INTERESTING LETTER FROM MRS. AMY POST.
The letter written by a venerable Quaker lady, who has for years been a neighbor and intimate friend of Mrs. Fish and the Fox family, speaks a language so plain that we have requested the privilege of publishing it, though not so intended by the author.—Cleveland Plaindealer.
“Rochester, June, 1851.
“My Dear Friend, A. Leah Fish:
“I have often thought of thee and thy company since you left your beautiful home for an Ohio city, and have been much delighted to hear you have found friends who can appreciate the value and importance of this wonderful development to mankind. When I think of the very happy change it has made in my views and feelings, regarding the present as well as the future life, I feel anxious that all the world should become acquainted with it. It is a wealth I had despaired of ever obtaining—to be convinced that we have commenced to live a life which will never end—a life whose joys, too, are enhanced by our practices of goodness. I have always admired the doctrine and wished to believe it, viz., ‘Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have,’ etc.; and also, ‘In my father’s house there are many mansions;’ but the belief I had on this point was always accompanied with a desire for more positive proof of immortality. For some time before your family made me acquainted with this blessed Spirit-rapping dispensation, I had become more settled in the belief, and unreasonable but popular doctrine of there being no half-way house; but we must either go to Heaven or to Hell. But what am I writing this to thee for? Thee knows how happy I have been made, and how thankful I have been that you all have been willing to bear persecutions and revilings, self-denial and provocations, for the sake of the Truth, and clearing yourselves from the imputations of deception. Oh! could strangers only know as I have known the trials you have endured and the sacrifices you made the first two years, they could not be made to believe it an invention of your own, nor pursued for mercenary purposes. Thy mother has been so troubled and unhappy away from you all that I could not feel surprised at her accepting thy very kind invitation to come to you. The feelings of a mother are tenderly alive to the interests of her children. I know truly, therefore, I was very glad, for your as well as her sake, to have your own mother with you, as you have never before been without her guardian protection.
“Please give my loving regards to Margaretta and Calvin, and do all the good you can. Believe me to be thy sincere and affectionate friend,
“Amy Post.”
DOINGS AT THE DUNHAM—THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUALISM AS RAPPED OUT BY DR. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.
(From the Cleveland Plaindealer.)
“So engrossed are we in worldly affairs, that we have but little time to investigate Spiritual matters, although opportunities present themselves twice a day at the Dunham House. There are, however, a few gentlemen of leisure who are taking up this subject systematically, and looking into its mysteries earnestly. Some dozen of the most intellectual minds in the city have formed a league to jointly, candidly, and honestly investigate this phenomenon, have already had two sittings, and report ‘progress.’ We have been kindly invited by this circle to attend whenever our convenience would admit, knowing that we had the moral courage to publish what we saw and heard, without stopping to inquire whether anything similar had been published fifty years before, or without consulting the masculine grannies of the day, whether it met their approval or not. By such invitation we attended a little while last evening, and found the company had progressed so far as to discard all tests of the medium, of the Spirituality of the communications, and were actually (as they believed) taking lessons in philosophy from the ancient masters. After sitting a while, and hearing a great variety of rapping sounds, there was a loud knocker appeared which was simultaneously recognized, by several who had heard it before, as the signal of Benjamin Franklin. He was a long time questioned concerning Spiritual matters, sometimes answering by raps, and sometimes using the alphabet. It was in substance as follows: