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... | {{Style S-Small capitals|The}} memory of some of the remarkable mediums of past days may well be recalled, now that there is some chance of their being understood. There are few points on which ignorance, prejudice, and misapprehension have combined to occasion more loss and obscurity than on this subject. Mediumship of old was, more emphatically than invention or science, a thing before its time—little better can be said of it, indeed, to-day. In mediæval times any unusual amount of learning was ascribed to supernatural, unusually diabolical aid, and scholar, philosopher, and medium were placed in the same category. It would be a curious and difficult undertaking to distinguish among celebrated names of old who were scholars and ''savans'', pure and simple, and those who were aided and influenced, more or less, by mediumistic power. In the former Roger Bacon, Albertus Magnus, and Duns Scotus may be ranged as representing the Tyndalls and the Huxleys of their day; and Cordan, Cornelius Agrippa, Trithemius, and Paracelsus among the latter; but all alike were popularly held to derive their knowledge from supernatural agency. A person in those days endowed with medial powers must have frequently been sorely perplexed, the more so according to fineness of nature and religious instincts. Often the possessors might view their powers with horror and refer them to infernal possession, and doubtless many a strangely harassed life, unspeakable mental struggles, and fearful questionings have passed unrecorded and unknown. We will now mention an individual who lived near our own days, who, apparently distinguished for nothing else, must have been an extraordinarily strong medium. | ||
Schrepfer was a native of Leipsic, where in after life he kept a ''cafe''. He asserted himself to be in continual intercourse with spirits, whom he could control and summon at pleasure; he distinguished them into friendly and evil, and the approach of each was heralded by particular sounds. He is said to have frequently given astonishing proofs of his power, but the most famous instance was that in which Prince Charles of Saxony, with much difficulty, prevailed upon him to present in visible form the spirit of the Chevalier de Saxe, one of the natural sons of Augustus II., King of Poland, and half-brother to the famous Marshal Count Saxe. He was uncle to Prince Charles, and having amassed enormous wealth and died without issue, it was reported that vast sums belonging to him were concealed in the palace. Curiosity therefore combined with avarice in prompting Prince Charles to endeavor to gain an interview with the spirit of his uncle, Schrepfer, with much repugnance, for he represented such an undertaking as dangerous to himself, was prevailed upon to make the attempt. A company, nineteen in number, assembled by night in the great gallery of Prince Charles's palace in Dresden, and all doors and windows were carefully secured by Schrepfer's directions. Lights were extinguished, and Schrepfer, after warning the company that the event might try their nerves, retired into a corner, and, after a long interval, passed into a convulsive and agitated state, when a noise was soon heard more like wet fingers drawn over the edge of glasses than any thing else. Presently very frightful sounds followed, and the company being much aghast, the principal door suddenly opened with violence, and something that resembled a black ball or globe rolled into the gallery. It was invested with smoke or cloud, in the midst of which appeared a face like that of the Chevalier de Saxe, from which a loud and angry voice exclaimed in German, ''“Carl, was wolt du mit mich?”''—''“Charles, what wouldst thou with me?”'' | |||
The Prince and company were utterly horrified, and, losing all self-possession, called on Heaven for help, and besought Schrepfer to dismiss the apparition; but this he was unable or pretended to be unable to do, and those present declared that nearly ''an hour'' elapsed before it could be compelled to retreat. And when at length it had gone, and the company were recovering, the door burst open again, and the same hideous form again presented itself! The boldest were not proof against this, and a scene of utter horror and dismay ensued, till Schrepfer at length contrived finally to dismiss the apparition. | |||