The Cairo bulletin. [volume] (Cairo, Ill.) 1872-1878, 1874-11-01
SPlRiTUAlISM.
A DEFENSE OF MRS HOLLIS, AND
OF SPIRITUALI5M.
JUST A WORD" OR TWO
Editor BULLETIN:


spiiituali-m, generally. and Of Mrs. Hollis |
10 particular, and have been requested 20
write reply to it by some Of your bes,
citizsns, who happen to 100 this whole
in light very different from that
IN which it is set out IN the BULLETIN
But you may ask, and juslly too, why GO
not these "best citizens write their own
deiense2' We'll, let me answer for them
this once, and by ard by they will speak
for themselves. It must suffice now to
say, they are 10 public busine.s, and tor
their present and future position, many
Of them are dependant upon pubic patron.
age aud public opinion. They arc not
therefore. prepared to face the bgotry
and superstition Of credsl dogmatism
in Cairo. and fly to the defense vf:tbe
most sacred religion Of the human heart
and CT a modest. unassuming, knd-he T.
ed gontlewoman VITO had been invit d 10
tho city to hold few spiritual sesnc'
however manly and noble such q course
would be.
The subscriber can and does write this
defence, asking no iAvors of any man IL
Cairo, or anywhere lse,excep. that ho do
me the favor 70 resd, carefully. and with.
GU. prejudice, as far as he can. whs,
write. kuow i. 10 not possible Tor hu.
man nature 10 lay aside, all at once the
prejgdices that have been accumulated Tor
years against these new and ftrang,
things, thst are turning the world upside
down. Bat l will prove TO you, my good
friends, tina. there 10 one, At least, who can
reason, withou. getting angry, or evincipg
superstition, though you have seen prop r
in your would-be expose, to denounce !
who accept spirited phenomena aud It's
philosophy as "unressoning fanatics.r
These are your words not as ineligible
as they might be perhaps; but | think tb.
fault is likely In your proof.reader. suo
not in the writer Of the article, viz
They will not reason unbelief In tb'
doctrine they NEE. with denunciation I;
they have. Ia short, become fanatics as
unreasonable AS tho most devout worship.
ers A. tho altar OF superstition and ignor
ance" "How is that for high When
applied to such men az Judge eDonad.
late Judge of the United States dl-tr C,
court for the district OF Indiana, :hsr
whom more able jurist the government
scarce ever produced whose profes il n,
for many years, accustomed him to eIsm.
inc testimony, weigh evidence, test III,
genuiness Of facts, etc, or Wee Presiden,
Wilson, or ex Vice. President Collar, or
eH- President Lincoln, the lamented, or
Prof. Hart the most distinguished chem
ist md electrician that America ever PR.
duced, or Pr {. Crooks, of England th
most dlsiingui.hed chemis, Of that country
or Prof V.rley, i b. 5, superintendent,
of tho marine telegraph, than whom, q
M re- competent electrician does not live
or Flammanon, the great malhmeticisr
and philosopher, or HoeHs, auihor of th,
History Of Chemistry" or Fitche, one OF
the most astute philosophers OF the world
or Herman Goldsmith, astronomer. OF
Prof Higgins, astronomer and speeirosco
pisi, standing at the very head of scenc.
in England, and hundreds Of other mel
Of great renown, as scientists, statesmen
philosophers, poets, artists-and physIc'
lists among them Victor Hugo, who, will
the majority Of those named above, tested
the genuiness Of spiritual phenomena il
the presence of Mrs. Hollis, and also ,
number of other distinguished medis
How does that kind of Wholesale charge
sound coming from small or
gan, like THE CAIRO BULLETIN
written by young man "A clever young
man esough-but . mere boy compared
with the graybeards-the heavy heads Of
wisdom, science and philosophy and this
youth, as / understand from the article 10
question and from other sources, never
having been present himself at any Of
Mrs. Hollis seances, but writing up bis
article on the ssy-so Of other partieF; and
judging from the phraseology, ! have
myself talked with one Of those parties
whom do not hesitate 10 pronounce, not
as an opinion vaguely conceived, but
based upon facts, . self-con cei,ed, unreas.
oning ignorsmu'. Now, my young friend,
have no denuncistions for you, but only
pity, when you say that 'spIrituslism /.
wicked fraud" Spiritualism a wicked
fraud ? Then are all religions wicked
frauds, for all religions are based on spir-
i!ual phenomena. Look 81 the ancient re-
liglons Of Egypt for thousands of year.
prior to tho birth of Moses, spiritual
phenomena lay at the base Look at the
ancient Hindoo religions, and the religion
of tho Chinese, running back more than
ten thousand years spiritual phenomena
lay at tho base of them all. Look At tbe
ancient Hebrew religion; SEQ Moses in
Mount Horsb, at the burning bush, - be.
fore the king, in contest with the medi.
ums, neoromancers and soothsaysrs of
Egypt. The latter duplicated the pheno.
mena Of the former, till it came to pro.
iucing 'lice, and Moses beat them on ,bs
House question SEQ the pillar of cloud |
BY day and the pillar of Gre by night.
that accompanied the people in the |
etc. This ancient form OF 70.
|igion was specifically a spiritual religion.