Persons of sane mind, though ever so ignorant of arithmetic or orthography, can tell at least how many children they have, and are usually able to spell their own names; but one who has spent a good deal of time in witnessing the performances of the spirit rappers, says, "They seem to be unwilling or unable to answer purely test questions, like that of answering their own names. I have never known them to do this," says he, "though often solicited." He also speaks of their great deficiency in mathematics, not being able to enumerate the number of children they have on earth with any thing like accuracy. "I am aware that such questions have sometimes been correctly answered, and I have heard them so answered; but I have much more frequently known them to refuse entirely, or to do it very awkwardly, or to fail entirely in the attempt. Out of five numbers four were erroneously selected as the right one. The fifth was right, of course. This goes to show, at least, that spirits have greatly deteriorated, rather than improved, while inhabiting the celestial spheres." But this is not all. The facility of communication between the two classes of beings is also on the decline. The time was when ghosts or spirits held free conversation with those they visited, without calling in the aid of clairvoyancy or electricity. Neither did they resort, like modern spirits, to the slow and clumsy mode of communication, through the letters of the alphabet. In spelling out a sentence by letters, one of the ladies commences repeating the alphabet; and when the desired letter is mentioned, a rap is heard. In this slow and tedious process, long sentences are communicated. No wonder that the slowness of the mode of communication should be considered as "perfectly appalling." And then, too, the substance of these communications is too absurd and ridiculous to be believed. We might here refer to the information given by the prophet Swedenborg himself, in relation to the condition of the pious Melancthon in the future state, that he was sometimes in an excavated stone chamber, and at other times in hell; and when in the chamber, he was covered with bear skins to protect him from the cold; and that he refuses to see visitors from this world on account of the filthiness of his apartment. This is about as probable and interesting as the account given by a female clairvoyant in Cleveland, Ohio, who says that she has (just) had an interview with Tom Paine, "who recants his errors, and is at present stopping with General Washington and Ethan Allen, at a hotel kept by John Bunyan."
We here introduce the following from one of the Boston papers:—
"The 'Spiritual Rappings' exploded.—There is a good article under this head, on the first page, to which we invite attention. The writer is an accomplished scholar, an able physician, and one of the first and best magnetizers in this country. He has investigated the 'rappings'—tested them theoretically and practically, and 'exploded' them, if our readers have not already done so for themselves. His communication is entitled to weight, and if circulated, as it should be, among the credulous and unsuspecting, might save some from the pitiful effects of a mischievous, absurd, and contemptible superstitious delusion."
The article is as follows:—
"About the 16th of December last, I called on Mr. Sunderland, in good faith, in order to hear and see manifestations from the spirit world. He received me in a friendly manner, and, with a young lady who was with me, seated me in the spirit room. We had to wait an hour or more, and while seated we devoutly invoked the spirits. Finding them silent, I put on them some of my most powerful mesmeric electric formula. They persevered, however, in preserving profound silence.
"When, however, the medium, Mrs. Cooper, had arrived, and seven of us, four gentlemen and three ladies, were seated round a square centre table, the responses were made, and came freely. The young lady with me, willing to believe, but wishing to know with absolute certainty, before she assented to the truth of the proposition, that the rappings were made by spirits, and not by the persons engaged in the business, had seated herself about three feet from the table, so that she could see under it. The following dialogue then ensued between Mrs. Cooper, her adopted sister, and the young lady:—
"'Will you sit close to the table, miss?'
"'If they are spirits, they can rap just as well where I am. I am willing to be convinced, and where I am I can hear perfectly well.'
"'The rule is, to sit close to the table.'
"'I will not disturb, but choose to sit where I am.'