The sun., 1918-12-08


Mr.. BALFoURecen-th think.
Some Contrasts In the Literature
OF SplrituaIlsm.
In the seventy years since mod
ern spiritualism was ushered. after
knocking, into the world in the par
Tor Of the Fox home at Hydesville in
Wayne county, no decade-unlesstha
OF the '5Os-has seen the production
Of rs much literature on the subject
Of spiritland communication as has
been published in the last four years.
The war has not unexpectedly pro-
duced, II not wealth Of spiritistlc
lore, at least great mass Of mate
rial from which both friend and foe
may draw conclusions. On the more
strictly popular side we have had Sir
OLIVER LoDGE's sensational Ray
mond." Sir ARTHUR CONAN DoYLE's
frank confession Of faith. and the
novels" In first and sixteenth cen
fury styles, Of the spirit who signs
herself, by the ouija board, Patience
Worth" One New York publishing
house (Dutton) has printed In the
last year at least ten works dealing
with spiritualism In friendly or
neutral way, and has also published
new edition of spiritualism's great
book Of evidence, the collection Of
the cases looked into by the Society
for Psychical Research; a work rep
resenting many years of investigation
on the part Of GURyEY, MYERS and
PoDMORB and now edited and abridged
Ito about 100000 words) by Mrs.
HENRY SID0wICK, sister Of Arthur
JAMES BALFoUR and honorary secre-
tary of the society.
The reader who has skinned the
literature Of psychlsm since the days
Of the Fox sisters has always been
struck by the variety OF it's charac-
ter. 1t has swung from the deepest
solemnity or the most pompous dig.
nifty to the extreme Of fllppancy and
irrelevancy, the pendulum of course
passing through q middle region dis.
tingulshed for the clearness and
straightforwardness OF the writer's
style. The good people of Rochester
frowned upon the Fox sisters not so
much because they heard rappings az
because they were what was called,
In n broad way, "blasphemous." No
such complaint was made of the writ
ings Of Judge JOHN WORTH EDMoNDs,
the first notable American defender
of the new belief, whose two vol
umes Of "Spiritualism," written In
DEXTER, appeared In 1853. No such
complaint was made about the re-
markable Voice of the Patrlarchs,"
which LUTHER Il. MARSH, associate
of DANIEL WEBSTER and friend OF the
New York parks, published in 1889,
relating the conversations with Bibli-
cal characters which Mr.. MARSH be-
lleved he had carried on through the
mediumship of CLARIsA ]. HUYLER.
None could be offended by the reve-
latlons. although the reader might
permit q smile as he came upon such
evidence as that of ADAM concerning
the days after the fall:
Gentle. accomplishing EVE endeav-
ored to appear happy. yet I knsw she
sighed for the Garden and u>ourned for
the companionship Of tia mute friends
she was wont to PEI Outlines
as she gazed upon the tree tops, her
eyes humid with unshed tears. l knew
she mourned the loss OF her feathered
songsters"
The contrasts in style and charac-
ter found in recent publications on
spiritualism are interesting In some
books we find only n bald scientific
record Of experiment, such as the
weighlngs and measurements set
down pafnstHkingly In w. ]. CRAw-
FoRD's Realty of Psychic Phenom.
ena." Then there Is the cold, matter
Of fact style Of How to Speak With
the Dead" in. which the author, who
signs himself "Sclens," sets forth the
best hours, environment and equip
ment for successful communication
with the departed. A third type of,
book is patterned after the produc-
lions Of Patience Worth" One fol-
lower of this originally lucrative bus
iness Of drawing fiction from the Be
yond got himself taken to court by
MARK TwAIN's publishers. Another
has pretended to have received post
norton stories from o. HENRY, but
whether through the ouiIa board, the
panchette or the ordinary speaking
medium is not stated by the person
a