Notices of New Books.

Spiritualism, and the Age we Live in. By CATHERINE CROWE, Author of the Night Side of Nature, etc. etc. Newby.

The expectation excited by the announcement of a work on Spiritualism by the author of the Night Side of Nature, has not, on the whole, been disappointed on a careful perusal of the hook itself. Without subscribing to all the opinions therein expressed, we cannot but commend the earnest, out-spoken, yet modest way, in which it is written.

The author reviews the present state of thought and feeling in relation to the highest questions which affect humanity. Religion, she regards as being, practically, all but inoperative. Theology is more and more tending to formalism, and science to materialism. Men do not live by faith. They hold it: it does not hold them. How is religion to be made a living power instead of a dead formula? Has God withdrawn himself from the world; or, is it that the world is.withdrawing itself from God? The author believes in continuous revelation. God is ever revealing himself, in nature-in science-in art-in history-in literature, and in human life. But He never at once and fully reveals himself. He sheds his rays of light into the hearts of those who are prepared to receive it; and though men may despise, and hate, and persecute those who accept it-the light itself they cannot extinguish. But men have to be fellow-workers with God. He requires that they should exert the faculties He has given them to follow out these divine glimpses and suggestions. Not only must we bend our ear in reverent expectation to catch the faintest whispering-the least syllable of the divine utterance; but we must watch and labour as well as pray. Laborare est orare. And if, working faithfully by the light we have, we need and seek more light, then assuredly more light will be vouchsafed. God's revelations come to us through human and therefore imperfect media; we must learn to separate the human imperfection-the possible error from the absolute truth which can alone emanate from the All-perfect. Practically, men do so in all departments of human thought except the highest Here, they accept or reject in toto. Why should this be so? Why should this alone be treated as an exception to the universal rule?

But revelation by voice and pen being now all but universally scouted, how are our religious convictions to be strengthened and deepened? How is modern sadducism to be met? How are the powers, prerogatives, and destiny of the soul to be re-established? How is the pride and self-sufficiency of men to be effectually humbled? How?-Just in the old way. "God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and the weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty." God speaks to us by facts as well as by words; and in the facts of spiritual manifestation to the reality of which Mrs. Crowe gives the weight of her personal testimony; we, with her, recognize, at least, one of the means, by which, and in a great measure, through the doubt denial, and conflict which such manifestation necessarily encounters, is demonstrated the realities of the spiritual world; and both the possibility and the fact of a continued intercourse with the departed fully established. The extent to which this must operate upon the conscience and the life in those who are the subjects of this conviction is, we believe, scarcely to be estimated, especially by those who have had no experience herein.

There are many interesting speculations, inquiries, and suggestions started by the author, concerning which the reader must consult the book itself. We cordially welcome Mrs. Crowe as an avowed fellow-labourer in the spiritual vineyard, and we hope she may be encouraged to augment still further the thoughtful literature of spiritualism. The argument of the book is so closely connected throughout that we have thought it better to attempt to give the reader some idea of the spirit of it, than to select paragraphs for extract; the cogency of which must necessarily be weakened by detachment.

Footfalls on the Boundary of another World. London: White, Bloomsbury-street. This Work, from the pen of the Hon. ROBERT DALE OWEN, is daily expected in England, and we cordially recommend it to our readers.

From the careful and personal scrutiny of the author, the wonderful instances it contains may be entirely relied upon. Many of them were read to private audiences in England; and unbelievers, we hope, will save themselves trouble by accepting them as true. It will then only remain for them to meet Mr. Owen's arguments upon philosophical grounds, founded on the facts he adduces; and if they can find a better theory than his, they shall have every opportunity we can afford them, of bringing it before the world.

That such a mind as his has accepted these facts, involving as they did his construction of a philosophy entirely opposed to the ideas of a lifetime, is of itself a criterion of their truth. In our next number we hope to give a review of the work.

Foreign Intelligence.

FRANCE.

Paris now boasts of two excellent journals devoted to Spiritualism, each commanding a large circulation; one is entitled The Revue Spirite, conducted by M. Allen Cardec, formerly of the College of Jesuits; and the other, The Revue Spiritualiste, the editor of which is M. Piérart, a gentleman of no ordinary ability, and conspicuous for the great interest he takes in spiritual matters. From a recent number of the latter journal we extract the following letter, from M. P. F. Mathieu, of Montmatre, recounting an interesting case of direct spirit writing; he says:-" Mdlle. Huet (a medium) dined yesterday with my wife and family at Montmatre; the meeting was a friendly one, and no manifestation of her power was expected. During dinner I casually asked if she thought we could obtain direct writing from the spirits; she replied that she did not know, but that we could try. I therefore, when the table was cleared, took out of my pocket-book a sheet of note paper, on which the words "Faith in God" had been previously written by the spirits in the church of Notre-Dame-des-Victoires, and begged Mdlle. Huet to ask that something else might be written upon it. I placed the sheet of paper, folded in four, by my side upon the table; Mdlle. Huet, who was sitting on my right, placed her left hand on the paper and breathed a mental prayer. A few minutes afterwards we found the word God followed by the sign of the cross written upon the exterior fold of the paper which faced the table. This new word appeared to have been written as the previous ones in pencil, but much darker and more firmly impressed. I was astonished at the great facility with which Mdlle. Huet obtained a result which two hundred years ago would have rendered her in the eyes of the world a saint or a sorceress."

GERMANY.

A friend residing near Frankfort on the Maine, who has promised to act as our Special Correspondent, informs us, that in that city several spirit circles have been formed, and that in one family known to us numerous communications have been received by means of the Planchette. He adds that now Spiritualism is more openly discussed in society than formerly. We anticipate with much interest further letters from our esteemed correspondent.

HOLLAND.

Major Revius, of the Netherland Army, at The Hague, states that since Mr. Home's visit in 1857, numerous spiritual societies have been formed in Holland, he himself being a member of one of them: he mentions that his son has become a powerful medium, and that they daily witness very interesting instances of spirit manifestations; we intend to insert in an early number, an account of some very remarkable instances of direct spirit writing furnished by the Major.

PRINTED BY THOMAS SCOTT, WARWICK COURT, HOI BORN.

THE gentle British public is constantly, from one source or another, hearing something about Spiritualism, or Spirit-rapping as it is popularly designated. This very Christmas, one of our brightest literary luminaries has condescended to enlighten as well as enliven us by his portraiture of a Spiritualist; from which it appears that a Spiritualist is a "goggle-eyed gentleman," who passes the night, as indeed he passes the whole of his time," in listening to spirit-rapping and noting down inquiries made in this way by Socrates about his health, and how he likes travelling; and information from Galileo, that water will freeze when it is cold enough, and so forth.

Now this is all very well in its way, and perhaps very seasonable. We take it with our mince pies and roasted chesnuts; we laugh at it as we do at the Olympic burlesque or the Sadler's Wells pantomime, and are in no more danger of taking it for a reality than we are when we see Robson wheeling a barrow on a tight-rope over a cataract, à la Blondin, for the amusement of the Danish court, or the wicked old pantaloon when he purloins the sausages. But when Mr. Dickens, in his choice phraseology, designates a Spiritualist as a " Rapper," and would have us believe that both terms are synonymous, he does but ignorantly echo the popular representation and belief upon this subject; Spiritualism and Spirit-rapping being in fact generally used as convertible terins. This view is however an erroneous one, and is calculated seriously to mislead. The term "Spirit-rapping" expresses but one of the simplest of the varied external phenomena of modern Spiritualisin; and its employment to express even all these phenomena in their totality, is altogether inadequate and false, tending only to excite a low, meagre, and ridiculously erroneous conception of the whole subject.

VOL. I.

D

Having for some years past investigated the external phenomena of Spiritualism, and availed ourselves of the opportunities afforded us for personal observation of them, under circumstances precluding all suspicion as to their genuineness, we think that, with a view to dispel the foolish notion to which we have referred, it may be well to present a brief general statement of the leading phenomenal phases in which, at the present day, Spiritualism is presented to us. A particular and exhaustive enumeration of them would be tedious, and perhaps impossible.

Before doing so, however, as a preliminary observation, necessary to a right understanding of the matter, we would remark that there are persons in some way peculiarly constituted, whose presence appears to furnish conditions requisite to enable spirits to act upon matter, or to manifest their agency in any way cognizable to men. In what this peculiarity consists, whether it be chemical, electrical, magnetic, odylic, or in some combination of these, or in what else, it would lead us too far from our present purpose to consider. At present, we would only point out the fact that the presence of one such person at least is necessary in every circle before any spiritual manifestations can be obtained. Such persons are now technically designated Mediums.

The most common form of the manifestations, and that which is most easily obtained, is seen in:

1.-The Rappings, Table-tippings, and other sounds and movements of ponderable bodies. The company assembled place their hands lightly on a table, and, if a suitable medium is present, in a short time sounds, like raps or detonations, are heard on the table, the chairs, the walls, or the floor, often varying in power and tone. We have heard them faint, as if made by the fingers of a young child; again, as if made by the knuckles of a strong man; and again, upon the floor, as if produced by a crutch: in the latter case, a lady present informed the circle that that was the mode in which the spirit of her grandfather signalled his presence to her; and that when living, he was in the habit of thumping his crutch upon the floor, producing just such sounds as we had heard. All present saw exactly the spot whence the noise came, though no crutch or other means of making the sound was visible. Again, "sounds such as are occasioned by the prosecution of several mechanical and other occupations, are often heard; there are others which resemble the harsh voices of the winds and waves, with which occasionally harsh creaking sounds are mingled, similar to those produced by the masts and rigging of a ship while it is labouring in a rough sea. At times powerful concussions occur, not unlike distant thunder or the discharge of artillery, accompanied by an oscillatory movement of surrounding objects, and, in some instances, by a vibratory or tremulous motion of the

floor of the apartment, or it may be of the whole house wherein the phenomena occur.' At other times, instead of sounds being heard, extraordinary movements of the table are seen, it rising and falling vertically or perpendicularly, and to different elevations off the floor, or sliding along the room first in one direction, and then in another, or moving rapidly round it. These phenomena, as we have said, usually take place with the hands of some or all of the persons present resting lightly on the table; this, however, is not always necessary, as, on more than one occasion, we have seen the table rise from the floor without any contact, and respond by signals, or by the alphabet, to questions that have been put, and even beat time to an air that was played, no one being nearer the table than from two to three feet of it. Human beings also have frequently been raised off the floor and floated round the room in the presence of numerous persons.

The obtaining of intelligent responses in the way above indicated is a hard nut for anti-spiritualists to crack; they might very plausibly allege that sounds and movements, however strange, were not of themselves alone sufficient to satisfy a reasonable mind that there was any spirit ab extra concerned in their production; but when these sounds and movements are made to serve as a code of signals by which questions are answered, intelligent communications given, and numbers indicated, and these often of a kind unthought of, and unexpected by all present, then we think it evident that a more occult force is at work-an intelligent though invisible actor is demonstrated. Published and authenticated facts of the above kind are before the world in abundance, and they may be multiplied to an extent to meet any reasonable

requirement.

2. Spirit Writings and Spirit Drawings.-The former of these modes of communication is not unfrequent. Usually, the medium holds a pencil in hand as for writing, and, sometimes immediately-sometimes after a few minutes, the hand goes into involuntary motion, forming letters, words, and sentences, making an intelligible communication or reply to some question, verbal or mental, that has been asked. These communications are written sometimes slowly, at other times with almost inconceivable rapidity, and in various handwriting, and sometimes in foreign languages. The name of a deceased friend or relative is frequently appended; sometimes the signature is given of an entire stranger. With some mediums the hand is simply used mechanically, the medium not having the slightest idea of what is being written; with others this is accompanied by impression as to the immediate word or sentence that is to be written, but no further. I know one medium who sees before him in the air, or upon the table, the word he has to write. Sometimes, instead of writing, the hand will go into drawing