Identifier: davenportbrother00bost (find matches)
Title: The Davenport brothers
Year: 1869 (1860s)
Authors:
Subjects: Davenport, Ira Erastus, b. 1839. (from old catalog) Davenport, William Henry, b. 1841. (from old catalog) Spiritualism
Publisher: Boston, W. White and company
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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the room, they accompanied Dickerson,no matter what tune he played. Finally, the voice called for dance-music; and, as soon asit struck up, the sound of human forms leaping from thecabinet to the table, and there cutting it down in regularcotillion style, was heard. The same forms again leapedto the floor, danced all round the room, shook hands withall present, and enacted such a number of antics, that anyperson, not understanding the fact that the grand idea,running like a vein of gold through the bottom of it all,was the establishment of the truth of immortality by purelyhuman testimonies, might have very reasonably challengedthe manifestations on the score of trifling, and utter wantof proper dignity. The fault lies not with the immortals, but in us; for, asis the demand, so is the supply. If we cannot be reachedin one way, we must be, and are, reached in another; andthe wisdom of the eternal world gives the blind race justas much as it can bear, and no more. If we are intellectual
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THE DIGKTTY QUESTION. 233 babes, we must put up with mental pap till our digestivecapacities warrant and demand stronger food; and, if peoplecan best be convinced of immortality by spiritual pranksand antics, the ends resorted to justify the means. Thesight of a spectral arm in an audience of three thousandpersons will appeal to more hearts, make a deeper impres-sion, and convert more people to a belief in their hereafter,in ten minutes, than a whole regiment of preachers, nomatter how eloquent, could in five years. Let a man be talked into a belief in a hereafter, and, tento one, he backslides in forty days, becoming a candidatefor re-conversion just as fast as his mind expands. Butlet him be handled but once by a well-assured ghost, andits effect will cling to him for ever and ever; for any man,once convinced of the truth of spiritualism, may, indeed,recant his philosophy ten times over, but he cannot re-cant his own personal experience; for a genuine spirit-rap,once heard, never ce

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