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Victorian Blogging
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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"Wonder" in relation to spiritualism: an essay delivered to the Liverpool Phrenological Society
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Leighton, Andrew
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Place of publication: London
Collation: 20 p. ; 22 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway.
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J. Burns
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[1867]
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G5176
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Spiritualism
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work ("Wonder" in relation to spiritualism: an essay delivered to the Liverpool Phrenological Society), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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English
Conway Tracts
Phrenology
Spiritualism
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A DISCOVERY CONCERNING GHOSTS.
“Enter Ghost.”
Hamlet.—“ Thou com’st in such a questionable shape.”—
Shakesteabe.
Questionable !—ay; so very questionable, in my opinion, is the fact of their
coming at all, that I am now going to question whether they ever did, or
can come. This opinion I know is opposed to a very general, a long-esta
blished, and with some a deeply-rooted belief in supernatural appearances,
and is opposed to what may be almost considered as well-authenticated facts,
which neither the repeated exposure of very many “ ghost tricks,” and
clearly-proved imposture, nor sound philosophical arguments, have been able
to set aside altogether. Most persons, therefore, will no doubt consider that
the task of “laying” all the ghosts that have appeared, and putting U stop
to any others ever making an appearance, is a most difficult task. This is
granted; and although I do not believe, like Owen Griendower, that I can
“ call the spirits from the vasty deep,” but on the contrary agree in this
respect with Hotspur, if I did call that they would not come, I nevertheless,
B
�2
A DISCOVERY CONCERNING GHOSTS.
although no conjuror, do conjure up for the occasion hosts of ghosts which
I see I have to contend against. Yes, I do see before me, “ in my mind’s
eye
A. vast army, composed of ghost, goblin, and sprite !
With them .eyes full of fire, all gleaming with spite !
All lurking about in the “ dead of the night ”
With them faces so pale and their shrouds all so white I
Or hiding about in dark holes and corners,
To fright grown-up folk, or little “ Jack Horners.”
But though they all stand in this fierce grim array,
Armed with pen and with pencil, “ I’ll drive them away.”
It is not only, however, against these horrible and ghastly-looking cloud
of flimsy foes that one has to deal with in a question like this, but there are
numbers of respectable and respected authors, and highly respectable wit
nesses, on the side of the ghosts ; and it must be admitted that it is no easy
matter to .put aside the testimony of all these respectable persons. They
may have thought, and some may still think, that they have done, and are
doing, good, by supporting this belief; but I know on the contrary that they
have done, and are doing, great harm ; and I, therefore, stand forth in the ■
hope of “laying” all the ghosts, and settling this long-disputed question
for ever.
The belief in ghost, or apparition, is of course of very early date, originating
in what are called the “ dark ages,” and dark indeed those ages were ! as a
reference to the early history of the world will show ; and although we have
in these days a large diffusion of the blessed light of intelligence, nevertheless
there is still existing, even amongst civilized people, a fearful amount of
ignorance upon the subject of Ghosts, Witchcraft, Fortune-telling, and
“ Ruling the Stars,” besides a vast amount of this sort of imaginary and
mischievous nonsense. Now it will be as well here to inquire what good
has ever resulted from this belief in what is commonly understood to be a
ghost? None that I have ever heard of, and I have been familiar with all
the popular ghost stories from boyhood, and have of late waded through
almost all the works produced in support of this spiritual visiting theory,
but in no one instance have I discovered where any beneficial result has
followed from the supernatural or rather unnatural supposed appearances;
whereas, on the other hand, we do find unfortunately a large and serious
amount of suffering and injury arising from this belief in ghosts, and which
I shall have occasion to refer to further on; but I will now proceed to bring
forward some of the evidences which have been adduced from time to time,
all pretty much in the same style, in support of the probability and truth of
the appearance of ghosts—first, in fact, to call up the ghosts, in order that I
may put them down.
All the ghost story tellers, or writers upon this subject, seem to consider
that one most important point in the appearance of apparitions is, that the
ghost should be a most perfect and EXACT RESEMBLANCE, in every
respect, to the deceased person—the spirit of whom they are supposed to
be. Their faces appear the same, except in some cases where it is described
as being rather paler than when they were alive, and the general expression
�A DISCOVERY CONCERNING GHOSTS.
n
¿>
is described as “more in sorrow than in anger,” but this varies in some
instances according to circumstances; but in all these appearances the coun
tenances are so precisely similar, so minutely so, that in one case mentioned
by Mrs. Crowe in her “ Kight-side of Nature,” the very “ pock-pits ” or
“pock-marks” on the face were
visible. The narrators also all
agree that the spirits appear in similar, or the same dresses which they
were accustomed to wear during their lifetime (please to observe that this
is very important), so exactly alike that the ghost-seer could not possibly
be mistaken as to the identity of the individual, in face, figure, manner, and
dress ; and on the same authority in some cases the same spirit has appeared
at the same moment to different persons in different places, although perhaps
15,000 miles apart, in precisely the same dress.
In referring to the play of “Hamlet,” it will be found that Shakespeare
has been most particular in describing the general appearance of the Ghost
of Hamlet’s father, who was
“Doomed for a certain time to walk by night.”
Dor instance, when Marcellus says to Horatio,
“ Is it not like the king ?”
Horatio replies—
“ As thou art to thyself:
Such was the very armour he had on,
When he the ambitious Norway combated;
So frown’d he once, when, in angry parle,
He smote the sledded Polack on the ice.”
Horatio also, in describing the Ghost to Hamlet, says—•
“ A figure like your father,
MmeiZ at all points, exactly, cap-d-pe.”
And, in further explanation, it,is stated that the Ghost was armed “from
top to toe,” “from head to foot,” that “he wore his beaver up,” with
“ a countenance more in sorrow than in anger,” and was “ very pale.” Then,
again, when Hamlet sees his father’s spirit, he exclaims—
“ What may this mean,
That thou, dead corse, again, in complete steel,
Revisit’st thus the glimpses of the moon.”
So also in the play of “Macbeth,” when the Ghost of Banquo rises, and
takes a seat at the table, Macbeth says to the apparition—
“ Never shake
Thy gory locks at me.”
And further on he says—“ Thou hast no speculation in those eyes
Which thou dost glare with !”
Daniel de Foe also insists upon, and goes into the most minute details as to
the person and dress of a Ghost; and in a work which he published upon
�4
A DISCOVERY CONCERNING GHOSTS.
apparitions,* we may see how careful and circumstantial the author is in
his descriptions of apparitions, whose appearance he vouches for in his
peculiar narrative and matter-of-fact style. One of these ghost stories is
of some robbers who broke into a mansion in the country, and whilst ran
sacking one of the chambers, they saw, sitting in a chair, “ a grave, ancient
man, with a long full-bottomed wig and a rich brocaded gown,” etc. One
of the robbers threatened to tear off his “rich brocaded gown;” another
hit at him with a fuzee, and was instantly alarmed at finding it passed
through air; and then the old gentleman “ changed into the most horrible
monster that ever was seen, with eyes like two fiery daggers red hot.”
They then rushed into another room, and found the same “ grave, ancient
man” seated there,! and so also in another chamber; and he was seen by
different robbers in three different rooms nt the same moment ! Just at this
time the servants, who were at the top of the house, threw some “ hand
grenades” down the chimneys of these rooms. The result altogether was
that some of the thieves were badly wounded, the others driven away, and
the mansion saved from being plundered. What a capital thing it would be
surely, if the police could attach some of these spirits to their force !
Another case, a clergyman (the Rev. Dr. Scot) was seated in his library,
with the door closed, when he suddenly saw “ an ancient, grave gentleman, in
a black velvet gown”—very particular, you observe, as to the material—“ and
a long wig.” This ghost was an entire stranger to Dr. Scot, and came to
ask the doctor to do him a favour—asking a favour under such circum
stances of course amounts to a command—which was to go to another part
of the country, to a house where the ghost’s son resided, and point out to
the son the place where an important family document was deposited.
Dr. Scot complied with this request, and the family property was secured
to the son of the ghost in the “black velvet gown and the long wig.”
Now one naturally asks here, why did not this old ghost go and point
the place out to his son himself ? And so also with the well-authenticated,
story of the ghost of Sir George Villars, who wanted to give a warning to
his son, the Duke of Buckingham; which warning, if properly delivered
and properly acted upon, might have saved the duke’s life; but instead of
warning his son himself (take notice), he appeared to one of the duke s
domestics, 11 in the very clothes he used to wear,” and commissioned him to
deliver the message. After all, this warning was of no use, so this ghost
might have saved himself the trouble of coming; but spirits are indeed
strange things, and of course act in strange ways.
About the year 1700, a translation from a Drench book was brought out
in London, entitled “ Drelincourt on Death and after it had been published
for some time, Daniel Defoe, at the request of Mr. Midwinter, the publisher,
wrote a preface to the 'work, and therein introduced a short story about
the ghost of a lady appearing to her friend. It was headed thus : “ A true
Relation of the Apparition of Mrs. Veal, next day after her death, to one
* “ An Essay on the History and Reality of Apparitions; being an account of what they
are and what they are not, when they come and when they come not; as also how we may
distinguish between Apparitions of Good and Evil Spirits, and how we ought to behave to
them; with a variety of surprising and diverting examples never published before.
London, 1727.
�A DISCOVERY CONCERNING GHOSTS.
5
Mrs. Bargrave, at Canterbury, on the 8th of September, 1705 ; which
Apparition recommends the perusal of Drelincourt’s book of Consolation
against the Fears of Death. (Thirteenth edition.)”
Mrs. Veal and Mrs. Bargrave, it appears, were intimate friends. One day
at twelve o’clock at noon, when Mrs. B. was sitting alone, Mrs. Veal entered
the room, dressed in a “riding habit,” hat, etc., as if going a journey. Mrs.
Bargrave advanced to welcome her friend, and was going to salute her, and
their lips almost touched, but Mrs. V. held back her head and passing her
hand before her face, said, “ I am not very well to-dayand avoided the
salute. In the course of a long talk which they had, Mrs. Veal strongly
recommends Drelincourt’s Book on Death to Mrs. Bargrave, and occasionally
“ claps her hand upon her knee, in great earnestness.” Mrs. Veal had been
subject to fits, and she asks if Mrs. Bargrave does not think she is “ mightily
impaired by her fits ?” Mrs. B.’s reply was, “ No! I think you look as well
as ever I knew you;” and during the conversation she took hold of Mrs. Veal’s
gown several times, and commended it. Mrs. V. told her it was a “ scoured
silk” and newly made up. Mrs. Veal at length took her departure, but
stood at the street door some short time, in the face of the beast market;
this was Saturday the market-day. She then went from Mrs. B., who saw
her walk in her view, till a turning interrupted the sight of her; this was
three quarters after one o’clock. Mrs. Veal had died that very day at noon ! ! !
at Dover, which is about twenty miles from Canterbury.
Some surprise was expressed to. Mrs. Bargrave, about the fact of her
feeling the gown, but she said she was quite sure that she felt the gown. It
was a striped silk, and Mrs. Veal had never been seen in such a dress; but
such a one was found in her wardrobe after her decease.
This story made a great sensation at the time it was published; and
“ Drelincourt on Death,” with the Preface and Defoe’s tale, became exceed
ingly popular.*
The absurdities and impossibilities of the foregoing narrative of this
apparition of Mrs. Veal need not be pointed out; but the story is introduced
here for two reasons; one of which will be explained further on, and the
* The introduction runs thus :—“This relation is a matter of fact, and attended with such
circumstances as may induce any reasonable man to believe it. It was sent by a gentleman,
a justice of peace, in Maidstone in Kent, and a very intelligent person, to his friend in
London, as it is here worded; which discourse is attested by a sober and understanding
gentlewoman, a kinswoman of the said gentleman’s, who fives at Canterbury within a few
doors of the house in which the within-named Mrs. Bargrave lives; who believes his kins
woman to be of so discerning a spirit as not to be put upon by fallacy, and who positively
assured him that the whole matter as related and laid down is really true; and what she
herself had in the same words (as near as may be) from Mrs. Bargrave’s own mouth ; who
she knows had no reason to invent and publish such a story; or design to forge and tell a lie,
being a woman of much honesty and virtue, and her whole life a course as it were of piety.
The use which we ought to make of it is, that there is a life to come after this, and a just
GOD, who will retribute to every one according to the deeds done in the body, and therefore
to reflect upon our past course of life we have lead in the world—that our time is short and
uncertain; if we would escape the punishment of the ungodly and receive the reward of
the righteous, which is the laying hold of eternal life, we ought for the time to come to
turn to GOD, by a speedy repentance, ceasing to do evil and learning to do well, to seek
after GOD early, if haply he may be found of us, and lead such lives for the future as may
be well pleasing in his sight.”
�6
A DISCOVERY CONCERNING GHOSTS,
other is to show how the public have been imposed upon with these short
stories.
It has all along been known to the literary world that this “ true
Relation” was a falsehood, and brought forward under the following cir
cumstances :—
Mr. Midwinter, who published the translation of “ Drelincourt on Death,”
finding that the work did not sell, complained of this to Defoe, and asked him
if he could not write some preface or introduction to the work for the purpose
of calling the attention of the public to this rather uninviting subject.
Defoe undertook to do so, and produced this story about the ghost of Mrs.
Veal. The gullibility of the public was much greater at that time than now,
and they would then swallow anything in the shape of a ghost; a great
sensation was created, and the publisher’s purpose was answered, as the
work had an extraordinary sale ; but one cannot help expressing a very
deep regret that the author of “ Robinson Crusoe” should have so degraded
his talent, by thus deliberately foisting upon the public a gross and mis
chievous falsehood as a veritable truth; and, worse than this, guilty of
bringing in the most sacred names upon one of the most solemn subjects
which the mind of man can contemplate, for the purpose of supporting and
propagating a falsehood for a mercenary purpose.
As the belief in ghosts has long been popular, and considered as an
established fact, it may be quite allowable for an author to introduce a ghost
into his romance; and it may be argued that authors have thus been enabled
“ to point a moral” as well as to “ adorn a tale,” by using this poetical license,
or spiritual medium ; but in these cases the tales or poems were given out to
the world as inventions of the author to amuse the public, or to convey a
moral lesson, and were accepted by the public as such.
We find in these foregoing examples that apparitions do appear sometimes
to strangers, and sometimes in the dresses in which they had not been seen
when alive; but these dresses have been afterwards discovered or accounted
for, and it has also been discovered who these strange spirits repre
sented. But it will be seen by the cases cited, and others which are to follow,
that this exact appearance, this Vraisemblance is essential, nay, Indispensable,
in order that there shall be “ no mistake for should mistakes be made, it
would, in some cases, be perhaps a very serious matter. I fully assent to all
this, and to show that I wish to do battle in all fairness, that it shall be a
“fair fight and no favour,” I am willing even to illustrate my opponents’
statements in these particulars, and to do this I here introduce don’t start,
reader ! not a ghost, but a figure of Napoleon the Birst, but without a head ;
not that I mean to imply thereby that this military hero had no head. No,
no ! quite the contrary, but I have omitted this head and the head of the
ghost of Hamlet’s father for an especial purpose, as will be explained further
on, when I shall have occasion to touch upon these heads again. But if this
cut is held at a distance, by any one at all familiar with the portraits or
statues of “ Napoleon le Grand” in this costume, they will at once recognize
who the figure is intended to represent.
Let us now turn to “ The Night-side of Nature,” and through the dismal
gloom which surrounds these apparitions, call up some more spirits, who,
according to Mrs. Crowe, and, indeed, on the authority of all other
�A DISCOVERY CONCERNING GHOSTS.
7
authors who support the ghost doctrine, 44 generally come in their habits as
they livedand it appears that there is no difference in this respect between
the beggar and the king, for they come
44 Some-in rags, and some in jags, and some in silken gowns.”
At page 289 of this exceedingly cleverly written but most ghastly
collection of ghost stories, it is related that the ghost of a beggar-man
appeared at the same time in two different apartments (all in his dirty
rags, of course), to a young man and a young woman who had allowed
this beggar to sleep in their master’s barn (unbeknown to their master),
where he died in the night, but could not rest after his death until some
money of his was found by these young people, who had both suffered
in their health in consequence of these visits of the beggar’s ghost. They
at length consulted and explained all this to a priest, who advised them
to distribute the money they had found under the straw (where the beggar
had slept and died) between three churches, which advice was accordingly
acted upon, and this settled the business, for the dirty ragged ghost never
troubled them again.
In contrast to this we have the story of the ghost of a lady of title, who
had been in her lifetime Princess Anna of Saxony. She came decked out
in 44 silks and satins,” gold lace, embroidery, and jewels, all so grand, and
appeared to one of the descendants of her family, Duke Christian of Saxe
Eisenburg, requesting him to be so kind as to try and 44 make it up ” be
�8
A DISCOVERY CONCERNING GHOSTS.
tween her and her ghost hnsband, who, it seems, was a bad-tempered man,
had quarrelled with her, and had died without being reconciled.
Duke Christian consented to do this. She had walked into the duke’s
presence, although all the doors were shut, and one day after their first
interview she brought her husband to their relative in the same uncere
monious manner. Her ghost husband, who had been the Duke Casimer,
appeared dressed in his royal robes. They each told their story (these, you
will observe were talking ghosts as well as stalking ghosts). Duke Christian
most gallantly decided in favour of the lady, and the ghost duke very
properly acquiesced in the justice of the decision. Duke Christian then
took the “icy cold hand ” of the ghost-duke and placed it in the hand of the
ghost-wife, whose hand felt of a “ natural heat.” It appears to be the opinion
of the advocates of apparitions that naughty ghosts have cold hands. In this
case the husband was the offending party, and was very naughty, and there
fore his hands were very cold. It seems strange that his hands should
have been cold, for, being naughty, one would suppose he would come from
the same place that Hamlet’s father did; and from what he said we should
conclude that there was a roaring fire there, where the duke might have
warmed his cold hands. It further appears that these parties all “ prayed and
sung together!” after which the now happy ghosts disappeared sans ceremonie, without troubling the servants to open the doors, or allowing Duke
Christian to “ show them out.” One remarkable fact in connection with
this story is, that, upon referring to the portraits of these ghosts which hung
in the castle, was, that they had appeared in exactly the same dresses which
they had on, when these portraits were painted—one hundred years before
this time.
Duke Christian died two years after the ghosts’ visits, and by his own
orders was buried in “ quicklime,” to prevent, it is supposed, his ghost from
walking the earth ! He must indeed have been a poor ignorant creature,
although a duke, to suppose that “ quicklime,” or “ slow lime,” or any other
kind of lime, or anything else that would destroy the body, could make any
difference with respect to the appearance of the spirit.
The next case, then, is of the ghost of a soldier’s wife, who appeared to a
“ Corporal Q----- ” who was lying ill in bed, and also to a comrade who was
an invalid lying in the next bed. This was in the night, but the cor
poral could see that she was dressed in a “ flannel gown, edged with a black
ribbon,” exactly like the grave-clothes which he had helped to put on her
twelve months before. It appears, however, that he could see through her,
'flannel gown and all. This female ghost came to the bed-side of the sick man
to ask him to write to her husband, who was in Ireland, to communicate
something to him which was to be kept a “profound secret.”
This is certainly a strange story, but is it not still more strange that this
ghost did not go to her husband and tell him the important secret herself,
instead of trusting a stranger to do so ? It will be observed that there are
different classes of ghosts, as there are of living people—the princely, the
aristocratic, the genteel, and the common. The vulgar classes delight to
haunt in graveyards, dreary lanes, ruins, and all sorts of dirty dark holes
and corners, and in cellars. Yes, dark cellars seem to be a favourite abode
of these common ghosts? This fact raises the question whether the lower
�A DISCOVERY CONCERNING GHOSTS.
9
class of spirits are obliged to keep to the Zower parts of the house—to the
u low® regions ’’—and are not allowed to go into the parlours or the drawing
rooms, and not allowed to mix with the higher order of ghosts! Can this
be a law or regulation amongst the ghosts ? If so, is it not most extraordi
nary that these spirits should not be allowed to choose their own place of
residence, and take to the most comfortable apartments, instead of grovelling
amongst the rats and mice, the slugs, the crickets, and the blackbeetles ?
’Tis strange, ’tis passing strange ; but so it appears to be. By the by, some few
of these poor spirits of the humble class of ghosts do sometimes, it appears,
mount np to the bed-rooms, in the hope, I suppose, of getting occasionally
now and then a “ comfortable lodging ” and a ££ good night s rest.
At page 810 of this same work we have an account of a haunted cellar in a
gentleman’s house, out of town, in which were heard “ loud knockings,” il a
voice crying,” “ heavy feet walking,” etc. The old butler, with his “ acolytes,”
descended to the cellar (wine cellar) armed with sword, blunderbuss, and
Other offensive weapons, but the ghosts put them all to flight, and they
“ turned tail ” in a fright. Yes, they all ran up-stairs again, followed by the
a Hound of feet ” and ££ a visible shadow !” This, of course, is a fact; and it so
happens that I know another fact about a haunted wine-cellar, which, how
ever, had quite a different result to the foregoing.
In a wine-cellar of a gentleman’s house, somewhere near Blackheath, it
was found that strange noises were sometimes heard in the evenings and in
the night time, in this “ wine vault,” similar to those described above, such
as 'knocking, groaning, footsteps, etc., so that the servants were afraid to go into
the Cellar, particularly at a late hour. The master at length determined to
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A RISCOVERY CONCERNING GHOSTS,
“lay” this ghost, if possible, and one evening when these noises had been
heard, arming himself with a sword, and the servants with a fowling-piece
and a poker, they cantionsly descended into the cellar (with lighted candles,
of course). Nothing was to be seen there, and all was quiet except a strange,
smothered kind of sound, like the hard breathing of an animal, something
like snoring, that seemed to proceed out of the earth in one of the dark
corners of the vault, when,, lo and behold! in turning their lights in the
direction from which the sounds came, and advancing carefully, they dis
covered—what do you think ? Don’t be alarmed. Why, the ghost lying on
the ground, dead—drunk ! Yes, the ghost had laid himself, not with “ Bell,
Book, and Candle,” but by swallowing the spirit of alcohol, the spirit of
wine, beer, and brandy. Most disgraceful; in fact, this ghost had taken a
“ drop too much.”
Upon looking a little closer, they found that this ghost was one Tom
Brown, an under-gardener; and it was discovered that he had tunnelled a
hole from tjie “ tool-house” through the wall into the cellar. This spirit was
so over-charged with spirit, that he was unable to walk, so was doomed to be
carried in a cart to the “ cage ” and all the people living round about came
next morning to look at the ghost that had been haunting the squire’s wine
cellar. Oh! what a fortune it would be to any one who copld catch a ghost
—a real, right down, “ ’arnest” ghost, and put him in a cage tg show him
round the country ! I wish I had ope.* If yppuld cost little pr nothing to
keep such a thing ; only the lodging, as he <puld pequjrp neither food, pre,
clothing, nor washing!
At page 118, we find an account of an apparition, appearing to a gentleman,
who was staying at a friend’s house at Sarratt, jn Hertfordshire^ and was
awoke in the middle of the night by a pressure qn his feet, and, lopkigg PP,
saw, by the light thpt was burning in the fire-place, a “ well-dressed gentle
man,” in a “
coaf an^ bright gilt buttons,” leaning 011 fhe foot of tho hed,
witfyut a head1 It appears that this was reported tp he tpp ghost of a poor
geutleqian pf that neighbourhood who had been murdered, ppd whose head
had peen opt off! and could therefore only bp ppppgni^gd liy his “ blue coat
and bright gilt buttons.”
Under any real circumstance this would indeed be too horrible and too
serious a subject to turn into ridicule • but in this case, such an evident false
hood, it is surely allowable to “ lay” such a ghost as this, such a senseless ghost,
in any possible way ; in fact, to laugh such a ghost out of countenance—
I, therefore, with my rod of double H. blacklead,
Hold up to scorn this well-dressed ghost without a head.
Any one looking at this figure will clearly see that he does not belong to
this world, and has therefore no business here; for, although there may be
some persons in this world who, perhaps, go about with a very small allowance
of brain, yet every body here must have some sort of a head upon his shoulders,
* Some few years back, a ghost was said to have been seen frequently in the neighbour
hood of some Roman Catholic institution near Leicester, and upon one occasion had nearly
frightened a young woman to death. I was staying with a friend at Leicester at the time,
and offered £100 reward to any one who would show me the ghost, as I wanted very much
to make a sketch of it, but I could not get a sight of it for love nor money.
�A DISCOVERY CONCERNING GHOSTS.
11
no matter how handsome, or queer-looking it may be. Now I am sorry to
be rude to any “ well-dressed gentleman,” or, indeed, to any body or soul ; but
as it appears (from the story) that this ghost had really no real business upon
earth, what “on earth” does he come here for? Why, for no other object,
it appears, but to “ show himself offso, in my opinion, the sooner he “ walks
off” the better. By the by, perhaps we ought not to be too severe upon the
poor fellow, for, upon consideration, he is placed in rather an awkward
position, as his head may be on the look out for the body, and know where it
is, but having no legs it cannot get to the body. On the other hand, although
the body has legs and could walk to the head, yet, having no eyes, cannot see
where the head is; so some excuse may be made upon this head, particularly
if he is not a talking ghost.
There is a story, somewhere in the Roman Catholic chronicles, of a
martyr, who, after being beheaded, picked up his head, and walked away
with it under his arm; but our ghost here, in the “ blue coat and bright gilt
buttons,” is not allowed to do this sort of thing, and the question naturally
arises, what has become of, or where is the spirit of this unfortunate
gentleman’s head ? Can the believers in ghosts tell us that ? and surely we
shall all feel obliged if they can inform us whether the apparitions of all
decapitated persons appear without their heads ; and, if not, what becomes of
their heads ? and, further, whether the mutilation of the body can in any way
affect the spirit—the soul 7
I shall not in this case “ pause for a reply,” because I know I shall have
a very long time to wait for an answer; but in proceeding to bring to the light
of day some more facts about ghosts from the dark side of nature, I feel as if
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A DISCOVERY CONCERNING GHOSTS.
some inquisitive spirit was irresistibly compelling me to put questions as I
go on writing; and therefore, under these circumstances, present my com
pliments to those persons who know about ghosts, and the various authors
who support this belief, and I shall feel greatly obliged if they will answer
my queries at their earliest convenience.—N.B. Shall be glad to hear the
replies from the ghosts themselves, provided they pay the postage.
In the first place, then, from the authority quoted above, it appears that a
widow lady had, strange to say, married a second time! and that the ghost
of her first husband paid her “constant visits.” Query, What did the ghost
come for, and was the second husband at all jealous of his coming? With
respect to a celebrated actor, who had married a second wife, we find that the
apparition of his first wife appeared to him, and which appearance unfortunately
threw him into a fit, and at the same moment this ghost appeared to the
second wife, although they were several hundred miles apart at the time. I
can understand why the ghost of his first wife came to visit him who once
was hers, that is, because he was such a great actor, and such a good fellow ;
but why did it appear to the second wife ? and how is it that the same spirit
can appear in several places at the same instant ? I should like to know that.
At page 274 we find a DOG frightened at the ghost of a soldier ! But this is not
the only “unlucky dog” that has been terrified by apparitions; several
instances are given in different works. Query, How do the “poor dogs”
know a ghost is a ghost when they see one, particularly as they appear in the
same dresses which they had on when “in the flesh;” and even, suppose they
know that they are in the presence of a ghost, what makes them “ turn tail ?”
Yes, why should a tZoy, especially if he is a spirited dog, do so ? for almost in
the same page we are told of a horse who recognized his old master, who
appeared in the same dress he wore when alive, a “ sky-blue coat.” This
horse did not “turn tail.” No! but followed the phantom of his dear old
master, who was walking about the farm, and no doubt wanted to give him
a ride. Query, If a horse is not frightened at a ghost, why should dogs be
frightened at the sight of them ? And also, if a goose would be frightened if
it saw a ghost ? Asses, we know, are sometimes frightened at nothing, and
as a ghost is “next to nothing,” they must of course be frightened at ghosts.
At page 459 we are told of the ghost of a “ horse and cart,” and also of the
“ ghosts of sheep.” If this be so, doubtless there must likewise be the
ghosts of dogs (what “ droll dogs ” they must be), also of puppies, and asses.
What an interesting subject of inquiry is this for the zoologist!
We find, as we dive into the dark mysteries of apparitions, that there
are ghosts of all sorts and sizes, and that there are even lame ghosts, as is
proved by the following true tale of the apparition of an officer in India,
as related by several of his brother officers, whose words dare not be
doubted:—One Major R----- , who was presumed to be of about fifty or
sixty years of age, was with some young officers, proceeding up a river
in a barge ; and as they came to a considerable bend in the river, the
major and the other officers went ashore, in order to cross the neck of
land, taking their fowling-pieces and powder and shot with them, in the
hopes of meeting some game ; and they also took something to refresh
themselves on the road. At one part of their journey they took their
“ tiffing,” and after this they had to jump across a ditch, which the young
�A DISCOVERY CONCERNING GHOSTS.
13
officers cleared, but the major “ jumped short.” He told his companions to
march on, and he would follow after he had dried and put himself a little
in marching order. They saw him lay down his fowling-piece and his hat,
and they moved on. After marching some time, they came in sight of the
barge, and were wondering why the major did not follow, when, on a sudden,
they were surprised to see him (the major) at some distance from them
making towards the barge, “ without his hat or gun,” limping hastily along
in his top boots, and he did not appear to observe them. When they arrived
at the barge, he was not there. They returned to the spot where they had
left him, and found his hat and his fowling-piece, and with the assistance of
Some natives they discovered the body of the major in a pit dug for trapping
wild animals!
I defer asking any questions upon the foregoing for the present, for a
reason, but as the next case related is that of the ghost of a young man who
had been drowned, and the poor old mother saw her son “ dripping with
water,” we may surely inquire here if there is or can be such a wonderful
sight as an apparition of “dripping water!” or ghosts of tears! for we
find at page 387 an account of a weeping ghost, who let his tears fall on the
face of a female, who “ often felt the tears on her cheek, icy cold, but burn
afterwards, and leave a blue mark !” And on the same authority we find that
there is the ghost of dirt, for the ghost of the old beggar-man was “ dirty.”
And then if the ghost of a chimney-sweep were to
appear—and why not the spirit of a sweep as well as
anybody else ? But if he came, he must also appear
“ in his habits as he lived.” In that case there must
be the ghost of soot! Thus there are not only the
apparitions cfifluids, and dust and dirt, but also of hard
substances, as in the case of a ghost who was seen in a
garden with the ghost of a “ spade in his hand!”
And not only have we, then, ghosts of all these
matters, but also a ghost of the “ rustling of silk,”
“ creaking of shoes,” and “ sounds of footsteps,” many
instances of which will be found in “Footfalls on
the Boundary of another World,” by Robert Dale
Owen, a work most elaborately compiled, and sin
cerely do I wish that such talent and such research
had been engaged and directed to illustrate and assist
with light, instead of darkness, the present progressive
state of society, instead of striving and endeavouring,
as .it does, to drive us back into the “ outer darkness”
of the ignorance of the “ dark ages,” to endeavour to support and to bring
back the mind of man to a belief in the visits of ghosts, of necromancy,
bewitching, and all the “ black arts ” all of which it was hoped, in the
progress of time, would ultimately be swept away from the face of the earth,
by pure and sound Christian religion, education and science, all of which go
clearly to prove that “ black arts” are matters contrary to the natural laws
of the creation and the laws of God.
In one of the tales brought forward by this author is an account of the
haunting of an old manor-house near Leigh, in Kent, called Ramhurst, where
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A DISCOVERY CONCERNING GHOSTS.
there was heard “knockings and sounds of footsteps,” more especially voices
which could not be accounted for, usually in an unoccupied room; “ some
times as if talking in a loud tone, sometimes as if reading aloud, occasionally
screaming.” The servants never saw anything, but the cook told her
mistress that on one occasion, in broad daylight, hearing the rustling of a
silk dress behind her, and which seemed to touch her, she turned suddenly
round, supposing it to be her mistress, but to her great surprise and terror
could not see anybody.
Mr. Owen is so thoroughly master of this spirit subject that he must be
able to tell us all about this “ rustling” of the “silk dresses” of ghosts, and
surely every one will be curious to learn the secret of such a curious fact.
The lady of the house, a Mrs. R----- , drove over one day to the railway
station at Tunbridge to fetch a young lady friend who was coming to stay
with her for some weeks. This was a Miss S----- , who “had been in the
habit of seeing apparitions from early childhood,” and when, upon their
return, they drove up to the entrance of the manor-house, Miss S----perceived on the threshold the appearance of two figures, apparently an
elderly couple, habited to the costume of the time of Queen Anne. They appeared
as if standing on the ground. Miss S----- saw the same apparition several
times after this, and held conversations with them, and they told her that
they were husband and wife, and that them name was “ Children
and she
informed the lady of the house, Mrs. R----- , of what she had seen and heard;
and as Mbs. R----- was dressing hurriedly one day for dinner, “ and not dream
ing of anything spiritual, as she hastily turned to leave her bed-chamber, there,
in the doorway, stood the same female figure Miss S----- had described!
identiöal in appearance and costume—even to the old ‘ point-lace ’ on her
1 brocaded silk dress ’—while beside her, on the left, but less distinctly
visible, Was the figure of the old squire, her husband; they uttered no sound,
but above the figure of the lady, as if written in phosphoric light in the
dusk atmosphere that surrounded her, were the words, ‘ Dame Children,’
together with some other words intimating that having never aspired beyond
the joys aild sorrows of this world, she had remained ‘ earth bound.’’ These
last, however, Mrs. R----- scarcely paused to decipher, as her brother (who
was vöry hungry) called out to know if they were ‘going to have any
dinner fnht day F ’ ” There was no time for hesitation; “ she closed her eyes,
rushed through the apparition and into the dining-room, throwing up her
hands, fifid öxclaiming to Miss S----- , ‘ Oh, my dear, I’ve walked through
Mrs. Children!’” Only think of that, “gentle reader!” Only think of
Mrs. R----- walking right through 11 Dame Children ”—“ old point-lace,
brocaded silk dress,” and all—and as old “Squire Children” was standing
by the side of his “ dame,” Mrs. R----- must either have upset the old
ghost or have walked through him also.
Although this story looks very much like as if it were intended as an
additional chapter to “ Joe Miller’s Jest-book,” the reader will please to
observe that Mr. Owen does not relate this as a joke, but, on the contrary,
expects that it will be received as a solemn serious fact; there was a cause for
the haunting of this old manor-house, with the talking, screaming, and rustling
of silk, and the appearance of the old-fashioned ghosts; there was a secret
which these ghosts wished to impart to the persons in the house at that
�A DISCOVERY CONCERNING GHOSTS.
15
time, and if the gentleman reader will brace up his nerves, and the lady
reader will get her “ smelling-bottle ” ready, I’ll let them into the secret.
Now, pray, dear madam, don’t be terrified! Squire Children had formerly
been proprietor of the mansion, and he and his “ dame ” had taken great
delight and interest in the house—when alive—and they were very sorry to
find that the property had gone out of the family, and he and his dame had
come on purpose to let Mrs. R----- and her friend know all this ! There
now, there’s a secret for you—what do you think of that ?
In the year 1854, a baron (of the rather funny name of Mdenstubbe)
was residing alone in apartments in the Rue St. Lazare, Paris, and one night
there appeared to him in his bed-room the ghost of a stout old gentleman.
It seems that he saw a column of “light grayish vapour,” or sort of “bluish
light,” out of which there gradually grew into sight, within it, the figure of
a “tall, portly old man, with a fresh colour, blue eyes,* snow white hair,
thin white whiskers, but without beard or moustache, and dressed with care.
He seemed to wear a white cravat and long white waistcoat, high stiff shirt
collar, and long black frock coat thrown back from his chest as is wont of
corpulent people like him in hot weather. He appeared to lean on a heavy
white 'cane.” After the baron had seen this portly ghost, he went to bed
and to sleep, and in a dream the same figure appeared to him again, and he
thought he heard it say, “ Hitherto you have not believed in the reality of
apparitions, considering them only as the recallings of memory ; now, since
you have seen a stranger, you cannot consider it the reproduction of former
ideas.”
Every one will acknowledge that this was exceedingly kind on the part
of the ghost, as he had no doubt to come a long way for the express purpose
of setting the baron’s mind right upon this point; and had also come from
a very warm place, as his frock coat “ was thrown from his chest, as is wont
with corpulent people in hot weather.”
This polite, good-natured, “blue’’-eyed apparition, who was “dressed
with care,” had been the proprietor of the maison—a Monsieur Caron—
who had dropped down in an apoplectic fit; and, oh, horror of horrors, had
actually “ died in the very bed now occupied by the baron !’.....
When the daughter heard of the ghost of her papa, appearing thus upon
one or two occasions, “ she caused masses to be said for the soul of her father,
and it is “ alleged that the apparition has not been seen in any of the apart
ments since or, to use a vulgarism, we might say here, that this ghost had
“ cut his stick.”
Mr. Robert Dale Owen had this narrative from the baron himself in.
Paris, on the 11th of May, 1859, and he is of opinion that this ‘ story
derives much of its value from the calm and dispassionate manner in which
the witness appears to have observed the succession of phenomena, and the
exact details which, in consequence, he has been enabled to furnish. It is
remarkable also, as well for the electrical influences which preceded the
appearance, as on account of the correspondence between the apparition to
the baron in his waking state, and that subsequently seen in his dream ; the
first cognizable by one sense only—that of sight—the second appealing
* The baron must have had good eyes to have seen the precise colour’ of the ghost’s eyes
under such circumstances.
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A DISCOVERY CONCERNING GHOSTS.
(though in vision of the sight only) to the hearing also. The coincidences
as to personal peculiarities and details of dress are too numerous and minutely
exact to be fortuitous, let us adopt what theory we may.”
As this baron is no doubt a most respectable and well-conducted gentle
man, in every respect, I will not say—
That Monsieur the Baron de Guldenstubbc
Had taken too much out of a bottle or tub,
but this I will say, that his account seems to be nothing more or less than a
very exact description of some “ dissolving view ” trick played off upon the
baron and others by some clever French neighbour; and as to his dream, it
is surely hardly worth while to notice such nonsense, as dreams are now well
understood to be only the imperfect operations of the organs of thought, in a
semi-dormant state, “half asleep and half awake,” and are the effect some
times of agreeable sensations or painful emotions, during the waking hours,
and may be produced to any disagreeable amount by eating a very hearty
supper of underdone “ pork pies,” and going to sleep on the back instead of
reclining on the side. We cannot dream of anything of which we have not
seen or had something of a similar kind before, nor can we form either
awake or in a dream any form whatever—animate or inanimate, which does
not partake or form some part of nature’s general objects; and in fact we
cannot invent an animal form without combining the parts of existing animals
either of man or beast. I trust that this fact will be a sufficient answer
for Monsieur Caron. And then, as to the “laying” of this ghost, it does
seem to me to be extraordinary, that any person possessed of common under
standing in these days, let their religion be what it may, should believe that
the Almighty GtOd would not let a departed spirit rest, until “ masses” had
been said for the soul of such person ; until some money had been paid to a
priest to mumble over a few set forms of prayer. Paid for prayers—prayers
at a certain market price! Then, as to the “white cravat,” “white
waistcoat,” “high stiff shirt collar,” and “ black frock coat,” and more par
ticularly the “heavy white cane,” is it to be understood that these said
“masses ” put all these materials to rest, as well as the soul or spirit of the
body ? If not, where did they go to ? Had they to return to purgatory by
themselves—had the heavy white walking-stick to walk off without its
owner ?
In the frame of mind in which this story is written, it is not at all sur
prising that the author should have taken so much trouble to put these facts
together, and that he should evidently be altogether so satisfied with the
couclusion which he arrives at. But ghost stories, like many other matters, •
where a foundation is once laid and established in falsehood or nonsense,
such builders may go on, adding any amount of the same materials, upon this
false basis. They may go on, working in the dark—piling up one story upon
another, until the structure assumes the appearance in the dusk of a wellestablished and substantial edifice, and looking as if it would stand firm for
ever ; but undermine this apparently stronghold, with that which is always
considered as a great bore, when used in working under the foundations of
long-established error or prejudice, namely, Truth, guided by true Religion,
and when thus armed and prepared, “ spring the mine ” with a good “ blow
�A DISCOVERY CONCERNING GHOSTS.
17
up ” of common sense, to lei in the light of Heaven and Christian civilized
intelligence, and the whole mass of ignorance and superstition is blown and
scattered to the winds, “like the baseless fabric of a vision.”
It may be said that the truth of this ghost story rests mainly on a stick—
leans upon a “ heavy white cane.” Take away the cane and down comes
the ghost! “white waistcoat,” “ high stiff shirt collar,” “ black coat,” “ blue
eyes,” and all!
The author of “ Footfalls on the Boundary of another World ” is evidently
a religious man, and had he but thought as deeply upon these matters as I
have done, I am sure he would never have been guilty of the impiety of
bringing forward such questions as to the spirituality of walking-sticks.
But I am well pleased that this “ heavy white cane ” has been introduced
here, because it affords me a handle to cane or to knock down and drive
away entirely these hideous and unnatural myths; and also because it enables
me to stick to the text, and to introduce here to the public an old friend, as
another illustration bearing upon the stick question. This is the apparition
of one Tom Straitshank, drawn, as you will see, by your humble servant.
This was a jolly bold daring spirit, and was seen when on board the
Victory at the battle of Trafalgar to emerge, like Monsieur Caron, out of some
light bluish vapour, very much like the smoke of gunpowder; and in that
battle it appears, like one of the heroes in “ Chevy Chase,” his “ legs were
smitten off!” but, unlike that warrior, he found that Tie could not fight
“upon his stumps,” so he had a pair of wooden legs made, and having
bought two stout walking-sticks, was thus enabled to hobble about on his
“timber toes.” He almost always appeared in various different parts of
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A DISCOVERY CONCERNING GHOSTS.
“ Greenwich. Hospital,” and very often surrounded by, and sometimes
emerging from, a vapour very like the smoke of tobacco. I feel here that I
ought to have given Tom his pipe, but the drawing of this tar was done
many years since, and until I read Mrs. Crowe’s book lately, I was not
aware that ghosts smoked their pipes, but it actually appears that they do
smoke, for at page 210 of “ The Hight-side of Mature,” a ghost is introduced
with a “short pipe,” and it was found out that the reason of his “walking
by night ” was, that he owed “ a small debt for tobacco !”
And when this little bacca-bill was paid,
This ghost, with his little bacca-pipe, was “laid;”
and we may suppose the spirit laid down his pipe. This ghost of a tobaccopipe raises the question of what these spiritual pipes are made—of what clay,
or if the Meer Schum are only mere shams; what sort of tobacco-leaves
their cigars are made of, and if there are any spiritual “cabbage-leaves”
mixed up with them.
Yes, we’d just like to know, what weed ’tis they burns,
Whether “ Shortcut,” “ Shag,” “Bird’s eye,” or “Returns.”
As the gents here, light their pipes &nd cigars with a kind of Lucifer
match, we may be pretty sure that they will continue to do so elsewhere;
but one would like to know also if ghosts chaw tobacco, if they take a quid
of “pig-tail,” and if the smokers ilSe spittoons—faugh !—and further, as
ghosts do smoke, if they take a pikch bf snuff, if there is such a thing as
spiritual snuff, if there be such things OS th© spirit of “Irish blaguard ”
and “ Scotch rappee ?”
Some of these “ sensationb wlodrama'S, or rather farces, might vie in
the number of nights in which tile performances took place, with some of
the “ sensation ” or popular thbUtrical piece© Of the present day. Here is
one entitled, “ The Drummed bf Te ¿Worth” (What a capital heading for a
“ play bill!”), in which the ghb&t or evil spirit of a drummer, or the ghost
of a drum (for it does not appear clearly which of the two it was), performed
the principal part in thi§ drama, with slight intervals, for “ two entire
years.”
Oh I this drutiimer, oh! this drummer,
I’ll tbll you what he used to do,
He used to heat upon his drum,
The “ Old Gentleman’s tattoo.”
The “ plot ” runs thus:—In March, 1661, Mr. Mompesson, a magistrate,
caused a vagrant drummer to be arrested, who had been annoying the
country by noisy demands for charity, and had ordered his drum, “ oh that
drum!” to be taken from him, and left in the bailiff’s hands. About the
middle of April following (that is in 1661), when Mr. Mompesson was pre
paring for a journey to London, the bailiff sent the drum to his house.
Upon his return home he was informed that noises had been heard, and then
he heard the noises himself, which were a “ thumping and drumming,” accom
panied by “ a strange noise and hollow sound.” The sign of it when it
came, was like a hurling in the air, over the house, and at its going off, the
beating of a drum, like that at the “ breaking up of a guard.”
�A DISCOVERY CONCERNING GHOSTS.
19
“ After a month’s disturbance outside the house (‘ which was most of it
of board’) it came into the room where the drum lay.” “ For an hour together
it would beat ‘Roundheads and cockolds,’ the ‘tattoo,’ and several other
points of war, as well as any drummer.” Upon one occasion, “ when many
were present, a gentleman said, ‘ Satan, if the drummer set thee to work, give
three knocks, ’ which it did very distinctly and no more. ” And for further trial,
he bid it for confirmation, if it were the drummer, to give five knocks and no
more that night, which it did, and left the house quiet all the night after.”
All this seems very strange, about this drummer and his drum,
But for myself, I really think this drumming ghost was “ all a hum.”
But strange as it certainly was, is it not still more strange, that educated
gentlemen, and even clergymen, as in this case also, should believe that the
Almighty would suffer an evil spirit to disturb and affright a whole innocent
family, because the head of that family had, in his capacity as magistrate,
thought it his duty to take away a drum, from no doubt a drunken drummer,
who by his noisy conduct had become a nuisance and an annoyance to the
neighbourhood ?
The next case of supposed spiritual antics was not the drumming of a
drum, but a tune upon a warming-pan, the “ clatter ” of “ a warming-pan,”
and a vast variety of other earthly sounds, which it was proved to have been
heard at the Rev. Samuel Wesley’s, who was the father of the celebrated
John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, at a place called Epworth, in
Lincolnshire. These sounds consisted of “ knockings,” and “ groanings,” of
“footsteps,” and “rustling of silk trailing along” (the “rustling of silk”
seems to be a favourite air with the ghosts), “ clattering ” of the “ iron case
ment,” and “clattering” of the “warming-pan,” and then as if a “vessel full
of silver was poured upon Mrs. Wesley’s breast and ran jingling down to
her feetand all sorts of frightful noises, not only enough to “ frighten
anybody,” but which frightened even a big dog !—a large mastiff, who used
at first, when he heard the noises, “ to bark and leap and snap on one side
and the other, and that frequently before any person in the room heard the
noises at all; but after two or three days, he used to tremble and creep
away before the noise began. And by this, the family knew it was at hand ■
nor did the observation ever fail.” Poor bow woo ! what cruel ghosts to be
sure, to go and frighten a poor dog in this way.
Mrs. Wesley at one time thought it was “rats, and sent for a horn to
blow them away;” but blowing the horn did not blow the ghosts away.
No ; for at first it only came at night, but after the horn was blown it came
in the daytime as well.
There were many opinions offered as to the cause of these disturbances,
by different persons at different times. Dr. Coleridge “ considered it to be a
contagious nervous disease, the acme or intensest form of which is cata
lepsy.” Mr. Owen here asks if the mastiff was cataleptic also ? It is rather
curious that a cat is mentioned in this narrative. Now supposing the dog
could not have been cataleptic, the cat might perhaps have been so.
Some of the Wesley family believed it to be supernatural hauntings, and
give the following reason for it:—It appears that at morning and evening
family prayers, “ when the Rev. Samuel "Wesley, the father, commenced the
�20
A DISCOVERY CONCERNING GHOSTS.
prayer for the king, a knocking began all round the room, and a thundering
knock attended the Amen.” Mr. Wesley observed that his wife did not say
amen to the prayer for the king. She said she could not, for she did not
believe that the Prince of Orange was king. Mr. Wesley vowed he could
not live with her until she did. He took his horse and rode away, and she
heard nothing of him for a twelvemonth. He then came back and lived
with her, as before, and although he did so, they add, that they fear this
vow was not forgotten before God.
If any religious persons were asked whether they thought that any law,
natural or divine, could be suspended or set aside without the permission or
sanction of the Creator, their answer would be, nay, must be, certainly not.
Yes, this would be their answer. Then is it not extraordinary that the
members of this pious clergyman’s family, and from whence sprang the
founder of such a large and respectable religious sect, should have such a
mean idea of the Supreme Being, as to suppose that He would allow the
regular laws of the universe to be suspended or set aside, and whole families
(including unoffending innocent children) to be disturbed, terrified, and some
times seriously injured, for such contemptible, ridiculous, and senseless reasons,
or purposes, such as those assigned in the various cases already alluded to.
It is indeed to me surprising that any one possessing an atom of sound Chris
tian religion, can suppose and maintain for one moment that these silly, sup
posed supernatural sounds and appearances can be, as they say, “ of God.”
We may defy the supporters of this apparition doctrine to bring forward
one circumstance in connection with these ghosts, which corresponds in any
way with the real character of the Creator, where any real benefit has been
known to result from such sounds and such appearances—none, none, none;
whereas we know that there has been a large amount of human suffering,
illness, folly, and mischief, and in former times, we know, to a large and
serious extent, but even now, in this “ age of intellect,” when we come
to investigate the causes of some of the most painful diseases amongst
children and young persons, particularly young females, we find, on the
authority of the first medical men, that they are occasioned by being
frightened by mischievous, thoughtless, or cruel persons, mainly in conse
quence of being taught in their childhood to loelieve in ghosts. I know a young
lady who, when a child, was placed in a dark closet by her nurse, and so
terrified in this way that the poor little girl lost her speech, and has been
dumb ever since. Dr. Elliotson, in one of his reports of the Mesmeric
Hospital, cites several most distressing and painful cases of “ chorea,” or
St. Vitus’s dance, and dreadful fits, brought on through fright; and
Dr. Wood, physician to St. Luke’s Hospital (for lunatics), assures me that
many cases of insanity are produced by terror from these causes ; but even
supposing that there are not very many cases of positive insanity brought
on in this way, still the unnatural excitement thus acting on the brain, or
the mind dwelling upon such matters, must have an unhealthy tendency.
If all rational and religious persons will give this subject the attention
which it demands, they will, I feel confident, see, that this belief in ghosts
should not only be discountenanced, but put an end to altogether, if
possible, as such notions not only have an injurious effect upon the health
and comfort of many persons, particularly those of tender age, but it
�A DISCOVERY CONCERNING GHOSTS.
21
also debases the proper ideas which man ought to have of the Creator ;
and not only so, but it also interferes with and trenches upon that mys
terious and sacred question, the immortality of the soul; that it disturbs
that belief wliich, with a firm trust and reliance upon the goodness and
mercy of God, is the only consolation the afflicted mind can have, when
mourning for the loss of those they have loved dearer than themselves.
These hauntings of drumming and knocking, and thumping and bumping,
with thundering noises, almost shaking the houses down, accompanied
by the delicate rustlings of silk and trailing of gowns, etc., were at the time
suspected of being tricks; and by the perusal of the following cases the
reader will see that such tricks can and have been played, and such im
posture carried on so successfully as to deceive clergymen and others; and
but for the severe natural tests brought to bear upon the supposed super
natural actors, would no doubt have been quoted by Mr. Owen and others
as well-attested, well-established, veritable spiritual performances.
At the corner of a street which runs from Snow Hill into Smithfield,
stands whatZ consider a public nuisance, commonly called a “ public-house,”
the sign of “ The Cock,” and that which is now a street was formerly a
rustic lane, and took its name from the sign of that house, and therefore
called to this day “ Cock Lane,” which locality, in about the years 1754 to
1756, became one of the most celebrated places in London, in consequence,
as it was believed, of one of the houses therein being taken possession of by
a female ghost, who was designated “the Cock Lane ghost.”
A man of the name of Parsons kept the house, and in which lodged a
gentleman and his wife of the name of Kempe. This lady died at this
house, and after her death it was given out by Parsons that his daughter,
then eleven years of age (who used to sleep with Mrs. Kempe when her
husband was out of town), was “ possessed” with the spirit of the deceased
lady, and that the spirit had informed the little girl that she had been
murdered by her husband—that she had been “poisoned !” A vast number
of respectable ladies and gentlemen, including clergymen, were “ taken in”—•
but happily for themselves not “ done for”—by this ghost; audit is said that
even the celebrated Dr. Samuel Johnson was cowmced of the spirituality of
the “ knocks” which the ghost gave in answer to questions, for it kept up
conversations in precisely the same manner—that is, by “ knocks” or “ raps”
—as the “ spirit-rappers” do at the present day. The “ scratchings” and
“knocks” were only heard when Parson’s little daughter was in bed.
After this sort of thing had gone on for a considerable time, and a post
mortem examination of the body of the supposed murdered lady, which had
been deposited in the vaults of St. John’s, Clerkenwell Close, Mr. Kempe
found it necessary to take steps to defend his character. The child was
removed to the house of a highly-respectable lady, where “ not a sound was
heard,” no “scratchings” or “knocks,” for several nights; but the girl
Parsons, who was now a year or two older, upon going to bed one night
informed the watchers that the ghost would pay a visit the following
morning; but the servants of the house informed the watchers that the
young lady had taken a bit of wood, six inches long by four inches broad,
into bed with her, which she had concealed in her stays. This bit of
wood was used to “ stand the kettle on.” The imposture was discovered,
�22
A DISCOVERY CONCERNING GHOSTS.
and the poor girl confessed to the wicked trickery which her parents had
tanght her to practise !
Mr. Kempe indicted Parsons and others for conspiracy against his life
and character, the case was tried before Lord Mansfield at Guildhall, July
10th, 1756, and all the parties convicted. The Rev. Mr. More and a printer,
with others, were heavily fined. Parsons was set in the pillory three times
in one month and imprisoned for two years, his wife for one year, and Mary
Eraser, the “Medium,” for six months in Bridewell, and kept to hard
labour. It came out in the course of investigation that Master Parsons had
borrowed some money of Mr. Kempe, and it was rather suspected that he
did not want to pay it back again.
Another celebrated spiritual farce was enacted in 1810, entitled “ The Sampford Ghost.” This is a village near Tiverton, in Devonshire, and the following
striking performances were “ attested by affidavit of the Rev. C. Cotton,” who,
by the by, was of opinion that “ a belief in ghosts is favourable to virtue.”
Imprimis, “ stamping on the boards answered by similar sounds under
neath the flooring, and these sounds followed the persons through the upper
apartments and answered the stamping of the feet. The servant women
were beaten in bed ‘ with a fist,’ a candlestick thrown at the master’s head but
did not hit him, heard footsteps, no one could be seen walking round, candles
were alight but could see no one, but steps were heard ‘ like a man’s foot in
a slipper,’ with rapping at the doors, etc. etc. After this the servants were
slapped, pushed, and buffeted. The bed was more than once stuck full of pins,
loud repeated knockings were heard in all the upper rooms, the house shook,
the windows rattled in their casements, and all the horrors of the most horrible
of romances were accumulated in this devoted habitation.” Amongst other
things it was declared by a man, of the rather suspicious name of “ Dodge,”
that the prentice boy had seen “ an old woman descend through the coiling.”
The house was tenanted by a man of the name of Chave, a huckster.
The landlord was a Mr. Tully, who determined to investigate this matter
himself, and went to sleep, or rather to pass the night, at the house for this
purpose. The account says that “ he took with him a reasonable degree
of scepticism, a considerable share of common senseand I believe a
good thick stick, which is, in my opinion, a much more powerful instru
ment in laying these kinds of ghosts than the old-fashioned remedy of
“ bell, book, and candle.”
When Mr. Tully went to the house he saw “ Dodge” speaking to Mrs,
Chave in the shop, and also saw him leave the house; but when he went up
stairs by himself who should he see but this same “ Dodge,” who had got up
stairs by a private entrance, but who could not dodge out of Mr. Tully’s
way. So Mr. Tully pounced upon him and locked him in the room, where
he also found a mopstick “ battered at the end into splinters and covered
with whitewash,” and this was the ghost that answered the stamping on the
floors. Mr. Tully went to bed, and as no ghosts thumped he went to sleep
and had a good night’s rest; and upon examining the house the next day,
found the ceilings below in “ a state of mutilation,” from the ghostly thumps
it had received.
The cause of the house being haunted was a conspiracy on the part of
Chave and his friends to get the house at a very low rent, as he would
�A DISCOVERY CONCERNING GHOSTS.
23
not mind living on the premises, but other persons would not, of course, be
likely to take a “ haunted house.”
A drunken mob one day met and assaulted Chave after this trick was
exposed, and he took refuge in his “ haunted house,” from whence he fired a
pistol and shot one man dead. Another man was also killed at the same
time, thus two lives were sacrificed to this “ Sampford ghost.
The Rev.
C. Cotton died shortly after this ghost was discovered to be a flam, or sham
ghost; it was supposed of chagrin and vexation at being made a butt of by
the vulgar for his simplicity and credulity.
Another sensation farce was “ The Stockwell Grhost, which performed
its tricks very cleverly and successfully at a farm-house in that place in the
year 1772. It broke nearly every bit of glass, china, and crockery in the
house, and no discovery was made at the time of the how, the why, or the
wherefore. But in “ The Every Day Book,” edited and published by W.
Hone, the whole matter is explained in the confession of a woman who lived
at the house as servant girl at the time, and who played the part of the ghost
so well, that she escaped detection, and came off, only suspected by a few.
The inutility of attempting to do away entirely with this popular belief
in ghosts by arguments, however well founded on reason and science, has
already been hinted at; but it will be only fair that scn&fioo should just put a
word in, as it can do no harm and may do good.
Tn “ Sketches of the Philosophy of Apparition, or an Attempt to Trace
such Illusions to their Physical Causes, by Samuel Hibbert, M.D., E.R.S.E.,”
the author states his opinion to be that “ Apparitions are nothing more than
ideas or recollected images of the mind, which have been rendered more vivid
than actual impressions,” perhaps by morbid affections. It is also pointed out
that “ in ghost stories of a supposed supernatural character which by disease
are rendered so unduly intense as to induce spectral illusions, may be traced
to such fantastical objects of prior belief as are incorporated in the various
systems of superstition which for ages have possessed the minds of the vulgar. ’
“ Spectral illusions arise from a highly excited state of the nervous irrita
bility acting generally upon the system, or from inflammation of the brain.
“ The effect induced on the brain by intoxication from ardent spirits,
which have a strong tendency to inflame this organ, is attended with very
remarkable effects. These have lately been described as symptoms of
1 delirium tremens.’ Many cases are recorded which show the liability of the
patient to long-continued spectral impressions.”
Sir David Brewster represents these phenomena as images projected on
the retina—from the brain, and seen with the eyes open or shut.
Of the many causes assigned for spectral illusions the following may be
enumerated:—Holy ecstasies, various diseases of the brain, diseases of the
eye, extreme sensibility or nervous excitement from fright, various degrees
of fever, effects of opium, delirium tremens, ignorance and superstition, cata
lepsy, and confused, indistinct, or uncomprehended natural causes. Row all
persons who suppose they see ghosts are at liberty to select any of the fore
going causes for their being so deluded, for delusion it is, as I hope presently
to prove; but they may rest assured that these supposed spectres are always
produced either by disease or by over-excited imagination, which in some
cases it may be said amounts to disease.
�24
A DISCOVERY CONCERNING GHOSTS.
However, to return to the ghosts. A vei’y common, or rather the common,
idea of a ghost is generally a very thin and scraggy figure; but if there are
such things there must be fat ghosts as well as thin ghosts; fat or thin
people are equally eligible “ to put in an appearance ” of this sort if they.
can; and to carry out this idea and make it quite clear, I here introduce an
old acquaintance of the public, Mr. Daniel ^Lambert, as he appeared to my
WTO-excited imagination whilst engaged on this work. How if Daniel came
as an apparition, he must, according to the authorities in these matters, not
only “ come in his habits as he lived,” that is, in the clothes he wore, but
must also come in his/«^ or he would not be recognized as the fattest man
“ and the heaviest man that ever lived,” and although he weighed “ 52 stone
11 pounds” (141b. to the stone) in the flesh, in the spirit, he would, of
course, be “ as light as a feather,” or rather an “ air bubbleand as he
could not dance and jump about when alive, I thought if I brought him in as
a ghost, I’d give him a bit of a treat, and let him dance upon the “ tight rope.”
�A DISCOVERY CONCERNING GHOSTS.
25
Most persons will remember a story tolcl by “Pliny the younger ” of the
apparition of “ an old ” man appearing to Athenadorous, a Greek scholar.
This ghost was “lean, haggard, and dirty,” with “dishevelled hair and a
long beard.” He had “ chains on,” and came “shaking his'chains” at the
Greek scholar, who heeded him not, bnt went on with his studies. The old
o-host. however, “ came close to him and shook his chains over his head as
O''
he sat at the table,” whereupon Athenadorous arose and followed the dirty
old man in his chains, who went into the courtyard and “ stamped his foot
upon a stone about the centre of it, and—disappeared.” The Greek scholar
marked the spot, and next day had the place dug up, when, lo and behold,
they found there the skeleton of a human being.”
Going back to the days of “ Pliny the younger” is going back far enough
into early history for my purpose, which is to show that the notions about
apparitions which prevailed at that period are the same as those of the
present day, that is, of their appearing in the dresses they icore in their life
time, in every mi/nute particular, as to form, colour, and condition, new or old,
as the case might be ; but to prevent any mistake upon this head, I will just
add some few words from that reliable authority, Defoe, who, you will have
already remarked, is exceedingly particular as to the exactness of every article
of dress ; but in what follows he goes far beyond any other writer on this sub
ject, for instance he says, “We see them dressed in the very clothes which
we have cut to pieces, and given away, some to one body, some to another,
or applied to this or that use, so that we can give an account of every rag of them.
We can hear them speaking with the same voice and sound, though the organ
which formed their former speech we are sure is perished and gone.”
From the various instances of the appearance of apparitions which have
been brought before the reader, it will, I presume, be admitted that abundant
and sufficient proof has been given that the writers about ghosts, and all
those who have professed to have seen ghosts, declare that they appear in the
dresses ivhich they wore in their lifetime ; but from all I have been able to
learn, it does not appear that from the days'of Pliny the younger down to the
days of Shakespeare, and from thence down to the present time, THAT ANY
ONE HAS EVER THOUGHT OF THE GROSS ABSURDITY, AND
IMPOSSIBILITY, OF THERE BEING SUCH THINGS AS GHOSTS
OP WEARING APPAREL, IRON ARMOUR, WALKING STICKS, AND
SHOVELS! NO, NOT ONE, except myself, and this I claim as my
DISCOVERY CONCERNING GHOSTS, and that therefore it follows, as a
matter of course, that as ghosts cannot, must not, dare not, for decency’s sake,
appear WITHOUT CLOTHES; and as there can be no such things AS
GHOSTS OR SPIRITS OF CLOTHES, why, then, it appears that GHOSTS
NEVER DID APPEAR, AND NEVER CAN APPEAR, at any rate not in
the way in which they have been hitherto supposed to appear.
And now let us glance at the material question, or question of materialism.
In the year 1828, a work was published, entitled “ Past Feelings Reno
vated ; or, Ideas occasioned by the perusal of Dr. Hibbert’s Philosophy of
Apparitions,” which the author says were “ written with the view of coun
teracting any sentiments approaching materialism, which that work, however
unintentional on the part of the author, may have a tendency to produce.”
The author of “ Past Feelings Renovated ” is a firm believer in apparitions,
who generally “ come in their habits as they lived; ” and in his preface he says,
�26
A DISCOVERY CONCERNING GHOSTS.
“The general tendency of Dr. Hibbert’s work, and evident fallacy of many of the
arguments in support of opinions too nearly approaching4materialism,’ induced
me togive the subject that serious consideration which it imperatively demands.”
This author, it will be perceived, is very much opposed to anything like
materialism in relation to this question, and is strongly in favour of
spiritualism,” but will he be so good as to tell us what “ a pair of Buckskins”
are made of? and what A pair of Top-boots are made of? and whether these
materials are spmfiiafecZ by any process, or whether THE CLOTHES WE
WEAR OX OUR BODIES BECOME A PART AND PARCEL
OF OUR SOULS ? And as it is clearly impossible for spirits to wear
dresses made of the materials of the earth, we should like to know if
there are spiritual-outfitting shops for the clothing of ghosts who pay
visits on earth, and if empty, haunted houses are used for this purpose,
in the same way as the establishments, and after the manner of 44 Moses
and Son,” or 44 Hyam Brothers,” or such like houses of business, or if so,
then there must be also the spirit of woollen cloth, the spirit of leather, the
spirit of a coat, the spirit of boots and shoes. There must also be the spirit
of trousers, spirits of gaiters, waistcoats, neckties, spirits of buckles, for
shoes and knees; spirit of buttons, 44 bright gilt buttonsspirits of hats,
caps, bonnets, gowns, and petticoats; spirits of hoops and crinoline, and
ghost’s stockings. Yes ; only think of the ghosts of stockings, but if the
ghost of a lady had to make her appearance here, she could not present her
self before company without her shoes and stockings, so there must be
GHOSTS OF STOCKINGS.
in
�A DISCOVERY CONCERNING GHOSTS.
27
Most persons will surely feel some hesitation in accepting the assertions
made by Defoe, that ghosts appear in clothes that have been cut up, or
distributed in different places, or destroyed, or that they come in the same
garments that are being worn at the same moment by living persons, or
which are at the time of appearing, in wardrobes or old clothes shops ; or,
perhaps, thousands of miles away from the spot where the ghost pays his
unwelcome visit, or worn or torn into rags, and stuck upon a broomstick
“to frighten away the crows.” No, no, I think we may rest assured that
ghosts could not appear in these dresses, or shreds and patches; in fact,
that they could not show themselves in any dress made of the materials of
the earth as already suggested; and, therefore, if they did wear any dresses
they must have been composed of a spiritual material, if it be possible to
unite, in any way, two such opposites. Then comes the question, from
whence is this spiritual material obtained, and also if there are spirit manu
factories, spirit weavers and spinners, and spirit tanners and “tan pits ?”
If this be so, then there must, of course, be ghost tailors, working with
ghosts of needles (how sharp they must be !), and ghosts of threads (and how
fine they must be !), and the ghost of a “ sleeve board,” and the ghost of the
iron, which the tailors use to flatten the seams, called a “ goose ” (only think
of the ghost of a tailor’s “goose!”) Then there must be the ghost of a
“bootmaker,” with the ghost of a “lapstone,” and a “last,” and the spirit
of “ cobbler’s wax!” Ghost of “ button makers,” “ wig makers,” and
“hatters;” and, indeed, of every trade necessary to fit out a ghost, either
lady or gentleman, in order to make it appear that they really did appear
“ in their habits as they lived.”
There are, I know, many respectable worthy persons even at the present
day who believe they sometimes see apparitions, and I would here take the
liberty to advise such persons to ponder a little upon the above remarks
relative to the clothing of spirits, and, when again they think they see a
GHOST, recollect that with the exception of the face and a little bit of the
neck perhaps, and also the hands, if without gloves, that all the other parts are
CLOTHES. And I would also take the liberty to suggest that he should ask
the ghost these questions:—“ Who’s your tailor ?” and “ Who’s your hatter ?”
Whatever the belief of the “Bard of Avon” might have been with
respect to ghosts, it is quite clear that [in these cases he was merely exer
cising his great poetical talent to work out the several points of popular belief
in apparitions, for the purpose of producing a striking “ stage effectbut
all that he brings forward, goes to prove the long-established faith in these
aerial beings, and the general and almost universal requisites of character
and costume. But it probably never entered the great mind of this great
poet that there could be no such thing as a ghost of iron, for if it had, he
would, no doubt, have dressed up the ghost of Hamlet’s father in some sort
of suit rather more aerial than a suit of steel armour. There may be
“ more things ’twixt heaven and earth” than were dreamt of in Horatio’s
philosophy; but the ghost of Iron armour could not be one of these
things, be included in the list, and on reverting to this ghost, the reader
will observe that I have given no figure in that suit of armour, and no head
to the figure of Napoleon the Eirst, and for this reason, the art of drawing,
you will please to observe, is a severe critical test in matters of this sort.
For suppose an artist is employed to make a drawing of this ghost of
�28
A DISCOVERY CONCERNING GHOSTS.
Hamlet’s father, he will begin, or ought to begin, first to sketch out, very
lightly, the size and attitude of the figure required; then suppose he makes
out the face, and then begins to work on the helmet, but here he stops—■
why ? because if he has any thought, he will say this is not spirit, this is
manufactured iron ! And so with the other parts of the figure, all except
the face is material; and then to my old enemy in one sense, and friend in
another—Napoleon, for I volunteered, and armed myself to assist to keep him
from coming over here before I was twenty years of age; and as a carica
turist, what by turning him, sometimes into ridicule, and sometimes, in fact
very often I may say, killing him with my sharp etching needle, “little
Boney ” used very frequently to give me a good solid bit of meat, and make
my “pot boil.” But with respect to this headless figure, if the artist is
requested to make a drawing of the spirit of this great general, he would,
after making out the face, begin with the collar of the coat, and then stop—
and why ? Because the coat is no part of a spirit, and if the whole of the
figure were finished with the face in, what would that be but the spirit of the
face of Napoleon ; all the rest would consist of a cocked-hat, with tricolored
cockade; a military coat, with buttons; a waistcoat, a sword and sash,
leather gloves, and leather pantaloons, jack-boots, and spurs! Are, or can
these things be spiritual ? If the end of the finger is placed over the space
which is left for the face of Napoleon, the figure will be recognized as his
without the head; and so with Hamlet’s father, place the end of the finger
in front of the helmet, and the armour will pass for the ghost; and do the like
with the figure of Daniel Lambert, put the head out of sight, all the rest is
neck-handkerchief, a bit of shirt, a coat, a waistcoast, a pair of gloves, small
clothes (not very small by the by), an immense pair of stockings, and the points
of a pair of shoes; and as to the headless ghost of the gentleman in the blue
coat and gilt buttons, that is also NOTHING BUT A SUIT OF CLOTHES.
The reader will recollect that Daniel Defoe, Mrs. Crowe, and Mr. Owen,
and other authors have all introduced GHOSTS OF WIGS amongst their
facts, in support of spiritual apparitions, so if there are ghosts of “ wigs,”
there must also be GHOSTS OF “ PIGTAILS,” because they were some
times a part of a wig; and in taking leave of the reader, I take the liberty
of introducing a ghost of a wig and pigtail, who will make a polite bow
for the humble author and artist of this “DISCOVERY CONCERNING
�ADDENDA.
Just as I depicted the ghost of the wig and pigtail to bow out all the oldfashioned ghosts, methought I heard a voice say, “Well, sir, suppose it
granted that you have shown the utter impossibility of there being such
things as GHOSTS of hats, coats, sticks, and umbrellas ; admitting that yon
really have “laid” all these ghosts of the old style, what say you to the
“ spirit manifestations” of the present day ?
Well, this does certainly seem to be putting rather a “ Home question
a “ Home thrust,” if you please ; but sharp as the question may be, and
difficult as it may seem to answer, I am not going to shirk the question.
In the first place, this inquiring spirit must please to recollect that these
“spirit-rappers” of the present day are almost an entirely new-fashioned
spirit, a different sort of ghost altogether, or ghosts in “piecemeal;” only
bits of spirits, who never come of their own accord, and have to be squeezed
out of a table bit by bit, when they do hold up a hand, or tap or touch
people’s legs under the table with their hand, or a bit of one. But never
having attended a “séance,” I cannot give the
spirit any information
about these spirits from my own personal knowledge. If the inquirer wishes
to know “ all about” these spirits, he had better apply to Mr. D. D. Home,
who is quite “ at home” with these spirits, upon the most “ familiar” terms !
in fact, “hand and glove” with them ; and they feel so much at home with
Mr. Home, that they are constantly putting their hands and arms, if not
their legs, “ under his mahogany.” I therefore take the liberty of referring
“ Inquirer” to this Home medium, or any other medium, Home or foreign,
for a “full, true, and particular account” of the character and conduct of
these new-fashioned, New-found-ZancZ ghosts or spiritual gentlefolk, for it does
not appear that there are any of the “ working-class” amongst them.
It has been asserted by Mr. Home, that he has seen “ full length”
ghosts. These I shall put to the test a little further on.
As I intend putting a few gwsi/ows myself to these “ mediums,” or
through this medium, to the spirits, I have to hope that these questions of
mine will be taken by the inquiring spirits who question me as an answer to
their question upon what may be at present considered upon the whole as
almost, if not entirely, wzunsweraSZe, at least with the ordinary natural
organs of thought and judgment, and therefore it must be left to these
tabular spirits or their mediums to explain (that is, if they can) that which,
to the “ outsiders,” as the affair stands at this moment, is an inexplicable
puzzle.
In bringing forward my questions, I will take the liberty of making an
extract from the “ Times,” of the 9th of April last, where Mr. D. D. Home’s
book of “ Incidents in my Life,” is reviewed with considerable acumen and
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ability; and wherein the writer states that a Dr. Wilkinson was desirous of
obtaining some information and explanations respecting the “ways and
means” of these spirits. The Doctor asked Mr. Home why the effects
(that is, the manifestations) “ took place under the table and not upon it.”
Mr. Home said, that “ in habituated circles the results were easily obtained
above board, visibly to all, but that at the first sitting it was not so ; that
scepticism was almost universal in men’s intellects, and marred the forces
at work ; that the spirits accomplish what they do through our life sphere,
or atmosphere, which was permeated at our wills, and if the will was contrary,
the sphere was unfit for being operated upon.” Moreover, allowance must
be made for a certain indisposition on the part of the spirits (as we infer a
sort of spiritual bashfulness), “which deters them from exhibiting their
members m a state of imperfect formation.” When some had merely a single
finger put upon their knees, “ Mr. Home said that the presenting spirits
could often make one finger where they could not make two, and two where
they could not form an entire hand, just as they could form a hand where
they could not realize a whole human figure” (for there seems never to
have been life sphere at a séance adequate to the exhibition of an entire
figure, though Mr. Home has frequently seen spirits in their full
PROPORTIONS WHEN ALONE5’).
And now for one of my questions, which question is not only my question
but a public question, and one which Mr. Home is bound to answer, if he
can. I therefore publicly call upon that gentleman to inform the public if
these spirits, which he saw in their “ full proportions,” were in a state of
nudity, or if they had clothes on ? and if clothed, of what those clothes
were made ? If he does not know these particulars of his own knowledge,
as he has the ear of these spirits, their entire confidence, and as they have
his ear, let him call upon them to let him into the secret of the manufacture
of their garments, or how the spirits procure them ; and until Mr. Home
explains this satisfactorily to the public, we have a right to suspect that
either he has been himself deceived, or that he----- Perhaps I 'had better
not finish the sentence.
The “ inquiring spirit” will see that the clothes are the test, and this test
stands good here, as well as with the old fashioned ghosts, and this, I
presume, will be allowed as rather a “ Home question ” to Mr. Home ; a
Home thrust which he can only parry by giving the information asked ;
which, if he does not, I will not say “ Britons, strike Home,” but unless he
or the spirits “ rap” out a satisfactory answer, he may rely upon it that
he will feel the weight of public opinion, which will weigh rather heavily
upon him. But I give him a first-rate chance of becoming exceedingly
popular, for the mass, the millions, are ready to believe anything in the
shape of a fact, and I am confident that the whole world would be delighted
to get hold of such a secret as this. It would be, perhaps, extreme cruelty
to put this gentleman quite “ out of spirits but unless he tells us what
the clothes of spirits are made of, I should say that he will stand in rather
an awkward position before the bar of public opinion.
Another question here I’ll put, about this spirit “ D D outfit,”
Which I fear that the spirits won’t answer, just as yet—
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It is a question, I grant, that looks rather queer,
Which is—are their 11 togs ” made out of our atmosphere ?”
If the cloth is made out of stuff “permeated by our wills”—
And further, if these ghosts are honest, and pay their tailors’ bills ?
And then, as to the handy craft and crafty hands—
Oh tell us if warm hands, and cold—
So cold ! so cold ! oh dear !-—
Are made in any kind of mould,
Or how they trick ’em out of our “ life sphere ?”
Now supposing, nay even admitting, that the hands of spirits are exhi
bited at these séances, does it not really seem to be impossible to believe
that they are made out of the air that surrounds the persons who surround
the table ! ! !
Making fingers and hands out of our “ life-sphere ” or “ atmosphere !”
“ permeated by our wills !” Well, I was going to say, “ after that comes in
a horse to be shaved,” but really I hardly know what to say ; for whilst
reading the accounts of these spirits, I feel almost bewildered, and as the
mediums say that there is what they call“ spirit-writing,” and that spirits
seize the person’s wrist, and make them write just what they wist, I suspect
that the spirit of botheration has got hold of my hand, and is making me
write what it pleases ; and I therefore hope the “ gentle reader ” will excuse
me if I write down here ‘‘Handy pandy, Jack a dandy,” or any other
childish nonsense ; for as this table lifting and turning seems to alter and
set aside altogether the law of gravitation and all the universal laws of the
universe, that used to be thought by simple people as fixed and unalterable,
so likewise these “ spirit hands ” and “ spirit rapping ” seem to put reason
and rationality entirely out of the field. Therefore, as common sense cannot
be used in any sense on this question, as it is utterly useless in the present
state of affairs to attempt to “ chop logic ” with “ raps,” and their mediums
upon such tables as these, it will be here quite in place to talk a little non
sense. The reader will therefore, I am sure, bear with me if I make two or
three silly suggestions upon this phenomena of moving tables.
Under ordinary circumstances, when persons who are not “ habituated ”
have any natural substance to deal with—say, for instance, a deal table—the
mind naturally endeavours to account in a natural way for such apiece of fur
niture moving or being moved without any assignable natural cause. Common
sense in this case being “ put out of court,” and the scientific world having
seemingly “ given it up,” there is no other source left but to deal with the
spirits or their mediums in this matter ; and I would here ask if these tables,
heavy or light, are moved by this “ life-sphere ” or “ atmosphere ” which is
“permeated by our wills or if the hands made out of this airy n othin g -m ove
and lift the furniture ? As they can give an answer to the query, we shall
all surely be very much obliged to them if they will do so ; and whilst they
are preparing their answer, I will go on with a little more nonsense, and
make a most ridiculous suggestion upon the table lifting, quite as ridiculous
perhaps as anything that has emanated from the spirits òr their mediums.
It may seem absurd to bring “Dame Nature ” into this “ circle,” but never
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theless it does seem true that animals who are associated with man seem to
partake, to a very large extent, of man’s intelligence. Dogs particularly so,
cats pretty well, and even pigs have been known, when domesticated, to be
cleanly and polite, and of course we have all heard of the “learned pig.”
Dear little birds, and even asses and geese, have been known to share in
this “life sphere” or “atmosphere” of man’s brain. I knew a man who
was educating and training a goose, to come out before the public as a per
former as a learned goose, which intention was unfortunately not carried out,
in consequence of an accident which happened to the poor bird about
“ Michaelmas ” time. It appears that he got placed so near a large fire that
he was very soon “ done brown,” and upon a “ post mortem ” examination it
was discovered that he was stuffed full of sage and onion.
We are so accustomed to have intelligent animals about us, that we do
not look upon it as anything very extraordinary. Nevertheless, the pheno
mena is not the less wonderful for all that. Now I lay this question on the
table, for the spirits to rap out an answer—viz., as tables and chairs are
associated with man (and woman, of course), can, or is the vital spark, or
life principle, conveyed from the body into the wood, which is porous, and
can it make these otherwise inanimate objects “ all alive alive 0 ?” The
reader must excuse me for asking such a silly question, and will please to
recollect that I am not putting the question to him, but to the silly spirits
and their mediums, for these spirits, it is stated, are sometimes quite as silly
as any body can be. I therefore ask again whether the vital principle or
force is conveyed into the tables whilst the parties or “ circle ” are pressing
their hands upon it; and if not, please to tell us what it is, for the “ outer ”
world are very anxious and waiting to know. It must be observed that the
tables only move under this pressure, and whilst the “ circle ” is thus acting
and using its atmospheric influence, otherwise the tables might or would be
always jumping about the room; and if the tables are not thus moved by
animal heat, how would the animal man be able to get his meals ? And it
follows as a natural—beg pardon, spiritual—consequence, that if this be not
the case, or the cause, then are the spirits a very thoughtful and wellbehaved society, to be thus careful not to rattle or roll the table about and
jump it up and down when the dinner is spread; or perhaps these spirits
partake of the “ good things of this life,” as very poor Drench emigrants
used to do, namely, by merely smelling the viands at a cook’s shop “ sniff,
sniff, ah ! dat is nice a roast a bcf—sniff, sniff, ah ! dat nice piece de veal
ah ! sniff, sniff, dat a nice piece a de pork-—ah ! ah! sniff, sniff” but if they
don’t eat it appears they drink; for in an article by R. H. Hatton, in the
“ Victoria Magazine,”* entitled “ The Unspiritual World of Spirits, it states
that Mr. Howitt “ believes in a modern German ghost that drank beer,
which called forth the words (with a horrible exclamation), “ it swallows!
and at a “ seance ” held at a chateau near Paris, three years back, a gentle
man asked for some brandy and water, which when brought was “ snatched
out of his hold by a spirit-hand which carried it beneath the table,” and “ the
glass came back empty.” We are told that the spirits have difficulty in
making a finger; if so, they must have a greater difficulty in “ making
* Published by Emily Faithful. And I take this opportunity of wishing success to the
“ Victoria Magazine,” as a part of the good work in which that lady is engaged.
j
i
i
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•mouths;” but suppose they do make a mouth, and the spirits drink the
beer and spirits, where is the liquid to go to, if they have made no stomach
out of the atmosphere of the ladies and gentlemen forming the “ circle ”
round the table? This does not look as if it were “all fair and above
board;” but, on the contrary, very much as if there were some clever rascally
little bodies playing their pranks and taking the “ spirits ” under the table ;
however, if it be the real spirits who drank the beer and spirits, I as a teeto
taler must express my disgust at such conduct, and, for one, will have nothing
to do with such spirits ; indeed, I am quite shocked to find, contrary to all
former ideas of spiritual life, that even these “
spirits ” have still a taste
for the spirit of alcohol. I really begin to fear that these drinking, if not
drunken spirits, do haunt the “ spirit-vaults.” The beer they drink is, I
presume, “ Home-brewed.”
But to turn again to the “ table-turning.” One way that I would sug
gest this question, to test, as to whether it be the life principle that gives a
sort of life to these wooden Zqys, and drawers, and body, and flaps, from
which the spirits send out their “ raps,” would be, to substitute an iron table,
a good heavy iron table, and as it is said they can lift any weight, let ’em
lift that; and if not iron, then try a good large marble slab. If the iron will
not “ enter into their soul,” let them try if their soul will enter into the iron,
or if the stone will be moved by the “ atmosphere ” of their flesh and their
bone.
Wonders, it is said, will never cease, and most assuredly some of the
tales told of these “ seancesf and some of the reported spirit exhibitions are
so wonderful, so astounding, that one does not know how to believe them;
and there are certain circumstances in some parts of the performance that
1 look so like trickery, that it is impossible to accept the whole relation as
fact, however much-we might feel disposed to receive a part thereof. Some
of these performances are performed in the dark, in the “ pitch dark,” so dark
that the company cannot see each other ; and it is in this state of “ inner ”
and “ utter” darkness that the spirits prefer to lift Mr. Home, andyZoai him
up to the ceiling* so that the spirits who lift him are “invisible spirits,” and
Mr. Home is invisible also. And this makes me think that these spirits are
without clothing, and being so, are ashamed to show themselves. I put
this as a question to Mr. Home, and also, as they only make hands and
shake hands, if they are not “ ashamed to show their faces,” why don’t
they make faces ? (I don’t mean grimaces). But I should not only like to
know why they don’t make some “atmospheric” “life-sphere” faces, but
should also very much like to sketch their likenesses, or “take them off,” as
people say.
Touching upon these faces reminds me that a new feature has been
introduced in this new world, that is, taking up this new fashion of the old
world by having “ carte de visiles.” A Mr. AZkm-ler, of Boston, U.S., dis
covered that these spirits have a taste for art as well as music, and that they
have a little vanity like ourselves; and it has since been discovered that /raziiZ
has been discovered., of photographers—“palming off as spirit likeness—pic
tures of persons now alive!” But here comes the clothes test again, these
* I should like to ask a question here—
Is Home by spirits lifted, or by “ atmosphere ?”
D
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spirited portraits have all got their clothes on. Apparitions of suits of clothes,
spirits of coats, boots, and ladies' dresses 1!!
This test of the clothing is very severe, for without having clothes the
ghost can’t appear; for even that extraordinary clever invention of Professor
Pepper’s, the “ patent” ghost, which he exhibited at the Polytechnic Insti
tution, and which is introduced into a piece called “The Haunted Man and
the Ghost’s Bargain,” now performing at the Adelphi Theatre, and which
ghost, I am sorry to say, I have not yet had time to see, but this “ patent
ghost,” of course, has CLOTHES on. In fact, apparitions cannot appear
without clothes, and apparitions of clothes cannot appear; and so—but
really I had quite forgotten that I had left Mr. Home sticking up against
the ceiling, upon which it appears he makes his marZ>—all in the dark
as a kind of“ skylark.” “ Seeing is believing,” but as his friends could
not see him, he was obliged to do some thing of this sort, suspecting, I sup
pose, that his friends would not take his word. When a light was thrown
upon this scene, Mr. Home was discovered lying upon his back upon the
table ! It may be rude to say that all this was all a trick, but pardonable,
perhaps, to say it looks very like trickery.
Talking of “ skylarking,” reminds me, that in conversation with a friend
of mine, who is a believer in Mr. Home, and expressing a doubt about the
possibility of Mr. H. kicking his heels up in the air in this way, and
asking if it were not imaginary, my friend assured me that it was no “ flight
of fancy,” that it was quite true, and that it was not at all improbable but
that some day, in daylight, we might “ see Mr. Home floating across the
metropolis!” I suggested that Mr. H. had better mind what he was
about, as there was danger in such a flight, for some short-sighted sports
man, or if not short-sighted, he might be in such a state of fuddle as
not “to know a hawk from a hand saw,” and might mistake him for some
gigantic, monstrous blackbird,” or some “ rara avis,” and bring him down
with his gun, though in this case he would not want to “ bag his game.”
To prevent such a hit as this, or rather such a mischance, I would suggest
that due notice should be given to the public when Mr. Home intends
appearing up above the chimney-pots; and that in addition to his floating,
that the spirits should run him along the “ electric telegraph” wires. That
would be something worth seeing, and much better than the stupid, silly,
nonsensical tricks they now play either on the table or under the table.
There used formerly, even in my time—I don’t go back so far as the
reign of the Charles’s, but to the days of the “ charlies,” as the old
watchmen were called, and before the “new police” were introduced to
the public,—in those days ghost tricks were played in various parts of
London ; one favourite spot was in front of St. Giles’s churchyard, near unto
a “ spirit vault.” It used to be reported that there was a ghost every night
in this churchyard, but it was an invisible ghost, for it never was seen,
though there was a mob of people gaping and straining their eyes to get
a peep at it; but during this time, some low cunning spirits used to creep
out of the adjoining spirit vaults, mix amongst the crowd, and having very
fingers, used, instead of tapping the people-on the knees, as the spirits
do at the “seances,” they dipped their hands into the “atmosphere” of
respectable people’s pockets, and “ spirited away” their watches, handker
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chiefs, pocket-books, or anything else that came in their way, and then bolt
into the vaults again.
N.B.—These spirits conld swallow spirits, like those described in the
preceding pages.
Spirits of the old style used to delight in the darkness of night, but
sometimes they’d show their pale faces by moonlight. A “ seance” is de
scribed that took place by moonlight. I don’t mean to assert that it was
all “moonshine.” A table was placed in front of a window between the
curtains ; the “ circle” round the table and the space between the curtains
was the stage where the performance took place. Query : How did the
•mediums know, when they placed this table, that the spirits who “ lent a
hand” in the performance would act their play at that part of the table ?
By the by, the table plays an important part m these spirited pieces ; the
spirits surely would not be able to get on at all without a table ! At
each side of this stage, lit by the moon, and close to the window curtains,
which formed as it were the “ proscenium,” stood a gentleman, one on each
side, like two “prompters,” one of whom was Mr. Home; and when one
particular hand was thrust up above the rim of the table, and which hand
had a glove on, Mr. H. cried out, “ Oh ! keep me from that hand ! it is so
cold; do not let it touch me.” Query : How did Mr. H. know that this
hand was so cold? and had it put the glove on because it felt itself so
cold? And out of whose “atmosphere,” or “life sphere” had the spirit
made this hand ? if it were so cold, it must have got the stuff through
some very cold-hearted “medium.” Then comes my clothes test again, where
did the hand get the glove ? Suppose it was a spirit hand,, the hand of a soul
that once did live on earth, could it be the spirit of a glove ? Whilst waiting
for an answer to these queries, I would suggest to these “ mediums,” that if
they see this “ hand and glove” again, they should ask, “ Who’s your glover ?”
Yes, it would be important to obtain the name and address of such a glover,
as such gloves, we may suppose, would not wear out, nor require cleaning.
An old and valued friend of mine attended a séance in 1860, of
which he wrote a short account, and which he keeps (in manuscript) to
lend to his friends for their information and amusement, upon this subject ;
and although he confesses that, as a novice, he was rather startled upon one
or two occasions during the evening, that the extraordinary proceeding of
the séance had something of a supernatural tinge about it ; nevertheless,
upon mature reflection he came to the conclusion that the whole was a very
cleverly-managed piece of trickery and imposture. As I am permitted to
quote from this manuscript, I will here give a short extract to show the
reader how an American medium—a Dr. Dash—assisted by two other
“mediums,” also Americans, managed the spirits upon that occasion. A
party of eight were seated round a table :—
“ Shortly and anon, a change came o’er the spirit of the Doctor. He
jumped up and said, ‘ Hush! I hear a spirit rapping at the door.’
*******
11 The Doctor told us there was a spirit which wished to join our seance
the door was opened, a chair was most politely placed at the table, and
there the spirit sat, but, like ‘ Banquo’s ’ GhoBt, invisible to the company.”
In the Waterloo Road there resided—next door to each other—some
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years back, two paperhangers, who vied with each other in doing “ sten
cilling ”—that is, rnbbing colour on walls through a cut out pattern ; there
was great opposition between them, and one of them (No. 1) wrote on the
front of-his house in large letters, “ The Acme of Stencilling,” upon which
No. 2, determined not to be outdone in this style, wrote upon the front of his
house in letters cZowSZe the size of his neighbour’s, 11 The Heigth of the
Acme of Stencilling. ’ how, I do not know whether this pretended intro
duction of an invisible spirit, and putting a chair for this worse than nothing
to sit in, when he had nothing to sit down upon, may be considered as the
heigth of the acme of unprincipled, impudent imposture ; but it goes far
enough to show that trickery can be and is carried on, and carried on even as
a trade or “ calling ’ in this “ spirit-rapping ” business, for I have seen a
printed card where a y>ro/esswraaZ “medium” gives his name and address, and
has on it, “ Circles for Spiritual Manifestation—hours from 12 to 3 and
5 to 10 p.m. to which is added, “ Private Parties and Families visited.”
If such a card as this had been introduced in “ The Broad Grin Jest
Book,” some years back, it would have been quite in place, but to think that
such a card as this should be circulated in this “age of intellect,” as a
business card the card of a “ Maître de Ceremonie,” who undertakes to intro
duce invisible spirits, into parties and private families, is something more
than I ever expected to see, on the outside of Bethlem, or in the list of
impostures at a police station.
As this Dr. Fash pretended that spirits were “mixed up ” with this party
were indeed surrounding the “ circle,” and who had come into the room
without hnocking, and were not accommodated with chairs, why should this
gnost of nothing kriocK at the door, and how did the Dr. know that he
wished to join the séance, and why should this invisible Mr. Nobody have
a chair, and the other spirits be obliged to stand ? And then was this spirit
dressed in his best ? for as it was an evening party, he ought to have been
“ dressed with care.”
The calling up of one spirit seems to call up or raise another spirit, and
as Dr. Fash introduced a dumb and invisible spirit who was supposed to
take his seat at a table, I take this opportunity of introducing a spirit of a
very different character—one of the old fashioned spirits—one that could
both be seen and heard, and who was seen to take his seat at the table, and
enter into conversation with his friends. An extract from the “ Registry of
Brisley Church in 1706,” runs thus :—A Mr. Grose went to see a Mr. Shaw,
and whilst these gentlemen were quietly smoking their pipes, in comes
(without “rapping”) the ghost of their friend Mr. Naylor. They asked him
to sit down, which he did, and they conversed together for about two hours ;
he was asked how it fared ■with him, he replied, “Very well,” and when he
seemed about to move, they asked him if he could not stay a little longer,
he replied that he “ could not do so, for he had only three days’ leave of
absence, and had other business to attend to.”*
Now this is something like a ghost, whose visit you observe is recorded
As, according to Mrs. Crowe, ghosts can smoke, and upon equally good authority,
spirits can swallow spirits, no doubt this ghost of Mr. Naylor, who did not come without
tne help of his tailor, took a pipe with his friends, and took something to drink with them
also, for you may rely upon it, that the ghost’s friends were not smoking a (< cry pipe.”
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37
in the registry of a parish church, and as the party I believe were all clergy
men, of course the Rev. Mr. Naylor came in his clerical li habits as he lived,”
no doubt “ dressed with care.” Yes, this you see was a respectable sort of
ghost—one that you could see and listen to, not such a poor “ dummy ”
as Dr. Dash’s poor spiritless spirit, Mr. Nothing Nobody, Esq.,
Who could neither be seen nor heard,
Which even to name, seems quite absurd.
The reason for thus suddenly pretending to introduce a spirit, was to
produce an effect—a sensation—upon the nerves of the party assembled (par
ticularly the novices), for it is only under excited nervous feelings that any
thing like success can attend the operations of such “mediums.”
The Creator has so formed us that our nerves are more excitable in dark
ness than in the light, and our senses thus excited, are for our safety and pro
tection, when moving about in the dark, either in-doors or out, as we feel and
know, that there is a chance of our being seriously injured by running against
or fading over something, or that there might be evil spirits in the shape of
robbers lurking about, against whom it would be necessary to be ready to
defend ourselves, or to avoid. Our faculties being thus put on the “ qui
vive,” is natural, healthy, and proper; but when the mind has been imbued
from childhood with a belief in ghosts, and the individual should happen to
be in a dark and lonely place, and should hear or see indistinctly something
which the mind on the instant is not able to account for, naturally, or com
prehend rationally, then under such circumstances, to use a common expres
sion, “we are not ourselves,” and in giving way to imaginary fears, under the
impression of supernatural appearances, the stoutest hearts and the strongest
men, have been known “ to quiver and to quail,” to be confused and to feel
that thrilling sensation, that cold trickling down the back from head to heel,
which is produced from fright, and nothing but the rallying of their mental
and physical forces, and rousing up a determined resolution, has enabled
such men to overcome this coward-like fear, and to discover that they have
been scared by some natural sound, or some imperfectly-seen natural object,
that it was all “ a false alarm,” or perhaps a made up ghost, by some fool
or rogue, or both, who was playing his “ tricks upon travellers.”
But with weak and nervous persons, ' who believe in supernatural
appearances, the effects of fright, under such circumstances, produce the
most painful feelings, total prostration of the faculties, and sometimes
fatal consequences. Here is an instance where all the faculties were
prostrated by fright in consequence of seeing a supposed apparition, followed
by the death of an innocent person :—
In the year 1804, the inhabitants of Hammersmith, a village situated on
the west side of the metropolis, but now forming part of it, were much
terrified by the appearance of, as it was said, a spectre clothed in a winding
sheet. This apparition made its appearance in the dark evenings in the
churchyard, and in several avenues about the place. I well remember “ the
Hammersmith ghost,” as it was called, being the “ Town Talk ” of that day,
and not only in Hammersmith, but even in town, many persons were afraid
to leave their homes after dusk. Besides a man of the name of John
Graham, who was detected, and I believe imprisoned, there were several
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actors in this ghostly farce, which was however brought to an end in a
tragical manner—that is, by a young man of the name of Thomas Millwood,
a plasterer, being shot dead by one Francis Smith, an exciseman, who at the
time (as the narrator states) was rather “ warm over his liquor ”—that is
about half drunk ; and in this state he was allowed at the “ White Hart ”
public house to load a gun with shot, and go out for the purpose of dis
covering the ghost, and he no sooner saw a figure in a light dress (which
was the poor plasterer in his working dress, on his road to fetch his wife
home, who had been at work all day at a house in the neighbourhood of
“ Black Lion Lane,” where this murder was committed) than he lost the use
of his faculties, and was in such a state of fright that, as he said in his
defence, he “ did not know what he was about,” and unfortunately, under
these circumstances, killed an innocent man, which he never would have
done had he not been a believer in apparitions and ghosts.
In p. 46, of the “ Victoria Magazine,” the writer, in speaking of an
interview which Mr. Home had with the spirit of the Count Cagli ostro,
states that the said spirit diffused and wafted over his friend Mr. H. the most
“ delicious perfumes,” and that they “appeared to have been a part of the
Count’s personal resources and argues for various reasons that these spirits
are “ sensitive to sweet smells,” and that the spirits are “ adepts in per
fumery,” “ are fond of it,” and surround themselves and their medium
“ with exquisite odours.” And as Mr. Home is such a great favourite
with these “ spirits,” his “ life sphere ” and “ atmosphere ” must be
very highly scented and perfumed with smells, and this accounts at once
for the spirits playing “ Home, sweet Home ” upon the accordian, when he
holds it under the table with one hand, and they play upon it, I suppose,
with “ their hands of atmosphere I” Be this as it may, however “ sweet upon
themselves ” they may be, these spirits are at this moment in very “ bad
odour ” with a large body of the press, as also with the large body of the
public, and it therefore rests with the “ mediums” to bring these “spirits of
darkness ” into light, and that these supposed spirits, their mediums, and their friends should place themselves in a right position before the public.
“ Come out in the road ” (as the low folk say when they are going to fight).
By the by, there surely must be (as they are all spirited fellows) some
“prizefighters” amongst these “rapping” spirits, and if so, I would suggest
that mediums, as “backers” and “bottle-holders” (provided they don’t
have any “spirits” in their bottle), should get up a “prizefight” as a
public exhibition, between such spirits as Jem Belcher and Tom Crib, or any
of those celebrated deceased popular heroes; and there would be this advantage
in such contests, that the “sporting world ” would have all their favourite
sport, and be able to bet upon their favourites in these “ sham-fights ” with
out the attendant horrible and disgusting brutalities of the real fights ; for
although they would, of course, “ rap ” each other, their fists being only made
of “ atmosphere,” they could not hurt or disfigure each other as they do in
the earthly boxing. And if these aerial boxers did “ knock the wind out ”
of each other, it would be of no consequence, for as they would be sur
rounded with lots of their own kind of “life sphere,” or “ atmosphere,” they
could soon “ make themselves up ” again, if even they did not “ make it up ”
with each other. But I see some difficulties in carrying out these “sports,”
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which did not occur to me at first ; for instance, if they cannot make their
own thick heads out of the “ atmosphere ” of the heads about them, having
no heads then, how can they be “ set by the ears ?” Besides, they could
not hear when “time” was called, and then, again, the patrons of the
“ Prize ring ” would not be satisfied unless they could see these spirited
ghosts “ knock each other’s heads half off.”
If these spirits cannot “ make head,” and keep up with the intellectual pro
gress of the spirit of the times, and with the spirit of the world. If they cannot
be a “ body politic,” or a body of spirits, or any other body, let the mediums
set their hands to work, “All hands, ahoy !” Let them lend a hand to any
“ handiwork“ hand-looms,” “ or hand about the tea and bread and butter
at parties, or make themselves “ handy ” in any way, even if they were made
to use “hand-brooms.” Yes ; let them put their hands to any honest call
ing rather than keep their hands in idleness, for they should recollect what
Dr. Watts asserts—
“ That Satan finds some mischief still
Por idle hands to do.”
And if these “ spirit hands ” are too flimsy and delicate to work—to
do hard work—then let them play musical instruments, get up popular con
certs, and as they can make perfumes, or are themselves perfumers, they
could thus whilst playing gratify their audiences with sweet sounds and sweet
scents at the same time.
However absurd this asserted fact of tables being moved by spirits may
appear, and to many persons appearing not worth a “ second thought,”
yet it is natural that we should endeavour to account for such a movement
in a natural way, one cause assigned is natural heat, the other involuntary
muscular action, etc., etc. In this state of uncertainty a little “guess work”
about the table movement, may perhaps be excused, even if it be as absurd
as “table lifting” itself. We know that the common air, dry or moist,
affects all earthly materials, and that
The water and the air,
Are everywhere,
Changing, the flower and the stone,
The flesh and the bone.
And we also know that wood, being a very porous material, is powerfully
affected by the “broad and general casing air,” that it expands or contracts
according to the condition of the atmosphere, and thus we find when there
is any considerable change in the temperature, that all the book-cases, ward
robes, chests of drawers, clothes presses, tables, or “ what-nots,” in different
parts of the house, will indicate this change by a creaking, cracking noise.
I have in my studio an oaken cabinet, which acts under the influence of the
change of air, like a talking thermometer, and with which I sometimes hold a
sort of a “ cabinet council” upon the subject of the change of weather.
When seated in my room, with doors, and windows, and shutters shut, if it
has been dry weather for any length of time, and my cabinet begins creaking,
I know by this sound from the wood, that the warm moist air, which has been
wafted with the warm gulf stream from the West Indies, is diffusing itself
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around the room, and producing an effect upon me and my furniture, even
to the fire-irons and fender, and so, on the contrary, after wet or moist
weather, if the creaking is heard again, I know pretty well “ which way the
wind blows,” and that it is a dry wind, without looking out at the weather vane.
If it merely goes creak, creak, crack, and stops there, the change will not be
great, but when it goes cre-ak, cre-ak, creak, crack, crack, crack—rumble,
rumble, rumble, creak, crack ! then do I know, and find, that the charge will
be considerable, and can spell out, change—rain—rain—rain, much rain.
Many persons who have given any thought to this question, are of opinion
that electric currents passing from the human body is the cause of this “ table
moving,” and I introduce my “weather wise ” cabinet to the public here to
show, that if a little damp air, or a little dry air will move, and make a large
heavy cabinet talk in this way, how much more likely it is that a table should
be moved, and particularly if these “ electric currents ” fly “ like lightning”
through the passages or spiracles of this popular, but at present mysterious
piece of furniture.
No wonder then if the “ life sphere ” and “ the atmosphere ” of the “ light
headed,” “light-heeled,” who “permeate their wills” into this otherwise
inanimate object, should all of a sudden “ set the table in a roar,” and “rap
out their rappartees,” and that “ the head of the table ” should bob up and
down, so as to make the people stare, either standing around or stuck in a
chair, and that the legs all so clumsy, should caper and dance and kick up in
the air, to the tune of “ Well did you ever!” and “ Well I declare !” ! ! !
This cabinet of mine is filled with the spirited works of departed spirits,
including some of my dear father’s humorous works, also of the great Hogarth,
the great Gilray, and other masters, ancient and modern; the mediums
would, I suppose, say—
That when this cabinet begins a “ crack
or creaking,
It is these sprites of art, who thus to me are speaking.
And as one of the panels was split some years back, the mediums would
perhaps suggest that these “droll spirits” made the cabinet “split its
sides with laughter,” but I know it was the hot air of a hot summer, a,nd
certainly not done by a drum or a drummer—that this “splitting” or
“ flying,” only shows the force of the common air, and I hope adds to the
force of my argument in this respect, and further, of this I feel assured, that
if I were to “ clear the decks for action,” bring this cabinet out into the
middle of my studio, and could induce some of the lady and gentlemen
“mediums” to come and form a “circle,” and clap their hands on and
around this piece of furniture, that, although Monsieur Cabinet has no “ light
fantastic toe,” that he would nevertheless join in the merry dance, and cut
some curious capers on his castors, and even “beat time ” perhaps with his
curious creaks and cracks. By the by, glass being a non-conductor, a table
made of glass, would at once settle this question, as to whether the tables are
moved by electric currents or not.
I am now about to suggest what I feel assured every one will admit to be
a grand idea, and which would be to make these spirits useful in a way that
would be highly appreciated and patronized by the public, and put all the
* Scotch for talking.
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“fortune-tellers” and “rulers of the stars ” out of the field altogether, and
perhaps even damage the “ electric wires ” a little. It is to establish a com
pany, to be entitled, “ The Human Question and Spirit Answer Company !”
The principal “ capital" to work upon, would be the overpowering principle of
curiosity; in this case, instead of having a “cWr-man,” they would, I
suppose, have a ¡fuWe-man ; if so, then Homo would be the man, and of this
company it never could be said, that they had not a rap at their bankers.
“ Limited,” of course, but the business would be 'O'^-limited, with profits,
corresponding ; branch question and answer offices, branching out all
over the globe, with “letter-boxes” and “chatter-boxes”. If the busi
ness of such offices were worked and carried out in a “ proper spirit," it
would assuredly be “ a success.” I am supposing, of course, that these
spirits will be able to “ tell us something we don’t know,” for up to the
present time it does not appear that they have told anything to us that we
could not have told them, and in a more common sense and grammatical
style than most of the communications which they have “ rapped out,” but
if there are any reaZ, great, and good spirits amongst these gammocking
table-turners, they must, one would suppose, know all about everything and
everybody, and everybody would be asking questions, and if so, “ Oh, my !”
what a lot of funny questions there would be ! and what a lot of funny
answers ! {all 11 private and confidential," of course) as nobody would be sure
not to tell nobody any secrets that nobody wanted anybody to know.
Under ordinary circumstances I am not at all what might be called a
curious person, but although I should (like other people) like to know how
certain matters might turn out, and although I should never* think of asking
a “ fortune-teller” or of consulting the gentry who profess to “ rule the
stars,” yet if such a company as this were started, I feel that I should be
compelled to start off to the first office I could get to, for the purpose of
putting two or three questions, to which I want immediate answers if it
were possible, and should not mind paying something extra for favourable
answers. I will here just give a specimen of some of these questions.
Some literary gentleman and others belonging to the “ Urban Club,”
and also some members of the “ Dramatic Authors’ ” Society, have formed
themselves in a committee (upon which they have done me the honour to
place my name), for the purpose of setting on foot and assisting to raise a
fund, if possible, to erect a monument in honour of William Shakspeare,
as the 23rd of April, 1864, will be the ter-centenary of that poet’s birth
day. Another committee for the same purpose is also in formation, and
the two committees will either amalgamate or work together. I have
suggested to the first committee that in order to assist the funds for the
above-mentioned purpose, that a notice be sent out
the public to this
effect—that all persons having any works of art, either paintings, drawings,
or sculpture, should be invited and respectfully requested to lend such works
to a committee of artists, to form a gallery or national collection illustrating
this author’s works, to be called “ The Shakspeare Exhibition,” and in
which designs for the said monument could also be exhibited. The ques
tion, therefore, I would put to the spirits through the proper medium would
bo this, viz.—If such invitations were sent out, would the holders of such
works lend them for the purpose of thus being placed before the public ?
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And further—If the Government were applied to, would they “ lend the
loan” of a proper and fitting building to exhibit the various works in ? Anri
a little further, and “ though last not least,” would the nobility and gentry,
and the public at large, patronize such an exhibition largely, and what the
receipts would amount to ? I should like to have all this answered, and
that at an early day. But as it may be a long clay, before such a company
could get into working order, and as the members of the public press are
a good-natured, shrewd class of spirits—if the idea is worth anything, they
would most likely take it up, and I should be as much pleased to get an
answer through that medium as any other that I know of.
There are several other questions which I should put to this “ Spirit
Answer Company” if it were started, and which I feel that I could not well
put to any one else, as I do not think that any body would give themselves
the trouble to give me an answer; and it is not every body who coulcl give
me satisfactory answers, however much they might feel disposed to do so. I
enumerate two or three.
Firstly—After a dreadful railway accident which occurred the other
day, Lord Brougham in the House of Lords suggested, I believe, that an
act of Parliament should be passed compelling the public to travel at a
rational speed; and as civil engineers declare that if the public would be
content to do so, that it would decrease the risk of life to about 999 per
cent., I want to know if the public are ever likely to adopt the moderate
speed, or sort of safe and sure, mode of travelling by rail, instead of flying
along at such a risk of life and limb, as they do now, occasionally coming to
a dreadflcl smash, with an awful unnecessary sacrifice of life, picking up
the bodies or the pieces thereof, crying out “All right, go a-head,” and
dashing off at the same irrational speed with the probability of the like
accidents again ?
Secondly—If it is at all likely that “ lovely woman” will ever leave off
wearing dresses which constantly expose her to the risk of being burnt
to death ?
Upon looking, however, at some of the other questions, they appear so
frivolous and ridiculous, that I do not think I would put them even to these
spirits. For instance, one was, that supposing I took a part in one of
Shakspeare’s plays, for the purpose of assisting this proposed Shakspearian
fund, and for some other purposes, if, as I can draw a little, should I, under
such circumstances, draw a full house ?
There is a common saying amongst schoolboys, that “ If all //i; were liacls,
and all 7zad.$‘ were Shads, we never should be in want of fish for supper.”
How the if, in this spirit question, is an important if. for if ad be true, that is
asserted by the “medmms” of the marvels which they publish, then are those
marvels some of the most marvellous and astounding wonders that have
ever been known or heard of in the authentic history of the world. And
from the extent to which this belief has spread, and is still spreading, and
also from the injurious effects it has already produced, and is likely still
further to produce, on the mental and physical condition of a large number
of the people, it now becomes rather, indeed, I may say, a very serious ques
tion. Some of the effects produced by attending the soirees of these “ good,
bad, and indifferent” spirits, will be seen from the reasons stated by a staunch
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supporter of these supernatural, pastimes for giving up—in fact, being com
pelled to give up—seances,li because, in the first place (he states), it was too
exhausting to the vital fluids of the medium. (They “ took too long a pull,
or swallowed too much of his atmosphere.”') And also “ because the
necessity of keeping the mind elevated to a higher state of contemplation,
while we were repeating the alphabet and receiving messages letter by letter,
was too great a strain upon our faculties ; and because the undeveloped and
earth-bound spirits throng about the mediums, and struggle to enter into
parley with them, apparently with the purpose of getting possession of their
natures, or exchanging' natures; and I have heard of sittings terminating
from this cause in cases of paralysis or demonaical possession.”
In such a state, no doubt the poor creatures imagine that they see
apparitions. I had an old friend who was affected with paralysis of the
brain, but not from this cause, as he was a total and decided disbeliever in
apparitions ; but from the diseased condition of his brain he had the appear
ance of a person or ghost constantly by his side for a considerable time, at
which he used to laugh, and which I wanted him to introduce to me; but to
me it was always invisible. One day at dinner he stood up, and said to those
present, “ Don’t you see I’m going ?” and fell down—dead !
Although there is much to laugh at with respect to these modern spirits,
although some of the scenes at the seances are perfectly ridiculous—and
would have afforded capital subjects for the powerful pen of my dear deceased
friend, “ Thomas Ingoldsby”—the “raps” rapped out sometimes are positive
nonsense and sometimes positive falsehood; and “ evil communications,”
which all who have been to school know, “ corrupt good manners,” yet, on
the other hand, there are serious symptoms sometimes attended with serious
consequences.
The mediums tell us that these spiritual manifestations are permitted by
the “ Omnipotent ;” that Jesus Christ sanctions some of these spiritual
communications, and are indeed given us as if proceeding from Himself;
and yet we find that some persons who attend these “seances”- have their
nervous system so shaken as to distort them limbs, in fact, lose the use of
their limbs altogether, or are “ driven raving mad !”
In “ The Light in the Valley,” a work which I consider ought to be
entitled “ Darkness in the Valley,” but which I must do the author the
justice to say is written and edited in what is evidently intended as a pro
found, proper, and religious spirit, and with a good intent; but however
sincere and honest those pious feelings may be, they are nevertheless distorted
religious opinions, containing symbolical ideas as dark as any symbolical
emanations ever given forth in the darkest ages.
In this work specimens are given of “ spirit writing” and 11 spirit drawing
The “ spirit writing” consists of unmeaning, unintelligible scribbling scrawls,
and very rarely containing any letters or words. These productions are
ascribed to a “ spirit hand ” seizing and guiding the medium’s hand, but which
is nothing more than involuntary action of the muscles under an excited
and unnatural state of the nervous system; and the spirit drawings are
executed under similar conditions. The drawings profess to be designed
and conjointly executed in this way, by holy spirits or angels, and are given
as sacred guidances to man. These are the medium’s opinions and belief;
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but, unfortunately, too many of these sort of drawings may be seen in
certain asylums. But if I know anything of religion, which I have been
looking at carefully and critically for half a century; also if I know anything
of designing and drawing, in which profession I have been working in my
humble way for more than that time, I pronounce these spirit drawings
(in the language of art) to be “out of drawing,” and contrary to all healthy
emanations of thought as design and composition; and instead of repre
senting subjects or figures which would convey a proper and great idea of
Divine attributes, are, in fact, caricatures of such sacred subjects.
I shall here give a few extracts from the communication of these false
spirits, and spiritual explanations of these spirit scrawls and scratches ; but
some which I had intended to insert, upon reflection, I refrain from giving,
believing that they would not only be offensive to sensible religious persons,
but injurious to youthful minds. Some of the illustrations given in this book
are furnished by a “ drawing medium,” under the titles of “ Christ without
Hands,” “ the Bearded Christ,” “Christ among the Sphere,” “the Woman
Crucified,” etc., etc. In the first of these something like a figure is scribbled
in, and surrounded with scratches, called spirit writing; the “ Bearded Christ”
is merely a bust, very badly drawn, and produced in the same unnatural way,
and surrounded by the same sort of scribbling. The shape of the beard and
the atmosphere of the beard are, it appears, most important matters; and
the author, in speaking of this, says, in describing Him, “ In ‘ the Bearded
Christ’ the atmosphere of the beard, as well as the beard itself, is repre
sented ; and I am acquainted with a ‘seeing medium,’ who has seen the
beard-atmosphere, not only when the beard is worn, but about the shaven
chin, with sufficient precision to decide of what shape the beard would be
were it allowed to grow” !!! !!! !!! !!! !!!
The subject professing to represent “ Christ among the Spheres” is a
better and more finished drawing; but, according to all the laws and rules
of proportion, the figure of Christ, by the side of our globe, would be
30,000 miles in height, and a lily which he holds in his hand 15,000 miles
long ! All these gross absurdities show, that the real spirit has nothing
whatever to do with such absurd doctrines or productions. This “ drawing
medium” gives an account of the trials and sufferings, bodily and mental,
which she went through before she became an accomplished and complete
medium ; and, according to her own statement, she must have gone through
a most fearful and horrible schooling. In one part it is stated she went
through “ several months of most painful bewilderment and extreme distress of
mind; ’ and in another part she says that the intensest antagonism between
truth and falsehood, between light and darkness, encounters the astounded
and unprepared pilgrim upon his first entrance into the realm of spirit.
“ I felt frequently as if enveloped in an atmosphere which sent through
my whole frame warm streams of electricity in waving spirals from the
crown of my head to the soles of my feet; and occasionally, generally at
midnight, I was seized with twitchings and convulsive movements of my
whole body, which were distressing beyond words. All these symptoms at
length came to a crisis in a frightful trance.” And this drawing medium
signs herself “ Comfort !” and further states that—
“Waking in the night, the strange drawing process instantly commenced,
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and I felt and saw within me the figure of an angel, whose countenance
resembled that of Christ, descending from a morning sky towards me, and
bearing upon his shoulders a large cross, whilst from his lips proceeded these
words—‘ Love, mercy, peace, but not till after death.’ Again my soul
trembled with anguish, for that strange portentous word, ‘ death,'' was ever
written within me or without. This peculiar stage of development soon
produced a singular affection of my throat, an affection of the mucous
membrane, which caused several times a day, and especially when rising in
the morning, the most distressing sensations. After suffering thus for several
days, the mysterious writing informed me that I must take a certain quantity
of port wine every day, and then the sensation would leave me.” And she
adds, “I followed the spiritual direction, and found almost immediate relief.”
The spirit doctor, in fact, after the dreadful suffering the scholar had
gone through, prescribed a “ drop of comfort,” a drop of the spirit of
Alcohol, which spirit is very much like these rapping spirits, deceitful and
dangerous, and this, we may presume, is the reason why the medicine adopted
the name of “ comfort.” Well, some people will say that some little comfort
was needed after so much discomfort and suffering—but why, all this suffer
ing ? Cannot these spirit drawing-masters instruct their pupils in this poor,
wretched, miserable style of drawing, without all this misery and punishment?
If not, I should think that very few ladies or gentlemen would like to take
lessons in drawing, or, indeed, in any other art, under such painful circum
stances. A spirit drawing-master’s card would, I presume, be something
like the following:—
TOM PAIN,
MEDIUM SPIRIT DRAWING- TAUGHT, UNDER EXTREME TORTURE,
«
IN TWENTX-FOUR LESSONS, AT SO MUCH ILL-HEALTH
AND SUFFERING PER LESSON.
N.JB.—Private Residence, under the Table.
V All the Drawing and Writing Materials to be provided by the
Pupils. The lashing supplied by the Spirit, and the Medical Advice Gratis ;
but the Pupils to find the “ drop of spirit comfort” themselves.
In taking one more extract from “ Comfort,” I hope that I am not giving
any discomfort to that “medium,” who, from my mmost heart I hope and
trust, is now enjoying that rational and natural comfort which all well-wishers
to their fellow-creatures wish strangers to feel, as well as their friends. The
medium proceeds to say:—“Ignorance of their real nature and of their
alternate purposes in the progress of civilization and development of mind,
has already caused immense misery in many directions, and will cause more
and more, even infinitely worse, until the time arrives that the medical
world will follow the example of Dr. Garth Wilkinson in his valuable
pamphlet on the treatment of lunacy through spiritualism, and calmly regard
this growing development not as insanity, but as a key whereby to unlock
insanity ” !!!
I have not the slightest notion of what this pamphlet contains, but from
the above very -uncomfortable opinion expressed by “ Comfort” upon this
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matter, it seems to me that a sufficient 11 key” is here given to unlock, if not
all, at all events, the greater part of the mysteries of this spirit drawing and
spirit writing, and, indeed, the whole of this spirit movement.
I would here call the attention of the medical world to the way in which
the spirits are acting towards that body. I presume that they are the spirits
of deceased members of the profession; and if so they are acting in a
most unbrotherly, underhanded manner, in fact, undermining the pro
fession altogether by “rapping” out prescriptions from under the table, for
which they do not take a “rap” as a fee. Yes, “ advice gratis” for nothing.
I entreat medical men not to smile at my remarks, for they may be
assured that there is a dark conspiracy—I cannot say “ afoot,” because
spirits have no feet—but I may say in hand; and as matters stand at present,
it looks as if “ The D. without the M., and Da. Faustus” had entered into a
partnership to destroy all medical doctors by introducing a system which
they could not only not practise, but, as far as I am able to judge, could
never understand, and which, though it is given in the “ Light in the Valley,”
II read” they may, and “mark” they may, “Zetrm” they cannot, and “in
wardly digest” they never will.
In the concluding pages of the “ Light in the Valley,” a letter is intro
duced, which is evidently written by a highly-educated person, in support of
“ an occult law,” and from all that is stated in this letter the writer
might as well have said at once, I believe in witchcraft, or that craft
which enables an ignorant old woman, who is called a “witch,” to
make contracts with the Evil One, for the purpose of torturing, or
making miserable for life, or destroying unto death, her neighbours, their
children, or their cattle ; and that an ignorant old man, under the name of a
“wizard,” may do the same; also, in astrology, or “ruling the stars,” to
predict coming events, or the future fate of individuals born at particular
periods of the year, according to the position of the stars at that time; or in
“ fortune-telling,” performed either by “ crossing the hand” with a piece of
money, got out of some simpleton’s pocket for that purpose, but which never
gets back there again; or by bits of paper, called “ cardsto which also may
be added, as a matter of course, I believe in ghosts, hobgoblins, and in every
thing of a supernatural character.
We can readily understand why the ignorant and uneducated believe in
all these matters; the cause is traced and known; but it seems almost
impossible to believe that educated persons, even with a small amount
of reflection, can put their faith in such superstitious delusions ; and if the
question is put to such persons, as “ show us any good” resulting in the
existence of an “ occult law,” we may safely defy any one to show one
instance, where any good has ever resulted from such a belief in what they
term the deep “ arcana of Nature’s book,” or rather unnatural nonsense.
Whereas, on the othei' hand, the amount of evil arising from this source
has been fearfully great, and the murders many ; dragging poor old creatures
through ponds, and hanging them, and even torturing them to death in a way
too disgusting to describe. Our own records are, unfortunately, too massive
of such ignorant and savage atrocities ; but not only were such deeds enacted
in this (at that time) so misnamed Christian land, but also in other countries
denominated Christian; but which title their brutal acts gave them, like our
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selves, no right to assume ; not only in Europe, but also in America. In that
country, about the year 1642, many poor old women were persecuted to
death. One woman was hung at Salem for bewitching four children, and
the eldest daughter afterwards confessed to the tricks that she and her
sisters had played in pretending to be “ bewitched.”
But in our own time we find that this belief in the power of foretelling
events leads to much mischief and misery, and from certain facts we may be
assured that there is a larger amount of evil from this cause than is made
known to the public. The “ occult law” leads to many breaches of the law
of the land, and to serious crime; it opens the door to gross imposture,
swindling, and robbery, misleading the minds of simple people, and turning
their conduct and ways from their proper and natural course, and the
strange unaccountable conduct of some persons might be easily accounted for,
when traced to this “ fortune-telling” foolery. The happiness of one family
was destroyed only the other day by a deaf and dumb “ruler of the stars,”
who is now in penal servitude, and who would have been executed had the
offence been committed some years back. Several such “ rulers of the
stars,” or “fortune-tellers,” have been hung for similar crimes, in my time,
one I remember was a black man, hung at the Old Bailey.
The clothes test cannot be brought to bear upon the predicting of events,
but there is a test, which maybe brought with equal force upon this question,
which is, that although these prophets profess to tell what is going to
happen to others, they cannot foretell what is going to happen to them
selves, for if they could, they would have, of course, avoided the punish
ments which the law has, and is constantly inflicting upon them for their
offences. And Mr. “ Zadkiel,” for instance, would not have brought his
action against Admiral Sir Edward Belcher, if he could have foreseen the
result; after which, no doubt, he cried out, “ Oh ! my stars !—if I had known
as much as I know now, I never would have gone into court!”
A “Bow Street officer” (as a branch of the old police were styled) told
me that he had a warrant to take up a female fortune-teller, who was pluck
ing the geese to a large amount. Her principal dupes were females, and he
being a gander had some difficulty in managing to get an introduction (for
this tribe of swindlers use as much caution as they can). He however
succeeded in getting the wise woman to tell him his fortune, for which he
professed himself much obliged, and told her that as he had a little faculty
in that way himself, he would in return, tell her, her fortune, which was,
that she was that morning going before the magistrate at Bow Street,
who had some power in this way also, and he would likewise tell her her
fortune. She smiled at first and would not believe in what he said, but he
showed her the warrant, and all came true that he had told her; but
nothing came true of what she had told him.
Erom the high and pure character of many persons well known to me,
who are mixed up in these seances, it is almost impossible not to believe
their statements of these wonders, the truth of which wonders they so
positively assert. If true, they are indeed wonderful; but if tricks, then do
they surpass all other tricks, ever performed by all the “ sleight of hand”
gentry put together, who ever bamboozled poor credulous, simple creatures,
oi’ astonished and puzzled a delighted audience.
�48
ADDENDA.
There can be but two sides to a question, true or false; and, as already
hinted, it remains for the mediums to prove their case, and to place the
matter in a. better light than it stands at present, which is indeed a very dim
and uncertain sort of “ night light;” but as, up to this time, their assertions
are at variance with what has hitherto been considered as sound sense and
understanding, those outside the “ circle” have not only a right, to be cautious
of stepping into such a circle, but, until some more reasonable reasons are
given—even putting aside the cwi bono for the present—unless some rational
natural cause can be assigned, they have a right to suspect the whole, either
as a Delusion or a Disease.
But even if this party prove, that these “ thing-em bobs” are recd spirits,
they appear to be so dreadful and dangerous, and there really is such a
“ strong family likeness” between some of them, and a certain “ Old Gentle
man,” that I would say “the less they have to do with them the better;”
but even supposing they are not “ so black as they are painted ” (by their
mediums), if even they are a sort of “ half-and-half,” nevertheless, I
would say—
“ Rest, rest, perturbed spirits rest;”
For if not for you, for us ’twill be the best.
There may be, as already observed, more things between heaven and
earth than were dreamt of in the philosophy of Horatio ; but let the
“inquiring spirit” rest assured that amongst these “ things” there could not
be included the Ghost of Iron Armour; and though ’tis said “there’s
nothing like leather,” yet none of these said “ things” could have been the
leather of “ Top-boots”—no, not even the leather of the “ tops” nor the
leather of the “ soles” thereof.
In concluding, I will just add to this Addenda, that,—
Although I have seen, (in the “ mirage,” in the sky)
A ship “ upside down,” the great hull and big sails,
No one, has ever yet seen, such things, as the Gliosis,
Of Hats or Wigs, or of short, or long Pig—tails.
And this is the “long and the. short” of my
DISCOVERT CONCERNING GHOSTS,
with
A RAP AT THE RAPPERS.
THE END.
UiBBILD, PBIHTBB, LOX LOX.
��
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Victorian Blogging
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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A discovery concerning ghosts. with a rap at the rappers
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Cruikshank, George [1792-1878]
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Collation: 48 p. : ill. ; 25 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. Printed by Marrild, London. Tentative date of publication from KVK.
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[s.n.]
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[1864?]
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G5454
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Spiritualism
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Conway Tracts
Ghosts
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Text
NATIONAL SECULAR SOCIETY
A FEW OBJECTIONS
TO
SPIRITUALISM,
WJrtfjrer it h tat or jfalst.
BY
A. MAJOR.
LONDON:
FREETHOUGHT
PUBLISHING
63, FLEET STREET, E.C.
1 8 8 6.
COMPANY,
�PRINTED BY
ARTHUR BONNER, 34, BOUVEBIE STREET,
LONDON, E.C.
�A FEW OBJECTIONS TO SPIRITUALISM,
WHETHER IT BE TRUE OR FALSE.
What are the teachings of Spiritualism ? What good
results can it boast of ? These are two very important
questions, and I think all reasonable minds must agree
that it is only fair for an investigator to seek all possible
information that may tend to assist at arriving at satisfac
tory answers thereto, and further, to weigh and test all
information unreservedly, ignoring opinions of friends or
opponents except so far as any opinions may serve as a
guide or assistance to the discovery of facts.
All religions, it has been asserted, are matters of opinion
or faith ; but Spiritualists, in advocating Spiritualism as a
religion, maintain that it (Spiritualism) is not a matter of
opinion or faith, but a matter of fact capable of demonstration
to the fullest extent. This being their standpoint, I claim
to be entitled to reject and put aside in the consideration
of the subject all questions of authority or the opinions of
others, except subject to my previous limitation. It is,
therefore, nothing to me whether Lord Brougham, Serjeant
Cox, or other illustrious personages believed in Spiritualism,
and I accordingly set aside any arguments based upon
such premises. Those parties also believed in the multi
plication table. So do I; but it is not because they believed
in the accuracy of it that I do, but because it is a fact
�4
A FEW OBJECTIONS TO SPIRITUALISM.
demonstrated to myself. Such, authority is a weak ground
work to start a principle upon or to prove a fact by, for
the reason that at some time or other all error has been
supported by the voice of authority. If I am to be in
fluenced in my belief in Spiritualism because the great and
learned have believed in it, I may as well believe in burning
and putting to death of the mediums because “that great
and shining light ”, Sir Matthew Hale and numerous other
judges have believed in putting witches to death.1 I men
tion these matters because the following question is
frequently put in argument, viz.: “What do you say to,
and how do you account for, the fact that so many great
intellects, including peers of the realm and judges of the
land, believe in Spiritualism?”. My answer is: “I do
not know, and cannot and do not pretend to account
therefor.” I might as well try to account for Cardinal
Manning and other eminent personages believing in the
infallibility of the Pope of Rome, the transubstantiation
theory, and other (to my mind) equally improbable
matters.
As to the “ facts ” Spiritualism proves, and whether or
not the evidence warrants the assertion that such are in
deed facts, I must leave them for further consideration. I am
not prepared to deal with that branch of the subject at
present. I have not sufficiently investigated the pheno
mena, and consequently I am not in a position to affirm or
or deny anything connected therewith. I cannot even say
that I have formed any decided opinion thereon. I have
witnessed a great deal that has surprised and interested
me, that I cannot account for, and that has mystified me
not a little; but then I have not been able to test what I have
seen in the way I could have desired, and it does not appear
probable that I can do so. Maskelyne and Cook’s enter
tainment would probably puzzle me as much, if I were
not informed that their interesting performance is accom
plished by natural means, and nothing might mystify me
more, perhaps, than a ventriloquial entertainment, assuming
that I had never heard of ventriloquism, and instead of
being informed that the artificial voices (so to speak)
were produced from the throat of one man, I were
1 It is urged by Spiritualists that witchcraft really existed, and was
a phase of Spiritualism.
�A FEW OBJECTIONS TO SPIRITUALISM.
told that they were the voices of spirits, I might be
puzzled to the same extent that I now am as re
gards spirit manifestation, so I prefer to confess that my
mind is not settled on the subject. One point, however,
I am satisfied upon—viz., that either the manifestations I
have witnessed are genuine and true, or they are the result
of deliberate fraud and imposture of the blackest type.
There is no intermediate course open to consider the sub
ject upon. It is no question of imagination or fancy that
can be raised to meet my experience. I have seen
“ Spirits ” materialised, and have conversed with them in a
perfectly ordinary way. I have felt their touch, and have
seen their writing—all this at times when I have been as
cool and free from excited imagination as I am at the time
of writing these words. I say that all that I have seen and
experienced is real and what it is represented to be, or it is
the practice of fraud and imposture. The “materialised
spirit ” was in fact a materialised spirit, or it was a man
fraudulently representing himself to he a spirit. There is no
possibility of forming any other conclusion on the subject.
It is one of the two alternatives. Therefore, to find against
the truth of what I have witnessed I must decide that the
medium, and those persons who have invited my attendance
at the seances, are fraudulent deceivers, so villainous that
it would be impossible to find one extenuating point in their
favor. It is no wonder then that I hesitate to form a
judgment entailing such a serious condemnation of others
whom, (it is only fair to them for me to say) from what I
know of them, I should consider the least likely to be guilty
of such conduct; and I confess that it is here that I find
myself in real difficulty at arriving at any conclusion adverse
to the existence of the phenomena. Of course, if we were
to argue upon probabilities, I admit that it would be more
probable to think the medium false than that the phsenomena
is true. I, however, prefer not to enter upon this part of
the question; but, for the purpose of dealing with the
subject upon its merits, I will argue on the assumption that
the phsenomenon is all that it is represented to be:
that the manifestations are true; and what I have seen
actually and really transpired in the manner and to the
extent represented.
Arguing, therefore, on the basis that Spiritualism is a
fact, and not an hypothesis, I place the believers therein
�6
A FEW OBJECTIONS TO SPIRIT UALI3M.
on common ground with myself to deal with the question
arising out of the following remarks.
Apart from the fact that it teaches a life of some sort
after this, Spiritualism cannot be said to possess any teach
ings of any consequence. It is true that a number of
Spiritualists profess to believe in the principles of Theism,
but from my experience with them they do not appear to
possess any more positive belief in or knowledge of God, or
His existence and His laws, than has hitherto been taught
apart from Spiritualism; and this will seem the more
forcible when I state that there are members of its body
accepting the details and phenomena who are orthodox in
point of religion. There are many who even go so far
as to found evidence for their belief in Spiritualism upon
the Bible, as the actual word of God, whilst there are
others who are Deists, and others who incline to a natural
religion ignoring Deity.
Swedenborg was a Spiritualist who professed to believe
not only in Heaven and Hell, Eternal Felicity and Eternal
Damnation, but even is stated to have visited both those
places and actually witnessed both those spheres of
existence. Modern unorthodox Spiritualists repudiate all
question of Eternal Damnation and Hell, the Fall, the
Incarnation, and Atonement, but accept the more reason
able belief of Eternal Progress. Yet, notwithstand
ing—and curious though it be to relate—they do not
dispute that Swedenborg actually saw and held intercourse
with those spheres before referred to, and in the manner
represented by him so to have done, but accept his state
ments as to these matters by asserting that he was made the
dupe of “orthodox spirits”. I cannot say that the religious
views of Spiritualists are as numerous as those who do
not believe therein, but there is reason to believe that they
would be as diversified if as large a number of people
believed in Spiritualism as those who do not. This, to my
mind, goes to prove that its teachings may be said to be
uncertain and to amount to nil. In asserting this, I trust
I shall not to be misunderstood to say that a number of
the persons claiming to be Spiritualists do not possess and
teach sound ideas of right and wrong, for no doubt some
of them do, and many to a very marked and advanced
extent; but whatever religion of life they do possess is not
founded upon Spiritualism, but annexed to it, rather than
�A FEW OBJECTIONS TO SPIRITUALISM.
7
the outcome or result of it. I firmly believe that those
Spiritualists who are good, and who have sound ideas of
life, have not obtained their ideas from the spirit-world,
although it may be possible that some of the previously
discovered teachings of men may be reproduced by spirits.
So far as I can ascertain there has been absolutely nothing
ever written, spoken, or otherwise taught by the supposed
spirits or their mediums which has excelled, or even
approached, the teachings of embodied spirits; and I
again assert that nothing new has been taught or dis
covered through the aid or by the means of Spiritualism—
nothing more has been found out than human reason had
previously discovered. Of course, Spiritualists claim to
prove “ the life after this ”. For my part they are welcome
to such proofs, and can remain in undisturbed possession
of them. Such lives that are “proved” can neither be
said to be desirable, attractive, or useful. On the other
hand, a great argument against Spiritualism as a religion
is supplied by the fact that different “ spirits ” have taught
different and opposing doctrines. Coming from the spirit
world, it would be reasonable to expect that the teachings
would be something approaching infallibility, or at least
consistency, whereas it is admitted by Spiritualists that some
spirits are lying spirits; others are misguided spirits who
speak believing that what they say is right, yet nevertheless
deceive and teach in some things falsely ; while others err,
owing to the influence of “brother spirits”, or owing to
certain influences concerning earth-life connected directly
or indirectly with the sitters present at the seance or their
surroundings. Then whence comes its utility ? At the
most it does not so much give the power of communication
between the living and the dead as to anticipate such
relationship by a few years ; for, if true, it is certain that
the spirits, after quitting earth-life, will meet and hold
communication in the next world, or sphere of existence ;
and considering that we have all eternity before us, the
necessity for holding, whilst here, such occasional commu
nication with the departed is hardly apparent, and the
mode appears scarcely natural, but rather—to use a
Scotch expression—somewhat uncanny.
It might be asked on religious grounds, “Is it right that
we should anticipate communication with the spheres not
of this world but intended for our spirits only, when
�8
A FEW OBJECTIONS TO SPIRITUALISM.
divested of this body?” If such communications were
necessary to our existence or soul-culture, would we not be
able to hold it in a more natural manner than that adopted
at seances, and without people suffering loss of power or
vital force, as is stated to be the case with the medium ? I
am inclined to believe that, if it were necessary to us, such
communications would come naturally, and the spirits in
stead of requiring the aid and assistance of “luminous
painted slates” and “light absorbing garments” to show
themselves by, would be as visible as the sun and stars.
Spirit-life, to me, loses all charm and that halo of reverence
and means of aspiration when connected with knocking
furniture about, playing musical instruments, grinding up
musical boxes, and other indifferent form of manifestation.
I for one would prefer the more sublime conception of
angels, hitherto taught, than the knowledge of a reality so
depreciating to the ordinary ideas and belief of spiritual
existence. Contrast Longfellow’s beautiful ideas in his
“Footsteps of Angels” and other like poems with the
“fact” of spirits putting iron rings on the mediums’ wrists,
manufacturing “Manchester goods”, manipulating furni
ture, carrying people and other material bodies in the air,
insanely jumping them about; and after having made the
comparison let anyone say which is best, the sublime con
ception of the poet or the “realities” of the phenomena.
However, to return to dry argument. I would ask, “Is
it not the fact that Spiritualism is the only branch of
science (if such it be) that refuses to be subject to thorough
tests, and is not open to investigation, and does not court
enquiry ? ”. All discoveries have been thrown open to
enquiry and subjected to the severest criticism.
This not being the case with Spiritualism excites the
gravest suspicion, and will ever be the means (I am still
assuming that it is true) for the practice of fraud and im
posture of the most serious nature. A not unimportant
question arises, “ How under its present system of practice
is it to protect itself against imposition?”. It is not open
to tests in itself ; how then can real mediums prove fraud
against fraudulent mediums ? If tests are to be applied to
the fraudulent they must also be adopted to the true, and
the latter is not permissible. If tests are denied to the
true then the fraudulent can claim the like exemption;
and for this reason, that until the tests have been applied
�A 1'EW OBJECTIONS TO SPIRITUALISM.
9
to the manifestations it cannot be discovered which is true
and which false.
One of the great objects of all right government should
be to close all doors and means for the practice of fraud;
and therefore upon this ground it is public policy that the
practice of spirit manifestations should be suppressed, it
opening so large a field for imposture.
It is claimed by Spiritualists that in the “Home” and
“Fletcher” cases genuine mediums were present, and
genuine manifestations took place.
If such results as those cases disclosed are the outcome
of genuine seances, it is manifest how serious might be
the evil that would arise by means of fraudulent seances
where even felons might assemble and take the lead, and
obtain the confidence of the many by deceit and fraud, not
being liable to discovery and consequent punishment.1
Upon these premises I argue that Spiritualism is unwhole
some, and that its practice should be discouraged. There
are further reasons why it ought to be suppressed, the
following among others: 1st. The immense power it
is possible for one man or a class of men to possess
over the minds of others. 2. The loss of independence
of mind in the believers, and particularly that class
of persons whom I will term “ believers on hearsay
evidence”, those who accept the statements of others
without investigating for themselves, like the majority
of those who believe in creeds and doctrines of the
various churches and sects — such persons who accept
the faith upon the word of their teachers and their books,
without ever questioning the truth for themselves, at all
events in such a manner as they would in searching after
worldly truths. Imagine such a class of men at the dicta
tion and following of an unscrupulous medium. A further
reason why it should be suppressed is that the practice of
mediumistic powers enervates the system of the medium,
and uses up his “vital force ” to an unnatural extent, so
that his constitution becomes weakened, stimulants have to
be constantly resorted to, life is shortened, and that which
is, perhaps, worse than all, the medium is subject—
1 What an opportunity for the pickpockets—at a dark seance with
wealthy sitters. These people could first steal money, etc., and after
wards make believe that the “ spirits ” had done the business.
�10
A FEW OBJECTIONS TO SPIRITUALISM.
according to the character or nature of the circle—to be
made the subject or active instrument of “ Evil departed
spirits ” whose vices and close association with the medium
tend to debilitate his mind, and affect his judgment, so that
he loses all individuality for the time being. It is stated as
a fact in Spiritualistic circles that the spirits of jockeys,
betting men, women of ill-fame, and other indifferent
persons, no longer of this world, have at times taken
possession of the medium, to the encouragement of the
habits which they practised when in earth-life. So far as
the jockey was concerned, it is stated that by giving hints
and tips to the circle as to the result of certain pending
races, he, through the medium, enabled persons frequenting
the seance to win money, and the medium has been wholly
unconscious during the time. I ask here, Is a system that
renders such a state of things possible one that should be
encouraged or even tolerated ?
A cause is good or bad according to the results attained
to the largest number of people, and Spiritualism must,
like all other matters, be judged by its results. Up to the
present, what can it boast of in the way of good results ?
It is claimed by its members to have made great strides
the past ten or twelve years, and that those who believe
therein can be counted by millions. One phase of
Spiritualism is what is termed Healing mediumship, that
is, that a number of mediums are gifted, either by the
spirits or by other means, with marvellous powers to cure
the sick, in fact, to effect cures in cases which would be
otherwise hopeless—in cases where all the science of
medicine and surgery would be of no avail. Yet Spiritual
ists cannot point to any hospital or institution supported
by themselves, or arising out of the cause, for the benefit
of their fellow-creatures. One would think, possessing
such wonderful powers, that in common humanity they
would be utilised for the benefit of those requiring their
aid, and particularly the deserving poor. Here is a field
of usefulness wholly neglected, or strictly limited to the
“few who pay”. And this neglect of the “ good they
might do here ” is suffered by those who claim to have the
highest knowledge of religion and duties here, assisted as
they also claim to be by the spirits that have “gone
before ”.
Of the millions of believers Spiritualism can boast of no
�A FEW OBJECTION’S TO SPIRITUALISM.
11
church or public (or private) place of instruction. No schools;
no benevolent institutions of any kind. They do not even
support their leaders and mediums, but leave them to rely
entirely upon the fees payable at each stance by the
sitters, so that it becomes not a question with them as to
what class of manifestation they can produce, so much as
what is the state and condition of the pockets of the
sitters. This must be demoralising in itself, and is a
reproach upon the system. Nothing can be witnessed or
done without a fee is expected. Can any system boasting
of its millions of believers show more barren results?
results absolutely nil, rendering the cause worthless, judged
by its own standpoint, and on its own merits.
It is, I have always considered, necessary for a healthy
mind to possess a sound healthy body. The man who
possesses a vigorous system has a mind capable of develop
ment, and is one better able to learn truths and instruct
others in the duties of life here than the emaciated or
debilitated individual who is constantly hired out at a small
fee, and using up all his vital force by what is—at least
to himself—unwholesome practices.1 A man has no right
to ruin his health and strength and debilitate his mind,
whether by the excessive use of drugs and stimulants,
giving way to inordinate desires and passions, or to the
repeated loss of individuality by excessive sleep, or trance
mediumship, or by allowing departed spirits to turn out
the man-spirit, or soul, and themselves to take possession
of his body, or by permitting the breaking up of his body
for the purpose of allowing such spirits to “ materialise ”.
If the result be bad, the system that produces such result
must be bad likewise.
I do not believe that our national system of religion is
the correct one; but whatever be its faults, a thousand
times would I prefer it to Spiritualism. The present clergy
are a race of fine manly fellows, and would contrast most
favorably with a race of gaunt, debilitated, emaciated
mediums. If it be necessary to have teachers (and un
doubtedly it is) then give me the former to the latter, for
although they err, yet the error is nothing to what is
1 It is stated by Spiritualists that the practice of mediumistic
powers seriously affect the health of the medium, making him sub
ject to paralysis and debility.
�12
A FEW OBJECTIONS TO SPIRITUALISM.
possible to result from a system the modus operandi of
which partakes of the character of the illusionist’s and
conjurer’s entertainments, with the absence of tests, the
cover of darkness, and generally what many would con
sider “ a hole-in-the-corner kind of business ”.
Athough I have made enquiry I have not discovered the
name of one medium who has obtained a high and ex
alted position, and to whom the believers in the cause can
point as an example of what a man should be. This is
not the case with the Church or with Freethinkers, or
other fearless followers of what they believe to be the
truth. The Church can boast of its martyrs, whereas the
believer in Spiritualism, firm and confident though he be
of its truth, shuns exposure, and does not brave the light of
day. Notwithstanding their professed devotion to their
cause and faith in its certainty, Spiritualists appear timid
to brave a few months’ imprisonment, where martyrs to
faith have braved and suffered torture and death.
In concluding these remarks I crave permission to quote
a passage from a sermon preached by the Rev. Chas.
Voysey at the Theistic Church on the 11th July, 1886,
which contains to my mind the strongest argument of any
adverse to Spiritualism, and which is as follows:
“Then it will be asked, if this hypothesis (that of the
future existence) be true why does not God reveal it ?
Think what years of miserable fear and hours of intense
mental agony men and women have endured because the
canopy of heaven is never opened and no voice has ever
reached us from beyond the grave. Even here also I
believe God is more than justified. The pains men have
suffered through uncertainty and suspense are a trifle light
as air compared with the horrors we might suffer if once
the veil that hides the future were riven.
“ No one I presume to say will deny the overwhelming
advantages that we derive from having the future events
on earth almost entirely concealed from us.
In the
chequered course of life we are ever being made glad with
pleasant surprises or made sad by unexpected calamity.
To know beforehand all our joy would leave us without a
vestige of appetite and destroy all the pleasures of hope.
To know beforehand all our sorrows would extinguish all
our present joy, the shadow of the coming gloom would
darken the bright sunshine of present happiness. Nay,
�A FEW OBJECTIONS TO SPIRITUALISM.
13
more, would it not so paralyse exertion and enterprise as
to frustrate all the merciful designs of our discipline and
completely overturn the present order of things? Our
ignorance of the future, our utter darkness as to our
successes and failures, throws us back upon the hard but
safe lines of duty. Not knowing what is before us, we
bend all our strength to do the right thing at the right
moment, and leave the issues in the hands of the righteous
ruler of our destinies. It is by this uncertainty that we
are governed and guided and sometimes driven into the
narrow path of duty from which the knowledge of what
is to happen would perpetually allure us. It is not too
much to say that what we thus gain by our ignorance of
the future would be wholly lost if the future could be
revealed to us.
“ But if this be true of the foreknowledge of events in
our earthly life, how much more true it is of the
foreknowledge of what may come beyond the tomb I
We have already seen the ill effects which have
followed even from an absorbing anticipation of a
future life, from a pretended knowledge of its conditions ;
how men and women have neglected and forgotten the
pressing obligations of the life in order to intoxicate their
souls by visions of bliss in the world to come; how they
have been driven to madness by expectation of a horrible
doom. Ten thousand times worse evils would ensue were
the vision to become an actual certainty and were we per
mitted to open our eyes upon the scenes of glory and felicity
that may await us. Distraction in its most vitiated degree
would divert us from the tremendous responsibilities of
life, and few indeed would be the heroes whose moral
courage was great enough to bear patiently the troubles
of this life and to keep them from rushing headlong into
the Stygian pool. The world would be soon depopulated
by universal Euthanasia. Moral culture would be no
longer possible. For moral culture depends on the discharge
of duty from disinterested motives regardless of bribes
and scornful of threats. Draw the veil which hides the
unseen world, and men’s eyes might be so dazzled with
the spectacle as to become blind henceforth to all that
constitutes real virtue—all this on the hypothesis of bliss
in store. On the other hand if that hypothesis be false,
equally just and righteous is the Lord in hiding the cer-
�14
A FEW OBJECTIONS TO SPIRITUALISM.
tainty of annihilation from us, since the revelation of the
horror would bear worse fruits still. Our perplexity in
trying to reconcile the righteousness of God with the
present order of the world would be then aggravated
beyond remedy, and the name of God would no longer be
heard on the lips of men but in tones of futile and
despairing blasphemy.”
. The foregoing extract disposes of any question of neces
sity for spirit manifestations, and is a conclusive answer
in itself to the claims made by Spiritualists.
���
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Victorian Blogging
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An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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A few objections to spiritualism, whether it be true or false
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Major, A.
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Place of publication: London
Collation: 14 p. ; 18 cm.
Notes: Printed by Arthur Bonner. Part of the NSS pamphlet collection.
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Freethought Publishing Company
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1886
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N463
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Spiritualism
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Spiritualism
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Title
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Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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An evening with Mr. Home fifteen years ago, and reflections thereon: a lecture at the Cavendish Rooms, London, on Sunday evening 17th July 1870
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White, William
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Place of publication: London
Collation: 14, [2], p. ; 22 cm.
Notes: Printed by Thomas Scott, Holborn, London. Extracts from reviews of the author's work 'Emanuel Swedenborg; his Life and Writings' on unnumbered pages at the end. From the library of Dr Moncure Conway.
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James Burns
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1870
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G5177
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Spiritualism
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (An evening with Mr. Home fifteen years ago, and reflections thereon: a lecture at the Cavendish Rooms, London, on Sunday evening 17th July 1870), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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Conway Tracts
Spiritualism
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A,
j^TIONALSECULARSOCSETÏ
'
V ^y*
CREEDS
AND
SPIRITUALITY
ROBERT C. INGERSOLL.
---------------- 4----------------
Price One Penny.
/
LONDON :
PROGRESSIVE PUBLISHING COMPANY,
28’ Stonecutter Street, E.O.
1891.
*.
»>
�CREEDS.
(From the “ New York Morning Advertiser.”)
[Whateveb may be said of his belief in revealed religion,
Robert G. Ingersoll is respected by all intellectual antagonists
for thorough sincerity, absolute fairness in debate, and un
questionable ability in ti.e presentation of his argument.
His views, therefore, on the recent attitude of the general
assembly at Detroit in the case of Dr. Briggs, the alleged
heretical utterances of the Rev. Heber Newton, and the
desertion of one creed for another by the Rev. Dr. Bridgman,
are of peculiar interest just at this time. Colonel Ingersoll
has just returned from a trip through the west, and in speaking
of these incidents, he said :—]
There is a natural desire on the part of every intelli
gent human being to harmonise his information—to
make his theories agree—in other words, to make what
he knows, or thinks he knows, in one department
agree with, and harmonise with, what he knows, or
thinks he knows, in every other department of human
knowledge.
The human race has not advanced in line, neither
has it advanced in all departments with the same
rapidity. It is with the race as it is with an individual.
A man may turn his entire attention to some one
subject—as, for instance, to geology—and neglect other
sciences. He may be a good geologist, but an exceed
ingly poor astronomer ; or he may know nothing of
politics or of political economy. So he may be a
successful statesman and know nothing of theology.
But if a man, successful in one direction, takes up
some other question, he is bound to use the knowledge
he has on one subject as a kind of standard to measure
what he is told on some other subject. If he is a
chemist, it will be natural for him, when studying
some other question, to use what he knows in chemistry ;
that is to say, he will expect to find cause, and every
where succession and resemblance. He will say : It
�( 3 )
must be in all other sciences as in chemistry—there
must be no chance. The elements have no caprice.
Iron is always the same. Gold does not change.
Prussic acid is always poison—it has no freaks. So he
will reason as to all facts in nature. He will be a
believer in the atomic integrity of all matter, in the
persistence of gravitation. Being so trained, and so
convinced, his tendency will be to weigh what is
called new information in the same scales that he has
been using.
Now for the application of this. Progress in reli
gion is the slowest, because man is kept back by
sentimentality, by the efforts of parents, by old asso
ciations. A thousand unseen tendrils are twining
about him that he must necessarily break if he
advances. In other departments of knowledge induce
ments are held out and rewards are promised to the
one who does succeed—to the one who really does
advance—to the man who discovers new facts. But in
religion, instead of rewards being promised, threats are
made. The man is told that he must not advance ;
that if he takes a step forward it is at the peril of his
soul; that if he thinks and investigates, he is in danger
of exciting the wrath of God. Consequently religion
has been of the slowest growth. Now, in most depart
ments of knowledge man has advanced ; and coming
back to the original statement—a desire to harmonise
all that we know—there is a growing desire on the
part of intelligent men to have a religion fit to keep
company with the other sciences.
THE MAKING OF CREEDS.
Our creeds were made in times of ignorance. They
suited very well a flat world, and a God who lived in
the sky just above us, and who used the lightning to
destroy his enemies. This God was regarded much as
a savage regarded the head of his tribe—as one having
the right to reward and punish. And this God, being
much greater than a chief of the tribe, could give
greater rewards and inflict greater punishments. They
knew that the ordinary chief, or the ordinary king,
punished the slightest offences with death. They also
knew that these chiefs and kings tortured their victims
�( 4 )
as long as the victims could bear the torture. So when
they described their God, they gave to this God power
to keep the tortured victim alive for ever, because they
knew that the earthly chief, or the earthly king, would
prolong the life of the tortured for the sake of increas
ing the agonies of the victim. In those savage days
they regarded punishment as the only means of pro
tecting society. In consequence of this they built
heaven and hell on an earthly plan, and they put God
—that is to say, the chief, that is to say, the king—on
a throne-like an earthly king.
Of course, these views were all ignorant and
barbaric ; but in that blessed day their geology and
astronomy were on a par with their theology. There
was a harmony in all departments of knowledge, or
rather of ignorance. Since that time there has been a
great advance made in the idea of government—the
old idea being that the right to do came from God to
the king, and from the king to the people. Now
intelligent people believe that the source of authority
has been changed, and that all just powers of govern
ment are derived from the consent of the governed.
So there has been a great advance in the philosophy
of punishment—in the treatment of criminals. So,
too, in all the sciences. The earth is no longer flat;
heaven is not immediately above us ; the universe has
been infinitely enlarged, and we have at last found
that our earth is but a grain of sand, a speck on the
great shores of the infinite. Consequently there is
a discrepancy, a discord, a contradiction between our
theology and the other sciences. Men of intelligence
feel this. Dr. Briggs concluded that a perfectly good
and intelligent God could not have created billions of
sentient beings knowing that they were to be eternally
miserable. No man could do such a thing, had he the
power, without being infinitely malicious. Dr. Briggs
began to have a little hope for the huinan race—began
to think that maybe God is better than the creed
describes him.
And right here it may be well enough to remark
that no man has ever been declared a heretic for think
ing God bad. Heresy has consisted in thinking God
�( 5 )
better than the church said he was. The man who
said God will damn nearly everybody was orthodox.
The man who said God will save everybody was
denounced as a blaspheming wretch, as one who
assailed and maligned the character of God. I can
remember when the Universalists were denounced as
vehemently and maliciously as the Atheists are to-day.
THE CASE OF DR. BRIGGS.
Now, continued Colonel Ingersoll, Dr. Briggs is
undoubtedly an intelligent man. He knows that
nobody on the earth knows who wrote the five books
of Moses. He knows that they were not written until
hundred of years after Moses was dead. He knows
that tw’O or more persons were the authors of Isaiah.
He knows that David did not write to exceed three or
four of the Psalms. He knows that the book of Job is
not a Jewish book. He knows that the songs of
Solomon were not written by Solomon. He knows
that the book of Ecclesiastes was written by a Free
thinker. He also knows that there is not in existence
to-day—so far as anybody knows—any of the manu
scripts of the Old or New Testament.
So about the New Testament, Dr. Briggs knows
that nobody lives who has ever seen an original manu
script, or who ever saw anybody that did see one, or
that claims to have seen one. He knows that nobody
knows who wrote Matthew, or Mark, or Luke, or John.
He knows that John did not write John, and that
gospel was not written until long after John was dead.
He knows that no one knows who wrote the Hebrews.
He also knows that the book of Revelation is an insane
production, Dr. Briggs also knows the way in which
these books came to be canonical, and he knows that
the way was no more binding than a resolution passed
by a political convention.
He also knows that many books were left out that
had for centuries equal authority with those that were
put in. He also knows that many passages—and the
very passages upon which many churches are founded
—are interpolations. He knows that the last chapter
of Mark, beginning with the sixteenth verse to the
end, is an interpolation ; and he also knows that neither
�( 6 )
Matthew, nor Mark, nor Luke, ever said one word
about the necessity of believing on the Lord Jesus
Christ, or of believing anything—not one word about
believing in the Bible or joining the church, or doing
any particular thing in the way of ceremony to ensure
salvation. He knows that, according to Matthew, God
agreed to forgive us when we would forgive others,!
Consequently he knows that there is not one particle
of what is called modern theology in Matthew, Mark,
or Luke. He knows that the trouble commenced in
John, and that John was not written until probably one
hundred and fifty years—possibly two hundred years—
after Christ was dead. So he also knows that the sin
against the Holy Ghost is an interpolation; that “ I
came not to bring peace but a sword,” if not an inter
polation, is an absolute contradiction.
Knowing those things, and knowing, in addition
to what I have stated, that there are 30,000 or 40,000
mistakes in the Old Testament, that there are a great
many contradictions and absurdities, that many of the
laws are cruel and infamous, and could have been
made only by a barbarous people, Dr. Briggs has con-«
eluded that, after all, the torch that sheds the serenest
and divinest light is the human reason, and that we
must investigate the Bible as we do other books. At
least, I suppose he has reached such conclusion. He
may imagine that the pure gold of inspiration still runs
through the quartz and porphyry of ignorance and
mistake, and that all we have to do is to extract the
shining metal by some process that may be called
theological smelting; and if so I have no fault to find.
Dr. Briggs has taken a step in advance—that is to say,
the tree is growing, and when the tree goes the bark
splits ; when the new leaves come the old leaves are
rotting on the ground.
AS TO PRESBYTERIANISM.
The Presbyterian Creed is a very bad creed. It
has been the stumbling block, not only of the head,
but of the heart for many generations. I do not know
that it is, in fact, worse than any other orthodox creed ;
but the bad features are stated with an explicitness
and emphasised with a candor that render the creed
�( 7 )
absolutely appalling. It is amazing to me that any
man ever wrote it, or that any set of men ever produced
it. It is more amazing to me that any human being
thought it wicked not to believe it. It is more amazing
still than all the others combined that any human
being ever wanted it to be true.
#
This creed is a relic of the middle ages. It has m
the malice, the malicious logic, the total depravity, the
utter heartlessness of John Calvin, and it gives me a
great pleasure to say that no Presbyterian was ever as
bad as his creed. And here let me say, as I have said
many times, that I do not hate Presbyterians—because
among them I count some of my best friends but i
hate Presbyterianism. And I cannot illustrate this
any better than by saying, I do not hate a man because
he has the rheumatism, but I hate the rheumatism
because it has a man.
The Presbyterian Church is growing, and is growing
because, as I said at first, there is a universal tendency
in the mind of a man to harmonise all that he knows
or thinks he knows. This growth may be delayed.
The buds of heresy may be kept back by the north
wind of Princeton and by the early frost called Patton.
In spite of these souvenirs of the dark ages the church
must continue to grow. The theologians who regard
theology as something higher than a trade tend toward
Liberalism. Those who regard preaching as a business,
and the inculcation of sentiment as a trade, will stand
by the lowest possible views. They will cling to the
letter and throw away the spirit. They prefer the
dead limb to a new bud or to a new leaf. They, want
no more sap. They delight in the dead tree, in its
unbending nature, and they mistake, the stiffness of
death for the vigor and resistance of life.
.
Now,“ as with Dr. Briggs, so with Dr. Bridgman,
although it seems to me that he has simply jumped
from the frying-pan into the fire ; and why he should,
prefer the Episcopal creed to the Baptist is more than I
can imagine. The Episcopal creed is, in. fact, just as
bad as the Presbyterian. It calmly and .with unruffled
brow utters the sentence of eternal punishment on the
majority of the human race, and the Episcopalian
�(8)
expects to be happy in heaven, with his son or his
daughter or his mother or his wife in hell.
Dr. Bridgman will find himself exactly in the
position of the Rev. Mr. Newton, provided he expresses
his thought. But I account for the Bridgmans and the
Newtons by the fact there is still sympathy in the
human heart, and that there is still intelligence in the
human brain. For my part I am glad to see this
growth in the orthodox churches, and the quicker
they revise their creeds the better. I oppose nothing
that is good in any creed—I attack only that which
is only ignorant, cruel and absurd, and I make the
attack in the interest of human liberty and for the
sake of human happiness.
ORTHODOXY THE MASTER.
What do you think of the action of the Presbyterian
General Assembly at Detroit, and what effect do you
think it will have on the religious growth ?” was
asked.
That. General Assembly was controlled by the ortho
dox within the Church, replied Colonel Inge rsoll,
by the strict constructionists and by the Calvii ists;
by the gentlemen who not only believe the creed, not
only believe that a vast majority of people are going to
hell, but are really glad of it; by gentlemen who, when
they feel a little blue, read about total depravity to
cheer up, and when they think of the mercy of God
as exhibited in their salvation, and the justice of God
as illustrated by the damnation of others, their hearts
burst into a kind of effloresence of joy.
These gentlemen are opposed to all kinds of amuse
ments except reading the Bible, the Confession of
Faith and the Creed and listening to Presbyterian
sermons and prayers. All these things they regard as
the food of cheerfulness. They warn the elect against
theatres and operas, dancing and games of chance.
Well, if their doctrine is true, there ought to be no
theatres, except exhibitions of hell; there ought to be
no operas, except where the music is a succession of
wails for the misfortunes of man. If their doctrine is
true, I do not see how any human being could ever
�( 9 )
smile again—I do not see how a mother conld welcome
her babe ; everything in nature would become hateful
—flowers and sunshine would simply tell us of our
fate.
My doctrine is exactly the opposite of this. Let us
enjoy ourselves every moment that we can. The love
of the dramatic is universal. The stage has not simply
amused, but it has elevated mankind. The greatest
genius of our world poured the treasures of his soul
into the drama. I do not believe that any girl can be
corrupted, or that any man can be injured, by becoming
acquainted with Isabella, or Miranda, or Juliet, or
Imogene, or any of the great heroines of Shake
speare.
So I regard the opera as one of the great civilisers.
No one can listen to the symphonies of Beethoven or
the music of Schubert, without receiving a benefit.
And no one can hear the operas of Wagner without
feeling that he has been ennobled and refined.
Why is it the Presbyterians are so opposed to music
in this world, and yet expect to have so much in
heaven ? Is not music just as demoralising in the sky
as on the earth, and does anybody believe that Abra
ham, or Isaac, or Jacob, ever played any music com
parable to Wagner ?
Why should we postpone our joy to another world ?
Thousands of people take great pleasure in dancing,
and I let them dance. Dancing is better than weeping
and wailing over a theology born of ignorance and
superstition.
And so with games of chance. There is a certain
pleasure in playing games, and the pleasure is of the
most innocent character. Let all these games be played
at home and children will not prefer the saloon to the
society of their parents. I believe in cards and billiards,
and would believe in progressive euchre were it more
of a game—the great objection to it is its lack of com
plexity. My idea is to get what little happiness you
can out of this life, and to enjoy all sunshine that
breaks through the clouds of misfortune. Life is poor
enough at best. No one should fail to pick up every
jewel of joy that can be found in his path. Every one
�( W )
should be as happy as he can, provided he is not happy
at the expense of another.
So let us get all we can of good between the cradle
and the grave—all that we can of the truly dramatic,
all that we can of enjoyment; and if, when death
comes, that is the end, we have at least made the best
of this life, and if there be another life, let us make the
best of that.
I am doing what little I can to hasten the coming
of the day when the human race will enjoy liberty—
not simply of body, but liberty of mind. And by
liberty of mind I mean freedom from superstition, and,
added to that, the intelligence to find out the conditions
of happiness ; and, added to that, the wisdom to live
in accordance with those conditions.
�(11)
SPIRITUALITY.
If there is an abused word in our language, it is
“ spirituality.”
It has been repeated over and over for several
years by pious pretenders and snivellers as though it
belonged exclusively to them.
In the early days of Christianity the “spiritual”
renounced the world, with all its duties and obliga
tions. They deserted their wives and children. They
became hermits and dwelt in caves. They spent
their useless years praying for their shrivelled and
worthless souls.
They were too “ spiritual ” to love women, to build
homes and to labor for children.
They were too “ spiritual ” to earn their bread, so
they became beggars, and stood by the highway of
life and held out their hands and asked alms of
industry and courage.
They were too “ spiritual ” to be merciful. They
preached the dogmas of eternal pain and gloried in
“ the wrath to come.”
They were too “ spiritual ” to be civilised, so they
persecuted their fellow-men for expressing their
honest thoughts.
They were so “spiritual” that they invented in
struments of torture, founded the Inquisition, ap
pealed to the whip, the rack, the sword and the fagot.
They tore the flesh of their fellow-man with hooks
of iron, buried their neighbors alive, cut off their
eyelids, dashed out the brains of babes and cut off
the breasts of mothers.
�( 12 )
These “ spiritual ” wretches spent day and night
on their knees praying for their own salvation and
asking God to curse the best and noblest in the
world.
John Calvin was intensely “spiritual” when he
warmed his fleshless hands at the flames that consumed
Servetus.
John Knox was constrained by his “spirituality”
to utter low and loathsome calumnies against all
women. All the witch-burners and quaker-maimers
and mutilators were so “ spiritual ” that they constantly
looked heavenward and longed for the skies.
These lovers of God—these haters of men—looked
upon the Greek marbles us unclean, and denounced
the glories of art as the snares and pitfalls of perdition.
These “ spiritual ” mendicants hated laughter and
smiles and dimples, and exhausted their diseased and
polluted imagination in the effort to make love loath
some.
_ From almost every pulpit was heard the denuncia
tion of all that adds to the wealth, the joy, and glory
of life. It became the fashion for the “ spiritual ” to
malign every hope and passion that tends to humanise
and refine the heart. Man was denounced as totally
depraved. Woman was declared to be a perpetual
temptation—her beauty a snare, and her touch pollu
tion.
Even in our own time and country some of the
ministers, no matter how radical they claim to be,
retain the aroma, the odor, or the smell of the
“ spiritual.”
They denounce some of the best and greatest—some
of the benefactors of the race—for having lived on a
low plane of usefulness, and for having had the pitiful
ambition to make their fellows happy in this world.
Thomas Paine was a grovelling wretch because he
devoted his life to the preservation of the rights of
man, and Voltaire lacked the “spiritual” because he
abolished torture in France, and attacked with the
enthusiasm of a divine madness the monster that was
endeavoring to drive the hope of liberty from the heart
of man.
�( 13 )
Humboldt was not “ spiritual ” enough to repeat
with closed eyes the absurdities of superstition, but
was so lost to all the “ skyey influences ” that he was
satisfied to add to the intellectual wealth of the world.
■Darwin lacked “ spirituality,” and in its place had
nothing but sincerity, patience, intelligence, the spirit
of investigation, and the courage to give his honest
conclusions to the world. He contented himself with
giving to his fellow men the greatest and the sublimest
truths that man has spoken since lips have uttered
speech.
But we are now told that these soldiers of science,
these heroes of liberty, these sculptors and painters,,
these singers of songs, these composers of music,
lacked “ spirituality ”’and after all were only common
clay.
This word “ spirituality ” is the fortress, the breast
work, the riflepit of the Pharisee. It sustains the same
relation to sincerity that Dutch metal does to pure gold.
There seems to be something about a pulpit that
poisons the occupant—that changes his nature—that
causes him to denounce what he really loves and to
laud with the fervor of insanity a joy that he never
felt—a rapture that never thrilled his soul. Hypnotised
by his surroundings, he unconsciously brings to market
that which he supposes the purchasers desire.
In every church, whether orthodox or radical, there
are two parties—one conservative, looking backward ;
one radical, looking forward—and generally a minister
“ spiritual ” enough to look both ways.
A. minister who seems to be a philosopher on the
street, or in the home of a sensible man, cannot with
stand the atmosphere of the pulpit. The moment he
stands behind a Bible cushion, like Bottom, he is
“ translated ” and the Titania of superstition “ kisses
his large, fair ears.”
Nothing is more amusing than to hear a clergyman
denounce worldliness—ask his hearers what it will
profit them to build railways and palaces and lose their
own souls—inquire of the common folks before him
why they waste their precious years in following
trades and professions, in gathering treasures that
�( 14 )
moths corrupt and rust devours, giving their days to
the vulgar business of making money—and then see
him take up a collection, knowing perfectly well that
only the worldly, the very people he has denounced,
can by any possibility give a dollar.
“ Spirituality,” for the most part, is a mask worn by
idleness, arrogance, and greed.
Some people imagine they are “ spiritual ” when
they are sickly.
It may be well enough to ask—What is it to be
really spiritual ?
The spiritual man lives up to his ideal. He
endeavors to make others happy. He does not despise
the passions that have filled the world with art and
glory. He loves his wife and* children—home and
fireside. He cultivates the amenities and refinements
of life. He is a friend and champion of the oppressed.
His sympathies are with the poor and the suffering.
He attacks what he believes to be wrong, though
defended by the many, and he is willing to stand for
the right against the world.
He enjoys the beautiful.
In the presence of the highest creations of Art his
eyes are suffused with tears. When he listens to the
great melodies, the divine harmonies, he feels the
sorrows and the raptures of death and love. He is
intensely human. He carries in his heart the burdens
of the world. He searches for the deeper meanings.
He appreciates the harmonies of conduct, the melody
of a perfect life.
He loves his wife and children better than any
God.
He cares more for the world he lives in than for any
other. He tries to discharge the duties of this life, to
help those that he can reach. He believes in being
useful—in making money to feed and clothe and
educate the ones he loves—to assist the deserving and
to support himself. He does not want to be a burden
on others. He is just, generous, and sincere.
Spirituality is all of this world. It is a child of this
earth, born and cradled here. It comes from no
heaven, but it makes a heaven where it is. There is
�( 15 )
no possible connection between superstition and the
spiritual, or between theology and the spiritual.
The spiritually-minded man is a poet. If he does
not write poetry, he lives it. He is an artist. If he
does not paint pictures or chisel statues, he feels them
and their beauty softens his heart. He fills the temple
of his soul with all that is beautiful and he worships at
the shrine of the ideal.
In all the relations of life he is faithful and true.
He asks for nothing that he does not earn. He does
not wish to be happy in heaven if he must receive
happiness as alms. He does not rely on the goodness
of another. He is not ambitious to become a winged
pauper.
.
Spirituality is the perfect health of the soul. It is
noble, manly, generous, brave, free-spoken, natural,
•SupGrl)»
Nothing is more sickening than the “spiritual”
whine—the pretence that crawls at first and talks about
humility, and then suddenly becomes arrogant and
says : “ I am ‘ spiritual ’—I hold in contempt the
vulgar jovs of this life. You work and toil and build
homes and sing songs and weave your delicate robes.
You love women and children and adorn yourselves.
You subdue the earth and dig for gold. You have
your theatres, your operas, and all the luxuries of life ;
but I, beggar that I am, Pharisee that I am, am your
superior because I am ‘ spiritual.’ ”
Above all things, let us be sincere.
Printed by G. W. Foote, at 28 Stonecutter Street, London, E.C.
�WORKS BY COLONEL R. G. INGERSOLL
s. d.
r
MISTAKES OF MOSES
Superior edition, in cloth ...
Only Complete Edition published in England.
DEFENCE OF FREETHOUGHT
Five Hours’ Speech, at the Trial of C. B.
Reynolds for Blasphemy.
REPLY TO GLADSTONE. With a Biography by
J. M. Wheeler
ROME OR REASON ? Reply to Cardinal Man ning
CRIMES AGAINST CRIMINALS
...
AN ORATION ON WALT WHITMAN ...
FAITH AND FACT. Reply to Rev. Dr. Field
GOD AND MAN. Second Reply to Dr. Field
...
THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH
...
LOVE THE REDEEMER. Reply to Count To lstoi
THE LIMITS OF TOLERATION
•••
A Discussion with Hon. F. D. Coudert and
Gov. S. L. Woodford
...
THE DYING CREED
DO I BLASPHEME ?
THE CLERGY AND COMMON SENSE
...
SOCIAL SALVATION
...
MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE ...
...
GOD AND THE STATE
WHY AM I AN AGNOSTIC ?
...
...
WHY AM I AN AGNOSTIC ? Part II.
...
ART AND MORALITY
...
CHRIST AND MIRACLES
...
...
THE GREAT MISTAKE
...
LIVE TOPICS
MYTH AND MIRACLE
...
REAL BLASPHEMY
...
REPAIRING THE IDOLS
R. Forder, 28 Stonecutter-street, London, E.C.
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Victorian Blogging
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Creeds and spirituality
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Ingersoll, Robert Green [1833-1896]
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Place of publication: London
Collation: 15 p. ; 19 cm.
Notes: Reprinted from the New York Morning Advertiser. "Works by Colonel R.G. Ingersoll" listed on back cover. No. 12a in Stein checklist. Printed by G.W. Foote. Part of the NSS pamphlet collection.
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Progressive Publishing Company
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1891
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Spiritualism
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Creeds
NSS
Religion
Spirituality
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Text
DREAMS AND GHOSTS.
DELIVERED BEFORE THE
SUNDAY LECTURE SOCIETY,
ON
SUNDAY AFTERNOON, 7th FEBRUARY, 1875.
BY
G. G. ZERFFI, Ph.D., F.R.Hist.S., F.R.S.L.,
Lecturer on Historic Ornament, National Art Training School,
South Kensington.
Author of Goethe's 1 Faust, with Commentaries,' '■Spiritualism and
Animal Magnetism,’ <fc, <fc.
BOND ON:
PUBLISHED BY THE SUNDAY LECTURE SOCIETY.
1875.
Price Threepence.
�SYLLABUS.
Naturalism and Spiritualism.
Astrologers and Philosophers.
Perceptions either sensual or cerebral.
Dreams. Object and subject blended into one.
“ Noctambulatio.”
Dreams of reality.
Hallucinations.
Nikolai of Berlin. Abercrombie. Brierre de
Boismont.
Natural or Supernatural agencies.
Hysteria and Revivals.
Are Ghosts possible ?
How to treat those who see them.
Shakespeare’s Ghosts.
Some practical points to be taken into con
sideration.
Conclusion. .
�DREAMS AND GHOSTS.
IND is assumed to be opposed to Matter,
Nature to be different from Spirit, and
Reality to be unconnected with Ideality. These
assumptions, and a continuous misuse of words, have
for thousands of years produced misunderstandings
of the utmost importance to Science and the welfare
of Humanity.
Mysticism and Rationalism, Naturalism and
Spiritualism, have been arrayed against one another
like two hostile armies ; and whilst the one party
took everything literally, and required a certain
notion to be attached to every word, as the result
of a clear perception, the other roamed into the field
of the allegorical or parabolical, performed tropological gambols with exquisite cunning, and terrified
us by an anagogical treatment of the simplest
matters. If a certain substance was stated to be
black or white, it might be black only in substance,
whilst in essence it was white ; all depended whether
it was taken in its reality or in its ideality.
A fluid may be in substance, say, oil, but in
essence fire ; allegorically it may be food for hungry
souls; tropologically it may represent virtue gliding
smoothly through the heavenly gates, and anagogically it may be spiritual balm on our wounded
hearts to cool their passionate throbbing for the
vanities and pleasures of this world.
The difficulties were made still greater by the
combinations of these four categories ; a thing might
be to one mind allegorico-tropological, whilst to
another it appeared litero-anagogical. The term
B
M
�4
Drtams and Ghosts.
allegorical is used when you say one thing and
mean another ; the terms tropological or symbolic
are synonymous, and imply when you mean one
thing and say another; and anagogical, is to argue
from generalities to particulars; namely, “ all men
are sinners ; Joe Smith is a man, therefore he must
be a sinner.” A syllogism, which, at all events, is
not very complimentary to Joe Smith.
For centuries, nay for thousands of years, science
had often no other task than to sift the allegoricotropologico-anagogical nonsense that was propounded
by mystics, dogmatists, and metaphysicians, who
brought confusion into the simplest phenomena of
this world. The differences between mystics and
rationalists often existed in mere words,—the one
trying to oppose a common-sense explanation upon
which the other insisted. Obstinacy on both sides
made the struggle still fiercer and hindered the real
progress of knowledge. I said in one of my Lec
tures, that the “unknown” had always a mysterious
charm for man. Astrologers need not know as much
as philosophers. The astrologer gazes at the stars,
sees threads millions of miles in length extending
from certain stars to particular individuals, and
talks of the influence these mystic ties must exer
cise on the destinies of those thus attached to
heavenly bodies. If the individual believes in this
star-theory, the philosopher tries in vain to detach
him from his star, and all he can do is to prove the
impossibility of the man’s having anything to do
with the star or the star with him. So it is with
the great question in dispute concerning mind and
matter. If people start with the conviction that
there is something above nature, or as they call it
“ supernatural,” that impressions on our senses are
possible, even though an outward object to create
such impressions be wanting, that there exists
beyond nature a realm peopled by various strange
beings, how are we to proceed to argue the point ?
�Dreams and Ghosts.
5
■ What is Supernatural ?
The very expression, though continually used,
designates in itself a “ nonentity.” All things must
exist in space and time; space and time are the
first conditions of anything existent, but all nature
with its attributes of space and time fills the Uni
verse, and there is undoubtedly no room for any
thing above or beyond nature as a Universe.
Super-earthly or supersensual might have some
meaning as referring to that which is beyond our
globe, but supernatural has certainly no sense.
In discoursing on dreams and ghosts, I shall
endeavour to avoid being dogmatic, and simply take
up certain psychological phenomena, lay them before
you, and you will be kind enough to draw your
own conclusions.
First of all it must be borne in mind that our
perceptions of the outer world are not only sen
sual (by means of our senses) but also intellectual
(by means of ideas produced in the brain), that is
cerebral. The senses produce nothing but mere
sensations in their special organs, furnishing thus
the material from which intellect, by applying the
laws of causation, forms the outer world under the
existing conditions of space and time.
All our perceptions when in a waking and nor
mal state, are certainly results of impressions on
our senses, which produce an effect of which our
intellect causes us to become conscious. Now is it
possible that impressions may reach our brain from
quite a different source than the outer world,
impressions produced by our own organisation, work
ing on our brain exactly like impressions of the outer
world ? If this be possible, we should endeavour
to find out the relation in which such a phenomenon
would stand to its effect, and whether such
effect would afford us means of making ourselves
acquainted with its real cause; and we should be
at once obliged, as in the material world, to investi-
�6
Dreams and Ghosts.
gate the apparition, that is the outward impression
on our senses in its relation to its own reality.
People do dream, have dreamt, and will dream;
Apparitions, or to speak more colloquially, ghosts
have been really seen.
Dreams and spectral visions are the strong points
of those who assume an Empire of Spirits altogether
independent of matter. There was probably a time
in the phase of the progressive development of
humanity, when man was not yet able to discrimi
nate between dreams and reality. I am inclined to
consider the whole period during which myths, nur
sery tales, miracles, and pious wonders, such as flying
monks and nuns who “ levitated ” from the ground,
were assumed to be realities—a period of dreams.
For the question, whether perceptible visions, as
perfect and distinct as those caused by the impres
sions of the material world can be produced in the
brain, must be answered in the affirmative ; pheno
mena known to us all, phenomena, the effects of
which we experience nearly every night, prove this
with incontestable force, namely Dreams !
What are dreams ?
They are not, as has been assumed, a mere play of
our fancy, an echo of our imaginary faculty, or an
epilogue of those outward impressions which we
received when still awake. Fancies, as the effects
of our imagination, are weak, imperfect, and transi
tory ; so that the most vivid imagination is scarcely
able to reproduce the image of an absent person,
even for a few seconds. In oui' dreams everything
affecting our perceptive faculty appears as exterior
to ourselves as are the impressions received from
the outer world. All objects appear clear and defined,
exactly as in reality, not only with regard to our
selves, but perfectly finished in all their details,
surrounded by all real impediments; every body
with its shadow, every object with its peculiar form
and special substance. That our dreams are entirely ■.
�Dreams and Ghosts.
7
objective is shown by the actions that take place in
them being often contrary to our expectations and
our wishes. Our astonishment is excited by the
dramatic truth of the characters and their actions;
so much so that it may almost be asserted that a
person dreaming is, for the time, a kind of Shake
speare.
The deception produced by dreams is sometimes
so great that, reality stepping into its rights when
we awake, has to combat our vivid impressions to
prove that what has been was only the airy creation
of a dream. This goes far to prove that dreams are
not a function of our brain, and totally distinct
from its power of imagination. Aristotle already
called “ sleep a special sense,” and made the obser
vation that in dreams our imagination is often
engaged in representing extraneous objects. This
leads us to the conclusion that during dreams our
faculty of imagination is at our disposal, and that
this cannot be at the same time the in strum ent or
organ of our dreams.
Dreams resemble madness, they may be called a
short and passing madness, whilst madness is a long
and sometimes lasting dream. The essential con
dition of dreams is sleep, in which the normal
activity of our brain and senses is suspended.
Only when this activity ceases dreams begin to
work; just as the pictures of a magic lantern
appear in a room deprived of light. It is a further
-fact that in our very dreams our reasoning faculty
is often at work: we reason about their incongruity, their ridiculous combinations. There is,
therefore, in us a force by means of which
we can fill space with forms, we can hear and
understand voices, can see, smell, and taste with
out any outward influences on our senses ; which
influences are necessary when we are awake;
we ourselves, therefore, are the sole cause, object,
and empirical basis of our thoughts, though in no
�8
Dreams and Ghosts.
way identical with them. In working on our
imagination this force does not gather impressions
through our senses from without—but undoubtedly
from within. For our senses are closed to the
outer world, and all the objects of our dreams
appear to be the creations of our own subjectivity.
Object and subject are thus blended into one. Let
us not lose sight of this important assertion ; for
I intend to lead you step by step to the most
incredible phenomena, which, however, are facts,
and may be explained in a very rational way. We
must.only give up the old “shell and kernel theory,”
and see that there is no contest between the within
and without, but that mind and matter, however
complicated, marvellous, and incomprehensible their
functions may be, are one. The “ gross and brutal
materialism” and the “moonshiny, dreamy idealism”
formulae must be given up. If dreams are facts
whilst we are asleep, might dreams not be possible
whilst we are half or entirely awake ?
The Scotch have for this state an excellent term
—they call it “ second sightwhilst one sight
through our eyes is going on, another faculty of
seeing, as in our dreams, is at work in us. We see
and at the same time create what we see. Our
imagination is impressed, but its impressions are
produced by an inner force of our own. The term
“ second sight,” however, is applicable to a “ species ”
of our mental and bodily functions, we cannot use
it for the genus. To designate that indisputable
and undeniable force in us which produces per
ceptions without any outward influences on our
senses, we will use the expression “ organ of
dreams.” So soon as we assume an organ we
naturally wish to know its construction and mode
of acting, and, in fact, are anxious to see the
machine and its working; I must content myself at
this moment with merely giving you some further
effects of which this organ must be the cause.
�Dreams and Ghosts.
9
There are undoubtedly different degrees of dreams;
of some we are only dimly conscious, of others we
often are in doubt whether the incidents of our
dream did not happen in reality. We have dreams
in which we dream only of those realities which
surround us. What we dream is at the same time
true and real. It is as if our skull were trans
parent, as if the outer world were directly affecting
our brain, instead of impressing it by means of our
senses.
This mysterious state we might call “half
dreams,” or, still better, “ dreams of reality.”
These dreams often reach a higher phase when the
horizon of the dreamer is enlarged so as to enable
him to see beyond the walls of his bedroom. Our
“ organ of dreams ” appears often to lead us to
distant places, often utterly unknown to us, never
before seen. Instances of this are numberless.
Recently a gentleman wrote to a newspaper “ that
he was lifted up, or rather levitated on the tower
of St. Mark at Venice; that he looked down upon
the town, seeing it in all its reality as clearly as if
he had known the place before, though he had
never been at Venice.” Of course he might have
seen many engravings or paintings of the town,
and have read many descriptions of it; to this he
does not allude, but, at all events, we can have no
reason to doubt that, whilst asleep, he was trans
ferred to Venice, and was impressed by the visionary
city as though it had been the real one.
A still higher effect of which the “ organ of
dreams ” may be assumed to be the cause is “ Noctambulatio,” described by the Greeks as “upnobateia” (sleep-wandering), that is somnambulism.
It is very common in Austria and Germany, France
and Italy; less common in England, but more fre
quent in Scotland. Somnambulists dream, and at
the same time often perform their daily occupa
tions ; some have copied music, others have made
�IO
Dreams and Ghosts.
notes of sermons, others have put their rooms in
order, others have climbed dangerous heights, or
walked on parapets; and though their senses are
perfectly asleep, all the sensual functions are
performed.
They see, they feel, they avoid
chairs, tables they move about, and hear the noise
they make; this is also the case with people arti
ficially put into this peculiar state. The brain
appears to be in the deepest sleep, that is in perfect
inactivity—what organ is there active in us ? Have
we after all really a double life; is there something
active in us whilst our brain, the organ of our
mighty intellectual faculties, is at rest ? If so,
there must be in us a separate Spirit that enters
and leaves our body, and is strangely occupied not
only when still attached to us, but also when it has
left the shell and floats through the infinite. But
is this so ? I think that the theory of psycholo
gists and physiologists is much more likely to be
near the truth, than the assumption that there are
lively sprites in us which are altogether independent
of our material organisation. Modern psycholo
gists assume that in such a state as I have alluded
to, a total depression of the vital functions of-the
brain and an accumulation of all vital force in the
ganglia take place.
These ganglia have their
centre in the “ plexus Solaris,” or “ cerebrum abdominale,” (the brain of the stomach), which con
sists of a few annular vessels filled with a nervous
fluid, standing in the same relation to the ganglia
as the brain to our nervous system. This has given
origin to the hypothesis that dreams have a special
organ, which during a total depression of the func
tions of the brain is most active, so much so “ that
apparently an accumulation of all the vital force
takes place in the ganglia, whose larger tissues,
with the ‘plexus Solaris,’ are turned into a sensorium, which, as if by substitution, performs the
functions of the brain, dispensing with the aid of
�Dreams and Ghosts.
11
the senses to receive impressions from without, and
still exercising all the faculties of the brain, some
times even with greater perfection than when
awake.”—(See my work, ‘Spiritualism and Animal
Magnetism.’ London: Robert Hardwicke. 1872.
Second Edition, page 33.) By this means we may
trace a positive, self-conscious force in us, and a
negative or unconscious force ; a positive and nega
tive element in our nature. The equilibrium of
these forces or elements may be disturbed ; the
brain or the positive force may be with all its glo
rious structure, its intricate and complicated wind
ings, its admirable power of consciousness, if de
ranged, lowered, depressed, exhausted under the in
fluence of the ganglia, and the brain of the stomach
may rule the brain of the head. That is, the
“ organ of dreams ” becomes master of the “ organ
of intellect.” It is a well-authenticated fact that
somnambulists move with great decision, extreme
quickness, that they conform to anything surround
ing them ; that they observe everything with the
“ organ of dreams,” that they dare more when led
by this mysterious organ than when awake.
Our nerves of motion originate in the spine, they
are connected by the “ medulla oblongata ” with
the cerebellum, the regulator of our motions, which
again is connected with the cerebrum, the seat of
our consciousness and perception. Now, how is it
possible that perceptions which determine our
motives for movements, when transferred to the
tissue of the ganglia in the stomach, should direct
the steps of a somnambulist with the swiftness of
lightning ? All we can assume is that the cerebral
force of the somnambulist in such a state is not
entirely asleep, but only sufficiently awake to direct
his steps, to receive impressions through organs
which are different from our senses; thus dreams,
half-dreams, and somnambulism are but effects of a
special organ in us which becomes the more active
�12
Dreams and Ghosts.
the more passive our brain is. We must consider
a still stranger state, arising from a complication of
the disturbed balance between the functions of the
brain and those of the “ plexus Solaris.”
Let us assume a state in which our brain is, at
least, partially awake; we see the objects in our
room with perfect clearness; the lamp on our
writing table, the books on our shelves, the pictures,
&c., and still we suddenly see a figure before us,—
a dear relation not long dead, a beloved child, whose
last parting words still resound in our ears. Such
cases are recorded by perfectly credible persons.
How is this ? Our answer would be: we do not
doubt your assertion; we believe your having seen
your dead mother, but you were in a half-dream ;
your brain was, in spite of its partial capacity of
receiving certain impressions through your senses,
depressed, and your ganglionic system hard at work
to make you dream, whilst in this state. All cases
of hallucinations and spectral visions may be
reduced to this natural cause. If we admit that
our “ organ of dreams ” can produce impressions on
our senses when asleep, we may assume, with great
probability, and without leaving the firm ground of
physical possibility, that this organ may work in us
whilst our senses of vision and hearing are awake.
The perceptive faculties of our brain ’ will be
influenced exactly as in our dreams, though we be
not asleep. The phantom or object of our visual
organ will stand before us in a given form, as perfect
as any object of our dreams. But its immediate
cause of existence must be looked for in our own
inner organism. These phantoms, in accordance
with the faculties of our “ organ of dreams,” will
assume form, colour; emit sounds which will affect
us like the language of living beings; and if our
organ of dreams is in an excited state of activity,
the phantoms presenting themselves will be hazy in
appearance, pale, greyish, ghastly, nearly transpa-
�Dreams and Ghosts.
13
rent; their voices will be hollow and whispering, or
hoarse and whistling. A heavy supper (say, a Welsh
rare-bit,) nervous debility, over-work, great grief,
or a glass of grog as an overdose, will produce the
most important changes in these phantoms ; but as
soon as the visionary tries to bring his faculty of
reasoning into play, that is, as soon as his positive
or cerebral force becomes master of the negative or
abdominal element, the phantoms vanish. Nothing
can more speedily cure our propensity to see spectres
than a firm will to verify, by close investigation, the
reality, the substance of the apparition.
Spectres, like dealers in mysticism and dogmatic
incredibilities, prefer above all the twilight, or rather
no light at all. Visionaries of whatever sort and
stamp do not like to be disturbed in their manipu
lations by candles and gas-jets, and least of all by
some rays of common sense and sound logic. Mid
night, dark abodes with painted windows, have been
set down from old as the time and places when not
only Erin’s but “ any clouds are hung round with
ghosts.”
That visions and apparitions are facts produced
by our own selves cannot be denied, but they do not
prove anything extraneous to us, or the existence
of some undiscovered country from whose bourne
some travellers do return.
We may now investigate their causes, and we shall
find that some very material physical derangement
of our constitution is the principal one. Already
Hippokrates and Galen drew the attention of medi
cal men to phenomena of this kind, and tried to
classify the diseases according to the visions of the
sick person. It is pretty well known that those
suffering from “ delirium tremens ” generally see
rats, cats, mice, serpents, black dogs, elephants,
devils with big horns, grotesque monkeys, or some
terrifying monster of the animal kingdom. So
much so, that even the visionary realm of ghosts
�14
Dreams and Ghosts.
appears to abominate drunkenness as something
loathsome and bestial. Those suffering from con
sumption have pleasant visions; bright, sunny plains,
beautiful cool woods, present themselves to their
eyes; they see angels in long robes with broad, airy
wings, and hear strange melodies resounding through
space. The sooner people having such visions con
sult a physician the better. Madness is, not neces
sarily always, but frequently accompanied by
hallucinations.
There are some rare cases, perfectly authenticated,
in which apparitions have been seen by individuals
who at least were in a state of perfect bodily
health. The most known is that of Nikolai,' the
celebrated author and bookseller of Berlin. This
case was laid before the Academy of Sciences at
Berlin, 1799. Nikolai’s statement was the follow
ing :—“ On the 24th of February, 1791, after a sharp
altercation (the excited, nervous state of the vision
ary is to be taken into special consideration), I
suddenly perceived, at the distance of ten paces, a
dead body. (The great accuracy with which the
distance is recorded shows at once that Nikolai was
altogether dreaming; whoever heard of a man seeing
a dead body before him and trying to measure the
distance between the apparition and himself.) I
inquired of my wife whether she did not see it. My
question alarmed her. The apparition lasted eight
minutes. (Another peculiarity of these kind of
visionaries is that they always are most particular
with regard to dates and time. Is anybody childish
enough to suppose that a man seeing a dead body
takes out his watch, and counts the minutes, and
notes them down ? The tale, as told, bears in its
intrinsic evidence all the usual traces of impossi
bility which we may study in all reports on so-called
“ supernatural ” matters.) At four in the afternoon
the same vision appeared. I was then alone and
much disturbed by it. I went to my wife’s apart-
�Dreams and Ghosts.
ment. The vision followed me. At six I perceived
several figures that had no connection with the
former vision.” Nikolai was undoubtedly dreaming
whilst awake : he was bled by a judicious medical
man, and the vision did not return.
“A. stranger in Edinburgh died suddenly in an
omnibus. The corpse was exposed, and a medical
man called in to report on the cause of death. After
several days’ close study of a medical subject, he
perceived, on raising his eyes, the form of the dead
stranger opposite him, as distinctly as he had seen
him on the table of the police office.” The.over
wrought cerebral faculty was under the dominion of
the sympathetic nerve, which, in its turn, still
affected by the impression of the corpse, represented
it to the debilitated powers of the brain.
Abercrombie, in his ‘ Inquiries Concerning the
Intellectual Powers ’ (11th Ed., Lond., 1841, p. 380),
relates the case of a man who was beset with hallu
cinations all his life. “ His disposition was such
that, when he met a friend in the streets, he was
uncertain whether he were a real person or a
phantom.”
Unscientifically trained persons often give them
selves up to credulity, and to that craving after
abnormal supernatural agencies which has done so
much evil throughout the whole progressive develop
ment of humanity. They take these kind of visions
for granted, and jump at the conclusion that, as
visions were seen, they must be substances or
essences from another world. I recommend any
body suffering from “ Psycho-mania,” or from
“ Table-danceology,” or paralysis of the brain from
knock-conversation, or who has “levitation fits,”
or “ air-floating paroxysms,” to read Brierre de
Boismont ‘On Hallucination,’ 1845. His cases are,
unhappily, neither systematically arranged nor
psychologically or physiologically explained; yet
they must convince anybody believing in super-
�16
Dreams and Ghosts.
sensual agencies, that strange things may happen,
all taking their origin in a derangement of our ner
vous and cerebral system, without troubling any
spirits from another world. If spirits really exist,
why have they not yet proven themselves useful ?
Why do they not appear half-an-hour before a ship
burns down, and 400 human beings are killed and
drowned, to warn the captain ; or why do they not
alter the signals of a railway in right time to prevent
a collision and to save an infinity of wretchedness ?
Because they do not choose to do it—might be the
answer of some “ Supernaturalistbut why should
spirits come and talk nonsense at the bidding of A
or B, and why not teach us in an evening the
multiplication table, or give us some information
which might be turned to some use or comfort for
humanity ?
Hysteria on the one hand, and a reaction against
the growing materialistic and utilitarian tendencies
of our times on the other, drive those who are
endowed with a vivid emotional nature into the
regions of ghostly shadows. They tremble that
there should be no more mysteries; no more tidings
from another world, no more communications with
dear pretty angels, no horrible monsters to frighten
young and old babies ! Why do they not throw
themselves into the arms of poetry and art, num
berless spirits and fancy-wrought forms may be
brought up from the depths of our cultivated minds.
We ought not allow ourselves to be dragged into a
lowering of our cerebral powers, our faculty of
reasoning, by the inordinate use of our sympathetic
nerves, or the unconscious emotional, ganglionic
element in us. For there can be no doubt that an
unusual mental excitement, paired with bodily
depression, may abnormally develope the emotional
element in us, and produce the most destructive and
pernicious results. This statement was born, out
during the period of St. John s “ dance mania 5
�Dreams and Ghosts.
17
people in their paroxysms saw the Saviour enthroned
with the Virgin Mary. We do not doubt these
visions ; we only are convinced that Christ and the
Virgin Mary were no realities; they formed no
more the outer phenomena that impressed the
visionaries than do the forms we see in our dreams,
but the excited organs of dreams produced them.
For Ghosts are impossibilities—they can neither be
seen nor heard; except they are bodies—but then
there is an end of the so-called spiritual kingdom.
So that those who call themselves Spiritualists, are
the greatest materialists, and work into the hands
of those who intend to reduce everything to mere
ponderable and calculable substances.
In order to see—a body or a substance is required,
which by means of reflection of the rays of light
acts on our retina; in order to hear—a body or
substance is required to act by means of the vibra
tion of the air on our tympanum. All that
visionaries or ghost-see-ers may justly assert, is that
they are conscious of the impression on their per
ceptive faculties of something that reflects light,
creates sounds, though there is nothing which could
produce these phenomena—that is they dream—for
all other phenomena, if they really happen, how
ever mysterious they may appear, however incredible,
are mere deceptions a la Dr. Lynn, or Maskelyne
and Cooke, and of course not worthy of any scientific
treatment.
The danger in playing with the so-called super
natural ” is that the derangement in one individual
becomes contagious. One hysteric girl in a school
is capable of infecting all the others. But for any
such derangement the best cures are rational ones,
or wherever these do not suffice a drastic physical
one will do. An English physician was called into
a ladies’ school, where one hysterical girl had infec
ted many others ; after he had in vain tried various
remedies, he one day observed to the mistress of the
�18
Dreams and Ghosts.
establishment in the hearing of the patients that
there remained but one chance of effecting a cure,—
the application of a red-hot iron to the spine of the
patients so as to quiet their nervously excited sys
tem. Strange to say, the red-hot iron was never
applied, for the hysterical attacks ceased as if by
magic. The same was the case with a revival
mania in a large school near Cologne ; Government
sent an inspector down ; the boys pretended to
have visions of Jesus Christ, but the implacable
officer threatened to close the school if any other
spiritual inspector should interfere with his business,
and the students should be for ever excluded from
pursuing their studies : the effect was as magical as
the red-hot iron remedy—the revivals ceased at
once.
Shakespeare, that master-mind, who knew the
most hidden recesses of our hearts, whose writings
form the most complete and exhaustive psycho
logical essays, who made many a ghost “ revisit the
glimpses of the moon, to make night hideous,” has
solved the “Spirit Question” in a clear, commonsense, and exhaustive way in “ Macbeth,” when he
makes the ambitious thane exclaim :—
“ Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand 1 Come, let me clutch thee !
I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.
Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible
To feeling as to sight ? Or art thou but
A dagger of the mind, a false creation,
Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain ? ”
To beware of false creations in science and
religion, not to allow our heat-oppressed brain an
unruly dominion over our intellectual faculties, is
conveyed by those few lines of our immortal bard.
The brief consideration of dreams and ghosts
which I have placed before you may be summed up
in the following points :—
�Dreams and Ghosts.
’9
1. That we have an organ in us which can act
on the perceptive faculties of our brain from
within.
2. That this “ organ of dreams ” has its seat in
the centre of our ganglionic system or the sym
pathetic nerves, namely in the “ plexus Solaris.”
3. That our cerebral faculties may be lowered
and the faculty of our ganglia heightened.
4. That spectral visions, religious excitements,
emotional extravagances, mysticism, and symbolic
charlatanism are merely products of a deranged
balance between our vegetable or ganglionic and
our cerebral or intellectual life.
5. That there is nothing in nature that ought
not to be capable of explanation from a natural
point of view, as there is no room for anything to
be above or without nature.
6. That instead of admitting in some instances
our ignorance of the laws of nature with regard to
certain phenomena, to assume some “ supernatural ”
interference is an insult to the all-pervading spirit of
the Creator, who cannot allow his spirits to wander
about to serve small table-talk. Anything beyond
the horizon of human intellect is of evil. This
evil peopled heaven and earth with gods, goddesses,
angels, and demons ; it formed a strong element in
our double nature, and took its origin in our
craving to fathom the unfathomable. It is, in fact,
nothing but a piece of pride. We think ourselves
better than others when we have dear little
apparitions which others have not; we consider
ourselves chosen, elected, specially inspired, small
prophets, benighted evangelists, and mighty instru
ments to testify that God takes us more into his
councils than others. The roaming in the Empire
of Ghosts, the taking of dreams for realities, the
neglect of this world for the sake of other distant
unknown worlds is nothing but inordinate pride.
If I have erred in trying to explain hypotheti-
�20
Dreams and Ghosts.
cally some curious phenomena of our nature, I can
only plead that the striving of finite beings in
whom the cerebral functions are not lowered by
tropological or anagogical studies should be after
truth in the sense of the immortal Lessing :—
“If God were to hold in His right hand all
truth, and in his left the everlasting active desire
for truth though veiled in eternal error, and were to
bid me choose, I would humbly grasp his left,
praying, Almighty Father, grant me this gift—
absolute truth is for Thee alone.”
SUNDAY LECTURE SOCIETY.
To provide for the delivery on Sundays in the Metropolis, and
to encourage the delivery elsewhere, of Lectures on Science,
—physical, intellectual, and moral,—History, Literature,
and Art; especially in their bearing upon the improvement
and social well-being of mankind.
THE SOCIETY’S LECTURES
ARE DELIVERED AT
ST GEORGE’S HALL, LANGHAM PLACE,
On SUNDAY Afternoons, at FOUR o'clock precisely.
(Annually—from November to May).
Twenty-Four Lectures (in three series), ending 2nd May,
1875, will be given.
Members’ £1 subscription entitles them to an annual ticket
(transferable and admitting to the reserved seats), and to eight
single reserved-seat tickets available for any lecture.
Tickets for each series (one for each lecture) as below,—
To the Shilling Reserved Seats—5s. 6d.
To the Sixpenny Seats— 2s., being at the rate of Threepence
each lecture.
’
For tickets apply (by letter) to the Hon. Treasurer, Wm. Henry
Domville, Esq., 15 Gloucester Crescent, Hyde Park, W.
Payment at the door :—One Penny ;—Sixpence
and
(Reserved Seats) One Shilling.
PRINTED BY C. W. RRYNELL, LITTLE PULTBNBY STREET, HAYMARKET.
�
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Dreams and ghosts. A lecture delivered before the Sunday Lecture Society on Sunday Afternoon, 7th February, 1875
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Zerffi, G. G. (Gustavus George)
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Collation: 20 p. ; 19 cm.
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Spiritualism
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Conway Tracts
Dreams
Ghosts
Naturalism
Spiritualism
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ILLUSION AND DELUSION;
OK,
MODERN
PANTHEISM
versus
SPIRITUALISM.'
“The burden of the mystery of all this unintelligible world."—Wordsworth:.
CHARLES BRAY,
AUTHOR OF UTHE PHILOSOPHY OF NECESSITY,” “ A MANUAL OF ANTHROPOLOGY.” ETC.
PUBLISHED BY THOMAS SCOTT,
NO. 11, THE TERRACE, FARQUHAR ROAD,
UPPER NORWOOD, LONDON, S.E.
Price Sixpence.
��ILLUSION AND DELUSION, ETC.
N Mathematics we can all agree ■ in Physics we have
at least learned to call things by the same name;
we understand what we are talking about so far as to
have certain definite admitted facts in common; but in
Psychology every one at present appears to use words
in a different sense, and we talk of Body and Soul,
Matter and Mind, Spirit and Spirits, Knowledge and
Ideas, Matter andMotion and Borce,without any common
ground of assent, or even knowing whether such things,
in the sense in which we use the terms, have any real
existence or not. In this unfenced, hazy, uncultivated
ground superstition still rides supreme. But is it not
possible, and if so, will it not be desirable, to divest
ourselves of the preconceptions time and authority
have attached to these names, and to see how far known
facts will carry us in the knowledge of such things, as
in others in which we are all agreed 1 Accuracy in
Mental Science is the more important, as all sects and
denominations take advantage of the want of it, and of
the darkness that exists to introduce all sorts of ground
less assumptions, and to reason upon them as established
truths. The differences between metaphysicians, and
much misconception and error at present arise, from
their confounding motion and the thing moving ; force
■with that of which it is the force; passive force, which
I
�4
Illusion and Delusion.
they call matter, with active force, which they call
spirit. The question is, have we knowledge enough
to enable us to substitute such very vague conceptions
on these and similar fundamental principles for the
more accurate ones which science requires? I think
we have.
“ All our conceptions,” says James Hinton, in 1 Man
and his Dwelling-Place,’ “ are based on the implied pos
tulate that the world is as it appears. . . . The
advance of knowledge consists in the substitution of
accurate conceptions for natural ones.” This implies
that our natural conceptions are not accurate ones, and
such will be found to be universally the case. In no
single instance is the world what it appears to be tothe common sense or to the vulgar eye. It is a com
plete illusion to all, and delusion to those who believe
in its real existence as it appears to us. The delusion
is not more complete in those who believe that Heaven
is above, in a world that turns round every twenty-four
hours, and in which therefore there can be no above
and below, than it is with respect to the existence of
the earth itself. Let us take a single illustration of the
common belief, and examine it thoroughly by the light
of science. The world, as it appears to the common
sense, is based on the conception that colour is some
thing that belongs to bodies outside ourselves, and the
world without colour would lose all its beauty. And
yet what we call colour is a nervous sensibility, an
idea, a feeling within ourselves. The vulgar idea is
that the green is in the grass, whereas the green is in
ourselves. Equally it will be found that all the other
attributes or qualities ascribed to matter are attributes
of mind and not of matter, and that the world itself is
but an illusion and delusion—a great ghost or mental
spectre. All that is known of matter is its capability
of creating within us these Illusions. Professor Tyn
dall says, “ The atoms of luminous bodies vibrating,
communicate their vibrations to the ether in which they
�Illusion and Delusion.
5
swing, being propagated through it in waves ; these
waves enter the pupil, cross the ball, and impinge upon
the retina, at the back of the eye. The motion of the
ether then communicated to the retina is transmitted
thence along the optic nerve of the brain, and there
announces itself to consciousness as light;.” It would
take, he tells us, 699 million of millions of such waves
to enter the eye in a single second to produce the im
pression we call violet in the brain. We are not
required to count these waves, because that would take
some little time, but as 57,000 of such waves fill an
inch, and light travels at the rate of 192,000 miles in a
.second, we have only to bring the miles into inches
and then multiply one by the other to get the million
■of millions required. It takes 477 millions of millions
of such waves to produce the colour we call red, and
577 millions of millions to produce green. Now let
us examine these facts. The effect produced by this
wonderful motion from without is a nervous impression,
a sensation of light, an idea of colour. Our perception
of colour, it is now known, is dependent upon a parti
cular part of the brain, for if that part of the brain is
not there, or deficient in quantity, people have no
*
perception of colour, i.e., are colour blind, or can only
partially distinguish colours. How, then, can colour
be in the object ? or what possible resemblance or sim* Sir David Brewster says that as many as one person in
twenty-eight cannot distinguish some colours from.others, and
that about one in ninety are colour blind, that is, cannot see
colours at all. Any one, in such cases, may easily satisfy
himself that it is the brain that is deficient; for if he puts his
thumb on the centre of the eye-bsow he will find an indenta
tion enabling him to touch the eye—his thumb will rest upon
the eye-ball. People are equally blind, in about the same
proportion, in other mental faculties. They may be fluent in
speech, full of facts, well read in history, with a generally
good memory, so as to be able to make a great display, and
yet be blind in the reasoning power ; and people are seldom
conscious of their own mental deficiencies, even in colour,
unless they are quite colour blind.
�6
Illusion and Delusion.
ilitude can there be between our feeling or idea and the
object which we say is coloured? The immediate
antecedent of our idea of colour is the motion of the
brain; this motion is communicated, through the eye
and retina, by the ether, and the ether is set in motion
by the reflex action of what we erroneously call the
coloured body. What this particular action is that
produces this effect upon the ether we have no means
whatever of knowing; we only know that it has tn
produce 122 millions of millions of knocks on the eye
less per second from the ether waves to produce the
green colour than the violet, and 100 millions of mil
lions less to produce the red than the green. Then
what is colour ? An idea or feeling within ourselves,
requiring all these links in the chain, and all their
wonderfully varied modes of motion, to produce it. If
any link in the chain is absent—if the brain, or the
retina, or the eye-ball, or the waves of ether, or the
reflex action on the ether, are not there, the effect is
not produced. ' It has probably taken millions of years
to perfect this relationship—to create this faculty of
mind which entirely depends upon this continuous
adjustment of internal relations to external ones. Tyn
dall says, “ We have rays of too high and too low a
pitch to be visible, that is, they are incapable of excit
ing any sensation, or creating within us any idea of
colour.'” Where, then, is the colour? Very nearly the
same motions go on outside of us without creating any
idea of colour or consciousness on our part. The
same, he -says, “ may be said of sound, and probably
sounds are heard by injects, which entirely escape our
perceptions ; and both as regards light and sound, our
organs of -sight and hearing embrace a certain practical
range, beyond which, on both sides, though the ob
jective cause exists, our nerves cease to be influenced
by it.” Metaphysicians used to divide the qualities or
properties of matter into primary and secondary; the
primary—extension, &c., were supposed to belong to
�Illusion and Delusion.
7
things themselves : the secondary—colour, &c., to our
selves ; but observation has shown that there is no
ground for this distinction, no difference between
primary and secondary, that all are equally dependent
upon the action of the brain. Extension, that is, form
and size, as well as weight, order, relative position, &c.,
are all formed in the mind like colour by the action of
forces from without, which set the brain in motion. It
is an illusion and delusion to suppose that there is
anything without ourselves resembling these percep
tions. Our perceptions are all we know or are con
scious of, and how can a perception be like an object,
or anything but itself ? There are no coloured forms
without us ; coloured forms are perceptions. All that
we know of without us are certain powers or forces,
producing certain motions which produce within us
these perceptions, the aggregate of which perceptions
we call the mind, and we are under the delusion that
they really exist out of our own minds, constituting
the external world. The world, however, as we con
ceive it, is created by the peculiar constitution of the
nervous system, which nervous system has been grad
ually increasing in size and complexity since the first
appearance of life on this earth, supposed to be some
100 millions of years ago. Each creature’s ideas, or
forms of thought, depend upon its nervous system, and
vary as that system varies, so that each animal creates
its own world, and carries it about in its own head, that
world varying as the size and Rapacity of that head
varies.
There is not one world, then, but thousands of
worlds, as each creature creates its own, and all made
out of the same stuff, which is not matter, but mind.
What we call matter is an illusion and delusion.
What there may be in reality we do not know, we only
know of something that affects us in a certain way, for
“ we know nothing of- objects, but the sensations we
have from them.” Locke says (book ii., chap. 23, § 29),
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Illusion and Delusion.
“ The simple ideas we receive from sensation and reflec
tion are the boundaries of our thoughts, beyond which
the mind, whatever effort it would make, is not able to
advance one jot.” David Hume only puts this a little
more emphatically. He says, “We may observe that
it is universally allowed by philosophers, and is besides
pretty obvious of itself, that nothing is ever present with
the mind but its perceptions or impressions and ideas,
and that external objects become
k
*nown
to us only by
the perceptions they occasion. Now, since nothing is
ever present to the mind but perceptions, and since all
ideas are derived from something antecedent to the
mind, it follows that it is impossible for us so much as to
conceive or form an idea of anyth ing specifically different
from ideas and impressions. Let us fix our ideas out
of ourselves as much as possible; let us chase our
imaginations to the heavens, or to the utmost limit of
the universe; we never really advance a step beyond
ourselves, nor can perceive any kind of existence but
those perceptions which have appeared in that narrow
compass.” That is, no creature can advance a single
step beyond the little world its own brain has created.
He knows nothing of matter, but only of his idea of
matter ; nor of spirit, but of his idea of it; and what
relation these ideas bear to the real truth, and whether
there is any real difference between matter and spirit
he has no means of knowing. .Knowing and perceiving
are to us the same thing. We know or are conscious of
our own perceptions, and what those perceptions are in
themselves we do not know. We know nothing of the
real or essential nature of anything. Any supposed
difference, then, between matter and spirit or between
mind and matter, may be, as far as we know, and pro
bably is, as we shall see, a delusion. All dogmatizing
about such supposed differences proceeds from ignorance,
and all theories based upon them must fall to the
ground, for if we do not know what matter is or what
spirit is, only their different modes of motion or mani
�Illusion and Delusion.
9
festation, how can we know that they differ from each
other, except in such manifestations ?
The brain, and the nervous system that travels to and
from this great nervous centre, have been of> very slow
growth. The brain of a fish bears about the average
proportion to the spinal cord of 2 to 1 ; of the reptile,
of 2 J to 1 ; the bird, 3 to 1; the animal, 4 to 1; and,
lastly, man averages 23 to 1. Sensibility or power of
feeling, which in man we call mental energy, increases
as we thus rise in the scale of being, and always in
proportion to the enlargement and complexity of the
brain and nervous system ; from the creature who is all
stomach to a London Aiderman, who is sometimes
supposed to possess feelings and faculties beyond.
The faculties, both of feeling and intellect, have been
gradually formed during countless ages by the continu
ous adjustment of internal relations to external neces
sities. First, we have exercise, then habit, attended
with increase of structure, this structure is transmitted
to offspring with its functions, and we have then spon
taneous action or instinct as it is called. All our faculties
are instincts,-—organized experience or habits that have
become structure transmitted from parent to offspring,
through innumerable generations, from variety to
variety. It is a most complicated relationship this be
tween external forces and our perceptions, as we have
seen in the faculty which enables us to perceive colour,
and has been doubtless countless ages forming, so that
the whole body upon which it and our other faculties
depend is the most wonderful contrivance of creative
skill with which we are acquainted or can conceive.
The way in which this body and mind have been built
up, part added to part, and function to function, through
the chain of being, since life first appeared on this earth,
probably 100 million years ago, is the great marvel,
and yet we hear endless talk of spirits that possess all
these attributes without this previous probation, and of
souls to whom this wonderful body is only a clog and
�io
Illusion and Delusion.
hindrance to its naturally more perfect action; but
there is not a single fact on record from which we can
infer that there is or can be anywhere such a thing as a
disembodied spirit, and as to this soul, whatever that
may be, we know its action is determined entirely by
the body.
First, we have the monad, the simplest of all organisms,,
of which seven species are at present known. These
do not present any division of functions or of organs.
One of these species, discovered by Huxley, inhabits
the sea at great depths, covering the ground with a sort
of network, and is so homogeneous in its construction
that its spontaneous generation is not thought improb
able. This monad becomes a cell, the original starting
point of all plants and animals. Man at the out
set of his existence, like every other animal, is only an
egg, a simple cell, of almost invisible proportions. This
egg after fecundation becomes an embryo. The female
supplies the egg, the male the fecundation, and there
is considerable dispute as to which performs the most
important part in the production of the new being. It
is asked, “ Does the mother merely supply, as it were,
by the ovum a cradle for the incipient man, and after
wards feed and nurse it until birth; or is it that the
germ is in the ovum of the mother, to which nothing
more than vital action stimulating it to growth is
imparted by the father1?” We know that, however
important a part the woman may play in influencing
through her own nervous system the nervous organiza
tion of the child, yet that the man supplies the germ, and
often thus transmits to his offspring his colour of hair, or
other bodily features, tendencies to disease, and other
characteristics, and also his mental aptitudes, habits, and
idiosyncracies,—some peculiar habits that belonged to the
father not manifesting themselves till late in life. So
early is the soul under the influence of structure and
organisation, that is, of the body. It is significant that the
grades through which man passes in his passage through
�Illusion and Delusion.
[i
the womb are the same in order as the history of the
earth- shows us the different forms of animals have
been, viz., fishes, amphibia, reptiles, birds, and mam
mals, so that we have not only the evolution of the
ages, but the same thing repeated at the gestation
of every superior animal, and this development of the
individual from his cell is, if anything, more difficult to
explain than that of the species, inasmuch as it is ac
complished in so comparatively short a time. There is
nothing more wonderful than the hatching of a bird’s
egg, unless it is the hatching of a man. The different
classes in the earliest stages of their embryonic develop
ment cannot be distinguished from each other, and later
man and the dog are almost identical, and when develop
ment in man is arrested, as in the idiot, no higher
functions are manifested than in some of the lowest
animals, and vastly inferior to the dog. “ Mr Marshall
has recently examined and described the brains of two
idiots of European descent. He found the convolutions
to be fewer in number, individually less complex,
broader, and smoother than in the apes.” “ In this
respect,” he says, “the idiot’s brains are even more
simple than that of the gibbon, and approach that of
the baboon.” The proportion of the weight of brain
to that of body was extraordinarily diminished. We
learn, then, that when man is born with a brain no
higher —— indeed lower —- than that of an ape, he
may have the convolutions fewer in number, and
individually less complex than they are in the brain of
a chimpanzee and an orang; the human brain may
revert to, or fall below that type of development from
which, if the theory of Darwin be true, it has gradually
ascended by evolution through the ages.” * “ The
native Australian, who is one of the lowest existing
savages, has no words in his language to express such
exalted ideas as justice, love, virtue, mercy; he has no
such ideas in his mind, and cannot comprehend them.
* Body and Mind, p. 46. By Dr Henry Maudsley.
�12
‘
Illusion and Delusion.
The vesicular neurine, which should embody them in
its constitution and manifest them in its functions, has
not been developed in his convolutions ; he is as incap
able, therefore, of the higher mental displays of abstract
reasoning and moral feeling as an idiot is, and for a
like reason.” * M. Taine, speaking of the Bearn
peasants, says, “ Here men are thin and pale ; their
bones protrude, and their features are large and severe,
like their mountains. An eternal struggle with the soil
has made-women stunted as well as plants ; it has left
in their eyes a vague expression of melancholy and
reflection. . . . The impressions of the soul and
body modify in the long run the body and the soul;
the race moulds the individual, and the country moulds
the race. A degree of heat in the atmosphere and of
inclination in the soil is the primary cause of our
faculties and passions. . . . The productions of
the human mind, as well as those of organic life, are
only to be explained by the atmosphere in which they
thrive.” On the other side, when the climatic influences
are not too depressing, the necessity which is the
mother of invention, gives increased activity to the
brain, and with it increased size. Centuries of skinning
flints have bred the finest race in Scotland that there is
in the world, and the Scotch brain is the largest in the
world.
These are now well known and acknowledged facts.
The mind depends upon the brain, and the brain upon
the body of which it is part, and the body, not upon
the soul, but upon Life. “ Our thoughts,” says Huxley,
“ are the expression of molecular changes in that matter
of life which is the source of our other vital phenomena.”
Those molecular changes depend upon the perfect action
of every other part of the body, and “ it behoves us
clearly to realize the broad fact, which has most wide
reaching consequence in mental physiology and pathol°gy, that all parts of the body, the highest and the
* Body and Mind, p. 56.
�Illusion and Delusion.
13
lowest, have a sympathy with one another more intel
ligent than conscious intelligence can yet or perhaps
ever will, conceive ; that there is not an organic motion
visible or invisible ministrant to the noblest or to the
most humble purposes, which does not work its appointed
effect in the complex recesses of mind ; that the mind
as the crowning achievement of organization, and the
. consummation and outcome of all its energies, really
comprehends the bodily life. . . . Lower the
supply of blood to the brain below a certain level, and
the power of thinking is abolished ; the brain will then
no more do mental work than a water-wheel will move
the machinery of the mill when the water is lowered
so as not to touch it.” *
The Spiritists, 'or Spiritualists, as they improperly
call themselves, disregard or altogether ignore this close
and necessary connection between mind and body,—
this nice adaptation of one to the other. They think
they have observed a class of phenomena which prove
that mind can exist separately from body ; that spirits
and souls have new faculties adapted to their new
*
sphere of action, without having any idea, however, of
how such faculties are formed. The mental faculties
with which we are acquainted are a nice adaptation of'
internal to external requirements—necessitating certain
movements—which have taken ages to form. But the
Spiritualists, by a sort of hocus-pocus or thimble-rigging
with the words body, mind, soul, have created a sys
tem which, in my opinion, falls to pieces immediately
we know definitely what is meant by such terms.
I think we have sufficient knowledge now to show
definitely what there is that really corresponds to these
words.
We have seen what a perfect piece of mechanism the
body is, “fearfully and wonderfully made
the ques
tion is, what is the power that works it ? It is pre
cisely the same as works the steam-engine, and it re* Body and Mind, p. 102.
Dr Maudsley.
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Illusion and Delusion.
quires stoking very much in the same way, and if it is
not stoked or fed regularly it will not go. The source
of this power, as at present traced by us, is the sun;
sun-power divorces the carbon.from the oxygen in
plants, and when the carbon and oxygen come to
gether again this power is restored, whether in the fire
of a steam-engine or in the slower combustion of the
human body. The force of heat is generated, known
to us by its mode of motion. This heat, this peculiar
mode of motion, is correlated or transformed in its
passage through the body into various other modes of
motion, and which we call the functions of different
organs, until it causes the molecular motion of the
brain, on which it resumes consciousness or becomes
sensibility. A function is a force indicating a specific
mode of action. Force seems to intensify as it passes
through the body, one equivalent of chemical force
corresponding to several equivalents of heat or inferior
force, and brain or mental force is the most concen
trated of all. Mind is the highest development of Force.
But what is Force ? We know that it is persistent,
or that it cannot be made to cease to exist, and therefore ■
it is an entity. This admitted, and it cannot now be
disputed, and we have the gist of the whole matter.
It explains numberless difficulties both in psychology
and physics, and here will be found, in my opinion, the
explanation of the phenomena which now so perplex
sincere Spiritualists. Force is not a function of matter,
although it must be the force of something—of some
entity; matter only conditions it, that is, changes its
modes of manifestation ; it is not motion, but the
cause of motion. It is known to us only in its modes
of motion, and hitherto it has been confounded with
motion, and hereby we have lost the secret of much
that has appeared mysterious. Force, as it has been
known to us only by its manifestations, is what we
have been accustomed to call a spiritual entity. If I
turn the handle of a grindstone, force passes from me
�Illusion and Delusion.
*5
into the grindstone, and does its work; as soon as that
force has passed’ out, causing motion elsewhere, the
motion I caused in the grindstone ceases. If I wind
np a watch, force passes from me into the watch com
pressing the spring ; as it passes out, setting the whole
machine in regulated motion, it tells the time. Force
is the active principle in nature, causing motion every
where ; this motion acts in a certain order for a given
purpose, that is, it acts intelligently, and if you add in
telligence to force we have what we call mind or will.
Mind acts both consciously and unconsciously, or what
is called automatically, and what we call physical force
is probably automatic mind.
Now, what happens in the creation of what we call
mind ? The force we take in with the food, after un
dergoing various transformations in the body, is worked
up °into sensibility or consciousness, by . inducing a
peculiar motion in the brain, which we call its molecular
action, so that, as Dr Huxley tells us, “ Consciousness
and molecular action are capable of being expressed by
one another, just as heat and mechanical action are
capable of being expressed in terms of one another.
Consciousness requires so much force to produce it, and
the intensity of an idea or feeling is in proportion to the
amount consumed, and that is generally in proportion to
the size of the nervous centre, or organ, or specialized part
of the brain through which it passes. Thus conscious
ness, like heat, has also its mechanical equivalents.. The
brain, already in motion, is acted upon from without
through the medium of the senses, and the union of
the specific force within with the specific force without
produces an idea which we call a perception. We
have seen how our perception of colour is produced,
and the extraordinary complicated action that is re
quired. If any link in this long chain of outward
sequences is wanting, the idea is not produced ; and if
the food, or internal force is not supplied, or the mole
cular action of the brain is interfered with, by pressure
�i6
Illusion and Delusion.
upon it, there is no consciousness—no ideas or feelings
—and millions of millions of ether wave motions with
out are required to give a simple perception of colour.
Other ideas are formed in the same way, by the union
of force within with force without. We have ideas of
form, size, weight, which together give us our ideas of
extension and solidity, and which are no more solid
and extended than music and colour are. The popular
notion of these things is a belief in that which in fact
does not exist. Forces act upon us from without and
give us what we call perceptions, these are taken up by
other parts of the brain, by what we call our faculties
of relative perception, comparison, causality, &c., and
in this way the external world is created. But it is
only our idea of an external world, which must vary as
the specific structure of the brain varies upon which
that idea depends. But although the world, as we
conceive of it, exists only in our ideas, something exists,
which is real independent of our thoughts, something
that we call force, or a system of forces. Light and
sound, the mental states, might cease to exist, but their
vibratory causes without us would not, and they might
affect other beings'differently organized in quite a dif
ferent way; that which produced light m us might pro
duce sound, or other sensations or ideas, in them, and
vice versa. Perception is the direct action of force
without; Conception is the internal action of the brain
only, producing the same ideas but less vivid; Memory
is a repetition of this action in a given form; Imagina
tion is the re-combination in the brain itself of these
ideas, strong in proportion to the great or less activity
of the brain; and Judgment is either a reference of a
simple perception to its external source, or, as more
generally understood, the action of one class of faculties
upon the others, inducing, among other things, what is
called self-consciousness and reason. These are not
primitive or innate faculties of mind—they have no
organs, they are only modes of action of all the faculties.
�17
Illusion and Delusion.
To be conscious and to know, or consciousness and
knowing, are to us the same things. Consciousness
and sensibility are also the same things—and sensi
bility we divide into ideas and feelings. Knowing a
thing and our idea of it are the same, and an idea
cannot be like anything but itself. We cannot in our
knowledge get beyond or even behind that idea, and it
tells us nothing of itself, still less of anything but itself.
When, then, we speak of matter and spirit, of body,
mind, and soul, as different in themselves, we speak of
what we can and do know nothing about; we speak of
only our ideas of such things, and those ideas do not
differ in themselves, but are the same. The differences
we think we see are differences in modes of action only.
Almost all the controversies on these subjects are
based upon the supposed essential differences in these
objects, of which differences, if any such exist, we
know really nothing. When we talk of the material
man, we mean our idea of him, but that idea is what
has been called spirit.
Having stated facts as they are at present known to
us, let us now give a few definitions based upon them.
Matter is the unknown cause of states of con
sciousness. It produces different sensations in us
by its different modes of motion, and Science is the
mere registration of these different modes of motion.
Men of science give fine names to these motions, and
having named them, assume that they know all about
them, when in fact they know nothing but of these
modes of motion.
‘ ‘ Our little systems have their day;
They have their day and cease to he:
They are but broken lights of Thee,
And thou, 0 Lord, art more than they.”
—Tennyson.
The consciousness, idea, or perception of matter is
the union of the force within, prepared by the molecu
lar action of the brain, and the force without. We
B
�18
Illusion and Delusion.
have matter, motion, and force. Motion, which by
physicists is almost always confounded with its cause,
is nothing, it is a mere change of place, and is of course
inseparable from the thing moving. Force is the
active cause of all motion, and passive force, which is
what we call matter, is the cause of the peculiar and
specific direction which the force takes, its correlation
or transformation. It is force only that acts upon us,
that is upon our bodies or structures, and those struc
tures, when examined, resolve themselves into centres
of force. The more we examine the more the convic
tion is forced upon us that there is but one stuff out of
which all things are made, and that is force, or rather
the unknown of which force is the force. Huxley says,
“ Every form is force visible ; a form of rest is a bal
ance of forces; a form undergoing change is the pre
dominance of one over others.'"’ Matter and mind are
probably the same in essence ; I say probably, for we
know nothing of essences, and we do not know there
fore that there is any difference. Dr Carpenter says,
matter possesses extension, or occupies space, while
mind has no such property; but surely if individual
mind exists, and one mind exists separate and apart
from another, there must be somewhere where it exists,
and that somewhere is what we call space. But if ex
tension is only a form of thought, and there is only
force or mind, then space, like extension, is a form of
thought, or purely subjective, and the universe, with
its supposed enormous distances from star to star, must
be something very different to what we conceive
of it.
Spirit is only sublimated or etherialised matter.
Spirits and souls are, with most people, the same things.
Huxley tells us “ that the alchemists called the volatile
liquid which they obtained from wine, ‘spirits’ of
wine, and as the ‘ spiritus ’ or breath of a man was
thought to be the most refined or subtle part of him,
the intelligent essence of man was also conceived as a
�Illusion and Delusion.
19
sort of breath or spirit; and by analogy, the most re
fined essence of anything was called ‘spirit.’ And
thus it has come about that we use the same word for
soul of man and for a glass of gin.”
Mind.—Sensibility, as distinguished from insensi
bility, or consciousness, as distinguished from uncon
sciousness, is what we call mind. As protoplasm is the
physical base of life, so sensibility is the spiritual base
of mind, the specific form it takes depending on organ
isation. There is no idea or feeling but is connected
with the action of brain or nervous system. The spe
cific action of certain parts of the brain we call forms
of thought, the specific action of other parts we call
feelings, which we divide into propensities and senti
ments. We receive a number of separate impressions
from without, a form of thought gives them unity and
individuality, which unity we call matter, body, or
substance; we have a succession of separate and inde
pendent thoughts and feelings, the same faculty of
mind, or form of thought, gives unity to them also, and
we call them our mind, although it is clear that all the
unity they possess is. given them by a form of thought,
and that each separate thought and feeling is a distinct
entity. The mind is one whole, we are told—and much
is based upon the assumption—and yet it is evident
the idea of individual mind as a whole is a creation
of the mind, in the same way as colour is ; or rather it
is a whole only in the same sense as the body is, which
is composed of many parts, and is always changing
them, so the mind is composed of many ideas and feel
ings constantly changing.
The unity of mind is an illusion, there are individual
thoughts and feelings, and that is all. The unity of
any mind but the one Great Supreme, is a delusion.
Faith, hope, resignation, and all the soul’s highest
aspirations, exist only from their connection, like colour
and music, with organisation; they are feelings spe
cialised by the peculiar structure of certain nervous
�20
Illusion and Delusion.
centres, and if that organisation is not there, like colour,
they do not and cannot exist.
But there must be a substratum of consciousness, a
something that is conscious. What is that? Mind,
says one, soul, says another, brain or matter, says a third,
but none of these are right. The force within, it is,
that under brain action becomes conscious, and the
quantity of this force consumed is always proportionate
to the vividness of the idea or the amount of feeling.
Mental activity and nerve force are the same; mental
force is the strongest of all forces, and being persistent,
it passes from the state we call consciousness into all
the motions of the body, and probably into all the
extraordinary phenomena of so-called spiritual manifes
tations. We are told that “ the nerve and brain organism
is the immediate substratum which has the conscious
ness.” This is a mistake; it is the “ force” that be
comes consciousness, which the brain does not originate,
but only conditions. Again, “the nervous organism,
which is the conscious agent, reacts through the muscles
upon the external world.” Here, also, it is not the
organism, but the force that is the conscious agent, and
reacts, &c. Consciousness is said to be immaterial,
but consciousness tells us nothing of its own nature,
nothing of either material or immaterial.
The Soul.—It is this substratum of consciousness
that is usually called the soul, but in this sense it is
the active principle, conscious or unconscious, of all
things. Man, however, is supposed to have a special
soul of his own. I must confess, however, that I have
not been able to find it, or any use for it. If there is
a special soul, where does it come from? when and how
does it enter into him ? In the germ in which lie
folded up many of the mental attributes of the future
man ? or during what period of gestation, at what period
of animal evolution ? or at birth? No ; the poet says,
“ there lives and moves a soul in all things, and that
�Illusion and Delusion.
21
soul is God ■, ” arid the poet, I think, will prove to be
right.
The Self, the Ego.—Intimately connected with
this soul is the self or ego ; but this also is an illusion
and delusion. The “ ego” is a mere form of thought—
that is, self-consciousness is formed by the brain. Thus
we say “ I think,” when all we are warranted in saying
is, that “ thinking is.” The “ I” comprises both body
and mind, hut the body does not think, it only “con
ditions ” or gives the “form” to thought, therefore “I
think” is wrong. There is a succession of thoughts,
and that is all that we find in the analysis of conscious
ness. The “ I ” of consciousness is an intuition, but
intuitions are not always truths, although they are
generally accepted' as such. Intuitions or instincts
are specialised actions of the brain, hereditarily trans
mitted, to answer definite purposes. The body is con
stantly changing, and the mind is only a change of
thought corresponding; neither body nor mind are iden
tical or the same for any two seconds together, but are
part of, and in constant flux with, all the forces around ;
nevertheless, a part of the brain, whose function it is,
produces the “ ego,” or the sense of individuality, and
personal identity. This part of the brain is sometimes
diseased, and then the “I” or sense of identity is lost,
as is well known in some cases of insanity, and of
double consciousness. This ego has about the same
reality as the external world; there must be something
that produces the feeling, and that is all. It is charac
teristic of living organisms to replace the new material
precisely in the place of the old. A mark on the body
continues through life, the same on the brain, the new
material is placed round the old impressions, so that the
forms of thought and feeling turned out by it are very
nearly, if not precisely, the same. It is the trans
mitted experience of this result that has produced the
intuitional “ I,” or the feeling of identity. Memory is
the result of impressions on the brain, deep and vivid
�22
Illusion and Delusion.
in proportion to our youth and susceptibility. In old
age, when our animal vigour is exhausted, and less
force passes through the brain, and the brain itself be
comes less susceptible of impression, the old, or rather
the early impressions resume their sway, and we return
to our habits of feeling and thinking, and our early
memories. “If,” says Bishop Butler, in his “Analogy,”
“ the old man on the verge of the grave is the same as
the child within the womb, if the mutilated soldier is
conscious that no part of himself is, if to the very edge
of that change which we call death we have watched
the force of mind and soul continued in all its keen
ness, then the belief that what each man calls himself
will be destroyed when the material surroundings which
have been often changed without affecting him are dis
solved, is not justified by anything we see in the world
around us.” But material surroundings never do
change without affecting him, and close observation
show's that a change of mind always accompanies a
change of body.
The Will is generally regarded as our commander,
and free. This is another delusion. It is entirely a
servant, and necessarily obeys cither the last dictate of
the understanding or some strong impulse or feeling.
No doubt the will has a local habitation in the brain,
in a position in which it can best execute these com
mands. The intellect or feeling having determined
what to do, with a power proportioned to the size of
the organs from which the determination proceeds, the
will, like a trigger to the mind, lets off this force in the
direction of the purpose aimed at. Under the very
top of the head, where firmness lies, is the part of the
brain connected with the Ego, and again under this, in
the base of the brain, above the medulla oblongata, is
most probably the part connected wdth the will. This
specialises the control over different muscles. We say
“ I will,” and a bundle of isolated nerve-threads, com
municating with particular portions of the central
�Illusion and Delusion.
23
nervous system, can set to work any set of muscles
through the aid of the vaso-motor nerves, which close
or liberate the flow of blood to any particular part of
the central system.
Truth.—If, then, in the process of substituting
accurate conceptions for “ common sense ” ones we are
obliged to come to the conviction that the latter, or the
ordinary ideas of matter, mind, soul, the I, and the
free will are illusions and delusions, how is it that we
believe in them ? As these ideas result from the natu
ral exercise of our faculties—that is, as it is the func
tion of the brain to produce these illusions, so there is
-a part of the brain whose function it is to produce be
lief in them, or to give the sense of their reality. Each
faculty has its function, and it is natural to us to be
lieve in the result of its activity, but that may have no
relation to the real truth about any tiling. What, then,
is truth ? Truth, to us, is the record of the succession
-of our own consciousness, and of how that is affected
by the infinitely varied modes of motion without us.
But how distinguish the internal workings of our own
mind or brain, our active imaginings, from that which
takes .place without us, and which ought to be the
same to all beings similarly organised ? Observation
•and experience is the test of truth. Different and in
dependent individuals question nature, and if they
invariably get the same answer—that is, the same im
pressions,—that we call the truth. But this is merely
how we are impressed; it tells us nothing more, and
that impression can be like nothing but itself; still it
is all we can know, which is merely affirming what all
philosophers now admit, that our knowledge is only
relative, and not absolute. However it may affect our
•self-conceit, this relative knowledge is all we have, or
probably can have, and it is all that can be of any use
to us. To know what things are in themselves is pro
bably impossible to finite creatures, and how such
things affect other intelligences is of comparatively little
�24
Illusion and Delusion.
consequence to us. The object of nature does not
appear to be to give us any real knowledge, only to in
duce that kind of action in us that shall harmonise
with the things without us, and produce and perpetuate
the largest amount of enjoyment. All opinions may
be erroneous, but all are thus made salutory ; for “ it
is manifest,” as Bishop Butler observes, “ that nothing
can be of consequence to mankind, or any creature, but
happiness.” In this department alone has man any
real knowledge, all else is illusion and delusion. The
knowledge of pains and pleasures is alone absolute
knowledge, and to increase the sum of the pleasures,
the aggregate of which constitutes happiness, has this
wonderful phantasmagoria of a world been produced.
Man is “ the heir of all the ages,” and it has taken
ages to put him together in his present form. The
lowest forms of animal life appeared first, and arenecessary steps to the evolution of the highest. He
has passed through all grades, as is now illustrated in
his passage through the womb. We trace the gradual
evolution and specialisation of nerve centres from the
first appearance of nerve tissue in the lowest animals to
the complex structure of the nervous system of man.
What is rudimentary in savage man becomes more fully
developed as civilisation advances, and this “ progres
sive evolution of the human brain is a proof that wedo inherit, as a natural endowment, the laboured ac
quisitions of our ancestors. The added structure repre
sents, as it were, the embodied experience and memories
of the race..”* And this embodied experience or instinct
represents 30 per cent, of the added structure, which
is the difference in weight between the brains of savage
and civilised man. I know it is customary to speak of
the body, of the material man, in terms of depreciation
and reproach, as merely the instrument by which the
mind communicates with the world without, &c., but
* “Body and Mind,” p. 59, by Dr H. Maudsley.
�Illusion and Delusion.'
25
there is not the slightest evidence to show that mind, asknown to us-—that is, as specialised for special pur
poses here, can act separately or independently from
the body. Body and the succession of thought and
feeling which we call mind, are one and indivisible.
“ Life,” says Schelling, “ is the tendency to individua
tion.” The forces of nature are confined within definite
limits, and work towards a given object. The evolu
tion of the brain depends upon life ; and mind, as it is
specialised in human ideas and feelings, is the result of
brain action. The soul—that is, force, may exist as an
independent essence, but faith, hope, charity, and all
its other supposed attributes exist only from their con
nection, like colour, with organisation. These senti
ments, and the moral feelings generally, have been spe
cialised for a special purpose connected with the rela
tion of man to his fellows. Milton, among our great
and unprejudiced minds, and quite independent of
recent discoveries in cerebral physiology, perceived this
oneness of body and mind. He says, in his “ Treatise
on Christian Doctrine,” “ That man is a living being,
intrinsically and properly one and individual, not com
pound or separable, not, according' to the common
opinion, made up and framed of two distinct and differ
ent natures, as of soul and body—but the whole man
is soul, and the soul man; that is to say, a body, or'
substance, individual, animated, sensitive, and rational.”
This unity of body and mind is now generally ad
mitted by physiologists and scientific men generally,
and those who hold the unity only without, further
investigation into what has been called matter are
called Materialists, which is considered to be a term of
reproach. The Spiritualists think that they have dis
covered a class of phenomena which prove that man is
“ compound or separable,” and that these manifesta
tions appear at the present time as a sort of special
revelation to counteract the above materialistic tendency
�2,6
Illusion and Delusion.
of the age. The late hard-headed mathematician Au
gustus de Morgan, speaking of these phenomena, many
•of which he had himself witnessed, says, “When it
-comes to what is the cause of these phenomena, I find
I cannot adopt any explanation which has yet been
suggested. If I were bound to choose among things
that I can conceive, I should say that there is some
sort of action, of some combination of will, intellect,
and physical power, which is not that of any of the
human beings present. But thinking it very likely
that the universe may- contain a few agencies, say half
■a million, about which no man knows anything, I can
not but suspect that a-small proportion of these agen
cies, say five thousand, may be severally competent to
the production of all the phenomena, or may be quite
up to the task among them. The physical explana
tions which I have seen are easy, but miserably insuffi
cient ; the spiritual hypothesis is sufficient, but ponder. ously difficult.” In the early ages of the world, in the
prevalent ignorance of physics, spirits were the supposed
agents in all those unknown causes which we now
trace to natural law. Psychology is at the present
time where physics was in those early ages, and again
we have recourse to spirits to help us out of our diffi
culties, and supplement our ignorance. And more
than that, these spirits are called up to neutralise and
make of no avail the knowledge we have acquired.
But I would ask the Spiritualists, “Would it not be
better to pause, with Professor de Morgan, until we
■know more, rather than commit ourselves to a ‘ future
state’ so little desirable?” for, as the Professor says, ‘ if
these things be spirits, they show that pretenders, cox
combs, and liars are to Le found on the other side of
the grave as well as this,’ and all seem to have retro
graded, both in mind and feeling, since they were in
the body. Surely we had better satisfy ourselves with
nature’s course, and be content to pass on our powers
•of body and mind, in endless progress, to coming gene-
�Illusion and Delusion.
1”]
rations, than continue our own individual existence
under such conditions.
This idea of ghosts and apparitions and a future state
does not ever appear to have been a comfortable one
all the world over. Among savages, when a chief died
his wives and horses and dogs were slain at his tomb,
that he might have the use of them in the happy hunt
ing grounds where he had gone. Hindoo widows were
burnt (burnt themselves, it was said) on the funeral
pile in the same spirit, and at the present time, although
widows are not burnt, their life is one of continual
penance. A Hindoo widow obtains her husband’s pro
perty, that she may devote it to oblations and cere
monies for the good of her husband’s soul. Should
the lady marry again, the husband is supposed to have
a very bad time of it below, and the daring couple be■corne literally outcasts from all society, and all that
makes life enjoyable. In China this fear of ghosts is
the great barrier to all progress. It is not the living,
but the dead that rule. There can be no railroads, lest
in laying them down the bodies of the dead should be
disturbed, and relations should be haunted by their
-spirits. In this and other Christian countries a future
state is looked upon as a sort of necessary aid to the
policeman, and children are asked if they know where
they will “go to” if they steal or tell a lie. We are
also told by Mr Thomas Wright, the journeyman
■engineer, “ that it is well for society that the masses
have this hope and belief, or they would not endure
the present so patiently as they have done and do.”
Their belief is that the condition of rich and poor will
be reversed in another world, if they do not even rejoice
a little over the fate of Dives. But this kind of con
solation does not appear to be confined altogether to
the working classes. Thus we are told in “ Random
Recollections of the Midland Circuit,” by Robert Wal
ton, a book lately published, that “ a man of the
name of Harrington was tried at Warwick for bias-
�i8
Illusion and Delusion.
phemy. Old Clarke, Q.C., was the leading prosecuting
counsel. Clarke, in the general reply he claimed on
the part of the Crown, inveighed in no measured terms
upon the evil tendency of the man’s writing, especially
those parts which denied the existence of his Satanic
majesty and his various attributes, the doctrine of
future rewards and punishments, &c. Warming him
self as he went on, as he of course would, from the
very nature of his subject, he exclaimed, ‘ Gentlemen, if
there be any truth in what the prisoner asserts, where
are we?’ (A favourite expression of his.) ‘ If there
be no devil and no hell, what is to become of us?
Gentlemen, it is men like those who would deprive us
of all hope here and comfort hereafter.’”
Neither can a “ future state” be altogether a “ gospel
of glad tidings,” even to the orthodox Christian, who
professes to believe that “ Whosoever will be saved,
before all things, it is necessary that he hold the
Catholic Faith,” and that, without doubt, he shall
perish everlastingly,—go into everlasting fire, if he do
not. This Creed includes the belief that Christ “de
scended into Hell,” and that men shall live again with
their bodies, to give account for their own works. We
are told that “ Strait is the gate and narrow the way
that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it,” and
“ that many are called, but few are chosenand truly
this must be, so, if such faith is required. The Scotch
man’s creed, based on the Westminster Confession of
Faith, contains similar consolation. He holds that
God hath appointed the Elect only unto glory, and
that the rest of mankind he was pleased to pass by,
and to ordain them to dishonour, and wrath for their
sin, to the praise of his glorious justice / However
certain a man may be in his self-conceit and selfcomplacency of his own salvation, he must be extra
ordinarily constituted, if such a belief in a Future state
can supply him with any consolation. For myself, I
would rather, a thousand times, give up all hopes of an
�Illusion and Delusion.
29
“ individual ” hereafter, and go back to where I was
before I was born, when, if I was not happy, at least I
did not suffer, rather than that one being should be
reserved to everlasting suffering.
Continued existence does not necessarily imply Im
mortality, fortunately, as all the Spiritualists assume,
for think of the gift of Immortality being considered a
blessing, when, possibly it might be one of endless misery!
Even the poor “ wandering Jew” would rest when this
world came to an end. I cannot imagine how such
devilish conceptions ever got into people’s heads, or how,
having got them there, they can live and even be happy !
Dr Carpenter says: “ I look upon the root of this
Spiritualism to lie in that which is very natural, and in
some respects a wholesome disposition of the kind'—a
desire to connect ourselves, in thought, with those
whom we have loved, and who have gone before us.
Nothing is more admirable, more beautiful, in our
nature, than this longing for the continuance of inter
course with those whom we have loved on earth. . . .
But this manifestation of it, is one which those who
experience this feeling, in its greatest purity, and its
greatest intensity, feel to be absurd and contrary to
common sense.” How much better is the Poet’s
expression of this feeling :—
“ Forgive my grief for one removed,
Thy creature whom I found so fair,
I trust he Ilves in thee, and there
I find him worthier to be loved.”—Tennyson.
We who believe in God,— and not in a being
who exacts an impossible belief, or who elects a few
to glory, and passes the rest by, when he might either
have not created, or have elected all,—as regards a
Future state, hold the faith, that if it is better, all
things considered, that we should, as individuals, con
tinue to exist, we shall be sure to do so; if it is
not better we ought not, and do not, desire to do so.
Surely this is the least selfish faith. I, for one, am
�3°
Illusion and Delusion.
prepared to leave myself for the future, in infinite
confidence in God’s hands.
But are the physical explanations of these so-called
spiritual phenomena so miserably insufficient as De
Morgan represents •them ? I think not; at least they
appear to me to point unmistakeably to the direction
in which the explanation will be found. In the first
place, as we have seen, to know and to be conscious
are with us the same things, and consciousness is what
we call mental, and we know of nothing beyond—that
is, the difference between physical and mental is only
in their modes of manifestation; we know of no essen
tial difference between them. The more we know, the
more it seems probable that all is of one stuff, and that
all is mind, not matter. If so, we must confess that
we know at present but very little of its natural modes
of manifestation, that what little we do know is at pre
sent “practically interpretable only through the methods
and formulae of physics,” and through the language or
terms of physics. Thus an immense amount of what we
call physical force passes through the body, estimated
at 14 millions of foot pounds per day, which, when
subjected to the molecular action of the brain becomes
mind or consciousness, that is, thoughts and feelings.
This force, on leaving the brain again appears to lose its
consciousness, and to revert to physical force, and at
present we know very imperfectly what becomes of it,
or what its real condition is after leaving the brain.
The investigation which Sergeant Cox proposes to make
in his second Vol. of “ What ami?” into Sleep and
Dream, Insanity, Hallucination, Unconscious Cerebra
tion, Trance, Delirium, Psychic Force and Natural and
Artificial Somnambulism, will no doubt throw consider
able light on this subject, and be proportionally inter
esting. Dr C. Darwin’s book on “Expression of the
Emotions in Men and Animals,” is a valuable contribu
tion in this direction ; so also is “ Mysteries of the
Vital Element,” by Dr Eobt. Collyer. Mr Herbert
�Illusion and Delusion.
31
Spencer insists on the general law, that feeling passing
a certain pitch, habitually vents itself in bodily action,
and that an overplus of nervous forces, undirected by
any motive, will manifestly take first- the most
habitual routes ; and if these do not suffice, will next
overflow into the less habitual ones. But Mr Spencer,,
although an able exponent of the persistence of Force,,
has not yet attempted to trace nervous force, beyond
the body, in its action upon other organizations,
neither, as far as I know, does he believe in it. My
own personal experience has been very slight. I have
seen will force acting beyond the body, that is, without
the aid of the muscles, and producing various effects,
both in contact and without, both near and at some
distance. I have witnessed many cures from what
appeared to be the action of the nervous force of one
body upon another, and also one mind as completely
under the control of another, as if they were one, in
what is called Electro-biology. I have satisfied myself
beyond a doubt, that thought reading is a possibility,
having on one occasion seen a mesmerised child tell
the number of three watches, consecutively, each
number consisting of five figures each. These figures
could only have been known to the mesmeriser, who,,
with some difficulty, madti them out by the aid of a
strong light. I have also satisfied myself of the truthof phreno-mesmerism, and that it is not necessarily
connected with thought reading. I have also seen, in
Spiritualist circles, a great deal of humbug and pious
fraud, as well as self-deception.
I have, however, seen quite enough to satisfy me that
the senses, the ordinary inlets to the mind, are not the
only means by which the brain is acted upon from
without. The brain faculties specialize the action of
-mind for special purposes, and the senses direct the
action and limit the quantity of force from without
but these barriers to the more general and universal
action of mind can be partially removed. We are part
�32
Illusion and Delusion.
of all the forces around, and in direct and immediate
connection with them, and but partially individualized.
As star can act on star, at immeasurable distances, so can
one mind upon another within more limited bounds,
when such minds are en-rapport. In thought-reading
we have probably synchronism of vibration between
patient and mesmeriser. We can charge a table with
brain or nervous force, and our volition can act or pro
duce motion through that medium without the aid of
the motor-nerves and muscular contact. In electro
biology the same thing takes place, one brain becomes
charged with nervous force from another, and the whole
of this force is under the direction of one will. We
are surrounded by an atmosphere, the result of cerebra
tion, its character depending upon the nervous centres
or mental faculties from which it emanates. We all
have felt the effect, more or less, of coming into each
other’s atmospheres. There are mental attractions and
repulsions, likes and antipathies among individuals,
varying as they do in chemistry. The amount of force
that goes to the brain may -be artificially increased by
Alcohol, Opium, Haschisch, etc., not only inducing
greatly increased mental activity, but many extra
ordinary phenomena besides. We have nerve force
from mental energy, and mental energy from nerve
force in constant correlation. In trance we have the
same thing, the force being withdrawn from the vital
functions, gives us mind under new conditions, with
increased and additional and abnormal powers. As
force from the sun impinging upon body, produces 699
millions of millions of waves in ether (probably the raw
material of mind) inducing in us the sensation we call
violet colour, so brain force may be carried through the
same ether inducing consciousness, and carrying ideas
in all sorts of ways, at present unknown to us. At
any rate we should hesitate before we call in the aid of
the Spirits, the infallible resort, from the beginning of
time, of ignorance. We ought to be modest and
�Illusion and Delusion.
33
cautious when we reflect that we know only our own
consciousness, and everything else only as it is reflected
there, and that it tells us nothing of its own nature, or
of the nature of anything without its boundaries.
I have to apologize for this digression upon Spirit
ualism, which originally formed no part of my subject,
and .which shortens the space at my command, which
before was too little.
The Moral World.
If the physical world has been created by our forms of
thought connected with the intellect, so has the moral
world been created within us by our feelings ; as a few
simple perceptions have been worked up by the mental
faculties to form the world without, so our simple
pains and pleasures have been worked up by our moral
faculties to make our moral world. To suppose that
there is anything outside ourselves corresponding is as
pure an illusion and delusion in one case as the other.
We are said to be responsible for freedom of will, that is,
we are supposed to’be a sort of first cause in a small way
capable of spontaneous action ; an exception to every
thing else in the universe, to be capable of originating
motion; but this is a contradiction to the now estab
lished doctrine of the persistence of force.
This
doctrine of the conservation of energy furnishes the
modern proof of the truth of what has been hitherto
called Philosophical Necessity. Thus as Oerstead says,
“ everything that exists depends upon the past, prepares
the future, and is related to the whole.” This is the
principle of evolution : “ each manifestation of force
can be interpreted only as the affect of some antecedent
force, no matter whether it be an inorganic action, an
animal movement, a thought or feeling.”* “ Con
sequently, as I have said elsewhere (Manual of
* Herbert Spencer.
c
�34
Illusion and Delusion.
Anthropology, p. 309) “ all actions being equally
necessary—all equally the effect of some antecedent
force, there can be no intrinsic difference between them,
the only difference being one of arrangement. Good
and evil are purely subjective, that is dependent upon
the way in which our sensibility is affected by things
■without. Where we have pleasure it is called good ;
where we have pain evil. Pleasurable sensation
attends the legitimate action of all our faculties, whereas
pain or suffering is not the legitimate object of any
, part of our organization. Praise and blame, reward and
punishment are not a recognition of any intrinsic
difference in actions themselves, but of our wish to
produce one class of actions rather than another as more
agreeable to ourselves. They are intended merely as
motives to action.
Responsibility consists in our
having to bear the natural and necessary consequences
of our actions. The supposition that our responsibility
• consists in our liability to so much suffering for so much
sin or error, if not in this world then in another—that
jut, 'ice requires that if we sin we must suffer—however
ancient, is an altogether groundless notion. The object
of pain or suffering is reformation, and any pain or
punishment that has not that object, any suffering in
excess of that, would be objectless and mere revenge.
Every sin contains its own atonement in the pain or
penalty attached to the natural consequences that
follow it. . . . That retribution would not be just which
included more punishment than was sufficient to correct
the offence and was therefore good for the offender.”
“ If,” as Quetelet says, “ society prepares crime, and the
guilty are only the instruments by which it is executed,”
the strict demands of justice would require that the
sinner, not the saint, should be made happy in another
world, because the sinner having been made to dis
honour in this world, has been the most unhappy here,
and requires compensation.” We hear much of the
“ self-determining will of man, on which his moral
�Illusion and Delusion.
35
responsibility essentially depends.” But what does this
mean but that he may be moved by motives and his
liability to suffer the consequences if he does not ?
'Conscience tells him he must do right, and not do what
is wrong, and it is these consequences that tell him
what is right and wrong. A sense of pain and pleasure,
is the revelation God has given to all mankind, not to be
disregarded or misinterpreted. And what does self
determining mean but that a man must necessarily act
in accordance with the laws of his own nature? A
selfish man acts selfishly and takes the consequences,
and he could not do otherwise in either case, whether
his actions were free or necessary. Fire burns and
water drowns whether we get into them voluntarily or
by accident. Self-determining in this sense applies to
everything organic or inorganic,—everything acts in
.accordance with the laws of its own nature, from an
atom to a monad, and from a monad to God. It is the
power to do this without external constraint that con
stitutes freedom, and it is this experience, organized in
the long ages, that is the source of the instinct or intui
tion that is generally stronger than reason, even in the
best informed. I know that my will is free ; I feel that
I can do as I please, that is the language of intuition but
it is not the less an illusion and delusion. What we
please to do depends upon persistent force passing through
•our organization, the strongest force or feeling always
prevailing, or governing the will. It is our conscious
ness that deceives us in this case, as in so many others,
from it insufficiency ; the fact being that this governing
power or force, does not appear in consciousness, but
only‘its correlation. “Human liberty, of which all
boast,” says Spinoza, “ consists solely in this, that man
is conscious of his will, and unconscious of the causes by
which it is determined.” “ Arrest one of the viscera,
■ and the vital actions quickly cease; prevent a limb
from moving, and the ability to meet surrounding
circumstances is seriously interfered with; destroy a
�36
Illusion and Delusion.
sense organ, paralyze a perceptive power, derange the
reason, and there comes more or less failure in that
adjustment of conduct to circumstances by which life
is preserved.” * It is of such kind of impediments to
free action only of which man is conscious, and it is this
power of adjustment of conduct to circumstances that
constitutes his freedom, and this is a freedom that can
be exercised only in accordance with natural law.
There can be no mental science or social science, or
indeed “ science ” at all where these principles are not
admitted; and the sooner this dire chimera of man’s
freedom of will, which has caused and still causes so
much suffering, is banished the better. The science of
man must be placed on the same foundation as all the
other sciences, and not left to chance as this freedom
implies ; on the contrary we shall take care that the
will is never free but always under the governance of
the cultivated intellect and highest feeling. We shall
then begin to discover that the laws which regulate
men’s birth are quite as important as those by which we
improve our horses, short-horns, sheep, and dogs ; and
our inquiries will be directed, not so much as to where
he is going to, as to where he comes from. Our .gaols
will undergo the change, that, with much labour, we
have effected in our Lunatic Asylums^ and we shall
learn that civilization does not consist in the increase of
wealth, but in the increase of brain, upon which all
thought and feeling depend. When Morality becomes
a Science we shall cultivate brain, as its special organ
ization and harmonious development are essential to
warmth of sentiment, to the sense of the beautiful, and
to religious emotion ; and education in the future will
consist in the developing and perfecting of all the
faculties which make a complete man. Tf the organ-ization is deficient or defective, we can no more feel the
higher emotions than wre can see without eyes. To*•
*• Principles of Psychology, vol. 2, p. 627, by Herbert Spencer-
�Illusion and Delusion.
37
-ensure this development of a healthy and well-formed
brain, “ preaching ” goes but a very little way ; it must
be placed in conditions favourable to its healthy growth.
The increase of wealth is essential, as we cannot engraft
virtue on physical misery, and we must be happy
ourselves to wish to make others happy. As I have
said elsewhere (Education of the Feelings'), 11 To grow
the organization upon which moral action habitually
depends is the work of time, and we must be content
' to wait.”
We may pause here for a brief summary before we
enter a field of thought into which scientific men may
not feel equally disposed to follow me, and which,
with our limited knowledge, necessarily partakes of
much speculation.
Matter is known to us only from its capacity of
creating within us certain sensations which we call
ideas and feelings. “ The conception we have of matter,”
says Herbert Spencer, “ is one which unites independ
ence, permanence, and force.”
Mind is the aggregate of these ideas and feelings,
their character or speciality depending upon the brain.
The World, therefore, is created within us, and
although there is something without us, the world, as
we conceive of it, exists only in our conception. But
although the world is the world of our ideas, and exists
only in thought, it is not the less worthy or wonderful
on that account. It is our wmrld.
The Soul is the force or active power which causes
these ideas, or creates this world ; and more, this force,
■or that which it is the force of, is the stuff out of
which this world is made.
The Will is the subject of “law” like everything
else.
Morality regulates the laws of man’s well-being,
and as it is the “ law ” of his nature to seek his well
being, the interests of morality are sufficiently assured,
whatever may be his opinions on the subject.
�38
Illusion and Delusion.
The Body consists of forces of nature individualized
and acting together for a special purpose. Their action
depends upon the nice balance established between
external and internal relations. It has taken ages tobring together and establish this relationship, and it
is the unity of these powers and their united action
that constitutes the Identity or the Ego. The forces
which compose the body are all capable of acting
separately and are indestructible, but when this unity
of body is destroyed, whether the identity is destroyed
with it, is a question I leave every one to answer for
himself, as it is usually made a question of feeling and
not of reasoning.
Thus Matter, Mind, the World, the Will, in thecommon conception, are illusions, and to many delusions.
What is the Reality underlying them? For myself,
I believe in what natural philosophers call Pre
existent and Persistent Force and its Correlates, and
which to me is the Supreme and Universal Spirit and itsmanifestations. All the phenomena in the universe
consist but in changes of form or transformation of
energy. Matter wrhen closely examined resolves itself
into centres of force, and mind is force or energy,
representing a concentration of all the forces. All
forces readily pass from one into the other, according
to the structure through which they pass. We have
a right, therefore, to infer that there is but one force.
And what is this ? As there cannot be motion without
something moved, so force or power must be the force
of something; and that something to me is the Great
Unknown, its modes of action or manifestations alone
are known to us. But as everything shows the unity
of force, and as all force or power tends to a given
purpose or design, that force must be intelligent, and,
if intelligent, conscious, and the conscious action of
power is will. All power, therefore, is will power,,
and as W. R. Grove, says, “ Causation is the will,
creation the act of God.” The will which originally
�Illusion and Delusion.
39
required a distinct conscious volition has passed, in the
ages, into the unconscious or automatic, constituting
the fixed laws and order of nature.
Here Materialism and Absolute Idealism meet.
Physical force is automatic mind, and this uncon
scious force passing through the brain and subjected
to its molecular action resumes its consciousness consti
tuting that succession of “forms of thought ” and feeling
which man calls his mind. Thus our bodies :—
‘ ‘ Are but organic harps diversely framed,
That tremble into thought, as o’er them sweeps,
Plastic and vast, one intellectual breeze,
At once the soul of each, and God of all.”
Coleridge.
Giordano Bruno taught that “Nature is but a
shadow, a phantom, the mirror in which the Infinite
images himself. The basis of all things is mind, not
matter. It is mind that pervades all. We ourselves
are mind, and what we meet in creation is a corre
sponding mind. Creation does not present mere
traces or footprints of the Deity, but the Deity him
self in his own presence.” For this belief in the 13th
century he was burnt. The world is wiser now, for
there are many who believe with St. Paul “ that God is
all in all,—that of him and through him, and unto him
are all things.” That God is the universe, and the
universe is God; and that, in no poetical, but in a
truly literal sense, “ In him we live and move and
have our being.” “ It is true there are diversities of
operation, but the same God worketh all in all.”
“ God is everything or nothing.” * “ But nature,
which is the time-vesture of God, and reveals him to
the wise, hides him from the foolish.”^
It is as difficult for most people to accept this conclu
sion as it is to believe that the world does not exist
outside of them as it appears to them to do. God the
Victor Cousin.
t T. Carlyle.
�40
Illusion and Delusion.
author of all things is accepted only in theory and in
a very limited and secondary sense, for what then
becomes of sin and evil if it were so, is he the author
of them? The answer is, good and evil are purely
subjective—relative pains and pleasures, the creation
of our own minds; beyond is only good. What we
call the soul’s highest and sweetest emotions are parts
only of the great whole that equally includes the
little, the low, the poor and the helpless, and what to
us are the worthless and the bad.
This Pantheism is as old as the world, the highest
minds in very early ages have attained to it. “ The
earliest known origin,” says E. W. Newman, “ of
Pantheism was in India; where it was taught that
the eternal infinite Being creates by self-evolution,
whereby he becomes, and is, all existence ; that he
alternately expands, and as it were, contracts himself,
reabsorbing into himself the things created. Thus the
universe, matter, and its laws, are all modes of divine
existence. Each living thing is a part of God, each
soul is a drop out of the divine ocean; and, as Virgil
has it, the soul of a bee is a ‘ divinse particula aura?.’ ”
The question is, has modern thought or science added
any thing that helps to make the conception clearer?
I think it has, in the knowledge we now have of the
existence of persistent intelligent force and its unity.
But as we cannot know things in themselves, we can
only judge by analogy, or show how one thing resem
bles another. The human body is a perfect cosmos,
an epitome of the action of the forces of the whole
world. Every action of the body—the heart, the
liver, the lungs, &c.,—that is now performed uncon
sciously or automatically were originally performed vol
untarily ; the spinal cord, on its first appearance, in the
lower animal scale, governed the body consciously and
intelligently, as the brain does at present; it now
governs the body intelligently, Dt not consciously,
u
*
and it does its work quite as well. This is a most
�Illusion and Delusion,
4i
important distinction, as it seems to be universal.
Mind itself may perhaps be truly said to be inseparable
from consciousness, but it acts equally well uncon
sciously, and we have the action of “unconscious
intelligence.” We can only know things through
their manifestations, and this appears to be the nature
of mind. A conscious mental act frequently volun
tarily performed, passes with such frequent repetition
into the involuntary or automatic state, where the
same action is performed equally well unconsciously.
This it appears to do by the aid of structure (whatever
that is in itself) and as far as we know, mind is never
separated from structure or body. That
“ All are but parts of one stupendous whole,
Whose body nature is, and God the soul,”
is probably as true as it is poetical. “Thought and
extension,” says Spinoza, “are the internal and external
elements of Being.” In speaking of mind, therefore, we
must regard it, in its modes of manifestation at least,
as both conscious and automatic. Continuing then the
analogy between ourselves and the universe; as many of
the functions of the body are now performed, uncon
sciously but intelligently, and as many of our originally
voluntary acts during our lifetime, such as walking,
talking, &c., have passed into the automatic, so in the
world without the Laws of Nature appear to act
intelligently but unconsciously. All power is Will
power, but the will which originally required a distinct
conscious volition has passed, in the ages, into the
unconscious or automatic, thus constituting the
fixed laws and order of nature. If this view be
accepted the bridge over the gap between nerve
elements and consciousness has been discovered; the
gulf hitherto supposed to exist between matter and
mind is filled up, and such questions as,—Can mere
matter think ? How can mere physical force pass into
consciousness? In the world is mind developed first
�42
Illusion and Delusion.
or last? &c., are answered, and all we have to explain
are the conditions under which automatic mind or
unconscious intelligence resumes its consciousness.
Again, as our body has a centre of volition and intelli
gence so may the universe have. Our earth moves
round the sun, and all power comes to us from thence ;
but the sun moves round some other centre, and that
probably round another, until we approach the great
centre of all, where possibly God’s power may be more
directly exercised, and he may consciously govern all;
here, in the extremities, much of it seems to have passed
into the automatic. And here, as regards this centre,
we have another analogy most important. As the
world to us is the world only of our ideas, so the
universe may exist only in the mind of God. We
know nothing but consciousness, space is a mere mode
or form of thought, and if there is nothing but mind,,
things without ourselves must be very different indeed
As Bishop
to what we intuitively regard them.
Berkeley says, “All permanent existence is in the
Divine Mind,” and, as Hegel considers he has demon
strated, the essence of the world and all things in it is
thought, and Schopenhauer also holds that Will alone
is the dinge an sich, the essence of the world.
What then are we ? Schelling, like Spinoza and our
greatest thinkers, allow only a phenomenal existence
to the object and subject, admitting only one reality,
the Absolute. The individual ego is phenomenal, the
universal ego only is noumenal. This may be made
intelligible by the kaleidoscope : with each turn we
have a different form, this form is the phenomenon, and
passes away, that of which it was composed is the
noumenon, and is persistent. The world is a great
kaleidoscope, 'it is ever on the turn, producing its
infinitely varied forms in ever-increasing brilliancy and
beauty, and ever-increasing pleasurable sensibility.
That which persists or exists is not these forms but
that which is the nexus, or which underlies these ever
�Illusion and Delusion.
43
varying appearances. Thus “There is no death in the
concrete, what passes away passes away into its own self,
only the passing away passes away.”* We continue for
ever to exist as part of the Great Whole, in never-ending
changes of form. The sun sets in all his splendour, it is
equally beautiful on the following day, although the
splendour is not the same; the song of the lark each
returning spring is quite as sweet, although no one asks
or cares if it is the same lark; the night comes to us,
and a new day rises to some new comer, with no loss
of enjoyment, but only increased freshness. Is this for
us an ignoble position ?
Are we so perfect, any
of us, that we would for ever remain as we are?
Is the recollection of our present grub state so
very desirable? We are immortal, for we are part
of God himself, do we wish always to remain in
the childhood of our present individual existence ? To
be thus for ever fellow-workers with God is surely
honourable, by whatever names we may be called.
Through the countless ages, one universal plan prevails
for the elaboration and organisation of a nervous system,
by which unconscious mind shall again become conscious
in all the varied forms of animal life. Each creature has
its own world created in its own head, specially fitting
it to take its appointed place at the common feast.
And here we have the last and most striking analogy
of the human body to the great cosmos. As each of
the countless cells in the human body has a separate
life, and yet constituting the fife of the whole, making
one body, so the aggregate of individual creatures
makes one great nervous system, every beat or change
in which produces intense enjoyment, so great, indeed,
that the necessary pain which we call evil disappearsand is lost.
* Hegel.
TURNBULL AND SUIJARS, I'RtNTKKS, EDINBURGH
�
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Illusion and delusion; or, modern pantheism versus spiritualism
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Bray, Charles
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Thomas Scott
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[1873]
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Spiritualism
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IS THERE A LIFE
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��IS THERE A LIFE
BEYOND THE GRAVE ?
A Reply to Dr. R. B. Westbrook.
A uthor of ‘ ‘ The Teachings of Secularism, Compared with Orthodox
Christianity," ‘‘ Secularism: Constructive and Destructive,"
“ Evolution and Special Creation," “The Glory of Unbelief,"
“Saints and, Sinners: Which?" “ Bible Morality,”
“ Christianity: Its Origin, Nature and Influence,"
“ Agnosticism and Christian Theism : Which
is the More Reasonable ? " “ Reply to
Father Lambert," Etc., Etc.
LONDON:
watts & co>, 17 jchnson-s court, fleet st., eax
1894.
PRICE
THREE
PENCE.
��Is there a Life Beyond the
Grave ?
A REPLY TO
R. B. WESTBROOK, A.M., D.D.
It has been aptly remarked that it does not necessarily follow,
because an opponent has been replied to, that his arguments
have been answered. The truth of this statement never ap
peared to me so evident as when I read the comments of Dr.
Westbrook (which appeared in Secular Thought of the 2nd
and 9th of December last) on my lecture, “ Is there a Life
Beyond the Grave ? ” Instead of endeavoring to refute my
arguments, the doctor contented himself with presenting to the
-reader a conglomeration of meaningless phrases, contradictory
statements, and reckless assertions. His article, moreover, was
marred by undignified imputation, more indicative of an irri
table schoolboy, who had undertaken a task which he found
himself unable to perform, than of a debater who felt con
scious of his ability to refute the arguments of his opponent.
To designate my lecture as “ flimsy argument,” and to suggest
that I “cavilled,’' but without attempting by any ordinary rea
soning process to prove his statements, was a marked specimen
of controversial weakness. Dr. Westbrook’s elegant (?) re
mark, “ Did he (Mr. Watts) not bellow and paw up the dirt,
and rush around furiously with hay on his horns like a wild
bull of Bashan, for an hour and a half?” was a proof that in
his case “ a firm faith in a future state ” has not had a “ salu
tary influence.” Such vulgar imputations may be the result of
an “ evil spirit
but it is opposed to that material refinment
,
�4
Is there a Life Beyond the Grave ?
and courtesy which as a rule characterize a real gentleman in
controversy. The only “dirt” that I “pawed up” consisted
in exposing the fallacies indulged in by those who assume a
knowledge which they do not possess. That some of the “ dirt”
fell on Dr. Westbrook is clear from the blemishes that dis
figure his reply to me.
The doctor commences by saying: “I do not accept the
ordinary distinctions which are made in speaking of man, as
consisting of a body and soul. The body is not the man, the
soul is not the man, the mind is not the man ; but it requires
what is intended by these three terms, and much more, to make
a man.” Now, wrhat is the “ much more ” here referred to ?
If there is something more in man than “body, soul and mind,”
the doctor should have stated what it is. Again, he says : “ I
make no distinction between the material and immaterial,
the natural and the supernatural, as I do not know where to
draw the line.” Then, if he makes no distinction and if he
knows not where to draw the line, why does he mention the
“supernatural” at all, particularly when he further observes :
“I can think of nothing separate from matter ”? If he is correct
in this last assertion, he by his own confession knows nothing
of any “ supernatural,” and any “ argument,” therefore, drawn
from such meaningless phrases must be “ flimsy ” indeed.
Dr. Westbrook alleges that I admit that the doctrine of a
future life “ is beyond the limits of controversy. If he (Mr.
Watts) has any logical argument that could be used against
the theory of a future life would he not have produced it ?"
I have made no such admission ; on the contrary, my lecture
was a proof that, in my opinion, the doctrine did come within
“ the limits of controversy.” Surely there is a difference
between debating a doctrine and admitting that what the doc
trine represents is capable of demonstration. “The fact is,”
as the doctor observes, “ it is easy to cavil.” As to my pro
ducing arguments against the theory of a future life, that is
�Is there a Life Beyond the Grave ?
5
precisely what I did in my lecture ; but whether they were
“ logical ” or not. the doctor made no effort to show. : For
instance, I pointed out that the term . “ soul ”, has never been
defined ; that, if we possess one, it is not known in what part
of the body it is to be found,' or when.it enters or .when it
leaves jbq human frame; .that the only ‘-soul ” known is the
brain of man,, and if that brain, does, not properly exercise its
functions, the. manifestations of. life will be .proportionally inn
paired. In proof of this I referred to persons in lunatic asylums
who had diseased brains, whose judgment was dethroned, and
whose reason had deserted them. , Had the soul, I asked, ip
their case lost its power of, control ? If so,, what is its value..?
When a drunkard becomes intoxicated, and loses. all.control
over.hjinself^has bis soul lost its power? Again, as regards the
>‘.<>oul ”, leaving.the body, I .enquired if it did so immediately
at death, if it.goes straight,to heaven or hell, witfcpuj;,waiting
for the judgment day ? If it does not leave the,body till some
time after death, how can a decaying., body retain the so.ul ?
Jo any one of these questions the doctor did not even , attempt
to give an answer.
.• .
? < . ; Further quoting.frorp / J,h<? Creed of.Science,” by Professor
Graham. I showed that,science taught that immo.rtality i;s not
.and cannot be proved,, t}bat the chief function of the brain
is that which is known, by the. term “ mental activity,” that
nothing is .known, and nothing can be known of, a life beyond
the -grave. In . support of my contention I produced-the
evidence of several scientific men, concluding with.the ¡testi
mony of the late Professor Tyndall, who said ; “ But to return
to the hypothesis.of a,human soul, offered as an explanation
or a simplification of a series of obscure phenomena. . Adequate
reflection shows |hat, , instead of introducing .light .into our
minds, it increases :our darkness. -You .do not, ip'this case,
explain the .qnknown in terms of the known, which is the
method of science,, but you explain theK,unknown, in. terms of
�6-
there a Life Beyond the Grave ?
the more unknown.” Now, upon all this Dr. Westbrook was
silent in his reply, and he coolly asserted that I produced no
“ logical argument ” against the theory of a future life. If
what I did produce were illogical, why did not the doctor
endeavor to prove this was so ?
I am further charged with denying a future life, whereas in
my lecture I distinctly stated in answer to the question, “ If a
man die shall he live again ?” that by its very nature, and by
the very nature of our mentality, it is utterly impossible to give
a definite opinion pro or con. Referring to Spiritualism, I said
that I had studied it for five years, and had found nothing in
it; not that I wished to deny that there might be something,
but—depending on my own reason and judgment, by which °I
stand or fall -I had found nothing. But, says Dr. Westbrook,
“ What does this prove ? Why, that Mr. Watts did not find
anything in Spiritualism ! But does his failure show that
nobody else ever succeeded ? Does he know every thing ?” Of
course my failure to discover anything in Spiritualism only
proves what I stated, that I found nothing in it. It is not my
custom to dogmatize as to what others have seen, or thought
they have seen. I am reminded that I don’t “ know every
thing.” That is so, and in this particular the doctor and my
self are on equal terms. I am asked if I can “ mention one
thing which man actually desires, which has not a palpable
existence.” Certainly I can. Men desire universal happiness,
justice for all, and a fair distribution of wealth, but these
conditions have no “ palpable existence .”
I repeat that it is impossible to long for that of which nothing
is known. The doctor takes exception to this, but he gives
no instance to prove that I am wrong. If, as he says,—“ Life
beyond the grave is this : a continuation of the present life,
nothing more, nothing less,” then the future is not another
life, and the doctor has to show how the “ continuation of
the present life” can go on in the absence of the conditions
�Is there a Life Beyond the Grave ?
7
that we know are necessary to its manifestations now. We
have positive proof that the body, including the brain, the
heart and the lungs, are indispensable to what we term life : let
it, therefore, be shown how this life can continue when the body
and its organs have disappeared. The doctor, however, re
futes himself, for he says that in the next world we shall be “as
the angels/’ and not subject to the conditions that govern us
here. If this will be so, it will be another life after all, inas
much as existence here is not regulated on the “angelic”
principle, therefore, continuity ceases.
Apart from such flimsy arguments ” as the above, the
doctor bases his belief in “a life beyond the grave ” upon the
opinions of great men. the alleged universality of the belief and
the general desire that is supposed to exist for such a life. As
these objections to the Agnostic position involve probably the
strongest arguments that can be urged in favor of a future life,
I shall examine them one by one.
Dr. Westbrook, in his reply, does not content himself by
modestly asking, “ Is there a life beyond the grave ?” but he
positively asserts that there is such an existence. This is a
bold allegation, to prove the truth of which will require more
knowledge than the doctor has hitherto given evidence that he
possesses. What is meant by the term “ life ”? Our answer
is, that we only know of it as “ functional activity ” in organ
ized existence, such as we behold in the animal and vegetal
kingdoms, The question, however, of a future life concerns
chiefly man, who possesses an organism and functions of
various kinds. Before we can accept as true, the statement
“ there is a life beyond the grave,” we must have some know
ledge of the conditions of that supposed existence, and
whether or not they are suitable to man as we now know him.
But up to the present we have not met any one who possesses
the required knowledge, and, therefore, no information is
forthcoming as to the nature of a future life. We certainly
�8
Is there a Life Beyond the Grave ?
decline to accept the. proposition as being self-evident. If, as
the doctor alleges, there is presumptive evidence in favor of a
future life, the most that can be reasonably argued is that there
may be such a lite. Of course we do not contend that a visit
to the planet Mars wonld be necessary before we could believe
that life existed there, but we do assert that some kind of com
munication with the inhabitants would be necessary before we
could positively allege that human life was there. It is not
unreasonable to demand at least reliable testimony in .matters
beyond our experience. It is one thing to have a mind open
to conviction, and quite another to meet the man who can con
vince us. When, similar evidence is presented in favor of a
■ future existence to that which obtains for the operation of
natural law throughout the universe, and when such evidence
can be tested by the ordinary rules of observation and experi
ment, the question of a life beyond the grave will deserve
serious consideration
'
■
•.’ -i'.'A
The doctor’s proposition, although put in the positive form,
is really an assumption, based on the fact of the continuity of
life on our globe. But what is understood by such continuity?
Simply a succession of animated forms of existence, beings who
continue to possess the attributes of life, in whom the living
principle appears in a series of individual representations. Bui
a life beyond the grave involves much more than this ; it
assumes a continuity of life in the same individual, a condition
of which we know nothing Man exists generation after genera
tion, but every succeeding one is new. Life on this globe ceases
in the individual man when his organism becomes disintegrated
and when its functions are unable to continue their opera
tions. Death is a condition the very opposite to that of life :
both therefore cannot be conceived as being one, as the
doctor’s contention requires. A living dead man is a contra
diction, tor it is a self-evident fact that if man always lived he
' would never die. Death occurs every moment, but we haw
�Is there a Life Beyond the Grave ?
9
no instance of the perpetual continuation of one living indivi
dual. A body in action must be present, somewhere, but
when it has disappeared in the grave and gone to ashes, it is
no longer an organized body. In other words, a body must
act where it is, or where it is not. It cannot act where it is, in
the grave, for there its functions have ceased ; it cannot act
elsewhere because it is not there to act. This appears as selfevident as that the whole is greater than the part# The denial
that a future state has been proved is held to be the converse
of the proposition that there is one, and therefore it is equally
unphilosophical and presumptuous. People fail to discrim
inate between the thing itself and what is said about it,
although there is a manifest difference between the two cases.
What we deny is the validity of the evidence, the conclusive
ness of the reasons given in support of the theory of a future
life.
The doctor relies much upon what great men have said and
written on the subject. Of course the opinions of eminent
men are entitled to respect, but they are also open to dispute,
inasmuch as all men are fallible. Great men have enter
tained the most erroneous and childish ideas.
We must
not confound Newton and the apple with Newton and the
Bible, nor Faraday the chemist with Faraday the Muggletonian.
Our estimate of great men is based upon what they do or what
they prove. When they defend the abominations of slavery
and witchcraft, or when they give their support to miracles and
orthodox doctrines, because they are sanctioned by the Bible,
we change our estimate of them. Great men have held mis
taken views about creation, the laws of motion, and the pos
sible disappearance of all existing things, but that is no reason
why the humblest of their fellow men should endorse their
mistakes. Professor Wallace’s views on development may be
accepted, if the facts he submits prove his case, and so also may
his other views be accepted for the same reason. But in our
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Is there a Life Beyond the Grave ?
opinion his contentions in reference to a future life cannot be
proved by candid investigation and sound reasoning.
The alleged universality of opinion is quoted by Dr. West
brook as a proof of the reality of a future life. The fact is the
belief in all kinds of error has been general in all ages and in
all nations. Because the multitude once believed in the mov
ing sun, in the stationary earth and in the existence of angels
and devils, it®is no conclusive proof to us that their belief was
correct. Have we then the audacity to reject the verdict of
ages, and to declare that the majority of men have been mis
taken ? On certain matters we do so most decidedly, for the
reason that nothing is clearer to-day than that our forefathers
were wrong upon many things which were objects of “universal
belief.” The notion that the stars were drawn by the gods or
guided by spirits, has had to give way before the discoveries of
attraction and gravitation, and the creation theory is refuted
by the facts of evolution. Those who base their faith in a
future life on the common beliefs are like the man who is said
to have built his house upon the sand. The flood of science
will sweep all false beliefs away, as surely as the morning sun
disperses the vapors of the night.
The doctor fires off his syllogistic cannon and he supposes
that we are fatally wounded. But it is not so, for we would
remind the doctor that the value of a syllogism depends mostly
upon the first premiss. For instance, take the following :
“ The future will be a continuance of the present, the present
is manifest and undisputable, therefore, so is the future.” Now
if the first premiss were proved, the conclusion may follow,
but as it is only an assumption, based on general belief and on
great men’s opinions, the conclusion is also of the same nature,
and is a part of the assumption. Dr. Westbrook ought to know
that the greatest absurdity might be made to appear
feasible to the uneducated mind by the syllogistic mode of
pleading. For instance, “Nothing is better than heaven, a
�Is there a Life Beyond the Grave ?
n
chop is better than nothing, therefore a chop is better than
heaven.”
It is commonly held that any conception formed by man
must have a corresponding reality somewhere. Yet the con
ception which was formed as to the origin of things has been
shown by modern researches to be absolutely groundless in
reality. Modern investigation has exploded the old theories of
the genesis of things. Men have had to unlearn much that
the dame schools taught and that the Sunday-school endorsed.
Take the illustration of the general conception of the dragon.
We may be able to trace the idea to some extinct animal, but
that does not prove the existence of the dragon or attest the
truth of the belief that such an animal ever existed. If an
artist paints a picture of the Devil it is perfectly certain that his
Satanic Majesty never sat for the portrait.
Perhaps the strongest element in the argument for a future
life is derived from what is called the desires of mankind.
These, it is said, must be accounted for, which we think can
easily be done. We submit that the instinctive love of life
found in man is sufficient to explain the desire for its continua
tion. No doubt there is some connection between desires and
their realization in reference to things that are attainable, for
the very desire may be a factor in the sum of the causes that
enable us to realize our ideal. But the mere fact of having the
desire is no evidence that its realization will follow, A desire
for food and comfort is very general, but many are destitute of
both. The longing that all members of the human family
should be equally well off is extensive, but such an enviable
state of things does not exist. We must not, in reasoning,
take refuge in incongruities. Those who argue that without
an endless future, this life is not worth having, must regard the
present existence as being exceedingly defective. Why, then,
should its continuation be desired ? And yet the doctor
argues for a prolongation of such a life. If it is said that in
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Is there a Life Beyond the Grave ?
another world there will be a change for the better, we ask,
where is the proof that any improvement will take place ? It
is another instance that the wish is father to the thought.
Endless existence and interminable motion may be laws of
thought which it is impossible to banish from our minds,
although we are unable to conceive of an infinite past, which is
involved in the statement. But it is otherwise with the forms
of existence that possess life, these can be conceived of as
coming to an dnd. Intense heat or intense cold may ter
minate all living things in a brief space of time. The truth is
that it is only dreamers who contend that any part of the
compound being called man will
“ flourish in immortal youth,
Unhurt amidst the war of elements,
The wrecks of matter, and the crash of worlds.”
Many persons who do not admit that Secularism is the best
philosophy of existence, acknowledge that its principles are
excellent so far as this life is concerned ; but they assert that
t.iose principles are insufficient to sustain its believers in the
hour of death. With a view of showing that this position is
not a sound one, and that it misrepresents the Secular views
as to death, we purpose answering the following three queries,
which are frequently put by our opponents.
1. What are the Secular views in reference to death ?
2. Is there sufficient reason to justify the Agnostic attitude
as to a future life ?
3 Is the Secular position a safe one ?
In the first place, what are the Secular views as to death ?
They are these. That there is not sufficient evidence to justify
the assertion that there is, or that there is not, a life beyond
the grave. Many centuries ago, an oriental sage is said to
have asked, “If a man die, shall he live again? ’ Although
many generations have passed away since the supposed query
�Is there a Life Beyond the Grave ?
was submitted, no definite or satisfactory answer has been
given It is a problem to the solution of which the philosopher
has devoted his wisdom, the poet has dedicated his poetry, and
the scientist has directed his attention, and yet the problem
remains unsolved. Secularists, therefore, agree with Thomas
Carlyle when he said : “ What went before, and what will
follow me, I regard as two impenetrable curtains which hang
down at the two extremities of human life, and which no man
has drawn aside.” The Secularists adopt, in reference to a
future life, the Agnostic position, and they refuse to dogmatize,
either pro or con., upon a matter in reference to which, with
the present limited knowledge in the world, it is impossible to
know anything.
Mr. Hugh O. Pentecost thus puts the case :
“ The Freethinker looks at death just as it is, so far as we
know anything about it—the end of life.
He does not hope,
nor expect to live after death. He admits that he may, just as
there may be a planet in which water runs up-hill. He there
fore maps out his life with absolutely no reference to alleged
heavens or hells, or to any kind of spirit world.
He goes
through this world seeking his own welfare and knowing, from
the open book of history and his own experience, that he can
promote his own welfare only by promoting the welfare of every
other man, woman and child in the world ; knowing that he
cannot be as happy as he might while anyone else is miserable.
He knows that death is as natural as birth.
He knows that,
as we were unconscious of our birth, we will be unconscious
of our death. He knows that, if death puts a final end to him
as a person, as science seems to prove, it cannot be an evi.l.
He suffered nothing before he was ; he will suffer nothing if
he ceases to be. He will not even know that he is dead.”
The Secularist accepts this Freethought view of death. He
is not sufficiently dogmatic to assert there is an existence
beyond the present one, neither is he presumptuous enough to
say there is not. Knowing only of one existence, Secularists
�14
Is there a Life Beyond the Grave ?
content themselves therewith, feeling assured that the best
credentials to secure any possible immortality is the wisest
and most intellectual use of the life we now have. They
further allege that, to the man who is sincere and true to his
conscience through life, “ hereafter ” has no terrors. The man
who has lived well has made the best preparation to die well,
and he will find that the principles which supported him in
health can sustain him in sickness. When the last grand scene
arrives, the Secularist, having done his duty, lies down quietly
to rest, and sleeps the long sleep from which, so far as we
know, there is no waking. What has he to fear ? He knows
that death is the consequence of life, that nothing possesses im
mortality. The plant that blooms in the garden, the bird that
flutters in the summer sun, the bee that flies from flower to
flower, and the lower animals of every kind, all pass into a
state of unconsciousness when their part is played and their
work is done. Why should man be an exception to the uni
versal law ? His body is built up on the same principle as
that of everything else that breathes, and his mental faculties
differ in degree, but not in character, from theirs. He is sub
ject to the same law as the rest of existence, and to repine at
death is as absurd as it would be to weep because he did not
live in some other planet or at some other time.
Nature is
imperative in her decrees, and must be obeyed. Death is the
common lot of all. The atoms of matter of which one organism
is made up are required for the construction of another, so they
must be given up for that purpose, and to repine at it argues
an ill-tutored mind. The work is done, and if it has been
done well there is nothing to fear, either in this or any other
hfe. Such are the views of Secularists as to death, and,
o ding such views, they can die without fear, as they have
lived without hypocrisy.
Now as to the second query-Is there sufficient reason to
justify this Agnostic position ? It must be understood that
�Is there a Life Beyond the Grave ?
15
this position not only admits the “ don t know, but it goes
further, and alleges that as we are at present constituted, we
cannot know of anything beyond the present life. ¡Moreover,
be it observed, our position is still more comprehensive than
- this ; for we contend that the facts of existence do not substantiate the positive statement that there is a life beyond the grave.
Professor Graham, in his. “ Creeds of Science,” in giving a sum
mary of modern scientific opinion on this subject, observes :
“ And now what is the scientific doctrine of the great theme
of immortality? Is there.any hope for man ? In one word,
No. For any such hope, if men must continue to indulge in
it after hearing the scientific, arguments, they must go else
where—to the theologian, the metaphysician, the mystic, the
poet. These men, habitually dwelling in their several spheres
of illusion and unreality, may find suggestions of the phantasy,
which they persuade themselves are arguments in favor of a
future life ; the man of science, for his part, and the positive
thinker, building on science, consider no proposition more
certain than that the soul is mortal as well as the body which
supported it, and of which it was merely the final flower and
product. . . • Our modern physiologist has ascertained that
thought is but a function of the brain and nerves. Why should
it not perish with these ? . . . Why shonld it not collapse with
the general break-up of the machinery ? Why should it not
cease when no longer supported by the various physical ener
gies whose transformations within the bodily machine alone
made its existence possible ? .... But science, for her part,
finds no grounds for the beliefs of theology or metaphysics in a
• ‘ future life—beliefs, moreover, which she regards as little com
forting at the best. ... Science, we think, has made out the
dependence of our mind and present consciousness on bodily
conditions, so far as to justify the conclusion that, the disso
lution of the body carries with it the dissolution of our present
consciousness and memory, which are reared on .the bodily
�16
Is there a Life Beyond the Grave ?
basis. At least, it raises apprehension in the highest degree that
this will be the case. Again, Science - partly by what Darwin
has established, partly by other evidence, only recently acces
sible, respecting the low state of the primitive man —has
brought the human species into the general circle of the animal
kingdom in a sense far more deep and essential than was for
merly dreamed of ; and she has thereby deepened the belief,
though without producing absolute conviction, that the argu
ments proving a possible future life for man hold likewise for
the lower animals j so that, if man be judged immortal, they
should be also, and if they be mortal, so also is man. Thirdly,
Science has called attention to the fact that there is something
like a general law discoverable in the history of Species, that
they all have their terms of years, though the term is usually a
long one, and that probably, therefore, the human Species it
self, as well as all other existing Species, will disappear, giving
place to wholly different, though derivative types of life. And
all these things taken together undoubtedly tend strongly to
produce the conviction that death closes the career of the exist
ing individual.” In support of the conclusions here arrived at,
Professor J. P. Lesley says : “ Science cannot possibly either
teach or deny immortality.” Professor Lester F. Ward observes
that, “ So far as science can speak on the subject, consciousness
persists as long as the organized brain, and no longer.” And
Professor E. S. Morse writes : “ I have never yet seen anything
in the discoveries of science which would in the slightest degree
support or strengthen a belief in immorality.”
It is alleged that the “ soul ” is the “ thinking principle.” If
this be so, wherein is man’s superiority over the lower animals,
so far as immortality is concerned ? Herbert Spencer, Dr. W.
B. Carpenter, and many other eminent writers, have contended
that the reasoning powers in man differ only in degree from
those in the general animal kingdom. In other words, if, the
above allegation be correct, the lower animals, as they possess
�Is there a Life Beyond the Grave ?
17
the “thinking principle,’’ have “souls,” and will live for ever.
Indeed, Bishop Butler granted this, for he assures us “that
there is no true analogy in all nature which would lead us to
think that death will prove the destruction of a living creation.”
Moreover, we read in the Bible: “ For that which befalleth the
sons of man befalleth beasts / even one thing befalleth them :
as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one
breath : so that a man hath no pre-eminence above a beast :
for all is vanity.” Besides, the thinking principle, so far as we
know, depends upon a material organization for its manifesta
tion : is it, therefore, not reasonable to conclude that when the
organization is destroyed the principle will no longer exist?
When the cause is gone the effect must cease.
Those persons who dogmatically assert that there is a future
life, erroneously confound something they call a “ soul ’ with
the mind, and they then assert that ’ the mind is a distinct
entity. Now as Dr. Wigan observes: “ The mind every
anatomist knows to be a set of functions of the brain, differing
only in number and degree from the intellect of animals. Ot
the mind- we’know much, but of the soul we know nothing.
Can the mind, then, be a thing perse, distinct and separate
from the body ? No more than the motion can exist indepen
dent of the watch, and all the arguments of theologians and
metaphysicians on this subject are founded on the confusion
of terms.” It is said that a future life is proved by the fact
that development has been always taking place in the organic
kingdom. First came animals low in the scale, then of higher
and higher type, and so on up to man. Why, then, it is asked,
may not man pass at death into a still higher condition ? Now
the merest tyro in logic can recognize that there is no analogy
whatever in the two cases.
The higher animals are not
the lower in another stage, but an improvement upon
them, a new individuality. The only argument that could
logically be drawn from the develepment theory on this point
�18
Is there a Life Beyond the Grave ?
is that after man beings of a still higher order might make
their appearance, but then they would no more be individual
men of a previous age than we are the Iguanodons of the “ age
of reptiles.” Besides, all the changes that we know of in the
organic kingdom have taken place upon the earth, whereas the
condition which believers in a future life contend for is to be
in some far-off land of shadows occupied by what is termed
“ disembodied spirits.” The case of the caterpillar is frequently
given as an illustration of changes from a lower to a higher
state of existence.
But the caterpillar becomes transformed
into the butterfly before our eyes; we can see it in both con
ditions, and can observe the process of change going on.
The butterfly is an improvement upon the caterpillar in point
of organization, but in every other respect they are both
similar. Both are material, and each is liable to destruction
and decay. The spirit, however, that is supposed to be evolved
from the human form at death, is said to be immaterial and
immortal, and, therefore, totally unlike that material organiza
tion from which it has escaped. The change is not observed.
he body dies and the elements of which it was .composed
pass into other forms-this is all that we see and all that we
know. Beyond this everything is mere conjecture and vague
speculation.
6
As to how the belief m a future life originated, the statement
o Piofessor Graham is a pertinent explanation. He says ‘A strange and extravagant fancy that arose one day in the
breast of one more aspiring than the rest, became soon after
wards a wish ; the wish became a fixed idea that drew around
itself vain and spurious arguments in its favor ; and at length
e fancy, the wish, the idea, was erected into an established
octane of belief. Such, in sum, is the natural history of the
famous dogma of a future life.
Not by any means, however
was it a primitive and universal belief of all nations. Arising
probably at first with the Egyptians, it was only after a Ion!
�Is there a Life Beyond the Grave ?
T9
time taken up by the Jews, then, or possibly earlier, by the
Greeks, with whom, however, the life held out, thin and un
substantial even at best, was far from being desirable. It was
only in the Christian and Mohammedan religions that the
notion of a future and an eternal life was fully developed, and
that the doctrine was erected into a central and an essential
article of belief.
We now come to the third query—Is the Secular position a
safe one? Our answer is, Yes ; for by making the best of this
life, physically, morally, and intellectually, we are pursuing the
wisest course, whatever the issues in reference to a future
life may be. If there should be another life, the Secularist
must share it with his opponent Our opinions do not affect
the reality in the slightest degree.
If we are to sleep forever,
we shall so sleep despite the belief in immortality : and if we
are to 'ive for ever, we shall so live despite the belief that pos
sibly death ends all It must also be remembered that if man
possesses a soul, that soul will be the better through being in
a body that has been properly trained ; and if there is to be a
future life, that life will be the better if the higher duties of the
present one have been fully and honestly performed Secular
ists are, therefore, safe so far, inasmuch as they recognize it to
be their first duty to cultivate a healthy body, and to endeavor
to make the best, in its highest sense, of the present existence.
Now, in reference to the supposition that we may be punished
in case we ate wrong. Our position is, that if there be a just
God, before whom we are to appear to be judged, he will
never punish those to whom he has not vouchsafed the faculty
of seeing beyond the grave because they honestly avowed that
their mental vision was limited to this side of the tomb. Thus
the Secularists feel quite safe as regards any futurity that may
be worth having If the present be the only life, then it will
be all the more valuable if we give it our undivided attention.
If, on the other hand, there is to be another life, then, in that
�20
Is there a Life Beyond the Grave ?
case, we shall have won the right to its advantages through
having been faithful to our convictions just to our fellows, and
in having striven to leave the world purer and nobler than we
found it. As to the feeling of consolation, which is said.to be
derived from the belief in a future life, we are safe upon this,
point also. For if there be a.life beyond the grave, we have
the conviction -that our Secular conduct on earth will, entitle us
to the realization of its fullest pleasure. Moreover, this con
viction is not marred by the belief that the majority of the
human race will be condemned to a fate “ which humanity
cannot conceive without terror, nor contemplate without dis. may.”
...
Finally, Secularism asserts that, if we are to have an immortal?
ity, it ought to be one in which we can mingle with the purest,of
the earth, for the anticipation of it would fill our minds with
delight and would afford us the assurance that in Quitting,this
stage of life it would only be an exchange for" one purer and lof
tier. But, pleasing as this ideal may be, consolatory .as it would
undoubtedly prove, it is useless to forget that our present know
ledge teaches us that such hopes are only poetical, such
anticipations only imaginary.
We therefore sternly face the
truth, and as some of us cannot believe in a future life, we
seek to realize the worth of this one by'striving to correct its
many errors. And in so doing we are achieving the safest of
all rewards—the consciousness that while here on earth we are
working with sincerity and fidelity to secure that heaven of
humanity, the comfort, happiness, and welfare of the human
race.
Through the lack of careful study, many errors obtain and
strange misconceptions exist as to what the terms “ matter 7
and ‘ spirit’ signify. We desire, therefore,, to endeavor to ex.plain what they really mean, and how far, and in what way,
they have any relation to human conduct. For instance, are
they both existences of which we have any knowledge ? and if
�Is there a Life Beyond the Grave ?
17
the “thinking principle,’’have “souls,” and will live for ever.
Indeed, Bishop Butler granted this, for he assures us “that
there is no true analogy in all nature which would lead us to
think that death will prove the destruction of a living creation.”
Moreover, we read in the Bible: “ For that which befalleth the
sons of man befalleth beasts : even one thing befalleth them :
as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one
breath : so that a man hath no pre-eminence above a beast :
for all is vanity.” Besides, the thinking principle, so far as we
know, depends upon a material organization for its manifesta
tion : is it, therefore, not reasonable to conclude that when the
organization is destroyed the principle will no longer exist?
When the cause is gone the effect must cease.
Those persons who dogmatically assert that there is a future
life, erroneously confound something they call a “ soul ’ with
the mind, and they then assert that ’ the mind is a distinct
entity. Now as Dr. Wigan observes: “ The mind every
anatomist knows to be a set of functions of the brain, differing
only in number and degree from the intellect of animals. Ot
the mind- we know much, but of the soul we know nothing.
Can the mind, then, be a thing perse, distinct and separate
from the body ? No more than the motion can exist indepen
dent of the watch, and all the arguments of theologians and
metaphysicians on this subject are founded on the confusion
of-terms.” It is said that a future life is proved by the fact
that development has been always taking place in the organic
kingdom. First came animals low in the scale, then of higher
and higher type, and so on up to man. Why, then, it is asked,
may not man pass at death into a still higher condition ? Now
the merest tyro in logic can recognize that there is no analogy
whatever in the two cases.
The higher animals are not
the lower in another stage, but an improvement upon
them, a new individuality. The only argument that could
logically be drawn from the development theory on this point
�22
Is there a Life Beyond the Grave ?
exercises an influence over any or all of the three, it must
follow that this spirit must be some force that can operate with
out any medium connecting things that have no affinity or
relation to each other. This is equivalent to saying that we can
transmit a message to America, not only without a cable, but
without any conductor at all. To postulate spirit as the unknown
cause of known effects, is simply another way of expressing
our ignorance of what that cause is. But we submit that
these assumptions amount to a clear contradiction, because
they imply that after we have eliminated from the totality of
existence, all entities, and their attributes and functions, there
yet remains spirit. Io think of something apart from every
thing is beyond our power, and to think of spirit in relation to
anything, is to make it an entity or an attribute.
Matter may be defined as that which occupies space and
is cognized by the senses.” But what is spirit? If it can be
cognized it must be material, and if it cannot be cognized
it is to us as nothing. We are aware that spirit has been de
fined as “ refined matter,” but in that case it would be material.
e can, therefoie, only act consistently when we accept the
decision of the human intellect as applied to every proposition
submitted to us.
We cannot, if we act wisely, repudiate its
authority in judging of the highest conception of things. This
is our standard of appeal upon all matters material, or so-called
spiritual. We accept what appears true, after the most rigorous
criticism, and we reject every error immediately it is discovered.
For instance, we regard two truths as being established so far
as our present knowledge extends—the indestructibility of
matter, and the invariable order of nature. By nature we
mean all that is, because, so far as is known, it has no limit in
space or time. The term spirit is not included in this defininition, tor the reason that we have no conception of what it is.
It it exist, its claims to belief can only be established by one
�fs there a Life Beyond the Grave ?
23
method, that of observation and experiment.
Should its
claims be thus successfully proved. Spiritualism will then cease
to be distinguished from Materialism, inasmuch as it will then
be within our conception of the established order of things.
We fail to see how there can be two different kinds of truth in
the sense of there being one that we can apprehend by our
understanding, and another that we cannot. We are aware that
theologians assert that there are two kinds of truth, one within
the reach of reason, and the other above it ; but we cannot
believe this theory, as no sufficient reason has been given to
justify us in accepting such a proposition. In reference to
such preposterous claims, we ask the following pertinent ques
tion__If there is a truth above or beyond the reason of man to
comprehend, how can it become known ? Of course our in
ability to understand such a truth does not prove its non
existence, but it disposes of our relation to it ; and conse
quently it is no truth to us.
In science it is the practice to explain things in materialistic
terms; and to adopt spiritualistic phrases is in our opinion
not only of no advantage, but it tends to the confusion of ideas
and leads many minds into the region of obscurity.
We
see no justification for ceasing to speak of matter as a form of
thought and of thought as a property of matter, so long as our
object is to indicate what we think and feel. The main point
that we are anxious to insist upon is that no unknown power
or powers should be appealed to for the purpose of explaining
the facts of existence when we are cognizant of forces that are
sufficient to achieve the object.
Moreover, an unknown
power can only be of practical service to us if its manifestations
admit of verification, which those of spiritualism do not. W e
therefore rely upon truths that are demonstrated by material
processes, for they give potency and dignity to nature ; that
nature, be it observed, that may be termed the mother of all.
�24
Is there a Life Beyond the Grave ?
;rom her bosom we derive the sustenance of life, the panacea
for woes and wrongs, and the solace for misery and despair
that too frequently crush the hopes of man and rob humanity
of its highest glory and its noblest service.
��Works by Charles Watts.
The Bible
Up to Date.
16 Pages and cover.
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The Teachings of Secularism Compared with Orthodox Chris
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�
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Victorian Blogging
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Is there a life beyond the grave? A reply to Dr. R.B. Westbrook
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Watts, Charles [1836-1906]
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Place of publication: London
Collation: 24 p. ; 19 cm.
Notes: Part of the NSS pamphlet collection.
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Watts & Co.
Date
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1894
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RA1573
N671
RA622
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Spiritualism
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<img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /><br /><span>This work (Is there a life beyond the grave? A reply to Dr. R.B. Westbrook), identified by </span><span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk">Humanist Library and Archives</a></span><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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English
NSS
Secularism
Spiritualism
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e13a849c8f544b981f104bc78ff9eb9f
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Text
{TRACTS FOR THE TIMES.
I
“ Read, Mark, Learn, and Inwardly Digest.”
------------- O-------------
|l LAST ADDRESS OF REV. JOHN PIERPONT.
------------- o------------j
Our friend who has just welcomed you to this city, has'J
i;jwelcomed you, among other things, as “infidels.” I think it
[may not be inappropriate to say one word upon that forij®dable
®word “Infidel.” What does it mean 1 Etymologically, jig means
an unfaithful one. In that sense, I do not recognize the epithet
las belonging to myself; Ido not believe that it belongs to|$-ou.
. In another sense, it means those who'diy not agree in certain
■ Particulars with the majority of the commuuityfegoundBthem, 1
i Almost all of the various Christian denomination are very much
& in the habit of branding those not of their peculiai®^nomination i
as infidels. The Catholic Church has, in my own hearing,
spoken of all Protestants as infidels. Many of the Protestant I
| sects speak of the most enlightened and the most Christian of I
® their fellow-Christians as infidels, notrbecause they are less I
il’ faithful, but because, in fact, they are wore, faithful than them- a
fselves. Faithful to what? is the great question. If faithfuljl'ness to a party or sect is meant, I do not care how soon nord
how generally I am called an infidel ; I welcome the epithet.
But if faithfulness to truth or one’s convictions to truth is meant g
ji I hold that we are not infidels, but that, on the contrary, we are
» P faithful among the faithless.” Let a man be faiskhful to the o
truth, or, what is equivalent, faithful to his convictions as tot
[ what is true, and you may trust that man' anywhere. But, myib
V friends, it requires some backbone in a man or a woman to befr
j faithful to his or her convictions, when thosb convictions depart o
h- by a very sharp angle from the opinions of those around Hiem/il
I know that, if you mean by infidel, an unbeliever, IBamBnfidel'I
I to a great many of the forms of pd^ulaiweligion, because I doT
not believe in many of the points whiclsd are held by a majority t
! of the Christian, nay even of the Protestant Church, It is not
necessary for me to say in what I do not believe, and in regard
' to which I am, therefore, an infidel; but let me say, how many!
times, for example, have I heard Wm. Lloyd Garrison denounced
. in former years as an infidel, not because of his want of belief
bdn the doctrines of the Christian Church, or even of the Orthodox
[Price 6d. per dozen.]
�2
Church, but because he did not believe with the people at large
in the sanctity of slavery, and did not believe it was a divine
institution, and said so, and did what he could to dissuade
others from that belief. Not ten days ago, I heard Gerritt
Smith denounced as an infidel, because he did not believe in the
Sabbath > but Gerritt Smith observes both the seventh day and
the first day, and is therefore more of an observer of the
Sabbath than those who reproach him with infidelity.
Why are we Spiritualists 1 Why do I take that opprobrious
name, and acknowledge it before the world 1 Because I am
thoroughly convinced, by the evidence presented to my mind,
that the leading doctrines of the Spiritualists are true. The
facts upon which those doctrines rest—as all doctrines rest finallyi;
the reasoning by which I infer the doctrine from the fact,/
show it. If not, perhaps you had better restrain the charge of
infidelity until you can establish it on better evidence.
Why does any man believe in any religious doctrine ? If he
believes it in the proper sense of that word,he receivesit as
true upon the ground of having seen evidence of its truth. If
he takes it on the authority of pastor, teacher or parent, it is
not belief, it is an echo. His intelligence has nothing to do
with it. He says he believes it, because he is told to say he
believes so, or told to believe so. A proper belief in regard to
matters of religion consists in this: the conviction of an intelli
gent mind of the truth of a proposition because of the evidence
that is presented to that mind that that proposition is true. No
other belief on the subject of religion is worthy of the name of
religion. Now, we believe in the tact, that under certain con
ditions, in these our days, communications do come to us from
the spirits of those who have passed through the gate which we
call the gate of death, through certain media or mediums; and
from that fact we believe that the spirit survives the body in a
personal, conscious state—a state of intelligent, moral activity.
That fact makes us Spiritualists ; or, rather, (speaking only for
myself) that fact makes me a Spiritualist; not because I believe
in thefacts of which other menhave been cognizant, but becauseof
facts which I have witnessed, to which my senses have borne
their testimony. I believe on the same grounds of reason that
induced the beloved disciple to believe the Gospel. The things
which his eyes had seen, and his ears had heard, and his hands
Lad handled, these declared he unto his fellow disciples and to
the world at large. And what higher testimony can we have of
�3
I any fact than the testimony of our senses ? What I see with
w my eyes, what I hear with my ears, and what I feel through.
J the medium of my nervous system, I know; and I know that
si as well aS St. John knew what he saw and heard and felt.
iJForjMy use and my purposes, my senses are as good as the sensei
of St. John, the beloved disciple, or any other saint. God in
that respect has put us upon an equality, and has given us senses
by which we hold communion with the objects of the externas
world around us.
>■* Now, here are two questions which present themselves to
3 every intelligent and thoughtful mind—whence came I ? whither
31am I going 1 These questions are to be answered by the reasoni J png faculties of man. Whence came I? I put my hand upon
1 'this desk. This object, I see, is at rest; it cannot move itself,
fcgotoheara lecture on natural philosophy. The professor
> stands by his table and says, “ All matter is endowed with what
we call vis inertia—the quality of lying still. It cannot move
itself.’'’ This ball that I hold in my hand would lie there until it
•decomposed, unless it was moved by some power other than
itsplf. Now, what is true of this ball which I hold in my hand,
and which I move in my hand, is just as true of this great ball,
I t.ie earth on which we stand, and on which we move and have
Lour being. “ What moves that ball ?” I ask. “ Why, my hand.”
to Is aiot your hand matter ?’’ “ Yes.’’ “ What moves your hand,
B itheriiji’ “ There is a mechanical arrangement here of levers and
I pullies, and my arm moves my hand.” And what moves your
rgarm^M “ Well, the nervous system connected with it.” “ And
| what moves the nervous system ?” ‘ Well, the brain, which is
y the centre of the nervous system.’’ “Well, but is not the
brain matter?” “Yes.” “What moves the brain?’’ “The
I -spirit that is in man.”
And when we come to. the last analysis, it is spirit that moves
.all matter. The ultimate motive power of all the motion of the
universe is spirit. That is what I believe, my friends. I
F believe that inasmuch as matter cannot be said to move itself,
•as matter cannot move, spirit cannot rest; it is always active,
•always in motion ; as incapable of rest as matter is incapable of
motion. Then, I come to this : all the growth in the vegetable
wojd&all the formations in the mineral world, indicate design.
Thegbrmation of quartz crystal in the bosom of the limestone
I. aaA indicates that that is the work of spirit, and that spirit
pervades that rock as perfectly as it pervades space—that it
pervades every sphere in every system—that it is universal
�4
Then I come to an omnipresent? an omnipotent, and an omni-'J
scient spirit; and that spirit I call God ; and I read in the New |
Testament “ God is a spirit.” So I make a distinction between i
the Maker and the things that are made, and realize that that4
spirit ministers to all that it produces, and manifests itself
through all worlds and all time, and that he works, not six days
alone, but seven. His work was from eternity, and probably
will continue through eternity. He works through certain 1
principles or laws of action, Laws are often spoken of as'if they
were the cause of production ; but according to my idea, laws;:
never do anything. A law is defined by the elementary writers •
on law as a rule of action, never an agent. A law never acts, i
but is the rule accoiding to which some agent acts. Principles®!
are never agents ; principles do nothing. Men act according tot
principles but principles never act. ' In spirit, you always have /
an agency of action. Therefore ami, and therefore are you, I
suppose, Spiritualists.
Then more especially are we Spiritualists when, havingasked the question whence we came, we comprehend that we
came from.spirit, not from matter. When we look around upon
the material world, we see matter changing continually its I
forms, but not its nature as malter. There is ice. Men melt it
at thirty-two degrees Farenheit, into water ; it is the same
substance, but different in form. Carry it up to two hundred
and twelve degrees, and the water changes its form, and becomes
vapour. You cannot see it, but it goes up into the cool regions
of the atmosphere, and there assumes the form of visible vapour ;
and when it goes higher it changes its form again, and comes
down upon us as rain.
So other objects continually change their form, but their
nature is the same ; and no part of matter ever comes to nothing,
or ever came from nothing. Then all life, all motion, all
change, comes directly or indirectly from the action of spirit ; I
and hence we receive the doctrine, that the spirit is the man, and
believe that if the spirit survives after the process we call death,
the man survives, and is the identical man. Not that his exter
nal form is the same ; we know it is not. Philosophers tell us
that the whole human body changes once in about seven years,
but the personal identity remains the same. I therefore
conclude that I came from spirit, came from the spirit-world, and
am myself a spirit.
Then comes the question, Whither am I going ? What say®
reason ?
Reason says, spirit cannot rest ; spirit cannot be
�annihilated ; spirit must live, must act, wherever it is. The
great question then comes, shall this spirit, which is now
personalf retain its individuality after it passes the curtain that
divides the present from the future, or shall it be merged in the
infinite spirit, as one drop of rain is merged in the ocean into
wfejh it, falls 1 There is the great question. And when I know
thlTthe spirits that have known me, and that I have known,
can and do, through certain media, hold communication with
me when I see the expression of my wife, who has been more
than ten years in the spirit-world beaming out upon me from
another face, when she speaks to me as her husband, when she
reminds me of the past, when she tells me of her present conc&tion, when she assures me that there is a pleasant place
waiting for me when I come ; when my father, speaks to me
through a medium who describes him, and says he looks like me,
and tells me in what particulars he differs from me, and tells
me a fact which no other human being in the world but myself
and he know, T am sure that I am having a communication
from my father, and that, when I cast off the fleshy part of my
nature, I am to meet the spirit of my father on the other side of
Ulis curtain, and that I am going into his society.
When a
woman, whom I never saw before in my life, and who probably
never saw me, tells me that there is a spirit who calls me by a
particular name who was alive and well .when I saw him last,
and I say it is a mistake, that he is not in the spirit-world, and
he tells me that he has been there several months, and on en
quiring of his friends, I learn that he has been in the spirit-world
several months, I feel justified in saying that I know.
Now, I ask can any one come to the conviction that there is a
spirit in him, and not feel blessed and benefited by it 1 Who
has not said, only relieve me from the dread uncertainty that
hangs over me, only let me know that I shall be individualized
a.nd as I am now, and I ask no other question ; I know that I
am in the hands of the Universal Spirit, and it will be well
with me as it has always been well with me in His hands. Upon
that arm I can cast myself with entire confidence only let me know
that I shall be at all. Through Spiritualism I do know that the
spirit survives the body, and that when it passes through the
grave, it has communion with those who have gone before.
When, therefore, I am asked the question, whither am I going, I
answer, I am going into the spirit-world, there to meet kindred
spirits ; to join, in the language of the scriptures, ‘‘ the general
assembly of the church of the first born, whose names are written
�6
in heaven.” “ In heaven !” But where is heaven ? That ques
tion laboured in my mind for years, until I felt the fact of
Spiritualism : Where is the spirit to go ?—whither ?—to what
place ? Shall it go to one star or many, or roam from star to
star ? Shall it go from luminous world to luminous world, or
shall it be confined to the present star ? for this earth that we
live on is a star, as bright and beautiful when seen from Venus,
as Venus is when seen from the earth. Shall we go to Venus or
stay upon the earth ? For myself, I am satisfied that before
long, in all probability, before I have the pleasure of addressing
another Spiritual Convention, I shall put off this fleshy garment,
and when next you meet, I may be with you, unseen, and may.
possibly hold communion with one or more of you, when you
wake or when you sleep. At all events, that is my faith ; and
to that faith I do not mean to be infidel while 1 live, and do not,
think I shall. People may call me what they please. Faithful
or unfaithful is a question which lies between me and the Infinite
Spirit alone. With Him I am perfectly content that it should
rest.
I, therefore, as it becomes me on this occasion, retire from the
■chair to which, through your kindness, I was invited last^ year,
with the knowledge that I am inadequate to perform its duties.
I cannot see your faces nor hear your voices to-day so well, even
as I could last year. I gratefully acknowledge your kindness to
me, and trust that, as the faith in which we are held together as
brothers and sisters is not a new faith, but a faith that has been
held by some in all ages, it will be held in all ages; and that as
in our age, more than in the past, evidences are had that it is
the true faith, more and more will gather round this standard ;
and although, before you meet again, I may have passed away, I
believe that I shall be permitted, even then, to meet with those
who are still left on this side of the stream which flows between
the seen and the unseen worlds.
O
�1
-------- o--------This eminent and venerable man, known—by name at least—
on both sides of the Atlantic, as preacher, orator, poet, scholar,
patriot, reformer, and philanthropist, peaceably passed from the
scene of his earthly labours to the better life, on Monday, August
17th, at the ripe age of eighty-one. The editor of the Banner of
iAghWLn an obituary notice, remarks
His career embraced
almost every department of action that could give a man
confidence, and develope the courage and the strength of
manhood that is in him. He was a reformer, a man of ideas,
a lover of truth wherever found, impervious to the bugbear of
social fear, brave and tender, strong and feminine, tenacious of his
opinions, overflowing with charity, and full of a knightly resolu
tion to challenge all comers for the cause of Truth, in whose
defence he stood, a genuine poet, and a sincere, healthy, whole
man.”
At the commemoration service held at the church where he
had been pastor, a large concourse, including George Thompson,
Lloyd Garrison, and some of the most eminent citizens of
Boston and its vicinity were present. The Rev. Mr. Stetston,
who delivered the funeral address, said—“He had known the
deceased nearly fifty years j he was a greet worker; the leading
philanthropist of his age for a whole generation. Neither
threats nor persuasion could turn him from his line of duty.
When asked by the members of his congregation not to speak
upon certain ‘exciting topics,’ his reply was:—‘I will stand
in a free pulpit, or none: I will speak the whole truth or not
speak at all! ” He was imbued with great kindness of heart,
warm and tender sympathies, exalted hopes foi' the race, and
possessed of such an indomitable will that he would willingly
be reduced to beggary—be thrown aside, sacrificing everything
for reform, or such unpopular truths as met with the approba
tion of his own conscience. As a strenuous advocate of human
rights, and freedom for all races, he had left his mark upon the
century.”
Becoming a Spiritualist late in life, he proclaimed his faith
far and wide, in the same brave spirit in which he did every
thing else. He lived to the last hour of his life. His last
public act was to preside over the National Convention of
Sj|^g|^lists, held at Providence, U.S.A., only a few days before
his death. A member of that Convention writes:—“We shall
�8
never forget his last words to us at the National Convention.
Extending his hand he said, ‘ Brother, go on ; Christ, our Elder
Brother is with you ; God, the Father, and His angels are with
you ! Proclaim the ministry of spirits to earth ! It is the chief
blessing of my life! Do the work of an Evangelist, and as far •
as possible, make our faith practical among men.’ ”
His first thought in the spirit-world, as his last in this, seems -»
to have been given to the advancement of that knowledge of
its verity and power of blissful communion with the beloved of
earth which he has now realized. At a gathering of friends
irj.Boston a few .days after his mortal decease, his spirit was >
distinctly seen, taking hold of the arm of an old friend who
was present, and who felt the touch, though he did not perceivb »
the presence of the spirit. The lady who had seen the* spirit, *
becoming entranced, the spirit through her, spoke as follows
>
Blessed—thrice blessed—are they who die with a knowledge of the 1
truth.
After a slight pause, the spirit resumed :—
Brothers and Sisters^—The problem now is solved with me. And
because I live, you shall live also .; for the same divine Father and
Mother that confers immortality upon one soul, bestows the gift upon
all. Oh, I am so joyous to-night, that my soul can scarcely give express
ion to its thoughts through this weak mortal; and I never realized
before how good God is! I regret I cannot portray to you the transcend
ent beauty of the vision I saw just before I passed to the spirit-world, as
my dear ones stretched out their I hands to receive me saying, ‘‘Your
time has arrived—come home with us.” The glories of this new life are
beyond description. Language would fail me should I attempt to describe'
them. Tell those who were in sympathy with me, but not with my
belief, that what was then to me a belief, is how a blessed reality. I
know that I live and can return.
Then addressing the friend, whose arm he had just taken, he <
said:—
My good brother, go on in the work in which you are engaged regardless of the derision and scorn of those who do not understand you.: Be fearless
in the way of right, for Christ our Elder Brother, and God our Father,,!
will ever be with you to bless and sustain you in the noble cause in
which you are engaged. Take courage brother ; persevere resolutely ; ,
it will be well with you.
London: Printed by J.H. Powell, 6, Sidney Terrace, Grove
Road, Victoria Park, E. Sold by J. Burns, Progressive Library,
1, Wellington Road, Camberwell, S., and Mr. Lockyer, 14, Newman
Street, Oxford Street, W. Forwarded by Post.
i
■ >;
*
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Pamphlet
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The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Last address of Rev. John Pierpont
Creator
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Pierpont, John [1785-1866]
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: [s.l.]
Collation: 8 p. ; 18 cm.
Series title: Tracts for the times
Series number: no. 1
Notes: John Pierpont was an American poet, who was also successively a teacher, lawyer, merchant, and Unitarian minister. From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. Printed by J.H. Powell, Victoria Park, London. The better known 'Tracts for the Times' began in 1833 with the first tract written by John Henry Newman entitled Thoughts on the Ministerial Commission. Pierpont's address was therefore part of another series [unidentified] published with the same name. Pages 7 & 8 are an In Memoriam.
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[s.n.]
Date
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[186-]
Identifier
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G5255
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (Last address of Rev. John Pierpont), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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application/pdf
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Text
Language
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English
Subject
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Spiritualism
Conway Tracts
Spiritualism
-
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i •
LONDON
DIALECTICAL
SOCIETY,
32A, GEORGE STREET, HANOVER SQUARE, W.
LONDON:
PRINTED BY WERTHEIMER, LEA AND CO.,
CIRCUS PLACE, FINSBURY CIRCUS.
1866—67.
��PROSPECTUS.
--------------00-------------
That Truth is of all things the most to be desired,
and that it is best elicited by the conflict of op
posing opinions, are propositions on which all
philosophers are agreed, and which need only be
enunciated to command universal assent.
Influenced by these considerations, and actuated
by the desire of giving them effect, several gentle
men of various tastes, literary, scientific, and phi
losophical, thought that a Society instituted for
the purpose of interchange of opinion on all sub
jects of interest, would be to a certain extent a
novelty, and would meet with favorable support.
They were aware that there already existed nume
rous Debating Societies, where mere surface-ques
tions were argued, (chiefly for the purpose of ob
taining practice in speaking,) and where subjects
held to be of the highest importance were prohi
bited from being discussed at all; but there did
not appear to be a Society for the philosophical
�6
treatment of all questions, especially those which
lie at the root of the differences of opinion which
divide mankind,—such questions, for instance, as
are comprised in the domain of Ethics, Meta
physics, and Theology.
It was designed, therefore, to establish not a
mere Debating Society, or Discussion Class, but
an Association with higher and more philosophical
aims.
It appeared to the Founders, that for a Society
of this kind to be successful, Sectarianism of every
description must be rigidly excluded,—all distinc
tion founded upon social condition, occupation,
and the like, disregarded—and the only recognised
qualifications for Membership be an unstained
character, and a genuine desire for the promotion
of the objects of the Society.
It was manifest, too, as an essential condition of
success—being, indeed, the fundamental principle
of the Society, that the most absolute freedom of
debate should be permitted ;—that no subject
whatever should be excluded on any ground save
that of its triviality, and that the restrictions and
reservations which obtain in ordinary Debating
Societies should have no place here.
�1
A meeting of the Founders was subsequentlyheld, at which, after due deliberation, the follow
ing Resolution was unanimously carried : — “ That
“ in the opinion of this meeting, it is desirable that
“ a Philosophical Association be formed for the
“ discovery and elucidation of truth, upon all sub“ jects, by means of argument and discussion.”
The first question to be considered was the name
by which the Society should be known; and with
reference to the title adopted, the following re
marks by Professor Bain, in his essay on Early
Philosophy, may not be out of place :—
“ The essence of the Dialectic Method is to place
“ side by side, with every doctrine and its reasons,
<£ all opposing doctrines and their reasons, allow“ ing these to be stated in full by the persons
“ holding them. No doctrine is to be held as ex“ pounded, far less proved, unless it stands in
“ parallel array to every other counter-theory, with
££ all that can be said for each. For a short time
“ this system was actually, maintained and prac“ tised but the execution of Sokrates gave it its
“ first check, and the natural intolerance of man“ kind rendered its continuance impossible. Since
“ the Reformation, struggles have been made to
�“ regain for the discussion of questions generally,
“ —philosophical, political, moral, and religious,
“ the two-sided procedure of the law-courts, and
“ perhaps never more strenuously than now.”
Let the London Dialectical Society, then, encou
rage and practise the method of teaching implied
by its title : let us remember that
“ Through mutual intercourse and mutual aid,
“ Great deeds are done, and great discoveries made,
“ The wise new wisdom on the wise bestow,
“ Whilst the lone thinker’s thoughts come slight and slow.”
Let us emulate the example of the great Athe
nian philosopher of antiquity, the aim of whose
existence was the demonstration of Reasoned
Truth, and the exposure of the errors and fallacies
of his age,—who, absolutely regardless of all con
sequences, passed his life in the bold enunciation
of the truth, and voluntarily and cheerfully forfeited
it in its defence, — whose virtue, courage, and
wisdom have earned for him the veneration of
posterity.
The Founders of the Society are aware of the
difficulties to be encountered. They know that a
Society of individuals proposing to discuss every
subject, without the slightest reserve, will neces
sarily incur considerable obloquy, and be the ob
�9
ject of much depreciatory remark and prophetic
denunciation. It will rest with the Members to
prove by their conduct in debate, that these un
favorable comments and gloomy forebodings were
based upon an erroneous conception of the prin
ciples upon which the proceedings of the Associa
tion are to be conducted.
In a Society where such full liberty of debate is
granted, where matters on which men have deeplycherished opinions are openly and boldly dis
cussed, some little self-restraint must be exercised
on the one hand, and too great sensitiveness must
not be exhibited on the other. Debate must be
conducted without any undue warmth of feeling,—
arguments, and not individuals, must be attacked,
—imputation of motives must be avoided,—and
the Chairman must exercise his authority with
promptitude, impartiality, and rigor.
It is hardly necessary to express a hope that
* Members will not consume the time of both them
selves and others by the consideration of questions
of frivolous import or vexatious triviality. It was
proposed, indeed, to meet the difficulty by a Law,
empowering the Council to exercise some kind of
censorship ; but it was thought better to leave the
�IO
matter to the good sense of the whole body of
Members, in the full confidence that any attempt at
trifling would be promptly and efficiently checked.
To conclude : the London Dialectical Society
will have effected much good, if, by its means, per
sons are made to feel that to profess a belief on a
disputed question with regard to which they refuse
to examine the evidence, is an act altogether un
worthy of a rational being; and that the only
method of arriving at truth is by submitting one’s
opinions to the test of unsparing and adverse
criticism. Freedom of speech and thought are, not
less than personal freedom, the natural birthright of
all mankind. To refrain from uttering opinions be
cause they are unpopular, betokens a certain amount
of moral cowardice, — engendered by long-con
tinued persecution. To state fearlessly the truth,
or what we believe to be the truth, even though it
be held only by a few, is the act of all who con
sider the exercise of private judgment a right, and *
the extension of human knowledge a duty. But
society generally has not yet reached such a stage
of progress, as to allow individuals to give expres
sion to their honest and deliberate convictions,
without inflicting upon them penalties more or less
�II
severe. The effect of this is to deter men from
expressing opinions, which might be corrected if
erroneous, and accepted if true. In the London
Dialectical Society, however, not only will no per
son suffer obloquy on account of any opinion he
may entertain or express, but he will be encouraged
to lay before his fellow-members the fullest expo
sition of his views. Even if this were not so, it is
to be hoped that Members of the Society will
possess sufficient moral courage to disregard, in the
interests of Truth, that social tyranny—the weapon
of Ignorance and Intolerance.
“ They are Slaves who will not choose
“ Hatred, scoffing, and abuse,
“ Rather than in silence shrink
“ From the truth they needs must think.
‘ ‘ They are Slaves who dare not be
“ In the right with two or three.”
Let us be mindful of the fact, that throughout the
whole history of the world, the voice of Authority
has constantly opposed new truths; and, with an
earnest desire both to learn and teach, let us zea
lously follow the practice of Dialectics, unaffected
by the praises of some, undeterred by the denun
ciations of others, but conscious of honesty and
purity of motive, and desirous for the wisdom and
happiness of Man.
�RULES.
I. —That the Society be called “ The London
Dialectical Society.”
II. —That the object of the Society be the philo
sophical consideration of all subjects, with a view
to the discovery and elucidation of truth.
III. —That the Society consist of a President,
Vice-Presidents, and Members.
IV. —That the government of the Society be
vested in a council of nine, consisting of the Secre
tary, the Treasurer, and seven other Members ;
three to be a quorum.
V. —That the Council be elected by Ballot
annually.
VI. —That vacancies occurring in the Council
be provisionally filled up by the remaining Mem
bers of the Council.
�VII. —That the President and Vice-Presidents
be elected by the Council, and that they enjoy all
the privileges of ordinary Members.
VIII. —That on and after the ist of January,
1867, persons desirous of becoming Members of
the Society, having filled up a form of applica
tion, to be obtained of the Secretary (of which the
annexed is a copy,) be proposed and seconded at
an ordinary Meeting, and balloted for at the fol
lowing Meeting, one black ball in six to exclude;
and that any one thus excluded be not again pro
posed for a period of three months.
FORM OF APPLICATION.
Having read the Prospectus and Rules of the London
Dialectical Society, I beg to express my cordial approval
of its object and the principles on which it is founded, as
therein set forth ; and being desirous of becoming a Member,
request that my name be placed on the List of Candidates for
admission.
Signed________________________________
Address_______________________________
Date_______________________
Proposed by________________________ ________
Seconded by_________________________________
�i4
E IX.—That two ordinary Meetings of the Society
be held in each month, except the months of August
and September; but that the Council have the
power to appoint any additional Meeting, and fix
the day for an adjourned ordinary Meeting.
X. —That Members be entitled to introduce per
sonally a friend each at the ordinary Meetings, whose
names shall be entered, together with the names of
the Members introducing them, in a book kept for
that purpose; such Visitors not to take part in the
discussion, without permission of the Chairman.
XI. —That on the written requisition of twelve
Members, the Council call a Special General Meet
ing to consider any question with reference to the
affairs of the Society, and that at such Meeting no
other business but that stated in the requisition be
considered.
XII. —That no Rule be made or altered without
the consent of three-fourths of the Members pre
sent at the Special General Meeting called to con
sider the proposed alteration.
XIII. —That the Secretary send to each Member
of the Council due notice of each Council Meet-
�i5
ing; and to each Member of the Society due notice
of the Annual, and of every Special Meeting; in
each case stating the object for which the Meeting
has been called.
XIV. —That a Balance-sheet and Report be
drawn up by the Council, and presented at the
Annual General Meeting.
XV. —That at the ordinary Meetings, no vote
be taken with reference to the subject of the Paper
read, or discussion which may have taken place.
XVI. —That the Secretary keep Minutes of each
Meeting; such Minutes to consist of a short sum
mary of the Paper read, together with the Debate
thereon, and also any other proceedings which may
have taken place.
XVII. —That the Papers read before the So
ciety, or a copy of them, be delivered to the Secre
tary, and become the property of the Society ■ but
that no Paper be published without the consent of
its Author.
XVIII.—That the subjects proposed for discus
�sion be received, and the order in which they are
to be taken arranged, by the Council.
XIX. —That if the conduct of any Member be
such as to cast discredit on the Society, or to be
detrimental to its interests, a Special General
Meeting shall be called by the Council, according
to the provisions of Rule XI., at which Meeting
the expulsion of such Member may be resolved
upon, the conditions of Rule XII. being complied
with, and the Vote being taken by Ballot.
XX. —That except where otherwise stated, open
Voting be practised.
XXI. —That in the absence of the President,
each Meeting elect its own Chairman, whose de
cision on all matters of order shall be final.
XXII. —That the Annual Subscription be ten
shillings and sixpence, payable in advance.
XXIII.—That the Council have the power to
make such Bye-laws and other Regulations as from
time to time they may deem necessary; but that
no Bye-law or Regulation be made inconsistent
with the constitution of the Society, as set forth
in the Prospectus and fundamental Rules.
�17
XXIV. —That the Council have the power to in
vite persons of celebrity to read papers, or deliver
addresses before the Society.
XXV. —That at the conclusion of each Meet
ing, the subject to be considered at the following
Ordinary Meeting be announced, and that the
Secretary make known the subjects, if possible, not
less than three months in advance.
�BYE-LAWS.
I. —That the Session, commence on the ist of
October, and terminate on the 31st of July.
II. —That the ordinary Meetings be held at the
Rooms of the Society, 3 2a, George Street, Han
over Square, on the evenings of the first and third
Wednesday in each month during the session, and
that the proceedings commence at eight o’clock
precisely.
III. —That any ordinary Meeting held in the
first week of any month, maybe adjourned to the
night of ordinary Meeting in the third week of that
month; such adjourned Meeting to take prece
dence of all ordinary business of that night.
IV. —That no ordinary Meeting held in the
third week of any month be adjourned without
special leave previously obtained of the Council.
V. —That no adjourned ordinary Meeting be
held in the first week of any month.
�19
Papers and Discussions during the Session
. 1866—67.
1867.
Jan. 29.—Inaugural Meeting.
Feb. 5.-—“ On the Causes of Poverty and Low Wages.”
Dr. Drysdale.
19. —Adjourned Debate on Dr. Drysdale’s paper.
Mar. 5.—“On the Laws relating to the Tenure of Land.”
Dr. Chapman.
13.—“On the Medical Education of Women.”
Dr. Edmunds.
20. -—Adjourned Debate on Dr. Drysdale’s Paper.
April 3.—“ On the Political Philosophy of Thomas Carlyle.”
Mr. Smith.
17.—11 On Utilitarianism, as compared with Theological
or Dogmatic Standards of Morality.”
Dr. Drysdale.
May 1.—“ On the Influence of the Inquisition upon Spanish
Literature.”
Mr. Chidley.
15.—“ On Aggressive War : what are the circumstances
(if any) which justify it ?”
Mr. Smith.
June 5.—“ On Utility,—the ultimate Test of Morality.”
Mr. Shields.
19. — “On Waste, politico-economically considered.”
Dr. Edmunds.
July 3.—“ On Marriage-Contracts.”
Dr. Chapman.
17.—“ On the Credibility of Miracles.”
Mr. Warington.
�20
MEMBERS.
Philip Abraham, Esq., 147, Gower Street, W.C.
L. B. Abrahams, Esq., B. A., Jews’ Free School, Bell Lane,
N.E.
Roger Acton, Esq.,
Crescent, N.W.
n, Crescent Place, Mornington
Isidore G. Ascher, Esq., B.C.L., 6, Guildhall Chambers,
Basinghall Street, E.C.
Wynne E. Baxter, Esq., Bedford Park, Croydon, S.
Herman Beigel, Esq., M.D., 3, Finsbury Square, E.C.
H. R. Fox Bourne, Esq., 29, Brixton Place, S.
Thomas Bourne, Esq., 25, Somerset Street, Portman
Square, W.
H. Evans Broad, Esq., 5, Stratheden Villas, Hammer
smith, W.
F. Gordon Brown, Esq., M.R.C.S., 16, Finsbury Circus,
E.C.
N. J. Canstatt, Esq., M.R.C.S., 12, South Place, Fins
bury, E.C.
The Rev. John Chapman, Jews’ College, Finsbury Square,
E.C.
John Chapman, Esq., M.D., 25, Somerset Street, Portman
Square, W.
Sydney Chidley, Esq., 25, Old Jewry, E.C.
Andrew Clark, Esq., M.D., 23, Montague Place, Russell
Square, W.C.
�21
Frank Crisp, Esq., B.A., LL.B., 6, Old Jewry, E.C.
John Crowther, Esq., 94, Holborn Hill, W.C.
Charles R. Drysdale, Esq., M.D., 99, Southampton
Row, W.C.
R. William Dunn, Esq., M.R.C.S., 13, Surrey Street,
Strand, W.C.
Arthur E. Durham, Esq., F.R.C.S., F.S.S., 30, Brook
Street, Grosvenor Square, W.
D. H. Dyte, Esq., M.R.C.S., 15, Bury Street, E.C.
John Dyte, Esq., 32, Moorgate Street, E.C.
James Edmunds, Esq., M.D., 4, Fitzroy Square, W.
Mrs. Edmunds, 4, Fitzroy Square, W.
Pierce Egan, jun., Esq., Middle Temple, E.C.
James Ellis, Esq., M.D., St. Luke’s Hospital, Old Street,
E.C.
James H. Gough, Esq., B.A., Thames Conservancy Office,
Trinity Square, E.C.
Jacob Guedalla, Esq., 10, Clarendon Gardens, Maida
Vale, W.
Joseph Guedalla, Esq., 10, Clarendon Gardens, Maida
Vale, W.
William Hardwicke, Esq., M.D., 70, Momington Road,
N.W.
Ephraim Harris, Esq., B.A., Jews’ Free School, Bell
Lane, N. E.
Morris Harris, Esq., 8, Great Prescott Street, E.
A. Hartog, Esq., 15, Belsize Square, N.W.
George H. Haydon, Esq., Bethlem Hospital, Lambeth, S.
N. Heckford, Esq.,M.R.C.S., 5, Broad Street Buildings, E.C.
�22
Samuel Jackson, Esq., Guy’s Hospital, Borough, S.
H. L. Kempthorne, Esq., M.D., Bethlem Hospital, Lam
beth, S.
G. W. King, Esq., Eagle Wharf Road, N.
Albert Kisch, Esq., M.R.C.S., 2, Circus Place, Finsbury,
E.C.
James Knight, Esq., 71, Cheapside, E.C.
Joseph Knight, Esq., 8, Warden Road, Haverstock Hill,
N.W.
J. Baxter Langley, Esq., M.R.C.S., F.L.S., 50, Lincoln’s
Inn Fields, W.C.
J. S. Laurie, Esq., Hall Staircase, Inner Temple, E.C.
Gerald Levi, Esq., 8, Coleman Street, E.C.
Maurice H. Levirton, Esq., 2, Fen Court, Fenchurch
Street, E.C.
J. H. Levy, Esq., Education Department, Privy Council
Office, Downing Street, S.W.
The Rev. M. B. Levy, Synagogue, St. Alban’s Place, S.W.
Morell Mackenzie, Esq., M.D., 13, Weymouth Street,
Portland Place, W.
The Rev. P. Magnus, B.A., B. Sc., 29, Blandford Square,
N.W.
Frank R. Malleson, Camp Cottage, Wimbledon, S.W.
Mrs. Malleson, Camp Cottage, Wimbledon, S.W.
Henry Maudsley, Esq., M.D., 38, Queen Anne Street,
Cavendish Square, W.
J. Maurice, Esq., 3, Langham Place, Regent Street, W.
Bentley McLeod, Esq., 32, Moorgate Street, E.C.
B. M. Moss, Esq., 25, Store Street, Bedford Square, W.C.
�LONDON
DIALECTICAL
SOCIETY.
PRESIDENT.
Sir JOHN LUBBOCK, Bart., F.R.S.
VICE-PRESIDENTS.
ANDREW CLARK, Esq., M.D.
Prof. HUXLEY, F.R.S.
COUNCIL.
L. B. Abrahams, Esq., B.A.
John Chapman, Esq., M.D.
William Hardwicke, Esq., M.D.
James Knight, Esq.
J. H. Levy, Esq.
Henry Maudsley, Esq., M.D.
J. Rigby Smith, Esq.
TREASURER.
C. R. Drysdale, Esq., M.D.
HON. SECRETARY.
D. H. Dyte, Esq., M.R.C.S.
HON. SOLICITOR.
Sydney Chidley, Esq.
A UDITORS.
James H. Gough, Esq., B.A.
Bentley McLeod, Esq., (Messrs. Dyte, McLeod and
Leader, 32, Moorgate Street, E.C.)
�INDEX.
Prospectus
........
3
Rules................................................................................. 12
Bye-Laws-............................................
Papers for
List
of
the
Session 1866-67
.
18
...
19
Members.....................................
20
�23
E. J. Moss, Esq., 48, Edmund Terrace, Kensington, W.
H. Raymond, Esq., 8, York Grove, Peckham, S.E.
Alfred T. Rees, Esq., 13, Rydon Crescent, St. John
Street Road, E.C.
Walter Rivington, Esq., B.A.,M.S., 22, Finsbury Square,
E.C.
W. H. Mosse Robinson, Esq., Birdhirst. Croydon.
Henry Sewill, Esq., M.R.C.S.,20, Clifton Gardens, Maida
Vale, W.
W. A. Shields, Esq., Birkbeck Schools, Peckham, S.E.
James L. Shuter, Esq., 33, Farringdon Street, E.C.
A. Simons, Esq., B.A., Jews’ Free School, Bell Lane, N.E.
J. Rigby Smith, Esq., Education Department, Privy Council
Office, Downing Street, S.W.
James Spear, Esq., 6, Bishop’s Road, Bayswater, W.
P. Spiers, Esq., Jews’ Free School, Bell Lane, N.E.
H. C. Stephens, Esq., Grove House, Finchley, N.
William Taylor, Esq., 145, New Bond Street, W.
Arthur Waller, Esq., B.A., B.Sc., St. Thomas’s Hos
pital, Walworth, S.
George Warington, Esq., F.C.S., Apothecaries’ Hall,
Blackfriars, E.C.
William Rhys Williams, Esq., M.D., Bethlem Hospital,
Lambeth, S.
W. H. Witherby, Esq., M.A., M.D., Coombe, Croydon, S.
H. S. Yeomans, Esq, 35, . Upper East Smithfield, E.
G. G. Zerffi, Esq., Ph. D., 3, Warrington Gardens, Maida
Hill, W.
��y
^rosycdusi atul
OF THE
LONDON DIALECTICAL
SOCIETY.
LONDON:
PRINTED BY S. MELDOLA, 9, CRANE COURT,
FLEET STREET, E.C.
1866.
��PROSPECTUS,
That Truth is of all things the most to be desired,
and that it is best elicited by the conflict of opposing
opinions, are propositions on which all philosophers
are agreed, and which need only be enunciated to command universal assent.
Influenced by these considerations, and actuated
by the desire of giving them effect, several gentlemen
of various tastes, literary, scientific, and philosophical,
thought that a Society instituted for the purpose of
interchange of opinion on all subjects of interest,
would be to a certain extent a novelty, and would
favorable support.
They were aware that there already existed numerous Debating Societies, where mere surface-questions were argued, chiefly for the purpose of obtainKgMRe.tice in speaking, and where subjects held to
be of the highest importance were prohibited from
being discussed at all; but there did not appear to be
�4
a Society for the philosophical treatment of all ques
tions, especially those which lie at the root of the
differences of opinion which divide mankind,—such
questions, for instance, as are comprised in the domain
of Ethics, Metaphysics, and Theology.
It was designed, therefore, to establish not a mere
Debating Society, or Discussion Class, but an Asso
ciation with higher and more philosophical aims.
It appeared to the Founders, that for a Society
of this kind to be successful, Sectarianism of every
description must be rigidly excluded,—all distinc
tion founded upon social condition, occupation,
and the like, disregarded—and the only recognised
qualifications for Membership be an unstained cha
racter, and a genuine desire for the promotion of the
objects of the Society.
It was manifest, too, as an essential condition of
success—being indeed the fundamental principle of
the Society, that the most absolute freedom of de
bate should be permitted;—that no subject whatever
should be excluded on any ground save that of its
triviality, and that the restrictions and reservations
which obtain in ordinary Debating Societies should
have no place here.
A meeting of the Founders was subsequently held,
at which, after due deliberation, the following Reso
�lution was unanimously carried: “ That in the
“ opinion of this Meeting, it is desirable that a Philo“ sophical Association be formed for the discovery and
“ elMjgi of truth, upon all subjects, by means of
“argument and discussion.”
The first question to be considered was the name
by which the Society should be known; and with
reference to the title adopted, the following remarks
by Professor Bain, in his essay on Early Philosophy,
may not be out of place :
“The Essence of the Dialectic Method is to place
“ side by side, with every doctrine and its reasons, all
■ 4Ep8?sin£jdoctrines and their reasons, allowing these
“ to be stated in full by the persons holding them.
■ No doctrine is to be held as expounded, far less
“ proved, unless it stands in parallel array to every
“ other counter-theory, with all that can be said for
“each. For a short time this system was actually
‘MEinaained and practised; but the execution of
“ Sokrates gave it its first check, and the natural
“intolerance of mankind rendered its continuance
“impossible. Since the Reformation, struggles have
“been made to regain for the discussion of questions
^EfetUrally.—philosophical, political, moral, and
“religious, the two-sided procedure of the law-courts,
“ and perhaps never more strenuously than now.”
�6
Let the London Dialectical Society then, encoa*
rage and practise the method of teaching implied by
its title: let us remember that
“ Through mutual intercourse and mutual aid,
“ Great deeds are done, and great discoveries made,
“The wise new wisdom on the wise bestow,
“ Whilst the lone thinker’s thoughts come slight and slow.”
Let us emulate the example of the great Athenian
philosopher of antiquity, the aim of whose existence
was the demonstration of Reasoned Truth, and the
exposure of the errors and fallacies of his age,—who^
absolutely regardless of all consequences, passed his
life in the bold enunciation of the truth, and volung
tarily and cheerfully forfeited it in its defence,—
whose virtue, courage, and wisdom have earned for
him the veneration of posterity.
The Founders of the Society are aware of the diflL
culties to be encountered. They know that a Society
of individuals proposing to discuss every subject,
without the slightest reserve, will necessarily incur
considerable obloquy, and be the object of much
depreciatory remark and prophetic denunciation.
It will rest with the Members to prove by their
conduct in debate, that these unfavorable comments
and gloomy forebodings were based upon an
�1
erroneous conception of the principles upon which
the proceedings of the Association are to be conducted.
Ill a Society where such full liberty of debate is
granted, where matters on which men have deeplycherished opinions are openly and boldly discussed,
some little self-restraint must be exercised on the
one hand, and too great sensitiveness must not be exE^^d on the other. Debate must be conducted without any undue warmth of feeling,—arguments, and
not individuals, must be attacked,—imputation of motives must be avoided,—and the Chairman must exercise his authority with promptitude, impartiality,
rigor.
It is hardly necessary to express a hope that gentlemen will not consume the time of both themselves
and others by the consideration of questions of frivolous import or vexatious triviality. It was proposed indeed, to meet this difficulty by a Law, empowering the Council to exercise some kind of censorship; but it was thought better to leave the matter
to the good sense of the whole body of Members, in
the full confidence that any attempt at trifling
would be promptly and efficiently checked.
To conclude : the London Dialectical Society will
have effected much good, if by its means, persons are
�8
made to feel that to profess a belief on a disputed
question with regard to which they refuse to examine
the evidence, is an act altogether unworthy of a
rational being j and that the only method of arriving
at truth is by submitting one’s opinions to the test of
unsparing and adverse criticism.
Freedom of speech and thought are, not less than
personal freedom, the natural birthright of all Man
kind. To refrain from uttering opinions because
they are unpopular, betokens a certain amount of
moral cowardice,—engendered by long-continued paw
secution. To state fearlessly the truth, or what we
believe to be the truth, even though it be held only
by a few, is the act of all who consider the exercise
of private judgment a right, and the extension of
human knowledge a duty. But society generally has
not yet reached such a stage of progress, as to allow
individuals to give expression to their honest and
deliberate convictions, without inflicting upon them
penalties more or less severe. The effect of this is to
deter men from expressing opinions, which might, fee
corrected if erroneous, and accepted if true. In the
London Dialectical Society, however, not only will
no person suffer obloquy on account of any opinion
he may entertain or express, but he will be encou
raged to lay before his fellow-members, the fullest
�9
^•positron of his views. Even if this were not so, it
is to be hoped that Members of the Society will
possess sufficient moral courage to disregard, in the
interests of Truth, that social tyranny—the weapon
of Ignorance and Intolerance.
They are Slaves who will not choose
“ Hatred, scoffing, and abuse,
“Rather than in silence shrink
From the truth they needs must think.
“They are slaves who dare not be
In the right with two or three.”
Let us be mindful of the fact, that throughout the
whBpi&istory of the world, the voice of Authority has
EojgraaMy opposed new truths ; and, with an earnest
desire both to learn and teach, let us zealously follow
the practice of Dialectics, unaffected by the praises of
some, undeterred by the denunciations of others, but
conscious of honesty and purity of motive, and desirous for the wisdom and happiness of Man.
��RULES.
I. —That the Society be called “ The London DiaSociety.’ ’
lectical
II. —That the object of the Society be the philosoph^^^Ensideration of all subjects, with a view to the
discovery and elucidation of truth.
III. —That the Society consist of a President, VicePresidents and Members.
IV. —That the government of the Society be vested
in a ^Sfacil of nine, consisting of the Secretary, the
and seven other Members; three to be a
quorum.
V. —That the Council be elected by Ballot annually.
VI. —That vacancies occurring in the Council be
provisionally filled up by the remaining Members of the
Council.
VII. —That the President and Vice-Presidents be
elected by the Council, and that they enjoy all the privileges of ordinary Members.
�VIII.—That on and after the 1st of October 1866,
gentlemen desirous of becoming Members of the Society,
having filled up a form of application to be obtained,
of the Secretary (of which the annexed is a, copy)
be proposed and seconded at an ordinary Meeting, and
balloted for at the following Meeting, one black ball in
six to exclude; and that a person thus excluded be M)t
again proposed for a period of three months.
FORM OF APPLICATION.
Saving read the Prospectus and Pules of the Londo®
Dialectical Society, and cordially approving of its object, I
am desirous of becoming a Member, and request that my Name
be placed on the List of Candidates for Admission.
Signed ________________
Address_____________________
Date___________________
Proposed by_____________________
Seconded by_____________________
IX.—That the ordinary Meetings of the Society be
held on the evenings of the first and third Tuesday in
each month, except the months of August and Septem
ber ; but that the Council have the power to appoint
any additional Meeting, and fix the day for an adjourned
ordinary meeting.
�13
each Member be entitled to introduce perKnOI® a friend at the ordinary Meetings, whose name
shall be announced to the Meeting, and entered, toge
ther with the name of the Member introducing him, in
a book kept for that purpose; such Visitor not to take
part in the discussion.
XI. —That on the written requisition of twelve Mem
bers, the Council call a special general Meeting to consic^Pwnypiestion with reference to the affairs of the
Society, and that at such Meeting no other business but
that stated in the requisition be considered.
XII. —That no Rule be made or altered without the
consent of three-fourths of the Members present at the
special general Meeting called to consider the proposed
alteration—at which Meeting not less than one-half of
the members of the Society must be present.
XIII. —That the Secretary send to each Member of
the Council due notice of each Council Meeting; and to
each member of the Society due notice of the Annual.,
and of every Special Meeting ; in each case stating the
object for which the Meeting has been called.
XIV. —That a Balance-sheet and Report be drawn
up by the Council, and presented at the annual general
Meeting.
�u
XV. —That at the ordinary Meetings, no Vote be
taken with reference to the subject of the Paper read, or
Discussion which may have taken place.
XVI. —That the Secretary keep Minutes of each
Meeting; such minutes to consist of a short summary
of the Paper read together with the Debate thereon,
and also any other proceedings which may have taken
place.
XVII. —That the Papers read before the Society, or
a copy of them, be delivered to the Secretary, and be
come the property of the Society; but that no Paper
be published without the consent of its Author.
XVIII.—That at a general Meeting specially con-?
vened, the subjects proposed for discussion be received^
and that if there be more subjects than opportunities!
for meeting, the subjects for consideration be decided by
the Meeting, and the order in which they are to be
taken arranged by the Council.
XIX.—That if the conduct of any Member be such
as to cast discredit on the Society, or to be detrimental
to its interests, a special genera] Meeting shall be called
by the Council, according to the provisions of Pule Xl?
at which Meeting the expulsion of such Member may be
resolved, the conditions of Rule XII. being complied
with.
�15
XX. —That except where otherwise stated the Voting be conducted by Ballot.
XXI. —That open Voting be practised at Council
Meetings, election of Chairman at ordinary Meetings,
and under Rule XVIII.
XXII. —That in the absence of the President, each
general Meeting elect its own Chairman, whose decision
on all matters of order shall be final.
XXIII.—That the Annual Subscription be ten shillings and sixpence, payable in advance, on or before the
first Tuesday in October.
XXIV. That the Council have the power to make
such Bye-laws and other Regulations as from timo to
time they may deem necessary : but that no Bye-law or
Regulation be made inconsistent wjth the constitution
of the Society, as set forth in the Prospectus and fundamental Rules.
XXV. —That the Council have the power to invite
persons of celebiity to read papers, or deliver addresses
before the Society.
XXVI. —That at the conclusion of each Meeting,
the subject to be considered at the following ordinary
Meeting be announced, and that the Secretary make
known the subjects, if possible, not less than three
months in advance.
��
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
Creator
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018
Publisher
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Original Format
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Pamphlet
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
London Dialectical Society
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
London Dialectical Society
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: London
Collation: 23 p. ; 19 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
[s.n.]
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1867
Identifier
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G5687
Subject
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Spiritualism
Rights
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<img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /><br /><span>This work (London Dialectical Society), identified by </span><span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk">Humanist Library and Archives</a></span><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
Format
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application/pdf
Type
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Text
Language
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English
Conway Tracts
London Dialectical Society
Spiritualism