The Missing Link in Modern SpiritualismUnderhill, A. Leah (Ann Leah)
Religion
The Missing Link in Modern Spiritualism
Underhill, A. Leah (Ann Leah)
Fox family; Spiritualism
"_Boston Courier_,
by GEORGE LUNT.
H. F. GARDNER."
We questioned, at that time, the propriety of leaving New York to attend
to this request, as to do so would necessarily cause us to break our
engagements at home. And, as to the contest between the professors of
Harvard College and the Boston Spiritualists, mediums, etc., we cared
very little at that time whether they (the professors) should pronounce
for or against us, and for this reason: that it may be safely averred
that while intelligent, scientific minds, honestly and studiously
devoted to their legitimate labors and investigations, have been, and
are, glorious pioneers in the advancement of human knowledge, _there are
subjects_ touching which scholastic eminence furnishes but a poor outfit
for special and honest investigation. But we had met the equals of these
Boston and Harvard professors long ere this; and here let me add we
seldom received enlightenment through scientific opponents. Many
successful experiments had been made by honest, intelligent, and
educated investigators, which proved, beyond all cavil, what _their
science_ could not fathom--and did not wish to.
It will be remembered, I doubt not, that Professor Eustis, of the
Scientific School, once caught the foot of a Divinity student out of its
proper place under the table, and that the said professor cried "fraud,"
and brought an accusation against the student before the governing
faculty of the university, who, in their high wisdom, knowing not what
they did, expelled the young man for the "heinous crime of owning an
erratic foot."
I am unable to state here at what time this occurrence took place, but
the public press, at that time, very extensively condemned the action
of the collegiate authorities in that case; and, in doing this,
Spiritualism necessarily came more or less in for consideration. Great
doubt was expressed, in the press editorials of the day, of the honesty
of the professors in thus expelling the student without giving him an
opportunity to prove his integrity. The expulsion of this young Divinity
student was simply because he was a Spiritualist and a medium, and
refused to abandon the sacred truth which he had learned and tested in
his own person; and it was in the full spirit of the old New England
persecutions for honest opinion obnoxious to dominant authority; which,
fortunately, had no longer the power to hang or burn. But the world
moves, after all, in spite of such persecutions, to which history soon
does the justice it has rendered to Galileo; and the leading scientific
journal of New England, published at Cambridge itself, an organ of the
Scientific faculty of Harvard, has recently put itself in the line of
modern progress in reference to this very subject of Spiritualism.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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