Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1872-05-23
miscellaneous. n
The Rtio.nder.

Mr.. Barker say. lac has carefully read
and rc-fead. several times. MIR. Flc cher,
article Ia tie lA>l .imsriegH aud cnnt,.>.,..
70 being unable 20 tiAd iu ID hut Htlir.N-
cept bare assertion. Some OF il Wa, 80
obscurciy wordrd that | au not certain
have found out exactly what hc ruraur.
We do not di-pute iHi> statement. But
other readers oi The article do not meet
this difficulty. They think il contains
bones the Esquire has not cracked. lie
says ''the only point ia dispute is whelher
the communications of spirits are reliable"
This has been the poin, OF dispute in this
| discussion. But to sustain their necro-
| Nancy, II must be proved that the dead
exist in their spheres" that spirit, do
communicate through their mediums; that
these spirits are not fallen angels. who
| personate the dead; and that the spheres
are places of sufficiently good morals TO
| be trustworthy. And then. before the
communication is made, il must / e proved
that the spirit controlling the medium Is
good; not bad. Or il is not reliable But
these are just the thing the Spiritualists
cannot prove. Spiritualism is sorcery,
| The "Rejoinder" says, Il said. in sub
stance. in my letter. that spirits are trust
worthy and reliable in the same sense. and
TO the same or greater extent then human
beings are; for they are merely human
beings transferred 10 another state of exist
ence." But where is the proof they are in
the "spheres?" The rejoinder adds. ito
which he replied. Singular sophi>try !;
which may be argument. but am entirely
unable to appreciate it. This may be 30
But others can see that if great numbers
OF persons came from a distant planet !;
they all told truths: but very large pro-
portion of them proved 10 be liars and it
could not be proved that any one of them
would not. somewhere. tell ial>ehoods all
of them were strangers 10 u. but all of
them presented the same credentials OF
credlbility; plenty of people can see that
such persons would not be credible wit
nesses. The company they kepr, and the
saineness of their credentials, would i'm
peach the whole. Aud then. if no one of
their number had ever pointed out 10 US
the lying rascals among them. who were
maliciensly injuring us. or giving Us the
means OF knowing these enemies. would
not the whole company be looked upon as
set of scoundrels. from a morally bad
world: Who can doubt this. And ii
these strangers managed to be invisible to
us. keeping together behind the curtain
would il not be addition al evidence. ,ehen
put nth the other facts. that they were all
Gor mischief: Birds of feather flock
together And the man who should
associate with and defend such characters.
would be thought. either a bad man, or 8
fanatic. This is so. The rejoinder repre-
sents me as saying that witnesses under
the embarrassment of being like human
beings. would not be accepted in courts Of
justice. Not so. After stating numerou:
facts that do fully impeach medium spirits
as witnesses. said. No court of justic,
would receive the testimony of witnesses
under one fourth part of those embarrass
ments. In putting spirit divinations Oh tn,
same footing as human testimony. Mr.
Barker ruins his own cause And thi.
we have made plain.
. The rejoinder says. Mr.. Fletcher seem'
to conclude that spirits are all bad, be
cause they associate with bad characters :
; and then asks, WAS not the same objec
ton brought against Jssasr' We answs