SPIRIT WORKS; 
 
 REAL BUT NOT MIRACULOUS. 
 
 LECTURE 
 
 READ AT THE CITY HALL IN ROXBURY, MASS., 
 
 ON THE EVENING OP SEPTEMBER 21st, 1853. 
 
 V 
 
 BY ALLEN PUTNAM 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 BELA 
 
 MARSH, No. 25 CORNHILL 
 
 
 1853. 
 
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 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1853, 
 
 By Allen Putnam, 
 in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. 
 
 WRIGHT AND HASTY, PRINTERS, 3 WATER STREET, BOSTON. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 At the request of more than thirty highly intelligent and respectable 
 gentlemen, my neighbors and friends, the following Lecture was pre- 
 pared, and on the evening of Sept. 21, 1853, it was read at the City 
 Hall, Boxbury, in the presence of four or five hundred attentive 
 hearers. It was prepared for those who know me ; and not designed 
 for general circulation. 
 
 Not many days elapsed, after its delivery, before there came from 
 Boston, an earnest request that it should be repeated there ; and the 
 inquiry has been several times put, whether its author would go to 
 other cities and tf&wns for the purpose of reading to such as might 
 choose to hear. The invitation from Boston has been accepted, for 
 the evening of November 1st, at the Melodeon ; but my health and 
 business each forbids extended excursions from home, and forbids the 
 frequent repetition of the physical exertion required for its delivery. 
 Under these circumstances I have decided to put the Lecture in print. 
 
 The views here presented will be novel to very many readers, and 
 will not harmonize with their long cherished, fixed, and yet indefinite 
 notions, concerning the condition, powers, and occupations of their 
 departed kindred. 
 
 Friends would restrain me, for no one is so blind as not to see 
 that avowal of belief in spirit agency, will be followed by the charge 
 of mental weakness, delusion, or folly. The charge will come not 
 from the weak and wicked alone, but from the wise and devout. It 
 
will come from relatives and friends, kind and sincere. Such avowal 
 therefore will not be made, by the calm considerate mind — excepting 
 upon the evidence furnished through one's own senses, and that re- 
 peated over and over again — and weighed well in the mental balances. 
 Even after this process, and when conviction cannot be resisted, there 
 are in most cases circumstances which are allowed to stifle confession. 
 Whether they justify this stifling, each individual must judge in his 
 own case. 
 
 There appear to my mind, results too high and noble, involved in 
 these ridiculed rappings and tippings, to admit of my being deterred 
 by the timid pleadings of worldly policy, or the sneers of those, how- 
 ever wise and kind, who have seen none of the wonders, from giving 
 them-the limited countenance and favor which my character for truth, 
 sagacity, conservatism and -benevolence may afford. What that char- 
 acter is, others must tell : — but let me say that however it may be 
 rated, and however valuable it may be to me, it cannot be worth more 
 than I would gladly pay for the extension of such influences through 
 the world, as promise to flow from the lessons which man is beginning 
 to learn from his elder brothers who have escaped from bondage to the 
 clay, and soared to regions of clearer vision and more accurate 
 knowledge. 
 
 When those who wish me well, advise me to refrain from my investi- 
 gations, their words produce upon me much the same effect, as would 
 be experienced were the devout heathen to beg me not to worship the 
 Christian's God, or believe in Christ as God's best beloved Son, and 
 man's best teacher and guide. The advice is kindly meant, and there- 
 fore kindly received ; but it is given in absolute ignorance, and there- 
 fore is most properly disregarded. 
 
 Being unknown to fame, these pages may perhaps fall into the 
 hands of many, who are ignorant of my personal history. For the last 
 ten years my business has been that of a dealer in wood and coal. 
 For the three years next farther back, I blended the labors of the 
 
farmer, the preacher, and the editor of the New England Farmer. In 
 the six years from '34 to '40, I mingled preaching, farming and legis- 
 lating, but devoted my efforts mainly to the removal of extreme dys- 
 pepsia which had fastened itself very firmly npon me, carrying me 
 near to the grave, and permanently unfitting me for sedentary pursuits 
 — driving me to more active, out-of-door occupation. Three years 
 prior to that, I was a preacher of the Unitarian order at Augusta, Me., 
 having previously received theological and collegiate education at 
 Cambridge. These statements, or something equivalent, may be due 
 from me to my distant relative but near friend and pastor, Eev. George 
 Putnam — who is the Mr. Putnam of Roxbury — and who might per- 
 chance be charged, abroad, with the offence of being author of so 
 unclerical a work as this. The chief reason however for this egotistical 
 sketch, is to show, that the mind which composed the following Lec- 
 ture, however feeble and credulous it may be deemed, has yet enjoyed 
 fair opportunities : has necessarily studied the simpler principles, at 
 least, of physical, intellectual, theological and political science; and 
 has often been called upon to weigh evidence and deduce conclusions. 
 Whatever power and skill that mind possesses, were most strenuously 
 and perseveringly applied, in the outset, to reason around or away 
 from the opinion that spirits can and do work the wonders that are 
 now seen and heard. But the facts — yes, the facts — were too plain 
 and stubborn, to be either covered up or broken down. Once seen, 
 they would, in spite of all old notions, keep before the mental vision ; 
 there they would persistently stand, distinct and strong, and would 
 teach over and over again that there was something speaking as never 
 man spake; that there was some hidden intelligence conveying its 
 thoughts to me. 
 
 What then must be my course ? It was neither manly, Christian, 
 nor pious, to deny a conviction which the facts, that my own eyes and 
 ears were witnessing, forced upon the mind. Delay, until assurance 
 should become doubly sure, might be admissible. And not until an 
 
entire year of the hiost faithful scrutiny, reflection and re-reflection, 
 had passed, did it seem best to avow belief. 
 
 But at length — as a duty to God, to good angels, and to man, it was 
 made — made without reserve — without qualification. I believed at 
 first, because I could not honestly — no — nor even dishonestly help 
 believing. The conviction came and stuck — and still sticks — and long 
 may it continue to stick, for it is fraught with the richest, holiest, 
 calmest thoughts and feelings which my mind has ever cherished, or in 
 which my soul has ever bathed. 
 
 Reader, I ask not that you should believe because I do. But when- 
 ever there shall be opportunity, let me trust you will calmly look at 
 facts, and follow wherever these heaven-born guides shall lead. Should 
 they bring you to faith in spiritualism — in doing that, they will, if 
 such be your wish, let you see and feel that there are helping hands 
 and heavenward attractions, in those invisible witnesses around, who 
 
 " Hold thee in full survey." 
 
 ALLEN PUTNAM. 
 Roxbury, Oct. 20th, 1853. 
 
LECTURE. 
 
 In compliance with an invitation from many of you, my 
 friends, it is expected that I shaH speak concerning 
 " what are called, spirit manifestations" 
 
 This subject has attracted such extensive attention, 
 and has taken such hold of very many minds, as to 
 give it fair and urgent claims to be investigated. It is 
 time that somebody should begin to examine well and 
 to speak. Most of those men who have been at all 
 trained to public speaking, sustain such public relations 
 and duties, as debar them from free and fair examina- 
 tion, and consequently form satisfactory conclusions. 
 They are not yet ready to speak — and not ready, for 
 good and sufficient reasons, — they have had no suitable 
 opportunity for investigation and reflection. But it^ 
 nappens that I hold no public station, have no literary 
 or scientific fame to mar or lose, and no parishioners 
 to dog my steps and growl out their discontent, if I 
 swerve a little this way or that from the old ruts worn 
 by the wheels of by-gone ages. In coming here, I 
 seem to put little at stake beyond my character for 
 mental soundness — unless, perchance, you should hap- 
 pen to suspect that coal from the wharf of a spiritualist 
 would contain an undue infusion of sulphur ; or opine 
 
that invisible helps would lift the scale-beam too soon. 
 On these points I trust you, 
 
 On an afternoon of July, 1852, an invitation was 
 given me to go to a room fifteen or twenty rods from 
 my wharf, and see a " spiritual medium." The invita- 
 tion was accepted ; and when arrived at the place, I 
 found seven or eight of my neighbors, intelligent busi- 
 ness men and mechanics, all ready to be my associate 
 witnesses. We, all mutually acquainted, and yet 
 strangers to the medium, set out the table-, placed our- 
 selves around it, and invited the medium to draw up 
 and complete the circle. The entertainment was abso- 
 lutely new to all of us, save one; and judging the 
 others by myself, and by conversation held with them 
 shortly after, I think there was little faith in any of us 
 when we entered the room, that there would be any 
 thing exhibited that we should be much puzzled to 
 account for. Though disposed to be civil and cour- 
 teous towards the young lady — medium — we were also 
 as much disposed to find out whether she snapped her 
 toes, or used concealed machinery. Seven or eight 
 pair of eyes, having no particular sympathy with her 
 or her operations, watched her narrowly for more than 
 an hour inbroad daylight, and with a purpose to detect 
 imposition, if any should be attempted. We had been 
 seated but a short time before raps were distinctly 
 heard, apparently on the surface of the table before us, 
 where no visible rapping power appeared. One after 
 another of us, in turn around the table, asked for spirit 
 friends. Sometimes there were raps in apparent re- 
 sponse to the questions, and sometimes not. Once, 
 and I think twice, a tune was very well drummed upon 
 
9 
 
 the table before us, though visible drum-sticks were 
 wanting. The other witnesses who were then present 
 will excuse me if I omit particular notice of what came 
 to them, and dwell rather minutely upon what there 
 happened to myself. I do this, because it was in my 
 own case only that I could have accurate knowledge of 
 the state of mind, in the person to whom the communica- 
 tion was being addressed, which is an important point. 
 When, in turn it belonged to me to put a question, I 
 asked — Have I a spirit friend here? (Three raps) 
 Yes. Will you spell out your relationship \ Yes. 
 Then I took into my own hands the alphabet and pen- 
 cil, and watched closely as possible my own mental ope- 
 rations. In answer to a mental question put by myself 
 to myself — viz : Who among my departed relatives can 
 it be] I thought of two grand-parents, two brothers, 
 two sisters and two wives, as making up the circle from 
 which I should most likely be addressed, if any one 
 of them could address me. Then with the words 
 brother, grandfather, sister and wife distinctly in my 
 mind, (and as well as I can determine, my good old 
 grandfather being the most prominent) I began to put 
 the pencil upon the letters, and at B — brother, listened 
 for a rap, but none came ; passing on from letter to 
 letter, at G — grandfather, I dwelt longer than upon 
 the others, and by a glance at the medium tried to 
 convey a hint that that was the place for a sound, but 
 none came. Much the same was done at S, and with 
 the same result. But I had hardly reached W, before 
 the three sounds were heard ; and soon the word wife 
 was spelt entire. 
 
 Having been bereaved of two who sustained that 
 
 2 
 
10 
 
 near relation to me, there was yet no clue by which to 
 identify the rapper. My next question was— Will you 
 spell your christian name % Answer — Yes. Then with 
 thoughts upon both of them, I put the pencil to A, and 
 had the raps, and at B also, and soon Abigail was 
 spelt. I said to her with some emotion, Will you com- 
 municate I Answer — Yes. 
 
 Up to this time I had used the alphabet and pencil 
 myself, and a friend had penciled down such letters as 
 the sounds marked out. But now, I asked that friend 
 to take the alphabet and pencil^ and let me be the aman- 
 uensis. This change was made — and guided by the 
 raps, he named letters and I put them down — each 
 separately, not joined into words nor divided into sen- 
 tences. Six or eight lines of letters were thus written 
 out across a sheet of paper, while my own mind was 
 very closely occupied in catching the letters which my 
 friend was naming, and in putting them down in proper 
 order. Occasionally I knew that the last few letters 
 made a word ; and at times, after getting two or three 
 letters, the mind would anticipate enough to complete 
 a word. But I had only indefinite knowledge of any 
 sentence until the whole was finished. And I have 
 distinct \ remembrance that when Abb had been given 
 me, I was wondering what letter could be added that 
 would make or help to make any common word. And 
 when my friend named Y, my surprise was great — 
 very great — for there I had, Abby. Abigail at the 
 commencement. Abby at the close. This friend had 
 been gone from me eighteen years ; had never lived in 
 Roxbury; had never been known, even by name, so 
 far as I can learn, to any other person then present 
 
11 
 
 than myself. And I am sure, that I not only did not 
 anticipate the word Abby, but was wondering what the 
 Abb could mean before the y was added. Now the 
 facts in the case are that that lady's name was Abigail 
 — she was so christened — she so wrote her name when 
 connecting it with any legal instrument — but was 
 called Abby, and so signed her letters. On this occa- 
 sion she announced her name as Abigail at the com- 
 mencement, but signed her affectionate communication 
 to me — Abby. 
 
 Here we have a case in which it is morally certain — 
 I think, absolutely certain — that neither the name nor 
 its two-fold form was known to any one present except- 
 ing myself, as having belonged to my departed com- 
 panion. Though watching the process of my own 
 mind, I had no consciousness of furnishing any help to 
 my friend while he gave the letters which spelt her 
 name ; no thought that he was getting her name ; no 
 consciousness that name, communication or any thing 
 else was being drawn out from my mind, while mine 
 was the only mind present in which the facts regarding 
 that name were known. 
 
 If now, intellectual or physical science or philosophy 
 can tell me what mind, in a living body, did furnish or 
 could furnish all that my friend then, there, and thus 
 spelled out, the science or philosophy must have some 
 process, with the very simplest and plainest principles 
 of which I have formed no acquaintance. I ask the 
 objector to show me what other mind than that of my 
 departed companion there and thus operated — and I 
 will endeavor to give his statements a candid consider- 
 ation. 
 
12 
 
 Some weeks subsequent to the meeting above de- 
 scribed, when thoughts of spirits and of the possibility 
 of their speaking to us had become familiar, I sought 
 another medium, and invited her to my own parlor and 
 table. There her hand traced a few characters bearing 
 a strong resemblance to letters of the Greek alphabet, 
 though I could not identify them all, as such. In 
 immediate connection with these characters her hand 
 wrote John Txxtmun. At a still later sitting, this name, 
 John Vutmun, came out again, and in connection with 
 it a long and good communication concluding thus : — 
 " This is from your old grandfather, an inhabitant of 
 the Celestial Heavens, given through the medium of 
 E,. G. Ellis, by John Tutmun to my earthly child." 
 
 Now I have no direct ancestor by the name of John, 
 till I get back to one who settled in Salem, 1634. He 
 came there with three sons, Thomas, Nathaniel and 
 John. Also the name of Elizabeth Putnam, supposed 
 to be a daughter of the elder John, appears on the 
 Salem records in 1629. 
 
 These statements are introductory to the following. 
 In December last the same medium's hand wrote John 
 Vutmmi, Junior. You may notice that in both instan- 
 ces the name is spelt P.u.t.m.w.rc, not P.u.t.n.a.m, as all 
 of the family now spell. Putmun was formerly its pro- 
 nunciation, though I am not aware that the family ever 
 spelt Putmun. 
 
 This John, Jr. was one of my very great uncles, — 
 the brother of my great-grandfather's grandfather. It 
 happens that having been born and reared on a spot 
 where my direct ancestors have lived more than two 
 hundred years, the family traditions and records are 
 
13 
 
 rather familiar to me. Few of my name — probably 
 one other only of the name, knows much more about 
 the family history than I do. We have long since 
 learned, or at least believed, that John Putnam, with 
 three sons — Thomas, Nathaniel and John — came from 
 Abbotston in Buckinghamshire, England, and were in 
 Salem in 1634. Also we have known that the Church 
 Records in Salem contain the name of Elizabeth Put- 
 nam, under the date, 1629. But of the more remote 
 ancestry we have no traces — no clue to even the name 
 of any one of them. We know not from what port 
 they sailed — at what time they left England — in what 
 vessel they came — in what company — nor at what port 
 they landed. 
 
 Now this very great uncle of mine has been commu- 
 nicative about family affairs. After introducing him- 
 self, and giving correctly the names of his father, broth- 
 ers, sister and some nephews, and telling me that he 
 had been in the spirit land 189 years, he gave the name, 
 of his grandfather as Hezekiah, and his occupation as 
 that of weaver, in London ; his great-grandfather, he 
 called Josiah. Whether these names are correct or not 
 I do not know. This John, Jr. said that he himself, 
 with his father and brothers, were of the Mayflower's 
 third company — sailed in her from Long Peak in 1630, 
 and arrived at Plymouth, New Year's day, 1631. He 
 said also that the father, John, Senior, was a printer in 
 London (thus rendering it possible that he was once 
 familiar with the Greek alphabet, and might once have 
 known how to make such characters as the medium's 
 hand traced, when he first presented himself at my 
 table) — that he himself, that is, John, Junior, had lived 
 
14 
 
 in Edinboro' and was a minister — that Nathaniel like 
 the father was a printer — that Thomas was sickly and 
 taught school in a barn — that Elizabeth came over be- 
 fore the others, with her husband, but not then mar- 
 ried — " that father didn't like the match and she ran 
 away," — that she lived in Charles town when father 
 came — that her husband's name was John Putnam, a 
 cousin. The narrator stated also that his father, the 
 London printer, came from Yorkshire to London — and 
 that his grandfather, the weaver, came from Abbotston. 
 After landing at Plymouth, the father and sons, accord- 
 ing to his account, removed to Boston on the other side 
 of the river, (Charlestown 1) and thence to Salem where 
 they settled. This narration can hardly appear as 
 wonderful to you as it did to me. My medium was a 
 girl of eighteen, of only common powers and education 
 — I think she knows but little of our colonial history ; 
 was at the time nearly a stranger to me, and never had 
 occasion or opportunity to consult the few private un- 
 printed records of the Putnam family, where alone the 
 known facts could be learned. She must have been 
 ignorant of the family history. I knew, or supposed 
 that I did, of Abbotston as once the Putnam home — 
 knew that Elizabeth's name was on the Salem Eecords 
 in 1629 — and that the names of the elder John and his 
 three sons are found, 1634. This little is all, I think, 
 that any one of the present generation knows about the 
 family until you come down this side of 1634. This 
 much I knew already. But as you have seen, he told 
 much more which I did not know. And I ask, whose 
 mind named the elder John and Nathaniel as printers 1 
 Young John, as a minister l and Thomas as a sickly 
 
15 
 
 schoolmaster, teaching in a barn] Whose thought 
 gave me Long Peak, Mayflower, Plymouth and an 
 elopement, (an elopement which so curiously accounts 
 for Elizabeth's name being on the records, four or five 
 years before we find those of her father and brothers) ] 
 My thoughts never ran in this direction. I had never 
 associated the family with any other place than Salem, 
 and never dreamed of Plymouth, the Mayflower, and 
 Long Peak, as interwoven with their history. What 
 mind was here at work % Be the statements true or 
 false — and I care not which, so far as my immediate 
 question is concerned, — be the statements true or false, 
 what mind made them 1 The medium could not have 
 hit so accurately the names and facts that I did know, 
 and my own mind did not imagine the many that I did 
 not know. 
 
 Since the above was received, I have seen in Farmer's 
 Genealogical Register, that the Mayflower did leave 
 England in 1630, a fact that I was ignorant of at the 
 time when the communication was received. Whether 
 the other statements will yet receive any thing like 
 verification, of course I cannot tell. 
 
 Those three Putnam brothers built their cabins all 
 upon the same brook. One of them near the tide 
 waters — another about a mile, and the third about two 
 miles, inland. I asked John, Jr., which of the brothers 
 lived on the farm that was nearest to Gov. Endicott's 
 or tide water % He answered, Nathaniel ; and this is 
 in accordance with my own previous information. Then 
 I asked, which of them went farthest back into the 
 woods. ' He answered — me, John. I disbelieved him 
 and disputed him, but he insisted that it was so. 1 
 
16 
 
 did not believe him then and do not believe him now. 
 Thomas, my direct ancestor, I believe, was the one. 
 And now I wish this difference of opinion between him 
 and me to be marked and remembered^ for we are fre- 
 quently told that all the matter -of these communica- 
 tions, is by some unobserved process drawn out from 
 our own minds. But, if it be so, how happens it that 
 this communicator and I can't agreed If the whole 
 came from my own mind there certainly should be no 
 quarrel — no dispute — no difference of opinion. 
 
 Other things were stated by this pilgrim forefather 
 that did not accord with my notions. " Spirits," he 
 said, " mean to be correct in names and dates ; but 
 these are difficult to remember — more so by spirits 
 than by mortals — because spirits have no occasion to use 
 them." He said also that the spiritual sense of Sweden- 
 borg, seemed to him, to be nearer the truth than any 
 other form of Christian faith on earth. The medium 
 is a Methodist, all others then present are Unitarians. 
 " All evil," he said, " all evil has to reach its fullest 
 expansion, and then, like a bubble, burst." "Whence 
 came this doctrine that spirits cannot remember dates 
 so well as men % That Swedenborg's spiritual sense is 
 the truest form in which man holds Christ's religion \ 
 And that, evil expanded, like a bubble, bursts \ These 
 were not my thoughts — they were not likely to be the 
 thoughts of the Methodist girl. Whence came they \ 
 Let the objector be definite in his answer. 
 
 To go through minutely with each of the cases that 
 I have witnessed would consume literally more than all 
 the hours of a night. I must omit further details. 
 
 If strange, invisible beings do talk to us, you very 
 naturally ask — What do they say ? 
 
17 
 
 One of them has said — " We are very much the same 
 as when on earth, only a little progressed." A little 
 progressed, from where we stand, is their avowed posi- 
 tion, and the communications render the correctness of 
 the statement probable. You will find among them 
 the serious and the trifling — the grave and the gay — 
 the wise and the foolish — the affectionate and the 
 unfeeling — the devout and the irreverent. And yet in 
 the main, though there will be striking exceptions, one 
 will receive that which harmonizes with his own men- 
 tal and moral tastes — or with the tastes of the medium 
 — or with the general tastes of the company present. 
 Good spirits seem to cluster around good men and bad 
 ones seek their like. In most cases where quite a 
 number of persons are assembled, there appears to be 
 great diversity in the character of the attendant spirits. 
 One will be much more likely to succeed in getting 
 that which is satisfactory to himself, when he visits the 
 medium alone, than when others are present. 
 
 You will .permit me, I trust, to exercise some discre- 
 tion in selecting what to present to you, from the many 
 communications that have come to me. The very com- 
 mon-place in thought and expression, would give you 
 neither pleasure nor instruction, though it may have 
 been well suited to the circumstances under which it 
 was furnished. The low — (for there are some such) — 
 the low — of course you must wish me to omit — while 
 the amusing and witty would be better received by you 
 after more acquaintance with spirit conversation than 
 they will be now. I begin with some that blend the 
 moral and descriptive. 
 
 From my old Pilgrim ancestor, John Putmun, Sen., 
 came these sentences. 
 3 
 
18 
 
 " Dear Children of Earth, — I, the spirit of your old 
 ancestor come to hold sweet communion with you. I 
 have watched the world — its progress in knowledge. 
 Now I see noble works. Mighty ships float on the 
 gigantic ocean ; grand forests have been swept down by 
 the hand of man. Beautiful now are the works of 
 God. Onward has man advanced, but gradually has 
 mist enveloped the once pure soul of mankind. He 
 has strayed from the paths of truth, and left the road 
 that would lead him to join the celestial'heavens. Ay, 
 (his spelling, which he would not alter) — ay, I have 
 seen oppression and sin cloud the Christian's mind. 
 Ay, I have beheld the name of God, the divine giver 
 of all good, borne on the wings of sectarianism — thus 
 has the world been made dark, and the spirit land dis- 
 pelled by the thick atmosphere of gross sin. And now 
 the redemption of the children of earth, is proclaimed 
 by angels from the bosom of the Lamb, and the morn 
 of Judgment is near. God, arrayed in sandals of holi- 
 ness and the crown of brightness, is gently lifting the 
 weak children of earth up, by sending his messengers 
 to fathom the cloudy places of earth — to impart the 
 dazzling truth of his mansions into the world. The 
 prayers of angels have ascended to the Father — their 
 voices have echoed through the perfect halls above. 
 And now my child I want you to know the happiness 
 to feel the angels impressing your fevered brow — to 
 hear the melodious strains of exquisite harmony thrill- 
 ing into your mind — to tread the paths of truth with 
 the righteous, and think of the God that is ever shed- 
 ding his love and mercy. This is from your old grand- 
 father, an inhabitant of the celestial heavens, s^iveri 
 
19 
 
 through the medium of E. G. Ellis, by John Vutmun, 
 to my earthly child." 
 
 A female relative who was taken from earth not 
 many years since, said — " Around the earth are circles 
 that are spheres. They widen in space, and as c^ey 
 ascend they grow of a dazzling hue. Those (spirits ?) 
 in the lowest circles, have the appearance of a dark 
 body, and as I bring up your mind you would see that 
 those in the higher circles were arrayed in bright robes, 
 with countenances of serenely lovely expression. And 
 you would see that the architecture and the horticul- 
 ture and the moulds of the fine heavenly mansions 
 differ vastly from the mansions below — that all things 
 are in their pure state. Look down on the things of 
 earth and you would see that all would appear like 
 some diamond in a state of roughness and uncultivated. 
 The atmosphere too would feel cold, and the air of 
 earth frozen ; and you would behold the things that 
 once looked beautiful to the natural eye, now coarse 
 and earthly. You would behold the dear friends that 
 you loved in their truthfulness and in their sins." 
 (Here the communication was interrupted and has 
 never been finished.) 
 
 A long buried mother said to her daughter — " I am 
 near with my precepts ; and, oh, faint not, for I do not. 
 Long have I endeavored to make you sensible of my 
 presence. I come to help you through the waters of 
 conflicting dangers. Cast thy bread upon the waters 
 and it shall return to thee of a finer wheat and sweeter 
 taste that will add new strength to thy sinking soul." 
 
 And another mother said — " Beloved child, List to 
 
20 
 
 the still small voice which whispers — thy mother lives. 
 Now a pearly tear of sympathy arises from the fount of 
 a mother's love. I would not chide you for you are 
 surrounded by the shadows of doubt, which oozes out 
 from the piety of your mind." 
 
 A near relative said to me — " I would insert a new 
 branch into your finite being that shall bear the blos- 
 soms called Spirit Love. How happy am I now as I 
 stand in my etherial home and by the telegraph of love, 
 speak to you. I can only give you the outlines of my 
 home, — I have but to breathe forth a holy desire and 
 there arises before me a vision filled with heavenly 
 beauty — flowers spring up spontaneously before me — 
 birds too make harmonious the air with their sweet 
 songs of praise. I study much to find the purest jew- 
 els in the cabinet of wealth. I read the Holy Pilgrim- 
 age of St. Peter as he ascends to the city of God. I 
 drink in the soothing words of Job which have grown 
 out of his doleful lamentations. 
 
 I have a little cherub who visits me often. O, that 
 you could behold her. Her countenance expresses the 
 holiness of her soul. The rosy lips part only to breathe 
 a prayer for earth's children. Golden curls float around 
 her, and on her brow of innocence she wears the tiny 
 blossoms of love. The garments which enshroud her 
 are of celestial silk. The wings are like unto the gol- 
 den hues of the sun. Even now as I touch the fine 
 thread of light which moves the medium, she is drawing 
 sweet strains from the Harp of Hope." 
 
 At another time, on a bright balmy morning in 
 March, this same friend said to me : — 
 
 " How lovely is this morn — it tells of a more bedaz- 
 
21 
 
 zling home beyond the sun. Joy to the inhabitants of 
 earth, for Jesus of Nazareth cometh. We are strewing 
 the path with flowers of Faith. We are opening the 
 barred doors of the mind ; and, with low murmurs, we 
 bid the sons of God welcome the slain Lamb. 
 
 In my wild joyous thoughts I forget that you are 
 waiting to receive new evidence of my presence — I for- 
 get that the vail of flesh is between us. Let me draw 
 more closely to your earthly care and perplexities. My 
 mission is to watch over you and my earthly treasure — 
 the child which has traveled on through time's paths, 
 and reached the age when the deep thoughts of the 
 mind have burst forth to reason on all the mysteries of 
 nature. You know not my affection for her." (The 
 remainder of this was obviously too private for publica- 
 tion.) 
 
 As soon as that friend ceased communicating, another 
 female relative said — 
 
 " My strain is not so eloquent as dear A's. I draw 
 a rude unchastened picture. But my mission is to 
 bring about the same termination. Like the avenger, 
 I thirst for the blood of man's ignorance, to draw it out 
 drop by drop, and to effuse into his veins a pure un- 
 tainted stream which will give him new life. My 
 fingers are employed in disentangling the threads of the 
 beautifully constructed brain ; to show man the use of 
 each limb ; to bid the murmurings of his restless soul 
 to cease; to solve the mystery of his being. Though 
 we differ in sentiment, yet we all are toiling for man's 
 promotion." 
 
 When this friend had ceased, a lively little spirit, 
 not a relative — and never known to me in the flesh — 
 
22 
 
 one that is generally amusing and witty, but for once 
 more serious, said :— " I am a little fellow, yet I feel 
 that I can do some good in this great world. Only a 
 few short hours did I breathe the tainted air of sin. 
 My tiny spirit like a small bird, rose above its earthly 
 parents' wings, to heaven. I found that I did not 
 spring up spontaneously, therefore I sought to find out 
 from whence I did come. So following a troop of 
 angels, I found out there was another planet, inhabited 
 by such odd and grotesque beings. [Don't slander us 
 poor mortals, Natty, I said — " O, no," he replied, 
 " good folks — good folks."] I could not bear to see 
 them clustered around a board and in fear asking for 
 tests ; I w T anted to see a seraphic smile on their coun- 
 tenances ; so I just commenced to make them smile, 
 and I found I had lots to do. I am happy — always 
 laughing — and as the other angel says, I will help to 
 bring about the same end." 
 
 One more from a near relative—" I am always glad 
 to meet you, but sometimes I fail in trying to enter a 
 discordant circle. Pure spirits love harmony and seek 
 its sunny influence. I find you still pursuing the shad- 
 ows of spiritualism — go on ; and though you sometimes 
 meet a hypocritical friend, who points out to you your 
 folly, pass him by, and drive out from your soul all the 
 mists of doubt, which rests its dew on your rising hopes. 
 The small seed sown in Faith, and watered by Hope, 
 will become a mighty Oak of Divine Trust. In the 
 distance I hear the doleful hum of strife for Light. 
 Like a majestic forest the proud hearts of men waver 
 in the breeze of spiritual love. Truth, my friend, is 
 appearing in many new forms, in tangible physical de- 
 
23 
 
 monstrations and in soft whispers of angel voices. Man 
 is weaving a strong chord of Faith. When the golden 
 threads shall be twined, and the chord made strong, 
 then, will ive lift the vail, and this chord of Faith shall 
 hold it up. Angel administrations are around yon; 
 they compass you with good. Man that for ages hath 
 lain in the dust> arouses himself into new action ; he 
 casts off the shackles of sectarianism ; and he views 
 God not as a Satanic Master, but as a loving Father. 
 Take you also the Saviour's cross ; with it go forth ; 
 extend the hand of sympathy and assistance if need be 
 to thy neighbor ; pour the incense of truth into the 
 heart that is stricken with grief; let the lowly and sick 
 share thy bounties ; help us to build Christ's kingdom 
 on the earth, not to raise some petty machinery into 
 notice, nor to exalt the vanity of the mind, but to draw 
 out the Godlike properties in man's soul, and make 
 him the calm, rational being for which he was intended. 
 The reward will come ; — when you administer the balm 
 of peace, thy own heart shall feel the soothing antidote 
 first — not in the glittering gold of earth, but the rich 
 jewels of heaven. And when you have reached the 
 valley of death, dear departed friends will welcome you 
 to Zion's morn." 
 
 All these words, and very many more, of the same 
 tone and spirit, have come to me through the hand of a 
 young lady, of only common education, and common 
 intellectual powers — and they were accompanied by the 
 names of several different ones among my departed rela- 
 tives, whom it seems impossible that she could ever 
 have known by name. If the spirit and tone, if the 
 sentiment and doctrine of these communications be de- 
 
24 
 
 luding, then my heartiest prayer for each of you is, that 
 you may be deluded. If these be the words, and 
 thoughts and feelings of demons, let me welcome their 
 presence and their influence, upon myself and those 
 most dear to me. And let me respectfully, and in all 
 truthfulness express the belief, that not many Christian 
 congregations would be losers, were our clergymen to 
 exchange pulpits with preachers such as these. 
 
 Some communications more explanatory of these 
 wonders, throwing some little light at least into the 
 darkness that broods over our subject, will be given 
 next. And to them, let me invite as close attention 
 and thorough scrutiny as you individually can bestow. 
 
 When the name of a departed relative had been writ- 
 ten out, and while I was under the impression that a 
 female friend was writing to me, I received as fol- 
 lows : — 
 
 " The mortals of earth expect truth from the spirit 
 land ; they think that it is perfect, and that the angels 
 are omnipotent. Oh, how far do they wander in the 
 darkness of their own minds ! The spirit home is pro- 
 gressive^ like unto this. The canting hypocrite passes 
 into the heavens with the same thoughts ; the simple 
 babe too passes into this new born life with all its 
 child-like innocence. Each one has to mount the high 
 ladder of progress. 
 
 The lower spheres are the abodes of Satans. The 
 burning fire of carnal sins envelopes them in its scorch- 
 ing flames. The good are separated from the evil, and 
 then do the evil-minded live out their determination of 
 grossness that is interwoven in the mind when it 
 enters. 
 
25 
 
 There are millions in the spirit world that know not 
 of the existence of this planet, even as the children of 
 this earth know not of the starry worlds above. But 
 on beholding angels descend to this hidden planet, they 
 follow, and in wonderment behold a new world, and that 
 world inhabited. Then do they find from whence they 
 originated. These behold people asking questions, and 
 they answer them in pure innocence and ignorance — 
 this makes the discord. But God alloweth them to 
 come for one great and good purpose ; for it rouseth 
 man's reasoning powers. Whereas if all was correct, 
 the mind, after satisfying itself with spiritual food, 
 would be filled. These discrepancies are blessings, for 
 they are instruments that set in motion every slumber- 
 ing energy. 
 
 The star of spiritualism has reached the horizon of 
 investigation. Watch its gentle halo radiating the 
 mist of doubt. The beauty you see passeth away, but 
 the things of heaven pass not. Go on then to this real 
 and eternal day and find repose there for the panting, 
 worn out soul. From your Spirit Friend, 
 
 Ben. Franklin. 
 
 P. S. Excuse me, sir, for taking her place ; she 
 could not have given this and I did it for her." 
 
 At once, I said : In your autobiography, Dr. Franklin, 
 you stated that you, and two friends of yours, when 
 young, agreed that which ever died first, should if pos- 
 sible return to the others and manifest his presence. 
 But in after life you say, that though your friends have 
 been long dead they have not returned to you ; there- 
 fore you conclude they could not. Was this conclusion 
 correct \ He answered — " I found when I met them 
 
26 
 
 that they indeed came back ; but I, dull, incomprehen- 
 sive being, saw them not. Suffice it, that I am here 
 with a shadowy, intangible form, but with a firm mind 
 and understanding." Is this — I would put the ques- 
 tion to the critical and logical mind — is this the style 
 in which the school girl writes and thinks ] Have any 
 of you ever known me to write with equal condensation 
 and power ? But this came, and came more rapidly 
 than my pen could follow, where either the girl or my- 
 self was author, if any spirit in the body was — and I 
 surely had no consciousness of producing it. 
 
 Another communication seemed to be Franklin's, and 
 yet appeared to come through my female friend acting 
 as a sort of amanuensis or operator for him, and was 
 addressed to a living female friend who was with me 
 when the communication was received. 
 
 " Dear Sister, — It is the mystery of your being, 
 where did this soul of mine come from % It came not 
 from God's breath ; but it grew out of space and en- 
 tered the beautifully constructed body which the Cre- 
 ator did prepare. The soul or spirit is composed of 
 electricity. But, say you, this soul is an intelligent 
 thing — yea, it is filled with thought — it feels, hears, 
 sees and understands. Yet this free acting soul cannot 
 exist one instant without air. This soul is clothed in 
 immortal robes — it is eternal. 
 
 After the spirit ascends from the grossest body, it 
 enters a body of etherial appearance ; and if thine eyes 
 could behold it, to thy sight it would appear as a natu- 
 ral substance. This body can be thrown off at any 
 instant, and the soul can enter any shape which the occa- 
 sion requires. Man now views disembodied spirits in 
 a most singular manner. He supposes them capable 
 
27 
 
 of exploring, accumulating, advising, discovering all the 
 invisible objects of the universe. He also sneers at the 
 absurdity of an angel's stooping so low as this mode of 
 communicating. He stops not to find out the laws 
 which may govern so great a mystery, but after giving 
 a passing glance, he either decides that it is a mere 
 electrical volition of the will, or else, wise critic, is 
 firmly convinced that it is from the Devil. . 
 
 But I will not dwell on those ivise men. Let me 
 turn to the struggling band of investigators. I behold 
 them cheerfully seeking the intelligence of heaven. 
 Go on brave followers of Christ. You will all be car- 
 ried to the utmost extension of your faith, and then 
 will the glorious reality burst upon you that angels do 
 hover near to bless. Ben. Franklin." But the com- 
 munication, in reply to a question, went on thus — " Let 
 me my sister, answer some questions of enthusiastic 
 men. 
 
 " The spirit is, as you suppose, a shadowy, invisible 
 object. It is enabled to communicate by an agent, 
 termed by philosophic men, refined electricity. Yet 
 this agent enables spirits only to make sound or mo- 
 tion. To convey a thought, the spirit has to make 
 a strong volition of his will on the passive hand of a 
 medium ; or sometimes the spirit uses the brain of the 
 instrument ; and at all times uses the seeing, hearing, 
 feeling, smelling and taste of the medium ; but not the 
 understanding of the instrument or the use of the 
 medium's knowledge. We can look within a sealed 
 parcel, not by the medium's sight, but through the 
 mind of the person who sealed it. Names and dates 
 we get in many ways. Sometimes out of the inquirer's 
 mind, and oftener on the golden record above. 
 
28 
 
 " Spirits cannot remain long in the immediate presence 
 of their earthly friends. After staying one hour in the 
 discordant sphere, our electrical agent is expended and 
 our spirit strength exhausted. I must now ascend to 
 a more congenial clime." 
 
 One more communication from the same source. 
 
 " Do animals exist after death % They do. In the 
 spirit land there is a separate domain containing all the 
 various species of the brute creation. But they are in 
 a peaceful state — the savage fire of their nature is sub- 
 dued. They are -not in a progressive state. Still 
 angels as well as men, can awaken in the bosom of an 
 affectionate animal a congenial love. The instinct can 
 be cultivated, or the soul, in its lowest degree, can be, 
 not exalted, but improved. Now the animal kingdom 
 is free to all the etherial inhabitants of the spheres ; 
 but the animals themselves are confined within the 
 boundary line of their kingdom. So you see that it is 
 utterly impossible for the roaring lion to go about, 
 imparting the demoniacal feelings of his nature through 
 the universe ; or for the innocent lamb to mount on 
 sylvan wings and pour into the weak minds of men its 
 simplicity. 
 
 " I will give you an illustration, to let you see, in its 
 true light, the cause of animal communications. 
 
 " Not long ago, I accompanied a large number of 
 angels to the enlightened town called Springfield, there 
 to impart more knowledge to the inquiring children of 
 earth. We winged our way to the humble dwelling of 
 an instrument of our cause, and there found clustered 
 together a number of persons, each with different 
 
29 
 
 motives ; and consequently many mixed spirits were 
 attracted there. The good angels formed a circle within 
 the line of human beings, while the evil, or disgraced 
 ones formed a circle without For a while the angels of 
 light overpowered the disembodied demons of darkness ; 
 but as soon as one of the angels vacated a place, that 
 place was filled by an evil disposed spirit, and he, being 
 stronger than the pure and holy beings who surrounded 
 him, succeeded in banishing us all from the circle. 
 We stood at a little distance, and observed the effect of 
 the evil influences on the minds of the company. One 
 of the assemblage, who scoffed at the beautiful and 
 real, inquired for the spirit of an old horse. We anx- 
 iously watched the movements of one of the demons, 
 who immediately answered to the foolish question, by 
 producing loud sounds in imitation of a horse kicking. 
 Then commenced the dark scene of confusion, I am 
 about faintly to describe. The man who first caused 
 the answer, inquired for the spirits of dogs, cats and 
 many of the canine race, and received in answer imita- 
 tions of scratches, kicks, and other low, discordant 
 noises, such as are caused by embodied brutes. The 
 bright guardians of light looked on in mute pity, as the 
 spirits succeeded in entrancing the medium, and imitat- 
 ing the neighs and roarings of horses and lions. Thus 
 you see, on the outside of the stage, it appeared to 
 mortal eyes and ears, that the spirits of animals did 
 produce the disgusting scene ; but behind the curtain 
 were the evil designing operators. If they could have 
 but beheld those evil operators, what a new chord 
 might have been touched ! But the time has not yet 
 arrived. Man must receive the evil, and overcome it 
 
30 
 
 with good. The thin vail shall be raised, and the spirit 
 of man shall behold the kindred spirits he attracts. Oh, 
 children of the clay, why grovel in the dust 1 Let the 
 celestial ministeries of light approach, and lift your 
 minds high above holding converse with brutes. In 
 this new era, let your feet be turned towards the nar- 
 row path which leads to the brightness of God's 
 throne. 
 
 From your Spirit Friend, 
 
 Benjamin Franklin." 
 
 After some progress had been made in the prepara- 
 tion of this lecture there came to me the following. 
 
 " Gather in one heap the little facts which have 
 come under your immediate observation. Trust not 
 thy brother's eye for it ofttimes deceives him. Let thy 
 foundation be of stone, and angels will wave the glow- 
 ing banner of victory on the pinnacle. 
 
 Philosophers, in the spirit world, are seeking new 
 modes to manifest themselves more clearly and forcibly. 
 There are ten modes. 
 1st. Sounds. 
 2d. Movements. 
 3d. Clairvoyance. 
 4th. Spiritual discernment. 
 5 th. Hearing. 
 The 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th will be unfolded as the 
 wheels of time roll on. Speak of the past and present ; 
 leave the future to be revealed by beings higher than 
 you. 
 
 From your Spirit Friend, 
 
 Benjamin Franklin." 
 
31 
 
 Let these suffice as samples of the blended moral and 
 philosophic. A few miscellaneous ones will be given 
 now. 
 
 On one occasion there was written a name known to 
 all of us. The first glance at it was a little startling — 
 but since the man had once been my acquaintance and 
 teacher at Cambridge — and as there had never been 
 any other than friendly relations between him and me, 
 I asked what he would like to say. The unexpected, 
 but not unwelcome reply was, " Pray for me. I am 
 not happy. I am alone in the enclosure of repentance." 
 Can the prayers of mortals avail you] I asked. He 
 answered — " The prayers of mortals soothe me ; no 
 more till after your prayer for me to-night." This inci- 
 dent has since prompted many a prayer, which, I trust 
 has done me no harm, whether it has soothed him or 
 not. 
 
 On one occasion, the names of my two nearest de- 
 parted relatives were written out in gladdening con- 
 junction, and I asked them to unite in a communication. 
 These unwelcome words came in response. " I will 
 not let your friends come. John Frost Parker of Ohio." 
 But why, I said, do you keep friends apart % " For 
 fun," he answered. Fun? It must be low fun, that 
 would keep loving friends apart. Have you no dispo- 
 sition to oblige % " No." Have you no fear of God I 
 " No. God is an all-pervading essence. I cannot 
 breathe in an atmosphere you have breathed, for you 
 have taken all the God out of it. No spirit has seen 
 God, for he is more transparent than themselves." 
 (When such utterances came, of course, thoughts of 
 some graceless being arose in my mind, and I queried 
 
32 
 
 mentally whether I would receive any thing more ; but 
 he was obviously a thinker, and I concluded to let him 
 go on, and do not now regret the decision. His next 
 words were) — " I have not a single friend on earth now, 
 and you oblige me very much by listening to me. 
 I am grateful. I had talents but drowned them in 
 strong drink. Strong drink is a curse and should be 
 obliterated from the face of the earth. I died in Ohio, 
 five years ago, at the age of twenty-eight — born in Phil- 
 adelphia, and was a jeweller. I privately wrote some 
 few sentiments, in moments of emergency, published in 
 the New York Tribune. I had no family, was a young 
 dissipated wretch. I would like to have Alice know 
 that I live — Alice Goodwin — but don't speak of her ; 
 it recalls old memories of a broken heart." I said to 
 him — Can I be of any servide to you % He answered — 
 " You can unfold the goodness of my soul by letting 
 me commune with you. My social qualities led me 
 astray. My brain was too active, and I defaced the 
 God of my nature in strong drink. John F. Parker." 
 Now any one of you knows as much about John Frost 
 Parker of Ohio as I do, or as my medium does. We 
 never heard of such a person, and there was no other 
 one present when this communication came. And the 
 question comes in with much force, What mind fur- 
 nished the statements and thoughts I 
 
 The red men who once owned our hills and plains, 
 seem not to have forgotten their former homes. One 
 day the following was written out for me. 
 
 " Me one that watches over his bones buried under 
 your house. Me been in the spirit land one thousand 
 and fifty moons. Me mean you no harm, though me 
 
33 
 
 come from a low sphere, and me am offensive to the 
 pale-faced angels. Yet me love the spot where me 
 passed me happy youthful days on the then wild hunt- 
 ing grounds. Me cherish no bad feelings towards the 
 white skin, who in days of yore wronged me red broth- 
 ers of their homes. The Great Spirit teaches I to for- 
 give. And me now would eradicate, with tears of 
 blood, all wrong, and have peace and happiness in the 
 stead of penury and despair. 
 
 Me can hear the hum of strife. Like the buffalo's 
 cry it falls on me ear, and as he turns his dying eye on 
 I, me strive to staunch the wound me had made. Me 
 friend, me can tell you a tale of naked woes which me 
 did suffer. Me was once a proud chief. Me had only 
 to rub the golden god of me wishes and slaves rose up 
 at me bidding. Even now a pang arises in me soul, as 
 me am tortured with forgotten memories. Me tell you 
 more some time. Me no understand English well. Old 
 Black Hawk — me say Old, because me Son the Famous 
 Black Hawk." 
 
 On another occasion, where four or five of our most 
 intelligent and pure minded gentlemen with their ladies 
 were present, the following was given. " Me glad to 
 see the pale faces so happy ; that your minds are big ; 
 that you almost leave the clay in your search after truth. 
 Black Hawk is happy for you are going to join the 
 etherial band, who comes from the Great Spirit to 
 spread the light. Me holds now over you all the 
 scythe of Love ; me will cut down all the weeds of sin 
 in your minds, that the blossoms of holiness may grow. 
 Black Hawk hears the sweet spirits of harmony whis- 
 
34 
 
 pering together, and the halo of the spirit world sur- 
 rounds you all. Eed Friend, Black Hawk." 
 
 These selections from the communications are made 
 extensive, because of my wish to show that there is 
 more variety in thought and expression than would 
 naturally be expected from the medium or myself, and 
 because nearly every one of them gives some new view 
 or new thought, which though not specified by me, will 
 yet be seen by the observing mind, and may furnish 
 valuable suggestions. "With this view let me detain 
 you a little longer, while I describe one unique com- 
 munication and furnish a few of this Spirit's sayings. 
 
 Entering a medium's room, one morning, I saw a 
 gentlemanly intelligent man, apparently about thirty, 
 sitting at the table and putting questions. Soon, a tiny 
 rap was heard, and the name, Natty, was spelled out. 
 " Who are you V ? said the man. " I am your brother" 
 was the answer. " No," said the man, " I had no such 
 brother." " You had," said the rapper. " No," said 
 the man. " Yes," said the other. " Well, let us see," 
 added the man. " How old was you, Natty, when you 
 died V " Five days," was the answer. " How long 
 since you died 1" " Thirty-five years." The gentle- 
 man here bit his lip in thought, and said — " I believe 
 there was an infant brother who died before I was 
 born, but I thought they called him Oliver." " No," 
 was the response, " they called him Natty, and I am 
 he." " Natty," said the man, " hoiv do you know that I 
 am your brother If u By love," he answered. " By 
 love ?" said the questioner ; " but don't you love others, 
 as well as relatives ?" Ans. " We like others and love 
 relatives I" " What," it was then asked, " what is the 
 
35 
 
 difference between love and like 1" The word LOVE 
 was immediately written in large letters, two or three 
 inches long, and like was traced under it in very small 
 letters. " Natty," continued the man, " you are not my 
 brother, but are some one else attempting to impose 
 upon me." " I am your brother," was the earnest re- 
 joinder. " Then will you tell me what sphere you are 
 in?" "The fourth," he said. "The fourth, ah? 
 Now I've caught you — for as you died in infancy you 
 was fitted for the seventh sphere when you left the 
 earth." " I have bee?i there," was the response. " Have 
 been there, and yet are now in the fourth ? How is 
 that ? are you moving backwards ? coming down V 
 " No, I am an adviser in the fourth." " Adviser ! what 
 is that? a sort of superintendent?" "Yes." "Oh, 
 you are in office then 1" " Yes." " Do you get any pay ? 
 We pay well for such things here." " Yes, I get pay." 
 "What pay?" " The pleasure of seeing those under me 
 progress" I then said to the gentleman stranger, "Sir, 
 you have found your match, if not your brother. I 
 think I would own the relationship ;" and in continu- 
 ance I remarked, that this seemed to be a very bright, 
 cheerful spirit; when there was written — " I am always 
 laughing." My next remark was—" Natty, I should 
 like to make your acquaintance." " Hand out your 
 card," was the instant response. Finding no card in 
 my pocket, I wrote, secretly, on a slip of paper — Mr. 
 Allen Putnam, Eustis St. Eoxbury — turned the paper 
 over, placing the writing down upon the table, kept 
 my hand over the paper, and asked Natty to make a 
 copy. Instantly the medium's hand wrote — Mr. A. P. 
 U. St. Rox. The writing on my paper had been seen 
 
36 
 
 by me alone, and I was looking for a copy in full, but 
 received only abbreviations, and those of every word. 
 Eustis being reduced to the letter U. This closed my 
 first interview with him. 
 
 Some weeks afterwards, when he was forgotten, the 
 medium's hand wrote — " Mr. A. P. U. St. Rox. — I have 
 used your card." "Natty," said I, "as you left the 
 earth when very young, I would like to know how you 
 learned the English language." He answered, " My 
 mother knew it I think," and asked, "Will you let 
 my mama come ?" " Certainly, with pleasure." And 
 the following was written. 
 
 " My Friend, you must not be angry with my darling 
 boy. It ofttimes grieves me to have him, so pure, use 
 such wild phrases. I am your friend as a soldier in 
 the cause. Elizabeth Y- ." 
 
 Very often this bright little spark comes out with 
 something unexpected, amusing, or witty ; but at all 
 times he manifests a very marked disposition to be 
 obliging and kind. Once when his communication 
 seemed to be closed, I said, " You are not going, Natty V 9 
 " Yes — gone — don't you see the dust fly?" "Where," I 
 asked, " do you pick up such phrases V* " Hear 'urn." 
 
 On another occasion he said, " My friend, you must 
 not put on a long face when you come to talk with 
 supposed ghosts. You must not believe all they tell 
 you to. You must not go to the end of , the world and 
 jump off because they tell you to." 
 
 When once I said to him, " How do you go to work, 
 Natty, to use a medium's hand ]" He said, " Why you 
 
37 
 
 see, we just passes a chain of light around the wrist and 
 that sets it to shaking. The next operation is to make 
 it write, of course. Sometimes the words are allowed 
 to pass through the brain. We now have such a power 
 over this medium, that we can make her shake awfully." 
 
 " Try my wrist, Natty," said a lady who was present. 
 " Dear Beloved Aunty, I'se got a peck of love for you, 
 but I can't make you trace my purified thoughts on the 
 clean paper." 
 
 Running through, and underlying these cant phrases, 
 and this flippancy, I think the careful observer will 
 find food for thought ; hints concerning the sources of 
 information that flow from the departed, and concern- 
 ing their modes of acting upon us. 
 
 There is not time for me to extend these quotations 
 farther. Neither can I detain you by reflections and 
 arguments that might be connected with what has been 
 given. Though in many cases abridged, yet you have 
 had from me, almost invariably, the language precisely 
 as it came from the mediums. You have heard their 
 words, and I leave them to tell their own story. That 
 I had no knoivn agency in these compositions, and that 
 they are fairly exhibited, you will believe, if my charac- 
 ter for veracity requires you to take my statements. It 
 is pleasant to me, that I speak, on this subject, to those 
 among whom I have lived for more than ten years. 
 The singularity and strangeness of the facts would 
 render them incredible, if stated by a stranger's lips 
 Whether I have sufficient character to gain credence 
 for them is better known to you than to me. 
 
 Some uncommon movements and vocal utterances have 
 occurred in my presence. I have seen a table move 
 
38 
 
 without visible power applied to it, while it was fairly 
 before my eyes in the centre of a still room. I have 
 had table and stool tip very strongly and decidedly, 
 when my own hands, and mine alone, were placed 
 gently on, and when I was the only person sitting at it. 
 Not however excepting when some medium was stand- 
 ing by, reaching over my shoulder, and putting his 
 hand gently on the top of mine (for I am no medium). 
 At such times, though a large table would tip quite 
 over into my lap, /neither pressed upon the table, nor 
 felt any thing like pressure from, the medium's hand. 
 So far as I can judge, neither of us did any thing more 
 than just bring the hands in gentle contact, mine with 
 the table and his upon mine. 
 
 I was once writing down a communication as it was 
 coming through the medium, and having my left arm 
 resting undesignedly upon my paper in such a position 
 as to screen my writing from the medium's eye, when 
 her hand and pencil came suddenly over my arm, erased 
 a word in the middle of a sentence I had just w T ritten, 
 and then wrote on her paper a word to be substituted 
 for the one erased. Her pencil struck the word on my 
 paper with precision and made a mark from its first 
 letter to its last, and the whole was executed almost in 
 the twinkling of an eye, while the word must have 
 been in a position where her eye could not see it by 
 any common law of vision. 
 
 Once when the medium had been using the pencil 
 for some time, she suddenly held it out towards a gen- 
 tleman who was sitting in front of her at the opposite 
 side of the table and fixed her eye intently upon his ; 
 he returned her gaze — and there they sat, looking at 
 
39 
 
 each other in blank amazement, nntil I was compelled 
 to smile at their ludicrously unmeaning looks. At 
 length the medium thrust her pencil into the gentle- 
 man's left hand and snatching another that he was 
 holding in his right, looked at its point This last 
 action revealed to all of us the purpose, and caused a 
 general burst of laughter. That gentleman had sharp- 
 ened all the pencils when we sat down to the table, and 
 when the medium's pencil needed re-sharpening, this 
 scene occurred. Such an incident will have little force 
 with you, for such an act might be performed volunta- 
 rily. The expression on the face of the medium made 
 it difficult for the beholder at the time to see in her 
 movement an intentional act. Very many little inci- 
 dents like this have occurred in my presence, which 
 coming out unexpectedly have taught very valuable 
 lessons. Sometimes starting useful doubts, but gener- 
 ally giving " confirmation strong." Such incidents the 
 narrator can seldom set before others with much effect 
 or profit. I therefore omit allusion to any more of this 
 class. 
 
 When seated once in the presence of a lady of very 
 much more than common intelligence and cultivation, 
 her hand wrote in very large letters — Emanuel Sweden- 
 borg — then straightening up in her chair, the lips 
 parted, and for eight or ten minutes there flowed from 
 her a stream of moving eloquence, pleading for the 
 cultivation of devotional feelings and for the reception 
 of truth among men — also expressing a wish that the 
 whole New Jerusalem Church might be assembled in 
 one vast congregation, and that he might be permitted 
 " to thunder in their ears a warning not to follow him 
 
40 
 
 in two opinions in which he was in error while in the 
 body — one concerning the nature of Christ, and the 
 other concerning man's progression." This lady of 
 keenest intellect, and unquestioned truth, said that she 
 exercised no thought, and willed no movement of the 
 organs of speech, while the forcible and subduing 
 eloquence was gushing through her lips. 
 
 I was once present where a man, apparently entranced, 
 said, " There is one person in this room whom I have 
 seen before," and rising from the table and passing 
 round it to where some ladies were seated, he put his 
 hand upon the head of one of them and said — " It is a 
 brother of this lady whom I have seen before." Where, 
 I asked, did you see him 1 Ans. " Near his home, 
 which is near the water fifteen miles or more from 
 here " (Roxbury) ; " he was one of the jury that sat 
 upon my body." " What was your name V 9 He gave 
 it. " Where did you die ?" " In Boston, at the north 
 part ; was stabbed, robbed, and thrown overboard." 
 " Who stabbed you ?" He gave a name. " When was 
 this?" "In 1851." "Where was your home]" "I 
 was a sailor." 
 
 When the gentleman recovered from his obvious 
 unconsciousness, he asked the family if it was not uncle 
 William who had had possession of him and been 
 speaking. They answered, " No." Then I asked him, 
 if at any time he had been one of a coroner's jury. At 
 first he said, " No," but immediately correcting himself 
 said, "Yes — once. Three or four years ago, a body 
 was washed upon an island off Marblehead, my home, 
 and I was one of the jury that sat upon it — there were 
 but two or three of us. We saw the appearance of a 
 puncture in the side, and conjectured that the person 
 
41 
 
 might have been stabbed — but the body had obviously 
 been in the water for some days ; was disfigured, and 
 we knew no name. This is about all that I remember, 
 and that is the only time that I was ever one of such a 
 
 jury-" 
 
 You will notice that the apparent speaker in this case, 
 said that he had before seen only one of the persons 
 then in the room ; that person was brother to the lady 
 on whom the medium put his hand. I learned in the 
 course of the evening, though I did not know it at the 
 time, for I was among strangers, that the medium him- 
 self was that brother — he put his hand on his sister's 
 head. Now let us suppose that this medium himself 
 was the voluntary speaker, and that no spirit controlled 
 his organs, and how does he appear'? He says that he 
 has never seen any person there present before, except- 
 ing himself, the lady's brother — although his mother, 
 sister, brother in-law and other relatives were present. 
 Also he here gives a name to a murdered man — states 
 the place and mode of the murder, and names the mur- 
 derer — while as one of the coroner's jury he had found 
 no clue to either of these things. A case worth study- 
 ing. 
 
 Let this suffice of things which I witnessed in their 
 production. Thus far I have stated nothing but what 
 my own eyes have seen or my own ears heard. But 
 there are some works which I am allowed to exhibit 
 here, which were not produced in my presence. Those 
 two pencil sketches that hang in frames upon the wall, 
 seem to indicate good taste and skill, though in design 
 and execution they are unlike any thing to which my 
 
 eyes are accustomed. They are loaned to me by one of 
 6 
 
42 
 
 our most highly respected ladies, living within a few 
 rods of this spot, who tells me that they were done by 
 her hand, but that she has exercised no thought or will 
 about them. She has merely loaned her hand to some 
 invisible limner. This you must take upon her vera- 
 city, which none of us will doubt. 
 
 In my hand is a piece of lace or edging, which is 
 said to be the work of a girl ten or twelve years old, 
 who, as the girl herself and her parents say, has never 
 been instructed to do such work, and cannot do it now 
 in her ordinary condition. But she heard in her ear 
 the whispered question, " Wouldn't you like to learn 
 to knit?" She answered, "Yes." "Get," said her 
 invisible companion, " get some needles and thread and 
 I will teach you." The materials were procured, and 
 guided from stitch to stich all the way through, by 
 instructions whispered in her ear by some unseen 
 attendant, she produced this piece of work. Such is 
 the declaration of the girl, and the belief of her parents. 
 
 And now I show you another work of her's, which is 
 equally remarkable. Neither the girl nor any one in 
 the family as I am told and believe, has any acquaint- 
 ance with the French language, nor is there known to 
 be or ever to have been a French book in the house. 
 Yet here in this little album, containing various commu- 
 nications from the sister and other visitants of the girl, 
 written in exceedingly varied chirography, is one piece 
 in French, the letters printed. The father states that 
 one evening while the family were sitting together, the 
 girl took the pencil and album and wrote for a few 
 minutes. And when she attempted to read, she said — 
 " Why, father, what have I got here ? I have written 
 
43 
 
 something that I can't read." He took the book and 
 looked, and said to her in reply, " Nor I either." 
 When the production was shown to me I knew its 
 language and its subject, but wishing to get its mean- 
 ing beyond a question, I asked a very much better 
 French scholar than myself to furnish me a literal 
 translation, which he gave as follows : — 
 
 TRANSLATION. 
 
 The benefits of civilization. For Poetry 
 Tasso born in 1547, died 1595. 
 
 " To the charming Eleonora, Tasso read his delicious 
 songs of which the echoes still preserve the harmonious 
 sounds. By her beautiful eyes his muse is inspired, so 
 in his songs forever celebrated. Jerusalem is delivered 
 — he remains the captive of so many charms." 
 
 I have ventured upon a less correct, but more free 
 translation, as follows :— 
 
 " Tasso read to the charming Eleonora his delicious 
 songs, the harmonious sounds of which are still pre- 
 served in echo. His muse was inspired by her beau- 
 tiful eyes, and in his songs she was forever celebrated, 
 xlnd though Jerusalem was delivered, he remained the 
 captive of so many charms." 
 
 My friend, the translator, tells me that in the biog- 
 raphy of Tasso, he finds 1544: given as the year of his 
 birth and 1595 as that of his death. The communica- 
 tion fixes the birth at 1547 — but the figure in the 
 album, though most like the 7, might be read 4, with- 
 out very great violence. And if this were done the 
 dates through the medium, and those in the printed 
 life will be precisely alike. 
 
The author of this French, whoever it may have 
 been, by introducing Eleonora, and Jerusalem Deliv- 
 ered, shows more knowledge of Tasso's works than any 
 of us can suppose exists in all the members of the fam- 
 ily to which the young medium belongs. 
 
 Within the last fourteen months I have seen twenty- 
 two or three different mediums — all but four of them 
 private ones — taking no pecuniary compensation — and 
 more than half of them are our own citizens, several of 
 whom are now present in this assembly. I have spent 
 very many hours in their presence. Have seen them 
 at their homes — at my own home — and in the parlors 
 of neighbors and friends. I have met and watched 
 them in the broadest sunlight, and at evening. Every 
 desirable opportunity has been furnished me for detect- 
 ing machinery, jugglery, or imposture, and I have faith- 
 fully, but in vain, strove to find something mundane, a 
 sufficient cause for all the wonders. That trick or 
 humbug is sometimes attempted, by pretenders to un- 
 common susceptibilities, no one will have a wish to 
 deny. But very many of the mediums, private ones, 
 are as much above these things, as are the very best 
 persons among the witnesses. 
 
 One medium, an active, energetic business man of 
 more than sixty years, has submitted himself to be used 
 by me at any time, however suddenly called upon, 
 whether *in his counting room, or in mine — whether 
 called in his shirt sleeves from the wood-pile or coal- 
 bin, or dressed up and ready for company — and I have 
 used him and watched him daily almost, and that too 
 through several successive months. Many mediums 
 have been watched for long periods, and under quite 
 
45 
 
 varied circumstamces ; and, though the power exerted 
 through any one of them is very far from being uni- 
 form, and though the mode of manifestation is in no 
 two alike, yet I have seen no sign of its being any 
 where applied by machinery ; or of its being varied by 
 any preparation or act of the mediums themselves. 
 They deny, one and all, young and old, educated and 
 ignorant alike — they all deny, and that too in the most 
 private and friendly circles, where all the thoughts now 
 out, they all deny that they exercise their wills at all 
 in the production of these wonders. And I cannot 
 rate th&t fairness very high, which in the face of such 
 a fact, will persist in saying that all of it is trick, im- 
 posture, humbug. More than one hundred thousand 
 witnesses have looked on and yet are unable to prove 
 to any extent the cheats alleged. More than five thou- 
 sand mediums in this country, unitedly and persistently 
 declare, that they use no machinery and practice no 
 trick. My good friends, and near neighbors, Messrs. 
 Howard & Davis, inform me that when furnishing 
 standard weights for every town in the Commonwealth, 
 they made no provision by which evidence is to be 
 weighed differently now from what it was formerly — 
 and if the old standard is still applicable, one would 
 think that when a thing could formerly be established 
 " by the mouth of two or three witnesses" — the mouths 
 of five thousand may be allowed at least equal force. 
 
 I have read and digested most of the prominent 
 works that have come from the press, purporting to 
 find in machinery, demonology, or automatic action of 
 the brain a power that is adequate to produce the 
 strange works. It is not my purpose to review them — 
 
46 
 
 I have not time for that. I simply desire to state that 
 I have read and studied them, and they fail, in my 
 mode of weighing evidence and judging of forces, — 
 they fail, individually and collectively, to point out 
 causes that are adequate to produce the many and 
 varied effects that are seen and heard. " The bed " they 
 furnish " is shorter than that " the facts " can stretch 
 themselves upon it, and the covering narrower than 
 that " they " can wrap themselves in it." Jugglery, 
 machinery, electricity, or automacy — neither of them 
 can no more do the works that I have witnessed 
 through girls of common education, or furnish such 
 communications as some that I have read to you, than 
 it could have produced and delivered the masterly 
 eulogy upon Webster at Hanover, or that unique 
 paragraph at Plymouth Rock upon the suspension of 
 Nature's laws. The only power named in the works 
 referred to that will equal the case, is the demoniacal. 
 If the works and words be those of demons, the major- 
 ity of the actors in my presence must have been very 
 good demons, differing very much in character from 
 those of old, whose family name is thrust upon them. 
 Such devils, are welcome angels, luring and helping the 
 soul on and up to heaven's portals. 
 
 Turning unsatisfied from these works that purport 
 to show either mundane, or sub-mundane cause, and 
 failing to find among the world's familiar causes, any 
 one that seems adequate to the works that pass before 
 us — I listen to what purport to be the very words of 
 the tippers, the rappers, the writers and the speakers. 
 The unseen power seems to have a pencil and a tongue, 
 and I ask that power what itself is — and it answers — 
 
47 
 
 always and everywhere, it answers — c: Spirit " — spirit 
 not yours nor mine, nor trie medium's, but the spirit of 
 some departed human being. Yes, verily, the unvary- 
 ing appearance is, that the actor speaks and gives his 
 own account of himself — he says that he is spirit — 
 spirit once fettered in human brain and limbs, but now 
 released and elevated in power and privileges, yet not 
 always in goodness. 
 
 Does such, a witness speak the truth % Does he give 
 his proper name, or is it a borrowed one ] That one 
 witness, or that several, should often testify falsely and 
 deceive, is no more than any extensive observer of men 
 would expect. There are liars no doubt both in the 
 flesh and out of it. But that several thousand respec- 
 table persons, of all ages, classes and creeds, should, 
 without concert, at different times and in distant places 
 — not once only, but many times and always — that 
 these, so many and so varied testifiers and witnesses as 
 the many mediums make up — that these should all 
 agree in telling ahvays the false and never the true, is 
 upon any fair balancing of probabilities, absolutely 
 incredible. This position has intrinsic strength ; look 
 at it. In some form, this question, viz : — What moves 
 you ? has, within the last three years, been put to the 
 hand or table of more than five thousand mediums, and 
 in the presence of more than one hundred thousand 
 witnesses. It has been put to young and old, male and 
 female, Christian and infidel, believer in spirits, aye, 
 (and mark well the class) to ^believer in spirit pres- 
 ence, — to many and many a hand in each of these 
 classes has the question been put, — What moves you ? 
 And the answer has been one and the same — always 
 
48 
 
 and everywhere it has been — spirit ; the spirit of some 
 departed one. Now such a lie — if it be a lie — is as 
 much a moral miracle, as visible angel presence would 
 be a physical miracle. Put that case to the jury, where 
 £.ve thousand unimpeached witnesses have testified all 
 one way, while no rebutting testimony is found — and 
 on which side is the verdict 1 I repeat it, that the con- 
 cordant word of so many witnesses, possesses great 
 intrinsic power. I can do no less than take their 
 w r ord. 
 
 How are the sounds, motions, and communications 
 made 1 How do spirits work among us ? I say frankly, 
 that I do not know. I do not know — and yet I have 
 many conjectures and thoughts about it — and it is in 
 my reply to this question, that I have hoped to be use- 
 ful — hoped to say something that may tend to calm the 
 public mind, and lead it to useful investigation and 
 reflection. These novel wonders create visions of 
 demons, and ghosts and dreaded nothings in many and 
 many a brain ; they disturb slumber ; agitate nerve ; 
 shake reason ; and unfit thousands to look and hear 
 and think in calmness. But all this is because the 
 very nature of the strange works is misunderstood. 
 These works are all natural — uncommon I allow — but 
 yet natural — as much so as the hourly doings of yonder 
 familiar telegraph. 
 
 There is nothing miraculous, nothing supernatural 
 about them. They suspend no laiv, nor are they above 
 the laws of nature. Poxbury Highlands afford a differ- 
 ent view from that at Plymouth Pock. 
 
 Gravitation holds your table down, but when you 
 lift the table you perform no miracle. When the invis- 
 
49 
 
 ible wind whirling in the tornado lifts sands, and trees 
 and houses — no miracle is wrought. When the sus- 
 pended magnet draws up a cambric needle from your 
 centre table, though that magnet's power be invisible, 
 inaudible, intangible — there is no miracle performed. 
 The magnetic attraction is there and then stronger than 
 the attraction of gravitation. That is all. 
 
 Magnetism and electricity have existed from the time 
 when rocks and metals were first formed. Yet how 
 many countless ages upon ages rolled by before man 
 learned that the one would cause the mariner's needle 
 to swing, and quiver and tremble in restlessness until 
 it pointed north, or before the other could be bottled 
 up in glass and sealing wax, and made a beneficent 
 instrument in man's hands. 
 
 Had a merchant of the last century been told that 
 his son would see the time when he could send a mes- 
 sage from Boston to New York in five minutes, he 
 would have said that no power short of the miraculous 
 or supernatural could attain such speed. We however 
 know that such speed is attained, and that too without 
 miracle. 
 
 Our palpable, visible telegraph, furnishes the most 
 illustrative hints that I can give as to the mode in 
 which spirits may speak intelligibly to us. 
 
 Man, as our chronology has it, lived nearly six thou- 
 sand years before he caught, bridled, and harnessed 
 electricity and magnetism, and made them his trusted 
 and fleet steeds on the roads from city to city. The 
 electricity and magnetism are not new, but our modes 
 of using them are new discoveries of human science ; 
 and the works they do are new and wonderful, but not 
 7 
 
50 
 
 miraculous. No. Yonder wires are working no mira- 
 cle — but they are giving evidence that man has been 
 making advances in knowledge, science, and art — evi- 
 dence that man is acquiring a more intimate acquaint- 
 ance with nature's susceptibilities, and more control 
 over her subtle but mighty forces. He now has 
 learned to employ nature's everlasting forces, so as to 
 do many and vast things which rise above and beyond 
 the dreams or the hopes of his fathers. In knowledge 
 of nature's laws and forces, and in power to make them 
 his mighty ministers, man is beyond all question pro- 
 gressive. 
 
 Now will it be asking too much if I invite you to 
 suppose that the human soul after it has left the body, 
 is neither omniscient nor omnipotent ? If you will admit 
 the supposition that the departed soul is still some- 
 thing less than the eternal God, then there is room for 
 the departed family of man to be growing in knowledge 
 and power. The vast risen family of man, robed in 
 spiritual bodies, may be progressive. That family 
 above may be steadily acquiring more acquaint- 
 ance with the natural properties and laws of that 
 spirit world in which it now dwells, also with the sub- 
 stances and laws which bind together and govern all 
 earths, all heavens, all men and all angels ; and it may 
 be discovering and devising new modes by which to 
 exert more widely and distinctly its beneficent influ- 
 ences ; it may have but recently taught its telegraph 
 man's language, and trained it to speak in words which 
 we can understand. 
 
 Since man makes progress here, why may not disem- 
 bodied man make progress hereafter — not in morals 
 and devotion merely, but in all science— in acquaint- 
 
51 
 
 ance with the laws and properties and powers of nature 
 in that world where the dead now live] Man here 
 has but just learned how to send his messages on elec- 
 trical wings from north to south over the land — and is 
 the supposition too strange that departed man — still 
 progressive — may also recently have discovered new 
 modes of sending his knowledge and wishes to such 
 intelligences as are in a state to receive them % But I 
 will not press this supposition ; for it implies something 
 more than the case requires. 
 
 Let me make another. Suppose that man has been 
 so ignorant or superstitious in most past ages, that 
 spirits, though having power and desire to help him, 
 have yet found that whatever they attempted for this 
 purpose has only frightened and disturbed him — has 
 made him tremble and shrink under the apprehension 
 that witches and evil spirits were seeking his harm. 
 Suppose that they have failed to benefit him openly, 
 because he could not or would not understand their 
 purpose and receive their aid. Suppose that their 
 efforts at Delphos, in Scotland, in France, at Salem and 
 numerous other places were so misunderstood and per- 
 verted, that they have kindly left man to work his way 
 up, without their open and avowed aid, to an elevation 
 at which he would investigate calmly ; would have 
 strength and courage to face facts, however strange 
 and startling. And suppose yet one thing more, viz : 
 That the liberty of conscience and the free thought, 
 which have taken root and nourished in this western 
 soil, have now grown so strong, that the watchers 
 above and beyond the vail, see an opportunity to make 
 themselves distinctly known and understood — an oppor- 
 
52 
 
 tunity to get a firm and welcome foothold in our 
 midst, and thus make themselves, as they wish to be, 
 our teachers, guides and helpers. Suppose these things, 
 and allow me to recall to your notice some short pas- 
 sages in communications that have previously been 
 read. 
 
 You may remember that one of my departed female 
 relatives seems to have said — " The spirit or soul is 
 composed of electricity. It is enabled to communicate 
 by an agent, termed by philosophic men, refined elec- 
 tricity." 
 
 Franklin seems to say that — " Philosophers in the 
 spirit world are seeking new modes to manifest them- 
 selves more clearly and forcibly. There are ten modes. 
 1st. Sounds. 2d. Movements. 3d. Clairvoyance. 4th. 
 Spiritual Discernment. 5th. Hearing. The 6th, 7th, 
 8th and 9th will be unfolded as the wheels of time 
 roll on." 
 
 One of my companions, says — " Even now as I touch 
 the fine thread of light that moves the medium, the 
 cherub is drawing sweet strains from the harp of 
 Hope !" 
 
 And my playful little favorite, Natty, says — " We 
 just pass a chain of light around the wrist and that sets 
 it to shaking." 
 
 These things and others of similar import that have 
 been said in my presence, very naturally suggested the 
 inquiry whether the strange works were not performed 
 by the instrumentality of animal magnetism, odyle, 
 " mundane imponderable," or some subtle fluid not 
 well understood by man, but which these invisible 
 teachers, accommodating their words as well as possible 
 
53 
 
 to man's comprehension, call refined electricity, though 
 they may mean by it something as much finer than the 
 electricity which man elicits by machinery, as that is 
 finer than the iron rods along which it rushes. I can- 
 not prove that it is so — neither can I prove that there 
 is a home for departed spirits — yet I believe both. 
 Prove to me, philosophically, that the soul lives after the 
 death of the body. And then I, using your own means 
 and methods of proofs will try at least to prove to you, 
 that the soul may be called electrical, and that it can 
 use as an instrument to move both mind and matter, 
 all electricity that is less refined, and consequently less 
 powerful than itself. 
 
 That the position which is here taken, viz : — That 
 these wonderful works are performed by spirits — them- 
 selves electrical — using refined electricity as their in- 
 strument, does not stand solely as my conjecture from 
 the words that have been furnished to me— let me 
 refer you to the source whence I first derived the 
 thought. In the Philosophy of Spiritual Intercourse, 
 by A. J. Davis, page 77, you will find what purports to 
 be a communication from Dr. Franklin, the prominent 
 points of which I proceed to present. 
 
 Spirits in all past times where they have communi- 
 cated with man, observed, though they did not well 
 understand the great principles of " aromal intercourse." 
 
 (No explanation of this term " aromal," is given in 
 the work from which I abridge — but observation and 
 reflection have led me to a conjectured understanding 
 of it which I will attempt to illustrate. Place a small 
 bunch of fragrant violets in each of two vases upon 
 your centre table, and the aroma or fragrance of each 
 
54 
 
 bunch will extend to the other, and blend with the 
 other's aroma both around and in the bunch, and 
 through all the space between the two. Now these 
 lines or rays of fragrance from one, that intermix with 
 and run parallel to similar lines from the other, may be 
 telegraphic wires along which the violets might, if 
 intelligent, send back and forth their mutual thoughts 
 and feelings. Remove one bunch of violets and put a 
 rose in its place, and the blended rays will produce a 
 different odor, which might be more agreeable to some 
 of us, and less so to others. A similar blending of 
 electrical aromas doubtless takes place when any two 
 of us meet, and also between each of us and any spirit 
 that may be in attendance upon us. Such aroma, 
 though it escapes our senses, is yet perceived by the 
 dog. And the dog's power of discernment teaches that 
 no two of us give off effluvia that are precisely alike. 
 Now the electrical evolutions of one human body may 
 be such as will readily combine with the electrical ema- 
 nations from some spirits, and the two in close and 
 concordant alliance, like muscle and nerve, may be 
 adequate to the performance of such works as we are 
 now considering. Some such affinity and coalescence, 
 I suppose takes place, wherever one is what we call a 
 medium. But the same electrical condition in a spirit 
 which adapts him or her to work through some one of 
 us, may yet be unsuited to work kindly with another 
 person whose electrical aroma is either much more or 
 much less positive. Spirits may differ as much in 
 power to use men, as men differ in susceptibilities to 
 be used by the spirits. The work is done through an 
 aromal intercourse, and it is only when the spirit 
 
55* 
 
 aroma, and the mundane aroma, combine in harmoni- 
 ous equilibrium — making as it were but one, and that 
 one, subject to the spirit's will, that man becomes the 
 spirit's instrument. Violet and violet may furnish an 
 efficient mixture, while violet and rose combined may 
 be unfit for use.) 
 
 Now let me resume my abridgment of Franklin's 
 exposition. Spirits, he says, in all past times, when 
 they have communicated with man, observed, though 
 they did not well understand the great principle of 
 aromal intercourse. Studying, with calm and fervent 
 joy, the principles of electricity — " I have contemplated 
 this element's mighty workings in Nature's great ner- 
 vous system ; its passing from constellation to constella- 
 tion ; from planet to planet ; and in all its far-search- 
 ings and multifarious operations I have seen God" The 
 time having arrived when many minds on earth have be- 
 come prepared by the advancements which the various 
 sciences have made there, " I suggested to my compan- 
 ions the propriety of demonstrating, upon that birth- 
 place of the human mind, the doctrine of immortality, 
 to the end that man's ever searching soul might there 
 no more, in its early stages of existence, have its bright 
 light clouded by the ' shadows of death,' — a gloom of 
 ignorance which we, for want of palpable evidences, 
 had ourselves experienced on the earth." " I proposed 
 the opening of a material instrumentality which would 
 be of universal use." For " though numerous mani- 
 festations of spiritual power had been made to the 
 earth's inhabitants, in ages past, by the panthea principle 
 of aromal intercourse ; yet the scientific method had not 
 been perceived nor practiced ; therefore no permanent or 
 
• 56 
 
 essential results had as yet been obtained. I listened 
 to the serene observations of Fenelon and William 
 Ellery Channing, who declared that from their co-equal 
 researches into the moral and spiritual necessities of 
 mankind, it was their knowledge, that in case such 
 aromal communication could be established, the people 
 on some portions of the earth would listen, and be 
 thereby advanced towards enlightenment, wisdom, unity 
 and truth. Thus I was assured that the time was now 
 past when these things would have been ignorantly 
 termed demonism, enchantment or witchcraft ; and that 
 instead of the cross for the new ; the scaffold for the 
 strange and wonderful, there now stood erected, upon 
 the earth, a broad and high platform, from whence the 
 voice of truth went forth over all the land." 
 
 " Thus encouraged, I unrolled the principles of my 
 discovery, and accompanying my numerous associates 
 to a position from which we — united in purpose as one 
 strong mind — commissioned and directed, by an exer- 
 cise of our volition, an aromal current to produce 
 vibrations in the house of a gentleman of distinction 
 and learning in Germany. We slightly moved the bed 
 upon which he was then reposing. We operated upon 
 his pillow, causing sounds resembling the dropping of 
 water. We caused vibrations upon his shoulder and 
 thus fairly awoke him ; whereupon his agitation dissi- 
 pated the aromal element which at that particular time 
 his spirit exhaled, and which ive had taken advantage of 
 for our experiment." 
 
 After this trial, Franklin with his associates took a 
 view of many places, mostly in America, " to find the 
 necessary and essential external and material conditions," 
 
57 
 
 and at length, after many trials, in western New York, 
 succeeded in opening communications which have en- 
 gaged the world's attention. x 
 
 In these selections, you are shown my leading 
 thoughts concerning the origin and nature of spirit 
 manifestations, such as we have at this day. 
 
 Their wide and rapid spread through all classes, and 
 among many nations — also the definiteness of their 
 import and the intelligibility of their language, result 
 from a recent discovery by spirits, of some new " scien- 
 tific" method of using the old, the everlasting electrical 
 element that is ever working throughout nature's great 
 nervous system. Spirits have recently discovered a 
 new process of telegraphing to us. The instrumen- 
 tality is material ; the conditions are material ; the use 
 of the instrument is as free to bad spirits as to good 
 ones. It has no moral or intellectual tastes or prefer- 
 ences. Our wires will as readily transfer a message 
 from one villain to his companion in villany, as they will 
 carry the most affectionate sentiment from one devout 
 man to another ; so will the aromal electricity which 
 spirits have learned to curb and guide, be the servant 
 of any spirit whatsoever, who conforms his processes 
 to the proper natural laws. There is then nothing 
 miraculous; nothing strictly supernatural; nothing 
 peculiarly demoniacal; nothing which God controls 
 any more than he does the rains which come alike upon 
 the just and the unjust ; nor any more than he does 
 the lightnings which flash athwart the skies, or the 
 electrical current, which carries your message or mine, 
 be it good or be it evil, to a distant friend. 
 
 Such is my view. I have asserted it boldly, as 
 8 
 
58 
 
 though it were proved true, or as though I could prove 
 it so. But this has not yet been done nor do I feel 
 adequate to such a work. I have been bold, because I 
 wished to draw the attention of all careful observers ; 
 all thorough investigators ; all truly scientific and logi- 
 cal minds. A view is here presented — I hope with 
 definiteness enough to be distinctly seen — which, if 
 correct, may calm the agitated nerve, resolve frightful 
 mystery into beneficent naturalness, and open a familiar 
 way for the wisest among us to obtain lessons in all 
 science, and art, and devotion, from teachers, who though 
 fallible, are yet more experienced, more wise, and more 
 elevated, than any who are trammeled in flesh. Having 
 reflected upon the view for many months, it has to me 
 the aspects of a sound and true one. At least it ap- 
 pears to me suggestive of a direction in which we may 
 look, with good hope, for a solution of the marvels. 
 Not that I expect or wish, that on its first presentation, 
 you will receive it as a satisfactory explanation. Take 
 it, not for immediate adoption, but for investigation, 
 for sifting and for thorough scrutiny. Try it well ; and 
 in the end, value it, at just what it shall seem to you 
 worth— -no more. 
 
 But should you, in proper time, come to see as I do 
 now, you then can regard the marvels as being wrought 
 in conformity with fixed, everlasting, ever acting natu- 
 ral law s-*- as far removed from the miraculous, the 
 supernatural, the devilish, as are the messages that 
 come and go over our wires. And if the action of this 
 view shall be in you, like what has been felt in my own 
 case, you will soon learn to sit at the tipping table as 
 calmly as you can wait at the post or telegraph office. 
 
- 59 
 
 And when the message comes, it may be more affecting, 
 but you will deem it no more miraculous, than one from 
 your friend in New Orleans or Washington. 
 
 These statements show you in what direction my 
 own thoughts run ; and they let you see how I may, as 
 I in fact do, look upon this subject as one that should 
 be as calmly observed, as closely scrutinized, as faith- 
 fully reasoned upon, as the strange facts and lessons of 
 the far, far distant past, which the geologist is finding 
 as he reads backwards, and turns over some new leaf 
 in " Earth's Autobiography." Our age is finding start- 
 ling facts — far, far away down in the deep sunken val- 
 leys, where the wheels of time rolled before man's being 
 on earth began. Not alone in advance then, but from 
 behind us also, are the works of God receiving new 
 illuminations. And look where we may, let us do it 
 with the steady gaze, and calm strength of those who 
 feel that all — all is under God's direction, and that he 
 will be, and is, our shield and our defence. 
 
 Life's pathway has seemed to myself and many others 
 to be illumined with a new light — either an ignis fatuus, 
 a false light, luring to dismal swamps of error and dis- 
 quietude, — or, it is a sun, conceived from creation's 
 dawn, in nature's living laws — now but beginning to 
 shine on man with steady light, and promising to guide 
 his steps to long-hidden fountains of truth and glad- 
 ness. Is it a phantom, or a sun 1 Is it a creature of 
 deluded human brains, or is it the handiwork of the 
 eternal God ? Having used my own senses — those, to 
 me, best possible witnesses — and having used them in 
 this work for more than a year, I am prepared to receive 
 the light that is now struggling through the mists around 
 
60 
 
 us, as the dawn of a new day. And if it has been my 
 lot, as we are performing our march over life's hill-tops 
 and down across its valleys — if it has been my lot to 
 stand on a spot where its earlier beams have met my 
 eye — why shall not I speak of the cheering event to 
 those, whether before or behind me, who are now 
 marching in the shaded valley % 
 
 Thus now, my bread, or what seems such to my eyes 
 and taste, is cast upon these waters. It will doubtless 
 return to me — but whether of a finer wheat and sweeter 
 taste, or coarse and unpalatable — whether to make you, 
 my friends, regard me as foolish or as wise, is known 
 not to me, but yet is known to Him — the Maker of the 
 wheat — the Guardian of the waves — the Great Requirer 
 of truthfulness. 
 
 It has been my purpose, in which I hope I have 
 succeeded, to refrain from sarcasm, ridicule or abuse 
 towards any one. There are views and feelings con- 
 nected with this subject, which tell me that such in- 
 struments would be unsuited to my hands on this occa- 
 sion. I have to thank you, not only for your attend- 
 ance here to-night, but for that prevailing kindness, 
 delicacy or respect, which has restrained each and every 
 friend or acquaintance from the least syllable of sneer, 
 or slur, or censure, in my hearing, during the whole 
 time that I have been investigating this subject. I 
 speak it in thankfulness, that by no averted look, or 
 unkind act, has any one cast a shadow upon my path, 
 while many of you must have been thinking that I was 
 foolishly following the shadows of a shade. 
 
 I ask not that you should believe as I do. I did not 
 come here to advise you what to believe. A part of 
 
61 
 
 what I have seen and thought — though only a small 
 part has been told — not enough of itself to justify any 
 one of you in believing — yet enough, I trust, to start 
 candid, fair and thorough inquiry in your minds — I do 
 not wish my words to have any immediate effect beyond 
 that of exciting you to inquire candidly for facts. Do 
 spirits speak to us, or do they not ] Find the fact as 
 you shall have opportunity. That is all that I advise 
 or wish. 
 
 Predictions as to the effects of these wonders do not 
 belong to me nor to man. If facts, they are facts above 
 man's working ; and he must take them, whether in his 
 limited vision they promise to work weal or woe. The 
 why they come at this time, and for what purpose, belong 
 to Him to whom a thousand years are as one day, and 
 who knows the end from the beginning. The future is 
 his ; we cannot pry into that if we would. In my 
 remarks, I suppose myself to be dealing with the recent 
 past and the present, and not at all with the future. 
 One is not trying to pry irreverently into the future, 
 however earnestly he may strive with unfaltering and 
 unwearied step to keep up side by side with the on- 
 rolling wheels of the 'Present. These strange sights 
 and sounds are not future, but most distinctly present ; 
 now, in this age — this day — this hour — they are before 
 our eyes. God in his providence is holding them up 
 before us now. And when His hand holds them here, 
 is it more reverent to shut up the vision, or to look 
 upon the gift of his wisdom and love ! 
 
 Also in allusion to the effects of these wonders, I 
 choose not to speak of what will be — but of what is. 
 That wide-spread half faith in immortality, which but 
 
62 
 
 just keeps half the members of the Christian commu- 
 nity from denial, and goes no farther than that, is 
 receiving new vitality and vigor, and growing up to the 
 stature and power of undoubting trust. Many think 
 they are furnished with positive demonstration of that 
 immortality, which Christ only proclaimed. The 
 thoughts and affections are lifted heavenward, more 
 than before. It must be so when one sees the long 
 absent travelers returning from beyond the hidden 
 bourne, and finds them willing and eager to help us on 
 and up to plains of higher knowledge, devotion and joy. 
 The sceptic — himself tells me so — the sceptic joins the 
 trusting band ; the believer — I know it, and others say 
 it — the believer girds himself about with new faith. 
 Will it not be so, if the loved and buried, no longer 
 lost, but found, stretch down their helping hands, and 
 speak their cheering words ! There is vast uplifting 
 power in the belief, that good kindred angels are pres- 
 ent to guide our feet in the paths of truth and peace ; 
 to breathe around and through us a purer charity, a 
 brighter hope, a serener joy, than belong to our clay- 
 bound souls. 
 
 Recently, since men have begun to learn that the 
 ascended parent, wife, husband, brother, sister, child, 
 embryo infant, friend — each pours down from above, 
 words of kind endearment, and beckons the doubting 
 soul onward and upward — since this knowledge has 
 dawned upon us — some of the family below trust that 
 they have begun to move onward and upward, with 
 firmer step ; steadier progress ; more confiding trust — 
 to join the family above, 
 
 " Where the anthems of rapture unceasingly roll, 
 And the smile of the Lord is the life of the soul." 
 
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