The herald., 1897-04-03
Striking Characteristic OF Miss
Holmes Testimony
MAGNETISM is THE SPIRIT
A CHICKEN ALLEGED TO HAVE
A SOUL
Odd scriptural Interpreta tions by the
Residents at Belmont Hall--An
Apparent Grasping After
the Unknowable

There are two things supposed to lie
very close to a mans heart-his political
faith and his religion. To the average
woman this may, perhaps, be narrowed
down to the one-religion. There is
somehow, a reticence on the part OF folks
generally about speaking of the here
after and all that pertains to it.
The Mahommedan, as the sun appears
above the horizon, as II reaches its zenith
and as it dips at might, kneels down IN
the face of all men wherever he may
be. and for the few moments drops the
particular matter he may have in hand
while he prays. Other peoples, too, do
not manifest the shyness about religious
feeling that the so-called Christian ma
tions display.
This curious characteristic was well
Illustrated in the Times libel suit yes
terday. With, perhaps, two exceptions
the witnesses for the plaintiff appeared
to hedge and qualify the force of certain
admissions regarding their belief; and
the very admissions themselves had to
be elected by persistent cross-eXam-
ination.
II is true that the questioning yester-
day was for the purpose of withdrawing
admission of a belief that animals have
souls OF course such belief relegates
the person holding it to the ranks OF the
"cranks," but then someone has SAID
that the cranks are pioneers or progress
and there is comfort in that thought.
ST. Paul divided the human economy
into three divisions-body, soul and splr-
1t. Everyone is at one regarding the
body, but the churches themselves have
not been in perfect unison al to the cnar-
acteristics and attributes OF the soul
and spirit. And so, yesterday, when
certain of the witnesses were pressed
they could get no further than TO denne
the soul as the life of the animal. Sen
ator White didn't have very much COM
passion and pointed out that in the
vegetable kingdom, too, life was appar-
emf. and asked If on that account every
vegetable was endowed with soul.
Such metaphysical speculations have
puzzled greater minds than possessed by
any of the witnesses. The ivy trailing
% the side of church withdraws its
tendrils when the rugged stone will not
permit it to take hold, and twining
around seeks the kindlier spot where II
closely adheres. Even there seems 10 be
a subordinate order of consciousness.
and the carnivorous plants form link
between the vegetable and animal king
doms that has puzzled science in draw
ing the line between the two.
If to kill an animal is wicked because
the life is the soul, then it would seem
true also that to wrench branch or
ivy away must also be wrong, for II mas
not only life, but also dim KIND or
consciousness that, while not approach
ing the instinct of the lower animals, is
sufficient in it's manifestation to befos
the mind of one having doubts along
that line And this appeared to be the
main reason why the Belmont hall peo-
ple didn't eat meat, and confined them
selvec 20 a vegetarian diet.
SENSE -HEN, NONSENSE NOW.
Miss Holmes in giving her testimony
took a negative e+titude. She knew lit
tle and remembered still less. She de-
MED all the unkind assertions ana IN
einuations of the alleged libelous arti-
Gle. as we'll as the allegations of the
witnesses put forward by the defense.
She denied that she ever taught that
a. person ever passed under control, ana
explained the several illusions of that
kind contained in her letter to Mrs.
Van Aulxen as meaning in the first IN
stance her sister Minnie, and secondly
the guides. Any further explanation
regarding guides" as distinguished
from controls" the witness did not give.
Much of the language of her own letter
she stated contained no sense and must
have meant something else. Such
mode of explaining away definite alle-
cations of fact, or what purports to be
fact, was evidently unsatisfactory Miss
Holmes even professed to be ignorant
as to what she meant when she alluded
to a "circle," but did say that her ref
erence to the "higher forces was to the
"heavenly host" At Belmont hall she
spoke simply on questions of moral phi
losophy to the friends who came there.
At the meetings there was no conductor
I,,t Hn1I1d have their
the go-as-you-please plan.
what is your view in regard TO eat
ing meat?" inquired Senator White.
II don't like it; it's likely to be dis
eased, and we don't need it; but do eat
meat, if there is nothing else
DO you think animals have souls?"
1T don't know, but think they have;
Il says in the Bible"
"What? Says so in the Bible?
"It is not so in the English Bible. but
1t is in the Norwegian Bible. In the Eng
lish Bible it speaks of animals as those
to whom God hath given life' but in
the Norwegian Bible it says TO whom
God hath given living SOUL and it
reads like that in the Greek"
"That doesn't affect your eating then,
when you do eat? You'd just as soon
as not eat soul and all?'
"Well, I don't think the soul remains
in the body after the killing"
SCRIPTURAL INTERPRETATION
"Does the scripture forbid you to eat
meat?"
"'The Bible has not said anything
about it, think; it teaches both for and
against. In Genesis i it says not"
Have yoy read in the New Testament
where it speaks of some departing from
the faith in the latter days when devil
ish doctrines should be taught, the for
bidding to marry and the abstaining
from meats?"
II haven't forbidden anyone to eat
meat; / have a vegetarian house, and
If people do not like it they need not
come"
"You have spoken of the animal mag
netism being bad?"
IT think it is a foreign element to us,
and vegetables are purer."
Are you troubled with the animal
magnetism if you eat?"
"If I abstain from meat I feel lighter
and happier. and return to it makes