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
"You have not, as you inform me, the 'slightest hesitation in rejecting
the entire mass of the stories.' Forgive me if I say, that I admire your
boldness more than your discretion. Abercrombie, in his 'Intellectual
Powers,' vouches ('Footfalls,' pp. 151, 163, 181, 204) for several of
the most remarkable. John Wesley relates (p. 225), and Dr. Adam Clarke
and the poet Southey indorse (p. 238) another; Goethe is sponsor for
one (p. 197); sceptics like Mackay (p. 255) and Macnish (p. 155) for a
second and third; Mrs. Senator Linn for a fourth (p. 455); Dr. Bushnell
for a fifth (p. 459); William Howitt and his amiable wife for several
more (pp. 170, 171, 373); Mr. and Mrs. S. C. Hall for two of the most
interesting (pp. 447, 463). At least a dozen are attested by clergymen
of unimpeached character. If all these names seem to you irresponsible,
and if you refuse credit, unless men be 'put on the stand and under
the solemnity of an oath,' that species of evidence also, the highest
known to the law, I have furnished. The facts touching the Mompesson
disturbances were officially proved in court (p. 221); so, before the
sheriff of Edinburgh, were those which tormented Captain Molesworth
(p. 254); so, above all, were the phenomena of the Cideville Parsonage,
running through two months and a half. In this last case I have given
(pp. 275 to 282) the sworn testimony of _eleven_ witnesses taken down,
as the French forms of law require, in writing, read over to each
witness, and its accuracy attested by the signature of each. Among these
witnesses were the mayor of the town, the Marquis de Mirville, well
known as an author of repute, a neighboring lady of rank and her son,
and three clergymen. The mayor swears that he saw the shovel and tongs
move from the fireplace into the room, no one touching them or near
them; that, having replaced them, the same thing happened a second time,
'while the witness had his eyes on them, so as to detect any trick.' The
Curate of Saussy saw a 'hammer fly, impelled by an invisible force, from
the spot where it lay, and fall on the floor without more noise than if
he had placed it there.' All testify to phenomena, and especially to
knockings, as marvellous as any which American Spiritualism claims.
Monsieur de Saint Victor deposes that 'he felt convinced, that if every
person in the house had set to work, together, to pound with mallets on
the floor, they would not have produced such a racket' (p. 280). Not one
of the witnesses, placed under such solemn responsibilities, 'shrinks
from repeating the monstrous story.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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