ceptible they become; and in this way they are liable to be affected through the imagination. But it is out of our province to dilate upon these curious psychological facts. We merely refer to them incidentally, in order to account for the particular experiences of this too willing captive of "Dull Melancholy; Whose drossy thoughts, drying the feeble brain, This melancholy fact is placed beyond all dispute or doubt by the Judge himself: 'It was in January 1851 (he tells us), that my attention was first called to the subject of spiritual intercourse. I was at the time withdrawn from general society; I was labouring under great depression of spirits. I was occupying my leisure in reading on the subject of death, and man's existence afterwards. I had, in the course of my life, read and heard from the pulpit so many contradictory and conflicting doctrines on the subject, that I hardly knew what to believe. I could not, if I would, believe what I did not understand, and was anxiously seeking to know if, after death, we should again meet with those whom we had loved here, and under what circumstances.' (Spiritualism, vol. i. p. 71.) Such was his peculiar frame of mind at the moment when Judge Edmonds was invited by a friend to witness the Rochester knockings,' and such, as we have briefly shown, the result of his inquiries regarding them. That result does not surprise us in the least. He has explained the immediate cause of his infidelity as clearly as the progress of his conversion to spiritualism. The two issues are distinct, but not inseparable. Perplexed, on the one hand, by the extravagances of enthusiastic preachers, and betrayed, on the other, by the fervour of a religious imagination, the Judge has learned by actual and too common experience, that from scepticism to fanaticism the road is both short and easy. 'We have to contend [said he, when lecturing in public on his favourite theme, in the Broadway Tabernacle, New York, on the 19th February, 1855] against our own fanaticism; for, I assure you, from my own experience and observation, that the fanaticism of this intercourse is so great, that its tendency is to lead men away from their proper judgment, and instil a fanaticism most revolting to the calm and rational mind.' If any of his friends looked on this public avowal as a symptom of returning rationality in the speaker, they were VOL. CXXII. NO. CCL. RR 6 doomed to disappointment; for, he who could thus openly caution his co-spiritualists, and at the same time repel the inquisitive, has since approved the enthusiasm of the most ignorant of his admirers, as well as endorsed the most extravagant of their revealments.' Domini pudet, non servitutis. Whatever secret misgivings he may entertain regarding the origin of his thaumaturgical powers, he still glories in the habitual practice of them. Neither the manifold contradictions of the spirits,' nor the fabrications of their alleged mediums --and it is hard to say which are the more glaring-create the smallest doubt or suspicion in his breast. His credulity is omnivorous. The 'revealed facts' of Lord Bacon's disembodied spirit being in two distinct spheres at once, and of his always conversing in the American idiom, are as readily accepted by this inquisitive judge as spiritual communications in the Hebrew character written from left to right. In the whole range of spiritual literature there is nothing, to quote his own language, more revolting to the calm and rational mind' than the following example of fanaticism. We should premise that the various orders of spirits, happy and unhappy, who periodically visit him are wont to make known their presence by sundry preconcerted signals: 'As I sat by the medium's side (says the Judge), I felt it was the spirit who had been with us on Saturday night, and had called himself"Misfortune." I noticed that his right hand was clenched, and remarked, "Your fist doubled again?" He instantly opened his hand, and baring his arm, raised it before me, and said, "Do you know that sign?" I told him, right well, and now I wanted also the word. He answered, "The Truth." He then added, "Do you know you have redeemed me?" I told him how deeply I rejoiced to hear it, and reminded him that I had told him that such a result would give me happiness that would last for ages. "I am redeemed from the curse of sin by your aid: you have saved me." Nay, I replied, that the Truth had saved him, the Truth against the world. "Man of God! labour faithfully in this sin-subduing work. It takes hold even down in the dark regions where I have dwelt; it reaches down there, and will bring up the fallen to realms of light through your action." (Spiritualism, vol. ii. p. 216.) Whilst conceding that some of the phenomena of spiritualism are as yet unaccounted for by the recognised laws of matter and mind, and therefore deserve investigation at the hands of competent men, we conclude that by far the greater part of them are referable to monomania and fraud. It is an indisputable fact that spiritualism has either produced or developed a tendency to insanity in innumerable instances; the Bedlams in America are overcharged with its victims; and it is equally undeniable that enormous fortunes have been speedily realised by professional mediums who have practised on the weakness and credulity of their clients. The advertising columns of the American daily press betoken the prevalence of an epidemical madness on the one hand, and of a mercenary agency on the other, unexampled in the history of a civilised people. Very much of that which Judge Edmonds describes as religious enthusiasm, both in connexion with and apart from the practice of psychomancy, would be called by a very different name by less partial critics on this side of the Atlantic. Excepting himself, and a very few more, the illustrators of this new and better gospel,' as they vauntingly style it, cannot lay just claim to that privilege which was the boast of Cæsar's wife. Their conduct and proceedings in support of it have rarely been other than doubtful and suspicious. The habitual practice of mediumship as surely blunts the moral sensibilities as it weakens the understanding. The Seer of Poughkeepsie, whose wonderful discoveries and excellent personal qualities have been trumpeted by a thousand throats, has been detected on more than one occasion plagiarising the literary and scientific speculations of others and impudently palming them on his multitudinous dupes for revealments from the spirits.' He has practised in his manhood the lessons inculcated in his youth. Even if Judge Edmonds belongs to that limited class of practitioners who involuntarily deceive themselves, and seek no pecuniary advantage from the hands of their neighbours, yet he must be held responsible for much of that fanaticism which characterises the conduct of his coreligionists, as well as for the propagation of those atheistical tenets which have found a too congenial soil for their growth in the States. His exalted position and acknowledged sagacity have proved fatal stumbling-blocks to thousands upon thousands of his countrymen. Whether he recognises the distinction or not, he has become, in all spiritual matters, their principal authority and guide. According to the latest computation more than two millions of Americans have embraced his doctrines and adopted his views. Nor is that vast number entirely composed of uneducated people. On the contrary, it is confidently maintained by the New England Spiritualists' Association, that half the members of Congress and the State Legislatures, as well as half the scientific and literary men of America, are Spiritualists. And the same Association further informs us, in one of the latest of its periodical addresses to the public, that every day, and much more than daily, lectures upon Spiritualism are 'given in presence of audiences quite respectable as to both ' numbers and character;' and that circles are held by day ' and by night in nearly every city, town, and village through'out our country;' and that no less than twelve or fourteen 'periodicals are devoted exclusively to the publication of its phenomena, and the dissemination of its principles.' Those phenomena are the same with the sorcery and witchcraft of former times. Spiritualists, indeed, boast themselves of this identity. If,' says Professor Brittan, in his prospectus of the Spiritual Telegraph,' of which he is the editor, 'If Modern Spiritualism is to be rejected because some of its illustrations are wanting in interest, dignity, and truth, or for the reason that they are imitated by cunning impostors, the Ancient Spiritualism must go with it. This is strictly legitimate, for the old Jewish phenomena were at least quite as disorderly as ours, and Simon Magus was, of all men, Prince among the workers of spiritual miracles.' Well may the sober in the States stand aghast at such professions and practices as these, and despond for the future of their country! The unclean spirit of Mormon had scarcely been expelled from their midst, when he suddenly returns with seven other spirits more potent than himself. No class has been able to withstand him. The educated and refined, as well as the illiterate and vulgar, are among his victims. The weak have seized upon the strong, and both have sunk under the waters together. Truly said Bacon, in all superstition wise men follow fools.'-That humanity should be betrayed by its passions, and cast off all restraints for a season-that the multitude should go mad, and play fantastical tricks-that a whole nation should deny a Providence, and embrace Atheism, might occasion us less surprise; history is too full of such examples: but that large bodies of people, priding themselves upon their superior civilisation and intelligence, and aspiring to political and moral ascendency in the world, should deliberately exchange a divine for a human religion, re-erect the ancient temples of deceit, and practise the arts of divination; that Christians, in a word, should relapse into vulgar heathenism-arę facts which would be too monstrous for credence but for the overwhelming evidence to the contrary. In vain—' in ' vain we cry that oracles are down; Apollo's altar still doth smoke. Nor is the fire of Delphos out unto this day!' No. CCLI. will be published in January, 1866. INDEX. A Alps, the tunnel through the, 123-old passes and new roads, 123-4 B Berry, Miss, her Journals and Correspondence, reviewed, 297– - Bible, revision of the English, 103-new editions of the Scriptures, C Campbell, J. F., review of his 'Frost and Fire,' 422, et seq.-motions Carpenter, Miss, Our Convicts, reviewed, 337. China and Japan, works relating to, 175-advance of Russia and Criminal Class, life in the, 337-Miss Carpenter's book on the sub- Crowe, J. A., and G. B. Cavalcaselle, review of their History of F Fergusson, J., review of his Rock-cut Temples of India, 371. G Gordon, Lady Duff, review of her Letters from Egypt, 217-our |