The Missing Link in Modern Spiritualism

CHAPTER XXXIII.

"THE MISSING LINK" 471

FINALE 475

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

MRS. MARGARET FOX Frontispiece. PAGE JOHN D. FOX 10 DIAGRAM, PROSPECT STREET HOUSE 42 AUTOGRAPH ILLUSTRATIONS OF A BABY'S MEDIUMSHIP 90 MRS. MARGARETTA FOX KANE 122 DIAGRAM, TROUT STREET HOUSE 209 CLEVELAND (OHIO) GOLD MEDAL 225 AUTOGRAPH LETTER OF ALICE CARY 265 AUTOGRAPH LETTER OF SAME 266 AUTOGRAPH LETTER OF JOHN W. EDMONDS 267 AUTOGRAPH LETTER OF HORACE GREELEY 268 DANIEL UNDERHILL 292 MRS. KATIE FOX JENCKEN 465 GREEK WRITING BY A FIVE-MONTH'S-OLD INFANT 470 A. LEAH UNDERHILL (THE AUTHOR) 475 THE HYDESVILLE HOUSE 477

NOTE.--The steel-engraved portraits of the Fox family are from paintings, of dates very different from those referred to on the pages which they face. With the exception of the parents (Mr. and Mrs. Fox), they represent the three "Fox girls" (as they were called) at ages more matured than would correspond to the text of the pages which they accompany. Photography was not so advanced and universal as at the present day.

INTRODUCTION.

It is not that the history of Spiritual Manifestations in this century and country has not again and again been written, nor that a library of the splendid literature of Spiritualism--narrative, philosophical, and religious--does not already exist, that I have deemed it a duty to give this history to the world.

It happens that nobody else possesses--both in vivid personal recollections and in stores of documentary material--the means and the data necessary for the task of giving a correct account of the initiation of the movement known as Modern Spiritualism; and the now hastening lapse of years gives warning that if to place it on record is a duty--as many friends have often urged--it is a duty not to be much longer delayed.

Many mistakes and material omissions have been made in former summary accounts from pens of friends, as well as misstatements from those of foes; nor could any one heretofore form any clear or complete idea of the early years of the epochal period which dates from March 31, 1848.

Since that day, starting from a small country village of Western New York, Spiritualism has made its way--against tremendous obstacles and resistances, but under an impulse and a guidance from higher spheres--round the civilized globe. Starting from three sisters, two of them children, and the eldest a little beyond that age, clustered round a matchless mother (whose revered portrait does honor to my title-page), its ranks of believers, private or publicly avowed, have grown within thirty-six years to millions whose number no man positively knows, but which, I think, cannot be less than as many as it counts of years. Beginning in a small house, temporarily occupied while another was building, it has established itself in sovereign palaces; and the latest reports from England represent it as fast growing, under the encouraging influence of the reigning royal family, even into social fashionableness. As in the story of the weary forty years' wandering of the children of Israel in the desert--fed by food and led by light, both from heaven--so does Spiritualism seem to be now nearing the borders of its Promised Land. It is but a few years since it was a favorite topic for scoff or sneer by the press, while now it is but rarely that here and there is to be found some writer so far lagging behind the march of the age as still to yield, in that way, to the force of former foolish habit. How far and how deeply it has modified the old teachings of the pulpit is patent to all observant eyes; while among the priesthood in the divine temple of Science, the number and unsurpassed rank of those who, under its influence, have abandoned the materialism of their old philosophies, after exhaustive investigation of the facts and truths of Spiritualism, is such as to stamp with the disgrace of simple ignorance those who may still dare to deny and deride;--even as history has fixed the fate of those professors and priests who refused to take a look through Galileo's telescope; or of those doctors who, being past the age of forty, could never, to their dying day, accept Harvey's demonstrations of the circulation of the blood.

It will be seen in the following pages how a vein of that mysterious something which, in our generation of "the Fox family," has come to be called "mediumship," is perceptible, cropping out in old stories, running through ancestral generations, and how it reappears most marvellously in an infant in the next one succeeding to us. It will also appear how long and strenuously we resisted its influence and its manifestations, and struggled against the absolute persecutions which at last forced us into publicity.

I conclude this Introduction by a brief allusion to the reasonable question which has been so often asked, Cui bono?--or what is the use of the manifestations of Spiritualism?

It is that they demonstrate the reality of the survival of man's spirit, or inner self, after that "death" which is but birth into another stage of progressed and progressive life, in unchanged personality and identity; or, in other words, that immortality of the soul (heretofore a mere dogma of unproved and unprovable "faith"), which is the foundation corner-stone of all religions and of all Religion. In the words of Paul, to "faith" they "add knowledge." They thus not only console bereavement, snatch from death its sting, and from the grave its victory, but through the concurrent teachings of all good and advanced spirits they make us feel the real reality of the brotherhood of mankind, and the common fatherhood of that supreme, unnamed, and unnamable Infinitude of Love, Wisdom, and Power, who is addressed in Pope's Universal Prayer, as--

"Father of all, in every age, In every clime adored, By saint, by savage, and by sage, Jehovah, Jove, or Lord."

THE MISSING LINK IN MODERN SPIRITUALISM.

CHAPTER I.. Hydesville.

HYDESVILLE.

"MYSTERIOUS NOISES" HEARD IN THE HOUSE OF JOHN D. FOX, IN HYDESVILLE (TOWN OF ARCADIA), NEAR NEWARK, WAYNE COUNTY, N. Y.--STATEMENTS OF WITNESSES.

The following statements were made by the different persons whose names are signed to them, and taken down in writing as they made them; after which they were carefully read, and signed by them. They comprise but a small number of those who heard these noises, or have been knowing to these transactions; but they are deemed sufficient to satisfy the public mind in regard to their truthfulness.

CERTIFICATE OF MRS. MARGARET FOX, WIFE OF JOHN D. FOX, THE OCCUPANT OF THE HOUSE.

"We moved into this house on December 11, 1847, and have resided here since that date. We formerly lived in the city of Rochester, N. Y. We were first disturbed by these noises about a fortnight ago. It sounded like some one knocking in the east bedroom, on the floor; we could hardly tell where to locate the sounds, as sometimes it sounded as if the furniture was moved, but on examination we found everything in order. The children had become so alarmed that I thought best to have them sleep in the room with us. There were four of us in family, and sometimes five.

"On the night of the first disturbance we all got up, lighted a candle and searched the entire house, the noises continuing during the time, and being heard near the same place. Although not very loud, it produced a jar of the bedsteads and chairs that could be felt when we were in bed. It was a tremulous motion, more than a sudden jar. We could feel the jar when standing on the floor. It continued on this night until we slept. I did not sleep until about twelve o'clock. On March 30th we were disturbed all night. The noises were heard in all parts of the house. My husband stationed himself outside of the door while I stood inside, and the knocks came on the door between us. We heard footsteps in the pantry, and walking down-stairs; we could not rest, and I then concluded that the house must be haunted by some unhappy, restless spirit. I had often heard of such things, but had never witnessed anything of the kind that I could not account for before.

"On Friday night, March 31, 1848, we concluded to go to bed early and not permit ourselves to be disturbed by the noises, but try and get a night's rest. My husband was here on all these occasions, heard the noises, and helped search. It was very early when we went to bed on this night; hardly dark. I had been so broken of my rest I was almost sick. My husband had not gone to bed when we first heard the noise on this evening. I had just lain down. It commenced as usual. I knew it from all other noises I had ever before heard. The children, who slept in the other bed in the room, heard the rapping, and tried to make similar sounds by snapping their fingers.

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