“I am somewhat acquainted with Mr. Sunderland, have been at his house recently, and heard the rappings in presence of his daughter, Mrs. Cooper, as a medium. The rappings are obscure—not more than one-quarter as loud or as distinct as I have heard them at your house—much of the time so light as scarcely to be heard; yet I was satisfied at the time that they were the same kind of sounds. I have been before several other mediums; the sounds are all much smaller than at your house.
“Mr. Sunderland seems to be unsettled in his mind about the Spirit world, and about the Spirits being good or bad, or how much evil; and is rather disposed to fall in with Swedenborg, at present, on that subject. Mr. Sunderland will do some good with his paper, but I regret some of his articles. This criticism upon Davis is most unjust and uncalled for.
“I am confident Mr. Davis is more correct, more consistent in his philosophy of the Bible and the Spirit world, than Swedenborg.
“Nature and Reason is the standard whereby Davis directs to test all these subjects. God manifesting himself in Nature, in the Universe, is a true revelation to man, and whatever corresponds to the philosophy as discovered in Nature is truth.
“If a revelation is given us not in harmony with philosophy which is known to be true, then that revelation is false. Davis’s standard and general philosophy cannot be overthrown; Davis sometimes being himself in sympathy with higher or purer Spirits, may use language to convey too high or too pure conceptions of the Spirit world; but if Davis is too high, Swedenborg is too low. His hells are inconsistent with a God of wisdom; and if the doctrine of progressive development can be established, or is true, as I think it is, then Swedenborg’s doctrines are not all true; but that is the great doctrine of Davis’s philosophy, and if it is true, it is all we need. Ultimately we must all become right.
“Although Swedenborg was a very learned and good man, and was Spiritually enlightened while on earth, yet his mind was trammelled by his preconceived theological views. Davis’s mind is under less bias, and more free. I am well convinced his writings are destined to produce a great effect upon Christendom. Such men, or writers, as Sunderland, Farrald, and others who follow Swedenborg in part, do not seem to take in the whole ground in one view. They view the Universe in fragmentary parts. They do not seem to consider that a certain relation exists between all things. That
‘All are but parts of one stupendous whole,
Whose body Nature is, and God the soul;’
that Law is necessary as Light; all is an effect of the same interior cause. The higher could not exist without the lower; and surely without the lower there could be no progress, and without the parts the whole could not exist. Higher and lower, evil and good, heat and cold, are relative terms, comparatively positive or negative. I have not written one word of what I intended to write, and what I especially requested a reply to. So you see that nearly my whole letter is a digression. But now to the subject.
“I correspond with the Rev. A. Wilder, of Syracuse, N. Y., who lately wrote to me that a Doctor Boynton, an itinerant lecturer, had been at Syracuse and informed him and Prof. Bush, of New York City, and others, that he, the said Boynton, had been at your place at Rochester, and was there informed by a cousin to yourself (a lady) how the rappings were made, and that it was all a trick done in various ways, by the toes and by the fingers, etc. Dr. Boynton said that he pretended to be friendly, got communication with his father’s Spirit (who was not dead), and then he detected this lady in rapping and charged her with it; and she owned up to him and taught him how to rap, which he was practising. To me this seemed absurd and like a falsehood. I replied to my friend, and used some pretty strong language to convince him that Dr. Boynton was an impostor, a deceiver, a liar, and unworthy of credit. I said to him that a man who went to your place and was permitted to investigate the matter fairly, ‘without money and without price,’ and then went around the country telling such stories, would not need his ears much lengthened to bray, and what I wondered most at was, that Prof. Bush and Rev. A. Wilder, M.D.—for he has both letters prefixed to his name—should give any credit to him. But, notwithstanding this, friend Wilder writes me again and says he has no reason to question the veracity of Dr. Boynton.
“Now I wish you to reply to me and give me the facts in this case, so that I may be able to know them, and relate them to my friends, Doctor Wilder and Prof. Bush. These two men are both Swedenborgian preachers, and Dr. Wilder is also a medical lecturer in the medical school in Syracuse. A. J. Davis says, in his recent work on Spiritual intercourse, that the mediums sometimes may produce the rapping or other manifestations unconsciously to themselves: being impressed by the Spirits or a strong desire to do what the Spirits are about to do, or what they greatly desire themselves. Whether anything of the kind occurs with yourself or sisters, I never learned. If so, candidly and honestly inform me.