The Spiritualist newspaper > No.312, August 16th 1878

tflE SPIRITUALIST.
Aug. 16, 1878.
78
among the early occurrences at Hydesville, Rochester, and
Auburn.*
Sometimes these missives were enclosed in a book, and
thrown down stairs or into the room; sometimes wrapped
about a key or nail, or anything that would give a momentum,
and thrown into the room. Often they were seen to fall
from above; this occurring frequently when the doors were
closed, and it was not possible for any visible agent to have
been the cause. Writing would appear on the wall at times,
made, as i t appeared, with a pencil. On one occasion Dr.
Phelps was writing at his desk, and, turning his back for a
few moments, without leaving his chair, turned again to his
paper, where he found written in large letters, Very nice
paper and very nice ink for the devil.” The ink was not
yet dry, the desk was not two feet from him as he sat, and
he was entirely alone in the room.
About the 1st of May, Dr. Phelps of Boston, brother of
the Rev. Doctor and Professor Phelps, of Andover, a son of
the Rev. Doctor, went to Stratford to u expose the humbug
and with a full belief that it was a trick of evil-minded persons,
and that they should be able to detect and expose it without
trouble; and they were disappointed, as hundreds have been
under like circumstances. On Tuesday evening a loud rap
was heard on the back door, seeming to be made by the
knocker, loud enough to be heard twenty rods distant.
The servant went to the door, but no person was there.
After the lapse of five or eight minutes the rap was repeated,
It was then supposed that some one had done it mis¬
chievously, but on looking about no person was discovered.
It was in the shades of evening, but not dark enough to
prevent any person being seen who might have done it as
easily as at midday. The knocking came the third time,
when Dr. Phelps (the visitor) placed himself in the hall,
perhaps four feet from the door, and the Professor, of An¬
dover, took a position on the steps without, each having full
view of the door. The same loud raps were repeated on the
door between them. The knocker did not move, nor could
the eye detect any cause for what met the ear. The noise
was heard throughout the house, and both the gentlemen
were positive that no visible agent was employed to produce
it. About bed-time a loud pounding was heard on the
chamber door. The gentlemen, each with a candle in hand,
stood on either side of the door, as the pounding, as though
done with a heavy boot, was continued. The noise appeared
to each to be on the side of the door opposite to him. On
the following morning, as Dr. Phelps, of Stratford, was
standing at the foot of the stairs leading to the third storey,
a noise as loud, and much resembling the report of a pistol,
occurred apparently close to his ear. These boisterous sounds
occurred at intervals during a great part of the time that
the disturbance was continued. Sometimes for weeks they
would be heard; and again for days they were heard every
day.
It would seem, from various occurrences, that the agents
of these sounds, Whoever they were, must have been human
beings, or at least possessed of all the leading characteristics
of humanity. They were evidently influenced by kindness
or unkindness, by respect and confidence, as persons generally
are in this life. Some instances illustrating this are given.
One morning, during the breakfast hour, they would push
the breakfast table suddenly, raise up one side and shake it
in such a manner as to spill the cofiee, and otherwise occa¬
sion serious inconvenience. A person at the table spoke to
them in a tone of authority, commanding them to desist;
but the act was at once repeated. Again they were com¬
manded to cease, but increased violence followed this demand.
This was five or six times repeated, and the shaking was each
time renewed. At length another person at the table said, “ I
request you kindly to cease this annoyance, and allow us to take
our breakfast quietly,” and they ceased at once without a
repetition. It was found from this time that kindness had
about the same effect upon them that it produces upon man¬
kind at large. A lady, the wife of a clergyman, spent a few
weeks in the family during the summer, who received many
communications from them, would often, when the scissors,
thimble, or things of that kind were mislaid, say, v I will
thank the spirits to return my thimble, scissors,” or what-
* Mr. Sunderland, in his Book of Human Nature^ p. 280, says this was the first of the
spirit-writing, but he is in error. The author of this work was acquainted with cases of
ikis kind long before the disturbances at Stratford,
| ever was missing, and the article missing would drop at her
side, or in her lap, within a minute. Things of this kind
occurred very many times in course of the time that these
phenomena were continued. If a key or knife, or anything
I of the kind was mislaid, and any person was looking for it,
frequently it would be thrown to them as though their
wants were anticipated. Dr. Phelps was once with Harry
in the stable, when the currycomb could not be found, and
he asked Harry where it was, to which Harry replied that
| he did not know. At that moment the Doctor saw it rise,
I as if thrown, from a point ten feet distant from them, and,
11 describing a parabola, fall within a short distance of the spot
! where they both were standing.
|| (To be concluded in our next.)
| LETTER FROM HERR J. GILLIS TO MR. C. REIMERS.
} | Mr. Christian Reimers sends us the following
11 Sir,—I have just received a letter from Herr J. G-illis, dated St.
! I Petersburg, Aug. 10th, from which I extract a few lines:—
j “I too felt rather nervous about the preservation of the two interlinked
(| rings, but they are alljright, and delight and astonish again and again.
(| I will now lay also bare the grain of the wooden ring, and have & perfect
| photo taken. I received also a letter from Professor Zollner.”
Thus the long silence of Herr Gillis seems explained by the absence
11 of his scientific friends (vacation season), together with his wise reso-
| lution not to part with the rings on any account.
Christian Reimers.
47, Mornington-road, London, August 14th, 1878.
BELIEF IN SPIRITS.
Ossian, as rendered by Macpherson, pleads that the dead still exist,
I because their ghosts are seen. I know full well the senseless incredulity
! | which will greet this argument. It requires the audacity of conviction
| to pronounce it. I never knowingly beheld an apparition, whether
| ( ghost, wraith, or doppel, and I have no expectation of ever seeing one.
i ( But I am sure that if beings exist in an ethereal or spiritual form, there
j I are persons who are capable of seeing them. I do not believe that all
111 spectral appearances are produced by a deranged digestion or disturbed
i | molecular adjustment of the brain. I am totally incapable of such
| credulity.
(; To illustrate this belief we will now cite two or three examples which
> | it seems to me cannot be candidly questioned. M. Matter, a French
(| gentleman, holding a position in the Department of Public Instruction
(j at Paris, stated to a well-known American in 1859 that he paid a visit
I to Friedrich Oberlin, the celebrated pastor of Ban-de-la-Roche, in
(| Alsace. Oberlin submitted to his inspection a manuscript prepared by
([ himself, entitled, Journal des Apparitions et Instructions par Reves.
} j He found it to contain, among other things, a narrative of a series of
11 apparitions of his deceased wife, and of his interviews (entretiens) with
11 her. “ Oberlin was convinced,” said M. Matter, “ that the inhabitants
/ ! of the invisible world can appear to us, and we to them, when God
(i wills; and that we are apparitions to them as they are to us.”
(i Miss Anna Maria Porter, the author, relates that during her residence
(i at Esher, in Surrey, England, an old gentleman was in the habit of
(! visiting her house of evenings, reading the newspapers and drinking a
I cup of tea. One evening she saw him enter as usual, and seat himself
| j at the table, but without speaking. She addressed some remarks to
(! him, but he made no reply. After a few seconds she saw him rise and
|! leave the room without uttering a word. Astonished and alarmed at
(! this conduct, she immediately sent a servant to his house to make
j inquiries. The reply was brought back that the old gentleman had
11 died suddenly about an hour before.
j I It is also related that a gentleman in London who was familiar with
(| the late George Smith, the celebrated Assyriologist, heard his name
j called in Mr. Smith’s natural tone of voice on the afternoon of the day
| that he died at Hierapolis, in Syria, in August, 1878.
| Indeed, so general is the belief of mankind, from all antiquity, upon
| this subject, that there is no people among whom apparitions of the dead
11 are not related and believed. “ This opinion,” remarks Dr. Samuel
(j Johnson, “which prevails as far as human nature is diffused, could
|! become universal only by its truth ; those who never heard one another
(| would not have agreed in a tale which nothing but experience could
(j make credible.” Addison also declares : “Could not I give myself up
| i to this general testimony of mankind, I should to the relations of parti-
11 cular persons who are now living, and whom I cannot distrust in other
11 matters of life.”—A. Wilder, in Evolution.
(| Ministering Angels.—The Rev. Mr. Clark, of Xenia, Ohio, startled
| ] his congregation a few Sundays ago by declaring in one of his sermons
) | that it was a precious doctrine with him to believe and know that all
(I God’s people had ministering angels, who had power to come back to
| j this world and encourage and comfort all such as put their trust in
/1 Him; and that these ministering angels were unquestionably those who
(! had once lived with them, and taken an earthly interest in them. He
| ] claimed that he had a right, though a Methodist minister, to this faith;
11 claiming that John Wesley and Adam Clarke, two of the greatest
j i exponents of the Church, had long ago taken this position.—Inde*
pendent Age,