but on every occasion failed to discover any person present, or any producing source or cause, notwithstanding the most vigilant watch was kept up and the most industrious search instituted, by the family and neighbors. Under these strange and uncomfortable circumstances, Mr. Weekman left the premises, which, however, were soon tenanted by the family of Mr. John D. Fox. But, so far from a change of occupants being attended by a cessation of the rappings, the very reverse was the fact. From March, 1848, the house was disturbed, from night to night, by the same constantly recurring sounds-rappings, tappings, knocks, and even shuffling of furniture, and which could not be accounted for on the hypothesis of natural agency. Nor were these knockings now confined to the door of the house, but pervaded every part, depriving the inmates of their regular sleep. In this state of wakefulness, and the source of the noises appearing to be in close proximity to the bed occupied by two of the Fox girls, it is related that one of them, some ten or eleven years of age, thought she would just try the experiment, sportively, of responding to the raps by as close and accurate a repetition of them as was possible with her fingers. Her efforts were so far successful as to elicit reciprocal sounds from the invisible agency. In a little while, the parties were enabled to open a distinct communication, by means of the following simple method, and with the accompanying results, as narrated by the Rev. Mr. Fishbough, an early investigator of the phenomena. After mutual responses had been opened, one of the girls said: "Now do as I do; count 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6," at the same time striking her hands together, the girl acting more in sport, than in expectation of what really followed. The same number of raps responded, and at similar intervals. The mother of the girls then said: "Count ten; " and ten distinct raps were heard; "Count fifteen," and that number of sounds followed. She then said, "Tell us the age of Cathy (the youngest daughter) by rapping one for each year," and the number of years was rapped correctly. Then, in like manner, the age of each of the other children was by request indicated by this invisible agent. Startled and somewhat alarmed by these manifestations of intelligence, Mrs. Fox asked if it was a human being who was making that noise, and if it was, to manifest the fact by making the same noise. There was no sound. She then said, "If you are a spirit, make two distinct sounds." Two raps were accordingly heard. The members of the family had by this time all left their beds, and the house was again thoroughly searched, as it had been before, but without discovering anything that could explain the mystery; and after a few more questions, and responses by raps, the neighbors were called in to assist in further efforts to trace the phenomenon to its cause; but these persons were no more successful than the family had been, and they confessed themselves thoroughly confounded. For several subsequent days the village was in a turmoil of excitement, and multitudes visited the house, heard the raps, and interrogated the apparent intelligence which controlled. them, but without obtaining any clue to the discovery of the agent, further than its own persistent declaration that it was a spirit. About three weeks after these occurrences, David, a son of Mr. and Mrs. Fox, went alone into the cellar where the raps were then being heard, and said, "If you are the spirit of a human being, who once lived on the earth, can you rap the letters that will spell your name? and if so, rap now three times." Three raps were promptly given, and David proceeded to call the alphabet, writing down the letters as they were indicated, and the result was the name Charles B. Rosma,' a name quite unknown to the family, and which they were afterward unable to trace. The statement was in like manner obtained from the invisible intelligence, that he was the spirit of a peddler who had been murdered in that house some years previous. It is said that, at first, the raps occurred in the house even when all the members of the family were absent, but subsequently they occurred only in the presence of the two younger daughters, Catharine and Margaretta; and, on the family removing, soon after, to the neighboring city of Rochester, the manifestations still accompanied them; the family took up their abode with a married sister, Mrs. Fish, who subsequently became celebrated as a medium, through whom the manifestations were exhibited. The original method of communication -the spirit language-it would appear, consisted in conveying an affirmative by a THE MISSES FOX. information was evoked from the murdered peddler, who also further stated that the number of the years of his fleshly pilgrimage had been thirty-one; that he had been murdered in that house, and buried. in the cellar; and that the murderer was alive, as were also the children of Rosma, his victim. Such revelations as these, which, as soon as received by the interlocutors, were freely given to the world, excited prodigious interest, far and near. The cellar was dug to a great depth, to discover, if possible, some evidence of murder having been committed; the premises and neighborhood examined with great thoroughness; and inquiries made in all ing. directions. But all these efforts failed to elicit any disclosure of fact or circumstance, bearing in the slightest degree upon such a transaction. At length, on the fourteenth of November, 1849, in accordance, as was said, with directions from 'the spirits,' a public lecture on the origin and character of the manifestations was given in Corinthian Hall, Rochester, at which the 'mediums' were present. Manifestations were had, and a committee was chosen from the audience to make thorough examination into. their nature and origin, and report single rap (though perhaps emphasized | at an adjourned meeting the next evenby more), and a negative was indicated by silence. Five raps demanded the alphabet, and this could be called over by the living voice, or else in a printed form laid upon a table, and the finger or a pencil slowly passed along it-when, on arriving at the required letter, a rap was heard; the querist then recommenced, until words and sentences were spelled out-upon the accuracy or intelligence displayed in which, depended, in a great degree, the amount of faith popularly accorded to the manifestations. It was with this key, the conception of which as adapted to the mastery of the strange phenomenon is utterly incomprehensible, that the above Intense interest was felt in regard to the result of this committee's proceedings, and in due time their report was made to a crowded and breathless assembly. In this report, the committee stated that they had made such investigations as seemed necessary and practicable; that the mediums had apparently afforded every facility for the most minute and ample examination; but that they-the committee had utterly failed to discover in what manner the mysterious sounds or raps were produced, or what was their cause or origin, there being no visible agency whatever to which, by any process of ordinary reasoning, the phenomena | these raps are of the same character as could be attributed. Other committees of gentlemen arrived at the same conclusion; whereupon a committee of ladies was appointed, who took the young lady mediums into a private room of a hotel to which they were strangers, and there disrobed and searched them. The mediums were then made to stand on pillows, with handkerchiefs tied tightly around their ankles. The raps were repeated, and intelligent answers to unpremeditated questions were rapped in the usual way. But the manifestations -'spiritual' manifestations, as they were now, and have since continued to be, called-were not long confined to the Fox family. Indeed, so rapid and wide-spread was the development of the phenomena, that, in € D. D. HOME. the short space of two or three years, it was calculated that the number of recognized "media" practicing in various parts of the United States, was not less than thirty thousand. Various theories continued to be propounded as from the first, though now more learned and scientific, in explanation of the moving of tables and other ponderable substances and objects, as well as the knockings. Concerning the latter, it has been argued that, in spiritualism, it is the mind of the person charging the medium who exhibits all the intelligence or it may be some one en rapport after the medium has been charged to that degree that the electricity overflows in raps, and detonations of electricity when a positive and negative cloud meet in mid air and produce thunder. Another theory of the cause of the rappings is that of a too great redundancy of electricity congregated upon the involuntary nerves, through passivity of mind, and thus imparting to them extraordinary force. The theory presented with such philosophical ability by Professor Mahan, is, that there is in nature a power, termed, scientifically, the odylic or mesmeric force, which is identical with the cause of all the mesmeric and clairvoyant phenomena, on the one hand, and with the immediate cause of these manifestations, on the other; that by reference to the properties and laws of this force as developed in the spirit circles, and to its relations to the minds constituting the same, every kind of spirit phenomena can be most fully accounted for, without the supposition of the presence or agency of disembodied spirits; and that the entire real facts of spiritualism demand the supposition that this force, in the production of these communications, is controlled exclusively, for the most part unconsciously, by the minds in the circles, and not by disembodied spirits out of the same. As indicating most clearly, according to this theory, the presence and action of an invisible but purely physical cause-a cause connected with the organism of particular individuals, its advocates do not hesitate to cite all the various wonders of spiritual manifestation, whether mental or material, not excepting the astonishing occurrences which transpired in Stamford, Conn., in 1850, and which made the name of the occupant of the house, Rev. Dr. Phelps, for a long time so famous throughout the land. In this case, the phenomena. consisted in the moving of articles of furniture in a manner not only unaccountable, but baffling all description. By Professor Agassiz, the knockings and rappings were, from the very first, pronounced a delusion; an opinion shared, perhaps, by the whole body of learned men in the country. Professor Faraday, of England, claimed to demonstrate that it is by physical power, and not by any magnetic fluid, that tables move on being pressed by the fingers. Herschel suggested that there might be a fluid which served to convey the orders of the brain to the muscles. Suffice it to add, that, as no authority in respect to these phenomena is held in higher repute among the disciples of the new system, than that of Mr. Andrew Jackson Davis, the Poughkeepsie seer, his opinion that the producing agencies, in the moving of tables and other inorganic substances by spirits, are terrestrial magnetism and electricity, may be cited as representing the views of a large portion, probably, of the spiritualists in this country. The variety of phenomena known by the general term of 'spiritual manifestations,' is very numerous. Some of the principal, as enumerated by Mr. Ballou under five several distinctions, and which is perhaps as fair and complete an exposition as the literature of spiritualism affords, are the following: First-making peculiar noises, indicative of more or less intelligence, such as knockings, rappings, jarrings, creakings, tickings, imitation of many sounds known in the different vicissitudes of human life, musical intonations, and, in rare instances, articulate speech. Some of these various sounds are very loud, distinct, and forcible; others are low, less distinct, and more gentle, but all audible realities. Second-the moving of material substances, with like indications of intelligence, such as tables, sofas, light-stands, chairs, and various other articles, shaking, tipping, sliding, raising them clear of the floor, placing them in new positions, (all this sometimes in spite of athletic and heavy men doing their utmost to hold them down;) taking up the passive body of a person, and carrying it from one position. to another across the room, through midair; opening and shutting doors; thrum ming musical instruments; undoing wellclasped pocket-books, taking out their contents, and then, by request, replacing them again; writing with pens, pencils, and other substances, both liquid and solid -sometimes on paper, sometimes on common slates, and sometimes on the ceilings of a room, etc. Third-causing catalepsy, trance, clairvoyance, and various involuntary muscular, nervous, and mental activity in mediums, independent of any will or conscious psychological influence by men in the flesh, and then through such mediums, speaking, writing, preaching, lecturing, philosophizing, prophesying, etc. Fourth-presenting apparitions: in some instances, of a spirit hand and arm; in others, of the whole human form; and in others, of several deceased persons conversing together; causing distinct touches to be felt by the mortal living, grasping and shaking their hands, and giving many other sensible demonstrations of their existence. Fifth-through these various manifestations communicating to men in the flesh numberless affectionate and intelligent assurances of an immortal existence, messages of consolation, and annunciations of distant events unknown at the time, but subsequently corroborated; predictions of forthcoming occurrences subsequently verified, forewarnings against impending danger, medicinal prescriptions of great efficacy, wholesome reproofs, admonitions, and counsels, expositions of spiritual, theological, religious, moral, and philosophical truths appertaining to the present and future states, and important to human welfare in every sphere of existence, sometimes comprised in a single sentence, and sometimes in an ample book. It is taught by writers on spiritualism, that it is a grand religious reformation, designed and destined to correct theological errors, to remove sectarian barriers, and to excite more warmly the religious element among mankind. This claim is denied by those opposed to the movement, who charge it as aiming, or tending, to do part, in multitudes of instances, in connection with the matter, it is admitted that the phenomena, under reputable auspices, exhibit great, novel, and astonishing facts. Since the initiation of the movement, or phenomena, in 1847, by the Misses Fox, the most distinguished mediums have been A. J. Davis, D. D. Home, Mrs. Cora L. V. Hatch, etc., etc.; the most widely celebrated authors, A. J. Davis, Judge Edmonds, and George T. Dexter, Adin Ballou, and some others. The learned work bearing the joint authorship of Judge Ed JUDGE EDMONDS. The different kinds of mediums are classified, by Judge Edmonds, into those who disturb the equanimity of material objects, without any intelligence being necessarily or usually communicated through them, for the purpose of addressing to the human senses the idea of a physical communion with a power out of and beyond mere mortal agency; connected with this class, though with the addition of an intelligent communion between the mortal and the invisible power, are the mediums for table-tippings; another class consists of those who write, Them Godmys monds and Dr. Dexter is generally pronounced one of the ablest productions, devoted to the philosophy of these modern wonders. A notable feature in the contents of this work are the alleged communications received from Swedenborg and Lord Bacon, written, in their own hand-writing, from the spirit world,-they using Dr. Dexter's hand as the instrument to convey нишину their hands being affected by a power manifestly beyond their own control, and not emanating from or governed by their own will; a fourth species are speaking mediums, some of whom speak when in the trance state, and some when in their |