and knew from what source that opposition would come. A very worthy and Christian clergyman, and no doubt a great admirer of that law and that religion which burned in chains a Huss and a Jerome, who did not think the same thoughts that their brothers did, and which bound a Rogers to the stake, and prompted Christian Puritans to hang Quakers and whip Baptists, remarked in the presence of several members of the Church of which he is Pastor, that the believers in this spiritualism ought to be hung. We were also aware that many of that class who had heretofore opposed every new science, would respond to the mild remark of this advocate of the principles and practice of Him who returned good for evil, and exclaimed with His dying breath, "Father forgive them for they know not what they do," and raise their holy hands in horror at the truths it contained, notwithstanding such truths are sustained by the gifted and good whose followers they profess to be. We were not disappointed in our expectations. The class who think for themselves regardless of prosc.ibing creeds and dictation from others, have, and will continue to investigate this matter.

In accordance with our promise in the first edition, we now present a second edition of six thousand copies, revised and enlarged, with proof of statements heretofore made by us. Should the public mind demand another edition, it will be forthcoming as soon as the present is exhausted. Believing as we ever have, since we first entered upon this work, that "TRUTH IS MIGHTY AND WILL PREVAIL," we shall continue from time to time to publish such facts concerning this matter as may come before us, regardless of the cry, "YOU DO IT TO MAKE MONEY." AUBURN, March, 1850.

INTRODUCTION.

CHAPTER I.

"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamed of in your Philosophy."

WHEN less than two months ago we issued the first edition of this work from the press, we had little expectation of being so soon called upon to commence the work of this, although we supposed the public mind to be sufficiently prepared to investigate the matter in whatever form proof was presented, to dispose of them in a few months. We have now brought together some further evidence on the points which were mentioned, in the way of names of persons who know the truth of the statements and are willing to testify thereto.

We wish to make the proof as positive as possible, as the class of facts related are of that nature which we do not and cannot expect men to believe without the most positive testimony. We did not feel at liberty to use names in our first edition, without the consent of the persons, and we had no time to consult them after we concluded to publish the work. In this e lition, those who demanded more testimony, will, we think be fully gratified, unless they are of the class who are so distrustful of their fellow men that they will believe nothing stated by others, unless they have

ware of forming sectarian organizations and becoming mixed up with the numerous isms and ites of the religious or anti-religious world.

In presenting this work to the public, we are not unconscious of the unpopularity of the subject with the mass of the community. Nor are we unconscious of the fact, that we may call down the ridicule of some part of the press and thousands of readers, who have heard of these manifestations only as an idle tale of แ a haunted house," or as some common "spook story," growing out of the excited imagination of persons possessed of more marvellousness than causality, and therefore easily led to believe in anything that seems wonderful and unaccountable, whether it comes well authenticated or not. But a consciousness of having fairly, impartially, critically, and we may say skeptically examined the subject for the last two years in many different places, and under a great variety of circumstances, and that we are not alone in our investigations, but supported by hundreds of calm considerate men, who have investigated as thoroughly and skeptically as ourselves, we have no hesitation in laying the facts before the world as a phenomenon, which if not new in all respects, is certainly in the strangeness, growth and extent of the manifestations, wholly unprecedented in the annals of the world.

We are actuated by no desire to feed the popular credulity, or to excite the wonder-loving faculties of the ignorant and superstitious. They have already been made the prey of artful and designing men too long, and we are more desirous of stripping nature of the supernaturalism which has been thrown around her by the crafty plunderers of the ignorant, than to have

MYSTERIOUS NOISES.

7

their superstitions wrought up to a still higher state of excitement. It is for this reason, that we deem it important that a full explanation of the facts embodied in this work should be made, and a reasonable and nutural explanation given of these phenomena, which shall satisfy all, that those who have investigated the most thoroughly, have really the least fears and superstitious feeling in regard to the matter. While they have thus by investigation divested themselves of all feeling of superstition, they have become fully satisfied of the importance of the manifestations, as teaching the proximity of spirits, and their power to make themselves known to persons who still remain in the vissible casement which has become so common to us that we do not wonder, even when minutely surveying the "wonderful" machinery by which it is kept in motion. In doing this, we at the outset disclaim all pretensions to advocating supernaturalism. We place too high an estimate on the perfect workings of the laws of nature as set in motion by the "Great Spirit," which pervades, encompasses and governs all things, to attribute the beautiful and fast spreading facts, proving a direct influx of spiritual influences into the world, to anything more or less than another link in the great chain of nature's laws which is but just developing itself to man. The why of its appearance just at tis time, or the reason why it has not become more extensively known before, we are as unable to tell as we should be to tell why all the great discoveries in science were not made known to man at once, instead of waiting the slow development of the intellect of man, and thus prepare him for the gradual reception of the mighty changes which have taken place from the early stages of human development to the present time. As the earth was not formed in a few short years in its present state of geological developments, so man has not all at once sprang to his present state of refinement and knowledge. Gradual growth in the refining process, seems to be the universal law of nature.

As this is a subject upon which the world seems at the present time to be bestowing an unusual amount of attention, it may not be unprofitable for the reader and ourselves to spend some little time in the examination, to see if all the strange facts related in the following pages may not be ratioual and possible, if not highly probable, even to the most skeptical.

The vast and entire separation made by the old philosophy (?) and theology between spirit and matter, has led thousands of philosophical minds to reject all idea of any existence of persons beyond the tangible form which men now occupy. They have failed entirely of obtaining from old traditions, proof which looked rational to them, of any such existence. We are prepared to sympathize with those who are thus skeptical about any existence beyond the present, for we long stood in precisely the same condition. The great difficulty in the way of such minds as before intimated, is the great break in the chain between tangible and (to us) intangible substance. The fact that men could not, in a normal state, see the more refined substance to which we give the name spirit, has led theologians to declare that there was an existence, not only intangible, but absolutely something beyond, and entirely separate from matter.

Men of philosophical minds, not having positive proof of spiritual existence, have discovered this glaring inconsistency, and rejected every theory offered in favor of any existence beyond the decay of the visible body. But the developments of the last few years in Clairvoyance and Psychological science, have convinced many of the skeptics in regard to future existence, that there is a positive identity of spirits of persons who have passed on beyond this state of existence.

In regard to the facts presented in the following pages, they will be accompanied with proof too positive and conclusive to need a word in this connection in vindication of their truth. The idea of a fraud so extensively entered into by persons whose integrity has