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 Spiritual, or magnetic forces 
 
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SPIRITUAL, 
 
 OR 
 
 MAGNETIC FORCES: 
 
 BY 
 
 CHARLES HOLLAND, Ph. D., 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 
 PEE-ADAMITE RACES OF MEN; ASP ASIA, A NOVEL. 
 BRIGANDUS, A NOVEL, Etc. 
 
 SECOND EDITION. 
 
 NEW YORK : 
 
 ASA K. BUTTS, 
 18S2. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 In discussing the subject of Spiritual and Magnetic 
 forces, I have briefly given conclusions of careful 
 thought, and impartial investigation, endeavoring to 
 write with candor, free from prejudice and bigotry. 
 Pre-conceived opinions, proceeding from and formed 
 by an education, and outward influences, widely at 
 variance with the so-called spiritualistic theories, caused 
 me to approach and treat the subjects with all due 
 caution. First, to ascertain, if possible, the truth of 
 certain alleged manifestations. Second, to learn the 
 causes of such phenomena, and, third, to reconcile them 
 with well-known laws in science. Impressed with the 
 thought that no harm can come to anyone, and possi- 
 bly good may be gained by such an investigation, I 
 give to my readers the results. Prejudice and bigotry 
 in former times have stifled thought and staid the 
 wheels of progress. Galileo when arraigned before the 
 priestly tribunal for his heresy in promulgating the 
 theory of the earth's rotation upon its axis, was cau- 
 tioned under penalty of the severest punishment, to 
 desist from such declarations in the future ; yet, he had 
 no sooner left the building where his persecutors had 
 assembled, than he involuntarily exclaimed, " it does 
 
4 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 move." This is now conceded by all; and not only so, 
 but the world of thought moves on ; every day, month 
 and year climbing higher, and peering deeper into the 
 mysteries of the hitherto unknown, and endeavoring to 
 cast the horoscope of the future. It is only by under- 
 standing nature's laws, and living in harmony with them, 
 that mankind will be able to develop towards perfec- 
 tion, as the great God of Nature would have us, and 
 it requires the exercise of deep thought and searching 
 inquiry to attain to this end. 
 
 C. H. 
 
SPIRITUAL, 
 
 MAGNETIC FORCES. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 The origin of animal life all are familiar with ; the 
 origin of soul, or spirit-life, is a problem that has 
 called forth, or stimulated, the highest thoughts of 
 the most profound thinkers for ages, and yet is 
 debatable. In their endeavors to solve this problem, 
 men have treated the subject in an unscientific 
 manner, as though spirit-life obeyed some other law 
 than that which controls matter, when, in point of 
 fact, it is one and the same law which controls both,^ 
 each running exactly parallel with the other. Material- 
 ly the father begets the child. In its process of develop- 
 ment from the embryotic germ, the mother contributes 
 wholly to its growth ; it receives its material substance 
 entirely from its mother's physical system. So spirit- 
 ually, the father begets the child, the embryotic soul 
 gradually develops to activity, then to self-consciousness, 
 and then to a capacity to reason ; and during the first 
 
6 SPIRITUAL, OR MAGNETIC FORCES. 
 
 stage of this development, and it may be a part of the 
 second, the mother exerts a spirit power or influence, 
 so as to indelibly impress the little mind with ideas 
 which seem to be, but are not, innate. Admitting 
 this to be correct, then it follows that I am the father 
 of my child's soul, quite as much so, as I am the father 
 of its body. Corroborative of this, we see that the 
 leading, those most prominent, characteristics, or traits, 
 manifested in all children, without an exception, so far 
 as close observation over an experience of many years 
 goes to prove, are traits of character belonging to the 
 father, and not the mother. Now this is not an acci- 
 dent, but it is a result of an inflexible law — the law 
 that like begets like. 
 
 What is Spiritualism? If a religion, is it as suscept- 
 ible of demonstration as any other religious form or 
 system? If a science, is it susceptible of as clear dem- 
 onstration as the fixed sciences "' These are questions 
 which have long agitated the minds of the more thought- 
 ful persons, while those who feed on the dry husks of 
 an implicit faith, turn aside from such an investigation 
 with scorn and contempt. In attempting to explain 
 the phenomenon of Spiritualism, we disclaim, at the 
 outset, any deeper or more intricate knowledge of the 
 hidd en mysteries which environ the soul, or mind 
 of man, its relation to the soul or mind of 
 ano ther, the extent of its capabilities, or the scope of 
 its powers, than we are free to accord to others who 
 have — free from bigotry and prejudice — given the sub- 
 jec t due thought and attention. What we may have to 
 say, iSjbased upon the assumption that, as matter once 
 organized ^becomes eternal, so the soul once begotten, 
 becomes immortal. ^And its presence, whether in or 
 
SPIRITUAL, OR MAGNETIC FORCES. 7 
 
 out of the body — this earthly tenement — may be 
 seen and felt, and as our physical systems are fed 
 nourished and kept alive by other material bod- 
 ies — so our souls are dependent upon the quicken- 
 ing and vivifying influences of other souls. No man 
 liveth to himself, or by himself ; it is an inflexible law 
 of nature that no earthly being possesses within itself 
 the means or power to perpetuate its existence ; it has 
 to be fed and nourished by others, they in turn by 
 others, and so on. This same law applies also to the soul 
 or mind of man. Let a person isolate himself entirely 
 from the world, withdraw himself from all social influ- 
 ences, where he can neither read of, or speak to, or com- 
 municate with another, and how long think you, it 
 would be, before such a soul would languish and die 
 for want of soul-food? The entire brain — the organ 
 of soul, or receptacle for the mind — would become pal- 
 sied from disease, and the entire person, both soul and 
 body, would absolutely die, as the plant dies. There 
 could be no immortality for such a soul ; but the great 
 architect of nature has wisely ordered otherwise. Man- 
 kind are by an inflexible law so constituted that they 
 cannot commit suicide of the soul. In a measure we 
 are all creatures of circumstances. Habits of thought 
 are engendered in youth, which cling tenaciously to us 
 in mature age. "As the twig is bent, so the tree in- 
 clines," is an old and very trite adage, and happily this 
 is more true of our moral lives than of our scientific, 
 intellectual or philosophical. The child is but the epi- 
 tome of the man. While the infant is receiving its 
 bodily nourishment from its mother's breast, its little soul 
 is unconsciously drinking to its full capacity from its 
 mother's intellectual fount, and so continues, as its 
 
8 - SPIRITUAL, OR MAGNETIC FORCES. 
 
 years accumulate, and its strength increases, to draw its 
 supply of soul food from other souls. Thought is but 
 an activity of the mind stimulated or engendered by an 
 inner reflection of objects and impressions from with- 
 out which have been daguerreotyped upon the soul. 
 Our natural senses convey to, or make impressions upon, 
 the mind, which awakens a desire within us to know 
 the causes of all the phenomena which are manifested to 
 our senses ; thus we are led to philosophize upon these 
 problems, and. reason from cause to effect and establish 
 our theories. The motives which control the infant in 
 its actions, are to gratify its animal instincts, but in its 
 progress of development, as mind or soul power is 
 evolved within him, those motives which were hereto- 
 fore paramount, become secondary to the wants and 
 desires of his spiritual nature, and he looks out of and 
 beyond his own narrow selfish desires, and seeks the 
 good of others : and right here he begins first of all to 
 realize the effect upon himself of the operation of the 
 law of compensation, and finds that every good deed 
 he performs towards others, results in blessings upon 
 his own soul, and every evil deed done to others brings 
 its bitter reward of punishment. As evidence of our 
 spirituality, that is to say that by nature, we are more 
 spiritual than animal, notice the fact that our purely 
 animal desires are susceptible of being entirely satisfied ; 
 we may eat and drink until we completly loathe food of 
 any and all kinds. So we may gratify other purely 
 animal desires until they become loathsome to us, but 
 not so withour spiritual desires. The aspiration of one 
 sublime thought stimulates the soul to higher activities, 
 and so continues to climb the exalted heights of phil- 
 osophy, reason and science, until thought invades the 
 
SPIRITUAL, OR MAGNETIC FORCES. 9" 
 
 realms of the unseen, and discourses with itself upon 
 the conditions of the hereafter. 
 
 The first question that arises here is : Is modem 
 spiritualism a religion ? And allow me to say, it is a 
 misnomer to call it modern, for all history teaches us 
 that it is as old as the race. Spiritualism had its birth 
 in the infancy of the race. As far back as we know any- 
 thing of humanity, men recognized a spiritual existence 
 and consulted the oracles to ascertain the decrees of un- 
 seen spirits. All the religions of mankind down to the 
 present have been founded upon this spiritualistic idea. 
 
 The same principles of natural law which bring man- 
 kind into being — I mean the animal being — provide for 
 and sustain him, also govern in his spiritual nature. 
 Therefbre, in this respect, Spiritualism is a science. The 
 same principles of law which govern and control our 
 intercourse with each other morally, intellectually and 
 spiritually in this life, may — and there certainly is no 
 good reason why they may not — also control and govern 
 our intercourse with the spirits of those whom once we 
 knew in the flesh, but who have cast off "this earthly 
 tabernacle," and become inhabitants of a more exalted 
 realm ; therefore, if this be true, Spiritualism is a science.. 
 And while we contend that Spiritualism is a science, it 
 is not like the science of geology or chemistry ; those 
 sciences or branches of science deal simply with inani- 
 mate nature, while Spiritualism brings one soul in direct 
 contact with another soul ; the wants of one are fed and 
 refreshed by the other. This science recognizes the great 
 brotherhood of man. True, a knowledge of the so-called 
 fixed sciences unerringly points the impartial investiga- 
 tor to a great intelligent first cause of all things, who 
 organized all law in absolute perfection, and with a. 
 
10 SPIRITUAL, OR MAGNETIC FORCES. 
 
 perfect and complete purpose, and ought to stimulate 
 in his soul the profoundest admiration and love for the 
 great All Father. But Spiritualism goes still further 
 and teaches a personal immortality. While it cordially 
 -endorses the teachings of science, it enters the realm of 
 the Divine. It inculcates good to our fellow men for 
 the good's sake, for the benefits we maybe instrumental 
 in bestowing upon others, and for the reactionary good 
 that is'sure to come back to us, the brotherhood of man ; 
 it endeavors to make men better and happier here upon 
 the promise that a virtuous life here, ensues happiness 
 in the life beyond ; therefore, Spiritualism while a 
 :science, is in this respect decidedly a religious science, 
 Now, then I am met right here with the objection that 
 deception has been practised by so-called spiritualists. 
 ■Grant it ; but that proves nothing as against the science 
 of Spiritualism itself. There are quacks in science and 
 mountebanks in religion, but that fact alone does not 
 militate against science or religion ; it is the prerogative 
 ■of every person to form his or her own judgment of the 
 -correctness or truth of any theory, but in justice to 
 themselves they should seek every opportunity to ac- 
 quaint themselves as thoroughly as possible with all the 
 principles involved, and thus be able to arrive at an in- 
 telligent conclusion. What should we think of a jury 
 who should render a verdict of guilty against a person 
 ■on trial, simply because the advocate who pleaded in 
 the prisoner's behalf was himself unworthy of their con- 
 fidence, while the preponderance of evidence clearly ex- 
 culpated the accused. I am aware that there are a 
 ■class of Spiritualists, and am sorry to say that a major- 
 ity of them have come out of the different branches of 
 the Protestant Church, where they were once "in good 
 
SPIRITUAL, OR MAGNETIC FORCES. 11 
 
 and regular standing," who ignore God and everything 
 holy and sacred, scoff at religion and boast of their 
 prowess in so doing. Such men were hypocrites in the 
 Church, and are entitled to no respect nor consideration 
 out of it. They are simply society warts, excrescences 
 we would gladly be rid of, but for which there seems to 
 be no remedy. Both science and religion are founded 
 in law. The law of the universe which is God's law, 
 is the foundation upon which both rest ; and I have no 
 respect for, nor sympathy with any scientific or religious 
 theory which eliminates a merciful, kind, loving and all 
 powerful God from this universe. I do not believe my 
 existence is due to fortuitous circumstances, or that I 
 am the creature of blind chance ; but, on the contrary, 
 that I am because of the operations of divine laws de- 
 creed by the great intelligent first cause, and by and 
 through the operations of those divine laws /, that is 
 the me — my personality, my soul — will be preserved 
 during the eternal ages. Remove the cause, and the 
 effect ceases ; eliminate God from the universe, 
 and all matter is at once annihilated. The ef- 
 fect cannot exist independent of the cause. In 
 the common acceptation of the term. Religion, it 
 means the worship of unseen spirits, and worship im- 
 plies prayers and petitions to such unseen spirits. This 
 was the essence of the religion of the ancients. It has 
 been the foundation stone of many of the religious sys- 
 tems, while others have taught the brotherhood of the 
 race, as did Buddhism first and Christianity last, and 
 more perfectly by its great founder Jesus Christ. Many 
 of the ancient religions or religious systems ignored the 
 obligations of man to man, and actually taught supreme 
 selfishness between individuals, recognizing no obliga- 
 
12 SPIRITUAL, OR MAGNETIC FORCES. 
 
 tions upon the individual to any, save a higher and 
 supernatural power or powers. So that the term, relig- 
 ion, is somewhat ambiguous ; hence, in determining 
 whether modern Spiritualism is, or is not a religion, it 
 seems essential to define the term. If to be religious 
 is to worship unseen spirits, then Spiritualism is not a 
 religion ; for its votaries no niore worship the spirits of 
 the unseen world, than they do those spirits with which 
 they are in daily communication here in the flesh. 
 
 But again, as it teaches the brotherhood of man,, 
 man's personal obligations to his fellow man, and so 
 far as it inculcates love to mankind and good to the 
 race, the leading of a pure and unselfish life, so far it is 
 religious, for " pure and undefiled religion consists in 
 this, to visit the widow and fatherless in their afflic- 
 tion," which, in a broader sense means, to comfort the 
 afflicted, succor the distressed, to relieve the suffering, 
 and to help the poor, " and keep himself unspotted 
 (pure) before the world." 
 
 It is thought by many to be susceptible of demon- 
 stration that modern Spiritualism approaches nearer 
 to primitive Christianity as taught by, and exempli- 
 fied in the life of Christ, than any other system of re- 
 ligion. In a careful and candid perusal of the life of 
 Christ, as given by the evangelists in the four gospels, 
 we are impressed with the fact that His religion con- 
 sisted not in creeds, not in forms, but in good deeds tO' 
 humanity, and inculcating on his followers humility, 
 the forgiveness of injuries, and the living of unselfish 
 lives. His life was set as a living example for all time, 
 of the power of love. During his entire life on earth, 
 he preached but one sermon,-but his whole life was a 
 sermon without semicolon or period. Almost his en- 
 
SPIRITUAL, OR MAONBTIC FORCES. 13 
 
 tire time was devoted to healing the sick, " curing all 
 manner of diseases ; " what he said, was only incidental 
 conversa!tion, principally with his disciples. He pub- 
 lished no creed ; he did not even organize a society 
 from among his followers, neither did he enjoin it upon 
 his disciples so to do. When he had sufficiently in- 
 structed his disciples in the new religion, " He called 
 them unto Him, and gave them power to heal all man- 
 ner of sickness and all manner of disease." He " sent 
 them forth to preach, saying, the kingdom of Heaven" 
 — or the establishment of a universal religion for hu- 
 manity, a religion of love and good deeds — " is at hand." 
 They were charged as they went, " to heal the sick, 
 cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils. Free- 
 ly ye have received " — these gifts — '' so freely bestow 
 the blessings upon others." He also admonished them 
 to beware of men who did not receive them kindly, for 
 "they would be delivered up to councils " — church 
 tribunals — " and scourged in the synagogues." He 
 also further enjoined them as follows : " But when 
 they deliver you up, take no thought how, or what ye 
 shall speak ; for it shall be given you in that same hour 
 what ye shall, speak. For, it is not ye that speak, but 
 the spirit of your Father which speaketh in you." Now, 
 how very like this is, to the higher thought and exper- 
 ience of modern Spiritualism. 
 
 The question arises, should Christ himself come up- 
 on earth in person and repeat these experiences, is there 
 a church in the land that would tolerate him for an 
 hour, and would rtot his followers be treated as oppro- 
 briously by the church hierarchy, as are the spiritual 
 teachers of the present day ? It is a fact that the teach- 
 ers among modern spiritualists, claim that it is not them- 
 
14 SPIRITUAL, OK MAGNETIC FORCES. 
 
 selves who speak, but the spirit speaking in, or through 
 them, and in our investigations we have often listened 
 to discourses of an hour's length, containing thoughts 
 sublime and pure, and couched in language most elo- 
 quent and forcible, and all extemporized from a subject 
 given to the speaker without previous knowledge or 
 thought. These discourses were often delivered by un- 
 educated persons, and yet I have never known a public 
 lecturer of the highest gifts, equal them. 
 
 In discussing Spiritualism as a science, we shall ven- 
 ture to trespass upon the field of magnetism — " animal 
 magnetism," it is usually termed, which term is also in- 
 adequate to convey a true idea of this philosophy or 
 science ; strictly speaking, it is not animal magnetism, 
 except, and only as in contradistinction, from inert or 
 metallic magnetism ; in one case it is magnetism ob- 
 tained from, or communicated through inert matter ; in 
 the other it is through matter vitalized into life, quick- 
 ened and kept alive by the activity of spiritual forces ;. 
 in either case the material body is not the magnetism 
 itself, but only the receptacle and the means or instru- 
 ment throngh which, and by which, the magnetic influ- 
 ence is exerted and operates. In both cases the source 
 of magnetic influence is an etherial substance, so finely 
 attenuated that we cannot discover it with the most 
 powerful object glass, nor by chemical analysis, and 
 yet is so potential that all men bow submissively before 
 its power as before Divine will. When manifested 
 through inert matter, we designate it as an electrical 
 substance. When its influence is exerted by one indi- 
 vidual upon another, we designate it as the operation 
 of mind upon mind, or a spiritual influence upon either 
 spirit or matter. In this last sense we shall treat it as 
 
SPIRITUAL, OR MAGNETIC FORCES. IS' 
 
 animal magnetism, the influences of which, or the ef- 
 fects, all proceed from spiritual causes. In this con- 
 nection we link Spiritualism to, and with animal mag- 
 netism. In our animal natures, we are parts and par- 
 cels of this material world ; we breathe its atmosphere,, 
 we drink its waters, we eat the products of its soil. 
 Analyze a shovelful of earth, and we find it contains- 
 the same elementary substances which go to form our 
 bodies ; why and wherein do we, then — independent of 
 our souls, or spirits — differ from the rocks — except in 
 the uses for which nature designed us ; but the " breath 
 of life, has never been breathed into " the rocks, hence 
 science deals with them as inanimate nature ; while 
 the great Architect of nature has formed our bodies, 
 as receptacles, or tenements for the abode of the 
 soul, mind, or spirit while it dwells in this sublun- 
 ary sphere. Therefore, we should endeavor to keep- 
 ourselves in harmony with the complexity of nature- 
 and nature's laws.' 
 
 The foregoing proposition being conceded, it fol- 
 lows, that our physical system possesses no power of 
 itself, other than that which is purely chemical, to 
 influence other bodies, or material things. There- 
 fore, we are forced to the irresistible conclusion, that 
 mind, soul, or spirit is the actual power which governs,, 
 influences and controls all 'nature, whether animate or 
 inanimate. It is my soul, mind, or spirit that thinks,, 
 wills and causes my physical system to act, and in ex- 
 ercising my mind power upon another, I influence him,, 
 or her, to act in harmony with my judgment or desires- 
 Much has been said and written upon what is termed 
 " animal magnetism," and yet who is able to define 
 that term with any degree of scientific exactness ? 
 
16 SPIRITUAL, OR MAGNETIC FORCES. 
 
 We hear of magnetic physicians, magnetic treatment, 
 magnetic influence, etc., and yet who knows what ani- 
 mal magnetism is? Believers in the curative powers 
 of animal magnetism, so-called, will submit to be 
 pounded and rubbed by a so-called magnetic doctor, 
 when they would not let an attendant even touch 
 them for fear of giving them pain. Why is this? 
 There are public lecturers who are termed magnetic, 
 because they are able to hold their audiences spell- 
 bound through a long lecture, while other public 
 speakers might not be able to command their attention 
 one-fourth of the time, and even then they would be 
 uneasy in their seats. There are certain others who 
 by their presence, even without the utterance of a 
 word, seem to exert a so-called magnetic influence over 
 thfe assembly ; others again by coming frequently in 
 contact with persons oppositely inclined, seem to and 
 actually do, absorb the vital forces of that other per- 
 son. Others still, being brought in close contact with 
 persons of different constitution, repel them. So we 
 see that persons who possess this subtle power — and 
 all men and all women possess it in one form or another 
 — do not, and cannot manifest it in the same form or 
 manner. One can by the exercise of his will force, 
 stop a person while walking on the street, without speak- 
 ing or even without the person who is thus influenced 
 being aware of his presence. Another is able by sim- 
 ply " laying on of hands " upon a person who is " suscept- 
 ible of his influence, to allay suffering, relieve pain, and 
 and often affect a radical cure, as I have myself wit- 
 nessed in cases which once would have been recorded 
 as miraculous. Others again who give no outward 
 manifestations of possessing in any degree this wonder- 
 
SPmiTUAL, OB MAGNETIC FORCES. 17 
 
 ful power, are what can only be termed absorbents of 
 vital force — or vitalized life. I knew a lady who had 
 buried four husbands and was then living with the fifth, 
 who was apparently in a decline. The lady in question 
 was mi^d-tempered, kind-hearted and very affectionate ; 
 her several husbands were said to have been hale and 
 vigorous at their marriage, and all lived happily their 
 married lives, but she, by her peculiar organism-, absorb- 
 ed their vital force. This was by no particular force or 
 action of her will, for as I have said she seemed to be 
 devoid of passion, and was what is termed a passive 
 and not a positive person. 
 
 I knew of two young men who were brought to- 
 gether in a joint business relation ; one was feeble in 
 health and had been for a long time ; the other was 
 robust and hearty ; they boarded and slept together. 
 Their views upon all subjects with which they were fa- 
 miliar, harmonized perfectly. The result was, in a 
 short time the feeble one gained rapidly in strength and 
 the other declined as rapidly, until the one who was at 
 first so feeble had wholly absorbed the vital force of the 
 other, and he died without any apparent cause, as the 
 physicians could only say, "he went into a decline." 
 Now, then, where are we to look for this influence which 
 takes on so many different forms ; all of which we call 
 " magnetism !" While there are those that possess this 
 influence in a manner which draws others to them, others 
 still possess it in exactly an opposite degree, and with 
 equal force repel those who are differently constituted. 
 Now, we know that these propositions are scientific facts 
 while the so-called "magnetic healers," are able, of our 
 own knowledge, by the laying on of hands, to effect 
 radical cures in cases which will not yield to -ordinary 
 
18 SPIHITUAL, OR MAGNETIC FORCES. 
 
 medical treatment. We also know of our own knowl- 
 edge that they fail utterly with other persons afflicted 
 in a similar manner. Now, then,we cannot look for the 
 origin of this subtle force simply in the exercise of the 
 will, for as I have said, it is exercised and manifests it- 
 self in various ways by persons of various temperaments, 
 and with equal effect in each individual case. We 
 know there is such a thing as "will power," "will force," 
 which is brought into requisition by the active princi- 
 ple of the soul, to sustain the judgment previously 
 formed, and this varies in degree with individuals. 
 Some persons capable of judging correctly, are so defi- 
 cient in will force as to be utterly unable to resist the 
 judgments of others, who are less capable of judging 
 correctly ; consequently they never perform great deeds, 
 such as commend themselves to the admiration of others. 
 So in exercising this subtle, magnetic influence, a pas- 
 sive person may by a superhuman effort bring all the 
 power of his or her will force to bear upon a positive 
 person, without being in the least degree able to in 
 fluence his judgment or actions. I admit that in certain 
 developments of this faculty, as for instance, that of 
 being able to utter common-place truths to an audience 
 so as to command their profound attention and elicit 
 their commendation, and other like cases, the will force 
 is a necessary adjunct, but it is' not the motive power 
 which conveys the impression ; there may after all be 
 found a person or persons in the audience who possess 
 even stronger will force than the speaker does, and 
 whose judgment cause them to form conclusions at va- 
 riance with the speaker ; but yet, they are none the less 
 charmed by the oratory. So in private and social con- 
 versation with an entire stranger in a drawing-room. 
 
SPIRITUAL, OR MAGNETIC FORCES. 19 
 
 though our judgments may not always agree, yet his very 
 presence has left an impression of innate power and gen- 
 ius, from all which, we inquire again whence comes this 
 power, or faculty ? Is it inherent in man's nature, an 
 attribute of the soul ? It surely is not an attribute in 
 the sense that love is, for it is strengthened or weakened 
 in its ability to manifest itself, with a normal or ab- 
 normal condition of the physical system except, when 
 passively exercised to absorb vital force, as in 
 the cases I have cited, while those we generally 
 term attributes may be, and are, fully exercised by a 
 person while suffering from a seriously impaired phys- 
 ical system. This faculty is dependent upon a compar- 
 atively healthy organism for its development. Will 
 power is brought to bear upon it as a necessary adjunct 
 of its exercise, and the nervous system must be in its 
 normal condition. Some are more susceptible of mag- 
 netic influence in its various forms than others ; for in- 
 stance, a person of lymphatic temperament is less sus- 
 ceptible than one who is unselfish and of broader views. 
 Young children are the most susceptible, owing to the 
 fact of their being in a condition of moral innocence. 
 With them judgment does not act philosophically ; they 
 quickly judge those with whom they are brought in 
 contact from facial expressions, and they immediately 
 yield their confidence, or are as readily repulsed. I 
 have often thought that young children are the best 
 judges of human nature, for their judgments are in- 
 stantly formed from the indications on the mind's dial 
 plate, which we know it is impossible for anyone to 
 disguise or set incorrectly. Let a morose, ill-tempered 
 person endeavor for prudential reasons, to hide his real 
 character, yet it is indelibly stamped in the features of 
 
20 SPIRITUAL, OR MAGNETIC FORCES. 
 
 I 
 
 the face and expression of the eye, and the child unless 
 it be ill-bred or stupid reads the true character as quick 
 as thought, and withholds its confidence. It is evident 
 that this subtle power is not lodged with the nervous 
 constitution, although it may be essential tljat the ner- 
 vous system sliall be in a normal condition to enable 
 the person to exercise the full power of his or her mag- 
 netic influence. Is it not then a faculty of the mind or 
 soul, a part of the spiritual nature ? If that be so, one 
 says how comes it that sickness or physical suffering 
 obscures or prevents its action, for surely a greatly im- 
 paired physical system does not prevent the soul from 
 exercising emotions of love and hate. Very true, I re- 
 ply, but it does impair memory and oftentimes de- 
 thrones it entirely ; and yet, memory is one of the at- 
 tributes of the soul. I would not class this'subtle mag- 
 netic power as an attribute, for if it is, it should de- 
 velop the same in all persons — except in degree — as in- 
 herent in everyone. But I rather class it as a faculty 
 of the soul, contingent for its development, power and 
 manifestation, upon correlative faculties and attributes, 
 in order to secure its normal action, and these all de- 
 pendent . upon a nervous constitution in perfect har- 
 mony therewith ; in other words, the individual taken 
 as a whole, made up of matter and spirit must be en- 
 rapport with himself, then, he is in a condition to exer- 
 cise his entire magnetic or soul power over another who 
 may be susceptible of such influence. Now, then, this 
 faculty like all the others is susceptible of cultivation 
 and development. Memory can be strengthened only 
 by exercise. Thus history teaches us, that in ancient 
 times before there was a written language, men were 
 capable of memorizing and repeating verbatum whole 
 
SPIRITUAL, OB MAGNETIC FORCES. 31 
 
 histories, which make a volume equal in extent to the 
 Bible. This could not have been, had they printed li- 
 braries to which they could at once resort for desired in- 
 formation. It has been said that unlettered and ignorant 
 persons have a stronger memory than the educated and 
 refined, and owing to the very fact of their ignorance, 
 their mind is taught to remember ; they rely wholly up- 
 on memory. One possesses the faculty for successful 
 trade ; he cultivates that one faculty and becomes rich, 
 but it is at the expense of other and more ennobling 
 qualities, and so on. Now, then, as I have said, this 
 faculty — so-called magnetism — is susceptible of culti- 
 vation and development, and while it is spiritual soul 
 power, it belongs to the domains of science. In taking 
 another's hand in salutation, one who has cultivated 
 this faculty, may be able to more correctly judge of the 
 leading traits in another's character than by conversa- 
 tion, for the reason that this influence is instantly and 
 unconsciously communicated, while in conversation the 
 individual may be guarded in his expressions, continu- 
 ally throwing up breast-works to shield his real charac- 
 ter from observation. 
 
 Again, no person can write a letter without leaving 
 the impress of his or her general character upon the 
 sheet, unconsciously communicated by the outflow of 
 this subtle fluid through the hand, and the same can 
 be read by a person who has developed this faculty to 
 a high degree. I was once called upon — during a dis- 
 cussion of this same subject at a hotel, in company with 
 several gentlemen — to examine the hotel register, and 
 delineate the characters of the guests of the previous 
 day. I complied with their request, and gave the lead- 
 ing traits of character to one page of signatures, not 
 
23 SPIRITUAL, OE MAGNETIC FORCES. 
 
 one of the signers had I ever seen or heard of. Taking 
 them consecutively, the landlord writing my impres- 
 sions as fast as given, and at the close, he remarked to 
 the gentlemen present, " I know every one of those 
 men except four, and he has given their characters as 
 correctly as I could of my actual knowledge." 
 
 I knew a secretary of an insurance company who was 
 thus able to judge of character, and I heard a celebra- 
 ted lawyer say : " I have been attorney for that com- 
 pany for ten years, and when that secretary receives a 
 lettercontaining a notice of loss, he is able as quick as 
 thought to decide upon the merits of the claims. He 
 seems able to judge intuitively as to its validity, and in 
 all my practice on behalf of the company, the results 
 have shown that he has never, in a single instance, 
 made a mistake." 
 
 In such cases as I have cited — and many more— it 
 •was a discernment of things not present to the senses, 
 quite as much so, as what is commonly termed clair- 
 voyance. And I beg to enquire, what is clairvoyance 
 but the exercise of this same faculty ? We now come 
 to a brief discussion of the influence — unconsciously 
 exercised — of one mind upon another. How many 
 thousand times in the life and experience of almost 
 everyone has it occurred, that the mind of the in- 
 dividual abandons all other matters and things for 
 the time being and calls up the memories of a long 
 absent friend or business acquaintance, and that, too, 
 without any apparent cause, and almost immediately 
 that other one calls upon us to renew old friendships 
 or engage our attention to some business enterprise. 
 The following most extraordinary case came under 
 my own observation. A man was in financial dififi- 
 
SPIRITUAL, OR MAGNETIC FORCES. 23 
 
 culty, and called upon his friend for advice ; they 
 had not spent to exceed one-half hour in conversa- 
 tion, before his friend remarked, " Mr. can loan 
 
 you the necessary amount ($I0,000) to tide you over." 
 " Yes," he replied, " it is true he has the money, but he 
 will not help me. I never had a business transaction 
 with him in my life, and besides, he is an exacting man, 
 and I have no security to offer." " Very well," his 
 friend replied, he is now in his office . waiting and ex- 
 pecting you to call on him, for what he does not know; 
 go at once and exert all your magnetic powers with 
 him, and I will be there in spirit to aid you." It was 
 a desperate case with him, and he hastened to the gen- 
 tleman's office, found him as stated, and, before he 
 left, obtained his ten thousand dollars. The gentle- 
 man who thus loaned the money, in speaking of it the 
 day following, to a friend, remarked, " It was the most 
 insane financial act I ever committed, and why I should 
 have done it is past my comprehension." I know a 
 lady who had a very dear brother residing many hun- 
 dred miles distant from her home. At various times, 
 covering years of experience, she has suddenly received 
 impressions that her brother was about to visit her, 
 and these impressions in every case came without any 
 previous correspondence between them. Her convic- 
 tions or rather impressions have been so firmly fixed in 
 her mind that she has abandoned her regular house, 
 hold duties for an entire day and taken a position at a 
 window to note his coming, and in every case her im- 
 pressions have proved correct. From whence did she 
 receive these impressions? 
 
 Another case, which came to me, so well authenti- 
 cated that I do not doubt its veracity. A man living 
 
24 SPIRITUAL, OH MAGNETIC FORCES. ^ 
 
 in Connecticut enticed his wife to walk with him one 
 afternoon to a stream of water^^ that ran through a bor- 
 der of the town ; on reaching the stream he seized her 
 and plunged her under the water holding her down un- 
 til she was dead, then dragged her body up the bank of 
 the stream, covering it with brush and leaves. That 
 very night the murdered lady's mother, residing in an- 
 other town several miles distant, received an impression 
 that something terrible had befallen her daughter, and 
 that in some way her daughter's husband was responsi- 
 ble for it. She was unable to divest herself of these 
 impressions and became so intensified with the impress- 
 ion she could not sleep, and wrote a letter sending it 
 by the morning's mail to the husband of her daughter, 
 asking him briefly and earnestly, what was the matter 
 with her daughter, and calling for an immediate reply. 
 She received an answer by next mail, that his wife had 
 left home suddenly and he could get no clue of her. 
 The facts of the murder as I have stated were soon as- 
 certained. Now then from what source did this mother 
 receive so suddenly and correctly those impressions, 
 if not from the mind or soul power of her murdered 
 daughter ? I am* aware this borders on spiritualism — 
 but what if it does ? Are we necessarily compelled to 
 allow our bigotry or preconceived prejudices to operate 
 upon our judgments to compel us to ignore facts ? As 
 I have said, we are now in the domain of science. In 
 the matter of mind power, its various manifestations 
 and development, we are dealing with scientific prob- 
 lems. If the proposition be true that one mind can act 
 upon and influence another mind, while surrounded with 
 all that is apparent to the senses in this life, it certainly 
 is true that the mind that is divested of the entanglement 
 
SPIRITUAL, OR MAGNETIC TORCES. 25 
 
 of this earthly life is equally able to exert equal influ- 
 ence, for the death qf the body can neither destroy nor 
 impair the powers and capacities of the mind. We 
 know that the mind can and does act freely and rapidly, 
 entirely independent of physical consciousness, as in 
 dreaming ; and there are well authenticated cases on 
 record, of deep and intricate problems having been 
 solved by the mind while the body was totally uncon- 
 scious from sleep, and if this be true, then the mind di- 
 vested of the body is equally able to act, and instead of 
 discarding these as vague and undefinable theories, does 
 it not rather become us to class them as scientific the- 
 ories worthy of our investigation. When the St. Pe- 
 tersburg and Moscow railway was built it called forth 
 the anathemas of the ignorant priests of that country, 
 and when the first train ran over the road they set up 
 on the track a statue of one of their most eminent saints; 
 the engineer mistaking it for a man, shut off the steam 
 from his engine, whistled down the brakes, and stopped 
 the train just before reaching the statue. The priests 
 and their deluded and bigoted followers clapped their 
 hands and shouted for joy, that the saint had thus 
 stopped the infernal innovation ; but the engineer of the 
 train, did not propose to allow the wheels of progress 
 to be stopped by the statue of a dead saint ; reversing 
 his engine he backed a suitable distance to obtain suffi- 
 cient momentum, then ran foward with all his power, 
 shattering the statue into fragments. It ill becomes 
 advanced thinkers of this age, and in this land of free 
 thought and progress, to allow the ghost of bigotry to 
 stifle scientific investigation". 
 
 In view of all that has been said, then, is it unreason- 
 able to predict, or is it taxing one's credulity too much 
 
•26 SPIRITUAL, OR MAGNETIC FORCES. 
 
 to ask any one to believe that in the future develop- 
 ment of this mind power, or magnetic influence, it may 
 be possible for persons far apart to communicate with 
 ■each other instantaneously by such means, and through 
 this channel of communication may not the unseen ages 
 of the future witness a closer union between the spirit- 
 ual and material universe. The laws of God are all 
 involved in what' we term science ; and it is only by deep 
 thought and patient searching that men are able to dis- 
 cover them. We know that all effects cognizable to 
 our senses may be traceable back to their ultimate cause, 
 and that all true science is truth, and all truth is in 
 harmony with the universe, and with God, its great 
 author, and it is only by searckin^^ that we can find out 
 truth. During my investigations in Spiritualism, or 
 spiritual manifestations, I have known uneducated men 
 and women mediums, while in the trance condition, 
 deliver lectures of profound philosophy, couched in lan- 
 guage elegant, forcible and comprehensive, such lan- 
 guage and such logic as they were entirely unable to use 
 in conversation when in their normal condition. Now, 
 then, how comes this, unless their minds were for the 
 time being operated upon, taken possession of, or con- 
 trolled by some other mind or spirit fully competent by 
 education to elucidate the subject treated. I know of no 
 other explanation. As a parallel case in magnetism, I will 
 cite a personal experience< For months I had been severe- 
 ly afflicted with neuralgia and rheumatism ; not a single 
 day passed without enduring extreme suffering. I had 
 exhausted all known remedies without avail, and con- 
 cluded to call upon a physician ; he held me by the 
 hand as he diagnosed my case. I was suffering greatly 
 at the time. He prescribed no remedies, but directed me 
 
SPIRITUAL, OR MAGNETIC FORCES. 27 
 
 to call again the second day following, which I did, but 
 soon after leaving him my suffering ceased altogether, 
 and for one entire day — the first in the year — I was 
 free from pain. When I returned on the day appointed, 
 I remarked to him that he must be strongly magnetic, 
 for my neuralgic pains all left me soon after leaving him, 
 and did not return for a whole day. He replied, " Yes. I 
 felt your pains after you left." Now, then, these are 
 not theories ; they are simple statements of facts. How 
 are they to be accounted for, unless upon the the- 
 ory that this subtle fluid we call " magnetic-electro " 
 passes from one organism into another, acting upon 
 the nervous system of that other person in a positive 
 degree, thus vitalizing the nerve centres, and creating 
 a healthy action throughout the entire system, and 
 that this positive action results from mind or spirit 
 force. This " magnetic electro fluid," which pas.ses 
 from one to the other, is but the soul's carpenter sent 
 to repair the decaying tenement of a brother's soul. 
 Sympathy, affection and love ever stand ready to send 
 forth this messenger of good, on errands of mercy. I 
 once, in company with another gentleman, visited an 
 artist, who said he only painted by direction of the 
 spirits ; he had never taken a lesson in painting, and be- 
 sides, was an illiterate person ; yet he would, and did 
 paint a beautiful landscape picture, twenty by thirty 
 inches in size, when in a trance condition, in less than 
 half an hour, that would have required many days to 
 execute by an ordinary skilled artist. The gentleman 
 who called with me had some years previously lost by 
 death his only daughter, a little girl of about two and 
 a half years of age, and as he had no photograph of the 
 child, inquired of the artist's wife — for that day no one 
 
38 SPIRITUAL, OR MAGNETIC FORCES. 
 
 was admitted to his room — if her husband could make 
 a sketch of his child. The lady went to her husband's 
 room, and shortly returned with a pencil sketch and 
 handed it to my friend, who shed tears of joy as soon 
 as he saw it, remarking, " That is my child sure." The 
 picture was in the attitude of a child sitting upon its 
 mother's lap, and looking up into its parent's face. 
 The lady said that as soon as she made known her er- 
 rand to her husband, he remarked ; " There's a little 
 girl sitting on my knee now ; I don't know whether it's 
 the gentleman's child or not ; give me a pencil and 
 sheet of paper, and I'll sketch her." My friend took 
 the picture home, and as soon as his wife saw it, she 
 burst into tears, exclaiming : " Where in the world did 
 you get Dotte's picture." Now, then, in this remarka- 
 ble case, there was not the slightest chance for " mind 
 reading," as it is frequently alleged, for my friend 
 never had seen the artist ; but granting that the pic- 
 ture was correct, and that the child was materialized 
 to the artist, it is evident that there was a correspond- 
 ence between the father and the spirit of the little one, 
 else why this manifestation, and correct sketch of the 
 child's face. Take another case, and I ask my reader for 
 a solution of the mystery. Two of my own children were 
 absent from home a thousand miles distant. The last news 
 from them, one was quite ill. I wrote and telegraphed, 
 but could get no reply ; both myself and wife became 
 exceedingly anxious for their welfare. I called upon 
 a spiritualistic medium, and asked her if she could get 
 information of them ; presently she went in a trance 
 condition and stated that she saw them both, that one 
 had been very ill, but had recovered, and a young lady 
 friend was visiting her, — describing the young lady — 
 
SPIKITUAL, OR MAGNETIC FORCES. 39 
 
 she also described what both my children were doing 
 at the time, furthermore, that a letter was then on the 
 way to me from them, and I should receive it that 
 evening or the next morning. The next forenoon the 
 postman brought me the letter, which confirmed the 
 truth of every statement made to me by the medium. 
 Now then, the medium did not read these facts in my 
 own mind, as I have heard skeptics allege, for I had 
 no mind concerning the facts stated, and afterward 
 proven ; I had not the remotest thought of them ; then 
 how came the medium by this information unless it 
 was communicated to her by an unseen spirit, for it 
 was intelligence. There are hidden forces in nature 
 which science is not able yet to demonstrate. Civili- 
 zation means a high culture of the religious, intellect- 
 ual, moral and physical forces, and in order to their 
 development, we must understand the laws which in- 
 fluence and control their operations. It ill becomes 
 sensible persons to scoff at phenomena which they do 
 not understand, or are unable to comprehend. With 
 regard to materialization of spirits, we all know it is 
 true, very few at least there are who doubt the fact, 
 that the angel appeared to Abraham, as he stood in 
 the door of his tent, and discoursed intelligently with 
 him concerning the welfare of his friends who dwelt in 
 Sodom, or that the spirit of the crucified Jesus was 
 materialized to his beloved disciples. Thomas, the 
 skeptic, was told to thrust his hand into his- side, where 
 the cruel spear was pierced, and doing so, believed. 
 Now, then, if the law of materialization then existed, 
 it does at the present time. I have found that inform- 
 ation of things past or present communicated through 
 the so-called spiritualistic mediums has been absolutely 
 correct in every instance. 
 
30 SPIRITUAL, OR MAGNETIC FORCES. 
 
 Facts concerning future events of importance to 
 us may come to tiie knowledge of departed spirits, 
 who are in sympathy with us and are glad of an oppor- 
 tunity to give us all desired information. If this be 
 true, I fail to see in the fact anything at all inconsistent 
 with religion or science. On the contrary, confirm- 
 atory of both. Mind and matter are so inseparably 
 linked together here, that it is very difficult at times 
 to understand or fully comprehend the operations of the 
 former upon the latter ; or the independent operations 
 of the former free from the influences of the latter. 
 
 This fact leads us to discuss, though briefly, the phil- 
 osophy of dreams as links in this chain of spiritual or 
 magnetic causes. 
 
 A mystery has always attached itself to dreams. In 
 early times the people were unacquainted with science, 
 and their philosophy was of that character which attribu- 
 ted all events not cognizable to their natural senses as 
 the result of supernatural agencies. " And God spake 
 to Joseph in a dream." The illiterate of all ages have 
 attached great importance to dreams. The Celt be- 
 lieved, and still believes, " that dreams always go by 
 contraries ; " that is to say, they are proofs in negation, 
 or positive assurance to him that the thing dreamed 
 will not only not occur, but that directly the opposite 
 will. Others attach so much importance to dreams, 
 that they dare not act contrary to what they conceive 
 to be the instructions or directions conveyed. Now, 
 then, I do not claim that no importance is to be at- 
 tached to dreams, or that individuals have not been 
 benefitted by or through dreams. On the contrary, 
 much good has resulted both to individuals and com- 
 munities. That there is or ever was, any supernatural 
 
SPIRITUAL, OR MAGNETIC FORCES. 31 
 
 agency involved, I do most emphatically deny. This 
 being asserted, then we will first endeavor to ascertain 
 the cause or causes for dreaming. And in this connec- 
 tion, I will say, there are three prime causes ; one lies 
 in the peculiar condition of the physical system of the 
 dreamer ; the second in his mental condition, the 
 third in the ability of some other spirit to control the 
 mind of the dreamer. We hold that the mind can 
 act entirely independent of the brain tissues and nerve 
 fibres of our material structure. Were this proposi- 
 tion not true, then there could be no existence when 
 this life is ended — and that in very many instances 
 the mind does thus act in dreaming. But there are a 
 certain class of dreams that result from a disordered 
 stomach, or exhaustion produced by excessive physical 
 exerqise, or physical injuries. I once knew a lady who 
 suffered greatly from obesity. She consulted a celebra- 
 ted physician who prescribed a rigid diet as the only rem- 
 edy. She adopted it and adhered to his directions most 
 religiously, and with rapid improvement, although the 
 denial of those indulgences of which she formerly free- 
 ly partook, was a severe trial. Not long after she had 
 placed herself upon this severe diet, she became so rest- 
 less that for many nights she was not able to sleep, ex- 
 cept at intervals. During one of those nights, she dreamed 
 that she was ushered into a large dining hall, with the ta- 
 bles all spread and loaded to profusion with every va- 
 riety of food arranged and prepared in the most delicious 
 and attractive manner. She was about to rush forward 
 and help herself to repletion, when her attendant seized 
 her by the arm and held her back. With this she 
 screamed, awakening herself not only, but also her 
 friends in an adjoining room, who quickly ran to her 
 
33 SPIRITUAL, OR MAGNETIC FORCBS. 
 
 assistance. Now, in this case, the primary cause of the 
 dream was the morbid condition of her stomach, owing 
 to its lack of usual nervous and muscular exercise in 
 the process of digestion. 
 
 The writer once dreamed that he was about to deliv- 
 er a lecture, and his manuscript was placed in a pan or 
 dish, a boy standing behind him continually dropping 
 into the dish, and upon the manuscript, dry crusts of 
 bread and lumps of hard cooked meat, and in order to 
 see and read the manuscript he was compelled con- 
 stantly to eat this food, until finally becoming so pleth- 
 oric he was unable to proceed. Turning to the chair- 
 man, he inquired if the hall was to be occupied the fol- 
 lowing evening ; he replied that it was not. Address- 
 ing the audience, he stated that this was the first lec- 
 ture he had ever attempted to eat, and if it was no more 
 palatable to them than it was to himself, it was a fail- 
 ure, and he would proceed no farther, and begged to be 
 excused from masticating any more of it, but if they 
 would come the next evening he would give them a 
 free lecture with the cold collation left out. 
 
 Now, the cause of this singular dream was this: the 
 writer was just recovering from a severe illness, during 
 which the digestive organs had become weakened, and 
 the evening previous he had partaken quite freely of 
 flesh food that his stomach in its then impaired condi- 
 tion could not digest, and he passed a restless night, 
 only catching at intervals a few moments sleep. The 
 physical suffering was the cause of my dream, and the 
 absurd idea of associating the undigestable food — the 
 cause of my distiress — with the delivery of a lecture, 
 grew out of the fact that I spent the previous evening 
 in writing. 
 
SPIRITUAL, OR MAGNETIC FORCES. 33 
 
 There are many instances where the mind seems to, 
 and indeed does, act independently where the system 
 is in a healthy condition. For instance, a celebrated 
 mathematician was employed for days and weeks in at- 
 tempting to solve a profound mathematical problem, 
 without success. One night after giving it up in de- 
 spair, he retired, and soon fell into a sound sleep, and 
 soon after resolved the problem in his dream, which so 
 delighted him that he awoke and instantly arose, light- 
 ed his candle, placed the result on paper, then set him- 
 self to prove the problem, and was so exercised with 
 his achievement that he could sleep no more that night. 
 I could cite several parallel cases. Now, if his physical 
 system had not been in a normal condition, his mind 
 would have been embarrassed in its operations, and this 
 result could not have been reached ; but his entire sys- 
 tem being in a healthy condition, his mind was free to 
 act without even being subjected to those perplexing 
 hindrances which prevented the exercise of his full 
 mental powers when awake, and conscious of objects 
 about him. Another very interesting fact in this 
 connection is the brief time required to solve the 
 problem in his dream, for he had accomplished in his 
 half hour's sleep what he had failed to do in days of 
 hard and patient efforts. I distinctly remember a 
 dream of my own, that goes to prove that the mind 
 at such times acts with marvelous rapidity. The ser- 
 vant was accustomed to come to my room each morn- 
 ing early to re-kindle my grate fire. At this time I 
 heard the rap on the door, and as instantly fell asleep 
 again. At the second rap my wife awoke me. During 
 the time which intervened between the two raps — 
 which could have be\en but a few seconds — I dreamed 
 
34 SPIRITUAL, OR MAGNETIC FORCES. 
 
 of the result of a contemplated business transaction, 
 which would have occupied my mind for hours when 
 awake to have resolved. 
 
 There are many parallel cases on record. Very few 
 persons are able to relate in detail the dream they had 
 during the previous night, and why ? Simply because 
 the mind is occupied but a moment, as it were, with 
 the dream, and that is just at the moment of awaking, 
 and there has not been time to indelibly impress it 
 upon the memory, for in returning to consciousness, out- 
 er objects crowd themselves upon the mind occupying 
 all its faculties. Were it true that dreams occur dur- 
 ing the time of deep and continued sleep, and were of 
 so long duration as they seem to us, memory would 
 hold them in her grasp and be able to report on call. 
 
 We can measure the velocity of light, also of sound 
 waves ; but we cannot calculate the rapidity of thought. 
 Could we conceive of a well-balanced mind in a con- 
 scious state,, alale to thoroughly and completely isolate 
 itself from, or exclude all outward objects, and things 
 foreign to the one subject under consideration, we 
 should experience such development of mind powers 
 as the world has never conceived of. I admit that 
 some dreams are of that nature, and occur under cir- 
 cumstances which render it difficult to account for 
 them, except by the law of influence ; to a greater or 
 less extent we are all under this law. Unconsciously 
 we are acting under the influence of others in our busi- 
 ness affairs, in our political, religious and social life; 
 some mind or minds more powerful, or it may be more 
 active in their exercise than our own, are continually and 
 to a large degree controlling our actions, and it is not 
 altogether improbable that our dreams at times may re- 
 
SPIRITUAL, OH MAGNETIC FORCES. 35 
 
 suit from such causes. A friend of mine at a time was 
 suffering severe pecuniary troubles. He had been beat- 
 ing against both wind and tide for a year, and matters 
 grew no better, but every day worse, until he nearly 
 gave up in despair. He had a friend in whom he could 
 confide, and in whose judgment he placed great reliance. 
 He called on this friend for counsel and advice, and 
 was reproved for lack of courage to face the troubles 
 which had come upon him ; that if he remained in the 
 mood he then was, it would surely unfit him for active 
 life, and he could never extricate himself from his diffi- 
 culties. He was assured that he possessed the inher- 
 ent ability, if he would but maintain courage to over- 
 come all obstacles to future success. Thanking his 
 friend for his advice, and assurance of hope, he returned 
 to his home, resolved to breast the tide of troubles 
 aud fight it through to success, but on qoming into- 
 the company of his disconsolate wife, his courage again 
 failed him. They retired for the night and had just 
 fallen asleep when he dreamed that a flock of birds 
 flew over him. He sprang for his gun to shoot them, 
 but was too late ; they had passed beyond his 
 reach. He had but just put his gun in the cor- 
 ner, when he observed others flying towards him. He 
 sprang for his gun and brought down the leader of 
 the flock ; the others disorganized as they were by the 
 death of their leader, fluttered in confusion _ until he 
 brought them all to the ground. Elated with his suc- 
 cess, he aroused his wife, exclaiming : "My fortune has 
 turned," and related his dream. From that night cour- 
 age never left him, and he breasted the storm most he- 
 roically, and has since prospered very greatly. Now, it is 
 not at all improbable that this dream was the result of 
 
36 ^ SPIEITUAL, OE MAGNETIC FORCES. 
 
 the influence of one mind over or upon another mind, 
 and this may, for aught we know to the contrary, oc- 
 cur while both persons are in a comatose state, or it 
 might have been for aught we know, the influence of a 
 guardian spirit. Several years since, a gentleman resid- 
 ing in an inland city in the State of New York, soon 
 after retiring one night, dreamed that on a certain high- 
 way leading out of the city, and some four or five 
 miles distant there stood a little dilapidated shanty, 
 occupied by an old man and woman, who were 
 dying from starvation. He awoke, and arousing his 
 wife related the dream requesting her to prepare a bas- 
 ket of food. Calling one of his men servants, he order- 
 ed him to bring his carriage to the door. Ver)' soon, 
 and at dead of night, this benevolent gentleman and 
 his servant, with a large basket of provisions, were off 
 on their errand of mercy. On arriving at the shanty, 
 the gentleman rapped on the door, and was faintly an- 
 swered, "come in." He entered, with lantern in hand, 
 and sure enough, there lay on a squalid bed the very 
 two old people he had seen in his dream, famishing from 
 hunger. He aroused them sufficiently to have them 
 partake — at first sparingly — of the food he had brought, 
 then remained about an hour and fed them again ; by 
 this time they began to revive. He then left the bas- 
 ket, with what remained of the food he had brought for 
 their breakfast, and returned home. Subsequently he 
 supplied their wants so long as they lived. This dream 
 saved that old and worthy couple from extreme suffer- 
 ing and a horrible death. Now, the facts were, that 
 gentleman had driven past that shanty, had also seen i 
 an old man and woman about the door, and had at one 
 time thought of inquiring concerning their circum- 
 
SPIKITUAL, OR MAGNETIC FORCES. 37 
 
 stances. He was a very benevolent man ; took delight in 
 doing good to others, and the day and evening preced- 
 ing this dream, he had been planning deeds of charity. 
 It was perfectly natural for him to dream of the subject 
 which most impressed his mind on retiring, and as his 
 mind was free to act, memory was the first faculty that 
 came into play, his benevolence prompted the rest, and 
 the result followed as I have related. No supernatural 
 agency was necessary ; on the contrary the dream was 
 the result of the harmonious action of natural law. 
 
 At the birth of Paris, it was said, " There was sorrow 
 instead of gladness, in the halls of Priam, because a 
 son was born unto him, and because the Lady Hecuba 
 had dreamed a dream, from which the seers — clairvoy- 
 ants — knew that the child should bring ruin on the 
 Ilion land." So his mother looked with cold, unloving 
 eyes on the babe, as he lay weak and helpless in his 
 cradle, and Priam bade them take the child and leave 
 him on the rugged Ida, for the fountain of his love was 
 closed against him. For five nights the dew fell on the 
 babe, and the sun shone fiercely on him by day, as he 
 lay on the desolate hill-side ; and the shepherd who 
 placed him there to sleep the sleep of death, looked 
 upon the child, and said, ' He sleeps as babes slumber 
 on silken couches. The gods will it not that he should 
 die,' so he took him to his home, and he grew to match- 
 less strength and beauty." 
 
 The following interesting case occurred quite recent- 
 ly. I sent a package by mail to a friend residing a hun- 
 dred miles distant, and by return mail received an ac- 
 knowledgment, saying, " Your package was received 
 by this afternoon's mail ; I was not surprised, for I 
 dreamed last night that you had sent me a package ; 
 
38 SPIRITUAL, OR MAGNETIC FORCES. 
 
 that I saw you doing it up, and the wrapper not pleas- 
 ing you, you tore it off, and re-wrapped it." All of which 
 was true , and moreover, nothing had occurred previ- 
 ously to give my friend the slightest intimation that I 
 was to send a package. From whence came the in- 
 formation, for it was a communication of facts to my 
 friend, by some intelligent informer ; it was not an in- 
 tuition, for the judgment was not called upon to act ; 
 neither was it perception, for the senses could receive 
 no impressions, while in deep sleep, to cause the mind 
 thus to be acted upon. 
 
 One fact developed by dreams is, that while the mind 
 acts with perfect freedom, it is influenced in its action 
 by the same general governing principle as controls or 
 influences our actions during our conscious hours. For 
 instance, the miserly man dreams of hoarded treasures, 
 and secure places for their safe keeping. The benevo- 
 lent man dreams of opportunity for the exercise of char- 
 ity. The politician dreams of political schemes. The sol- 
 dier dreams of bloody conflicts with his foes. The lawyer 
 dreams of his causes at court. The merchant dreams of 
 the state of the markets, or of important financial ven- 
 tures. The clergyman dreams of his parish. The artist 
 dreams of the beautiful, in nature and art. The schol- 
 ar dreams of problems in science and philosophy. 
 The religious fanatic dreams of visions and apparations, 
 and so on. The practical man never dreams of theories. 
 The benevolent person never dreams of the fierce con- 
 flicts of war. The miserly person never dreams of 
 charitable deeds. And I think there are but few old 
 maids and bachelors who ever dream of a home made 
 heavenly by the presence of little children. The truth 
 is, dreams more correctly indicate the controlling prin- 
 
SPIRITUAL, OR MAGNETIC FORCES. 39 
 
 ciples of the mind of the individual, than his or her 
 acts do while awake ; for while asleep the mind is con- 
 scious of its isolation ; but when awake, policy to a 
 large extent controls our actions It is very well, 
 therefore, in some respects that we are not able to sup- 
 plant the law of dreams, which prevents their memory 
 and rehearsal, for we might unwittingly communicate 
 our true character to others. ' A lady of world-wide ce- 
 lebrity for her talents as a writer and lecturer, and who 
 enjoys the esteem of Americans as hardly any other 
 public personage does, relates the following singular 
 occurrence. She was journeying west over the plains, 
 on the Union Pacific Railroad. The conductor — who, by 
 the way, was a gentleman of more than the ordinary de- 
 gree of intelligence— was sitting by her, conversing up- 
 on literary and scientific subjects, when all of a sudden 
 he sprang from his seat, and to the platform of the car. 
 Holding on to the hand-rail he bent forward, evidently 
 watching the engine as it passed a given point, then 
 looked back to watch the last car in the train as it 
 passed that same point in the road. Presently he re- 
 turned and resumed his seat. The lady inquired of 
 him the cause of his singular actions, when he relat- 
 ed the following : " Several weeks since, as my train 
 neared this very spot, I sat looking out of the window, 
 and saw plainly a drunken man come out of a saloon 
 on the prairie — when in fact there was no building in 
 sight — " with a jug of whiskey in his hand. He walked, 
 or rather stumbled hastily across the railroad track. 
 I watched him intently, until he stepped upon the track 
 in front of the engine ; I was almost frantic with fear, 
 and greatly exasperated that the engineer should be so 
 careless of duty, and so utterly lost to all humanity, as 
 
40 SPmiTTJAL, OK MAGNETIC FORCES. 
 
 not to reverse his engine. I seized the bell-rope and 
 rang a stop. The engineer immediately whistled 
 " down brakes," and the train came to a halt. I hast- 
 ily ran forward and scolded the engineer for his gross 
 carelessness in running over a man and killing him. as 
 I supposed was the case. He replied, that he had not 
 run over any one, for there was no man on the track. 
 I was so positive, however, that he had, that I walked 
 back a sufficient distance only to find that it was my 
 mistake. Now, then, every time my train passes that 
 place, the same apparation haunts me, and I involun- 
 tarily rush to the platform to learn the fate of the 
 drunken man ; and I am getting so annoyed with this 
 strange affair, that I am determined to leave the 
 road; for I fear it forebodes evil." The next season 
 this same lady was journeying over one of the 
 railroads in Connecticut, and when the conductor came 
 through the car to take the tickets the lady 
 recognized him as being that same Union Pacific con- 
 ductor, and inquired for the sequel of his former expe- 
 riences. After he had taken up his tickets, he returned, 
 and seating himself beside her, related the following : 
 "A short time after my interview with you, a conductor 
 on this road asked leave of absence that he might go 
 west for his health, as he was consumptive. He obtained 
 a furlough, and came to Cheyenne. I at once made his 
 acquaintance, and learned his object in coming west, 
 and arranged to have him take my train, and I would 
 come east and run his train on this road. I started east 
 at once, and reported for duty — under our arrange- 
 ments — to the superintendent of this road ; was assign- 
 ed to this train, and during my first trip, as we were 
 just entering the outskirts of village, I saw in appear- 
 
SPIEITCAL, OR MAGNETIC FORCES. 41 
 
 ance that same drunken man, who had haunted me on 
 the plains, with a jug of whiskey in his hand, rush out of 
 a dilapidated saloon near the track, and stumble in front 
 of the engine ; I pulled at the bell-rope violently. The 
 engineer had already whistled down brakes and reversed 
 his engine, but it was too late. The man was crushed 
 to a jelly." Now, then, who of my readers possesses 
 the wisdom to explain or solve this mysterious problem. 
 This is not fiction but fact. 
 
 The following curious incident came under my own 
 observation. The names I give are ficticious, all else is 
 correct : 
 
 In the Spring of 1875 I was negotiating a business 
 transaction with two gentlemen, whom I will call Nathan 
 Shephard and Stephen Whitney, in Chicago. We had 
 met for consultation in the early part of the day, and it 
 was arranged at that meeting that Shephard was to go 
 east that evening. We separated and did not see each 
 other until about four o' clock in the afternoon, when I 
 chanced to meet Whitney on the street. With much 
 anxiety of mind he inquired if I had any idea where he 
 could find Shephard, for it was essential that he should 
 see him before he took the train. I replied that I had 
 not the remotest idea where he could be found. We 
 were walking on South Clark Street, and he happened 
 to notice a sign in a doorway, " Mrs. Jones, Spiritualist 
 and Clairvoyant, Room 15, up 4 flights. " On reading 
 the sign, said he : " Let's go and inquire of this medium." 
 I remarked it would be of no use, but he insisted, and 
 we quickly clambered the stairway, and rapped on the 
 door at Room 15, were invited in, and welcomed by a 
 nice looking lady of about forty years of age. Whit- 
 ney at once and abruptly addressed her, inquiring, "Can 
 
42 SPIRITUAL, OR MAGNETIC FORCES. 
 
 you tell us where to find Nathan Shephard ? He is to 
 leave the city to-night and I must see him before he 
 leaves. " We were told to be seated. She, seating 
 herself beside a center table, closed her eyes, and re- 
 mained so for a few minutes, then spoke as follows : " I 
 see Nathan Shephard ; he is a tall man, thin-featured, 
 light brown hair, hazel eyes. You go to the Rock Is- 
 land Depot, enter the building by the front entrance on 
 Van Buren Street, pass along the main hall to the third 
 door on the right, and you will find him in that room 
 talking with a gentleman who is sitting at a desk ; he 
 has his overcoat on his arm as if he were ready to leave." 
 As the description of the man was correct, we had faith 
 in her statement in full ; handing the lady two dol- 
 lars — her charges — we hastily left the building, and 
 went up to the Rock Island Depot, into the hall as di- 
 rected, and met Shephard with his overcoat on his arm, 
 just as he was coming out of the third door on the right, 
 as stated to us by the medium. After Whitney had 
 made known his errand to Shephard, we bid him God- 
 speed on his journey, and returned to my office. 
 
 Now, then, will some of my skeptical readers inform 
 me, whence came that information to the lady, which 
 she so promptly and correctly imparted to us ? Surely 
 there was no mind-reading in this case, nor any fraud, 
 neither of us had ever seen or even heard of her, neither 
 ■did she know Shephard. Grant that she might have 
 seen in our mind a correct description of his person, she 
 certainly did not read in our minds his location at the 
 time, for neither of us had the remotest idea where he 
 could be found. I know of no other solution, than 
 that the information was communicated to her by some 
 other mind, either in the flesh, or out of it, no matter 
 
SPIRITUAL, OK MAGNETIC FORCES. 43 
 
 which. It may have been some guardian spirit 
 of Whitney's or my own that influenced us to seek the 
 medium, and through her mediumship obtain the de- 
 sired information. Certainly none can say it was not. 
 The facts are as I have stated. 
 
 We cannot resist the conviction that these so-called 
 spiritual, magnetic or electrical forces are in fact all 
 one and the same. The great spirit-force of the uni- 
 verse has manifested itself to us in nature, and that 
 great spirit-force not only "breathed into man the 
 breath of life," but he also breathed a spirit of activity 
 into all nature ; for there is no atom of matter that is 
 not continually operated upon, influenced, and exer- 
 cised by this spiritual, magnetic, or electrical force. 
 In this sense therefore, there is no such thing as inert 
 ■matter ; for every atom of matter is in constant ac- 
 tion, one atom being acted upon, influencing another, 
 causing it to act, this atom a third, and so on. That 
 which in chemistry we term chemical affinity, is contin- 
 ually causing atoms of matter to change their positions, 
 and what is chemical affinity but another name for 
 magnetic or electrical attraction, and what are these but 
 scientific terms to express the operations of the great 
 spirit-force of the universe. In our intercourse and re- 
 lations with each other, as intellectual beings, these 
 forces act with much greater energy, and in a dual form ; 
 for here we have a very important adjunct in the in- 
 dependent individual spirit-force of the person himself, 
 or herself. This independent spirit-force is developed 
 or manifested through the attributes of the soul, such as 
 love and affection, and as in all nature there is a mag- 
 netism which repels, so we find its counterpart in the 
 selfish and revengeful spirit of men. Thus, in human- 
 
44 SPIRITUAL, OR MAGNETIC FORCES. 
 
 ity, these forces act dually, in the animal precisely the 
 same as in matter, in other forms ; in the spiritual the 
 same as the great spirit-force of the universe acts upon 
 both mind and matter. We cannot resist the conviction, 
 that in a sense matter is eternal, though possessed of 
 no intelligence. There never was a time that matter 
 did not exist, but there was a time when it did not ex- 
 ist in any of its present forms ;. during that time it was 
 subject to no law, it was simply a law to itself ; as 
 it possessed no intelligence, it could not act, could 
 not take on form. The " breath of life " had to be 
 " breathed into it," by a great spirit-force, quickening 
 and vitalizing it into life, and bringing every atom un- 
 der the operation of divine or spirit-laws, which are ex- 
 pressed by us in scientific terms. 
 
 Prof. Elihu Root, an eminent scientist and philosopher 
 has well said : " Physical phenomena can bC' viewed from 
 a standpoint which will exhibit them not as connected 
 links in an unending series, but as a unity in the thought 
 of God. " Precisely the same idea may be expressed by 
 saying that all physical phenomena is but the result of 
 spirit-force upon atoms of matter. Matter in itself is 
 inert, and exhibits no life nor activity, only as it is acted 
 upon by spirit forces. A writer upon sociology, or social 
 physics, has said : " The action of an organism in seek- 
 ing the satisfaction of a desire, finds an exact parallel in 
 the action of a chemical molecule in seeking combina- 
 tion with others. The desires of individuals constitute 
 true forces, identical in all respects with the physical 
 forces which other sciences deal with. " 
 
 How to account for chemical action in matter has 
 long been the study of scientists ; for matter of itself has 
 no volition, does not act by volition. Then whence 
 
SPIRITUAL, OR MAGNETIC FORCES. 45 
 
 comes this active force we call chemical afiSnity, or at- 
 traction of cohesion, binding atoms closely together into 
 forms ? Science seems to have gotten no further than 
 to discover the fact of these forces, is not able to pene- 
 trate beyond ; but that there is a hidden cause back of 
 this, surely none will deny. What is that cause ? One 
 exclaims with enthusiasm, " I have discovered it in a 
 fourth state of matter." Then I beg to inquire, how is 
 it that a fourth state of matter can possess volition, any 
 more than a second or third state of matter can ? And 
 if there is such a thing as a fourth state of matter, it 
 surely is subject to chemical analysis. Has it ever 
 been analyzed ? Now, science recognizes an infinitely 
 attenuated substance termed ether, as present every- 
 where in matter in all its forms. This etherial substance 
 is above, and defies all law, is not subject to chemical 
 analysis. May it not be the universal, ever-present 
 spirit- force which governs and controls matter in all its 
 forms ? 
 
 We come now to discuss so-called miracles, and say, 
 first, there never was, and never can be, such a thing 
 as a miracle, at least in the'sense commonly understood, 
 viz : an event contrary to the laws of nature. True, 
 very many events have happened, and are happening, 
 which are truly wonderful, but they are not in antago- 
 nism to law, as I have attempted to show. Matter has 
 no power or control over itself, its own atoms, but is 
 wholly subject to the control of spirit-forces, and they 
 always act in harmony with divine or natural laws. In 
 order to materialize forms, spiritual forces have to avail 
 themselves of those chemical forces in nature which act 
 in making up the veritable person : and the same elemen- 
 tary substances which go to form the veritable person 
 
46 SPIRITUAL, OR MAGNETIC FORCES. 
 
 are called together in exact form in the materialization 
 though infinitely attenuated. Take the so-called mir- 
 acles of our Saviour. They were no more wonderful 
 than many events which are happening daily, but attract 
 little attention, from the fact that it is the orthodox be- 
 lief that "the day of miracles has passed, "when in fact 
 there never was a day of miracles. The converting of 
 the water into wine by our Saviour at the marriage feast, 
 was the power of his divine spirit over atoms of matter 
 gathering from the atmosphere the saccharine substances 
 necessary — with the water — in the " water-pots," to make 
 unfermented wine. This was not contrary to law ; 
 none of nature's laws had to be suspended or subverted ; 
 but, on the other hand, the event was in harmony with 
 law. True, it was wonderful, but no more so than the 
 growth of the grape itself, which is nothing but the re- 
 sult of spirit-force upon atoms of matter ; but the latter 
 is an occurrence with which we are familiar, while the 
 former is wonderful,because uncommon, yet both alike in 
 harmony with natural or divine law. Again, take the 
 case of so-called miraculous cures of diseases, wrought by 
 our Saviour. Just as wonderful cures are being wrought 
 to-day, simply by the laying on of hands, which is nothing 
 more nor less than this same spirit-force acting upon and 
 controlling atoms of matter, and its complete harmony 
 with law is what ensures its effectiveness. 
 
 Now, then the question may be asked, " If the above 
 propositions are correct, why are we not all mediums 
 through which spiritual forces can manifest themselves 
 in this wonderful manner ?" To which I can only answer 
 by first asking, why it is all men, cannot matriculate in 
 the chemical laboratory,and produce events so wonderful 
 as to seem miraculous? I am answered truly, " Because 
 
SPIRITUAL, OR MAGNETIC FORCJES. 47 
 
 all have not learned the principles involved in the laws of 
 chemistry." So all men have not brought themselves 
 en rapport with spiritual influences. They are too ma- 
 terialistic, too selfish. For instance, the wonderful pow- 
 ers manifested by our Saviour, arose from the fact that 
 his every motive was to do the greatest possible good 
 to humanity, his whole life was a spiritual one, he lived 
 not for himself, but for others ; selfishness found no 
 place in his soul. With him, the material forces were 
 wholly and entirely subject to the spiritual. It follows 
 then, that to become mediums of spiritual influences for 
 good to others, we must bring our animal nature into 
 subjection to the spiritual and divine ; live in constant 
 anticipatioq^of a higher life. 
 
 If our propositions are true, we see no reason why, in 
 the future develop'ment of humanity, a closer union of 
 the spiritual and material should not be manifested, and 
 human lives become spiritualized to such a degree as to 
 elevate mankind to a higher plane of living than the 
 imagination has ever conceived of. 
 
 We are impressed with the belief that the laws which 
 underlie and control these spiritual, or magnetic phe- 
 nomena, are, in their results, as far-reaching as thought 
 is able-to travel. As I stated at the outset, rhatter once 
 formed becomes eternal, and the soul once begotten, 
 becomes immortal ; and as the law of chemical affinity 
 controls all matter, so a corresponding law of magnetic 
 influence governs all souls, and all, both matter — in all 
 the complexity of its forms — and spirits, are influenced, 
 governed and controlled by the Great All-Powerful 
 Spirit in whom dwelleth absolute perfection. 
 
PART II. 
 
 At various periods of time, men of great genius have 
 arisen ; the records of their lives, of their acts and 
 teachings, standing out in bold relief upon the pages 
 of history, marking not only epochs of time, but epochs 
 of civilization. Unquestionably the earliest of them all 
 was AdaMyWho — according to the Orthodox belief — was 
 the progenitor of the race of mankind, but, in fact, 
 simply A leader of the vanguard of civilization. For 
 two thousand; years his influence was felt in moulding 
 and shaping the societies, socially, religiously and po- 
 litically, over the most advanced nations of the earth. 
 He was the first to introduce into social life the in- 
 stitution of marriage, out of which grew the intimate 
 relations of family ties, which is the foundation of all 
 social unions, and the sub-base upon which civilization 
 rests. He was the first scientific teacher of husbandry. 
 Doubtless before him mankind had lived, either in 
 whole or in part, upon vegetable food, but only upon 
 such as had grown spontaneously ; for the record says 
 that, up to the time of the birth of Adam, " there was 
 not a man to ti// the ground." Therefore, he was tke 
 first great agriculturist. He was the first domesticator 
 of animals. Previous to his time there was no reci- 
 procity of feeling between the various animals (of the 
 i>ruie creation) and mankind. Owing to the savage 
 life they led, men had never felt the need of assistance 
 from the lower animals, in order to the developing of a 
 higher life socially and commercially. The animals 
 themselves had no occasion to expect humane treatment 
 
SPIRITUAL, OB MAGNETIC FOECES. 49 
 
 at the hands of men they could not serve and who 
 were only their deadly foes. But in Adam and his fol- 
 lowers they found protectors instead of destroyers, and 
 readily consented to enter into friendly relations, allow- 
 ing themselves to become domesticated, and enlisting 
 into the service of mankind as willing servants to 
 aid in the progress of material development. Besides 
 all this, he gave to the world a religion ; not a relig- 
 ion of creeds, dogmas, and forms, but a religion of 
 spiritualism — a purely spiritual religion. He and his 
 descendants recognized the existence of immortals in 
 the spirit-world, and held communications with them. 
 Spirit forms were materialized and he talked with 
 them, as a man talketh with his friend : so that in 
 all that pertains to civilization, Adam stands in 
 bold relief on the frontispiece of the book of human 
 history as its great founder. 
 
 Next in point of time arose Zoroaster the founder of 
 the great Iranic religion of Persia. He was the first to 
 promulgate a religious faith, and thereupon formulate 
 a system of religion. He, first of all, promulgated 
 the idea of a personal God and a personal Devil, both 
 equally interested in the affairs of mankind, and each 
 endeavoring to supplant the other in the hearts of men. 
 It was under the influence of this system of religion 
 that the greatest military chieftain and most successful 
 conquerer of nations of ancient times — the great King 
 Cyrus — was educated, and the nations of Persia and 
 Media, which combined to give him birth, became the 
 leading powers among the nations of earth. The doc- 
 trines taught by Zoroaster were : " A special provi- 
 dence superintending the affairs of men " — and " the 
 doctrine of election and pre-ordination " — that some 
 
50 SPIRITUAL,, OR MAGNETIC FORCES. 
 
 were elected to resist the influences of the Devil, and 
 ultimately be saved, while others were pre-ordained to 
 serve the Devil in this life, and forever to suffer as a 
 penalty for their sins — which, as a logical sequence of 
 their theory, they could not avoid as they were the vic- 
 tims of an arbitrary decree of the Almighty. And, 
 strange to say, this is still the theology of the Chris- 
 tians of the present day ; as unjust to God as it is un- 
 kind to humanity, and inconsistent with justice, mercy 
 and truth in all that pertains to the relations of the 
 infinite with the finite, or the divine with the human. 
 
 The next Great Genius whose name is written with 
 emblazoned letters upon the pages of human history, 
 and who, of his own personal resources and merit, has 
 contributed more for the development of mankind, soci- 
 ally, religiously and politically, all combined, than any 
 other man that has ever lived,- was the Jewish Law Giver 
 and Legislator, Moses. Reared in the royal palace of 
 the king of the most powerful and the most learned na- 
 tion of antiquity, educated by the most erudite teachers 
 in the most advanced schools of religion, science, phil- 
 osophy and art, it was said of him that he was " learned 
 in all the knowledge of the Egyptians," which was to 
 be the foremost scholar of his time. And, besides all 
 this, Moses was not only a proficient scholar, but he was 
 a born genius. He possessed the genius to form a sys- 
 tem of jurisprudence for the government of his people, 
 which has formed the basis of all law of all civilized na- 
 tions since, even to the present, and will to the end of 
 time. He established a theocratic government, there- 
 by indelibly impressing upon the minds of all mankind 
 who have been, or may be, brought under civilizing in- 
 fluences, the sublime idea, the great immortal truth, of 
 
SPIRITUAL, OB MAGNETIC FORCES. 01 
 
 a self-existent and uncreated God, who was the origin of 
 all things, and by the operations of His divine laws, the 
 controller of all events. By his own unaided genius, 
 he brought four millions of people out of abject slavery, 
 and from this number organized a large, well-disciplined 
 and most effective army, by which he was enabled to con- 
 quer many nations. From that multitude of ignorant 
 slaves he founded a nation, which grew to be one of the 
 most prosperous and powerful of ancient times. Five 
 hundred millions of people to-day acknowledge the pow- 
 er of his genius, and his fame will reach down to the end 
 of time. 
 
 Next in the order of events came the great " Light 
 of Asia." When the " City of the Great King" was tak- 
 en by Nebuchadnezzar, when Ninevah was calling to the 
 Medes, and the Phoenecians were founding their first 
 colonies on the shore of the Mediterranean, came Gau- 
 tama, Prince of India and Founder of Buddhism, teach- 
 ing a new religion to mankind — a religion of kind words, 
 of good deeds, of self-abnegation. This personality ap- 
 pears the highest, gentlest, holiest and most beneficent,, 
 with one exception, in the history of thought ; and not- 
 withstanding he discountenanced ritual, and declared 
 himself to be only what other men might become, yet, 
 to-day, four hundred and eighty millions of people, be- 
 ing over one third the entire human race, cast their flow- 
 ers daily upon his stainless shrines, and repeat the for- 
 mula, " I t?ke refuge in Buddha !" And thus it has 
 been for twenty-five hundred years. 
 
 Next in the order of time, and the greatest Light of 
 them all which has arisen to illuminate the world, 
 and which shines with dazzling splendor over two 
 worlds — the spiritual and material — came the Nazarene. 
 
52 SPIRITUAL, OR MAGNETIC FORCES. 
 
 The Jewish people of the nation, fancying they were 
 the chosen people of God, had hedged themselves 
 about with an exclusiveness which was a bar to the intro- 
 duction of the Jewish faith among other nations and 
 peoples. In their wars with the surrounding nations, 
 they gave no evidence of a spirit of conquest or aggres- 
 sion. Evidently their only wish was to be let alone, 
 and in the enjoyment of their own religious views, which, 
 in the estimation of the Jew, constituted him, par excel- 
 lence, a member of the aristocracy of heaven. To him 
 all other forms of government and all other systems of 
 religion were vile and hateful. The extreme ascetici- 
 cism evinced by the great mass of the Jewish nation 
 had the tendency to prejudice the peoples of the contigu- 
 ous nations against them to such a degree that they were 
 continually laying them under tribute, at the same time 
 gradually engrafting upon the Jewish stock pagan faiths, 
 and so continued until Palestine was conquered by pa- 
 gan Rome, and the Roman eagle was set to crown the 
 gates of Jerusalem. This to the devout Jew was the 
 "abomination that maketh desolate." The tendency of 
 the Jewish faith was to develop extreme selfishness; 
 and as we see in their history, this was the result. So 
 that at the time of the Roman conquest, while the form 
 remained, the spirit of their ancient religion had died 
 out. Rome and Greece had also out-lived and out-grown 
 their religious faith, and in classic Athens, over their 
 most beautiful temple was this inscription : " To the Un- 
 known God." The spirit of religious progress was abroad, 
 and only waited the coming of a leader in a new dispen- 
 sation, to stir the hearts of men to renewed activity of 
 thought, to more enlarged views of life, both present and 
 future. At such a time as this, the babe of Bethlehem was 
 
SPIRITUAL, OR MAGNETIC FORCES. 53 
 
 born, of poor and humble parentage, but descendants 
 of royal stock, as the record conclusively shows. Of 
 the child-life of the Nazarene we absolutely know noth- 
 ing, except from inference. He was thoroughly educa- 
 ted, and adopted the trade and occupation of his fa- 
 ther, who was a carpenter ; and although the record 
 does not say it, doubtless he performed his work faith- 
 fully and well. But as he grew to manhood, he came 
 to realize that he was born for a special mission to man- 
 kind. The dogmatic spirit of the orthodox Jew met 
 with no response in his soul. The illiberality evinced 
 by the people of his nation called forth from his large 
 heart the profoundest expressions of displeasure ; he 
 possessed the courage to combat the religious customs 
 and faiths of his forefathers ; with terrible anathemas he 
 decried against their false-heartedness and bigotry ; and 
 in his accession to the throne of the Kingdom of Heav- 
 en on earth — which means a religion of love, of infinite 
 love exercised by the All-Father towards his children, 
 each and every one of them, and a true spirit of broth- 
 erly love between mankind — we see the commencement 
 of a new era, the dawn of a brighter day to the peoples 
 of earth, in all that pertains not only to this material 
 life, but also to that more substantial and highly exalt- 
 ed spiritual life — a life which embraces two worlds, 
 this material, and the one beyond which men call spirit- 
 ual. Man is a dual being, constituted of soul and body, 
 spirit and matter. The bodily part of man is subject 
 to laws governing material things, while the spirit is 
 above those laws, and dwells in sublimer spheres. And 
 while it is cumbered by serving the necessities of the 
 body, it also reaches out into the infinite realms • of 
 thought, endeavoring to obtain knowledge, and under- 
 
54 SPIRITUAL, OR MAGNETIC FORCES. 
 
 standing, of all the phenomena presented to us in this 
 material universe ; and not only so, but searching high- 
 er, and- peering into that mysterious realm beyond this 
 earthly life, and by affinity of interest, holding converse 
 with the inhabitants of that other world, of matters and 
 things pertaining to human comforts, and the complete 
 redemption of mankind. For this end Christ came 
 and preached. The religions of the Jews and surround- 
 ing nations at the time of Christ had become sensu- 
 ous and earthly, a religion of forms, destitute of 
 spirit. The Nazarene understood this, and foresaw 
 clearly that unless the human judgment was aroused, 
 and a more reasonable and truly spiritual religion 
 was substituted in the place of the old and effete sys- 
 tem, mankind would develop to no higher plane of 
 life: supreme selfishness — even if it did not then — soon 
 would enthrone the hearts of all men, and humanity 
 prove an utter failure. By the orthodox religionist of 
 his time Christ was called an enthusiast, a stirrer up of 
 dissension, and in league with the Devil ; and it was quite 
 natural they should so stigmatize him ; for no great re- 
 former has ever lived or ever will live who is not enthu- 
 siastic in his work. It is the extreme abhorrence of ex- 
 isting faiths and "customs which impels a reformer to 
 enter upon his work. And no reformer ever lived who 
 departed so far from rules of strict propriety, in the 
 estimation of the aristocratic classes, as did the Nazar- 
 ene. Hear him : " O generation of vipers, how can ye, 
 being evil, spea,k good things;" "Woe unto you, for 
 ye tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and 
 pass over judgment and the love of God ;" " Woe unto 
 you, for ye love the uppermost seats in the synagogues 
 (churches) and greetings in the markets ;" " Woe unto 
 
SPIRITUAL, OR MAGNETIC FORCES. 55 
 
 you, ye hypocrites ! for ye are as graves which appear 
 not, and men that walk over are not aware ;" " Woe 
 unto you, ye lawyers ! for ye lade men with burdens 
 grievous to be borne, and ye will not touch the bur- 
 dens with one of your fingers;" "Woe unto you, for 
 ye have taken away the key of knowledge ;" " How 
 shall ye escape the damnation of hell?" And when ex- 
 postulated with, listen to his sarcastic remark : " Ye are 
 of your father, the Devil, and the lusts of your father 
 ye will do." Now, this was not such language as 
 would be calculated to win over the hearts of the peo- 
 ple or make proselytes, but it was just such language as 
 was calculated to arouse their indignation and impel 
 them to resist, by arguments, the tendency of which 
 arguing would be, and was, to expose the fallacy of 
 their claims and the weakness of their position. No 
 great reforms have ever been or ever can be wrought 
 out without a fierce conflict waged on the part of truth, 
 aggressively, against error ; there can be no such thing 
 as a compromise between these two antagonisms. A 
 thing cannot be half true, or half false in principle. 
 Doubtless the parents of Jesus, who were thoroughly 
 orthodox, were greatly shocked at his manner of pro- 
 ceeding, and alarmed for their welfare ; for it was not 
 only distasteful to them, but was sure to bring them 
 under the ban of public censure and disgrace ; and 
 though he was the truest-hearted, most affectionate and 
 dutiful of sons, he yet was not to be i-ntimidated or de- 
 terred from what he considered to be a duty for fear of 
 rendering his family and friends unhappy in their social 
 and religious relations and associations. 
 
 In striking contrast with his invectives or reproofs, 
 stands the incomparable Sermon on the Mount. No- 
 
56 SPIRITUAL, OR MAGNETIC TORCfiS. 
 
 where in all the world of thought, or world of ideas, can 
 be found a philosophy or religion so sublime, so pure, 
 so just, and so thoroughly calculated — if heeded — to 
 develop mankind to a condition of spiritual perfection. 
 This was the declaration of principles by the great 
 teacher. No creed was established, no forms nor cere- 
 monies imposed, but quite the contrary: it was practical 
 common-sense, every-day religious philosophy. This 
 sermon formed the basis of primitive Christianity ; the 
 principles of which were adhered to in a remarkable 
 degree by the followers of Jesus for many years after his 
 death, when, owing to the selfishness of men and the 
 crude and undeveloped state of society, this religion, 
 like all others which had preceded it, gradually became 
 less spiritual and more formal. Dissensions sprang up 
 among its votaries. A variety of creeds were formula- 
 ted, dogmas were promulgated, and true and genuine 
 Christianity, as taught by the Nazarene, was, in fact 
 ignored, and has been to the present time. While the 
 name remains, and has taken on over seventy different 
 forms, very little of the spirituality is left. In all this sub- 
 lime Sermon on the Mount, this earnest declaration of 
 principles, given as the basis of the new religion, not 
 one word is said ot the idea advanced of worship to Jesus; 
 on the contrary, he says : " When ye pray, be not as 
 the hypocrites are,, etc., but after this manner pray ye. 
 Our Father which art in heaven," maintaining his 
 brotherhood of man, and mankind all children of one 
 father. Nowhere is it said that men must belong to 
 this organization or that, or give their consent to any 
 articles of faith, in order to salvation, but to do the works 
 of righteousness, " for by their fruits ye shall know 
 them," not by their faith ; for he says : " A good tree 
 
SPIEftUAL, OR MAGNETIC FORCES. 57 
 
 cannot bring forth evil fruit, ntither can a corrupt tree 
 bring forth good fruit. Therefore all things whatsoever 
 ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so 
 to them ; for this is the law." 
 
 Christ taught that the good deeds of a man were a 
 sure guaranty of his spirituality. But subsequent to 
 his death, and as it seems to me, most unfortunate to 
 the cause of Christianity itself, a profound metaphysi- 
 cal philosopher — half Jew and half pagan — embraced 
 the new religion, and, like all such minds, Paul could 
 not be content with the simple declarations of Christ 
 himself; but he must, forsooth, apply his philosophy to 
 those declarations of principles, to discover why 
 such a wonderful teacher had come, where he came 
 from, and whither he had gone ; why it became neces- 
 sary that, whereas, men had previously been taught to 
 hate their enemies, they were now to love them. 
 Thus he formulated creeds and established dogmas 
 out of which have grown all the dissensions which have 
 cursed Christianity and the world down to the pres- 
 ent time ; for at present there are no less than seventy dif- 
 ferent church organizations, all professing Christianity, 
 each differing from every other in their creeds and dog- 
 mas, and all claiming the great apostle Paul as their 
 authority ; and out of these differing and conflicting 
 organizations, representing so many different theologies, 
 has arisen an interminable Christian warfare, which is 
 anything but religion. Far be it from me to attempt 
 to impeach the claims of Christ ; on the contrary, I 
 maintain that he was just what he represented himself 
 to be — a Son of God, and one with the Father. So 
 we are all sons qf God, and are with him, if we cultivate 
 the nobler impulses or instincts of the soul, and live 
 
58 SPIRITUAL, OR MAGNETIC FbKCES. 
 
 continually in an atmosphere of purity, love and unsel- 
 fishness. But we are not all gods, after all. The idea 
 of the Trinity — three Gods — was the product of Paul's 
 brain. He had but just renounced his pagan Mythol- 
 ogy, recognizing a multiplicity of gods, as he says, 
 "■ There are gods many, and lords many,'^ and it was 
 altogether natural that, in formulating his new relig- 
 ious philosophy, he should recognize as many gods as 
 possible. And thus he distorted what he purported to 
 to be the sayings of Jesus. 
 
 Quite a celebrated divine has recently in a public dis- 
 course attempted to prove, and to his own mind has con- 
 clusively proven, Christ's divinity and Godship by this 
 declaration— viz., "He cured men of their diseases, show- 
 ing conclusively that he was above all, over all, and 
 controlled matter, and was thereby the very God." 
 Now then, if no one but Christ had ever healed the, 
 sick, then this bigoted and ignorant expounder of 
 Christianity might well claim divinity for such an one ; 
 but very many have wrought as wonderful cures as he 
 did, and yet lay no claims to divinity. It will be re- 
 membered that Christ sent his disciples abroad with 
 the command " to heal the sick." They went forth on 
 their mission of love to humanity, but had not been 
 long at their work when they found others not profess- 
 ing Christianity doing as effective work, and equally as 
 successful in healing as they were. Impressed with the 
 importance of their mission, and with the firm conviction 
 that as apostles of the Great Teacher, they had, by vir- 
 tue of Christ's command, a monopoly of healing, they 
 commanded those healers to desist, but to no purpose. 
 Accordingly they hastened back to Jerusalem and re- 
 ported the case to Jesus. He peremptorily ordered 
 
SPIRITUAL, OR MAGNETIC FORCES. 59 
 
 them back to their work, saying, " Forbid them not." 
 Thus we see from the record itself, there were others, arid 
 doubtless very many, who possessed the power of heal- 
 ing diseases ; and outside of the Bible record, the his- 
 tory of all times, even to the present, records the fact 
 that thousands have had that healing power, and have 
 and do exercise it in a wonderful manner, yet make no 
 ■claim to Godship. 
 
 Let us now consider, though briefly, what Christ 
 meant when he said, " I and my Father are one ;" " I go 
 to my Father ; " "I came forth from God," and like pas- 
 sages indicating his immediate sonship, and which have 
 been seized upon by various branches of the Christian 
 Church as the foundation on which to build a theory 
 of his divine origin and Godhead. I am aware that 
 many contend that Jesus was simply a spiritual medium, 
 but of wonderful powers as such. But he was more 
 than this ; for in all my investigations into the mysteries 
 of Spiritualism, I have never found or heard of a medi- 
 um who was always and at all times under " spirit con- 
 trol," technically so termed. Not so with Jesus, for, so 
 far as we are able to gather from the record, he was 
 always, and at all times, under all circumstances, under 
 " spirit control," and that of a nature absolutely pure 
 and perfect. Jesus himself was a man, a human, begot- 
 ten, born and reared as all other children are ; but in 
 fulfillment of ancient prophecy, when " the fulness of 
 time had corae," the pure Christ spirit, one who had 
 attained perfection in the spiritual realm, became the 
 spirit control of Jesus, so that the purified spirit — which 
 is a divine spirit — dwelt within the human soul, control- 
 ling its every thought and desire. In this sense Christ 
 Jesus was the Son of God, and yet by no means a God to 
 
60 SPIRITUAL. OR MAGNETIC FORCES. 
 
 be worshiped, but the embodiment of all those sublime 
 attributes which belong to God himself, and which we 
 believe may be ultimately possessed by every purified 
 spirit. Primitive Christianity was Spiritualism to an 
 eminent degree, and the truth is, that the counterpart 
 of what is termed modern Spiritualism, or the phenomena 
 belonging to it, was recognized by the ancient Jews 
 and their ancestors, and has never been denied by the 
 Church — on the contrary has always been endorsed by it. 
 As proof of this statement, I will call my readers' atten- 
 tion to the following facts copied from the record, the 
 authenticity of which very few will deny. A spirit 
 spoke to Abraham, in a vision, on his return from the 
 " Battle of the Kings." An angel appeared to Hagar 
 by a fountain of water in the wilderness to comfort her 
 because of Sara's cruelty and Abraham's infidelity to her. 
 Three angels appeared to Abraham, as he sat in the 
 door of his tent at noon, and foretold the birth of Isaac, 
 also the destruction of Sodom. Two angels came to 
 Lot in Sodom, and foretold the destruction of the city 
 and warned him of his danger. An angel appeared to 
 Moses, while he was keeping the flock of Jethro, and 
 talked with him concerning the deliverance of the Jews 
 from bondage,and the part Moses should take in effect- 
 ing it. An angel appeared to Balaam, and frightened 
 the ass upon which he rode, so that she fell and threw 
 her rider. The ass saw the spirit before Balaam did. 
 Materialized forms of spirits have in recent times been 
 observed by animals ; in one instance, to my personal 
 knowledge, by my faithful dog. An angel appeared to 
 the mother of Samson, and foretold his birth, and 
 charged her concerning the child's diet, of meats and 
 drinks. Again this same spirit was materialized to her "as 
 
SPIRITUAL, OR MAGNETIC FORCES. 61 
 
 she was in the field, and she made haste and ran and told 
 her husband, and he returned in haste with his wife and 
 conversed with the man " — materialized spirit. The 
 record — i Sam. xxviii — states that Saul, the King of 
 Israel had banished from the land those that had famil- 
 iar spirits — mediums — and becoming involved in war 
 with the Phillistines, and seeing they were too strong for 
 him, he lost courage, and enquired of his oracles as to 
 the issue of the battle that was about to be fought. 
 But he could get no information from them. In his 
 extremity, he ordered his ofificers to find a spiritual 
 medium, that he might enquire of her. They informed 
 him that there was such a woman at Endor, and tak- 
 ing two men with him, Saul came to the woman by 
 night and asked her to call on his spirit control to 
 bring up the spirit of the man he should name. She 
 asked him whom she should bring up. He said Samuel. 
 Being a clairvoyant, she discovered it was Saul, and 
 cried, "Why hast thou deceived me?" The king 
 assured her of her safety, and she said, " I see an old 
 man and he is covered with a mantle." And Saul recog 
 nized him as Samuel, and the spirit — Samuel — said to 
 Saul, " Why hast thou disquieted me ?" And Saul 
 answered that he was sore distressed on account of his 
 war with the Phillistines, " and have called thee, that 
 thou wilt tell me what I shall do." And the spirit — 
 Samuel — informed him that the battle should go 
 against him ; that he and his sons would be slain, and 
 his kingdom depart out of his hands. And the rec- 
 ord shows that it all became true, as the spirit had said. 
 Belshazzar made a great feast to one thousand of his 
 lords, and during the feast "there came forth fingers 
 of a man's hand " — a materialization — " and wrote upon 
 
63 SPIRITUAL, OR MAGNETIC FORCES. 
 
 the wall in front of the candlestick," in full light, so 
 that all present saw the materializer's hand, and the 
 writing ; and the king saw the part of the hand that 
 wrote. Neither the king or any of his guests could read 
 the writing. It seems by this that the spirit wrote in He- 
 brew — a language the Babylonians did not understand 
 — but the queen remembered that there was a captive 
 Jew, a clairvoyant. Accordingly Daniel was sent for, 
 and read the writing, and interpreted its meaning to- 
 be the loss of the kingdom and the king's own destruc- 
 tion. During that very night, the Persian army under 
 Cyrus entered the city and slew the king of Babylonia, 
 and overthrew his kingdom. 
 
 As I have before stated Adam established a religion 
 founded upon Spiritualism, and, as evidence of this 
 fact, it is recorded, in 1 1 Sam. xx, that " The people 
 in olden times were wont to ask the counsel of the spirit 
 of Abel." This shows conclusively that Spiritualism 
 is as old as society. All who are familiar with Jewish 
 history remember that Spiritual clairvoyant, Micaiah, 
 and his prophecy of the destruction that was to come 
 upon King Ahab, which was verified by his being slain 
 the following day at Ramoth-Gilead. An angel came 
 and sat under an oak in Ophrah, and he appeared to 
 Gideon and informed him of the battle he was to fight 
 with the Midianites, and of his success ; all which came to 
 pass as foretold by the spirit. Bible readers will re- 
 member Joseph's interpretation of the dreams of the 
 butler and baker in prison ; also of his interpretation 
 of Pharoah's dream, and he not only interpreted the 
 dream, but he informed them of what they had 
 dreamed. He also foretold the departure of the 
 Israelites from Egypt four hundred years before it 
 
SPIRITUAL, OE MAGNETIC FOECES. 63 
 
 occurred. Joseph was both a medium and clairvoyant. 
 Now, then, we see from the record, which receives the 
 sanction of all church organizations throughout the 
 world, that a religious science of Spiritualism, precisely 
 like Modern Spiritualism, was recognized not only by 
 the ancient Jews, but by the early descendants of Adam. 
 For about four hundred years previous to our 
 Saviour's birth, Jewish history offers us but little knowl- 
 edge of their affairs. With the advent of Jesus, history 
 records the fact of the existence of a strange belief in 
 Spiritualism, and a new birth given it by Christ. We 
 find that Spiritualists have been severely persecuted 
 at various times by those styling themselves orthodox 
 religionists. First — as we have seen — by Saul, the 
 King of Israel ; second, the persecutions of Christ and 
 his immediate followers ; third, the burning of the 
 witches by the Puritans ; and doubtless there are those 
 at the present time who would gladly apply the instru- 
 ment of torture rather than see the influence of free 
 thought further extended. The impartial reader of the 
 New Testament Scriptures cannot avoid the conclusion 
 that Christianity underwent a radical change following 
 the death of its founder, as was the case with Buddhism 
 following the death of Buddha. Neither of them 
 claimed the worship of their followers, but both were 
 by them deified after death. There has been a ten- 
 dency during all time to man-worship or hero-worship, 
 and this tendency has manifested itself to be strongest 
 among those nations and peoples who have departed 
 the furthest from Spiritualism, which, of all religions, is 
 the most natural. It is a singular fact that while Christ 
 abolished all forms, even to a disregard of the Jewish 
 Sabbath day, yet his followers — though not his im- 
 
64 SPIRITUAL, OR MAGNETIC FORCES. 
 
 mediate followers — established and exacted the observ- 
 ance of other religious forms quite as onerous as those 
 observed by the Jewish Church, and which had been set 
 aside by Christ. But with all of Paul's erudition and 
 metaphysical reasoning, he also recognized the fact of 
 spirit control, and enjoined upon his hearers, that they 
 should "try (test) the spirits," recognizing the fact 
 taught by modern Spiritualism^viz., that as there 
 are good and bad men on earth, influencing others to 
 good and bad deeds, so there are good and bad spirits 
 in the spirit-world endeavoring alike to influence man- 
 kind. And Paul says "test the spirits," to know that 
 they are genuine and their motives pure. This is in 
 striking contrast to the disposition manifested by bigots 
 in the Church. Spiritualism teaches of a world of im- 
 mortal spirits, where, in our exit from this material 
 world, we all do go. Now, then, were we about to 
 emigrate from the land of our nativity, to bid adieu to 
 old associates, old friendships, and all that is made en- 
 dearing by sacred ties, would it not be pleasant for us 
 and very gratifying, to know something of that country 
 whither we were going, and of the people we were go- 
 ing amongst ? Would we not be likely to avail our- 
 selves of all possible information in order to become 
 thoroughly informed upon these things, in anticipation 
 of our removal ? We all do know that we are to leave 
 this material world ; our spirits will have to vacate 
 these material tabernacles which they occupy here, 
 and go to the ."^pirit-world. And how reasonable it is 
 that we should obtain all the light and knowledge the 
 All Father has vouchsafed to us, to know as much as 
 possible concerning that spirit-land, and of those who 
 dwell and are forever to dwell there ? And I beg to 
 
SPIRITUAL, OR MAGNETIC FORCES. 65 
 
 inquire, what information in this direction is obtainable 
 from the various theories promulgated by the various re- 
 ligious organizations ? The teachings of them all utterly 
 fail to satisfy the soul's longing. Their theories are all 
 based upon the abstruse, metaphysical ideas of Paul, not at 
 all upon the plain principles involved in the Sermon on 
 the Mount, which was so beautifully exemplified in the 
 life of the great teacher. Whence, then, shall we apply 
 for the desired information ? Shall we look to science ? 
 Those branches of science recognized by the schools 
 can afford us no information. Shall we appeal to phil- 
 osophy to aid us in our researches after these invaluable 
 truths ? Philosophy alone only gives us this one con- 
 solation — viz. : reasoning from cause to effect, and vice 
 versa — we do know that nothing in this universe is 
 ever lost; There can be no such thing as annihilation 
 of spirit or matter. Matter changes its forms. For 
 instance, the flesh of my body is — apparently at least — 
 all sound and healthy to-day ; to-morrow an inflamma- 
 tion seizes a portion ; it soon festers ; then a running 
 sore takes the place of what was formerly pure, healthy 
 flesh. In a little while — it may be — a healing process 
 takes place, and all is again changed. By and by the 
 spirit leaves the body that was once so beautiful and 
 fair, and it now decays. The particles of matter which 
 once formed it lose their affinity for each other, separ- 
 ate and go to assist in forming other organisms. These 
 are facts in science, and philosophy says that because 
 spirit is not an aggregation of particles held together 
 by any attraction or chemical force, but is of itself an 
 entity, therefore, it must be eternal, immortal, 
 unchangeable ; and that its imperishable nature 
 with all its endowments guarantees eternal progression. 
 
66 SPIEITUAL, OR MAGNETIC FORCES. 
 
 Of its social relations in the future, or spirit, world, it 
 gives us no assurance, other than that there are certain 
 underlying principles of which all thoughtful and intelli- 
 gent persons may be cognizant of in this life, and 
 which must hold good in the life beyond. One is, that 
 wherever there is an aggregation of intelligent spirits,. 
 there must be societies peculiarly adapted to the spirit- 
 ual and intellectual desires. But Spiritualism does 
 teach the honest seeker after truth, the conditions of 
 the soul in the hereafter, and not only so, but that we 
 have friends in that spirit world who are deeply solicit- 
 ous for our welfare in this life, and will, and do aid us 
 by all their powers — and would do much more for us 
 were we willing — both here, and in the long future 
 that awaits us in the beyond. It moreover teaches 
 that in the spirit world there are societies, social or- 
 ganizations, where congenial spirits meet together to- 
 consult upon matters and things pertaining to the well- 
 fare of individual friends on earth, upon the welfare of 
 communities and nations, and to devise ways for pro- 
 moting their highest good. That there are also socie- 
 ties for intellectual and scientific culture. Now, then,, 
 can any possible harm come to any person by research 
 into a philosophy, science, or religion which teaches 
 such things ? It is not at all satisfactory to the 
 aspirations of an intelligent person to be told — as we 
 are by the theological teachers — that he or she is to- 
 spend an endless eternity in singing songs to Jesus ; 
 for first, all are not singers, and would be utterly un- 
 able to comply with such requirements, and those 
 who can sing very well know that it would be a tedi- 
 ous task to be compelled to sing always, or to always 
 sing. The declarations of spiritualists are much 
 
SPIRITUAL, OR MAGNETIC FORCES. 67 
 
 more reasonable and rational, and must commend them- 
 selves as such to every thoughtful mind. And to all 
 those who liave candidly, earnestly, honestly, and im- 
 partially investigated spiritual phenomena, these appear 
 as facts substantiated by evidences incontestable. 
 
PART 111. 
 
 RELIGION VS. THEOLOGY. 
 
 Humanity is so constituted that the judgment of 
 men differ materially ; but it is not so much their real 
 judgments or logical conclusions we have to deal with, 
 as it is their opinions, which opinions, in a great major- 
 ity of cases, are either formed arbitrarily or without 
 the exercise of reason, and are the result of blind faith 
 alone. So, therefore, owing to the difference in the 
 judgments of some, and opinions of others, there is a 
 right and a wrong side to every question in religion, 
 philosophy, science, or politics, and the right or wrong 
 side can only be correctly determined by a fair and 
 impartial trial. The science of religion files its declar- 
 ation against theology, and avers that the latter has 
 not only trespassed upon its ground, but more than 
 that, has, with a Pharasaical sang-froid, assumed its 
 prerogatives. It further avers that theology is not 
 religion in any sense — has no right to occupy its place 
 or to assume its prerogatives ; and for and on behalf of 
 religion I will simply attempt to argue this declaration 
 as against theology. Religion, then, is not inherent in 
 man's nature, as theology asserts, but - is evolved from a 
 perception, or inner consciousness (derived from the 
 contemplation of things apparent to the senses), that 
 there is a cause for all the phenomena in nature, and 
 that must be the great intelligent first cause of the 
 
SPIRITUAL, OB MAGNBTIC FORCES. 69 
 
 universe, and in its gradual development its vital life 
 and force depend not upon the dogmas of any organ- 
 ized body or sect : it is developed to just that degree 
 in each individual as the individual is developed to a 
 full-rounded manhood. Long ages before Moses was 
 born, God spake, by all that was sublimely grand and 
 beautiful in nature. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God 
 with the full capacity of thy mind powers. By a sense 
 of dependence of each man upon his neighbor in times 
 of peril, the voice of that other declaration was also 
 heard — viz., "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" — 
 and on these two commandments hangs all the law of 
 religion ; anything beyond which tends to destroy man's 
 confidence in the goodness, mercy and perfection of 
 God, or renders social life unpleasant, and weakens 
 his faith and confidence in his neighbor, has no part 
 nor lot with religion. I read " Our God is a consum- 
 ing fire, taking vengeance upon all those who know 
 Him not and who forget to keep His law." Is this a 
 declaration of God himself, who never spake to man 
 except in nature? No; on the contrary, it is the voice 
 of theology. Theology also declared that the growth 
 of noxious plants was the result, or one of the results, 
 of man's first sin, but science boldly and without fear 
 of contradiction, asserts that noxious plants existed on 
 this earth for seons before, the advent of man. The 
 great intelligent first cause of this universe is a God 
 infinite in power to construct, to create, and organize 
 law ; this constitutes Him a God of perfection. Speak- 
 ing after the manner of men. He had no associate in 
 the organization of law, and in the process of erecting 
 worlds He had not to consult with any other, and in 
 the administration of His laws to govern His infinite 
 
70 SPIRITUAL, OR MAGNETIC FOKCES. 
 
 system of worlds, He enters not into controversy with 
 any. He is not, therefore, subject to the impulses of 
 hate and revenge which are common to mankind. We 
 do not presume to discuss the character of God only as 
 in contrast with humanity. He is a being of absolute 
 perfection, therefore we can neither see nor conceive of 
 anything in all His attributes which does not, or rather 
 ought not, excite our admiration and love. Now, then, 
 the question which first suggests itself is, What is relig- 
 ion ? — and right here I will say, in attempting to 
 answer this, we are in danger of trenching upon theo- 
 logical ground ; and if possible, to avoid this, we will 
 look to natural science for an answer. Science teaches 
 us that all things in nature are organized on the princi- 
 ple of duality. Throughout the animal and vegetable 
 kingdom there is the male and female; in electricity we 
 find the positive and negative ; water is composed of 
 oxygen and hydrogen ; the air we breathe is composed of 
 oxygen and nitrogen ; society has its foundation in 
 man and wife ; it requires the united action of oxygen 
 and carbon to produce light, and so on. Now, then, 
 to establish and stimulate moral and religious ideas in 
 men, God has established laws which are in harmony 
 with the above, and which are pointedly and forcibly 
 expressed in that declaration — "As a man soweth so 
 shall he also reap." Sickness is the result of a violation 
 of the laws governing health ; in this respect a diseased 
 body is the result of sin against God, for His laws were 
 ordained to promote our good, and only by a violg,tion 
 of His law do we suffer evil. Now, then, the judgment 
 — by some styled conscience — becomes the arbiter for 
 governing the actions of men. No man is influenced 
 to commit an evil act toward his own nature, or against 
 
SPIRITnAL, OB MAGNETIC FOECES. 71 
 
 his neighbor from the love of evil, nor from the love of 
 the evil consequences which are sure to follow ; he 
 looks out upon nature, and sees that everything God 
 has made is beautiful, and in the quiet, peaceful, har- 
 monious operations of God's laws, everything in nature 
 around him moves forward with exact precision. 
 Nature suffers no headaches, does not get delirious, has 
 no occasion to send for a physician; and why? he 
 inquires ; because it most religiously obeys the behests 
 of the Law-giver. Then am not I a trespasser against 
 God ? Did God intend that I should suffer pain ; that 
 my friend should become delirious and compelled to 
 linger out a miserable existence in an insane asylum 
 or that by debasement of my intellectual and moral 
 powers I should become a pariah of society, to be 
 shunned by all the virtuous and good ? Surely not. 
 How do I know this? Simply because my judgment 
 tells me that it is only by, or through the violation of 
 law, that evil'ensues. A child unacquainted with the 
 laws which control and the effects which result from 
 a combustion of carbon with oxygen, attempts to 
 grasp the flame, and in consequence is badly burned. 
 What is his conclusion? It is that he has done 
 wrong; has sinned against law. Of course he does 
 not yet understand the law sinned against, but he 
 knows that so long as he did not trespass against a law, 
 the light afforded him pleasure ; but so soon as he did, 
 then he suffered pain, and he resolved never to com- 
 mit that sin again. Hence comes the truth of that fa- 
 miliar saying, " A burnt child dreads the fire." The 
 result of this sin makes a lasting impression upon his 
 mind, and on attaining a suitable age and experience 
 he studies into the laws of combustion, which leads him 
 
7a SPIRITUAL, OR MAGNETIC FORCES. 
 
 to search throughout nature for the cause of those 
 phenomena which had previously been clouded in mys- 
 tery. He soon learns that he is completely siirrounded 
 and enveloped in a complex system of inexorabl'e laws, 
 and if he even attempts to sever one thread of the same, 
 he has to suffer the evil consequences of his sin. A 
 wise and pure life is to live according to nature's re- 
 quirements ; that is to say, in harmony with natural laws. 
 Theology denies this, and its teachings are thus popular 
 in the refined states of society, the etiquettes, formali- 
 ties, spirit of caste and cHque. The tyranny of opinion 
 renders it difficult for one to be true to nature and to 
 himself, and life becomes artificial to a degree, without 
 our realizing the fact ; the mind ceases to think its own 
 thoughts free from the force of outward circumstances. 
 How difficult, for instance, it is to be honest, since 
 society has established the rule for the servant to say 
 to a visitor who calls and is not welcomed, that her 
 mistress is not at home. When strict hon'esty is main- 
 tained amidst the temptations incident to a convention- 
 al life, it is evidence that such an one is living, or at 
 least endeavoring to live, in compliance with the law of 
 his or her being. There are many sins of a general 
 nature committed daily, regardless of their religious 
 professions, by a majority of those persons fashionably 
 termed "society people," which goes to show that with a 
 majority, the conventionalities of civilized life enact 
 laws more binding in their force than any written or 
 printed code of ethics. 
 
 Now, if theology, instead of harping on creeds and 
 dogmas, would take the incomparable life actually lived 
 by Christ, with the lessons it teaches, for practical 
 living, and enforce its truths upon the minds of men in 
 
SPIRITUAL, OR MAaSETIC FORCES. 73 
 
 all ranks of society, with the view not simply to benefit 
 an elect few in the world of the hereafter — a world we 
 actually know nothing of- — but to educate men and wom- 
 en up to a high standard of moral living, so as to draw 
 others up to this standard by the force of influence and 
 habit, society would be materially benefited, and hu- 
 manity would begin to develop towards perfection. 
 The stream is no purer than its fountain. A vast ma- 
 jority of those persons who listen to thousands of pulpit 
 orations each Sunday never give the subject of the 
 discourse a single thought during the succeeding week ; 
 they are taught to pay tithes of mint, anise and cumin, 
 and omit the weigh|:ier matters of law ; consequently, 
 theology is, at best, but /^i?i5/y instrumental in promoting 
 religious ideas among men. Theology teaches not only, 
 but demands that man be taken out of the kingdom of 
 nature and placed in the kingdom of grace ; that is, 
 that he shall ignore facts for fiction ; that reason shall 
 be subordinate to a blind faith, and repudiates the fact 
 that the blessings of this life or any life we know any- 
 thing of, comes by living in harmony with nature as the 
 great God designed we should. I know no better how 
 to illustrate than in the musical performances of a 
 large orchestra, or choir of singers : the inharmonious 
 or discordant sounds jar upon the ear of the immediate 
 listener, but those discordant tones quickly destroy one 
 another, while the true or harmonious tones follow the 
 one true rule of harmony, supporting each other, so 
 that, while the music may be discordant near at hand, 
 when heard at a distance there is perfect melody, and 
 at the greatest distance, it only strikes the ear a mono- 
 tone. So with all nature's music. Climb with me the 
 mountainous height and stand among the grand old 
 
74 SPIRITUAL, OB MAGNETIC FORCES. 
 
 trees of the forest ; as the mountain winds sway their 
 proud tops to and fro, we listen and are charmed at the 
 perfect melody which strikes our ear in a monotone. 
 Listen to the cascade, while each globule of water is in- 
 dependent of every other globule, and each produces its 
 own separate sound as it is precipitated down the moun- 
 tain, yet there is perfect melody which strikes upon 
 our ear, a monotone. It could not be otherwise, because 
 it is inanimate nature in perfect harmony with the law 
 of the universe. Now, there is nothing in the evil actions 
 of men in this life that is in harmony with the law 
 of the universe ; hence the consequences of such evil ac- 
 tions will soon die out after this life shall end, while the 
 consequences of good actions are eternal, for they are 
 in perfect harmony with the law of the universe, which 
 is the law of the being, of its great Author. The con- 
 sequences of evil actions are not prolonged and spread 
 into the infinite. The mistake theology makes is to 
 substitute the human notion of rewards and punish- 
 ments, in the world of the hereafter, for the natural and 
 divine fact of consequences. When it was objected to 
 a pastor, that his church exacted an assent to a great 
 body of traditions and doctrines to which it was im- 
 possible that the great majority could be qualified, 
 either as respected knowledge, or culture of the under- 
 standing, to give any. reasonable assent, the answer was, 
 "Yes, but that sort of assent is not required of an un- 
 educated man ; all that he has to do is to believe in the 
 Church ; he is to have faith in her faith ; by that act 
 he adopts for his own whatever the Church believes, 
 though he may never have heard of it even ; his faith 
 is involved and wrapped up in the faith of the Church, 
 which faith he firmly believes to be the true faith upon 
 
SPIKITDAL, OB MAGNETIC FORCES. 75 
 
 the conviction he has, that the Church is preserved from 
 all possibiHty of erring by the spirit of God." 
 
 Now, this believing by proxy constitutes the religious 
 faith of a vast majority of the members of all our 
 ■churches. It is not only the faith by proxy of the ig- 
 norant and uneducated classes, but also of a large ma- 
 jority of both men and women who possess at least a 
 reasonable degree of intelligence pertaining to the com- 
 mon affairs of life. That this is an easy religion to have 
 and enjoy, surely none will deny ; it leaves its votaries to 
 busy thernselves about their own selfish affairs, to mingle 
 in the fashionable world, maintain a respectable stand- 
 ing in church and society without the labor of a single 
 religious thought, act or deed. So easy and conven- 
 ient a religion commends itself to popular favor ; but 
 is there anything in it to make men and women better? 
 Do those who are led by the hand of theology, and 
 believe by proxy, perform unselfish acts of charity and 
 love toward others, and thus aid in the development of 
 a purer and more unselfish life and a higher civilization ? 
 or, are they as likely to, as those who think for them- 
 selves, and reason from cause to effect and from effect 
 back to cause? Is it not the tendency of theology to 
 suppress thought, to stifle inquiry and narrow down 
 the operations of the mind of the individual by its ipsi 
 dixit that reason must be ignored and a blind, implicit 
 faith in the dogmas of the church substituted in its 
 place? One has said, "Pure religion and undefiled 
 before God is this : to visit the widow and the fatherless 
 in their affliction, and keep himself unspotted before 
 the world." But theology says no. No matter how 
 good a man may be, how unselfish a life he may live, 
 unless he gives assent to the articles of faith adopted 
 
76 SPIRITUAL, OR MAGNETIC FORCES. 
 
 by the Church — and that publicly — the purity of his 
 life counts for nothing — he is a pariah and outcast of 
 God. Now, those who believe by proxy may accept 
 such nonsense, but it is difficult to conceive how a think- 
 ing man or woman can. Theology counts all manners 
 and forms of religion as erroneous except its own. 
 Hence, in the various church bodies we have many 
 creeds differing essentially from each other ; if they 
 were not of human origin this could not be ; and this 
 very fact itself is evidence that not one of them has the 
 least binding force upon the mind of any individual. 
 Let us consider for a moment a few of the dogmas 
 that are held in common by many of the church organ- 
 izations. First, the doctrine of plenary inspiration of 
 the Scriptures; the following quotation is relied upon 
 as authority for this belief — viz., " Holy men of old 
 spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." Now^ 
 then, the expression " Holy men of old " most surely 
 refers to those who first uttered the religious truth. 
 Zoroaster, who was the founder of the Iranic religion, 
 of Persia, lived and taught 2,000 years before Christ, 
 long before Moses was born. He taught that there were 
 two great governing principles in the universe — one 
 good, the other evil. These two principles were con- 
 stantly at war with each other. The good spirit, Ormozd, 
 was the great Creator ; the evil spirit, Ahriman, was 
 constantly endeavoring to subvert the plans and pur- 
 poses of Ormozd, and the first man and woman were 
 created in moral innocency and made for heaven, and 
 worshipped Ormozd, their Creator. But Ahriman 
 tempted them and brought them fruit, which they ate 
 and thereby lost their happiness. The woman was 
 the first to yield to the tempter. The whole human 
 
SPIRITUAL, OR MAGNETIC FORCES. 77 
 
 race thus, through the sin of their first parents, became 
 mortal and miserable. That mankind ought to love 
 and honor Ormozd. But Ahriman and his spirits sur- 
 round men night and day to mislead them. That this 
 world is a world of probation, and those who choose 
 the good in this life are received after death by good 
 spirits into the mansions of the blessed. The bad fall 
 into a gulf where they are tormented by evil spirits. 
 Some are redeemed by the prayers and intercessions of 
 their friends ; while many remain until the final resur- 
 rection, when Ormozd will clothe anew with flesh the 
 bones of men. Friends and relatives will again rec- 
 ognize each other. Then comes the great separation 
 between the righteous and the wicked. The earth is to 
 be purified by fire, and a permanent heaven established, 
 where the righteous are forever to dwell in the full 
 fruition of eternal bliss. Now, who does not see 
 in Zoroaster's faith, promulgated long before Moses 
 was born, that which is vital in the faith of the ortho- 
 dox churches. Then, why not concede for this most 
 ancient Persian at least equal inspiration with the 
 Hebrew writers. Most surely, the one who first of all 
 utters the truth is entitled to such claim, if indeed any 
 are. In fact, so far as history affords us light, Zoroas- 
 ter was the original founder of both Jewish and Chris- 
 tian theology. Take the Book of Job, a portion of the 
 Hebrew Scriptures incorporated and still maintained for 
 the theology it teaches ; no one is able to tell us who 
 was its author ; it is evident that it was not written or 
 composed by a Jew ; and from the fact that its theol- 
 ogy is in perfect accord with Zoroaster's teachings, we 
 are impressed with the belief that it was a Persian 
 legend, claimed by theology as inspiration, while at 
 
78 SPIRITUAL, OR MAGNETIC FORCES. 
 
 the same time the church says nothing good can come 
 out of Nazareth. Why is it, I inquire, that religious 
 teachers, who as a class, are educated men, so persist- 
 ently maintain the dogma of a literal inspiration of the 
 Scriptures when they know, or ought to know, that the 
 term in the original which is translated forty, as the 
 forty days Moses was in the mount, and other like pass- 
 ages, never means a definite number, and is always 
 taken for an indefinite number. Again : I know of no 
 single instance where any one of the writers of the 
 New Testament claims inspiration. It is also well 
 known that all the books of the Bible had to pass the 
 gauntlet of criticism by the fathers of the church, and 
 their place defined by vote of the assembly ; and we 
 know that majorities are not always right. 
 
 Let us look at the doctrine of election as insisted 
 upon by the orthodox churches of the present day. 
 
 The ancients directed prayers and vows, made and 
 offered sacrifices, to prevail, if possible, with the Deity 
 to reveal himself, either in dreams, oracles, or other 
 signs which might manifest his will ; fully convinced that 
 nothing could happen but by divine appointment ; and 
 thus man should know the supreme will from such man- 
 ifestations in order to conform his actions to it. Cam- 
 byses said to his son, " The gods are eternal and know 
 equally all things — past, present, and to come. With 
 regard to mortals who address them, they give salutary 
 counsels to those whom they are pleased to favor. 
 If they do not give like counsels to all men, it is because 
 it is not necessary to attend to the welfare of those upon 
 whom they do not vouchsafe to confer their favors." 
 Here we find the doctrine of election promulgated by 
 
SPIRITUAL, OE MAGNETIC FORCES. 79 
 
 a pagan king long before Paul, the great theologian, 
 was born. 
 
 The question may here be asked, would I dispense 
 with church organizations and religious teachers? I 
 answer, by no means ; for humanity is so constituted 
 that we must have organized societies for literary cul- 
 ture and social enjoyments ; and to promote a high 
 degree of moral and religious sentiment, societies of a 
 high order must be maintained, and the true science of 
 religion, like all the other sciences, requires teachers 
 of high attainments in their profession. And I will 
 venture the prediction that, were our orthodox preach- 
 ers to study and preach religion instead of theology, 
 instead of being compelled to address empty pews, 
 as a vast majority of them do throughout our land, 
 their houses would soon be filled to overflowing with 
 eager listeners. 
 
 The absurd theology of the orthodox church is the 
 cause of the periodical showers of Hegelian philosophy 
 which are poured upon us from time to time ; and it is 
 a noticeable fact that the votaries of that philosophy 
 always claim it as original with themselves. It makes 
 man the creator of God, the human mind the only de- 
 velopment of God. With such atheistic nonsense I 
 have no patience. Let the Church ignore theology 
 and promulgate in its place and stead a reasonable 
 and rational religion, in harmony with nature, and athe- 
 ism would soon wither and die. I am well av/are of the 
 fact that there are many ministers in the orthodox 
 churches who in their hearts ignore the theology under 
 which they are bound, and would' gladly rid themselves 
 of those shackles ; but, from fear of the church hierarchy 
 stultify themselves. Occasionally one of that class has 
 
80 SPIRITUAL, OR MAGNETIC FORCES. 
 
 the moral courage to declare the truth, but in nearly; 
 every such instance he is ostracized by the ruling pow- 
 ers in the church. A parallel case came under my own 
 observation. I attended the services of an orthodox- 
 church one Sabbath and listened to an eloquent discourse, 
 by the stated pastor. After recounting vividly the per- 
 secutions of the church in the medieval ages, he said : 
 "When in this nineteenth century, there are seventy, 
 different church organizations, each fighting for its. own 
 creeds and dogmas, instead of joining heartily in advanc- 
 ing and enforcing the principles of Christ for the redemp- 
 tion of the race, is it a hard, matter to trace the cause 
 of the rapid spread of infidelity?" These were the 
 utterances of a religious teacher who loved humanity 
 more than he loved church dogmas. But alas ! the re- 
 sult was as I feared ; only a few months elapsed before 
 he was asked to resign his pastorate, which he did, and 
 was relieved of his charge. With that church, creeds 
 and dogmas were of more importance than the building 
 up of a high moral and religious standard among men. 
 Let us draw another parallel between religion and the- 
 ology. A lady of culture and refinement possessing all 
 the ennobling qualities to a high degree, has unfortun- 
 ately cast her fortunes in life with a husband of low, de- 
 based animal tendencies : she struggles patiently along 
 year after year, a model of purity and virtue ; the poor 
 are blessed by her benefactions, by her the bereaved are 
 comforted in their sorrows ; she ministers to the wants 
 of the sick and dying, but she is not a member of any 
 church, has never subscribed to their creeds nor dog- 
 mas. Her more than brutal husband, in a fit of intoxi- 
 cation and madness, strikes her down, and she is laid cold 
 in the embrace of death. He is tried and convicted for 
 
SPIBITQAL, OR MAGNETIC FORCES. 81 
 
 the murder and sentenced to be hanged. While await- 
 ing the day of his execution, he for the first time in his 
 life, calls to his aid the good ofifices of the church. A 
 pastor sees him frequently in his prison cell, discourses 
 upon theology, and points out to him the way of salva- 
 vation. He eagerly accepts the terms oflered, is assured 
 of the safety of his soul, and is happy in the thought of 
 approaching death, ^yhen the miserable wretch goes 
 upon the scaffold to take tjiat fearful leap in the dark, 
 he says : " I have but one regret at parting with life : 
 it is that when I enter the spirit world, I shall look over 
 the battlements of heaven into that deep and dismal 
 gulf below and listen to the groans and wailings of my 
 unrepentant wife. " This is the teaching of theology. 
 But religion says no ; inasmuch as ye have done unself- 
 fish acts of love to one of the least of these, my brethren, 
 ye have done it unto me. " She hath done what she 
 could." A few years since one of the most eloquent 
 preachers and deepest thinkers in all our land, pastor of 
 a Presbyterian Church in one of our large cities, in a 
 Sunday evening lecture, made light of the absurd story 
 of Lot's wife turning to salt, and of the destruction of 
 the cities of the plain by the fire from God out of 
 heaven as an exhibition of His wrath upon the people 
 for their sins. For this he was summoned before pres- 
 bytery, found guilty of infidelity, and the edict to leave 
 was issued ; but his church ignored presbytery, and 
 sustained their pastor. Then the entire influence of 
 presbytery was brought to bear upon the church itself 
 to crush it out, which was successful in the final issue. 
 A year or two afterwards a gentleman happening to be 
 in conversation with the venerable doctor of divinity 
 who was the leader in this persecution, .said to him : 
 
8a SPIRITUAL, OR MAGNETIC FORCES. 
 
 " By the way, Doctor, what do you think was that fire 
 which came from God out of heaven and destroyed the 
 cities of the plain ? Might it not have been a stroke of 
 lightning setting on fire the petroleum springs with which 
 that country abounded, and thus causing that great 
 conflagration ?" The Doctorhesitated a moment, then 
 said : " Well, all the fire that we know anything about 
 that comes down from heaven is lightning. " Here in 
 the absence of theological controversy, the reverend 
 Doctor was free to express the truth. But when the old 
 fossilized dogmas of the church were in danger of being 
 subverted, he stultified himself, and spoke and acted 
 contrary to the dictates of his own reason and judg. 
 ment. Theology said poor Mrs. Lot was miraculously 
 turned to a pillar of salt as a judgment upon her for 
 looking back, and longingly wishing to enjoy the pleas, 
 ures again of that old home from which she, with her 
 family, had been driven by that fierce conflagration. 
 If this be true, then all the disasters that ever have fall- 
 en upon mankind are the miraculous visitations of the 
 wrath of God. Where is there a man or woman possess- 
 ing an ordinary degree of common sense and intelli- 
 gence who believes this? Christ told the orthodox Jew 
 that those eighteen, upon whom the tower of Siloam 
 fell and slew, zvere not sinners above all who dwelt in 
 Jerusalem, as they supposed. Neither was it a judg- 
 ment upon the Galileans that Pilate mingled their blood 
 with their sacrifices, and proceeded, by a parable, 
 to show that it was a man's acts, what he did, not what 
 he believed, that constituted him a good man. A tree 
 is known to be good or bad by its fruit. No matter 
 whose garden it grows in, or by what name called, if the 
 fruit is good the tree itself is good. But theology says 
 
SPIRITUAL, OR MAGNETIC FORCES. 83 
 
 no ; Christ is mistaken ; a bad tree may bear good fruit ; 
 a bad man — one who has not given assent to the creeds 
 and dogmas of the church — may bring forth or bear good 
 fruit. That is, he may do good deeds. He is not a 
 member of the church, consequently the good deeds 
 which he performs are simply the promptings or im- 
 pulses of his moral nature. But he is not spiritually in- 
 clined, for he cannot recite from memory t;he Westmin- 
 ster Chatechism nor repeat the Apostles' Creed. 
 
 Webster defines theology as " the science of GOD and 
 divine things." Now, I beg to inquire if it is true, that 
 theology — which is wholly of human origin — is capable 
 of going back of material things, into the deep and un- 
 fathomable realms of eternity past, and account for the 
 existence of GOD ; or by chemical analysis, or by means 
 of the spectroscope or object glass, or by aid of human 
 reason, ascertain what GOD is? Job put the significant 
 inquiry, "Canst thou by searching find out God ?" If 
 theology is a necessary adjunct of religion, how are we 
 to know when we are correct in our theology ? For, as 
 has been said, here are over seventy church organiza- 
 tions, all differing in their creeds and dogmas, and each 
 persistently maintaining that they are right, and all the 
 others wrong. Now, then, who is competent to decide 
 this controversy ? It is clear that all are not right. Can 
 this matter be satisfactorily settled by arbitration or 
 reference ? Surely not, for the reason that the referees 
 or commissioners to whom the matter should be re- 
 ferred, many or few in numbers, their predelictions would 
 be so strong, that they would be disqualified to act. 
 Could the question be satisfactorily decided by prepon- 
 derance of testimony or opinion ? Certainly not, for 
 even then it would only be the result of opinions formed 
 
84 SPIRITUAL, OR MAGNETIC FORCES. 
 
 by force of education, so that the verdict or decision 
 would be wholly unreliable and unsatisfactory. The- 
 ology is Jure humano, while religion \s Jure divtno, and 
 cannot be otherwise, for the main underlying principles 
 of religion are common to, and recognized by, all en- 
 lightened and intelligent men without controversy, as 
 a divine law, adapted to man's needs, is indispensable 
 to his fullest development. But not so with theology ; 
 that is taught in schools, and each sect has its own 
 school, each differing from all the others. Now, all 
 laws, in order to have any binding force or effect upon 
 the individual, must emanate from sources or power of 
 sufficient authority itself to enforce the penalty for the 
 violation of any such laws ; and as I have said, the 
 violation of any one of God's laws is absolutely sure to 
 bring its penalty, while it is impossible for theology to 
 inflict any penalty for a violation of its decrees, except 
 excommunication from its own self-constituted body or 
 organization. 
 
 I was impressed with a sermon recently delivered by 
 one of the leading Presbyterian divines, and the admis- 
 sions there made. He says : " Modern skeptical thought 
 is now menacing the pulpit. In its extreme it is as far 
 removed from Christianity as Buddhism. This skepti- 
 cal thought, too, is spreading among the more intelli- 
 gent classes of the community, has invaded the colleges, 
 is expressed by many popular writers, and the younger 
 generation is profoundly affected by it. We see traces 
 of its influence in the pulpit even, and indications 
 appear that under the shell of outward assent, not a few 
 ministers are concealing doubts which make their 
 preaching hypocrisy." To which I will add, the simple 
 faith of the early church is very different from that 
 
SPIRITUAL, OR MAGNETIC FORCES. 85 
 
 merely formal acceptance of creeds and dogmas which 
 is now so prevalent, and which needs the help of them 
 in our churches, since it is so lacking in substance. Why 
 is it, I beg to inquire, that the churches look with so 
 great alarm upon the investigations and developments 
 in science, and when any new and startling fact in geol- 
 ogy or anthropology is announced, manifest so great 
 trepidation ? Surely, true religion cannot be injured 
 by the disclosure or announcement of a truth. True 
 science does not desire nor attempt to subvert religion. 
 Some may entertain vague theories in science which 
 denies the very existence of God himself ;^ but such can 
 never be of any material injury to the race, for ulti- 
 mately their theories have to be tried in the crucible of 
 reason and true science before they can obtain even a 
 respectable following, and when so tried are sure to be 
 exploded. They are like the blackened storm-cloud 
 as it rises in all its fury in the west, betokening danger, 
 causing alarm to the timid ; but presently it meets a 
 counter-current of pure air, which dispels its vapors; 
 the angry clouds vanish, and the glorious light of the 
 sun appears, making both sky and earth serene with his 
 brightness. Instead of testing theories by faith — and a 
 faith which, owing to educational influences, cannot be 
 inherent — let them be tested by facts ; until they have 
 been thus tested and tried in this crucible, they can 
 have ho dominion over the individual. Even the great 
 apostle Paul, with all his metaphysical theology, said : 
 Let ^-z'^ry o«f— not the professional theoliDgians alone, 
 but every one — be able to give a reason for the hope 
 that is within him. It is evident from this, that Paul 
 did not intend that men should live by blind faith alone^ 
 or believe by proxy. 
 
86 SPIRITUAL, OR MAGNETIC FORCES. 
 
 In matriculating in the laboratory, the student is 
 taught that there are fixed principles in nature control- 
 ing all material substances, and he must not ignore them 
 in his subsequent experiments. And as he progresses 
 in his experiments, he soon learns that should he depart 
 from those fixed principles, he finds himself like a ship 
 at sea without either sail or rudder. So with the science 
 of religion. There are great underlying religious facts 
 in nature which are manifest to every one, and which 
 man's philosophy cannot subvert. 
 
 The injunctions of Gautama, the Buddhist saviour, 
 550 years before Christ, were : 
 
 Kill not, for pity's sake, 
 
 And lest ye slay 
 The meanest thing 
 
 Upon its upward way. 
 Give freely and receive. 
 
 But take from none 
 By greed, or force, or fraud. 
 
 What is his own. 
 Bear not false witness, 
 
 Slander not, nor lie ; 
 Truth is the inward 
 
 Speech of purity. 
 Sljun drinks which work abuse ; 
 
 Clear minds, clean bodies need no somerjuice. 
 Touch not thy neighbor's wife, nor commit 
 
 Sins of the flesh, unlawful and unfit. 
 
 These are the injunctions of one whose theology was 
 derived from nature, and are religious truths — in fact, 
 all truth is religious, for God Himself is truth. There 
 is no such thing as a difference in degree between a re- 
 ligious truth and a political truth, or a business truth, 
 any more ^than there is between a religious lie and a 
 political or business lie. All truth is righteous, and all 
 
SPIRITUAL, OR MAGNETIC FOKCBS. 87 
 
 lies are sinful. These Buddhistic injunctions, which are 
 the foundation stones of natural religion, are every one 
 contained in the decalogue as given by Moses, and re- 
 cognized by Christians as religious truths. And as the 
 Great Teacher has said, " in the keeping of which there 
 is great reward." Again, these truths are religious be- 
 cause they are in harmony with nature, and with God, 
 its great author. They require no theological profes- 
 sor to expound their meaning, but are self-evident truths 
 to all men — that is, to all who will yield themselves to 
 be influenced and controlled b)' the higher and nobler 
 impulses or emotions of the soul. 
 
 What the world wants is a practical religion — an 
 everyday religion — not a religion of forms, of dogmas, 
 of creeds, neither an aristocratic religion of cloth, but a 
 religion of kind words and deeds, honesty in politics, 
 professions and business. We are told that the Naza- 
 rene was a carpenter, and I have no doubt but that he 
 was an hone.st one. I do not believe he purchased 
 second-class lumber at a low price, and swindled his 
 customers by palming it off upon them as first-class 
 work. When reproving the Ancient Church for the 
 falsity of their religion, Isaiah said : " Is not this the 
 fast that I have chosen ; to deal thy bread to the hun- 
 gry ; to bring the poor that are cast out of thy house ; 
 when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him." 
 Again, listen to his objurations: " Bring no more vain 
 oblations ; incense is an abomination, the new moons 
 and sabbaths. Your new moons and appointed feasts 
 my soul hateth." What Isaiah desired to accomplish 
 for religion, jESUS, by his life and teachings, did. But 
 selfishness predominating in the hearts of men, scarcely 
 a vestige of primitive Christianity is left in the church 
 
88 SPIRITUAL, OR MAGNETIC FORCES. 
 
 at the present day. If a thoroughly-practical religion 
 shall be found in Spiritualism, then it will meet the 
 wants of humanity as a religion, and not otherwise. 
 
 Theology says that in order to secure the favor of 
 God and enjoy the fruitions of eternal bliss in the world 
 of the hereafter, we must utterly abhor ourselves while 
 here in the flesh, and instead of getting all the innocent 
 enjoyment possible out of life, we must continually do 
 penance; we must believe in certain creeds and dogmas 
 instituted by man ; -.ve must adhere to and fulfill cer- 
 tain of the Mosaic laws which were ignored and abro- 
 gated by Christ — all these we must do to ensure the 
 Divine favor, whereas Christ himself said : " The mer- 
 ciful ska// obtain mercy ;" " if ye forgive men their tres- 
 passes, God will also forgive you," no matter what 
 church you belong to, or whether you belong to any. 
 God delights in life ; all nature bears testimony to His 
 mercy and love ; nowhere can we find a single manifes- 
 tation of His wrath. 
 
 He has so ordained that the seas, lakes and rivers are 
 full of life. Thp earth is covered with animal and in- 
 sect life in millions of forms and of endless varieties, 
 from the smallest insect that creeps upon the ground, 
 or nestles upon a leaf or spire of grass, up to the mam- 
 moth quadrupeds, and so on up to man. Every breath 
 of air we breathe pulsates with life so minute in form, 
 that our natural vision cannot detect it. Yet full of 
 elasticity and joy, God sees all these and the pleasures 
 they enjoy, and is glad ; and He has wisely ordered 
 that plants and animals having once gained residence 
 here, shall not be encouraged to exercise a spirit of su- 
 preme selfishness by setting up a claim for pre-emption 
 rights, thus shutting out all new-comers, but in due pro- 
 
SPIRITUAL, OR MAGNETIC FORCES. 89 
 
 cess of time, each and all have to vacate their tenancy 
 and are succeeded by others, they in turn to others, and 
 so on. Here is manifested the perfection of wisdom, 
 mercy and love. The idea that the supreme ruler of 
 the universe is, in any sense, a God of wrath, originated 
 away back of Paganism, in the infancy of the race. The 
 savage never knew nor conceived of a God of love, 
 "merciful and slow to anger." No, his was a god of 
 wrath, and had to be propitiated by sacrifice, and all the 
 various religions, up to the time of Christ, were founded 
 upon this belief. But the teachings of Christ, the con- 
 victions of every honest and thoughtful mind, and all 
 nature in its complex forms, proclaim Him a God of 
 love. While we are quietly wrapt in slumbers, the all- 
 seeing eye of a loving and merciful Father is pleased to 
 see that the forces of nature established by Him are 
 doing their utmost to restore the wasted energies of 
 the previous day, and thus fit us for the renewed exer- 
 tions on the morrow. God doesjiot take pleasure in 
 the death of a sinner. Men may and do sin, and every 
 sin brings its own punishment, as a natural sequence, 
 but not by the immediate act or desire of God. Where 
 there is pain, there is no pleasure ; so, where there is 
 sin there is no happiness. Our ^^AV/" has nothing to do 
 with the results in either case. All of nature's laws 
 were ordained for our good ; if we violate them, or any 
 one of them, the natural or divine law of consequences 
 is sure to follow. On the other hand, " in the keeping 
 of them there is great reward." As I have said, all na- 
 ture bespeaks a God of love. Does a kind and loving 
 parent take delight in the sufferings of his child ? Can 
 he stoically gaze upon one to whom he has given life 
 while such an one is in a condition of misery, sufTering 
 
90 SPIRITUAL, OR MAGNETIC FORCES. 
 
 and pain ? No, not if he is possessed of a single grain 
 of that Divine love that the All-Father has imparted to 
 the soul of man. The only criterion we can judge God 
 by, or, devoutly speaking, the only method we have of 
 forming opinions of His attributes, is based upon what 
 is revealed to us in nature. God has never manifested 
 himself personally to man. " No man hath seen God 
 at any time." He has never spoken to man in an audible 
 voice. Our conceptions of his character are formed 
 from our individual ideas of what constitutes the high- 
 est type of man. It was so with the savage ; his ideal 
 of the highest type of man was one who gave exhibi- 
 tion of the most deeply-seated wrath, and just in pro- 
 portion as man has developed, grown out of that idea 
 of hate and revenge, so has he come to realize and ap- 
 preciate the Infinite Father as a God of love. While 
 He has never spoken to man in an audible voice. He 
 has spoken to us in the grand and magnificent land- 
 scape of earth, in the azure-tinted vault of heaven, 
 studded with the emeralds of the skies, in the beauti- 
 fully-tinted flowers of the meadows, in the moral and 
 intellectual qualities of man's undying soul, all bespeak- 
 ing his matchless love and mercy. Then let theology 
 cease its efforts to make men miserable here, and no 
 better hereafter, and leave " true and undefiled religion " 
 to the exercise of its prerogatives, which are to make 
 men better, happier, more noble and God-like here, and, 
 as a consequence, purer and happier in the world of 
 the hereafter. 
 
PART IV. 
 
 All well-disposed persons enjoy a community of in- 
 terest in society, and I ask the indulgence of my read- 
 ers for a few moments, in defining the term which ex- 
 presses the spiritual force or emotion that unites the 
 hearts of individuals, and tends to bind society together 
 in a band of perpetual union. 
 
 FRIENDSHIP. 
 
 The terms Friend, Friendly, Friendship, in their com- 
 mon acceptation are synonymous. They are derivable 
 terms, and not yet of the same derivation ; for man 
 may be, to all appearances, friendly, and yet, not be 
 your friend. Again, he may be friendly, yet no true 
 friendship exist. The first question, then, that suggests 
 itself to us is, What is the signification of each term, in 
 reality ? A friend is a person attached to another by 
 affection, love, fondness. This is an inseparable attribute, 
 or quality. In the broadest and strictly technical sense, 
 then, a friend is one who loves. No matter what 
 prompts the emotion ; for, be it known, there is no 
 standard for love any more than there is a standard for 
 beauty. I may see what, to me, is a beautiful picture ; 
 another sees nothing in it to admire. A gentleman 
 having purchased what to him was a very beautiful 
 painting, for which he paid quite a sum of money, in- 
 vited another to examine it, but refrained from express- 
 
92 SPIRITUAL, OR MAGNETIC FORCES. 
 
 ing any opinion of its merits himself, desirous of obtain- 
 ing the other's unbiased judgment. After viewing the 
 picture for some time, his friend exclaimed, " Well, I 
 do .say it is the prettiest frame I ever saw around a 
 picture." The one saw more beauty in the picture, the 
 other in the frame. Everyman thinks — or oughti to 
 think — ^his own wife the most beautiful ; every woman 
 sees in her own husband the standard of manly perfec- 
 tion, and it is exceedingly fortunate that zt is so. Were 
 it otherwise, what fearful havoc there would be in so- 
 ciety. Love is begotten of admiration. We first ad- 
 mire, and then love. A burly fellow assaults a feeble 
 man on the street ; an athlete, in passing, has his atten- 
 tion called to the unequal conflict, and instantly inter- 
 poses his powerful arm and vanquishes the burly ruf- 
 fian. The delivered person is filled with admiration for 
 his deliverer ; he' reflects upon his escape, and the more 
 he reflects and philosophises upon it, the more intensely 
 does he ad'mire the unselfishness, courage and strength 
 of his deliverer, until his admiration ripens into love. 
 There are, in all communities, men and women who are 
 so unselfish and so unassuming, that the public do not 
 even know them, but there are those who have been 
 made the recipients of valued favors through their in- 
 strumentalities. They first admired their benevolence, 
 and then came to love them most devoutly. Marriages, 
 we have been told, are made in heaven ; I don't believe it ; 
 marriages are made on earth, and they are, or at least 
 ought to be, by the free volitions of the parties,each choos- 
 ing the other as the only one of his or her choice, out of 
 the entire human family. And this choosing is the re- 
 sult of confiding love. Now, then, select a single case, 
 and to me there may be nothing attractive in either 
 
SPIBITUAL, OR MAGNETIC FORCES. 93 
 
 party, I see nothing in either party to excite my emo- 
 tions of love, and yet, they love each other most 
 ardently. We first admire, then esteem, then love, and 
 love begets confidence. Now, we have reached the con- 
 dition of true friendship. A writer has said that he 
 had no doubt that God admired the Quakers, but he 
 could not love them. That author did not stop to 
 think he had pr^'aounced his own condemnation, for 
 he himself had arbitrarily set up a standard by which 
 God was, or rather was not, to love mankind. And 
 with him that standard for love was, that men should 
 not wear broad-brim hats and pale-blue coats, all but- 
 toned up before. 
 
 What is it to be friendly ? It is for one to act towards 
 another yw^d^^x favorable circumstances only, as a friend 
 would, under the same circumstances. Mind you, I say 
 favorable circumstances. The occasion is not one that 
 calls for self-denial, but such as enables him to do a 
 friendly act without discommoding himself, or subject- 
 ing himself to any very great inconvenience. A friend 
 contributes to your happiness from emotions of true 
 love, hence the circumstances which ,call forth the man- 
 ifestations of his friendship are not considered by him. 
 Unlike the %\xn^\y friendly person, he does not wait for 
 a. favorable opportunity to manifest friendship, but he 
 seeks opportunities to freely bestow his favors, merging 
 your interests in his own. The friendly person rarely be- 
 stows favors, except under circumstances such as will 
 ensure him the commendation of others. True friend- 
 ship expresses that deep admiration and devotion that 
 prompts one to forget self, and make another's ills his 
 own. The friendly .person judges of your acts abstract- 
 ly. If they are in harmony with his judgment, you 
 
94 SPIRITUAL, OR MAGNETIC FORCES. 
 
 receive his commendation; if otherwise his earnest 
 condemnation. You may honestly err in judgment, 
 hence your action is erroneous ; this he does not stop 
 to inquire into, but pronounces the cold verdict of un- 
 yielding law. On the contrary, your friend carefully 
 and tenderly weighs all the circumstances in the case, 
 makes all due allowance for possible errors in judgment, 
 for extraneous influences which may have unwittingly 
 led — or even forced you — to the committal of an unwise 
 act, and passes judgment not upon the act itself, but 
 upon the underlying motive which prompted you to 
 act. He may not approve the act, but he admires and 
 commends the motive which prompted it. Aware of 
 the fallibility of all men, Jie exercises charitable judg- 
 ment towards you, so that, although the act does not 
 commend itself to his better judgment, you none the 
 less share his confidence and esteem. Hence, we are 
 able to judge correctly between the /rzV^Zi/i^ person and 
 the true friend. The friendship of the former is fitful, 
 and comparatively valueless, while the friendship of the 
 latter is constant and invaluable. The former expresses 
 the cold, unsympathetic judgment of the populace, the 
 latter the deeply sympathetic, charitable expressions 
 of love. It becomes, then, not simply our privilege but 
 our duty to closely criticize the bearing towards us of 
 those with whom we are brought into intimate rela- 
 tions, thus enabling us to select as our confidants those 
 who will never betray us ; for, society is so constituted, 
 and our place in society so unalterably fixed, that we 
 must have, for our own protection, the unwavering con- 
 fidence of others, and those comparatively few in num- 
 ber, for in the present state of society, a sociality founded 
 upon love must necessarily embrace but few whose 
 
SPIRITUAL, OR MAGNETIC FORCES. 95 
 
 community of interests gravitates towards and centres 
 in one person. An eminent philosopher has well said : 
 " Love," which expresses the tenderest emotions of 
 your friend, " thinketh no ill of his neighbor," or, rather, 
 of his friend. The tender emotion of love deals not 
 with cold conventionalities, but putting itself in your 
 place, exercises charitable judgment. The friendly 
 person commonly bestows his favors with ostentation, 
 the underlying motive being pure selfishness; his osten- 
 sible purpose being to benefit you, while his actual pur- 
 pose is to mislead you and the community as to his real 
 character, or to place you under personal obligations to 
 him, so that whenever he deems it expedient to make 
 a demand upon you — no matter how exorbitant or un- 
 just — you will not dare to resist his demands. He is 
 of that class described as a " secret friend," and more 
 dangerous — far more so — than " an open enemy." Most 
 unfortunately, society is made up largely of this class 
 of persons. Recognizing this fact, and the great dif- 
 ficulty of correctly interpreting at all times the actions 
 of those who, for the time being, are friendly, the rea- 
 son is obvious why there is so much uncharitableness 
 exercised by well-inclined and truly good people. 
 
 It is a baneful evil of the present status of society, 
 and one from which we can expect no relief until civil- 
 ization shall have evolved a sociality founded upon 
 love.