In mercy let them forbear to treat of such men's deepest moments, which are, alas, beyond their comprehension. But for us who believe in the manifestings of God's providence through men as His instruments, we can only recognise in the glorious course of Garibaldi a providential working, which from its nature could have no human origin, and which marks him as one of the means by which the great ends of human progress are accomplished. A WORD WITH OUR CONTEMPORARIES. on to elicit our THE hostile attitude assumed by the press generally, with regard to the subject of Spiritualism, denotes a degree of ignorance and prejudice, which it is lamentable to find associated with the fourth estate, which in this country has especially earned for itself the proud distinction of uttering on all other topics its opinions boldly, truthfully, and fearlessly. Writing confessedly on a theme with which they are utterly unacquainted, the mass of evidence in connection with which they wholly ignore and dealing fierce denunciations against those who have had the candour to make fair investigations into its mysteries, and the moral courage to row their convictions of the truth of the singular manifestations occurring, and daily and hourly witnessed these writers go blindly in the dark, striking madly at random, and screeching out incoherent invectives, in a manner that is calculated by turns compassion and excite our contempt. The ravings of the Standard (September 7th), of the Daily Telegraph (September 15th), the weakly-directed shafts of ridicule so pointless and so aimless, discharged by "our facetious contemporary, and the nonsense periodically purveyed to the provincial journals by our metropolitan correspondent," when all other provender for paragraphs runs short, are hardly worth a serious reply in these pages. If we allude to them at all, it is only to remind those who are in the habit of having their opinions formed by newspaper authority, that the subject is one on which they are already more likely to be better informed than their “best possible public instructors," and that the means of satisfying themselves as to the truth or falsehood of the question at issue are equally accessible to all. When the "rappings" are made the topic of conversation in every club and coterie in the kingdom; when thousands in the metropolis can attest what they have seen with their own eyes, and heard with their own ears, when but a few nights' experiences have enabled the incredulous listener to add his evidence to that of the convinced, and the exercise of a calm judgment, has assured him that he has neither been deceived by his senses nor duped by the jugglery of impostors, the newspaper reviewer would surely adopt a wiser course if he discreetly refrained from referring to the matter at all, until he had made himself better acquainted with the subject on which he had to write. It is a well-known delusion, familiar to every playhouse manager, that many people believe nothing is easier than acting, and it would be difficult to change their opinion, that directly they enter for the first time between the flats and the footlights, they will instinctively acquire all the ease and experience of the practised performer. In like manner it would seem, that when Spiritualism is mentioned, each one imagines he knows "all about it," and that he can talk as fluently concerning its mysteries as those who have pursued an earnest inquiry with a reverential regard for the truths that became revealed during their unprejudiced investigation. The dogmatical "Pooh, pooh, sir, don't believe it, and won't believe it!" of one class of sceptics, and the dreary attempts at ridicule of another class of scoffers, who look upon the matter as so much literary capital for the manfacture of miserable jokes, would soon be subdued in tone if the public press of this country took at once a creditable and a sensible position in the matter. Until they choose to speak of Spiritualism in a more respectful way, we counsel them for their own sakes to remain silent. It is quite within the experience of the general reader that a newspaper to-day becomes allied with those opinions that it warred against yesterday, and when an absurd onslaught of ridicule and wrath has been going on for some months, it is rather awkward for the belligerents to find themselves under the necessity of laying down their arms and submitting at discretion. Looking back through old files of newspapers and volumes of periodicals, it is curious to notice how the progress of events has falsified many of the confident predictions contained in those pages, and how popular opinion has changed with regard to many things which came in for a similar share of time-serving abuse and hasty condemnation. An editorial retrospect in this way would not be without its lesson. In No. 73 of All the Year Round (September 15th) there is an article called "Fallacies of Faith," in which the writer has attempted to justify the view he took of the subject in his previous paper entitled "Modern Magic." The author stands honourably distinguished from the majority of his literary brethren, by having, at least, endeavoured through personal observation, to learn something about what he had to write upon before giving his conclusions to the world. Admitting there is much that he cannot explain, and more that he fancies he is not allowed to explain, he takes for his ground of disbelief a gratuitous assumption that if certain things occurred, a law of nature has been violated, and that, therefore, "the inference of imposture is inevitable. In other words, he would have us understand that, though witnessing the occurrence of remarkable phenomena, he would rather remain in the belief that it was produced by some inexplicable sleight of hand of some undetected impostor in the room, than entertain the suspicion that he is not thoroughly acquainted with the exact limits of the Almighty's power. Philosophers of this class who arrogate to themselves the possession of a knowledge equal to that of the Great Ruler of the Universe, are the hardest of all to convince, for what they see they will not believe, and what confutes their arguments, they will not allow to overthrow their prejudices. They are staggered for the time by seeing a table rise unsupparted into the air, but the next day you shall meet them as elf-confident as ever, striving to explain away one simple fact by having recourse to suppositions that would involve the existence of invisible machinery and motiveless chicanery, which, under the same circumstances, would be ten thousand times more marvellous and astounding. "What The writer frankly avows his creed when he says, more is done by mediums than what I or any other can do, I believe to be done by trick." What a terrible sentence to rise up against a man ten years hence, when the volume in which it is recorded shall be taken down from the library shelf, and in the face of a more enlightened world be accusingly brought home to him as a proof of how errors, like mankind, are "fearfully and wonderfully made." Henceforth let it be proclaimed on the authority of the author of Fallacies of Faith, that there is no such thing in man as truth and honour; that family circles composed of clear-headed and warm-hearted men and women are constantly employed in cheating themselves or cheating each other; that TRICK is the feature of the nineteenth century, and that its perpetual practice in the civilized society of that period constituted the whole duty of man. We ask any individual possessed of the ordinary faculties of reason whether it be more likely that a belief in a mode of communication, probably old as the universe itself, which within ten years has spread through Europe, Asia, Africa, America, and Australia, bringing by experimental tests conviction to millions of the earth's inhabitants; that has had its evidences recorded in volumes that now amount to thousands; that has at this day its regular newspapers and monthly magazines devoted to its constantly-recurring proofs; that has, in this country and its metropolis, engaged the attention of all classes who have only investigated the subject to be convinced of its truthfulness-we ask whether it be more likely that VOL. I. 2 F all this has sprung from a general epidemic of wilful and unconscious delusion, than that the writer of Fallacies of Faith has not yet quite made himself acquainted with the whole extent of the subject upon which he so authoritatively pronounces? The question as to whether these unseen agencies are good or evil in their nature-whether they are disembodied beings at all, or the inhabitants of an unsuspected lower world of spirits, that under certain conditions can become manifest-whether it be to our advantage, spiritually or physically, to evoke these communications; or whether by pursuing our enquiries in a calm philosophical manner we might not throw a light upon the relations between matter and spirit and on the origin of several of the least understood disorders that afflict humanity, would be a subject fairly open to discussion. But it is of no use denying the facts. Tried by the ordinary rules of evidence, upon which the writer in All the Year Round lays so much stress, these things are known to thousands as absolute and positive truths, and will stand the test of the most rigid investigation. It is this investigation which we invite; and it is to counteract, as far as in us lies, the foolish mistake of those who, confounding the unusual with the impossible, and by unfounded charges of imposture, induce those to stand aloof who would most materially benefit society by enquiring into the matter, that these pages have been written. With respect to the former article in All the Year Round, on which we inserted some remarks in our last, questioning the correctness of Mr. Dickens's description, Mr. M. Cunningham, of 11, Commercial Place, Kentish Town, and Mr. C. Tiffin, of 30, Fortess Terrace, write to us, that they were pre sent at the séance at Mrs. Marshall's narrated in All the Year Round, and correcting the inaccuracies and mis-repre sentations therein. These letters fully corroborate the version of E. L. B. in our last number. And, as an instance of omission on the part of the anonymous contributor to Mr. Dickens's periodical, Mr. C. says:-"He does not tell us of the lady who had the name of her deceased mother spelt out-Eupharsia; a not very common name, and one I should think above the 'thought-reading' of the medium." In the face of this, the writer of the article in All the Year Round, in a recent number affirms, "The spirits never, by any chance, spell a name, or rap out a fact right through, without hesitation.' A few prevalent errors we may as well take this opportunity of correcting for the instruction of those who will persist in writing diatribes about what they will not take the time or trouble to understand. The initial article of faith is not the intellectuality of tables. The mediums-of whom we know not more than two or three who for want of riches are obliged to receive a fee in exchange for their services; and if the imposition were so easy and so inscrutable, we should have had hundreds making it a profitable piece of business in London by this timedo not pretend, nor have they ever pretended to have the power of "raising your beloved one in any town or city, on short notice." The Cock Lane ghost was never "found out ;" and the Stockwell out;" mystery has been by no means clearly explained. With these parting hints we suggest to any journalist who may hereafter make Spiritualism the subject of a leader, when other newspaper topics are exhausted, that it will not be amiss, beforehand, to make one of a circle, on a few successive evenings, where no paid medium is present; and when his proprietor hints that he may advantageously "go in for a slasher against spirit-rapping," let him respond with the cautious Othello: No, Iago; I'll see before I doubt: when I doubt, prove! We only hope in the former case that he will be candid enough to admit his error and record his conversion. SPIRITUALISM AND THE LEADERS OF THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION. By the Author of Confessions of a Truth-Seeker. THE Spirit-world is the causal world-the world of permanent realities; the things we behold in the world of nature are but transitory phenomena-effects developed to our sensuous perceptions under conditions of time and space. Man, even while in nature, is a citizen of the spirit-world, and is living, though consciously, in its midst. As his corporeal structure is sustained by elements from the material world, so his spiritual being is sustained by elements from the spiritual world. They may be drawn from the upper, or the lower world; as are his aspirations so will be his inspirations; but he cannot, if he would, detach himself from rapport with its living though invisible realities. Every great spiritual movement in the natural world is impelled onward by the tides and atmospheres of the spiritworld. The religious revival in our own day, that in the last century under Wesley, that in the seventeenth century under George Fox, and the Protestant Reformation a century earlier, all attest this truth. The men who were the visible centres of |