The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1877-09-30
Communicated
FAMILIAR SPIRITS.

Among the poems Of that famous author,
nj. Goose, is to be found the following ex-
travaganza:
There was a mad man. an g had u mad wife.
And the children were ma beside
SO on a mad horse they all Of them got.
And madly away did ride"
The maltreated animal on whom the poet
has thus conferred an anonymous immortal
ty, naturally suggests the over-driven hobby
OF the present -Spiritualsm. Strange 1t
Is. that while life Is so full Of riddles, SO much
speculation should be expended in the vain
attempt to unravel the great enigma of death;
an enigma of which, as poor Tom Hood truly
observes, the only solution is dissolution. The
few travellers who ever came back from the un-
discovered country, returned thither centuries
upon centuries ago, and we may as well ex-
pect the other miracles Of Scripture to be re-
peated for our benefit as to be permitted to
hold intercourse with those
Who have got out of the habit
OF living like you and me-
In truth. do we really care TO hold inter-
course with them2
Such is.our mortal terror of Death that tho
feeling extends itself to those whom he has
claimed as his own, and, though we go yearly
TO scatter autumn flowers over the resting
places of those who are taking their ease
under the graveyard grasses" II we were
there to meet their spiritual bodies the greet
ing would surely have In IL more Of awe than
Of delight. il
But humanity loves ghost stories, and
when it feels constrained to put them away
along with other childish things, it endeavors
to find substitute in Spiritualism; hence
the interest excited by the vague revelations
at their darkened windows to tell us Of the
spirit land. Did we really believe. them our
| terror would be as great as that of the war
rior king when the ghost of Israels seer de-
manded Of him, Why hast thou disquieted me
| TO bring me up?
And why should we seek to disquiet them
| There can be no real fellowship between the
dead and the living. Whether the departed
ones lie in cold DISTINCTIONS apathy"
whether they be expiating their sins in the
purgatory Of the Romanist; whether they be
| shut up In the prison vaguely alluded to by
| the apostle and here the question may be
asked OF Protestant orthodoxy, il our Savior
preached unto spirits In prison why may not
be gone las some doctrines teach directly to
| their reward or punishment without waiting
for the final judgment, they can, honceforth,
be to us only memory. Lille without them
may be the dreariest Of blanks, but they hear
not our loudest lamentation, or If they hear,
| they make no sign. They may not come back
| to us even for moment to whisper that all is
well with them. Let u.s. then, be content
with the hope that scripture has given us,
| that their love for us Is unchanged, and go on
living our dull lives resignedly, instead of
| Juggling at that dark, mysterious curtain
which the Witch Of Endor was the only NOR
| tai ever permitted to draw aside, and that
| only to punish the rebellious son of Kish, by
giving him the fearful foreknowledge of his
doom. Tomorrow thou md TIM sons shall be
| ayith me. Summary was the punishment of
offenders in those Old Testament days, and
Saul had not only neglected to execute ven
geance on Amalek, but he had turned unto
| such as had familiar Spirits and the Lord set
| his face against him to cut him off from his
people.
OF course the modern counterfeits of that
awful sed,,ce do not come under the ban even
| of the Jewish law. The mediums of the pres
! ent day are no more deserving of punishment
| than the stage witches in Macbeth. They are
| not 50 good at straightforward as are some
avowed iugglers, but many Of their perform
| ances are quite wonderful.
| What we ask of them is not to overtask hui
man credulity. We are required to believe
| that the extremes of heat and cold produce
similar effects that a hyperbOlic curve may
continually approach straight line without
touching it; that excess of light will produce
darkness, etc. Let us be spared this super
| fluouS marvel
| Our dead are hallowed. Let no sacrile-
gious medium bring us counterfeit communi-
cations from them. The love where Death
hath set his seal must ever remain I'M
changed; but until death do us unite, we
and our dead are separated by 'the j q lr-
saha-dutha of the tomb" We shall not pass
over it to go unto them, and they shall not
pass over 1t to come unto us.
CLARA MARSHALL