PSYCHOMANCY.
SPIRIT-RAPPINGS AND TABLE-TIPPINGS
EXPOSED.
BY
PROF. CHARLES G. PAGE, M. D., Etc.
NEW-YORK:
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY,
200 BROADWAY.
MDCCCLIII.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1853, by
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern
District of New-York.
SPIRIT-RAPPINGS.
The wide-spread and alarming mania of Spirit-rappings andtable-tippings of the present day, is only a modification, ornew garb, of devilish instrumentalities, operating through humanmachinations, which have infested society from time immemorial. Westart with this proposition, harsh as it may sound to some, and if weshould fail to sustain it by facts, reasoning, and common sense, tothe entire satisfaction of all, we still say to the unbelievers in ourdoctrine, show us the proof to the contrary; and with a confidencefirm as our belief in Holy Writ, and the unfailing laws of God,we challenge the exhibition to our senses of any performance withspirit-rappings, or table-tippings, which cannot be explained uponnatural, and well known natural laws. We will here premise, that[Pg 4]we do not attribute to Satan any direct agency in this matter otherthan has always been ascribed to him in the crimes and misdeeds of manfrom the fall down to this present time. That neither the "prince ofthe power of the air," nor his imps (unless they be in human shape),rap out intelligence by sounds, get under tables and tip them over,swing them round, or perform any of these extraordinary feats, whichso many among us are determined to invest with supernatural characterand origin. Nor do we consider that the arch-enemy of man has broughtany new power or agency into operation to further his mischievousdesigns. Far from it. A new power? It would frustratehis schemes in their very inception. A new power? It is a lawfulsubject of pursuit, to the very exhaustion of mental resources. Anew power? Its bare mention is an arousing signal to the devoteesof science, and upon the first scintillation of plausibility, themidnight lamp will burn throughout Christendom, till its capabilitiesand subserviency to man's actual wants are unfolded. No! the tempterknows his game and tools, and perhaps his own limits, all too well[Pg 5] togive to man a new and legitimate object of research, and thus divertinvestigation from hallucinating and mercenary sorceries to that whichis lawful and truthful. He works with his own and old tools, upon andthrough that most successful instrumentality, over which, by long anddire experience, he has acquired such mighty ascendency—the humansoul. This is his pliant tool, and here his stronghold. To those whoregard the Scriptural account of the devil's existence and agency asallegorical, our argument, in its cardinal character and bearing, willapply with the same force, for they have only to invest the mind ofman with all the force and attributes that the allegory gives to bothcombined, and we address ourselves to them with the same interest andhope of suc