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U I tv PREFACE. ro Accepting mental science as the definition of Ideology that Webster and other lexicographers have given us of this term, it covers all the facts connected with “revivals” and Christianity; all connected with a state of trance, so far as they come within the range of human knowledge. Yet an M. D. in Lancaster (Pa.) sneers at Ideology, and, to avoid the use of my term, thirty years after I had announced this discovery, he dubbed my idea of Involution and Evolution with the cabalistic term of “ Statuvolence,” in order to claim it as his own invention! Just as if this same Dr. F. had not in 1842 carried on a series of experiments, in the use of my terms, which he published in my scientific monthly, the N. Y. “ Magnet” ! He was then just emerging from the fogs of “ mesmerism,” and to this day his eye¬ teeth have never appeared on the subject of scientific investigation. Nor does Dr. F.’s pam¬ phlet on what he calls “ Statuvolence,” published in 1875, contain any idea in pyschology that Dr. F. himself did endorse under the term of Pathe- iii 725153 IV PREFACE. tism in 1842. Indeed, some of the parties in New Orleans, and others in Pennsylvania, who had become dissatisfied with “ Statuvolence,” have written me for information. The “ Magnet” was issued for the purpose of establishing my claim of discoveries I had made six years before 1842, as Mr. Horace Greeley had said, of “substantiating my discoveries in Pyschol- ogy and Hygiene.” To that “ Magnet” Dr. W. B. Fahnestock was a subscriber, and from ’its pages he got his idea of Pathetism; and for its pages he wrote a series of articles in support of my theory of selfhood and the law of self-healing and self-induction. I have sometimes tried hard to imagine my shoulders broad enough to bear any amount of misrepresentation and fraud. Ideas may be stolen as well, and far more easily, than gold, when the thief imagines that their appropriation as his own original invention will gratify his am¬ bition ! And I have sometimes almost wished that my fraternal heart were good enough to suffer long any amount of injustice, and still be kind. But I am sure you will scarcely dissent from me when I say that there may be a true idea of property in the invention of new ideas. It is certainly upon this consideration that our patent laws are founded. Ideas not new or im¬ portant, are never pilfered. There is no tempta- PREFACE. v tion to claim originality when the invention is worthless ; and, surely, what I now term Ideology has been adopted and claimed during forty years past, under so many new-fangled and worthless terms that I could not enumerate them here! A man who calls himself J. B. Campbell, M. D., visited me when engaged in business in Boston in 1857, to whom I freely explained my method of cure by pure Nutrition. The next I heard of him he had hitched a Greek and Latin term into Vita -Pathy, and had a college established in Cin¬ cinnati (O.) for turning out Vita -Pathic doctors! He is a fanatic ; nor should I deem him worthy of a moment’s notice but for the fact that he has sent me his tracts, in which he has falsely stated that I had approved of his vagaries, by which he is to obviate death and render those who swal¬ low his nostrums immortal ! And so of “ The mind Cure,” the “ Faith Cure,” the “ Divine Cure,” the “ Metaphysical Cure,” and the “ cure of seven hundred cases of hydropho¬ bia,” as reported in the “ Chicago Tribune.” Fur¬ ther, the “ Christian Science Cure ” managers in Boston, who issue a monthly paper, have a “ metaphysical college ” in that city for the manu¬ facture of mesmeric doctors ! These all succeed, more or less, in cures ; but no one of the clique has been able to rival the “ madstone ’ at the West, I think. VI PREFACE. Were Ideology, or the laws of Involution and Evolution, to be appreciated and generally ad¬ opted, it would annihilate Christianity from the face of the earth. Moreover, were it adopted by the medical profession, it would increase the suc¬ cess of that profession very much indeed; and this it would do, not, indeed, by inducing a state of trance. This I never did nor attempted, only in my public demonstrations by surgical opera¬ tions in my lectures. Only a very small percentage of minds can be entranced; and “statuvolence ” is, on this account, misleading. My theory of self-induction, that has been adopted under so many different terms, is proved by various classes of phenomena, as you will perceive in reading this volume. Quincy (Mass.), March 14, 18S5. CONTENTS. I. — Selfhood. II. — Experimental. III. — Mental Anaesthesia. IV. — Miraculous Cures. V. — Ideology. VI. — The Highest Laws. VII.—No “ Royal Road.” VIII. — Mentality. IX. — Idiocrasy. X. — “Christian” Science. XI. — The Bible Idea of “Inspiration.” XII. — The Bible Idea of its God. XIII. — The Bible Idea of Witchcraft. XIV. —The Bible Idea of Mediums. XV. — Bloody Ideas, All Besmeared with Blood. XVI. — Barbarian Lies. XVII. — Humanity Forever. vii CHAPTER I. HUMAN SELFHOOD. SELF-GROWTH, SELF-CONTROL, SELF-HEALING. Webster, in his large American Dictionary, has given more than two hundred applications of this term “ Self” showing the range of this idea of selfhood, in the use of different terms, in the whole of language. A cor¬ rect estimate as to the meaning of this selfhood will suggest the reasons for its adoption, when treating on the laws supreme of selfhood and self-control in the whole of things, as it must be in the human mind. We see this illustrated when a sensational idea results in instant death. It is a noteworthy fact, that all classes of people, more or less controlled by ideas of mystical phenomena, admit the idea of their own selfhood; and thus, by implication, they admit the supremacy of these laws of self-control! And they do this while their “faith” in mysticism ignores it in self-induction, and the evolution of those nervous and mental changes they are always ready to attribute to some nondescript invisibility, above or below, outside of themselves! There is no proof that there is ever any love or fear or hope or joy not self-induced; always, however, these emotions may be suggested to the mind. If these laws of selfhood be true in one mind, it is so in all minds. (i) 2 IDEOLOGY. All of us admit these laws in the solar system ; and so also they are admitted in the human instincts, — in vitality , nutrition , nourishment and growth , physical and mental. The wound is self-healed in the body ; why not, also, in the mind? From these dominant laws we are conscious of selfhood, freedom in volition, or the power of choice. It is manifest in the spontaneity of all the instincts^ all the emotions; as Goldsmith sung long ago,— “ Spontaneous joys, where nature has its play, The soul adopts, and owns their first-born sway.” Thus we have sleeping, laughing, weeping, sneezing. Even when certain emotions are excited, as in “ revival ” epidemics, by sympathetic imitation , the phenomena are self-induced, and are spontaneities. In the sequel I will describe the mental laws of selfhood by which the Christian is impelled to ignore these supreme laws in his own case. Hence, when we come to the Christian “experience,” he assures us that certain phenomena in his case were not induced at all, but they were produced in his mind by the volition of some nonde¬ script invisibility outside of himself! Hence the “me¬ dium ” declares that it is not he himself that is speak¬ ing, but it is “Dr. Franklin,” or some one that died a thousand years ago ! The entranced , by the “ mesmeric ” processes, think that state was not z/zduced, but it was produced by the mere volition of the “ mesmeriser ! ” The author’s discovery of these inherent mental and physical laws was before the announcement of the “correlation of all forms of force.” They were at first announced in “Zion’s Watchman,” % New York, in August, 1840, and afterwards in the “ New York Magnet,” a monthly I issued devoted to this subject. HUMAN SELFHOOD. 3 Theologians have boasted that the “creed” is true, nay, “tremendously true.” But what if science prove it false ? Then it is tremendously false, — none the less false when it ignores science and imposes upon human ignorance and credulity . With the ancient “ ism" the author’s acquaintance began more than sixty years ago. His personal expe¬ rience as a “minister” may be inferred from his truth¬ ful description, in the following pages, of the method of “getting up” “revival epidemics.” I invite any one to attend any camp-meeting at a place where sensational efforts are made, and compare what he will hear and see done with my account of “revivals,” and it will be found, I am sure, as I have here stated. No theologian will tell me that I am not familiar with “ the means of grace,” and sufficiently to qualify me for uttering in this volume the literal truth. The author knows what Christianity is ! Were it even possible to misrepresent it, he has no motive in that direction. He has far more charity for Christians than it is possible for them to exercise either towards him or towards each other. There can be no motive in any candid, honest mind familiar with the Bible for misrepresenting it. Can infinite wrath be misrepresented ? Can “ God’s back parts ” be described ? Can a myth or nondescript be caricatured ? Can the torments of an eternal hell be too highly colored ? The victims of this old ism , both laymen and the clergy, may here be reminded that the author’s theory of self-induction, which proves the fraud, is admitted in the sum total of valid knowledge by the scientific world. Every sensational sermon preached, and every “sinner converted,” are and will be referred to as posi- 4 IDEOLOGY. tive proofs of the truth of Ideology. And here is a brief resume of the proofs, as it was presented to my own mind forty years ago, and which has been deeper and stronger grown every day since, — “ As streams their channels deeper wear.” I had had an experience as a ‘‘revival” minister for twenty years, in the constant observation of nervous and mental phenomena, --all induced “ by faith ” in my dogmatism, or in me as a preacher. Thus, by a pro¬ tracted and varied experience, I found these changes in the “ trances ,” spasms, and “ visions ” of my auditors confirmed the New Testament teachings of Jesus, who admitted that he had no power over those cured by his “will,” except that power by which he had been invested by the “faith” and confidence of those in whom his miracles had been wrought. (Matt. ix. 28 ; xiii. 58 : com¬ pare Mark i. 41 ; Luke v. 13.) This faith, I was taught, was not only an act of trust exercised by the human mind, but it was a sine qua non in Christianity; and without it we are doomed to the torments of an unending hell! That it is only by this “faith” That we know there is any God, (Heb. xi. 6), or any Holy Ghost, (Acts xix. 2). Having previously made the experimental discovery in psychology referred to, I now had no use for Chris¬ tian ideas or terms. Then it was I left the pulpit for the public platform, and gave experimental lectures throughout these United States, demonstrating the truth of this theory of self-induction. During this time my audiences, in comparison with Methodism, were in¬ creased a hundred-fold, and the “conversions” by the miracles of power in my audiences were increased in their marvellous characteristics a thousand-fold. Nor HUMAN SELFHOOD. 5 were they performed merely by my own volition, as I constantly informed my audiences. And while the “ Boston Chronotype ” (Elizur Wright, editor) declared that I had performed far greater wonders on my public platform, and without any visible means, than any other lecturer ever did in the use of “means;” still, as I ignored the notion of Jesus and of Mesmer in regard to the human “will,” the wonder of the multitude was increased the more on this account. Here, perhaps, it may be well to lay before the reader some of the views expressed by editors, doctors, clergy¬ men, and others, when the announcement of this dis¬ covery was first made in the city of New York, where I then resided. The first I remember was by Horace Greeley, who had witnessed some of my “miraculous cures ” in New York, and he requested me to write out for the Tribune of Feb. 23, 1842, an account of them. In publishing them, he said that the new discoveries in hygiene and psychology that Dr. Sunderland had pro¬ posed to unfold were indeed of the most astonishing character, and, substantiated, would place his theory of ideology among the most important of the positive sciences. Thus it was editors, bishops, the highest officials in church and state, witnessed and bore testi¬ mony to the genuineness of the phenomena they saw on my platform. There were always present more or less of the clergy and the medical profession, and also scientific gentle¬ men well known to the public, who endorsed what they saw done, that it could be accounted for only by the power of faith in ideas. These phenomena exceeded in the marvellous all that were ever seen in any “ relig¬ ious revival,” so called, ancient or modern. 6 IDEOLOGY. No “miracles” by the “Holy Ghost” ever equalled the “ wonders of faith ” evolved on my platform, and that so excited and astonished the crowds, that always thronged the halls where I lectured. The scientific “revivals” I got up in all the cities and towns ex¬ ceeded everything of the marvellous ever heard of under the preaching of Wesley or any of his followers. And in Boston, where my lectures in the old Masonic Tem¬ ple were continued for sixty-four nights in succession, (1849), no “revivals” of the Methodist stamp could ever be got up there for twenty-five years afterwards, until a new generation had grown up for Superstition to prey upon. The following testimony, as will be seen, contains the names of doctors of the highest distinction in the city of New York, besides clergymen; for a bishop (Brownell), and clergymen of all denominations, en¬ dorsed the genuineness of the phenomena in my public lectures, by which I proved the truth of my theory of faith and self-induction :— “The subscribers have witnessed'numerous psychological experiments by Dr. LaRoy Sunderland, by which the mental exercises of the patient, a blind lady, were brought on and removed in a few seconds of time; such as laughing , singing , and the states of the mind resembling madness , monomania , and insanity. DANIEL M. PEIXETTO, M. D., Pres, of the New York Medical Society. DR. HENRY H. SHERWOOD. O. S. FOWLER, Phrenologist. PROF. ELIZUR WRIGHT. REV. J. H. MARTIN. REV. ISAAC COVERT. New York, March 2, 1842.” HUMAN SELFHOOD. 7 It was common for full reports to be made of my lectures, and a synopsis of such reports will be found in my last work on “The Trance.” It was common, also, for my audiences to organize, and pass resolutions of approval, of which the following are specimens. I quote*first from the “Philadelphia Sun” of March io, 1847:— “ At the close of Dr. LaRoy Sunderland’s lectures in Odd Fellows’ Hall, last evening, the audience was organized by the appointment of John Evans, Chairman , and G. W. Dun¬ can, Secretary , when the following resolutions were unani¬ mously adopted:— “ Resolved, That we, citizens of Philadelphia, have been highly amused, and, we hope, benefited morally, and intel¬ lectually improved, by attending Dr. Sunderland’s experi¬ mental lectures on mental science ; and we do hereby express our gratitude for the intellectual entertainment they have afforded us. “That, in parting with Dr. Sunderland, we feel the loss of one who has endeared himself to us, not only as a most cour¬ teous and gentlemanly lecturer, but as one having the most profound knowledge of the human mind of any or all that have appeared amongst us; and his method of self-induction in his audiences precludes the possibility of collusion, as the subjects evincing the phenomena being our friends, acquaint¬ ances, and relations, is to us, and it should be to all, a suffi¬ cient guarantee for the truth of his theory, and the most wonderful mental phenomena they illustrate. “That the common courtesy due to a stranger who has given to us such satisfactory proof as to the law of self-induc¬ tion in his numerous lectures to the dentists, the surgeons, the editors, and all scientific gentlemen who have been freely and especially invited upon his platform for that purpose, demands from them something more than a mere silent acqui¬ escence ; and that our press has been remiss in not reporting more fully the wonders of his performances. “ That Dr. Sunderland, in leaving us, does it not for the want of sufficient interest being manifested in the subject by Philadelphians, who from night to night have crowded his exhibitions, and would still do so if he were to continue with 8 IDEOLOGY. us, until no hall within our city limits would hold them; and Dr. Sunderland will always find attentive audiences, open hands, and warm hearts to welcome him whenever he can make it convenient to visit us again.” From year to year resolutions of approval were adopted by my audiences in Boston, of which I quote the following from “The Washingtonian,” of Jan. 8, 1848. Resolutions adopted after the close of a lec¬ ture given for the benefit of the Washingtonian Total Abstinence Society :— “ Whereas , Having attended Dr. LaRoy Sunderland’s lec¬ tures on his new theory of self-induction, and having wit¬ nessed his fearless and open manner of calling for the strictest scrutiny of the most intelligent minds to a series of interesting, and to us satisfactory, experiments, by which the truth of his new theory of the mind has been demonstrated, therefore — “ Resolved, As the sense of this meeting, that the high intellectual pleasures which our attending Dr. Sunderland’s lectures has afforded us, together with the permanent good which we believe has resulted from them, entitle him to the confidence and the gratitude of the multitude who have been benefited by his arduous labors.” And I quote next and last from the “ Concord (N. H.) Democrat and Freeman,” of Feb. 22, 1849:— “ At the close of Dr. Sunderland’s lectures, Dr. Henry O. Stone made some commendatory remarks, and offered the following resolutions, which were unanimously adopted :— “ Resolved, ’ That the trance and other phenomena we have seen evolved in many of our fellow-citizens of undoubted honesty, uprightness, and morality, have demonstrated to every candid mind the truth of Dr. Sunderland’s theory of self-induction and evolution. “ That we have been entertained, instructed, and improved by Dr. Sunderland’s lectures, so successfully illustrated in the persons of individuals in whom we fully confide. “ That we appreciate the gentlemanly conduct of Dr. Sun¬ derland under the embarrassing circumstances he has encoun¬ tered here, and that our good wishes will hereafter attend him wherever he may go.” HUMAN SELFHOOD. 9 At the period of 1842, when these demonstrations first began to attract public attention, as bearing upon all previous notions of mental science, that great dis¬ covery in physical science, which Faraday declared to be the greatest which the mind of man could make, had not been announced. And if man be admitted as the crown of all that has gone before; if man himself be the greatest miracle, and if the human mind must be supposed greater than any or all the discoveries it can make in physical science,. — then of how much more importance must it be for this same human mind to discover those highest laws of involution and evolution by which the mind, and all in the whole of things, are controlled ? For these two laws control throughout Nature’s order, and they domi¬ nate all the forces of which it is possible for us to have any knowledge. Indeed, these laws of selfhood are seen in the solar system. Keeping in view the law of polarity and gravi¬ tation from the relation between bodies, it is plainly manifest in the self-control of our planet and of all organized and living organisms, — vegetable, animal , and mental. We instinctively pronounce that human being “green in youth” who is not conscious of his own selfhood and self-control. It is this inherent right to selfhood that is invaded , and as far as possible anni¬ hilate d> by ancient mediumism. The -selfhood of the medium as priesthood is yielded up and lost! Selfhood culminates from the nutritive economy , and this accounts for it that so often when sensational ap¬ peals are made to credulity the vital system is ruptured,\ and the victim falls instantly dead, merely by an im¬ pression made upon the mind. A power which knocks 10 IDEOLOGY. the life out of a man so suddenly is sufficient for induc¬ ing all the emotions of grief and joy in any “ Christian experience ” ! It is to this power and nothing else that all formal prayers are made, (aspiration is common to all). That this power controls human life, we know; and any greater power, purely mental, we do not know. Believe as you please. A volume might be filled with cases in support of this theory; cases where from a sensational impression made upon the mind black hair has been suddenly changed to white ; cases called “ mi¬ raculous cures;” large numbers of these are reported every year. That such cures do occur, I know. Nor would it be difficult to explain, on this theory of self- induction, how they occur. Also cases of surgery without pain , such as I have had performed upon my public platform in New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Bangor, Cincinnati, Norfolk, Va., and the other principal cities throughout these United States. Jesus never rendered a man insensible to pain for an hour, while his thigh was being amputated. These surgical operations without pain, in a state of trance self-induced “by faith” in me, or in the law of self- induction, exceed all the so-called miracles of past ages. Thus I have removed tumors, and seen the molars of many a timid lady drawn, without pain. No such mira¬ cles as these are recorded among the marvels wrought by Jesus, or by any one of his followers to this day. These same laws of selfhood are the key that unlocks a class of mystical phenomena that are constantly occurring in our midst. While writing these pages I have seen numerous events described in the papers of the so-called “ miraculous cures,” and instances of sud¬ den death, which are accounted for by these laws. A HUMAN SELFHOOD. I I woman, whose husband was very sick, was asked into his room ; when, on entering, she perceived that he was dying, whereupon she fell instantly dead upon his couch ! A mother, seeing her son had been run away with upon a frightened horse, fell suddenly dead at the sight! A little girl in Maryland was frightened to death by her mates at play. And I see a report in the “ Chicago Tribune” of seven hundred “miraculous cures,”—all of them wrought by a small pebble, such as we may pick up in the streets. This account is written by a “reporter” of that paper, who assures us that he himself witnessed a number of'those seven hun¬ dred cases of hydrophobia “cured” by that pebble, which for this reason is called a “ madstone ; ” and such is the “faith ” exercised in its potency that the patients using it said, it “moves about from place to place ” on their bodies ! Such cases prove that the power that cures — the power that excites hope and joy and fear — is inside, not outside as many suppose; and the difference in the degrees by which different persons are affected by sen¬ sational ideas is determined by the temperament, and surrounding circumstances at the time. This law of selfhood accounts for it that religious sects differ so much in their creeds, yet each is spell¬ bound, and held fast to his own notions of things, from youth down to old age. The instinct for selfhood holds alike to truth or error. Conscience keeps the victim to his creed, and with a tenacity that endures perse¬ cution, torture, and even death itself. Moreover, it is in this law of selfhood that we find the power by which Christians and modern mediums become so wild and bamboozled by their faith, when 12 . IDEOLOGY. they invest so much in mystical phenomena, or what is believed to be mystical. For whatever is really believed becomes a reality to that mind. For by the “faith ” in the ridge-pole the “prayer is answered” all the same. No formal prayer ever rises higher than the brains in which the thought is evolved, — a fact that those who pray the most will be the last, however, to find out. When once completely victimized by “faith ” in mysticism, we do not take to the study of mental science. And now as to that state of things in regard to the human mind which opens the door to error; for I suppose it would be near the truth if I were to affirm that to this day ignorance has been the most dominant in the control of mankind. This fact is easily accounted for when we consider that this human selfhood, when error is once admitted, closes the door, so that error is not suspected; and hence we hear Christians boasting that “if they are in error in regard to their ‘faith,’ that they do not wish to find it outwhereas, to an intelligent, candid mind, this very declaration of Christians is evi¬ dence that they are deceived. The human will is nothing more nor less than the power of choice. It is the expression of selfhood ; and in the sense that selfhood is free and independent of all danger of annihilation, so is each will independent of all control by the mere volition of any other will. It is noticeable that the only sense in which the human will can be truly said to be free, is in that sense that it is ignored and denied by Christianity and modern me- diumship. Ignoring this true idea of the human will was the germ of witchcraft when the Christian “faith ” invested the idea of “the devil ” with power to medium- ize people against their own choice. HUMAN SELFHOOD. 13 Moreover, Christianity erroneously teaches that “ sin¬ ners ” are “converted” by the mere volition of Omni¬ science ; and yet Christianity cannot show it is possible for infinite Intelligence to have any “choice,” which implies ignorance in the use of means. Modern mysti¬ cism is ba-sed upon the false idea that its mediums lose their own selfhood “under spirit control.” And we know of no other ideas but the human. No other forms of thought have been, or ever can be, evolved by the human brain. This is the true func¬ tion of brains, — the evolution of human ideas. There could scarcely have been perhaps a greater blunder by a scientific man than that committed by Max Muller, who affirms that the monotheistic idea was supernaturally injected into the mind of Abraham, the Jew, spoken of in the Bible. It is true, that in respect to vitality, instinct, nutri¬ tion, nourishment , and growth , man is an animal as really as the dog is an animal. But in selfhood, in inner¬ vation, in sensation, in conscio?isness and the power of thought, and the evolution of ideas, he is more than animal, but never more than human. c It is a great error to imagine that ideas are, or can be, transferred out of one mind into another mind, as you cram the corn down the neck of the goose. There may be an occult sense called intuition, or clairvoyance, like that evinced by Mr. J. R. Brown, the “mind- reader,” so-called; but this is rarely evinced, and gen¬ erally in cases of disease and insanity, — but some¬ times manifested it may be in phenomena that have thus been erroneously attributed to mere volition in the “ mesmeriser.” As the human will is free in its choice and unlimited IDEOLOGY. 14 in this regard, its evolution of ideas is free, and each mind for itself forms its own ideals of all things. The mental capacity depends upon the temperament, educa¬ tion, and growth; and the taste may be determined much in the same way. The formation of ideals — one’s own conception of the highest and best —com¬ mences with the maturity that evolves ideas. And we may see any time, where there are small children, how plainly sexhood distinguishes in the juvenile ideals as to whether it shall be a knife, a hammer, or a rag-baby. This tendency is in human nature, and is never out¬ grown. And yet how common it is for the mass to live and die without even a consciousness of such a ten- dency in the mind, nor the slightest suspicion that, from first to last, all our ideals are nothing more or less than imaginary! Our aspirations, our hopes, and our faith are modified by our purely imaginary ideals. The child’s first ideals of goodness, of authority, of wisdom, are inspired by the parental relation ; nor does he ever after find any real “royal road” for thought. But he can imagine a thousand ideas of a “ royal road,” and of things that are not true. Hence the mind is hindered in its growth by creeds of the unknown ; and thus we see how it is that people have always differed so much in their notions of Christianity; as each mind forms its ideals according to its capacity, education, and facilities for conceiving of such things, of which he knows nothing, but of which he imagines the “priest ” may know, because the medium himself says so ! The social relations are the source and the highest authority for virtue, — goodness, right dealing, and truthfulness. So of polarity and the relation between all physical bodies. Whence comes the law of gravi- HUMAN SELFHOOD. 15 tation, the tendency of particles to a general centre ? So that this same law dominates in all mineral bodies, as it does in the vegetable, the animal, and the mental worlds. It is in the normal relations of persons and things that we find justice, freedom, equality, the fra¬ ternal, and the highest good ; but in numerous artificial relations, discord and evil. And when we consider human instincts, appetites, temperaments, and oppor¬ tunities, and with these the margin open to the human imagination , it need not surprise us that a comparatively small number of the human race have become duped by their own conceptions of relations purely imaginary. As we are held by physical gravitation to the centre, so is the mind held to centres wholly imaginary. Chris¬ tianity is based upon the assumption that man has the power of “faith,” which creates all “the evidence” he can have as to its claims or its promises. Nor is there, nor can there be, any “evidence ” of a personal God except that “faith” which creates “the evidence” for itself (Heb. xi. 6). And here bear in mind, that as it is “faith” that invests the miracle- worker with power , so it is “faith” that invests its ideal with power! It creates an imaginary relation between the mind and its ideal, such as the filial re¬ poses in the parental. Thus, in sickness we trust in our ideal method of cure, or as near it as we can ap¬ proach. Christianity creates a fear of an imaginary danger, and then cures the wound which itself has made. The frightened mind finds itself in a suffering condition, and petitions its ideal of power for “salva¬ tion.” Such, we know, are the instinctive tendencies of the human mind, from infancy down to the grave. Hence came all ideals of goodness, of justice, of power, 16 IDEOLOGY. wisdom, and truthfulness, and our ideals also of evil. And what has been always overlooked by theology, is the fact that as the human mind certainly forms its own ideals of things purely imaginary, so does the mind form ideal relations between itself and its imaginary idols or myths. The child gets its first idea of “influence” or power from the relations of life. The earth and all things are controlled by this law of polarity or relation. It is in this condition of things that error creeps in. Each mind forms for itself imag¬ inary myths and imaginary relations between itself and them. “ Saving faith ” invests the idea of a myth with power that induces all the phenomena in “religious revivals ” and in the Christian experience, and all those emotions that the Christian attributes to his ideal “Holy Ghost.” No human mind has any capacity whatever for cog¬ nizing its own processes of thought. We know nothing of what is constantly going on in our own organisms, — of digestion, nutrition, growth, or decay. We do not know how our ideas or our ideals are formed. We are conscious of our emotions while we know how they may have been suggested to our mind, or what events may have been the occasion of our grief or joy; but we do not know what the vital, the nervous, or the mental processes were from which our consciousness of the joy or grief has come. How, then, can it be possible for the minds of those victimized by error to see the door through which error may have come in ? It is a fatal mistake in Christianity in supposing faith, or any other human emotion, ever had, or can have, any independent action outside of the mind in which it is exercised. The power that “faith,” or HUMAN SELFHOOD. 17 that any idea, true or false, has over the nervous sys¬ tem, I have demonstrated far beyond any proof given by Christianity. “No answers to prayer,” as they are called*; no “miraculous cures,” no “miracles” by Jesus, could equal my surgical operations without pain. When the Christian closes his eyes and talks to his own ideal of a nondescript, personal myth, he imagines “some¬ body” outside of himself will answer. Whereas, “faith ” is not a power outside of the mind, while it may indeed have the power of life and death over the nervous system of the one in whom fear has been sensationally excited, as it may have been in the case of Ananias and his wife (Acts v.), and as it certainly has had in other cases. Now, put all these conditions together, and imagine them as more or less characteristic of all Sunday-school children, and of the hundreds of thousands who attend “revival” scenes and “camp-meetings” from year to year. All are profoundly ignorant of ideology, alike the preachers and the “maddened crowds” excited by their sensational appeals. In such a state of things, it is easy to see what must happen. The crowd is bewil¬ dered, deceived, and victimized with mental epidemics. Thus, around these imaginary centres the Christians of every name love to gravitate, and while they think themselves very wise, they doom their neighbors, who are as sincere and as honest as they can be, to eternal perdition. To this state of things we should add the idea of an elongated arm that “faith” gives to those who trust in a Jew — that did not die upon the cross two thousand years ago, —an arm long enough to reach the north star. Or, if he did die upon the cross, then he died in despair, supposing himself utterly forsaken of God. 18 IDEOLOGY. In this way it is that good people become hood¬ winked with mysticism. Thus the human mind dis¬ covers its “royal road” to knowledge, and becomes warped under the control of superstition. It grows upon what it feeds, as the body and the brain grow, from which the mental functions are evolved. In this condition it is incapacitated for duly appreciating sci¬ ence, or indeed its own attributes and selfhood. When I speak of having experimented upon the human mind, we must remember that the mind is not to be measured by the carpenter’s rule. It cannot be weighed by the apothecary. It is not to be subjected to any chemical analysis. And, in view of the ample opportunities afforded me when a “ revival minister ” for studying psychology, I have never regretted my “experience” in that regard. During that time I was familiar with some of the foremost ministers, who agreed with me when I expressed my doubts as to how much “the Holy Ghost” had to do in producing the spasms often witnessed at the camp-meetings. I could not fail in noticing that all the marvellous phenomena always corresponded with the sensational ideas and appeals from the pulpit. When I experimented upon my “converts,” I found that ignoring Christianity and using my own ideas the same phenomena appeared; and never since have I for one moment doubted that the human mind is always controlled by ideas, —true or false , it is the same. Each mind prefers ideas that agree zvith its ideals, real or purely imaginary. Nor is there any way to hinder people from talking to their own ideas, as if they had a persoiial identity. Ignorant as we all are of our own cerebral and nervous processes, I do not now so much marvel when I hear Christians HUMAN SELFHOOD. 19 vociferating their griefs and views to their own ideals in the clouds. The human race we know have always been opposed to all isms of the unknown. Humanity has never been so earnest and outspoken in its protests against Chris¬ tian dogmatism as it is this day. Its dominant instincts for the evolution of selfhood were never so manifest as at the present time; and from the beginning, some of the wisest and the best of men and women have urged numerous unanswerable arguments against Christianity. A writer, himself victimized by “modern medium- ism, ” has made a labored effort against the “ God idea in history.” But there is no such idea in history, ex¬ cept what has come from the germ of mediumship, which is the dominant idea throughout the Bible. Hence, Moses (Deut. v. 5) says, “I was a medium be¬ tween the Lord and you.” This medium was as neces¬ sary for the information of “the Lord” as it was for the information of the Jews. Two thousand years ago, so intensified had this human idea of mediumship become in Palestine that credulity and ignorance invented a “royal road,” after Jesus had died, for exalting his mediumship; and so they concocted the idea that he had been “ begotten by the Holy Ghost.” This emulation is characteristic of the old “ isms. ” Each boasts of the highest and the best. Still, the human family has always conducted itself precisely as if it had no idea of any omniscient person¬ ality ; and whatever kind of a personal God there may be, it is of no consequence, as he , she , or it is dependent upon human brains for all it knows of us, and has al¬ ways to be reminded by “prayer” of anything it can do for us. CHAPTER II. EXPERIMENTAL. An experiment is an operation performed for discov¬ ering some truth or the nature and laws of some sub¬ stance, or to illustrate the principles of science. Prof. E. L. Youmans has truly stated, that the most impor¬ tant event in physical science was in advancing from the theoretical , speculative methods of past ages to the experimental period. The ancients were prevented by a false intellectual procedure from creating science. They believed they could solve all the problems of the universe by thought alone. But the moderns have found that for this purpose meditation is futile, unless accompanied by observation and experiment. Modern science, therefore, took its rise in a change of method , and the adoption of the principle that the dis¬ covery of physical truth consists not in its mere logical but in its experimental establishment. — Cons, and Cor. of Forces, p. 16. This is true. And, if true in regard to chemistry and physical science, how much more may it not be applicable to Psychology and the ideas by which the human mind is controlled? Yet who of all the writers on the human mind can be named that ever thought of an experiment purely mental ? In Watts on “ The Mind,” in Locke on the “Human Understanding.” (20) EXPERIMENTAL. 21 and in Mason on “ Self-Knowledge,” there is not a syllable of any experiment performed by ideas upon the human mind ever thought of. Who of the clergy (till the author himself, then a clergyman, in 1836), from the days of Jesus to the present time, — who and what was the name of that theologian who ever performed upon the human mind an experiment purely mental ? — an experiment with ideas, for testing the power that faith in a myth has over the human mind ? What Christian, of all the ages past, ever experimented upon the human soul with ideas, for the purpose of finding out as to whether the proximate power with which Jesus is said to have cured the disease mentioned in Matt. ix. 2, was in the “will ” of Jesus or in the sick man’s “faith,” and the law of self-induction and self- healing which inheres alike in every human mind ? What D. D., or what “revival ” propagandist, could you name, who, before drilling the organs of credulity and fear with his dogmatism of the unknown, experimented with ideas by which he could find out if there was any difference in the faith which holds still the nerves under the surgeon’s knife (as I have often done) and faith in a myth ? A scientific experiment takes in all the factors, all the forces, that evolve the phenomena. Nothing is taken for granted ; no element is omitted. As science is a classification of ideas, not merely of all that is known but of all there is to be known, it is easy to see how inconsistent and absurd it is to apply the term Christian to science ! Christianity has always ignored science and human reason, as “faith ” always does; as “ saving faith ” is the substitute for science, human reason, and knowledge. 22 IDEOLOGY. During my scientific lectures, a large number of Christians “ filled with the Holy Ghost,” and clergy¬ men of all the grades in the different sects and churches, became entranced and insensible to pain during surgical operations performed upon them ; and I am sure that each one of these “ converted ” and Christian people at those times invested me with far more power than they ever did any idea that it was possible for them to form of a myth above the sky. They certainly had more faith in a man they could see than they could have in “the unseen” ! Moreover, no “ holy priest ” can refer to any case of surgery to be compared with the hundreds that were witnessed upon my public platform ! It is said that “ seeing is believ¬ ing ; ” and, although perhaps this may not always be true, yet when you see something has been said to a nervous, timid lady that induces her to shut her eyes and sit perfectly still, without the movement of a muscle, while the surgeon’s scalpel is thrust into her nervous system, I am sure that you behold a greater “wonder” than anything truly done by Jesus or his priests. Now it will be readily seen by these experiments how all the so-called “ miraculous cures ” came about, and that one cure is as really “ miraculous ” as another ; as evolution and self-induction include and combine both the instinctive, animal, nutritive system, and this self¬ controlling the human mind by ideas, these two factors are united in manhood, and reciprocal in their action. Thus it is that man, in his personality, partakes of this characteristic duality in his nature, which I have else¬ where shown to be in the whole of things. Hence it is he has to exist a series of years before he is conscious EXPERIMENTAL. 23 of ideas or a living body, and still longer before he dis¬ covers that he has a mind and the power of thought, and longer still before he finds out the living nutritive functions, whence his existence is derived. Nor is it difficult to suppose that by far the larger part of the race now alive, and of all, indeed, that have lived and died, had no just estimate of what is stated below. FACTORS IN SELFHOOD. The Body.— The Nutri¬ tive Economy, limited by the animal instincts. It is the primary source of growth, health, and happiness. Its interruption is sin, disease, pain, and death. The heal¬ ing, curative power is in the arterial blood and perfect nutrition. Assisted by ap¬ propriate ideas in the habits of living, both the mind and the body are healed and cured. The Mind. — Self-control¬ ling and unlimited in its evo¬ lution of ideas, true or false. Always controlled by its own ideas. By sensational ideas it is diverted from the sense of pain, entranced, or med- iumised. In evolution and self-induction is the greatest power we know. By ideas disease is caused or cured. This law is supreme in each mind alike ; and, unduly ex¬ cited, sudden death follows. Here I repeat, what I have elsewhere stated, that the human mind never takes cognizance of its own pro¬ cesses. It never has knowledge of its own selfhood in any of its emotions, such as fear , hope, joy, faith, or de¬ spair ; and this accounts for the fact that it is so com¬ mon for people to attribute the changes of which they are conscious to a myth, or, as in “Mesmerism,” to the mere “will” of another; and, worse yet, in modern mediumism, to the “will ” of one now dead! Whereas, 24 IDEOLOGY. the power of choice in the human mind can have no influence merely by volition, or anything outside of the brain in which that choice is made. If there be any exception to this, it may be found, perhaps, in the re¬ sults reported of the adepts in India, and what are called the “ occult forces; ” and these, I suppose, to be brought about (supposing that they really occur) by the conjugation of ideas. Humanity itself comes from the conjugation of ideas. Nor do I entertain any doubt but that, when the “ conditions are favorable,” ideas may be so conjugated in the minds of two parties that are far apart that they may control physical bodies. It is certain that an idea in the maternal mind disinte¬ grates, creates , and materializes colors and forms in the foetus ; and I have witnessed cases where these “ moth¬ ers’ marks ” have been removed — that is, they certainly disappeared — after the father had passed his hand over them a few times for this purpose. In the foregoing account, we have what perhaps we may call the Anatomy of Selfhood and the theory of Ideology. This term seems to me the most appropriate for designating the experiments by which its truthful¬ ness has been demonstrated. My experiments, while they were psychological, were physical, nutritive, and surgical. During my experimental lectures for business purposes, I adopted “ Pathetism ” as a term for desig¬ nating them. This was suggested to me by the late Rev. Prof. George Bush, of New York, where I then resided, as he was deeply interested in my investiga¬ tions, and was himself one of the very first persons upon whom my experiments were performed. It was, perhaps, for the reason that I had for twenty years previously been recognized as a clergyman, that in all EXPERIMENTAL. 25 my scientific lectures throughout the country I found ministers of the gospel and Christians of all classes ready to yield me assistance. And now — “ Good master doctor, And you dear doctor, and the third sweet doctor, And precious master apothecary, I do pray ye,” what real difference can it make if the “prayer” be heard and the disease cured ? No matter what you call it ! and if I do not offend the lancet or the pill-box in finding the wound healed by nutrition, why should Christians object to my finding the greatest power of which it is possible for the mind to have any knowledge at all in ideas and the laws of self-induction and evolu¬ tion ? Why should a Jew, a Hindoo, a Mohammedan, a Christian, a Mormon, a Spiritualist, take umbrage if I find by experiment the law of self-induction inherent in mind, — the Supreme Power, and the greatest force in ideas the mind is ever conscious of, and by which all petitions to the outside, the unknown, are answered, if answered at all ? I know what the “power of faith ” is by which the disease is cured, and the prayer is heard; and I know, equally well, how very slow the race have been in arriving at the conviction that fast¬ ened itself upon my mind fifty years ago,—that Nature’s order is constant. There is no such thing as chance. All is the sequence of cause and effect in a chain, no link of which has or ever will be broken. CHAPTER III. MENTAL ANESTHESIA SELF-INDUCED. One case of the utter unconsciousness of pain , self-in¬ duced by ideas in the patient’s own mind, — and what then ? Why, then , it follows that a dual law of involu¬ tion and evolution inheres in each human mind, no matter by what terms it may be called, — whether “ Mesmerism,” “ Spiritualism,” “Christianity,” “ Mor- monism,” “God,” “Jesus,” the “Devil,” or the “Holy Ghost.” It is manifested in instinctive phenomena in selfhood, in self-growth, the self-healing of wounds, and in all vital and mental phenomena, as in life and death ; and it is a noteworthy fact how very nearly death ensues when a certain balance is destroyed between involution and evolution. Thus, how common it has always been to find cases reported of persons instantly killed by fear , faith , and joy ! A recent No. of the “Medical Press” contains the case of a man suddenly killed by falsely supposing that he had been bitten by a snake ! The patient, awakened in his sleep by something creeping over his naked legs, immediately jumped to the conclusion that it was a cobra, went into a collapse and died, though it was dis¬ covered, even before death, that the supposed cobra was a harmless lizard. (2G) ANAESTHESIA. 27 Hall’s “Journal of Health” truly affirms that “the idea of a disease will often produce that disease. This we see effected when the mind is intensely concen¬ trated upon the disease of another. It is found in the hospital that surgeons and physicians who make a specialty of a certain disease are liable to die of it themselves, and the mental power is so great that sometimes people die of diseases which they have only in imagination. We have seen a person sea-sick in an¬ ticipation of a voyage before reaching the vessel. I have myself witnessed cases of sea-sickness in par¬ ties before they went on shipboard, when bound to the camp-meeting picnics on Cape Cod ! — thus presenting the fact that the same power to which their prayers were to be offered at the camp-meeting had made them sea-sick before they had started for the meeting ! Dr. Hall declares that he has known a person to die of supposed cancer in the stomach when he had no cancer or any other mortal disease. A blindfolded man, slightly pricked in the arm, has fainted and died from believing that he was bleeding to death. Therefore well persons, to remain well, should be cheerful and happy, and sick persons should have their attention drawn as much as possible from themselves. It is by their faith men are saved, and it is by their faith men die. If one wills not to die, he can often live in spite of disease; and .if he has little or no attachment for life, he will slip away as easily as a child will fall asleep. We should constantly bear in mind that the “ will ” and “faith” have no power outside of the brains in which the ideas are evolved ; and it is to the highest and the best hygienic purposes when we can concen¬ trate our “ faith ” and our volitions upon ourselves, for 28 IDEOLOGY. our own cure. I know whereof I affirm, having pro¬ tracted my own life, I may say, forty years at least, — at any rate, until all my family and former friends are in their graves. The problem is proved by one suc¬ cessful experiment; and one case (given in my “ Theory of Nutrition”) is so remarkable that I refer to it here; showing, as it does beyond all doubt, that the Nutri¬ tive Economy chooses often its own methods of cure. It was the very wonderful case of Mr. Cunningham, who took not a mouthful of food, though his stomach and body were fed and nourished for three months ex¬ clusively through his pores. During all this time there was no movement of the bowels, while the patient ac¬ tually gained thirteen pounds in weight, and his fistula in ano was healed. Certainly such facts as these prove the function of nutrition in the animal economy, and that it is not only carried on through the stomach and lungs, but also through the -external surfaces, or the skin, even when food is withheld entirely from passing into the stomach and bowels ! This idea of feeding through the pores exclusively is certainly not very common among invalids. Why, poor sufferers, they hear a suggestion about any “restrictions” imposed upon the habits of living with a sigh ; but what will be said when told that in some cases the patient is re¬ quired to give up eating entirely , while being dieted through the skin , and that while he does so he may be increased in weight ? His sores are healed, and he is completely cured. But now I ask attention to the fol¬ lowing cases, demonstrating this dual law in selfhood of involution and evolution. Yet here I have to pause ; for, were I to undertake to give one in a hundred of the cases at my command under this head, they would fill a ANAESTHESIA. 29 volume. Nor would it be possible for me to notice in detail my own cases of surgical operations without pain, to say nothing of the similar cases that have occurred since my theory of self-induction was announced, in England, Germany, Italy, and France. Dr. Esdale has reported many cases in India among the Hindoos. While I do not assume that this assistance of complete self-induction is equally available in all cases, I do affirm that these cases demonstrate the truthfulness of my theory of nutrition, and they are without a parallel in the history of anaesthetics and surgery. 1. In the following cases there were no accidents, nor ill-effects even, to the persons on whom the gases were used. 2. They were performed on a public platform, and witnessed by gentlemen of the press, the medical pro¬ fession, and the clergy, freely,— for all such were always invited upon my platform ; and they were witnessed also by uncounted thousands of people in the large cities all over these United States for a series of years. Hence it would not be possible to give here all my cases of painless surgical operations; and I must beg to refer the reader to my book on “The Trance,” and here name only a few as examples. 3. These cases cannot but be admitted as unparal¬ leled, when it is considered that self-induction, sug¬ gested by the lecturer, occurred in a large crowd of people, from one to fifty or a hundred cases, in one course of lectures. Moreover, enhancement in some cases came on by proxy , so that, by the laws of sympa¬ thetic imitation , one entranced person entranced an¬ other and another, until a score or a hundred have become “ influenced ” and entranced in the same way. 30 IDEOLOGY. 4. Again : My painless surgical operations were per¬ formed in public, where nervous people do not like to be criticised; and, under such circumstances, the real¬ ity and depth of the trance is more fully shown, as, whatever dissimulations might be practised by an indi¬ vidual in private, — in public a large number of women and timid men would not be very likely to feign that indifference to pain which multitudes of people have so often evinced in my public lectures. At my suggestion merely, surgeons have become en¬ tranced, as were the patients on whom they operated. Nor am I aware that history gives any account of either the phenomena of “revivals,” or the results of chloro¬ form, or the wonders of modern mediumship, that equal the cases here stated. Who ever heard of a surgeon having himself taken the chloroform with the patient at the same moment when the surgical operation was to be performed ? But ideology has administered the “ human chloroform ” both to the surgeon and the patient at one and the same time ; so that both were “ under the influence,” and in a real state of trance, when the former applied his lance and his forceps suc¬ cessfully in the extraction of the teeth of the latter. Nor is this all, for — Ideology controls the nerves of women and timid men, while having their teeth extracted, in the pres¬ ence of thousands of' people, and does this to such a marvellous extent as to enable these fearful persons, during the whole operation, to hold lighted candles in each hand, by which the surgeon sees to draw their teeth ; and, during the operation, there is no motion whatever of the candles, from which it becomes suffi¬ ciently manifest that there was in the entranced patient no fear, no consciousness of pain. I 31 ANAESTHESIA. Case i. — Tumor removed without pain, Mrs. Anne F. Mann, Milford, Mass., August 2, 1842. It was 5^ inches in length, and 5 inches broad. It was cut from her shoulder, in a trance, without pain, by Dr. Fisk, assisted by L. N. Fowler, the Phrenologist. Reported in the author’s “ Magnet,” vol. i. p. 73. Case 2. — A wen removed by the scalpel, without pain, in a state of trance ; Miss Hannah Eyres, eighteen years of age, Alton, Ill., August 14, 1843. Cut from her left cheek, in contact with the ear, by Dr. B. F. Edwards. It was 1^ inches one way, and 1 inch and f the other. Had been growing since she was two years old. — Magnet , vol. ii. p. 181. Case 3. — The thigh amputated, in a state of trance, without any sense of pain ; Luther Cary, a sailor, aged forty, Bangor, Me., February 24, 1884. Three surgeons were present, one of whom held his pulse, and declared that there had been no change in it. The operation was by Dr. H. Rich, assisted by Dr. Denn.— Magnet , vol. ii. p. 233. I will also here narrate a circumstance that followed one year after this amputation, as it confirms the theory advocated in these pages, — that persons entranced and in a state of anaesthesia are controlled by their own ideas; and what, for the time, they do not wish to feel or remember they forget. The mind is diverted from a sense of pain. One year after this amputation I gave another course of lectures on Idealogy, in Ban¬ gor, Me.; and one evening this same Mr. Cary came hobbling along upon his wooden leg. I did not know that he was in my hall until he had got upon my plat¬ form. At the close, I suggested to Mr. Cary that he should give my audience an account of that amputa- 32 IDEOLOGY. tion. Whereupon he arose, and, stamping his artificial leg upon the floor, he gave a consecutive and accurate account of all that had been said and done at that sur¬ gical operation a year before, and from the pain of which he still declared that his mind had been so strangely diverted in some way that he could not ex¬ plain. To this I may add that among the more than five hundred patients I have had in a state of mental anaesthesia, self-induced, I never found one that did not give me a similar account to that of Mr. Cary’s. Case 4. — A molar drawn without pain. In 1853, in Boston, Mrs. H. Ryan engaged me to meet her at the office of Dr. Rogers, for the purpose of entrancing her, when her tooth was to be drawn. On my way thither I got a paper to read, and, on entering the den¬ tist’s office, I noticed that Mrs. R. had seated herself in the operating-chair, and so I went behind it and continued reading the paper, until I saw that she had passed into the state of anaesthesia, when her tooth was drawn. Dr. R. told me he had recently been called to a sick man to draw one of his molars. He took his inhaler with him, and when he came to apply it he found that he had no gas. Nevertheless, the man was rendered insensible, and his tooth was drawn without pain, and he pronounced the gas first-rate ! Case 5. — “ On Thursday evening last Mr. Sunderland (by some mysterious power of his own) rendered a young lady (Miss Eliza Gerry) insensible while Dr. Dillingham extracted one of her molars, without the least sympto 7 n of pain ! She after¬ wards affirmed herself that she did not know when the tooth was drawn.” — Essex Co. Whig , Feb. 3, 1844. Case 6. — “ Capt. Luce declared that his sufferings here¬ tofore had been excruciating in the extreme whenever he had had a tooth drawn ; but this one, under Mr. Sunderland’s ANAESTHESIA. 33 new process, had produced no pain ; the operation seemed to him like a pleasant dream.” — New Bedford Evening Bul¬ letin , Nov. 23, 1844. Case 7. — “ Mr. Sunderland produced a most astonishing result upon a lady in this town last Thursday evening; and the testimony of the doctors present, Messrs. Ruggles and West, was that Mr. Sunderland wielded an influence over the nervous system, compared to which the strongest opiates were powerless. While the doctor was extracting one of her molar teeth, the lady was as stiff and unconscious as a corpse.” — Nantucket Telegraph , April 5, 1845. Case 8. — “ Mr. Sunderland put his ‘ spelE upon the lady, while Dr. Payne took out her tooth. There was not the slightest contraction of a muscle, and to all appearance there was certainly no consciousness of pain.”— Troy (N. K) Tost, Sept. 12, 1845. Case 9. — “ Mr. Sunderland did something to the lady (what it was we do not know), for while her tooth was drawn, there was not the slightest manifestation of consciousness, although Mrs. Carr is known to be one of the most timid in her natural state, so much so as to be thrown into spasms whenever the attempt has been made heretofore to extract one of her teeth.”— Troy (N. Y.) Budget, Sept. 23, 1845. Cask 10. —• “ A lady of this town, member in good stand¬ ing in the Episcopal Church, was, on Thursday evening last, rendered insensible to pain by Mr. Sunderland, while Dr. Per¬ kins drew one of her teeth. During the whole operation of cutting the gums and drawing the tooth not a muscle of the patient moved, nor was the slightest alteration of the pulse perceptible.”— Springfield {Massi) Statesman, Nov. 22, 1845. Case ii. — “I have drawn twelve teeth in this town (Chi¬ copee) from patients whom Mr. Sunderland had rendered insensible to pain during the operation ; and I am informed by a dentist in Springfield that a much larger number have been extracted from persons in that place, and uniformly with the same results, under Mr. Sunderland’s process.” — Dr. f. IV. Smith. Springfield (Mass '.) Post, Nov. 22, 1845. Case 12. — “ The lady said she felt as if she had been asleep, and had had a pleasant dream of having a tooth drawn by Mr. Sunderland, which did not pain her at all .’ — Northampton Democrat, Dec. 23, 1845. 34 IDEOLOGY. Case 13. — “ On Friday evening two young ladies, under Mr. Sunderland’s new process, had each a tooth extracted, without any se?ise of pain ; and, as Dr. Sylvester Graham, who was present, expressed it, ‘ They sat like a corpse, and never moved a muscle.’”— Democrat , Northampton, Mass., Dec. 23, 1845. Case 14.—“Dr. John Burdell, the well-known dentist of this city, lanced the gum and extracted the lady’s tooth while under the spell that Mr. Sunderland had put upon her ; she gave no evidence of pain, as was manifest to the physicians, editors, and clergymen who were present and witnessed the opera¬ tion.”— N Y. Commercial Advertiser, Nov. 6, 1846. Case 15.— “Mr. Sunderland is truly a wonderful man. We saw him entrance a timid young lady, while Dr. Josiah Curtis tore out the nail from her great toe with his forceps. She never moved a muscle, and declared she was not hurt at all.” — Lowell Niagara , June 3, 1840. Case 16. — “Mr. Sunderland selected a lady from the audience, upon whom he proposed to demonstrate his new theory in respect to pain ; and, sure enough, during the whole operation, which continued for three minutes, in extracting her tooth, there was 710 sign of pain , and a corpse could not have been more passive in the hands of a dissector.” — Portsmouth ( Va.) New Era , Jan. 4, 1847. Case 17. — “ Mr. Sunderland suspended the young lady’s sense of pain ; and, on the first trial, the forceps slipped, but not a muscle moved. A second trial was successful, and the large tooth was extracted without the least conscious?iess of pain.” — Philadelphia Daily Sun, Feb. 1, 1847. ' Case 18. — “ Dr. Mansfield stated that, out of the im¬ mense number of teeth he had drawn, he had scarcely, if ever, found it necessary to exert so much strength as in this case ; but the young lady declared that she had really felt no pain at all, and knew of nothing that had been done except the feeling of Mr. Sunderland’s hand upon her face.”— Pittsburg Post, April 19, 1848. ^ Case 19. — “ Mr. Sunderland then took hold of Dr. Payne (who was still under his spell) and led him to the somnambulist seated in the chair. A?id now occurred a sight upo?i which, probably , mortal eyes never gazed before. It was to see the somnambulic doctor in the process of extracting that tooth, while both he and the patie?it were in a state of trance, and 7 ieither of them able to open their eyes or move a 7 nuscle without the consent MENTAL ANAESTHESIA. 35 of the lecturer. In a few minutes after the doctor himself was seated in the front chair, the spell still upon him , and another physician present (Dr. Lyman) proceeded to perform a sim¬ ilar operation upon him ! This experiment was intensely interesting, and highly satisfactory to the audience, as we suppose it the first and only one of the kind ever performed since old Adam was put into the ‘ deep sleep ’ for the purpose of having the rib taken from his side. “ What Mr. Sunderland has accomplished during his visit to this city has abundantly confirmed the newspaper reports we have seen of his wonderful performances in other places, which, in the production of psychological phenomena, place him far above all other men of whom history has given any account.”— Troy Budget, Sept. 23, 1845. To the foregoing I will add two cases showing that anaesthesia may be self-induced without the trance when the patient is in a normal, waking state. Case 20. — When giving lectures in Salem, Mass., (of witchcraft fame), I had numerous surgical opera¬ tions performed on patients in my audience that were witnessed by all the editors in the city. I had gone into the dentist’s office to engage him to operate for me the next night; and, as I was leaving, one of the editors came in, and as he proceeded to seat himself in the operating chair he looked around and cast a woeful look at me, saying : — “Oh! Dr. Sunderland, I do wish you would assist me now as you did that patient on your platform last night.” To which I instantly replied, “ I will, Sir; ” and as I placed my hand on his head, the dentist took out his molar. The patient declared that he did not notice when it was done, as he did not move at all. Case 21. — The case of my own daughter. When a child she had her first tooth drawn under circumstances 36 IDEOLOGY. which had set her mind terribly against tooth-drawing and the sight of blood. She was then, in 1847, in her eighteenth year, and with me while giving lectures in Philadelphia. I had discovered that one of her molars ought to be taken out, and I fixed on this plan, which proved successful: I went to Dr. Johnson, the den¬ tist, and explained my plan to him how to proceed. So one day, as I and my daughter were walking by the doctor’s office, I asked her to go in and allow the doctor to see what the state of the tooth was, assuring her that it should not be drawn without her consent. As we went in, she seated herself in the chair, and allowed the doctor to examine, when I whispered in her ear: — “Now, daughter, if you will consent for Dr. J- to take out that molar, I will give you a benefit to-night, and in addition you shall have a gold watch ! ” Upon this whisper her mouth suddenly opened ; and the doctor instanter had her molar on his table. She never moved a muscle, nor noticed it in any way, and remained perfectly quiet for a minute, when she per¬ ceived something in her mouth, and, on spitting it out, she saw it was blood. Then she instantly sprang from the chair, with a shout of affright, and covered her face, in a paroxysm of excitement, upon the sofa. Nor did she ever admit that she was conscious of any pain when that tooth was drawn. Precisely such cases of ancesthesia occur in every severe conflict upon the field of battle. I have seen many a soldier fatally wounded who assured me that he did not know when he was hurt. In the “ Boston Medical World,” 1856, page 133, is an account of two horses thus killed ; one in Evansville, Jefferson County, N. Y. A gentleman had a high- MENTAL ANAESTHESIA. 37 spirited, four-year-old horse that he drove down to the railroad station, in order to get him accustomed to the railroad whistle, which is indeed the most horrible scream that ever pierced a human ear, except perhaps one other. As the train approached, at the first screech of the whistle the horse fell instantly dead, the victim of self-induction, as many a human being has been! Another horse, belonging to a caravan and tied to a stake, in the village, happened to see an elephant, as he suddenly came in sight around a corner near where the horse stood ; the horse trembled, and fell instantly dead in his harness. Not long since I saw the case of a monkey that sud¬ denly died from fright in the same way; and the cases of fascination, now and then reported, of birds by the snake may be accounted for in the same manner. We can easily see that fear, in an animal, certainly ap¬ proaches an idea in the human mind. Nor fright alone, but there are other manifestations in the animals that are analogous to what we see in human life. Perhaps it would be impossible for me to refer to any other member of the medical profession more highly esteemed, both as a surgeon and a physician, than Dr. Brown-Sequard is at the present time, not only in Europe but in America. Certainly, no medical man stands higher in the rank of his profession in Paris, London, and in these United States. In 1874 he de¬ livered a course of lectures at the Lowell Institute, in Boston, on the “ Nervous Lorce,” that were reported in- the New York “Tribune,” and from which I now quote ; and from this distinguished authority in human physi¬ ology, pathology, neurology, and physical science, we shall see that while he admits all the essential facts of 33 IDEOLOGY. what has been called “animal magnetism” or “mes¬ merism,” he utterly repudiates the theory advocated, under these terms, as to the “control” of one “will” by mere volition over the nervous system of another. No mere choice or volition has any force outside of the nervous system in which it is exercised; and, as we shall see, Dr. Brown-Sequard distinctly recognizes and affirms the fact of self-induction as supreme in the human mind, and he details numerous facts that are not to be accounted for satisfactorily in any other way than by the theory of selfhood and the law of self- induction and evolution advocated in these pages. Dr Brown-Sequard says : — “ There are two elements in the nervous system which are united together, but distinct one from the other. One con¬ sists in the nerve cell, which is nearly round. That cell has, starting from it, a number of filaments. In the spinal cord and in the brain those cells generally have one element en¬ tirely different from the others, and that element is fibrous , and similar to the other elements we find in the nervous system. There are, therefore, two kinds of elements in the nervous system,— the fibrous and the cells, with their pro¬ longations. But the remarkable point which you ought to keep in mind is, that the fibres of the nervous system are united with those cells. Within the nervous centre — that is, the brain and the spinal cord — there is but one of these fibres with cells. In other parts of the body there are cells that have two real fibres starting from them, besides the rami¬ fications. “ Now, the nervous force is produced in those elements of the nervous system. The nervous force is manifested in nervous action, and it belongs only to those elements I have described. There are animals, and circumstances in man, where the nervous system is so transformed that it may be scarcely recognizable, and yet nervous force is manifested. But the great question is as to whether the boundaries of the nervous system are also the boundaries of health and of that nervous force. But there are no facts to prove that any MENTAL ANAESTHESIA. 39 nervous force can be made to spring out of the nervous sys¬ tem so as to produce action in other bodies. And you can easily understand that, if this is true, it is a death-blow to the theory of what is called ‘ animal magnetism.’ ” Dr. Brown-Sequard has given a vast amount of path¬ ological facts, all tending to confirm the supremacy of what I have denominated the law of self-induc¬ tion and evolution ; and among them he enumerates many under the term of “Phenomena of arrest ” of this nervous force, and including the nervous pheno¬ mena known under what is called “mesmerism,” and Christian excitements and ideas, while indeed he does not seem to recognize the psychological law of sympa¬ thetic initiation , or the law of association or relation , which dominates in the human mind. Again, he says : — “ Power of the Nerves over Nutrition .— Nutrition goes on in plant life without a nervous system; and, while it assists nutrition in man, the nervous force has a great power in dis¬ turbing it under certain conditions. And I now approach a broad subject, about which, unfortunately, I shall not have time to say as much as I could wish. In fact, it would take a large number of lectures to develop it completely. It is the power of the mind over the body, through nervous force. That power of the mind over the body is much greater than most of us imagine. Indeed, I do not think that any one among you, however exalted his or her idea of the strength and variety of their power, has an adequate conception of its magnitude within the bounds that I will mention. You all know what ‘mesmerists’ have tried to establish, and the power attributed to Perkins’s tractors. All these views have some ground in Nature, while the theories are not true ; and I may say that there is hardly any folly believed by mankind but has some ground, some facts, upon which it rests. “ But, although there may be some ground for it, the theory does not cover all the facts, and therefore cannot be true. The power of the mind over its own body is immense, 40 IDEOLOGY. as is seen in a state called ‘ mesmerism,’ and the numerous other cases I have mentioned. John Hunter long ago de¬ monstrated how false the ‘mesmeric’ theory is. In the same way this power induces pain, as is shown in the case related by Prof. Bennett, of Edinburgh, who states the case of a butcher who was trying to hang a piece of meat on a hook; when he found, suddenly, that he had suspended himself instead of the meat upon the hook ! His agony of pain was terrible; but the examination showed that the hook had passed through his sleeve and had merely scratched the skin. “ I could give a good many facts to show that, in good health, persons of this imagination can thus be made to suf¬ fer a great deal of pain when there is no organic cause for it; and I could show that in the same way the sensation of pain may be suspended, as is shown in the cases of the Christian convulsionaries of St. Medard. And as this power has been extended to anaesthesia, it seems to me unfortunate that the discovery of ether was made just when it was, in 1847, as the ether has prevented attention to the discovery made before, —that anaesthesia resulted from a state of somnambulism, in which surgical operations have been performed that were painless. But this process by somnambulism was long and tedious, and surgeons, in a hurry, gave it up. This I regret very much, as there has never been a case of death from somnambulism, while you well know that a great many deaths have been produced by other methods.” And just now, June 25, 1882, I notice a report in the papers of the case of Major Savary, chairman of a naval and military club, London, who recently fell sud¬ denly dead from joy, on being informed that he had won a prize of ,£500. The following notice (by a New York editor) of my labors in 1843 seems appropriate, and worthy to be repeated here: — “ We have received another number of Dr. Sunderland’s { Magnet.’ It is well known that this interesting monthly treats of the laws of mind that act upon and control the body; the primordial source of life, vegetable, animal, and MENTAL ANA2STHESTA. 41 mental; the cause of disease and decay. This is surely a subject worthy of our most serious study. Shall we, then, any longer be deterred from openly espousing ideology, and applying ourselves to its study, by the sneers of those who having eyes to see, and ears to hear, the truth, will neither see nor hear, because it transcends their attainments, or contradicts their adopted theories ? Let those who will hug their ignorance and choose darkness rather than light, we hope to see, at no distant day, the science of ideology everywhere received and cherished, its claims acknowledged, and its wonderful teachings understood and appreciated. We hope to see societies formed for this purpose, here and # elsewhere, to concentrate efforts, collect facts, procure books and other means of information so as to regulate the course of public instruction. — Skaneciteles (JV. K) Democrat. CHAPTER IV. “ MIRACULOUS CURES.” “Revival” spasms are called “ miraculous, ” and so certain forms of disease are alleged to have been “ cured, in answer to faith and prayer,” by “ superna¬ tural power from on high.” And if any case of disease was ever radically cured, except from within, by the nutritive economy, it is within our scope and design to ascertain how it was done. Diseases are said to have been “ cured ” by a variety of nondescripts from another world ! But is it so ? Cures follow different methods of medication, and drugs by various names are still re¬ lied upon in attempts to relieve human suffering. There is but one way to be born, and one way only by which we can be nourished and grow to the stature • y of manhood. There is but one way for any wounds, mental or physical, to be healed; and that same nutri¬ tive economy which unites the divided parts of a broken bone, cures all forms of disease that are cured. This term “miracle ” is used in the mystical writings of the ancients to signify a sign, a prodigy, something wonderful (John iv. 48) ; and by modern Christians it is used to signify mental and nervous phenomena that are not to be accounted for by any laws that inhere in the human organism, but by “supernatural power,” of which we are ignorant; and hence it is “miraculous,” ( 42 ) MIRACULOUS CURES. 43 or wonderful. According to this definition, the greatest ignorance “wonders ” the most. That which ignorance cannot account for is a miracle; ” hence a true defini¬ tion of this term is still needed, and here it is : — A miracle is produced by forms of force regarding which mankind are utterly in the dark and uninformed. Vitality, instinctive phenomena, the temperament, and nutrition are not miraculous, albeit each is “won¬ derful.” Their forms of force are known, and in those cases called “miraculous” all the factors are apparent. Moreover, it is only in the smallest number — not one in a hundred million of the race ■— of whom any thing mi¬ raculous has ever been alleged ! Only a few are saved (Matt. vii. 14). Only seventy-four of all the vast mil¬ lions of the human race, during the past six thousand years, ever supposed their eyes big enough to see the face and the feet of Omnipotence (Ex. xxiv. 10,); and, com¬ pared with the mass of humanity now living, there has been only here and there one of such a “make up” as to assume mediumship between humanity and all the dead of the ages past! When we consider how exceed¬ ingly small the number is that are ever “converted,” or ever think themselves really “cured” by a nondescript in the sky, it suggests to us how numerous the human elements are that enter into these “miraculous cures ” ! Moreover, it is not assumed that any of these “cures ” ever occur without the preceding “faith ” and “prayer,” which are human, and fully accounted for and explained by psychology. Now, if upon examination we find the human forms of force-that are sufficient for self-in¬ ducing these so-called miraculous cures, shall we still believe them produced by supernatural power ? In Nature’s order we have instinct, nutrition, nervous 44 IDEOLOGY. centres, sensation, consciousness, thought and ideas . A thought may be suggested by any one of a thousand causes, remote or intimate. An idea is evolved from within, and it becomes the image seen in the mind, true or false, or a combination of both falsehood and truth. The function of the brain is the evolution of ideas, which are expressed by signs or words, but are never, as idcas } transferred by mere volition out of one intellect into another. All matured minds are controlled by their own ideas, and by what they suppose to be the ideas of others. The idea of the trance brings on that state. An idea invests a myth with power, and in this way disease is in the same way cured. At other times a sensational idea arrests the vital movements, and induces instant death, as if the person were smitten by a bolt from the skies; and such a power, purely mental, is sufficient to perform any cure ever supposed to be miraculous. Since the sensational death of Ananias and his wife was reported (Acts v.), any number, and, I may say, thousands of similar cases of sudden death have oc¬ curred — not, indeed, under the auspices of dogmatic theology, but from sensational appeals to their faith and fear, which resulted in sudden death ; and it would fill a volume to give an account of such deaths of which any record has been published. Such cases are fre¬ quently reported in the papers as the following : — “Leavenworth, (Kan.), March 5, 1881. — On yesterday morning a young lady named Mary Kittel, who, seven years ago, was converted to the Roman Catholic faith, was sud¬ denly cured while at the communion-table in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. She fell down a flight of stairs October, and became paralyzed in her left leg. She began the nine prayers before Lent nine days ago, and on going to MIRACULOUS CURES. 45 the communion-table had to use crutches. After the usual prayers she says she implored the Virgin Mary to intercede for her. When she started to go away she forgot hef crutches, and went away without them, apparently as well as ever. She was interviewed to-day, and says the cure is un¬ doubtedly a miracle. She is a very respectable young lady.” In this case we see the excitement of “faith,” which calls into action the law of self-induction, and this is done by the sensational peculiar to the Popish Church. A mother in New Hampshire was recently struck instantly dead. Seeing her son run away with upon a frightened horse he had just mounted, she imme¬ diately fell dead near her own door. We have also an account of a Grecian father, who, on seeing his two sons return as victors from the Olympic games, was so excited with joy that he fell suddenly dead as they approached him. The wife of David Prentiss, Esq., of Lexington, (Ky.), on reading a letter that informed her of her husband’s death, sank instantly dead, with the letter in her hand. A case is just now reported in the public papers of a lady in good health who was invited into the room where her husband had been confined by sickness, and, on perceiving that he was dying, she instantly fell dead upon his bed, when he breathed, after the life-current had stopped in the heart of his wife. Nor is it in the power of any well person, this day, to say how any sudden shock of joy or fear might in¬ terfere with his nutritive system ; and those who pride themselves in view of what they call “saving faith” should bear in mind that this mental trust , called faith, has killed more than it ever saved. Thus it killed the prisoner who was made falsely to believe he was actually bleeding to death, when not a drop of his 4 6 IDEOLOGY. blood had been shed. Further, in the author’s work on the Theory of Nutrition will be found an extended ac¬ count of his own cases of cure, far more wonderful than any ever alleged to have occurred by supernatural power, in answer to prayer. To these are also added the painless surgical operations performed on patients in a state of trance, self-induced by faith in this law of self-induction. Ideas, as elsewhere stated, are true or false, as faith is equally powerful when it is in falsehood as when it is. in a truthful idea. But an ideal which is common to all minds is imaginary always, and never real. It is the unconscious choice agreed upon by the taste and the fancy. The margin for the exercise of this choice is as spacious as imagination can render it, of beauty, goodness, truthfulness, justice, harmony, and perfec¬ tion, heaven, or whatever object we think of the most and the most desire. There never was a thinking mind without an ideal. This is the object in all aspiration, and when it is of the unknowable, faith invests it with that power that cures a wound that the same “faith” itself had made. It is worshipped in various forms, and to this ideal sincere prayers are offered. In this condition of things, faith and fear exciting this power of self-induction, certain cures are made, called, for this reason, “miraculous,” and thanks are offered to this ideal of the power. Thus it comes to pass, when false ideas are adopted and entertained for a time and associated with the conscience (or that judgment which the mind forms by its own sense of that which ought or ought not to be done), that error becomes installed in the control of that mind ; and to realize with what pertinacity this control is manifested MIRACULOUS CURES. 47 from adolescence through a long life down to old age, we have only to look around, and notice the good Christians who adopt opposing views of things. Both opposing theories cannot be true ; yet both are held with equal tenacity through life, and both are equally trusted as affording consolation in the solemn hour of death. Here follows another of those sensational cases, such as we are constantly seeing both in the Christian and in the secular papers : — “ Mr. Murray, of Atchison County, Mo., concerning whose little daughter the following singular circumstance is related by the Atchison County ‘ Mail,’ is well known by many re¬ siding in and about St. Joseph, particularly those engaged in agricultural and horticultural pursuits : ‘ A twelve-year-old daughter of Mr. Murray was sick with diphtheria a short time ago, and to all appearances died. She remained in such a condition sevqral hours, and then became perfectly conscious. She then explained that she had been to heaven, and pro¬ ceeded to describe in a most beautiful and wonderful manner what she had seen. Indeed, it seemed that she had been gifted with supernatural powers of description ; for the lan¬ guage she used portrayed an idea of the grandeur of the ‘ land beyond ’ never before experienced by those who heard her. “ ‘ Her little brother was very sick with the same dreadful disease when she recovered consciousness. She told them that she and her brother were both going to die soon, and that he would die first; and such was the case, his death pre¬ ceding hers several hours. A number of persons saw the girl and heard her talk, and they all unite in pronouncing it a remarkable case.’ ” A mineral is said to possess “polarity” when one point of the magnetic needle tends to it and the other recedes from it. A stone thrown up into the air forms a “pole,” and returns to the earth. Thus, each atom tends to its centre, or pole, from which we infer the all- pervading law of gravitation. Hence the dual law that 48 IDEOLOGY. holds each planet in the solar system to the central sun, and by which each planet is carried around in space in its orbit forever. As the human is the cul¬ mination of the highest forms of one eternal force, man is himself the highest, truly so called. He is the per¬ fection of all centres, and his sphere or polarity deter¬ mines his physical and psychological “make-up.” He never lives beyond a certain period ; he never weighs beyond a certain number of pounds, and his mental and his physical capacities never exceed a certain pole. Hence we can see a correspondence between mental and physical phenomena. Each mind has its own physical sphere, as each physical body has. But the moral elevates the human above all else in the order of Nature, as is shown in the social loves or relations. The human mind is unlimited in range of thought, and it evolves ideas true or false of things it knows, and ideals purely imaginary of things known and unknown. One of the first things done as the mind approaches maturity by its taste and fancy is the formation of ideals of whatever most occu¬ pies its thoughts, and for the time being it is the centre or pole around which it gravitates. For its centre, its ideal, the mind aspires, and of it dreams both day and night from early childhood down to old age and the grave. Who has not noticed, in an extended social experience, how impossible it always is to convince another of error, and in respect to theories of what no one can know ? As we find ourselves controlled by the loves in the social relations, so are we unconsciously controlled by the imaginary relations with our ideals of perfection and beauty. It is a common observation among thinking men, MIRACULOUS CURES. 49 that intelligent people should know better than to be¬ come victimized by error. But an acquaintance with psychology shows us how it is that all minds are liable to be thus victimized, and when once the victim of error, the mind having no consciousness of the processes of its own nervous machinery, the laws and associations hold it in that direction that hold us to the truth in any case. No lid is large enough to cover itself. No mind — % Christian, Turk, or Jew—is strong enough in “saving faith ” to lift its own body by merely pulling at its own shoe-strings. No miracle can render you conscious of your own ignorance. We are never conscious of our own digestion, nutri¬ tion, or growth. We know nothing whatever of our own mental processes, or by what n-ervous movements we become conscious of love or hate, fear or joy, faith or doubt. The nutritive economy within that “cures,” chooses (within a limited sphere) its own time and methods, and thus it performs its “wonders” while we sleep. What else gives shape and form and features, ere ever the light breaks upon our eyes, or we can know how we became possessed of our disposition, or the name to which we answer? No mind has, or can have, any cognizance of the nervous movements that evolve its own consciousness of faith, fear, hope, or joy. Of these emotions, when once excited, we are indeed conscious, and if we do not know enough of psychology to know any better, we may attribute them to the ridgepole, or to a nondescript near the north star; or, on finding a wound healed, we may call it “miraculous,” and rejoice that our invisible and imagi¬ nary ideal of power has performed the “miracle.” Psychology, ignored by theology and most despised 50 IDEOLOGY. by superstition and fanaticism, explains all the “ mi¬ racles ” ever performed in or upon the human body ; and it should be borne in mind that the author, forty years ago, adopted the scientific method of exact ex¬ periment before announcing the theory of self-induction and the other mental laws described in these pages. The science of pathology does not owe its existence to self-examination. The human body has to be minutely dissected and all its parts carefully inspected by the physician ere its morbid conditions can be detected and the appropriate remedy determined upon/ But in psychology the practice of theologians and others has been to take all things for granted ; and, as the mind has no capacity for cognizing its own elementary ma¬ chinery, it plods along in the same antiquated errors; and, victimized by its own ignorance of psychology, it instinctively repels any offers of information from sources not under the auspices of the ism, as thus : — First, instinctive, nervous centres ; secondly, sensa¬ tion ; thirdly, consciousness, intelligence; fourthly, thinking; and last, ideas, ideals , and invention of methods ; and so vast another field for experimental in¬ vestigation could not be opened before us. Laws purely psychological are involved in every thought and in each word we utter, from the first to the last one. They are in all forms of speech, in all our emotions, all our sensations of joy or pain. Without these mental factors,- incredulity, faith, and fear, the pulpit would be powerless. The psychological laws here described generate all the “p° wer ” there is in the idea of Omniscience, or the Holy Ghost. But for these mental laws there would be no oratory, no music, no charm in poetry, and no joy in the social relations of MIRACULOUS CURES. 51 life ; and the fact should here be noted that, of the three learned professions, so called, the clergy, which certainly are the most dependent upon psychology, are by far the most deficient in their knowledge of this science. The mass of this profession are constantly drilling the human mind with their sensational appeals to credulity, faith, and fear. There is not a scholarly medical man to be named who does not know that, since a similar appeal was followed by the sudden death of Ananias and his wife, thousands of others have been killed in the same way by the supreme power of this law of self-induction, by which all the miraculous cures, so palled, are wrought. From the drift of what has been explained in the pre¬ ceding pages, it will have occurred to the intelligent reader that no one can have any power to cure a disease in the person of another by mere volition , as was claimed by Mesmer and Jesus. Indeed, Jesus himself admits that he had no power in his “ will ” except that with which he had been invested by the confidence and faith of those whom he is reported to have healed (Matt. ix. 28). Nor does it seem necessary here to at¬ tempt to show that the same is true of the clergy, — that they have no control over the minds of the people, only just so far as they are esteemed and trusted by the people with whom they are associated. CHAPTER V IDEOLOGY. “ The spring whence order flows, that all directs, And knits the cause with the effects.” “ On every thorn delightful wisdom grows, In every stream a sweet instruction flows.” Both Webster and Worcester agree in the definition of this term, “Ideology,” that it signifies “The science of the mind, the history and the evolution of human ideas.” Hence when Faraday said, “The discovery of the correlation and the conservation of all forms of force is the highest that the human mind has the capacity of making in physical science,” he left the door open in behalf of mental science, or ideology. The mind must be greater than any of its discoveries ; for are not all discoveries made both in physical and mental science by the human mind ? By the mind we know that no atom of matter is inert. All of its laws and forces are alive ! A living energy is an affection of all matter. In the whole of things there is a potency , unoriginated, progressive, and eternal. Humanity’s success is assured! And, knowing that Force is eter¬ nally progressive, they ask us, “Whence is life?” “Whence came the human mind?” And here is the answer: Life and human destiny came from eternal evolution : of eternal progression there is no first nor 5 2 IDEOLOGY. 53 last, no beginning nor end ! Man is himself by far the greatest miracle! And in his make-up, hope of future good, as a brilliant star, shines in the darkest night of sorrow. Instinct is evinced in the whole of things ! It is that law within that evolves the phenomena. In the so¬ lar system, in all worlds, the same ! It is the power within that evolves all forms, till they appear in vege¬ table, animal, and mental life. As in one drop of water, so it is of the ocean ! Life is in every particle of good air; and for the want of it all must sooner or later die. And how long should we live if there were no life in the food we eat ? Perfect food makes perfect blood; and the arterial blood heals all wounds, both of the body and the mind, no matter what the process of cure! Nor, since 1836, when I made this discovery, have I ever had any use for the pill-box. I have now in my office a box of pills, “ given me to take,” fifty years ago, by the Rev. Billy Hibbard, a Methodist preacher, well known in this day. He was a Dutchman, and, to assure me as to the efficacy of his “pills,” he told me that a Methodist sister, who had swallowed a box of them, told him that “ she really believed that there had been a Methodist prayer in each one of them ” ! Animals have no consecutive ideas, nor any reason above instinct; but it has often seemed to me that many animals, in their movements, seem to foreshadozv human ideas and reason. Yet there are numerous con¬ siderations which evince the infinite distance between the highest in the animal kingdom and the lowest in the human race, —a distance, no doubt, much extended since the juvenile period of humanity. Two of these 54 IDEOLOGY. considerations I will refer to here : the human mind evolves consecutive ideas. The mind grows and pro¬ gresses after the body, at twenty years, has ceased its growth. But how long the mind may continue to for¬ get, and learn anew, is not known. As instinct, I think, may be seen in the whole of things, it seems to me that I can see humanity the highest shadowed forth in all the movements of the solar system, down through the mineral, the vegetable, and the animal kingdoms. And the evolution of human ideas places man at the head of the list. One substance and pervaded by one living force, the forms , the sphere , and the use of phenomena dif¬ fer. But as to matter and force, there is never less or more, — no first sustaining a numerical relation to the last. This is Nature’s programme. It is supreme; a living, eternal, progressive Economy . No atom can be truly pronounced inert; so that progression persists , and it has no limits so far as we know. May we not suppose that our own humanity may be truly said to have been born when forms of life had gone before, and human brains (two brains in each cranium) began by the dual laws of involution (in¬ stinctive ingestion, nutrition, nourishment) and evo¬ lution (growth, and the phenomena that we behold on every hand) ? Thus we have innervation , sensation, con¬ sciousness , memory , thinking, and consecutive ideas; also, a consciousness of selfhood, and the self-healing of all forms of curable diseases, similarly as all wounds and sores are healed by the instinctive forces. No matter what your phenomena may be— Christian, Mormon, the “haunted house,” in Spiritualism, Moham¬ medan, or Pagan — in which you trust , when they are IDEOLOGY. 55 produced by forms of force of which nothing is known, we are deceived ! Hence, what is called “ saving faith ” produces changes in our own minds, while it has no power outside of the nervous system in which it is ex¬ ercised. And when I say that the same is true of any other human emotion , I explain to you the forces and the laws by which all our mental phenomena must be accounted for. The vital, the mental potency is in the whole of things; and man is at the head, because he is the cul¬ mination of all the forms of force that had gone before. All these forces and laws are alive. There is no such existence as what has been called dead matter ! The life is in the air that we breathe and in the food that we eat. And Nature’s providence is such that it de¬ posits the food with the seed upon which the plant’s first start into life is to feed. And, higher still, it pro¬ vides for us our food before we are born! And that must be true of humanity that is true as to the whole of things Is there any vegetable that is not self¬ feeding and self-growing ? Do you know of an animal that was not born, and that is not self-feeding and self¬ growing ? This principle of selfhood we see in the central sun, and in all the solar system. How can it be less true of humanity ? And why should we sup¬ pose man to differ so much from Nature’s programme? Admitting that his mind results from the instinctive forces and laws in the whole of things, humanity must be admitted a complete and a final success that can never fail if the forces and the laws above never fail. And it is from Nature’s order that we know the tre¬ mendous mistake of Christianity. How much Christians have always made of what 56 IDEOLOGY. they call “saving faith” (Heb. xii. i), which is simply an act of the human mind ! Without this self-created u evidence,” hell is our doom ! Nor is there any Jewish “god” without this faith (Heb. xii. 6). It should be called “ killing faith,” for it has killed more than it has ever saved! The number has been estimated at mil¬ lions that Christians have put to death upon the gallows and at the stake upon a bare suspicion of witchcraft ! And how can it save one from any danger to which he is never exposed ? Having myself been so deceived by dogmatism of the unknown, it is not so difficult for me to feel a charity and forbearance for Christians whose faith in ideas have become crystallized so that they cannot realize how it is that “ saving faith ” is really an act of the mind, as hope or love or hatred are ! The laws of the human mind that hold it to the truth, hold it to error all the same. It is best that each should do his own thinking. CHAPTER VI. THE HIGHER LAWS. How immensely important must those principles be to which we owe our existence, physical and mental ! One from the paternal, one from the maternal; and these united make a third; for while partaking of a combination of elements from each parent, yet the off¬ spring differs from both of them, as in its individuality it is unlike all else in the universe of being. One great design in our instincts is maternity and conjugality for the perpetuity of the race. In this way Nature repeats herself ; and, progressing in her forms, parents may see themselves living their lives over again in their chil¬ dren, improved in body and mind. Hence the sacred¬ ness of the relation out of which we are born. The foundation elements of health , character , and happiness are laid in conjugality; and our responsibility will appear if we take into view the terrible evils that fol¬ low any and all our excesses. It is a well-known psychological fact, that nothing tends so much to augment the desire as the habitual direction of the mind towards the objects of its grati¬ fication. Hence it is manifest what habits of thought should be cultivated by those who suffer from peculiar nervous weaknesses ; and these natural laws explain 57 58 IDEOLOGY. how and why it is that so much injury results from pro¬ miscuous or from solitary indulgences. In such cases the mind runs into extremes for the want of those higher sources of social happiness that are supplied only in conjugal life, where are found all those beauti¬ ful forms of love and sympathy that attract, and, more than any others, satisfy the noblest attributes of man¬ hood. Each function needs rest as really as the eyes, the stomach, or the muscles do, and hence the necessity of the regular bath ; and, when this is omitted, cold water may be applied locally with benefit, daily. The best rule for all, both married and single, is to sleep alone. Both hygienic and psychological reasons require sepa¬ rate beds for the sexes. Happy are all those who recognize “the higher law ” in the whole of things ! They seek the universal good from that innate love of goodness more or less of which dominates in every human mind. They love justice for the sake of right dealing. They have eyes, to see that adamantine justice that keeps each planet in its place throughout the solar system. They must love truthfulness for the truth’s sake; because they know that nothing but the false and the wrong can fail. Hu¬ manity was not wrong in its beginning. It is and always will be a success. Sooner or later 'error must fail from its inherent element of falsehood. Wrong in the past has always failed, as it ought to fail. I never ask what a man believes, because humanity is upon a dead level in matters of belief. Each one believes what he thinks is truth ; and when two per¬ sons entertain different ideas as to which nothing can be known, surely there is no reason why they should dispute, especially if each is honest and sincere. THE HIGHER LAWS. 59 This sense of what is called “the higher law” is innate ; and, in the heart of each, like humanity’s hope of future good, yet shines in the darkest night. We do well to take heed to this law, as a light that shines in the darkness of depravity and ignorance. It does not depend upon books or creeds, nor upon trances like that of St. Paul, who imagined he had “ visions and rev¬ elations from the Lord." Nor, as Max Muller has stated, did it originate in the entrancement of Abraham when that “great horror of darkness fell upon him.” It is in Nature’s programme that the human mind shall outgrow its imperfections else we should never ad¬ vance from infancy to manhood. The forms of that one self-controlling, self-repelling “force” that evolves the human mind are the highest of which we have any knowledge. They are higher than light, higher than those that control the suns and the worlds above and below. Man is the sublimation of all that has gone before, and Nature’s “providence” is infinitely above the provisions it has made for hu¬ manity. It provides our food for us before we are born, and for a year after, till our teeth are grown. So it has provided in us this eternal sense of right, and the suffering that follows the elements that do the wrong. Nor is it difficult to perceive the obscurity that Chris¬ tianity throws over the minds of its victims, when we hear them telling their little ones that, if they utter a lie (a falsehood, known to be such, told with an inten¬ tion to deceive), and they retire and on their knees “ pray ” to the ridge-pole, they will be forgiven and never punished for their sin ! It has been this Chris¬ tian idea of separating between the sin and the future punishment that has sent many a culprit to the State’s prison. 6o IDEOLOGY. But there can be no escape from punishment for sin, when we know that the elements that do the wrong remain in the temperament. We are responsible, and suffer all the same, whether we know it or not. Nat¬ ure’s order and laws are supreme. Humanity is the resultant phenomena of the natural laws and forces. Of our birth, nor of our death, are we consulted. But we can perceive how it is and why it is that our high¬ est joy is in the obedience to Nature’s highest laws. The potency of Nature’s forces are found in every particle of matter; yet, how common it is to speak of matter as inert and dead, when, in fact, we contradict it every breath we breathe and every mouthful of food we eat ! How long do you imagine you would live if there were no vital elements in the air you are con¬ stantly inhaling ? Or, if there were no vitality in the food you are so constantly eating ? In the whole of things, matter and its quality, force, are eternally the same ; never increased nor diminished the breadth of a hair. Hence is the foundation of humanity’s hope. Surely there is nothing for us to fear, Nothing in the future to dread ! The same laws govern other worlds as here, Both of the living and the dead. Science, which is classified ideas of all the factors, determines the ground on which it is safe to stand. Nor could I ask of any investigator a more fatal admission of his error than when he puts his theory in opposition to science ? “ Statuvolence vs . Psychology,” says Dr. W. B. Fahnstock, of Lancaster, Pa.; and that will do, my friend ! Whatever is in opposition to psychology is false. The theory of the human mind that is opposed to psychol- THE HIGHER LAWS. 61 ogy is not true ; and the man who makes this fatal admission need not ask me why I use the term “ Ide¬ ology,” while it is not in his power to show that any of his patients were ever entranced by his method who had no previous idea of that state. The fatal objection to Christianity is that it ignores the well-known psychological laws by which all its phenomena are self-induced. How could a “ religious revival” be “got up” without any previous drilling with sensational ideas ? There are miraculous trances reported of Popish nuns, and the so-called miraculous cures reported in the Bible; yet I have seen many a case of self-healing that exceeded in the marvellous any ever reported of Jesus, or made “in answer to ptayer.” If it would be of any use, I would challenge the Chris¬ tian church and the Pope, priest, and clergy, all of them, to state any case of a “miraculous cure” they ever knew more miraculous than the self-cure of a cancer tumor given in my Theory of Nutrition. It exceeds in the marvellous anything ever done by God, Jesus, or the Holy Ghost. If, now, you can appreciate the importance of Na¬ ture’s Higher Laws, you shall find in keeping them a reward that is sweet indeed; obedience not to a part only, but to all, —all that appertain to your Diet, Exer¬ cise, and all the Habits of Life. These laws you will find explained in the author’s “ Manual of Self-Heal¬ ing.” They are easily observed ; and, relied upon, they cannot fail of securing for you a better state of health, and all that happiness which comes within the sphere of your constitution. CHAPTER VII. NO ROYAL ROAD. Humanity had long ago supposed That Science had no “ royal road ” proposed, As by some still believed ; Knowledge assumed, in despite of all thought, Is “glory” by all the mystics sought; Hence they are still deceived. This “ royal road ” is the “narrow way” of the Bible. It is travelled by all the priests, ancient and modern. Emanuel Swedenborg, A. J. Davis, and all who act as mediums between us and man’s condition after death, travel a “ royal road.” But claims so extraordinary as to “visions and revelations” have never been admitted by the human race ; and only a few pages will be nec¬ essary for doing justice to this feature of our subject. The case of Swedenborg may be admitted as extraor¬ dinary, chiefly because he exceeded nearly all others, since the trances of St. Paul, in his claims as to his nearness to “God,” and his having received his “reve¬ lations” directly from the lips of Omniscience. I do not suppose that he was “deranged,” in the sense this term is generally used, nor was he “ inspired,” as he and his disciples have imagined. Here is his own esti¬ mate of himself: — 62 NO ROYAL ROAD. 63 “ By being in the spirit is meant a state of mind separate from the body , and, because in that state the prophets saw such things as exist in the spiritual world , therefore that is called the vision of God. Their state, then, was such as that of spirits themselves, and angels, in that world. In that state, the spirit of man, like his mind, as to sight, may be trans¬ ported from place to place, the body remaining in its own. This is the state in which I have now been for twenty-six years, with this difference, — that I have been in the spirit , and at the same time in the body , and only several times out of the body.”— True Ch. Rel., 157. “This manifestatmi of the Lord, and intromission into the spiritual world, is more excellent tha?i all miracles ; but it has not been granted to any one since the creation of the world, as it has been to me. To me it has been granted to be in both spiritual and natural light at the same time ; and hereby I have been privileged to see the wonderful things of heaven, to be in company with angels just as I am with men, and, at the same time, to pursue truths, in the light of truth, and thus to perceive and be gifted with them, — consequently, to be led by the Lord. —Hobarfs Life of Swed., p. 42. In many other portions of his writings he makes the same representations, affirming that he was instructed, or taught, by the “ Lord alone,” and in such a sense that he did not or could not have erred (“ Sp. Diary,” 1647) 1 and in this sentiment the receivers of his writ¬ ings fully concur. (“Davis Revelations,” Revealed by Professor Bush and Mr. Barrett, pp. 14, 15). Hence it is obvious that Swedenborg uses the term “ miracle ” in its common acceptation ; and, if so, then he repre¬ sents his “Revelations” as above Nature, above and beyond the natural developments of mind; as some¬ thing for which the laws of the human mind are not sufficient to account, or results which do not come within the reach of those laws which develop , disturb , or control the human mind. In this respect, it is cer¬ tain that Swedenborg misapprehended the nature of his own case. 64 IDEOLOGY. There was nothing really supernatural or “ more ex¬ cellent,” or above the “miraculous,” in the visions of Swedenborg. That his organs of Marvellousness and Causality were developed in a most extraordinary de¬ gree, his writings abundantly prove; and this fact, of itself, proves that his mind was not always in a per¬ fectly healthy state : — “ I was once seized, suddenly, with a disease that seemed to threaten my life ; my whole head was oppressed with pain , a pestilential “ smoke ” was let in from the great city called Sodom (Apoc. xi. 8) ; half dead with severe anguish, I ex¬ pected every moment to be my last: thus I lay in bed for the space of three days and a half. My spirit was reduced to this state, and consequently my body. Then I heard about me the voices of persons saying,” &c.— Brief Exp. Doc. N. Ch., p. 73. “ Immediately on this, I was made sensible of a remarkable change in the brain , and of a powerful operation thence pro¬ ceeding. — Ea?'ths in the Uni., p. 30. Now, to me the marvel is, not that Swedenborg does complain of disturbances in his cerebral system like the above, but, in view of his incessant mental labors, con¬ tinued for so many years, the wonder is that he did not suffer and complain far more than he seems to have done. But the facts, so explicitly stated by himself, that he was at times sick, that his nervous system was disturbed , prove that his mental states were disturbed ; and, this proved, we are under no necessity of attempt¬ ing to show, in detail, the errors into which he evidently fell with regard to the nature of the mind ; nor is it necessary to show that he was deceived when he attrib¬ uted his toothache to “evil spirits” (Hobart’s “Life,” p. 216), as he may have been at various other times when he thought himself in communication with the NO ROYAL ROAD. 65 spiritual world. For we have only to admit that the toothache is produced by the Devil, or supernatural agency, and it must follow, of course, that every other result, every other state, emotion, sensation, or volition peculiar to man, is likewise induced in the same way. “The Poughkeepsie Seer.” —Such is the title with which Mr. Andrew Jackson Davis dubbed himself, forty years ago, on commencing his “ clairvoyant career.” Then it was that Mr. Davis inscribed “ clairmativeness ” on the banner he spread to the breeze, as the term for the theory he was to inculcate, and when he approved and taught the truthfulness of Christianity, and assumed for himself perfect knowledge of the past and the future. (See his Lectures on Clairmativeness , or Human Magnet¬ ism,^ New York: printed by Searing and Pratt, 1845.) It would scarcely be considered necessary to drink a barrel of wine in order to ascertain whether it were sour or not! And although Mr. Davis is the author of a number of volumes containing many excellencies in which, no doubt, we should all agree, yet nevertheless, in estimating the relation that he really sustains to humanity, we must not ignore what he has affirmed of himself, and especially as to his sources of knowledge. Mr. Davis commenced his public career as a clairvoyant , as having “ perfect knowledge of the past and the fu¬ ture ” ! Hence he has always claimed, on his own behalf, to be a “royal road” to knowledge. Nor is it marvellous that those who admit this claim should become his disciples ; and here it may be sufficient if I quote from one of his volumes in support of what is here stated. In 1847 I published a volume on my theory of Ideology (“ Pathetism ”), in which I reviewed Mr. Davis’s utterances at length. On meeting Mr. 66 IDEOLOGY. Davis soon after at Mr. Robinson’s, then warden of the Massachusetts State’s Prison, I presented him with a copy of my book, when I made to him the remark that “ I had criticised him in that volume, but I entertained the hope that he would progress so much by the time I should publish a second edition of that work that I should feel justified in leaving out all my criticisms of A. J. Davis.” Mr. Davis took my book and held it between both his hands, and said to me : “ When I want to know the nature, the scope, and design of any book, I do not have to read it ; but I hold it in my hands, as you see, and thus I obtain all I need to know of it.” A few years after, Mr. Davis published a number of volumes entitled “ The Great Harmonia,” and I have now before me the third volume, “ The Seer, concern¬ ing the Seven Mental States. New York : J. S. Redfield, Fowler and Wells, 1852.” In this volume, page 210, Mr. Davis makes a s/iozv of a “ confession ” of his ad¬ mitting the justice, in my criticisms, in having claimed for himself perfect knowledge. He says : — “In this connection I am impressed, in order to perfect our investigation, to bring before you the professions which the speaker once made to perfect knowledge. This claim I put forth while very young, in the commencement of my mag¬ netic field, in consequence of two mental conditions : First, my ignorance; second, the far-reaching vision which I had of the broad territories of this earth, that I, in the year 1844, in a brief lecture [on Clairmativeness] made the following decla¬ ration to infallible and perfect knowledge : — “ ‘ I possess the power of extending my vision throughout all space ; can see things past, present, and to come. I have now arrived at the highest degree of knowledge which the human mind is capable of acquiring. I am master of the general sciences, can speak all languages, impart instruction upon all those deep, hidden things in Nature which the world NO ROYAL ROAD. 67 has not been able to solve, &c.’ Now, I confess this decla¬ ration, as Professor G. Bush would say, certainly has the air of being uttered by an honest man, — yes, honest, but yet at the same time profoundly ignorant.” And in reading this so-called “ confession, ” we must bear in mind that Mr. Davis is speaking of his “clair¬ voyance ” when he began his clairvoyant career. Then, six years after, when in the same state of clair¬ voyance >, he pronounces his “clairvoyance of 1844” a state of “profound ignorance.” But he need not refer to Professor Bush, as this is not a question as to the honesty or the sincerity of any one ; and it is sufficient for me to show that clairvoyance, neither in his case nor in any other, is a “royal road” to knowledge. TJiere are no degrees in “clairvoyance.” It is vision without the external eyes, or nothing! Nor is this all in Mr. Davis’s case. Now, turn to this same volume, page 265, and you will find what this “ confession ” amounts to. Mr. Davis says he was profoundly ignorant when he had assumed by his clairvoyance to “ look throughout all space ; and yet, on the page above named, you will find that by his clairvoyance in 1852 his claims exceed those of 1844, for he says : — “ In spontaneous clairvoyance, which is identified with the state which is induced by the magnetic processes, the eyes of the mind , the internal powers of vision , are wonderfully strengthened and enlarged ; and there are no boundaries of time or space which can circumscribe their penetration .” Thus it seems in 1844, Mr. Davis’s clairvoyance saw the bounds of space, as he could look “ throughout all space.” But that claim he repudiated in 1852, and then in the same volume, and in the exercise of the same “clairvoyance,” he claims now to have “clair- 68 IDEOLOGY. voyant eyes ” big enough to see beyond all the bounds of “time and space” This is the “royal road” to knowledge that “ Andrew J. Davis, the Poughkeepsie Seer,” has continuously travelled since he bent over upon one side, in a state of trance, in 1844. And upon that same side he continued to bend over when en¬ tranced, and uttered the “recitations” that he calls “Divine,” which he has published in a large 8mo. vol¬ ume of eight hundred pages. I say nothing of that “clairvoyance” that can en¬ dorse the notions of Mesmer in respect to “magnet¬ ism.” But I may refer to the fact that in this volume, containing this “confession,” Mr. Davis has made eight quotations from my work on “ Pathetism ” that I gave him when he was in Charlestown, Massachusetts, in 1847, — an incident not of much importance, nor should I have alluded to it but for the fact that Mr. Davis failed in giving me the usual credit for the mat¬ ter that, on pages 92, 93, 96, 101, 102, 136, and 159, he has quoted from my volume. Subjective Visions. —That such states are reliable as sources of information, it would be difficult to show. It cannot be proved that the “ wild beasts and creeping things” seen by Peter when entranced were objective. No medium who has the vision can demonstrate, from first to last, that there is any object actually seen out¬ side the medium’s own brains. “ Visions ” we have in abundance, as nothing is more common than dreams. Now, while it cannot be shown that these visions are of any thing outside of the medium’s own mind, it seems to me the defect is fatal to the claims so often set up in respect to their origin. These views, when tested by the evidence which the NO ROYAL ROAD. 69 visions themselves afford, are found to be unreliable and contradictory. Thus : —- (1.) Take any one vision as a specimen, and it will be found to be intangible, inaudible, invisible, and un¬ real, in such a sense that no principle of science or philosophy can make anything more of it than a mere dream. (2.) Different visions, by different media, of one and the same thing, do not agree. They do not agree when speaking of matters not cognizable to our external senses, and hence they cannot be relied upon any more than we can rely upon ordinary dreaming. (3). It is a suspicious circumstance, that these visions are never of tangible matters, that can be tested by a third party. They are always of fanciful and imaginary scenes, of which nothing can be deter¬ mined by the ordinary rules of evidence. An ignis fatuns is an interesting object for philosophical inquiry as to its elements and causes ; but it is not to be fol¬ lowed and relied upon as a guide in the journey of life. And thus of visions : they have their pathology, and, as a matter of science, it may be interesting to study their causes. And while I neither deny nor affirm as to what “ spirits ” can do, I am nevertheless bound to declare, that, as far as any thing satisfactory to philos¬ ophy has been determined in respect to their origin, they have never, as yet, been traced beyond the func¬ tions of the human brain. To dream is precisely what the brains were made for doing in sleep, and to have visions is the abnormal work of those physical organs when in certain conditions of morbid activity. (4.) All persons, without any exception, who can be entranced, or who can be more or less “impressed” 7 o IDEOLOGY. by artificial processes, may be made to “see visions.” This I know from an experience of many years. And, what is worthy of remark here is, that, among the numerous mediums who assume to have “spiritual visions,” I have never found one whom I could en¬ trance that could discriminate between the visions which I produced and those which they imagined to be induced by departed spirits. I have tested a large number of media in this way, and have always found that they could never distinguish the visions which I induced by hallucination from those which they were sure must be induced by “spirits.” I have elsewhere remarked upon the inability of this class of persons to judge as to the rationale of the “in¬ fluences ” which were exerted over them. Even those who call themselves “inspirational” are inspired by ideas, so that they really believe the “influence” to have come from Dr. Franklin, Galen, Lord Bacon, or some other imaginary “spirits.” I have caused speeches and sermons to be delivered, also music, vocal and in¬ strumental, and prayers to be offered, by entranced persons, which the mediums at the time have attributed to some “guardian spirit,” or some “Matthew Byles,” “Lorenzo Dow,” or “Cotton Mather.” Thus Perkins with his tractors, Mesmer with his “magnetized water,” Greatrakes with his “passes” upon the lame, and the mediums of the present day with their “hands on the sick,” have all attracted at¬ tention by the cures they have performed. The multi¬ tude look on and wonder “by what authority ” or “by what power ” these things are done. Thus it was in witnessing the demonstrations in my public lectures. The question was ever put to me as to how these NO ROYAL ROAD. 71 things were done. And my answer was always the same, frankly and candidly given, — that the “ won¬ ders ” they saw were self-induced in all cases, and by the nervous forces, controlled by the law of selfhood, inherent alike in each mind. The results vary as our temperaments vary; and when I have affirmed that precisely one and the same “ influence” entranced the people which brought them to my lecture, I have found now and then a few who could understand and believe what I said. I invite the people to come to my lectures, and they come. I tell them that I will entrance them, and the trance follows as the result of what I say. Yet after all these explanations, so freely and fully given, it has been a common occurrence for persons in my audiences to attribute the “influence,” “the electrical currents,” to my handkerchief, to my watch-key, and to the head of my cane, on which I requested them to look, while proceeding with my remarks. A volume might be filled with cases of “ visions ” as real as those of Davis or the Swedish Seer, and occur¬ ring in parties who did not attribute them to any power outside of their own brains ; and to one well-known and remarkable case I will here allude. It is fully reported in Jung Stilling’s “Theory of Pneumatology.” The Italian philosopher Nicoli gives a minute account of the numerous “apparitions” and “ghosts” he saw, and which he accounts for by the “ operations ” of his own brains. He did not recognize them, as the modern mediums do, as “ departed ” spirits ; and if we were to admit that what the medium sees is really objective, it is here, and therefore cannot be said to be a spirit “departed.” If they have departed, they have no busi¬ ness here, as they belong to another world. 72 IDEOLOGY. Certainly, no real ghost ever “ materialized ” more definitely to a modern medium than Nicoli’s “spec¬ tres” appeared to him ; and, if sights such as these con¬ stitute visions, all persons must be more or less likely to have them, inasmuch as all are liable to derange¬ ments of the cerebral functions. Those of a certain temperament always experience more or less of them, and others “ see visions ” only when artificially wrought upon and the mental functions are abnormally excited. The late Theodore Parker gave me the following ac¬ count of his own experience : When in college, as he was one day passing over the bridge to Cambridge, he saw, a few yards before him, what appeared to be a stalwart negro walking in the same direction. Occa¬ sionally the spectre turned around and laughed, and finally it bestrode the fence and disappeared. The form was transparent, and while Mr. Parker was en¬ gaged in its examination he noticed that he could see through it distinctly objects beyond. He believed these “appearances ” to have been caused by the severe draughts he had been making upon his nervous system in the prosecution of his studies. Volumes might be filled with similar accounts of “ghosts” made to appear subjectively in a similar man¬ ner, and from which we learn how liable we are to nervous disturbances which our ignorance and credulity are always ready to attribute to “God,” “ghosts,” or the “Devil,’’that are never seen except when on a “royal road.” CHAPTER VIII. MENTALITY. Sanity, or soundness of mind, is that state in which there is a knowledge of the right and the wrong in human conduct. It is a consciousness of the life rela¬ tions, the source and the authority for virtue. Religion is that innate sense of obligation which binds us to the fulfilment of these relations. It gives us that moral sense of what ought , and what ought not , to be done. The reasoning faculties are perfected in this conscious¬ ness of obligation, and it is because we find this moral sense of duty, this “ higher law,” in these relations we sustain to each other, that humanity is so shocked at their violation, when it maybe truly said, “Nothing to damnation canst thou add greater than that.” The age at which children arrive at this conscious¬ ness varies, of course ; but it should not prove difficult to determine this question in any given case. In the infantile mind, as it hangs upon the mother’s breast, the first dawn of this consciousness is in filial love, whence comes all we know of aspiration, faith, and hope. In this love the child grows into a consciousness of the fraternal , whence comes our sense of obligations to equality, freedom, justice, goodness, truthfulness. This growth continued, and we become conscious of the wisdom, the power, and the authority of the parental, 73 74 IDEOLOGY. from which there can #be no appeal. Thus, the first consciousness evolved in the human mind is of obli¬ gation to duty, of what ought or ought not to be done. Obedience to these duties is virtue and happiness ; their violation is vice, crime, and misery. Insanity is a deterioration from this sound state of the mind. It is a disease, a want of proportion in the physical and mental forces, which destroys the con¬ sciousness as to the right and wrong of things. This term is sometimes improperly used to signify any tem¬ porary delirium produced by fever or accident. But in medical jurisprudence it signifies an unsoundness in the reasoning faculties which has annihilated all con¬ sciousness of duty in the conduct of life. Insanity, therefore, is a state of mental deterioration, and an abnormal condition to which the mind becomes reduced by disease. Now, let us look at the case of a lad fourteen years of age, at the present time, before the legal authorities for adjudication, and before the whole world for horror and deeds such as may be well said to “ make heaven weep.” This boy has confessed himself guilty of hor¬ rible cruelties persisted in from year to year, and finally two children murdered in cold blood, and each of his victims younger than himself. In those oft-repeated crimes he manifested strategy, secretiveness, and the control of a murderous disposition. There is not a particle of proof that Jesse H. Pomeroy’s mind had be¬ come deteriorated from a previously sounder state when he committed those cruelties and murders, — not a par¬ ticle. Yet his counsel set up the plea of insanity, and they found a number of the medical profession who testified as experts that the boy was or may have been insane. MENTALITY. 75 That plea was a strategic movement. Not familiar with the anatomy of crime, there was no other way to account for such strange conduct ; whereas, the con¬ fessions which this boy has, from the first, given of himself, show plainly enough that he was not insane. He was no more insane in those murders than he was insane in all else that he had ever said or done. The state of mind in which he performed those deeds was normal, as really so as when he sold papers and obeyed his mother in chores about the house. He was never insane in any other acts ; and he himself tells us that he was impelled to that conduct by his love of it, and nothing else. Why, then, set up a plea of insanity ? In a large proportion of these pleas they do not seem to have been based upon a sound knowledge of the pathology' of mental disease ; and here are some of the first principles which require attention before a plea of insanity should be attempted : — I. As a general rule, insanity is confined to a cer¬ tain class of temperaments ; hence its tendency is often transmitted, similarly as other forms of disease are transmitted, from one generation to another. The remedy for this tendency is in a knowledge of this fact, which may enable the patient to use effectual methods for avoiding it. If we suppose two elements inherited, one from the father and the other from the mother, these two united in the offspring make a third, differing from the parental, and differing also from all the ances¬ tral tendencies of preceding generations. While, there¬ fore, admitting, as we must, how much the inherited idiosyncrasy has to do in the formation of each char¬ acter, yet here is the solid ground of aspiration, faith, and hope, which is open to all temperaments, and to all 76 IDEOLOGY. grades of human character. You are under no neces¬ sity of stumbling in the precise spot where you see that another has fallen, and who erred, it might have been, for the want of the knowledge that you yourself now possess. “Knowledge is power.” II. The temperament that disposes to somnam¬ bulism, the trance, and visions, is more liable to insan¬ ity. There is a diathesis for dreaming when the patient is unable to distinguish between dreaming and the normal waking thoughts. Psychometry, spirit-mediums, and clairvoyants have their rankest growth in this kind of soil. III. In this class of temperaments insanity is often superinduced by the persistent intensity of thought upon any given idea, true or false, and the contempla¬ tion of which gratifies the love of gain, the love of secretiveness, or the love of the cruel and murderous. If the Pomeroy lad was made insane by the intense love he felt for murder, does this free him from guilt ? It seems to me that this is a dangerous doctrine to be taught in our courts of justice. Yet cases have occurred where in trials for murder a verdict of acquittal has been rendered on the ground of insanity, and when all that the evidence went to prove was simply this, namely, that if there was any insanity it had been superinduced by contemplating and encompassing the very crime that had been committed. In 1842, P. Spencer, or Spence, a mesmeric lecturer in New Jersey, shot his wife dead, and he was acquitted on the plea of insanity. But it was not shown when or how his mind had deteriorated ; and if he was insane when he fired that fatal shot, he was always insane, and has remained so to this day. MENTALITY. 77 A few years since a case of murder was tried in Albany, I think, where the prisoner was acquitted on the ground of insanity, when the aforesaid insanity was only apparent at the moment of firing the deadly shot. The murderer was admitted to have been always sane before and after that identical moment. So that when a Ku-Klux or blackleg determines upon the “taking-off” of a neighbor to gratify his own love of murder and money, he has only to contemplate the bloody deed with sufficient earnestness, and, if detected after its perpetration, he may be acquitted on the ground of insanity ! There are other similar occasions where medical testimony is required in courts of law, such as cases where attempts are made on the ground of alleged insanity for invalidating a marriage contract ; cases in which attempts are made on this ground to invalidate the legal operation of testamentary dispositions of prop¬ erty ; cases of insanity alleged as a reason for the legal deprivation of one’s liberty under the pretence of preventing him from mischief, or putting him under medical treatment ; and also in commissions issued by legal authority de lunatico inquirendo , with a view of ascertaining whether or no the party is of sound mind, and fully competent for attending to his own business. The question in all these cases certainly comes within the purview of psychology and ideology ; as while the former gives us the laws that inhere in the human soul, the latter explains the philosophy of self-induction , and shows how it is that artificial excitements and changes are made in the nervous system which may result in insanity. A knowledge of psychology enables us to trace disturbances in the healthy condition of the 78 IDEOLOGY. human mincl to suggested ideas, to the laws of associa¬ tion and the laws of sympathetic imitation, and all resulting in self-induction. Insanity in certain tem¬ peraments occurs from “revival” excitements, or any one of many causes. But shall it be affirmed as an ex¬ cuse for crime in cases where no previous deterioration of the mind can be shown to have been manifested t What has always been the leading disposition and the proclivities of the human mind cannot be known until they have been tested by opportunities. How else can it be known what the mind can or will do, how much strain it can bear in any given case ? The opportunity makes the thief. The opportunity is the temptation to crime. It is the power that nerves the arm which strikes the fatal blow. But it is only on such and such temperaments that opportunities can be felt as temptations. Burke has truly said that “ no species of property can be safe when it becomes an object large enough to tempt the cupidity of avaricious power.” The opportu¬ nity for avarice is a power. But knowing beforehand what the temperament or the disposition is', we may know whether an opportunity for crime would prove a temptation in that case. These differences in tem¬ peraments are radical, and they were fully recognized by the divine poet, — that poet for all future time, from whose living words I have already quoted. And here again : — “Lust, though to a radiant angel linked, Will satiate itself in a celestial bed, and prey on garbage ; But virtue never will be moved Though lewdness court it in the garb of heaven.” As the integral elements are proportioned before and MENTALITY. 79 after birth, so the temperament and the character are formed. Hence it so often has attracted attention when the first traits of disposition manifested by a child partake so much of the false, the thievish, and, now and then, of the murderous. The remedy against these tendencies is in education — appropriate, persistent education. As high medical authority, perhaps, as could be quoted on this subject, Dr. Forbes Winslow, formerly President of the Medical Society of London, says: — “ When asylums for the insane are entrusted exclusively to physicians acquainted with the anatomy of the human mind, or, in other words, with the science of medical psychology, they will then realize the conception of the great Esquirol, and become instruments of cure, and in the hands of the skilful physician most powerful therapeutics against mental maladies Letts omian Lectures on Insanity , page 17. And, if this knowlege be of the highest importance to physicians, so it is also for the legal profession, and most of all to parents and all who may become such. All should understand something of the primordial laws of human existence, the conditions and associations which make the temperaments ; and, especially, with what proportions the mental faculties should be balanced in each case; what is deficient, what in excess, and what constitutes a healthy, harmonious state of the mind. Or, if it have been disturbed, what has/reduced or Educed that disturbance ? Has it been caused by friction in the mental apparatus, self-induced, or is it from some association or idea suggested from outside ? When and how has it occurred ? Has the normal state of the mind been interfered with so as to deteriorate the reasoning faculties from a healthy condition ? 8o IDEOLOGY. On no subject, perhaps, connected with mental science has so great an error prevailed among Chris¬ tians as that in respect to the human will. This fallacy has been based upon the assumption of the con¬ vertibility, or, I should say, the destructibility, of the human will. The human will is but another word for human love, or desire, choice, disposition. Are we for one moment to admit the possibility of annihilation ? Then, it is not true that the elementary principle can be destroyed which evolves love, desire, disposition, and choice. The executive ability in each mind or in each physical system is not the will. One may exist without the other. When the two unite in one person, as in the case of Dr. Winship of Boston, they generate a force sufficient to lift two thousand pounds or more. This same error has prevailed, also, under the auspices of “ mesmerism ” and “ modern mediumism ; ” whereas the will is free in this sense that one will cannot be controlled by another will. One individual cannot annihilate another personality. It seems not to have occurred to the advocates of this false idea about the “control” of the humari will, that this very idea was the germ of witchcraft, — that gigantic combination of fanaticism and folly which numbered its murders of men, women, and children by uncounted thousands, and its votaries by millions. And these delusions and murders would be generated at the present day by these same silly notions about the human will, were it not for the general information that everywhere prevails, and which renders witchcraft, with its untold horrors, impossible. A force that could control the human will for an instant of time would be a power sufficient to anni- MENTALITY. 8l hilate personal identity forever ; and I venture, respect¬ fully, to suggest to our Christian friends whether it might not be considered in better taste, and certainly more in accord with the Christian theory of prayer, if, instead of referring us to apocryphal cases as proof of the ‘‘power of prayer,” they should try that power upon Jesse H. Pomeroy? Certainly this is the most marvel¬ lous case of the kind that has ever occurred, and it is sincerely to be hoped that the like of it may never occur again. Mental Anatomy. — There is no human being but of whom more or less good may be spoken. The notion as to total depravity, when affirmed of manhood, is not true. In one function, or in a series of actions that spring from avarice, the depravity in that behalf may indeed be total. Cupidity may so predominate in a given course of conduct as totally to annihilate mag¬ nanimity and kindness in that case. That violated pledge of which I complain, I do most deeply deplore, and far beyond any grief I ever felt for the loss of property. What is a man profited if he gain a fortune by an act of meanness ? The condition of the mind which can be tempted and controlled by an op¬ portunity to do wrong is the “ evil ” most to be deplored. For diseases in the body, various and contradictory medicines are offered by the doctors ; and ministers of religion tell us that faith in the blood of one who died nearly two thousand years ago is the cure for all dis¬ eases of the soul. In the practice of medicine we find the necessity of an acquaintance with anatomy, physiology, pathology, and hygiene. So, in treating of human conduct, we need a thorough knowledge of mental anatomy and 82 IDEOLOGY. spiritual ethology. Any default in the integrity of character is a disaster for which no pecuniary consider¬ ation could compensate. What is hoarded wealth in exchange for a breach of trust ? What is 'a fortune when acquired by a mean action ? What is the whole world when it comes as the price of dishonesty ? What is gained when a man loses his integrity of character by filling his purse with gold? We need not ignore the good traits there may be in the disposition of one who has done us wrong, albeit goodness of character cannot be urged as a consideration for the mitigation of damages. The pain is more severe when the blow comes from the hand of one you loved. We never trust those whom we know to be bad men ; we rely only upon those whom we believe to be good. Those who disappoint us most are our own relations and such as we have most loved. Opportunities make us known to ourselves and others. All men are good, truthful, and honest until a conven¬ ient opportunity is offered for them to be otherwise. Good men themselves do not know how much tempta¬ tion they can resist until they have the trial ; and it is the opportunity that gives force to temptation,—hence the remark of Burke, before quoted. The first idea of a crime is often suggested by the opportunity for com¬ mitting it. The opportunity for a breach of trust be¬ comes a force that overpowers the sense of right. What a good man may do, therefore, cannot be determined beforehand from his conscientiousness alone: we must take into the account his love of money and the opportunities afforded him for embezzle¬ ment. It is the wrong-doer who knows the higher law that is to be “beaten with many stripes.” No one MENTALITY. 83 can know what he may be tempted to do until he has felt the power which a good opportunity presents to him. The power to do wrong generates the cupidity, and when the crime is committed the mind is in a fitting condition for self-justification. Self-defence is the first law of. nature. It is said if our foresight were as good as our after¬ sight we should not so often err. That indeed ! But there is neither foresight nor aftersight by which we may be secured against the possibilities of temptation. We cannot foresee what would prove to be a temptation, because no human foresight can determine the variety and the nature of future contingencies, nor how they will operate upon the mind in any given case. One I trusted had it in his power to do me a greater wrong than any other human being could do. When I com¬ mitted that trust to him he was honest, and so he re¬ mained trustworthy until the opportunity came, and to its power he yielded. The opportunity could not have been foreseen. Has he done me a grievous wrong ? He has done himself a greater wrong. The wrong to me is not to be estimated in greenbacks. Unflinching fidelity is worth more to me than silver or gold. Did you say that his conduct may have been hasty and without due consideration as to its moral turpitude? Yes, but the conduct which shades the color of my grief extends over the space of years,—a period long enough, surely, for me to learn how much he considered my friendship worth. Hence, that uneasy feeling of suspense which his conduct has produced, — a sense of uncertainty and insecurity like what one may be sup¬ posed to feel when he finds the earth moving from beneath his feet But all this has come upon me not 8 4 IDEOLOGY. through any fault of my own ; nor can the advantage taken of that opportunity be justified by the indigence of the one who did it. He is in good business, has a vigorous constitution, and his arm is strong. No feeling of insecurity dis¬ turbs his repose. His daily bread and the comforts of his “second manhood” are provided for. This is one of the cases from which we may learn how great that power is which an opportunity exerts over the human mind, a force which ignores all the love relations ; it annihilates friendship and sympathy, filial affection, respect for the infirmities of age, and the love of justice. Nay, it generates meanness,—a moral taint for which science has discovered no remedy. Nor does it avail to be told that generosity is a cure for breach of trust, while we are continually confronted with the fact that generosity, as a medicine, no power on earth can com¬ pel any man to take. Do you marvel that I should now see a cloud of thick darkness settling down upon my humble abode ? Like the pall of death the shades fall upon the path my weary feet are now compelled to travel. The staff on which from my youth up I had become so accustomed to lean, when toil-worn and full of care, has by one fell stroke been smitten from my hand. In this distress I call aloud, but no one answers, and I hear nothing but the echoes of my own notes of sorrow. Pitfalls and thorns beset me on every side, and I raise my fading eyes to heaven in vain for one ray of light. Alas ! that fate should at last have reached to these thirsty lips a cup so very, very bitter as this ! CHAPTER IX. IDIOCRASY. “ The subscribers hereby certify that we have witnessed numerous electrical and magnetic experiments made by Dr. LaRoy Sunderland on a patient totally blind, in some of which the effects of a distant electrical machine and a steel magnet over the human body, in a very remarkable degree, were shown. We carefully examined these experiments, and firmly believe, from the mode in which they were conducted by Dr. Sunderland, that these results were as evidently un¬ expected by the operator as any one present. * K REV. THOMAS STRONG. JAMES E. DUBOIS, M.D. T. F. KING, M.D. REV WILLIAM BARLOW, JOHN B. ZABRISKIE, M.D. Flatbush, N.Y., May 14, 1S41.” To the above I add the following, as it contains names, both of the clerical and the medical profession, sufficient to settle the question, not only as to the ex¬ periments, but also as to the disturbance which both these forms of force produce in the nervous system ; and ignorant those are who apply them indiscriminately in the treatment of diseases : — “ We, the subscribers, have witnessed numerous magnetic and electrical experiments performed by Dr. LaRoy Sunder¬ land, in which the states of mind resembling monomania, 85 86 IDEOLOGY. insanity, and madness were brought on and removed in a few moments of time. HENRY H. SHERWOOD, M.D. REV. ISAAC CAVERT. REV. J. MARTIN. O. S. FOWLER, Phrenologist. PROF. ELIZUR WRIGHT. DANIEL L. M. PEIXETTO, Pres, of the New York Medical Society. New York, March 2, 1S42.” % Certain I am that no invalid who should have wit¬ nessed the experiments here alluded to would ever think of wearing any thing called “ magnetic or “ elec¬ trical” for the cure of disease. That blind lady on whom those experiments were performed was twenty- eight years of age and healthy. She could not be approached with a magnet; and when I brought a Jarge magnetized disk within twenty feet of her she became convulsed from her head to her feet, and fell insensible upon the floor. There was a large electrical machine in the story below, a distance of forty feet from where she sat. At any time, to turn that machine ever so slightly disturbed her, and if turned rapidly she fell from her chair in convulsions. Two or three times she was so much affected in this way that we became frightened, fearing that she was dead. Indeed, the physicians present objected to have the experiments repeated lest she might never recover. Now, bear in mind, — 1. That a piece of fresh meat through which a mag¬ netic current has been passed decays the sooner on this account. 2. The neurilemma in which the nerves are sheathed is a non-conductor of electricity. IDIOCRASY. 87 3. No appreciable amount of these forces is ever generated by magnetic garments in the way supposed. 4. The vital forces are not magnetic nor electrical. The instinctive movements may evince phenomena re¬ sembling the magnetic; but there is no identity in these forces, and these experiments are sufficient to show the fallacy in Dr. H. H. Sherwood’s theory, entitled, “The Motive-Power of Organic Life ; ” also of the larger work of Dr. John Ashburner, on “The Dynamics of Mag¬ netism, Electricity, Heat, Light, Crystallization, and Chemism, in their Relations to Vital P'orce,” is mislead¬ ing in a multitude of its statements. The nervous system is an apparatus upon which any tune can be played, and on its phenomena any theory of the unknown can be built up. Nor is there any limits to human invention. But I have said enough, I hope, to suggest the reason for the remark that “ only a few are saved.” Only a few are ever converted in any church or in any revival ; only a few are priests; only a few are ever entranced; only a few are ever insane; only a few assume mediumship between hu¬ manity and all the dead of the ages past. As a rule, it will generally be found that all the so- called “miraculous cures,” and all who happen to be the first who became victimized in a “religious revival,” and indeed all intelligent persons upon whose minds artificial impressions are made, are quite similar in their idiosyncrasies. Nor does our language seem to contain terms enough for designating all the varying phases of the nervous and the mental phenomena ex hibited in such cases. Hence the temperament has the most control in determining the impression that is made. Whatever the idea may be of what is suggested, 88 IDEOLOGY. it must depend upon the inherent disposition as well as the education and the surrounding circumstances at the time. The love of the mysterious, the desire for some benefit or notoriety, are often factors ; and then when the excitement has once been felt and witnessed, others are drawn into it by sympathetic imitation. But for these forces, no revival nor any mental epidemic could ever be got up. When the heat, the enthusiasm , is intense enough, the hardest granite is melted ! Im¬ agine, if you can, what must be the idiocrasy of the Popish nuns (the nuns always, for no men are thus entranced in that church) and their sensational sur¬ roundings, when they become cataleptic, and upon their own hands, faces, and feet they scratch the “stigmata ” upon themselves to please their confessors and their priests! Similar sensational surroundings impress all said to have been “ miraculously cured” ! It is the love of the mysterious that excites the hope of benefit from drugs, and especially from magnetism and electricity ; whereas there is no proof that these forms of force are identical with vitality, or that they have any effect when applied to the sick, except it may be to excite the circulation. But there can be no arti¬ ficial excitements of this kind equal to those which the organism is enabled by exercise to generate for itself ; and here, perhaps, it may be in place to show how egregiously those are deceived who wear what they call magnetic clothing for the cure of disease. CHAPTER X. “CHRISTIAN” SCIENCE. Science is classified ideas of all the factors, and in opposition to Christianity, which is a theory merely of what no one can know. Science adds, by experiment, to the sum total of valid knowledge. It takes nothing for granted ; it builds no theories of the unknown upon phenomena produced by forms of force to us unknown. Rev. Henry W. Beecher calls himself a “ Christian Evolutionist.” He does not believe in the Bible ac¬ count of the Jewish idea of God, nor in its account of the “fall of man.” He accepts the scientific idea of evolution, and still calls himself a Christian. And similarly so of W. H. H. Murray, formerly of Park Street Church, Boston, but now of Canada. When he was an Orthodox minister in the “Athens of America,” a few years ago, I noticed now and then progressive ideas advanced by Mr. Murray that encouraged my hope of him in the future. Hence I could not feel surprised in reading the reports I have seen of one or more of the lectures recently given by this gentleman in the city of New York. These lectures show us how far Mr. Murray has advanced in the right direction to emerge entirely from all the fogs of mysticism. His recent lectures show the relief Mr. Murray feels in casting all blame upon theology, and giving up the Old 89 90 IDEOLOGY. Testament Scriptures. In doing this, he thinks that “progressive thought” and Christianity will “come together in peace.” Science and the “vision” of Paul, when obfuscated in a dreamy state of trance, “ will join hands.” The Christianity that Mr. Murray now relies upon is founded upon falsehood. Does W. H. H. Murray believe in the New Testament account of the way Jesus was begotten? Was Mary a virgin after the child Jesus was born ? Does Mr. Murray believe that Peter, when entranced, really saw an “ opening in heaven” and “ beasts and creeping things ” coming out of heaven? Does he believe the writers of the New Testament were inspired by the Holy Ghost ? That John actually saw the monsters he describes, with their eyes behind where their tails should be? And that God mediumized them, inspired them, without the organ of speech, to shout his praise “both day and night,”—and if God has not changed, those monsters are shouting still ? Really, it does seem strange, indeed, that a man of Mr. Murray’s intelligence could entertain, a hope that science will ever join hands with these vagaries. But it is harder still to account for the fact that Mr. Murray should have made the statement that “No scientific man has ever made an attack upon the char¬ acter and teachings of Jesus, and sceptic and teacher alike have admired him and them.” Whereas, scarce one “scientific man” out of the many that have written against the Christianity of Jesus, but who has im¬ peached the teaching of Jesus, — such as teaching his disciples to hate their nearest and dearest relatives, or be sent to hell! He taught the idea of a personal CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 91 Devil. He showed his ignorance of psychology in assuming the power was in his “will” by which he cured disease, and he contradicted that idea when he declared “according to your faith be it unto you.” He also shows how ignorant he was of Ideology and the human mind, when he told Peter that an idea he had expressed was not evolved by his own brains. No idea was ever produced by human lips that was not evolved by the brains that controlled those lips in uttering it — a fact, this, which will never be ignored by progressive thought, or the scientific world. Therefore the Chris¬ tianity of the New Testament is founded upon a fraud. Jesus was not begotten by the Holy Ghost, nor did he actually expire upon the cross. Admitting the general truthfulness of the New Testament account, it is manifest that he sivooned upon the cross, — or, if you say he died on the cross, then he died in titter de¬ spair, believing himself forsaken of God, as indeed he was forsaken. Hence Christianity was strangled in its birth, and the hope is vain that the time will come when progressive thought and science will join hands with any form of mysticism, ancient or modern. In this field of labor for the relief of human suffering I have been engaged now for more than sixty years! I began before I had ever heard of Christianity, and much less of “ Christian Science,” as the Christians with whom I got up religious revivals ignored science and human reason. But during my preaching for twenty years I found among my “converts ” numerous cases of sickness, and almost all who had “faith” enough to believe they were “ born again ” had faith enough to believe in me to be healed, whenever I told them what to do, and they did it to be cured. 92 IDEOLOGY. A class in Boston (Mass.) calling themselves “ Chris¬ tian Scientists ” have adapted the mesmeric method of operating! They have a college where they send out annually a number of mesmerizers, and whenever a cure occurs they attribute it to the Holy Ghost ! Hence to a person of a given temperament (of the “few duped”), if you sit in one corner of a large room and the invalid in the farther corner, and you gaze at him intently, telling him that will cure his complaint, he may be cured, as Sir Humphrey Davy’s patient was electrified and cured when he put a thermometer under his tongue ! It was during my twenty years in Methodist revivals that I became convinced of what all will find true by and by, and it was this, viz., that no God, no Jesus, no Holy Ghost, no miracle-worker, ancient or modern, has or can have any power over the sick, save and excepting that power by which the. miracle-worker is invested by the faith and confidence of the patient (Matt. ix. 21, 22). Jesus, like Mesmer, claimed this power was in his will, and yet he unwittingly confessed that he and God could do nothing without faith ! But Christians of the present day, not even those who call themselves “ scien¬ tists,” have yet found out what I discovered fifty years ago, when in the Christian pulpit, that faith in a myth is of equal power in the cure of disease with a certain class of minds. Thus it is with a certain class that revival epidemics are got up. When I was a Christian I had no knowledge of those psychological laws and forces by which converts were multiplied to hundreds and their diseases often cured. The theory taught to the students in this college is mesmeric, and false I know, and the methods of treat- CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 93 ing disease are mesmeric. As, no matter what the method or the theory may be, when an idea of the cure and faith are wanting, in any case cures may occur, as they do in despite of quack medicines. Both Jesus and Mesmer an error taught In regard to the human will, As to the subjection of human thought, And so it is taught by many still. In their paper I notice some thirty cards of those new mesmeric doctors, who dub themselves C. S. (Christian Scientist), instead of an M. D., or Mesmeric Doctor. One of the patients treated by them, without benefit, and long enough to get $200 out of her, called on me not long ago, and she told me their method was mesmeric. The editor of this paper has also published an octavd volume on “ Science and Health.” Its motto is : “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong¬ holds.” “ Mighty through a myth in the sky!” This mes¬ meric book is endorsed by M. L. Holbrook, editor of the “Herald of Health;” by A. B. Alcott, Concord, Massachusetts ; and by a number of Christian M. D.’s. They sent me a copy of their monthly paper called the “Christian Scientist;” and, to reciprocate the compliment, I sent the editor a respectful letter, which she had not the courage to publish ! In this letter I told her how numerous cures of disease occurred when I was a revival minister, and without any of her mes¬ meric methods, and when also Christianity ignored both science and human reason,—as indeed it has done to this day, and it always will do ! 94 IDEOLOGY. Certainly the New Testament tells us what this “saving faith” is, when it declares, “Faith is the evi¬ dence of things not seen.” Now, the evidence here referred to is fabricated in each mind by that same supreme law of selfhood that heals the wound and cures the disease whenever any cure is made. The forces and the laws of involution and evolution are in each mind the same ; and, moreover, we should bear in mind that the Christian’s “saving faith ” never heals a wound that “saving faith” had not previously made ! In the temperament and education we may differ, but not in the vital or elementary forces that excite faith, hope, love, or fear ; and these forces are controlled by involution and evolution, and the results may be attributed to any one of a dozen imaginary causes. Yet when they are fanciful it need not make much difference whether it be a myth in the sky, or a man that died two thousand years ago. But probably many generations of Christians will yet be born and die, and spell-bound by this supreme law of self-induction they will never know of the position now everywhere outside of the church maintained by the scientific world, that all the problems of humanity are not to be solved by mere thought alone; and that these laws, demonstrated by actual experiment, must and will be admitted in the sum total of valid knowledge. I am aware it is a characteristic of Christian people that whenever one of their number happens to be detected in crime, they are apt to exclaim : “ Oh! he was not a Christian ! ” Or, “ If he ever had been con¬ verted, he backslid.” But this excuse does not cover all the facts in such cases as are constantly occurring in all parts of Christendom, — cases where priests. CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 95 bishops, and other officials of the churches are impli¬ cated, with infamous crimes, precisely like other bad men! The inference to be drawn from this fact is, that Christianity has done nothing for its victims but deception! But surely we can have enough of that without the Bible or the Holy Ghost. The whole Christian world prayers made, And failed, for Garfield when he died ; Thus in “saving faith ” all the churches prayed, And now they knozu some one has lied. CHAPTER XI. THE BIBLE IDEA OF “INSPIRATION.” Christianity teaches that the trance is a state of “the highest inspiration” and produced by the “Holy Ghost.” Hence Dr. Adam Clarke affirms, in his “Com¬ mentary,” on St. Paul’s enhancement, that it “evinces the highest degree of inspiration,” and that what Paul learned in that trance “ formed the basis of all his doctrines.” In that state Christianity teaches that Peter and Paul had “the nearest intimacy with God, and the highest revelation of his will,” as Dr. Adam Clarke affirms. The Bible assures us that the very first human being that its God had “created ” he entranced in order to create him a wife, else there could have been no humanity, nor any serpent with a human tongue and speech. From that same state of trance Christianity has come, with its “visions and revelations from the Lord.” The Bible was written by barbarians, who thought a state of enhancement the best for hear¬ ing God’s voice and for being “caught up to paradise.” Similarly, the modern form of mysticism is founded upon this state of trance, from which messages are made from the dead. The printers have a good maxim, to “ follow copy if it leads out of the window,” and shall not science fol¬ low “ plenary inspiration ” in defining The trance, “that 96 THE BIBLE IDEA OF INSPIRATION. 9 7 state of the human mind whence Christianity has come” ? Is not the Bible an “inspired,” infallible wit- y ness as to those states of the human mind whence its “visions and revelations ” were derived ? Moreover, what if we find that both the Bible and classic lore are perfectly agreed in their definitions of the “ trance ” or ecstasy ? In the Hebrew it is thus defined : — Tar-dai-mah. —Sleep, heaviness, sluggishness, from the root Ra-dam — He sank down; was overwhelmed, as in water ; was asleep ; overcome with sleep. It is found in Gen. ii. 21 ; xv. 12; Num. xx ; iv. 4-6; and Dan. x. 9. In the Greek it is : Existemi or Existao. — I remove out of my place or state ; am out of my wits ; am beside myself; am transported be¬ yond myself ; am astonished ; amazed ; astounded. And this terms occurs in Acts x. 10; xi. 15 ; xxii. 17 ; 2 Cor. xii. 1-4. I need not quote the passages here referred to, where both these terms occur; but will notice two cases — one of Abraham and the other of St. Paul — as an illus¬ tration of the Bible idea of “plenary inspiration.” Abraham is considered “ the father of the faithful,” and the “faith of Abraham” is considered a “mirac¬ ulous ” acquisition. Charles F. Freeman had the “ Abrahamic faith ” when he and his wife killed their infant child; and the assassin Guiteau had this faith when he fired those fatal shots into the body of Presi¬ dent Garfield. Evidently, Abraham had no idea of monotheism until he got it in his dreamy trance. 9 8 IDEOLOGY. “ And when the sun was gone down [tar-dai-mah], deep sleep fell upon Abraham ; and lo, a horror of great darkness fell upon him ” (Gen. xv. 12). What a state is this for ‘‘inspiration ” ! Yet such is that state of the human mind believed to be in a “superior condition” for “messages from the dead” and “revelations from the sky.” And does the reader marvel that for more than half a century the writer has persisted in his charge of a gigantic fraud against Christianity ? But some have doubtless thought this was too severe, admitting, as he does, that Christians are good people, as I did not give the scientific grounds upon which my indictment was predicted. Theodore Parker once said to me that he himself would have considered it a great advantage, in this regard, if he could have had similar opportunities to mine for witnessing the progress of revival phenomena. My experience in the M. E. Church for many years, in witnessing the trances that always occurred in all the revivals I got up, gave me ample opportunities for es¬ timating this state correctly and for acquainting myself with a class of nervous and mental phenomena that I never could have witnessed anywhere else, and they prepared me for the discovery of the psychological laws by which I can now prove, beyond all successful contradiction, how all those phenomena, and all that is induced in “Christian experience,” are brought about. It was certainly a vast advantage to me to have, in the beginning of my psychological investigations, so large a number of Christian people who had been “con¬ verted” and “sanctified” under my preaching. These “converts” I always found in all the cities where I afterward gave scientific lectures. They were always THE BIBLE IDEA OF INSPIRATION. 99 friendly, and I was greatly assisted by them, and I may as well state the reason here. As a general rule, all persons who are the first to be “converted” are the most easily entranced. It is only the few that are saved, —only the few that are miraculously cured. In comparison with the mass, only a few are insane. Only a few have the right temperament for catalepsy and somnambulism, so as to become entranced in that sensational movement known as modern mediumship. As a general rule, I believe it will be found that each of these states, called by various terms, such as “ born again,” “sanctified,” “entranced,” “inspired,” “be¬ witched,” and “mediumized,” are synonymous , and they are characteristic of one class of temperaments. After I had lectured in Boston, for twelve years, on Ideology, the mass had become so familiarized with these physio¬ logical conditions and laws by which all revival and mental epidemics are got up that for thirty years after no “revivals” occurred in that city. So when it was assaulted by Moody and Sankey, recently, they only victimized a few young people that had been born one age since my lectures were concluded. My theory of selfhood covers all the facts in the “miraculous cures” in “revival scares,” and all the nervous phenomena attributed to supernatural causes, and the sudden deaths that have occurred from the sensational excitement of faith, fear, hope, and joy. Moreover, it accounts for mental contagion, mental epidemics, “ mothers’ marks,” and other correlative phenomena that have never been explained, either by medicine or theology. Observe, it was not till Abraham was entranced that he could hear what his idea of God said unto him ; and, 100 IDEOLOGY. but for this insane state of trance, there never could have been any humanity but Adam. Therefore, since he got his wife from his entrancement, and the race has increased, we are indebted to this same state of trance for all “ inspired ” writings and our ideas of personality in gods. Hence this trance is pronounced by Dr. Adam Clarke the “highest degree of inspiration,” and it is the Christian’s “ royal road ” to heaven ! St. Paul was the chief apostle, and he had two spells of entrancement. Rev. Ed. Robinson, in his edition of Calmet’s Dictionary, says of Paul’s entrancement, that “ in the year a. d. 44 Paul was enraptured into the third heavens, where he saw ineffable things.” Thus he contradicts Paul’s account of himself, as he does not tell us of what he saw in the third heaven, but of what he heard there ! Now, here is Paul’s account of his own obfuscation : — “ I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, God knoweth) ; such an one caught up to the third heaven. And I knew such a man, (whether in the body or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth ;) How that he was caught up into paradise and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.” (2 Cor. xii. 1-4.) Any full-grown man or woman, not a Christian, to hear such a statement as this, would instantly pronounce it a case of insanity. Nor could a better illustration be given of the definition of the trance than I have quoted. A man whose mind is in a state that does not allow him to be conscious of his own selfhood and self- control, or to know whether he is dead or alive, is insane. He may tell us what “God knoweth,” and of words that he never heard spoken, and also of “ visions THE BIBLE IDEA OF INSPIRATION. IOI and revelations from the Lord ; ” but “such a man ” is “beside himself and out of his wits.” He, himself, cannot know. That persons entranced are sometimes “enraptured,” I very well know. And among the Christians and the ministers I have seen entranced in my lectures, I have had numerous cases where they were so “filled with joy” and enraptured with delight that they have declared it was “ far above any prayer¬ meeting or camp-meeting,” which they never would have said in their normal state. But this chapter would hardly answer my purpose, if I did not also give some account of the trance idea that prevails in the Popish church. In this church it occurs among the nuns, and where everything is made of it by the priests as “a miracle, produced by the power of Almighty God.” I have now before me a Popish pamphlet by “ the Earl oHShrewsbury,” entitled “ The Virgins of the Tyrol,” — two Austrian girls, who, for eight years, had been in the habit (when receiving the sensational corn- communion) of falling into this state. This tract I have reviewed at length in my work on “ The Trance ” (now out of print). It contains pictures of each of these nuns, showing the bleeding scratches they had made on their faces , feet, and hands, as similar to what was believed to have been done to Jesus when he was crucified and swooned on the cross. Two facts in regard to these Popish cases may be mentioned here : — That females only fall into the trance in the Popish church, and it so happens that it is only the nuns who have ever had these scratches which they call “ the real stigmata,” by which they signify their faith that those marks on their feet, hands, and temples are made “ by 102 IDEOLOGY. the miraculous power of God; ” whereas, these stigmata are made by each nun when entranced (and it may, in some cases, be that they do not remember it), each one for herself. Entranced persons often act from strange or insane motives, and the nuns, controlled by the Popish ideas of Jesus, produce these scratches to gratify their “confessors.” This I prove both by the history of these Popish cases and by similar cases that have occurred, among Papists and Protestant Christians, entranced under my own personal observation. A nun, entranced in San Francisco in 1872, was de¬ tected in scratching her own hands and feet for the stigmata. F. Giard, a Popish priest, was tried in France in 1733 for the liberties he had taken in kissing the “stigmata” which a nun had shown upon her person. The account of this case represents that this nun charged the priest with having bewitched her, as (from the laws of association) she invariably fell into the trance whenever he visited her, as he often did. No doubt the bewitchment was reciprocal. I utter what I know when I affirm that* the best Christians that can be found in the Popish church, or in Christendom, when entranced, will deceive and falsify for the purpose of gratifying their priests or those they think the most of in their normal state. CHAPTER XII. THE BIBLE IDEA OF ITS GOD. Max Muller says, Abraham’s idea of the Bible God was not originated in his own brain ; whereas there are no other ideas. There are two instincts all- pervading and supreme in humanity ; they have only to be referred to, to be recognized by every thoughtful mind. Instincts may be perverted, but when under¬ stood and co-operated with by our intelligence they become the source of our highest joy. They are mani¬ fested in the supreme selfhood, self-control, self-growth, self-healing of wounds, and the self-cure of disease. 1. In the self-care for selfhood, in eating, sleeping, working, and in all that is done for one’s own comfort and happiness. 2. In those harmonies that perpetuate the race. Thus human selfhood is repeated and increased from age to age by its own ideas. Man is infinitely above any infallible faith, infallible priest, or infallible church; and he is made a man by his ideas. Here is what Max Muller says : — “It was through Abraham’s special faith that God made a special revelation of his individuality; and this revelation was not made through Abraham’s instincts, nor through his abstract meditation, nor through his ecstatic vision .”—Semitic Monotheism: Chips from a Germa?i Workshop , p. 367, by Max Muller.” 103 104 IDEOLOGY. Such is the tribute paid by one scholar to the bar¬ barian idea of a personal myth in the sky. Nor is this the first of the kind, nor will it be last, which scholarly men will, perhaps, yield to ancient mediumistic ideas. When science and Nature’s order are ignored, forms of “special faith ” are relied upon for a knowledge of what the human mind has no capacity for knowing. And here is another chip from the same “ Workshop: ” — “There is no subject more absorbing than to trace the origin and the first growth of human thought. The growth of language is continuous, and by continuing our researches backward from the most modern to the most ancient strata, the very elements and roots of human speech have been reached, and with them the elements and roots of human thought.” THE FIRST HUMAN SPEECH. i. The first verse in the Bible affirms a plurality of Gods: Gen. i. i. Hence the first special revelation is not monotheistic. It is E-lo-him Gods, two or two thousand as to the number, and as to this number Muller’s special faith must determine. But admitting this question to be determined by the Christian idea of saving faith, there may be a million, more or less. “According to your faith,” said Jesus, “ it shall be unto you.” And Dr. Adam Clarke pleads for Muller’s special faith, in his comment on this term E-lo-him in the first of Genesis. He says : — “ It is certainly plural, and has long been believed by the most learned and eminently pious men to imply a plurality of persons in the divine nature.” Observe how very convenient this special faith is, for both the ignorant and the learned and eminently THE BIBLE IDEA OF ITS GOD. 105 pious men. Their eye of saving faith is so big they can see the unseen and Enow the unknown ; and thus, if you begin to multiply Gods by faith, where will you 'stop ? 2. Again : This special revelation of the God idea affirms before Eve had uttered a word, and even Adam had only a few words to say, hence the human speech among the very first was uttered by a inedi- umized snake : Gen. iii. 3. It is the Bible idea that man and all the prophets, Jesus and his apostles, were all mediums between this God idea and the race of mankind,—as indeed all popes, bishops, priests, and theologians are of the present day. But in the function of mediumship between the invisibles and mankind the serpent was the first. The snake was nearly the first in the use of human speech ; and so according to the “Chip from a German Workshop,” if we trace human speech up to that most ancient strata, we find the root of the God and the Devil idea. 3. The progress of language follows the evolution of ideas. Why, then, does this philologist leave the science of this day and go backward to the infancy of the race for an idea of God, which no human mind can know ? 4. Had Max Muller been as well posted in psychol¬ ogy as he is in philology, he never could have made so flat a contradiction, either of himself or the Bible. We shall see that barbarian book expressly affirms that Abraham did obtain his idea of monotheism in a state of (Hebrew, tar-dai-mali) ecstatic vision or trance. But Max Muller is not the only scholar that has been in ages past obfuscated by mysticism. All the priests, especially of the Roman church, are far more io6 IDEOLOGY. ignorant still, not only of psychology, but as to the usns loquendi of their Bible, in respect to the trance as a state of inspiration. Connecting theology with the ages past, it is easily shown that these terms are syn¬ onymous ; namely, Christianity , witchcraft , inspired , entranced , mediumized , converted , or born again. A Popish priest, Mgr. Capel, is now lecturing about this country, and attempting to drill Americans into the belief of his infallible church, in which nuns are entranced and mediumized by the Holy Ghost, as Mary was of old. Witchcraft is commerce with God and the invisible world. Christians are converted, and all mediums have commerce with the invisible world. The apostles when entranced were inspired : 2d Cor. xii. 1-4. The first idea of the Bible God is plural, also in other passages it is in the plural; and now to prove that Abraham got his idea from what Muller calls ecstatic vision, I quote from the inspired word, from the Chris¬ tian God’s special revelation, which no Christian can deny. It is indeed infallible proof against Popery and the theory of Christendom in regard to inspiration. “ And when the sun was gone done, a (tar-dai-mah) deep sleep fell upon Abraham. And lo ! an horror of great dark¬ ness fell upon him! And the Lord said unto him, ‘ Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a strange land.’ ” — Genesis xv. 12. How many centuries after this account was written is unknown. But it settles the question as to the Bible account of the state of trance in which Abraham got his idea of God. The horrible darkness that fell upon Abraham overshadows the priesthood that have in¬ herited his faith, and who now undertake to tell us THE BII2LE IDEA OF ITS GOD. 107 what God’s design must have been in causing an horror of great darkness to fall upon Abraham. Abraham knew nothing of what God said to him until he was obfuscated in a state of trance ; and so of other inspired writers of the Bible, like Balaam, Daniel, Peter, Paul, and John the revelator. But for the entrancement of Adam he never could have had any wife or any child; and in that case there would have been no serpent with a human tongue, and by which a snake was the first of all mediums, ancient and modern. Nay, there would have been no cajoling and overshadowing of Mary ; no Jesus born of her ; nor, indeed, any humanity to be saved or damned; no Gods nor ghosts, no inspi¬ ration, and no infallible church ; no witchcraft, and for which Christians have put millions of their number to death upon the gallows and at the stake. And that would have been an horror of great darkness upon this planet, when no one who was entranced enough to see it. Who but the Devil entranced Jesus the Christ, and hauled the second person of the Christian Godhead up through the air from the Temple to the mountain ? For you know that all, when entranced, travel through the heavens ; and I call on some priest to tell us by what power Jesus was hoisted up to that giddy height? Which person in the Christian Godhead was it that mecLiumized and inspired both Balaam and the beast on which he rode, when by a special revelation this God announced himself an ass ? — Num. xxii. Who was it that mediumized and inspired two thou¬ sand hogs, all at once, and, thus converted, they were made Baptists by immersion in the sea ? And what was the size of that man out of whose carcase a legion of devils were cast ? And was not each of those devils ioS IDEOLOGY. inspired? Which person in the Christian Godhead actually created four monsters in heaven, near his throne ; and with eyes where their tails should be, and then inspired them to shout his glory both day and night, forever ? The Bible revelations, from a state of trance, narrate numerous disappointments , failures , and catastrophes , that befell its God in the beginning of the race when humanity was young. But had there been no Trinity, no destruction by a flood, and no Christianity or witch¬ craft, the millions of Christians falsely charged with witchcraft never could have been hanged upon a Christian gallows, or burned at a stake by fires set by Christian hands. All this would have been prevented ; nor would hell have been lit up with fire and brimstone for the eternal torment of the majority of the race who enter there through the broad way, while only a few are saved. But for such a trance we should never have had any idea of such a Bible, or any such special revelations from such a horrible God. And now for the proof of what I tell you: Just turn to that old barbarian book and read the special revelation as to the trance and you cannot fail to see whence this idea of the Jewish or Christian God came: Gen. ii. 21 ; xv. 12; Num. xxii. 30; xxiv. 46; Dan. x. 9; Acts x. 10, 11, 15; xxii. 17; 2d Cor. xii. 1-6; Rev. iv. 1-11. The entire books of Daniel and Revelations are written from a state of trance, and so we might say of the entire Bible. It is the work of special faith, without which there are for humanity no special revelations, nor Gods, nor ghosts. Ideals are of the future, and are ideals because un- THE BIBLE IDEA OF ITS GOD. 109 known, while ideas are known, and we are equally held and controlled by them, whether true or false. There are no limits (except in the human brain) to human thought and the evolution of ideas. Hence we have as many ideas of Gods as there are brains to think them. Ideas do not float in the air, as one medium told me that he supposed they did; nor are ideas as such transferred out of one brain into another, as Mesmer taught, nor was any human brain ever controlled merely by the volition of any other brain. The human will or choice is free and independent of every other will, as the person and individuality is free. No faith, no God, or ghost. Hence that special revelation, which says:— “Without faith it is impossible to please God. For he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a re¬ warder of ttipm that diligently seek him.” —Heb. xi. 6. It was by Abraham’s special faith, says Muller. Of course it was, for you can create a God in no other way, — only by an idea. Devils and Gods are from human ideas, and these make witchcraft, and then the victims of these false ideas hang and burn one another. Now, notice how Muller utterly annihilates his own idea of monotheism by affirming his individuality a special revelation. There is no specialty with omniscience, omnipresence, or omnipotence. How can an individ¬ uality fill space that has no limit? And what nonsense to talk of an infallible church, of such a myth ! And it will be noticed where the Popish idea of infallibility comes from by the faith of Abraham, as when the horror of great darkness fell upon him in his trance ; then his idea of God assured him, and he was 110 IDEOLOGY. infallible as Guiteau declared of himself when he fired that fatal shot. A BLOOD-THIRSTY GOD. I should have to quote a very large proportion of the Bible to show fully how this bloody characteristic in its God’s character is set forth and insisted upon. Hence I can only refer to a few passages as examples. THE BIBLE GOD. The Bible affirms its God to be a man of war and bloodshed. And its God says : — “ Put every man his sword by his side, and slay every man his brother, his companion and neighbor.” — Ex. xxii. 27. “ Spare them not, but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling.” — 1 Sam. xv. 3. “ Slay utterly old and young, both maids and little chil¬ dren.” —Ezek. ix. 6. “ Cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood ! ” —Jer. xlviii. 10. It is easy to see that the God idea in the Bible came from a state of trance, and the trance is not only a state of hallucination, but it is always a spontaneity, similarly as sleep, fits, and dreaming are considered. The trance occurred before it had any name, and as it occurred then, so it occurs now, however it may be suggested to the mind for that purpose; and in those cases where it becomes a habit, and the victim is under the control of superstition, it is considered miraculous ! My principal experiments were in the cases of per¬ sons who had surgical operations performed on them without pain ) in a state of self-induced “trance.” Timid women held lighted candles in each hand while THE BIBLE IDEA OF ITS GOD. I I I their molars were drawn, when there was no change in their pulse, nor any movement of a muscle; and this was done when the surgeon also was entranced, and his eyes blindfolded, while surrounded by numerous other surgeons, editors, clergymen, and men of science. Thus of persons self-entranced who had tumors cut out, and one had his thigh amputated! Not one of these marvellous states were superinduced by my “will.” My method was confined wholly to ideas, and it ignored mesmerism and theology. Webster, in the quarto edition of his American dictionary, in defining the term “Pathetism,” has ren¬ dered me liable to be understood as indorsing the notions of Mesmer; whereas I never believed in that theory, nor did I ever use that term for designating the phenomena by which I demonstrated its falsehood. The psychological experiments I performed throughout the country were purely scientific. I never meddled with the nervous system of a human mind solely for the purpose of amusing an audience ; and I am sure, if psychology were sufficiently understood, no one would ever consent to be drilled by false ideas into a state of mental hallucination merely to cause a laugh by the fantastic capers he cut up in that state. CHAPTER XIII. THE BIBLE IDEA OF WITCHCRAFT. “ Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.” Witchcraft is practical mysticism. The idea is a suspicion as to an imaginary attempt to pick the lock for which Nature’s order and laws have provided no key. In the Bible it is “ commerce with God or the invisible world.” It is only ideas of the unknown God, devils, or ghosts, that culminate in witchcraft. The light of science is from things known, and, like the central sun, it shines for all; while theories built upon phenomena believed to be mystical cast their dark shadows on the “ few that are saved.” All are fasci¬ nated by music, oratory, poetry, art, and beauty; but under the control of false ideas in Christianity we have witchcraft, and hundreds of thousands have been put to death under this suspicion. False ideas, crystallized into an ism, culminate in bigotry, cruelty, proscription, persecution, slavery, witchcraft, suicide, and murder. How terrible Christianity has been in this regard will be apparent when we consider the millions it has put to death of its own victims, who were its own “kith and kin.” It has actually slain millions of those whom Christianity itself had made witches and wizards. Well-informed writers have estimated the number of T T 2 THE BIBLE IDEA OF WITCHCRAFT. I 13 men, women, and children at nine millions who have been by Christianity put to death on the gallows and at the stake. Yet Christianity, the witchcraft that perpetrated these bloody deeds, is in full blast among us to this day ! The theory of two hundred or three thousand years ago is preached to-day, in spite of science, in spite of the ten thousand facilities that are everywhere accessible for better views of manhood and humanity. None but a mind bewitched with mysticism could read any Liberal paper for a month without being con¬ vinced that Christianity is a fraud. Any one of the Freethought volumes advertised from week to week contains moral dynamite enough to blow that mystical balloon to atoms in the sky. No one not bewitched by some phase of mysticism could ever imagine himself invested “by faith” with a capacity for seeing & person¬ age big enough to fill illimitable space. It was in full view of this condition of things that our humanity stretched forth its right arm of justice and wiped out chattel slavery from all the churches and this nation, only a few years ago. This is what humanity did, at an immense cost of its treasure and blood, — and, moreover, despite of Christianity and its God. Had this God and his own chosen people been allowed control in these United States, this nation would have to-day been engaged in slave-breeding and slave-holding, with its auction-blocks for the sale of human flesh ; and in Washington the chains of the slave would now be heard, with the orator’s eloquence for liberty and equal rights in our Christian republic. Witchcraft is a tremendous lie, — a lie six thousand years long ; a lie repeated in so many pulpits, and for so IDEOLOGY. 114 long a time, that no rule nor scale known to geometry 01 the scientific world can measure it. But thoughtful and scientific people began to have some idea of a huge lie when all the prayers of Christendom failed in the death of Garfield. That hideous lie was significant. That was an experiment that the praying priests and churches had never anticipated. They scouted the idea of such an experiment when, a few years ago, it was proposed by Prof. Tyndall. But it is the scientific method, and it has proved how that old myth in the sky has always lied and failed. The Christian Devil is the father of lies. Is there among all the nations of this planet any idea of a devil or hell-fire like that of Christianity ? any idea like the three gods in one, and each of them big enough to fill unbounded space ? Is there elsewhere any idea of anger and wrath like that of the Christian God ? “ Commerce with God ."—As we shall see, this is Christianity and witchcraft ; and it is an encouraging consideration that so vast a majority of the human race have always and forever been opposed to Chris¬ tianity. Humanity is a success. It is no failure, and never has been in need of any form of mysticism. The number victimized by theoretical and practical witch¬ craft may be said to be few, when compared with the. entire race, and still they are becoming less and less. Or, if you say that the “suspicion ” of witchcraft upon which the victims were put to death was well founded, I now invite you to the proof from the Bible that Chris¬ tianity is itself witchcraft, — nothing more nor less. Do not all Christians have “ commerce with God ” ? Do not all Mormons and modern Spiritualists “ have commerce with the invisible world ” ? This is witch- THE BIBLE IDEA. OF WITCHCRAFT. I 15 craft, and so determined by Christianity itself. It has no proof, outside of its own self-created faith (Heb. xi. 1) —no proof of its dogmas, no proof of its creed, and none of any crime in those hung for witchcraft. Hence its dogmatism and drilling of human ignorance and credulity. The proof I now present against Christianity is stronger and more conclusive than anything in the Bible in its favor. Christianity is the theory of which witchcraft is the practice. And here I refer you to that old barbarian book: Deut. xiii. io; i Sam. xv. 22 ; 2 Chron. xxxiii. 6 ; 2 Kings ix. 22 ; Mich. v. 12 ; Nah. iii. 4; Gal. v. 20. Now, all commentators on the Bible are agreed that the witchcraft here threatened with death by the Christian God is nothing more nor less than “ commerce with God and with the invisible world,” in order to “reveal its mysteries.” And it will be sufficient if I quote from Dr. Adam Clarke, the most learned and popular of all that have attempted to interpret that old barbarizing book for our benefit. His huge commentary, in six large volumes, now lies before me, for which I paid thirty dollars when I was myself a revival Methodist preacher. Dr. Clarke, in his notes on Exodus xxii. 18, says : — “ The term rendered ‘ witch ’ is from the Hebrew casaph — to reveal, uncover; and it signifies commerce with God; a person who professes to reveal hidden mysteries by com¬ merce with God or the invisible world.” Now, it is easy to see how this definition covers the entire ground of mysticism, including all Christians, all Mormons, and all modern mediums and Spiritualists. Each of these classes certainly professes to have com- IDEOLOGY. I 16 merce with the invisible world. Modern mediums offer their services to humanity as an “open door to the condition man enters at death and Theodore Parker, who while he lived had no faith in any such revelation, said, as an off-set to Christianity : “ Why, the modern Spiritualists have been to the Christian hell, and they tell us upon their return that there are no devils there.” Moreover, notice how this definition of witchcraft interdicts the gospel of the New Testament. It for¬ bids commerce with God and the invisible world, for revealing hidden mysteries,—the identical thing that was done by Jesus and by all his apostles. The New Testament is replete with these declarations: “We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery.” “According to the revelation of the mystery.” “Made known to us the mystery of his will.” “ My knowledge in the mystery of Christ.” “Great is the mystery of god¬ liness.” “As stewards of the mysteries of God.” A page or more might be filled with similar quota¬ tions, showing that when Dr. Clarke’s definition of witchcraft forbids commerce with God and the invisible world, for revealing hidden mysteries, it forbids the praying of Christians, and interdicts the preaching of ail the priests. Thus does Christianity use itself up. Its faith is self-created, and thus it is self-destroyed. Hence the identity of Christianity and witchcraft. In defining one you describe the other. What stultifica¬ tion ! What monstrous inconsistency ! And thus obfuscated by faith in mysticism, it has been for Chris¬ tians, unlike all other classes, to put their victims to death for doing what they themselves do. Those suspected of witchcraft protested that they were not witches nor wizards ; nor did they know what THE BIBLE IDEA OF WITCHCRAFT. 117 witchcraft was,—a delusion founded on the trances of Abraham, Daniel, Peter, and Paul, each of whom was obfuscated in a dreamy state of trance when he had “visions and revelations from the Lord.” So Chris¬ tianity— this same witchcraft founded upon a state of self-induced trance — metes out supreme contempt on mediums of the present day. How inconsistent and cruel this persecution is I can see, because I know that the pathology and the psychology of the trance is always the same, as it is in dreams and fits, and in mental derangement. Hence it is monstrously incon¬ sistent for any Christian or theologian to ridicule a modern medium in this regard. These mediums I have known from the beginning, and Christianity I have myself preached, and I have known what it is for sixty years ; and it is my opinion that I have seen many modern mediums far more u in¬ spired” than St. Paul was when he is said to have had “visions and revelations from the Lord.” Also, I have heard as good advice given by them as any found in the Bible, or ever heard from the pulpit. On account of these persecutions I can also see an inconsistency when Spiritualists take upon themselves the name of Christians. I say nothing more now on this subject than merely to refer to the two cases that have occurred under the auspices of Spiritualism of spirit babes reported born, as I refer to that “overshadowing” narrated of Mary. [Inquire of Mr. A. E. Newton and John M. Spear.] Here call on any Christian layman or minister, except¬ ing one named J. C., to tell me his opinion as to whether there was not something like “ commerce with God” in that case of “overshadowing” nar- ii 8 IDEOLOGY. rated in Luke i. 26-30; and as to whether we should ever have had any Jesus or Christianity with¬ out that bewitching process in that commerce with the third person in the Godhead ? The Bible speaks of four invisible personages, —three in the Godhead, and the old boss Devil; and I call on any Christian who will do so to give me his rule by which he can distin¬ guish between these personages. How does he deter¬ mine the sexhood and the personal identity of an indivisibility ? and how does he prove as to what kind of intercourse any one may have had with the invisible world ? How does he determine the number of invis¬ ibles, or as to whether there is one ? and if more, how many ? How can he make it to appear, if he is a Christian, that his commerce with God differs from that of a wizard ? “ Inflated with Frenzy. — Dr. Clarke, in his notes on Lev. xix. 31, says : “A wizard is one who in his com¬ merce with the invisible world becomes inflated with frenzy and, as an illustration, he quotes and empha¬ sizes Virgil as follows : — “ Invoke the skies, I feel the rushing God! she cries. While yet she spake, enlarged her features grew ; Her color changed, her locks dishevelled flew. The heavenly tumult reigns in every part — Pants in her breast , and swells her rising heart. Still swelling to the sight , the priestess glowed, And heaved impatient of the incumbent God.” — PEneid 1 . vi. ver. 46. During my twenty years in the Methodist Episcopal church, I attended many a Methodist pic-nic, where I always saw more or less of what is described in the THE BIBLE IDEA OF WITCHCRAFT. I 19 foregoing from Virgil. There is not so much of this “frenzy” manifested in revivals or at the pic-nics as there was fifty years ago; and yet they tell us that the ism is like “the word of the Lord,” — it never changes. But, if so, how are we to account for it that there have been no victims hung for witchcraft lately ? If any of my readers desire to witness the Methodist process of bewitching the people with their own ideas of mysti¬ cism, go to one of their pic-nics, where for a week they keep up the drilling with sermon, prayer, and song; or attend one of Moody’s harangues. I hope I may not be the only one left now living who attended the preaching of the “far-famed” Rev. John N. Maffit. He was an Irishman, and believed himself eloquent, as his manner of drilling was quite successful. I remember his meetings in Boston, and his suit for libel against Mr. Buckingham, editor of the Boston “Courier,” in 1824. His suit was a failure. “ Thou Shalt Not Suffer a Witch to Live." — There it stands in that old Christian book, — a collection of books on mysticism, so old that nobody knows, or ever can know, by whom they were written, or when. Two hundred years ago what a terrible command was that to be uttered from the pulpit every Sunday! “ It is all one — To be a witch, or stispected one.” Also, what a “ suspicion ” was that to become a panic in a church, a neighborhood, a country, and throughout Christendom ! This is Christianity’s death- warrant, — the keystone to the Christian arch that sup¬ ports the gallows it executes its victims on. Hence, 120 IDEOLOGY. adopting the theological definition of witchcraft as correct, it follows that every Christian, every priest, every Mormon, every modern medium and Spiritualist, should forthwith be hung or burnt at the stake. CHAPTER XIV. THE BIBLE IDEA OF MEDIUMS. All good Christians believe their God has “inspired” and thus made “mediums” of beasts; nay, that he has actually “created” ugly monsters “near his throne in heaven,” that are now shouting his glory “both day and night,” as indeed they will do forever. As we shall see, that old barbarian book begins and ends with these disgusting details : — THE SERPENT A MEDIUM. “ Now the serpent was more subtile than any beast of the field the Lord God had made. And it said unto the woman, ‘ Yea, hath God said ye shall not eat of every tree of the gar¬ den?’”— Gen. iii. i. This account affirms that God had made the snake, and so he made the Devil to inspire or mediumize it with human speech. Thus the Bible opens with an account of the “Devil ” having inspired and “medium- ized” a snake, by which it talked and argued with a human tongue ! And hence in all the history of ancient and modern mediumship both “the Devil” and “the serpent ” held rank, and stand at the head of that list, even above God and the rest of mankind. Nor is it apparent why Christians should not freely admit that I 21 122 IDEOLOGY. the serpent was as really “ entranced ” by the Devil, and more than Adam could have been by his Creator! At any rate, as it is manifest that the Devil, having inspired and mediwnized that serpent, was the occasion that resulted in sin, Christianity, heaven, and hell, it follows that the Bible, and all that credulity has made out of that old book, have resulted from the Devil’s having mediumized and “inspired” that snake with human speech. Did the reader ever hear any Christian give any reasonable argument why God made the Devil ? Why he made that slimy snake ? Or why he permits this Devil still in his destructive work ? THE JACKASS A MEDIUM. “ And the Lord opened the mouth of the ass, and he said unto Balaam, Am I not thine ass ? ” — Num. xxii. 29. Of an ass thus inspired it has been truly said, “An ass responds to an ass.” TWO SHE-BEARS, MEDIUMS. “ And Elisha turned and looked on the children, and cursed them in the name of the Lord. And there came forth two she-bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two children of them.”—2 Kings ii. 24. Of course, for he created those ferocious beasts, and “inspired” them for chewing those children: — “God” made their teeth and claws so very sharp, To be glutted with human gore ! Graces on which his preachers never harp; Such providences they ignore ! THE BIBLE IDEA OF MEDIUMS. 123 MONSTERS MADE MEDIUMS. “And in the midst of God’s throne were four beasts, full of eyes before and behind. And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle. And the four beasts had six wings about him, and they were full of eyes within, and they rest not day and night, saying, ‘ Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty.’ ” — Rev. iv. 6. The writer of such stuff as this must have been entranced in order to get off such vagaries. So of Peter; when entranced he saw an opening in heaven, and “wild beasts and creeping things” coming out of heaven ! Now, I have only to observe that our humanity has always protested against all forms of mediumism be¬ tween it and the unknowable ; because both the forms of witchcraft, ancient and modern, are crimes against human selfhood and self-control! Every form of me- diumship between Gods and ghosts, real or imaginary, is a crime against humanity. The yielding up of self¬ hood and self-control to an idea of an unknown person¬ age cannot be justified. A matured mind can have no normal right thus to abnegate its own selfhood. Most of the mediums in this country who travel and make a business of giving “tests,” I have had more or less knowledge of; and, while I admit that in all other respects they may have been very excellent people, yet I am compelled to say that, as far as I know, they were deteriorated in health and in integrity of character by their mediumship. Their lives are shortened, not to speak of the number that commit suicide, in order the 124 IDEOLOGY. sooner to reach the “summer land,” nor the many that have been rendered insane by entrancement, for there never was a state of real catalepsy or trance without more or less hallucination. What else can follow when, to become a medium, you must yield up your own self¬ hood and self-control? CHAPTER XV. BLOODY IDEAS, ALL BESMEARED WITH BLOOD. “Almost all things are by the law purged by blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission.” — Heb. ix. 22. First it may be well for me to state what the Chris¬ tian idea is and always was as to the “providence of God.” “ Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing ? And one of them shall not fall to the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye^not, therefore : ye are of more value than many sparrows.” — Matt. x. 29. “ Who provideth for the raven his food, when his young ones cry unto God.” — Job xxxviii. 41. Now, to show you that there is another side to this picture of “ God’s providence.” His “providence” has now been at work at least for six thousand years, and mathematics do not afford us the means of estimating the billions of billions of human lives that have been cut short by this same “providential care” that “provides the young raven its food.” Alas! who can tell how vast the number must have been destroyed by earth¬ quakes ! Christians and all the rest of us are forgetful of that terrible catastrophe a mid-Atlantic island, or continent, the Atlantis of Plato, —destroyed thousands of years ago by earthquakes and eruptions, preserved 125 126 IDEOLOGY. in history by the Egyptians, the Mexicans, Malays, and the Scandinavian, and less in detail by other nations. The great volcano of Jorullo, in Mexico, rose up in the shape of a bladder, from the centre of an arid plain, on the night of September the 29th, 1759. Subterranean noises, accompanied by earthquake shocks, had been heard in the vicinity since the preceding June ; but the elevation of a mountain five hundred feet high was the work of only a few hours. It was precociously lively, for it at once began belching forth fire and ashes, cover¬ ing the roofs of Oueretaro, forty-eight miles distant, with cinders. An earthquake in Aleppo destroyed thirty thousand lives; in 1850, at Naples, 6,000; in Italy, in 1851, 14,000, and a few years after, 2,200; in 1859, i n Peru, 5,000; in 1861, at Mandaga, 7,000; in 1863, at Phil- lipine Islands, 10,000; in i860, in Peru, 25,000; in Persia, in 1879, 1,000; in 1881, in Scio, 8,000; in 1883, in the Island of Ischia, 2,000; in 1833 and 1837, in Asia Minor, I4,676were made homeless ; and in 1883 an earthquake and volcano in Java destroyed 100,000 lives! These details are given as suggestive reminders. Earthquakes have occurred for thousands of years be¬ fore and since, all by this “providence of God” that “ counts the hairs of your head.” But the men, women, and children destroyed by them exceed the power of history or figures to show. Cyclones also have slain their uncounted thousands. Cyclones, tornadoes, and death in all forms; For “ God ” slays millions in an hour, As in the earthquakes, shipwrecks, and the storms, By his “providential power.” BLOODY IDEAS. 127 By Floods. — In 1813, a flood in Silesia destroyed 6,000 human lives ; in 1833, a flood in Canton, China, destroyed 1,000; in 1842, in St. Domingo, 5,000 more were thus destroyed ; in 1872, by a flood in Syria, 5,000 were engulfed; in 1876, a storm-wave swept over Bengal, and 90,000 human lives perished in it; in 1870, a flood in Hungary swept away 6,000 people and 12,000 of their dwellings. By Ferocious Beasts. — How this “ Providence ” man¬ aged to chew up forty and two Hebrew children we have already seen. God made their teeth and claws so sharp and nice, To be glutted with human gore ; As the lion, bear, tiger, rats, and mice, And savage creatures many more ! Famine. — The numbers starved to death every year, for thousands of years past, swell the beauties of this “ Providence ” more and more. Railroad Smash-Ups. —Are these catastrophes not as “providential” as when that omniscient eye “sees a sparrow fall ” ? Shipzvrecks. —Who could truly say that all such calamities, by which innumerable lives have been lost, are not as ‘ providential ” as any other events ? Tornadoes. — Who produces the tornado, if it be not the “ Creator ” of all worlds ? Volcanoes. —The eruption in 1877 in Cotopaxi de¬ stroyed 1,000 lives ; and another in 1815, in Tambaroora, destroyed all the 12,000 people, except a few that were left to perish. But I forbear to extend these details of war, of poisons, of the cholera and yellow fever, every one of 128 IDEOLOGY. which is brought about by the Bible God as really as he ever did anything else, besides destroying the lives that humanity had brought into existence. God sends our troubles as he plans the rain, And disasters on land or sea, Oft-repeated, without regard to pain, So shocking to our humanity. HE IS A BLOOD-THIRSTY GOD. And to quote all the Bible says in support of this statement, I should have no room for anything else. I will give you only a few texts : — “ They have moved me to jealousy by that which is not God. For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and it shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with the increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains.” — Deut. xxxii. 21, 22. “ And Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people. And he said, ‘ Behold the blood of the covenant which the Lord hath made with you.’ ” — Ex. xxiv. 8. The Jews were always engaged in war, and their God always fought for them ; and two instances only of his “ providential dealings ” with them I will refer to here: — “ And the Lord discomfited the enemies before Israel, and slew them with a great slaughter at Gibeon, and chased them along the way that goeth up to Beth-horan, and smote them unto Makkedah. And it came to pass, as they fled before Israel and were going down to Beth-horan, that the Lord cast great stones upon them, and they died. There were more that died with hailstones than they whom the children of Israel had slain with the sword.”— Josh. x. io, ii. The other miraculous “providence” in behalf of the Jewish bloody war, is as follows : — BLOODY IDEAS. 129 “Then spake Joshua to the Lord in the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, i Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon , and thou Moon, in the valley of Ajalon .’ And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. And there was no day like that before it or after it, that the Lord hearkened unto the voice of a man; for the Lord fought for Israel.” — Josh. x. 12, 14. DRIPPING WITH HUMAN BLOOD. The Christian churches are all of them founded on “ saving faith ” in human blood, and they show their imitation of their “ God idea ” in thirsting for human blood, else they never could have put to death so many millions of their Christian friends under a false charge of witchcraft. “To feed the church of God, which he has purchased with his own blood.” — Acts xx. 28. “ Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood.” — Rom. iii. 25. “Much more, then, being now justified by his blood.” — Rom. v. 9. “The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin.” — 1 John i. 7. “In whom we have redemption through his blood.” — Eph. i. 7. “Jesus, also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood.” — Heb. xiii. 12. “ Unto him that washed us from our sins in his own blood.” — Rev. i. 5. “And he took the cup, and gave it to them, and they all drank of it; and he said unto them, ‘ This is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many.’ ” — Mark xiv. 24. Hence, in the “sacrament” all Christians affirm their trust in human blood for salvation from a hell to which they were never exposed ! Whereas, there is not a particle of proof that Jesus died on the cross: 130 IDEOLOGY. he swooned. Nor could he have shed any amount of blood ; for he was alive shortly after, and declared that he had never been dead, as he said to his doubting disciples : — “ ‘ Behold my hands and my feet that it is I myself. Han¬ dle me and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.’ And he showed them his hands and his feet.” — Luke xxiv. 39. Thus have I shown you that — “God’s providence” is over all or none, Both of the living and the dead ; And thus you can see what this God has done, That shocks humanity with dread. CHAPTER XVI. BARBARIAN LIES. With the pathology and the ideology of the trance and insanity, I have been professionally familiar for sixty years or more. Nor can I feel any regret in view of my twenty years’ experience in Methodist revivals, where I had the most ample opportunity for witnessing the enhancement of my “converts,” that were to be the “stars in my future crown of rejoicing.” There it was that I learned the reason for a statement attributed to Jesus, as to the “broad way ” and the “few that are saved;” for the trance depends, like “conversion,” upon the temperament. Hence, it is only “the few,” in any multitude, that are “converted,” only “a few” that are “entranced,” “a few,” very “few,” that ever become mediums. The trance is self-induced always. It is not produced by the mere volition of another; so are what is called “miraculous cures” self-induced, and I am indebted to the experience I had, in getting up Methodist revivals, for my knowledge of the trance and its correlative phe¬ nomena. These religious trances I never supposed produced by the “ Holy Ghost; ” and they put me upon an experimental course of investigation that resulted in the scientific lectures and investigations that I after- I 3 I 132 IDEOLOGY. wards gave on Ideology, throughout these United States, from 1836 to 1852. When false ideas are adopted long enough to become crystallized in the human mind, I have found it of no use to point out their falsehood. There is no “royal road” inherent in the human mind for distinguishing between truth and error. We except the social rela¬ tions, the living source, and the foundation of all virtue, which are instinctive alike in all minds. Hence, it would not be of much use for me to tell of the numer¬ ous cases I have known, during the last sixty years, of theologians who have studied the Bible the most, and have, for this reason, utterly rejected it as a “revela¬ tion ” of anything, except ignorance and credulity. One minister I know who read the New Testament through upon his knees in prayer who now does not believe a word of it! And I could fill a volume with the names of Christian ministers who within the last fifty years have outgrown their faith in Christianity. The Bible is a barbarian book. It was written by barbarians. They may, indeed, have believed what they wrote, when they said that their “God” had “mesmer¬ ized ” Adam, because he could not create for him a wife in any other way; and that their “God ” had made a serpent, with human speech, in order to tempt Adam and ruin the human race, and all theologians believe this. A lie is a falsehood told with an intention to deceive. A falsehood may be uttered when there is no motive for any deception, when there is no lie ; and as we find in the Bible a number of writers and a conglomeration of falsehoods, and upon a variety of subjects of sur¬ passing importance to humanity, this old barbarian BARBARIAN LIES. 133 book, in its makeup, becomes a gigantic lie. It is such a monstrous lie as to its origin, and the mischief it has done to the human race, that it should be exposed at at once and forever. One fact may be here referred to as demonstrating this truth as to the Bible, and it is this one, namely : that those believing in the divinity of this book have murdered millions of each other, under the false suspicion of witchcraft. Nor is there any other way for accounting for such a destruction of human life than by supposing that Christians must have been misled by faith in that old Jewish book. The first chapters in the Bible are sufficient to prove how wofully both the Jews and Christians have been deceived by the monstrous lies recorded in that book. Its account of God having entranced Adam, when he was the only man living, is a lie. If this were true, it would follow that humanity, Christianity, the Devil, Jesus, and all that has followed since Adam’s trance, have depended upon that state of trance, without which he would never have had any wife. Nay, more: but for the trance, Naaman, Abraham, and Daniel would never have known that there were any “E-lo-him,” Gods, two, or two thousand. One man knows as well as another how many there are. Humanity has long been tossed about With this “ word of God ” for a guide, And hence our race has always been in doubt, As well it knew how some one had lied ! CHAPTER XVII. HUMANITY FOREVER. And now I hope that I may have shown to the impar¬ tial reader that my Hygienic and Psychological discov¬ eries originated the new idea of self-induction and self-evolution, agreeing with all we know of selfhood, self-growth, and self-control in the whole of things. As the wound is always self-healed, so are all forms of dis¬ ease self-cured, when cured at all. What are called by Christians miraculous cures are self-made, and usually by faith in sensational ideas, such as caused the trance of Peter and Paul. During my public lectures on Ideol¬ ogy throughout these United States, on my platform I had more than five hundred surgical operations per¬ formed on patients in a state of mental anaesthesia, self-induced. Such marvels as these were never known in Christianity, nor will they ever be produced by “ Christian Science,” I think. Now, how is it, my friend, that you do not seem to see that self-cures are constantly occurring in all the different schools of medicine, and in spite of the method of cure ? The nervous system is plastic in this regard, and the nutritive economy is always ready to heal the wound, to mend a broken bone, and to cure any cura¬ ble disease. But a knowledge of the primordial laws T 34 HUMANITY FOREVER. 135 and forces of hygiene and psychology must be better than Christianity can be in the relief of human suffer¬ ing, I am sure; and * in attestation of this, which I believe to be the highest and best method, I have a work' Entitled, “ Longevity: the Secret of Permanent Health Explained and Demonstrated by Forty Thou¬ sand Recent Centenarian Cases.” Honestly and sincerely, for many long years, I tried the Christian method of relief until, as a Japanese wri¬ ter says, I found that Christianity was a fraud, and led captive at the feet of the scientific world. It cures no wounds that its dogmatism has not previously made, and utterly ignores science and human reason. Hence, it is said (Luke xiii. 23) it only cures “a few,” because only a few are of that temperament, that state of igno¬ rance and credulity, which exercises “saving faith” in phenomena believed to be mystical, no matter whether they be so or not. In Nature’s order we see instinctive movements from the mineral to the vegetable, from the vegetable to the animal; and thence to innervation, sensation, consciousness, thinking, memory, and ideas. Nature’s order is alive with instinctive movements throughout, from the lowest to the highest, from first to last; as in the whole of things in this world, and in the solar system and the universe, there are dual move¬ ments that indicate analogies of consciousness and memory. The solar system knows what to do, and this it does. So in the mineral and the mental worlds. You plant the seed, and it knows how to come up the same in kind. The seed, in favorable condition, knows what it wants, and securing it, the germ 136 IDEOLOGY. grows ; and here I refer to Nature’s instinctive provi¬ dence, infinitely more real and trustworthy than the Christian idea of “God’s providence,” that is said to “pity the sparrow that dies;” and this, too, when he destroys a hundred thousand men, women, and children, as in Java not long since. The real providential work in Nature’s order may be seen in all things, as in the vegetable kingdom; it deposits the food with the germ that is to feed upon it in commencing its growth. But, higher still, it provides our food for us before we are born, and enough to last us a year after we begin to live, when Humanity was once young, —what our Christian friends never seem to think of. They are obfuscated by “saving faith” in their ideals. They have not yet discovered, what be¬ came apparent to me when I was myself a Methodist revival minister, that ideals are always imaginary , never real. The human race was once young, as the child is to-day. Now, we know how characteristic ignorance , faith , and helplessness are of childhood, and such was the condition of the race when the story was current about a first man “created,” how he was entranced, and one of his ribs cut out to make him a wife of. Yet to-day, that silly story is drilled into the minds of children, in the Sunday schools ; and they believe it, as their ancestors did before them. When the masons build a house of brick or stone, it is easy for them to build into the structure their own names, so that they could never be wiped out without destroying the building. Simi¬ larly so with the young brain. As the instinctive forces are building it up, by the addition of inconceiv- HUMANITY FOREVER. 137 ably small particles, then, if false ideas are recorded by memory upon its laminated corrugations, it becomes hard to rub them out. Much depends upon the temperaments; and these may be represented by the metals from lead to steel. From metal that is easily impressed, like lead, we know how easily the marks may be removed. On steel, it is difficult to make an impression ; and when made it is hard to remove. Thus we see many Christians, good people, it may be, carry these false ideas down with them to the grave. It was a barbarous age when the God-idea was origi- nated from a state of trance and mediumship ; and in this function the snake and the Devil were the first to figure. But while the mind has no inherent faculty for discriminating between the truthful and the false ideas advanced by another, we are all controlled by our own ideas alike. And, as I have before said, a*!l the brains of Christians, Popes, and priests that ever live:!, if united in one cranium, say as big as this globe, would be nothing more nor less than a human mind; nor could it evolve any idea above the human. However inspired it might be, all its utterances would be only human, and no human idea can measure omniscience or illimit¬ able space. Similarly as each one of us aspires and grows to man¬ hood, does our humanity grow,—only from within; in despite of its youth, in despite of all Gods, in de¬ spite of the slain by witchcraft, ancient or modern. It provides for all its own wants, and heals all the wounds made by Christianity and other forms of mysticism. It is even now a complete success. Still progressing and IDEOLOGY. 138 encouraging, let us hope more and more for the future. Happy are those who can duly appreciate that paternity and maternity in humanity whence they were born. And what of youth and imperfection ? The human hope does shine in every breast, That we’ll outgrow all barbaric misdirection, When on Humanity at last we rest. IDEOLOGY: THE ROMANCE AND MIRACLE IN IDEAL CONTAGION AND MENTAL EPIDEMICS. MEN GO MAD IN CROWDS. By Dr. LaRoy Sunderland, FOUNDATION FELLOW OF THE SOCIETY OF SCIENCE, LITERATURE AND ART, LONDON. VOLUME II. PUBLISHED BY J. P. MENDUM, BOSTON, MASS, AT THE OFFICE OF THE BOSTON INVESTIGATOR. 1885. Copyright, 1885. PREFACE. One origin, one nature, and one destiny ! One humanity, one life, and one hope ,— in humanity’s lap to rest! As the future is better to one, so it must be to each one and to all. Has not Nature “ made of one blood all nations of men, to dwell upon all the face of the earth, and deter¬ mined the times before appointed and the bounds of their habitation ? ” And is there any “ church,” any society, any clique or ring, more “sacred,” more “ holy ” or divine, than a human family ? Is there, or can there be, a greater “ miracle ” than man is himself? Or, if you say that gods work the miracles, I reply that the “ God idea ” is human, and the miracle of living human brains. No ideas of gods or ghosts were ever known until there were human brains for their evolution. In all we know, therefore, of the whole of things, man is himself the greatest wonder, and of mir¬ acles he is at the head of the list. Motion and chemism are perfected in manhood. He is the only living organism we know that evolves ideas. in IV PREFACE. The social relations of humanity are the living foundation and the only source of virtue, — jus¬ tice, goodness, and truthfulness, — and its prac¬ tice does not depend upon books nor creeds, nor alleged revelations from myths in the sky. From the fraternal element in humanity comes all we know of justice, equity, and individual sovereignty. “ But,” says one, “ if the elements of fraternity and virtue are innate in humanity,'how is it to be accounted for that the human race has become so much divided and broken up into belligerent parties ? ” It is not any fault in virtue that the race has become divided into nations. But it may be for a want of the fraternal when the nations fight and devour one another. And there is another cause more potent for discords and persecutions, and that is found in false ideas. I have attempted to show that the human mind is controlled by false ideas, that hold it to any given course of conduct with equal power as if they were true; and to this state of things it is owing that Christians fail to yield to humanity any credit for the good that humanity has done for itself. It is for this reason that Christians persecute those that never persecuted them. Nay, more: for they persecute and make war upon each other. Uncounted millions of Chris¬ tian men and women and children have been slain by Christian hands! It is appalling to PREFACE. V contemplate the immense numbers murdered by Christians for alleged witchcraft. This, too, when science shows that for Christianity itself there is no better or more appropriate term than this one of witchcraft. And how many ignorant and silly people have those mountebanks, revivalists, be¬ witched? Hence, in all preceding ages, both Protestant and Popish Christians have perse¬ cuted not only one another, but “ all the rest of mankind.” And here I am reminded of a recent case of persecution that seemed to me as black and infamous as that in former ages, when Christians were less informed, and put the objects of their hatred to a cruel death. I allude to that hard¬ hearted bigot, J. C., in his having followed and persecuted the Liberal editor of The New York Truth Seeker in 1883, when he was in a foreign country on his tour around the world. Was there ever in Popery a more unfraternal deed than that? It was not enough, it seems, for this Christian harpy, Cook, to perambulate over these United States uttering his slanders where Mr. Bennett was far better known, and a thousand times more appreciated for his moral worth, than this Cook ever was or ever will be; but, true to the persecuting instincts of Chris¬ tianity, he followed Mr. Bennett into a foreign country, where he may have supposed that they VI PREFACE. were both of them unknown. And there, in Ird’ this Cook embraced the first chance he had or reaching the public ear for charging India's guest as having been convicted of some crime in America for which he had been fined and imprisoned ! Could anything be meaner and less fraternal ? And that is Christianity, — that form of faith in mysticism which for two thousand years has persistently proclaimed hell-fire and eternal damnation for a vast majority of the human race! The Christian admits no one as a brother who is not bamboozled and victimized by the same delusion. Hence it is an enemy to humanity. Nor is it possible to conceive how the human race could have a greater foe. It is false in its inception, false in its foundation, false in its theory, and deserves everlasting execration from the good and true everywhere upon the face of this globe. We never hear of persecution from Freethink¬ ers and Liberals. Infidels never slay their own children to secure their immediate admission to paradise. Nor is it the fault of Liberals that they do not recognize in Joseph Cook “a friend and a brother.” And you may have heard of that English philanthropist and brother to the human race, George Thompson, who twice visited this coun¬ try in behalf of universal emancipation. Well, PREFACE. Vll I have a picture of a poor slave that Mr. Thomp¬ son gave me fifty years ago, now on my table, and with the chains of slavery it bears this motto: v “ Am I not a friend and a brother ? ” Hail! to those of every land and name, All who prefer Fraternity to fame, And those conflicts that cover man with shame Unworthy most, and cruel! One brotherhood forever hence is mine ; From this centre the truth shall ever shine, For the highest good, human and divine ,— The purest, brightest jewel. • Quincy, Mass., March 31, 1SS5. CONTENTS. I. — Gullibility. II. — Mental Epidemics. III. — The South Sea Bubble. IV. — The Mississippi Scheme. V. — The Crusades. VI. — The Trance Epidemic. VII. — Fascination. VIII. — Religious Revivals. IX. — Clairvoyance. X. — The Witchcraft Madness. XI. — Modern Witchcraft. XII. — Mediumship a Wide-spread Epidemic. XIII. -PSYCHOMETRY AND DEADHEADS. XIV. — The Contagious Dance of Death. XV. — And What Then? XVI. — Science. VI11 CHAPTER I. GULLIBILITY. “Oft in my laughing rhymes I name a gull, But this new term will many questions breed, Wherefore, at first, I will express at full Who is a true and perfect gull indeed.” — Sir J. Davis , Ep. 2. The first important question to be answered is, as to the practicable in gullibility. What is the real benefit ? What is human life assisted by the practicable in fanaticism ? Infatuation. What is the good and the true that comes to us when we fancy ourselves on a royal road to science or to heaven ? A fanatic in the oil regions of Pennsylvania, speaking of one of his own clique in gullibility, who by “prospecting” successfully, as many others have done, calls it “ the practical in modern mediumship.” As we conceive gullibility to be that mental condition which allows one to be duped, it cannot be supposed of so much consequence as to how we may be gulled ! This appertains more or less to childhood and adoles¬ cence, and a man may be a child in this regard when a hundred years old. The one was young once, and it was then certainly gulled as any one is to-day. In one respect each of us may lack in experience, and on one subject we may be more liable to be gulled. This will depend not only upon the subject, but upon our make-up, i 2 IDEOLOGY. our temperament, our idiocrasy, our age, our education, our circumstances and friends at the time. Those called “ sensitives,” that have credulity, or an easiness of belief, on a given subject, are not so apt to ask any questions as to the practical in gullibility. They are deceived and gulled but too often. Nor is this the fault of science or of humanity. We are all children, — ignorant, helpless, and credulous, — before we are matured in manhood. Nor do I perceive how I could do ample justice to ideal contagion and men¬ tal epidemics, without a brief consideration of the real, the practical. How do people act when they are gulled ? And, as to the practical, what is the difference in what is called infatuation, fanaticism, and mental derange¬ ment ? All are upon a dead level to believe what seems to us true. Nor are men to be quarrelled with as to what they may or may not believe. But their conduct may be criticised. It is the conduct in what one talks and ■ puts in his habits of living that becomes the practica¬ ble, and this is a legitimate matter for criticism. But a very small percentage of the human are born on a royal road. Only now and then one is born a “ sensitive,” a somnambulist, a “clairvoyant,” ora “wonder-monger.” Only a few rely on “faith ” in things unseen. “ If on it you dare rely, That faith itself is power.” Only concede that the idea is of the dead, and mat¬ ters unknown to science and the physical world, and the credulity excited so as to induce implicit trust in this idea, and the corresponding phenomena are thus induced in the mind and nervous system. GULLIBILITY. 3 1 « A woman who had been lame for a long time, in the poor-house at-, heard of certain cures made by the waters of an “ all-healing spring,” recently discovered in that vicinity. She wearied the superintendent out with her importunities for some of that water ; and so, finding that the woman would not be pacified, the super¬ intendent filled a few bottles with water from his own well, and he carried them to the cripple, and expressed the hope that they “would answer.” Whereupon the old woman was overjoyed, and no sooner having applied the water she threw aside her crutch, and danced about in her ecstacy. She had been cured, and she remained cured for some weeks, rejoicing in the virtues of the water from the “all-healing spring.” In the mean time the super¬ intendent, thinking the joke too good to keep, reported what he had done, and this of course soon after reached the ears of the cured cripple, when, alas ! her faith gave out, she took to her crutch, and was lame again, pre¬ cisely as before. A sick man, not far from my office in New York, called on his physician for a prescription ; and the doctor, being somewhat engaged, wrote on a small piece of paper, which he threw down upon the table to the patient, saying, “There,—take that! ” The sick man seized the paper and went home. In a few days he returned to pay his bill, when he declared himself cured by swallowing that paper the doctor gave him to “take;” but he added that “it was rather hard to swallow.” Volumes might be filled with similar details, showing that faith is equally powerful over the nervous system when exercised in a false idea. Now, observe, that in 4 IDEOLOGY. what I have here said I illustrate and prove the phi¬ losophy of faith, which is a human volition, and a key¬ stone to the structure erected by Christianity and modern mediumship. Is not Mr. Andrew J. Davis a “sensitive” ? He is a voluminous writer, and has uttered numerous good ideas and true. And yet, in the rank and file of mod¬ ern mediumship, who is more of a “wonder-monger” than he? He began what he calls his “clairvoyant career” in 1844 by an explicit endorsement of the Bible and Christianity. He was then under the aus¬ pices of “Mesmerism;” and of that exploded theory he approved, and always when entranced, by the sug¬ gestion of another, he was wont to bend his body over on one side, and call it “ Clairmativeness.” Thus, he commenced as a “seer” and “clairvoyant ” by express¬ ing the most extravagant claims to perfect knowledge. In his lectures on “Clairmativeness,” he says : — “ I have now attained the highest degree of Knowledge which the human mind is capable of acquiring. I am mas¬ ter of the general sciences , can speak all languages, impart instruction upon those deep and hidden things in nature which the world has not been able to solve.” — Lectures on Clairmativeness , by A. J. Davis , New York. Printed by Searing and Pratt , 1845. “ Clairmativeness signifies clearly reversed. The minds of magnetized persons are completely reversed when in the trance and clairvoyant state.” — lb. p. 34. Six years after the above was published, that is, in 1852, Mr. A. J. Davis published the third volume of his “Great Harmonia,” and on page 210 of this volume, while in the same state of “perfect vision” and clair¬ voyance,” Mr. Davis professes to repiidiate his clairvoy¬ ance of 1845. Yet, on page 265, in this same volume, GULLIBILITY. 5 he reaffirms his claim to perfect knowledge, and shows that his repudiation was not real and sincere. No “wonder-monger,” not even Jesus, ever claimed knowl¬ edge in so large a sense as Mr. Davis, who still informs us that his eyes are big enough to “ see beyond the boiLnds of time and space” In 1847 I met Mr. Davis in Charlestown, Mass., when I presented him with a copy of a book I had just issued on Pathetism (Ideology), in which I had criti¬ cised his assumptions somewhat. Mr. Davis took the book, and, without opening it, held it between his two hands, when he said to me : — “ I do not have to read any book. I merely hold it in my hands in this way, when I thus become sufficiently familiar with its contents immediately without reading it.” But I could not help thinking that method smacked somewhat of gullibility and fanaticism, and, when I came to read one of Mr. Davis’s next volumes that he issued, I could not very well resist the conviction that he had, after all, read the book I gave him; for I noticed ten or twelve quotations of my language that Mr. Davis had transferred to his work, and without any quotation marks, precisely as if they were original with him, — albeit, he did venture to say, I think, in his table of contents, “a quotation from ‘Pathetism.’ ” In the spiritual writings of Swedenborg, the terms “wonderful,” “most wonderful,” and “wonders seen and heard,” are of constant occurrence ; and the first word usually uttered by all who witness the phenomena of which the “mysterious rap” is the type is “Won¬ derful ! ” But to the truly philosophical eye it is not wonderful at all when people, abandoning themselves 6 IDEOLOGY. to these phenomena, we find them carried into extremes of fanaticism, and giving currency to absurdities like the following, which have recently appeared in what may be called the official papers of mediumship. The Boston Banner of Light teaches that individual forms are never destroyed, as when an acorn is eaten by the pig it remains ever an acorn. Both that paper and all other Spiritual ones teach that spirits have the power not only to annihilate the human will, but that spirits do, also, remove the medium’s own spirit from the body. These papers teach the silly notion that the human spirit can, and that it does, leave the body, and appear to mediums in two or more places at once. They teach also that the form and conscious individu¬ ality of a spirit is ungenerated and eternal. “ Narra¬ tives” of “spirits ” are published, in which they give an account of their consciousness before they were born , and also of consciousness of their condition in the foetal state. Indeed, volumes of this trash have been published. If such ideas do not prove gullibility, there is no meaning in them. So of other mediums. Here I must add that a medium by the name of C. Pinkham called on me not long since, with his prospectus for a “New God and a new Bible,” which was “written by Jesus, formerly of Nazareth.” He calls himself Prof. C. P. George Washington, celestial , spiritual clairvoyant and pyschometristf “ vicegerent of the new Godandjesns Christ upon earth." From page 31 of his new Bible I quote the following characteristic paragraph : — “ Is man always made through animal congress of oppo¬ site sexes ? No. After spirits are formed, and have passed GULLIBILITY. 7 into the spiritual sphere, they may act upon and through the most perfected orang-outangs, and impregnate the egg of the mother, if taken just at the right time, when it passes down the fallopian tube, with a fine essence, so that a child will be brought forth without animal congress, and superior to what can be brought forth from opposite sexes in the body; and by the former process was Jesus, formerly of Nazareth, brought forth by the action of a celestial being upon and through Mary his mother. This made Jesus more perfect than he could have been if he had been begotten through animal congress by a father in the body.” And, for aught I know, this same Pinkham may have been born of an orang-outang, and may thus be con¬ sidered as a living demonstration as to what the mon¬ key tribe and the mediums can do. But if this be not gullibility, what should it be called ? Gulled from the beginning. Here is a “message” from a “dead hero,” that was given to me nearly forty years ago by one of the Fox family. This was communicated to one of the girls: — “ Mysteries are going to be revealed. The world will be enlightened. I sign my name : Benjamin Franklin.” The invisibles assume any names or any shape that suits the fancy of their victim, and thus the medium is flattered with the idea of “guardian spirits,” and his fulfilment of some “important mission” which will astonish the world. This is practical gullibility; and this same idea of something “wonderful” to be done or said by each medium has been the characteristic charm in mediumship, from the first rap to the last one. Hence it has come to pass that large numbers of mediums, overcome for a while with the idea of “spirits,” have finally recovered their self-control, and 8 IDEOLOGY. have thus been enabled to recover themselves from the hallucinations attempted upon them. Scores of such mediums I have known, and thousands of them could be heard from throughout the country. The “miracle” and the “wonder” cease when we comprehend the forces that have produced the pheno¬ mena. When, therefore, it so happens that one himself forms an element in these forces, we must bear in mind that he cannot pull himself up by his own shoe-strings. The lid is never large enough to cover itself. Man never makes a fulcrum of himself for the lever by which he attempts the removal of heavy bodies. Consider, moreover, the condition of the human mind when it becomes gulled by the intense excitement of the organs of wonder, and, this excitement extending by the well- known laws of sympathetic imitation, large masses of mind become thus fused and, as it were, melted to¬ gether. Thus, in all religious revivals, all panics, all mental epidemics, in the crusades, in all wars, in. witchcraft, and now in the case of mediums. Thus it is we find persons bewitched with the idea of the “trance,” and “spirit control.” They seek to become mediums, and pay large fees to mountebanks whose professional business it is to travel about the country for the pur¬ pose of “developing mediums.” These charlatans work upon the principle, “ The greater the ignorance, the more spirit control”! And I have seen the operations in what are yclept “developing circles.” The operator seizes the arms of his victim, and, shaking them violently, repeats over and over again, “Now — now the spirits have got hold of you!” “ There, there, you see now you can’t stop! ” A GULLIBILITY. 9 pencil is put into the would-be medium’s hand, and then the operator jerks the hand over a piece of paper, say¬ ing, “There, now — now you can write under spirit control ! ” In this manner the minds of the ignorant and credulous are worked upon from day to day, until “simultaneously they believe and comply .” Here, for example, is the style in which gullibility advertises : — “ Two Days’ Meeting, Sunday, at 2 J and 7^ p. m. ; also Monday, at 2J and 7^ p. m. The Heavenly Father, Jesus the Lamb of God, Apostles, and the Holy Angels, will all manifest their intense love and interest for all mortals, wherever they are. Some tests given of spirit friends. Healing and speaking, &c. A glorious day is coming. No. 588 Washington Street. Grace Royal and four female mediums. Seats free.” This is from the Boston “Herald,” and a sample of what is constantly appearing in all the mystical papers. Indeed, you may find constantly advertised in the columns of these papers what are called “dealings ” or “conversations” “with the dead,” including Adam, Eve, Solomon, and all the prophets. Nor is this as¬ sumption confined to the lower class of mediumistic mountebanks ; for it is characteristic of the foremost mediums, recognized as such in the ranks of medium- ship. Here is what J. L. Pardee, a well-known medium (that was awfully scared when he came to die), says of himself: — “ I will now give you the view which has been given to me, as I believe, by not only ancient Grecian and Hebrew intelligences in the spirit, but the Nazarene himself. As I believe that the latter communicates directly with many, I do not think it a piece of vanity or immodesty to declare that I believe he directly communicates with myself.” — Banner of Light , Feb. 29, 1868. IO IDEOLOGY. This extract is from a long article endorsing the com¬ mon error in respect to Christ’s imagined death upon the cross. Oh! no, Mr. P., it would not be considered “a piece of vanity ” in you at all were you to affirm that the moon was made of green cheese, and you knew the fact, because you had been there and tasted of it! The credulous gullet must be large, indeed, to swallow such stuff as this. An article under the head of “ Mediumistic Laws,” in No. 107, “ Herald of Progress,” by one John C. Grin¬ ned, pretends to explain the difference “between tweedledum and tweedledee; ” and A. J. Davis en¬ dorses it as “explaining many things in Spiritualism.” And such trash as this is called an explanation! Take one sentence as a specimen of the lucidity of this dumbhead : — “ Why spirits do not apparently remember what they have communicated through other mediums. — The impression of a spirit on the memory of a medium whose memory is weak is not as good as on one whose memory is strong. The spirit never forgets, but, owing to the organs of the medium, cannot convey what he wishes. When the spirit apparently fails to remember what he communicated at another circle, it is the medium’s memory that is at fault, not the spirit’s.” Is it not true, as has been often said before, that mediumship is a nose of wax, which can be twisted, compressed, drawn out, tucked in, and shaped into ten thousand forms, so as to suit the ever-varying notions of those who yield their minds in taking things for granted about another world ? “ Spirits never forget.” Indeed! And pray, how do you know that spirits never forget ? See, here, in the Banner- man, for gullibility : — GULLIBILITY. I I “ The question raised, as to whether the spirit of a mortal can leave its abode and manifest itself to parties at a distance, sufficiently clear to be identified, while the medium is being used by am invisible spirit for the purpose of giving a com¬ munication from the spirit-world, has been so often tested that the fact is well established in the minds of Spiritualists generally. In the Message Department of the ‘Banner’ this week, our invisible friends discuss the subject in regard to the frequent visits across the Atlantic of Mrs. Conant’s spirit, while one of the invisibles was holding converse at our Public Circle in Boston direct through the agency of Mrs. C.’s physical form. It will interest the reader.” — Banner of Light , June 23, 1866. That mortals of a peculiar tcmperame?it may, in their own brains, have conceptions of distant persons, is true enough, and, for all such conceptions, Psychology is abundantly able to account, and without admitting this absurd notion in the Banner- man’s head. He may believe it, and quote the testimonies in his “ Message Department ” for it, as he may quote them also for any vagaries that ever entered a human noddle. As an illustration of the apocryphal character of these pretended revelations, take the following from “The Herald of Progress” and “The Banner of Light.” Yet the trash contained in these so-called “communications” is highly commended by Judge Edmunds “as the most valuable and important work that the literature of Spiritualism has yet produced ” ! Here is “Joshua,” “ Solomon,” and “George Fox’s” advertisement: —- “ ‘ Communications from the Spirit World, given by Lorenzo Dow and others, through a lady.’ Price, 25 cts. Also, through the same medium, ‘ The Rights of Man, by George Fox.’ Price, 6 cents. In press, and will be issued February 7 14th, ‘ Further Communications from the World of Spirits, 12 IDEOLOGY. on subjects highly important for the human family. By Joshua, Solomon, and others.’ Through a lady.’ ” Judge Edmunds makes this significant remark, in puffing the above senseless stuff, namely, “ that the external manifestations are dying out .” The meaning of which, I suppose, is, that the masses have gone so deeply into the indulgence of nervous phenomena, which they attribute to spirits, that the physical man¬ ifestations are dying out. Hence we may look for any amount of these so-called revelations from “ Solomon,” “Joshua,” “Lord Bacon,” and not excepting “Robin¬ son Crusoe” and “Sinbad the sailor” ! The reader must not suppose, for one moment, that the gulled, gullers, nor the gullible are confined to the humbler walks of life, not merely among the mediums, the Mormons, or religious fanatics of either class ; for we often find that the more learned a person is in one department of science, the more he is unfitted inci¬ dentally for another department. Take, for example, the case of Dr. Robert Hare, who died not long since in Philadelphia. I was acquainted with him, conversed with him, and only allude to his case here because, with his “ machines ” for calling down Washington, Jeffer¬ son, and other noted dead men, from “heaven,” he gulled multitudes of others. If there was ever a man justly pronounced a fanatic, Prof. Hare of Philadelphia became one previous to his death. He reported that he had not only transmuted copper into gold , but that in turning the “machine” that he had invented, he had, and he could, at any time, call the spirits up or down from the vasty deep ! He had gained the practical in gullibility ! GULLIBILITY. 13 And I may here refer to a woman I knew when a little girl, in Western New York, who has been gulled herself “many a time and oft.” I refer to her by each of the names of the men to whom she has been mar¬ ried, for aught I know : “ Mrs. Cora V. Hatch, Daniels, Tappan, Richmond.” She certainly had names enough of her own, and without any reasons except those found in gullibility, for her standing on a public platform and announcing herself as “Theodore Parker,” John Wes¬ ley, Webster, Jefferson, and Calhoun! She is gulled; and one she had gulled gets off, about Cora, in “The Herald of Progress,” Feb. 9, 1861, the following eulogy: — “ Perhaps the finest and best adapted instrument these un¬ seen powers have yet employed is Mrs. Cora V. Hatch. “Daniel Webster, Clay, Parker, Andrew Jackson, speak through her organism ; not brilliantly , not perchance with the glow and burnish, the bone and sinew, they would employ, could they reanimate the refuse which is encoffined in their family vaults, but they speak satisfactorily, — more than that.” “ Mrs. Hatch has one fault , which I hope her spirit friends will overcome. She iterates and reiterates the leading thought of her discourse too constantly. She manipulates it so frequently that it loses force, — like a clay image molded by a sculptor. Strong, bold is it in its first conception and formation ; yet, touched again and again, the prominences are flattened, the hollows filled in, till, from very repetition, the original idea is lost sight of, and the promised effect vanishes.” “Not brilliantly”! No, indeed; nothing of that sort ever fell from her lips, “entranced” or not, that came from Webster, Clay, Parker, or Jackson. And this brings me to the confession made by the writer in the “ Herald,” which I conceive to be fatal to the 14 IDEOLOGY. claims so often made by Mrs. Hatch, and others like her, when we are told that Webster, Clay, and other different personages speak through her. We also see Mrs. Hatch’s gullibility when we notice how constantly she makes each one she attempts to personify copy all her faults. Furthermore, what a characteristic of ignorance and incompetency in public speakers ! See, too, what a compliment the writer has paid to Webster, Clay, and Parker, in the expression of her hope that they will “overcome” their “faults” in elocution ! A nervous woman shuts her eyes and sinks, it may be, into a dreamy state, more or less resembling a state of real trance or somnambulism ; and while in this condition, as is the case in ordinary diseases, the brain becomes excited, and she gets off a harangue in respect to “ the seventh sphere and the sixth circle ” ! This same Mrs. H., or whatever her present name may be, has been reported as delivering lectures from Thomas Jefferson, Henry Clay, and others ; and the Spiritual papers have published her performances pre¬ cisely as if their conductors did really believe that Andrew Jackson and other defunct personages got inside of her and used the language which she has attributed to them ! Judge Edmonds, of New York, was a real olla podrida y a high-going, high-flying medium. He had “messages” and “ communications ” from “ Lord Bacon,” and of which he published royal octavos. In addressing him, Judge Edmonds assures us that Lord Bacon used such blarney as the following ; and, if this be admitted as true, the spirit of Bacon has been gidled since he was dead ! Just read this twaddle : — GULLIBILITY. 15 “ Dear Judge ! dear Judge ! dear Judge ! Your mind and mine are developed very much alike! This conversation with you, dear Judge, is a green spot in my history.” — Spiritiialisnt , R. J. W. Edmonds, vol. i. p. 373, &c. Of course the “dear Judge” swallowed all this. He is a “learned Judge,” and is not so likely to be de¬ ceived. I have seen accounts of spiritual communica¬ tions in the Judge’s family, upon which the writers relied implicitly, and gave the character of Mr. Ed¬ monds as a legal Judge as the reason! A “legal Judge” forsooth! and he a medium, susceptible to abnormal changes in his own nervous system, all from the states of his own mind, and on these accounts more liable to be gulled. Read these two volumes published by Judge E., and then say if you can believe that he has not misjudged in respect to the numerous conversations he thinks he has had with Swedenborg and Bacon. Indeed, throughout the pages of these two volumes there are characteristic “manifestations” that prove beyond all reasonable doubt that the author has indeed been most essentially gulled, either by his own spirit in the body, or by some other spirit out of the body, it matters not which. Judge Edmonds is a high example of gullibility. He had visions, and speaks of “spirits” in his presence that were so gulled that they had no recognition of each other’s presence ! Yet he trusted in his own ideas of what no one can know ; and, of course, he had visions, and saw “spirits” with his external eyes, and held familiar conversations with Swedenborg and with Lord Bacon. I do not perceive, from anything I find in these volumes, that Judge Edmonds has ever had any sus- 16 IDEOLOGY. picion of the infamous conduct of which Lord Bacon was guilty, but evidently pleased and flattered with the belief that he was really holding converse with “ the distinguished personage ” of Lord Bacon, the Judge has allowed his joy to slop over, thus showing that he has been gulled. Here is another paragraph from the “oldest spiritual paper,” showing how this movement is staked upon errors that were exploded long ago : — “ I have found that a person whose mind or will-powex is stronger than, or superior to, another’s, can, in the body, mesmerize or control the body of another, and drive there¬ from his mind or soul power, and cause that body to act as he may will; and that is admitted by scientific men, and is called mesmerism. But if that same mind out of the body controls another in the body, causing him to say what the mind controlling wills, that is Spiritualism.”— Banner of Light , Dec. 7, 1867. When a gullible speaks of the human “ will,” or the power of choice, or selfhood, as being “ controlled ” by God or a ghost, he is either a Christian or a fanatical medium, and perhaps both. It shows the practical in gullibility when one be¬ comes a fanatic and infatuated with his own notions. Originally, we are told, this term fanaticus signified an “inspired priest,” who was insane and frantic. It was applied to the priests when they became raving with divine fury ; and the Boston “ Banner ” tells us that J. M. Peebles has published a book about “ the prac¬ tical in mediumship,” when he “struck ile” in the oil regions of Pennsylvania, as the reader may see in that paper of Nov. 21, 1868. And the same paper gives an account of practical gullibility in its report of a medium GULLIBILITY. 17 by the name of Marble, who, in Lynn, Mass., “ under spirit control,” was engaged in drilling a passage through a mountain of solid rock, with the futile and visionary hope of finding gold at the bottom! In this labor he excavated nearly one hundred and seventy-five feet, in a zig-zag course, going only forty feet below the surface, and turning round in a circle, and finally stop¬ ping a mile or more from the bottom, and nearly under the place where he began many years ago. During all this foolish labor this medium was supported by the mediumists who visited his place ; but death, a few years ago, put an end to the “practical ” in this case, after excavating that primitive rock in vain for twenty years! It would require far more space than I can allow to describe all the romance and the miracles that at¬ tracted thousands to “Dungeon Rock” and “High Rock,” in Lynn, Mass. At the latter place “ a spirit babe ” was alleged to have been born, who was to become the motive-power of a machine for perpetual motion that J. M. Spear had invented! Yes, perpetual motion ! Think how miraculous all this would have been ; and, in spite of the failure, from the throat of J. M. Spear there went up a shout of joy when the medium declared her parturient labors were over, as this lady herself assured me; for I give these details as I received them from Mrs. Newton herself. And well do I remember the joy that thrilled through the ranks of mediumship when that “thing” was announced to have been thus born of her. It was hailed as a “second edition of a supernatural conception and birth.” It was proclaimed as the inauguration of “a new motive- power,” and was called the “ Physical Saviour,” the 1 8 IDEOLOGY. “ New Creation,” the “ Philosopher’s Stone,” “Heaven’s best gift to the human race”! “ Disgust concealed Is oft-times proof of wisdom, when the fault Is obstinate, and the cure beyond our reach.” CHAPTER II. MENTAL EPIDEMICS. “ Let him go on, blest star, ’tis meet he fall, Whose blindfold judgment hath no guide at all.” When a number of minds are affected in a similar manner, and the affection spreads from place to place, we say it is an epidemic , because the mind has its characteristic idiosyncrasies and susceptibilities, similar¬ ly as the body has ; and thus we designate certain forms of disease when they spread and extend from one family to another, — and another, and another, until a whole neighborhood or town are involved in the excite¬ ment. As we are said to “take” certain forms of disease from one another, so we take mental emotions. We gape, we laugh, and weep from pure sympathy, or the laws of sympathetic imitation. Such is the nature of the human mind. Man has been said to be an ani¬ mal that laughs ; and how often we laugh merely by seeing others laugh ! We weep, we become musical or sad, merely by witnessing these states of mind in others. Observe, then, what has always been the con¬ dition of the masses under the influence of any given idea , and especially when that idea is represented as coming from “God,” or from some other world. In preaching the dogmas of Christianity, and the declared object is to “get up” a “revival,” the appeals 20 IDEOLOGY. are made to fear and credulity; and these organs, heated beyond due bounds, the excitement becomes contagious , similarly as certain forms of physical disease do. Cer¬ tainly the human mind has its laws, its elements, as all forms of matter have; and it is the legitimate function of science to ascertain what those laws are, and thus to be able to account for mental phenomena that come within the purview of science. All human movements based on mystical ideas are sensational, unexplained phenomena, spread by mental contagion. Any event that excites the mind with sudden impulses of fear, hope , or credulity produces a contagious diathesis, or tendency to hope or fear, and in this way one mind is affected by seeing another’s in any given state. In modern mediumship the idea that heats credulity and hope is the assumption that this mediumship is “an open door through which any one may ” face to face “converse ” with any one of his dead relatives, or any of the dead of past ages. The con¬ stant contact with minds heated with this idea is mental contagion. Observe how minds become infected with one idea in times of war and political commotion. In commerce the infection is in the idea of sudden wealth and the love of money. Enthusiasm is the heat which melts the heart and renders the mind plastic , and a number of minds thus heated become a power, and act in con¬ cert. When the idea touches patriotism, the contagion is political. When it touches the love of music, mirth, or mystery, its power becomes augmented according to the disposition of each mind. When it gratifies the hope of wealth, health, or a factitious want that its own false dogmas have created, enthusiasm is the result, MENTAL EPIDEMICS. 21 and this is the heat , the mental contagion which is purely mental. The smithy in order to cause two or more pieces of metal to fuse, has to get up a “welding heatand so, to unite the minds of large masses of people, an idea must seize them by which their minds are rendered intensely hot, so to speak. The greater the idea, or the fire, the more intense the heat, and thus it is the largest numbers of people are carried away into ex¬ tremes of fanaticism and folly. In the late war for the suppression of the slave¬ holders’ rebellion in America, we had a demonstration of this philosophy of mental contagion upon a magnif¬ icent scale. In the course of one year that contagion had infected twenty millions of people or more ; and, if we include the Southern States, we can see how it is that opposite ideas , as different as slavery and freedom, induce precisely the same kind of contagion in large masses at one and the same time, thus proving that the philosophy of nervous induction is the same in all minds. And to realize how suddenly and simultaneously large masses of people may be similarly “entranced,” “converted,” or enthused with the same ideas, think of the millions aroused by the tocsin of war in 1861, when a wave of patriotism swept over these United States like the fire that sweeps over the vast prairies of the West, carrying all before it, consuming not merely the stubble, but the hedges, fences, trees, and even licking up all the brooks, ponds, rivers, and lakes in the way of its progress. See how, with one swoop, it carried before it the “ non-resistant ” religious people, -—the bishops, priests, and ministers of religion, whose creeds forbid war and enjoin the forgiveness of all injuries. 22 IDEOLOGY. In this manner all religious chieftains and all polit¬ ical leaders have commenced who have succeeded in drawing large circles around them. The great idea which is held out for the purpose of attracting disciples and partisans so completely dazzles and overwhelms the mind in the excitement of the moment, that multi¬ tudes of errors flow in at the wide door that has thus been opened. Absorbed in the contemplation of one great truth, or an idea that is thought to be true, the mind is unprepared for criticism, is off its guard in respect to lesser matters. The presumption is that, if Jesus, Wesley, or Fox, or Swedenborg were the chosen instruments of one great truth so immensely important, they must have been the favorites of Heaven in such a sense as to prevent their having erred in any¬ thing. That is, this view is entertained of each chief¬ tain by the partisans of their sect respectively, and not by votaries of the chieftains of conflicting and rival leaders. We may thus perceive how it is that mental con¬ tagion becomes a factor in commercial panics. The hopes and fears of one excite the hopes and fears of another. One failure, one crime, suggests another and another; and both the pulpit and the press, by harping upon this state of things, only tend to increase it. What the pulpit and the press ought to do is to explain the 7 'ationale of mental contagion ; but this the pulpit will not do, for, when the mass become familiar with that philosophy, there will be no more “revivals,” nor faith in Christian dogmas. It is a noteworthy fact, that the magnitude in the absurdity of the false idea only increases the enthusiasm by which it is propagated. The more absurd the more MENTAL EPIDEMICS. 23 faith , the more heat, and more mental contagion. But it is when the infection comes from an idea fabricated respecting an invisibility , or in respect to the unknown and the unknowable, mental contagion becomes the most virulent. From the earliest ages men have quarrelled the most in respect to such ideas, and have become the most enthusiastic in their dissemination. Hence we find that mental epidemics are never so virulent as when they result from the greatest absurd¬ ities in respect to matters of which nothing whatever is or can be known. But what shall be said of that form of fanaticism which prevailed in the south of Europe during the fif¬ teenth century, known as the Tarantula mania, when whole companies of its victims, hand in hand, like the woman’s raid in America in 1874, sang and danced themselves voluntarily into the sea and were drowned ? No matter what form the contagion may assume, woman becomes its ready victim. In a Papist nunnery one of the inmates happened to be seized with a desire to imitate the mewing of cats. This sound was re¬ peated till, becoming a habit, it spread through the convent, and at stated hours the whole pious sisterhood joined together in mewing. In still another convent a nun bit a companion, and this biting mania spread from cloister to cloister, from country to country, over the whole of Europe. When such strong delusions thus spread among large masses of people, whole communities may be said to have become insane, and it is only where the masses are ignorant of Nature’s laws that such absurdities can find a foothold. A recent letter from the head-quarters of Popery 24 IDEOLOGY. informs us that pilgrims to Notre Dame of Loretta are very numerous this year. They come to pray to be delivered from Italian liberty, and to obtain the return of Franceschielie, or Francis II., son of the saint. These political enthusiasts kneel at the outer door of the church, kiss the ground, and then crawl along the great nave to the Holy Chapel, the pavement of which is worn out by the knees of the faithful. Some lick the ground until they mark their passage by a track of blood from their tongue and lips. Such a scene only shows how completely the minds of the masses may become subdued by a false idea, and the progress which we have yet to make ere the noblest attributes of manhood are emancipated from the thraldom of ignorance and superstition. Thus the contagion extends from families to neigh¬ borhoods, to churches, and large circles of communities. One neighbor influences another, and when he stands high and is looked up to for influence, counsel, and direction, as all clergymen are, the influence is so much the more extended. Hence, we see that Christian teacher infected with most of his flock around him. Some of his followers do not feel much love for the invisible, but they do feel strong love and respect for their pastor. Perhaps he has been persecuted, and they love him on this account; or perhaps he has been the means of their “conversion,” and this gives him a strong claim for confidence and affection ; or, it may be, he has attended at the sick-bed of those who now follow him for “ the good he has done.” See, also, the political chieftain surrounded by his circle. All have their satellites. All must attract, more or less, by the inherent, ever-present laws of men- MENTAL EPIDEMICS. 25 tal and social sympathy. Hence, when the venerable patriarch yields, a very large number of others are sure to follow ; and, so many associated or attracted more or less with one common object, they afford society and gratification for each other. In this manner they be¬ guile and deceive themselves ; for though they may never fully realize the object of their pursuit, yet they may afford each other consolation, and by their “ pray¬ ers,” their “hymns of praise,” and other methods of religious recreation, they divert their own minds from the grief of disappointment, of which they might other¬ wise become most painfully conscious. In this manner we know the regions of invisibility have been peopled from the earliest ages of the world. To describe fully any of the myriad forms which have been found in this region, of all others so fruitful of forms, would scarcely comport with the object I now have in view. Nor is it necessary, perhaps, if we exam¬ ine the portrait which has been drawn by “ infallible inspiration ” of one whom we are assured reigns there supreme. Some six thousand years ago he appeared in the form of a serpent, or, as others say, of a baboon or mon¬ key ; but all are agreed that he was (formerly, at least) a most ugly and hateful-looking devil. He even had a forked tail that he whisked about as he walked; one of his feet (supposing he had two) was cloven ; and his head was ornamented with a pair of appropriate horns. His eyes, ugh ! were as large as common saucers, and such a mouth! Ancient copies of the Bible contain pictures of him, in which his protruding tongue and teeth look frightful enough. Corresponding with his external and horrible appearance is the account that 26 IDEOLOGY. has been given us of his internals, or disposition. He possessed great power, and is said to have been the prince and power of the air, so that he could raise hurricanes, and even cause earthquakes. He afflicted the patriarch Job with severe boils, and well nigh pro¬ voked him to curse God and die. He was a most suc¬ cessful competitor of the “ Infinite God,” and this same Devil finally succeeds in securing by far the biggest half of the human race in the sulphurous flames of an eternal hell. Math. vii. 13, 14; Rev. xiv. 11. CHAPTER III. THE SOUTH SEA BUBBLE. Now buried in the gulf below, Now mounted up to heaven again, They reel and stagger to and fro, At their wits’ end, like drunken men. It is now one hundred and sixty-five years since this term (the “South* Sea Bubble”) came into use to signify a mania which prevailed in England. It was originated by the celebrated Harley, Earl of Oxford, with the hope of restoring public credit, which was then at a very low ebb, the floating debt amounting to some fifty millions of dollars. A company of merchants took the debt upon themselves, and Government of¬ fered to loan them, for a certain period, the interest of six per cent. To provide for this interest, not amount¬ ing to above $ 600,000 per annum, the duty upon certain articles was rendered permanent, and the monopoly of the trade to the South Sea Islands was granted; and the company, being incorporated by Act of Parliament, assumed the title by which it was ever afterwards known. Harley took great credit to himself for his share in this transaction, and the scheme ever after¬ wards took the name of “The Earl of Oxford’s Master¬ piece.” 27 2 8 IDEOLOGY. At this period, the most visionary ideas had been formed by the company, and by the public generally, as .to the immense riches of the eastern coast of South America. Everybody had heard the marvellous stories told of the gold and silver mines of Peru and Mexico ; nobody doubted but that these mines were inexhaust¬ ible ; all supposed that it was only necessary to send the manufacturers to that far-famed coast to be repaid a thousand-fold in gold ingots by the natives. For the space of six years this idea of immense riches was kept before the minds of the English people by the schemes adopted by Government for securing the success of the South Sea Company. Under the auspices of the national Government the company could but flourish for a time, although its trade with South America produced very little or no real augmentation of its revenues. Their stock was in constant demand, and, thus buoyed up with success, the company now determined to extend their operations. Visions of un¬ bounded riches floated before the excited hopes of the people. The Mississippi scheme, which had so capti¬ vated the French people’s heads, already prepared the English for similar extremes of fanaticism and folly. Nor did Law’s failure at all deter them. Wise in their own conceit, they believed, of course, that John Bull could avoid his mistake, and thus carry out their scheme of individual and national wealth, without the possibility of failure. The part taken by the Government, the bank of England, and the aristocracy, for carrying out this scheme, only served to enlist the confidence of the people. But now and then was found one of the nobil¬ ity whose sagacity could not be blinded by the specious plans of the South Sea Company. Sir Robert Walpole THE SOUTH SEA BUBBLE. 2 9 raised his voice against it, uttering his warnings as with prophetic vision, against the gigantic evils which the plan was sure to bring upon the nation. And thus it has been found in all popular excitements, in which the multitudes act as if they had lost their senses. So in politics, in sectarian revivals, in medium- ism, and in witchcraft. While the masses seem wholly abandoned to the utmost extremes of fanaticism, we find a great intellect which braves the storm as the adamantine rock does the waves of the ocean ; and, like the resistance of the granite mountain to the swelling tides, so was the eloquence of Walpole against the delusion which had captivated the entire mind of the British nation. He was considered as a false prophet, or an “old fogy,” predicting evils which would never come to pass. And popular though indeed he had been as a speaker in the House of Commons, the benches became deserted whenever he attempted to open his lips upon matters connected with the South Sea question. The company’s office was located in Exchange Alley, London, which now (1720) became alive with excite¬ ment. The stock rose in one day from a hundred and thirty to three hundred ; and so it continued to advance with astonishing rapidity, while Parliament were dis¬ cussing the measures of the scheme. The speculating mania had seized upon the Government no less than upon the people. Indeed, it seemed as if the whole nation had turned stock-jobbers. Exchange Alley was blocked up from day to day with the speculating crowds. Everybody came there to purchase stock in the South Sea Company: 30 IDEOLOGY. “ Then stars and garters did appear Among the meaner rabble, To buy and sell, to see and hear The Jews and Gentiles squabble. The greatest ladies thither came, And plied in chariots daily, v Or pawned their jewels for a sum To venture in the Alley.” Such are the sympathetic, imitative susceptibilities of the human mind by which people follow one another into extremes of folly. Similar laws govern in the animal world. If you extend a pole across a gap in the wall through which a frightened flock of sheep attempt to pass, the leader will leap over the stick; and if then the pole be withdrawn, every one of the sheep will leap precisely as the leader did, as if the stick had not been removed. The manner in which animals rush over precipices, one following where the other goes, when all are driven by the impulse of fright, illustrates these traits of human nature. When large masses of mind are excited and carried away from their true balance, on one subject, they are incapacitated from judging on other subjects. Crazy with the lust of gold, the masses are ever ready for embracing any and all extremes which promise the sudden acquisition of wealth ; and hence it was that other schemes were now concocted for making money, — many of them so utterly silly and futile that one can now scarcely believe the record that has come down to us of transactions so perfectly wild and extravagant. But, once fairly started upon the wild-goose chase, it is impossible to tell when or where the herd will stop for breath. Innumerable joint-stock companies started THE SOUTH SEA BUBBLE. 31 up daily ; some of them lasted only for a week, and then were heard of no more. Hence it was, they received the name of bubbles , — the most appropriate, perhaps, that could have been devised. Every evening produced some new scheme, and others followed in the morning until there were a hundred of these projects, each more deceptive and extravagant than the other. They were set on foot, says a writer of those times, and promoted by crafty knaves, then pursued by multitudes of covet¬ ous fools, and at last appeared to be, in effect, what their vulgar appellation denoted them to be, cheats, bubbles, and nothing else. One and a-half millions sterling were thus lost and won by these disgraceful speculations, to the impoverishment of many a fool and the enriching of many a rogue. Most of these schemes were got up merely for the purpose of raising the shares of stock in the market, and, embracing the first chance, the projectors would fall out, and the next morning the scheme was at an end. To show that these statements are not without foundation, the following list of these schemes is given for which petitions were made to Government for an act of incorporation. There were a hundred or more; but the following will answer as specimens : — “For making muslin.” “ For furnishing funerals, to any part of Great Brit- • >} am. “ For improving the art of making soap.” “For a wheel for perpetual motion. Capital, one million pounds sterling.” “For insuring and increasing children’s fortunes.” “ For importing walnut trees from Virginia. Capital, two millions.” 32 IDEOLOGY. “For paying pensions to widows and others, at a small discount. Capital, two millions/’ “For making clap-boards out of sawdust.” “For securing to all masters and mistresses the losses they may sustain by servants. Capital, three millions.” “For erecting houses, for taking in and maintaining illegitimate children. Capital, two millions.” “For insuring from thefts and robbers.” “For extracting silver from lead.” “For the transmutation of quicksilver into a mal¬ leable, fine metal.” “For carrying on an undertaking of great advantage, but nobody to know what it is.” And now we are told that this last-named and pre¬ posterous project put a fortune into the pocket of the rascal who got it up. He announced in his prospectus that he only needed the moderate sum of half a million pounds sterling, in five thousand shares of one hundred pounds each ; and a deposit of two pounds on each share, each subscriber to be entitled to one hundred pounds per annum per share. How this enormous profit was to be obtained he, of course, did not con¬ descend to enlighten the noodles who became his patrons ; but he promised that when, in the course of a month, he called for the balance on each share, this information should be forthcoming. The morning after the announcement of this scheme “ of great advantage, but nobody to know what it is,” he opened his office in Cornhill, where he did business until three o’clock. Having in the space of a few hours received two thou¬ sand pounds, the amount deposited on one thousand shares, he shut up shop and cleared to parts unknown. THE SOUTH SEA BUBBLE. 33 Another scheme, equally characteristic of the times, originated doubtless by the sporting clergy, was “ For encouraging the breed of horses in England, and im¬ proving of church and glebe lands, and repairing and rebuilding of parsonages and vicarage houses.” The shares in this clerical bubble were all disposed of as a matter of course. The pious flock could but follow in the footsteps of its shepherds. For card-playing, horse¬ racing, and hunting, or speculating in fictitious stock, the masses had the example of their religious teachers which they have but too faithfully followed, in all coun¬ tries and from the earliest ages of the world. The conduct of the clergy in the South Sea Bubble only proves what the people have been quite too slow in admitting, that the ministers of sectarianism are human beings, and of like passions with other men. As a class, there never was a time when they did not lust for gold, and, when opportunities have offered, we find they have gambled for its acquisition precisely like other folks. When masses of people become crazy with the hope of sudden riches, they yield themselves an easy prey to all kinds of knavery. Another of these frauds was called the “ Globe Permits; these square pieces of paper like playing cards, on which a seal was impressed in wax, bearing the sign of the Globe Tavern, which was located near the Alley. It had also the words, “Sail Cloth Permit” inscribed, and this entitled the lucky holder to the right to subscribe, at some future time, to a proposed new “Sail Cloth Manufactory.” These “ permits ” sold for $440 each in the Alley. The concern, like the others, proved a total swindle. In these speculations all classes were engaged, in¬ cluding religious people and persons of the highest 34 IDEOLOGY. distinction ; the men going to coffee-houses and taverns, and the ladies meeting their brokers at the shops of milli¬ nery and dry-goods merchants. Purchases were made for the purpose of speculation, when there was no pretended prospect of realizing any profits from the feasibility of the scheme. It was enough for those who had the fever upon them to get hold of a few shares, which they could the next moment sell to the credulous. The confusion of the crowd was so great in the Alley at times that shares in the same bubble were known to have been sold, at the same instant, ten per cent, higher at one end of the Alley than at the other. It was this state of things which drew from Swift the following lines :— n Subscribers here by thousands float, And jostle one another down, Each paddling in his leaky boat; And here they fish for gold, and drown. Meanwhile secure on Garroway cliffs, A savage race, by shipwrecks fed, ■ Lie waiting for the foundering skiffs, And strip the bodies of the dead.” Any quantity of caricatures were published, holding up the stupendous bubble to ridicule and contempt, as the people began to come, “ slowly and one by one,” to their senses again. The stock had been up to one thousand per cent., at which it was quoted in August, 1720. It was then perhaps at its zenith; for, from this period, it began to shake and show signs of rapid decline. One after another the principal stockholders now began to sell out. To prevent, if possible, the utter extinction of public confidence, the directors of the South Sea Company called a general meeting of THE SOUTH SEA BUBBLE. 35 the corporation. By nine o’clock in the morning of the same day appointed for the meeting, the place was filled to suffocation. The streets in the vicinity were filled from block to block so as to be impassable. The greatest excitement prevailed. But all the directors, dukes, lords, and other dignitaries made at this meet¬ ing failed to inspire confidence in this sinking scheme. Numerous other meetings were held and plans laid, in vain. The ministers became alarmed. The directors and leading men in this swindle could not safely appear in the streets. Riot and disorder were threatened in all quarters. The manners of the people became sen¬ sibly altered and corrupted. Deeds of infamy became common. The nation itself had become a band of des¬ perate gamblers, and the consequences were now apparent in the calamity they had to suffer. Petitions were sent up to Parliament from various quarters, praying for speedy justice in the punishment of the villainous speculators who had caused the general distress. And to such an extreme was this desire for vengeance carried, that even the few more moderate men, who had hesitated about going to such extremes in the punishment of the guilty, were accused with being accomplices, and exposed to repeated insults from the rabble. One by one the case of each director was examined and passed upon by the Government, until a sum amounting to some nine millions of dollars had been confiscated from their estates, in repairing the mischief they had done. The nation had no sooner awakened from its dream than it swung into extremes of justice, which the equity of the present age must condemn. Extremes in fanaticism, in religion, in politics, in com- 3 ^ IDEOLOGY. merce, never go alone ; one is followed by another, for such are the inherent and constitutional tendencies of the human mind: But it was a long time before the public credit in England was fully restored. The people, the entire nation, had suffered too long, and there was a lesson to be learned from such follies, which has not to this day been so thoroughly studied as the importance of the subject has seemed to demand. Having essayed something like justice to those huge epidemics which prevailed in France and England, more than a century and a half since, it would perhaps be interesting to notice other forms which fanaticism has assumed in Europe, before I come to notice what has occurred in our own country. There was the tulip mania, which raged among the Dutch upwards of two hundred and thirty years ago ; and so great was the desire to get this plant, that ordi¬ nary business was neglected, and all classes of the people engaged in the tulip trade. As this epidemic increased, prices rose far beyond what we have yet witnessed in this country in gold and articles of com¬ merce. The tulip roots were sold by small weight less than a grain, and fortunes of one hundred thousand florins were invested in a few worthless plants. And for the space of thirty years or more the tulipomania produced, not among the Germans alone, but also among the English, all those silly extremes of passion, folly, and extravagance which, as we have seen, char¬ acterized the “Mississippi scheme” and the “South Sea bubble.” To us of the present age, it may seem strange indeed that full-grown men and women could ever have been so foolish as these epidemics would seem to indicate. THE SOUTH SEA BUBBLE. 37 Nevertheless, we may perhaps find, after all, that we are generally scarcely more free from mental epidemics than the French, English, and Dutch were two hun¬ dred and sixty-five years ago. CHAPTER IV. THE MISSISSIPPI SCHEME. “ Some in clandestine companies combine, Erect new stocks to trade beyond the line, With air and empty names beguile the town, And raise new credits first, then cry ’em down Divide the empty nothing into shares, And set the crowd together by the ears.” History is philosophy speaking by example ; and that part of history which records the extremes, the mental epidemics, which have prevailed in different ages of the world, are more necessary, perhaps, in studying the philosophy of the human mind, than those portions which describe the rise and fall of empires. The history of the money -mania among the English, the French, and the Americans, presents one of the most instructive pictures of human nature. In this history we find so much of credulity, hope, fear, and the love of gain, — so much of gullibility, running after golden visions, — so much of human folly, plunging whole nations into the quagmire of pecuniary ruin, — so much of the extreme, in hope of sudden wealth, fol¬ lowed by extremes of bitter disappointment, when the wealthy thousand of yesterday become the poverty- smitten and wretched beggars of to-day. This Mississippi scheme was originated by John Law, a Scotchman, among the French, in 1717. Law had 38 THE MISSISSIPPI SCHEME. 39 fled from his own country to avoid the gallows, and, taking up his abode in Paris, at a time when the nation was bankrupt, he found no difficulty in attracting the attention of the Duke of Orleans, then Regent of France, together with the principal personages con¬ cerned in the Government, to his financial schemes for relieving the nation from debt. Its finances at that period were in a state of the utmost disorder. Distress and ruin everywhere stared the people in the face, and after trying various plans in vain for relief, they were in a fit condition for accepting the visionary schemes which Law’s fruitful imagination had concocted for them. His theory was, that a metallic currency, un¬ aided by paper money, was wholly inadequate to the necessities of a commercial country; and the Regent, captivated by the success which had attended one of Law’s banks, adopted this theory, and, indeed, he im¬ proved upon it so far as to act upon the idea that paper money, which could so much aid a metallic currency, might, upon the same principle, wholly supersede it ! And, accordingly, Law now proposed to establish a company, to which the Government should secure the exclusive privilege of trading on the Great Mississippi River in Louisiana. That country was believed to abound in the precious metals, and the Company, sup¬ ported by the profits of its exclusive trade, were to have the sole right of coining money and of framing taxes. The capital was divided into two hundred thousand shares of five hundred livres each, the whole of which might be paid in Government bills at their nominal value, although worth only one hundred and sixty livres in the market. In his previous banking speculations, Law had procured the confidence of the people by pro- 40 IDEOLOGY. claiming that a banker deserved death who should make issues of paper without the necessary funds in bond and bullion to provide for them ; and his bank had given so much relief that the people were ready to be gulled by whatever extravagant promises he might make to them. His bank became a public institution, and the Regent, who could refuse nothing requested by the Scotchman, now caused a fabrication of notes to the amount of one million of livres, and they now commenced that wild and extravagant career in financiering which resulted in rank fanaticism, and even madness, as real as any that ever confined the maniac within the walls of a madhouse. In 1719 an edict was passed granting to the Mississippi Company the exclusive right of trading to the East Indies, China, and the South Seas; upon which they took the name of “ Company of the Indies,” and created fifty thousand new shares. Law now held out the promise of a yearly dividend of two hundred livres, upon each share of five hundred, which, as these shares were paid for in depreciated money, at its nomi¬ nal value, made about one hundred per cent, profit. These magnificent prospects of golden harvests cap¬ tivated the people, and the enthusiasm which had for a year or more been rising, was now ready to carry them into extremes of egregious folly. Not less than three thousand applications were made at Law’s house immediately for these fifty new shares. The street was thronged day and night by the eager applicants; but, as it was impossible to gratify them all, it was some weeks before a list of the fortunate purchasers could be made out. During the time, the public impatience rose to a pitch of frenzy. Every day, dukes, marquises, THE MISSISSIPPI SCHEME. 41 counts, with their duchesses, marchionesses, and count¬ esses, waited in the streets in order to be served, or to know the results of the sales. At last, the dignitaries, in order to avoid the plebeian crowds which, in un¬ counted thousands, blocked up the thoroughfare from street to street, engaged apartments in the adjoining houses, that they might be constantly near the temple whence this new Plutus from Scotia was diffusing his kingdom of wealth. The old shares in this stock increased every day, and we are assured that the fresh applicants, induced by the golden dreams of the whole nation, now became so numerous that it was deemed advisable to create no less than three hundred thousand new shares, at five thousand livres each, in order that the Government of France might take advantage of this state of enthusiasm for raising funds sufficient to pay off the national debt. The amount required was fifteen hundred millions of livres ; and such was the gullibility of the people that this enormous sum was forthwith subscribed, and in¬ deed three times the sum would have been willingly paid had it been necessary and called for by the Gov¬ ernment. The Scotchman was now approaching the zenith of his glory, and the infatuated people were reaching that extreme of fanaticism beyond which its victims sooner or later come to their senses. This ungovernable de¬ sire for sudden wealth filled all classes with visions of unbounded riches. The aristocracy, with but two ex¬ ceptions, were foremost in the sale and the purchase of stock. People of both sexes and of all conditions — farmers, mechanics, clergymen, and servants—engaged in this speculation, and bought and sold stock in those 42 IDEOLOGY. imaginary banks of gold to be found somewhere in the far-off land of America. The street in which Law lived being narrow, the crowds which thronged it were constantly subject to accidents, as a matter of course And yet, tattered garments and broken limbs, or even the danger of suf¬ focation, had no effect in cooling the fanaticism of the multitude. The houses near by, worth in former times a yearly rent of one thousand livres, now rented for sixteen thousand. A cobbler let his shop for two hundred livres a day, to the brokers, who occupied it for the purchase and sale of stock; and a story is told of an old hunchback man who became rich from the pieces of money given him by the eager speculators, who made a writing-table of his spine, on which the certificates were filled out in the streets! The great concourse of speculators attracted multitudes of spec¬ tators, and among the whole were found any number of thieves and blacklegs ; and hence at night it was necessary to send a troop of soldiers to keep the peace, and prevent the riots that occurred. Finding his place too strait for the vast crowds, which increased upon him from day to day, Law now obtained new and more commodious quarters in the Place Vendome, and we are told that spacious square soon became as thronged as the other place had been. From morning till night it presented the appearance of a fair or market day; booths and tents were erected for refreshments and the transaction of business, and where, also, the gamblers found unusual facilities for their tricks. The Boulevards and public gardens were forsaken, and no places of recreation were now so at¬ tractive as the Place Vendome, where the fashionable, THE MISSISSIPPI SCHEME. 43 the idle, and the vicious assembled from day to day. Indeed, the noise from this huge mass was so great that the Chancellor, whose court was held in the square, complained to the Regent that it was impossible for them to hear their advocates. Law, when made ac¬ quainted with the complaint, signified his willingness to remove into the Hotel de Sessions, which had a large garden of several acres in the rear, — a place which he purchased, and which proved to him a source of enor¬ mous profit. The Government now passed an edict forbidding the purchase or sale of stock in any other place except the gardens of the Hotel de Sessions, where some five hundred tents had been erected for the convenience of the stock-jobbers. Each tent was let for five hundred livres per month, and from this revenue alone Law received upwards of fifty thousand dollars per annum. The party-colored banners which floated from these tents, the music, the constant rush of people, the busy hum of voices, all combined to give to the scene the air of enchantment. Such is the state of things when an entire nation becomes infatuated with the lust of gold. But in the midst of so much fanaticism, we are told that two or three sober and thoughtful men in Paris raised the voice of caution against what they denominated the “disgusting avarice,” although they did so at great peril to themselves. The herd had gone crazy, and it was not safe for one to differ from the crowd intoxicated with the love of gain. But this was precisely the state of things most favor¬ able for the advancement of John Law. He was now looked up to as the most important personage of the 44 IDEOLOGY. Government. Priests and bishops, judges, peers, officers of the army and navy, and ladies of title and fashion, were found waiting at the Hotel de Sessions for stock in the India Company. The numbers which crowded his ante-rooms were so great that it was impossible for Law to see one in a dozen of them. Dignitaries in church and state, who would have felt outraged had they been compelled to wait for half an hour by the Regent and King, were now patient in waiting all day to see Monsieur Law. His servants also reaped a golden har¬ vest in the enormous fees paid them to secure the mere announcement of names to their master. Ladies of rank returned from day to day for a fort¬ night, in order to get an audience with the author of the Mississippi Scheme. Sometimes when he accepted an invitation he would be overwhelmed with ladies, all begging to have their names put down as shareholders in the new stock, and we are told of ludicrous strata¬ gems which they employed in order to have the oppor¬ tunity for speaking to him. One lady instructed her coachman to drive in the vicinity of Law’s place from day to day, and whenever the great financier should be discovered near, the driver was to run against the first place where the coach would be upset. Law, on seeing such a catastrophe, hastened to render assistance, and of course led the lady into the Hotel de Sessions, where she immediately recovered from her fright, and confessed her stratagem to her cortege. Law smiled, and entered her name as a purchaser of his stock. Another lady raised an alarm of fire while Law was at dinner. In the melee , while all were rushing in, and suspecting what her object was, he escaped in another direction. THE MISSISSIPPI SCHEME. 45 It is said that the Regent of France one day stated in the presence of some dignitaries that he was anxious to depute some lady, of the rank at least of a duchess, to attend upon his daughter at Modena ; “but,” he added, “I do not know exactly where to find one.” “You do not?” replied one, in affected surprise. “I can tell you where to find every duchess in France: you have only to go to Law’s; you will find them every one in his ante-chamber.” In mania there are two extremes : the first is in the excitement of hope, which we have now described as having occurred in the Mississippi Scheme. But “ one extreme leads to another.” The pendulum carried from its equilibrium in one direction, cut loose, swings as far the other way. So with the human mind. There are limits beyond which it cannot be excited. When these limits are reached, there the mind may pause for a while; but in due time it finds its way back, and, im¬ pelled by frenzy as before, it plunges into the darkness of despair. The French mania for speculation having spent its force, there began to be great fluctuations in the price of Mississippi stock. The shares occasionally rose twenty-five per cent, in the course of a few hours, and many persons in the lower walks of life who had risen poor in the morning went to bed possessed of fortunes. In this way cook-maids and servants easily acquired wealth, in the disposition of which they made the most ludicrous mistakes. Decked out with the finery of wealth, while preserving the meanness of their birth and station, they made themselves the laughing-stock of all. The wreck and debasement of the public mind now 4 6 IDEOLOGY. became manifest in the robberies committed daily in the streets. Assassinations were also frequent, as the people were believed to carry about with them immense sums in paper. The temptation was strong, not upon blacklegs alone, but upon others high in the ranks of aristocracy. The Count d’Havre, a young brother of the Prince, and related to the noble families of D’Arem- burg, a young man of loose habits, in connection with two others, formed the design to rob a rich broker, who was known to have large sums about his person. This infatuated Count, after arranging to meet his victim for the purchase of stock, sprang suddenly upon him, and stabbed him to the heart. This crime was committed in open day, and under circumstances which led to the seizure of the murderers, who were condemned to be broken alive upon the wheel. Prompt and severe as this justice was, it did not lessen the number of assassinations. No sympathy was shown to the rich, whenever they happened to be stripped of their ill-gotten gains. The pernicious love of gain had corrupted all classes, and the general laxity of public morals, conspicuous enough before, was now rendered still more so, until all private virtue seemed lost in the stream of corruption which overflowed the nation. Early in the year 1720 the tide began to turn ; and, to afford relief, Law managed to bring about an edict forbidding the use of specie altogether. But the measures adopted for restricting the use of specie tended only to increase the real difficulty, until the people were driven to the brink of revolution, and the whole country joined in one general cry of distress at the enormous tyrannies practised upon them. THE MISSISSIPPI SCHEME. 47 The most hateful persecutions took place daily; the privacy of families was violated, confidence destroyed, and honest people were suspected and denounced as guilty of infamous crimes. Fear and distrust every¬ where prevailed. Epithets of bitter censure were heaped upon Law and the Regent of France; and never, says a French historian, was seen a more capri¬ cious government, —never was a more frantic tyranny exercised over any people by hands less firm. It was inconceivable to those who were witnesses of the horrors of those times, and who looked back upon them as upon a dream, that a sudden revolution did not break out; that Law and the Regent did not perish by a tragical death. They were both held in horror ; but the people confined themselves to complaints. A sombre and timid despair, a stupid consternation, had seized upon all; and men’s minds were too vile'even to be capable of a courageous crime. Of all nations in the world, it is said the French are the most jolly, and renowned for singing over their grievances. Of that country it has been remarked that its whole history might be traced in its songs. Satire was therefore ready for pouncing upon Law when, by the failure of his scheme, the people had found them¬ selves overwhelmed in the ruin he had brought upon them. Caricatures of his person appeared in the shops, and, in the street, songs resounded heaping contempt upon him and his Mississippi Scheme. The man who, only a few months before, was hailed by the masses as the savior of France, was now denounced as a vaga¬ bond, despised and condemned as a thief, a liar, and a cheat, — now too vile to be permitted to remain in the country. The mob and the court would have been 48 IDEOLOGY. glad to have seen him hanged. Caricatures also were published of his scheme, until John Law had sunk as low as disgust demanded of one held in utter contempt by the entire nation. In process of time the people began to realize the real nature of that humbug with which they had been deluded. The Government of France at last began to see how much the aristocracy had contributed to the general distress, and adopted means for affording relief. The national debt on the first of January, 1721, amounted to upwards of one hundred and twenty-four millions sterling, the interest on which was $3,196,000. Measures were also taken for bringing to condign pun¬ ishment all who had been guilty of fraud in carrying out the Mississippi Scheme, some of whom were con¬ demned to suffer the penalty of death. But the effect of this mania lastbd, and was felt in the nation for many years after the principal participants had passed away. Thus it is in Nature and the constitution of things : a futile scheme which feeds the lust for gain may in a few short months involve a nation in bank¬ ruptcy, while for the nation’s relief and salvation ages of patient, sober toil are found necessary. CHAPTER V. THE CRUSADES. “ All in a moment, through the gloom were seen Ten thousand banners rise into the air, With Orient colors waving. With them rose A forest huge with spears ; and thronging helms Appeared and serried shields in thick array, Of depth immeasurable.” The Crusades may be considered as one form of Christian epidemics. If it should be said that witch¬ craft and the Crusades were an abuse, I can admit that they may be so considered ; indeed, an abuse of man¬ hood, and excess in human credulity and fanaticism. But I am sure that in no just sense could these epidem¬ ics be considered an abuse of Christianity, which is based on alleged revelations from the invisible world. This state of things is nothing less than what Christi¬ anity calls for when it appeals directly to man’s credu¬ lity , while threatening him with eternal damnation in case of a doubt. The excitement of credulity is faith, and under this excitement man’s conduct may be said to be high or low, fanatical or mad, according to the intelligence with which he is guided ; and mysticism is not designed to encourage self-culture. Its animus is credulity and faith in “revelations from the unknown world.” Hence, among certain classes, mysticism has always been harsh, 49 50 IDEOLOGY. cruel, and superstitious. Among barbarians and Pa¬ pists, it has always been a mixture of persecutions, austerities, and bloody murders; while those more advanced, who retain the superstitions of former gen¬ erations, are still more or less affected with those Christian epidemics which prevailed during past ages among all classes of the people. The genius of ancient mediumism is to keep its victim in ignorance of Nature’s laws ; and at the time when this epidemic commenced in Europe, it may truly be said to have been one of the Dark Ages, as perhaps no age of the world could be referred to when the ministers of Christianity were more active in their efforts for exciting credulity among the masses by the sign of the cross , and urging them on to deeds of mad¬ dened frenzy. Hence this epidemic took its name from Croix or Crosier , — a little cross, usually with an image of “ Jesus ” or some other object attached to the top of the staff, and which the priests always carried in their raids upon the Turks. Fanaticism always fixes upon some visible sign of its whim , its folly into which it drives its victims. Excited at first by an excess of hope, the contagion spreads among the masses by the laws of sympathetic imitation , as in war, panics, and revivals ; and so we find the excitement continued to a certain degree of mental heat. Large numbers become thus infused, and combining political, pecuniary, and Christian elements, they become “mad” with excite¬ ment, and we see the extremes of folly, rapine, murder, and the scenes recorded of the Crusades. Although this epidemic has sometimes been supposed to have been “ got up by a friar known as “ Peter the Hermit,” yet we must bear in mind that this man had THE CRUSADES. 51 no power except what was yielded to him by the igno¬ rance and credulity of the masses. The field had been in the process of preparation for his fanaticism for some four hundred years before his name had been heard of. During this long period the pilgrims had been visiting “the Holy Land,” and the exaggerated stories they so often told of the dangers they had passed contributed to that state of things in the church at home throughout all Europe, which finally culminated in the Crusades. Thus, there had been a real mania for pilgrimages to Jerusalem long before the priests undertook specific measures for organizing “the armies of the Lord,” and the Hermit commenced his fanatical labors when the fields were ready for the harvest. Indeed, so general was this infection that it involved all classes of the people who were Christian in their prejudices. The vicious, the idle and roving, swelled the crowds, increasing in their numbers every year, until they were dubbed as the “armies of the Lord.” To the vile wretches who en¬ gaged in these pilgrimages the promise was made by the priests of forgiveness, and, in case of death, their immediate admission into heaven; while the faithful Papists, full of enthusiasm, set all the dangers at defi¬ ance, and exulted in the contemplation of walking over the earth consecrated by the feet of him who swooned upon the cross. To sip the waters of Jordan, to be baptized in the same river where John performed that rite for Jesus, were considered the highest honor, and the acme of a Christian’s joy. To them it was an object “most glorious” and sur¬ passingly precious to wander in the purlieus of the Temple, or that awful “place of skulls” where God himself had shed his blood for them ! On reaching 52 IDEOLOGY. Jerusalem, £ins of the deepest die were obliterated, and the vilest of offenders at once becam q pious and entitled to the divine favor. Once in that holy place, the soul was “inspired” with the sacred aroma exhaled from every object; and hence it was that the waters of the Jordan, the stone from the streets, the dirt from the “place of skulls,” were brought home and sold at ex¬ travagant prices. Nor did this zeal stop here : for it manufactured cart¬ loads of apocryphal “relics,” always so popular in all Popish latitudes, — such as the wood of the cross on which Jesus was affixed, the tears of the Virgin Mary and the hems of her garments, the hair and the toe¬ nails of the Aoostles, even the tents which Paul had assisted in manufacturing were brought from Palestine by the returning pilgrims, “with wondrous cost and care,” until, as we are assured, a grove of a hundred oaks would not have furnished all the wood sold as par¬ cels of the “true cross,” and the water called “the tears of Mary ” would have filled a cistern ! Such were the superstitions and the pious frauds which for centuries had prepared that condition of things at the commencement of the eleventh century. The Turks had for some two hundred years encouraged these pilgrimages, from pecuniary considerations alone, until finally they imposed a tax upon each pilgrim visit¬ ing Jerusalem, and the imposition of this tax brought about that frenzy which resulted in the Christian wars to which history has given the name of the Crusades. At that time an old idea had been revived in regard to the immediate end of the world and the “ second advent” of Jesus ; but which soon died out, as it had done before, and to be revived and re-revived, as in THE CRUSADES. 53 1843, in America, under the name of Millerism, and by this movement revived again and again, and “the day” set for the general “smash up.” With this idea the entire Popish mass was shaken, until a Christian panic had seized upon the weak and the guilty, who consti¬ tuted nineteen twentieths of the whole population of priests and people ! They left their homes and flocked to the place where they were to be freed from their sins by the appearance of Jesus at Jerusalem ; and, sim¬ ilarly as in the modern Miller excitement, various “strange sights ” were seen. The stars were observed to fall from heaven, the land was shaken by earthquakes, the forests were devastated by hurricanes, and meteors in the sky gave unmistakable evidence of the approach¬ ing Judgment Day. The organ of Wonder thus ex¬ cited, the ignorant multitude saw a “strange” sign in the common astronomical phenomena, so that scarcely any change could take place in the horizon or the atmosphere which did not fill a district with alarm, and send off to Jerusalem a crowd of pilgrims with crucifix in hand and wallets on their backs, mumbling their prayers, as they trudged along, for the remission of their sins. Thus men, women, and children swelled the ranks of pilgrims who flocked to the Holy City in expectation of the immediate “second advent” of Jesus, when “the heavens and the earth should pass away with a great noise,” and they would be permitted to behold the Son of God descending in his glory. The immense num¬ bers involved in that stupendous delusion only increased the hardships of each, until food could not be found, in the localities through which their pilgrimages were made, for the supply of their wants. Beggars became 54 IDEOLOGY. so numerous between the west of Europe and Constan¬ tinople that the monks, who had done much towards feeding the hungry multitudes, were compelled to leave the ignorant and misguided fanatics to shift for them¬ selves or die. The Papists of the eleventh century, suffering from want of food, pressed in countless multitudes around the gates of Jerusalem, where they were not permitted to enter without the payment of the tax which the Turkish government demanded of them. The hourly expectation of “ the last judgment ” kept them waiting, until the Turks, apprehensive of being themselves deprived of their rights, undertook to drive the pilgrims from their soil; and now it was that acts of persecution and plunder commenced for this purpose. They were beaten with stripes, and subjected to a series of hard¬ ships which diverted their minds from the contempla¬ tion of Christ’s immediate return to Jerusalem ! and as the panic began to subside in respect to “the Day of Judgment,” it was superseded by another epidemic, which had for its germ the conquest and possession of the Holy Land. As the Papists returned to their homes, they narrated the stories of what they had suffered at the hands of the Turks. But these stories only served to increase the mania for pilgrimages. The greater the sufferings, the greater the certainty of forgiveness and salvation in another world. Difficulties and sufferings in the con¬ quest of Jerusalem were sure to merit a higher place in heaven; and the zeal manifested by the faithful Pa¬ pists in the extermination of the Turks was held out as a ground of claim upon the infinite God, not to be invalidated by any crime which it was possible to com- THE CRUSADES. 55 mit! And in this way, to win the “divine favor ” and secure imperishable glory beyond the grave, fresh bands of priests and people issued from every village, and this frenzy continued during the whole of the eleventh cen¬ tury. Thus was the soil prepared. The train that was so soon to explode, in the Crusades, was now laid, and this condition of things turned out the man for that hour. Like all other religious chieftains before and since, “ Peter the Hermit ” had a competency made up of ignorance, crcdidity, bigotry, fanaticism, and zeal, which suited the times in which he lived. If these elements do not constitute insanity, they certainly lead to it; and, when combined and excited in one mind, they make that mental condition to which the term “fanaticism” is always applied wherever there is a failure in what is undertaken, or whenever the enthusiast is found differ¬ ing in opinion from a large majority of the people. Peter had been a soldier and a monk. He was insig¬ nificant in person, but, having all the prerequisites of an enthusiastic fanatic, he visited Jerusalem, where he could himself see the indignities heaped upon the Pa¬ pists, and when he returned he shook the world by the stories he told of their wrongs. Let us now look at the means and the power which this ignorant zealot found at his command : — The element of wonder. The religious idea is power. No other idea has had so much influence over the minds of men, and the extent of this influence is increased always by ignorance, by the want of informa¬ tion in respect to the human mind and the laws by which it is governed. Consult the history of the world, and you will find that the Christian idea, that is, the idea of some good or evil, the hope or the fearoi which is based 56 IDEOLOGY. on an alleged revelation from the invisible world , has had more power over the masses than patriotism merely, — more power even than any other one idea. And the ignorant fanatic, seizing upon this power, succeeds, of course, wherever and whenever this idea prevails among the people. At the period here referred to the Popish idea of religion prevailed in Europe. No matter how much of a blackleg or a villain any one might be, he was under the influence of this Popish idea. This element in the hands of Peter was power. Then, also, there were all the orders of the priest¬ hood, from the Pope downward; and the influence of the Popish clergy is proverbial in all countries. The clergy are that class which the masses pay for doing their thinking for them. The priest is the “ keeper of the consciences ” of all such as approach the confes¬ sional. He holds the keys of the door which opens into heaven. He is the vicegerent of the infinite God, and has power to forgive sin, or to consign the sinner to the pains and penalties of an eternal hell. No other class of men ever did have, and none other, perhaps, ever can have, so much power over the masses ; and to this class Peter the Hermit belonged. As the Popish idea ruled the minds of the people, so the clergy, who preached, prayed, and represented that idea, were all and in all. They kept the popular mind in ignorance and the most slavish subjection to their wishes. The people considered them their friends, because, while the civil government gave them no rights in this world, the priests promised them all they could wish for in the next, and the promise was made more sure to all who should become “soldiers of the Lord ” for the recovery of Jerusalem. THE CRUSADES. 57 To a people thus ignorant and subdued by priestly domination, the priests had only to recommend the Crusade, and the yielding masses joined in it with enthusiasm. It was the theme of all sermons, the sub¬ ject of all conversation. It filled all minds ; and business, friends, and home were all abandoned for the crucifix and a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. The tales of the pilgrims for two centuries were narrated from mouth to mouth ; they were repeated in the nursery, and im¬ mortalized in verse. This state of things continued, and, increasing by the well-known laws of sympathetic imitation for the space of two centuries, it is easy to see the germ whence was originated that stupendous epidemic known in history as the Crusades. Masses of men, communities, and nations are excited, fused , and controlled by an idea similarly as an individ¬ ual is thus controlled. Notice here the processes: First, an idea is developed slowly in the mind ; it is addressed to the organ of Marvellousness, and has respect to an alleged “revelation” from another world, of which nothing is known. In its contemplation the excitement spreads by credulity , hope, and fear. In process of time this idea reaches a majority of all the mental faculties, and thus comes into the possession of the soul, until it controls the whole conduct of life. An idea crystallized into actions becomes a visible, tangible reality. It is the living voice in the thoughts and actions by which it is communicated from parents to children, from one neighbor to another, until it is found in the sermons and the prayers of the priest, in the books and the literature of the country. Human nature is imitative; what one believes, another believes, for no other reason than that it is believed by somebody 58 IDEOLOGY. else. The most powerful influences exerted over the minds of men are in ideas, true or false ; and often we shall find that the only reason which the masses can give for “the faith that is in them ” is, “ Somebody told me so,” “Somebody else believed so.” In the heat of a mental epidemic, people are not in a condition for appreciating the dictates of reason, even if they had the capacity for so doing.. Is the soldier, when in the excitement of battle, in a condition for solving the problems of Euclid ? As we have seen, Peter the Hermit had visited Palestine, where he first formed the grand idea of arousing the whole Christian world to the rescue of the Holy Land; and, completely bewitched with this thought, it haunted his mind with visions, one of which was so vivid that he declared his belief that Jesus had actually appeared to him, promising him aid in his holy undertaking. This dream was a clincher, and from this time his career may be said to have fairly commenced. Though he was himself a devoted Papist, he demanded an interview with the Patriarch of the Greek Church at Jerusalem, who was a heretic. The minds of opposing parties are often fused in mental epidemics. From the Patriarch he hastened to the feet of Pope Urban II. in Italy. This prelate received the Hermit kindly, and, after listening to his story, sent him forth to preach the Popish War to all the nations and potentates of Christendom. Thus qualified, Peter went forth, and travelled through Italy, Germany, and France, proclaiming war against the Turks, war to the knife, — war, bloody war, — until countless thousands rallied to his call. In the mean time, the Pope devoted himself with ardor to the work. Towards the close of the year 1095 THE CRUSADES. 59 he called a council at Placentia, where he adopted measures for rallying the clergy and all who should become officers and leaders in the expedition. This conduct of the Pope, who was considered God’s vice¬ gerent on earth, could of course have no other effect than to unite the clergy and the entire church in one general movement against the Turks. The Pope was the head of the church, and he could not err. What¬ ever met with his approval was God’s own work; and hence with one mind the people everywhere gathered in crowds from all parts of Europe. Camps were formed in every parish, and on every hand were seen the implements of war. It would require volumes to describe in detail the part which the Pope, the clergy, and the church per¬ formed in carrying out the Popish idea of a war of utter extermination against the Turks. Indeed, to form any just conception of the deep and all-pervading influences exerted over the Italian, the French, the German, and the English people, we must understand what is in¬ cluded in Popery, the ecclesiastical machinery, and the unresisting obedience which these nations yielded at that time to the dictation of the priesthood. The labors of Peter alone were sufficiently varied and extended to require a volume in their recital, not to speak of the council of Claremont, the oration of Pope Urban, and the uprising of the people that followed. Also of “Walter the Penniless,” and of Gottschalk, and of Semlin, and of Godfrey of Bouillon, and of Count Vermandois, and of Tancred, and the hosts of priests, noblemen, and military chieftains who became so distinguished as leaders in the “armies of the Lord ” for the conquest of Jerusalem. 6o IDEOLOGY. There were seven expeditions, each one involving more than could here be described,—whether in re¬ spect to numbers, the expenditure of treasure, disaster, enthusiasm, bigotry, hate, suffering, and the loss of human life which the fanaticism of the age rendered necessary. In that epidemic Europe expended millions in money and the blood of more than two millions of her children. And for what purpose ? As we have seen, it was to carry out a fanatical idea of conquest; to invade and despoil another nation of its rights ; and as far as success attended those filibustering expedi¬ tions, what then ? Why, a squad of quarrelsome Popish knights retained possession of Palestine for about one hundred years,—a change in the government not for the better, so far as can now be seen. Yet, an epidemic so extensive in its ramifications, so long continued, and so mighty in its results, had a logic in its events which presents important lessons of instruction to the ages that follow. The Popish feudal chiefs were improved by coming in contact with a civ¬ ilization in Asia better than any they had known in Christendom; and thus it was when they returned their vassals secured some small instalments of their political rights. Even the crowned heads, now no longer at war with their nobility, had time to contem¬ plate the wishes of the people ; and the people, by the agitation of thought, had learned more freedom of opinion by the evils they had suffered. CHAPTER VI. THE TRANCE EPIDEMIC. It is not of the Spiritualists as a liberal, progressive class of people that I speak. They are head and shoulders above the old form of mysticism ; and but for the fact that I treat of what I know to be true in regard to the trance, and for science and humanity, I might not, perhaps, refer to their mediums at all. This part of the new movement is an epidemic as really as witch¬ craft, or any religious revivals. It spreads by sensa¬ tional ideas and ideal contagion. It was an incidental culmination from a “haunted house” in Hydesville, N. Y., March 31, 1848. I visited the locality soon after, and was posted as to the facts by a good old woman, Mrs. Fox, and her three daughters. And, although the mystic rap (the type of all the mystical phenomena) has often approved and endorsed the Bible, yet I believe that only an inconsiderable number of the rank and file in this sensational movement still cling to Christianity. I have now before me an octavo pam¬ phlet, published in Auburn, N. Y., in 1849, containing “ messages ” purporting to come from the dead, through Mrs. Benedict, the medium, to a company of Millerites, confirming their views as to the “ resurrection of the dead” and the immediate destruction of our planet; thus showing that while modern mediums are “in- 61 62 IDEOLOGY. spired ” as really in a state of trance as Abraham and Peter and Paul were, the so-called spirits that control them “communicate” nothing that they cannot pre¬ viously learn through the trance brains of a medium, and those to whom the “message” is made. Hence, the trance in this modern form of mysticism is esti¬ mated as a “royal road,” an open door, as Paul said, to “the third heavens” and the condition of all the dead. In the “trance ” of a modern medium, death’s seal upon the past in human life is taken off, and the secrets of the grave exposed to the light of noonday. A “rap” on the table leg, by forms of force of which we can know nothing, materializes human ideas. Gabriel, Jesus, and Isaiah Have made the “ rap ” so very loud, That no mystic thunder could be higher, Or gather such another crowd. Modern mediumship is a repetition of Christianity in its “trances,” “visions,” and “inspiration.” In its motive-power (both in things unknown) it is the same. It is based upon mediums, precisely the same as the Bible and Christianity; and, while the latter claims that its trances and visions are superior, because of their having been, even long ago, superinduced by “Almighty God,” the modern mediums claim that their trances are produced by those now dead. They have no “creed;” each one speaks for himself, and “the Devil take the hindmost.” Mediums are always the eyes and the ears of all gods and ghosts ! Myths and invisibilities of all grades are utter know-nothings and do-nothings, without the trance and a medium’s brains. Had they any knowledge of us, no mediums or trances would be necessary. THE TRANCE EPIDEMIC. 63 Modern mediums rely more or less upon what the mystic rap signifies to them in a state they call the trance ; albeit the pathology and the psychology of this state do not seem to identify it with those cases of mental anaesthesia self-induced, and related in my first volume on Ideology. I was acquainted with nearly all the early trance mediums in 1850, and, among the number, with Miss Lizzie Doten, one of the “ inspired ” writers. In her enhancement, Edgar A. Poe is said to have repeated some rhymes that he never wrote ! She was always considered at the head of the list; and now, since her publication of her sensation in her own state of trance, in my estimation she holds rank with St. Paul in this regard. As the apostle shows in his account of his own case how really he was “out of his wits” in the trance, so Miss Doten, in behalf of Spirit¬ ualism, shows in her account how perfectly she was bamboozled in her own entrancement. Hence she affirms of her state that it was “ dizzy , frenzied , abnor¬ mal, misty , petrifying , embryonic , zucak, vaporish , faint , and horrible / ” I state what must be admitted when I say that, as a general thing, mediums are ignorant of ideology and the anatomy of faith ; hence they are easily victimized by this form of mysticism. In this state of things, people are constantly dying, and their sorrowing friends want to hear from them, when they send five dollars to a world-renowned medium in New York, addressed to some one dead, and all the knowledge that comes through reading sealed letters, or through any medium, is obtained by the clairvoyance of some unknowable nondescript ghost, obtained through a medium’s brain. The responding spirit knows nothing of you or your 64 IDEOLOGY. f wishes until you suggest yourself to some medium, or you are yourself mediumistic ; and in that case once victimized by faith in mysticism, I should no more hope, perhaps, to convince you of error than if you believed your soul had been converted by the Holy Ghost, as I know by a long experience mediums have been as really converted and born again as any Christian ever was. Under the control of faith and your own idea of the trance, it would be of little or no use to ask you how I am to cross-examine an invisible witness, nor how my external eyes can see a pure spirit, nor how you can be said to see a spirit when it is a material form you see, and one assumed to suit your own idea, and thus to deceive you. Or, if I were to ask how it can be safe for us to build theories of a summer-land upon pheno¬ mena produced by forms of force regarding which all are in the dark. And here I state a problem I have often put to those carried away by this epidemic, but to which I never got an answer. It is this one : “To what responsibility can you hold a ghost that falsifies ? ” CHAPTER VII. FASCINATION. Umbro, the brave Moruban Priest, was there, Sent by the Marsian Monarch to the war. The smiling olive with her verdant boughs Shades his bright helmet and adorns his brows, His charms in peace the furious serpent keep And lull the enamored viper race to sleep. His healing hand allayed the raging pain, And at his touch the poison fled again. Virg. Atu. 7, ver. 750. No matter what the term may be, “fascination” or “charm,” the philosophy as to the results induced is the same. They follow any and all processes by self- induction. The Tribellans and Illyrians, who, with their very eye-sight can witch, yea, and kill those who they look wistly upon any long time. — Hallam’s Pliny , i. lyy. Hence the term “fascination ” was anciently used as synonymous with “eye-bite,” because it was from the sight of the eyes of the snake that the influence was supposed to come which produced the “charm.” The term is from Fascia , a band by which one becomes bound or swathed; and there are similar terms, such as signify the effects produced by a “ charm ” (from carmen , a verse or song) and “enchantment” (to sing a magic song), and from which we have “incantation ” (in and 6 5 66 IDEOLOGY. cano y to sing), because this power was manifested by singing. The term “spell” comes from the Saxon “spel,” which signifies a story, magic charm, or song, and from this we have the “ gospel ” (from good and spel), or good story. Indeed, there are a variety of terms, such as Amulet, Talisman, Philters, Relics, Bewitch, etc., which have a correlative meaning not unlike what is understood by “Animal Magnetism,” “Mesmerism,” or “Ideology.” In the American Phrenological Journal for Septem¬ ber, 1864, a writer ventilates upon what he calls “The Ancient Magic Crystal,” and the marvellous results produced by “The Virgin’s Eye,” and certain “per¬ fumes ” from burning incense. So we have the same “influence ” from the hand of “the seventh son ; ” and scrofulous tubercles in the neck were called “ the King’s Evil,” because they were supposed to be cured by the touch of the king’s hand. Stories often appear in the papers, though never authenticated, of birds, and even men, said to have been fascinated by snakes. Here it is in place to remark that all these stories are related of these amulets, crystals, charms, and ser¬ pents, precisely as if a material substance had passed out of the snake into the bird or the man which is charmed; that is, these stories are told in support of this theory. According to this notion, the same results in each case would have occurred if the bird or the man had been totally blind ! Yet how common it is for writers to elaborate gossa¬ mer theories in respect to a “nervous fluid,” and the “universal ether,” through which it is transmitted by the volition of a snake into the brains of a human FASCINATION. 67 being! And this notion of an “ether” is, indeed, a very convenient omnibus in which credulity often finds it necessary to ride. The bird is fascinated through the sense of fear, and man is fascinated, not only through a sense of danger, but by his hope, by his credulity, and by his love for the marvellous. This notion of a magnetic fluid, ejected by volition out of one living body into another, like numerous the¬ ological fancies, had its origin when science was young. But as to the phenomena referred to, we need not now stop to inquire: we may admit that they have occurred, though not as represented. And now the most important question presents itself for solution : What is the rationale of their induction ? Where is the immediate cause located ? Is it in the serpent, or in the brains of the bird or the man which is thus fascinated ? A young lady visited Niagara Falls, and approaching a precipice to pluck a flower that grew upon its brink, as she happened to look over upon the frightful chasm to which she found herself so very near, fascinated with a sense of danger, she fell over into the abyss, and was dashed to pieces upon the rocks below. She was fascinated by fear, and similarly the bird may be fasci¬ nated through its sense of danger. Human beings are fascinated by credulity , by hope , by love, and by fear; and the immediate cause is in the mind whenever it is thus overcome. So we are fasci¬ nated by music, by beauty, and by patriotism or wor¬ ship ; and shall we be told that in all such cases the fascination is produced by a “nervous fluid,” ejected out of one mind into another ? 68 IDEOLOGY. Fascination (if it ever did occur as is alleged by ser¬ pents) is induced by fear , or by an idea in the mind, and not by any fluid from the serpent’s eyes. The way in which ideas and images are often deeply impressed upon the mind is illustrated by what has recently taken the name of “spectrophia.” The process is by a well- known law of optics : thus, for a minute you fix your eyes upon a colored picture, in as strong light as possi¬ ble, and then lift your eyes, without varying or winking, upon a white sheet or wall in a darkened room, and you will presently behold the same figure, of a colossal size (the size depending on your distance from the wall), but of a different color. An impression made thus upon the retina is retained by the optic nerve, and magnified by the mind into a picture, which picture, however, has no other existence than that which it derives from memory. “ Mine is the charm whose magic sway, The spirits of the past delight to obey; Let but the tuneful talisman sound, And they come like genii hovering round.” Moore. The results supposed to come from the charm always followed through the exercise of one or more of the exter¬ nal senses , — a fact that should never be overlooked in our attempts to arrive at the true philosophy by which all such results are induced. Were there any such “force” “passing” from the “eyes of a serpent,” as has been supposed, “into the eyes of a man,” by which he is said to have been “charmed,” precisely the same effects should follow in cases of total blindness. But no such case was ever known, and hence we find always that it is only persons of a certain idiosyncrasy that are “charmed,” and whenever the charm is felt, it is FASCINATION. 69 self-induced through the external senses. The notion that a snake has the power of “passing a force” into the human brains, in the way supposed by some people, is simply absurd, —a notion that ignorance has handed down to us from the barbarous ages of the past. In the Bible (Jer. viii. 17) God is said to have threatened to send among the Jews “ serpents ” and “ cockatrices ” to bite them, which they “could not charm.” And the Hebrew “ Chober translated in Psalms lviii. 4, “ charm¬ er,” comes from a root that signifies to join , to put together certain unintelligible words which formed the charm or spell; and the Methodist commentator, Dr. Adam Clarke, gives an account of a “charmer” he met with who had the reputation of curing diseases by repeating the following gibberish. The “charmer” was about to engage in the cure of a horse affected with farcin. With a grave countenance, he stood before the beast, and, taking off his hat, he muttered these words : “ Murry fin a lift cree, Murry fin a liss cree, Ard fin derio dhoo, Murry fin firey fee, Murry fin elph yew.” This charm, he said, had been taught to him by a woman ; and, to be successful, it must be communicated by one of the opposite sex, and the ceremony had to be gone through with nine mornings in succession before breakfast ! The term “charm” is used to designate some physi¬ cal body worn about the person to keep off the witches or disease. A. J. Davis recommends a “horse chest¬ nut” to be carried in the pocket for the cure of piles. — Her. of Health, p. 247. 70 IDEOLOGY. People have been known to wear pieces of coin about the neck as a charm against scrofula, and the same credulity , ignorance , and cupidity often advertise reme¬ dies to be carried in the pocket as a reliable preventive of small-pox ! and ignorant people enough are found scared at the name of this disease to support those misnamed “doctors” who have engaged in this busi¬ ness. It was an ancient saying that “where the dead carcass is, there will the foul birds be gathered together.” It is the ignorance of the people upon which the “ car¬ rion crows ” feed. We are told that “in fascination a force passes, as from a magnet to a needle; ” and so we are told that this “ force ” may be communicated to pills, and to paper, and a regular business carried on in the manu¬ facture of “magnetizing pills and paper”! Here let me state again the point to which I beg the reader’s attention. It is this : — In no case has any result ever been produced by the “charm,” or by “magnetized paper,” where there was neither faith , nor hope , nor fear in the mind, or in the beast on which the charm was exerted. No such cases are upon record, none have ever been known. Reptiles and insects may be trained to obey the laws of associa¬ tion, and so may beasts be controlled by fear t and learned certain habits ; and in this way we may account for whatever power man has ever exercised over the brute creation. By these laws of association and mem¬ ory the ox knows his own, and the dog recognizes the track of his master; and, if any human being ever was really “charmed by a snake,” I am sure that such a result must have come on through the sense of fear. Certainly you would not say it was from a sense of the beautiful. FASCINATION. 7 1 Extravagant claims were set up some years since by parties who proclaimed themselves as discoverers of a “ new science, as different from mesmerism as light is from darkness,” and which they called “Electro-Biol¬ ogy” and “Electrical Psychology.” But the results, mental and nervous, all of them produced, as it was said, “on persons wide awake,” by the process known under these terms, were nothing more nor less than illusions , produced by ideas developed in the minds of a class of people by the dictum of the operators. CHAPTER VIII. REVIVALS OF RELIGION. As I have never had any reasons for regretting the score of years I was employed by Methodism for “get¬ ting up ” religious epidemics, I do not see why I may not tell my own “experience” in this regard. This “telling one’s experience” is a fundamental thing among the Baptists and some other sects of the total depravity order. Indeed, there is no baptism, no admis¬ sion into the church, without an experience told in some form by each convert. And, then, my experience in Christianity’s twin sister, modern mediumship, extends back to the “ haunted house ” phenomena. It is plain enough that this modern movement has all the elements of a genuine revival, as it exceeds by far all the panics that have ever occurred, in the mysteriousness of its origin, in the power of its demonstrations , and, being- sustained by religious bigotry and intolerance, may remain for some years to come, for it is hard to over¬ throw. But it is not impregnable. It has got to come down eventually, and at no distant day. “Coming- events cast their shadows before,” and many now living will see the time when Infidels and Atheists will enjoy the right of which we are speaking. But as to this matter of personal experience, or faith , in the mediumistic revelations, it is like one’s own 72 REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 73 garment, which he may wear for a time, and then lay aside for another. One’s experience, past or present, should always be treated as private property. If your experience satisfies you, why should I complain ? Here is one who tells me that he saw the Devil in his bed¬ room last night, and he knows it was the old boss Devil, because he saw his cloven foot; and, besides, he actually smelt the fire and brimstone. That is his experience, and a matter never to be questioned. My experience is for me ; yours is for you. Hence it is no part of my design to ignore or to find any fault with the experi¬ ence of another. As there is “ no disputing of taste,” so there can be none of one’s experience. You have a stomach and a digestion of your own, while you may be ignorant of the most essential laws of nutrition, and now in bad health in consequence of your want of hygienic information. In such a conclusion, or narra¬ tive, my hygienic experience might assist some suffering invalid. Similar assistance we are all of us constantly giving and receiving more or less of. Certainly, no Christian can now pretend to deny that “ Moses and the prophets,” Jesus and his apostles, were each of them, as are each of the writers of the Bible, mediums , by and through whom God has revealed his will to mankind. This is ancient mediumism , and in this phraseology the modern form copies after the old; and hence we have “ Divine Revelations to mankind, by and through A. J. Davis, the Poughkeepsie seer and clairvoyant.” Thus we find that the motive-power in all forms of mediumism, ancient and modern, is faith. “Without faith,” says Christianity, “it is impossible to please God.” Without faith, mediumistic revelations amount to nothing. We are justified and “saved by faith.” 7 4 IDEOLOGY. In becoming a Methodist preacher I became, in that behalf, a medium between God and man, — a function which I can now see was like that of Moses and of Jesus, self-assumed , and for which there was no author¬ ity except what was found in my faith. Twice the bishop’s hands were laid upon my head, by which it was said I was “ ordained to the work and the office of a deacon and an elder in the church of God.” The function of my mediumship was to teach people what they must believe, and to threaten the unbeliever with the wrath of God and the vengeance of an eternal hell. Although it is now sixty years since I commenced that mediumistic career, I have still among my old papers diplomas given me at my “ ordination ” by the authority of the church. I was once asked why I had not surrendered these parchments to the church, seeing that I had left it. To which my reply was, that no one had demanded the surrender of my diplomas; but I would give them to querist if they would be of any use to him, as I con¬ sidered them of no use whatever to me, — unless, indeed, his misrepresentations of my character while a member of the church should render them necessary in confuting the slanders which he or his brethren in the church should utter against me. As my standing among them had always been good, my integrity of character had never been impeached. I can say, truthfully, that I bear no ill-will against Methodists, nor against Christians, albeit I do not be¬ lieve it can be proved by the Bible that Jesus actually died while on the cross, nor that “ revivals,” so-called, are anything more or less than human results, such as are common in panics and all purely mental epidemics. REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 75 But as to what is meant by such terms as “ conviction of sin,” “conversion,” “prayer,” “faith,” and “the love of God shed abroad in the heart,” I know better by far than I could now be told by any revival preacher. I, too, have had the “witness of the spirit,” have had a “call from the Holy Ghost to the work of the Christian ministry.” For many years I was a travelling preacher and a member of the New England Annual Conference, and revivals followed in my wake through¬ out the New England States, from 1820 to 1840. I know what kind of machinery there is in “class” and “band meetings,” in “love feasts,” “four days’ meet¬ ings,” and those religious picnics called camp-meetings. I have been there, and testify of what I have myself seen and heard. And now, when I say that I was myself first victim¬ ized by a Methodist revival, I must not be understood as expressing any regret in view of my past experiences. My creed is instruction from the past. Scientific men have said to me, that they should have considered it of vast advantage if they could have had my opportunities of observation in those epidemics called “ revivals of religion.” So now, after an experience of half a cen¬ tury in this field, a man should be counted dull and shallow indeed if he did not learn something of those conditions and forces by which all revivals are “ got up.” And what I have myself witnessed may I not relate ? Why not ? I have been there; have been upon the battle-field ; have been through the wars ; have led my regiment successfully through many a campaign. And, as I look back and call to mind the names of those of my “converts” who have been discharged from this warfare and passed to their rest in the grave, 7 6 IDEOLOGY. I am sure that no account which I can give of those exciting scenes will in any way disturb their repose. I have no evil report to make either of the living or the dead. In all the revivals in which I was engaged, I acted from honest motives, as I have continued to do from that period to the present; and as I was not, could not be, a hypocrite, so I received the truth, by which my mind expanded from the fogs of theology; and, similarly as I outgrew the coat I wore when a little boy, so have I spontaneously outgrown the silly notions imparted to me when a child, in respect to a jealous, vindictive God and his disappointment in man’s creation. It was these ideas which I addressed to the faith , the hopes , and the fears of my audiences, that gave me power for getting up revivals. Bear this in mind: Revivals are never known where the people are not made to believe in an angry God, who punishes sinners eternally in hell-fire for his own glory. Nay, these revivals are never got up where people are not first made to believe in a huge boss Devil, who goeth about seeking whom he may devour ; and faith in Jesus is not more essential than a belief in this old, ugly Devil. Nor was any revival ever heard of where these peculiar ideas of a failure in God’s creation, and a quasi- omni¬ present Devil, with his eternal hell of fire and brim¬ stone, were not preached, sung, and prayed into the people. In this way their hopes and fears in respect to another world are wrought upon, until one or more persons are so much overcome that they fall down, they weep, they pray, and manifest all those nervous phenomena peculiar to epidemics. Then it is, when one person becomes impressed, the sight of this person spreads the contagion REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 77 by the well-known laws of sympathetic imitation, so thoroughly illustrated in all mental epidemics. So as the number increases, the epidemic acquires power. The mental epidemic considered as a fire, it is easy to see how the appropriate fuel increases the flames. The increase of the blaze upon the hard steel increases its heat, and the hotter the fire the more inte 7 ise and wide¬ spread the epidemic becomes, until, by the repetition of the several ideas, the hardest granite yields and be¬ comes fused in the general mass. These phenomena followed the first sermon I ever preached. This was June 9th, 1820, in Walpole, Mas¬ sachusetts. The audience consisted principally of young people, about every one of whom were “ struck down,” as it was said, “ by the power of God.” They fell upon the floor, convulsed with emotions of fear, crying to God to “have mercy on their souls.” Their fears had been excited by my sermon, in which I had dwelt upon God’s wrath and their danger of eternal damna¬ tion. August 30th, 1820, I opened my Methodist battery upon the people of Cape Cod. It was in the chapel at Chatham. My text was: “For the great day of his wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand?”—Rev. vi. 17. My object was to make my audience realize what I myself had been taught to believe, viz., that God was angry with them for their sins, and that unless they adopted my views of God, of Jesus, and of hell, they were in danger of hell-fire. My sermon was announced at the usual hour in the morning, but our meeting did not break up or disperse until nightfall; and I had not spoken more than twenty minutes before the audience which filled the church was in a general 78 IDEOLOGY. uproar. I left the pulpit, and, taking my stand in the altar as usual, I invited the “mourners forward for prayers;” whereupon there followed a scene which it is difficult to describe. In a few moments the altar and the aisles were crowded with people, kneeling, and prostrated upon their faces, weeping, praying, and in a frenzy of tumultuous excitement. In this number I beheld the tender youth, husbands and their wives, parents and children, the old and gray-headed, and many a hardy seaman of that numerous class on the Cape whose courage and hardihood are far-famed the world over. Together, this mixed multitude remained in indistinguishable confusion, praying, shouting, groan¬ ing, and wringing their hands in an agony of pain. When I use the word “confusion” in this connection, I mean it to signify the aspect of the scene to a mere spectator. Those engaged in it uttered his or her prayer as if there were but one person in the house, while the entire company continued to vociferate their ejaculations and hymns of joy, as I have said, from morning till sundown. During that time there occurred in that melee all those extremes of anguish and de¬ spair, and also of faith and hope and joy, common in all powerful religious excitements. Some of the con¬ verts became ecstatic in the height of their joy ; and one little girl about ten or eleven years old, in the bewilderment of her emotions, sprang up with a shout of delight, and throwing her arms around my neck, showered upon me blessings unnumbered for what she said God had done through me for her soul. There was a pathos and a solemnity in all that occurred, which I am sure was unfeigned, and which must have been witnessed in order to be duly appreciated. REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 79 As the evening approached, I urged the people to leave and seek their homes for some refreshments, and, as they left the church and wandered over the fields to their houses, some of them stopped by the way, and, throwing themselves upon the ground, repeated their petitions to God for mercy, while others sang hymns of praise and thanksgiving. The meeting was, I may say, adjourned to the house of Reuben Ryder, a short distance from the church, where at the usual hour I had the house as full of peo¬ ple as it could be. My first attempt was to finish the sermon which had been interrupted in the morning; but, as before, I had spoken but a short time, when I found quite a number upon the floor, and their cries, groans, and prayers were so incessant that my voice could not be heard. And I well remember the case of two young ladies from Boston, by the name of Oliver, who happened to be present that evening. They were “ struck down,” it was said, “by the power of God,” and so much bewil¬ dered by the excitement that they continued to cry, while wringing their hands in agony, — “O dear, suzzy a day ! O dear, suzzy a day ! O dear, suzzy a day ! ” And this was all the prayer which I heard from their lips until they declared their “sins forgiven,” and their souls filled with “joy unspeakable and full of glory.” The meeting was prolonged till two o’clock the next •morning, and then some were scarcely willing to leave, so dear had the associations become to them, rendered so by the exercises through which they had passed. The revival thus commenced continued for some time, and I could give the names of citizens now living in Chatham, Mass., who witnessed and took part in the scenes I have described. 8o IDEOLOGY. October 5th, 1820, I opened upon "the young peo¬ ple of a village then known as Yarmouth Port, on the Cape. The announcement was made that it was " a youth ” that was to preach that night, and, of course, it drew out a house-full of people. The meeting was held in the house of a "brother Edson,* a cabinet-maker by trade, and I have now a beautiful little travelling-trunk he made for me, and the more readily, perhaps, because his own little daughter was among the "converts” that I made that evening. This revival may be said to have been more than usually sudden and spasmodic. Great, indeed, was the rejoicing manifested among the parents, who, within the space of a few hours, had seen their children, as they really believed, " soundly converted to God,” they had seen their "loved ones,” for whose "salvation ” they had been earnestly praying ever since they were born, upon their knees in prayer at my bid¬ ding ; and they had no doubt whatever but that the young minister had been "raised up” and sent forth to "preach” hell-fire and eternal damnation, precisely as they had heard those dogmas proclaimed by me at that meeting. Out of thirty-five or forty " converts ” in that revival, there was not one man included: they were all young misses about the age of the preacher; and in numerous other revivals "got up ” by ministers of different ages I have noticed a similar characteristic in the results, — human characteristics easily accounted for. But this revival was announced in Zion s Herald , the Method¬ ist paper of Boston, as a "glorious work of God, broke out on Cape Cod, under the preaching of Brother Sunderland, a youth of nineteen.” This announcement, and the 6clat that resulted from my preaching on the REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 81 Cape, made the name of the “youthful revivalist” a “tower of strength ” in the ranks of Methodism. And I had only to show my presence in any given locality as the signal of God’s presence, and there followed “ a time of refreshing from the presence of the Lord.” March 17, 1824, a series of most extraordinary “mani¬ festations ” occurred during my revival in a place on the Cape called Bass River, some of which I will now relate. I held a meeting at the house of Capt. Isaiah Baker. This good man and his excellent wife are now dead. I made their house my home, and remember with gratitude their kindness to me. Their little daugh¬ ter, a subject of the revival, attracted a good deal of attention. She afterwards married Mr. R. R. Crosby, and now resides in Boston, — a most excellent woman, — and she has lived long enough to find out the false¬ hood of these old ecclesiastical notions which I taught her in her childhood in respect to God and the hell he had prepared for those who differed from me in my notions of Jesus and the Bible. There were two young men, by the name of Crowell, who attended that day, and with whom I conversed freely on the state of their souls. In thus referring to the conversation which all revival ministers are in the habit of having with those whom they consider “ sin¬ ners,” I wish to put on record the convictions which age and reflection have forced upon my mind. What I have to say is this, namely, that most of all such conversations are manifestly a breach of good manners. To approach an entire stranger with this abrupt ques¬ tion, “ Do you enjoy religion ? ” is a piece of impudence of which none but a fanatic or a revival preacher could be guilty. The proper answer in such cases would be: 82 IDEOLOGY. “It is none of your business what I enjoy.” It would be precisely the same if the revivalist were to approach a stranger with this interrogatory, namely, “ Are you truthful ? Are you honest ? ” Religion seems to me to be a matter entirely your own business, and for any fanatic to attempt to penetrate into that privacy of your inmost nature may be set down, as it now seems to me, as the height of impertinence. The meeting at Capt. Isaiah Baker’s continued during the day, and toward night the two young men I have referred to left and went to their shop, where they commenced work at shoemaking. They had scarcely taken their seats when they were seized, as it was said, by “the power of God,” and, making an outcry, a mes¬ senger came immediately to me with the news. Without any delay I repaired to the shop, where I found a curious state of things, indeed. Both of these men were transfixed upon their seats, unable to move a muscle. Each of them had his work upon his knee, and his tools in his hands; but never a stitch could * they take, nor could they relax their hold upon their tools ! And, while thus paralyzed in their limbs, they cried aloud for mercy. Their vociferations attracted the attention of the neighbors; and one man, on venturing inside the shop to ascertain what the matter could be, was struck stiff upon the floor the moment he entered the door! This state of things was continued until prayers had been offered for these “sinners,” and, believing themselves converted, they dropped their unfinished work, and made their way to the meeting appointed for that evening. The next Sunday, a lady who had been “ converted ” REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 83 during the precedmg week, “ inspired ” by the revival mania, went to the Orthodox church in Bass River, and, as the minister and people were leaving after the morn¬ ing service, she posted herself in front of the house near the door, and commenced a revival harangue, addressed to the minister and his flock. As it was well known that Orthodox sects do not allow any such ministra¬ tions from females in the church or outside of it, as may well be supposed this outburst produced a good deal of consternation ; but, nothing daunted, the “young convert ” exhausted her zeal in denunciations and threats of God’s wrath and hell-fire against all hardened sinners and “formal professors ” of religion. These may be taken as specimens of the phenomena, all of them the results of faith in the revival dogmas I proclaimed, and such as followed my preaching for many years. My experience in this behalf has been of vast account in the field of science and the trance, which I have made it the business of my life to study. The phenomena were real; but I do not now suppose they were produced by “the Holy Spirit,” as I did then. Precisely similar phenomena now occur under the auspices of mediumism, which are attributed to “spirits” of the dead, and even to the old boss Devil himself! At the Annual Conference of 1824 I was “stationed” at Dorchester, Mass. The meeting-house there was constructed out of an old barn. It had been “ fitted up ” for a church by an elderly Frenchman, with whom I boarded. His name was Anthony Otheman, and, albeit he was a good Methodist, yet I often saw the old man so much overcome with his wine that he sometimes became very much “obfuscated” in “saying grace ” at his table. 8 4 IDEOLOGY. During my year in Dorchester, I found the people all ready for my “revival ” dogmas, and a hundred con¬ verts were added to the church, and two of this num¬ ber became “ministers of the gospel.” Daniel I. Robinson went off into the vagaries of Millerism ; and Edward Otheman, the youngest son of the old gentle¬ man before named, graduated at Brown University in 1830, and is, I believe, still living. This revival became somewhat distinguished by “ persecution.” The opposition was carried on princi¬ pally by throwing stones at the “revival minister” in the street, and hurling eggs and filth at his head while in the pulpit. For these offences two young men were indicted, tried, and convicted at the Court of Common Pleas held in Dedham, April 30, 1825. At the trial the minister was put upon the stand ; and Mr. Rich¬ ardson, counsel for the defense, asked him where he got his qualifications for the ministry ? And he seemed somewhat confounded when he was told that those qualifications “were the gift of God, without whose authority no one could be a successful minister of the gospel.” The phenomena I have now described followed my preaching. But such revivals as I had fifty years ago are now “few and far between,” except in certain localities where the lights of science have never shone. In New England and other parts of the world, where the phenomena of Ideology, or modern mediumship, have been witnessed, the “revival ” dogmas are held at a damaging discount. And it is in this state of things that we find the reasons for “the Christian Alliances ” and “the Young Men’s Christian Associations.” These combinations are for “sugaring the pill.” In “the REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 85 praise meetings ” and the like, now so much patronized, the policy is to keep the offensive dogmas out of sight, and to have the old boss Devil take a back seat ! In the beginning of Methodism, what was called “ the power of God ” was greater than at the present time ; and twenty years ago the phenomena which may be classed under the term of the mystic rap were certainly more wonderful than they are now known to be any¬ where. The reason for this relapse in mystical phe¬ nomena may be the want of faith and a lively interest in their occurrence. The trances, spasms, and numerous nervous phenom¬ ena that characterized my preaching sixty years ago were far beyond anything of the kind at the present time. Similar results were witnessed eighty-five years ago in the “Kentucky Revival.” Also in 1745 they were common in New England, among the Congrega- tionalists, under the preaching of Jonathan Edwards and others; as they were also in later times under the preaching of George Whitfield and the early Method¬ ists. The similar phenomena among the Presbyterians in Kentucky were common indeed among the early Quakers in the days of George Fox. So it has often seemed to me that the nervous phenomena character¬ istic of modern mediumism renders this movement a second edition of old-fashioned Methodism, bating the revival dogmas of an angry God and an old boss Devil. I may refer to it as an interesting fact in this connec¬ tion, that, since commencing this narrative of my expe¬ rience in revivals, I have received a number of letters from two Methodist ministers (one of whom I had never seen), both of them earnestly urging me down¬ wards again, into the support of their notions respecting 86 IDEOLOGY. Gocl and hell-fire ! And, as a specimen of their labors in my behalf, I give the following : — Brookfield, Mass., March 3, 1871. Laroy Sunderland, Dear Sir: — Will you allow the intrusion of a stranger ? You may have seen my signature in the Index. One of the earlier recol¬ lections of my life is the noble stand you took, when in the Methodist Church, against the encroachments of slavery. Ah ! there are many among our older members who remem¬ ber those days, and remember you as the valiant knight that upon the walls of Zion (when editor of the Zion's Watchman , New York, from 1835 to 1842) wrestled with the great wrong, who fervently sympathized with you in your views, and still more as persecuted by the haughty conservatism of that day, and who still unfeignedly mourn your lapse from your earlier faith, the disappointment of your earlier promise. Quite a number of years ago t read a sermon (printed in 1830) by Laroy Sunderland, on the text, “ My spirit shall not always strive with man.” I remember well its terrific peroration, — the sinner being admonished that, unless he speedily repented, he would learn beneath eternal woe. What God meant when he said, “ My spirit shall not always strive with man,” I suppose you would not deny that the class you had in your mind’s eye, when these burning words were uttered, words that will never be blotted out, is the one you now represent; so that you now stand condemned by the words of your own mouth. Ah ! which was right, — the Laroy Sunderland of 1830, who preached that sermon, or the Laroy Sunderland of to-day, without a Saviour, with no lively hope of an inheritance beyond the grave ? Which the happier, the most useful ? Think of the shining seat of influence you now would have occupied in the church ! How God would have honored you ! Yours truly, Rev. R. H. Howard. It may be said to have been quite modest in this man, so much my junior in years, and, I may add, my junior in “revival” experience, that he should be so REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 87 ready to hand me over to the Devil, as beyond the mercy of the Infinite ! But, indeed, I need not be surprised: such is Christian charity ! And here is a question I put to this minister, but one which he has not answered to this day : — “ How am I to account for the fact, that, while you believe in the mediumship of Moses and Jesus,—who were mediums between God and humanity,—you de¬ nounce the mediumship of the present day as the work of the Devil ? ” Says this advocate of ancient mediumism: “ Moses and Paul were under the control of the Holy Ghost.” They were, indeed! And how do you know that ? Did you or any other minister ever cross-examine the Holy Ghost to find out whether or not he was present when Moses declared himself a medium through whom he spoke to the people ? So, indeed, this question embarrasses the preacher, in respect to all the writings of both the Old and New Testaments. No invisible witness can be cross-questioned, nor regarded as com¬ petent to testify in any court of justice. Other points I made with this Methodist preacher, one in respect to the failure of Christianity, when the faith of its founder failed him, and he declared himself “forsaken of God.” Still another was, as to what will be the fate, according to the Methodist creed, of all who die without faith. Jesus (supposing he actually died upon the cross) was not himself sent to hell, although he died without faith. Of course, these points were not answered by the Rev. Mr. Howard, nor will they ever be answered by any other “revival” minister, however bravely he may tell us of his “standing up for Jesus.” 88 IDEOLOGY. Mr. Howard and his class of “believers” need to “see the signs and wonders,” or the “jerks,” as they occur in revivals; as, without these phenomena, all the “ means of grace,” the preaching and drilling by “exhor¬ tations,” prayers, and songs, are in vain. The spasms, the number “converted” and “taken into” the church, are all the evidences they can refer to as to what they denominate u Holy Ghost power.” And all the “jerks,” “whistling,” “falling,” “pulling,” and “barking” exer¬ cises in revivals are so many evidences that “ God is at work among the people.” The term “jerks” is perhaps appropriate for desig¬ nating what may be considered the type of a class of nervous phenomena peculiar to revivals and spiritual epidemics. And, as the writer has been familiar with this class of phenomena for half a century, he may, perhaps, be considered as speaking of “ what he knows,” — of that which he has himself “ seen and heard.” Years ago the people believed, more than they do now, in revival ideas of an “angry God,” “hell-fire,” and an old boss “Devil.” No such “revival ” was ever got up without preaching this Devil into the people as really as Jesus himself is preached. This want of faith explains the reason why the “jerks ” are not witnessed nowadays ; and it should be a burning shame to those ministers who profess to believe in the “Devil ” that they cannot come it over the people now, as formerly, in getting up revivals. In my “revival days” the converts were counted by hundreds in different local¬ ities, and the “jerks ” were, of course, attributed to the power of God. But the twenty years from 1820 which I spent in this peculiar work of a “revival minister” afforded me ample opportunities for investigation, which REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 89 convinced me that “ revivals ” are not produced by the ' “ Holy Ghost,” nor by any other ghost, except the ideas that are preached, prayed, and sung into the people, until these ideas become crystallized in the minds of the ignorant. Look at it. Among Christians these “jerks” are attributed to God. In witchcraft they are attributed to the Devil; and in modern mediumism they are attri¬ buted to some one long since dead. But thirty years ago all these phenomena were accounted for by Ideol¬ ogy. My first book on Self-Induction was published in 1843, and clergymen of the highest respectability attended my lectures in Boston and other places (such as Hubbard Winslow, Edward T. Taylor, and Bishop Brownell of the P. E. Church), and, repeatedly wit¬ nessing my experiments on the human mind, they pronounced them genuine and most wonderful. This opinion was also endorsed by parson Colver, the min¬ ister of Tremont Temple in 1847 5 f° r he requested his trustees to close the doors of that church against me, as the phenomena I produced there took the wind from his sails, and broke up a revival he was having! And where is the Rev. Henry Morgan ? I wonder if he remembers a respectful request I made of him, a year or two since, that he should allow me his pulpit long enough to show him, by actual demonstration, how all “revivals” are got up? — a service this which I still hold myself in readiness to give to Mr. Fulton, Mr. Morgan, or any other minister who has faith in those spiritual epidemics called “revivals.” Pathetism (see my work, “The Trance,”) explains how all these strange nervous phenomena occur, and under so many different names and phases (“ convic- 9 o IDEOLOGY. tion,” “conversion,” the “trance,” “jerks,” etc.). Whatever is evolved from the human mind or the ner¬ vous system is to be accounted for by elements that inhere in human nature; and we should observe that all these phenomena are confined to a certain tempera¬ ment peculiar to a small class of people. These two different terms, “/reduce” and “z//duce,” are used as indicating the rationale of their occurrence. 1. They are produced by something inside of the mind, not outside of it. They are induced by faith, by ideas, by expecting them, by the force of habit, and by sympathetic imitation. 2. As to any remote cause, they are produced by suggestion, or by the laws of association ; but never by volition, as has been supposed. These terms are often misused synonymously. But self-induction accounts for all the nervous and mental changes, such as the “trance,” “conversions,” etc., that ever did or ever can occur. We need not go to another world, nor leave the confines of the living organism, to find the conditions and forms of force by which all these phenomena are in¬ duced. They cannot be said to be produced at all, only as they have been previously suggested by external occurrences; that is, some ideas suggested with which certain phenomena are associated,, and whenever they occur they are by what I called self-induction many years ago. It is certainly much to be regretted that the religious press and the pulpits so common among us are all “dumb dogs” on this subject. They dare not open any door through which the light of science can shine on the rationale of getting up revivals. And here I will state explicitly some of the points which I hold REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 91 myself in readiness to prove, — namely, the “ conditions ” upon which Jesus wrought his miracles, and also the conditions of “salvation,” are precisely the same as in Pathetism and modern mediumism. The motive-power in each is faith, and this, we know, is in the mind; and this is one of the most powerful principles by which the mind is ever conscious of being controlled. The phenomena that occurred under my preaching fifty years ago, and also the “jerks ” in the Kentucky revivals in 1807, were more extraordinary than any¬ thing now witnessed in the churches, or under the auspices of that by far the greatest “revival” yet got up, which is modern mediumism. And in referring to mediumism, it is not of the phenomena of which the mystic rap is the type that I am speaking, but only of nervous phenomena under the type of the “jerks.” There is nothing in this class of phenomena under the name of “Spiritualism” that will compare with the old-fashioned Methodist revivals. I have seen women, when they were said to be “under the control” of the Holy Ghost, rise on one foot, and whirl around for a few minutes with such velocity that the arms and the long hair extended out from the body at right angles. This was called the “whirling exercise.” There were, also, the “jumping,” “barking,” “laughing,” “crying,” and “rolling exercises,” besides the “jerks ; ” and in modern mediumism they have one I should call the “yelling exercise,” in imitation of the Indian war- whoop. And, as now mediums are said to be in a state of “unconscious trance,” so these religious fanat¬ ics never confessed to any memory as to the exercises through which they had passed. Hence it is manifest that we are not to depend upon 92 IDEOLOGY. this class of persons for an explanation as to the motive- power by which they are “controlled.” For certain it is that as the light of science dawns upon the common people, revival “jerks” and all similar mediumistic phenomena will be few and far between. During a recent period, the “evangelical ministers” of Boston combined in preaching sermons in which each one gave his views as to the reasons why so very few, comparatively, attended the churches on Sunday. These views were called for especially in consideration of the fact that the theatres and all other resorts for public amusement were well attended. There were a dozen or more of these sermons, principally from city clergymen, reported in the city papers, and some fourteen “reasons” in all were enumerated why so very few people went to church on Sunday. Yet, among them all, not one of these “ evangelical minis¬ ters ” ventured to mention “faith,” the want of “saving faith,” as the true reason why their ministry was not better attended. Thus, failing to assign the true rea¬ son, all the other reasons assigned were not “ the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.” Is it to be supposed that there was not one or more of those ministers that knew well enough what the true reason was why the churches were so poorly attended ? Here follows a statement of those oracular medium¬ istic announcements in the belief of which certain characteristic nervous and mental phenomena are sure to follow ; that is, when these ideas are affirmed per¬ sistently in the hearing of people uninformed, and who know no better than to believe them ! The term dogma has this signification : it is an expressed opinion to be taken upon trust, and which is of no account without REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 93 faith. All Christians believe these dogmas, even those who do not favor “revivals.” It is enthusiasm in the faith of these dogmas which “gets up” revivals, cru¬ sades, and other forms of fanaticism. I. The dogma that the world was created in six days, and in the germ of humanity the Creator failed and was disappointed in his work. Gen. vi. 6. The Hebrew reads : “ And the Lord cried in his heart that he had made man upon the earth ” ! He was so much grieved that he had made man on the face of the earth that he determined to destroy the entire race, except Noah and his family ; and this determination he fulfilled by bring¬ ing a flood, when it rained forty days ; so that the earth, including the hills and mountains, was covered by the waters. II. The dogma that God is angry with humanity, jealous, and vindictive, visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon their children, from the first man Adam down to the last human being that hereafter may be born! III. The dogma that God caused Jesus to be born of a woman without a human father, and he caused him to suffer an infamous death on a cross, in order thus to counteract the dire consequences of his own failure in man’s “creation.” IV. The dogma that Jesus, thus born, is a medium between God, who has been offended by his own work, and the human race, lost eternally by this failure. 94 IDEOLOGY. V. The dogma that Jesus, by his death upon the cross, made himself an atonement, a full and perfect satisfac¬ tion to the demands of Infinite Justice for the sins of the whole world of mankind. VI. The dogma that only those of the human race who exercise “saving faith” in this atonement at the mo¬ ment when they die are benefited by it. All others, when they die, “ go away into everlasting punishment.” VII. The dogma that Moses, the prophets, and the apos¬ tles were divinely “inspired” mediums between God and “the rest of mankind,” appointed by God to make known his will; so that what purports to be their writ¬ ings or utterances is truly “the word of God.” VIII. The dogma that the successors of the apostles, whether popes, bishops, priests, elders, preachers, or ministers of the gospel, when truly so called, are divinely appointed mediums between God and the “ rest of man¬ kind,” and their function is to declare the will of God, and to threaten all who will not exercise faith in their declarations with God’s wrath in hell forever. IX. The dogma that there is an invisible, malignant, lying Devil, with an innumerable host of evil angels, prowling about near to every living soul, seeking whom they can entice into sin and everlasting torments in hell > REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 95 moreover, that, in this infernal work, these devils have been wofully successful, as they will be to the end of time, and thus by far the biggest proportion of the human race enter the “broad way” to eternal death. X. The dogma as to the absolute authority of the medi- umistic writings in the Bible. Those refusing to yield to that authority are forever damned, “cast out into utter darkness, where there is weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth.” XI. The dogma in respect to sin, that it is an infinite evil committed by a finite being. XII. The dogma respecting the government of God, that he punishes sinners in an eternal hell, not for their good, but to gratify his own love of praise and glory. XIII. The dogma respecting a new birth and a “ change of heart.” The views which a sinner has been induced to entertain of himself is a “change of heart,” and he is thus “born again.” Such a “conversion” instantly renders a liar truthful, a dishonest man honest, and a bad man as good as the best. XIV. The dogma in respect to faith, “saving faith,” that faith that creates “the evidence of things unseen.” This dogma forbids faith in humanity, faith in the unvarying laws of matter and of mind. 96 IDEOLOGY. XV. The dogma respecting prayer, based upon the false idea that aspiration is not a spontaneity in the human mind, as really filial love is ; and that by praying in faith Infinite Wisdom will remove a mountain into the sea. XVI. That dogma that drilling the minds of people with these dogmas will change the elements of human char¬ acter for the better, and without a persistent trust in their truthfulness, the race is accursed of God, and doomed to an unending hell! Such are the principal dogmas that are preached in the pulpit to-day, and they are the same that I drilled / into the minds of my auditors for twenty years, and by which I “got up ” revivals, and such “revivals” as are not witnessed at the present time, and only because people are now generally more informed than they were fifty years ago. How Revivals are Got up. Does any Christian or any minister of the gospel imagine that the author of this volume could have been a Methodist revival preacher for a score of years, and still be ignorant of the methods by which revivals are got up ? Why should I have been a dull scholar in such a school ? And why should I not know, even far better than all the evangelists and revivalists of the present day, the clap-trap, the sensational appeals to credulity and/p#?', the persistent drilling with sermons, prayers, and song ? I know, indeed, far better than any one could inform me, how the epidemic is inaugurated, and REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 97 how it is spread from one to another, and from village to village. All such revivals are mental epidemics : they are human in their inceptions, and always to be accounted for, scientifically, by Ideology and forces that inhere in the human mind. The phenomena that are attributed to “ God,” “Jesus,” and the “Devil ” are self-induced, and controlled by laws that are now better understood than formerly. As ignorance is the devil of humanity that we all have got to fight, so is science and a knowledge of Nature’s laws our highest savior. Hence credulity and ignorance of Psychology are the soil in which all mental epidemics flourish. When people are ignorant enough, they can believe anything, however absurd. The repetition of revival dogmas, as in contagious disease, is at first confined to one family, when, by constant drilling with revival ideas, as the plant is well known to take its essence, its form, and its use from the germ whence it grew, so with corre¬ sponding unvariability do the revival phenomena take their shape and their drift from the mystical ideas preached, prayed, and sung for their production. Such ideas can have no other influence or authority than fogs of mysticism with which they are associated. But these false ideas become a power when adopted by large numbers. Then persecution and witchcraft obtain a foothold. If, therefore, the teacher we follow is con¬ trolled by barbarian ideas, his manhood is held in abeyance ; he is a fanatic. The human mind cannot expand into a perfect sphere while the mental faculties are compressed with the shackles of superstition. Man¬ hood is attained only in the full and the harmonious development of all the intellectual faculties in agree¬ ment. Nor is a healthy, complete manhood attained in 9 8 IDEOLOGY. a year or two. It is the growth of a hundred years or so. We see what the barbarian idea was in what is reported of Moses: witness his notions of his mediumship between the Hebrews and his revengeful, vindictive, and blood¬ thirsty God, whose love of approbation was so great that he destroys with an everlasting destruction all that should fail in shouting his glory ! Consider, also, his bloody sacrifices, and his death-penalties of hell-fire with which all his commands were enforced. Such is the God of religious revivals. Notice with what pertinacity and power the Bible ideas have been imposed upon a large portion of the race of mankind, and for thousands of years past, even to this day; so that vast numbers have been victimized and controlled by these savage ideas, in spite of all the progressive tendencies of the past ages The Turk is controlled by the idea of Mohammed ; Christians have yielded to Calvin’s “horrible decree” of eternal elec¬ tion and reprobation! So of the Mormons, Shakers, Swedenborgians, Campbellites and other classes. Mil¬ lions of people in this country pride themselves in bear¬ ing the name of “Wesley.” They believe as he believed, pray as he prayed, preach as he preached, dress as he dressed, do as he did, and consider it an evidence of peculiar merit that they do not differ from him at all ! In all their devotions they use certain terms because he used them, and often boast of their being like him ; they are “ Wesleyans,” and imagine they are receivers of the Truth because they are Wesleyans, not that they are like him because they are truthful. Their revivals are “got up” by preaching, praying, singing, and talking Wesley s pe¬ culiar ideas into the minds of the people. The con- REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 99 verts in their revivals are taught Wesley’s notions of a vindictive God and an old ugly Devil. One of the deepest susceptibilities of the human mind is in the organs of fear, — the fear of death, the fear of want, the fear of the future ; and it is to this suscep¬ tibility that the preacher appeals in all he says of the “wrath of an angry God ” and the terrors of an unend¬ ing hell. No conversions ever occurred among those who do not believe that God is or could be angry ; none among those who do not believe that God could inflict vindictive punishment; and hence the first thing done by the preacher to get up a revival, always, is to preach on the “wrath of God,” or vindictive, eternal punish¬ ment. No revivals occur where these notions of a disappointed , angry, vindictive God are not preached into the people until they become infected with them, their fears excited, and thus influenced they pray and seek for relief. And when Pathetized into the belief that God has changed his purpose concerning them, of course they “feel relieved,” “feel better,” and finally “have experienced a hope” that God will not deal justly with them, and send them where they ought to go, —to an eternal hell! Bear in mind what I have stated, that the philosophy of that influence exerted in the so-called revivals is psychological: it is precisely the same as that exerted always and everywhere by one mind over another; when any power is put forth it is psychological, of • course. No matter what the “measures” may be, whether writing, speaking, praying, singing, — a look, a sign, a suggestion, — the susceptibilities of the mind are soil in which the seed must germinate and grow. The excellences of human character are developed 100 IDEOLOGY. from these susceptibilities. But for them man could never be educated, and never be assisted by his fellow- man at all. We grieve with those who grieve; we unconsciously yield to the states of mind evinced by any one in whom we confide; and such is the depth of this sympathetic, imitative susceptibility, that we are often overpowered by it, even against our own resist¬ ance. There are times when you cannot help laughing when you see others laugh. Nay, the more you try not to laugh, the more the fit seizes upon you, until you are completely overpowered and carried away with it. The priests always and everywhere draw their power from alleged revelations from the unseen world. The organs of marvellousness, credulity, or wonder are always most active in children, and in those advanced in life who lack information as to the matters on which they are addressed; and it must follow, as a matter of course, that when appeals are thus constantly made to the organs of wonder in the multitude,■ they become excited , they stare, they groan, they pray, roar, jump, jerk, smell hell, and see the Devil it may be. These fanatical appeals are made to the organs of fear. The people are told what a terrible being God is; that he is a jealous God, — an angry, vindictive God, and that he is seeking their utter ruin. The views given of God in all revivals are horrible , and enough to throw those into fits who believe what is said. It is not to be supposed that nervous men, women, and children can listen to such harangues without having their organs of wonder and fear affected. But if one person thus becomes agitated in a public audience, the sight of this one person affects others more than any REVIVALS OF RELIGION. IOI sermon could do. Thus it is revivals are spread from one church to another by these laws of sympathetic imitation. Perhaps I should be scarcely considered as doing justice to this subject if I were to omit a consideration of the changes which these excitements are supposed to make in the characters of men. We all know what notions prevail in respect to what is called “ conversion ” and “a change of heart.” In the essential elements of their nature men are never changed. They never change in the number or the functions of their mental faculties. In the essential tendencies , their idiosyn- crasies, men do not often change. A covetous man is covetous, in despite of his “conversion ” and all the “sanctifying influences of the Holy Ghost.” A really benevolent man is benevolent ere he is pathetized by the notions of the Devil and of an eternal hell-fire. The laws of the conjugal, parental, filial, and fraternal relations of life all exist without the Bible or the revival preacher. And here is a statement which I feel bound to make now, after an experience and observation extending over a period of more than fifty years in revivals, “four- days’ meetings,” camp-meetings, and whatever means have been used for getting up these so-called revivals of religion. My statement is this, namely, that among all the multitudes that I have seen “converted” in these revivals, I have never found one person whose mental disposition was essentially changed. As to the real character of the man, he is the same after his “conversion” that he was before he is said to have been “born again.” If he were covetous before he was taken into the church, he has been covetous since. 102 IDEOLOGY. The disposition of the man for truthfulness, for good¬ ness, and justice is never essentially altered by what is called “the new birth,” or conversion. My own definition of religion would be, that it is that sense of obligation which controls the human mind in the fulfilment of all the relations of life. This sense of what ought to be done, or left undone, is older than all creeds, older than all Bibles, and does not depend upon prayer or faith or “revivals”! These mental epidemics are an evil, yet I look upon them, however, as a necessity. Ignorance is a necessity, as are all the evils which flow from it. I have had excellent opportunities for studying the characters of men under the influence of revivals. In doing so I have been accustomed to make a marked distinction between human nature and the characters of men. Human nature is always the same; but in character men differ, as they differ in the size of their bodies and in their ages and opportunities. CHAPTER IX. CLAIRVOYANCE. This term was at first used by the French. It sig¬ nifies clear sight, or vision, without the eyes ! But, as it is still doubted by many intelligent people as to whether there is any such knowing faculty which sees without the use of the eye, I give here what I suppose to be an authentic account of a case that recently occurred in Monson, Mass. It was published in the New York Mercury of a recent date in January, 1885, and it is as follows : — “Take a ride with me, and I will show you a curious phe¬ nomenon, a psychological puzzle and prodigy,” quoth Dr. Newton, as he picked up the reins and prepared to vault into his carriage. “ I’ve got a wonderful boy patient living over yonder in the gorge between the mountains,” —pointing with his gloved forefinger to a little white cottage that lay basking in the sun a couple of miles away. The place passed some ten years ago or more into the hands of John Collins, whose son James, a lad of fifteen, was the psychological puz¬ zle and prodigy cited by the doctor. “ Five years ago,” said the doctor, in substance, as we drove along, “the boy, until then of exceedingly vigorous and robust constitution, was suddenly stricken down with typhoid fever, and lay for twenty-one days totally unconscious, — too sick for the delirium that often attends such cases. The little fellow survived, but came out of his insensibility with an abnormal and apparently settled hyperassthesia (or exaltation of the function) of the nerves of se?isation. 103 104 IDEOLOGY. “ I give my word, strange as the phenomenon may seem, that I have known Jimmy Collins to discover the presence of a person at a distance of more than five hundred yards from the house when he was sitting quietly in the corner. And not only that, but I have known him to tell who the party was at that distance, and have tested this strange faculty of his so thoroughly, and under such a variety of con¬ ditions and circumstances, that deception is not possible. If he is at home at this moment he knows that I am on my way thither to see him, with a stranger for my companion ; and the probability is that he has already notified his mother of the fact. Let me give you an example of his acumen. “ Some four weeks ago, a few minutes before the clock struck one, he was awakened by a dream that two thieves were going past the house with stolen goods done up in bundles. He described the two men accurately as to their personnel , repeated the whispered conversation between them as they went by, indicated the direction from which they came, and was altogether as minute and exact in his narrative as though he had been wide awake, and had seen them with open eyes by daylight. At the breakfast table the boy mentioned the dream to Mr. and Mrs. Collins; but they paid no attention to the story until about noon, when a squad of men from the village (Monson) passed the house on the track of a couple of burglars who had broken into a dry- goods store and carried off silks, velvets, and’ cashmeres of considerable value, besides robbing the till of a few dollars in bills and silver. “ The boy was absent on an errand for the moment, but when Mr. Collins mentioned his dream as a curious coin¬ cidence, the officers and posse decided to remain till he returned, and question him. They did so, and he furnished such an accurate delineation of the appearance, dress, etc., of the two thieves he had seen to pass the house in his dream, that members of the party identified them as persons they had noticed prowling about the village late on the preceding afternoon. With the information thus obtained, the pur¬ suers followed fast upon the trail of the fugitives, and over¬ hauled them at a little cabin in the woods, some two miles from the road. “ Now, the strange feature of the affair is that the clue to the retreat which the thieves had established was furnished by Jimmy Collins. In describing his dream and its incidents, CLAIRVOYANCE. 105 he declared that he heard the man with the light hair and beard whisper to the other something about a cabin up under the mountain , and say that the Devil himself couldn’t find them there. He then related how he had seen them walk down the road a few rods, and turn into a cart-path at the left, which led to a sheltered coal-pit bottom and an abandoned cabin at the foot of Peaked Mountain, — a precipitous crag whose summit overlooks this section of the country for leagues about, and here they were captured with their booty.” “ ‘All that I can tell you,’ said the boy, ‘ is that ever since I was sick I have felt as if there was a kind of atmosphere about me, extending to a very great distance. I can’t tell you how far. It seems to grow thinner and thinner near the edges. Beyond it I can’t see anything any more than any one else can ; but the moment anybody else comes into my circle, as I call it, I see him as clearly as though I had my very eyes on him, and can describe his dress and what he is doing just as well as though I were standing right by him.’ ” With the consent of Mr. and Mrs. Collins, and the con¬ currence of the boy himself, Dr. Newton instituted some simple experiments. While the boy was sitting in the corner by me, in such position and attitude that a glance from the window was impossible, the doctor went out to his buggy, got in, drove down to the brook, a distance of about three hundred yards from the house, gave the horse a bucket of water, took his surgical case from his pocket and put it under the cushion of the seat, then got in and drove back to the house again, the patient describing each movement in detail at the instant of its occurrence, even to the deposit of the surgical case beneath the cushion. Dr. Newton then went into an adjoining room, looked at the clock, compared the hour and minute with the time indi¬ cated by his “hunting-case, took a statuary group of Cupid and Psyche on the mantel in the midst of other ornamental pieces, examined, and replaced it, — the boy recounting each movement as it occurred, without the least hesitancy or ap¬ pearance of listening. As a crucial experiment, the boy being a good writer, the doctor placed him at the table in the middle of the room, with pencil and paper before him, and the old-fashioned clock in full view. My part of the experiment consisted in taking the horse and buggy, driving off in any direction I listed, turning about, backing, going forward, performing any eccentric evolution that occurred io6 IDEOLOGY. to me, and so on. I was to note the hour and minute of any movement that I should make, while the boy was to describe the same, the point at which it occurred, and the hour and minute of the occurrence by the clock before him, — the two narratives to be compared with each other on my return. I was absent seventeen minutes, and purposely omitted to record various little details by way of puzzling my strange raco?iteur; but in every such instance the boy corrected my notes by reference to his own, insisting that I was either mistaken or had forgotten to make a memorandum. “ I saw you, sir,” said the lad, decisively, “get out of the wagon where the old cart-path enters the woods, tie the halter strap round an oak sprout that stands by the road, and then walk up the path as far as a big rock, and turn around and come back again.” He had described the action with absolute accuracy. Satisfied with my test, I signified to the doctor that it was needless to detain him any longer, and we took our departure. Its Pathology. Like fits, insanity, or catalepsy, the best cases of vision without the eye are always the result of some disease, some nervous disturbance. Nor is it, as some have imagined, necessarily mind in a state of trance. I have for sixty years been familiar with the trance; nor could I affirm that, in all that I ever knew to be entranced, did I ever know half a dozen cases of clairvoyance. I am sure that a great misapprehension prevails when we hear persons talking of “ developing clairvoyance,” as really as if they were to propose to cause one to have fits or to become insane. My opin¬ ion is that the very few cases that I have witnessed were the best, and each of these were in persons that had previously been afflicted with fits and insanity. Mary jane Mason, then of Lowell, Mass., was a patient of mine, whom I cured of convulsions and insanity. She evinced clairvoyance. She told me the contents CLAIRVOYANCE. 107 of my trunk, of which no one ever saw the key but myself; and, with her eyes closed, she read and men¬ tioned the errors in a long letter addressed to me by my brother, Dr. James W. Sunderland, then a Professor in Kenyon College at the West. Another patient of mine, in Providence, R. I., Miss Ann E. Hall, who had never been perfectly healthy, evinced “vision without the eye,” at Dr. Murphy’s, in Newport, R. I., when she read the following words written on a piece of paper that was at the time crimped up in a wad and held tight in her hand, omitting the name included in parenthe¬ ses : — Boston, May 15, 1845. Dr. Sunderland, Sir : — One of Dr. Hewitt’s patients (Isaac Bryant) is anxious to be entranced, having seen your name in yesterday’s paper. If you will pay him a visit and attempt to do it, he is ready to pay you. In his behalf, J. Rainesville. “Vision without the eye” rarely occurs. It is not a habit that may be cultivated, any more than fits or any form of disease. The case of Miss Jane C. Ryder attracted a good deal of attention for a year or more, in Springfield and Worcester, in 1833 and ’34; and I now have before me a copy of a small volume published of it, by Dr. L. W. Belden, who declares that during Miss Ryder’s spells, which came upon her without her volition, that in the dark and with both her eyes bandaged, so that it was not possible for her to see with them at all, she threaded needles , sewed , told the time accurately by different watches ! She read the whole three pages of Bryant's “ Thanatopsisf and she read and wrote letters ! io8 IDEOLOGY. But these cases are sufficient for my present purpose. Clairvoyance is never idiopathic, but symptomatic always. The trance, fits, and insanity all come on from disturbances in the nervous centres, and when clairvoy¬ ance is evinced it is from similar causes. Hence it is easy to see the great mistake, to which I have elsewhere alluded, made by Andrew J. Davis, the “ Poughkeepsie Seer,” in regard to this subject of “vision without the eye.” Hear him : — “ In spontaneous clairvoyance, that is identified with the state that is induced by the magnetic processes, the eyes of the mind, the internal powers of vision, are wonderfully strengthened and enlarged ; and there are no boundaries of time or space that can circumscribe their penetration.” — Great Harmonia, Vol. iii, p. 265. Similar to the robin that knows enough to construct its nest in the tree near the road where the hand of any rude boy may despoil it, so of clairvoyance. It is limited as to time. It may occur once, and never again ; and also limited as to the extent of the vision or the diversity of objects of which knowledge is obtained. The mistakes in regard to it are numerous : — 1. That it is extended beyond time and space. There is no proof that it can be extended beyond all that appertain to this world. 2. It is an unproved assumption that there is any faculty, normal or abnormal , in the human mind, for knowing what God or a ghost is, or what man’s condi¬ tion is after death. Nature’s order cannot be cheated in this manner. 3. Confounding clairvoyance with phenomena anal¬ ogous to those in dreaming. I have referred to a class who sometimes cannot distinguish between a CLAIRVOYANCE. 109 dream and things they had witnessed in the waking state ! In these abnormal states they set up for doc¬ tors, or, may be, “inspirational speakers.” There never was a greater mistake in respect to psychology than when people imagine that this power can be safely controlled by volition, or made to perform normal motions by artificial processes. I do not say that clairvoyance was never manifested in despite of all artificial processes ; but I do affirm that it can be no more consistent to attempt the excitement of clairvoy¬ ance by artificial processes than it is healthy, natural, and consistent to excite any functions of the human body by artificial processes. Dreaming is a common and natural result of sleep, which occurs in the natural course of things. But would it be healthy to attempt to induce dreaming from day to day as a matter of business ? And yet how many persons are now engaged in professions of clairvoyance as a matter of business ! No one has contributed more to this species of char¬ latanry than A. J. Davis. Making professions as to clairvoyance himself, the most extravagant of anything of the kind ever put forth by any human being, he gives ( Revelations , page 38) minute directions as to the artificial processes by which “ spontaneous clairvoyance ” may be induced ! And, will the reader believe it ? Mr. Davis, in his description of the mummery, “ thumb to thumb” process, tells us that when the “independent” (clairvoyant) condition is produced, “the body” of the patient tips over on the side, “assumes an inclined position”! At the time this was written, Davis was constantly in the habit of bending his body over his chair to the right or left, at a right angle, in order to become clairvoyant!!! IIO IDEOLOGY. This silly habit of bending the body over the side, as also the jerking and twitching parts of the process, Mr. Davis took by the laws of sympathetic imitation. He had seen some one affected in that way, and he caught the infection precisely as the mediums catch the ner¬ vous, shaking, and pawing processes, everywhere com¬ mon when the victim is once taught to believe that some nondescript invisible personage has got hold of him. Nervous phenomena, as well as mental, all spread until they become contagious, or a mania, by the laws of sympathetic imitation. But for one assuming what Davis has, in respect to his advantages for knowledge, for such an one to recommend incidental nervous results as a fundamental law of clairvoyance, only shows how big a fool a man may make of himself when his mind has once been “clearly reversed,” as Mr. Davis tells us his mind was when he was magnetized. In connection with no other function has there ever been more real fanaticism, credulity, error, and delusion. Look into our papers and note the “clairvoyant,” “independent clairvoyant,” “doctors,” “professors,” “fortune-tellers,” and “mediums,” who describe “ the past” and “the future.” And, if we believe what they pretend to, these creatures ransack the remotest cor¬ ners of the earth ; they explore the distant planets; they enter heaven, and bring back messages from imag¬ inary persons, who never had any existence, except in the brains of these charlatans, whose minds having be¬ come “clearly reversed” by cupidity, they now go it strong after the example of the “ clairvoyant-in-chief, Mr. A. J. Davis.” The reader will please bear in mind the definition I have given of clairvoyance; namely, that it is the CLAIRVOYANCE. 111 knowledge of knowable things, acquired without ratio¬ cination, and without the use of either of the external senses. When I say knowable , it will be seen that the knowledge is objective of things external. It is not sub¬ jective of things only in the mind of the so-called clair¬ voyant. If we were to include instinctive motions in this term, then plants and animals are clairvoyant. But instinctive motions are appropriate only to the wants of the individual organism acting. Such motions do not take cognizance of the wants of external objects. In man, the instinctive motives are higher, and when excited (as we have seen in cases of catalepsy, somnam¬ bulism, insanity, and dreaming), this knowing faculty extends to objects outside the wants of the organism. Here it is in place to ask the reader’s attention to the following deductions, which legitimately follow from what has been already stated: — The reasons why this function in man, to any con¬ siderable extent, cannot be safely excited by artificial process : This clairvoyant power was at first manifested in cases of disease ; and its most decided manifestations have always occurred in cases of scrofulous diathesis, as I have stated. Hence the mischief done to health and the laws of life when persons attempt to carry out Mr. Davis’s silly mummery of “ thumb to thumb ” pro¬ cesses for bringing about that state in which he says the mind is “ clairniativej or “clearly reversed With precisely the same propriety might Mr. Davis recom¬ mend certain artificial manual processes for exciting any one of the purely instinctive functions. Observe ! that my objection here is not to the use which science and philosophy may always make of any manifestations of the instinctive knowing functions in cases of disease, I 12 IDEOLOGY. — whenever such cases occur spontaneously, as in som¬ nambulism and insanity. What I object to is the habitual adoption of such processes as Mr. Davis calls “magnetization,” where the body shakes, twitches, jerks, and finally tips “over on one side,” when he tells us the mind is in a “supe¬ rior condition,” where “thereare no boundaries of time or space which can circumscribe its power.” I insist upon it, that the laws of life and the best good of all forbid the general habit of all such artificial excitements for the production of clairvoyance. It is a fundamental law in Nature and the constitu¬ tion of things that man shall labor, by ratiocination for all his highest attainments in knowledge. Were unlimited knowledge to come to the human mind with¬ out ratiocination, as A. J. Davis assumes it has come to him, and as he teaches us to expect by his “thumb to thumb ” processes, it would be in subversion of the human constitution. Everything dwarfs the mind ■ which supersedes the use of the external senses, and the normal, conscious exercise of all the higher attributes of manhood, in the acquisition of knowledge. The method proposed by the self-styled “ Poughkeepsie seer and clairvoyant ” annuls and supersedes the established order of the universe in the acquisition of knowledge. PI is plan does, indeed, “ reverse ” the human mind, and close up the real avenues of knowledge, and in doing so he opens the flood-gates of error and fanaticism. He tells us that a dream, a “state of sleep,” a “trance,” or condition of the mind resembling and sometimes ending in insanity, is a “superior state,”—a “royal road ” to knowledge, one in which “ there are no bounds of time and space which can circumscribe ” the powers CLAIRVOYANCE. 113 of the clairvoyant mind. This is what I call crystallized fanaticism. The reader may now perceive, further, why I use the terms “knowable” and “objective” when defining clairvoyance. The description of the so-called clairvoy¬ ant is not clairvoyance, unless it be of something which others can know besides the one who makes the alleged revelation. To deny this is to open the door for unending error and confusion; for what does the dreamer’s declarations amount to when they are all sub¬ jective , —or, what is the same thing, when it cannot be proved that they are outside of his own brains ? What useful purpose can possibly be served to science or philosophy when the dreamer affirms about the origin of this universe, and of his “ entrance into the second sphere,” and a thousand other matters, not one of which is knowable or susceptible of demonstration ? Yet this is precisely the thing which A. J. Davis has been engaged in doing ever since 1844, when he assures us his mind was first “clearly reversed ” by “animal magnetism.” The class of people out of which “ mediums ” are made are more easily hallucinated than any other class. Mr. Davis has himself given this very account of his own case, and all others whose minds he says became “clearly reversed” by the “thumb to thumb” process which he recommends. And when a person of this peculiar temperament is told, yes, merely told, that he cannot move, and he cannot,—that he is a baboon, and he imagines himself a baboon, — why, of course, if told that he is a clairvoyant, he imagines himself clair¬ voyant, and anon he imagines himself in the moon, or in “the second sphere” with Mr. Davis, and then we IDEOLOGY. 114 have “lectures,” “discourses,” and “communications” from another world. “Sensitives” are very apt to become opinionated. They are considered by their friends and by the igno¬ rant multitude as “wonderfully gifted.” They are looked upon with a superstitious awe. They are con¬ sulted in all matters of science, philosophy, and religion ; and they soon become oracles in matters of medicine, love, lost property, marriage, parentage, and, in a word, they are consulted upon any and upon all subjects which come within the range of the human imagination. Thus, if you want to know who lives in heaven, and “ scenes in the summer land,” or if you desire to be informed as to what is done in the planet Mars, or Jupi¬ ter, or Saturn, consult a “clairvoyant,” or the “clair- voyant-in-chief ” himself, and you shall be duly informed. If you are sick, and no one knows what the matter is with you, only go to a “clairvoyant,” and pay the fee (A. J. Davis’s fee was only $10), and you will be told, whether true or false no one, not even yourself, know¬ ing, you can feel satisfied, and marvel at the “wonders of clairvoyance.” Much of this fault belongs to the ignorant masses, who pet, patronize, and worship these self-styled clair¬ voyants. The spurious form of clairvoyance is further increased by the purely imaginary field of investiga¬ tion which is always allowed for the exercise of this alleged occult power. Try any one of the thousand of these advertising “clairvoyants” with a simple test, and you will find they cannot tell you anything. They cannot tell you what you eat for your dinner, nor what you have in your pocket. They can tell you nothing of “knowable” objects, so that you could detect them CLAIRVOYANCE. 115 if not true. And yet, mark how ever ready they are to expatiate on “ the scenes in the summer land,’’ on “ visions,” and things wholly imaginary, and of which nothing whatever is or can be known ! So, Mr. A. J. Davis can expatiate on his visits to the moon ; but he cannot find time to visit Boston to find out whether departed spirits have set up the business of photograph¬ ing among us or not ! Thus it is. And what a fruitful field is that invis¬ ible, imaginary world ! Ah ! that’s where the swarm of “clairvoyants/’ and “professors,” and “mediums,” and “seers,” and “fortune-tellers” have come from. The conclusions to which this inquiry conducts us may now be stated : — 1. The most convincing manifestations of clairvoy¬ ance have occurred in cases of insanity and the sponta¬ neous trance. Not one in a thousand cases of the artificial trance manifest clairvoyance. Of this fact I have satisfied myself by a varied experience protracted now for many years. 2. The power of clairvoyance is sui generis in this, that the vision is generally confined to one object or thing in each case. Thus a clairvoyant in Paris saw and predicted the death of another person to occur in three months, when he could not see his own death, which occurred within a few days of the time when his prognostication of the death of the other party was made. In other cases of real clairvoyance the power is extended to one thing remote, while it is wholly inoperative and unconscious of the things near by. Hence the manifest mistake and perversion of this function when it is attempted to find lost property by clairvoyance, and the various empirical uses made of it, IDEOLOGY. 116 as may be seen by advertisements in all the papers. Diagnoses and prescriptions for sickness, love, and marriage, fortune-telling, and descriptions of the past and the future, conversations with the dead, and “ mes¬ sages from departed spirits,” besides deeds without a name, are all done under the auspices of this pretence of clairvoyance. To do justice to this feature of my subject, it should be • stated here that another great mistake prevails among those who rely upon clairvoyance as a source of information, in supposing that this power is contin¬ ued in its abnormal (unreal) manifestations during life. As its best manifestations depend upon some disturb¬ ance that disease has made in the nervous system, we find, when the health is once restored, this manifesta¬ tion ceases. Numerous cases reported in medical works show the truthfulness of this statement; and in these few cases of artificial trance, in which a spark of clairvoyance may chance to become manifest, these do not last long. The power soon fades out, and, while the medium may assume his ability to tell you what the moon is made of, or to describe a thousand other unknowable objects of which there can be no satis¬ factory proof whatever, you can believe just as much as you please as to his clairvoyance. As to the appropriate sphere of clairvoyance, when developed by disease or otherwise : Bear in mind, clairvoyance does not extend beyond the wants of the organism in which it is active. And to whatever ex¬ tent this function may have been abnormally excited in cases of disease, yet there is no evidence for proving that the human mind has any faculty by which, in the trance or out, it can extend its clairvoyance beyond the confines of the world we inherit. CLAIRVOYANCE. ii 7 It is boastingly said that A. J. Davis has written twenty volumes in this clairvoyant state, and in which he has given an account of “worlds,” “worlds,” “worlds,” “ethereal,” “aerial,” and imaginary, and of which he tells many wonderful things. Swedenborg published some sixty volumes, more or less, of the things heard and seen beyond the confines of the present world. And characteristic of this class of visionists who see beyond the fixed stars, they excel in “revelations” and the “making of many books,” filled with assumptions, not one of which is susceptible of a particle of proof. They cannot be proved, because there is no evidence within the reach of science appli¬ cable to the subject; and hence that well-known and universally admitted maxim in philosophy, that we should not assume or attempt that which can never be proved. CHAPTER X. THE WITCHCRAFT MADNESS. “ He who does not believe in a witch does not believe in the Devil! And he who does not believe in the Devil does not believe in God ! And he who does not believe p in God must be damnedl ” Gruner, a German theologian, who died in 1778, tells us of one of his clerical brethren who preached a sermon on witchcraft, and wound up with the above statement. It is a morceau of its kind, and is characteristic of the views that prevailed in Christendom three or four cen¬ turies ago. What, now, if it should appear that but for the Bible there never would have been either any theologians, devils, witches, or God ? The Bible is the oldest record that gives us any information as to the mania of witchcraft and its death penalty. Witchcraft and Christianity are identical. They had one and the same origin. They grew from the same germs of “faith ” and “fear ; ” and, says Dr. Adam Clarke, the Hebrew term, chash-shai-phah , — she that diligently persists in bewitching , — is from ka-shaph , — he seduced, perverted, bewitched. Dr. Clarke adds (on Gen. xxii. 18) that the corresponding term in Arabic is cashafa , which has the same meaning as the Hebrew root, which signifies not only to seek commerce with God, but with the invisible world. From this showing, 118 THE WITCHCRAFT MADNESS. II9 it is witchcraft to seek commerce either with God or with the invisible world ! Of all the mental epidemics that ever cursed human¬ ity, this bears the palm. It was a species of Christian madness and murder, exceeding in monstrosity the power of language to describe. It is supposed that the millions of men, women, and children actually put to death by Christians, under a bare suspicion of witch¬ craft, exceeded the entire number of Christians on the face of the globe at that time ! In the history of such a madness, an epidemic so every way horrible, so wide¬ spread, and originated as this was by Christianity, we become appalled in its contemplation, and stand aghast in view of such horrid murder and bloodshed. And all done in the name of Christianity! What ignorance, what superstition, what credulity, what fear and wicked¬ ness, have been mixed up under this term ! Nay, what cruelties, what horrible murders, under the sanction of law and religion, for the purpose of detecting and exposing this alleged crime ! The credulous persecu¬ tion started with the assumption of an old boss Devil, and then, in the train of this frightful idea , they took it for granted that certain persons were in league with this imaginary personage ; and they persecuted, tor¬ mented, and put them to death, accordingly. The following statements I believe to be clearly demon¬ strable : — Witchcraft has never been known except in those localities where the masses believed in some form of mediumship through which they could hold “ commerce with invisible nondescripts,” real or imaginary. The cruel murders have God’s command for their commis¬ sion, and show us what inconsistencies human beings 120 IDEOLOGY. in mad enthusiasm will commit. How much this wide¬ spread madness was originated by ignorance and the Bible, it need not be difficult for us now to see; nor how much the fanciful and the absurd and ludicrous would become mixed. Indeed, the whole of witchcraft may be said to have been the work of excited marvellousness, as is manifest by the testimony and recantations of numerous persons who had previously accused themselves of this horrible crime ; for many such recantations were made, both by those who had confessed to the charge of witchcraft, and also by the juries who had sat upon their trials. At such times the human mind loses its self-control; and such people as mediums are made to affirm things of themselves that are not true. Unable to discrimi- nate between objective and subjective knowledge, they describe “things seen and heard ” which have no exist¬ ence except in a mind excited by the idea of “ spirits ” or some revelation alleged to have “come from the invisible world.” There is a characteristic aptness in this class of persons to exaggerate in all the stories they tell about the “ Devil ” or “'spirits ” from “the summer- land ; ” and I have here to remark, that there is the same tendency among both classes to the invention of odd and fanciful terms and names in the accounts they give of the “things seen and heard,” both in the “summer-land,” so-called, and in the regions far below. In all the accounts given us in the “confessions ” of the bewitched, we find a profusion of quaint and fanci¬ ful names like the following : — Titty, Jack, Tom, Piggin, Tyffin, etc. The far-famed witch of Warboys, England, confessed herself “ under the control ” of nine spirits, three of which were cousins THE WITCHCRAFT MADNESS. 12 I by the name of “Smack,” the names of the others being “Blue,” “Pluck,” “ White,” “ Catch,” “Calicut,” and “Hardname.” Another witch confessed that she had three “spirits,”—one like a cat, which she called “Lightfoot;” another like a toad, which she called “Lunch ;” and a third like a weasel, which she called “ Makeshift.” The counterpart to these fancies is found in modern mediumship, in the names invented for the different spirits which communicate through them. Thus, in the invention of odd names, the witches led off in the following style : — “Zellianelle, Heatti, Bonus, Vagothe, Plisos, Sother, Osech, Unicus, Beezlebub, Dax, Komm, Komm.” This nonsensical jargon, we are assured, when re¬ peated backwards “repelled the spirit,” who left be¬ hind him the smell of brimstone ! Here is another, and, like the above, was to be repeated slowly, with numerous ceremonies and motions made with the hands, —the last two words to be uttered quickly and with a sort of scream, which attracted the “ spirit with great power” : — “ Lalle, Bachera, Magotte, Baphia Dajam, Vagoth Heneche, Amme Nagaz Adomator, Raphael, Immanuel, Christus, Tetragrammaton, Agra, Jod, Loi, Konig, Konig.” But the one in greatest repute was as follows, and was to be read backwards, with the exception of the last two words : — “ Anion, Lalle, Sabolas, Sado, Pater, Aziel, Adone, Sado, Vagoth, Agra, Jod, Baphra, Komm ! Komm ! ” 122 IDEOLOGY. Such, then, are some of the exhibitions of mediumism that have come down to us from former ages, and as if only to be repeated in the mediumistic literature of the present day. Nor would this trash be worthy of one moment’s notice if it were not necessary in attempting an explanation of those conditions of the human mind produced more or less in all purely mental epidemics. In the following details we shall find the justification of a remark, that modern mediumism is the old one without the Devil, in a new dress. In the excitement of credulity and marvellousness, in the wonderful stories told, in the number of the “spirits” engaged in mediumizing mortals, in extravagant assumptions, and in the invention and use of cabalistic names, modern mediumism bears the palm ; and in this behalf surely “the Poughkeepsie seer” has fairly exceeded some of his “illustrious predecessors.” As it would not be possible for me here to quote from one in a hundred of the books, papers, “messages,” “jmedic- tions,” “manifestations,” “visions,” “tests,” and “rev¬ elations ” which have come either from mediumism or ■ from “the Poughkeepsie seer” during the past few years, I must content myself with a few specimens only. In the ranks of mediumism, Mr. A. J. Davis may be said to be “ chief apostle,” as he is ahead of all “seers” in the “abundance of his revelation,” the extravagance of his claims, and the invention of odd terms. Thus, we find him on his return from the visits he makes to heaven, or what he denominates “ the sum¬ mer land,” and he brings with him an account of the “scenes,” persons, places, and things he saw there, which he tells us of in the following names : — THE WITCHCRAFT MADNESS. 123 Sturnas, Councilium, Apotravella [Mr. Davis says he got the pronunciation of this word from the angels, with great care], Ali-Nineka, Martillas, Ephelotus, Ore, Zellabingen, Lindenstein, Moraneski, Monazolappa, Acadelaco, Mian- tovesta, Pealoleski, Senelocius, Archelarium, Verodario, Ulcimira, La-Samosata, Archibulum, Aurealia, Oahulah, Wallavesta, Passaeta, Arabula, &c., &c. Up to the present time, Mr. Davis has continued the use of these uncouth terms, which some of the medi- umistic papers have classed under the head of “ Sub¬ lime Revelations;” and here is another specimen. Mr. Davis says : — \ “ Advance, my baskatalla (bird), for thou art our beloved opeathelos (student), and the time future is thine to become whatso thou wilt • for thou art even now fit to stir within others the power of thought, and to meditate with the happy Para- lorella. The distant pantrello will invite and teach thee to comprehend thy God, hid within the fragrant zoralia and the musical porilleumP Is not that “ sublime ” ? It has been stuff such as this which has given to mediumistic literature the name, “ the liturgy of Dead Sea apes.” And why not? Mediums have them¬ selves authorized the use of this term by declaring that they had “messages” from cats, horses, dogs, and apes ; and some of them have declared, moreover, that the highest specimens of manhood were the issues of spirits with the orang-outang! In the mediumistic power for concocting cabalistic terms, we can, I think, willingly yield the palm to Mr. Davis. His first effort in this line was in 1844, when he uttered five lectures, which he called “ Clairmative- ness ; ” and this he explained as a “compound word,” which literally signified “clearly reversed;” because 124 IDEOLOGY. when he was magnetized, or “ under spirit control/’ his mind was “ clearly reversed ,And that the mind was completely reversed when inditing this kind of jargon, there need, I think, be no manner of doubt. Among numerous other experiments which have dis¬ tinguished modern mediumism, such as placing iron rings over the head, which could not be removed by human hands, and the like, we are reminded of one upon the arm in Shakespeare : — “ Look, how I am bewitched; behold mine arm Is like a blasted sapling, withered up.” In ancient times the arm of the medium was withered; but now the names of the dead are written in raised letters upon the medium’s arm, without the use of any visible means. There might not be anything seriously objectionable in this, except, when you are requested to write the name first on a piece of paper, and then, after doing so, to be told that it is your dead relative that has withered the medium’s arm in the manner stated. The above shows us what it is that constitutes saint- ship in the ranks of mediumism. Here also is another characteristic morsel from the Banner of Light: — “ But the advice I will give you is this : Have more faith— pray earnestly that God will give you happier thoughts, and not suffer you to be led into temptation. Do not visit the mediums in your present excited condition; but see to it, to a fair extent of your means, that they are provided with fuel , wood , and raiment. To be more specific: if you can spare fifty dollars without seriously impairing your means to pay your debts, and appropriate it to the aiding of these poor, traduced, and slandered instruments for propagating the beautiful truth of spirit communion, I think that the evil spirits that now disturb your repose will flee from you, as vermin do where there is nothing left for them to feed upon.” THE WITCHCRAFT MADNESS. 125 And, in the “mood of quoting,” here is another from the Boston Journal of Oct. 21, 1861 : — “The beauties of mediumism are shown in the case of two young married men of Searsburg, Vt., who left for California some years since, and returned home recently to find their wives remarried, who, having heard nothing from them since their departure, applied to a young lady medium, who was very exact in describing to them the death and burial of their husbands, the date of the funeral, and the disease of which they died. Their wives, supposing this to be reliable, remarried, and there was a funny time when the long-absent husbands returned.” They can believe themselves under the “ control ” of “more than twelve legions of angels,” and engaged in a movement which they have announced as the “inau¬ guration of heaven on earth;” and all this while this epidemic has been characterized and stamped with some of the most egregious and palpable falsehoods which the “father of lies” himself ever uttered. Witchcraft was two hundred years ago preached as a Bible doctrine. It was believed, feared, preached on Sunday. It was the subject of daily conversation and prayer. The idea was crystallized in the minds of the people. The ministers of religion, the churches, the schools, and the civil magistrates were infected with it. Hence no “revival of religion,” so called, no sermon or prayer from priest or monk, was ever more the result of Christianity than was this curse called witchcraft. The entire people believed in that thing, and the idea of the crime induced it; and, when they imagined any one a wizard or a witch, the next idea was death at the stake, in obedience to what the Bible says on the subject. All forms of witchcraft were developed by the well- 126 IDEOLOGY. known elements which enter into all forms of mental contagion. The excitement, the fear of witches and wizards, the presence of men, women, and children believ*ed to be in league with the Devil; and under this dominant idea, like mediums, under the “control” of the Devil or his imps, whatever happened only tended to spread the contagion. In this excitement, innocent people were overcome, and thus, compelled to accuse themselves and their neighbors, until they came to con¬ sider each other bewitched ; and in this way the con¬ tagion was spread by the laws of sympathetic imitation, until whole families, neighborhoods, localities, and countries were scourged with this terrible mischief. What, indeed, could be imagined more likely to subdue and bewitch an ignorant and highly susceptible person than to charge him with witchcraft, as many weak- minded, nervous old women have been, from mere envy, hatred, or the love of mischief ? The belief in the idea, the bare possibility of witchcraft, strikes through the soul with horror, reaching to the very inmost of one’s susceptibilities. The bare suspicion of the taint, first uttered in a whisper, soon spreads from ear to ear, and strikes terror through the neighborhood and the country where the idea of witchcraft prevails. The suspected one is feared, despised, and more to be shunned than the plague, or the very Devil himself; and thus it is the horror and fear which follow in the wake of the suspicion of a crime so monstrous pros¬ trates the human judgment, and leaves in its place nothing but fear and mischief, such as have prevailed under this madness. There is not a case of witchcraft upon record but would confirm the statements here made. A lady in THE WITCHCRAFT MADNESS. 127 New York consulted a so-called fortune-teller, and she was so much “impressed” with his prediction of her death that she died the next day. The “seer” told her if she looked into a tub of water on going 4 iome she would see her coffin, in which she was soon to be buried. On returning to her house she looked into the tub of water with this idea in her mind, expecting, of course, to see her coffin, and that idea produced the sight she had expected to see; and, her nervous system being too feeble for the shock, she died as the “ fortune¬ teller” had predicted. So in witchcraft. At such times, persons of this temperament become “im¬ pressed,” excited, and deranged, and in this condition the mind may be moulded into any shape which the prevalent whims or superstitious notions may chance to give it. The points I make here are these : — That the belief in witchcraft, the idea of the state of things signified by this term, is sufficient for explain¬ ing all the phenomena, albeit there were no personal devils in existence; and hence the subject discussed in these pages is one of surpassing interest, as we may learn from it the laws which control the human mind; and, withal, the elements and the conditions which have entered into the composition of the greatest mental epidemic that ever cursed the world. Its cog¬ nate epidemic is prevalent at the present time, under the name of mediumism ; for both these epidemics owe their origin to the germinal idea of alleged communi¬ cation from the invisible world ,— albeit, the “control¬ ling spirit ” in the former epidemic was believed to be that old boss Devil; and in the latter it is believed to be some “guardian spirit,” or other ideal personage, as the medium’s fancy may happen to be. And thus 128 IDEOLOGY. it is, as we shall find, this idea of the invisible world has been more potent in ages past in the generation of mental epidemics than any, or, indeed, all other caused put together. We lament the appalling destruction of human life that swept over our land during the four years of war ending in 1865. Its victims were numbered by hun¬ dreds of thousands. And yet not so many lives have been destroyed during this bloody war as have been sacrificed to the Moloch of witchcraft. Indeed, the mind is appalled by the contemplation of the horrid murders that have been perpetrated in ages past under the prevalence of this terrible mania. Nor could the statistics of these murders, with their concomitant details, be narrated here. Germany, France, Italy, England, Scotland, and the Puritans of this country suc¬ cessively run mad on this subject, and the magistrates, with the clergy, led the multitude into the mischief. An epidemic purely spiritual seized upon the nations. The belief in “spirits,” “imps,” and “devils” was well nigh universal, and the common events of life were surrendered to impress all into the support of their notions about the Devil. No one could believe himself secure in his soul, his body, or his property from the spiritual machinations of the invisible hosts that swarmed about him in the air he breathed. If he found himself sick, it was the Devil that caused his pain. If the flames consumed his house, it was because it was set on fire by the “spirits.” If his cattle died from murrain, they were believed to have been killed by the omnipresent Devil, which was sup¬ posed to have possession of some one of his neighbors. And under this silly notion, how many tens of thou- THE WITCHCRAFT MADNESS. 129 sands of innocent men, women, and children have been falsely accused and put to death ! “ ’T is all one, — To be a witch or to be accounted one.” The suspicion was in every mind, the accusation upon every tongue ; and for ages the civil tribunals of the most enlightened nations were occupied with these trials. And, when it is considered on what kinds of evidence the courts of justice took it upon themselves to convict of witchcraft, and, further, that a conviction was followed by a sentence of death, it is easy to see how it was that tens of thousands fell victims to that absurd notion about the imaginary inhabitants of the invisible world. In many cities of Germany the aver¬ age number executed for witchcraft was no less than twelve each week, — more than six hundred being thus annually murdered. In the year 1515, five hundred witches were burned at Geneva in the course of three months ; and in one year, one thousand were executed in the diocese of Como. It is believed that in Germany alone not less than one hundred thousand victims suffered death from this cause in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In England witchcraft was held in great abhorrence, and in the course of one hundred and fifty years no less than thirty thousand persons suffered death for suspicion of witchcraft; and some of these poor wretches were condemned by Sir Matthew Hale, a man univer¬ sally renowned on the strength of his understanding and the purity of his character. I have now before me numerous pamphlets giving 130 IDEOLOGY. accounts of those times, and containing pictures of old women accompanied with a cat. In one of them we are told that in 1706 a Mrs. Hicks and her daughter, a child nine years of age, were hanged at Huntingdon, for selling their souls to Satan, tormenting and destroy¬ ing their neighbors by making them vomit pins, and raising a storm so that a ship was almost lost, —which storm, it seems, was raised by the diabolical arts of put¬ ting off their stockings and making a lather of soap. Among all nations witchcraft has always been held in abhorrence, but was not publicly proceeded against as a crime until the year 1484, when prosecutions com¬ menced under the direction of Pope Innocent VIII., and for more than two centuries Europe was in a state of tumult and consternation in consequence of the trials and executions of persons accused of this so-called crime. The last murder of a witch in England took place in 1722, and the statutes against witchcraft were repealed in 1735. This gave such offence to a respectable sect of Christians in Scotland that, in their annual confession of personal and national sins, they complained of “ the penal statutes against witches having been repealed by Parliament, contrary to the express law of God.” The Christians who emigrated from that country where such views prevailed, of course, brought with them those ideas of God and an evil Devil, which resulted in simi¬ lar horrors here. The first person convicted of this crime in New England was a poor woman named Mary Oliver. She was convicted at Springfield, on her own confession, in 1650. In the following year three per¬ sons were executed in Boston, Mass., all of whom asserted their innocence. In 1655 Ann Hibbins, the widow of a man of respectability in Boston, was con- THE WITCHCRAFT MADNESS. 13 I victed of witchcraft, and executed. This sentence was disapproved of by many influential men, and, although several executions for this offence subsequently took place in Connecticut, no other person suffered death in Massachusetts until the lapse of nearly thirty years. What is generally called the “ Salem Witchcraft ” commenced in 1691, and furnishes a melancholy illus¬ tration as to the fate which the so-called manifestations from the invisible world will be likely to meet with where ignorance and superstition prevail. Persons re¬ puted to possess pure principles and sound understand¬ ings were loud in their denunciations of witchcraft, and anxious to bring the offenders to condign punishment. Reason was for a time deposed, and fanaticism, with her gloomy attendants, and the scourge, the stake, and the gallows, reigned triumphant. The history of this period cannot be dwelt upon without pain. In about a year and a half nineteen persons were hanged, and one pressed to death, eight more were condemned, making twenty-eight in all ; fifty others confessed themselves witches, none of whom were executed; but one hun¬ dred and fifty were imprisoned, and two hundred more were accused, when the delusion suddenly vanished, and men began to wonder at the unjust and sanguinary part which they had been performing. The special session of the court was abruptly closed, and the accused and those already condemned were set at liberty. The clergy of New England, it is very evident, did more than any other class to foster this delusion in this country. It broke out in a minister’s family in Salem, Mass., where the mania raged in its utmost fury, and to this day history perpetuates the memory of this mischievous epidemic under the name of the “Salem 132 IDEOLOGY. Witchcraft.” The clergy believing in witchcraft, they prayed it and they preached it into the minds of the people. They published circulars (one was issued from Cambridge College) about it, they addressed the courts of justice where the witches were tried, and they pub¬ lished exaggerated accounts of the alleged phenomena, by which the minds of the people were inflamed and kept in a condition for the disgraceful deeds that pre¬ vailed in those days. Is was ignorance bad enough for the ministers of relig¬ ion to encourage this dreadful epidemic in the manner above stated, when we see one of them (Rev. Cotton Mather, whose bones are buried only a short distance from the spot where I am now writing), and he a leader among his class, — when, I say, we behold such an one present near the gallows when one of those unhappy victims is about to be choked to death, the spectacle becomes melancholy indeed. And that victim was himself also a clergyman, the Rev. George Burroughs. The latter was an Episcopalian, while the former was a Calvinistic Congregationalist, and hence it is easy to see how much sectarian hate may have had to do in exciting Mather’s conduct on that occasion. Burroughs was a portly man, and evincing more than common physical strength, this was considered by the Court as satisfactory evidence that he was certainly a wizard, and so he was sent in a cart to the gallows. The pious Cotton Mather aided in his conviction, and, when this unhappy man stood under the gallows with the fatal rope around his neck, Mather went near to him, where he remained to see the deed done; nay, he even addressed the spectators, and told them not to believe that the criminal then about to be hung was THE WITCHCRAFT MADNESS. *33 any clergyman at all. He thought that his having been convicted of witchcraft on Mather’s testimony deprived him entirely of his clerical character. My own opinion is that such a conviction would be one of the best evi¬ dences that could be offered of Mr. Burroughs’s truly clerical character, as one of the essential prerequisites to the clerical profession of that day was a firm and unshaken belief in a personal Devil, and in that belief Cotton Mather and his victim George Burroughs cer¬ tainly did not differ very much. In the contemplation of that stupendous mania which has prevailed under the name of witchcraft, it would seem necessary that we should pause in the examina¬ tion of that germ whence all this terrible mischief originated ; and, as we do so, we shall find that not merely this gigantic mischief alone, but also all of the most prominent forms of fanaticism have originated in alleged communication from the invisible world. So it was in witchcraft, in Mohammedanism, so it was with the French Prophets, so with Ann Lee and the Shakers, so also with the Mormons, and with modern mediums at the present time. About the “revelations ” of Astron¬ omy, Geology, and Mathematics there can be no mis¬ take, because nothing is taken for granted. But not so in Spiritualism and alleged intercourse with the inhabi¬ tants of another world. All such “revelations” are a nose of wax, a kaleidoscope : they vary and assume as many shapes and colors as there are whims and notions in the brains of the parties who make them. I have already referred to the dements of credulity , fear, and ignorance , and we shall find that wherever these condi¬ tions prevail in any community there, “ like priest like people,” the mass are ready to become the victims of 134 IDEOLOGY. this Idea in respect to alleged intercourse with the imaginary inhabitants of another world. Let those who startle at the historical details of witchcraft bear in mind that the germinal error of that delusion prevails at the present day, and to an extent far beyond the days of Matthew Hopkins, the popular “witch-finder,” and of Increase and Cotton Mather, the priestly persecutors of the witches. That error, as I have stated, consisted in the unproved and unprovable assumption that a certain class of persons were “ under spirit control.” These persons were then denominated wizards and witches ; but at the present time they are called mediums. They were anciently, as at the pres¬ ent time, alleged to be under “spirit influence,” and, nolens volens , they were the mediums through which imaginary “spirits,” “devils,” or- “goblins damned” made certain demonstrations of their power. As to the personal identity of these ideal or invisible “ spiritual ” operators upon the nervous systems of these credulous people, nothing is or can be known. The personality of an invisible witness cannot be proved. How will you cross-examine a witness y'ou cannot see ? The thing is an impossibility, an unqualified, absolute impossibility. And hence it is that all that is alleged in respect to what “spirits” or “devils” can or cannot do are matters taken for granted ; they are figments of the imagination which the credulous may believe, but they are not susceptible of demonstration. How much longer this mania might have prevailed in this country, but for the timely labors of a Boston merchant by the name of Robert Calef, it is not easy to conjecture. In 1699 Mr. Calef addressed a number of caustic letters to this same Cotton Mather upon the THE WITCHCRAFT MADNESS. 135 part he had acted in promoting this delusion, and in which the merchant challenged and urged the priest to an investigation and review of the whole subject, which the bigoted minister never found himself willing to undertake. In Mr. Calef’s Book on Witchcraft, first published in London in 1700, he exposes numerous characteristic traits in Mr. Mather’s character, con¬ nected with his management of witches, and it is quite certain that we are indebted to this “ Boston merchant ” for the first successful check that was put upon that dreadful scourge in this country; and it affords me pleasure to record the name of one who, at that early period, took such accurate views of this subject, and who did more than any other person, perhaps, to break the terrible spell with which the people of that dark age were bound. CHAPTER XI. MODERN WITCHCRAFT. It will, I am sure, be admitted that there is, at the present age, by far too much science, too much intelli¬ gence generally, among all classes of the people, for repetition of the Bible sort of witchcraft. Indeed, there is too much knowledge generally of Nature’s order and laws for Christianity to prosper as it did a few years ago. And whereas theology defines the Christian sort of witchcraft as “ commerce with the invisible world,” upon a bare suspicion of which Christians murdered millions of their own kith and kin, here allow me to ask if Christianity and Christian or Bible witchcraft and modern mediumship do not each of them assume to have “intercourse with the invisible world ” ? Nor is it for me or for science to undertake to decide which of these claims or definitions is true, or whether or not they may not each of them be false. All we know or affirm is, that each claims to have “intercourse with the invisible world,” and where that is, who knows ? I can freely admit that I know many good people that are Christians and believe in modern mediumship ; and while I should, if compelled to choose between the two, much prefer the modern form of “intercourse with the invisible world,” I will state what is plainly the parallel 136 MODERN WITCHCRAFT. 137 between the Christian form of witchcraft and the mod¬ ern form of mediumship. 1. In the general idea whence the power comes,— intercourse with the invisible world. 2. In respect to what is called the “ control/’ the subjugation of human thought. The witches of the Bible were possessed. They were never consulted; and it is reported of a medium in San Francisco that her control said : — “ I entranced this medium in spite of herself; and I could keep her entranced for a year, and she could not prevent it to save her soul.” 3. The Bible witches had their limbs withered, and texts raised on their bodies, by the devils and their imps; and modern mediums have raised letters made on their arms. 4. Odd methods : Riding through the air from place to place on a broomstick; and modern mediums are reported to have been transported through the air; also the zig-zag way of talking by raps on the table-leg are odd, very odd. 5. The Bible witches had their midnight raids ; and modern mediums have their dark circles. 6. Modern mediums are reported as being in a num¬ ber of places at one and the same time ; and so the Christian witches were carried through the air, as Jesus was : Mat. iv. 5. 7. The abnegation of human selfhood and self-con¬ trol in both ancient and modern witchcraft is a crime that cannot be justified upon any consideration whatever. 8. The motive-power of both forms is “faith,” the evidence of things unseen. 138 IDEOLOGY. 9. There is a similarity in both forms in the decep¬ tion and frauds imposed by the unscrupulous upon the ignorant and the defenceless. 10. The same resulting delusions, insanities, suicides, and murders! 11. The same interfere 7 ice by two spheres unknown to each other; one of which, for aught we know, may be entirely imaginary. 12. Similar concealments of crime in both forms. The historical details can never be known ; and here is the proof: — “ The angularities of mediums shall never be ventilated in these columns .”—Banner of Light, Feb. 29, 1868. My opinion is, if all the failures in what are called “tests ” were published as freely as they publish “mes¬ sages ” from those now dead, this movement would col¬ lapse in a very short time. We never can know by whom a medium or minister is inspired, nor whether it was the Jewish God or his Devil that inspired (Deut. xiv. 21) the writer to repre¬ sent God as telling the Jews that they should never eat their stinking meat, but should sell that to their neighbors ? CHAPTER XII, MEDIUMS HIP, A WIDE-SPREAD EPIDEMIC. Wherein does modern mediumship, as an ideal contagion , differ from any religious revival ? In the sensational it far exceeds all other epidemics of which history has given us any account. Its phenomena in “haunted houses ” had existed so far back in the misty ages of the past that we cannot tell when they began — the strange materialization of rabbits , cats , and dogs without “mediums” or the faculties of speech; and it is an egregious anachronism to date the birth of the “mystic rap” in 1848, for it was always characteristic of all “haunted houses ” a thousand years ago. It was only mediumship that happened to be born during that year, March 31 ; and, but for the want of independent knowledge of us and our world, the rappers that pro¬ duce the physical phenomena have no external eyes or ears, and no faculties for external speech. The Rev. Samuel Wesley, father to John, called them “dumb devils,” because they could not speak when they haunted him in 1716. I say, but for the want of this independent knowledge of us ; and could it be proved that they ever lived in this world, and were our relatives , this movement without mediums long ago would have shaken this globe from pole to pole. 139 140 IDEOLOGY. JLf Nor was any idea ever advanced more sensational or more contagious for producing an epidemic. While the “mystic rap” is sporadic , as it always was, medium- ship is a wide-spread epidemic. And we should bear in mind that we are not to take it for granted that spirits exist, or that they can do this or that; for of this matter we know nothing at all. Nor is the testimony of mediums to be allowed here, as to what the cause of the rap or the trance may be, for of all classes of people those who become mediums are the most easily deceived and hallucinated. In the nature of the case, a medium does not and cannot know how the trance comes on. Does the patient who has a fit know how it is caused ? Do the insane know ? The testimony of mediums in respect to the functions of the nervous system must be received with great caution. On some features of the general subject it may be relied upon; on others it cannot be relied upon at all, as we shall see in the sequel. While giving lectures in the lower hall of Tremont Temple in the fall of 1847, a Miss Mitchell requested to be entranced for the purpose of having a tooth drawn without pain. I told her to attend my lectures, and I would see what I could do for her. She came to the Temple on the evening that a lecture was to be given before the Mercantile Library Association, and, seeing the people pass into the upper hall, she supposed that was the place for my lecture ; and so she went in, took her seat among the audience, and went into the trance. Her condition having attracted the attention of the audience, I was sent for from the hall below, to which I conducted her, and where she had her tooth drawn without pain. MEDIUMSHIP, AN EPIDEMIC. I4I The case of the criminal who was condemned to die is well known. The physicians obtained leave to make him believe he was to be bled to death. So, blind¬ folded, his arm was pricked, and at the same instant a small stream of water was set to running near by, which sounded to him as if it were the blood from his arm. In a short space he began to grow faint, and, as the stream of water became less and less, he ceased to breathe and was dead, while no injury was done to his body. Now, pray tell me what killed that man ? When you shall have done this, you will also have told me what induced the trance in the cases I have named. And thus it is in all popular excitements, all revivals of religion. Some leading idea gets possession of the public mind, and that idea is always present, — excites, subdues, and controls the minds of a certain class. It may be the idea of Methodism, Mormonism, Shakerism, or Spiritualism. Each idea has its own characteristics, and operates on certain temperaments accordingly. The conclusions to be drawn from a large number of cases like these are obvious. The public mind becomes intensely excited with a leading idea respecting “spirits,” real or imaginary. It is all connected with the invisible world , the most startling of any subject which could possibly arrest the attention of the great masses of people. See, now, how easy it must be for persons of a certain temperament to believe they are operated on by “spirits,” as the man believed he was operated on by the chloroform when there was no chloroform in the inhaler. And yet he was entranced and rendered insensible to pain by his own mind, by his own idea, his belief in a nonentity. This much, then, we may consider settled and beyond 142 IDEOLOGY. \ dispute: Certain phenomena have occurred, but from what cause or causes no one knows. We may believe what we please, but we knozv nothing at all; and, not knowing, these phenomena appeal powerfully to our organs of marvellousness and faith. In the exercise of faith we may believe they are produced by the inhabi¬ tants of the moon or some other world ; and hence it is a characteristic of mediums that they believe , — they are more credulous than others, and have faith that certain phenomena have been produced by Dr. Frank¬ lin, by Washington, by John O. Adams, or some other personage long since dead. Farther, bear in mind that a radical and everlasting discrimination is to be made between the above-named phenomena, that we cannot account for, and the nervous phenomena, in the so-called media , that we can account for by causes that we know have always existed in human nature. All that mortals do and say comes from the human, and is of the mundane. Mark here what I affirm : That the only safe rule for us to follow is to hold all mortals responsible for all that they say and do, and to consider them as the real authors of their own conduct. There cannot be more than one real author of one and the same act; and hence the manifest absurdity when we hear a medium whom you know speaking of himself or herself as “ somebody else,”—Tom, Dick, or Harry; we know not who. Nor would any competent physician or “ commission of lunacy” hesitate to pronounce any man or woman insane that persisted in the use of such language. “Mediumized,” “entranced,” “converted,” or “mes¬ merized,” the confusion and hallucination are all the same; and while mixed up, as this mania is, with MEDIUMS HIP. AN EPIDEMIC. 143 such an avalanche of nervous and mental spasms, they are to be classed with the vagaries of the French prophets, the quakings of the early followers of George Fox, the shouts and groans of Methodism, and the Mormon visions. It is a “ new departure ” of witchcraft . The fundamental error of this epidemic is in taking things for granted which are not susceptible of proof. Certain things cannot be demonstrated, because there is no evidence appropriate to the issue ; and, as the assumption in respect to certain dead personages can¬ not be proved, the fanatic takes the whole question for granted without proof, and thus excited with the idea of ghosts, he leads off in his imagination until lost in the fogs of fanaticism. It should be repeated until admitted as a psychological axiom in philosophy, that the mind and nervous system is controlled by ideas. In the idea of a ghost there is power, albeit there were no such existences as spirits ; and the “ inspiration ” by which mediums are said to speak may be accounted for by the “influence” of this idea, which has taken possession of the medium’s mind. A knowledge of this fact would have prevented a huge amount of fanat¬ icism now prevalent among our countrymen. Any notion, any thought, hope, wish, or fear,—in a word, anything, real or imaginary, which can occupy the mind, associated with the idea of the trance, may tend to induce it, until this tendency becomes a habit , and a medium may thus pass out and into it at will, or, “unconscious” of any volition, each hour of the day. The strange “exercises ” in the so-called “ Kentucky revival,” at the beginning of the nineteenth century, have never been equalled by any nervous phenomena in this mania. The “jerks ” at one time were so preva- 144 IDEOLOGY. lent that the victims seized upon the saplings in the woods, where the camp-meetings were held, and Lorenzo Dow assured me that he had seen the young trees completely denuded of their bark by the jerkers attempting to hold on to them to prevent their spasms in jerking ! And they were affected with the “ rolling,” “whirling,” “barking,” and “shouting” exercises, — all of them believed to be produced by a nondescript invis¬ ibility ! Also a similar contagion called the “preaching epidemic,” in Sweden, in 1842. All these phenomena were self-induced by faith and fear and the laws of sympathetic imitation. From time immemorial the habit of improvising has prevailed in Europe, where ignorant rustics entertain the people with impromptu poetry ; and nowadays, when modern mediums do this, they tell us the rhymes come from Homer, Shakespeare, or Milton. The different phases of this epidemic ignore the well-known laws of psychology and nervous induction. It assumes that the human mind is not “controlled” by its own ideas, true or false ; that the mind is never influenced by the force of habit. Thus halliLcinated into the belief of something marvellous, — some wonderful “ revelation ” from the imaginaiy world, — these nervous people become “ me¬ diums,” and set themselves up for teachers in philoso¬ phy, science, medicine, politics, and religion. The advocates of these notions assure us that mil¬ lions have been infected with this mania y who now yield their credulity to the reception of the “ revela¬ tions ” alleged to be made to them from day to day through these “mediums.” They have their meetings Sunday; they have their churches, until the delusion MEDIUMSHIP, AN EPIDEMIC. 145 has become crystallized and a power among the sects of our country. And yet it is a matter susceptible of demonstration, that among the large class of people thus “influenced” by an idea of “summer land,” not one of them will be found capable of showing that there is any other remote cause for these trances than the idea of “spirits,” or the idea of the state itself, which has taken possession of the medium’s mind. There is no other cause so powerful in its influence over the mind as an idea. What one believes , hopes , or fears constitutes the “influence” which induces that change in the nervous system denominated the trance. Now, it is a sound maxim that we should never seek for remote and extraordinary causes for the phenomena we witness, where there are causes near at hand sufficient to account for their production. Phenomena are constantly occurring around us every day we can account for by chemistry , which were for¬ merly considered mysterious, and beyond all doubt attributed to the Devil. And so in respect to that change in the mind and in the nervous system of a peculiar class of people called “mediums.” There are nine hundred and ninety-nine as near at hand, in the mind and in the nervous system itself, powerful enough and every-way sufficient for its production. Why, then, should we ignore each one of these causes, and go outside of this world for a cause ? Why attribute the trance to an inhabitant of Jupiter or the moon, when we find a sufficient cause in the patient himself? The cause is in his temperament, in his idio¬ syncrasy y in his own mind , in his own belief, his own hopes or fears, in his idea which he has himself formed on this subject. 146 IDEOLOGY. No mortal, old or young, sceptical or credulous, was ever said to be entranced by “ spirit influence” who had never heard of any “spirits.” Mark what I here affirm! Before any one ever became a “speaking,” “writing ” “medium,” he or she had heard about what is called “spirit influence.” They read about it and talk about it until the idea gets possession of their minds, and thus “impressed” with the idea, the belief, the hope, or the fear of “ spirits,” the mind controls the nervous system, and the trance follows. Now, look at this wide-spread mania. It has seized the judge upon the bench, the lawyer at the bar, the priest in the pulpit, and the physician with the pill-box. It has penetrated the peaceful circle of domestic life, where the sweetest flowers bloom, and where its hallucinations have usurped parental authority and shed their blight over the endearing relations of life. Thus deluded into the belief of some “ wonderful reve¬ lation,” some important “ communication ” from some “Lord Bacon,” some “Dr. Franklin,” some “Napo¬ leon,” or other distinguished personage long since dead, the young men and the maidens, and the maids and men no longer young, become “ entranced by spirit influ¬ ence,” and set up for teachers in matters of science. In this manner the trance becomes a mania by the laws of sympathetic imitation, and a power which it is scarcely possible for a certain class of people to resist. Once under its “influence,” once fairly “into it,” and the brains are intoxicated with visions of Utopia. Imbued with the idea of mediumship, your external senses no longer serve the normal purposes of life; your hands, your feet, your tongue, your mind, and inmost soul are no longer controlled by their owner, but by an idea of mediumship. MEDIUMS HIP, AN EPIDEMIC. 147 You have no longer the absolute command of the noblest attributes of manhood or womanhood. No matter what you have been, what you have seen, nor what you may have known or believed; no matter how old, how much experienced, or how learned; the stoutest hearts are melted in this fire, fused and moulded into this all-prevalent idea of a ‘‘royal road.” Children and nervous people are drawn in by the fitness of their temperaments. With large credulity and a love for the mysterious, the youth is drawn in with such an “influence ” as he has neither power nor incli¬ nation for resisting. When once “impressed,” once convinced, once “into it,” he is convulsed from head to foot. He turns pale, rolls his eyes upward, shakes, twitches, and sinks under this idea. Look at him. The hands are cold and hang powerless by his side. The eyes are vacant. And now, again, he shakes from head to feet, and the cold sweat stands in drops upon his face, while the contorted features give signs of a terrible struggle going on within. That is a case of mediumship. Look at that young lady, well matured, educated. Her cheeks bear the crimson blush of beauty. Her external appearance indicates competency, and a heart combining all that is graceful, beautiful, and kind. The influence of this mania was slight upon her at first. But she “ Had lost a friend, a brother ; Heard a father’s parting breath Gazed upon a lifeless mother, Till she seemed to wake from death,” and the germ of this mania held out to her the hope , the possibility, nay, the certainty , of obtaining a “ com- 148 IDEOLOGY. munication ” from one she most loved, although that loved one was dead and buried. Of course she is, she must be, attracted by this idea. She could not be human if she were not. And thus impressed with the idea, and impelled by a strong desire to have that hope gratified, she dwells upon it until her heart is bewitched with the thought. So she goes “into it,” gradually at first, of course, but surely. Her nerves are agitated; but the more she thinks of it, the stronger does the impression become. And now what can she do ? Can she retrace her steps ? How ? Which way ? All is invisible, uncertain. It is a revelation from the grave, a “communication ” from the unknown world she is in search for. She yields up her mind, her nervous sys¬ tem, her soul, and her body, to this all-pervading idea. She closes her eyes upon external objects that she may have a more vivid conception of the invisible. Her judgment no longer serves her. Her credulity is large, and, impelled by an irresistible love of the hidden and obscure which is in the idea that has so completely fascinated her, she is “ entranced under spirit influ¬ ence.” Thus, finding herself “in it,” like others of her neighbors and friends, she makes no effort to return whence she came. The wife is influenced out of love for her husband, and the husband from conjugal love for his spouse, and thus the sympathy extends from families to neighbor¬ hoods, and larger circles of community. One neighbor influences another, and when they stand high as judges, clergymen, and all professional men do, more or less, the influence becomes powerful beyond what common people have the capacity for resisting. In this manner the mania reaches not only one or two sections, but it MEDIUMSHIP, AN EPIDEMIC. 149 is extended over the entire country, and even beyond the sea. We have numerous accounts of the “mission” mediums have made; one in England has made a princely fortune, and I could give the names of a num¬ ber in America who have become suddenly wealthy by this epidemic,—some as writers, and some as “ doctors.” This epidemic has its press and its literatures. Huge octavos are published, and any number of i2mos, and smaller books, containing “messages” from noted per¬ sonages long since dead, addressed to the inhabitants of the earth. Now, what are the legitimate conclusions to be deduced from the ground over which this investigation has conducted us? Is there any “royal road” to heaven, or to general knowledge? We have seen what a state of ecstasy, spontaneous or artificial, or induced trance, amounts to when adopted as a habit and theo¬ ries of the unknown based upon it. We are assured that the numbers in this country who rely upon this state of hallucination as a superior or “royal road” for obtaining a knowledge of what man’s condition will be after death reach up among the millions. The mediums are daily consulted as “ora¬ cles ; ” and this trance, in which the senses become sus¬ pended more or less, is supposed to be the highest and best state the mind can be in for acquiring knowledge, not of this world alone, but of another state of exist¬ ence, of which nothing reliable can be known. But, I ask, how can that be considered a “ superior state ” in which some of our mental and physical faculties are wholly suspended ? If the trance be a superior state, then it must be equally true that Jits , catalepsy , dream¬ ing , insanity , or hydrophobia is a “ superior state” of the human mind for the acquisition of knowledge. IDEOLOGY. 150 It is also an objection against these assumptions as to the remote and extraordinary causes assigned for the mediumship, that they so plainly contradict the maxims of Philosophy and Science. Nay, common sense tells us that we should always and everywhere attribute physical phenomena to physical laws; men¬ tal phenomena, to mental laws ; and nervous phenomena, to laws of the nervous system, — what a man does to the man himself. And so when we see one talking with the eyes shut, the first presumption should be that it is the man’s or woman’s own brains that are at work; that it is the human personage we see and hear who is the real person acting, and the only personage who is or can be considered as the real author of what is said and done in the case. To ignore this rule for inter¬ preting the actions of human beings is to open the door for anarchy, confusion, and untold mischief; and thus it is that many of the evils which have followed in the wake of the mediumistic epidemic are to be accounted for. But I deny that any man or any woman has any moral right thus to surrender the nervous system to the con¬ trol of an unknowable personage. Suppose the pretence set up be true, that the woman yields her soul and body to an “influence” which renders her unconscious of her words and actions while in that state. Is this right ? Is it consistent ? Has any one any moral right to thus yield up his individual sovereignty, hood¬ winked by an idea of a ghost, led by the nose, and made to sing, to pray, to preach, to dance, to laugh, to weep, to groan, to jerk, and throw his limbs about in the air; or to spout in the name of some imaginary personage from the moon ? It is a species of delirium MEDIUMSHIP, AN EPIDEMIC. T 5 I or insanity, and is so considered by all persons who are admitted to be the most competent for judging. And yet mediums describe the trance as a “superior state,” by which they mean that it is the most favor¬ able condition for acquiring knowledge! To this I reply: — That no man can lift himself by his own shoe-strings. No lid can cover itself. Mediums are not reliable authority on this subject. The tippler with a glass of brandy in his stomach affirms that that is the highest, the “superior state,” for him. The maniac in Bedlam says the same. The sectarian fanatics all tell the same story of themselves. They are in a “superior state.” And when, “controlled” by this epidemic, they spin long yarns of the “ invisibles ” by whom they think they are spell-bound, it only shows that they do not and cannot know by what processes they have been involved in this state. There may be danger even when entranced by a mortal, though not necessarily so. When you submit your nervous system and your mind to the control of another, you are bound to inform yourself, beforehand , who it is, and to know in how far he is reliable in respect to his knowledge and qualifica¬ tions for that peculiar work. But when the habit of sinking into the trance becomes an epidemic, the case is different altogether. In the latter case, you do not know, you cannot know, what kind of influences you may be subjected to. And yet we are assured that thousands of media are daily sink¬ ing into this state, many of whom become utterly “unconscious,” and some of them do and say things of which they ought to feel ashamed, and, if they do not, so much the worse for them. My opinion is, that a 152 IDEOLOGY. large class have the reputation of trance media, when in reality they were never entranced at all, or in any abnormal state. A lady medium, while “ speaking under spirit influ¬ ence ” in Cincinnati, became raving mad , and she had to be confined immediately as the consequence. When a lady, “under spirit influence,” while addressing a public audience, becomes suddenly raving mad, one might suppose that such an event would have a ten¬ dency to show the danger of becoming mediums. But then when people become “bewitched ” with this all- powerful notion of “spirits,” they are more likely to become insane, and less likely to hear to reason, even when it raps them on the head. Hence the terrible mischief that always follows in the wake of all mental epidemics, and of mediumship especially, as this is more sensational and far more widespread than any religious revival or any epidemic purely ideal ever known. All the so-called “tests” from which it is supposed that nondescript invisibilities from an unknown world are our relatives, are a mani¬ fest fraud. Yet see how the trap is set for our faith :— For death, that does our bands of life unloose Cannot the love of our best friends destroy; And this love all who are mediums choose, As by this they find their chief employ. A hidden deception, as broad as our earth is wide, and as complicated as perdition itself. CHAPTER XIII. PSYCHOMETRY AND DEADHEADS. Dr. Joseph Rhodes Buchanan claims the discovery of what he calls psychometry; and, as he has since become active in making his notions co-operate in the mediumistic movement, both in the college with which he may be connected and also in the endorsement of psychometry of mediumship, I must give him, in connection with this deadhead business, a passing notice. I have seen it reported of him that he has stated that he had £>een the pioneer in the intro¬ duction of Spiritualism in this country, inasmuch as so long ago as 1843 he performed a psychometric experi¬ ment upon a young lady in Kentucky, in which he “caused her to see the spirit of her'mother, who had long been dead.” I believe he claims to be a Christian as well as an advocate of moderm mediumship, which he has announced that he will explain and exemplify with his psychometry in the college with which he has been recently associated. When Dr. B. first visited New York I resided in that city; and although I attended his lectures on his psychometry, which in his book he declared had “left little or nothing else to be discovered in anthropology,” I never did invest in it or consider it of much impor¬ tance. And it is due to my subject that I should state i53 154 IDEOLOGY. that Mr. Inman, the patient whom Dr. B. brought with him from Cincinnati, Ohio, to New York, declared, after Dr. B. left, that he had purposely deceived Dr. B., as did Miss Fishbough, also, from Boston, upon whom Dr. B.’s psychometrical experiments were performed. But, although he seems to have been a convert to modern mediumship, his psychometry has been repudi¬ ated by Spiritualists, because it had endorsed some bogus pictures, photographs, or busts that had been taken, and Dr. Buchanan proved them gemline by his psychometry. And now to the facts : — “ Certain photographs of materialized spirits at Terre Haute, Ind., have been psychometrically described by many psychometers with entire unanimity in their expression, thus confirming the truth of spirit materialization.”— Jos. R. Buchanan, R. P. Journal, Jan. 20, 1881. When this same Dr. Buchanan, some forty years ago, lectured in New York on his theory of “psychometry,” it was shown to be a fallacy, and Mr. Inman and Miss F., the two patients on whom he performed his “psychometrical experiments,” afterwards declared that they feigned all their “manifestations;” thus showing how Dr. B. was deceived from first to last in these “experiments,” which were endorsed by one or more members of the New York Medical Society. Since that time no recognition of this “theory” has ever been admitted by the scientific world. But a few years since it was by a well-known Spiritualist endorsed in his lectures on geology. Whereupon Dr. B. made a “new departure” in behalf of his theory, and en¬ dorsed Spiritualism, when he was of course at once recognized as an acquisition among the oracles of modern mysticism. Those familiar with the dominant PSYCHOMETRY AND DEADHEADS. 155 traits in Dr. Buchanan’s mental calibre will not be surprised either at the stretch of his credulity in gulping so readily all the monstrous absurdities here described, nor, indeed, that these absurdities are now repudiated by his new allies, so as to bring him to grief in his advanced age. Spiritualists sorry for Dr. Buchanan. — Thus the spirit paper in Philadelphia, which repudiates the Dr.’s “spirit photographs,” because it thinks they were made by “Jesuitical spirits : ” — «* “ We are exceedingly sorry to be compelled to put a damper upon him, but it is better to do this than to allow the enemy to carry Dr. Buchanan into hopeless captivity. We close with the conclusion that ‘ psychometry ’ has re¬ ceived a fearful stab from its founder, Dr. Buchanan.” — Mind and Matter , Feb. 19, 1881. Dr. Bucha?ian Bamboozled. — “I must, in justice to the truth, affirm that the psychometric interpretations of the photographic pictures of Mary the mother of Jesus, St. Peter, and others, have been most perfect illustrations of the truth and value of psychometry; and that I personally know that each of those pictures contain a great psychometric potency, and is of great value for the psychometric culture of the soul, as many can testify from experience. Their value arises from the fact that they are genuine spirit-pic¬ tures, and do bring to us by the psychometric law, which will be illustrated in my work on psychometry (now preparing), the spiritual potency of those pure and exalted beings! The photograph of Mary is known by my psychometrics to be a faithful picture of the materialized spirit whom they saw and touched, and they recognized the spirit form of this noble woman, who is loved and admired by all who have any spiritual perception of her character, and who has since positively stated the correctness of this picture.”— J. B. Buchana?i, B. B. Journal, Jan. 20, 1881. And now, if the reader can form a correct idea as to the dimensions of that credulous gullet that swallows 156 IDEOLOGY. stuff like the above, he can anticipate what the merits of that “new work” of Dr. Buchanan’s will be, for which he is now so evidently fishing for patronage among the wonder-mongers. A huge rent in the Spirit Balloon. — The same paper that says “ psychometry has been fearfully stabbed by its founder ” admits a rent has been made in the spirit¬ ual balloon equally fatal! Hence, the partisans of the ism are now divided into two factions that, like the Irish cats, must eat each other up! Each charges the other with being under the “ control ” of Jesuitical or “lying spirits,” and what they call “obsession.” This is no doubt true of both ; for, admitting that in any case there is any “spirit” outside of any medium, it cannot be proved as to who the spirit is, nor that there is ever more than one with any medium ! A house divided thus against itself cannot stand. Psychometric Fallacies. — That psychometry should endorse the monstrous absurdities of modern mysticism is enough, surely, to damn it forever from all recogni¬ tion by scientific and thoughtful minds ; and were this the place, any amount of facts, pathological and psychological, could be given to prove that this theory depends upon assumptions, conjecture, false ideas, and credulity. Its only foothold is ignorance, and even if now and then a case be found where the phenomena seem to support it, and we were to admit its truth, it amounts to nothing in its benefits to humanity. There¬ fore, in such cases, to drill the minds of ignorant people with this false idea, and then hand them over to the “control” of modern mysticism, is an accumulation of evils that brings upon “psychometry” the frown of the scientific world. PSYCHOMETRY AND DEADHEADS. 157 All minds are controlled by ideas, true or false ; and the nervous system is an instrument of marvellous susceptibility, that may be put into ten thousand fan¬ tastic shapes, — square, three-cornered, or round, — and having as many “ heads, hoofs, and horns-” as the monsters we read of in the Bible ! Thus ideas are generated in support of theories, —■ geological, medical, theological, mesmeric, and mediumistic, — all of them ideal, and of no possible benefit to the human race; and it is a black mark against “ psychometry ” that its founder to this day has not learned better than to talk of publishing a “new book” on what he calls the “psychometrical culture of the human soul.” The culture of the human mind dispenses with psychometry, and does not invest in photography of St. Peter and “the Virgin Mary,” an estimate of mystical phenomena that Joseph R. Buchanan ought to have formed many years ago. Psychometry of Dr. Buchanan. — Surely “ the founder of psychometry ” cannot object to his own long-cher¬ ished standard as to human character; and especially when giving him his own portrait, drawn by one of the very best “psychometers” Dr. Buchanan ever had. I say this, because I heard Dr. B. himself declare in one of his lectures in Boston, in 1843, that Mrs. Oliver John¬ son was the most reliable “psychometer” he ever knew for giving a truthful account of character by holding the handwriting in her hands. Now, in my work on “The Trance,” page 29, will be found quite a long letter from Joseph R. Buchanan, the manuscript copy of which is now before me. At the time that letter was written, Dr. B. and myself were both engaged in giving lectures in Boston, — he on “Psychometry,” 153 IDEOLOGY. and I on Pathetism, or the law of self-induction ; and, while there was no hall in Boston large enough to hold my audiences, Dr. Buchanan’s lectures were confined to parlors. For my closing lecture in the Masonic Temple, Tremont Street, Nov. 24, 1843, Dr. Buchanan wrote this letter, and, as will be seen, it was not addressed to me, but to my audience, and put into the hands of Mr. L. N. Fowler, the phrenologist, who brought it into my lecture, and informed me that “ Dr. Buchanan had requested him to read that letter to my audience.” I took the insult from the hands of Mr. Fowler, and kept it for future use ; and, when in 1868 I published this letter in my work on “The Trance,” I did not add this psychometric account by Mrs. J., because she had been so much overcome with regret on finding that she had given such an account of her friend, that she extorted from me a promise that I would not publish during her life the portrait that she had drawn. April 19, 1844, I happened to find Mr. and Mrs. Johnson in New York, and I embraced the first oppor¬ tunity for ascertaining what Dr. Buchanan’s best “psychometer ” would say of him ; and here I give it as it fell from the lips of that “psychometer,” written down by her husband, as follows : — “ The writer of this letter is a person of strong social feeling. This letter was written in an unquiet frame of mind, exceedingly liable to be warped by prejudice; lacks clearness of moral vision; would confound right and wrong; a person of good intellect; would not do justice in a case where he was personally interested; selfish. I would be sorry to be placed in the power of such a person ; I could not trust him. This letter was written not from a straight¬ forward, honest purpose or motive.” PSYCHOMETRY AND DEADHEADS. 159 As I have said, Dr. Buchanan’s letter was not addressed to me, but “to the gentlemen who have attended Mr. Sunderland’s experiments and lectures,” and it was such an evident attempt to fill his own gas¬ bag at my cost that I never considered it worthy of criticism. But I can “endorse psychometry ” far enough to certify that the above is an accurate estimate of his character, and no mistake. CHAPTER XIV. THE CONTAGIOUS DANCE OF DEATH. “ And who can hear this tale without a tear? ”— Virgil. This horrid dance was advertised in Boston only a few years ago by two English mediums, Mr. J. H. Powell and wife, and the dance was performed by Mrs. Powell from night to night for the amusement of a gaping multitude of people. They visited me in 1871, and appeared to be good and well-meaning persons ; but I could but grieve to notice what an woful mistake they had made in their business calling; and the same business may be still carried on in other places. Mrs. P. was dressed in Indian style, and armed with a “tommyhawk” and “scalping-knife;” and entranced (as she said) upon the public platform, she was “ con¬ trolled by a dead Indian ” ! When performing for the public amusement, she kicked and thrashed about the platform as she imagined a living Indian would do. She gave the Indian “war-whoop ” and did other things to please the audience who came to witness in her the “ dance of death ” ! V Thus, when mediums to grandeur soar, They light the torch that shows their shame the more. Beyond a certain amount of strain or credulity, human reason is dethroned, when murders and suicides fol- 160 THE CONTAGIOUS DANCE OF DEATH. l6l low, such as I must now describe. Fanaticism knows no laws, high or low ; and when once under its sway, who can tell what an insane man will do ? Against these very excesses I cautioned all engaged in this movement in the paper I issued in 1850; and this was before Spiritualism had fairly adopted the term that now floats upon its banners. I plainly foresaw that, as the entrancement of the mediums became general, it would open the flood-gates of a wide-spread delusion. The dead are not here to answer for them¬ selves, nor will the day ever dawn upon this earth when humanity and science will consent to have modern mediumship as an oracle to speak for those whose lips have been closed forever by the seal of death. As I have borrowed the term of “deadhead,” allow me to explain : — 1. I have witnessed “haunted-house” phenomena since 1845, and I read accounts of these “manifesta¬ tions” of unseen intelligences that did not seem to sustain any relation to our planet, or to know, indeed, what strange things, that frightened all who either wit¬ nessed or heard of them, they were doing in certain local¬ ities. Now, as I have elsewhere stated, these “ haunted house ” phenomena culminated in the incidental dis¬ covery of modern mediumship; and the history of this movement will show that its fancies, follies, and fal¬ lacies are proofs that these intelligences neither belong to our world, nor have they a particle of independent knowledge either of our planet or of us and our affairs. This has been in “favorable conditions” always ad¬ mitted to me when I have questioned them ; and I have asked them in a medium’s presence the reasons for their assuming our names and pretending to be IDEOLOGY. 162 our relativcSy and the answer has been to this effect, namely, “We please our medium, and we gratify all the interested parties in the circle ” ! 2. We know nothing whatever as to what sphere these intelligences belong; nothing as to how or where they became invisibles ; nothing as to their sexhood or their occupation, nor what they eat nor how employed. But we do know that all our knowledge and our rela¬ tion with this earth is wiped out by death, and, if another existence remains for us after death, it must, in all its relations, be new y as our existence is when born into this life. 3. The “house ” in Hydesville, N. Y., where human mediumship began in 1848, had been “haunted’' for more than a year, and by invisible intelligences that had no idea that they might answer to the name of “spirits,” until Mrs. Fox suggested this term to them, when they replied, “Yes,” “yes,” “yes,” to falsehood , as was subsequently ascertained. Why, then, should I call them “angels” or “spirits,”—names that were never claimed by the “haunted-house phenomena” that have occurred in ages past ? Henc6 I say “dead¬ heads.” My friends are dead, and not one of them ever came back to me, nor does any one belong to me, or to this world, when dead. 4. All we can know of this new movement is the “ medium ” and “raps” upon the table-leg, while there are a dozen factors utterly unknown, and science can¬ not build theories upon forms of force wholly unknown. Yet mediums tell of a few scientific men who have “taken photographs” of their shadowy forms. But they have named no truly scientific man that has adopted any theory of the “summer-land.” THE CONTAGIOUS DANCE OF DEATH. 163 5. I have referred to the “favorable conditions” * when these invisibles have told me that they have no external senses, nor external eyes, nor ears, as we have, for a knowledge of this world, and this is the reason for their utter dependence on certain localities and cer¬ tain peculiar temperaments as mediums. But for these human conditions , they could do nothing* except such phenomena as have been known in “haunted houses” in ages past. They have also told me how gratifying it was to them to find one with a temperament that they could “control;” moreover, that no “test me¬ dium ” was or could be “controlled ” by more than one invisible; thus corresponding to what we know of psychology, that when a patient is “entranced” by two or more he becomes good for nothing. They are always thus spoiled. 6. It has seemed to me as bordering upon the ludi¬ crous when Mrs. Fox told me that she asked the “rap ” made at her feet, and which frightened them so, “if it was made by a departed spirit.” The rapper had not “departed” very far! And so, when we hear one speaking of the “spirit’s return ,” when there is no proof that the “spirit” ever inhabited a human body on this planet, as you and I do ; they can neither show from what world they came, nor that they ever lived here. 7. And now this problem in regard to ancient and modem mediumship presents itself for a solution : As to how much our humanity is to be benefited by “visions and revelations” from a Bible God, who has to be informed beforehand by “prayer and supplica¬ tion” as to our wants; and in what respects are any of us to be benefited by “tests,” “messages,” and 164 IDEOLOGY. “communications” from angels that have no indepen¬ dent knowledge of us, and who sustain no relation to our globe, nor to us, except what they assume to please a medium and to gratify the “circle” and the parties interested, as when they materialize in the forms of rabbits, cats, and human beings, which evinces only a knowledge they acquire, through the medium’s brain, of our thoughts. Now, what an idea of “deadheads:” that they suc¬ ceed in ideal contagion and a real epidemic ! They have visited this world, to which they do not belong, and, as far as we know, never did belong to it, and have commenced a rivalry in drugs and drugging. 'Is not this somewhat an odd idea? The “rap,” the zigzag method upon the table-leg, seems an enigmatical way of talking; and this epidemic, got up by rattling the pill-box, seems more queer still! What must the grief of a number of families and neighborhood be when a death crime is committed, like the very first one that shocked humanity, when a young husband, in the ancient town of Quincy, Mass., puts a ball through the heart of his young wife, only fifteen! They were Spiritualists, and it was in 1850, even before the present wide and wildest mental epi¬ demic had well begun to be manifest, as it was only two years after the discovery of mediumship in con¬ nection with the “haunted-house” phenomena. The tomb of this unhappy couple is in the cemetery of Ouincy, and sc near me that I can almost see it from Rustic Lodge, where I reside. Nor can the sorrow be less in reflecting on this epidemic when we know that its gigantic dimensions are now so ramified and extended that a thousand mur- THE CONTAGIOUS DANCE OF DEATH. 165 ders and suicides might be committed every year, and the mass would not think of it at all. The father of one of this youthful pair, some months after the murder and suicide were committed, came from Ohio, and, finding nothing in their trunk but Andrew J. Davis’s writings, erected a tombstone with the following inscription : — “ MURDER AND SUICIDE. “ Erected to the memory of John R. Grieve. Died Novr. 12, 1850, JE. 22 years. And to Hannah Banks, his wife. Died Novr. 12, 1850, JE. 15 years. Both of Zanesville, Ohio. Deluded by the writings of Andrew J. Davis.” The only relieving consideration which science and the order of Nature suggest in such calamities is, that, whatever may be that new condition of things to which we are pushed or borne by death, there cannot be any surprise or any disappointment , any more than when we began human life in this world. Nor could we imagine an idea of the future more absurd than that we carry through death all the social names, feelings, and all the relationships of the family we sustained here. What is death , if not an utter annihilation from our mind of this eternal world and our memories of the past ? Nor is it possible to perceive any essential difference when “faith” is the motive-power of an epidemic as procuring cause of suicide and murder. It was in October of the year 1850, only about two years after the birth of modern mediumship, when Hannah, in the garb of a young man bearing the name of “ George Sand,” consulted me about this murder and suicide. Here is her letter : — IDEOLOGY. 166 “Quincy, Mass., Oct. 15, 1850. “ Dr. LaRoy Sunderland, Editor of the “ Spiritual Philoso¬ pher,” Boston: — “ Dear Sir, — I would like to have your candid opinion as to whether suicide would hinder our progression after death ? Please answer, and oblige, Yours, &c., George Sand.” Alas ! those deluded children did not wait to take my answer from the post-office, but, leaving a copy of Andrew Jackson Davis’s “Divine Revelations and Voice to Mankind” at their boarding-place, they sought a secluded spot in the edge of Braintree, where that young husband put a bullet through the heart of his young wife, and then blew out his own brains with the same weapon ! They remained where they fell till the next February, when their bodies were discovered, partly covered with snow. During their stay in Quincy, Hannah dressed in male attire, and was known by the name of “George Sand,” and passed as the “cousin” of John. They had left Zanesville, Ohio, clandestinely, nor could the parents hear anything from them or of them until more than three months after they were dead. I have a vivid recollection of that horrible affair, nor have I forgotten that the Boston Morning Post news¬ paper of Feb. 18, 1851, the next day after those dead bodies were found, implicated me as one of the two parties who should be held as responsible for that murder and suicide. But, then, this was not the first nor the last false accusation made by the newspaper press against me during the last fifty years. As I cannot affirm that such details are agreeable to me, I will therefore confine myself to only a few cases THE CONTAGIOUS DANCE OF DEATH. 167 out of the many similar ones that have occurred, — cases of which I have had more or less knowledge. judson j. Hutchinson’s suicide. Mr. H. was the first one who was ever attempted to be “ magnetized ” by a “ deadhead,” and it proved a sad disaster to him and his family in the fall of 1850. He visited the Fox family, then in Rochester, N. Y., and was told that his dead brother Benjamin would “mag¬ netize him.” With that idea he became fascinated\ was on hand at the hour agreed upon, and from that day he was i?isanc until he hung himself on High Rock, Lynn, Mass., where his family then resided. I was at the time on business in Providence, R. I., where his brother Jesse telegraphed me to come and attend Judson to the insane hospital at Hartford, Ct. As a musician he was extensively known both in this country and in England; and who but a fanatic would under¬ take to tell me that the sensational idea in modern mediumship did not cost that sweet singer his life ? It belonged not only to his wife and children, his family and friends, but to humanity and all lovers of liberty and free thought; and to this I should add, that the very spot on High Rock where Judson J. Hutchinson ended his life by his own act was the place where the “wonder-monger-in-chief,” A. J. Davis, only a short time before, had reported himself as having been in solemn counsel with a large convention of “ deadheads,” or “spirits ;” and not one of that angelic conclave had any eyes to see poor H. hanging on that gallows; nor did Mr. Davis, who claims for his own “ clairvoyant vision ” an eye big enough to “see beyond the bounds of time and space.” Surely, an eye as big as that 168 IDEOLOGY. ought to have anticipated Hutchinson’s death and pre¬ vented it! This case deserves some further notice here. Mr. H. was well known as one of the “ Hutchinson family of vocalists/' both in this country and in England, and as a musician was deservedly popular. He was, as I have said, the first one since “the dawn of mediumship ” who was said to be “magnetised by spirits”! This term had never been heard of until it was used in his case ; and it is equally well known that from the hour that idea had found a lodgment in his mind Mr. Hutchinson was insane, and for a series of years, until he hung himself on High Rock, where A. J. Davis had held his “congress of spirits” a short time before. In October, 1850, he and his brother Jesse visited the “ mediums ” in the Fox family to witness the “ mys¬ terious knockings,” as this subject was at that time called. They had had a brother named Benjamin, then dead, and Judson was completely bewitched by a “mes¬ sage” that purported to come from that dead brother, saying, “/ will magnetize you" ! To that idea he yielded, nor was he ever perfectly sane from that hour till he evinced “the practical in mediumship” by causing his own death, as above stated. Finding his brother insane, Jesse took him to their home in Mil¬ ford, N. H., and telegraphed to me, then in Providence, R. I., to come to Milford immediately and attend him. This I did. I spent a week with him at his own home, and by the advice of his family I accompanied him to the insane asylum. Mr. Hutchinson had a clergyman, Rev. William Patten, for a brother-in-law, and, as if to compensate me for my generous labors for the relief of my friend H., Mr. Patten, in one of the papers, charged THE CONTAGIOUS DANCE OF DEATH. 169 me as having caused Mr. Hutchinson’s derangement! But all I deem it necessary here to say is, that I shall never adopt Mr. Patten’s views of “ fire and brim¬ stone ” as a remedy for insanity, or ever be very likely to accept of him as my instructor in mental or moral philosophy. From the first, I never lost sight of poor Hutchinson, and I am sure that his insanity was superinduced by the idea of being “magnetized by the spirit of his dead brother.” He was bewitched and carried away by this idea, as thousands of others since have been, and who, also, like him, have put an end to their lives in a state of insanity. Hence this case of Judson and Jesse Hutchinson should not be forgotten as long as the idea of mediumship lingers amongst us. He was the first victim to this idea, and pity he may not be said also to have been the last. But in 1858 the num¬ ber in our insane hospitals who had been victimized by this insane idea were over two thousand; and by the present time it has probably been more than doubled. Nor can there be any reasonable doubt that this idea of alleged “revelations” from the invisible world has done more mischief in rendering its victims insane than any idea of any other one thing ever did, or ever could do. In the nature of things it must be so. The marvellousness once excited to a certain degree, the throne of reason is wrecked; and, of all mental excite¬ ments, the excessive excitement of marvellousness or of fear is attended with the most danger. What could be more calculated to excite marvellousness than this idea of a “revelation from the dead”? Under these appeals, made directly to the organ of credulity , the strongest minds often yield, and the judgment becomes weak and incapacitated for its highest functions. IDEOLOGY. 170 MURDER BY TWO MEDIUMS. In 1855 an account appeared in the Boston papers of the murder perpetrated in that city by two “ me¬ diums,” one of whom was the child’s own father! SUICIDE BY REV. LUKE HASKELL. He was a medium, and fifty years of age. He be¬ came deeply excited by the reception of “messages” from nondescripts ih the unknown, and in Bangor com¬ mitted suicide in 1855. SUICIDE OF CHARLES H. WHIPPO. This was indeed a melancholy case. He committed suicide, Feb. 18, 1857, aged nineteen years. He was a medical student, and the son of Dr. T. C. Whippo, of Newcastle, Pa. Both the father and this son had become deeply interested in the subject of “Spiritual¬ ism;” and about that time Dr. Whippo had written a number of articles in favor of mediumship for the Spiritual paper then published at New York, and giving the “ beautiful communications ” he had received through his own children, who were mediums. What, now, must have been the emotions of this fond and doting parent when he next entered the room of his son Charles, to find him dead, and this note left for him upon the table : — “18th February, 1857. “ Dear Father, — Come and get m3 7 dead body. “Charles Whippo.” On an envelope were written the words, “ Oh ! I am a murderer ! ” He had received two letters the same afternoon, which he had destroyed; but the envelope THE CONTAGIOUS DANCE OF DEATH. 171 upon one of them was found. It was in a lady’s hand¬ writing, and post-marked “Salem, Ohio, Feb. 17th.” He had been deeply interested in mediumship, and at one time was located at Salem, Ohio, where he be¬ came enamored of a married lady. This feeling was evidently reciprocated, and it would seem, moreover, that the lady was also a Spiritualist. The deceased was desirous of marrying this lady in spite of every obstacle, and he seems to have been instigated to the act by supposed communications from the spirit world. It would seem as though one or both of the letters received that afternoon contained information which destroyed the hopes of the deceased. This hypothesis is strengthened by an unsealed note which was found in a portfolio belonging to him. The following is a copy of the note, only omitting the name of the lady : — “ Philadelphia, 18th Feb., 1857. “ My Dearest N-: — “ I will see you in the spirit form before you will have read this, my last communication on earth. My hopes are blasted forever; you tell me we can never hope to meet on earth. I will die and live with you forever. Farewell! farewell! Till then I am by your side. “ I am yours in heaven as I have been on earth. “ Charlie.” See now, as regards the immense mischief which comes of taking revelations from the invisible world as authority for what we love, believe, or do. Look at the case of poor Whippo. Infatuated child! he was told by this nose of wax that that married woman was his conjugal companion, and because he could not live near to her in this world he resolved on suicide, under the unfounded infatuation that as soon as dead he should be by the side of that lady. 172 IDEOLOGY. MURDER OF A CHILD. In the same paper from which I copy the foregoing account of young Whippo’s case I find the following, as if to add to the public warning against so mon¬ strous a delusion, and to show how futile and unsafe it always is to rely on alleged “revelations” from the invisible world. An invisible criminal can be held to no responsibility. In the town of Nassau, N. Y., some five years be¬ fore these “revelations,” a lad fifteen years old, named Phillips, was found hung by the neck in his father’s barn. It was considered very improbable that he should have committed suicide, and his family sup¬ posed that in attempting to mimic some of the gym¬ nastics of a circus, which he had visited the previous day, he was accidentally hanged. But at a circle the spirit of young Phillips was invoked, and, in answer to questions, he declared that he had been murdered by his own mother, who first drove a nail into his head, and then hung his body up; and that she did this to 4 prevent his disclosing to his father her illicit inter¬ course with another man. This astounding develop¬ ment of crime produced the wildest excitement, and such was the state of public feeling that it was thought best to test the truth of the affair by an examination of the remains. A coroner was procured from Troy, with a corps of physicians, and the remains of the boy were taken up and examined. The skull was found perfectly whole and sound, and no indication of violence was discovered anywhere. Thus was the terrible mystery at once exploded. But its consequences are not so easily THE CONTAGIOUS DANCE OF DEATH. 173 remedied: the woman who was the subject of these cruel suspicions became seriously ill from the fearful excitement through which she passed, and may never fully recover from its effects. THE SUICIDE OF MISS HATTIE A. EAGER. This young lady was widely known and extolled among the Spiritualists in Boston as “ a most excellent and popular medium,” until November 23, 1856, when she committed suicide “under spirit control.” There happened to be two of Hattie’s friends (Mr. Y., a medi¬ cal student, and Miss J., both my friends also) at the tea-table (referred to below by Mr. Newton in the New England Spiritualist , Dec. 6, 1856). That was Hattie’s “last supper”! She had that fatal poison then prepared in her chamber, and which she swallowed a few moments after; and no “angel” was near enough to lift a single note of warning ! That was an awfid moment! Mr. A. E. Newton, hoodwinked by his “faith,” thus speaks of it: — “ At the tea-table she conversed with her usual vivacity, ministering with acts of kindness to those about her, and betraying by no sign or deed that there was anything extraor¬ dinary in her condition of mind or body. At the close of the meal, however, still sitting at the table, she was thrown into a trance, and drew with pencil and paper a casket, writing under it these words, 1 In a few hours all will be revealed,l A few hours subsequent opened her eyes to the wonders of that higher life upon whose scenes mortality has never looked. The struggle for release was at first violent and painful.” Of course her death must have been painful, as the post mortem examination proved that it was caused by poiso 7 i; and I was assured by those who were present 174 IDEOLOGY. that her death struggles were horrible. She vomited in most excruciating agony for some hours, and was convulsed from her head to her feet. These two friends above referred to reported the facts to me the next morning, when I pronounced it a case of suicide, and referred them to two surgeons in the Massachusetts Hospital. Her autopsy was kept from the knowledge of all the mediums. In Hattie’s stomach the surgeons found twenty grains of corrosive sublimate, after all she may have vomited up; and from a tumbler on her wash-stand they took thirty grains more,—showing how determined she had been to die “ under spirit control.” While this post mortem was going on in the chamber above, a dozen, more or less, of “mediums” were holding a “seance” in the parlor below, one of whom personified Hattie A. Eager, and this medium made Hattie say that — “ She had found her transit from this earth to the ‘summer- land ’ most delightful, and that she had left that glorious region to be present at this seance, in order to assure them that it was now all explained.” And, when her body was carried to the cemetery in the country, one of the numerous mediums that fol¬ lowed in a carriage personified her again, and often cracked jokes about “fine horses” that drew them towards the tomb ! As Mr. Newton had announced this death as an “ evidence of the truth of Spiritual¬ ism,” in the city papers, I cautioned the public to wait until they were informed as to the autopsy, and the next day I published the verdict of the surgeons, and showed that, if Hattie A Eager was “under the ‘con- THE CONTAGIOUS DANCE OF DEATH. 175 trol of her guardian angels,’ they had certainly mur¬ dered her.” Here I give the laconic reply that this same A. E. Newton made to my expose of the mon¬ strous fraud practised upon human ignorance of man’s condition after death, and of human credulity. Mr. Newton said:—• “ Admit that Miss Hattie A. Eager was murdered by spirits , WHAT THEN ? ” We proved, bear in mind, that Miss Eager had been disappointed in a love affair, and that she was always “ under spirit control,” and had for months previously predicted her own deatJi ! This case was so marked in all its features that it made a decided sensation throughout the city. The Spiritualists everywhere trusted in her mediumship , and she was puffed in the New England Spiritualist , edited by A. E. Newton. Here is the style in which this Spiritual editor speaks of Miss Eager after her death : — “ It is well known among Spiritualists that this young lady was possessed of medium powers. She appeared to be un -. usually susceptible to spirit influences, and could be thrown into the interior or trance state almost instantaneously, and as quickly be restored to her normal condition, — and this without the apparent nervous excitement generally manifest in mediums. So quietly was the influence thrown upon her and removed that even at the table during meals she would speak to her intimate friends for some spirit who wished to convey them a message, without arresting the attention or exciting the suspicion of any stranger who might be present. “ Her bosom friend and companion took occasion one day when she was entranced to call for an explanation from the spirits as to what they meant by their statement. In reply they proceeded to give the reasons why she had not been taken away at the precise time anticipated; but asserted 176 IDEOLOGY. with emphasis, ‘ In a fortnight she will not be with you This assertion was made thirteen days previous to her de¬ parture. No revelation of this was made to Miss Eager in her natural state, and she consequently remained still in ignorance that any precise time had been designated.” Notice the infatuation and the utter ignorance of psychology manifested by this oracle, A. E. Newton. 1. He concedes that a medium entranced is in an unnatural state! From this it follows that these invisibles that involve human beings in an unnatural state have no business here, and especially when they predict the death of their victims, and then murder them to fulfill what they had predicted! 2. “No revelation was made of her predicted death to Miss Eager” when she was not entranced; and what monstrous stultification is here manifested! As if Miss Eager did not in her own selfhood know what she had said in her trance about her own death ! And if she did not know, then I say let the curse of HUMANITY FALL UPON ALL THIS INFATUATION that SO stultifies the mind of any persons that they cannot know when they are threatened with immediate death ! 3. But the truth is, there never was a case of the artificial trance like that in Mesmerism and in modern mediumship, but when the patients do remember all they wish to ; and if they do not, or say they do not , remember , it is because they so decided in the trance not to remember! They can and they do remember whatever they desire to remember. 4. And what a farce modern mediumship makes of what its victims call “tests ” as to the personal identity of an invisible nondescript ? Look at the case of this medium : Here is a “ test” for you ! A medium sur- THE CONTAGIOUS DANCE OF DEATH. 1 77 rounded with “ guardian angels,” who for five months plotted her destruction ! Who, not obf:iscated with this monstrous delusion of mediumship between the dead and the living , can for a moment believe such an ab¬ surdity ? And it is because it is so absurd that this suicide of this young lady has been designedly ignored to the present day. 5. And more : Could it be supposed that this suicide carried with her exit into the unknown a perfect recol¬ lection, then how great a card the death of this medium was at first considered for Spiritualism all over this planet, may be seen from Mr. Newton’s announcement of this “predicted ” event in his own paper : — “ Singular Premonitions. — Miss Hattie A. Eager, on the night of Tuesday, Nov. 23d, laid aside the earth gar¬ ments which she had worn for 22 years, to assume the brighter robe of the angels. Many of the circumstances preceding the recent departure of Miss Eager to the spirit- world are of a remarkable and singularly interesting char¬ acter.”— New England Spiritualist , Dec. 6, 1856. My own views of this case I gave in one or two of the city papers, as follows : — “ I noticed that you published, a few days since a para¬ graph which has been ‘going the rounds of the papers,’ respecting a young lady in this city, who, as it is now alleged, died according to some predictions which she had made of herself; and that at her funeral certain other ‘ mediums ’ said certain things purporting to come from the departed ‘ spirit ’ of that young lady and other ‘ spirits ’ who were present on that occasion. “ Having myself inquired of those well acquainted with that young lady, I must give it as my opinion, founded on a thorough knowledge of the facts in this case, that there was no real prediction of her death, except what she made from her own decision. I am assured that she had been disap- i/S IDEOLOGY. pointed in a love affair, — sadly so, — having had her hopes excited for some two years. “The person on whom she had relied as her lover was away, and she was daily and hourly expecting his return, when she was assured he would return to her no more. On the reception of this intelligence she clothed herself in mourning, and spoke of her own death as a certainty near at hand. And, now, when we consider her vomiting and other symptoms, we should wait, I think, the results of the post mortem examination. For myself, I see no evidence of anything spiritual in the facts of this case, while there is any amount of evidence to show to what a lamentable extent the marvellousness of a certain class of temperaments may be¬ come excited, and how poorly able some persons are to bear the troubles which are the common lot of humanity.” — Bosto?i Herald , Dec. 5, 1856. Yet, in despite of this caution , the editor of the New England Spiritualist , in his next paper, gets off the following report of one of his “ privileges : ” — “ It was the editor’s privilege to be present at a circle held on the afternoon of the day succeeding Miss Eager’s release, at which she was the first person to manifest herself. Giving, at the outset, to a gentleman present, a singular and satis¬ factory test of her identity, she proceeded, though in great weakness , to say a few words to the circle. They were to the amount that, though still very weak and overwhelmed with the beauty and glories which had just opened upon her vision, and with the love which had been showered upon her ransomed spirit by the bands of bright ones who had welcomed her there, she felt that she must come and tell her earthly friends of her joy at the change, and assure them that 1 it is all true.' The occasion was affecting and joyous beyond description.” It was “affecting,” no doubt ; but I wonder how the occasion would have seemed to that “circle” had the “ spirit ” of that unfortunate young lady really appeared there, and said to them as follows ? — THE CONTAGIOUS DANCE OF DEATH. 179 “ It was not all true, as I thought at the time I was acting as a medium. I was hallucinated with the idea of ‘ spirit control,’ and, bamboozled with that false idea, I swallowed poison and caused my own death.” THE FARCE AT HER FUNERAL. One medium closes her eyes, shakes her limbs, passes her hand over her face, and says, “ I am Hattie, now speaking to you.” Other mediums got off eulogies of Hattie and the “beautiful faith” of which she had been the exponent, and in the firm belief in which Hattie had died. This farce was renewed by the Spiritualists at their meeting the next Sunday after Hattie’s suicide. That poor lunatic, John M. Spear, was the principal speaker. He proposed to have Miss Eager s portrait hung up in their hall, at which they could always gaze, while they should be thus stimu¬ lated to imitate her ! Hear him : — “ Imitating thee , they would be firm ; imitating thee , they would be tranquil; imitating thee , they would welcome the approach of the loving messenger who guides to fairer and more peaceful realms. A little band of choice ones, assem¬ bling weekly at this place, would look upon thy countenance as it was. They now pledge themselves to prepare a suitable memento of thyself, that weekly their eyes may rest upon it, and that thy example may inspire them to holy lives.” And thus John M. Spear will commit suicide, if, as he pledges himself, he does really follow Hattie’s ex¬ ample ; for this is not John himself speaking, remem¬ ber, but a “holy spirit ” speaking through him. Hence he says : — “ The above was communicated through me, with a request that it should be read to the friends assembled this day at Horticultural Hall, accompanied by the suggestion that a i8o IDEOLOGY. likeness of Hattie be taken, and that the same should be placed in the Hall.” The picture of Miss Eager should be hung up, not only in that hall, but also in every hall and every room where “test circles,” “anniversary” meetings, “con¬ ventions,” and “seances” are held in behalf of that cause which cost this young lady her life; and to her picture I would have this truthful motto conspicuously attached: — “ Admit ,” says Mr. A. E. Newton, “ that Miss Hattie A. Eager , the popular ?nedium, was ?nurdered under spirit control , and what then ? ” MURDER BY A SPIRITUALIST. John Wesley Layman, a Spiritualist, murdered Cornelius Cannon, in Brooklyn, N. Y., Dec. 20, 1856. Layman was standing in front of the Dutch Reformed Church on that day (Sunday), when Cannon, passing with his team, asked him to ride. Layman got into the wagon, and, after riding half a mile, shot Cannon dead, and threw his body into the road. He was ar¬ rested in Jersey City, and confessed the deed, for which he had no motive but robbery. The prisoner was a native of New York City, 21 years of age, a shoemaker, and a Spiritualist. Before holding the inquest on the murdered man, two physicians were sent to examine the prisoner, and to whom he gave the following account of himself : — “ He said he was a Spiritualist. The spirits manifested themselves to him in the station-house. They were pleased to see that he had been arrested. They wanted to get him out of the way. Six spirits came to him: one was Mrs. Dennison, and the other Mrs. Robinson; saw them in the THE CONTAGIOUS DANCE OF DEATH. 1 8 1 street some time ago; knew that it was Mrs. Dennison, as she had written a piece about a little girl, which appeared in the Sun newspaper. The piece, he thought, was headed ‘ A Dying Girl.’ He thought of it because he had been transformed into Mrs. Dennison, and he remained as Mrs. Dennison for three months. He worked at his trade all the time he was her. She manifested the fact to him that it was so. Subsequently he was transformed into Mrs. Robinson, — the change having been brought about by witchery, — and that it was their object, as well as their interest, to kill him; for in that event they would be more honored in the spirit world. One reason why he wanted money was that the spirit of the first-named imaginary lady spoke to him about his poverty and degradation. She did not wish him to be¬ come rich, but would be pleased to see him go to destruction. “ The prisoner went on in this strain for more than half an hour, making the most absurd statements, and at the same time preserving the most imperturbable gravity of countenance.” So much as to the contagious suicides and murders of one widespread mental epidemic ! Murders enough, surely, to be charged to those now dead. But, as if there were not enough to bring down humanity’s bitter malediction upon this widespread contagion, I have a long article 1 cut from the Boston Herald of Nov. 24, 1874, said to have been quoted from the St. Louis Democrat. The gist of it is, that a “spirit” or “dead¬ head” murdered a man that he had hated previous to his death ; and to kill him, this “ spirit ” materialized in the features, form, and dress of this man, and then allowed itself be seen in the act of murder. Of course the man was arrested, and there could be no suspicion of any one else. He was tried, convicted, and died in prison. I do not believe a word of it. It was a pretence to glorify a medium by the name of Betty Milton. But, if it were true, it explodes what materialization is 182 IDEOLOGY. estimated for in modern mediumship ; and it is a sad disgrace, whether true or false. And who can believe such deeds could be done As those I have asked you to ponder upon? Deeds without a name, whether true or not; So awfully vile they cannot be forgot! CHAPTER XV. AND WHAT THEN? Admit that Miss Eager was murdered by spirits , what then?” —Editor N. E. Spiriticalist. “Then?” My answer is, that modern mediumship is a monstrous fraud upon human credulity, and it deserves to be banished from the face of our globe ! It settles but one question : if we concede that the so-called “spirits” once inhabited bodies like ours, their physical memory of us and this world were left in the grave with their physical brains; otherwise no human mediumship would be necessary. Hence the fraud in the pretence that we are talking with our relatives through any “test medium” between us. Therefore modern mediumship presents no proof (ad¬ mitting the spirit theory), no proof whatever, either that there is more than one spirit that can communi¬ cate through one medium, or that the spirits (if spirits there be) ever went from this world. And mediumship is itself sufficient proof that the “spirits” can do nothing and they know nothing of this world. Nor could a greater absurdity be conceived, that for a hundred thousand years past the relatives of the living have carried the physical memory of this world with them into that unknown beyond, and yet they never made it known to us till just now! The idea 184 IDEOLOGY. is preposterous. Indeed, it is not now known ; the advent of this form of mediumship discovers a non¬ descript ghost, and then through a medium’s brain to sees and hears what name it shall take, and how it shall gratify “my medium”! Humanity will never invest in a fraud so barefaced as this! It settles nothing in regard to the future of the race. “Faith” in mystical phenomena settles nothing. It is simply the motive-power by which this human movement is carried on; and all the nervous and mental phenom¬ ena are induced by laws that inhere in the human organism. But this monstrous epidemic, convicted and floored by its own conduct, and pierced by the arrows of truth , now turns upon us, appalled with its defeat, and mutters, “Well, what then?” Convicted of murder and suicide, and doomed, all the answer we get is, “ What then ? ” In such a con¬ fusion of judgment we see the delusion, the deception, the fraud, in this attempt to pry into the secrets of the grave. The criminal, summoned to answer for the murder he has committed, admits his guilt, and then turns his eye upon the court and exclaims, “What then ?” Let it be borne in mind, this medium-mania admits that “Hattie A. Eager was murdered by spirits." This is not my theory ; it is of the human that I speak. Mediums are human beings. The epidemic by which they become bewitched is a human movement from first to last. But no mathematical problem was ever more clearly demonstrated than the psychological, “spiritual ” conclusion, that if the mediumistic hypothe¬ sis is true, the suicide of this young lady and the other cases of murder and suicide that I have described were planned and perpetrated “under the control of guardian WHAT THEN ? 185 spirits.” All mediums, like Hattie, have a good deal to say about their “guardian spirits,” “spirit guides,” and “bands of spirits.” Mediums advertise in the “spiritual papers” to this effect, and to send slips of paper, for a fee, which have been “magnetized” by a “band of spirits,” for the cure of sick people. And no medium was ever known in Boston that was estimated so highly in this regard as Hattie A. Eager was, from the showing of A. E. Newton, editor of the New England Spiritualist , who says, “ Hosts of the angelic world” and “guardian spirits constantly gathered around that medium by day and night.” And all the five months during which they were “predicting her death,”—not her suicide, but her death, — all that “heavenly host ” knew how her death was to be brought about. For five months those “angelic guardians” of Hattie’s were “ predicting ” her death, and they pre¬ dicted it at the tea-table, after she had secured the poison in her room, where she in a few moments after swallowed it, and died a most distressing and horrible death. If you say that she must have been crazed to do as she did, I reply it was her own ideas of “ spirit control ” by which she became so bewildered. The in¬ visibles are know-nothings of us, and we know nothing of them. Hence all persons “entranced” are more or less hallucinated and “crazed;” and no suicide or murder was ever longer deliberated or more designedly planned and determined upon than this one of Miss Eager. “ What then ? ” In this behalf, modern mediumship is worse than ancient witchcraft; for, while thousands were un¬ justly reputed as “witches,” and on this account were cruelly put to death, the bewitched did not commit IDEOLOGY. 186 suicide, or murder one another. No young man, only twenty-two years of age, in ancient witchcraft, was ever known to shoot the young girl of fifteen whom he had just married, and then blow out his own brains by her side. Among the vast numbers victimized by that delusion of former ages, no one of the most deluded ever committed self-murder, or was murdered by one of the “imps” by which they believed themselves “controlled.” We know that both the ancient and the modern forms of what has been called “ spirit con¬ trol ” have originated from one and the same germ, — that is, “faith in the unknown.” All in both these epidemics has come from “faith and fear.” Moreover, it is susceptible of demonstration that if we may take the Bible and philology for our authority, it can be easily shown that witchcraft, Christianity, and modern mediumship all originate from one and the same germ , as I have elsewhere stated, —the Hebrew term, me- chash-shai-phah , “to bewitch;” from the root, ka-saph , “to seduce, turn away, deceive, bewitch.” And this term, with the corresponding word kashafa , in Arabic, is used to signify “commerce with God,”-or “commerce with the dead, or with devils ” (see Dr. Adam Clarke’s Commentary on Ex. xxii. 18). Hence, humanity has always protested, as it will henceforth more and more protest, against all efforts to seek “ commerce with any and all nondescript invisibilities.” No matter by what name the epidemic may be called, it is witchcraft, and results in mischief to the human race. Credulity, faith, and fear are human; and, these emotions excited, the results here described follow, and we are under no necessity of attributing them to those now in their graves. Hence, if we admit the existence of nonde- WHAT THEN ? 187 script intelligences that do not belong to this world, mediumship between us and them is uncalled for either by science or the highest good of the race. All hob¬ goblins are utterly unable to do anything without human mediums. All ghosts are know-nothings and utter do-nothings, except through human credulity and fear. Hence, we know of no mischief, no crime, no murder, which is not traceable to human weakness, fear, and credulity. Suicide. —Murder is horrible enough under ordi¬ nary circumstances, and when these sad events occur they become more sad and distressing still when we are asked to believe that such crimes are committed by our “guardian angels,”—our relatives long since laid in their graves. But if it be considered the greatest of crimes known to human legislation to murder the physical body, humanity recognizes a greater crime still in the murder of the human mind. A false idea, . that weakens and destroys the human mind and mur¬ ders the body, is by far the greatest of all crimes. This crime includes all others. If by a single blow upon the head of a child it is rendered idiotic, there is no atonement for such a crime, no remedy. But such a blow was inflicted upon the soul of John R. Grieve, who shot his young wife and then himself, in Quincy, Mass. A heavier blow, and more disastrous in its consequences, may fall upon the mind, when from sug¬ gestions outside it evolves a false idea that results in crime. Through the sense of hearing, a false idea was evolved in young Whippo’s mind, which proved far worse for him, and more distressing to his parents, than if he had been instantly killed by a flash of light¬ ning. And in the same way a blow fell upon the soul 188 IDEOLOGY. of Hattie A. Eager. That false idea in respect to mediumship and “guardian spirits ” was a fatal blight , — a death-stroke to her soul, her selfhood, her self-control. She surrendered all the attributes of womanhood to a false idea that annihilated her humanity forever. No more severe blow could fall upon any young lady or any human being. “What then ? ” What of the guardian angels ? — Of no one idea do modern mediums boast so much as that they are con¬ stantly watched over by any number of “guardian angels” and “bands of spirits.” Asleep or awake, at home or abroad, upon the land or on the sea, among friends or foes, the “heavenly hosts,” the “guardian spirits,” are always near. Hattie A. Eager had her thousands of “invisible protectors,” defenders, healers, “guardians;” and which of her “guardian spirits ” it was that for five months planned, predicted , and finally encompassed her horrible death, has never yet been disclosed. The Poughkeepsie seer has boasted of “St. John” as one of his numerous “band of guardian spirits;” Mr. Pardee assured us that among his “guardian spirits” he numbered “Socrates and Jesus, the Nazarene;” Judge John W. Edmonds, of New York, and Dr. George J. Dexter, announce in two large octavo volumes that “Emanuel Swedenborg” and “Lord Bacon” were their “guardian angels;” and how they were “guarded” the case of Miss Eager leaves us no room to doubt. “ What then ? ” “ The World's Medium .” — To understand what kind of a medium that Mrs. Conant was who officiated in the Banner office in Boston for a series of years, I state one fact of which I have personal knowledge. She fabricated “messages” from the dead that were pub- WHAT THEN ? 189 lished in the “ Message Department” of that paper, in order to ascertain some one whom they would fit. An “obituary notice” of the death of a young Miss Graham, Evansville, Ind., was published in the Banner by her own father when his daughter died. She had been a medium, and had promised her father a post¬ mortem message through the Banner of Light. Some three months afterwards this “Mrs. Conant,” who dubbed herself as “a medium for the whole world,” got off a “message” from this same Miss Graham’s obituary which appeared in the “ Message Department ” of the Banner of Light , and her father assured me that that “message” was verbatim the same “obituary notice” that he had himself written for the columns of that paper ! Many years after the death of Theodore Parker, I heard this same Mrs. Conant upon the public platform of Music Hall, Boston, announce herself in these words : — “ This is Theodore Parker that is now addressing you through the lips of his medium ” ! Could audacity and deception go farther ? And when the announcement was made, Dec. 5, 1856, in the city papers of Boston, of Miss Eager’s suicide, the Spirit¬ ualists were in a decided quandary, and at first they denounced that representation as a slander, and cau¬ tioned the public not to believe it. But, finally, some of the mediums had to admit the possibility that Miss Eager had brought about the fulfillment of her own oft-repeated prediction ; and then it was that this “ Mrs. Conant,” Mr. A. E. Newton, and John M. Spear set themselves to uttering apologies for the murder com¬ mitted by Miss Eager’s guardian spirits. “The spirits 190 IDEOLOGY. had been mistaken in their messages ” about matters and things made through John M. Spear, and Mr. Newton accounts for their “mistakes” by supposing that “the spirits were not acquainted with all the facts in the case.” Probably not. Here is what he says about it: — “ And as to the seemingly too lavish tribute expressed through the mediumship of Mr. Spear, — this was evidently dictated by some affectionate mind unacquainted with the clouds which had darkened the pathway of their object. It is not improbable that Mr. S.’s spirit-daughter (Mrs. But¬ ler), who, we understand, was a personal friend of Miss E., was the author of those kindly sentiments.” Yes, Mr. Newton: “the spirits were unacquainted with the facts.” That is the true state of the case. Hattie A. Eager’s “guardian spirits” did not know that that misguided, deluded girl “ committed suicide u,nder spirit influence, Nov . 23, 1856. Age 22.” And here I ask the reader to say how such mon¬ strous absurdities are to be accounted for, except upon the theory of mental epidemics, explained in these pages ? And in this mania that commits these mur¬ ders and suicides, uncounted thousands are this day involved. They have abandoned soul and body to the “ control ” of this idea of “ guardian spirits ; ” and when we point out these falsehoods, contradictions, insanities, murders, and suicides, they turn upon us with “Wbfat then ? ” Even “murder committed by a spirit ” seems to be considered by Spiritualists as a very light affair. Notice with what sheer nonchalance they speak of this horrible death of one of their most popular mediums. “We admit that Miss Eager was murdered by spirits, what then ? ” WHAT THEN ? 191 Why, it is murder, that is all. A young lady — refined, beautiful, truthful, and good — murdered by the “spirits”! Yes, murdered! The “spirits” put her into the trance, rendered her “unconscious,” com¬ pelled her to predict her own death, and then, to verify the spirits’ predictions, they compelled her to swallow an enormous quantity of poison while she was under the spell they had fixed upon her; she died in a few hours after. She was a “ highly susceptible medium,” and “under spirit influence” from first to last. We were called upon to believe that Miss Eager was truly “inspired,” and we admit that she was so as much as any medium ever was, and merely by her own views and her own ideas of “spirits,” as others are. These mediums, before and after Miss E.’s death, assured us that she, being a good lady, had good “guardian angels,” who “watched over her all the time for her good.” And now we find that, while in an “uncon¬ scious trance,” induced by those spirits, she caused her own death. When her suicide became fully known, it changed the character of all the “spirit messages ” at once, and especially what purported to come from the suicide herself. We were told that Hattie’s spirit had “taken a different view of her predicted death,” and I will now quote from Mr. Newton, in the Nezv England Spiritualist , enough to show how utterly disqualified the victims of this mania were to estimate the logic of events in that demonstration that should have annihil¬ ated that delusion from the face of the earth forever! And here is the proof of the “ confusion worse con¬ founded : ” — 192 IDEOLOGY. “ In the evening the spirit of Dr. Fisher spoke through Mrs. Conant in reference to the death of Miss Hattie Eager. The purport of the discourse was, that her death was a sui¬ cide ; that circumstances had depressed her spirit, and, being a medium very susceptible to spirits’ influence, this low state of her spirit gave entrance to evil spirits, and they assisted her to commit this deed.” — JV. E. Spiritualist , Dec. 27, 1856. What nonsense, what infatuation, is all this twaddle about what “the spirit of Dr. Fisher” said! What were all Miss Eager’s own “guardian spirits ” about while the “evil spirits” were planning and predicting her murder for five months ? And what a miserable get-off we have here! Look at it: Dr. Fisher, or Dr. Fowler, or Dr. Hunter, Dr. Gunner, or any other doctor you please. There is no proof that it was a departed spirit who spoke through Mrs. Conant, and, if it was a spirit, there is no proof that it was Doctor Fisher. “Dr. Fisher” says “Hattie’s death was a suicide” ! Indeed, Dr. Fisher; but pray why did not Dr. Fisher tell us of something of much more importance than the repetition of the discovery which was made by no medium nor ghost ? And, while the surgeons were making that autopsy cadaveris in her chamber, the mediums and their “spirits,” and “Miss E.’s spirit” among the rest, were in full blast in the parlor below getting off “ beautiful messages of the summer land,” and Hattie’s glorious exit and entrance into those bliss¬ ful abodes ! No medium or ghost had one word to say about suicide until it was found out by mortals ! And now, two months after the death, a “spirit,” purporting to be Dr. Fisher, announces that poor Hattie’s death was a sucide. Marvellous discovery ! WHAT THEN ? 193 “ A suicide ” ? And how could Hattie commit sui¬ cide, if, as the “spirits” have told us, she was uncon¬ scious, and acted under spirit agency ? That is the question. Let Dr. Fisher answer that question the next time he speaks through any medium. “Circumstances had depressed Hattie’s spirit.” But, even admitting that she was depressed, the “spirits” in question are not benefited by the admission. They predicted her death five months before this depression occurred. And hence, sure as that the “spirits” had any agency at all over Hattie, it is proved that they contemplated her death, and planned it, months before it occurred; they designed it, and spoke of it long be¬ fore she was depressed, and told of it to show mortals how reliable the “spirits” were in predicting events before they came to pass. The “spirits” wished to astonish mortals, so they predicted Hattie’s death, and then killed her to verify their prediction. “Depressed Hattie’s spirits”? Circumstances, the “spirits” say, depressed Hattie’s spirit. But how could circumstances depress a soul over whom good spirits have such control as we are told the “ spirits ” had over Hattie A. Eager ? If Hattie was depressed, the “spirits” depressed her; for the “spirits” had entire control over her, and made her what she was. “This low state of her spirit gave entrance to evil spirits, and they assisted her to commit the deed ” ! And here we have this reluctant confession, wrung from mediumship, in regard to “evil spirits,” devils, worse than in ancient witchcraft, —an idea which this mediumship had always ignored previously, as it does to this day. This confession is from the lips of this “Mrs. Conant,” who was for years the presiding oracle 194 IDEOLOGY. in the Banner of Light office, in Boston, — who has personified Theodore Parker, John Pierpont, Dr. Frank¬ lin, and others ; and, during her mediumistic career at that office she was detected again and again in errors such as are but too often uttered by mediums about the dead. The horrid suicide of that young lady she herself predicted, as she herself declared, on the authority of any number of good spirits and guardian angels, so- called, five months before it occurred. Now, look at it. Why did not those good “spirits” make known to Hattie what those evil “spirits ” would do? Why did they not predict the manner of her death ? The man¬ ner of Hattie’s death was as certain to those “spirits” as the fact of its occurrence, which they predicted so frequently for five months. And I call on the “spirits,” I call on the mediums,—the speaking, writing, and test mediums, — to answer these questions : Was not the manner of Hattie’s death known to the “spirits” who predicted it ? Why was no caution uttered by the “good spirits ” when they predicted her death ? Where were Hattie’s guardian angels during those five months, that they never once premonished her against suicide ? CHAPTER XVI. SCIENCE. Aspiration is common to humanity, and is as old as the race, while the Christian idea of prayer is of recent date. It may result in prayer; but it is a mis¬ use of terms to use the words interchangeably, as if they meant one and the same thing. The Christian definition of prayer is a petition addressed to one’s idea of an infinite, invisible personage. And the answer to such a prayer is only when the mind offering it can persuade itself to believe that an infinite per¬ sonal intelligence has done an act that it never would have done but for the “prayer” thus made “in faith.” All this is a matter of faith ; and, in the mind of the Christian thus praying, there is no proof that mere faith is, or ever was, an executive power, outside of the mind by which it is exercised, — none whatever. As faith is the motive-power of prayer, so it is the same power that answers the prayers which are uttered by itself. Aspire, aspiration, from as, or ad (“to,” or “after”), and spiro , “to breathe,” comprehends views, wishes, and hopes that are common to humanity, without the slight¬ est idea of Christianity. Indeed, aspiration, hope, trust, and veneration all come from the filial relation ; and T 95 196 IDEOLOGY. these natural instincts of the human mind are abnor¬ mally crystallized into faith in mysticism and fanati¬ cism. All we know of virtue — goodness, justice, and truth — comes from the relations of life, and is in no sense dependent upon Christianity. Science is classified ideas that recognize all the factors. “ Science is trained and organized common sense.”— Professor Huxley. “Science may be called an extension of the perceptions by the means of reason¬ ing.”— Herbert Spencer. It was of physical science that Professor Tyndall was speaking when he said that, “ Inasmuch as evolution is in its hypothetical stage, the ban of seclusion ought to fall upon this theory.” Christianity would collapse and fall to the ground like the rent balloon were its leading theologians to assume and maintain a similar position in regard to all that is merely hypothetical in that theory of the unknown. Indeed, take all that we know to be human , all human ideas, from “modern Spiritualism” and Christianity, and nothing whatever would be left! But since physi¬ cal science made its “new departure,” a few years since, in substituting experiment for theory, no mere hypothetical law in the order of nature can be admitted to the sum total of knowledge, till it has been proved by actual experiment. A law thus proved accounts for all the phenomena, and thus it is that science becomes an authority from which there can be no appeal. And when the immortal Faraday declared that the conservation and the correlation of all forms of force was the greatest discovery in physical science which the human mind had the capacity for making, it was not known to him that in America one human mind had made a discovery in mental science, in regard to SCIENCE. I 9 7 selfhood , self-control , and self-involution and evolution , that should rank, perhaps, with any made in physical science. And, as psychology should certainly come within the range of theological studies, it may not be thought marvellous, perhaps, that a “revival minister,” after having witnessed all the nervous and mental phenomena peculiar to “religious revivals,” should, in 1836, have hit upon the truly scientific method of experiment , and determined this law of self-induction as supreme in the human mind. All phenomena alleged to have occurred by forms of force or laws regarding which mankind are wholly in the dark are mystical\ because we do not know the laws by which they are evolved. Hence, they are not so much to science as the fall of a meteor from the heavens. Christianity and modern mediumship are both alike based upon faith in this class of phenomena. This faith is defined in Heb. xi. 1. It is the “evi¬ dence” that each mind creates for itself “of things unseen.” And hence it is that no Christian, no Spirit¬ ualist, under the control of this self-induced faith, can believe in the law of self-induction. Always and every¬ where, as the mind is more or less under the control of faith in the unknown, it ignores science and faith in humanity; and this is the reason why, as Professor Tyndall says, the “waves of science beat in vain” against the “spell” by which this faith, in exciting this law of self-induction, thus victimizes the human mind. How powerful this “ spell,” — this same “ Chris¬ tian faith,” — often becomes is shown in the cases of little children who have been killed by Christian parents in America : one by Freeman and his wife, in Pocasset, Mass.; three by Hemmell, a German, in Chicopee, 198 IDEOLOGY. Mass. ; and one by Mrs. E. Deering, September 30, 1879, Erie, Pa. These parents, whose hands are now dripping with the blood of their murdered children, were not insane; they were each of them good Chris¬ tians, and as pious as the Pope, or any bishop, or any Christian now living. Yet these parents, when lifting their weapons of death in the act of murder, had “faith,” even “the faith of Abraham in God;” but, plainly enough, they had no faith in humanity s relig¬ ion! And did not Jesus ignore faith in humanity when he commanded his followers to hate husband, wife, parent, child, brother, sister, and one’s own life, also ? And do not Spiritualists ignore science and humanity when they abandon their own selfhood to the control of their faith in a nondescript invisibility ? Thus, minds under the supreme control of faith in mystical phe¬ nomena withhold their assent to the maxim of Des¬ cartes, who says, “Give unqualified assent to no propo¬ sitions but those the truth of which is so clear and distinct that they cannot be doubted.” I have a word only in regard to the statement of Carlyle, quoted by Professor Tyndall, “that the human soul has claims and yearnings which physical science cannot satisfy.” To this I reply: — 1. For all the normal and hygienic wants of human¬ ity the supply is always at hand. All essential is instinctive , and no knowledge absolutely beyond our sphere can be necessary for man’s highest good. 2. The “yearnings” referred to by Carlyle are fac¬ titious, and they are created by dogmatism, by super¬ stitious appeals made to human credulity , ignorance , and fear! And nothing more is required of physical science than to show, as it has done effectually, that SCIENCE. I 99 all such fear and “yearnings” are unnecessary, and result in no permanent good. 3. Modern Spiritualism and Christianity heal no wounds which these isms of the unknown have not inflicted upon the human mind. The invisible nonde¬ scripts know nothing of us, except what they are able to learn by contact with human “mediums.” And what of a nondescript deity that saves us from no evil that his omniscience had not already got us into ? Jesus declared of himself, truly, when he told his followers that he had no power to work miracles except that with which he was invested by their “faith.” And in Hebrews xi. 6, a similar statement is made of the Christian God. “ It is not true that “ prayer belongs to the child¬ hood of the race ; ” nor is it true that it belongs “ more to mature manhood.” To mature manhood it apper¬ tains to understand more of the laws of Nature and the constitution of things, and to find our highest aspirations gratified in their harmonious fulfillment, while we can easily understand how it is in respect to prayer. Psychological experiment has demonstrated that “saving faith ” is no power beyond the human organism in which it is exercised ; that, when sensational appeals are made to credulity and wonder , it excites the law of self-induction, which is the greatest power, purely men¬ tal, known to the human mind. Relief comes to the human mind from hygiene and psychology that physical science may not be competent to secure. And “faith” in mystical phenomena and all forms of superstition will disappear just as soon as theologians find out the scope of credulity and “faith.” 200 IDEOLOGY. And all isms of the unknown would be wiped out from the face of our planet to-day, were a knowledge of psychology as common as the Sunday-School lessons taught to the children. CATALOGUE OF liberal books a PUBLISHED AND FOR SALE BY JOSIAH P. MENDUM. Sent post paid to any part of the United States and Canada. BOSTON : PUBLISHED BY J. P. MENDUM. 1885 . Ill f§0$i0! §II00ti|lt0l The Pioneer Reform Journal of the United States, Is Published every Wednesday at the Paine Memorial Building , Boston, Mass., BY J 08 IAH P. MENDUM. EDITED BY HORACE SEAVER. PRICE, $3.00 per annum. Single copies, Eight cents. Specimen Copies sent on receipt of a Two-cent stamp to pay postage. 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P. mendtjm’s publications. PAINE. Complete Works of Thomas Paine, —Secretary of the Committee of Foreign Affairs in the American Revolution. Consisting of his Political, Theological, and Miscellaneous Writings ; to which is added a brief Sketch of his Life. 3 vols. 8vo, cloth. Price, $ 7 . 00 . I 3 P This is the only complete edition of Paine’s Works published. Paine’s Political Writings, —To which is prefixed a brief Sketch of the Author’s Life, with additions. 2 vols. Price, cloth, $ 5 . 00 . Paine’s Theological and Miscellaneous Writings. 8vo edition. This edition contains the Last Will and Testa¬ ment of Thomas Paine, wherein he disposes of his real and personal property, amounting to some thousands of dollars—which completely disproves those pious stories respecting Paine’s poverty and destitution in his last hours. Price, cloth, $ 2 . 50 . Paine’s Rights Of Man, —New edition. Being an answer to Mr. Burke’s attack upon the French Revolution. 8vo, Price, cloth, $ 1 . 00 . Paine’s Common Sense and Crisis. —[GIT Revolutionary pamphlets addressed to the inhabitants of America.— 4 CATALOGUE OF STANDARD BOOKS. “Common Sense” was the principal incentive to the Decla- iation of Independence. Price, cloth, $1.00. Life Of Thomas Paine. By Gilbert Vale, Esq. Au¬ thor of “ Common Sense,” “Rights of Man,” “Age of Reason,” etc., with Critical and Explanatory Observa¬ tions on his Writings. Price, cloth, $1.00. Paine’s Age of Reason. Examination of the Prophe¬ cies, Essay on Dreams, etc. A very handsome edi¬ tion. Price, cloth, 75 cents Paine’s Age of Reason; being an Investigation of True and Fabulous Theology. Price, cloth, 45 cents ; paper, 20 cents, or six for $1.00. Paine’s Common Sense. A Revolutionary pamphlet, ad¬ dressed to the inhabitants of America in 1776. To which is added a brief Sketch of the Author’s Life. Price, 15c. Paine’s Crisis. The 16 numbers of the “Crisis” which were ordered by Washington to be read to the American Army. Price, cloth, $1.00. VOLNEY. Volney’s Ruins ; or, Meditation on the Revolutions of Em¬ pires. Translated under the immediate inspection of the Author, from the corrected Paris Edition, with his Notes and Illustrations. To which is added, The Law of Na¬ ture, and a short Biographical Notice, by Count Daru.— Price, cloth, $1.00. Volney’s New Researches in Ancient History; Em¬ bracing an examination of the history of the Jews until the captivity of Babylon, showing the origin of the Mosaic Legends, concerning the Creation, Fall of Man, Flood, and Confusion of Languages. Price, cloth, $1.50. VOLTAIRE. The Philosophical Dictionary of Voltaire. Fifteenth American Edition. Two Volumes in one ; containing 876 large octavo pages, with two elegant steel engravings. CATALOGUE OF STANDARD BOOKS. 5 Price, cloth, $5.00. This is the largest and most correct edition in the English language, having, besides the whole ot the London editions, several articles from a manuscript translated several years since by a friend of Voltaire, and others translated immediately from the French edition. The London edition sells at from $10.00 to $10.00, and does not contain near as much as this American edition. The Ignorant Philosopher ; and Adventures of Pythago¬ ras in India.. By M. de Voltaire. Price 10 cents. Jehovah Unveiled ; or, The Character of the Jewish Deity Delineated. A new and valuable book. Price, 35 cents. TAYLOR. The Syntagma. By Rev. Robert Taylor, author of “The Diegesis,” “ Devil’s Pulpit,” “Astro-Theological Sermons,” &c. The Syntagma of the Evidences of the Christian Religion, being a vindication of the Manifesto of the Christian Evidence Society, against the assaults of the Christian Instruction Society. Price, cloth, $1.00. The Die gesis; being a Discovery of the Origin, Evidences, and early History of Christianity, never yet before or else¬ where so full} 7 and faithfully set forth. By Rev. Robert Taylor. This work was writte i by Mr. Taylor while serving a term in Oakham (Eng. ail, where lie was im¬ prisoned for blasphemy. It contains 440 pages, octavo, and is considered unanswerable as to arguments or facts. Price, cloth, $2.00. The Devil’s Pulpit. By Robert Taylor ; with a sketch of the Author’s life, containing sermons on the following subjects: — The Star of Bethlehem, John the Baptist, Raising the Devil! The Unjust Judge, Virgo Paritura, St. Peter, Judas Iscariot Vindicated, St. Thomas, St. James, and St. John, the Sons of Thunder, the Crucifixion of Christ, the Cup of Salvation, Lectures on Free Masonry, The Holy Ghost, St. Philip, St. Matthew, The Redeemer. Price, cloth, $1.50. Astro-Theological Lectures. By Rev. Robert Taylor ; containing: the following Lectures : Belief not the Safe G CATALOGUE OF STANDARD BOOKS. Side, the Resurrection of Lazarus, The Unjust Steward, The Devil, The Rich Man and Lazarus, The Day of Temp¬ tation in the Wilderness, Aliab, or the Lying Spirit, the Fall of Man, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Melchisedec, The Lord, Moses, The Twelve Patriarchs, Who is the Lord ? Exodus, Aaron, Miriam. Price, cloth, $1.50. DTIOLBACH. The System of Nature ; or, Laws of the Moral and Physi¬ cal World. By Baron D’Holbach, author of “Good Sense,” &c. A new and improved edition, with Notes by Diderot. Translated from the French byH. D. Robinson. Two volumes in one. Price, cloth, $2.00. The Letters to Eugenia ; or, A preservative Against Reli¬ gious Prejudice. By Baron D’Holbach, author of “ The System of Nature,” &c. Translated from the French by Anthony C. Middleton, M. D. Price cloth, $1.00. Good Sense. Bv Baron D’Holbach. A new edition of this truly valuable book. Friends who want “Good Sense,” (and who does not ?) can have a supply sent by mail by forwarding their orders. Price, cloth, $1.00. COOPER. Cooper’s Lectures ou the Soul — In which the doctrine of Immortality is religiously and philosophically considered. This is a work of vast importance to those who look on this life as only a state of probation. Price, cloth, 50 cts. The InfldePs or Inquirer’s Text-hook ; being the sub¬ stance of thirteen Lectures on the Bible, by Robert Cooper. Price, cloth, $1.00. Autobiography of Robert Cooper. Price, 15 cents. MISCELLANEOUS. The Doctrine of Inspiration. “ A book written by an Or¬ thodox Clergyman, which decidedly denies the doctrine of Scriptural Infallibility,” being an Inquiry concerning the CATALOGUE OF STANDARD BOOKS. 7 Infallibility, Inspiration, and Authority of Holy Writ. By the Rev. John Macnaught, M. A., Incumbent of St. Chiysostom’s Church, Everton, Liverpool, (Eng.) Price, cloth, $1.25. History of the Council of Nice, A. D. 325, with a Life of Constantine the Great, and a general exhibition of the Christian religion in the days of the early Fathers. By Dean Dudley. Price, full cloth, $1.00; paper, 50 cents. History of Moses, Aaron, Joshua, and others, deduced from a Review of the Bible. Also, Remarks on the Mor¬ als of the Old and New Testament, and some of the An¬ cient Philosophers. By J. M. Dorsey. Price, cloth, 75c. Religious Worship. The origin of all Religious Worship, translated from the French of Dupuis, containing a de¬ scription of the Zodiac of Denderah. Price, cloth, $2.00. Reason, the only Oracle of Man ; or, A Compendious S 3 *stem of Natural Religion. By Col. Ethan Allen.— Price, cloth, 50 cents. A Legacy to the Friends of Free Discussion ; being a Review of the Principles, Historical Facts and Personages of the Books known as the Old and New Testaments ; with Remarks on the Morality of Nature. By Benjamin Offen, formerly Lecturer of the Society of Moral Philanthropists, at Tammany Hall, New York. Price, cloth, $1.00. The Bible of Rational Mind and Religion, Rational Re¬ ligion and Morals ; presenting an Analysis of the Func¬ tions of Mind, under the operations and directions of Rea¬ son ; the first, eliciting the necessary, rational, and only religion, Monotheism, or the Religion of Principles ; the second, the Obvious Duties and Precautions of Society.— By Thomas J. Vaiden, M. D., of St. Louis, (Mo.) This is a large octavo, containing over 1000 pages. Price, cloth, $2.00. Helvetius $ or, The true meaning of the System of Nature. Translated from the French. Price, cloth, 20 cents. Divine and Moral Works of Plato. Translated from the Original Greek; with introductory Dissertations and 8 CATALOGUE OF STANDARD BOOKS. Notes. First American from the Sixth London edition, carefully revised and corrected. Price, cloth, $2.50. Sociology ; or, The Scientific Reconstruction of Society, Government, and Property upon the principles of the equality, the perpetuity, and the individuality of the pri¬ vate ownership of Life, Person, Government, Homestead, and the whole product of Labor. By L. Masquerier.— Price, cloth, $1.00. Half-hours with some Ancient and Modern celebrated Freethinkers; Thomas Hobbs, Lord Bolingbroke, Con- dorcet, Spinoza, Anthony Collins, Des Cartes, M. de Vol¬ taire, John ’Poland, Compt de Volney, Charles Blount, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Claude Arian Helvetius, Francis Wright Darusmont, Zeno, Epicuras, Mathew Tindal, Da¬ vid Hume, Dr. Thomas Burnet, Thomas Paine, Baptiste de Mirabaud, Baron de Holbach, Robert Taylor, Joseph Barker. By k 4 Iconoclast,” Collins, and Watts. Price, cloth, 75 cents. Talleyrand’s Letter to Pope Pius VII. Translated from the French into Portuguese by D. J. Monteiro, and from Portuguese into English by PI. D. Robinson ; with a Me¬ moir of the Author. Price, 25 cents. Origin and development of Religious Ideas and Beliefs, as manifested in History, and seen by Reason. By Mor¬ ris PIinstein. Price, cloth, $1.00. The Clergy a source of danger to the American Repub¬ lic. By W. F. Jamieson. Price, cloth, $1.75, postage paid. Testimonials to Thomas Paine, Author of “Common Sense,” “The Crisis,” “Rights of Man,” “English Sys¬ tem of Finance,” “Age of Reason,” &c. Compiled by Joseph N. Moreau. l J rice, 15 cents. A Feiv Hays in Athens. By Frances Wright. Embel¬ lished with the portrait of Epicurus, the Greek Philoso¬ pher, and the author. Price, cloth, 75 cents. Hume’s Essays. Essays and Treatises on various subjects, by David Hume, Esq., with a brief Sketch of the Author’s Life and Writings, to which are added Dialogues concern¬ ing Natural Religion. Price, cloth, $1.50. catalogue op 1 standard books. 9 The Festival of Ashtaroth. A Tale of Palestine, founded on the destruction of the Moabites by the Jews. By A. C. Middleton. Price, 10 cents. Kneeland’s National Hymns. Price, 35 cents. The Rainbow Creed. By the author of “ Where are my Horns ?” Price, cloth, $1.50. 66 Our Ships at Sea.” A Poem describing the vivid imagi¬ nation of youth, its promises, hopes, visions, and final re¬ alities in old age. By Miss Elizabeth Mendum. In handsome pamphlet form. Price, 10 cents. Man’s Nature and Development. By Henry George Atkinson, F. G. S., and Harriet Martineau. Very scarce. Price, full gilt, $1.50. A Good Word for the Devil. Bible Musings, by an Infi¬ del ; with a frontispiece of the Serpent, Tree of Life, and Adam and Eve, copied from a Babylonian Cylinder, and a picture of our first parents in the act of partaking of the “forbidden fruit.” Copied from the Old New England Primer of 1777. By Simeon Palmer, M. D. Price, 50c. Defense Of Atheism. This very interesting Lecture, by Mrs. E. L. Rose, which was delivered in Boston some twenty years ago, but has recently been printed in the In¬ vestigator, now issued in pamphlet form. Price 10 cents. J. E. Remsburg’s Vindication of Paine. An admirable little work.—[Hon. T. B. Wakeman.] A worthy tribute to a worthy man.—[Prof. Denton.] A generous effort to vindicate a great and good man.—[James Parton.]— Price, cloth, 75 cents ; paper, 50 cents. The Yahoo and Great Dragon cast out ; in one volume. Now if you want to laugh, send and get a copy. Price, cloth, $1.35. An Expose of the cause of Intemperate Drinking. By Judge Thomas IIerttell. Price, 15 cents. Rights of Married Women to hold Property. Price, 25c. “ Antichrist.” The Story of Jesus Christ; his Birth, Life, Trial, Execution, &c. By “Antichrist.” Price, cloth, $2.00. 10 LIBERAL PAMPHLETS. Queen Mab, with Notes. By Percy B. Shelley. Price, cloth, 50 cents. Socialism and Utilitarianism. By John Stuart Mill. Price, cloth, $1.25. LIBERAL PAMPHLETS. The Logic of Death; or, Why should the Unbeliever or Ath¬ eist fear to die ? By G-. Jacob Holyoake. Price, 10 cents. Where are my Horns? A new edition of this very interest¬ ing pamphlet. Price, 20 cents. The Beginnings of Things; or, Science vs. Theology. Prof. Tyndall’s great Inaugural Speech before the British Asso¬ ciation for the Advancement of Science. Price, 25 cents. Self-Contradictions of the Bible; 144 propositions proved affirmatively and negatively from Scripture, without com¬ ment. Price, 15 cents. Opinions of Celebrated Men on True and False Religion. Price. 10 cents. Letters to the Catholic Bishop of Boston, proving that the Ro¬ man Catholic Religion is opposed to a Republican Govern¬ ment. By an Independent Irishman. Price, 15 cents. Man's True Saviours. A Discourse delivered in Music Hall, Boston, by William Denton. Price, 10 cents. Sermon from Shakspeare’s Text , delivered in Music Hall, Boston, by William Denton. Price, 10 cents. Profession of Faith of a Savoyard Vicar. By S. J. Rosseau. Price, 10 cents. Sectarian Influence in Schools , and on the Sabbath and Sun¬ day Mail Question. By J. A. Stewart. Price, 15 cents. Concessions of Christians in Favor of Infidelity. Price, 10c. Christianity no Finality; or, Spiritualism Superior to Chris¬ tianity. By William Denton.. Price, 10 cents. Equality; or, a History of Lithconia. Price, 15 cents. Codology. Price, 2 cents. LIST OF FREE-THOUGHT AND MISCELLANEOUS WORKS, FOR SALE AT THE INVESTIGATOR OFFICE. Abstract of Colenso on the Pentateuch. Price, 25 cents. Advancement of Science. The Inaugural Address of Prof. John Tyndall delivered before the British Associa¬ tion for the Advancement of Science. With Portrait and Biographical sketch. Also containing opinions of Prof. H. Helmholtz and articles of Prof. Tyndall and Sir Henry Thompson on prayer. Price, cloth, 50 cents. Inaugural Address alone in paper, 15 cents. Age of Reason. By Thomas Paine. Examination of the Prophecies, Essay on Dreams, &c. Price, cloth, 75 cents. American Addresses. IIuxeley. Price, cloth, $1.25. Analysis Of Religious Relief. An examination of the Creeds, Rites, and Sacred Writings of the World. By Viscount Amberley, son of the late Lord John Russell, twice Premier of England. Complete from the London edition. 745 pages, 8vo. In cloth, $3.00 ; leather, $4.00 ; morocco, gilt edges, $4.50. Anonymous Hypothesis of Creation. A Brief Review of the so-called Mosaic Account. By James J. Furniss. Price, cloth, $2.50. Apples of Gold. By Miss Susan H. Wixon. A Story Book for Boys and Girls. New edition with portrait of the Author. Price, cloth, $1.25. Apochryphal New Testament. Being all the Gospels, Epistles, and other pieces now extant, attributed in the first four centuries to Jesus Christ, his Apostles, and their 12 FREE-THOUGHT MISCELLANEOUS WORKS. companions, 4 and not included in the New Testament by its compilers. Price, doth, $1.25. “ Anti-Christ.” The Story of Jesus Christ; his Birth, Life, Trial, Execution, &c. Price, cloth, $2.00. Antiquity and Duration of the World. By the learned Dr. G. Toulmin. Price, 25 cents. Ancient Man in America. By Frederick Larkin, M. D. Price, cloth, $1.50. Anti-Prohibition. By W. S. Bell. Price, 5 cents. An Historical Sketch of Sacerdotal Celibacy in the Christian Church. By Henry C. Lea. Second edition, enlarged. 8vo. $4.50. This subject has recently been treated with very great learning, and with admirable im¬ partiality by an American author, Mr. Henry C. Lea, in his “ History of Sacerdotal Celibacy,” which is certainly one of the most valuable works that America has pro¬ duced. Since the great history of Dean Milman, I know no work in English which has thrown more light on the moral condition of the Middle Ages, and none which is more fitted to dispel the gross illusions concerning that period which Positive writers and writers of a certain eccle¬ siastical school have conspired to sustain.— W. E. H. Lecky, in “ History of European Morals.” Answers to Christian Questions and Arguments. By D. M. Bennett. Price, 25 cents. ' • Animals and Plants under Domestication. Darwin. 2 vols., cloth, $5.00. Aspirations Of the World; A Chain of Opals. Child, (Lydia Maria.) Price, cloth, $1.25. Astronomy and Worship of the Ancients. By Gilbert Vale. Price, 25 cents. Autobiography of Robert Cooper. Price, 15 cents. Autobiography of Harriet Martineau. Edited by Maria Weston Chapman. Two large volumes; price, $6.00. These volumes cannot fail to absorb the attention of the Reformer and Philanthropist when once begun. if* • m? /)< ■ • a — +* 0^7 • / xsv(-4/-2^~0 i&y^L v^~ *^jzty±yi» >ifc t-Mfc -fa <^L /<- ^S-"f I JO^~ t^. <2^er-sa--^ — // -rrrz?*?. k± \^X A <^/ / 1 vi Vt ^ "l- / - lAJs^ ^ ^ a* v