Daily Iowa State Democrat. [volume] (Davenport, Iowa) 1856-1859, 1859-01-25

/ ed nuch remark throughout Tue chy uo
! lie opinion has teen very much divided
with reference to the matter, some designa'
ting the members Of the Association as g In.
fidels,' others Spiritualists," "Women's
rights men" Free Lovers, etc, etc, and
it has moreover been the subject matter Of
ore or two very "hifaluten" and silly arti
c,es in city cotemporary. For the Pur-
pose CT finding out what the Davenport In
stitute really was, and that we might keep
our readers informed upon all matters Of
public nterest, We betook ourself to Baileys
Hall on Sunday ofternoon last, at two
o'clock. On entering the room, which is in
the second story Of the building and occu
pied, we believe as school room during
the week, we discovered about forty per-
sons seated on three long benches placed
against the wall. The President, Mr.. A. J..
Lawes, was seated with the memb. re, upon
the bench at the north side Of the room
and had no insignia of Office or position, by
which to distinguish him from the rest OF
the members. The person who acted as
Secretary, whose name, we are informed,
is Sheppard, was seated at q email desk
near the President, busily engaged IN taking
notes of speech then being made. OF the
forty persons present, thirteen were females.
The speaker, Mr.. Thompson, favorably
i. known to this community as tailor. read
from bound manuscript carefully pre-
pared, but we must be permitted to remark,
somewhat unintelligable speech. As we
entered he was saying that "as every por-
ton of tree aspired and conspired to make
fruit, so every atom of nature aspired and
conspired to make man." For some time
we listened with the closest attention, en-
deavoring to find out the subject Of the
discussion or to discover the thread of his
argument but being unable to do so. we
turned to a person who sat beside us--a
member of the Society-and learned from
him that the question under discussion,
was "Does man preserve his individual
identity after the dissolution of the body ?"
ard that Mr.. Thompson was opening the
discussion on the part Of the Affirmative
Man was immortal he thought, ''per Sc,
that is, of himself and not by the favor of
an Almighty donor. and true religion was
the aspiring after the good, the true, the in
finite" all of which was very fine. but not
particularly plain. 1t might have also been
more satisfactory if he had given some
reasons to suppor, his theories He pro-
ceeded with somewhat curious argument
upon God, nature, mind, instinct, mesmer-
ism, clairvoyance and finally spiritualism
Upon this latter, which appears to be his
particular hobby. he expatiated at some
length, attempting to prove that because
spiritualsm is true, (?) therefore, the roul
of man preserves Its identity after the disso-
luton of the body. He finally sat down,
but no applause was heard. because other
members of the Society, anxious to ventil.
late their particular theories, had grown i'm
patient during the lengthy speech.
Mr.. l. W. Harrison then took the floor,
swinging lorg cane which he had in his
hand, very energetically. He had not had
time to prepare himself, having been busily
engaged in the coal business. He had
heard nothing to convince him that the
soul of man lives hereafter. Man might
have been created as the Bible states, but
he did not believe in future existence.
Mr.. Macintosh then arose. After read.
ing from paper which he held in his hand
a short speech, which did not, as We were
able to see, have any particular bearing up
on the subject, he spoke extemporanecusly.
He did not believe that man lived after
death. 1t was contradiction to say that o
man lived after he was dead. Suppressed
laughter) He then proceeded to express
his disbelief in the Bible, and to expatiate
at some length regarding the comfort which
infdels had in the hour Of death. They
were afraid of nothing in the future; but
could lay down and die calmly and philo-
sophically. lie was not prepared to follow
Mr.. Thompson in his argument, but thought
that I've are as other animals. We die
and that is the end Of u.s."
Mr. Sheppard, the Secretary, then spoke.
He did not wish to confound christianity
with any of the curreLt beliefs of the day.
He was not christian or an atheist. He
| did not believe in hell, where devils enjoy
themselves in running about and poking
each other with pitchforks. neither did he
believe in heaven, with God and great
white throne, nor any such tomfoolery as
that but he believed in future existence.
He, like Mr.. Thompson, was apparently an
enthusiastic spiritualist, and proceeded to
give his ideas upon future state in accor.
dance with that belief
Mr.. Macintosh wanted to know how q
soul could hear, talk, see, smell or taste
without the body. There was nothing in
the belief Of the existence of a soul
Mr.. Campbell did not seem to be settled
in his own mind upon the question-a'
least, we did not discover that he was. AL
that we could gather was. that there wal
something to be aspired after-somethine
to be aimed at.
DR.. LANCER being called upon, said if they
wished him to tell what he knew about .
future state, be could not tell them any
thing but if they desired to hear what h
believed, he could tell them. His idea wa
that the spirit Of man was double. TIL
first part, the life, died. and that was tn
end of it: but the second part, or S.ul, b
believed was immortal He would not sus
tain his belief by reason he did not kno'
it: but he believed it.
A desire was then made manifest t
hear our opinions upon the subject; but 70