p. 171 | Distinguished Converts to Spiritualism

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 16, 1861

Distinguished Converts to Spiritualism.

By Cleaveland Plaindealer

The celebrated Robert Bell, one of the astutest commentators, editors and literateurs of London, and one who has chiefly devoted his large capacities to the comparison of probabilities, the weighing of evidence, and the minute sifting of facts, has come out openly in the Cornhill Magazine, avowing himself a believer in Spiritualism, and stating the evidence on which his belief is founded. He states that he has witnessed the phenomena which he describes, not in one house, but in many houses; not in the dim, religious light, but in the morning—in the broad day, in a blaze of gas; not in a single room of any peculiar construction, but in every and all sorts of rooms; not in the society of gaping mystics, but in the company of skeptical, scientific, shrewd, worldly men; not in the houses of mediums, exhibitors, showmen, but of private gentlemen, and ladies, unbelievers and scoffers like himself. With this preface, we shall submit to the judgment of our readers Mr. Bell's description of one seance which he attended at the house of a medium—Mr. Hume, "the spiritualistic confident of the emperor Napoleon the third," also being present.

"On sitting down to the table," says the writer, "I found the table cover drawn over my lap. A twitch at my knees was several times repeated. A large hand came under the table cover, and with the fingers clustered to a point, was raised between me and the table, I felt it very sensibly—it was as palpable as any soft substance, velvet, or pulp; and at the touch it seemed as solid; but pressure reduced it to air. A hand-bell was snatched away—rung at several places—and returned into the hand of another person. A hand with long, white, delicate fingers, rose up slowly, and bending over a flower vanished with it. A hand, of which the lambent gleam was visible, slowly ascended, and placed a flower in a hand for which it was intended. An accordeon descended to the floor in silence. It was played without hands with unearthly sweetness and delicacy, execution and power—at the close drawing tears from every eye. Upon holding up the instrument myself, in one hand, in the open room, with the full light upon it, similar strains were emitted, the regular action of the accordeon going on without any visible agency. During the loud and vehement passages, it became so difficult to hold, in consequence of the extraordinary power with which it was held from below, that I was obliged to grasp it with both hands. I witnessed the same result on different occasions, when the instrument was held by others. Mr. Hume was seated next the window. He said in a quiet voice, 'My chair is moving; I am off the ground.' I saw his hands disappear from the table, his head vanish into the deep shadow beyond. His

voice was in the air above our heads. He ascended higher—described his position, which was sometimes perpendicular, sometimes horizontal. We saw his figure pass from one side of the window to the other—feet foremost—horizontally in the air. He spoke to us as he passed, hovered round the circle for several minutes, passing perpendicularly over our heads. I heard his voice behind me in the air—he gave me leave to touch his foot. I placed my hand gently upon it, when he uttered a cry of pain, passing over to the farthest corner of the room. He had reached the ceiling, on which he made a slight mark, descended, and resumed his place at the table—the accordeon we supposed to be on the ground, playing a strain of wild pathos in the air, from the most distant corner of the room."

This is a pretty tough story, as all must admit; but Mr. Bell vouches that all these things have been submitted to the test of his senses, and Mr. Thackeray vouches for Mr. Bell—apart from his intellectual reputation, which needs no endorsement—as a man "whose good faith and honorable character he can attest on the friendship of twenty-five years." But there is yet other and equally reputable evidence on the point. The phenomena witnessed by Robert Bell, were witnessed at the same time by Dr. Gully, the eminent physician of Malvern; by the eminent Dr. Collier, of London, and by other persons distinguished for the social positions they have attained by learning, genius, ability, and vigor of mind. William Howitt, the author, has seen and vouches marvels equally startling. Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, a minister of state; Newton Crossland, one of our most successful lecturers and annotators; Parker Snow of the arctic expedition; Mr. and Mrs. S. C. Hall, celebrated in literature; Sir David Brewster, Dr. Bird, Lord Brougham, and others of equal note, are all believers in the spiritualistic theory. It is also known that Louis Napoleon is a firm and ardent student of these phenomena, and that he received many messages through Mr. Hume, purporting to emanate, and believed by him to emanate from the spirit of Napoleon the first. We have confined this detail entirely to the transcription of the narrative of physical phenomena, palpable to the bodily senses, to appearances frequently seen, often heard, sensibly felt. The whole matter is certainly one deserving attention, if nothing more.—Cleaveland Plaindealer.