And now because a juggler will appear to check a musket ball with the point of his knife, form animals, and perform a thousand other idle wonders, will any lover of truth indulge the inference that all the preceding phenomena are of the same nature? Do these magicians reveal and establish truths, the knowledge of which is of great importance to certain persons now, and of public utility hereafter? No: Their miracles are without meaning, and their design is pecuniary profit, or else to shew what they can do to gratify the vain curiosity of spectators.
Mountebanks do not commonly unite their employment with religious order, prayer and praise, or with solemn admonitions of life and death, blessing and cursing: Nor do their idle exhibitions so harmonize with the common operations of Divine Providence as that the former and the latter have manifestly the same ultimate purposes. This harmony is more than artifice can produce. Besides, who ever knew an instance like this in view, which, with all its circumstances, was afterwards fairly proved to be a deception? And if mountebanks never did exhibit such a variety in such circumstances, without the least partial discovery, we may be sure they never could. For doubtless they have done all they could do to impose on mankind by this species of iniquity.
It would perhaps afford you some satisfaction to know what other persons here would say respecting these transactions. I shall therefore improve the first opportunity to send you a copy of the oaths and attestations, which have been given by those who favor the cause, and by those who oppose it.
I continue yours to serve for the promotion of truth.
SECTION III.
The Proofs produced by Testimony.
The following pages, for brevity’s sake, present only the extracts from some of the oaths and numerous testimonies of those who oppose and of those who favor the cause. With all these witnesses I am intimately acquainted. I took these testimonies from their lips, for the most part, separately. I wrote them; read them in their hearing, and obtained their approbation of what I had written. I made but little alteration in their language, because I chose that their testimonies should appear in their own native simplicity. Therefore the philological critic has no employment here. Among the testimonies of the opponents, I have left nothing unextracted, which, in my apprehension, could seem to afford any argument in their favor; or from which, to my recollection, they themselves have ever deduced any argument for their purpose. If, however, I have failed here or in any other respect, they will doubtless have opportunity to make it known.
For the most remarkable occurrences, I have generally selected only two or three witnesses, not for the want of more, by any means, but because the patience of the reader must not be exercised by tedious repetition more than is necessary for the present design.
EXTRACTS FROM THE OATHS.
Deposition of Capt. Paul Simson.
About the first of August, 1800, Mr. H. and his wife came to my house and desired me to go to Mr. Blaisdel’s with them. After we got there, they said the Spirit sent for me.