Weekly hawk-eye and telegraph. [volume] (Burlington, Iowa) 1855-1857, 1857-02-04
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9Ptk13Mnltesms
n The village of Ludlow, IN Western No. =.
chussfss. 4 singular manifestation q the peco-
liar ini1nenss e. pf3tisunlistic doctuncss nov -
extensively dihdsed' Ii the community. was mace
public iast weck. A widower IN Springfield pro
fessed In have received comnunication from
his departed wife, Informing him that her spirit
had taken possession Of married woman resid.
ing in Ludlow, towards whom, in consequence
IL WAS fully entitled 10 claim the position aud
authority AZ husband. It does not appear from
she narrative, as We fad il in the papers, what
brcame Of the proper and original spirit of the
Ludlow woman We are left uniformed ~ TO
whether that evacuated the premises at ths ap
proach of the usurping spirit from springncid,
or whether the two souls continue TO occupy the
tenement in common.
Hoveyert that NAV be, the husband of the Lud-
low woman. who is himselfa jealous spiritualist
ON being told OF the extraordinary spiritual trans
formation that had befallen his wife, promptly
surrendered her into the conjugal possession Of
the Springfield widower, by whom she was re-
ceived as his own wife, clothed with another
woman's body. A sister Of the Transformed
wife--the Ludlow wife, We mean-aPpears TO
have been implicated in this strange anair,
which at lengtharoused the attention and the
warmth of the neighbors, who broke up the
spiritual "cirele," by tarring and feathering the
Springfield man, riding him out OF town on
rail, and giving warning to the women to depart
forthwith.
There is reason to believe that transactions Of
this nature, not Of course, precisely similar in
detail, but similar in character, are becoming
alarmingly frequent among the disciples OF spir-
itualisn. Probably not one tenth OF those that
occur are made public, because every induce
ment exists to cover them. If possible, with the
closest veil OF secresy. But enough is known
to make it certain that they have already caus'
ed a frightful amount of revolving criminalty
and domestic misery. The evil, too, seems to
be on the ncrese. The tendency to loose and
innovating notions on the subject of marriage Is
manifestly becoming wide spread among the fol.
lowers of the new faith, and, unless some meas
ures are taken to check this tendency, the result
Will be a perversion of opinion and q demorali'
cation Of manners, involving the gravest conse.
| quences of society.
The spiritual manifestations of the present
| doy whatever may be their real character, tand
on that point we do not wish to express an opin'
ion) are not without their parallels in the past.
| In almost all ages, and among all nations, men
have received 6r have professed to receive, com.
| muncation from the spiritual world. The pos
sibility, the reality of such communications was
never doubted, until in the last century the inh-
| del philosophy of France became diffused through
the euucatcu GLASSES VI CuTlSteuuOLu, eHSchuei~
ing materialistic scepticism, against which the
spiritualism of our day is only reaction, and a
return to old modes of thought. As is apt to
be the case with reactions, it has gone to excess
and whenever in the past the tendency to spirit
ualsm has been carried to excess, the inevitable
| accompaniment has been au attack upon the VI
tai and central principles of society-the mar
| rage relation. 1t was so in the fanatical out
breaks of spiritualism in the middle ages 1t
was so with the Auabaptists in the 18th centu-
ry, and the Illumir att in the eighteenth In our
own day tits so with the followers of Hofaker
| in Germany, and with the Mormons, whose pc
cular doctrines of the relations of the sexes are
| all based on protested communications from the
| spiritual world. This peculiar propensity OF
spiritualism, together with its aptness to cause
insanity, are evils of themselves sufficient to in.
duce all thoughtful and prudent persons to be-
ware of inconsiderably engaging themselves in
! expe iments with its doubtful and dangerous
| phenomena.