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Periodical: The Spiritual Times

Summary:   From Pat Deveney's database:

Spiritual Times, The.
Devoted to the Facts, Philosophy, and Practical Uses of Modern Spiritualism / A Weekly Organ for the Promotion of Spiritual and Progressive Topics / A Register of Passing Spiritual Phenomena, and a Miscellany of Spiritual Literature.
Other titles: Spiritual Times and Weekly News
1864--1866? Weekly
Eastbourne, then London, England. Publisher: Robert Cooper; F. Farrah. Editor: J.H. [James Henry] Powell; W.H. Harrison.

1/1, March 5, 1864-October 1866, 118 issues (though the journal may have been continued thereafter). One-half penny and then 2d a week, 10s yearly post-free, 4-8 pp. The first five numbers appeared as the Spiritual Times and Weekly News, with the first page devoted to spiritualism and the rest to items of general interest. After five issues, with the issue of Saturday, April 9, 1864, marked "No. 1.--Vol. 1.--New Series," the journal appeared in quarto size with 8 pp. under the title of Spiritual Times, and was devoted almost entirely to spiritualism. This was the first weekly British journal published from London. Cooper began it to oppose the ridicule and contempt that the secular press expressed toward spiritualism. He had started out as a self-described "secularist" and a firebrand with the courage of his convictions. He met Powell in 1862, and the two of them explored spiritualism, became enthusiastic about the spirits, and proceeded to tour the provinces, lecturing in the face of violent opposition. Powell (1830-1872) had had a Dickens-like youth and early manhood, trying to make a living in a variety of trades and acting as a bookseller and maker of poems. In 1860 he published the Domestic Magazine (5-6 issues) that featured his fiction. The same year, after reading an account of D.D. Home's phenomena, he ventured to London and through the help of his old friend T.S. Shorter met the writing medium Dr. Dixon and also met Cooper. About 1865 the two started the Spiritual Lyceum in London, to whose offices this journal was eventually moved -- all at Cooper's expense. The ventures collapsed when Powell, on the dubious basis of allegations from the New York Times that Benjamin Coleman had quoted in the Spiritual Magazine, republished an attack on the the medium Sothern which cited "facts that did not reflect favourably on Mr. Sothern's private character." Sothern sued the Spiritual Times for libel, and Cooper (who, all unawares, was attending a demonstration by the Davenport Brothers in Dublin at the time) was thrown in jail. On Cooper and the affair, see Cooper, Experiences, Including Seven Months with the Brothers Davenport (London: Heywood, 1867). Emma Hardinge Britten in Nineteenth Century Miracles (1883), 209, hints at the scandal and litigation when she says that the "unfortunate prosecution incurred by Mr. [Benjamin] Coleman, involving in its results the publisher of this paper, occasioned its suspension after a short-lived existence." The journal was initially advertised as "a Family Newspaper and an organ for the discussion of Spiritual and Progressive topics; and offers to those interested, a medium for the intelligent exposition of views bearing upon the great facts of the age." Contributions by William Howitt, P.B. Randolph ("The Phantom Gambler," later reprinted in Soul World), Thomas Shorter (editor of the Spiritual Magazine), Kenneth R.H. Mackenzie (on "Benjamin Mazel's Spiritual Philosophy/Cosmogony," "The Doctrine of Reincarnation," "Man's Origin on the Earth," "The Journey unto Real Life," "The History of Joan D'Arc," "Spirit Upon Spirit -- conversations between Mackenzie and his spirit guides Swedenborg and Bacon on reading Judge Edmonds, etc.), Powell, Cooper and others, with filler from contemporary journals and letters to the editor, notably a letter presenting a summary of the ideas of R.P. Ambler. The journal regularly carried notices of the trance lectures of P.B. Randolph in Britain. It carried advertisements for musical compositions by Shorter and Cooper (including "Our Rifles are Ready! Hurray! (a Song for volunteers))" and by Powell, and solicitations for the lectures of Powell and for Mrs. Powell's "Mesmeric Treatment." Powell went on to edit for a time the Spiritual Monthly and Lyceum Record in Boston in 1870 and was instrumental in introducing the young Father Thurston, S.J., to spiritualism. He also wrote a life of William Denton. Harrison's involvement with the journal as an editor rests on claims in various encyclopedias but cannot be verified. BL.

Issues:Spiritual Times OS V1 N1 Mar 5 1864
Spiritual Times OS V1 N2 Mar 12 1864
Spiritual Times OS V1 N3 Mar 19 1864
Spiritual Times OS V1 N4 Mar 26 1864
Spiritual Times OS V1 N5 Apr 2 1864
Spiritual Times NS V1 N1 Apr 9 1864
Spiritual Times NS V1 N2 Apr 16 1864
Spiritual Times NS V1 N3 Apr 23 1864
Spiritual Times NS V1 N4 Apr 30 1864
Spiritual Times NS V1 N5 May 7 1864
Spiritual Times NS V1 N6 May 14 1864
Spiritual Times NS V1 N7 May 21 1864
Spiritual Times NS V1 N8 May 28 1864
Spiritual Times NS V1 N9 Jun 4 1864
Spiritual Times NS V1 N10 Jun 11 1864
Spiritual Times NS V1 N11 Jun 18 1864
Spiritual Times NS V1 N12 Jun 25 1864
Spiritual Times NS V1 N13 Jul 2 1864
Spiritual Times NS V1 N14 Jul 9 1864
Spiritual Times NS V1 N15 Jul 16 1864
Spiritual Times NS V1 N16 Jul 23 1864
Spiritual Times NS V1 N17 Jul 30 1864
Spiritual Times NS V1 N18 Aug 6 1864
Spiritual Times NS V1 N19 Aug 13 1864
Spiritual Times NS V1 N20 Aug 20 1864
Spiritual Times NS V1 N21 Aug 27 1864
Spiritual Times NS V1 N22 Sep 3 1864
Spiritual Times NS V1 N23 Sep 10 1864
Spiritual Times NS V1 N24 Sep 17 1864
Spiritual Times NS V1 N25 Sep 24 1864
Spiritual Times NS V1 N26 Oct 1 1864
Spiritual Times NS V1 N27 Oct 8 1864
Spiritual Times NS V1 N28 Oct 15 1864
Spiritual Times NS V1 N29 Oct 22 1864
Spiritual Times NS V1 N30 Oct 29 1864
Spiritual Times NS V1 N31 Nov 5 1864
Spiritual Times NS V1 N32 Nov 12 1864
Spiritual Times NS V1 N33 Nov 19 1864
Spiritual Times NS V1 N34 Nov 26 1864
Spiritual Times NS V1 N35 Dec 3 1864
Spiritual Times NS V1 N36 Dec 10 1864
Spiritual Times NS V1 N37 Dec 17 1864
Spiritual Times NS V1 N38 Dec 24 1864
Spiritual Times NS V1 N39 Dec 31 1864
Spiritual Times NS V2 N40 Jan 7 1865
Spiritual Times NS V2 N41 Jan 14 1865
Spiritual Times NS V2 N42 Jan 21 1865
Spiritual Times NS V2 N43 Jan 28 1865
Spiritual Times NS V2 N44 Feb 4 1865
Spiritual Times NS V2 N45 Feb 11 1865
Spiritual Times NS V2 N46 Feb 18 1865
Spiritual Times NS V2 N47 Feb 25 1865
Spiritual Times NS V2 N48 Mar 4 1865
Spiritual Times NS V2 N49 Mar 11 1865
Spiritual Times NS V2 N50 Mar 18 1865
Spiritual Times NS V2 N51 Mar 25 1865
Spiritual Times NS V2 N52 Apr 1 1865
Spiritual Times NS V2 N53 Apr 8 1865
Spiritual Times NS V2 N54 Apr 15 1865
Spiritual Times NS V2 N55 Apr 22 1865
Spiritual Times NS V2 N56 Apr 29 1865
Spiritual Times NS V2 N57 May 6 1865
Spiritual Times NS V2 N58 May 13 1865
Spiritual Times NS V2 N59 May 20 1865
Spiritual Times NS V2 N60 May 27 1865
Spiritual Times NS V2 N61 Jun 3 1865
Spiritual Times NS V2 N62 Jun 10 1865
Spiritual Times NS V2 N63 Jun 17 1865
Spiritual Times NS V2 N64 Jun 24 1865
Spiritual Times NS V2 N65 Jul 1 1865
Spiritual Times NS V2 N66 Jul 8 1865
Spiritual Times NS V2 N67 Jul 15 1865
Spiritual Times NS V2 N68 Jul 22 1865
Spiritual Times NS V2 N69 Jul 29 1865
Spiritual Times NS V2 N70 Aug 5 1865
Spiritual Times NS V2 N71 Aug 12 1865
Spiritual Times NS V2 N72 Aug 19 1865
Spiritual Times NS V2 N73 Aug 26 1865
Spiritual Times NS V2 N74 Sep 2 1865
Spiritual Times NS V2 N75 Sep 9 1865
Spiritual Times NS V2 N76 Sep 16 1865
Spiritual Times NS V2 N77 Sep 23 1865
Spiritual Times NS V2 N78 Sep 30 1865
Spiritual Times NS V2 N79 Oct 7 1865
Spiritual Times NS V2 N80 Oct 14 1865
Spiritual Times NS V2 N81 Oct 21 1865
Spiritual Times NS V2 N82 Oct 28 1865
Spiritual Times NS V2 N83 Nov 4 1865
Spiritual Times NS V2 N84 Nov 11 1865
Spiritual Times NS V2 N85 Nov 18 1865
Spiritual Times NS V2 N86 Nov 25 1865
Spiritual Times NS V2 N87 Dec 2 1865
Spiritual Times NS V2 N88 Dec 9 1865
Spiritual Times NS V2 N89 Dec 16 1865
Spiritual Times NS V2 N90 Dec 23 1865
Spiritual Times NS V2 N91 Dec 30 1865
Spiritual Times NS V3 N92 Jan 6 1866
Spiritual Times NS V3 N93 Jan 13 1866
Spiritual Times NS V3 N94 Jan 20 1866
Spiritual Times NS V3 N94 Jan 20 1866 Alt
Spiritual Times NS V3 N95 Jan 27 1866
Spiritual Times NS V3 N96 Feb 3 1866
Spiritual Times NS V3 N97 Feb 10 1866
Spiritual Times NS V3 N98 Feb 17 1866
Spiritual Times NS V3 N99 Feb 24 1866
Spiritual Times NS V3 N100 Mar 3 1866
Spiritual Times NS V3 N101 Mar 10 1866
Spiritual Times NS V3 N102 Mar 17 1866
Spiritual Times NS V3 N103 Mar 24 1866
Spiritual Times NS V3 N104 Mar 31 1866
Spiritual Times NS V3 N105 Apr 7 1866
Spiritual Times NS V3 N106 Apr 14 1866
Spiritual Times NS V3 N107 Apr 21 1866
Spiritual Times NS V3 N108 May 1 1866
Spiritual Times NS V3 N109 May 15 1866
Spiritual Times NS V3 N110 Jun 1 1866
Spiritual Times NS V3 N111 Jun 15 1866
Spiritual Times NS V3 N112 Jul 1 1866
Spiritual Times NS V3 N113 Jul 15 1866
Spiritual Times NS V3 N114 Aug 1 1866
Spiritual Times NS V3 N115 Aug 15 1866
Spiritual Times NS V3 N116 Sep 1 1866
Spiritual Times NS V3 N117 Sep 15 1866
Spiritual Times NS V3 N118 Oct 1 1866
Powells Domestic Magazine V1 1860

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