LECTURE II.

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN :

IN

In my introductory lecture I simply stated the position that the doctrine of the spirit-manifestations sustains in relation to the public mind, as regards both its credulity and skepticism. I argued the sincerity and honesty of its mediums, and the respectability and number of its advocates. I labored to bring before you distinctly the talents and ability embarked in its defense, and the rapidity and force with which it was spreading in the United States; that it had even crossed the Atlantic, and commenced its career in the Eastern world. This evening I will turn your attention to a more interesting department of my subject. We will now enter on an exposition of its wonderful phenomena.

It will be perceived at a glance that there are but TWO GRAND POINTS to be considered. The FIRST is, INVOLUNTARY MOTION-such as rapping, writing, and moving of furniture. And the SECOND is, the INTELLIGENCE connected with these manifestations. In this lecture I shall confine myself to INVOLUntaRY MOTION, in its various features.

The whole subject of the spirit-rappings and spirit

writings, as exhibited through mediums, can be rationally accounted for by a certain condition of the nervous systems of such individuals. Indeed, it is a condition to which persons are more or less liable to be brought, according to the degree of their nervous impressibility. It can be brought about by persevering passivity, and perfected by habit. Hence, as a general thing, mediums at first can never produce any manifestations only by forming a circle and sitting passively, or by assuming an entirely passive condition of their voluntary powers when alone. Indeed, these manifestations are produced by allowing the involuntary powers of the mind in the back brain to take the place and execute the office of the voluntary powers of the mind in the front brain, and through the nervous and muscular force to give motion to the medium's foot, or any part of the body-or to move his hand to write, and over which he has, at that instant, no more voluntary control than any other person in the room. It is also, at the instant of his passivity, entirely cataleptic and destitute of feeling. But the moment he exercises his volition, to examine the state of his arm, that instant. the feeling and his power to move it return, because the voluntary and involuntary electro-nervous forces between the two brains are equalized. We see, then, that these manifestations are occasioned by too great a redundancy of electricity congregated upon the involuntary nerves, through passivity of mind, and thus

imparting to them extraordinary nervous force. And this force will be, more or less, in the same ratio that they are thrown out of balance with the voluntary nerves. In this condition, an electro-magnetic discharge from the fingers or toes of the medium may often produce an audible snap, or even sound, by coming in contact with surrounding substances favorable to the propagation of sound, and be heard at considerable distances. And, moreover, the sound will appear to originate in the very spot where it is heard. Or this electro-magnetic force, by endeavoring to equalize itself throughout the nervous system of the medium, may occasion a snapping in the head, as I have witnessed in one case, or a striking together of the joints, that can be heard in an adjoining room, and even appear to be in the room. And while these phenomena are transpiring, that part of the body in which they occur will be entirely destitute of feeling at the very instant that each sound or rap is given. The entire passivity of the voluntary powers of the mind and of the voluntary nerves is the cause of unduly charging the involuntary powers with too great an electro-nervous force, and the result is those singular manifestations that are so confidenly attributed to the agency of spirits. After being thus charged, the voluntary powers have, doubtless, some agency in producing the sounds by a concentrated expectation, thus aiding the involuntary powers to produce an equilib

rium, for there is a sympathetic connection between the two forces.

Hence persons who are in a perfectly cataleptic state, and which is, at the same time, attended with a brilliant clairvoyance, are sometimes capable of producing electro-magnetic sounds from their own involuntary nervous force, so as to be heard at a considerable distance. And being so near a state approaching the dead, and so sympathetically affected en rapport with the dying, that they often receive an impression, not only of the time the person dies, but also that the departed spirit, on its journey to future scenes, appears to, and addresses them. Such was the case with the Seeress of Prevorst, and also with Miss Slaughter, of Virginia, aged only sixteen. Of the Seeress of Prevorst the writer says: "As I had been told by her parents, a year before her father's death, that at the period of her early magnetic state she was able to make herself heard by her friends as they lay in bed at night in the same village, but in other houses by a knocking as is said of the dead, I asked her, in her sleep, whether she was able to do so now, and at what distance? She answered, that she would sometimes do it that to the spirit space was nothing. Some time after this, as we were going to bed-my children and servants being already asleep-we heard a knocking, as if in the air over our heads. There were six knocks, at intervals of half a minute. It was a hol

low, yet clear sound; soft, but distinct. On the following evening, when she was asleep-when we had mentioned the knocking to nobody whatever-she asked me whether she should soon knock to us again? which, as she said it was hurtful to her, I declined."

The wonderful case of Miss Slaughter, and the accuracy with which she stated the death of two of her friends, is reported in the third volume of the Medical Library, published in Philadelphia in 1843. Hers was a disease called catalepsy, attended with most wonderful powers of clairvoyance, which she entirely lost on her recovery. But there is not one person in fifty million who is in a state of perfect catalepsy and at the same time of brilliant clairvoyance.

A case was reported in SILLIMAN'S JOURNAL of a lady who, on looking at the Northern Lights became, by her entranced passivity, so charged that, for three months, she emitted electric sparks from her fingers and toes whenever she came in contact with other substances. Sometimes it could be seen, heard, and felt, both by herself and others. At other times it could. be only heard, but not seen nor felt. When felt, it was annoying, because she was not, at that instant, sufficiently charged to render the parts of her body from whence it escaped insensible, and knowing the origin to be a natural cause, she was not, therefore, a spirit-rapper! The account is as follows:

"On the evening of January 28th, during a some