213. The séance was held with the medium, Eglinton, in Calcutta, India, Jan. 25, 1882. He says: -- "It is needless to say that I went as a skeptic but I must own that I have come away utterly unable to explain by any natural means the phenomena that I witnessed on Tuesday evening." He then describes the particulars of the séance. An intelligence, purporting to be the spirit of one Geary, gave a communication. Mr. Kellar did not recognize the name nor recall the man. The message was repeated, with the added circumstances of the time and particulars of a previous meeting, when Mr. Kellar recalled the events, and, much to his surprise, the whole matter came clearly to his recollection. He then adds: -- "I still remain a skeptic as regards Spiritualism, but I repeat my inability to explain or account for what must have been an intelligent force which produced the writing on the slate, which, if my senses are to be relied on, was in no way the result of trickery or sleight-of-hand." Page 14 Another instance from "Home Circle," p. 25, is that of Mr. Bellachini, also a professional conjuror, of Berlin, Germany. His interview was with the celebrated medium, Mr. Slade. From his testimony we quote the following:
-- "I have not, in the smallest degree, found anything to be produced by prestidigitative manifestations or mechanical apparatus; and any explanation of the experiments which took place under the circumstances and conditions then obtaining, by any reference to prestidigitation, is absolutely impossible I declare, moreover, the published opinions of -laymen as to the "How" of this subject, to be premature, and according to my views and experience, false and one-sided."-- Dated, Berlin, Dec. 6, 1877. When professional conjurors bear such testimony as this, while it does not prove Spiritualism to be what it claims to be, it does disprove the humbug theory.
In addition to this, it appears that two propositions, one of $2000, and the other of $5000, have been offered to the one who claimed to be able to duplicate all the manifestations of Spiritualism, to duplicate two well-authenticated tests; but the challenge has never been accepted, nor the reward claimed. See Religio-Philosophical Journal, of Jan.
15, 1881, and January, 1883.
A writer in the Spiritual Clarion, in an article on "The Millennium of Spiritualism," bears the following testimony in regard to the power and strength of the movement: -- "This revelation has been with a power, a might, that if divested of its almost universal benevolence, had been a terror Page 15 to the very soul; the hair of the very bravest had stood on end, and his chilled blood had crept back upon his heart, at the sights and sounds of its inexplicable phenomena. It comes with foretokening and warning. It has been, from the very first, its own best prophet, and step by step, it has foretold the progress it would make. It comes, too, most triumphant. No faith before it ever took such a victorious stand in its very infancy. It has swept like a hurricane of fire through the land, compelling faith from the baffled scoffer, and the most determined doubter." Dr. W. F. Barrett, Professor of Experimental Physics in the Royal College of Dublin, says: -- "It is well known to those who have made the phenomena of Spiritualism the subject of prolonged and careful inquiry, in the spirit of exact and unimpassioned scientific research, that beneath a repellent mass of imposture and delusion there remain certain inexplicable and startling facts which science can neither explain away nor deny."-- "Automatic, or Spirit, Writing," p. 11 (1896). In the Arena of November, 1892, p. 688, Mr.
M. J. Savage, the noted Unitarian minister of Boston, says: -- "Next comes what are ordinarily classed together as 'mediumistic phenomena.' The most important of these are psychometry, 'vision' of 'spirit'
forms, claimed communications by means of rappings, table movements, automatic writing, independent writing, trance speaking, etc. With them also ought to be noted what are generally called physical phenomena, though in most cases, since they are intelligibly directed, the use of the word 'physical,'
without this qualification, might be misleading. These physical phenomena include such facts as the movement of material objects by other than the ordinary muscular force, the making objects heavier or lighter when tested by the scales, the playing on musical instruments by some invisible power, etc. . . Now all of these referred to (with the exception of independent writing, and materialization) I know to be Page 16 genuine. I do not at all mean by this that I know that the 'spiritualistic' interpretation of them is the true one. I mean only that they are genuine phenomena; that they have occurred; that they are not tricks or the result of fraud." In the Forum of December, 1889, p. 455, the same writer describes his experience at the house of a friend with whom he had been acquainted eight or ten years. When about to depart, he thought he would try an experiment.
