anna blackwell spiritism and society

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The original of tiiis book is intine Cornell University Library.

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THEPROBABLE EFFECT

OFSPIRITUALISMUPON THE

Social, Moral, ai^d Religious ConditionOF Society.

PRIZE ESSAYS.

LONDONPublished by The British National Association of Spiritualists,

38, Great Russell StreetAnd by E. W. Allen, ii, Ave Maria Lane.

1876.S


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LONDON :rniXTED EY THE XATIOKAL IRESS AGEXCY, LIJUITED,

106, SnOB LANE, E.C.


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'REFACE.

The publication, 'in their present form, of the ,two Essaysoontained in this volume is due to the following circumstances.

In the year 1875, througn the liberality of two Members ofits body, the Council of the British National Association ofSpiritualists was enabled to ofEer two prizes, the first con-sisting of a Gold Medal, or 20 ; the second of 10 ; for thebest and second best Essays on a selected subject, which was

" The Probable Effect of Spibitualism uponTHE Social, Moral and ReligiousCondition of Society."

The conditions were that the competition should be open toall British born, or naturalised British subjects, and furtherto all Foreign Members of the British National Association ofSpiritualists, provided the Essays were written in English.

The following gentlemen were kind enough to consent toadjudicate upon the merits of the competing Essays :MR.Alfred Russel Wallace, the well-known naturalist andF.E.G.S. ; a gentleman known to a large circle under the nomde plume of "M.A., OXON"; Me. J. M. GULLT, M.D.; andMb. Martin R. Smith.

the Essays sent in, the two which are here printed were^selected by the Judges as worthy of the first and secondprizes respectively, by reason of their logical and literarymerits ; and, in accordance with the conditions of candidature,the copyright of the Essays vests in the Association for theterm of five years from the date of adjudication.


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SPECIAL NOTICE.In the case of the present Essays, the duty of selection

rested entirely with the Adjudicators ; and the Council of theAssociation, though it has undertaken the publication, holdsitself free from all responsibility for the views of the writers.


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FIRST PRIZE ESSAY.BY

ANNA BLACKWELL.

|HAT our "Social Institutions" arethe outcome of our " Beliefs " isa proposition so evidently true

that we may probably be allowed toassume its acceptance as such by ourreaders and to proceed, without furtherpreamble, to examine the consequencesresulting from the admission -of the factof correlation between Philosophic Con-victions and Social Forms.

If we admit that our Beliefs are thesource of our Institutions, we must alsoadmit that the latter will necessarilychange with every change in the for-mer ; and, as what we have been accus-


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EFFECT OF SPIRITUALISM.tomed to regard as " the established orderof society" is founded on religious,philosophic, and scientific "creeds" thatare crumbling away on every side, wemust admit, still further, that this " order"will necessarily share the fate of thetheoretic conceptions on which it hasbeen reared, and that the present epochis, therefore, emphatically an epoch oftransition. And as the very fact oftransition implies both the abandonmentof our actual stand-point and the exist-ence of some new stand-point to whichthis transition is leading us, we cannotescape the conclusion that the generalthrowing of "Beliefs" into the crucibleof analytic examinationwhich is oneof the distinguishing characteristics of thepresent daymust be regarded, notmerely as being destined to effect a de-composition of the elements of societyas it has hitherto existed, but also as


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FIRST PRIZE ESSAY. 7a preparation for an approaching re-combination of those elements, on thebasis of some new form of mental con-viction that will constitute the " Belief,"and thereby determine the social develop-ments, of the Future.A transformation of such vast impor-tance, and implying possibilities ofchange so far transcending the reachof human foresight, may well induce anearnest consideration of such indications,in regard to the general direction inwhich we are tending, as may be de-ducible from an examination of what istaking place in the world around us.The most superficial glance at the

present state of opinion suffices to showus that the immediate effect of the de-composing process,, to which all theold formulae of human thought are nowbeing subjected, is to be found in therapid spread of theoretic Materialism,


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8 EFFECT OF SPIRITUALISM.which denies the existence of theSpiritual element of the universe as thecorollary of its denial of the existenceof an Intelligent Creator, and in thesubstitution of selfish appetites and inte-rests, in place of the nobler psychicmotives of action, which is the practicalconsequence of that theoretic denial.And as the practical carrying-out of atheory so simply dissolvent as that ofMateriahsm would necessarily resultin the destruction, not only of what wecall "society," but of the human raceitself, it is natural that the prospect ofdeterioration and ruin thus presentedshould fill with dismay the minds ofthose who have not yet learned to re-gard all states as essentially transitory,and to see, in all modes of dissolution,only a destruction of perishable formsthat have been temporarily assumed byimperishable elements only a setting-free


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FIEST PEIZE ESSAY. 9of those elements, as the indispensablepreliminary to their re-combination insome new modes of temporary union.

But the "dissolution" of old ideas,of which the present prevalence of Ma-terialism is the earKest result, is seen,on a closer examination of the subject,to be no exception to the consoUng lawof Providential ordering which makeswhat we call. " death " the forerunner^nd harbinger of what we call "life."For the Materialistic denial of the ideasof a Creative and Overruling Powerdistinct from the Creation, of the Soul,and of human duty, responsibility, anddestiny, is less a denial of those funda-mental intuitions of the human mindthan a rejection of the unsound and arbi-trary theoretic assumptions on whichthey have hitherto been rested ; and theMateriahstic hypothesis should, there-fore, be regarded as only a passing


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10 EFFECT OF SPIRITUALISM.phase of the reaction of modern scienceagainst assumptions which must neces-sarily be cleared away before thosefundamental elements of human beliefcan , be securely established on the solidground of scientific and rational con-viction. For those assumptionso^ecog-nizing no community of origin or ofdestiny among the various orders ofbeings, and, consequently, no identity ofPurpose in the evolutions of existence,but, on the contrary, breaking up thosebeings into unconnected categories andsubstituting permanent antagonisms inplace of pre-ordained co-operationprevent the ascertainment of the onlysound basis of belief in the Creatorand in Immortality. The MateriaUsticprotest against those assumptions istherefore rendering an immense serviceto the ideas which it aims at destroying;for it is unwittingly preparing the way


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FIRST PRIZE ESSAY. Hfor the establishment of a UnitaryTheorythe need of which is beginningto be generally though vaguely feltthat shall combine all the facts of ex-istence in one grand, all-embracingsynthesis, and thus furnish the key tothe problems of, Origins and End&that have hitherto baffled the keenestenquiry. And as it is only throughthe solution of those problems that wecan arrive at a rational belief in theexistence of a Beneficent Creator andOverruler of the universe and a rationalacceptance of the all-important moralconsequences inseparable from that beHef,

'

it is evident that whatever tends toundermine those arbitrary and erron-eous assumptions is clearing the groundfor the establishment of the Scientific,Theism whichas the only certain guaran-tee of the eternal persistence of theSpiritual principle, the only sound


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12 EFFECT OF SPIRITUALISM.foundation of Physical Science, and theonly safe guide, to the elucidation ofsocial questions is the most urgentneed of the present day.The real tendency of modern Ma-

terialism is to the establishment of thisunitary synthesis. Compelled, by theidentity of their chemical constituents.and vital phenomena, to attribute acommon origin and destiny to thevarious orders of beings that people our^lobe, and being imable to unite themon any common ground of spiritiiality,the Materialist essays to unite them ona common ground- of materiality. The-stand-point of the visible world beingtoo narrow to allow of the construction,thereupon, of a theory that can reconcilethe facts of life and the fact of death withthe belief in a^ Beneficent Creator andOverruler of the universe (from whichbelief the admission of a Spiritual ele-


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FIRST , PRIZE ESSAY. lbment distinct from Matter is inseparable)^the Materialist endeavours^by eliminat-ing that belief and consequently denyingthe existence of a Spiritual elementtobring those various orders of beings andof facts within the scope of a commonformula. Seeing only Matter, he takes itas his basis of speculation. By attribut-ing to Matter the "property" of Force,he makes it the cause of Movement ; and,by attributing to it the properties of Soul,he makes it the source of immaterialphenomena. Unable to imagine abeginning of the material universe, hecredits Matter with the capacity oforderly evolution which is the resultand evidence of the Divine Overruhng,and thus endows it with the self-existence which is the distinguishingcharacteristic of the Creator. Denyingor attributing to assumed " propertiesof Matter"all the facts indicative of


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14 EFFECT OF SPIRITUALISM.the concurrence of Soul, Force, andMatter in the phenomena of existence,atid of the action of self-existent in-telligence in the co-ordination of thosethree constituent elements of the uni-verse, thfe MateriaUst arrives at a basisof reasoning that appears to be unitary,but that is unitary only in appearanceand he builds, upon that incomplete anddelusive basis, a Theory of Existence,whichas an attempt to arrive at theformation of the unitary synthesis thatwill be the beacon of the Futurecon-stitutes an advance upon the theoreticantagonisms of the Past, but which is,in reahty, as partial and unsound as thevarious unfounded assumptions it dissi-pates.But as the Sun, notwithstanding the

terrestrial vapours that veil its splendour,continues to discharge its beneficent func-tions as the Ruler of the system of depen-


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FIRST PRIZE ESSAY. 15dent worlds that revolve around it, so theDivine Overruling^untrammelled by hu-man denial provides the appropriateremedy for Materialistic aberration, byenabling the spirits of the so-called^' dead " to give us incontrovertible evi-dence of their continued existence beyondthe grave, and thus furnishes to the worldjust when the dazzle of physical dis-covery is blinding it to the existence ofthe Spiritual principlethe visible andtangible proofs of the reality and immor-tality of that principle which will eventu-ally place our convictions, in regard to theSpiritual element of our compound nature,on the same basis of Positive Sciencewhich underlies our convictions in regardto the facts of our physical existence.It is evidently impossible to overratethe influence which the establishment ofintelligent communication between thesurface and the spirit-sphere of our planet


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16 EFFECT OF SPIRITUALISM.must necessarily exercise in shaping thenew phase of conviction and of action to-wards which we are tending, notwithstand-ing the drawbacks which may seem, atfirst sight, to diminish the value of theresults to be hoped for from that com-munication.The two realms of existence furnished

by the surface and the spirit-sphere of ourplanet being "part and parcel" of eachother and subjected to the same law ofslow and gradual progress, we must ex-pect to findas is, indeed, alreadyabundantly evident^that ignorance ofgeneral principles, retentions of prejudiceand error, and contradictory statementsbased on individual impressions, supposi-tions, and speculations, are as rife on theother side of the grave as on this side ofit. Like attracting like, it is evident thateach medium will usually attract onlyspirits of the same average advancement


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FIRST PRIZE ESSAY. 17as Ms own, and that the difficulties in-herent in the art of spirit-manifestationmust necessarily impede^^for the present,and perhaps for a long time to comethefree and correct transmission of thoughtfrom the higher regions ofthe spirit-world.But it is equally evident that, notwith-standing these drawbackswhich are dueto the general backwardness of our planet,and can only be got rid of through thegradual progress of both classes of itspopulationthe communication now be-ing established, at every point of its sur-face, between our globe and the spirit-world, must nevertheless exert a deter-mining influence upon its future develop-ment.

In the first place, this communicationwill generahze the certainty of the survivalof the soul, with its activities and affections,after the death of the body ; a survival inregard to which the vast majority of man-


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18 EFFECT OF SPIRITUALISM,kind have, as yet, no clear and enlightenedbelief, and which has, consequently, nopractical influence on their action. Andalthough this survival does not sufficeto prove the indestructibility of the soulfor the prolongation of its existencethrough a few hundreds, thousands, oreven millions of years, is by no means acertain proof that it wiU be prolongedthroughout eternity, which, as previouslypointed out, can only be proved withabsolute certainty as a deduction from aUnitary Theory of Existence^yet, ifspirit-communication were to have noother result than that of showing that thesoul does not die with the body, and thatthere is, consequently, no inherent impossi-bility in the idea of its being destined toan eternal duration, the fact of that com-munication would still be incomparablymore interesting in itself, and more im-portant in its bearing on the future con-


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FIKST PRIZE ESSAY. lUvictions and action of mankind, than allthe purely physical discoveries which arethe glory of the Positive Science of ourday.But the communication in question

is evidently destined to bring about a.result far more important than the mereestablishment of the presumption, infavour of our eternal existence, which isdeducible from the survival of the soul,for a longer or shorter period, after thedeath of the body. For, while it isevident that the great mass of mediani-mic communications can only be a reflexof the present ideas of the spirits whoare nearest to the earth and of the me-diums to whom they are sympatheticallyattracted, it is equally evident that thegeneralization of medianimity will enablethe more advanced intelligences, who aredirecting the transformation of ideasnow being effected in our world, to select


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20 EFFECT OF SPIRITUALISM.the mediums best fitted to serve as thechannel of the suggestive hints they may-have to give us, and thus to assist usin working out the general explanationof the Creative Plan, whichas it mustnecessarily involve the relations of thepresent to the past and the future,and those of our earth and its raceswith the other realms and beings ofInfinitycan never be elaborated throughany unassisted efforts of observationand induction on our part, but canonly be arrived at by us with the aidof those whose superior advancementenables them to take a wider view ofProvidential arrangements than is ob-tainable, from the lower stand-pointof human observation; an explanationwhich the progressive discoveries ofScience vdll elucidate and confirm, andwhich, by enlightening us in regard tothe nature and conditions of the soul's


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FIRST PRIZE ESSAY. 21existence, will give us at once therationale and the certainty of the eternalduration of each individualised soul, asthe aim and result of those arrange-ments.The supposition of such a transmission

of teaching from a higher point of viewthan that of our present lifeas aconsequence to be naturally anticipatedfrom the communication now being es-tablished between spirits and mennecessarily pre-supposes our inability toforesee, in their entirety, the ideas thatwill be gradually conveyed by thatteaching. But it is evident that, inorder to set us on the track of thetheoretic unity now being sought for,more or less consciously, by the mostadvanced thinkers of the day, -thishigher teaching must do three things :

1. It must prove the common origin,law of development, and destiny, of all


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22 EFFECT OF SPIEl'TUALISM,the Ci'esatures of the universe, from thelowest to the highest, by showing thatall forms of suffering and of effort, oflife and of death, result from theircommunity of origin and of destiny,and occur in virtue of a Unitary Planand Purpose that link together, in oneendless chain of progress, aU the reigns,modes, and realms of Creation :

2. It must vindicate the Wisdom, Jus-tice, and Beneficence of the Divine Go-vernment, by showing us (i.) That thevarious orders of beings constitute thesuccessive links of that chain ; (ii.) Thattheir corporeal differences and mental in-equalities mark successive degrees of thesame general scale of evolution, succes-sive steps of the common road to thecommon goal ; and, (iii.) That they onlyappear to us to be heterogeneous and un-connected, because we see them all at thesame time and out of the natural sequence


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FIRST PRIZE ESSAY. 23of their production, and are therefore un-able to perceive the orderly filiationaccording to which could our glancetake in the origin, career, and end ofour planet, and the relations of itsraces with the other worlds and beingsof the universewe should see thatthey have been produced. For a UnitaryTheory of Existence must, necessarilyshow us that the Universe is a unit;that " Creation " is not local but general,not an act but a process, whose soleaim is the development and education ofSoul through the action it' is made toexert upon the elements of Matter, inaccordance with the Creative Plan;that Soul is the formative principle ofall the temporary agglomerations ofthose elements which we caU " bodies,"and that all natural "bodies," from thesimplest to the most complex, from thelowest to the highest, are mere temporary


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24 EFFECT OF SPIRITUALISM.results of the past or present action ofSoul, upon the material element, at thevarious stages of its education ;^thatthere is, consequently, no fixed andabiding "Universe," but only a succes-sion of temporary phenomena, constituted,for the time being, by the action of Soul,,and that the duration of a nebula,,with its countless myriads of suns andof planets, is as changeful and ephe-meral, considered in its relation toEternity, as that of the May-fly whichlives and dies in a single day ;and thatall our Positive SciencesChemistry, Geo-logy, Astronomy, Electricity, Mineralogy,Botany, Physiology, Natural History, &c.are mere summings-up of the modes ofsoul-action in the special directions withwhich they severally deal :

3. It must explain the mingling oftruth and falsehood in the various "Be-liefs" of the Past, as having resulted


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FIRST PEIZE ESSAY. 25from the imperfections of the phases ofhuman development in which they tooktheir rise ; and it must take the place ofthose "Beliefs," not by destroying, but byfulfilling, their aspirational out-reachings,as the "workings of root, stem, and flowerare fulfilled, in the fruit.

Let us now briefly examine the con-sequences deducible from the idea of theUnitary Synthesis towards which wehave seen that the mental movement ofthe day is tending, as regards, first, thebelief and next, the social forms, of theFuture.

1. The idea of a Unitary Theory ofExistence necessarily presupposes thefact of a Unitary Plan in the produc-tion and maintenance of the universe,and thus implies the eternal continuityof the Creative Action by which we andall the other orders of Creatures havebeen called into being, and the eternal


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26 EFFECT OF SPIRITUALISM.continuity of the same law of develop-ment to which we and they are nowsubjected :

2. The continuity of the CreativeAction implies that there never was aperiod, in the eternity of the Past, inwhich the Creatures of an earher Crea-tion had not already attained to therelative "perfection" of knowledge, love,^nd power which is the aim of Creationand the source of the happiness of allCreatures :

3. The attainment of that relative"" perfection" by the spirits of earherCreations implies the employment ofthose relatively " perfected " spirits infields of cosmic activity proportioned, ingrandeur and importance, to the degree oftheir scientific and moral advancement :

4. The arrival of the Creatures ofearlier Creations at those higher fields ofactivity (the " Thrones, PrincipaUties,


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FIRST PRIZE ESSAY. 27Powers" of the vicegerents to whom thepractical administration of the universeis entrusted by the Creator) impUes thatwe, and all the other Creatures of thelater Creation to which our earth and itspopulation belongand those of all theinnumerable future Creations that willsucceed each other throughout eternityshall eventually arrive at the same ele-vation :

6. The attainment of the same eleva-tion by all the Creatures of the universeimphes the upward passage of all thoseCreatures through the same successivedegrees of development, and thus con-firms the earliest religious insight of ourglobe, as recorded in the earliest of its"Sacred Writings," which expressly de-clare that "Kinsmen, beasts, stones, vege-tables, are all one; what they are, a manhas been:"* a declaration tantamount

* Vide the Druidic Triads, Bhagavat-Ghita, &c.


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28 EFFECT OF SPIRITUALISM.to asserting that what a man is, th^ywill he:

6. And this unity of origin, training,and destiny implies, in its turn, the twogreat related doctrines expressed, withmore or less clearness, in all the " Bibles "of the world and in the writings of its.greatest thinkers, from the earliest timesto the present day, viz., (i.) The pre-exist-ence of the soul to the body it animates,ai^d, (ii.) The gradual progression of thesoul in knowledge, virtue, power, andhappiness, through successive embodi-ments in the same planet, or in planets ofhigher and higher degree, until it reachesthe grade of mental, moral, and corporealdevelopment which lifts it above the needof any further connexion with plane-tary matter, and introduces it to the noblermodes of being that are dimly fore-shadowed, in all thos^ "Bibles," as the" glorified " existence to which we are


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FIRST PRIZE ESSAY. 29eventually to attain, but of the nature ofwhich we are unable, at our present lowlevel of attainment, to form the remotestconception.No theory that does not fulfil the con-ditions here laid down can satisfy themental need of our day, for no other couldclaim to be unitary; because no othercould explain the affinities and construc-tivity of the Mineral Reign; the vitality,digestion, circulation, sleeping and waking,activities, preferences, efforts, diseases,and death of the Vegetable Reign ; the in-telligence, passions, and suflferings of theAnijnal Reign ; the unequal conditions, thesorrovfs, aspirations, and progressivenessof the Human Race ; and the persistence,in each ascending reign, of the specialcharacteristics of the reigns below it : andbecause, without this coherent and all-em-l)racing explanation, it is impossible todemonstrate the existence of a Beneficent


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30 EFFECT OF SPIRITUALISM.and Omnipotent Author, Sustainer, andEuler of the Universe,to prove the exist-ence of any unity, either of nature or ofdestiny, between the beings of the variousreigns of our planet, or between these andthe other beings of the universe,tojustify the conception of the Brotherhoodof the Human Race,or to perceive therationale of Christ's subhme summing-upof the totahty of aspiration and of con-structive achievement in his propheticprayer that the "Will" of the Creator may" be done on earth, even as it is done in "the more advanced realms of being,whose inhabitants have learned to practisethe lesson of conformity with the laws im-posed hy the Creative Ordaining which weare now being made to learn through thediscipline of the earthly life ; all of whichconceptions, without the soUd substratumthat can only be furnished to them by aUnitary Theory of Existence, must be


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FIRST PRIZE ESSAY. 3t'regarded as mere baseless figments of theimagination.

It is evidently as impossible to fore-cast the details of the Social Institu-tions that will take their rise in thophase of unitary " Belief " to whichwe are tending, as to foresee all theideas that will be comprised in that" Belief" But it may be safely assumed,on the one haild, that those institutionswill grow out of, and crown, the ex-periences and aspirations of. our Past,and, on the other hand, that they will,nevertheless, differ from those of thePast as widely as the .convictions ofthe Future will differ from our earlier"creeds." For the institutions of thePastgrowing out of a perceptionof diversities and antagonisms thatwere supposed to be inherent in thenature of things, and attributing a falseand exaggerated importance to th&


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32 EFFECT OF SPIRITUALISM.present conditions of an earthly lifethat was supposed to be our only one^necessarily embodied the individualand social selfishness imphed in thosesuppositions. But the institutions of theFuturegrowing out of a view ofexistence in which all the Creatures ofthe universe are seen to be travellingonwards, from the same starting-point,by the> same road, to the attainment ofthe same destiny, and in which theinterests of each are perceived to beinseparable from those of all^willnecessarily embody the conviction that,not only is "Love," in literal truth,the sole " fulfilling of the law " ofCreation, but that we can only secureour own individual interests and happi-ness by substituting, for the divergent andantagonistic ayrangements which makeALL the rivals and enemies of each, theconvergent and co-operative arrangements


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FIRST PRIZE ESSAY. 33which will secure to each the aid andsupport of ALL.

; It may therefore be safely assumedthat the individualism and antagonism,which have characterized the socialarrangements of the Past, will be suc-ceeded by the application of theprinciple of co-operation, as the cha-racteristic of the social arrangements ofthe Future. No one, at this day, wouldcontest the vastness of the power ob-tainable from the union of wills andefforts in the accomplishment of anygiven aim; but comparatively few areyet aware how enormous are theeconomic results that would be obtainedas regards both the production andthe employment of all the elements ofhuman well-being^from the applicationof the principle of co-operation, ofmutual helpfulness, to the various in-terests and occupations of Kfe. Did

c


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34 EFFECT OF SPIRITUALISM.space permit, it would be easy to showthat, just as all moral evils result fromthe substitution of self-love for the senti-ment of justice and of charity, so all theevils of our social state result from thesubstitution of individualism and antago-nism in place of co-operation and mutualhelpfulness, and can only be success-fully dealt with by substituting co-opera-tion for individualism.

Ignorance, poverty, brutahty, pauper-ism, prostitution, servitude, war, vice,disease, injustice, can never be pre-vented from producing their naturaleffects ; and all our various philanthro-pic efforts to ameliorate what is radi-cally bad are mainly to be rejoiced inbecause they will necessarily lead, intime, to a recognition of the impossi-bility of diminishing the evils of our socialstate otherwise than by ridding ourselvesof the causes to which those evils are


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FIRST PRIZE ESSAY. 35-due : a result which, as will be appa-rent to all who reflect dispassionately onthe nature of those evils and the condi-tions required for clearing' them away, canonly be accomplished by the adoption ofmodes of living that shall ensure, to everymember of the human family, the fulland healthy development of his physical,mental, artistic, and moral nature, and asphere of congenial activity in which hewill both contribute to the general wealand benefit by all that has been achievedby the industry, skill, science, and geniusof all its other members.

"Practise my simple doctrine offraternity and charity," said the GreatTeacher, eighteen hundred years ago, "andall other things shall he added unto you;"in other wordswAe7e the exclusive seek-ing of his own interests hy each individualnecessarily defeats itself-the practical ap-plicatiop of the principles of brotherhood


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36 EFFECT OF SPIRITUALISM.and of mutual helpfulness which, in thisnineteenth century, is briefly expressedby the' term co-operation, -will givecomfort, health, knowledge, elegance,security, to all.

The application to social life ofprinciples which are universally acceptedin theory, but universally rejected inpractice, can only be effected gradually,through repeated experiment's, and withthe aid of experience gathered from partialand temporary failures. But, though sucha transformation of society must neces-sarily be laborious and slow, no one whobelieves in the supremacy of good over evil,no one who perceives the signs of dawnamidst the darkness of the present, candoubt that it will be eventually achieved,and in the way implied in the wordsof Christ, viz., by the application ofthe principle of co-operative helpful-ness to every department of human life


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FIRST PRIZE ESSAY. 37a practical carrying-out of the law ofbrotherliood and charity that will becomepossible in proportion, and only in propor-tion, as the fact of intelligent communica-tion, between souls in flesh and souls inthe spirit-world, shall bear its natural fruitin the enlarging of the mental horizon ofmankind, and the defining of the truenature and aim of terrestrial existence.Por, the evUs of our social state being due,as we have seen, to the narrow views ofiuman Ufe and destiny hitherto prevalentin the world, the persistence of those viewswould necessarily perpetuate the defectivesocial conditions in which those views areembodied; and it may therefore be broadlyasserted that such a transformation ofsocial conditions can only be accompUshedthrough thfe modification, of human ideas,motives, and aims, that will necessarily beeffected, sooner or later, as the result ofthat communication.


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38 EFFECT OF SPIRITUALISM.The possibility of such a substitution of

co-operation for antagonism being onceadmitted, who would venture to assign alimit to the amelioration of human exist-ence that must result from so radical atransformation of its social conditions ?The present social conditions of our earth,being evil, attract to it souls of very shghtadvancement, whose baseness corresponds,to, and is perpetuated by, the evil sur-roundings into which they are born, andwhich they, in their turn, help to per-petuate. The establishment of better socialconditions, on the contrary, will attract tothe earth souls of greater advancement,already fitted to profit by those improvedconditions, and by whom those conditionswill be still further improved; untilthrough the gradual amelioration thusachieved by the efforts of successive gene-rationsour earth shall have become theabode of righteousness, fraternity, and.


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FIRST PRIZE ESSAY. 39peace, prefigured in the brief, but preg-nant, words of Christ.What imagination, of painter or of

poet, could forecast the glory, the beauty,the happiness, of the earthly life undersuch conditions, chastened and ennobledas it would be by the knowledgedueto our communication with spirits ofgreater advancementthat terrestrial life,even under such improved conditions,can only be the stepping-stone, theportal, to higher states of being, andthat its most exquisite refinements areonly valuable as educating us up to.modes of etherealized existence beyondthe region of planetary worlds 1 For,as we have already seen, such a trans-formation of the social conditions of ourearth can only be accomplished througha transformation of our scientific, philo-sophic, and religious " Beliefs " whichwill cause us to take a new view of


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40 EFFECT OF SPIRITUALISM.human life;a view that will, on theone hand, reduce our estimate of theintrinsic importance of an earthly life-time, by showing us that it is but onestep of the endless career we havebefore us, vrhile, on the other hand, it willenhance, immeasurably, our estimate ofits relative importance, by shovdng usthat the use we make of each phase ofour existence decides the character of thenext phase of our career.


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SECOND PRIZE ESSAY.BY

G. F. GREEN.

|F the influence of an idea uponHumanity were always commen-surate with its intrinsic import-

ance and scopein other words, if theHarvest were always proportioned to thequaUty of the Seed sownour task intracing the probable effect of Spiritualismin the world would be an easier one. But,as, in the material world, the goodness ofthe soU, and favorable conditions of heat,light, and moisture, are as essential asgood Seed ; so, in the moral world, thepreparation of men's minds, and favoringoutward influences, are as essential asthe intrinsic goodness of the Idea.


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42 EFFECT OF SPIRITUALISM.The idea of a Future Life has been iu

the world for centuries, but the seedhas fallen for the most part upon " stony-ground." "Where it has taken root it hasundoubtedly brought forth some fruit;but the extent of the harvest cannot beascertained for the tares which are notwithered. As a practical question, there-fore, our subject demands, firstly, a care-ful consideration of the present conditionpf Society, and its state of preparationto receive the truths revealed by Spiri-tualism; and, secondly, the proper In-fluence of the truths themselves underfavorable conditions. It may here bepremised that we shall not seek to fore-cast the effects of Spiritualism beyondthe proximate future. This is the onlyproblem a solution of which can be eitherpossible or profitable to finite beings. Ifwe took the ground that Truth is mightyand must prevail, it would only be


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SECOND PRIZE ESSAY. 43-necessary to prove Spiritualism to betrue, and imagine an Utopia in which itshould flourish, and our task would thenbe completed. But the conditions beingall imaginary, such an attempt shouldrather be embodied in the form of poetrythan prose. The' end of the proseessayist is better attained if he be con-tent to narrow his field of vision, forthe sake of better definition of the objectto be viewed. In the present instancewe have a given state of Society and agiven Motive, and we shall attempt totrace the probable effect of that motiveonly so far into the future as ordinaryhuman faculties may penetrate.Although then the form of the pro-

blem before us does not involve only,or even mainly, the question of the truthof Spiritualism, the solution of that pro-blem is necessary as a preliminary to-the consideration of its influence. We


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44 EFFECT OF SPIRITUALISM,shall therefore deal with this questionfirstIs Spiritualism true ?

Is Spiritualism true? The questionnaturally suggests another What isSpiritualism? Many different answersmight be given, but we shaU claim herethis one as the proper definitionSpiri-tualism is the Science of a Future Life.In the modern sense of the term, ascontradistinguished from ancient formsof supernaturalism. Spiritualism is strictlya Science. All its fixed conclusions areto be maintained by inductive reasoning.The orthodoxy of its facts is to rest^lone upon the constancy of their verifi-cation and verifiability.Amongst the existing forms of re-

ligion which point to similar conclusionsthis characteristic is entirely lacking.The Protestant Church, for example,builds its behef upon a Revelation whichis closed, i.e., upon facts which cannot


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SECOND PRIZE ESSAY. 45recur. The Catholic Church, althoughnot denjdng the occasional recurrence ofmiracles, yet bases its belief also en-tirely upon the past. Hence, apart fromthe internal or inspired knowledge ofspiritual existences (which many deny),these Churches have no more evidenceof the actuality of the Spirit-world tooffer to the sceptic than is offered forthe actuality of many ancient myths, vizhistorical testimony. All merely tradi-tional beliefs, whether true or false, havea tendency to become weakened by timeand unless supported by fresh testimonytheir ultimate extinction is a certainty ofnature. And Christiahity, so far as anyreal belief in its supernatural evidencesis concerned, is rapidly sharing this fate.The facts upon which it is built havecome to present to us so strange andunnatural an appearance, have becomeinvested with such a legendary and ideal


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46 EFFECT OF SPIRITUALISM.character as to lose their very quahtyof facts. They are regarded as some-thing quite distinct from ordinary factsso that more weight is attached to con-temporaneous theories than to the veryfacts which gave rise to them. As amatter of historical accuracy, facts aremore likely to be correctly transmittedthan words the substance than theform. But many lovers of the Biblewill have it that the words have an in-spired accuracy, which is by no meansconfirmed by an unequivocal meaning;The pertinacity with which the letter ofthe Bible is clung to proves the absenceof any living faith in the Supernatural.It is necessary to bolster up our behefin facts so strange by the behef insomething yet stranger, viz : Verbal in-spiration.Anomalous as must appear such a

state of mind as we have described, it is


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SECOND PRIZE ESSAY, 47impossible otherwise to explain the utterincredulity and sheer inability to believethe facts of Spiritualism which we meetwith in most Christian circles. Thepower of believing in a miracle seemsso dead, that we must conclude thecontinuance of the Christian religion inthe present day is due to the acknow-ledged perfection of its ethical teachingsalone. It is not an uncommon trait ofthe human mind to hold on to theform of a faith after " the brains areout." " The times have beenThat when the brains were out the (creed) would die.And there an end."But it is not so now. The " brains "

of Christianity were the supernaturalfacts of Christ's life ; his resurrectionand appearance to the disciples ; andthe spiritual gifts which were subse-quently bestowed upon them ; not somuch the morahty or theology which he


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48 EFFECT OF SPIEITUALISM.sought to inculcate; and still less thesubsequent teachings of the Apostles.As Spiritualists it is not necessary tohold the infallibility or the fallibility ofthose teachings, but Spiritualism oflFerssuch strong confirmation of the factsupon which only a reasonable belief canbe based, that Christians should bethe first to welcome it. Unfortunately,dogma is rather held to confirm thefacts than as needing confirmation bythem, and any additional probabilitygiven to the facts of the Bible isthought to be unncessary, and theoffer of it is only contumaciously re-jected.

"While such is the attitude of thereligious world towards Spiritualism, weneed not be surprised that the sceptical,and more thinking portion of the com-munity, has not been able to attain anywide-spread belief in it, but, repudiating


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SECOND PRIZE ESSAY. 49alike the records in which it sees pro-fessing Christians have no solid belief,and the rumours of so-called modernsuperstition, denies the existence of Soulaltogether. The only proof possible ofsuch an occurrence as an apparition(we are told) is in the consciousness of theSee^. To all the world beside it is buthearsay, and should be discredited onthe mere ground of its improbabilityon the same grounds as we discredit theexistence of the Sea-serpent. Such anargument as this is wholly unassailableby any weapons of orthodox Christianity.The Christians and Materialists are atthe two poles of behef, and both lackthe middle part of it which Spiritualismcan supply. For these it has its verifiablefacts; for those its all-embracing philo-sophy. With the Materialist it is neces-sary to begin by proving that Intelligenceand Vohtion are to be found separate

D


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50 EFFECT OF SPIRITUALISM.from the brain and human organism..With the Religionist it is necessary to-point out the true raison d'etre of hisbeliefThat Spiritualism is true may be de-monstrated in two ways inductively,from the facts of spirit-communion occur-ring daily in our midst ; deductively, fromthe universality of the belief in it, whichhas prevailed in some form or other inall civilized nations. It is difficult, nayimpossible, to suppose that any wide-spread belief is an entirely baseless one.Moreover, this belief that when everysensible proof of life is extinct a some-thing yet lives, is not one for which wecan readily assign a cause if it be false.The beUef in a God may have arisenfrom the contemplation of Nature. Thethunder, the earthquake, or the regularcourse of the seasons may alone havesuggested the idea of a Governing Power.


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SECOND PRIZE ESSAY. 51But we see no suggestion of Life whereDeath is. Whence then has arisen thebehef in a future Ufe if not from sen-sible communion of some kind with theunseen world 1 But if the onus prohandiis still with us, we affirm that a Futurelife may be proved to-day inductivelyfrom facts. No amount of argument willsuffice to prove a fact. Testimony whichwUl convince one wiU not convince all.We can only therefore point out whatare the facts which we claim as pre-misses, and ask our opponents to testthem in their own manner. They ar&these : That under certain conditionsSpirits can be seen, felt, and heard, thus,estabhshing their existence through th&same three senses which take cogniz-ance of the existence of our fellow-men.That they prove their identity as humanbeings, and their relationship (in manycases) in exactly the same way as those


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52 EFFECT OF SPIRITUALISM.whom we do not scruple in our daily lifeto regard as bodily realities. That wehave, therefore, no more reasonable cer-tainty of each other's existence than ofthe existence of these apparitions. Thereis no change of consciousness, as aftersleep, to induce us to liken them to thecreations of dream-land. These are nomadmen's fantasies : but if they be notreal facts, there can no longer be anycertainty in the world : aU phenomenamust be regarded as phaiitasmagoricaland illusory alike. The Future and thePast can have no real existence. ThePresent must be regarded as the onlyreality, and even that a subjective one,with no other substratum than the in-dividual consciousness.

Happily, however, such ultra-scepti-cism as this does not seriously threatento overwhelm humanity. It is only withregard to the experience of others that


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SECOND PRIZE ESSAY. 53we are ever able to feel any high de-gree of doubt. Our own senses in theend are always trusted. Reason, it istrue, should lead us to conclude thatthe confidence in the actuality of thethings we perceive, is ill-founded ifwe do not accord a like confidence tothe perceptions of others. But, prac-tically, this confidence is impeded byimperfect sympathy. Without sympathyit is impossible to reveal our percep-tions to others so that they cannot bedoubted. The proof, therefore, of thefacts of Spiritualism must doubtlessrest on personal experienceand thismay be obtained by any who seek itearnestly.We come now to the questionWhatwill be the effect of Spiritualism upon

Society, viewed merely in its social as-pect? It cannot be doubted that thevery existence of Society depends upon


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54 EFFECT OF SPIRITUALISM.the susceptibility of its members to idealimpressions. While men are governedchiefly by simple primary impidses, andthose more complex motives whichspring from ideal impressions of thePast and Future are in abeyance, nonebut temporary associations are possible.The permanence of Society depends uponthe permanent predominance in a ma-jority of its members of the ideal overthe real, as a motive-power: or allmotives which regard a future, in pre-ference to a present good, are in theirnature ideal. But although Society can-not exist without an ideal basis, thatideal may be, and frequently is, a narrowone. The need of association for mutualprotection against a common enemy, orfor purposes of industry, or commerce,are motives which regard only a proxi-mate future ; and of themselves are notcalculated to produce a highly civihzed


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SECOND PRIZE ESSAY. OOsociety. The strength of a given com-munity is in proportion to the unanimity,or equaUty of culture, of its working ma-jority; but its durability and harmonywill depend on the ^cope and truthfulnessof its ideal. It may well be affirmed,therefore, that an ideal which is limitedto the consideration of our interests inthis life, or at furthest does not lookbeyond those of our immediate descen-dants or their successors, cannot be asufficiently wide one, if the doctrine ofa, future life for us and them can beverified.Undoubtedly the lower ideal of how

to make the best of this life is as yetvery imperfect, and has not been longenough in the world to effect one titheof the good to be expected from it.This may be urged (and is urged by theSecularists) as an argument for ignoringthe consideration of a Hereafter. But


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56 EFFECT OF SPIRITUALISM.it has no weight against Spiritualism asa Science, however it may tell againstspeculative theology. The larger idealdoes not destroy, but includes, the lesser.The perception of a future good doesnot per se prejudice the enjoyment ofthe present, but enhances it. Hence weconclude that the belief in Spiritualismis calculated to benefit Society as such,by adding another and higher motivefor association. At present its influenceis weak; but, maybe, in the course oftime, the lower motives which dependon our physical wants, wiU cease withthose wants to be the predominant ones;and we must then look to somethinghigher to supersede them and form thenecessary cement of Society. Judgingfrom analogy, the power which regardsthe world

"With other, larger eyes than ours"has not ordained that the knowledge of


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SECOND PRIZE ESSAY. 57a longer lease of existence should act asa disintegrant of Society; or cause us-to neglect the present for the future alto-gether.The effect of Spiritualism upon Mo-rality and Religion must depend on thecondition in which it finds them. IfUtility be accepted as the basis of morals,it is obvious that Spirituahsm opens upa wider view of it than that taken bythe disciples of the Benthamite school.If, on the other hand, a correct code ofmorals can only be arrived at by aspecial revelation. Spiritualism is thescience which recognizes, expounds, andharmonises all Revelations. In eithercase it is of paramount importance inits relation to Morals and Religion. Ourcreed includes a belief in both methodsof arriving at knowledge, Revelationand Science. A truth is often appre-hended before it is comprehended. . It


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58 EFFECT OF SPIRITUALISM.is felt by a species of intuition, beforeit is explained and proved by Science.We do not wish to exalt Intuition atthe expense of Science, The one is ourbeacon light, the other our compassand guide through the darkness.As an illu'stration of our meaning, we

may point to the fact, that the truthof the universal brotherhood of man-kind was revealed to the world throughChrist, but neither his disciples northeir descendants really grasped the idea." The light shineth in darkness, and thedarkness comprehended it not." It isreserved for Science and experience toexpound and prove the actuality of thisgrand truth, by inductive processes, be-fore it can be assimilated into the fabricof the human mind. The way in whichit wiU achieve this object is, by discover-ing the nature of the links which con-nect each member of the human family


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SECOND PEIZE ESSAY. 59with all its members. As we advancein ^knowledge the actual community ofinterests of all mankind must becomemore and more apparent : until, if weJiad thoroughly mastered the laws whichgovern Society, we should doubtless per-ceive that no one member of the humanfamily can suffer without a correspondingharm to the whole of his kindred.We have said that Spiritualism recog-nizes Revelation : but it does not recog-nize an infallible Revelation : for tworeasonsthe necessary fallibility of thehuman medium, and the possible fallibi-lity of the Revelator. There are ChristianSpirituaUsts, it is true, who believe inthe Divine character of the Scripturerevelation, as coming from an infalliblesource through infaUibly-inspired chan-nels, but such belief is a part of theirChristianity, and not of their Spiritualism.The science of Spiritualism by itself (and


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60 EFFECT OF SPIRITUALISM.this cannot be too well remembered)proves nothing but the sole doctrine ofa Future Life. Upon all other subjectsthe teachings of the Spirits are variousand often conflicting. We are left tosift the truth from the error in aU cases.It needs but little reflection, we think,to show us that a complete Revelationof God's wiU to man is an impossi-bihty: for it would presuppose thecapacity in man to comprehend it. Andso also the revelation of any highertruths than those we are accustomed to,must be a gradual one ; and it is a naturalsupposition in conformity with all ex-perience of Law, that to be intelligibleto us they should come through themedium of minds only a little in ad-vance of our own.From the foregoing it will be gathered

that we do not look to Spiritualism forany influence upon Morality or EeUgion


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SECOND PRIZE ESSAY. 61from the revelation of any altogethernew and startling truths. We lookrather to the gradual growth, and in-creased vitality, of the belief in a futurelifeto the consequent widening andenlarging of our ideal of happiness,which is undoubtedly the actual basisof all morality. In the present stage ofman's development, there are compara-tively few who are duly influenced bythe thought of a temporal and proximatefuture, sufficiently to induce them (forinstance) to make provision for old ageor possible calamity. With such, theidea of a remoter future can have butlittle effect. But that which influencesthe higher, gradually filters downwardsin the scale of intelligence, and we haveto consider, besides, many causes nowexisting which tend to make the processan accelerating ratethe increased den-sity of the population of the globe, the


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62 EFFECT OF SPIRITUALISM.greater facility of acquiring, recording,and imparting new ideas which is dueto the discoveries of the steam engine,printing, and the electric telegraph.All these things are so many concur-rent influences which must be takeninto account. To sum up^the goodeffect of Spirituahsm upon Morality isall comprised in the additional incentiveit offers us to seek out for ourselves thetrue path. At first, no doubt, manywill be led away by the notion that ad-vanced Spirits can supply us with a newand infalUble code, but bearing in mindthe ascertained law of spirit-communionthat "hke seeks like," that only thoseSpirits in sympathy with us can holddirect intercourse, we cannot reasonablyencourage such a hope. The standardof morality can only advance with ourknowledge of God's laws. The idea ofan infallible code of morals is rather


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SECOND PRIZE ESSAY. QScalculated to hinder than promote^true progress in those who believe it^for it precludes the exercise of charity.Our perception of the best manner ofHving is, and ever will be, far beyondour practicebut our perception can neverattain to the Absolute. Science, notdogma, is the great promoter of moraUty^if rightly understood, for it discovers andexpounds God's laws, and morality isthe art of conforming our lives to them.

Lastly^What will be the influence ofSpiritualism upon Religion ? Religion istoo apt to be regarded as the intellectualbehef of certain dogmas about God'snature and attributes ; or the knowledge-of his designs and intentions towards his

creatures. A true belief is held to bethe only pass-word to salvation ; or worksfounded upon a ti'ue behef But whatif man, an erring and finite creature, isunable to see God's message in humanly


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^4 EFFECT OF SPIRITUALISM.transmitted dogmas ? What if the reportof his intentions seems but a system ofhuman theories, and partial truths 1 Isall rehgion therefore impossible to him ?"We answerNo ! True religion demandsnone of these things. It demands ofevery man that he should worship onlyhis highest idealthat he should seekafter Truth and practise Charity. Theconditions of salvation are nowhere dis-tinctly laid down, for they are imperfectlyknown even in the Spirit-world. LikeChrist's gospel, then, Spiritualism is goodtidings. The tidings are good whetherthey be accepted or rejected ; but werejoice in the beUef that the time willnever come when it wiU exert any butan indirect influence upon Religious creedsor supplant conscience^the true basisof Eeligionby authority, though thatauthority were supported by a host ofAngels.


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anna blackwell spiritism and society

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