THE SPIRITUAL HYPOTHESIS.
227
the influence of a magnet/ is quite as firmly asserted by the
Spiritualist as by the Non-spiritualist. Why should Mr. Jackson
imply, and so constantly iterate, the implication to the contrary?
His notion of the intervention of a vague ‘ life-power ’— an
unconscious efflux of the company, accomplishing all the intel¬
ligent voluntary motions imposed upon the table or other pas¬
sive piece of furniture, sometimes according to the desire of
those present, sometimes against their wishes, and in defiance
of their every effort to prevent them — approaches far more
nearly the ‘miraculous’ than the hypothesis he so persistently
attempts to identify therewith.
“ Repeating the sophism already exposed in other relations,
Mr. Jackson says, ‘As we are ignorant of the power of a life-
circle, it is impossible to assign limits to its effects; and until
these are reached, spiritual intervention is a needless accessory.’
Was it the life-fio^ver of the circle, which on one occasion con¬
centrated itself in my presence, seized a slate-penq|l, and wrote
.out a sentence which was certainly not in the mind of any who
were visibly present? Was it the same power which manipu¬
lated the keys of an accordion, and played, with artistic ability
and feeling never surpassed, the tune of 4 Home, Sweet Home/
in opposition to the expressed wishes of several present, who
asked for other tunes? Talk of the miraculous in Spiritualism!
Can any thing be more miraculous or gratuitous than the con¬
ceptions of this votary of science in his endeavors to escape the
only hypothesis which, without straining, naturally and com¬
pletely covers all the facts? To assume that the mesmeric power
of the circle, in any form or degree, is capable of accounting for
such facts, appears to us as gratuitous, not to say ridiculous, as
to apply Faraday’s unconscious muscular hypothesis in explana¬
tion of the movement of physical objects upon which there was
no muscular impact, or upon which the muscular impact was
strenuously exerted the opposite way.”
The remarks of the “London Spiritual Magazine” (May,
1868), in relation to Mr. Jackson’s theory, deserve to be quoted
In this connection. We here subjoin them : —