So slight is this change with us that your mediums seldom touch upon the fact.

Spirit is inseparable from matter, and can give neither form nor expression without it.

The Great Invisible Creator of the Universe must have thought of trees, flowers, beasts, birds, fish, and the wonderful exhibitions of form through the vast realm of matter, previous to their existence.

But he had to give them shape in matter—perishable but re-creative matter; and if the Master-mind of all cannot express his thought otherwise than with this ever changing, yet ever reconstructing thing called matter, how can the human soul manifest but through a spiritualized condition of matter, ever changing yet ever re-creating and refining, mounting higher and higher, from the earthly to the spiritual, from the spiritual-to the celestial, on—on—till finally reaches Deity—himself!



JUNIUS BRUTUS BOOTH

ACTING.

All great actors are media for spirit influx. It would be a marvellous sight if the curtain which hangs between the spirit world and the stage were uplifted, and the invisible drama which is being enacted exposed to view. Then would you behold "the airy spirits" to whom Shakspeare so truthfully alludes, moving like comets in gorgeous light around the inspired actor!

Inspiration is motion, acceleration, intensity; it has no part or parcel with lethargy.

I recall my past experience, portions of which I review with regret. In endeavoring to obtain this energy, this motion, this acceleration, I was obliged in my ignorance to resort to artificial means. A knowledge of the laws of spirit life would have enabled me to have avoided this mistake; but that knowledge I did not possess.

The actor of the present day is blessed with the knowledge that he has merely to throw himself into the magnetic state, and become en rapport with spiritual conditions, to find himself inspired—inflated with the divine magnetic current which flows from the spirit world to the inhabitants of earth. If a player desires to represent a certain character,—let it be the subtle, fiend-like Richard III. or the crafty Richelieu,—the customary mode of studying such characters is to endeavor to imagine one's self to be the person. That is the first step towards mediumship; for it is one degree from the natural, towards the superior state. Usually, through ignorance, the student proceeds no further than this point; and the spirit assistants can only partially aid him. But an actor possessing the knowledge of placing himself en rapport with these characters, whether traditional or real, is immediately cut loose from his surroundings and becomes the Richard or Richelieu whom he would personate.

From the brain of every spirit medium ascends a blazing sun, which burns the brighter when the magnetic relations between it and the spirit world are most perfect. This blazing light, this radiant effulgence, is perceived instinctively, though not knowingly, by every individual who listens to a discourse from a "trance medium." So from the brain of the actor this glorious light throws out its rays into the assembly, and when he becomes fully inspired, its magnetic influence is felt with overpowering vividness; and the result is, the audience themselves are set in motion, and from pit to gallery you hear vociferous applause.

There are actors who are good, and who acquire fame, who have never felt this divine afilatus. The intellect of the audience appreciates them for their declamation, for the art and artifice which they manifest; but the humblest and most illiterate of that assembly know well that this studied eloquence does not fire the brain.

But it will not do to trust blindly to spirit control; a knowledge and constant study of human nature is necessary.

It is a well-known fact that a person steadily looking at one point will influence twenty others to look at that point also, and to imagine they see some object before them. Understanding this principle, you may work upon each attribute in the minds of your audience. If fear is to be aroused, do as your neighbor does as he hastily enters your house after meeting with a fearful calamity. You become excited before even hearing the evil which has befallen him. Every faculty can be acted upon in the same manner—grief and joy alike.

Of the ventriloquial powers of the human voice, many speakers are ignorant. The tyro on the stage wishing to make the remotest individual in his audience hear, bawls at the top of his lungs. He is unaware that the organs of the human voice are a kind of electrical machine, governed by the will-power, and that the actor has merely to throw his will and direct his mind to a given point, for his voice to reach that point and produce a far more startling effect than the loudest blast that any pair of lungs could bring forth. Thus the lowest whisper can be made to tell at the farthest corner of the theatre.

But perhaps I have said enough of the methods best adapted to produce representations of character on the stage. The question may arise in the mind of the reader, whether there is any opportunity of exercising the talent of acting in the spirit world, supposing that talent to have been cultivated in this.

In the remotest ages, and among the most uncultivated nations, as well as among the most highly civilized, the power of representing human passions and events has been exercised instinctively, showing this power to be as much a portion of the soul's attributes as the gift of thought or of fancy. If one belongs to the immortal condition, the other does also.

One of the chief enjoyments which the all-wise Creator has made attainable to the inhabitants of the starry heavens is that of dramatic representations of life, character, and events, transpiring in the countless worlds that wheel through space.

The field of the actor for depicting the truths of human nature in the world of spirits is vast and unconfined!

Eloquence is appreciated on earth, but that appreciation is weak and tasteless compared with the estimation of that "gift of the gods" by the inhabitants of the summer land.

Some blind, short-sighted investigators tell you there is no speech among us; they would lead you to imagine that we inhabit a world blank and void of sound; that stillness more unbroken than the grave pervades our mysterious realm.

Conjure up the picture in your fancy, reader—the soul shrinks back from such a state! The spirit world is all voice. Never have I heard notes clearer, louder, deeper, than resound through the electric air that surrounds my home.

The gift of speaking, and of representing individualities separate from your own identity, is a spiritual gift decidedly; and with us theatres and amphitheatres are as numerous as churches are with you. I will leave the description of these structures for the ready pen and speech of our friend Burton.



JOHN WESLEY.

"THE DIVISION OF THE CHURCH OF CHRIST, INTO SEVERAL BODIES, AND ITS RE-ORGANIZATION INTO ONE GENERAL BODY."

I will take for my text this sentiment from the New Testament: "I will draw all men unto me, and there shall be one church and one people."

The church which was organized by our Lord[A] Jesus Christ was designed to establish a feeling of brotherhood between separate and distinct classes of people, and to abolish the system of castes, which was the prevailing sin of the eastern nations.

[Footnote A: The word "Lord" is used in the sense of an earthly lord who cares for his people.]

Christ made no distinction between the Sadducee and the Pharisee, the publican and the saint, the high priest of the temple and the lowliest of his followers. He placed the affections above the intellect, truth and sincerity above wealth and worldly position.

The church which he originated for many years followed in his footsteps. But as it increased in numbers it accumulated wealth, and with wealth came power, and from that power issued discord and separation.

Thus, the church divided and subdivided, and split into a thousand pieces, formed new interests, created new beliefs, and sowed dissension and envy with a free hand.

Such has been the condition of the church for the past ten or twelve centuries. Meanwhile, in the Heaven of Heavens, has arisen a powerful movement directed towards restoring it to its original state of purity and simplicity. This great movement, like a mighty river seeking its outlet, has rushed on, diverging at several points, and at length found the reservoir it sought in what is termed Spiritualism.

The spiritualistic movement opened the gates for the expression of skepticism, which the formalism, the tyranny, bigotry, and externalism of the Church awakened in the minds of the people of every enlightened Christian nation; and the result has been a criticism so pungent, and an examination so thorough and direct, into the deformities of the Church, that she has been obliged to contemplate her own condition and the rottenness of her position, until she fairly trembles at the view of her disjointed parts.

On every hand now, at the present moment, efforts are being made to consolidate—to rejoin. On one side you behold the Protestant Episcopal Church offering to unite with the Methodists, from whom, since my day, they have stood aloof, as an illegal and fanatical people whom they could not fellowship.

On the other side, you see them stretching to the Roman Church, forming a brotherly compact of forms and ceremonies with Papacy.

One branch of the Presbyterian Church wears the robes of the Roman Church, and thus that is linked to Catholicism.

All these denominations which have stood apart so long, whose theology has been so antagonistic, are now merging into one Church.

In the face of the great danger which Spiritualism or Liberalism has brought to their sight, they endeavor to return to their first estate, but in returning they lose their identity.

This result is sure, though unperceived by them.

One by one, they will give up this point of difference and that point of difference, this creed and that creed, for the sake of harmony. This vestment they lay aside, and that form, until they will all be swallowed up, and neither Methodists nor Calvinists, Baptists nor Lutherans, Armenians, Jews, nor Gentiles, will remain. Then the primitive Church of Christ will be revived again upon earth, simple and unostentatious; its creed will be the creed of Jesus Christ:

"The brotherhood of man, and the love of God for his children."

This creed, you perceive, embraces the whole of the spiritualistic faith, which is causing these great changes throughout the Church of Christ on earth.

* * * * *

At this point it will not be inappropriate to make some allusion to the mysterious sounds which occurred in my house in Lincolnshire, England, at intervals within the space of three or more years during my earthly ministrations.

These mysterious sounds, even in that day, were supposed to have been caused by spirit agency. I have ascertained that that supposition was correct; and my attention has since been directed to the fact in Church history, that every separation from the Church body which has originated in a desire to return to the simplicity and purity of the primitive followers of Jesus, has been attended by similar mysterious demonstrations.

Luther and Mclancthon, Knox and Calvin, and the earnest dissenters and reformers of every age, have been haunted in like manner. I say haunted, for they generally have misunderstood the aim of these spiritual visitants.[A] It has devolved upon the scientific researches and the skeptical but investigating mind of the nineteenth century to form a process by which the spirit of the departed can communicate with the dwellers in Time.

[Footnote A: The spirit of Rev. Dr. John M. Krebbs, of New York, states through this clairvoyant that the cause of his mental aberration while on earth was a misinterpretation by him of a spiritual vision which he was permitted to receive. Thus misunderstanding the aim of his spiritual visitants, he became haunted with a fallacy which ultimated in his death. ED.]

To me this science was unknown. Had I been acquainted with the facts with which I am now familiar, I might have established a more liberal Church, but as it was, this daily association with an unseen spiritual presence enlarged my views of the condition attending the soul after death, and caused me to give utterance to thoughts which happily have aided in preparing the world for the Universal Church which ere long will lift its towering dome toward Heaven.



N.P. WILLIS.

A SPIRIT REVISITING EARTH.

(A FRAGMENT.)



How wondrous I Through illimitable space, where myriad suns And systems roll their mighty orbs, The spirit moves like some strange wingless bird, Darting through space with rapid flight Until he nears his native home, The earth.

His home no longer; He has become the denizen of a world More rare and beautiful than earth. With quickening pulse and grand emotion He gazes down upon the globe, Whose habitations he has left forever! Cities with their palaces and towers, Surging seas, leafy forests, and fields of grain, The towering mountain and the massy Icebergs of the Polar sea sweep past His sight like fading visions.



ALLAN CUNNINGHAM.

ALONE.

Far away from earthly care, Free as a bird, I soar through air, And think of thee in thy sad, lonely home, Watching and waiting for thy love to come. Dost thou hear me call thee, Sweet! Sweet! Many the years till we shall meet.

My spirit home is bright and fair With flowers and birds and wonders rare. Seraphic the faces that on me smile, But the one I love is on earth the while, Will she hear me calling, Sweet! Sweet! Many the years till we shall meet.

Many the years I'll watch and wait Till I see thee at the golden gate, Then in my arms will I bear thee away To my jewelled home where sunbeams play. Then together we'll sing, Sweet! Sweet! Well worth the waiting thus to meet.



BARON VON HUMBOLDT.

THE EARTHQUAKE.

This mysterious and awful visitant, which convulses the earth apparently without warning, is, however, like all the manifestations of nature, preceded by signs which the observing and understanding eye can perceive and calculate upon as unerringly as the astronomer can determine the approach of a comet.

The inhabitable earth is merely a shell or crust over the great mass of uninhabitable matter. The world beneath the earth's surface is as diversified as the world above. It has its mountains, its streams, its plains, its caverns, and its internal volcanoes.

As fearful storms, accompanied by lightning and rumbling thunder, sweep over the earth's surface, so beneath the crust occur electric storms, accompanied with terrific combustions of gases, which in their efforts to escape convulse the outer earth, and in many cases rend the shell asunder.

The earthquake which has recently (August 13, 14, 15, and 16, 1868) shaken the Pacific coast was occasioned by the discharge of the pent-up gases beneath, and also in part by the heated condition of the outer surface.

The "tidal phenomenon," as it is called, is the effect of the electrical condition of the earth beneath. The chemical components of the sea form a sensitive magnetic body, which is subject to attraction and repulsion, and as the magnetic current extended for several thousands of miles, and was caused by a collision of negative and positive forces, the sea was attracted and repulsed along the whole line of the internal commotion by the action of these forces.

The northern portion of this globe has in times past suffered from convulsions similar to those which now visit the tropical climates.

The fearful privations and heart-rending calamities which visited the earlier inhabitants of the earth are only known to the student of the cosmos of nature after he has attained the second birth.

The forces within and around the earth are now in comparative subjugation, but in the earlier periods of its existence, while still it was in the process of changing from a state adapted to a lower condition of animal life to one fitted to a higher state of animal and intellectual existence, the elements were in a frequent state of rupture and disorder.

No mortal pen can depict the scene which I recently witnessed on the occurrence of the earthquake on the Pacific coast. Forty thousand souls arising amid smoke and blackened clouds of flying stones and upheaving earth, with outstretched arms, and faces strained with horror, emerging suddenly from their old bodies into their spirit-forms—looking awestruck into each other's faces; a vast swarm clinging together almost as helplessly as young bees to their hive—suddenly cut off from their occupations and their pleasures, their homes, and their familiar affairs of earth!

But what they experienced, proud and noble cities of the past have experienced likewise. Grace and ornament, art and grandeur, beauty, love, and manly strength have been swept away time and again by the bursting of the treacherous doors that lead into the heart of the earth!

Change marks the footsteps of the Creator. The solid mountain, the firm, unyielding earth, which to the unthinking mind seem durable and eternal in their strength, like mankind carry within themselves the seeds of their own dissolution.

Yet the day will come when man, by the aid of science, will, through these premonitory symptoms, foresee the coming events, even as the wise physician can discern the time when his patient's soul will leave its body.

Nature misunderstood is a fearful mystery; but understood, she is a simple and beautiful piece of mechanism; and the earthquake may not be more disastrous than the flood or the avalanche when science and experience have taught men to avoid the localities of danger, and to watch the hour of its approach, that they may flee before it.

Nature is never abrupt in her actions. She heralds her intentions long before she enacts them, but as it requires the quick ear of the savage—the child of nature—to detect the far-off prey, so it requires the student of nature to discover the distant tread of the earthquake.



SIR DAVID BREWSTER

NATURALNESS OF SPIRIT LIFE.

The human mind is subject to false and specious reasoning, and time after time opinions which have been held and argued upon with seeming logical acumen, have, by further developments and discoveries, been proven fallacious. And yet of so elastic a nature is the mind of man that he is not crushed nor discouraged by his mistakes, but immediately commences to build new theories; but as he establishes them by specialties instead of generalities, he is again defeated.

The European mind has adopted a certain line of thought respecting the future state of existence, which it substantiates by narrow reasonings and isolated facts.

Of the future we can only judge by analogy of the past with the present.

Nature ever shadows forth her new developments upon the old.

The many periods or stages through which the earth has passed in reaching her present state of refinement, have been stamped one upon the other so that the Geologist can determine definitely what would be the result of a certain period from the characteristics of the foregoing.

Now it is educible: if the Creator of the race of men who inhabit the terrestrial globe had intended for them a future state or destination differing in every respect from their present one, he would have prepared their minds for different pursuits, and ordained them for other occupations than those they follow to the very grave.

Take man in his most natural condition—examine those nations that are most ancient, and unmixed with other races—and you will perceive that their ideas of a future state were in accordance with the life they were living on earth.

The Asiatic race in burying its dead prepares the favorite food of the deceased, the fragrant tea, and the money so useful on earth. Also slips of paper on which messages are written to departed friends are lighted at these burial ceremonies, and reduced to ashes, that the spirit of the text may be transmitted to their friends in the world of souls.

In these "Pagan rites," as they are termed, we discern the workings of an intuitive belief that the spirit of man still retains the sensations, attributes, and desires which have accompanied it through life.

The ancient Greeks and Romans held similar opinions, likewise the Africans, Hindoos, and the Indians of North and South America.

By far the largest portion of mankind believe in a natural state hereafter, corresponding to their earth existence, but the European nations which are supposed to be advanced in science, art, and philosophical attainments beyond all the nations of the earth, have, in their speculations and in their efforts to penetrate the mysteries of the world of spirits, lost sight, of the natural and entered the supernatural, where they are surrounded by fogs, clouds, and ignes-fatui.

Now if these people are told that the spirit world is divided into states and continents, cities and towns, as is their own world (though under spirit appellations), they would scoff at the statement.

But as mankind has a natural love of locality, and as congenial minds will select similar locations, adapted to their ideas of beauty and comfort, the result is that spirit inhabitants unite and form cities and towns as on earth. Thus combining, they must have some points of interest to occupy their minds, and as they still possess their power of construction and ingenuity, their love of beautiful forms and of architecture, they prefer not to live in the open air and on the bare ground (as they can certainly do), but choose rather to employ their various faculties in building cities and habitations in accordance with their tastes and ideas of convenience.

Once grant that man is provided with a spiritual body after he emerges from his original one—accept the hypothesis that this body must possess form and sensation, and with sensation, eyes, ears, mouth, taste, and motion—then you must provide means for that body to exist. In providing these means you must place him upon a soil capable of producing vegetation, where his intelligence may compound the various articles adapted to his use.

Some individuals enter the spirit world deformed, some feeble in intellect, some incapable of constructing or arranging. All these must have provision made for them; their wants must be supplied. The effort to supply want or demand produces a system of exchange or barter.

Many of the inhabitants of the spirit world are both good and kind. They are spiritualized in their natures, and are influenced by a desire to assist those who are needy.

Nature, or God, has ordained that existence should depend upon effort; that a state of inactivity should produce dissolution; and much the same means are taken there to enforce activity as in the material world.

True, some men possess natural gifts, by which knowledge is acquired without labor. The power of seeing before the demonstration belongs to all humanity. It is the negative form of knowledge; but combined with that power is the positive, which compels man to desire a visible representation or demonstration of the knowledge he has received by intuition.

The astronomer thus, before he constructs his telescope, perceives intuitively the very stars which his telescope proves as existing, where none are visible to the eye.

It was this active-positive principle, that made him construct the instrument; and in the spirit world, as on earth, that active-positive principle acts in conjunction with the negative-intuitive one, in impelling him to exertion, and forcing him to acquire knowledge in every department of science, art, philosophy and religion. As well expect this earth to rest in her revolution and still retain her place in the solar system, as to suppose that the spirit of man can lose its activity and sink to rest eternal.

Man is not only active in constructing and exploring in the spirit world, but he is also engaged in inventions. Most of the discoveries that have lessened manual labor and made gross matter subservient to man's use originated in the land of spirits. The inventor finds full field for his talents in the superior state.

Man naturally delights in knowledge, and the individual who knows how to construct a steam locomotive finds a thrill of satisfaction in the possession of that ability. So does he who can arrange and construct any piece of mechanism, any domestic tool. That feeling of gratification at the accomplishment of his plans accompanies man to the spirit life.

All persons do not follow the same pursuits in which they were engaged on earth, yet they adopt a kindred and congenial employment. The clergyman thinks his work done when he leaves the earth; but in the next state, also, he will find beings who need to have their spiritual and moral natures instructed—men who desire to be led—who cannot think for themselves, but lean upon the thoughts and inferences of others.

So with almost every pursuit—there is opportunity to exercise it in the world of spirits. The painter finds nobler themes for his pencil, more angelic faces for his canvas; and the desire to reproduce them as they appear is as intense there as it is here. Although a spirit can impress his form in color and raiment upon the sensitive plate in the spirit world, and the image remains fixed and permanent (for the photographic art is essentially spiritual in its origin), that result though definite, is as unsatisfactory to some minds in the spirit world as it is in the natural. And thus, while persons differ in their desires and perceptions, there will be the same varied modes of expressing thought in the superior life as in this.

The question is often asked, "Why should immortals walk, when they can move with greater velocity than light?"

In return I would inquire, "Why, when men can travel by the steam-engine, do they prefer the slow movements of the horse?"

Again, it is asked, "Why, if spirits can converse by thought-language—if they can express with their eyes, or impress magnetically their wishes, or the words they desire to utter—why should they employ their vocal organs?"

But I rejoin that the deaf and dumb on earth converse by signs with great celerity, yet would gladly express their thoughts with voice also.

Many trancendentalists and idealists fancy that the inhabitants of the spirit world do not converse audibly; yet they would be greatly shocked if told that in that world there reigned one vast silence; that sound was unknown; and yet such a condition would exist, if their mode of reasoning were correct.

No unbiased person would suppose for a moment, that song was unheard in this land of the immortals; that the voices of the spirit maidens never burst forth into melody; and that they could not give utterance to their feelings and sentiments, in the warbling notes of music!

Spirits can read each other's thoughts, although possessing a universal spoken language, and also retaining in many sections the native dialect they used on earth.

Though the spirit world is a world of marvels and miracles, and things unutterable, which the tongue cannot express, yet it is a world similar to the natural one; a glorified body of the old earth.

The soul visiting that new country will not feel itself an utter stranger on its shore, but will find that it can assimilate with the thoughts and feelings of the residents of that land, and the knowledge and experience which it developed on earth will be useful to it there.

If the teachers on your planet, and those who instruct concerning the condition of the soul after death, would employ the same reason and intelligence that they exercise in investigating any other obscure subjects—either chemistry, astronomy, or natural philosophy,—they would arrive at more truthful data respecting the spirit globe which ultimately they are all destined to inhabit.



H.T. BUCKLE.

THE MORMONS.

Looking upon the world, the voyager through space discerns vast tracts of land, uninhabited barren wastes, and immense forests echoing only the tread of the wild beast and the cries of birds of prey.

It becomes the duty of the political economist to reclaim these lands and place them in the hands of civilization.

How is this to be done? Shall it be by following in the beaten track of custom? No: it can only be accomplished by the zeal of the enthusiast.

Joe Smith was an inspired man; even as Columbus was he inspired. Through his agency a colony was started near the dismal Salt Lake. Through his agency, and by the aid of his apostles or followers, the hardy men and women from the overcrowded population of Europe, cramped by man, and priest-ridden, have been brought across the ocean into republican America. They have been placed in this seemingly unpropitious Salt Lake country. There they have founded a city; they have erected factories and mills. The steam engine, the plow, and the sewing machine have aided them; and now, in place of a company of barbarous peasants, ignorant and benighted, and steeped in poverty, you find them transformed into energetic, intelligent citizens, surrounded with comforts and luxuries.

And all this has been brought about by a religious enthusiast; by an enthusiast whose religion is believed to be inferior to the religion of Protestants.

Imagine for a moment what result would ensue from a movement of this kind set on foot by the followers of the Protestant religion as it is taught by the churches of the present day. No theatres or places of amusement would add gayety to the sombre city. The dance and the sound of mirth would be hushed. The inhabitants would walk ever in solemn fear of the awful future that might await them; they would despise their physical frames, crucify their passions, and trample under foot the most divine attributes of their nature.

But the religion of the Mormons is a natural religion; it is primitive. They people the world even as God peopled it in the time of Abraham and Isaac.

They enrich the state by their tithes. They bring in their corn, their wine, and their fruits, as offerings, and the state pays them back by improving their roads and building houses for instruction and pleasure for them.

Their domestic system, which has been so much despised and ridiculed, does not greatly differ from the custom of the civilized world. Such as are wives with them become with you the neglected women of the town. What with you is considered dishonorable, with them becomes honorable.

The man of wealth in Utah does not concentrate his riches on a few relatives; he distributes it among his many wives and numerous children. In all times, nations which have grown rapidly and have been developed in arts and sciences have been peopled in the same manner. The female element introduces into a community taste, ornament, and grace. Look at California previous to the emigration of women to that land! Misrule and misery reigned. It is a law of nature that men and women should be united. In the present form of civilization, a large proportion of women are compelled to remain single, and their usefulness to community and humanity is dissipated. The Mormon system eradicates this evil.

The progress of civilization points to a time when a magnetic relation shall be established between all the inhabitants of earth; when the globe shall form one vast circle of mind as it does now of matter. At present the chain is broken; the intermediate spaces are not filled up by population. The spirit world is using all its skill to bring about this magnetic connection, but till this is complete the magnetic relation between the spirit world and earth cannot be perfect.

Wise intelligences in the world of spirits have originated and guided the Mormon movement, and these intelligences will develop new communities under similar auspices. The legislators of the land, the Napoleons of the day, would do well to investigate the policy of the leaders of Utah.

The crimes common in your large cities are not known among the Mormons. They live on friendly terms with the red men of the plains, and are just in their dealings.

Each citizen is taught that the public welfare is his own welfare. In your own large towns the citizens shirk public duties; but in Utah there is a oneness of feeling, which it would be well for those who consider themselves superior in the scale of civilization to imitate.



W. E. BURTON.

DRAMA IN SPIRIT LIFE.

"Honor pricks me on. Yea; but how if honor pricks me off when I come on? How then? Can honor set-to a leg? No. Or an arm? No. Or take away the grief of a wound? No. Honor hath no skill in surgery, then? No. What is honor? A word. What is that word, honor? Air. A trim reckoning! Who hath it? He that died o' Wednesday. Doth he feel it? No. Doth he hear it? No. Is it insensible, then? Yea, to the dead. But will it not live with the living? No. Why? Detraction will not suffer it."

What is honor? A mere word. What is Heaven? A word—a phantasy. A vaporish place, too delicate and subtle for such fun-loving, corpulent specimens of the Creator's wisdom as old Jack Falstaff.

O rare Jack Falstaff! He was a child of nature, and to my thinking, his homely phrases displayed more intuitive knowledge of the laws of nature than the finest transcendental imaginings ever discovered.

We shock the feelings of a thousand playwrights and play-goers by asserting that in this impalpable land of souls we are guilty of encouraging the playhouse! But so it is; we cannot live on "honors;" the fame and glory which has been awarded to us by our fellow-men on earth is like chaff to us.

It was with hardly an emotion of surprise that I beheld theatres in the spirit land, though I have seen many who, having been fed on the false system of religion, and pampered on glittering imaginings, start back with alarm on beholding the magnificent buildings we have erected to the drama, thinking, that by some strange turning, they had entered through the wrong gate.

The drama with us is a source of both enjoyment and instruction. The history of past ages in the spirit world is enacted with thrilling interest, and each new spirit from earth has an opportunity thus to become acquainted with the transactions of the past in the land of spirits.

The gay and brilliant theatre of which I have been induced to take the management, is original in its structure, and of a light and beautiful style of architecture. The balconies are suspended and movable. Outside the building, and overlooking a placid sheet of water, are galleries connected with and corresponding to those within, where persons who desire may pass out during intermission, and regale themselves with the fresh fruit and the fine prospect.

The partitions are constructed of light frames with ornamented pillars, covered with a fabric resembling parchment. As the climate is warm, the partitions on the outside of the gallery are merely trellis-screens, and the whole building is open in structure and perfectly ventilated.

The plays which are enacted are generally composed by persons in the spiritual condition. We have many good farces; and an unending source of material for amusing plays is found in the relationship between the spirit world and earth, and the eccentric conditions growing out of that relationship. For instance, there is a laughable comedy being enacted at my theatre, depicting the adventures of a pious merchant, who, after the toils and cares of life, becomes a resident of the spirit world.

The graces and beauties of the angelic women whom he meets on every side enamour him; he forgets his past life, forgets the wife who has ruled him on earth, and in a moment of ecstasy chooses another mate.

While in the enjoyment of his bliss, and surrounded by bands of immortals, the news runs through the electric wire that his earth-wife is deceased, and has come in search of him. The consternation and fear of the poor man furnishes ample occasion for amusement, hilarity, and fellow-sympathy.

Our tragedies are cast in a higher mould; many of them are more sublime than those of earth, representing the catastrophes of worlds. We also have dramas which awaken the affections, representing the condition of those from earth who are neglected, or who, in consequence of a long career of vice and misery, cannot be approached by friends.

These brief hints will give a slight idea of the source and character of our dramatic representations.

Some men are born actors, as others are born painters, poets or preachers; and in the spirit world they can no more lay aside those powers which have become a part of them, than they can lay aside the gifts of observation or reflection. Understanding this fact, it will not surprise you to learn that those most famous in the histrionic art exercise their talents to listening thousands in the spirit world.

Garrick, Kemble, Kean, Booth, Cooke, also Rachel, Mrs. Siddons, and a host of illustrious actors of different nations, are now "treading the boards" of spiritual theatres.

Their time, however, is not exclusively devoted to the exercise of these gifts, as on earth. A considerable portion is spent in the study of the arts and sciences; and many a noted actor becomes an able painter or musician, and many a low comedian a philosopher. Our life is one round of pleasant progression.

What I have said about our attractive theatre and my enjoyable condition, I hope will not induce any of you, my fellow-players, to emigrate to these shores before you are sent for; but, like good Jack Falstaff, I trust you will live in your own world as long as you can, and when Dame Nature is done with you, we will give you a hearty welcome and a free pass to the dress circle.



CHARLES L. ELLIOTT.

PAINTING IN SPIRIT LIFE.

My friends know that I was not much given to writing or speaking, and I reluctantly answer the call that has been made for me to give my views on art in the spirit existence.

The old masters whom we have worshipped from boyhood, Raphael, Titian, Michael Angelo, Da Vinci, and all the illustrious names of the Bolognese and Venetian schools of art, have passed away from this sphere of spirit life, and no longer walk the streets of these wonderful cities which they have adorned with their works.

Reynolds, however, is with us still, and most of the army of painters who have been born on earth since his day, here live in bodily shape; and I have had the pleasure of meeting many admirable geniuses of the French, German, and English schools, and have seen some of their extraordinary works, which, for diversity of subject and majesty of conception, seem to rival omnipotence itself!

The great majority of American artists are secretly spiritualistic in their faith, and believe that they can be inspired by departed painters. Innes, Page, Church, and Powers, have each felt and acknowledged the inspiration of the spirit of some great master in art.

I must confess that these masters are not existing in the sphere occupied by spirits who visit earth, and will explain the manner in which they impress persons congenial and partaking of like sympathies with themselves.

I am informed that it is not material to what sublimated sphere they may have ascended; it is merely a mesmeric influence which they exert over their disciples, and this influence can penetrate through all degrees of matter.

The reason why all artists are not alike inspired by the great masters is that they are not all subject to mesmeric influence, or on the same plane of thought.

Every disciple of high art, I have no doubt, has observed the magnetic quality which seems to pour forth from the canvas of any great master.

This arises from the brain effluvia which they have left upon the canvas, which is more powerful in its quality than a grain of musk, which will impart its odor for a hundred years.

The colors which the artists here use are formed upon the same model as those they have been in the habit of using on earth. They are more brilliant pigments, but color has always the same origin. Some paint with the brush and some paint with their fingers.

I had heard it remarked that the spirit had only to breathe on the canvas, and his thought would be represented, painted, and shaded in a second of time.

The substance of this statement is correct, but there is a slight misapplication of the facts.

'Tis true we have the power which we had on earth to a modified degree, of projecting the desired form upon the canvas. I remember always, after looking at my sitter, I could trace in imagination on the canvas the outline and expression of his countenance. This is what we do: the power of execution is so rapid that the time required for painting a picture might with you pass for a moment; but it is only a trained artist whose thoughts and comprehension are skilful enough to produce an effect so rapidly.

Those who have not learned to give form and shape to their ideas while on earth have to pursue a more painful and laborious process.

The modern school of color differs widely from the Venetian, being crude, cold, and sharp in comparison; and, in accounting for this difference, I can simply state that one can only represent what one sees.

The poetic, dreamy age, when men saw nature as through a veil, is past; the matter-of-fact, investigating mind has lifted that veil, and now sees objects as if in mid-day; but, as no condition is stationary, I am told that the mind is gradually moving on in the world of art to a point where it will again see nature in a more subdued and generalized light, as under the declining sun.

The past represented the morning, the present exhibits the noonday, and the future will indicate the evening.

Such is the constant revolution of mind, and its revolution though slow is certain.

In our works of art, sentiment is the prevailing characteristic. Portraits are in great demand.

Spirits send portrait-painters to earth to obtain likenesses of their friends; and those spirit-artists who have the power of seeing the lineaments of these friends and portraying them are constantly engaged.

Leutze has been employed by Lincoln and others to represent scenes in the American rebellion; and Colonel Trumbull, also, has executed some magnificent pictures of the battles of Seven Pines, Fair Oaks, and a skirmish at Hampton Roads.

Stuart has completed a splendid portrait of General Grant, and is now engaged by John Jacob Astor on a likeness of a beautiful lady dwelling on earth. I have received a commission from Mr. James Harper to paint a portrait of his daughter, who occupied the carriage with him when he lost his life. I am at present engaged on a likeness of a lady residing at Albany.



COMEDIAN'S POETRY.

ROLLICKING SONG.

Hurrah! hurrah I my boys so bright, For merry ghosts meet here to-night. We'll sing and dance till dawn of day, Then up we'll mount, away! away! Then up, up, and away!

We live in spirit land so gay, And with grim Satan's fires we play. You need not fear the future state, For we will meet you at the gate. Then up, up, and away!

Come, friends of earth, and read our bill, 'Tis called the "sugar-coated pill;" 'Twill sweeten all life's bitter care, And lead you up, the saints know where, Then up, up, and away!

Come laugh with us each man and wife; A player's stage is earthly life; The sting of death is only a prick, And hell the parson's "trap-door trick," Then up, up, and away!

Here's Garrick, Booth, and Kean so bright, They shine like stars to give you light. So haste and join the merry throng, And loudly swell our happy song. Then up, up, and away!



LADY HESTER STANHOPE.

PROPHECY.

The star of prophecy shines in the east. To those nations who were first in the order of creation belongs by right the power of investigating the mysteries of life.

The people of the East have been known in all past history for their gift of prophecy.

As water gravitates to its level, so I gravitated to the East.

I left my native land, and for many years sojourned among the wandering Arabs. This course of action was not understood by my countrymen. They could not see the mystic star that drew me away from their busy haunts. The Magi of the East had stood at my cradle and endowed me with the noble gift of the Seeress.

The power of reading the future does not belong to the Northern people. It is the darkest and deepest well that reflects the star above it; the dark and swarthy East is thus endowed. The pale North cannot give out impressions. I was an exception to this rule.

There are those who at birth are possessed of Eastern spirits—Asiatics. Andrew Jackson Davis is not a Northern man—he is an Asiatic. Look at his olive complexion, his keen eye, his beard and hair of jetty black, his visage,—all betray the race which inspired him.

The faculty of discerning the future belongs only to certain races, and it cannot be universal. Many spirits profess to read the future, but few can do so correctly.

Yet the life of man is mapped out in every particular, even before his birth. Men are like planets. The future of the planet Earth could have been foretold before it was thrown off from the sun and while it was yet in a molten state; so each step in an individual life could be foretold: yet it requires ability to enter into the peculiar magnetic condition in order to obtain the power of foretelling. It may be said if the future of man is thus mapped out, even as was the creation and progression of the earth, it becomes merely a scientific affair to prophesy the future of any given individual. This is true, but the inquirer will observe how many hundreds and hundreds of years science has been engaged in discovering facts concerning this world's history. The eye of prophecy could foresee those facts and foretell them, though it could not lay down any scientific basis in regard to them.

The events which will take place to-morrow may be said to have already transpired.

The water that is rising from yon creek will increase in volume. Conditions which have been for days and weeks in preparation will suddenly conspire, causing the stream to rise to such a height that the city will be overflowed, bridges swept away, and certain individuals submerged by the current and their lives lost.

This disastrous occurrence is governed by a law which the keen observer of nature could have foretold years previous to the event.

As in the natural world the traveller in the desert beholds the mirage of some city which is hundreds of miles distant, suddenly arising upon the sandy waste, so, in the spirit world, the spectrum form is projected, and events which are to take place are made visible before their actual occurrence. But, as in the natural world spectrum forms occur only under certain atmospheric conditions, so in the spirit world it is the conjunction of circumstances and the blending of magnetic currents that make it possible for coming events to be revealed upon the level plane which is set apart for this purpose in the summer land.

Man at the present day is so constituted that a revealment to him of coming events in detail would be injurious; and experience proves that such disclosures, when made to him in dreams or otherwise, are profitless, as he always fails to foil the evil of which he is forewarned.

History and biography show that individuals have time and again, been admonished by their assiduous friends of evils or calamities that were to befall them, yet the admonition, though timely given, seldom enabled them to avoid their fate. Men have been warned of murderous assaults, but they have not evaded them; premonitions have been given of falling buildings, and these have fallen, involving in their destruction the loss of the individual's life at the precise date which his dream foreshadowed.

The time will come in the far future when man will understand prophecy as a science. There are few persons living at the present day, who, looking back upon their past history, would conscientiously wish it had been all revealed to them at the outset of their career.

The withered, faded beauty, at the dawn of her life of youthful triumph could not have endured a vision of the haggard unfortunate wretch which she would represent in the course of a few years.

These remarks apply more especially to the so-called civilized state of society at the present day.

The semi-barbarous nations, so termed, are in closer sympathy with nature. Life and death, prosperity and adversity, are to them as natural effects as the sunshine and rain of the terrestrial globe.

Their equanimity, their perfect repose upon the bosom of nature, causes them to see more clearly into the future than do civilized nations. There is a spirit of prophecy which does not comprehend the detail, and only takes cognizance of the grand events of life.

This prophetic condition is attainable by every being in a certain state of exaltation.

The poet, the painter, the statesman, the preacher, can alike in moments of ecstasy ascend this mount of inspiration, and foretell the advancement of the world in relation to art, science, and spiritual development. But the oracle, the sybil of the East can penetrate a height beyond and above this mount, and can perceive the detail of an individual life in its minutest events.

The Bible prophecy which foretold that "knowledge should cover the earth, even as the waters cover the sea," and that "the wilderness should blossom as the rose," was given in an ecstatic vision, and was simply a spiritual comprehension of the power of soul over matter.

As a knowledge of distance is relative, a keen perception on the part of the prophet revealed to him, as he beheld the birds soaring in air, that the journey to lands beyond the sea was no greater distance to those winged creatures than a few miles would be to him. The prophecy Isaiah made more than eighteen hundred years ago, is fulfilled to-day. Science has annihilated space; knowledge becomes universal, and the wilderness disappears.

The sages of centuries agone are animating the bodies of to-day. The doctrine of pre-existence is not a fable, yet to have lived two lives belongs only to a chosen few, or those whom a fortuitous circumstance has blest.

Napoleon was one of these. The spirit of a great warrior took possession of him at birth.

But the condition of a pre-existing soul taking possession of a body can occur only under peculiar circumstances. The soul principle is male and female, and its perfection depends upon the two sexes as much as the formation of the body depends upon the coalition of the two. In states superinduced by opium or intoxicating liquor upon one party, the spirit principle becomes deadened so that an active immortal spirit may take its place.

This male and female spirit principle, after forming a magnetic relation by the joined bodies, lies inactive in the soul atmosphere of the mother until material birth. If, as is sometimes caused through accident, there is but one spirit principle active, the child when born will be idiotic. If the male or female spirit of the pre-existing intelligence is of superior order, then the child, as its intellectual faculties develop, will display extraordinary abilities, which will be in accordance with the peculiar development of the pre-existent spirit.

The history of individuals thus circumstanced can be more clearly discerned than others. Prophecy in bold and clear characters foretells the events which will transpire in their earth life.

In like manner Jesus, the celebrated child of Bethlehem, had lived a pre-existent life on earth. He had reigned over a people in his previous life, a wise and loving king. Vague remembrances continuously fluttered across his vision and colored the thoughts to which he gave utterance.

When his mother conceived him, she was not conscious; delirium of religious ecstasy, superinduced by priestly influence, rendered her oblivious to events, and enabled this wise, tender, loving king to take the place of the native spirit. Christ never married in this life, because the spirits which possessed him were not male and female.[A]

[Footnote A: The well-known eccentric character of this writer while on earth may partly explain the singular views here set forth. ED.]

The power of foretelling the future is yet in its infancy. Coming events are said to cast their shadows before; and as the barometer indicates to a skilful eye the approach of a storm when no sign is visible in the calm sky above, so the events which will befall an individual are marked upon the delicate spiritual barometer which forms a part of his being, and can be read with unerring precision by the clear and practiced eye of the optimist.



PROFESSOR MITCHELL.

THE PLANETS.

The worlds of light that nightly illume the firmament of earth are not mere spheres of uninhabitable matter, nor are they simply appendages to earth,—glittering ornaments to attract the eye of man,—but vast systems of suns and tributary planets, with worlds whose products and inhabitants far exceed in organized development those of this little planet Earth, whose astronomers are just beginning to realize the capacities of the worlds revealed through their telescopes.

Many of these worlds have existed centuries prior to the formation of the planet you inhabit, and their inhabitants have attained a degree of civilization which only time can give to you.

The intellectual development of many of the dwellers of these planets is as far superior to your highest state of culture as your condition is in advance of the first stages of barbarism.

Men of earth erect temples to their God—their Deity—which to them are imposing and grand; but compared to the magnificent structures that rear their towers high into space from those glittering points that attract your eye, they are poor and insignificant.

Yet, as being the highest expression of your intellectual unfolding, we look upon them with admiration, even as you regard the rude attempts of the Egyptians and the earlier races in their grotesquely formed images and temples.

The inhabitants of some of the planets attain a life many times the duration of man's. One of the causes of this prolonged existence is the great age and refinement of the planet. While it is undergoing change, and preparing the vegetable for the animal, and the animal for the mental creation, the conditions that ensue are insalubrious, and conducive to disease and death. But when the perfection of the natural world is attained—when it becomes, so to say, spiritualized, and its grosser elements are absorbed—then the human being can live on its surface arid develop his faculties from century to century.

The thoughtful reader will perceive from this statement that the spirits who have inhabited these superior planets must have attained a far greater perfection than those who have inhabited your earth, and the spiritual existence, or heaven, to which such beings migrate, is in advance of the heavens in which the dwellers of earth are born.

The spiritual heavens correspond to the firmament of the natural world, and thus there are myriads of systems of spiritual worlds.

The residents of these planets visit earth as elder brothers who take by the hand the little faltering infants. But intercourse with the earth is more difficult for them than for your own native spirits, from the fact that the magnetic atmosphere does not assimilate with them. From the earth's spirit world, scientific minds of rare development only have been able to visit the spirit homes of those planetary inhabitants.

What I have said can give but a faint idea of the population of the unseen worlds. As a drop of water which is clear and unoccupied to the eye, when viewed through the microscope is found to be peopled with living creations, so the worlds that overspread the heavens are peopled in every part that the eye can cover.

Man is indeed nothing; and yet he is the whole—a mere speck, a point, and yet God himself in the aggregate.



DR. JOHN W. FRANCIS.

THE INFLUENCE OF MIND UPON MATTER, AND THE CAUSES OF INSANITY AND THE VARIOUS DISEASES WHICH AFFLICT HUMANITY AT THE PRESENT DAY.

The rude nations of the earth believed that disease was the result of evil spiritual agencies, and the untutored savage, without the aid of books or any of the advantages which the learned physician possesses of studying the human system, arrived at the conclusion that disease was inflicted by living, unseen individualities.

Science has discarded that idea. It has dissected the human body, and, finding the result of the diseases, has assumed to have found the cause; assumed that it is mere bodily disarrangement. Yet any intelligent physician will tell you that in his own experience he has witnessed the effect of mind upon the body; that he can give a bread pill to a patient, informing him that it is a purgative, and it will act in that manner; that a certain powder will create nausea or a burning sensation, and it will produce those results when the powder itself is harmless.

As the body, if permitted to decay, comes to be infested with vermin, so the spirit, if allowed to remain idle and inactive, will become infested by spiritual vermin which will taint and destroy it; and the savage idea that disease is caused by spiritual agency is correct.

If an individual permit any one idea to obtain predominance, and he dwell upon that idea to the exclusion of other thoughts, he will attract spirits who fill the air—not organized spiritual beings who inhabit the spirit world, but half-organized beings (polypus) who live in this atmosphere and were originated from the brains and the physical organisms of the inhabitants of the earth; these beings, finding his mind concentrated or magnetized to a point, will effect an entrance. Suppose, for instance the person centres his mind upon the loss of a friend or of money: this concentration becomes a magnet, which, like the rays of sunlight acting upon a portion of vegetation, produces decomposition upon which spirit vermin may feed. So by dwelling too continuously upon one thought, certain faculties of the mind become excited by constant action, while others become paralyzed and the result is insanity.

Now spiritualists, or believers in spirit intercourse, should be the most healthy persons in the community, for they understand, or should understand, the laws of psychology which teach that constant dwelling upon one thought will bring spirits of like character who will intensify that thought, and they also know that they have but to use their will and the whole magnetic relations will change and a new influence will be brought to bear.

Tell a man he has heart disease, make him believe it, and his heart will beat like a sledge-hammer. Tell him his liver is diseased, make him believe it, and he will feel bilious and look bilious.

Tell a man he looks well, compliment him upon his appearance, and he will feel well, look spruce, and his spirits will become elastic.

It has been a matter of surprise to some why the spirits have taken such an interest in the science of medicine, and why they have developed so many as healers. It is that they may teach man that disease is generally a magnetic condition; and they hope to teach the community, through those physicians whom they develop, to discard drugs and rely upon magnetic influences and the power of the will to keep the body in its normal condition of health.

Too much stress cannot be laid upon the power of the will in dispelling disease, and in expelling it.

A diseased patient may be likened to a medium who is possessed by a spiritual being of low order. The very low condition of the spirit causes him to adhere and cling to the medium, and unless the will is directed to exorcise him, he will keep his subject continually under his influence and the proper individuality of the person will be annihilated.

Thus, disease, like an evil spirit, takes its hold upon an individual, and can only be overthrown from its position by a strong will, which sends it shrinking away like a criminal from the body it has infested.

If the will of the patient is not sufficiently strong, then the will of some good friend must be used. These good friends are known as healing mediums. Also a change of air and scene should be obtained, which brings the will into a new action, and thus dislodges the tenant.

The will is like a sharp two-edged sword, which cuts right and left, and leaves no chance for skulking to anything to which it has directed its power.

I will close my remarks by repeating that the savage is right in his belief, and that disease is indeed the result of—I might call them spiritual harpies, who, though they may not in these civilized times be driven out by the beating of drums, the tom-tom, and the howling of frenzied savages, yet can be dislodged by kindred manipulations, such as mesmeric passes, deep breathing, and a positive though almost quiet exercise of the will.

Some of my brethren of the profession will be surprised to find these views advanced by one whom they believe held more rational opinions on earth; but there are others whose keen intellects have pierced through the wisdom of the schools, and have discovered that the physics they have concocted, when applied to the complex mechanism of the human system, in palliating the disorders of one function disarrange some half a dozen others, and that the soul and the body are so interblended that we must heal a disease of the body through and in conjunction with the spirit, its counterpart.



ADELAIDE PROCTER.

THE SPIRIT BRIDE.

You told me you loved me, and vowed of old, When you reached that land of jasper and gold, To me you'd return in the hush of night, And show me a glimpse of your land of light.

I sit in the shadows, and wearily wait To see you throw open the starry gate: Through my golden ringlets the chill winds blow, While I watch your coming through falling snow.

How long must I wait? Are you ling'ring where The blue-eyed angels your sweet kisses share? Is your home so radiant that never more Your steps will be heard at my lowly door?

Ah! what do I see through my blinding tears?—What misty form through the tempest appears? A cold hand now touches my burning brow, A low voice whispers, "I am near thee now."

Bend low—let me kiss thee, thou viewless thing; No rising passion thy cold lips bring; But hushed is the throb of my burning heart As upward he bears me—no more to part.

THE END.