Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1865-11-09

were men of courage, not to be blinded by
superstitious panic. Is it a 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
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 ghostly disturb
ance. But a mere succession OF sounds,
indicating, if we are TO 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
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 their minds that communications
between this world and the next are impos-
sible, and who will content themselves with
pronouncing, that, though they cannot detect
the mode Of imposture, yet imposture Of
some kind or other it plainly must have
been.
And such skeptics viii very properly re-
mind us Of other difficulties in the way Of
accepting as a reality the alleged phenomena.
What have the spirits of the departed to do
with conveyances resembling those of earth
ly structure? Are there incorporeal carri-
ages and horses? Can grave men admit such
fancies as these?t Or is all this, even if
genuine, only symbolical, sounds without
objective counterpart? Then what becomes
CT the positive character Of this narrative,
as q lesson, as a warning to us? The whole
degenerates into an acted parable. 1t fades
into the idle pageantry OF q dream. Thus
we lose ourse1ves,in shadowy conjecture.
But, none the less, the facts, if facts they
be,vremain TO be dealt with. And If ct last
we concede to the ultramundane origin of
these manifestations, whether as objective
reality or only as truth-teaching allegory,
what field is opened to our speculations
regarding the realms Of spirit and the pos
aible punishments there in store for those
who by degrading their natures in this
world, may have rendered themselves unfit
for happiness ia the next,--and who, per-
haps, still attracted to earth by the debasing
excuses they once mistook for pleasure, may
be doomed, in the phantom repetition Of
their sins, to detect their naked reality, to
have stamped on their consciousness The
yileness Of these without the brutal gratif-
cations that yelled it, the essence Of vice
shorn of its sensual halo, the grossness with
QUIT he glitter: if SO, a terrible expiation
beg it may not be imagined, that, be-
cause see grave difficulties in the way of
regarding this case 80 one Of imposture, I
therefore set it up as proof of q novel theory
regarding future punishments. structure
so great cannot be erected on foundation so
slender but furnish it as a chance con-
trihution towards the probabilities of ultra
mundane Intercourse, - as material for
thought,--as one of those hints which future
facts may render valueless, but which, on
the other hand, other observed phenomena
may possibly serve to work out and CORE
borate and explain,
find ii my journal the f3llowip =" AugSst II,
1857. Read over TO the Baron Won P thePutkan
narratives and he sseaed to its accuracy in every
PARTICULAR
/ This story is given in Gar.nets Historic dc Ia
Maggie en- France, p IS.
] Yet in a recent case occurring In England and
authenticated in the strongest manner the sound of
carriages driving in the park when there is
Of tie incidents given the authority of the lady
who hal witnessed the disturbances and who furnishes
detailed account of them See "Eacts and Fantasies,
sequel to lights and Sounds, the Mystery OF tue
Day," by Henry Spicer, London 1858, pp 7e~l01.