scene 4, affrighted by the ghost of Banquo--whose appearance he believes
to be real, even although his wife recalls to his mind the dagger scene, and reasons upon his weakness.
I do not think that we shall be far wrong if we assume that many nations, who were not far advanced in mental speculation, obtained their first ideas of the resurrection of the body from the hallucinations of approaching or actual insanity. Christian divines unquestionably endeavour to demonstrate the truth of the dogma referred to, by the frequent appearance of Jesus to his disciples after his crucifixion.
But the manifestation of Jesus differed wholly from that of Moses and Elias who once came to talk to him. He takes particular pains to demonstrate to Thomas that he has flesh and blood and a hole in his side, as well as in his hands and feet. This indicates that Jesus did not die upon the cross, but that he fainted and came back to life.
To insist for a moment upon the lessons taught by the narrative in the gospels, let us inquire what is the value of the argument which proves the resurrection of the body, either by the appearance to some one of a departed friend or enemy, or the visits of Jesus to his disciples. If it is demonstrated thus that the body is eternal and will rise again, it is equally certain that its garments, whether cloth, linen, or calico, will be resuscitated also!
The subject, however, is not yet exhausted, for we have now to remark, that no one has ever been known to see a spectre which does not represent some one whom he has seen, or whose picture he has noticed; nor does he ever hear a voice in a tongue unknown to himself. Consequently, when we find individuals recognizing some one whose portrait they have seen, but who talks in the mother tongue of the visionary, we are forced to conclude that the matter is unreal. If a French girl--or several of them, see the Virgin Mary, and hear her talk French, it is evident to every thinking mind, either that there is mental disorder or priestly craft. In like manner, when individuals, calling themselves "mediums," declare their power to call before them the ghosts of Homer and Hero, Leander and Alexander, and assert that they can distinguish Plato from Socrates, and Seneca from Xenophon, and can converse with all in pure English, it is clear that such people are not insane, and that their pretended skill has no existence. That which goes by the names of clairvoyance and spiritualism is based solely upon an unreasoning credulity.
In speaking of a belief in "spiritualism" as being analogous to implicit credence in ghosts--and both as being founded upon imperfection in judgment, it is right that I should give some reasons for what I say.
More than thirty years have elapsed since I attended my first séance with a clairvoyant. She had then been in Liverpool some time, and not only came to us from America with a wonderful renown, but soon attached to her triumphal car some of the most conspicuous of our local savans. Having read much upon the subject of Mesmerism--the Od or Odyllic force, animal magnetism, &c., I was desirous of gaining some personal experience, and gladly accepted an invitation to see the lady referred to, at the house of a near relative. There were many present, and before the meeting formally began, I obtained permission to take notes in writing of what passed. The first undertaking was that we should be told what two of our number were doing in a dark room below stairs. I was one of the two, and we stood with one hand upon the other's shoulder, and the loose hands were held out horizontally. One leg of each was resting on the tabla The lady reported us as sitting together on a sofa. Her husband explained away the failure by saying that there was a mirror in the room! As there was a looking-glass in every apartment in the house, my friend and I took our position on the stairs; and on this occasion we lay down at full length heads downwards. The clairvoyant said that we were arm in arm talking. After this second failure, I was asked to take the lady's hand in mine, and think deeply of some place which she would then describe to me.
I must here pause to notice the condition referred to. My mind was to be absorbed in what I required to be described--if I allowed my thoughts to wander, I was told that the woman would be confused, and her performance a failure. This involved the idea that I was not to criticise, as the affair proceeded, but to make one thing "square" with another, if I could. My part was carefully pointed out, but nothing came of it. I then gave a possible clue, which was followed up, and with some surprise I found the woman describe what I was really thinking about. But the repetition of a phrase struck upon my ear--it was this, "I see a lot of things going back and for'rads," and I found that I had interpreted this as men, women, schoolboys, horses, palisades, trees, cloisters, houses, and coaches!
After my retirement an elderly man grasped the hand, and I with pencil took down the words the woman used, with the intention of asking certain outsiders next day if the terms conveyed to them any distinct idea. I found the favourite sentence referred to came so often, that I merely left for the words a space with t. b. f., to show where the phrase occurred. There were far more spaces in my manuscript than words. But the old gentleman was satisfied, and so was his son who was present. It had been agreed between them that the clairvoyant was to describe "their house"--both were satisfied that she had; but one was thinking of the town and the other of the country house!
During the talk, the woman, every time she uttered a sentence, said, "Am I right?" and when told that she was wrong, she adroitly changed her statement. Every experiment that night was a failure, and to some of us who were sceptics our host remarked--"How is it that when you expect the most, everything goes wrong?" To this my reply was--"When doubters are present you scan evidence closer than when you are all believers together."
When once I was known as a pyrrhonist, I was invited to see everybody who was regarded by others as extraordinarily perfect in clairvoyance; and was astonished to find out how ignorant the believers were of the laws of evidence.
After a time clairvoyance was replaced by spiritualism, and I was again challenged to test the virtue of mediums. As my avocations wholly prevented my personal attendance, I challenged certain of the faithful to describe my library, saying that I should not be content with being told that there were windows and a door, a fireplace and a chair, a table and an inkstand, &c., but that I had something very peculiar in it, the like of which I had never seen before--if this were described, I should fancy that the spirits knew something. But I added, so long as "spirits" only did things which conjurors, prestidigitateurs, "et hoc genus omne," did, I should decline to believe that spirits were corporeal, and that Grecian statesmen, Latin orators, and Sanscrit theologians were familiar with the English language.
It must be emphatically stated that a man must not attribute everything, of which he knows little, to a power of which he knows less. No one can tell why an ordinary tree grows upwards, whilst a few peculiar ones grow, after a certain period of their life, downwards; and if any one were to declare that the first were influenced by the spirit of an unicorn, and the second by the spirit of a cow's tail, he would be regarded as a fool. Not much wiser would he be, who, when he heard a knock of some kind or other, asserted or believed that it came from the angel of night--the well-known Nox. The untutored savage, when first he sees a watch, cannot tell how it goes--if he says that he is ignorant, we may respect him; but if he declares that a spirit moves it, we despise his credulity. The polite circles of civilized cities who attribute the absurd capers of tambourines, concertinas, tables, and the like to the vivacity of the ghosts of defunct philosophers, and who think that it requires the shade of Venus to tell us, that feminine women are more graceful than masculine hoydens, are not much superior to the natural savage.
These remarks may be supplemented by the experiences imparted to me by several personal friends; for, as it seems to me, each one has his own way in looking at things, and has, so to speak, an idiosyncrasy in belief and scepticism. One man, for example, inquires "How is it that if I propound to a spiritualist, to an artist with 'planchette,' or any other person who professes clairvoyance--a question, through a friend who does not know the answer, I never get a correct reply; but if I propound the same question the response is always right?" In this case it is clear that the inquirer answers himself--not wittingly, it is true; but, by means of a slight hesitation under certain circumstances, he gives to the adroit professor the needful clue. How far this is true has been repeatedly proved by those who have made the spirits say anything--"Where is my sister?" such an one asks, and by the alphabet and raps he hears that she is in Munich; but as the inquirer never had a sister, the spirits have clearly been duped.
One of my friends, ordinarily a thorough sceptic, was converted to the belief that one of his hands was positively and the other negatively magnetic, and he showed me how he turned, by their means, a book suspended between us upon a door key finely tied within the leaves. But when I showed him that this was done by a movement of the body, and could not be done if both hands employed were fixed upon anything--he was convinced that what seemed due to one thing depended, in reality, upon another. Yet that man was an acute and able chemical analyst. How the late Dr Faraday convinced "table turners" that they did, unconsciously, that which they wished, but determined not to do, will long be remembered as a marvel of philosophical induction. We all have not the faculty of analyzing evidence, and it would be well if those who are deficient in that power would be less bigoted than they are. We can scarcely expect it, however, for ignorance and arrogance usually walk together; and no man is more convinced of his knowledge than the one who takes it at second hand, and believes what he is told. The faithful swallow "squid," and become a mass of blubber; the sceptics feed on solid flesh, and are thin as tigers.