THE SPIRITUAL MAGAZINE. 563 perfection or imperfection with which the organisms are fitted to them. Observe the consequences.. We may content ourselves with asking why the earth is largely peopled by creatures which inflict on each other, and on themselves, so much suffering?. What must we think of the countless different pain-inflicting appliances and instincts with which animals are endowed?... We have unmistakable proof that throughout all past time there has been a perpetual preying of the superior on the inferior, a ceaseless devouring of the weak by the strong. How happens it that animals were so designed as to render this bloodshed necessary?... Whoever contends that each kind of animal was specially designed, must assert either that there was a deliberate intention on the part of the Creator to produce these results, or that there was isability to prevent them. . . . . Why were not animals constructed in such ways as to avoid these evils ? .. What shall we say on discovering elaborate appliances for securing the prosperity of organisms incapable of feeling, at the expense of misery to organisms capable of happiness. ... Freeing ourselves from preconceptions, we shall see good reason to think with Mr. Darwin, "That propinquity of descent-the only known cause of the imilarity of organic beings is the bond, hidden as it is by various degrees of nodification, which is partly revealed to us by our classifications." Various asses of phenomena compelled us to conclude that each kind of organism is omposed of physiological units, having certain peculiarities which force them parrange themselves into the form of the species to which they are peculiar. And, in the chapters on Genesis, Heredity and Variation, we saw reason to elieve that while the polarities of the physiological units determine the structure the organism as a whole; the organism as a whole, if its structure is changed incident forces, re-acts on the physiological units, and modifies them towards onformity with its new structure. The last few lines contain Mr. Spencer's luminous explanaon of the manner in which organic beings are evolved from hatter without a Creator, according to Mr. Darwin's theory of le "Origin of Species " by gradual evolution and development. ake another curious fact, which we extract from a Paris paper, nding in the same direction "M. Renan, author of 'Life of Jesus," on settling the semi-annual account ith his publishers on the 1st of July last, found that the sales of his book ghtly exceeded 120,000 copies. This, then, is what science has brought us to—that if we do ot accept the Darwin theory of evolution or self-creation, we into the irretrievable theological difficulty of having a God ho creates tigers and hawks, down to the last of the infusoriæ, hich eats up his neighbour, and Who therefore must be chargeNe with this criminal blunder of His creatures. One is tempted I say to such a man as Mr. Spencer what Theodore Hook said a person who was giving himself airs of great importance, Pray, sir, are you anybody in particular?" and we wonder hat would be Mr. Spencer's answer. Truly, the Davenports ve not come too soon, and we need not be very particular in pologising for the lowness of the phenomena, which are necessary destroy such blasphemous philosophy. It is from the ideas engendered by such philosophy as this at the denial comes of spiritual possibilities. This is how it mes to pass that we have the absurdity of "antecedent imossibilities" applied to such matters, which means only that certain persons have reversed the case of Mrs. Wittiterly, whose mind was too large for her body. But, nevertheless, we are glad to observe that a large and constantly increasing public is being formed, who have judged for themselves by the evidence of their senses that Spiritualism is true. In the case of the Davenports, all that the newspapers have done is to reassure the blind and unthinking, who are much better out of such enquiry, that there is nothing in it for them. Neither is there, and it had better be left for the present with those who are capable of investigation and thought. The Davenports are daily enlarging the number of these, and now that we have arrived at the full conclusion that their phenomena are genuine spiritual manifestations, without trick or fraud of any kind, we know that they will hold their ground, and cannot but constantly attract further believers to the subject generally. The time has not come for us in this article to consider the oddity of the manifestations exhibited through the Davenports, but only to decide upon the facts. This is the first branch of the enquiry, and when it is fairly settled, we know that we have next to meet the arguments of our friends the parsons, who are even already beginning their office of preaching sermons against the Davenports, admitting facts, and loudly proclaiming that the devil is at the bottom of them. The arguments of the scientific gentlemen and of the parsons are inconsistent with each other, bnt that is nothing new in their dealings with this subject, the objections to which assume the most opposite shapes, and have thus constantly enabled us to make the o answer the other. We wish that, instead of attacking Spiritual ism, the parsons would attack the blasphemous philosophy scientific scepticism, and help us to show that there is a spiritual world, whose wonders they persistently ignore, because they dread their consequences. THE years! how they have passed. They are gone as clouds go, on a summ day. They came, they grew, they rolled full-orbed; they waned, they died, ar their story is told. Years that wrought upon us, in thought and deed, with t force and power of eternity-years, whose marks we shall carry for ever—wen dissolved like the dew, and their work is finished. As they move softly towa the far horizon, how do our hearts follow, with yearning love, the motions of parting days! We would hold them back, but we cannot, and in the gole sunset the bright days sink. And with them how many that we loved depar Loved! nay, love; for the love remains to shine on the memory of those wh have left us, like the lamps that are kept burning in sepulchres. H. W. Beecher. THE SPIRITUAL MAGAZINE. Notices of Books. POEMS, BY JOHN LE GAY BRERETON, M.D.* 565 THIS volume, though published in London, comes to us from a far land, the author dating from Sydney, N.S.W. It is a welcome indication, that even in the land of the diggings the soul cannot be satisfied with nuggets;-that there are necessities of the inward as well as of the outward life, urging it onward in its search for the good, the beautiful, and the true. Dr. Brereton's muse is tender, pensive, and devout; it dwells amid human affections rather than with outward nature. The sins and sorrows of humanity, and its final triumph, through the Divine Spirit working in it and purifying its baser elements, seems to be the key-note of the book, and nowhere is this note struck with more power, or does t bring out a deeper and richer melody than in "The Evangel of Sorrow," a poem of great beauty, and not less beautiful than rue. IS IT TRUE?† THIS pamphlet is a judicious compilation from some of the best writers on the spiritual facts and philosophy; and will be found seful to put into the hands of inquirers. The author, "a Working Man," prefaces his selections with an earnest appeal in which he endeavours to use the affections as a lever with which to open the heavy doors of apathy and prejudice, "that the light of a better world may enter in." There is no reason why the affections should not thus be addressed as well as the intellect. Surely human nature in this world of trial has need of all that can minister o its better hopes and purer joys. Spiritualism-a living reality, an impregnable fact-offers well nigh all we can hope or wish for in this respect. It must exert 4 powerful influence for good on our thoughts and actions-it appeals irresistibly to our deepest affections-it confirms our most cherished hopes it sweeps away for ever those dreadful doubts-it lightens our sorrows and dispels despair-it removes that terrible, vague, cankering fear of the supernatural-it confirms the great principle of our religious belief, and, blessed thought to millions, removes it from the limits of faith to that of sense. Shall we stand cold, indifferent, or appalled spectators before manifestations that offer to us so much comfort and joy? Do our affections urge no response to the tendered intercourse with our hearts' beloved who have "passed into the world of light?" Shall we turn away in fear and trembling from the dear spirit-forms of mother, wife, children, friends, -those who, while in this present life, no barrier, earth or ocean, no personal danger, fear or suffering, could prevent our holding communion with? Shall we * Poems by JOHN Le Gay BrereTON, M.D., Author of The Travels of Prince Legion, and other Poems, &c. London: SAMPSON LOW, SON, and MARSTON. tIs it True? Intercommunication between the Living and the (so-called) Dead. With Frontispiece, "in Memoriam." By a WORKING MAN. London: F. PITMAN, Paternoster-row. Isle of Wight: F. N. BRODERICK, St. Thomas-square, Ryde. refuse to heed their urgent messages, conveying renewed assurance of unceasing love, affectionate counsel, and words of comfort and of hope? I cannot avoid the conclusion, that the objection to Spiritualism as a subject too startling for investigation is, or should be, a gross libel on human nature. Shall it be said that those who fearlessly and patiently earn their daily bread amidst the horrors of the dreary mine-who breast undismayed the fury of the elements-who risk life hourly in the cause of humanity and of science-who meet death face to face on the battle field of those myriad human workers, whose fate it is to endure life as man only can, shorn of nearly all its blessings-shrink like cowards from the spirit-presence of those dear relatives and friends of a better world? Are the domains of the future life so uninviting—so terrible-that we dare not raise an inquiring glance, nor place our feet upon the deeply mystic circle which draws so close around us on every side? Shall we stand as though bereft of all that constitutes the man, before facts which take that grand, ennobling thought a happy, spirit-life beyond the grave-out of the dim and often comfortless regions of faith, and render it a tangible and present reality? One of the most interesting portions of this pamphlet is "A Paper, read May 2nd, 1864, before the Isle of Wight Philosophical and Scientific Society, on the (so-called) Spirit Manifestations, by Joseph Paul, Esq., F.R.G.S." As this Paper is now, we believe, first published, it may be of service to give an abstract of its principal features. The opening paragraph reads as follows: The subject which I have the honor to bring before you this evening is one which, I am ashamed to say, I have till lately regarded with an obstinate - scepticism, as unphilosophical as it was discourteous towards those friends who kindly attempted to enlighten my ignorance. Instead of saying to myself, "Men of the highest intelligence and strictest integrity assure me of the truth of certain facts, I will examine them for myself,-I was rather inclined to say, "The thing is plainly impossible, it is therefore utterly useless to bestow time upon its investigation." The time came, however, when circumstances almost obliged me to be present at what is called a séance, during which the phenomena which I am about to describe were exhibited. I attended the meeting with the full hope and intention of convicting the exhibitors of imposture, by discovering the sleight-of-hand by which they deceived their visitors; but, like the "fool who came to scoff, and remained to pray," I was convinced by what I witnessed that, to a certain extent, the statements which had been made to me were correct, and a force existed in nature, and could be called into action-either by means of the living principle generally, or by that of mankind in particular-which was not yet recognised in the current philosophy, and that an opening existed to a new field of discovery. With this conviction, Mr. Paul substituted, for a Paper he had prepared on the Polarisation of Light, a statement of the facts he had ascertained on the subject which had so forcibly aroused his attention. He confesses that it required a considerable degree of moral courage to enable him to adhere to his resolution. He says:-I might be certain that the measure which I had meted should be measured to me again; that, as I had regarded the votaries of the new science with a comfortable consciousness of superiority, and of compassion for their mental weakness and credulity, so I must, unless I stifled my convictions, be contented to be regarded by some as a dupe, and by others, perchance at least as a hoaxer, if not as an impostor." Like a brave gentleman, however, Mr. Paul did not hesitate to affirm what he THE SPIRITUAL MAGAZINE. 567 was convinced was true; and as he was addressing a scientific society whose business it was to observe and classify facts, he not unreasonably hoped to meet with some candid spirits who were ready to enter without prejudice upon this new branch of science. After some pertinent preliminary observations he gives a circumstantial account of a visit with his brother and two other gentlemen to "a well-known medium." They sat down to "an oldfashioned circular tea-table about three feet in diameter, with the strictest scrutiny nothing peculiar could be discovered in it." After sitting from ten minutes to a quarter of an hour, the six persons present all felt a pulsation in the table under their fingers, and shortly the table tilted on one side, as though it were about to fall into Mr. Paul's lap. In answer to questions it was signified by raps that a spirit was present, and on Mr. Paul holding the alphabet the name of his maternal grandfather was spelled out. was,, A number of other questions were asked, some serious, and others jocular. To the former true answers were returned, to the latter answers which were palpably false. Now upon these answers I would observe that they could not have emanated from the medium, who might have been supposed to produce the knocks, since what truth there was in them could not by any possibility have been known to her, as they referred to family affairs, but they were known to be true to my brother and myself; and that those which were false and absurd were in answer to bantering questions, and even suggested by them.... Upon the question being asked, "Can the table be lifted from the ground by the spirit ?" the answer * and immediately the table rose from the ground to the height of about a foot, and remained suspended in the air during some seconds. I carefully examined the table above and below, and am ready to affirm most solemnly that nothing touched it below, and that the only contact which existed between it and the women mediums (who, it must be remembered, did not sit upon opposite sides, but upon the same side of the table) was by their fingers being placed above it, while the only mechanical effect of the four visitors' hands which were kept upon the table, must have been to press the table downwards. Supposing the possibility of the mediums' hands being, by some means or other, adhesive, and that they could, through the adherence of their fingers to the table, have raised it on their side, it is a simple matter of computation that the fulcrum and the weight being given, and the distance of the centre of gravity of the weight from the fulcrum, the force they must have exerted to raise the table, as it was raised, must have amounted to several hundred-weights. In order to afford time for closer and longer scrutiny, the question was asked, "Would the table be held suspended in the air while we counted twenty ?" The answer was and again it rose into space, notwithstanding the pressure of our fingers, and at each word of counting, one, two, three, &c., bobbed a little downwards, as if itsel Counting, till the number twenty was reached, when it was dashed to the ground with such emphasis as startled the experimenters, and must have raçher shaken the structure of the table. It was afterwards suggested that a much larger and heavier table-a loo-table-which stood in the corner of the room, should be substituted for the light one with which we had hitherto experimented, and, upon * These commas represent the knocks given in reply. |