Legend
< Apparitions of the Living (continued from page 8-140) >
just finished the opening clauses, when C. appeared at his elbow, and said in an audible voice: “Write just what I tell you; I will dictate the rest of the article.” D. obeyed in fear and trembling, though he was not altogether unused to apparitions of C.: yet on this occasion a certain feeling of awe overcame him, so that he did not like to turn round and face the spectre, though he was sensible from the voice, dress, Ac., that it was his friend C.’s double, or whatever else you like to call it. C. dictated an article of a column and a half in length, D. following his dictation to the letter. The style was unlike that of D.; the politics and sentiments were not his, but decidedly opposed to them, yet because they suited the newspaper in question, he allowed them to remain. The most curious part, however, was that statements were made in the article concerning the mercantile shipping, the build, rates of freight, tonnage, and manning of vessels in the Levant, showing an intimate knowledge, or professed knowledge, of Eastern maritime affairs, certainly not possessed by either C. or D. The article, as it stood, was sent to the press and appeared in print the next day. It has been read by more than one person in this room. When D. informed 0. of what had happened he was very much puzzled, and disclaimed the authorship of the article, for at the time the strange dictation was going on, G. was in an omnibus going in a direction quite opposite from the house of D., and not thinking at all about the Eastern question.
I have said that D. was not unused to apparitions of C. On one occasion a semblance of C. appeared to D. in his room late at night, showing its own light, and having a mask-like face, similar to that seen in certain kinds of materialisation; it spoke in audible tones, and in more than one language. D. was alone, and there was no medium in the house, yet the apparition was evidently a simulation, somewhat clumsily performed, of his friend C. Who was the operator, intelligent in a sort of way, “at the other end of the line?” C. was unconscious of the act; there was no intention in the matter, no will-power exercised, no object to be gained, unless it were that of alarming D. Once D. requested the simulacrum of C. to leave some visible and tangible proof of its presence, in order that he might be sure the whole affair was not an optical illusion; the Simulacrum deposited on D.’s table a lead pencil, enclosed in a metal case. Such a pencil was certainly sometimes used by C., but being of ordinary American manufacture, similar to those in common circulation, no point was gained. Does it not seem almost as if the words of my motto suggested an answer?—“The awful shadow of some unseen power floats, though unseen, among us.”
Surely there is a third hand visible in some of the cases, notably the two or three last which I have mentioned. And, as I said before, we have no proof that the apparition of A. to B., when he was sitting over his fire, was produced by the will of A.; it was merely coincident with his attempted experiment.
If any one who hears this paper can say that he thinks there is any evidence of the action of departed human spirits in the cases I have related (and I will vouch for the truth of them all), I should very much like to hear his reasons for so believing.
I confess that they arc to me the most puzzling and inexplicable of the many puzzling and inexplicable phenomena which have been brought under my notice or observed by me.
The explanation of the simultaneous visions of the ladies at Quebec, might be one that would probably be put forward by the Theosophists—viz., that each lady carried with her an astral sphere, which, from the state of the atmosphere, or some other contingent cause, affected both observers at once, so that each became clairvoyante to the surroundings of the other.
In the case of apparitions at the time of death, of which Mr. Harrison furnished us so many interesting examples at our last meeting, there is a reasonableness—a conceivable object which recommends itself to the common sense of all. In the cases I have related there is none, unless in the writing of the newspaper article, which, however, seems not to have been done, as it might have been, to relieve the fatigued journalist, but simply as the exhibition of an “unseen power,” for which he was not particularly obliged.
Still, some amongst us may feel that, in a materialistic age, we may be thankful for any experience of supernatural phenomena, before we quite lose our hold on that which is super sensuous, and before we have quite satisfied ourselves with the conviction that our own thoughts are the key to, or the reflection of, all the mysteries of the universe. Doubtless many weak hearts have secretly rejoiced over the revelation of the beliefs and superstitions of Germany’s Iron Prince, and many will applaud the thrusting of Mr. Mallock’s lance into the newly-caparisoned hobbyhorse of Professor Tyndall. If we do not picture our soul—to quote Mr. Tyndall’s “last”—as a Psyche, which can be thrown out of the window, at least we have, as Spiritualists, endeavoured to show that its action is not wholly dependent on, not wholly allied to, matter; that the glimpses we have been able to catch through the “rifts in the veil” furnish rational grounds for a belief which millions have held on faith, and which thousands would gladly preserve from the depredations of so-called positive science.
To those who find it difficult to believe in the possibility of these occurrences, I will only return the well-worn answer, “I did not say that they were possible; I only said that they are true.”
Since concluding the above, I have received from a lady, well-known to this society, a letter containing an excellent example of the class of spiritual manifestations I have been speaking of to-night. With your permission I will give it as it stands:—
“I have myself had an exceedingly interesting experience of the apparition of the living, viz., my own appearance at the supposed death-bed of my sister, when we were three thousand miles apart. She was attended on this particular night by another sister, who distinctly saw me go into the room, and lean over my darling young sister. The latter was too ill to speak, but she whispered, 4 Mary is here, now I’m happy.’ I ought to mention that my elder sister is not given to visions, and is indeed a very practical, matter-of-fact person; but she has always since declared that she saw me from my knees up, and the very dress was plain to her too. At this time I was just recovering after my confinement with my son, who is nearly seventeen. He was between four and five weeks old, when one night I fell asleep, thinking how much I wished to see this sister. I knew of her illness, and that she was not expected to recover, and of her intense desire to see me. Between us the most tender attachment had always existed, and it was thought that her illness had been much increased through her grief at our separation. The previous summer, when we came from the United States to this country, I had purposely kept from her and my mother the knowledge of my expected confinement, and they were only informed after the birth of the child in a letter from my husband. I mention all this to show how impossible it was for me to go to her, as she intensely desired. On the night referred to I had a most vivid dream of seeing her, in a bed not in her own room, and of seeing my other sister in attendance. I leaned over her and said, as I thought, “Emma, you will recover.’ I told my husband I had been home when I woke, and my impression that she would recover. This dream comforted me very much, and from this night there was a change for the better with my sister, and she gradually recovered from what was supposed to be an incurable illness. When we came to compare dates, we found that my dream and my appearance to my two sisters occurred at as nearly as possible the same time. I was so lifelike to my younger sister that she thought I had really arrived on a visit; but, as I said before, to my elder sister I was shadowy below my knees, but perfectly natural in appearance. She afterwards remembered that I did not notice her as I passed into the inner room, although in my dream I saw her, nor did I seem to see anything but the one object of my love.”
<Untitled> (The Theosophical Society of New York...)
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Editor's notes
- ↑ The Theosophical Society of New York... by unknown author, Brahmo Public Opinion, February 27, 1879