The Missing Link In Modern Spiritualism Part 22

"Now, my dear friend, do not allow anyone to influence you to discontinue this suit. Burr deserves to be punished to the fullest extent of the law, and for your own sake, for the sake of your friends, and for the sake of the cause in which we are engaged, permit it to go through.

"Your visit here, though not a golden one, will, I doubt not, be the most important event in your whole life. The trial will not come off in the October term, but will quite likely the next. We must all 'keep cool.' Now, Leah, make up your mind to settle in Cleveland, where you have so many good friends, whom you know you can trust. We intend to visit you before navigation closes, if possible.

"Remember me to Calvin, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, your mother, Maggie and Katie, dear little Charlie, and may _good_ Spirits aid you in every emergency, direct you aright in all things, so that when called to exchange worlds, your earth life shall close like flowers at setting sun. So may we all live and die. My wife unites in love to you.

"Ever yours truly, "M. L. WRIGHT."

INTERESTING LETTER FROM MRS. AMY POST.

The letter written by a venerable Quaker lady, who has for years been a neighbor and intimate friend of Mrs. Fish and the Fox family, speaks a language so plain that we have requested the privilege of publis.h.i.+ng it, though not so intended by the author.--_Cleveland Plaindealer._

"ROCHESTER, June, 1851.

"MY DEAR FRIEND, A. LEAH FISH:

"I have often thought of thee and thy company since you left your beautiful home for an Ohio city, and have been much delighted to hear you have found friends who can appreciate the value and importance of this wonderful development to mankind. When I think of the very happy change it has made in my views and feelings, regarding the present as well as the future life, I feel anxious that all the world should become acquainted with it. It is a wealth I had despaired of ever obtaining--to be convinced that we have commenced to live a life which will never end--a life whose joys, too, are enhanced by our practices of goodness.

I have always admired the doctrine and wished to believe it, viz., 'Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have,' etc.; and also, 'In my father's house there are many mansions;' but the belief I had on this point was always accompanied with a desire for more _positive proof_ of immortality. For some time before your family made me acquainted with this blessed Spirit-rapping dispensation, I had become more settled in the belief, and unreasonable but popular doctrine of there being no half-way house; but we must either go to Heaven or to h.e.l.l. But what am I writing this to thee for?

Thee knows how happy I have been made, and how thankful I have been that you all have been willing to bear persecutions and revilings, self-denial and provocations, for the sake of the _Truth_, and clearing yourselves from the imputations of deception. Oh! could strangers only know as I have known the trials you have endured and the sacrifices you made the first two years, they could not be made to believe it an invention of your own, nor pursued for mercenary purposes. Thy mother has been so troubled and unhappy away from you all that I could not feel surprised at her accepting thy very kind invitation to come to you.

The feelings of a mother are tenderly alive to the interests of her children. I know truly, therefore, I was very glad, for your as well as her sake, to have your own mother with you, as you have never before been without her guardian protection.

"Please give my loving regards to Margaretta and Calvin, and do all the good you can. Believe me to be thy sincere and affectionate friend,

"AMY POST."

DOINGS AT THE DUNHAM--THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUALISM AS RAPPED OUT BY DR. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

(_From the Cleveland Plaindealer._)

"So engrossed are we in worldly affairs, that we have but little time to investigate Spiritual matters, although opportunities present themselves twice a day at the Dunham House. There are, however, a few gentlemen of leisure who are taking up this subject systematically, and looking into its mysteries earnestly. Some dozen of the most intellectual minds in the city have formed a league to jointly, candidly, and honestly investigate this phenomenon, have already had two sittings, and report 'progress.' We have been kindly invited by this circle to attend whenever our convenience would admit, knowing that we had the moral courage to publish what we saw and heard, without stopping to inquire whether anything similar had been published fifty years before, or without consulting the masculine grannies of the day, whether it met their approval or not. By such invitation we attended a little while last evening, and found the company had progressed so far as to discard all tests of the _medium_, of the _Spirituality_ of the _communications_, and were actually (as they believed) taking lessons in philosophy from the ancient masters. After sitting a while, and hearing a great variety of rapping sounds, there was a loud knocker appeared which was simultaneously recognized, by several who had heard it before, as the signal of Benjamin Franklin. He was a long time questioned concerning Spiritual matters, sometimes answering by raps, and sometimes using the alphabet. It was in substance as follows:

"Spirit is the great positive of all existence, and matter the great negative. There is an elemental difference between Matter and Spirit.

Electricity and magnetism are always connected with matter, and belong to it. The dividing link between matter and mind is between magnetism and vitality.

"There are different degrees of refinement in the electrical and magnetic media. Chemical affinities are electrical and magnetic.

Cohesion and gravitation also depend on similar principles.

"The time has not yet come when the true philosophy may be explained, but will soon. Investigation and experience will hasten it on.

"Repulsion in nature is caused by stronger attraction. The ascension of a balloon from the earth is a fair ill.u.s.tration of the principle of repulsion. Everything in the universe takes its appropriate place by virtue of its elemental affinities, and can occupy no other place, without changing the relations of itself and every other body in existence. The earth, as also every other heavenly body, is caused to move in its appropriate orbit by the united action of every other body in existence, and cannot be made to come in contact with other bodies; for the combining influences of all the separate bodies mark out separate paths for each. Thought is mental motion, and is conveyed from one mind to another through an intermediate medium, which is put in motion by this mental action. This medium, in its refinement lies between the nervous medium and Spirit, and exists in every degree of refinement from the nervous fluid to Spirit.

"Clairvoyance consists in insulating the mind of the subject, and in proportion as the mind is brought into clear contact with higher refinements of this medium, will the subject become clear-sighted.

Biology, as used by Burr and others, is an improper term. Psychology would be a better word. The word Biology was used to make the subject a humbug. The phenomena attending Psychological (Biological) experiments, belong to the lower cla.s.s of mesmeric influences--and pa.s.s from them through every degree, to perfect clear-sightedness.

"Much further information was given which we failed to note. As the doctor promised to meet the circle again, we hope to report a more complete theory. After which the circle drew up close to the table, and various rapping sounds were heard upon the chairs, the table, the floor, etc. The sound of sawing boards, driving nails into a box or something hollow, was repeated several times."

CHAPTER XVIII.

NEW YORK CITY, FROM JANUARY, 1852.

COMPETING CLAIMS UPON US--DECISION IN FAVOR OF NEW YORK AS RESIDENCE--DEATH OF CALVIN R. BROWN--REMAINS REMOVED TO ROCHESTER FOR BURIAL--PERSONAL FRIENDs.h.i.+PS--ALICE AND PHOEBE CARY--COURSE OF TEST EXPERIMENTS AT DR. GRAY'S--THE MONDAY EVENING CIRCLE--RULES OF SeANCES.

I have sketched our experiences thus far at Rochester, Albany, Troy, New York, Buffalo, and Ohio generally; after which I returned to Albany and Troy, a second time, by the earnest entreaty of friends--taking Glens Falls on the way, where I remained with my uncle John and Calvin; my mother and the girls being at that time in Cincinnati for the second time.

A fortnight after this I returned to my pleasant home in Rochester (corner of Troup and Sophia Streets). I now considered that we were fairly ent.i.tled to repose; and thought that, after the publicity given to the Spirit manifestations, through the press, and the thousands of our visitors, including persons from all parts of the Union, the _duty_ imposed on us had been reasonably and, as I deemed, sufficiently discharged.

But it soon became evident that isolation had now become impossible.

Invitations and appeals of the most urgent character rained upon me from important individuals, and from collective bodies of prominent men in the respective cities and towns.

The Spirits, who had sent us forth, had well understood that, after our hands had thus been "put to the plough," it would be beyond our possibility to "look back." Many friends to the new cause urged their advice that we should establish ourselves in one of the great centres of population and movement, where the thousands and tens of thousands of our locomotive people could conveniently come and hear for themselves.

New York was naturally indicated for this purpose, but Cleveland and Cincinnati disputed her claim; while our friends in Rochester insisted that their city was the most appropriate and natural home and centre for the "Rochester Knockings."

At last our Ohio friends, and indeed all others, concurred in the selection of New York, as a duty and for the good of humanity; while still hoping for occasional excursions for the benefit of other places.

At Rochester, by way of keeping up a continued hold upon us, they offered to provide for the payment of the rent of my house, in the hope that I would eventually return to it. But this I could not accept.

Shall I ever forget that day of our departure from Rochester? Our friends crowded the depot, and the parting embraces and hand-grasps continued even after the train had started in its first slow movements.

No small number of our friends made their adieux in tears and blessings: while, for my part, I remember that I did nothing but cry all the way to Syracuse. This was in the early days of January, 1852.

After a few days of stay with friends and relations--(for we were an old Knickerbocker family, and it was in my early childhood that grandfather had transplanted us to Wayne County, which was to us then almost the far West, with its deserted wigwams and wandering Indian hunters)--we settled for a short time in a house temporarily taken, till the one found for me by a good friend, Mr. Sweet, should be ready. I established myself in West 26th Street, in a large and handsome brown stone front, in a neighborhood then of first-rate excellence, in which I resided for two years. From that house I removed to 15th Street, next door to Irving Place; from which, after a residence of a year, I removed, by advice of my friends, to No. 1 Ludlow Place, which I left only to go to my husband's home in West 37th Street, on my marriage, in 1858, which epoch was also the close of my career of public mediums.h.i.+p. Twenty-six years have now elapsed from that most blessed of days to this. Our home has been indeed a happy one. Though I have lost children, it has never been that which Victor Hugo had not the heart to wish for his worst enemy, a house without a child. Indeed, it has usually been full of them. I am still "mother," and my husband "father," to a well-beloved little crowd who are the same to us as our very own, and by whom I am indiscriminately called "Aunt Leah" and "Ma." And what with relatives, and friends on visits, and nephews and nieces of whose education we have taken charge, for the better advantages of New York, it has been one pretty full of visible inmates, as well as those who are not the less real because invisible. And these latter are ever ready to respond, with the dear familiar raps and alphabet, to our desire to communicate with them; to say nothing of occasional manifestations in other ways, of their presence with us. An earnest thought or request rarely fails to bring our unseen ones.

During two years from the date of my marriage with Calvin R. Brown (see page 230), he had been slowly declining. He breathed the last breath of his blameless life on the 4th of May, 1853, while I was still residing in 26th Street. He had attained the age of nearly twenty-nine years.

Professor S. B. Brittan preached the funeral sermon in New York on the 6th day of May, at 8 o'clock P.M. A large concourse of personal friends and friends of the cause of Spiritualism attended. After Professor Brittan had concluded his discourse, Judge Edmonds delivered a short eulogy which purported to come from the Spirit world. Dr. Gray came in rather late, as he had been detained by professional duties, and begged the indulgence of the audience, as he felt it alike a pleasure and a duty he owed to the departed, to pay a small tribute to his memory, and of condolence to the bereft family. He then said, "I have been his attendant physician, and conversed with him daily during his slow decline. He suffered much at times, but never complained. He always met me with a smile. He had no fear of death, still he wanted to live. He was firm, truthful, and honorable in every sense. He was a husband, a son, and a brother--and a linch-pin in the cause of Spiritualism. Honor to whom honor is due."

During the delivery of the speeches, rappings were heard all over the room, in response.

I regret that the paper, giving a minute account of the funeral, has been lost. Arrangements were made by the friends, Judge Edmonds, Dr.

Gray, and Mr. Partridge, to procure a church in Rochester, and announce through the papers that the funeral would be held on the 8th of May.

These parties telegraphed a message to Isaac Post, of that city, to the above effect, who immediately returned the answer, "Bring on your dead.

My house is at your service." We started on the following morning with his remains. Our party consisted of mother, Maggie, Cathy, Lizzie (my daughter), and myself. They engaged the undertaker to go with us to attend to the burying of our dead. We arrived in Rochester at seven o'clock P.M., and found the hea.r.s.e and carriages at the depot waiting to take us to Mr. Post's house, where already had a.s.sembled a large company of friends who deeply sympathized with us.

The funeral was appointed at ten o'clock A.M. of the 8th. Rev. Chas.

Hammond delivered the funeral sermon. The remains were taken to Mount Hope Cemetery; from whence we returned to Isaac Post's, where we tarried over night. We engaged a travelling coach early the next morning, and started for Newark, thirty miles east of Rochester. We arrived at my brother David's about three o'clock P.M. The children all met us at the turn of the lane: all were delighted to see us. We took them in the carriage with us; little Georgie, who was about seven years of age, was wonderfully struck with the appearance of our deep mourning, and said, "Grandma, what makes you all dress so black? Did anybody die?" Mother replied, "Yes, dear, your uncle Calvin died." He replied, "Oh dear, that's too bad." After dinner we all went to sister Maria's, a distance of one mile, taking the children with us. When David and his family went home, little Georgie wanted to stay with us, which he did, and played with little Charlie Smith until bed-time--when they retired and apparently slept well all night. The next morning Georgie felt sick. My brother Stephen harnessed up his horses, and we took him home. They went for the doctor immediately, but he died before twelve o'clock that day.

His funeral was on the 12th day of the month. Two Methodist ministers officiated.

It was a singular coincidence that two Universalist and two Methodist ministers selected the same Bible text, the same funeral hymns, and the same tunes, at the services in New York, Rochester, and Newark. In my affliction I had not noticed this until mother spoke of it, and said it was evident that the same guardian influences had controlled on all these three occasions, distinct as they were in time, place, and circ.u.mstances. It was probably meant that we should recognize and feel the presence of the unseen friends, who thus signified their sympathy with us in our grief.

Lizzie, Katie, and myself started for New York on the morning of the 13th, leaving mother and Maggie with David and Elizabeth, who had suffered such a sudden bereavement.

I abstain from speaking of the private friends.h.i.+ps which grew out of so much opportunity for acquaintance and intercourse with so many out of the best cla.s.ses of New York society (in the true sense of the word). I am proud as well as happy to have enjoyed such high and precious and enn.o.bling friends.h.i.+ps, many of which are not wholly severed even by that death which only makes our friends invisible for a time to our mortal eyes, since a thought, a wish can still bring to me those signal sounds which are as their voices. I will indulge myself here only with a page or two about two semi-angelic women, Alice and Phoebe Cary, who have now risen into the completeness of their angelhood.