The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1881-10-07
WHAT FOOLS WE moRrALs BE"

WHAT FOOLS w II mOhIAiSS brs'
The Banner of Light is an organ Of the
spiritualsts, published in Boston, Massa-
chusetts, and Boston ia the seat Of culture
and learning in all the United StatesAit is
said. We have before taken occasion to say
that the Banner Of Light is most interest
ing paper, ably edited and conducted and
always full of the most readable matter, how
ever much one may disagree with its tenets
and the doctrine II teaches. The civiliza-
ton Of the nineteenth century teens with
new philosophers and developments of the
old PHILOSOPHERS and doctrines. 1t would
not be civilization il this was not the case.
AS me world grows older, man advances in
scientific learning; learning from his fell
low man, who lived before him, what he
knew, he goes on delvins into the bowels of
the earth, reading there the traceries OF
time, there left on the rocks and. strata, and
gazing into the heavens, he hears new
songs sung from one planet to another,
until even the rapt soothsayer OF Chaldea
beside the dark waters of Gallilec's deep sea,
knows no moro Of tho secrets Of the whirling
worlds above than he does. And
20 II Is in all sciences. Praxiteles may have
chiseled from the purest marble forms that
entrnnccd all who gazed upon them, and
Apelles may have painted upon tho canvas
the beautiful creations Of his fanoy-may
have limned grapes so true to nature that
the birds pecked at them; still in our day
and time we have sculptors and painters
that surpass them, not perhaps in the bril-
liancy Of their conception, the poesy OF
their dreams, wherein the ideal was as a
God, but in tho wide-sweeping scope Of their
knowledge, in the delicaoy Of their touch,
in the sweet harmony OF form, and OF the
blending of colors. II may be, as some ono
has said, that there is nothing new under
the sun, but there is new way Of rendering
old things that only this century, with its
enlightenment, could give birth to. Weare
inclined to think that there Is nothing new
undor the sun, but the sun has now way
illuminating that which was old, through
the genius and the talent of the age. No
man ever had thought that some
other man had not had before
him. No man ever sung a
song, no matter how sweet It's conception,
that some man in the years that are buried
had not trilled the measure to before him.
No flower grows in the spring time Of this
age, that was not preceded centuries ago by
one Just az beautiful, just as rich in the
perfume 1t distilled upon the morning air,
as 1t, No mind Of this age ever expoundod
into greatness and grandeur that did not
have its prototype in the cycle OF centuries
that are forgotten Still this nineteenth
century has wrought an advancement and a
development in material things, in mental
conceptions, that no other age, 80 far az we
know, yer possessed Among the new
philc lilies and nominations, shall W,
say Tho ',e, Is spiri,ualism 1t Is on,
Of t.e phe, mena ofnature that man, II
rs mental development in THU
day or time, is trying to comprehend
10 trace to n source, to develop. Is ii pho
nomenon ofnature, or is il snare and {
delusion, the shrcwd conception and OK
eeution of mountobanks? That is thequos
ton, We have no'hingto soy for or against
the doctrine Of spiritualsm. We look upor
1t either as one Of the scientific advance
ments Of the age, or as the mere juggery o.
charlatans. Is it the jugglery of charlatans
lfso, why was 1t that Judge Edwards, ,
judge on the supreme bench of the court o.
New York, gentleman honest and honora
bic, whose life was above reproach, whose
character was rs pure as the snow itself
whose integrity could not be questioned
and whose mental powers were of mos
superior order, and Dr. Hare, all that Judg,
Edwards was, only the ono was
lawyer and the other most eminent aut
scientific physician in the medical colleg,
of Philadelphia, If spiritualsm Is but
eharlatanism why was It that both these gen
uemen undertaking Its investigation L
expose the humbuggory, became confirmed
spiritualists and during their lives after
ward taught Its doctrines and died in the
faith We are not prepared to say that II
is all humbuggory, though we believe
vast deal of humbuggery enters into it
nor are we prepared to say that it is any
thing more than On unexplained phenom
enon of nature, As the world progresses
in enlightenment and the mind Of mar
penetratcs deeper into tho arcanum O.
nature, learning the secrets there hidden
We believe this phenomenon with other,
will be laid bare and made easy for the
comprehension of mankind. A few
decades ago men would have laughed
at one Of their follows who PRO
posed to chain and utilize electricity A,
Morse did, and the idea Of telephone o,
phonograph, or the lighting OF cities by
electricity woud have boon hootcd as hui
idle dreams ofsome crack-brained visionary
Yet we sec, to-day how practical thoy are
Spiritualism aspiros to be q religion, and Il
Is consistent enough neither TO deny The
Bible or Christ, but to acknowledge both and
to conform Its teachings thrccto. God did
call up tho witch Of Endor through His In
strumcnt, and Christ did raise Lazarus
from the tomb, although no had been dead
so long that those who helped to bury him
said; He stinkoth." There may have been
miracles, and doubtless were, wrought fol
apurpose in each case, but thoy teach u,
that the soul lives after death, and Is there