Part 2
Therefore, admitting the supposition of our believing it a reality, how have our authors proved that this very Spectre conducted imprudently, proposed no end to himself, or used no proper means to accomplish that end? “Because, say they, he did not first appear to Eleanor Welsh and her husband, and frighten them into compliance at once.” But how does it appear that this summary method, all things considered, would have been the most eligible. Doubtless some infidels are bold enough to say that the angel, who sent Moses to Pharaoh from Horeb, would have conducted much more prudently and rationally, if he had first appeared to Pharaoh, and frightened him into compliance at once, than to have kept Moses in such disquietude, who had less concern in the matter than any man in Egypt, for he was now married and peaceably settled in another land. The end proposed by the ghost appearing to Tavernor was, that the son of Haddock should enjoy the lease, and this end was subordinate and absolutely necessary to other ends of far greater magnitude, for any thing which the Cyclopedia has shewn to the contrary.
We find in the Scriptures such a connection of means and ends as the wisdom of some moderns would never dictate: as that of Ezek. 4: 15, and the marriage of Hosea transacted, either in reality or in vision. These means, doubtless, would not have appeared the most decent and eligible to some of those who seem capable of dictating for apparitions, the proper mode of their procedure.
But suppose Tavernor’s ghost had first appeared to Eleanor Welsh and her husband, and frighted them into compliance at once, would the existence of Spectres be any more believed than it is at present? Would not the objection have been that Eleanor Welsh had the maternal affection for her son? Had never really consented to the crime--that her own fear was feigned, and that the ghost was some friend employed by her to frighten and deceive her husband?
Or if the ghost had first appeared to a magistrate: should we not have been told how much more probable it was that a magistrate should bear a part in some artifice which afforded him profit, than that a miracle had happened equal to the transition from a state of manhood to that which preceded our birth? It is no dishonor to the most illustrious of mankind that they frequently entertain the same opinion as that of their inferiors. On the mode of conduct proper for a Spectre, our authors agree in sentiment with that Heroine of a famous English ballad,[7] who with the habiliments there described, frightened a person into compliance at once. She gave him no opportunity to deliberate or to authenticate her mission. Compliance, or immediate ruin were his only alternative. Her name was honored by three queens, and the favor of Henry the eighth.
Spectres from heaven are rational creatures, and come down from the fountain of reason, and will therefore deal reasonably with us, by allowing us a fair opportunity to ascertain the reality of their mission. But for this examination, the mind is incapable when terrified by a sudden surprise.
Eleanor Welsh being the mother of the injured, must have been interested, and therefore, if the Spectre had first appeared to her and her husband, there certainly would have been less evidence of reality (coct. par) than there was by its first appearing to Tavernor, who, by the very supposition of our author, was a disinterested person, and “had no concern in the matter.”
We find in the next place several naked assertions, and then the inference that, “The evidence of Spectres is destroyed.” They tell us that Spectres appear only to one person at a time--that they are seen only in the night, and visible only to the illiterate and credulous. “A man must be prejudiced in favor of this opinion beforehand, say they, or he will never see a ghost.”
I must not offend the reader by needless detention. He may easily find instances to disprove these assertions. As to the last, besides Doctor Scott, several persons of distinguished abilities, probity and literature, who have seen ghosts, have declared to the writer, that instead of previously believing their existence, their minds had been strongly prejudiced against it.
Our authors desire to know why Spectres should appear in the night, and “why they could not deliver their messages with as much ease and more success in the day time.” And doubtless Bolingbroke had a similar enquiry respecting the angel who appeared to the shepherds in the night.
“To render the testimony of any person credible, say these writers, he must not only be a man of veracity, but of sufficient ability to judge of the subject to which he is to bear witness. It is not on the evidence of an ignorant, illiterate person, who has more fancy and fear than judgment, that we are to rest our belief of what is supernatural.” Here again their weapon is from the arsenal of those who oppose our Saviour’s resurrection, known first to some of “the timorous and pious sex,” as Hume has termed them, and then to illiterate, ignorant fishermen, who, say the deists, had more fancy and fear than judgment. The truth is, some ignorant men have no more fancy nor fear than the learned, and a much better judgment than many of the latter. The corporeal senses of the illiterate are as infallible as those of the learned. The former can see and hear a ghost or an angel as distinctly as the latter, and can attempt to handle a ghost with as much composure of mind, and so are capable of knowing whether they can feel a substance or not, as a Locke or a Newton.
On the whole, it appears that the reason why mankind in this enlightened age, must believe that apparitions are a mere fiction, is not because this negative thesis was ever established by any solid demonstration, but because the unanimity of modern names, the substitute of argument, has given it popularity.
Doubtless the counterfeit apparitions which duped the popish ages, were numerous; but counterfeits will never prove that there is nothing to be counterfeited.
Among the greatest impositions of this nature, where shall we find one, which will compare with the late events of Sullivan, in the county of Hancock, Maine. In that place has never been found any theatrical representation, or magic glass, or lantern, or ventriloquist, or speaking automaton, or Phantasmagoria, or Statue of Kircher: and were all these means of imposition found there, they would afford no rational explanation of the subsequent phenomena. How easy of solution was that fraud in the city of Bern, mentioned by Mosheim,[8] as imposed upon one Jetzer, by four Dominicans, to confirm their doctrine of original sin. The apparition was indeed terrific, and exhibited false miracles, but never offered to appear in the day time, nor predict any event, which could not be foreknown by other means, nor was there any address to the sense of feeling to satisfy Jetzer that the Spectre was a Phantom.
The Encyclopedia have related a wonderful artifice from Doctor Plot, performed undoubtedly by a number of persons at Woodstock, in England, soon after the death of king Charles the first, while certain commissioners appointed to survey his property there, were engaged to accomplish their business. But in all that marvelous story, we find no comparison with the events we are about to contemplate. The only apparition seen there, was that of a dog! none of them observed the manner of his being introduced among them. They saw no changes of shape or magnitude, nor does it appear that any of them saw him vanish. They heard no articulate voice, much less any declaration of truth, unattainable by other means.
As to the Cocklane ghost, which produced so much noise and credit in London; there was neither articulate voice, nor any kind of apparition. All these artifices, and a thousand more which history commemorates, are swallowed up by the subsequent phenomena, as Aaron’s rod swallowed up the rods of the magicians.
Pause then, reader, and consider a few moments what evidence would convince you of the existence of a Spectre. Before you stands a creature encircled with radiance resembling the sun. Through the rays you behold a personal form as plainly as possible. This form speaks to you. The same is seen and heard by thirty others at the same time and in the same manner, so that your experience and theirs are uniform; while two or three other persons with the same ocular advantages, and looking in the same direction, hear the voice, but see nothing, having been previously told by the Spectre that they should only hear and not see.
With a voice distinct from that of the living, so that none of you can perceive the least manifestation of breathing, this personal form tells you not to be afraid--that nothing will hurt you--to stand as near as you please, and handle him that you may know whether or not he is flesh and bones. You comply with the request, and find no material substance. Now what would be your conclusion? Would you feel sure that these matters were all the effect of your own fancy and that of others? Can you produce a single instance out of all history, in which so many persons were thus impressed, while in reality they saw and heard nothing? But suppose further, that this Spectre informs you of events which you cannot possibly know by other means, what then would be the inference? “I make a distinction, says Doctor Johnson, between what a man may experience by the mere strength of his imagination, and what imagination cannot possibly produce.” Thus, suppose I should think I saw a form and heard a voice cry, “Johnson, you are very wicked--and unless you repent, you will certainly be punished;” my own unworthiness is so deeply impressed on my mind, that I might imagine I thus saw and heard, and therefore I should not believe that an external communication had been made to me. But if a form should appear and a voice should tell me that a particular man had died at a particular hour--a fact which I had no apprehension of, nor any means of knowing, and this fact, with all its circumstances, should afterwards be unquestionably proved; I should in that case be persuaded that I had supernatural intelligence imparted to me. By this it appears, that had Doctor Johnson been an eye and ear witness of only a small part of what is now to be related, he would have believed that he had seen the form and heard the language of a Spectre. “He had a very philosophical mind, says Mr. Boswell, and such a rational respect for testimony, as to make him submit his understanding to what was authentically proved, though he could not comprehend why it was so.”[9] And the same will be the disposition of every pious and reasonable mind. But if you reject the evidence of experience, the evidence of substantial testimony and the evidence of predictions, where are you? On the billows of scepticism, without a helm, and your lee shore is infidelity.
It is frequently asserted, and that by multitudes, that the true origin of the following letters is a gross artifice. ASSERTED I say: for that is all. Twenty-six years’ time they have had to look round, search and prove that they are not mistaken. And for this purpose, means and pains have not been wanting. Nothing however has yet transpired to make good the assertion; but remarkable events have disproved it.
It is well known that some of the witnesses have been prosecuted for mountebanks; but nothing even to form an indictment could be found against them. Do I misrepresent? Do I mislead the credulous? Then let me be convinced? yea, let me be exposed. Let the cause be fully and fairly tried by friendly discussion; not in a future century, when we shall dwell in silence, but now, while the means of evidence are at hand--while the witnesses and their opponents are yet living.
If we love our neighbors, we prize their characters, and forbear needless censure, especially in a case like this. “Judge not that ye be not judged.”
For our conclusion, the words of the celebrated Mr. Addison and of Mr. Hartly are not impertinent: “I think a person who is terrified with the imagination of ghosts and Spectres, much more reasonable than one, who, contrary to the report of all historians, sacred and profane, ancient and modern, and to the traditions of all nations, thinks the appearance of Spirits fabulous and groundless. Could not I give myself up to this general testimony, I should to the relations of particular persons, who are now living, and whom I could not distrust in other matters of fact.”[10] “Certain it is, says Mr. Hartly, that Spirits can become visible and converse with us, as man with man; and so innumerable are the instances hereof, as also of their discoveries, warnings, predictions, &c., that I may venture to affirm with an appeal to the public for the truth of it, that there are few ancient families in any county of Great Britain, who are not possessed of records or traditions of the same in their own houses, however the prevailing Sadducism of these times, may have sunk the credit of them.”--_Preface to Swedenborg’s treatise of heaven and hell, p. 18._
His whole discussion of this topic demands our peculiar attention.
As the glorious descent of New Jerusalem is at hand, and perhaps already begun, it is not improbable that henceforth these phenomena will exceedingly multiply, and then destroy the wisdom of the wise. New Jerusalem will descend, i. e. the saints will descend from heaven and make visible their spiritual bodies. While those heavenly doctrines are inculcated, which establish a church new and glorious; so that the old christian church has no glory by reason of the glory which excelleth. Then Universalism, Socinianism, Arianism, and the grossly absurd doctrine of Divine tri-personality will deceive the nations no more for a thousand years.[11]
[Illustration: decorated line]
SECTION II.
_Recent proofs of the doctrine by the existence of a particular Apparition._--IN SIX LETTERS.
* * * * *
LETTER I.
In reply to a friend, who had expressed his desire and that of others, that the account of the Spectre might not be made public.
_My Dear Sir_:--In our last interview, you favored me with the suspense of your judgment with regard to the Spectre, which has produced so much altercation in this part of the land.
I am therefore encouraged to ask your further attention to this affair, contemptible as it must appear, if you believe but a part of the misrepresentation now propagated. These, with modern incredulity, now form the general opinion of the wise and unwise, the learned and unlearned, that this whole affair is mischief and artifice, practised by one or more of Mr. B’s family, and particularly by the young woman, whose marriage was responsive to the prediction and direction of the Spectre. Thus stands the vision of Hosea in the view of our Deists. They consider it a thousand times more probable that the good man was some how or other deceived by those licentious women, than that he ever received such direction from the invisible world. Now while my own opinion is entirely the reverse--while I view that family and their neighbors who vindicate them as unjustly censured; shall I appear the sang froid spectator? Perish rather my own reputation with theirs.
But this notwithstanding, dear sir, you will not fail to mention the ardent sensations of gratitude and esteem which I entertain for those pious and judicious persons, who have expressed their generous anxiety for my character and usefulness.
It is not so much the matter or style of the pious discourse of the Spectre which demands our attention, as the enquiry whether there was any Spectre or not. She taught the same truth which we find in our Bible. She proclaimed no new doctrine. Had she done this, it would have occasioned a great objection against her.[12] She exhorted the young people to read the Bible as their sure guide to eternal life. And her requirements were defended by the Scriptures whenever the propriety of any of them was doubted, to shew that her directions agreed with the law and the testimony.
In the style of her discourse, there was nothing of elegance or sublimity, more or less than we observe among common people in that pious and familiar conversation in which passages of Scripture are frequently introduced.
This, they say, is a great objection: a person from the invisible state would never have conversed with the people in such an ordinary style. But had she excelled in the _elegant_ or _sublime_, objection would not have been silent. It would have been said that she was not the person she professed to be: for the employment of that person had never been the study of Sheridan or Longinus: on earth she was below it, in heaven above it. The Spectre came not with the excellency of speech, which man teaches, nor with the sublimity of those prophecies which describe the rise and ruin of empires; for empires were not her subject; and there was perfect propriety in her using such language as would subserve two of her designs: which were to manifest who she was, and to render herself as familiar as possible to those common people with whom she conversed. Accordingly her mention of certain articles of property which she had left, was by no means an ultimate design, as she herself declared; but this, and her reasonable disposal of them, were more clearly to convince her family that she had been their daughter and sister. For the same reason the features of her face were observed to be like those of the person she professed to be, by some who knew her in her life time. And though her voice had no indication of breath and was inimitably distinct from any voice of the living, yet it had the same sound which she had uttered in her last hours, as they, who attended her in her last sickness have testified. Sometimes a part of the company could understand her words without the least difficulty; while others with advantages of hearing, every way equal, perceived only a sound, without the least articulation whatever. Thus the men who were with Paul at the time of his conversion, heard a voice, but saw no man, and they saw the light, but heard not the articulate voice of the speaker.
Such was the various experience of the people on these occasions. Some of them heard and understood plainly, but saw nothing: others heard a voice, but no speaking voice: others again saw a light, but no person: while they had no impediments natural or accidental; yet far the greater number heard the words distinctly, and clearly saw a personal form. And the very same persons, who could not see, nor hear intelligibly at one time, would at another time, and even at a greater distance see, hear and understand without the least difficulty: while others of the company, who had clearly seen and understood at the previous interview, could now only see a light and hear a sound.
It was to render herself familiar that she frequently introduced herself, as we do, by the token of knocking.
When Peter knocked at the house of Mary, the disciples thought it was his angel, that is to say, they thought that a Spirit might come to the house and knock. They more easily believed that a Spirit was at the door, than that Peter had escaped from prison. We should in this age more easily believe the contrary. But the disciples were no philosophers.
For the same reason she endeavored to dispel the fears of those who conversed with her. “Do not be afraid,” she would say, “I have not come to hurt you. You need not be afraid at all.” Utterly opposite, you observe, to the conduct of those who personate apparitions. They generally aim to keep their dupes in fear and at a convenient distance.
So the angel addressed the shepherds, “Fear not.” “I do not stand too near you, do I?” said a person unsuspected. “No,” was the reply, “stand as near as you please.”
Hence also the reason why she did not commonly begin to speak, till she was addressed. I say, _commonly_, for there were some exceptions. The voice of a Ghost responsive, is not so unexpected, and, of course, not so suddenly terrific as the same voice would be without previous address. This may serve to remove that objection of the Encyclopedia: “It is an odd circumstance, say they, that ghosts have no power to speak till they are addressed.” But this odd circumstance is not occasioned by their want of power; but by their tenderness for the persons who receive their messages. This was the very reason she once expressly gave for not speaking where she once appeared. Hence we may, if we choose, see one reason why she spoke so frequently in the cellar. It is easy to see, if we choose, that the idea of a Spectre coming into the room where the family commonly resided for labor, sleep, or other refreshment was distressing to them: for this was their refuge, their place of retreat. Accordingly when, upon a certain day, she appeared among them in one of the lower rooms, they all left the house. The Spectre, therefore, out of tenderness to them, _commonly_, though not always, conversed in the cellar, that they might seem to have a place of retreat. The next question is, why then did she not commonly speak in one of the chambers or in the open field? But the chambers were the apartments of repose, and the field was inconvenient by the weather. She did however, sometimes speak in the chambers, and in the lower rooms, and in other houses of the neighborhood, and several times in the open field.
A cellar, such as that was, is a place where deceivers, imitating her realities would find difficulty. A ventriloquist might indeed speak there. But how? Not so that a part of the company shall hear and understand distinctly, while the other part with advantages of hearing every way equal, and giving equal attention, shall not understand a single word. If a ventriloquist could perform this, we should have known it before this time.
No white garments can appear white in a dark cellar at midnight, and suppose any lucid substance could have been used, then, when it first appeared a mere shapeless mass, who formed it in a moment into personal shape, face and features? Who caused it to speak and desired to be handled? and when this desire was complied with, why did not the hand undeceive the eyes? Now admit the possibility of a magic lantern, where did it move, and where stood the upright plane for the representation, when by the order of the Spectre, the company of about twenty persons formed an Ellipsis within which she passed and re-passed from end to end several times. You must inform me too how some eyes saw the form so clearly, while others with advantages of sight every way equal, saw nothing.
However, it is not even pretended that any such mediums of delusion were ever seen here.