The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1873-08-22
government will barely permit him to carry a
blackthorn cudgel


AS soon as grain of common sense is dis
covered in the average Spiritualist we shall be
ready to treat him with seriousness and re-
spect 1t would be pleasure to us to have
the opportunity Of doing so, for we are not
unwilling to confess that we are tired of smil-
ing at his absurdities Those muscles which
express laughter twitch and lose their self
command when they are kept long on the
strain, and we should wish to avoid the shame
OF being betrayed into an involuntary grin at
the very moment when our Spirituslist had
accidentally done something admirable Still,
that any inadvertency of this kind will befall
him is not much to be feared. His habit of
being ridiculous would be second nature to
him had it not always been first nature-a
nature with which he is so thoroughly satu-
rated that there seems no possibility of wiring
ing him dry He cannot talk or behave like
other people; he cannot go to church like the
rest OF the world; he cannot even attend a
picnic like his material neighbor. If he
writes book it is full of words, to understand
which glossary is required, but not always
furnished If he attends convention sort
OF spiritual rufianism is almost sure to make
itself felt before the adjournment. His public
preaching is disgraced by squabbles Of which
scullery maid might be ashamed; his pri-
vate Stances are compound of lies, cunning
and almost idiotic credulity, and his periodic
picnics are such scramble of efeminate men
and virile women as are probably presented by
no other set of believers on the face of the
earth.
The picnic which was to have been held at
Pleasant Valley on Tuesday, but which an ad-
verse fate prevented being celebrated as fully
and brilliantly as was anticipated, is one of
long series OF spiritual fstes champStres running
through the Summer and Autumn of every
year. We repeat that when sensible person
takes the lead in one of these festivals, or
when, at any spiritual entertainment or con-
vention, anything rs said or done smacking Of
ordinary reason and intelligence, we shall
be ready to treat those who participate
in it with gravity and respect. It is
impossible not to esteem the victims
of illusions when they do not interfere with
decency of life and practically of aim. But
when concourse of half-brained men and
women meet together to prove the Immortality
of the soul by pretended inspirations which
demonstrate merely their own amazing vanity,
ignorance, credulity and self-conceit, the
charity with which we should like to treat
them is blown away in a strong cloud of dis
gust. So far from proving the Immortality of
the SOUL if anything could make us disbelieve
that consoling doctrine, it would be some
such spectacle as this; for it is question
whether souls like theirs would not misapply
the Immortality they claim, and endless life
ceases to be an unqualified blessing if sensible
people are to be plagued through eternity with
the vagaries of these psychical moths That
some brilliant intellects are to be found among
the Spiritualists is not to be denied but you
will find quite as many among an equal guam
tity of lunatics. The demand that we make
is, we think, moderate one. It is that the
average Spiritualist shall do something ra-
tional. AS a modest beginning-for we will
not be too exacting at the start-suppose he
attempts to hold picnic like other people.
There will be balmy weather yet before the
Autumn is over and ere the Winter shades
draw nigh it would really be grateful to US to
know that the Spiritualists had done some
thing at which it was impossible to laugh.