GLIMPSES OF THE SUPER. NATURAL

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 101, 9 May 1885, Page 4

GLIMPSES OF THE SUPER. NATURAL

" What may this mean That thou, dead corse, again, .... Revisit'st thus the glimpses of the moon. Making night hideous/" " Hamlet," Act 1., Scene L

A Soieatiat's Glimpse. It may seem again like kicking away the scaffolding with which we are building up our structure when we entertain the possibility—shall we add the probability ?— that science may be destined one of these days to eliminate the word " supernatural " from our vocabulary. It is essentially a limiting word. It makes nature co-extensive with our knowledge of nature. Nothing is really above or beyond natural laws, however it may transcend our cognisance of those laws, This is the position actually assumed by the Payohical Kesearoh Society, or at all events by its founder, the late Sergeant Cox. He postulated the existence of a psychic force which should be adequate to the explanation of all these mysteries, ancient and modern, of which we treat. And long before the learned sergeant postulated, or the Psychical Research Society was born or thought of, Professor I)e Morgan, in |his trenchant preface to his wife's volume, " From Matter to Spirit," surmised that there might be natural causes to account for those strange effects, the existence of which he could not call in question without impugning the evidence of those ■enees on which we rely in matters of everyday lifo* What if science be destined to correlate those forces under some such head as electricity or magnetism ? In that sparkling little San Francisco Saper, "The Argonaut, 11 appears a story by Ir Robert Duncan Milne, which, under the garb of fiction, enunciates the very hypothesis to which reference has just been made. It opens thus :— " The magic of the nineteenth c«ntury I' I exclaimed. "The term is so variously employed chat it becomes neoessary for me I to know how you apply it before wo can comprehend each other exactly." "Well," responded Ashley, "I take it to mean the production of phenomena bj natural means, which nevertheless seem supernatural, or beyond the present scope of applied science." 14 As, for instance?" I inquired. " Well, as, for instance, the faculty of intercomunication between persons separated by immense distances without the medium, say, of a tangible, physical telegraphic wire." "But, in that case, 1 ' I remarked, "and granting, for the sake of argument, that the intercommunication you describe might be carried en without the medium of a wire, how would you explain it ?" I* By supposing," returned Ashley, "the existence of a real and actual medium whereby communications can be transmitted, though such medium is imperceptible to oui ordinary senses, and cannot be weighed 01 measured by ordinary scientific instruments." The story, which is obviously used onlj as a vehicle for putting forward a scientific theory of the supernatural, is briefly ai follows :—: — Dr. Gerald Ashley i« in love with a young j lady named Julia Radcliffe, who is travelling with her father, a wealthy San Francieco merchant, Her letters have been oi late cooler and less frequent. He would know the cause ; and his friend, who tells the story, takes him to a certain Professor Vehr, with whom the latter had hold iom« previous communication. This is what the professor had to say on the subject— our subject: — "You have repeated your visit," he said, " with a view to further investigate the occult. Good. I shall be happy to oblige you — the more soas I have myself been pursuing tho investigations, and have arrived at even more subtile elucidations of the energies conserved in the fluid we call olectricity than those which you witnessed in the case of the mirror. There this phenomenon was confined to the reproduction- of optical effects, with a certain reaction on the substantial forms of which the figures on the mirror were the simulacra. Now lam able to exert an actual physical control over the voices as well as the minds of distant persons themselves, so as, if necessary, to even transport them from place to place." I was struck with the last observation of tho professor, and with the resemblance of its claim to that of the depths of the Oriental Theosophy, and so intimated. "It is quite true," he said, "that this formulation of the energy I have just hinted at is, in effect, the same as that controlled by the Theosophists. It may be also that, in one sense, they have arrived at that more complete mastery over nature where the mere effort of mind and will is able to produce effects which I can only obtain in natural corollaries of laws which the world at large possesses. Still, even granting that such is the case, my mode of pr cedure for obtaining my results doea not entail those penalties for their abuse to which explorers into the realms of the occult under purely physical conditions are exposed." The narrator of the story ha i written to the professor on the subject of Gerald Ashley's lady-love; and the savant was ready to bring his science to bear on the project of obtaining information about her, or, ho added, for "a still more hazardous experiment, if it becomes necessary, and if you have courage enough to undertake it," He had fitted up an apparatus like a large diving bell, tut which was really a huge Leyden jar, that was charged by means of wires from the Electric Lighting Company, and inside which the person to be experimented upon was seated. In this position the anxious lover was placed, first of all for the preliminary purpose of gaining information as to the absent fair one. An electrometer was attached to regulate the, amount of the charge ; and tho effects of the two experiments are thus vividly described :— It w*s now apparent that while we were conversing Ashley had closed bis eyes, and was now reclining back in his chair, seemingly in deep sleep, his hands still clasping the handles of the telegraph- wires that ran into the interior of the bell. " That is the first effect of a moderately stiong charge of static electricity in the human framr, ' explained the professor. 1 ' It induces a highly wrought condition of the nerves, which in their turn act upon the ganglion of tho brain ; that, in its turn reacting again, through the duplex series of nerves, upon the wire held in the left hand, vhich br'ngs the holder into communication with whatever object enthrall his attention at the time of trance. The experiment ie, in effect, clairvoyance reduced to an art, the mesmeric trance accomplished by scientific, means and conditioned by the recognised and accepted laws of electrical science. Your friond is now, as I verily believe, in direct spiritual communication with her who is dearest to his heart — the last object that held possession of his soul before the mesmeric-electric trance overtook him. I will put myself in communication with him and ascertain." The professor then walked around to the *ide of the bell where the wires entered the /loss, and applied the forefinger of either hand to the orificos. As he did so, Ashley gave a. visible start. His eyes, however^ still remained closed.

"Have you seen her?" asked the pro fessor, in deliberate tones, bending hi! spectacled eyes upon Ashley. " Where ii she ? What do you see ?" "I see a vast building -a collection oi vaafc buildings. I see throngs of people, gaily dressed, walking in a«id oat of them, and parading the beautiful grounds which sur round them. It reminds we of the Centennial Exposition of 76." "He is evidently in New Orleans," observed the professor to me. " I have no question that Miss Radcliffe is there. Do you see the lady ?" he continued, addressing my friend. "Ha J There !" responded Ashley, with animation. "There is Julia with her father and mother, and stay !— there is another—a tall, handsome man, who has just approached the party. He takes off his hat and bows. He steps to Julia's side. She shrinks a little as he approaches. Mr and Mrs Radcliffe smile as he proffers his arm. They walk on. He is bending over Julia and conversing in low, passionate tones. He is telling her that he loves her. Sh« listens to him as in a dream. He presses j his suit more vehemently. They have left or lost her father and mother in the crowd. They are now alone in a little Moorish kiosk. He bends down and kisses her, and though she shudders she does not move away. Merciful heavens !" and with a start Gerald Ashley awoke. The professor eyed him calmly. •• Are you satisfied ?" he said. Great beads of perspiration were standing on Ashley's brow. He looked the picture of agony and apprehension. "You have been there in spirit," said the professor. " You know and appreciate the position your love is in. Would you regain her ? Would you save her to yourself ? Do you dare to appear beside her in bodily form, and bring her back with you here, wresting her from the new lover who has gained dominion over her, and whom, if you hesitate now, you will be powerless to rival ? Do you trust to my art ? Believe me, I sympathise with you, and will help you if I can," and the professor looked calmly and steadily into the eyes of the man inside the bell. "lam willing to encounter any risk," responded Ashley, " to regain the love of my betrothed. What must Ido ?" "Simply retain your clasp upon the handles," said the professor calmly. " Keep your attention fixed, as heretofore, and you will presently be in the kiosk of the New Orleans Exposition, not in spirit as you were a minute ago, but in actual, physical body. When you find yourself there, I leave it to yourself to regain the affections of your betrothed. Leave it to me to bring you both here. Be careful, though, not to loosen your clasp on her hand when the' wire sounds the call to return. Go, and fortune attend you." Ashley again clasped the handles of the wires with a set determination in his face which betokened that he realised and appreciated every detail of the professor's advioe. The latter walked with somewhat quicker step than was his wont to the insulators where the wires of the Electric Lighting Company lay, and proceeded to adjust them to their respective places on the bell as before. Presently Ashley's head fell back upon the chair as before, and hie eyes closed. The professor took out his watch, looked at it somewhat nervously, approached the bell at intervals with his electro-meter, and paced the floor. "My instrument is based," he explained to me, "on a centigrade scale of my own. It will take some time for a bell of the size you see before you to become fully charged with the fluid, even with my wires, which I have had conyeyed almo3t straight from headquarters ; and until the bell is fully oharged the experiment cannot be consu mmated. We waited patiently for some minutes more, Ashley murmuring meanwhile: "New Orleans ; kiosk : I can see her : I can see him, but I cannot approach her ; her father and mother are searching anxiously for her through other portions of the grounds." Presently my friend became silent. The professor again, for the fifth or sixth time, approached the bell and applied his instrument. " Hush !" said he. " The tension in the bell is now augmenting rapidly. A short time more, and we shall witness the successful accomplishment of our experiment." As he spoke, I noticed a change taking place in Ashley. Seated there, as he was, his head leaning on the back of his chair, his hands grasping the electrodes, I distinctly saw his form become thin, filmy, and transparent. Moment by moment more thin, filmy, and transparent it grew, till the attenuation was such that even the outline was scarcely visible. The hande alone, of all portions of the body, retained something of their pristine substantiality. 41 He has gone," whispared the professor, with subdued excitement. ' ' We must now gauge the time till we can reasonably presume that he had accomplished his purpose, regaining hie betrothed, and take measures for their return -the return of both, for if he be without her, little would be gained. She would again, doubtless, as soon as her lover had left her, become amenable to him who gained a dominion over her in the absence of her original lover, and whose supremacy would be restored." " But how — how"— l stammered — " how is this to be accounted for ? What has become of my friend who was seated there but a moment ago?" " The simplest thing in the world, my dear sir," replied the professor earnestly, " You desire to know why your friend* body has disappeared ? Would you ask th< same question had that body been exposed to intense heat ? You answer, no ; because you say that it is a recognised law of chem iatry that the most refractory substancesrock or metal— are first melted aud then volatilised by heat. Heat, in effect, expands and disintegrates the mass, and decollocates the atoms of every known substance. The static electricity with which that glass bell is charged is, in one sense, a correlative of heat, and in another, a correlative of the physical energy which we call spirit. Is it wonderful, therefore, that the intense force with which that bell is laden should suffice to produce the effects which you now witness ? There is nothing wonderful, my dear sir, in any chemical process, no matter how apparently incomprehensible and inexplicable it may be. You have seen a solid block of ice made instantaneously in and projected from a red hot crucible. Is what is now being done any more incomprehensible than that ? Say that the human body you lately saw beiore you has been volatilised, resolved into its primary ele ments, and then, through the agency of the psychic power resident within it, has been transmitted to the spot which that psychic power had most in view, along the ordinary telegraph wires which connect us with that spot. Sound waves can be transmitted in this manner by the telephone j light waves are amenable to the same law— why, then should not this law apply to matter which has been etherealised to the same degree as light and sound ? It is but carrying the subject to its legitimate conclusions. But stay ! Hush I Here they come I" As the professor spoke, I became aware of and dim a shadowy form Raping itself within the bell. As it gained shape I discerned, with what feelings of awe caft bo imagined, that there -was no* one form, but two. Slowly but gradually the dim form assumed a uiora bodily *nd awanct

aspect. I came in a very few seconds to realise that the forms which stood before me in the bell were those of Gerald Ashley and his affianced bride, Julia Radchffe. There could be no doubt about the matter. There they Btood in distinct bodily form,' but still with a bewildered, dreamy look upon them, as though scarcely awakened from sleep. , „ Such is the story, minus only an anticlimax which was probably added in deferenco to the requirements of a reahstio age and generation. Glimpses into the supernatural need no such disillusionising ; they would, no doubt, resent it. In fact, the author is perceptibly writing against his better judgment, for he still says that the events in the professor's room tallied with those which took place elsewhere. On that day Miss Julia Radcliffe had disappeared from New Orleans, the last time that she had been seen being in a certain kiosk in the Exposition grounds with a Mr Arthur Livingstone, though that gentleman avers that he saw her approached by some^ stranger, who claimed an acquaintanceship with her, and with whom she disappeared in the crowd a short time afterward. When Mr Livingstone was pressed for a description | of the gentleman in question, Mr and Mrs Radcliffe were at once convinced that it could be no one else but Doctor Gerald Ashley ; aad while sadly recriminating him for such a hasty and unadvised step as eloping with their daughter, have no doubt that the pair will turn up when it becomes expedient to do so. " As for me," adds the author on his own account, " I have taken pains to verify the date of the disappearance of Miss Julia Radoiiffe at New Orleans, and find it to be the same day and hour as Dr. Gerald Ashley s and my own visit to Professor Vehr's apartments on the night of the grand explosion at the Palace Hotel. I have arrived at a certain conclusion on the facts, and consider that the most judicious as well as the most sympathetic course I can pursue, under the circumstances, is to place tho foregoing facts before the public just as they are."