The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1913-06-13

1t also destroys tne true IFFeuOM oI
the soul. The true destiny and duty
of man is to assimilate himself to the
divine by emancipating himself from
the dominion of his passion" He
believes the deity to be "The supreme
reason, the source Of all things, the
end of all human endeavors." In his
argument with Aristodemus concern
ing the divine existence, he said:
Then shalt thou, oh Aristodemus, un-
derstand that there is being whose
eye pierceth throughout all nature
and whose ear is open to every sound;
extended to all places, extending
through all time and whose bounty
and care can know no other bound
than those fixed by bis own creation"
Thus, my friends, we see that many
men in past ages Of the world sought
with untiring perseverance and un-
wearying diligence to know the truth.
knowledge and wisdom they en-
deavored to obtain and acquire. They
labored under great Disadvantages,
{ that the one longing of the human
mind may be satisfied, namely: to
| think upon, to believe in and to know
the truth the great basic principle.
Not only is truth the foundation of
all knowledge butt it is also thing
of much power, as evidence of the
above statement I wish to speak some
what at length Of spiritualism. The
term spiritualism is used by philoso-
phical writer's to denote the opposite
of materialism. In narrow sense
it is also used Ito describe the belief
that the spiritual world manifests it
self by producing in the physical
world effects ineXplicable by known
laws of nature. The belief in such
occasional manifestations has proba-
bly, existed as long as the belief in
the existence of spirits apart from
human bodies, and complete examina-
ton into it would involve a discus
sion of the religions of all ages and
nations. In 1848, however, peculiar
form of it, believed to be based on
abundant experimental evidence, arose
in America and spread there with
great rapidity and thence over the
civilized world This form which de-
veloped into that movement which has
been called modern spiritualism be-
gan in a single family. In 1884 a
Mister and Misses Fox and their two
daughters living in Waynes county,
n. Y, were much disturbed by unex-
plained knockings. At length Kate
Fox discovered that the cause Of the
sounds was intelligence and would
make raps as requested, and communi-
cation being established, the rapper
professed to be the spirit of muir
dered peddler. An investigation into
the matter seemed to show that none
of the Fox family were concerned in
producing the rapping; but the evi-
dence that they were not concerned
in insufficient. It was, however, at
Rochester where the two Fox girls
soon s.fterward went to live with a
married sister that modern spiritual
ism assumed it's present form and that
communication was, as it was believ-
ed, established with lost relatives and
deceased eminent men.
The presence of certain mediums
was required to form the link be-
tween the worlds of the living and of
the dead, and Kate Fox and her sis
ter were the first mediums. The
earliest communications were car
rled on by means OF raps. 1t was
agreed that one rap should mean no
and three yes, while complicated mes
sages were obtained in other ways,
such as calling over or pointing to
letter of the alphabet when raps oc-
cur at the required letters. This
modern fake became very popular and
attractive and hence many came to
study it, to learn it and TO be in
fuenced by it. It was not confined
to America, but was carried over in
to Europe in the year 1852 by Miss
Hayden who claimed to be a profess
sional medium. It spread like wild
fire within a few months of her ar
rival. It's first development being in
the form of mania for table turning
which seems to have prevailed all