DARWINIAN
SPIRITUALISM.
SIR, MR.
PUNCH,
THE Report
of the Dialectical Society on Spiritualism has been derided by many critics and
others, who either believe, or at least seriously entertain, MR. DARWIN 'S theory of the Descent
of Man. The Darwinists, indeed, generally despise the Spiritualists.
I, who
am both a Spiritualist and a Darwinist, see no reason at all why they should. On
the contrary, I see very much reason why they should not. Darwinism and Spiritualism,
Sir, rightly regarded, illustrate and confirm each other. Darwinists, who hold the
derivation of mankind from the Marine
Ascidian, intermediately through the Anthropoid Apes, argue that if, as
asserted by Spiritualists,
disembodied human spirits exist, disembodied simious spirits should also exist.
There ought to be spirits of apes and monkeys. Well, I say, so there are. The undignified
and absurd nature of some spiritual communications is often alleged as proving their
unreality. These communications proceed from the spirits of deceased apes.
Messages
are often received at "circles" purporting to come from BACON,
FRANKLIN, BYRON, or some other departed personage of genius or intellect, which
they are far from being examples of, being, on the contrary, nonsense or twaddle.
In these cases the spirit of an Orang-outang, Chimpanzee, Gorilla, or some other
description of jackanapes, actuated by the imitative instinct characteristic of
the monkey tribes, personates the poet, philosopher, or man of science, and
mimics his utterances with imperfection corresponding to that which we see exhibited,
in playing the part of humanity, by a performing monkey. The Ape-spirit
imitates human speech, being in a state of Darwinian development, which is as possible
for a monkey in the spheres as in this world. The levitation of MR. HOME and others,
the transference of that gentleman in and out of a drawing-room window seventy feet
from the ground, the transportation of Mediums through the air and the walls or
ceiling of a room, the dancing of tables, the picking of pockets, and all the rest
of the ludicrous incidents common at stances, are the monkeys' tricks of
tricksy spirits, the spirits of monkeys.
Having
said thus much, Sir, shall I be asked to prove it? Not by you. You are up to the
philosophy of the times. Proof, you know, is now an anachronism in science. We are
to accept MR. DARWIN'S theory, provisionally, because it is the best we have to
account for facts. Mine, I am sure, has an equal claim to acceptance. It is the
best out, and it squares with his. The Descent of Man is no reason against his Destiny,
and his Destiny does not disprove his Descent; on the contrary is, as I have asserted,
that is, shown, associated with evidences which prove it. Therefore don't tell me
that I am an ass, and that Darwinism and Spiritualism, respectively, are but opposite
poles of scientific and superstitious credulity. Write me down whatever you
may, I subscribe myself
Yours
truly,
PYTHAGORAS
PUGS.
P.S. Of
course there are also spirits of Marine Ascidians. Why not? Did not BLAKE (till
lately pictor ignotus) once actually
paint from life (spirit-life) the Ghost of a Flea?
