Modern Spiritualism, Vol. 2 of 2
A History and a Criticism (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Modern Spiritualism, Vol. 2 of 2: A History and a Criticism<br><br>As we have already seen the mesmeric movement in England ran for many years almost entirely on rationalist lines.1 The Zoist, indeed, remained as the chief organ of the movement up to 1856, and the purely naturalistic views therein advocated found general favour. Rumours of the trance utterances of A. J.Davis and of Cahagnet ssomnambules had, however, reached this country, and at least one English somnambule, Emma, the subject of Dr. Haddock, had seen visions of a future life and of spiritual things not unlike those recorded of Adele Maginot.2 Neither Haddock himself, nor Gregory, who discusses the visions and compares them with those recorded by Cahagnet, 3 is prepared to accept the clairvoyant utterances as authentic revelations; but neither, on the other hand, is willing to dismiss them as unquestionably subjective. That Haddocks own mind was not made up on the subject he frankly confesses; and the mere fact that he thinks it worth while to devote several pages of his book to the account of these ecstatic visions clearly indicates that he set some value on such records. But, at any rate, if some of the English Mesmerists in the early fifties held it an open question whether such clairvoyant utterances had any reference to objective realities, there was as yet no school or sect, as in America and Germany, to adopt without hesitation the spiritualistic interpretation of these and kindred phenomena. It was not, indeed, until 1853 tnat the new doctrine obtained 1 See Book I. chap. viii.2 See Somnolism and Fsycheism, 2 nd edition(1851), pp. 181-8, 232, etc. 3 Letters on Animal Magnetism, 1851, pp. 223-7.<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br><br>This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.