Other cases not a whit less marvellous have been described by the narrators, who could not be reasoned out of…
- Date of account
- Published 1857
- Source
- The Spirit Land
- Reference
- The Spirit Land · selected passage 70
- Rights
- public_domain
- Language
- English
- Record updated
- 2026-08-24
Record summary
Other cases not a whit less marvellous have been described by the narrators, who could not be reasoned out of their absurdity, insisting that there could be no deception in the matter, on account of the means employed, and the evident sincerity of the employés!
Published source text
Read the available text below. Archive transcriptions may contain OCR errors; later context is labelled separately. A recorded claim is not a finding that it happened.
Source passage
Source text · mention onlyOther cases not a whit less marvellous have been described by the narrators, who could not be reasoned out of their absurdity, insisting that there could be no deception in the matter, on account of the means employed, and the evident sincerity of the _employés_! These means, they said, required that the person who looked into the crystal should be perfectly _pure_; that is to say, a child free from sin, and by no means given to lying, and that the form of adjuration used was, "_In nomine Domini_," &c.; Latin being, as is well known, the language which spirits of all denominations are most accustomed to. When interrogated after this fashion, the spirit, if evil, fled away howling; if good, it came, when called, unless particularly engaged _in the sun_; for it appears that it is to that planet almost all spirits go when their term of purgatory is over. It seems that the spirits would sometimes get out of breath, travelling so far, and talking so much; and they then had recourse to the expedient of _letters of fire_, which seemed to be _written_ in various ways in the crystal; sometimes on flags, which the spirits hold up, but sometimes they are in _print_.
Historical context
Contextual commentary · mention onlyThis is a historical account assembled under the reporting and publishing conventions of its period. It may preserve testimony, hearsay, retelling and editorial interpretation together.
Modern context
Contextual commentary · mention onlyA modern comparison can identify recurring descriptions and possible explanations, but the account is not treated as independently verified evidence merely because it appeared in print.
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