The Spiritualist newspaper > No.317, September 20th 1878

136
THE SPIRITUALIST.
Sept. 20, 1878.
THE SPIRITUAL BODY.
We have received a volume of 198 pages, published by Longmans,
Green, and Co., and entitled, TM Spiritual Body, an essay in prose
and verse, by John Charles Earle. The writer is a Catholic, but he
accords closely with Spiritualists in his views. The following passages
from this work will be read with interest:—
“Friends have often written and spoken to me of the doctrine of the
spiritual body as a theory—a valuable theory—a plausible theory—an
ingenious theory, and the like. Now on this point I wish to save my¬
self from all misconception. I do not put it forward as a theory. I
should not run the risk of displeasing, startling, shocking, alienating
many, whose esteem I value, for the sake of a mere hypothesis. I
should not set myself apparently in opposition to authority for the
pleasure of propounding an individual fancy. It is, in my opinion, no
theory at all. It is no more a theory than immortal life, the atone¬
ment, or future judgment. It is a truth—a revealed truth—and one
which, though sadly overlaid and distorted, has been held by Christians
in all times, either unconsciously or in part. It belongs to the deposit
of the faith; it is essentially necessary to other truths of revelation,
imparting light to them and deriving light from their light. In this
sense, and no other, I write of it; and in this sense it must stand or fall.
“ The spiritual body being a perfect resemblance and reproduction,
under altered conditions, of the natural body, it might be expected that
it should retain the material impressions in which memory is supposed
to consist. Successive acts of consciousness leave indelible traces
within us. Every thought that rises in our minds is accomplished by
some molecular motions and displacements in the brain, and parts of
these are in some manner stored up in the brain-cells so as to produce
what may be called our physical memory. Other parts of these subtle
motions are communicated, we may believe, to the spiritual or unseen
body, and are stored up there, forming a memory which may be utilised
when that body is set free by death and better able to exercise its
functions. It will thus retain its hold on the past, and serve the grand
purpose of maintaining a continuous intelligent existence.* It is
memory above all things which constitutes our identity with our former
selves when we have passed from youth to age—for not one of the
material fibres which we then had any longer exists within us—and it
is memory, in like manner, which will in great part form the identity
between the individual in his after-life and the individual during his
probation on earth. Thus the doctrine of the spirit-body is closely con¬
nected with the ethics of mankind. We are writing daily our thoughts
and deeds on imperishable tablets. We shall be witnesses hereafter for
or against ourselves. Out of our own mouths shall we be judged. We
shall carry with us through the gates of death our condemnation or
acquittal.
■ When the petals of the mind close in sleep evening after evening,
the leaves are inscribed with the events of the day; and there is in man
a fearfully vivid power of reviving past impressions and memories
which we imagined were dead for ever. Memory, like will, must have
an organ, or it is a cypher. We shall carry with us into eternity the
elements of our own bliss or woe. Heaven, hell, and purgatory spring
out of the nature of things. They are, indeed, present as well as future.
They begin in time. We are all even now in one or the other of these
states. In the spiritual body the condition of the soul will only become
more defined, more intense. Remorse, despair, impenitence, a dis¬
turbed conscience, and the loss of the light of God’s countenance—
these are hell; and no figures of speech, no outward symbols of material
torment, can exaggerate the idea of suffering which such conditions
necessarily imply.
“ Nor is the notion of material pain in the next world to be excluded,
for the spirit-body in which we shall be clothed will be far more sus¬
ceptible of pain and pleasure than the body we now exhibit. The suf¬
ferings, however, of the world unseen will be spiritual in the main, and
the conclusions of our physical reasoning should be limited to their
proper sphere. Nor ought we to think of the triple division of the
future state of souls as so marked and absolute as to admit of
no degree in each compartment. They are convenient expressions
for theology to employ, and they express solemn, substantial
truths. Yet no one who reflects can doubt that the variety of
condition in the world of spirits will be greater than in the world of men.
Every shade of knowledge and of ignorance, of virtue and of vice, of
happiness and of misery, will be found in that illimitable country
whither we tend. The spiritual body also will, by its extreme subtlety
and perfect subjection to the rule of thought, have means of exhibiting
varieties of feeling such as at present we can but faintly imagine.
uIsaac Taylor, in his profound and masterly Physical Theory of
Another Life, thus enumerates the properties which ‘ may be regarded
as belonging to corporeity abstractedly, and which are likely to attach to
the future spiritual body. Such,’ he says, * manifestly are—the occu¬
pation of place, or a relationship to space and extension; the conscious¬
ness of equable motion, or a knowledge of time; the consciousness of
the properties of matter, or sensation; an active power over matter, to
originate motion ; the susceptibility to imaginative emotions, and to
mixed moral sentiments; and a defined, recognisable individuality.’
Spirits will also, no doubt, have the faculty of weaving in an instant,
out of the universal fluid of which all things are made, garments suited
to the sphere they intend to visit, and to execute the purpose on which
they may be bent.”
Theue is a life insurance agent from Chicago going round Virginia.
He talks about the dread messenger, the silent tomb, and cold death, as
though he was selling a patent spring mattress. He can weep like a
sprinkling cart, and his trademark is a red handkerchief with an onion
on it.—American Paper,
* The Unseen Universe,- or, Physical Speculations on a Future State, p. 109.
THE PASSAGE OF MATTER THROUGH MATTER.
To the Editor of “ The Banner of Light ” (August 31st).
Sib,—On Saturday evening last a party of fifteen persons met at the
residence of Mr. and Mrs. Holmes for the express purpose of trying
whether flowers could be obtained in a closed box.
The one I provided for the experiment was an ordinary deal box,
made of three-quarter inch wood, its size being about sixteen inches on
all sides. In the lid was inserted a small square of glass, which was
let in on the under side, and fixed securely with strips of wood nailed to
the box-lid. The box having been examined, and everybody satisfied
that nothing was in it, I fastened it with a padlock which had never
been out of my possession since purchased, and put the key in my
pocket. To meet the objection that the box might be opened in the
dark, it was thought desirable to attach a strip of paper to the side of
the box, uniting it with the lid. A piece of gummed paper was used for
the purpose, and a seal was attached to it at each end. In addition to
this, a gentleman stuck a piece of court-plaster in a similar way at
another place.
Everything being prepared, the light was about to be extinguished,
when Mrs. Thayer, who was the presiding genius of the occasion, said
she had forgotten to bring her handkerchief that she usually places on
the top of her head during her seances. This is done, she avers, “ to
protect her brain from the electrical action prevailing,’’ and prevent a
subsequent headache. Hereupon a gentleman took from his pocket a
parcel of Chinese paper handkerchiefs, and opening one offered it to
Mrs. Thayer, who remarked that only a silk handkerchief would answer
the purpose, and it was left lying upon the table. The light was now
turned out, and very soon a strong breeze was felt, and raps were heard,
apparently on the box. Singing was resorted to, and was continued
with intervals for full half an hour, but nothing more than an occasional
rap and movement of the box was observable. The general belief was
that nothing had taken place, and even Mrs. Thayer remarked that she
“ did not think they would be able to do anything to-night.” It was at
length agreed to look and see whether anything had taken place, and on
a light being struck an object was seen through the glass which some
thought to be flowers, and others a bird, but which, upon the box being
opened, was found to be the paper handkerchief, the pattern on which
had been mistaken in the dim light for flowers. The handkerchief was
lying unfolded, as it had been left upon the table.
After this the box was set aside, and on the light being extinguished
a number of choice flowers were very soon found upon the table, the
most remarkable of which were six very large white lilies. There were
also a large piece of fir tree and a bunch of crab apples, and a small
piece of blackberry bush containing some unripe fruit. Everything
appeared cool and freshly gathered, although Mrs. Thayer had been in
the room about two hours.
At the conclusion of the seance the certificate appended was signed by
those present, who were all impressed with the genuineness of what had
been witnessed, and the marvellous character of the same.
Robert Cooper.
Boston, August 26th, 1878.
This is to certify that we, the undersigned, were present at a seance
at No. 8, Davis-street, on the evening of August 24th, 1878, when the
phenomenon of matter passing through matter was conclusively demon¬
strated in the presence of Mrs. Thayer, the flower medium, by a paper
handkerchief being passed into a sealed and locked box.
Robert Cooper,
Charles Houghton,
J. L. Newman,
D. C. Densmore,
John Wetherbee,
Edna R. Houghton,
J. Nelson Holmes,
Jennie W. Holmes,
F. E. Crane,
L. H. Ross,
Mrs. Augustus Wilson,
Mrs. A. B. Lawrence,
Mrs. A. C. Sylands,
J. Martin.
The Experimental Research Committee of the British National As¬
sociation of Spiritualists have, at the special request of Mr. Charles
Blackburn, elected4Signor Enrico Rondi a member of that committee.
Death op a Somnambulist.—Mr. Payne held an inquest the other
morning, at the City Mortuary, as to the death of Ellen Cross, 21, bar¬
maid at the King’s Head public-house, Aldersgate-street, City, who was
found poisoned by carbolic acid. She retired to bed quite well, taking
with her a glass of lemonade, and when found in the morning she had
her clothes on, and was lying dead on the floor. A bottle and a glass
containing carbolic acid were found on the table of her room, and there
was no doubt that a dose of the poison had killed her. As to how she
came to take the acid was a mystery, but a fellow-servant of the
deceased said Cross was in the habit of getting out of bed in her sleep and
doing strange things—acting as though serving the customers at the bar.
An open verdict was returned.
A. Child with a Tail.—We have received from a correspondent
in Calcutta a photograph of a child which has all the appearance of
having been born with a caudal appendage. The correspondent, in
sending the photograph, writes :—“ I enclose a photograph, interesting
no doubt to the disciples of Darwin, of a child born with a tail a few
months ago in the tea districts of Darjeeling. Its parents are healthy
coolies, and this is the first of their family. The child has sensibility
in the tail, though as yet no power to wag it; but this is not con¬
sidered very remarkable, seeing that monkeys fresh from the virgin
forest have not for some time after their birth the ability to wag
theirs.” The photograph, as we have said, bears marks of being
genuine, and the correspondent is trustworthy, and not at all likely
to be the victim of or to perpetrate a hoax.—Dundee Advertiser.