Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-05-23

exciting way. Soon sue began TO fancy
herself inspired, she uttered prophesies,
she raved and talked an infinite guam
tity of solemn gibberish. And there were
found many persons who accepted her own
of her inspiration, and who at
once set her down as woman of God.
In little while she had attracted con-
following. 1t seems probable
that she believed in herself, though it is
very questionable whether she had not
lucid intervals.
Joanna, however, was not allowed to
take her hand from the plow. Her dupes
encouraged her to go on. She therefore
announced herself as the woman spoken of
in the twelfth chapter of Revelations, and
obtained handsome income by the sale of
seals, which were to secure the salvation Of
those who purchased them. Had she been
possessed OF any education she might have
been suspected of getting this idea from the
Papal indulgences; but probably she had
never heard of the latter. As her conf.
dence increased she challenged the Bishop
and clergy of Exeter to public investiga.
ton of her miraculous powers, and when
those dignitaries treated her proposition
with silent contempt, she and her follow
ers attributed it to fear. Presently she
removed to London, and there she throve
wonderfully, actually founding sect
upon the strength of the trash which she
wrote in the form of pamphlets. OF the
amount of intellectual force represented by
this movement very good idea can be
gathered from an account of one episode
in the Southcote's career. a number of
her prophecies" made from 1892 to 1894,
were sealed up, and the box in which they
were deposited was not opened until 1903.
Then, says Sharpe, the engraver, who was
one of her believers, "Her writings were
examined during seven days, and the re-
"sult of this long scrutiny was the unani-
"mous decision of twenty-three persons
"dppointed by divine command, as well as
"thirty. five others that were present, that
cher calling ,cas of God" This conclusion
was reached from the alleged fulfillment of
the prophecies contained in these writings;
but inasmuch as the whole of the writings
were completely illegible, it is difficult to
understand how this fact was ascertained.
Still more curious, perhaps, was Joanna's
commentupon the illegibility of her writings.
"This," she observed, "must be, to fulfill
"the Bible. Every vision that John saw
"in heaven must take place on earth and
"here is the sealed book, that no one can
"read I"
1t is evident that with so docile flock
there were no lengths to which Joanna
Southcote could not go, and certainly she
tested their gullibility severely. For when
in her sixty. fourth year SIZE announced that
she was with child by the Holy Ghost, and
that before the end of the year she should
give birth to the Shiloh. There seems to
have been no hesitation in accepting this
wonderful announcement among her fol-
lowers. They were delighted with the
prospect, and forthwith proceeded to make
all the necessary preparations, among other
things providing cradle which cost
$1,000, richly embroidered coyerlid, etc.
At first she fixed the birth for the 10Th of
October, 1914, but that day came and
passed, and nothing happened. Then she
said that it would take place before Christ
mas, but two days after Christmas she
died, and even then her infatuated dupes
would not abandon their belief On the
10th of October great crowd waited all
night round her lodgings, expecting the
news that Shiloh had come. And even
when Joanna Southcote was dead, her
followers refused to allow her to be buried
until the doubly convincing evidence of
advancing decomposition and post-mortem
dissection had proved to them, first that
she was beyond revival, and, second, that
she had never been pregnant at all. And
81 OfOA 10 VIC VI
that for many years after her death her
sect held together, looking for her reap
pearance, and refusing to believe that she
had been nothing but self-deluded i'm.
poster of the most vulgar type.
The chief interest of this strange and
most humiliating exposure of the bound
lessness of human folly perhaps consists in
the light it throws upon the untrust-
worthiness of all testimony which is biased
by religious fanaticism. In this case we
see that absolutely conclusive demonstra-
tons of the utter fallacy of Joanna South
cote's claims failed to convince her fol.
lowers that they had been deceived.
They surrendered their Judgment to the
delusion SO completely that their evidence
on what passed before their eyes was in all
respects worse than worthless. Without
any dishonest intentions they were pre-
pared to avouch the most preposterous
falsehoods. In fact they lived in an atmos-
phere of confusion, and their conclusions
could not be trusted. Now eighteen hun
dred years ago, and in Palestine, the
human mind was quite generally disposed
to accept things after the Southcotian
fashion, and the so.called testimony of eye
witnesses to alleged supernatural occur.
rences of that period was of precisely
equal value with that of Joanna South
coteis blind indorsers. In short her story
demonstrates how necessary it is in all
cases where supernaturalism is alleged to
demand proofs far more stringent and con.
elusive than have ever yet been given in
support of such allegations or than can
be built up out of human testimony alone.
In the Illinois case there does not seem to
have been any outside belief in the coming
Of Elijah, but it cannot be doubted that
under favorable conditions such belief
could still be created in many parts of the
world.
aDsFnNp,S DTrFTCULTIES