A new basis of belief in immortality / by John S. Farmer.

  • Farmer, John S.
Date:
1882
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A new basis of belief in immortality / by John S. Farmer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    tinytliiug of the kind, personate a thinking being, generate rationality, and play the part of a sentimental moral agent ? The idea is utterly preposterous. When Morse’s or Bain’s electric telegraph shall he seen spinning off communications -without an originating intelligence higher than their osvn, it will be time to credit this assumption. V.—The phenomena are trivial and commonplace, and thei-ej’ore unworthy credence. Nine-tenths of the people who oppose Spiritualism are those who never take the trouble to investigate anything, but are content to follow as their leaders may direct, the leaders themselves being mani- festly unfair in their treatment of whatever is new. Thus the ideas ■of most people regarding Spiritualism being gathered from newspaper abuse—which is cheap and dii'ty enough—it is hardly to be wondered at that the popular conception of what constitutes Spiritualism is neither very exalted nor dignified. But as one of our writers has very pithily remarked, spirit-rapping and table-turning no more constitute Spiritualism than an illustration in the Police News constitutes art, or a penny whistle constitutes music. They are the mere fringe of the subject, and there are many other higher and more intellectual forms of mediumship. Yet we could ill spare these “vulgar rappings and tippings.” Even these forms of phenomena have their uses. Speaking of the lower class of physical manifestations, Mr Pcobert Cooper, in his “ Spiritual Experiences,” says: — “ Though such work for spiritual beings may not be in accordance with our preconceived notions, still it is questionable whether a more effectual and suitable method could be devised of combating the hard-headed materialism of the times, and convincing men that there is something in the universe besides mattei'. A knock on the head with a guitar by unseen agency is, to some minds, a much more effective argument than the logic of a Locke, and it is not for ns to call that ‘ common and unclean ’ which has been the means of con- vincing thousands of the reality of a spiritual wordd, and will • ultimately shake the citadel of materialism to its foundations. This is not the first time that things foolish in the estimation of the wise have been used to confound their presumed wisdom, and it may be that these derided and despised phenomena will ultimately be the means, in the hands of Providence, of inaugui-ating an ora of progress in the future of humanity, in which shall be reidised corrector views of the duties pertaining to this life, and of the nature of that higher life to come.” The tippings and rappings may be absurd. Granted. But beyond ' the apparent absurdities lie grand spiritual truths. Each fact that is well attested-»-however absurd—is a palpable demonstration of the life that lies beyond the body. Robert Dale Owen, remarking on this very point, says :— “1 might reply in a general way, that nothing in all the works of nature around us, how little soever appreciated by man, is trining m the sight of Him, who