SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE WITH THE OTHER WORLD.

New Zealander, Volume 7, Issue 582, 12 November 1851, Page 3

SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE WITH THE OTHER WORLD.

The system of spiritual intercourse with the othe r world set up among the stores and Taverns of New York is rapidly on the increase. Rapism is certainly one of the most curious "developments" of modern times. Weeping statues in obscure villages in Brittany — miraculous vestments among the vineyards of the Moselle — vampire visitations in the mountain gorg°B of Transylvania — haunting spirits ahout the ruins of the Rhine— death-tolvena in the Bohmer Wald or the Black Forest — these are superstitions in their appropriate places, and whose relation to the unenlightened recipients we readily understand. They are the poetical and legendaiy remnants of old traditions, nurtured in ignorance and seclusion, by races apt to indulge in dark or fanciful musings. But to find in the gas-lighted, news-paper-governed, whitewashed, well-paved, police-regu-lated city of New York, a load of folly and superstition so rulgar, so senseless, and apparently so inexhaustible, is very wonderful. The Fox family has made a foitune hy the business, and retired ; but other charlatans have taken the matter up. The Poughkeepsie Seer, it would appear, has had an interview with the higher powers, and in consequence has treated the world to a new and corrected edition of such science as made up the substance of his former '' revel?itions." In New York there are said to be thousands of persons willing, at some cost, to draw on their spiritual friends for information. The trick is as old as the hills:— the only novelty about it in America is, its grossness. Socrates had his attendant genius — Pythagoras held frequent communications with the other world ; but their spiritual attendants were at least not venal. They did not profess to lay hare the secrets of the universe to gaping multitudes at half-a-crown a-head. In America the spiritual powers seem to have dwindled to the lowest rank of penny-a-linera. What a measure is this, so far as it goes, of the American intellect ! "As the people's gods, so are the people," said a wise ancient. California and the Rappists— how strange a combination and contrast! Since Mr. Barnum entered into the ghost speculation, the circle of operations has widened and the means of intercourse have multiplied. Mr. Barnum does his spiritualities on an improved scale. The mere rapping on a table failed to satisfy the craving for mystery ; and tbp spirits of Barnum's bidding now condescend to ring bells, to write on scraps of paper, and to do other courtesies to the astonished spectator. All the powers of the air are under the control of these showmen. Barnum is not only a god himself; but, like Alexander, his boast is, that he can make gods. What is most melancholy about these wretched impostures is, that several papers, otherwise considered respectable, countenance and support them. The Tribune, edited by a distinguished American writer, son-in-law of a poet of European fame, and having a larger circulation than any other paper in the Union, does its utmost to propagate a delusion which must choose between the grossest ignorance and the most shameless impudence for its parentage. At Auburn, in the State ef NewYork, a paper is published which seriously pretends to be edited and written by the Apostles and Prophets themselves ! " This publication," so runs the prospectus, "is dictated by spirits out of the flesh, and by them edited, superintended, and controlled. Its object is, the disclosure of truth from Heaven, guiding mankind into open visions of Paradise ; open communication with spirits redeemed ; and proper and progressive understanding of the Holy Scriptures, of the merits of Jesus Christ, "from whom they originated in inspiration absolute, and of whom they teach, as the only Saviour of a dissevered and bewildered race. The circle of Apostles and Prophets are its conductors from the interior ; holding control over its columns, and permitting no article to find place therein unless originated, dictated, or admitted by them ; they acting under the direction of the Lord Supreme. James Congdon, Charles Coventry, Andrew L. Wilson, and Lonson Bush are its publishers and proprietors , tiiey hare become, in full confidence of mind, disciples of the Lord; and being presenUxternal agents of the circle apostolic and prophetic ; acting under the direction, while faithful, as instruments for the distribution of truth." Thi3 passes all belief. The superstitions and impostures which are circulating amongst ourselves, to the reproach of their followers in an age which has so grand an expression of its civilization as the Industrial Exhibition, pale and shrink before the magnitude and daring of this cheat and of the credulity that accepts it. Then, the utter absurdity of the exhibition is unredeemed by any novelty of thought or cleverness of expression. The sages and apostles who come up at the conjuror's word talk the veriest nonsense and platitudes. Truly, the men of this world are far wiser in their generation tbau the children of light, if these be they. The American Hermes answers like a fool— their Plato is ignorant of the Platonic philosophy — nnd the Transatlantic St. Paul has lost the subtle logic as sententious eloquence of which he was once so great a master. ' The profanity is not concealed by any grace of drapery— the blasphemy by any show of wisdom. A very curious chapter all this will make in the future history of these times. Mormonism is aa intelligible fact by its side. — Athenttum.

The Colonies.— The following extract is from a speech delivered in Exeter Hall, at the annual meeting of the Colonial Missionary Society, by the Rev. John Angell James, in May last :— " British Christians must arise and bestir themselves; the colonies are in jeopardy (Hear, hear.) But there was another tutelage— and he did not forget that he was speaking in the presence of a member of Parliament; indeed, for this very reason he would speak all the more freely and with greater emphasis— there was another tutelage, and one that was canied on by the British Government. Was there ever ajviituous woman who would trust the education of her daughters to a prostitute, or the training of her eon to a pickpocket? (Hear.) And yet, what was England doing with her colonies, and had been doing almost for ages past, in ber penal system of sending out the refuse of our country to those parts of the world. (Cheers.) That is a system against which we ought, as Englishmen, more as cosmopolitans, and most of all, as Christians, to laise a solemn, indignant, emphatic, and public protost. (Loud cheers.) He maintained that England had no right to discharge the filth and feculence of her moral sewerage upon those distant shores. (Cheers.) The figure, indeed, that he had just employed was not a complete one, and, like most figures, would not run on. all-fours, but would serve as a faint illustration of his meaning. By the wisdom of Providence the most disgusting and nauseous offdl could be made to supply the pabulum which was necessary for the supportof animal and vegetable life; but the convict ships supplied that in which virtue must wither, and crime must flourish with tropical luxuriance, (Hear, Hear.) It was necessary, therefore, for the colonies, that something should be done to protect them from the terrible evil which was tuus inflicted upon them. (Hear, hear.) If he should be asked what he would do with the convicts, he would reply by another question, — what are we to do with the colonies? (Hear, hear.) Hedidtiust that public sentiment on this subject would be laised so loud and distinct as to lead the Government toreview its course, and to retrace its steps. He admired the wise and manly virtue of the Cnpe, in the resistance it had made, and he trusted that its conduct would be imitated by all our other colonies. (Hear, hear.) Let it be told the Government, you must devise some other method of getting rid of your felons, and not send them out to polute the moral atmosphere of the colonies. Punch calls for an union of the Anti-llal-Agitators. He thinks that if 500 men in England walk out of their peaceful homes on the same morning— let us say the Ist of May, 3 851— weanng the usurping head-covur (what that should be remains to be considered), the old Hat is " a dim, discrowned lung." " Let Anti-Cbmney-pot Societies be founded in tl.e Metropolis and a 1 large towns. Let each section Lave Us chief, and let .the chiefs of sections he comb.ned into a directory ; and let the directory have a head, and let that he.»d be lunch! The duty of the Anti-Chimney-pot Societies will be to del.horate on the choice of a successor to tlis reigning Hat."

LET.