< A Philosophy of Materialisation (continued from page 11-351) >
I was a good deal troubled about the propriety of introducing an hypothetical something for the purpose of breaking it down again, so as to preserve continuity in my conception of a certain physical chain, but, having found that the idea was quite justifiable from physiological analogy, I let what I have written stand, acknowledging its crudeness and merely tentative import.
Alleged Apparition of the Late Emperor of Russia
A curious story comes from St. Petersburg. It is related that for several nights past the ghost of the dead Emperor Alexander II. has regularly appeared at the altar of the cathedral in that city, clothed—unlike most spectres— in a richly-braided military cloak; and the apparition is accompanied by an aide-de-camp. The reigning Czar, it is said, has issued strict orders to the police to seize, if possible, the intruder, in order to ascertain whether the thing is really flesh and blood.—Court Journal.
Mr. Husk in Paris
Mr. Cecil Husk’s thirty-one stances in Paris gave general satisfaction; but M. de Rappard, editor of Lichtmehr Licht, states that the Psychological Society of Paris had a series of stances with Mr. Husk of London, and that although some of the phenomena seemed strange, they grew less convincing as the tests were increased, which means that the last result was produced because uninformed people imposed their own conditions on phenomena they did not understand and were not allowed to control. Mons. Rappard says that able French conjurors were present, and that a ventriloquist imitated the voice of “Irresistible” quite accurately, also that the condition of darkness rendered the phenomena nearly worthless. He also adds that although Mr. Husk is said to be nearly blind, he may be a “nectolope,” a person who sees in the dark. He further says that these phenomena are doubtful and stupid, and that Allan Kardec does right to denounce them when advanced as a proof of spirit intervention, therefore let Spiritualists hold on to the simple doctrines of Allan Kardec. Thus he takes up the arrogant position that belief in the doctrines of Allan Kardec is superior to any experimental investigation of new facts, a line of reasoning on the part of M. Rappard, opposed to the whole range of the experience and methods of modern science.
<Untitled> (Joan of Are...)
Joan of Are:-A few communications are kept over till next week in consequence of the absence of the Editor of The Spiritualist in France, where during a portion of bis tour he has been visiting the scenes of the chief exploits of the historical medium, Joan of Aro, examining the relics relating to her, and collecting information respecting her life.
Conditional Immortality and "Elementary" Spirits
But this is not all. It is of no small importance to know what are the opinions of the most primitive races as to man’s future, because theirs is likely to be the most probable exposition of the most primitive teachings. Now among the least advanced races in the world are the Australian aborigines, and these people believe in metempsychosis. Mr. G. Pfoundes told us in a letter to the Daily Telegraph, of October 5th:—“The black fellow wishes that ‘ the white fellow ’ may die and jump up working bullock, and that he may have the driving of him.” Captain Burton, that great traveller, and noble minded man, tells us m his Trips to the Gorilla Land, that “Africans have a material, evanescent, intelligible future, not an immaterial incomprehensible eternity; the ghost endures only for a while, and perishes like the little great man.” The above is destruction of the soul pure and simple, but with no “survival of the fittest.” Nevertheless, metempsychosis must certainly be taught also by the Africans, as Captain Burton tells of being present when an African chief said to a third person present, a white man, “When so be I die, I come up for white man. When so be you die, you come up for monkey.” Again, the late respected Baron Holmfield, that good, earnest Spiritualist, in an article against the spiritist doctrine, as given in your Number of May 12th, 1876, says:—“Reincarnation is with the Zulus a belief; they hold that unprogressed spirits are still bound to earthly objects, or animals; a belief quite as crude as that of the spiritists, but less absurd.” Leslie, in his Among the Zulus, tells us that the Spiritualism of these people “puts to blush the Davenports and the Homes.” He says that they believe that their spirits, after death, turn into snakes, which they call “eklose,” and that every living man has two of these familiars, a good and a bad, with whom many hold communion.
I think, myself, that the event of spirits appearing as animals is no proof that the soul of a man ever retrogrades into that of an animal, although low spirits may have told men that they do thus retrograde; and this may have given rise to the belief in such metempsychosis as the good old Baron described. But again, I say, it is no proof that men do so retrograde; and one of my chief reasons for this assertion is, that when the apparent ghost of an animal appears to a clairvoyant, it invariably, I am inclined to <... continues on page 11-353 >
Editor's notes
- ↑ Alleged Apparition of the Late Emperor of Russia by unknown author, London Spiritualist, No. 488, December 30, 1881, p. 318
- ↑ Mr. Husk in Paris by unknown author, London Spiritualist, No. 488, December 30, 1881, p. 318
- ↑ Joan of Are... by unknown author, London Spiritualist, No. 488, December 30, 1881, p. 318
- ↑ Conditional Immortality and "Elementary" Spirits by unknown author, London Spiritualist, No. 488, December 30, 1881, p. 318
Sources
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London Spiritualist, No. 488, December 30, 1881, p. 318