CHAPTER X.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION. Before a brief summary is made of the contents and purport of this book, an account of a most remarkable event which occurred at Oxford about forty-five years ago may be fitly chronicled. It will be known, in its general outline, by many Oxford men; and was given to the Editor in the month of June, 1854, by a member of Brasenose College, where it had occurred. In the year 1829, a club, known as the "Hell-Fire Club," consisting of members of the university _in statu pupillari_,--formed in some respects on the model of that existing in the last century, which met at Medmenham Abbey,--was accustomed to meet twice a week at Brasenose College, in Oxford. Unbelief at that time is said to have taken coarser forms there than is the case now. Then it was less dangerous, because more gross and revolting. The members of the Club, however, were not unsuccessful in their imitation of the blasphemy, drunkenness and other sins which had so notoriously characterized the older society. They met twice a week, and each is reported to have endeavoured to outdo his fellow-member in rampant blasphemy and sceptical daring. The meetings were kept so private, and such judicious care was taken to preserve unity of thought and secrecy amongst the various members, that the College authorities, though partially aware of its existence, were said to be unable to interfere. On the north side of the College runs a narrow lane, connecting the square in which Brasenose College faces that of All Souls, with Turl Street. Going towards the latter, on the left-hand side stands Brasenose, until it is joined by the north portion of Lincoln College. On the other side is the high garden wall of Exeter College. It is a dreary and dismal-looking thoroughfare at best; and especially so at night. The windows of Brasenose College are of a narrow Jacobean type, protected both by horizontal as well as perpendicular stanchions. The lower windows, being almost level with the street, were further secured by a coarse wire netting. Towards midnight on a day in December in the year above-named, one of the Fellows of Brasenose College was returning home, when as he approached he saw a tall man apparently draped in a long cloak, and, as he imagined, helping to assist some one to get out of the window. The window belonged to the rooms of one who was reported to be a leading member of the Hell-Fire Club. Being one of the authorities of the College, he instinctively rushed forward to detect what he imagined to be the perpetration of a distinct breach of the rules, when (as he himself afterwards declared) a thrill of horror seized him in a moment, and he felt all at once convinced that it was no human being at whom, appalled and fear-stricken, he looked. As he rushed past he saw the owner of the rooms, as he conceived, being forcibly and strugglingly dragged between the iron stanchions. The form, the features,[59] horribly distorted and stamped with a look of indescribable agony, were vividly before him; and the tall figure seemed to hold the frantic struggler in a strong grasp. He rushed past, round to the chief entrance, knocked at the gate, and then fell to the ground in a swoon. Just as the Porter opened it, there rose a cry from a crowd of men trooping out from a set of rooms immediately to the right of the Porter's lodge. They were members of the notorious Hell-Fire Club. In the middle of a violent speech, as profane as it is said to have been blasphemous, and with a frightful imprecation upon his lips, a chief speaker (the owner of the rooms) had suddenly broken a blood vessel, and was then lying dead on the floor. The club in question, it is reported, never met again.[60] So much on this point. A few words are perhaps needed upon another. It may be held by some that what has already been written on Witchcraft and Necromancy is a melancholy instance of grovelling superstition on the part of its Author.[61] Be it so. He is quite ready to avow his entire belief in the express statements of Holy Scripture, and in the general Christian tradition and teaching on the subject itself and all that is necessarily involved in it. Those who believe in the existence of angels, "the glorious battalions of the living God," and who frankly accept as truth the various records of Holy Scripture, in which their ministry to mankind is set forth, will likewise believe that S. Peter's exhortation to the Early Christians did not simply embody a sentiment but declared a fact, when he wrote: "Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the Devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour."[62] That the pagan nations owning and serving the Prince of this World, and being supernaturally served by him in return, actively practised magic at the time of our Blessed Saviour's first coming, is generally allowed. And that the Christian writers of early times, more particularly S. Gregory Thaumaturgus, admitted the reality and force of the sorcerers' incantations and powers, is abundantly evident from their words and reasoning. The case of the damsel of Thyatira, "possessed with a spirit of divination," who "brought her masters much gain by soothsaying," clearly establishes this point; and so does the apostle's authoritative action:--"Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the Name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour."[63] When, three centuries after the Day of Pentecost, the Church of God commenced numbering up her earliest triumphs, the soothsayers, the diviners, and the dealers with evil spirits began to experience her righteous and beneficent power. Constantine, urged to action by those who sat in the seats of the apostles, formally sanctioned the condemnation of magicians; but of course under Julian the Apostate, magic rites were not only still commonly in vogue, but were publicly patronized. Later on, Valentinian re-enacted the laws of Constantine; and under Theodosius the severest penalties were likewise enforced against the practice of magic; and, in truth, against every phase of pagan worship. But a general belief in sorcery and divination remained powerful and active long after the supreme and glorious victory of Christianity in the sixth century; and the manner in which the authorities of the Christian Church met the belief, and, by Sacraments and Sacramentals, aided the faithful to withstand the legions of the Devil and his human allies, is perfectly familiar to the student of history. The well-known conviction that demons had appeared to mankind under the names of sylvans, gnomes, and fauns was common enough amongst the Romans prior to the revelation of Christianity; while the conviction that these demons had sometimes made women the object of their passion was arrived at by many. Justin Martyr and S. Augustine of Hippo[64] seem to imply something of the sort; and marriage or commerce with demons was a charge frequently made against witches, even from the earliest times.[65] It was said that these demons owned a remarkable attachment to women with beautiful hair,--a belief possibly founded on the passage in S. Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians,[66] in which he exhorts women to cover their heads "because of the angels." In the middle ages the intercourse of philosophers belonging to certain secret societies with sylphs and salamanders was also believed by many:[67] and, later on, the study of astrology, with its fatalistic theories, and the restoration of the heresies of the Manichees, served to aid in more systematically formulating that belief in witchcraft and the supernatural which was for centuries so universal, and which never could have become so without a sure and solid substratum of fact and truth. Again, it is impossible to believe that the sorcerers of the Oriental nations have been and are impostors. As regards those of modern Egypt, Mr. Lane, in his interesting volume upon that country,[68] appears to have settled the question by expressing his conviction of the truth and reality of their supernatural performances. And similar conclusions have reluctantly but most certainly been arrived at by those who, with some knowledge and reasonable powers of observation, have witnessed the acts and deeds of the Eastern dealers with evil spirits. With reference to Egypt, Mr. Lane's statement on the subject stands thus:-- "A few days after my arrival in this country my curiosity was excited on the subject of magic by a circumstance related to me by Mr. Salt, our consul-general. Having had reason to believe that one of his servants was a thief, from the fact of several articles of property having been stolen from his house, he sent for a celebrated Maghrabee magician, with a view of intimidating them, and causing the guilty one, (if any of them were guilty,) to confess his crime. The magician came, and said that he would cause the exact image of the person who had committed the thefts to appear to any youth not arrived at the age of puberty; and desired the master of the house to call in any boy whom he might choose. As several boys were then employed in a garden adjacent to the house, one of them was called for this purpose. In the palm of this boy's right hand, the magician drew with a pen a certain diagram, in the centre of which he poured a little ink. Into this ink he desired the boy steadfastly to look. He then burned some incense, and several bits of paper inscribed with charms; and at the same time called for various objects to appear in the ink. The boy declared that he saw all these objects, and, last of all, the image of the guilty person; he described his stature, countenance, and dress; said that he knew him; and directly ran down into the garden, and apprehended one of the labourers, who, when brought before the master, immediately confessed that he was the thief."--P. 267.[69] The performers themselves maintain, that they have been instructed in the art by those who have traditionally received the knowledge step by step, and period by period, from the old "magicians of Egypt;" and some frankly allow, that they themselves are constantly attended and waited on by a familiar spirit, demon, or genius, who actively aids them in their performances, and who is, under certain circumstances, always prepared to do their bidding. These genii, or "Ginn" as they are called in Egypt, "are said to be of pre-Adamite origin, and in their general properties," remarks Mr. Lane, "are an intermediate class of beings between angels and men, but inferior in dignity to both, created of fire, and capable of assuming the forms and material fabric of men, brutes, and monsters; and of becoming invisible at pleasure. They eat and drink, propagate their species (like or in conjunction with human beings,) and are subject to death."... "The Ginn," continues Mr. Lane, "are supposed to pervade the solid matter of the earth, as well as the firmament, where, approaching the confines of the lowest heaven, they often listen to the conversation of the angels respecting future things, thus enabling themselves to assist diviners and magicians."--P. 222. In the twentieth chapter of his interesting and attractive volume, he writes:--"I have met with many persons among the more intelligent of the Egyptians who condemn these modern Psylli as impostors, but none who has been able to offer a satisfactory explanation of the most common and most interesting of their performances."--P. 383. In another part of the book Mr. Lane concludes his chapter on "Magic" thus:--"Neither I nor others have been able to discover any clue by which to penetrate the mystery."[70] So likewise as regards India,[71] it is impossible to set aside the facts, which are testified to not by one but by hundreds, as to the supernatural powers of the jugglers there. Identical in kind with the performances of the magicians of Egypt before Pharaoh and in the presence of Moses and Aaron, recorded in the Book of Exodus, the secret of the following "tricks" (familiar to any one who has been in India) has been handed down from father to son from the most remote ages; and we have no reason to doubt that the source of the power by which these acts are done is one and the same. For instance:--The juggler, giving one of the spectators a coin to hold as securely as possible within his hands, after pronouncing incantations in a monotonous voice for some minutes, suddenly stops, still keeping his seat, makes a rapid motion with his right hand, as if in the act of throwing something at the person holding the coin, at the same time breathing with his mouth upon him. Instantaneously the hands of the person taking part in the performance are suddenly distended, while a horrible sensation of holding something cold and disagreeable and nasty, is immediately felt, forcing him to cast away the contents of his palms, which, to the horror and disgust of uninitiated persons, turns out to be, not the coin which before was there, but a live snake coiled up! The juggler then rises, and catching the snake, which is now crawling and wriggling on the ground, takes it by the tail, opens his mouth wide, and allows the snake to drop into it. With deliberation he appears by degrees to swallow it, until the whole, tail and all, completely disappears. He opens his mouth for the spectators to investigate; but nothing is to be seen, neither does the snake appear again. Here is another instance:--A juggler will be brought to act before, perhaps, many hundreds of people, of all ages, degrees, and religions, including the soldiery of a garrison, in the public yard of a barrack. A guard of soldiers will be placed around him, to prevent either trickery or deception on his part, or interruption from the spectators. A little girl, about eight or nine years old, accompanies the man, who is also provided with a tall, narrow basket, three or four feet high, little more than a foot in width, and open all the way up. The juggler, after some altercation with the child, pretends to get angry, and lashing himself into a fury, seizes hold of the child, and inverts the basket completely over her. Thus placed completely at his mercy, and in spite of her screams and entreaties, he draws his sword, and fiercely plunges it down into the basket, and brings it out dripping with blood--or what apparently is such. The child's screams become fainter and fainter, as again and again the sword is thrust through the basket; and at length they gradually cease, and everything is still. Then follows a critical moment for the supposed murderer: and the exertions of the guard scarcely serve to save him from the excited soldiery. When order is at length obtained, however, the man, raising his bloody sword for an instant, strikes the basket with it, which falls, and reveals--not a murdered child weltering in blood, but an empty space, with no vestige left of the supposed victim. In a few moments the identical little girl comes rushing--from whence no one can tell--to the feet of the performer, with every sign of affection, and perfectly unhurt. Be it observed that these performances commonly take place in India in places where it is impossible for any contrivances or trap-doors to exist, in the centre of court-yards at the various military stations, and before innumerable witnesses. Again: in Corea and China the practice of Necromancy is said to be almost universal. An intelligent modern writer upon China gives an account, in the following passage, of one mode in which questions are put, and answers obtained, by a kind of divination:--Written communications from spirits are not unfrequently sought for in the following manner: after the presence and desired offices of some spirit are invoked, "two or more persons support with their hands some object to which a pencil is attached in a vertical position, and extending to a table below covered with sand. It is said that the movements of the pencil, involuntary as far as the persons holding it are concerned, but governed by the influences of spirits, describe certain characters which are easily deciphered, and which often bring to light remarkable disclosures and revelations. Many who regard themselves as persons of superior intelligence are firm believers in this mode of consulting spirits."[72] Here, as illustrating the common principles and course of action which are adopted and followed in all parts of the World by those who seek information by forbidden means, the following may be set forth:-- There is a dreary-looking House in one of the London Squares which is reported to be haunted. And certainly this opinion, as the Editor can testify from a careful personal enquiry, is tolerably current in the neighbourhood. A Lady, curious about the fact, was present on an occasion when certain inquiries were made regarding this House by means of "Planchette,"--the instrument just referred to as so commonly used in China. It is a small board, in shape like a heart, which is made to run on two wheels or castors, and a hole is provided for a pencil so to be placed with its point downward as that, when put upon a sheet of white paper the point may just touch the surface. After the usual invocation or incantation (or whatever it be), the persons who practise modern divination place their hands on the board. Questions are put, and answers given. No one touches the pencil, but the board is so guided, as the Necromancers and Spiritualists assert, that the pencil is made to write intelligible answers to expressed (and sometimes to mere mental) queries. The following, printed _verbatim et literatim_, are in the handwriting of the lady who witnessed them put and responded to, and are given as a fair specimen of this mode of divination, now so generally practised in England:-- Is any house haunted in B---- Square? Yes. What killed the two people in the haunted room? Fright. What frightened them? Spirits. What kind of spirits? Yourself. How could any one be afraid of me? Without your body. Did they see them? Spirits not visible. How did they know they were there? Thought they saw them. Did they make them feel them? No. Then how did the spirits make themselves known--by what means? Mesmeric. Were you ever there? No. Why do those spirits haunt that house? Murder was committed there. Who was murdered, a man or a woman? A woman. What was the name of the woman? (Writing not intelligible.) Who murdered her? (Writing not intelligible.) Is he alive or dead? Dead. Is it the woman's spirit, or the man's, who haunts the house? Both. Was the man hung? No. Was the murder found out while he lived? No. Are you a bad spirit? Bad. Is it what the Bible calls "divination" to consult you in this way? Yes. Is it displeasing to God? Perhaps. Is it wrong? You know. It is only right to add that those who made and obtained the foregoing intelligible responses to intelligible questions, for good and sufficient reasons came to hold such practices to be unlawful and wicked, and threw the instrument by which they had been given into the Thames. On this subject, and all its details, no words of warning could be more forcible than the following, which are quoted, in the hope that some who may have been thoughtlessly induced to adopt the practices of Modern Spiritualism, may be led at once to desist from the same:-- "Although good and evil spirits possess a powerful influence in the government of the World, yet it is strictly forbidden, in the divine laws of the Old and New Testament, to seek any acquaintance with them, or to place ourselves in connection with and relation to them; and it is just as little permitted for citizens of the world of spirits visibly to manifest themselves to those who are still in the present state of existence, without the express command or permission of the Lord. He, therefore, that seeks intercourse with the invisible world sins deeply, and will soon repent of it; whilst he that becomes acquainted with it, without his own seeking and by Divine guidance, ought to beg and pray for wisdom, courage, and strength, for he has need of all these; and let him that is introduced into such a connection, by means of illness, or the aberration of his physical nature, seek by proper means to regain his health, and detach himself from intercourse with spirits."[73] Yet, with many, and an increasing number, it is to be feared such advice is wholly unheeded. For more than five-and-twenty years the subject of Modern Spiritualism has been under discussion in England, and the facts on which it has been founded have been before the World; but "having eyes men see not, and having ears they hear not." Or, guided by the superficial opinions of those whose one-eyed Materialism tinges so many of their hap-hazard theories, they put aside a consideration of the astonishing phenomena of the system of Spiritualism, and absolutely deny their existence.[74] The age is shallow in its very incredulity. The wisdom of the World is foolishness indeed. When it is too late, when thousands upon thousands have become the active votaries of Spiritualism, perhaps the bishops and clergy of the Church of England may wake up to some realization of the enormous influence for evil,[75] both dogmatic and moral, which this diabolical system cannot do other than secure, and lift their testimony against it. Mahometanism is not more directly anti-christian. Yet the numbers of those who believe in Spiritualism are daily increasing, and the purblind policy of ignoring its principles and action must very soon come to an end. Of course Materialists and sceptics reasonably doubt; for otherwise their own infallibility would ignominiously collapse. But for Christians, who possess a copy of the "Holy Bible," and are able to read it, doubt seems to me (I write with all due humility) simply inconsequent and irrational. Here, let us turn from shadow to sunshine, from that which is evil to that which is good; from the "lying wonders" of designing evil spirits, to the glorious manifestations of God Almighty's power in the Christian Church--for the one kind are but reasonable correlatives of the other. And, for myself, I am free to confess that the evidence in favour of certain of the recent miracles said to have been wrought in the Roman Catholic portion of the One Family of God is not only convincing, but conclusive. Having long given up attributing any value to the slanders and misstatements of Protestant and infidel writers, I have attempted for myself to investigate the principle of action, in the reception of evidence and the decision of authority, which is taken at Rome, with regard to such events and occurrences; and briefly give it as follows:-- The Congregation of Rites, which enquires into all miracles which demand sanction, is presided over by the cardinal-vicar. It consists of twenty-one cardinals of various nations, nine official prelates, nine consulting prelates of various nations, all the fourteen Papal Masters of Ceremonies, fourteen ordinary members, one secretary, one deputy-secretary, and one notary and keeper of the archives--in all seventy people. Four miracles are required to be distinctly proved for Beatification; and two more for Canonization. All these must be proved by eye, and not by ear-witnesses. In miracles where diseases have been cured, it is required, 1st, That the disease must have been of an aggravated nature, and difficult or impossible to be cured; 2ndly, that it was not on the turn; 3rdly, that no medicine had been used, or if it had that it had done no good; 4thly, the cure must be sudden; 5thly, it must be complete and perfect; and 6thly, there must have been no crisis. In the process of examination and enquiry, no step is taken, no doubt propounded, no fact allowed, without many of the members of the Congregation being present: and a printed Report is sent to all who may have been absent. Besides the ordinary cross-examinations, which are always of a most scrutinizing character, it is the sole duty of one of the leading members of the Congregation, the _Promotor Fidei_, as he is termed, to raise objections, and if possible to disprove every reported miracle. The members of this Congregation are as keen, penetrating and business-like, and have as complete a knowledge of the unconscious delusions of the human heart, as any body of English jurymen. As ecclesiastical scholars they may be truly said to be equal to the same number of English barristers; and the head of the Congregation, for shrewdness, acuteness of intellect, and judicial ability, is equal to any judge in England, who by his interpretation of the law, and his particular sentence in a special case, wills away the life or property of any Englishman. The subject has been treated at length in the great work of Pope Benedict XIV. (A.D. 1740-1758) "On Beatification," &c., as well as in the Decrees of Pope Urban VIII. and Pope Clement XI.; and so sifting and careful has always been the investigation, that Alban Butler asserts, on the authority of Daubenton, that an English gentleman (not a Roman Catholic) being present and seeing the process of several miracles, maintained them to have been completely proved and perfectly incontestable, but was astonished beyond measure at the scrupulosity of the scrutiny when authoritatively informed that _not one of those which he had heard discussed_ had been allowed by the Congregation to have been sufficiently proved. Father Perrone, the distinguished living theologian, also asserts that having shown the formal process for certain miracles to a lawyer of some eminence (not a Roman Catholic) who after examination was perfectly satisfied with both the testimony and the reasoning, the latter declared that they would certainly stand before a British jury; but was mightily astonished on hearing that the Congregation did not consider that evidence to be sufficiently convincing and conclusive. Similar investigations have been made in England, since the Reformation, and this by ecclesiastical authority. For example: in the year before his translation to the see of Norwich (_i. e._ in 1640), Dr. Joseph Hall, then Bishop of Exeter, made a strict and judicial inquiry into all the circumstances of the sudden and miraculous cure of a cripple at S. Madron's Well, in Cornwall, and the following is the recorded conviction of this pious prelate:--"The commerce which we have with the good spirits is not now discerned by the eye, but is, like themselves, spiritual. Yet not so, but that even in bodily occasions we have many times insensible helps from them; in such a manner as that by the effects we can boldly say, 'Here hath been an angel, though we see him not.' Of this kind was that (no less than miraculous) cure which at S. Madron's, in Cornwall, was wrought upon a poor cripple, John Trelille, where (besides the attestation of many hundreds of neighbours), I took a strict and personal examination in that last Visitation which I ever did or ever shall hold. This man, that for sixteen years together was fain to walk upon his hands, by reason of the close contraction of the sinews of his legs, (upon three admonitions in a dream to wash in that well) was suddenly so restored to his limbs, that I saw him able to walk and get his own maintenance. I found here was neither art nor collusion: the thing done, the author invisible."[76] Now, whatever may be thought of the principles enunciated in Mr. Lecky's[77] volumes on "The Rise and Influence of Rationalism," none can deny either the marvellous faculty exhibited for gathering and marshalling facts; while some portions of his thoughtful reflections do but put into luminous language thoughts and convictions which find a cordial response from many. The following remarkable passage is singularly true and accurate in its estimate of an unmistakeable historical fact, viz., that the Oxford movement to a great extent left out of consideration[78] the continued existence of modern miracles in the Christian Church. Mr. Lecky writes thus:--"At Oxford these narratives (_i. e._ the record of patristic and mediæval miracles) hardly exercised a serious attention. What little influence they had was chiefly an influence of repression; what little was written in their favour was written for the most part in the tone of an apology, as if to attenuate a difficulty rather than to establish a creed. This was surely a very remarkable characteristic of the Tractarian movement, when we remember the circumstances and attainments of its leaders, and the great prominence which miraculous evidence had long occupied in England. It was especially remarkable when we reflect that one of the great complaints which the Tractarian party were making against modern theology was, that the conception of the Supernatural had become faint and dim, and that its manifestations were either explained away or confined to a distant past. It would seem as if those who were most conscious of the character of their age were unable, in the very midst of their opposition, to free themselves from its tendencies."--Vol. i. pp. 165-166. It must be allowed that there is some amount of truth in this temperately-made charge. Whatever else may have been pressed forward, and with success, it is obvious that the active energy of the Supernatural has been kept somewhat in the background. At all events it has not been made too prominent. Even in books of devotion, adapted from Roman Catholic sources, examples of miracles have been omitted; and so the golden threads which were so rudely broken three centuries and a half ago, are still in the mire; for few have cared to gather them up once more and weave them into a perfect whole. That work has still to be done. Not until there be what a modern writer terms "daring faith"--faith which can move mountains--should the work be attempted. And now, fully alive to its imperfections, I bring my book to its close. It has been briefly shown herein what a great influence the materialistic speculations of a few bold and over-confident writers have recently exercised on current thought. At the same time the presence of the Supernatural in Church History has been made perfectly manifest, and abundant sources pointed out from which additional examples may readily be gathered for consideration by those who may desire to gather them. Side by side, however, with that which in the Supernatural order is good and beneficial to man, energizes that which is evil. There are angels and there are demons. There is light and there is darkness. Numberless armies of glorious spirits, as the Divine Revelation tells us,[79] stand, rank by rank and order by order, as the bright ornaments of the City of God. Their subtlety, their quickness of penetration, their extensive knowledge of natural things, are undoubtedly perfect in proportion to the excellency of their being, inasmuch as they are pure intelligences, perfect from the Hand of their Maker. They know the concerns of mortal men.[80] They are our protectors, our patrons, our guides. For us they lift up their prayers to God, and they are near us in our trials and temptations. Their motion is swift as thought, their activity inconceivable. As they are the friends of mankind by God's decree, so specially do they become the guardians of the regenerate and the particular protectors of the innocent and young. And their beneficent actions are not altogether unknown. The old records tell of their charity; man's experience testifies to their presence. And, furthermore, for man's behoof in his time of trial, and for his eternal advantage hereafter, were given those powers and properties which belong to the Church by the grace and efficacy of the Sacraments. Yet, on the other hand, until the number of the Elect is accomplished, the Enemy of Souls, the Prince of the Powers of the Air, is permitted to wield an alarming influence; while too often the natural man, with his will free, wills to remain his servant. Yea; and even the baptized, too. For by Witchcraft, Sorcery, and Necromancy Satan still works, men being his direct agents and slaves. Sometimes in one form, sometimes in another, he dupes those who seek him; while his legions suggest to men's minds evil thoughts, paint dangerous objects to the imagination, frequently direct the active current of the human heart to sin, and finally turn round and accuse their captives at the tribunal of God the Judge of all. So must it be to the end, for this life is man's time of probation. Of Dreams and Warnings, Omens and Presentiments, much has been written. Each example must be considered on its own merits; for perhaps no coherent theory will sufficiently cover and explain all the instances here already adduced. So, too, with Spectral Appearances and Haunted Localities. While experience testifies to the facts recorded, such Glimpses of the Supernatural may be well left to tell their own story, to leave their own impression, and set forth their own teaching. To those who possess the grace and habit of faith they will not seem over-strange, for as Hamlet remarked to his friend-- "There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in our philosophy." As I prepare to lay down my pen, I cannot but notice and put on record what amid "the triumphs of Science," so frequently start up to confront us, viz. the sad records of calamity brought to notice, and the gloomy scenes of deepest misery which are yet so frequently depicted. "Woe is me!" is man's wail still. But with many the Supernatural, as we too well know, is bidden to stand aside. The Catholic Religion is written of as antiquated, out of date, and effete. The truth of the Christian Revelation is openly denied. Yet may not the terrible disasters of which we hear, and the miserable calamities which so constantly occur along the path of "human progress" and "scientific triumph," be permitted by God Almighty as an intelligible and richly deserved rebuke to lofty looks and the impious and blasphemous thoughts of the proud?[81] Man's life in this country is certainly not longer than it was eight or ten centuries ago. He dies as he died. Nor is the race of Englishmen sturdier, finer, or better grown than of old. The tombs of the Crusaders tell us this. Look at the stately figures of the Fitzalans in Bedale Church, or at those of the Marmions in that of Tanfield, and it may be that in this practical particular deterioration instead of progress should be more fittingly and faithfully recorded. As is obvious enough, Science, with all the boasting of its adherents, can, after all, effect but little. True it is that wonderful discoveries are made in the Realms of Nature. Operations untraced before, are now accurately apprehended; and secrets, long hidden, are triumphantly brought to light. One might imagine from the random confidence of some (as guides more shallow than safe), that Science had discovered an appliance for every human weakness, an antidote to every physical evil or disease, an unfailing specific against every want and woe. Yet, after all its researches and with all its supposed discoveries (for many may have been known and lost), never were failures so great or misfortunes so heavy. The ugly iron ship of the present day, hideous in form and appearance, yet constructed with all the obtainable skill of modern science, at an enormous sacrifice of expense, fitted with life-boats and patent scientific life-preservers, divided into compartments, after due calculations (on a scientific method), suddenly goes down, where a fisherman of six centuries ago, in his wooden skiff, would have ridden a storm securely, and becomes an iron coffin for five or six hundred corpses, rotting where the seaweed grows. Again, War, with scientific appliances--in the invention and preparation of which the great nations are active rivals--marches over a great country, defended by the highest military art and strength, and in a few short months reduces its people to spoliation, tribute, and shame. Less than a century ago, nearly a twenty years' struggle would have been made, ere such a sudden and sweeping contest could have been so securely sealed. Human Art may do something, and Science may effect more: but how frequently some little flaw or casualty defeats all! The boastings of Science, consequently, become vain and vapid: its works lie in the dust. Past ages have had their pride humbled; as Tyre and Alexandria and Babylon too eloquently tell. When God, by the insolence of intellect, is thrust aside, He sometimes, nevertheless, mercifully but efficiently reminds men that He is. When the Supernatural is deliberately denied and scornfully rejected, suffering may serve to open the eyes of the blind and make the dumb to speak. The general tendency in these days is to worship Mind, Intelligence, and Power, for Might, with too many, is Right. Literary jargon setting forth this duty may be constantly read. The wisest action for the truly wise is to turn away from such; for the noblest and proudest ambition of a Christian's life should consist in being humble worshippers of Him the One Author of the Supernatural and the Natural, Whose only power is infinite, Whose knowledge and wisdom are boundless, and Whose abiding love and mercy are over all His works. APPENDIX TO CHAPTER X. THE CLAIMS OF SCIENCE AND FAITH. By my friend Mr. Hawker's obliging kindness I am enabled to publish the following remarkable Letter:-- "To Mr. S. J----, Merchant, Plymouth. "MY DEAR NEPHEW,--You ask me 'to put into one of my nutshells' the pith and marrow of the controversy which at this time pervades the English mind as to the claims of Science and Faith. Let me try: The material universe--so the sages allege--is a vast assemblage of atoms or molecules--'motes in the sunbeam' of Science, which has existed for myriads of ages under a perpetual system of evolution, restructure, and change. This mighty mass is traversed by the forces electrical, or magnetic, or with other kindred names; and these by their incessant and indomitable action are adequate to account for all the phenomena of the world of matter, and of man. The upheaval of a continent; the drainage of a sea; the creation of a metal; nay, the origin of life, and the development of a species in plant, or animal, or man; these are the achievements of fixed and natural laws among the atomic materials, under the vibration of the forces alone. Thus far the vaunted discoveries of Science are said to have arrived. Let us indulge them with the theory that these results, for they are nothing more, are accurate and real. But still, a thoughtful mind will venture to demand whence did these atoms derive their existence? and from what, and from whom, do they inherit the propensities wherewithal they are imbued? And tell me, most potent seigniors, what is the origin of these forces? And with whom resides the impulse of their action and the guidance of their control? 'Nothing so difficult as a beginning.' Your philosopher is mute! he has reached the horizon of his domain, and to him all beyond is doubt, and uncertainty, and guess. We must lift the veil. We must pass into the border-land between two Worlds, and there inquire at the Oracles of Revelation touching the Unseen and Spiritual powers which thrill through the mighty sacrament of the visible Creation. We perceive, being inspired, the realms of surrounding space peopled by immortal creatures of air-- 'Myriads of spiritual things that walk unseen, Both when we wake and when we sleep.' These are the existences, in aspect as 'young men in white garments,' who inhabit the void place between the Worlds and their Maker, and their God. Behold the battalions of the Lord of Hosts! the Workers of the sky! the faithful and intelligent Vassals of God the Trinity! We have named them in our own poor and meagre language 'the Angels,' but this title merely denotes one of their subordinate offices--messengers from on high. The Gentiles called them 'Gods,' but we ought to honour them by a name that should embrace and interpret their lofty dignity as an intermediate army between the kingdom and the throne; the Centurions of the stars, and of men; the Commanders of the forces and their Guides. These are they that, each with a delegated office, fulfil what their 'King invisible' decrees; not with the dull, inert mechanism of fixed and natural law, but with the unslumbering energy and the rational obedience of spiritual life. They mould the atom; they wield the force; and, as Newton rightly guessed, they rule the World of matter beneath the silent Omnipotence of God. "'And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to Heaven; and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. And behold the Lord stood above it.'--Genesis xxviii. 12. _Tolle, Lege_, my dear nephew. "Your affectionate uncle, "R. S. HAWKER. "Morwenstow Vicarage, Cornwall." GENERAL INDEX. A Discerner of spirits, i. 81 Abimelech's dream, i. 210 Aerolites, i. 24 After-vision of a suicide, ii. 75 Alexander Macdonald's dream, i. 285 Amulet of the Grahams, i. 277 ---- of the Macdonald Lockharts, i. 278 Ann Thorne bewitched, i. 194 Apparition at Ballarat, ii. 61 ---- at time of death, ii. 59 ---- in the Jewel House, ii. 105 ---- near Cardiff, ii. 114 ---- of a college friend, ii. 71 ---- of a crow, ii. 131 ---- of a dying father, ii. 58 ---- of a dying lady to her children, ii. 64 ---- of a father to his son, ii. 58 ---- of a friend, ii. 60 ---- of a sister, ii. 59 ---- of a son to his mother and another, ii. 73 ---- of an officer, ii. 10 ---- of Dr. Ferrar's daughter, ii. 25 ---- of Philip Weld, ii. 51 ---- of Rev. W. Naylor, ii. 7 ---- of S. Stanislaus, ii. 51 ---- seven years after death, ii. 71 ---- to a gentleman, ii. 119 ---- to a lady and her child, ii. 113 ---- to a lady and her child, ii. 117 ---- to a sentry, and his death thereupon, ii. 108 ---- to Lord Brougham, ii. 68 ---- to Lord Chedworth, ii. 35 ---- to Mr. Andrews, ii. 41 Apparitions at Oxford, ii. 209 Arrowsmith, Trial of Rev. E., i. 91 Arrowsmith's Hand preserved, i. 95 Authentication of Lamb's cure, i. 96 Barony of Chedworth, ii. 34 Belief in God universal, i. 5 Benediction, The principle of, i. 90 Beresford apparition, The, ii. 11 Bird, The Spectral, ii. 128 Bisham Abbey, Ghost at, ii. 91 Bishop Joseph Hall on temporal punishment, ii. 89 Bishop Ken's hymn, ii. 82 Blessing and cursing, Power of, i. 90. Bosworth's testimony, Mr. T., ii. 146 Bridget Bishop accused of witchcraft, i. 198 Bull of Pope Innocent VIII. against witchcraft, i. 162 Captain William Dyke, ii. 22 Cardan, Jerome, i. 282 Case of Annie Milner, i. 169 ---- of Martha Brossier, i. 165 Catharine Campbell accused of witchcraft, i. 197 Catholic claim to exclusive use of exorcism, i. 163 Causation, The law of, i. 3 Chamber, John, on "Judiciall Astrologie," i. 200 Charles I., Omens concerning, i. 267, 271 Charles Ireland bewitched, i. 186 Chevalier's testimony concerning Spiritualism, Mr., ii. 180 "Christ is coming" quoted, ii. 136. Christian Shaw bewitched, i. 197 Christian writers on the Supernatural, i. 31 Christianity, Morse on the decline of, ii. 137 Citation, Remarkable case of, i. 90 Club, The Hell-Fire, ii. 207 Colgarth, The Philipsons of, i. 90 Collins's Sermon, Rev. H., i. 135 Cometism, The Trinity of, i. 19 Constantine victorious, i. 38 Creslow, Haunted chamber at, ii. 92 Criticism upon Mr. Congreve, i. 20 Crookes, Mr. W., on Spiritualism, ii. 159, 162, 164 Cross of Constantine, The, i. 35 ---- fire seen in France in 1826, A, i. 16 Cure, Miraculous, i. 95 ---- Miraculous, by the Blessed Sacrament, i. 121, 125 Daimonomagia, i. 174 Dale-Owen, Mr., quoted, ii. 183, 185 Death of Captain Speer, i. 253 ---- of Rev. S. B. Drury, i. 251 De Lisle's, Miss, death, Supernatural music at, i. 135 De Lisle, Mr., on the Weld ghost story, ii. 54 ---- Mr. Edwin, on Strauss, i. 2 Demons, Belief in, ii. 212 Denial of the Supernatural, i. 1 Details of the Supernatural, i. 8 Discovery of a lost will, i. 204 Disease of witchcraft, i. 174 Double apparition at time of death, ii. 55 ---- in the West Indies, ii. 58 Dr. Lamb, the sorcerer, i. 202 Dr. Newman on ecclesiastical miracles, i. 36 Dr. Samuel Johnson on the Lyttelton story, ii. 45 Dr. William Harvey's escape from death, i. 284 Dream of a child, Warning given in the, i. 260 ---- of a dignitary realized, i. 257 ---- of a housekeeper realized, i. 240 ---- of a widow lady, i. 258 ---- of Adam Rogers, i. 219 ---- of Andrew Scott, i. 261 ---- of Mr. Matthew Talbot, i. 225 ---- of Mr. Williams of Scorrier, i. 226 ---- of the Princess Natgotsky, i. 255 ---- of the Swaffham tinker, i. 215 ---- Prognostication of death in a, i. 250 ---- Remarkable, of a clergyman, i. 247 ---- Warning given in a, i. 254 ---- Warning neglected, i. 244 Dreams and visions, i. 211 Dreams, Nature of, i. 210 ---- of James Jessop, i. 244, 245 ---- recorded in Scripture, i. 211 ---- reproduction of thoughts in, i. 215 ---- supernatural, i. 210 Dunbar's testimony, Rev. Dr., ii. 218 Dungeon at Glamis Castle, The, ii. 114 Early Popes martyrs, The, i. 31 Eastern form of exorcism, i. 162 Ecclesiastical miracles, i. 32 Effect of the Supernatural, i. 7 Elimination of God, The, i. 19 Elizabeth Gorham bewitched, i. 187 ---- Style accused of witchcraft, i. 177 ---- Tibbots bewitched, i. 178 ---- Treslar hung for witchcraft, i. 181 Ellinor Shaw and Mary Philips, i. 182 Emperor Julian thwarted, The, i. 42 English canon concerning exorcism, i. 164 ---- statutes against witchcraft, i. 163 "Eternal," The term, i. 5 Execution of Frederick Caulfield, i. 223 ---- of Lamb's servant, i. 203 Exhumation of James Quin, i. 236 Exorcism, Power of, i. 57, 69, 82 ---- Latin form of, i. 138 ---- Oriental form of, i. 162 Facts of witchcraft and necromancy, i. 164 Faculty of Jerome Cardan, i. 283 Fall of aerolites, i. 25 False reasoning, i. 26 Ferrers family, Omen concerning, i. 272 Florence Newton accused of witchcraft, i. 180 Friday an unlucky day, i. 282 Ghost of Bisham Abbey, ii. 91 God and His creatures, i. 4 ---- The elimination of, i. 19 Guesses of Science, The, i. 14 Hand of Arrowsmith preserved, i. 95 Hanmer, Mr. C. L., on an apparition, ii. 60 Hannah Green's testimony, i. 242 Haunted houses and localities, ii. 82 ---- chamber at Creslow, ii. 92 ---- Glamis Castle, ii. 114 ---- house at Barby, ii. 109 ---- house at Berne, ii. 126 ---- house in Cheshire, ii. 116 ---- house in Scotland, ii. 123 ---- place at York Castle, ii. 96 ---- places, ii. 84 ---- police cell, ii. 121 ---- road near Cardiff, ii. 114 ---- room at Glamis Castle, ii. 112 ---- room in the Tower, ii. 104 ---- spot in Yorkshire, ii. 100 Hell-Fire Club, The, ii. 207 Henry Spicer's testimony, Mr., ii. 75 ---- IV. of France, Omen of death to, i. 267 Herder on Witchcraft, ii. 210 Heresies of the modern Spiritualists, ii. 185, 191 Home, Mr. Daniel, ii. 151, 153 Hospitals, Christian in their origin, i. 10 Howell, Mr. J., on Spiritualism, ii. 176, 177 Howitt, Mr. W., on eternal punishment, ii. 186, 188 Hume on miracles, i. 23 Increase Mather on the tests of demoniacal possession, i. 173 ---- Mather's "Cases of Conscience," i. 195 Inquiries regarding Wynyard, ii. 33 Jane Brookes accused of witchcraft, i. 175 ---- Wenham accused of witchcraft, i. 192 Johnson, Dr. Samuel, on the Lyttelton ghost, ii. 45 Kostka's, S. Stanislaus, apparition, ii. 53 ---- picture at Stonyhurst, ii. 53 Labarum, The, i. 37 Lactantius on dreams, i. 213 Lady Betty Cobb, ii. 15 Lancashire demoniacs, The, i. 171 Lane, Mr., on Modern Necromancy, ii. 215, 217 Laud, Omens concerning Archbishop, i. 271 Law of causation, The, i. 3 Lecky, Mr. W. H. E., on the Oxford Movement, ii. 232 Legion, The Thundering, i. 34 Longdon, Mary, bewitched, i. 194 Lord Falkland, Omen concerning, i. 270 Lord Litchfield's note of a presentiment, i. 281 ---- testimony, i. 281 Lord Westcote's testimony, ii. 42 Lyttelton Ghost story, ii. 36, 42, 46 Macdonald's, A., case of second sight, i. 285 Macknish on dreams, i. 215 Major George Sydenham, ii. 22 Marquis de Marsay on Spirits, ii. 86 Mary of Medicis, Omen of death to, i. 267 Media, Table of Spiritual, ii. 143 Mines, Haunted, ii. 84 Ministry of Angels, ii. 82 Miracles at Rome in 1792, i. 17 ---- Bishop Hall on, ii. 230 ---- examination of at Rome, ii. 227 ---- of our Lord, i. 30 ---- of Prince Hohenlohe, i. 17 ---- wrought by the Blessed Sacrament, i. 123, 126 Miracle at Garswood, i. 96 ---- at Metz, i. 128 ---- at Typasa, i. 42 ---- under Marcus Aurelius, i. 33 Miraculous cure at Pontoise, i. 83 ---- facts, Tradition of, i. 32 ---- of Joseph Lamb, i. 95 ---- of Mary Wood, i. 114 ---- of Winifred White, i. 116 Mediumship, ii. 143 ---- Clairlative, ii. 146 ---- Clairvoyant, ii. 150 ---- Developing, ii. 148 ---- Duodynamic, ii. 148 ---- Gesticulating, ii. 144 ---- Homo-motor, ii. 147 ---- Impersonating, ii. 145 ---- Impressional, ii. 150 ---- Manipulating, ii. 145 ---- Missionary, ii. 149 ---- Motive, ii. 144 ---- Neurological, ii. 146 ---- Pantomimic, ii. 145 ---- Pictorial, ii. 148 ---- Psychologic, ii. 147 ---- Psychometric, ii. 148 ---- Pulsatory, ii. 145 ---- Speaking, ii. 150 ---- Symbolic, ii. 147 ---- Sympathetic, ii. 146 ---- Therapeutic, ii. 149 ---- Tipping, ii. 144 ---- Vibratory, ii. 144 Miss Weld's testimony, ii. 54 Modern scientific methods, i. 10 Monsignor Patterson's testimony, ii. 52 More's "Antidote against Atheism," i. 173 Mr. De Lisle on Miracles, i. 15 Mr. De Lisle's testimony, ii. 54 Mr. Edwin De Lisle in reply to Strauss, i. 4 Mr. E. Lenthal Swifte's testimony, ii. 104 Mr. George Fortescue's declaration, ii. 43 Mr. Henry Cope Caulfeild's testimony, ii. 115 Mr. Herbert Spencer answered, i. 11 Mr. J. G. Godwin's declaration, ii. 68 Mr. Laxon's wife tormented, i. 189 Mr. M. P. Andrews' declaration, ii. 43 Mr. Ralph Davis on the Northampton witches, i. 182 Mr. Rutherford's declaration, i. 263 Mr. William Talbot's testimony, i. 226 Mrs. Baillie-Hamilton's testimony, ii. 66 Mrs. George Lee's testimony, i. 230 Mrs. Kempson's testimony, i. 254 Murder discovered by a dream, i. 221 ---- of Maria Martin discovered, i. 231 ---- of the crippled and imbecile, i. 9 Naturalistic materialism, i. 10 Nature of God, i. 6 ---- dreams, i. 210 Necromancy recognized by the fathers, i. 161 ---- in China, ii. 220 Northamptonshire witches, The, i. 182 Notions, reintroduction of Pagan, i. 13 Old traditions generally accepted, ii. 90 Omen concerning Archbishop Laud, i. 271 ---- concerning King Charles I., i. 268, 269, 270 ---- concerning Lord Falkland, i. 270 Omens and prognostications, i. 263 ---- The subject of, i. 263 Opinions of Strauss, i. 3 Oracles, The cessation of, i. 282 Ostrehan's, Captain, testimony, ii. 218 Oxenham omen, The, i. 273 Pagan notions, Reintroduction of, i. 13 Patterson's, Monsignor, information, ii. 52 Perrone, Father, on Spiritualism, ii. 184 Philipsons of Colgarth, The, i. 90 Planchette, Use of, ii. 220, 222 Plumer Ward's, Mr., account of the Lyttelton ghost, ii. 46 Plutarch on the "Cessation of Oracles," i. 282 Popes martyrs, The early, i. 31 Portrait of S. Stanislaus, ii. 53 Power and malice of Satan, ii. 83 ---- of blessing and cursing, i. 90 ---- of exorcism claimed exclusively, i. 163 Presentiment of Lieutenant R----, i. 250 ---- of death, i. 262 ---- to Lady Warre's chaplain, i. 281 Principle of benediction, The, i. 88 Principles of the Broad Church party, ii. 137 Prognostication of death in a dream, i. 250 ---- of death to Captain Speer, i. 252 Prognostications and omens, i. 263 Propriety of a revelation, i. 5 Purbrick, Rev. E. J., on the Weld ghost story, ii. 54 Purport of dreams, i. 212 Rebuilding of the Temple, i. 42 "Report on Spiritualism" quoted, ii. 153 Rev. Dr. Cox's testimony, ii. 54 Rev. Dr. J. M. Neale's testimony i. 243 Rev. Edward Price on the World of Spirits, ii. 82 Rev. G. R. Winter on the Swaffham tinker, i. 215 Rev. H. N. Oxenham's testimony, i. 277 Rev. J. Richardson's testimony, i. 253 Rev. John Wesley on evil spirits, ii. 85 Rev. Joseph Jefferson's testimony, ii. 100 Rev. Mr. Perring's dream realized, i. 234 Rev. T. J. Morris's testimony, i. 240 "Rules for the Spirit Circle" quoted, ii. 151 S. Augustine on miracles, i. 30 S. Bernard on dreams, i. 214 S. Cyprian on dreams, i. 214 S. Cyril on dreams, i. 214 S. Irenæus on miracles, i. 41 S. John's College, Oxford, Founding of, i. 267 S. Pacian on miracles, i. 41 S. Thomas Aquinas on dreams, i. 214 Sacrilege discovered by a dream, i. 232 "Sadducismus Triumphatus" referred to, i. 199 Satan, power and malice of, ii. 83 Science and faith, Rev. R. S. Hawker on, ii. 239 Science of the Pagan oracles, i. 161 "Scientific View of Modern Spiritualism" quoted, ii. 143 Scott, Dream of Andrew, i. 261 Scripture on witchcraft and necromancy, i. 164 Séance at the Marshalls', i. 203 ---- record of, from "Spiritual Magazine," ii. 169 Second sight, Treatise on, i. 285 ---- at Cardiff, i. 286 ---- at Ramsbury, i. 288 ---- Jerome Cardan's gift of, i. 283 Sexton, Dr. G., on spiritualism, ii. 225 Shakespeare's conception of the supernatural, ii. 89 Singular prognostication, i. 250 Sir Christopher Heydon on astrology, i. 200 Sir George Caulfeild, i. 223 Sir Henry Chauncy trying witches, i. 193 Sir Henry Yelverton and his death, i. 95 Sir Martin Beresford, ii. 13 Sir Matthew Hale's evidence as to witchcraft, i. 163 Sir Thomas Brown's evidence against witchcraft, i. 163 Slade's, Sir Alfred, testimony, ii. 218 Somerset omen, The, i. 266 Sorcery of Dr. Lamb, i. 202 _Sortes Virgilianæ_, The, i. 269, 270 Sound of a drum, The, i. 278 Southey on haunted localities, ii. 84 Spectral dog, The, i. 280 Spectre of Lady Hobby, The, ii. 91 Spedlin's Tower haunted, ii. 97 Spirits, perturbed, ii. 87 ---- World of, ii. 82 Spiritualism despised, ii. 139 ---- modern, ii. 135, 169 ---- Mr. W. Crookes on the phenomena of, ii. 159 ---- Origin of, ii. 141 Spiritualistic manifestations, i. 205; ii. 151, 153, 155, 157, 160, 161, 163, 169, 173, 175, 176, 177, 178, 180 Statement of Lord Lyttelton's valet, ii. 45 Stigmatization, i. 98, 100, 101, 102, 105, 109 Strauss, Opinions of, i. 2 Successful exorcism by an English clergyman, i. 80 Sudden death of Ruth Pierce, i. 289 Supernatural banished, The, ii. 140 ---- basis of life, i. 12 ---- its work, i. 2 ---- noises at Abbotsford, ii. 99 ---- religion, i. 18 Surey demoniac, The, i. 177 Tertullian on dreams, i. 213 Testimony to the fulfilment of a solemn Curse, i. 117 The Chester-le-Street apparition, ii. 3 The Christian system, i. 26 The Lyttelton ghost story, ii. 35 The Misses Amphlett, ii. 39 The Oxenham omen, i. 274 The result of a solemn Curse, i. 117 The sound of a drum, i. 278 The spectral dog, i. 280 ---- bird, ii. 128 The use of the Sign of the Cross, ii. 4 The white bird of the Oxenhams, i. 274 Theories concerning dreams, i. 210 Thirteen to Dinner, i. 281 Thomas Aquinas on miracles, S., i. 28 Three men rescued by a dream, i. 231 Tichborne dole, The, i. 264 ---- Curse and Prophecy, The, i. 265 ---- Mabella, Lady, i. 264 ---- Sir Henry, i. 265 ---- Sir Roger, i. 264 Tinley, Dream of Samuel, i. 262 Tradition of miraculous powers, i. 32 Treatise on second sight, i. 285 Trial of Rev. E. Arrowsmith, i. 91 Trinity of Comteism, The, i. 19 Twice-repeated dream of a sailor, i. 231 Tyrone apparition, The, ii. 11 Unalterable experience, i. 24 Use of the Sign of the Cross, ii. 4 Wallace, Mr. A., on spiritualism and science, ii. 193 Wandering souls, ii. 87 Ward's account of the Lyttelton ghost, Mr., ii. 46 Warning given in a dream, i. 238, 254 ---- given to a lady by a dream, i. 242 ---- to a lady, i. 258 ---- to a little child, i. 260 ---- to two persons in dreams, i. 258 "Weekly Register," The, on Mr. Wallace's theories, ii. 197 Weld ghost story, The, ii. 49 ---- Philip, drowned, ii. 50 ---- Very Rev. Alfred, S. J., on the Weld ghost story, ii. 54 Weld's, Philip, apparition, ii. 53 Westcote, Lord, on the Lyttelton ghost, i. 33 White's Dream, Sir Thomas, i. 266 Witchcraft and necromancy, i. 152 ---- and sorcery, Canon Melville on, i. 156 ---- common in non-Catholic countries, i. 201 ---- condemned in Scripture, i. 152, 155 ---- Definition of, i. 174 ---- Examples of, i. 176-201 ---- George More on, i. 171 ---- Herder on, ii. 210 ---- Jane Wenham accused of, i. 192 ---- Joseph Glanville on, i. 175 ---- recognized by the Fathers, i. 161 ---- Rev. John Wesley on, i. 160 Witches, The Northamptonshire, i. 182 "Wonders of the Invisible World," i. 198 World of spirits, The, ii. 82 Wynyard ghost story, The, ii. 26 THE END. CHISWICK PRESS:--PRINTED BY WHITTINGHAM AND WILKINS, TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE. FOOTNOTES: [1] Here in Mr. Surtees' record is a remarkable example of the pious and devout use of the sacred Sign of the Cross, which, having been universal amongst all classes before the Reformation, was continued by many for long generations afterwards, and the use of which since the Catholic Revival in the English Church has become common. [2] "History of Durham," by Robert Surtees, Esq.: under "Chester-le-Street." Vol. ii. pp. 147-148. [3] "Nichols' Literary Illustrations." Vol. iv. p. 119, _et seq._ London, 1822. [4] Arthur Orchard, of S. John's College, Cambridge, B.A. 1662; M.A. 1666; B.D. 1673. [5] "Letters on Animal Magnetism," by Dr. W. Gregory, p. 487. London, 1851. [6] A member of the noble family of Beresford thus wrote (A.D. 1873) to a friend of the Editor, with reference to the above narrative:--"The tradition in our family is entirely in favour of the truth of the Spectral Appearance, and the account which I have read, and return, is in my opinion a true and faithful narration of it." [7] The record of this came to the Editor, through a friend, from the late Rev. W. Hastings Kelke, M.A., sometime Rector of Drayton Beauchamp, in the county of Bucks. [8] The barony of Chedworth was conferred upon John Howe, Esq., of Chedworth, co. Gloucester, on May 12, 1741. He had two sons, John Thynne, the nobleman referred to in the above account, and Henry Frederick, who in turn succeeded him in the title. His daughter Mary married Alexander Wright, Esq., whose daughter Mary Wright is the lady mentioned in the above narrative. Miss Wright's cousin John inherited as fourth baron, but died unmarried, Oct. 29, 1804, when the peerage became extinct. [9] Another narrative of this remarkable event, which substantially corresponds with those given in the text above is provided here. In certain respects there are discrepancies, and just those kinds of discrepancies which might reasonably have been looked for in accounts drawn up by different hands; but in the main facts, regarding which there can be no reasonable doubt, there is a remarkable and notable identity in all the leading features: "Two nights before, on Lord Lyttelton retiring to bed, after his servant was dismissed and his light extinguished, he had heard a noise resembling the fluttering of a dove at his chamber window. This attracted his attention to the spot; when, looking in the direction of the sound, he saw the figure of an unhappy female whom he had seduced, and who, when deserted, had put a violent end to her own existence, standing in the aperture of the window from which the fluttering sound had proceeded. The form approached the foot of the bed, the room was preternaturally light, the objects of the chamber were distinctly visible. Raising her hand and pointing to a dial which stood on the mantlepiece of the chimney, the figure, with a severe solemnity of voice and manner, answered to the appalled and conscience-stricken man that at that very hour, on the third day after the visitation, his life and his sins would be concluded, and nothing but their punishment remain, if he availed himself not of the warning to repentance which he had thus received. The eye of Lord Lyttelton glanced upon the dial; the hand was on the stroke of twelve: again the apartment was involved in total darkness--the warning spirit disappeared, and bore away at her departure all the lightness of heart and buoyancy of spirit, ready flow of wit, and vivacity of manner, which had formerly been the pride and ornament of the unhappy being to whom she had delivered her tremendous summons. Such was the tale that Lord Lyttelton delivered to his companions. They laughed at his superstition, and endeavoured to convince him that his mind must have been impressed with this idea by some dream of a more consistent nature than dreams generally are, and that he had mistaken the visions of his sleep for the visitation of a spirit. He was consoled, but not convinced; he felt relieved by their distrust, and on the second night after the appearance of the spectre, he retreated to his apartment with his faith in the reality of the transaction somewhat shaken; and his spirits, though not revived, certainly lightened of somewhat of their oppression. On the succeeding day the guests of Lord Lyttelton, with the connivance of his attendant, had provided that the clocks throughout the house should be advanced an hour; by occupying the host's attention during the whole day with different and successive objects of amusement, they contributed to prevent his discovering the imposture. Ten o'clock struck: the nobleman was silent and depressed. Eleven struck, the depression deepened, and now not even a smile, or the slightest movement of his eye indicated him to be conscious of the efforts of his associates, as they attempted to dispel his gloom. Twelve struck. 'Thank God! I am safe,' exclaimed Lord Lyttelton, 'the ghost was a liar after all. Some wine, there. Congratulate me, my friends; congratulate me on my reprieve. Why, what a fool I was to be cast down by so idle and absurd a circumstance! But, however, it is time for bed. We'll be up early and out with the hounds to-morrow. By my faith, it's half-past twelve, so good night!' and he returned to his chamber convinced of his security, and believing that the threatened hour of peril was now past. His guests remained together to await the completion of the time so ominously designated by the vision. A quarter of an hour had elapsed: they heard the valet descend from his master's room. It was just twelve. Lord Lyttelton's bell rang violently. The company ran in a body to his apartment. The clock struck one at their entrance, the unhappy nobleman lay extended on the bed before them, pale and lifeless, and his countenance terribly convulsed." In his "Memoirs," Sir Nathaniel Wraxall has the following relating to this occurrence:-- "Dining at Pitt Place, about four years after the death of Lord Lyttelton, in the year 1783, I had the curiosity to visit the bed-chamber, where the casement window, at which Lord Lyttelton asserted the dove appeared to flutter, was pointed out to me; and at his stepmother's, the Dowager Lady Lyttelton's in Portugal Street, Grosvenor Square, who being a woman of very lively imagination, lent an implicit faith to all the supernatural facts which were supposed to have accompanied or produced Lord Lyttelton's end. I have frequently seen a painting which she herself executed in 1780, especially to commemorate the event: it hung in a conspicuous part of her drawing-room. There the dove appears at the window, while a female figure, habited in white, stands at the foot of the bed, announcing to Lord Lyttelton his dissolution. Every part of the picture was faithfully designed after the description given to her by the valet-de-chambre who attended him, to whom his master related all the circumstances." [10] Copied from a paper in the autograph of Lord Westcote, entitled "Remarkable Circumstances attending the Death of Thomas, Lord Lyttelton," which the present Lord Lyttelton most courteously entrusted to the Editor of this volume, together with several other original documents relating to the same, as follows:--1. Extract from Mr. Plumer Ward's "Illustrations of Human Life," vol. i. p. 165. 2. Written account given by Sir Digby Neave, bart., to Lord Lyttelton in 1860. 3. MS. containing Mr. George Fortescue's testimony, signed S. L. 4. The following declaration:--"Chiswick, May 6th, 1867. Miles Peter Andrews told me the story of Lord Lyttelton's appearance to him, driving with me at Wingerworth, many years ago.--Anna Hunloke." [11] Lord Lyttelton's valet made the following statement:--"That Lord Lyttelton made his usual preparations for bed; that he kept every now and then looking for his watch; that when he got into bed, he ordered his curtains to be closed at the foot. It was now within a minute or two of twelve by his watch; he asked to look at mine, and seemed pleased to find it nearly keep time with his own. His lordship then put them both to his ear, to satisfy himself if they went. When it was more than a quarter after twelve by our watches, he said, 'This mysterious lady is not a true prophetess, I find.' When it was near the real hour of twelve, he said, 'Come, I'll wait no longer; get me my medicine, I'll take it, and try to sleep.' I just stepped into the dressing-room to prepare the physic, and had mixed it, when I thought I heard my lord breathing very hard. I ran to him, and found him in the agonies of death."--"Gentleman's Magazine," vol. lxxxv. part i. p. 598, A.D. 1815. [12] In Boswell's "Life of Samuel Johnson" (vol. iv. p. 313) the Doctor is recorded to have said, "It is the most extraordinary occurrence in my days. I heard it from Lord Westcote, his uncle. I am so glad to have evidence of the spiritual world, that I am willing to believe it." [13] "James Weld, Esq., seventh son of Thomas Weld, Esq., of Lulworth Castle, was born April 30, 1785, married July 15, 1812, the Hon. Juliana Anne, daughter of Robert Edward, tenth Lord Petre, and has had issue, 1. Henry, 2. Francis, a priest, 3. _Philip_, died 1846; 1. Anna Maria, 2. Katharine, 3. Agnes, a nun, 4. Charlotte."--See Burke's "Landed Gentry," vol. ii. art. "Weld of Lulworth Castle." [14] The Right Rev. Monsignor Patterson, the present President of S. Edmund's college (A.D. 1872), kindly informs me that there is a memorial brass in front of the sanctuary of the chapel of that society, on which is figured a floriated cross, rising out of waves, with a label appended to it,--"Lord save me." [15] S. Stanislaus Kostka was born on Oct. 28, 1550, his parents being John and Margaret Kostka, Polish nobles of wealth and repute. Miraculous signs foreshadowed his birth; and the holiness and purity of his early years betokened in a marked manner the favour of God towards this child. In his fourteenth year he went to Vienna to finish his studies at the Jesuit college. Here, his saintliness was so manifested forth by his conduct, that the Fathers said, "We have in our seminary an angel under the form of Stanislaus." Many miraculous favours are said to have been bestowed upon him by the hands of saints and angels, too numerous and lengthy to be recorded. He commenced his noviciate in the Jesuit college at Rome; where, after a short but edifying sojourn, he joyfully departed this life, aged 18 years, on the morning of August 15, 1568. [16] Mr. de Lisle, of Garendon Park, Leicestershire, in communicating to me the above narrative, writes as follows:--"I send you my account of the apparition of Philip Weld, according to my promise. I received it back this morning (July 17, 1872) from the Benedictine Convent at Athenstone, in Warwickshire, where my daughter Gwendoline is a nun, and where one of the Miss Welds, a cousin of Philip, is also a nun. She approves the accuracy of my account, and has added a paper with a few notes, which I inclose along with my own article, and from which you can correct mine so far as needed. I add here my affirmation that the above recorded narrative is a true and faithful account of what the Very Rev. Dr. Cox, then President of S. Edmund's College, related to me and to Mrs. de Lisle in February, 1847." The Editor is also greatly indebted to the Very Rev. Alfred Weld, S.J., for his courteous Letters upon the subject of the above narrative, as likewise to the Rev. E. J. Purbrick, S.J. [17] "Letters on Animal Magnetism," by Dr. W. Gregory, pp. 448-489. London, 1851. [18] "The Apparition or Spectral Appearance of my friend's father to him in the West Indies--the old gentleman having died in England, and the fact of two officers having seen it simultaneously, shows that it could not have been the result of their imagination, but that it was an objective appearance; in fact, the dead man's immortal spirit, indicating to one once bound by Nature's ties to the living witness of it, that the separation of soul and body had taken place. It is firmly believed by the family, who, however, all shrink from making their names public. So, my dear doctor, you must be content with this."--E. M. C., Cambridge, July 15, 1873. [19] "The narrative of the spectral appearance of a lady at Torquay, forwarded to Dr. F. G. Lee at his special request, is copied from, and compared with that in, the family Bible of H. A. T. Baillie-Hamilton by the undersigned, "C. Margaret Balfour, Mary Baillie-Hamilton. Witness, J. R. Grant. "Princes Street, Edinburgh, October 7, 1871." [20] "The above is a correct and truthful statement. "Witness my hand and seal. John Gill Godwin. [Illustration] "76, Warwick Street, South Belgravia, Nov. 6, 1874." [21] Special enquiry, made since the above was penned, shows conclusively that this appearance was seen exactly seven years after the date of death.--Editor. [22] The Editor is in no degree concerned with Paganism or Pagan superstitions, nor has he gathered præ-Christian examples. Yet such will have been numerous to the ordinary student of classical history. The Haunted House of Damon, mentioned by Plutarch, will be familiar to many. [23] The following is the original of a most beautiful verse in Bishop Ken's well-known "Evening Hymn," either mutilated in the worst of taste in most hymn-books, or else altogether eliminated and suppressed:-- "You, my best guardian, while I sleep Close to my bed your vigils keep; Your love angelical instil, Stop all the avenues of ill." [24] "What do we know of the World of Spirits? Little or nothing, beyond what Faith and Revelation afford. Still we know that they surround us; that they hover over us; that they accompany us whithersoever we go; and that even in the innermost tabernacle of the soul they penetrate and have their being. Good spirits and bad are around us; good spirits to aid us, to waft our lame and imperfect prayers to heaven, and to protect us in the hour of temptation or peril. 'He shall give His angels charge over thee, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.' Bad angels, too, are around us and against us, percolating through every avenue of the soul, inflaming the imagination, warping the judgment, tainting the will, and too often, alas! perverting it to perdition. Bad angels are around us, even within the protecting sanctuary of God's Church, when summoned, permitted there by the subdued and corrupted will of man. Bad angels are around us in every walk and rank and condition and event of life: we see them not, but they hover over us and around us, and they penetrate within the mysterious precincts of the soul, by many a foul and unholy thought, by many an evil suggestion to sin. And they triumph, and they gibber in their unholy glee whenever they tempt and prevail. They triumph, and they laugh the insulting laugh whenever they steep to the lips in sin an unhappy mortal, and fasten upon him the mocking thought and determination of a deathbed repentance. That is their battle ground, the battle ground of victory. The standard of deceit is then triumphant: the captive is delivered bound into their hands to do with as they list, to be tormented according to the refinement of their infernal pleasure. 'He shall be delivered unto the tormentors.'"--Rev. Edward Price. [25] This belief prevails extensively in Sweden, Germany, and Switzerland. [26] The souls of the dead, or spirits of some sort, are constantly heard and not unfrequently seen in mines. A Shropshire miner informed the Editor that, of his own knowledge, he had heard supernatural sounds of moanings and mutterings underground, and had seemed to _feel_ the passing spirits as they swept by. On one occasion, after the violent and sudden death of a comrade, the noises were unusually loud; while the horses employed underground would stand trembling and covered with perspiration whenever the spirits were heard. [27] "The Life of the Rev. John Wesley, M.A., by Robert Southey, Esq.," vol. ii. p. 370. London: 1858. [28] In many places on the continent, especially in France and Spain, it was the custom to pray for departed souls, suffering (as their needful purification was incompleted) _in any particular locality_. Dr. Neale gives an example of this, occurring in a prayer which he saw printed and hung up in a church at Braganza in Spain, which ran thus:--"We pray, likewise, for the souls which are suffering in any place by the particular chastisement of God." And the following is translated from a French Prayer-Book of the last century:--"Have mercy, O Lord God, good and pitiful, on the souls of those who are being chastised for their transgressions in the flesh, in those places where Thou willest them to suffer;" an evident reference in both cases to troubled spirits which haunt definite spots. [29] When the tone of thought in Shakspeare's day is compared with that in our own, the contrast between the accurate and explicit religious statements regarding the Supernatural, with the shallow and cynical scepticism of modern writers, can hardly be put down to the credit of the Modern. At all events those who claim to range themselves on the side of the Ancient and the True may be permitted to do so. Nothing could more forcibly set forth the current belief of the sixteenth century than the following well-known utterance of the Ghost in "Hamlet":-- "I am thy Father's spirit; Doom'd for a certain time to walk the night, And for the day confined to fast in fires, Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature Are burnt and purged away. But that I am forbid To tell the secrets of my prison-house, I could a tale unfold whose lightest word Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood, Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres, Thy knotted and combined locks to part, And each particular hair to stand on end, Like quills upon the fretful porcupine: But this eternal blazon must not be To ears of flesh and blood." "Hamlet," pp. 22-23. Oxford: 1873. [30] The Editor is indebted to the late Revs. W. Hastings Kelke and H. Roundell of Buckingham, for the above curious example. It was intended to have been published some years ago in "The Records of Bucks." [31] For an accurate account by the late Rev. W. Hastings Kelke of this curious and interesting old mansion, the property of Lord Clifford of Chudleigh, see "The Records of Bucks," vol. i. pp. 255-267. Aylesbury, 1858. [32] "Memoirs of Sir John Reresby," p. 238. [33] The Rev. Joseph Jefferson, M.A., Vicar of North Stainley, near Ripon, who sent me the above--unaltered, and printed just as it was written--on the 2nd of June, 1873. [34] "Notes and Queries," vol. x. second series, Sept. 8, 1860, pp. 192-193, and Sept. 22, 1860, p. 236. [35] Barby is a parish in the Hundred of Fawsley, in the county of Northampton, a little more than five miles from Daventry. It contains between six and seven hundred inhabitants. [36] "Your account, as about to be printed, is _true and exact_, as to all the facts of the haunted house at ----, which came within my own personal knowledge. Don't mention names, or we shall perhaps be damaging the property, and lay ourselves open to an action at law. I may add that the late Bishop of Chester [Dr. Graham] is said to have furnished a mutual friend, the late Master of Trinity, with similar accounts, which had taken place before I knew the place, verifying to an A B C the old and, no doubt, perfectly true tradition. It is strange enough I know, _but it is true_.--Yours, &c., H. S. B., November, 1874." [37] The wife of the clergyman above alluded to, wrote to the Editor as follows:--"Having read the account which you contemplate publishing, I can testify of my own personal knowledge that it is _neither understated nor exaggerated, but is in all its details strictly true and accurate_.--June, 1874." [38] Miss S. F. Caulfeild, author of "Avenele," "Desmond," &c. [39] It seems that other places are reported to be haunted by appearances of Birds. A correspondent informs the Editor that this is the case with an old House in Dorsetshire, not far from Poole, where a wingless bird is sometimes seen. The same is said of a mansion in Essex, as another correspondent declares. In one room in an old house in Dean Street, Soho, likewise, several persons have seen a large raven, three times the size of an ordinary raven, perched on the tester of the old-fashioned bed. The inmates of the house, in 1854, whose family had had the lease for eighty years, are said to have been so accustomed to seeing it (though they knew it to be spectral) that they were undisturbed by its frequent appearance. Dr. Neale's story as follows (not unlike the examples already given), is very singular. Regarding it he wrote:--"_It comes to me with a weight of evidence, which, strange as is the tale, I cannot disbelieve_. Three friends, not very much distinguished by piety, had been dining together at the residence of one of them in Norfolk. After dinner they went out and strolled through the churchyard. 'Well,' said a clergyman, one of the three, 'I wonder, after all, if there is any future state or not?' They agreed that whichever died first should appear to the others and inform them. 'In what shape shall it be?' asked one of the friends. At that moment a flight of crows arose from a neighbouring field. 'A crow is as good a shape as any other,' said the clergyman; 'if I should be the first to die, I will appear in that.' He _did_ die first; and some time after his death, the other two had been dining together, and were walking in the garden afterwards. A crow settled on the head of one of them, stuck there pertinaciously, and could only be torn off by main force. And when this gentleman's carriage came to take him home, the crow perched on it, and accompanied him back." [40] "Strange Things Amongst Us." By Henry Spicer. 2nd ed., pp. 100-102. London: Chapman & Hall, 1864. [41] The following is taken from a small volume which has been gratuitously circulated very widely amongst the clergy and laity. It bears a Christian title, but is altogether anti-Christian from end to end:-- "The unwise, idolatrous, early Christian priests, in their admiration of Christ, exalted him in their imagination to be God Himself, forgetting the Creator God, and exalting in their foolish imagination his Blessed Mother as the Mother of God--folly that has been widely perpetuated down to these days. Oh, foolish churches, how great has been your folly, how widely you have departed from the truth; therefore how little you have been able to cope with the wicked heart of man! "In like manner as the Israelites, from the crucifixion down to these days, have erred in disbelieving the Messiah-ship of Christ, so the spurious churches have, during many ages, exalted Christ in their imagination to be God. The Israelites and the spurious churches being equal in their great error--the one refusing to acknowledge him as the long-promised Messiah, the other exalting him in their imagination as being the Messiah, the Holy Ghost, and God the Creator also; the Israelites refusing to give any glory to Christ, the spurious churches madly rushing, in their ancient antagonism towards the Jews, to the opposite extreme, by robbing, in their imagination, God the Creator of His Glory, and giving all glory to the Messiah, to the great grief of the Messiah. "Now clearly understand, oh ye nations of the whole world! it was not God who was born out of the Virgin Mary, and who was crucified, but the before holy angel Christ--understand this, and the Holy Scriptures will be plain to your comprehension--Christians have erred greatly during so many generations, in like manner as the followers of Mahomet and of Buddah have erred--errors that were carelessly accepted by powerful rulers, evil and ignorant, and forced upon the priests and the people, generation after generation. The time is at hand, even knocking at the door, when your understanding shall be made clear, and neither the professing followers of Christ, nor of Buddah, nor of Mahomet, nor the unwise of other sects, will continue in their many errors."--"Christ is Coming," pp. 135-6. "Yet to-day, if one dare question the value of Christianity, what a howl is raised from one end of Christendom to the other! We say so advisedly, for it is the howl of fear.... Though Christianity to-day declines and is losing power and vigour, yet in its day it hath done great and glorious good in the work of human redemption. It was an advance upon the religions which preceded it."--"What of the Dead? An Address by Mr. J. J. Morse, in the Trance State," p. 5. London: J. Burns. 1873. [42] 2 St. Peter iii. 3, 4. [43] "A Scientific View of Modern Spiritualism: a Paper read by Mr. T. Grant to the Maidstone and Mid-Kent Natural History and Philosophical Society on Tuesday, Dec. 31, 1872." London: J. Burns. [44] A remarkable example of this has been courteously given to me by Mr. Thomas Bosworth, of 198, High Holborn, as follows:--"Some seven or eight years ago there appeared in one of the newspapers a story to the following effect:--A commercial firm at Bolton, in Lancashire, had found that a considerable sum of money which had been sent to their bank by a confidential clerk, had not been placed to their credit. The clerk remembered the fact of taking the money, though not the particulars, but at the bank nothing was known of it. The clerk, feeling that he was liable to suspicion in the matter, and anxious to elucidate it, sought the help of spirit medium. The medium promised to do her best. Having heard the story, she presently passed into a kind of trance. Shortly after she said, 'I see you on your way to the bank--I see you go into the bank--I see you go to such and such part of the bank--I see you hand some papers to a clerk--I see him put them in such and such a place under some other papers--and I see them there now.' The clerk went to the bank, directed the cashier where to look for the money, and it was found; the cashier afterwards remembering that in the hurry of business he had there deposited it. A relation of mine saw this story in a newspaper at the time, and wrote to the firm in question, the name of which was given, asking whether the facts were as stated. He was told in reply that they were. That gentleman who was applied to, having corrected one or two unimportant details in the above narration, wrote on November 9, 1874:--'Your account is a correct one. I have the answer of the firm to my enquiry at home now.'" [45] The term "willer" and "necromancer" are used as identical by Easterns as well as by the aborigines of New Zealand. [46] There have been published "Rules to be Observed for the Spirit Circle," "framed under the Direction and Impression of Spirits," by Emma Hardinge, from which the following points are gathered. Firstly, there is a definition, and it is stated that "the Spirit Circle is the assembling together of a given number of persons for the purpose of seeking communion with the spirits who have passed away from Earth into the higher world of souls." A leading direction enjoins the inquiring votaries to "_Avoid strong_ light, which by producing excessive motion in the atmosphere, disturbs the manifestations. A very subdued light is the most favourable for any manifestations of a magnetic character, especially for spiritual magnetism." "Strongly positive persons of any kind" and "the dogmatical" should not be admitted. Furthermore, these "Rules" contain the following:-- "Spirit control is often deficient, and at first almost always imperfect. _By often yielding to it, your organism becomes more flexible and the spirit more experienced_; and practice in control is absolutely necessary for spirits as well as mortals. _If dark and evil-disposed spirits manifest to you, never drive them away_, but always strive to elevate them and treat them as you would mortals under similar circumstances. Do not always attribute falsehoods to 'lying spirits,' or deceiving mediums. Many mistakes occur in the communion of which you cannot always be aware. _Strive for Truth_, but rebuke Error gently, and do not always attribute it to design, but rather to mistake, in so difficult and experimental a stage of the communion as mortals at present enjoy with spirits." [47] The kind of communication made to those who first consult the spirits, is just of that nature calculated to allure the superficial, the frivolous, the uninformed, triflers, and seekers after novelties; and to lead them on to a more frequent intercourse and a deeper kind of communion. [48] Dr. J. G. Davey, M.D., of Northwoods, Bristol, writes as follows:--"I have satisfied myself not only of the mere abstract truth of Spiritualism, but of its great and marvellous power for good, both on moral and religious grounds. The direct and positive communications vouchsafed to me from very many near and dear relatives and friends, said to be dead, have been of the most pleasing yet startling character."--_Report on Spiritualism_, p. 232. London: Longmans, 1871. [49] This person, whose name was most accurately given, had died five days previously. He was a servant on the estate, and had belonged to the sect of the Anabaptists. [50] "Notes of an Enquiry into the Phenomena called Spiritualism, during the years 1870-73." By William Crookes, F.R.S. [51] "The reader who has not been in the habit of attending _séances_ should be informed that the peculiar phraseology of some of the questions is rendered necessary by the fact that if you ask the spirits, 'Where did _you_ die?' or 'Where were _you_ buried?' they will sometimes tell you that it was not _they_ who died and were buried, but merely the external shell or material covering of the real man."--Note by the Editor of the "Spiritual Magazine." [52] "There is scarcely a city or a considerable town in Continental Europe, at the present moment, where Spiritualists are not reckoned by hundreds if not by thousands; where regularly established communities do not habitually meet for spiritual purposes: and they reckon among them individuals of every class and avocation."--"Scepticism and Spiritualism." In a letter to the "Spiritual Magazine," dated May 4th, 1867, Judge Edmunds, of America, estimated the number of Spiritualists in the United States at ten millions. "In London, ten years ago," writes Mr. R. Dale Owen, "there was but a single Spiritual paper; to-day there are five."--"The Debatable Land," p. 175. London: Trübner, 1871. [53] The Rev. John Edwards, jun., M.A., Vicar of Prestbury, near Cheltenham. [54] "We do not, either by faith or works, _earn_ Heaven, nor are we sentenced, on any Day of Wrath, to Hell. In the next world we simply gravitate to the position for which, by life on earth, we have fitted ourselves; and we occupy that position _because_ we are fitted for it."--"The Debatable Land," by R. Dale Owen, p. 125. London, 1871. [55] Howitt's "What Spiritualism has Taught," p. 8. [56] Howitt's "What Spiritualism has Taught," p. 10. [57] "Spiritualism is avowedly opposed to the Christian Religion. 'The Creed of the spirits' is published in the shape of a little tract, one of those called 'Seed Corn,' which active agents love to distribute gratuitously wherever readers can be found, and these are its clauses: 'I believe in God'--'I believe in the immortality of the human soul'--'I believe in right and wrong'--'I believe in the communion of spirits as ministering angels.' Nothing more. Those well-intending persons, therefore--and we believe that among Protestants there are many--who go to _séances_ out of curiosity, and who are sometimes heard to say that if Spiritualism be true it must therefore be right, should be warned that they are lending countenance to persons in whose writings the doctrines of the Trinity and the Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ are emphatically denied--the Holy Ghost scoffed at in words too blasphemous for repetition, our Blessed Lady insulted, and the whole fabric of Religion attacked and undermined; and whether this is done by spirits who actually manifest themselves for the purpose of leading people astray, or by impostors who work upon the credulity of their audience, the thing can have but one origin, and that is the same as that of any other work by which the Arch-enemy seeks to close the heart of man against the True Faith. It is time therefore to use other weapons than that of ridicule against the baneful and, we fear, widely increasing delusion."--"Tablet," September 6, 1873. [58] Collect for the Feast of S. Michael and All Angels, "Book of Common Prayer." [59] "The soul has a kind of body of a quality of its own."--Tertull. cont. Marc. lib. v. cap. xv. [60] This account is current, with slender and unimportant variations, at Oxford; or at all events _was_ current in my days there (A.D. 1850-1854), and on what could not be regarded as other than good authority. One version is already in print--that given by Mr. William Maskell, at pp. 108-112 of his curious and interesting book, "Odds and Ends," London, 1872. He seems to imply that it was the late Archdeacon of Cleveland, the Ven. Edward Churton, who saw the spectral apparitions in Brasenose Lane; but the Archdeacon belonged to Christ Church, and, as his son, the Rev. W. R. Churton, of Cambridge, informs me, was not resident at Oxford at the time of the occurrence. More probably it was the Archdeacon's brother, the Rev. T. T. Churton, sometime Fellow of Brasenose. [61] As to the universality of the belief in Witchcraft, the reader may consult Herder's "Philosophy of History," bk. viii. ch. 2. And as regards the convictions of some of the leading minds of Europe in times past on the subject, Mr. Leckey in his "History of Rationalism" (vol. i. p. 66), makes the following candid admission: "It is, I think, impossible to deny that the books in defence of the belief are not only far more numerous than the later works against it, but that they also represent far more learning, dialectic skill, and even general ability. For many centuries the ablest men were not merely unwilling to repudiate the superstition; they often pressed forward earnestly and with the most intense conviction to defend it. Indeed, during the period when Witchcraft was most prevalent there were few writers of real eminence who did not, on some occasion, take especial pains to throw the weight of their authority into the scale. Thomas Aquinas was probably the ablest writer of the thirteenth century, and he assures us that diseases and tempests are often the direct acts of the devil; that the devil can transport men at his pleasure through the air; and that he can transform them into any shape. Gerson, the Chancellor of the University of Paris, and, as many think, the author of 'The Imitation,' is justly regarded as one of the master intellects of his age; and he, too, wrote in defence of the belief. Bodin was unquestionably the most original political philosopher who had arisen since Machiavelli, and he devoted all his learning and acuteness to crushing the rising scepticism 'on the subject of witches.'" [62] 1 S. Peter v. 8. [63] Acts xvi. 16-18. [64] Apologia, cap. v. De Civit. Dei, lib. xv. cap. xxiii. [65] 1 Cor. xi. 10. [66] Ibid. xi. 15. [67] Luther, following the current tradition of his day, believed that the Devil could beget children on the bodies of women; and declared that he himself had personally come across, and was well acquainted with, one of the Devil's offspring. So too did Erasmus believe the fact of such generation. It is a tradition in the Catholic Church, that the last and great Antichrist--the final Antichrist--may be born of such an alliance. Of course Mahomet was _a_ great Antichrist; for though he borrowed certain Christian features and adopted many Jewish notions and Rabbinical traditions in his system, yet he plainly and undoubtedly fulfilled the prophetic statement of S. John the Divine--"_He is Antichrist, who denieth the Father and the Son_." (1 S. John ii. 22.) Mahomet's great and leading heresy is expressed in the following dogmatic assertion of the Koran: "_God neither begetteth nor is begotten_." Now no system has more pertinaciously, successfully, and for so long a time opposed Christianity than Mahometanism--not even Arianism. But modern "Liberalism," so called, as still developing amongst ancient Christian nations, promises even to outstrip the system of Mahomet, and to be as blighting and baneful in its results. [68] "An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians." By E. W. Lane. 5th edition. London: 1860. [69] See the whole of this chapter, which is full of information and interest. It gives a record of several other similar examples. [70] In No. 117 of the "Quarterly Review," there is a criticism on Mr. Lane's account of these necromancers; but the facts recorded by him are neither satisfactorily accounted for nor successfully explained away. [71] My brother-in-law, Captain Ostrehan, of the Bombay Staff Corps, Sir Alfred Slade, Bart., and the Rev. Dr. Dunbar, chaplain to Bishop Claughton, have furnished me with remarkable examples of the power of Oriental necromancers. [72] Nevins' "China and the Chinese," p. 167. New York, 1868. [73] "Theory of Pneumatology," by J. H. Jung-Stilling, pp. 136-137. London: Longmans, 1834. [74] Dr. Sexton in his "Defence of Modern Spiritualism" (London: J. Burns), a tractate written with ability and frankness, remarks that "it is too late in the day to sneer at this matter with a sort of self-complacency, which seems to say, 'You are a poor deluded creature: behold my superior wisdom; I don't believe in such nonsense.' Here are the facts, and we demand in the true spirit of Science to know what is to be done with them. If you have any theory by which they can be explained, let us hear it, in order that we may judge of its merits; if you have not, we are all the more justified in clinging to our own." And, again, referring to the inquiries of a certain Dr. Hare in America, he writes:--"The question with Dr. Hare was--Did the phenomena occur, and, if so, were they produced by the direct action of those persons in whose presence they took place? The nonsensical notions mooted by unscientific opponents, and which are still urged with as much gravity as though they had been made the subject of mathematical demonstration, that electricity, magnetism, odic, or psychic forces are the agents by which the manifestations are produced, he knew well enough could not bear a moment's investigation. Electricity cannot move tables, nor in fact act at all without cumbrous apparatus. Magnetism cannot give intelligent responses to questions, and odic force and its twin brother psychic are probably as imaginary as the philosopher's stone; and even if their existence could be proved beyond the shadow of a doubt, they could not in the slightest degree help us to the solution of the great problem of the cause of the phenomena designated Spiritual." [75] A thoughtful writer, and one who is evidently far-seeing and awake to the danger, recently made the following pertinent remarks in the _Church Review_:-- "The presence of Superstition is always the sign of a wandering from the true path; the _excess_ of Superstition almost invariably the precursor of great intellectual and religious changes, if not absolute convulsions. Before the great crash of Paganism the necromancers and practisers of curious arts were carrying on an unusually brisk trade among the Romans. We all know how prevalent was the belief in witches, wizards, and astrology at the time immediately preceding the (so-called) Reformation. Before the French Revolution the sect founded by Cagliostro and Lorenza Feliciani, which professed a knowledge of the ancient arts of the Egyptians, found great numbers of followers. And have we not a sign of a national mental crisis in our own day in the prevalence of 'Spiritualism,' which is the form which necromancy at present takes? There may be many people who are utterly unaware how large a number of their fellow-countrymen, and especially of their countrywomen, believe in Spiritualism, and attend _séances_. Those who do so are not usually very fond of parading their belief, because they have a lurking suspicion that they may get laughed at; but this very reserve makes the bond between the votaries of Spiritualism so much the stronger. It is no exaggeration to say that the practice of dealing with familiar spirits is on the increase in Great Britain at the present moment." (A.D. 1873.) [76] "On the Invisible World," by Joseph Hall, D.D., &c., book i. sec. 8. Father Christopher Davenport, better known as "Sancta Clara," in one of his most remarkable treatises, "Paralipomena Philosophica de Mundo Peripatetico," chap. iv. p. 68 (A.D. 1652), confirms the account in the text of the above-named Bishop of Exeter, giving all the details of this particular miraculous cure. It seems that both the Well and Chapel of S. Madron were constantly visited by the faithful during the first part of the seventeenth century, especially in the month of May and on the feast of Corpus Christi. [77] "History of the Rise and Influence of the Spirit of Rationalism in Europe," by W. E. H. Lecky, M.A. Fourth edition in two volumes. London, 1870. [78] Dr. Newman will, of course, be excepted; for his remarkable Dissertation prefixed to the translation of Fleury's "History" is known to many, more especially in its new form,--a volume already referred to at length in chap. ii. pp. 35-36. It is certainly quite unjust to include the Tractarian school amongst those who are referred to by Mr. Lecky in the following passage:--"At present nearly all educated men receive an account of a miracle taking place in their own day, with an absolute and even derisive incredulity which dispenses with all examination of the evidence."--Vol. i. p. 1. Though many are reticent, and many more shrink from publicity and rude criticism, it is known that the direct influence of the Miraculous and Supernatural is by no means unknown in the Church of England. [79] Job xxv. 5. [80] See a most remarkable Letter from the pen of my friend the Rev. R. S. Hawker, of Morwenstow, on "The Claims of Science and Faith," standing as an Appendix to this Chapter, in which the office of the angels is referred to. [81] Mr. Mill, who is now dead, wrote that "this World was a bungled business in which no clear-sighted man [meaning himself apparently, and modestly] could see any signs either of wisdom or of God." Mr. Matthew Arnold, son of Dr. Arnold of Rugby, has written that "the existence of God is an unverifiable hypothesis." A third writer maintains that the "great duty" of the philosophers "should be to eliminate the idea of God from the minds of men," a sentiment not unlike that of Mr. Congreve, already quoted on p. 19 of vol. i.; while a popular publication, circulated by thousands amongst the lower classes, declares that the mission of its Editors is "to teach men to live without the fear of God; to die without the fear of the Devil; and to attain salvation without the Blood of the Lamb."