester knockings.
Fro n the smallest beginningsit has gone
on spread to that extent that there
is SC hrcely neighborhood in the United
Stat les where there are not earnest be-
LEVERS in the reality Of a newly discov.
cred channel of communication between
the world of spirits and this diurnal
sphere. They claim that there are
from one million to fifteen hundred
thousand converts to the new doctrine,
and that the number is rapidly on the
incr base. They possess a confidence
of belief which they affirm cannot be
shall zen. 1t rests they say, on the very
best evidence, the evidence of the SEN
ses and intellectual phenomena, which
cannot be accounted for on any other
supposition than that the spirits Of the
departed are permitted to come back to-
earth and communicate knowledge which
they alone can possibly possess They
claim to have seen the laws Of gravita-
ton overcome in preternatmaI man
ner: tables lifted from the earth without
hands, bells rung in mere space, and hui
man beings raised up and suspended
between heaven and earth, without any
visible support. They claim to have
seen the powers Of the mind suspended
aud the hand seized upon by some for
ei@n force and made TO obey an intelli-
gence coming from some other sphere
! Of existence. This belief has not been
confined to the obscure and the ignorant,
but men of education and science have
given in their adhesion and been among
The most Jealous disciples of spiritualism.
In many places they have established
a worship Of tlreir own, have abandoned
the Christian churches and profess TO
have approached nearer to the unveiled
secrets Of eternity through human me-
dia of the present day than through
Christ and his apostles. The belief of
multitudes is fixed and it is in vain that
they are assailed by argument or ridi-
cule. They have the most undoubtine
faith, and many of them profess to have
been raised by their belief above the
troubles of the world and the fear Of
death: They have been accused of
skeptical tendencies so far as the Bible
is concerned, and many Of them speak
OF it with an irreverence which is shock
ing to the Christian world. They have
been communicated from the church
es, and III some instances prosecuted,
without the slightest effect Many
dou btless would be willing to endure
ma tyrdom in the cause
lfn,l1 oil ia L., 4 p
dation in fact Is all Truman testimony
to be set aside because it goes to estab-
fish facts which fall without the circum-
ferenc of previous experience? And
yet there Is another class of persons who
con ne forward and deny and ridicule the
role; they denounce it as imposture
and deception, worthy only of the atteh-
top Of the ignorant and the supersti-
OPS. We see that some of the grave
professors at Cambridge, on the strength
of some attempt at deception and some
shameful failures to make good the pre-
tensions Of spirituaiism, have come be-
fore the public with fat denial Of the
reality of each and all the phenomena
which are claimed as indubitable facts.
| W E confess that we are sorry TO see this.
w hatever splritualism may or may not
be tins Is no way to put it down. Per-
feet fairness Of mind is the first requisite
for philosophical investigation. The
exhibition Of passion and prejudice nul-
| lilies the authority Of the acutcst minds
and renders the results of scientific in
! quiry suspicious and unreliable, 1t will
not do for philosophers to do evil that
good may come; to refuse to admit facts
on proper testimony for fear of the CON
sequences that may be drawn from them.
1t is in vain for few men, however
high they may stand in the scientific
world, to expect that their ipse dixit is
| to'destroy the belief of multitudes In the
testimony Of their own senses.
We are no advocates for the belief
thPt the phenomena of spirituahsm have
their origin in the world of departed
spirits. he arguments which are bro't
to sustain that explanation we consider
to have been heretofore unsatisfactory.
Altogether, the communications which
are alleged to come from he spiritual
world contain such mixture of truth
and faisehood that we cannot suppose
that the venerable men who are person
ated can so far forget themselves as to
deceive the dwell6rs beneath the Gimp
ses of the moon. But it is equally Ger
tain thal the phenomena Of spiritualism,
taken as a whole, are some of the most
remarkable feats of the present age
They are thus far unaccounted for, and
scientific men are quite as much in the
dark concerning them as the most igno-
rant. Professor Farraday, with all his
science, came to Il conclusion concern
ing them, in our estimation, utterly lame
and impotent. Professor Lowering did
Very little better. To call the power
which effects the physical phenomena
TIP "odte" force is no explanation. 1t
Is merely giving a name to class of
phenomena wholly unaccountable. We
hope TO see the day when the light of
science will illuminate this chaos and
reiuca ia or6ar the factS which n MI a.