A defence of modern spiritualism E-Book

Alfred Russel Wallace

• Herausgeber: Librorium Editions
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

It is with great diffidence, but under an imperative sense of duty, that the present writer accepts the opportunity afforded him of submitting to his readers some general account of a widespread movement, which, though for the most part treated with ridicule or contempt, he believes to embody truths of the most vital importance to human progress.[1] The subject to be treated is of such vast extent, the evidence concerning it is so varied and so extraordinary, the prejudices that surround it are so inveterate, that it is not possible to do it justice without entering into considerable detail. The reader who ventures on the perusal of the succeeding pages may, therefore, have his patience tried; but if he is able to throw aside his preconceived ideas of what is possible and what is impossible, and in the acceptance or rejection of the evidence submitted to him will carefully weigh and be solely guided by the nature of the concurrent testimony, the writer ventures to believe that he will not find his time and patience ill bestowed.

Leseprobe

A DEFENCEOF MODERN SPIRITUALISM.

BY

ALFRED R. WALLACE, F. R. S.,

AUTHOR OF “THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO,” “EXPLORATIONS ON THE AMAZON,” “THE THEORY OF NATURAL SELECTION,” ETC., ETC.

1874.

© 2023 Librorium Editions

ISBN : 9782383836858

PREFACE.

The signs are, that both the moral and the religious systems of the future will be greatly modified by the advance of science. They will be more and more conformed to the facts of nature; not only to the facts which a diligent Materialism, working in a single direction, has brought to light, but to the transcendent facts which Modern Spiritualism has restored and proved. The one order of facts is incomplete without the other; and Materialism is as surely doomed to be encircled and transfigured by the wider horizon of Spiritualism, as the Ptolemaic system of the universe was doomed to be superseded by the Copernican.

Unpopular facts often encounter an opposition quite as persistent as that which follows unpopular theories; and so intelligent Spiritualists are not disturbed by the antagonism which their facts have met with from the Huxleys, Tyndalls, Carpenters, and Büchners of our day. All these men, working as they are for science in their different ways, though under the disadvantage of an ignorance of certain phenomena of vast significance, are welcomed as fellow-laborers in the cause of truth by Spiritualists; for the latter, relying on their facts, are confident that genuine Science includes them all, and that every new discovery must be in harmony with all that they hold as true. Opposition to the phenomena, proceeding as it does from lack of knowledge, simply indicates the magnitude and astonishing character of the facts themselves, which could excite such incredulity in the face of such overwhelming testimony.

Among the men of science who have either admitted the facts, or both the facts and the theory, of Spiritualism, are Hare, chemist; Varley, F. R. S., electrician; Flammarion, astronomer; Crookes, F. R. S., chemist; Hoefle, author of the “History of Chemistry;” Nichols, chemist; Fichte, philosopher; Liais, astronomer; Hermann Goldschmidt, astronomer, and the discoverer of fourteen planets; Von Esenbach, the greatest modern German botanist; Huggins, F. R. S., astronomer and spectroscopist; De Morgan, mathematician; Dille, physicist; Elliotson, Ashburner, and Gray, physicians and surgeons. To no one eminent man of science, however, has Spiritualism been more indebted than to Alfred Russell Wallace, F. R. S., distinguished for his researches in natural history, paleontology, and anthropology. His “Defence of Spiritualism,” here presented, appeared originally in the London Fortnightly Review for May and June, 1874. Containing as it does the latest facts, no better tract for Spiritualists to offer as an answer to their opponents has yet appeared.

Mr. Wallace, though he arrived, simultaneously with Mr. Darwin, at similar conclusions in regard to the origin of species, differs from him on a most important point; for Mr. Wallace believes that “a superior intelligence is necessary to account for man.” His acquaintance with the phenomena of Spiritualism must always give him, in the sweep and comprehensiveness of his anthropology, a great advantage over Mr. Darwin. Besides his great work on the “Natural History of the Malay Archipelago,” and an account of his “Explorations on the Amazon,” Mr. Wallace is the author of “The Theory of Natural Selection,” and of many valuable papers in scientific journals. Dr. Hooker, president of the British Scientific Association, wrote, in 1868, “Of Mr. Wallace, and his many contributions to philosophical biology, it is not easy to speak without enthusiasm; for, putting aside their great merits, he, throughout his many writings, with a modesty as rare as I believe it to be in him unconscious, forgets his own unquestionable claims to the honor of having originated, independently of Mr. Darwin, the theories which he so ably defends.”

The testimony of such an investigator as Mr. Wallace in behalf of the stupendous phenomena of Spiritualism is not to be lightly put aside or ignored. What can be said in reply to such an array of facts as he presents?

E. S.

A DEFENCEOF MODERN SPIRITUALISM.

It is with great diffidence, but under an imperative sense of duty, that the present writer accepts the opportunity afforded him of submitting to his readers some general account of a widespread movement, which, though for the most part treated with ridicule or contempt, he believes to embody truths of the most vital importance to human progress.[1] The subject to be treated is of such vast extent, the evidence concerning it is so varied and so extraordinary, the prejudices that surround it are so inveterate, that it is not possible to do it justice without entering into considerable detail. The reader who ventures on the perusal of the succeeding pages may, therefore, have his patience tried; but if he is able to throw aside his preconceived ideas of what is possible and what is impossible, and in the acceptance or rejection of the evidence submitted to him will carefully weigh and be solely guided by the nature of the concurrent testimony, the writer ventures to believe that he will not find his time and patience ill bestowed.

1. The following are the more important works which have been used in the preparation of this article: Judge Edmonds’s “Spiritual Tracts,” New York, 1858–1860. Robert Dale Owen’s “Footfalls on the Boundary of Another World,” Trübner & Co., 1861. E. Hardinge’s “Modern American Spiritualism,” New York, 1870. Robert Dale Owen’s “Debatable Land between this World and the Next,” Trübner & Co., 1871. “Report on Spiritualism of the Committee of the London Dialectical Society,” Longmans & Co., 1871. “Year-Book of Spiritualism,” Boston and London, 1871. Hudson Tuttle’s “Arcana of Spiritualism,” Boston, 1871. The Spiritual Magazine, 1861–1874. The Spiritualist Newspaper, 1872–1874. The Medium and Daybreak, 1869–1874.

Few men, in this busy age, have leisure to read massive volumes devoted to special subjects. They gain much of their general knowledge, outside the limits of their profession or of any peculiar study, by means of periodical literature; and, as a rule, they are supplied with copious and accurate, though general, information. Some of our best thinkers and workers make known the results of their researches to the readers of magazines and reviews; and it is seldom that a writer whose information is meagre, or obtained at second-hand, is permitted to come before the public in their pages as an authoritative teacher. But as regards the subject we are now about to consider, this rule has not hitherto been followed. Those who have devoted many years to an examination of its phenomena have been, in most cases, refused a hearing; while men who have bestowed on it no adequate attention, and are almost wholly ignorant of the researches of others, have alone supplied the information to which a large proportion of the public have had access. In support of this statement it is necessary to refer, with brief comments, to some of the more prominent articles in which the phenomena and pretensions of Spiritualism have been recently discussed.

At the beginning of the present year the readers of this Review were treated to “Experiences of Spiritualism,” by a writer of no mean ability, and of thoroughly advanced views. He assures his readers that he “conscientiously endeavored to qualify himself for speaking on this subject” by attending five séances, the details of several of which he narrates; and he comes to the conclusion that mediums are by no means ingenious deceivers, but “jugglers of the most vulgar order;” that the “spiritualistic mind falls a victim to the most patent frauds,” and greedily “accepts jugglery as manifestations of spirits”; and, lastly, that the mediums are as credulous as their dupes, and fall straightway into any trap that is laid for them. Now, on the evidence before him, and on the assumption that no more or better evidence would have been forthcoming had he devoted fifty instead of five evenings to the inquiry, the conclusions of Lord Amberley are perfectly logical; but, so far from what he witnessed being a “specimen of the kind of manifestations by which Spiritualists are convinced,” a very little acquaintance with the literature of the subject would have shown him that no Spiritualist of any mark was ever convinced by any quantity of such evidence. In an article published since Lord Amberley’s—in London Society for February—the author, a barrister and well-known literary man, says:

“It was difficult for me to give in to the idea that solid objects could be conveyed, invisibly, through closed doors, or that heavy furniture could be moved without the interposition of hands. Philosophers will say these things are absolutely impossible; nevertheless, it is absolutely certain that they do occur. I have met in the houses of private friends, as witnesses of these phenomena, persons whose testimony would go for a good deal in a court of justice. They have included peers, members of parliament, diplomatists of the highest rank, judges, barristers, physicians, clergymen, members of learned societies, chemists, engineers, journalists, and thinkers of all sorts and degrees. They have suggested and carried into effect tests of the most rigid and satisfactory character. The media (all non-professional) have been searched before and after séances. The precaution has even been taken of providing them unexpectedly with other apparel. They have been tied; they have been sealed; they have been secured in every cunning and dexterous manner that ingenuity could devise, but no deception has been discovered and no imposture brought to light. Neither was there any motive for imposture. No fee or reward of any kind depended upon the success or non-success of the manifestations.”

Now here we have a nice question of probabilities. We must either believe that Lord Amberley is almost infinitely more acute than Mr. Dunphy and his host of eminent friends—so that after five séances (most of them failures) he has got to the bottom of a mystery in which they, notwithstanding their utmost endeavors, still hopelessly flounder—or, that the noble lord’s acuteness does not surpass the combined acuteness of all these persons; in which case their much larger experience, and their having witnessed many things Lord Amberley has not witnessed, must be held to have the greater weight, and to show, at all events, that all mediums are not “jugglers of the most vulgar order.”