Show spiritualism IN THE UNITED STATES to sum bum up the results of my experience I 1 have known many mediums professional and private witnessed a great variety of manifestations attend lectures jep lep tures and ances and perused a number of publications in its interest I 1 do not pretend to say how the phenomena are produced but I 1 have seen nothing to induce me to account for them on a spiritual theory in the course of my investigations I 1 have applied tests without any satisfactory ry result and wherever I 1 have witnessed the phenomena I 1 have rather been filled with wonder at the readiness with which believers have allowed themselves to be persuaded As I 1 have already alread y remarked spiritualism enjoys much greater facilities for spreading in america than among ourselves it might have been thought that other advantages would be neutralized by the power of education the americans are justly proud of their in this direction and I 1 never knew a native american who had not some degree of education but it ap pears to me that american popular education rather tends to the furtherance of such movements as that under discussion cus sion that it is the great cause of those peculiarities in american character and institutions which seem directly to encourage spiritualism and kindred theories the young people of america are infinitely than is the case with us england iff and an unhealthy stimulus to the mind gives it a tendency to grasp at visionary or impossible objects then religious thought and government being thoroughly untrammeled by legal or political fetters in america secular education appears almost in opposition to the received and revered impressions so powerful among ourselves the result is a removal of old landmarks and a hankering after new fields of thought education thus appears more in the light of a power urging to the search and attainment of something nov novel elthan eithan than to profit by the experience lence lenee of the past the effect also expert on th the minds of the young of the want of a healthy home influence is undoubtedly t injurious we see that the americans are not so domestic in their tastes and habits as we think desirable in england thus there is created a tendency to seek for some excitement out of the ordinary quiet course of life the precocity just alluded to causes the youth of America to consider themselves men long before they have arrived at years of discretion independence of bought and action being unnaturally strained the impulse of the mind must inest nearly always be in an unhealthy direction the influence of political questions also permeates every condition of american society every male amerl ameri ean of 21 years of age conceives himself to be immediately concerned in the g govern jovern government 0 v oe r ment of the country of every evory m male maie a 1 child it may mav be said he ma may y be president of the united states thus early in life ia is excited a taste for publicity of position for which abundant opportunities are constantly afforded the americans all pride themselves on their ability to speak in public and it is not of much importance m ortance in what direction the privilege e is exercised apart from these consi considerations affecting specially the american people and speaking generally I 1 incline to the opinion that the showy shallow thing called modern education is calculated calou to op operate as much in favor of a belief in spiritualism as against it the great discoveries of the age in many departments of science the control and aday adap tation to useful purposes pur poses of some of natures powers hitherto so little known the uprooting of fallacies which long appeared to be truth these facts have impressed on our minds a practical mode of dealing with all before us a tendency to find a plain rational cause for everything at first sight wonderful and to accept nothing without sufficient evidente evi denpe of its truth and proof especially of its practical useful ness erasers frasers Fra sers Maga magazine zinc the true wealth of a community lies in the integrity of its citizens and its chief honor arises not from the possession of gre grean greag riches but possession of true men the black forest near wiesbaden Wies baden germany is daily searched by a squad of men appointed by the government to hunt up the bodies of the gamblers who have committed suicide there and scarcely a morning passes when some are not found A ayoung young english nobleman who recently lost his all at a table in wiesbaden Wies baden blew out his brains with a revolver on the spot his ills body was carried away the gamblers wiped off the blood from the table with their handkerchiefs remarking 11 gentlemen we will not delay the game and the play clay weilt on gov patton says that alabama will raise worth of cotton this year |