Approbativeness and Adhesiveness, instead of a simple negative result or stupid unintellectuality, is a necessary consequence of the positions and combinations of the organs.

The unintellectual organs lie in the midst of occipital organs, which give strong, decided impulses, and could not, therefore, be merely negative elements; for they must arouse their neighbors, and thus bring out some decided traits. They must have some energetic, impulsive tendency. They must, from position, have firm, selfish, egotistical, ambitious tendencies-tendencies to influence others to encroach upon and to use them for our own purposes. Such tendencies must be opposite to those intellectual faculties which give us a just idea of our relations to others, and enable us to form a true conception of the powers, merits and rights of all, and of the proper course of conduct for society at large.

ART. II-HEAVENLY TALKING.

DIALOGUES OF THE GODS.

PSYCHE.-What thinkest thou, Minerva, of the progress of mortals in the Western world? Already they are beginning to encroach upon the realms of the celestials, and there is no knowing how soon they may come among us and claim a place as denizens of Mount Olympus.

MINERVA. I cannot say, dear Psyche, that I am altogether pleased with those presumptous republicans, who are hurrying on with such irreverent haste to approach the august presence of my father, the sovereign of heaven; and yet I cannot blame their zeal, although we are much amused, at times, with their vain struggles to reach this higher sphere; and Jupiter, Apollo and myself, not to mention Mercury, have laughed most heartily at the would be sages and seers of Yankeedom.

PSYCHE. Indeed, Minerva, I cannot laugh at anything that looks like an honest effort to attain something higher, and better, and truer. Most fervently do I wish success to all the seekers of spiritual knowledge, and often have I hovered through the night over the Western continent, seeking anxiously, among its sleeping millions, for those wakeful spirits which sometimes leave the body, and which are never entirely dark. And as the light of their souls gleamed through the realms of supernal space. like the fire-flies of a tropical clime, I have wandered to the spot and hovered round the couch of some pure sleep-waking beings, to fill

them, all unknown, with noble resolves, to confirm their independence of the bonds of their mortal bodies, and to set the compass of the soul to its true polar star.

MINERVA. Indeed, Psyche, that was a mission worthy of your character; but, as for myself, I would rather leave those mortals to toil for their own knowledge, and when they do learn anything by slow investigation, they will prize it the more highly, and when they fail they will learn to be more humble, and to feel the insignificance of men when not assisted by the gods. It is somewhat amusing to watch the progress of the race, and to see, while a few are pressing on to the goal of wisdom, the millions asleep in the torpor of darkness; and even among those that are awake, there is an endless conflict of argument and doubt, fancy and fact. Ancient theories and modern speculations are clashingreligious enthusiasm and cold, stern, sneering skepticism, are battling for ascendancy. One affirms that he holds communion with the shade of his departed friend, and another proves logically that mind cannot act upon matter. One affirms that his departed friends reveal themselves in audible vibrations or knocks, and thus communicate various messages, while his antagonist stoutly maintains that this would violate the fundamental laws of the universe, and that whoever relates such stories deserves to be regarded as a lunatic or an imposter. Poor creatures! what a toil and turmoil you have to gain a few crude ideas of the higher sphere of existence. Indeed, I am sometimes tempted to relent from my haughty scorn of your littleness, and to go down among you for the sake of a few noble souls, and teach you the elements of immortal wisdom. But I fancy I should need all the thunderbolts of Jupiter to render my mission sufficiently respectable among those earth-born creatures, to be of any utility to them. I could not go, dear Psyche, in your quiet and invisible way, to willing souls, and pass by the swinish multitude without giving them a shock to rouse them from their stupor.

PSYCHE.-Dost thou not see, Minerva, that the evils of which thou speakest belong only to the infancy of the race? Lend me thine eyes! Look, now, with me, along the vista of the coming centuries. Dost thou not see, afar off, the full maturity of MAN? Dost thou not see, on the far horizon of Time, the coming together of heaven and earth? Dost thou not behold man's nature expanded, great, lord of the globe, which he has covered with palaces and gardens, rising up with bright eyes worthy to confront the gods, his head in our serene atmosphere, his spirit forming the channel through which celestial influences are poured out upon the earth, by means of which the whole continent becomes an appendage to the base of Mount Olympus, and mortal men and heavenly spirits and the immortal gods, form one vast society of infinite gradation and variety! Is not this, O Minerva! a most ravishing future, and wilt thou still scorn the humbler members

of that race which has so glorious a destiny? Wilt thou not, rather, like thy own Psyche, look down upon them kindly in their early struggles, and help the noble ones who are laboring to accelerate the advent of such a destiny? I see them scattered here and there throughout the world, dimly seeing yet firmly hoping for the great future. O Minerva! let us help them. The glorious few who have scaled the mountain heights of philosophy, and breathed the air which is inhaled by the gods, must not be abandoned to their fate. Let us strengthen their spirits with our own power, and let us form a sphere of mind around them to receive their communications and cherish the truth.

MINERVA.--Indeed, Psyche, they need it much. What a Babel of discord surrounds their footsteps! How tumultuously do the waters of opinion bubble up around them, as though they had dis'organized the very elements of thought. Didst ever watch the progress of such discussions, Psyche? Was it not infinitely amusing? Indeed, we have been rather deficient in amusements here of late, and I have serious thoughts of bringing up this earthly comedy to enliven our sober gods. Momus has already sent in a petition for such sport, and Mercury stands ready to execute our commands.

PSYCHE. I pray thee dispatch him forthwith. Summon up the performers, and call in all the gods and goddesses to witness it. I am willing they should laugh at poor Humanity, for then they will think of mortals oftener, and be more ready to pity the little creatures that are so amusing.

MINERVA. It shall be done. The performers are easily summoned. The struggle between belief and unbelief is ever the same. It is now, as it has been heretofore, the living are re-enacting the drama of the past. We shall summon up the conflicting spirits of former ages, and let them rehearse, to a celestial audience, the fierce debates which are now in progress among their progeny on earth. Ho! MERCURY, come hither! Summon thou all the gods this evening to this high garden point of Mount Olympus, and bring before us, in their earthly garments, the spirits of Socrates, Plato and Epicurus-of Borgia, Calvin, Cotton Mather, Hobbes, Godwin, Shelley, Milton and Oberlin.

[SCENE. Mount Olympus--Moonlight--a grand amphitheater in the garden of Minerva, filled with about five thousand celestials, from Jupiter and Juno down to the humblest river-gods and nymphs-An invisible orchestra near box of Apollo, pouring forth delicious streams of melody-A cloud in the center of the amphitheater slowly dissolves, exhibiting a platform occupied by a few grim, oldfashioned looking people, who stare alternately at each other and at the audience in mute astonishment.]

Loud were the peals of laughter that shook Mount Olympus when this quaint tableau was revealed. As soon as order was

restored, Minerva, rising with dignity from the royal box of Jupiter, thus addressed the astonished spirits before her:

"Be not astonished, venerable and learned men, that we, the divinities of Olympus, have listened to your discussions with pleasure, and summoned you into this high presence to hear your grave discourse upon the highest themes of mundane wisdom. We have seen with pleasure the struggles of gifted mortals for godlike knowledge, and we have summoned you that we might hear from your own lips your true opinions of the present progressive movements of philosophy on earth. To you, O Socrates, senior philosopher of Greece, we look for a wise and kindly commentary upon the movements of earthly spirits."

With grave dignity rose Socrates, adjusting his robe and making a profound obeisance to his interrogator, he thus began: SOCRATES. Since the gods, O Minerva! have condescended to listen to the thoughts of Socrates, feeble as they are, he will give, both truly and without reserve, his inmost sentiments.

It is with inexpressible delight that, after the lapse of so many centuries, I find the minds of men deeply occupied with those sublime mysteries of spiritual life which once constituted the favorite themes of myself and my disciples--Plato, Crito and Alcibiades--and which created so great an interest in our Athenian Lyceum.

If errors exist in the spiritual philosophy of earth, what are such errors in comparison with the great fact of man's immortal life? All who are now progressing in the cultivation of spiritual science on earth, are imprinting deeply on their own minds, and diffusing in the minds of all around them, the conviction that man has an immortal spirit, and that the life of the spirit is no vague, unreal, far-off spectacle, such as we may sometimes behold in the delusive lights and shades of the moonbeams, but a living and ever present reality. Granting that they fall into errors, how readily might we excuse their delusions when they are rousing up the modern world from dead materialism and the pernicious pursuit of money, to a consciousness of the existence of the great spiritual world of higher and better life. You know that I was condemned to death in Athens because I esteemed the theological formulæ of those days less essential than the great truths of spiritual life, and the virtues of love, justice and temperance, and because I reproved the avarice of Anytus, who neglected the education of his children.

Could it be imagined for a moment that Socrates would be indifferent, when his own sentiments, and almost his own language, were reproduced in a distant land, among a foreign people, who occupy almost the same position in the modern world as did our ancient Greece among surrounding nations. There were many in my generation who could not realize the immortality of the soul. And not only would they secretly deride my instructions,

but, when I made it known to a few, that I had a personal knowl edge of the spiritual world in the communion which I sometimes enjoyed with a higher spirit, they even cried out in their conclaves, that Socrates was mad or else an impostor.

Such was human nature then, and I am sure that it is still the same. Indeed, it is well known that those who, in modern times, profess to hold communion with the spirit world, are denounced alternately as knaves and as lunatics. And even they who affect great piety, and profess to believe themselves in immortality, are loud in their outcries against any spiritual communications to the living, which are sufficiently positive and definite to give us any evidence of spiritual life. There were many such in Athens, who were highly indignant that I should attempt to enforce the vir tues of daily life, and who rejoiced in my condemnation to death. And in all ages since, men have professed great piety who abhor the idea of bringing piety into their daily life in the form of good deeds, and have professed great spirituality, but abhorred everything which made spiritual life seem a daily reality. Yet, what is the value of professions of religion and a belief in immortality, if they do not come home to our daily life?

Really, I believe they are the great teachers of the age, who bring the natural and spiritual worlds together, and who convince men that heaven is near at hand, and that they mu live a heavenly life if they would be happy hereafter.

There are many now who are beginning to prove the reality of the spirit world with greater distinctness than by the arguments of philosophy or by the visions of the seer. Audible sounds and intelligible messages from the spirit world are heard on earth. "Scandalous! scandalous!" cried out a stern and angry looking man, who came forward at this moment before the Pantheon, and interrupted the speech of Socrates; "How darest thou, old heathen philosopher, infidel, agent of Satan, to speak of those spiritual knockings-those diabolical snares for the faithful! [Tremendous applause from the celestials.] Roar on! ye demons of pagan darkness, I defy ye all! [Increased laughter and tumultuous applause-Momus falls in convulsions, and even grim Mars laughs loudly] My name is Calvin, and I bring words of terror and warning to this unhallowed crew. Shout, in your mad exultation-your rejoicing shall be brief. The schemes of spiritual knockings, by which you would fain hope to mislead the elect, are futile contrivances. I have watched your progress; you wal spread over the earth with your spiritual sounds, and multitudes shall hear and believe what they hear; but the true believers wi!! follow the guidance of John Calvin, and escape all your snares." [Renewed and irrepressible applause.]

"Poh! poh! silence these senseless ravings," exclaimed a majestic figure (the philosopher Hobbes), standing in front of Calvin. "How supremely ridiculous is this. Socrates gravely com li