New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1857-08-13

y.uring 60 many OF cur young meG Sld
maidens-especiaiy n,aider,, if :hy-e e9an-
pions Of female purity, the CAMBRIDGE Com
inittee are 10 be credited. TIE learned Professor,
in his zeal for the good cause lot over s,r7yulo.s
about times and seasons; nor does he refrain from
personalities So carefully as one would expect from
gentleman who has so frequently expressed Ms
regret and disgust at the personalities Of those WHO
crusade not against Spirtalism, bit against
greater monster-Slavery. He does no, hesitate 70
charge very worthy and res oectabe people with
Wing and cheating, not for holding men in Slavery,
not for logging women, or selling babies or robbug
negroes OF their earnings, but simply, in some
AZ least, for what amounts TO more than holding
opinions which Professor FELTON, considers Illogical
and untrue. and for believing that to BE fac. which
he holds to be no fact.
For example, in recent Grafton before tie Nor.
NAL School at Salem he says: dr. Gardner who.
- having declared that the same higher intelgences
know all that is in the minds of the audience,
then. forgetting what be has said. tells the uei-
L" gences they have misunderstood a Question he has
himself propounded mters tais,tood
- sc;Ousty."
Here You have an excellent specimen of the sort
Of logic which is now in vogue in Cambridge and
which even highly intelligent men like Prof FELTON,
use with as much confident gravity as if they were
propOundipg the cOmmOnest mathematical axioms.
Out of Cambridge, candid men would say that DIR.
Garduers remark that the "ntelGgences' know all
that is in the minds of the audience was not to he
taken with rigid lferalness, because it was mat
ter on which DR.. Gardner could have no certain
knowledge, though he might honestly have conf
dent and erroneous opinion; and bis subsequent
remark-that The int 'llgences did not understand
certain question put to them--was an apparent in
consistency which might be very far removed from
the utteIance of a fslsehOOd consciously. Ii | III
my confidence in the learning of Professor FELTON,,
should affirm, as l honestly could, that he is per-
tectly yersed in Greek and Germsn literature, l
should have reason to consider myself harshly
,reatcd if charged with conscious alsehOOd because
il subsequently appeared that there was something
in Greek or German literature Of which the learned
Professor was ignorant. 1t would not be just to
hold me to the strict literal force of the phrase,
perfectly versed"
..Mr. Stiles" continues Professor FELTON,. "who,
"havng forged the names of Daniel Webster and
John Quincy Adams to writings as silly as 1t is
possible for imperfect human nature 10 make
chem tells his dupes that the spirits of those Illus
"trious men guided bis hand ard dictated his
words-utters detestable fslsehoOd consciously"
know nothing of Mr.. Stiles but is not this rather
hard on him Is it not just possible that he may be
deranged, or nervous or silly, or deluIed, without
being forger and the utterer OF detestable false
hood make no question that his communlca-
no more believe that they came from Webster or
Adams than l believe that the moon is made OF
green cheese, Eut however Iidculeus may be his
theory of their origin that theory may be honestly
entertained. Belief in it may give logical ground
for questioning his understanding, but not his
morality.
Prof FELTON, proceeds: "When Judge Edmonds
"of New.YOrk asserted, under his own signature,
"that the wreck of the Arctic was communicated
"to four persons at the moment she went down, he
"told an untruth which he has not had the courage
TO repeat nor the conscience to retract." Another
specimen Of Cambridge logic, and Of that cool con-
sideraion of motives and circumstances OF which
we have heard so much lately. An ordinary and
careless reasOner would have simply concluded that
the Judge was, at the most mistaken or deceived.
Again-"a respectable gentleman of Boston" re-
marked to Prof FELTON, " that departed splits must
conform to the abilities of the medium, ard their
communications are Affected by the intehectua'
"capaci;ies of the person through whore organism
"they pass reply so absurd that, in the honest
exercise of a common understanding, he could not
possibly have believed it himself He soPhisfica-
lied his own mind into quasi-belief OF this non
"slrous fiction, and then employed it in argument
Gas established iact-a proceeding that has the
"moral wrong OF intentional ialsehOOd."
II would appear from this that if man believes
what is absurd the process by which he arrives at
that belief has the moral wrong OF intentional false
hood i. is surprising that the doctrine prOponndcd
ly the respectable gentleman Of Boston should so
amaze the learned Professor, who seems to think 1t
an unheard of absurdity, whereas it lis as Old as
Christianity if not oder and has been held by very
eminent tbeologsns and metaphysicans. 1t has
entered largely into the speculatOns on the nature
Of inspiration. IL is one Of the doctrines taught by
SwedenbOrg, and is believed by thousands OF honest
people in ali parts of the world. | fear that on in
vestigation it would be found even within the pre-
cmcts ii the University at Cambridge, perchance
even beneath professor gown.
The Spiritualists do not seem to be disposed to
endure without retOrt these severe assaults, and
understand il is not improbable that some OF the
gentlemen whom Professor FELTON, has attacked by
name and accused of living and cheating, may take
measures to compel him to prove his charges IN
count of justice. OLIVER
Ere. Oar Own Correspondent
BoSToN, Tuesday, Mug. II, l-j'
The following paragraph from The Christian
Enguirer is going the rounds Of the papers, but l
cannot remember whether or not it has yet aP'
peared in TlE TRIBUNE:
1.-The scientific circles at Cambridge have been re.
CO, ty interested in an observation of Prof. eirce not
vet lubls he'd, upon the form OF the continents. III
we elevate terrestrial globe until the Arctic ana An
taicc circles are tangent TO the wooden horZon sna
then cause the globe slowly to revove, we shau ma
that majority Of the lines of elevation IN the earths
ciusi e. asst lines and mountain ranges, VIII, either
as they rise or as they 20 down, coincide in passing
with The wooden horizon. For example. the man
ccast Of tie United States tending northeast will, If
carid on in great circle Craze the Arctic circle
and the coasts Of Florida aud Labrador tending north
WI 4 will gaze it on the other eide. The same is true
Of the east coasts &c South America and Arics me
coasts Of the Red Sea- Of Italy Of the Black Sea- OF
Iindostan, OF New-Zealand, etc The Arctic and An
tarc;c circles are also coast lines, being Away tan
gent to the horizon. II Is almost impossible to e1ag-
geia.e the importance cf this fine dseove y proving
a. Il -. Al onts That no