Chapter II: Part 2

The rappers were then sitting some distance from the table, and we asked if the "Spirits would rap upon the table?" Rap! No. "Will the spirit _please_ to rap upon the table?" Rap, rap, rap. "Not now." It seems that three raps for the expression "Not now" was a part of the spiritual stenography, as they had occasion to use this evasion quite often to escape difficulties. "Will the spirit please to explain why it will not rap upon the table?" Rap, rap, rap! "Not now." "When will it?" "This evening, at such an hour," naming it. This last communication was spelled out by the Fox mother, and a time was named at which it would be impossible to get an opportunity to propound such a question, as they held their spiritual levee in the evening to crowds. Moreover, we had no desire to repeat the question to these tricksters, to be shuffled, as we most certainly should have been, with the same prevarication. On the occasion of our first visit, Mr. * * * said that the spirits had rapped upon his foot, while sitting at a table. The experiment was repeated by request, and very likely would have been successful, if we had not fixed our eyes very intently upon his and the rappers' feet. As it was, this feat was not performed. On the second visit, we implored the spirits to rap upon our feet. "Not now," was the answer. It was evident that we were not receiving our money's worth of spiritual manifestations according to the show-bill; but, as every failure was our gain, we were not disposed to quarrel with the rappers or the spirits. One of my scientific friends then asked if they would not rap if they were suspended in a swing, or stood upon a pillow? "Oh yes," was the reply, "we have done that; that has all been tried." One of the Fox girls proposed to send upstairs for a pillow, but it occurred to us that they _might_ rap while standing upon any _common-sized pillow_, for the reason that their dresses would cover and extend beyond the pillow, and thus give them an opportunity to get their rapping instrument down upon the floor over the sides of the pillow. We therefore proceeded immediately, while they were engaged in some conversation, to make up a cushion upon the floor to suit our own views. We gathered a number of cloaks, and laid them folded upon the floor, so as to make a circular cushion of about three and a half feet diameter, and so thick that we were persuaded no ordinary raps with their instrument could be heard through the soft mass, or if any sound should be produced it would be so modified as to betray its origin. The Fox mother objected to this preparation; but the girls said, "We know we can rap; the spirits will rap there, for they have always done so." By way of an excuse for making this cushion, we remarked that one of the coats was silk, and that we would ascertain if electricity had any thing to do with it. The Fox mother said, "All that had been tried before; and that the girls[5]could rap standing upon glass tumblers, and that she knew it must be the spirits, for these manifestations had been with them now for six years." We replied (to keep up our argument), "You know that there are persons who think these sounds are all due to some modification of electricity, and others who think that electricity is the very essence of spirituality,[6] and we wish to see in this case how far it may be concerned in the phenomena." There was no resisting this, and we were allowed to proceed. The result was exactly as we anticipated. While standing upon the cushion _they could not rap at all_. The principal rapper saw her predicament, and took her stand upon the cushion so that her dress was partly over the edge of the cushion, but this we objected to, and requested her to stand upon the centre of the cushion, upon the plea that if her dress touched the floor, it would conduct away the electricity. A perfectly empirical reason, of course; but they were none the wiser for that, and as soon as every thing was arranged to our liking, she invoked the spirit to rap. No rap came. Again and again the spirit was besought, but no response was given. She then asked her sister to come and stand upon the cushion with her, thinking, in her subtlety, that two of them would occupy so much room as to give one, at least, a chance to have her dress over the edge of the cushion. But this we were prepared for; and gathered in the skirts of their dresses upon the cushion, upon the same plea as before. The result was the same as with one. No raps. The fact was, their arts were completely baffled, the spirits had fled, and the experiment not only proved the falsity of the assertion that they could rap standing on cushions, or when suspended in a swing, but afforded the most conclusive evidence of the immediate and wilful agency of these Fox girls in producing these sounds.

Thinking to redeem themselves from the inevitable verdict of this trial, the principal rapper proposed to stand upon glass tumblers, to see if the spirits would rap then, as they had done on former occasions. She took her stand upon the tumblers. This elevated the lower border of her dress above the floor, and it so happened that one of our number was sufficiently far from her that he could have seen her feet on the rapping instrument. She invoked the spirit. "Will the spirit please to rap?" No rap. She then stooped a little, as if addressing the spirit below. "Will the spirit please to rap now?" No rap. She then stooped a little more, and by this time her dress was fairly down upon the floor, so as to cover feet and tumblers. "Will the spirit please to rap now?" Rap, rap. This was very adroitly done, but the trick was clear to us. How strange it is, that she should have been obliged to stoop, and to have invoked the spirit three times before the answer came; and, moreover, that she should look down to the floor for the spirit; and how passing strange it is that these modern spirits should have such a fondness for _long dresses_ and _girls' toes_. We then requested her to stand upon a chair, and rap. This she did promptly, and the rap came at a bidding. The sound was different from that produced upon the carpeted floor, and underwent just the proper modification of a blow struck upon a hard, uncovered, wooden seat. Here we stopped, having seen quite enough of this game of "_Fox_ and _Geese_." Before leaving the room, one of the rappers requested our scientific friend not to publish them, and another stepped up to the lady present, saying, "You do not think that I have any machinery about me to make these sounds, do you?" We have it on the authority of this lady, who seemed determined to leave nothing untried to lead to the detection of this imposture, that she asked these rappers if they would consent to a private examination of their persons, and that they refused it positively, adding that if she had any doubt as to the reality of these spiritual manifestations she would have satisfactory revelations made to her in her bed-chamber five weeks from that time. This prophetic intelligence they rapped out for the occasion according to their own fancy and usual evasive duplicity in such cases. The five weeks have passed, but the lady has, of course, received no spiritual visitations as predicted.

Our readers are now ready to ask if we have discovered the machinery or instrumentality by which these girls make the sounds. In answer, we say that our investigation is conclusive that these sounds are entirely at the control of these girls, and that we have placed them in situations where they could not rap at all. And if, after all this, we have invented several modes by which the rappings can be made as successfully as by them, we think we have discovered enough. During each of our two visits, we noticed, by very cautious and careful inspection, one interesting and significant fact--that each rap was attended with a slight movement of the person of the rapper, and that a very distinct motion of the dress was visible about the right hypogastric region. While watching this point the girl noticed us, and immediately rose, went to the window, and dropped the curtain to darken the room, which was on the north side of the building, and full dark enough before. When she sat down she drew her shawl over this part of her person. This was on the first visit. On the second visit, we were soon discovered watching this movement again, and she rose and procured a shawl with which she covered her person as before. We do not pretend to decide that this movement had any direct connection with the instrument by which she rapped upon the floor; if so, it was very clumsy and awkward, for we have devised a mode of rapping that involves no such motion, and which we will shortly explain. It may have been that this movement was connected with the device for rapping upon the table. We are of opinion that when they rapped upon the table, it was upon the under side of the table-top and not about their feet. They did not, and evidently could not, rap upon the table without sitting closely up to the table. If this conjecture, as to the rap under the table-top, is right, the movement we saw is easily accounted for. Be it so, or be it not, we have invented a contrivance which raps upon the under side of the table-top, and which involves precisely the motion we discovered. It requires but little exercise of ingenuity to contrive means of producing these sounds. It has been stated that a relative of these girls has made a public statement under oath, that they produce the raps with their toes, in a peculiar manner acquired by long practice. The public papers tell us that electro-magnetism has been employed to carry out this fraud. The snapping of the joints has been resorted to by another; and indeed we can easily imagine a variety of ways in which these sounds are, or may be produced. The Fox girls rapped upon neither of these plans. The sound was machine-like, and too loud for a sound that could be made by striking the naked or unarmed toe upon the floor, and entirely too loud for, and differing in character from, the snapping of the joints, and as to electro-magnetism, it was entirely out of the question in this case. The Fox girls visit the houses of strangers and rap always with the same ease every where. The raps are never remote from their persons but always directly about their feet, unless it be when they are sitting at the table, as we have before said, when the rap appears to be on the under side of the table-top, although we would not undertake to decide fully upon this latter point, as they would not allow us to choose our position so as to judge of the true direction of the sound; for as soon as my coadjutor looked under the table, the spirits decamped and we had no rapping. There are certain circumstances, under which no ear, however skilful and practised, can judge correctly of the position or distance where certain sounds originate. Such a case is exemplified in the common speaking tubes used in public houses and elsewhere. When you place your ear near the tube, the voice appears to be uttered close to the ear, though the person speaking may be at a great distance. The Invisible Lady is another instance, for a full account of which, see Brewster's work on Natural Magic. But the most remarkable illustration of this case is exhibited in the following manner. If you take an iron rod ten, twenty, fifty, or one hundred feet in length and strike it at one end, the blow is heard by a person having his ear close at the other end precisely as if the blow was struck near his ear. This illusion is more remarkable if the listener cannot hear the original blow through the medium of the air. To make the whole experiment very imposing, suppose an iron rod, three-fourths of an inch in diameter, projecting three or four feet through the floor of a large hall, and that this projecting part is a continuation of a rod passing beneath the floor of the room, and concealed entirely from observation and terminating out of doors, or in a distant apartment. Whenever a blow is struck upon the remote and concealed end, the sound not being heard except through the medium of the rod, appears to every person present, precisely as if it issued from the projecting end within the hall. With proper pre-concertion and ceremonial preparation, such a contrivance as this would far exceed, in mysterious character, the shallow trickery of these _feet-rappers_. From this experiment, which we have tried with entire success with a rod only twenty feet in length, we see how closely we must look to all the attendant circumstances and possibilities of the case, before we can conclude strictly upon the position of the origin of sounds, where their origin is out of sight. We know that the rapping was always about their _heels_ when these girls sat in chairs, stood upon the floor, or in chairs, or stood in the wardrobe, or rapped upon the door. For this part of the performance we had abundant opportunities for examination, and if these girls will stand upon the floor and allow us to examine their feet, at the time of the rapping, we defy them and their spirits to produce the rappings without a full exposure. It is worthy of note that witches have always been far more numerous than wizards. There are reasons for such disparity in numbers, but this rapping business is particularly the province of females. There are no male rappers unless it be of late, since they have resorted to confederacy, or electrical or mechanical tricks. There are no men-rappers who rap upon such an extensive scale as the Fox girls. The latter are not confined to a certain table, a certain room, or certain spots in a room, or a certain house. They carry their "_Rattle-traps_" about with them, and go from house to house, and their "_familiar spirits_" are very sociable, unceremonious, and accommodating. If they will but adopt the Bloomer costume, our word for it, the spirits would signify their disapprobation by departing at once. Relying upon their sex they trust the courtesy of their visitors as sufficient protection against the examination of even their feet, and therefore they make bold to wear unusually long dresses the better to conceal their movements and rapping apparatus. When the girl stood upon tumblers, she did not venture to rap till, by gradual stooping, she brought her dress down so as to cover her feet and touch the floor. There are then special reasons why this kind of witchery should be played off by females. _The Fox style of rapping_ CANNOT _be performed by men, or in the male attire_. We do not attribute to woman more or greater proneness, or power to deceive than to man; but when woman undertakes to deceive, she is generally more successful. She is less suspected, has fewer motives, runs greater risk, and incurs greater loss in the event of disclosures, and with the blandishments of person and sex, she silences opposition, smothers inquiry, defies and escapes inspection, and lastly takes captive the head with the heart. Possessed of greater susceptibilities and easily impressed; she is more readily carried away by new and strange fascinations, and in times of certain remarkable developements of sympathetic witchcrafts, she is the first to be imposed upon and most apt to impose upon herself. This characteristic is well illustrated in the case of the _jerks_, a species of _witch mania_ which prevailed in this country so extensively many years ago, in which women figured so largely. Sympathetic action is potential with both sexes, but especially with women does it overpower sense, reason and volition, giving rise to temporary insanity. We are however uncharitable enough to believe that, in many cases, upon these occasions the surrendry of the judgment and bewilderment of the imagination is not altogether involuntary, and that the whole operation of _being bewitched_ might be arrested at a certain stage of its progress by an effort to resist, except perhaps in conditions of extreme hysteria and nervous prostration, or irritability. We have seen a young lady of the very highest respectability at a _table-tipping_, tugging away at the table to make it move, and all the while endeavoring to conceal her exertions, and declaring, when interrogated, that she did "not make the slightest effort." Can it be that she had become so infatuated as to forget that she was, or to persuade herself that she was not, deceiving, and yet all the while to be so assiduous and adroit in accomplishing her object? Charity says yes. Well! after all, there is something in the feat of deceiving and blinding reverend and grave Senators, Judges and Priests, well calculated to whet the pride, stimulate the cunning, and foster the love of power in a young Miss, especially when her arts are practised upon some doings not embraced in the criminal code nor amenable to law. There are probably--paradoxical as it may seem--cases of honest deception. The desire to accomplish something great, something exceeding the common course of familiar phenomena, may be so strong as to beget an entire perversion of all truthfulness, a self sanctioning of error, artfulness, and imposture, oblivion of conscience, an enthusiastic profession of faith and spirited advocacy of the new developments, a bending of every thing to conceal the fraud, and withal a remarkable preservation of the appearance of sincerity, and an air of ingenuousness so well put on as to appear natural, which go very far to inveigle those who may witness the performances.

Of the modes we have devised of producing rappings we will not explain more than one, that being sufficient to effect rapping sounds without disturbance of the person. We have contrived a great many, and although we have not seen the particular mode employed by the Fox girls, yet we can rap just as well. A piece of soft metal such as lead, shaped like a _chain shot_ or _dumb-bell_, tied to the great toe may be made to pound upon the floor, the door, the bottom of a wardrobe, or any surface or thing which may be under or about the feet, with forcible demonstrations. If any person will make the effort to move the toe up and down while the sole of the foot rests firmly upon the floor, it will be found that a considerable motion may be effected, and of course a _rapping_, without a disturbance of the person. A little practice will make perfect. In order to walk about without the rattling of the rapping piece, it is necessary to tie to one end of it an elastic cord, a piece of vulcanized rubber answering very well, and fasten this around the waist. A slight stooping or sitting down will leave the instrument free to work. If you have thin shoes or slippers on, it may be affixed outside of the slippers, or you can have it attached to the toe, and make the slipper large enough to slip over the whole and slip it off, when rappings are called for. One other element and we are all equipped for spiritual rappings; petticoats or long dresses are indispensable to complete the invention. Whatever be the contrivance adopted to rap upon the floor, the whole must be concealed within the sanctuary of _skirts_ beyond the invasion of the curious or rude. We have other more perfect, better concealed rapping instruments than the one just described,[7] but not quite so simple or easy of application. Moreover the one described gives the double rap, (a peculiarity of the Fox contrivance.) These girls managed their instrument adroitly, and deserve some little credit for their ingenuity in contriving and operating an instrument so successfully as to baffle the scrutiny of thousands of their visitors. They walk freely about with their instruments, though a lady remarked to us that they both walked very awkwardly. With local preparations "_mysterious_" rappings may be produced in a variety of ways, but these girls, the _prototypes_ of all rappers, neither employed or needed any aid from electro-magnetic motions, acoustic science, or confederacy to practise their arts, they used more ingenious and simple means. It is possible to make a rapping electro-magnetic movement, battery and all, small enough to be carried under the dress, but like the telegraph, it must be controlled by volition and muscular action of the operator, and where is the advantage of this over a mechanical instrument that raps directly? There is no necessity for wonderment or the taxation of ingenuity on account of these rapping sounds so long as you are excluded from a personal examination of the rappers. We wish very much that the civil authorities would pounce upon these rappers in the "_very act_" (_for obtaining money upon false pretences_)--(or some other plea) and make a forcible disclosure of their trappings. We believe that this can and should be done, and that such a proceeding would meet the full sanction of law and justice; that universal public opinion would sustain it, and we have no doubt of the nature and effect of the _denouement_. If it had already been done, we should have been spared the labor of this treatise at least, and we need not advert to the vast amount of suffering and vice that would have been forestalled.

Seeing then, that we can _rap_, yes, and give the double rap, how shall we account for the extraordinary prophecies, messages, coincidences and communications in accordance with facts? We wish this had been the only difficulty to surmount, for it perplexes much less than the _feminine security_ of these rappers against the inspection of their actual _quomodò_. We can most safely presume that if by search warrant, stratagem, or _vi et armis_, the rapping instrument of these Fox girls had been exposed to the public, there would not have been one doubt about the nature and origin of the _spiritual communications_, nor the question ever asked, how it happened that these communications were so wonderfully true to fact. Brains, books, good and bad spirits, devils and all would not have been needed for this discussion. Indeed where is the necessity at all, of dragging out human weakness, credulity, and duplicity to solve the psychological part of this fraud and forgery, if we can rap as well as the Fox girls (the great guns of rappism), and on the strength of our rappings tell _more truth_ and _fewer lies_ than their spirits, what need have we of metaphysical disquisitions on the handwriting found in a drawer or any where else, resembling Mr. Calhoun's, John Smith's, or any other of the great departed?[8] So far as our experience went, the Fox girls made few, very few good hits, and perpetrated a vast amount of most intolerable nonsense and contradiction; enough of itself, even if the rappings had been made outside the pale of their _queenly robes_ one inch, two feet, above their heads, in the aerial centre of the room, disconnected with every tangible and visible thing, to have turned any sensible man on his heel instanter, with contempt and disgust. But for the sake of those who are duped or perplexed by these communications, we must spend a little breath to enlighten them. When a man _suspects_ supernatural agency or interference in physical, really visible, sensible, or tangible demonstrations, he is ready to believe any thing communicated at the time, and when he comes to the full belief in divine interposition, his faith is perfected. Where, by long practice, preparation and skill, tricks are performed with a view to imposition, it requires the highest degree of coolness, calmness, and self-possession, to resist the impression of the superhuman, and however well fortified we may be in these respects, it is hardly to be expected that we should be able to discover the real nature of the performance without some experience and practice on our side. The instant the idea of the superhuman gets possession of the mind all fitness for investigation and power of analysis begins to vanish, and credulity swells to its utmost capacity. The most glaring inconsistencies and absurdities are not discerned and are swallowed whole, and so deep is the blindness and so extraordinary in its character, that we have seen a convert made to _spiritual rappism_ upon the strength of one single coincidence selected from among a great mass of disgusting mummery and perversion of truth. Not one of the discrepancies, were of any importance with him; one lucky hit of the rappers and the whole performance, errors, raps and all were invested with supernatural power. Now, how does it happen, that the believer in such cases does not notice the incongruities and failures, or does not appear to notice them. This is somewhat of a psychological phenomenon, but might as well be explained on the ground of unfairness, as any other; unfairness is as often the beginning and accompaniment of _infatuation_, as a mental incapacity for more than one idea. A shrewd person can, at any time, take a promiscuous company, and with the imposture of rapping, or any other trick, calculated to divert the attention, and a mode of spelling out communications similar to that adopted by the Fox girls, make out as many or more wonderful and seemingly supernatural communications as they, certainly not more of error and absurdity. We were once riding in a stage-coach, with a gentleman, who, after a long journey, laid a wager with another that he would tell the occupation of every person in the coach. To the surprise of all he won the wager. A lady present, apparently much hurt, asked how he knew she was a "housekeeper." The reply was, Because I saw you frequently putting your hands to your belt--for the keys. Many of our shrewd itinerant phrenologists, after the parade of measuring and fumbling one's head, and a few master-key questions, will portray the life and character with a wonderful degree of accuracy. Our stage-coach pythonist had, during the journey, watched the motions, complexion, conversation, expression of countenance, appearance of the hands, the dress,--in fine, ever little circumstance of habit or person, and it so happened judged rightly in each case. It is so with the phrenologist, who draws his information mostly from similar sources.[9] It is so with the rappers; they observe carefully, have experience with persons of all classes, and generally, unless molested by some skeptic, have every thing in their own way. Their visitors, especially the dupes, betray more to these rappers than their own skill can eliminate, and it is surely to be expected that they should hit right sometimes. Upon mere hap-hazard conjecture, this might happen occasionally, but with all the arts and aids of preparation, credulity, and fanaticism, they become as successful as the oracles of Delos and Lesbos.

Before concluding the subject of rappings we remark briefly that a SPIRIT that cannot or will not tell the truth on all occasions, is wholly unworthy our credence or respect; and believing, as we do, that miracles are God's prerogative and all miraculous power is withheld from evil spirits as militating with the plan of Revelation, we needed no further investigation for our own satisfaction, than to know that a very large part of their pretended communications were grossly erroneous; but we have held it to be important for the sake of others that the whole subject should be examined. The fever has somewhat abated of late, but unless boldly and vigorously assailed it will reappear under some new pretension with exacerbations more virulent than ever.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] This witch of Endor it seems was the only woman with a _familiar spirit_ that had escaped death under the royal edict of Saul, and how successfully she bewitched or juggled Saul our readers all know. We refer them one and all to the 19th Chap. Leviticus, 31st verse--ED.

[2] In Washington.

[3] The Bible teaches of witches and wizards with familiar spirits, and that they were to be put to death; of magicians, astrologers, sorcerers, soothsayers, and false prophets; but the only account of a miraculous performance by the devil, is that of his first great and momentous fraud upon our race in the garden of Eden, and this is by some considered as allegorical. Through that act he got possession of the human heart, and he needs now no external manifestations to further his intrigues.

Pharaoh's magicians were able, by their arts, to imitate to a certain extent only, the miracles of Moses and Aaron. They turned their rods into serpents, the river into blood, and caused frogs to come out of their hiding-places, but when it came to the conversion of the small dust into lice, their magic was baffled, and "then the magicians said unto Pharaoh _This is the finger of God_."

The raising of Samuel's spirit, and his prophecy of the result of the battle, was a professional trick of the witch of Endor, and no more remarkable than many of the doings related of the rappers and tippers, and of mesmerizers who send clairvoyants to explore the UNKNOWN WORLD. Considering all the circumstances, we think that many hits, or conjectures of false prophets, or fortune-tellers of the present day, have been quite as successful, and even more wonderful, than this feat of the witch of Endor. We know that some Commentators regard the raising of Samuel's ghost, and the prophecy of the result of the battle, as the work of God, and not of the witch herself, or her master; and to such a conclusion they seem to be forced, if they admit any thing superhuman about it, for it would not answer to accord so much power to a witch, accursed of the law. How such an explanation can be reconciled with Divine attributes and teachings, we are at loss to conceive. The account tells us that Saul had sought the Lord in vain. The Lord had refused to communicate with him. Shall it be said then that the Almighty is capable of trifling? (for this seems to be the alternative.) That he made known his will through a witch; and that, in Saul's (the Lord's anointed) last extremity, the Lord forced him to believe a lie or an accursed witch? Is not this the inference, the inevitable conclusion? How readily all difficulty vanishes by expounding this transaction upon the very same principles that we apply to spirit-rapping, viz.: that it was a juggle, and like all witchcraft of whatsoever kind, was of human immediate instrumentality. To affirm of such performances that they are inexplicable, and amazing, is no argument in favor of their superhuman character. They are not more wonderful or difficult of explanation, than hundreds of tricks which we see, and of which we read every day, as performed by jugglers. To the great mass of mankind these latter are equally puzzling, and would undoubtedly pass for miracles, were it not for the fact that they are _professedly_ tricks. We believe in the all-pervading, all-controlling, all-sustaining power of God, in Divine interposition, special Providences, and the efficacy of prayer, as taught in the Scriptures, after our own interpretation. _We believe that miracles are God's prerogative, and believing thus, we conclude that the working of miracles by the devil, or evil spirits, would furnish an excuse for man's unbelief or infidelity._ Most earnestly, therefore, do we deprecate the advancement of any theory (for it can be but _theory_ at the best), which attributes these and kindred delusions, to the direct agency of the devil, or evil spirits. Such teachings are mischievous in their tendency, and militate with the true interests of Christianity, just as far and as long as they have no better foundation than theory, speculation, or conjecture, and are wanting in proof positive, invincible and overwhelming, of their correctness.--C.G.P., Ed.

[4] We were thus given to understand that spirits retain their earthly names, and answer to them. It occurred to us, therefore, that if we put down the name of John Smith we should be sure of a response.--C. G. P., Ed.

[5] The expression was very common with them that "_they could rap_, or _had rapped_." Rather careless, certainly!

[6] We, of course, had no more thought of electrical agency here than in the rap of an auctioneer's hammer.--C.G.P., ED.

[7] We have made excellent rappings with this instrument, and accompanied them with very wonderful communications.--ED.

[8] Whatever respect we may have for the memory of the great, we feel at liberty to banter their spirits if we catch them in bad company, and at base tricks.--ED.

[9] We believe in the fundamental doctrines of phrenology, but have no faith whatever in this common empirical trade of delineating character promiscuously by the contour of the head alone.--ED.

TABLE-TIPPINGS.

This fallacy demands our most rigid scrutiny, and none the less of severe reprobation, from the fact that it is engaged in, to a great extent, by respectable and intelligent persons. The business of Spiritual Rappings is a sheer and miserable imposture, and as the performers are obliged to invent and manage the machinery, or whatever instrumentality produces the sounds, there is no possibility of their deceiving themselves. The table-tipping is rather a case of delusion, or self-imposition, though there are occasionally actors in this performance who betray insincerity, and some whose actions give the _lie direct_ to their professions. How it happened that TABLES were selected for the demonstrations of departed spirits, or the operations of the "_new fluid_," is beyond our wisdom to explain. Why should not the pump-handle work _sua sponte_, the cradle rock itself, or the coach start off without horses, as well as tables jump about the room at the mere imposition of hands, or the behest of those wonderful personages entitled _mediums_? Is there any thing in the shape, material, purpose, or history of a table that it should become, _par excellence_, the connecting link between the natural and the spiritual world? or that it should be the great reservoir of electricity, magnetism, "_new fluid_," "_od_," or what not? Perhaps _legs_ are indispensable to this new species of dancing and jumping. But, as in many of the best _authenticated_ cases, the table moves along the floor with a gradual, slow, and dignified motion, without jumping, and more especially as many of the tables are upon castors, we see no reason why wheels should not be better than legs, and why coaches will not do as well, or better, than tables--for the rolling friction is much less than the sliding friction, and carriages could be made very light for this particular purpose. These tipping magicians are not very fruitful in expedients or they would have attempted long ago the speculation of a _new line of spiritual coaches on common roads, propelled by mediums_.

But to the point. One of the first table-tippings that came under our notice was one which had become quite celebrated, and of which we had heard a great deal before we came to witness it. We were informed, by persons of high intelligence, who had been eye-witnesses, and participated in the experiments, that when several persons joined hands around this table, in connection with the medium, the table began to move about the room with force, celerity, and apparent life. That forcible resistance could not stop it, and that the performers were hardly able to keep up with its motion. That, on the same occasion, heavy bodies were lifted from the floor by the mere superposition of hands, without grasping; in other words, that by laying the hand upon a heavy article, and raising the hand, the dead weight _lifted itself_ from the floor, and followed the motion of the hand. Our informants were men of high standing, of high endowments and general intelligence, men of veracity, and men whose opinions were worth much in legal questions and matters of state. Oh! what a discovery and development was here. ADIEU YE LEVERS, SCREWS, WEDGES; PULLEYS, SCREW AND LEVER-JACKS, CRANES AND BOOM-DERRICKS, STEAM, GAS, AND EVERY KIND OF ENGINE, HORSE AND ALL OTHER POWERS, FIRE, AIR, AND WATER, ELECTRICITY AND MAGNETISM, CHEMICAL, MECHANICAL, AND ALL SUBSERVIENT AGENCIES, ONE AND ALL, ADIEU! Mind has subverted the laws of matter; all philosophy is merged in spirituality, and volition has become the all-potent, all-sufficient, all-pervading power; the crazy and pitiable seekers after perpetual motion are become the master spirits of the age, and gravity and friction have given way to two new controlling principles, levity and non-resistance. Suffice it to say, we laughed at our informants, and gave them a flat contradiction, "that they had not seen what they related." It is well worthy of remark here, that we have never yet known any one of our acquaintance to take serious offence at the most positive contradictions upon this subject,--a proof, to our mind, that there is a secret, deep-seated, smothered conviction against the reality and genuineness of these manifestations. A curious element of our composition it is, that honest men find no little difficulty in deceiving themselves, and take so little or no umbrage at being charged with this kind of deception.

Imbued deeply ourselves with an ardent _penchant_ for novelties upon every subject, and a determination to _ferret out_ the extraordinary pretensions of this new wonder, we have taken occasion to inquire of persons, from all parts of the country, where these exhibitions have been made, and we assure our readers that although the time may thus have been profitably spent, the inquiry became tedious even to disgust. We heard substantially the same story from all; viz., that the tables tipped and moved about "without visible agency," and yet, in almost every case, upon close sifting and careful cross-examination, we found that somebody had hands upon the table during the whole of its gambols. Surely the _devil has to do with table-tippings_, for we have never seen honest-minded persons so unfair and oblique on any other subject before. Not that the fiend tips, kicks, or propels in any way the tables, but that he tips either the conscience or the judgment to a deplorable extent to sustain the cheat. In every inquiry and investigation we have found gross and weak exaggeration, and have fully resolved that we will maintain, to the last extremity, the position of unqualified, uncompromising denial and opposition, to the _highest testimony of earth_, as to the verity of _table-tippings, spirit-rappings, or any kindred chicanery of miraculous or spiritual purport_. We were much gratified recently at the remark of an experienced friend, that "he would not believe these things, even if he saw them with his own eyes." There was meaning in the remark. He would not admit the testimony of others to such an anomaly, and he would not trust or believe _himself_ if he should give way to the conviction that all of mathematical and mechanical science, all of religion and bible teaching, and all of common sense, was to be contravened and exploded by these new manifestations, promising endless perplexity, confusion, crime, and insanity, and no good to any body. Our friends repeatedly say to us, "we don't see how these things can be, but we cannot discredit the opinion and testimony of Mr. A., Dr. B., Prof. C., Rev. Mr. D., Judge E., Hon. Mr. F., &c." "We think it hard to impugn such testimony, and why should not their word in this matter go as far as yours?" Our plain answer is this: if we tell you that black is white, and white is black, we do not expect our testimony to be regarded; and we take the same privilege in repudiating all testimony, from whatever source, of a similar character. It was a strong, though reverential, position of St. Paul, that "even an angel from heaven would be accursed if he preached any other doctrine than that which he, Paul, had preached," for he well knew that an angel from heaven could not preach any other.

With all reverence we say it, we feel a sort of inspiration upon the laws of reaction, gravity, and friction, based upon the experience of every moment of remembered life, that compels us to reject peremptorily the testimony of our best friends, of the most distinguished and credible persons, or of the most exalted intellects, when they tell us that by the mere superposition of hands, or by the effort of the will, a table moves off by itself, or lifts itself from the floor without visible agency. There are several individuals in this place, ourselves among the number, who have agreed to give two thousand dollars to any person who will show to us such a feat performed by a table. We feel entirely safe in the offer, and moreover think it prudent, in case we should deposit the money, to deposit it in a Savings Bank paying interest, for otherwise the money might be lying idle for a whole lifetime. We might hesitate, if there were the remotest chance of explaining such extraordinary appearances upon any principle of science; but the fact is, these assertions contravene all science, and bear absurdity on their very front. We hear some say, gravity, electricity, and magnetism cause bodies to move without visible agencies or connection. Yes! they _do_; they always _have_, and always _will_. But here, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, we must be told, for the first time, that the human body has analogous powers to magnets and thunder-clouds; and, more than this, that no regular law of traction or attraction, propulsion or repulsion, governs this marvellous, new, nervous, corporeal, carneous power, _odylic_ force, or what not, but that it is subject to all the anomalous, capricious and vicious directions and governance of _human_ volition.

We have too much contempt for _odylic_ philosophy, or any such chimera or vagary, to stop and discuss it here. We have for twenty years, ever since the revival of Slumbering Mesmerism, by Dr. Poyen, of Lowell, Mass., made diligent inquiry and patient, persevering effort to obtain from among the great mass of mesmeric performances some evidence of a new principle, new force, or any resolution of nervous or sensorial agency into physical power other than that of a mind upon its own body, and have never yet seen the most faint indications of any such nervous power as these modern psychologists pretend to unfold to us. What! a nervous force that acts exterior to, and independent of, its own tenement and rightful fulcrum? that propels masses heavier than the _body corporate_, without rending the latter in twain? Of one thing we feel assured, that this new-fangled philosophy is a poisonous, though covert fang, secretly gnawing at the very root of Christian faith. It made a bold sally in that coarse proposition of Miss Martineau respecting our Saviour's miracles--too coarse indeed to meet with favor--and now assails, under a less offensive and more sophistical garb, of "_odylic force_;" seeking to explain a mystery of the Bible (always an _infidel effort_), and to bring miracles and God's prerogatives within the scope and control of human reason and action. We ask any theologian who may incline to apply such tests to the solution of miraculous performance, if he supposes that if the mountain had removed, and been cast into the sea, at the bidding of the disciple (with faith as a grain of mustard-seed), that disciple would have been the source of the propelling power, and felt fatigue, depression, or reaction in proportion to the mass to be removed? If, when at the call of Joshua, the huge orb of earth stood still upon its axis, the vast momentum recoiled, through _odylic ether_, upon poor Joshua's brain? We can all accept the proposition of Archimedes "_Give me a place whereon to stand, and I will move the world_;" but who upon the largest latitude of plastic, ductile OD, or any other principle or pretext of mesmeric sophistry, would venture to arrest and propel the earth by the odylic, nervous, sensorial agency of one of its little creatures, held to its centre by indomitable gravity. Perchance it may be reasoned that from Joshua's cerebral fountain there issued a vast stream of odylic essence, or psychological fluid, whose mighty gushing into space was equal to the momentum of huge earth, and reacting, like water in the mill-wheel, caused the great sphere to stop. Oh! how hazardous, yea impious, is the attempt to _explain_ a miracle--God's prerogative, God's interposition in former times, though not above human _command_ upon the touchstones of prayer and faith, yet always and _forever_ above human _ken_. Our Saviour himself said, "Of myself I can do nothing," and his miracles were prefaced with prayer. GOD of the Bible! while thy word stands, the wisdom of the wise and prudent shall not prevail over the faith, simplicity and common-sense philosophy of thy "Babes."

It is painful and humiliating to see the efforts of certain prominent men publicly advocating the genuineness of these manifestations, and especially so when we consider the character of the assertions and arguments brought forward in support of their doctrines. One of the most recent and striking is this. Mr. Calhoun's spirit on being consulted through the Fox mediums as to the object of these spiritual manifestations, replies, that they are "instituted to prove to the unbelieving the IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL, and to propagate peace and harmony among men."[10] Hear it, all Christendom, believers, readers and hearers of the WORD! The great conflict and triumph of the Gospel is to be crowned by the deductions of these new FOX THEOLOGISTS, or, rather, as a more legitimate inference, the Word of God is to be superseded and must now give place to the higher manifestations of Rochester spirit-rappings and table-tippings. It is no less than a denial of the sufficiency of revelation for the very purpose for which it was intended, and denying this it denies the whole. All other reasons, arguments, developments, experiments, doubts, suspicions and manifestations aside, this rapping and tipping theology has now taken a decided and hostile stand against the BIBLE, and as such it must be treated. Hear it, and mark it well! The Bible is discarded as plainly and fully as if it had been uttered in so many words. In vain does Holy Writ every where teach of the immortality of the soul, in vain are its maledictions against sorcery and witchcraft, in vain does it pronounce "Anathema Maranatha" against additions to its divine pretensions, in vain its precept "that no prophecy of Scripture is of private interpretation," in vain does it declare that an unbeliever "would not believe though one rose from the dead,"[11] in vain have been the Bible societies, missionary and all the mighty efforts to spread Christianity, ALL is to be blotted out before the new light of "_Rochester knockings_" and Fox legerdemain. But why should we indulge in appeals, tirades, irony, or satire, knowing all the while that we have positive demonstrations yet to present of the utter fallacy of table-tippings; proofs irrefragible of the mundane, mortal, corporeal, physical, muscular character of table-tippings? We have our reasons. If we are to encounter fools and fanatics, witches and wizards, devils and dupes, we must assail in every vulnerable quarter, for even demonstrations of fact are sure to be denied upon some impudent pretext, and in such cases facts are not all-puissant weapons, and require an auxiliary guard. With the candid and the wavering, however, our demonstrations will be appreciated, and we trust conclusive. Reverting to the first case of table-tipping that came under our notice, having heard much of the extraordinary performances we went in company with a scientific friend to see for ourselves. The medium was a sprightly young girl, whose reputation for sincerity might have been her dearest treasure. The wonderful feats of this medium were recounted to us, and we longed for the verification. After a brief conversation, she with another young lady, (about half medium) placed hands upon a small table, our friend joining the circle. Their hands were so placed, that the right hand of one concealed the left hand of the other. After a while, the table began to move. This was natural, certainly, for we noticed that this medium was working very hard with her concealed hand to move it. Perhaps her mother saw this, for she rose from her seat and said, "You are not tricking, now?" "No, indeed, mother, I'm not tricking; see how lightly I _press_!" What a comment was all this upon the recital just made by her mother to us of the astonishing feats of moving heavy dining-tables, tearing up the carpets, moving pianofortes, &c.! Our friend beginning to suspect the voluntary character of this motion of the table, made a counter effort with his fingers (better concealed than that of the medium for the reason that he was possessed of far greater strength), and the table stopped moving. But this was not all. We detected upon the countenance of the medium an expression of disappointment, and further, a more palpable striving to move the table, in consequence of this resistance, which she seemed not to suspect. All this seems too farcical to relate, and yet the _superhuman_ performances of this very medium had been described to us by eye-witnesses of the highest respectability as marvellous, and astounding in the extreme, and our principal informant was a gentleman well known for his astuteness, had some years back published an excellent work upon mathematics, and was as well qualified as the average of learned men to observe and decide upon such matters. His testimony was confirmed by several others, all witnesses of the highest respectability, and what was it all worth? and what is all other testimony worth upon this _aerial vaulting_ of tables? Perhaps we are mistaken as to the effort made by this medium to move the table. Let us see! We placed a sheet of paper on the table under her hand, and as soon as the table was desired to move, behold the sheet of paper moved over the table-top, while the table stood still. Here is the demonstration of this fallacy, and although in such a shape that it may be cavilled at, yet it is, however, the elementary key, and to us all-sufficient in itself. We will, however, develope it in such form as to be beyond all cavil. We witnessed, after this, many abortive attempts by mediums and others to move tables, and some other attempts that began to succeed, till we applied our mechanical tests, when the new fluid, electricity, magnetism, nervous power, odylic force, all resolved themselves into muscular action, and the tables never moved unless clearly pushed. As to tables moving in _any way_ without being touched, we repeat that it has never been done, and challenge proof to the contrary.