sects had forced themselves into the family gatherings, and the wildest
scenes of rant, cant, and absurdity often ensued. Opinions of the most
astounding nature were hazarded concerning the object of this movement;
some determining that it was a "millennium" and looking for the speedy
reign of a personal Messiah and the equally speedy destruction of the
wicked.

It must not be supposed that the clergy were idle spectators of the
tumultuous wave that was sweeping over the city. On the contrary,
several of them called on Mrs. Fox with offers to "exorcise the
spirits," and when they found their attempts futile, and that though the
spirits would rap in chorus to the "amens" with which they concluded
their incantations, they were otherwise unmoved by these reverend
performances, they generally ended by proclaiming abroad that the family
were "in league with the evil one," or the "authors of a vile
imposture."

Honourable exceptions, however, were found to this cowardly and
unchristian course, and amongst these was the Rev. A. H. Jervis, a
Methodist minister of Rochester, in whose family remarkable
manifestations occurred of the same character as in that of the Foxes,
and whose appreciation of the beauty and worth of the communications he
received, several of his published letters bear witness of. Mr. Lyman
Granger, Rev. Charles Hammond, Deacon Hale, and several other families
of wealth and influence, both in Rochester and the surrounding towns,
also began to experience similar phenomena in their own households,
while the news came from all quarters, extending as far as Cincinnati
and St. Louis, West, and Maine, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and New
York, East, that the mysterious rappings and other phases of what is now
called "medium power" were rapidly spreading from town to town and State
to State, in fulfilment of an assurance made in the very first of the
communications to the Fox family, namely, "that these manifestations
were not to be confined to them, BUT WOULD GO ALL OVER THE WORLD."

The remarkable manner in which this prophecy has been fulfilled the most
casual observer will readily admit; for Spiritualism--even as a
religious power--has far outstripped any other form of religion in the
world in the rapidity of its growth, having reached every civilized
nation and permeated every other form of belief in less than half a
century.

The Fox Sisters were still called the "Rochester Knockers," the "Fox
Girls," the