The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-04-01

ing accordingly was held in Corinthian
hall, Rochester, in November, 1S49 The
Fox sisters appeared on the stage, and
the spiritual phenomena, being freely
manifested, were investigated by a COM
mittee of prominent men who, after
continuing their researches for several
days, reported their inability to trace
them to any human agency. The fame
Of the Fox sisters was now national,
and when they appeared in New ork
in the following May, announcing them
selves as Spiritual Mediums"
phrase which originated with them, they
created an intense furore. These two
young girls had thus founded new
faith, to which they gave the name Of
Spiritualism. Humble as was its origin
and insignificant as was the character
of its origin and insignificant as was
the character Of its first manifestations,
it soon found a multitude of believers In
both hemispheres. Spiritual mediums
soon sprang up all over the country, and
were soon multiplied by hundreds and
eevn by thousands. No better evidence
of the power Of the new faith over the
minds of men and of its perpetuity
could possibly be desired than the fact
that even its announcement as the shall
| lowest, flimest humbuggery by those
who founded 1t, and their statement that
it is an out and out fraud originated
by two little girls solely in a spirit of
mischief, have been powerless to over
throw or even to shake 1t.
But believers in Spiritualism now go far
back beyond the Fox sisters for the origin
of their faith. So long ago as the seven
teenth and eighteenth centuries there
were many persons who professed to be
under the direct guidance of the Divine
Spirit and who may, in that sense, have
been called Spiritualsts. Those same in
a m ha in flln nd
open communication with the spiritual
world and to hold daily conversations of
the most familiar character with spirits
and with angels. Prominent among such
mystical thinkers were Jacob Bohme or
Boehman, Spencer, j. Godfrey Arnold,
John William Peterson, John Albert Ben
gel, Heinrich Jung Shilling, Nine Guyon,
Oetinger and Swedenborg. The last
named, when on his deathbed in 1872, pre-
dicted that in about eighty years from
that time there would be a general revela-
ton from the spirit world which would
bring his teachings into general notice
and confirm their truth, a prediction
which, it is asserted, was fulfilled in 1913,
just seventy-siX years after the death of
Swedenborg, by the manifestations of
spirit power which were made here in
Hydesville and which s on attracted gen
eral attention throughout the world.
Besides the prediction of Swedenborg,
the birth or modern Splr1tualiSm was
prophesied twice. In 1S43 some members
of the Shaker communities in lew Lee
banon and Watervliet, N. Y, seemed to
be under some strange psychological in
fiuence, which threw them into a trance
While in that condition they delivered
long discourses In the names of eminent
men of bygone ages, by whose spirits they
said they were possessed. After these
manifestations had continued for nearly
a year, the spirits babe the brethren
solemn adieu, teiIing them to say nothing
to the worlds people of what had passed,
but to treasure it in their hearts, and
promising that in few years they would
return and show to the whole world the
same manifestations which they had re-
vealed to a chosen few of the pious
members of the Shaker communities In
1S43 too, one Andrew Jackson Davis
poor, ignorant, country lad, in the employ
of farmer of Orange county, New York.
was mesmerized into a trance by one
William Livingstone, and ever afterward
seemed to have the power Of passing into
such condition at will. Though he was
so illiterate that he could scarcely read
| or write, yet in the fall of 1886, while in
| the trance state, he dictated, under the
| title of THE Principles Of Nature, Her
Divine Revelations and Voice to Man
kind learned treatise on ontological,
| cosmical, theological, spiritual and social
subjects. In this work he predicted that
Communication with the spiritual world
would ere long assume the form of a nv.
ing demonstration" prophecy which tho