Paul Y'Durmare fell the victim of an assassin, I had a dream in which I saw a closet of walnut-tree wood, opening by two doors in the middle of wainscotting of the same wood. On one of the doors of the closet was the portrait of Henry IV, with two verses under it, and on the other door, in a frame of black wood, the portrait of Louis XIII.' Well, what does that signify,' demanded all three?' 'Look,' said I 'here is the closet, and the two portraits, and the treasure is there, I have no doubt.' "Alas!' exclaimed the Y'Dumarcs, we have often examined that closet.' 'Very well,' I said, 'examine it afresh. "The brother, whose avidity redoubled his strength, broke in the boards which closed different stages of it; and from their hollows, artistically concealed, came tumbling out all sorts of bonds, promissory notes, gold, and in such quantities that, instead of the 60,000 livres so much regretted, we had to gather up from the floor 127,000 livres. "The indecent joy of these two people, who thought no more of a son and a brother in the presence of such a splendid supplement to their inheritance, disgusted me, as it did the Curè. But there was an instant of terror for them, for they imagined that I should certainly claim my portion of the discovered treasure. I reassured them, and I must do them the credit to say, that each of them added freely 5,000 livres to the portion of the orphan. I did not allow their enthusiasm to cool, but, in concert with the worthy ecclesiastic, I took possession of the sum of 20,000 livres in gold, and of 10,000 in good securities. "Such was the extraordinary event in which I played the chief part, and of which I certify the truth in all respects, on my hope of heaven as a Christian, and upon my honour as a gentleman. (Signed) Noble FRANCIS DE TOURREIL, Esquire, and Noble Capitoul. "PEUCHET (Archives de la Police)." (Extraite du Petit Journal.) Hillfield House, Blackawton, near Totness, July 17, 1864. SIR,-In the last number of your Magazine, Mr. Howitt has given some interesting extracts from Isaac Taylor's Physical Theory of Another Life, shewing how nearly some of his conjectures resemble the teachings of Modern Spiritualism. I now send you a quotation from the Natural Theology of Dr. Alexander Crombie, a Presbyterian clergyman, advocating a doctrine which forms one of the most important features of this Spiritualism, but which is in direct contradiction to the views generally prevailing on the subject, especially amongst the members of that sect to which Dr. Crombie belonged. He, however, was immeasurably in advance, not only of his own sect, but of all sects, his work on Natural Theology (published in 1829. London: 2 vols. 8vo) being the most masterly and thoroughly philosophical treatise on that topic, in the English language; probably, in any language; and deserves to be much better known than it is. On the subject of "Materialism," it is most especially valuable, containing a clearer and profounder exposition of all the difficulties of this most difficult subject than is to be found anywhere else, I believe. The work well merits reprinting; and, if it could be issued in a cheap form, would be an extremely valuable aid in combating some of the worst and most fatal errors prevailing amongst a large class of our artizan population. Yours truly, ALFRED W. HOBSON. "The dissolution of the body can effect no instantaneous change in the habits of the soul. Whatever may be our moral character at death, the same must accompany us into another state. The sting of sin must bring its punishment; but, from the benevolence of the Divine Being, we have every reason to hope that the sufferings of the wicked hereafter will be remedial, that they will be proportioned to their various degrees of guilt, and continued until the purposes of the Divine Being shall be fully accomplished. The Christian, surely, should be delighted to indulge this hope; and, though there be one or two passages in the New Testament which seem opposed to it, the general tenor of the Gospel appears favourable to this expectation. Reason forbids us to admit the Manichean doctrine of two eternal principles-one good, and the other evil; or to believe that evil of any kind will be eternal. Such a notion would amount to a denial of the infinite perfections and universal sove reignty of the Supreme Being. How much more pleasing to our best affections is the thought, that the time will come, when every creature, in heaven, in earth, under the earth, and in the sea, and all that were in them, will be found praising God." [Crombie's Natural Theology, vol. ii., p. 489, note.] เ Spiritual Magazine. Vol. V.] SEPTEMBER, 1864. [No. 9. SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCES OF ROBERT H. F. RIPPON, AUTHOR OF "VICTOR." ALTHOUGH I have never as yet been present in a circle for the purpose of testing or witnessing the physical and mental phenomena of Spiritualism, I am, nevertheless, as perfectly convinced of their reality as I am of my own existence, because I have from childhood been favoured with almost every form of spirit-manifestation, excepting that of the table movements. Special and remarkable providences and answers to prayer; the seeing, in hundreds of cases; the feeling, and indeed, twice the speaking to, and frequently the hearing spirits, have been amongst my experiences. Prophetic clairvoyance, and waking prevision, have also been granted me. In giving a sketch of my experiences, it will, however, be necessary to adopt some kind of classification; and consequently, it is with the lowest forms of spirit-manifestation that I will commence. 绪 When about nine years old, I witnessed a singular manifestation. One evening, just before tea, I was seated before the fire. My father was from home, but my mother and brothers and sisters were present. A candle had just been lighted, so that everything in the room was visible. The children were talking loudly, but I was reading, when suddenly, with a loud crash, which filled us with terror, something seemed to fall at our feet, and to be smashed into a thousand pieces. The sound was as loud as the report of a heavily loaded gun would be. Upon recovering our senses, our first idea was that the stone chimney-piece had fallen; each of us had the impression that we had beheld it fall. But this was not the case, neither on examination could the slightest clue be obtained to elucidate the mystery, then or later. As we lived in a wooden house situated upon a common, I remember suggesting that electricity might have been the cause. VOL. V. 2 A During the following summer we were still more alarmed. My father was again from home. My mother and I sate awaiting him in the kitchen. It was a moonlight_night, the hour was eleven. The kitchen was upon the same floor as the sitting-room, and opened into it. Between the kitchen and the hall or passage was a little closet, a door being on either side, so that could reach the passage. you Beneath the staircase was a place where coal was kept. At the time of which I speak, very little coal chanced to be there. Both my mother and myself had dropped off to sleep. We might probably have slept about a quarter of an hour, when we were awakened simultaneously in great terror, by what seemed to us to be a frightful explosion in the distant coal-place. The sound was similar to that which I have already mentioned. Up we sprang, and, when we felt sufficiently courageous, visited and examined the coal-place; but no trace of any disturbance there could we discover. From the small quantity of coal, we were satisfied that the sound had not been caused by the slipping down of any large piece. We returned to the kitchen, feeling exceedingly nervous. Although we remained three or four years longer in this house, we never again heard any similar sound. Soon after this occurred a singular thing, which occasionally, at long intervals, has occurred ever since. It is a sensation and noise-an explosion, as though a gun were being fired off close to my ear; sometimes it is even as loud as the discharge of a cannon. At other times it resembles the violent bursting of a bag of air within my head or chest, as the case may be;frequently a feeling is left in the ears such as a novice would experience after firing off a gun. About two months after my marriage, five years and a half ago, my wife and I were sitting reading in our little room at Wycombe, in Bucks. It was nearly dusk. Above the sittingroom door was a glass sash; on the outside, the stair-case came right up to the door. It would have been difficult for any one to have stood outside and flung anything through the glass. Nevertheless we were startled by hearing a stone thrown violently through one of the panes and falling at our feet, bringing fragments of glass with it. Immediately we rose and opened the door, but no one was there. Only one other person, my wife's aunt, was in the house at the time. We lighted a candle, and examined the glass above the door, but it was not even cracked! Neither could we upon the floor discover anything which could explain the phenomenon. The following day I was in another part of the town, giving a music lesson to a lady-I am a professor of music. We sate in a large dining room with glass doors opening into the garden. A THE SPIRITUAL MAGAZINE. 387 gas-burner hung from the ceiling. In the middle of the lesson the phenomenon of the previous evening was repeated ;—the phantom stone came crashing through the glass door, appearing to strike the gas burner, bringing with it fragments of glass to the ground beside me. The lady, much startled, exclaimed that some one must have thrown a stone and broken the chandelier. No trace, however, of either stone or fragments of glass could be found; neither the glass of the doors, nor yet of the gas burners was even cracked! Shortly after this, my residence was at Reading, where our drawing-room was filled with a collection of a high order of shells, insects, corals, eggs, &c. Frequently, when alone in this room, arranging or studying, I have heard some of my choicest specimens being taken, apparently from the shelves or drawers, and flung violently upon the ground. Still, on examination, I always found them untouched in their proper places. For the last five years, I have been been accustomed to hear, both at home and when away, in the middle of the night, what Í call the postman's knock. It generally occurs after a sudden waking. Each time that I have heard it, a letter of importance has arrived for me on the following day. When I am in lodgings, frequently this knock will have reference to the people of the house. Upon one occasion, when I was on a visit in Bedfordshire, about four o'clock in the morning, I heard the postman's rap, this time consisting of three knocks, as in Scotland, instead of two, as with us. In the afternoon of that day, a letter arrived for me containing two others enclosed. One of the enclosures gave me the tidings of the death of my half-sister's three children within a fortnight.* One night, the postman's knock assumed a new variation. I had been asleep about ten minutes, when I heard something snap close to my ear; the sound resembled that made by the sudden loosing of an elastic band. I awoke to see in my room aloft at the further end, a beautiful eagle, as of molten silver. It was the * A lady residing in London, of varied mediumistic powers, upon reading the above in MS., observed that she, also, for several years, had been accustomed to the same spiritual phenomenon, termed by Mr. Rippon the postman's knock. In her case, however, the knock varies its character, sometimes being longer and londer than that of a postman. It frequently has accompanied symbolic visions of a religious nature, and she has been then led to associate it in her mind with the words of Scripture, "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock." She hears it in the middle of the night, or early morning. Occasionally she hears it upon the door of the bed-room. Once, lately, instead of being a token of spiritual presence at the door, she heard it as a loud tapping at the window. This lady, also, has more than once experienced the singular explosion within her head, or close to her ear, referred to by Mr. R.; it resembled, she says, the report of a pistol, and greatly alarmed her." |