Letters, and lines written upon scraps of paper, have, it is said, been sent from the other world. The following was dropped from the ceiling of Mrs. Phelps's parlor when she and others were present.
"Sir,--Sir Sambo's compliments, and begs the ladies to accept as a token of his esteem." Other papers have been similarly written upon, and signed "Sam Slick," "The Devil," "Beelzebub," "Lorenzo Dow," &c.
On the 15th of March, 1850, a large turnip was thrown against Dr. Phelps's parlor window, having several characters carved out upon it, somewhat resembling the Chinese characters. A _fac-simile_ of them may be found in Davis's explanation of Modern Mysteries, page 55.
Some may receive such things as emanations from the spirit world; but to us they seem too simple and puerile to be considered as having any thing to do with the higher spheres.
Dr. Phelps, who has been witness to every species of manoeuvre of the alleged spirit rappers, says that he has become fully satisfied that no reliance whatever is to be placed on their communications, either as a source of valuable information, or as a means of acquiring truth. "I am satisfied," says he, "that their communications are _wholly worthless_. They are often contradictory, often prove false, frequently trifling and nonsensical, and more in character with what might be expected of a company of loafers on a spree than from spirits returned from a world of retribution to 'tell the secrets of their prison house.'"
With regard to moving tables, chairs, beds, &c., Mr. Davis says that, "at a circle of friends in Bridgeport, Connecticut, there was a large congregation of spirits, who, from a distance of eighty miles, or thirty above the atmosphere of our earth, directed a mighty column of vital electricity and magnetism, which column or current, penetrating all intermediate substances, and by a process of infiltration, entered the fine particles of matter which composed the table, and raised it, several successive times, three or four feet from the floor!" This we are to receive upon his authority, or upon the testimony of those who may say they saw the table moved. But if the operator can _make things appear_ that _never occurred or existed_, and can _imagine_ a thing, and have that _imagination transferred to others_, then what evidence have we that _spirits_ are concerned in the transaction? Just none at all. A while ago, we heard of an Italian, at the Massachusetts Hospital, who could raise tables from the floor without touching them; and the art of so doing, he said, he learned in Italy. And how are we to account for the Millerites and others being so raised, as they believed? Are they not as much to be credited as those who profess a belief in the miracles of the "harmonial philosophers"? For ourselves, we are satisfied that such things, for the most part, are but a delusion, whether they are alleged to take place among those supposed to be bewitched, the Adventists, or the harmonials.