The Dallas weekly herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1885, 1881-10-08
.wHAT FOOLS WE MoRTALs BE-"

spirituallsts, puDllSneu III Dostoh, 1i"0'"
chusetts, and Boston is the seat OF culture
and learning in all the United StatesAlt Is
said. We have before taken occasion TO say
that the Banner OF. Light is a most interest.
ing paper, ably edited and conducted aho
always full of the most readable matter, now
ever much one may disagree with Its tenetS
and tbe doctrine it teaches. The civlllza'
t;on of the nineteenth century teens WIN
new PHILOSOPHERS and developments OF the
old PHILOSOPHERS and doctrines 1t would
not be civilization if this was not the case
As the world grows older, man advances IN
scientific learning; learning from his TEL
low man, who lived before him, what he
knew, he goes on delving into the bowels OF
the earth, reading there the tracerles OF
time. there left on the rocks and strata, ana
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 Gallilee's deep sea,
knows no more of the secrets of the whirling
worlds above than he does. And
so II is in all sciences. Praxiteles may have
cbiseled from the purest marble forms that
entranced all who gaLed upon them, and
Apelles may have painted upon the canvas
the beautiful creations of his fancy-may
have limnod 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 the wide-sWeeping scope OF their
knowledge, in the delicacy of their touch,
in the sweet harmony of form, and of the
blending of colors. 1t may be, as some one
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. We are
inclined to think that there is nothing new
under the sun, but the sun has a new way
ofiluminating 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 its 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 as eautiful, just as rich in the
perfume it distilled upon the morning air,
as it. No mind of this age ever expounded
into greatness and grandeur that did not
have its prototype in the cycle of centuries
that are forgotten. Still this nineteenth
GER Try has wrought an advancement and a
Development in material things, in mental
conceptions, that no other age, so far as we
! now, cyer possessed. Among the new
lilosophies, and Nominations, shall We
say? of the age, is spiritualism. 1t is one
of the phenomena ofnature that man, in
his mental development in this
day or time, is trying to comprehend,
to trace to-a source, to develop. Is it a phe-
nomenon Of nature, or is it snare and
delusion, the shrewd conception and ex-
ecution of mountebanks? That is the ques-
ton. We have nothing to say for or against
the doctrine of spiritualism. We look upon
ment. of thesage, or as the mere jugglery OF
charlatans Is it the jugglery of charlatans ?
If SO, why was it that Judge Edwards, a
Judge on the supreme bench of the court of
New York, a gentleman honest and honora-
BILE, whose life was above reproach, whose
character was as pure as the snow ITSELF
whose integrity could not be questioned,
and whose mental powers were of a most
superior order, and DR.. Hare, all that Judge
Edwards was, only the one was a
LAWYER and the other a most eminent and
scientific physician in the medical college
of Philadelphia. If spiritualism is but
why was it that both these gen.
tlemen undertaking its investigation to
expose the humbuggery, became confirmed
spiritualists and during their lives after
ward taught its doctrines and died in the
faith' We are not prepared to say that it
is all humbuggery, though we believe
vast deal of humbuggery enters into il I;
nor ara we prepared to say that 1t Is any
thing more than an unexplained phenom-
enon OF nature. As the world progresses
in establishment and tie mind Of man,
penetrates deeper into the aroanum Of
nature, learning the secrets there hidden,
we believe this phenomenon with others
viii be laid bare and made easy for tire
Of mankind. A fe~
decades ago men would have laughed
at one Of their fellows who pro-
posed 10 chain and utilize electricity as
Morse did, and the idea Of q telephone or
q photograph, or the lighting Of cities by
would have been hooted as but
idle dreams ofsome crack-brained visionary.
Yet we see, to-day, how practical they are.
spiritualism aspires to be religion, and il
is consistent enough neither to deny the
Bible or Chris, but 10 acknowledge both and
10 conform its teachings threetO. God did
rall M the witch Of Endor through His in
strument. and Christ did raise Lazarus
from the tomb, although be had been dead
70 long that those who helped to bury him.
aid: "He stinketh." There may have been
and doubtless were, wrought for
= purpose in each case, but they teach Us
that the soul live. after death and is there
any Bible teaching that departed spirits
r.unot revisit earth and commune in some
rav with those they leff behs1d7