Psychomancy: Spirit-Rappings and Table-Tippings Exposed

SPIRIT-RAPPINGS AND TABLE-TIPPINGS
EXPOSED.
PROF. CHARLES G. PAGE, M. D., Etc.
NEW-YORK: D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, 200 BROADWAY.
MDCCCLIII.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1853, by D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New-York.

The wide-spread and alarming mania of Spirit-rappings and table-tippings of the present day, is only a modification, or new garb, of devilish instrumentalities , operating through human machinations, which have infested society from time immemorial. We start with this proposition, harsh as it may sound to some, and if we should fail to sustain it by facts, reasoning, and common sense, to the entire satisfaction of all, we still say to the unbelievers in our doctrine, show us the proof to the contrary; and with a confidence firm as our belief in Holy Writ, and the unfailing laws of God, we challenge the exhibition to our senses of any performance with spirit-rappings, or table-tippings, which cannot be explained upon natural, and well known natural laws. We will here premise, that we do not attribute to Satan any direct agency in this matter other than has always been ascribed to him in the crimes and misdeeds of man from the fall down to this present time. That neither the prince of the power of the air, nor his imps (unless they be in human shape), rap out intelligence by sounds, get under tables and tip them over, swing them round, or perform any of these extraordinary feats, which so many among us are determined to invest with supernatural character and origin. Nor do we consider that the arch-enemy of man has brought any new power or agency into operation to further his mischievous designs. Far from it. A new power? It would frustrate his schemes in their very inception. A new power? It is a lawful subject of pursuit, to the very exhaustion of mental resources. A new power? Its bare mention is an arousing signal to the devotees of science, and upon the first scintillation of plausibility, the midnight lamp will burn throughout Christendom, till its capabilities and subserviency to man's actual wants are unfolded. No! the tempter knows his game and tools, and perhaps his own limits, all too well to give to man a new and legitimate object of research, and thus divert investigation from hallucinating and mercenary sorceries to that which is lawful and truthful. He works with his own and old tools, upon and through that most successful instrumentality, over which, by long and dire experience, he has acquired such mighty ascendency—the human soul. This is his pliant tool, and here his stronghold. To those who regard the Scriptural account of the devil's existence and agency as allegorical, our argument, in its cardinal character and bearing, will apply with the same force, for they have only to invest the mind of man with all the force and attributes that the allegory gives to both combined, and we address ourselves to them with the same interest and hope of success as with those who believe the Scripture implicitly to the letter. To all alike, the deep, untiring, unending wiles of the human soul are familiar themes, and it matters but little to our present purpose, whether these impious transactions proceed from the main-spring of unaided, uninspired thought, or whether the unheeding thought is impressed by supernal powers. There is in the mind a strong and often morbid appetency for the supernatural and marvellous; a proneness to inquire beyond what is actually revealed; and, worse than this, a prurience of power, either real or specious, to exalt one above his fellow mortals, and give the weight of Divine authority to his words and acts. From this desire originates priestcraft, astrology and sorcery, and in the former habitude of the mind lies the secret of their success and perpetuation. It has been a real source of distress to us, to see professing Christians, even among our immediate friends, pushing their inquiries beyond the confines of realities into the spirit-world, forgetting or misapprehending the injunctions of Scripture forbidding us to look into such things, and unconscious of the fact, that their well-meant invocations of spirits by the tipping of tables and rappings, was, in every step and act of repetition, lending encouragement to the mercenary and nefarious schemes of a certain set of vile impostors, who originated the cheat, and were continuing its practice for the sake of filthy lucre. To them, and to all, we say Stop! ere this temerity be visited with the righteous judgments of an offended Deity, who has pronounced, in his holy oracles, in clear and unmistakable language, his malediction of sorcery and witchcraft; has set the bounds of human inquiry where time stops and eternity begins, and sealed up the future in impenetrable mystery; who has refused to the yearning hearts of fond and bereaved parents all knowledge of their dear departed, save the hopes and consolations of the Scripture. What! shall the Great Judgment be anticipated, and the archives of eternal retribution be read by the knocking of sticks upon the floor , or the upsetting of tables? Shall eternity be made subordinate to time; the immortal to the mortal? Shall the silence of the grave be disturbed by grovelling mountebanks, or its stern abodes become vocal through these gross mediums of rappers and tippers? Impious! Impious! We need not quote Scripture against this unholy pursuit, for its anathemas are full and loud, and he who runs may read. We know there are those who are innocently engaged in the invocation of spirits , and who seem to take delight in holding converse with their departed friends, as they suppose. We ask them to pause, and consider well what they are doing! to look around, and see the devastation of human intellect, the fearful swellings of the madhouse rolls, the frightful deeds of blood and violence, and the stupendous frauds, all begotten of this monster mania! Are these the fruits of legitimate and holy deeds? Are these your consolations while at your spiritual shrines? Do they not bear evidence in themselves of their diabolical origin, and are they not warnings to you to beware, lest in your attempts to enter beyond the veil into the Holy of Holies , you be struck down also? If these pests of society are beyond the reach of earthly tribunals, will you countenance and encourage their career? Shall we be met here with the assertion that there are religious maniacs, that religious excitement makes madmen, and leads to deeds of violence? We spurn the fallacy; and with proud defiance, armed with the Rock of Ages, we hurl back the apology in the very teeth of the casuist who made it, and, fearless of his replication, triumphantly assert that the true religion of Jesus Christ, whose first fruits and very essence is peace to the soul, NEVER DROVE ANY BODY MAD.