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

dressed by four o’clock in the afternoon, going out as often and staying
out as late as possible. My system of education would save us from
our dependence upon servants. If the mistress of the house likes
household occupations, and is wise enough to head the work of dusting,
cleaning, cooking, &c., she naturally has her nose everywhere, is sharp
with the servants, who, after all, are obliged to listen to her and to be
kept in order by her. Servants end by liking to be disciplined, and take
more interest in their work as they get taught to go through their day
systematically. They prefer a mistress who spends her day among
them; they grow to prefer cleanliness to dirt, order to disorder, manage¬
ment to no management at all, and end by almost forgetting to be
dainty and lazy. Some ladies may think that, having once drilled the
servants into this most enviable state, they may safely indulge in other
occupations. Cruel deception. However good, however honourable,
however Christian the occupations of the “ missus,” the servants gra¬
dually slip back into their old habits of uneducated slovenliness, dirt,
and greediness ; they get dressed as soon as they can, they spend their
money on their dress as fast as they can, they slip out as often as they
can, they stay out as late as they can, and scamp all their work. They
do not care for their mistress’s nagging, unless she can be at it from
morning till night. Her intellectual and educated pursuits prevent
this; and all I can say (from experience) is, that if a mistress does not
look after her house herself, no one else will, unless another educated
lady will do so, devoting herself for the sake of the superior or intellec¬
tual pursuit or accomplishment the mistress of the house should be
engaged in. Georgina Weldon.
Tavistock House, Tavistock-square, W.
EXTRAORDINARY SPIRITUAL PHENOMENA IN THE LIGHT.
Sir,—Dr. Monck has been holding light seances in Derby and sur¬
rounding localities almost daily [for the past seven weeks, and, as I have
had the pleasure of attending over forty of them, I write to offer your
readers just a glimpse of my never-to-be-forgotten experiences with this
remarkable medium.
Allow me to commence by stating: 1. That Dr. Monck has at all
these stances sat in the light—sometimes gaslight, at others broad day¬
light, but always in a good clear light. 2. He sits with one side of his
body towards the table, with one hand and arm on it, while the other
hand and arm are placed on the top of his chair back, and his legs and
feet not under the table, but outside in the open (the same as his hands),
in full view of all the sitters throughout the seance, during which he
remains perfectly passive and motionless. 3. Being constantly on the
move through the country, he, as a rule, has no rooms of his own for
stances, and therefore holds them in rooms provided by those who
engage him. He has always done so during my now extensive experi¬
ence of his mediumship, and I find that his willingness to do this
produces a most favourable impression on sceptics. 4. At the forty odd
siunces I have attended he has invariably manifested great readiness to
permit the application of the most stringent tests and rigorous investi¬
gation desired by investigators. 5. The phenomena at each of these
seances have not only been wonderfully varied, definite, and convincing
to large numbers of absolute sceptics attending them, but have likewise
been always promptly evolved, thus enabling me to say that at Dr.
Monck’s seances “ a wealth of the most astounding phenomena are to
be depended on as certain, notwithstanding any amount of what are
generally termed ill-conditions, such as the sceptical element present in
strong force, the state of the weather,” &c.
I think these facts should be known to the intelligent readers of The
Spiritualist as I gather from recent reports and letters therein that a
general impression prevails that “ there is no native English medium
who can secure pronounced phenomena in the light with any degree of
certainty under unfavourable conditions.’’ I will now, as briefly as
possible, glance at the phenomena I and my friends witnessed last night
at Mr. Ford’s, 27, Uttoxeter New-road, Derby. The medium sat, as I
have described, at one side of the table, the rest of us at two other sides,
while opposite the fourth unoccupied side, and five feet from it, an empty
chair was placed. The two gas jets were, at the medium’s request,
turned on at the full. As soon as we sat down the chair ran up to
the table a distance of five feet. Each of us now rose, closely
examined the chair, and thoroughly satisfied ourselves that its movement
was entirely and absolutely independent of any act of the medium’s.
The chair now repeatedly moved backwards and forwards several feet,
was suspended at a height of two feet from the floor, then turned upside
down so that the legs were uppermost, and it then floated on to the
middle of the table and off again several times. Two chairs were simi¬
larly moved up to the table from a like distance, one of them rose and
hooked its back on to the back of the other, and both then rushed
rapidly about in an open space of six feet by four for several minutes
without being disconnected. They then separated, and one went under
the table, and, by request, placed a leg in the hand of each of us, and
perfectly imitated the act of shaking hands.
Direct writing on a slate held under the table is common at the
doctor’s sSances} I need, therefore, only describe the following instance,
which appears to me by far more wonderful. I deposited my pencil and
a piece of paper on the table, and while the doctor leaned back in his
chair, so as not to be in contact with the table, and held his hands above
his head, we all saw the pencil rise and write a lengthy message on the
paper. This has occurred several times, and I have preserved the
papers. "We also had writing given under the test conditions suggested
by Dr. Wyld in last week’s Spiritualist. We signed our names on a
sheet of blank paper, which we nailed up in a box, tied the box up with
tape, knotted the crossings, and sealed the ends. In a few minutes we
opened the box, and found a long written communication on the paper.
Of course a pencil had been placed in the box. These are but a few of
the many equally astounding marvels that occur with unfailing certainty
at each of Dr. Monok’s stances, G. H. Adshead.
Derby.
OPEN AIR SERVICES IN LEICESTER.
Sir,—Sunday, the 30th of August, was what you may term a red
letter day with the Spiritualists of Leicester, and will not soon be for¬
gotten, for we then made our first attempt at holding open air services,
and with decided success. We had arranged previously to hold a pic-nic
party in the vicinity of Woodhouse Eaves, a delightful spot, displaying
the grand handiwork of nature and nature’s God. Sunday morning
came with as bright prospects of a fine day as we could possibly have
expected, the sun pouring forth its rays overhead, and a nice sharp wind
blowing as if to subdue the heat. At half-past eight the company began
to make their appearance; all appeared to have put on their best faces,
j so as not to be behind with the weather, and we were in exuberant
! spirits. At nine o’clock we started. Our drive lay through some of the
| finest scenery of which Leicestershire can boast. On our way we called
| at Quorndon to greet a spiritual friend. Arrived at Woodhouse Eaves,
! we put up our horses, and began to think about the inner man. Then
| we had a ramble over the rocks and among the ferns for about three-
quarters of an hour, and returned to the service. Our Quorndon friend
| was voted to the chair. We had an address from one of our controls
| on vegetarianism; but some of us think that vegetarianism will not
| suit everybody. After the address our chairman gave us a lecture, in
I the course of which he made quotations from the Scriptures, showing
| the relationship of the greater part of the Bible to Spiritualism. The
| afternoon service was not so much of a success as the evening, although
j we got on very well considering it was our first attempt at open air con¬
trolling of trance mediums. At the evening service many strangers
I, were present, and fine addresses were given on the fact of a future
| ( existence, and of the possibility of the spirits’ return to the sphere in
!| which it had spent its days in the body. We concluded the service
( by singing the doxology. The company seemed well satisfied,
j . Should any mediums be passing through Leicester at any time, we
) shall be very happy to see them at our rooms in Silver-street on Sunday
( mornings at 10.30, evenings at 6.30 ; Thursday evenings at 8.30. I
I hope the time is not very far distant when we shall be able to send you
accounts of meetings more valuable than this one j but this one is not
| to be laughed at, as it is a step in advance.
' i W. J. Cattell, Secretary.
;! 155, Syston-street, Leicester, Aug. 9th, 1876.
i1
I HOW DO SPIRITS CONVERSE?
Sir,—Referring to The Spiritualist of July 21st I find some quota¬
tions from Swedenborg, wherein he says that “ the speech of a spirit
flows first into the man’s thought, and by an internal way into his organ
of hearing, and thus moves that from within,” by what we should term
a reflex action. Hence the sound of the voice from the organ of sound
or sonorous body, just as a drum might be struck from without or from
within, and the same sound be produced. But in another extract
referring to spirits out of the body, he says, “The spirits then come into
their veriest sensitive life, and can speak and hear.” Then why should
not the spirit within the body hear the spirit outside, without the inter¬
vention of the material organ ? I knew a somnambulist, the cousin of
! Thackeray, who used to hear beautiful music, just as in our dreams we
have wonderfully distinct visions ; so that we have three kinds of per¬
ception: 1. In the ordinary way; 2. By the action of a spirit, and
3. As originating from the mind itself. In the last case it may equally
be a reflex action from the organ of the sense in an inverse way. But
in any case it is the spirit or inner self that hears or perceives, since the
perceiving or hearing must be inseparable from that which hears and
perceives, though by an illusion it is referred to the organ of sense or to
I an external and objective source. The voice of the spirit is heard ; one
| would like to know whether it seems to come from some being at a
distance, as in the ordinary case of hearing a person speak, or the
I thunder heard as if it were really in the distant clouds.
| I should think that a spirit might inspire a whole company at once if
| all were sufficiently sensitive—just as with Goethe’s grandfather, who
inspired all present with the same clairvoyance as himself. I do not
| think we can define a limit to a power of this nature, but each would
| hear a separate voice, just as with our ordinary perceptions; and no one
can be aware of the hearing or thing perceived by another, though we
may recognise a common source to all our different impressions, in
! respect to any sound or object. Each percipient having a different im-
I pression from a common source was the great objection to Berkeley’s
| system, and which was not got over by referring all to a supernatural
cause—all agreeing that they saw the same object, as in looking at St.
j Paul, for instance. God might influence all alike, as a spirit might, but
] then the objective fact, common to all, would not be St. Paul, but God.
And we should indeed be “of such stuff as dreams are made of.”
| “ Yea, all which it inherit shall dissolve, and, like this insubstantial
pageant faded, leave not a rack behind.” The whole world, and even
j the percipients themselves, “melted into air—into thin air.” Such-like
i is the dream of the consistent idealist—only we never do find them
I consistent. Henry G. Atkinson, F.G.S.
Boulogne. • ' ■
A SEANCE WITH DR. SLADE.
Sir,—I have just returned from a visit to Dr. Slade. In addition to
| phenomena similar to those recorded by Serjeant Cox in your last issue,
I I was favoured with the following crucial test.
i I had provided myself with two small slates—bound with wood, and
closely fitting the one on the other—and a piece of ordinary slate pencil.
On my requesting that a message might be written on my own slates,
Dr. Slade immediately assented, and, biting a small piece (the size of a
i small pea) off my pencil, he inserted it between the slates, and with one
hand (visible all the time) he held the slates under the table between us,
| his other hand resting upon my hands on the table. In about a minute
writing was distinctly audible, and on removing the upper slate some
Auct, 18, 1876.
THE SPIRITUALIST.
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