fender of its Adherents. In the opening article the editor states the circumstances which have led to the issue of this publication. He says:

The adage, "Fair play's a jewel," is echoed from all quarters: yet, if Spiritists had been allowed fair play, the Glowworm would not have been called into existence. We have been violently assailed, rankly abused, and unwarrantably anathematized by the Pulpit; and by the newspaper press we have been refused the common courtesy of replying in the same columns which published unjust reproaches, false accusations, and flagrant untruths. We shall not, however, return railing for railing, but heartily forgive all who despitefully use and persecute us-knowing that truth must prevail.

In evidence, the editor quotes a long string of slanders and vituperative epithets applied to Spiritualism and Spiritualists by the Australian press, in a sermon by Archdeacon Crawford, and in a paper read before the "Eclectic Association of Melbourne, by Mr. Henry G. Turner, President of the Association; between whom and the editor of the Glowworm more than one pamphlet on Spiritualism seems to have been exchanged.

The Glowworm relates the following little interesting episode, not unlike what has occurred both in England and America :The editor of a local journal having stated therein that he "could produce a retired juggler who could perform, as jugglery, all the so-called spirit-phenomena, or manifestations," Mr. Henry G. Watson took the aforesaid editor at his word, challenging him to make good his assertion. In a letter to the editor of the Melbourne Daily Telegraph, dated 16th December, 1868, Mr. Watson says:

The following is my proposal-£500 shall be paid by me to any one who shall explain satisfactorily to a Committee appointed for the purpose of examining these claims-the manifestations termed spiritual-upon any other than the spiritual hypothesis, within, say the next twelve months from this date; the Committee to consist of not less than six members, one half chosen by yourself, * and one half by myself, and both sides to choose an umpire. The only proviso I demand is, that the party undertaking to make the required explanation be prepared, if it be decided by the Committee that they have failed to do so, to hand over the like sum, £500, to some charitable institution or purposes, in the colony of Victoria, as may be agreed on.

Though more than the stipulated twelve months had elapsed, it would seem that, up to the date of our last advices, neither the "retired juggler" (who seems to prefer keeping in retirement), nor any one else, had put in any claim for the £500.

* The editor of the Melbourne Daily Telegraph had taken a leading part in the controversy against Spiritualism, and had insinuated that Mr. Watson meant his offer to be understood with the proviso that the explanation he challenged should be satisfactory to himself. Hence this renewed offer, and in terms so explicit, that the editor could not affect to misunderstand it Mr. Watson ends his letter, by saying, If you have any suggestions to make that you deem serviceable in forwarding the end in view in the above challenge, I shall be obliged by your making them."

The Glowworm is the second journal issued in the interests of Spiritualism on the Australian continent, of which copies have been sent to us. It thus appears that even at the antipodes these troublesome "manifestations termed spiritual" are making their appearance, and are being met by the Pulpit and the Press-in the usual way. The conservators of old opinions, who want "no no more light from the spirit-world," are even there making the piteous complaint that these spirits who are turning the world upside-down have come thither also.

Notices of Books.

SPIRITUALISM IN AMERICA, FROM 1848 TO 1868.*

WE have long been of opinion that, to a candid enquirer, the best evidence of the truth of Modern Spiritualism would be the simple presentation of its history. From its humble origin in an obscure village, it either burst out spontaneously and almost simultaneously, at various and widely separated points of the great Western Continent, or speedily manifested itself when sought for in ever-varying phenomena; seizing as its mediums, often without and even against their own volition, persons of all conditions and ages, from senators to servant girls-from the old man of seventy to the baby in the cradle; now occurring at the residence of some wealthy citizen, or at a fashionable hotel, or at the humble dwelling of the mechanic; now at the country mansion of a Member of Congress, or at the homestead of a farmer, or in the cabin of the miner; now amidst the roar of the city, and now in the heart of some mountain solitude; skirting the Atlantic-traversing the wide wild prairie-penetrating even to the most remote and sparsely populated districts of the far West; from the first and everywhere challenging investigation—baffling_all attempts at exposure or at explanation on purely mundane principles; planting itself everywhere in the convictions of the people from Maine to California; crossing the seas and repeating in Europe and all the world over the phenomena which first on a broad scale arrested attention on the North American Continent, and which, despite the most obstinate prejudice, determined scepticism and violent opposition of Pulpit and Press, and the

* Modern American Spiritualism. A Twenty Years' Record of the Communion between Earth and the World of Spirits. By EMMA HARDINGE. New York: AMERICAN NEWS COMPANY.

demonstrations of professors, has become the faith, nay, a matter of knowledge resulting from personal investigation and experience, to millions of the most intelligent and highly educated of the earth's inhabitants, including many of the most eminent of the world's teachers in science, art, literature, philosophy, and religion. Here is a phenomenon, not of the "dark ages" but of the nineteenth century, in the blaze of light created by a cheap press, amid the beating of the drum ecclesiastic, and with professors in full blast. We invite attention to it, and ask what satisfactory explanation of it can be given which does not admit the substantial truth of the claims of modern Spiritualism.

The truth is that few, very few in this country especially, have any adequate idea of the extent to which Spiritualism prevails in America, and of the mass of overwhelming evidence in its favour. English Spiritualists, though they have not failed to call attention to this, have naturally, and we think properly, preferred to direct inquirers to the unimpeachable testimony of their fellow-countrymen-some of those men well known and highly respected for their services to literature and science,and to the investigation for themselves of the facts which candid and persevering experimental investigation never fails to elicit. And beyond a brief account by Mr. Capron of its origin and progress to 1854, and some imperfect fragmentary sketches of about the same date, no record save such as is presented in the Spiritualist journals has been attempted.

To present such a record of Modern Spiritualism in America during the eventful first 20 years of its history, as far as this can be done in a single volume, is the task to which Mrs. Hardinge applies herself in the work before us. Such a record is very opportune: to have attempted it earlier would have been premature. It was necessary to allow time for the effervescence of the first excitement consequent on the advent of a movement which stirred the inner deeps of man's nature to subside and be replaced by calm settled conviction; to have delayed it much longer would have been prejudicial. The world often does not realise the value and importance of the first records of the origin and early history of a great movement, like that of Modern Spiritualism, till too late-till such records are lost beyond possibility of recovery. It is therefore fortunate that this record has been given before the generation which witnessed the advent of modern Spiritualism thus passed away, and while the witnesses of the facts related are for the most part still living and can attest their truth.

And what a record it is of the weird and wonderful! How startling a revelation to a materialistic Mammon-worshipping age sceptical of all spiritual possibilities! What a rebuke to the

complacent intellectual pharisaism of scientists who regard the world as empty of all spiritual life, and resolve all the powers of the soul into the agitation of the grey matter of the brain, and immortality into the dream and fable of an unscientific age! What a day of judgment, too, for the churches which not only refuse to inquire concerning spiritual gifts, but which in excluding from their fold those who did so passed the sentence of their own condemnation !* But on the other hand, what a gospel of glad tidings to the honest doubter, to the earnest seeker for truth, to the sorrowing and bereaved, bringing peace and rest to the troubled soul; light, comfort and joy to those who sat in darkness and in the shadow of death!

The author is in some respects specially qualified for preparing such a record. For more than half the period over which it extends she has taken an active and prominent part in the movement. Her missionary labours have carried her into nearly every state of the Union, and brought her into intimate relation with the principal mediums and leading minds and the various sectional and local efforts in connection with Spiritualism throughout the States. She has thus had access to the primary sources of information at first hand, and has collected a mass of valuable information from the local, fleeting and fugitive publications of the time in which the first witnesses of the extraordinary phenomena of Spiritualism bore testimony to what they had seen and heard and felt with all the freshness and vividness of first impressions written at the time and place of their occurrence, and in many instances with every needful attestation which the case admitted or required. Much of this, too, confirmed to the author from the lips of living witnesses, with many facts of a like kind, and many private papers. And to all this must be added her own large stores of personal observation and experience.

*This attitude of the churches of America to Spiritualism and its believers. palliates, if it does not justify, the incessant attacks which these churches have thus drawn upon themselves from Spiritualists in America; and goes far to explain that strange alliance which in America so often prevails between the Spiritualist and the (so-called) infidel; and may help us to understand how it is that the American Spiritualists, often in the same discourse or book, will in one place speak of Christianity in terms which might be employed by a devout Christian, and in another will sneer and scoff at it as though he were an atheist. In the one case it is the expression of the soul's reverence for the inherent truth and excellence of pure Christianity itself; in the other he assails the doctrines, traditions and corrupt practices of the churches. By a loose use of language Christianity is made a synonyme of Churchianity, and this is looked at only from its worst point of view. Anti-theological sentiments are often hurriedly thrust in, though utterly irrelevant, wherever occasion can be made, even though, as sometimes happens in the work before us, it interrupts the narrative and distracts attention; and this apparently for no other purpose than the ineffable satisfaction of having another poke at "Old Theology."

N.S.-V.

P

These qualifications, it must be admitted, are not without some counterbalancing disadvantages, which have to be taken into the account. It were scarcely possible, especially to one of such quick and ardent susceptibilities, to have taken so active and decided a part in the controversies and conflicts of Spiritualism—not only with the Opposition, but which sprung up in its own ranks—without being very considerably influenced by strong personal and party sympathies, and by antipathies no less vehement; and with all her efforts to be impartial both are faithfully reflected in this record. Those whose principles and practices are impugned may not unreasonably aver that it, occasionally at least, displays more the temper of the partisan than the strictly judicial spirit which should animate the historian ;that it is here less a narrative of battles lost and won, than a rallying of forces for another charge upon the enemy; an encyclical to the faithful against the innovation of dangerous heresies which have corrupted the flock, rather than a narrative in which strict and equal justice is scrupulously rendered to all parties and opinions irrespective of the private feelings and sentiments of the writer. Earnestness of conviction and intensity of purpose which give such fire and force to the advocate, when they run in full countertide to the movements of which the historian has to inform his readers, are apt, unless vigilantly guarded, to impair the clear well-rounded vision which sees things from opposite sides, and to disturb the even balance of a well-ordered judgment.

Our author's fervid zeal, combined with an ardent temperament and habits of oratory, imparts to her work a certain loudness of tone and over-richness of colouring. Her pictures have no neutral tints; they are painted either in the most gorgeous or the most sombre hues. She does not seem to realize that strength lies in moderation. She employs a superabundance of adjectives, always in the superlative degree; whilst her statistics must be regarded as rhetorical rather than arithmetical.

Some of the books which the Spiritualist movement in America has called forth, and which seek to explain the spiritmanifestations on purely mundane principles-as Rogers's Philosophy of Mysterious Agents, or which on theological grounds incline to the belief that they proceed wholly from evil spirits, as the Review of the Spiritual Manifestations by the Rev. Charles Beecher, are commented on in terms which seem to indicate that they were known to our author only by way of extract. While as Spiritualists we must dissent from the principal conclusions of these writers, and regard their hypotheses as untenable, it would be ungenerous to deny the ability and fairness with which they are written, or their claims to a more