The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1875-06-16

The most intense preOccupation of soce
ty in st. Petersburg, we are told, is-spir-
itualism. Seances are being held in every
quarter of the city, and several distinguish
ell citizens have given in their adhesion to
the belief, among them Prof. Wagnerofth the
imperial university, who has published his
experience and convictions in the Messenger
OF Europe. From his statements, which
Nine. Blavatsky (whose name recalls mem.
cries of the esprit vale manifestations
has translated for the spiritual scientist, we
should judge that he has yielded to the sim
| plest form of these phenomena, the rap
pings and tipplngs and some of the per-
formances he describes appear to be tricks
OF rather clumsy SORT not comparable to
the achievements of the Eddys. At this
time the spread of the infection among in.
telectual circles is peculiarly regretted. be-
cause the car has just begun; like the Jew
lsh King saul, to put down fortune-tellers
and wizards by statute, and to root out the
popular belief in wood-demons, house.spir-
| Its, and other such bogies. 1t seems odd.
too, that a city where Home has often been
| an honored guest for years past and where
he now resides, should, at this late day, get
feverish over what should not be very new
to Its people. But a Frenchman named
satlOn In 81. petersburg now IMAM ever
Home was. who atsno time hasheld sitting
except in houses which he entered as a
guest.
1t is strange that these old andfsimple
forms of the spiritualistic phenomena
should have such freshness and influence
over grave scientific professors. Mysteri-
Gus though they are.--qute as mysterious
as any subsequent developments, - they
seem so far from involving the theory of
spirits that we cannot appreciate their
weight in confirming that theory. The ex-
perence of any cool, clear-headed partici-
pant in such a table-tipping and rapping
seance points to some individuality in the
circle as the source of the power. There is
a general misunderstanding, we must think,
as to this matter. "Mediumship," so-called,
is not an uncommon gift a dozen people
could hardly be brought together without
including one medium" in embryo. The
person may be unconscious of the gift, but
when the dozen sit around the table, laying
the hands lightly on the top, in silence and
darkness, and the tippings or the rappings
begin, he very soon finds it out, and orders
the phenomena by the conscious exertion
of his will. 1t is true that, if the company
get warmly wrought up with excitement,
the manifestations seem to get beyond con-
troll, but it is nevertheless the personal pow
er of the medium" that is at work. To
| such medium the notion of spirit inter-
venton in all this is sheer nonsense.
The "Katie King" exposure, though it
greatly lessened the public interest in the
subject of naturalization, has not deferred
men of high character from serious
study of that and other manifestations.
miracle club now holds frequent
night sessions in New York for the ex-
press purpose of fathoming the mysteries.
Col. Olcott, the investigator and convert
of the Eddy brothers. is one of the mem
bers, and the "medium" Is a distinguished
and respected gentleman, who has long
known himself to possess extraordinary
powers, but has been reluctant, perhaps
afraid to use them. The spiritual scent-
list of Boston, through which the most
earnest and thoughtful spiritualists confer
with each other, has been doing good
service in sampling the professional medi-
ums of that city, and showing what hum
bugs at least niue -tenths of them are, even
if there should be truth in spiritualism.
In connection with this subject, the
assumption of demoniacal possession as the
cause of the horrible murders and disasters
over the wide earth, which was made by
several Boston preachers the Sunday after
Mabel Young was killed, is direct accep-
lance of spiritualism in its most positive
form. One of them, DIR. Lorlmer, declar-
ed in plain words that evil spirits were ac-
lively present among men, constantly and
persistently melting to wrong courses.
Spirtualsts say that the whole ground of
life is covered by the influences of spirits
that were once men and women, SO that
the battle which is wagcd between good
and evil elements in every human soul is
but the reflex and consequence of the
battle spirits are waging without. This
is only the doctrine OF God and the devil,
indefinitely multiplied, and cannot, in the
eyes of orthodox preachers, change the
| criminal 4 resDOnsibiity