Mr Spear's Experience.

Mr Spear gave his experience, as evidence in favour of the hypothesis, that the phenomena under consideration was the work of spirits. He gave an historical description of the phenomena in America, from the first rude knockings to the table-tipping, rapping, impersonating, writing, impressional, and other forms of mediumship up to the present time. He could not account for his own experience on any other hypothesis than that of the Spiritualists. At an early stage of the manifestations in his native country, he was asked at a séance if he had a sister in the spirit world. He replied he had page 20 not. He was then informed that a spirit purported to be present who assumed to be his sister, and gave the name of Frances. It proved to be his sister-in-law, who had a few months before passed into the spirit world. Mr Spear said he was perplexed to know how that name could be given. He had not thought of her while at the table, and no one of the company present knew her. Sometime after that Mr Spear was alone, with no medium near him. He was made to write with his own hand, that he must go on a certain day to the town of Abington, situated twenty miles from where he wrote, and see one David "Vining. He did not know of the existence of a personage of that name in that town. He showed the strange message to some of his friends, and was counselled by them to make the journey. He did so, and found Mr Vining very sick: he had been in much agony for ten days and nights, during which time he had not slept. Mr Spear was moved to point his hand toward him, yet did not touch him; and the poor man was so relieved that he soon fell into a sweet sleep, and when he awoke said he had experienced a delightful dream, in which an angel had visited him. By this and similar strange and unexpected experiences, Mr Spear said he saw with much clearness two things: first, Intelligence, that could make him write the name and assist him to find a person of whom he knew nothing; second, Beneficence—he had been sent upon a mission of mercy. These were to him evidences of great weight, whatever others might think of them. Subsequently he had in like manner been sent to a woman who had been struck with lightning, and his presence immediately relieved her. At a further stage he had been in the habit of describing cases of disease, many of them of the most critical and intricate description; and though he was no doctor, yet physicians had repeatedly testified to the scientific accuracy of the descriptions. It was his conviction that it was now rendered quite clear and certain, that a communication of a useful nature is open with the spirit world. He thought there was the highest good to be obtained from these communings. The sick were healed, definite ideas of immortality and the state of the departed were given, and the certainty of a never-ending existence of progression was established, all of which were good uses, removing and ameliorating physical and moral evils, the greatest that afflict mankind. Under the guidance of this mysterious power he had travelled nearly two hundred thousand miles. He came to this country by spirit direction, knowing no one, and without a single letter of introduction. Since his arrival he had done in faith what the spirit world desired. He had made many journeys over England, had been in Paris three times in eighteen months, had opened up a valuable correspondence with Spiritualists and others in England, page 21 Scotland, Ireland, France, Germany, Belgium, Hungary, Russia, and Mexico, as well as in various sections of the United States. Such men as Theodore Parker, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and others, had said this power was all in Mr Spear. To such he replied, then there was more in him than he knew of.

At the present time the power was given him to read the character, describe and prescribe for diseases, or give the physical peculiarities of persons, by a lock of their hair, or by their letters. To do so he held them in his left or receptive hand, sometimes placed them on his tongue, and lastly pressed them to his forehead; and it was usually allowed that the things he was influenced to write or to speak were wonderfully accurate.^* This power Mr Spear attributed to spirits, who were often seen by clairvoyants to be about him when doing these wonders. Mr Spear also stated that he had been assisted to give important dissertations on electricity, magnetism, geology, and kindred themes, of which he knew nothing. He had been sent to a college in New York to give a course of twelve lectures on geology, of which he had no previous knowledge. These were attended by a professor of that science, who, though not a spiritualist, spoke of them in commendatory terms, asserting that while they did not contradict what he was accustomed to teach, they opened up finer and more critical points, some of which he should teach his classes, without stating how he had learned them.^† Others might explain these experiences differently, but to him (Mr Spear) they were spiritual facts, and as such he presented them for the consideration of the Convention.

Mr Morgan insisted on the classification of phenomena, and thought it was not well to ascribe these things to supernatural influences if they could be attributed to natural causes.

Mr Burns explained that all causes were spiritual, and that all conditions were natural. No line could be drawn between the natural and supernatural, which latter term had no existence except page 22 in a certain class of minds. That the spiritual hypothesis was not a fanatical belief to supersede science, but was the very essence of science itself, bringing down to scientific demonstration subjects that had hitherto been considered supernatural and visionary, on account of the ignorance of mankind, but which, by the light Spiritualism had thrown on them, could be satisfactorily and scientifically explained. At a certain stage of human development it was as natural for man to commune with spirits as it was to breathe; and instead of being rebutted as supernatural, it ought to be received gratefully, as extending the field for scientific investigation.

Mrs Spear thought that though it was important to know all that was knowable of material laws, yet there was a spiritual creation, governed by spiritual laws; and although these might be better comprehended, perhaps, through a knowledge of the former, yet they were not a continuation of them, nor could they be found by digging ever so deeply into the mud. She believed we were as much spirits now as we ever should be, though no doubt what was called death would remove many obstacles to the pure manifestation of spirit. Now, the question seemed to be, how much of the power exhibited belonged to the person visible to outer sight, and how much to some invisible person. She had herself been suddenly made strong, physically so, and enabled to carry heavy weights. She knew that this power was not her own by virtue of strong muscle, which growth was always gradual, and believed it to come from invisible persons, yet she could not draw the line where her power stopped and theirs began. She would have persons as careful and wishful to discern spirit power as the so-called forces of nature or material forces.

Mr Richmond, who had formerly lived in a community of spiritualists called "Shakers," in America, read a paper on the "Circles of God," after which the Convention adjourned.