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Experimental investigation of the spirit manifestations, [electronic ...

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162 OF MEDIUMSIIIP.The reply was, Not without undergoing a transformation. This would beequivalent to annihilating <strong>the</strong>m first, and recreating <strong>the</strong>m afterward, when<strong>the</strong> process <strong>of</strong> creating alone would be sufficient. But manifestly it is <strong>of</strong>no importance, whe<strong>the</strong>r <strong>the</strong>ir adaptation to <strong>the</strong> <strong>spirit</strong> world be <strong>the</strong> result<strong>of</strong> creation or <strong>of</strong> transformation.822. Concerned in <strong>the</strong> processes <strong>of</strong> mcdiumsliip, it is manifest that<strong>the</strong>re is none <strong>of</strong> that kind <strong>of</strong> electricity or magnetism <strong>of</strong> which <strong>the</strong> lawsand phenomena have been <strong>the</strong> subject <strong>of</strong> Faraday's researches, and whichare treated <strong>of</strong> in books, under <strong>the</strong> heads <strong>of</strong> frictional or mechanical electricity,galvanism, or electro-magnetism.823. Frictional electricity, such as produced usually by <strong>the</strong> friction <strong>of</strong>glass in an electrical machine, or <strong>of</strong> aqueous globules generated by steamescaping from a boiler, is always to be detected by electrometers, or <strong>the</strong>spark given to a conducting body when in communication with <strong>the</strong> earth<strong>the</strong> human knuckle, for instance. When not sufficiently accumulated toproduce <strong>the</strong>se evidences <strong>of</strong> its presence, it must be in a very feeble state<strong>of</strong> excitement. But even in <strong>the</strong> highest accumulation by human means,as in <strong>the</strong> discharge <strong>of</strong> a powerfully charged Lcyden battery, it only acts fora time inconceivably brief, and does not move ponderable masses as <strong>the</strong>yarc moved in <strong>the</strong> instance <strong>of</strong> <strong>spirit</strong>ual manifestation. It is only in transitUjthat frictional electricity displays much power, and <strong>the</strong>n its path is extremelynarrow, and <strong>the</strong> duration <strong>of</strong> its influence inconceivably minute.According to Whcatstone's experiments and calculations, it would go round<strong>the</strong> earth in <strong>the</strong> tenth part <strong>of</strong> a second.824. How infinitely small, <strong>the</strong>n, <strong>the</strong> period required to go from one side<strong>of</strong> a room to ano<strong>the</strong>r ! Besides, <strong>the</strong>re are nei<strong>the</strong>r means <strong>of</strong> generating suchelectricity, nor <strong>of</strong> securing that insulation which must be an indispensableprecursor <strong>of</strong> accumulation.825. Galvanic or voltaic electricity does not act at a distance so as toproduce any recognised effiscts, except in <strong>the</strong> case <strong>of</strong> magnetic metals, orin <strong>the</strong> state <strong>of</strong> transition produced by an electric discharge. In <strong>the</strong>se phenoma<strong>the</strong> potent effiicts are attainable only by means <strong>of</strong> perfect insulatedconductors, as we see in <strong>the</strong> telegraphic apparatus. No reaction with imperfectconducting bodies competent to toss <strong>the</strong>m to and fro, or up anddown, can be accomplished. The decomposing influence, called electrolytic,isonly exhibited at insensible distances, within a filament <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> matteraffected.826. It has appeared to me a great error on <strong>the</strong> part <strong>of</strong> <strong>spirit</strong>s, as wellas mortals, that <strong>the</strong>y should make efibrts to explain <strong>the</strong> phenomena <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong><strong>spirit</strong> world by <strong>the</strong> ponderable or imponderable agents <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> temporalworld. The fact that <strong>the</strong> rays <strong>of</strong> our sun do not aff'cct <strong>the</strong> <strong>spirit</strong> world,and that <strong>the</strong>re is for that region an appropriate luminary whose rays wedo not perceive, (415) must demonstrate that <strong>the</strong> imponderable element towhich <strong>the</strong>y owe <strong>the</strong>ir peculiar light diS'crs from <strong>the</strong> e<strong>the</strong>real fluid which,

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