The Spiritualist newspaper > No.309, July 26th 1878

48
THE SPIEITUALIST.
July 26, 1878.
SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS IN A BYGONE AGE.
(Extracted from Joseph Glanvil's 11 Saducismus Triumphatus," 1685.)
“ The relation of James Sherring, taken concerning the
matter at Old Oast’s house, of Little Barton, June 23, 1677,
as follows:—
The first night that I was there with Hugh Mellmore
and Edward Smith, they heard as it were the washing in
water over their heads. Then taking a candle and going
upstairs, there was a wet cloth thrown at them, but it fell on
the stairs. They going up further, then there was another
thrown as before, and when they came up into the chamber
there stood a bowl of water, some of it sprinkled over, and
the water looked white as if there had been soap used in it.
The bowl just before was in the kitchen, and could not be
carried up but through the room where they were. The next
thing they heard the same night was a terrible noise as if it
had been a flat of thunder, and shortly after they heard great
scratching about the bedstead, and after that a great knock¬
ing with a hammer against the bed’s head, so that the two
maids that were in the bed cried out for help. Then they
ran upstairs, and there lay the hammer on the bed, and on
the bed’s head there were near a thousand prints of the
hammer, which the violent strokes had made. The maids
said that they were scratched and pinched with a hand that
was put into the bed, which had exceeding long nails. They
said that the hammer was docked up in the cupboard fast
when they went to bed.
“The second night that James Sherring and Thomas
Hillary was there, James Sherring sat down in the chimney
to fill a pipe of tobacco. He made use of the fire-tongs to
take up a coal to fire his pipe; and by-and-by the tongs
were drawn up the stairs; and after they were up in the
chamber, they were played withal as many times men do,
and then thrown upon the bed. Although the tongs were
so near him, he never perceived the going of them away.
|| The same night one of the maids left her shoes by the
fire, and they were carried up into the chamber, and the
old man’s brought down and set in their places. The same
night there was a knife carried up into the chamber, and it
did scratch and scrape the bed’s head all the night; but
when they went up into the chamber, the knife was thrown
up into the loft. As they were goingup the stairs there were
things thrown at them, which were just before in the
lower room, and when they went down the stairs
the old man’s breeches were thrown after them. These were
the most remarkable things done that night, only there was
continual knocking and pinching the maids, which was
usually done every night.
“The third night, when James Sherring and Thomas
Hillary were there, as soon as the people were gone to bed,
their clothes were taken and thrown at the candle, and put
it out; and immediately after they cried out with a very
hideous cry, that they should be all choked if they were not
presently helped. Then they ran up the stairs and there
was abundance of feathers plucked out of the bolster that
lay under their heads, and some thrust into their mouths
that they were almost choked. The feathers were thrown all
about the roOm. They were plucked out at a hole no bigger
than the top of one’s little finger. Sometimes they were
vexed with a very hideous knocking at their heads as they
lay on the bed. Then James Sherring and Thomas Hillary
took the candle and went up stairs, and stood at the bed’s
feet, and the knocking continued. Then they saw a hand
with an arm-wrist holding the hammer, which kept on
knocking against the bedstead. Then James Sherring going
towards the bed’s head, the hand and hammer fell down
behind the bolster, and could not be found, for they turned
up the bed clothes to search for the hammer; but as soon as
they went down stairs the hammer was thrown into the
middle of the chamber. These were the most remarkable
things that were done that night.
“ There was a saddle in the house, of their Uncle Warren’s,
of Leigh, which it should seem they detained wrongfully from
the right owner; that as it did hang upon a pin in the entry,
would come off and come into the house, and, as they termed
it, hop about the house from one place to another, and upon
the table and so to another, which stood on the other side of
the house. Jane Gast and her kinswomen took the saddle
and carried it to Leigh, and as they were going along the
broad common there would be sticks and stones thrown at
them, which made them very much afraid, and going near
together, their whittles, which were on their shoulders, were
knit together. They carried the saddle to the house which
was old Warren’s, and there left it and returned home very
quiet. But being gone to bed at night the saddle was
brought back from Leigh, which is a mile and a half at least
from Old Gast’s house, and thrown upon the bed where the
maids lay. After that the saddle was very troublesome
until they broke it in small pieces and threw it out into the
highway.
“ There was a pole which stood in the back side about 14
or 15 feet in length, which was brought into the house and
carried up into the chamber and thrown on the bed ; but all
the wit they had could not get it out of the chamber, because
of its length, until they took down a light of the window.
They report that the things in the house were thrown about
and broken to their great damage.”
SPIRITUALISM AND THE NEWSPAPERS.
Newspaper abuse of Spiritualism has of late been rapidly on the
decline in England, and the following leading article from The Glasgow
Evening Times of July 16th last is a fair average sample of the style of
criticism now prevalent :—
This is an age of contrasts. Along with the most exaggerated peace
notions we have had some of the bloodiest wars on record ; with an
electoral body more democratic in its constituents than ever before
existed in this country, we have the strongest Tory Government of
recent times ; co-existent with an amount of wealth hitherto
unequalled, there is a pauperism which it requires unremitting effort
to keep within moderate limits ; on one hand an advancing scepticism
is threatening to overflow the old tide-marks of theology, on the
other an ultramontane reaction menaces the liberated thought of
Christendom; and the generation which has been called, perhaps
correctly, the most materialistic in profession and general tendency
that ever lived, has witnessed a development of Spiritualism remark¬
able for the boldness and plainness of its teachings and the
startling nature of its revelations. The “spirit mediums” assume to
be the high priests of a cult which admits its devotees into the very
heart of the great mystery. Following so far the fashion of the time,
they found their claims, not on metaphysical argument, but on alleged
fact, so that their pretensions cannot be overthrown by reasoning, but
by experimental inquiry. In an address delivered recently on the
“ 30th Anniversary of Modern Spiritualism,” Mr. Thomas Shorter
informs us that all such inquiries have proved abortive, that all
attempts of priests, professors, and doctors, men of science and of
common sense, have failed to check the progress of “ spiritism,” or
throw doubt on its manifestations. Investigating committees, nimble¬
fingered conjurors, and sceptical exposers have kept it stronger than
ever.
“Its copious literature, its thousands of books, pamphlets, and
journals, its thirtieth anniversary celebrated from a hundred platforms,
and in many lands, evidence its intellectual activity and growing life.”
It is certainly a curious phenomenon. At a period when the old
beliefs in witch and ghost craft seemed left far behind, and all ideas of
the supernatural and immaterial receding further and further into
the dim backgrounds of consciousness, a system which claims more
direct intercourse with the other world than any priesthood or
necromancy that ever hoodwinked humanity rises, spreads, and estab¬
lishes itself in our very midst. That there is more in the phenomena
with which it deals than many are inclined to admit may be presumed
when we find them overwhelming and convincing acute observers and
clear thinkers like Professor Wallace and W. Crookes, and men so
inveterately opposed to such notions as Robert Owen and his more
highly cultivated son.
But before Spiritualism can produce much impression on the world
it must become more open and rational in its means and more practical
in its ends. What signifies the most wonderful sights and sounds
attested by select witnesses if they cannot be made patent to all?
These are not the ways of true science. When a scientific discovery is
made, it is so put before the public that it can be thoroughly under¬
stood, and over and over again verified or disproved. Moreover, till
the marvels are made useful in some shape, turned to advantage in
promoting human welfare, it is not to be expected that much
importance will be attached to their alleged occurrence. Till the
spirits are got to talk after some less absurd and occult fashion, and
choose to tell us something we do not know already, the truth of
which can be tested, and which there is some good in knowing, their
pretended utterances can hardly obtain much attention or respect.
Advertising for Ghost-Seers.—A correspondent writes that the
following advertisement appeared last week in the columns of a morning
paper:—“If this should meet the eye of any persons who have been
visited by the spirits of their dead relatives or friends, or who may have
seen an angel, or anything supernatural, they may hear of something to
their advantage by addressing Mr. Cecil Isaacson, 2, St. Ann’s Cottages,
Westfields, Barnes, S.W.” On making application at the address given
the following reply was received:—“ Sir,—I only wish to receive
evidence from eye-witnesses in our generation of angels, spirits, or
devils,—Yours faithfully, Cecil Isaacson.”