The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1899-06-29
A GREAT MOOT QUESTION.
~ II immortal Spirits That Talk tn
Us through the Tables and Med
iumsS
(From the New York Voice !

(From the New York Voice.)
Prof Hyslop, of Columbia university has
we fear, got himself into trouble. He an
nounces that he is absolutely certain" that
within year he shall be able to ''lay before
me world conclusive evidence of the immor-
h ,ail'y OF the SOUL For over 10 years he
mas Deen studying spiritism, or spirit
uallsm as it is more commonly called. and
one year more is going to give him the
PROOF ne seeks This proof will almost
completely revolutionize the ideals of re-
!lglon' morality and politics." Prof. Hyslop
Is MEMBER OF the Society for Psychnical
Research, and the evidences which he has
seen are the same as those which have in
splred the recent sermons on the same SUBJ
Ject by Rev. DR.. Minot j. Savage. The
most hitting comment we can find to make
on the professors statement is. "Another
good man gone wrong" The weakness of
ms position is that he is going to be able to
demonstrate immortlity. He has been in
Vestlgatlng for over 10 years and is not vet
able to make the demonstration: but one
year more will be sufficient! True scien-
lists do not talk in this way. They make
discovery or solve problem before thew
made their announcement, not a year
afterWard. The very fact that Prof. Hyslop
has made his promise renders it impossible
that he shall be hereafter reliable stu
cent or witness of the phenomena he is
studying. He can no longer be an impartial
witness, and any further conclusions he
may reach or announcements he may make
must be discounted at very high precent-
age, no matter how sincere he may be.
The medium through which he and DR..
Savage and the other members of the So
ciety for Psychical Research have been re-
ceiving the communications that have SO
impressed them is Mrs. Piper, of Boston.
and Prof. Hyslop thus describes her ap-
pearance in a trance:
She sits in q perfectly light and open
room, anywhere-in the street if you want
her to. In front of her is a table with
pillow on it. She goes slowly into a trance
This takes about 10 minutes Her face sud
denly witches and then changes to a fixed
upward position She stares and stares.
Then her head falls on the pillow. Her
right hand shortly begins to write on
pad the messages from the dead through
her. Whenever you want to ask questions
you lift that hand to your mouth and talk
through it, as it We're. 1t is strange but
deeply significant fact that almost every
communication begins with a prayer ad-
dressed by the dead to God. Some of these
prayers are the loftiest, purest and most
beautiful I have ever heard''
We have often heard of the profound and
eloquent thoughts that come in these
seances, but when they get into cold type
public-into the most commonplace rhap-
sody. Stead's Letters From Julia" were
as good as anything that has yet come
from the spirit world and they contained
not a grain of new truth, nor even of old
truth presented in any new or clearer form.
So far spiritualism had added absolutely
nothing to the worlds store of wisdom;
Aristotle and Bacon and Shakespeare should
after all these years have nothing whatever
to give us that is worth busy mans while
turning aside to read or hear.