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 PREFACE.
As prefatory to this volume, it may be expedient here to introduce
the credentials which I have lately received from the spirit world.
With the medium of their communication, Mr. Lanning, of this city,
No. 124 Arch St., I have had but little intercourse, knowing him,
however, by report, as a good man and a zealous spiritualist. The
communication which I owe to his mediumship, was utterly
unexpected by me, never having, in any way, hinted to him, directly
or indirectly, that it would be desirable to receive such an indication
of confidence and approbation.
The first and only knowledge which I had of this, to me, stirring
appeal, is comprised in the following letter from Lanning. The
difference between the style of his own language, though very good
for its purpose, and that which he ascribes to the spirits, must
corroborate his allegation that this address did not originate in his
brain.
On submitting the address to my spirit father, he sanctioned the
idea of its proceeding from spirits.
Philadelphia, June 7, 1855.
Dear Sir: I send you the following communication, and
think it to be an emanation from the spirit life. I feel not a
little reluctance in so doing, for it is seldom I can get any
thing for others. How it may suit your mind, I do not
know, nor do I wish to impose it upon you for any thing
worthy your consideration. I would hesitate much to
instruct one so much my senior, and whose name I
esteem, were it not that I love a cause so near your heart;
and I feel that my mind is only the channel through which
I have every evidence, the unseen in the spirit life, at
times give their thoughts to mortals. I have no idea from
what spirit it came, but know it did not originate in my
own brain.
Very truly, yours, J. F. Lanning.

To Dr. Robert Hare, Philadelphia:

Prof. Robert Hare—Venerable and much-esteemed
friend, it is an unwonted pleasure with us to number you
as a leading mind in the ranks of this new and better
gospel which is being given to the dwellers of earth. We
see the many and perplexing difficulties which, to you,
apparently hinder your progress in this path to light and
love, and we sympathize with you in all your efforts to
unfold your mind and to render it useful and happy.
Could you see the great glory which is to be the issue of
your labours in the new unfoldings of spiritual science,
you would not despair of your mission, nor weary in your
devotion to it. Let us ask you, If there is any earthly fame
or consideration that could induce you to turn back again
to the familiar paths in which a life of patient labour has
been spent? If there is any earthly joy or brilliant
attainment which you have ever enjoyed, worthy to be
compared with the little you have realized since you
commenced your investigations in this the most important
pursuit of your life? Ask yourself how much happiness you
have found in the contemplation of that fact which has
been demonstrated, not only to your wishes, but to your
senses, that the thinking mind never dies; that the grave,
which is but the wardrobe of the cast-off garment of the
spirit, has no power over the soul; that it lives on, lives
ever, and must throughout the ceaseless ages of eternity
continue to unfold its powers. Ask yourself, what is earth,
what is fame, what is the endearment to your present life,
when contrasted or compared with the assurance which
you now have, that there is no death, no loss of your
individuality, no severing of the ties of friendship and love
which shall not be renewed again in that fairer land, the
home of the angels, whither you and all you love on earth
are tending? Ponder then, our venerable friend, and ask
your thirsting soul, if this knowledge is not worth more
than the cost of diamonds to you? We, who have laid
aside the crumbling casket which contained the priceless
jewel that is never tarnished, know full well the value of
this gem of knowledge which now sparkles on your vision
just opened.
There are many things which we would like to say to
you, but the conditions and circumstances which control
our operations render it impossible for us to present to
your mind the light which it so much seeks. To answer the
demands of your spirit is now impossible to us. Time and
the unfoldings of your mind can only solve the questions
you would propound. You are well aware that the growth
of your present knowledge is but the effect of earnest
inquiry, of patient toil, and deep study, and experiment
after experiment in your searchings for truth. Such was
the only way you reached the position which you now
occupy in the science so dear to you. It came in no other
way, it could come in no other. The child is subjected to
the necessity of first learning the alphabet before it is
prepared to spell, and must understand the meaning of
words before it can comprehend the sentence it reads. So
in this investigation. That which is apparently of little
meaning must first be learned, the alphabet must be
mastered, hard words pronounced, and all must be
understood before there is a fittedness for progression.
The wisest on earth, aye, the wisest in spirit life, are
learners, students: none but God is perfectly wise; and it
is no humiliation to any mind that it contains not all of
wisdom. Let us say to you that if patient in your
investigations, you shall in due time obtain that which you
so earnestly seek. Could we work miracles, (a thing
impossible,) they would astound rather than enlighten
your mind. Could we withdraw the veil which separates
the vision from the things you desire to see in our spheres
of life, you have no data by which you could make plain to
yourself or to the eyes of your fellow-man the sights you
would behold.
Go on in your searchings, our good friend: the end is
not yet with you. Brilliant minds with brilliant thoughts are
burning to give utterance to earth through you. You are a
selected instrument of our own choosing, and we are
watching and guiding in the path and to the goal you
seek. You may not only “speak trumpet-tongued to the
scientific world,” but in thunder-tones to those savans who
think they are the masters of the keys of knowledge.

Author’s Reply to the preceding Address.

Philadelphia, June 15, 1855.

To my spirit friends, to whom I owe the preceding
address:
It is quite unnecessary for my angel friends to urge
upon my heart, or upon my reason the nothingness of this
world, in comparison with that of which a description has
lately been given to me.
So highly do I estimate the prospect thus awakened,
that it seems almost too good, too desirable to be
realized. There are so many painful ideas awakened in my
mind respecting the lot of humanity, by the events of past
and present times, that it is difficult to conceive that, at
the short distance of little more than the eightieth part of
the diameter of our globe, there should be such a
contrast. But to heighten my appreciation of the
inestimable value of such an heirship is utterly uncalled
for. If there be any drawback, it is the misery which
pervades this mundane sphere. The sympathy which, on
the one hand, ties you to this world, must, on the other,
cause a participation in the sufferings which pervade all
animated nature. While I am aware that sympathy, as
above suggested, would prevent me from flying from a
perception or contemplation of the wretchedness in
question, it seems as if the heaven of Spiritualism were, in
this phase, in some degree open to the objection to the
heaven of Scripture, founded on its too great proximity to
hell. Is not the spiritual heaven too near this sphere, and
too much associated with it by its sympathy, not to suffer
indirectly a portion of its miseries?
If there were any thing I should deem to be requisite to
render existence in the spirit world happier, it would be
the power of removing the miseries of this lower world,
and especially those arising from Error—the most prolific
source of evil. According to Addison’s allegory, Death
admitted the pretensions of Intemperance to be superior
in destructiveness, to those of any of the numerous
diseases which competed for the honour of the
premiership in his cabinet; but might not Error have
successfully competed with Intemperance?—Error, the
main cause of intemperance, of intolerant bigotry, and of
war, which destroys both by the sword and by sickness
which it induces?
It is difficult for us to conceive that good, affectionate
spirits are not unhappy at witnessing the distress which
they cannot relieve. The prisoners at Sing Sing are said to
undergo mental torture by the silence imposed upon
them. Yet this is imposed upon spirits, when often a word
would prevent fatal events.
Nevertheless, Spiritualism, so far as it prevails, will
make all better: in the first place, by removing error and
 sectarian discord, and, in the next place, by making
nature the object of our study, and, indirectly, of our
worship, as the work of the Being who created all.
You need not any more strive to stimulate my
estimation of the high office which you bestow on me as
promulgator of the knowledge given me of the spheres,
than to excite my appreciation of that knowledge. I would
not relinquish my position for any temporal sovereignty.
My love of truth, my desire for human happiness, would
be sufficient for my pay in causing truth to triumph, as
that, of course, would be a heaven to me in contemplating
the misery obviated and the happiness induced.
Doubtless, not to be fairly appreciated would be painful;
while merited applause would be a high gratification; but,
were that my primary motive, I should not deserve
applause. All that I would desire would be, to have that
share of honour to which I might be entitled in common
with other colabourers in the cause of truth: to exist in the
spheres on the same plane with the illustrious Washington
and his coadjutors, and associated with my beloved
relatives and friends, having access to the wise and good
men of all ages and nations! That were a heaven indeed!
To be worthy of and enjoy such a heaven, is the only
selfish ambition with which I am actuated, so far as I
know myself.
Your truly devoted servant and friend, Robert
Hare.

Having suggested to my spirit father that it would be expedient

that some names should be attached to the credentials with which
the preceding address from the spirits seemed to endow me by
appointment, he induced several spirits of eminence to accompany
him to Mrs. Gourlay’s this morning, (August 4, 1855.) This gave me
an opportunity to read Lanning’s letter, the address which I received
through him as above represented, and my reply. In return I
received the subjoined communication.

Communication from an assembly of eminent spirits,

sanctioning the credentials transmitted through the
mediumship of Mr. Lanning.

August 4, 1855.
Respected Friend: We cheerfully accompany your father
to sanction the communication given through our medium,
Mr. Lanning, to yourself. My friend, we have sought media
in various localities through whom to accredit you as our
minister to earth’s inhabitants, but owing to unfavourable
conditions, we have, in most instances, failed. We
perceive with pleasure that your heart is fully imbued with
the importance of your holy mission. It needs no fulsome
flattery from us to incite you to action. A principle of right
and truth pervades all your movements in this spiritual
campaign. We truly style it a campaign, since you are
battling fearlessly against Error, that hydra-headed
monster who has slain his millions and tens of millions.
We have looked forward to the publication of facts
involved through your experimental investigations with
interest. The communication above referred to was given
by one who stood high in the estimation of the people of
our great republic; but, for personal reasons, he wishes to
withhold his name.
Be it known to all who may read these credentials, that
we sanction them, and authorize our names to be affixed
thereunto.

Geo. Washington,
J. Q. Adams,
Dr. Chalmers,
Oberlin,
 W. E. Channing, and others.

Postscript by the author.

It is a well-known saying that there is “but one step between the

sublime and the ridiculous.” This idea was never verified more fully
than in the position I find myself now occupying, accordingly as
those by whom that position is viewed may consider the
manifestations which have given rise to it in the light wherein they
are now viewed by me, or as they were two years ago viewed by
myself, and are now seen by the great majority of my estimable
contemporaries.
I sincerely believe that I have communicated with the spirits of my
parents, sister, brother, and dearest friends, and likewise with the
spirits of the illustrious Washington and other worthies of the spirit
world; that I am by them commissioned, under their auspices, to
teach truth and to expose error. This admitted, I may be reasonably
inspired with the sentiment authorized in the preceding credentials,
that I hold my office to be greatly preferable to that of any mundane
appointment, and for the reasons above given in those credentials.
But how vast is the difference between this estimate and that which
must ascribe these impressions to hallucination! my position being
that of a dupe or fanatic. Yet there can be no man of real integrity
and good sense, unimpaired by educational bigotry, who will not
respect sincere devotion to the cause of piety, truth, and human
welfare, here and hereafter, however displayed. Hence, although the
foregoing prefatory pages should have no other influence, they may
operate to show my own deep conviction of the righteousness of my
course, founded, as I believe it to have been, on the most precise,
laborious, experimental inquiry, and built up under the guidance of
my sainted father, as well as under the auspices of Washington and
other worthy immortals.
Those who shall give a careful perusal to the following work will
find that there has been some “method in my madness;” and that, if
I am a victim to an intellectual epidemic, my mental constitution did
not yield at once to the miasma. But let not the reader too readily
“lay the flattering unction to his soul” that ’tis my hallucination that
is to be impugned, not his ignorance of facts and his educational
errors.
The sanction of the spirits, as above given, was obtained under
test conditions; so that it was utterly out of the power of any mortal
to pervert the result from being a pure emanation from the spirits
whose names are above given.
It ought to be understood that the sanction given by the spirits
whose names are attached to the preceding certificate, was obtained
under test conditions, as explained in paragraph bb., dd., in the
description of Plate iv. Moreover, I placed my hand on the instrument
illustrated by Fig. 2 in same plate, so as to question the spirits
directly as to the reliability of the affirmation, previously given to me,
and the fidelity of the medium generally. In both cases the index
moved so as to give an affirmative reply.
 SUPPLEMENTAL PREFACE.
The most precise and laborious experiments which I
have made in my investigation of Spiritualism, have been
assailed by the most disparaging suggestions, as respects
my capacity to avoid being the dupe of any medium
employed. Had my conclusions been of the opposite kind,
how much fulsome exaggeration had there been, founded
on my experience as an investigator of science for more
than half a century! And now, in a case when my own
direct evidence is adduced, the most ridiculous surmises
as to my probable oversight or indiscretion are suggested,
as the means of escape from the only fair conclusion.
Having despatched a spirit friend from Cape Island, at
one o’clock on the third of July, to request Mrs. Gourlay, in
Philadelphia, to send her husband to the bank to make an
inquiry, and to report the result to me at half-past 3
o’clock, the report was made to me as desired. The
subject was not mentioned until after my return to
Philadelphia, when, being at the residence of Mrs.
Gourlay, I inquired of her, whether she had received any
message from me during my absence? In reply, it was
stated that while a communication from her spirit mother
was being made to her brother, who was present, my
spirit messenger interrupted it to request her to send her
husband to the bank to make the desired inquiry: that, in
consequence, the application was made at the bank. The
note-clerk recollected the application to him, but appeared
to have considered it as too irregular to merit much
attention. Hence the impression received by the
applicants, and communicated to me, was not correct. But
as it did not accord with that existing in my memory, it
could not have been learned from my mind.
 Wishing to make this transaction a test, I was
particularly careful to manage so that I might honourably
insist upon it as a test; and, until I learned the fact from
Mrs. Gourlay and from the note-clerk that the inquiry was
made, it did not amount to a test manifestation. But, if I
had been ever so indiscreet, would it not be absurd to
imagine a conspiracy between any person at Cape Island
with Dr. and Mrs. Gourlay, her brother, and the note-clerk
at the bank, to deceive me on my return by concurrent
falsehoods?
I submit these facts to the public, as proving that there
must have been an invisible, intelligent being with whom I
communicated at Cape Island, who, bearing my message
to this city, communicated it to Mrs. Gourlay, so as to
induce the application at the bank. Otherwise, what
imaginable cause could have produced the result,
especially within the time occupied—of two and a half
hours?
The existence of spirit agency being thus demonstrated,
I am justified in solemnly calling on my contemporaries to
give credence to the important information which I have
received from spirits, respecting the destiny of the human
soul after death. They may be assured that every other
object of consideration sinks into insignificance in
comparison with this information and the bearing it must
have upon morals, religion and politics, whenever it can
be known and be believed by society in general, as it is by
me.
 INTRODUCTION.
As introductory to this work, I shall make a few brief remarks on
the following topics:—
Objects of religion.—Diversity of opinion as to the means by which
they have been attainable.—Every sect, excepting one, would vote
against any one.—Consequent sentiments of the Author as
embodied in verse.—Reasons for his believing in the existence of a
Deity.—American priesthood eminently honest and pious.—If people
who have obtained a belief in immortality by one route are better
and happier therefor, why object that others, by another route,
should attain the same ends.—The table, no less than our firesides,
an object of interest.—Inconsistency of those who make their Deity
pass through all the stages of human existence, from the embryo to
maturity, in objecting to the transient employment of tables.—Use of
the tables soon laid aside in the manifestations to which the Author
has resorted.—Inconsistency of accusing Spiritualists of undue
incredulity as to scriptural miracles, and of the opposite defect as
respects spiritual manifestations.—Of certain savans who strain at
spiritual gnats, yet swallow scriptural camels.—Miracles of Scripture,
if they ever occurred, can never be repeated; but the manifestations
of Spiritualism will be repeated with an improved and a multifarious
efficiency.—Religion and positive or inductive science having, under
the guidance of devotion and atheism, been made to travel in
opposite directions, are by Spiritualism so associated as to travel
together in the same direction.—The atheist Comte would dissolve
the union between theology and science.—According to Comte,
where true science begins, the domain of theology terminates, being
only a creature of the imagination.—According to Spiritualism, it is
the domain of ignorance that is lessened, while theology, founded on
knowledge, grows with its growth, and strengthens with its strength.
—An effort to refute the idea of Comte, that the phenomena of the
sidereal creation can be explained by gravitation; which, left to itself,
would consolidate all the matter in the universe into an inert lump.—
Suggestions respecting the devil.—Arguments founded on ignorance.
1. On all sides I presume that it will be admitted that the great
objects of religion are as follows:—
2. To furnish the best evidence of the existence of a Supreme
Deity, and of his attributes.
3. To convey a correct idea of our duty toward that Deity and our
fellow creatures.
4. To impart that knowledge of a state of existence beyond the
grave which will be happier as we are more virtuous in this life, and
more miserable as we are more vicious; this knowledge affording the
best consolation amid temporal sufferings of the righteous, and the
strongest restraint upon the vicious indulgence of passion in the
unrighteous.
5. Finally, by these means, to promote morality and the happiness
of man in this world, and prepare him for a blissful position in the
world to come.
6. It must result, from these premises, that whichever is most
competent for the attainment of these all-important ends, will be the
best religion.
7. The above-mentioned postulates being generally admitted,
various recorded traditions, pretended to have been derived from
one or more deities, have been advanced as best calculated to meet
the requisitions in question. Each of the religious doctrines thus
advanced is tenaciously defended by its appropriate priesthood. If
the opinions of the majority of these advocates of their respective
revelations be taken as respects any creed excepting their own, it
will be denounced as originating in error or fraud. The opinion being
taken successively upon any one, by all but those to whom it
appertains, each would be condemned.
 8. It was under these impressions that the following verses were
written, more than forty years ago. They have recently been
published in a pamphlet on the better employment of the first day of
the week.
They serve to show that my skepticism arose from my love of
truth, instead of that aversion from it, ascribed to skeptics by many
well-meaning bigots.

9. Oh, Truth! if man thy way could find,

Not doomed to stray with error blind,
How much more kind his fate!
But wayward still, he seeks his bane,
Nor can of foul delusion gain
A knowledge till too late.

By sad experience slowly shown,

Thy way at times though plainly known,
Too late repays his care;
While in thy garb dark Error leads,
With best intent, to evil deeds
The bigot to ensnare.

Is there a theme more highly fraught

With matter for our serious thought
Than this reflection sad,
That millions err in different ways,
Yet all their own impressions praise,
Deeming all others bad?

To man it seems no standard’s given,

No scale of Truth hangs down from Heaven
Opinion to assay;
Yet called upon to act and think,
How are we then to shun the brink
O’er which so many stray?
 10. How far I was a believer in God may be estimated from the
following opinions, which have appeared in the pamphlet wherein
the foregoing verses were published:

On the Evidence of the Existence of a Deity.

BY THE AUTHOR.
11. The existence of the universe is not more evident than that of
the reasoning power by which it is controlled. The evidence of
profound and ingenious contrivance is more manifested the more we
inquire. Yet the universe, and the reason by which it has been
contrived and is regulated, are not one. Neither is the reason the
universe, nor is the universe the reason. This governing reason,
therefore, wherever, or however it may exist, is the main attribute of
the Deity, whom we can only know and estimate by his works. And
surely they are sufficiently sublime, beautiful, magnificent, and
extensive to give the idea of a being who may be considered as
infinite in comparison with man. Yet as the existence of evil displays
either a deficiency of power, or a deficiency of goodness, I adopt the
idea of a deficiency of power in preference.
12. “If,” as Newton rationally infers, “God has no organs,” the
person of man cannot be made after God’s image, since the human
image is mostly made up by the human organs. Man has feet to
walk, arms to work with, eyes for seeing, ears for hearing, a nose
for smelling. It were absurd to attribute such organs to God.
13. It follows that while we have as much evidence of a Deity as
we have of our own, we are utterly incapable of forming any idea of
his form, mode of existence, or his wondrous power. We are as sure
of the immensity and ubiquity of his power as of the existence of the
universe, with which he must at least be coextensive and in
separatelyassociated. That his power must have always existed, we
are also certain; since if nothing had ever prevailed, there never
could have been any thing: out of nothing, nothing can come.
14. The universe, no less than the Deity, must be eternal, since if
at any time, however remote, the Deity existed without a universe,
there must have been an infinite antecedent period during which the
divine power must have been nullified for want of objects for its
exercise. A Deity so situated would be as a king without a kingdom
to govern.
15. I am under the impression that mind is at least as essential to
the creation as matter. It seems to me inconceivable that the various
elementary atoms of the chemist could come into existence, with
their adaptation to produce the multiplicity of efficient combinations
which they are capable of forming, without having been modified by
one mind. The existence of adaptation, I think, proves the existence
of mind. But even were these atoms to possess inherently the
adaptation which they manifest, of what possible utility could be the
variegated consequences thereof, were there no minds to perceive,
appreciate, or enjoy them. The beauty of colour, the music of sound,
the elegance of curves or angles, could have no existence were
there no perception of them; since those attributes are in a great
measure attached to objects by mind. Independently of mind, music
is mere aerial vibration, colour mere superficial texture, or intestinal
arrangement producing undulatory waves variously polarized, which
are the proximate causes, which would be sterile, were there no
mind to be actuated by them through appropriate organs.
16. Could the universe exist without mind, would not its existence
be nugatory?
17. The following allegations seem to me no less true than the
axioms of Euclid:
18. No evil can endure which any being has both the power and
desire to remove.
 19. Any result must ensue which any being has both power and
desire to accomplish.
20. No rational being will strive by trial to ascertain that which he
knows as well before as after trial.
21. If God be both omnipotent and omniscient, he can, of course,
make his creatures exactly to suit his will and fancy, and foresee
how they will fulfil the end for which they are created. Wherefore
then subject them to probation to discover traits which by the
premises he must thoroughly foreknow.
22. Is it not more consistent with divine goodness to infer that we
are placed in this life for progressive improvement, and that there is
no evil which can be avoided consistently with his enormous, though
not unlimited, power?
23. Such an inference coincides with the communications recently
received, from the spirits of departed friends, which it is the object
of this publication to promulgate.
24. Unfortunately, human opinion is very much influenced by
passion and prejudice. Hence in questions respecting property, we
often find honest men differing as to what is just. So when any
creed is associated with the hope of enjoying by its tenure a better,
if not exclusive, pretension to eternal happiness and the favour of
God, the sectarian by whom it may be held becomes honestly
tenacious of its despotic supremacy over all others.
25. I have no doubt that a large portion of our American
priesthood are sincere in the advocacy of the tenets respectively
held by them. Among them I have known some of the best of men,
and I have generally found them more tolerant of skepticism than
the majority of their followers. It has not, however, been
unfrequently urged by clergymen as a ground of adherence to
Christianity, that without it, there is no authentic evidence of a future
state of existence. I have seen an argument from an able and
respectable Christian writer, urging that there is no refuge for the
mass of mankind to be found in pure deism, unaccompanied by any
specific evidence of a future state.
26. Under these circumstances should Spiritualism afford such a
refuge to those who are utterly dissatisfied with the evidence of the
truth of scriptural revelation, it will certainly be a blessing to them;
and those who have heretofore found this essential comfort in one
way, ought not to object should their neighbours find it in another
way.
27. An effort has been made to throw ridicule on spiritual
manifestations, on account of phenomena being effected by means
of tables and other movable furniture; but it should be recollected
that, when movements were to be effected, resort to movable
bodies was inevitable; and as generally the proximity of media, if not
the contact, was necessary to facilitate the movements, there was
no body so accessible as tables. But these violent mechanical
manifestations were always merely to draw attention; just as a
person will knock, or even kick, violently at a front door, until some
one looks out of a window to communicate with him. The more
violent manifestations ceased both at Hydesville, at Rochester, and
at Stratford in Connecticut, as soon as the alphabetic mode of
communicating was employed. I never have had any to take place
during my intercourse with my spirit-friends, unless as tests for
unbelievers, when intellectual communications could not be made. It
is more than fifteen months since I have resorted to instruments
which have nothing in common with tables. Of these instruments,
engravings and descriptions will be found in this work.
28. But is it not a great error to consider our tables as less sacred
than our firesides? Could any appeal more thoroughly vibrate to the
heart of civilized man than that of any invasion of his rights which
should render his fireside liable to intrusion? Hence, in the Latin
motto, “Pro aris et focis,” the inviolability of the fireside is placed side
by side with freedom of conscience. But, with the passing away of
winter, the interest in the fireside declines: ’tis changeable as the
temperature of air. It loses all its force in the tropics; but, throughout
Christendom, the table still draws about it the inmates of every
human dwelling, at all seasons, and in every kind of weather. Even
when not excited by hunger, we value the social meeting which
takes place around it.
29. At tables, moreover, conferences are held, contracts and deeds
signed, and decrees, statute-laws, and ordinances are written.
Treaties, also, are made at tables, on which not the fate of
individuals merely, but of nations, depends.
30. Is the renown of the “knights of the round table” tarnished by
their being only known in connection with the word in question? Is
any director or trustee ashamed of being, with his colleagues,
designated as a “board?”—a humble synonym for table.
31. It was at a table the Declaration of Independence was signed;
and in Trumbull’s picture of its presentation to Congress a table is
made to occupy a conspicuous position. Our tables should be at
least as much objects of our regard as the vicinity of our fireplace.
32. The sarcasms founded on the use of the table in spiritual
manifestations proceed, inconsistently, from those persons who
would bring their deity through all the stages of human life.
33. The human body of Christ must have gone through all the
stages from the embryo to maturity. It was worshipped in a manger,
and lived thirty years in obscurity and inaction. Why all this delay,
when the angel, armed with the power of God, might have
addressed Herod, the Roman emperor, and every other potentate on
earth in a single year? The Almighty softening their hearts, as he
hardened that of Pharaoh, the conversion of mankind had been the
inevitable consequence.
34. Alluding to his second advent, Christ used these words:
—“They shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great
power and glory.” Mark xiii. 26. Wherefore did not his first coming
take place in this conspicuous, glorious, and unquestionable
manner?
 35. It is often inquired, Wherefore were not these efforts to
communicate with mankind at an earlier period of the world’s
duration? but it may be demanded in return, Wherefore did not
Christ come until the earth had been peopled, even according to
Scripture, about four thousand years?
36. Why was not the use of the compass, of gunpowder, printing,
the steam-engine, steamboat, railway, telegraph, daguerreotyping,
electrotyping, contrived earlier in this terrestrial sphere? Let
orthodoxy take the beam out of its own eye first.
37. Had Christ taught these arts, they would not only have had a
more general influence during the era of their accomplishment, but
have left a durable and irrefragable proof of a towering mental
superiority. As they would have gone into use, there could have been
no question as to their accomplishment; so that every intelligent
being might have become intuitively cognizant of their wonderful
results.
38. The invention of gunpowder, the telegraph, and the mariner’s
compass might have been the means of preventing the inroads of
the Goths and Vandals, and, subsequently, the success of the
Mohammedans; since the Arabians would hardly have availed
themselves of these inventions at the time the Mohammedan
conquests were commenced.
39. How important would have been the art of printing to the
promulgation of a correct knowledge of the revelation which was the
alleged object of Christ’s mission!
40. Of those who believe in revelation, it may be inquired, Why
the Hebrews were preferred, as the receivers of divine inspiration, to
the more civilized Greeks, Romans, Hindoos, or Chinese? If
revelation was requisite to one nation, was it not equally necessary
to all?
41. Wherefore, after Christ had undergone crucifixion in order to
make people Christians, should Mohammed have been allowed to
massacre or enslave them for being Christians?
 42. There is even now great difficulty in effecting those
intercommunications with spirits in this country of universal legal
tolerance. I say legal, since there is, as Owen alleged, “too much
Christian despotism of another kind.”
43. Almost every editor is, more or less, a censor to the press, and
a peon of popularity. The tendency is not to repress, but to gratify,
and, of course, promote existing bigotry. This bigotry and its
Siamese brother, intolerance, have, in all countries and ages, been
exercising a mischievous, though often a well-intended, vigilance,
over any innovation of a nature to emancipate the human mind from
educational error; and, whenever supported by temporal power, has
resorted to persecution—even to the use of the sword, of the rack,
or the fagot; and, in this country of boasted freedom and much-
vaunted liberty of the press, shows its baleful power by defamation,
or alleging disqualification for employment, wherever its influence
can be exerted.
44. A conspicuous printer in this city refused to print an edition of
my recent pamphlet, as he would allow nothing to go through his
press which was against the Bible. This shows how far fanaticism will
go, even at this advanced era of science and in this country of
vaunted intellectual freedom.
45. Two hundred years ago, Spiritualism would have been as
much persecuted as witchcraft.
46. In reprobation of unbelief in the scriptural proofs of
immortality, it has been usual for self-complacent believers to urge
that the “wish was father to the thought;” that a sincere desire to
perceive the truth could not exist without conviction; but the
opposite must have been the prevailing weakness among
unbelievers in Scripture who have become spiritualists, if they are
now over-credulous in admitting the evidence on which Spiritualism
is founded.
47. I declare solemnly, that I always was intensely anxious to
know the truth; that although, theoretically, I doubted the possibility
of changing the course of things by prayer, yet I did often lift my
thoughts up to God, imploring that some light might be given to me.
Of course, as soon as the facts admitted of no other explanation
than that my father, sister, brother, and other spirit friends, had been
engaged in efforts to convince me of their existence, and of that of
the spirit world, the most intense desire arose to verify the facts
tending to settle the all-important question, whether man is
immortal.
48. If the evidence of the truth of revelation were as adequate as
represented by its votaries, my conscientious inability to believe in it
would indicate an undue constitutional skepticism; whence I
required more proof than the great mass of Christians, in order to
produce credence. Yet, now having found the evidence of
immortality in the case of Spiritualism satisfactory, it cannot be
urged that my hesitation respecting the evidence of revelation arose
from any unwillingness to believe in a future state, or
unreasonableness as to the evidence requisite to justify belief.
Manifestly, it would be inconsistent to accuse me of disbelieving in
the one case from undue, hard-hearted incredulity, and yet, in the
other, yielding from the opposite characteristics.
49. Fundamentally, my reasons for not believing in revelation have
been, that it violates certain axioms above stated, (18,) which have
been as clear to my mind as those collated by Euclid.
50. It may be shown that the existing system fails to give any
evidence which can be subjected to the intuition of each generation
successively. It rests on the alleged intuition of human beings who
existed ages ago, and of whom we know nothing but what they say
of themselves through history or recorded tradition. It reposes
entirely on the testimony of propagandists, who were interested to
give it importance, or on partial human narrators or compilers. It has
been erected on a species of hearsay evidence, inadmissible in
courts of justice. This species of testimony in the case of Spiritualism
is contemptuously set aside. No one will believe in manifestations
unless intuitively observed. Wherefore this faith in ancient witnesses,
this skepticism of those of our own times, even when they are
known to be truthful?
51. On my stating to a distinguished savan a fact which has been
essentially verified since in more than a hundred instances, his reply
was—I would believe you as soon as any man in the world, yet I
cannot believe what you mention. He suggested the idea of its being
an epidemic, with which I was of course infected; nevertheless, that
savan, as a professing Christian, admitted facts vastly more
incredible, depending on the alleged intuition of witnesses who lived
two thousand years ago, nearly. This, doubtless, was the
consequence of educational bigotry, which would have caused a
belief in the miracles of any other religion in which he should have
been brought up.
52. Such persons strain at the gnats of Spiritualism, yet swallow
the camels of Scripture.
53. In like manner an Eastern sovereign treated a Dutch
ambassador as deranged, because he alleged that bodies of water,
in his country, were capable of solidification, so as to support people
on the surface.
54. But if this skepticism is shown with respect to observers of our
day, how can it be expected that it should not be displayed toward
observers of antiquity?
55. Spiritualism will in this respect have a great advantage, as it
will always be supported by the intuition of its actual votaries. It will
not rest on bygone miracles, never to be repeated, if they ever
occurred, but will rest upon an intercourse with the spirit world
which will grow and improve with time.
56. One of the pre-eminent blessings resulting from this new
philosophy will be its bringing religion within the scope of positive
science. This word positive is employed by the learned atheist Comte
to designate science founded on observation and experiment. It will
give the quietus to the cold, cheerless view of our being’s end and
aim presented in his work.
 57. Professor Nichol endeavoured, in the following way, to comfort
his Christian auditors against the apparent incompatibility of the
phenomena of the sidereal creation with the language of Scripture:
Having drawn two lines from the same point, making a right angle,
the learned lecturer said, Suppose A sets out and pursues one of
these routes, B pursues the other, and both arrive at certain truths;
although these results should not seem to have any thing to do with
each other; yet, said he, if they be truths, they must come together
eventually; they cannot always travel away from each other. But if
any person find that, agreeably to all his experience, the results thus
attained, tend to greater and greater remoteness and inconsistency,
there would be little comfort found in the idea of a possible ultimate
approximation.
58. It is upon this actual fundamental discordancy between
scriptural impressions, and the truths ascertained by experimental
and intuitive investigation, that Comte builds his inference that
theology is to be entirely abandoned. But very different is the
position of Spiritualism relative to positive science. It starts from the
same basis of intuition and induction from facts. It does not
controvert any of the results of positive science within the
ponderable material creation, to which the results contemplated by
Comte belong. It superadds new facts respecting the spirit world,
which had so entirely escaped the researches of materialists, that
they entertain the highest incredulity merely upon negative grounds,
—merely because the facts in question have not taken place within
the experience of those who have investigated the laws of
ponderable matter and one or two imponderable principles
associated therewith.
59. Such was the ground of my incredulity; which, however,
vanished before intuitive demonstration.
60. It is admitted by Comte that we know nothing of the sources
or causes of nature’s laws; that their origination is so perfectly
inscrutable, as to make it idle to take up time in any scrutiny for that
purpose. He treats the resort to the Deity as the cause, as a mere