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without its appropriate organ, we are bound to consider all such testimony false. But we are told that one invisible Spirit may operate upon the Spirit of another living being, and make use of his bodily organs as means of communication; and this we are informed is the modus operandi of Spiritual manifestations. Precisely in the same way the ancient oracles pretended to operate. The man in the temple was the medium, and the invisible Spirits were supposed to manifest themselves through him. Their Spirits however did not always make use of human beings as media, sometimes birds, sometimes insects, and sometimes a bull calf brought the intelligence; and sometimes the will of their deities was made known by the casting of lots. A review of history proves conclusively that the Spiritualism of the nineteenth century is essentially the very same thing that existed in the dark ages long before the christian era. Indeed it has always existed in some form, and under some name, and the strong love of the marvellous which is a component part of our intellectual being, seems to have made provision for its everlasting perpetuity. This mental proclivity is often unhappily increased by morbid impressions and erroneous teachings in early life. From our cradles upwards we have been entertained by nurses, Grandmothers and great Grandmothers, with histories of witches, Ghosts and apparitions of a thousand forms. Tradition has brought an army of these beings from the remotest ages, and will carry them down to coming generations, though it is to be hoped with less, and less power. By such means the dark delusions of ages far back on the page of history cast their lurid shadows upon the present generation.
