Text: John Grier Varner, “Chapter 11,” Sarah Helen Whitman, Seeress of Providence, dissertation, 1940, pp. 439-511 (This material is protected by copyright)

[page 439:]

“The nose of a mob is its imagination. By this, at any time, it can be quietly led.” Edgar Poe once made this note in his “Marginalia”; and G. W. Eveleth, forwarding this passage to Rufus W. Griswold several years after Poe's death, added:

By 1852 George Washington Eveleth had grown cautious about all reports which had to do with the strange life and activities of Edgar Poe. He had once believed the Valdemar hoax, only to be informed by Poe that it was not true.(2) From then on he had therefore looked with some skepticism upon those fantastic stories told by and about Poe. Consequently, when he read of the weird and mysterious circumstances of the death of Poe in Baltimore, he refused to believe that Poe was really dead. Then when only a short time later he found in the pages of the Tribune letters from Sarah Whitman telling of mysterious raps occurring in her parlor at a time which Eveleth knew to be just after the reported death of Poe, Eveleth was convinced Poe was simply perpetrating another hoax, and this time he was being assisted by Sarah Whitman, Rufus Griswold, and possibly other members [page 440:] of the New York “Literati”. A little upset by what he supposed to be further deliberate efforts to “blind the eye of the public”, Eveleth facetiously requested Rufus Griswold to forward “some interesting facts” to the spirit of Poe through Mrs. Fish; and he suggested to Griswold that since he had “wherewithal to do with spirts”, he should by all means introduce this new system of telegraphy into the approaching World Fair.(2) Unwilling, however, to limit his sarcasm to Griswold, he also forwarded to Sarah Whitman requests that she communicate in his name with Poe; and he completed his taunt with the pen picture of herself and Poe surreptitiously operating a spirit telegraph in order to have another laugh at the expense of the world.(3)

Sarah Whitman was perplexed at this bumptious, impudent, young man who dared suggest that she was an impostor, and she sought information concerning him from her old friend John Neal. Then there ensued correspondence in which Eveleth became even more insulting. Writing Mrs. Whitman in 1854, he suggested that she was engaged with Poe not to him, and he added that he should be happy to receive from her any “above board communications relating to the spirits”. Then suggesting that she was concealing her receipt of some of his letters in order further to mystify him, he taunted: “of course, once more I am forced back upon my original ground — namely, upon the belief that you are at the other end of the wire, assisting Poe to lead the multitude (myself among the number) by the nose.”(4) But Eveleth had mistaken the temper of the woman with whom he was dealing. To her, [page 441:] Spiritualism had become a faith and a religion; therefore, in her investigation of the subject she was serious. Consequently, a few months later Eveleth received word from her that she would find it necessary to return any future letters from him — unopened.(1)

By 1850 Sarah Whitman's philosophy enfolded most of the essential doctrines of Modern Spiritualism, and she hat seized at all of the comforts which this new religion had to offer. But Sarah Whitman's growth in Spiritualism had been gradual, as had been that of the “ism” itself, and she had followed through its various evolutionary processes until she finally emerged with it in a confirmed belief in a personal identity and the power of disembodied spirits to carry on an objective communication with this world. In her study of Emerson she had found in Absolute Identity a type under whose influence science itself seemed to be rapidly outgrowing its purely empirical limits, and she had prophesied that without failing back on the abhorrent theory of the materialists one might yet be able to find that the mind had its physique and nature her psyche. Science, she felt, was surely approximating to a more spiritual apprehension of the material world, and the mystic God-lore of earlier ages was being elucidated by new scientific researches.

Already Sarah Whitman was beginning to see a great significance in the scientific treatment being applied by her age to things spiritual; and in the investigation of some of those “isms” which held her interest in the late thirties and the early forties she was beginning to lay the foundation for her later accepted theories of Modern Spiritualism, for in these ‘”isms” themselves are to be found the very basis of the later faith.

Through Charles Poyen and others Mrs Whitman had found a faith in a “fluidic” theory of the Universe; and in Emerson she had seen the verity of Absolute Identity. But there was something of a nescience which must be remedied before she could accept those doctrines of Persona’ identity, which were necessary for a faith in Modern Spiritualism. This gulf was possibly bridged’ through her acceptance of the theories of Swedenborg as revealed to her through the mesmeric eyes of George Bush and Andrew Jackson Davis, or again perhaps through those fantasies of Edgar Poe which she later came to look upon as an unconscious revelation of the divinity. At any rate it is suite sure that Sarah Whitman recognized in the trance phenomena of Mesmerism signs of a spiritual world and a separate identity before she received news that Margaretta and Catherine Fox had snapped their [page 443:] fingers at a ghost and thus started physical manifestations which were to bridge the gulf between her own and another world.

Modern Spiritualism began with the Fox sisters in 1848 at Hydesdale, New York, and its parentage was humble.(1) But lowly as was its origin, the flame of objective spiritualism took quick fire and rapidly spread. After the beginning of the ‘Rochester Rappings’ as the early activities of the Fox sisters were styled, most of the Mesmerists were absorbed in the movement of Spiritualism, although some still clung to a belief in a “fluidic” theory; and for some years “the question of ‘Fluids versus Spirits’ as an explanation of the marvelous doings at dark séances was hotly debated in American Spiritualist Journals”. But gradually the Spiritualist view began to prevail as the century moved on; the theory of the magnetic fluid suffered euthanasia, and the clairvoyants were left in possession of the field. Scientists still gave a material explanation of the miraculous phenomena of the séance; Spiritualists stood out for a higher intelligence working through a medium. The clergy, unable to agree to a fluidic theory, yet unwilling to accept Spiritualistic interpretations, simply condemned these manifestations as works of demon and devil; laymen often accepted them as jugglery and sleight of hand; and doctors were sometimes prone to lay all to insanity,(2) thinking as Coleridge had done that the credulous merely suffered from a contagious nervous disease, which in the case of the [page 444:] family of John Wesley had affected even the dog.(1)

For all of the attempted explanations of the physical manifestations of Spiritualism Sarah Whitman had an answer; and in spite of the fury of the attack or the logic of the argument she clung to one theory — there was simply a higher intelligence which, working through a mediums produced miraculous revelations.(2) Furthermore, she apparently believed in the Fox sisters, and in all probability was personally acquainted with them. They traveled throughout the country and were several times in Providence, both professionally and as the guests of Paulin Wright Davis, wham they are supposed to have cured of a “paralysis of the motor nerve in a “physico-spiritual” experience which Mrs. Whitman credulously called “strange”.(3) She without doubt had great faith in the Fox sisters, and she placed her confidence in other mediums, some of whom were greater charlatans than the Fox sisters. But Sarah Whitman was the product of a neurotic age which had witnessed the unfolding of some marvelous things, and she saw no reason why greater miracles should not follow. “I am living in the midst of wonders and prophesies, writing and watching for more light”,(4) she wrote Mrs. Freeman; and she pursued this new psychism with zeal. But one should keep in mind that Sarah Whitman's Spiritualism found roots beyond those supposed marvels introduced by the Fox family, and that she had begun to receive psychic demonstrations before she had heard of the remarkable phenomena at Hydesdale. Those reports only served [page 445:] to confirm her belief in previous manifestations which she herself experienced.(1)

It was in the autumn of 1849 that Mrs. Whitman first heard those rapping which she knew to be communications from the dead.(2) Only twenty-four hours before she had received news of the death of a child, little Albert Helm; and as she sat mourning in her room, there came sounds as if boys were throwing “unripe peaches” against her house.(03) For some years she was to hear these mysterious, occult sounds almost daily, both when alone and when in the company of others.

It was not until September, 1850, that a concerted effort was made to obtain manifestations in Providence. At this time Mrs. Whitman, in company with Clement Webster (editor of the Daily Post), the Rev, Mr. Davis, (no doubt A. J. Davis) , Mr. R. M. Capron, E. W. Capron (author of Modern Spiritualism) , Mr. and Mrs. Harris of Providence, and William Fishbough, (a magnetiser and assistant of the famed Andrew Jackson Davis) , gathered at the home of Mr. D. B. Harris. Forming a circle, the company made an [page 446:] effort to get the sounds, or sound demonstrations, of spiritual presence. The attempt was not successful, although one or two of the company thought that they felt the pressure of buds upon them, as was frequently the case with persons who were gathered in a circle when spirits were communicating. But this group was not long to be left disappointed, for a sister of Mr. Webster, on visiting Mr. Laroy Sunderland, a Boston medium, had spelled to her a lengthy communication, which the spirits directed to be published in the Providence Post, at the same time promising that they would make demonstrations to Mr. Webster while he was preparing the article for the press. Mr. Webster was not credulous, but he obeyed the directions in regard to the article, and while engaged in preparing it was rewarded with faint but distinct sounds heard on his writing table. Thus Providence was the recipient of its first public communication from the “land of shadows”.(01)

Mediums were scarce in 1850, for those who might prove fit instruments for spiritual revelation were subject either to the fear of public opinion, which at this stage had more than once reached the point of murderous intent, or to the far greater fear of the actual contact with disembodied souls. It so happened therefore that likely subjects for mediumship this early in the development of the faith had to be coaxed in order to get them to attempt communication. But while the other enthusiasts in Providence were searching for mediums, Mrs. Whitman had not been inactive in her own investigation. In October of 1850 she [page 447:] began to notice that those mysterious sounds which came with her mental suggestion, came more frequently and more promptly in the presence of M., a young girl who for some years had lived with Mrs. Power. M., who no doubt must have suffered a great nervous strain during those years in that nerve-shattered. and idiosyncratic home on Benefit Street, had never out-grown an instinctive dread of the supernatural — a dread which had been with her since childhood. It was therefore with some difficulty that Mrs. Whitman persuaded this maid to sit with her for an hour each evening, “in order that she right observe more critically the effect which the presence of M. might have on the revenants.

Mrs. Whitman's early efforts were not always made in the privacy of her own dimly lit parlor; for she related that while she was seeking communication through M., she also had the opportunity of hearing alleged spiritual responses and even direct communication made through the alphabet at the house of a Mr. W. Experience had taught her to observe manifestations attentively and critically; yet she [page 448:] was not always credulous. Consequently, she relates, when persons presiding at this particular sitting asked if there were spirits present who would communicate with Sarah Whitman, they were answered “none”.

“This was rather mortifying to me”, Mrs. Whitman relates, “as I had been so sincerely desirous to ascertain the truth in this matter. But it would seem that mfg friends were determined to choose their own time.”(1)

In the presence of her own medium Mrs. Whitman seldom asked what was known as “test questions”, and it was some time after her first efforts at telegraphic rapport that she received her first intelligible communication of this nature — this time from a spirit announcing itself as her guardian. The revelation came about in a strange way. On Monday, November 4, 1850, she was relating some of her spiritualistic experiences to a group of curious but incredulous listeners who had gathered casually at the home of an acquaintance.

Only a few days later Mrs. Whitman, being with another circle and in the presence of another medium, received a spiritualistic communication to the effect that a deceased friend was now her guardian spirit, whereupon she asked if this was the same spirit which had communicated with her on the previous Monday, and if so, if she might know the meaning of the Oriental letters. To the first Of these questions the spirit answered in the affirmative; to the latter the answer was “at’ some future time”. Three weeks later as Mrs. Whitman was one evening receiving some responses purporting to be from the friend who had been announced as her guardian spirit, she was intercepted by the entrance of some young visitors who were curious to know with what spirit she was conferring.

To Sarah Whitman these incidents were trivial in themselves; but when she viewed them in connection with other events and circumstances, they were fined with significance. She felt that the communications which she had received purporting to be from the same intelligence had not only been consistent with each other, but that they had often indicated a sequence which was afterward fulfilled, Consequently she believed that they had been devised simply to prepare her rind for the reception of subsequent manifestations, and she looked forward eagerly for- new revelations. When alone with M., whether through a lack of confidence in her ability or through a fear of-shaking her yet wabbly [[wobbly]] faith, she seldom requested or received physical demonstrations. Yet she felt that in her seclusion she daily received proofs that were more powerful and more convincing than any physical manifestations; But those evidences of an invisible power exerted upon material objects which she did witness in. the presence of her friends were “so strange and startling” that she soon declared that henceforth she should not sin le at the most marvelous legend.(1) By 1850 Sarah Whitman had become a definite convert to both objective and subjective Spiritualism.

And not only was Sarah Whitman becoming more and more convinced in her own mind concerning these physical manifestations, but others of her native city, inspired by her faith and encouraged by the fact that there was in the Power home a medium of such talent as that possessed by M., began to gather at the home on Benefit Street for the purpose of satisfying their curiosity concerning psychic phenomena,

Scarce as were mediums in Providence the nervous contagion of Spiritualism was apparently beginning to produce a situation which to the skeptic must have appeared [page 452:] somewhat ludicrous; for one of the facts concerning Providence recorded by Spiritualist historians as that of the unusual number of media in the families of wealthy and influential persons who were sometimes extremely mortified to find themselves the “victims” of ultra-mundane annoyances, fearing not so much the manifestations as the fact that their mediumship might become public. Although the world seems to have been nervously receptive, Spiritualistic mediums seem not to have wished to admit that they had deliberately sought this office. It was an office which God himself had thrust upon them.

Among the prominent Providence families had been visited by spiritual manifestations was that of the Hon. James F. Simmons, a United sates senator from Rhode Island. In. the fall of 1850 the Simmons family had witnessed manifestations which apparently had been sufficiently convincing to remove any timidity about risking them public; consequently, Mr. Simmons gave Sarah Whitman permission to publish the facts concerning his experience, and she related these facts in a letter to Horace Greeley in compliance with his request for material to be used in an article on Modern Spiritualism which he was publishing in Putnam's Monthly.(1) This letter was somewhat influential, not only because of the prominence of the gentleman described, but also because of the high character and fame of the lady whose credulity gave her the needed confidence to support its testimony with the sanction of her name. It was frequently [page 453:] quoted by Spiritualists and referred to with confidence as an evidence of the truth of their faith.

Spirit manifestations had broken out in many places throughout the country, and Mrs. Whitman's interest was now turned to cities other than her native Providence; and many people of importance in other places began to look to Sarah Whitman for a confirmation of their faith in spirit manifestations. Her numerous friends in New York enabled her to keep in tough with the phenomena manifested there, and her own ideas on the subject were soon broadcast through the medium of New York journals.

The advent of spiritual manifestations in the city of New York was in 1850 when the Fox family went there, and, taking rooms at Barnum's Hotel, exhibited their powers to the hundreds of curious who had read and heard much of the wonderful phenomena with which these three sisters were attended. The presence of this family in New York brought on en almost universal denunciation from the press — the whole of the alleged. phenomena was declared a deception, the mediums were styled wicked impostors, and all who believed them to be true were said to be “idiots, lunatics, or knaves”. But among many eminent New Yorkers curiosity was beginning to obtain mastery over bigoted opposition, and many men of prominence, among whom were James Fenimore Cooper, George Bancroft, N. P. Willis, William Cullen Bryant, Mr. Bigelow of the Evening Post, and others, were beginning to give the subject a fair investigation. [page 454:]

The discussion of Spiritualism was therefore now at its height, and no day passed without some comment from the press. Each day some exposé was recorded, and each day some contradiction was made. Among those newspaper men of 1850 who were interested in the subject and who were encouraging investigation were George Ripley and Horace Greeley of the Tribune. Any account of an interview with the Fox sisters at Barnum's Hotel was rarely refused a space in the Tribune. And the editors of the Tribune were far from condemnatory.(1)

But Horace Greeley, though an enthusiastic investigator, was as yet clearly a, skeptic concerning Spiritualism. He once told Mrs. Whitman that he had been one of the first to bring the subject to the public notice, and that for doing this he had been held responsible by his enemies for the good faith of the mediums and the verity of the revelations. Nevertheless, it was not the attacks of his enemies which worried Greeley; it was simply the fear that the spiritual manifestations would prove a juggle and a delusion, and in such a case he would never again be able to defend an unpopular truth without encountering a jeer at the “Rochester Rappings”.(2) Greeley was, however, beginning to experience some confidence in Spiritual Manifestations, and he hoped that the phenomena would withstand the test of time. But he felt that both he and the readers of the Tribune needed more reliable assurances than they had been able to obtain from popular mediums, and for this reason he turned to Sarah Whitman. Here, he argued., was a [page 455:] lady of the highest character who held an honorable rank the poetical writers of the country; any testimony from her would not fail to convince as well as create a sensation. He had vaguely heard of her intense and remarkable power as a Spiritualist, and he now urged that she write to him and relate some of her personal experiences “with reference to the ‘rappings’ or vibrations which have been attributed to the agency of disembodied spirits.”(1) Sarah Whitman was quick to reply. Having possibly received her first light on the subject through the media of the Tribune, she now anticipated the honor of bringing its brilliant and eccentric editor into “the ranks of the faithful”. She told of her first experience with the physical manifestations, and, giving her reasons for credulity, sought to persuade Greeley of psychic interference. The result was that Greeley informed her that her letter was one of the “most lucid and convincing testimonials” he had seen, and he begged that she allow him to print the letter along with her name.(2) Sarah Whitman could not refuse; consequently, on March 26, 1851, her first letter to Greeley was published with his sanction in the pages of the Tribune, and she became a public defender of the “rapping” faith.(3)

Mrs. Whitman's letter went far toward converting the editorial tyro, and he afterward confessed to her that if the rappers were indeed of ultra-mundane origin, her public statement would go further toward proving them so than any other made.(4) Yet Greeley was still skeptical, and he [page 456:] could only hope that his Providence friend was not mistaken. He admitted to her impt could he rely upon all mediums as implicitly as he did upon herself, then he would no longer hold any doubts; but there were still some who cheated, and he was left painfully suspicious that delusion, imagination, clairvoyance, or magnetism might yet upset the whole spiritual fabric.

Horace Greeley's search after the truth of Spiritualism was to some extent inspired by his consort. Mrs. Greeley was “an undigested mixture of all of the isms of the period”, and from the beginning she was obstinate in her faith in Spiritualism. No reports apparently ever caused her to alter her faith; and Greeley once told Mrs. Whitman that when he himself had been utterly broken and cast down in his faith, Mrs. Greeley had remained immovable. Horace Greeley felt that since his wife was such a paragon of superhuman faith, Sarah Whitman should meet her; but it is possible that this meting never took place. Nevertheless, Mrs. Whitman did do Mrs. Greeley the service of procuring for her a medium who could “combine the duties of both nurse and rapper”(3) — a service which Greeley no doubt later regretted having requested; for when his scant faith in Spiritualism had utterly departed, he was forced to endure the sight of what he must have known to be mere juggling being perpetrated by his own child in the name of Spiritualism,

The career of Horace Greeley was therefore never one of certainty. In 1852 he wrote to Mrs. Whitman again, [page 457:] and this time begged her to keep him informed concerning the “strange mental phenomena”;(1) but the following month he told Mrs. Whitman that he was more than ever perplexed concerning the spirits — he could hardly deny their verity, yet they seemed to come such a long way to teach so little; and he added that some were being made insane by them.(2) Perhaps Greeley had been talking again with Rufus Griswold who in this year suggested that on this subject Sarah Whitman was herself a little unbalanced. Or perhaps Greeley had suspected insanity on his own family. Mrs.. Greeley was herself a psychopathic study, and Ida Greeley was to become something of a medium. In 1860 Mrs. Whitman told how through the marvelous mediumship of Greeley's “little daughter” all sorts of any animals — ”guinea pigs, rabbits, squirrels, birds and fishes, enough to fill Noah's Ark” — had been introduced by “invisible hands” into an apartment on the fifth floor of the Everett House.(3) What humbuggery this must have seemed to Greeley who by this time had lost his slight faith in spiritual interference and was ready to attribute all physical manifestations to “electro-psychological” rather than “ultra-mundane” causes.(4) Yet in the early fifties Greeley had been ready to believe, and he had even visited Sarah Whitman with the hope of having his faith renewed through manifestations which she might reveal to him.(5)

There were those who looked upon psychic speculations as something as perilous as had been Salem witchcraft, and as in the case of the “Salem Hangings” they [page 458:] sought legislative aid for the suppression of what to them were “perilous impostors” or the “yet more perilous contagions of morbid minds.” But the “brain center” of jurisprudence had itself been touched by this mental contagion. By 1852 frequent circles for investigation were being held in Washington, and among those interested not the least conspicuous were government officials. Mediums developed rapidly in Washington, and the city became one of the leading centers of spiritual manifestation. In 1854 a petition with 1300 signatures headed by that of Governor-Tallmadge was presented to the senate, asking that a “scientific Commission” be appointed for the investigation of the subject of Spiritualism. But unfortunately for the Spiritualists the gentleman who presented the petition did so by-means of a ludicrous speech in which Spiritualism was treated in its most ridiculous light. After much laughter and banter as to whether the commission should go to the committee on foreign relations or the committee on post-offices and post-roads, much to the credit of U. S. legislators the petition was slimed to lie upon the table. Mr. Tallmadge was furious.(1)

Sarah Whitman had been in close touch with that group of politicians in Washington who were investigating spiritual science. The Hon. Mr. Simmons had represented her native state in the capital city, and her record of his experiences was widely read. Horace Greeley's publication of her “confession of faith” had no doubt brought her to [page 459:] the attention of both the politics’ friends and enemies of Greeley. And now she became a correspondent of Governor Tallmadge, exchanging views and experiences with him. Once in 1853 Tallmadge wrote her from Baltimore, giving an account of so physical manifestations, purporting to come from the spirit of John C. Calhoun, which he had seen in the company of the Fox sisters. At one of their séances the spirit of Calhoun, rapping the letters of the alphabet, had promised to confirm Tallmadge in the truth of the revelations, and this spirit had later kept its promise by revealing to Tallmadge the purpose of spiritual manifestations, a revelation almost identical with a message he had received from the spirit of the great old William Ellery Channing in 1850 back in Bridgeport. The spirit of Calhoun was apparently not content to reveal itself through mere raps, but Tallmadge told Mrs. Whitman of how a heavy table had been moved back and forth and finally suspended in mid air, all at the direction of the Calhoun revenent [[revenant]]. Furthermore, the invisible and ghostly Calhoun had honored the occasion with an ingenius [[ingenious]] rendition of chimes and with strains of prophetic music played by his invisible hand upon a guitar provided for the occasion,. Then when proper materials were supplied, Calhoun had written with his spirit hand the following words:

— and all of this had been convincing not only to Tallmadge but also to General James Hamilton, a former governor of [page 460:] South Caroline; General Waddy Thompson, former minister to Mexico; and General Rate H. Campbell, late Consul to Havana.(1)

The world had gone a little mad on the subject of psychic science; and though mediums were to be found chiefly among the lowest classes of folk, this fact did not always hold true in the case of those who sought revelations. Simmons and Tallmadge had spoken openly and unreservedly in behalf of their faith, and they had been supported among politicians by Judge Edmonds, a U. S. justice of the Supreme Courts and judge of the Court of Appeals, — a man whose opinion carried as much weight for Spiritualism as that of any figure of his day until his faith waned and he retracted statements. But among other of her friends in equally learned but different walks of life, Mrs. Whitman had found credulity. She wrote to S. B. Britten in 1853:

But Sarah Whitman's influence had gone further still; for, skeptical as they were of this new form of occultism, even members of the clergy and their families came to her for information on the subject.

Then somewhat amused at the clergy who she felt had been made hypocritical by conventional habits of society, Mrs. Whitman wrote Mrs. Freeman a few years later:

————————————

In the romantic rôle of a spiritual seeress, Sarah Whitman played a suitable part. Usually on Saturday or Sunday evenings in her parlor on Benefit street, she now frequently startled her circle of friends with news brought apparently from a spirit land. And these meetings must have held about them a sufficient atmosphere of other-world-ness to inspire a bit of fear in those who tremblingly assembled. With lights turned low or covered with a colored cloth, Mrs. Whitman sat, in a close fitting black silk waist, — the customary low neck and ‘short sleeves shoring to advantage her still youthful charts; over her head was throve, a long veil, and always about her neck hung the little black coffin which she wore as a neck-piece. No one can doubt that her friends were at least half persuaded that spirits hovered about that little parlor, faintly scented with ether and guarded over by a portrait of Poe.(2)

Always before her in these meetings was that portrait of Poe, for Poe had become a definite part of Sarah Whitman's Spiritualism. Much of her credulity in occult matters we might attribute simply to an inherited abnormal nervous condition which, coupled with the contagion of the age, made her susceptible to all miner of .fraud; again we night find reason for her acceptance of much of the spiritual phenomena in her almost fanatical pursuit of any “unpopular truth”. But laying aside the fact that she had been interested [page 463:] in occult matters long before Poe came into her life. we must see that it was this strange poet who confirmed in her mind those beliefs which formed the basis of her doctrines of Spiritualism. Then because of the very bizarre character of the life and literary productions of Poe, as well as of his weird prophesies, he, after his death, became to both Sarah Whitman and to many others one of the most likely possibilities for opening a means of communication with the spirit world. If such a process of telepathy were possible, then the disembodied Poe of all people would avail himself of this means of keeping in touch with the world. In consequence of this feeling Poe became to Spiritualists and in particular to Sarah Whitman. one of the most popular of revenants. Those who had ignored the literary works of the living Poe began to look for spiritual truths among his writings after his death; and some of those who possibly would. have shunned the society of the physical Poe now sought eagerly to have intercourse with his spiritual being, The Rev. Mr. Thomas Lake Harris, falling into spiritual trances, began to enlighten the world with the poetry of the disembodied Poe, and to reveal the state of purification and blessedness into which Poe had fallen; other mediums more or less gifted than the Rev. Mr. Harris brought forth similar messages, some of which revealed more graphically the process of purification than they did the purified spirit itself. Meanwhile, Sarah Whitman, eagerly pursuing this new faith, in all probability made the spirit [page 464:] of Poe the focal point of her experiments; and among those who became most closely associated with her in her investigation were members of that group who had felt in one way or the other the influence of Edgar Poe. Many of her friends who had formerly gathered about Poe in the home of Miss Lynch in New York, now frequently met in the home of Mrs. Oakes Smith, who in spite of her unbelief had sufficient occult tendencies to make her welcome the introduction of the subject of Spiritualism at her gatherings. Furthermore, many of those who were interested in Spiritualism, gathered often at the home of Alice and Phoebe Cary down on 20th Street. It was to just such an assembly that Sarah Whitman had been invited when in 1856 she sat with Mrs. Julia Deane Freeman, Thomas Bailey Aldrich, the Stoddards, Rufus Griswold, the Carys and others, among those relics of the past few years in the little parlor of the Carys at “Clovernook”.(1) There were some members of this group who looked upon Sarah Whitman with a feeling approaching reverence, and others felt that they were drat-In to her by an occult force over which they roe no control.

Ladies with Spiritualistic tendencies frequently felt that they were drawn to each other by some such power, and Mrs. Freemen believed that she had been drawn to Mrs; Whitman that evening at the Cary's. Their souls had an affinity, and only “the good angels” could have been responsible for uniting them at this time.(2) Since there was such an affinity, they could indulge in a form of “soul visit”. [page 465:] an absent treatment somewhat similar to that practiced by Quimby and later popularized by Mrs. Eddy. “Ah, Nelah”, Mrs. Freeman once wrote, “how dear you are to me, with your pure still eyes — your fine unearthly tenderness — your protective magnetism — your sweet innocent ‘foxiness’ ”; and she referred to Mrs. Whitman as a “sweet Fox”, no doubt having in mind those famous Spiritual sisters.(1) Later in alluding to Mrs. Whitman's eyes she said:

Mrs. Freeman and Mrs. Whitman found their soul wanderings made easier by the fact that they were both attracted by that same star which Poe had called Mrs. Whitman's attention to in 1848.

And again:

Mrs. Louise Chandler Moulton was also interested in “spiritual astronomy” and was inclined to place faith in fortune tellers who sought knowledge from the stars. She felt drawn to Mrs. Whitman through the star Arcturus; and, having heard that It's. Whitman was a medium, she wrote asking of her powers and begging her for an assurance of a life beyond the grave — an assurance and a proof of individual immortality. This was now a frequent question being asked Mrs. Whitman, and her only answer was the evidence of the proofs which she herself had seen, and her own confidence in this immortality. The physical phenomena which she had witnessed were not always convincing to her friends, but there were few who could not receive some comfort from Mrs. Whitman's own assurance of a better life to coma. As she grew older she expected death daily, experiencing those pains about the heart which to her were inevitable signs that she could not remain long in the flesh. But to her, death held no fear — there was life and adventure beyond the grave. In 1859 J. W. Davidson wrote to her:

Herein was Sarah Whitman's cure for the sorrow-ridden. It was in her own implicit faith and confidence. As was often the case, it was those consumed with sorrow who sought the comforts of Spiritualism; it was often the bereaved who sought the consolation of the Providence seeress. In 1853 Mrs. Horatio Greenough, wife of the famed American sculptor who had died the previous year, having read Mrs. Whitman's articles in the Tribune, begged her to convince her of an independent intelligence revealing life beyond and thus “whisper peace to a stricken heart,” Mrs. Greenough confided in Mrs. Whitman, asking her to find for her proper mediums and suitable circumstances for a séance that would convince her. There therefore ensued same correspondence and several visits between these two ladies — at some of which Mrs. Whitman no doubt held circles in her Benefit Street home. Mrs. Greenough at one time requested that Mrs. Whitman find a medium among the working classes in Providence where she had heard there were successful ones. But perhaps the only comfort Mrs. Greenough received was the comfort of Sarah Whitman's faith, for she seems never to have been convinced of a superior intelligence in the manifestations, and she attributed all to magnetism and other natural causes, though she assured Mrs. Whitman that she meant no reflection on “intelligent” and “cultivated” minds, — and she admitted that she was “still interested”.(2)

Among those literary women whom Mrs. Whitman could never quite convince of the plausibility of her new [page 468:] faith was a friend she had known for some years in the capacity of both author and literary editor. M. Eva Oakes smith had from childhood been conscious of the power of prescience; and during her late life, which was not free from tragedy, she had several times wavered in her faith, at one time lingering on the verge of Roman Catholicism; but she seems never to have been able to agree with Mrs. Whitman on the question of Spiritualism. In telling of Mrs. Whitman as a Spiritualist in her autobiography, Mrs. Smith wrote:

Mrs. Whitman believed that Mrs. Smith showed much candour and good sense about the rapping revemants, but she never felt that this lady did the spirits justice. Mrs. Smith had too much of Emerson's fastidiousness and Margaret Fuller's “conscious aloofness” in the matter. She was simply “bull-headed” ‘about Spiritualism.(2)

It was through Mrs. Oakes Smith that Mrs. Whitman had met Mrs. Freeman, and it was possibly through Mrs. Smith also that Mrs. Whitman first became acquainted with Sarah Gould, a trance medium with whom she was to become perhaps more closely associated then with any other of the faith. A young Quaker girl of highly sensitive nature, Sarah Gould had a way of falling into a state of unconsciousness, regardless of where she happened to be, and uttering trance [page 469:] improvisations which often revealed inmost secrets and veiled histories of such private nature as to be publishable.(1) Sarah Gould claimed that she was drawn to Mrs. Whitman. The faintest glimpse of mss. Whitman's eyes, the simplest of her tones, the slightest touches of her presence — all harmonized. Miss Gould's whole being. She once wrote Mrs. Whitman that there mere two people whose presence was always pleasant and congenial to her sittings — Sarah Whitman and Daniel Webster.(2) And Miss Gould confided in Mrs. Whitman that when she suffered those dull headaches which invariably resulted from her trances, she could visit Mrs. Whitman in the spirit and be mixed by the magnetism of this lady's presence.(3)

Sarah Gould was herself a healing medium,. and her poetic improvisations were referred to as healing poems, for they had the power “to touch the pained bosom of the sufferer”. Spiritualism like some of the other “isms” had come to include a medical psychology which shows a close relation to the various other healing systems of the day. Faith cures, mind cures, Christian Science, and that hypnotic treatment of disease which Mrs. Whitman, had learned from Charles Poyen, and which had furnished the basic principles of Quimby's doctrines — all of these are sciences relative to that practiced by the healing mediums.

Sarah Whitman had studied the healing art in her investigation of the science of Mesmerism, and she had long since realized that she had some power as a healing medium. [page 470:] “I an not a ‘medium’ in any overtly available sense”, she told Mrs, Moulton in 1857, “but I believe I have the power of dispersing pain in common with all who sincerely desire to exercise it”.(1) And she later added, “I hope your headache did not last long. If you were here I could cure it in five minutes by laying my hands on it.”(2) It is not strange that a man who had risked her very soul to bring the comfort of faith to skeptics, should speculate further as to how health might be brought about by metaphysical science, And when some doubt had came into herd as to whether or not she was divinely appointed as a healing medium, she had simply referred to the spirits for her answer. On the evening of her first interview with Sarah Gould she had asked, “Is any spirit near me who knows if I can have the power of healing?” Then speaking through the lips of Mrs. Gould, now in a state of unconsciousness, the spirits had supposedly answered her with a poem which gave her assurance of such power.(3)

The system of healing by the laying on of the hands was widely practiced. Mrs. Eddy later discovered that the touch of the hand had nothing to do with the cure, and denounced such practice in order to spite her old pupil Kernedy, whom she accused of practicing malicious animal magnetism. But in her healing experiences Mrs. Whitman seems to have used the aid of her hands. Elizabeth Akers once told how as a young girl she had admitted to Mrs. Whitman that she had a blinding headache, and Mrs Whitman had attempted a cure. [page 471:]

Through her acquaintance with Sarah Gould Mrs. Whitman came to be more closely associated with Horace Day, a New York business man, whose kindness to and interest in Mrs. Whitman was to mean much to her during the latter part of her life. Day, who served as a member of the board. of trustees for the first regular society for the diffusion of Spiritual knowledge, had become quite interested in Mrs. Whitman because of her position as a Spiritualist; and he had sought her acquaintance through Thomas A. Janckes, a mutual friend in Providence.(2) Mrs. Whitman seems to have won the complete affection of both Mr. Day and his wife; and she was responsible for bringing into their association Sarah Gould, who after the divorce of Mrs. Day became the wife of the Spiritualistic Horace.(3)

Through the courtesy of the Days Mrs. Whitman found herself a frequent traveler, often accompanying then to Washington where she again enjoyed the companionship of her aunt Mrs. Rebecca Tillinghast, who was now living at Georgetown. Mrs. Tillinghast welcomed this renewed association with her niece, and she accepted the Days on the [page 472:] strength of Sarah Whitman's recommendation; but she could not accept this new faith of her niece, and she frequently urged her return to orthodoxy.(1) Once when Mrs. Whitman wrote her aunt of an interview with Emerson, Mrs. Tillinghast replied:

Mrs. Whitman's affection for this ‘beautiful aunt who had once startled Providence when she returned from South Carolina, a widow with a slave, seems to have increased in these later years, and she confided much in her. They frequently exchanged views on the various subjects of the day, and upon the books they were reading; and occasionally they discussed that ever interesting subject [page 473:] of their glamorous Irish-American ancestry. But the one subject upon which they could not agree was that of Spiritualism.

Throughout the year 1857 Mrs. Whitman had been constantly worried about the health of her mother who was now much enfeebled by age. In the early months of the following year Mrs. Power died. But Mrs. Power had known that her days were limited, and in those last months she had begged. Mrs. Whitman to devote her life to the care of [page 474:] her sister Anna;(1) Sarah Herself she had confided to the care of her most benevolent friend — Horace Day.(2)

On March 19, 1858, Mrs. Tillinghast, hoping to comfort her niece, and at the same time to bring her again into the fold of orthodoxy, wrote a letter of condolence and exhortation:

Only five days after the death of Mrs. Power, Horace Day wrote Mrs. Whitman that while he was talking with the spirit of a Miss Landon through the mediumship of Sarah Gould, an “old lady” in the heavenly regions signified her wish to speak with him. This little old lady was of course the ever watchful Mrs. Power, no a departed spirit, but still as solicitous for the welfare of her daughter as she had been during those beetle months of 1848. This time the ‘spiritual’ Mrs. Power inquired concerning Mrs. Whitman's foot, which had been injured in an accident, saying that Helen was not careful enough and must be more quiet.

It was perhaps her faith in this message a spirit-mother which accounts for Mrs. Whitman is acceptance of the generosity of Horace Day as well as her close association with Sara Gould during the next few years. Day had never ceased to thank Sarah Whitman for bringing about his acquaintance with Sarah Gould; and feeling that the influence of Mrs. Whitman on Sarah was a healthful one, he now urged her to spend a portion of her time regularly in New York.(2) On the other hand Horace Day's admiration for Mrs. Whitman was sincere; and when a short time after her mother's death Mrs. Whitman wrote of a premonition of her own death, Day plead with her to remain on earth, saying that she was the most reverenced of all her co-workers, both for her wisdom and her goodness; and assuring her that she must remain yet awhile upon this earth in order to set an example for her literary friends who suffered so much in comparison with her.(3)

Horace Day's spiritual consolations were a great comfort to Sarah Whitman, but hardly less pleasing must have been the blessings of his fortune, which he generously placed at her disposal. Day had been quite successful in “mastering worldly circumstances”, and he felt that Sarah Whitman had been sent to him by God to assist him in spending his wealth for benevolent purposes. Consequently, to her he turned for counsel and aid, and in doing so begged that both she and Anna would take what portion of his wealth [page 477:] they might choose and use it in their work as they might wish, Mrs. Whitman was to choose when, how, and where she would use this money. It can be said of Horace Day, therefore, that as long as his fortune lasted, he carried out his promise to old Mrs. Power to watch over her daughter; and the generosity of this man was to be a source of great pleasure to Mrs, Whitman during these latter years of her life.

So the opening of the year 1858 found Mrs. Whitman in New York as a guest of Horace Day and closely associated with that group which frequented the salon of Mrs. Elizabeth Oakes Smith. The glamor or Poe was gone from the literary meetings, but the spirit of Poe remained; and with both Sarah Whitman and Sarah Gould at hand there was ever present occasion for the discussion of Spiritualism, May of the old group had departed, and the Carys had become estranged from Mrs. Smith; but a revolutionary group, which included Mrs. Smith's sons, now handsome young men who “cut a fine figure and danced well”, kept the gatherings lively. Once in describing the charm of Mrs. Oakes Smith on. one of these occasions, Sarah Gould wrote her Providence friend:

Mrs. Whitman was near-sighted and consequently forced to wear spectacles. It was her custom therefore to carry with her a fan with which she shielded her eyes from [page 478:] the glare of day or of light, possibly because of the pain she experienced when. she was not wearing her spectacles. Rumor has it that she so frequently and so carefully shielded her face with this fan and with her numerous veils that Poe once remarked, in answer to a question as to her physical charm, that he had never seen her face.(1) But she was getting old now, and that little feminine vanity which she had always possessed urged her to conceal defects that might betray age.

It was a part of this little group who frequently gathered at Mrs. Oakes Smith's on Saturday evenings which made up the Seven Travellers to Niagara in 1858, which Mrs. Smith has so delightfully described, Among them were “seers and sages, a learned jurists, at least three poets, and a railroad director”; and included in this number were Mrs, Smith, Horace Day, Sarah Gould, Sarah Whitman and the famous “Belle Britten”, whom they had brought along in book form, and ‘managed to lose on the trip. The members were sufficiently assorted to vary the conversation and interests, but there were enough “seers and sages” to turn the topic frequently to Spiritualism when subjects of a more literary nature grew tiring. Occasionally Sarah Gould fell into a trance, and the mystic Helen went off into dreams or shielded herself behind the ever present fan. Mrs. Smith wrote of Mrs. Whitman's causing no end of confusion as she stepped into the carriage (one small slipper with its large knots visible) and adjusted her one bag, two veils, one [page 479:] scarf, two shawls, a newspaper and a fan. For like the fan., there were always the shawls and veils and scarfs, and a faint odor of ether to add to the mystery of this with the dreamy eyes and soft voice, There is a story that Mrs. Whitman assumed the veils after the death of Poe, and that she was never seen without a veil, not even when her breakfast was served to her in her room.(1) But those who knew Mrs. Whitman have said that she wore her scarfs merely as. a protection against the cold.

The trip to Niagara seems to have been amusing to all, with Helena assuming one of the chief roles of entertainment — either carrying on sharp, gay, repartee with the fudge, quarreling as her audiences hung upon the humor of her words, or clumsily dropping her elastic pillow from the cars and awakening with an amazed stare that threw her companions into convulsions. But when the conversation drifted into Spiritualism, she and Sarah Gould assumed stellar roles.

As the little group passed through Rochester, New York, they recalled the difficulties which the Fox sisters had encountered in this city, and a heated discussion on the subject of “Spiritualism was thus provoked. In this conversation Mrs. Smith gave some of her ideas on the subject of spiritual intelligence, and Sarah Whitman gave her explanation for some of the apparent trivialities which her friends had found. [page 480:]

In attempting an explanation of the sometime trivial manifestations Mrs. Whitman replied:

To Mrs. Oakes Smith, “coming from her ‘Shadow-Land”, many of the current manifestations must of necessity have seemed earthy; but Sarah Whitman felt that were they even as the Rev. Charles Beecher had described them, “powers aerial, under the masterly guidance of some one of fathomless ability and fathomless guile”, she would still welcome them and say with the author of “if so much of for unholy force can arise from below, may not an equal efflux of sacred essence descend one day from above?”(2)

The journey of this gay group to Niagara provided much opportunity for the discussion of Spiritual matters, and Sarah Whit an was of course constantly alert for new evidence of occult influences. There was one incident that occurred during the trip which she alleys ascribed to influences beyond human control. On the evening of August 12, as she gazed out over the foaming river at the [page 482:] falls, Mrs. Whitman's mind wandered back to those days on Fort Hil1 in Boston when as a young bride she was living in the home of Maria Brooks; and recalling her friend John Neal, she quoted to Mrs. Smith two lines of his “Niagara”. It had been twenty-three years since she had last seen John Neal. And now as she quoted these two lines from his famous poem, John Neal stood at an opposite point of the Falls gazing into the same illuminated rapids. The coincidence was unknown to Sarah Whitman at the time; however, when a few days later she learned of its she was convinced that occult powers had been at work.(01)

In spite of her devout faith in all manner of spiritual manifestations Mrs. Whitman did not fail to see the ludicrous in some of the situations. She laughed at the timid and threatened. some with a return of her awn spirit after her decease. Hearing of a mediums Mrs. Bellinger, who had so ht to evoke the shade of the celebrated Jemima Wilkerson, Mrs. Whitrnan was amused and began an attempt to gain communication also with the eccentric Jemima, whose timely resurrection from the dead man years before had made her somewhat locally famous.(2)

In spite of her sense of humor, and perhaps one should add, in spite of her intelligence, Mrs, Whitman maintained a serious faith in divine interference in physical manifestations. And, although she was at times conscious of fraud, she did accept as authentic some of the leading charlatans of her day. She apparently had believed in the Fox sisters, and the Spiritualists as a body had never denied the Rochester evidence which was definitely against them. As late as 1874 she wrote Ingram of a “beautiful luminous hand” which she had once seen in the presence of her cousin, William Power Blodget, and the celebrated medium, Charles Foster. She still preserved and looked “with awe and wonder” upon three initial letters which this hand had written, although she knew that even the Spiritualists themselves had detected and denounced Foster.(02) Foster's co-partner, Colchester, was forced by an American jury to take out a license as a juggler, and roster himself was regarded as a man whose moral character was “hopelessly tainted”.(3) Yet, by 1874 Mrs. Whitman apparently still had some faith in the phenomena which Foster offered, Furthermore, in spite of the many accusations of fraud against him Mrs. Whitman seems never to have lost faith in the most sensational medium of the nineteenth century — Daniel Dungles Home. [page 484:]

D. D. Home was perhaps the most successful and most celebrated medium that the age produced. Non-professional and refusing always to take money, Home successfully performed before practically all European courts and before hundreds of men of note. In America he had early convinced William Cullen Bryant, Prof. Wells of Harvard, and Judge Edmonds of the Supreme Court of the possible good faith of his phenomena; and one of his most renowned seances was at the home of the Days in Hartford in March, 1855, at which time he surprised his circle with mysterious guitar playing, autograph writing, and hand shaking by a hand fastened to no visible body. Mrs. Whitman could not have failed to hear of these marvels through Horace Day. African Spiritualists were convinced of Hones power. In April he went to England.(1)

In England Home met the Brownings. Robert Browning, long a skeptic on the subject of Spiritualism, agreed to a séance with Home in order to satisfy his frail wife who had found it easier to accept Spiritual manifestations as true. The result was a firmer conviction on the part of Browning that Home was perpetrating a fraud, and he later made public his feeling in some lines of sarcasm entitled, Mr. Sludge, the Medium”.(2) “Mr. Sludge” was without doubt Home, but Browning carried his thrusts to Boston and Pennsylvania mediums; and possibly having Sarah Whitman in mind, he spoke of those mediums who sought spiritual communication for the purpose of rushing news of it to “Greeley's newspaper.”(3) [page 485:]

There were few Americans who were unacquainted with the name of Elizabeth Barrett by the year of her death in 1861, and few who did not know of her personal life and Spiritualistic beliefs. These facts Sarah Whitman knew, but it was 1865 before she met the medium who had made such a favorable impression on Elizabeth and such an unfavorable impression on Robert Browning. However, when in this year Mrs. Whitman did meet Home, she was willing to accept him with the same assurance that Elizabeth Barrett Browning had accepted him; and to show her lack of faith in the opinion of Elizabeth's then less famous husband, Mrs. Whitman wrote for the Providence Journal an article on Home in which she cast some aspersions at Robert Browning and his “Sludge, the Medium.”

In the career of D. D. Home Mrs. Whitman found an Arabian Nights story which could be authenticated, and she had long been interested in the facts of his life. A Providence friend having traveled to Europe in the same boat with Home in 1857 had told how they had shunned this “pale and sensitive ‘medium’ ” who was looked upon as a charlatan, only to meet him later in Paris in the company of some of the Emperor's most select friends. It was therefore with a great deal of pleasure that Mrs. Whitman in May, 1865, accepted an invitation to meet Home at a private party in 55th St. New York. She has left few details of the party outside of the fact that Mr. Home showed her an exquisite miniature of his Russian wife, whose “face like that of the Dresden Madonna, lifts you out of the wearisome world of routine and enthralls you like sweet and melancholy music.”(2) But she did record her faith in Home and her unwillingness to be guided by Browning's caustic doggerel.

On May 11, 1865, Whitman wrote to Home from New York:

A portion, of one of Mrs. Whitman's letters to Home has also been quoted by the second Mrs. Home in an. account of the interview in which she mentions the names of some of the “distinguished” guests present on this occasion.

————————

Mr. E. W. Capron, an historian of Spiritualism, records that among the friends of the faith in Providence none exhibited more firmness and more readiness to defend the Spiritual theory of manifestations in both public and private than did Sarah Whitman. And the Spiritualists were particularly pleased because they felt that they had found in this lady a defender who possessed the poetic talent of “soaring into the beautiful regions of fancy, but who was not so governed by fancy that she was not a good judge of plain common sense matters of fact”. They believed that she first fortified herself with facts and then wrote, particularly in her prose, with a vigor, solidity, and strength which was not to be found in other defenders.(2) Sarah had therefore come to be looked upon by the Spiritualists as both an investigator and a defender of much value. In a review of her “Hours of Life” in the [page 489:] Shakinah, a Spiritualist journal, a writer has estimated her character and the esteem with which she was held by the Spiritualists.

From the beg ruing of those first raps in that humble hone at Hydesdale the Spiritualists had felt the condemnation of those who believed the phenomena to be of purely mundane origin, and the opposition to Spiritualism had at times reached the point of violence. Consequently, Sarah Whitman had found in this movement perhaps the most exciting activities that she had ever had the privilege of defending. And had she held no faith whatsoever in the [page 490:] phenomenon itself, she would have been drawn into the fray by her love of adventure and her zeal for intellectual freedom, Seldom had there been such apposition to a freedom of conscience; and as the opposers of Spiritualism might have remarked, never had the conscience suffered such a strain. But Sarah Whitman saw tyranny in the opposition, and her revolutionary spirit was aroused. She would throw aside all authority in favor of free thought, and she held no fear of public contempt. So using the Tribune, the Shekinah and the Spiritual Telegraph as a medium, she continued to publish her views on the subject, and now she made no hesitation about publishing them under her own name. Furthermore, she held no respect for those who feared for any reason to investigate an unpopular truth. In a letter to the Tribune she spoke with some contempt of a writer who, assuming that it was sinful to base argument on anything other than the Bible, had spoken of the dangers of spiritual investigations.

But not the bold Sarah. This was the peril. which she thrived. She continued:

Life beyond the grave was a life of development, of progress, of evolution; life this side of the grave should also be a life of progress and development. With what contempt she held those wb3 wished to leave pro tress in the hands of the few-mho dared not risk the perils of speculation because of the dangers attending: What matter if some were thrown into confusion! All progress was attended by some disaster; should one therefore be content to remain in the dark because of a few possible temporary evils? She continued in her letter to the Tribune:

Mrs. Whitman was bolstered in her confidence by that Calvinistic faith in a divine plan which she had inherited from her fathers. Even these spiritual manifestations, some of which seemed at times trivial and absurd were a part of God's divine purpose, and it would be only a ratter of time before further revelations would reveal this purpose.

The world had progressed tremendously in its stride toward greater truths in the physical sciences. The marvel and mystery of matter had been revealed though accurate and curious researches in this field, whereas those occult psychical energies which composed the mysterious inner life of man bad long lain in obscurity. Consequently [page 493:] the rapid progress of physical science was threatening to the last vestige of man's faith in spiritual causation and spiritual influence, Sarah Whitman felt that it was therefore at this epoch when faith was waning that God had sought to reveal himself through objective spiritual communication.

In her experiences with Modern spiritualism. Mrs. Whitman had witnessed all the forms of manifestations assumed by the supposed phenomena — raps and other sounds occurring without apparent physical cause, movement of furniture, the ringing of bells and playing of musical instruments, quasi human sounds, automatic writing, etc. Once at a sitting when Miss Thorp was the medium, she heard the sound of sawing and planing of boards beneath the table coming as a signal to E. W. Capron from his deceased father. She had seen much that might have been branded trivial and contradictory, and much that had puzzled her; yet she had held a faith that in the midst of these apparently trivial .” and inharmonious particulars, some hamonious result would sooner or later be found. She believed that trivial and absurd as the forma which the spirits chose to reveal themselves [page 494:] might seem, they had simply chosen a form which all, even the dullest and most un-imaginative, could not question. It was chiefly for the benefit of simple unimaginative souls that physical and automatic phenomena had been divinely contrived. Therefore to Sarah Whitman all that she had witnessed of such manifestations was but initial — preparatory to more beautiful, and impressive revelations and more efficient modes of communication.(1)

The general disposition to believe in the marvelous which had been fostered by electric, magnetic, and odylic theories had caused many to believe in the possibility of spirit intercourse; and many others had been led to believe through trance utterances. Again, there were some who, although they could not accept the theory of spirit intervention, had simply accepted the phenomena in a lump. However, there were, on the other hand, many who could not take the phenomena on faith, and they were therefore bent upon finding a rational solution for the mysterious. It was these rationalities whom Sarah Whitman often found herself answering in her defence of Spiritualism. By 1851 two suggestions for the phenomena had been offered. Some stated that they were demoniacal; others said that some person in. the circle simply unconsciously impressed some other person who was equally unconscious of the impression, and that in this state of unconscious subjection to an unconscious will electric forces were projected and sentences transmitted. which “indicated as distinctly a separate and [page 495:] independent agency as any that were ever transmitted through the electric wires of the telegraph”. The timid and the superstitious had simply accepted the idea of a satanic influence, but most of the rationalists were inclined to believe in an unconscious human agency. Some years before, Sarah Whitman in her faith in a fluidic theory would have accepted without reservation the explanation of a human agency; but now her faith in spiritual intelligence was so firm that had she been forced to choose between the two explanations, she would have accepted the demoniacal. Nevertheless she accepted neither explanation, and in her defence of the phenomena of Spiritualism she attempted to answer attacks from both sides.

Writing to the Tribune in 1854, Mrs. Whitman took up the theory of mental suggestion and attempted to show its lack of plausibility as an explanation of the phenomena.(1) She simply could not adhere to the belief that spiritual phenomena resulted from natural causes and came as a result of either mental suggestion or involuntary muscular control. These explanations could not explain for her such phenomena as table rappings and shiftings, the answering of mental questions given in all languages or other forms of clairvoyance.

“What then are we to believe?” she asked. “Where are we to look for the solution of these mysteries which Science persists in ignoring and at which Religion shudders?”(2)

Some had found a solution to the mysterious phenomena [page 496:] in the “abnormal excitement of the nervous principle, an agent intermediate between mind and matter, which may, indeed, be powerful lye wrought upon by minds in the body, but which, since the days of the apostles, has been hermetically sealed to the influence of all disembodied and spiritual intelligences”. These people accepted the wonders of Spiritualism, but still attributed all to natural causes. But Sarah Whitman felt that had such people closely and thoughtfully studied natural science, they would have been introduced into the domain of spiritual and occult forces. Natural and spiritual causes had been joined by Divine intercession.(1)

Many who had accepted the phenomena were now explaining the raps as illustrations of oaylic force, a force which pervaded the human system, the material world, the sun, the moon, the stars — the entire universe. It combined many of the qualities of magnetism and electricity, yet was antagonistic to some of them. To Baron Von Reichenbach, the discoverer at this force, it was “an emanation of such exquisite tenuity that its presence could be detested by no instrument less delicate than the human organism, and that only in persons of exalted nervous sensibility.(2) “To harness this exquisite essence to the gross antics of the kitchen furniture”, writes Frank Podmore, “was surely an illegitimate extension of the theory.”

Reichenbach was himself particularly interested in the phenomena of the electric sounds heard in the presence [page 497:] of Spiritual mediums, believing then to be in some way connected with the manifestations of odic light and odic force. And Sarah Whitman believed that Reichenbach's researches were the commencement of a number of investigations which would sooner or later establish the relations of light to the phenomena of the human mind, the soul, or life principle. But like most Spiritualists, although she doubtless presumed that this newly discovered element of odic light and force did enter into spiritual manifestations, and that it might account for the physical manifestations, she would insist that no one had as yet shown how this force produced them, and it still remained to account for the intelligence in the communications received. That intelligence did not come from the tables or chairs or other material objects. It had to come from mind or from a spiritual source. Telegraphic communications right come by means of an electric fluids but it took a mind to make the communication. So, she would say, in the case of the rapping mediums the communication came from some source of intelligence. It must therefore be inferred that these communications came from a spiritual source.(1)

Reichenbach's idea was not a new idea to Sarah Whitman. As a matter of fact, it was a theory which she had investigated some years previously when she heard George Bush expound it in a series of lectures. A volume of Townshend's Facts in Mesmerism had thrown light on the subject, and she had gained further interesting information in an [page 498:] article she had found in the Dublin University Magazine under the general head of “Miscellanae Mystica.”

Mrs. Whitman told S. B. Brittan that she had long been interested in the idea of an existing spiritual body enshrined within and veiled by the material, and that from the “Miscellenae Mystica” she had learned remarkable physiological and psychical facts concerning the soul's transfiguration — facts which had suggested some of Andrew Jackson Davis’ later works. She also stated that from John Garth Wilkinson she had learned of a nervous spilt, waving and sweeping through the curves of the body, which proved the organization of the body ran imperishable truth which derides the graven. There was a nerve spirit of the human race which was not man, but God in man, “a veritable revelation or word, a genuine influx.’‘ Man was simply in the leading strings of God, pure Nature, and what was greater than himself, to the and of his career. Scientists had also admitted this nervous principle, this agency between mind and matter, which might be excited and wrought upon; but scientists felt that since the days of the apostles this principle had been hermetically sealed to all disembodied. and spiritual intelligence. Only through natural causes did they think that this principle could be excited — only by those Tn s in. the body. And here is where Sarah Whitman would dispute with the scientists. She felt that there was a union between natural science and occult forces which the thoughtful man should discover. The manifestation itself [page 499:] might have back of it some physical explanation; but back of all the natural phenomena, whether physical or spiritual, there was an infinite intelligence — and this intelligence could be the souls of the departed.(1)

But what of those timid persons who felt that the physical aspects of Spiritualism were demoniacal? It was the clergy, perhaps, who were the most prone to ascribe Spiritual phenomena to demonology, a science whose roots might be found in the Scriptures. Mrs. Whitman told Greeley of an Episcopal clergyman who spoke thus to one of his communicants who had unwittingly become a medium:

Mrs. Whitman felt it was a sign of the times when Bronson Alcott, whose theology later furnished Mrs, Eddy with ideas for her healing system, had sent her in 1852-a prospectus for a course of lectures, “the Daemon” — using the word no doubt in the Socratic sense, as a team for spiritual or immortal matures. Furthermore, she recalled Emerson's poem, “The Daemonic and Celestial loves”, in which the Concord sage had applied tie word to spiritual intelligences intermediate between merely human and purely celestial natures.(3) But it was not of the Emersonian daemon. that the clergy spoke. Their demoniac theory called for a more satanic Influence — evil spirits; not “spirits of just men [page 500:] made more perfect”. Religion shuddered at the dangers of this pseudo-science, while science ignored it. But Sarah Whitman saw no such evil in her revenants. Malignant spirits did not hover with messages of love, sustaining with words of lofty cheer, and inciting to faith, patience, and charity — modern revenants were of a character foreign. to that drawn by the clergy.

And she continued:

But supposing forces of evil were behind the mysteries of Spiritualism, Sarah Whitman feared neither demon nor devil. Evil should be fought with good, and not by blindly burying the head ostrich-like in the sand. She continued in her letter to Greeley:

These bold sentiments which Mrs. Whitman, sent to the Tribune, Greeley had voiced once before in his Putnam article. If the ‘Ancient Nicholas’ was at the bottom of Spiritualism, or even if there was some good reason for suspecting him of being there, that fact so far from stopping an investigation should induce and force it — such a fact should not be left a mystery and a marvel simply because ‘Old Nick’ had “had the bantling fathered upon him by those who know very little about the matter, and are stubbornly resolved never to know any more.”(2)

But Sarah Whitman would allow the devil no part [page 502:] in the explanation of her spirit manifestations; and again being unable to ascribe the to natal causes, she would simply look to God for her explanation. Yet always in that struggle between those who sought to explain spiritual phenomena by the fluidic theory, and those who looked for their cause in a higher intelligence, she fought for the latter — not denying old theories of scientific investigation but insisting on a spiritual intelligence behind physical manifestations.

Realizing the clerical attitude toward the phenomena of Spiritualism, Sarah Whitman looked with great amusement upon those members of the clergy who rather tremblingly assembled at her table and listened for messages from the other world. Yet she net surely have been aware that it was not simply the fear of demons that frightened those ministers who attended her circle or which kept others away. It is doubtful if the clergy feared the dangers involved. in a belief in mysterious table rappings and guitar playing nearly so much as they did the unorthodoxy of those doctrines which formed the basis of Spiritualism. For in spite of the fact that Spiritualists claimed that with slight variations theirs were essentially the doctrines of Christianity, the clergy had found a sufficiently liberal interpretation in Spiritualism to cause them to fear for the authority of the Bible as well as for certain established social institutions which were threatened by the doctrines of this new faith. [page 503:]

In her efforts to cast off the shackles of authority Sarah Whitman had assumed a liberalism which had caused her relatives much concern. She had written with contempt of those who feared “to transcend the established sources of knowledge granted us by our Creator — to get out of the path in which he has made us walk”;(1) and she had long since refused to let her faith rest upon any particular authority. One wonders if she ever felt now the presence of the spiritual Anna Bartlett who had sought to confirm in her rind the fact that her authority for all truth was the Bible. How shocked Anna Bartlett might have been could she have seen her cousin joined with a sect, some of whom looked upon the Bible as merely a book for an imbecile and unenlightened race, and now superseded by a spiritual philosophy — the philosophy of a people proclaiming self-love as the throne of God within, and something to be obeyed.(2) Sarah Whitman had not altogether discarded the Bible in her passion for truth, but she no longer looked to this book as the great central light or the only light which God’ ever did or ever would suffer to shine upon his children. In believing exclusively in Biblical revelations, she felt that one forgot “that light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world”. He forgot “that influence of the Spirit which shall yet be ‘poured out on all nations’,” and assumed that all knowledge of the spiritual world, of God, and the preparation which one needed for a future existence must be gained, if gained at all, from sources outside oneself, [page 504:] from the supernatural revelations of the Bible. But Mrs. Whitman could not limit personal knowledge to any such material source; and believing as she did that “the world is good in a state of becoming”, neither could she limit the powers of nature and of the human soul to any fixed or arbitrary standard.(01)

When Mrs. Tillinghast had urged that her niece reject the “dangerous trifling of the Spiritualists” and return to her original faith in salvation through Christ, she had not spoken therefore altogether of trivial physical manifestations; but she had bad in itt-ndi. some of those doctrines which were uhderm-in.ing.7g.r.s. Whitman's Christian faith. The truth of the matter is that like 71nr7 others who had accepted Spiritualism, Sarah 7ThitmAr had apparently first found a faith in those doctrines of the more rational ‘Chi-versalists. And the transition from Universalism to Spirit-rs1 is” bad been easy. Apparently discarding any Calvinistic conceptions of the necessity of a faith in Christ for salvation, she had seized upon the heresy of Origen and ac- . cep tea -the theory that alz men eventually would be saved.

The doctrine of Universal salvation had In turn paved the way for en unorthodox yet easier explanation of sin and evil. But Sarah Whitman had found a satisfactory expinnation for these elements years before in her study of Emerson — an explanation lunch incidentally paralleled those doctrines of the later Spiritualists. evil was simply something that was necessary for the sours progress, and [page 505:] both good and evil were equally a part of God's scheme. Judas was just as necessary as St. John the Divine in the holy plan, and imperfection must come before perfection. Unlike Mrs. Eddy who later denied the existence of evil and then allowed it to haunt her for the remainder of her life, Sarah Whitrnan and the Spiritualists had simply admitted evil as a necessary element for progress, but as an element to be worked off in the process of purification, And without doubt, Sarah Whitrnan could have admitted with the Spiritualists that even Lucifer himself could do no harm unless he did so by the will of God, for he was a part and portion of God, played a part in God's economy; even Lucifer would some day come up in creation purified by God's love, a love which would never be perfected while one creature writhed in human misery.(01)

Along with her orthodox faith Sarah Whitman had years ago discarded all allegiance to authority, and she had developed a hatred. for convention which became perhaps the most intense passion of her life. It was easy therefore for her to adjust her code of ethics to that of the Modern Spiritualists, and in doing so she risked condemnation and for years Mrs. Whitman had opposed those creeds [page 506:] which made the highest morality consist in the strength of a parts power or will to conform, his life to an ideal of duty. She felt that reason and conscience had the power to impose the right, and regardless of how bad the reason or how bad the conscience, the result was all a part and a portion of the Divine scheme. This subservience to an idea of duty, and these conventional habits of society merely served to make hypocrites of men, arch as a result they could not worship truth as the best of knowledge.(1) In her passion for freedom Sarah Whitman would draw no limits — she was intent upon destroying the shackles of convention.

But the doctrines of the Spiritualists then viewed too much in the abstract were sometimes threatening to the very vital principles of society and religion. Such a liberal conception of sin and salvation coupled with certain spiritual conceptions of affinity, delivered the faithful from moral responsibility and resulted in conditions which brought about a severe condemnation of the sect as a thole. It was an easy step from. Spiritualism to “free love”, and under the cloak of Spiritualism were concealing that amounted to promiscuous comcubinage. The accusation that the Spiritualists as a body had accepted “free love” is based on a misconception; but that maw of the Spiritualist leaders were practicing free love, and others were warning against a confusion of a permanent “union founded on love” with so-called “free love” cannot be denied. The close alliance of the Spiritualists as a body [page 507:] with the many socialisms of the day, all of which in their extreme form generally included a reform of the institution of marriage, brought upon them the accusation of having preached and advocated sensual license. They had criticised the institution of marriage, and then to these purely mundane criticisms A. J. Davis, T. L. Harris, and others added the doctrine of spiritual counterparts — a doctrine which gave excuse for license,(1) and a doctrine which interestingly enough Sarah Whitman to sone extent apparently accepted.

The doctrine of affinity was an old doctrine to Sarah Whitman. Perhaps she had first read of it in “Zophiel”, and it had become a reality to her back in 1828 in Maria Brooks’ house on Fort Hill. Even after the death of John Winslow Whitman she had apparently awaited the re-union with her spiritual counterpart. Then Poe had come seeking to impress upon her the fact that he filled this role — and she never ceased to believe him. She told Mrs. Moulton her ideas of affinity, and Mrs. Moulton wrote of “that beautiful faith of the Spiritualists”, that belief that for each soul there was a mate, and that regardless of how stained the soul might become, when all thoughts and all weaknesses were known in that purer world, still one would be loved by someone whom he could entirely love in return. And Mrs. Moulton added that her fondest hope was that this affined soul would in her case be her own husband.(2)

This doctrine of affinity which had made it so [page 508:] easy for Spiritualists to absolve conjugal relations, “to abandon the bed of their partners and seek new beds for the sake of rendering social and affectional relations more harmonic”, had increased the number of divorces. Among Sarah Whitman's friends were those who risked social condemnation to practice conjugal theories of Spiritualism. In 1859 Horace Day, after coming to an amicable agreement with his own wife, gave her over to another man who had renounced his own marriage that he might marry the former Mrs. Day. Then Horace married his trance medium, Sarah Gould. Mrs. Tillinghast was too surprised to condemn, and, admitting her ignorance of the whys and wherefores, simply gave way to wonder. She had ascribed to Day a kind and generous nature, and a practical philanthropy on a noble scale; and she felt that his bride still had excellent mental powers. But she simply would withhold her opinion as to the right and wrong.(1) Others were not so lenient in their opinions, and the Days were snubbed by several of the ladies, including Mrs. Eva Oakes Smith — but then Mrs. Smith was not a Spiritualist. Sarah Whitman arose to the defense.

Later in writing to Mrs. Freeman concerning the marriage of Mrs. Letitia McLean, Mrs. Whitman added:

It was a dark picture which Presented itself to the orthodox Providence District Minister's Association [page 510:] when in the early sixties they appointed the Rev. Mr. M'Donald, to prepare a report on the history of Spiritualism. They saw a sect of people who had discarded the Bible, blasphemed God, turned against Christ, called upon Lucifer, and torn down vital social structure.

And at what conclusion did the Providence District Minister's Association arrive? Demonology! Spiritualism was at least a part the work of demons — demons as Paul had described them in I Tim. IV, 1:

And continuing, Mr. M'Donald added:

The Rev. Mr. M'Donald's report was read on several occasions and published in book form in 1866.

The stand which Sarah Whitman was taking in defense of Spiritualism was not that of a timid woman. It must have demanded all of her courage. And prominent as she was in Providence as a Spiritualist, she would without doubt have come under the condemnation of the Providence Ministerial Association, although she remained for years a [page 511:] member of the Unitarian Congregation of the great transcendentalist, Frederick Hedge.(1) So she did have cause for amusement when an occasional minister slipped into her circle, and listened tremblingly for the messages of departed souls. She could herself never have practiced some of those activities of the extremists which grew out of the very doctrines that she preached, but she would not have shunned the presence of those who did so as long as they acted according to the dictates of their own conscience. Her creed called for an affinity of souls, a forgiveness of sin or an ignoring of it, and a close adherence to the impulses of her own reason and conscience in natters of convention. She could but have been aware of the dangers which accompanied the destruction. of the nation's social structure; but could never master her passion. for freedom, and she scorned those timid conservatives who feared to break the bonds of convention for the sake of truth. All resolutions bad dangers — all great truths, martyrs.