New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-10-30
whenever these bank -parlor Democrats earnest
HOME THE HUMBUG.


of the insane root that takes the reason pris-
oner. In an age wherein are broken the an
Gent thralls and letters wherewith the souls
of men have been girded for hundred ages,
some eccentricities of belief and vagares OF
speculation are of course to be looked tor
| Complete mental enfranchisement is always
perilous TO q fool. Released from the leading
strings of intellectual control and guidance, Ire
runs headlong into ifatuity, chases witch
| lights and phantasms into prOlitless regions OF
| fog and bilberries, and gets himself stuck III
moral auicksands and quagmres. 1T he would
stay there and not make a noise, civilization
would be content to leave him, planted in con-
| genial mud But he makes a row. He founders
about in his wallow. and thinks that he is wander
| ing the asphodel meadows and orchards of Ar
mida. He wants the world to come and join him
! in his murky morass and help him hunt the 'gnuS
] fatui NozealOt urges his cause so eagerly as the
zealot of folly-and numerically the fools are
formidable. They invade politics, philosophy,
and religion. They have their synagogue and
| their sanhedrim, their creed and cultus, their
rubric and breyiary, and, what is more def
| initely to the purpose, their newspapers and
magazines. One of these latter, published in
the interest of the SpiTitualists, has come to us
! charged with very inflammatory matter. 1t
consists of extracts from a recent work by q
! noble author, in which are described the phe-
| nomena attendant upon the seaDces of Home,
the thaumaturgist and arch-priest of the " ultra
brutalists" who chatter the baleful litany of
the Dead Sea apes aforesaid. When lord
takes the trouble to write book, the least we can
| aud afnI hna
| ing. Johnson says that a lord who adventures
upon authorship is entitled to more lenlent
| Judgment than an untitled person. and Macau-
lay, in his review of Lord Mahon's War OF
the Succession, with slight reservation, incul-
Gates similar precept. With two such emil
nent literary authorities indicating the mode
of critical procedure in these interesting cases,
we shall run no risk Of treating the noble
author with too little ceremony. We shall
assume that he saw exactly what he says he
! saw, that he was clothed in his right mind,
and we shall briefly indicate the wonderful
occurrences which impel the author to emerge
from the tranquil seclusion of private life into
| the turbulent arena Of literature
In the description of the first seance, we are
| not much surprised TO find mention made of a
table which, without visible help. tilted itself
| I'D at an angle of forty-d degrees, and yet
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- 49,. a. III
Do' - NV -. 80,
VI 0P"''o '''' w. 80 aa,aI;Gaatio,, and
| oIaaaa.;a,, Af,a. ,l,o ,,lJo had resumed its
bor;lont,l st,tns and the accordeon slammed
/ ntovlno tho onerator hogan. witbout anporent
! u,o,;on or canso 20 crow long broad and
oo,oralIv gigantic unipsnred he il of the
po, rrrs,aI s,otrro Of 6vo foot ton but blown
mn h., tho snirit no IA s,id ~ exceed six feet
P - 81 $50 .raoo ho,r,oor Tho ,y.ist-
! III 90 ~. ,r,,,so,s ond bie u,,istcoat of n
,a,1,.oaau. - 80 That ,horo might
-. L.. nis oxtonro,ion
r., =. n,,,.a,,o,, ,,ho ,,os rrosent
- a.; ID man tbe mediums
~" - I.i,,aoIe ,hot tho, ., Loot
w 60" go -, .,e., a. a. III oloe-
WIZ "iin,' pau" - go
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80. s;..as,oa T, ,,orId NOT striLo opr nm
i''"i0 - - a.. III, hut
asSis'e" 'o''on
perhaps " "oo' Do ,i'' IN
sen ou. "nu pu"' Himself Wy '" -, p.pS si
III auui''or !" '"io iu'''a -. -
dimensions 'neie WIZ o'I't a..ouus
ih''s,o'o '''u9 IN anu - -. -,
'ne moor 'ioiH'ou' Io'u '"lo 1n,', "a H.
verScu 'no i"'1S VI 'n' "'''" ""u 1no
furniture seneia''y ""S III ''''0 VI '"p''''O"'
perturbation