to the stars, and to rely upon its reports of the heavenly bodies, although they are far beyond our reach and measurement.

I hold, therefore, that the reports of psychometers in reference to the spiritual life after death, are worthy of our reliance. These reports are harmonious, consistent, and rational. They represent the deceased individual as occupying a sphere of calm, elevated, and serene existence. They often speak of him as looking back upon his past career with different feelings and sentiments from those which he entertained during life, in consequence of his now purer and more elevated state.

These reports, derived from the intuitive perceptive powers, are not produced merely by imagination or by pre-existing opinions. The intuitive and spiritual faculties, whenever suf ficiently excited, produce the same class of perceptions (of spiritual existence) whether the individual who perceives has previously believed or not in the existence of anything immaterial. I have taken some pains to make these experiments upon those who were disbelievers of the common religious doctrines, and who were inclined to a rigid materialism. Their opinions produced no difference in their perceptions. They could recog nize the spirtual forms of departed friends and communicate with them. Nine years since, I tried these experiments upon gentleman and lady of fine literary powers, who then realized, by their own perceptions, what they had previously disbelieved.

My own experiments have shown that this kind of testimony to the reality of spirit life is sufficiently abundant, as every village and every public audience contains a number who are competent to give such evidence from their sensations or perceptions, when properly developed.

But the evidence is vastly more extensive, the same intuitive and spiritual faculties have, time out of mind, been coming forth in spontaneous development, teaching to a few the existence and condition of departed friends, and thus preserving to mankind an imperfect knowledge of their spiritual career.

Clairvoyants, seers, sages, poets, and theologians (from the earliest records of history) have distinctly perceived the existence of disembodied spirits, and held communion with the departed. Volumes might be filled with their testimony, much of which proceeds from men of a high order of mind, and of the most unquestionable integrity. In modern times, we have an illustrious example in the life of Swedenborg, one of the most profound and correct philosophers of Europe, who, for a large portion of his life, enjoyed, according to his own account, free and intimate communication with the inhabitants of the spirit world. Whether we are disposed or not to receive his entire system of philosophy and theology, we cannot doubt the fact that he possessed the clairvoyant power, and perceived, by the interior sense, things beyond the

reach of other mortals; and it is equally certain, that not only were his direct perception thus exalted, but his general penetra tion into the system of nature was far greater than that of his contemporaries. If blameless integrity, ample learning, remarkable mental acuteness, and a position above the influence of any surrounding temptation-from necessity or a love of popularityif such conditions constitute a claim upon our credence, surely the testimony of Swedenborg is entitled to an honorable recog nition; nor can we in any way avoid the force of his testimony concerning spiritual beings, unless we suppose his imagination exalted and perverted to an extent that might constitute a form of chronic insanity, yet co-existing with the most perfect sanity, wisdom, and rectitude upon other subjects. The existence of such a condition would constitute one of the most remarkable phenomena ever known, and if we indulge in such hypotheses, we may with equal propriety impute insanity to all whose opinions deviate greatly from the fashionable standard of the

times.

An example more recent, and perhaps not less convincing, is furnished by the wonderful experience of the American seer, Andrew Jackson Davis. This young man, by the assiduous cultivation of the spiritual or intuitive power, has risen from a condition of ignorance to an eminent rank as a brilliant and pleasing writer-has, beyond all doubt, attained a power of clairvoyance, enabling him, in many instances, with great accuracy, to recognize distant objects, and to explore the world of mind. He testifies in strict harmony with the testimony of all intuitive observers of all ages-that he not only perceives the spiritual power in the living man, but perceives its separation from the body in the act of death, and its continued life thereafter.

But it would seem needless to accumulate testimony upon this subject; an extensive survey of the facts will convince any impartial observer, that in all ages and countries, whenever the constitution of man has been placed in a favorable condition for spiritual perception, an independent existence of mind has been distinctly perceived; no matter whether their spiritual exaltation was produced by the progress of disease, by trance, or by approaching the borders of death, by the repose of the body in sleep, by the exaltation of a spiritual nature, by religious emotions, and by the intense yearning of love for absent friends, by the progressive evolutions of a refined constitution, or by the artificial influence of Mesmeric procedures, concentrating an unusual energy in the spiritual regions of the brain; in all cases alike, the existence of spiritual beings has been distinctly perceived; and every witness who has yet been interrogated, coincides in the opinion that the life of the spirit after the death of the body, may be as distinctly perceived as the life of the spirit while yet dwelling in the flesh.

Nor are we limited to the mere recognition of the general fact; many observers have gone on tracing the history of those who lived on earth, in their spiritual career, ascertaining the philosophy and history of the spirit world, and thus giving us the inestimable treasures of psychological knowledge.

A French writer (M. Cahagnet) has recently, with laudable perseverance, engaged in an investigation of spiritual science, having a number of lucid somniloquent individuals at his command, whose clairvoyant powers were reliable for such exploration. He employed their time in the exploration of the phenomena of the spiritual world. The system of psychological science, which their observations have thus developed, coincides so remarkably with the observations of Sweedenborg, Davis, and other seers, as to give an important verification of the reality, the accessibility, and simplicity of this species of knowledge. But we need no historic testimony upon this subject, for we have always in our midst many who are capable of becoming direct observers and witnesses. The spirit world is near at hand, and psychology is perhaps as easy of exploration as the physical science of geology; each has its treasures of collected knowledge in books-each has its strata of interesting truths around us-each is accessible to every candid inquirer.

Yet notwithstanding all the facts in nature which point to the development, elimination, and emancipation of a spiritual being in man, as the ultimate aim and highest accomplishment of the natural world-notwithstanding its intimate alliance with our loftiest and most generous emotions, and its elevating influence upon mankind-notwithstanding the vast collected mass of evidence upon this subject, there may still be those whose minds. resist such evidence, and who cannot feel a calm and firm reliance, even upon this broad basis of evidence. Analogy may be pronounced delusion; and the perceptions of those entranced and seemingly dead, may be referred to imagination. The testimony of good and wise men may also be referred to imagination impelled by enthusiasm; and even the testimony of the most accurate clairvoyant seers may be considered unreliable.

To a great majority of mankind, a sufficient accumulation of testimony will be convincing; but to those who stubbornly maintain previous opinions, and evade the force of evidence by ingenious hypotheses, it is almost impossible to furnish satisfactory evidence.

It will be in vain that the clairvoyant recognises, in the spirit world, an individual who died before the seer was born, and describes his personal appearance.

The skeptic will affirm that this belongs to the wondrous powers of the clairvoyant, to the intuitive faculties of man. He will affirm that the intuitive power gathers up from the memories of the living the idea of the departed. It is in vain that the

clairvoyant receives, from spiritual beings, messages conveying important knowledge, telling to the living things far beyond their knowledge, proving that a higher intelligence has been engaged. The skeptic will declare that although the clairvoy ant honestly believes he receives such knowledge from a higher source, he was deceived by his own fancy, and merely embodied in a human form, by the force of his dreamy imagination, the suggestions which really sprung from his own creative and intuitive intellect. No matter what wisdom might come down from the spirit world through such medium-no matter how far beyond the knowledge of the interested parties such knowledge might be, it would still be affirmed that all such knowledge was derived from the minds of the living; and if it should be clearly proven that the spiritual knowledge thus obtained was beyond the reach of all living minds, and relating to matters of which no human being had knowledge, still it would be affirmed that such knowledge, if not derived from living minds, was derived from impressions which those once living had left behind them in their manuscripts, and other subjects of familiar contact; and even if all such hypotheses should fail and be refuted, the indomitable skeptic would still fall back upon the proposition, that the intuitive faculty of man is competent of itself, without any definite sources of information, to reveal the most remote and hidden truths; and yet he will maintain that this same intuitive power, so vast in its grasp, and so truthful in its reports, is deceptive in reference to spirituality; and that it gives a substantial existence to forms which are the creatures of its own imagination. It is difficult to refute the man of ingenious hypotheses. If driven from the first point he occupies, he readily occupies another more remote and inaccessible. Our demonstration therefore is incomplete. To a man of skeptical ingenuity, it is impossible to prove the spirit world. All analogy he rejects, because analogy is not demonstration-all testimony of clairvoyance he rejects, because he is not a clairvoyant himself, and because clairvoyants may be imaginative.

To demonstrate the existence of the spirit-world, with an inevitable force, requires something more than all this. It is n cessary not only that all nature should point, by her laws and analogies, to spiritual life; and that all intuitive clairvoyant seers should distinctly perceive, and recognize, and communicate with spiritual beings; not only that the testimony of millions should be unanimous, but a still stronger evidence is needed; an evidence not dependent upon elaborate reasonings, nor upon our faith in human testimony; but more direct and forcible than either, it is necessary that the spirit-world should speak for itself. If it be possible for the disembodied to make themselves visible or audible to those who have no exalted intuitive powersto those who perceive only by gross and earthly media-assuredly it is desirable that we should hear its voice.

If this world be constructed in accordance with the highest powers of benevolence, it is not probable that our departed friends will be for ever barred from all communication with the living. The time has come at last for free direct communion of heaven and earth-the dead have held converse with the living, not by the interior sense alone, but by sounds produced in our gross atmosphere; these sounds originating in no physical cause, have been heard so often in the East and in the West, by hundreds if not thousands of our most enlightened and accuate observers, that it would be folly and arrogance to deny their existence. If human testimony be not all false, if history be not all a fable, these sounds originating in no material cause, and conveying messages of an intellectual and elevating character, have been often heard. They have been heard in our city by the most critical observers. Our departed friends have thus spoken to the living, giving words of wise counsel, of friendship, and of consolation, and promising communications hereafter.

The fact is established-it has passed beyond all controversy; the spirit-world has spoken-the demonstration is complete, that man is a spiritual and immortal being-that the departed still live in a higher realm than ours. The solution of this great mystery, the final and irresistible demonstration of this. holy truth, has already begun to elevate and spiritualize the thoughts of men; and it is destined to lead us on by an irresistible attraction in a grand career of progress. In view of the great moral results that are to be attained-in view of the great mysteries of science that have thus been solved, I cannot but regard these manifestations of departed spirits, by means of audible sounds, as one of the highest and holiest facts in history; a commencement of a new era, the first rays crossing our horizon from the sunrise of the nineteenth century.

INTERESTING INCIDENT.-While visiting at Rochester some time since, the writer was gratified with many pleasing testimonials of the reality of spiritual intercourse, received in the presence of the Fox family. On one occasion, as I was seated at a table in company with several strangers, the following incident occurred, which, though entirely unexpected, furnished the most satifactory evidence of the nearness and intelligence of spirits. When one of the gentlemen present was conversing with one of his deceased friends, an infant spirit-as indicated by the lightness of the raps-made a signal for the alphabet. On repeating the letters, the sentence was spelled out, Pa, you ask questions." None of us for some time understood to whem this language was addressed. The person whose communication had been interrupted, declared that he never lost a child, and the same statement was made by the rest of the company, until at last Mrs. Fish, turning to me, inquired, "Have you not lost one to which I replied in the negative. Immediately there was another signal for the alphabet, and the words spelled out were, If I were living, woull you not call me daughter? You would be my step-father." It then occurred to me that my wife, about ten years since, while living with a former husband, had lost an infant child; and on mentioning the fact it was immediately indicated by the raps, that this was the same who had desired me to ask questions, and had described so accurately the It should be observed that no person present relationship existing between us. could possibly have known that my wife had ever lost a child.

VOL. II.-P.

R. P. A.