[2] Query: Have we here the spiritus mundi of the old philosophers?
[3] See an article entitled “A Remarkable Case of Physical Phenomena,” in the Atlantic Monthly for August, 1868.
SPIRITUALISM.
BY MRS. HARRIET BEECHER STOWE.
[The following was written for, and published in the Christian Union. It was reprinted in The Phrenological Journal in 1870. We present it here, as in some measure explanatory of all the matter which precedes it. There are many who do not accept all that is claimed to be true, in Modern Spiritualism, who will entertain the moderate views expressed by The Author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Editor.]
It is claimed that there are in the United States four million Spiritualists. The perusal of the advertisements in any one of the weekly newspapers devoted to this subject will show that there is a system organized all over the Union to spread these sentiments. From fifty to a hundred, and sometimes more, of lecturers advertise in a single paper, to speak up and down the land; and lyceums—progressive lyceums for children, spiritual pic-nics, and other movements of the same kind, are advertised. This kind of thing has been going on from year to year, and the indications now are that it is increasing rather than diminishing.
It is claimed by the advocates of these sentiments that the number of those who boldly and openly profess them is exceeded by the greater number of those who are secretly convinced, but who are unwilling to encounter the degree of obloquy or ridicule which they would probably meet on an open avowal.