Tama County Republican. (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1867-1872, 1872-06-20

for the due enjoyment OF which his
social position made him so unfit
How slight must be the prescience OF
such spirit that could not see that
Mirabel would be deprived of his
fortune by tie first knave he had the
misfortune to trust There coul be
no such spirit, be assured.
II there were no scepter, there
was. according to all human proba
bility, no gold and, Il no gold, no
ground for the ACQUISITION Of Auguier.
Descending to the earthly rea SON.
ing, was i. likely that Mlrabel should
intrust Ito Anguier a treasure OF
whose actual value he knew nothing,
that he shonld take in return a re-
ceipt he had not seen the giyer
write How was it, pray, that the
woman Paret and Gaspard Delueil
demanded no share in the treasure so
discovered ? Were. these excellent
persons superior to the common
weaknesses OF humanity-curiosity
and the lust of gain ? The witness
Paret certainly saw the discovery of
a parcel; but the rest OF her evidences
was hearsay. The witness Deleuil
saw the exchange of bags and paper !;
but the rest-sceptcr included-was
hearsay. And when the witness
Fourniere declared that Auguier, be-
ing taxed with robbery, turned dead
ly pale, Arguler frankly,-nay,
rroudly-confessed it, stricken as
that honorable burgher was with hor-
ror at a charge 80 foul and unexpect-
ed! The climax of injustice was
surely reached when this respected,
estimable, substantial merchant of
Frances proudest sea mart, was, on
the -ccrroboratcd word OF ghost
for to this it must be traced) sab
mitted to the torture. In criminal,
(even more than in civil cases, that
which seems repungent to probabili-
ty is reputed false. Let hundred
witnesses testify to that which is con-
trary to nature and the light of rea-
son, their evidence is worthless and
vain. Take, rs example, the famous
tradition which gives an additional
interest TO the noble house of Lusl-
gan, and say that certain persons
swore that the fairy Melusina, who
had the tail of serpent, and bathed
every Saturday in marble cellar,
had revealed a treasure to some weak
idiot, who was Immediately robbed
of 1t by another. What would be
thought Of Judge who should on
such testimony condemn the accus-
ed? Is it upon such fairy fable
that Auguier, the Just, the respected
iamily-tather, the loyal patriot, must
be aljudged guilty? Never Such
Justice might be found at Cathay,
might prevail in the We. undiscoyer-
ed islands OF the Eastern Archipela-
60, but in France-no There re-
NAMED, in short. but one manifest
duty the court, namely, to acquit,
with all honor, this much abused man,
and to render hlm such noble com
pensation rs the injuries he had sut-
fere6 deserved.
It was now, however, tho phan-
toms innings. Turning on the court
the night-side of nature, the scepter's
advocate pointed out that the glst Of
Augnier's defense consisted of a nar-
row and senseless satire upon super
natural visitations, involving most
unauthorized assumption that such
things never did occur. Was it in
tended to contradict holy writ :? To
deny truth attes,ed by scripture,
BY the fathers of the church, BY very
wide experience and testimony, final
ly, by the faculty OF theology OF Par
is? The speaker here adduced the
appearance of the prophet Samuel at
Endor {of which lie Brrn remarked
that it was past question, work
commenced by the power of evil but
taken from his hand and completed
by stronger than he) that of the
bodies OF buried SAINTS after our
Lords resurrection; and that Of St.
Augustine, appeared to the besiesed
OF Nola. But say thst
any doubts could nationally exist,
were they not completely set at rest
by recent decision of the faculty of
theology "Desiring,' says the en-
lightened decree, "to satisfy pious
we have, after careful Gen.
of the subject, resolved
that the spirits Of the departed may
and do, by supernatural power and
divine license, reappear unto the liv-
ing And this opinion was in con-
tormity with that pronounced at Sor
bonne TWO centuries before.
However, it was not dogmatically
affirmed that the spirit which had
cyinced this interest in Mirabel was
the ghost af any departed person.
1t might have been spirit, whether
good or evil, Of another kind. That
such spirit can assume the human
form few will deny, when they recall
that the apostles held that belief,
mistaking their Lord, walking on the
waves Of Galilee, tor such one
The weight ct probability, neverthe-
less, lnclines to the side of this slngu-
lar apparition being, as We at first
suggested, the spirit Of Que deceased
perhaps remote ancestor OF MI
rabel-perhaps one who, in his lite,
sympathized with honest endeavor,
and sought to endow the struggling,
toiling peasant with the means OF
rest and ease. And with regard to
this temperance, striking modern
incidenv seemed pertinent to the
question at issue. The Marquis de
RamboulNeL and the Sieur de Percy,
aged respectively twenty five and
thirty, were intimate friends. Speak
ing one day of the prospect Of a in-
ture state of being, their conversation
ended with a mutual compact that