canine cry. But a writer 12 who has treated upon these strange phenomena, says, that "naturalists who wished and tried to get the affection to experiment upon it, were not affected by it. Those who entered the circle of excitement, whether in an opposing or favoring spirit, became the subjects of nervous spasms, while the calm and tranquil were unaffected. The constant tension of scoffers and opposers to brace up against the influence, brought on the very affliction they dreaded." Similar scenes are frequently witnessed at camp-meetings. The preachers scream and vociferate, and wildly exhort their hearers to strive for "perfect sanctification." After a while some female, whose mind has been intensely excited by the exhortations, goes into a trance. Others follow in rapid succession; and the trances are not confined to those who desire to fall into them. The rude and ungodly, who come to laugh and scoff, are quite as likely to be thus exercised as any. During the Middle Ages, what are termed the mewing and biting manias prevailed in the nunneries of Europe. "In a large convent in France, a nun set to mewing like a cat, when, straightway, other nuns began to mew; and at length all the nuns mewed together, at stated hours, every day. A nun in a German convent fell to biting her companions. Soon all the nuns of the convent fell to biting one another. The news of the infatuation, spread. It passed from convent to convent, throughout the greater part of Germany. It afterwards visited the nunneries of Holland, and at last the nuns had the biting mania even as far as Rome." 13 Those who have read the accounts of the Salem witchcraft, will scarcely need to be told that its prevalence, when once started, is to be accounted for, in the same way. First, a girl was bewitched, then all the children of a family. They would be, at different times, deaf, dumb and blind; sometimes all at once. They would bark like dogs and purr like cats. The infection spread. Hundreds of other children had convulsions, and manifested strange appearances. The prisons were filled with the accused.

12 Samuel Adams, M. D., in an excellent article on "Psycho-Physiology, in American Biblical Repository, for Oct., 1841.

13 Sweetser's Mental Hygiene.

Witches were put to death. There was contagion in the atmosphere; and the social fabric itself seemed on the brink of dissolution. The whole was delusion; and its prevalence was owing to the strange inclination people unconsciously have to imitate. 14

The analogy between the cases cited above and the phenomena occurring in our own times, is readily perceived. In a town in Maine, where the writer resided, a girl had a spasmodic affection of the arms. A pencil was placed in her hands. She wrote out communications, purporting to come from the spirit world. People were excited, and went in crowds to see her. Presently another and another began to have a like affection. They wrote, tipped tables, obtained raps and received responses. They went into trances, and sung, exhorted and prayed. Some of these were disposed from the first to believe in the presence and agency of invisible beings; while others were unbelievers. Both classes were affected alike. A girl who made sport of the affair, went into convulsions immediately upon witnessing the convulsions of one of the trance mediums. Only the thoughtful and unexcited escaped the contagion. So it is generally. The prevalence of the phenomena in particular communities is precisely analogous to the prevalence of suicide in the army in Lyons and London, referred to above; like trances, jerkings and "other bodily exercises" in seasons of religious excitement, and like the mewing and biting of nuns; and it is to be accounted for on the theory of involuntary imitation. The more it is witnessed, talked about and wondered at, the more it will prevail among persons of peculiar nervous organizations. Its first appearance in one of our large cities, we are told, occurred in a family, one of whose members was a mesmeric subject. She was reading the accounts of the "Rochester Knockings; " her nervous system was deranged by the rude experiments of the mesmerizer, and she became a medium at once. The fire kindled, and it spread from house to house. Had it been religious purring or mewing,

15

14 Some very good illustrations of this interesting subject, not quoted above, may be found in Upham's Elements of Mental Science, under the head of "Sympathetic Imitation."

15 Philosophy of Mysterious Agents.

barking or jerking, it would have gone, perhaps, quite as well, and among the same people. The mediums are not imposters; but they are under the influence of a morbid sympathy, and they involuntarily imitate the spasmodic affections which they witness in others.

Is not this the reason of the thing? After endeavoring to look at the subject candidly, exempt from excitement and prejudice, and disposed to accept as facts all the reported phenomena, we can come to no other conclusion than that the whole thing is a widely spread delusion, referrible to the same principles as other delusions, in different communities, in times past; one of those epidemics which always prevail when people either voluntarily or unconsciously surrender themselves to the guidance of other influences than their own sober judgments. In this conclusion, we find we are joined by one 16 at least, who has heretofore taken an active part in the so-called Spiritual movement. He says: "No system of religion, no form of fanaticism, ancient or modern, tampers so directly and to such an extent with the nervous system of its victims as Spiritualism. And as the latter is more intricate, more stubborn and unaccountable to human laws, so it has become a real mania, wide-spread, num. bering its victims by millions."

There is but little difference between the mental condition of a medium and that of an insane person. In the former case, the suspension of the will is temporary, indeed, while in the latter it is confirmed, and the patient is to be restored, if at all, by medical and moral remedies; yet they are both real suspensions of the rightful controlling power of the mind. It is not therefore strange that confirmed insanity is often the unhappy result of Spiritualism. Every time a medium becomes such, he loses something of his self-control, and approaches the condition of a lunatic. We are not surprised when such a statement as the following comes from the highest medical authority: 17" Clearly, Spiritualism is an extensive mental epidemic, which, in extreme cases, has repeatedly terminated in madness. Nearly every asylum throughout the Union bears melancholy evidence of the truth of this 16 La Roy Sunderland. 17 Dr. J. V. C. Smith.

declaration." Nor is it strange that one 18 who has been, if he is not now, a Spiritualist himself, affirms, that “all cases of trance and somnambulism approximate and very often end in real insanity. I have been familiar with this subject," he says, "from the beginning, having witnessed it in the Fox family, and in the family of Dr. Phelps, as also in the different cities throughout the country; and I affirm what I know, when I declare that modern Spiritualism tends to insanity."

Our acquaintance with those who are accounted mediums has been quite extensive, and we have seldom seen one who could be regarded sound in body and in mind. Usually the nervous temperament predominates. The physical system is frail and delicate. They are persons who are easily excited, and who have but little force or manliness of will. Oftener than otherwise they are young and delicate girls, whose cheeks are pale, whose step is languid, except when under excitement, and who need the utmost care to enable them to become healthy adult women. Air and exercise, and a quiet, judicious course of intellectual and moral training are imperatively required to restore the rosy cheek and healthy mind. We need not say how opposed to this is the feverish course of life they now lead, hurrying from circle to circle, and witnessing, and participating in those unhealthy excitements which attend the idea of spiritual intercourse. They must be kept from all such disturbing influences, if they are to have those greatest of earthly blessings, good health and well-balanced minds. Parents should be careful how they expose their children to the contagious influences of this nervous epidemic; remembering, that, if it do not break down their nervous systems, and send them to the mad-house or the grave, it may yet inflict upon them an incalculable amount of physical, mental and moral suffering. And we think it the duty of Christian ministers, not only to point out the inconsistencies, absurdities and contradictions of the so-called Spiritual theory, but to warn those over whom they have an influence, to beware of the physical, mental and moral evils that follow in its train. The only safety consists in letting it alone.

18 La Roy Sunderland.

G. B.

ART. XX.

Conscience, Intellect, Revelation.

THERE is wisdom displayed in all the arrangements of the universe; and when rightly understood all the parts are seen to be created in harmony with, and adapted to, one great plan or purpose. This purpose was formed by the wisdom of God before the morning of creation dawned, and the accordance of any and all creatures and things to this purpose, constitutes the order and harmonies of the universe. In pursuance of this plan, God created the heavens and all the glorious constellations that light up the night-skies, as well as the earth, with its land and sea, and the teeming millions of living creatures that inhabit them. It was according to this plan that the earth was made to bring forth grain, and flowers, and fruit, and every green and growing thing to adorn its surface, and support its animal life. It was the wisdom of the same plan that men should be created in the image of God, and called to the high destiny of unfolding his wondrous powers by developing them more and more into the likeness of God. And it was for the perfecting of this glorious purpose, that Jesus Christ was sent to become "the way, the truth, and the life" to man, when he had corrupted and degraded himself by sin.

Every thing having thus been created for a purpose, the attainment of that purpose constitutes its destiny. If it be a living thing, its life will consist in aspiration towards that destiny-in those movements, under the influence of the appropriate means, which tend to carry it forward towards its destiny. If it be a grain of wheat, for example, its life will consist in those movements that develope and perfect the full grown stalk, blade, and ear; the germ, or image of which mature plant, the grain of wheat contains. In the case of man, who is created in the image of God, life will consist in aspiration towards the glory and perfections of God. Under the appointed means and influences, the divine image will live and grow, tending towards God and its own destiny. But under the action