rather to spiritual and moral goods, which do follow us, and which will serve eternally not only to delightfully occupy us, but as steps by which we shall rise higher and higher, on the great Jacob's-ladder, into the boundless hierarchy of spirits. Thus it is that good spirits think but little of the goods and gross pleasures which they have left here in dying, or in their own words, in going home. Like the philosophers who had been shut up in prison, torn suddenly from their dungeon, they regret not the loss of garments, furniture, and coin, but of their precious books and manuscripts. The butterfly, shaking the dust from his wings before taking his sunny flight, cares little for the ruins of the shell, which had served him as a transient habitation. So a spirit like that of Buffon, regrets no more his Chateau de Montbard, nor will Lamartine regret his Saint Point-regretted by him so much while still here. Hence the calmness of the sage's death. How different that of the animal-man; to him the loss of the goods of the earth is the loss of all; he clings to them like the miser to his strong-box. The spirit even cannot get away from them; it holds to matter and haunts the places which have been dear to it; instead of making efforts to break the bonds which may still hold it to earth, he clings to it like an insensate, and is tormented because he can no longer enjoy it. Here is hell, here the fire which such spirits bend themselves to make eternal; here are the bad spirits who repel the counsels of the good, and who have need of the succour of reason and of human wisdom." But we shall not follow M. Jobard further in this direction, as he seems to go into the debatable ground of speculation, although he declares that all who may have the same experience as he has had, and give the same amount of study to it, would agree with him. On this point he finishes with these words:-"The power of evil, which it is admitted that spirits have, has its antithesis in the power of good, which may be hoped from them; these two forces are adequate, like all the forces of nature, without which equilibrium would be destroyed, and free-will be replaced by fatality, blind, unintelligent fate, the death of all, the absence of God, and the catalepsy of the universe."

Among spirits of the better sort, M. Jobard speaks of "poets, who dictate verses,-philosophers and moralists, who give good maxims, historians, who throw a light on the events of their epoch, naturalists, who will rectify past errors committed by themselves, astronomers, who will reveal facts of which you are ignorant, musicians and authors, capable of dictating their posthumous works."

still

All the spirits above mentioned he characterises as esprits terrestres-terrestrial spirits, from their being, he supposes, associated with the earth's denizens.

Of healing mediums,M. Jobard writes, "There are no welldisposed mediums, who are not magnetisers and healers by nature; but not making use of their faculty they do not know that they possess it. In using it, they would be best advised and most powerfully aided by their good spirits. In this we have seen wonders performed similar to that effected at the hotel Nocera at Naples on the 13th of June last, upon the person of the Duke of Celenza, and who has published the fact that he has been cured of a disease from which he had suffered more than ten years, and which had been pronounced incurable, by the mere word of an old French chevalier to whom he related his sufferings. There are others who do such things in different countries-in Holland, in England, in France, in Switzerland-but they will multiply with time; the seeds are sown."

M. Jobard concludes his Avis aux Mediums thus :-" As to celestial spirits, or those of a transcendant order, it is so rare to find them communicating with individuals, that the time is not come to speak of them; they take part in the destinies of nations, in great reformatory crises, in great universal developments, and are at work now; let us await with confidence the great things about to happen. Renovabunt faciem terræ."

"BLACK WOOD" AND THE "NORTH BRITISH REVIEW."

By JUDGE EDMONDS.

IN Blackwood's Magazine, for October, 1860, and in the North British Review, for February, 1861, are articles assailing our belief in spiritual intercourse, which I desire to notice. Blackwood, if I recollect aright, some two or three years ago, contained an article on the same subject, denying the facts. Now it has taken one step forward, and admits the facts but denies the inference. The North British, however, sturdily denies the facts, and, lagging behind its confrére some two or three years, seems content to rest where the American periodical press was some ten years ago-denying facts which were standing in their way every minute, and to which they finally had to yield.

If these very respectable writers will not receive human testimony, there is an end of the argument; there is no more to be said. But if they will, then I desire to ask a few questions, founded on facts, which are testified to by thousands of witnesses in different parts of the world.

1. Blackwood calls Spiritualism "that ignoble and debasing superstition." Will it say how that can be true, when "Spirit

ualism prevents hypocrisy; it reclaims the infidel; it proves the immortality of the soul; it recognises one God, and man's responsibility to Him; it enforces the great law of the Creator by inducements hitherto unknown to man; it heals the sick; it gives sight to the blind; it cures the lame; it comforts the mourner; it enjoins upon all the utmost purity of life; it teaches that charity which rather mourns over than rejoices at the failings of our fellow-mortals; it reveals to us our own nature, and what is the existence into which we are to pass when this life shall have ended."

This is an extract from a reply under my own signature, in November, 1855, to an attack on me and on my faith by the Bishop of Vermont, at St. Louis, at New Orleans, and at Montreal; it was published wide throughout the land; and was virtually a challenge to the whole press and the pulpit to refute its positions, and it has never yet been answered, except by some such general denunciations as those in Blackwood.

And for its truth, we appeal to evidence stronger and more abundant than can be found in support of any history, sacred or profane.

2. How will those journals account for this fact-attested to by hundreds of witnesses, in all parts of our country-inanimate matter, moving without mortal contact, and displaying intelligence, and that intelligence being able to read concealed thought, to spell, to cypher; knowing geography, astronomy, and many languages, and holding free converse as if by a living person? And what specimen of mortality is there which can read the mind, as inanimate matter, thus influenced, has been known to do, over and over again?

3. How will those journals account for this fact-numerous instances, in which people have spoken in many languages, of which they were entirely ignorant?

In my letter-No. VIII., to the Tribune-and which you have in a pamphlet form, I have given the names of twenty-seven persons who have done this; and, in my Appendix, I have given the evidence of this, and the names and residences of over one hundred witnesses, by whom the matter has been tested: and all this is but a small part of this class of manifestation.

4. If these facts are to be conceded—as one, if not both, of these journals seem forced to do-whence comes the intelligence that accompanies them, and is displayed through them?

Volumes would be required to detail all the forms in which that intelligence is displayed; and it must suffice, for the present occasion, to say, that the evidence is as strong as human testimony can make it; that it does not, and frequently cannot, come from mortal man; and any one who will investigate this subject

fairly, will see for himself that this is so. Whence, then, does it come?

As Professor Faraday's explanation of the phenomenon of table-tipping was utterly exploded by a table's moving without mortal contact, so here the mortal source of this intelligence is easily, and at once disproved, by a little patient examination.

Now, be so good as to propound these questions to those writers, and let us see what they will do with them? Showing, as they do, a lamentable ignorance of the subject they venture to discuss, and apparently regarding only a very superficial examination of it as necessary in order to frame their articles. They may complain of my asking questions which require a very different degree of knowledge; still, it seems to me fair to ask them, before submitting patiently to the denunciation of "delusion," "hallucination," and "monoideism," which, having died away years ago in America, is now revived in England.

New York, April 3, 1861.

J. W. EDMONDS.

A SEANCE WITH MR. HOME.

By E. F.

In placing before your readers the following facts, I must beg it to be understood I am not writing them in the hope of making converts to Spiritualism, nor in any polemical spirit, nor in a wish to impose on others a belief in a communion with the departed, but merely to place before them an account of certain extraordinary manifestations witnessed by myself, and of so singular and incomprehensible a nature, that had the occurrences I am about to relate been told me on the testimony of persons whose good faith I could have no reason to doubt, I am free to confess I should have believed them to have been imposed upon. Before committing to paper what I witnessed, I must beg readers to believe that as to the cause, or nature of these manifestations, I have no opinion to offer, but I feel myself bound in justice to the lady at whose house they took place, from her known integrity of character, high rank, and position in society, to declare that if any deception there be, it must have been without her sanction or knowledge.

your

The séance, at which I was present, occurred on the 18th of March last, at the residence of The party present were eight persons. The mediums (so-called) being our hostess, her daughter, another lady and the celebrated Mr. D. D. Home. The visitors, or enquirers, were Mr.

M.P. for

two ladies and myself; not one of whom I was informed,

had been present at a séance before. The drawing room, in which we assembled, communicated with another of larger dimensions, lighted up by eight wax candles, placed in different parts of the room. The room was like most rooms in fashionable houses, furnished very handsomely, and full of every description of sofas, arm-chairs and ottomans. In the centre was a large loo-table, around which eight or nine persons could easily sit. We were invited to take our places at this table, which we did; the four mediums occupying one side, and the visitors the other. We then placed our hands on the table five or six inches from its edge; we sat for some time, ten minutes perhaps, or it might be more, without any manifestation taking place, and had almost given up the matter as a failure, when a slight hardly perceptible rapping, two or three times repeated, was heard by all present. The knocks, increased until the table appeared to me as if some blunt instrument struck it on the under side, in all parts, sometimes loud, sometimes so subdued as hardly to be heard. Mr. Home remarked that many spirits were present, and that the séance would be perfect. At this moment I felt a singular sensation, I can hardly describe it, a strange vibration convulsed the whole room, the chair on which we sat, the table, the floor, the very wall even of the room appeared to me to vibrate and tremble. I cannot describe the sensation better than by saying that it closely resembled that peculiar feeling we have felt in the cabin of a small steam-boat when first the steam is turned on and it is put in motion. This strange vibration lasted two or three minutes, then gradually subsided; but again occurred several times during the evening, though in a less degree. Questions were then put as to what spirits were present, and answered through the alphabet by raps, as the letters were called over and written down by one of the mediums. I should have said that on the table were placed sheets of paper, a pencil, and a small hand-bell.

We must have sat about an hour, when I observed a slight movement of the table; it appeared as if a hand underneath was lifting it up, but this could not be, for I counted fourteen hands besides my own placed so far on the table, that it would have been impossible for any one of them to have produced the movement; presently it rose steadily into the air, remained suspended a short time, and as steadily descended into its former place;this occurred five times during the evening.

To describe all the phenomena of this evening would occupy a larger space than can be allotted me in the pages of a magazine. I must therefore confine myself to the most extraordinary. During the sitting my legs were continually touched, sometimes clasped as if by a hand, at other times as by a finger