Sketches of imposture, deception, and credulityDavenport, R. A. (Richard Alfred)
History
Sketches of imposture, deception, and credulity
Davenport, R. A. (Richard Alfred)
Common fallacies; Impostors and imposture
Mr. Howe was not the only one of her disciples whose sturdy belief was
not to be shaken by the most discouraging symptoms. Colonel Harwood,
a zealous believer, intreated Mr. Reece not to retract his opinion as
to her pregnancy, though the latter now saw the folly and absurdity of
it; and when the colonel approached the bed on which she was about to
expire, and she said to him, “What does the Lord mean by this? I am
certainly dying;” he replied, smiling, “No, no, you will not die, or if
you should, you will return again.”
Even when she was really dead, the same blind confidence remained. Mrs.
Townley, with whom she had lived, said cheerfully, “she would return
to life, for it had been foretold twenty years before.” Mr. Sharpe
also asserted that the soul of Joanna would return, it having gone to
heaven to legitimate the child which would be born. Though symptoms of
decomposition arose, Mr. Sharpe still persisted in keeping the body
hot, according to the directions which she had given on her deathbed,
in the hope of a revival. Mr. Reece having remarked that, if the
ceremony of her marriage continued two days longer, the tenement would
not be habitable on her return, “the greater will be the miracle,”
said Mr. Sharpe. Consent at last was given to inspect the body, and all
the disciples stood round smoking tobacco; their disappointment was
excessive at finding nothing to warrant the long-cherished opinion, but
their faith remained immovable. More than twenty years have elapsed
since her death, yet many persons are still infatuated enough to avow
themselves believers in her supernatural mission.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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