{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_35855/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_35855","id":"gutenberg_35855","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/35855","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Psychiatry/Psychology","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Parapsychology"],"text":"</pre>\n\n\n\nProduced by Bryan Ness, S.D., and the Online Distributed\nProofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was\nproduced from images generously made available by The\nInternet Archive/Canadian Libraries)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n  STUDIES\n  IN THE\n  OUT-LYING FIELDS\n  OF\n  PSYCHIC SCIENCE\n\n  By HUDSON TUTTLE\n\n  AUTHOR OF ARCANA OF NATURE ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT\n  OF MAN ETC\n\n  New York\n  M L HOLBROOK & CO\n\n\n  COPYRIGHT BY\n  HUDSON TUTTLE,\n  1889.\n\n\n  TO\n  ALFRED E. GILES,\n  OF\n  HYDE PARK, MASS.,\n\n  AN ERUDITE SCHOLAR, A FEARLESS INVESTIGATOR, AN\n  UNSHRINKING ADVOCATE OF HIS CONVICTIONS, HONEST\n  AND TRUE TO HIMSELF AND OTHERS;\n  IN RECOGNITION OF A MUTUAL FRIENDSHIP OF MANY\n  YEARS THIS VOLUME IS FRATERNALLY DEDICATED.\n\n\n\n\nANALYSIS.\n\n\nThere is a Psychic Ether, related to thought, as the luminiferous ether\nis to light.\n\nThis may be regarded as the thought atmosphere of the universe. A\nthinking being in this atmosphere is a pulsating center of\nthought-waves, as a luminous body is of light.\n\nThere is a state of mind and body known as sensitive, or impressible, in\nwhich it receives impressions from other minds. This state may be\nnormal, or induced by fatigue, disease, drugs, or arise in sleep. The\nfacts of clairvoyance, trance, somnambulism and psychometry prove the\nexistence of this ether, and are correlated to it.\n\nThought transference is also in evidence, as well as that vast series of\nfacts which give intimation of an intelligence surviving the death of\nthe physical body.\n\nThis sensitiveness may be exceedingly acute, and the individual\nunconscious of it, and then it is known as genius, which is acute\nsusceptibility to the waves of the psychic atmosphere.\n\nSensitiveness explains the true philosophy of prayer.\n\nAll the so-called occult phenomena of mesmerism, trance, clairvoyance,\nmind reading, dreams, visions, thought transference, etc., are\ncorrelated to and explained by means of this psychic ether.\n\nAll these phenomena lead up to the consideration of immortality, which\nis a natural state, the birthright of every human being.\n\nThe body and spirit are originated and sustained together, and death is\ntheir final separation.\n\nThe problem of an immortal future, beginning in time, is solved by the\nresolution of forces at first acting in straight lines, through spirals\nreaching circles which, returning within themselves, become\nindividualized and self-sustaining.\n\nSpiritual beings must originate and be sustained by laws as fixed and\nunchanging as those which govern the physical world.\n\nSensitiveness gives great pleasures and may give pain; the author's\nexperience as a sensitive, related, shows this.\n\nAnd, finally, a communication from a spirit whose life had been noble\nand unselfish, given while the recipient was in a sensitive and\nreceptive state, detailing an account of the phenomena called death, but\nwhich is really birth into the spirit realm, the meeting of friends, and\nthe knowledge of a quarter of a century of its joys, together with \"the\npoet's story,\" it being an account given by one whose earth-life had\nbeen selfish, and whose selfish thoughts had formed themselves into\nphantom companions, following him into the realm of the future world,\nand making his life there one of despair, and how he escaped these\nlegitimate children of his brain by heroic acts of unselfishness,\ncomplete the story. These last are no fictions of the imagination,\nwritten to amuse the reader; but the author is firmly convinced, yes,\nknows they are the words of actual living beings who have once lived on\nearth like ourselves.\n\n                                                             H. T.\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS.\n\n\n                                                             PAGE.\n\n  Dedication                                                     3\n\n  Analysis                                                       5\n\nCHAPTER I.\n\n  Matter, Life, Spirit                                           9\n\nCHAPTER II.\n\n  What the Senses Teach of the World and the Doctrine of\n  Evolution                                                     20\n\nCHAPTER III.\n\n  Scientific Methods of the Study of Man, and its Results       31\n\nCHAPTER IV.\n\n  What is the Sensitive State                                   37\n\nCHAPTER V.\n\n  Sensitive State: Its Division into Mesmeric, Somnambulic\n  and Clairvoyant                                               44\n\nCHAPTER VI.\n\n  Sensitiveness Proved by Psychometry                           64\n\nCHAPTER VII.\n\n  Sensitiveness During Sleep                                    75\n\nCHAPTER VIII.\n\n  Dreams                                                        86\n\nCHAPTER IX.\n\n  Sensitiveness Induced by Disease                              93\n\nCHAPTER X.\n\n  Thought Transference                                          99\n\nCHAPTER XI.\n\n  Intimations of an Intelligent Force                          117\n\nCHAPTER XII.\n\n  Effects of Physical Influences on the Sensitive              147\n\nCHAPTER XIII.\n\n  Unconscious Sensitiveness                                    151\n\nCHAPTER XIV.\n\n  Prayer in the Light of Sensitiveness and Thought Waves       165\n\nCHAPTER XV.\n\n  Christian Science, Mind Cure, Faith Cure--their\n  Physical Relations                                           178\n\nCHAPTER XVI.\n\n  What the Immortal State Must Be                              188\n\nCHAPTER XVII.\n\n  Personal Experience--Intelligence from the Sphere of\n  Light                                                        217\n\n\n\n\nMatter, Life, Spirit.\n\n\nNECESSITY OF KNOWLEDGE, NOT FAITH.--Guizot forcibly expresses the value\nof a knowledge of future life when he says: \"Belief in the supernatural\n(spiritual) is the special difficulty of our time; denial of it is the\nform of all assaults on Christianity, and acceptance of it lies at the\nroot, not only of Christianity, but of all positive religion whatever.\"\n\nHe stands not alone in this conclusion. The difficulty, to a great\nmajority of men of science and leaders of thought, appears\ninsurmountable, and they no longer feel a necessity for defending their\nwant of belief, but smile at the credulity of those who believe anything\nbeyond what their senses reveal.\n\nNot only the infidel world perceives this difficulty; it is well\nunderstood by the leaders of Christianity, for they have been taught its\nstrength by the irrepressible conflict which has culminated in the want\nof belief at the present time. With this result before them, it is idle\nfor the church leaders to assert that revelation in the Bible is\nsufficient to remove this difficulty, which has grown in the very\nsanctuary, in the shadow of biblical teachings. While the value of the\nBible, as interpreted by theologians, depends on the belief in\nimmortality, it has not proved the existence of man beyond the grave in\nsuch an absolute manner as to remove doubt; and yet, of all evidence it\nis designed to give, that on this point should be the most complete and\nirrefutable.\n\nThe resurrection of Jesus Christ proves nothing, even admitted in its\nmost absolute form. If Christ was the Son of God and God himself, he was\nunlike ordinary mortals, and what is true of him is not necessarily so\nof them.\n\nHis physical resurrection does not prove theirs. Admitting similarity,\nhis bodily resurrection after three days, while his body remained\nunchanged, does not prove theirs after they have become dust, and\nscattered through countless forms of life for a thousand ages. If, with\nsome sects, the resurrection of the body be discarded, then the\nresurrection of Christ has no significance, for it is expressly held\nthat his body was revivified and taken from the tomb.\n\nSkepticism has increased, because the supporters of religion have not\nattempted to keep pace with the march of events, but, on the contrary,\nasserted that they had all knowledge possible to gain on this subject,\nand that anything outside of their interpretation was false.\n\nInstead of founding religion on the constitution of man, and making\nimmortality his birthright, they have regarded these as foreign to him,\nand only gained by the acceptance of certain doctrines. They removed\nimmortality from the domain of accurate knowledge; and those who pursued\nscience turned with disgust from a subject which ignored present\nresearch for past belief.\n\nHence, there has been, unfortunately, the great army of investigators\nand thinkers, in the realm of matter, studying its phenomena and laws,\nnever approaching the threshold of the spiritual; and, on the other\nhand, the more important knowledge of spirit, of man's future, which\nretrospects his present life and all past ages, and reaches into the\ninfinite ages to come, was the especial care of those who scorned nature\nand abhorred reason. Hence the antagonism, which can only be removed by\nthe priest laying aside his books as infallible authority, discarding\nbeliefs, dogmas, and metaphysical word legerdemain, and studying the\ninner world in the same manner that the outer has been so advantageously\nexplored. When this has been done, it may be found that physical\ninvestigators have not the whole truth, even when they have been the\nmost exact.\n\nIt may be found that, having omitted the spiritual side in all their\ninvestigations, their conclusions are erroneous to the extent of that\nfactor, which may be one of the most important. It may be found that in\norder to have a complete and perfect knowledge of the external world,\nthe internal or spiritual must be understood.\n\nHere we face the time-old questions: What is matter? What is spirit? The\nphilosophy of nature here rests. There is no middle ground. The\nmaterialist starts from the atom, which, he says, has in itself all the\npossibilities of the universe and outside of which there is nothing.\n\n\nTHE ATOM.--But who knows of the atom, into which matter, at last\nanalysis, is resolved? No one. Aside from the active forces which\napparently flow from it, we know nothing, and speculation takes the\nplace of knowledge. That speculation, unfettered by the requirements of\naccurate science, grew rankly in the minds of the sages of antiquity,\nand bore the strangest fruits. From that time to the present,\nspeculative thought has not ceased in activity, nor arrived at any\ncertain conclusion.\n\nThe atomic theory is one of the most splendid generalizations in the\nwhole circle of sciences. As a working hypothesis its aid is invaluable,\nand the solution it affords of the most intricate combination of the\nelements, truly marvelous. Yet it is a conjecture; the existence of the\natom a guess. No one ever saw, tasted, or felt the atom. It is\nabsolutely beyond the senses, as it is beyond any instrumental aid\nthereto. The entire structure of physical science, as expounded to-day,\nrests on conjecture, the only evidence in support of which is that it\nexplains the phenomena. There is no assurance that other conjectures\nmight not explain them quite as well.\n\nIt would be a waste of time to explore this field, wherein the baseless\ndreams of philosophers and scientists have grown like Jonah's gourd,\nover-shadowing the barren sands.\n\nThe manner in which the nature of the distinct and indestructible atom\nwas arrived at, shows the puerility of the theory. If we take a fragment\nof matter, we can break it into distinct pieces; these are again\ndivided, and so on, until we reach a point where further division is\nimpossible.\n\nOne of these indivisible particles, says the Materialist, is an atom; a\nconclusion derived from the gross conception of material division, and\nthe limitation of the mind.\n\nEndow this atom with force, or call it a center for the propagation of\nforce, and the materialistic system is complete; yet these conclusions\nare but dreams. With equal arrogance, the Materialists lead to the\nhigher ground of vitality, of mind and of morals, forgetting that the\nfundamental proposition on which this system rests is a guess, a\nsurmise, and nothing more.\n\nBut investigation by other means than the primitive experience of\nmechanical division, shows that the atom has no existence as a fixed\nentity. Professor Crookes has demonstrated that matter has properties\nunknown to the present race of philosophers.\n\nBy way of illustration: If a certain vessel be closed, and the air\nexhausted, until only one hundred atoms remain, that hundred leave no\nspace, but occupy the entire vessel. If the vacuum be made more perfect,\nand only ten atoms remain, the ten still occupy the whole space; and if\nthe process could be carried so far that only one remained, it would\nstill fill the space. The atomist might divide it indefinitely, and yet\neach division fill the space. In short, were there but one atom in the\nuniverse, that atom would fill all space.\n\n\nNEW PROPERTIES.--When matter is thus rarified, or in other words, when\nthe pressure is removed, new properties appear, and the tangible fades\ninto the intangible. The qualities of pure force begin to be manifested.\nThe intimation is made that were it possible to make the vacuum more\nperfect, there would arise out of this invisible gas, spontaneous\nmanifestation of energy; or matter would be resolved into force.\n\n\nWHAT IS MATTER?--Having seen that the conception of the atom is\nimmature, and incapable of demonstration, we find matter, of which the\natom is supposed to be the foundation, equally incapable of definition.\nWith matter we never come in sensuous contact; we only know its forces,\nas expressed in phenomena.\n\nThe succession of seasons, the recurrence of day and night, the teeming\nearth, the starry heavens--these are manifestations of matter. Matter\nhere is revealed to us as an appearance. Matter is appearance; phenomena\nare concrete expressions of force. It may be asked: Do these phenomena\ncreate themselves? Do bodies become organic by the confluence of atoms?\nRather are they not molded by the force which through them gains\nexpression? What is this force? Is it independent? On ultimate analyses,\nforce resolves itself into motion, which is discernable to the senses\nonly as expressed in phenomena. If we were obliged to explain the\nphenomena of matter only, some theory might be plausibly maintained;\nfronting one world we might understand it, but we are fronting two\nworlds. There is constantly the caused and the cause. We never are\nsatisfied that the caused caused itself. We may receive the beautiful\nexposition of the doctrine of evolution, and yet we have only the road\nover which life has been irresistibly forced. Why? Wherefore? By what\npower? Instinctively we turn to the realm of spiritual causes.\n\nMaterial science, with all its boasted accuracy and infallibility,\nbreaks down, and utterly fails, when called to explain mental and\nspiritual phenomena. It boasts of infallibility, when its fundamental\ntheories are conjectures that the advance of thought may to-morrow show\nto be vagaries of fancy. We must look to the eternal activities of\nspirit for the final solution of the grossest manifestation of matter.\n\n\nNATURE A WITCHES' POT.--The present conception of nature, by material\nscience, is a witches' pot, into which, by some unknown process, matter\nand force were placed. The pot seethes, and out of the seething conflict\nfoams up to the surface in kaleidoscopic changes, organic beings. The\nsavans stand around its rim like Shakespeare's witches and chant a\ntechnical gibberish about laws; the pre-existence and correlation of\nforce; the indestructibility of energy; the eternity of matter; the\npotentialities of the atom; the struggle for existence; the survival of\nthe fittest, and in admiration praise each other's profundity of sight,\nwhile the sharpest eyed see nothing beneath the foaming scum. They pride\nthemselves on explanations, of causes, while really they play with\nwords.\n\nAt the threshold of this discussion of the problem of mind and spirit we\nhave that of life. The living being is the most wonderful achievement of\nforce in its multitudinous forms. Life is the gateway to the realm of\nspirit, and beyond that gateway lie the questions we seek to solve.\n\nThe living being, by the fact of its being such, has new and hitherto\nundetermined relations. It has escaped from the hold of the forces in\npart from the common lot of matter, and a new horizon uplifts before it.\nNew and mysterious forces intrude, the sum of which we call vital\nenergy. Well we know that here the material scientist will smile or\nsneer, for he has already settled the question in his own mind and that\nof his confreres, that there is nothing beyond the properties of matter.\nThe animal body is composed of definite quantities of carbon, hydrogen,\nlime, iron, etc., and the conflict of atoms, the combustion of carbon by\nthe oxygen of the air, the burning of phosphorus in the nerves, is the\nactivity evolved which is called life. In the higher animals, especially\nin man, this life force derived from burning elements is changed to\nthought, and the quantity of thought depends on the activity of the\nprocess.\n\nNo one, however, has ever proved that such transformation occurs, or\neven attempted the task. The most thoughtful and profound acknowledge\nthat at the threshold of life all physical theories utterly fail, and\nthat the problem does not admit of solution. The more persistent declare\nlife to be a resultant of protoplasm; a fragment of protoplasm is the\nlowest form of a living being. It is a homogeneous mass, scarcely a cell\nor aggregation of cells. These cells do not feel or know; they are\nsensitive; that is all. A human being is said by these material\nscientists to be the sum of an infinite number of moners, as a coral\nbranch is the sum of a great number of polyps. These moners form, under\ndifferent circumstances, bone, muscle, and nerve. They propagate and\ndie. Their multiplication and destruction is the source and\naccompaniment of vital changes, and mental states. When the necessity\nfor the destruction of a great number of these moners arises, the end,\nthe destruction of all, or death of the combined organism is the result.\n\nAccording to this view, by the simple addition of moners, we obtain\nsomething none of them singly possessed. The single moner has only\nsensitiveness, their infinite aggregate, in the human being, has\nfeeling, intelligence, will, and God-like aspirations. The time old\naxiom never before disputed is set aside, and the sum is declared to be\nnot only greater than its parts--it is infinitely greater, and acquires\nqualities which the parts do not possess.\n\nIt may be urged that in the acquisition of new qualities the same is\ntrue of the chemical union of elements, which yield products entirely\ndifferent in quality from the combining bodies. These, however, unite in\nfixed proportions in a manner far from understood, while, with the\nhypothetical moners, they are aggregated mechanically, as polyps in a\ncluster, and this union of individuals changes not their functions, but\nsimply increases the mass.\n\nWhether we accept this moner hypothesis, or the more generally received\ntheory that life is the product of organization, arising from the\nchemical actions in the body, it is impossible to say wherein the dead\nanimal differs from the living. Analysis can not reveal this secret, for\nthe living animal can not be subjected to that test. The life principle\nescapes before the alembic or retort is brought into requisition. The\nsong of the bird can not be found by chemical analysis. We know that the\nliving being is held together, and dominated over by the strongest\nforces, and the moment these relax their hold, decomposition commences.\nWhat are these forces? Whence do they come? Whither do they go?\n\n\nLIFE AND MIND.--Taking vital force in its highest expression, in man, it\nis self-conscious and has independent will. It arises above the atoms of\nits physical being, above the influences which environ it, and says, _I\nwill_, and executes that will. I know well that if we here leave\nphysical science for metaphysics, there are philosophers who would not\nonly reason away this force, but the existence of the body itself. They\nare true intellectual acrobats; amusing jugglers, who throw words\ninstead of painted balls, and confuse by their wonderful dexterity. Yet,\nafter all has been said, _we know_ we exist and have physical bodies.\nHad we not such bodies the thought of them would never have been\nfashioned in our minds. As we know the sun will rise, or the night\nfollow, we know we have bodily forms, and are thereby brought in contact\nwith the physical world. It is a fact, and as such can not be reasoned\naway. In the same manner we are conscious of a mental or spiritual life\nwhich arches the physical world as the dome of the sky.\n\n\nIS THE GULF BETWEEN SPIRIT AND MATTER BRIDGED?--Here we come to that\nvague and uncertain realm where spirit touches matter. We leave the\ncoast line of the tangible and seen for the intangible and unseen. There\nis no bridge over the gulf, which is said to be impassable. Material and\nspiritual phenomena are united by no common bond, and each stands by\nitself. The great thought stream has set toward the materialistic\ninterpretation of all spiritual phenomena, or ruled them out of the pale\nof the believable. If these phenomena are real, if man--the ego--is\nsuperior to the oxygen and carbon of his body; if the manifestations of\nmind are superior to the combustion of tissue in the lungs, then all\nthese manifestations should be amenable to certain laws and conditions,\nwhich ascertained, will harmonize them into a perfect system.\n\nThe brain is the point of contact between spirit and matter, and as far\nas the manifestations of that spirit are related to the material world\nwhile connected with the physical body, it must be through and by means\nof the brain. The intimate character of this relation gives strong color\nto the reasoning based on the material view that the brain produces\nthought, as the liver produces bile. But such reasoning is from\nappearance rather than the reality. There is, as Tyndall eloquently\nexpresses, a chasm between matter and mind that can not be passed.\n\n\"The passage from the physics of the brain to the corresponding facts of\nconsciousness is unthinkable.... Were our minds and senses so expanded,\nstrengthened, and illuminated, as to enable us to see and feel the very\nmolecules of the brain; were we capable of following all their motions,\nall their groupings, all their electric discharges, if such there be;\nand were we intimately acquainted with the corresponding states of\nthought and feeling,--we should be as far as ever from the solution of\nthe problem, 'How are these physical processes connected with the facts\nof consciousness?' The chasm between the two classes of phenomena would\nstill be intellectually impossible.\"\n\n\nSPIRITUAL SUBSTANCE.--As the experiments alluded to show that matter\nmay, under certain conditions, take on new properties, ceasing to be\nmatter, in the usual acceptance of that word, the horizon of matter\nwhich has been thought to rest over attenuated hydrogen, may extend to\ninfinite reaches beyond, including stuffs or substances which have never\nbeen revealed to the senses. As the eye is capable of detecting only a\nnarrow belt of rays, and the ear a scarcely broader belt of sounds,\nbeyond which, on either side, are unknown realms of light and sounds, so\nwe are able to detect only a narrow range of elements; and there may be\na realm on one side too gross for recognizance by the senses, and on the\nother, one too attenuated. Beings fashioned of this attenuated substance\nmight walk by our side unseen, nor cast a shadow in the noon-day sun.\n\n\nSPIRIT ETHER.--Aside from this spiritual substance, beyond the pale of\nthe most attenuated matter, is the spirit ether. The students of light\nhave found it possible to explain its phenomena only by the hypothesis\nof an ether, a universal fluid of extreme tenuity, the vibrations of\nwhich are interpreted by the eye as light. This ether was at first a\ndream of the imagination; but, by answering all questions and receiving\nthe verification of mathematics, it has become a demonstrated reality.\nIt is probably the common medium for the transference of electricity,\nheat, and magnetism as well. It is an illustration of one of the many\ninstances where the Imagination has overreached the Reason in the race\nof discovery.\n\nIn the same manner we may predicate another ether, the medium through\nwhich all spiritual phenomena are produced. We may prove the existence\nof this ether, by the certainty and harmony of the answers it gives, as\nthe existence of the luminiferous ether has been demonstrated. As the\ngreat life-giver, we may distinguish it as psycho-ether. It can not be\nsaid to be material, for it belongs to the region beyond that recognized\nas material by our senses. It is the sublimation of matter, vastly more\nattenuated than light-ether, and thought is propagated in it from\nthinking centers, as light is in the luminiferous ether from luminous\nbodies. The qualities of this ether are the possibilities of life and\nspirit and to it for explanation we refer all psychic phenomena.\n\n\n\n\nWhat the Senses Teach of the World and the Doctrine of Evolution.\n\n\nIS THERE MORE THAN ONE WORLD--STUFF?--Thus far, with a few exceptions\nwhich may be called heterodox, physicists have in their speculations\nused the term matter as though in ultimate conception there is but one\nkind of matter and the atoms of that matter are absolutely alike. In\nother words there is but one stuff of which the cosmos is formed. The\nsenses on which this theory is based do not endorse, but, by their\nlimitation, prove the opposite. We have no means of knowing of sound\naside from the ear, which is wonderfully fashioned to receive vibrations\nand transmit them to the brain; yet its imperfection, caused by the\nlimitations of nerve tissue, reveals the fact that it is cognizant of\nonly a narrow field, either side of which is a wide tract, which to it\nis profound silence. If a sound wave impinges on the ear with less\nvibrations than 16\u00bd times in a second it is inaudible; and if the number\nof vibrations is increased above 38,000 per second, they again lose the\npower of impressing the ear. There may be insects capable of hearing\nthese high sounds, which to man are silence itself; and the long waves\nthat beat less than 16\u00bd times in a second may be sweet music to some of\nthe lower tribes of animated life.\n\nPerfect as the eye may be as an optical instrument, its range is far\nless than that of the ear. Only those rays of light having waves\n1-39,000th of an inch in length are visible on one side, and the last\nvisible radiations on the other end of the spectrum have wave lengths of\n1-575,000th of an inch. This is a narrow limit, and on either side there\nmust be rays, which eyes or nerves differently constructed would receive\nand interpret, yielding, perhaps, colors unknown to our consciousness.\nThere is a harmony in color waves, like music in sound waves, for as a\nnote blends in one, in all octaves above or below, so light waves, twice\nor thrice the length of given waves yield the same color impression.\n\nWe may regard from the same point of view the sense of taste, the nerves\nof which have a still narrower range, and are apparently differently\naffected in animals than they are in man--substances disagreeable to him\nbeing relished by them, and of course affecting the taste differently.\n\nWe are not sure that there are not senses which appreciate conditions of\nmatter, of which we have no conception. There are insects which\napparently have organs bestowing senses unlike our own. Their antenn\u00e6\nhave no corresponding organs in the higher animals, and the conception\nof the world which these give has no analogy in our minds.\n\nAs the senses are thus cognizant of narrow belts of sound and light,\nleaving unknown stretches on either side, so what is called matter may\nbe the narrow range recognized by our finite powers as a whole, on\neither side of which may lie stuffs of widely different qualities and\npossibilities.\n\n\nA DEAD VIEW OF DEAD WORLDS.--Pausing to consider the received theory of\nforce, as an explanation of the causes of the world--creation, we shall\nfind that it fails to meet the high promises it vauntingly makes.\n\nAccording to the received theory of force, every manifestation of power\nand energy on the earth is originally derived from the sun. The growth\nof plants and animals, and all the activities displayed by the latter,\nare derived from their food, which was produced by the light and heat of\nthe sun.\n\nIn illustration of the sun's incalculable power, take, for instance, the\nrain fall of one-tenth of an inch extending over the United States. Such\na rain-fall has been estimated at ten thousand millions of tons, which\nthe heat of the sun had raised at least to the height of one mile. It\nwould take all the pumping engines in the United States a century to\nlift this amount of water back again to the clouds. If the force is so\ngreat as displayed in the rain-fall of one-tenth of an inch, how\nincomprehensible the power which lifts the entire amount of water\nevaporated, amounting to, at least, forty inches!\n\nYet the force of the sun, manifested on the earth, is an inconceivably\nsmall part of that radiated, for the earth only receives in the\nproportion that its surface bears to the sphere of its orbit, and how\nincomparable is its diameter of 8,000 miles to that of a sphere\n184,000,000 across. The combined surface of all the planets would\nreceive a scarcely appreciable ratio of the entire amount which,\nunimpeded, flies away into the abyss of space.\n\nThe energy radiated at the surface of the sun is estimated at 7,000\nhorse power to the square foot, and if the sun was a mass of coal, it\nwould have to be consumed in 5,000 years in order to supply it, and in\n5,000 years would have to cool down to 9,000 degrees, C. If the nebular\nhypothesis be received, the contraction would supply the loss for 7,000\nyears before the temperature would fall 1 degree, C.\n\nIncomprehensible as this force is, it is constantly diminishing, and\nalthough the projection of meteors and hypothetical cosmical bodies may\nprolong its action, the time must come when all its energy will be\ndissipated into space; all bodies will have the same temperature, and as\nthere is no other source of energy, physical and vital phenomena will\ncease, and the universe, bereft of living beings, will itself be dead.\n\n\nA DEAD WORLD.--According to the most advanced views at present\nentertained, this is the end of the career of the universe.\n\nBalfour Stewart endorses this conclusion by saying: \"We are induced to\ngeneralize still further, and regard not only our own system, but the\nwhole material universe, when viewed with respect to serviceable energy,\nas essentially evanescent, and as embracing a succession of physical\nevents which can not go on forever as they are.\"\n\nIn stronger language Mr. Pickering says: \"The final result, therefore,\nwould be that all bodies would assume the same temperature, there would\nbe no further source of energy; physical phenomena would cease, and the\nphysical universe would be dead. Such, at least, is the present view of\nthis stupendous question.\"\n\nIn explanation of the origin of this energy, and the reason for its\nloss, Mr. Stewart further says: \"It is supposed that these particles\noriginally existed at a great distance from each other, and that, being\nendowed with force of gravitation, they have gradually come together;\nwhile in this process heat has been generated, just as if a stone were\ndropped from the top of a cliff toward the earth.\"\n\nThus the universe would become an equally heated mass, utterly worthless\nas far as the work of production is concerned, since such production\ndepends on difference of temperature.\n\nIn other words, the universe becomes dead matter, wholly incapable of\nsupporting life, and so far as present science gives us any information,\nmust remain forever at rest.\n\nThe fact that such a conclusion has been reached should cause us to\npause in doubt of the correctness of the data leading thereto. It would\nbe more plausible were it shown how, at the end of the great cycle,\nthere was renewal of the lost energy, and return to the nebulous\nbeginning. Causation moves in cycles, and the most alarming\nperturbations are balanced by forces operating in other directions, so\nthat the result is the preservation of order. Planets swing wide of\ntheir orbits for a million years, getting further and further away, yet\nthe time comes when they return on a pathway carrying them as wide on\nthe other side.\n\nThis latest view of the universe by scientific thought, however\nplausible its argument, or apparently logical its results, is proven by\nthe very logic of those results to be defective.\n\n\nTHE LOGIC OF RESULTS.--It starts with the declaration that matter and\nforce are inseparable, that there can be no matter without force. The\nnebulous beginning was a storehouse of energy, which has been wasting\never since the first world was formed. This force has been for countless\nages dispersing by radiation. It is still wasting, for as it is radiated\ninto space it does not even raise the temperature of the trackless abyss\nthrough which it passes. When it is all gone, there will be left the\nforce of gravitation, holding with adamantine grasp the dead residuum of\nsuns and planets; and, strange conclusion to which these premises force\nus, this residuum must be matter without force.\n\nHere the problem remains unsolved, and a theory which proudly assumes\nfor itself the distinction of being the only true system of nature,\nwhich rules God out of the universe, or makes Him an unknown and\nunknowable quantity, destroys life in nature, and has no means of its\nrestoration except by a miracle. If the universe is a machine which in\ntime will run down and die, all its force being dissipated, does it not\nfollow that in the beginning some superior power united this force with\nmatter? And also, does it not follow that if this dead universe again\nlives, a superior power must draw back the scattered beams of light,\nheat, magnetism, and other forces, and re-endow the dead residuum?\n\nThus this materialistic hypothesis, which boasts arrogantly of its\ncertitude, begins in assumption and ends in a dilemma out of which\nconfession of ignorance and acceptance of miracle only can extricate it.\n\nCreation is not a clock that must be wound up at stated intervals by a\nforeign power, and any system which does not provide for its restoration\nas well as destruction, confesses weakness.\n\n\nTHE CHOICE OF CAUSES.--We have this choice: To believe that forces by\nblind action and reaction have evolved the world from a nebulous\nfire-cloud and peopled it with sentient and intellectual beings, making\nof it a perpetual motion, a machine not designed, but the result of\ninfinite failures, perfected by infinite blunders, and sustained by the\nfortuitous equilibrium of unseeing, unknowing forces; or that back of\nthese forces is an intelligence, planning and willing through their\nagency. If the latter be accepted, it does not follow that the crude\nconception of design in nature as the direct work of a personal God must\nbe maintained. At the commencement of the great revival of the study of\nnature, when the views which have revolutionized scientific thought were\nbeginning to dawn, illy defined and partially understood, they were\nseized on by a class seeking support to the theological doctrines they\nfelt yielding beneath their feet, and distorted by plausible sophistry\ninto apparent vindication of their dogmas. Of these, Paley became most\nfamous, his illustration of the watch was the most renowned of his\narguments. It is misleading, as there is no real likeness between a\nwatch and the mechanism of nature. Yet we do not endorse the\ncomplacency of many leading supporters of evolution. Evolution is\nundoubtedly a true statement of the _method_ of creation. It offers no\nfurther explanation and gives no cause. Accepting evolution and\nfollowing the development of life from the least to the greatest, what\ndo we see but the constant unfoldment of a well defined purpose and\nplan? Are not the beings of the Silurian and Devonian epoch prophecies\nof the forms which were evolved out of them? We may call things by new\nnames, and in place of design use \"adaptation\"; we do not change the\nrelations of things thereby. When we see a bird cleave the air with\nrapid wings, and observe the wonderful adaptation of bones and muscles\nand forms of feathers, we may explain it all by evolution, which has\nmade the bird the embodiment of the forces of the air. Have we done more\nthan state the method of growth? What cause have we assigned for the\nprocess? We see an interminable series of forms, changing from age to\nage, becoming more and more complex in their relations, but pressing\nforward constantly to final production of man as the perfection of the\nvertebrate type. Evolution describes this process, at every step\nfurnishing evidence of a purpose, achieving its ends through matter,\noften failing, but through failures at last reaching its object. In this\nlight the imperfection of organs proves nothing against design. The eye\nof man is instanced as more imperfect than a glass lens. It is as\nperfect as the organic material out of which it is made permits. That it\nbecomes diseased is from the same necessity of organization.\n\n\nEVOLUTION.--Evolution is a new name for facts exceedingly old; but its\nsupporters would have its scheme reach through creation to the\nfoundation of things. Advancement with them means only better adaptation\nin the struggle for existence, the result of accidental fitness which\nhas pushed unorganized protoplasm to man. Matter and its potentialities\ngranted, all else flows in assured course. Difficulties disappear; the\nriddle of the Sphinx is no longer obscure. The sunlight has fallen on\nthe marble lips, and Memnon has revealed in a single sentence what\nmortal man has never understood, \"The survival of the fittest.\" The\ntheologian has rested in blissful confidence in the arms of the Creator;\nnow comes the scientist who by easy methods calls the Creator\n\"evolution,\" and falls as blindly confident into the arms of his\nnew-named God. The likeness is made more complete by the scorn of one\nequaling the sneer of the other.\n\nIt is a new name for the old fact, that the forms of life on this earth\nare united by common parentage, and have been differentiated by the\naccumulation of infinite beneficial changes. The struggle for existence\nhas been the center around which these have aggregated. This no careful\nstudent will deny. Having granted this, what then? Is anything\nexplained? Have we approached the cause by a single step? Really, has\nanything been done more than to explain the phenomena of the world with\nnew words and phrases?\n\nOf old it was said the world is a machine with gods or a god at the\ncrank; to-day the god at the crank is the Unknowable, the laws of\nnature, the potentiality of matter; or in the most recent theory the\nall-god has appeared in the revival of the god imminent in the universe,\nwhich is regarded as an organism, with a god-soul. This is poetic but\nneither sensible nor scientific. Forever and forever old ideas are\nwashed on the shore of time, out of the wreck of the past, and instead\nfor being relegated to the museum, are galvanized into grimace of life,\nand branded as new, when they are rapidly disintegrating in every part.\n\n\nTHE SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST.--The survival of the fittest is a wonderful\nscheme of the preservation of the best. To illustrate, take the tiger\nand the deer. Once they herded together, the tiger not being, as now,\nnoted for strength or cunning, nor the deer for caution and fleetness.\nThe dull tiger was able to take as prey the least cautious and weakest\nof the deer. The fleetest deer propagated, and then only the most\ncunning tigers were able to procure food, and continue their kind. As\ntheir strength and cunning increased, the cautiousness and fleetness of\nthe deer increased in this matched game of life; the two species\nreacting on each other until we now have the perfected deer and tiger.\nIn both kingdoms of living beings, among all their diverse families and\nspecies, this struggle has gone on, and the result is the\ndifferentiation from abysmal protoplasmic slime the humming bird on the\nflower to the leviathan in the deep; the litchen on the rock to man with\nan intellectual comprehension of unknown breadth. We here have the\nchronicle of creation, and Froissart was not more garrulous with his\nexploits of lord and lady than the chroniclers of the changes effected\nin specific forms \"on their way to man.\"\n\nWe hear all that is said, and with a feeling of disappointment, while\nadmitting all, respond that we were promised a cause, and have been\ngiven only a method? What stands behind the \"struggle for existence?\"\nWhat is the infinite force of the ceaseless unrest, which throws each\nwave higher on the tide line, working like a blind giant, hewing out\norganic forms from protoplasm, and amid infinite failures approximating\never to the perfect, with constant prophecy that that perfection will be\nattained? The \"survival of the fittest\" reveals the prodigal method\nwhich preserves one of a million germs, casting the others back into the\nseething crucible for new trials. Can it claim anything more? The laws\nof nature are grooves in which causes run to effects; but why do they\nthus move? Calling them by other names will not satisfy. As Newton, when\nhe gave the law of gravitation mathematical form, penetrated not a step\ntoward its cause, so the biologist has not passed the threshold of the\ndomain of life. A recent scientific association sat in silence after a\nverbose and flippant discussion on protoplasm, when asked by a member\nwhat was the difference between living and dead protoplasm? Not one\ncould answer. Life had escaped their observation. Protoplasm dead is no\nlonger protoplasm. The protoplasmic germ impelled by the forces of life,\ncommences its growth, sending out its feeding vessels, and from the\nbeginning copies the paleontological history of the earth, and more\ncompletely the biography of its direct ancestors.\n\nWhen we consider that this invisible fleck bears in its cell or cells\nthe impress of every condition bearing on its progenitors from remotest\ntime, and will express it in all these conditions, it is no longer a\nphenomenon on which we gaze, but a miracle of creative power, and all\nthat has been written by physiologists since Galen's time as to its\ncause is as children's prattle. The material side furnishes no adequate\nexplanation. Its coarse methods are not adapted to measure the illusive\npsyche. The balance weighs not, the scalpel dissects not, the retort\nholds not the elements of the soul.\n\n\n\n\nScientific Methods of the Study of Man, and Results.\n\n\nTHE EVOLUTIONIST.--Scientists have different ways of studying man. The\nevolutionist first develops the form. He says that life began in\nprotoplasm in the unrecorded ages of the past, and step by step, through\nmollusk, fish, saurian and mammal, has arisen by the \"struggle for\nexistence\" and \"survival of the fittest,\" until the mammal by strangely\nfortuitous chances has become a human being. As the human body is a\nmodified animal form, so the intellect is a modified and developed\ninstinct, the highest and most spiritual conscientiousness being only\nthe result of accumulated experiences of what is for the best. The\nhighest of animals is man, with no barrier between him and them, and\nsubject to the same fate. There is no indication of a guiding\nintelligence, and if he possess an immortal spirit, so does the mollusk\nand the fleck of protoplasm.\n\n\nTHE CHEMIST.--The chemist has his method, that of analysis. He takes the\nvital tissues and resolves them into their elementary parts. He tells us\nthat there is so much hydrogen, carbon and nitrogen in the muscles; so\nmuch lime and phosphorus in the bones; so much phosphorus in the nerves,\nand iron in the blood. He separates these elements in retort or\ncrucible, and weighs them with nicety so that he knows to a thousandth\nof a grain their proportions. He has made the ultimate analysis, and\nthese are all he can discover. Life is the result of their union; mind\nthe burning of phosphorus in the brain, and as for spirit, it is quite\nunnecessary to explain the phenomena. The chemist has finished his work,\nand placed in the museum the results of his analysis. That body perhaps\nweighed one hundred and fifty pounds. In a large glass jar is the water\nit contained--clear, crystal water, such as flashes in the sunlight of a\nrainbow-arching shower, or a dewdrop sparkling on the petals of a lily.\nThere are about eight or ten gallons of it, for the body is\nthree-fourths water. There is a small jar of white powder representing\nthe lime; another, still smaller, the silex; another the phosphorus.\nThere are homeopathic vials containing a trace of sulphur, of iron,\nmagnesia, the potash, the soda, the salts and so on until the vials,\ngreat and small, contain more or less of almost every element. Here we\nhave what was once a human being. We have every thing that went to make\nhim, except one, which lacking, these elements are lifeless, and of no\nmore value than water from the brook and earth from its banks: the\nvital, or psychic principle. Place the contents of all the lesser jars\nin the greater water jar, shake, dissolve, and manipulate, dead and\ninert they remain, and will remain so long as thus treated. The chemist\nin his analysis has made no account of the subtile principle which made\nthese elementary atoms an expression of its purpose. The living form has\nits origin in the remote past, and its atoms were arranged and brought\ninto union by a vital process which thus began; which must begin in this\nmanner and traverse the same path. Phosphorus may be essential to give\nactivity to the brain, and a given amount of thought may correspond to a\nfixed amount of phosphorus burned in nerve tissue. What of that? We know\nthat in one of these vials is all the phosphorus that existed in one\nhuman being; we may burn it all, and it will give flame, not\nintelligence. If intelligence comes from its burning, the process must\ntake place in nerve cells organized for the purpose, and that structure\nmust have been planned by superior thought.\n\nTo call the ingredients of these bottles a human being would be like\ncalling a pile of brick, mortar and lumber a house, except the\ncomparison fails in the house being built by outside forces, while the\nliving being must be organized from within. No mixing of the contents of\nthese bottles and jars can evolve life, or even the smallest speck of\nprotoplasm.\n\n\nTHE ANATOMIST.--The third scheme is that of the anatomist, who with\nkeen-edged scalpel bends over the body after life has gone out of it,\nand traces the course of arteries and veins, the form and location of\nnerves, the attachment of muscular fibers, and in connection with the\nphysiologist defines the functions of each separate organ. An\nexquisitely fashioned machine it is, wonderfully and fearfully made,\ngrowing up from an invisible germ. After anatomist and physiologist have\nfinished, and on their dissecting table only a mass of rubbish remains,\nthey triumphantly point to it and exclaim: \"See! We have settled the\nquestion of spirit! There can be nothing beyond this organism. We have\ndetermined how every cell and fiber of it are put together, and the\nfunctions they perform. No where is there an indication of any thing\nsuperior or transcending this material form. Here is where the food is\ndigested; here it is assimilated; here this secretion is made; here\nexcretion of poisonous matter takes place; here in the brain, in these\ngray cells, thought arises. Ah! it is a wonderful complex machine.\"\n\nIndeed it is, and what has become of the power which moved it? You have\na strange machine, unlike all others, for it is, according to your\nideas, an engine to make steam, instead of to be moved by it; a mill to\nmake a waterfall, instead of to be run by falling water. What is the\ndifference between a dead man and a living one? Incomprehensibly great,\nand yet the dead man to the chemist, the anatomist, the biologist, is\nidentically the same as the living. That unknown element, life, escapes\nthe crucible, the retort, the scalpel, the microscope, and the\nconclusions of those who take it not into consideration are the vague\nconjecturing of children, who have gained but a half knowledge of the\nsubjects that excite their attention.\n\nYet science proudly claims the knowledge of all things possible to know.\nIt has searched into the foundations of the earth and ascended the\nstarry dome of infinitude; it grasps the inconceivably small and the\ninconceivably great; it delves in the hard stratum of facts, and sports\nin the most sublime theories. It gives the laws of the dancing motes,\nand those which guide the movements of stellar worlds; the sullen forces\nof the elements and the subtile agencies which sustain living beings.\n\n\nWHAT IS BEYOND THE STRIFE FOR EXISTENCE?--What, O Science, is there\nbeyond the grave which shuts down with adamantine wall between this life\nand the future?\n\nThe answer comes: Beyond? There is nothing. Do not dream, but know the\nreality. What becomes of its music after the instrument is destroyed?\nWhere is the hum of the bee after the insect has passed on its busy\nwings? Where is the light in the lamp after the oil is burned? Where is\nthe heat of the grate after the coal has burned? Given the conditions\nand you have music, heat and light. When these conditions perish you\nhave nothing. As the impinging of oxygen against carbon in the flame\nproduces light and heat, so the combination of elements in the nerves\nand brain produces the phenomena of life and intelligence. As the liver\nsecretes bile, so the brain produces thought. Destroy the brain and mind\ndisappears, as the music when the instrument is broken.\n\nLook you and see the strife for existence. See you the myriads of human\nbeings who have perished. The world is one vast charnel house, its\nmaterial being worked over and over again in endless cycle. Tooth and\nclaw to rend and tear; arrow, club, spear, sword, and gun to kill; the\nweak to fall, the strong and brutal to triumph, to multiply, and advance\nby the slaughter of its own weaker members. The atom you can not see\nwith unaided eye devours and is devoured, and ascending to man, he is by\nturns the slayer and the slain.\n\n    There's not an atom of the earth's thick crust,\n    Of earth or rock, or metals' hardened rust,\n    But has a myriad times been charged with life,\n    And mingled in the vortex of its strife;\n    And every grain has been a battle-field\n    Where murder boldly rushed with sword and shield.\n    Turn back the rocky pages of earth's lore,\n    And every page is written o'er and o'er\n    With wanton waste. The weak are for the strong,\n    And Might is victor, whether right or wrong.\n    Enameled armor and tesselated scale,\n    With conic tooth that broke the flinty mail;\n    The shell protecting and the jaw which ground\n    The shell to dust, there side by side are found;\n    The fin that sped the weak from danger's path,\n    The stronger fin that sped the captor's wrath;\n    A charnel house where, locked in endless strife,\n    Cycle the balanced forces, Death and Life.\n\nIf you seek for a meaning or a purpose you will find none. What you call\ndesign is only the harmony of fluctuating chances produced by countless\nfailures.\n\n\nPHILOSOPHY.--Invoke philosophy with her robes of snow, pretending to a\nknowledge of the world and its infinite destiny; it will tell you of the\ncycle of being; the succession of generations; that life and death\ncomplement each other, and that all you may hope for is change.\nUnceasing change is the abiding law, and he who grasps to hold, will\nfind but shadows in his grasp.\n\n\nRELIGION.--Religion may teach us a pessimistic view of the world, and to\nbow like cringing slaves unquestioningly to the rod. We may accept that\nall is for the best whether we understand it or not, as the unalterable\ndecree of fate, yet as rational beings we recoil from this bondage, and\nthe questions are ever present, of the purpose of this life and the\nevidences of that future of which the most doubting dream.\n\nReligion, resting as it does on the immortality of the spirit, should\nanswer us so plainly and absolutely that there could be no doubt. That\nthere is weeping and broken hearts shows that it does not, or else that\nit makes that existence so terrible that the dread of it is more than\nthat of annihilation. The fear of Hell, which has driven the world to\nmadness, is now cast into the lumber room with other errors, outgrown,\nand in the free atmosphere one can not understand the terrors it once\nawakened. The arbitrary heaven is also passing away, and a more natural\nconception of the future life is gaining precedent. Yet the words of\nteachers of religion are cold and soulless, and even the poets, touched\nby the finger of a decaying faith, voice the incredulity of the age in\nlines which speak only in despair. Oh! poet of immortal song, how\nchilling to the heart the words that yet too often find response in its\ndoubts and fears:\n\n    \"And the stately ships go on\n      To their haven under the hill;\n    But oh! for the touch of a vanished hand,\n      And the sound of a voice that is still.\n\n    \"Break, break, break,\n      At the foot of thy crags, O sea!\n    But the tender grace of a day that is dead,\n      Will never come back to me.\"\n\nThere is little consolation to be found in these directions. Let us turn\nback to first principles; let us for a time forget the claims of\nscientists and take up the book of nature at her plain alphabet and\nascertain whether these claims of material science have a sure\nfoundation.\n\n\n\n\nWhat is the Sensitive State?\n\n\nA RACE WITHOUT SIGHT.--If the human race were born without organs of\nvision, man could form no idea of the beautiful and splendid phenomena\nrevealed to the eye. The normal state would be blindness. Day and night\nwould be marked by intervals of repose and activity, but the cloudy\nmidnight and the radiance of the sun, the glories of morning, the\nsplendors of sunset, the star-gemmed canopy of the cloudless night, the\ninfinite changes, the phantasmagoria of heaven and earth, would be\nunknown. The flowers might bloom in beauty, their fragrance would\ndelight, but their form and color would be unrecognized. The mind,\ndeprived of the infinite series of sensations which flow into it through\nthe sense of vision, would have none of the conceptions thereby\nengendered. If a being who could see should attempt to reveal to the\nsightless race the beauties of the world as seen by the eye in the\nlight, they would treat him as an impostor relating an idle tale, to\nthem incomprehensible.\n\n\nA RACE WITHOUT HEARING.--If to the deprivation of sight were added the\nloss of hearing, the vital powers would not be impaired; the organic\nfunctions would continue the same, but all sounds would cease and\nperfect silence reign. The mind could form no conception of music, the\nsongs of birds, the sighing of the wind, the roar of the storm, or the\nsoft modulations of the human voice. As nature would be voiceless, so\nman would be dumb. The gift of speech would be lost with the power of\nreceiving the sounds of words. The soul, in silence and darkness, unable\nto communicate its thoughts with others, would be bereft of all the\nsensations, emotions, and conceptions which arise from seeing and\nhearing, nor could it be taught these by those who possessed these\nsenses, for no conceptions could be formed of sights never seen, or\nsounds never heard.\n\n\nSENSITIVENESS.--In like manner, the sensitive condition reveals a\nuniverse which is unknown to the senses, and of which man is as\nprofoundly ignorant as those born blind are of light. It is the heritage\nof all, yet manifested only at rare intervals in favored individuals. It\nis as it would be with the sense of sight, were thousands blind, while a\nfew saw imperfectly, and only one with distinctness. The sight of that\none would indicate what all might attain under favorable circumstances,\nas the perception of those who are sensitive shows what is possible in\nthis direction. It is through this gateway that we are able to penetrate\nthe arcana of a higher existence, and it is our purpose to go by easy\nsteps along the pathway that leads into the vista stretching beyond this\nportal, into unexplored regions, of which scarcely a conception has yet\nbeen formed.\n\nWe have consciousness of spiritual realities, of an infinite after-life,\nand aspirations which it alone can satisfy, and for which this mortal\nsphere furnishes no provision. Shall we regard these aspirations as idle\nlongings, and this consciousness as a baseless fancy? Or have we\nspiritual energies which have called this spiritual nature into being?\n\nThe eye is created in conformity to the laws of light, to receive the\nrays and allow their impingement on the optic nerves. It is proof of the\nexistence of light. In the same manner, spiritual perception is evidence\nof the existence of spiritual energies. It would be quite as difficult\nfor the mind to comprehend spiritual being, if without this\nconsciousness, as for the blind to understand the beauties of light.\n\nSensitiveness is a faculty pertaining to the spiritual nature, and is\nacute in proportion as that spiritual nature dominates the physical\nsenses. It is possessed by all, and by a few in a remarkable degree. It\nis variable in the same individual, is often the result of drugs, of\nfatigue, of sleep, and may be induced or intensified by hypnotism or\nmesmerism. It may manifest itself suddenly and at long intervals, once\nonly in a lifetime, or be a steadfast quality. It may have all degrees\nof acuteness, from impressibility scarcely distinguishable from the\nindividual's own thoughts, to the purest independent clairvoyance.\n\n\nCONDITIONS AND ILLUSTRATIONS OF SENSITIVENESS.--For one mind to\ninfluence another, the two must be in harmony, at least in certain\npoints. The thought vibrations in one will not otherwise awake like\nvibrations in the other. Take for illustration two musical strings, one\nwith fixed attachments, and the other with a moveable bridge or stop.\nNow if the first be set in vibration, the other, being on a different\nkey, will not respond in unison, but the stop will slightly move; and if\nthe vibrations continue, the stop will move forward until the exact\nlength of chord is attained, and then both strings will vibrate in\nharmony, one repeating the notes of the other.\n\nIf an hundred musical instruments were placed in a room, only two of\nwhich were tuned alike, if one of these were touched, its mate would\nrespond, but the others would remain silent.\n\nThese thought vibrations may be received suddenly like a flash, as in\nthe case of premonitions and warnings of danger, the sensitive state\nlasting but a brief time; or it may be cultivated and become permanent\nwith the individual. The hypnotic, or somnambulic subject, may be more\nor less affected at first, and slowly fall under the influence, until\nthe continuous condition is the same as that in which a premonition is\nreceived.\n\nAs an illustration of the method by which this is accomplished, whether\nthe operator be a spirit clad in a physical or in a celestial body, the\nimprovements by age and use of the violin may be taken.\n\nThis instrument, the most perfect of all in its capacity for expressing\nthe delicate feelings of the soul, gains its soft sweetness and rich\nperfection by use and age. The cremona, worth its weight in gold, may\nonce have been harsh, with dissonant tones, rasping to the ear. The\nTyrolese maker selects the smoothest wood his mountain affords, clear of\ngrain, and free from flaw or blemish. He carves the parts with sedulous\ncare and exhaustless patience; swell and curve and hollow are wrought,\npolished, and cemented together so as to make them as one. Then the\ndelicate strings are drawn over the bridge, and the instrument tested.\nIt may squeak or jar, and refuse, even in a master's hands, to express\nhis desire. But with every vibration of the strings it improves. Every\nmovement changes its fibers, and forces them into harmonious accord.\nAfter a time they will all be in unison. The playing of a single tune\nmay not produce this result; a score or a thousand may not. It may pass\nfrom hand to hand, and generation after generation may grow old and die,\nas each successive master touches its strings, before all its deepest\nqualities are expressed. Then its tones melt in voluptuous harmony; wail\nwith the broken hearted; fill the soul with the gladness of delight;\nrevive the murmur of the sombre pines; the song of the birds in the\nforest; the laughing of falling waters; the hoarse voice of the tempest\nwith hail and lightning flash, rush of winds and burst of clouds. Nature\nspeaks through the instrument, and vibrates the heart with every\nemotion, passion, and aspiration.\n\nIn the same manner, if a being independent of, and detached from the\nphysical body, should attempt to impress its thoughts on a sensitive, it\nmight no more than partially succeed after many trials. Each effort,\nhowever, would be more successful, for thought vibrations constantly\ntend to efface the causes of discord, and if the Intelligence is\npatient, and the sensitive submissive, the thoughts of the former would\nat last flow uninterruptedly into or through the mind of the latter.\n\nAnd what is thus possible for a sensitive, in regard to an individual\nintelligence, is possible to acquire in relation to the thought\natmosphere of the universe, or psychic-ether. If this be possible, if a\nbeing may become thus exquisitively sensitive, and receive the waves of\nthought as they traverse this ether, as the eye catches vibrations of\nlight, that being would be a focus to receive the intelligence of all\nthinking beings in the universe.\n\nThe sensitive state, then, is the outcropping in mortal life, in\napparently abnormal form, of that which is normal to the spirit of life.\nWe thus conclude that its most astonishing development, as revealed, is\nimmeasurably below its normal capabilities when freed from the\nlimitation of the body. The permanent condition of a spiritual being\nafter separation from the physical form must be that of the most perfect\nand delicately sensitive. What we see here in partial or total eclipse,\nis there in the glory of full light.\n\n\nTHOUGHTS NOT WORDS IMPRESSED.--While Max M\u00fcller ardently supports his\ntheory that thought itself depends upon the words which express it, we\nconstantly meet with facts which indicate that the _idea_ is conveyed\nfrom one mind to another, and there is clothed in words according to\nthe culture of the receiving mind. The vividness with which the idea is\nimpressed insures the use of similar verbal clothing. An instance is\nreported by Dapson, in Deleuze, where a sealed letter was given a very\nsusceptible magnetic subject. It reads:\n\n   \"No other than the eye of Omnipotence can read this sentence\n   in this envelope.\n\n                               _Troy, New York, Aug. 1837._\"\n\nThe subject read it:\n\n   \"No other than the eye of Omnipotence can read this in this\n   envelope.                               ---------- 1837.\"\n\nHe omitted \"sentence,\" and all the date but the year. It is to be\nobserved that in all instances of thought transference or sensitiveness,\nthe reproduction of names, dates, etc., expressed by arbitrary words,\nare the most difficult and unreliable, and this has been a source of\ndoubt, and an argument against the truthfulness of the magnetic subject.\n\nIt requires a deeper hypnotic state to receive dates and names\ncorrectly, than connected ideas. It is because ideas and not the verbal\nform are received, that culture becomes of greatest value connected with\nsensitiveness, as will be amplified in a succeeding section, treating on\nmisconceived sensitiveness, whereby is made possible the seemingly\nsuperhuman achievements of authors, philosophers, sages, statesmen, and\ninventors. It will also be more extendedly treated of in the chapter\ndevoted to the consideration of Dreams.\n\n\n\n\nSensitive State: Its Division into Mesmeric, Somnambulic, and\nClairvoyant.\n\n\nTHE SIXTH SENSE.--In the normal state we know and understand the\nexternal world through and by the senses. The eye reveals to us the\nbeauties of light, and by its aid the wondrous diversities of nature.\nThe ear brings to the mind the varied sounds, makes oral speech and the\nsweet harmonies of music possible. The organ of smell sentinels the\ncitadel of health against pestiferous odors, and gives the exquisite\nenjoyment of perfumes. Ordinarily we rely on these senses as our guides,\nand so complete is our reliance that we recognize no other avenue to\nknowledge of the external world; yet at times we find that our minds\nextend beyond the senses and have capabilities which can not be referred\nto them. There is an interior perception, which has been called the\nsixth sense, which, sensitive to impressions from supernal sources, at\ntimes rises above all the others. It is through this sense or better,\nthis sensitive state, that we gain an insight into the spiritual nature\nof man. The senses would lead us away to a gross materialism, for they\nbelong to the animal organization; this sensitiveness leads us in an\nopposite direction. We find through it another nature overlaid and\nobscured by the senses and their understanding. This sensitive state is\nthe activity of the spiritual being, in the ratio of its perfection, and\nis really as normal as the most sensuous condition. The study of this\nstate is the gateway to the understanding of our spiritual being, and\nthe first lesson it teaches is that man is a dual creation; a spirit, an\nintelligent entity, clothed with, and circumscribed by, a physical body.\nOnly so far as that body interferes with the activity of the spirit, is\nit of interest to us in the present discussion, which relates entirely\nto the spirit.\n\nThis sensitive state is possessed by many, and in many more it may be\ninduced by proper means. It may be laid down as a rule that whatever\nweakens the physical faculties strengthens this spiritual perception.\nThus it is often manifested in disease, after fatigue, or in the\nnegative hours of sleep. Some drugs have the power of inducing it, and\nmesmerism is the strongest of all artificial means. I use the term\n_sensitive_ with the meaning here given, and from that meaning shall not\ndeviate. Many who possess this power in a slight degree may not\ndistinguish its perceptions from those of the senses with which they\nblend, but there are times when the mind passes into an entirely\ndifferent state from that of its normal activity, that of sensitive\nreceptivity, and what is usually termed intuition is intensified. I\npropose to study this sensitive state first in connection with that of\nwakefulness, and then with that of sleep; and from simple\nthought-reading to the reception of thought from supernal sources.\n\nHitherto the discussion of spirit has been considered impracticable by\nscientific methods, and theology and metaphysics have occupied the\nfield. In this border-land between the known and the unknown, ignorance\nand charlatanry have held high carnival, and those who love scientific\naccuracy perhaps are excusable in regarding the belief in spiritual\nbeings as a superstition; yet there has accumulated as folk lore, as\nmyths, as an outside, out-of-the-way literature, a vast mass of\nmaterial, some of which, it is true, is mere rubbish, through which\ngleams bright veins of truth, showing the close relations between the\nseen and the unseen universes. Here and there a sensitive mind has\nreceived the light in clearer effulgence, and made the surrounding gloom\nmore densely impenetrable. At remote intervals the oriflamme of the\nspiritual conception of nature has flashed athwart the intervals of\ngross materialism, but religion, moral conduct, not knowledge, has been\nthe motive. This age demands knowledge for its own sweet sake, assured\nthat the highest morality will flow therefrom. In the study of the\nconditions of the mind, the various states of sleep, clairvoyance,\nsomnambulism, etc., will be defined and illustrated.\n\n\nSLEEP.--Sleep is the \"twin sister of death\" only in appearance, for\naside from poetic fancy, sleep is the negative condition of activity. In\nperfect sleep all the faculties of the mind are in repose, and the\nbodily functions go on with the least waste. It is essentially restful\nand recuperative. The waste of the body, its wear and tear of muscle and\nnerve is repaired; new cells take the place of those broken down, and\nthe debris moves slowly forward to the excretory organs and is\neliminated.\n\nIn this state of negative repose there is no manifestation of thought,\nand it is as unlike the clairvoyant or sensitive state as that of\nwakefulness; but shaded into this state of sleep, as into that of\nwakefulness, are various degrees of sensitiveness. The conditions of\nsleep are provocative of this impressibleness. Night is negative; the\nsilence and the vail of darkness shutting out external objects conduce\nto make the mind negative and susceptible.\n\nAt midnight is the culmination of this negativeness, and hence the\nghastly dread of that hour has a foundation in fact, and is not an idle\nsuperstition. Ghosts may never appear, yet if they were to appear the\nmidnight hour, of all others, would be assigned by the student cognizant\nof this fact for them to come like shafts of frozen moonshine, into the\nwalks of men.\n\n\nMESMERIC STATE.--Mesmerism, under whatever name, animal magnetism,\nhypnotism, etc., is a potent means in the study of psychology. It has\nmade it possible to command many of the most evanescent phenomena, and\nallow of their careful examination, when otherwise they came at rare\nintervals and at such unexpected moments as made it impossible to\ncarefully compare and study them. Somnambulism, clairvoyance, and that\nstate of exquisite sensitiveness which makes us receptive of impressions\ntransformed into dreams, may be commanded in a sensitive, and observed\nat leisure.\n\nIn the commencement we must free ourselves from the commonly received\nidea that sleep has any resemblance to any of these several states which\nare usually called magnetic, mesmeric, or clairvoyant sleep. As already\nstated, sleep is the negative of being, and more distinct from these\nstates of exalted perception than waking. The incongruous and often\nincoherent visions which arise in the half-waking state, or when only a\npart of the mental faculties are at rest, are the ordinary dreams, which\nhave no significance, and are very different in their origin and meaning\nfrom the impressions received in the sensitive state, which is one of\nintense wakefulness and activity. The sensitive condition is possessed\nin a marked degree by about one in five, and may be induced in a still\nlarger ratio. It is more frequently found in women than in men. It may\nbe cultivated, and become an important factor in the character and\nhappiness of the individual.\n\nWe will simply for convenience divide the sensitive state into the\nhypnotic, somnambulic and clairvoyant; but it must be borne in mind that\nthese merge into each other; and that no sharp line can be drawn between\nthem.\n\nMesmerism may be regarded as the method by which all of these states may\nbe induced. The mesmeric state is equivalent to the hypnotic. After\nyears of delay, mesmerism has been accepted under another name, that of\nhypnotism; but the theory of a \"fluid\" or specific influence is\ndiscarded. Hypnotists cannot, however, exceed the most common\nexperiments without the facts demanding even as a working hypothesis,\nthis specific influence.\n\nThe ticking of a watch held close to the ear, or intensely gazing at\nsome object, will throw a sensitive into an abnormal condition, at the\nmercy of the \"dominant idea,\" and he becomes an automaton in the hands\nof an external influence. This is the hypnotic state, beyond which the\n\"dominant idea\" fails. A sensitive may be led by a \"dominant idea,\" but\nsoon manifests a power which stretches beyond into an unexplored region\nof possibilities, exhibiting mental perceptions far more acute than\nthose possess who are around him, or he himself possesses in his normal\ncondition. Hypnotism as treated by its exponents is an extremely\ncomplicated state, ranging from the cataleptic to the independent\nclairvoyant. To define it with the usual narrow meaning is extremely\nmisleading and unscientific.\n\nThere are two distinct states of hypnotism. The first is that in which\nmost platform experiments are made. The sensitive is capable of carrying\non conversations, answering questions, and is governed by a \"dominant\nidea,\" believing all the operator wishes, and doing as commanded.\n\nThe sensitive rapidly enters the next stage, when he becomes insensible\nto pain, and irresponsive to the address of any one except the operator.\nUntil this stage is reached consciousness and memory are retained, a\nfact fatal to the theory of automatic action or \"unconscious\ncerebration.\" In this profound state the sensitive has no memory of\nevents which occur. It is an induced, incipient somnambulism, the true\ncounterpart of that which under proper condition appears spontaneously.\n\nThe report of the Committee on Hypnotism, vol. I., p. 95, of Proceedings\nof American Society for Psychical Research, shows that it confined its\nattention to fifty or sixty students of Harvard College. Of these about\na dozen were affected, and of these, two were so good that attention was\nconfined to them.\n\n\"The extraordinary mixture, in the hypnotic trance, of preternatural\nrefinement of discrimination with the grossest insensibility, is one of\nthe most remarkable features of the condition. A blank sheet of paper,\nwith fine-cut edges, without watermarks or any thing which could lead to\nthe recognition of one side or edge from the other, is shown to the\nsubject with the statement that it is a photograph of a well-known face.\nAs soon as he distinctly sees the photograph upon its surface, he is\ntold that it will float off from the paper, make a voyage around the\nwalls of the room, and then return to the paper again. During this\nimaginary performance, he sees it successfully on the various regions of\nthe wall; but if the paper is meanwhile secretly turned over, and handed\nto him upside down, or with its under surface on top, he instantly\nrecognizes the change, and seeing the portrait in the altered position\nof the paper, turns the latter about, 'to get the portrait right.'\"\n\nIn the hypnotic state the subject is under the control of the operator,\nand in a great degree an automaton; in the somnambulic, he in part\nregains his individuality, and in certain lines of thought and action is\nsuperior to himself in his waking moments. Natural somnambulism comes\nwithout warning, and illustrates the condition induced by mesmeric\npasses.\n\n\nSOMNAMBULISM.--Sleep waking, or sleep walking, whatever may be its\ncause, mental derangement by disease or intense exertion of mind or\nbody, or a constitutional inclination thereto, is of deepest interest to\nthe psychologist as proving the independence of the spirit of the\nphysical senses. The somnambulist has lost the use of his senses. He\nfeels, hears and sees nothing by touch, ear or eye, and yet the objects\nto which his attention is drawn are plainly perceptible.\n\nThe Archbishop of Bordeaux is authority for the following narrative: A\nyoung clergyman was in the habit of rising from his bed, and writing his\nsermons while asleep. When he had written a page he would read it aloud\nand correct it. Once in altering the expression \"_ce devin enfant_,\" he\nsubstituted the word \"_adorable_\" for \"_devin_,\" which, commencing with\na vowel, required that \"_ce_\" before it should be changed to \"_cet_;\" he\naccordingly added the \"_t_.\" While he was writing the Archbishop held a\npiece of pasteboard under his chin to prevent him seeing what he was\nwriting, but he went on without being in the least incommoded. The paper\non which he was writing was removed and another piece substituted, but\nhe at once perceived the change. He also wrote pieces of music with his\neyes closed. He once wrote the words under the notes too large, but\ndiscovering his mistake, he erased and rewrote them. He certainly did\nnot see with his eyes and yet the vision was perfect.\n\nThe case of Jane C. Rider, known as the Springfield somnambulist,\ncreated in its time much wonder and speculation among intelligent\npersons acquainted with the facts. A full account of it was published in\nthe Boston _Medical and Surgical Journal_, Volume XI., Numbers 4 and 5.\nMiss Rider would walk in her sleep, attend to domestic duties in the\ndark or with her eyes bandaged, and read in a dark room with her eyes\ncovered with cotton batting, over which was tied a black silk\nhandkerchief. She learned without difficulty to play at backgammon while\nin this state, and would generally beat her antagonist, though in her\nnormal state she knew nothing about the game.\n\nA young lady, while at school, succeeded in her Latin exercises without\ndevoting much time or attention to them, apparently. At length the\nsecret of her easy progress was discovered. She was observed to leave\nher room at night, take her class-book, and go to a certain place on the\nbanks of a small stream, where she remained but a short time and then\nreturned to the house. In the morning she was invariably unconscious of\nwhat had occurred during the night; but a glance at the lesson of the\nday usually resulted in the discovery that it was already quite familiar\nto her.\n\nA young man on a farm in Australia, after a hard day's work, went to\nsleep on a sofa; after some little time he arose, passed through several\ngates, opening and fastening them. Reaching the shed, he took off his\ncoat, sharpened his shears, caught a sheep, and had just finished\nshearing it when his companions came with lanterns in search of him. The\nshock of awaking caused him to tremble like a leaf, but he soon\nrecovered. The sheep was shorn as perfectly as if the work had been done\nin broad daylight.\n\n\nMORAL EFFECT OF MESMERISM.--Dr. Voisin recommends a suggestive\napplication of mesmerism. He experimented on a coarse, debauched and\nlazy woman, who was susceptible to magnetism; and kept her in the\nmesmeric sleep ten or twelve hours a day, and to its value as a curative\nagent he added moral education. During her sleep he suggested ideas of\nobedience, of submission, of decency, and exhorted her to useful labor.\nIn this sleep she memorized whole pages of moral books. A complete\ntransformation was effected in her in a few months.\n\nWhat a glorious field here opens for the moral reformer! The calloused\ncriminal who will not listen to moral suasion, deaf alike to entreaty\nand prayer, may be hypnotized, and in that susceptible condition taught\nthe Lord's Prayer and moral precepts; his moral nature roused and thus\nbe transformed into a new being. The influence of some men when brought\ninto contact with criminals is explained by their strong mesmeric or\nhypnotic influence. They always lift up those they control. They are\nborn masters, though they may not understand the cause of their\nstrength.\n\n\nTRANCE AND CLAIRVOYANCE.--The trance or clairvoyant state has been\nobserved in all ages and among all races of mankind. It has, in seasons\nof great religious excitement, become epidemic, the devotee falling in\nconvulsions, becoming cataleptic, and after hours, days, or even months\nof apparent death, awakening with mind overwrought with visions of the\nstrange world in which it had dwelt during the period of\nunconsciousness.\n\nThe records of clairvoyance are as old as history. If prophecy, the\n\"clear seeing of the future,\" be its fruit, the prophets and sages of\nthe past were all more or less endowed with this gift. Socrates and\nApollonius predicted, and were conscious of, events transpiring at\nremote distances. Cicero mentions that when the revelations are being\ngiven, someone must be present to record them, as \"these sleepers do not\nretain any recollection of them.\" Pliny, speaking of the celebrated\nHermotimus, of Clazomen\u00e6, remarks that his soul separated itself from\nthe body, and wandered in various parts of the earth, relating events\noccurring in distant places. During the period of inspiration his body\nwas insensible. The day of the battle of Pharsalia, Cornelius, a priest\nof profound piety, described while in Padua, as though present, every\nfeature of the fight. Nicephorus says that when the unfortunate Valens,\ntaking refuge in a barn, was burned by the Goths, a hermit named Paul,\nin a fit of ecstasy, cried out to those who were with him: \"It is now\nthat Valens burns.\" Tertulian describes two females, celebrated for\ntheir piety and ecstasy, that they entered that state in the midst of\nthe congregation, revealed celestial secrets, and knew the innermost\nhearts of persons.\n\nSt. Justin affirms that the sibyls foretold events correctly, and quotes\nPlato as coinciding with him in that view. St. Athenagoras says of the\nfaculty of prescience, that \"it is proper to the soul.\" Volumes might be\nreadily filled with quotations like the foregoing, showing that\nclairvoyance has been received as true by profound thinkers in every\nage. Swedenborg, Zschokke, Davis, are not peculiarities of modern times,\nbut repetitions of Socrates, Apollonius, and countless others who deeply\nimpressed their personality on their times.\n\n\nWHAT IS CLAIRVOYANCE?--Clairvoyance is a peculiar state of\nimpressibility, presenting gradations from semi-consciousness to\nprofound and death-like trance. Whether natural, or induced by\nartificial means, the attending phenomena are similar. In its most\nperfect form the body is in deepest sleep. A flame may be applied to it\nwithout producing the quiver of a nerve; the most pungent substances\nhave no effect on the nostrils; pins or needles thrust into the most\nsensitive part give no pain; surgical operations may be performed\nwithout being felt. Hearing, tasting, smelling, feeling, as well as\nseeing, are seemingly independent of the physical organs. The muscular\nsystem is either relaxed or rigid; the circulation impeded in some cases\nuntil the pulse becomes imperceptible; and respiration leaves no stain\non a mirror held over the nostrils.\n\nIn passing into this state, the extremities become cold, the brain\ncongested, the vital powers sink, a dreamy unconsciousness steals over\nthe faculties of the mind. There is a sensation of sinking or floating.\nAfter a time the perceptions become intensified; we can not say the\nsenses are intensified, for they are of the body, which for the time, is\ninsensible.\n\nThe mind sees without the physical organs of vision, hears without the\norgans of hearing, and feeling becomes a refined consciousness, which\nbrings it _en rapport_ with the intelligence of the world. The more\ndeath-like the conditions of the body, the more lucid the mind, which\nfor the time owes it no fealty.\n\nIf, as there is every reason to believe, clairvoyance depends on the\nunfolding of the spirit's perception, then the extent of that unfolding\nmarks the degree of its perfection. However great or small this may be,\nthe state itself is the same, differing only in degree, whether observed\nin the Pythian or Delphic oracle, the visions of St. John, the trance of\nMohammed, the epidemic catalepsy of religious revivals, or the\nillumination of Swedenborg. The revelations made have a general\nresemblance, but they are so colored by surrounding circumstances that\nthey are extremely fallible. The tendency of the trance is to make\nobjective the subjective ideas acquired by education. This is exhibited\nin cases of religious ecstasy and trance, when the subject sees visions\nof winged angels and of Christ; transforming dogmas and beliefs into\nobjective realities. Such revelations, of course, have no more value\nthan the illusory visions of the fever-stricken patient.\n\nYet there is a profound state which sets this aside, and divests the\nmind of all trammels, and brings it into direct contact with the thought\natmosphere of the world--the psycho-ether. Time and space for it, then,\nhave no existence, and matter is transparent.\n\nThe weakening of the physical powers by disease is favorable to\nsensitiveness. As the senses are deadened, the powers of the interior\nconsciousness are quickened, and a new world rises above the horizon of\nthe corporeal senses.\n\nEvidence of the truth of clairvoyance was given in the _Brooklyn Eagle_,\nsoon after the loss of the \"Arctic,\" in 1854. The wife, son and daughter\nof Captain Collins were making the tour of Europe, and the Captain, to\ngratify a passing whim, consulted a clairvoyant as to their locality.\nThe answer was that they were at that time visiting a church, which was\naccurately described. When the wife's letter came, it contained a\nnarrative of a visit to a church at exactly the same hour, describing it\nas the clairvoyant had done, thus showing that the communication was\nquite correct.\n\nAs the family had arranged to return on the \"Arctic,\" and as the ship\nwas a day late, of course Captain Collins became anxious. Sunday and\nMonday passed without news from the ship, and his anxiety increased. He\nthought of the clairvoyant and called on her. At first, although\napparently deeply entranced, she could see nothing. Everything was in a\ncloud. At length she was able to see the three persons standing on the\ndeck of a ship, amid great confusion, and almost concealed in fog and\nmist. This was all she could discern. This was nearly two days before\nthe telegraph announced the loss of the \"Arctic,\" and the arrival of a\nboat-load of survivors on the Canadian coast. But the Collins family\nwere not among the saved.\n\nIf we compare what may be called artificially induced with the\nspontaneous clairvoyance, we shall find them similar. The first example\nis of a sensitive, a youth of seventeen, who was blindfolded by means\nof soft paper folded double, and then gummed over his eyelids, and a\nsilk handkerchief tied over this paper. Under these circumstances the\nsensitive was able to take a pack of cards and select any one called\nfor, read the pages of a book, although those present were ignorant of\nthe words, his sensitiveness being entirely independent of the knowledge\nof those around him.\n\n\nCLAIRVOYANCE FROM DISEASE.--There are instances where persons have\nfallen into this sensitive or clairvoyant state by disease or a nervous\nshock, and in the prolonged trance which followed, manifested all the\nphenomena usual to the induced somnambulic or clairvoyant state, even in\nhigher degree. Of these Mollie Fancher is one of the best examples. She\nwas called the \"sleepless girl of Brooklyn,\" and for nine years, it is\nclaimed by competent authority, did not sleep, and ate so little food\nthat it was claimed she did not partake of any. She was, at fifteen\nyears of age, healthy, but delicately organized. At that time she was\nthrown from a street car, and her head and body injured. A day or two\nafterwards she was seized with violent spasms. One by one her senses\nfailed. Sight was first to leave, and hearing followed. Then she lost\nher speech, and then the ability to swallow. This last she had not been\nknown to exercise for nine years, and during the same length of time her\neyelids were closed. She took no sleep, unless the intervals of trance\nbe called sleep. She was breathless and rigid as dead. These spasms\nlasted less than a minute, and were accompanied with, or followed by,\nviolent muscular contortions.\n\nHer lower limbs became twisted entirely around each other. Her right arm\nwas bent upward and doubled under her head. She had no use of her right\nhand at all, and of the left hand only the thumb and little finger.\nLying all the time, night and day, upon her right side, her right hand\ncramped under her neck, and only her left free, with closed eyes, and\nworking back of her head, as she was forced to do, she wrought the most\nexquisite worsted work and wax flowers. The darkness or light were all\nthe same to her; in fact, the light was painful to her, and even the\ngas-light was placed in the further corner of the room and shaded. She\nregained hearing and speech after several years, but otherwise her\nconditions remained unchanged. She knew the thoughts of those who came\nnear her; printed pages or a sealed letter held in her hand back of her\nhead were readily read. Mr. Henry Parkhurst made many experiments to\ntest her powers. She repeatedly read sealed letters he gave her, and, as\na crucial test, he took a letter at random from the waste basket of an\nacquaintance, tore it in strips, and then cut the stripes into squares.\nHe shook the pieces well together, put them into an envelope, and sealed\nit. This he handed the blind girl. She passed her hand over it several\ntimes, took a pencil and wrote the letter verbatim. Mr. Parkhurst opened\nthe envelope, arranged the pieces, and found she had made a perfect\ncopy.\n\nNot satisfied, with the assistance of two friends, Mr. Parkhurst secured\nan ancient mining report, yellow with age, and with averted face, so\nthat he might not see the contents, he tore out a page of tabulated\nfigures with explanation. This he folded and tore into scores of pieces.\nSome of the pieces fell on the floor and were allowed to remain there.\nThe others he put in an envelope and sealed, and handed to one of his\nassistants, who put it in another envelope, which he also sealed and\nhanded to the third, who enclosed it in the same manner. Then the party\nwent to Miss Fancher's room, and asked her to give them the contents of\nthe envelope. She took it in her hand and wrote, \"It is nonsense;\nfigures in which there are blank places, words that are incomplete, and\nsentences in which words are missing.\" She wrote on, in some sentences\nskipping three or four words, and began with the last five letters of a\nword having ten letters. The table of figures she made contained blank\nspaces, but she wrote it out; and the gentleman returned to Mr.\nParkhurst's, where they arranged the pieces in their original form. They\nfound that the copy made by Miss Fancier was absolutely correct, and the\nblank spaces represented the pieces left on the floor. When these were\nfitted in, the broken sentences were complete.\n\nDr. Spier, from the first her attending physician, watched her case with\nunrelenting vigilance, and made a full record of her changing symptoms.\nOne day he received a note from her, warning him that an attempt would\nbe made to rob him, and the next day the attempt was made. She knew when\nhe was coming, and would mention the moment he started from his\nresidence, a mile away. In the early stages of her illness, Dr. Spier\nadministered an emetic to test whether the claim that she had not\npartaken of food was true. It gave her great pain, and proved that her\nstomach was empty. She well knew the nature of the medicine, although\npurposely he attempted to keep it from her. Soon after she went into the\nrigid condition which lasted nine years. When she began to recover, the\nmemory of these nine years was gone, and she only remembered the\nincidents of the previous. Nine years and a half after administering the\ntest, when Dr. Spier entered the room, Miss Fancher broke out with:\n\"You thought I didn't know you gave me that medicine, but I did. You\nwanted to learn if food was in my stomach, but found none there. It made\nme very sick. You will not do so again, will you?\"\n\nThus she returned after all that time to the thought which she had at\nthe moment of entering on that strange experience. She had a double\nlife, and did not remember anything which occurred in her trance.\n\n\nA SIMILAR CASE IN ENGLAND.--The case of Mollie Fancher is not alone,\nalthough, perhaps, not more remarkable than that of Miss Eliza Hamilton\nof England. A physician visited her in 1882, when she was fourteen years\nof age. He found that in 1881 she had met with a severe injury which had\ncaused paralysis of her limbs and right arm. She had been treated at the\nhospital for four months, at the end of which time she ceased to take\nfood and returned home. He saw her about two months thereafter, and thus\nspeaks of her: \"She frequently passes into a trance condition, in which\nher left arm becomes as stiff and immovable as her right one. She sings\nhymns and repeats passages from the Bible, but is quite insensible to\npain when pinched or pricked with a pin; nor does she hear or speak when\naddressed. When she revives, she tells her friends that she has been to\nvarious places and seen various people, and describes conversations\nwhich she has had, and objects she has seen in the rooms of persons she\nhas been visiting. These descriptions, on inquiry, are found to be\ncorrect.... At times she speaks of having been in the company of persons\nwith whom she was acquainted in this world, but who have passed away;\nand she tells her friends that they have become much more beautiful, and\nhave cut off the infirmities with which they were afflicted while here.\nShe often describes events which are about to happen to her and are\nalways fulfilled exactly as she predicts.\"\n\nHer father read in her presence a letter he had received from a friend\nin Leeds, speaking of the loss of his daughter, about whose fate he and\nhis family were very unhappy, as she had disappeared nearly a month\nbefore and left no trace. Eliza went into the trance state, and cried\nout, \"Rejoice! I have found the lost girl! She is happy in the angel\nworld.\" She said the girl had fallen into dark water where dyers washed\ntheir cloths; that her friends could not have found her had they sought\nher there, but now the body had floated a few miles and could be found\nin the River Aire. The body was found as described.\n\nNow, knowing that her eyes were closed, that she could not hear, that\nher bodily senses were in profound lethargy, how are we to account for\nthe intensivity and keenness of sight, the quick deftness of figures\nenabling her to make the most beautiful contrast of colors in her\nworsteds, or the delicate adjustment of the petals of her flowers? Her\nmental powers were exceedingly exalted, and scarcely a question could be\nasked her but she correctly answered.\n\nIn this case the independence of the mind of the physical body shown in\nevery instance of clairvoyance, is proven beyond cavil or doubt. If it\nis demonstrated that the mind sees without the aid of eyes, hears when\nthe ears are deaf, feels when the nerves of sensation are at rest, it\nfollows that it is independent of these outward avenues, and has other\nchannels of communication with the external world essentially its own.\n\nIt must be here observed that as long as the mind is united with the\nbody, usually the physical senses overlay and conceal the higher psychic\nfaculties. The mind seemingly is dependent on the body, and is changeful\nto corporeal conditions. It becomes enfeebled by disease, by accidents\nto the brain, and at times disappears, like a lingering spark from a\nflame, in the dotage of age. This, however, is only external appearance,\narising from the limitations fixed by the contact with physical matter,\nas the light of the sun may be shut out by an opaque body.\n\nThe case of Laura Bridgeman is an illustration and evidence from another\npoint of view that the intellect is, in a measure at least, independent\nof the senses. Completely deprived of sight and hearing at an early\nperiod of childhood, she was a blind and deaf mute. She never had any\nknowledge, through the eyes, of the bright landscape, of the glorious\nsun, morning and evening, the blue sky, the floating clouds, the waving\ntrees, the green hills, the beautiful flowers. All was darkness and\nprofound night. She never heard the exquisite notes of harmony, of\ninstrument or modulated voice, the sigh of winds, the carol of birds. To\nher all had been unbroken silence. Dr. Howe, her kind and angelic\nteacher, says: \"As soon as she could walk she began to explore the rooms\nof the house. She became familiar with forms, density, weight, and heat,\nof every article she could lay her hands upon.... An attempt was made to\ngive her knowledge of arbitrary signs by which she could interchange\nthoughts with others. There was one of two ways to be adopted: Either to\ngo on and build up a language of signs which she had already commenced\nherself, or to teach her the purely arbitrary language in common use;\nthat is, to give her a sign for every individual thing, or to give her a\nknowledge of letters, by combinations by which she could express her\nideas of the existence, and the mode and condition of existence of\nanything. The former would have been easy, but very ineffectual; the\nlatter seemed difficult, but if accomplished, very effectual. I\ndetermined, therefore, to try the latter.\"\n\nAfter describing the process by which he taught her to associate names\nwith things, he goes on to say; \"Hitherto the process had been\nmechanical, and the success about as great as teaching a knowing dog a\nvariety of tricks. The poor child had sat in mute amazement, and\npatiently imitated everything her teacher did. But now the truth began\nto flash upon her; her intellect began to work; she perceived that here\nwas a way by which she could herself make up a sign of anything that was\nin her mind, and show it to another mind, and at once her countenance\nlighted up with a human expression. It was no longer a dog or a parrot;\nit was an immortal soul, eagerly seizing upon a link of union with other\nspirits! I could almost fix upon the moment the truth first dawned upon\nher mind, and spread its light to her countenance. I saw that the great\nobstacle was overcome, and henceforth nothing but patient perseverance,\nand plain, straight-forward efforts were to be used.\"\n\nAt the end of the year, a report of the case was made, from which the\nfollowing extract is taken: \"It has been ascertained beyond a\npossibility of a doubt, that she can not see a ray of light, can not\nhear the least sound, and never exercises her sense of smell if she has\nany. Thus her mind dwells in darkness and stillness, as profound as\nthat of a closed tomb at midnight. Of beautiful sights, sweet sounds,\nand pleasant odors, she has no perception; nevertheless, she is happy\nand playful as a lamb, a bird, and the enjoyment of her intellectual\nfaculties, or the acquirement of a new idea, gives her a vivid pleasure,\nwhich is plainly marked in her expressive features.... In her\nintellectual character, it was pleasing to observe an insatiable thirst\nfor knowledge and a quick perception of the relation of things. In her\nmoral character, it is beautiful to behold her continued goodness, her\nkeen enjoyment of existence, her expansive love, her unhesitating\nconfidence, her sympathy with suffering, her conscientiousness,\ntruthfulness and hopefulness.\"\n\nHer spirit was locked within her body without the least contact with the\nworld through the most useful senses; yet she not only thought, but\nthought in the same manner as those who possess these senses in\nperfection. If thought depends on the senses, then the quality of\nthought should change when deprived of the senses. It is true that when\nthus fettered in expression, it does not escape the limitations of its\nsurroundings, yet in the struggle we see the indication of the limitless\npossibilities of the spirit when these are cast aside.\n\n\n\n\nSensitiveness Proved by Psychometry.\n\n\nLight emanating from suns and worlds, as it wings its swift way across\nthe regions of space, bears on its rays the pictures of every object\nfrom which it is emptied or reflected, and hence the universe, from\ncenter to remotest bounds, is filled with pictures; is a vast storehouse\nof photographs of all events from the fading of a leaf to the revolution\nof a world since time began. Thus a ray of light leaving the earth\nduring the coal age bears a picture of the then existing gigantic\nforests and inky seas, and is yet somewhere passing the remote\ncoastlines of unknown systems, and could some swifter messenger overtake\nit, he would have a view of the world as it was when that ray was\nreflected from the carboniferous period. The messenger is not needed to\novertake the fugitive ray, for the light thus reflected, struck against\nrock and tree, and photographed the images of every moment since the\nstars first sang together. Every atom still vibrates to the molding hand\nof life under which it has at some time passed, and the sensitive mind\nis able to catch these vibrations and interpret their meaning in forms\nof thought. The discovery of this wonderful faculty of the mind is not\nof recent date.\n\nAlmost fifty years ago an Episcopal Bishop remarked to Dr. Buchanan that\nwhen he touched brass, even in the night, when he could not know with\nwhat substance he came in contact, he at once felt a disagreeable\ninfluence and recognized an offensive metallic taste. Such experience\nhad been common to a great number of persons, and frequently observed,\nbut this time it was called to the attention of the right man. All the\nworld for ages had seen bodies fall to the ground, and countless\nmillions of eyes have seen the phenomenon with no more thought than the\nbrute, until a falling apple drew the attention of Newton. Dr. Buchanan\nat once saw that there was a profound philosophy back of this fact which\ntranscended the senses. He began a lengthy series of experiments, by\nwhich he discovered that it was by no means rare for persons to be\naffected by metallic and other substances. In a class of one hundred and\nthirty students at the Eclectic Medical College, forty-three were\nsensitive in greater or less degree. Medicines held in the hand without\nany knowledge of their properties, produced the same effect, varying\nonly in degree as when taken into the stomach. By placing the hand, or\nmerely coming into the atmosphere of a deceased person, the sensitive\nwas able to locate and describe the disease. In this field Dr. Buchanan\nhas stood almost alone, until recently M. Bourru and M. Burot of the\nNaval Medical School at Rochfort, have made extended experiments on the\n\"action of medicines at a distance,\" which is really another way of\nstating the facts observed by him a generation ago. They held the metals\nand drugs six inches or so from the back of the head of the patients and\nproved all that Dr. Buchanan claimed for his discovery.\n\nBut the discoverer did not rest here; he went a step further and found\nthat a letter or any article having been brought in contact with the\nperson, when taken in the hand or placed on the forehead of one\nsufficiently sensitive, gave the character of its writer or owner.\nRepeated experiments, such as any one may make, prove beyond question\nthat the sensitive can in this manner read the character of the writer\nfrom his writings, his state of health, better than the most intimate\nfriend, or even the writer himself. It is a marvelous statement, but\nonly marvelous in our not understanding its cause. When this is\nrevealed, and mystery removed, the subject allies itself with other\nphenomena of mind, having their origin in impressibility.\n\nProf. Denton carried the results of psychometry far beyond the\nboundaries reached by Dr. Buchanan. If the world is one vast picture\ngallery of every act and thought since the beginning of time, the fossil\nshell, the rock-fragment, the broken arrow head, the shred of mummy, and\nthe rush leaf from the banks of the Nile should reproduce in the\nsensitive the story of their origin and age. By a great number of\nexperiments, the details of which fill three volumes, Prof. Denton\nsought to establish this generalization and write the geological and\npre-historic history of the earth. That he found a kernel of truth can\nnot be denied, but he allowed sources of error to creep in and vitiate\nhis wonderfully suggestive and patient research. A person sensitive to\nthe degree that enables him to feel the influences given to a fragment\nof stone thousands of years ago, would be more strongly impressed with\nthe influence imparted by the one who secured it, and held it in his\nhands before the experiment. It is from this cause that uncertainty\nrests on his otherwise well-planned experiments. Yet he has proved that\nsuch sensitiveness exists, and that by it the story of history from\nfragments of ruined architecture may be read, and scenes in geological\nages by fossil, bone or shell be described.\n\nHow? Really psychometry, depending on the sensitiveness of the brain, is\na lower degree of clairvoyance, and is merged, in its clearest forms,\ntherein. Sensitiveness means the capability of receiving the\npsycho-ether waves as they pulsate from some center, and as everything\ntouched by life is in a state of such vibration, the recognition is only\na question of the delicacy of the receiving organization.\n\nThere is a vast accumulation of narratives of ghosts, witches,\napparitions, hallucinations, illusions, dreams, etc., which it is the\npresent fashion to relegate to the sphere of superstition and ignorance.\nMany of these, however anomalous, have a foundation in fact, and will be\nfound, when stripped of the portions superstition has added, readily\nexplainable, either as subjective, arising from impressions on the\nsensitive, or as objective and manifested by the same principles. As\nsensitiveness to these subtile influences greatly varies in different\nindividuals and at different times in the same individual, and at times\nbecomes clairvoyance, scarcely an illustration can be given of one\nwithout introducing the other. We must constantly bear in mind that\nthere is one fundamental cause back of all these so-called occult\nphenomena, varying in the degree of its manifestation in accord with the\nchannel through which it flows.\n\n\nSUBJECTIVE SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS.--Dr. Abercrombie is authority for the\nfollowing illustration of subjective spectral illusions: \"A gentleman of\nhigh mental endowments, and now upwards of eighty years of age, of spare\nhabits and enjoying uninterrupted health, has been for eleven years\nsubject to the daily visits of spectral figures. They in general present\nhuman countenances; the head and body are distinctly defined, the lower\nparts are for the most part, lost in a kind of cloud. The figures are\nvarious, but he recognizes the same countenances repeated from time to\ntime, especially of late years, that of an elderly woman, with a\npeculiarly arch and playful expression, and a dazzling brilliancy of\neye, who seems just ready to speak with him.... This female is dressed\nin an old-fashioned Scottish plaid of Tartan, drawn up and brought\nforward over the head, and then crossed below the chin, as the plaid\nwas worn by aged women in his younger day. He can seldom recognize among\nthe spectres any figure or countenance which he remembers to have seen;\nbut his own face has been presented to him, gradually undergoing the\nchange from youth to manhood, and from manhood to old age.\"\n\nIt is not necessary to call in the aid of an invisible being to explain\nsuch appearances. The house had been occupied by Scotch who dressed as\ndescribed, and the influence they left impressed itself on the\ngentleman's sensitive brain.\n\n\"All houses where men have lived and died are haunted houses,\" not by\nactual ghosts, but by the subtile force which persons impart to\neverything with which they come in contact. That he was subject to some\ninfluence outside of himself is shown by the appearances always being of\nsome one that he had never seen, and hence they could not have been\nrevived pictures from his own brain. After he had been in the house for\na long time he began to see his own face; that is, after he had imparted\nhis own influence to his surroundings, he received them back as from a\nmirror.\n\nDendy, in his \"Philosophy of Mystery,\" mentions \"M. Andral, who in his\nyouth saw, in La Pitie, the putrid body of a child covered with larv\u00e6,\nand during the next morning the spectre of this corpse lying on his\ntable was as perfect as reality.\" He could not see it by a mental\neffort, nor any where else than on his table, and whenever he looked at\nthat, the appearance at once came. It may be said in explanation, that\nthe sight of the disgusting object produced a strong impression on the\noptic nerves and mind, and a suggestive object, as the table reproduced\nthe same state. We have no evidence that one object, under the same\nlight, affects the optic nerves more than any other would under the\nsame circumstances. Vivid mental impressions are more readily reproduced\nthan those that scarcely ruffle the surface of thought; but this does\nnot account for the student not seeing the appearance at any other time\nor place than on the table where it had laid, and which we would say\nretained the influence imparted to it by the body having lain there.\n\nProfessor Hitchcock says that during a severe sickness, \"day after day\nvisions of strange landscapes spread out before him--mountain, lake and\nforest; vast rocks, strata upon strata piled to the clouds; the panorama\nof a world shattered and upheaved, disclosing the grim secrets of\ncreation, the unshapely and monstrous rudiments of organic being.\" His\nson, Professor Charles Hitchcock, adds that his father saw the sandstone\nbeds of the Connecticut valley spread out before him, covered with\ntracks, and by the superior insight wrought by sickness, cleared up some\ndoubtful points to which he had vainly given his attention. Professor\nHitchcock became, in consequence of his sickness, exceedingly sensitive,\nand the geological specimens near him, or that he had handled, brought\nup in his mind the pictures of their primeval age.\n\n\nHALLUCINATIONS.--The received definition of an hallucination is a false\nperception without any material basis, being formed entirely in the\nmind. An individual who sees pictures on a blank wall, or who hears\nvoices when no sound reaches his ear, is hallucinated. \"The reason for\nthis being that the erroneous perception constituting the hallucination\nis found in that part of the brain which ordinarily requires the\nexcitation of sensorial impressions for its functions.\" In this view,\nhallucination is evidence of mental derangement and incipient insanity.\nThis explanation is by no means sufficient for this class of facts. That\na certain tract of brain can of itself give the mind complicated\nrepresentations, never before seen or imaged in the mind, is not\nestablished. The reappearance of objects that have been seen is better\nexplained, and still more satisfactorily, by causes which unite them all\ntogether, and with all like phenomena. George Combe says of a painter\nwho inherited much of the patronage of Sir Joshua Reynolds, and believed\nhimself to possess a talent superior to his, was so fully engaged that\nhe had painted three hundred large and small portraits in one year. The\nfact appeared physically impossible, but the secret of his rapidity and\nastonishing success was this: He required but one sitting of his model.\nHis method was as follows, as given by himself: \"When a sitter came, I\nlooked attentively on him for half an hour, sketching from time to time\non the canvas. I did not require a longer sitting. I removed the canvas,\nand passed to another person. When I wished to continue the first\nportrait, I recalled the man to my mind. I placed him on the chair,\nwhere I perceived him as distinctly as though really there, and, I may\nadd, in form and color more decidedly brilliant. I looked from time to\ntime at the imaginary figure and went on painting, occasionally stopping\nto examine the picture exactly as though the original was before me;\nwhenever I looked towards the chair I saw the man. This method made me\nvery popular, and as I always caught the resemblance, the sitters were\ndelighted that I spared them the annoying sittings of other painters.\"\n\nThis painter was far from incipient insanity. He was sensitive to\nimpressions, and able by that organization to recall the image of the\nsitter, but not that of one who had not occupied the chair.\n\nThe Rev. T. L. Williams, Vicar of Porthleven, in _The Journal of the\nSociety for Psychical Research_, July, 1885, gives his personal\nexperience: \"On an occasion when I was absent from home, my wife awoke\none morning, and to her surprise and alarm saw me standing by the\nbedside looking at her. In her fright she covered her face with the bed\nclothes, and when she ventured to look again the appearance was gone. On\nanother occasion, when I was not absent from home, my wife saw me, as\nshe supposed, coming from church in surplice and stole. I came a little\nway, she says, and turned round the corner of the building, where she\nlost sight of me. I was at the time in the church in my place in the\nchoir, where she was much surprised to see me on entering the\nbuilding.... My daughter has often told me, and now repeats the story,\nthat she was passing my study door, which was ajar, and looked in to see\nif I was there. She saw me in my chair, and as she caught sight of me, I\nstretched out my arms, and drew my hands across my eyes, a familiar\ngesture of mine. I was in the village at the time. Now, nothing occurred\nat or about the times of these appearances to give any meaning to them.\"\nHe adds: \"A good many years ago there was a devout young woman living in\nmy parish, who used to spend much of her spare time in church in\nmeditation and prayer. She used to assert that she frequently saw me\nstanding at the altar when I certainly was not there in the body.\" Mr.\nWilliams must have been a man peculiarly endowed with psychic force to\nthus impress himself.\n\nThe following is from the pen of the gifted Mary Howitt, and not only\ngives a remarkable fact, but her explanation of the same: \"I conducted\nMrs. Nenner through a room which contained some ancient furniture and a\nquantity of valuable old china. This china had been left in our care by\na friend during his lengthened absence abroad. His thoughts from his\nplace of sojourn at the antipodes constantly reverted to these\nheirlooms.\n\n\"'Who are these six gentlemen, evidently brothers, sitting where the old\nchina is?' asked Mrs. Nenner, when we had passed through the room.\n\n\"'There was no one there at all,' I said, much surprised.\n\n\"'Then,' said she, 'I must have seen six brother spirits. There they\nwere sitting; tall, fair men, light haired, all strikingly alike, all\nthe same age. They must be brothers!'\n\n\"I recognized in her description the owner of the china. Before Mrs.\nNenner left, we showed her a portrait of the owner of the china, our\nfriend on the other side of the world. She at once said, 'Oh, that is\none of the six brothers!' In some mysterious manner the intensity of\nthought fixed by the possessor of the china upon his possessions--we\nknew that his thoughts constantly reverted to them--had been able to\nmanifest itself to the sight in the form of the man himself, but\nmultiplied into six forms. It should be observed that this gentleman was\nof what now we should term a 'mediumistic' temperament. It is possible,\nthat being at the antipodes, he might be, at the time his multiplied\nform was beheld, asleep--it being night there when it is day with\nus--and that his thoughts might have, in a dream, revisited England.\"\n\nSince civilization began, mankind have held certain stones and metals\nas precious, and attributed rare qualities to charms, relics and\namulets. We may indulge our mirth over the miraculous qualities ascribed\nto the bones of martyrs and the teeth of saints, a bit of wood from the\ntrue cross; but casting aside the rubbish gathered by imposture and\ncredulity, we discover a great truth. Precious stones and metals have\nbecome so because of the subtile power of their emanations. In a true\nrelic the sensitive perceives the full expression of the original\nowner's life, and feels it reproduced in him. As the phonograph\ntreasures up the tone, the accent, the quality of the voice, and the\nthought of the speaker, so the relic preserves and constantly gives\nforth the character of the one it represents.\n\nShrines and holy places have cause for being regarded as sacred, and\ntheir preservation in purity for the one and only purpose is correct in\nscience. The church devoted to the worship of Jehovah holds its devotees\nwith the invisible bonds reaching out from the walls forged from the\npsycho-aura of all preceding worshippers. That the members hold their\nhouses exclusively for certain uses may be the result of superstition,\nbut they are right in thus doing. A church building given over during\nthe week to shows and entertainments, and nightly filled with the class\nsuch would draw, would become so saturated with worldly influences as to\nbe unfit for the promulgation of the highest religious thought on\nSunday. Both audience and minister would feel the depressing effect, and\nreligious zeal would reach zero.\n\nHow strong and enduring the impress stamped on a relic or jewel may be,\nis shown in the following story told of Robert Browning by Mr. Knowles\n(_Spectator_, Jan. 30, 1869): \"Mr. Robert Browning tells me that when he\nwas in Florence some years since, an Italian nobleman (Count Ginnasi)\nwas brought to his house. The Count professed to have great mesmeric\npowers, and declared in reply to Mr. Browning's avowed skepticism, he\nwould convince him of his powers. He then asked Mr. Browning whether he\nhad anything about him then and there, which he could hand him, and\nwhich was in anyway a memento or relic. It so happened by curious\naccident, that Mr. Browning was wearing under his coat sleeves some gold\nwrist studs to his shirt, which he had quite recently taken into wear in\nabsence of his ordinary wrist-buttons. He had never before worn them in\nFlorence, or elsewhere, and found them in an old drawer where they had\nlain forgotten for years. One of these he took out and handed to the\nCount, who held it in his hand awhile and then said as if much\nimpressed, 'There is something here which cries out in my ear, Murder!\nmurder!'\n\n\"And truly,\" said Mr. Browning, \"these studs were taken from the dead\nbody of a great uncle of mine, who was violently killed on his estate in\nSt. Kitts nearly eighty years ago. They were produced in court as proofs\nthat robbery had not been the object of the strangler, which was\neffected by his own slaves. They were taken out of the night-gown in\nwhich he died and given to me.\"\n\n\n\n\nSensitiveness During Sleep.\n\n\nThe _Index_ published the following:\n\n\"Recently the youngest child of Warren Wasson (Katie) fell into a well\nand was nearly drowned. A day or two since, a letter was received from\nMr. Wasson, who is in Oregon, written before he had heard of the\noccurrence. He stated that on the same Sunday, at the time of the\naccident, he was taking a nap, and was awakened by a terrifying dream.\nHe thought he saw little Katie dripping with water, and the little boy\nnext older than Katie was immersed in the water, and that he was able to\nsave him only by taking hold of his ears. When he pulled him out, he was\ncovered with spots like a leopard. Mr. Wasson says that as he awoke he\nwas covered with cold sweat, and in an agony of mind. This is a very\nstrange coincidence, and the dream corresponds with the occurrence, save\nthat the little boy was not in danger. It was the little girl who was\nspotted from the chill.\"\n\nIt resembles a wrongly received telegraphic dispatch, in which one word\nis substituted for another.\n\n\nEFFECT OF STRONG MENTAL IMPRESSION.--A strong mental impression carried\ninto sleep is conducive to impressibility. Inspector Jewett, of the\nBrooklyn Police, was so worried about the lost pistol of John Kenny, who\nhad shot a car-driver, as he wanted the weapon in evidence against the\nruffian, that he dreamed about it. He saw it in a certain saloon, in a\ncertain place, and the next morning went to the saloon and found the\npistol exactly where he saw it in his dream.\n\nThe rescue of the crew of the \"Sparkenhoe,\" November 30, 1875, by Capt.\nAdam S. Smalley, as told by him, is a fine illustration of\nimpressibility in sleep. He sailed from Bordeaux November 24, 1875, in\nthe brigantine \"Fred Eugene,\" bound for Key West, and soon encountered\nstormy weather. When six hundred miles at sea, on the night of the 29th,\nhe suddenly awoke from sleep, deeply impressed with a dream, in which\nhe had seen a number of men in great peril. He related this to his wife,\nadding that he hoped no shipwrecked crew needed his assistance. At\nmidnight, he again retired, and again the vision was repeated with more\ndistinctness, and the men appearing on a wreck needing the utmost\ndispatch to rescue them. The Captain went immediately on deck, and\nwithout any assigned reason, changed the course of the ship two points,\nand, giving orders to be called at daylight, retired, and slept till the\nappointed time.\n\nGoing on deck at dawn, and sweeping the horizon with his glass, he\ndiscovered a ship far to the windward, with a signal of distress\ndisplayed. He endeavored to work his vessel up, but with short sail and\nheavy sea, most of the forenoon passed, and a long distance remained. He\nwas resolved to take a long tack, and not change his course until\nprompted to do so by the same impulse that bade him do so the night\nbefore. More sail was made, although prudence forbade, in the face of a\ngale at any moment threatening to break, and all the men stood at their\nposts for over an hour, awaiting the orders for tacking.\n\nAt last the prompting came, and going about, the vessel reached a point\ntwo miles to the leeward of the distressed ship, where her three boats,\ncontaining twenty-three men in all, had put off to intercept the brig.\nThey were taken on board, the boats cut loose, and all sail taken in as\nquickly as possible, and in ten minutes a fierce hurricane lashed the\nsea to foam. The gale raged four days with unabated fury, so that, had\nthey not been rescued at the very moment they were, they would have\ncertainly perished.\n\nWe have two explanations. The first is that of thought transference--the\nreception on the sensitive brain of Captain Smalley of the intense\nthoughts of the perishing crew. As the inductive plate sends its\ninfluence across miles of space, we may suppose that the vibrations from\nthem would go out across the wide sea interval, and, finding a receiving\ninstrument, be converted again to thought. The second explanation is\nthat of the interference of spiritual beings, who impress their thoughts\non the mind of the Captain in the same manner. The prompting as to the\ncourse to steer is beyond and outside of the dream, and proves the\nextreme sensitiveness of the commander.\n\n\nA DREAM SAVES A SHIPWRECKED CREW.--Of precisely similar character is the\nimpression received by Capt. G. A. Johnson of the schooner \"Augusta H.\nJohnson.\" He sailed from Quero for home, encountering a terrible\nhurricane. On the second day, he saw a disabled brig, and near by a\nbarque. He was anxious to reach home, and thinking the barque would\nassist the brig, continued on.\n\nBut the impression came that he must turn back and board the brig. He\ncould not shake it off, and at last he, with four men, boarded the brig\nin the dory. He found her deserted, and made sail on her. After a time\nthey saw an object ahead, appearing like a man on a cake of ice. The\ndory was again manned, and sent to the rescue. It proved to be the mate\nof the bark \"Leawood,\" clinging to the bottom of an overturned boat,\nwhich, being white, appeared in the distance as ice. This premonition\ncame without seeking, and in direct opposition to the desire of Captain\nJohnson, desiring to escape from the storm, and reach home without\ndelay.\n\n\nA LIFE SAVED.--The Biddeford (Me.) _Journal_ thus relates the story of\nthe narrow escape of a sailor:\n\n\"Last week the schooner \"Ida May\" lay at Government Wharf, near the\nmouth of Kennebunk River, with one man on board, Freeman Grove, who was\nin the cabin asleep. In the night he was awakened by some one touching\nhim and saying, 'You will be drowned.' On opening his eyes, no one was\npresent, but he immediately went on deck, and found the side of the\nvessel caught under the wharf by the tide, and shortly it would have\nsunk, and cabin and all been under water. With a plank he pried the side\nfrom the wharf, and she came up with the tide. The sleeper, being in the\ncabin, must have been drowned had he not been awakened by the voice.\"\n\nPerhaps no greater disaster was ever accompanied by a greater number of\nspecial premonitions and warnings of coming danger than the \"Ashtabula\nhorror,\" where a train crowded with passengers plunged into a gulf in a\nfearful storm, and, taking fire, was burned. The _Times_ published a\nlist of the names of those saved by \"presentiments.\" One, in particular,\nis related at length, and is thoroughly vouched for. A young lady, by\nthe name of Hazen, having with her a colored servant, started from\nBaltimore for Pittsburg, where she was to be married. She had purchased\ntickets at Buffalo for the ill-fated train. During the night previous,\n\"Aunt Chloe,\" the colored slave, had a dream, which so impressed her\nthat when they reached the depot she positively refused to go on that\ntrain. \"Auntie\" had been as a mother to Miss Hazen, who lost her mother\nin infancy. The young lady, perhaps somewhat a believer in the\nsuperstitions of the slaves, humored Auntie's mood, and deferred going\nuntil the next train--in all probability thereby saving the lives of\nboth.\n\n\nCLAIRVOYANT DREAM-STATE.--The Oakland (Cal.) _Tribune_ records a\npleasing story, which fully illustrates what may be called a permanent\ndream-sensitiveness identical with clairvoyance: \"Twenty years ago, a\nbachelor in Oakland dreamed of visiting a family consisting of parents\nand two little girls, who were unknown to him in his waking hours. From\nthat time forth, he continued to dream of them for a score of years. He\nsaw the children grow from childhood to womanhood. He was at the closing\nexercises when they graduated. In fact, he shared all the pleasures and\ngriefs of the family. His friendship to his dreamland friends seemed so\nreal, he often remarked that he felt certain he would know them in\nreality at some future time.\n\n\"Two months ago, in a dream, he saw the husband die, and from that time\nhe ceased to dream of them in a period of twenty years. He received a\nletter from New York City, the writer being the widow of a cousin of\nhis, with whom he had had no intercourse since his boyhood--over thirty\nyears. She wrote that she wished to make San Francisco her future home,\nand it was arranged for him to meet her and her two daughters at the\nwharf at Oakland. On their arrival, imagine his surprise to see his\ndream friends. They were equally so when he related to them the dreams\nin which they had figured. He told them incidents connected with their\npast lives which he could not have known under ordinary circumstances.\nHe described their former home, even to the furniture and household\nornaments, and was correct in every particular. The sequel is that he\nmarried the lady, and they are living happily in this city.\"\n\n\nALLEGORICAL DREAMS.--When important intelligence comes in allegorical\nform, it is difficult to give adequate explanation, without calling to\nour aid an outside intelligence. The London _News_ has the following:\n\n\"Most people remember the terrible railway accident, in which Dickens\nhimself and his proof-sheets escaped, while so many perished. In the\ntrain there chanced to be a gentleman and lady just returned from India.\nThe lady said to her husband, 'I see the great wave rolling on; it is\nclose to us,' and then the crash came, and she was a corpse. The husband\nwas unhurt, and at a later time explained his wife's strange words. Ever\nsince they had set sail from India, she had been haunted in sleep by a\ndream of a vast silvery wave, and always, just as it was about to break\non her, she had awakened in terror.\"\n\nLess tragic, but quite odd enough for Mr. Proctor's collection, is the\nanecdote of the south-country farmer's dream. The good man awakened from\nhis first sleep, and aroused his wife to tell her about a startling\nvision. He had dreamed that he saw a favorite cow drowning in a pond in\na neighboring common. \"There ain't no pond there;\" said the wife, with\nnatural irritation and double-shotted negatives. This was undeniably\ntrue, but the farmer was uneasy. At last he arose, dressed, and walked\nup the long lane which led to the common. Everything was quiet, but just\nat the top of the lane the farmer heard a sound as of a man digging.\nThen a light caught his eye. It glimmered through a hedge that divided\nthe lane from the fields. The farmer cautiously drew near, till he was\njust above the ditch. There he spied a country fellow, with a lantern,\ndigging a long, straight, deep hole in the ground. An ax lay beside the\nhole. At this point the farmer slipped, the hedge rustled, and the\ndelver fled away. The farmer secured the lantern and made for home. Just\nat the entrance of the lane, the time being about two in the morning, he\nmet one of his servant wenches hurrying in the direction whence he had\ncome. \"What do you want, my lass? No good, I fear,\" said the\nagricultural moralist; and, in short, he made the girl tell him her\nstory. She was going to an assignation with her \"young man,\" who had\njilted her, and was courting another girl. She had threatened him with\nan action for breach of promise of marriage, and the swain had promised\nthat, if she would but meet him at two in the morning, at the bend of\nthe lane, he would satisfy her, and remove all jealousy and differences.\n\n\"Very well, my lass,\" said the farmer, \"come, and I'll show you what he\nhad to give you.\" He led the way, and revealed to the horrified girl the\nlong, deep, narrow hole and sharp ax which had awaited her. Naturally,\nshe did not any longer pursue her lover; and here is a dream which even\nMr. Proctor will admit not to have been purposeless. Indeed, the\n\"machinery\" of the drowning cow made the vision appeal directly to the\nbucolic mind.\n\nOf the same prophetic character is the following well-authenticated\ndream:\n\nMrs. Jacob Condon, living a few miles from Reed, Pa., dreamed a few\nnights ago that her year-old baby was burned to death, and that she sent\nword of the casualty to her husband, who was working at a distance from\nhome, by James Portlewaith, a neighbor. The next morning she told her\nhusband of her dream, and admitted that it made her despondent. He\nlaughed at her fears, and went away to his work. Late in the forenoon,\nMrs. Condon left her kitchen to go to the wood-shed, a few steps away.\nWhile she was there she heard her baby screaming. She ran into the house\nand found the child lying in front of an open grate, wrapped in flames.\nShe threw an old coat about the child, and smothered the flames, but it\nwas so badly burned that it died in a few minutes. Mrs. Condon went to\nthe door to call for assistance. As she reached the door, James\nPortlewaith was passing the gate. She sent him to her husband with the\ndreadful news, thus fulfilling her terrible dream to the letter.\n\nMrs. Howitt, whose veracity no one can dispute, gives the following\nexperience in the _Psychological Review_, London, which may be taken as\nan illustration of thought transference, or as the interposition of a\nsupreme intelligence:\n\n\"I dreamed that I received a letter from my eldest son. In my dream I\neagerly broke open the seal, and saw a closely-written sheet of paper,\nbut my eye caught only these words in the middle of the first page,\nwritten larger than the rest and underlined, '_My father is very ill_.'\nThe utmost distress seized me, and I suddenly awoke, to find it only a\ndream; yet the painful impression of reality was so vivid, that it was\nlong before I could compose myself. The first thing I did the following\nmorning was to commence a letter to my husband, relating this\ndistressing dream. Six days afterwards, on the 18th, an Australian mail\ncame in and brought me a letter, the only letter I received by that\nmail, and not from any of my own family, but from a gentleman in\nAustralia with whom we were acquainted. This letter was addressed on the\noutside, '_Immediate_,' and with a trembling hand I opened it; and true\nenough, the first words I saw--and these written larger than the rest,\nin the middle of the paper, and underlined, were: '_Mr. Howitt is very\nill_.' The context of these terrible words was, however, 'If you hear\nthat _Mr. Howitt is very ill_, let this assure you that he is better;'\nbut the only emphatic words which I saw in my dream, and these,\nnevertheless, slightly varying, as, from some cause or other, all such\nmental impressions, spirit revelations, or occult, dark sayings\ngenerally do vary from the truth or type which they seem to reflect.\"\n\nStainton Moses, M. D., who has given life-long attention to psychic\nresearch, remarks on the apparent discrepancy between the words of the\ndream, and the letter as follows:\n\n\"It may be permitted to the writer to suggest, that through a fuller\nacquaintance with, and deeper observation of, the phenomena of 'spirit\nrevelation, occult, dark sayings', etc., the truth has forced itself\nupon various philosophic minds, that in obedience to a primal law of\nspirit's intercourse with spirit--it is always the essence or spirit of\nan idea or fact which is sought to be conveyed to the mind, and not the\nmere literal clothing of that idea or fact. This essence or spirit of\nthe idea is the grain of true wheat alone needed; the form is simply the\nhusk that clothes it for a temporary purpose, and must of necessity fall\naway from it as a dead thing. 'In this material, matter-of-fact age,\nliteral truth,' says the Rev. James Smith, 'the lowest of all truths in\none sense, is generally regarded as the highest. But they are\nsuperficial thinkers who dabble only in literal truth or physical\ntruth.' This is a knowledge of Law Spiritual, without which progress is\nimpossible for the student of psychology.\"\n\n\nTHE IDEA, NOT WORDS, CONVEYED.--If the idea was sent through the\npsychic-ether, as a wave of thought, it would translate itself into\nlanguage, and the language of the receiving mind would be the one into\nwhich it would be translated. It would pass through space as the essence\nof thought, and the sensitive recipient would clothe it with the\ngarments of words.\n\nWm. Howitt, on his visit to Australia, had a dream which he regarded as\nhaving great importance as a fact in Mental Science. He says:\n\n\"Some weeks ago, while yet at sea, I had a dream of being at my\nbrother's at Melbourne, and found his house on a hill at the further end\nof the town, next to the open forest. The garden sloped a little way\ndown the hill to some brick buildings below; and there were greenhouses\non the right hand by the wall as you looked down the hill from the\nhouse. As I looked out the windows in my dream, I saw a wood of\ndusky-foliaged trees, having a segregated appearance in their heads;\nthat is, their heads did not make that dense mass like our woods.\n'There!' said I, addressing some one in my dream, 'I see your native\nforest of Eucalyptus!' This dream I told to my sons, and to two of our\nfellow-passengers, at the time, and on landing, as we walked over the\nmeadows, long before we reached the town, I saw this very wood. 'There!'\nI exclaimed, 'is the very wood of my dream. We shall see my brother's\nhouse there.' And so we did. It stood exactly as I saw it, only looking\nnewer; but there, over the wall of the garden, is the wood exactly as I\nsaw it and now see it, as I sit at the dining-room window writing. When\nI look upon this scene I seem to look into my dream.\"\n\nThis mysterious perception of scenes and events which, after perhaps\nyears, come before the dreamer or enter into his life, is supported by\nample testimony.\n\nIn the _Spiritual Magazine_, 1871, the author, speaking of this dream,\ngives further curious details:\n\n\"In a vision at sea, some thousand miles from Melbourne, I not only\nclearly saw my brother's home and the landscape around it, but also saw\nthings in direct opposition to news received before leaving England. It\nwas said that all the men were gone to the gold-fields, and that even\nthe Governor and Chief-Justice had no men-servants left. But I now saw\nabundance of men in the streets of Melbourne, and many sitting on\ndoorsteps asking employment.... When in the street before my brother's\nhouse, we saw swarms of men, and some actually sitting on steps, seeking\nwork. All was so exactly as I had described, that great was the\nastonishment of my companions.\"\n\nIf we were to regard sleep, after the common usage, as a simple state,\ndreams, visions, thought transference, and the appearance of a person\nwhile living at a distance, become a mass of irreconcilable details. But\nthis is a wholly erroneous view of the character of sleep. It is one of\nthe most complex and changeful conditions, ranging from the disturbed\ndoze of the overweary, to the most sensitive clairvoyance. It will be\nseen that many of the so-called dreams are really visions received in a\nmore sensitive condition than is furnished during the waking hours.\n\n\n\n\nDreams.\n\n\nSENSITIVENESS DURING SLEEP.--There are dreams and dreams. When greatly\nfatigued, mentally or physically, the partially awakened faculties\noften become impressed with strangely distorted thoughts. Then there\nare the terrible dreams from indigestion, the peculiar interpretations\nof bodily discomfort, as dreams of frosts and snows, when chilled during\nsleep, or of burning forests when over-heated. Galen gives examples of\nsuch dreams in the case of a man who dreamed that his right leg was\nturned to stone, and soon after lost the use of it by palsy; and another\npatient who dreamed that he was in a vessel filled with blood, which the\nphysician accepted as a sign that the man ought to be bled, by which a\nserious disease under which he labored was cured.\n\nIn perfect sleep dreams do not occur, because all the mental faculties\nare dormant. The conjecture that the mind always dreams, but fails to\nremember, is not true. A hearty supper, by inducing indigestion, is a\nprolific cause of bad dreams.\n\nDerangement of the perfect correlation of the mental faculties, in\nsickness or the weakness of age, is a frequent cause of the wildest and\nmost incoherent visions. All these causes may be well considered, and\nafter their influences have been eliminated, there remains an order\ndistinct and inexplicable by known causes. The dreamer may not be\nsensitive to psychic influences while awake, but during sleep may become\nexceedingly so. Night favors sensitiveness because of its negative\ninfluence. All nervous diseases are aggravated by the coming of\ntwilight, and midnight is the hour when the most perfect negativeness is\nreached, as high noon is that of extreme positiveness.\n\nIt would be an easy task to fill volumes with dreams that have been\nreceived as premonitions of future events, or forecasts of desired\ninformation, which was otherwise impossible to obtain. I do not desire\nto crowd these pages with any more than will serve to illustrate the\nvarious characters of the true psychic dream, and show how the extra\nsensitiveness acquired in sleep explains this subject. It is misleading,\nhowever, to employ the word sleep in this connection, for in sound sleep\nthere is dreamless rest. Sleep is the repose of the faculties, and\nimpressions are not recognized. The peculiar condition in which these\ndreams occur, is mistaken for sleep, but is nearer trance. The silence\nof the night and its soothing negative quality, enhances this state, and\nimpressions are borne into the receptive mind on the psycho-ether.\nDreams that reach into the future and foretell events concealed from\nhuman ken, and which no reasoning or forethought can predict, are of\ninterest as revealing glimpses of a new field of thought--that of\nprophecy.\n\nIn the \"Glimpses of the Supernatural,\" is a dream related by a dignitary\nof the Church of England:\n\n\"My brother had left London for the country to preach for a certain\nsociety to which he was officially attached. He was in usual health, and\nI therefore had no cause to feel anxiety about him. One night my wife\nawoke me, finding that I was sobbing in my sleep, and asked me the\ncause. I said, \"I have been to a small village, and I went up to the\ndoor of the inn. A stout woman came to the door. I said to her: 'Is my\nbrother here?' She said, 'No, sir; he is gone.' 'Is his wife here?' I\ninquired. 'No, sir; but his widow is.'\" Then the distressing thought\ncame to me that my brother was dead. A few days after, I was suddenly\nsummoned into the country. My brother had been attacked by a fatal\nillness, at Caxton. The following day his wife was summoned, and the\nnext day, while they were seated together, she heard a sigh and he was\ngone. When I reached Caxton, it was the very village I had visited in my\ndream. I went to the same house, was let in by the same woman, and found\nmy brother dead and his widow there.\"\n\nThe story told by Dean Stanley has been widely circulated. The chiefs of\nthe Campbells, of Inverawe, gave an entertainment. After the party broke\nup, one of the guests returned, claiming protection, which Campbell\npledged himself to give. It afterwards appeared, in a brawl, he had\nkilled Donald, the cousin of Campbell, and notwithstanding his pledge,\nhe ordered him away. The murderer appealed to the word of his host, and\nwas allowed to stay for the night, where Campbell slept. The\nblood-stained Donald appeared to him saying: \"Inverawe, Inverawe, blood\nhas been shed; shield not the murderer.\" Having sent the guilty man\naway, the last time the vision came, saying: \"Inverawe, Inverawe, blood\nhas been shed. We shall not meet again until we meet at Ticonderoga.\"\n\nIn 1758, there was a war between France and England, and Campbell,\nbelonging to the Forty-second Highlanders, went to America. On the eve\nof the engagement the general said to the officers, who knew of what\nthey regarded as Campbell's superstition, that it was best not to tell\nhim the name of the fortress they were to attack on the morrow, but call\nit Fort George. The fort was assaulted in the morning and Campbell\nmortally wounded. His last words were: \"General, you have deceived me. I\nhave seen him again. This is Ticonderoga.\"\n\nVouched for as this occurrence is by the highest authority, it is of\ngreat significance, not only as a dream, but it shows that death brought\nabout a sensitive condition like that in which the dream was received,\nand enabled Donald to again appear.\n\nAmong the news items of the San Francisco _Chronicle_, appeared the\nfollowing:\n\n\"Yesterday morning W. S. Read, of Oakland, with a companion named Stein,\nstarted out from Long Wharf to reach a yacht upon which they were going\non a fishing excursion. When about two hundred yards from the wharf the\nboat was capsized and Read was drowned. He started to swim to the wharf,\nbut when within fifty feet of it he sank and did not rise again.\nConnected with this sad event is a dream: Last Friday night the sister\nof the deceased dreamed that her brother had gone out in a boat on\nSunday, that the boat had been upset and he drowned. So vivid was the\nimpression of the dream, that on Saturday morning she went to her\nbrother's office, told him of it, and implored him not to go out, but he\nlaughed at her fears as the result of a disordered mind.\"\n\nDr. M. L. Holbrook relates the following instances of dreams, which are\ncertainly worth recording:\n\n\"Over twenty years ago I was subject to attacks of acute bronchitis,\nwhich in Spring gave me great trouble. On one occasion I was so\nexceedingly ill I felt I should not recover, and in this mood I fell to\nsleep, during which, in a dream, or what appeared to be such, my sister,\nwho had died when I was a little boy, seemed to come to my bedside and\nsaid: 'Martin, you are not going to die; you have much important work\nyet to accomplish, and we have come to cure you.' Then what I can only\ndescribe as a shock of heavenly electricity struck me on the head, and\nwas intensified over the lungs, where it seemed to almost burn through\nmy chest, when it passed towards my feet in a delightful glow. The shock\nwas so great that I awoke, free from the disease, and have never had the\ntrouble since.\"\n\n\"In 1867 I was alone in my sleeping-room in New York, and dreamed that I\nwas dying, and in my struggles awoke. There was nothing peculiar in this\nexperience, it may be truthfully said, for this sensation is quite\ncommon with those who suffer with nightmare. The singularity of the case\nwas that every night for a succession of nights the same thing happened,\ngrowing more and more intense, until the last night I thought I could\nnot escape, and died. After it was over, the thought came to me, 'Well,\nit is not so bad after all; a rather pleasant experience!' At this\nmoment my father-in-law, who had been dead several months, appeared to\nme. He was the same as when alive, but more spiritual and beautiful. He\nsaid: 'Martin, I have been endeavoring to show myself to you for several\nnights. Now I have succeeded, and shall trouble you no more.' That was\nthe last of my disturbing dreams. My thoughts were not upon him. I have\nnever been able to convince myself that the vision was not objective,\nthough I know some may not look at it in the same light.\"\n\nDr. A. M. Blackburn, of Cresco, Iowa, a well-known physician of that\ntown, dreamed that he was called to visit a little girl in the\nneighboring town of Ridgeway. On his return he came to a broad river\nwhich it was impossible to cross. While waiting on the banks, an old\nfriend, long since dead, appeared and assisted him in crossing. When the\ndoctor arose in the morning he related his dream, and so strongly was he\nimpressed with its prophetic meaning that he secured a policy on his\nlife, talked over and arranged his business, and having adjusted all his\naffairs, he awaited the fatality he said was sure to overtake him. A day\nor two after, he was called to Ridgeway to visit a little girl, and on\nhis return his horse ran away and he was killed. There is an\nallegorical element in this dream, and the presence of a departed friend\nwho assists him over the stream, gives it a poetic cast. Yet who can say\nthat it was not realized?\n\nA dream is related by J. Crysler, of Republic City, Kansas, which proved\nnot only true, but the elements of \"the double,\" or of the appearance of\nthe dreamer in the place he dreamed about, is introduced. He said, while\nfrom home he dreamed that his wife was sick, and awoke. On falling\nasleep again, the dream was repeated, a thing that had never before\noccurred to him. He remarked to a friend in the morning, that if he\nbelieved in dreams he would go directly home, as he felt troubled. He,\nhowever, waited and completed his business, reaching home the next day,\nwhen he found his wife just recovering from a severe attack of illness.\nTheir three-year-old boy lodged with his mother, and became restless.\nAll at once he asked: \"Ma, what man is that standing there?\" \"Why,\" she\nreplied, \"I see no one.\" \"Oh!\" said he, \"it is pa!\" and turning over,\ncontentedly dropped to sleep. The thoughts of the father, intensified by\nhis solicitude, struck the sensitive brain of his child with such a\nforce as to produce the impression that the father was an objective\nreality.\n\nA prophetic dream must be impressed on the receiving mind, from a source\nhaving more than human intelligence. There must be a _mind_ back of the\nimpressions, capable of comprehending cause and effect more clearly than\nmortals are able to do. The effect cannot rise above its cause.\n\nLaugh at the fantasies of a fevered brain, or the visions produced by a\ngorged stomach; the nightmare of the gourmand; the ghost-seeing of the\ndyspeptic; but there remain the dreams of the clear head and pure heart\nas angel visitants, and these should be treasured. When we rest in the\narms of sleep, she hushes us with hymns sung by angelic voices, and\nsweet visions of the morning land.\n\n\n\n\nSensitiveness Induced by Disease.\n\n\nDisease, by weakening the physical powers, is often conducive to a\nwonderful sensitiveness. In some cases of fever, the senses are wrought\nto an astonishing acuteness, especially hearing, the patient being\ndisturbed by even the ticking of a watch in a remote room. The inner\nperception at other times is made equally acute. If the pulsations of\nsound become so magnified and painful, the waves of thought in the\npsycho-ether may become equally magnified, and reproduce the thoughts\nwhich sent them forth to the mind of the recipient. Many of the facts\ngiven in illustration of other phases of sensitiveness apply equally\nwell here.\n\n\"Mademoiselle N---- was convalescing after a very prolonged illness,\nwhich had reduced her to a state of extreme weakness. All her family had\ngone to church, when a violent storm arose. Mademoiselle N---- went to\nthe window to watch its effects; the thought of her father suddenly\nstruck her, and, under existing circumstances, she felt much uneasiness.\nHer imagination soon persuaded her that her father had perished. In\norder to conquer her fears she went into a room in which she was\naccustomed to see him in his arm-chair. On entering, she was very much\nsurprised at seeing him in his place, and in his accustomed attitude.\nShe immediately approached to inquire how he had come in, and in\naddressing him, attempted to place her hand on his shoulder, but\nencountered only space. Very much alarmed, she drew back, and turning\nher head as she left the room, still saw him in the same attitude. More\nthan half an hour elapsed from the time she first saw the apparition.\nDuring this time Mademoiselle N----, who was convinced that it was an\nillusion, entered the room several times, and carefully examined the\narrangement of the objects, and especially of the chair.\" (De Boismont,\npage 276.)\n\nNothing had occurred to her father, and the appearance may be adequately\naccounted for on psychometric grounds. The chair was vibrant with the\ninfluence of the father, and those vibrations constantly carried out\nwith them his image.\n\nMrs. Denton, an extremely sensitive person, relates an experience which\nshows how exactly similar the impressibility which may be called normal\nin contradistinction to that induced by disease. On entering a car from\nwhich the passengers had gone to dinner, she was surprised to see the\nseats occupied.\n\n\"Many of them were sitting perfectly composed, as if, for them, very\nlittle interest was attached to this station, while others were already\nin motion (a kind of compressed motion), as if preparing to leave. I\nthought this somewhat strange, and was about turning to find a seat in\nanother car, when a second glance around showed me that the passengers,\nwho had appeared so indifferent were really losing their identity, and,\nin a moment, were invisible to me. I had had time to note the personal\nappearance of several; and taking a seat I awaited the return of the\npassengers, thinking it more than probable I might in them find the\nprototypes of the faces and forms I had a moment before so singularly\nbeheld. Nor was I disappointed. A number of those who returned to the\ncars I recognized as being, in every particular, the counterparts of\ntheir late but transient representatives.\"\n\nMary Dana Shindler, in the _Voice of Truth_, says:\n\n\"An aunt of ours was very ill with fever, and her only brother,\ncommanding a packet ship between Havana and Charleston, was daily\nexpected; but we feared he would arrive too late to see his sister in\nearth-life. One morning while we were watching at her bedside, she\nsuddenly sat up, clapped her hands, and exclaimed joyfully, 'Brother\nWilliam has come!' We all thought her mind wandering; but in about ten\nminutes he arrived at her house, and from that moment she began to\nrecover. She could not tell us how she discovered that he had arrived,\nbut only said, 'I knew it; I heard, and _felt_ him.'\"\n\nBishop Bowman, in a sermon delivered in Philadelphia, narrated a\nremarkable experience, which shows how near the state of death\napproaches trance or clairvoyance. The usual light treatment of the fact\nof the result of cerebral disturbance is far from a satisfactory\nsolution:\n\n\"On my return from Japan, I preached in California, and probably\noverworked myself. The last Sunday in February, after holding divine\nservice in my St. Louis Church, I returned home, when I was immediately\ntaken sick with a lingering fever, which the physicians predicted would\nend fatally. At this point I seemed to fall into a kind of ecstasy, and\nI did not know whether I was alive or dead. I imagined I was on board a\nmagnificent ship, and heard the captain say, 'Stop her,' which I\nthought to be the voice of my Divine Master, when my young\neighteen-months-old child, who had died twenty years ago, came to me and\nsaid that she had heard that I was coming, and had come to meet me.\nAfter some conversation which I do not recollect, she said, 'Do you\nthink I have grown, papa?' She then arose in a form of glory I have\nnever before witnessed, and never again expect to see until I die, and\nthen returned to her usual state, saying that she came in that shape to\nsee if I would know her. She said that many other friends had inquired\nafter me, and that an old gentleman and lady had taken her up and kissed\nher, saying that her papa was their boy. I then asked her where her mama\nwas. 'Oh, she is away doing something for the Lord, but will meet us on\nour arrival at the wharf.' It was a season of great preciousness to me.\nIt seems to me that I have come back from the other world; and although\nit is peculiar for me to say I was dead, it seems to me I was not in the\nbody.\"\n\nThe testimony of those who have approached nearest to death, and have\nbeen brought back to life, favors, if not proves, that at that great\ncrisis, as the senses fail, spiritual sensitiveness becomes acute, and\nthe perceptions merge into a universal consciousness. A gentleman while\nswimming failed to sustain himself, and before assistance could reach\nhim, sank, as he supposed, to rise no more.\n\n\"Then he saw, as if in a wide field, the acts of his own being, from the\nfirst dawn of memory until the time he entered the water. They were all\ngrouped and ranged in the order of the succession of their happening,\nand he read the whole volume of existence at a glance; nay, its\nincidents and entities were photographed on his mind, illumined by\nlight, the panorama of the battle of life lay before him.\" (\"Sleep,\nMemory and Sensation,\" page 43.)\n\nClairvoyance has, as thus appears, a retrospection, and is as able to\nsee the past as the present, or previse the future. The element of time\ndoes not appear to enter into the cognition of events by this faculty.\nEverything is in the present, and the past is only distinguished by\norder of sequence.\n\nA gentleman in Iowa related to me his experience while insensible from\nthe effect of cold. He was overtaken by a fearful storm, such as\nsometimes sweep across the prairies, and, losing his way after hours of\nvain struggling, sank exhausted in a drift of snow. The past events of\nhis life came in a panoramic show before him, but so rapidly moving,\nthat from boyhood until that moment was as an instant; then came a sense\nof perfect physical happiness, and he began dimly to see the forms of\nthose whom he had known while living, but were now dead. They grew more\nand more distinct, but just as they came near and were, as he thought,\noverjoyed to receive him, darkness came suddenly and great pain; the\nvision faded, and he became conscious of the presence of his friends who\nhad rescued him, and were applying every measure to restore him to life.\nHow near he had reached the boundary line, the \"dead line\" beyond, from\nwhich there is no return to the body, was shown by his crippled hands\nand feet.\n\nIt is a singular fact that no one has ever recovered from a near\napproach to this line, who does not tell the same tale of an exalted\nperception and intensification of the mental faculties. Sometimes this\nis exhibited by the recognition of an event then transpiring, with which\nthe subject is intimately connected, as in the following, wherein the\ndeaths of near relatives or friends are discerned:\n\nIt is a historical fact that Rev. Joseph Buckminster, who died in\nVermont, in 1812, just before his death, announced that his\ndistinguished son, Rev. J. S. Buckminster, was dead.\n\nThe Eaton (O.) _Telegraph_ gives the following parallel case: \"On\nWednesday morning last, at four o'clock, Gen. John Quince breathed his\nlast. But a few minutes after that, Joseph Deem, who also died on the\n14th, aroused from his sleep, and said to his son John, who attended\nhim, 'Gen. Quince is dead.' To this John replied, 'You are mistaken,\nfather, Gen. Quince is well, and goes by after his mail every day.'\n'Yes,' said Father Deem, 'Gen. Quince is dead.' Shortly after a neighbor\ncame in, and said that Gen. Quince had suddenly died.\"\n\nWhenever the power of expression is retained, we see the development of\nclairvoyance at the approach of death. Sometimes the paralysis of the\nmuscles prevents vocal expression, but where this is the case, the eyes\nshow the ecstasy which the lifting of the vail from a new world only can\ngive.\n\nMrs. Helen Willmans relates this touching story of the death of her\nchild:\n\n\"From her birth she had been afraid of death. Every fiber of her body\nand soul recoiled from the thought of it.\n\n\"'Don't let me die!' she said. 'Don't let me die! Hold me fast--I can't\ngo.'\n\n\"'Jenny,' I said, 'you have two little brothers in the other world, and\nthere are thousands of tender-hearted people over there, who will love\nand take care of you.'\n\n\"But she cried despairingly, 'Don't let me go. They are strangers over\nthere.'\n\n\"But even as she was pleading her little hands relaxed their clinging\nhold from my waist, and lifted themselves eagerly aloft; lifted\nthemselves with such a straining effort that they raised the wasted body\nfrom its reclining position among the pillows. Her eyes filled with the\nlight of divine recognition. They saw plainly something we could not\nsee. But even at that supreme moment she did not forget to leave a word\nof comfort for those who gladly would have died in her place. 'Mamma!\nmamma! they are not strangers. I am not afraid!' And every instant the\nlight burned more gloriously in her blue eyes, until at last it seemed\nas her soul leaped forth upon its radiant waves, and in that moment her\ntrembling form relapsed among the pillows, and she was gone.\"\n\nThus we perceive that sensitiveness, which is first manifested in the\nmesmeric state, breaks in at rare intervals, during wakefulness or\nsleep, as vivid impressions or dreams, arises to clairvoyance as the\nspirit and physical body are separated more and more, and reaches its\nmost intense expression at the moment of death, when the union between\nthe two is severed.\n\nIt is after this great event that the spiritual being, formed from\nattenuated substance, far beyond the horizon of the most ethereal known\nto the senses, is free from the environments of the physical body. It\nsees, hears, feels, with the organization of its new being, and is\ncognizant of a world unknown to the mortal senses.\n\n\n\n\nThought Transference.\n\n\nThe English Society for Psychical Research have given greater attention\nto thought transference than any other subject which has engaged its\nattention, claiming that if it be proved, it becomes the foundation for\na working theory, co-ordinating a vast number of related facts and\nphenomena. It was the conclusion of the committee after numerous\nexperiments, that thought reading was an established fact. The adage,\n\"The devil is near when you talk about him,\" is proven daily; for when\nan individual is going to a certain place expecting to meet certain\nones, his thoughts go before him, and impress themselves. When those\nconnected by intimate relations think of each other, their thoughts\nvibrate in responsive brains. Distance has inappreciable influence on\nthe transference of thought. It may take place in the same room, or when\nthe two persons are thousands of miles apart. As a personal experience I\nwill relate one of many similar incidents which have awakened my\nattention to this wonderful phenomenon. Sitting by my desk one evening,\nsuddenly as a flash of light, the thought came to write an article for\nthe _Harbinger of Light_, published at Melbourne, Australia. I had by\ncorrespondence become acquainted with the editor, W. H. Terry, but there\nhad been no letters passed for nearly a year. I had not thought of him\nor his journal, for I do not know how long a time, and I was amused at\nfirst with the idea of writing on the subject suggested. But the\nimpression was so strong that I prepared and forwarded an article.\nNearly two months passed before I received a letter from Mr. Terry\nrequesting me to write an article on the subject, on which I had\nwritten, and making due allowance for time, the dates of our letters\nwere the same. In our experience this crossing of letters answering each\nother, has twice occurred, the second by Mr. Terry answering a request\nof mine.\n\nI have gathered a series of facts illustrative and demonstrative, by\ntheir culminative evidence. If any one statement be questioned as\nimprobable, we must consider the probabilities increase with each and\nevery instance corroboratory, and when a constantly augmenting series\ncontinue in the same line, each number adding strength to the others,\nthe probability becomes a certainty.\n\nDr. Nicolas, Count de Gon\u00e9mys, of Corfu, gives his personal experience\nin March number, 1885, of the _Journal of the Society for Psychical\nResearch_:\n\n\"In the year 1869 I was officer of health in the Hellenic army. By\ncommand of the War Office I was attached to the garrison of the Island\nof Zante. As I was approaching the Island in a steamboat, to take up my\nnew position, and about two hours distance from the shore, I heard a\nsudden inward voice say to me over and over in Italian, 'Go to Voterra.'\nI had no association with the name of M. Voterra, a gentleman of Zante,\nwith whom I was not even acquainted, although I had once seen him, ten\nyears before. I tried the effect of stopping my ears, and of trying to\ndistract myself by conversation with the bystanders, but all was\nuseless, and I continued to hear the voice in the same way. At last we\nreached the land; I proceeded to my hotel and busied myself with my\ntrunks, but the voice continued to harass me. After a time a servant\ncame and announced to me that a gentleman was at the door who wished to\nspeak to me at once. 'Who is the gentleman?' I asked. 'M. Voterra,' was\nthe reply. M. Voterra entered, weeping violently, in uncontrollable\ndistress, imploring me to follow him at once, and see his son who was in\na dangerous condition. I found a young man in maniacal frenzy, naked in\nan empty room, and despaired of by all the doctors of Zante for the past\nfive years.\"\n\nBy magnetism Dr. Nicolas effected a perfect cure, the maniac becoming in\nthe mesmeric state clairvoyant.\n\nThe following is by C. Ede, M. D., Guilford (_J. S. P. R._, July, 1882).\n\n\"Lady G. and her sister had been spending the evening with their mother,\nwho was in her usual health and spirits when they left her. In the\nmiddle of the night the sister awoke in a fright, and said to her\nhusband, 'I must go to my mother at once; do order the carriage. I am\nsure she is ill.' The husband, after trying in vain to convince his wife\nthat it was only a fancy, ordered the carriage. As she was approaching\nthe house where two roads met, she saw Lady G.'s carriage. When they met\neach asked the other why she was there. The same reply was made by both.\n'I could not sleep, feeling sure my mother was ill, and so I came to\nsee.' As they came in sight they saw their mother's confidential maid at\nthe door, who told them when they arrived, that their mother had been\ntaken suddenly ill, and was dying, and had expressed an earnest wish to\nsee her daughters.\"\n\nThe daughters having so recently parted from their mother, made them\npeculiarly susceptible to her influence.\n\nT. W. Smith, Ealing, W. England (_J. S. P. R._, July, 1882), had this\nexperience, showing the close bonds which unite husband and wife:\n\n\"I left my house, ten miles from London, in the morning as usual, and in\nthe course of the day was on the way to Victoria Street, when, in\nattempting to cross the road made slippery by the water cart, I fell,\nand was nearly run over by a carriage coming in an opposite direction.\nThe fall and the fright shook me considerably, but beyond that I was\nuninjured. On reaching home, I found my wife waiting anxiously, and\nthis is what she related to me: She was in the kitchen when she suddenly\ndropped, exclaiming, 'My God, he's hurt!' Mrs. S. who was near her heard\nthe cry, and both agreed as to the time, etc.\"\n\nThe Rev. P. H. Newham (_J. S. P. R._, Feb. 1887), relates an extended\nseries of experiments in will power. He was able while in church to draw\nthe attention of any one in the audience by simply directing his\nthoughts to them. He experimented at a series of concerts, selecting\nthose in front of him so that they could not catch his eye by simply\nraising their heads. \"It was very interesting,\" he writes, \"to see them\nfirst fidget about in their seats and at last turn their heads around\nand look about them, as if to see whence the uncomfortable feeling that\ninfluenced them proceeded.\"\n\nThe London _Spectator_ for Christmas, 1881, contains an interesting\nstory by A. J. Duffield, of thought transference. The gist of this story\nis that a Mr. Strong went to Lake Superior and became foreman of the\nFranklin copper mine. He fell sick and would have died but for the care\nof a lady whose husband was a director of the mining company. She had\nhim carried to her own house, and nursed him with kindest care until he\nrecovered. Seven years after this event, when he had drifted away from\nthe mines, he was sitting by himself one evening, when he suddenly saw\nthis kind lady in a room with nothing in it, no fire, no food. She was\ncalm and quiet, with the same face she had when she nursed him in the\nfever. He thereby was made deeply conscious that she was in distress,\nand sent her a most liberal amount of money by mail. The day after he\nreceived a letter from the lady, saying that her husband was sick, and\nthat they were in great suffering, and asking for aid.\n\nIn this instance the mind of Capt. Strong was bound to his preserver\nwith strong bonds, love, gratefulness and expectation of some time\nrepaying his great obligation. It was in proper condition for the\nreception of such thoughts, while, on the other hand, under the pressure\nof suffering, the lady's mind was in a condition to give force to the\nemanating thoughts.\n\nThe _Springfield Homestead_ published what it called an odd\ncircumstance, but so far from being odd is of proverbially common\noccurrence. A Mrs. A. and her daughter called on their relative, Mrs.\nB., of Central Street. On their way thither they remarked how pleased\nthey would be if Mrs. B.'s daughter, Mrs. L., of Hartford, could only be\nthere too. This remark was repeated to Mrs. B., and she replied that her\nthoughts were similar. Then one of them recalled the old saying that the\ncombined thoughts of three women can bring any one from any place, and\nthe reply was made that if wishing would bring Mrs. L. she would surely\ncome. Mrs. B. prepared strawberry cake, saying her daughter, Mrs. L.,\nwas fond of it, and that she was going to lay a plate for her just as\nthough she were there. As they were sitting down to tea, the door bell\nrang and in came the much wished for Mrs. L., greatly to their surprise.\nWhen asked how she happened to come, she replied that she did not intend\nto do so until that day, and decided to do so because tormented with the\nimpression that some one wanted to see her. She is not accustomed to\ncome to Springfield, not having visited her sister before in a year.\n\nHenry Watson, of Mill Village, Pa., was suddenly impressed that his\nservices were needed at a certain point on French Creek. There was no\nassignable cause for his going, and he resisted it as a vagary. The\nimpression, however, grew so strong that he yielded as to a charm. When\nwithin a short distance of the spot cries for help reached his ears. In\nthe creek he found George Dowler and wife struggling for their lives.\nThey had attempted to ford the creek, and missing the way were\nsubmerged. He was holding on to the horse while the swift current was\ncarrying his wife to her death. Taking a boat, Watson rescued her from\ncertain death. Had he not arrived at that very moment, she would have\nbeen inevitably drowned.\n\nL. M. Hastings of Osceola, Iowa, had a son murdered near Grand Island,\nNeb. The night after the crime was committed he awoke about midnight\nwith his attention fixed on an apparition at the foot of the bed. He saw\nthe representation of two men with great distinctness, and something\ntold him that they were the pictures of the murderers of his son. He\nstudied them carefully until they faded out of sight, and then arose and\nwrote a description which was forwarded to the prosecuting attorney. It\nwas found to be a thoroughly accurate description of the men who were\nthen under arrest and who were, without doubt the guilty parties. Mr.\nHastings had never seen these men nor received any description of them.\n\n\nTRANSFERENCE OF THOUGHT AND PAIN.--Mrs. Arthur Severn, the distinguished\nlandscape painter (_J. S. P. R._, March, 1884), writes of an accident to\nher husband which at once impressed itself on her:\n\n\"I woke with a start, feeling I had a hard blow on my mouth, and a\ndistinct sense that I had been cut under my upper lip, and held my\nhandkerchief to the part as I sat up in bed, and after a few seconds,\nwhen I removed it, I was astonished not to see any blood, and only then\nrealized that it was impossible that anything could have struck me, and\nso I thought it was only a dream. I looked at my watch and saw it was\nseven, and finding Arthur (my husband) was not in the room, I concluded\nhe had gone out on the lake for a sail as it was fine.\n\n\"At breakfast (half-past nine) Arthur came in rather late, and I noticed\nhe rather purposely sat farther away from me than usual, and put his\nhandkerchief to his lip in the way I had done. I said: 'Arthur, why are\nyou doing that? I know you have hurt yourself; but I'll tell you why\nafterwards.' He said: 'Well, when I was sailing, a sudden squall came,\nthrowing the tiller suddenly around, and it struck me a hard blow in the\nmouth under the upper lip and it has been bleeding a good deal and won't\nstop.' I then asked: 'At what time did it happen?' He answered: 'It must\nhave been about seven o'clock.' I then told what had happened to me,\nmuch to his surprise and all who were at the table.\"\n\nRev. J. M. Wilson, head master of Clifton College (in _J. S. P. R._,\nMarch, 1884), presents a fact which, while admitting of telegraphic\nexplanation, may be referred to a higher source:\n\n\"I was at Cambridge at the end of my second term in full health,\nboating, football playing, and the like, and by no means subject to\nhallucinations or morbid fancies. One evening I felt very ill, trembling\nwith no apparent cause; nor did it seem to me at the time to be a\nphysical illness, or chill of any kind. I was frightened; I was totally\nunable to overcome it. I remember a struggle with myself, resolving that\nI would go on with my mathematics, but it was in vain. I became\nconvinced that I was dying. I went down to the room of a friend, who\nwas on the same staircase. He exclaimed at me before I spoke. He pulled\nout a whisky bottle and backgammon board, but I could not face it. We\nsat over the fire, and he brought some one else to look at me. Toward\neleven, after some three hours, I got better, went to bed and after a\ntime to sleep, and next morning was quite well. In the afternoon came a\nletter stating that my twin brother had died the evening before in\nLincolnshire.\"\n\nRev. Canon Warburton, Winchester, England (_J. S. P. R._, May 1884),\nrelates the following, which is of interest as an example of\ntransference of thought and of sensation:\n\n\"I went from Oxford to stay a day or two with my brother, then a\nbarrister at 10 Fish Street, Lincoln's Inn. When I reached his chambers\nI found a note on the table apologizing for his absence, and saying he\nhad gone to a dance, and intended to be at home soon after one o'clock.\nInstead of going to bed, I dozed in an arm-chair, but started up wide\nawake exactly at one, ejaculating, 'By Jove, he's down!' and seeing him\ncoming out of the drawing room into the brightly illuminated landing,\ncatching his foot in the edge of the top stair and falling head-long,\njust saving himself by his elbows and hands. (The house was one I had\nnever seen, and I did not know where he was.) I again fell adoze for\nhalf an hour, and was awakened by my brother suddenly coming in and\nsaying: 'Ah! there you are! I have just had as narrow an escape of\nbreaking my neck as I ever had in my life. Coming out of the ballroom, I\ncaught my foot and tumbled full length down stairs.'\"\n\nThe following is vouched for by Miss Millicent Ann Page, sister of the\nRev. A. Shaw Page, Vicar of Lesly, England, to whom it was related by\nMrs. Elizabeth Broughton, Edinburgh:\n\n\"Mrs. Broughton aroused her husband, telling him something dreadful had\nhappened in France. He begged her to go asleep again. She assured him\nthat she was not asleep when she saw what she insisted in then telling\nhim. First, a carriage accident, which she did not see, but she saw the\nresult: a broken carriage, collected crowd, a figure gently raised and\ncarried into the nearest house, and then a figure lying on the bed,\nwhich she recognized as the Duke of Orleans. Gradually friends collected\naround the bed, among them several members of the royal family--the\nQueen, then the King--all tearfully, silently watching the dying Duke.\nOne man, she could see his back, but did not know who he was, was a\ndoctor. He stood bending over the Duke, feeling his pulse with his watch\nin his other hand. Then all passed away. In the morning she wrote down\nin her journal all she had seen. It was before the days of the\ntelegraph, and two or more days passed before the _Times_ announced the\ndeath of the Duke of Orleans.\n\n\"A short time after, she visited Paris, recognized the place of the\naccident, and received an explanation of her impression. The doctor who\nattended the Duke was an old friend of hers; and as he watched by the\nbed he said his mind was constantly occupied with her and her family.\nThe reason, therefor, was the remarkable likeness between the members of\nher family and those of the royal family then present. 'I spoke of you\nand yours when I reached home, and thought of you many times that\nevening,' said the doctor. 'The likeness between yourself and the royal\nfamily was never so strong. Here was a link between us, you see.'\"\n\nCertain dreams may be explained by thought-transference, which is liable\nto take place during the varying moods of slumber as while awake. Rev.\nJ. C. Learned writes (_J. S. P. R._): \"It was in 1883 that I took charge\nof the Unitarian Church in Exeter, N. H. Five miles away, Rev. A. M.\nBridge was preaching at Hampton Falls, with whom I sometimes exchanged\npulpits. After a year or so he gave up the work in this little parish,\nand somewhat later entered upon an engagement in the town of East\nMarshfield, Mass., as the railroad runs, eighty miles from Exeter.\n\n\"On Wednesday, Dec. 13th, 1865, on waking in the morning, I remarked to\nmy wife upon the very vivid and singular dream which I had had, and\nrelated it fully. I had seen Mr. Bridge taken suddenly and violently\nill. He seemed to be in a school-room. He sank down helpless and was\nborne away by friendly hands. I was by him, and assisted others in\nwhatever way I could. But he grew worse; the open air did not revive\nhim; a leaden pallor soon spread over his features; peculiar spots which\nI had never seen before, like moles or discoloration of the skin,\nappeared upon his face, and after much suffering he died. Immediately\nafter breakfast, and while we were still speaking of the dream, a ring\nat the door admitted Mr. Wells Healy, an old parishioner of Mr. Bridge,\nat Hampton Falls. I guessed the nature of his message. He had come to\nask me to attend the funeral services of his former minister.\n\n\"I attended the funeral as requested. I learned from the family the\nparticulars of his death, which coincided remarkably in several points\nwith the dream already repeated to my wife, and when I looked at the\ndead man in his coffin, my attention was fixed by the peculiar spots on\nhis face to which I have alluded, and which were stamped on my memory.\"\n\n\nDOUBLE PRESENCE.--APPEARANCE OF LIVING PERSONS AT A DISTANCE.--It would\nappear that this projection of thought to distant localities may be so\nstrong as to carry the appearance of the projector with it. This may be\nexplained by the aid of psychometry, or by the actual projection of the\npsychic individuality, so as to give the impression of identity, and not\nonly that, but to receive and retain impressions on the part of the\nprojector. The double presence which has so perplexed the student of\nthese mysteries thus admits of solution, and becomes a part of the\nfabric created by sensitiveness to thought impressions. These\nappearances of living persons as apparitions or ghosts, have been\nrepeatedly employed as evidence of the subjectiveness of ghostly\napparitions of the dead; that as one must be unreal so must the other.\nBut this conclusion is unwarranted, as by the principles here advocated\nthe apparitions of the living are under the same law as those of the\ndead.\n\nIt is possible for the independent clairvoyant at any time, in spirit,\nto visit distant localities and persons, and if the latter are\nsufficiently sensitive, they will recognize the clairvoyant's presence.\nThe phenomenon of \"double presence,\" in this manner can be produced, as\nsomnambulism may be, by artificial means; that is through mesmerism or\nhypnotism.\n\nMany remarkable stories are recorded of the double, some of which are\nunbelievable unless the principles heretofore stated are understood.\n\nJosiah Gilbert, in the _London Speculator_, gives the following pleasing\nnarrative:\n\n\"A son of a family named Watkinson, residing in Lancashire, had gone to\nAmerica. One summer Sunday afternoon, they were attending services and\noccupying a large square pew near the pulpit. It was hot, the door of\nthe small building was wide open, and one of the party who sat looking\ndown the aisle could see out into the meeting-house yard, which was\nshaded by tall trees. Suddenly, to his intense surprise, he saw the\nabsent brother approaching through the trees, enter at the chapel door,\nwalk up the aisle, come to the very door of the pew itself, and lay his\nhand upon it as though he would take a seat with them. At that moment\nothers of the family saw him also, but at that instant he vanished.\n\n\"This strange occurrence naturally raised sad forebodings, but in course\nof time a letter arrived, and it appeared that the brother was alive and\nwell. He was then written to and asked if anything peculiar had happened\non that Sunday. He replied that it was odd that he should remember\nanything about a Sunday so long passed, but certainly something had\nhappened on that Sunday. He had come in overpowered with heat and had\nthrown himself on his bed, fallen asleep and had a strange dream. He\nfound himself among the trees of a country chapel; service was going on;\nhe saw them all, the door being open, sitting in their pews; he walked\nup the aisle and put his hand on the pew door to open it, when he\nsuddenly, and to his great chagrin, awoke.\"\n\nS. F. Deane, M. D., of Carlton, Neb., had a remarkable experience which\nhe relates as follows:\n\n\"After my arrival in Nebraska, I made my home with my daughters. At the\ntime I left Wisconsin, my wife was not well and I hesitated to leave\nher. After I had been absent about three weeks, I had retired to my\nroom, which had a door opening into the street. About two o'clock in\nthe morning while awake, with sufficient light from a partially obscured\nmoon to see distinctly any person in the room, fully conscious of all my\nsurroundings, and with my face toward the door, I saw it open and a\nperson step into the room, which I at once recognized as the exact image\nof my wife. She came directly across the room, knelt at my bedside, put\nher arms about my neck, kissed me and said she had been very sick but\nwas better now. Then she said she must go and see Adelaide, and arose\nand passed across the room, to the door of our daughter's room. She was\ngone a few minutes when she again came through the open bedroom door\ninto my room, looked at me, as much as to say good-bye, passed out at\nthe door, and was gone.\n\n\"While she was present a peculiar calmness came over me; but when she\nwas gone a great anxiety took possession of me, and could I have taken a\ntrain, I should have at once started for home. But I at last resolved to\nawait a letter, which came in due time from my son. He wrote: 'Mother is\nquite sick, though better than night before last, when about half-past\ntwo or three o'clock in the morning we thought for twenty or thirty\nminutes she was dead. She lay insensible, pulsation ceased, or only\nfluttered at intervals, and respiration seemed suspended, but she\nrallied and is now in a fair way to recover.' She did recover and\nenjoyed a fair degree of health.\"\n\nThere is no limit to the facts of this class which might be collected.\nEnough have been here produced to show that coincidence offers a poor\napology as an explanation. The student will observe also, that however\ncarefully the facts are selected bearing on this one point of thought\ntransference, it is impossible, so intimately related are the branches\nof psychic science, to have them entirely free from the possibility of\nother explanations. Granting that thought may be transferred from one\nmortal to another, admits that a spirit may transfer its thoughts to a\nmortal also, and hence a spirit seeing a friend in distress may act as a\nmessenger. But in such a case thought is transferred, and in the same\nmanner. The sensitive on one side receives the pulsations of thought\nfrom the other, through and by means of the psychic ether.\n\nIt will be thus seen that there is no mystery in one mind becoming\ncognizant of the thoughts of another mind, for if in sympathy, such a\nresult is sure to follow. As a lamp gives light, because it is able to\nset the light medium in motion, or give off waves therein, so the brain\ngives off waves, or is a pulsating center in the psychic-ether. These\nwaves go outward and form the sphere of the individual, as the waves of\nlight go out and form the sphere of light around an incandescent body.\n\nTo be recognized, they must strike against a sensitive or sympathetic\nbrain, wherein they may be reproduced. By sympathetic, we mean one\nwhich, for want of a better term, we will say is similarly attuned.\nThus, when two musical instruments are placed at some distance from each\nother, and one is played, if they are not attuned in harmony the other\nwill give no response; but if they are, then when one is touched, the\nother answers note for note.\n\nThe brain, being a pulsating center, its thoughts, as they go out in\nwaves, have to other brains, a tangible representation. The\npsychic-ether, pulsating with innumerable waves, may be regarded as a\nuniversal thought atmosphere, and the sensitive brain is able to gather\nfrom it thoughts and ideas which its pulsations express.\n\nIf any reliance can be placed on the observations of the most credible\nwitnesses, whose evidence would be received on any other subject, and in\nlaw would be given power to decide on life or death, these facts of\nThought Transference cannot be rejected. If they are received, they\ndemand explanation. If thought passes from one mind to another, or, as\nit is often expressed, the will influences a distant person, it is\nself-evident that something passes from one to the other. What is this\nsomething? Facts conflict with the hypothesis of its being matter\nradiated from one individual to another, as light was once supposed to\nbe transmitted. It passes too readily through vast thicknesses of solid\nmatter, and is too instantaneous in its action, to consist of radiant\nparticles. On the other hand, all of its phenomena show a striking\nrelationship to light, heat and kindred forces.\n\n\nHOW IS THIS INFLUENCE EXERTED?--Admitting that there is a psychic-ether,\nin which thinking produces waves, how does one individual influence\nanother thereby? If the brain vibrates like the strings of a musical\ninstrument, as no two are alike, no two vibrate alike. This is more than\na mere illustration. Both depend on similar laws, for the string excites\nvibrations in the air, which are felt by the nerves of the tympanum of\nthe ear. Thinking creates undulations in ether, which are impressed on\nother minds. The string of the instrument excites similar vibrations in\ncontiguous strings; for the atmosphere transmits the waves of sound.\n\nThis is very beautifully shown by a simple experiment, which equally\nwell illustrates the method by which mind influences mind. If a plate\nof glass is strewn with sand, and, while held in a horizontal position,\na bow drawn across its edge, a musical sound will be produced from the\nvibration of the plate, and the sand, by the impulse, forms into various\ngeometric lines, according to the note produced--each note giving rise\nto a figure peculiar to itself. So invariably is this the case that a\npiece of music might be accurately written from the forms assumed by the\nsand.\n\nNow, if a piece of parchment or paper be stretched, with proper\nprecautions, across the top of a large bell glass and strewn with sand,\nand the glass plate held over it horizontally, and the bow drawn across\nits edge, the forms assumed by the sand on the paper will accurately\ncorrespond with the forms on the glass. If the glass is slowly removed\nto greater and greater distances, the correspondence will continue until\nthe distance becomes too great for the air to transmit the vibrations.\n\nWhen a slow air is played on a flute near this apparatus, each note\ncalls up a particular form in the sand, which the next note effaces and\nestablishes its own. The motion of the sand will even detect sounds that\nare inaudible.\n\nProfessor Wheaton devised a means of beautifully illustrating this\nsympathy. If a sounding board is placed so as to resound to all the\ninstruments of the orchestra, and connected by a metallic rod of\nconsiderable length with the sounding-board of a harp or piano, the\ninstrument will accurately repeat the notes transmitted.\n\nThe nervous system, in its two-fold relation to the physical and\nspiritual being, is inconceivably more finely organized than the most\nperfect musical instrument, and is possessed of finer sensitiveness.\n\nBut it must not be inferred that all minds are receptive. Light falls on\nall substances alike, but is very differently affected. One class of\nbodies absorbs all but the yellow rays; another, all but the blue;\nanother, all but the red, because these substances are so organized that\nthey respond only to waves of the colors reflected.\n\nSome individuals have the ear so organized that they can hear certain\nsounds, but are totally deaf to others. The waves of sound strike all\ntympanums alike; yet in these instances they are incapable of responding\nto certain waves. Some person who delight in music, although all the\nlower notes are plainly heard, as soon as the tune rises to a high key,\ncan not hear a single sound. In others, this is reversed. The eye of\nsome individuals is similarly arranged--some colors being undiscernible,\nwhile others are perceptible. The vibrations are the same in all these\ncases, but owing to peculiarities of organization are not felt. As\nmusical instruments to respond must be attuned in harmony, so there must\nbe correlated harmony between minds which transmit and receive thoughts.\nAll minds give out vibrations, as all musical strings give out sounds;\nand as there must be a corresponding string to receive its notes, so\nthere must be not only a sensitive but harmoniously attuned mind to\nreceive the thought vibrations.\n\nIndividuals not mutually harmonious--at least in some point--do not\nexcite a mental influence on each other; but if they are thus organized,\nthey will influence each other. This is unavoidable, whether the will is\nexcited or not; but if the stronger will is exerted, its power is\nproportionally greater, and it will magnetize the weaker; and the\npeculiar phenomena attending that mental state will be manifested.\n\nIt is not the body which magnetizes or is magnetized; it is the mind;\nand these effects are produced outside of the physical system. The fact\nthat one person can magnetize another by the simple power of the will,\nthough at a distance, is evidence that the mind in this exercise of\npower is independent of the body.\n\nIf we grant, for the sake of the argument, that there is a spirit back\nof the physical aspect of mortal life, it will be readily seen that all\nthat has been said of the transference of thought between individuals,\nholds true between spiritual beings, as this transference at last\nresides in the spirit-being. As man is a spirit incarnated, differing in\nthat respect only from a disembodied spirit, the body is the only\nobstacle between him and the spirits above him. Sensitiveness to\nimpressions from another, or from a spirit, rest on the same cause; and\nin the higher realm of spirit, the transference of thought is controlled\nby the same laws, and reaches more perfect expression.\n\n\n\n\nIntimations of an Intelligent Force.\n\n\nBELIEF IN GUARDIAN ANGELS.--Memory brings back the days of our childhood\nand again we hear our mother sing that simple song of joy, which, it is\nsaid, Bishop McKendree murmured on his dying bed:\n\n    Bright angels have from glory come,\n      They're round my bed; they're in my room;\n    They wait to waft my spirit home;\n      All is well! All is well!\n\nWe approach the dark river of death alone, but we are not to cross\nwithout a guide. We may be blind to the light of the celestial sphere in\nthe full pulse of health; we may be insensible to the presence of the\nnearest and dearest of our departed; yet when death loosens the bonds\nwhich unite the physical with the spiritual body, what is known dimly as\nclairvoyance, the full possession of the spiritual senses, bursts upon\nthe awakened spirit. Then the dying find that death is life, and to\nleave earthly friends is to meet the hosts of heaven.\n\nThat there are guardian angels has been taught from immemorial time, and\nin some dim form is a belief of all except the lowest races of mankind.\n\nIt is a beautiful belief, full of consolation, of assurance, and comfort\nto the struggling and striving. How hard may press the iron hand of\nfate, how sharp the flinty stones beneath our bleeding feet, we think of\nthose blessed messengers by our side, and feel that our burdens are for\nthe purpose of giving us strength, else they would turn us aside to more\npleasant paths. We know that they are with us in the darkest hours, and\nenjoy with us the days of our sunshine. We delve in the soil and smirch\nof the world, and the physical being obscures and overlaps the spiritual\nto such a degree that our horizon is shut down on that side by thick\nclouds, and only at long intervals can a ray of light penetrate the\ndarkness.\n\nOur lives might be so well ordered that we would be as conscious of the\npresence of these guardians as of earthly friends. What is possible at\nrare moments of lucidity is possible at all times under like conditions.\nThe fault is not on their side, but on ours. The sun forever shines in\nthe heavens, just above the thin vail of clouds, and if the sea does\nnot reflect the starry night, it is because of its agitated surface.\n\nWe do not see through the thin vail, which separates the world of\nspirits and men. We cannot see the air which surges a profound and\nagitated ocean above and around us. Without material rays of light we\ncould not see material things, and would be practically blind.\n\nIf we ascend a mountain in the night, we can only perceive the gray and\nmossy rocks a few yards ahead of us, bordering the path, beyond which\nwould be impenetrable darkness, gloomy abysses, seemingly unfathomable,\nand above, the dark night-clouds without a star. On the summit we rest\nawaiting the morning, seeing nothing, but scenting the faint odors of\npine and the fragrance of flowers borne upwards on the gentle air.\nPatiently we wait until the gray East blushes with a long horizontal\nline of light flaming upward toward the crimson clouds, and the distant\nmountain-tops with the silver flood. Lo! the orb of day pushes the\nclouds aside, and flashes over the world in triumph. What\ntransformation! What grandeur and beauty! Valleys of eden, loveliness at\nour feet, and snowy summits above our heads! Grand forests clothing the\nhillsides, bloom and flower everywhere; gem-like lakes, and flashing\ntorrents, endless prospective of mountains on one side, and of plain on\nthe other. All night we were in the midst of this grandeur and beauty,\nyet saw it not. We seemed suspended between earth and sky, and around us\nonly blackness, yet all this splendor of scenery existed the same as it\ndid before the light made it visible.\n\nThus the world of spirit may exist around us, unseen, unfelt, except as\nwe perceive the odor of asphodels, or hear the faint murmur of angel\nwhispers, for our eyes are blind to the light, by which it is revealed.\n\n\nFACTS UNREFERABLE TO PREVIOUSLY CONSIDERED CAUSES.--After referring to\nhypnotism, somnambulism, clairvoyance and thought transference, a great\nmass of the facts presented for explanation, there still remain a large\nnumber which stand apart by themselves, and which bring an outside or\nindependent intelligence with them, which no exaltation on the part of\nthe actor can supply. The only adequate or even plausible explanation of\nthese facts is that which refers them to the agency of intelligent\nbeings beyond our ken. The presence of such entities may or may not be\nrecognized by the percipient. The ideas and motives may be impressed all\nthe same. We may be assured that unconsciously those who by study and\npractical experience become adept in particular lines of thought or\npractical affairs, are the most proper mediums for the communication of\nspirits dwelling in the same sphere of thought, and that such\ncommunications are continuously made unconsciously to the percipients.\nThe weird stories which come up from the rugged toilers of the sea are\nfull of interest in this particular. The infinite solitude of waters;\nthe long and lonely watches, with the sweep of waves and the silent\nstars, conduce to a state of abstraction and reverie, peculiarly\nfavorable to the reception of impressions. If there is need in this\nworld of the watchful care of guardian angels, the sailor on the lone\nship which plows the trackless waste at the mercy of the elements\nrequires them most. Human skill and foresight may provide to the utmost,\nand yet there remains the greater dangers which can not be foreseen or\nprovided against. The sailor, feeling that he is helpless in the hands\nof the elements, becomes superstitious, though often what is called in\nhim superstition, is belief in influences which future knowledge may\naccept as valuable accessions to the realm of mental science. I have\nfrom the lips of Capt. D. B. Edwards, the narrative of two incidents in\nthe life of his brother, which illustrates this faculty of intuition, if\nwe may give it that name; and if one were to gather up similar stories\nwhich are told by the officers, volumes might be filled.\n\nCapt. John B. Edwards was in command of the steamship \"Monterey,\" one of\nthe New York and New Orleans line of steamers. In one of his voyages he\ncame up with Sandy Hook in a terrible storm. The air was so full of\ndriving snow that the officers could not see the length of the vessel.\nThe sea was high and rapidly increasing, and no pilot responded. To\nremain was impossible; to go on was almost certain destruction. If the\nCaptain could make the light-ship he would know his bearings, and be\nable to steer into harbor; but in that drift of blinding snow and rush\nof waters, in which he had made his approach from the sea, he had been\nunable to make observations, and had no assurance that he had not\ndeviated from his course under the influence of the drift of wind or\ncurrent, at least to the variation of a league or more. In his\nperplexity he ordered the ship to be stopped, and for a moment reflected\non the difficulties of his position. While thus waiting, with every\nsense strained to the utmost, an impression came like a flash, that the\nlight-ship lay in a certain direction. He immediately ordered the\nofficers to keep a sharp lookout forward, for he would run ten minutes\nin a certain direction to test his impression. The great wheels again\nrevolved, and the steamer swung obedient to command, and rushed on into\nthe drift. In six minutes the mate on the bow threw up his hands,\ncrying: \"Hard-a-port! hard-a-port!\" and the steamer quickly responding\nto her helm, passed the stern of the light-ship, from which the Captain\neasily took his bearings and safely steamed into the port of New York.\n\nDuring the war Capt. Edwards was coast pilot for the Government steamer\n\"Vanderbilt.\" During one voyage he came up to the \"Hook;\" a storm was\ncoming on and no pilot in sight. The Commodore came to the wheel-house\nand asked Capt. Edwards if he thought he could take the ship into port.\nEdwards shrank and trembled at the question, for he knew the ship was\ndrawing as much, if not more water, than was on the bar, and the\nresponsibility thus thrust upon him was overwhelming. But suddenly he\nwas forced to speak, replying without hesitation: \"Yes, sir.\" \"Go\nahead,\" was the order of the Commodore. With every faculty intensely\nactive, his strong and steady hand held the wheel, and the ship went\nover the bar without touching, and all was well. His ability and\ntrustworthiness for the action received the highest recommendation from\nthe Commodore.\n\nIt is sad to learn that this noble man sacrificed his own life in caring\nfor his mate, who was a victim of yellow fever in the hospital of Rio\nJaneiro. From the many remarkable experiences in his own life, Capt. D.\nB. Edwards related, I take one which is characteristic of the others. He\nis a strong and powerfully built man, with every line indicative of\nhonest resolution and endurance. He has retired from the sea-faring\nlife, but has made his home by the coast. He impresses one with rare and\nsterling honesty and purity of character, and a self-contained repose\nwhich is a peculiarity of most officers who have passed their lives at\nsea.\n\nHe said that one bright day in March, sailing up Long Island, he was\novertaken by a snow-storm which suddenly concealed all landmarks, and\nthe wind momentarily increasing, soon became a terrific gale. In that\nnarrow strait one has not to sail for a great length of time in the\nwrong direction to reach the coast. As night came on the situation\nbecame more appalling, and wreck most certain. He gave the wheel to the\nmate and allowed himself time to reflect. He could arrive at no\nconclusion. Suddenly it flashed through his mind to steer by the lead!\nHow? \"Why, where the Thames enters the Sound it is deeper. When you\nreach that channel follow it into safety.\" It was the only chance, and\nhe seized it. He went to the bow, for he would trust no one, ordering\nthe mate to implicitly, and with utmost readiness, obey orders, and hold\nthe vessel on her present course. Standing at the bow, with the spray\nfalling in torrents over him, and the wind straining the spars to the\nutmost, he cast the lead to find the ordinary level of the Sound. He\ncontinued to cast until suddenly deeper water was indicated, and with\njoy he gave the order that changed the course of the vessel, and in a\nfew minutes brought her into the still waters of the Thames. Then, he\nsaid, in a change of warm, dry clothing, they sat in the snug cabin and\ndrank their hot coffee with a sense of peace words can but feebly\nexpress.\n\n\nSAVED FROM DEATH BY A PREMONITION.--It may be said that under the\nstimulus of danger and great emergency, the mental faculties become\nintensified, and that we can not fix their limits; that all that was\nrequired of Capt. Edwards was courage to act in response to knowledge he\nhad acquired, but which was latent until called forth by the\nextraordinary demand. We shall now introduce facts to which this\npleading will not apply. The first shows two distinct intelligences, one\nof which was superior to that of mortals, for it could foresee the\nfuture, and must have acted on Capt. McGowan, to compel him to\nrelinquish a well formed plan, without any assignable reason, and pursue\none entirely different. The thought of the theater had not entered his\nmind, and he gave his boys no excuse for breaking his word with them.\n\nCapt. McGowan, 12th U. S. I., thus relates this story (_J. S. P. R._,\nFeb., 1885):\n\n\"In Jan. 1887, I was on leave of absence in Brooklyn, with my two boys,\nthen on a vacation from school. I promised to take them to the theater\nthat night and engaged seats for us three. At the same time I had an\nopportunity to examine the interior of the theater, and went over it\ncarefully, stage and all. These seats were engaged on the previous day,\nbut on the day of the proposed visit it seemed as if a voice within me\nwas constantly saying, 'Do not go to the theater; take the boys back to\nschool.' I could not keep these words out of my mind; they grew stronger\nand stronger, and at noon I told my friends and the boys I would not go\nto the theater. My friends remonstrated with me, and said I was cruel to\ndeprive the boys of a promised and unfamiliar pleasure, and I partially\nrelented; but all the afternoon the words kept repeating themselves and\nimpressing themselves upon me. That evening, less than an hour before\nthe doors opened, I insisted on the boys going to New York with me, and\nspending the night at a hotel convenient to the railroad, by which we\ncould start in the early morning. I felt ashamed of the feeling which\nimpelled me to act thus, but there seemed no escape from it. That night\nthe theater was destroyed by fire, with the loss of 300 lives. Had I\nbeen present, from my previous examination of the building, I should\ncertainly have taken my children over the stage when the fire broke out,\nin order to escape by a private exit, and would just as certainly have\nbeen lost as were all those who trusted to it, for that passage by an\naccident could not be used.... I never had a presentiment before nor\nsince. What was it that caused me, against my desire, to abandon the\nplay after having secured the seats and carefully arranged for the\npleasure?\"\n\n\nSAVED FROM INTEMPERANCE.--S. H. Mann, of Washington, D. C., wrote the\nfollowing personal experience to Dr. M. L. Holbrook. When a youth, he\nwas clerk in a country store, and formed the habit of saturating loaf\nsugar with brandy and eating it. It was in the early part of this\ncentury, and before the temperance movement had been inaugurated. At\nthat time the use of alcoholic beverages was considered almost as\nessential to health as food. He had regarded the saturated sugar as a\npleasant confection and had not become aware of the strong hold the\nhabit had taken on him, or how passionately fond of it he had become.\nOne day he went into the cellar with his sugar, saturated it, and was in\nthe act of raising it to his mouth, when his arm became paralyzed, and a\nvoice out of the air, for he was alone, spoke to him in stern tones,\nsaying: \"Young man, stop! If you continue this habit you will die a\ndrunkard!\" He could not move his hand to his mouth, and at last he let\nthe sugar drop as his hand fell helpless by his side. The occurrence\nmade such a strong impression on him, that he became a total abstainer,\nat a time when nearly all drank, and has remained true to his\nconvictions all his life.\n\n\nA SOLDIER'S LIFE SAVED BY A DREAM.--This story is yet more remarkable.\nRev. L. W. Lewis, in his \"Reminiscences of the War,\" published in the\n_Christian Advocate_, relates an instance where a dream saved the life\nof a soldier: \"A man by the name of Williams had told a dream to his\nfellow-soldiers, some of whom related it to me months previous to the\noccurrence which I now relate. He dreamed that he crossed a river,\nmarched over a mountain and camped near a church located in a wood, near\nwhich a terrible battle ensued, and in a charge just as we crossed the\nravine he was shot in the heart. On the ever memorable 7th of December,\n1862 (Battle of Prairie Grove, Northern Arkansas), as we moved at\ndouble-quick to take our places in the line of battle, then already\nhotly engaged, we passed the church, a small frame building. I was\nriding in the flank of the command opposite to Williams, as we came in\nview of the house. 'That is the church I saw in my dream,' said he. I\nmade no reply, and never thought of the matter again until the evening.\nWe had broken the enemy's lines and were in full pursuit, when we came\nto a dry ravine in the wood; and Williams said: 'Just on the other side\nof this ravine I was shot in my dream, and I'll stick my hat under my\nshirt.' Suiting the action to the word he doubled up his hat as he ran\nalong and crammed it into his bosom. Scarcely had he adjusted it when a\nMinie ball knocked him out of line; jumping up quickly he pulled out his\nhat, waved it over his head shouting, 'I'm all right!' The ball raised\na black spot, about the size of a man's hand, just over his heart, and\ndropped into his shoe.\"\n\nHere the prophecy was a long time ahead, and foretold the exact coming\nof a ball depending on a combination of circumstances which would seem\nimpossible for reason or intuition to foresee and foreknow. Its\nfulfillment was peculiar, for by guarding against it, the danger was\naverted and the dream proved untrue.\n\n\nAN ERROR CORRECTED IN A REMARKABLE MANNER.--The head bookkeeper in one\nof the largest sewing machine companies in New York City, in balancing\nhis books found an error of $5.00. It was a small sum, but as a mistake\nwas as damaging as $500. He set his assistants at work to find it, yet\nday after day their labor was in vain. They worked for a week and\naccomplished nothing. He became greatly annoyed and filled with anxiety.\nIn his own words: \"The third Sunday after the search was begun, I got up\nlate after a sleepless night and started out on a walk for exercise. My\nmind was on my books, and I paid no attention to the direction I took.\nMy surprise was, therefore, genuine when I found myself at the door of\nthe company's office in Union Square, for I had not certainly intended\nto go there. Mechanically I put my hand in my pocket, drew out the key,\nopened the door and went in. As if in a dream I walked to the office,\nwhere I turned the combination and unlocked the safe. There were the\nbooks, a dozen of them in a row. I did not consider for a moment which\nto take up. It was by no volition on my part that my hand moved toward a\ncertain one, and drew it from the safe. Placing it on the desk, I opened\nit; my eye ran along the column of figures, and there before me, plain\nas day, was the missing $5.00. I made a note of the page, put the book\nback in the safe, and went home. It was then noon. I lay down and fell\ninto a deep sleep from which I did not awake until nine o'clock on\nMonday morning. After a hearty breakfast I hastened to the office\nfeeling like a new man. It seemed as if a burden had fallen from me, and\nI was walking on air.\"\n\nThis bookkeeper, by anxiety and overwork, had become very sensitive. He\nwas by the account he gives of himself, in a state bordering on\nclairvoyance. He was automatically used, not by a \"dominant idea,\" for\nthe dominant idea caused his mistake, and that could not suggest to him\nthe book and page, which were readily found by his hand being moved by\nsome cause. As the hand could not move itself, it must have been acted\non by an intelligent, independent force.\n\n\nA MOTHER SAVES THE LIFE OF HER SON.--Of warnings there are no end, and,\nhowever much the truth of prophecy may be denied, it is certain that\nwithin at least narrow bounds future events may be foretold. One\ninstance of this being correctly done may be referred to coincidence,\nbut two places the probabilities on the other side, and three makes it\nimpossible. It will be readily comprehended that no guess told the\nsoldier a ball would strike him at a certain time and place, or the\nfather that the theater would be burned on a certain night.\n\nThere is a series of facts which show direct interposition of superior\nintelligence, of which the following may be taken as examples. Col.\nWalter B. Daulay gives his personal experience when on shipboard the\n\"Gulf of Lyons\" in a gale of wind:\n\n\"I had the mid watch. The night was dark and terrible, the wind howled\nfuriously and the heaving sea tossed our ship about like a bit of cork.\nI stood by the mizzen mast, holding on by the fife-rail, and shielding\nmy face from the blinding spray that came driving over the deck.\nSuddenly I heard my name pronounced as distinctly as I ever heard it in\nmy life--'Walter! Walter!' and it was my mother's voice that spoke. She\ncontinued to call me from the gloom about the main mast, and without\nstopping to reflect, or thinking where I was, I leaped forward. Hardly\nhad I reached the after-companion-way, when I heard a crash behind me,\nand was called to myself. I turned and found that an iron-banded\nburton-block had fallen from the top and struck the deck exactly where I\nhad been standing! Had I remained by the fife-rail three seconds longer\nthan I did, my brains would have been dashed out. I always regarded that\nas an interposition in my behalf of a power independent of human will.\"\n\n\nDEATH FORETOLD IN A VISION.--The following facts are vouched for by S.\nBigelow, a gentleman of unquestioned integrity and a shrewd observer. In\nthe early days of our war one Albert Dexter, near Ionia, Mich., enlisted\nin Co. D, Third Michigan Cavalry. His sister, Mrs. John Dunham, living\nthen and now in Ionia, had what she terms a vision the day before he\nenlisted in which she saw him--her brother Albert--on horseback; saw him\nwheel and fall from his horse. She told Albert of her vision and\nimportuned him not to go, but he made light of her fears and vision, and\nwent with his company to the fields of blood and carnage, and often in\nhis letters he referred to his sister's fears and vision in a light and\njoyful mood; but in his last letter he seemed to believe in the vision\nand in its probable fulfillment. More than two years had passed since\nthe vision, and no unfavorable news from Albert, when one afternoon in\nautumn, as Mrs. Dunham was alone in her quiet home, she heard a loud rap\nat the door, opened it, saw no one, felt impressed, and queried with\nherself, \"Why can't they tell me?\" but could get nothing definite beyond\nher impressions, and the plain, loud rap about which she could not be\nmistaken. But during the quiet hours of night her spiritual vision was\nquickened, and she saw Albert on horseback, advance, then wheel, and\nthen saw him shot and fall, and as plainly as though she had been by his\nside. She saw just where he was hit, how he fell, etc. Hence she knew\nall, having full confidence in such manifestations, as they were not new\nto her.\n\nShe suffered intense agony and a sleepless night, not expecting herself\nto survive; was pale and haggard in the morning, and scarcely able to be\nup. She told her friends and family about the matter in detail, even to\nthe writing of a letter by the lieutenant informing them. She gave the\ncontents of the letter before it was written. This was on Tuesday night\nand following morning. The next Sunday Mrs D. was visiting six miles\nfrom Ionia, and during the day a messenger came bringing a letter, which\nJohn Dexter had just received from the lieutenant of the Third Michigan\nCavalry, giving particulars of his brother Albert's death while engaged\nin action the previous Tuesday, confirming in every detail what Mrs. D.\nhad seen and told; and farther, she felt or saw the messenger with the\nletter while yet far from the house, and told him what he had, and gave\nthe contents of the letter, assuring him that it was no news to her.\n\nAnother brother, James, enlisted and went to the war, and one evening as\nMrs. D. was in bed and Mr. D. was reading, they both heard plainly the\nreport of a pistol (or what seemed to them such), and Mrs. D. saw Albert\nand James come in and fall near her bed, and told Mr. D. that James was\ndead, which was fully confirmed by letter in about two weeks.\n\n\nTHE ASSASSINATION OF GARFIELD PREDICTED.--The assassination of Garfield\nwas foretold by many sensitives, for that great event seemed to cast a\nstrong shadow before it. Several of these prophecies have been published\nsince the event, and consequently have lost their weight as evidence,\nwhile others had been widely published before the terrible tragedy. The\nfollowing rests on the integrity of S. Bigelow, and is unquestionably\ntrue.\n\nA gentleman in Cleveland, O., well known there, saw and knew that\nGarfield would be assassinated long before he left his quiet Mentor\nhome, and was so oppressed with the knowledge that he told Mayor Rose\nand Dr. Streator, two very prominent and wealthy friends of Garfield,\nand both active politicians as well, and they conferred with others, and\nfinally wrote to Garfield about it; but the sensitive, in the meantime,\nfelt impelled to do something, and that he must go and see Garfield and\nwarn him, but being a stranger and in humble circumstances he thought he\ncould not go; but he could get no peace until he did, and finally\nplucked up courage to undertake the, to him, dreaded mission, and went\nalone and sad, to Mentor. Garfield met him in person (not by secretary\nas he did others) at the door, and greeted him cordially, and thus\nenabled him to overcome his embarrassment in a measure, and to talk\nfreely, which he did, and as a consequence Garfield's bed was moved from\nhis bedroom on the lower floor to the chamber.\n\nThis precaution prevented the crime for a time, which was ripe for\nexecution. The same gentleman felt impelled to go to Washington with the\nfateful vision, but was prevented from going, and thus unwarned,\nGarfield met his death.\n\n\nOMENS.--Almost every one has good and had omens, and although they may\nthink that they have entirely outgrown such superstition, they will find\nthat there yet lingers more or less of the feeling from education or\nheredity. They do not believe that seeing the moon over the left\nshoulder indicates bad luck, and over the right good fortune, yet they\nwould prefer to see it over the right. They do not think Friday a more\nunlucky day than the other six, yet avoid commencing important business\non that day. There are a great number of omens and signs, many of them\npeculiar to the individual; others world-wide, and held from remote\nantiquity. Of these it may be said that while of themselves these signs\nand omens have no relation to the events they presage, if we suppose a\nperson to accept a certain omen as foreshadowing a certain event, a\nsuperior being foreknowing that event and desiring to impress it on the\nmind of such person, might use the sign to convey the warning. To\nfurther illustrate: There may be no connection between seeing the moon\nover one's right shoulder and a fortunate event in store; but a superior\nbeing, foreseeing that event, may so influence our minds as to make us\ncatch a glimpse of the crescent on the right.\n\nMrs. Bancroft, a daughter-in-law of the great historian, has described\nan uncanny circumstance which happened at a wedding in 1863, where the\nwives of Major Thos. Y. Brent and Capt. Eugene Barnes, of the C. S. A.\nmet, each wearing her bridal dress. While dressing for the occasion,\nMrs. Brent's companion discovered a blood spot upon the dress of the\nMajor's wife, which could not be accounted for, and somewhat excitedly\nexclaimed: \"It is a bad omen!\" Two days after, Mrs. Brent experienced a\nsevere pain in the region of her heart, although at the time in the best\nof health. This occurred at the birth-place of her husband. Two days\nlater she heard that while storming a Federal fortification, her husband\nwas killed on July 4th, 1863, as far as she could learn at the identical\ntime that she experienced the heart-pain. The Major was shot in the\nbreast by a Minie ball and instantly killed. Another fact occurred at\nthe time of finding the blood spot, and that was Mrs. Thomas Bright\naddressing the two ladies as \"war widows.\" She believes in omens, and\nbelieves that these facts pointed to the death of the lady's husband,\nwhich occurred so soon after.\n\n\nA DREAM REALIZED.--The Mobile _Register_ published the following, under\nthe title of \"A Dream Realized,\" which should be regarded as a trance,\nin which state the transcendent knowledge was given by some superior\nintelligence:\n\n\"A man named Bronson, who was an agent for a seed house, was travelling\nthrough Tennessee making collections. One night, after he had finished\nhis business in Chattanooga, he made ready for a horseback ride of\nfifteen or twenty miles the next day. Upon retiring to his room for the\nnight he sat down to smoke a cigar.\n\n\"He was neither overtired nor sleepy, but, after smoking a few minutes,\nhe had what he termed a vision. He was riding over the country on\nhorseback; when at the junction of two roads he was joined by a\nstranger. He saw this man as plainly as one man can see another in broad\ndaylight, noting the color of his hair and eyes and taking particular\nnotice of the fact that the horse, which was gray in color, had a \"y\"\nbranded on his left shoulder.\n\n\"The two rode along together for a mile or more, and then came to a spot\nwhere a tree had been blown down and fallen across the narrow highway.\nThey turned into the woods to pass the spot, he in advance, when he saw\nthe stranger pull a pistol and fire at his back. He felt the bullet tear\ninto him, reeled and fell from his horse, and was conscious when the\nassassin robbed him and drew his body further into the woods. He seemed\nto see all this, and yet at the same time knew that he was dead. His\ncorpse was rolled into a hollow and covered with brush, and then the\nmurderer went away and left him alone.\n\n\"In making an effort to throw off the brush, he awoke. His cigar had\ngone out, and, as near as he could calculate, he had been unconscious,\nas you might call it, for about fifteen minutes. He was deeply agitated,\nand it was some time before he could convince himself that he had not\nsuffered any injury. By-and-by he went to bed and slept soundly, and\nnext morning the remembrance of what had happened in his vision had\nalmost faded from his mind.\n\n\"He set out on his journey in good spirits, and found the road so\nromantic, and met horsemen going to town so often, that he reached the\njunction of the roads without having given a serious thought to his\nvision.\n\n\"Then every circumstance was recalled in the most vivid manner.\n\n\"He was joined there by a stranger on a gray horse, and man and beast\ntallied exactly with those in the vision. The man did not, however, have\nthe look or bearing of an evil-minded person. On the contrary, he\nseemed to be in a jolly mood, and he saluted Bronson as frankly as an\nhonest stranger would have done. He had no weapons in sight, and he soon\nexplained that he was going to the village to which Bronson was bound,\non business connected with the law.\n\n\"The agent could not help but feel astonished and startled at the\ncurious coincidence, but the stranger was so talkative and friendly that\nthere was no possible excuse to suspect him. Indeed, as if to prove to\nhis companion that he meditated no evil, he kept a little in advance for\nthe next half hour. Bronson's distrust had entirely vanished, when a\nturn in the road brought an obstruction to view. There was a fallen tree\nacross the highway! This proof that every point and circumstance in the\nvision was being unrolled before his eyes, gave the agent a great shock.\nHe was behind the stranger, and he pulled out his revolver and dropped\nhis hand beside the horse to conceal it.\n\n\"'Well, well!' said the man, as he pulled up his horse; 'the tree must\nhave toppled over this morning. We'll have to pass around it to the\nright.'\n\n\"Bronson was on the right. The woods were clear of underbrush, and,\nnaturally enough, he should have been the first to leave the road, but\nhe waited.\n\n\"'Go ahead, friend,' said the stranger, as if the words had been\naddressed to the horse; the animal which the agent bestrode started up.\n\n\"Bronson was scarcely out of the road before he turned in his saddle.\nThe stranger had a pistol in his right hand. What followed could not be\nclearly related. Bronson slid from the saddle as a bullet whizzed past\nhim, and a second later returned the fire. Three or four shots were\nrapidly exchanged, and then the would-be murderer, uttering a yell\nshowing that he had been hit, wheeled his horse to gallop off. He had\nnot gone ten rods when the beast fell under him, and he kicked his feet\nfrom the stirrups and sprang into the woods and was out of sight in a\nmoment. The horse had received a bullet in the throat and was dead in a\nfew minutes.\"\n\n\nA YOUNG LADY'S DREAM.--Miss Amelia Ederly, young lady highly endowed,\nboth mentally and physically, and free from superstition or inclination\nto the marvelous, while visiting friends one evening shortly before her\ndeath, related a dream which she had a few days previous, which had\nvividly impressed itself on her mind. She thought she saw herself ready\nfor burial, with her parents and friends weeping around her. She had no\nfeeling; only surprise that her body was clothed with a blue dress with\nyellow roses, and she attempted to expostulate at this want of taste,\nbut no one gave attention to her remarks. She jested about the dream,\nand it seemed not to make any deep impression; but ten days after this\nvisit she was taken sick and died. She had mentioned her dream only\nonce, and her sickness could not be referred to mental impression\nreceived thereby.\n\n\nA WARNING VOICE.--Dr. Fisher, of Waterford, England, is authority for\nthe following:\n\n\"Miss Louisa Benn, who lived with her mother in Wednesbury, had become\ndesirous of going to Australia; her friends assisted her to means. After\nshe had made preparations, she left her home for London, and secured\npassage on a ship. On the day before the sailing of the ship her mother\nheard a cry of, 'Oh, mother,' seemingly from the cellar, and in her\ndaughter's voice. She was so alarmed that she telegraphed for her\ndaughter to return, which she reluctantly did, for she was already on\nboard, and her luggage being stored away, could not be given her. Her\nregret vanished when news came that the vessel was lost, and with it\nnearly all the passengers.\"\n\n\nAN OBJECTION.--Here arises an objection often urged against such\npremonitions. Of an hundred or more of passengers, one only is warned,\nwhile all the others are allowed to go on board and blindly meet their\nfate. If such warning come from God, with whom all things are possible,\nthe objection would have pertinence, and be unanswerable unless\nrelegated to the mystery of Godliness. But such warnings do not come\nfrom God, but from spirit intelligences just above ourselves, departed\nfriends who preserve an interest in those who remain on earth. It is not\nprobable that all, or even any considerable portion of these\nintelligences, are able to forecast the future, or possess the equally\nessential ability to impress their thoughts on their earthly friends.\nThe few who know the events of the future may find it impossible to\ncommunicate with their friends. Hence the rare occurrence of such\npremonitions, and the strange spectacle of only a single individual\namong hundreds receiving intimations of approaching danger. Thus where\nthe laws and conditions of impressibility are understood, it is not\nanomalous that so few are impressed, but this fact confirms the theory\nof sensitiveness.\n\nPremonitions and presentiments of coming events form a numerous class of\nwell attested cases. They usually relate directly to the person\nreceiving them, and those recorded in a majority of instances refer to\nsickness or death. It may be supposed that a great majority of\npremonitions received, are not recognized, or at least recorded. Many by\nreception defeat their fulfillment, quite as many, probably, as bring\ntheir fulfillment by being received. When an individual has a\npremonition that he is to die at a certain time, and does thus die, it\nis said the prophecy so worked on his mind that it killed him at the\nappointed time. Possibly this might happen, but it rarely does. Far more\noften the knowledge prepares for the event, and the individual survives\nto point at the prophecy as a failure. Again, the presentiment comes\nwith the certainty of a decree of fate, and the future is without shadow\nof turning, and inexorable to our efforts or our prayers.\n\n\nABRAHAM LINCOLN'S DREAM.--The following dream by Abraham Lincoln is a\nmatter of history, and is in harmony with the susceptible nature of that\ngreat man. He related it to Mrs. Lincoln and others present in the\nfollowing words:\n\n\"About ten days ago I retired very late. I had been up waiting for\nimportant dispatches. I could not have been long in bed, when I fell\ninto a slumber and began to dream. There seemed to be a death-like\nstillness about me. Then I heard subdued sobs, as if a number of persons\nwere weeping. I thought I left my bed and wandered down stairs. There\nthe silence was broken by the same sobbing, but the mourners were\ninvisible. I went from room to room. No living person was in sight, but\nthe same mournful sounds met me as I passed along. I was puzzled and\nalarmed. What could be the meaning of all this? Determined to find out\nthe cause of a state of things so mysterious, I kept on until I arrived\nat the 'end room,' which I entered. There I met a sickening surprise.\nBefore me was a catafalque, on which rested a corpse wrapped in funeral\nvestments. Around it were stationed soldiers who were acting as guards;\nand there was a throng of people, some gazing mournfully upon this\ncorpse, whose face was covered; others weeping pitifully, 'Who is dead\nat the White House?' I demanded of one of the soldiers. 'The President,'\nwas his answer; 'he was killed by an assassin!' Then came a loud burst\nof grief from the crowd, which awoke me from my dream. I slept no more\nthat night; and although it was only a dream, I have been strangely\nannoyed by it ever since.\"\n\nThis occurred but a short time before the event it heralded, which\nplunged the nation into grief. Had the President given heed to its\nwarning, and not been persuaded by his wife, who gave no credit to the\nsupernatural, the course of events would have been different. Had he\nheeded the dream it would have been brought forward as evidence to prove\nthe worthlessness of such visions.\n\n\nA LITTLE GIRL PREDICTS HER OWN DEATH.--Little Maud, three-year-old\ndaughter of George T. Ford, of Elmore, Mich., came to her mother one day\nand said, \"Maudie is not going to stay; she is going away off to be\nburied up in the cold ground.\" About a week later, she said, \"Let Maudie\ngo and ride with you to-day, for she will never go again.\" On the\nmorning of the day of her death, she came to her mother and said,\n\"Maudie don't feel well. Don't you feel sorry for Maudie? She is going\naway off where you will never see her again.\" Her mother clasped her to\nher bosom, wondering what she could mean, but was not long left in\ndoubt. The child grew seriously ill, and later in the day she said,\n\"Good-bye--lift me up--I hear the band playing--I am going now,\" and\npassed away.\n\n\nPRINCE LEOPOLD'S DREAM.--Another instance, important in consequence of\nthe noble station of the person to whom it relates, is given in the\n_Fortnightly Review_, by W. H. Myers:\n\n\"The last time I saw Prince Leopold (being two days before he died), he\nwould talk to me about death, and said he would like a military funeral.\n\n\"Finally I asked, 'why do you talk in this morose manner?' As he was\nabout to answer, he was called away and said, 'I will tell you later.' I\nnever saw him to speak to again, but he finished his answer to me to a\nlady, and said: 'Two nights now, Princess Alice has appeared to me in my\ndreams, and says she is quite happy and wants me to come and join her;\nthat is what makes me so very thoughtful.'\n\n\"I take this to be a sign of his approaching removal to the world of\nspirits, in which, as a member of a Spiritualistic family, he has been,\nfrom his earliest youth, an implicit believer, thus illustrating the\ntruth of the observation, that, 'Signs are vouchsafed to the believing,\nnow, as of old.'\"\n\n\nANOTHER CASE.--Miss Mary Paine, when on her way to visit some friends in\nGainesville, Ga., on passing the Mars Hill Graveyard, ordered her driver\nto stop the team, which he did. Then she exacted a promise from him that\nhe would bring her back and bury her by the side of her sister Jane.\n\"For,\" said she, \"I shall never come back alive. I shall die away from\nhome, and I want you to promise to bring me back for burial.\" To this\ndeclaration she clung, nor would she be persuaded that, as she was in\ngood health she would have a pleasant visit and return home happy.\nBefore three weeks had passed she died of a congestive chill, at her\nfriend's house in Gainesville, and as she had requested, was brought\nback to Mars Hill and buried by the side of her dear sister.\n\nDr. H----, who is of exceedingly skeptical organization, said that he\nonce had an experience which baffled his powers of explanation, and\ncaused him to doubt his materialistic views. He had been called to a\ndistant farm-house on an intensely dark and stormy night to visit a\npatient. There was a stream with wide marshy borders, across which a\nnarrow causeway had been constructed, barely wide enough for carriages\nto pass. As he drove onto one end of this narrow way, suddenly there\ncame the thought that he would meet a runaway team, and his horse and\ncarriage be overturned into the morass. At that time of night this was\nwholly improbable; but the thought came to him instantly with all its\ncontingencies. \"If I should meet a team, what shall I do?\" he asked\nhimself. Then he thought there was one place wider than the rest, and he\nanswered, \"I would reach that place and get as far out of the way as\npossible.\" \"Get there, then; get there,\" was the urgent impression. He\ninvoluntarily hurried his horse, reached the place, and, driving to the\nvery edge, drew rein. He was in a tremor of nervous excitement, yet had\nseen nor heard nothing to excite him more than the interior impression.\nBut he soon found his haste had not been in vain. He heard the rattle of\nwheels and clatter of hoofs, as a runaway team struck the further end of\nthe causeway, and in a moment they swept past him. Had they met him\nunprepared, he certainly would have met with a serious, if not fatal,\naccident. This intelligence which saw the approaching team and the\ngreat danger in which Dr. H. would be placed, was independent of his\nmind, for it brought a knowledge that mind did not, nor could not know\nuntil revealed by some foreign power. Whence came the premonition, the\nthoughtful care? Not out of the air. It was from an intelligent,\nindividualized entity above and beyond physical existence; and all\ntheories which leave out this element fall short of covering the\nmultitudinous facts which unite and bind them together in a harmonious\nwhole.\n\n\nSEEN AT HIS FUNERAL.--Dr. John E. Purdon, now of Valley Head, Ala., is\nauthority for the following narrative, which records the appearance of a\nsoldier soon after his death, and may be taken as evidence of the\nsensitiveness on one side, and of the reality of the existence of the\nappearance on the other:\n\n\"In the year 1872, while in charge of the convalescent hospital,\nSandown, Isle of Wight, I returned from a short visit to London,\nbringing with me for change and rest Miss Florence Cook, who afterwards\nbecame so celebrated a medium. On the evening of my return home, I took\na walk with Miss Cook along the cliffs towards Shanklin. During the walk\nshe drew my attention to a soldier who seemed to her to be behaving in a\ncurious way, turning round and staring at me, and omitting the usual\nmilitary salute which she had noticed the other men give as they passed\nby. As I could see no one at the time my curiosity was excited, and when\nshe said the man had passed a stile just in front of us, I crossed over\nand looked carefully about. No soldier was in sight; on one side was an\nopen field; on the other, perpendicular cliffs. I asked a country man at\nwork in the field if he had seen a soldier pass just before I appeared,\nbut he had not.\n\n\"On my return from town I found that a certain chronic patient who had\nbeen a long time in the hospital, and on whom I had performed a minor\nsurgical operation some time before, had died of pulmonary consumption.\n\n\"Miss Cook and another young lady on a visit to my wife, never having\nseen a military funeral, persuaded her to take them to a cross-road,\nwhere they would see the troops pass without being seen themselves. As\nwe marched past, the coffin being carried on a gun-carriage, Miss Cook\nsaid to my wife, 'Why is the little man in front dressed differently\nfrom the other soldier?' My wife answered that she could not see any one\nin front, nor could the other girl either. Miss Cook then said, 'Why\ndoes he not wear a big hat like the others? He has on a small cap and is\nholding his head down.' They then returned home, and the funeral party\npassed on to the graveyard which was two miles from the hospital. Just\nafter the firing party had fallen in to march home, Hospital Sergeant\nMalandine came up to me in the graveyard and said: 'Private Edwards\nreports sick, sir, and asks permission to return by train.' I asked what\nwas the matter, and the sergeant answered that Edwards had had a great\nfright from seeing the man we were burying looking down into his own\ngrave at the coffin before it was covered by the clay!\"\n\n\nAPPEARANCE AFTER DEATH.--_Light_, a journal that exercises great\ndiscretion in the facts it publishes, vouches for the following\nappearance coincident with death, received from Mr. F. J. Teall:\n\n\"In the year 1884 my son Walter was serving in the Soudan, in the 3d\nKing's Royal Rifles. The last we heard from him was a letter informing\nus that he expected to return to England about Christmas time. On\nOctober 24th I returned home in the evening, and noticing my wife\nlooking very white, I said, 'What is the matter with you?' She said she\nhad seen Walter, and he had stooped down to kiss her, but, owing to her\nstarting, he was gone; so she did not receive the kiss. He was in his\nregimentals, and she thought he had come on furlough, to take her by\nsurprise, knowing the back way; but when she saw he was gone and the\ndoor not open, she became dreadfully frightened. My son Frederick and\ndaughters Selina and Nellie were in the room, but none of them saw\nWalter; only Fred heard his mother scream, 'Oh!' and asked her what was\nthe matter.\n\n\"I thought, having heard many tales of this kind, that I would jot it\ndown, so I put the date on a slip of paper. After that we had a letter\nfrom the lady nurse of the Ramleh Hospital, in Egypt, to say that the\npoor boy had suffered a third relapse of enteric fever. They thought\nthat he would have pulled through, but he was taken. When we got the\nletter it was a week after he died; but the date when the letter was\nwritten corresponded with the day Walter appeared, which was on October\n24th, 1884. My wife never got over the shock, but brooded over it, and\nfinally died April 29th, 1886, of mental derangement.\"\n\n\nFOREWARNING.--Miss Lena Harman, as reported in the _Globe-Democrat_, is\nauthority for a most instructive narrative of ghastly interference in\nthe affairs of men, which forms another link in the chain of evidence\nshowing that there is a spirit-world interested in the events of this.\nMiss Harman was a warm friend of Mrs. Lena Reich, who was foully\nmurdered by her husband in New York. She had not seen her for several\nmonths prior to her death, but the last time she met her, Mrs. Reich\ntold her a pitiful story of her husband's abuse, and said she ought not\nto have married him for she had been forewarned. She had been obliged to\nhave him bound over to keep the peace, and knew he would yet kill her.\nThe warning came before she was married, even before their engagement.\nIn her own words it happened this way. \"Adolph had been courting me for\nsome time, and I knew that I loved him. One night, a terrible dark,\nstorming winter night, he told me that he loved me, and offered himself\nto me. I acknowledged that I was not indifferent to him, but asked a few\ndays to think over the matter and consult my friends. Adolph did not\nlike this delay, and tried to reason me out of it, but I was firm and\ncarried my point. Well, we sat up very late that night together, no one\nelse but ourselves being in the room. When he finally left it was past\nmidnight, and the weather was very cold, so I fixed up the fire to make\nme a cup of tea to quiet my nerves, and warm me up before going to bed.\nI was a little sorry I had been so positive to Adolph about the time, as\nI loved him and I thought I might as well say yes, any way, so that he\nwould have gone home so much happier.\n\n\"As I poured out my cup of tea I said aloud to myself, 'Yes, I love\nAdolph.' Just then I heard a noise on the stairs, and, thinking some one\nwas going by my door, I turned off the gas, because I did not want any\none to know I was keeping such late hours. As the fire in the stove gave\nout a ruddy light, and the half-darkness of the room seemed so peaceful,\nand suited my mood of mind so well, I did not light the gas again, but\nsat and sipped my tea in the darkness, saying little things to myself\naloud. Suddenly, however, I heard a slight noise behind me, and at the\nsame time I heard a church clock, strike the hour of one. Well, I looked\naround without a thought of anything strange, and saw my Ernest, to whom\nI had been previously engaged, and who died before the ceremony, almost\nat the altar. He was dressed in the same clothes as when I saw him\nlast--his wedding suit--for we were going to our wedding when he died of\nheart disease.\n\n\"I shrieked and tried to fly from my room, but he spoke: 'Do not move,\nLena; I will not harm you. I come because I love you, and because I pity\nyou. Lena, if you marry Adolph Reich you will lead the life of a dog. He\nwill be cruel and jealous, and unreasonable, and, worse than all, he\nwill murder you in the end. Yes, he will murder you! Stay! I see the\nscene now! He grasps your hair; he holds a sharp carving knife in the\nother hand; you reach out for the knife and seize it, when, with a\nterrible oath, he draws the keen blade out of your grasp, and almost\nsevers your fingers in doing so! Oh! he has you down on the bed; he\ndraws the knife; you struggle and scream. He strikes the blade into your\nneck!--your beautiful neck; you struggle more violently and escape. With\nthe blood spurting from your wound, you run from the room and fall in\nthe hall; and the villain escapes, carrying the knife with him! Oh,\nterrible! terrible!' Then there was a silence; Ernest said no more for\nsome minutes, and I was too much horrified to speak; but again he said:\n'Lena, I love you as much as I ever did, and it won't be long now before\nyou join me here, and we shall be happy again. Oh, do not marry Reich,\nas you value your life and soul! Farewell! God keep you!' and he was\ngone!\"\n\nThe warning was fulfilled to the letter. After the infliction of the\nterrible wound which caused her death; she had crawled out of her room,\nand fell in the hall from the loss of blood. How many similar warnings\npass unheeded, and yet how greatly might the recipients be benefited by\nheeding them!\n\n\n\n\nEffects of Physical Influences on the Sensitive.\n\n\nIndividuals who are influenced to an unusual extent by their\nsurroundings, are regarded as nervous,--a name covering a multitude of\nills for which no other term is at command. A cat entering the room,\nhowever stealthily, in some awakes the most disagreeable feelings.\nAnother is so sensitive to the electric state of the weather as to\npresage the coming storm several hours or days in advance. Sunday is so\ncalled because of its supposed connection with the phases of the moon.\nThe superstitious observation of the Signs arises from the dull\nunderstanding or ignorance of this influence. That man is a magnet, and\nhas polarity corresponding to that of the earth, is a plausible\nconjecture, which receives confirmation by the influence of the earth\ncurrents on many forms of disease. Some patients are so exceedingly\nsensitive that they can lie at ease in no other position than with their\nheads to the north; and it has been argued that if such position is best\nfor the sensitive it is for all.\n\nMore especially is the influence of physical forces seen when death\noccurs after a lingering disease, which, by reducing the bodily\nstrength, makes that of the spirit more susceptible.\n\n\"He's going out with the tide,\" is the common expression of all the\nrough coastwise people. It may be called a superstition of sea-faring\nraces; but it is a fact that for some inscrutable reason the old, sick\nand infirm more often die at the ebb-tide than when the tide is rising.\nA poet beautifully expresses this belief:\n\n    \"When the tide goes out he will pass away,\n    Pray for a soul's serene release!\n    That the weary spirit may rest in peace,\n            When the tide goes out.\"\n\nA physician on the Connecticut coast, who had made special observations,\nsaid: \"for more than thirty years I have lived and observed among the\nrough, hardy souls hereabout; and for more than fifty my father before\nme gathered facts and wisdom from practice. I have stood by hundreds of\ndeath-beds of fishermen and farmers, old and young, during the last\nquarter of a century; but I can hardly recall a single instance of a\nperson dying of disease, who did not pass away while the tide was\nebbing. It is a fact that in critical cases I never feel concerned to\nleave a patient for an hour or two when the tide is coming in; but when\nit is receding, and particularly in the latter stages of the ebb, I stay\nby, if I can, till the turn comes. You'll scarcely credit it, but the\ndaily record of the tides is the most important part of the almanac in\nmy practice. If a patient who is very low lives to see the current turn\nfrom ebb to flow, I know the case is safe till the ebb sets in again.\"\n\n    \"When the tide comes in death waits for dole,\n    When the tide ebbs it takes a soul.\"\n\nFrancis Gerry Fairchild says that during five years he noted the hour\nand minute of ninety-three demises, and of these all but four (who died\nof accidents) went out with the ebb of the tide. In his own words: \"I\nwho have sat with my fingers on the wrist of many a feeble patient, and\nnoticed the pulse rise and strengthen, or sink and vanish, with the\nturning of the tide, know that it is fact.\"\n\nOf twenty-one cases of death registered on the sea coast of Long Island\nat Orient, by Capt. D. B. Edwards, I find, by careful examination, that\nwith only one exception, the aged, or those who had been suffering from\nlong sickness, died at the ebb of the tide. Those cases were taken as\nthey came, and afford an average that may be depended upon.\n\nNot that the coming and going of the ocean wave as it rolls round the\nworld has special influence. The cause is more profound, and blended\nwith the force of gravitation. Not only is the ocean agitated and piled\nup beneath the moon; the deeper and more elastic aerial sea is more\nstrongly fluctuated, and the electric and magnetic conditions change\nwith certain periodicity. The maximum of positive force is attained at\nhigh tide, constantly increasing as the tide comes in, and then recedes\nto the zero of negativeness with its outgoing. With the flood of water,\nand higher pressure of atmosphere, the forces of life are stimulated by\nthe increasing positiveness. When these stimulants withdraw, the tide\nruns to the negative pole, and a soul ebbs from the mortal shore. Man is\nsensitive to the influences of the sun and moon, and to the stars.\n\nThe influence of the moon in cases of lunacy has been observed from\nancient times, and a lunar month measures the cycle of changes in most\ncases of madness.\n\nDuring health these subtle changes are not felt, or too feebly to be\nremarked. It is during sickness, when the physical energies are so\nenfeebled that slight forces turn the balance for or against, that the\nmost palpable effects are produced. There are moon-tides and sun-tides\nin the ocean and in the air. Sometimes these augment, at others depress\neach other. The magnetic disturbances are much greater at times than\nothers; hence the subject is complicated; but when investigated it will\nbe shown that there is co-operation between vital force and the energies\nof nature.\n\nA spirit is a harp attuned to respond to the touch of myriad forces. It\nis placed in the center of these multitudinous energies, coming in from\nevery direction. It is sensitive to the touch of the sun, the moon and\nthe planets, and to that of the farthest star that twinkles on the verge\nof the Milky Way; not in the sense of astrology, but in as faithful a\nmanner. If the magnetic needle trembles because of a spot in the sun; if\nthe magnetic currents of the earth are disturbed by activity of the\nsolar disc, can we for a moment doubt but the more delicately ethereal\nspiritual perception will feel such disturbances? The sweet influence of\nthe Pleiades has more than poetic meaning, and the cold light of the\nmoon brings on its beams the breath of love.\n\nIt is well known that many diseases are aggravated by the approach of\nnight, while others are most severe during the day. All nervous pains\nbecome intensified at the approach of night--a fact admitted, but\nreferred by material science to the imagination, the fancy having free\nreign during the silent hours of darkness. During the day, the half of\nthe earth illuminated is positive to the other unilluminated hemisphere.\nHence the sensations of evening are different from those of morning. We\nhave enjoyed the light and been positive during the day; when night\nadvances, we become passive in the enveloping darkness, and enter a\nstate twin sister to death, to arise in the morning again to meet the\npositive day.\n\nSleep during the night is more restoring than during the day--a\ndistinction recognized by animals and plants. Night is no more terrible\nthan day, yet the mind, oppressed by the negative condition then imposed\non all things, peoples it with fancies. The hour of midnight is the\nestablished season for ghostly appearances. He who boldly walks along\nthe churchyard path at noonday, would fain whistle to keep his courage\nup at the hour of midnight. Even H\u00e6ckel, the great naturalist, confesses\nthat as the evening fell on him, while alone on the extreme point of\nCeylon, and the shadows deepened on the weird forest and lonely sea, an\n\"uncanny\" feeling crept over him.\n\nAnd the soul moves in the circle of the seasons; not only has human life\nits Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter; in the long three score years\nand ten, it swings through this circle with each succeeding procession\nof seasons, and experiences the changing impressions they so rapidly\nbring.\n\n\n\n\nUnconscious Sensitiveness.\n\n\nSILENCE AND RECEPTIVITY.--I sit down with the friend of my heart, and\nneither speak a word; we visit in close communion of souls, in silence;\nspoken words would be only jarring discord. The shallow mind is\nsupplied with a wind of words: like a dictionary he is all words, but\nwithout a thought. The highest thought, the most profound feelings, are\nbeyond the sphere of speech.\n\nThe restless wind is ever sighing; the restless, unbalanced soul is ever\nchattering its half-formed thoughts. The shallow brook splashes and\ndashes over its bed with noisy tongue; the deep river flows onward\nwithout a ripple on its broad surface to tell of its tremendous power.\n\nIf we would learn of nature we must retire to her solitudes and let no\none intrude. The dearest and nearest may draw with well meaning hands an\nopaque vail between us and the sun. In the solitude of the forest, by\nthe shores of the sullen sea, and in the depths of star-lit night, we\nrest as dwarfs, overpowered by the stupendous elements, yet the center\nof all forces and phenomena. We are in the vortex of creative energies,\nand if we silently question, the answers fall as soon as our minds are\nreceptive to them. In its adoration of the boundless, the soul mirrors\nits own infinitude. The shoreless expanse of sea, with sky and wave\nblending, lost in mist, in the never-reached horizon; the depths of\nstars, beyond and beyond, in vistas leading out into absolute void,\nbeyond all created things--to such the soul acknowledges kinship, and in\nthem finds its satisfaction. The thoughts of the stars are untongued,\nbut they vibrate across the limitless ether, and are eloquent to the\nreceptive mind.\n\nImmeasurably more needful of receptivity born of silence, is the contact\nwith the infinite realm of spirit. The ocean of being, invisible, is\nbefore us. We may not dictate, nor with blatant cry make demands. We\nshall be grateful for a grain of manna from the heavenly skies; we may\ngather a full repast. As spiritual beings, into the warp and woof of\nwhose existence enter the strands of immortal life, we are capable of\ncomprehending the laws of this unseen, and heretofore unknown universe.\nAs suns are pulsating centers of light, spiritual beings are pulsating\ncenters of thought, and as light waves go out circling until lost on the\nremotest coast line of the universe, so thought-waves go out from the\nthinking mind, and are caught up by all minds receptive to them.\n\nBy the sea, the soul sees the inner world expressed by a series of\nchanging pictures. The ships sailing from harbor, with all their white\nsails set, and bent to the breeze which wafts them into the gray mist\nuntil lost to view, express the voyage of human beings. The white birds,\nwith flapping wings, are the purposeless spirits of the air. The stars,\nwhat consolation they have given the wretched in long ages of suffering,\nby their eternal placidity, their quietude from the feverish follies\nwhich we know intuitively belong to a lower life.\n\nThe truly receptive mind is least alone when alone. Then it becomes the\nheadland against which beat the waves of thought from every thinking\nbeing in the universe. Like the telegraph receiver, it picks out the\nthoughts to which it is sensitive, and the others go on to those\nreceptive to them. It thus becomes apparent that there can be an\neducation superior to all others; the education of receptivity, or\nsensitiveness to the thought atmosphere or psychic-ether. Not that this\ncan take the place of the ordinary training of the faculties, for their\ntraining, rudely performed as it is, often leads to a high\nsensitiveness; more often leads away from it. The poet is most sensitive\nto poetic thought, and in this sense is a medium, not only for\nindividual poets, but, perhaps, unconsciously, for the inseparable\nthoughts of all. The truly great statesman receives influx from the\nUnited Congress of all past leaders. Through the sensitive preacher, all\npreachers of the past find tongue. The man of science, if successful in\nresearch, may be praised for skill and faithfulness, but beyond these\nqualities are the impressions descending from all who think or ever have\nthought on their special subjects. There is a sensitiveness of\norganization, and not of culture, which makes of the possessor a\nmouth-piece, an instrument, such as it is. There is a sensitiveness,\nbetter here called receptivity, which comes of right culture, and is the\nhighest form of mediumship, though its possessor may be wholly\nunconscious of his gift.\n\n\nRECEPTIVITY AND GREATNESS.--Here and there are those who by organization\nare sensitive and ready instruments to bless the world with the light of\nhigher spheres. There have been many in the past fifty years. Centuries\nhave gone by and not one of these barren--centuries during which man\nremained stationary or retrograded into dense ignorance.\n\nAs mountain peaks catch the light of morning when all the valleys and\nplains below are wrapped in darkness, so these sensitives arise into the\natmosphere of spirit, and bathe their foreheads in its glory.\n\nWho should be more sensitive to the urgencies of a threatened state than\nhe who has the responsibilities of government? Whom would the departed\nstatesman, who, loving his country, seek to impress, if not the ones in\npower, who could make such impressions available? But those in power may\nnot be impressible, and this is most unfortunate for the state. They\nMAY be, and then it can be truthfully said that the forces of heaven\nfight its battles.\n\nSuch an one was Lincoln. His receptive mind responded to the thought\nwaves of the psychic atmosphere, and he became the center of a\nthought-vortex--the concentration of unnumbered intelligences--with the\nholy spiritual fervor of the sage and prophet. Feeling himself called to\na mighty task, and consecrated to its accomplishment, his great and\nearnest soul responded to the breath of inspiration. He was\nmisunderstood by men because he acted from motives they could not\ncomprehend, and which were uncomprehended by himself; but during the\nyears of darkness, anxiety and care, the cabinet on which he relied was\nnot the executive officers, but one formed of those Fathers of the\nRepublic, who, on the hour of its birth, gave its flag to the breezes of\nheaven. He failed at times; disasters came, representing the periods\nwhen the clouds obscured the clear light of inspiration. He disregarded\nthe impressions of impending danger, and disobedience sealed the record\nof his labors with his blood!\n\nThen in invention, the contrivances by which the elements are harnessed\nand become willing servants, we take one man as an illustration. A poor\nuneducated country lad, with a simple knowledge of telegraphy sufficient\nto send messages over the wires, that is all--no college learning, no\none to assist, to direct, to advise. He soon entered a field where no\nmortal could advise, where no mortal had been or knew aught to advise\nhim. He became sensitive, and the secret chambers of the lightning were\nunlocked to him. What to other men who had devoted a life-time of study\nwas obscure and mysterious, became to him the ABC to higher readings.\nHe sent his voice across the continent, he recorded the sounds so that\nthe instrument would in all after years give us back the tones of those\nwe love; he prolonged the lightning's lurid flash into a continuous\nblaze, and converted night into day; he made the current leap from the\nwire to the passing train and over an intangible wire from ship to ship,\nacross leagues of sea.\n\n\nTRUE INSPIRATION.--OLE BULL.--What is meant by the oft-repeated\nassertion that great and exceptional persons are inspired? More\nespecially in music and poetry is the influx from some foreign source\ndistinctly marked. Ole Bull, the king of all violin players, was, by his\nown confession, subject to an influence beyond himself. When a boy, he\nwas attempting, unaided, to translate into musical sounds the splendor\nof his ideal, a \"voice\" encouraged him constantly with \"Bravo!\" which he\naccepted as a sign that he was doing well. Unlike Socrates' \"demon,\"\ninstead of being always the same, it was that of many celebrated\nmusicians. On one occasion, the voice of Handel murmured in his ear\nafter a rendition of that composer's \"Hallelujah Chorus,\" \"Only shadow\nmusic sung by shadows.\" \"My soul asked, 'Where, then, is the substance,\nMaster?'\" \"In my world,\" the voice replied, \"where alone all things are\nreal, and music is the speech.\"\n\n\nPAGANINI.--Of Paganini it was said that he not only enchanted his\nlisteners, but played as one enchanted, losing consciousness, and\nthroughout his performances remained as one entranced. So real were\nmusical conceptions flashed on his mind, that they became objective, and\ndanced before him in wild expression of rhythmic motion.\n\nHow far the ecstasy of all true musicians may account for their\nsuper-normal efforts, depends on the meaning accepted of ecstasy. It\nreally is a state of sensitiveness to harmonious sounds, which at its\nbest differs little from the most exalted form of clairvoyance, or,\nperhaps better, clair-audience.\n\n\nBLIND TOM.--All have heard of Blind Tom, an idiotic negro, uncouth,\nuntaught, yet who was able to play the most intricate music, in a manner\nonly attainable to others by years of study and practice. His\nimprovisations were the wonder and delight of the listeners, and were\ndashed off with the fingers of what might truly have been regarded as an\nautomaton. By what method could his astonishing facility of execution,\ndelicacy of expression, and masterly touch be explained? He was never\ntaught a lesson in music, was incapable of forming a continuous train of\nthought; yet no conservatory ever graduated a superior performer. We are\nforced to accept one of two conclusions: either that he was of himself\nsuperior to any one in musical ability, or that he derived this gift\nfrom an outside source. The first, on the face of it, appears an\nabsurdity. He was no more the cause of the music he produced than was\nthe piano on which he played. Both were instruments, he standing between\nthe force and its effect.\n\n\nHANDEL.--In the sphere of sacred music, perhaps Handel stands without a\npeer. So far above the ordinary level is his sublime work, that he\nreceives not his full mead of praise; for we applaud most that which\nechoes some part of ourselves, and with his strains we are bowed in\nhumility and awe. In twenty-three days he produced \"The Messiah,\" a\nwork which, for vastness of conception and exquisite finish, is the\ngrandest and most perfect choral work the world has ever known. He\nbelonged to no school, has no imitators, for he is too far removed for\nimitation to be attempted. Well has it been said that the power of such\nsouls baffles criticism. That they tower so far above the common level,\nand possess such exceptional mental and moral powers, leads to the\nsupposition that they touch a thought-sphere not touched by those less\nsensitively endowed.\n\n\nBEECHER.--This great preacher, who left Plymouth pulpit vacant, a\nvacancy which never can be filled, is a fine illustration of these\nviews.\n\nThe man and his inspiration were constantly struggling for mastery. He\nwould advance, on the tide of that inspiration, to the very brink of the\nprecipice of heterodoxy; his large heart and enthusiasm carrying him and\nhis hearers far beyond the limits of their narrow creeds, and then\nrecovering himself he would recoil, restate, explain and hedge against\nthe severity of the criticism provoked. But constantly he gained ground,\nand carried his hearers with him. He never retreated quite as far as he\nadvanced, and in later years the inspiring power had educated the man to\nits level, and he bravely and boldly stood by his words. For an entire\ngeneration he stood in his pulpit, a divine oracle, every Sunday having\nan audience of the entire country, and as an elevating, educating power,\nwas immeasurable. He broke the fetters from the slave; he broke the\nfetters of superstition from millions, more bondsmen than the negro\nslave. If you were to gather up all that he has written it would make a\nlibrary of itself, and yet there is little of all that he has written\nor spoken that has permanent value, or will endure. Its value consisted\nnot in its enduring qualities; rather in its _being tentative_; steps\nleading upward, and of no use after once being passed over. He did not,\nhe could not, preach the ultimate truth. The laity, as a conservative\nforce, restrained him. Like an eagle burdened with a great weight, he\ncarried his church and the world forward, and with every new wave of\ninspiration the burden grew lighter, but he never was quite free.\n\nThe limitation of the individual always stands in the path of perfect\ninspiration. He was forced to speak after the forms of the creeds and\nbeliefs which he inherited, and believed by those he would instruct.\nThose beliefs were perishing, and his modifications did not quite grasp\nthe whole truth, and hence must disappear. But through him a mighty\ninfluence was exerted; not such as may be likened to the avalanche which\nplunges down the mountain, but like the breath of spring, melting the\nsnow and ice of winter, warming the indurated soil, and making possible\nthe bursting forth of flowers, the prophecies of autumn fruitage.\n\nIt is remarkable that few writers have given the world more than one\nmaster-piece, and often a single short poem, out of a mass of\ncomposition, is all that remains of permanent value. Gray's \"Elegy\" and\n\"Sweet Home\" are examples. The genius which could write these wonderful\npoems ought to have been able to write others equally perfect; yet only\nonce did the authors touch the pure fount of inspiration. Mrs. Julia\nWard Howe in such a moment wrote the \"Battle Hymn of the Republic,\"\nwhich, unlike anything ever before written, and unlike anything else she\never wrote, became the marching song of a nation along the pathway of\njustice.\n\n\nMRS. HARRIET BEECHER STOWE wrote before and after the production of\n\"Uncle Tom's Cabin,\" works of some merit, but nothing that approached\nthe wonderful story that did more to arouse the nation to the wrongs of\nslavery than all other influences combined. According to her own words,\nshe composed in a state in which she was overwhelmed with the subject\nand forced to write as she did.\n\n\nDICKENS entered the same state, and with such distinctness were his\ncharacters brought before him, that he heard their voices, and his\ndialogues were the work of a reporter rather than of a composer.\n\n\nBUNYAN.--Perhaps no book ever exerted a greater influence than\n\"Pilgrim's Progress,\" written by one who in his youth was wild and\ngodless, a tramping tinker and rough soldier, uneducated and unversed in\nliterary invention. He possessed in a prominent degree the sensitive\ntemperament, as his portrait shows, and a fine mental endowment, however\nuncultivated it might have been. So long as Bunyan was a part of the\njostling world, he was like other men. His sensitiveness could only be\nmade valuable by isolation, and that came to him in an unlooked for\nmanner by his incarceration in jail. There his spirit gained freedom. It\nbecame susceptible to the thoughts of another sphere, and he wrote that\nremarkable book, which has pleased and strengthened millions of\nstruggling souls. Afterwards, when liberated, he became one of the\nfanatics among whom he was cast, and his writings and speech were of no\nvalue, except as they faintly echoed what he had written in his\n\"Pilgrim.\" Once only had the conditions essential to sensitiveness been\nhis, and then it was forced upon him, and the result was one book of\nvalue, and no more. The success of that book destroyed the conditions\nfor the reception of anything as pure, bringing around him the jarring\nconflict of religious fanaticism.\n\n\nTENNYSON.--The sensitive condition of Tennyson has been graphically\ndescribed by himself, in words which leave no misunderstanding. In a\nletter written in 1874 to a friend, he says: \"I have never had any\nrevelation through anesthetics, but a kind of waking trance (this for\nwant of a better term) I have frequently had, quite up from boyhood,\nwhen I have been all alone. This has often come upon me through\nrepeating my own name to myself silently till, all at once, as it were,\nout of the intensity of the consciousness of the individuality, the\nindividuality itself seemed to dissolve and fade away into boundless\nbeing; and this is not a composed state, but the clearest of the\nclearest, the surest of the surest, utterly beyond words, where Death\nwas an almost laughable impossibility, the loss of personality, (if so\nit were) seeming no extinction, but the only true life. I am ashamed of\nmy feeble description. Have I not said the state was utterly beyond\nwords?\"\n\nIllustrations to an unlimited extent might be drawn from the lives of\nauthors, artists, inventors, statesmen and warriors, in confirmation of\nthe views expressed.\n\nIn fact, scarcely a single one of all the brilliant names that head the\nlist on the scroll of fame but might be taken as an example.\n\n\nTHE GREAT LEADERS in history, statesmanship, war, literature, the arts,\nin science and in invention, few in number, appear like centers on whom\nthe thoughts of their time converge, and from whom they are radiated.\nThey are moved by forces beyond themselves, and plan wiser than they\nknow. Napoleon schemed for his own aggrandizement, but above him was a\npower which directed his efforts. The art of war was an open book to\nhim, and his tactics, the fresh product of his teeming brain, were a\nconstant surprise and menace to his enemies. Until his mission was\naccomplished he was invincible. When he transcended that, which was to\nbreak down the absurd distinctions of feudalism, and make the serf a\nman, and in arrogant pride looked on the nations as his prey, the\nconditions of his receptivity were destroyed and his defeat assured.\n\nThese great minds have no ancestral lineage, they rarely transmit their\ntalent to their offspring. For a brief moment, that of their great\nachievement, they gain the heights never before reached, and not again\nto be reached by their posterity.\n\n\nCONCENTRATION.--It has been said that great concentration of mind--the\nability to exclude all objects and subjects except the one under\nconsideration--is the prime factor of genius, and an adequate\nexplanation of its achievements. In other words, concentration is\nanother name for sensitiveness. What is concentration? Is it not a\nmental state in which one idea, a group of ideas, dominate; and where is\nthe difference between this state and the hypnotic? Is it not a\ncondition of exceeding sensitiveness to ideas related to the dominating?\nThere really is slight distinguishing difference between the\nconcentration of writer, speaker, or inventor, and the mesmeric, or\nhypnotic state of the sensitive. All the difference observable is from\nthe side on which the subject is approached.\n\nThis concentration has been called attention to by some authors, who\nwould make genius itself dependent entirely on attention, which Buffon\nspeaks of as protracted patience. The mind that can take hold of the\nthread of a subject, and hold fast to it in all its intricacies to the\nend, is enabled to do so by superior attention. Concentration is more\nexpressive, and under whatever name, the same mental state is\ndesignated. The profound student always falls into it when absorbed in\nhis work, and becomes \"absent-minded,\" which is an expression commonly\nused to explain one of the most inexplicable mental states. When under\ncontrol of the will, such concentration of mental power becomes\npriceless to its possessor. It is similar to the hypnotic state, with\nnone of its disadvantages, and removed to a higher plane. The mind in\nthis highly sensitive condition is impressible to the thought waves in\nthe psychic-ether. On the other hand, when this concentration or\nattention is not controllable by the will, the condition of the\nunfortunate individual is most deplorable. He is lost in reverie, a\ndreamy, misty state of mind which unfits him for the duties of practical\nlife. The difference is that between forgetfulness of duty, which has\nbeen the butt of endless ridicule by the world and of burlesque on the\nstage, and the reaches of thought attained by the philosopher, and the\ndivine songs of the poet. The first essential requisite of profound\nthought is abstraction from the distractions of all matters except the\none in hand. Ability to thus concentrate the mind at pleasure may be\ninherited or the product of education. In fact, correct education may be\nsaid to consist mainly in the control of the attention, and the ability\nto concentrate the mind on the one subject presented.\n\nThe higher education of the future will recognize and give prominence to\nthe cultivation of this hitherto ignored faculty.\n\nIt is one of the possibilities of the future to encourage the culture\nof the sensitive faculty, and the results will be far more wonderful in\nnormal education than now arises from what seems abnormal, and the\nproduct of chance.\n\nSensitiveness, as has been shown in the preceding pages, is possessed by\nall in greater or less degree, and may be cultivated like any other\nmental quality. As its laws and conditions are more thoroughly\nunderstood and its inestimable value realized, it will become a part of\nall substantial educational training.\n\n\nTHE EXTENSION OF THIS THEORY INTO THE LIFE BEYOND.--This theory, without\ncalling to its aid spiritual beings, marks out the laws by which such\nbeings may control the sensitive and become cognizant of the thoughts of\neach other. Man being a spirit, limited by a physical body, through the\nsensitive state, under certain conditions, he breaks away from his\nlimitations and feels the waves of thought created by others through the\npsychic-ether.\n\nWhen freed from the physical body the spirit must possess the same power\nin larger degree and impress its thoughts on the sensitive in the same\nmanner. Sensitive beyond mortal conception in its most exalted state, it\nis in connection with all spiritual intelligences, and a converging and\ndiverging center of telegraphic communication. As it advances in this\nsensitiveness, distance becomes a less and less factor, until\neliminated, and a thought sent forth wings its way until it meets the\none for whom it was intended.\n\nThus, what has been made the toy of a leisure hour, the imperfect\nattempts at thought-reading, mesmeric control of the will, and the\nmystery of communion of minds sympathetic, are really the crude\nmanifestations of an undeveloped faculty, which, after the evolution\nwrought by death, becomes the glory of spirit-existence.\n\n\n\n\nPrayer in the Light of Sensitiveness and Thought Waves.\n\n\nWhen President Garfield was lying tortured by the wound which caused his\ndeath, the prayers of a whole nation arose as one united voice for his\nrecovery. From sixty thousand pulpits petitions to the throne of grace\nascended. There were days set apart for united appeal to God. He was\neminent in the church as in war and politics, and if prayer ever\nreceived answer, it would seem that it should be in his case. Yet the\ngood man, the scholar, the statesman and theologian died, just as he\nwould have died had no petition been sent to the throne of grace. The\nocean ship, freighted with passengers, is broken through by an iceberg,\nand slowly filling, settles down into the waves. Wildly the best and\npurest men and women pray to God for help, but the ship is not thereby\nsustained, or delayed a single moment in her final plunge into the\nabysses of the sea.\n\nOn occasions of great public calamity, where drought blasts the harvest,\nlocusts devour the fields, or pestilence rages, days are set apart for\nprayer. Every minister of the gospel and every layman daily prays with\nutmost fervor. Yet the rain falls not, the locusts devour, and the\npestilence pursues its way without shadow of turning. Prayer in such\ncases is as hopeless as it would be if the maker should stand on a\nrailroad track, and, when he saw a train approaching, pray to God to\nstop it. It is a petition for the impossible.\n\nIn one way it yields results, often of an astonishing character. If the\nmakers are sincere, the attitude of prayer harmonizes and strengthens\ntheir faculties, and enables them to bear with greater fortitude the\nvicissitudes of time; to bear, but not avert, impending fate. How many\ncaptives chained in dungeons have, in imitation of the apostle, prayed\nfervently with perfect faith that their chains might fall off, and the\nbars of their prison door be drawn aside, and met with no response. How\nmany zealous martyrs have been led to the stake, praying to Jesus for\ndeliverance which came not; and Jesus himself, in the hour of his mortal\nagony, prayed to the Father, to be answered by silence, and to find\nbitterness and mockery; a cross and a crown of thorns, where he had\nexpected a throne and the glittering scepter of the nations.\n\nThe once all-powerful belief in the ability of delegated men to control\nevents and elements by supplication to the Deity, which made the\n\"medicine men,\" the priests and jugglers, the tyrants of mankind, has\nnow, in civilized countries, dwindled into the intercessions for moral\nhelp, and an occasional prayer for physical changes, as for rain in\ntimes of drought, the staying of grasshoppers, or the approach of\ndisease.\n\nIt is difficult for the gospel minister to give up entirely the r\u00f4le of\nthe \"medicine man,\" and cease to pray for the sick in the misty hope\nthat God will answer. It is almost as troublesome for the preacher to\nlet go his hold on the weather, and not follow the Indian's rattling\ngourd, shaken at the sky, with prayer for the same object.\n\nThis is the degradation of prayer, and the preacher clasps hands with\nthe juggler. That this pretense is yet maintained, is made most\nremarkably apparent in a work on prayer recently published. An incident\nin the life of President Finney, of Oberlin College, copied from its\npages, will amply suffice to illustrate this anachronism, a belief of\nsavage man forced into the highest civilized thought.\n\nThere was drought in Oberlin, and the thin, hard clay soil of that\nregion suffered severely from a total failure for three months, of rain.\nClouds promised the desired moisture, but hovered over the lake, and\npoured out their waters there. This they did day after day, raising the\nhopes of the anxious, and then drifting away.\n\nFinney, who was an enthusiast, was walking in the street one day, when a\nfriend met him and said: \"I should like to know what you mean by\npreaching that God is always wise and always good, when you see him\npouring out that great rain on the lake, where it can do no good, and\nleaving us to suffer so terribly for want of the wasted water?\"\n\nFinney said: \"His words cut me to the very heart; I turned and ran home\nto my closet, fell on my knees, and told the Lord what had been said to\nme, and besought him, for the honor of his great name, to confound this\ncaviler, and show forth the glory of his power, and the greatness of his\nlove. I pleaded with him that he had encouraged his people to pray for\nrain, and now the time had come for him to show his power, and his\nfaithfulness as a hearer of prayer. Before I rose from my knees there\nwas a sound of a rushing mighty wind. I looked out, and lo, the heavens\nwere black; clouds were rolling up, and rain soon fell in torrents,\ncontinuing for two full hours.\"\n\nThose who are acquainted with the lake region know the peculiarity of\nthese storms, and will readily understand the rapidity of their coming.\nThey require no prayer to move them, and that the coincidence of the\nrain and the prayer should be endorsed by leaders in theology, is a\nstrange instance of mental aberration, or, as Darwin would say, atavism.\nThe absurdity of the representation apparently escapes the notice of\nthose who accept it. The zealous Finney telling an Omnipotent God what\nhe ought to do to show his power and keep his promise for his own\ninterest and reputation, as though the rain was not withheld for some\ngood purpose well known by the Omnipotent! And then by his pleading,\nthis little President of a then obscure college, changed the will and\npurpose of the Almighty, and brought the rain to a narrow section of\ncountry, leaving regions beyond equally suffering without a drop of\nmoisture!\n\nSuch instances prove too much. They maintain the changefulness of God,\nand the power of man to persuade Him to alter the course of the\nelements. Mr. Finney heralds with ostentatious pride this case when the\nclouds came at his call; he does not tell us of the prayers he and all\nthe praying people of that region had daily offered for weeks and months\nfor the same object, which brought no moisture!\n\nRain is sure to come at some time, and if the seasons of prayer be\ncontinued long enough, the last one will surely be followed by rain.\n\nThis instance is introduced to illustrate the limitation of the power of\nprayer. The insensible elements can not be influenced. The clouds and\nthe winds, the storm and the earthquake, will not come or go at our\nbidding, or the invocation, even, of a saint.\n\nYet earnest prayer, within fixed limitations, may be and has been\nanswered, as is proven by innumerable witnesses. Not by a personal God\nto whom the appeal is made, but by harmonizing the prayer-giver with\nsubtile spiritual forces, which work in ways not comprehended by a gross\nview of the world. When we consider human and spiritual beings as laved\nby an ocean of attenuated substance, elastic and receptive beyond\ncomprehension, and that each being is a vortex of vibrations, we\nunderstand how from an intensely wrought mind vibrant thoughts go forth,\nand although they strike an infinite number of individuals who are not\nsensitive to them, they find others in mortal bodies or spiritual, as\nharps like attuned set each other in vibration, and move those thus\nreceptive to answer their appeals. The power and strength given by\nprayer arise from this harmonizing of their being by spiritual\naspiration, which lift the mind into the realm of superior spiritual\nforces. It is then that the appeal to God goes forth in vibrations, to\nbe recognized by spirit friends, and by them conveyed to mortals who\nhave the ability to respond, or directly reach some responsive mind in\nthe mortal body.\n\nThe following narrative of Dr. Joseph Smith, of Warrington, England,\nwhich is accredited by the journal of the Society for Psychological\nResearch, May, 1885, is a fine illustration of what is popularly known\nas God's answer to prayer:\n\n\"I was sitting one evening reading when a voice came to me, saying:\n\n\"'Send a loaf to James Grady's.' I continued reading, and the voice\ncontinued with greater emphasis, and this time it was accompanied with\nan irresistible impulse to get up. I obeyed, and went into the village\nand bought a loaf of bread, and seeing a lad at the shop door, I asked\nhim if he knew James Grady. He said he did, so I had him carry it, and\nsay that a gentleman sent it. Mrs. Grady was a member of my class, and I\nwent down next morning to see what came of it, when she told me that a\nstrange thing had happened to her last night. She said she wished to put\nthe children to bed, but they began to cry for want of food, and she had\nnothing to give them. She then went to prayer, to ask God to give them\nsomething, soon after which the lad came to the door with the loaf. I\ncalculated on inquiry that the prayer and the voice I heard exactly\ncoincided in point of time.\"\n\nAs a member of his class, a close connection existed between Dr. Smith\nand Mrs. Grady, and he was thereby receptive to the eager appeal she\nmade, incited by her children's cry for bread.\n\nThe case of Henry Young Stilling has become a text in most orthodox\nbooks on the subject of prayer. He was a physician at the court of the\nGrand Duke of Baden, the intimate friend of Goethe, who, impressed with\nhis remarkable experiences, urged him to write an account of his life.\n\nStilling desired to study medicine at a university, and in an answer to\nprayer to know which he should choose was directed to Strasburg. In\norder to attend that school he required a thousand dollars, and he had\nonly forty-six; yet with this he started on his journey, freely relying\non heavenly aid. On reaching Frankfort, he had only a dollar left. He\nmade his case known by prayer. Walking on the street he met a merchant,\nwho, learning his purpose of attending the university, asked where the\nmoney was to come from. Stilling replied that he had only one dollar,\nbut his Heavenly Father was rich and would provide for him. \"Well, I am\none of your Father's stewards,\" said the merchant, and handed him\nthirty-three dollars. Settled at Strasburg, his fee to the lectures\nbecame due and must be paid by Thursday evening, or his name stricken\nfrom the roll. He spent the day in prayer, and at five o'clock nothing\nhad come. His anxiety became unbearable, when a knock was heard at his\ndoor, and his landlord entered and inquired how he liked the room, and\nif he had money. \"No, I have no money,\" cried Stilling in despair. \"I\nsee how it is,\" replied the landlord; \"God has sent me to help you,\" and\nhanded him forty dollars. Stilling threw himself on the floor and\nthanked God, while the tears rained from his eyes. His whole life's\nexperience was of a like character. He prayed constantly to God, and at\nthe last moment his necessities were supplied.\n\nHow difficult it is to suppose that God interested himself especially in\none of thousands of students, overlooking the others, equally poor and\nneedy, and as earnest in their efforts! How easy to suppose that an\nangel friend, foreseeing the great capabilities of Stilling, interested\nhimself, and by influencing this or that mind smoothed the way, and\nfurnished the means he imperatively needed. It will be remarked that at\nno time were his necessities exceeded. No one gave him lavishly, or more\nthan sufficed for his urgent needs.\n\nRev. H. Bushnell, in his \"Nature and the Supernatural,\" refers to an\ninteresting incident he learned on his visit to California. The man had\nhired his little house of one room, in a new trading town that was\nplanted last year, agreeing to give a rent of ten dollars a month. When\nthe pay day came he had nothing to meet the demand, nor could he see\nwhence the money was to come. Consulting with his wife, they agreed that\nprayer, so often tried, was their only hope. They went according to\nprayer, and found assurance that their want would be supplied.\n\nWhen the morning came the money did not. The rent owner made his\nappearance earlier than usual. As he entered the door their hearts began\nto sink, whispering that now, for once, their prayer had failed. But\nbefore the demand was made, a neighbor came and called out the untimely\nvisitor, engaging him in conversation a few minutes at the door.\nMeanwhile, a stranger came in saying, \"Doctor, I owe you ten dollars for\nattending me in a fever, and here is the money.\" He could not remember\neither the man or the service, but was willing to be convinced, and had\nthe money when the rent owner again entered. The same explanation\napplies here as to the preceding.\n\nThe following indicates not an answer to the prayer, but a direct\ncommunication. It is related by Dr. Wilson, of Philadelphia: \"The packet\nship, 'Albion,' full of passengers from America, was wrecked on the\ncoast of Ireland, and the news was that all on board had perished. A\nminister near Philadelphia, reading a list of the lost, found the name\nof one of the members of his congregation, and went immediately to\ninform the wife of the sad fact. She had been earnestly praying during\nthe voyage of her husband, and had received assurance of his safety amid\ngreat danger. Hence, to the astonishment of her pastor, after he had\ninformed her of the shipwreck, and showed her the list of names of those\nwho were lost, she told him that it was a mistake, that her husband had\nbeen in extreme peril, but was not dead. When the next tidings were\nreceived it proved that her husband was among the passengers, and had\nbeen in great peril, but that he had escaped, and was the only one\nsaved.\"\n\nThere could be no connection between the wife's prayer and safety of\nher husband, but the state of mind induced by prayer allowed her to\nreceive the message of his safety.\n\nThe celebrated artist, Washington Allston, refined and sensitive to a\nfault, had at first to struggle with great difficulties, and endure the\npinchings of poverty. At one time he was reduced to the want of even a\nloaf of bread for himself and wife. In despair he locked himself in his\nstudio and earnestly prayed for assistance. While thus engaged, there\nwas a knock at the door, and opening it a stranger appeared, who\ninquired if the artist still possessed the beautiful painting, \"The\nAngel Uriel.\" Mr. Allston drew it from a corner, and brushed off the\ndust. The stranger said he had greatly admired it when it was on\nexhibition, and inquired the price. The artist replied that as no one\nseemed to appreciate it he had ceased to offer it. \"Will four hundred\npounds purchase?\" said the stranger. \"I never dared ask one-half of\nthat.\" \"Then it is mine,\" exclaimed the visitor, who explained that he\nwas the Marquis of Stafford, leaving the artist overwhelmed with\ngratitude.\n\nWhere the answer to prayer follows so directly the appeal, we may\nsuppose that the intensity of thought may affect directly the individual\nwho responds. Thus, when Allston was so despairing, his thoughts would\ngo widely forth, and the Marquis of Stafford having seen the painting,\nand desiring it, might have the thought of it awakened, and be thereby\ndrawn at the special time to the artist's studio. Of course the case is\nalso open to the direct intervention of angelic messengers, for all this\nclass of facts intimately blend, and are controlled by the same general\nlaws, and it is difficult to determine to which of the two causes they\nshould be referred. The door that admits angelic beings makes the\ninfluence of thought waves also possible.\n\nThe cure of Melancthon by the prayers of Luther is well known to the\nstudent of the Reformation. The former had been given over to die, when\nLuther rushed to the death-bed of his loved friend with tears and\nexclamations of agony. Melancthon was aroused and said: \"O Luther, is\nthis you? Why do you not let me depart in peace?\" \"We can't spare you\nyet, Philip,\" was Luther's answer. Then he bowed down for a long hour in\nprayer, until he felt he had been answered. Then he took Melancthon's\nhand, who said: \"Dear Luther, why do you not let me depart in peace?\"\n\"No, no, Philip, we can not spare you from the field of labor;\" and\nadded, \"Philip, take this soup, or I will excommunicate you.\" Melancthon\ntook the soup, began to revive, and lived many years to assist the\nsturdy reformer with his facile pen. Luther went home and told his wife,\nin joyous triumph, that \"God gave me my brother, Melancthon, in direct\nanswer to prayer.\"\n\nNow, such a cure would be called faith cure, or magnetic healing. The\nstate of feeling induced by long and fervent prayer was the source of\nmagnetic power, and therein, and not through the direct intervention of\nGod, was the prayer answered.\n\nBishop Bowman gives the following account of the unexpected recovery of\nBishop Simpson, when he was supposed to be dying:\n\n\"I remember once, when there was a conference at Mount Vernon, Ohio, at\nwhich I was present, Bishop James was presiding one afternoon, and after\nreading a despatch saying that Bishop Simpson was dying in Pittsburg,\nasked that the conference unite in prayer, that his life might be saved.\nWe knelt, and Taylor, the great street preacher, led. After the first\nfew sentences, in which I joined with my whole heart, my mind seemed to\nbe at ease, and I did not pay much attention to the rest of the prayer\nonly to notice its beauty. When we arose from our knees, I turned to a\nbrother and said, 'Bishop Simpson will not die; I feel it.' He assured\nme that he had received the same impression. The word was passed around,\nand over thirty ministers present said they had the same feelings. I\ntook my book and made a note of the hour and circumstance. Several\nmonths afterwards, I met Bishop Simpson, and asked him what he did to\nrecover his health. He did not know; but the physician had said it was a\nmiracle. He said, that one afternoon, when at the point of death, the\ndoctor left him, saying that he should be left alone (by the doctor) for\nhalf an hour. At the end of that time, the doctor returned, and noticed\na great change. He was startled, and asked the family what had been\ndone, and they replied, nothing at all. That half hour, I find, by\nmaking allowance for difference of localities, was just the time we were\npraying for him at Mount Vernon. From that time on he steadily improved,\nand has lived to bless the Church and humanity.\"\n\nBishop Bowman adds:\n\n\"On the God who has so often answered my prayers, I will still rely,\nscientific men and philosophers to the contrary notwithstanding.\" The\n\"scientific man\" would reply that he had no desire to dispute the fact\nas stated, but, instead of a personal God who had struck down Bishop\nSimpson with disease, changing his purpose because supplicated by the\nministerial conference, the intense fervency of thought of that\nconference united in prayer had gone forth in a magnetic beam, and given\nthe suffering patient the strength of a new life. If there was divine\nagency, it stood back of the laws of spiritual forces, in which case,\nprayer was only a means of preparation, unitizing, harmonizing and\ndirecting.\n\nHe was affected just the same as he would have been had he been in the\nconference hall, for distance, as has been repeatedly shown, is an\nunimportant element in the exercise of these psychic forces.\n\nThere are several charitable institutions which their founders claim to\nhave been entirely supported by means of donations made in answer to\nprayer. As these are often brought forward in evidence of the direct\nanswer to prayer, they become of interest to the student of this\nsubject.\n\nThe Bristol Orphan Home is typical of its class. George M\u00fcller, its\nfounder, began with no wealth, aside from his sublime faith in his\nappeals for divine aid. In his Thirty-sixth Annual Report, he says that\nin 1875 his faith was put to trial most severely. He commenced the year\nwith $20,000 in his treasury, which in three months was reduced\none-half, or only enough to meet expenses for a single month. The\ntreasury had never been as low, and the number of orphans had doubled.\nHe fervently prayed, as the situation became more alarming, and at the\nend of the month so many donations flowed in he had $48,000.\n\nIn the forty-one years this institution has been conducted, during which\nno appeal for charity has been made directly, except through prayer,\n$3,325,000 has been received. As the results of its use, 46,400 persons\nhave been taught in schools wholly sustained, and tens of thousands in\nschools assisted; 96,000 Bibles, 247,000 Testaments, and 180,000 smaller\nportions of the Scriptures circulated; above 53,500,000 tracts and books\nin various languages distributed; of late years 170 missionaries\nannually assisted; 4,677 orphans cared for; five large edifices built,\nat a cost or $575,000, able to accommodate 2,050 orphans.\n\nSuch an institution may have no organized soliciting board on the\nearthly side, but of necessity must have on the spiritual side. It is a\npotent center of attraction to those who have means, and are looking\nabout for some worthy object. The leaders, with self-abnegation, devote\ntheir lives to the unselfish work, and the angel messengers, with equal\ndevotion, act as solicitors to those they are able to approach.\n\nWe may also regard as a potent factor, earnest prayer going out on waves\nof thought, and directly affecting susceptible minds, calling their\nattention to the great charity, and influencing them to sustain it.\n\nThis explanation of the effect of prayer, and of the causes contributing\nto its answering, while removing it from the realm of miracle, makes the\nsubject one of absorbing interest. The Divine Spirit never directly\nanswers, but there are laws and conditions through which the earnest\nspirit is granted the assistance it desires. It is a mistake to refer\nthe answer directly to God, as it would be to say he supports the world\nin space by his extended arm. The Protestant churches hold as sacrilege\nthe appeal to any being but God. The Catholics are more wise, and offer\ntheir prayers to their patron saints, by which comforting love and\nassuring affection are awakened by direct contact.\n\n\n\n\nChristian Science, Mind Cure, Faith Cure--their Psychic Relations.\n\n\nOut of the recently received views of spirit, derived by psychic\ninvestigations, have grown a number of systems, drawing nice\ndistinctions between their claims, and, in some instances, expanding to\nthe estate of psychic science, attempting not only to correlate the\nfacts of spirit, but to found on them a system of morals. It is because\nof this that Christian science, theology, mind cure, faith cure,\nmetaphysics, etc., have a place in the discussions entertained in this\nvolume. Nearly all of these begin as methods of healing. Their first\noffice is to restore health. Such has been the application of almost all\nnew discoveries, which reveal and are half shrouded in mystery.\nElectricity and magnetism met this fate, and mesmerism was at first\nthought to be a curative agent for all diseases.\n\nIt is a singular fact that all religious systems, from that of the\nlowest savage, whose god is represented by a stick or a tuft of\nfeathers, to the purest form of Christianity, depend on miraculous\nhealing for their evidence of genuineness. It is true the weight of such\nevidence is constantly lessened with the advance of culture, yet it\nstill remains in force, and by many believers is received as conclusive\nand final.\n\nCharlatanism seized mesmerism, as it has everything new, and brought its\nhealing potencies into disgrace by its ignorance and pretensions. The\ngerm of truth was then, and from time to time has reappeared under\nstartling names, and in some instances so changed as to appear\nsuperficially, as something entirely new. Those who scorn mesmerism\nreceived the new claimants, the only change being in name.\n\nI propose to briefly examine some of these, and, if possible, find the\nrock of truth on which they rest.\n\n\nCHRISTIAN SCIENCE.--First, as having attracted most attention, is\nChristian Science. It claims to be a system for curing the sick,\npreserving health, and a perfect moral guide in the conduct of life.\n\nHealing the sick is only an accidental means of testing the genuineness\nof the devotee's belief. Healing is the first step on the lowest plane.\nIt makes the proud claim of being the Science of Spirit, and as spirit\nis causation, Christian Science is the Science of Sciences. It aims to\nbe a complete system of religion and morality, and demands the highest,\nmost unselfish, devoted lives. It demands universal love, unfaltering\ncharity; neither to think or act evil; the suppression of scorn and\nhate; a belief that all is good, for all is God, who is absolutely good.\n\nIt widely differs from the \"faith cure,\" and mind cure, as it introduces\nand demands the highest excellence in the conduct of life, while the\nfaith cure calls for simple faith in the means employed, or in the power\nof God.\n\nChristian Science shows the source of its inspiration when it declares\nhealing to be a test of faith and character.\n\n\nTHEOSOPHY resembles Christian Science, extending over the broadest field\nof morality, intellectuality, and spirit, eschewing healing as a test.\nThe teachings of both, by appropriating all that is valuable in other\ndoctrines, are similar. Theosophy, however, states one fundamental\ndoctrine on which its superstructure rests. This is the pre-existence of\nthe soul or spirit, and its repeated incarnations on earth. As this\ndoctrine has been criticised elsewhere, the arguments against it need\nnot be here introduced. As guides in the conduct of life they have\nnothing true which they can claim as new, and their distinctive features\nremain to be demonstrated, or are revived speculations and dreams of the\nworld's dawn, when nature was a riddle and life a mystery.\n\n\nTHE FAITH CURE rests on the declarations of the Bible, that faith will\nremove mountains, and redeem the lost. When Christ or his disciples laid\nhands on the sick to heal, the first and paramount question was: Have\nthey faith? There is curative power in faith. It is half gained to have\nthe sick confident that they will recover; and the belief that they will\nbe sustained by certain means often has more influence than the means.\n\n\nTHE MENTAL CURE asserts the superiority of the mind over the body, as a\nscientific fact, without appeal to God or faith. In vital essence, in\nmaking the body the servant of the mind, all these systems are\nidentical. Christian Metaphysics and Christian Science, a difference of\nname, and mental cure, mind cure, etc., have the same basis. Each has\nenclosed a narrow field, and writes its name over the entrance.\nChristian Science, by making the greatest display, has become most\nconspicuous. Many of its propositions call forth no dissent, others are\non their face too absurd to require contradiction.\n\nThe same line of argument will apply to all these systems, and they need\nnot be taken separately.\n\n\nINFLUENCE OF THE MIND OVER THE BODY.--The mind has a very great\ninfluence over the body, as has been remarked by those who have\ninvestigated the subject since the time of Hippocrates. The strongest\nmind sometimes is found in a weak body.\n\nLord Brougham, with a frail physique, performed the most Herculean\nmental tasks. It is said that he once worked one hundred and forty-four\nhours, or six consecutive days, and then slept all Saturday night,\nSunday, and Sunday night, and was waked Monday morning by his valet to\nresume his labors.\n\nThe power of mind over the body is illustrated by the annals of\nexplorers in the frigid zone, and in the deadly regions of the tropics.\nThe leaders of such expeditions, with all the burden and responsibilities\nof their position, bear up better than their men, and rarely succumb\nto adversities to which the latter yield. The hardships met by Dr. Kane\nand Lieut. Greely are fresh in the mind; and the invincible Stanley,\nbraving the savage foes and deadly malaria of the Black Continent, is\nanother example. Such leaders, encouraged by the honors success will\nyield, and dreading the shame of defeat more than death, persevere\nagainst all opposing forces, while their men, with less at stake either\nto win or lose, sink, apathetically, before reaching the goal. In such\ncases, the will sustains the body, and shows its independence of the\nmaterial forces which affect it.\n\nIn no instance is the control of mind over the sensations, affecting it\nthrough the body, shown with greater force than in the terrible ordeals\nof martyrdom. The weak and delicate woman, as well as the strong man,\nwas bound on the rack, or subjected to the unspeakable horrors of the\nthumbscrew, burning pincers, or the smouldering fagots, and yet so far\nfrom uttering moans or sighs, smiled on their tormentors, or sang\nhozannas amid the flames. Their minds had risen to such exaltation that\nphysical pain was unfelt, in fact, was a relief to the mental tension.\n\nThere is no pathological phenomena more freely attested than the sudden\nvitiation of the secretions by intense mental disturbances. A mother\nsubjected to intense fright, or fear, will have her milk become\npoisonous to her babe. Dr. A. Combe mentions an instance where a mother\nleft her child to assist the father in combat with a drunken soldier.\nAfter the fight was over she nursed the babe, which was strong and\nhealthy. After a few minutes it ceased nursing, and sank dead in its\nmother's arms. The milk had become a virulent poison.\n\nA lady with a violent temper was warned by her physician against\nindulging it while nursing her babe, and she had obeyed until the child\nwas several months old, strong and healthy. At that time she became\nenraged at some trivial circumstance, and soon afterwards she nursed her\nbabe, which became ill, and within an hour was dead. The changes wrought\nin the saliva by anger are well known. The bite of an enraged man is as\nmuch to be dreaded as that of a mad dog. Blood poisoning is almost a\nsure consequence of inoculation with the saliva of an angry man or\nbrute.\n\nHydrophobia itself is probably a spontaneous production in canines\nsubjected to starvation and ill-usage.\n\nGreat joy or grief produces secretions in the blood, which make it\npoisonous. The prostration by grief is only equaled by that of violent\ndisease. The blood and all secretions therefrom become so affected that\na long time is required to eliminate the morbific matter from the\nsystem. If this is not accomplished, lingering illness or death is the\nfinal result. This is distinct from sudden death, on the disclosure of\nsome startling news, of grief or joy. The heart in these instances\nsuddenly fails at the nervous shock. Successful labor is always\ninvigorating, while unsuccessful is depressing. It was observed in the\nearly mining days of California that a stranger passing the claims could\nreadily discover those that paid and those that did not, by the manners\nof the men who were working them. If unsuccessful, they were depressed,\nill with fevers and idle. If successful they were at work early and\nlate, cheerful, well, and energetic.\n\nEvery pursuit that ennobles and elevates the mind, tranquilizes the\nsystem, enhances the general health, and prolongs life.\n\nSuch is the wonderful sway the mind holds over the body. On the other\nhand, we find the body exciting a powerful influence on the mind; so\nintense and complete that leading physiologists believe that the latter\nis a result of, and entirely dependent on, the former, and having no\nexistence independent thereof.\n\nThe microscope has poured a flood of light on disease. In most cases, as\nwith these epidemics and contagions, a specific germ is introduced into\nthe blood and multiplies, feeding on the vital fluid. If taken into the\nsystem of a saint it will, by multiplication, produce the disease, just\nas certainly as in the system of the vilest malefactor. There would be\nmore reasonable grounds for hoping to drive a hungry tiger away by mind\ncure, than the myriads of microbes that swarm in a drop of the fever\npatient's blood, or the microbes in the lungs of a consumptive.\n\nThen is the system of mental cure a sham? No! It claims too much. When\nmillions of bacilli swarm in the lungs, or the micrococcus brings on\nfever, shall we say we are well, that the mind, as a part of God, can\nnot be sick, and as the body is fathered by the mind it can not be? We\nmay say this, but the inexorable logic of facts refute our opinions. We\nmight as well attempt to stay the spring of the tiger by an effort of\nwill.\n\nBut there is a consideration back of this. By the accumulation of an\nendless series of taints of body and of mind, by false ideas and views\nof life, the power of mind over the body can not be compared with what\nit would be in a perfect state of right living. This is a consideration\nof greatest value, for it shows us, not what the past has been, but what\nthe future may be.\n\nThe limits of the power of the mind over the body are not known, but\nwith knowledge it ever enlarges its boundaries. The class of diseases\nwhich may be regarded as essentially corporal, as the previously\nmentioned contagions produced by microbes, the effects of ptomaines, and\nthe mineral and vegetable poisons, has its limits contracted by mental\ninfluences. Individuals in the most terrible contagions, although in\ncontact with the sick and dying, physicians, nurses or companions, are\noften exempt. Their systems do not furnish the necessary conditions for\ngrowth of the disease germs. Such individuals are fearless; and it is\nsaid that their indifference to danger is their shield of protection;\nyet it is often the case that when they become exhausted by excessive\ncare, they fall victims. This conclusion, however, may be safely drawn,\nthat there are conditions of body or mind, or of both, invulnerable to\ndisease. What these conditions are we may not now know, but it is\npossible to know.\n\nIn these cases of purely physical disease, the body reacts on the mind,\nand the giving way of the will is the first indication of the approach\nof the malady. It is folly to talk of the will overcoming a disease that\nhas insidiously sapped its foundation. This is not saying that were the\nwrong conditions of living righted, and the taints of heredity\neliminated, the power of the will would not be able to maintain the body\nagainst all succeeding influences. But to reach that perfect state will\nrequire many generations of rightly directed culture.\n\nIf grief, anger, or excessive joy are able to vitiate secretions, and\ncause sickness and death, a happy frame of mind, intellectual exertion\nand moral excellence tend to the perfect health of these secretions.\nHealth is a condition to be gained and kept by careful observance of its\nlaws, and these laws are of the physical as well as mental being.\n\nWhatever truth there is in these newly named theories of healing, is\nidentically the same as that claimed by the mesmerists and magnetists.\nThe process, the cause and effect, are the same under the name of\nChristian Science as that of mesmerism. In the large class of diseases\ncalled nervous, the soothing influence of another mind is of unmeasured\nbenefit. Even the hope aroused that some mind is exciting its will to\nrelieve, is beneficial. The strengthened will and imagination are\nwonderfully healing agencies. While the influence of the mind over the\nbody is admitted without contradiction so long as the former is\nconnected with the latter, the limitations of the physical world must be\nfelt. There is a sickness of the mind, and of the body, and over the\nlatter the mind has not full control. Yet with a race freed from\nhereditary taint, having for generations obeyed the laws of health until\nits conditions are fixed by heredity, it may not be said what the power\nof the mind may be.\n\nIf the mother can stamp her unborn child with the monstrosity she\nfancies in her fright; if she can impart the insane thirst for\nstimulants and the fiendish hate and cruelty of savages, might she not\nby glorified conditions, exalted motives, and the over-shadowing\nconsciousness that her mind is divine, the creator of an immortal being,\nendow the child with angelic qualities and make it a divine being? The\nchildren of many generations of such mothers, what exalted spiritual and\nintellectual attainment would be their inheritance!\n\nNor should the mother alone be held responsible, as has been the custom.\nDivine motherhood is linked with divine fatherhood, the opposite\nelement, but of equal value. The germinal impulse carries with it all\nthat has entered into the lives of remotest parental ancestors, and the\nrecipient mother acts upon it, and is reacted on, until her entire\nbeing, physical and spiritual, is modified. However grand the ideal\nexcellence of the future, it is not realized in the present, and may not\nbe for ages to come. The present race of men are born with the sins of\nall the past stamped into their constitutions. It is folly to teach that\nthere is no sickness except in the mind; idle to teach faith can cure\ndisease, the seeds of which were planted unnumbered generations ago, and\ngrown rankly from parent to child. Purity, true nobility of life,\nspiritual culture, devotion to right, and obedience to the laws of\nhealth may be accepted and the ideal attempted, but not fully realized\nnow.\n\nMeanwhile, old methods must not be wholly discarded. Old remedies can\nnot be safely cast aside. The lame must have their staff and crutch\nuntil strong enough to walk alone.\n\n\nCONCLUSION.--The Ideal may be sketched in our fond fancy, and the\nattempt to realize it began by living a higher, nobler, purer life. Know\nwe what this means? It means more than simple living. There is\neverything beyond that. What this means will be best comprehended by\nreferring to the preceding pages, where it is taught that there is a\nthought-atmosphere, from which sensitive minds receive a glorious flood\nof inspiration. Magnetism, Mesmerism, Hypnotism, or the states of\nhealing by Faith or Christian Science are but the temporary approaches\nto that one condition of sensitiveness. In that condition great changes\nmay be affected in the vital forces promotive of the normal functions of\nthe various organs, as fear, grief, remorse, etc., may disturb their\nhealthy action, and induce pathological changes in them.\n\nDeath will come to all physical forms sooner or later, for it is as\nnecessary to the fulfillment of our destiny as to the transformation of\nthe caterpillar to the butterfly; but disease and all the sufferings,\nlosses, and disappointments in its train, may be, and will be,\neliminated, when mortal life is so ordered that it will constantly walk\nin the shadow of spiritual forces.\n\nThen sickness will be regarded as a mark of ignorance, if not a crime.\n\n\n\n\nWhat the Immortal State Must Be.\n\n\nTHE LEAD OF THE ARGUMENT.--In pursuing the study of the subjects\npresented in the preceding pages, the student often catches a glimpse of\nan intelligent force existing after the death of the physical being.\nThis came through the facts presented by hypnotism, somnambulism,\ntrance, clairvoyance, thought-transference, dreams, and the appearance\nof the deceased to near friends at a distance, at the time of, or soon\nafter, the hour of dissolution.\n\nThe continuance of existence beyond the grave has been made to depend on\nbelief in certain dogmas, or at least the condition of that life has\nbeen made thus dependent by the religious systems of the world. Now that\nscience encroaches on the realm of faith, and these dogmas are\nquestioned, and immortality which seemingly rests on and is supported by\nthem, becomes doubtful; yet, if it be a fact that man has a spirit,\nwhich is immortal, this is the most over-shadowing fact in the universe;\none of profoundest interest and most consonant with the desires of the\nhuman heart. Around it gather our fondest hopes and brightest dreams; by\nit the seeming disparity and injustice of this life are compensated; the\ntearful eye is dried; the broken heart finds balm, and the burdens of\ntime and place cast aside, and the possibilities of the aspiring spirit\nmay be realized. It is an unfailing staff in the hands of those who\nmourn the loved and lost, offering the only adequate consolation in the\ncruel hour when we stand by the couch of death, feeling that, beyond,\ndarkness gathers thick and broods over a sea of eternal silence, from\nwhich only echo responds to our call of the name of the departed. Then\nit is that hope lifts our hearts from despair, and a positive assurance\nof the continuity of life is worth all else in the world.\n\n\nTHE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY HAS BEEN MADE A CURSE.--This belief, so full\nof delight and rainbowed with anticipations, has been made, from the\ndawn of man's religious nature, the means of inflicting unspeakable\ntortures, both of mind and body. Selfishness thrust the priest between\nman and the invisible world of spirit, and made immortality the\ninstrument wherewith it could rule with diabolical despotism over\nmankind. Even when the rain-maker shook his rattling calabash at the\nsky, and beseeched the moisture-giving clouds to send down rain, the\npriestly order had fast hold on the superstitious savage; and in all the\ntransformations of history, surging with the coming and going of\ncountless generations and the ebb and flow of empires, never for a\nmoment has this grip been loosened. The power of the temporal ruler has\nbeen second to that of the class who held the keys of life beyond the\ngrave. What if the king could cast into a dungeon, condemn to the cross\nor the flames? That were pain for a moment, or, at most, for the few\nyears of this life; and of what insignificance these short years, or the\nmost terrible tortures human ingenuity could invent, to the infinite\ntortures extending through an eternal existence? Pharaoh might command\nEgypt to-day, but, to-night, his spirit would be summoned before the\ntribunal of the Dead; and those austere priestly judges would decide\nwhether he be cast to the crocodiles of the Nile to become extinct, or\nagain, clad in his mummified body, resurrected and purified, a companion\nof the gods.\n\nWhat a position for an ignorant man! Immortality is the Promethean\ncurse, enabling the vultures to inflict never-ending torments. The\nsweetest boon is oblivion, and that is denied. The sun may fade from the\nheavens and the stars cease to shine; but the spirit can not escape its\ndoom, and will not have experienced even then the first pangs of its\nsufferings. Is it strange that men went wild with this dreadful belief?\nIgnorant men, who feared the unseen, intangible spirits of the air more\nthan the accumulated tortures that human ruler might inflict, saw in the\npriests who claimed the power to control this intangible world, who held\nthe keys of the Great Unseen, the only hope of escape. How well that\norder has seized its vantage, and, fanning the flames of superstition,\nstifled reason and led poor Humanity over the quaking bog-lands and\nreeking marshes of myth-theology!\n\nThis life is nothing compared with that which is to come. Its most\ninnocent pleasures are sins; for the body itself is sinful, and by sin\nman came into the world. Pressed down beneath the weight of universal\ndisaster, the doctrine of Jesus was the wail of despair. Take no heed of\nthe morrow. Live only for to-day. Give all to the poor. Resist not the\ntyrant wrong. This life is a vale of tears, and the eye that weeps most\nshall be the brightest in glory in the life which is to come. O Jesus,\non thy cross, what infinite misery has come from this misconception of\nthy teachings! Men, believing that their immortal spirits were chained\nto sinful bodies, rushed in herds to the mountain cave or lonely desert,\nand, by fasting and thirst, by hair-cloth garments wearing through the\nflesh to the bone, by flagellation and daily crucifixion, sought to\nexpiate the sins of the body, and enter the next life purified.\n\nBelieving in an immortal life, they sought to force their belief on\nothers, and proselyte by sword and torture. Dogmatism grew rankly\nluxuriant in this hot-bed of ignorance and superstition. Humanity was\nbound to the wheel; and ingenuity exhausted its skill in demoniacal\ninventions whereby severer pangs might be evoked, that through physical\nsuffering the spirit might gain purification. Poor humanity might well\nexclaim, \"Blessed be oblivion to this curse of Immortality!\"\n\nNot to lead a happy and perfect life, but to avoid the pangs of hell, to\nescape the consequences of original sin, was the object to which all\nenergies were directed. And there was obligation to propagate this\nbelief until received by all the world. Out of this doctrine came\ncenturies of persecution, such as the heathen world never dreamed of. If\nyour relative or friend accepted what you regarded erroneous dogmas,\nwhich would send him to eternal torment would it not be plain duty for\nyou to use every means to persuade and convince him, even if necessary,\nby force? For should you, in last extremity, destroy his body, what\nfleeting consequence, if you saved thereby his soul!\n\nThe savage, having killed his enemy, trembles at the thought that the\nspirit has escaped, and may work untold mischief. He sits down at the\ncannibal feast, that, by eating the body, he may absorb the spirit, and\nthus be doubly avenged, by blotting out his foe, by making his body and\nspirit a part of himself.\n\nNoble and spotless lives have grown out of Christianity, as out of other\nsystems of religion, as beautiful lilies grow out of the slime; but they\ngrew in defiance of its teachings, which make this life of no value\ncompared with the next. As all religions rest on the foundation of\nbelief in a future life, so all the religious wars which have cursed\nmankind are referable to it; all persecutions; all the unutterable\nsufferings, physical and spiritual, which have made the centuries one\nlong night of agony. It has blotted the star of hope from the heavens,\nand filled the vaulted darkness with the bitter wails of despair.\n\nHumanity rolling onward in a vast river, to plunge over the crags of\ndeath into a bottomless pit of eternal agony, and the best that\nChristianity has offered, or can offer, is eternal psalm-singing to\ngolden harps. \"Saving souls\" has been the theme of the Christian world\nfor nearly two thousand years, and various have been the means employed.\nDungeon, rack, the flames, social ostracism--how shall I find space to\ncatalogue the endless names of methods which curdle the blood at bare\nmention! The cannibal, feasting on his foe, is engaged in the honorable\neffort of saving a soul, and the priestly torturer is doing the same.\nThe Brunos were chained amid the fagots' flame, to save their souls and\nthe souls of others led astray by their doctrines. Go down into the\ndimly lighted tribunal hall, where God's vicegerents sit in judgment.\nBefore them stands one gone astray in belief. There is no argument of\nwords. On the table is a little thimble with a screw at one side. The\nheretic places his fingers therein, and the judges turn the screws down\ninto the tender nails. The compressed lips grow white, the veins knot on\nthe temples, beaded sweat gathers on the brow, as slowly down pierces\nthe relentless steel, until at last, human endurance yields, and the\ntrembling lips gasp, \"Dear Christ, I believe!\" Then turn back the\nscrews, ring the bells, and rejoice with great joy; for a soul is saved!\n\nFrom that hall, go down a flight of stone steps to another in the bowels\nof the earth, where the walls are reeking with mold, and the lamp\ndarkens in the foul vapor. Tread with care on the slippery floors, for\nthe slime of years has gathered; and now we have reached a great stone,\nwhich we can turn back like a trap-door, and reach an opening. Lower\nyour lamp, feebly burning in the fetid atmosphere. There are walls of\nstone, there is stone for a floor. It is like a jug without an outlet,\nexcept at the top. At the bottom is something moving, living! Hush! It\nmoans and has speech! An iron ring wears the bleeding ankle to the bone,\nto the ring is a chain, and the other end of the chain is fastened to\nthe floor. What monstrous crime has this man committed that he should\nthus suffer? Nothing, except he has thought for himself--is lost; and\nhis judges are making the desperate attempt to save his soul!\n\nSaving souls, not the life here, but that which is to come, has been the\nblight and curse of mankind. The doctrine of \"one world at a time,\" and\nthe present supreme, is a reaction against this essentially vicious\ndogma. Neither extreme may be true; for the truth is the \"golden mean,\"\nwhich makes the future life a continuity of this, carrying forward all\nits ideals to full realization, and making the spiritual realm held in\nabeyance to as fixed and unchangeable laws as the material world.\n\nBy knowledge, man has been led out of the fogs to the highlands of free\nthought, and aroused from the nightmare of theology, which for ages held\nhim in thraldom. Those were the ages when God and Christ were inwrought\ninto the Constitution of the State, and the Holy Bible was the\nfoundation of the law. Those were the ages of St. Bartholomew\nmassacres, of autos-da-f\u00e9, of the rack and the fagot. Those were the\nages when the day was darkened by the smoke of burning cities, and the\nfair fields gleamed white with the bones of the slain. Those were the\nages when the whole Christian world engaged itself in saving souls!\n\nA Jesus may suffer on the cross; not only one, but ten thousand may die,\nadmirable in self-sacrifice and examples of firm adhesion to their sense\nof duty; but, for saving souls, their sacrifice is lost; for they suffer\nfor a misconception of the plan of the world. Man has never been lost,\nand can not be lost, and hence can not be saved by the blood of one or\nten thousand sacrifices.\n\nIf the future life is a continuity of this, then the perfection of\nreligion is the making of this life perfect. Not by crucifixion of the\nbody, not by suffering or disappointment, but by complete and harmonious\nculture, can this be accomplished.\n\n\nTHE NEW METHOD.--To solve the problem of immortality by the methods of\nScience, to bring it up from the marshlands of conjecture to the region\nof absolute knowledge, belongs to the present age and generation. It is\na task they can and must accomplish. It has for so many ages been the\nfertile field of superstition, that it seems impossible to disentangle\nit from its unsatisfactory wrappings. The investigation must commence\nwith the physical man as the basis of the spiritual, as through and by\nmeans of the body he is related to the physical world. He is the\nsuperlative being; the last, greatest and yet incomplete effort of\ncreative energy. All departments of science gather around him as a\ncenter, and to have perfect knowledge of him is to comprehend the\nuniverse.\n\nIn the earliest ages; in the very childhood of the race, the momentous\nquestion was asked: What am I? The solution was felt to be fraught with\nmomentous consequences not only in this life but the interminable future\nwhich was vaguely shadowed in the mind of savage man. The answers given\nbecame the foundations of the great religious systems of the world. The\nconjecture of untutored minds was received as the true system of\ncausation, and growing hoary with age arrogated to itself infallible\nauthority, and required implicit faith, and the exercise of reason,\nonly, in making palatable the requirements of that faith. Conceived in\nan age when nature was an unknown realm, when science opened her\nmysteries to the understanding, and one by one, dogmas claiming\ninfallibility were shown to be false, there of necessity was antagonism\nand conflict. I do not propose to enlarge on the theological aspect of\nthis subject more than incidentally. That treatment has grown \"stale,\nflat and unprofitable,\" for every drop of vital juice it contained has\nbeen extracted long ago. The interminable sects, wrangling over the\ndogmatic solution of this vital question of man's origin and destiny,\narriving at nothing determinate, wrangling with each other and\nthemselves, are not incentives to beguile the earnest truth-seeker to\nfollow their paths. If metaphysical theology contained the germ of a\ntruthful solution, satisfaction would have resulted ages ago, and the\nmind, reposing contented with the answer, would have employed its\nenergies in other directions. Instead, there is restlessness, turmoil,\nconflict and indecision, and never has been an answer so broad and deep\nin Catholicity of truth as to meet the demand. If science fails also,\nit can not retrieve its failure by assumed infallibility. Its teachings\nare ever tentative and prophecies of final triumph, as the grandest\nstudy of mankind is man, the crowning work of science is the solution of\nthis vexed question.\n\n\nPHYSICAL MAN.--First, as most tangible and obvious in this\ninvestigation, is the physical man, the body, the temple of the psyche.\nThe student, even when imbued with the doctrine of materialism, arises\nfrom the study of the physical machine with wonder and surprise akin to\nawe, declaring man to be fearfully and wonderfully made.\n\nIt is not surprising that we die, but that we live. The rupture of a\nnerve fiber, the obstruction of a valve, the momentary cessation of\nbreath, the introduction of a mote at some vital point, brings this most\ncomplex structure to eternal rest. By what constant oversight, by what\npersistency of reparation is it preserved from ruin!\n\nThis physical man is an animal, amenable to the laws of animal growth.\nHis body is the type of which theirs are imperfect copies. From two or\nthree mineral substances his bones are crystalized, and articulated as\nthe bones of all vertebrate animals, and over them the muscles are\nextended. From the _amphioxus_, too low in the scale of being to be\ncalled a fish; a being without organs, without a brain; little more than\nan elongated sack of gelatinous substance, through which a white line\nmarks the position of the spinal cord and the future spinal axis; there\nis a slow and steady evolution to the perfected skeleton of man. His\nosseous structure is the type of all. The fin of the fish, the huge\npaddle of the whale, the cruel paw of the tiger, the hoof of the horse,\nthe wing of the bird, and the wonderfully flexible hand of man, so\nexquisite in adaptations to be taken as an unqualified evidence of\ndesign, are all fashioned out of the same elementary bones, after one\nmodel. The change of form to meet the wants of their possessors, results\nfrom the relative enlargement or atrophy of one or more of these\nelements. When the fleshy envelope is stripped away, it is astonishing\nhow alike these apparently divergent forms really are. In the whale the\nflesh unites the huge bones of the fingers and produces a broad,\noar-like fin; in the tiger the nails become retractile talons; in the\nbird some of the fingers are atrophied, while others are elongated to\nsupport the feathers which are to offer resistance to the air in flight;\nin the horse the bones of the fingers are consolidated, and the united\nnails appear in the hoof.\n\nIf there exists such perfect similarity in the bony structure of man to\nthe animal world, the muscular system for which it furnishes support\noffers the same likeness. Trace any muscle in the human body from its\norigin to its termination, mark the points where it seizes the bones,\nthe function it performs, and then dissect the most obscure or\ndisreputable member of the vertebrate kingdom, and you will find the\nsame muscle performing the same function. The talons of the tiger are\nextended and flexed by muscles, similar to those which give flexibility\nto the human hand, and the same elements are traceable in the ponderous\npaddle of the whale.\n\nMore vital than the bony framework, or the muscles to which it gives\nsupport, is the nervous system, seemingly not only the central source of\nvital power, but the means of union and sympathetic relation of every\ncell and fiber of the entire body.\n\nThe brain has been aptly compared to a central telegraphic office, and\nthe nerves to the extended wires, which hold in communication and\ndirect relation all the organs, and from which the functions of each are\ndirected.\n\nThe nervous system is the bridge which spans the chasm between matter\nand spirit, and the battle between Materialism and Spiritualism must be\nfought not only with brain, but in the province of brain. However we may\nregard the spiritual being as an independent entity, when we study this\nsubject from the physical side, we are compelled to accept the intricate\nblending of the influence of the brain on the expression of that being,\nduring its connection therewith. The issue directly stated is this: Does\nthe brain yield mind as a result of organic changes in its cells and\nfibers, or is mind a manifestation through and by means of the brain of\nsomething beyond and superior?\n\nIt is admitted by profound thinkers that the brain and its functions is\nan unfathomed mystery, and that investigators must be content with what\nmay be called secondary causes and effects. Phosphorus and sulphur may\nbe essential for the activity of brain tissue, yet it is absurd to claim\nthat a super-abundance of these elements wrote an Iliad, or solved the\nproblem of gravitation. It is not phosphorus, or carbon, or nitrogen,\nhowever vigorously oxidized, which pulsates in the emotions of\nfriendship or love; that feels and thinks and knows; that recollects the\npast, anticipates the future, and reaches out in infinite aspirations\nfor perfection.\n\nThe actions of thought on the brain, the effort compelling the body to\nserve the bidding of the spirit, may consume this element and many\nothers, as the movement of an engine consumes the coal and wastes the\nsteam; but the coal and the steam are only the means whereby mind\nimpresses itself on matter.\n\nThe physicist studies the brain as one wholly unacquainted with an\nengine would study that machine, and mistaking it for a living being,\nmight be supposed to do. He would observe its motion, and, weighing the\ncoal consumed and the products of combustion, would say that they\nappeared in steam, which after propelling the piston was waste. The\ndesign of the engine, the effect of these combinations and this waste,\nthis observer would claim to be the guiding intelligence. And he would\nfurther argue that so much coal in the grate, so much water in the\nboiler and there appears an equivalent of intelligence, and the waste\nmay be predetermined by chemical formul\u00e6.\n\nUntil the threshold of the functional activity of the brain and the\nnervous system have been passed, conclusions should be modestly\nexpressed.\n\nIf it be claimed that man is a natural being, originated and sustained\nby natural laws, that he came without miracle, then do we unite the\nmargins of the human and animal kingdoms, and are satisfied with placing\nman at the head of the animal world? An interminable and unbroken series\nof beings extends in a gradual gradation downwards, until the organs by\nwhich the phenomena of life are manifested are lost one by one, the\nsenses disappear, until we arrive at what has been aptly termed\n\"protoplasm,\" not an organized form, but simply _organizable_ matter, or\nmatter from which organic forms can be produced.\n\nIf, in reviewing this chain of beings, slowly arising by constant\nevolution, we closely examine several of its consecutive links, we shall\nfind that while each ascending link is apparently complete, yet it is\nonly the germ out of which the next is evolved in superior forms. Each\nlink is prophecy of future superiority. The fulfillment of one age can\nbe traced until man appears as the last term in the physical series.\n\nThey who teach this doctrine of evolution, which is to life what the law\nof gravitation is to worlds, also teach that united with the doctrine of\n\"conservation of force,\" the hope of immortality becomes a dream.\n\nWhat a sham they make of creation! What a turmoil for no result!\nInfinite ages of progress and evolution, during which elemental matter,\nby force of inherent laws, sought to individualize itself and incarnate\nits forces in living beings; ages of struggle upwards from low to high,\nfrom sensitive to sentient, from sentient to intellectual, from zo\u00f6phyte\nto man! And now, having accomplished this, and given man exquisite\nsusceptibility of thought, of love, of affection; making him the last\nfactor in the series, he is doomed to perish! What is gained by this\ntravail of the ages? Would it not have been as well had the series\nstopped with the huge saurians of the primeval slime, or the mastodon\nand mammoth of the pre-historic times, as with the man. As each factor\nin the series prophecies future forms, so does man read in the same\nlight, prophecy-forms beyond. They can not be in the line of greater\nphysical perfection, for in the days of Greece and Rome, man was as\nperfect physically, as is seen by their sculptures, as to-day. Ages ago,\nthis exceeding beauty was attained. It cannot be in the evolution of a\nbeing superior to man, for as in each lower animal imperfect organs or\nstructures, or partially employed functions, are improvable and\nperfected by succeeding forms, in man the archetype is complete, and no\npartially developed organ indicates the possibility of future change.\n\nProgress having arrived at its limits with the body, changes its\ndirection, and appears in the advancement of mind. Death closes the\ncareer of individuality, and we live only in thoughts--our selfhood is\nabsorbed in the ocean of being. Mankind perfects as a whole, and the\nsighed-for millenium is coming bye-and-bye.\n\nOf what avail is it to us if future generations are wise and noble, if\nwe pass into nonentity? Of what avail to them to be wise and noble, if\nlife is only the fleeting hour? Not yet can we believe Nature to be such\na sham--such a cruel failure. The spirit rebels against the supposition\nof its mortality. The body is its habiliment. Shall the coat be claimed\nto be the entire man? Shall the garments ignore the wearer?\n\nThis is the animal side of man. Physically composed of the same\nelements, and having passed through these innumerable changes, he is an\nepitome of the universe. As man was foreshadowed in remotest ages as the\ncrowning type in the series of organic life, so man foreshadows superior\nexcellence. Springing out of his physical perfectibility, arises a new\nworld of spiritual wants and aspirations, unanswered and unanswerable in\nmortal life.\n\n\nMAN A DUAL BEING.--While Theology, Brahminical, Buddhistical or\nChristian, teaches that man is an incarnate spirit, independent of the\nphysical body, created by miracle, supported by a succession of\nmiracles, and saved by a miracle from eternal death, material science,\nas at present taught by its leading exponents, wholly ignores his\nspiritual life, and declares him to be a physical being only. It is not\nmy purpose to reconcile these conflicting views. Truths never require\nreconciliation. They never conflict; and if the results of two different\nmethods of investigation are at variance, one or the other is in error,\nor both, perchance, and the only reconciliation is the elimination of\nthat error. The egotisms of theology and the pride of science array\ntheir votaries in opposition, while the truth remains unquestioned in\nthe unexplored middle ground. Man is neither a spirit nor a body; he is\nthe intimate union of both. In and through his physical being, the\nspiritual nature is evolved from the forces of the elements and is\nexpressed. There is somewhat more enduring than the resultants of\nchemical unions, action and reactions in his physical body. Beneath this\norganic construction is that which remains, to which it is the\nscaffolding which assists, while it conceals the development of the real\nedifice.\n\nPaul, the most profound thinker of all the founders of Christianity,\nvery forcibly and clearly expresses this duality when he makes the\ndistinction between \"the celestial body\" and the \"terrestrial.\" In\nmortal life these are united, and death is simply their separation. His\ndisciples have grossly misunderstood and mistaught his explanation. The\nterrestrial body cannot inherit eternal life, which is the birthright of\nthe celestial. Death is the severance of the cord which unites these\nbodies in the seemingly indivisible web of earth-life. The terrestrial\nreturns to the elements from which it came; the celestial remains\nindividualized. It is unusual for writers on science at the present day\nto quote the Bible in support of their theories; but no author before\nPaul's time or since has given a more complete philosophy of life, and a\nkey wherewith to unlock the secrets of the grave.\n\n\nDEFINITIONS.--The comparison of terms has led to the strangest processes\nof reasoning, and the classifications in which some writers delight,\nhave served as a means of intellectual gymnastics, rather than data for\nclear reasoning. In the threefold division of body, soul and spirit, by\nusing the two last terms, at times as meaning something essentially\ndistinct, and at others, as synonymous with intelligence, and each\nother; and again making soul and body the same, a most admirable means\nfor the jugglery of disputation is furnished, which has not been left\nunused, and by which the discussion of this subject has been befogged.\n\nThere is the physical body, and the spirit to which the manifestations\nof mind belong. The term soul has no meaning, except as synonymous with\nbody or spirit, and hence is discarded in this discussion.\n\n\nPRE-EXISTENCE.--It has been taught that the ego, the immortal part, is\nfrom God, and at death returns to God who gave it. The eternal existence\nin the past of spirits, is presupposed, and that they await the\ndevelopment of bodies for them to enter, and earth-life, therefore, to\nthem is a probationary state. The history of this theory is of profound\ninterest, as it is wrought into the tissue of received theology, and its\nbeginning traced to the conjectures of primitive man. It ignores the\nrule of law, and makes the birth of every child a miracle. The ancient\ndoctrine of re-incarnation, lately revived, meets the same objection. A\nspirit, perfect in its individuality, through a germ becomes clad in\nflesh. It does not do this because the mortal state is preferable; for\nthe spirit constantly desires to escape from its thraldom. It is\ncompelled by a direct mandate of God to undergo this metamorphosis as a\npunishment, and means of atonement. According to this view, the\ndevelopment of man becomes entirely different from that of animals.\nThere is no law, order or unity of organic forms. Creation is an\never-enacting miracle. When this scheme is referred to fixed laws in the\nspirit realm, the known causes acting in the physical world are but\ntransferred to the spiritual, where they at once pass beyond\nrecognition.\n\nIt is needless to say that with such speculations, an explanation having\nany claim to scientific accuracy has nothing in common.\n\n\nORIGIN OF SPIRIT.--If there is an immortal spirit, whether its duration\nbe eternal or measured by time, as we can not go beyond the realm of\nlaw--by which we mean the fixed order of causation--it must date its\nbeginning with that of the body. The history of the development of the\ngerm is a correspondence of that of the spirit. If the parents have\nimmortal spirits as well as mortal bodies, then while their physical\nbodies support the corporeal being, their spiritual natures must in an\nequal measure support the spirit of the fetus, and the growth of its\ndual nature be similar, both receiving nourishment from the mother. The\ntwo forms mature together; one pervading and being the exact copy of the\nother.\n\n\nOBJECTIONS.--As the processes of life and that lower order of\nintelligence known as instinct, are manifested in animals, identically\nthe same as they are in man, and by the wonderful interrelationship\nexisting between all the members of the animal world, from protozoa to\nman, what is true of one must be true of all, it follows that if it is\nnecessary to evoke the aid of the spirit for the explanation of the\nphenomena connected with man, it is equally necessary in the case of\nanimals. Granting this, the next step is to show the absurdity of the\nidea that all the infinitude of beings, from microbes to leviathans,\nhave a life beyond the evening of their brief day. The issue is fairly\nstated, but the claim regarded as absurd is not made. All may have\nspirits, from the lowest to the highest, holding the same relations to\nthe body in which it is gestated as the spirit of man holds to his\nphysical form. That such should be the case is a necessity of the\nposition taken by this work. It is not, however, held, nor is it\nnecessary that it should be, that the spirit of animals is immortal, or\nexist after the death of the body. They have not attained the requisite\ndevelopment, which has been likened to an arch which requires the\nfinish, by putting in place of the keystone before the staging on which\nit rests can be removed, leaving the arch permanent. If this staging is\nremoved before the keystone is put in place, the entire structure falls\nin ruins. In man, the arch is completed. Yet, as the animal merges into\nman through intermediate forms--and the infant knows less than the\nperfect animal--the line of demarkation is drawn with difficulty. It is\nlike the boundary between the hill and its valley: both meet somewhere;\nbut no one can say where the valley begins and the hill ends. A certain\ndegree of development is essential, below which spirit cannot exist\nindependently of the physical body, and above which this is possible.\nAny theory which of necessity advocates the immortal life of animals as\nwell as of man, fails by maintaining that which may readily be proved an\nabsurdity. For if the intelligent dog or elephant have existence in the\nfuture, so may the fish, the mollusk, the monad, and even the speck of\nprotoplasm, which loses itself in unorganic matter. This was put forth\nas an unanswerable objection to the immortality of the human spirit,\nfor it was said one or the other horn of the dilemma must be taken; for\nas there is no break in the chain of beings, between man and animals,\neven to the monad, if a future life belongs to him, equally is it an\ninheritance of theirs; and if it be denied them, so must it be lost to\nhim. In mental and spiritual attainment there is a gulf between man and\nthe animal world, vastly broader and more profound than is required to\ngive him the inheritance of immortality which is also theirs.\n\nIn time this gulf is as wide as from the present to several millions of\nyears previous to the glacial period. Prof. Wallace is so astonished at\nthe difference between the brain of the most savage man and the highest\nanimal, that he declares the theory of evolution, which he was first to\npromulgate, while it accounts for all the forms of life, here fails, and\nthat man stands alone, the creature of another creation. While he says\nthat man \"May even have lived in the miocene or eocene period, when not\na single mammal was identical in form with any existing species,\" yet he\ndoes not place the origin of man at a sufficiently remote era in those\nreceding \u00e6ons of time.\n\nIn the primitive human being, thought began its conquest of the world,\nand the man of to-day represents the accumulation of all experiences\nsince his ancestors fought with cunning craft the huge megatherium, and\ndisputed for supremacy of the tertiary forests with pal\u00e6otherium, and\nother monsters of that age.\n\nIn time, the gulf between him and the animal world is thus widened, and\nin size of brain, which measures as a psychic metre, the growth of the\nsuperior life, he is equally distant. It has been remarked that the\nbrain of the savage was so much larger than the exigencies of his life\ndemanded, that it was comparable to giving the wing of an eagle to a\nhedge sparrow, or the arm of a tiger to a mouse. Rightly read, this\nproves the vast duration of time during the differentiation of man from\nthe animals below him. Psychic growth is marked by enlargement of brain,\nand as long ago as the earliest preserved geological traces of humanity\nare found, that organ had attained a size and form about equal to that\nof the present. Its attainments have become so great that it is\ndifficult at present to compare its intelligent manifestations with the\ninstinctive desires of animals. The brains of all the lower types in\ncertain essentials of organic life are alike, but in the great lobes\nwhich, superimposed, mark the degrees of psychic life, the human being\nstand alone, and is human because of the mental qualities these lobes\nindicate.\n\n\nA SPIRIT NOT NECESSARILY IMMORTAL.--It has been said by a writer whose\nsensitive mind had received supernatural light: \"Supposing the laws\ngoverning our spiritual natures operate similarly to those governing our\nphysical, we must naturally infer that the spiritual forms of all parts\nof life, may be by those laws interpreted. If the spirit of an animal\nhas not intelligence to obey, and the spirit of man wilfully disobeys,\nwill not the law eventually destroy such spirits? The sentient notion\nthat all ignorant and vile spirits, without aspirations for anything\nthat is good, who glory in wickedness and persist in the violation of\nlaw, will become perfected I regard as false, for such must go on in a\ncareer which ends in annihilation.\" This writer errs in the cause he\nassigns for the continuous individuality of spiritual beings. He places\nit on moral grounds, making it dependent on moral aspirations, character\nand desires. Rather is it dependent on development as an entirety. The\nhuman being, after a certain stage of mental growth, receives a charter\nto eternal life which it can not annul, bearing with it all its infinite\nconsequences and responsibilities.\n\nIn the \"Arcana,\" Vol. II., 1864, this subject is thus treated:\n\n\"A spirit is not necessarily immortal, but can become gradually\nextinguished, like a lamp burning for an indefinite time and then going\nout. Such is the condition of the lowest races of mankind. They exist\nafter death; but with them there is no progress, no desire for the\nimmortal state, and slowly, atom by atom, they are absorbed into the\nbosom of the universal spirit-essence as the spirit of the animal is\nimmediately after death.\"\n\nIf it be asked at what age the spirit of man retains its identity, it\nmay be said in reply, that no certain date can be given, for that varies\nwith the development of the parents. Is the idiot immortal? The answer\ndepends on the circumstances, the degree and cause of the idiocy. If the\nidiot is destitute of a ray of intelligence; if it is only a voiceless,\nthoughtless being, the inference is not cheering, and the possibilities\nare largely in favor of its absorption into the bosom of the universal\nspirit-substance.\n\nA sensitive gave his testimony on this subject as it came under his\nobservation while in a trance. Its value depends on the credence we give\nto the revelations received from that state. He said that while in the\nunconscious trance, or clairvoyant state, the dying animal and dying\nhuman being were both presented to him, and he saw the same processes go\nforward in both. The spirit of the animal floated above the dying body\nlike a thin cloud; and while he was expecting it to take form and\nidentity, it dissolved and disappeared, just as a cloud would do in a\nsummer sky. The spirit of a human being arose like a cloud in the same\nmanner, took form and identity, and became a counterpart of the body it\nhad left. This is not a speculative belief, but demonstrative by the\nrevelations of trance.\n\n\nMUST NOT IMMORTALITY REACH INTO THE PAST AS WELL AS INTO THE FUTURE?--A\nfar more potent objection is made by the Metaphysician. To him the\npreceding arguments that the spirit can not have existed prior to birth,\nand has a common, a cotemporary origin with the physical body, is fatal\nto its existence after death. He says: Whatever has a beginning must\nhave an end; therefore, when it is asserted that the spirit of man is\nimmortal, it follows that it must have always pre-existed; had an\nendless past. This is a startling objection and held to be unanswerable,\nexcept by the hypothesis of pre-existence and re-incarnation, which\nmaintain that the spirit is an indestructible entity, constantly\nrehabilitating itself in forms of flesh; but this hypothesis is only a\nsupposition made in the childhood of the race to meet a doubt and\nobjection. In an age of accurate thought it seems an anachronism. If we\naccept the doctrine of evolution--and, as the immediate explanation of\nthe phenomena of living beings, it is the only, and a complete\nexplanation--then we must also receive as true the corollary that\ninstinct and intelligence are evolved out of the transformations of\nliving beings, and that individualized spirit, if there be such an\nentity, must be the last link in the vast organic series from which it\nhas sprung into being. In other words, with an indeterminable future it\nhas had a determinable past. If the spirit has existed for infinite time\nbefore its incarnation in this life, it has had infinite opportunity for\nprogress, and, logically, should have attained perfection. Not only\n_should_, but must have become perfect. It is readily observed that the\nfact of its imperfection necessitates a beginning, and the degree of its\nimperfection shows the nearness or remoteness of its starting point. If\nit be held that this apparent imperfection is the resultant of the\nspirit's connection with matter, it must be remembered that the theory\nof pre-existence has for its object to account for the evils of this\nlife, and perfected spiritual beings, such as all must be after an\ninfinite past, would have no need of incarnation to attain purity or\nexcellence already theirs; and should they enter physical bodies, as\nspirits, according to this doctrine, they would not be contaminated or\ndegraded by their contact with earth and earth-life, but would glorify\nit.\n\nWith the physical form given to offspring by their parents is also given\nspiritual entity which lives after the decay of that body, an\nindependent being, the center of multitudinous forces.\n\nIs this visionary? Lately an eminent physician has claimed that under\nproper conditions physical life might be indefinitely prolonged, and man\nbe able to live in the body forever. All that is essential is the\npreservation of the equilibrium between the forces of renovation and\ndecay. If this could be maintained, life would be prolonged, perhaps to\nthe end of time, and an immortal oak or lion be as possible as an\nimmortal man; but with the gross forms of matter this can not be\nmaintained. The forces of growth and renovation are in excess until the\nfull tide of maturity is reached, and then decay is in excess. There is\nnot enough material furnished to replace the waste of the body, and it\nwears out, when death must follow. It is then that a new entity becomes\nrecognizable. The material has become spiritual. Such an immortality at\nbest would be not only undesirable, but unendurable amidst the changing\nscenes and vicissitudes of material life. Only within the refined\nspiritual realm can we expect to find the perfection we seek. It is a\nnew province, subject to new conditions and new laws. There is seemingly\nan impassable gulf between matter and spirit, yet we shall find it\npossible to throw an arch across. Nature loves such blank spaces; she\nloves the black bars in the spectrum as well as the light. Between the\ntadpole and the frog there is a chasm which, unless the change had been\nobserved, would be deemed impossible. Between the caterpillar and the\nbutterfly; the worm eating rough herbage and the gaudy winged creature\nfloating like a wind-blown leaf from flower to flower, the contrast is\neven greater.\n\nHow shall we pass the abyss between matter and spirit? More correctly,\nhow shall we look beyond the dead physical body to the individualized\nspirit, and account to the satisfaction of science for the maintenance\nof immortal individuality from the wreck of organization brought to its\nmost perfected state? While the animal has a similar organization, in\nits way, and compared to its environment as perfect, why is it that the\nclaim is made that the individuality of the animal is lost at death\nwhile that of man is preserved? These are all vital questions, and rest\non the logical affirmation that whatever has a beginning must have an\nend. If man has a spirit, the objector affirms that animals, too, must\nhave one. There is no sharp break in the series, and hence no stopping\npoint from the highest to the lowest, and, consequently, the primitive\namoeba, and protoplasmic cell must have an immortal spirit. This, by\n_reductio ad absurdum_, destroys the affirmation of the immortality of\nthe highest as well as the lowest.\n\nWe may regard the physical body as the scaffolding, and when it fails,\nthe incomplete arch of intelligence built thereon falls with it; but\nthis arch becomes more and more perfect, until in man it is perfected;\nand when the physical platform by which it has been constructed falls at\ndeath, the arch remains. This is an illustration of the idea, and not\nproduced as evidence. For this evidence we must consider the more\nabstruse doctrines of force and its relation to matter. If we go back to\nthe beginning, to the primal chaos, we find visible matter and invisible\nforce. We may take one step further and find force only, regarding\nmatter as the form of its manifestation. This, however, is not an\nessential admission in this discussion.\n\nThis force is the first revealment of an intelligent, ever active,\npersistent energy, which pulsates through the universe. What lies back\nof it; from whence it springs, we may not know. It is unknown, though\nperhaps, not unknowable.\n\nAs we can only recognize Force as Motion, and motion only in connection\nwith physical matter, our investigation must begin with the emergence of\nthat Force as the moving energy of the cosmic world-vapor. In this\nexpression with the primal elements, unconditioned, its tendency is to\nmove in direct lines. This is illustrated in crystallization which may\nbe called the first manifestation of life--the dynamic force of life.\nThis force, which as seen in the formation and revolution of worlds, is\nvorticle; in the vegetable kingdom it becomes spiral, and more and more\ncircular as it ascends through the animal kingdom to its higher forms,\nand in man becomes completely so. This statement will be better\nunderstood by the accompanying diagram.\n\n[Illustration: Diagram of the Individualization of Force.]\n\nThe straight line _a_, represents primary force as manifested in the\nworld-cloud, or nebulous vapor of the \"beginning.\" It was this force\nthat directed every atom to the common center of the cosmic mass. If its\nhistory be traced, it will be found that the motion of the atom starting\non a straight line for the center is deflected by the resistance of the\ncrowding atoms, and approaches the center by a parabolic curve. In other\nwords, the cosmic cloud would form a vortex like a whirlpool, and the\nrotatory motion developed would, before the accumulation of any great\nmass at the center, prevent further aggregation; and the rotating belts\nwould, after condensation into worlds, continue to revolve in spiral\ncircles which, because of the masses not being homogenous, would correct\ntheir variations by spiral orbits which often reaching a minimum\ndistance from the center, retrace themselves by the worlds traveling a\nspiral orbit that becomes constantly larger, until a maximum of distance\nhad been gained. This explanation of planetary motions has really no\nconnection with the present discussion, except as it illustrates the\nparallel between the circle gained by individualized masses, and the\ncircle gained by individualized spirit.\n\nThe line of force directly acting, is the dynamic energy of matter. It\npasses into the world of life in an ascending spiral, that at each\nascension, instead of completing itself, rises to a higher degree. The\nspirals at _b_ represent the life of plants; and those at _i_ animal\nlife, now termed vital energy or vital force. There is incompleteness,\nand the force ever ascends to a higher form. At _d_ the spiral becomes a\ncircle. The evoluting or individualizing energy returns within its\norbit, and instead of extending to higher forms, seeks the perfection of\nthe human being. If, now, the inflowing forces represented by the dotted\nline _c_, be cut off, the individualization of the product of that force\nis complete. It stands alone. The orbit of the forces of its rotation is\nfixed by the indestructible. As in the planetary orbit, caused by an\noscillation between extremes, there will be variations, but a constant\nreturn to the point of departure. The cosmic energy of force having\nascended through this pathway becomes individualized, as at _d_, and\ndeath severing the bond at _c_, the spirit as the centerstance of force\nbecomes as at _e_, entirely detached from the stream of living beings.\nThe force that apparently had a beginning, at least such to our\nconsciousness, has by the cumulative processes of life embodied all that\nis valuable, and is enabled to exist alone; returning forever within\nitself, maintaining a perfect equilibrium between the sentient\nintellectual and moral natures it has acquired. It is the focus of\nthese. There is no end to the individualized force in this direction; in\nother words, spirit is immortal. It follows that vegetable and animal\ntypes along the spiral represent incompleteness to such an extent as to\nforbid existence after detachment from the impelling current. This can\nonly be attained by development carried to a certain degree, below which\nthe force must disappear with the organization which manifests it.\n\n\nDEATH.--Death is the separation of the spirit and the physical body; and\nas the former carries with it all that enters into the individuality,\nthe self-hood, there can be no change in that individuality. In the\nprocesses of evolution, death is as natural as birth--one is entrance\ninto the earthly life; one departure from it to a higher sphere of\nactivity. Ever is it as of old: The angel of the sepulchre is the angel\nof the resurrection.\n\n\nAFTER DEATH.--The student calmly surveying the pathway of evolution,\nseeing constantly in one age the prophecy of ages that follow; reminded\nby every form of life, of a striving to realize an ideal, and in man,\nfinally, as the highest work of creative energy, finds that ideal type\nof physical beauty, and adaptation to the demands of mind, realizes that\nshort of this last crowning work the plan is incomplete, and a failure.\nThe line of advance to man is direct and continuous. He is the perfect\nfruitage of the Tree of Life. Having reached the perfection of his\nphysical form, progress changes in direction to the perfection of his\nintellectual and moral being. In this direction it is never completed\nduring the brief years of mortal life; but transposed to an existence\nafter death, the infinitude of years is equal to the infinite possible\nadvancement; for as no one can fathom the centuries of the future, no\none can fix the boundary lines circumscribing mental attainment. After\ndeath the celestial being holds fast to all that marked its\nindividuality in earth-life--its loves, affections, desires, culture,\nattainments, its fears--to begin there where it leaves off here, with\nnew environments and happier methods.\n\nIt will find belief the rags of the beggar, concealing the one bright\nreality, that immortal life is an inheritance, governed by laws as fixed\nas those of the physical world.\n\nBeyond this, in earth life we can but darkly understand. We have words\nto convey ideas of things well known to us--of lights seen, sounds\nheard, of tastes, odors and sensations; but mortal senses have not\nexperienced, can not experience, the sensations of this higher life, and\nso there are no words to convey the sensations or thoughts awakened.\n\nTrue, there is a correspondence, such as Swedenborg attempted to\nexpress, but failed because of the limitations of language. He was, like\nevery one who attempts this task, with ideas formed in the idiom of one\nlanguage, attempting to express them in a foreign tongue, which has no\nsuitable words. There are barbarous languages, with vocabularies of\nscarcely one thousand words, yet capable of expressing fully the\nthoughts of those who use them. It would be impossible to translate the\ncomplex thoughts of civilized man into such forms of speech, much less\nthe impressions and thoughts of the celestial life.\n\nIf a butterfly, endowed with language to express the beauties of the\nbroad summer landscape, the soft winds, the melting clouds, the\nfragrance and nectar of flowers, should return to the old bitter\nherbage, where its hairy, uncouth relatives were feeding on acrid\nleaves, and spreading its brilliant wings to catch the sunlight, should\nattempt to relate the wonders of the life that was its own, how little\nwould they understand, how sadly would they misconstrue his meaning.\n\nFor them there has been no experience of wafting winds; no sensation of\nflying; nor of sweet nectar food, or perfume and brilliant color, and\nof these no words held in common could convey any meaning.\n\nFor the full knowledge of that higher life we must wait. And it is well:\nfor to know earth-life in its completeness is enough, and more, for its\nshort years. As this life is the vestibule to the next, so a true\nknowledge of it is of priceless value to advancement there, and its\nculture, its moral growth, its spiritual excellence, are treasures laid\nup in heaven, and this is all that the freed spirit can carry with it in\nits transition.\n\n\n\n\nPersonal Experience--Intelligence from the Sphere of Light.\n\n\nIt is difficult to prevent the discussion of Psychic questions from\nassuming more or less a religious aspect. The reason for this is that\nall systems of religion are based on Spiritual existence, and from views\nof that life, true or false, draw their vital sustenance. The moment it\ndawns upon the mind of an investigator, that in the facts and laws which\ncome under his observation there are expressed forces unknown to the\nphysicist; that beyond, dimly seen, there is an intimation of\nintelligent, yet impalpable beings, he is conscious of his own high\ndestiny, and the necessity of conforming mortal life to it.\n\nThe inquiry of the student becomes the seed-bed for the propagation of\nreligious thought. Herein this domain is unlike all others, for the\noutcome of research within its limits, is the last fruitage of Ethical\nSystems.\n\nImperfect understanding, as that of the savage, blindly feeling without\ncomprehending, yields the rank growth of superstition; while scientific\nand philosophic investigation yield the most refined morality.\n\nThe preceding pages show the important part the sensitive holds in the\nmanifestations and study of psychic phenomena. The true position of the\npsychic individual is not appreciated, even by those who have given the\nsubject much attention.\n\nWhile in the preceding discussions I have spoken in the impersonal mode,\nI wish to add my testimony from years of experience, as a sensitive. I\ndo this because it forms a somewhat necessary preface to the narrative\nwhich follows.\n\nThe mass of mankind understand the delicacy of the conditions which go\nto make up the sensitive subject; of the acuteness with which the\nnervous system is strung; its keen susceptibility to pain and pleasure,\nabout as well as the illiterate boor comprehends the chemical tension of\nthe plate in the camera or the subtile ways of electricity. To be a\nsensitive is to have at times the light of heaven in the heart, and at\nothers the darkness of despair. A thousand influences are always acting,\nand the brain of the sensitive receives them all, trembles to their\nvibrations, and finds resistance to them an effort most exhaustive of\nvitality.\n\nIn this state of tension, disagreeable objects, opposing words, or\nantagonisms which ordinarily would pass unfelt and unnoticed, strike\nwith rude hand, and give excruciating torture. The presence of an object\nor person may be sufficient to antagonize or destroy all ethereal\ninfluences. I know of nothing that may be compared with the acute\ndepression of the mind after such experiences, which corresponds to the\npreceding exaltation. While the sensitive is receiving a flood of\ninspiration he breaths an atmosphere of delight, and lives in an ideal\nworld. Earth and its cares sink out of memory, and the mind is ennobled\nand purified. When the inspiration departs, the rosy light fades out of\nthe spiritual vision, and the mortal eyes open to the cold, gray rays of\nearth-life. How drear and sordidly selfish, poor and unprofitable\nexistence seems to him then.\n\nAfter the flood of inspiration comes its ebb; the valley of despond,\nafter the heights of Alpine splendor. Melancholy and depression of\nspiritual energy may produce physical disturbance, which runs its swift\ncourse to death. Recognizing these facts, the position of the sensitive\ncan not be regarded as desirable, unless the laws of the sensitive state\nare well known, and the subject learns to protect himself against\ninjurious and painful conditions; even if he does this unexpectedly,\nconditions will arise and confront him, for those who are his nearest\nand dearest friends know nothing about the acuteness of his feelings,\nand may unconsciously produce the very effects they seek to avoid.\n\nThe sensitive becomes painfully conscious of a double life, for the\npsychic is so different from the common state, that the mind receives\nimpressions as from two distinct conditions of existence. One is\nphysical, held in common with the brutes, with physical enjoyments and\ndesires for eating, drinking, and the passions; the other is the\npsychical, which lives above and beyond the cares of life, and dwells in\nan ideal realm of purity. One is the night and the other the day. In\norder to dwell on earth these two lives must be united. The physical\nbody has its imperative needs, which must be satisfied, as the just\ncondition of spiritual growth. There is less imperative demand for\nspiritual sustenance. So soon as the body has been supplied, mental\nlethargy supervenes, and desires to tyrannize; physical life overlaps\nand conceals the spiritual, and men live the life of beasts. At other\ntimes the spiritual gains such complete ascendency that this world is\nforgotten in a blaze of ideality. An equilibrium between these states is\nthe most desirable, but difficult to maintain.\n\nSensitiveness is a faculty common to mankind and capable of cultivation.\nNow that we have just entered the vestibule of the temple of Psychic\nScience, and are beginning to learn its principles we may hope for\nbrilliant results. Nor will the duties of this life be neglected because\nof the approach to another. To the belief that mortal life is all that\ncan be attended to here, and \"that the earth is wanted here, and not in\nthe clouds,\" the celestial sense would reply: \"We too want the earth\nhere, and not in the clouds, but we want the clouds also.\" We want the\nclouds to distill the soft dew, and bear on their broad shoulders the\nlife-giving rain for the grass and grain, to slake the thirst of the\nherds and flocks; we want the clouds to spread their protecting mantle\nover the fields against the scorching sun of summer; and we want them to\nbring the crystal snows to protect the fields in winter. We want the\nclouds to beautify the sky, and reflect in loveliness the rays of the\nrising and setting sun. Half the beauty of the world would be gone\nwithout the clouds, which lift the soul on wings of aspiration. We\nrejoice that there are clouds, and while the earth is good enough for\nthe mortal man, in the clouds there is a grander reality. If it were\notherwise, if the human heart were given its intense longings, its\nexquisite sensibility, its delicate cords responsive to every touch of\nfeeling only to be torn and lacerated at the grave of the loved, we\nwould scorn the pitiable earth, despise the sham called life, hate the\nforce called love, and believe that there is neither benevolence,\nwisdom, nor intelligence in the Universe. It is the clouds that give\nvalue to the earth; without them it would only be a parched and thirsty\ndesert. There are clouds, and by them the spirit is exalted to the\ncontemplation of infinite realities.\n\nWithout the ever-present consciousness of eternal being, religion would\nbe impossible, and there could be no ideal of excellence superior to the\ngratifications of the hour. But man feels the aspirations for a superior\nlife, a soaring out of and above the physical senses; he feels the\npromptings of duty, of right, of justice and truth, outwrought from his\ninnermost being. The pleasures of the time are cast away; selfishness\nyields to unselfishness; and the spirit, amid pain, apparent loss, and\nthe scorn of its fellows, proves its kinship to the immutable and ideal.\nSuch is the true spiritual life: The outgrowth of spiritual science,\nwhich makes morality a birthright, and its expression in character a\nconsequence of obedience to the laws of its being.\n\nSpiritual life is universal and infinite. It is the answer to our hopes,\ndesires and abiding faith. Whence come they? They are the mutual\nexpression of our inner natures. As the flower expands, its petals\nbending to the rays of the sun, so we turn to the spiritual sun, and\nonly in the warmth of its invigorating rays expand into completeness. As\nthe foulest slime of the sewer, when exposed to the light, casts down\nall stains, and sparkles in the crystal waves, so humanity in the light\nof spiritual truth is purified and freed from stains. Hope, faith,\ndesire, the poetry of the present, are the prophecy of the future! Their\nvoice proclaims the esoteric wisdom which is wiser than all books; for\nare not all books children of the mind? Has any thing ever been written\nthat no one knew? As the mind is the receiver, so is it the radiator. It\ncannot receive what it has not the ability to throw out. It understands\nbecause it is the sum of all the elements and forces of the universe. It\nis akin to the titanic energies which hold the revolving suns and worlds\nin the hollow of their hands, and can read the ritual of the flashing\nstars.\n\nInfinity it has never exhausted, it can never exhaust itself. Books are\nimperfect stutterings of its eternal consciousness. It is as superior to\nthem as the master to his sketch, the sculptor to his clay, the builder\nto the engine that feebly embodies in brass and steel his ideas, which\nalone are perfect. We are immortal, and hope and desire tell us the\nwondrous tale of an unending future. We cannot cast aside its awful\nresponsibilities, escape its duties, or be deprived of its grand\npossibilities. The very name, Immortality, carries with it the ideas of\nendless progress, justice, liberty, love, purity, holiness, power and\nbeauty.\n\nThose who have followed the line of thought in these pages will have no\ndifficulty in admitting the possibility, at least on special occasions,\nof spirit communication. They, in fact, will recognize it as a\nnecessity. If those who have passed through death's portals should\nreturn, they might find even the most sensitive unable to transmit their\nthoughts, except in a most rudimentary manner.\n\nThe following narrative is an attempt of a celestial being to convey by\nwords a conception of its glorious life. While, in part, the sketch\nmust be taken allegorically, mainly it is a true picture. The\ncommunication came from our mother, Jane A. Rood, and the remarkable\nfacts connected with her death are correctly stated. I more minutely\ndescribe the entrance into that state wherein the message was received,\nbecause it illustrates the preceding discussions, and the communication\nemphasizes and makes plain many points which have remained\nunapproachable.\n\nThe first stages were like sinking into peaceful slumber, and I felt the\nscenes of earth melt out of consciousness, while a strange exhilaration,\npeaceful and delightful, came over me. There were changing flashes of\ncolor, rivaling the rainbow, coming and going in receding circles, and\nthen a misty brightness, out of which slowly came, as though the\ncloudiness were material in the hands of an artist, a form which I\nrecognized as our mother's. A score or more of years had passed since\nthe fateful hour when we were gathered around her couch, too distressed\nto weep, and awed by the presence of the silent messenger. Wasted by\nserious sickness, she was at last free from pain, and a smile of joy\ncame over her pale face when she knew it was soon to be over. We thought\nher dead, for her eyes closed and her breath ceased, when she repeated\nwith a voice sweet as music:\n\n    \"Bright spirits await to welcome me home,\n    To that blissful region where you, too, may come;\n    Weep not, for our parting is only to sight,\n    Our spirits may still the more closely unite.\n\n    \"Perform well each day the task which to you\n    Is allotted, and murmur not if you must do\n    What now seemeth hardship, for soon you will prove\n    'Tis labor of kindness, an action of love.\"\n\nThen her eyes closed again, and her features changed into a glad smile.\nThere was now no mistaking the signs, and we went to our appointed\ntasks, feeling that it would be sacrilege to weep in the presence of\nsuch a triumph over death. We felt that we had been permitted to catch a\nglimpse of an unseen reality. As travelers in mountain regions are\ndelighted after the valley is wrapped in twilight by glimpses of the\ncrest of some tall mountain catching the rays of the sun, and reflecting\nits glory, so to us it seemed that the departing spirit had caught a\nglimpse of the light of its new life, and reflected a smile on the face\nof the body it was leaving.\n\nHow beautiful she was with the graces of youth, and the complete and\nperfected charms of maturity. No wrinkles were on her brow, no marks of\ncare, anxiety or pain; she was ideal in excellence.\n\nWhat has happened to you, mother? How are you the same and yet not the\nsame?\n\nThe response: I have returned to my youth, and have brought my\nexperience with me. I scarcely realize how many years have passed.\nTwenty-five, do you say? It seems to me not as many days; and yet, let\nme recount. There has been a flood of events, and my recollection of the\nlast time you saw me has grown dim. We count not time by years, but by\naccomplishments; by what we do and gain in thought. I am pained by the\nmemory of the olden time. You say it was twenty-five years or more ago!\nAs I come again in contact with earth, my sickness and sufferings are\nrecalled. How weary and worn I became! How I longed for the end! The\nlove you all bore me and my love for you was the only cord which bound\nme to life, and as I approached the end I forgot even that. How much I\nsuffered that day I cannot tell, but at last I was at peace. The\nterrible struggle between flesh and spirit was done, and the latter\nrested. I thought I would sleep, and yet it was not sleep. It was a\nrepose of all living functions, and yet my mind was in full activity.\nFor a time I heard all that was said by those who were in the room; but\nsoon I became so absorbed in the thoughts which flowed on my mind that I\nlost consciousness of everything else. Oh! it was such a delicious sense\nof comfort and of rest! I was so very weary; I had been so tortured by\npain that to be free was indescribable happiness. I had heard them say I\nwas dying, and I expected the dread moment with foreboding. It surely\nmust soon come, yet I thought I had not reached it. The darkness began\nto lighten, and I thought the morn was breaking. An intense thrill of\ndelight filled my being, and the light grew stronger. I continued to\nrest, and a new strength came to me. I am getting well again, I thought,\nand, perhaps, when the morning comes I shall surprise my friends and\nchildren by at once arising from my couch. The light streamed in with a\nsoft and a refreshing warmth. There were no walls to prevent its\npassage. I was floating in a cloud of light, borne gently and softly as\na weary child on its mother's breast. Then out of the light, as though\nit had formed into shape and substance, I saw three friends, long since\ndead, and my own blessed mother. To meet them did not appear strange to\nme, yet I knew they were not of earth. When they came around me, taking\nmy hands in theirs, and caressing my forehead, I was surprised at their\nbeauty, and the sweetness of their expression. They read my thoughts,\nand answered:\n\n\"Yes, truly we are of the dead; and you will find that dying means to\nlive.\"\n\n\"I thought I was dying; they told me so,\" I said, laughing at the\nabsurdity. \"But I have become well, never so well since a child. It is a\njoy to breathe and feel the fresh life come coursing through my veins.\nBut why do you smile?\" I asked. They replied: \"Do you not know that your\nnew life means death? How much you have to learn, dear sister.\"\n\n\"Yes, I have everything to learn; my life has been full of cares.\"\n\n\"They have been for others,\" was replied. \"And such are treasures in\nheaven. For us to learn is not labor. If we bring ourselves into the\nproper condition of receptivity, knowledge flows into our minds. There\nis no effort, no wearisome study. We may know all that the highest\nintelligence knows if we are in the right condition.\"\n\n\"I must bring myself at once into that condition,\" I replied, \"for there\nis need.\"\n\n\"Be not in haste, our sister,\" said they gently; \"there is time, and you\nmust have repose. The pain you have endured reflects on your spirit, and\nyou have not yet recovered.\"\n\n\"I infer from your words that I have met the change I so feared,\" I said\nagain, smiling at the absurdity of the idea. \"When did I pass the limits\nof earth life, and why do I lose sight of my friends?\"\n\n\"You need have no more dread,\" replied my darling mother. \"You do not\nsee them because we are far away from them. It would not be well for you\nto remain and witness their sorrow. We have taken you away, that you may\nfirst recover and grow strong.\"\n\nAs I felt the swift motion, which I had not before observed, for it had\nbeen to me the gentle rock of sustaining arms, I asked: \"Am I to be\ntaken away so far I can not return?\"\n\n\"Fear not, child,\" she replied in her old way, \"fear not, for whatever\nwe justly demand is granted to us. The craving of the heart is not left\nunanswered. Presently it will all be made plain to you.\"\n\nWe were drawn onward as by the tide of a great river, and I saw\ncountless others coming and going, as though on swift errands. Then we\npaused on an eminence, overlooking a sea of amethyst on our right, and a\nvast plain on our left. The sky was softest purple, and the light fell\nwith indescribable mellowness over all--there was happiness in the air,\nand those we greeted were radiant. No words can describe what I saw, or\nmy rapidly changing emotions. There is nothing on earth with which to\ncompare the landscape. The softest earthly colors are opaque in\ncomparison, and the clearest sky a murky cloud. Overcome, I wept for\njoy, and my companions wept with me.\n\n\"Oh!\" exclaimed one, \"how sweet to know that this is the reality; no\nmore doubts, nor forebodings; no more fears, nor distress; a life that\nof itself is the highest pleasure, and yields us heaven.\"\n\nI started at the word, for it recalled a tide of beliefs: \"Heaven! When\nare we to go there? Where is it and what must we do to go there?\"\n\n\"Be not impatient, dear sister; we are in heaven already. Where\nhappiness is, there is heaven. Heaven is activity. It is the deed of\nkindness, the pure loving thought that makes heavens.\"\n\n\"What is its first principle?\" I queried, \"for I am weak and\nundeserving.\"\n\n\"Doing for others is the full measure of its law. This is the angel code\nfrom which every trace of selfishness has been weeded out. To do for\nothers brings gain. The pure and noble angels bending from their\nspheres of light, labor for others in self-forgetfulness. When man so\nfar forgets his selfishness as to sacrifice himself for others, he\nexalts himself in angel-life. To work for self is no better nor worse\nthan the brute world, from worm to elephant, and is devoid of immortal\ngain.\"\n\nHow delighted I was at these words. The dross of the world was rapidly\ndisappearing. The sphere of my earthly labor, which to me seemed so\nnarrow, widened. I had been sympathetic with those who suffered, and to\nthose weaker than myself I had given a helping hand. Little things of no\naccount at the time, so humble and narrow had been my life, now had a\nnew meaning.\n\nMy companions smiled as they read my thoughts, and one responded: \"Dear\nsister, your weakness was your strength. It will be no effort for you to\ndo as you have always done. They who can be unselfish under the coarse\ninfluences of earthly life, how grand must be their career under the\npurer conditions which here prevail.\"\n\nAs we conversed there came one from another group, tall, beautiful and\nradiant with light, and with his companion more exquisitely beautiful\nthan himself. They invited us, and we went to their abode. \"How\nbeautiful you are,\" I exclaimed involuntarily to her.\n\n\"I am glad;\" she replied, \"for to be truly beautiful means that the\nthoughts are right and true, for they mold the features and through them\ngain expression; but it requires time, a great length of time.\"\n\n\"How long have you been here?\" I ventured to ask.\n\n\"Many hundred years. I scarcely know how long.\"\n\n\"And you grow not old here?\"\n\n\"We grow not old. The spirit knows not age. It is not limited by\nduration. It is an eternal now, concentrating the past and awaiting the\nfuture.\"\n\nI had not seen myself since the change. I put my hand to my face; it was\nsmooth and unwrinkled. A happy ripple of laughter came from my\ncompanions. He who had come for us said: \"Dear sister, you left those\nwith your body. The pure spirit has not the wrinkles of care or of age.\"\n\nI looked at him as he spoke and my attention was called to his robe. I\nhad not thought of this subject before. I had been so eagerly watching\nthe faces of my companions, I had not thought of their garments, or of\nmy own. What a change! What was this raiment? I can not describe it. It\nwas a drapery as of a cloud, and its color depended on the spiritual\ncondition of the wearer. I was glad that mine was azure, for that was\nthe color of my companion's, and thus I knew I was like them. What was\nit? A cloud or woven light? It fell around me soft and warm, and with a\nluxurious coolness contrasting with the burning of the fever I had so\nrecently escaped. How different from the roughness of the old garments\nwas this fleecy robe, glinting and reflecting the light.\n\nAs we conversed, there came a spirit, who paused in front of us, dark\nand sullen. His raiment was sombre and grim, like his thoughts. \"Can you\ntell me where heaven is?\" he grumbled, \"I paid a preacher to gain it for\nme, and now having lost all else, I want that.\"\n\n\"Poor brother,\" replied the elder, \"you search for what you can never\nfind outside of yourself.\"\n\n\"You are a deceiver!\" he muttered as he fled away.\n\nThe elder brother gazed after him sadly, and turning said: \"On earth he\nwas a miser, and who can count the years before his regeneration? He\nsought wealth, trusting to others his religious and moral culture. The\nrecording angel has written against his name not one charity, not one\nunselfish deed. He now must wander in self-torment, seeking and finding\nnot.\"\n\n\"Was he of consequence on earth?\" I asked, for he was proud and haughty\nin his degradation.\n\n\"Thousands trembled at his beck, for he had made them dependents and\nslaves. He had vast riches, houses and lands, mortgages and deeds. He\nwas wise in getting wealth; but here mortgages and deeds are unknown,\nand he becomes the least in the kingdom; morally idiotic, mentally\ndwarfed, and a pitiable object of our compassion.\"\n\n\"How long before he will gain the light?\"\n\n\"Ah! who but God can tell!\" sighed my instructor. \"Who can tell?\nCenturies may go by. He must first learn to ask; first learn humility\nand his mistakes. Then some kind angels will attempt his education. They\nwill lead him out of his mental selfishness, and he will begin as a\nchild in the old life. His task will be difficult because he can not\nenter the sphere of receptivity, as we are able to do, and thus absorb\nknowledge from others. His nature must first change, and complete\nregeneration be accomplished.\"\n\nThe coming of this pitiable one brought a wave of sadness over us, but\nit passed, and the sun was more gladsome after breaking from the clouds.\nI had rested in delightful sleep; I do not know how often, and the old\nlife was like a dream. It was not possible I had been sick, for I was so\nstrong, so gladsome in my strength, and activity was a delight. My mind\nbroadened. Contact with my companions gave me enlarged ideas. To think\nwas to learn; to wish was to know. I was able to look beyond the effect\nto the cause. I could read the law in the result. Every day brought\ngrander views, and my mental horizon expanded. Even in this larger\ngrowth I found rest. The faculties, dwarfed and starved in the old time,\ncalled for activity. The weariness of the body I was leaving behind me.\nHow lovingly my companions would surround me with conditions of repose.\nHow they gave me fullness of life, and drew to me those who would reveal\nthe knowledge it was my desire to learn!\n\nThen suddenly one evening I felt an earthward impulse. What power drew\nme thitherward?\n\n\"Is our sister disturbed?\" asked my gentle companion.\n\n\"Oh! so disturbed! I have been selfish in my new joy, and how could I\nhave been so forgetful; so unnatural? My husband and babe; my son and\ndaughter weeping; and I have not thought of them!\"\n\nI wept, and my companion folded her arm around me and gently said: \"You\nhave been under our control, and are not responsible. To have been\nsubject to the griefs of those you left, would have been painful and\nuseless. You are now able to bear a full knowledge, you feel that of\nyour family and friends. I will go with you, and you will find what I\ntell you is true, and you will bless us for our thoughtfulness.\"\n\nWe were poised, as it were, over a promontory beyond which the earth\nhung in space, as the full moon in a summer sky. Beyond were the stars.\nI was aghast at the journey, and fearful of the abyss which seemed deep\nas infinitude. While I trembled it was passed. I was in my old home. A\ngreat flood of human memories came over me. How I loved the dear\nfamiliar walls, the chairs, the glowing fire and, more than all, the\nfamily group. My husband sitting with his head bowed in his hand, my\ndaughter performing the tasks that had been mine; my little boy and girl\nat play; the babe asleep. There were tears in my eyes as I turned to my\ncompanion for strength to bear: Did I not leave my body? Was there not a\nfuneral? Why is it so quiet if I have not truly passed the ordeal?\n\n\"Listen,\" said my companion, supporting me. \"Listen. It was in October\nwhen you passed away. The bright foliage of the trees, then burning in\nscarlet and gold, had been blown away by the blasts of winter, and the\nsnow covered the earth with its icy shroud. All you think of has been\ndone. It is finished. Were you to go to the churchyard you would find a\nmound by the side of relatives gone before.\"\n\nIt was so unreal and absurd that I was bewildered, and laughed at my\nmisunderstanding, and wept the next moment when I saw my family. I went\nto my husband and placed my hand on his head and called him by name. I\ncalled with all my strength to learn that my lips gave no sound to his\near, and that my touch was imperceptible. Then I turned to my daughter\nand threw my arms despairingly around her. She was singing a song we had\nsung together, and continued not heeding my embrace. Oh! how keen my\ngrief when I found I was not known in my own old home. I, who had come\nfrom such a distance, my heart beating with love, found no response! My\ndaughter finished her song, and her eyes filled with tears. I read her\nthoughts for they were of me. \"Mother! Mother!\" she was saying, and I\nresponded. It was the call I had heard beyond the bars of heaven! I\ncould not bear it, and my companion said as she again placed her arm\naround me:\n\n\"Come, my sister, you can do no good here. There is your child sleeping\nin its crib. It is cared for as by yourself. Kiss it, and we will go. Be\nassured whenever you are wanted here you will feel the desire.\"\n\nI kissed my child. \"Let me stay,\" I pleaded; \"I want to sit in my old\nplace, in that vacant chair. Then I will go.\"\n\n\"As you will; and I will endeavor to impress your daughter with some ray\nof sunshine.\"\n\nShe bent over my daughter, and by means I did not understand, her mind\nresponded to the spirit's thoughts: \"Your mother is with you, and\nretains the same affection for you she had in earth-life.\" With the\ninflux of that thought a smile lit up her face, and turning to the\norgan, she sang, \"Annie Laurie,\" a song we had often sung together. How\nthankful I was that one ray of sunlight gladdened her heart, and the\nmemory of me was yet dear. I was grateful to the kind spirit who had\nassisted me, and then she said we must go, for the trial was too great\nfor my strength.\n\n\"You must calm yourself,\" said my companion, \"for this sorrow is without\nthe least benefit. Believe it is for the best, and though the hour is\ndark, it will bring a perfect day.\"\n\n\"I can not prevent myself thinking of my children and my husband. My\nlove for them is stronger than ever, and I could not have been persuaded\nto have left them for a day. Can I not, oh, good angel, remain with\nthem? The fairest scene of your home is desolate compared to the earth!\"\n\nWith tenderest compassion she said: \"You are now in the earth-sphere and\ntake on its conditions. You are seeing through earthly eyes, and\naffected by earthly ways. When we once leave this scene you will be no\nlonger distressed. Willingly would I leave you. I have no right to force\nyou away. I influence you as I think for your highest good. Here you are\nunrecognized, and are constantly troubled because you can not make\nyourself known, and by a reflection of the sorrow of your family.\nWhenever you can be of use to them you will receive the knowledge and\ncan return. Now we had better go.\"\n\nShe placed her arm around me, and whether the earth sank away from us,\nor we flow from the earth, I was unable to tell. I have since learned\nhow to traverse space by the force of will; but then I was ignorant of\nthe method, and dependent on others. Now, when I desire to visit a\nplace, or be with certain friends, the desire creates an attraction,\nwhich in spirit is the equivalent of magnetic attraction in the physical\nworld.\n\nWhen we again reached our spirit home our companions gathered around us,\nand I was soothed by the kind words of my mother. I felt condemned for\nmy loss of interest in the earth-life which had so recently absorbed my\nmind, but it became like a dim dream, and ceased to trouble me. What if\nI should forget it entirely? I was appalled at the idea, and cried at\nthe pang it gave.\n\n\"Do not fear, you will not forget, but after a time your affections will\nstrengthen. Our sister has much to learn, and needlessly distresses\nherself.\"\n\nThe years passed, and I became accustomed to my new life, when a message\ncame for me. The palpitating waves repeated, \"Mother! mother! mother!\"\nIt was my youngest daughter, who had grown almost to womanhood. I knew\nby her cry that she was in mortal pain, and yielding to the attractions\nI was soon with her. She was motionless on a couch, surrounded by her\nrelatives, and her cousin held her cold hand. \"It is all over,\" they\nsaid, in tears.\n\n\"Can it be?\" I eagerly asked. \"Oh! can it be that the time has already\ncome when I am to have one of my children with me? To have one of them\nwho will know me, and converse with me? Oh! heavenly Father, I thank\nthee for this answer to my incessant prayer.\"\n\nThen I looked closely and saw the great transition was approaching. I\ncould not assist; I could only stand by her side and receive her. She\nseemed asleep, which I fully understood from my own experience. Slowly\nthe spirit left the insensible body, and as I saw my spirit-daughter\nrecovering her senses, I drew near and whispered, \"Claribel.\" She opened\nwide her blue eyes, and I knew she saw me. I threw my arms around her,\nand wept for gladness. \"Darling Claribel, do you not know me, your\nmother?\"\n\n\"Dearest mama,\" she said with her old smile, \"know you? Why, you are\nyounger, but the same. Where have you been so long? We thought you\ndead?\"\n\n\"Do you not know?\" I asked, apprehensively.\n\n\"Know? What mean you?\"\n\n\"Yes, I am what they call dead; and were you not likewise, you could not\nsee me!\"\n\n\"I dead?\" she replied, with a laugh which recalled her childhood,\nthrowing her arms gracefully over her head. \"Look you, mama, how far\nfrom it I am. I have been wretchedly sick, and in such fiery pain; but\nit is over, and I am perfectly well.\"\n\nWe drew to one side, and she then turning saw the friends, weeping, and\nher body on the couch.\n\n\"Why do they weep?\" she asked, \"and who is that on the couch? I am\nconfused, for it is like another self.\"\n\n\"They are weeping for your loss, and that form on the couch is yours.\"\n\n\"Am I to return to it? What am I to do, dear mother?\"\n\n\"No, you will need it no more. Your life is hereafter with me and the\nangels.\"\n\n\"What mean you, mother, by saying you and I are dead?\"\n\n\"That we are, my child. That is what people call dead.\"\n\n\"I do not understand,\" she replied musingly. Then going to her cousin's\nside, who was still holding her physical hand, she said, \"Cousin Frank,\nwhat are you weeping for? Do you not see how well I am?\"\n\nHe did not hear her words, and she spoke again, playfully patting his\nface. Then she saw that she was no longer able to be heard or felt, and\nthrew herself into my arms, weeping violently. I soothed her as best I\ncould, upbraiding myself with foolishly teaching her the ways of our\nlife before she was able to receive. \"My child,\" I said, \"how glad I am\nto have you again with me. They will all come to us sooner or later. Now\nwe will go to my home, for it is not well for you to remain. After a\ntime you will be instructed in these mysteries.\"\n\nI attempted to go, but found that although I could depart alone, I could\nnot bear Claribel with me. I had not perfected myself sufficiently in\nthe method, and her attraction was toward that spot alone. I prayed for\nthe coming of a companion, and soon there came one to my aid. On either\nside we threw our arms around her, and then our wills bore her onward\nwith us.\n\nWhen we reached our home, and the loving companions came with welcome to\nClaribel, and she saw beauty and perfection everywhere, and felt how\nhappy her coming had made me, tears trembled in her eyes as she said:\n\"It is wonderful, mother, and I ought not to regret, but you know\nearth-life was sweet to me, and I had plans for the future.\"\n\n\"Yes, my child,\" I replied, \"the days were too short, and your friends\nwere devoted, but your plans are thwarted, yet you must know that all is\nwell.\" Her towering air-castles had vanished; but soon she had far\ngreater sources of happiness in the group of beautiful children she\ninstructed.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nI said I would not visit earth unless called, for the pain was greater\nthan the pleasure. Even when called, I refused. \"My husband,\" they said,\n\"was about to wed again.\"\n\n\"It is well,\" I replied; \"his is the rough, earth-life, hard to walk\nalone. If he so desires, I ought to be willing.\"\n\nYet I was not willing or I should have gone. It would have seemed\nstrange, indeed, to have visited my old home, and found another in my\nplace. It would have emphasized my death to me. Thinking the matter\nover, I said:\n\n\"No! I will not go. Let them be happy. I will not enter their sphere.\"\n\nWhen, years after, the message came that he was soon to join me, I\nhastened to his side. When I reached him he had already nearly passed\nthrough the transition, and had regained his spiritual perceptions. As I\ncame to him he at once knew me, and opened wide his arms to receive me.\nThe years were blotted out. We were again to each other all that we had\never been. By intuition he knew that he had met the change, and the\nfirst words he said to me were:\n\n\"I am so glad the weary watch is over. I knew heaven was not so large I\ncould not find you, but I did not expect so soon to meet you. It was\nlike you to come, and I ought to have expected it.\"\n\n\"I heard your call,\" I replied, \"and heaven is not so wide that I could\nnot come. Now we must go, and I will take you to the most beautiful\nplace you ever saw in dreams. You must not remain to witness the\nproceedings further.\"\n\nHe smiled at my words: \"Why, you talk as if there was something terrible\nabout death. It has been the most pleasant passage in my life. I have\nsuffered a great deal in its approach, but when it came it brought only\njoy. When I saw you, I was so pleased, my clay-lips uttered my thoughts,\nthe last words they ever gave. Now it is done, I must stay till it is\nover. I want to see how the relatives and friends act, and hear what\nthey say. You know it will be strange to hear one's own funeral sermon.\"\n\nAs he would not go, I remained with him, and entering again into the\nearth-sphere, suffered from the contact. My husband was greatly\ninterested in the ceremonies, and when they were over, he said:\n\n\"I am glad the old aching body has at last gone to its final rest. The\nchildren were grieved, and ought to know how they misunderstand. Perhaps\nI can tell them some time. Hearts do not break with grief, else mine\nwould have broken. Come, now, my new-found wife, I will go where you\nwish.\"\n\nI need not repeat the story of the journey or describe the meeting with\nour Claribel. Her father was of so happy a disposition, that he at once\nassimilated his surroundings, and became one with his companions.\n\n\"I have worked and struggled along,\" he said, \"having little time to\nthink, and I am as ignorant as a savage. I desire at once to commence\ngaining knowledge. How am I to proceed?\"\n\nWe all laughed at his eagerness, and one said:\n\n\"There is time enough; you must first rest and recover strength.\"\n\n\"Rest! I was never stronger, and I am anxious for exertion. I feel\nmentally starved and crave thought food.\"\n\n\"You will find no difficult task. To desire is to have, and you will\nsoon become in sympathy with the thought-atmosphere of our home.\"\n\nThen one of our number, who was a poet, superior to us all, said he had\nhad a singular and painful experience, and we demanded to hear it.\n\n\nTHE POET'S STORY.--I had been enthroned, and as I came up the pathway\nleading to this eminence, I met a boisterous throng of people. Strange\nfaces they had, and yet they were familiar. I looked closely, and\nimagine my surprise when I found they belonged to me. They were the\nthoughts I had expressed in my earth-life. Some were dark, repulsive and\ninexpressibly ugly, while others were exquisitely beautiful. What a\nhorde they were, and though some were pleasing, the greater proportion\ncaused my cheeks to blush with shame.\n\n\"Father! father!\" they called, rushing toward me.\n\n\"Away!\" I cried. \"I know you not!\"\n\n\"Then we will follow you. We belong to you, and wherever you go we will\ngo. We will not desert you.\"\n\n\"If this be so,\" I cried in despair, \"then I am burdened beyond\nendurance, and immortality becomes a curse. If I must remain with this\nthrong of tormentors, reminding me continually of early follies, then\nextinction is preferable.\"\n\nWhat shall I do with this miscreant crowd, deformed and rude? I can not\ntake them home to my companions. If these are embodiments of my earthly\nthoughts, how they would scorn me. If this is to be my retinue, then I\nmust seek a new home where I am unknown. I must cast aside the\ncompanionship of this company. My punishment is terrible. I threw myself\ndown in a paroxysm of grief and remorse. An angel came by, and pausing\nsaid:\n\n\"Would you escape from your thraldom?\"\n\n\"Escape!\" I cried. \"Can I escape?\"\n\n\"Do you not see that the most repulsive of these spectres are fashioned\nof the thoughts which are of yourself, recording your former vanity,\npride, uncharity, selfishness and forgetfulness of others? See you that\nlovely being representing a deed of self-sacrifice?\"\n\n\"Oh! that they were all like her!\" I cried.\n\n\"Then listen. You must act in such a manner that the good will eclipse\nthese shadows, when they will disappear.\"\n\nSaying this he vanished, and I, reflecting, said that I would at once\nfree myself from the dreadful following. Opportunely there came a spirit\nmoaning past me. Her brother on earth was contemplating a horrible\ncrime. He had determined to take the life of his mother in order to\nbecome possessed of her estate. The sister had vainly attempted to give\na warning or to influence him, and in despair at her failure she had\nleft them to their fate. I said to her:\n\n\"Come. I will go with you, and perhaps together we can prevent this\ncrime.\"\n\nShe fervently expressed her gratitude as she conducted me to her\nmother's house. It was midnight when we arrived, as I saw in the dim\nlamplight by the tall clock, and the mother was sleeping.\n\n\"We can only watch,\" said my companion, \"and if he should come, we can\ndo nothing to save her.\"\n\n\"Do you not know that sometimes sleep unlocks the avenues of the spirit,\nand we can approach much nearer than in waking hours? When we thus come,\npeople say they have dreamed.\"\n\nI bent over the mother, her white locks fell from beneath her cap over\nthe pillow, and there was something in the expression of her lips and\ncheeks reminding me of my own. I tested her sensitiveness and found that\nher mind responded. Then I willed these words:\n\n\"Edward intends to kill you with a knife. He will come into your room,\nand you must awake and charge him with the crime, and say to him that\nhis sister came from heaven to tell you!\"\n\nShe started as if by a blow, and with a horrified expression, she sprang\nupright.\n\n\"Who is here?\" she cried. \"Who spoke to me? I have had a fearful dream,\nso vivid that I thought it reality.\"\n\nShe sank again on the pillow, and there were light footsteps at the\ndoor, which slowly swung open, and the brother entered. The mother\nwaited only a moment when she arose and addressed him in the words of\nher dream. It came so suddenly that he admitted his intentions, and\npleaded for forgiveness. He had been made the victim of bad men, and if\nhe could escape from them he might be saved. By nature he was not so\nbad, but he was weak.\n\nLeaving them to each other, I started again for our home, my heart full\nof gladness, for I had followed the advice of the angel, and expected to\nthereby escape my companions. Judge of my surprise when on looking\nback, I saw a new form, more ugly than any of the others, the result of\nthis act from which I had expected so much. As I gazed in despair, the\nangel came again, and with a smile said to me:\n\n\"It was a selfish act!\"\n\n\"Selfish?\" I asked.\n\n\"Aye; you had not the good of the woman or the salvation of the son or\nthe happiness of the daughter at heart. You had only your own pleasure\nand gain. You would thereby relieve yourself of a burden. The world is\nruined by such benevolence. You will have a long and weary road if you\ntravel in that direction.\"\n\n\"I am a fool,\" I said, overwhelmed by my imbecility and want of\nspiritual understanding. \"What can I do?\" I implored.\n\n\"If I direct you, there will be no merit. You must determine for\nyourself.\"\n\nAs he spoke he vanished, and I sat down, resting like a weary pilgrim,\noverburdened. Then I saw a spirit coming rapidly toward me, and on\napproaching she hurriedly said:\n\n\"I am told you can influence mortals. My son is captain of a steamer,\nand having lost his course, is sailing directly on a rocky coast. Come\nand save not only him, but the hundreds of his slumbering passengers.\"\n\nWithout a moment's delay, I followed her, and came to the steamer. The\ngray of morning was flushing the sky, and the crests of heavily rolling\nseas gleamed in the cold light. Everything was quiet on deck, for the\npassengers were asleep, and nothing was heard but the steady pulsations\nof the engine. I looked beyond the bow, and saw the shore some distance\naway. It was a high promontory of black rocks, against which the surf\nwas violently beating, and the ship was headed directly on the point\nwhere it was most violent. Whatever was to be done, must be done\nquickly. We went into the cabin where the captain sat with his head\nresting on his hands, between sleeping and waking. Could I impress him\nwith his danger? I made the attempt and failed. I repeated several times\nwith no better success. I became anxious, as the danger increased, for\nevery pulsation of the engine brought the ship nearer to the rocks. The\nsleeping passengers, strong men, helpless women and children, how soon\nthey would be called to face certain destruction. What agony the now\nquiet decks would witness! What waiting and hoping against hope there\nwould be in hundreds of desolate homes! The contemplation unnerved me,\nand I was unfitted to exercise my skill in impressing thoughts on mortal\nbrain. I was recalled by the voice of the mother:\n\n\"Can you not save my son?\"\n\nI confess that when the picture of agony I have sketched came to my\nmind, in my wish to prevent the catastrophe, all selfish considerations\nwere forgotten, and I would unhesitatingly have given my existence for\nthe safety of the ship, were it possible to have done so.\n\n\"I can do nothing unless I have aid,\" I replied, and with my whole\nstrength I invoked our elder brother. Instantly he came. He understands\nthe methods of impressing thought so perfectly that, as you know, he\nrarely fails. He placed his hand on the captain's head, and the thought\nhe gave was:\n\n\"Ship ahoy, breakers ahead!\"\n\nThe captain sprang to his feet, and rubbing his eyes in a bewildered\nmanner, rushed on deck.\n\n\"Who hailed us?\" he demanded of the drowsy watch.\n\n\"No one, sir; all is quiet.\"\n\n\"We were hailed,\" he said firmly, and gaining the bridge he sought to\npenetrate the darkness. He listened, and his face paled, for distinctly\ncame the boom of the surf.\n\nSwift were the commands, and the ship by a sharp curve doubled on her\ncourse, the rocky ledge being so near that a few revolutions more and\nthere would have been no escape.\n\nA great many of the passengers came up on deck, aroused by the unusual\nmotion of the ship and the shouting of orders, and when they understood\nthe peril they had so narrowly escaped, they embraced each other and\ncried for joy.\n\nAs I again sought our home, forgetful of everything but the benefit I\nhad conferred by my journey, I glanced behind me, and saw a shining\nlight, and afar off, in dim outline, the group of beings I so strongly\ndesired to escape. Unconsciously I had performed an act that had placed\na light between me and them. Rejoice with me, dear friends, I am enabled\nto be unselfish.\n\nThen the elder said: \"Our brother adds to his other good qualities, that\nof humility.\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\"The angel-life became more complete and perfect as year by year the\nloved ones came up from the shadows of earth, until our family circle\nwas almost restored. After a time its old members will take their new\nplaces, and when my earth-friends are all here, there will be little\nattraction for me in the old life.\n\n\"It is yet new and strange, and cannot be described to mortal\ncomprehension. Language itself must be spiritualized, and words given a\nnew meaning.\n\n\"I have mingled tears of pity with those who have been bereft, at the\nsame time knowing that their loss was gain to the departed ones.\n\n\"Activity is our happiness, and thinking right and doing our very best\nare the gateways to heaven. Earth-life is a joy only when the end is\nknown. Here its infinite possibilities are realized. Not in a year or a\ncentury, but in the fullness of time can all this come. Weep, for it is\nhuman, when your loved ones pass the shadowy portals, remembering,\nhowever, that the spiritual sun on the other side will, by comparison,\nmake your brightest day on earth a rayless night.\"\n\n\nFROM EARTH TO THE INFINITE.\n\n    The mists are falling on the purple sea,\n      The sun is sinking in the clouds aflame;\n    For many a day the far receding sea\n      And melting sky have seemed almost the same.\n\n    At first we met the bitter storm and cloud,\n      With little sunshine on the darkling mere,\n    The waves were high, the icy winds were loud;\n      The days were dark, the nights were full of fear.\n\n    By every trial having gathered strength,\n      And hopeful conquered every adverse gale,\n    We now have reached a calmer sea at length,\n      And with full hearts unbend the flowing sail.\n\n    Behind, the sinking sun reveals no shore\n      Illumed with glory of his purple light;\n    The land we left has passed forever more\n      Beyond the reach of longing mortal sight.\n\n    A boundless sea on every side expands;\n      We're drifting slowly toward the glowing east;\n    In faith expecting yet more welcome lands,\n      When toiling care, and mortal life have ceased.\n\n    Behold, it comes in robes of azure light!\n      As sinks the sun behind the sullen waves,\n    And on the pearly shore, enchanting sight,\n      Are all the friends we thought within the grave.\n\n    And now, oh ship, your weary pinions fold,\n      And rock to sleep upon the harbor's breast;\n    This is the home, by faith our hearts foretold,\n      Where we shall find activity and rest.\n\n\n\n\nINDEX.\n\n\nAfter death, 215\n\nAngel life becoming perfect, 244\n\nAngels, guardian, 117\n\nAnger affecting the secretions, 185\n\nAnimals have no souls, 205\n\nAspirations for a future life, 221\n\nA spirit prevents a disaster, 243\n\nA sullen spirit, 229\n\nAtom, the, 11\n\nAtomic theory, 12\n\n\nBeauty of the spirit, 224\n\nBeecher, H. W., 158\n\nBetter Methods, 194\n\nBlind Tom, 157\n\nBrain and Nerves, 197\n\nBuchanan, Dr., 65\n\nBunyan, 160\n\n\nCharlatanism and mesmerism, 178\n\nChristian science, 189\n\nClairvoyance, 53\n  artificial and normal, 57\n  from dreams, 57\n  examples of, 60\n  Mollie Fancher, 57\n  Eliza Hamilton, 60\n  Laura Bridgman, 62\n  favored by disease, 56\n  independent of the senses, 55\n\nConcentration, 162\n\nContinuous earth-life, 210\n\nCultivation of sensitiveness, 220\n\nCurse of false belief, 189\n\n\nDeath, 215\n  appearance after, 142\n  warnings of, 128\n  Garfield's, 131\n\nDegradation of prayer, 167\n\nDenton, Prof., 67\n\nDissolution of a spirit, 208\n\nDivine motherhood, 186\n\nDoing for others, 227\n\nDouble presence, 100\n\nDreams, 86\n  predict death, 139\n  Prince Leopold's, 140\n  Lincoln's, 138\n  life saved by, 79, 126, 128\n  correct errors, 127\n  Stanley on, 89\n  of Dr. Holbrook, 90\n  clairvoyant, 83\n  shipwreck prevented by, 78\n  sensitive, 80\n  prophetic, 88\n  of Mary Hudlett, 80\n  of Stanton Moses, 84\n\n\nEarth-life enough here, 217\n\nEther, physic, 114\n  illustrations of, 116\n\nEvolution, 27-31\n\n\nFaith cure, 180\n\nFinney, Pres. prayer for rain, 167\n\nFirst day in spirit life, 225\n\nForce, theory of, 23\n\nForewarnings, 173\n\n\nGulf between matter and spirit, 211\n\n\nHallucinations, 70\n\nHappy and perfect lives, 191\n\nHypnotism, 50\n\n\nIdeas not words transmitted, 65\n\nIdiots and immortality, 208\n\nIllness of mind, 185\n\nIllusions, 68\n  subjective, 68\n  suggestive, 69\n  of Prof. Hitchcock, 70\n\nImmortality, want of evidence to prove, 10\n\nImpressions, 77\n\nIncrease of skepticism, 10\n\nIndividualization of force, 213\n\nInfluence, law of, 116\n\nInfluence of mind over secretions, 182\n\nInfluencing mortals, 232\n\nInspiration, 156\n\nInspiration at its height, 219\n\nIs mental cure a sham, 183\n\n\nLeaving the aching body, 238\n\nLife, 15\n  moner theory of, 16\n  and mind, 17\n  the future, 36\n  without immortality a sham, 200\n\nLight in the heart, 218\n  waves of, 21\n\nLimits of power of mind over body, 186\n\nLimitation of languages, 216\n\nLimitation of the power, 168\n\n\nMan a dual being, 201\n\nMan alone immortal, 206\n\nMaterial science--views of nature, 14\n\nMatter, 13\n  is there more than one kind of?, 12\n\nMedical student's prayer, 170\n\nMental cure, 180\n\nMesmeric state, 47\n\nMesmerism, moral effects of, 52\n\nMind and life, 17\n  independent, 116\n\nMothers' influence over unborn child, 186\n\nMurder prevented by a spirit, 241\n\n\nNapoleon, 162\n\nNarrative by a spirit, 222\n\nNature, 14\n  and the supernatural, 171\n\nNecessity of knowledge, 9\n\nNervous systems, 198\n\n\nOle Bull, 156\n\nOmens explained, 131\n\nOrigin of spirit, 204\n\nOur sins follow us, 240\n\n\nPaganini, 156\n\nPains of spirits in earth sphere, 233\n\nPersecution, 193\n\nPhysical senses, 55\n\nPhysical theories fail to solve the problem of life, 8\n\nPrayer, who answers it?, 169\n\nPredictions, 130\n\nPremonitions, 3, 79, 122\n  why not received by all, 136\n\nPower of mind over body, 181\n\nPresentiments, 79\n\nPre-existence, 209\n\nPriests and jugglers, 166\n\nPromethean curse, 190\n\nProperties of matter, 13\n\nProphecy by dreams, 81, 8\n\nProtoplasm, 30, 199\n\nPsychic growth, 207\n\nPsychometry, 67\n\n\nRegeneration of a spirit, 230\n\nReincarnation, 203\n\nReturning to earth, 231\n\n\nSacred shrines and holy places, 74\n\nSaving souls, 192\n\nScientific method of study, 31\n\nSense--the sixth, 44\n\nSenses, limitation of, 21, 2\n\nSensitiveness, 37, 40-1-2, 104, 162\n  what it is, 37\n  relation to culture, 43\n  during sleep, 76\n  unconscious, 156\n  of spiritual beings, 42, 164\n\nSickness a mark of ignorance, 187\n\nSight, a race without, 38\n\nSkepticism, increase of, 10\n\nSleep, 46\n\nSociety of Psychical Research, 99\n\nSomnambulism, 50\n\nSound waves, 20\n\nSpirit regretting her death, 237\n\nSpirit watching his funeral obsequies, 237\n\nSpirits confusion after death, 236\n\nSpirits in despair, 239\n\nSpirits know not age, 229\n\nSpirits meeting mortals at death, 235\n\nSpirits traveling by will power, 234\n\nSpiritual ether, 19\n  existence, 217\n  understanding, 242\n\nSpotless lives, 191\n\nStrength in weakness, 228\n\nStruggle for existence, 28\n\nSuperior intelligences, interference of, 79\n\nSurvival of the fittest, 29\n\n\nThe animal in man, 195\n\nThe arch complete, 205\n\nThe body a staging, 205\n\nThe celestial body, 202\n\nThe immortal state, 188\n\nThe sensitive's sufferings, 218\n\nThe terrestrial body, 202\n\nThought atmosphere, 113\n  transference, 77, 80, 99, 102\n\nTrance, 53\n  conditions of, 53\n\n\nUntutored minds, 195\n\n\nWarning voice, 135\n\nWeakness of new born spirits, 226\n\nWhat is back of force?, 212\n\nWorlds, dead, 22\n  end of, 23\n\n\nIN PREPARATION.\n\nCAREER OF RELIGIOUS IDEAS AND ETHICS OF SCIENCE.\n\nFounded on Evolution and the Continuity of Man's Existence Beyond the\nGrave.\n\nPart I.--The Career of Religious Ideas.\n\nPart II.--Ethics of Science.\n\nThis volume unfolds the Progress of Religious Ideas through Fetishism,\nPhallic Worship, Polytheism and Monotheism to their emergence into the\nlight of science, divested of superstition, and elaborates the natural\nsystem of ethics founded on knowledge of the physical and spiritual\nworld.\n\nBy HUDSON TUTTLE.\n\n300 PAGES. PRICE $1.25.\n\n\nIN PREPARATION.\n\nFROM SOUL TO SOUL.\n\nPOEMS\n\nBy EMMA ROOD TUTTLE.\n\n250 PAGES. PRICE $1.25.\n\n\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\nTranscriber's Note:\n\n\nMinor errors (e.g. misprinted, missing, or extra punctuation, missing\nspaces) have been corrected without note. Inconsistent hyphenation (e.g.\nlife-time and lifetime) and spelling (e.g. bark and barque) have not\nbeen changed. Other than those noted below, errors in the Index have not\nbeen corrected.\n\nDecorative italics (e.g. on chapter headings) have not been represented\nin the plain-text versions of this book.\n\nThe following corrections and changes were made:\n\np. 5: luminifereous to luminiferous (luminiferous ether)\n\np. 6: recepient to recipient (while the recipient)\n\np. 12: indestructable to indestructible (indestructible atom was arrived\nat)\n\np. 18: conbustion to combustion (the combustion of tissue in the lungs)\n\np. 20: phycho to psycho (distinguish it as psycho-ether)\n\np. 29: Froisart to Froissart (Froissart was not more garrulous)\n\np. 34: Incomprehensively to Incomprehensibly (Incomprehensibly great)\n\np. 43: transferrence to transference (thought transference or\nsensitiveness)\n\np. 46: oriflame oriflamme (the oriflamme of the spiritual conception)\n\np. 53: clairvayant to clairvoyant (trance or clairvoyant state)\n\np. 53: Clazomene\u00e6 to Clazomen\u00e6 (Hermotimus, of Clazomen\u00e6)\n\np. 53: ecstacy to ecstasy (in a fit of ecstasy)\n\np. 55: ecstacy to ecstasy (religious ecstasy and trance)\n\np. 55: phycho to psycho (the psycho-ether)\n\np. 59: adminstered to administered (Dr. Spier administered)\n\np. 59: adminstering to administering (after administering the test)\n\np. 62: pyschic to psychic (conceal the higher psychic faculties)\n\np. 64: conscienciousness to conscientiousness (conscientiousness,\ntruthfulness and hopefulness)\n\np. 67: pschometry to psychometry (Really psychometry)\n\np. 68: Abercombie to Abercrombie (Dr. Abercrombie)\n\np. 69: Audral to Andral (M. Andral)\n\np. 72: Perthleven to Porthleven (Vicar of Porthleven)\n\np. 75: Guinasi to Ginnasi (Count Ginnasi)\n\np. 79: Biddleford to Biddeford (The Biddeford (Me.) _Journal_)\n\np. 79: Kinnebunk to Kennebunk (near the mouth of Kennebunk River)\n\np. 83: See to She (She threw an old coat)\n\np. 84: double quotes to single quotes ('_Immediate_,')\n\np. 87: corollation to correlation (the perfect correlation)\n\np. 88: single quote to double quote, and missing close quote added (I\nsaid, \"I have been to a small village ... 'No, sir; but his widow is.'\")\n\np. 92: fantacies to fantasies (Laugh at the fantasies)\n\np. 111: occurence to occurrence (This strange occurrence naturally)\n\np. 112: sufficent to sufficient (with sufficient light)\n\np. 115: stewn to strewn (strewn with sand)\n\np. 116: undiscernable to undiscernible (colors being undiscernible)\n\np. 116: corelated to correlated (correlated harmony between minds)\n\np. 117: McKendee to McKendree (Bishop McKendree)\n\np. 120: unconciously to unconsciously (unconsciously those who by study\n... are continuously made unconsciously)\n\np. 130: extra \"it\" removed (assuring him that it was no news)\n\np. 131: embarassment to embarrassment (to overcome his embarrassment)\n\np. 133: Minnie to Minie (shot in the breast by a Minie ball)\n\np. 135: be to he (he seemed to be in a jolly mood)\n\np. 146: villian to villain (the villain escapes)\n\np. 154: unfortuate to unfortunate (and this is most unfortunate)\n\np. 156: rythmic to rhythmic (expression of rhythmic motion)\n\np. 157: ecstacy to ecstasy (the ecstasy of all true musicians ... the\nmeaning accepted of ecstasy)\n\np. 166: strenghthens to strengthens (harmonizes and strengthens)\n\np. 168: ativism to atavism (as Darwin would say, atavism)\n\np. 175: ministeral to ministerial (the ministerial conference)\n\np. 176: Muller to M\u00fcller (George M\u00fcller, its founder)\n\np. 178: correllate to correlate (correlate the facts of spirit)\n\np. 181: Hipocrates to Hippocrates (time of Hippocrates)\n\np. 182: inocculation to inoculation (sure consequence of inoculation)\n\np. 183: enobles to ennobles (that ennobles and elevates)\n\np. 183: baccilli to bacilli (millions of bacilli)\n\np. 184: micrococus to micrococcus (the micrococcus brings on fever)\n\np. 185: insiduously to insidiously (insidiously sapped its foundation)\n\np. 188: glipse to glimpse (often catches a glimpse)\n\np. 189: Pharoah to Pharaoh (Pharaoh might command Egypt)\n\np. 198: Illiad to Iliad (wrote an Iliad)\n\np. 199: period to question mark (of the animal world?)\n\np. 199: consectuive to consecutive (its consecutive links)\n\np. 200: extra \"of\" removed (huge saurians of the primeval slime)\n\np. 200: architype to archetype (archetype is complete)\n\np. 201: nonenity to nonentity (pass into nonentity)\n\np. 201: habilament to habiliment (is its habiliment)\n\np. 204: interelationship to interrelationship (the wonderful\ninterrelationship)\n\np. 204: phenemena to phenomena (phenomena connected with man)\n\np. 206: megotherium to megatherium (the huge megatherium)\n\np. 212: mainfestation to manifestation (the first manifestation of life)\n\np. 217: sustainance to sustenance (draw their vital sustenance)\n\np. 219: etherial to ethereal (destroy all ethereal influences)\n\np. 219: unconciously to unconsciously (may unconsciously produce)\n\np. 236: missing \"o\" added in \"onward\" (bore her onward with us.)\n\np. 247 (Index entry): Buchannan to Buchanan (Buchanan, Dr.)\n\np. 248 (Index entry: Dreams, life saved by): 79-126-128 to 79, 126, 128\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n\n<pre id=\"pg-footer\">","title":"Studies in the Out-Lying Fields of Psychic Science","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":72927}