A defence of modern spiritualismWallace, Alfred Russel
Religion
A defence of modern spiritualism
Wallace, Alfred Russel
Spiritualism
The powers of Mr. Home have lately been independently tested by Serjeant
Cox and Mr. Crookes, and both these gentlemen emphatically proclaim that
he invites tests and courts examination. Serjeant Cox, in his own house,
has had a new accordion (purchased by himself that very day) play by
itself, in his own hand, while Mr. Home was playing the piano. Mr. Home
then took the accordion in his left hand, holding it with the keys
downwards while playing the piano with his right hand, “and it played
beautifully in accompaniment to the piano, for at least a quarter of an
hour.” (“What Am I?” Vol. II., p. 388.)
As to the possibility of these things being produced by trick, if
further evidence than their mere statement be required, we have the
following by Mr. T. Adolphus Trollope, who says, “I may also mention
that Bosco, one of the greatest professors of legerdemain ever known, in
a conversation with me upon the subject, utterly scouted the idea of the
possibility of such phenomena as I saw produced by Mr. Home being
performed by any of the resources of his art.”
Mr. Home’s life has been to a great extent a public one. He has spent
much of his time as a guest in the houses of people of rank and talent.
He numbers among his friends many who are eminent in science, art, and
literature—men certainly not inferior in perceptive or reasoning power
to those who, not having witnessed the phenomena, disbelieve in their
occurrence. For twenty years he has been exposed to the keen scrutiny
and never-ceasing suspicion of innumerable inquirers; yet no proof has
ever been given of trickery, no particle of machinery or apparatus ever
been detected. But the phenomena are so stupendous that, if impostures,
they could only be performed by machinery of the most elaborate, varied
and cumbrous nature, requiring the aid of several assistants and
confederates. The theory that they are delusions is equally untenable,
unless it is admitted that there is no possible means of distinguishing
delusion from reality.
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