The Spiritualist newspaper > No.141, May 7th 1875

May 7, 1875.
THE SPIKITUALIST.
219
for it? more or less ignorant? more or less useful?
more or less happy ?
We dare any to say of us aught that may reasonably
reflect on us, on our acts, or on our teaching. We assert
in the face of all who hear that it is God-like, and that
our mission is of and from Him.
Nor have we failed to justify our claims by signs fol¬
lowing, even as Jesus did and said. We have placed
before you a body of convincing evidence to which it
would be difficult to add. We have not been chary of
complying with your wishes for manifestations of power.
Nay, we have even risked doing harm to you in our
desire to gratify our friends by the exhibition of the
more remarkable manifestations. We have cheerfully
granted all requests made to us, when it was possible,
and as we, in the exercise of wider wisdom, judged de¬
sirable to do so. When we have refused your requests
it has been because you have asked impossibilities, or
because in your ignorance you have wished for what
would do you harm. It is necessary to remind you
that we see from a clearer standpoint, and with a more
piercing vision than man has yet attained; and we
are frequently obliged to refuse requests made in
ignorance and folly. But what has been refused,
never without good reason, is as a speck to the moun¬
tain of evidence which has been given—evidence which
is sufficient to prove over and over again the existence
of a power external to earth, beneficent in its action,
eleva'ting in its operation, and blessed in its issue—a
power which can come from none but God, since it is
Divine in act and outcome. Yet that power, so proven,
so known to you, you distrust, and seriously question
the statements which we make to you as to our identity.
It is to you, forsooth, a stumbling-block that names
which you have exalted should stoop to concern them¬
selves with a Divine Work, under the leadership of
Divinely-sent messengers, and designed for the ameliora-
ton of man’s destiny. And so you refuse credence, and,
with daring ignorance, charge on us that we are, or at
least may be, impostors, and that we are performing
acts of beneficence with a lie in our mouths. This you
do though you know that you can devise no reason why
we should deceive, no source but God from which we
can be derived, no errand but mercy on which we can
be sent, no end but man’s eternal benefit on which we
can be employed.
It is this that constitutes your fault, and we are
bound to censure it in you. We tell you that it is in
you sin, and that we will have no dealings with you
on such terms. We will give no signs so demanded.
We have reached the limits beyond which we will not
go, and we warn you that it is at your own peril that
you despise what has been placed before you. We
charge you solemnly that you meditate on the past, that
you ponder its lessons, weigh its evidence, and pause
before you wilfully put aside such a body of teaching,
and such a mass of evidence merely for an idea.
More we will not now give. We refuse to be judged
as you would judge; and we appeal from yourself blind
and foolish, to that calmer and truer self whom we
chose originally as the recipient of our teaching. That
appeal you must entertain according to the ability and
honesty which is in you. ' By it we stand or fall as
regards you. We wish you to decide fairly, and as in
the sight of God—not hastily or rashly, but as one
who knows the magnitude of the issues, and the vast¬
ness of the responsibility of decision.
Meantime seek not for further evidence ; it will not
be given. We warn you to avoid mixing with other
circles. At your risk do you seek communications
thus. You will but perplex and bewilder yourself, and
render our task more difficult. We will afford you
information on points that may arise; and we do not
absolutely forbid, though we discourage the meeting of
our own circle. We can give no new evidence there,
and, if you meet, it must be with a desire for explana¬
tion, and for the promotion of harmonious intercourse.
We hinted to you long ago that rest and reflection are
needful for you. We now enjoin them on you. If our
circle will meet, we will join them occasionally under
certain conditions, which we will tell you of. But we
discourage any such meetings. You will not be left
alone ; rather you will be doubly guarded. We leave
you with our blessing, and we guard you with our
prayers. May the All-wise guide you! May He
direct you, for you cannot direct yourself.
4- Imperatob,
PSYCHOLOGY AND SPIRITUALISM.
BY WILHAM HITCHMAN, M.R.C.S. (EXG.)
Whatever may be said, sung, or written of the British
National Association of Spiritualists, or the Psychological
Society of Great Britain, not omitting that of Liverpool, the
impartial observer of recent proceedings cannot fail to notice
the striking analogy—rather, perhaps, identity—of certain
natural phenomena, termed Psychology and Spiritualism, in
the pages of The Spiritualist and elsewhere. Comparative
anatomy does not lead to the invariable conclusion that the
operations of mind are essentially associated with the convo¬
lutions of hemispherical ganglia, or nervous vesicles of brain
and spinal cord, either as fine transparent cell-membrane,
containing granular matter and a nucleus, within which are
nucleoli, or other structural elements of grey and white
organic substance, on the integrity of which, in all its atomic
forms and molecular arrangements, depend sensibility, volition,
instinct, reason, and, in mankind, spirituality of soul. The
fibres are said to be tubular or white, and grey or gelatinous,
and best seen in the brains of negroes and porpoises, though
Spurzheim considered them most distinct in the brains of
Englishmen, beyond all other races or tribes of animated
nature, owing to their constant use of other animals, on whose
flesh and blood they mainly subsist! Is nervous tissue the
chief element of psychology and Spiritualism ? and are both
these latter branches of human inquiry resolvable into ques¬
tions pertaining* to fibres, cells, or vesicles? If so, organised
beings descend from inorganic substances absolutely. Albu¬
men is thus the facile princeps of human organisation, men¬
tally and physically, with five parts of fatty constituents and
eighty of water ! Carbonic acid and ammonia, becoming
dissolved in dew and rain of atmospheric changes, are then
absorbed by living vegetables; under the operation of vital
force, which is itself but “ a mode of motion,” molecularly,
carbonic acid, I say, so decomposed, oxygen given off pure to
the air, and carbon, with the elements of water, forming the
structure of each plant—the cycle is complete, from nebula to
nebula, evermore. In a sense, it is obvious that, if Spiritualism
be true, psychology, which repudiates or ignores it, is false,
utterly. Lactantius says—“I have proved for myself that
God sends angels to commune with the souls of men.” (De
orig. Error, ii. 15.) The Hebrew bard sings thus—“ He hath
given his angels charge over thee, that they should keep thee
in all thy ways.” “ They shall bear thee up in their hands,”
&c. (Psalm xoi. 11.) And amongst a variety of other pas¬
sages, David tells us—“ Let the angel of the Lord chase them ”
(Psalm xxxv. 5); ay, persecute, or deliver from danger,
according to the mood or mediumship of the shepherd-king,
and his precise knowledge of psychology, or Spiritualism, in
other words, truth or falsehood.
Psychologists, like anthropologists, have clearly been mis¬
taken in viewing the brains of men and animals as the sole
mechanical or molecular causative agents in all the intellec¬
tual, emotional, and other mental processes, merely from
having found external demonstrative evidence that impres¬
sions and ideas of our spiritual nature require the temporary
aid or co-operation of organic structure. Spiritualism is the
higher psychology, since it proves conclusively, from in-