CHAPTER XXI.

BOSTON AND THE HARVARD PROFESSORS, 1857.

AGREEMENT FOR AN INVESTIGATION BY A COMMITTEE OF HARVARD PROFESSORS--EXPULSION OF A STUDENT FROM THE DIVINITY SCHOOL FOR THE CRIME OF MEDIUMSHIP--PROFESSOR FELTON--AGASSIZ--VARLEY, THE ELECTRICIAN OF THE ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH COMPANY.

On the 16th day of June, 1857, we left our home in New York, at the earnest solicitation of friends in Boston, to attend an investigation which had been arranged in accordance with the following note:

THE AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE PARTIES.

"We, the undersigned, hereby agree to submit the question in controversy between us in regard to the phenomena of Spiritualism, so called, to the investigation and award of the Committee, consisting of Professors Agassiz, Pierce, and Horsford, and Dr. Gould, according to the terms of the paper annexed.

_Boston Courier_, by GEORGE LUNT. H. F. GARDNER. "CAMBRIDGE, June 9, 1857."

DR. GARDNER'S CONDITIONS.

"Meeting to be held in a suitable room in the city of Boston, to continue six days, or a longer time if desirable, and two hours each day to be devoted to the investigation, commencing at 4 and closing at 6 o'clock P.M.

"All the arrangements and details for the forming of the circles to be entirely under the control of Dr. Gardner, except the Committee may remain out of the circle so formed if they choose to do so. If the phenomena are produced under the arrangements as ordered by Dr. Gardner, and they are not satisfactory to the Committee, they shall have the right to require them to be produced under such conditions as in their judgment will be satisfactory to them.

"As harmony is an essential condition for the production of the manifestations, it is agreed that no loud talking or exciting debate or other unnecessary noise shall be allowed in the rooms during the sessions, and that each person present shall be treated with that respect and courtesy which is due from each person to every other in the society of GENTLEMEN.

"There may be present at each session the writer in the _Boston Courier_, and a friend, and the four gentlemen composing the Committee of Investigation, Dr. Gardner, and any number of persons not exceeding six at any one time, at his option, such being selected and invited by Dr. Gardner.

"The writer in the _Courier_, and the gentlemen composing the Committee, agree that, while they are at liberty to exercise all the shrewdness and powers of observation which they are capable during the investigation, they will not exercise their will power to endeavor to prevent the manifestations, but allow them to be produced under the most favorable conditions which a thorough scientific investigation will permit.

"The words 'to be provided by Dr. Gardner' first being stricken out, and the words 'and a friend' inserted, it is further understood that the proceedings are not to be published until the investigations are closed.

"_Boston Courier_, by GEORGE LUNT. H. F. GARDNER."

We questioned, at that time, the propriety of leaving New York to attend to this request, as to do so would necessarily cause us to break our engagements at home. And, as to the contest between the professors of Harvard College and the Boston Spiritualists, mediums, etc., we cared very little at that time whether they (the professors) should pronounce for or against us, and for this reason: that it may be safely averred that while intelligent, scientific minds, honestly and studiously devoted to their legitimate labors and investigations, have been, and are, glorious pioneers in the advancement of human knowledge, _there are subjects_ touching which scholastic eminence furnishes but a poor outfit for special and honest investigation. But we had met the equals of these Boston and Harvard professors long ere this; and here let me add we seldom received enlightenment through scientific opponents. Many successful experiments had been made by honest, intelligent, and educated investigators, which proved, beyond all cavil, what _their science_ could not fathom--and did not wish to.

It will be remembered, I doubt not, that Professor Eustis, of the Scientific School, once caught the foot of a Divinity student out of its proper place under the table, and that the said professor cried "fraud," and brought an accusation against the student before the governing faculty of the university, who, in their high wisdom, knowing not what they did, expelled the young man for the "heinous crime of owning an erratic foot."

I am unable to state here at what time this occurrence took place, but the public press, at that time, very extensively condemned the action of the collegiate authorities in that case; and, in doing this, Spiritualism necessarily came more or less in for consideration. Great doubt was expressed, in the press editorials of the day, of the honesty of the professors in thus expelling the student without giving him an opportunity to prove his integrity. The expulsion of this young Divinity student was simply because he was a Spiritualist and a medium, and refused to abandon the sacred truth which he had learned and tested in his own person; and it was in the full spirit of the old New England persecutions for honest opinion obnoxious to dominant authority; which, fortunately, had no longer the power to hang or burn. But the world moves, after all, in spite of such persecutions, to which history soon does the justice it has rendered to Galileo; and the leading scientific journal of New England, published at Cambridge itself, an organ of the Scientific faculty of Harvard, has recently put itself in the line of modern progress in reference to this very subject of Spiritualism.

Fierce and rude attacks were made in the columns of _The Boston Courier_, _by these professors_, upon mediums, Spiritualists, and all who had any faith in the phenomena; insinuating at the time that, "If mediums believed in themselves, they would only be too eager to exhibit their powers before those who are most sceptical."

In reply to these attacks Dr. Gardner made the following proposition, viz., That a committee of twelve disinterested men shall be selected by the principal editors of _The Boston Journal_, _The Boston Courier_, and _The Daily Traveller_, which committee shall arrange all the preliminaries of the discussion, and decide upon the strength of the arguments, adduced for and against the Spiritual origin of the various forms of manifestations of the present day, usually denominated Spiritual.

The challenge to a public discussion was declined, but in lieu of it the following statement appeared in _The Courier_, which was well understood to have proceeded from Professor Felton, of Harvard:

"We will pay $500 to Dr. Gardner, to Mrs. Henderson, to Mrs. Hatch, or to Mr. or Mrs. anybody else who will communicate a single word imparted to the 'Spirits' by us, in an adjoining room; who will read a single word, in English, written inside a book, or sheet of paper, folded in such a manner as we may choose; who will answer, with the aid of all the higher intelligences he or she can invoke from the other world, _three questions_--which the superior intelligences must be able to answer, if what they said in _The Melodeon_ was true; and we will not require Dr. Gardner or the mediums to risk a single cent on the experiment. If one or all of them can do one of these things, the five hundred dollars shall be paid on the spot. If they fail, they shall pay nothing; not even the expense incident to trying the experiment."

Immediately on receipt of this challenge from the professors, Dr. Gardner replied, "Now, Mr. Editor, I accept the offer, as I do also the distinguished gentlemen named as the committee, provided the person or persons making the offer will agree to let all of the conditions of the arrangement come within the scope of those natural laws within which we believe Spirits are confined in producing the manifestations above referred to; and I will meet the person or persons making the offer at any time and place, after next Sabbath, which he or they may name, to make such arrangements as are necessary to a thorough and scientific test of this great subject.

"H. F. GARDNER. "May 27, 1857."

The committee named in the _Courier_ was George Lunt (editor of that paper), Prof. Benjamin Pierce, chairman, Prof. Agassiz, Prof. Horsford, and Dr. A. B. Gould.

The place of meeting was in the upper room of the Albion Building, corner of Tremont and Beacon Streets, Boston.

I and Katie accepted an invitation to go to Boston to lend our contribution to this investigation, with disinterested self-sacrifice for the sake of the cause, and in support of Dr. Gardner, one of the best of men and Spiritualists, who thus stood forward as its representative and champion. I may mention that this was anterior, not subsequent to the Phosphorus affair related in the preceding chapter. There were present Miss Kendrick, George A. Redman, J. V. Mansfield, the Davenport brothers, Katie and myself--mediums.

The committee of Spiritualists were Mr. Allan Putnam, Dr. Gardner, Major G. Washington Rains.

At the first meeting Dr. Gardner expressed his dissatisfaction with the idea of a penalty of $500, or of any money, to be paid by the _Courier_, and this seemed to meet unanimous approval; so that no ground remained for the position afterward taken by the professors, that they had to make an award, as stakeholders and judges, of $500 on the presentation of certain specific phenomena laid in Prof. Felton's original (unsigned) article in the _Courier_, while the document above quoted, of June 9, 1857, between the _Courier_ and Dr. Gardner, is conclusive to the effect that it was to be a general scientific investigation. It will be seen below how the professors afterward quibbled over this point, and avoided making a report of any results, but only an "award" that the $500 was not claimable, because the specific phenomena originally put forward by Prof. Felton had not been exhibited; while at the same time promising a future report, which report they _never came up to the scratch of making_. It was generally understood that a draft of a report had been proposed by a portion of them, but suppressed because deemed more "damaging to Christianity" than one favorable to Spiritualism. So that Harvard has ever since remained under the odium and ridicule of never having made a report, of which, in what they called an "award," it had recognized that the duty was incumbent on the professors, and which they had expressly promised to make. It was in vain that for months and years the Spiritualist papers of Boston clamored for the promised report, and jeered at those who evidently found it impossible to make one which should not be more or less favorable to Spiritualism.

This meeting, to my mind, was very unsatisfactory. I was astonished and disappointed at the course which the professors pursued. Astonished at their seeming ignorance of all laws of order and harmony, and disappointed to find that they had met, determined to establish some appearance of carrying their point, right or wrong.

They fell far beneath the degree of intelligence we had met on so many former occasions, in connection with the phenomenal manifestations associated with Spiritualism. Our investigating committees had always heretofore been chosen with reference to their intellectual competency and honorable character; whose reports were expected to enlighten thousands who were unable to make such experiments themselves. But I am quite sure, from the experience I have had, that a great majority of those highly conceited professors, many of whom were of quite ordinary talent, had, to some extent, overcome the deficiencies of nature by turning their attention in one direction of specific study only.

On all other subjects, they are ordinary, and often very ordinary men. Professor Agassiz conversed with me pleasantly, and I was attracted to him, and admired him greatly; _but I knew he was wanting in courage_, the courage of being ready to forfeit or endanger his great _position_ in Harvard and the country. I incline to the theory presented by Mr. Allan Putnam in 1874, in his pamphlet on "Agassiz and Spiritualism," that Agassiz at this investigation was in a false position, which gives him claims to our indulgence. In his earlier life, when a professor in Switzerland, he had been thrown under the mesmeric spell by the Rev. Chauncy Hare Townshend, and at this investigation was under mysterious conflicting influences, of which his better self was perhaps unconscious, and for which it was not responsible. (See the pamphlet referred to, published by Colby and Rich, Boston.)

He said to me, "Mrs. Brown, I have seen the day I could do everything you do." I replied to this, "Very well, Professor: if you can do all that is done through me, you are a Medium," and I at once challenged him, in friendship and good-will, to take the stand (in the presence of their committee) with me, and submit himself to the same tests I would, adding that unless he could do all that the Spirits could do through me, I should claim the victory.

He replied, "My physical condition is much changed now." I did not at that time know that he had formerly been a mesmeric subject, and had been made clairvoyant, and given positive proof of his mediumship long years before I knew anything about Spirit rappings, magnetism, or anything relating to the subject. He positively refused to have anything to do further in connection with the examination at that time, and remained with me, aside, during the investigation going on at the time with others.

Prof. Agassiz noticed that my attention was somewhat absorbed in the movements of Prof. Pierce (as he wandered about so restlessly, and seemed very much troubled; I trying to study him out), and said to me, "Mrs. Brown, what do you think of Prof. Pierce?" I replied, "If he were boxed up in such a way that I could see nothing but his lower extremities, and the manner in which he plants his feet on the ground, I could read his character correctly." He laughed and said, "I think you do not read him favorably." "No," I said, "he is not an honest man."

Prof. Agassiz did not dare to sit in a circle and subject himself to the influence or power of magnetism, as may be seen in a quotation from "Facts of Mesmerism," by Rev. Chauncy Hare Townshend, an article written by himself and consequently correct, from which the following is extracted:

"Desirous to know what to think of mesmerism, I for a long time sought for an opportunity of making some experiments in regard to it upon myself, so as to avoid the doubts which might arise on the nature of the sensations which we have heard described by mesmerized persons. M. Desor, yesterday, in a visit which he made to Berne, invited Mr. Townshend, who had previously mesmerized him, to accompany him to Neufchatel and try to mesmerize me.

"These gentlemen arrived here with the evening courier, and informed me of their arrival. At eight o'clock I went to them. We continued at supper till half-past nine o'clock, and about ten Mr. Townshend commenced operating on me. While we sat opposite to each other, he, in the first place, only took hold of my hands and looked at me fixedly. I was firmly resolved to arrive at a knowledge of the truth, whatever it might be; and therefore, the moment I saw him endeavoring to exert an action upon me, _I silently addressed the Author of all things, beseeching him to give me the power to resist the influence, and to be conscientious in regard to myself, as well as in regard to the facts._

"I then fixed my eyes upon Mr. Townshend, attentive to whatever passed. I was in very suitable circumstances: the hour being early, and one at which I was in the habit of studying, was far from disposing me to sleep. I was sufficiently master of myself to experience no emotion, and to repress all flights of imagination, even if I had been less calm; accordingly it was a long time before I felt any effect from the presence of Mr. Townshend opposite me. However, after at least a quarter of an hour, I felt a sensation of a current through all my limbs, and from that moment my eye-lids grew heavy. I then saw Mr. Townshend extend his hands before my eyes, as if he were about to plunge his fingers into them; and then make different circular movements around my eyes, which caused my eye-lids to become still heavier.

"I had the idea that he was endeavoring to make me close my eyes, and yet it was not as if some one had threatened my eyes, and in the waking state I had closed them to prevent him. It was an irresistible heaviness of the lids which compelled me to shut them, and, by degrees, I found that I had no longer the power of keeping them open, but did not the less retain my consciousness of what was going on around me, so that I heard M. Desor speak to Mr. Townshend, understood what they said, and heard what questions they asked me, just as if I had been awake, but I had not the power of answering. I endeavored in vain several times to do so, and, when I succeeded, I perceived that I was passing out of the state of torpor in which I had been, and which was rather agreeable than painful.

"In this state, I heard the watchman cry ten o'clock; then I heard it strike a quarter-past; but afterward I fell into a deeper sleep, although I never entirely lost my consciousness. It appeared to me that Mr. Townshend was endeavoring to put me into a sound sleep. My movements seemed under his control; for I wished several times to change the position of my arms, but had not sufficient power to do it, or even really to will it; while I felt my head carried to the right or left shoulder, and backward or forward, without wishing it, and, indeed, in spite of the resistance which I endeavored to oppose; and this happened several times.

"I experienced at the same time a feeling of great pleasure in giving way to the attraction which dragged me sometimes to one side, sometimes to the other; then a kind of surprise on feeling my head fall into Mr. Townshend's hand, who appeared to me from that time to be the cause of the attraction. To his inquiry if I were well, and what I felt, I found I could not answer, but I smiled; I felt that my features expanded in spite of my resistance. I was inwardly confused at experiencing pleasure _from an influence which was mysterious to me_. From this moment I wished to wake, and was less at my ease; and yet, on Mr. Townshend asking me whether I wished to be awakened, I made a hesitating movement with my shoulders. Mr. Townshend then repeated some frictions which increased my sleep, yet I was always conscious of what was passing around me.

"He then asked me if I wished to become lucid, at the same time continuing, as I felt, the frictions from the face to the arms. I then experienced an indescribable sensation of delight, and for an instant saw before me rays of dazzling light, which instantly disappeared. I was then inwardly sorrowful at this state being prolonged. It appeared to me that enough had been done with me. I wished to awake, but could not; yet when Mr. Townshend and Mr. Desor spoke, I heard them. I also heard the clock, and the watchman cry, but I did not know what hour he cried. Mr. Townshend then presented his watch to me, and asked me if I could see the time, and if I saw him; but I could distinguish nothing. I heard the clock strike the quarter, but could not get out of my sleepy state. Mr. Townshend then woke me with some quick transverse movements from the middle of the face outward, which instantly caused my eyes to open; and at the same time I got up, saying to him, 'I thank you.' It was a quarter past eleven. He then told me--and M. Desor repeated the same thing--that the only fact which had satisfied them that I was in a state of mesmeric sleep was the facility with which my head followed all the movements of his hand, although he did not touch me, and the pleasure which I appeared to feel at the moment when, after several repetitions of friction, he thus moved my head at pleasure.

"(Signed) AGASSIZ."

On the above quoted statement of Agassiz himself, Mr. Allan Putnam, in his pamphlet on "Agassiz and Spiritualism," remarks:

"We are distinctly taught, in the above (see pages 6, 7, 8, and 9), that as philosopher and scientist, then in the full vigor of manhood, Agassiz 'had for a long time sought' for such an opportunity to be mesmerized as Dr. Townshend's visit afforded. This professor, even then eminent--this man, gifted with gigantic mental and strong physical powers--reverently and prayerfully, as well as philosophically, sat calmly down, not to welcome and imbibe, but '_to resist the mesmeric influence_.' Then Greek met Greek, scientist met scientist, in calm but resolute measurement of the strength and efficiency of their respective weapons and forces. Agassiz says his purpose was to _resist_. The whole tone of his account, however, indicates that his resistance was in no degree captious, but designed simply to measure the strength and enable him to note the action of mesmeric force. The vigorous professor then called into exercise all his own great inherent powers of resistance, and such further aid as his earnest aspiration could bring to his support, and yet was forced to yield up to another's will all command over his own physical organs. A stronger than he entered and ruled over his peculiar domain. The Author of all things, though besought, did not so co-operate as to countervail the legitimate action of natural powers. Invisible forces, emitted and directed by another man's mind, against which his own robust intellect was planted in calm and firm resistance, penetrated even the compact Agassiz, and caused him,

"1st. To feel the sensation of a current through all his limbs.

"2d. To close his eye-lids from necessity.

"3d. To lose his powers of utterance.

"4th. To lose power to change the position of his arms.

"5th. To lose power to even _will_ to move his arms.

"6th. To lack power to prevent movements of his own head by another's will.

"7th. To experience great pleasure in giving way to the attraction upon him.

"8th. To feel surprised at the contact of his head with another's hand.

"9th. To find the operator the cause of the attraction.

"10th. To be confused at experiencing _pleasure_ from an influence that was _mysterious_ to him.

"11th. To see for an instant dazzling rays of light.

"12th. To be unable to awake, even though he wished to.

"Similar experiences have become so common that they are now devoid of strangeness. Thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands, have had their like since 1839. But no other Agassiz has described the sensations and facts attending the subduing operations. The character of their reporter gives his experiences exceptional value.

"It is true and readily admitted that this keen and exact observer was then dominated by _mesmeric_, which many assume to be widely different from _Spirit_, force. The belief is prevalent to-day that those two adjectives describe one and the same thing. Few persons who have sought to discover the relations between mesmerism and Spiritualism, hesitate to indorse the following statement, made by Cromwell F. Varley before a committee of the London Dialectical Society, which was substantially this, viz., 'I believe that the mesmeric force and the Spiritual force are the same--the only difference being that in one case the producing agent is in a material body, and in the other is out of such a body.' Mr. Varley's competency to give a valuable opinion may be inferred from the fact that the great Atlantic Telegraph Company elected him from among England's eminent electricians, to supervise and control the constructors and operators of their vast and delicate apparatus for flashing knowledge under the waters, from continent to continent, and he made their project a success. We add, that Spiritualism had, for years, been manifested in striking forms and much distinctness, both through himself and other members of his own family, and that he had been an extensive observer and scientific student of its phenomena, and a careful tester of its forces. He had reached the conclusion, not only that the chief force employed in producing both the mesmeric and the Spiritualistic entrancement was the same, but also that it was distinct from either electricity or magnetism. From Mr. Varley's views the conclusion may be fairly deduced that Agassiz, in middle life, experienced much that is undistinguishable from the sensations and perceptions of modern mediums, and that he was subdued by use of the same force by which they are controlled. As a general rule, though possibly subject to a few exceptions, persons who have once yielded to mesmeric, afterward are very liable to succumb to Spirit force. This rule will have important bearings when we come to view the deportment of Agassiz as a member of the Harvard investigating committee. What we have already adduced suggests the probability that, if unresisted by himself, Spirits could have controlled him with much facility, had he consented to be calm and unresisting while he was within the auras or spheres of persons whose emanations and constituent elements were helpful to the control of physical forms by Spirits."

The great naturalist probably was mesmerized at other times than the one of which his own pen furnished an account. For Townshend, p. 344, says: "Prof. Agassiz, who, when mesmerized, could not of himself stir a muscle, moved like an automaton across the room when impelled by me. Even while retaining his consciousness enough _to resist my efforts_ to move his limbs by mere gestures, without contact of any kind, he subsequently owned that he was actually compelled into such motions as I wished him to perform."