Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1856, by J. W. DANIELS, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York. J. J. REED, PRINTER AND STEREOTYPER, 16 Spruce-St., N Y. INTRODUCTION. SPIRITUALISM has been in operation in this country about seven years, during which, it has made rapid progress, owing to the fact that its character and influence have not been generally understood. Its adherents have organized a SOCIETY FOR THE DIFFUSION OF SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE, The chief officers of this Society are as follows: PRESIDENT. Gov. NATHANIEL P. TALLMADGE, Wisconsin. VICE-PRESIDENTS. Chief Justice JOSEPH WILLIAMS, Iowa. Judge WILLIE P. FOWLER, Kentucky. Judge R. P. SPAULDING, Ohio. Judge CHARLES H. LARRABEE, Wisconsin. HORACE H. DAY, New York. Hon. WARREN CHASE, Wisconsin. Dr. David COREY, Illinois. Gen. EDWARD F. BULLARD, New York. Hon. RICHARD D. DAVIS, New York. Dr. GEORGE T. DEXTER, New York. It seems very strange to us to see a professedly religious association headed by politicians, civilians and warriors! This should, doubtless, be imputed to our predilections for Christianity. The New York Mirror aptly remarks, that in the "Association of Spiritualists just formed, with Ex-Governor Tallmadge as President, governors, senators, lawyers, merchants, and manufacturers figure exclusively. There is not so much as one carpenter or fisherman among them all." GOVERNOR TALLMADGE, in a letter accepting the Presidency of this society, says: "Knowing the solid foundation on which The Society for the Diffusion of Spiritual Knowledge' is based, and that those engaged in it intend to spare no pains or means to advance the great objects for which it was instituted, I cannot fail to foresee and appreciate the grand results of its operations. **Your society is the nucleus of mighty movements, which will in due time be fully developed. There are causes now operating which, with Spiritualism as the fulcrum, will, like the lever of Archimedes, move the world.” The Society says in its ADDRESS: "Within the last two years, Spiritualism has increased in strength and stature, with a growth unprecedented in the history of mental giants. If it be a lie, there is every prospect of its enveloping this world, and, by its weight, sinking this world one degree lower in the depth of degradation. If it be a lie, it has come in so lovely a garb that men will seek it, unless they be warned by a strong voice; men will flee to it as though it were an angel sent from Heaven-will become enveloped in its false light, and will be borne down to death by the weight of its false glory. If it be a lie, ye men of America, who have one thought toward the good of your fellows, it is your duty to come forward as one man, to tear the veil from the face of the lie, and expose it in all its hideousness. We challenge you, as men-as earnest men, as men desiring the good of your fellows-to come forth and meet us in the fight, expose our errors, draw the shroud away, and enable the world to see us as we are. We challenge you to come and do that thing. "We believe that Spirituality is a Heaven-born truth. We profess to know that angels from Heaven-that the Spirits of good men, progressing toward perfection-have" come here upon the earth we stand on, and talked with us, face to face, and uttered words to us bearing the impress of their divine origin. We sincerely believe this. We are respectable men; we do not believe ourselves to be insane. We ask you to come and meet us, and discuss the question with us; to examine these facts which we allege, and to prove, if you are able, either that these facts never did occur, or that their origin is other than that which it purports to be. "We come before you in this present shape to show you |