Emma Hardinge Britten 
Nineteenth Century Miracles, or Spirits and Their Work in Every Country of the Earth 
A Complete Historical Compendium of the Great Movement Known as "Modern Spiritualism"

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. That fraudulent manifestations have been given, and in many instances publicly represented as proceeding from spirits, *none can deny; but the question of how to discern the true from the false, is of the most vital importance, especially to a writer, whose sole aim is to present a worthy record of a sublime truth, yet to free it from all the misrepresentation which would render such a record valueless. The chief obstacles-v which intervene between this purpose and its accomplishment, are the manifestations of partisan spirit, which find their readiest sphere of representation in the columns of the spiritual journals. One set of writers determinately upholds every asserted claim to medium’ ship, however flimsy, and hurls denunciation against every individual who either presumes to question the validity of that claim, or draws attention to the most palpable evidence of imposture. This injurious spirit of credulity, so often mistaken by the world for complicity with the impostor, is met on the other hand by equally violent denunciation of all which the denouncer cannot himself fully apprehend.