Religious Fanaticism
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Frenchman, quickly lost sight of him, and replaced him by leaders of their own.
The Abolitionists, though friendly with their English compeers, were not influenced by them, and made no use in their propaganda of the practical example of Great Britain ; and indeed they were aware that the triumph of Abolition in the British
Empire, if it had any influence in America at all, was as likely to harden opposition as to win friends.
England was wonderfully unpopular in the United States after the war of 1812 and there was no inclination to follow in her footsteps.
Exactly the same situation arose in regard to Swedenborgianism.
'There were, it is true, a number of New Jerusalem churches preaching the orthodox Swedenborgian faith ; but they were small and unimportant, and very largely confined to the Scandinavian immigrants.
The religion made no stir and attracted no attention at all until an American prophet arose to call it to life.
The prophet was an uneducated cobbler of Poughkeepsie, N.Y., who went by the thoroughly American name of Andrew Jackson Davis.
He abandoned cobbling for the profession of medical clairvoyant which he learnt by a simple method.
' By looking through space directly into Nature's laboratory', he said, 'I easily acquired the common (and even the Greek and Latin) names of the various medicines, and also of many parts of the human structure.'
With this equipment he did pretty well, but at some date before 1847 his views were enlarged by acquaintance with the works of Swedenborg—or more probably
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of some garbled and summarized version of those works —which took a firm hold on his imagination.
The teachings of Swedenborg are difficult and obscure enough in themselves.
His system of cosmogony, his complex theology, and his mysterious doctrine that every natural object is the expression of spiritual facts have caused much confusion, and his doctrine that the union of male and female is the motive of all celestial facts, leading on as it does to the doctrine of counterparts, and the probable imperfection of human marriages, has given rise to much trouble.
Swedenborg's practice of 'internal respiration', whatever it may have been in the Master, has been indistinguishable from epilepsy in some of his followers, and nothing in his creed has been completely intelligible except his rejection of the authority of St. Paul.
Andrew Jackson Davis, however, found no difficulty in absorbing the whole thing ; and though he certainly got it wrong, that did not trouble him at all.
He felt that he was inspired upon his own account, and he began to give vent to prophetic utterances and dark sayings.
'This in itself would have been of little importance.
There were doubtless innumerable humble people uttering strange nonsense in various parts of the United States, and noone was much the worse.
But the Seer of Poughkeepsie was destined for a more exalted fate.
Albert Brisbane, the disappointed Fourierite leader, heard of his existence, and Professor Bush, the leading exponent of real Swedenborgianism went to see him.
Both these men were eager to be convinced ; and
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before long they were engaged in alternate sessions taking down from dictation the inspired sayings of the cobbler.
By this method of joint authorship four immense volumes were produced, which were called ' The Great
Harmonia', and put forth with a flourish of trumpets to astonish the world.
1847 was the right year for this publication.
The special public which had been excited by the previous movements was still in a state of eager uncertainty about the truth ; the cloud of civil war, though it might be seen upon the horizon was not so near as to distract men's minds from their religious preoccupations, and no other rival held the field.
' The Great Harmonia', therefore, had an immense success, and its author was hailed as the greatest writer of America, and the most inspired teacher of all time.
Davis, a little unsettled by so much praise, kept his inspiration moving. He speedily ' outgrew ' his master, and plunged off, unaided, into the realms of Spiritualism, where he finally foundered and sank.
For a while he preached a grand mixture of intuition, free love, astronomical theology, ghostly spheres, familiarity between the living and the dead, the double sex of the Deity, and the divine harmonies of true marriage ; then he added an attack on medicine, a belief in animal magnetism and satanic arts, and finally, dancing, prophesying, and wrapt in his visions, he disappeared from view to pass in the end, into that other world he had so wildly imagined, and to seek there, perhaps, for the ghostly company he had evoked on earth. gO
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The impetus which Spiritualism received from this mountebank prophet by no means passed away with his personal influence.
All over the countryside simple people began to see ghosts, and mediums of every kind made their appearance.
The famous Fox sisters, Kate and Maggie, inaugurated the era of ' rappings' at Rochester in 1850, and although they later confessed that the strange noises which followed them about were produced by the cracking of their own toes inside their own boots, nothing so prosaic could check the movement.
Conjurors, mesmerists and possessors of second sight sprang up on every hand, and the practice of necromancy returned.
The age-old longing of mankind to penetrate the mystery of death set the feet of the people in strange ways, and credulity slipped over the bounds of reason, and opened the gates to madness and imposture of every kind.
Nothing checked the mania, where once it had found a place.
Every kind of ingenious sophistry was invoked to explain away discrepancies and failures, Secret and adverse forces were thought to be at work ; evil spirits were masquerading as divine ; the revelations, in themselves grotesquely absurd, were thought to be scattered portions of messages which the spirits of the dead were prevented from fully revealing.
Mesmerists, and all the tribe of healers, mediums and phrenologists received new encouragement, and magnetic fluids, electric healing machines and magical devices were sold in great numbers.
Automatic writing produced a great crop of literature, and table turning, mysterious touches in the darkness, gi
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angelic visitations, and plain old-fashioned ghosts appeared on every side.
It is interesting to notice that an outbreak of Spiritualism among the Shakers had preceded the Swedenborgian approach by several years.
Between 1837 and 1844, that is to say at the time when the Fourierite Movement was beginning, the Shakers were attacked by a horde of spirits who tried to find expression through their mouths.
These excellent and simple people firmly believed that the spirits were real, and they took the manifestations to which they were subject as the first stirrings of the end of the world, and were convinced that some wonderful
' affatus' would pass out from their own Society and spread over the Universe.
They had, however, enough sense to realize that the strange things the spirits drove them to say and do would be regarded as ' unadulterated foolishness' by the outside world, and in consequence they closed their doors to strangers, and admitted no one to their meetings during all that time.
One of their temporary members, however, has left a record which is so quaint and strange, and in its way so touching, that it deserves to be remembered.
'To enable you to understand these scenes', he writes, 'I must give you as near as I can the ideas the Shakers have of the other world.
Heaven is a Shaker Community ona very large scale.
Everything in it is spiritual.
Jesus Christ is the Head Elder, and Mother Ann the Head Eldress.
The buildings are large and splendid, being all of white marble.
There are large orchards Q2
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with all kinds of fruit .
. but all is spiritual.
Outside of this Heaven the spirits of the departed wander about on the surface of the earth (which is the Shaker Hell) till they are converted to Shakerism.
Spirits are sent out on missionary tours, to preach to the wandering ones until they profess the faith, and then they are admitted.
. On the dancing days .
. the brothers formed a 'rank on the right, the sisters on the left, facing each other about five feet apart.
After all were in their proper places the chief Elder stepped into the centre of the space, and gave an exhortation for about five minutes, concluding with the invitation to them all to " go forth, old men, young men and maidens, and worship
God with all their might in the dance.'
Accordingly they went forth, the men stripping off their coats and remaining in their shirt sleeves.
First they formed a procession and marched around the room at double-quick time, while four brothers and sisters stood in the centre singing for them.
After marching in this manner until they got a little warm they commenced dancing, and continued until they were all pretty well tired.
During the dance the sisters kept on one side and the brothers on the other, and not a word was spoken by any of them.
After they appeared to have had enough of this exercise the Elder gave the signal to stop, when each one took his or her place in an oblong circle formed around the room, and all waited to see if anyone had received a "sift", that is, an inspiration to do something odd.
Then two of the sisters would commence whirling around like a top, with their eyes shut.
. During this whirl
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the members stood round like statues, looking on in solemn silence.
On some occasions, when a sister had stopped her whirling she would say, "I have a communication to make", when the head Eldress would step to her side and receive the communication, and then make known the nature of it to the community.
The first message I heard was as follows :
'* Mother Ann has sent two angels to inform us that a tribe of Indians has been round here two days, and wants the brothers and sisters to take them in.
They are outside the building there, looking in at the windows'"'.
I shall never forget how I looked round, expecting to see the yellow faces when this announcement was made.
It caused no alarm to the rest, but the first Elder exhorted the brothers to "take in the poor spirits and assist them to get salvation".
After this we dispersed to our separate bedrooms, with the hope of having a future entertainment for the Indians.
The next dancing night we again assembled as before, and went through the marching and dancing as usual, after which the hall doors were opened, and the Elder invited the Indians to come in.
The doors were soon shut again, and one of the sisters (the same who had received the original communication) informed us that she saw Indians all around and among the brothers and sisters.
'The Elder then urged upon the members the duty of ''taking them in", whereupon eight or nine sisters became possessed of the spirits of Indian squaws, and about six of the brethren became Indians.
Then ensued a regular pow-wow, with whooping and yelling and strange antics. ... The sisters and brothers
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squatted down on the floor together, Indian fashion, and the Elders and Eldresses endeavoured to keep them asunder, telling the men they must be separated from the squaws, and otherwise instructing them in the rules of Shakerism.
. These performances continued till about ten o'clock ; then the chief Elder requested the Indians to go away, telling them they would find someone waiting to conduct them to the Shakers in the heavenly world.
At this announcement the possessed men and women became themselves again, and all retired to rest.
"At one of the meetings .
. it was revealed to us that Mother Ann was present, and that she had brought a dozen baskets of spiritual fruit for her children ; upon which the Elder invited all to go forth to the baskets in the centre of the floor, and help themselves.
Accordingly they all stepped forth and went through the motions of taking fruit and eating it.
You will wonder if I helped myself to fruit like the rest.
No ; I had not faith enough to see the baskets or the fruit ; and you may think perhaps that I laughed at the scene ; but in truth I was so much affected by the general gravity and the solemn faces I saw around me that it was impossible to laugh.
' Other things as well as fruit were sometimes sent as presents, such as spiritual golden spectacles.
These heavenly ornaments came in the same way as the fruit, and just as much could be seen of them.
. On the second Sunday I spent with the Shakers there was a curious exhibition.
. After dinner all the members
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assembled in the hall and sang two songs.
Then the Elder informed them that it was a " gift for them to march in procession, with their golden instruments playing as they marched, to the holy fountain, and wash away all the stains that they had contracted by sinful thoughts and feelings ; for-Mother Ann was pleased to see her children pure and holy".
I looked for the musical instruments, but as they were spiritual I could not see them.
The procession marched two and two into the yard and round the square, and came to a halt in the centre.
During the march each one made a sound with the mouth, to please him or herself, and at the same time went through the motions of playing on some particular instrument, such as the clarinet, the French horn, trombone, bass-drum, etc. ; and such a noise was made that I felt as if I had got among a band of lunatics.
Most of the brethren then commenced going through the motions of washing face and hands, but finally some of them tumbled themselves in all over ; that is they rolled on the grass, and went through comical and fantastic capers.
'During my whole stay with the Shakers a revival was going on among the spirits in the invisible world
. and much of the members' time was spent in such performances.
It appeared to me that whenever any of the brethren or sisters wanted to have some fun they got possessed of spirits...
. I might occupy great space if I were to go into details of these spiritual performances ; but there was so much similarity in them that I must ask the reader to let the above suffice,'