The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1858-12-02
BALTIMORE.
DECEMBER 2. 1859.

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1853.
Ills singular fact, that men of the most judi
cisl mipds-mcn accustomed to weigh evidence, and |
to discuss probabilities with the most critical acute
ness and whose studies during long professional
career have taught them TO seize, with the utmost |
rrc,isiou, the weak points Of any cause which !
,bsy MAY he engaged, either to defend or to op-
nos,-lnav be occasionally found with judgments |
Gu warped upon some one particular subject, that
shallow reasoning and the most inconclusive ar
,rn,ncns pass current with them for the soundest
1oaie, There are few lawyers in New York, who
rank higher in their profession, or are held in |
Greater personal esteem, than Judge EDMoNDs.
Attentive to his professional duties, systematic in
his habits clear-headed and sagacous, he has
enorcd for some years past an excellent practice,
and has won for himself the confidence and re-
spcct Of his clients. 1t seems strange that such
man should hazard his professional reputation,
no. only By openly avowng himself q convert to
Sniritualism but by writing books in defence Of
this new doctrine and by undertaking to deliver
public discourses upon the subject. We have
now before us brief report of an address made
bv him. on Sunday last before a congregation,
composed, mainly, of Spiritualists-in which he
treats Of his spiritual experiences, and of the dis
"couracements and drawbacks to which those who
"are privileged to receive communications from
''the spirit world continually subjected
While avowing himself sincere believer in the
truth of spiritual revelations, he complains of the
difficulty of discriminating between what actually
comes from u disemboded spirit, or from the sp
rits Of other persons still living, from the spirit
of the medium himself He acknowledges that
these receptions are frequent, and that those who
seek the guidance of spirits, are very apt to be
msled by them. One would have supposed, that
this fact alone would have stamped the whole
affair as a delusion, but the very evidence
which Judge EDMoNDs would reject Who'll
ly untruStworthy, in Court of Law, he
accepts implicitly in this instance, in spite of
its avowed contradictions. He admits, that
there is great danger of being deceived, and that
spiritual mediums often mistake the directions that
come from their own minds and hearts, from their
own passions and appetites for the promptings
of dsembodied spirits. He himself, he says had,
in one instance, been most egregiously deceived
We fear that the deception commenced, when he
embraced spiriualism as q faith and has con-
liuuSu luiUuSnCul All HIS imaginary intercourse
with the spirit world. His two bulky Volumes
published some years ago, evidently but re-
cords Of his own mental impressions, and such
as might have been dictated by any well informed
person in a state of religious exaltation. The in
stance in which the Judge acknowledges himself
TO have been deceived, is singularly suggestive
''He was,' he says, 'about to make lecturing
"tour through the country, and was intending to
go alone, and to accept of no compensation eX-
"cept what would be barely sufficient to defray his
Expenses, when medium informed him that he
Unjust take him with him, and that the spirits had
INSTRUCTED him that he must accept of compensa-
'ton. During their tour, this medium once in
formed him. on behalf of the spirits, that he was
''doing him (the medium) great injustice in claim
'ng all the credit of the lectures himself and not
quitting his name upon the hand-bills and pla-
''cards. The Judge asked the spirits if they had
''seen the placards; they said No, but they saw
'them in tie nediun'S mind. He asked the me-
'dium if he had seen them, and he answered No
'Now the fact was, said the Judge, that his name
''raS upon the handbills,--and yet because the
''nedum thought it was not, the spirits saac it thus
'Omited in his mind, and gave him directions
accordingly. Here was a clear case in which the
''spirts were misled by the unconscious condition
''of the mediums own mind ~ We should have
said, the contrary, ''Here was clear case of a
'knavsh medium operating upoa q respectable
'lawycr, who is himself the victim of delusion''
but Judge ED&oNDs simply refers to it as an illus
traton Of the difficulty of distinguishing between
communications which are reliable and those which
are not; and the only conclusion he reaches is,
that there is rule WI, &c +rre
can - DISTINGUISHED f"o,~ .l,ns ,rI;ab Cleo,
though he believed "that careful and persevering
study would eventually find some way" This
is cold comfort enough, but the Judge derives
consolation from the fact that such revelations are
neither certain or reliable and therefore cannot
soon become authoritative. In this opinion he
will find many, who are certainly not spirtualsts
who will coincide with hm-though they NAV moi
SO readily accept his assertion that authority has
''been the curse of the religious world for two
thousand years" "Another point" says the
Judge, (which it is very difficult to determine
us the extent to which spirits are possessed
''ot the gift of prophecy; oftentimes their pre-
ELECTIONS are true, and oftentimes they are false
land it is very difficult, but very important, tc
distinguish between them" The first question
10 which cautious investigator would address
himself is-whether spirits prophesy at all? but
this with the spirtualists appears to be taken fo
granted Notwithstanding the deplorable confusion
into which they are continually thrown-by thu
medium expressing his individual thoughts, by
the projection Of the thoughts of other minds int
that of the medium,-and by the strange bunde
committed sometimes by the spirits themselves, il
accepting and transmitting, as their own, tn
crIfrl1tc nfo ,rJ Tl,o ol,o
confessedly, three to one against the genuinenes
of the spiritual revelation; and even where tn
revelation is admitted to be from spiritual source
the doubt of the truthfulness still remains to b
settled. For we are told that there are falls
spirits who delight in misleading mediums, as we
as spirits whose moral sense revolts at deception
Even when really honest spirits prophesy, Judg
EDMoNDs kindly forwards us that their prediction
gre not always true, though he relates som
instances in which their claims to provision wer
satisfactorily subsantiated. When Doctor HATs
ill-treated his wife Judge EDNoNDs was authorize
by spirits to warn him that eff he went on in tina
''way she would be taken from him. Surely
needed no ghost to tell him that. Any man gifte
with ordinary common sense might have venture
to make SO safe prediction. We have no dout
hour Of the day. and quite as certainly fulfilled
spendthrs are told that if they go on in that wa
they will be ruined and they do 90 on and a,
ruined. Drunkards warned that if they cor
tinue to imbbe inordinately they will shorte
their lives and perhaps come to a bad end, one q
the other of which events most assuredly comes
pass. Such knowledge grows out of the habit c
tracing causes to their ultimate results and is
species of prophecy which no more requires spir
tual intervention than it would to tell the child
two years old that he would grow to be a man
he lived twenty years longer. It was natural
Doctor HATCH grossly i-used his wife, as it is al
legged he did, that ''she should be taken from him:
but Judge EDMoEDs regards his admonition as
f'clear case' of prediction Another ''cIea
Cease TO which he refers relates to th
cause of the failure of the Atlantic Telc
graph The spirits on being questioned-state
most emphatically that the interruption wa
caused ''by prevalence of mineral influences a
the other end; '-E'now," says the Judge triumph
anty eve know that there is great quantity {
f'mineral matter at the other end, and that tn
IL