Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1858-01-07
Spiritualism.

place of natural causes. But III thiS ehight-
ened age, it might seem incredible that learn
ed divine should believe that fictitious events
have developed law of nature by which the
incarnation of Christ was produced. The hea-
then philosophers never deemed it necessary to
study the different systems of mythology in Or
der to acquire knowledge of cause and effect
The preceptor of Epicurus repeated to him the
following line from Hesoid
"In the beginning of things Chaos was created"
The thoughtful and inquisitive Epicurus,
who was then but twelve years of age, inquired, .
g Who created the Chaos?" His preceptor,
who was unable to answer this inquiry, referred
him to the philosophers. Then said Epicurus,
60 henceforth philosophers shall instruct me-"
But the Rev. e. M. Wheelock, a Spiritualist,
seeks not the instruction of philosophers, but
substitutes the widest imaginary creations for
realities He Is not, however, aware, that the
imagination finds the materials for the ideal, not
in mere fiction, but in realities, or acknowledge
ed facts.
The Rev. Spiritualist supposes that the divine
incarnation might have been the natural result
of mere sympathy on the part of Mary, the
mother of Christ. He says, " Even this case
would not be without paralleisms. In sup
port of this absurd theory, he makes the fol-
} lowing quotation & In Corinth, at the yearly
Dionysac festival, ard the drunken dithyrambic
revelry Of its songs and dances, they hymned
L., Al a. r. &c.
tions with such preter-lyical ferver, such hight
of inhamed zeal, as to repeat in their own per-
. sons the stupendous mysteries of physical mu-
tation. They changed themselves for the time
e into satyrs, fauns, and woodland nymphs.''-
/ He then adds on his own responsibility, 90 Now
4 this phenomenon is attested by the ancient his
torians, and was positive bodily transformation"
0 What ridiculous credulity! The transforma-
t Spritualist is perfectly natural but such
D transformation of sensible Divine would be
stupendous miracle. 1t would require the ope-
ration of that lalo which caused sad and re-
J markable change in the life and habits of ia
5 nous king q Babylon.
n There exists a wide distinction between the
e acts of creation and Transformation. A being,
or thing, must necessarily exist anterior to its
f transformation. Hence, transformation is a
ia change which thing or being undergoes. The
ia original creation of man cannot be considered
# the mere transformation of earth by physical
# law. Nor does the doctrine of Transformation
,r as held by some of the ancient philosophers,
Ia serve to illustrate in the slightest degree, the
w mysterious incarnation of Christ.
It According to the mythology of the Greeks,
" fauns and satyrs were Divinities, part human
" and part goat. The nymphs were youthful
a goddesses, the daughters of Jupiter, and &C
g cording to Hesoid, lived more than six hundred
or thousand years. 1t is strange that learned
to Divine should believe in the existence of beings
al " More bodess
-, Than ever fancy, at tn Of night,
'u Playing at will, framed in the mad mans bran.''
., And it is sadly strange that he should believe
~ that persons by drunkenness, enthusiasm and
~ ~ other means, have been transformed into such
- bodiless beings. IF the widest fanatcism, If
w voluntary and unnatural contortion and grim
IN ace,-if the most fervent singing of unmeasured
~ and unmeaning rhapsodies, ever transformed
10 persons into fauns and satyrs such TRANSFORMED
y tions would have taken place at the late Con-
=, vention of Spiritualsts in Ludlow, Vt, for
IN these, and other means were most faithfully en-
w. ployed. The transformation of these modern
0i Conpulsionists into sem-goats, would seem,
- however, to require much more physical, than
'' intellectual change.
WI At the Dionysiac festivals the personal trans
formations were Z" for the time only or during
U.s. the influence of wine and the fervency of sing
us ing and dancing. The Rev. Spiritualist might
hg have appealed to other remarkable cases which
oh are " attested by ancient historians" 1t i.
IL said that Tiresas, the son of Everus celebrat
ed prophet of Thebes, when a youth, struck O
er- pair of serpents with a stick, and was greatly
o. surprised on finding himself suddenly changed
lth into girl. That seven years after, he struck
Ike another pair of serpents, and instantly recover
ere ed his original sex. Gases like this the Meta
len morphosis of Ovid, and
-" &" The dreams of Pindus and TIL Aonian maids
~ 10 are, in his opinion, of sufficient authority tc
~ establish a new system of theology, and to ex-
~ plain the most remarkable phenomena of nature
-. According to his theory all of the miracles re
Nv corded by the sacred writers, had their paral
,V lelisms " in heather mythology, and, therefore
are to be considered as the operation of the law,
't' of nature.
~ The sable complexion of the Ethiopans, fur
nishes metaphysical problem that has elicitec
''n much learned and ingenious disquisition. Blu
according to the Rev. Spiritualist, the cause o.
their complexion, is no longer hypothetical, bu
g. most clearly demonstrated by NEUROLOGICAL his
- tory. 1t is said that Pheton obtained permits
- sion " to take his fathers place in the chariot
al of the sun; that he mounted the flaming car
Avn and taking the reins, when the celestial horses
~, despising their weak driver, turned out of theil
path and the Philippians were blackened by the
near approach of the SUM-" Thus Spiritualist.
N' by the aid of angels and mythology, attempt to
solve the most difficult and perplexing prob
vi lens.
nU' The raising of the dead by the prophet Elisha
''' and by Christ, is considered miracle; but
cru Esculapius it is said, raised to life Hippotytus
ing and 81 is attested by ancient historians" that
Se. Appollonius ERASED a young lady from the
oi- dead at Rome;" therefore, according to tn,
u" logic of the Rev. Spritualst, the raising of tn
JUS dead as recorded by the sacred writers, shoul
not be considered miracle. From this conclu
lers s;o, u e,lo,,s +hat a. o4:4. r II,