The Savannah morning news., 1904-05-15
BOOK REVIEWS
AND
LITERARY NOTES

The Widows Mite, and other Psyche
logical Phenomena. BY l. X. Funk.
New York: Funk & Wagnalls Co.
Price, 50 net.
Something more than a year ago
there appeared newspaper story in
New York daily relating how the
spirit of Henry Ward Beechar had
sent a message through a Brooklyn me-
dunn to Rev. DR.. Isaac X. Funk with
respect to certain rare coin called
the widows mite" DR.. Funk
member of the publishing firm that
printed certain high class dictionary,
had borrowed the coin for the purpose
of illustrating 1t in the dictionary. He
! had given instructions to his subordi-
mates that it be returned promptly, and
he was under the impression that it
had been returned. The coin. it seems,
| had belonged to Mr. Beecher in life
At a spiritualistic seance at which Dr.
Funk was present the spirit of Mr..
Beecher is alleged to have reverted to
| the coin, to have called attention to
| the fact that it had not been returned
to its proper place, and to have given
| directions respecting where ii would
| be found. The coin, the spirit of Mr..
Beecher said. had lain neglected for
a number of years in an iron safe I'M
Funk's publishing office brought to
| light the coin, in an iron safe, just as
| the medium had described. There Ia
| wealth of detail going to show that
| the coin had been overlooked. that
| there was no collision or fraud, and
that the finding of the piece was a
! psychological phenomenon almost with
| out precedent In several hundred
| pages DR.. Funk deals with the incident,
| going into the minutest details and
| quoting numerous authorities and their
| opinions with respect to this instance
and other occult occurrences. The
| trend of the whole exposition is to-
wards the end of proving to the reader
! that there is a spirit world without and
| beyond the material world; that the
| spiritual is constantly on the alert TO
give demonstrations" to the material,
and so bring it in touch with a higher
| life. And yet DR.. Funk assures us
| that he is not a spiritualist lin any
sense in which the public understands
| that term" HIS attitude towards the
| spiritualissc hypothesis of explanation
| of psychic phenomena, he tells us, is,
Il don't know" That was identically
| the position of the late Col. Robert G..
| Ingersoll. who has been called an inf
| del because he didn't know" Yet DR..
! Funk would, in all probability, sert-
ously object to being classed with In
gersoll, whose lack of information, or
knowledge, was extended to embrace
| theological questions as well as psy-
Geological phenomena. AS a doctor of
divinity DIR. Funk accepts and teaches
| that which is not less abstruse than
the existence. of 2 spirit world and the
| ntercommunication of spirits and NOR
| tails, concerning which Col. Ingersoll
didn't know"
DR. Funk's book contains more than
| 800 pages, every one of which is inter-
esting to the person inclined to be-
| lief in spiritualsm or to a study of
occultism. The author says that as
to himself he doesn't know but the
sum of his exposition of the phenomena
he takes account of is in favor of
belief in spiritualism. His premises
| are all taken from the spiritualisttc
standpoint, and the reader is left face
to face with the proposition, "if not
spirits. whlt?"
Meanwhile i. is to be Kept in con-
sideration that Or. Funk is a man Of
learning and high repute. He is a
leading publisher and an author of note.
He would not give a boost to spiritual
ism, even while disclaiming a belief in
that cult. unless he were convinced Of
the correctness of his premises and con-
| clusions-the latter, however, being
| rather nebular.