Text: John Grier Varner, “Chapter 15,” Sarah Helen Whitman, Seeress of Providence, dissertation, 1940, pp. 708-729 (This material is protected by copyright)

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In 1888 Margaret Fox Kane, now a convert to Roman Catholicism and beset with an aching conscience, openly exposed the chicanery of her thrice married, medium sister — Mrs. Leah Fox Fish Brown Underhill — at the Academy of Music in New York. Margaret told how as children back in 1848 they had begun those rappings which were to modernize Spiritualism, in order to mystify a superstitious mother — first by bumping an apple which they held tied to a string, and then later by clever movements of the toes. This confession was considered a “death blow to Spiritualism” by many, and Spiritualists flew to the defense of Mrs. Underhill, asserting that Margaret had been under the influence of alchohol [[alcohol]] and further swayed by lure of money when she made her confession. Margaret's later activities at least gave foundation to accusations; for when she discovered her lecture tour to be a financial failure, she recanted and returned to “rappings” for a living — and incidentally to the bottle for further “spiritual” comfort. The confession of Margaret Fox was too late in the century for Sarah Whitman to come to the defense; yet there can be little doubt but that she would have done so, for until the close of her life she was a staunch defender of the faith; and she never relinquished, her trust in some of the objective manifestations which at that time had been proven to be mere “jugglery”. [page 709:]

But the early seventies presented a slightly different picture among Mrs. Whitman's consorts from that which she had known earlier in the century. Harriet Beecher Stowe was apparently no longer interested in spiritual circles; and her famous brother, if ever interested, was now unwilling to lend his influence because of the impending danger of Victoria Woodhull, at present a leader in liberal phases of Spiritualism: Beecher removed the “alleged table” from Plymouth Church; and Victoria, harboring a dangerous secret, taunted him for removing the table from a church which was soon to play such an important role in the cause of Spiritualism. Judge Edmunds, who next to A. Davis had been the most popular and most influential of American Spiritualists, had long since recanted and denounced the phenomena. The detection of frauds had turned many from the belief, and new forms of the faith had drawn many from the more orthodox forms of Spiritualism.

But what of Mrs. Whitman's more personal friends who had joined with her in the investigation of the subject? Horace Greeley had long since been driven from any further active interest, at least to some extent by the growing alliance of Spiritualism and certain very liberal socialistic theories, Horace Day, having lost and regained a fortune, had now moved to Canada, but not until his over exertion of the mediatorial powers of a Mrs. [page 710:] Elizabeth Sweet (an earthly spokesman for the spirit of the sainted Felicia Hemans) had brought upon him some blame for her death.(1) Mrs. Freeman was gone; and when she had departed, Mrs. Whitman had been directed by occult forces to news of her death.(2) By 1870 William J. Pabodie had met his tragic end, involved in complications with the Spiritualist, Mrs. Olive G. Pettis. Mrs. Whitman had herself been interested in Mrs. Pettis, and in 1870 she begged her to solicit an oracle for her from Mrs. Rockland, another medium.(3)

There now remained Mrs. Moulton, Mrs. Davis, Mrs. Cleveland, and Mrs. Smith. Mrs. Whitman kept up a correspondence with Mrs. Moulton on occult subjects, and she and Mrs. Davis were, actively interested in the continued development of Spiritualism in Providence. But Mrs. Cleveland and Mrs. Smith were no great comfort. It had been some years since she had corresponded with Mrs. Smith; and that lady, never a Spiritualist, in her later years had wavered and almost accepted Roman Catholicism. Mrs. Cleveland did accept the Papacy and therein found a more orthodox destination for departed souls.(4) But in the early seventies Mrs. Cleveland spent some time in London where she met J. H. Ingram, and in this way she kept in touch with Mrs. Whitman. Anna Blackwell, who had been influential in bringing Mrs. Whitman and Poe together, was now a resident in Paris, where her interest in Spiritualism brought her frequently in contact with D. D. Home.(5) [page 711:] But even Home eventually embraced Roman Catholicism, and strangely enough was soon after driven from Rome on charges of sorcery.(1)

Nevertheless, Mrs. Whitman persisted in her faith in modern Spiritualism, and she entered into a defense of the subject in the last years of her life which rivaled in intensity her defense of Edgar Poe. And strangely enough, one of the most convinced of those friends who now corresponded with her upon the subject was that insulting young New Englander who had once accused her so blatantly of being an impostor. George Washington Eveleth had had a conversion; he had changed from the skeptic to the believer, and now rather than suspect fraud he had begun to see traces of spirit influence, particularly that of Poe, in many of the most ordinary circumstances. He had observed a foreboding of spirit revelations in Poe's psychic impressions;(2) he had looked for spirit interference in the writing of Poe's first biography, and he suggested that Sallie Robbins had written at the dictation of the Poe revenant.(3) He flattered Mrs. Whitman on her spiritual powers; and when in the sixties she suffered a long siege of typhoid fever, he begged to know if, when so near the “portal which opens to the other country”, she had seen little Albert Helm, Daniel Webster, or Edgar Poe.

More than once Eveleth begged Mrs. Whitman to return after her death and give evidence of her presence; and he was serious.(2) He was now thoroughly convinced of the powers of the spirits. He even suggested once that the unerring aim of John Wilkes Booth in the tragic assassination of Lincoln was to be attributed to occult forces;(3) and in the midst, of the muck which was accumulating the Spiritualists because of the participation of Victoria Woodhull in their activities, Eveleth found himself defending some of the most liberal precepts of Spiritualism.

So Mrs. Whitman had found among her friends, both literary and otherwise, many who had continued in the faith of Spiritualism; and she herself, staunch in [page 713:] her belief, spent the reminder of her years defending the principles and the phenomena of Spiritualism.

In these last few years of her life Mrs. Whitman was primarily interested in the investigation of Spiritualism which was going on in England, and she offered frequent journalistic comments upon the English research in American newspapers. Sir William Crookes, who had made important investigations in 1870, also made pronouncements concerning alleged phenomena in 1874. Having thoroughly investigated the supposed spirit form of “Katie King”, both Crookes and the scientist, A. R. Wallace, announced papers on their research which would proclaim their faith in this particular phenomenon. Mrs. Whitman, accepting these two men as scientists of some authority, called attention to their proposed announcements and their scientific rank in the Journal for July 6, 1874:

Mrs. Whitman continued concerning Sir William Crookes:

But the persuasive, spirit of “Katie King” which had so deeply influenced Wallace, Crookes, and other men of science in England was unable to cope with the rigors of the American climate, and Wallace's defense lost weight. When in 1876. Mr. W. Irving Bishop, appearing in Chickering Hall, New York, duplicated all of Miss Cook's manifestations and proved her to be guilty of deception.

Among those old friends, to whom Mrs, Whitman had meant so much in the past, who could never stand by her side in the Question of Spiritualism was George William Curtis. When the exposure of mediums became more and more common, Curtis took up the pen, and in 1876 voiced his opinion in the pages of Harper's “Easy Chair”, which he now edited. Curtis had seen the true mischief of Spiritualism, as had Browning, in “the countenance which ‘some sincere and honest persons’ have given to charlatans [page 715:] and tricksters.” He now consoled himself with the thought that Bishop's recent exposures had. put an and to “claptraps” and “cab (nets”. Mrs. Whitman's printed reply to Curtis asserted that her old friend was ignorant of experimental phenomena, and that he had spoken without having given the subject sufficient consideration. Furthermore, Curtis had not himself witnessed the exposures. She therefore spoke of his criticisms with contempt:

Curtis’ skepticism was similar to that of many others of his period. He found the moral and intellectual phenomena of Spiritualism essentially ‘trivial’. He was astonished that anyone could “think such twaddle really comes from heaven”. “But the word ‘heaven’ is his word, not ours”, Mrs. Whitman wrote, reflecting on the [page 716:] fact that life after death was not a Heaven but a period of further progression. Then recalling Goethe, she continued: “Goethe complains that “even the clever Madame de Staëll was greatly scandelized at the levity of his Mephistopheles. ‘What will she say if she sees him in heaven?’ exclaimed Goethe, where, in the second part of Faust, he was intending to introduce him.”(1)

At apparently the same time that Bishop exposed Miss Cook in New York, there were other exposures. Mrs. Whitman was kept informed of these events through her friend Epes Sargent, who found convenient means of defending those Spiritualists who were accused of fraud. But Mrs. Whitman was now more interested in the philosophy of Spiritualism than she was in objective manifestations. Spiritualism had assured imraortality, but there was still some question on the part of many as to what would be the form of immortality. Would immortality consist of a personal identity, or would one merely be absolved into one great living whole? Mrs. Whitman herself was convinced as to the answer to this question; but some of her more intellectual friends had been at variance concerning the point. It was therefore with interest that she awaited the publication of Emerson's essay on immortality in 1876; for, although the great Concord Sage had once spoken of Spiritualism as a “rat-hole philosophy”, she felt that he would certainly offer assurances of a personal identity in the life to come.(2) [page 717:]

But the friends of Spiritmlisin as well as disciples of Emerson were somewhat disappointed in his attempt to answer the great riddle of immortality.

Emerson had been severe on the materialists and, Mrs. Whitman felt, not sufficiently courteous in his reference to them as “bats and oxen”’. On the other hand he had been but little less severe on those who adhered to doctrines of personal identity. In his doctrines of spiritual evolution Emerson now proclaimed that all sane minds rested on the conviction that if it were best that the conscious personal life should continue, then it would continue; otherwise, such a continuance of personality Would be contrary to spiritual evolution. he felt that man left this life only to go on to higher things, and he asserted that Christ had never taught a personal immortality. Such a picture was drawn by Plato and Cicero who had overstepped the stem limits of the spirit to gratify the people. The pestion as to recognition in another world was to Emerson simply a “primary school question.” [page 718:]

There was a time when Mrs. Whitman would have been satisfied with Emerson's indefinite picture; even in his obscurity she had found some significance when she wrote her essay on hin in 1845. But now Mrs. Whitman possessed more definite conceptions of life, and she did not find in Emerson those characteristics which had prompted her to remark to Mrs. Freeman a few years before:

But the “lights” of Emerson were getting further and further apart, and Mrs. Whitman was beginning to revolt at what she felt was a conscious obscurity. This she found particularly in his essay on immortality.

Perhaps Emerson's obscurity was not so “conscious” as Mrs. Whitman had been led to expect. He had been born in the same year as she, but he had not maintained the freshness of mind that had been hers in these later years. Already he was beginning to forget words, and it was to be only a few years before he attended. the funeral of his lifelong friend, Longfellow, and looking upon the face of the dead, remarked: The gentleman was a sweet, beautiful soul, but I have entirely forgotten his name.”(1) Sarah Whitman might have found more justification for the obscurity of her old “god” had she cared to do so.

In writing her article for the Journal on Emerson's view of immortality, Mrs. Whitman mentioned Epes Sargent's “Withering and trenchant” reply to the attack of Tyndall on the subject, and Sargent in turn wrote to her concerning Emerson:

Like Sarah Whitman, Sargent also resented Emerson's denial of Christ's having taught personal immortality.

Failing to find comfort in Emerson's doctrines of immortality, Mrs. Whitman turned to her old friend, Dr. Frederick Hedge, for support of her theories of personal identity; but here again she found only disappointment.

But the Spiritualists felt that they had more solid facts upon which to base their conclusions, and [page 721:] they were not to be deterred by the “enigmatic aphorisms” of Emerson or the theories of the Unitarian Hedge.

Mrs. Whitman was not to be deterred by the “condescending airs” or the “misty logic” of the Concord Sage. She had been his disciple, but she had also seen the paraffin hand. This hand was to her more than a materialization of spirit. It was an evidence of a social companionship in the next world. She could only pity Hedge. What sorrows he must have experienced when those [page 722:] he loved passed into another world never to be again recognized by those whom they had. loved. Emerson was simply aloof; others were bull-headed. She anticipated meeting Eva Oakes Smith, Julia Deane Freeman, Louise Chandler Moulton, and many others in “the vales of Heaven”. They should recognize each other, and what times they would have! The doctrine of personal identity was necessary as a portion of the very foundation of her philosophy of Spiritualism. And as she once told Mrs. Moulton, the years had only authenticated and enlarged in her a confirmed and established faith in Spiritualism. She had had “unmistakable tokens”, and she knew that her “loved ones” in the spirit were ever near her and in sympathy with her in most hopes and aspirations; and she knew that the departed “under favoring conditions” could come back and telegraph their thoughts to the inhabitants of the world.

She was now a little old woman, and already she felt “ankle deep in the asphodels”. But death held no terror for her, for she did not believe in the enigmatic, hopeless eternity of Emerson and Hedge. She believed still in a personal immortality, and a universal salvation. All should be redeemed as they were through the power of faith and love. Anything could be transformed or redeemed through these two magic words. Any redemption could be effected through faith and prayer.

The year 1877 found Mrs. Whitman more and more [page 723:] interested in the scientific investigation of Spiritualism, W. F. Channing, who had once interested her in a work that he was preparing which was to combine the results of modern science — physical and psychical — into a systematic theory and system of social and industrial life, now wrote her of his interest in Wallace.(1) Crookes was experimenting with the galvanometer in connection with Spiritualism, and. the case of Dr. Slade was being discussed at length in the Providence papers. Epes Sargent, having answered Curtis’ Harper's Monthly article, was awaiting a public testimonial from Dr. W. B. Carpenter, the president of the British-Royal Society, who, after opposing any theory of superior intelligence in the phenomena and attributing all to “dominant ideas” and the like, had entirely recanted and was beginning to see a new light. whiles Mrs. Whitman, writing for the Journal, attacked Carpenter and upheld Crookes.

Mrs. Whitman had always been convinced that the manifestations of modern Spiritualism had come at the time that they did in order to combat the rapid progress of physical science which was “threatening to banish the last faint vestiges” of “faith in the spiritual causation and spiritual influence”. Throughout those decades since the advent of the Fox sisters there had been exposures of fraud in Spiritualism, and many scientific explanations had been given fof the phenomena of Spiritualism; but the Spiritualists as a rule clung to their faith in “table rappings”, etc, because although individuals might be proven frauds, they could base the possibilities of their faith on such more or less proven psychical sciences as mesmerism. Nevertheless the latter half of the nineteenth century saw a rapid advance in physical science, and a decline of faith in spiritual causation. Scientists were even eliminating spiritual causation altogether, and finding the sole causation in physical matter. The basis of all life they found in protoplasm; consequently spirit was discarded. The result was a great [page 725:] ebb in “the Sea of Faith”, an ebb which Matthew Arnold had mourned in his “Dover Beach”, and an ebb which Mrs. Whitman lamented in 187’7 in her poem “Science”.

Science

W. F. Channing wrote Mrs. Whitman in 1877 that the scientists were accusing the Spiritualists not of materializing spirit but of spiritualizing matter.(2) And strangely enough while scientists were giving a physical basis to all life, some of the Spiritualists were giving a spiritual basis for all life. Some went so far as to suggest that possibly there was no matter outside of mind or spirit, and matter existed only, in so far as spirit made its existence possible. Already Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy had published her first tracts of Christian Science — [page 726:] tracts which were based largely upon those doctrines which Quimby had learned from Charles Poyen in the same year that Mrs. Whitman had met him in Providence. There was therefore danger to be met in any direction that one took; but, pursuing a middle course, Mrs. Whitman clung to her old belief in and her old worship of the finite and the infinite in one.

The goal of many Spiritualists turned out to be Christian Science. But Mrs. Eddy came too late in the century to have influenced Sarah Whitman. Had Mrs. Eddy's doctrines been publicized earlier, Mrs. Whitman might have at least accepted some of the faith. She was corrinced of those two great doctrines of Christian Science — spiritual healing and universal salvation. On the other hand she could not have agreed with Mrs. Eddy on the question of evil. She had found a negative place for evil in a process of progression. Mrs. Eddy, on the contrary, finding no place for evil, simply denied it, and then spent her life in fear of it. Both ladies proclaimed the power of animal magnetism. But Sarah Whitman had found it essentially good, whereas Mrs. Eddy found it an instrument of evil which she eventually styled M. A. M.

In 1876 the Theosophical Society was organized in New York. Into the Neo-Buddhistic ideas of this faith many Spiritualists had been led in the days and nights of Brahm”, Spiritualists found new horizons, new doctrines in which the cycle of life and death appeared on a much [page 727:] vaster scale. There was a continual death and re-birth which made up the life of man, and life became “a watch or a vision between a sleep and a sleep”. It is possible that had she lived Mrs. Whitman would have found an interest in this faith. Mrs. Moulton, writing her in her later years, begged to know if she believed in the individual immortality which Tennyson taught, or if, like herself, she had more faith in the theory of Swinburne — “We know nothing of life before, whence or whither, life is a dream with a sound sleep at each end.”(1)

But Mrs. Whitman's closing years found her convinced of a personal immortality and resigned to whatever fate awaited.

Writing in her autobiography some years later, Mrs. Elizabeth Oakes Smith left a picture of this woman who had been so firm in her faith in Spiritualism, and whose spiritual influence was so felt by those who surrounded her.