Читать книгу Experimental Investigation of the Spirit Manifestations - Robert Hare - Страница 7

It is a well-known saying that there is “but one step between the sublime and the ridiculous.” This idea was never verified more fully than in the position I find myself now occupying, accordingly as those by whom that position is viewed may consider the manifestations which have given rise to it in the light wherein they are now viewed by me, or as they were two years ago viewed by myself, and are now seen by the great majority of my estimable contemporaries.

I sincerely believe that I have communicated with the spirits of my parents, sister, brother, and dearest friends, and likewise with the spirits of the illustrious Washington and other worthies of the spirit world; that I am by them commissioned, under their auspices, to teach truth and to expose error. This admitted, I may be reasonably inspired with the sentiment authorized in the preceding credentials, that I hold my office to be greatly preferable to that of any mundane appointment, and for the reasons above given in those credentials. But how vast is the difference between this estimate and that which must ascribe these impressions to hallucination! my position being that of a dupe or fanatic. Yet there can be no man of real integrity and good sense, unimpaired by educational bigotry, who will not respect sincere devotion to the cause of piety, truth, and human welfare, here and hereafter, however displayed. Hence, although the foregoing prefatory pages should have no other influence, they may operate to show my own deep conviction of the righteousness of my course, founded, as I believe it to have been, on the most precise, laborious, experimental inquiry, and built up under the guidance of my sainted father, as well as under the auspices of Washington and other worthy immortals.

Those who shall give a careful perusal to the following work will find that there has been some “method in my madness;” and that, if I am a victim to an intellectual epidemic, my mental constitution did not yield at once to the miasma. But let not the reader too readily “lay the flattering unction to his soul” that ’tis my hallucination that is to be impugned, not his ignorance of facts and his educational errors.

The sanction of the spirits, as above given, was obtained under test conditions; so that it was utterly out of the power of any mortal to pervert the result from being a pure emanation from the spirits whose names are above given.

It ought to be understood that the sanction given by the spirits whose names are attached to the preceding certificate, was obtained under test conditions, as explained in paragraph bb., dd., in the description of Plate iv. Moreover, I placed my hand on the instrument illustrated by Fig. 2 in same plate, so as to question the spirits directly as to the reliability of the affirmation, previously given to me, and the fidelity of the medium generally. In both cases the index moved so as to give an affirmative reply.