The Iowa transcript. (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1858-1866, 1865-11-08

were men Of courage, not to be blinded by
superstitious panic. Is it probable thing
that they would destroy an old and valued
family mansion, without having exhausted
every conceivable expedient to detect i'm
posture.
Nor was this imposture, If as such we are
to regard it, conducted in approved form,
after the orthodox fashion. 1t assumed q
shape contrary to the usually received ideas.
NO spectre clanking its chains; no lights
burning blue; no groans Of the tormented;
no ordinary getting-up Of ghost1y disturb
ance. But a mere succession of sounds,
indicating, if We are 10 receive and interpret
them literally, the periodical return from the
world Of spirits Of some Of its tenants. rest
less and unblest. Was this the machinery a
mystifer was likely to select
Such are the difficulties that attend the
hypothesis Of a concerted plan Of deception
They will be overlooked by those who have
made up thoir minds that communication
between this world and the next are impos-
sible, and who viii content themselves with
pronouncing, that, though they cannot detec,
the mode of imposture, yet imposture Of
some kind or other It plainly must have
been.
And such skeptics will very properly re-
mind us Of other difficulties in the way Of
accepting as reality the alleged phenomena
What have the spirits Of the departed to do
with conveyances resembling those Of earth
ly structure! Are there incorporeal eerri-
ages and horscsi Can grave men admit such
fancies Is thess't Or j. all this, even II
genuine, only symbolical, -sounds vi,hcu,
objective counterpart! Then what becomes
Of tho positive character Of this narrative,
IS lesson, as warning to us: Tho whole
degensratcs into an acted parable. 1t fades
into tho idle pageantry Of a dream. Thus
We lose ourselves in shadowy conjecture.
But, mono the less, the facts, if facts they
be, remain to be dealt with. And If at last
we concede to the nltramundano origin of
these manifest atoms, whether ~ objective
reality or only al truth-teaohing allegory
what field IL opened TO our speculations
regarding the realms Of spirit and the pos
sible punIshmsnts thers in store for those
who, by degrading their nsss,1ss in this
world, may have rendered Themselves unfit
for happiness in the next,--and who, per.
haps, still attracted TO earth by tho debasing
excuses they once mis,ook for pleasure, may
be doomed, in the phantom repetition of
their sins, to detect their naked reality, TO
have stamped on their consciousness the
vllcuoSS Va tuosc WituuOt IAo u oti4-
cations that yelled it, the essence Of vice
shorn Of its sensual halo, the grossness with
out the glitter: if so, terri Bile cxpiation
/ beg it may not be imagined, that, bo-
cause soc grave difficulties in tho way of
regarding this case a. one of imposture, l
therefore set i, up as proof Of novel theory
regarding future punishments. A structure
90 grea; cannot be erected on foundation 30
slender. but furnish il as chance con-
trbution towards the probabilities Of ultra.
mundane intercourse, --as material for
thought, AS ono Of those hints which future
facts may render valueless. but which, on
the other hand. other observed phenomena
may possibly serve to work oui and zorro
borata and explain.
I aud in my 1ourns! the following 49, August Ii,
1857. Read over TO the B,rop Won p thePutk ATM
nartatve ard he ssseatsd to III accuracy In every
particular
| This story is given 10 oariuets Estoiss de Ia
Yaois "a Frecse, rs
/ Yet in recent occurring in England and
authenticated in the strongest manner the soand OF
carriages dryiGgin the park when there lie
Of the incidents gwen the authority or the lady
who had witnessed the disturbances and who furnishes
detailed acccunt Of them. See "Peots and Fantasies
sequel TO lights and Sounds, the Mystery u ths
! Day" 10y Henry Spicer, London 1883, PIP '6-lol.