Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1871-03-12

, boon companion, and he driuks-he be-
heVes Ito Cesar In Caesars gh0stly
presence. Sit beside him at a table on
which your hands rest, and he will tell
you Of the dead whom you loved most,
and OF whom you now think most. Re-
member, however, that strange as his
revelations may SEEM, if you observe
them closely, he Will never tell you what
you did not already know or believe. In
other words, that same chord of nervous
= sympathy tells the ~"rapper" and rhapsO-
dist b are your thoughts and memo
riss, your strong impulses and cherished
hopes, and grisfs, and fsnci6s. Never
, have we seen q spiritUslist do more than
this; and this is not more wonderful, and
3 requires no more seemingly supernatural
power than that employed by the tele-
} graph operator at Memphis, who repro
ducss here the thoughts of the tabIs-tap-
: ping rapper in the Office in Louisville.
An ILLUSTRATION.
Not many weeks ago a candidate for the
United States Senate, unknown to the
great spirit-rsppsr, entered the room Of
the latter. The Senator was a candidate
tor reelection. His soul was consumed
by the mad ambition. HeWrOte questions
referring to his chances of re collection, and
placed them sealed in an envelope on the
table. The nervous rhapsOdist instantly
wrote a long answer, in which he gave all
the facts in detail, and said that the can
didate for the Senate would return to the
capital of his State, and surely be re-
elected. The truth or fslsity of this
prophecy will be determined during the
next few days. But what signifies it2
The medium only transferred to paper.
what was already written in letters of IRE
upon the very brain, the battery which
the anxious politician bears about within
his bursting SKULL
A CURIOUS STORY,
When Colonel S-y, Of this city, visited
! the wonderful prophet of Boston, and
wrote questions affecting the manner Of
DR.. Hooks death, and the sealed paper
was given to the medium, there were
strange answers given. The locality, the
room, the b~ruises-every incident Of the
doctors untimely death was given with
wonderful accuracy of detail. More than
this, the medium asse7 ted that 2 deed of
violence was done, and that death did not
result, as the cOrouer's Jury asserted, from
natural causes, or from apopleXy. The
very names of the murdsrers were given
and their persons described. Marvellous
was all this! But when Colonel S-y was
asked sfterward, he alleged that his mind
was full of suspicious which the medium
Transcribed as facts.
THE UBLIME s-PTRITUALIsT.
When Swedenborg sat at dinner in
London. in the midst of learned men,
and while discussing grave questions OF
philosophy, suddenly grew pale, and said
that his native city was in flames, three
or four hundred miles away across the
North Sea, there was a deal Of amaze
meut. And when a month afterWard the
ship came that confirmed, in all its terri
bic details, the vision of S-wedenborg, !
properly enough, London was amazed. Is
it true hat this invisible, intangible
chord Of sympathY-this eternal sub
] gfQUaa nF SWIM rafhu may anun the nnaQn I
even as the cable stretches along its depths
and suffers Europe and America TO think
and feel and act from the same imPuls5f
The sufferers by the fire were Sweden
borg's friends and kindred. Did their
thoughts and warnings 20 forth and
touch the source of that strange force in
nature so intangible that we have DO
name for it and no terms TO describe 1t?
Aud is not this very wantO fa word the
origin of much OF the mystery and OF
many vague notions entertained We are
fsmiliarized with the lightning, snd
smszsment and superstition are disarmed
when we call it electricity, and q force
called gravitstiOn is no more or less won
derfUl than the indescribsOle and there
fore i~nsCrUtable and amazing agency or
force which made SWsdsnbOrg almost q
miracle. He only possessed in a greater
degree of refined delicate pow
er that sensi5iveness which enabled
AAAAAA ~ aeRAe@1@@ a-t N-rN6-@H 1-A-aA"AAs
and perceptions Of others, than the
mechanic who holds your hand and des-
ignates on the wall The picture that fills
your thoughts.
THE SUBSTANCE OF 1T,
Spiritualists predict nothing, unless
the wish be father to the thought that
burns, a vivid flame, on ambitions altar.
They know nothing that Is not written on
the minds fOolscap Of him whose aspira-
Wgm-a HLa- H-nann.Hhn IF thu HmmnLn M D
your bidding the realms Of futurity, they
only reproduce your dreams and Imag-
inings. They locate the shadows Of the
departed in realms Of light and glory, or {
their abiding places in lower spheres {
of spiritual existence, in accordance Z
with maps and plans already drawn by !
your own vague tanCiess The pOW5r 9
thew exert is nearly akin to that force re- {
.cognizsd in nature and denOmiuated mag {
Il is invisible, intangible, but {
less than gravitstiOn force or agency
and substantive fact in nature. There is
no supernatural power invOked, or, in !
vOked, it was never shown TO obey the s
summons. If these conclusions be not
rational, We may adopt another view iof
the inquiry and make this subject the oa-
Of
OUR SERMON. G
The learned Dugald Stewart has wisely 9
said, " Unlimited SkeptjcisHJ IS equally TIE d
child Of imbeciJity and Of implicit cret0- :
and this constitutes our text for the Z
usual Sunday morning sermon, for the =
plain reason that Just now all sane people q
are amazed by the absurdities Of many !
formed and tOrturing visions Of heated \
3uperstitiOns, which dissolve at LAST into Z
blank, dead skepticism. The most fanati- a
3al periods of human society ave been :
iuccesded by those Of Cock Lane p
ThOsts," and then by Hobbism and soul T
.oe1 aEhafap. Tha rahErnI a. -u-- 81 I o
he reaction Of Unbslisf in all hat is spi- o
itual is in proportion to the hight and
health OF unfOunded faith.
There will, perhaps, ever be found in
IOciety-hrst, those who calmly look on
.hings as they are; who listen attentively
% the teachings Of NATURE and REvELA D,
ION, and who accept nothing IS fact or *
ruth that does not harmOniz5 with these. a
The second class are those whose love for 4
he marvellous is so strong that they are .
,ver inclined TO believe anything and
,v~erything, however visionary and alb
urd. The third leap from the one posi- q
ion to the other, and at times under a q
OnjectUre of having been duped, bound y
ntO the cold regions of skeptiCism-tO IL
soon, however. back into the more &C
atmosphere OF credulity. Be 3
Ween these classes there is every variety ~
# light and shade, passing from one into y
he other, forming the strangely mingliug ~
of human convictions and impress "
ions, and the curiOusly cOlOred phases of =
life. -
1t is no wonder that what cannot be "a
eadily accounted for viii be by q major
5y of people sscribed to supernatural or
agencies. Whom the Africans
sw MungO Parks watch, saw its hands
1Ove, put it to their ears and heard its ~
licking, with one voice they proclaimed le
a spirit" 1t was the great Fetisch, or W
ne ofits agents. What else could it be3 az
else accounted fOr2 In March. 1850
D the good city of Rochester, certain
Mysterious noises were heard in the fam
y Of John d. Fox. They could not be 81
counted for. The law, whatever &c WIS.
T which these noises were a DEVELOPMENT.
fss unknown may remain forever nm
nOwn. as nue. so as the laws or prfnci-
les of the watch to the naked savaQes Of -.
lteriOr Africa-therefOre, must liz ba ~
lp~ernatural2 Spirits must have caused u
le Rochester rappings. If not these. y.
hat else2 And this Is an accurate 81
shn1tion OF the reasoning capacities OF ~
Of people. ~
The spasmOdic movement Of the hand. -
reducing rregularly-f0rme letters-the
piping Of tables or other furniture. an IA
le strange phenomena of esnce and
may be admitted as facts. a.
accountable facts, and vet none of
lem be attributed to super-human or
lb-human agents. Angelica COtin, in Ao
q Psrrtere, France, caused bv her pres
rec the large Oaken frame Of the wsav- ~
z machine to dance. The French papers no.
sted that while Angelica was at work in pie
70 factory "the cylinder which turned
as suddenly thrown to a con {
ierable distance without any visi- :
Q cause; that Il was often repeat
that all the young girls in the
story, terrified, hsd from the place S
the nmwnfn IN hnnn him nw~-nfanN ho D EFU