Doubtless the counterfeit apparitions which duped the popish ages, were numerous; but counterfeits will never prove that there is nothing to be counterfeited.
Among the greatest impositions of this nature, where shall we find one, which will compare with the late events of Sullivan, in the county of Hancock, Maine. In that place has never been found any theatrical representation, or magic glass, or lantern, or ventriloquist, or speaking automaton, or Phantasmagoria, or Statue of Kircher: and were all these means of imposition found there, they would afford no rational explanation of the subsequent phenomena. How easy of solution was that fraud in the city of Bern, mentioned by Mosheim,[8] as imposed upon one Jetzer, by four Dominicans, to confirm their doctrine of original sin. The apparition was indeed terrific, and exhibited false miracles, but never offered to appear in the day time, nor predict any event, which could not be foreknown by other means, nor was there any address to the sense of feeling to satisfy Jetzer that the Spectre was a Phantom.
The Encyclopedia have related a wonderful artifice from Doctor Plot, performed undoubtedly by a number of persons at Woodstock, in England, soon after the death of king Charles the first, while certain commissioners appointed to survey his property there, were engaged to accomplish their business. But in all that marvelous story, we find no comparison with the events we are about to contemplate. The only apparition seen there, was that of a dog! none of them observed the manner of his being introduced among them. They saw no changes of shape or magnitude, nor does it appear that any of them saw him vanish. They heard no articulate voice, much less any declaration of truth, unattainable by other means.
As to the Cocklane ghost, which produced so much noise and credit in London; there was neither articulate voice, nor any kind of apparition. All these artifices, and a thousand more which history commemorates, are swallowed up by the subsequent phenomena, as Aaron’s rod swallowed up the rods of the magicians.
Pause then, reader, and consider a few moments what evidence would convince you of the existence of a Spectre. Before you stands a creature encircled with radiance resembling the sun. Through the rays you behold a personal form as plainly as possible. This form speaks to you. The same is seen and heard by thirty others at the same time and in the same manner, so that your experience and theirs are uniform; while two or three other persons with the same ocular advantages, and looking in the same direction, hear the voice, but see nothing, having been previously told by the Spectre that they should only hear and not see.
With a voice distinct from that of the living, so that none of you can perceive the least manifestation of breathing, this personal form tells you not to be afraid—that nothing will hurt you—to stand as near as you please, and handle him that you may know whether or not he is flesh and bones. You comply with the request, and find no material substance. Now what would be your conclusion? Would you feel sure that these matters were all the effect of your own fancy and that of others? Can you produce a single instance out of all history, in which so many persons were thus impressed, while in reality they saw and heard nothing? But suppose further, that this Spectre informs you of events which you cannot possibly know by other means, what then would be the inference? “I make a distinction, says Doctor Johnson, between what a man may experience by the mere strength of his imagination, and what imagination cannot possibly produce.” Thus, suppose I should think I saw a form and heard a voice cry, “Johnson, you are very wicked—and unless you repent, you will certainly be punished;” my own unworthiness is so deeply impressed on my mind, that I might imagine I thus saw and heard, and therefore I should not believe that an external communication had been made to me. But if a form should appear and a voice should tell me that a particular man had died at a particular hour—a fact which I had no apprehension of, nor any means of knowing, and this fact, with all its circumstances, should afterwards be unquestionably proved; I should in that case be persuaded that I had supernatural intelligence imparted to me. By this it appears, that had Doctor Johnson been an eye and ear witness of only a small part of what is now to be related, he would have believed that he had seen the form and heard the language of a Spectre. “He had a very philosophical mind, says Mr. Boswell, and such a rational respect for testimony, as to make him submit his understanding to what was authentically proved, though he could not comprehend why it was so.”[9] And the same will be the disposition of every pious and reasonable mind. But if you reject the evidence of experience, the evidence of substantial testimony and the evidence of predictions, where are you? On the billows of scepticism, without a helm, and your lee shore is infidelity.
It is frequently asserted, and that by multitudes, that the true origin of the following letters is a gross artifice. Asserted I say: for that is all. Twenty-six years’ time they have had to look round, search and prove that they are not mistaken. And for this purpose, means and pains have not been wanting. Nothing however has yet transpired to make good the assertion; but remarkable events have disproved it.
It is well known that some of the witnesses have been prosecuted for mountebanks; but nothing even to form an indictment could be found against them. Do I misrepresent? Do I mislead the credulous? Then let me be convinced? yea, let me be exposed. Let the cause be fully and fairly tried by friendly discussion; not in a future century, when we shall dwell in silence, but now, while the means of evidence are at hand—while the witnesses and their opponents are yet living.
If we love our neighbors, we prize their characters, and forbear needless censure, especially in a case like this. “Judge not that ye be not judged.”
For our conclusion, the words of the celebrated Mr. Addison and of Mr. Hartly are not impertinent: “I think a person who is terrified with the imagination of ghosts and Spectres, much more reasonable than one, who, contrary to the report of all historians, sacred and profane, ancient and modern, and to the traditions of all nations, thinks the appearance of Spirits fabulous and groundless. Could not I give myself up to this general testimony, I should to the relations of particular persons, who are now living, and whom I could not distrust in other matters of fact.”[10] “Certain it is, says Mr. Hartly, that Spirits can become visible and converse with us, as man with man; and so innumerable are the instances hereof, as also of their discoveries, warnings, predictions, &c., that I may venture to affirm with an appeal to the public for the truth of it, that there are few ancient families in any county of Great Britain, who are not possessed of records or traditions of the same in their own houses, however the prevailing Sadducism of these times, may have sunk the credit of them.”—Preface to Swedenborg’s treatise of heaven and hell, p. 18.