"5. In matters of faith, friendship, love, or the spirit world, many are willing to be deceived; and when they fall into the hands of the shrewd and designing, who can appear the impersonation of truth, virtue, honesty, and even piety itself, they are emphatically humbugged, and give their money and their testimony to confirm the fraud.
"Lastly. Many are so sincere and honest in their intentions, that it is not in their hearts to believe that some of our most respectable men, even clergymen, would lend their names to sustain any thing but what they had believed and tested as a reality, and therefore themselves believe.
"Now, Mr. Editor, from all that I have seen and know of these spiritual communications, as 'rappings,' and from all these facts, I am free to declare, that I believe them an arrant humbug, and one, too, of the most pernicious tendency. They can all be traced to a human agency, as either mechanical or mesmeric, alone or combined; and I will give my right hand to any medium whose operation and device I cannot fully discover, trace, and demonstrate, as deducible from either the one or both of these sources, and from no other."
A correspondent of the Boston Traveller, in a communication dated New York, January 22, 1852, says, "I look upon the delusion as I do upon a contagious disease. It is a moral epidemic. Any man of peculiar diathesis may be its victim. It spreads by sympathy and by moral infection. Men of standing and intellect gravely and seriously affirm that they have seen a man rise and float about the room like a feather, till some unbelieving wretch approaches and breaks the spell, when the aerial swimmer falls suddenly to the floor. Franklin, Washington, and all the signers of the Declaration of Independence, have visited them, and these departed worthies sanction any doctrine which the uninitiated may happen to entertain before consulting them." A. J. Davis says, "There is a class of spirits who dwell in divine love more than in divine wisdom, and who are easily influenced to feel precisely what the majority of those who consult them feel and think, and under peculiar circumstances will say precisely what the questioning minds of the circle may ardently and positively desire. Affectionate spirits—those dwelling in the love circles—are readily influenced to approve the desires of the hearts of those with whom they commune on earth; as in our homes, the infant, by virtue of its cries and positive entreaties, captivates the affectionate, and perhaps intelligent, mother, who, consequently, forthwith coincides with her child's desires, submitting her judgment to its powerful appeals. Thus it is, through the power of sympathy, spirits of the other world gratify all our thoughts and desires." This is the opinion of Mr. Davis, which may pass for what it is worth. We never indorse his spiritual notions.
To give an idea of the conduct exhibited at the circles, or meetings, of the "harmonials," we submit the following from the Springfield Republican of January, 1852:—
"When we entered the hall, the meeting had not commenced, and all parties were engaged in a lively chat. Soon there was a spontaneous coming to order, and the ladies formed a circle around a table. The gentlemen then formed a larger circle, entirely surrounding the ladies. A good hymn was given out and sung. During the singing, we noticed one lady growing excessively pale and cadaverous. Then her hands began to twitch, and she commenced pounding upon the table. Directly opposite her, a young woman was undergoing the process of being magnetized by the spirits, while she, as we were informed, was resisting them. Her hands were drawn under the table by sudden and powerful jerks, and every muscle in her body seemed to be agitated with the most powerful commotion, as if she were acted upon in every part by shocks of electricity. This continued for ten or fifteen minutes, until she was, at last, in a state apparently resembling the magnetic sleep.
"Another lady, with a fine eye and an intellectual cast of countenance, was then moved to write, which she did, while her eyes stared and rolled as if in a state of frenzy, and every muscle seemed strained to its utmost tension. She wrote absolutely furiously, but no one but the spirits could read it, and it was passed over to another medium, who announced it a message of such utter unimportance that we have forgotten it. A brawny blacksmith was among the mediums, but he did nothing but pound on the table, and write the word 'sing.' The famous medium Gordon was there, too, and he went through various contortions—got down upon his knees, stood upon his seat, and stretched up his arms and fingers, trembling all the while, as if in the highest state of nervous excitement. Once he was twitched bodily under the table, uttering a scream as he went. At times, the different mediums would rise, spread their arms, slap the table, and throw their hands into motions almost inconceivably rapid.
"One of the mediums, a young woman, arose by the dictation and powerful urging of the spirits, and delivered a rambling sermon. It abounded in quotations from the Bible and the doctrines of Universalism.
"But it was when the singing was in progress that the spirits and the mediums were in the highest ecstasy. Then the latter would pound, and throw their arms around, and point upwards, in the most fantastic manner possible. And thus, with singing, and pounding, and reading the Bible, and writing, and preaching, the evening passed away; and while Old Hundred was being sung, the spirits gave their good night to the circle.
"We can give but a faint idea of this scene. It is one we shall never forget, and we only wish that the respectable men we saw there, the men of age and experience, the young men and young women, could understand the pity with which a man without the circle of their sympathy regarded them. With the light of reason within them, with minds not untaught by education, and with the full and perfect revelation of God's will in their very hands, it was indeed most pitiable to see them swallowing these fantastic mummeries, and mingling them, in all their wild, furious, and unmeaning features, with the worship of Him who manifests himself in the 'still small voice.'