WORDS ABOUT SPIRITUALISM.

Evening Star, Volume VII, Issue 1978, 7 September 1869, Page 2

WORDS ABOUT SPIRITUALISM.

By Balch.

We are all tolerably familiar with the extraordinary powers of Aladdin’s wonderful lamp. We loved as children to think what a glorious possession that lamp must have been to its owner, and how we should have only liked the use of it for a short time in order to surround ourselves with some of those marvellous treasures which it was capable of producing. To live in those subterranean palaces so gorgeously described ; to have, as one’s own, those splendid brilliants and precious stones of such fabulous size, purity, and value which lay about on all sides; to have genii promptly administering to every want, and transporting oneself from one scene of dazzling splendor to another scene of equally ravishing beauty ; —these were among the innocent wishes of that innocent period of our lives. These pictures addressed themselves so felicitously to our young imaginations that we were pleased to believe them realities. They were pretty and graceful fancies enough, but they were illusive; and when reason took possession of the sobering mind, the fond enchantment vanished into thin air. It was a rude though salutary shock thus given to our childish minds ; and although it was pleasant to live in a world of our own, peopled by creatures of our own imaginings, we were soon taught to know how immeasurably superior, as a guide, the light of reason proved in the rugged paths of real life. At the present moment there is another kind of enchantment taking hold of the popular mind under the name of “ Spiritualism.” It presents some striking features of interest, and seizes powerfully upon the imagination, though the story is not told in nearly so fascinating a manner as the old stories of the Arabian Nights. The new story is, I believe, coined in the American brain. The Americans are ingenious, though prone to profanity. A work bearing so reverent a title as Spiritualism, would, it was no doubt thought, arrest attention and command respect What does Spiritualism profess to deal with 1 What is the character of this new spiritualistic faith 1 Who are its votaries 1 By what means are the so-called spiritualistic phenomena produced 1 So many miraculous things have been presented from time to time which the human understanding has ignored ; so many absurdities have been given birth to in all ages to impose upon the world, and the hand of the impostor has been so frequently detected ; —that I may well be pardoned if I state ray belief that behind this last great spiritualistic movement lurk a body of men amused at the credulity and grinning at the folly of the world. Whilst the popular mind appears in a see-saw condition, doubtful on which side to place its weight, I feel bound to enter an emphatic protest against my being thought a willing victim at the shrine of this new faith. I prefer to be faithful to the evidence of my own senses • to be influenced by the decisions of my own understanding, and not accept what appears to me to be degrading and insulting to both. The spiritualists gravely tell us that they hold converse with the unseen world; that like the Genii in the stories referred to, they can call up spirits from the vastly deep ; that they are the repository of strange revelations from the mystic land ; and they even go so far as to repeat con venations held with the spirits of the departed. These things, if true, should unquestionably prove their claims, and obtain universal assent ; but are they true 1 Ay, there’s the rub. That they are not true, the revelations themselves appear to me to carry internal evidence. If a man arrogates to himself a perfect familiarity with the great unseen ; if, as he represents, he understands the tackle of the other world, it does not seem unreasonable that we should expect from him, aided so powerfully as he is, a perfect exposition of those thousand mysteries which perplex mankind in reference to its future state. Why does he give us only dim and shadowy glimpses, when he must assuredly possess the means wherewith to furnish us with a perfect picture ? The doubts which rack and harrass the mind in reference to that bourne, “ whence ” it was once thought “ no traveller returns,” should long ere this have been solved, and humanity rendered cheerful and happy.”

Why do the highly-gifted Mediae term the revelations they have made spiritualistic “phenomena 1 ?” It is only in ignorance that the use of the word “ phenomenon ” becomes necessary ; but surely these mediae are not themselves kept in ignorance of the meaning of their own revelations. If they cannot offer a solution of the mysteries they profess to have in keeping, let us regard them as impostures, and unworthy of credit. The Davenport brothers, guided by the spiritualistic mania, certainly exhibited some very respectable tricks—tricks which far outdid anything of which Professor Anderson was capable. Mr Home, too, in the memorable trial of Home ats. Lyon, furnished us with a very good glimpse into the ultimate aim and object of the Spiritualism he professed ; and the Court, very wisely I think, adjudged him an impostor. These things show that spiritualists are essentially world-wise, and that the great gifts they claim to possess are capable of being abused by the pursuit of “ the loaves and fishes.” A question therefore arises—and I ask it not, I hope, irreverently—which side of the unseen world do these spiritualists profess to hold converse with 1 Certainly the cases to which I have referred would seem to indicate the darker side ; and it is hard to believe that men notoriously pursuing their own individual interests in the world would be precisely those chosen to communicate a revelation from a purer and brighter world, or to introduce a new faith

among us. There are many things certainly inexplicable in relation to so-called Spiritualism ; but I have faith in Reason proving fully equal to the task of unmasking the trickery so skilfully concealed. We shall presently wonder at the human mind being so long imposed upon ; and when the whole mystery is explained, as it will be, and is no longer a “ phenomenon,” the shadows which rest upon our minds will, like the huge cloud of superstition of other days, be entirely dispelled. Men are but children, after all, but children of a larger growth. We are amused even to think that the stories of the “ Arabian Nights ” exercised so potent a spell over childhood’s days ; by-and-bye, Reason will dismiss this new fabrication, ycleped Spiritualism, from our minds, and we shall equally wonder at the strange interest it excited in its day. Let us use the light of reason we possess, and not pin our faith with blind confidence in so-called Spiritualism. Reason is fully competent to pierce the thin film which superstition would fondly weave, and to use our intellects -aright is a duty we owe to ourselves and to our Maker.