r, LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 1 Shelf ...^^--l..' ^ " ' UNITED STATES OF AMEEICA. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 with funding from The Library of Congress http://www.archive.org/details/magnetismclairvoOOcart Magnetism Clairvoyantly Discerned LESSONS FROM NATURE. Inherited Characteristics Explained. NEW LIGHT ON THE TREATMENT OF DISEASES WITH TREATISES ON Various Subjects of General Interest. - ' ^ Mrs. SARAH CARTWRIGHT. -^ DETROIT, MICH.: O. S. GULLEY, BORNMAN & CO., 12 — 18 LARNED STREET EAST. 1884. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1884,, By MRS. SARAH CARTWRIGHT, in the office of the Librarian of Congress at Wasliinq-ton. PREFACE '"T^HE present epoch may be emphatically denom- JL inated one of investigation and progress ; hence, when truth is plainly presented to the candid mind, it seldom fails of a cordial welcome. In the illimitable field of the arts and sciences, more persist- ent researches and greater discoveries have been made than at any previous period. So many theories and different modes of treating disease are advanced, and such discordant ideas and sentiments enunciated, both by physicians and the general public who patronize them; so many mistakes and failures are constantly being made, that the con- fidence of the people in any one mode of treatment is nearly lost. There is too much science and too little sense in the present age, and too many doubtful modes of medical treatment. As theories increase, simple medicines are more and more disregarded and PREFACE. ignored. Belief in the alleged critical knowledge of anatomy, natural philosophy and what not, as essen- tial prerequisites of the art of healing, is rapidly losing ground. Those who know only how to restore the sick to health, are branded by some as empirics. This latter class forget that knowledge is power, and that all knowledge is not found in books. It would be well to understand all truth, but that is impossible. If we know a little and know that little well, it will be of more practical use than a pretended knowledge of many things expressed in unintelHgible language. There is no valid reason why the people at large should not understand the use of such simple remedies as nature requires, without all this mysterious dis- guise, and great pretensions of something higher than natural laws. Educate the people in that which concerns their own individual interest, and the general welfare of the community, by simplifying the art of medicine. How interesting and useful for children and youth, as well as others, to acquire some know- ledge of their own frame, the means of preserving their health, and the nature and treatment of disease, PREFA CE. by the use of those ingredients which grow in their gardens, fields or forests. It not only enlightens them in medical botany, but enables them to be their own physician, and likewise the ph^^sician of their poor neighbors. This must always prove a source of consolation, and how desirable to the benevolent mind, when it can be accomplished by agents which a bountiful Creator has scattered so richly around them, and placed within their reach. The collection and preservation of medicinal plants, roots, barks, etc., will not only offer an in- nocent, but also a useful, and perhaps profitable, em- ployment. It will not only contribute to the relief of suffering humanity, but prevent a vast amount of ex- pense, which may be saved to a family or an in- dividual by avoiding apothecaries' and doctors' bills and, what is better, poison. "The day has certainly arrived when medicine, like religion, should be placed before the face of the world, stripped of all its mys- teries, all its absurdities and professional intricacies, and appear in its genuine simplicity and rationality, open and undisguised before all who wish to examine and understand it." PREFACE. And I would ask who should hinder the accom- plishment of so desirable an object ? Who has not in the course of his life seen astonishing cures per- formed by the simple virtues of vegetables, even when administered by the humble man of roots and herbs ? When the whole force of minerals has failed, and now, when the -magnetism of animal organic genera is explained, and the true laws of life and health are understood, natural science must and will become the salvation of the people. Then why do we grovel in the dust, when the Almighty has put in our possession such ample mate- rials for relieving the sufferings of our fellow beings, and why are we permitted to render this service only with halters around our necks ? It is not easy in any case to contend with the cur- rent; it is much easier to float with the stream. If abuses in medicine^ religion and folitics^ and everything else were never opposed, they would be perpetuated, and all the evils of ignorance and error would be forever entailed upon the human race. What innovation, however important in itself, or beneficial in its consequences, ever claimed immedi- ate and general approbation ? No matter how good PREFACE. in itself, no matter what amount of certain good it was calculated to accomplish, it has been denounced as contrary to ancient usage, and incompatible with custom. We cannot see without regret, therefore, the constant opposition which everything new en- counters from some individuals, who can read only the past, and will not admit or understand the im- provements of the present. " The truth," says Locke, that great master of matter, mind, and human passion, *' scarcely ever yet carried it by vote anywhere at its first appearance." But truths like gold, is not the less so for being newly brought out of the mine. It is trial and examination that must give it price and not an antique fashion. Errors there are, no doubt, suffi- ciently numerous to require the exercise of much charity, and an equal candor, to excuse. Neither of these, however, is craved. This will appeal to all who have suffered as I have suffered through the practice of physicians. CONTENTS. PAGE Introduction, ....... 3- TRUE HEROISM. Heroism in Peace as Well as in War — Heroic Men and Women Needed — Intellectual Bravery may Withstand Tyranny, Superstition and Error, ..... 7 A PERSONAL CHAPTER. A Brief Auto-Biographical Sketch — How the Author was First Led to Investigate the Nature of Disease, and Seek for and Apply Remedial Agents, . . . .18- INHERITED CHARACTERISTICS. An Exposition of Their Nature — The Vast Importance of the Subject, . . . . . . .21 CLAIRVOYANCE. Its True Nature — It is Wholly Disconnected from Supersti- tious or Unnatural Characteristics — Its Inestimable Value — Conclusive Evidence of its Truth, . . .37 THE MAGNETIC PRINCIPLE. Its Perfect Consonance with the Other Laws of Nature — Its Applicability to Our Wants, Especially Mitigating Disease, . . The Magnetism of Natural Life, in Curing and 57 6a MAGNETIC TREATMENT, Methods and Facts Concerning its Administration, . . 73' MISCELLANEOUS CHAPTERS. The Growth of Intelligence, . . . . .85' The Voice of Nature, (Poem) .... . . .91 A Spirit Individuality, . . . . . .93 Evil in Human Nature, . . ■' :■■ . . . IDS' " Evermore " (Poem)> . .... . . 109 What Am I ? . . . . . . .113 Death — How and Why — Spiritual Things Must be Spiritually Discerned, . ... . . . 117 Abdallah's Message from Paradise (Poem), . . . 122 Mourning for the Dead, . . . . . 125 !'. How Far from Here to Heaven ?" (Poem,) . . . 127 What is an Influence? . ' ' . ' . . . . 129 Haunted Houses (Poem), . . . . . 133 A .Series of Striking Proofs of Immortality, . . . 135> CONTENTS. FREEDOM. What is Freedom — Analyzation of Personal Freedom — Virtue, Patriotism and National Freedom, . , . 153 eUPERSTITION. Its Too General Prevalence — Incidents, . . . 159 HAPPINESS. How its Attainment may be Promoted, . . . 165 ^' He Was Odd" (Poem), . . . . .174 THE INTEMPERATE. Why They Should be Humanely Treated . . . 169 TREATMENT OF PRISONERS. The Utter Infamy of Treating Them with Brutality, , . 177 PRACTICES INIMICAL TO HEALTH. How to Avoid Them, and How to Promote Health — Abuses of the Bath — Extravagancies in Dress Injurious — Fretfulness — Indigestion, and What Causes it — The Value of Fresh Air and Sunshine, ...... 183 EXAMPLES OF TREATMENT. Experiences of the Modes and Methods — Col. McEllroy of the Rebel Army — Lincoln and Chandler — An Extreme Case of Chronic Diarrhoea — A Case of Spinal Meningitis — Scarlet Fever — Small Pox — Cholera Morbus — Diphtheria — Apo- plexy and Paralysis — Pleurisy — Scarlet Fever — Canker in the wStomach — Measles — Typhoid Fever — Sun Baths — Wet Pack Baths, . ' . . . . .191 MEDICAL ADVICE. Deductions from Experimental Knowledge — Mild and Simple Remedies the Best, . . . . .321 RECIPES. Simple and Soothing Drinks — Extended List of Safe Remedies for all Ordinary Ailments, ..... 333 '* How to Wear the Soul's Garment" (Poem), . . . 351 FOR WOMEN. Reflections Upon the Present Status of Woman in the Social and Civil Compact, ..... 355 LIFE RENEWED. The Spirit's Resurrection — Review of Popular Errors, . . 361 PRAYER. How it may be Answered — The Nature of True Prayer, . 367 Poem, ........ 370 INTRODUCTION. No class of thought, expressed orally or in writ- ing, is received with greater suspicion than that which deals with the modern sciences. We read the elaborately written books referring to many previous works, the writers seemingly afraid to let fly their own thoughts without the support of high-sounding names, and feeling constrained to apologize for their temerity. In my humble judgment, one person has the same right to reason from his own standpoint as that enjoyed by another. Let us seek knowl- edge for ourselves. Freedom of mind and soul is inwrought with the very law of progression. Let us then grow from within, according to all else in nature. Let us seek truth for ourselves, and it will enter into our spiritual nature as food for thought, and as the bread of eternal life. Poetical expressions, beautiful language, are as the flowers of bright sum- mer, fragrant, graceful and refining. They are inspira- tions from nature herself, that feed the emotional soul with beautiful dreams; with the music of love; the harmony of peace; with all that speaks of God. INTRODUCTION. A blessing and a prayer are both strikingly symbol- ized in a beautiful flower, for it is the crowning love- liness and glory of nature. But, in our lamentable state of ignorance and undeveloped truth, we have neither harmony nor peace; each and all of earth's inhabitants are actuated by the grosser elements and influences, and each and all are striving for self. While this undeveloped state of existence continues, the opening flowers of individual development, instead of being allowed to make glad the heart with their beauty and fragrance, are ruthlessly trampled in the dust, or are fated to wither under the upas-like influence of unjust and ungenerous criti- cism. The flowers and fruits — the offsprings of every heart — should be vouchsafed the benign influ- ence of that truth which is part and parcel of their own nature. We have a few privileged writers who give expression to their thoughts, and they are scattered over the land, being received by the crowd as crumbs from the rich man's table. Some of this fruit of human development is soul-inspiring, like the benign influences attending the magnetic affinities in nature, and some of it holds and sways conflicting elements which sow the seeds of discord and injuri- ous elements, attracting and distracting a large number away from the natural and pure. Every individuality has the sign-manual of the Creator, and INTRODUCTION. is fashioned according to God's immutable law, pro- ducing from its inherent magnetic nature its own flowers and its own fruit. The expression is the flowers, and man is both. What is most needed is the understanding of life's object, and the inclination to profit from the lessons which that understanding afibrds. There are sun-worshipers and worship- ers of undefined and undefinable deities, while the inspiration of man's identity fails to show within him- self the perfect image of his ideal. He is, neverthe- less, contented, being filled with self-sufficiency and egotism, with no room for anything higher. Could the soul of man look beyond the confines of material environments and behold, through the light of life's true inspiration, the living activities at work, creating individualities according to the elements of magnetic conditions, he would realize that this great world is one grand universal crucible, working in obedience to the simple law of cause and effect, and that as conditions change there is a correlative effect. To draw nearer to God in nature is to cultivate the spiritual attributes, and outgrow the dull sense of materialism. As the plant in the seed must grow into form in darkness and draw its first sign of development in the earth's gloomy and silent chambers, so man must develop in this material Avorld, and food must first be furnished for the higher INTRODUCTION. inspirations of the spirit and its development, and thus be encouraged while hidden under the earthy mold of a material^ form. The combination will in due time be made known by an expression beyond the earth's covering, bearing flowers and fruits to gladden and feed the longing souls of those w^ho still wander in the wilderness of doubt and slavish fear. I have no apology to offer, as I make no preten- sions to being a writer of books, but give to those who may desire it the benefit of my experience. As well expect a tree to ask pardon of its neighbors because its foliage and fruits were not equally beautiful and attractive; every individuality has a place and use, and talents of some order. So as much as I have, and as well as I know, I bring the flowers and fruits of my own individuality. HEROISM NEEDED IN PEACE AS WELL AS IN WAR. To quote from a standard authority, with a slight alteration of the text, I may say truly that peace hath its heroes no less renowned than those of war. We are not always, thanks be to Heaven, in need of warriors, for war sometimes furls its banner, and peace reigns supreme throughout the world; but there are strong indications that we shall always need that higher type of heroism that dare assail the barriers and bulwarks of old superstition and cold conventionality; which possesses that intellectual bravery which can attack error and falsehood wherever they may exist; which unhesitatingly directs the batteries of truth and reason against the fortresses of falsehood and superstition, even though their walls may have been cemented by the lapse of approving centuries, and are guarded by myriads of infatuated adherents. The world's sad history abundantly proves that errors, the most absurd in their nature and the most ruinous in their tendency, have glided down the HEROISM NEEDED IN PEACE Stream of time until the hoary mantle of age almost sanctified their enormities, merely because the great and crafty found it their vital interest to maintain them, and because no intellectual bravery existed in the ranks of the people to ferret out and rebuke the errors and abuses of the age in which they lived. How noble and how broad the field, therefore, in which cheated and outraged humanity calls upon her true votaries to labor. That man or woman is truly heroic who in defiance of those barriers, and in disregard of those conventionalities, dare step forward and proclaim and defend the truth at all hazards, and the greater the merit in proportion as the truth may be directly calculated to benefit mankind; its teachings conduce to the protection and aid of the feeble and the weak; to raise the fallen; to breathe hope into the heart of the desponding; to ennoble, elevate and bless humanity. It is comparatively easy to face the pomp and circumstance of " grim-visaged war," especially so, if the cause is a righteous one. In such case it may be said with entire truth that it is easy even to die in battle. The spirit is stirred to courageous madness l)y the rushing squadron, the roaring cannon and the clashing steel. All the fierce instincts of our nature are aroused, and the soldier seems even to seek for death. But there are no such adventitious AS WELL AS IN WAR. aids in the case of the moral hero ; he has to depend alone upon the consciousness of truth and right to impart strength to his nerves and his heart. There are countless examples of men who have met un- blanched the terrors of the ensanguined field, and yet afforded painful exhibitions of moral cov^ardice. .We are told of the Athenians, that they " persecuted their heroes to death, and afterwards repented in monuments and tears;" and we have constantly seen in our own experience that those who have labored with an eye single to the elevation of their race have been contemned, when the glamour of popular favor has steadily lighted the triumphant pathway of those whose lives have been less self-sacrificing, whose aims have been less lofty. The higher type of character, although developed in a measure approximating perfection, alas! too rarely, even in our own country is, I think, more frequently met here than in other lands, especially in those where the fair germ of liberty is withered by the pestiferous breath of tyranny. In the latter, there may be freedom of thought and exceptionally freedom of conscience, as well as, at least, in some of them, freedom of speech. But here there is superadded to these the favorable occasion for men and women of intellect, soul, public spirit and strongly marked individuality to address themselves to the multitudin- HEROISM NEEDED IN PEACE ous questions naturally evolved through the influence of our free institutions, thereby developing qualities that, but for the workings of those free institutions and the aspect of those questions, would have remained dormant. Reformers have not been with- out their appreciative followers, but the number of these have been so small, comparatively speaking, as to deter all from delving in the stubborn soil save those impelled by the loftiest purposes and instincts and the worthiest motives that can inspire the soul of man. The moral is obvious. Let us go forth and pro- claim the truth, and thus prove our appreciation of the God-given privilege afforded us through the workings of our popular institutions and by the full glare of the light of reason, which has led to the development of science and truth. Heaven speed the day when the people will rend the gyves of ignorance and superstition ; when they shall no longer be " linked like a statue" to the dead past. Then, when we shall be asked: "Watchman, what of the night?" we can exultingly respond: Lo, all is well ; the glad star of truth has mounted above the horizon, never more to set, and falsehood and error have sunk never to rise again. AS WELL AS LN WAR Through night to light; and though to mortal eyes Creation's face a pall of horror wear, Good cheer, good cheer! the gloom of midnight flies; Then shall a sunrise follow mild'and fair. Through storm to calm; and though his thunder-car The rumbling tempest drive through earth and sky. Good cheer, good cheer! the elemental Avar Tells that a blessed healing hour is nigh. Through frost to spring; and though the biting blasts Of Eurus stiffen Nature's juicy veins. Good cheer, good cheer! when winter's wrath is past, Soft murmuring spring breathes sweetly o'er the plains. Through strife to peace; and though, with bristling front, A thousand frightful deaths encompass thee, Good cheer, good cheer! brave thou the battle's brunt, 1^'or the peace-march and song of victory. Through toil to sleep; and though the sultry noon With heavy drooping wing oppress thee now, Good cheer, good cheer! the cool of evening soon Shall lull to sweet repose thy weary brow. Through cross to crown; and though the spirit's life Trials untold assail with giant strength. Good cheer, good cheer! soon ends the bitter strife, And thou shalt reign in peace with Christ at length Through woe to joy; and though at morn thou weep, And still the midnight find thee weeping still. Good cheer, good cheer! the shepherd loves his sheep; Resign thee to the watchful Father's will. Through Death to Life; and through this vale of tears. And through this thistle-field of life ascend To the great supper in that world whose years Of bliss unfading, cloudless, know no end. KOSBARTEN, 1758. A PERSONAL CHAPTER. My descent is Anglo-German on both sides of the family, but as my grandfather on my father's side was a soldier of the Revolution, and my grand- mother a cousin of Commodore Perry of Lake Erie fame, 1 may safely claim to be an American. My maternal grandmother was German, and my grand father was of English descent, born near Brantford, in Canada. He was an elder of the Baptist Churchy and preached the gospel without money and without price for over forty years. He believed that God had called him to preach a free gospel, which call he heeded, and led a sincere Christian life according to his convictions. My parents were married early in life, and came to Michigan in 1823, and in 1828 I was born. My parents were engaged in peaceful industries, over- coming the obstacles in their path by persevering effort, and hewing their simple home out of the almost unbroken forest. There was a kindly atmos- phere of neighborly feeling among the early pioneers. 14 A PERSONAL CHAPTER. each lending a helping hand when needed, and each contributing to the happiness and welfare of all. My early life was spent in the school of nature, a simple, unartificial life. I felt myself to be in sym- pathy with the beautiful world around me. I did not wholly escape the influence of the hard theology of those days, for I was taught that God exercised a jealous supervision of mankind, and a feeling of resistance was developed in my mind against what appeared to me to be an unfair advantage. The country was full of miasma and gaseous effluvia which aided in engendering terrific thunder storms. I listened to the roar of the thunder with awe and adoration, and watched, in the flashing lightning, the expressions of His mighty power. It often happened that some giant tree or a barn stored with grain would be struck by it and be consumed to ashes, and my little soul would resent that want of magnanimity in a Being so mighty when dealing with such defense- less creatures as we. The impressions from nature molded my organi- zation into sympathy with the grandeur and beauty everywhere displayed. I saw God everywhere. In a glowing sunset I beheld His smiling face; in a storm, His power; in a flower, His love; in darkness, the opportunity for exercising the trusting confidence He exacted; and in the morning light, the day-spring A PERSONAL CHAPTER. 15 of hope in His love. This has been the religion of my life — infinite trust and love for the Being who made the world and gave to each thing in it an appropriate place. All that is, is of Him, and everything which is, is right. When we are able fully to understand the meaning of life, the soul will rejoice that God rules all and is in all, the good and the evil, the darkness and light alike. When I was twenty-three years old I had a long and serious illness. I was married and the mother of four children. Our home was in St. Clair. From the effects of calomel I became a chronic invalid. My nervous system was so enfeebled that I could not control my emotions, but gave way to nervous hyste- ria on slight occasions. For five years I could not mount a step or lift my feet over the slightest eleva- tion, and my husband built a house without a single step or even a door-sill in it, so that I could move about without meeting any obstruction. All known remedies failed to restore my strength, and I had resigned myself to my condition. My life was tranquil and quiet and my soul at peace with God and man. I found occupation for my mind and heart in the love and care of my children and family. A new and strange element suddenly invaded my life at this period. One evening, while sitting quietly I i6 A PERSONAL CHAPTER. reading by a table, my right hand became slightly benumbed, a contraction of the muscles took place, and it was slowly moved toward a slate and pencil lying on the table; my fingers grasped the pencil and I wrote, with no knowledge of what I was writ- ing. The writing looked like mine, but the words conveyed but little meaning to me* It was a medi- cal prescription, giving the botanical names of vari- ous plants. I felt very little surprise, but wondered in a passive way what the names meant, when my hand seized the pencil and began to draw rapidly and perfectly leaves, flowers, and roots of plants, affixing the common name to each, and adding the advice to get and take them. I now know that the prescription was an antidote to calomel and a remedy for nervous debility. Various things were written rapidly: names of persons whom I knew and names of many whom I did not know. A long word, or no word was written — an unintelligible mixture of all the letters of the alphabet. I turned the slate over, saying, " write that again," and it was immediate^ repro- duced on the slate, letter for letter. After com- paring them I rubbed out all the writing with the exception of one of the long words and laid the slate away. The next day my hand became rigid and partially A PERSONAL CHAPTER. 17 benumbed, but strangely enough, I did not think of the experiences of the previous day, but got some hot water and bathed it and rubbed it vigorously without affecting it in the least. 1 was troubled, fearing some new malady had come to afflict me. After exhaust- ing all the remedies I could think of, I suddenly remembered the slate and that there were similar sensations in my hand the previous day, only less intense. I got the slate, and mindful of the word on it, presented the other side and asked that the word be again written. The great number of letters and their fantastic and unmeaning arrangement would make this a difficult feat, but it was done immediately, as I found on comparing the word written. A request was added that I should sit in a quiet and darkened room. Out of curiosity I compHed, and received almost immediately on entering the room an electric shock from my head to my feet, which vibrated through every nerve in my body. This experience was repeated each day for several days, no more slate writing appearing, and then I made a discovery. I found I could go up and down the steps from the piazza without a sign of the weakness from which I had suffered so long. My nervousness had disappeared, and I was restored to health. There was no room for doubt. I kne2v that there was out- side of myself an intelligence which had directed and A PERSONAL CHAPTER. performed the cure, but fearing ridicule and the criticism of the world, I determined to keep the knowledge within my own breast. But I v^^as not permitted to decide that matter. I went one day to a hall where the ladies met to sew for the soldiers, for those experiences began shortly before the com- mencement of the war of the rebellion. While sitting at a table, busily at work, a soldier, Lieutenant , came into the room, shaking with an ague chill. A lady sitting near me called to him that she could tell him of a cure, and he came to her at once and took a seat nearly opposite me. In a moment I had the chill and he was free from it. It lasted some twenty minutes and was followed by a fever. Previous to this the gentleman had suffered from chills for several weeks, but he never had another. Every one present was surprised, no one more so than myself. I denied being able to give any expla- nation of the phenomena and went home firmly determined to be free from this influence or magnet- ism, or whatever it might be, and entered on a mental warfare against this unknown power. I did not succeed in banishing it, but was commanded and compelled by an indescribable force to visit a lady who was supposed to be suffering from cancer on her face. I resisted until I could resist no longer and then, still protesting, I went, explained her case, pre- A PERSONAL CHAPTER. 19 scribed for her, and treated her face magnetically with my hands. My first experience of that kind of treat- ment; and, although I did not see her again, she was actually cured in three weeks. Of course she did not have cancer. I concealed the source of my knowledge and actions and said to myself, if she gets well it is something beside myself or my fancies ; if she does not, I am certainly insane. Clairvoyance was established the Sunday that Fort Sumter was attacked and Major Anderson was forced to march out of the burning fort. I became aware of a dual condition. I saw and felt my physi- cal body, with all its powers, at the same time that my intelligent inner-self was transported to Charles- ton. I was looking at Fort Sumter from a hill near the town. I saw the movements of the gun boats, saw Fort Moultrie and the city, and comprehended the struggle which was going on. I saw the shells burst inside the fort and the consequences of the fire caused by the explosions. When the vision passed, I felt a conviction that I had seen a real action — the attacks of the Confederates on the doomed fort. The telegraphic news of the next day confirmed my strangely gotten information, and henceforth my clairvoyant eyes were open, and I began to study life from the most intelHgent point of observation, — the spiritual side. 20 A PERSONAL CHAPTER. My will had no power over the new faculty of sight, and after some further experience I held a council of peace with the no longer invisible beings who were the agents in developing those powers, and an agreement was formally entered into by both parties. I promised on my part to renounce my opposition to their influence and to obey their behests as far as I was able, while they in turn agreed to guide me into truth and protect me as far as possible from the errors and ills of life. After twenty-three years of experience, I can truly say that their part of the compact has been faithfully performed, and I am grateful to them for the good I have received, and the aid and comfort I have been able to bring to hundreds of suffering souls and bodies. From the foregoing the reader learns that there was nothing erratic in my parentage, and that my surroundings and simplicity of life were not calcu- lated to develop the abnormal in character. Also, that this influence came to me unsought, and wa& accepted only when my reason was convinced that its errand was beneficent and its power such that resistance was useless. It has never counseled me to a mean or ungenerous action, but striven constantly to develop all the better instincts of m}^ nature. INHERITED CHARACTERISTICS. The explanation of the apparent m3^steries of nature, through the progress of intelligent observa- tion and reason, reveals to us the fact that we are the victims of many strange mistakes and misjudg- ments, the sad results of which are too often accredited to the will of God, instead of to our ignorance of the laws which he has ordained for our well being. In no department of life is ignorance more dense and its results more to be deplored than in the reproduction of the species. Unfortunate beings come into existence with distorted brains, beset by longings for unattainable or unlawful pleasures or possessions, transmitted by. parents whose ignorance of nature's unalterable laws has conferred upon their offspring the weaknesses instead of the strength of their own characters. The children of men and women of superior intellectual ■attainments usually make but a sorry showing in the world. Physical weakness or mental mediocrity are too frequently their inheritance. From whence does INIIERI TED CHA RA C TERIS TICS. it come % What laws are transgressed when an intelligent and refined parentage brings forth an offspring addicted to coarse pleasures and vices? Such cases are common in the acquaintance of every one, and they involve the action of the law of heredity in the greatest confusion. Let us see if any satis- factory explanation is possible through the revealing power of Clairvoyance. Men who are ambitious in their various pursuits exhaust from day to day their brain vitality. The whole force of the spiritual nature is projected into business life, and all the faculties of the soul aroused to contend against opposition and to watch for favorable opportunities to advance material interests. This is not the life of one da}^, but of all da3's; it is the prevailing character of their lives. The treasury of spiritual power is empty; all its gold is poured out into the world. There is nothing left for their children to inherit but the dross of life, the animal instincts and passions. For it must be borne in mind that the father's influence on offspring is by one direct transmission. He does not hold the power of modifying it by nobler aspirations and higher spiritual living and thinking, as does the mother. The moment conception takes place his direct work on the child is finished, and if it is the product of an exhausted spiritual brain power and an animal nature. INHERITED CHARACTERISTICS. 23 Stimulated perhaps by rich food and wine, he has given his share of an evil inheritance to his child. The wife of the prosperous and ambitious man is too likely to be absorbed by the cares and duties and pleasures of society to feel any desire for the duties or delights of maternity. Her spiritual power is frittered away on fashion and display and all the excitements of material life, and the children born of such an union are not the product of the intellectual and refined spirit essence of their life's strongest and best forces. Love is not interwoven with their growth, nor any desire that they shall be endowed with the higher and nobler qualities of their own natures. The beauty and grace of what they most admire is not instilled into the new beings. The soul's deep desire is not in intelligent sympathy with the freshly-beginning life, yearning to bring to them every good and glorious endowment. While the father goes his way, careless and indifferent, the angr}^, disappointed and humiHated mother conceals her situation as if it were a crime, and ignores her offspring as if she had no duties, as she has no pleasure in them. The mother's sympathies act through her emo- tional nature directly on the child from the first moment of conception until independent organization is elTected. This takes place when motion is felt. 24 INHERITED CHARACTERISTICS. Previous to quickening, the child has been a passive recipient of spiritual impressions from the emotional nature of the mother, being thus far incapable of receiving any other, because the spiritual body or nucleus of brain and nerve forces are the first to be established. Every emotion felt b}^ the mother is transmitted to the corresponding organ of the child's brain. Love and hatred, joy and sorrow, hope and fear, as they excite the mother, send vibratory waves of impression to the child. It is a sensitive, highly- spirituaHzed portion of herself, sustained and nour- ished from the most refined elements of her being. It is this demand on her spiritual nature through the magnetic nerve currents that renders her so sensitive to exciting causes during this period. A word, a look, will wound her, a trifling thing annoy and irri- tate, and a slight failure in her plans cause the most poignant disappointment. Her moods are photo- graphed on the brain of the child in nature's enduring colors, and day by day, by her interior life, all unconsciously, she shapes and molds the plastic clay to a vessel of spiritual honor, or dishonor, as these vibratory waves of feeling and desire arise from noble or ignoble centers of influence in herself Latent instincts inherited from her mother, dormant until maternity arouses them, suddenly develop, adding, it may be, new elements of discord, fretful INHERITED CHARACTERISTICS. 25 longings for some unattainable object of desire, unreasoning passion which will brook no denial; brooding melanchoi}^, even when there is no especial repugnance to child-bearing; start into active life to the surprise and dismay of friends; and it is some- times the case that those late developments of characteristic traits become permanent sources of weakness in character. The latent tenderness, sym- pathies and charities of the mother's soul may, too, receive from the maternal development a quickening influence which brings them to a speedy and beautiful blossoming in an active desire to bless all the world around her, and the growing soul within the mother's organism takes on the discordant or harmonious influence. As the nerve vibrates from thought to feeling in the mother, the eftect produced on the child is a shock of pleasure or pain. Fear, disappoint- ment, sudden fright, are often causes of idiocy, the shock partially paralyzing the sensitive brain. Thus, through nature's inexorable law the mother, ignorantly, indifferently, unconsciously endows her offspring from the spiritual resources of her own nature, making it noble or ignoble by the quality of her secret, interior, spiritual life. What mental ener- gies could be inspired by the mother-soul if filled with a fountain of pure, unselfish love for the helpless life just organized. The heart would sing for delight 26 INHERITED CHARACTERISTICS. in it, the hands would labor for love of it, the mind would be active with plans for its happiness and highest well-being. Aware of the wonderful work in which she was engaged, a worker together with God in perfecting a new creation, she would give herself up to the reception of only noble impressions. She would inspire herself with music; she would study the records of genius and of art, and labor to instil into the life principle an appreciation and love for all the higher attributes of the human soul. Her child would feed on all the virtues, and the record of her own purity and goodness and truth and nobility would be indelibly registered in its nature. She would bring forth one of heaven's choicest blessings, a noble child, harmoniously organized, at peace with every law of its nature, a kingdom of Heaven reflect- ing its happiness on every creature within its circle of influence. There is another kind of inherited mentality which will bring forth far different fruit. In the mind of the mother instead of love there is hatred, instead of pleasure in the ofHces of maternity there are selfish repinings and irritation over the responsi- bilities the new life will bring. A desire to destroy the unconscious being enters the heart of the mother, thus sending murderous currents of influence to the brain, and sowing the seeds of cruelty. A selfish INERITED CHARACTERISTICS. 27 indisposition to share with the child the pleasures of life, grudging it a place in the home and the money and ease which must be sacrificed for it, reproduces itself in greed, hardness of heart and avarice. The mother's moods alternate from depression, which is almost despair, to an unnatural excitement of angry irritation, thus creating a restless dissatisfied disposi- tion which will lead the child into excesses, seeking something to gratify the organic craving. It is from such mental conditions that thieves, liars, drunkards and murderers are brought forth, for all the crimes and misery of the world are born into it, and if we would stay the current of evil we must begin with the very earliest stages of prenatal conditions. How little thought is bestowed on these poor infortunates, thrust into existence in the storms of human passion, their little barks wrecked on the inhospitable shores of life, themselves unwelcome strangers among savages. The parents who have created a criminal take no shame to themselves for the act, but claim the world's sympathy for a misfor- tune. They have registered their own folly and w^eakness in an immortal soul, and mourn because the result is moral disorder and degradation. The eternal law is here as everywhere: "Ye cannot gather grapes off thorns, nor figs off thistles." The seed sown in secret develops openly, and while the 28 INHERITED CHARACTERISTICS. guilty cause goes unsuspected and unpunished, the unfortunate being preordained to evil goes down in the struggle of life, his name becomes a word of reproach, and he sinks from sight under the burden of his wretched inheritance. Unhappy conditions of home life, which generate irritating and vicious magnetisms, are prolific causes of the early development of the vicious germs of character. The sensitive brain of the child feeds upon it, and the latent evil is aroused, which under more favorable influences might have lain dormant until the judgment and will were strong enough to struggle with and overcome it. Happy the parents who discover in their child some beautiful gift, some special talent or excellence; how they exult in it, gratified at the lustre which it reflects upon themselves; glad to feel that in some way they have contributed to its creation, and ready to concede to it the right of a true inheritance. The good is of themselves, the evil alone belongs to the child. It is time that parents began to judge them- selves in their children, taking shame for the evil which they have entailed upon them, and striving in ail humility to teach them the laws of nature, that the evil entailed may go no farther, and that its action may be arrested and neutralized as much as possible in each individual case. In order to do this, parents INHEFITED CHARACTERISTICS. 29 must forsake some of the world's high places, and so lessen its demands on them; they must study nature's laws and work consistently with them. Regret or remorse will avail nothing; only patient, tireless endeavor, to shield their unfortunate children from temptation, to strengthen the weak wills, and draw closer the bonds of filial love and confidence. Artful vice has no power to allure a perfect child. It is only when an inward response is felt to the call that danger exists. While the brutality of man and the ignorance of woman bring into the world the the inharmonious offspring of their weakness and vices, society opens the doors of numerous schools to aid in their vicious development. Prisons and asy- lums multiply, taxes increase, and drunkenness and depravity prevail to an alarming extent. Could children be well born, evil would gradually cease from the world and it will never cease until the laws of the organization of human life are understood and obej^ed. How unwise the judgment that condemns the child for the transgression of the parent, blind to the fact that the individual has no responsibility whatever in his own creation and endowment, but is forced to live out, as best he can, the life implanted within his organism by his parents. There is no appeal from this law. Man is a cosmos, a world. Every order of life is potentially present in his organ- 30 INHERITED CHARACTERISTICS. ism. Every force in the universe has its correspond- ing centre of influence within his w^ondrous mechan- ism. He is a laboratory v^^here all the changes of chemical science are wrought out, and where the impalpable forces of magnetic, electric and galvanic life have then* store houses, — strongholds of power. The beast of the field is represented with all his instincts and passions, and the highest God-head has a potential presence in man. The manner in which this world shall be organized depends on the parents. The animal and spiritual should be in just proportion and harmony, but parental ignorance and indifference may so develop the animal that the spiritual nature is too weak to govern and restrain it, and society is afflicted with a monster of coarse appetites and pas- sions, which seeks its legitimate food and nourish- ment in sensuality and criminal excesses. The same parental ignorance may develop the spiritual in such excess of the animal nature that it cannot be sus- tained and nourished by it, and the result is decay and early death. By a law which runs throughout nature, the hfe principal of an organism will seek its own appropriate nourishment wherever it is to be found, accepting that which fills its need, and reject- ing what is noxious or opposed to its growth. If the food is denied, the desire for it remains to punish the victim with unsatisfied longings. The INHERITED CHARACTERISTICS. 31 artist or poet soul is fed with the beauty and har- mony of nature. The world with its shadows and sunshine, its music and love, answers to the longing within and inspires the desire to embody it in song, or portray its charms in colors. Banished to the loneliness and barrenness of a desert the soul would hunger for its appropriate nourishment and sufier and long for what imagination would produce in dreams. The beautiful alone could answer to its needs ; by the law of elective affinity everything else would be rejected as not available for its sustenance. The drunkard, who is such from pre-natal in- fluences — and there are few others — if shut in an asylum, bears about with him his inheritance of desire, from which no absence from the stimulant can free him. All the better instincts of his nature combat this desire, and may enable him to resist its demands, but it is practically indestructible. His life is a warfare or a defeat. In view of these facts the reluctant mother may justify infanticide on the ground that it were better not to bring beings into the world subject to such in- heritances, but the argument is an idle one. Clair- voyance reveals the fact that from the moment of conception a new life begins with its train of infinite consequences. It must be perfected somewhere, if not in the earth world then in the spirit world. 32 INHERITED CHARACTERISTICS. The law of its development is inexorable, and what- ever impulse it has received from its parentage will act on its life in all worlds for evil or for good, until through the varied experiences of joy and sorrow it comes into complete harmony within itself, — where all the faculties, passions and emotions of the soul, has each its due place and proportion and the process of salvation completed, the infant germ becomes a full grown spirit. When quickening takes place, the child frees itself from its dependent, passive, spiritual relations to the mother, and the direct currents ol influence from her brain to the brain of the child ceases. Unconscious will-power asserts itself with a sudden impulse, and the spiritual nature begins to shape and mould the material. The demand on the spiritual nature of the mother ceases; her work on the spiritual nature oi her child, whether for good or ill, is finished. What the child shall be in its spiritual and moral economy is decreed and nature sets to work to mold the body, still by the mother's influence, to grace or clumsiness, to coarseness or fineness, to beauty or ugliness, very much as she may elect. The refined, the delicate, the orderly in her life, her home, her surroundings react on the child physically. If her food is retined, the fibre of the child's body will be of a finer qualit}' than if her food be coarse. If her INHERITED CHARACTERISTICS. 33. habits are healthful and pure, she molds the body to healthy and pure activities. The demand on her spiritual forces ceases in a large degree, and her nervous irritation and unrest generally subsides. She accepts the inevitable and generally subsides into a quiet animal existence, the draft on her ma- terial nature creating no special disturbance in a healthy woman. If she permits herself to become indolent, inert, she endows her offspring with a gross and heavy body devoid of active graces. The ma- terial and spiritual natures of the child act and react on each other, and if the spirit be fine and the body coarse, or the body fine and the spirit coarse, an in- harmonious organization is produced which may eventuate in great spiritual or physical weakness and suffering. The law of labor is a beneficent one. Heavy labor for the mother, especially of an anxious, taxing kind, is injurious to the best development of the child, but perfect idleness is equally so. Light duties, thoroughly and cheerfully performed, are better for mind and body of both mother and child than any amount of exercise taken for the explicit purpose of exercise. For this reason, the most perfect specimens of manhood and womanhood do not develop from the extremes of society. The children of the idle and luxurious class are enfeebled bv indifference and 34 INHERITED CHARACTERISTICS. satiety both in soul and body, and those from the other extreme are the victimv*? of want and suffering which dwarfs and stultifies them. The comfortable middle class, not agitated by the passions which war in the great world, and free from the anxieties and vices of poverty, is the root from which the world's great men and women are produced. Could the young be pure in soul and body when the res- ponsiblities of parentage come to them, their souls in sympathy with the noble things of life — with an un- derstanding of the laws of inheritance conveyed through the will and the emotions and a deep sense of their obligations to the coming life, it might be made an incalculable blessing instead of what it too often is, a terrible curse. Love begets love, hatred and indifference engender their kind. The wise and loving parents will be doubly blest in their off- spring, in the joy of their infancy and youth, and in the loving care and attendance which their age will receive at their hands. Duty is a poor substitute for love, and the parental heart is quick to recognize the difference. Careless and indifferent children were born so, and the mother who looks into her own heart and remembers the soul experiences of preg- nancy will find causes which will close her mouth from reproaches. '^ Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap." INHERITED CHARACTERISTICS. 35 We have a false idea of the duties of children. The fact is children owe no duties to parents except those imposed by the bond of a common humanity. The obligation is wholly on the other side. The parents call a conscious being into life, endow it with passions, instincts, intelligence and emotion, and are solely responsible for the creature of their passions and will. They have created what they would, and they owe it to the child that they shall create it after a noble pattern. Being born, it should be the chief object of parental soHcitude. The par- ent has no right to demand anything from a child on the score of duty. It is the duty of parents to feed, clothe, nourish, protect and love their offspring, thereby developing in them gratitude and love which will prompt to a return of kindly offices. But they can not lay claim to the services of their children with any plea of justice, and the only respect and honor which they are in any position to exact is that which they earn by a faithful discharge of duty. Love is the ruling power of magnetic attraction, and true love begets other qualities Vv^hich attract the soul's deepest emotional sense of love and gratitude, which flows freely as the river of life, refreshing and beautifying the world. 36 INHERITED CHARACTERISTICS. "For every tear by pity shed Upon a fellow sufferer's head, O ! be a crown of glory given ; Such crown as seraphs wear in Heaven." "For all who toil at honest fame, A proud, a pure, a deathless name; For all who love, who loving bless, Be life one long, kind, close caress — Be life all love, all happiness." CLAIRVOYANCE. An Exposition of its Nature — Its Value TO THE World. Clairvoyance is regarded by many as an inexplica- ble mystery, but this is far from being correct. One of the most eminent of the world's poets, in speaking of superstition, says: " Thou taintest all thou look'st upon! " The utterance is strikingly applicable to the pres- ent subject. Superstition has looked upon and tainted— at least to its own sense — so important a matter as Clairvoyance. Sublime from its very nature, it has treated it with scoffing. Plain and simple, it has invested it with undefinable mystery. There is no real mystery connected with it, except as our understanding of the laws of our being ma}^ be enshrouded by mental mists. It is high time these mists were dissipated by the sunlight of truth. The unsubstantial dreams of the past, even in our own Bible history, are very rapidly losing their mys- tery. There is not so much credence given them as 38 CLAIR VO VANCE. that awarded even to the legends handed down from generation to generation. Supernaturalism is being rapidly supplanted by the natural, as the mind becomes educated in the natural science of the soul, or, in other words, in the spiritual attribute of man- kind. There is within the senses, without any prompting, save that of the mevitable law of neces- sity, an intuitive knowledge that there is another state of existence. Even the untutored savage feels and knows this. He feels and knows that there is within himself something that will live beyond what is called death. The great truth thus taught by the greatest of all teachers, nature herself, goes very far toward divesting the subject of m3^stery . Since the law of electricity has been evolved and simplified, is it regarded as mysterious when the electric flash is instantaneously transmitted across vast continents and through mighty oceans? So far from this, it is known even by the ignorant as something of con- stant occurrence. Although the idea of the savage is a crude one, there is perfect truth in his impression. To the clair- voyant the hnfression is absorbed in the vision. As the untaught natural sense is in a manner intelligent, so the soul is intelligent, only its intelligence belongs to a higher scale. It sees, from its intelligent per- ceptions, what is hidden from the material sight. It CLAIRVOYANCE. 39 is hardly necessary to describe the material eye. Its range and scope depend upon the support of a healthy physical organism for its clearness of vision while the mental development or discipline, accord- ing to its order, receives the vision and judges of its merit. The natural eye is merely a window for the inner life; without this window darkness would pre- vail, for it is by the reflection of light that all things are made visible upon the retina of the natural eye. The blind receive their education through other channels, in part by feeling and sound, but also through the more potent aid of the mental or spirit- ual organization. A clairvoyant sight is that in which the vision is made directly to the perception without the intervention of any of the physical senses. There is no mental capacity for compre- hending: the distance. At first a small and detached object becomes visible. If I were to see and describe a house in Germany, I would be likely to begin to see the front door; then a wider view would rapidly be unfolded, until the entire structure would be clearly discernible. I w^ould determine which door was entered most frequently by the magnetism of the many going thereby. I would look in the front door, see the hall or room, as the case might be, look at the floor, walls, furniture and other accessories; see who enter the room, what they look like, deter- 40 CLA IRVO VANCE. mine their character and understand the nature of their infirmities, in case they were subject to any. I would also be able to see whether they owned the house; if not, by whom it was owned, where they lived, and the nature of their business; not only all this, but whether the property was paid for, how they got it, and probably many other details. Once get- ting en rapport with the mind, or place, my sight fol- lows the visible and the invisible with the same ease. It is simply the magnetism of the mind acting as a conductor, and reaching as a matter of course beyond the limited vista of the natural sight. This sight seems to me to resemble in some degree the almost preternatural scent of one of the canine species, — a comparison which may perhaps appear uncouth and strange. The great difficulty is to define it or say what it is like; any comparison that may serve to give even something like an approach to it, may be used. It has the power to direct the mental sight to objects far and near; read their histories as well as the changes incident thereto; their motives; under- stand all the incidents of a stranger's life, as well as his character and peculiarities, living or dead; and see the person who is dead to mortal view. As soon as the form becomes visible to my mental sight, I begin to see revealed his disposition and character, the cause and manner of his death, his history, even CLAIRVOYANCE. 41 to the scenes of his childhood, being carried through all this by psychological influence or magnetic power, and being, while conscious, entirely passive. I feel conscious of a contraction and pressure within the frontal brain ; become thoroughly interested in what I see, and gradually understand its meaning. Explanations come to me as clearly as if a person were imparting the information orally. I recognize any peculiarity in the tone of voice belonging to the individual whom I see, but hear it clairauditorially, there being clearness and distinctness in the tone of voice. I was at first greatly mystified and puzzled by hearing the voices of living persons, with peculiar tone and emphasis, accompanied by motions of the hand, even when conversing at the distance of many miles. I have tested this phenomenon in the most thorough and patient manner, and the result has been the most irrefragable proofs of its genuineness. To doubt it, would be like doubting our very exist- ence. I have seen countless incidents before they transpired; before any living being could possibly have known of them, and beyond the possibihty of my knowing anything about them in advance, or aught that could possibly lead to them; the time of seeing them, and their verification being hours, days, weeks, years apart, as the case might be. Without knowl- edge of them, or the least effort or desire to know, 42 CLAIR VO YA NCE. or most remote thought of knowing, these events have been shown to me exactly as they have subse- quently been developed. To fully explain how^ all this is brought about, is more than I can do; at the same time all candid minds must admit that an unin- terrupted experience of twenty-three years of the same phenomena and the same results should be taken as conclusive. Can I convey this knowledge that has come to me through my own individual experience to others? This I am anxious to do, for by that means the sub- ject will gradually become divested of the supersti- tions and awe-inspiring features and unnaturalism that many sincere seekers after truth have regarded it as being enshrouded with. The subject is one that at least deserves to be looked at in the light of reason and experience. When we understand and believe the knowledge that was vouchsafed to man eighteen hundred years ago, that there are both a natural body and a spirit- ual presence; that, although the natural body must pass back to earth, the spirit will still live, we will understand the dual life which we are now living. It cannot be more true that there is a natural body and a natural brain than that there is a spiritual body and a spiritual brain. Hence, we see material things with the natural eye, and spiritual things through the CLAIR VO YANCE. 43 capacities of the spirit-brain. The spiritual organi- zation being the highest, having come up through the workings of the greatest and noblest of nature's laws, gathering from all life its spiritual essence, until the dual condition of a human body and a spiritual presence is developed, the spirit is, from its immortal character and attributes, pre-eminent. It has grown out of the material in a manner inexpli- cable to finite minds, as the beautiful and luscious fruit grows out of the rough tree, or as the tree springs up from the seemingly insignificant seed. It is the highest and finest production of all earthly things, the chef d''mivre of the Great Artificer of the heavens and the earth. It is polarized on the same principle as that exemplified in the polarization of the earth, with a magnetic system of brain organ- isms, each organ individualized and separated bv a membrane having the magnetic quality to attract its own nourishment and vitalize it according to its order and the use to which it is adapted, in sympathy with every organ in its class; one class being, for example, spiritual, another mechanical, another musical, and so on to the end of the chapter. Neither hope, ideality nor spirituaHty reasons within itself Spiritualit}^, when divested of all form- alities, creeds and extraneous surroundings, speaks directly to the soul. It is the organ through which 44 CLAIR VO YANCE. the soul comes in sympathy with the material world, and reveals its identity. Spirituality gives evidence of the existence of immortal attributes; ideality points out their existence and place; sublimity clothes the whole with grandeur; and hope desires its realiza- tion. These organs are all visible and useful in a worldly sense, but all belong to the higher life. Clairvoyant views are impressions made upon the spirit's perceptions, and, through the organ of spirit- uality, reach all things spiritual. This world being a material body with spirit life, and the spiritual intel- ligence of man being the highest, a power is given to him over all things of a lower grade in the scale of spiritual development. When the inner spirit- sight becomes active, directed by spirit intelligence, the currents are already formed for the transmission of Hght, sound and sight, through all material sub- stance that is permeated with spiritual life, wherever the mind of man has penetrated. Leaving the mag- netism of his thought and presence, the spirit- sight can be trained to follow, being able to examine the internal organs of the physical system, analyze the blood, discern diseased particles, trace diseases to their origin, determine the proper remedies to neutralize their effects, and bless the world with the truths thus revealed. It is none the less enabled to analyze the intellectual and moral qualities, tracing CLA IR VO YA NCE. 45 hereditary traits of character back through genera- tions. It would appear self-evident that the exercise of this faculty would be impossible without the super- vision and aid of a higher power of spiritual discern- ment than the creatures of this world possess. This could not be otherwise. Although considerable Hght has been thrown upon Clairvoyance in later years, it is not by any means a modern development; it has accompanied rehgious development through all its stages. All ages have had their prophets and seers. The Hebrew prophets who foretold the origin and progress of Christianity were simply clairvoyants en raffort with the spirit world. St. Paul, the great apostle of the Gentiles, possessed this spiritual sight in an emi- nent degree, and bears testimony to the unity which pervades all life, spiritual and physical, throughout the universe. He says there is a natural body and there is a spiritual body, not that there is a natural body and there will be a spiritual body. The natural and spiritual both exist at the same time. The phy- sical and the spirit body each produces its fruits in reproducing its kind. The first shall be last, and the last first. The physical body gathers the combined magnetism of earth by its generic order, converting ail the elements of earth life, harmoniously blended, 46 CLAIRVOYANCE. into the superior quality of animal existence. The still higher and more refined spirit body receives through the physical the life-food from all other forms of life; the spirit body and spirit brain structure, with its higher organic order, the noble fruit of earthly development that is to exist beyond this material plane, embodied and endowed with such knowledge, temperament, disposition and capacities as circum- stances, birth and education may have given it. And the deeds done in the physical body so aflect the spirit that judgment is already pronounced according to the natural law existing from first to last, enduring as the Maker Himself Even in the body evil habits exhibit their influence upon the spiritual nature. This life casts its gloomy shadow^s beyond, as well as its beauty and goodness. Any one taking a retro- spect of his records by the aid of memory — the book of life's recording — will find something like a true picture of what his heaven will be. The mantle of charity will be the one garment needed most when we all meet and are known for just what we are worth. All possible means should be used to enable man- kind to understand in what manner their spiritual part can be cultivated and approximately perfected, other- wise how can they learn of those things which are so all-important temporarily and eternally? Laying CLA IR VO YA NCE. 47 aside all unprofitable controversy, and, to a very con- siderable extent, equalty profitless creeds and theo- ries, and contemplating from a spiritual standpoint through material life, there is onty one road to fol- low, which road leads to the Infinite. Man is an effect from an infinite cause, whose nature no man can fathom beyond the narrow limits assigned him. " Man, know thyself" suggests the great problem unsolved to-day, and the same obstacles remain in the pathway of our progress that have been apparent since the earliest history of the world — superstition, bigotry and ignorance, three formidable antago- nists, which may be denominated almost insurmount- able obstacles. There are, however, signs in the present age of a gradual change; these great spec- tres begin to lose ground as the truth advances through the development of spiritual gifts and spirit- ual growth, St. Paul did not go so far as to explain how or why some in his day had the gift to discern spirits, but there is now a great demand for light upon this point. With the enhanced development of spirituality in man's nature, there is a natural desire for more knowledge. There is no demand in nature for food until there is an appetite, which is almost invariably accompanied with the capacity to receive and digest it. While many doubt, some believe in the presence of spiritual beings without I CLAIRVOYANCE. tangible proofs. When Jesus said to the doubting Thomas, " Come and touch me," He did not attach blame to him because of his unbelief, knowing so well his natural characteristics, and that positive proof was necessary to convince him, and He was willing to vouchsafe that proof. But all have not the reason, the wisdom and the considerateness ol Jesus. To-day there are those who refuse to believe even what their eyes behold, and what natural science and good sense would teach. When Jesus told the woman at the well certain things in her past life, she believed He was the Lord. To-day a clairvoyant describes past events as well as the present, and fol- lows beyond with equal accuracy, and is called a mind- reader, one who has developed a gift as undefinable as Clairvoyance to the common mind, but preferable to the latter, because of those three spectres obscuring with their giant proportions all things over which their shadows may come darkling, closing every avenue through which truth may enter, and Hke an inevitable destiny decreeing for all men everlasting happiness or miserjr. There are many, doubtless, whose sympathies have been enlisted by this the- ology to-day because of the truth that has come through the gift of Clairvoyance — the discerning of spirits — and as spiritual things must be spiritually discerned, we come to the point of explaining how CLAIRVOYANCE. 49, that may be possible and natural, as we see clairvoy- antly, which means clear-seeing, ^. e.^ seeing inde- pendent of the material eye through the window whereby the spirit looks out into the material world,, comprehending only material things, and dependent upon material support, and having necessarily a circumscribed vision according to the natural law governing it — the small telescope provided by nature for the indwelling spirit's use. The clairvoyant sight is the spirit e3^e without the use of the optical nerve telescope, and its vision is as unlimited as thought or memory, or any other mental attribute when per- fectly free from the magnetism of animal life. St. Paul says there was a man caught up into the third heaven, but he could not tell whether he was in the body or not. Most clairvoyants have expe- rienced similar phenomena. As the spirit becomes free, and knowing no power save its own volition, it leaves the material senses asleep, as it were, for the time, while it looks out and into its own province?- inspired by spiritual magnetism and spiritual thought, to investigate beyond its prison bars in the flesh; en-^ tering into the inmost secrets of human life, and tracing through all its manifold changes the gradual unfold- ing of nature's plan. As spirit life permeates all things with magnetic attractive power, the clairvoy- ant spirit sight follows, going wherever it may be 50 CLAIR VO YANCE. directed by the will, comprehending according to the intelligence already acquired, or the power of inspiration received from other spirit intelligences, who have lived free from the environments of a material world, and become clear-seeing as well as clairauditory, having the sense of hearing without material sound. If there were no other sense than sound or hearing, no knowledge of its meaning would be conveyed to the spirit. But the spiritual ear is the real, and the spiritual sight the real. Through the clairvoyant sight the spirit life is seen; through clairauditory sense spirit voices are heard, and they are drawn into material recognizance through the magnetic blending of the two. We have the telephone, through which voices are easily heard and distinguished for the distance of many miles. As soon as the words are transmitted, the mind takes them up and comprehends their meaning. Sometimes memory must be aroused before the right meaning can be understood, as it must connect with some idea that the spiritual mind has already acquired. The spirit, being the only intelligence capable ot reasoning, must receive all messages, all impressions, and determine their use. The material body holds magnetic relations with all material forms, and lives out its hfe in less than a century, while the spirit has only arrived at the age of birth when the body dissolves. CLAIR VO YANCE. 5 r That the spirit is and has always been the inspi- rator of all intelligence; that it should act independ- ent of the dull, material body sense, ought not to surprise any one, but on the contrary should meet with a ready acceptance. The clairvoyant sight, following as it does, magnetic currents, wherever thought can go the spirit vision follows. If we should think of impossible things and wish to see what might be painted by the imagination, impene- trable darkness would be presented, showing nothing. When the mind conceives erroneous ideas concern- ing realities. Clairvoyance shows where the mis- takes are by becoming in sympathy with the object and analyzing its nature, determining cause and effect. Having only my own experience for a teacher, and being perfectly conscious while seeing — even more conscious than usual — as the whole intellectual force seems to gain in intelligence, new thoughts and new explanations of what I see come readily to my understanding as my sight follows beyond the exter- nal appearance into the very heart and life of all liv- ing things, even to objects having no connection with intelligent thought. The physical eye is perfected at the birth of the body, before the spiritual manifestation requisite to understand what it sees is developed. The slow growth of a child's intelligence is due to the simple 5 2 CLAIR VO YANCE. fact that the higher sense of individuality is in embryo, in the process of a slow development. The child needs protection and care until their superior intelligence has grown to a stage that seems to insure perfect self-reliance. The animal instinct, being per- fect at the birth of the body, requires only food and sleep to enable it to acquire strength. The spiritual food, on the other hand, must come through the growth and intuitive sense inspired by the example of others, leading the 3^oung mind first by objects visible to the natural sight and hearing, impressions being made, by repetitions, upon the intelligent brain, and spiritual possibilities developed unknown to the mere animal life. This spirit intelligence, with all its forces combined, conceives new ideas and men- tally views the process of their creation. If the struct- ure be something mechanical, an engine for example^ the mind perceives and realizes its utility before its construction, and fully understands why it should perform the work to which it is adapted. The great danger to human progress from creeds is that the mind is trained to follow in a single chan- nel, casting all thought into one crucible, and, if one's ideals are not supported, casting out all evi- dence that might lead to a more intelhgent explana- tion of the mysteries of nature, whose solution always awaits the progress of spirituality. CLA IR VO YANCE. 5 3 Jn our age and country we have the Bible, a book assumed to be the only guide to Heaven, which is depicted as a state of conscious beatitude and a place of eternal rest; the end of all progress; all activities, as it were, in a state of petrifaction ; the intensification of one selfish interest to the exclusion of all other interest? and all affections. This lamentable condi- tion of mind is caused by consecrating every aspira- tion and thought to the one object, destroying the true principle of the spiritual organization, its uni- formity and harmony, the principle which should be preserved in order to make the created in sympathy with the Creator. As the child acquires its first step in knowledge by means of object lessons, so should the maturer thought grasp the spiritual life forces and study their nature from a spiritual standpoint. The clairvoyant sight frees itself from all material envi- ronments, all creeds, all educational acquirements, following freely the attractions of natural laws, and holding life's principle within its embrace. Mind readers receive credit for truthful exempli- fications of their power, but give no explanation be- yond the simple fact of being impressible through the magnetic attraction of thought, conveyed from one individual to another, one phase of spiritual indepen- dence limited to the primary circumscribed condi- tions of object impressions, and holding to fully 54 CLAIR VO YANCE. developed spirituality a similar relation to that which the child holds to the mature man. The possibilities of spiritual progression and its superior attributes as they may be connected with the future life, beyond the confines ol earth's attrac- tions, and inspired by the spiritual one, can be imag- ined and understood only just so far as our intelHgent spirit education enables us to comprehend that which is given through Clairvoyance. The understanding must be inspired equally with the perceptions. In this age Clairvoyance has a place among the natural sciences, but the world lacks wisdom on the subject of spiritual science, and, like all new discoveries, it will have to win its way gradually to the front. Being a progressive light, it is certain in due time to dispel the darkness of ignorance concerning its truths. The many absurd errors concerning it come through the ignorance of the receptive party, but its advance must and will evolve truth and hght, and the in- telligent world will receive it as a blessing from Heaven, when, through its instrumentality, diseases of the physical body shall be intelligently explained, remedies found and much suffering averted, while at the same time the natural science of the spiritual life wdll be made plain, the terrors of death dispelled, the realit}' of the future life proven, and all may be saved from that wilderness of doubt and fear concerning the true nature of the life to come. CLA IR VO YA NCE. 5 5 SPIRIT-LONGING. For'ever wakefully the ear is turning To catch some token from the shadowy sphere; For ever is the full heart strongly yearning Some word of promise from the depths to hear. And there are kindred spirits dwelling with us. And mingling yet their loving thoughts with ours. For ever dwelling in communion nigh us, In virtue's way to cheer our lagging powers. The grave is not a bourne, whose sombre portal Closeth eternal o'er the bright and fair; But through its gate, to blessedness immortal, The spirit passeth, endless life to share. Still old affection hereward back returning, And whispering words to vis of joy and peace; And spiritual eyes are round us, burning With holier love as heav'nly powers increase. B. P. Shillaber. THE MAGNETIC PRINCIPLE. It is idle to speculate as to the period at which the principle of magnetism was evolved. It is one which is as old as the earth itself. It is in- wrought with our very existence, and therefore part and parcel of our nature. That it was not fully un- derstood in the infancy of the world does not in the least militate against this truth. The principle of the solar system had no place in the knowledge or even in the wildest imagination of the world before the time of Copernicus, but this does not prove that the planets did not pursue their rounds in obedience to fixed laws through the vast realms of space. Although the principle is far reaching and profound, it is equally profitless to seek to invest it with the char- acteristics of mystery. As in the case of everything else intimately connected with our being, it is diffi- cult to go astray, save by those who by nature and habit persistently choose the darkness of mystery and falsehood to the sunlight of truth. It may not be improper, however, to present something which may serve for illustration touching both the principle 58 THE MAGNETIC PRINCIPLE. itself and some of its phenomena as revealed by ex- perience and the light of reason. The universe is replete with symbolic features and affinitive laws. The marvelous progress of the past few hundred years in all that pertains to natural advancement, is not more important in the mighty developments which it marks than in the higher ad- vancement of which it is the type. Very naturally, this general characteristic applies to the subject of our investigation. The principle of animal magnetism has its counterpart in the very principle which sways the mighty earth. The loadstone, which possesses the subtle and mysterious property that attracts iron and points to the pole, has its counterpart m the human frame, which \^ frima facie evidence that there exists in both some correlative element. That it is neither more nor less than magnetic-attractive force is so plain that he who runs may read. The magnetism of the earth is diffused through every atom of the earth's surface and productions, and without it there would be no activities; without elec- tricity there would be no polarization. Although magnetism is diffused through all life, there is rather a wide diversity in its manifestations. There are not only magnets that attract but magnets that generate, and a diverse magnetism in all individualities. Iron is magnetic in its native state; the waters of so-called THE MAGNETIC PRINCIPLE. 59 mineral springs derive their intensified magnetic power from iron, mercury, quicksilver and other min- erals infused into the underground currents, thus be- coming incorporated with miscellaneous ingredients in their course throuijh the earth. The great polar magnet draws all electric cur- rents which convey magnetism toward the north pole, diffusing magnetism, conducted by electricity, to and through everything that exists, in the water that encircles the earth, in the air we breathe, in the food that nourishes the vegetable, animal or human system, each individuality forming for itself a mag- net, according to its nature and origin. In all re- productive individualities the ripened seed contains its magnet and elective sex, and when both forces conjoin there is immediate adhesion through this quality, which enfolds a living germ. Nature ar- ranges her work. The battery is at once set at work in the process of development, attracting its food and utilizing it according to its organic genus or species. In all animals — both as respects merely physical characteristics and mental attributes — the electric battery is located at the base of the brain. When food is taken into the stomach, certain quali- ties strongly magnetized through the agency of the battery are transmitted from this polarized point con- trolling it and assimilating its qualities to its own 6o THE MAGNETIC PRINCIPLE. inducing such chemical action as will enable the same food to afford nourishment to many different varieties of animals. Magnetism being the controlling vital- izing power, fed from the blood and nerve fluids, from this pole or battery all the laws of species are deter- mined. When there occurs any disease or obstruc- tion in the way of free circulation from the base of the brain, there is mental disturbance as a natural result. Sometimes gaseous effluvia arise from dis- eased parts, which are carried to the base of the brain, carrying poison with them, creating a fullness inconsistent with healthful action, and obstructing the harmonious action between the food and the magnetism necessary to give it due effect. The individual so affected will soon begin to lose strength of character. He will be affected both physically and mentally. At first, such organs of the brain as are diseased usually become irritated, and if the cause is removed before the breaking down oi the tissues supervenes a cure may be effected, but if the disease becomes intensified, insanity^ or idiocy will be the natural consequence, attended perhaps with moral depravity and bestial proclivities. These un- happy results are owing simply to there being no law and order in the system, the magnetic influence being overthrown. Where the disturbing influences are less strongly marked diseases will naturally be developed in a corresponding degree. THE MA GNE TIC PRINCIPLE. 6i The facts thus set forth will serve to afford some idea of the intimate connection of this vital principle with our physical and mental well-being. It is nec- essarily part and parcel of the animal econom}^ — the motive power of the wonderful work-shop of nature. Every nerve-cell is a magnet whereby magnetism is generated, giving out magnetic power to the infinitesi- mal branches leading toward the surface of the body, each holding a position consistent with its peculiar office. Electricity breathed into the lungs and pores in the form of oxygenized air evolves activity, and the magnetic properties embodied within material substances develop life. Every corpuscle of blood holds a germ of life. Life is the great law of nature; inanition is the exception. The great magnet at the pole absorbs the vital principle and carries it higher, as food for the mind, the brain, the spirit, which also has its magnet in unison with the universal plan — the higher spirit-magnet which is connected with all material sense in the bod}^ and e7i rapport with all things beyond the physical system. On the electric wires her messengers are sent forth. Thoughts are themselves magnetic, and give their impress to the brain by means of a receptive organ, tinted with countless images of preternatural beaut}^, called mem- ory, while intense thoughts, inexpressed by words, go forth on their beautiful mission to impress other 62 THE MAGNE TIC PRINCIPLE. minds, inspiring thoughts of those whose influence they are then made to feel; a living presence although unseen and fully recognized through the agency of memory. Hence also the electric thrill that conveys the magnetism of another through his will, which may be termed recognition and desire, acting upon the polar system of the individual, an action corres- pondent to that whereby planets are swayed by the principle embodied in the great universe itself Thus all individualities are as planets, each a world in it- self, with magnetic polarization imparted by a higher system, but possessing a spiritual organization, hold- ing in subjection the lesser and darker elements of earthly mold. To carry the simile farther, we may liken the lakes and rivers which thread the green and beautiful earth to the ebbing veins and arteries of our natural body, and in a similar way to every department of our world, as well as of other w^orlds, all being more or less dependant upon each other. THE MAGNETISM OF NATURAL LIFE. Having described the great magnetic principle that controls the order of species, and the polariza- tions that distinguish the general system, I will now briefly advert to the action of the same principle more particularly as concerns its intimate relation to our natural life. In sympathy with the entire organism of nature, this principle is, through clairvoyant discernment, distinctly visible, and its wonderful pos- sibilities made manifest. As premised in the pre- ceding pages, from every part of the brain is traced a direct communication with the heart and stomach, resembling a cloud of a soft purple, like that wit- nessed in showers when the strong rays of the sun force their way through the rain. This appear- ance is similar to that of smoke ascending through the atmosphere in the distance, at the same time showing a firm, strong power that draws towards its pole like bands of steel, and sends back powerful negative and positive forces of equal strength. This constant and regular active power causes the pulsa- 04 THE MA GNE TISM OF NA TURA L LIFE. tion of the heart and the circulation of the blood. And as all the nerves are connected with this great battery, a division is made, and the finer spiritual magnetism extracted and directed toward the intel- lectual brain, and from the emotional center to the spirit brain. The magnetism that perforates the frontal brain is white and sparkling, and gives to the facial nerves the power of expression, either of mirth or grief, passive or thoughtful. The face becomes a perfect index of emotional feeling, every sentiment being depicted with a power of expression belonging to the human race alone. The perfection of natural law as seen from the spiritual standpoint, is wonderful indeed. The active work of the magnetic forces is not unhke that of the steam engine. As from the cylinder the wonderous strength of the mechanism is sent, and from the great wheel all the smaller wheels receive the impulse of motion, all moving in unison to the remotest part of the machinery, so with the still more wonderful human battery. And when its fires go out, all is still. It seems almost like trenching upon the confines of truism to characterize the great laws of our being as -perfect. The entire machinery is carried on by the onty really perfect chemical system ever known — that of nature. After the proper preparation and THE MA GNE TISM OF NA T URA L LIFE. 65 designation of our food, the nerves convey to each department of sense, taste, feeling, including muscle,, bone, hair, nails, and each and every minuti^, the specific quantity and quality requisite to nourish and perfect its own, all drawing from one fountain what ever is appropriate to its particular department. As long as perfect control is maintained and there is no obstruction to circulation, there is harmony and health in every department. The life-food of the senses and of feeling, magnetized from the battery of the brain, becomes magnetism, permeating the phys- ical system, and forming an enveloping atmosphere so individuaHzed that it never loses all of its nature even when taken into the organism of other species of animal life, for example, the case of the carnivorous race that prey upon other animals. The lion holds pre- eminent power over all other animals, combining as he does all the stronger qualities peculiar to the purely animal race, strength, courage, pride and ferocity, and impelled by the organic necessities of his peculiar species and magnetism. A lion does not feed upon another lion that he has killed in com- bat. The similarity or sameness in magnetism would be unchanged by the digestive chemical action of the lion's stomach. As there could be no battery — no opposing negative and positive forces — between the lion's organic species and magnetism 66 THE MA GNE TISM OF NA T URA L LIFE. in the lion's flesh, the lion would naturally fall back to a lower grade of animal life. That the in- stinct of animals often exceeds the intelligence of man, is a fact that has been frequently remarked. There are human beings who practice cannibalism, but even the lower order of animals will not prey upon their kind. This is true of the dog, the cat, and the rat, although they will devour the grade either above or below their kind. The Indian's habit of depending entirely for sus- tenance upon animal food, intensifies the magnetism of the lower brain, making a stronger battery which impairs and enfeebles the light of reason and is in every way antagonistic to the development of spirit- uality. His nature cannot be made to harmonize with the usages and theories of civilized life until his habits undergo a change and his food partakes in part of vegetable substance, and even then it would require two or three generations to effect a radical change in his character and disposition, so powerful is this law of inheritance from magnetic action. The condition of the African slave is essentially different, his food being very meager, consisting mainly of fruits and cereal products, very little meat being allowed him. There is consequently a marked con- trast with the Indian in all his leading characteristics. The race is affectionate but naturallv indolent and J THE MA GNE TISM OF NA TURA L LIFE. 67 cowardly and easily subdued. They are withal very superstitious, this trait giving its impress to their own crude ideas of a fetish God, whose favor will be obtained through the tortures they inflict upon them- selves. At the same time they are easily converted to a new religion where their natural faith leads. With the carnivorous animal magnetism are inten- sified the elements of many different genera of ani- mals, each individuality having its own organic char- acteristics and peculiarities, whose magnetism never loses its properties when taken into the systems of other animals, but, on the contraiy, imparts to them additional strength, the greater dominating the weaker. The higher classes of the carnivorous race have inten- sified magnetic power, and in the animal the magnet or battery extends along the entire spinal column, exciting and imparting strength to every part of the system alike. It is perceptible in the entire cat tribe, wild or tame. As soon as their natural instincts are aroused, the first movement is a swaying of the body and the lashing about of the tail, indicating a "rising temper" or active battery that sends out through every nerve magnetic and electric thrills that com- bine force and will with energy, courage and strength, enabling the animal to spring upon its victim with mighty force, like a ball propelled by gunpowder. These animals are found in warm magnetic climates' 68 THE MA GIVE TISM OF NAT URA L LIFE. living in jungles that absorb and retain the intensified magnetism of never-d3^ing vegetation. These traits are visible in races like the North American Indians^ from the similarity of habits, animal food being their only nourishment. Where cannibalism prevails, fearful maladies are developed through the loathsome and unnatural prac- tice, such as leprosy, scrofula, venereal diseases, etc. The food containing human magnetism cannot assim- ilate with the living magnetic power necessary to convert it to natural use. There is violence to the laws of our being, and nature revolts. In the human S3^stem more injury is done than would be apparent in a parallel case with the animal, because there is another battery of a spiritual nature that furnishes food for thought, its magnetism being diffused through the intellectual brain. This battery, from its nature^ is entirely negative to the influence of human food, and the latter would simply remain in the system as a blood poisoner. Within our knowledge there has never been a case of the eating of human flesh by its kind having been impelled by necessity, in which insanity and death has not been the result sooner or later. In a low grade of undeveloped spirituality, where the animal brain and instincts bear sway, the injury might be entailed only upon the physical organism, but where large intellectual and spiritual THE MA GNE TISM OF NA TURAL LIFE. 6g organs constitute the governing power, the battery and spiritual magnetism being the strongest, the injury would naturally manifest itself in the intellect- ual system, and the diseased matter would be lodged at the base of the spirit brain. The only manner in which human blood can be introduced into the human system is b}^ injecting it into the veins while the blood is warm with magnetic life, thereby being capable of preserving its own living germs in blood capsules, but it is incapable of going through the digestion of the germs to which it belongs. A law cognate with that whose illustration I have souofht to render clear is observable in the case of the intermarriage of near relatives by consanguinity. Where such relationship becomes unbroken by the admixture of alien blood through many successive generations, the organic order, mental as well as ph3^sical, becomes dissipated through there being an insufficient change to induce a proper polarized organization, and hence the organic system becomes weak from too close an alliance in generative quality. There is a great similarity between the mental and physical developments. Cousins may with safety intermarry where parents from different nationalities have formed a union, representing mixed races and a diversity of temperament, disposition and magnet- ism. In such cases, ancestors, through the genera- 70 THE MA GNE TISM OF NA TURAL LIFE. tive qualities upon both sides, are duly represented, and prevailing traits are therefore inherited from both, strong qualities being not unfreqently blended in the descendants, where the parentage has come through strong, healthy individuals ms, possessing due mag- netic strength, and thus conveying through repeated organisms their force of character respectively. But it will not do to repeat this in direct lines of genera- tion, even though the parents may have come from different nationalities. A similar law is well known by experts and scientists as existing in the vegetable world. Where the same kind of seed has been sown ,on the same ground for many consecutive years, there is a very perceptible diminution in perfection and strength. This is simply because one kind of seed extracts from the soil that which is adapted to its nature, draining from it that particular quality, while that which would feed some other species of plant remains unchanged, showing that change of seed is necessary. Experienced agriculturists understand that by alter- nating their wheat crop with clover, so far from the latter exhausting the soil, it will impart to it — and in no stinted degree — the very qualities that stimulate the production of wheat. The existence of this cardinal natural law may not be so strikingly appa- rent in the rearing of animals, but its existence is I THE MA GNE TISM OF NA TURA L LIFE. 7 1 none the less pronounced. It is more immutable than the laws of the Medes and Persians. The farmer learns the mysteries of agricultural science from nature herself, and is rewarded by the result of his labors, his patience and care, in golden fruitage. How is it with his children? Is the rearing of them of less importance than the rearing of his live stock or the garnering of his harvests? If his wife is truly a helpmeet, able and willing to work, he feels that he is blessed, but little or no thought is given to his children that may be. No care whatever is observed that his wife or himself may be properly conditioned in health or in temperament, his children are brought into the world not so much from the desire of the parents as from circumstances; not the fruits of careful consideration and preparation, pro- tected, as far as may be, from evil or injury, but more like the products of seed that may have fallen upon rocky and desert places; perchance now and then, by pure good fortune, upon good ground. How difier- ent from the principles and the sentiments that should animate human beings toward the tender, helpless ones that are to grow up and cluster around the fire- side, those who may contribute so largely toward making earth what our Heavenly Father intended it to be a paradise. We ought, indeed, to feel pain to have "even the winds of Heaven visit them too 72 THE MA GNE TISM OF NA T URA L LIFE. roughly." The great object of our life study should be a harvest of pure and perfectly organized children, who may inherit the Divine blessing with healthy bodies and well-balanced minds. They are the only treasures of all earth's teeming products that live beyond the material world. This transitory life is, alas! too short for the perfect development of every virtue; too overburdened with sorrow for much com- fort or happiness; too frivolous in its present using of opportunities for personal benefits; too temporizing for the enunciation and establishment of enduringf principles of truth and right; too sedulously guarded by vigilant defenders of their own selfish interests and their own one-sided opinions; too careless, in the self-interest of the majority, of consequences to others. The love of truth and humanity lies dormant, silently watching for the awakening of the soul's true inspi- rations to rise above life's tinsel and show, the artifi- cial shamming of happiness, and hungry for truth, " Even as an echo hungry for the wind." Oh spirit of Truth! how beautiful thou art, with all thy grand, noble and inspiring attributes! Give me from thine Eternal Fount the bread of life — the truth itself! Let Hope's immortal mission be The light thy presence brings to me! MAGNETIC TREATMENT. Through the experience and observation of many years, I have become fully convinced that the theo- retic idea that nature requires aid merely, may be regarded as a veritable axiom. In extending that aid, it is necessary to know positively the condition of the physical body and natural temperament, the better to understand and appreciate nature's require- ments. I have reason to believe that but few physi- cians are satisfied with the knowledge they possess, regarding either the true nature of disease gener- ally, or the proper method of its treatment. Some, indeed, have undisguisedly confessed their dissatis- faction with the extent of their knowledge, as well as their desire for a better and more thorough compre- hension of nature's laws. Yet at the same time they are taking the great responsibility of life and death in their keeping, and some of them lack the conscien- tiousness to acknowledge their inability to save life, even in cases where the peril is most imminent. I have no doubt but that the science of physiology is steadily progressing, and that the time will come 74 MAGNETIC TREATMENT. when a physician will know the nature of the ail- ments of his patients before administering remedies, and not be constrained to resort to experimental resources. Life is too short to remedy the incalculable effects of mistakes, and too precious to warrant the risk of dangerous experiments. It is a lamentable fact that a jealous fear actuates many noble and otherwise true-hearted men, in their denunciation of other means through which disease may be cured than those within their own particular line of treatment, which in most cases is sedulously hidden from the patient. I do not wish to be under- stood as having no faith in the average physician, but I believe the profession could be improved in scientific knowledge, in all that pertains to the preservation of human life and the amelioration and cure of its maladies. Very little is known concerning magnetic treatment as a science, although it is practiced by thousands, and its inestimable benefits have been realized. It is a difficult subject to explain in a few words. There are many theories concerning the magnetic action, as produced through friction by the hand upon the surface of the body; but a person needs to understand the principle of magnetism, and to be him- self or herself so constituted as to e^enerate ma^-net- MAGNETIC TREATMENT. 75 ism rapidly, and convey it through the hands and mind, to the patient. One who can, may conscien- tiously claim a healing power identical with that through which cures have been performed that have been denominated miracles. Unfortunately there are no authors that have treated upon the subject, and from my own experience I reaHze how dull of com- prehension most of us are. We read the antiquated saying that experience is a dear school, in which even though a fool one may learn. Well, then, as my knowledge has come through experience, I know that magnetism is the great living principle as well as great healing principle of Hfe. The negative and positive will power in all nature holds and con- trols individualities, attracts its affinities, and rejects that which does not belong to its individual needs. The magnetic atmosphere of a human body extends for the distance of two or three feet outward more or less, according to the health and strength of the individual, with its negative and positive force. The diseases of the physical body are represented in this atmosphere much the same as malaria is represented in the atmosphere of the earth. All accessions to this magnetic ferce convey to the weaker body greater power to free itself from dead matter by increasing its vitality and natural strength. 76 MAGNETIC TREATMENT. The atmosphere of the material body, when it has lost its healthy action, infects the fresh air before it reaches the pores, and the new vitality in the air loses its vigor and cannot enter into the work of regenerating the weak and diseased body. The atmosphere of the body must be purified; each pore in the skin needs to be thoroughly cleansed, and not exhausted still more by hot water baths, which tend to weaken the system. The massage., or French method, forces the blood to the surface, and in that way compels the evacua- tion of dead matter through the pores, but the blood poison continues to generate the disease and fill them again, and the work of massage must be continued in order to keep up any degree of health. The " Swed- ish movement cure "and "lift cure " both act in accordance with the same theory, and their opera- tions are beneficial so far as their work goes. The blood absorbs through the walls of the pores in the skin both air and the strength of the remedies — their spirit essence — while the gross material that gave it body may be removed. The great advantage accru- ing from this mode of treatment, of introducing the medicinal qualities into the system through the pores of the skin connected with magnetic treatment, lies in its immediate eflfect, while life's activities are strength- ened and relieved from the refuse matter and fluids MAGNETIC TREATMENT. 77 which have dried into a thick paste and closed the natural outlet. The increased vitality on the sur- faces sets the natural magnetism at work, gaining power to do so directly from the negative and posi- tive poles, in its reflex action, from the surface nerves to the spinal cord; the battery producing action throughout the whole system. Diseased blood corpuscles either float in the veins or lodge in the tissues. The natural magnetism cannot act upon- the diseased blood, as its vital life has been destroyed, except to give more active force in expelling it, either through the pores or other channels provided by nature. It is in strict accordance with natural laws that remedies are infused through the pores. The plants inhale through the leaves the vitalized air, the breath of their lives; the earth inhales its vitalized germs from the atmosphere which feed the soil, and in turn are absorbed by vegetation; vegeta- tion breathes out into the atmosphere its vitalized emanations, which may be identified by their charac- teristic odors. Take, for example, the queen of flowers, the rose. Its natural product is its incom- parably beautiful perfume — its spirit life and essence. So with many other beautiful flowers, that seem to have no other mission than to enrapture the senses with their beauty and fragrance. 78 MAGNETIC TREATMENT. Owing, perhaps, to the imperfect development of our spiritual sense, there are many blessings in this world that do not appear to us in their true light, while nature is transfusing, in one of her vast alem- bics, the atmosphere, the spiritual essence of all her productions, and imparting the sweet perfumes of the beautiful flowers, and the evergreen balsams which abound in our land, carrying healing medi- cinal powers on through the winds. How unmindful are the many who enjoy the invigorating atmosphere of the beautiful mornings in spring and summer, as the evaporated essence of nature has been returned to earth in the dews, with fresh magnetic power and electricity — the two vitalizing agents in all life. This silent but beautiful and beneficent work is always in progress throughout the immeasurable universe. The very nature of our existence and the terms upon which we are permitted to enjoy life, suggest a treatment by means of absorbents through the skin by magnetic attraction — the spirit of life as it is revealed by nature from outer appliances, and human magnetism combined taken at once into the system. The remedial agents thus infused with the magnet- ism of the human genus, become assimilated with the blood, adding new life and neutralizing the poison already accumulated, and, by the reinforcements brought to bear upon the debris which is lodged MAGNETIC TREATMENT. 79 along its channels, will be able to carry the lifeless load on through its natural course to the surface, where it will become separated and destroyed* In administering treatment it should be over the entire surface of the body with equal force, in order to equalize the circulation and remove all obstacles. The magnet at the poles will then be enabled to transmit its properties to every part alike, supplying the nerve cells, and meet every demand when the necessity is suddenly developed for greater activity and stronger power. The power to secrete and excrete properly is dependent upon the negative and positive strength and the action of natural magnet- ism. The use of liniments and prepared ointments rubbed into the pores by thorough friction produces magnetic action and causes vibratory movements from the surface to the spine, and from one set of nerves to all others, creating universal unity, and equal labor throughout. The negative pole sends out the dead, and the positive attracts the living, utilizing its properties. That which is absorbed is only the vital part of the substance used, being at once infused with natural magnetism, taken hold of by a force in a manner inscrutable, but nevertheless entirely natural. Something in the shape of an illus- tration may be afforded by referring to the action of croton oil when rubbed into the pores, which creates 8o MAGNETIC TREATMENT. irritation, and culminates in painful sores. The natural magnetism refuses to harmonize with it, and allows its poison to destroy the blood corpuscles. In the excitement caused internally, the natural magnet makes strong effort to resist the invasion, and in the resistance morbid matter is forced within the reach of the febrile attraction, that is consuming the healthy blood as well as collecting the bad, and thus burning up the good blood, that it may attract the diseased* It is hardly necessary to characterize this treatment as foreign to nature. The poison brings its own power to act in accordance with its own peculiar law. No remedy can bring permanent efficacy unless there is assimilation with the human system and vitality imparted to the constitution. By the increase of the vital power, natural results cannot fail to supervene. The physical body acts from its own organic influence, and only needs assistance while its work is too heavy for its strength. When disease from any source becomes incorpo- rated with the blood, the diseased corpuscles develop fungi; these take form from the predominating sub- stance, causing a separation from the natural mag- netism. This state of things may be compared to that of a poisonous weed that floats in the water. The weed draws nourishment from the water, but is not the water. It is also much like the scum that arises MAGNETIC TREATMENT. 8r on the surface of new wine in the state of fermenta- tion — that which was of the body that held the essence, which is akin to spiritual life. The dross is thrown ofi' by the active force in the new wine in purifying itself. Thus the magnetic life within the physical body makes an effort to force the dead gross matter to the surface, and failing to accomplish this, drives it from the channels as far as possible, where it settles and forms a location of its own, whence, through its active properties, it at once becomes an irritant and begins to generate new life from its own conditions and surroundings, producing unnatural heat; it attracts and congests the blood and asserts dominion over its own natural province, gradually increasing through the operation of natural generic law. It speedily gains magnetic attraction from prim- ary conditions of life; first a mold, then fungus, then decay, and finally pus, or refuse matter, which nature tries to expel; and sending it out into the mem- braneous linings and tissues, the poison of its nature there finds work in making way for its passage through the system. When this centralization of diseased blood increases in virus, it produces animal- culas, that increase every hour, and live their brief hour, only to furnish conditions for a more numerous brood. The dead animalculae betray themselves by their odor, and the intensified disease is known as 82 MAGNETIC TREATMENT. cancer, a frightful foe to human life. Much good may be accomplished through medicinal treatment so far as concerns the purification of the blood, and sustaining the natural magnetic freedom and powers of resistance towards the enemy now located within, and affording increased activities of magnetic force to expedite the secretions of morbid and unnatural refuse matter accumulated from the growth and decay in progress. Although I have not had the opportunity to try this course of treatment, I will explain and give it as it is given to me. A strong impression comes to me mentally, at the same time I see clairvoyantly, the effect of this treatment, and am so confident that it would prove successful, that I should not hesitate to try it on myself if there were occasion to do so, as it is the source of nearly all I do know concerning medi- cal treatment and physical law, and have proved by actual, and practical using of that knowledge which has been wonderfully successful. The impression thus given concerning the treatment of cancer is that this method may be pursued when the disease is located where it will be practicable — that is, to freeze it by proper applications, so cold as to shut off circu- lation in the locality of the disease. Increase the cold for the period of ten minutes, once or twice a day, then simply hold it congested with cold appliances, MAGNETIC TREATMENT. 83 while the circulation is increased in the general sys- tem and every way made active. The animalculas being of precarious existence, will be destroyed and the power of generating others will not exist, while at the same time the natural magnetic attractive force of the disease will lose its power to attract to itself new life, and thus it will starve as well as freeze. Having parted from the elements of life from which alone it could have been evolved, it must, according to the all-pervading natural law, dissolve into fluids and gaseous vapors, which could then be drawn to the surface through the excretory actions of the pores. Tumors of different growths where roots are grown of a stronger type of vegetable, may in like manner be frozen out and their growth suspended, and if there be no scrofula connected with it, they will shrink into smaller dimensions, and gradu- ally be absorbed by increased magnetic action around the locality of the disease. Pendulent tumors caused by hemorrhage of blood vessels, which is common in female weaknesses, when once developed be- come chronic, and produce a kind of blood flesh without nerves, and without nerves there is no natural circulation, and magnetism can only act by giving strength to the absorbents which should control the blood in natural channels, increased by natural circu- lation while applications are used to heal the broken MAGNETIC TREATMENT. blood vessels, this mode of treatment has proved suc- cessful in many cases, which I have treated. The blood should be controlled from and in accordance with the organic principle of life, the negative and positive battery, acting through its natural channels according to its polarized magnets, sending healing by absorp- tion to strengthen the weak blood vessels, and thus, according to the unmistakable theory referred to at the beginning, assisting nature. It may not be neces- sary to enlarge farther upon the subject, especially as the principle of magnetism is treated in another department of our work. THE GROWTH OF INTELLIGENCE. The vegetable grows from its inherent magnetic principle, the life germ in the heart of the seed, which is invisible to the naked eye or to the closest analysis of the scientist. No one can doubt its presence ; its development proves it, and all the pos- sibilities of the future perfect product lie hidden within the tiny seed, a mystery to man. The seed is enclosed in a shell or outer body until the season and conditions arrive which shall give it birth. As long as it is protected from air and water it lies dormant, or if the condition exist too long, it dies. Water conveys to it electricity, which with the oxygen in the air produces the inspiration of life. There is no intelligence in its work, but it is ruled by nature's perfect law, magnetic and electric, in the development of its life qualities. The great Designer gave it individuality, which distinguishes it from every other product of nature. The next step toward intelligence is found in animal life. Whether life was generated spontane- ously out of conditions of the earth's magnetism, 86 THE GRO WTH OF INTELLIGENCE. which has power to attract and combine certain elements in nature, we will not now stop to consider, but will endeavor to follow the growth of intelligence through animal life up to human. That animal life existed for ages before the lowest type of humanity was developed, no one disputes. The imagination cannot penetrate the past, or set forth the conditions of life where no comparisons can be made nor any reasonable point for investigation be attained. There is enough within the scope of the understanding, and any speculations about " the missing link" and kindred topics may well be left to the theorising scientists, with which to build their miraculous castles without foundations. The organic law of nature is in every individual production, "acting in each after its own special order of design, from the simplest to the most complex, from the lowest to the highest, in the earth's devel- opment of life. The magnetic conceptions which are brought into rapport through this law, develop the living principles of matter, principles which exist by and are evolved through the action of the great polar magnet, in connection with the action of the planets in motion, which first produced the elec- tricity of the earth, causing eventually the earth's rotary motion. Without motion there would be no life, or without magnetism and electricity, if life were THE GROWTH OF INTELLIGENCE, 87 produced, it could not continue, for the magnetic and and electric elements in nature are the reproductive forces in all life. To ignore the Divine Spirit within or operating through this universal law of life w^ould involve all nature in confusion. There is nothing, from the minutest atom to the completest spiritual development of being, which is not perfect in itself, being infused by that Divine Presence. Every atom of matter is polarized, and holds within itself its indi- vidual magnet, w^hich attracts that which is in har- mony with the individual nature of the thing, its wants and needs ; repelling whatever is foreign, hostile or useless to its growth or development. The power of this magnet increases steadily in strength and quality throughout every stage of development. It was in the first minute emanations that were pro- duced by the polar magnets and currents of electrici- ty which were established before any form of life existed, before the earth's magnetic atmosphere was evolved, holding within itself germs of organic life. The lower animals furnish magnetism for the grade of life next above them; the domestic animals furnish it in life-giving quality to man. The care and presence of herbivorous animals, as horses, cat- tle, sheep and deer, are conducive to health, for these animals afford a healthy magnetism which is uncon- sciously appropriated by the human family. It adds 58 THE GRO WTH OF INTELLIGENCE. Strength to the body, and produces a soothing, quiet- ing influence on the mind, overcoming by the peace and harmony of their nature, the discordant influences at work in the weak and nervous human body. The magnetism of animals fills an important place in nature, from its lowest to its highest manifestations. The hair which covers maturely developed animals grows from the excess of magnetism which animals possess. In the human being this excess is absorbed by the spiritual body, which it feeds, all its finer qualities being extracted by the spirit. In those cases where men have reverted to a wild state, when reason becomes confused and conscious identity is lost, they become human animals merely, the mag- netic connection between the animal and spiritual being almost severed. They become able to endure exposure; the physical strength increases; the teeth grow longer, and hair grows all over the body from this unusual excess of magnetism. The man lives within the animal realm, without instinct for providing natural protection, exhibiting a wild exuberance of life, without the unerring instinct of animals, or the guidance of human reason. The magnetism of the earth sustains the magnet- ism of animals on its surface, and all have a limited existence as a race. When the earth no longer furnishes magnetism for their species they die out THE GRO WTH OF INTELLIGENCE. 89 and higher types of animal intelligence take their place. The animal nature has reached its highest possible development in man, and the law ends in him — its highest fulfillment. The gross material forms a body for the highest intelligence, which resides in the intellectual spirit brain, and intellectual advancement receives its impulse from the spirit organization. As all material things have grown up through seons of development, the spiritual organization of man must progress by the universal law. Race after race carries on the work, and in this age spirituality is a ruling power in this land where freedom of thought has loosened the iron bonds of superstition. The soul of man is free to work out its own salvation from ignorance and bigotry, and come to birth into the higher life. True inspiration wells up from past ages to the receptive spirit living in this. As the sun draws the magnet- ism of the earth upward, so the spirit draws to itself the lessons of past ages, trailing them along through all its future upward progress. When the soul awakes in the dawn of a new life, free from material environments, in realms of higher thought and clearer vision, the meaning of life will stand revealed, and the spiritual energies will be quickened by intel- lectual progress. The life that lies beyond this sphere cannot be realized while the spirit brain is so 90 THE GEO WTH OF INTELLIGENCE. closely in sympathy with the material world. Every glimmer of light that has pierced the mental dark- ness of the world has met with efforts to quench its beams. ''It does move!" was the soul's conscious cry of poor persecuted Galileo when his persecutors forced him to deny his convictions of truth. Every martyr to truth echoes the cry. The world has progressed beyond the cruel power of the inquisition, but the sting of scorn remains for those who go out of the beaten track to enunciate new truths for the benefit of mankind. The thinking spirit, whose ideas are in accord- ance with its education and culture, has power to express thought in language, thus giving a body to the idea and furnishing food for other minds. Where a strong magnetic current is thrown out with the words an impression is made which carries convic- tion to the consciousness, and truth, according to the soul's power of discernment, is made manifest. As earth's first productions were merely a foundation for higher life, so creeds, theories, and formulas have served but to lift the thought and intelligence of man as near to truth as the age in which they flourished was capable of receiving. The next age takes up the thought, and with added magnetic power draws the mind still farther onward and upward, dispelling mysteries, and bringing a 'clearer light to human THE GROWTH OF INTELLIGENCE. 91 understanding. The past shows the steps of child- hood and youth. As nature steadily unfolds her plan in progressive spiritual development, there should be every possible encouragement given to mental and spiritual growth, and for study and investigation of spiritual laws. "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." Stoe IBoit^ of %^\uxz. But coming ages will to all unfold The wisdom that no mortal tongue hath told. This life is but a rudimental sphere; We barely learn our ignorance while here. Yet hope is born with unattained desires, And to immortal life each soul aspires. In this important truth, all tongues agree. That man was made for immortality. Death kindly comes and opens wide the door. And lights our passage to the golden shore. Oblivion spans the gulf while on we tread The silent pathway of the living dead. Then let earth join with aspirations high; Proclaim this glorious truth, we never die. The fields of thought that bafifle modern lore We in our march of progress will explore. The highest aspirations of the soul q2 THE GROWTH OF INTELLIGENCE. Will more than be attained as ages roll. The stellar worlds of beauty, wide and grand, Will be our walks of pleasure to command. Amid these rapturous scenes we^U hie to earth, To childhood's home — the land that gave us birth. Our friends who yet remain will need our care While they a little longer linger there* We'll prove that we yet live and love them still — And though unseen kind offices will fill. O, yes! we'll come the human race to cheer Wherever earth is watered by a tear. The mother comes to bless her infant boy, To guard the tender bud with holy joy; Her love so pure on earth is not defiled, But with a mother's love she loves her child. The brittle thread of life cannot divide, For angel friends are often by your side. Thus heaven and earth are joined in happy twain, And in this glorious union will remain. How wise, how great, how wonderful the plan! A boundless field for universal man. Warren Sumner Barlow. A SPIRIT INDIVIDUALITY. There is a natural body and there is a spirit body. Each body is an independent individuality, having an organic law of its own. The natural body with its animal instincts and necessities belongs to the material world. It is satisfied with rest, sufficient food, warmth, a sense of comfort and resembles in all its needs and manifestations animals of a high order of development. It grows from nourishment derived from vegetable and animal life, becomes old, decays and dies. It can be analyzed, its component parts separated, and their various substances defined. But the life principle which held this material mass in a state of continually changing activities, defies analysis or definition. When it loosens its grasp of the natural bod}" the component substances disintegrate, dissolve and return to their original elements in material nature. But the spirit body, what and where is it ? It cannot be vapor, electricity, or any of the principles of the atmosphere, because a spirit body necessitates a brain organization with intelligence and will, to supply its needs, and forecast its progress and its destinv. 94 A SPIRIT INDIVIDUALITY. There is a natural body and there is a spirit body living, growing and developing in every human organism; the animal and spiritual, two bodies, two brains and two individualities. This dual condition is peculiar to man. No other creature exhibits the spiritual qualities or manifests the same spiritual possibilities. As the natural or material body has its brain which controls and regulates the animal func- tions so the spirit body is furnished with its seat of power, the intellectual brain. This spirit brain be- longs to the spirit body and when the separation takes place betw^een the two bodies it retains all its functions in perfect activit3^ The natural body being the source from which the spiritual body derives its substance, acts strongly upon the spiritual sympathies through its necessities and weaknesses and powerful ties are formed between the two. The spiritual body is an invisible essence, and the intellectual brain is connected with the emotional nature, or is dual with the emotional sense of feeling through which happiness or unhappiness comes to our recognition. The sympathetic correspondence from the emotional nerve centre creates impressions slight or intense according to the development of each organ of the intelligent brain. The spiritual nature, the soul, is more remote from sensation, having no adequate means of communication with the outer A SPIRIT INDIVIDUALITY. 95 world and no relations with earth life to excite and stimulate spiritual growth. Spiritual food must be as real for perfect development as food for the natural body, or intelligent education for practical use. The ideal religious sentiment of the day places spiritual growth in the far future, ignoring the fact that every need in human nature holds sympathetic relations with that which must satisfy the demand. Faith without knowledge does not satisfy the desire of the soul. It is liable to change when new interpretations, new theories and fresh arguments are presented, be- cause it has no anchor in proven realities. Those who look for or believe in a revelation from God, as from a being outside of themselves, ignore the spirit within, which dwells in spheres of thought and emotion, ready to be inspired by the grandeur and harmony of the universe, pure, perfect, and fitted for all grades of life. " Know thyself " was a command inspired by a higher development of spiritual life- The light of intelligence is the only guide to spiritual discernment. The power to study and investigate that which is within lies dormant while men seek knowledge by means outside of natural law. Whatever conclusions they arrive at, their truth cannot be proved, and the mind is filled with imaginary theories which hinder progress in the way of truth. 96 A SPIRIT INDIVIDUALITY. The identity of the spirit body, its present relations and combinations in the trinity of our being, is more important knowledge to this age than a knowledge of the conditions of a future life. The search after truth should begin with the lowest grade of life, studying it in all its forms and phases, vegetable, animal, and the human, which holds within itself the highest grade of intelligence and the most complete perfection of material life. More patient study will reveal within the human, the angel, the spiritual person, higher than all other earthly creatures, a being which grasps on one side the earthy, on the other, the divine, a denizen of two worlds, and one of them a spiritual and immortal world. When death approaches, a conscious reality of spirit life takes hold of the senses. The spirit begins to judge itself, through the activity of memory. Every virtue shines brighter, every fault casts a shadow. It grows penitent as the magnetism of the body loosens its grasp. A prayer bursts from the soul's deep emotions of "God forgive!" The spirit be- comes conscious of its true moral condition, what it has gained or lost of purity and strength through earth associations and the educating influence of physical suffering and the restraining laws of physi- cal life, and it carries wdth it a sense of moral de- A SFJRI T INDI VID UA LIT Y. 97 gradation and loss, or the inspiring sense of higher spiritual qualities. God has so created man that by means of the physical body, a spiritual being is developed, from the lowest form of life upward, through every grade. Qualities of earth and air and water, substances visible and invisible, are absorbed by man and incor- porated into his system by the action of the great Mind which directs, controls and molds all things to His will. The law by which He acts lies within man's province to investigate and understand ; and the grand result of these processes, a spiritual being, m.ay be- come a conscious fact in his experience and know- ledge. He can become aware that this spirit-body and brain can be cultivated and its capacity for more independent manifestation increased. Spirit is the ruling principle over all. The immortal spirit shall put all things under his feet, and the last thing to be put under his feet is death. There is no death for the spirit, which, when separated from all perishable forms is lord over all, governing and understanding all the forces through which it has passed up to the purely spiritual plane. The spirit is not disem- bodied, but is clothed with such endowments as hold the same relation to the intellectual and emotional natures as do the physical endowments of the material body through which they manifest themselves in A SPIRIT INDIVIDUALITY. earth life. It has the same understanding, the clear and quick perception or the dull and slow compre- hension of new ideas. It is characterized by the same temper and disposition, is attracted and repelled by the same objects, and has the same prejudices as in earth life. Strong prejudices and bigotry are like prison bars to the spirit, forged on earth and carried as an inheritance into the spirit life. Those who have lived in the faith of something higher, wiser and purer than themselves, thus acknowledging their own needs and weakness, are drawn upward into the realms of spiritual being, instead of groveling in the low animal instincts of the body. Even in the earth life, as refining processes go on, an improved habita- tion becomes necessary for the spirit. The society of better thoughts and purer aspirations makes the old impure associations repulsive, and new and purer ones are formed. The spiritual nature is disgusted with the uncleanliness of the physical body and its surroundings and insists on a change. Tobacco, beer, whisky, vulgarity, are refused admittance while the body is nourished from pure and natural sources and satisfied with what is necessary for health without stimulating the lower brain to excesses which rob the mental and spiritual brain and degrade the moral sense. A SPIRIT INDIVIDUALITY. 99 For everything which has degraded the spirit he suffers remorse and humihation when standing alone in judgment with himself. Memory appeals to him with her indelible record wherein appears the oppor- tunities for good or for ill, and all the influence exerted upon others. He is judged only by his conscience, which feels the weight of sin and cries out against the sinner, who receives credit for every good deed done and for every good motive, all of which lighten the dark shadows of sin. How happy would be the new-born spirit if there were no sorrows of his caus- ing in the world, if the mistakes of life even had been rectified as far as possible before passing on into spirit life. As long as a wrong remains to be an injur}^ to any on earth, no forgiveness by any one not aflflicted by the wrong can remove the sting of con- science. To undo, or remove the wrong is the onl}^ way to righteousness and peace. When the laws of God throughout nature Hnk cause and effect together, why should we expect an entire change for the benefit of evil doers? Teachers of and belivers in the Christ, at an age of the world when symbols were necessary to impress the mind with the lesson of a higher worship than that of idols, pointed to the visible sign of one on the cross and sent the mind after him when he had risen from the tomb of the bod}^ a spirit that had gone to dwell A SPIRIT INDIVIDUALITY. with the loved ones across the border. A magnetic current of thought from the heart of every sincere lover of truth, purity and goodness attaches itself to any vital spiritual example held up before our mental vision, which attracts our sympathies and leads the thought above the earth into the heaven's pure atmosphere. To follow this current and profit by it we must live in its influence, battling with tempta- tions, overcoming obstacles and inherited tendencies, and strengthening the moral qualities by the practice of virtue. We may overcome objectionable traits of character by letting them die out from lack of uSe and by sowing the seed of better qualities in their places. When the character is thus trained and developed magnetic attractions grow stronger with that inner self, that indwelling spirit existence whose conscious identity is made manifest through the emotional center, the seat of the heart's pure feeling, through which heaven within is realized, or the pain of an ill spent life, lost opportunities and the retarded growth of the soul is felt. From this center, the connecting link between the mortal and the immortal, comes all our hope of an existence without a material body. When friends disappear from earth life, envy, hatred and malice, the fruit of strife, jealousies and injuries disappear, gradually fading and losing their poignant sting. A SPIRIT INDIVIDUALITY. A gentler feeling creeps into the heart, softening the harsh judgments and filling the soul with charity and love, because the soul follows them into the spirit life and the spirit is only in sympathy, with and attracted by the higher order of life in active judg- ment. And that higher order sends back a warning, "Judge not lest ye be judged," in the same spirit. An argument is often maintained with animation between the spiritual brain and the animal intelli- gence with its strong desire for preferment. The still small voice of conscience, the accusing, pleading spirit asks for better conditions for its developmetit in the body, from which its elements of growth are derived. The spirit-brain receives its inspiration from the intellectual, as education, character and pursuits fashion the growing mind for this world's uses. From its pure or gross elements, the spirit organi- zation is nourished, and pure, bright, intelligent spirits are born into immortal life, or gross, dark, undeveloped ones must grow up through the mists and darkness surrounding them, which is the moral atmosphere of their being. To be saved from this moral degradation and misery in another state of existence, one must first be saved in this. Each must work out his own salvation by living a pure aud natural life according to God's laws. Let the A SPIRIT INDIVIDUALITY. soul expand and drink in the elixir of everlasting life from the great fountain of nature's providing, in the power and glory everywhere displayed for the instruction of all souls in the knowledge of God's love, manifested both to the spiritual and the material senses. Nature, with its beauty, its delicate perfumes and flavors; life with its companionships and friendships; the perfect law, under which nothing comes into exist- ence from the minutest atom to the most highly devel- oped of earth's productions without a perfect order in itself, fitting it for its place in the economy of nature's order; all show forth the benignant Fatherhood and the perfection of His law. This knowledge should inspire the thought of God's presence every- where and in all things, and tend to elevate and purify the spiritual in man. "The pure in heart shall see God " in the bright morning of life and in the shadows of death alike, as the inspirer of all life and the guide in the search after truth, through the visions of earth and the higher aspirations for Heaven. Provision is made for the lawful demands and enjoyments of the natural body, while at the same time the spirit is developing its organization and is brought into sympathy with the heavens above and the earth beneath by a harmonious blending of the A SPIRIT INDIVIDUALITY. 103 influences from each; drawing from within and from without vitality and knowledge, and thus creating a sympathy and relationship with the God of nature — that great fountain of spirit which is all in all of Hfe's strange and grand mystery. So the spiritual in man grows up through all, in the earth life, through death conquers all, and in the spirit life is become lord of all. EVIL IN HUMAN NATURE. Evil spirits, evil men and women, are as natural as good spirits and good men and women, as all act from inherent natural qualities. Character is the effect of causes, some of which may have been trans- mitted from parent to child for generations. Every member of the human family is a creature of circum- stances. Certain conditions have influence on the general mind in every age; parental characteristics may not blend harmoniously, incidents and accidents may have excited combative elements or unnatural appetites, all of which combine to vary individual character, making it according to our standard either good or bad. " 'Tis education forms the common mind. Just as the twig is bent the tree's inclined." And the education and bending of the human being begins in the first conditions of life. As the being develops into maturity, the fruit of that nature appears. Often the inclination to do evil is stronger than the power of resistance, and all the attractive allurements of vice hold magnetic attractions with the io6 E VIL IN HUMAN NA TURK. evil within. A certain kind of happiness is derived from vicious gratification, although it is injurious in its influences, as natural to the evil-minded as a virtuous happiness is to the good. It is not just to deal with one side of human nature alone, nor to expect wholly to eradicate evil in the nature after it is born. It is well to cultivate the higher moral qualities, and so retard the growth of evil by absorbing life's activities and applying them to the highest uses. But when the evil once is rooted in the nature and finds appropriate food for its development in the external world, who can wonder that it flourishes? Which is the strong party to-day, those who favor liquor selling or those who oppose it? Not- withstanding its evils, and in spite of the great army fighting against it, its strength seems almost invinci- ble. Many of those who are opposed to the liquor traflSc have suffered from its blighting influence; their children or friends have been carried away on its mighty tide. What will effectually stay its progress? The appetite must not be born. Who are the evil, they who plant the seed, or they who reap the harvest? Who should suffer remorse, he who stumbles, or he who places the obstacle in the path of the unwary? It would be as reasonable to expect a tree to bear good fruit while an insect was E VJL IN HUMAN NA TURE. 107 eating away its heart as to expect to see the fruit of good character from the germs of evil, fed and made active by conditions of society which are demoraliz- ing to the good, and the natural food of the evil in human nature. The spirit of evil is in the seed, and its fruit is scattered over the world. The appetite for gold is like that of a hungry wolf. With its attractive show wealth draws the heart of the world, and its power grows and increases in the heart and soul of man until his nature becomes as adamant. Its promises of luxury, and pomp, and power lure men to their destruction, exacting in its service every thought and effort, and making of itself the only star of hope that points the way to happiness. There are grades of good and evil in the masses who follow any pursuit. Some will reach the goal of success and preserve a high moral tone; others, moderately successful, seek, perhaps, lower avenues of life, and follow less lofty ideals; while still others, craving what the successful man has gained by the inherent talent he possesses, will seek to attain it by fraud and cunning, by theft and murder, under the rule of the evil in their nature. Caste in religion is one of the untoward influences in the religious world of to-day. The majority of mankind are poor in worldly goods; and while the grand and beautiful io8 E VIL IN HUMAN NA TURK. churches are accessible to the wealthy with their natural pride and arrogance, the poor who possess a pride as great are excluded, unless they are willing humbly to eat the crumbs which fall from the rich man's table. There is little genuine human fellow- ship; the spirit of Christ is not perceived, and, there- fore, it is not believed in. But the Good Spirit often does its work silently, in deeds, not in words, through the agency of those whom the rehgious world counts as lost. Will the mistakes of this world be rectified in another? Will the errors of the ignorant be counted against them? Will those who have been buried in the drifts, be saved? Who will save them? When the light of reason rules the spirit of love and truth will triumph over evil, and they that sow the seed and they that reap the harvest in this world will work together in the next as friend and neighbor, for the good of all. EVIL IN HUMAN NA TURE. 109 I beheld a golden portal in the visions of my slumber, And through it streamed the radiance of a never setting day; While angels tall and beautiful, and countless without number, Were giving gladsome greeting to all who came that way. And the gates, forever swinging, made no grating, no harsh ringing, Melodeous as the singing of one that we adore; And I heard a chorus swelling, grand beyond a mortal's telling; And the burden of that chorus was hope's glad word, " Evermore." And as I gazed and listened, came a slave all worn and weary, His fetter-links blood-rusfed, his dark brow cold and damp ; His sunken eyes gleamed wildly, telling tales of horror dreary, Of toilsome struggles through the night amid the fever-swamp. Ere the eye had time for winking, — ere the mind had time for thinking, A bright angel raised the sinking wretch and off his fetters tore. E VI L IJV HUMAN NA TURE. Then I heard the chorus swelling, grand beyond a mortal's telling — " Pass, O brother ! through our portals; thou'rt a freeman Evermore." And as I gazed and listened came a mother, wildly weeping — " I have lost my hopes forever ; one by one they went away ; My children and their father the cold grave hath in keeping ; Life is one long lamentation ; I know nor night nor day! " Then the angel, softly speaking, " Stay, sister, stay thy shrieking ; Thou shalt find those thou art seeking beyond that golden door." Then I heard a chorus swelling, grand beyond a mortal's telling, — " Thy children and their Father shall be with thee Evermore." And as I gazed and listened, came a cold, blue-footed maiden, With cheeks of ashen whiteness, eyes filled with lurid light. Her body bent with sickness, her lone heart heavy laden; Her home had been the roofless street ; her day had been the night. First wept the angel sadly; then smiled the angel gladly, And caught the maiden madly rushing from the golden door. E VIL IN HUMAN NA TURK, Then I heard the chorus swelling, grand beyond a mortal's telling, — " Enter sister, thou art pure, and thou art sinless Evermore." I saw the toiler enter to rest for aye from labor ; The weary-hearted exile there found his native land ; The beggar there could greet the king as equal and as neighbor, — The crown had left the kingly brow, the staff the beggar's hand; And the gates, forever swinging, made no grating, no harsh ringing, Melodeous as the singing of one whom we adore; And the chorus still was swelling, grand beyond a mortal's telling, While the vision faded from me with the glad word, '^Evermore." Anon. WHAT AM I? With the knowledge we possess, this is a difficult question to answer. Our visible forms are subject to changes, for they are constantly throwing oft the old dead atoms from which the life has been with- drawn and are as constantly being renewed. In time this body will be dissolved and returned to earth, to be received into other growths with no resemblance to that which marks its present order. It is mine while it is with me, but it is not I. The spirit body which has developed from the living magnetism of the material body is still an emanation of earth life and subject to the law of change. It is mine while it is necessary to me, but it is not I. Can I be identified of myself? The various organs of mentality have each a mission, and hold their relative positions within my world as guards, instructors, promptors, mechanical work shops of music and art. Each acts from and in sympathy with the emotional nature which is nearest to I. Each organ is incited to action by appeals appropriate 114 WHAT AM 1? to its function. For example, if benevolence is denied expression and its natural sympathies held in subjec- tion by avarice, the emotional nature which is always on the side of justice sympathises with benevolence by a sense of humiliation, while avarice triumphs in the sense of successful greed. Veneration is not a very definable organ, because it borrows much from self-esteem, conscientiousness, and ideality. With our present education its influence expands beyond its natural limits; it becomes fanatical by its assurance and checks progress by its self-sufficiency. To attain any degree of excellence the intellectual nature must be cultivated; mechanical genius must be developed by cultivating the organs of constructiveness, etc. I stand back of all, and, like a general, review my army and mark the strength of each division. I make reason my adjutant, who reports the strength of each organ that I may judge whether in my army there is sufficient force and intelUgence to accomplish my objects. When reason reports adversely, a sense of disappointment comes over me affecting the emotional nerve center which is near the heart. Then all the sympathetic life forces meet and effect more directly my conscious identity. This emotional center is the strongest tie between physical and spirit life. When we part from friends the depth of our affection is shown by the strength of the emotional feeling, and WHAT AM I? lis when we part from the physical body it is the last tie to be broken. When the spirit, with all its associations with the work and friends of a life time, is torn asunder from the body, to go where? to be what? it is not the pain but the mysterious change, a nameless dread that fills the soul with fear. When all pain is over and all sensations of the body have ceased, the wires over which communications come to me are broken. Earthly visions fade, the last parting is over. Hope shines brighter as death draws near and I exclaim with the Hindoo, " If thou art death, draw near; I hold thee as a friend. Thou canst but take this worn-out dress from me, I shall snatch eternal life from thee." I shall still be clothed and have the same emotional nature through which love to God and man may be expressed. DEATH. HOW AND WHY. Spiritual Things Must be Spiritually Dis- cerned. "Some have the gift of discerning spirits." "Why, what is death But life in other forms of being? Life without The dull and momently-decaying frame that holds The etherial spirit in, and binds it down To'^brotherhood with brutes. There's no such thing as death. What's called so is but the beginning; a fresh segment in The eternal round of change." SPIRITS WHO ARE DISEMBODIED OF THE PHYSICAL MATTER FORM. THE VISIBLE EARTHLY COVERING OF THE SPIRIT. While standing by the bed-side of a young girl whose spirit was leaving the material body, after a short illness, of a malignant character, my spiritual sight was directed to the process of the separation, which was to my sight and understanding as real as any other object presented to the natural vision. This young girl had developed early in life, having attained ii8 DEATH, HOW AND WHY. full growth at the age of eighteen, large, full healthy form, which had not wasted away through a week's illness. Her young life was full of magnetism, the spirit of life. A growing inspiration filled her young life with love for all the beautiful things of earth. Hope's bright star shone brighter as she developed into life's realities. Death came to her through the delirium of fever, and without realizing the change she became separated from her earth body, a spirit child of eighteen summers. The growth of the spirit form developes more slowly, being controlled and fed through the intellectual and emotional, and as the separation gradually progressed from the extremities I saw the spirit body contract, with- drawing from the flesh leaving the feet cold, the hands, arms, limbs until life centered around the heart and base of the brain, and the spinal cord, which gradually loosened its hold. The magnet from the spirit lost power to connect with the animal magnet controling material life and withdrew its forces, which had permeated the physical body, con- tracting into smaller dimensions, according to the growth of the spirit. The strength of the attachment, almost equally strong, extended the whole length of the spine, showing that while the material body was growing rapidty, the magnetism was doing its work in the body, and not in the brain; and after the DEA TH, HO W AND WHY. 119 body had attained its full natural growth, and the spiritual began its development in acquiring knowl- edge, strength of character and mental endurance, the magnet was directed and controlled b}^ the will or mentality, the body a frame work through which the spirit maintained earth conditions, and drew from it its spiritual life. The spirit body of the young girl, when withdrawn from the larger develop- ment of the physical, was less than two-thirds in size; her spirit remained in the form passive until the heat of fever subsided, and the emotional magnet of the spiritual was severed by the gradual decomposition of material life. Another case of matured manhood, where the physical body had attained full growth for thirt}^- iive years, being sixty-six years old at his death. This man had an education superior to many, and had filled high places of honor and responsibility. The intellectual brain overtasked in political strife, and the emotional sympathies nearly exhausted by con- stant anxiety, the equilibrium of the two bodies was lost, and the result was apoplexy and partial paralysis, when an unusual and sudden movement of the physical strength was exerted. There was a paralyzed condition of the throat and right side; the left side and heart being free, consciousness was restored, while the slow process of the dying nerves I20 DEATH, HOW AND WHY. was sapping the vitality already received from natural magnetism; the blood settling around the heart and brain, as the electric wires were broken, and the magnet powerless; the mind retained a degree of consciousness until the spirit magnet had withdrawn its forces through the emotional sense, the last chord that binds the soul and body together. And while the feeble current between heart and the spirit's magnetic power gradually lost influence, the spirit body and brain became separate identities, the one a living quickening soul, the other a mold of earth. The spirit brain never lost consciousness, and he suffered no physical pain, as the sensitive nerves had lost their sense of feeling. When entirely free, after forty-eight hours, his spiritual condition was perfected. Another prominent business man at the same age of sixty-six, whose physical form was large and full of animal magnetism, was suddenly stricken down with apoplexy and complete paralysis. Every nerve center lost its polarization, all sensation between the spirit brain and physical body stopped in a moment. He was placed on ice before any sign of decomposi- tion of the body took place, thereby retarding the separation, by preserving the magnetic life in the blood and tissues, which, held by its natural law, Ijlended with the spiritual form the two bodies as one DEATH, HOW AND WHY. until all magnetic life had become exhausted and the animal magnetism evaporated, seeking new life cur- rents. After the spirit body and physical body had become free from each other there remained four attachments from the lower brain like white cords, but of different size, and one larger cord from the heart, or emotional gland, shown to be a quarter of an inch in diameter; while those from the lower brain were much smaller — the connecting magnetic wires of the spirit- ual and natural bodies. It was twenty hours longer before the spirit was free from the physical body, and consciousness restored to the intelHgence of the spirit brain. In all sudden deaths or inanimate conditions of the physical body, the slow process of the dying in the material body must go on before a separation would be possible according to nature's laws. The burial of soldiers after a battle involves the burial of the spirit with it, until the animal magnetism releases its hold upon the spiritual. Whether they are conscious of being buried I do not know. It has been shown that there have been instances where the person buried has come to consciousness and changed position. DEA TH, HO W AND WHY. ^MaXlatx^B l^jessage from garajfliBje. He who died at Aziiii sends This to comfort all his friends: Faithful friends, it lies, I know, Pale and white and cold as snow; And ye say, " Abdaliah's dead," Weeping at the feet and head, I can see your falling tears; I can hear your sighs and pra3^ers, Yet I smile and whisper this : " I am not the thing you kiss, Cease your tears, and let it lie; It was mine. It is not I." Sweet friends, what the women lave For the last sleep of the grave, Is a hut which I am quitting; Is a garment no more fitting; Is a cage from which at last. Like a bird my soul hath passed. Love the inmate, not the room ; The wearer, not the garb; the plume Of the eagle, not the bars That keep him from those splendid stars. DEATH, HOW AND WHY. 123 Loving friends, be wise, and dry Straightway every weeping eye. What ye lift upon the bier Is not worth a single tear. 'Tis an empty sea-shell, one Out of which the pearl has gone ; The shell is broken, it lies there; The pearlj the all, the soul is here. 'Tis an earthen jar, whose lid Allah sealed the while it hid That treasure of his treasury, — A mind that loved him, let it lie; Let the shard be earth's once more, Since the gold is in his store. Allah, glorious! Allah, good! Now thy world is understood; Now the long, long wonder ends; Yet ye weep my erring friends. While the man whom ye call dead, In unspoken bliss, instead, Lives and loves you; lost, 'tis true; For the light that shines for you, But in the light ye cannot see. Of undisturbed felicity, — In a perfect paradise. And a life that never dies. 24 DEATH, HOW AND WHY. Farewell, friends! But not farewell; Where I am, ye too, shall dwell, I am gone before your face, A moment's worth, a little space. Ye will know by true love taught. That here is all, and there is naught. Weep awhile if ye are pain, — Sunshine still must follow rain; Only not at death, — for death. Now we know, is that first breath Which our souls draw when we enter Life which is of all life center. Be ye certain all seems love, Viewed from Allah's throne above; Be ye stout of heart and come Bravely onward to your home; La-il Allah! Allah la! O love divine! O love alway! He who died at Azim gave This to those who who made his grave. From the Arabic. Translated by Rev. G. H. Houghton. MOURNING FOR THE DEAD. Shall we mourn for the dead? Yes, if they are worth mourning for. Where and who are the dead? Not the body from which the living spirit with its imperishable individualit}^ has escaped. Even that refuse thrown off from the immortal spirit is not dead. Its conditions are rapidly changed; it passes into the air in gases, returns to the earth in dews, crumbles to dust, and is absorbed by nature's activi- ties and remolded to other forms. Is it right to mourn for the dead? We may indeed mourn for those who are dead to truth and to progress, for those who are seeking knowledge among vain and fanciful myths and shadows, over whom ages may pass before they will feel the quick- ening power of inspiration, and arise into a true life. We may mourn for those who are dead in ignorance and superstition, who wander forever in a circle,, never upward and onward. For these we may mourn, and strive to unlock their doors of death and let in upon them the reviving light of truth. These dormant souls must be aroused to activity, and their 126 MOURNING FOR THE DEAD. torpid energies awakened by penetrating their obtuse understandings with strong currents of electric thought which will arouse them to a higher ambition. Those who are dead to a sense of life's true needs must undergo a thorough shaking up, or, like dregs, they will settle to the bottom and remain stationary. For these afflictions, tumults, and sorrow are often sources of help, and rouse the slothful soul to the dis- covery of its possibilities, when it becomes a giant to conquer the obstacles which may lie in the path toward a high position. Life is a constantly changing world without end. Yesterday, to-day, and to-morrow are unlike, but there is one grand principle governing in the uni- verse whose infinite power nothing can change. Every moment brings forth its buds of promise, its hopes and its joys. Time, in its ceaseless rounds, weaves and unravels life by natural growth and decay, but every individual atom is held by the same law and will be governed the same, whether a world or a woman, a babe or an angel, for all are revolving in this great circle of life which knows no beginning or end. Nothing is lost but the dross of life. All that holds a spark of immortality in its heart lives on in spheres of light and love and feels the great pulsa- tions of harmony and peace. MOURNING FOR THE DEAD. 127 When these dead come into the light, and develop their God-given nature from life's true center, they will learn that the dead can be raised only through the revivifying influence of spirituality. Therefore we will not mourn for the dead, but labor for them that they may live. ^0UT ^ar from %zxz to gtieaoen ? How far from here to Heaven? Not very far, my friend ; A single hearty step Will all thy journey end. Hold there! where runnest thou; Know Heaven is in thee? Seek'st thou God elsewhere, His face thou'lt never see. Go out! God will go in; Die, then, and let him live; Be not, and He will be; Wait, and He'll all things give. I don't believe in death ; If hour by hour I die, 'Tis hour by hour to gain A better life thereby. Angei.us Silesius — 1629. WHAT IS AN INFLUENCE? What is this [influence which comes to me, and directs my mind, my sight, my hearing, leads me where there is need of help, shows me what I should do in order to relieve suffering, and speaks words of comfort to those in distress? Why does it come to me more than some others? In a sermon written by the Rev. Daniel March, D. D. ; published in his book entitled " Night Scenes in the Bible," he says, in the chapter on the angel's liberating Peter from prison: " When we mingle with the multitude on the crowded street, and hear the roar of business, and the toil and pleasure that surges through all chan- nels of the great city from morning till evening, it seems as if man and earth were everything, and that there can be no real life, or intelligence, or power out- side of this visible, material world in which we all now live, and move, and have our being. All these natural and unmistakable impressions conspire to narrow the range of our thought and shut us up to the society and home and occupation of I30 WHA T IS AN INFL UENCE ? man alone. It is, therefore, a startling and a salu- tary disclosure of Divine revelation that we are not the only intelligent actors in the busy scenes of daily life which surround us. There are more listening persons in the crowd than any human observer can count. There are more listeners in public assemblies than can be seen by the speaker's eye. There is no solitude of earth where we may not have unseen companionship of beings that think, and feel, and work more mightily and constantly than ourselves. And these invisible unembodied partners of our toil and sharers of our spiritual life have sometimes stepped forth from behind the curtain that hides the unseen world, to show us that we may have witnesses of our conduct when we think ourselves most alone. We have only to turn to the Sacred Record to learn that these — and mighty ones, whose home is in some far distant world — have borne an active part, both in the com- mon and in the great events of this world which we call ours. They have taken the form of men, and shown themselves to human eyes, and spoken aloud in the language of the earth. They made their appearance on the lonely mountain top, on the storm- beaten ship at sea, in the streets of the city, on the hills, in the highways and fields and threshing floors, in the night and in the broad day, in the calm and in the WHA T IS AN I NFL UENCE ? 131 Storm, speaking words of peace, and smiting with a sword, in bringing health and prosperty, and wasting with the pestilence, talking with men under the shadow of trees and tents and temple roofs, at city- gates, in humble dwellings, and in the depth of the dungeon's gloom. "In all these places and circumstances, men have seen and heard the living inhabitants of other worlds. " And these celestial visitants have come from their far distant homes to take part in the affairs of men. They have shown themselves better acquainted with human history, and better able to do our work than we ourselves. They have defeated great armies; they have overthrown populous cities; they have sent forth and arrested the pestilence; they have rested under the shadow of the oaks at noon, as if weary; they have eaten bread, as if hungry; they have received hospitality in human homes at evening, as if coming in from a journey; they have rolled away the stone from the tomb; they have kindled the fire of the altar and stood unhurt in the midst of the flame; they have clothed themselves in garments that shone like the lightning, and have appeared in so common a garb as to be taken for wayfaring men needing lodging for the night. 132 WHA T IS AN INFLUENCE. '•' It adds immensely to the solemn interest of our daily life to know that we may have unseen witnesses of our conduct, and partners of our toil at any moment. It gives us a higher and truer estimate of our own place in the commonwealth of intelligent beings, to find that we are objects of intense interest to the inhabitants of other worlds. It enlarges the range of our thought, and lifts our desires and aspi- rations above all earthly, perishable things, to know that our present habitation is only our little province of a universe of worlds, and that this mighty empire is bound together by ties of intelligence, cooperation and sympathy to its uttermost extent." The law of God and the universe was yesterday, is now, and will be forever the same. If the spirits from far distant worlds take such intense interest in our affairs, what ought we to expect from our loved ones, whose sympathies were interwoven with ours, which follow them beyond the visible form into the spirit realms? That love steadily increases in purity and confidence. How often we hear the heart cry out, " Oh, if my dear mother knew my sorrow and could come to me!" No thought goes beyond our loved ones to the inhabitants of strange worlds. There is no knowledge and no sympathy from us to them. Why should they come and interest them- selves in our affairs? If our own most intimate rela- WHA T IS AN INFL UENCE ? 133 tions with those who have lived with us here, shared our happiness and our sorrow, if they, our loved ones, are not permitted to manifest their interest in our welfare, why should strangers? We must use our own intelligent reason and answer for ourselves, they do. All houses wherein men have lived and died Are haunted houses. Through the open door The harmless phantoms on their errands glide, With feet that make no sound upon the floor. We meet them at the doorway, on the stair; Along the passage they come and go, — Impalpable impressions on the air, A sense of something moving to and fro. There are more guests at the table than the host Invited; the illuminated hall Is thronged with quiet, inoflensive ghosts. As silent as the pictures on the wall. The stranger at the fireside cannot see The forms I see, nor hear the sounds I hear; He but perceives what is; while imto me All that has been is visible and clear. We have no title-deeds to house or lands; Owners and occupants of earlier date From graves forgotten stretch their dusky hands, And hold in mortmain still their old estate. Longfellow. A SERIES OF STRIKING PROOFS OF IMMORTALITY. If human testimony of the most conclusive character be allowed its due weight, Clairvoyance is already proven. In my own observation, when the subject of Clair- voyance has been introduced, I have remarked the quick and nervous expression in the countenances of those who feared to implicate themselves, even in the remotest degree of acceptance or acknowledgment. A pitiable manifestation, to be sure! Gladly would I dispel the cloud that hangs over everything per- taining to modern development. Clairvoyance is a natural, and not acquired power of discernment. I remember describing to a German (a man posessed of considerable native ability,) his sister, as she was leaving Germany on a ship, together with many things connected [with himself and his early home, which he said were delineated with more cir- cumstantial exactness than he could possibly have done himself. He subsequently solicited and obtained an interview, in the course of which he said he had 136 A SERIES OF STRIKING PROOFS a good farm, stocked with everything needed, of which he would give me a deed if I would only impart information as to how I saw what I had des- cribed, and teach him how to do the same. The first of these requests I could have acceded to, but it was wholly out of my power to teach him. The question has often been asked if I was born with a veil? It seems that any number of people are quite ready to believe in anything that may be invested with something of the marvelous, but when one tries to render what is natural plain and reason- able, a superstitious and indefinable fear is at once awakened of something beyond human agency, and therefore something to be dreaded. A lady once told me that if Clairvoyance were only advanced to a point to make it harmonize with popular opinion, she would be perfectly happy to acknowledge it openly, as she was entirely convinced of its truth, but until then she could not feel free to do so, although she availed herself of its advantages privately. I could but exclaim : " Good Lord deliver me from such a bondage!" Another lad}^, while I was administering magnetic treatment, said: "Mrs. C. are you a spiritualist?" "I hope so," I replied, " I believe in immortality." " Oh, so do I," she said, " but when I die I expect to have a better abiding place than around this earth." " Do you OF IMMORTALITY. 137 believe in the Bible?" 1 inquired. " Oh, of course." "Well, you know it tells us that God is everywhere, in the highest heaven and in the deepest hell, and at the farthermost ends of the earth, and there is no place where God is not, and you may not be too good to be where God is. And if God is here his angels may also be. "If you cultivate your spiritual brain and can free it from superstitious unnaturalism, study nature in its divinest sense, feeling the need of more light on the subject of your spiritual nature ; be wise enough to learn of God ; realize how far you have traveled from the truth, and become hungry for that which feeds the soul ; you would feel in sympathetic relation with the spiritual elements in nature, and, through natural progression, the spirit within would carry you beyond the limited vision of your natural senses and open that higher vision revealing through God's immutable law the life that is, the real as contradis- tinguished from^the ideal. And believe me, when once entirely free from the blind and the mythical influences of the dead past, you would look back wondering how you could have been so blindly superstitious." A dear old lady, who had been a devoted Christian all her life according to the Baptist teachings, was born into the higher life. While her spiritual and natural attributes remained as one, her spiritual 10 138 A SERIES OF STRIKING PROOFS vision was opened to the true life's realities, and she praised God understandingly. With that grand old face all radiant with joy and peace, she exclaimed: "Now I know that my Redeemer liveth, and I shall meet and know my loved ones there. Oh! how could I have been satisfied with the little I once thought I had! Once I saw as through a glass darkly; now I have the true light brought b}^ the angels from heaven." I was called to see a sick man in the country, some eighteen miles distant. When I arrived I saw at once that there was no help; he was struck with death. Throughout the night his mind wandered, and only for a moment at a time would any intelligent thought be manifested. The next morning there were unmistakable signs of early dissolution. His friends thronged the room, and his wife requested me to impart to him, if he could receive it, information as to the true state of the case. In a few moments he gave me opportunity; suddenly rallying to a bright consciousness, and with a voice clear and rationally natural, he exclaimed: "I see you now; Oh, my wife and daughter; there they are!" pointing towards the side of the bed and above it; (he was referring to a former wife.) His face shone with preternatural radiance and every manifestation of delight. "Well," I said, "Mr. Moore, your spirit friends are here, OF IMM OR TA LIT Y. 139 waiting to receive you into their homes." "Is that so?" he replied; " well, it is just as well now as any time." He reflected a moment, and, laying his hand over his heart, continued: "I feel all right here." His friends approached his bed-side and spoke kindly and affectionately to him; he shook hands with them cheerfully, saying he was both ready and willing to go if his time had come; he seemed to be perfectly natural and bade them good bye, saying he had always paid his debts and done the best he could, advising them to do the same. " Now I am going; give me a glass of cold water, and let it come straight from the well," It was brought, and he arose and sat on the side of the bed, took the glass in his hand and drank the draught unassisted. He fainted or seemed to faint, and was laid back upon the bed. In a few moments he opened his eyes and smiled, saying: "I did not ^^/ ^?/^ 'that time!" His family and friends briefly conversed with him; he seemed perfectly natural, only somewhat excited, and eager to do or say whatever might seem appropriate, and when all was done he calmly said: "Now I am going; get me another glass of cold water." He arose from the bed again and sat on the side of the bed, drank the water, he said, "Mrs. C, take hold of my hands," which I did; he bent forward and was gone ; five minutes after all signs of life had ceased 140 A SERIES OP STRIKING PROOFS his body and head raised up straight; without any support his dead body sat there looking at the people, or seemed to ; he was laid back upon the bed the second time, and his shoulders were a little twisted; after he was left his shoulders raised up and laid back straight. The evidence of a dying man would be taken in a court of justice. Mr. Moore knew he was dying, and when he saw his wife and daughter he must have seen them with his spirit eyes; his soul's per- ceptions, his strength and voice and clearness of mind were restored to him, yet at this time the entire right side of his body was mortified, and the left hip and limb were also mortified; the back of his neck was purple. His spirit asserted itself while yet in the body, with the assistance of his spirit friends who sustained and directed him. The heat of the body would with its magnetic attraction have held the spirit longer, but the sudden chill of the cold water broke that condition and let his spirit free. "Those who have eyes let them see, and those who have ears let them hear." A lady who had been abandoned when a child of six weeks old, by her mother was, after the lapse of twenty-eight years from this abandonment, ill with consumption. She became very nervous, and a strong desire possessed her mind to see her mother or learn OF IMMORTALITY. 141 what had become of her. She had not the slightest clue to her where she might be or an3"thing except her maiden name. This desire seemed to render her almost frantic. At last when she was sitting at a small table, it began tipping back and forth. Ques- tions were asked as to what this demonstration meant, when by calling over the letters of the alpha- bet, the following instructions were given: "Write to (his name was given; one who lived a thousand miles away;) ask him to tell you where your mother is; you will find her and see her in six weeks; you may not know me, as my life began in the spirit world almost, having lived only two hours in the body; I am four years younger than you, and am your half brother; my name is Ernest." We wrote the letter, found the mother and went to see her in just six weeks, also found that there was a child born twenty-four years before and only lived two hours, whose name would have been Ernest if he had lived. What can be said against such testimony as this? There are none so blind as those that will not see. 1 have heard the voices of living persons who have lived many miles distant as well as those nearer. The tone, emphasis, motion of the hand if any, are all conveyed to my inner hearing, clairauditorily. Soon after hearing the voice, I see the person, and whatever concerns him or her at that time. These 142 A SERIES OF STRIKING PROOFS things are not of rare occurrence, but every day, almost every hour, there is something of the kind, either of sight or hearing, or both. A lady of my acquaintance had a very sick child and sent her son to request me to come and see him. Being engaged for the evening, I could not go, but sent directions what to do. The mother of the child was apprehensive that I did not understand the nature of the trouble, and was too anxious to wait, and therefore came to see me herself. Before she reached the house I commenced making passes over myself in a very energetic manner, not knowing why or what for. This continued until the mother arrived and perhaps five minutes after. When she explained how sick her boy was, she expressed a fear of great danger, as he had all the symptoms of typhoid fever. I gave her some simple remedies and asked her to let me know in the morning how he was. She sent me word as soon as she returned to her home that her son was perfectly well, and was playing about the room when she arrived there. This is not given for the dead skeptic, but for the live investigator. I will relate another instance from my own experi- ence. Walking along one of our principal streets I came to where there were stores on the ground floor and rented rooms for housekeeping on the floor above. Having no acquaintance on the street I had seem- OF IMMORTALITY. 143 ingly no particular interest in any one. Coming opposite a door which opened into a stairway, I stopped mechanically, opened the door and proceeded up the stairs, having no thought why I was going or where. Upon reaching the landing, I looked into the room on the right, the door of which was open, when I discovered a lady sick in bed. I saw at once her condition, and knew it was a critical one. She was very ill and unable to call for help ; I proceeded to give such treatment as the case demanded and soon relieved her of immediate danger. She did not seem to realize that I was an entire stranger, and I was careful to avoid startling her by arousing her curiosity, contenting myself by enjoining her to keep perfectly quiet, and telling her I would stay until some one came, which I did. Her life was saved. Query, what sent me there? I remember walking up Fulton street in New York, from the ferry, with an old gentleman who was possessed of great wealth and a little careless with his money, especially as to where he carried it; all at once he stopped and said,"Let us walk back," which we did. He picked up a roll of bills on the sidewalk, and then found that he had lost it from his vest pocket. "What impressed you to turn back?" I asked. He said, "God watches over me, because I trust in him; he caused me to go back and find the money I had 144 A SERIES OF STRIKING PROOFS lost." "Would it not seem more natural if your wife, who watched over your interest while she lived in this world, should be your guard and protector still? God would naturally allow you to walk on, while some of those poor needy ones would have found that which would have relieved want and suffer- ing. Nevertheless I believe God's will worketh in all things for good." My brother was owner and master of a small steamer that carried passengers to and from different ports on the river. (I do not wish to give names of persons here, but if there are those who wish to know names or residences that I have referred to, I will most cheerfully impart information upon these or any other points). My brother had not been in the enjoy- ment of good health for several years. One Sunday morning about sunrise I was startled by seeing a face which I knew was that of one who had been in the spirit world several years. The apparition, peering at me with an anxious expression, caused me to sus- pect that some danger was threatening. I spoke out impulsively: "What is the matter?" The face dis- appeared, and I began to see my brother on the boat. His first appearance was like one dead; I soon saw that the blood was in circulation around and through the heart and lungs, and discovered that he was suf- fering from cholera morbus of such severe type that OF IMMOR TALITY. 145 his life was threatened; indeed he seemed dying. I distinctly saw the boat come into port, a physician sent for, and he was carried home. There were on my mind strong impressions of what ought to be done. Being Sunday, there were no boats or cars, and no means of going to him. On Monday morning I wrote a letter stating what I had seen, and what seemed proper to do, adding that I would come if necessary. What was my astonishment to receive by return mail a letter informing me that my brother was as well as usual and that he had gone on that morning (Monday) on his usual routine of business. I was further advised not to listen to "spirits," if I did see them. Now for the sequel. When the boat came down that evening, my brother was in precisely the condition I had seen him, and everything took place, even to the minutest particular, just as I had seen the events thirty hours before they transpired, and they had received such advice as I could give them, which went far towards his recovery. One day I heard a voice which I recognized as of a lady living one hundred and sixty miles awa}^ I soon saw that she had a very sick child ; my mind was strongly impressed with the necessary remedies and how they were to be used; soon I saw the mother prepare such remedies and use them, to the child's benefit. I wrote to the parties asking them to inform 146 A SERIES OF STRIKING PROOFS me if I had seen an actual occurrence, or was it imag- ination? They did not go to the post office until three days later, and were surprised to find written a description of the child's illness. Even the words that I heard were true. There was nothing in my interest to call the voice; what was it? A certain woman in this city had not been able to speak a word for six years, and only twice in thirteen years. She had nervous prostration, and her circulation was very weak. She was unable even to walk across the floor without help. The physicians had exhausted all their resources, and had given up her case three years before the period at which I first saw her. Upon investigation I became satisfied that the nerves controlling the organs of speech were not paralyzed, but that at the roots of the nerves morbid secretions had formed, so as to intercept the natural action of the magnetic currents from the battery controlling the voice. By using pro- per remedies and friction, magnetism, electricity, etc., the obstructions were removed. Stimulating lini- ments were rubbed into the pores of the skin, arousing activity throughout the whole system. The woman recovered her voice and health perfectly. Her friends consider her recovery almost a miracle, and yet the cause was simple and the cure natural. OF IMMORTALITY. 147 In i860, a woman living in m}^ neighborhood had the misfortune to lose her husband under the most distressing circumstances. He had been frightfully scalded in a tan vat, and expired in great agony nine days after the occurrence of the catastrophe. His wife took care of him through all the terrible ordeal, and after his burial she vs^as herself taken ill with symp- toms of a low nervous fever. She had been confined to her room throughout the previous winter, and in the spring her friends thought it advisable to remove her, and she was accordingly taken to the residence of her sister, who lived opposite my own house. After some time had passed without hearing any- thing in particular concerning her, I was informed by my son that she was dying. I set out to visit her, and met the physician at the door, who informed me that she was too low to see anyone, and I accordingly returned home. In the evening I was sent for to witness her will, which the priest had dictated, and to whose provisions she assented, upon which occa- sion I saw her for the first time. The whole truth touching her illness seemed revealed to me at once. I said to the Father, who was administering to her words of comfort: "She is not dying." He replied: "1 fear she is; do not bid her hope." He stated that he was obliged to go home, but would return in the course of a few minutes. It occurred to me that if I 148 A SERIES OF STRIKING PROOFS did anything for her it would have to be done speedily. I requested a lady present to prepare a cup of tea and a piece of toast as quickly as possible. The lady stared at me as if she thought I had become insane. Still I had the nourishment provided. I placed my hands around her throat and gave a lirm, quick squeeze, which had the effect to break the gathering in the glands of the throat. It became apparent that her ailment was quinsy, and she became able to speak and swallow within three min- utes from the conclusion of the treatment I have described. She partook of the tea and toast; I raised her up, rubbed her spine, and "slapped " her flesh all over, talking cheeringly all the while. She said,, with a smile: "I feel first-rate!" The same after- noon four physicians had coincided in the opinion that she could not live over five hours. Their theory was that the valves of the heart were closing, and that changes were going on that would place her beyond the reach of mortal aid. They were all in error. She had been, during her previous terrible trial, taking stimulants with very little food, and afterwards took cold from being removed, eventuat- ing in quinsy. When the minister returned she was quite comfortable, and as he stepped softly into the room she turned toward him and exclaimed: " 0» Father, I am almost well!" The priest held up the OF IMMOR TA LIT Y. 149 cross, and cried out: "i\ miracle, a miracle!" " Oh no," I said, "not exactly." "What has done it?" he demanded. " Only a little common sense," I replied. I explained the case, and he became at once satisfied that there was great need of common-sense practice. This life, was saved through CIairvoya?ice. A lady from Minneapolis, Minnesota, who had lost her daughter b}^ death, was constantly moved to grief by the sorrowful event. A friend, anxious to comfort her, essayed to gain some knowledge of her spiritual existence as a means of holding the thoughts of the mother m a more healthy sympathy with her child, and prove that the tie of affection was unbroken. In company with the mother they paid me a visit, hoping that the daughter would be present and would be enabled to manifest her presence to my spiritual sight. The lady introduced her as a friend, and then made known their errand. We all sat down and joined hands in order to concentrate the magnetic power necessary to enable her daughter to make herself visible as in her natural earth form. The first form presented was that of a gentleman well known to the lady. Then another was seen, with whom I became en rappoi^t, and he was able to communicate a number of prominent facts in his his- tory. He said he came from Holland when a young I50 A SERIES OF STRIKING PROOFS boy, in company with well-known families, and settled on the Hudson river; served in the revolu- tionary war, and lived to a good old age in the same settlement. This was proven to be the lady's grand- father on her mother's side. I saw all this, the knowledge being plainly presented to my mind. I soon began to witness another scene, which was pre- sented as if afar off. The country looked dark, and the air seemed filled with trouble. I saw a large and excited crowd of men, the excitement and con- ditions of mind being just as plainly visible "as the men. Soon I found that two men were being exe- cuted by hanging. I knew that the offense was treason to the government, and that one whose execution was legally demanded had escaped. I also discovered that these men belonged to the " higher class," and that their property was confiscated. The lady informed me that the refugee from justice was her grandfather on her father's side, one of the two men executed being his brother. The scene was in Ireland. Then a man in the spirit appeared, accom- panied by a beautiful young lady, and my visitor expressed an earnest wish to learn the young lady's name, whereupon a large pair of shears was seen, which the spirits both of the lady and young man opened and held up. (Her name was Shears.) To test still farther the identity, she* inquired her given OF IMMORTALITY. 151 name. The thought instantly came to me of the name ot the King of England at the period of the revolutionary war, and I saw at once the personifica- tion of that monarch. I then saw a field of cotton, the product of which was being picked by slaves with baskets. Even their clothing seemed as plain as if I stood in their presence, and a peculiar melody filled the air. The singing of the men seemed to float as clearty as if it were real, and I heard the words "Away Down in Georgia." The lady's given name was Georgie. The query is suggested, what will be done with all this evidence if these thinp-s are not true? Hundreds of proofs, even more striking, could be presented, but I forbear. I feel, like one of old, that I have much more to tell, but you cannot bear it now. And if any should be disposed to doubt these things, and can and will explain, they will have to give me faith for sincerity in assuming that they are true, inasmuch as they have been given to me and proven beyond a peradventure. FREEDOM, Freedom has a sweet sound; there is music in the name. Alas, that its meaning should be so often perverted! If, as the poet says: ' ' He is a freeman whom the truth makes free, And all are slaves beside," then I fear that slavery has not yet become entirely extinct, for there is a most lamentable lack of proper effort to make the truth free. Who are the free? There are degrees of free- dom, but no individual being is free from responsi- bilities, or free to change the current of his life. We cannot choose our parents or relatives, or our nativity, or determine in what age of the world we will be born. We cannot choose not to die, for dissolution is an inexorable law of our being. We cannot choose absolutely good health, for the mala- dies that afflict humanity are in the very air we breathe, and are lurking everywhere. We love, because the sentiment that prompts love is part and parcel of our spiritual nature, and when we take everything into consideration, we shall be compelled 11 154 FREEDOM. to admit that it is almost equally natural to hate — hate whatever is repulsive to our feelings or our ideas. Wherein consists free will? Circumstances fre- quently compel us to perform acts very much against our will. No one can say that he is, under all cir- cumstances, free to do as he wills. What is will? It is the disposition of organic order. That makes us what we are, either harmonious in ourselves, or disagreeable to a degree that brings either discom- fort or happiness. How often we say to ourselves, in terms: ''I wish I were differently organized, so th^ 1 would not be annoyed or made miserable by the very things that afford pleasure to others. I am so timid, so bashful, so awkward, or so irritable; so many things go wrong with me, no matter how hard I try to overcome the difficulty." Some will say: " I would like to be a Christian, but I cannot believe the creeds of men; there is no responsive chord in my heart; nothing that acts upon my sym- pathies. I wish I could believe as many do, but I cannot." Is there any free will exhibited here? Something within lies so heavily toward the inclina- tion that the impulse of the peculiar organization has to be followed. It is so strong as to prove resistless. Will is weak to break the habit of thought, or any other habit. The impulse of nature, from having become the slave of habit, is stronger than will. FREEDOM. 155 In the course of a conversation with a young man concerning a habit of indulgence in the use of intoxi- cating liquors, in which I warned him of the fatal consequences, he said: "I know I ought to stop now, but I can't get the zuant io.^'' A man feels himself insulted and wronged, and he is constrained instantly to resentment. There is not the shadow of a will there; his impulses actually compel him to resent the indignity. It is the natural result of the wrong — cause and effect — and the will is not a factor in the matter. When a knowledge of the defects in one's char- acter is understood, and there is a desire to remedy the lack of harmony, there should be a system of development of those organs of the brain that are deficient in size and activity, and a constant surveil- lance exercised over those too prominent traits of character that tend to mar the happiness and com- promise the usefulness of the individual. In this way only can a free will be made manifest. There is comparatively very little merit in simply being good if there are no temptations to be other- wise. A man who can govern himself comes nearest perfection. There is within every heart the sense of right and wrong. . Who can always choose the right? 156 FREEDOM. These remarks are mainly directed to the ques- tion of freedom of will. A reference to freedom from superstition and error opens a still wider field, and the most striking result of a labored essay would lie in the proof that the name of the victims of mental slavery is legion. There is a contradistinction between this and the kind already described, the latter not being governed by impulse. So much for the freedom of the individual man as distinct from the question of the larger and more poetic idea of national liberty; that glorious and inspiring idea for which rivers of blood have been shed, and which has constituted the theme of orators and bards through all the ages. It is only in those nations and communities where virtue prevails and where intelligence is widely diffused that freedom can be estimated at its true value. So long as patriotism, virtue and intelligence, and the principles of eternal justice, abide with the people — so long as honor, and life, and freedom, and hope are with them all as one and the same thing — so long will our liberties endure. But wo to our country and the world when these shall have given place to that degeneracy of the pui>lic morals which is the natural product of individual degeneracy. The inestimable blessings we enjoy will, with their sequent individual prosperity and happiness, give place to anarchy, and FREEDOM. 157 the republic will go down into that vortex which has received the wrecks of the republics of the olden time, never to rise again ! " Oh Liberty! thou plant of fickle birth, Cradled in storms and nursed upon the wild; Oft in their prime thy blossoms fall to earth Like early flowers, sensitive and mild, Which, if they miss the snows by fortune piled On peevish April's shy, uncertain hours, Their blooms, by drenching rains and floods defiled, Die ere the green leaves thicken in their bowers, Yielding their fair abodes to more enduring flowers. Thy tender lineaments are seldom seen. And, like the meteor, beautiful and brief; Man just beholds thee in thy dazzling sheen, And thou art gone and he is left in grief. Say, does the monarch find thee, or the chief To whom dismembered nations bow the knee ? Thou fallest from his grasp as falls the leaf When autumn winds assail the bending tree. Scattering its fragrant robes wide o'er the lea. Crowds have possessed thee for a little space, Brief hast thou been by multitudes adored; Soon has licentiousness usurped thy place, And thou hast sunk beneath the uplifted sword; Man must be virtuous ere thy smiles afford Nerve to his arm or counsels to his mind; Then shall the tyrant sicken at his board Like proud Belshazzar, when Heaven's hand designed The scroll upon the wall — thy mystery undefined!" SUPERSTITION. Superstition still exists even in this enlightened age and country, and as long as the devil is preached as an article of religious faith it cannot be said to be confined wholly to the degraded and ignorant. Some of my experiences may be of interest as show- ing how superstitious motives may prevent the action of the most ordinary common sense in matters of health. I went to see a sick child in a small town on the St. Clair river. Scarlet fever had raged in the town with fatal effect, and this child, a little son of a Mr. Caspar, lingered a long time in the clutches of the disease; dropsy set in, and the doctors decided that the child must die. The minister of the Bethel church, having studied medicine as well as theology, came in, prayed for the boy and administered some medicine, but there was no improvement. He declared that God was pleased to remove him from the earth, and counseled his parents to be resigned, but an acquaintance induced them to send for me as a last resort. As soon as I saw the child, I knew i6o SUPERSTITION. that if his circulation could be recovered and perspi- ration excited, he could get well, and I gave him a magnetic treatment, which brought the water from the pores of the skin in streams. The next day I gave a warm bath and a little sweet spirits of nitre, and the child was out of danger. The minister called on Mr. Caspar and informed him that the devil had performed a miracle in curing the child, and would hold a power over him always, unless special prayers w^ere said every Sunday for four weeks, which would cost fifteen dollars. The poor father felt almost sorr}^ the child lived to be in such spiritual danger, but I reasoned with and told him to ask the minister to meet me and I would explain the natural means which had accomplished the cure. But he declined, and persisted in demand- ing the money for the necessary prayers. The father became angry, suspecting that the minister was working on his fears to extort money, and settled the matter by saying: " You prayed every day for four weeks that my child might get well, but the Lord did not hear you. If the devil has cured my only child the devil gets my money. I'll never give you another cent." Probably the minister was not so ignorant, but thought he could extort money from the superstitious fears of the father. SUPERSTITION. i6r A German woman became insane from congested- blood vessels. When I was called I found inflamma- tion of the mucous membrane and fever; made out- ward applications; soon relieved the pain and swell- ing, and in a couple of days she was able to sit up. I then treated her head with magnetism, and a neighbor, who saw the mysterious passes, took cold, and cold-sores came out on her lips. She at once credited me with her trouble, thinking I had over- heard her say it was the devil that cured her neigh- bor, and asked the sick woman and her husband to beg my pardon, for fear of greater afflictions. Talking with a friendly priest about the ignorant superstitions of his people, he said: " O, yes, they are all superstitious. It is born in them." " But," I said, '' You have them under 3'our influence from their births. Could not you teach them better?" " We could not govern them if they were not superstitious," he frankly admitted. The devil is accepted, not from an intelligent faith, but from a superstitious dread of an invisible foe, and in this dread its victims resort to supersti- tious devices to be protected and saved from his power. Witchcraft and the power of charms are believed in by persons who from education and culture ought i62 SUPERSTITION. to know better, but who have an overplus of the marvelous in their composition. I will give another case which occurred in my practice in Detroit. A Polish man consulted me in regard to his wife, bringing with him an intelligent German woman as interpreter. Diagnosing the case clairvoyantly, I told him his wife's stomach was inflamed by stimulants taken without food, which reacted on the brain, and she saw visions, something like a person who had delirium tremens. I gave them some medical advice, and after they had con- versed together for a few minutes the woman said that what I had said might be true, but that was not what ailed the man's wife. " What is the matter, then? " I asked. " Why, it is the devil," was the astounding answer. " What do you mean by that? " " O, she knows who did it. She went to tea with a few friends, and a woman then put it on her, in fact, bewitched her." They had opened their two feather beds and found witches' rings of hair and feathers — seven in one and eight in the other. The sick woman had been some better since they were removed, but could take nothing into her stomach but beer and whisky. I explained as well as I could that there was no such thing as witchcraft, and SUPERSTITION. 163 advised the man to send his wife to the hospital for treatment. He refused, being determined to find some one who could break the spell, or she must die at home. I told them I could not kill the devil; if I could I would have done so long ago, especially the devil called whisky. A young woman, whose first child was three weeks old, remained weak, and suffered from loss of appetite and sleeplessness. It was a case of witch- craft. A Polish woman who understood charms was called. A lock of hair was cut from the sick woman's head just above the right ear and laid over the sick woman's heart for three days, when it was found to be in a tangled mass. The sick woman's hair was also matted into regular witch- mats and could not be straightened. The Polish woman burned the lock, saying over it words to break the spell, but it did not work; the woman remained sick, and her husband came to me. I advised him to turn the believers in witchcraft out of doors and give his wife some medicine, which he did, and she speedily recovered. A man and his wife came from Monroe to Detroit with two women friends to see if I could help them in a singular sort of trouble. They talked sensibly enough until one of the women said a man had sent an evil spirit to torment her, and if he left off torment- i64 SUPERSTITION. ing her, the man who sent the spirit would die. At that, one of the friends exclaimed, " Don't be fright- ened; it is coming." and the afflicted woman's bowels began to jerk and move in a violent manner. She howled like a dog, barked and growled, struck out with her hands and kicked with her feet in a fright- ful manner. I thought I would try electricity, and put the poles of a battery in her hands and turned on a shock which astonished the spirit a little, probably, as the howls became terrific. The man was shaking with a chill. This continued for half an hour, and when it ceased I advised the parties to separate, as I thought they encouraged each other in their foolish belief, and recommended mineral baths. But they wanted the evil spirit exorcised, which was not in my line of business, so they departed. I heard the next day that the good father priest was going to celebrate mass for their relief, but I never learned with what success. Omens, signs and lucky days are believed in by intelligent people, and love powders are sought after by educated ladies as well as by the humble and ignorant. A little missionary work might be done right here in the city of Detroit. HAPPINESS. The pursuit of happiness is the object of life. It may well be named a pursuit, for happiness is so seldom overtaken, but like the ignus fatuus ever eludes the pursuer. The possessors of wealth are envied by the poor, who believe that happiness dwells with them. Though riches may be accessories to happiness by providing for physical comfort and enjoyment, they cannot buy a happy heart. Educa- tion does not bring happiness, and the heart of the artist cannot live altogether in his art. The religion- ist, although his faith may be perfect and complete in the happiness of the life beyond, is not satisfied with the present. Where a void is ever left by parting friends; where the soul needs nourishment, it does not find it, and yearns silently for something that wealth, or fame, or faith cannot bestow. Happiness cannot be found in things that perish, or in a world of future expectations. It dwells only in harmonious relations with those we love. We touch the chords which vibrate from the heart's deep fountain of feeling, and there springs forth the spirit i66 HAPPINESS. of happiness whose presence glorifies the world. The soul that gives most freely from its treasures of love gains the greatest happiness, "for he that loseth his life shall find it," and the love that is given becomes to the giver an everlasting possession. To be loved for good deeds is a crown of glor}^, the reward of conscious merit. This conscious merit is truth within the secret chambers of thought; strength to cheer the wear}^ and lighten the burdens of care; power to encourage the weak and to lift the soul above the groveling cares of life, and to cultivate in the soul a love for the pure and beautiful in nature and in life. It comprises sympathy with all life; the power to separate the dross from the gold, knowing that the dross must exist that the pure metal may develop. So the good and the evil of life are born together, and through the struggle of the good evil diminishes by the same law which enables the spiritual to conquer everywhere. As the spiritual conquers by absorbing the vital power from all orders of material life, so will the principle of truth extract all that is valuable from the life of the world and convert it into a monument of happy memories. True education is of the heart as well as of the brain. We may be wise in the knowledge of books, but barren of that culture which develops the affec- tions. In earth life we cannot get beyond the primary HAPPINESS. 167 departments of knowledge. Science will assist our endeavors, and the study of nature in its sublime beauty of lofty mountains, deep chasms, grand cata- racts, and the wealth of vegetable and mineral pro- ductions will expand and ennoble the soul, but the mind is not truly educated until it has outgrown its groveling propensities, lost its morbid identity, and taken on the wings of inspirational thought with which to soar in those spiritual realms where angels dwell. At the same time it can stoop to contemplate the smallest atom of creation and read a poem of thanksgiving to God in the minutest work of his hand. Without this education, even though we become wise in intellectual attainments, we shall be novices in that psychological development which brings us in sympathy with and in close relations to the univer- sal sensorium, the perfection of all wisdom, the God of our adoration. I hope to be a student in the school of eternity and endeavor in that light to solve the problem of a true education. On those plains of excellence the enlarged and cultivated intellect may contemplate the germ of all that exists, unfolded in the universal kingdom of God. We cannot study the mysteries of our own existence without being con- strained to worship a supreme intellect. Sects and creeds prove nothing but human fallibility, but the i68 HAPPINESS. hand that shaped our organism and governs the universe must be divine. I console myself with the belief that there are heights more sublime, expanses more grand, depths more profound and glories incon- ceivable, lying within the range of our unfettered souls than olden theology ever taught us to hope for- When we understand the truths which nature teaches, freed from vain imaginings, and live in accordance with her law, the highest and best we are capable of receiving, the light will travel before us, revealing the truth as we pass through this life, and throwing its bright rays far into the beyond. TREATMENT OF THE INTEMPERATE. When we manifest bitter and unkind feelings toward the unfortunate victims of intemperance, we make a very great mistake indeed, and are guilty of violence to the nobler dictates of our nature and of common humanity. Quite as properly might we entertain such feelings towards those suffering from any other of the maladies which flesh is heir to, for the love of ardent spirits is only a distressing form of disease, and the unfortunate victim ought to excite our pity. When a man or woman has been addicted to habits of intemperance and becomes so indisposed by its effects, or even from other forms of disease, as to require a physician and nurse, much good may be done in the way of adapting and enforcing remedial measures if the proper course is pursued. There should be no alcoholic stimulants used or administered in any form. They are resources that merely ener- vate and undermine the system and keep alive the latent desire for stimulants, and their recovery would only serve to add further indulgence in that which 12 170 TREA TMENT OF THE INTEMPERA TE. destroys mind and body. There are nervine tonics in herb teas, which are far better under all circumstances, more especially in the case of those who have been in the habit of indulging to excess, and who, in the very nature of things, constitute most the large proportion of the class that stand in need of ameliorative treat- ment. All needed stimulants can be introduced into the system by absorption through the pores, by means of bathing and friction with liniments not altogether composed of alcohol, strengthening and feeding the nervous system but not stimulating. While the physical body is weak and the appe- tites have lost their desire, the mind should re- ceive attention, stimulating ambition and the higher and more ennobling aspirations, those which will tend to draw the mind into different channels of intellectual interest. This should be done by carefully refraining from all allusions to the past life, and by constantly placing before the mind examples of an elevating character by reading and a style of conversation addressed to the better nature, thereby tending to change the current of magnetism that has been dominated wholly by the animal brain, giving it direction to a higher and more intelligent order. This is practically the modus operandi in all well-directed reforms to bring about a change in the desire. While the appetite is inflamed or the TREA TMENT OF THE INTEMPERA TE. 171 desire is not appeased, the fire that has been so long kindled lies smouldering. A single drop may arouse the insane longings that will sweep away all good resolutions, entirely reckless of consequences. To prevent such unhappy results, no amount of moral suasion or preaching of duty or of justice to one's self or to others will be of any avail. We might as well say to the burning ship: " If you don't stop burning, your hull will go to the bottom of the sea." It has as much power to stop as the drunkard, so long as he can get the means to keep alive the fire. You must first extinguish the flames, and then the disease will be arrested. In order to accomplish this good work, a higher motive must hold and control the magnetic wires; a motive which will stimulate self-esteem, hope, confidence and will; a motive that will impart that high and resistless courage, and can only be inspired by strength and lofty aims and noble instincts. This must come from placing the intel- lectual faculties in the position from which they have been dethroned. No class of unfortunates can be more deserving of sympathy than drunkards, whose fatal inherent desires are beset with temptations to gratification on every hand. That which is most directly calculated to destroy both soul and body is protected by the strong arm of the law. In a land of liberty men are made slaves to intemperance, and 172 TREATMENT OF THE INTEMPERATE. the right to do irreparable wrong is permitted, not by those who love their fellow-men, but in the most selfish interest that can animate our fallen nature. To secure successful treatment, professional nurses ought fully to understand the necessities of the case, and be alive to the importance of watching over the mind as well as the body, that both may regain natural health and strength at the same time. The danger of a relapse is a point which should never be lost sight of It may not be improper to relate an instance, or case, in connection with this subject; one in my own experience: I had labored hard to save one from intemperate habits, and had good reason to think I had succeeded. After the lapse of two years his health required medical aid, and the physician prescribed stimulants, which carried him beyond all help, as he is now a mental wreck — and this is only a sample of every day occurrences. Hospitals are the resort for many who have no family ties to insure a response to their needs, and who may be saved through kind and judicious treat- ment and the active exercise of a Christian charity, — the great need of to-day — a need which ought to be a reproach to the spirit of our otherwise humane interests. TREA TMENT OF THE INTEMPERA TE. 173 How quickly the volunteers start to man the life- boat when their services are needed. There is no man so timid that he will not rush to the rescue, risk- ing his own life to save those in deadly peril. The instinct of his better nature responds before his selfish fear has time to speak. But here is an anomaly: the soul of man may be lost ere the world, with its narrow-mindedness, will vouchsafe a sacri- ficial deed, or often, so much as a word. I have tried a method of saving men from their own destruction while they were drifting towards the rapids and would soon have reached the cataract and been dashed to pieces, by going to them with true, heartfelt sympathy, and pursuading them to look on the dark side and on the bright, choose then which was best; lead them into the right, and by inspiring a true manly spirit, a desire for a noble and better life, arousing magnetic attraction through the heart's emotions, to the spiritual, appealing to their own good sense, in the spirit of loving your neighbor as yourself " Just a little;" pleads Carl, with sober brow, His mind well stored with classic lore; "This once, and I pledge you now, I will taste of the wine no more." He drank and was gone, oh, ask me not where, But thou, of that little, beware; "Just a little," that is ever the plan, To quiet the soul and ruin the man. 174 TREA TMBNT OP THE INTEMPERA TB. %t im-a^ ®£ia. He lived just a mile from the village, Out there by the fork of the road; His farm, by the help of good tillage, Increased what he planted and sowed. His dwelling was low and old-fashioned; The roof was all covered with moss; But still by his fixing and patching, It kept out the rain and frost. He lived very peaceful and quiet; We knew him as Jeremy Todd; So plain was his dress and his diet, The neighbors all said — he was odd. The fashions he never would follow, Nor try to put on any style, But owing a dime or a dollar. He would pay it when due with a smile. His words were but few and well chosen; ^Twas clear that he meant what he said; His temper not heated nor frozen, And calm was the life that he led. He did not belong to the meeting. And said very little of God; But orphans were glad at his greeting, And every one said — he was odd. TREATMENT OF THE INTEMPERATE. £?$ If ever he offered to sell 3'ou A cow, or an ox, or a horse, He made it his business to tell jou Each one of the animal's faults. He hired Billy Peters, the cripple. To husk out his corn by the day, And heaped up the grain in the bushel, To measure the wheat for his pay. His name was not on the subscription To save the poor heathen abroad; His neighbors he helped in affliction; The people all thought — he was odd. He never made any " profession," Nor said he had a '^new heart," But something he had in possession, Of which many more need a part; A something that made him so gentle, So honest, so kindly and true; If not church religion, we venture That Jesus would say, " it will do." He might, in the church, have been better And rendered more service to God; He'd more of the " spirit " than " letter," And that was what made him so odd. 176 . TREA TMENT OF THE IN TEMPERA TE. The preacher might say he was Godless, Because he subscribed to no creed; But still it was part of his oddness, The wretched and hungry to feed. If Jeremy failed of salvation Because he staid out of the church, We cannot see how in creation, Professors will shun the lee lurch, Who wear the full garb of the pious. But love not their neighbors nor God. We choose when our Maker shall try us, To be like the old farmer — odd. Anon. TREATMENT OF PRISONERS. Abou Ben Adhem (may his tribe increase), Awoke one night from a deep sleep of peace, And saw within the moonlight in his room, Making it rich and like a lily in bloom. An angel writing in a book of gold. Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold, And to the presence in the room he said: " What writest thou ?" The vision raised its head And, with a look made of all sweet accord, "The names of those who love the Lord," Replied the angel. Abou spake more low, " And is mine one?" said Abou. " Nay, not so." But cheerily still, he said " I pray you then Write me as one who loves his fellow-men." The angel wrote and vanished; the next night It came again with a great wakening light, And showed the names which love of God had blest, Andlo! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest. Leigh Hunt. To receive a blessing through love to our fellow-men, which vv^ould inspire good will, and good and kindly deeds, would surely be a happiness well worth striv- ing for; while to put the beautiful and noble senti- ment into practical application, would be not only to merit the blessing oneself, but to shed the radiance of a blessing where no light from Heaven seemed to 178 TREA TMENT OF PRISONERS. smile — upon those whose iron fortunes lie in dark and loathsome places. This is true as referring to the inmates of those necessary adjuncts of our present civilization — jails and prisons. Those who are well need no physician, but it is quite different with the poor — not referring so particularly to the poor in worldly goods as to the poor in moral sense and intellectual endowments; those who are falling by the wayside, and ever going astray from the high road which is the path of dut}^ — duty to themselves as well as others — the unfortunate prisoners who are placed in the prison cell, for greater or lesser offenses, or, as is sometimes the case, who are guilt- less of any offense. Oh, ye who prate of charity! here is, indeed, a call for charity; a call that all who are not deaf to every appeal need not fail to hear. If we read understandingly, we will find that we have the very highest authority for the exercise of the broadest and most active charity. It was this heavenly instinct and emotional love for humanity, that impelled Jesus when upon the cross not only to pardon the repent- ant thief by his side, but to give him the blessed assurance that upon that very day he should be with Him in paradise. And this pardon and this assur- ance, be it remembered, was given in the supreme hour of the Savior's sorrow; when heaven and TREA TMENT OF PRISONERS, 179 earth were alike veiled in gloom. " Let him who has not sinned, cast the first stone," presents a lesson from the same high source. "I was in prison and ye visited me not." What simple expression could more strikingly convey the idea o{ loneliness, desola- tion and despair? At the same time there is in the strong and terse utterance,'an implied warning that the blessing we crave may not be ours. There is no better way in which we may deter- mine the true worth of a man than by the nature of his feelings toward the unfortunate. It is an uner- ring criterion as bearing upon this point. If he feels that his superiority over them is so great that he cannot afford them a kind word or deed, he may be ver}^ safely set down as belonging to the pharisaical I-am-holier-than-thou-class; one whose soul is an utter stranger to ever}' warm, generous, and noble instinct and impulse; one who is to be trusted by neither man, woman, nor child. Judged by the true touchstone, he is infinitely below many of that very class whom he affects to despise and spurn. Man- kind are, to an extent not generally appreciated, the creatures of circumstances. There are hosts of men whose names and escutcheons have been preserved from blight and mildew who might, under slightly different circumstances, have fallen many degrees below some of those who are fated to wear away i8o TREA TMENT OF PRISONERS. their years in dungeons. All ought to ponder these solemn truths. In visiting the prison, in what kind of spirit should we go, in order to confer benefit upon those who need the sympathy of their fellow-men ? Assuredly not with scornful words and manner. Such would very naturally tend to increase in the heart of the unfortunate prisoners a feeling of malevolence and revenge. If evil is to be overcome with good, a great change is necessary in the present treatment of prisoners. There is a too unmistakable manifesta- tion of cruelty and heartlessness, which is directly calculated to stimulate resistance and counteract whatever influence for good may be acccidently manifested. Ofttimes there is more genuine manli- ness in resistance than in tame submission to injustice, contumely and cruelty. We should treat the prisoner with consideration for the better spirit within him- That good which is in him should be cultivated by kindness and good will, with respect for what he may be, and for the good that may be wrought in him by a Christian spirit and love for our fellow-men. Although the circumstances of the case require that more or less restraint should be used, and his physi- cal well-being ma}^ require exercise in useful labor, the higher and better qualities of his keeper ought to have full play, and from the promptings of pity, if 77?^^ TMENT OF PRISONERS. iSr from no other consideration, he should be treated like a human being. In unnumbered instances those who might be saved are practically debarred from all humane and civilizing influences by the examples of cruelty every day witnessed. These unfortunates have much the same nature as others who have a differently organized brain; the emotional feeling is just as keen, and through kindness and prudent considerations much good may be done. If there were more of the tribe of Abou Ben Adhem, this world would be much better off, not only in the present, but it would be more progressive, in trusting each other and in doing good to those who are in too great a degree incapable of doing good to them- selves. Instead of branding and stinging them into a moral death, efforts should be made for their moral elevation. The present system has too great a tendency to make the unfortunates more hardened. Let this be reversed, and systematic efforts brought in requisition to make them better. By trying this course, good will not only be done to those in whose behalf this appeal is directly made, but society and the world will be the gainer; and in the exercise of charity and good will even those who are compara- tively good will be the better for it. A heart which has the impress of humanity bears some redeeming trait. If we look for its manifestation as i82 TREA TMENT OF PRISONERS. a recompense, in a greater or less degree, for noble and humane endeavors, even if we are disappointed, we shall at least have erred on the right side. In whose behalf can we more properly assume this comparatively inexpensive risk than in the case of those who are friendless and forlorn; who are shut out from the free air and sunlight of Heaven; those to whom freedom and hope are meaningless terms^ and joy is almost as sad a word as sorrow? PRACTICES INIMICAL TO HEALTH. Cleanliness is one of the cardinal conditions of health. This has come to be well understood by the intellijxent. Still there is dannrer of indiscretion, even on the part of those who are most earnest in observing this primary condition. One great danger is hinged upon the practice of making bathing a source of luxury, a practice sedulously observed in Turkish bathrooms, where the heated air is breathed into the lungs with the refuse matter thrown off by perspiration, and not unfrequently several persons are in the bath at the same time, with different tem- peraments and suffering from different diseases, filling the air with the noxious odors thrown off* through the pores and lungs. Many persons enjoy the soothing, dreamy influences. As with the lotus eaters, all the cares and anxieties of mind float away amid repose and relaxed energies, with the roseate visions of indolent happiness. They enjoy the luxury of hav- ing some one to work with brush and towel, and all the other appliances which serve to make the i84 PRACTICES INIMICAL TO HEALTH. bath a pleasant pastime. The greatest danger lies in this very impulse so soothing, and in the too per- suasive inclination of the senses for rest, so seductive that many who have the time to spare will submit to having their system thus robbed of needed magnet- ism. When the surface of the body is heated to an unusual temperature the oil that is deposited at every pore and nerve cell becomes melted as it were, the blood tissues relax and the system is drained of its most vital strength. The body has lost its power of resistance, and while in this defenceless condition is robbed of the very elixir of life. The blood becomes depleted and unable to furnish the oil to nourish the nerve that comes to the surface of the skin, the excretory passages become weak and closed and are compelled to wait for the relaxing process of the Turkish bath to do its work. No person of ordinary strength and possessing anything short of an iron constitution can afford the waste of vitality caused by this over indulgence. It is far better to have a cold water shower bath and a thorough friction, which hastens the blood to the surface from the sudden cold state to a quick reaction, giving fresh vigor and creating healthful magnetic action, which aids nature in its allotted work. The great inherent law of charity is to help them who help themselves. The same irrevocable law PR A C TICE S INIMICA L TO HE A LTH. 185 applies to the physical economy. It needs coopera- tive help only, and it was never designed to have its work all done by outsiders. When this is imposed nature retires discomfited from the field and lets you do it, which inevitably proves a failure. Many ladies have been deluded with the idea that the best way to gain health or retain it is to wash all of the vitality out of the system in order to wash out disease, ignoring the unmistakable fact that it is the strongest magnetic living principle that is the quickest to respond to the demand, and that where natural vitality is weakened the body requires stimulus ; stimulus of new life— magnetism ; the life properties that will feed the famished nerves and blood tissues. Baths of tonic effect, such as salt, ammonia, mustard, hops, catnip, smartweed, boneset, alkalies, whatever the patient's peculiar ailments may be, will assimilate with this principle and tend directly to the neutralization of the disease. The physical system is at the mercy of the intelligent organization. HEALTH IN DRESS. The styles of dress of the present age partake decidedly more of the nature of the fashionable than the comfortable. The pleasures of art are usually more attractive than the seemingly negative merit of 13 1 86 PRACTICES INIMICAL TO HEALTH. a natural development and the comforts of suitable clothing. A fashionable lady once remarked in my hearing, that she would be willing to wear a pin sticking in her face if it looked nice, a remark which struck me forcibly as the key to the idea which is uppermost in the minds of a vast majority of the so-called fashionable class. It is unnecessary to point out the injurious effects of tight lacing, or tight dressing. Those who practice it are well aware of these effects; there are few or none who sin from ignorance. But it is to be hoped that mothers will watch over their daughters and prevent the warping of both mind and body in time to save them from fashionable but fatal errors. This is a matter wherein the happiness of a precious life may be secured or lost. The disposition of the clothing in such a manner that the warmth may be equalized is also a matter well worthy of attention. A FRETFUL DISPOSITION is not only exhaustive of some of the best powers of the individual, but it imparts a disturbing and unhappy influence to all who come in contact with those who may be so unfortunately disposed. What can be more injurious and unjust to others than the diffusion of an irritating magnetic poison, contaminat PRACTICES INIMICAL TO HEALTH. 187 ing the moral and mental atmosphere with com- bative elements, interrupting the peace and harmony of every household in which one of these uncom- fortable individuals is found? The effect upon the healthful actions of the physical system is very marked, and natural good sense ought to be the teacher in learning how to overcome the habit of persistently finding fault with everything, going over in detail all the little causes of uneasiness; dwelling upon every unfavorable symptom; watching the pulse, and the heat, and cold sensations of the body; noting the appetite; making each and every or imagi- nary symptom a cause of complaint, and thereby con- stantly adding to the trouble by sending currents of electric will-power tinctured with the irritable ner- vous fluids, and the elements of disease, that might be thrown ofl^ through other channels, if the mind had not given the wrong direction to their course and increased the difhculty. Nothing can be more hurt- ful than such a habit. It is both foolish and useless so far as any possible good is concerned. The opposite character will make sunshine and happy conditions for the weary, bringing into play a mag- netism at once quieting and strengtheninjgf, and giving cheerful happiness to all that come within the radiance of its influence. To be the happy pos- sessor of a cheerful spirit, one that can control the 1 88 PR A CTICE S IN I MICA L TO HEAL TH. nervous conditions and natural anxieties that come with every day's experiences with every one more or less, will bring one nearer to heaven. Indeed heaven is within and without. It is a blessing that will bear fruit for its possessor and dispense happi- ness to others. INDIGESTION. Perhaps the most universal fault of commission is in our intemperate eating. We are all guilty of this most injurious practice — not occasionally, but habitu- alty, and almost uniformly, from the cradle to the grave. It is the bane of our infancy and youth, of our maturity and age; and infinitely more common than intemperance in the use of stimulating liquors; and the aggregate of mischief through the practice is much greater. Go to our dining-rooms, our nurseries, our fruit stores, our confectioneries, and our pleasure gardens; go even to the sick room, and you will always find evidence the most abundant. The frightful mess often consists of all sorts of edible materials that can be collected and crowded together, and their measure is the endurance and capacity of the stomach; even in sickness, when nature enjoins abstinence by depriving the patient of an appetite, over-eating is indulged in on the plea that without it they cannot regain strength or will become worse. PRACTICES INIMICAL TO HEALTH. 189 Beware of the bait! Let nature decide; observe what agrees with the system, and what does not, and let him forbear from everything which experience proves to be injurious. By diligent application and the practice of this rule, a good state of health may be enjoyed and physic or a physician seldom needed. While the blessings attendant upon the free cir- culation of fresh air have now become very generally recognized, the healthful, revivifying and inspiring influences of sunshine seem to be a point not so generally understood. The great source of light and heat being in itself one of the great factors of the universe — in fact the greatest — it would not be consonant with the beneficent plan of Providence if it were fraught with anything like deleterious influ- ences, but this proposition refers to mere negative influences. That it is essentially health inspiring is proven by the most unquestionable evidence: those who pass their lives in subterranean dwellings habit- ually pine away, and their cheeks lose the roseate hue of health even where there is freest ventilation. *^ Let in the golden sunlight, Yes, open wide the door. And gloom will quickly vanish — Life's brightness comes once more. igo PRACTICES INIMICAL TO HEALTH. Drink in the healthy nectar That God doth give to thee — The bracing air of Heaven, The light so pure and free. Throw open every window, And sadness will depart; The sky will smile upon you, And beautify the heart," The practice of changing clothing in cold weather without first causing warmth to be imparted to the garments to be put on, is a dangerous one, especially with the weak and those who take very little exercise afterwards; it is better to warm the clothing to prevent congestion from cold. EXAMPLES OF TREATMENT, I HAVE thought it best to give some cases where the treatment has been simple and successful; giving one instance out of many treated in the same way with the same result. Soon after my recovery from the long sickness mentioned elsewhere, my father was taken sick. He was sixty-five years old ; had never been sick in his life, except when a young man on first going to live in Michigan he had ague. He now had ague again, and was well dosed with calomel; took cold; typhoid fever set in, and his physician thinking (with his strong constitution) he could bear strong medi- cine, gave calomel and tartar emetic freely, and salivation, with inflammation of the lungs, bowels, kidneys and liver was the result. His case was pronounced hopeless, the physicians declaring that he had had a relapse and could not live six hours. His children and friends were summoned to see him for the last time, and when I arrived all treatment had been given up. 192 EXAMPLES OF TREATMENT. I had received inspirational teaching, and had a power of magnetism very little understood by me at the time, but I w^as aware that I worked from an invisible power, which seemed to be within and with- out me. I went to work over my father in obedience to this inspiration, and covered him with poultices of herbs, changing them, and using thorough magnetic friction. I bathed him with brandy and cayenne pepper tea, and when sinking spells came on, gave a tablespoonful of gin with part of an ^g^ beaten up in it. For four days this was the treatment. He had several sinking spells, but was revived by the stimulant and the heat generated by friction. In ten days he was out of danger, able to sit up and take nourishment without having taken any medicine internally except the gin. I kept up the magnetic treatment night and day until his heart beat regu- larly. The effect of the calomel and tartar emetic remained; he was always lame, and ten years later it broke out in a dry, feverish sore on his lip. It was called cancer by the doctors, and treated as such, but all the remedies used only increased the virulence of the disease which spread rapidly, eating into the throat until death put an end to his suffering. It was the efiect of the remedies given for the fever, which were not thrown out of the system, and resulted in a corroding sore which was called cancer. EXAMPLES OE TREATMENT. 193 I do not mean to say that no medicine should be given, but I do mean to say that nature should be aided in relieving the system of disease through the natural channels. Instead of cathartics and such internal treatment as will draw the diseased action inward, something should be done to throw it out through the evacuating tubes provided for that pur- pose in the skin. All inflammatory diseases generate gases, and if the natural channels are closed they find unnatural lodging places, poison the blood and nerve fluids, and cause complicated diseases, all derived from the intercepted currents of magnetism, which, when flowing freely through the body, are the in vigor ators of all life. Colonel Virginius A. McEllroy. During the war of the rebeUion I was in a medi- cal institute in Brooklyn, N. Y. A lady called on me and asked me to accompany me to her home on Oxford street to see her son and diagnose his case, saying that after eight months' trial with as many diflerent physicians, no two of whom had agreed, none of them had helped him. I found the A^oung man afflicted with scurvy. He was twenty-nine years old; a Colonel in the rebel army who had been taken prisoner and confined in Fort Delaware, where he had remained for four 194 EXAMPLES OF TREA TMENT. months. His name was Virginius A. McEllroy. He was not well when taken there, and his sickness increased from confinement, unsuitable food and the want of proper medical attention. There was at the time some trouble about exchanging prisoners, and as he refused to take the oath of allegiance, there seemed no release for him. He had chronic diar- rhoea, and was greatly reduced and had been con- fined to his bed four months when his mother pre- vailed on him to take the oath not to bear arms against the Union in the struggle going on between the two sections, in case she could procure a pardon for him. She went to Washington with a petition, a total stranger among hostile people, and waited for many weary hours in the ante-room for audience with Mr. Lincoln. At length Senator Chandler, of Michigan, noted her weary and anxious face, and inquired her business. She told him, and he gave her his arm and took her into the President's room. " Here is a mother," he said " come to ask pardon for her son." " I cannot refuse the mothers," said Mr. Lincoln. "If he will take the oath, I will sign his pardon and you may take him home. May he prove worthy of such a mother. Get him out of prison and God bless you." He was removed from the prison on a bed, and for four months had been under the treatment of five EXAMPLES OE TREA TMENT. 195 different physicians, two of them allopathic and three homoepathic. They had just been in counsel over his case, and two of them delivered the opinion that he could not live three days, while the others thought he might live a week or two. They left him some powders and never came back again. There was a kind of proud flesh, or scurvy, all around his teeth, almost covering them, and lumps of a dark red color under his tongue. I had never seenanything like it. There was serious ulceration of the bowels, and he was emaciated to skin and bones. After the doctors gave up the case as hope- less, his friends decided to let me try what I could do for him, and I managed the case in the following way: I first applied poultices of smart-weed over the bowels and rubbed him twice a day with brandy with good results. I then made a liniment of essen- tial oils — alcohol and cod liver oil, and rubbed him with that instead of the brandy, being careful always to rub downward, from the head toward the feet. I also gave a tablespoonful of golden seal tea three times a day. For diet — four teaspoonsful of rice flour, boiled two hours in one pint of milk, with a tablespoonful of lime-water to each pint of the porridge. After two weeks an ^^^ was beaten in it, and of this food he could have all he wanted, but nothing else for five weeks. At the end oi that 196 EXAMPLES OF TREATMENT. time his stomach could dispose of broiled quail and other light food without injury. A strong tea of golden seal, used as a wash, cured his mouth in a week. In four weeks his legs' began to swell, and fifty-two boils were developed at once on his feet and legs. These drew the disease in his blood down- ward, away from the vital organs, and they kept discharging for several weeks. After continuing the treatment for two months,, he was able to walk half a mile, and he called on one of his old doctors — Dr. Richardson, who did not at first recognize him. When he did, he exclaimed in a startled voice: " Can you be the man we gave up to die some weeks ago?" " I am," said the Colonel. " Are you sure you are in the body ? " ** Yes," was the answer, " I am more certain of that fact than I was when I saw you last." The doctor examined him and declared that he was as sound as a brick, and at his request Colonel McEllroy explained how the cure was effected. This case was treated so simply and with such good results that I give the entire history of it, that by chance some one else may profit by it. I have no doubt that the medicines administered by the doctors EXAMPLES OF TREA TMENT. 197 were some help to him, but they were not enough . Stimulating through the skin, and feeding the nerves aud blood with oils, as their refreshing properties were absorbed through the pores and taken up by the blood, were the principal agents of cure. The action is by the same principle as that which takes the oxygen from the air into the blood through the walls of the air cells in the lungs. The rubbing created action, revived the surface of the body, and set in motion the nerve magnetism which carried strength to the spinal nerves fro m the other sets of nerves, arousing the vibratory negative and positive action of the system. By friction and forcing the circulation downward, the diseased blood was driven into the limbs, where it was safe to let it work out by the processes of suppuration. A sort of draught was made in the circulation, and all the diseased blood corpuscles contributed each its mite to add to the vigor with which the disease worked its way out of the system. The sick rebel was slow to give up his spirit of rebellion, the badge of which was his position in the army, and just as slowly the accumulations of disease retired from his system, making its last appearance in a running sore under the big toe nail, which, how- ever, dried up in time. 198 EXAMPLES OE TREATMENT. A young man, clerk in a prominent jewelry store in Brooklyn, had typhoid fever, which had run forty days when I was called to see him. He lay in a stupor, and seemed to be dying. There had been no action of the bowels for five days, and his body was bloated and hard — his pulse a mere fluttering. I had been out of doors nearty all day in Central Park, and on the East River, and had gained fresh magnetism from nature. When I entered the room, in which were man}^ of the young man's friends, all strangers to me, I felt unusually timid and nervous, but went to the bed and put one of my hands under the patient's head and the other on his forehead, and soon felt a powerful battery at work within me. I for- got all present; my hands thrilled with electric power, which vibrated from my head to my feet, going out through my hands to the sick man's head. All present saw the sparkling light around and over my hands. In less than ten minutes he opened his eyes, a warm perspiration appeared all over his body, his breathing became soft and regular, and his pulse natural, although weak. The magnetism ©f his body had received a reinforcement and acquired free circula- tion. 1 made a poultice of henbane leaves steeped in brandy, and covered the bowels. While the brandy stimulated, the henbane softened the swelled and EXAMPLES OF TREATMENT. iqq bloated intestines, and after gentle friction in two hours he was relieved, and in two weeks he was restored to health with mild remedies and magnetic treatment, which simply aided nature to help herself. I had a similar case in St. Clair, Michigan. The man had been unconscious for four weeks, in a deli- rious sleep or lethargy. He breathed heavily with his mouth wide open, took no food, and had no con- sciousness of anything about him. The treatment had been brandy and quinine once in two hours. I saw that his head was congested with the medicine, which was given to keep up his strength, although the case was considered hopeless by the physicians. I gave his head the same treatment that served my Brooklyn patient so well, with the same result. But the heart being in a more excited state, sharp pains continued to dart through his left side. I followed the directions which came to me, and had a cow's horn scraped into fine shavings, enough to make a good sized pad; this I wet with tincture of arnica and laid over the heart, and in an hour from the time I began the treatment he was able to talk rationally. I stopped the quinine and brandy and gave raw Qgg with a little gin — not to take away the stimulant too soon, and to add nourishment with it, and the man got well. 200 EXAMPLES OF TREA TMENT. I will relate particulars of a case which came strangely to my notice and care. About ten o'clock at night, I heard a voice say in anxious tones, " Go quickly to G. M's house; his wife is dying." I imme- diately obeyed the summons; called a servant and hastened to the house, which was distant from my own about three blocks. . I found many persons there, and the physician had just pronounced the woman to be dead. He was mistaken, but if noth- ing had been done for the woman, she would have been dead in a few minutes. Her condition was caused by a great loss of blood, from what cause is immaterial. As soon as I got in the house I called for mustard and whisky, and spread the mixture on a cloth large enough to cover the whole chest, stomach and heart, and began to rub and slap the patient to excite the circulation; used hot applications; put mustard on the limbs, and after two hours found the skin getting red under the mustard on the chest and a return of sensation to the brain. I made beef tea and gave it in small doses as soon as possible; the next day a tonic, and the woman is alive to-day. I know that a living magnetism is imparted to the patient by my treatment, but proper remedies may succeed without it. EXAMPLES OF TREATMENT. It is always better to keep trying* restorative measures as long as there is life. Many persons die simply from taking the doctor's word that death is in- evitable. They are as liable to make mistakes as other people, and seeing their remedies fail they become discouraged too soon. They often feel the need of more knowledge, both of disease and proper reme- dial agencies. If they would study nature's laws a little more closely and endeavor to act in accord with her methods of cure, welcoming from any source remedies not found in their medical science, it would be a gain to them and to the world. The experience of those who have studied life and nature in their relations to disease, even though unlearned in the technical knowledge of schools, may be of great value to the most highly educated physician. In the year 1880, I was called to see a lady at twelve o'clock at night, who had been sick nearly two years with what was supposed to be chronic diarrhoea and dilated valves of the heart. Her eyes were enlarged and pushed out from their sockets, and her neck full under the chin like goitre. She was the mother of fvNO, children; thirty-eight years old; never weighed over ninety-five pounds, and at this time weighed less than lifty pounds. She was sup- posed to be dying; her stomach was in spasms, and she was not able to swallow. The doctors had 14 202 EXAMPLES OF TREA TMENT. given up all hope of her recovery, and narrowed her life to a few brief hours. I believe that as long as there is life there is hope, and I wet my hands in some liniment, laid one on her throat and the other on her stomach, affording almost instant relief; in five minutes she was able to swallow slowly a little milk with whisky in it, a teaspoonful at a time. I then began to move my hands over the stomach and bowels (the bowels had fallen flat), using the lini- ment, when she was able to take some water and more milk. I continued the gentle movement of my hands downward until 1 reached her feet. I kept it up for an hour when her circulation was restored. All convulsive action ceased; she could swallow with ease; went to sleep and was more comfortable than she had been for a long time. I gave her magnetic treatment every day for a time, and controlled the diarrhoea somewhat by rice flour boiled in milk. I saw, however, that the cause of the trouble was a loose membrane hanging in the rectum. An enema of extract of witch hazel brought ^he membrane away. It was a white skin four inches long and two inches wide. That was the end of the diarrhoea, and she could now eat anything she liked, according to her strength. I continued to use liniment, oils, and ointments, with magnetic treatment, and her recovery was steady. The enlargement of the throat EXAMPLES OF TREATMENT. 203 disappeared, and her eyes gradually resumed their natural appearance. I continued the magnetic treat- ment for three months, when she was entirely restored to health, and so remains. This was con- sidered a wonderful cure. The irritation in the lower bowel caused all the trouble, and the physi- cians never discovered it. A boy eight years old had been going to school during the warm weather, eating very little food and drinking strong tea. The last day of school he attended a pic-nic, and came home at night tired and nervous, and for supper wanted nothing but tea. I was visiting at the house, and the boy's father accompanied me to the house of a mutual friend to spend the evening. About eight o'clock we were sent for, as the boy was taken strangely sick. A physician was called, who pronounced the disease a bad case of spinal meningitis. He said he had treated seven cases and lost them all, and he was reluctant to do anything without the advice and counsel of an older and more experienced doctor. Some time passed waiting for the arrival of the other ph3^sician. The boy had spasms of the back of the head and neck, accompanied by a convulsive action which drew his head back toward the spine. The spasms occurred every few minutes, growing stronger and more frequent. I began to feel anxious, and thought 204 EXAMPLES OF TREATMENT. it was strange that I did not think of anything to do. I could think of no remedy, but it came to my mind to look into his eyes and see if the pupil was con- tracted, or dilated; but the lamp-light prevented our seeing well, and the doctor gave up trying. I was impressed to take the child's hands in mine and make him look at me, talking to him all the time, asking questions that he must answer, and in a humorous, nonsensical way exciting and interesting his mind. At the same time I was conscious of a strong electric current of magnetism through my arms and hands which seemed to be drawing the boy towards me while my will and thought were holding his mind. All the persons in the room seemed to enter into the scheme for making light magnetism, laughing over and joining in the idle talk and filling the room with vibratory magnetic waves. By concentrating his attention on myself, and making conductors of the nerves from the back of the neck through the arms, I drew away from the front brain the morbid congestion, and sent an elec- tric current through his arms to the spine, and so to the brain, drawing away by magnetic attraction the diseased gases which had collected and were oppress- ing the lower brain. This was accomplished by acting on the physical and mental at the same time. EXAMPLES OF TREA TMENT. 205 The trouble was over in twenty minutes, and the incident shows the power of the magnetic will. The Indians' Wild Medicine Dance produces similar effects on the patient within their circle. They create a light animal magnetism by exercising their bodies in dancing and singing, and both animal and spiritual magnetism is developed. Their swift, swaying movements through the atmosphere gene- rate electric currents through which magnetic ema- nations are conveyed to the object of their combined efforts. They see the effect without knowing the cause, and in their various dances, as the corn dance, the bear dance, and others, which are semi-religious exercises, they experience the exhilarating effect of their combined magnetism in the strength and courage they seek, for carrying out their purposes. The influence is something like that in the old-fash- ioned revival meeting, when the power of the Holy Ghost, the magnetism of the people assembled, was at work. 2o6 EXAMPLES OF TREATMENT. SCARLET FEVER. Scarlet fever is a germ which is absorbed into the blood through the lungs with the oxygen which is inhaled. The absorption takes place through the walls ot the air cells. Each globule of blood becomes innoculated; its warm, magnetic life gives the germ power to develop and grow. When it swells it causes congestion and fever, and has then reached its highest stage of development. The blood cor- puscle has become a shell containing an acrid fluid which bursts open, looking to the clairvoyant eye like a tiny elder blossom. This acrid fluid is dis- charged into the sweat glands, and nature labors to force it to the surface before its life activities perish. When it reaches the surface it appears as a fine scarlet rash, and if the natural action of the skin is in free exercise, it dries to a thin scale which loosens from the skin and the patient is soon well. Remedies should be rubbed into the pores to attract this disease to the surface, as it is in the blood and not in the stomach. Acids destroy the virus and prevent the death of the germ before it reaches the surface. The acid juice of rhubarb or pieplant is a sovereign remedy. Rubbed into the pores of the skin it cuts the attachments formed by con- EXAMPLES OF TREATMENT. 207 gestion and inflammation. It should be applied with pressure enough to force the circulation vigorously- through the flesh, as the disease is all near the skin. The friction will break the little shell that holds the fluid and cause it to discharge into the sweat glands, where it will be drawn to the surface before it loses its living principle and becomes a dead putrefying matter. If it does not pass off freely through the skin it decays, generating a poisonous gas which is aborbed back into the blood and becomes a blood poison. In its efforts to escape through the natural channels, the glands of the stomach and throat, it permeates the mucous membrane and destroys life. If the disease is controlled in its progress in this stage, local disease will appear in the head, ears, throat, lungs and kidne3"s, the result of the poison deposited in the system. This can be prevented in every case by proper treatment in time. The acid of pieplant is good in all fevers, and if the disease should prove to be someting else, the treatment will be useful. Measles, chicken pox and kindred diseases may be treated in the same way, giving a slight emetic when there is a bilious tendency, and a warm drink of oat coffee, the oats browned and prepared like ordinary coffee. There is nothing better than pieplant, but other acids may be used, as tea of sumach berries, whey 2o8 EXAMPLES OF TREA TMENT. of sour milk, sour beer yeast. A compress wet with the acid, warm, should be wrapped around the body, closely covered to keep it warm until the rash is all out, then bathe with the same for three days, with as much friction as the patient can bear. When scarlet fever is treated in this manner, there is no disease left in the system to create trouble afterwards. In all diseases of an eruptive character, the remedies should be on the surface, with an emetic and drinks that produce perspiration. SMALL POX. My first case ot small-pox was my brother, thirty-five years old, who had been vaccinated when he was four years old. He v/as a lumberman, and was in the woods several miles from home when he was taken with a severe chill, congestion of the lungs and pain all over him. He came home and I gave him the following treatment: Warm herb poultices over the lungs for two hours, then put his feet in water strong with cayenne pepper and as hot as he could bear it. I next rubbed him with hot liniment until his flesh was as hot as he could bear, and got him to bed covered very warm. The next day I gave him an ipecac emetic, and kept EXAMPLES OF TREA TMENT. 209 him vomiting with warm water until he was in a pro- fuse perspiration. The fever left him and he slept well that night, and the next morning thirty or lorty pustules were out, not very sore, and they soon dried up. He took a bath as hot as he could bear the water, with plenty of soap, rubbing himself vigorously, and the exercise increased the circulation. He dressed in clean, warm clothes, ate some break- fast and, with the exception of the pustules, felt per- fectly well. I treated six cases of small-pox in the same way with equally good results, and am con- vinced that to aid the disease in coming to the sur- face, there to throw off the poison before it has time to infect the blood, is the proper method of cure.- The disease must pass off through the pores of the skin, and it may be thrown out in the form of per- spiration before it culminates in virus or poisonous matter. The bowels should be kept open with a mild cathartic, and the diet must be simple. There is no need of powerful medicines, and morphine especially, which is given to relieve the pain, is the most injudicious of remedies. It deadens the circula- tion, which ought rather to be excited and increased to force the disease to the surface of the body. EXAMPLES OF TREATMENT. TREATMENT FOR CHOLERA MORBUS. After thorough friction give the neutralizing cordial, a teaspoonful once in thirty minutes. Rub the body all over with dry mustard, then with hot lini- ment every half hour — the spine very thoroughly — as long as there is perspiration. As soon as the body is warm all convulsive action of the stomach will cease. The fermentations in the stomach affect the spine, causing the limbs to cramp, and thorough treatment of the spine will stop the cramping. Doses of morphine and brandy is the usual treatment given by physi- cians, the brandy causing a local heat in the somach, while the morphine deadens its action, and also that of the liver. Stimulation from the surface has a general effect, equalizing the circulation and giving ■strength to the nervous force to expel the gases through natural channels. After the cramping sub- sides, give a teaspoonful of tincture of ginger and fifteen drops of paregoric, after that some nourish- ment, commencing with a tablespoonful of beef tea once in twenty minutes. I have treated the most severe cases of cholera morbus in this way with per- fect success. Courage and confidence are necessary rfor bringing about desirable results. EXAMPLES OF TREA TMENT. DIPHTHERIA. This disease is a blood poison, and I believe it is chiefly caused by gaseous effluvia of coal smoke uniting with the malaria in the atmosphere. After generating in the human flesh it becomes more malignant. Every breath exhaled is laden v^ith poisonous germs which lodge in the hair and cloth- ing of those in attendance. A dense smoke of burn- ing hickor}^ will cleanse and purify the atmosphere and house where a diphtheritic patient has been breathing. This smoke is good for the patient, as it contains the alkali of wood ashes. Bags of dry hickory ashes around the throat are also valuable. Stimulate the patient with cayenne pepper tea, and let him gargle and swallow some of it. I have found Radway's Ready Relief good. A liniment of one ounce of beef gall in one quart of alcohol to bathe the throat fre- quently and to rub over the whole body is an excellent remedy, also to bathe with weak lye. A wine glass full of sour milk whey with a tablespoonful of yeast is of great value. EXAMPLES OF TREATMENT. CAUSE OF APOPLEXY AND PARALYSIS. When the blood becomes congested from the effects of too much and too rich food, or stimulants of any kind, the circulation is slow, loses vitality and produces a gaseous effluvia, which works its way through the mucus membrane towards the heart, or emotional gland, and the base of the brain. When this gas has accumulated so as to inflate the mem- brane to its utmost capacity, it will break the barriers and escape, sometimes so sudden and with such force as to stop all circulation between the heart and brain, forcing the blood into the heart, or brain,, causing apoplexy or paralysis or both, and it is this gas that is invariably the cause, in ninety-nine cases- out of a hundred. The gas forces the blood to the head and heart; either breaking the nerve or tearing it from its foundation. > Great attention should be given to the condition of the blood, as a state of fermentation will produce gas, and gas will explode; with its force press the blood and break the tissues, arteries and nerves. Keep the blood in circulation by outside treatment;, the pores free and active; the stomach sweet; and take only as much food as the system needs. EXAMPLES OF TREA TMENT. 213 A CASE OF PLEURISY. A man had fallen into the water on a cold day several miles from home, wearing his wet clothing until he arrived home. He took a severe cold, which settled in his side. When I saw him, a week afterward, he was salivated, blistered, and had been bled until he fainted. The pain increased, and he was so nervous that he could not lie still. Morphine only made him worse. His body was so cold that it seemed as if under the effect of an ague chill all the time. I filled two jugs with hot water, put one at his feet, the other by his side, covered him with warm blankets, then made a large goblet full ot hot brandy sling, tolerably strong, which he drank. I then placed my hand on his forehead, and he was asleep in less than five minutes. He slept four hours, and perspired so freely as to wet the blankets. When he waked I gave him another glass full of the stimu- lant, and he again fell asleep. After the first five minutes he was perfectly free from pain, and it did not return. Such a simple and natural remedy ought to have been thought of without an inspiration, but science takes the longest road, and often misses the way. It is a great pity that people do not exercise their own 214 EXAMPLES OF TREATMENT. good sense and try simple remedies first before resorting to drugs, which deaden the pain only for a time. A CASE OF SCARLET FEVER. I happened to be in a small village, where I was to remain over the Sabbath. A little girl of four years was ill with scarlet fever, and the physician in attendance had not succeeded in bringing the rash to the surface. The child was suffering great pain in her head, and was screaming at every breath, and constantly moving and turning her head. The parents, as well as the physician, were greatly alarmed. I was- requested to go and see the child^ which I did, and concluded to try my remedy if the friends were willing. They expressed their un- qualified assent. I took some pieplant stalks and pressed out the juice, with which I wet the patient's head and hair, covering it with a close hood, which I removed in ten minutes, when I found the head dry and wet it again. The mother was walking back and forth with the child in her arms. The third time the head was wet the child fell asleep. By this time the scarlet rash was all out through every pTDre. I wet a cloth and spread over the chest and bowels. The result of the treatment was that the child was free from all pain and fever in five hours, and in three days it was playing about the house. EXAMPLES OF TREA TMENT. A CASE OF CANKER IN THE STOMACH. I was sent for to see a very sick lady some seventy miles away. When I arrived at the resi- dence of the patient I saw that the ailment was canker in the stomach. She could not retain either food or medicine, and was extremely nervous. I applied pie plant, or rhubarb, over the stomach and bathed, the whole body with it, repeating the bath three times through the day, and keeping the poultice over the stomach all the time. I administered a tea of slipery elm flour, and worm wood, a tablespoonful at a time, which she retained. The next morning the surface of her chest and stomach was covered with canker sores. She was able to eat some break- fast, and required no further attention. In this fam- ily were seven children, all of whom, with their mother, were cured of scrofulous humor in the blood by drinking red clover tea every day for one year. A CASE OF MEASLES. A case of measles was cured by rubbing the body with the juice of pie plant Three applications.- brought the disease to the surface, and in four days the patient was well. Warm catnip tea was given 2i6 EXAMPLES OF TREATMEN7\ with one tablespoonful of the syrup of rhubarb. This treatment is so simple that it requires sometimes considerable persuasive argument to insure a trial. HOW I HAVE TREATED TYPHOID FEVER. First bathe the body all over with weak Xyo, water; then make a poultice of pieplant, if it can be procured, if not, sour beer yeast; thicken it with slippery elm flour; cover the spine and back from the neck to the end of the spine with the poultice; change every four hours. Apply the same over the liver and stomach six hours out of the twenty-four. When taken off use thorough friction and a knead- ing of the stomach and bowels, in order to break the congestion and aid the discharge of bile and morbid secretions. Dissolve a piece of hyposulphite of soda as large as a pea in a wine glass full of water and administer three times a day. This will remove the germs of malaria. At the same time this is adminis- tered get also two ounces of the tincture of Peruvian bark, one ounce of sweet spirits of nitre, and ten drops of the tincture of aconite; give one tablespoon- ful in three tablespoonsful of water every four hours. Give two mandrake pills at night and a tablespoon- ful of the syrup of rhubarb in the morning, repeating .this if necessary, and place a fresh hop pillow under EXAMPLES OF TREA TMENT. 217 the head, taking care that plenty of fresh hops are in the room. The poultice extracts the fever before it reaches the head or lungs. A SUN BATH. The nature of a sun bath is very little understood b}^ the many who avail themselves of its invigor- ating influence. So long as benefit is received the practice should be continued. At the same time there is much danger attending the exposure of the naked body in the open air without using certain precautions in order to prevent taking cold. I saw in California a four-story building used for sua baths. There was no roof, and the walls were seven feet in height. The patients passed up through a trap door in the floor and usually remained from twenty minutes to one hour, having thorough friction all over the body afterward. My theory is to remain in the sun five minutes at first, then retire to a shady place and rub the body briskly with a brush and towel; then expose the body to the sun for ten minutes, then retire and use friction upon the body again, repeating this process alter- nately. The first exposure heats the surface, the friction opens the pores; the next exposure to the .sun's rays excites magnetic action, and the negative 15 2i8 EXAMPLES OF TREA TMENT. and positive poles begin to vibrate stronger, inas- much as one power cannot act without the other within the human system. The same powers are at work in the atmosphere, attracting from the body the Hfeless matter, which substance is no longer con- trolled by human magnetism, and the physical ener- gies throw it off. At the same time the body inhales oxygen from the air, and the friction produces activity and equalizes the effect. If the patients are weak they should have attendants who understand the case, and who are sufficiently intelligent to appreciate what is required of them to prevent unhappy results. Great benefit may be derived from this treatment, especially in the case of con- sumptives. A WET PACK BATH. Make a strong solution of hops, pennyroyal and spearmint; bathe the body all over with the fluid as- hot as the patient can bear for ten minutes, accom- pan3dng the application with thorough friction. Have a bed or lounge prepared with warm blankets; wet a sheet in the tea when cold; wrap it around the body, and then wrap with the dry blankets as quickly as possible, applying a warm brick to the feet. The patient can remain in this position one or two hours; if perspiring freely one hour will be EXAMPLES OF TREATMENT. 219 sufficient. Remove the wraps and bathe with the herb tea cold, working rapidly in drying the body with a rough towel; then use friction with the hand until the circulation is perfectly free, the skin warm, and the patient happy. A man who had neuralgia in his lungs, compli- cated with heart disease, took baths in the mineral spring water at Alpena, Mich., which caused the valves of the heart to partially close and his body to swell from head to foot. He was nearly suffocated, as he could scarcely breathe at all. A quantity of smart-weed was boiled in water and thickened with wheat bran, making half a bushel when prepared, into which two ounces of mustard was stirred when it was cool enough to avoid scalding; this preparation was spread on a cloth, which covered the whole body, and other dry coverings were wound around the body like a pack. The patient was at first very uneasy. I gave him one teaspoon- ful of the tincture of valerian in a little water twice, half an hour apart. After the second dose he went^ to sleep, and soon was perspiring ireely, which relieved him of the trouble. MEDICAL AD VICE. MEDICAL ADVICE. Having learned from personal experience and observation that strong medicines, especially minerals, taken internally are apt to create new diseases, as medicine may, and too often does, lodge in the sys- tem, and slowly but surely change the healthy, natural blood, with its chemical effect, my advice would be to all who suffer from cHmate, colds, chills, fevers, diarrhoea, and all that class, which are caused by over-eating, or any habit that is injurious to health, that it is best and safe to use simple remedies, diet, and outside applications; aid nature, and not force unnatural conditions by taking into the system substances that cannot assimilate with the blood, and will eventually develope other forms of disease, perhaps incurable. I believe that in every climate where disease arises from malaria, remedies grow naturally. Roots, herbs, barks, and the waters which are tinctured with the magnetism of the earth and its productions, are sufficient to heal the physical body of its natural ailments when intelligently used; and a knowledge of disease and the remedies ought to be a part of the education of ever}^ individual. RECI PES. DRINKS FOR SICK PEOPLE. Tea and coffee are narcotic, and it would be best to dispense with them. Cocoa is a good substitute^ very pleasant and nutritious, and divested of any pernicious properties, and better than chocolate or prepared cocoa. Take cocoa shells — a teacupful — add one quart of milk, and boil a few minutes; when it is fit for use sweeten with sugar. Milk and buttermilk are both good drinks when they agree with the patient. A little water and sugar may be added. WINE WHEY. Put half a pint of new milk on the fire; the moment it boils pour in as much good wine as will curdle and clarify it; boil and set it aside until the curd settles ; do not stir it. Pour the whey off, and add to it one pint of boiling water and sufficient loaf sugar to sweeten it. Thus you will have a clear, rich, pleasant and medicinal liquid, which may be drank in all kinds of fevers and nervous debility. 224 RECIPES. BARLEY WATER. Take a tablespoonful of ground barley, mix it with a little cold water, boil it a few minutes, and sweeten if desirable. Very soothing and strengthening. BUTTERMILK POP. Place one quart of buttermilk on the fire ; stir it every moment until it boils; have prepared two table- spoonsful of flour wet with the whites of eggs; add a little salt; rub the ^^^ in the flour, making tiny balls no larger than a shot; stir this in the buttermilk and stir, quickly removing it from the fire, and turn it into a bowl. This is a healthy, pleasant nourish- ment, and especially good in erysipelas and fevers, LIQUID FOR DYSPEPSIA. Cut one pound of lean beef into small pieces; put it into a wide-mouthed bottle or jar; cover tight; add a little salt; put it in a kettle of boiling water; let it remain one hour; then press it through a woolen strainer. There will be about one gill of clear liquid. Commence with one teaspoonful, and in- crease the quantity as the stomach will bear. This will remain on the stomach when nothing else wilL RECIPES. 225, I have given a very weak lye of hickory ashes in cases of sickness of the stomach and diarrhoea; a tea- spoonful at first to a tablespoonful, with good results,, and in dyspepsia a tender piece of broiled beef, to be eaten with dry toasted bread — eaten slowly, chewed fine, taking nothing else, and no drink for one hour afterward, exciting the flow of saliva, and the gastric juices of the stomach act upon the food more directly. THE DISCOVERY OF THE USE OF RHUBARB PLANT.. Some fifteen years ago, I accidently cut my hand with glass in the finger-joint; the pain was so great that I feared a splinter of glass was broken oft' in the muscle, touching the nerve. I suffered all day and nearly all night. About three o'clock in the morning, to my mental vision appeared this remedy : I saw pieplant in the garden, then a cup full of the juice on the stand near my bed, a compress wet with it on my hand and arm, as my arm had swelled and was red with inflammation, and very painful. This vision continued until three. Determined to make it a reality, I went into the garden, procured the pie plant, and soon had a cupful of the juice. Saturated cloths and bound it around my arm and hand; wet the com- press the second time, and went to sleep. My hand 226 RECIPES. was all right when I waked, after four hours' sleep. There w^as a sense of relief in my mind, as well as in my hand. I soon saw another person poisoned with glass, and advised the same treatment, which had the same result. Since then I have used the acid of pieplant in a great variety of cases where there was fever, inflammation, canker, boils carbuncles, scarlet fever, measles, and sore throat, and in every case it has seemed to be the remedy. There is no possible danger from outside applications, but it is not healthy food. CARROT OIL. Boil four pounds of carrots two hours in as little water as will cover them; than smash them in the water and press the fluid out through a flannel bag. Add two pounds of lard and let it simmer on the stove until the fluid has all evaporated. Use for rheumatism, inflammation, swellings, etc. FOR MUMPS. Nothing better than the marrow of a smoked jaw bone of a hog, rub it on and kept warm, or a slice of fat salt pork. Simple cathartic and light diet is all that is necessary. RECIPES. 227 FOR HERNIA. Take a round, thin piece of wood, cover it with cotton-batting, then with silk oil cloth. Make a com- press of linen several thicknesses, wet it with strong white oak bark tea, one third brandy, put this next to the skin, and the press over it with a bandage to hold it in place. The patient should lie perfectly still, or nearly so, for three weeks, changing the wet compress twice a day. A man of seventy years was cured of a bad case this way. LUNG SYRUP. Comfrey root, - - - 2 ozs. Blackcherry bark, 2 ozs. Golden seal, _ . _ 2 ozs. Blood root, _ _ - I oz. Lungwort, _ _ _ 3 ozs. Hoarhound, _ - _ 3 ozs. Boneset, _ _ _ 3 ozs. Grind together; put in a large porcelain kettle; cover with water; simmer all day down to a gallon of tea; strain and add four pounds of honey while hot. Dose, teaspoonful once in two hours. 228 RECIPES. COUGH SYRUPS. Liquorice root, ... 3 ozs. Blood root, . . . . 3^ oz. Steep two hours in boiling water ; strain ; having one pint of tea. Add i oz. of gum arabic, when dis- solved add I lb. of honey, and let it remain on the fire fifteen minutes longer. Dose, teaspoonful once in one or two hours. COI.DS, COUGHS, ETC. . Large Bermuda onions sliced thin, placed in a porce- lain dish and covered with loaf sugar, over that slice garlic and cover with sugar. Let it cook slowly — the only fluid being the juice of the onions — strain and add ^ oz. of paregoric. Splendid for common colds, for children, and for persons of drop- sical tendencies. AN EXCELLENT REMEDY. Break up a large quantity of the loose outside shaggy bark of sweet hickory; cover with water and let it boil all day; then boil down to one pint of fluid; straio and add i lb. of loaf sugar and let it simmer for fif- teen minutes. Dose, from a teaspoonful to a table- RECIPES. 22g spoonful every hour. It allays irritation and heals the lungs. A valuable remedy for colds, coughs, and whooping cough. NERVOUS DEBILITY 3 ozs. I oz. I oz. 2 oz. 3 ozs. Nervine root, Gentian root, Blue Flag root, . Seneca snake root, Yarrow, Grind together. Steep two tablespoonsful, mak- ing half a pint of tea, daily. Dose, a wineglass three times a day. I prefer the clear tea of the herbs to extracts or tinctures. The sugar and liquor destroy the natural effect, and create excitement of the nerves. ANOTHER TEA. Make a strong tea of equal parts of yarrow, mother- wort, catnip and pennyroyal. Dose, half a teacupful warm at night, for painful menstruation, sleepless- ness, or nervousness. Produces quiet sleep. 230 RECIPES. INORDINATE MENSTRUATION. Cloves, I OZ. Cinnamon, . . . . i oz, Peruvian bark, . . . . i oz. Raisins, ^ lb. Steep two hours; strain; having one pint of tea, to which add one pint of port wine. Dose, tablespoon- ful three times a day. ANOTHER PRESCRIPTION. Put 2 ozs. of stick cinnamon in one pint of brandy,, allowing it to stand one week before using. Dose, a teaspoonful in a little water three or four times a day. In cases of hemorrhage, apply a compress wet with equal parts of warm vinegar and water over the lower bowel, using an enema of tea made from the buds of witch hazel. AN OLD TIME REMEDY. Wrap newly spun yarn, before it is washed, around the body. The magnetism of the wool is supposed to control the nervous force and contract the blood- vessels. In all cases the circulation must receive RECIPES. 231^ attention. Instead of cold applications to chill the blood, rub the body from head to foot with a tea of cayenne pepper and whisky until the surface is thoroughly warm. This treatment prevents hemor- rhage by attracting the blood to the surface of the body. PILL FOR BRONCHITIS. Equal parts of tar, loaf sugar and pulverized skunk cabbage root, made into pills the common size- Dose, one once in three or four hours. WHOOPING COUGH. Place bands of smoke-dried buckskin around the throat and over the chest. This is an Indian remedy which never fails to give relief in connection with a tea of the bark and berries of the spice bush. MILK LEG SORES. This disease is caused by animal and vegetable decay in the blood. The milk produced by nature for the sustenance of the child is left in the system until it loses its specific quality and becomes a poison which must be extracted through the pores. A bath 232 RECIPES. of sour milk will assimilate with the fever and reduce its virulence. Fresh toadstools from a manure heap, bruised into a paste and applied to the sores night and morning, will absorb the disease. Nature pro- vides a remedy for every disease which acts through affinitive laws. FELONS. Saturate a compress with a strong tincture of lobelia, and wrap the diseased part in it for twenty-four hours, then wet the compress with laudanum. This treatment has cured every case where it has been used in time. A STRENGTHENING TEA. Take the heart of ironwood, dry, pulverize or cut in small pieces and steep in boiling water. Dose, a wineglass three times a day. This is an excellent remedy to use after fevers, and in all cases of gen- eral debility. FOR THE KIDNEYS. Make a tea of equal parts of milkweed, juniper ber- ries, spearmint, and canker lettuce. Dose, half a teacupful night and morning. Apply a poultice at RECIPES. 233 night over the kidneys, made of smartweed, thick- ened with slippery elm flour. Another poultice voslY be made of equal parts of wild indigo root, skunk cabbage root and stillingia ground together, steeped in just enough boiling water to cover the herbs; thicken with slippery elm flour. This poultice may be used for all swellings or inflammations from any cause. I. have used it for inflammation of the womb, in puerpural fever, fistula, ague cake, and king's €vil, with wonderful success, in all cases rubbing the body as much as it would bear on removing the poultice and before applying another. AGUE CAKE, OR SWELLED BREAST. Take old tarred rope that has been used in the sun cut it up and cover with vinegar; stew until it is a thick paste; apply warm. This will scatter the swelling at any stage before suppuration. HOT DROPS. Tincture Jamaica Ginger, . 2 ozs Paregoric, . I oz. Essence peppermint, . . J^oz. Essence anise, . y^oz. iFor pain in the stomach, bowels, wind colic, diar- rhoea. Dose, teaspoonf ul from one-half to two hours. 16 234 RECIPES. ROOT BEER. Sarsaparilla, . . . i lb. Sassafras bark, ... 2 lbs. Spignet root, ... 2 lbs. Prickly ash bark, . . 2 lbs. Burdock root, ... 4 lbs. Wintergreen leaves, . . 3 lbs. Boil for two hours in ten gallons of water; strain. Boil one bushel of wheat bran and five pounds of Iresh hops together in twenty gallons of water; strain. Mix and add water strained out of the bran until a barrel full is obtained; add ten pounds of sugar and one gallon of brewers' yeast. Keep it open in a warm place for ten days, .then bdttle, or remove the barrel to a cool place. A pleasant drink, and a preventive of chill and fever, malaria, dyspep- sia and morbid conditions induced from climate. KOUMISS, OR MILK ALE. New milk, . . . .3 quarts. Warm water, . . . . i quart. Sugar, ,, . .,. . .1 tablespoonfuL. Dissolve half of a yeast cake and add to the warm water, then add the milk and sugar. Let it RECIPES. 235 Stand six hours, bottle in strong bottles with the cork securely fastened down. Set in a cool place for five or six days, when it will be ready for use. A good drink for weak digestion. WEAK AND INFLAMED EYES. Dissolve I oz. white vitriol in i qt. of rain water. Apply with a camel's hair brush inside the lids once a day. GRANULATED LIDS. Glycerine, - - - - i oz. Water, - - - - - i oz. Lodine, - - - - - 10 drops. Apply with a camel's hair brush twice a day. WEAK AND INFLAMED EYES. Put I lb. of fresh bittersweet root bark in an earthen dish, cover with sweet cream and cook slowly until only an oil remains. Press the oil from the bark and strain through a flannel bag. P^or weak eyes anoint the outside of the lids only for three mornings in succession, then omit three, then 336 RECIPES, use again for three mornings, continuing the treat- ment until a cure is effected. When the eyes are inflamed add live drops of spirits of turpentine to r oz. of the ointment, and apply as above. SIMPLE BATH FOR WEAK EYES. One-quarter teaspoonful of common salt and the same of loaf sugar, dissolved in a tea cup of warm water. Bathe freely three or four times a day. CATARRH SNUFF. Gum arabic, - - - i oz. Blood root, - - - - 54^ oz. Gum myrrh, - - - - J^ oz. Borax, - - - - - i oz. Pulverize and use night and morning. Bathe the head with warm salt water, using through friction. / Another snuff is made of White pond lily root, - - i oz. High laurel root, - - RECIPES. 237 ANOTHER REMEDY FOR CATARRH. Dry sage two parts, one part black pepper, mix thoroughly and smoke in a new clay pipe. Draw the smoke into the mouth and expel it through the nose. Put the stem of the pipe in the ear, cover the bowl with a thin cloth, and blow the smoke into the ear as warm as the patient can bear it. It will pene- trate the passages through the nose and ear, healing and stimulating. It should be used twice a day, with thorough friction of the head, with a strong, firm pressure by the hand. REMEDY FOR BURNS OR SCALDS. Apply a thick paste of bicarbonate of soda, cov- ering the burn with a linen or cotton cloth to exclude the air. This is a sovereign remedy. KIDNEYS. Common silk milk weed. The root of this plant is a powerful diuretic. Boil 8 ozs. of the root in six quarts of water to three; strain, add i oz. spirits of juniper berries. For the dropsy take one gill four times a day sweetened with honey. 238 RECIPES. I OZ. I oz. 2 OZ. I oz. % oz. % oz. RESTORATIVE WINE BITTERS. Comfrey root, - - - Solomon's seal, Nervine root, - - - Gentian root, _ _ - Camomile flowers, - Spikenard root, Bruise all together, cover with boiling water, let it simmer four hours, strain and add four quarts of elderberry wine. This is a very useful tonic in all cases of debility, particularly those peculiar to females. It is valuable in incipient consumption. Rose willow bark, a tea, is good for nervous irritation of the stomach arising from pregnancy or diseased uterus. Take a wine glass half full three times a day before meals. STRENGTHENING PLASTER. Olive oil, - - - - 3 qts. Common resin, - - - 3 ozs. Beeswax, - - - - 3 ozs. Melt together and bring to boiling heat. Add gradually pulverized red lead 2]/^ lbs. if it be winter; if summer, 2^ lbs. A short time after the lead is RECIPES. 239 taken up by the oil and the mixture becomes brown remove from the fire, and when nearly cooladd i oz. pulverized camphor gum, i oz. oil of wormwood, I oz. amber, j{ oz. cayenne pepper. It should be kept on the fire until it is of sufficient consistency to spread well, which may be known by dipping a knife in from time to time and allowing it to cool on the knife. Stir thoroughly until it can be worked into rolls, or balls, with the hands. Wrap in oiled paper to keep moist until used. I have used this plaster for sprain s with wonder- ful success, binding it firmly around the joint. It gives almost instant relief, absorbs the broken blood corpuscles, and strengthens and heals the injured h'gaments. For w^eak back, palpitation of the heart, female weakness, rheumatism, or for pain from any cause, it affords safe and sure relief. Spread it on chamois skin quite thick. Make the plaster large enough to cover the seat of the disease and renew it as often as once a week. Before putting on a fresh plaster rub the surface thoroughly with stimulating liniment. 24© RECIPES. OINTMENTS. ITCH OINTMENT. Fine sulphur, - - - i oz. Unslacked lime, - - - i oz. Lard, ----- i oz. Mix thoroughly and rub it into the skin before the fire. A sure cure. GOLDEN OINTMENT. Lard, - - - - - i lb. Beeswax, - - - - 4 ozs. Melt together, and when nearly cool add : Laudanum, - - - i oz. Camphor gum, - - - i oz. Oil of organum, - - 2 ozs. Put the last three ingredients into 4 ozs. of alcohol, and stir the mixture into the lard and bees- wax. Stir until cool. This ointment is good for burns, piles, cuts, bruises, sore throat, congestion of the lungs or bowels. It is a family remedy to be relied on. RECIPES. 241 POKE ROOT OINTMENT. Boil 2 lbs. of lard in weak lye. When cold remove the lard from the lye. Boil 2 lbs. of fresh poke root in water enough to cover it for one hour;, strain and let it simmer down to an extract. To the melted lard add the poke root and oil of organum 2 ozs., oil of amber i oz. Stir thoroughly. Good for scrofulous scores, rheumatism, and all kinds of blood diseases. It should be thoroughly rubbed into the skin and all that it will not absorb at the time, wiped off. Rubbing the bowels thor- oughly every night with this ointment will cure con- stipation. LIVER TONIC. Tincture of golden seal, - - 2 ozs. Tincture black cherry, - - 2 ozs. Tincture hops, - - - 2 ozs. Brandy, - _ _ - 6 ozs. Dose, from a teaspoonful to a tablespoonfui in a little water before meals. This is a valuable remedy for torpid liver and indigestion. •242 RECIPES. ELDER BLOSSOM OINTMENT. Cover the blossoms with sweet cream; let it simmer to an oil and strain through flannel. This oint- ment is exceedingly valuable for use with young children, for sore nipples, old sores, and salt rheum. Apply with gentle friction twice a day. PLANTAIN OINTMENT. Cook common door yard plantain leaves in as little water as will cover them, removing the leaves and putting in fresh ones until there is a strong extract. Strain, and to one pint of the liquid add 2 lbs. of lard; simmer slowly until the water evapor- ates. For old sores, kings' evils scrofula, etc. A MEDICATED BATH WITH ELECTRICITY. Take a quantity of herbs, such as catnip, boneset, 'hops, pennyroyal, spearmint, tanzy, etc. Boil in a gallon or two of water for half an hour; pour all into a pail with a narrow piece of board over it for the patient to sit on; wrap him completely to prevent the escape of the vapor, immerse the feet in warm water, RECIPES. 243 in which place one pole of an electric batter}^; cover the other pole with a wet sponge and rub over the lentire body under the covering. The patient should drink freely of warm catnip tea. Bathe quickly afterward with equal parts of warm water and extract of witch hazel. Walk about in a moder- ately warm room until the blood is naturally cool. This treatment will aid the system to throw off dis- ■ease through the pores of the skin. FOR PRESERVING THE HAIR. Wash the head twice a week with a strong solution of salt, and sprinkle a small quantity of dry, fine salt upon the top of the head once a week. This will prevent baldness and preserve the color of the hair. CANKER IN THE STOMACH AND BLOOD. Make a tea of equal parts of golden seal root, tag alder bark, white pond lily root and running black- berry root ground together. Steep two tablespoons- ful every day, making one-half pint of tea. Dose, a wine glass three or four times a day. Wet a com- press in pieplant juice or some beer yeast and apply over the stomach at jiight. i 244 RECIPES. SOUR STOMACH. Dissolve in a wine glass of water one-fourth of a teaspoonful of bicarbonate of soda and the same quantity of fine salt. Take at a single dose. FOR THE SAME. A teaspoonful of fine pulverized charcoal mixed with syrup. Take before breakfast. BILIOUS OR SICK HEADACHE. Take first an emetic of one-half teaspoonful of salt and one-half teaspoonful of mustard in a glass of warm water. This will free the stomach of bile and phlegm. Bathe the spine in warm water, one quart, in which is mingled a tablespoonful of salt and the same of the spirits of ammonia. Use with thorough friction^ rubbing down from the base of the brain. It will give immediate relief. Afterward take liver tonic until the liver is free from bile, and conclude with a raw egg- in the morning half an hour before breakfast. This will take up the acid and strengthen the stomach. RECIPES, 345 FOR CONSTIPATION. Steep 2 ozs. of senna one hour in water enough to have a pint of the tea, strain, and stew in the liquid as many prunes as it will cover until they are very soft. Dose, one tablespoonful half an hour before breakfast. LIVER POWDER. Mandrake root, - - 2 grains. Leptandrum, - - - i grain. Aloes, - - - - ^ grain. Cayenne pepper, - - Y^ grain. Mix and take at one dose. Immediately after take one teaspoonful cream of tartar. This is an active remedy for torpid liver. Thorough friction with stimulating liniments should be used over the stomach and liver before and after taking this medi- cine. Two of these powders are sufficient to rouse thorough action of the liver, and should be followed by a tonic. Take equal parts of golden seal, black cherry bark and juniper berries, steep a tablespoon- ful, making half a pint of tea. Dose, a wine glass before eating. 246 RECIPES. HOP BITTERS. Hops, - - _ - ^ OZS. Buchu, - - - _ 2 OZS. Water, _ - - - 2 qts. Let it simmer half a day, strain, add 2 lbs. of sugar, keep it hot half an hour, and add: Tincture dandelion, - - 2 ozs. Tincture mandrake root, - 2 ozs. Alcohol, - - - - I pt. Water, - - - - 2 qts. Dose, from a teaspoonful to a tablespoonful twice a day. This is good for persons of bilious tempera- ment, for constipation, sick headache, and diseases of the liver and kidneys. NEUTRALIZING CORDIAL OR PHYSIC. Equal parts of turkey rhubarb, saleratus, and peppermint plant, pulverized fine. To a large tea- spoonful add half a pint of boiling water. When cool, strain and add one tablespoonful of brandy. Dose, one or two tablespoonsful every half hour. This is one of the most valuable remedies for cholera RECIPES. 247 morbus or summer complaint, and is excellent to allay the sickness and regulate the bowels of pregnant women. DYSENTERY. Give freely of a tea of red raspberry lea v^es. Put a compress wet in pieplant juice or some beer yeast about the body. This will absorb the fever and remove the cause of irritation, while the tea will heal the stomach and bowels inwardly. These simple remedies have proved successful with young, children after all others have failed. In all cases the outward applications are of greatest value. FOR GRAVEL. Make a strong tea of canker lettuce, sometimes called squaw lettuce, found where wintergreen grows. It is an excellent remedy for all diseases of the bladder. Charcoal, made of red willow, is a safe, cheap remedy, used for dyspepsia and sour stomach. It purifies the breath. 348 RECIPES. IODIDE POTASSIUM AND SOAP LINIMENT. Take of hard castile soap, cut small, and iodide of potassium, of each one ounce and a half, oil of lemon one fluid ounce, distilled water ten ounces. Dissolve the soap in seven ounces of water by the heat of a water bath; dissolve the iodide of potassium and one ounce of glycerine in the remainder of the water, and mix the two solutions together. When the mixture is cold add the oil of lemon and mix the whole thoroughly. This preparation has been used for goitre, swell- ings, tumor, skin diseases, with great benefit; it cleanses and purifies the pores, is also excellent in dressing burns; should be used with gentle friction. WILD CARROT. For gravel, make a strong tea of the seeds and roots and drink freely through the day. This has relieved gravel in many cases and cured the disease. RECIPES. 249 SUNDRY REMEDIES. Dr. Kellogg's worm tea is the safest and best remedy for worms in children. I have given it in many cases with good results, and found it a reliable remedy. For constipation a very good remedy consists of a glass of hot water. Put one-half a teaspoonful of «alt; drink it a little at a time, but all in the course of iive minutes. Take every morning. Part of a large Bermuda onion eaten raw, with a little bread or cracker, at midnight, will aid sleep and strengthen the stomach. 17 HOW TO WEAR THE SOUL'S GARMENT. 251 p0xa to Wimv thz M>ouVb Olarment. Go now ! and with some darling drug Bait thy disease; and while they tug, Thou, to maintain their precious strife, Spend the dear treasures of thy life. Go! take physic, dote upon Some big-named composition. The oraculous doctor's mystic pills; And what at last shalt gain by these? Only a costlier disease. That which makes us have no need Of physic, t/ial^s physic indeed. Hark hither, reader! Wilt thou see Nature her own physician be? Wilt see a man all his own wealth; His own music, his own health ; A man whose sober soul can tell How to wear her garments well, — Her garments that upon her sit As garments should do, close and fit; A well-clothed soul that's not oppressed, Nor choked with what she should be dressed ; A soul sheathed in a crystal shrine; 252 HOW TO WEAR THE SOUES GARMENT. Through which all her bright features shine ; As when a piece of wanton lawn, A thin aerial veil is drawn O'er beauty's face, seeming to hide. More sweetly shows the blushing bride; A soul whose intellectual beams No mists can mask, no lazy streams ; A happy soul that all the way To heaven hath a summer's day. Wouldst see a man whose well-warmed blood Bathes him in a genuine flood? A man whose tuned humors be A seat of rarest harmony? "Wouldst see blithe looks, fresh cheeks, beguile. Aye! Wouldst see December smile? Wouldst see nests of new roses grow In a bed of reverend snow? Warm thoughts, free spirits, flattering Winter's self all into spring? In turn, wouldst see a man that can Live to be old, and still a man? Whose latest and whose leaden hours HOW TO WEAR THE SOUL'S GARMENT. 253 Fall with soft wings stuck with flowers. And when life's sweet fable ends, Soul and body part like friends ; No quarrels, murmurs, no delay, A kiss, a sigh, and so away? This rare one, reader, wouldst thou see. Hark, hither! and thyself be he. Richard Crashaw, England, lyih Century. FOR WOMEN. So much has been said in the cause of humanity in general, that I feel like adding a word for woman in particular, and her natural position in the world. Nature has pointed out in unmistakable signs woman's work and office. Still there remains much to be done for her before that work can be well done- Through woman the generations are to be made better or worse. Man and woman in married life are said to be one, one in interest, equal in all things that pertain to the comfort and welfare of the children and home. If this is not true it ought to be, and must be if happiness, respect, and a mutual love and confidence can be reasonably hoped for. It is right and proper that man should manage his own business affairs, but it is not justice to his wife to keep her in ignorance of his true position, either for good or ill. A natural pride that is not born of good sense or mistaken kindness often leads the husband into this error, while his wife and family go on in blissful ignorance, knowing nothing, fearing nothing. Then when the failure comes, as it often does, there is deso- 256 FOR WOMEN. lation and despair, no preparation, no adaptation to the changed condition. How much might often be averted if a perfect understanding of business pros- pects had been fairly understood. It is not an un- common occurence that a man has been considered rich in worldly goods by his family, and when death comes for them to be left helpless and without know- ledge how or with means to live. Woman's sym- pathies, love and intuitive sense would often aid and encourage her husband in his difficulties, if he would trust her. Woman's natural perceptions are finer than man's ; she is more forgiving of faults, more tireless in performing the duties of life, and the sunlight of her world is in being appreciated by the one she has chosen to live with for better or for worse. Her thoughts and pleasures may all be confined within the home circle, if love remains with her manifested by little deeds of kindness, a look, a smile of appre- ciation, a notice of her efforts to please. O, how duU^ how worthless the life of woman, without that which feeds the soul and gives courage and strength to endure the trials with patience that come to woman's life alone! And in the absence of this most potent power of manifested love and confidence, how easily she may drift apart, how many temptations appear in the way while the heart is heavy with loneliness and sorrow. Some individuals seem born to evil^ FOR WOMEN. 257 but many drift upon the reefs and rocks of human frailty without an anchor of love or hope to guide their way. I was talking with a woman thus driven by adverse circumstances into following a niyth, hoping to find peace, and drowning her sense of feeling with intoxicating drinks. In remonstrating with her on her course, " Oh," she exclaimed in accents of despair, "nobody cares for me!" That is- the secret. She had no anchor of love to save her from drifting towards the rapids and on to her own destruction. God is love; the loadstone which attracts its affi- nities, and marriage should be based upon this foun- dation. Mutual love and respect and honor should be cultivated through life. Then will be removed the great cause of complaint, which has brought an army of women into the field with a determination and courage to perserve in their cause, the abo- lition of the slavery of woman, a bondage hateful and degrading, to her especially who has not the kind good will of her natural protector, and feels her rights trampled upon, herself ignored, and yet called upon to fill the highest position within this material world — the mother of mankind. The responsibility of what the generations to come are to be, does not rest entirely upon her. Education is useless if not practical, and all interest will die 258 FOR WOMEN. out where no work is to be done. Woman should have a right to speak and act under all cir- cumstances where her own individual happiness is concerned, and that of her children; her vote, where laws of education and temperance are concerned, would make a vast difference in favor of justice, morality and peace. But men seem to be afraid of this invasion of what they consider their province, the natural protectors of woman and her interest. Well, if they only would protect her, and not generally constitute themselves her oppressor and destroyer, their position would be based upon some show of reason. Woman can elevate or degrade human character, and in order to secure the higher and more intellectual elevation for man, according to the natural law of nature, man has organi- zation and natural talents according to the circum- stances and condition of his mother. If for no other reason than man's individual benefit, woman ought to have free access to all resources which may elevate her intellectual and moral character, and a realizing sense of her true position in the world, as one on whom the rise or fall of nations depends. In the present system of education for girls, there is not a very marked difference between the object of being •educated, graceful and beautiful, and the Turkish woman, who fits herself for the pleasure of her master FOR WOMEN 259 and owner, except to share more fully his possessions. Not a very high ambition, when we consider the latent energies that lie dormant or are diverted into other channels neither useful or wise. What is going to be done is the momentous question. Women cannot force their claims with the sword, and may be obliged to worry the life out of men, and make their homes as wretched as their present condition does some of the women. g^jespject for 'S^omatx, %t^XB |pan. ^'So much as one holds woman in esteem, Purely or basely, as he deals with love, So much is his regard for honor, or So little, such the honor he receives ! Who not himself YQS^e.cis, honors not woman, Who does not honor woman, knows he love? Who knows not love can he know honor then? Who knows not honor, what has he beside ? " L. SCHEFER. LIFE RENEWED. THE RESURRECTION OF THE SPIRIT FROM THE TOMB OF THE BODY, AND ERRORS OF THIS WORLD. THE TRUE BIRTH OF THE IMMORTAL SPIRIT. However plain they look in earth life they shall still be themselves, and yet their faces shall be radiant with the soul's immortal beauty in the resurrection. The great artist has the skill to make a homely face beautiful in a picture, and every one who knows the original will say that it is a perfect likeness. And so the faces that we last saw on earth, wrinkled with age or wasted with suffering and void of all grace and comeliness, will be the same in the immortal world, but clothed with angelic beauty. The infant of a few days,whose smiles of joy or cries of pain lingered in the mother's memory for years after the grave had closed over the beloved form, shall come to the parents amid the glory of heaven with such a look that they shall no more say: "We have lost a child." The aged mother, who died with her children around 262 LIFE RENEWED. her to receive her parting blessing shall appear the same, and yet with the glorified form made surpass- ingly beautiful by the expressions of the pure spirit. Think of heaven as a home — a home for human and loving, grateful hearts; think of waking up beyond the grave and finding yourself in full possession of such a life, with all the horror and fear of death be- hind, and nothing but thankful, blessed relief that death was the only door to a glorious life. The first word that Jesus spoke after his resur- rection was one of cheer: "Why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou?" Many spend their natural life seeking what they never find. The journey of life begins and ends with tears. Its whole course is a search for something that can call forth fountains of gladness and consolation in the waste places of the soul. What is it to a man's immortal self to en- joy the highest health and success for a few years and die the owner of millions of this vv^orld's wealth, and then go mto the other world to be poor and wretched and in want of one good deed done on earth to brighten the Hfe he must pass through? The memory of the deeds done in the body either brightens or darkens the heaven we earn. And how rich and happy is he who lives a few years in pain and sorrow; suffers disappointment and neglect, and then, when death LIFE RENEWED. 263 opens the door, with all of his immortal powers bursts into a new and glorious life with the certain prospect of endless content with all the pain and sor- row left behind forever. Riches and poverty, sick- ness and health, prosperity and adversity, are trifles not worthy to be named in comparison with the soul's eternal salvation, when we shall have come up through trials and tribulation into the perfect world. In this world, there is no perfect enjoyment of anything, and the hap- piest hour is the quickest to fly. This earth has fitl}^ been characterized as a pilgrimage through a vale of tears. In the language of poetry, man him- self has been called a pendulum betwixt a smile and a tear. We need but little perception to see, and little sensibility to feel, that this world is one con- tinued struggle. It wrings from every heart the cry of woe, and in every earthly dwelling there is some- body to suffer pain. In every human family there is some face over which the pale shadow of sickness has passed. Every human being in this world is characterized by imperfection. The best people have many faults; the purest heart has its sorrow. All the intercourse of society, all the transactions of business, all our estimates of human conduct and motive must be based upon the sad assumption that we cannot wholly trust either ourselves or our fellow^ 264 LIFE RENEWED. men. Every heart has its grief, every house its skeleton, every character is marred with weakness and imperfection, and all this helps us to understand how much there is to be accomplished in the higher life before a peaceful organization is attained. How necessary to understand something of the meaning of this, that we may apply ourselves consistently to the cultivation of the best gifts — those which accom- pany us in our journey beyond the grave. As yet the most cultivated mind is one which, by much meditation and painful study, has attained the deep- est knowledge of its own ignorance. It is still the discipline which an all-wise Providence imposes on us all, that we shall work out our own salvation, and by steady, constant endeavors grow into the knowl- edge of truth. Should not the gloom through which we must now pass keep alive in our hearts a more intense longing for the home where there will be no more ignorance or uncertainty, and where the per- fection of our immortal being is to be made capable of understanding the natural laws of our existence, resurrected from the dead body of materialism — from ignorance, superstition, and willful disobedience to that inner voice that whispers it warnings through the spiritual sense, reaching dimly the natural ear like an echo far off? To them the veil of mental darkness shuts out and silences the voices of angels, LIFE RENEWED. 265 the guardians of their night. It is like the pitiless door of the prison house, and the stone walls of the dungeon. And should we not think of those things and long for the dawn of that morning when this great mystery, this thick cloud of darkness, shall pass away and there shall be no more doubts — when the redeemed soul shall be born out of the decaying body of a material world; no more death, no more mysteries beyond, but the light of truth forever shining — a journey we all must take, and with us all that we have gleaned from earthly life that belongs to the spirit ? Is it well with us? Have we laid up treasures pure and perfect, or mixed with the dross, and in our mistaken views gathered the tares? Conscience echoes both. What have we given to our children, the treasure of our Hfe, the only earthly claim that follows on to our eternal home — either one of rest and peace, or one of sorrow and deep regret over a misspent Hfe? Duties neglected are yet to be fulfilled ; there is still anxious work to be done. How blessed the life that can watch and wait for the coming to that shore where death can not follow the loved ones of earth, and be able to say well done; enter now into a haven of peace and rest, for thy work is finished on earth. Why not now prepare for that rest by doing unto thy neighbor what the still small voice prompts us to do, and grow 18 266 LIFE RENEWED. out of the darkness into the light, that our new birth may bring us up to a happy home — resurrect our own spirit, and move away from the temptations of a dying world and live on a higher plane, where God and the angels dwell on earth as well as in heaven, with peace and good will to all ? "The source of all the discord that we feel. Is that of will. Is not made one with God's, and so we strive To make life still A thing that we call good — a little good That we can know ; Instead of in our ignorance content God's way to go." PRAYER How Prayer May be Answered. " Thou must be true thyself, If thou the truth wouldst teach; Thy soul must overflow, if thou Another soul would reach. It needs the overflowing heart To give the lips full speech. Speak truly, and thy word Shall be a fruitful seed ; Live truly, and thy life shall be A great and noble creed. " Charles W. Wendte. The spirit of man is weak; it is unable to hold its natural supremacy, and inspire the soul with courage and confidence. It is like one lost in doubt and fear, wandering in the wilderness of imaginar}^ evils, oppressed; hungry for something unattainable, yet, through prayer to the Infinite Father, hoping for the blessings that are craved. Prayer inspires the spiritual organization, the whole force of desire being directed through the emotional sense to the spirit brain, and that inspiration lifting the burden up into the spirit realms and opening the way to God's 268 PRA YER. messengers of love, our spirit friends, who respond to the true heartfelt prayers, bringing magnetic power, giving strength, courage and light to the despairing ones of earth, whose appeal had reached the sympathies of kind spirit friends. The spirit brain becomes active and the soul rejoices in its free- dom from earthly bondage, being inspired with hope in a higher presence. Mere words are not prayer, but the soul's most earnest emotions, the deep, silent soul's desire, that can truly say, " not my will, but Thine be done ; " an inward spirit communing with the spirit of the universe, embodied in many forms, and in some whose natural relationship draws them near to us in the Divinest sense, sympathises with our sorrow, adding their strength of will with their reviving influences, inspiring hope and confi- dence—this is prayer. Words are simply nothing. Without the supervention of immediate help or other magnetic influence there cannot be a natural inspiration of true prayer, and wordy prayers only dull the senses into a monotonous endeavor to please, or a habit of fashion, where an answer could only be found in the imagination. I like the simple child's prayer, whose confidence is perfect. Even though it needeth not to pray to the Great Spirit, which it cannot understand, it sends currents of magnetic will towards the spirit brain, aiding in its develop- PRA YER. 269 ment, and, as the strength of intellectual perception increases and reason rules, the blissful memories of childhood and youth, before a knowledge of the evil in the world was acquired, is like a talisman, to lead, and guard, and bless its journey through life. Made prayers are delusions that fall unheard. What do I believe? I believe that all mankind are the children of God and nature ; that discord is the cause of all unhappiness; that harmony is heaven; that there is no death to the soul and spirit; that sins are not forgotten, but outgrown through repentance and a righteous life. "In this misjudging world they picture Death A fearful tyrant. Oh, believe them not! He is an angel beautiful as light, That watches o'er the sorrowing spirit here. And when its earthly pilgrimage is done, Unbars the gates of everlasting bliss. And vanishes forever." Isaiah iv. " My thoughts are not as your thoughts; as the heavens are high above the earth, so are my thoughts above your thoughts." God's thoughts are not as man's, alas! Far wide apart are the}^ ; The one controls a universe, The other molds its clay. Man wanders weary on a staff, A pilgrim in the night; God shakes the star dust from his feet To give that pilgrim light. Science, to climb the misty height. To make truth understood. Must lay her hand in nature's hand, Must give her thoughts to God. 'Tis said, that she, in soaring off, Awa}^ through distance dim, The nearer that she gets to truth The further gets from him. If God be truth, and everywhere, In every wind that blows. The more that science knows of truth. The more of God she knows. Aye, she has yet one truth to learn Before her march is done; She cannot hope to light her torch. Save at the central sun. Great forces moving round the earth, By His omniscient will, Have met upon a daisy's breast A dew-drop to distill. Creation's mechanism stirred By great Creation's Chief, To spread a banquet for a bird. To mold a maple leaf. Nature lights her hottest fires. Distills her summer rain To resurrect a buried seed — To make a spear of grain. The blades of grass, the fluttering leaves, Are chemists every one, Whose laboratory is the earth, Whose furnace is the sun. And man, with his affinities And fires seven times hot, Scarce does the work on summer breeze By nature's chemist wrought. Subject to nature's alchemy Are wind, and dust, and dew. Transformed to fruits of sweetest tastes — To flowers of fairest hue. The unseen artists in the air Haved striped the tulip's cup. And built the alabaster walls That hold the lily up. Rose tree, from out the sodden ground, Say, wherefore were you brought? "God thought of beauty; I am one Evolvement of that thought." Sweet violet, how came you to dwell In such a scented bed? " God thought of odor; so he poured His oils upon my head." Alpines, whence came your lofty peaks. Wrapped up in snowy shrouds? '' God thought of majesty, and raised Our heads above the clouds." And thus we read, in earth and air, In sun, and stars, and flowers, As heaven is higher than the earth. So are God's thoughts than ours. Lizzie York Case. p Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide Treatment Date: Nov. 2004 PreservationTechnologies A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive Cranberry Township, PA 16066 (724)779-2111