The Spiritualist newspaper > No.208, August 18th 1876

Aug. 18, 1876.
tHfe SPIBITtJALIST.
30
A MATERIALISATION SEANCE WITH DR. SLADE.
BY WM. H. HARRISON.
This evening Dr. Slade was kind enough to invite me to
an experimental materialisation seance with him. He does
not sit for these phenomena, except on rare occasions, because
they exhaust his vitality too much.
He had no cabinet, unless a common table may be dignified
by that name. He placed his light little wooden rectangular
table, size about five feet by four, with no cover, three feet
from one corner of the room, first turning the table upside
down to show me that there was nothing concealed under¬
neath it. The gaslight was turned very low, but all the
objects in the room could be seen in outline. Dr. Slade also
was in full view, as he sat by my side, with his hands on
mine, waiting for spirits to appear. We were sitting on one
side of the table watching the corner of the room opposite us,
for there, Dr. Slade informed me, the spirits were likely to
materialise. After waiting for about five minutes, a full-
sized human figure gradually rose in the corner. It was
covered, all but the face, with white drapery, and there was
not light enough to distinguish the features. The form,
which I could see from head to waist, remained in the corner
of the room, nearly motionless, for a minute or two, after
which it sank down until the view of it was cut off by the
further edge of the table. I then asked for u more light,”
in order to see it better, should it rise once more. Dr. Slade
accordingly turned up the gas a little, and at the same time
told me not to move in the slightest degree; he also was
disinclined to move himself to turn up the gas, as he had an
impression that absolute stillness on our part strengthened
the conditions favouring the appearance of the form.
A second time it rose, and on this occasion I was able to
see that the face was that of a woman, with beautiful
features, so far as the dim light would allow them to be
seen. There was not sufficient light to enable me to see
whether the features were flexible and living, or whether the
apparition was some representative or symbolical figure,
manufactured and materialised by spirits unseen at the
stance. From past experience I have every reason to believe
that spirits sometimes exhibit forms without life in them in
the way just mentioned. Perhaps at the next seance there
may be light enough for me to be able to state whether
these forms are living or otherwise.
One thing was perfectly clear, namely, that Dr. Slade had
nothing to do with the production of the form which I saw;
he, like myself, was a passive spectator. He stated that he
knew the spirit, and that she was related to him.
88, Great Eussell-street, August 10th, 1876.
MESSAGES AT A SEANCE WITH DR. SLADE.
BY C. CARTER BLAKE, BOO. SCI.
I have been asked to state the nature of the “ intelligible ”
messages received by me at the sSance with Dr. Slade de¬
scribed in the last number of The Spiritualist.
The first, as I have stated, was from “ Allie.”
The second was u J. R. O’H.”
To my question—“ Does that mean John Reynolds
O’Neil ? ” written by me on the slate, which was afterwards
turned down, and invisible to Dr. Slade, the answer in
writing was :—
“Yes, 133 is Charles F. Crokat’s.”
The above are the real names and indicate those of War
Office fellow-clerks of mine in 1859. Mr. O’Neil, M.A., of
Corpus Christi College, Oxford, died on July 28th last.
There was a strong resemblance between his peculiar hand¬
writing and that on the slate.
A neatly-printed little pamphlet by Mrs. Weldon, containing par¬
ticulars about her Orphanage, can be had gratis on application to
Mr. W. H. Harrison, 38, Great Russell-street, London, W.C.
On Sunday, August 6th, Mr. J. J. Morse gave two addresses at the
hall of the Newcastle Society of Spiritualists in Newgate-street, New¬
castle, that in the afternoon on “ The Mission of Spiritualism; its
Nature and Value.’’ Mr. J. T. Rhodes presided. In the evening the
subject was the “ Workshops of God,” and Mr. T. P. Barkas presided;
on the platform was Mr. W. C. Robson, who, before the address, read
the leading article from The Spiritualist of Aug. 4th. The address
itself was one of the best given through the mediumship of Mr. Morse.
I SPIRITUALISM IN CONTINENTAL EUROPE.
NO. II.
BY EMILY KISLINGBTJRY.
Wimille, Pas de Calais, Aug. 11th.
In consequence of the high westerly winds which have
| prevailed on this coast during the past week, it has been
| impossible for us to make any of the distant excursions
j which Miss Blackwell had planned for my visit; but one
| has only to go outside the door to feast one’s eyes on a land-
I scape of varied and ever-changing beauty. The hilly and
j broken nature of the ground gives that most charming
| feature of a variety of middle distances, presenting a vivid
contrast of colour, according to the crops grown, and end¬
less gradations of light and shade. From almost every
point the sea forms the horizon, the deep blue of which,
bounded by the gray line of the English cliffs, added to the
| clearness and brilliance of the French sky, provides an ex-
|, quisite setting to the landscape. Then the greatest charm
j of all is the almost preternatural stillness of this spot,
which seems created on purpose for the refreshment of weary
brains and tired-out human nature.
It is evident, however, that on brains or souls not yet
awakened to activity, solitude has a stupefying effect. The
Madame who drove me from Boulogne in her equipage^ and
who may be about fifty years of age, has not yet seen the
sea at Wimereux, and until Miss Blackwell began to give
her commissions in Boulogne, she had never been but in
one single street in that town, though she has driven there
every week for years past to sell the produce of her little
farm. The children in the few cottages about here have
most of them never seen the sea, except from a distance, al¬
though it is only about a mile off; and a ploughboy to whom
Miss Blackwell once pointed out the beauties of the sunset,
seemed to think the sight beneath his notice, though all
very well for wonder-seeking travellers and foreigners like
ourselves.
During the rough weather outside I have been wandering
pleasantly, and, I hope, profitably, in the gardens of the
Spiritist philosophy with Allan Kardec, and am beginning
to find my way up and down the two volumes Miss Black-
well has translated, and La Gendse, which is the last of the
series, and exceedingly beautiful, being a summing up of
the ideas imparted from various sources during the long
investigations of the writer. One most striking feature in
Allan Kardec’s writings is the minute foreseeing of the
manifestations which were later to be developed, and of the
difficulties, moral and physical, which would attend them,
as we are at present beginning to realise. This is more
particularly observable in the Mediums' Book, which was
written in 1861, eight or nine years after the Spirits' Book.
The great value, however, of the Kardec writings is, in my
opinion, that they set forth as the aim of his doctrines, the
moral elevation of man—an aim which I once fondly hoped
was to be achieved by wbat we understand as Spiritualism,
but which experience shows that mere phenomenalism will
never accomplish. When I come personally among the
followers of Kardec in Paris, I shall be better able to judge
whether any good moral effect is being produced by the
beliefs which his philosophy inculcates; certain it is that a
good moral tone prevails in all the books and journals con¬
nected therewith that I have as yet seen. I believe, also, that
both in America and England many il righteous souls are
vexed,” and many faithful workers are becoming heart-weary,
on account of the irregularities which the pursuit of pheno¬
menal Spiritualism seems rather to have caused than to have
checked.
I regret to find that no other correspondent of The
Spiritualist has taken up the question mooted by me of the
fact of transformation as against materialisation. A very
interesting case bearing upon this subject is cited in the
Mediums' Booh, page 133, which is too long for me to quote
now, but which I recommend to the attention of your
readers.
I leave this charming place and my kind and pleasant
hostess next week, when, after spending a few days at St.
Valery-en-Caux with the family of Prince Wittgenstein, I
shall go on to Paris, where Madame Leymarie will arrange
for me to visit her husband in prison, and where I hope to