THE SPIRITUAL MAGAZINE.

423

"After being thus tied, the committee carefully examined the box, and found nothing in it except the two boys and myself bound. The instruments before named were then placed in the box beside my feet, the violin being in my lap. In this position the doors were closed. Instantly loud raps were heard, and within two seconds after the closing of the door, and while we were all still, and not a muscle of either limb, as I could perceive, moved, I felt fingers passing all over my head and face. It could not have been imagination, as the fingers took hold of my cravat, unfastened it, and took it off my neck as carefully as I could have done. One of the boys spoke to me, and said, "Will you request the instruments to play?" I asked, "Do you mean me?" He replied, "Yes." I then said, "Will the violin play?" Instantly the violin, rose up from my lap in front of my face, and began to play. It was out of reach of the boys. The boy at the left then said, "Will you notice the order in which the instruments move." I replied, "I will." He then said, "Go gently." "Will the violin go to the top of the box?" Instantly the violin, still playing, went to the top of the box, at least two feet beyond our reach, all the while playing. The guitar was at the same time playing at my side. While the violin was moving about, playing over our heads, the boy at the left said, "Will the spirit strike the stranger with the instrument gently on the head?" The boy at the right said, "Strike gently. Don't strike hard." Instantly the tamborine came up in front of me, tapped one cheek, then the other, then the top of my head, and, as quick as thought, struck the right hand boy a tremendous blow on the top of the head. He cried out, as any one would, hurt by a sudden, unexpected blow, "Oh!" The trumpet then moved on the floor to the front of the box, and up the side, out of our reach, to the top of the box, then sailed around with the violin at least two feet above our reach. The tamborine came up my left and balanced itself on the top of my head; at the same time hands were passing over my face, head, and sides. At this point the doors suddenly opened. The violin and trumpet dropped from the top of the box, and the tamborine fell from my head. During all this time I did not move; neither did the boys, as far as I could perceive.

"I know that it was impossible for them to have moved their hands from behind their backs without my noticing it. I know they did not rise from their seats. I know that there were not hands or fingers enough to have played the guitar, violin, and tamborine, and passed over my face and body as they did at the same time had both boys been untied. Had it been the hands of the boys on my face, they could not have had time to have replaced them and tied the ropes before the doors were opened. Such quick and violent motions of the boys must have caused

perceptible motion of the legs. But I know they were perfectly still during the whole time I was bound to them. When I was untied I again examined the ends of the ropes, which I had previously adjusted as before described, and found them as I had left them at first. The instruments were then taken out, and nothing was left in the box but the boys, bound as described. The doors were closed, and in less than one minute they opened, and the boys walked out, every knot being untied. This closed the evening's performance.

"" REMARKS.

"In order that this paper may be correctly understood, it is proper to make the following statements:

1. I am a disbeliever in Spiritualism.

"2. I could see nothing in the phenomena above described that was indicative of spiritual or intellectual power or force beyond that of the boys.

"3. I never spoke to the Davenport Brothers before, nor have I spoken to them since.

4. I have written this as an account of phenomena which I have witnessed as correctly as I am capable of doing; precisely as I would any other phenomena.

"5. I endeavoured to be critical in my observations, that they might be valuable; and, for the same reason, accurate in the expression of them in this paper.

"6. I felt during the exhibition that the phenomena were produced by the means of a power with which I was unacquainted. "7. I was not at all impressed with the idea that this new force was under the control or direction of a spiritual presence, but fully under control of the minds of the boys.

"8. I did not make the examination for the purpose of sustaining any theory, or for curiosity, but for the express purpose of accurately noting the phenomena that occurred.

"9. I am acquainted with the general methods of sleight-ofhand performers, and am perfectly satisfied that these phenomena must be accounted for in some other way.

"10. I cannot believe that deception was used. As far as I could perceive, the phenomena were real, and must be accounted for through the agency of a new force.

"11. If the human mind is competent to give evidence of observed phenomena, then the above statements may be relied

on as correct.

"(Signed,) S. L. LOOMIS."

Notices of Books.

THE NEW PARIS SPIRITUAL JOURNAL-

"L'AVENIR."

SPIRITUALISM continues to make its steady advance on the Continent. Turin, Palermo, and Naples in Italy and Sicily have their spiritual journals; Antwerp has one, and one is projected in Holland. In France almost every large city, especially in the South, has its journal, shewing that there is a large spiritual public to maintain them. The La Verité of Lyons has created a front rank for itself by the ability with which it is conducted. The La Ruche Bordelaise, the Sauveur des Peuples,and La Lumière de Bourdeaux all hold on their way vigorously. Besides three other journals in Paris, we have now L'Avenir, a weekly sheet, written with great smartness, and promising to win great popularity. Its opening article, in which it meets the objections of cavillers and supports its views, not only by good reasons but by great living authorities, is extremely piquant and lively. Besides this there are many excellent articles in the first four numbers that we have seen, which shew the vigour and resources of M. Alis D'Ambel, the editor.

Amongst the facts, there is one relating to a disturbance in Decazeville, quoted from the Annali dello Spiritismo, similar to those occurring lately at Poitiers in the house of Count D'O

A correspondent writes to La Provincia, a paper of Turin, saying, "After the article in your journal relative to the manifestations at Poitiers, I beg to introduce to your notice a like event taking place in our town. In the house No. 3, in the street San Lorenzo, belonging to Signor Elia Levi Deveali, and contiguous to the house of Signor Calvi at the corner of the street San Martino, a noise, sometimes loud, sometimes less so, is heard like an explosion of fire arms, or the blow of a very heavy substance, upon something hard and hollow. Frequently the blow is so violent that it shakes the house. At first these blows were followed by considerable and varying intervals, but for these two months they have obeyed the commands of a young girl, who discovered by chance that they responded to her voice.

"The public curiosity has naturally been excited; it has occupied itself with the strange phenomenon; all sorts of comments have been made on it; persons of intelligence have studied it to the best of their ability, but no one has been able to form a plausible theory concerning it; only some priests have said that it is a spirit, and some good women have repeated it. The

thing having made a great noise the authorities have intervened, but I am sorry to say in a more officious and less liberal manner than those in France; for instead of studying, of making research, they have taken the more convenient mode of accusing the occupant of the house and his family of complicity in the cause, though nobody can see what advantage it can be to that honest tradesman to have such odd music in his abode. The identical occurrence at Poitiers, and others which have occurred in places around here, sufficiently acquit the honest tenant of the house of having any concern in producing these noises, and in thus endeavouring to revive the superstition of a past age." The editor of L'Avenir sensibly suggests that these extraordinary disturbances, for which no natural cause can be discovered by the shrewdest and most vigilant police, are plainly but to draw the public attention in different countries to the study and examination of Spiritualism.

In another part of L'Avenir we have an account of a great banquet of Spiritualists in Lyons, at which M. Edoux, the editor of La Verité gave the following admirable toast:-"To all the precursors of Spiritualism, the third revelation of God. That is to say, to all those who, whether under the Decalogue or the Gospel, have prepared and preserved across the far-off ages, that advent of the spirit which we witness to-day. To all the martyrs of the idea and of the progress of humanity; to all the martyrs of the Inquisition, of intolerance, of fanaticism. Yes, to all! For the very humblest of them must often have seen in their dungeons and on their flaming piles, the Great Messenger of the Celestial Father who said to them, 'God is not vengeance, is not implacable wrath. He is love, mercy, and pardon; hope and believe in Him.' To you all in a word who, in sweat and tears, have sown a seed to germinate under the sun of the future. To you, dear souls, many of whom are this day assisting us spiritually. To all the labourers of our age; to all the workmen of God, whether they are sent on mission here below, whether they have been called to this august function by the grace of God, to all from the greatest to the least. In the first place to him who has popularized this truth amongst us, who has taken the amorphous mass of dictations of the spirits, and erected them into a doctrine-to Allan Kardec! Then to all those, near or far off, who have come forward in aid of him. To all the brethren who dissent from us on verbal points, or from amour-propre, to all the incredulous, to all the adversaries. Let us drink, in a word, to the eternal brotherhood of all mankind. To the future of humanity, to the reign of God, to the extension of Spiritualism." This toast was, as it deserved, received with a very tempest of applause.

In conclusion, we must observe that even the clever editor of

L'Avenir does not know everything, and has made a curious mistake in attributing to Queen Victoria the authorship of the work translated and published under her patronage; a work exceedingly well known, namely, "Die Stunden der Andacht," by Zschokke "Hours of Devotion." As a royal production, L'Avenir expresses its astonishment how such a deep thought and divine philosophy could find its way into a great, busy, and luxurious Court, and he gives ample extracts. Though not royal compositions in one sense, they are so in another, and he could not well have more enriched his pages by anything else only suum cuique.-W. H.

PRIMEVAL MAN.*

THIS work is given to the world by the writer of An Angel's Message, and Ecce Homo, and the mode of its production is alleged to be the same. This mode is thus stated in the

preface:

The writer of this book is well aware of the impression it must convey to ordinary readers. It is her province to write of that which does not pertain to any earth-born knowledge. She has not sought for any superhuman wisdom: the whole of its contents have been given to her in much weakness, and in entire dependance upon the power which has guided her to its completion... She exercises no control over the pen when it is placed upon the paper; neither can she restrain the flow of words which then immediately become audible in her spirit-ear: the perception of her own natural thought is all the while perfectly distinct to her, and the inward dictate is likewise distinct; there is no confusion. ... The writer is herself instructed through the instrumentality of the pen; for, until the words were, one by one, traced upon the page, did no such knowledge as they convey gain access to her mind. She has invariably read her manuscript in much astonishment, and has so expressed her feelings to others when speaking of, or shewing them, her closely covered sheets.

In placing her hand upon the paper with the pen prepared to write, she has never, in any instance, known what the first word would be; and after it was written did not know to what it would lead. Thus word by word has been given without any premeditation whatever. There was no need to consult the Scriptures in the selection of appropriate texts, for they came written out before she was aware of their being needed. If she did surmise that a certain subject or explanation would probably ensue, it has usually been given in a form as opposite as possible to that anticipated; and the exposition of the spiritual method of proceeding has caused the writer of it more surprise than anything else, for it did not accord with her then existing supposition; shewing that her natural mind did not in the least influence the spiritual revealment, which invariably flowed on in entire independence of her thoughts and feelings. The only conditions, however, on which a communication could ever be received were, entire dependance upon God, not desiring to receive information on one subject more than on another; the mind being perfectly calm and free from every kind of excitement. Sitting down to write under these circumstances the pen flows on, she having only to keep it upright and read the writing as it appeared under the eye.

* Primeval Man: The Origin, Declension, and Restoration of the Race. Spiritual Revealings. London: J. BURNS, Progressive Library, Camberwell.