LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.; 
 
 I J7^A./f. "SS.^ ^: 
 
 & ^ 
 
 ! UNITED STATES OP AMERICA, f 
 
i 
 
THE 
 
 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE 
 
 AS EVOLVED BY 
 
 MODERN SCIENCE 
 
 DELIVERED IN TEXAS, IN I860, 
 
 
 This earth of ours is a mighty organ, 
 Of strings without end, keys numherless. 
 And notes innumerable : some resound 
 Deep-toned and grand, like ocean in the storm. 
 And thunder on its chariot ot cloud ; 
 Others sing silence as their sweetest strain 
 To melodice the ear of intellect ; 
 But all the million tongues of this organ 
 Grand, peal out the mind of (Jon omnitic ; 
 And nature's vast onuiifrrous design 
 To people the spheres with immortal man 
 The tvpic cross, the crescent and the scroll. 
 Symbols of faith, of passion and of soul ; 
 Unfurl the lettered scroll ! Ansel emblem 
 Of the grand spiritual philosophy ; 
 Unrolling life around the starry spheres. 
 Unfolding angels of immortal love. 
 And op'ning the destinies of heaven. 
 
 IVI E M: P H I S : 
 
 PRINTED BY BLELOCK & TO., 315 MAIN STREET. 
 
•5,6^ 
 
 ^^V 
 
EKEORS AND CORRECTIONS. 
 
 Without attempting to rectify all the promiscuous jumbling, 
 of paragraphs and sections, on 
 
 i (title) page, for "melodice," read melodize 
 i ■' page, after "omniflc" omit the semicolon 
 i " page, after "man" and before "The" should be 
 hyphen 'or dash 
 
 vi page, for " mayhaps " read mayhap 
 
 vi page, for " portals " read portal 
 
 vii page, for " rapsody " read rhapsody 
 
 vii page, the words " Ee Lieu near " should be enclosed iu 
 parenthesis 
 
 X page, after " confidently " read have 
 
 17 page, after " topic " omit the comma 
 
 17 page, after " theme " should be colon instead of period 
 
 IS page, for " beings " read being 
 
 lit page, for " Yudisathira " read Yudisthira 
 
 20 page, for " inwith " read within 
 
 84 page, between the words "may" and "not" insert comma 
 
 32 page, for " principal " read principle 
 
 35 page, for " requires " read recxuire 
 
 35 page, for " its " read it is 
 
 47 page, for " lies " read lives 
 
 GS page, for " assimulated " read assimilated 
 
 77 page, for " remain " read remains 
 
 87 page, after the word " pant" omit semicolon 
 
 91 page, for " consist " read consists 
 
 103 page, for " appetite " read appetites 
 
 103 page, for " in " read into 
 
 104 page, for " Zephirs " read zephirs 
 
 105 page, for " a" read the 
 
 105 page, between the words "forever " and " Thus " should 
 
 be space for distinct paragraph 
 
 112 page, after word "later " substitute comma for period 
 
 lis page, for " larger, stouter," read coarser, grosser 
 
 122 page, after " current " substitute comma for semicolon 
 
 122 page, after " charcoal " insert semicolon 
 
 132 page, after "antidote" insert colon 
 
 12S page, for " atmosphere " read atoms 
 
 128 page, for " irons " read iron 
 
 129 page, after " accuracy " substitute comma instead of 
 
 semicolon 
 129 page, for " suspiscious " read suspicious 
 183 page, after " sea" omit the dash 
 137 page, between the words " latter " and " iu " should be 
 
 space for distinct paragraph or section 
 
 139 page, for " denizen read denizens 
 
 145 page, between " answer " and " These " should be space 
 for separate paragraph 
 
 140 page, after " he will insert be 
 
 1(J2 page, for " acatalapsie " read acatalepsy 
 
 181 page, for " Gehenna " read Gehenna 
 
 187 page, between the words " philosophy " and " I " should 
 
 be blank line for separate section 
 
 108 page, after " man " substitute comma for semicolon 
 
 215 page, for " verticle" read vertical 
 
 216 page, for " emenations " read emanations 
 232 page, for " mark " read mask 
 
 236 page, for " eclipse " read ellipse 
 
 244 page, for " assay " read essay 
 
 245 page, for " incondensed" read incandescence 
 251 page, for "58 degrees P," read — 58 degrees F 
 260 page, for " analyze the deep " read annalize &c 
 270 page, after " in any " insert manner 
 
 279 page, for " beautified " read beatified 
 
 286 page, between the words "softly" and "Now" should 
 
 be blank for distinct paragraph 
 286 page, for " bitterly " read literally 
 302 page, for " potent " read patent 
 

 
 OREGON 
 
 RULE 
 
 CO. 
 
 1 
 
 U.S.A. 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 5 
 
NOTE, 
 
 EXPLANATORY AND MEMORIAL, 
 BY THE AUTHOR. 
 
 Since the following lecture was written out front my 
 scattered notes and prepared for the press — considerably 
 extended with more copious quotations and free digres- 
 sions — the wild wave of internecine war hath rolled 
 over our land and whelmed beneath its bloody surges 
 many a thousand of our truest men and most promising 
 youth — innocent victims to popular ignorance and 
 public demagogueism. 
 
 Before this dire calamity, I had concluded, against 
 the importunity of friends, to let my lecture rest in 
 silence as not perhaps specially demanded by the 
 times. But since my country has become one wide 
 waste of woe and of weeping — every household draped 
 in the habiliments of mourning, every hearthstone 
 crimsoned with the best blood of the family, and all 
 my countrymen and countrywomen gloomed in the 
 grief of bitter memories of sons slain and loved ones 
 lost — amid all this sad scene of sorrow, I can but feel 
 it a sacred duty and specially called for, to publish this 
 glorious philosophy of our life as the best panacea in 
 my power, the only healing balm for the bleeding 
 hearts around me that I can offer. And it is enough, 
 
IV NOTE, 
 
 if proved and applied, believed and embraced, in tbe 
 plenitude of heaven's name it im enough, to ease the 
 aching heart, to turn the streaming tears of sorrow into 
 gushing fountains of delight, and gild in golden sheen 
 the darkest clouds that ever lowered around the human 
 soul. I can truly condole and sympathize, for I, too, 
 have lost the right arm of my life, and would bleed my 
 heart away, but for this lieavenly healing balm ; it is 
 my comfort, nay succor, my very palladium of life. 
 Should I withhold it from others bleeding like myself? 
 When Marshal Lannes fell, Napoleon exclaimed " I 
 have lost the right arm of my empire." So when my 
 eldest son, Andrew, fell, scarcely yet eighteen, I lost the 
 right arm of my little empire on earth. Kind, gentle, 
 generous, chivalric and true — truth his preeminent 
 characteristic — with the highest order of intellect, an 
 innate nobleness of soul, a manly mien, faultless physi- 
 cal frame, and sj)irit and patience, impetuosity and 
 prudence, passion and self-control, ambition and self- 
 abnegation so beautifully blended. O, he had few 
 equals and no superiors this side of heaven ! Certainly 
 in everything, young as he was, he was a head and 
 shoulders above his sorrowing sire. He fell where fall 
 the obedient and brave, the good and the true, in the 
 front of his friends, battling for liberty, contending for 
 the great principle of self government, and vindicating 
 wdth his blood, and hallowing with his life the great 
 political evangel of government founded on the consent 
 of the governed and love of the people; though he 
 was, like many, if not most of those who breasted the 
 deadly bullet, free from the guilt of precipitating the 
 bloody tragedy ; nor Avas his father an early advocate 
 
NOTE. V 
 
 of the sangiiinaiy conflict. He was among the first to 
 fall in his first and last battle. But fate favored him^ 
 for it was his kind destiny to sever the mystic chord of 
 immortal birth without a pang, so quick and kind was 
 the fatal bullet; a perfect euthanasia, he felt not the 
 throes of deatli, nor knew it, until he awoke on those 
 bright shores of his ne\v and more congenial home. 
 Alreadv ripe, he was ])luckcd like many others, to fruit 
 the spheres of splendid spirits. His friends found hinx 
 Avhere he fell — 
 
 " With his hack to the field and his feet to the foe, 
 And leavini; iu battle uo blot on his uarae. 
 Looking proudly to Heaven from the death-bed of fume!" 
 
 The reader will pardon this true tribute to his mem- 
 ory, for he was the pride of my manhood to whom I 
 looked, and the staff of my life on whom I leaned. 
 His memory is now my shrine, and I would embalm it 
 forever in this grand destiny of the highest types of 
 man, and record it in the archives of the angel world. 
 
 And many another youth as promising, perhaps, as- 
 he, and many a thousand as dear to others as he to me, 
 have offered up themselves as a holy holocost in this 
 mighty human hetacombto the modern moloch of blood 
 and fanaticism. 
 
 ]Mv main stay now, my only hope that lends to life 
 a gleam of light^ is- the glorious philosophy which I've 
 tried to unfold in the following pages. It is the sun 
 of my soul that keeps flowing its fast freezing fountains. 
 — Stricken sires ! Mourning mothers of my country ! 
 yet bleeding from an ordeal of blood unparalleled in 
 human annals for its causeless cruelty and wicked 
 wantonness : shall I longer withhold from you this 
 sweet solace of again meeting yom^ loved and lost 
 
beyond the reach of bloody despots, where the glare and 
 gloom of battles are no more and where the disgusting 
 paeans of prurient praise by the obsequious parasites of 
 power and truculent fools of fanaticism shall no longer 
 echo to the moloch of a million murders nor swell con- 
 gratulations to the diabolic and gigantic Armageddon ! 
 
 Should I not contribute to spread the sunshine of 
 this sublime philosophy that opens the portals of those 
 splendid spheres of pure and spotless spirituality, and 
 shows us our noble sons and brothers clothed in the 
 angel uniforms of immortality ? In imagination I see 
 them a band of brothers baptized with the best blood 
 of the world, in solid phalanx unbroken marching to 
 the music of celestial symphonies not understood by 
 craven hearts or carnal ears ! Not dead but risen to the 
 sublime altitudes of their grand destiny and true glory ! 
 
 With all its imperfections — for my facilities at com- 
 mand were few and small, and the incorporation of the 
 addenda already alluded to, have rendered it somewhat 
 fragmentary if not desultory — ^with many scientific 
 facts adduced and the philosophy educed as new, now 
 become old to the posted and progressive student^ with, 
 mayhaps, the cynic's sneer and the critic^s satire, the- 
 malediction of bigots and anathemas of priests, I publish 
 it in my country, and for my countrymen, and leave it 
 as a happy heritage for my remaining children long 
 after I shall have passed the mystic portal*. My 
 business agents shall be directed to let those who are 
 not able to pay its cost, and whose inability is not the 
 result of indolence, have it gratis ; others who are able 
 will pay enough to reimburse me itt all but the labor, 
 which is one of love, sot pelf, afit^ will not be lost. 
 
KOTE. vn 
 
 Also as appropriate and possessing merit, in the 
 estimation of my friends, I republish a cotiple of little 
 poems. Others I also piblish because it is my desire 
 thns to preserve them, for which I alone aiu responsible 
 and indifferent to public condemnation or commenda- 
 tion. The natural intensity of my hopes and feelings, 
 st ill more intensified by scenes of sorrow witnessed and 
 experienced, may invest my work with the semblance 
 of transcendentalism and extravagance and rapsody ; be 
 it even so, without hoping or caring to please a stolidified 
 chastity, the creed-cursed bigot, or the snarling cynic, I 
 publish it nevertheless. Defiant and free like the moun- 
 tain eagle soaring in his native empyrean and bathing 
 in God's free sunshine, unmindful of the sluggish birds 
 below him, I, breaking the cage of despotism woven 
 around the human heart for sixty centuries, soar in the 
 empyrean of mind and bask in the blaze of God's free 
 truth regardless of the antiquated sluggards who plod 
 their old path of prejudice, ignorance and superstition 
 on the primitive plains of earth. 
 
 S. S. R. 
 
 LeLieu, near Memphis, Tenn, 1865. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 BY A FRIEND. 
 
 Not long ago it was remarkecl by a slircwd observer 
 of human nature, and one, too, who himself makes some 
 pretentions to the character of a philosopher, that there 
 was a vast wealth of undeveloped Pptlosophy in the 
 Southern mind, which would yet make the literature 
 and the genius of the South famous through the world. 
 This mine of Piitlosophtc wealth, owing to peculiar 
 circumstances, but mostly to the hitherto easy, and even 
 wealthy, condition of our most cultivated people, has 
 been but little worked. Had tlie "conditions" sur- 
 rounding them been the same as in Germany or New 
 England, the rich ore and the rare '■ gems of purest ray 
 serene' from the diamond minds of Southern Phi- 
 losophy" wold long ago have been seen in the book- 
 marts of every civilized capital, and would by this tim.e 
 have been translated and " set " in every polite language 
 of Europe, and worn upon the brows of all the princes 
 and leaders of Thought. 
 
 Hereafter, the "conditions" referred to, will be 
 altered. The war has swept away most of the hercdi- 
 \'\v\ fortunes of the South ; and Southern thinkers 
 mnst now come forth from their (Joh.c far nknfe, and 
 make literary labor and PriiLOSOPHrcAL vcsearch some- 
 thing more than a mere pastime. They must learn to 
 extract money as well as pleasure and " glory " from 
 their thoughts. Being thus coraj>clled,, in a measure, 
 
X INTRODUCTION. 
 
 to apply themselves assiduously and continuously to 
 scholastic pursuits and PhiTjOSOPHICAL exercises in the 
 grand gymnasium of inflect, we may well believe that 
 our literary leaders will speedily strike out something 
 " the world shall not willingly let die" — something 
 that shall parallel, if not transcend, the miracles of 
 Bacon, Shakspeaee, Milton. Before the Century 
 has grown to be an Octogenarian, let us hope that we 
 or our children shall see this glory come to pass ! 
 
 The work before us, may be regarded as a pioneer in 
 the great, the boundless field of Southern Philoso- 
 phy. The writer is a gentleman of fortune, a native of 
 Georgia, reared in the lap of affluence ti^ough a work- 
 ing man, a hard student, and has never been dependent 
 upon his pen or his brains for a sujoport, althovigh, as 
 will be seen from the style of his Philosophic 
 lucubrations, and his fugitive poetical pieces, some of 
 which are appended to this volume, he might very 
 confidently relied upon them had there been any need. 
 In the State of Texas, where he resided for some years, 
 and where he is better known for his intellectual efforts, 
 he enjoys a reputation of which he may justly be proud, 
 both as a writer, and orator, and as a gentlemen of high 
 social distinction. But as this reputation is mostly 
 confined to Texas, and as this volume is intended for 
 •-circulation in other States — of the South especially — 
 ras well as in Texas, it may not be improper to repro- 
 duce in this place, some of the public testimonials in 
 Ihis behalf which have appeared in the Press of Texas, 
 as a fitting Introduction to the work before us ; for, 
 anost readers desire, at least, a partial acquaintance 
 withiheir authjM", his character, standingand antecedents. 
 
INTRODUCTION. XI 
 
 The Texas "State Gazette," published at Austin, 
 the State capital, a leading journal of an opposite politi- 
 cal party to that of which Mr. Eemp.ert has ever been 
 a member, speaks of him as "a talented and high-toned 
 gentleman, and leading orator of the party." 
 
 The Victoria " Advocate," an equally able paper 
 of the same State, not of his party in politics, speaks 
 of his removal from that section to another, "where he 
 will probably pursue the profession of law, for which 
 he is well qualified, or cultivate the soil, for which he 
 is equally well prepared." " Mr. EE:\fBERT," continues 
 the Advocate, " is a beautifid speaker, and ivoidd be- 
 come eminent by practice. Although courteous and gen- 
 tlemanly in his manner, he is frank and fearless in the 
 expression of his opinions. He became very popular 
 during his residence here, and we, together with his 
 numerous friends, regret that he thought it expedient 
 to leave." 
 
 After a short residence at his new location, Mr. Rem- 
 BERT was urged for the State Senate, but declined, 
 not having that penchant for office so characteristic of 
 modern " patriots." Referring to a series of articles, 
 then appearing in the columns of The Gaeveston 
 "News," from his pen, and entitled, " The Delta of the 
 Trinity as paralleled rdth the Delta of the Mississippi,^^ 
 that journal said — ^^ They are well written, as indeed 
 everything is that comes from the pen of that accomplished 
 icriter." 
 
 A popular jurist and elegant writer of the South- 
 AVest, Judge Palmer, spoke of one of his eiforts as 
 ''full of poetry cmd of genius, couched in glowing lan- 
 guage, and replete with argument and phieosophy." 
 
XIT INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Gov. Lubbock, of Texas, in a warm political discus- 
 sion with him, during a time of great excitement, said 
 that he " hicic the gentleman (Mr. S. S. Rembert) as a 
 finished speaker, and would caution his auditors not to be 
 carried, away by his eloquence,^' &c. 
 
 The Goliad "Express," speaking of Mr. Rem- 
 BERT's participation in one of these political discus- 
 sions, pronounced him " an able orator and. champion of 
 the party." 
 
 A well known writer in a Southern periodical, calls 
 him "a great thinker;" and says, " his soid is in 
 sympathy with a large class of intelligent men," and "may 
 his sold expand and his intellect brighten, until he readies 
 that HAVEN of light ivhose splendor is reflected, from 
 the ivings of his imagination, as he soars in the regions 
 of Poesy." 
 
 These extracts are sufficient, without cjuoting from 
 the organs of his own party, whose praises might now 
 sound like fulsome adulation. But whether any of his 
 productions are superior or even equal to this; or, 
 whether he has now reached that "haven of light" 
 referred to by one of his Southern admirers, is not per- 
 haps proper for us to pronounce. We may safely say, 
 however, and without committing ourselves to his Phi- 
 losophy, or to his peculiar religious belief — which ^ 
 indeed, we must here expressly disclaim — that thous- 
 ands of liberal minded readers will doubtless thank 
 liiui for this honest, able and well-timed effort to vindi- 
 cate our Father's love for His children, and the im- 
 mortality of His children's love tov/ard Him and one 
 ■another in an inseperable re-union hereafter. Such 
 vindication is certainly not uncalled for, at this tim^ 
 
INTRO^)UCTTO^C. XTTI 
 
 when so many of our brotlicrs and sons have so lately 
 been suddenly called away from the scenes of earth 
 
 — perishing far away upon hundreds of battlefields — 
 and is, indeed, greatly needed to relume the flickering 
 hopes of many fast dying out under the baneful, blight- 
 ing influence of so-called, but misnamed, "Christian" 
 Churches on one hand, and the ponderous blows of a 
 dreary, hopeless " materialism " on the other. 
 
 Let not the reverent reader be startled by the bold 
 freedom with which our author expresses his thought, 
 almost at the outset of the discussion. His pen, it is 
 true, is free — far more so, indeed, than we could have 
 wished, for his own fame and usefulness — but his reli- 
 gion is Love, and his heart is in the right place. The 
 fatalist has concluded that we are but the playthings of 
 Destiny. The Christian, with a soul and a mind full 
 of the innate and revealed evidences of the truth of his 
 Religion, believes in an all-wise, all-merciful, loving 
 Providence, who controls alike the destinies of men 
 and of empires. To this grand central Agency — the 
 God of the Christian — our author, who is neither 
 fatalist nor infidel, attributes the whole course and 
 direction of human events. But he does not — idll not 
 
 — CANNOT believe in a cruel God. His religion is a 
 compound of charity toward man, and love tov/ard the 
 Father of all! 
 
 AVithout doing more than merely to allude to our 
 author's apparent skepticism or "free thinking" here, 
 we would remind him and all who read his book, that 
 ■many things in the Great Creator's plan, and in Hm 
 Revelation, must of necessity, appear inscrutable to us 
 now ; wo cannot judge with certaiiity of tlic whole by 
 
XtV ESTTRODUCTION. 
 
 a part; and not until the last trump has sounded, shall 
 we, poor mortals, be able fully to vindicate the ways of 
 God to man.- 
 
 To the Stoic, Mr. Rembert may appear extravagant; 
 to many of the clergy heretical ; and to the critic des- 
 ultory ; — ^but ardent minds are never to the stoic's tastej 
 original thinkers seldom please a dogmatical clergy, 
 and it is the critic's vocation to find fault. Tke "Lec- 
 ture," of which the work under notice is but an elab- 
 oration, may be charged Avith egotism ; but it should 
 be remembered that it was a Farewell Address to cher- 
 ished friends, with many of whom the author was inti- 
 mate, and with all popular in both his public reputation 
 and private character. It is also more or less desultory; 
 but how could this well be avoided in a Lecture cover- 
 ing so wide a field ? Its variety, too, both in style and 
 sentiment, the pervading vein of quiet, subdued humor 
 that occasionally crojDS out; the combination of the 
 argumentative and ornamental, and the historic allu- 
 sions and scientific illustrations; should amply atone 
 for all desultoriness. 
 
 At all events, and in spite of every criticism, it is a 
 bold and well sustained advance, in one respect at least, 
 in the right direction; for, it strikes the first blow — 
 breaks ground — in the grand enterprize of developing 
 the wealth, uncovering the minds, of Southehn Phi- 
 IX)SOPHY. In this direction, lies a California little 
 dreamed of by those unfamiliar with the true character 
 and potentialities of the Southern mind. But, in no 
 great while, we may now confidently expect to see this 
 new gold region in process of successful development 
 by a little army of delvers and workers, the result of 
 
TNTRODUOTION. XV 
 
 whose labors shall greatly redound to the increase of 
 the treasured stores and immortal honors*of our be- 
 loved, native Southern land ! To have been the pio- 
 neer in the conquest of such an El Dorado — an El 
 Dorado surpassing all those of mere material gold and 
 gems — will be "honor immortal," enough for one man. 
 That honor will be Mr. S. S. Rembert's — the author 
 of the unique and interesting and eloquent work, for 
 which we bespeak a thorough and not partial perusal, 
 and to which we here introduce the reader, and respect- 
 fully take our leave. J- P* 
 Memphis, Oct. 1st, 1865. 
 
PRELECTION 
 
 ON THE 
 
 PHILOSOPHY or LIPE. 
 
 It is owing alone to the voice of friendship and love 
 that I address you to-day. Not a political harrangue, 
 sparkling with sprightly anecdote and rich in popular 
 eloquence, or exciting gladiatorial contest of keen wit 
 and cutting repartee imbued with bitterness of party 
 spirit determined only to triumph, to rule or ruin, to 
 be Cffisar or nothing; nor yet a jejune disquisition or 
 vapid homily on regeneration, transubstantiation, mode 
 of baptism, final perseverance of the saints, and other 
 ductile dogmatics of clerical scholasticism ; but a higher 
 and holier and happier theme, a sublimer subject, en- 
 gages us now. The philosophy of human life, of our 
 rives, so long the sealed book of human history and 
 human hope, just being unfolded to our view and 
 understanding by modern science, is our topic, aspira- 
 tion and inspiration at this time, and all the time; and 
 it is more glorious than our imaginations can possibly 
 conceive. 
 
 You ask it, and I give it — not, however, without 
 feeling conscious of my utter inability to do justice to 
 the sublime theme.. 
 
18 pan^OSOPHY OF LTPR 
 
 That man is the ultimate of the material creation 
 below him, a microcosm of the universe; that his body, 
 a mere outside shell, or carnal caseing^ adapted to this, 
 his infantile condition of life, is elaborated from the 
 rocks, and will decompose into its original elements ; 
 that his spirit or soul, in actuality the man, the divine 
 principle which makes the conscious man of thought, 
 feeling, intellect, affection, and angel aspirations, will 
 live on immortal in endless progression of wisdom, and 
 boundless succession of altitudes in love and glory, 
 maintaining intact and unchanged his distinct identity 
 and conscious individuality and personality, throughout 
 the vast multitude of angelic beings, and infinite cycles 
 of eternity : and that these excarnated spirits eliminated 
 from perishable mundane matter, but retaining their 
 hsecceity, can and do, under certain conditions, commu- 
 nicate with us, and hover around and uphold us, and 
 will recognize and greet us at our coming on the very 
 threshold of their pure pavilions. 
 
 This in few words is the new philosophy as devel- 
 oped and established by modern science, whose investi- 
 gations have penetrated as well the internal structure 
 of the earth and traced its hoary age, as the spiritual 
 spheres that engirdle the globe with ethereal realms of 
 peopled intelligencies in beatitude of being. 
 
 It is to diffuse » cheeping hope if not a certain knowl- 
 edge of this glorious destiny, and impart to my friends 
 at least a portion of the pleasure I have derived from its 
 study, that I make this effort: for certainly it has 
 proved to me the greatest source of the purest pleasure 
 and extatic delight and serene comfort that I have ever 
 found amid all the creeds of theology and religion and 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 19 
 
 systems of ethics and philosophy, from the days of Soc- 
 rates, and yet earlier, of the Hindo Rama and Yudis- 
 athira. It weaves a woof of hope around the heart of 
 despair, and winds its warp within the storied temple 
 of immortality. It sheds celestial sunshine around the 
 cold and cheerless chambers of the soul ; and amid all 
 the ano;uish accumulated from untold sorrows and afflic- 
 tions, and wailings without end, for our loved and lost, 
 this should be our consolation, and a consolation fraught 
 with the full fruition of immortal aspirations beyond 
 the sweep of sorrow's wing, where we shall meet our 
 loved and lost in a realm untarnished with a tear, where 
 the dirge of death shall never start an echo, and where 
 the memory of a hell without hope and separation 
 without end,, shall never awaken a wail of woe to sound 
 upon its shores. God's multitude of matured children 
 and developed angels, now full-fledged sons of immor- 
 tality, soar up round the concentric spheres in rainbow 
 realms of seraphim; and their choral melodies rever- 
 berate along the vocal voids until lost in distant echo 
 amid the misty embryonic nebula of uncreated worlds, 
 floating in the far-off" ether, awaiting the development 
 and maturity of their destiny. Planet speaks with 
 neighboring planet, star telegraphs to distant star, world 
 resounds to world nature's grand oratorio that fills the 
 universe with melody ; and scintillant suns without 
 number spin out their myriad threads of light that fill 
 creation, and weave the luminous mantle to clothe in 
 robes of radiant corruscations all this bright and bur- 
 nished blazonry of God ! 
 
 But it is not my purpose to deal alone in declamation, 
 poetic pictures, or high-wrought hyberbole ; nor indulge 
 
20 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 solely in the sublime; you ask for the philosophy and 
 science, and to the best of my ability, inwith the limits 
 of a lecture not to exceed two or three hours, for longer 
 than that I shall not be able in my usual, rapid, impas- 
 sioned manner to speak, nor you willing to hear, I 
 cheerfully give them. I am truly glad to see so much 
 interest and solicitude evinced, and by such an auditory, 
 in this grand and glorious science. I would that I had 
 ability and opportunity commensurate with its vast 
 import and amplitude. 
 
 The philosophy of life involves not only its origin, 
 but, and principally, its object, and this object involves 
 our duty and our destiny; hence to consider these we 
 must necessarily trench more or less on all systems of 
 religion, which originally was called philosophy, but I 
 shall treat alone of that in vogue with us and enlight- 
 ened Christendom. 
 
 In following the bent of my inclinations, unlike 
 Goethe, the early years of my manhood were devoted 
 mainly to the study of physical, and the later to psy- 
 chical science ; and being endued by nature with large 
 religiosty, or what phrenology calls spirituality and 
 veneration, the older I grow the more devoted I become 
 to the science of the soul. My humble career has also 
 been to some extent the contrary of Coleridge, who 
 commenced life an infidel and closed it a christian, 
 accordi'ng to some biographers. I was early rocked in 
 the plastic cradle of mesmeric Methodism, but from 
 scientific investigation, if not from intuition, found its 
 contracted confines could not contain the true philoso- 
 phy of human life, the true scheme of creation, and 
 exalted ideas or proper conceptions of the Creator ; and 
 
PHTT.OSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 21 
 
 tliese contracted confines are large to many sister or 
 brother denominations. Though not an infidel in its 
 literal import, yet if refusing to take the bible or any 
 other book on faith in toto, and rejecting it as the 
 infldlible word of God, regardless of His philosophy, 
 make me infidel, then I am such ; but if accepting this 
 wonderful book of antiquity on a rational interpretation 
 subject to the philosophic explanations and corrections, 
 or general exegesis of science, ^vhich is the organura 
 i5f nature, and throwing out its evident fables and super- 
 venient interpolations, make me a Christian, then I am 
 a rational and rationalistic Christian. Whether my 
 progressive change, or the change of Coleridge, be the 
 result of mental maturity or mental senility or moral 
 degeneracy, for Coleridge let his aberrations and pla- 
 giarisms, for me let my philosophy and life, and for 
 both, let science, the organon of God, answer. I 
 believe in the cardinal truths of the bible as founded in 
 philosoi)hy, approved by science and sustained by the 
 laws of nature and the light of reason and common 
 sense ; but I cannot believe the whole bible with its 
 palpable contradictions and absurdities, immanities and 
 inhumanities, as founded in faith, disproved by science 
 and refuted by well-known laws of nature, and obnox- 
 ious to reason and common sense. And you will find that 
 my philosophy supports and it is the only philosophy 
 that does sustain the truths of the bible, and without it 
 the bible must fall ; under the modern march of mind 
 this thaumaturgical book cannot stand on mere faith, it 
 must have the support of science and philosophy or fall 
 like fobulous myth. The bible is a record of Spiritualism 
 or it is record of fable. My opinions on this great 
 
22 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 subject are not the mushroom growth of a moment; they 
 have matured from profound investigation, laborious 
 research and assiduous study; honestly, independently, 
 defiantly, for the threat of eternal torment has not 
 terrified me, nor am I intimidated by popular or 
 unpopular opinion as you well know. Public opinion 
 can have nothing to do with me in striving to learn my 
 duty and my destiny; and if there is truth in eternal 
 torment, certainly it can not be intended for one sin- 
 cerly seeking truth and striving faithfully to do his duty 
 and learn his destiny. With science as the unerring 
 touchstone and reason the guide, one, the book of 
 nature's God, and the other, the God-gifted light to 
 read it by, I seek and vindicate truth, and shun and 
 combat error, whether under the name of infidel, 
 Christian, Spiritualist, or Pagan ; whether in the bible 
 or Koran, or the code of Menu. 
 
 "At this time, in the maturity of mankind, as with 
 man in the maturity of his powers, the great lever 
 which moves the world is knowledge, the great force is 
 the intellect. So valuable, even above all things, 
 (excepting only godliness,) is clear thought, that the 
 labors of the statesman are far below those of the philos- 
 opher, in Huration, in power, and in beneficial results. 
 Thought is now higher than action, unless action be 
 inspired with the very breath of Heaven. For we are 
 now men, governed by principles if governed at all, 
 and cannot rely any longer on the impulses of youth, 
 or the discipline of childhood." Thus writes Dr. Temple. 
 Another distinguished orthodox writer says : — " Every 
 day makes it more and more evident that the thorough 
 study of the Bible, the investigatioil of what it teaches 
 
PHTT.OfiOPHY OF LTFF. 23 
 
 and wliat it does not teach, the determination of the 
 limits of what we mean by its inspiration, the deter- 
 mination of the degree of authority to be ascribed to 
 the different l)ooks, if any degrees are to be admitted, 
 must take leave of all other studies. He is guilty of 
 high treason against the faith who fears the result of 
 any investigation, whether philosophical, or scientific, or 
 historical. And therefore, nothing shtulrt be more 
 Avelcome than the extension of knowledge of any and of 
 every kind — for every increase in our accumulations of 
 k,nowledge throws fresh light upon the real problems of 
 the day. If geology j^roves to us that we must not 
 interpret the first chapter of Genesis literally ; if histori- 
 cal investigation shall show us that inspiriation, however 
 it may protect the doctrine, yet was not empowered to 
 protect the narrative of the inspired Avriters from occa- 
 sional inaccuracy; if careful criticism shall prove that 
 there have been occasionally inter])olations and forgeries 
 in that book, as in many others; the results should still 
 be welcome — as clearing away blunders which may have 
 been fastened on it by human interpretation." " If we 
 have made mistakes, careful study may teach us better." 
 A christian periodical of this country, " Inquirer," thus 
 quotesfrom an English "Country Parson;" " It must be 
 admitted, with great regret, that ]ieo]>le who make a 
 considerable profession of religion, have succeeded in 
 making themselves more thoroughly disagreeable than 
 almost any other human beings — extremely uncharita- 
 ble, unamiable, repulsive, stupid, and intensly 
 opinionated and self-satisfied. 1 have seen more 
 deliberate malice, more lying and cheating, more back- 
 biting and slandering, denser stupidity and greater self- 
 
24 PIITIvOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 sufficiency^ among bad - hearted and wrong-headed 
 religionists than among any other human beings. I 
 have known more malignity and slander conveyed in 
 the form of prayers^, than should have consigned an 
 ordinary slanderer to the pillory." 
 
 Thus you see I am sustained in my rationalism, or if 
 you prefer, iconoclasm, by high church authority, with- 
 out quoting Bishop Colenzo, whose mind has bounded 
 an age beyond his generation, and his numerous sympa- 
 thizers in England. And I may not without just pride, 
 say of myself that my opinions were formed independent 
 and without knowledge of these authorities. My 
 reading too on the subject of religion has been confined 
 to orthodox (so claimed) christian authors. But of all 
 this anon. 
 
 The greatest study of mankind is man, the greatest 
 lesson of our lives is to learn ourselves, which is in fact 
 the sum total of all learning; a lesson unlearned, all 
 other learning's naught. Our duty and our destiny, 
 the end, and aim, and object and origin of our existence 
 have always absorbed and always will absorb and 
 monopolize the brightest intellects that shed radiance 
 over the dark precincts of time. All the great minds 
 that have graced the annals of all the ages have devoted 
 their energies to solve this mighty problem of them- 
 selves. To men of mind, in contradistinction to men of 
 matter, it is the problem, our only problem. 
 
 " Man, know thyself — there all wisdom centers," 
 says Dr. Young. Thales said " the most difficult thing 
 in nature is to know ourselves, the most easy to advise 
 others." Chilo had engraved in letters of gold in the 
 Temple of Apollo, at Delphi, this aphorism : " Know 
 thyself." 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFPl 25 
 
 I shall first give a short account of the constituent 
 elements and composition of man's corporeal casket, — 
 its origin and end. 
 
 I'll next show from history both sacred and profane, 
 that mankind in all ages have witnessed Spiritual 
 Manifestations in various forms, but without under- 
 standing them. I shall here offer some arguments on 
 our immortality. 
 
 I shall cite to your notice some of the developments 
 of modern science ; and after showing the utter inade- 
 quacy of the biblo and all past revelations to satisfy and 
 stabilitate the modern materialist, your minds will be 
 prepared to expect and receive the new philosophy. 
 
 I shall then endeavor to explain this philosophy as 
 evolved by modern science> and with a brief peroration,, 
 or appeal to men of science to inspect its muniments,, 
 will conclude my discourse; — happy if in the most 
 sententious and summary manner I may succeed within, 
 three hours. And I would ask to be distinctly under- 
 stood and impressed upon your minds, that everything 
 human, every intelligence below God and perhaps bis- 
 highest arch-angels, is fallible; that, except to cheer the' 
 heart without hope, — and isn't this enough? I da not 
 wish you to be influenced by my oj)inions in renoimciing 
 other and perhaps safer creeds beyond the renunciation 
 of exclusiveness, intolerance, bigotry, cruelty and all 
 ecclesiastical despotism, for I would not incur such 
 responsibility on such mementous interests. I would 
 Feverently invoke the grand and governing sjiirit whose 
 ubiquitous presence permeates the universe, to stop my 
 tongue ere iit utter a cardinal error, or essay to shake 
 the faith of the truly happy, if there be sucli ; I would 
 2 
 
26 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE, 
 
 not propagate a fatal delusion for the sake of a temporaiy 
 comfort, nor do I stoop to the vocation of proselyting ; 
 but I counsel you to investigate for yourselves as I have 
 done for myself; and if you find a philosophy like an 
 adamantine pillar upon which to lean your tottering 
 spirit and become convinced and satisfied of its sublime 
 truth^ you will derive ineffable comfort and unfailing 
 support, and add a new and higher charm to life than 
 ever it possessed before; and if not, you will certainly 
 have lost nothing by the labor. 
 
 Enlightened intellect, a strong clear mind with true 
 philosophy, must always believe a truth that is demon- 
 strable, whether all the abstract or concrete principles 
 of that truth be understood and comprehended or not. 
 This latter (comprehension) cannot enter into a question 
 of mere credence or credibility ; understanding, properly 
 has nothing to do with believing. As the sequel will 
 prove, this is not said from conscious weakness, with 
 the view to beg in the beginning, as the preachers are 
 wont to do, skillfully preparing specious premises in 
 order to lead with facility into false conclusions. 
 
 How frequent it is for us to say, "we believe it but 
 don't understand it.'' Can we say of a fact that we 
 understand but don't believe ? We may believe with- 
 out understanding, but cannot understand a fact or 
 truth without believing, for this very understanding of 
 a truth or fact necessitates the truth or fact. But in 
 this we are liable to the error of mistaking a false theory 
 for a true philosophy. We may always detect and avoid 
 this error however, by remembering that theory is 
 derived from the fallible mind of man, while philosophy 
 is derived from and founded on the infallible phenomena 
 
lMiriX)r-;OPHY OF LIFE. 'I I 
 
 of nature. Xow, v;\\q\\ to the eye of reason and com- 
 mon sense science evolves a philosophy founded on these 
 infallible criteria, are we not bound to embrace the 
 philosophy if "sve believe the phenomena? And are we 
 not bound to belivc the phenomena if they are in accor- 
 dance with known laws of nature and other cognate 
 facts? But believing is not knowing — a truce to this 
 Speneerian styles-absolute positive knoAvledge is what 
 we want; and our only source of positive knowl- 
 edge is science, which is made up of collected and 
 collated experiences, and developed and systemized 
 ficts and phenoanena, all which we may obtain by 
 careful study and energetic effort. These and these 
 alone, constitute cei'tain satisfactory knowledge. As 
 a striking, but not very elegant illustration, you 
 iiaay tell me, an athletic man, that Mr. B., a delicate 
 man, can knock me down. I may not believe it. You will 
 affirm and bring many credible Avitnesses to prove that 
 Mr. B. has knocked them down and many other stouter 
 men than I, and of course can easily do the same with 
 me, I may then be induced to bet.ieve it by the great 
 tunount of credible testimony you bring; but do not 
 and can not knoav it until Mr. B. actually performs the 
 operation visibly and tangibly, and jialpably and un- 
 mistakably, id est, knocks me down. Then, and not 
 till then, I positively know it. It would be, or ought 
 to be impossible then to make me doubt, by rep 
 resenting that 1 was mistaken, that it was some other 
 man, or some other cause that knocked me down, or 
 that I was not knocked down at all, that the ground 
 flew up and struck me and not I that fell to the ground. 
 This is what T would call a knock-down argument and 
 
'28 PHTIiOSOPIIY OF JjIFE. 
 
 carries both the irresistible, physical force and moral 
 demonstration of absolute knowledge. Now as applied 
 to this new Philosophy of Life, I frankly confess that 
 no such knock-down demonstration has occurred to mv 
 personal cognition, and I cannot therefore aver that I 
 know it to be true; but the numbers and reputable 
 character of the testimony and the amount and scientific 
 nature of the evidence in its support, to say nothing of 
 my intuition of its goodness, its grandeur and its glory, 
 are vastly superior to that supporting any other religion, 
 or philosophy of life, or system of ethics, and irresistibly 
 compels me to believe it, and embrace it, and throw 
 the auchor of my hope within the storied temple of its 
 splendid pavilions. 
 
 Again, we reject many truths when first presented, 
 which afterwards upon investigation command our 
 credence. For example, it seems anomalous and incred- - 
 ible to assert that more men . die in a healthy country 
 than, in a sickly one ; but such is a demonstrable truth 
 which will command not only our credence but absolute 
 knowledge when we investigate it by the light of 
 science and submit it to that great gift of the Creator, 
 common sense or reason. A thousand people placed in 
 a sickly country would, in a hundred years increase but 
 little, perhaps decrease ; but the same number placed in 
 a healthy country would multiply rapidly, and in a few 
 generations the deaths from this dense population would 
 of course greatly outnumber the deaths from the com- 
 paratively sparse population of the unhealthy region, 
 for men must necessarily die everywhere from decrepitude 
 or by disease. Thus it is demonsrable that in the 
 course of a century or of several generations, a greater- 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 2.9 
 
 number of people die in a salubrious than in an insalu- 
 brious country, however, at first thought we may have 
 rejected the truth as absurd and impossible. And it 
 appears false to say that there is water in dry inflamable 
 gunpowder, and that much the largest portion of the 
 human body is water instead of solid matter; but su^h 
 are facts proved by science. 
 
 Hence, from these illustrations let us learn first, last, 
 and all the time, not to reject or accept anything with- 
 out thorough and patient investigation, and not 
 dogmatically even then, for this investigation though 
 seeming thorough and patient to us, may prove partial 
 and incomplete from prejudice, predilection, ignorance, 
 or indolence. This is specially and particularly and 
 emphatically applicable to the great and momentous 
 subject of our duty and destiny, which is our religion. 
 Enough of this prolusion. 
 
 That part of the subject which relates only to our 
 perishing bodies shall be disposed of in few words. 
 I said man's corporeal frame is elaborated from the 
 rocks. I will read from .a popular writer on modern 
 chemistry, Yeomans : 
 
 " We are accustomed to conceive of the creation of 
 man as a dim, miraculous event of the most ancient 
 time, half forgetting that God's scheme of managing the 
 living world is one of perpetual creation. Had our 
 earth been formed of an eternal adamant, subject to no 
 vicissitudes of change through all the cycles of duration, 
 we might perhaps well refer to the act of bringing it 
 into existence, as esi^eeially illustrative of creative 
 power. But where all is changing, transitory, and 
 incessantly disolving away, so that nothing remains 
 
80 PHILOSOPHY OF T.TPE. 
 
 immutable but God's conception of being, which the 
 whole universe is forever hastening to realize, we can 
 not escape the conviction of his immediate, living, om- 
 nipresent, constructive agency. The truth is, we are 
 hourly and momentarily created, and it is impossible to 
 imagine in what respect the first act of creative power 
 was more wonderful or glorious, or aftorded any more 
 conspicuous display of omnipotent wisdom than that 
 august procession of phenomena by which man and the 
 entire living world, are now and continually called into 
 being. Those material atoms which are to-day inter- 
 posed between us and destruction, are recent from chaos; 
 they were but yesterday formless dust of the earth, cor- 
 roded and pulverized rocks, or fleeting and viewless 
 gases of the air. These, through the vast enginery of 
 astronomic systems, whose impulses of movement spring 
 directly from the Almighty Will, have entered a world 
 of organic order, are wrought into new states, and made 
 capable of nourishing the animal body. The mingled 
 gases and mineral dust have become vital aliment. 
 The test-miracle which the Tempter of old demanded as 
 evidence of God-like Power, is disclosed to the eye of 
 science, as a result of natural laws ; for in the most lit- 
 teral sense, 'stones are made bread.' That it was de- 
 signed for us to understand what goes on within the 
 body, we are not at liberty to doubt. Instead of being 
 the theatre of a mysterious power which defies investi- 
 gation, we find the living system acting under allegiance 
 to invariable laws, and entirely amenable to investiga- 
 tion. The whole course of physiological discovery has 
 consisted in showing that the human constitution is an 
 ■;inbodyment and illusti-ation of reason. The victory 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFP:. 31 
 
 of research is to iiiiclerstaiul a thing; that is, to bring 
 it into agreement with reason. The mechanism of the 
 eye was a mystery until its optical adaptations and pur- 
 poses were discovered ; that is the reason of its con- 
 struction. 
 
 The heart was an object of mere curious wonder and 
 su]K'rstitious speculations, until the circulation was dis- 
 covered, when the reasonable uses of its parts were at 
 once understood. The whole scope and drift of past 
 inquiry, and all the considerations which cluster around 
 the subject, lead us to expect and demand a rational 
 explanation of living processes. Not many years ago 
 the most acute and distinguished physicians regarded 
 the stomach as the abode of a conjurer, who, if respect- 
 fully treated, and in good humor, can change thistles, 
 hay, roots, fruits and seeds into blood and flesh; but 
 when anory, despises or spoils the best food! Chem- 
 istry has dispelled these crude fancies, and enabled us to 
 Jinderstand how such marvelous transformations occur. 
 We are getting, daily, clews to the profounder secrets of 
 the organism; knowledge is here as rapidly progressing 
 as in any other department of science." 
 
 Says another distinguished contemporary, Tiifony : 
 " Were I to enquire what is the apparent design of 
 every thing we behold, we must see that it is pointing 
 to the ultimating of an individualixed, inimortal, inteli- 
 gent being, who should be capable of understanding 
 all truth, and being perfected in every true affection. 
 Every thing tends to bring about that great result — the 
 unfolding of an immortal being. God and the material 
 universe seem to be laboring to beget an individualized 
 being in the image of both God and the universe — God 
 
32 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 as the absolute and infinite, and matter as the finite, 
 uniting, produce a being which partakes of both the 
 absolute or infinite, and the finite. When viewed from 
 one plain he is infinite; when viewed from another 
 plain he is finite : so that between God and matter man 
 is mediate. I would say, then, in simple language, God 
 is the father of the spirit, and matter the mother of his 
 form. The first step in the path of unfolding, as 
 taught by nature, is that of individualizing form. The 
 next step is that of individualizing life, of producing 
 individuality. The last step is that of producing per- 
 sonality — making the individual a personal being. 
 If we can suppose that matter shall be divested from 
 all connection with media which can impress upon it a 
 condition, we speak of it as being amorphous matter, or 
 matter without form. If we unite it then with one 
 medium, as electricity, we find it tending to produce 
 the gaseous condition, the nebular condition. Form is 
 not yet attained. If we unite with it still another 
 medium which is a little different from electricity, forms 
 of the mineral kingdom are produced. We have here 
 the first degree of form, but as yet there is not life or 
 individuality. Now the next advance is to induce in 
 that form a condition which shall make it receptive of 
 life, for that which is to be individualized is life. So, 
 then, in passing through the elaborating influence of 
 the mineral kingdom, it arrives at a certain point, a sort 
 of culminating point, where it joins upon the vegetable 
 kingdom. When the principal known as the life-force 
 is introduced, then it is understood that mineral has 
 passed, and the vegetable is commenced. As soon as 
 this is unfolded, we have a second advance of form: 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF TJFE. 33 
 
 organic life in its first degree ; or in other words, indi- 
 vidualization commences. Form passed to its second 
 degree, and goes on elaborating degree after degree, pro- 
 ducing diverse organic forms, until it is prepared to 
 receive another and a more interior principle — con- 
 sciousness — until, l)y imperceptible degrees, we arrive 
 at the annimal kingdom. AV^e have then the animal 
 form, the third or finishing degree of form, and the 
 second degree of life, and the first degree of conscious- 
 ness. Man in his animal nature is the completion of 
 tlie highest form. Life has yet one more degree to pass 
 through; consciousness has yet two more degrees to 
 pass through before it is complete. Th^e next advance 
 is to a higher principle of consciousness, to a more 
 enduring principle of life, without the material form, 
 and that is to the spiritual degree of unfolding. Man 
 becomes to us the highest type of form and life in the 
 finite; and becomes immortal by his relation to the 
 divine — to that which is self-existent and self-sufficient, 
 and has that condition brought into him by induction." 
 Again, from another, — "Reveries of a Student:" 
 " Man is the apex of earth creation and the basis of 
 all heavenly life — the foundation of all spiritual exist- 
 ence. Standing thus in a middle plain, as the highest 
 thing of ■earth and the lowest of heaven, he holds mag- 
 netic relationship to both:; the earth not only suj>- 
 plying the physical requirements of his being, such as 
 food, drink and air, but he absorbs impalpable nourish- 
 ment from all his surroundings: the aroma from floAV- 
 ers, and trees and fruit, as well as the magnetic emana- 
 tions from people intuitively appreciating harmonious 
 influences — feeling an instinctive repulsion when under 
 *2 
 
34 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. ' * 
 
 those that are inharmonious. This antagonism we call 
 antipathy ; and biography abounds with strange stories 
 of its individual action. An animal is but a highly 
 organized combination of the chemical forces of the 
 earthy returning to the earth when death ensues; the 
 only good resulting from its life is that gross matter 
 has been changed into a little higher condition by the 
 combination. Man regarded as the animal, possesses 
 nothing after his death but the spiritual attributes he 
 has received, corresponding to the physical things he 
 sought in his earthly life; if that was low. and sensual, 
 his spiritual condition will be the same; for the spirit 
 land is as much a spiritual condition as it is a place. 
 As man's external form grows from appropriating sub- 
 .stance from earth, so are thoughts and sentiments, all 
 things relating to the soul, appropriated from the spirit 
 world. Take the earth from man and he ceases to exist 
 as a physical being; take the spirit world from him 
 and he ceases to exist as an immortal being." 
 
 When a youth, a mere boy, in my mental rumina- 
 tions and cogitations to which I've ever been addicted, 
 I traced every thing to the earth; and since then I 
 ihave seen it recorded as a sapient observation of Thomas 
 -Jefferson, that he had arrived at the same conclusion, 
 \that every thing comes from the earth. But Jefferson, 
 as well as the boy, was in egregrious error, for all 
 things are dependent on actinic and other astronomic 
 influences, and the spiritual development of man is 
 (effectuated through supernal or spiritual agencies and 
 elements. The earth is but a negative female reposi- 
 tory of physical elements which are fecundated and 
 vitalized by solar and other supernal cognate elements 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF I.IFE. 35 
 
 of inchoate life. Among the many theories of the wise 
 men of the ancients, for the principle of all things, of 
 Thales, of Bias, Epimenides, Anaxagoras, Heraclitus, 
 Democritiis, Aristotle, Zeno, and others, that of Arehc- 
 laus ascribing all things to matter and si)irit, is the 
 most true, and the only true, as confirmed by science. 
 
 Says Agassiz, in which Prof. Owen, another high 
 authority, concurs: "The aim of the Creator in form- 
 ing the earth, in allowing it to undergo the successive 
 changes which geology has pointed out, and in creating 
 successively all the different types of animals which 
 have passed away, was to introduce man upon trie sur- 
 flice of our globe. Man is the end toward which all 
 the animal creation has tended from the first appearance 
 of the first palaeozoic fishes." 
 
 xVll nature is in motion — there is nothing still, noth- 
 ing passive. Motion, evolution, progress, is the ])ri- 
 niordial law of creation and the insignia of destiny 
 Every thing, from the apparently inert elements of the 
 primitive rocks which requires centuries to work a per- 
 ceptible change, to the vivid lightning's flash that anni- 
 hilates all idea of time and the computation of a mo- 
 ment for its almost instantaneous work; from the most 
 minute atom to the vast orbs that sail the ethereal 
 oceau; is moving, evolving, progressing. This philos- 
 ophy underlies the theory of spontaneous production, 
 which, with all deference to its late opponents, is as 
 l)eautiful as its true. And wdiile all nature is thus 
 laboring, laboring always to elaborate higher furm.s 
 and higher life, man can not stand still — he must either 
 progress or retrograde. It is an organic law of his 
 life to labor^ to work, mentally and physically — the 
 
36 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 latter for the former — and all for what? For the sim- 
 ple gratification of his animal appetencies — eating and 
 drinking? This is cold comfort even for the epicure, 
 to labor twelve hours and get hungry for the poor 
 pleasure of eating less than one hour. The monkey 
 would fulfill the condition as well. What then? to 
 labor for life merely to gratify a curiosity to see what 
 we shall see, or hear what we shall hear? for curiosity 
 jr a love of the marvelous is a powerful impulse in 
 Ignorant minds. It were beneath the dignity and 
 jnworthy the wisdom of a God to implant this instinct 
 for such ignoble purposes. No ; here is the philosophy 
 in terse and sententious and significant words : we labor 
 for food to be transmuted into a germinal condition for 
 the physiological development of an organism on which 
 a higher cerebral differentiation may be superinduced, 
 receptive of a supernal fecundation, and which will 
 extend and ultimately people the higher spheres with 
 happy beings, clothed in immortality and love. This 
 Is worthy of all human instincts and aspirations, and of 
 creative beneficence; and this is the philosophy of 
 human life as unfolded by facts, observed and system- 
 ized, which constitute the organon of science. 
 
 Chemical science proves that our mortal tenement, 
 Tipon the cessation of its functions called death, decom- 
 poses and settles back into its original elements. These 
 elements are divided into metalic and non-metalic sub- 
 stances. The metalic are Potassium, Sodium, Calcium, 
 Magnesium, Aluminum, Iron, Manganese, and Copper. 
 The non-metalic substances are Oxygen, Hydrogen, 
 Carbon, Nitrogen, Silicium, Phosphorus, Sulphur, Chlo- 
 rine, and perhaps ©tkerSj both metalic and non-metalic. 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 37 
 
 And these become scattered, diffused, blended, and enter 
 again into other combinations, ultimating in conscious 
 life; and thus the process continues ad infinitum. 
 Eighty per centum of the human body is water, and a 
 large proportion is composed of and returns to, invisi- 
 ble gases, leaving but a small amount of mineral resi- 
 dmmm. The ultimate materials of the average human 
 body, according to Dr. Lardner, are 14 lbs. charcoal, 
 10 lbs. lime, 120 lbs. water and 14 lbs. of the gases 
 which form air and water, that is, oxygen, nitrogen and 
 hydrogen. These recognized elements may yet be 
 reduced by science to one, viz. : electricity. 
 
 An eccentric gentleman of devoted affection in 
 France, adeptiug the old Greek and Roman method of 
 cremation, so succeeded in condensing and reducing the 
 mineral remains of his deceased wife, by repeated pro- 
 cesses of inciaeration, as to be contained in a locket 
 which he wore on his finger. 
 
 I read from Dr. Draper: "Since it is given us to 
 know our own existence, and be conscious of our own 
 individuality, we may rest assured that we have what 
 is in reality a far more wonderful power, the capacity 
 of comprehending all the conditions of our life. God 
 has formed our understanding to grasj) all these things. 
 For my own part I have no sympathy with those who 
 say of this or that physiological problem, it is above 
 our reason. My faith in the power of the intellect of 
 man is profound. Far from supposing that there arc 
 many things in the structure and functions of the body 
 which we can never comprehend, I believe there is 
 nothing in it that we shall not at last ex2)lain. Then, 
 and not till then, will man be a perfect monument of 
 
38 PHILOSOPHY OP LIFE. 
 
 the wisdom and power of his maker ; a created beins:, 
 knowing his OAvn existence, and- capable of explain- 
 ing it." 
 
 How diifgrent is this from Solomon, who, under the 
 title of preacher, wrote, "As thou knowest not what is 
 the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow," &c., 
 (Ecc. XI.) verily, 
 
 ■'■As wise as" Solomon "might, justly stand 
 The definition of a modern fool.'' 
 
 But being a loise man, I presume he adopted the title 
 to excuse his ignorance. 
 
 Now for our angel immortalities ; and we shall find 
 upon proper investigation, that our elrcauiarabient airy 
 ocean is redolent with the inconse of angels, and has 
 ever been vocal with the anthems of immortal organs 
 hymning the Eternal Father. 
 
 Ere science first unfurled her starry wing, or mid- 
 night melted into dewy morn — the moral midnight of 
 the human mind — or man had learned to soar in cer- 
 tain flight from earth, his infiint cradle of immortal 
 life, the faint effulgence of this innate hope of immor- 
 tality, with healing in its rays, liad risen and thrown 
 its first feeble flood-lights athwart the glimmering sky. 
 Ever and anon, amid the multiplied, multiform and 
 multifarious events and vicissitudes of life, its varied 
 and various conditions and altitudes of intellection, its 
 mutations and trans-mutations, metamorphoses and 
 mayhap metempsychoses, the ever-living and ever- 
 glowing hope of the human heart, like the sunlight 
 that fringes the mountain tops, flings its radiance along 
 the heights of history, past, present and prospective, 
 und robes all human annals in the attire of angelic im- 
 mortality. 
 
PIin.OSOPHY OF lAFK. 39 
 
 lA't US look into tlie annals of the past ages; and 
 first, sacred history, as it pur[iortrf to l)e the oldest 
 i-ecord. We arc told that an angel ap|)eared to Hagcr, 
 Gen. XVI; tliree to Abraham, XXII; one spoke to 
 Jacob in a dream. Gen. XXXI; one to Moses, in Ex. 
 Ill; one to the cam]) of Israel, Ex. XIV; one met 
 Balaam, Num. XXII; one spoke to the children of 
 Israel, Judges II; one to Gideon, Judges VI; one 
 appeared to Manoah's wife, Judges XIII; Samuel 
 appeared and conversed with Saul and two men, and 
 the woman of Endor, 1st Sam. XXVIII; — which is 
 the first intimation of human immortality, I believe, in 
 the Bible, after a chronological record of 3000 years. 
 Indeed, Moses, as flir as the Pentateuch tcacTies, seems 
 to have had no aspiration, or even thought, of here- 
 after, seeking only the extermination of all opposing 
 him, — good land and cattle, and I presume, plenty of 
 potatoes and pigs. There is many a Moses among us 
 now; — one to Elijah, 1st Kings, XIX; one stood on 
 the threshing floor of Onan, Jst Chron, XXI; one 
 talked with Zecheriah, in Zech. 1st; one to the two 
 Marys at tlie sepulchre, in Mathew XXVIII; one fore- 
 told the birth of John the Baptist, in Luke I; one ap- 
 peared to the virgin Mary, Luke I; one to the two 
 shepherds, Luke II ; one opened the doors of Peter's 
 prison, Acts V ; two spoke to Jesus, Peter, James and 
 John, Luke IX ; one to Jf^hn, some to.Paul, and many 
 a'ppcared in Jerusalem at the crucifixion, and to otliers, 
 and numbers at divers times and places as recorded. 
 Many of these angels also explicitly avowed themselves 
 to be fellow-servants, who formerly lived in the flesh. 
 This is enough from the records of Christian theology. 
 
40 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE, 
 
 And nearly, if not all, the early Christian Fathers im- 
 mediately succeeding the apostolic age, cherished the 
 fcelief of the ministering spirits of their former friends 
 deceased; and ancient Buddhism and medieval Mon- 
 tanism is modern Spiritualism without its philosophy 
 or science. Tertullian, an old and recognized authority, 
 called them "angelified flesh." 
 
 Religion is the strongest principle that actuates the 
 human heart, as I well know from my own experience, 
 as well as from observation and history. From the 
 latter we learn that in the "Holy" (?) Wars of the 
 Cross vs. the Crescent — may the sacred symbol of the 
 lettered scroll never stain with human blood its celes- 
 tial sheen — the Crusades, two million men were killed, 
 and a pyramid was erected from their bones from one 
 battlefield near Niece, by Solyman, as a monument to 
 their fanaticism ; and the Saracens drank beer out of 
 their skulls. History tells us that in the religious 
 Christian conflicts following the reformation of Lu- 
 iher — at which time the Popes were the legitimate des- 
 pots of the whole world, and made kings and national 
 rulers their abject vassals and suppliant slaves, subject 
 to their tyranic caprices, which they exercised in the 
 most diabolical manner, and all by divine appointment, 
 — fifty millions were slain — making a grand aggregate 
 of perhaps a hundred millions who, in the history of 
 mankind, have victimized themselves to their religion. 
 The skeletons of these victims of religion if linked to- 
 gether, would pave a path with human bones more than 
 ^ hundred thousand miles long, would girdle the world 
 more than four times round, would build a structure 
 larger than Colossus, Colisseum or Pyramid. What 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 41 
 
 else can impel a man to throw himself under the car of 
 Juggernaut to be instantly crushed ? What else impel 
 a mother to sacrifice her child, as the Africans to the 
 Ganges? or the Chaldean to the Hierapolis? Man in 
 every age is a devout religionist : it is an innate and in- 
 eradicable principle in his nature to conceive of and 
 imagine a higher mind, to hope for immortality and 
 yearn for glory. Let us leave the Bible and range a 
 wider field. 
 
 Fetishism, which is the lowest fi)rm of worship, and 
 Brahmanism, with Avator, Vishnu and Llama, and the 
 three million deities and angels of Asia, and the un- 
 known number of Africa, who are all claimed as min- 
 istering spirits around their friends in mortal tenements, 
 all are teeming with the hope of hereafter and replete 
 with the faith of the future. In our occidental hemi- 
 sphere the aboriginal Indians cherished the tradition 
 of a Great Spirit and endless hunting grounds here- 
 after. The old Aztec empire of the South had their 
 "Eagle mountain," on which they burnt incense as a 
 holy holocaust, and their gods Huitzilopotehille and 
 Quetzatcoate to whom they sacrificed their thousands ; 
 and the Totonac temples that resounded with the shrieks 
 of victims to j-iropitiate the ire of their avenging deities. 
 If we turn again to the fertile fields of the Oriental 
 world, we see the nomandic wanderers of the desert, 
 the wild Bedouin, paying devout oblations to his adored 
 Allah ; the refined dwellers of imperial Kome and classic 
 Greece erecting jiantheons and temples to some great 
 unknown and to all the gods ; while the Talmud of the 
 Mischna and Gemara, the Zend Avesta of the Persian, 
 the Yeda and Shatter of the Hindoo, the Koran of the 
 
42 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 Moslem, the Guadaaa of the Burmesee, the Xaca Amida 
 of the Japanese, the Tien and Chaiigti of the Chinese 
 and the legends of Confucius, the runic Edda of the 
 Scythian, and the whole theology, or rather mythology, 
 of all the Scandinavian nations, except the Huns, all 
 seek to centre the minds of their millions upon some 
 object of homage and adoration as a panacea for their 
 ills, a haven of rest for their tumultuated hopes. The 
 atheistic European, the polytheistic Asiatic, and the 
 spiritual American, all — save perhaps the priesthood in 
 the time of Leo X, according to Erasmus — believe in 
 and yearn for a hereafter. And it is worthy remark 
 that the only people who neverhadan organized priest- 
 hood, viz : the aboriginal Americans, are the possessors 
 of the most true, the most simple, the most natural 
 and the most philosophical religion. 
 
 Sev. Mr. Gogerly in his translation of the Damina 
 Parkin written in Pali, makes Buddha repeatedly speak 
 of a future life. Hear Buddha : " The sinner suffers 
 in this world, and he will suffer in the next world — in 
 both worlds he suffers. The virtuous man rejoices in 
 this world, and he will rejoice in the next world — in 
 both worlds he has joy." This great Hindoo prophet* 
 " whose code of ethics equals that of any other reli- 
 gion," in the words of the scholar who published the 
 Ushtakas of the Rig Vede, flourished eight centuries be- 
 fore the advent of Jesus Christ, and the contemporane- 
 ous Gymnosophists of India were ^v'ont to send messages 
 to their departed friends by those who were about to 
 die. Confucius, who lived live centuries before Christ, 
 is said to have proclaimed the golden rule of doing unto 
 others as we would have others do unto usj and so did 
 Hillel, tlie J^w. 
 
rHILOSOPIIY OF LIFE. 4o 
 
 Let US turn also from these dim legends and tradi- 
 tions and loolc to those ilUistrious characters that loom 
 up along the pathway of the past like lights from etern- 
 ity. Come forth, soul of Socrates, and awaken once 
 more your mighty memories that give a glory to phi- 
 losophy ! " The 'cause of this is that which you have 
 often and in many places heard me mention; because I 
 am moved l\v a certain divine and spiritual infliience, 
 which also Melitus, through mockery, has set out in the 
 indictment. This began with me frosn childhood, be- 
 ing a kind of voice which, when present, always diverts 
 me from what I am about to do, but never urges me 
 on. But this duty, as I said, has been enjoined mo l)y 
 the Deity, by oracles, by dreams, and by every other 
 mode by which any other divine decree has ever en- 
 joined any thing for man to do." Toward the close of 
 his last address before his judges, Socrates said, speak- 
 ino- of his death and the future life, " If this be true, 
 O, my judges, what greater good can there be than this? 
 At what rate would not either of you purchase a con- 
 ference with Orpheus and Musaeus, wnth Hesiod and 
 Homer, or with Ulysses or Sisyphus, or ten thousand 
 others, both male and female, that might be mentioned? 
 For to converse and associate with them would be an 
 inestimable felicity. Truly, I should be willing to die 
 often if these things are true." His friend Crito in- 
 quired of him how he would be buried. " Just as you 
 please," said he, " i. e. if you can find me ;" at the 
 same time smiling and saying, "Crito thinks that I 
 am he whom he will shortly see dead, whereas /, Soc- 
 nites, shall have then departed to the joys of the 
 blessed." " Unless I thought," said he, " that I should 
 
44 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 depart to other gods who are wise and good, and to the 
 society of men who have gone from this life and are 
 better now than when among us, I might well be trou- 
 bled at death. But now I believe assuredly that I shall 
 go to the gods who are perfectly good, and I hope to 
 dwell with wise and good men, so that I cannot be af- 
 flicted at the thought of dying ; believing that death is 
 not the end of us, and that it will be much better for 
 the good than the evil." He claimed an ever present 
 demon, so called by the Greeks, or tutelary genius as 
 termed by the Latins, or presiding or ministering angel 
 with us, who always faithfully warned or wooed him 
 every day, and as this was omitted on the day of his 
 death, he hence considered bis death no evil. His last 
 words, when sinking under the fatal Hemlock, were a 
 charge to pay a debt he had overlooked, and " not neg- 
 lect it." 
 
 Speak, spirit of Plato! who rent the curtain that 
 binds the future of other men's visions and read through 
 the vista of unborn years ! " The soul is self -mot' ve. 
 That which is self-motive inherently and perpetually 
 moves. But that which always moves with an inward 
 motion always lives. Hence the soul is immortal. 
 Again, if the soul is self-motive, it is itself the princi- 
 pal of motion, but the principal of motion must be un- 
 begotten, and of course immortal. Again, notliing 
 foreign to itself can ever destroy it ; and its own evils, 
 such as injustice and wickedness, can not destroy it, 
 since they render it, if possible, more alive and sensible 
 to suffering than before." And again, says Plato m 
 the Phaedrus : " We are then initiated into and made 
 spectators of entire, simple, (Quietly stable and blessed 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. '45 
 
 visions, resident in a pure liglit, being ourselves pure, 
 and liberated from this surrounding vestment which 
 we call body, and to which we are now bound like an 
 oyster to his shell. Among the eternal emanations of 
 winch I have spoken were not only gods of different 
 orders — the intelligible and intellectual, the super 
 celestial and mundane — but also daemons, heroes, and 
 the souls of men. The daemons were an order of be- 
 ings superior to ourselves, some good and some bad, oc- 
 cupying a soi't of middle between gods and men." 
 AVhile Plato thus perceived a germ or principle in man 
 which was to unfold into future perfections, he also had 
 a just conception of the average of mankind on the in- 
 ceptive earth-})laue, as is evidenced by his remark that 
 " man is a biped without feathers." 
 
 Lend us another echo of your eloquence, O Cicero, 
 and proclaim to mortal man the immortality of his hu- 
 man soul divine. " I look forward with pleasure to 
 the' glorious day when I sliall go into the great assem- 
 bly of spirits and shall be gathered to the best of man- 
 kind who have gone before me. I feel impelled by 
 the desire of joining the society of my two departed 
 friends, your illustrious fatliers, whom I reverenced 
 and loved. Oh, illustrious day, when I shall go hence 
 to that divine council and assembly of souls, when I 
 shall escape from this crowd and rabble ; for I shall 
 go not only to those illustrious men of whom I have be- 
 fore spoken, but also to my Cato, than whom one more 
 excellent in goodness was never born." 
 
 ^^]schilus, in his Persae, represents the soul of Darius, 
 deceased, as still i)Ossessing the thoughts and feelings of 
 liis former life.. The d^■inw Plotinus exclaimed " I am 
 
46 , PHIT.OS0PHY OF LIFE. 
 
 struggling to liberate the divinity within rae !" Pro- 
 ciilus^ a Senator^ took an oath to the Roman Senate that 
 the spirit of Romulus, founder of the Roman Empire, 
 appeared to him and communicated. This oath was 
 considered by the Romans a binding and solemn pledge 
 of truth, and was called "religion.''^ 
 
 Let us listen to the great Persian Shah, eotemporane- 
 ous with some of the early writers of bible history, who 
 cared not for immortal life and love : Cyrus, whose do- 
 mestic and parental affections were as great as his genius 
 and energy are femous, as the conqueror of the rich 
 Croesus of Lydia, and for taking tiie greatest city of 
 antiquity with solid walls of massive masonry a hun- 
 dred feet high, and nearly as thick, and about a hundred 
 miles in circumference, by turning the river Euphrates, 
 which flowed through Avails and city, thus effecting an 
 easy and unsuspected entrance : the King of the country- 
 men of Zoroaster, from whom originated the idea of a vi- 
 carious atonement, and who first taught the existence of 
 an evil spirit, Ahriraan, from which the Jcavs, and thence 
 Ave, ha\^e deriA'ed our present imaginary dcA^l; Avhich, 
 however, according to Zoroaster, was to ultimately suc- 
 cumb to the good spirit Ormudz. But hear Cyrus nearly 
 six centuries before the advent of Christ : 
 
 " Think not, my dearest children, that Avhen I depart 
 from you I shall be no more ; remember that my soul, 
 CA' en Avhile I lived among you, Avas inA'isible : yet by 
 my action you Avere sensible it existed in this body. Be- 
 lieve it therefore existing still, though it still be unseen. 
 HoAV quickly Avouldthe honors of illustrious men perish 
 after death, if their souls performed nothing to preserAa' 
 their fame ! For my part, I could ncA^er think that the 
 
PHIl/^OPIIY OF LIFE. • 47 
 
 Houl, wliicli, ^vhi!e in a mortal body lies, when departed 
 from it, dies ; or that its consciousness is lost when it is 
 di-^charged out orf an unconscious habitation ; on the 
 contrary, it most truly exists Avhen it is freed from all 
 corporeal alliance.'' 
 
 Josephus, in his " Antiquities," records '^Gal])hira, the 
 daughter of King ArehehuH, after the death of her two 
 first husbands, (being married to a third, who was a 
 brother of her first husband,) had a very odd kind of a 
 dream. She fancied that she saAV her first husband come 
 toward her, and that she embraced him with great ten- 
 derness ; when in the raidst of the great pleasure ^vhich 
 she expressetl at the sight of hira, he reproached her 
 after the following manner : ' Galphira, thou hast made 
 good the old saying that Avomen are not to be trusted. 
 Was not I the husband of thy virginity? Have I not 
 children ijythee? How could thou so far forget our 
 loves as to enter into other marriages — nay to marry 
 my own brother? However, for the sake of our past 
 loves, I shall free thee from thy present reproach and 
 make thee mine forever !' Galphira told this dream to 
 several women of her acquaintance, and died soon after. 
 I thought the story might not be impertinent in this 
 place, wherein I speak of those Icings. Besides that, 
 the example deserves to be taken notice of, as it contains 
 a most certain proof of the immortality of souls and of 
 Divine Providence. If any mail thinks these things in- 
 credible, let him enjoy his own opinion to himself, but 
 let him not endeavor to disturb the belief of others, 
 who, by instances of this nature, are excited to the study 
 of virtue." 
 
 Again, Abercrombie, in his " Intellectual Philoso- 
 
48 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 phy/' which is the most able and honest attempt to vin- 
 dicate the miracles of old theology — although but inci- 
 dental to his subject — that I have found. After giving 
 many instances of dreams^ visions, etc., from Sir Walter 
 Scott and other cotemporaneous literati, the most of 
 which he explains very plausibly on principles of philos- 
 ophy, records the following which he acl^nowledges can 
 not be explained, and the truth of which he vouches for : 
 " Two ladies, sisters, had been for several days in at- 
 tendance upon their brother, who was ill of a common 
 sore throat, severe and protracted, but not considered as 
 attended with danger. At the same time one of them 
 had borrowed a watch from a female friend, in conse- 
 quence of her own being under repair. This watch 
 was one to which particular value was attached, on ac- 
 count of some family associations, and some anxiety was 
 expressed that it might not meet with any injury. The 
 sisters were sleeping together in a room communicating 
 with that of their brother, when the' elder of them 
 awoke in a state of great agitation, and having roused 
 the other told her she had had a frightful dream. ' I 
 dreamed,' said she, ' that Mary's watch stopped ; and 
 that when I told you of the circumstance, you replied 
 
 much worse than that has happened, for 's breath 
 
 has stopped also,' — naming their brother who was ill. 
 To quiet her agitation the younger sister immediately 
 got up, and found the brother sleeping quietly, and the 
 watch, which had been carefully put by in a drawer, go- 
 ing correctly. The following night the very same dream 
 occurred, followed by similar agitation, which w'as again 
 composed in the same manner — the brother being again 
 found in a quiet sleep and the watch going well. On 
 
rHILOS(DPHY OF LIFE. 49 
 
 the following morningv soou after the fomily had break- 
 fasted, one of the sisters was sitting by her brother, 
 while the other was Avriting a note in the adjoining 
 room. When her note was ready for being sealed, she 
 was proceeding to talcc out for this purpose the watch 
 alluded to, which had been put by in her writing desk 
 she was astonished to find it stopped. At the same in- 
 stant she heard a scream of intense distress from her 
 sister in the other room. Their brother, who had still 
 been considered as going on fayorably, had been seized 
 with a sudden fit of suffocation and had just breathed 
 liis last." 
 
 Savs Addison, "At the same time I think a person 
 who is terrified by the imagination of ghosts and spec- 
 tres much more reasonable than one who, contrary to 
 the report of all historians, sacred and profane, ancient 
 and modern, and to the traditions of all nations, thinks 
 the appearance of spirits fabulous and groundless. Could 
 I not giye myself up to the testimony of mankind, I 
 sliould to the relations of particular persons who are 
 now Hying, and whom I cannot distrust in other mat- 
 ters of tact. I may here add that not only the histeri- 
 ans, to whom we may join the poets, but' likewise the 
 philosphers of antiquity, have favored this opinion." 
 Johnson writes " ' That the dead are seen no more,' said 
 Imiac, I will not undertake to maintain against the con- 
 current and unvaried testimony of all ages and all na- 
 tions. There is no people, rude or learned among whom 
 apparitions of the dead are not believed. This opinion, 
 Avhich perhaps prevails as far as human nature is diffused' 
 could become universal only by its truth. Those who' 
 never lieard of one anotiier would not have ao-rced in a 
 3 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 tale wliicli nothing but experience can make credible ; 
 that it is doubted by simple cavillers can very little 
 weaken the general evidence, and some who deny it by 
 their tongues confess it by their fears." 
 
 "Cornelius Agrippa/' says D'Israeli, "before he 
 wrote his ' Varieties of the Arts and Sciences/ intended 
 to reduce into a system and method the secret of com- 
 munication with spirits and demons. On good author- 
 ity that of Porphyrins, Plessus Plotinus, Jambhcus, 
 and better were it necessary to allege it, he was well as- 
 sured that the upper regions of the air swarmed with 
 what the Greeks called demons, just as our lower atmos- 
 phere is full of birds, and waters of fish, and our earth 
 
 of insects" jy ^^o v -a 
 
 "The practice of religion is the object oi ine, said 
 the ekler Cato, after a long career of purity and phi- 
 lanthropy.. "The proper study of mankmd is man, 
 said Pope " My grief is but my grandeur ni disguise, 
 and discontent is immortality," said Edward Young. 
 "Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth,^both 
 day and night, when we sleep and when we wa^e, said 
 Milton The pious Thomas Peyton, commemorating the 
 translation of Enoch, in his " Glasse of Time," published 
 in 1620, thus discourseth : 
 
 "The an-el9 bright, and all the powers divme- 
 Win<^d with fame to mount the highest heavem- 
 Desclndlng sweetely on thy lonely brest, etc.^ 
 
 "Imagination, that strongest, most imperious of our 
 faculties: whose soarings from earth to heaven may be 
 reckoned among the indications of power beyond the 
 .-cave, delights in the bold, the commanding the superb. 
 l/hat^retlesebnt the infant ^f ^^^-/^f %^;;;-r;, 
 bodied spirit, the imperfect developments of a state of 
 
PPIILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 51 
 
 being to which time and space are nothing, when man, 
 shaking off the covering of the grave, shall be clothed 
 with the might of angels, the splendid denizen of infin- 
 itnde and eternity ?" wrote the eloquent George Crolv, 
 though not canonized in biographical cyclopedias, one 
 of the most brilliant minds that ever blazed or burned 
 along the dark career of earth, as the extract proves, for 
 a more splendid sentiment, more splendidly expressed, 
 can not be found in any language. It is like an ins])ir- 
 ation. 
 
 Caesar's wife, Calpurnia, who lived above suspicion 
 had a premonition of Caesar's fate, and exerted herself 
 to dissuade him from going to the Senate that fatal dav. 
 He attended, liowever, and on being attacked fou^dit 
 courageously all tlie conspirators until he sav/ the blade 
 of his friend Brutus glitter against him, when his proud 
 heart failed, and covering his face in his mantle, with 
 the exclamation, " And thou, too, Brutus !" the bloody 
 despot yielded his body a victim to foul conspiracy, and 
 fell at the feet of Pompey's statue. But after this it is 
 recorded by Plutarch, his spirit appeared twice to Bru- 
 tus, and spoke to him, promising to " meet him at Phii- 
 lippi, sword in hand." And sure enough Brutus there 
 expiated his crime on his own sword. 
 
 Pilate's wife had a like premonition, in respect to. 
 Christ's crucifixion, and warned him to beware, which 
 he in some measure regarded, to the extent at least of 
 " washing his hands of the afliiir," in his own words. 
 
 Lord Byron was " superstitious ;" he believed in the 
 ill-luck of Friday, and was seriously disconcerted if any 
 thing was to be done on that frightful day of the week. 
 Yet he sometimes laughed at the idea of ghosts. Not 
 
52 PHFLOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 long after the death of Lord Byron, Sir Walter Scott 
 was engaged in his study, during the darkening twilight 
 of an autumnal evening, in reading a sketch of Byron's 
 form and habits, his manners and opinions. On a sud- 
 den he saw, as he laid down his book and passed into 
 his hall, the eidolon of his departed friend before him. 
 Lord Chedworth was an infidel and unbeliever in immor- 
 tality. One morning at breakfast he exclaimed, " I had a 
 strange visitor last night — ^my old friend B. came to 
 me." " How ?" asked his neice ; " did he come after I 
 retired ?" " His spirit did," said Lord Chedworth, sol- 
 emnly. " O, my dear Uncle, how could the spirit of a 
 living man appear?" said the neice, smiling. " He is 
 dead beyond doubt," replied his lordship. "Listen,. 
 and then laugh as much as you please. I had not en- 
 tered my bed-room many minutes when he stood before 
 me. like you, I could not believe but that I was look- 
 ino- on the living man, and so accosted him, but he, the 
 spirit, answered, ' Chedworth, I died this night at eight 
 o'clock. I came to tell you there is another world be- 
 yond the grave ; there is a righteous God that judgeth 
 all.' " " Depend upon it, Uncle, it was only a dream ;" 
 but while Miss Wright was yet speaking, a groom on 
 horseback rode up the avenue, and immediately deliver- 
 ed a letter to Lord Chedworth announcing the sudden 
 death of his friend. The effect on the mind of Lord 
 Chedworth was as happy as it was permanent ; all his 
 doubts were at once and forever rem.oved. 
 
 Cardinal Wolsey and Fletcher, the Divine, had pre- 
 sentiments of their death. Lord Lyttleton, famous in 
 law, was approached by the deceased mother of a young 
 lady whom he had injured, and who tauntingly told 
 
PHTTvOSOPHY OP LTPE. 53 
 
 liim the very day and hour of his death, which literally 
 occurred. And he, in turn, appeared immediately after 
 his death to his friend Andrews. Jeanne Dare, com- 
 monly called Joan of Arc, at thirteen years of age, had 
 visions and was informed of her mission for the deliv- 
 erance of France, which was fully and literally accom- 
 plished, according to the spiritual presages of her early 
 life ; and when she appeared at the head of the troops, 
 her beautiful hair hanging in ringlets over her should- 
 ers and streaming in the wind, her eyes flashing the radi- 
 ance of a high inspiration, and her face beaming Avith the 
 benignity of her heavenly mission, she seemed an incar- 
 nated angel on earth, and popular enthusiasm knew no 
 bounds. Subsequently she was tried and condemned on 
 the charge of sorcery, by the ecclesiastical party under the 
 bishop of Bcauvais. Bound in iron chains ajid condemned 
 to death, this fair girl and heavenly heroine, baffled the 
 crowd of subtle theologians, who had constituted them- 
 selves the cruel inquisition with prepared questions to 
 entrap her. She declared her mission was from God, 
 communicated by celestial agents, who appeared richly 
 clothed and always accompanied with a brilliant light. 
 To the question how they could speak, being pure spirits 
 without members, she answered she knew not ; she only 
 knew their voices were sweet, their language beautiful 
 and their counsel holy. It was again objected that they 
 were appearances without reality. " Whether they be 
 apparent or real, I have proved them, and I would 
 rather lose my head than deny their being." After ful- 
 iilling a,ll her preternatural inspirations and aspirations, 
 from her thirteenth year of age, this virgin martyr of 
 French liberty and angelic development of heavenly 
 
54 nilLOSOPHY OF I.TFE. 
 
 truth, was in her twenty-first year burnt alive by the 
 church ! 
 
 Damascius, a stoic philosopher of Syria, who flour- 
 ished in the time of Justinian, expressly says " that in 
 a battle fought near Rome with the Scythians, cofn- 
 manded by Attilla, in the time of Valentinian, who suc- 
 ceeded Honorius (in the year 425) the slaughter on 
 both sides was so great, that none on cither side 
 escaped, except the generals and a few^ of their attend- 
 ants. And, which is very strange, when the bodies 
 were fallen, the souls stood upright and continued 
 fighting three whole days and nights, nothing inferior 
 to living men, either for the activity of their hands or 
 the fierceness of their minds —they were both seen and 
 heard fighting together and clashing wdth their armor." 
 This, from a stole philosopher, is singular, and would 
 appear an apodictical fiction or exaggeration, though, 
 according to the philosophy of nature, it, or at least its 
 representation, is not absolutely impossible, for, like 
 some stories in scripture, it may have been a psycho- 
 metric, psychologic, or some sort of electric or spectral 
 illusion ; or the result of mental malady, or cerebral 
 disorder ; or a deliberately concocted fable and inten- 
 tional falsehood ; yet I do not believe the story because 
 it has no parallelin all the autlicnticated revelations of 
 the past and present. 
 
 But in all these records of visions, inspirations and 
 presentiments, as a just offset, we should remember 
 that distance lends exaggeration, if not enchantment, to 
 the view ; and that while many have been realized and 
 fulfilled, many more doubtless have failed and proven 
 fictitious and fallacious. 
 
PHIT.OSOPHY OF IJFE. 55 
 
 John Kepler, so little popularly known, who dis- 
 covered the motion of the sun, the weight of the atmos- 
 phere, the elliptical orbits of the planets, and the great 
 faw that "the squares of the periodic times of the planets 
 are to each other as the cubes of their mean distances 
 from the sun," and other great principles in the philos- 
 ophy of astronomy, and a most dutiful and devoted 
 son, whose care, kindness and aifection for his mother, 
 who had causelessly contemned him and bestowed her 
 fivors on other sons, who afterwards neglected her in 
 her old age, extorted the follovring words from her 
 dying lips: ^' I wish that all mothers Avonld take 
 warning by my case and never show any preference to 
 one child over another until they see good reason to do 
 so. Above all, none should be harsh, but kind to the 
 one that's anxious for knowledge." He thus speaks in 
 his epitaph, written by himself: " I have measured the 
 heavens ; I now measure the shades of the earth. The 
 intellect is celestial; here only the shadow of the body 
 reposes." This great and good man had to prosecute 
 his studies under the great incubus of extreme indi- 
 gence, and his only instrument with which he meas- 
 ured the heavens, was constructed of three sticks of 
 wood formed into a triangle and graduated, with goose 
 quills for sights. And, like Milton, Maititt, Bulwer, 
 Lardner, and many of the finest intellects of the world, 
 he was unfortunate in his matrimonial selection. What 
 a clog, what a curse for such a man, measuring the 
 machinery of the universe, or studying the springs of 
 human hope and its deep arcana, soaring for the sub- 
 lime and towering to the true, to be tied to a termagant 
 whose cross, contracted, distorted, capricious ken never 
 
•^^ PHTLOSOPPIY OF LIFE. 
 
 reached bejond her poultry yard or goose-pond, whose 
 viraginity is her religion, who quarrels at his every gen- 
 erous and noble deed, contemns his honorable impulses 
 and efforts, abuses his lofty aspirations, sneers at his 
 sensitiveness, and reviles his refinement. Thus the 
 contumacious and contumelious wife (for genius can't 
 brook contumely) and undutiful and ungrateful chil- 
 dren, (for this gratitude is a motive for its efforts,) as in 
 the case of Milton, treat him whose hand holds their 
 heads above the wave, and whose efforts would weave 
 a wreathe around their names as fadeless as the flowers 
 of his congenial paradise. Why is it that men of 
 genius are nearly always thus unhappy in their con- 
 jugal connections ? It is a well known truth and fiict, 
 and therefore must have a reason and a philosophy. 
 Indulge a brief answer to this question, as it involves 
 one of the most important relations of life. Genius is 
 original, superb, bold, defiant, and disdains to follow 
 the worn-out paths of others, whether it be or not a 
 disease of the nerves, as declared by a learned doctor, 
 lience the comparatively ignorant wife, and her more 
 ignorant friends, and simple, conceited neighbors, ever 
 eager to officiate, call this eccentricity, obduracy, imbe- 
 cility. 
 
 " The moles and bats in full assembly find, 
 On special search the keen-eyed eagle blind." 
 
 Genius'also has its puerilities, and is subject to the 
 greatest perturbations, like the streaming meteor, and 
 these, its mere aberrations, are taken by the ignorant 
 for its normal orbit and natural status. For instance, 
 Sir Isaac Newton, I think it was, or some other great 
 mind, on having his new barn completed, required the 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 57 
 
 workman to cut a hole in the door for oats to enter to 
 drive oft the rats, xiftcr the hole was made for the 
 cat, which required but a few moments, he asked his 
 workman also to cut some smaller ones for the kittens, 
 as he Avished them to multiply. " But," said the work- 
 man, '' if a grown cat go through that hole so can the 
 little kitttens." " Sure enough," rejoined the genius. 
 There are many such ludicrous instances of absence of 
 mind — for they are nothing else — recorded of great 
 men, which silly people regard as the test of mentality. 
 The great mind, after its herculean efforts on great sub- 
 jects, becomes on these small trivialities quiescent, and 
 is then comparatively asleep; and such active minds 
 require more sleep than sluggish ones. Napoleon fre- 
 quently slept on the field of battle, on the issue of 
 v.hich the fate of Empires trembled. It is the moral 
 duty of genius to pity the weak and self-conceited sim- 
 pleton ; and some do, occasionally, but not invariably, 
 for genius is generally unstable and erratic like the 
 vivid lightning's gleam. There are many who attain 
 renown through adventitious fortune; but few men of 
 genius are known to the world compared to the many 
 unknown. 
 
 '■ Full mnny a gem of purest ray serene, 
 The dark, unfathomed cave? of ocean bear ; 
 Full many a flower is born to blush unseen. 
 Aud \vagte its fragrance on the desert air," 
 
 These lines, though trite, are so truthful and beau- 
 tiful, so apposite and opportune, that I could not resist 
 their recitation. As there arc vain men Avho would 
 feign sleep a la "Old Nap,," as he was called, to affect 
 his genius, so I am aware he who quotes these forailiar 
 
 lines would be liable to the charge of self-application, 
 3-^ 
 
Ob PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 himself the buried gem and neglected flower; and be- 
 fore an auditory to whom I am not known, I should 
 not thus venture to repeat them in this connection. 
 But my reputation is in Texas, and with the Texans, 
 and their opinions of myself and public efforts, as ex- 
 pressed through their leading journals, amply vindicate 
 me from this charge, and fully gratify my highest aspi- 
 rations in this regard ; and here I'm content to leave it. 
 Again : the man of genius and culture is capable of 
 conceiving and is hence apt to fix a standard so high of 
 female loveliness, that few women can " fill the bill," 
 to use a quaint phrase; hence his frequent disappoint- 
 ments. And again, genius is high-spirited, full of 
 passion, impatient of restraint, excitable and irritable, 
 (which irritability is confounded by the vixen with her 
 own irascibility) ; and therefore requires a wife of more 
 than ordinary gentleness, patience and amiability. But 
 genius, superb in its ideal, will have none other than a 
 v/oman of superb beauty; and nature never lavishes all 
 her gifts in one individual. I opine it would be as 
 hard to find a beautiful woman who is amiable, as it is 
 to find a great man vv^ho is pretty. And yet further, 
 may it not sometimes happen that an invidious wife, 
 and her still more invidious friends, seek to drag the 
 husband from his towering altitude down to their own 
 level, v/hom they can never otherwise hope to equal ? 
 To return : Goethe says, " I could in no wise dispense 
 with the happiness of believing in our future existence, 
 and could say with Lorenzo De IMedici, that those are 
 dead for this life even who have no hojje of hereafter." 
 We might quote from Swedcnborg, the illuminated 
 seer of Germany, and the philosophic and scientific 
 
rniLOROPHY OF T>IFE. 59 
 
 Christian of the eighteenth century, who lived and 
 moved in mind among the angeh-, and who predicted 
 correctly tlie day and hour of his death ; from Black- 
 stone, t]ie great legal philosopher of England, and his 
 annotator, Chitty; from the epic Iliad of Homer, and 
 the anterior Valmika, the Homer of Hindoostan ; the 
 rural Bucolics of Virgil ; the plaintive pleas of Ossian, 
 who sang " spirits ride on beaius of fire ;" the stately 
 tones of Shelley ; the original Chaucer; the dramatic 
 life pictures of Shakespeare — all the inspired spirits of 
 song along the stream of time hymn the hopes of the 
 human heart to be beyond the dim horizon that bounds 
 our visual organs. And the Wesleys, founders of 
 modern Methodism, (in contradistinction to the Meth- 
 odism, Popish, of France, several centuries previous,) 
 with their whole families, witnesswl in their houses for 
 a long time strange and marvehais manifestations of 
 spirit power, but, like adl others, while fully believing, 
 did not understand them or their mighty significance. 
 And Adam Clark, their biographer, familiar with many 
 languages, and author of popular and voluminous com- 
 mentaries on the bible, acknowledged their superhuman 
 and ultramundane oiigin. AYordsworth believed that 
 prophets lived in all ages ; Coleridge claimed supernal 
 inspiration ; and Raphael professed to derive the ideal 
 of his splendid ])aragon of beauty from liis immortal- 
 ized mother. 
 
 We might go on and quote from Sir ?.Iatthew Halo, 
 one of the founders of English jurisprudent, and St. 
 Augustine, one of the fathers of the cliurch, and a, 
 great many others of the most noted characters that 
 illume the pages of the past, from the earliest to the 
 
60 PHILOSOPHY OP LIFE. 
 
 latest ages. But for our limited time these must suffice 
 to establish the fact that from the earliest ages to the 
 present propitious period, mankind have cherished a 
 vague belief in their immortality and ministering 
 angels in ihe form of their friends who formerly lived 
 among them in the flesh. 
 
 But the most illustrious of all those illuminated and 
 some spiritually inspired characters is Jesus Christ. 
 
 I ask the Christian particularly to remark his 
 words : 
 
 " Behold the kingdom of God is within you — ask 
 and it shall be given you — seek and you shall find ; 
 knock and it shall be opened unto you — and I, if I be 
 lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me — I 
 have yet many things to say unto you, but you cannot 
 bear them now — howbeit when he the spirit of truth 
 shall come, he will guide you unto all truth — and he 
 will show you things to come — for it is not ye that 
 speak, but the spirit of your Father which speaketh in 
 you — notvv^ith standing in this rejoice not that the spirits 
 are subject to you — he that bclieveth in me," that is as 
 I understand it, in my life and philosophy, " the works 
 that I do shall he do also, and greater works than these 
 shall he do." "But though he had done so many 
 miracles before them, yet they believed not orx him." 
 Hence he declared to his disciples with whom he had 
 been so long familiar, that "they did not understand 
 him, and could not until the spirit of truth should 
 come to lead them into the truth of what he had 
 taught." It is also recorded in the new Testament, 
 '"' and on the day of Pentacost suddenly thei'e came a 
 sound from heaven as of a rushing, mighty wind, 
 
PIIILOSOrTIY OF LirE. 61 
 
 nncl it filled all the house where the apostles were sit- 
 tina'. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues 
 like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them: and they 
 werc all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak 
 witli other tongues as the spirit gave them utterance — 
 for tlie promise is unto you and your children, and to 
 all that arc afar off." As prophesied of old, " I Avill 
 pour of my spirit upon all flesh." We must not omit 
 St. Paul, who v.^as a man of recondite and profound 
 erudition, and in spiritual endowments was perhaps 
 second only to Jesus. You recollect his supernatural, 
 no — there is no such thing as supernatural — liis pre- 
 ternatural conversion. He says: "The manifestation 
 of the si>irit is given to every man to profit. For as 
 many as are led by the spirit of God, they are the sons 
 of God. For I reckon that the suffering of this pre- 
 sent time is not worthy to be compared with the glory 
 which shall be revealed in us. Likewise the spirit also 
 heJpcth our infirmities. For we know not what we 
 should pray for. Know ye not that ye are the temple 
 of God, and that the spirit of God dwelleth in you? 
 Follov.' after charity and desire spiritual gifts. For ye 
 may all prophesy one by one, that all may learn and be 
 <'omforfed. It [man] is sown a natural body; it is 
 raised a spiritual body. For th.ere is a spiritual body, 
 and there is a natural body. I kncNV a nian, whetlicr 
 in the body or out of the body I can not tell, how that 
 he was caught up into paradise and heard unspeakable 
 words which it is not lawful for a man to utter. If we 
 live in the spirit let us walk in the spirit. Quench not 
 the spirit. Despise not prophesying. Prove all things 
 —hold fast that which is good." Good advice truly. 
 
^2 PHILOSOPHY OP LIFE, 
 
 He also speaks of the "discenaing of spirits/' "o^ift of 
 tongues/' "gift of healing/' etc. ' ' ^ 
 
 Thus we have given the prevailing opinion and cher- 
 ished hopes of mankind in evcrj variety and without 
 regard to chronologic order, extending over a period of 
 5865 years, (including the Mosaic record,) comprising 
 billions of men, down to the present auspicious time. 
 
 But to tliis general and popular sentiment of the 
 human family, which vre trace through all the ages, 
 there are many and powerful exceptions. Nationallj' 
 the Huns, a numerous and warlike nation, who, under 
 Attila and Alaric overran southern Europe, according 
 to some historians rejected all religions, possessing and 
 professing none. Individually Julius Caesar, cOS an 
 orator and a writer, statesman and warrior, one of the 
 most famous of mankind, in a celebrated oration in the 
 Roman Senate, on the punishment of Lentulus and other 
 Catalinian conspirators, advocated incarceration for life 
 on tiie ground that death is no punishment, but rather 
 a cessation from toil and sorrov/, as well as of joy. Na- 
 poleon Bonaparte, equally renowned in both civil and 
 military annals, was so heartily disgusted with the sim- 
 ulations of the clergy, and the hypocrisy of all reli- 
 gions, that he believed none. On his narrovv^ escape 
 from fhc inflowing tide of the Red sea, on the spot 
 where Pharaoh perished, he exclaimed, ^^ If I had 
 perished here like Pharaoh, what a text it would have 
 furnished the preachers of all Christendom." He never 
 uttered a greater truth. It would have been seized 
 upon and heralded from the pulpit as a grand provi- 
 dential speciality visited upon him for his manifold sins 
 asid transgressions, and iniquities, and ungodliness, and 
 
rnTi.osopiiY OF i.tfe. 
 
 63 
 
 special prosumptuousness, for getting himself out safe 
 from the same sea who^3c enraged waters liacl over- 
 whclinea Pliaraoh and his heathen l^ost, by tlie special 
 mandate of the Almigh.ty. I sometimes more than 
 half agree with Napoleon and Casar, to the extent at 
 least tiiat a large portion of the human family are not 
 worthy of anotlKT and liigher life, and indeed do not 
 desire* it. And Polibius, Pausanius, Simonides, 
 Hobbes, Hume, Gibbons, Bolingbrooke, Lord Cliat- 
 ham, Byron, Burke, Voltaire, Paine, Franklin, Jeffer- 
 son, and others of great intellect, were infidels, or 
 skeptics, but whether on the divine origin of the Tal- 
 mud, or Targum, or Bible, or Koran, or Veda, or 
 Edda, or Sastra, or Geeta, or on th.e immortality of the 
 soul, I do not laiow, not having studied nor even read 
 them. Indeed, I never read an in.fidel author in my 
 life, my information on -this su1)ject being derived from 
 religious and miscellaneous reading of late scientific 
 works. Aud in the living age I am personally 
 acquainted witli at least one master mind, a distin- 
 guished gentleman now present, who has studied both 
 physical and psychical science, particularly as involved in 
 medicine, chemistry and physiology, who has no idea 
 and no hope of another life beyond the scenes of this 
 fitful, fn-ered drama — regarding man as (»nly a high 
 order of animal with, the highest cerebral development. 
 In the liberal laws of this enlightened conmion>vcalth 
 of Texas — and there is more intelligence among the 
 masses than in any other State — a man's religion is not 
 the test of eligibility to office, oath or emolument; 
 and if it were, this gentleman would scorn concealment 
 
64 
 
 PHILOSOFIIY OF LIFE. 
 
 under the cloak of liypocrlsy. He charges me w^tb 
 saperstition. According to Webster and Worce=^ter 
 superstition means false relisrion, v/eak c-eri-ility I 
 have shown that mankind in all ages, the most'lite- 
 rate and illiterate, have believed in a f\itnre life and 
 spiritual or angelic interconrse of excarnated with incar- 
 nated meii, amounting to an almost universal instinct. 
 ISow this belief must be founded in actual fact, or the 
 result of iustinct. If the former, the fact is cstab- 
 lisnea ; u the latter, we must believe it will be realized 
 Hereafter as a glorious truth, for all instincts of a^ aui- 
 imls are gratified, or have the means of gratification 
 inus man's superstition furnishes an argument for 
 uiture hfc. With the sceptic it is at least consistent to 
 entertain these views of spiritualism and all the reli- 
 gious isms; but with religionists of any class to reject 
 spiritualism or supermundane manifestations of excar- 
 nated men in the form of angels, when all their reli- 
 gioiis^and bibles are predicated upon this principle, and 
 the Cnristian pre-eminently so, as it contains nearly 
 two hundred such passages or references, it proves them' 
 to use the mildest terms, to be either ignorant or 
 insincere. It may be urged that my peculi.^- tempera- 
 uient or constitution of mind causes my incredulity of 
 the flishionable orthodoxy. If so, I may replv that the 
 constitution of the believer's mind is the cause of his 
 ereduhty. Again, it may be said mv mental peculiarity 
 IS tlie cause of my admiring and embracing the spiritual 
 piiilosophy, to which I might retort tlie mental pecu- 
 liarity of others prevents them from appreciating and 
 emoracmg this philosophy; that they and mankind 
 generally are so constituted or educated as to turn from 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF ltfp:. 65 
 
 new li<''lit:-!, and reject impvoveinents as innovations — 
 creatures of eclncatlon wlio can not sunder the shackles 
 of early iustillatlons. There are few, indeed, who can 
 do this. Around men's hearts is a mail of prejudice 
 and partiality, of religion and bigotry, that grows with 
 their growth, which is as impervious to light as, and which 
 they are generally no more able to break than, the tor- 
 toise can break its shell. It is not so ranch with them 
 the God of truth, the God of nature, the God of their 
 destiny, as the God of their fathers. Few can rend the 
 \eil and view the truth of God and God of truth. 
 Well did Jesus say " few there be that find him." 
 
 Now, before we concern ourselves about our condition 
 licreafter, or the conditions of that country, or in fami- 
 liar figure the state of the road on the other side of 
 Jordon, we should nrst find out whetlier there is any 
 hereafter, any country, or any road at all beyond the 
 terrene banks of this rugged shore. 
 
 Tlien let us reason this mighty question of human 
 immortality a little for ourselves. 
 
 We can neither date our beginning nor our ending — 
 not in a collective or generic sense — but individually and 
 personally. Where and when did we become men? 
 when and where did our individuality, our life if you 
 [)lease, commence? We can trace back, step by step, 
 process after process, but no one point more prominent 
 than others, until we arrive at the original elements of 
 earth from which we have been elaborated. Here some- 
 Nvhere is the beginning of our genetic personal history, 
 physically. Our spirituality, our mentality, our real 
 conscious self, is afterwards superinduced as the grand 
 result for which the physical casket is the fitting recep- 
 
QQ PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 tide and necessaiy vehicle or process for the sioiritual 
 elaboration^ and gradually infused by those higher, 
 more refined and supernal ekments surrounding the 
 atmosphere, and permeating the planets and planetary 
 spaces of the universe. Yv'e can tr^ce the gradual 
 development of our spiritual self back to somewhere in 
 childhood, ultimately, or rather primarily, to the super- 
 ethereal elements ; but T\^ho can date its exact begin- 
 ning ? The spirit, like the body, is oF gradual growth . 
 and development; but we cannot date their precise 
 begining point. Here the analogy ends; for the body, 
 after its maturity, fulfills its mission and decays ; but 
 the spirit continues to progress, to expand, to develope 
 new capacities, ncvv- expansions, and new grandeurs, 
 independent of the decaying body, unless suffering from 
 essential organic lesion, as I shall presently show. 
 This leads us to immortality, which v/e now investi- 
 gate; and it is not more wonderful or incredible for an 
 immortal and angelic being to spring from the highest 
 types of man, than for those higher types of conscious 
 life to spring from the inert elements of the unconscious 
 rocks; but we knov/ this latter to be a fact, hence vre 
 may believe the former to be a truth. 
 
 Wisdom to devise, power to execute, and will to 
 exert them, are the essential attributes of a creator. 
 Now man, and man alone, of all beings within the 
 range of our knowledge, possesses these attributes. 
 True, the brute, by instinct, constructs its bed, builds 
 its nest, or forms its lair; but in them all we find 
 nothing new, no original thought, or wisdom, or pro- 
 gressive improvement, or mental locomotion, or ener- 
 getic, independent power of creation. In man we find 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF IJFE. 
 
 67 
 
 all these proiiiinently displayed. As striking instances 
 behold the majestic steamboat and locomotive careering 
 o'er the ocean or crossing the continent. And, as a 
 more familiar and practical illustration, look at his 
 oarrxients before the days of Watt, and Savory of the 
 steam engine, Arkwright and Cartwright of the spin- 
 ning and vreaving machine, and Howe, Moore, and 
 others, of the sewing machine, Mdicn ten men, ten days 
 with hard toil, would make about ten garments, rough, 
 uncouth and uncomfortable. Now, by these, his crea- 
 tive energies, ten men in ten days, with light labor, can 
 make near a thousand garments, beautiful, comfortable 
 and durable. We know these things do not come by 
 chance ; that x<e create or make them before they exist, or 
 can possibly have an existence. The aquatic indwellers of 
 the sea, if they had reasoning powers, could not attri- 
 bute the great steamship, with all intricate, harmonious 
 and well-adjusted parts, to mere chance or accident; 
 Irat must know that it is the work, the creation of some 
 superior being, whom, however, they cannot find nor 
 see. Now, if these little imperfect and perishable crea- 
 tions of the ephemeral pigmy, man, must be created before 
 tliey can have an existance, how can this mighty and 
 magnificent nature, from tiic plumed butterfly to the 
 wonderful worlds of light rolling around us, have its 
 . grand and o-forious existence without a creator commen- 
 
 -1 -I o 
 
 surate in wisdom and power, magnificence and glory : 
 whom, nevertheless, we may not find nor see. It is 
 evident then there must be a creator — God. "I am, 
 O God! and surely Thou must be!" says the great 
 Russian poet. And man, inheriting the original crea- 
 tive energies of the Father, must be the child of God, 
 
68 rHTLOSOPIIY OF LIFE, 
 
 assimulated to him in mental development, but not 
 perfection. And can it be that his children, so assimu- 
 lated to him in these splendid faculties, vrere created 
 but to be washed away with the current of time, and 
 after a few fleeting years, to die out with death for- 
 ever? Man being the only mundane being in posses- 
 sion of the splendid powers of original mental locomo- 
 tion, which is a great distinguishing feature between 
 him and the brute, that has no more original mental 
 locomoticn than the llov/er whicli instinctively opens 
 its capsular petals to catch- the night dew or passing 
 shower, and then closes in the precious water drops for 
 the approaching drought; and endowed with the God- 
 like faculties of wisdom to devise, power to execute and 
 will to exert them, must be in the image and reflects 
 the attributes of his Maker — the chosen child of his 
 Father, inheriting his nature. And if he inherit the 
 nature of his God he cannot die unless God die; and 
 God cannot die unless the universe die; but we know 
 the universe of matter to be imperishable; therefore 
 God cannot die, and man, inheriting his nature, is im- 
 mortal. 
 
 Again, it appears evident that this terrestrial nature 
 was created for man. All the zones of earth and king- 
 doms of organic life, as well as all inorganic matter, are 
 adapted to him and to him alone. All this nature, in 
 • all its appointments, ministers unto him, and yields its 
 treasures to his talismanic touch. Before his onward 
 march and at his authoritative mandate oceans yield 
 their treasures, and mountains melt away ; and all earth 
 with calm quiescence acknowledges his sway. Surely 
 the world is made for man; he is, under God, its lordly 
 
PIITLOHOPHY OF LIFF], G9 
 
 master. Tho bowels of the eartli yield their iron 
 eliains, with v>^hieh wc bind the elements of lire and 
 water, and make them the obedient servants of our 
 v\-ill. In a car of onr own construction we can sit at 
 ease, and, by kindlino; a few bush.els of coal, circumnav- 
 io-ate onr world of twenty-five thousand miles circum- 
 ference in less than forty days. We throw the plummet 
 of our reason athvrart the internal fiery ocean of this 
 shell-crusted globe, and note the heaving, heated bil- 
 lows of its liquid fire. We track the earthquake's 
 fjiant tread and analy v.c the palpitations of its mighty 
 heart. Man is the master of his situation in all but 
 the great law af mutation, which is another name of 
 progression, from which he is not exempt, and of which 
 he forms the principal part: objectively and subjec- 
 tively he is the very spirit of progression. 'And hope 
 springs exclusive in the human breast, and would fain 
 have this earth a jirimitive garden in which to culti- 
 vate and prepare his faculties for a nobler theatre — a 
 chrysalis state to develop tlie bud ot immortal being ere 
 his pinions plume for celestial flight. Why this con- 
 stant living in the future, and for the future? Xever 
 in the present; nor for the present. 
 
 The brute, when its animal demands of hunger and 
 thirst are satisfied, lies dovai contented and happy; it 
 lias no other desires — no unsatisfied aspirations. Is it th. us 
 v.'ith man? Not so. He has, after all his mere animal 
 a]->petencies are satiated to the full, other desires that 
 this initial earth plane cannot satisfy. Grant, as a 
 postulate, th.at a creator cannot create a creature better 
 than the creator, and I will prove conclusively my im- 
 m^rtalitv. I a.'^sert for mvself that I would not, would 
 
70 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 never create any tliii:!^ with desires to be ruthlessly 
 denied, disappointed and frustrated. But God has 
 created me with this intense desire of immortal love ; 
 now, therefore, He must endue me with this immortality, 
 or else I, the creature am better tlian God the creator, 
 which was postulated as impossible. 
 
 Again, God must have had a motive in the creation 
 of man, and this motive must be either to please him- 
 self the creator, or to please man the creature. If the 
 former, to please himself, he has failed in the object, if 
 man corLsists alone in the animal and perishes with it; 
 for where is the pleasure to make a creature with yearn- 
 ing desires just to perish v/ithout the gratification of 
 those desires, unless he delight in the infliction of suf- 
 fering upon his children, for this v/ould be the merest 
 mockery and the direst cruelty. Better have limited 
 his creation to the brute which is endowed with no 
 desires but those that are gratified. This would be 
 pleasure. But if the latter, that is pleasure to man, 
 he has here failed of his object too; for man can have 
 no pleasure in a life of earnest desires never to be gra- 
 tified, if so be that he dies with his body. He can 
 have no pleasure without a pang, when he knows this 
 very pleasure, no matter how exstatic, is to have an 
 end,^ no matter how distant. 
 
 " A perpetuity of bliss alone is bliss." Therefore, 
 in either case, he must endow man with immortality to 
 effect his object in his creation, whether that be to 
 please the creator or creature. This is a strong infer- 
 ential argument apart from demonstrative science. Man 
 would become the most miserable, indeed the only mis- 
 erable of all animated nature, inasmuch as he is the 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 71 
 
 only species endowed with desires never to be gratified, 
 if he perish like all the balance of the animal creation. 
 But, as far as our animal observation extends, every- 
 thins; dies. We see men die continually like the brute 
 creation, and never see more of them ; we witness death 
 everywhere in our world, but never witness any resur- 
 rection. According to this mere animal observation, 
 men come into the world like brutes and go out like 
 brutes, which is the end of them — utter annihilation. 
 But man is capable of inlinite expansion and exaltation, 
 and this is proof that he is enabled to look beyond and 
 above this mere experience or observation of his animal 
 part, which is but his earthly argan, his temporal sen- 
 sorium. Through the lights of science that he himself 
 hath kindled, he sees that nothing is annihilated ; that 
 while change, mutation is nature's organic law, death 
 or annihilation is unknown in her whole organism. 
 Therefore man's body, with that of the brute^ expires 
 but to undergo some great change in the economy of 
 nature, their constituent parts and original elements 
 not to be destroyed, but to continue through their 
 transmutution the grand omniferous design of nature's 
 God. 
 
 But what becomes of man's immortal pari — his 
 mind or spirit? If ins mere animal body is not extin- 
 guished, but merely changed its constitution and posi- 
 tion in the grand process of uiiture, a fortiori wc may 
 believe, nay must conclude, that his spiritual part, that 
 splendid emanation of the Deity, is not extinguished, 
 nor dies, but is changed, transibrmed, metamorphosed 
 in position, prospect and perfection. And the great 
 improvement and j.rogrcss while in this span of time 
 
72 FHILOSOPITY OF LIFE. 
 
 fiilly indicate the improvement and progress after this 
 earthly elimination, this change of apparent death. If 
 any part of nature perished or is annihilated, it might 
 be allowable, as we have already shown, to suppose the 
 soul may perish. But no part, parcel, or infinitessimal 
 particle of nature is really destroyed. It may be 
 changed, transformed, in fact is continually undergo- 
 ing change and transformation in the elementary con- 
 ditions, but absolute indestructibility is a fundamental 
 law. Then can it be believed that the most important, 
 masterly and God-like work, the mind of man for 
 y/hom this nature was made, will be destroyed ? The 
 life of the mind is a positive fact; the ojms prohandi is 
 upon him who asserts its death. But it may be said 
 the proof of the life of the mind is in its living actions 
 which we witness ; ergo the proof of its death is in the 
 fact that we no more witness these livino; actions. 
 Hence the burden of proof is again on us affirming the 
 life of the mind by these continued living actions. 
 This we cannot do, simply because an impossibility, 
 except through the new philosophy evolved by modern 
 science. Nevertheless v/e infer a strong verisimilitude 
 in accordance with the known laws of nature, that the 
 spirit, which is an actuality the man, soon as. eliminated 
 from material organism, mounts by the law of attrac- 
 tion to its great, original, homogeneous source. From 
 the general analogies of nature and our best intellec- 
 tions, we must indulge and cherish the hope of immor- 
 tality for our loves, else whence these aspirations of the 
 soul, these longings after glory? 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 73 
 
 ■" When 'reft of nil you widowed sire appears 
 A lonely hermit iu the vale of years ; 
 Say, can the world one joyous thought bestow 
 To friendship weepiug at the couch of woe? 
 No I but a brighter soothes the last adieu,— 
 Souls of impassioned mould she speaks to you 1 
 M'cep not Bhe says at nature's transient pain, 
 Congenial spirits part to meet again."' 
 
 " If in that frame no deathless spirit dwell, 
 If that faint murmur be the last farewell. 
 If fate unite the fixithM but to part, 
 Why is their memory sacred to the heart?'" 
 
 " To have been and not to be is less than unborn," 
 
 riien man must be immortal or God cannot be good, 
 inasmuch as goodness would never «'cate and implant 
 kappy affections, cherished feolings of friendship, 
 angelic love, and an irrepressible desire to live on with 
 loved friends to demonstrate goodness, and then tear 
 all these cherished ligaments asunder and lacerate the 
 very heart of love with the relentless destiny of certain 
 separation. But the very implantation of these holy, 
 happy and hallowed affections proves goodness, inile^s 
 we can imagine cruelty to be a predominating attribute 
 to his character. Therefore, man is immortal, and by 
 proper effort at a proper development, may attain the 
 abodes of bliss and love as the heritage of his hopes. 
 
 " It must be so, Plato, thou Tcasoncst Avel! !— 
 Else whence this pleasing hope, this fond desire, 
 This longing after immortality? 
 Or whence this sacred dread and inward horror 
 Of faliiT]g-iato n.^nght? Why shrinks the sonl 
 Back on herself and startles nt destruction? 
 
 'Tis the Divinity that etira within lis; 
 'Tis He.av(jn itself that points iiu hereafter 
 
 And iutimatea an eternity lo man. 
 
 The stars shall fade away, the Bun himself 
 
 Grow dim with age, atul nature sink in years; 
 Cut thou ahall fiourlfih iu immortal youth 
 Unhurt amidst the war of eloment?, 
 ITho wreck of matter ritid thfl crash of world," 
 
74 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 But here is the problem: Is the thinking, spiritual 
 part of man a distinct independent entity, or is it the 
 result of his material organization generated by the 
 brain as a voltaic battery generates electricity, or 
 secreted as the stomach secretes the gastric juice, or as 
 the liver secretes the bile. This is the great question 
 of the age, and is worthy, as it commands the mightiest 
 efforts of human science. Of course if it be a separate 
 existence, the dissolution of the body can not affect it, 
 only to dislodge it, to change its place or position ; but 
 if it be an inseparable result of the physical functions, 
 of course it must cease upon the cessation of those 
 functions, and expire with corporeal dissolution. Now 
 the cerebellum is the seat or centre of physical vi- 
 tality, and the cerebrum the seat of the mind. The 
 Tjrutes have large back brain, but no front brain ; they 
 liave the body but not the spirit. The functions of 
 the cerebellum are involuntary, of the cerebrum vol- 
 nintary. 
 
 It should appear then from experiment that v/hen 
 the cerebellum is wounded the bodily functions cease, 
 Nwhich is the fact, but what effect it has on the spirit of 
 fcourse we can not know, wliile, on the other hand, 
 when the cerebrum is wounded the mind is affected, 
 but the bodily functions not necessarily so. Again, 
 the whole body maybe sick and the spirit unimpaired, 
 .and vice versa, the mind may be deranged and the 
 bady unimpaired. If the spirit be a mere effect or 
 result generated by the brain, how can it be sound 
 while the brain is diseased? How can the effect be 
 *ound when the cause is unsound? I grant that the 
 raind is frequently deranged in its actions when the 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF IJFE. ^O 
 
 brain is diseased; but may not this result from, not the 
 mind being necessarily diseased itself in a dependent 
 connection with the brain as part of itself, but, the 
 brain being merely its vehicle or agent through which 
 it acts, and this vehicle being diseased its actions be- 
 come deranged. This may also account for the great 
 physical exhaustion consequent upon intense mental 
 aetion. The greatest prostration I ever experienced 
 was from mental eifort. While the average human 
 brain is but one-fortieth of the body in weight, it 
 receives one-sixth of the blood, thus proving the 
 mighty action of the mind upon this organ, and the 
 exhaustion of the physical system from this action when 
 intense and continued — on the same principle and 
 philosophy precisely of the exhaustion of a medium 
 after long continued spirit influence. This latter flict 
 is proof of my philosophy of the former. And fur- 
 ther, as the mind is the centre of sensation, that is, if a 
 wound be inflicted on any part of the system, say the 
 hand, the pain appears to be there in the hand; but it 
 is not ; you sever the nerve connecting the hand with 
 tlie brain or mind, and the wound will not be felt at 
 all. Then the brain should be a most sensitive organ, 
 but it is not sucli. You may wound and even take 
 out a j)ortion of the cerebrum without pain, and with- 
 out affecting the mind. Thus it appears the mind is 
 the source of sensation, and independent of the brain. 
 But the medulla ablongata, which is a small brain at 
 the base of the cranium, connecting with the top of 
 the spinal column, resembling the arbor vitaj, and so 
 called, and the mediate seat where all the nerves collect 
 and concentre and cross to the opposite hemispheres of 
 
76 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 the upper brain, — is so extremely sensitive that the 
 slightest puncture will produce convulsions. I have a 
 nearly constant and sometimes a severe pain on the left 
 of the spinal column in the dorsal nerve, and in the 
 riffht temple of the forehead ; this decussation of the 
 nerves in the medulla, I suppose, accounts for the con- 
 nection. This medulla, which means the pith and quin- 
 tessence of marrow, seems to be the very pith and quin- 
 tessence of the Avhole brain, and is thought by Dr. 
 Dodds to be the central seat of th^ mind. Of course, 
 as a learned physician and physiologist, he must mean 
 the animal mind, if you will allow such an expression, 
 or animal instincts, if you prefer it: for the scat of 
 man's mind or spirit is the cerebrum, which is a super- 
 added differentiation or development above all otlier 
 animals inhabiting this planet, and is alone adapted to 
 the operations of mind or spirit as extraneous to itself, 
 just as the optic apparatus or visual organs are adapted 
 to light as extraneous to them. It is remarkable 
 that when cut in any direction, at least that portion in 
 the contiguous cerebellum, it presents the appearance 
 of the abor vitse, the tree of life ; and if man is tlie 
 only animal that has this tree of life in its cerebral 
 structure, (having no work or access to any on complic- 
 ative anatomy, I can not say,) it is singular and signiii- 
 caut.* And yet further : Geology teaches, according 
 to Cuvier's classification, the first created si:)ecies of ani- 
 mated nature on our globe were the fishes ; next the 
 reptiles; next the birds; next the mammalia; each 
 
 *Later investigation proves that man is not the only creature with the 
 •medulla obleugata, that this is only an esiacntial organ of the animi^l organ- 
 ism; and that the frontal and coronal portion of the encephalon is the spoi 
 :that spirituality stoops to touch with loftiest thaught and immortal love. 
 
PHILOSOPHY -OF LIFE. 77 
 
 sjtecies liuving their brain peculiar to themselves, but 
 rising higher toward perfection in each successive de- 
 velopment during those long and successive epochs of 
 creation. Xov\^, we learn from embryology, as first 
 truced by Tiedcman, that in the successive develop- 
 ments of the fo3tal brain, it is first in the form of that 
 of the fish; then of the reptile; then of the bird; then 
 of the mammal; and last, v.dien fully developed, it as- 
 sumes the form of the human brain. Nor does this 
 warrant the Lamarckian theory, ^s'hich would make us 
 all the great grand-children of the monkey. It shows 
 conclusively, first, that man is the grand aggregate and 
 ultimate of the universe below him, and the end and 
 aim of this mundane creation ; and second, that his 
 liigh development of brain is intended for another pur- 
 pose above and beyond all others below him, to be re- 
 ceptive of a higher endowment of which they are not 
 capable. And what this purpose unless it be a spirit- 
 ual life ■? and what the purpose of spiritual life without 
 imnKn-tality ■? But the relative complexity of the cere- 
 bral convolutions in tlie higher types of man over the 
 Aryan race and all the anthropoid animals, argues, if 
 it does not prove, that mind is generated by this cere- 
 bral apparatus as common electricity is generated by a 
 galvanic battery; and that the power of the mind is 
 in direct ratio Avith these convolutions, which are esti- 
 mated to present a superficies in the higher types of 
 near 700 square inches; and also in connection and 
 ratio ^vith the cluiracter of the cineritious and vesicu- 
 lar matter. And though science teaches that nothing 
 ()f ourselves remain permanent but our consciousness, 
 or sclf-kn.owledge of existence, our htecceity, yet when 
 
78 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE, 
 
 we consider old age — when the brain has lost its power 
 the mind ceases — the very existence of the man is un- 
 known to himself. And when we farther consider that 
 in cases of cerebral injury of long standings the mind 
 on its recovery begins again and is cognizant only 
 where it was made to leave oif by the cerebral injury. 
 As example, a British captain, while giving orders on 
 the quarter-deck of his ship, at the battle of the Mle,. 
 was struck on the head by a shot and immediately be- 
 came senseless. He was taken home and removed to 
 Greenwich Hospital, where for fifteen months he 
 evinced no sign of intelligence. He was then tre- 
 phined, and immediately upon the operation being per- 
 formed consciousness returned, and he instantly began 
 busying himself to see the orders carried out that he 
 had given during the battle fifteen months previously. 
 The clock-work of the brain, unaware that it had 
 stopped — so w^as the mind unaware — upon being set 
 going again pointed to the exact minute at which it 
 had left off. I say, when we consider cases like this, 
 it seems almost positive that the mind or spirit is de- 
 pendent on and generated by the brain ; else why did 
 the mind not have cognition of events transpiring dur- 
 ing the brain's inanition ? Or, why does the old man 
 cease to be? Blumenbach, Sir Ashley Cooper, and 
 others, have seen the human brain, when exposed, ex- 
 hibit motion when the mind was in action, violent mo- 
 tion when the mind Avas excited, and perfect, rest when 
 the mind was quiescent : showing the mind to be the 
 result of or dependent on the action of the brain. 
 These portentous and gloomy facts of physiologi- 
 cal science would prove the ruin of our hopes and 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 79 
 
 immortal aspirations, were it not for the grand de- 
 velopments of .spiritual science. But this superior 
 brain is the seat of consciousness of which all the lower 
 brains are devoid. There is, there can be, no such 
 thing as life without consciousness. As an old philos- 
 opher remarked that "all philosophy begins in the cer- 
 tainties of consciousness," so I affirm all true life be- 
 gins only in the certainties of consciousness. 
 
 All other animated and organic nature is but active 
 organization,, not living being, for life must necessarily 
 be conscious. Personal consciousness of living alone, 
 constitutes life, which involves a diiferent and higher 
 principle than organization, however active or refined 
 
 it may be. 
 
 Pyrrho, the skeptic philosopher of Elis, asserted that 
 
 no man can have certain knowledge of any thing. One 
 of his friends reproved him in the following logical 
 dilemma: "You either know what you say to be true, 
 or you do not know it; if you do know it to be true, 
 tliut very knoAvledge proves your assertion to be false, 
 and you do wrong to make it ; if you do not know it 
 to be true, you do wrong to assert it, since no one has 
 a right to xissert what he does not know to be true ; 
 therefore, in either case, you do wrong to assert that no 
 one can have a certain knowledge of any thing." 
 
 Now, I assert that, theoretically, all human knowl- 
 edge except consciousness or knowledge of our own 
 personal existence, may be the result of some sort of 
 ])sychological illusion; but this personal identity or 
 knowledge of conscious existence, admits of no doubt, 
 theoretically or jiractically. If not so, we must doubt 
 every thing, and doubt whether we doubted at all, and 
 
80 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE, 
 
 finally doubt the existence of all these very doubts, 
 and thus continue to doubt ad indefinitum. 
 
 Close the live senses of the animal, and it becomes 
 at once mentally a mere inanity ; close all these senso- 
 rial avenues to man, and he is still mentally a complete 
 man with the same glowing and glorious aspirations, 
 ever looking and longing for the time when he shall be 
 gathered to his fathers and his friends. No other ani- 
 mal has these aspirations, and no other animal has 
 man's cerebral development; and just so, many ani- 
 mals in the deep darkness of the Mammoth Cave, par- 
 ticularly of the piscatory tribe, have no visual organs 
 because there is no light to act upon or develop them. 
 And yet still further— we are taught by physiology 
 that no part of us is permanent except this conscious- 
 ness j that our blood is replaced by new blood every 
 two weeks ; our flesh every six months ; and our bones 
 in from four to seven years are thrown oif and replaced 
 by new; that our very brain thus entirely passes away 
 and is thus renewed ; that nothing of ourself is perma- 
 nent except consciousness and memory, and personal 
 identity. In the words of Professor Erni, " When the 
 son, after years of absence, again meeets t\\b~ hearty em- 
 braces of a tender mother, there is not an atom of mat- 
 ter on his body the same as formerly. The honest man 
 adheres to his promise, though no trace remains of the 
 tongue which uttered the binding word. The criminal 
 is punished when already the hand which committed 
 the evil is no longer the same in composition." Thus 
 physical science teaches conclusively a higher and supe- 
 rior cerebral development in man alone of all terrestrial 
 creation, capable of receiving a principle of permanence^ 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 81 
 
 which remains indestructible and unchanged, but grovv- 
 iiig, expanding and progressing ; while all else, includ- 
 ing its own tenement, is unconscious of living person- 
 ality and subject to the great circular current of muta- 
 tion, ever and anon floating up in form, and sinking 
 down in dust. This furnishes an argument of potent 
 import, on which I might expatiate with profit, had I 
 time, in justice to other views. 
 
 But even if spirit be the result of material organism 
 it is something — whether perishable or imperishable, 
 it is something. Now what becomes of this something? 
 where does if go after dissolution ? We know where 
 all the constituents of the body go ; but where the 
 spirit? It may dissolve and dissipate throughout the 
 vast body of ethereal electricity which surrounds and 
 permeates all space and all things. If the spirit is 
 only a function of the brain, this is doubtless the case. 
 
 But it seems to be a cause, else whence flow those 
 til oughts that shoot out from the mind like light from 
 the sun? I may now, though at a distance of many 
 feet from most of you, make through the intervening 
 medium of the atmosphere, impressions on some of 
 your minds which may remain as indelible as the men- 
 tal tablet itself. Then mind is a cause, and these im- 
 pressions or thoughts the results or eifects of this cause.. 
 But no cause in nature can perish ; therefore, the soul, 
 being a cause, cannot perish. I will illustrate this idea : 
 Tlie steam engine, made by the hands and body of 
 James Watt, has perished or will perish, though made 
 of iron ; but the thought or idea of the steam engine, 
 that originated in his mind will never perish. No-vr 
 
 tlie causes which unite to form our body are imperish- 
 4* 
 
82 PHILOSOPIiY OF LIFE. 
 
 able, but the result, the body as a body, is not imperish- 
 able: then if the mental result be imperishable, a for- 
 tiori, is mind, the cause, imperishable. This would 
 seem conclusive, especially when we consider that even 
 the highest development of the mere animal, as the 
 Chimpanzee, the Ourang Outang, or the Gorilla, never 
 gives out such imperishable ideas or thoughts, though 
 endowed with greater instinctive sagacity than the Cre- 
 tins of the Alpine vallais, or the Shanghallers of 
 Abyssinia. But here again is a counter argument : 
 Every thing that has always existed as essential in the 
 economy o.f nature, must necessarily always continue to 
 exist; but the mind of Watt which was the cause of 
 the thought embodied in the steam engine, was but the 
 birth of yesterday, — had no existence fifty years before, 
 was not essential to the economy of nature, therefore is 
 ephemeral. To this we may reply : Everything in na- 
 ture serves its purpose before it perishes ; that the pur- 
 pose of every thing is to contribute its part toward the 
 great end of unfolding and elaborating something high- 
 er; that every thing below man thus serves a purpose; 
 but that man the highest earthly ereationy for whom 
 every thing was made, and to whose creation all things 
 else conspire, serves no purpose whatever, if so be that 
 he perish ; that his creation is a failure, without pur^ 
 pose or wisdom, unless he too, unfold something high- 
 er ; and that as he is the only creation that has a con- 
 scious hoj)e of something higher, with conscious aspira- 
 tions for undying love, the verisimilitude is that he 
 himself, with all his conscious memories, will unfald 
 into a higher future, — and thus continue nature's great 
 chain of progreission — else a huge hiatus here occurs. 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 83 
 
 Again: death throughout the wide domains of nature 
 strikes nothing but what it can touch ; effects nothing 
 but what it can reach ; kills nothing but what is tangi- 
 ble and material, and, therefore, susceptible of being- 
 killed. But soul, spirit, is intangible, immaterial, and 
 therefore not susceptible of being killed. It cannot be 
 touched, it cannot be reached, and therefore cannot be 
 struck or aifected by death; unless it can be proved 
 that there is another and different kind of death in op- 
 eration, or that the common, known death can operate 
 on any other than physical matter. But the former, 
 that there is a different kind of death, is not known ; on 
 the contrary, all nature proves but one death, (called 
 such) of which wc have any knowledge. And as for 
 the other only alternative that this known natural death 
 can operate upon any other than physical matter, but 
 may also extend to spirit, nature furnishes in all her 
 ample range not one such instance. 
 
 And further, if death is not confined to physical mat- 
 ter, but may extend its ravages to the spiritual creation 
 and spread its dread wing of desolation upon the uni- 
 versal ether, where shall the flight of its dark pinion 
 be staved ? Where the limit to fold its sable wins: ? 
 Where stops dread Azrael ? 
 
 " If human souls, WI15' not angelic too. 
 
 Extinguished ; and a solitary God 
 
 0"er ghastl.v ruin frowning from his throne,"' 
 
 through the desolate realms of a death-struck universe ! 
 We are thenefore led to conclude as an illative corolla- 
 ry, that man has an immortal spark within his bosom 
 that natural death can no more affect than it can affect 
 the Deity ; that man is himself an immortal being tem- 
 porarily incased in this casket of clay. 
 
84 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 And again :• man is endowed with religiosity, or 
 spirituality and veneration, but the brute is not. Now 
 where the wisdom in giving religiosity to man without 
 immortal life, or in giving undying life to the brute 
 without religiosity ? And further, the love of the brute 
 is as deep and intense for its young, while young and 
 requiring protection, as that of the mother ; but as its 
 young grow up and matures beyond the necessity of 
 maternal care, its love ceases and subsides entirely, all 
 memory even is lost, ^''liy so? Because its life is 
 i transitory; hence its love also is transitory ; and e con- 
 
 ■ verso, because its love is transitory, its life also is tran- 
 
 sitory. For where is the object, the wisdom or good- 
 ness in giving immortal life, where there is no immor- 
 tal love? or immortal love where there is no immortal 
 life ? We know that the love of the brute is not endu- 
 ring, but ephemeral ; and we know the love of the mo- 
 ther is immortal as her life. Hence the wisdom and 
 goodness of giving her immortal life to enjoy this im- 
 mortal love implanted in her breast. 
 
 The question now hinges on the goodness and great- 
 ness of our Creator, and to this point let us direct our 
 argument. If God be good he has implanted these 
 principles in us for our felicity and not punition ; and if 
 his greatness be commensurate, he will effectuate our 
 felicity. But we witness evil and suffering all around 
 U5 — the innocent as well as the guilty (if indeed there 
 be any such things as innocence and guilt in the sight 
 of God) inherit evil and suffering as part of their pat- 
 rimony. 
 
 Hence, it is evident that either his goodness or great- 
 ness is at fault, that either one is, or both are limited,. 
 
PHrLOROPIIY OF LIFE. 8o 
 
 otherwise there Avoulcl be no evil in existence. The ex- 
 istence of evil is incompatible ^ritli that of an infinitely 
 perfect being ; for if he wills it he is not infinitely good; 
 and if he docs not will it, his will is thwarted and con- 
 sequently his power is frustrated, which leaves the in- 
 evitable corollary of limit. And how can infinite wis- 
 dom know all that is to come, and yet infinite goodness 
 permit this immense amount of evil and suffering ? And 
 how can infinite mercy forgive any sin, and infinite 
 justice exact a rigid penalty? The theory of Doctor 
 Dods investing the Deity with a "voluntary" mind by 
 which he creates, and an " involuntary" mind by which 
 he governs, like man v,ith voluntary and involuntary 
 powers of cerebrum and cerebellum, involves the same 
 clifficulty, or rather fiiils to relieve it ; else he would noi 
 thus govern by those " involuntary " powers mat permit 
 imperfection, sorrow and suflcring. This is axiomatic. 
 It is equally manifest that his greatness or power is 
 limited, that he is not om.nipotent in the full sense of 
 the word. And I am glad to believe this, for it gives 
 me greater hope of his infinite goodness at some time 
 effectuating my felicity. All things are not possible 
 with God. Among the impossibilities are what Ave 
 term miracles; indeed this word comprises every thing 
 and the o;i!ij thwr/, tliat is impossible with God, the 
 greatest, highest power. There is no power can violate, 
 suspend, contravene, or run counter to his fixed, unal- 
 terable and eternal laws. He cannot possibly make 
 heat and cold, light and darkness co-exist together; nor 
 any two things antagonistic harmonize, or occupy the 
 same place at the same time. 
 
 The Creator cannot suspend his great law of gravity 
 
86 PHILOSOPHY OF LiFi:. 
 
 for an instant, as it is an organic, primordial implan- 
 ted principle of his creation, for the suspension of which 
 his universe Avould go to wreck and ruin, involving the 
 utter destruction of all organic life. He can not abro- 
 gate laws which he has made necessary for his own 
 purposes, and for the existence of his creation. He can 
 not make a two-year old — anything, in an hour, — to 
 use an inelegant and rather uncouth phrase, but in 
 point full of potential significance, — you will j>ardon 
 me ; I am after the truth if I have to get it in vul- 
 gar garb ; I seek the jewel if I have to dig it from 
 dirty rubbish — if he could, then there is no excuse or 
 reason why he does not make the high and happy an- 
 gel of a centuries' development, immediately upon the 
 creation of poor miserable man, as fabled Minerva 
 sprung full-fledged from the brain of Jove. 
 
 It is no answer to say that it is necessary for this 
 gradual growth and progressive development in order 
 that we may be able to realize through contrast and en- 
 joy future felicity ; because the question recurs why 
 are we so constituted as to require this ordeal of adver- 
 sity before we can enjoy true prosperity? Why not 
 have made us capacitated to appreciate and enjoy at 
 once and forever all the beatitudes of heaven and 
 eternity. 
 
 But, quoth the preacher, this is " contrary to the very 
 nature of things." Ah! just what I said, for if "na- 
 ture of things" means any thing, it means laws of God, 
 it can mean nothing else, or what nature? and what 
 things ? But as positive science proves at least four 
 long periods of creation in " nature's ages," as Agassiz 
 calls them, each one of Avhich comprised perhaps mil- 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF IJFE. Ol 
 
 lions of years, before man, even in his present very im- 
 perfect and low condition, conld be created, why should 
 we expect any other process within the bounds of any 
 power, than, this gradual growth and development from 
 lower to higher. And according to these wise and im- 
 mutable laws, something irresistil^le will never come in 
 contact with something immovable. 
 
 There can be nothing supernatural or infranatural — 
 nothing beyond, above, below, or apart from his eternal 
 organic laws. They constitute the wisdom, the power, 
 aye, the very God ; and to violate these would be to 
 violate himself ; 'which is impossible and simply absurd. 
 Hence, I conclude, our evils and sufferings are 
 due, not so much to his deficiency of goodness as of 
 power; that these evils are not more than he could 
 avoid; that all his ^vorks are tendiivg slowly (to us) 
 but surely to perfection ; that he could not reach the 
 high point of perfection and felicity which our spirits 
 picture and for which we pant ; without this apparently 
 slow, but really rapid, though patient process of pro- 
 o-ression, from the most imperfect monadic creation to 
 the highest angelic development. His infinite good- 
 ness wills our happiness; and his vast, and to us in- 
 comprehensible, but not infinite power, is vrorking to 
 that end. 
 
 We are so constituted as to require a constant supply 
 of those aliments necessary for our existence or susten- 
 tation. We require food to sustain life, Avhether that 
 life be for weal or for woe. And herein is* another of 
 those impossibilities, viz.: that our life, as constituted, 
 can be sustained or perpetuated without food or nour- 
 ishment. But God's attribute of goodness is manifested 
 
SS PHILOSOPHY OF LlFfi, 
 
 in the numberless pleasures and luxuries he has vouch- 
 safed to us, and faculties of enjoyment with which he 
 has endowed us^, not at all essential to the mere perpetr 
 uation of our existence. Else whence this tenderness of 
 feeling, this deep devotion of love, this bond of affec- 
 tion, this self-denying goodness, (rare I grant,) the milk 
 of human kindness, we meet with in man? If it were 
 otherwise how easily could he have made man witJiout 
 a spark of pleasure, without a pulse of bliss to beat 
 amidst his world-wide mourning misery. The bare 
 provision for our sustentation should not be cited as 
 goodness on the part of Deity. This much is absolutely 
 essential to maintain and perpetuate our existence, 
 whether for weal or woe. If for v/oe, we should have 
 been provided with nothing that was not necessary to 
 sustain this existence of woe ; if for weal other provis- 
 ions besides these necessary for mere sustenance, and 
 also capacity for their enjoyment, would have been pro- 
 vided. 
 
 But it is evident from nature that these extra provis- 
 ions and capacities of enjoyment have been furnished, 
 and that we are in the actual enjoyment of them; there- 
 fore the attribute of goodness in the Creator is proven. 
 As to how much, or the extent of goodness, is another 
 question. How easily, if void of goodness, could God 
 have left us without these provisions of pleasure and 
 enjoyment. Instead of this he has abundantly fur- 
 nished us with innumerable luxuries from the teeming 
 land and 'ocean's mighty spawn, the half of which is 
 scarcely yet learned, to minister to our pleasures, and 
 endowed us with keen perceptions through which to real- 
 ize their enjoyment. The myrtle and the rose spring up 
 
PIITI.OSOPITY OF' TATE. 80 
 
 tl]on^• liis patlivrav, ^vhile love raid virtue's splendid au- 
 reola throv/ their rainbow radiance across earth's 
 .-stormy sky. The gift of conscience, tlie implantation 
 of loxe, that hajipiest, holiest, highest principle, most 
 exalted shrine ot onr being, heaven's sunbeam of the 
 soul, is at once an indication of goodness in our Crea- 
 tor, and of the glory we may attain in realms where 
 his ripened power will turn our turgid pools into chrys- 
 tal streams, our stagn.ant eddies of disease into raptu- 
 rous fountains of health, and v.ill pour unbittercd and 
 pure the waters of perennial life around the sterile des- 
 olations of dcaih. 
 
 Then vre conclude man is innnortal, or a good 
 Creator would never have endov\-ed him with these glo- 
 rious aspirations to be ruthlessly crushed with the re- 
 lentless destiny of certain death. 
 
 More especially, again, when we know that he lias Im- 
 planted witliin us no natural apijctite or desire of our 
 bodies, but for which he has also placed within our 
 reach the means of its gratification. But we ardently 
 desire an undying union of love and friendship ; there- 
 fore, we infer, he vrill also give us this best and bright- 
 est boon. 
 
 But mere logic is exhausted and argument is at an 
 end — we look to the facts of science. Rigid reasoning 
 and abstruse argumentation should rather be studied in 
 print than merely heard in speec-h. Let us look to the 
 logic of science. 
 
 I intimated, parenthetically, a little while ago a doubt 
 of moral guilt or innocence. Though not strictly called 
 for in my subject perhaps, I would, nevertheless, like to 
 
90 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE, 
 
 offer a few thoughts on this point, with as little delay 
 as possible. 
 
 Man is impelled to every action by either internal 
 impulse or external influence. External influence is 
 that which he can c&ntrol, or that which he cannot con- 
 trol. If the latter, of course he cannot be held respon- 
 sible for it or guilty of its effects; if the former — that 
 external influence which he can control — he either con- 
 trols it or not, as he is prompted or enabled by his in- 
 ternal impulse or inherent power. 
 
 Hence^ it is narrowed down to his internal impulse. 
 Now this impulse impels him as the character of the 
 impulse predominates. If evil predominates^ he is im- 
 pelled to evil; if good, then to good actions. These 
 impulses are inherent in him and constitute as much his 
 moral nature, as the form of his body or color of his 
 skin constitutes his corporeal individuality. Now the 
 question is, can he control his natural inherent impul- 
 ses? I will answer this by asking can he control the 
 natural form of his body or color of his skin f He 
 certainly can, to a limited extent, at first, modif}' and 
 improve his natural impulses, just as he can to a limit- 
 ed extent modify and improve the natural form of his 
 body and beautify the complexion of his skin, — and no 
 more, at first, while subject to the animal. To this ex- 
 tent and no more, in low undeveloped life, should we 
 hold each other accountable, and visit a commensurate 
 punishment for deliberate violation — this is the true 
 rationale of crime, — this much and no more. 
 
 This certain penalty is the proper appliance to pre- 
 vent crime in unprogressed men. Then if this strict 
 justice be, as it should be, by all humane hearts, tern- 
 
I'HTI.OSOPHY OP LIFE. 91 
 
 ]>ered with inerev, little will be left to punisli, Hene« 
 moral suasion, ]>roper education, philosophic scien- 
 tific development, is the great lever of human reform, 
 the true principle of human progress. The more ex- 
 ternal influences are brought to bear — of which con- 
 sist education — the nsore will the impulse be moulded 
 and the conduct controlled. Hence the labors of the 
 jurisconsult, the salutary influence of penal law, and 
 iudic::d and retributive example, and juridical learning 
 from Bracton and Fleta to Storey and Taney, are not 
 without their good results on the conduct of men ; nor 
 can we, indeed, in our present low rudimental condition 
 of moral development, and dense population, live with- 
 out these salutary influences and restraints. 
 
 And it is not inconsistent, though it may so a])pear, 
 to aver that in the concrete if not in the abstract, in the 
 aggregate if not in the segregate, — for God so governs 
 through general and not special laws, — otherwise we 
 should find no exceptions, — everything is just as it 
 was designed to be by the Creator ; and in this aver- 
 ment there is philosophy enough to fill a book. Indeed, 
 it would require a volume to fully unfold the philoso- 
 phy and vindicate the assertion; for there is method 
 in the conflicts of nature as there is in the conflicts of 
 human laws. Nor is it necessary to exclude the " rare 
 and exceptional phenomena of nature for the basis of 
 analogy and argument/' as James Martincan said of 
 Bishop Butler, whose "strained analogy" said William 
 Pitt in a conversation with Wilberforce, " raised more 
 doubts in my mind than it answered." Inflict some in- 
 stalled divines say that in every thing we do, we, though 
 unconsciously, worship God. I do not think so. The 
 
U2 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE, 
 
 Creator has not decreed, nor designed, nor governed 
 special isolated individual cases. He go\-erns alone 
 througli his organic general laws; and to these general 
 hivvs and not to special statutes, individual cases must 
 be amenable. When man strikes down his brother 
 man — is that worshiping God, tlieir common Father? 
 Eeligionists, Christian as well as, and even more than. 
 Heathen, have always preached this strike-down prin- 
 <aple of persecution, and practiced it to perfection, es- 
 j)ecially the former, M^ien the victim is to them a non- 
 conformist. And upon the same principle the victim 
 or non-conformist, or heretic, should strike them down 
 ;is non-confornnist and heretic to his religion. And 
 thus the wholesale human slaughter under religious 
 dictation will be continued, unless rejected reason sup- 
 plant fanatic feith, and spiritual love supplant carnal 
 hate. I^or does my philosophy involve '^fatalism" in 
 its common acceptation, though some of the greatest 
 iruellects of the world, jSTapoleon Bonaparte among 
 them, were. decided fatalists. The celebrated argument 
 of Milton, so universally accepted and adopted by old 
 ; orthodoxy, to vindicate the Creator against the evil of 
 man, by casting the blame for all our woes upon our 
 first parents, is, for impotency and imbecility, unworthy 
 01 its source, and becoming only a thiixl rate pedagogue, 
 • 'r pettifogger of the pulpit, if tliere be such an animal.' 
 He says man was created with ''' all he could have " — 
 "sufficient to have stood though free to fall." I ask 
 could not man have been endowed with greater obe- 
 dience and made with greater self-control"? If not, 
 then God's plenipotent power is limited. What im- 
 pelled Eve to eat the apple ? Curiosity, or vdiatever 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF TJFE. 9^] 
 
 else you ploase. What opcrutcd to prevent and \vith- 
 lioldlier"/ The command of God. But the latter was 
 not sufficient, therefore the former, heyi' curiosity, or the 
 whatever else you pleai?e, was stronger and predomina- 
 ted. But God made her just that way — she had no 
 liand or even will in her making — " so was created*' 
 as Milton saith. 
 
 Then in justice the blame cannou be laid to her. 
 And so Adam : What impelled him to partake? Love 
 of Eve. What prevented? Command of God. Whicli 
 predominated ? The ibrmer. Why ? Because it was 
 stronger. Who made it stronger ? His Creator. 80 
 chloride of nitrogen is qurescent until touched with tlie 
 proper oik AYluit then? Explosion, or violation of 
 its quiescence, just as nature made it. So our parents 
 vrere obedient until touched with*the proper temptation. 
 What then ? Explosion, or violation of their obcdi- 
 (;nce, just as nature made them. But man is endowed 
 with reason, and " reason also 's choice,'' says Milton, 
 (tliough our preachers say we must n^t use it, and in 
 justice to them I must say, they practice the precept, 
 don't use it much, as Arteraus Ward might say.) Yet 
 tliat docs not change the question in principle, only in 
 style :iud extent. Was reason strong enough ? No ! 
 Who made reason not strong enough? God, the same 
 Creator. jSIilton impersonating the Creator, thus dis- 
 coursctli, in his ov;i\ original and obscure style: 
 
 "Whose faxr.t? 
 Whose hut. his own ? Ingrnte, he had of me 
 All he couM have : I made him ju^t and right, 
 Siifflc'.cnt to have stood, though free to fr.ll, 
 Such I created all the ethereal powers, 
 And spirits, hoth them that stood and them who failed, 
 Freely they stood who stood, and fell who fell. 
 Not free whi'.t proof 'ouid (hey have given sincere, 
 
94 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 Of true allegiance, constant faith, or love, 
 
 Where only what they needs must do appeared, 
 
 Not what they woixld? What praise could they receive 
 
 What pleasiwe I from such obedience paid ? 
 
 When will and reason (reason also 's choice) 
 
 Useless and vain, of freedom both despoiled. 
 
 Made passive both, had served necessity, 
 
 Not me ? They therefore, as to right belonged, 
 
 So were created, nor can justly accuse 
 
 Their maker, or their making, or their fate, 
 
 As if predestination overruled 
 
 Their will, disposed by absolute decree. 
 
 Or high foreknowledge ; they themselves decreed 
 
 Their own revolt, not I ; If I foreknew, 
 
 Foreknowledge had no influence on their fault 
 
 Wliich had no less proved certain unforeknown."' 
 
 Young states the same argument in this w\se : 
 
 " Blame not the bowels of the Deity, 
 
 Man shall be blessed as far as man permits ; 
 
 Heaven but persuades, almighty man decrees ; 
 
 Man is the maker of immortal fates ; 
 
 Man fiUls by man if Jinally he falls." 
 
 • This popular argument is, in brief, man stands or 
 fails, as he pleases ; if he falls, the blame is his ; if he 
 stands the praise is due his Creator; (Is this justice? 
 Its eophism reminds me of the " divine rights of Kings" 
 as elucidated (?) by Blackstone and others:) that his 
 obedience is pleasing to God because voluntary ; and his 
 disobedience displeasing because also voluntary. (I'll 
 continue the terms obedience and disobedience as good 
 as any.) Nov/ speaking for man I would thus retort: 
 If the power or principle of obedience and disobedience 
 were equally balanced in his constitution, and no ex- 
 traneous influence brought to bear, what would he do? 
 Who can ans\ver ? Or if his obedience be expressed by 
 ten, and his disobedience by twenty, while extraneous 
 influence neutralized or countervailed ten of the latter, 
 what would he do ? Who can answer ? 
 
pnii.osoriiY OF t.ife. 95 
 
 « 
 
 But here is the practical view: If his obedience pre- 
 vail, lie coukl well praise liis Creator for it, inasmuch a? 
 God in goodness thus created him, or the iTCCCssity 
 wliich caused this obedience tliat brings him happiness: 
 but if God did not thus create him, and his obedience is 
 the result of his own volition and effort, independent of 
 iiis Creator, then he could not sincerely give all the 
 praise to God for it, but must praise himself as '' th^? 
 maker of immortal fates,," in the words of Young. 
 
 There is great good sense in the reply of the man 
 who fell from a house and caught in a scaffolding : His 
 friends said to him, "You ought to feel titan kful to 
 God for having thus saved you from death." "I do; 
 but wasn't I cute too!" It may be replied thiit this an- 
 ecdote illustrates free-agency, makes against me, mili- 
 tates against my position — the argument seems swung 
 around, in cant phrase. To which I would thus repli- 
 cate: this ability and disposition to catch the scaffold 
 to save himself, this "cuteness" which is a trite word, 
 signifying smartness, was either inherent in his crea- 
 tion, that is, the gift of God, or the acquisition of his 
 own exertions. If the former, of course he is not enti- 
 tled to the credit — it is all due to the Creator ; if the 
 latter, whence did he get the will and energy to pnt 
 forth the efforts, and the opportunities to acquire this 
 " cuteness," this sagacity, and the ability and disposi- 
 tion to save himself? Now it might be rejoined that 
 it was owing to his own volition that he exerted them. 
 To which I pnt the surn^oinder in this interrogatory : 
 How came his volition to act in that way unless predis- 
 posed, and prebiased and prompted by some pre-exist- 
 ing inherent cause? And the argument might thus go 
 
96 PI-IILOSOPilY OF LIFE. 
 
 • 
 
 on. to what the Iravyers call rebutter and surrebutter, 
 and extended indefinitely, but ending always, if ever 
 ending, in something inherent, something antevenient, 
 or intervenient, or supervenient, over wliich he could 
 have no control vdiatcver. 
 
 But, (to return,) if man's disobedience prevail, liow 
 could he do other>yisc than '• blame his maker, or his 
 making, or his fate?" of education and surrounding 
 circumstances over which he could have no absolute 
 control? If our disobedience be our own act and we 
 suffer for it, so if our obedience be our own act w€ 
 should get the credit for it, and the Creator have no 
 title to homage for that which we ourselves j^erform 
 voluntarily. But if God Jias so constituted us to obedi- 
 ence, then all the homage and praise are justly due to 
 him. licre, indeed, is something for which v/e may 
 sincerely adore him. And if wc be contrarily constitu- 
 ted or influenced he cannot injustice hold us respon- 
 sible. And again: if our obedience be voluntary,, 
 what is the motive to its performance? Promised 
 reward and threatened punishment; thus making self- 
 fishness the main spring of our obedience, and cov- 
 ering deceit and hypocrisy with the cloak of hom- 
 age and adoration — for the Creator hath done noth- 
 ing to claim our sincere adoration if so be that we 
 are left to " decree " and our own course. But v^^e re- 
 peat if GrT}d himself hath constituted our obedience and 
 its' natural correlative and sequence of hapDiness here 
 or hereafter, then we have cause for the grandest grati- 
 tiide and purest principle of homage and adoration, 
 isn't this the more rational view? the more logical ar- 
 gument? Nay, by the old orthodox arguraerxt God 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 97 
 
 Jiimseif is made the being of selfishness/inasmucli as he 
 create,-! unnumbered millions in whom he foresaw their 
 disobedience would prevail and endless misery be their 
 lot, for the selfish purpose of a comparatively few being 
 selfish enough to profess obedience, which a prescient 
 God must know cannot be sincere, as he has done noth- 
 ing in this special behalf to make it such. Whether 
 '•predestination overruled their will disposed by abso- 
 lute decree of foreknowledge'"' or not, he foreknew — 
 whether "foreknowledge had any influence on their 
 fault which had no less proved certain unforeknown " 
 or not, he nevertheless foreknew and created them, the 
 many for misery, the few for praising him disingenu- 
 ously and selfishly. All that comparatively small por- 
 tion of the human family, Jew^ and Christian, Catholic 
 and Protestant, must renounce this antiquated argu- 
 ment of old orthodoxy, or else renounce the attribute 
 of goodness, or even justice in God_, and of sincerity in 
 man. 
 
 Watson, the learned author of" Institutes," says God's 
 foreknowledge is " contingent f and Adam Clark says 
 God did not choose to foreknow. This may clear the 
 mist, or explain the dilemma ; but it appears reason- 
 able — and reason carrying in her hand the lights of 
 science which herself hath gathered, is our God-gifted 
 guide — that the Creator knew as well what would be 
 the performance of his works, of his vast machinery, 
 physical and psychical, as man, what will be the per- 
 formance of the little machinery of his own construc- 
 tiou — that God foreknew as well what man would do, 
 as man foreknows what the steam engine will do- 
 
98 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 I cannot conceive of a Creator without prescience^ when 
 I see the creature possessing a partial prescience. 
 
 As for me, I repudiate the entire argument as ab- 
 surd, and would vindicate our Creator from this myth 
 of mock goodness and justice. And there are many 
 such myths to be cleared up under the weird of pro- 
 gressive reason and science. Old orthodoxy never had 
 a truth but that its priests warped and wove it into er- 
 ror, and terror and horror. They would turn, distort, 
 pervert and conA^ert a healing heavenly ray of celestial 
 light,' direct from the angel world, into a burning, blast- 
 ing, shaft of diabolic darkness direct from Pandemoni- 
 um. If an excarnated human form appear in the char- 
 acter of an angel, luminous in resplendence of perfec- 
 tion, they instantly shout God ! clothed in fire, and 
 probably bright blazes of burning brimstone. If one 
 appear from the shades of Sheol, darkling in the habil- 
 iments and frowning face of unprogressed humanity in 
 the spiritual form, forthwith they proclaim Devil ! with 
 cornuted and caudated appendages bifurcated horrifi- 
 cally, roaring round seeking whom he may devour — 
 somebody. 
 
 On this subject of free-agency it was a sapient theo- 
 retical remark of Johnson that "all theory is against it, 
 and all practice in favor of it." But these views, as 
 Vv'ell as that of Johnson, no doubt, are confined to our 
 initial principium of life, to our earliest eiforts at im- 
 provement in this our first sphere of existence. It is 
 evident to reason that this view must be thus limited, 
 or we never could progress to any considerable extent, 
 would be little more or better than the brute. But 
 science, or experience as well as reason, teaches us that 
 
PHii;0.sorirY OF life. O-O 
 
 while our ability to improve our bodies, or the suscep- 
 tibility of our bodies to improyement, is limited like 
 the brute; our ability to improve our spiritual nature, 
 or the susceptibility of our real self to progress, is un- 
 limited ; and that the more we improve and progress, 
 the easier and greater and more successful becomes the 
 improvement ; and the more permanent also becomes 
 the facility and the susceptibility of improvement : 
 thus leaving the plane of the animal and entering that 
 of spirit, where progress in an accelerated ratio is both 
 the theory and the practice of undying life. And' 
 though there are some persons in this animal world who- 
 seem to have no capacity and no desire (for they go to- 
 gether) for improvement, the animal so predominating;- 
 vet the germ is there and under proper influences will 
 unfold to its destiny as certain as the needle settles to 
 its pole. Then proper influences and appliances are nec- 
 essary to the direction and development of this germ so 
 various in mankind; some the good predominating 
 and some the bad. For the latter, penal codes are ab- 
 solutely essential, and for the former, simply a freedom 
 or absence from malign influences, Avhich would deteri- 
 orate them as punishment would ameliorate the other- 
 This fulty accords with M. Guizot, one of the greatest 
 political economists and jurists and publicists of the^ 
 times, and a man of master mind : " The truth as to. 
 the nature of man is in tlie Christian faith ; it is in mark 
 himself that evil dwells : man is inclined to evil. The- 
 doctrine of original sin is the religious expression and 
 explanation of a natural fact — the innate inclination of 
 man to disobedience and license. I hold tliis fact to be 
 evident in the eyes of whoever observes himself witli 
 
100 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 sincerity. To overcome it man wants two restraints- — 
 an inward restraint^ faith in God and in liis moral laws 
 — an outward restraint, human laws and an authority 
 able to enforce obedience to them. Where one of these 
 restraints is wanting, the other does not suffice. The 
 force of human laws alone is powerless in regulating 
 and keeping within bounds men who v/ant the moral 
 law ; and in order to preserve its empire over man, the 
 moral law needs that human laws should come to its 
 aid. Given up to itself and to its inclinations, either 
 with or without, the human heart escapes and is lost." 
 Yes, and take avfay attraction of either cohesion or 
 gravitation, and the worlds w^ould be lost. 
 
 But these influences are in constant operation : We 
 have for the wicked, penal laws, both human and di- 
 vine, — and nature's punishments for violations are more 
 certain than man's — and there are other, moral, or su- 
 pernal influences, whether from spiritual friends gon« 
 on before us, or from a vicarious God, or the Moly 
 'Ghost, or from the very Deity, nevertheless these super- 
 nal influences are in continual operation to develop this 
 immortal germ into angelic perfections. And when 
 disencumbered from the gross animal instincts of this 
 life and its malign temj^tations inseparable from its 
 sphere, those supernal influences will exert more power- 
 fully -and successfully, for the certain development of 
 inexorable destiny. Theoretically man has control of 
 his life ; that is, has the power to end it, or change his 
 mode of existence, or if possible anniliilate himself; yei 
 his instinctive tenacity of this life, howsoever miserable, 
 predominates, and with, a fevi exceptions, makes him 
 cling to it, albeit he may have positive convictions of 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. " 101 
 
 future felicity : thus showing the instincts of nature to 
 predominate over both reason and religion : and hence 
 proving the necessity of all these extra influences and 
 proper appliances to restrain, direct and develop : and 
 hence, also, applying the philosophy of Christ's injunc- 
 tion, to wit : " Watch and pray that ye enter not into 
 temptation : the spirit indeed is Avilling, but the flesh is 
 weak." — (Matt, xxvi.) Ah ! how our spirit yearns to 
 progress and rise in purity, but our animal keeps us 
 down. When we get loose from this animal flesh, 
 what's to hinder us from mounting to our congenial 
 sphere of desired perfections, as a balloon cut loose from 
 its fastenings mounts to its serial equilibrium? Aiv 
 oiher point connected with this subject: In the Chris- 
 tian code suicide is a crime, but according to their doo- 
 trine of full free agency unlimited, it should not be, 
 because as they assert, man is free to do as he pleases, 
 03' as Young expresses it, " Man is the maker of im- 
 mortal fates." And it should not be a crime with 
 them, because, secondly, when a person has " religion " 
 and is prepared to die with safety and enter heaven, 
 that should be his accepted time, inasmuch as, accord- 
 ing to St. Paul, " lest that by any means when I have 
 preached to others, I myself should be a castaway." — 
 (1 Cor. ix.) Hence, the charge that might be brought 
 against Spiritualism, that it would lead to suicide, 
 should more properly be laid to the code or rather the 
 tlicology of the Christian foith. But suicide may yet 
 become a necessary means of reducing the supernum- 
 ej-ary population of the world ; and wheji the ctireful 
 chimera of sempiternal hell shall be removed from 
 men's visions, many will find it a happy riddance and 
 
102 'philosophy of life. 
 
 easy euthanasia. It is not difficult to conceive condi- 
 tions of destitution and of distress of which a termina- 
 tion without pain, as for instance a quick and fatal in- 
 jury to the brain, like a pistol shot, which could not be 
 felt, and resulting in instantaneous dissolution, would 
 be preferable to a continued prolongation of such suffer- 
 ing and misery, and lingering painful death — provi- 
 ded always, the act injures no others. ISTapoleon on 
 Helena might be such a case. " Indeed, it has already 
 become a frequent occurrence in densely populated 
 cities, and sometimes by persons of sound deliberate 
 judgment. But the spiritual philosophy and enlight- 
 ened reason — • for they are synonymous and inseparable, 
 — does not encourage, nor can it condemn this act in ex- 
 treme cases v/here all reasonable considerations favor 
 and none oppose. 
 
 We should derive this valuable lesson, to be more 
 charitable to each other, and not so ready to criminate 
 and resciit, and punish every evil impulse and action 
 in others. And from this disposition and capacity for 
 improvement in man, we might superinduce another 
 argument in favor of his spirit being an independent, 
 immortal entity; inasmuch as no other creature of 
 earth is so endowed; because no other creature has a 
 continued life; but man has a continued life because he 
 is thus endowed. This ability and desire (for they 
 are inseparable) to improve, to progress, speaks the 
 principle of immortality, for no other animal is endowed 
 with this ability and desire to change in the least. But 
 as there are some men who have no desire for improv- 
 ment and continued life, or progression and immortal- 
 ity, will, or can a just God force this boon upon them 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. ' 103 
 
 against tlicir will? Let us see: There can be no grat- 
 ifieation Avitliout pre-existcnt desire; but these men 
 have no such desire ; therefore, these men can have no 
 gratification of progression or immortality. 
 
 To return from this digression, it is a beautiful idea 
 and as philosophical and sublime, that man when a 
 helpless infmt is confined to his mother's breast, that 
 is his little home and sphere; he has but one desire 
 and that is furnished to him by maternal love. Soon 
 he grows beyond and leaves his mother's breast — the 
 wide world is now his home, his second mother, which 
 like the first supplies him from her fruitful bosom and 
 furnishes every means of gratification for his increased 
 desires and appetite, by his proper eftbrts to get them, 
 as he is now capacitated to do. Anon, again, he ex- 
 pands and progresses with his growing aspirations, 
 leaves his second mother's bosom, this inceptive sphere, 
 this great w"omb of nature in which imm'ortality 
 is conceived and deveioj)s into angelic altitudes, and 
 shaking oiF his mortal cumbrance, as at first he did his 
 swaddling clothes, launches in a wider world and soars 
 into higher realms, forever progressing and towering 
 higher in the heavens. T .confess myself sometimes 
 startled in my reveries when I contemplate in this view 
 my boundless destiny of limitless progression. What ! 
 am I never to stop? Always progressing throughout 
 eternity ? Where's the end ? I am certainly in exis- 
 tence; and will there be no end to my existence — no 
 way, not in my power, to end ? Am I to be forever 
 the hel])less subject of inflexible laws over wdiich I can 
 have no influence? to be forever the sport of destiny, 
 and like an atom float with fate through all eternity! 
 
104 PHILOSOPI-IY OF LIFE. 
 
 in the hands of him whose power may finally fail and 
 not prove forever equal to the emergency of my well 
 being! My finite spirit distrustful and trembling, 
 shrinks aghast, resilient with terror, at this vast ocean of 
 incertitude into which we all are so soon to launch ! 
 
 Yet when we consider the grand creations of the 
 eternal God, those wondrous worlds that roll in remote 
 immensity, where seraph's wing stirs the Zephyrs of im- 
 mortal morning ; should I doubt his power to bear me 
 up amid his bright blaze of created glories? Doubt him 
 whose ocean of glories rolls every where without a 
 shore ! Though our planetary systeii v/ith its worlds 
 revolving round our central sun, is sublime beyond hu- 
 man appreciation ; and though our earth's distance from 
 this sun ( 95,000,000 miles) and from the other planets 
 and neighbors of our immediate system, so great be- 
 yond our narrow conceptions; yet they sink into insig- 
 nificance when Ave extend our ideas to the immensity 
 of those remote regions, where the light from our sun^ 
 traveling: 200,000 miles a second, has never yet reached. 
 
 Within the reach of our telescopic vision more than 
 75,000,000 central luminous suns, with numbers of 
 worlds revolving round each one, exist in the boundless 
 expanse of the illimitable heavens. Some of these 
 suns are, like Sirius, estimated . to give sixty times as 
 much light as our sun emits ; and our sun is 1,400,000 
 times larger than our earth. How many more of these 
 central suns, besides the millions known, beyond the 
 reach of present" telescopic discovery, "roll their fore- 
 heads fair to shine" in the face of Deity, is beyond 
 conjecture, doubtless billions so numerous that all the 
 sands on all ovir mundane shores will not express them 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 1Q5 
 
 with a trillion lor a unit. The distance of these suns 
 or fixed stars is so great from our little earth as to ha^-^ 
 no parallax : that is, two opposite points in the earth's 
 orbit which is 190,000,000 miles across, will make m> 
 perceptible angle by which to measure that distance. 
 It requires no great degree of mathematical science to 
 demonstrate that an angle subtended by a line which is 
 only a thousandth part of the length of each side, will 
 be very perceptible. But as a subtense of 190,000,000 
 miles makes with the distance of the nearest fixed star 
 no perceptible angle, it is evident the distance must be 
 at least over a thousand times a hundred and ninety 
 millions of miles — an extent too far beyond our finite 
 ideas. It has been calculated that a cannon ball (to 
 adopt a more familiar illustration) descending from the 
 nearest of these suns at the rate of about 600 miles an 
 hour, would be more than 700,000 years in reaching 
 our earth. "Astronomy indeed discovers such an irt- 
 conceivable number of suns and worlds dispersed 
 through the vast regions of space, that the annihilation 
 of this terraqueous globe, with the sun that illuminates 
 it and all the planets which compose our system — our 
 immediate neighborhood of worlds — would leave no 
 greater chasm in the sidereal creation than the removal 
 of a grain of sand from the sea-shore, or a dro23 of water 
 from the ocean." With these scientific facts we should 
 not doubt his power to sustain us forever. Thus I have 
 given you in few words and succinct style, though 
 somewhat desultorily, as indeed my entire lecture must 
 be, from my wide field and discursive range of general- 
 ization, all the original arguments I am able to elabor- 
 ate in this abstruse and metaphysical field so often and 
 5* 
 
106 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 ably explored by the master minds of the world. And 
 without any pretension to an astute dialectician, I am 
 unable to perceive what more pure logic without 
 sophism can do by any known process of human ratioc- 
 ination. Yet this entire course of argument, includ- 
 ing the syllogism of Plato, is more pleasing to our 
 hopes than satisfactory to our reason, — for I will not 
 paralogise ; inasmuch as it is applicable to the brute as 
 well as to man : for it is evident the brute thinks and 
 wills, though not to the same extent and degree. But 
 af the mere superiority of our degree of mentality over 
 the dog gives us our immortality, then by the same 
 parity of reasoning the superiority of the dog's mind 
 over that of the hog should give him immortality. 
 And so en threugh the entire chain of animated nature. 
 Then where shall we stop? There is, however, one ex- 
 ception of great significance: the difference between 
 the principle of love in the human and in the brute. 
 The one is perennial, the other ephemeral ; the one is 
 as imperishable as its life, the other always perishes 
 with the necessity of instinctive preservation of the 
 helpless young. And as this principle of love is the^ 
 grand element of human and seraphic felicity, this may 
 be a true indication and illustration of its immortality. 
 As South ey sings, 
 
 " They sin wtio tell us love can die ; 
 With life all other passions fly — 
 All others are but vanity — 
 ■Barthly, those passions of the earth, 
 They perish where they have their birth. 
 But love is indestructible, 
 Its holy flame forever bumeth. 
 From heaven it came, to heaven returneth ; 
 It sovreth here in toil and care, 
 ;But the harvest time of love is there." 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIP^E. 107 
 
 But unaided logic can never unlock the vast cham- 
 bers of the future — it must be done by science. As for 
 the bible, claimed by its votaries having brought immor- 
 tality to light, its authenticity is more difficult to prove 
 if possible than the immortality of the soul, and both 
 are incapable of proof unless we call in modern spirit- 
 ual science, which, with its philosophy, will at once 
 prove and explain the truths of both, as well as expose 
 the fallacies and falsities preached from the bible and 
 published from spiritualism. And don't Solomon the 
 Preacher say " Men die like beasts — tliat man hath no 
 preeminence above a beast — as is the good so is the sin- 
 ner." (Ecc. iiiand ix); and Job and Isaiah intimate the 
 s^ame, (Job xiv, and Is. Ixiii). 
 
 The Mehestani, and Eastern Magi, who were disci- 
 })les of Zoroaster, believed in the immortality of the 
 soul, in rewards and punishments after death, and in 
 the resurrection of the body. (See Zend-Avesta.) 
 For this and other valuable information, I am indebted 
 to "Mysteries of Life, Death, and Futurity," by Hor- 
 ace Welby, an orthodox work and analectic text book 
 of historic analects. Now this philosopher of Urmia 
 and his disciples flourished 570 years before Christ; 
 and only the later prophets of sacred history, Micah, 
 Haggai, Ezekiel, ct alii, who lived contemporaneous or 
 later, that speak in any prominent terms of immortal- 
 ity — the earlier prophets generally ignoring it alto- 
 gether. Are we not bound, therefore, to give this 
 credit to Zoroaster while musing in spiritual medita- 
 tion, as recorded, twenty years in the wild solitudes of 
 Flbrooz? like St. John in the wilderness nearly six 
 centuries later? And to Buddha, and Brahma, of 
 
108 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 Hindustan, two or three centuries yet earlier? And 
 to the " Code of Menu/' embodying law, religion and 
 philosophy, earlier than all, about a thousand years be- 
 fore the Christian era? The few sacred prophets who 
 flourished anterior to these philosophers, always held 
 present or temporal reward as the motive for good, ar 
 what they esteemed good, but which we now know to 
 be in a great many if not majority of instances bad. 
 The ancient Hindoo philosophers, the Parsees, and the 
 Oriental Magi, were the first who held future rewards 
 and punishments that I can find in all history; and the 
 Jews from their intercourse with Egypt, and it with 
 Persia, derived their ideas on this subject. A Chris- 
 tian writer, Schlegel, in his " History of Literature,''^ 
 says, " Perhaps among no other ancient people did the 
 doctrine of the immortality of the soul, and the belief 
 in a future state of existence, ever acquire such a mas- 
 tery over all principles and all feelings, and exert such 
 influence over all the judgments and all the actions of 
 men, as among the Indians," (of Hindustan). And 
 the idea of an incarnated deity was originated and en- 
 tertained five centuries before the advent of Christ by 
 all the Scandinavian nations, as the Hindoo god Vishnu 
 took upon himself the form of man and periodically 
 appeared upon earth ; and the destruction of the world 
 by general conflagration, as well as its creation from 
 chaos, was recorded or proclaimed about the same time 
 in the Voluspa, a book of prophecy by Vola; that evil 
 spirits entered and disturbed the peace of the world ; 
 that good and evil are in constant conflict; that Thor 
 bruises the serpent's head, etc. Is it at all strange, then, 
 that these ideas as well as other parallels should have 
 
rniLOsopny of life, 109 
 
 been derived from that ancient religious people, when 
 we know that the very names of the days of the week 
 as adopted by all subsequent people and still univer- 
 sally retained, were derived from their theology, which 
 we now call mythology, just as our prevailing theology 
 will l)y future generations be called mythology? Sun- 
 day is so called because they worshipped the sun on 
 that day ; Monday, they worshipped the moon ; Wed- 
 nesday, after their god Wodin, god of battles, Wodins- 
 day ; Thursday, after Thor, god of thunder, Thorsday; 
 Friday, after Frca, god of winds ; Tuesday, after Tisa, 
 god of litigation and wife of Thor, still pronounced in 
 portions of Scotland Tiesday; Saturday, after Saeter, 
 whom they worshipped respectively on those days. 
 Those Hindoo Indians were also the inventors or dis- 
 coverers of decimal cyphers, the greatest achievement, 
 next to the alphabet, of the human intellect. Just 
 think a moment of this, by the use of only ten marks, 
 or figures, or characters, by their various positions and 
 infinite combinations, any number can be represented 
 and expressed from fractional parts of one up to mil- 
 lions, billions, quintillions, decillious, vigintillions, etc., 
 without limit. • 
 
 Ac(;ordiug to a work entitled " India and the In- 
 dians," the Jews had full knowledge of the Hindoo 
 theology, but the latter had none of the former. Now 
 'f the Jews deserve the credit of divine inspiration for 
 their theology when it is acknowledged they might 
 have borrowed it from the Hindoos, a fortiori should 
 we accord a greater credit for divine inspiration to the 
 Hindoos when it is acknowledged they could not have 
 possibly derived it from the Jews, having no acquain- 
 
no PHILOSOPHY OF LiFfi. 
 
 tance with them, and both systems of theology the 
 same. But I can not believe they had no knowledge 
 of the Jews, because., if the bible history be true, they 
 undoubtedly branched oil into Southern Asia from the 
 primal center around the Euphrates. Now it might be 
 objected that these ancient records of religion so far 
 antedate the Christian era that they could not have ex- 
 isted, as the art of writing must then have been un- 
 known. But this may be retorted on the orthodox ob- 
 jector, as he claims a greater antiquity for his orthodox 
 theology ; if his argument invalidate my history, it 
 equally invalidates his. 
 
 But modern science has unlocked the vast chambers 
 of the future as well as elucidated the dark traditions 
 of the past. 
 
 And to prepare your minds to expect it at the hands 
 of science, let me direct you to some of her late achieve- 
 ments. You must not forget that I have already shown 
 the prevailing opinions of mankind to be, from the ear- 
 liest ages to the present generation, an almost univer- 
 sal belief in human immortality and spiritual inter- 
 * ■course — friend with friend, incarnated and excarnated 
 — "vsithout knowing its science or understanding its 
 philosophy. 
 
 The old sciences of law and medicine have not pro- 
 gressed with the pace of other sciences. I can not per- 
 ceive that our modern systems of jurisprudence are 
 much improved over those of other ages. The civil 
 law of old Rome as digested by Tribonian is as good 
 as, or better than, the common law of England as elab- 
 orated by Littleton, And this is the basis of our Amer- 
 ijcan law with no very great improvement. But a few 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE, 111 
 
 years ago it was not lawful for a man to kiss his wife 
 on Sunday, called Sunday because the Sabians wor- 
 shi}i{)ed the sun on that day ; and even now all the 
 American States, except Texas, and perhaps California, 
 regard an innocent recreation on Sunday as a shocking 
 sin, and coerce every man by their statutes to " keep" 
 and observe this day Sunday according to — what? his 
 mvn conscience? No; to the dictation of the domi- 
 nant priesthood. And yet these very priests differ as 
 to the true day of their Sabbath. 
 
 But all this despotic dysnomy of superstition will be 
 swept from our statute books by the march of mind to 
 that true liberty which will enable us to spend Sunday 
 and any other day just as we please, provided with the 
 one simple condition, that we interfere not with others 
 in doing just as they please — all conscience unfettered 
 from other's dogmatic dictum. I know of no such laws 
 as these^in all the Institutes, Pandects, Novels and Codes 
 of Roman jurisprudence from the time of the Tribunes 
 to the reign of Justinian, comprising many thousand 
 volumes. Glorious old Rome — her laws have outlived 
 her liberties. Did her laws spring from her liberties, 
 or liberty from law ? In the language of Scotia's plain- 
 tive bard, mourning his maid of Mon'an, and in\per- 
 sonating the Goddess of Liberty, I would mourn over 
 the mighty meuiories of that renowned Republic : " O, 
 daughter of Toscar, bloody wer^e our hands. Thou 
 hast seen the sun retire red and slow behind his cloud: 
 night gathering round on the mountains, while the 
 blast roared in the narrow vales. At length the rain 
 beats hard;; thunder rolls in peals ; lightning glances 
 on the rocks; spirits ride on beams of fire ! Why, 
 
112 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 daiigliter of Toscar, wliy that tear? Give, lovely maid, 
 to me thy tears. I have seen the tombs of all my 
 friends. My sighs shall be on Cromla's winds till my 
 footsteps cease to be seen. And thou, white-bosomed 
 Bragela i mourn over the fall of my fame ! Vanquished, 
 I will never return unto thee, thou sunbeam of my soul !" 
 Nor were the marital laws of that grand system of civil 
 polity so puritanical and disgusting in domestic des- 
 potism ; and female virtue and conjugal fidelity were 
 higher prized and better protected. Nor v/as the crime 
 of parricide known for 500 years, or a suit for divorce 
 for 400 years, after the laws of the "Twelve Tables^' 
 were promulgated by the Decemviri among the people, 
 who numbered many millions, and whose emblematic 
 eagle, with one wing touching the sunrise and with 
 the other the sunset, threw its shadow over the world. 
 Are our laws, though science and art have furnished 
 such greater facilities, as efficiently published among 
 our people ? Over the old Areopagus of Athens, and 
 Amphictyonic council of the Greek States, which was 
 aboriginally a Buddhistic synod of Hindustan nearly 
 3,000 years ago, from which the Greeks and Helleniic 
 Jews borrowed a great part of their philosophy about 
 1000 years later. I perceive nothing better in our 
 present judicatories and confederations. The agrarian 
 laws, more properly Licinian laws, so much denounced 
 and so little understood by our modern meaning, were 
 well adapted to and demanded by the dense population 
 of central Rome at that day ; and the time will come, 
 when our territory becomes as populous, that uecessit}" 
 as well as expediency will cause them to be adapted to 
 and adopted by us, and every where over the populous 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 113 
 
 world, cifecting tliis end not by despotism but by judi- 
 cious regulation of tux, increasing in ratio with tlie 
 amount of land. 
 
 The habeas corpus, trial by jury, popular enfran- 
 chisement, succeedaneum of allodial for feudal tenures, 
 etc., date back six or seven centuries. But perhaps as 
 Demosthenes said, tlieir " System of laws v.-as the gift 
 of the gods," and therefore not susceptible of human 
 improvement. Some departments of government in- 
 volving other sciences and arts as commerce and cam- 
 cralistics or chrcmatistics, or maratime and financial 
 laws;, have inaproved perhaps as greatly as other branches 
 of human progress. 
 
 As for medicine, our doctors have made some valua- 
 ble diagnostic, pathologic, and a few therapeutic dis- 
 coveries. The discovery of tlic circulation of the blood, 
 however, so often attributed to Harvey, who may also 
 have discovered it, was known to Pythagoras near 500 
 years before Christ. He also discovered the revolution 
 of tlic earth, though Capernicus and Gallileo to whom 
 it is usually credited, may likewise have discovered it, 
 and probably more fully demonstrated it. The large 
 majority of our statesmen and theologians, and a large 
 minority of our lawyers and physicians, are behind the 
 ase. Have you never noticed that whenever the pro- 
 gress of science is alluded to, it is always in the me- 
 chanical, chemical, physiological, or psychological, prin- 
 cipally the first ? It is to the inventor and mechanic, the 
 chemist and philosopher, that we are indebted for nearly 
 all the pleasures and luxuries of our present high civiliza- 
 tion . A nd yet in the pojnilar estimation these characters 
 are unknown, unhoiwred and unsung; wliile the politi- 
 
114 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 ciau and preacher, who do nothing but spout and lash the 
 populace into passion, get all the empty applause of the 
 p-azinp-, ffaiiino', o-ullible multitude. All honor then to 
 those great men who make for us the steamship and 
 the locomotive; who analyze and teach us the elements 
 of our sustentation ; and who unfold to" our knowledge 
 the lightning of our life and the very mysteries of our 
 being! We v^^ould weave a wreath of rainbow radi- 
 ance around their brows, and girdle the vocal globe 
 with the lightning of their fame ! 
 
 Modern science has found sixty-five elements, metalie 
 and nonmetalic, instead of the four of earth, air, fire 
 and water, as formerly believed. That earth is of many 
 varieties, composed of as many combinations; that air, 
 atmospheric, is a compound of oxygen and nitrogen 
 (chiefly) ; fire neither element nor compound, but the 
 effect of violent chemical action; and wPiter a compound 
 of oxygen and hydrogen. -And it has been found that 
 nearly all of these sixty-five elements enter into the 
 composition and constitution of man ; and as an epitome 
 or ultimate, or microcosm of the universe, I think it 
 will be found that he contains not only all of them, 
 but all others, if any, yet to be discovered. The science 
 of physiology which is the soil of the soul, arid the 
 science of life, is gradually unfolding the philosophy 
 of our -physical, and I may add spiritual nature, for 
 upon it are founded and out of it spring the perfections 
 of both our physical and spiritual characters. 
 
 We can improve and beautify our species — it is to a 
 very considerable extent within the power of parents, 
 especially the mother, though the daughters generally 
 inherit the mental constitution of the father, aud the 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF TJFE. 11-") 
 
 sons that of the mother, yet they in turn transmit the 
 same, subject to the same controlling influences — by 
 assiduous effort and proper training of paasion, feeling, 
 emotion, and objects of sight, thought, employment, 
 association, to mold the offspring in the character of 
 body and mind desired. And it is owing to this fact 
 that so manv distinguished men have uncommon names, 
 inheriting the vigorous originality of their mothers, 
 who would not be bound by the old nomenclature of 
 John, Jim, or Jo. The mother of the great Italian, 
 Dante, before he vs^as born had a sjilendid vision of su- 
 pernal spheres with fliiries flitting before her fluicy, 
 which made a powerful and permanent impression on 
 her mind. Dante was born a brilliant poet. Napo- 
 leon's mother vv^as very fond of riding with her husband 
 witnessing the review and marshalling of troops, and 
 expressed great . anxiety to witness a battle; and his 
 first view of this life was on a portable couch, orna- 
 mented with the heroes of the Iliad, his mother 
 being borne home on it from the church wh.ence 
 she was thus suddenly called. Napoleon was born 
 a great captain. "A word to the wise is suffi- 
 cient," and if you are not thus wise, it is your impera- 
 tive duty at once to set about the study of luiinan phys- 
 iology : for it is the study of our lives. I have read 
 of the death of an inflint being caused l)y the lacteal 
 poison imbibed from its mother, who had been the vic- 
 tim of a violent passion of anger. Read the story of 
 Jacob and his spotted cattle— which illustrates the great 
 and primary truth — he was well knowing of the fact, 
 Vjut ignorant of its philosophy— ju'^^^ ^^ ^^^^ prophets 
 and apostles were cognizant of the facts of spiritual in- 
 
IIQ PIIILOSOrHY OF LIFE. 
 
 flux and visions, but knew nothing of their significance 
 and philosophy. 
 
 Woman wields the world and molds the character of 
 mankind ; in her keeping are the destinies of the hu- 
 man fiimily. Said the first Napoleon, "Tell me the 
 character, of your women, and I'll know your men." ^ 
 
 As judicious energy is the crown of character in 
 man, so chaste meekness is the crown of character in 
 woman— I mean true woman, not the worthless pet 
 thing and inert toy of indolence, or the imperious 
 queen who looks upon man as made for her especial 
 slave, bedecked with silks and flaming feathers, or fine 
 furniture and gorgeous drawing-rooms, " a pig in the 
 parlor and a peacock on the promenade," as Cobbet used 
 to call 'em, who cannot string together correctly a dozqn 
 words of her own vernacular, (and there is no accom- 
 plishment, especially for a lady, equal to chaste, correct, 
 and beautifal language,) with no refinement or personal 
 feminine fascination. O, ignorance with aristocracy, 
 pretension with vulgarity, and wealth with wickedness, 
 stinginess, meanness, and selfishness, are so ineffably 
 and unutterably and intolerably disgusting. And of 
 course such are ignorant of their ignorance, and this 
 ignorance is their bliss — " ¥/here ignorance is bliss 'tis 
 folly to be wise." 
 
 ISfature and its philosophy stamps man, that is true 
 man of action, energy, honesty and truth, as the lord ; 
 and the woman who does not thus view him and com- 
 prehend her proper relation is ignorant of her highest 
 excellence and a stranger to her true and great power. 
 As an illustrious example of her potency in this respect, 
 when the expatriated Coriolanus, at the head of the 
 
PHTT.OSOrnY OF T.TFE. 
 
 117 
 
 Volscl, march cul upon his native city, and lighted the 
 circumjacent hills of Rome with the camp-fires of her 
 numerous and relentless enemy, threatening immediate 
 destruction, deputations of her most illustrious citizens, 
 committees of the Senate, priests of religion, old and 
 gray-headed men, all were in turn sent out to him, so- 
 liciting and imploring his leniency and mercy, but to 
 no avail; the injured and vindictive heart of Coriola- 
 iuis was inexorable, and the devoted city seemed doomed 
 to expiate her injustice to him and gratify his full re- 
 venge. Finally as a last, forlorn and apparently hopc- 
 less^l-esort, his mother and wife, Veturia and Yirgilia, 
 were sent to hJm, and felling on their knees, begged 
 his pardon and protection. "O, my son!" cried his 
 mother, " do I embrace my son, or my enemy? ^ Am I 
 your mother or your captive ? How have I lived to 
 see this dav — to see my son a banished man — and 
 still more agonizing to sec him the enemy of his coun- 
 try, devoting to destruction the city that gave hini 
 birth ? Had I never been born, Rome would still be 
 free !'' The stern heart of the warrior that had with- 
 stood unmoved so many scenes, supplications and ap- 
 peals, melted before these tears of woman's meekness, 
 rdul relented of all its vindictiveness. The great army 
 of the Volsci, he immediately marched a^vay ; but the 
 event fulfilled the sad prediction which he addressed to 
 his mother in reply— a prediction which only a Roman 
 moth.er could hear—" O, my mother, thou hast saved 
 Rome, bat lost thy son !" Ho was soon murdered by 
 the enraged Volsci. In honor of Veturia's merit, the 
 Romans dedicated a temple to Female Fortune. 
 
 The torrent of the storm, the mountain a\'alanc]ie, 
 
118 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE< 
 
 hath no such po^vor as the streaming tears of wonlan^s 
 meekness to melt the heart of man. When the noble 
 Cornelia Avas called upon by a vain lady who had been 
 exhibiting her meretricions ornaments to show hers, she 
 presented her children, exclaiming '' these are my jew- 
 els." Yours, ladies^ is a high and holy charge ; in 
 your sacred keeping is the character of men. I would 
 urge you as a sacred duty to study well human physi- 
 ology, our antiiroposophy and anthropolog}^, it is the 
 science of that immortal life which is in your hands. 
 We are ignorant of the immense misery and misfortune 
 entailed upon our children by this very ignorance. 
 
 Physiological or animal chemistry, or chemical phys- 
 iology, teaches that rice when properly cooked, is the 
 most easily digested of all known substances, requiring 
 but one hour; it also subsists a larger number of the 
 human family than any of the cereals, but it is deficient 
 in the phosphoric and phosphorescent, the adipose and 
 oleaginous, as well as nitrogenous elements; that the 
 leguminous seeds, peas and beans, afford the most con- 
 centrated and strength imparting form of all vegetable 
 nourishment; that a current of electricity will promote 
 the mammary secretion, and other important functions ; 
 and that this lacteal fluid, according to L'PIeritier, is, 
 in \^i\& brunette mother, greatly richer in butter, sugar, 
 casein, and all the solid salts of nutrition, than in that 
 of the blonde; hence the children of 'the former are 
 larger, stouter, and more robust. But the blonde blue 
 eye is more indicative of beauty, love, refinement and 
 intellectuality than the dark, as exemplified in Cleopa- 
 tra, Isabella, Margaret, and Mary, mother of Wash- 
 ington, from whom he inherited the grand proportions 
 
liIIlLOSOPttY OF iA'PlL 119 
 
 of his character; and Ccosar, Newton, Bonajiarte, 
 Kepler and Washington. The Caucassian has bhie and 
 the African bhick eyes, and the s .me pigment that gives 
 the black to the eyes gives it to the skin, says Dr. 
 Draper. It teaches that our corp.oreity is to a very 
 o-reat extent^ and onr Hi>irituality to a small degree, 
 modified by the character of our aliments; that the 
 vegetarians and those nations sustained by rice arc de- 
 ficient in vigor and muscularity; ^vhile those who sub- 
 sist on flesh have the vigor of ferocity. It is said that 
 a domesticated bear when fed exclusively on grain be- 
 comes gentle and docile ; but when fed on flesh becomes 
 vicious and ferocious. Those with scrofulous diathesis 
 of body, or gross unrefined, savage mental natures, 
 should cscliew that mass of scrofula, that physiological 
 laboratory of lard oil, and living embodiment of gross 
 savage ingratitude, the hog. But unfortunately this is 
 the very mentality that can't iperceive its true condition, 
 and if informed and advised by friends, will not ap- 
 preciate much less feel gratitude for tlie infoiTiitition, 
 And further, that onr spirit, mind, is developed prin- 
 cipally by sunlight and other ethereal elements, while 
 the body is also modified to a great extent by the same, 
 either mediately or immediately. This is illustrated 
 bv the idiotic people in the deep dark valleys of Swit- 
 zerland, where sunshine is scarce, or limited to a few 
 hours in the day, and also by the Cretins. From these 
 facts we should learn lessons of tlic greatest import for 
 our constant practice. Science teaches us how to sup- 
 ply the dcficioicy of osseous formation, the l)ony struc- 
 ture, which we often find deficient in whole families of 
 children, viz : by both parents and cliildren living on 
 
120 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 limestone Avater and the products of a lime-soil; and 
 on the contrary where there is a hereditary disposition 
 to calculous and calcareous formations in the organs of 
 the system, to avoid all these and use only rain or cis- 
 tern water. It teaches how to develop the cerebral or- 
 gan, which is sometimes deficient, by eating mostly wheat 
 flour, as it furnishes more of the brain-making elements 
 than any other aliment now knovfu. Vv^here fat is 
 vfanting, oat and corn meal slioukl be used as they con- 
 tain more of the fat-making material. For asthmatic, 
 consumptive, or other debilitated conditions of the pul- 
 monic organs, a cold climate or cold atmosphere, be- 
 cause more condensed, is the more invigorating, as the 
 winter air is greatly more condensed, and is estimated 
 by Liebig to contain ten or fifteen per cent, more oxy- 
 gen than summer. The workmen in one of the French 
 mines, who breathe air artificially condensed tO' the 
 amount of three atmospheres, are greatly invigorated 
 and do much more Vv'ork. It also renders the tym- 
 panum of the ear more sensitive to sound, and the deaf 
 hear distinctly. Persons of liigh nervous tempera- 
 ments, extremely sensitive to electrical infiuences, should 
 sleep with the head toward the IN orth, (on this side the 
 equator,) or the East, to be in harmony with the mag- 
 netic currents, the philosophy of which we need not 
 here stop to explain. Those v/liose alimentary canal is 
 delicate and liable to become deranged from trivial 
 cause, or who are predisposed, hereditarily or otherwise, 
 to calculous formations, sliould use bread from meal or 
 flour ground by an iron mill or cruslied by some other 
 process than the present practice of tlie attrition of 
 stones, the particles of which from constant Avear, 
 
PHlLOSOrilY OF LIFE. 121 
 
 tliousrli minute, exert an unfavorable influence on all, 
 and jiarticularly such conditions; whereas iron is en- 
 tirely soluble and healthy. Indeed the constant use 
 through life of meal ground by attrition of rocks is 
 certainly deleterious, deleterious to all constitutions; 
 and he who devises some other process of grinding or 
 <'rushing grain, free from this rocky abrasion, will con- 
 tribute greatly to the health of mankind. Science 
 allows us the essential service of the saccharine proper- 
 ties in our animal economy; how to make sugar from 
 old lags, paper, cotton, starch, saw-dust, etc., by the 
 sim|)le process of boiling in diluted suljihuric acid and 
 afterward neutralised by proper alkali; and that they 
 will yield more of ehrystalizable sugar than their orig- 
 inal weight, and without any diminution of the acid. 
 This is effected through a mysterious process techni- 
 oally called catalysis. In fact sugar Avill result from a 
 certain combination of water and charcoal — nine to 
 aeven — btcai!.-?e it is composed of the same elements 
 that compose water and charcoal; and so is starch, 
 only v,'ith less proportion of water; and so is 
 Prussic acid, the deadly poison, composed of the same 
 elements but in different proportions and with the ad- 
 dition of nitrogen. 
 
 Man being made up of all elements in nature should 
 use all the aliments, and thus suj^ply the requisites of a 
 ♦•ompleto development; as those people restricted to 
 fl'W elements of diet exhibit imperfect development. 
 It teaches hoNV to convert wood into nutritious bread.. 
 A simple process is, according to Antenrieth, to boilj 
 fine saw-dust until everything soluble is separated^, 
 liien dry and heat several times in an oven until it (tho 
 6 
 
122 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 saw-dust) becomes hard and crisp, then grind into a 
 fine meal, which will taste and smell like ground wheat, 
 and ferment when made up into dough with yeast, 
 and produce an uniform, spongy, nutritious bread. 
 The value of ice in certain morbid conditions of the 
 system,, and how to make it for the emergency of such 
 cases in mid-summer, which I will state:. pour hydro- 
 chloric or muriatic acid upon sulphate of soda (Glauber 
 salts) into a thorough mixture, and in the meantime 
 have a small tube filled with water inserted in the cen- 
 tre of the mass — ^the water will freeze immetfiately.. 
 Also, a mixture- of equal parts by weight of salammon- 
 iac and of saltpetre finely pulverized, with three and. 
 a half parts of water, will sink the temperature from 
 50 to 10 degrees, which is below the freezing point of 
 ice. 
 
 Ice can also be made instantaneously by passing a 
 current of electricity through a bar of antimony and 
 bismuth attached at one end ; and by reversing the di- 
 rection of the current ; heat instead of cold will be 
 evolved. It may also be made mechanically by sud- 
 denly^liberating highly compressed atmospheric air or 
 any of the elastic gases, which compression makes it hot ; 
 and the sudden liberation cold, just in j)roportion to 
 the intensity of the compression. The most intense 
 cold known, — 166° Ft., is the result of the two, liquids 
 combined; and the mixture of two others evolves in- 
 tense heat. Ice for domestic use will yet be made by 
 some of these means cheaper than gathering and pre- 
 serving, or rather wasting. 
 
 It informs us of the powerful disinfectant and preser- 
 vative properties of charcoal when placed in a room 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 123 
 
 with the sick it Avill absorb and neutralize noxious ex- 
 hahitions ; it will also prevent putrefaction and preserve 
 meat, and even restore it if not too far gone. It shows 
 how to make water burn like wood, and how to kindle 
 a fire out of sticks of ice instead of sticks of timber. It 
 teaches us how to detect poisons, and their antidotes, 
 for instances, iron rust is the antidote of arsenic; vine- 
 gar to ammonia ; caustic ammonia inhaled to prussic 
 acid, the most powerful poison known ; magnesia or 
 soda to oil of vitriol; sulphate of magnesia to salts of 
 lead; opium is the aiitidote, physiologically, to stramo- 
 nium (called Jimson weed) and to Belladona, and to 
 the common poke-root, the present popular remedv 
 for rheumatism, which is dangerous in excess — for 
 emergent cases sub-cutaueous introduction is certain re- 
 lief; and all the latter antidotes to opium; coffee 
 or tea is also a partial antidote to narcotic poison ; 
 camphor is an antidote to strychnine ; white of egg 
 Jr any albuminous substance is an antidote to the 
 bichloride of mercury or corsosive of sublimate, which 
 is formed by the combination of mercury w^ith chlorine; 
 and our common table salt (chloride of sodium) con- 
 trains sixty-five per centum of chlorine — hence the dan- 
 ger and the remedy, of combining in the stomach salty 
 food with large or frequent doses of calomel. But the 
 best alexiteric of all is, the unfinling synteretic and 
 prophylactic of letting them alone, and have as little 
 to do as possible with all physic. 
 
 These are merely given as a few examples of utilita- 
 rian value, also, constituting part of the philosophy of 
 life, and contributing to our didactic pTirpose. The day 
 is not far distant when science will convert the native 
 
124 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 nuts and acorns of the forest into nutritious oils and 
 butter, as indeed it now converts beans and peas into 
 cheese ; and the persimmon may become the most valu- 
 able tree of the forest, as it contains the largest per 
 cent, of saccharine matter, and the best aftd most abun- 
 dant sugar will be made from its fruit, which we often 
 find good granulated sugar in its native state. I men- 
 tion this as a suggestive hint to the practical chemist. 
 The seeds are also said to be a good substitute for coifee. 
 
 The dense wild forests of the Amazon may yet, under 
 the weird of science, he made to yield a richer harvest 
 for the sustentation of man than the highly cultivated 
 valleys of the Mississippi, or plains of Lombardy, 
 
 Then behold the mighty ster.mengine which is doing 
 all our work, from making the most delicate thread and 
 gossamer texture, to driving the huge ship over the 
 ocean with celerity and punctuality. It is the pioneer 
 of civilization, and the inseparable element and adjunct 
 of its onward march. Science has stript it of its ter- 
 ror, and we now control and handle steam as though it 
 were a harmless infant ; steam is now to man what elec- 
 tricity is to the almighty mechanic of the solar universe. 
 See the fiery locomotive streaming across a continent 
 and startling the mediteraneons mountain genii from 
 their sequestered dells and mystic caverns. In the 
 primitive and medieval ages the economic housewife had 
 to " lay her hands to the distaff," to work her rude 
 spinning and weaving apparatus, to churn the milk, to> 
 sew, to knit, to wash, to cook, etc., by slow, hard man- 
 ual labor ; now under the talismanic touch of science 
 the very air we breath is made to enter a body of iron 
 instead of flesh, and there expanded by caloric performs 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. ]2l> 
 
 all these operations through its breathing iron lungs. 
 A handful] of fuel put in this caloric engine two or 
 three times a day, will warm the apartment, serve as a 
 cooking range, propel all these little domestic machines 
 and perform all the functions of the laundry, and the 
 laundress — in a word doing the whole of the house- 
 work without any other stove or fire, requiring no wa- 
 ter and but little fuel; and all this with perfect safety 
 from explosion or other danger. Of course, we include 
 in this complete economic arrangement the washing 
 machine, (ho late spinning and weaving machine, the 
 sewing machine, and the knitting machine, by which 
 last a pair of socks is made in fifteen minutes. There is 
 yet great im])rovment to be made in our clothing, which 
 will all be made by the knitting machine and with a 
 do^^'ny naj), or villous and capillaceous, tomentous and 
 filamentous substance like the fur, hair, or fine feathers 
 of animals, thus permitting the internal exhalations and 
 ])erspiration to escape, and at the same time preventing 
 the rain, or external Avater from entering, and also en- 
 suring greater warmth and comfort, as well as freedom 
 of form and action. 
 
 This splendid little engine of air with all these ad- 
 juncts, will Soon become as fiimiliar and indispensible 
 to the ladies as the steam engine with its huge factories 
 is to man. 
 
 As 212° of heat (Farenheit's scale) will convert a cu- 
 bic inch of water into about a cubic foot of steam, or in 
 other Avords, expand water 1728 times, so will the 
 same degree of heat expand common air, I think, about 
 twice or double its original bulk. Hence the immense 
 concentrated power of steam and the conijxirative fee- 
 
*.126 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 bleness of the air engine for heavy work; and hence the 
 danger of the one and safety of the other. In compu- 
 ting the jDOwer of the air engine the pressure per square 
 inch should be taken not over 10 lbs., and the velocity 
 of piston not over 100 feet per minute, instead of 200 or 
 300 feet as ordinarily for steam ; and then proceed in 
 the calculation the same as in steam or other engine — 
 adopting AVatt's basis as the standard of power. My 
 little Treatise on the Steam Engine, published some 
 years ago, explains all this to any one wishing to un- 
 derstand it in both theory and practice. 
 
 Compare that most valuable utensil of husbandry 
 and adjunct of civilization, the present plow, with the 
 rude implement used even by the great Cincinnatus 
 when called from his little farm across the Tiber, by 
 the deputies of the Roman Senate to head her army 
 and save Rome from the invading ^qui and Volsci. 
 And contrast our present articles of domestic luxury 
 and personal comfort by the mediocral classes, with 
 those, known and used by even the affluent of the urban 
 and suburban population of the most favored Greeks. 
 
 According to Biblical history there was an universal 
 deluge Anno Mundi 1656 — about 4200 years ago — 
 which left, after its subsidence, eight persons, from 
 whom the present population, estimated at one billion, 
 have descended. From this it appears that the world's 
 population has doubled itself only in about 156 years, 
 although the longevity of otlr early progenitors is rep- 
 resented as greatly beyond that of the medieval and 
 later ages. Now, modern statistics show the increase 
 of population to be abouj: a hundred per centum every 
 50 years. This exhibits a vast improvement in mod- 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 127 
 
 orn science of life, or the genealogical or chronological 
 history of the bible is false. 
 
 The interminable sands of Sahara with its fiital si- 
 moon, have yielded to the weird of science, and that 
 vast tract of arid desert and utter sterility, under the 
 impetus of French energy, now teams with verdant 
 oases and flows with the fructifying fountains of arte- 
 sian wells. That immense region of aridity, hitherto 
 fatal to all life, will ultimately under the magic wand of 
 energy directed by science, sustain a dense population, 
 and under this unfailing flow of water and certiiin irri- 
 gation may become the most fertile and prod active 
 country of the earth. 
 
 AVe lay our hands upon the lightning, and his fiery 
 chariot becomes the vehicle of our thoughts, that out 
 travel the march of time and outstrip the sun ; we 
 make a track of wire for the fiery courser and our 
 message reaches the west sooner than it left the East. 
 \ye have learned the deep lesson of the lettered rocks, 
 and read the recorded age of earth in in its many suc- 
 cessive periods of creation, each one of which far ex- 
 ceeds six thousand yen's in duration. 
 
 We learn that our globe is composed of a vast mol- 
 ten mass of melted matter, of liquid fiery lava of intense 
 heat; surrounded by a comparatively thin crust of only 
 a few miles in thickness — no thicker in proportion 
 than is the shell to the size of the common egg, And 
 this internal ocean of liquid fire is constantly heaving 
 and surging in a state of deep unrest from the mighty 
 chemical and electrical action of its elements. The 
 effect of these great agitations, the clastic undulations of 
 the earth's surface^ we feel in the giant tread of the 
 
128 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 mighty earthquake. And were it not for the wise pro- 
 vision of volcanoes by which to relieve her mighty in- 
 testine agonies, our globe would have long since explo- 
 ded to the utter destruction of all organic life. Indeed, 
 these volcanic mountains are literally the safety valves, 
 to this great globular, locomotive boiler of immense 
 confined dynamic forces. And I might make the pre- 
 diction that the time w^ill come when man will draw 
 his light and heat from this exhaustless source, unless 
 the earth cools faster than science advances. 
 [|a,| We have even take the atmosphere to pieces, and find 
 
 ^^ an ethereo — 'ponderble or imponderable fluid filling up 
 
 the otherwise vacant interstices between the particles of 
 the densest metals, as irons and platinum. And that 
 this peculiar electricity or subtle fluid jjermeates and 
 pervades the universe of matter and mind, from the 
 very internal structure of the minutest mineral atom, 
 to the widest bound of the planetary system, from 
 the mind of man up through the angels to God. . 
 I'll read from Dr. Hare's " Strictures on a speculation 
 by Farraday, respecting the nature of matter. This 
 sagacious investigator adverts to the fact that after each 
 atom in a mass of metallic potassium has combined 
 with an atom of oxygen and an atom of water, forming 
 thus a hyd rated oxyde — caustic potash — the resulting 
 aggregate occupies much less space than its metallic in- 
 gredient previously occupied ; so that taking equal bulks 
 of the hydrate and of potassium, there will be in the 
 metal only 430 metallic atoms, while in the hydrate 
 there will be 700 such atoms. Yet in the latter, 
 besides the metallic atomsf there ^vill be an equal num- 
 ber of aqueous and oxygenous atoms^ in all 2800 pon- 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 129 
 
 derable atoms. It follows that If the atoms of potas- 
 sium are to be considered as minute imponderable par- 
 ticles, kept at certain distances by an equilibrium of 
 forces, there must be, in a mass of potassium, vastly 
 more space than matter ; moreover, it is the space alone 
 that can be continuous. The non-contiguous material 
 atoms cannot form a continuous mass. Consequently, 
 the well-known power of potassium to conduct electricity 
 must be a quality of the continuous space which it com- 
 prises, not of the discontinuous particles of matter with 
 which that space is regularly interspersed." 
 
 He uses the words " empty space " in reference alone 
 to the metalic atoms — not of all other fluids or other 
 elements. 
 
 As an illustration of scientific precision and astro- 
 nomic accuracy ; the discovery of the planet Neptune 
 (named originally Le Verrier, from its discover, in 
 1846) is one of the greatest triumphs which the history 
 of science records. As certain pertubations of the 
 movements of Saturn led astronomers to suspect the 
 existence of a remoter planet, which susj^iscions were 
 fully confirmed in the discovery cf Uranus, so also, after 
 the discovery of Uranus, certain irregularities were per- 
 ceived in his motions, that led distinguished astrono- 
 mers of the day to the belief that even beyond the 
 planet Uranus still another undiscovered planet existed, 
 to reward the labors of the discoverer. Accordingly, 
 Le Verrier, a young French astronomer, urged by his 
 friend Arago, determined to devote himself to the at- 
 tempt at discovery. With indefatigable industry he 
 prepared new tables of planetary motion, from which 
 he determined the perturbations of the planets Jupiter, 
 6* 
 
130 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 Saturn, and Uranus, and as early as June, 1846, in a 
 paper presented to the Academy of Sciences, in Paris, 
 he pointed out where the susj)ected planet would be on 
 the 1st of January, 1847. He subsequently determined 
 the mass and the elements of the orbits of the planet ; 
 and that, too, before it had been seen by a human eye. 
 On the 18th of September of 1846, he wrote to his 
 friend, M. Galbe, of Berlin, requesting him to direct his 
 telescope to a certain point in the heavens, where he sus- 
 pected the stranger to be. His friend complied with 
 his request, and on the first evening of examination 
 discovered a strange star of the eighth magnitude, which 
 had not been laid down in any of the maps of that por- 
 tion of the heavens. The following evening it v/as 
 found to have moved in a direction and with a velocity 
 very nearly like that which Le Verrier had pointed 
 out. The planet was found within less than one degree 
 of the place where Le Verrier had located it. It was 
 subsequently ascertained that a young English mathe- 
 matician, M. Adams, of Cambridge, had been engaged 
 in the same computations, and had arrived at nearly 
 the same results with Le Verrier. 
 
 What shall we say of science, then, that enables its 
 devoted followers to reach out into space, and feel suc- 
 cessfully in the dark and distant ocean of immensity, 
 for an object more than twenty-eight hundred millions 
 of miles distant? 
 
 But the highest, grandest triumph and achievement 
 of modern science is in the domain of mind. It is tra- 
 cing out the elements of immortal spirit, and the means 
 and instruments through which and by which it 
 operates and acts. It has discovered a refined electricity 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 131 
 
 to be die connecting link between mind and matter ; 
 that it ii^ the medium of mind ; that it is the medium 
 of God and his government ; and that it is the grand 
 primordial element of the universe. This is the most 
 •sublime achievement of the human mind — to learn 
 itself, to unravel its own mysteries and read its own 
 future, I'll not speak directly of mesmerism, which 
 has developed such wonderful phases of human- nature, 
 but call your notice to some of the marvels of mind as 
 unfolded by modern biology or electrical psychology. 
 I quote from Dr. Dods, who has done more than any 
 one else, perhaps, to evolve this magnificent science: 
 '^ The wonderful and startling phenomena that hover 
 around it like so many invisible angels, and which 
 are made mflnifest in the experiments produced, I have 
 also candidly stated. They consist in the fact, that one 
 human being can, through a certain nervous influence, 
 obtain and exercise a power over another, so as to per- 
 fectly control his voluntary motions and muscular force ; 
 and also produce various impressions on his mind, how- 
 over extravagant, ludicrous, or wild — and that too, 
 while he is in a perfectly wakeful state, I have found 
 persons entirely and naturally in the electro-psycholog- 
 ical state, who never could be mesmerised at all, nor in 
 the least affected under repeated trials. That no per- 
 son is naturally in the mesmeric state, but thousands 
 are naturally in the electro-psychological state, and 
 live and die in it. It is the science of the living mind, 
 its silent and mysterious workings, and energetic 
 jiowers. It is a science that evolves the majestic move- 
 ment of rolling worlds, the falling leaf, and claims the 
 Great Law of the universe as its own." And I'll add 
 
132 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 the science that involves the philosophy of our immor- 
 tal life, and spirit intercourse with incarnated men. — 
 "Yet such a science as this has been called a humbug, 
 and such men as these have been assailed." Again, 
 truly and eloquently : " True fame is not the birth- 
 right of the hero. The blaze of glory that has for ages 
 encircled his head, and with its brilliancy so long daz- 
 zled the world, is beginning to grow dim. The laurels 
 that decorate his sullen brow have been gathered at the 
 Gannon's mouth, from a soil enriched with human gore, 
 and watered by the tears of bereavement. That fancied 
 pinnacle of glory on which he proudly stands, has been 
 gained by conquest and slaughter. His way to it lay 
 Over thousands of his fellow creatures, whose warm 
 hearts had ceased to throb ; and the musiQ that followed 
 his march was the widow's moan and the orphan's wail. 
 True fame does not lie here. It has a higher origin • — 
 a nobler birth — a more elevated aim. True fame con- 
 gists In the lofty aspirations after intellectual and moral 
 truth !" 
 
 With all deference to the original and splendid 
 genius of Dods, and great admiration for the frankness 
 and boldness of his avowals, I must, nevertheless, say 
 that some of his philosophy is, I think, borrowed from 
 A. J. Davis's " Revelations," given professedly under 
 spiritual inspiration, certainly under some extraordinary 
 inspiration^ for if not spiritual he is a most prolific and 
 luminous mind, almost equal to Pythagoras or Sweden- 
 borg. The Doctor also proves clearly that the circula- 
 tion of the blood is caused by electrical action, and not 
 by any hydraulic force of the heart, exerting a pov/er 
 of a hundred thousand pounds as has been maintained 
 
I>HlLOSOPHY OF lAFE. 133 
 
 W physicians. But the preposterous absurdity is explo- 
 ded. To say nothing of electricity, chemistry, or physi- 
 ology, mechanical science in the hands of even a novice, 
 can easily prove the utter impossibility of the human 
 frame withstanding, or the heart exerting, such dynamic 
 force. 
 
 But have you ever witnessed any of these v.-onderful 
 phenomena of psychology as exhibted by modern 
 science ? I have seen a number of men taken j^romis- 
 ouously from a large auditory of a refined city upon the 
 public platform, and there after a few eiforts put so 
 <x>nipletely under the control of the operator as to feel, 
 tliink and act, just as he willed, and that too, while 
 entirely awake and otherwise apparently in tlieir norma! 
 condition. He would make them believe a stick was a 
 snake ; water was vinegar, coffee, or alcohol, and fol- 
 lowed with its effects; that a handkerchief placed in 
 tlieir arms Avas a baby, and they would caress it and try 
 to quiet it — made to believe it crying — in the most 
 ludicrous manner, being mostly young men unused to 
 such operations ; that it was very cold, drawing their 
 t^oaks around themselves; or that it was very hot, 
 throwing off their coats before a large public gaze to 
 which they seemed wholly oblivious. I saw this ope- 
 rator after having about a dozen men, all strangers U^ 
 him and well-known citizens, under his control for sev- 
 eral successive evenings — for the more he practices 
 upon them the more perfect becomes his control — take 
 thejn all through a trip to California and back as 
 follov/s : First they get aboard the ship, then the vessel 
 out to sea, — goes to. pieces in a violent storm, and thcv 
 betake themselves to the small life-boat, some getting 
 
134 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 in from out of the water; and you niust bear in mind 
 that all these scenes are acted out to the life, and by 
 those who never appeared before the public gaze until 
 now — climbing over the gunAvalcs into the boat — their 
 terrible condition after drifting for several days on mid 
 ocean without food or water; their agreement to draw 
 lots who should die to furnish these iiecessities for the 
 balance. After straining their eyes so long around the 
 cheerless horizon for help, they descry at last a sail in 
 the distance — they wave their handkerchiefs and even 
 their garments in their effort to catch the notice of the 
 ]mssing vessel ; but she passes without observing them 
 — now all hope had fled; they become frantic and fu- 
 rious; the scene was appalling; but see! another 
 vessel hove in sight ; she uears them, she sees them, 
 she comes to them, she rescues them, she takes them on 
 board and saves tliem. This Vvdiole scene, as you may 
 imagine, was truly interesting. They arrive at San 
 Francisco ; at the gold mines ; they dig gold ; they 
 return home; some with |2,000, some |5,000, some 
 with $10,000, in gold. Some intend to invest in Texas 
 lands, some in mercantile business, one in a telegraph 
 line, (being a telegrapli operator himself). 
 
 They sell their gold to the operator and take his 
 checks on the bank endorsed by the names of good 
 men, whom they individually select from the commu- 
 nity; these checks are mere scraps of old newspaper, 
 which they are made to believe valid checks ; it is past 
 bank hours, they go to tlie bank and find it closed — 
 they wait until next day. During the evening and 
 following morning, their friends with the previously 
 expressed permission of the operator, try to convince 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 135 
 
 them that their checks are worthless scraps of paper, 
 and laugh at their delusion, but with no success; they re- 
 ply familiarly, "you can't fool me, I know niy endorser, 
 and the check will be paid on presentation in the morn- 
 ing," etc. Before bank opens they are at the door wait- 
 ing with impatience, a large crowd of citizens also wit- 
 nessing with great interest the whole proceeding. At 
 length the bank doors open ; they rush in and present 
 their checks, the cashier takes them, looks at them and 
 says they are not checks ; they insist that they are true 
 cliccks, i)roperly endorsed, &c.; the cashier assures 
 tliem they are worthless scraps of old paper and cannot 
 be cashed ; disappointed, they hurry to the hotel to find 
 Mr. Operator, who had got their gold ; were told there 
 tliat he was in the court house, followed all the while 
 by a large crowd; in the court house they find Mr. 
 Operator, who expecting them in their wrath had taken 
 tlie precaution to have the police around him for his 
 apparent protection ; they report to him the bank's re- 
 fusal and demand their gold back ; he tells them he 
 has not got it ; they threaten his life if he does not re- 
 fund it ; the sheriff has to pacify them by holding him- 
 self responsible for his safe custody ; they employ law- 
 yers for immediate suit — the court house during the 
 while crowded — and finally amidst the greatest ex- 
 citement the operator dispels the illusion with which 
 he had them invested since the day before, and in the 
 greatest mortification and disappointment they hide 
 tliemselves, run away, scamper off with shame. Now 
 if all this be true — and we have no right to ques- 
 tion the truth of those men, nor to doubt what we saw 
 and heard — though it has always seemed strange to 
 7 
 
136 PIITLOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 me that the cashier could have convinced or rather 
 turned them, when their friends could not convince 
 them ; but may he the operator willed them to be thus 
 turned; but then how did he, entirely out of sight, 
 know the time to thus exert his will when the cashier 
 refused? In justice to my philosophy, however, I 
 should state that notwithstanding these natural suspic- 
 ions, the fact of this psychologic influence and control' 
 is undeniably established ; Dr. Dods in lectures invited 
 by Henry Clay, Webster and others, at the national 
 capitol, having demonstrated this mystic agency to- 
 some of the finest intellects af the land, and upon any 
 one who chose to submit tO' the test, In view of all 
 this, I say, what a wonderful principle of the human 
 mind is here developed and exhibited ! This operator 
 would also make them assume, instanter, the most gro- 
 tesque attitudes with the rigidity of stone, often in im- 
 itation of antique statuary, and strong men called from 
 the crowd could not bend them. Strange indeed, and 
 new to history, that one man can thus influence and 
 control others through the intervening, all-pervading, 
 mysterious medium of electricity or nerve aura. And 
 numerous instances are known of persons in the clair- 
 voyant condition who can see other persons and read 
 their minds when in rapport with each other, at the 
 distance of many miles or hundreds of miles ; another 
 phase of this wonderful principle and illustration of 
 this all-pervading and universal mental medium of 
 electro-ether. Dr. Dods says there is about one in 
 twenty-five naturally in the psychological condition, 
 and that all may be brought into it by repeated 
 ^efforts and by any one who will persevere. It all 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 137 
 
 proves the universal existence of this mysterious hith- 
 erto unknown agent, or element or essence, by which 
 and through which mind acts upon mind ; in a word it 
 proves the universal medium of mind, and I ask you 
 to remember this when I come to explain the spiritual 
 philosophy, for it is illustrative of the latter. In view 
 of these great developments of modern science and its 
 rapiil progress, 1 wrote the following in a work entitled 
 " Dissertation on the analogies of Nature and Revela- 
 tion," published in 1857, which many of you have read, 
 find from which I have already quoted and shall a» 
 often quote as it serves 4uy subject. And here allow me 
 to say that those portions of that book which ignore 
 philosophy, I would now correct or utterly reject; that 
 our entire life, past, present and future, from the first 
 inorganic germ, aye, from the primal atoms in the ele- 
 nientary granite up to the highest altitudes of progres- 
 4on in the great hereafter in eternity, is but one con- 
 tinuous illustration of philosophy; that there is nothing 
 i'n all nature without its philosophy ; that there is phi- 
 losophy in everything; that all nature is philosophy; 
 and that nature's God is the grand embodiment and 
 impersonation of philosophy. I would also disclaim 
 and discard every idea of the infalibility of Revelation ; 
 for there can be no infalibility where' the finite is in- 
 volved, either in receiving or imparting. Show m<^ 
 him who never changes his opinions, never learn.s, 
 never progresses, and I'll show you a fool who morally 
 stands still and vegetates like any other tree, on whom 
 a just God should not force immortality against his 
 will. " He who can not reason is a fool ; he who dare 
 not reason is a coward ; who will not reason Is :i biaot •. 
 
138 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 but show to me him who can and dares and does rea- 
 son, and I'll show you a man," and a progressive man^ 
 and if honest, the highest type of God's mundane 
 works. 
 
 Tf the talented divine had said "faith" instead of 
 " Christianity " when he commenced his sermon with 
 " Cliristianity begins where philosophy ends," he would 
 have uttered a great truth, for faith flourishes in the 
 soil of superstition and ignorance and has no philoso- 
 phy. But rational and rationalistic Christianity, or 
 true religion, is founded in philosophy, and goes hand 
 in hand with science; and any religion not thus is fal- 
 lacious. Said preacher, I must opine, has sadly mis'- 
 taken in proclaiming such religion, for such religion or 
 such Christianity can have no beginning, inasmuch as 
 philosophy has no ending. A foppish man on present- 
 ing his ring remarked to a lady, " it is emblamatic of 
 my love to you, it has no ending;" to which the lady re- 
 plied " it is equally emblamatic of my love for you, it has 
 no beginning." It is or ought to be an obsolete idea, 
 and the eifete orator who would now utter it, has either 
 out-traveled science and gone ahead of everybody else, 
 has impatiently jumped over all philosophy and plunged 
 into the abysmal ocean of "faith " to slake his thirst, or 
 else is far behind the progress of the age and ignorant 
 of the modern march of mind. He would remind me 
 of the drunkard who was taken to a graveyard in a 
 state of unconsciousness and laid out on a tombstone. 
 On recoverino; from his inebriation and lookins; round 
 at his strange situation, perceiving nothing but the 
 silent tombs, he exclaimed, " Well I'm either the first 
 that's riz, or I'm behind time — all got up and gone 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 139 
 
 aliead of mc." He lias certainly gone ahead of every- 
 body else, or is wofully behind the times. But science 
 has l)ridged this hitherto shoreless ocean of incertitude 
 and found a beacon on the other bank ; or rather has 
 thrown its electric wires across the dread abyss and 
 communicates with the splendid denizen of the other 
 shore ; while the man of faith fed on its effete pabulum 
 and extinct cabalistic traditions, is left struggling in 
 the salty surge, without a shore and without a sound- 
 ing, midst upper, nether, and surrounding waters. But 
 to my extract : 
 
 " And it is reasonable to suppose that when death 
 destroys this mortal temple, this immortal being will 
 wing his flight to the God from whom he sprung, in 
 harmony with all known kiws of nature, by which 
 attraction gathers all smaller particles to the one great 
 central larger of their like ; and that all thus attracted, 
 congenial in feeling, desire, disposition, to the great 
 attracting God, will be either absorbed by him and 
 made partakers of his glory, or be fitted np in immor- 
 tal tenements and provided with abodes of bliss, com- 
 mensurate with their merits, where 
 
 ' Sceptred angels hold their residence." 
 
 While on the other hand, in accordance with this same 
 universal law of nature and nature's God, attraction 
 and repulsion, the disembodied spirits of the wicked 
 with feeling, desire, disposition adverse, opposite and 
 oppugnant to God, will be repelled by him and provi- 
 ded with places of abode adapted to their moral condi- 
 tion. Indeed, it is evident, as we shall hereafter show, 
 that God must make this distinction, must draw some 
 line of demarkation hereafter, or else forfeit and 
 
140 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 absolve his claim on man for the integrity of hi,«. 
 righteonsncss. * * The whole hfetory of man, indi- 
 vidually and collectively, teaches progression is a law 
 of his being, here and hereafter : individually, in the 
 great change from infancy to maturity. An infant, he 
 is the most ignorant and helpless of beings, not even 
 endowed with the instinct of the brute ; a mere inert, 
 and almost impassive germ, which under this great law 
 of his progression, is destined to far outstrip all his anima- 
 ted compeers of earth, to display a spark of Deity, to 
 measure worlds and span the intervening voids ; ulti- 
 mately to leap, disembodied, the barriers of earth, break 
 through the confines of time, and become the denizen 
 of an immortal heaven, with new developments of 
 might and magnificence, and powers of expansion and 
 progression, as boundless as the roll of eternal years ; 
 collectively, in his mighty advancement in science and 
 civilization, his rapid progress in social condition, the 
 extent and solidity, safety and protection of governmen- 
 tal compacts, the diifusion of constitutional reforms, 
 and all the ameliorating influences incidental to, and 
 resulting from, the improvements of science. And in 
 all this progress, personally and socially, man is him- 
 self made the active instrument of his own reforms, his 
 own progress, improvements and emoluments. They 
 do not voluntarily come upon him, reposing in ease 
 and indolence. 
 
 Franklin, Lardner, Kepler and Laplace were not 
 born such; their knowledge, erudition and philosophy 
 were not voluntary gifts of Providence, but were ac- 
 quired by incessant eifort, assiduous study, and faithful 
 toil and vigilance. " Eternal vigilance is the price of 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 141 
 
 liberty/' said Jefferson ; eternal vigilance is the price of 
 all progress, says science. And though some men are 
 born and grow up with stronger minds, as with stronger 
 bodies, than others, yet universal man, in every state, 
 station and condition, is emphatically the carver of his 
 own lortune, the architect of his own destiny under 
 the mysterious providences of nature. 
 
 The constitutions of England and America are not 
 the gratuities of fate, but the legitimate result of a 
 moral progress, effectuated by the labor of enlightened 
 mind. Again, if tlie longevity of man has been regu- 
 larly decreasing since his inhabitation of earth, when 
 will it reach the point of an hour, or no existence at 
 all? What the cause of his deterioration in length of 
 life until about the fifteenth century, and then the re- 
 action? The instability of government, the wide ex- 
 tent and almost universality of ignorance, of insecurity, 
 idolatry, and superstition ; and these are certainly suf- 
 ficient to entail the most fatal results. That the lon- 
 gevity of man, until within a few generations back, 
 had been degenerating regularly, is in strict accordance 
 with his historic biographies ; and that for J:he last few 
 generations he has fully maintained his longevity, is 
 also of historic record. Xow what is the cause of this 
 reaction? And were it not for this salutary, saving 
 reaction, exerted upon man, he would inevitably have 
 degenerated into nothing. But since the effectual and 
 efficient evulgations of knowledge, in the beginning of 
 the sixteenth century, the concomitant diffusion of let- 
 ters and learning, the conquests of peaceful science in 
 lieu of bloody war; the rapid multiplication of books, 
 and the birth of science, man has been enabled to 
 
142 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 snatch himself from his own extermination, and rescue 
 earth from its threatened depopulation. During the 
 long dark night of a thousand years, man's habitual 
 occupation was Avar and mutual extirpation ; and his 
 prevailing religion taught him that the loss of life in 
 battle was a certain passport to the blissful halls of 
 Odin. During this thousand years knowledge was un- 
 known, or locked up in night, and darkness usurped 
 tlie dominion of day. Famine spread out the dark 
 shadow of its dread wing over the nations, and death 
 and desolation were winged upon the blast. Whole 
 towns and cities were depopulated, and provinces 
 brought to destruction. Is it strange that the average 
 duration of life should have been so abridged at this 
 dark epoch ? But since the rise of science in its purity 
 and splendor, winged with the elements, with all its 
 attendant blessings of wisdom, peace, science, commerce 
 whitening the water, as civilization gilds the land, new 
 dements and adjuncts, evolved of social comfort and 
 progress, new edibles for man's sustentation discovered 
 and transported, stability, consolidation of States and 
 Governments, with the sceptre of peace waving as the 
 trident of empire, and protection, progress, pojiulation, 
 the insignia of his bannered march ; is it strange the 
 average life of man should be again extended? Nay, 
 when we consider the late wonderful developments in the 
 science of electricity, the most sublime science of the human 
 sold, as it is, in all probability, the elemental essence of 
 all ethereal, spiritual creations, from the God-head doion, 
 and the all-pervading element of Nature, it"is reasonable 
 to hope that man will yet be enabled, under the guid- 
 an(!C ot his God and the design of Providence to work 
 
. PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 143 
 
 out his own immortality in a world renovated and re- 
 stored to its ])ristine eden. Providence, as we have 
 seen, Morks by means, and has made man the instru- 
 ment of his own ameliorations ; why not make him the in- 
 strument of effecting his own restitution, and the restitu- 
 tion of his world? Fhilosophy already points her finger 
 to the subtle cigency of electricity as a universally dijfused 
 fluid and all-pervading element of the universe of mind 
 and matter. And though we are as yet but in the al- 
 phabet of this most magnificent and boundless science, 
 we can even now make the bodies of the departed 
 frown, weep, or smile in death, excite the limbs and 
 muscles into various action, and almost revitalize the 
 cold clay. We have seen the sick and the suffering 
 healed and restored and eased in an instant by this 
 invisible fluid. Indeed, the boundless universe, as well 
 as the complex machine of man, especially his nervous 
 system, in all its minute and mysterious ramifications, 
 which is nothing else than his psychological connection 
 with matter, which is nothing else than electrical or- 
 ganization, is all under the predominating influence 
 »nd control of this mighty and mysterious element o) 
 essence, in its vastly various modifications.* And the 
 
 TIME MAY COIME, WHEN MAN, CLIMBING STEP BY STEP 
 THE ABSTRUSE ALTITUDES OF THIS MIGHTY PHILOSO- 
 PHY, WILL BE ENABLED TO UNLOCK AND LOOK INTO 
 THE SECRET RECESSES OF JePIOVAH's GREAT LABORA- 
 TORY OF LIFE, AND HAND IN HAND WITH SCIENCE, 
 THE PROGRESS AND PERFECTION OF MIND AND 
 MORALS, CO-OPERATIVE, COTEMPORANEOUS AND CO- 
 EXTENSIVE WITH HIS Divine Revelations shall. 
 
 DEVELOP THE DESTINIES ORDAINED BY HIS CrEATOS 
 *.7 
 
144 PHILOSOPHY OP LIFE. 
 
 FOR THE WORLD, shall stay disease, expel sin and hatred 
 implant piety and love, and by the direction of Providence, 
 weave out again his lost and tattered garments of im- 
 mortality. What is this but the millenium? What 
 is the millenium but prophetic Revelation? And are 
 we not evidently drifting to its consummation ? Rather, 
 are ive not working to this end f If so, is it not a proof 
 of the prophetic inspiration of Revelation? Earth 
 may yet be renovated and restored, and made a fit 
 heaven for the good and the true; and man himself, 
 as he is ever made the instrument of all his own amelior- 
 ations, may be made the instrument of this, his last and 
 mighty consummation, through the means of this univer- 
 sal, ethereal and omnipotent agency, electricity, the philos- 
 ophy of all mind, and all matter, and all life on earth 
 find everyiohere ; aye, the great philosophy of God! Then 
 for the resurrection ! when Revelation shall have ac- 
 complished its mission — what a sound breaks upon the 
 ravished ear ; vvdiat a scene bursts upon the enraptured 
 vision of fancy ! Father, mother, loved and long-lost 
 friends awakening into life, and coming forth again to 
 ciasp the ^rm of love that never more shall break! 
 Verily, the echoes -of Odin's halls are hushed^ the 
 charms of Thor have departed, and the virgins of the 
 Valhallah have lost their fascinations. Verily, the 
 mighty fabric of mythology, that so long spread its 
 desolating shadow over the nations; that stupendous 
 temple in which the spirits of superstition offered in- 
 cense, and ignorance run riot; that vast structure, built 
 of human bones and cemented .by their blood, beside 
 which Tamerlane's pyramid of seventy thousand human 
 skulls is as nothing ; this mighty coUossus, which so 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 145 
 
 long has stood the tempests of time and flourished in 
 its whirlwinds, is crumbling into ruins. The fiery 
 lightnings and thunder-bolts of heaven have scathed 
 its grey summit, the earthquake roll of revolution has 
 s"\vept its hoary base, yet it stood and triumphed in the 
 storm ; commotion was its preservative element ; and 
 the roll of revolution its loved melody. But this Rev- 
 elation of true and eternal God has tranquilized the 
 troubled elements, has stilled the tempest, disarmed 
 the whirlwiud, and whispered peace, purity and love 
 into the ears of the moral tornado, in which that fabric 
 "flourished ; has shot light athwart its dark and dismal 
 dungeons, has encircled its pinnacle in sunshine, in- 
 vested the whole structure in a heavenly influence, tmd 
 lo ! it crumbles into bitter ashes ! Is not this a triumph 
 and a conquest? Let history answer!" These adum- 
 brated vaticinations, aye, direct prophecies without 
 ambiguous symbols, Avith no professions of inspiration , 
 U'ere penned, be it remembered, before I knew anything 
 of the spiritnal philosophy, as some of you are av/are. 
 True I had read newspaper accounts of spiritualism as 
 a strange illusion among some people in that hot-bed 
 of hallucination and frenzied fanaticism, in the Northern 
 States — and good has come out of Nazareth — but knew 
 nothing of it as worthy the name of science, and only 
 regarded it with contempt. I was first led to investi- 
 gation by a course of lectures which I heard delivered 
 in the city of Galveston in 1858 by Thomas Gales 
 Forster, nephew of Mr. Gales of the National Intelli- 
 gencer. It was as a mere pastime to spend a leisure 
 evening that I attended his first lecture, at which I 
 found but a small audience. When I went home and 
 
146 PHILOSOPHY OP LIFE. 
 
 retired for the niglit I could not rest nor sleep, so 
 deeply impressed was I, and felt disposed to write an 
 editorial for the next morning papers, calling the atten- 
 tion of the citizens to his magnificent eloquence that 
 they, too, might enjoy it with myself. I had to get 
 up, get the candle and light it myself; get my writing 
 tackle (portable desk), and waited upon myself all 
 through without disturbing any one, contrary to my 
 usual custom, as Ave always had a young servant at 
 hand to wait upon me in such cases. After inditing 
 the article I again laid down and rested and slept com- 
 posedly and quietly. I will read the article — it is 
 short — together with the prefatory remarks made by 
 the editor of the " Galveston News :" " Professor 
 Forster delivered his first lecture last night, and e 
 liear the most unbounded applause bestowed on him 
 by those who were present as having far surpassed in 
 his power of eloquence all efforts of elocution ever be- 
 fore witnessed by them. Such is the testimony of all. 
 We append the following testimonial from one of the 
 most intelligent among our citizens whose initials will 
 doubtless sufficiently desigaate the writer. He will 
 -•allowed to be a good judge of true eloquence." 
 
 Editors Ne7os: Allow me to say that Mr. Forster's 
 effort last night for intense eloquence and majestic sub- 
 limity — and I don^t express more than half my feel- 
 ings, my judgment, my soul — was the most splendid 
 lecture, the most eloquent oration, the most magnificent 
 effort of human intellect and god-like grandeur that 
 ■ever blazed before my mental vision or thrilled the 
 tendrils of my heart. Immortality and glory, borne 
 .upon philosophy^, towered as the theme from the chil- 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 147 
 
 dreii of the earth to the God of the heavens. I don't 
 know tlie man, never saw him before, nor does he know 
 me. Woukl that he might speak every night and all 
 night. O, the sublime^strides of the soaring soul to- 
 ward the eternal God and his angel immortalities! 
 The discriminating editor of the "News" with his 
 large experience, wdien he said the other day that the 
 most eloquent lecture he ever heard fell from Mr. Fors- 
 ter's lips, said a great deal and yet he said nothing. 
 The pages of human history filled with the eloquence 
 of ages, from Cicero to Clay, from Massillon to ]NrafEit. 
 not stopping to look away down upon the pigmy, piping 
 preachers of the times, who stick like blue mud to the 
 bright wheels of religious progress — the pages of hu- 
 man eloquence I say, are filled and yet are blank. Like 
 the morning sun just risen from his eastern couch, 
 dissipating the fogs of night and robing the earth in 
 radiance, Mr. Forster rises and throws his thoughts of 
 light like a morning rainbow from the animal to the 
 angel world. The vestal fires that burn upon the 
 altars of eternity seem kindled in his bosom, and he 
 it breathes the flame into the hearts of iiis heareii 
 If I had to characterize in three words his overwhelm- 
 ing eloquence, composed as it is of philosophy and rea- 
 son, argument and ellocution, brilliancy and beauty, 
 sublimity and majesty, prose and poetry, fancy ami 
 fluency, I should say power, power, power. 
 
 You may say I am utterly carried away; yes, and I 
 hope to continue to be thus led away from this death- 
 drifting stream of time, in the lofty soarings of the 
 Boul after the loved and lost, and the great, the good 
 and the glorious. [Signed] S. S. R." 
 
148 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 The lecturer spoke v^^ith his eyes closed, professing 
 to be the mere mouth-piece of the disembodied spirit 
 of an eminent English orator whose name I have for- 
 gotten. Since then I have studied spiritualism (so 
 called) under the lights of modern science; and I can 
 truly say, despite past prejudice, that, vfiiether true or 
 false, it is by far the grandest system of philosophy 
 ever promulgated on this planet within the range of all 
 historic record. 
 
 'No-w, in view of all the facts and truths I have pre- 
 sented, especially the great developments of late scien- 
 tific research in the domain of mind, is it wonderful 
 that we are able to hold communication -with our de- 
 parted friends near at hand ? if, indeed, they are still 
 living? And when Ave consider, in this connection, 
 another scientific truth, viz^ that if we leave our orb 
 and its immediate environs in order to imagine any lo- 
 cation beyond the range of astronomical bodies as 
 abodes for our spirit friends, it vrould place the locality 
 at a distance, according to Herschel, requiring nineteen 
 hundred thousand years for souls to travel, moving 
 with the velocity of light two hundred thousand miles 
 in a second. Our first parents Adam and Eve have by 
 this time only got one-three-hundred-and-sixteenth 
 part of the way to heaven, though they started early 
 in the morning of creation, (by the Mosiac record) and 
 have been traveling v\^ith the speed of light ever since. 
 They have accomplished only 6000, and have yet 
 1,894,000 before them to get there. If we infer such a 
 general and distant place of reception for spirits, then 
 in that celestial emporium every soul from all the my- 
 riad of ^yorlds must congregate. "Far more rational 
 
nilLOSOPHY OF LIFE. 149 
 
 would it not seem," says Prof, Hare, " that our heaven 
 should be associated with our own native planet, in the 
 vrclfarc, the past history and future prospects of v/hich 
 the souls who were bora upon it must take pre-eminent 
 interest." What a delightful, what a happy thought is 
 this, that immediately after our dissolution, which 
 really is the date of our true nativity, our grand natal 
 day into life unencumbered, like our first birth from a 
 more encumberhd and confined life to one more en- 
 larged and unencumbered, that, instead of being trans- 
 ported to re note and unknown places of incalculable 
 distances, we can be near by and look back at friend:^ 
 depositing our cold casket, now tenantless,. in the tomb — 
 the casket of clay v*4iicli v\^e so lately inhabited, and 
 through which as a necessary material medium we 
 moved among miterial things in a sphere of physical 
 materials; that from thenceforward and forever after, 
 without end, we may continue to linger around the 
 loved localities of our infantile associations — the old 
 homestead, our native hill, the rocky spring, the purl- 
 ing brook, the tall pines moaning in the wind, the 
 tough tupelo from which we made our boyish tooth- 
 brush, the stately poplars, the umbrageous elm, the 
 stalwart oak, or early, sweet and shady maple, where 
 we passed the happy boyhood time of our earliest years ; 
 that we can always bo personally present with our 
 loved children and friends, participating in their pleas- 
 ures and rejoicing in their* progress, or sympathizing 
 in their sorrows and mourning — though only for a 
 brief season — over their moral miseries which must 
 accompany their moral retrogression, which also must 
 of necessity be only temporary, for God's works all 
 
150 PHILOSOPHY OP LIFE. 
 
 grow upward/ with occasional temporary retrograde 
 movements, which in His boundless destiny of eternity 
 only amount to momentary retardations. I avow it, 
 that this faith, or rather philosophy, that my cherished 
 and revered friends gone before, can be and are pres- 
 ent to witness with grief, .or even the slightest shade of 
 sorroY>^, my every action of sin or of wrong, has the 
 o-reatest power to restrain me in every impulse of pas- 
 sion or temptation to sin, of all the influences and 
 agencies of which I am cognizant, or which have ever 
 been brought to bear upon my moral actions. It is to 
 me a shield of celestial temper. The v/ish that we have 
 often heard of being able to visit the. earth again in 
 one hundred or five hundred years, is to be gratified 
 every hour, every year, every century and forever. 
 That from a contiguous standpoint in eternity we can 
 witness the progress and improvement of our children 
 and grand children and posterity through all future 
 generations on the initial inceptive plane of earth below 
 us, as erstwhile we witnessed their bodily growth for a 
 few years in the clay. This is a glorious thought, and 
 Modern science with triimj)Gt tongiiG proclaims it? 
 truth. But we anticipate our subject. To return in 
 order. 
 
 And more especially when we take into consideration 
 the growing doubt and disbelief in the miraculous 
 phase of the Bible religion, particularly among the iu- 
 telligent and scientific. Indeed the materialistic phi- 
 losophy, to-wit : that spirit is the result of material or- 
 ganism ai^d perishes with it, is rapidly deracinating the 
 old Christian faith. And where's the wonder ? What 
 truly scientific man can swallow whole — to use a com- 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 151 
 
 moil but expressive phrase, that mythic old book with 
 all its crudities, cruelties and absurdities'? I don't 
 mean the cardinal truths of man's immortality, the 
 conditions of future reward and punishment, love, 
 truth, peace, charity, spirit communion, etc., as incul- 
 cated by Jesus; as founded in philosophy and approved 
 by science; but all that vast mass of animal rubbish, 
 historic flilsehood, talmudic fable and mythic supersti- 
 tion. Let me cite a few out of the mass of these fables, 
 contradictions, absurdities and bloody edicts. It dates 
 the creation 5866 years ago : whereas we know from 
 ffeoloo-ical facts that this leno-th of time would not fill 
 up the smallest period in the successive epochs of crea- 
 tion. It says light was created the .first day, and the 
 sun on the fourth day. The Jews are represented to 
 be a pastoral and predial people, the most fickle, un- 
 stable and capricious, always seeking after strange gods; 
 whereas all other history and our own observation 
 make them just the reverse, a commercial people, the 
 most stable, stubborn, tenacious and pertinacious on 
 earth — in fact this is their predominating character- 
 istic. The old bible defender can't controvort or clear 
 away this inconsistency; he can only say the Jewish 
 character has changed. But that will invalidate one 
 of his main arguments in support of the bible, for the 
 Jews are appealed to as a standing immol)ile monument 
 of its truth. But if they have been changed by the 
 (Hirse, the curse has proved a blessing, for it has riveted 
 them to the one living God, instead of roving after the 
 many idols as in the days of Moses. In the first chap- 
 ter of Genesis after He had finished the creation of the 
 world and man, He pronounced them " very good." 
 
152 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 Yet in the sixth chapter, He repented having made 
 man. And St. James says He is "without variableness 
 or the shadow of turning." It pronounces a curse 
 through all time upon the whole maternal portion of 
 the human family, but science has negated this proph- 
 ecy and disarmed the cruel curse of rending, racking 
 pains and throes — and every mother should thank Drs. 
 Morton and Jackson for chloroform. I was just about 
 to predict, but as quickly remember that the would-be 
 prediction is already history, to-wit : the use of this or 
 any other anesthetic agent for this special purpose will 
 be denounced by the ignorant bigot as subverting God's 
 law in this behalf, pronouncing a special curse on wo- 
 man, inasmuch as she was the first who brought death 
 into the world and all our woe. • I have already heard 
 this denunciation. 
 
 The Christian Prof. Hitchcock says : "Tlus intro- 
 duction of death into the world and the specific char- 
 acter of that death described in scripture as the conse- 
 quence of sin, are the next points where geology 
 touches the subject of religion. Here, too, the general 
 iiiterprecation of scripture is at variance with the facts 
 of geology, which distinctly testify to the occurrence of 
 death among animals long before the existence of man. 
 Shall geology here also be permitted to modify our ex- 
 position of the bible ?" Again : " It is now generally 
 agreed that geology cannot detect traces of such a 
 deluge as the scriptures describe," etc. 
 
 The old dispensation which men yet worship as the 
 inspiration of God, inculcates cruelty, murder, treachery 
 and all manner of the blackest turpitude known in the 
 calendar of crime; and all connived at and even ap- 
 
PHIIvOSOPHY OF LIFE. 153 
 
 proved under tlie direet sanction and even instructions 
 of their God: Instance the stoning to death by the 
 Jews of their children for disobedience, the massacre of 
 the whole nation of the Midianites, with the reservation 
 of the virgins tor violation by the bloody murderers of 
 their kindred; the outrageous fraud and deception on 
 the part of Jacob ; swindling the Egyptians by borrow- 
 ing their ornaments with the intention of stealing them. 
 Saith S'anuel, the pope of Judea, "Now go and smite 
 Amalck and utterly destroy all that they have and 
 si)arc them not; but slay both man and woman and 
 infant and suckling babe/' etc., for a wrong done by 
 their ancestors some hundred years before. God is 
 truth ; yet in 1st King xxii, he is represented as em- 
 ploying a lying spirit to allure and lead Ahab through 
 lies to his ceitain destruction; thus proving by Bible 
 authority that there are lying spirits, which I've no doubt 
 is true; and that God sanctions lying, which I've no 
 doubt is not true. Compare the holy Moses as lawgiver 
 and examplar of morality, with the pag<in Solon ; and 
 the Christian Abraham with the ethnic Roman Virgin- 
 ius, especially in reference to their treatment and con- 
 ception of the chastity and purity of their wives and 
 daughters. And yet Abraham is said to be the father 
 of the faithful. David, the great king and sweet singer 
 in Israel, author of the Psalms, was an adulterer, u 
 polygamist and a murderer, though the high moral tone 
 of some of his latest'productions deserves commendation 
 and indicate decided refornuition ; Solomon, author of 
 Ecclesiastes and Proverbs, was also an adulterer, sensu- 
 alist and polygamist, and his canonised song is a dis- 
 gusting specimen of concupiscence, sensuality and ob- 
 
154 PPITLOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 scenity ; and even Mary Magdalene, according to some 
 biblical critics^ was not sans reproach; butifsnchbe 
 the fact I am satisfied she thoroughly repented and re- 
 formed before' or when she became so devoted a disciple 
 of the pure minded and virtuous Jesus. 
 
 Josephus speaks of prominent and patriotic Israel- 
 ites Corah, Zimri, and others publicly denouncing Mo- 
 ses as a usurper and ambitious despot. It is also said 
 in the Bible that God tempted Abraham ; St. James 
 says God tempts no man. It says Moses and the sev- 
 enty elders saw God who appeared also to Abimelech ; 
 St. John and St. Paul both say no man hath seen God. 
 The old bible commands that " there shall not be found 
 among them one who consulteth familiar spirits/' which 
 has been quoted against spiritualism by its orthodox op- 
 ponents, in direct contradiction to the injunction in 
 Kings just cited. And St. Paul, St. John, el. al. of the 
 New Testament command us to " desire spiritual gifts," 
 " try the spirits," " quench not the spirit," that we 
 " shall see the angels ascend and descend ;" that " the 
 gods come to us in the form of man," &c. Solomon says 
 " men and beasts have one breath ;" " as one dietli so 
 dieth the other — all things come alike to all : there is 
 one event to the righteous and to the wicked." (Ecc. 
 iii and ix.) It also says there is nothing new under the 
 sun ; yet it says the rainbow is a new creation hung 
 out as a sign that there shall be no more flood. It says 
 what has been shall be again ; yet it also says there shall 
 never be another flood. Even Jesus is represented as 
 saying " Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on 
 earth? I tell you nay : but rather division. I am not 
 t'onie to send peace but a sword. For I come to set a 
 
PHTI.OSOPHY OF LIFE. 155 
 
 man at variance ag-ainst his fatlier, dHnghter, son," &c. 
 (Math. X.) — wliich has proved literally and terribly 
 too true. And then his utterances to the very contrary, 
 which are truly worthy of inspiration. But who fol- 
 lows them? who takes no thought of the morrow? 
 what he shall eat, or v.-ear? who, when asked for one 
 gives two? when smitten on one cheek turns the other? 
 Loves his enemies, never resents an injury, loves his 
 neighbor as himself, returns good for evil, and bears 
 all indignities and wrongs without resentment, but 
 with meekness, forgiveness and charity? Not one. 
 They, his followers, rely alone upon the unreliable myth 
 of futile fiiith. And can it be for a moment believed 
 that a good and gracious God would poise an endless 
 heaven and an endless hell for his children upon the 
 mere ftict or act of their faith ? On this subject I will 
 introduce a little allegory I wrote some time ago, but 
 never published, now, appropos : 
 
 FOR THE BRETHREN OF CREEDS. 
 
 Faith and all her credulous children have for a long 
 time been preaching u]) a doctrine that there are t^yo 
 other countries with certain fruits away off' in the dim 
 distance of hereafter. One of said places is on the other 
 side of Jordan, through whose boisterous waters tliey 
 sav, we have to pass in order to reach it, the home of 
 Abraham and Sarai. The other country some say, is 
 across the river Styx, the regions of Pluto and Proser- 
 pine. Both these places bear peculiar fruits. True, no 
 one of them has ever seen these places or tasted their 
 fruits, but then quoth they, it is a-ll just so because it is 
 so. And of all their millions tliat have passed that way 
 not one has ever returned and reported.. All earth's 
 
156 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 children, they solemnly asseverate, will go down across 
 the Styx into onter darkness, where brimstone burns on 
 grated gridirons to fry them for a carnival of fallen 
 angels, who will feast forever on their fat and flesh, or 
 rather the delightful sight of their frying flesh ; unless 
 they, or we, the said children of earth, adopt certain 
 manners — and they vary very much in the manner of 
 these manners — the main one of which is faith, faith, 
 that is to believe it all and nothing else. And what do they 
 believe? They believe what the church -believes : and 
 what does the church believe? It believes w^hat they 
 believe : and what do they and the church together be- 
 lieve? They both believe the same thing. 
 
 " For by faith are ye saved, and that not ot your- 
 selves, it is the gift of God through the Lord Jesus 
 Christ." " I say, Mr. Poodles, what makes the boat go?" 
 " Why you see this thingumbob goes down through 
 that hole and fastens the jigmaree, and that connects 
 with the crinkum cramkum ; and then that man he's 
 the engineer, you know, turns the circumlocutionary 
 gennflection which impinges on the hydrostatic valvular 
 pendulum, and they all shove along, and the boat goes 
 ahead." Some say that in order to escape this terrible 
 Styx, and reach the blessed banks that loom up on 
 the other side of Jordan, you must take water, (immer- 
 sion,) others that you must g<^i through rain, (sprink- 
 ling,) some again that you can't go at all by yourself, 
 but must be packed on the back of a priest; that he 
 alone can put us through safe ; and still others that your 
 iieart has to be radically changed by a special fiat of the 
 reigning Jehovah from his distant throne on the apex 
 of the universe. There is also another class who preach 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF I.TFE. 157 
 
 that some and far the greater number will land across 
 Styx in utter darkness, in spite of faith or anything 
 else, that the Creator has so decreed it before the first 
 block was laid for the temple of creation ; and that a 
 select few Avill be by the same decree safely landed 
 across Jordan, in spite of will or wish, why or where-, 
 fore. 
 
 In short, some preach universal salvation, but jn-ac- 
 tice nothing to prove it; while others preach almost as 
 universal damnation, and j)rove their preaching by 
 their practice. 
 
 Now, the mighty developments of modern science — 
 and science w^e know can never mislead, for it traces 
 the tracks of Deity and follows in the footsteps of the 
 creator — have shown to the progressive intellects of 
 the children of reason, that a great portion of the creed 
 of faith and her brood is utterly futile and fallacious, 
 dogmas of ignorance and mere myths of the past. And 
 old Faith began to grow weak as she felt her creeds 
 crumbling at the touch of science, and all her children, 
 especially those that suck the paps of their fat mother, 
 were taken with a trembling. Xow it came to pass at 
 this conjuncture, that Truth lent her light and science 
 was enal)led to trace a straight track to tliis great un- 
 ki^own hereafter, and jirove positively by those laws 
 and workings of nature's creator, which she had already 
 known, that it is not dim and distant, but bright and 
 near at hand ; not mysterious and inexplicable, but 
 natural and philosophical ; that it is not a myth, but a 
 truth; that there is no sulphurous Styx, nor lutarious 
 Jordan, to engulf forever the majority of mortals; that 
 there are not dififierent and diverse roads, nor cold creeds. 
 
15S PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 nor hot hells, nor formal feiths of liuman dogmas; but 
 one natural, straight, clear, unchanging, track through 
 which all earth's children easily pass into its portals ; 
 and to crown it all, the rationale of the whole trip is ex- 
 plained and proven on the known principles of immu- 
 table philosophy. Bat what thanks have Faith and 
 her followers awarded science for this mighty succor in 
 this their trying time of need and sore travail? Ridi- 
 cule, sneers, curses, anathemas, excommunications, aye, 
 their old burning brimstone and sulphurous flame. 
 Now Reason, the enlightened umpire and impartial ar- 
 biter, wishes to know the rationale of this black ingrat- 
 itude and bitter hostility. Is it to continue the dark 
 clouds of their mythic creeds in order to keep the flesh- 
 pots full and feed and fatten the rapacious ravens of the 
 human soul? Or is it to furnish, by Faith and her 
 creed-cursed children, proof positive of the necessity of 
 this future frying pan for earth's sorrowing children, 
 and if necessary for them, the pious, a fortiori, is it nec- 
 essary for all outsiders — ergo the brimstone world of 
 eternal torment is demonstrated! — to their supreme 
 satisfaction ! 
 
 Then all the dearest duties and desires and doctrines 
 of reason and science — and they are the mighty giants 
 of the age, yoked to the car of Truth to crush out error 
 — are decidedly and radically inconoclastic, and so must 
 continue until the ignorance, superstition and hypoc- 
 risy of old stall-fed theology, and his crimson creeds, 
 shall, like murky midnight, melt into the morning of 
 light, love and felicity. If this makes me an iconoclast 
 I should glory in the iconoclasm." 
 
 But if Jesus intended those pure precepts, already 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 159 
 
 enumerated, to be practiced by liis followers alone — 
 and without extra pretension as a philologist, by every 
 principle of hermeneutics, we are so to understand them 
 — what would be the result to them individually and 
 collectively? Immediate ruin manifestly to every one 
 and all of them. On the other hand, if he intended 
 them for the whole human family, and they should be 
 thus universally practiced, they then become in theory 
 a splendid system of ethics, worthy of their illustrious 
 author. But Jesus is worsliiped as a God, or rather 
 the God; yet he says, "Why callest thou me good? 
 There is none good but one, that is God." — (Matt. xix). 
 " Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only 
 shalt thou serve." " That there is but one God and he 
 is .in heaven — that it is not his to give, but his 
 father's," etc. 
 
 The splendid Milton is so often cited as the pink of 
 Protestant orthodoxy, that I should mention here his 
 posthumous state papers published in 1823, prove him 
 to have become decidedly Arian in his opinions on this 
 point; that the character of Jesus was moulded in the 
 most perfect model of human nature, the beauty, har- 
 mony, and symmetry of his proportions, constituting 
 the most perfect paragon of humanity that ever existed ; 
 but not God. And what sensible, scientific man of this 
 day can believe otherwise? Milton lived a century 
 ahead of his contemporaries. That Jesus was a most 
 perfect harmonic man, with the highest spiritual en- 
 dowments, it is only necessary to state, for those who 
 even doubt these transcendent merits, that from the 
 Acta Pilati transmitted to Rome, Tiberius Csesar, the 
 emperor, was influenced to suggest to the Senate the 
 8 
 
160 ' PHILOSOPHY OF IjWIL 
 
 propriety of admitting him among the number of GodS) 
 and sent his own prerogative vote^ in favor of the meas- 
 ure. But Jesus was not our God and Creator^ for all 
 this and m'uch more, for all his splendid preceptions 
 and wonderful revelations and apocalypse and exalted 
 practices; he was our great, gifted, spiritualized 
 brother of humanity and illustrious exemplar of social 
 life. 
 
 Jesus also says to Peter, " Thou art the rock on which 
 I build my church ;" and after a few minutes again^ 
 says to Peter, " Get thee behind me, Satan, thou art an 
 offence to me." The old Roman law, if I recollect right- 
 ly, required two witnesses to substantiate the allegations 
 .of a party. Jesus, alluding to this, oifers himself as 
 -one of the two witnesses, to prove his own affirmations. 
 Does this not indicate weakness or at least human fallibil- 
 ity ? It frequently inculcates and it is the general inter- 
 pretation of both Jew and Cliristian, with some modern 
 exceptions, that future punishment is eternal or ever- 
 lasting, yet we find the contrary taught in Isa. Ivii. 16; 
 Rom. viii. 21 ; 1st Cor. xv, 22 ; Phil. ii. 9 ; Col. i. 20 
 1st Tim. ii. 1 ; Rev. xxi. And the Christ himself say?. 
 '" And I if I be lifted up from the earth will draw ah 
 men unto me." Per contra, we find everlasting puni- 
 tion taught in Isa. xxxiii. 14; 2nd Thess. i; and the 
 same Christ says, in Matt, xxv., "the wicked shall go 
 into everlasting punishment and the righteous Into life 
 eternal." But in Jude, the word " everlasting" is used 
 to last only until the judgment, the great assize. John 
 the Baptist proclaimed Jesus the Messiah immediately 
 on his advent; yet when in prison, near the end of his 
 >eareer, he sent two of his disciples to ask Jesus and 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LiFK. 161 
 
 ascertain if he was tlie Messiah. Jesus hays, " he that 
 is ijot against us is for us/' Luke ix. 50 ; and ih. xi 23, 
 " he that is not with me is against me." And again, in 
 Matt. X. 5, Jesus commands his apostles to " go not into 
 the way of the Gentiles, nor the Samaritans," etc., and in 
 ih. xxviii. 19, he tells them^o "go into all nations," etc., 
 How can the atrabiliary de\ otee of incarnated Deity,God. 
 manliest in the flesh, as they call it, reconcile these flat 
 contradictions ? How could Jesus be of the lineage of 
 David, when Joseph, said to be of this line, is repre- 
 sented not to be his father tliough the husband of his 
 motlier, who wss also not of this house ? As a speci- 
 men of the loose and unreliable relations of the gospel 
 writers, and their many discrepancies and incongruities, 
 the locality of the denunciations against the Pharisees 
 and Sadducees is given in Gallilee, when they would 
 be appropriate alone to Jerusalem, as these sects flour- 
 ished there instead of Gallilee. And so on throughout 
 this great chapter of biblical religion, which men vene- 
 rate and worship as the direct inspiration and miracu- 
 lous dictation of the great God in person ; as the 
 Infallible and immaculate oracles of our heavenly father. 
 In charity, however, if not justice, it is my duty to 
 state, that many of those who pretend to preach and 
 expound this thaumatui'gical book have never read, 
 much less studied it through entire ; and a large major- 
 ity of those who believe and follow Avill confess that 
 they have never read it through and of course never 
 pretended to study it. This is in extenuation of their 
 wrong judgment, not of their presumption. As for 
 Joshua's arresting the sun (or the earth), and the whale 
 swallowing Jonah, or Jonah swallowing the whale, and 
 the midnight darkness and flames of fire in the in term- 
 
162 t>HILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 iiiable hell, (can darkness exist amid bright and burn- 
 ing flames ?), etc., I pass them by as the most incredible 
 of all its incredibilia. But because we cannot explain 
 or account for them on any known principles of science, 
 their acatalapsie or incomprehensibility, is not good rea- 
 son that we should utterly reject them, for we do not 
 yet know all of nature's philosophy, nor the half; we 
 are just entering the ante-chamber, the vestibule, of her 
 mighty magnific temple. What is an atom ? Of what 
 and how is it composed ? We know its relation to the 
 universe is boundless; every atom is regnant in its 
 sphere and pregnant in the power (^ its influence. 
 There is not a jar but shakes the solid globe, and every 
 movement makes it tremble in its equipoise; there is 
 not a sound but undulates throughout its elastic atmos- 
 pheric mantle, and every note vibrates an echo through- 
 out this mighty organ. We know, too, that every 
 atom is endued with polarities, electricity or magnet- 
 ism ; beyond this we know nothing. 
 
 What causes the planets to revolve in ellipses instead 
 fof circles? I am not ignorant of the accepted theory 
 «nf centrifugal impulsion and centripetal attraction, aJ- 
 .ternately preponderating ; but this, if considered to be 
 ipermanent, is fallacious, as could easily be demonstrated 
 were it necessary to my subject. But to return, I can 
 not believe these marvellous supernatural absurdities 
 penned by ignorant men, or perverted by corrupt trans- 
 lators and supervenient interpolations, knowing as I do 
 know the ignoraeee^ superstition and ijioral depravity 
 ■of mankind, and especially priestkind. I might as 
 well believe the wonderful stories of the "Cid Campea- 
 ►dor," the '' Incomparable Lord " of the Spaniards. A 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 163 
 
 history, if not " sacred," at least as credible by its free- 
 dom from tlie mar\iellous and unnatural, as the other 
 is by its fullness of the same, informs us of his almost 
 supernatural victories when alive, and after death and 
 burial, the exhumation of his body, placing it upon his 
 old war-horse, in front of his army, and leading to 
 victory ; that a saint came down from heaven to lead 
 the Spaniards against the Moors ; that a blazing cross 
 lingered in the sky above their contending hosts; that 
 the sun stood still to give them time in the slaughter of 
 their enemies, etc. To deny the possibility of a mira- 
 cle, past, present, or future, no matter by whom re- 
 corded, is not necessarily to deny all the phenomena' 
 thus invested, or attributed to miracle by the ignorant 
 and credulous ; for example, the resurrection of Christ 
 after an inhumation of three days, as this comes within 
 the possibility of a natural philosophy, whose occult 
 elements are now being developed by science ; or his 
 instantaneous restoration of sight to the blind, which 
 is now frequently done ; or the appearance of the spirit 
 of Samuel to Saul, through the witch (medium) of En- 
 dor, as this is now a common occurrence, with a patent 
 philosophy ; or Moses leading the children of Israel 
 dry-shod across the Red Sea, as Napoleon Bonaparte 
 did the same thing at the same place three thousand 
 years later — from a now well-known etesian cause — 
 the prevalence of winds from a certain quarter render- 
 ing it entirely practicable. Among the wonderful 
 works performed by Christ, or rather Jesus, the most 
 " miraeulous'^ is that of raising Lazarus from the dead. 
 Now, if that could not have been, and if this can not 
 now be done by natural laws and on natural philosophy 
 
164 PHILOSOPHY OF T.TFfJ. 
 
 it never was done or performed at all. But it can thus 
 be done, and no doubt was perforiiied. Jesus said 
 " Lazarus was not dead, but sleepeth." Then when he 
 perceived his desciples understood him to mean a nat- 
 ural sleep, he corrected this false impression by saying- 
 " he is dead," As for the remark of Martha that de- 
 composition had commenced, having been dead four 
 days, it was onl}^ her opinion which proved incorrect. 
 We have many authenticated" cases of this kind on re- 
 cord. In the book of Kings it is stated' that Elisha 
 raised the dead, the vital functions having been sus- 
 pended however but a few hours. 
 
 Rev, Wm. Tennent, Presbyterian clergyman, of New 
 Jersey, lay dead (apparently) for three days and was 
 about to be buried, when he revived-. The wife of Mr, 
 Lancaster, first delegate from Washington Territory, 
 died (to all appearances) out on the Western plains, and 
 was brought on a litter by friendly Indians a distance 
 of three hundred miles to Fort Laramie, occupying 
 eight days, when on the completion of preparations for 
 her inhumation, she revived and recovered. Hon. Mr. 
 Osborne, military secretary to the British Indian mis- 
 sion, records a case of an Indian Fakir having lain en- 
 tombed ten months, and upon exhumation was resusci- 
 tated and restored to life and health. If I am not 
 mistaken this, author was witness to the whole proceed- 
 ing from beginning to end. This cataleptic condition 
 of trance, resembling hybernation of animals, in which 
 there is a total suspension of all physical and perhaps 
 spiritual dynamics, is and has been frequently over- 
 come by the power of will, of love, of magnetism, in 
 another organism operating upon the vmconscious and 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 105 
 
 iiegative subject ; just as asthma, asphyxia, catalepsy, 
 pleurisy, rheumatism, neuralgia, and all diseases both 
 acute and chronic, of short or long standing, are now 
 fi-eouently cured, and sometimes in a few minutes, when 
 all known therapeutic agents of the medical faculty 
 have failed ; and also as the most painful and danger- 
 ous capital cases in surgery are now performed with 
 facility, without pain, and with little hemorage and with 
 little inflammation ; all under the wonderful influence 
 of magnetism or vital electricity. 
 
 As this involves an iniportant part of the philosophy 
 of life, a brief explanation may be necessary, with a 
 little deviation from the general system of my subject. 
 All the physical functions, and the spiritual faculties 
 and the entire vital dynamics of the human machine, 
 are dependent on and under the control of magnetism 
 or vital electricity ; and as this is in redundancy or de- 
 ficiency, so is the character of disease. If not all (as 
 contended by some,) a large proportion of our diseases 
 originate from an unbalanced or disturbed condition of 
 this subtile fluid. As in excess, inflammations fol- 
 low, so a want of the proper quantum is followed by 
 •a want of vital action. This excess is removed or ab- 
 stracted by proper manipulations from a perfect and 
 harmonic magnetiztir, and the process is expedited by 
 the application of ammonia, vinegar, or water, as this 
 facilitates the passage of the superabundant electricity, 
 but not oil, or fat, or grease, as this obstructs. This 
 process is illustrated in Christ and his Apostles reliev- 
 ing the sick "by the laying on of hands," which was 
 done for several centuries, and is now a ver^^ com- 
 mon occurrence. By proper manipulations, I mean 
 
166 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 making the passes from the deranged point out- 
 wards, like magnetizing a piece of metal, for when 
 the direction is reversed a contrary result follows. 
 When there is a deficiency of this vital force, the 
 contact of a positive vigorous magnetizer will 
 impart the requisite amount and restore the proper 
 vitality, as exemplified in Elisha restoring the sus- 
 pended animation of the child apparently dead; with 
 many such cases on record, and also by the force of a 
 potent perfect ic'dl, as Christ restoring Lazarus, with 
 many similar facts well authenticated. 
 
 The splendid and j^hilosophic S. B. Britton, in his 
 magnificent Avork entitled " Man and his Relations," 
 (just published, 1865,) relates from a Memphis paper, 
 "' A married couple were on their way from New 
 Orleans up the river, when the husband sickened 
 and died. The bereaved widow landed at Memphis 
 with the remains, where she made arrangements for 
 the funeral. The form of her bosom friend was 
 about to be conveyed to the scene of its final repose, 
 but fond affection demanded the privilege of one 
 last, lingering look, and accordingly the lid was re- 
 moved from the coffin. Bending over the cold and 
 apparently lifeless form, she bathed the brow with her 
 scalding tears, and fervently kissed the frigid lips. In 
 this great struggle love triumphed over death. There 
 was one who had " slept " as long, and doubtless as pro- 
 foundly, as Lazarus ; but the Divine Spirit that ani- 
 mates all things — acting through the mediumship of a 
 frail woman — dissolved death's icy chains and set the 
 captive free. That man recovered, inspired with new 
 energy and gratitude to the Being in whose hand are 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 167 
 
 the issues of life and death." Again from the same 
 superb author : " The form of Lazarus was in a per- 
 fectly negative state; and a great physical, sj)iritual 
 and divine magnet, in the person and power of Jesus, 
 stood at the door of the sepulchre. The powers of the 
 Heavens, acting through the concentrated energies of 
 his mind and the subtle agents of the natural world, 
 established the necessary connection. Virtue descended 
 and went oui from Jesus to quicken the lifeless form. 
 The vital fluids began to circulate ; the life-giving 
 energy was transfused through all the veins aad ar- 
 teries; a subtile, all -communicating spirit ran along 
 the avenues of sensation, and the nerves moved like 
 the strings of an untuned lyre when they are 
 swept by a mighty wind. A loud voice re-echoed 
 through the cavern, and the sleeper awoke to walk 
 again with the living." How superior is this grand 
 philosophy to the blind infidel obstinacy that denies all 
 spirituality, past, present, or prospective, or to the weak 
 efforts of Renan, trying to throw doubt on the truth of 
 the Christian record. I dispute equally with the pro- 
 fessed infidel who would invalidate all spiritual record, 
 and with the professed Christian who would make all 
 " religion unnatural and all nature irreligious ; " and 
 all those who hear and may again think of me, I hope 
 will remember this. 
 
 Moreover, through psychometry, or clairvoyance, or 
 clairaudience, or some other means of clear perception, 
 more wonderful than, and as well authenticated as 
 these, disease is detected and described', perceived and' 
 prescribed for at a distance of hundreds of miles, with- 
 out the least previous knowledge, acquaintance, or hear- 
 8* 
 
168 PIIinOSOPHY OF IJFE. 
 
 say ; and correctly, too, as is attested by the success,. 
 when of long and nnsuccessful treatment by the old 
 profession. But all this is eifected through the laws 
 of nature — there is no other way to effect anything — 
 laws which we are just beginning to find out and un- 
 fold. No, (to resume) it is not the facts we deny, unless 
 in direct contravention to well known philosophy, but" 
 the miraculous phase of the facts ; nor are we on the 
 other hand necessarily committed to their affirmation. 
 Also, in this connection, the Bible saith somewhere 
 (Gen. ix. 6,) " Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man 
 shall his blood be shed;" that he who lives by the 
 sword shall perish by the sword ; that he who deals 
 violence to others, shall himself perish by the hand of 
 violence. 
 
 " There is a divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew 
 them how we will," said Shakespeare, who^ not as a poet, 
 but as an acute observer and profound philosopher had 
 no superior. I have heard old observant men say they 
 have often noticed that a violent man would generally 
 die by violence — viewing it as a righteous retribution ; 
 and also, that when one member of a devoted circle or 
 family dies, others are almost certain to follow very 
 soon ; and further, that the most amiable and lovely 
 are generally selected by death ; hence the old aphor- 
 ism " Death loves a shining mark." I believe this is 
 a prevailing opinion, whether derived from the Bible 
 or from experience, or from both. If this be true, it 
 has a philosophy, but if it has no philosophy it is false; 
 whether or not we understand the philosophy is 
 another question, Now as excarnated men or angels 
 can, and do in certain conditions, influence men in the 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 169 
 
 ilcsh to write iu any hand and speak in any tongue, 
 and perform any music on any instrument, all unknown 
 to them, and also move heavy, ponderable bodies, all 
 through a proper medium in rapport, isn't it in accord- 
 ance with the logic of other analogies and reasonable 
 to supjjose that the S2)irit of the murdered man can 
 find some unconscious medium through which to retal- 
 iate upon his violent murderer yet in the flesh? or the 
 excarnated loved member of a devoted circle find some 
 tractable unisonant medium, through whom as an un- 
 conscious instrumejit, to gather up ^o his own happy 
 abode some others of his loved jewels left behind him 
 in this plain of sorrows ? This is merely suggested as 
 a speculative hypothesis to verify through philosophy 
 these old cherished sentiments, and, if true, clear them 
 from the mist of miracle. 
 
 The devotees of the Bible say that it is so far above 
 and beyond human reason that they cannot pretend 
 to fathom, explicate or understand it; that reason is 
 not required, and must have nothing to do]^with its ex- 
 egesis in determining the question of its reception or re- 
 jection; but, with the deglutition of the anaconda, it 
 must be swallowed wholly, souUy and bodily as we find 
 it, without mastication of incisor or molar, without con- 
 coction of encephalon or viscera. But was not reason 
 the cause objectively and" subjectively of all their church 
 reformations ? And do they intentionally or ignorantly 
 set aside the words of the gentle Jesus, their very God, 
 "Why, even of yourselves, judge ye not what is 
 right?" (Luke xii.) 
 
 And don't they use reason, or try to use reason, in 
 expounding it ? Will they acknowledge no reason im 
 
170 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 their preaching ? And moreover, what is it that makes 
 them come to the conclusion to accept it without any 
 research of reason ? It is reason that prompts them to 
 reject reason. If they reject reason in explaining, why 
 accept reason in rejecting? They stultify themselves 
 in this whole subterfuge, as indeed they do in every 
 other. But, quoth the preacher^ " The Bible is true 
 because of the miracles which it records; (reason 
 enough to invalidate it in the mind of a philosopher)^ 
 "and these miracles are true because the Bible records 
 them." The Bible is true because St. Paul says so ; 
 and St. Paul is true because the Bible says so. Rev. 
 Mr. Mahan, "the intellectual giant," says, "Every 
 reader will agree with us in the assumption that the in- 
 corruptible God has never performed and never will 
 perform a miracle in attestation of that which is unreal 
 or untrue. A religion really and truly attested by di- 
 vine miracles must therefore be admitted to be true." 
 To which shallow subterftige Prof. Hare replies : " To 
 this very admissable truism, I add that an omnipotent 
 and prescient God could not have any occasion to per- 
 form miracles in attestation of any thing, since, by the 
 premises, his will must be carried out without miracles. 
 That any thing should, even for an instant, be contrary 
 to his will, is inconsistent with his foresight and om- 
 nipotency. It would be a miracle that any thing 
 counter to his will should exist." 
 
 The nest postulate of Mr. Mahan : " No religion 
 attested as true by divine miracles can be false !" Was 
 this proposition ever impugned ? No one woujd resist 
 the unquestionable dictates of" God, however conveyed, 
 whether by miracle or any other means. The question 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 171 
 
 is not whetlicr a religion attested by divine miracles 
 should bo accredited, but whether there were ever any 
 miracles, attesting any religion, performed ; and, if so, 
 what religion has the peculiar merit of having been 
 thus attested? Millions who believe in other religions 
 deride those miracles of revelation which Mr. Mahau 
 would adduce; and Protestants do not admit many 
 which the Romish church sanctions. For one I deny 
 that any miracle has ever been performed with the view 
 of attesting any religion whatever. No miracle could 
 be necessary to attest the will of omnipotence any more- 
 than to enable a man to wave his hand. But admitting 
 that it ever has been necessary, no miracle has ever 
 been resorted to for the purpose in question, since none 
 has answered the desired end. This would not have 
 been the case had miracles been resorted to by prescient 
 omnipotence." Another distinguished divine in an 
 elaborate effort to vindicate the Bible, commences thus: 
 " God forbid that I should depreciate the value of rea- 
 son in any of its offices. Reasan is God's gift to man, 
 
 and must be used as God designs. But so is the Bible 
 
 I 
 
 God's gift to man, and must, be used-^as God designs. 
 Two gifts from the same perfect being can not conflict 
 with each other," etc. But this is enough — fair speci- 
 mens of theological argument and logic, or rather sophis- 
 try; taking for granted at the start the very point in 
 dispute, and thus beg the question in the beginning. 
 They are disgusting for their want of sense as well as 
 want of honesty. I'll prove there is no death, and 
 from death itself, and without meanly begging : There's 
 nothing certain but death — if is certain sooner or later; 
 and there can be no death without first life ; then life 
 
1 72 PHILOSOPEY OF LIFE. 
 
 becomes certain as death ; but if life is certain tbere 
 can be no death, for death cannot ensue without extinc- 
 tion of life — therefore there can be no death. This is 
 the tergivisation and sophism of logic, without the dis- 
 gVTSting begging of simulating simpletons. They evince 
 not even a modicum of the astute dialectic talent of the 
 ancient sophist, who, addressing Clinian, asked, "Is 
 he who learns wise or unwise? Answer, he is wise. 
 But was he not previously ignorant of what he learns? 
 Answer, yes. The ignorant therefore learn, Clinian, 
 and not the wise as you supposed." 
 
 You may derive any doctrine from the Bible you 
 please, and I'll find more than cue sect professedly de- 
 rived from that same Bible who will deny it. I will 
 prove legally and logically from all the numberless 
 sects, both orthodox and heterodox, that this vfhole 
 Bible is a tissue of falsehood. It is a jurisprudential 
 principle and practice of universal application that a 
 larger number can invalidate the testimony of a smaller 
 number, all other things being equal. Now, you name 
 any sect you please, say Arminian, and I'll find a larger 
 number of other sects who pronounce that sect wrong ; 
 then name another sect, say Calvinist, and I'll find a 
 larger number of other sects including the Arminian, 
 who will denounce that ; then name another, and I'll 
 find a larger number including both the Arminian and 
 Calvinist who will denounce them in the same way ; 
 and thus continue this process until you have named 
 every one of all the sects, and I will thus prove by a 
 larger number, that every one of all the sects is wrong, 
 and that, too, by these very sects themselves, who are 
 all' derived from the Bible and are its professed follow- 
 
I'HrLosoPiiY OF i.ipi. 173 
 
 ers. So that if there is any reliance to be placed in 
 this testimony as a rule of evidence and in these large 
 numbers of Bible religionists, the Bible and all its 
 sects and sectaries are proved utterly fallacious, and by 
 these very religionists themselves. 
 
 Again : take any sect, say the Unitarian, and they 
 declare that every body and evcr}^ sect that don't think 
 precisely as they do on any cardinal point are infidels, 
 and as all infidels will meet and merit damnation, there- 
 fore, everybody else will be damned. Then take any 
 other, sav the Trinitarian, and they declare the same of 
 themselves, that everybody who don't believe as they 
 believe, in the absolute divinity of Jesus, for instance, 
 is " infidel," and as every infidel is to be damned, of 
 course, every body else is done for. Thus continue 
 this process, and the whole world will be lost. Thus 
 their vicarious God died in vain, man ^vas created in 
 vain, and the creative God has failed. All this might 
 be called, in legal parlance, cumulative evidence, and 
 I think is also competent to the court if not satisfactory 
 to the jury. 
 
 This principle, we call "religion," was originally and 
 properly called philosophy — literally love of wisdom, 
 now reason, rationale of phenomena — at a time when 
 it was thought to be truly a philosophy ; but after it was 
 found to have no philosophy, (appropriately if not thus 
 intentionally) the word " religion" Avas adopted, and cer- 
 tainly with great propriety, as far at least as the sig- 
 nificance of the word. 
 
 The ancient priests of Egypt, from whom letters and 
 civilization have sprung, were men of philosophy, and 
 entirelv different from the order now designated as 
 
174 PHILOSOPHY OP LIFE. 
 
 priests. The colleges of Thebes, Heliopolis and Mem- 
 phis, Avere the head-n uarters of professional and scientific 
 men, and bore no sort of similtude or even resemblance 
 to our modern ecclesiastical institutions. It was from 
 these colleges the Greek schools derived their science. 
 Pythagoras had lived at Thebes, Plato at Heliopolis^ 
 and Thales and Democritus at Memphis. 
 
 The word "religion" is derived from the Latin 
 ligo to bind, and religo to rebind, as the priest- 
 hood had to bind over and again their credulous and 
 obstreperous disciples. The word w^s used by the Ro- 
 mans as a sacred oath to the gods. The word bible is 
 from the Greek biblos, originally soft-bark, which the 
 ancients used to write upon, and means book. The 
 term " holy " was prefixed by the Jews to express ex- 
 cellence. Hence, "holy bible" literally means, in the 
 original, excellent soft-bark. The books comj)osing 
 the Old Testament were written upon soft-bark, palm 
 leaves, impressible stones, etc. There were many more 
 than are now preserved and acknowleged at the present 
 day, as " Wars of the Lord," " Book of Jasher," " Acts of 
 Solomon," " Visions of Iddo the Seer," etc. The manu- 
 scripts of the New Testament, with many more, were col- 
 lected about 300 years after Christ. According to Mos- 
 heim, who is high, standard authority in the church, 
 "Not long after Christ's ascension into heaven, several 
 histories of his life and doctrines, full of pious frauds 
 and fabulous wonders, were composed hj persons 
 whose intentions, perhaps, were not bad, but whose 
 writings discovered the greatest superstition and igno- 
 rance. According to the "Unitarian new version, there 
 were in these manuscripts upwards of 130,000 readings." 
 
PPIILOSOPIIY OF LIFE. 175 
 
 Such was the idolatrous adulation i)aid to the authority 
 of Origen, who was the origin of the present fashion of 
 preaching from a text, and whose superstition drove 
 him to commit self-mutilation of such ruinous character 
 as to result in emasculation of mental vigor as well, 
 that emendations of the text, which were but suggested 
 bv him, were taken in as part of the New Testament; 
 though he himself acknowledged they were supported 
 by the authority of no manuscript whatever. Lanfranc 
 Archbishop of Canterbury, made many alterations for 
 the avowed purpose of accommodating them to the faith 
 of the orthodox. In the year 506, "The illustrious 
 Messala, being consul by the command of the Emperor 
 Anastasius, the holy gospels, as having been written by 
 idiot evangelists, are censured and corrected." Accord- 
 ing to Davis, and other authors, 2048 bishops assem- 
 bled at Nice, in the year 325, under command of the 
 Emperor Coustantine. During their pious deliberations 
 they became so vociferous, obstreperous and violent to- 
 ward each other, that Constantino discpialified 1730 
 from having a voice in deciding which books were and 
 which were not the word of God. The 318 left pro- 
 nounced the books which subsequently composed the 
 bible, to be the word of God. Since then, however, 
 several books have been rejected, such as the " Gospel 
 of the Egyptians," "Gospel of the Hebrews," "The Gos- 
 pel of Perfection," " Gospel of Barnabas," " Epistle of 
 Clemens Romanus," of "Ignatius." of "Polycarps," 
 etc., "Shepherd of Hermas," "Revelation of Paul," 
 " Acts of Peter," " Epistle of Christ," etc. Out of 
 fifty gospels then extant, they only retained Matthew, 
 Mark, Luke, and John, the balance, some well written. 
 
176 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 n-efe committed to the flames-; while the books of James^ 
 Jiide, and the Apocalypse, were entirely rejected. The 
 em:peror then sanctioned their decision and ordered the 
 bible, as then canonized, to be received as the \yord of 
 God. After this, ecclesiastical councils were frequently 
 called, and as frequently annulled the decisions of each 
 other, until the year 633, at the council of -Toledo, the 
 rejected books of James, Jude, and Revelation of St. 
 John, were incorporated into the sacred canons. As for 
 the story of the miraculous cross appearing in the 
 heavens over Coiistantine's head as a sign by which he 
 was to conquer, it was manufactured, 1 opine, specially 
 for Constantine and his favors, and probably by the 
 very priest v/ho undertook to procure pardon" and special 
 condonation for his crimes. Constantine himself, it is 
 said, became a convert to Christianity because a Pagan 
 refused to absolve him from the ffuilt of murdering his 
 own son, (I think,) declaring it impossible to procure 
 expiation for so heinous a crime ; but a Christian priest 
 readily agreed to^ do it foT him with certainty, celerity 
 and facility. 
 
 This easy expiation, however, may not be so incredi- 
 ^ble,if wes believe the able and eminent divine, Dr. Olin, 
 (against whom, as he was the warm personal friend of 
 my father, and baptised my only sister, it is hardly 
 reasonable to suppose I cherish any prejudice) who said 
 "there was virtue enough in tiie blood of Christ to cleanse 
 the foulest spot in hell." Did the good doctor bethink 
 himself how well he was vindicating the Universalists ? 
 or as the Methodists, among whom Olin was a high 
 and honored dignitary, delight to call " hell-redemp- 
 tionists ! " And yet, per contra, another prelate, with 
 
PiJiLOSOPHY OF LIFl 177 
 
 whom hf afiiliafcd, declared the "do( trine of universal 
 salvation was i*epiilsive to his moral feelings." Gra- 
 cious God ! v/hat moral feeling, for even the breast cf a 
 barbarian, aye, the lo^vest order of brute ! 
 
 Tn euphemistie (fj parlance, '' plain as preaching, now 
 incans, clear as mud ; and " true as Gospel," the bur- 
 lesque oti veracity. Just think of the general deprav- 
 ity, duplicity and debauchery of the priesthood and 
 self-styled orthodox clergy ; their ignorance, indolence 
 and arrogance ; their 'vanity, venality, hypocrisy and 
 passion of all sorts ; anger, revenge, lust, lechery and 
 tlw whole diabolic train that constitute their secret sym- 
 posium and carnival of crime ! Few outside of those 
 interested in the flesh-pots, and tlieir followers and 
 (tupes, who make up the menial million without sense 
 or soul to know or do, now have any sympathy for 
 1 c di giv Ihig hierophantic hierarchy. Hence, the 
 rapid growth of modern scepticism and materialism. 
 If I speak fearlessly and severely, I speak honestly and 
 truly, I will here read from ni}^ " Dissertation," a 
 page or two on this point: 
 
 With the bypocritic and hypercritic cant and fine- 
 spun theological abstraction of the day, so rife and ram- 
 pant; of bishops an^ baptisms, presbyteries and predes- 
 tinations, apostolic succession and secession ; Baptistic 
 bigotry. Episcopalian arrogance, Presbyterian perti- 
 nacity. Method istic animalism, and Papal apostacy, (of 
 course, we speak alone of their prominent peccadiloes), 
 all "gentle theologues of calmer kind, who, cold them- 
 selves think ardor comes from hell," the author has 
 nothing to do ; with plump stall-fed theology he has 
 no affinity. For all the high-soundin<ic bie brass trum- 
 
178 PHILOSOPHY OP LTPP. 
 
 pets of the times, who issue imperial bulls and pontifical 
 ukase, touch the mainsprings of thunder in their Vat- 
 ican and fulminate judicial anathemas from their eccle- 
 siastical thrones ; for those serio-comic clerical conven- 
 tions, yclept conferences, etc., self-constituted congresses 
 of governmental policies, judicatories of person and 
 property, political dispensaries of law and liberty, alias 
 periodic celebrations of sanctimonious saturnalia, con- 
 stituting a perfect pandemonium of green spirits and 
 blue, black ditto, and so forth ; with all the fats and 
 fumes of these boiling cauldrons of evil genii ; who 
 ,with Satanic heart and sacrilegious hand would r^nd 
 in twain a happy civil brotherhood, tear down our 
 cherished fabric of freedom and drench the land in 
 blood, that themselves, the very hell-hounds, of dis- 
 union and civil Avar may lap the crimson tide, may 
 flourish in its flow and revel in its ruin ; for all such 
 vile perversion and villainous prostitution, the humble 
 writer of these humble pages entertains the deepest 
 abhorrence and most ineffable detestation. He has no 
 admiration for clerical cravats and clerical conventicles, 
 clerical prerogatives and all extra-judicial clerical pre- 
 tensions ; no sympathy for that*i)roud preaching, pious 
 mockery and fashionable folly of the sleek city syco- 
 phant, who deals in moral prosing, mental inanity, 
 easy essays, pliant ethics and ad captandum vulgus show, 
 reflected from strolling ghosts of myth and moonshine. 
 Nor on the other hand is he an apologist for the mad 
 raving of the ranting vulgarian, who beats his box and 
 pulls his pit, frets his hours away, and pretending ex- 
 haustion sits down with serene and self-complacent 
 countenance; having labored lustily, he thinks faith- 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF IJFE. 179 
 
 fully, and eujoys the balance of the week in elegant 
 ease among his idolatrous disciples, '"whom he never 
 teaches because he never learns." Again, and some of 
 you will doubtless consider it vulgar Brownlowism, or 
 worse, diabolical Beecherism, which will })erhaps jar 
 on more refined ears, as it was written under the in- 
 tensity of youthful impulse and ardor, unchastened by 
 age ; and you will not expect me to stop now to smooth 
 its severity with more polish, inasmuch, especially as it 
 speaks the truth, though the pen be porcupine dipped 
 in fiery lava, contains the jewel though full of fiint and 
 fire. 
 
 We have seen the stricken soul, perhaps wild and 
 wayward, mayhaps erring and erratic, but high-hearted 
 and noble, unfortunate, Avith soul and exalted nature, 
 who like the noble Scaevola, would thrust his arm into 
 the burning fire and aee it and feel it perish, rather 
 than stoop to meanness or falsehood; who would dis- 
 dain a lov/ act as the bird of Jove disdains the mire ; 
 soul of impassioned mould and lofty aspirations that 
 soared like the eagle of the mountain into the clear 
 cerulean ; with no fault but misfortune, no weakne??- 
 but too much trust, no guilt but looking to heaven, no 
 crime but devoted love, like the immortal Milton, tra- 
 duced, maligned, abused and barked at by human hy- 
 enas of sacerdotal sanctity with eyes that roll in holy 
 horror at the aberrations of erratic love and pure devo- 
 tion — the little pccadilloes perchance of others — who 
 should have poured the oil of healing, and who will 
 themselves, according to their own theory and practiee, 
 roll another horror t« the billowed thunders of devil's 
 daily dirge, and cast a shadow over the regions of the 
 
180 PHILOSOPHY OP LIFE. 
 
 danined like embodied midnight. We have seen the 
 innocent, the injured, and the pure, torn down with 
 pharisaic friendship and satanic soul by falsehood's 
 forked tongue of demoniac traduction — by the vile and 
 villainous preacher who, under the assumed sanctitude 
 of the Prince of peace,. would scent out the victim of 
 misfortune and urge on his hell-hounds of earrion to 
 their feast of devils — obsequious simpletons, who would 
 howl when their master hissed — ^incarnated spirits of 
 distilled iniquity, whose souls, if iJiey have any, will 
 make black spots in hell's darkest midnight — spots 
 that the roil of ages will not efface, and the darkness 
 of the damned will be sunshine to their spirits, deep 
 and d?ad?: enough to extinguish the light of a thousand 
 suns. 
 
 "Voracious vampires of the htiman soul and venal 
 vermin of society; with no feeling but self, no God but 
 gold, no principle but hypocrisy, no object but self- 
 emolument, no glory but the misfortune of others, no 
 ambition but to pander to the powerful, and no certain 
 hope but certain hell ; that prowl in the midnight of 
 character, and feast and fatten on the misfortune oi 
 others ; ulcerous sores that eat at the vitals of society ; 
 the utter abhorrence of God and angels,- the deep de- 
 testation of pure, enlightened men; we loathe^ w^e spurn, 
 we*pity them. 
 
 But, poor vermin ! the venom of your depraved 
 spirits will be purged away under God's great law of 
 progression. The black Hades or hell you preach and 
 which you practice, and to which you would doubtless 
 i3onsigu me for eternal duration, is, thank God for you, 
 o-sdy eviternalj, not sempiternal as you proclaim. The 
 
i'llIT.OSOPHV OF LIFE. 181 
 
 j^rand economy of progression will lift even you from 
 this cvitcrnal Gehenna, and will m-ake your black 
 s:pirits ultimately blossoi?i with charity and love. Such 
 1 would have you, and the God I serve will do more 
 than I can wish — different from your God^ who^wouldj 
 if adjudicating your practices hy the standard of your 
 precepts, damn you forever in hell's hottest abysmal 
 ocean of fire, fury and flame. But no» I hope to see 
 in future centuries — it will require centuries- — the fruit 
 of aiigcl love growing up out of your present black 
 and bitter ashes. By the perfect optimism of Provi- 
 dence, which is nature, the doors of Paradise are ever 
 v;pen to you and to all. This lecture may be heard 
 by other auditories, to many of whom it will be 
 like the pearl to the swine, to some a true picture of 
 their depravity; and to otlicrs and by far the greatest 
 number, I hope, a comfort and a consolation if not a 
 
 glory* 
 
 After this ra])id retrospect of religion and its vota- 
 ries, its foundation and their practices, we might well 
 and solemnly exclaim in the language of the poet, 
 
 " Great God! on what a sleiider thread 
 IJaiijj everlasting things !" 
 
 But, after all, perhaps it is the best religion to hold 
 in check the evil of the ignorant, and please the feel- 
 ings of the vindictivCj for the Deity and religion of a 
 man always assimulate to the plane of his feelings and 
 perceptioUs. It is natural for the cruel, tyranic, puri- 
 tanic and vindictive natures to believe in and worship 
 a cruel, tyranic, and vindictive God — and those who 
 heartily believe in such a God cannot be otherwise, for 
 the God whom they thiis invest is but the mirror of 
 their character : given the attributes of the God wor- 
 
182 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 shipped^ and the character of his worshippers appears 
 in a mirror; or giVen the character of the worshippers, 
 and the' attributes of their God will assimilate to their 
 plane : it is not only natural, as I said, but it is as im- 
 possible for such natures to have any other sort of God 
 as it is for a carniverous animal to desire any other sort 
 of food but flesh, or for God himself to contravene his 
 own laws and work a miracle. 
 
 And perhaps, too, as the followers of Moses could 
 not appreciate the improvement of the Christian dis- 
 pensation, so the followers of Christ can not appreciate 
 the present philosophic apocalypse, or apocalyptic phi- 
 losophy. It also furnishes convenient occasions for the 
 vain city belle to see and be seen; and the only occa- 
 sion for the unsophisticated country damsels and their 
 beaux to gratify their gregarious propensities, as well 
 as also a fitting field for the display, of the aged, ambi- 
 tious and dignified laity, to become great in church if 
 not in State. And popular revivals, while they prove 
 an interesting show for the youth of precocity and pro- 
 cacity, for the city sap-head or country clod-hopper, 
 disclose a wonderful phase of human nature for the 
 profound study of the profoundest philosopher. Truly 
 religion has become the synonym of sujDcrstition, nnd 
 priest and pontif, prelate and preacher, the very proto- 
 types of prostitution. 
 
 Now in view of all the facts and truths I have pre- 
 sented, especially considering the great developments 
 of late scientific research in the domain of mind, the 
 universal ethereal medium through which mind acts 
 upon mind at any distauce and without any obstruction, 
 when minds are in rapport with each other, is it not a 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF TJFE. 183 
 
 woiuler that deceased spirlt-frlcnds, if they be really liv- 
 ing, do not thus coramunicate with some of us in the flesh, 
 with whom they may come in rapport? Isn't it a 
 wonder that excarnaled human spirits don't see and 
 communicate with us incarnated spirits through this 
 same universal electro-ethereal medium through which 
 \ye communicate with one aiiother on this rudimental 
 earth plane ? When nien in the flesh have learned to 
 use this mystic medium by putting themselves in and 
 •assuming that necessary negative condition of perfect 
 passivity and receptivity, is it not a wonder that those 
 out of the flesh, if still in existence, do not then mani- 
 fest themselves to us through this same medium of the 
 many millions on both sides of such varioas electric 
 temperaments? And when we also consider that some 
 in all ages of mankind have had such mysterious man- 
 ifestations without understanding them, is it not a won- 
 der indeed that our spirit friends in the spirit spheres 
 do not now manifest 'themselves intelligibly to us Avith 
 our present progressed facilities, as we have learned the 
 lightning and lettered its sheets, and thus attest our 
 immortality and their felicity? The science of mind 
 and electricity has reached that point that we must ex- 
 l)ect — nay, must have— such communications from our 
 friends who have gone l^efore, or else conclude forever 
 that they live no more. For spirit here can now com- 
 municate with spirit unimpeded by flesh, distance or 
 any other obstacle ; and some of those eliminated spirits 
 who have left the body can communicnte througli tlic 
 same universal medium to some of us yet in the body 
 in uni-:on with them; therefore if they do not now 
 communicate we are bound to believe thev live no more, 
 
 
184 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 but died and perished with their bodies. But cease 
 these wonders, dry your tears, dispel your doubts, lin- 
 ger no longer your patient expectations, for list! ye 
 tenants of the tomb ! Hear it, and feel a new glory 
 thrill your vital being of your mortal body, ye prisoned 
 spirits of the mouldering urn ! The glorious truth 
 and the glorious proof of your immortal life and im- 
 mortal love, hath sounded its glbrious symphonies upon 
 your sombre shores! The glorious reality has come. 
 The mighty and momentous truth in lights of supernal 
 splendor has blazed upon the world. Just at the time 
 when science leads us to look for it and must have it, 
 or bury our hopes and loves in the grave forever, the 
 grand and glorious fact comes careering on the wings 
 of the wind, aye, on the lightning's pinion, with angelic 
 .anthems. And O what a fact! what a truth! is this 
 we have learned in our fevored nineteenth century! 
 Every pulsation of our corporeal, and every vital vi- 
 bration of our spiritual heart, should beat throughout 
 the infinite future, glory to our Creator. 
 
 That was a grand event in the pages of the past, 
 when Columbus pictured a new and unknown continent 
 con the map of the world ; but this new continent, like 
 .the old, is filled with the bitterness of death and blasted 
 /hopes. That was a proud period for man when the 
 .printing press leaped forth from the mind of Faust and 
 'Guttenberg to spread knowledge broadcast among the 
 nations and render her springs imperishable ; but ite 
 reflected lights never reached beyond the dim horizon 
 ; around us. 
 
 That was an epoch in the chronology of time when 
 *Christ stood forth and proclaimed immortal life to the 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. • 185 
 
 good and true ; but he only proclaimed the truth and 
 left the workl still in the darkness of doubt. And that 
 was sublime when he illustrated his life in his glorious 
 death, and was lost to mortal vision in the briffhtness 
 of his empyreal sphere; but the splendor of his illus- 
 tration grows dim in the distance, and the glory of his 
 ascension is believed by few and known to none. But 
 all these grand events and epochs of the past groAV pale 
 before the luminous effulgence of this new risen sun 
 of science which is now illuminating the world of 
 mind; they sink into insignificance beside the gathered 
 glories of this new ai>ocalypse which is brightening 
 into bliss the sorrows and sufferings of earth's dying 
 children. Not with meek proclamation, nor proud 
 preaching, nor pompous declamation on futile fliitli ; 
 but, based on philosophy, with absolute demonstration 
 and certainty of science, this grand and mighty truth 
 so long dark, dormant and unknown, has leaped into 
 light, life and knowledge, and already warms the hearts 
 of its enlightened millions, soothing their sorrows, eas- 
 ing their agonies, and binding the glory of immortality 
 around their love. 
 
 You remember I brought the history of unknown 
 spirit intercourse of the past down to the present genera- 
 tion : here now I again take it up for a moment to glance 
 at the living age. Spirit intercourse and its true philos- 
 ophy are now known and believed in by many millions 
 of the present generation, including the most eminent 
 and enlightened minds of the world — in fact, no others 
 €an have a perfect intellection of its philosophy— many 
 of whom not only believe but know, not from high- 
 ^vrought feeling of excitement, intense orgasm, or 
 
J.OU • PHTLOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 contagious sympathy wliich religious converts experi- 
 ence, but with the cool, positive demonstration of 
 science and absolute knowledge. We will give a few 
 distinguished names, as you perceive T illustrate and 
 prove as I go : Hon. N". P. Tallmadge, Ex-Governor 
 of New York and formerly United States Senator; 
 Judge Edmonds, who served in the Senate of New 
 York and was a Judge in its Supreme Court, who as 
 certainly and consciously holds daily intercourse with 
 his excarnated as with his incarnated friends ; Professor 
 Hare, one of the most profound and scientific men the 
 world has ever produced, and member of various 
 learned societies, who being a materialist and unbeliever 
 in immortality invented an ingenious contrivance with 
 which to disprove and refute the so-called spirit mani- 
 festations, but which converted him and proved its 
 truth — thus making him a happy man with certain 
 prospect of immortal life, without the shadow of incer- 
 titude; and Brittan, Tiffany, Harris, Dexter, Fergu- 
 son, Newton, the venerable Dods who wrote a book to 
 show that all the phenomena of spirit intercourse were 
 nothing more nor less than the illusions of his favorite 
 electrical psychology ; but was finally forced by demon- 
 strative evidence to renounce his specious theory and 
 embrace the fact of spirit existence and spirit inter- 
 course; and a host of others in talents as well as num- 
 bers — representative men of the world — lawyers, doc- 
 tors, divines of eminence in America, beside many of 
 the most learned in England, France, Germany, etc., 
 ■among whom, I believe, are Lord Brougham, Louis 
 Napoleon, etc., securely and serenely moored in tliis 
 glorious haven opened up by modern science. Jew and 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 187 
 
 Gentile, Christian, Infidel and Pagan, Moslem and 
 Giaour, and all creeds alike may como within the pur- 
 view of this glorious evangel, and all earth's children 
 may come and lay their various oiferings on this uni- 
 \'orsal altar of philosophy. I v/ill now endeavor to 
 explain this philosophy, and with as much brevity as 
 possible — if such an expression will bear the critic's 
 scrutiny. And I can not hope to make, nor ought you 
 to expect a lucid exposition ; for my experience among 
 you as a public speaker has been in polemic discussion 
 on current political topics, with some of our most tal- 
 ented orators and distinguishedjioliticians, whose genius 
 would contribute to illume the way, not difficult with- 
 out thorn ; wliieh is very different from a lecture on a 
 new, abstruse and metaphysical philosophy — especially, 
 too, as this is my first eiibrt in this field, and I may 
 add will probably be my last. For I can assure you 
 it is greatly more difficult than a political discussion, 
 which is the easiest performance within my knowledge, 
 except modern homiletic sermonising and romance 
 writing, all for the simple millions. I think I have said 
 enough to free me from the charge of one sin at least, 
 that of pandering for the praise of priest or preacher, 
 and all priest-ridden people and the entire clerical cur- 
 riculum. 
 
 Now as one mind in the body in a positive condition 
 of electricity can perceive and influence another mind 
 in the body in a negative condition of electricity, both 
 in rapport vath each other, and all this without the 
 use of any of the corporeal senses ; so a spirit out of 
 the body in a positive condition of electricity can per- 
 ceive and influence a spirit or mind in the body in a 
 
188 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE, 
 
 negative condition and both in rapport, independent of 
 physical organism in both cases. This electricity, from 
 the Greek for amber, (a resinous substance), in which 
 it was first discovered by the great Thales of Miletus, 
 twenty-five hundred years ago, be it remembered, is an 
 universally diffused, subtile, imponderable and myste^ 
 rious agent and element of mind and matter. Some 
 of us are in this negative impresssible condition natu- 
 rally ; all of us may become so by, practice and perse- 
 vering effort. All such, whether natural or acquired,, 
 are called mediums, (properly, perhaps the plural 
 should be media, according to the Latin idiom). 
 Through a progressed and practiced medium — for we 
 progress and attain proficiency in this as in everything- 
 else — a spirit or angel formerly of the flesh, but now 
 in the spirit-world round about us, can speak, write, or 
 perform what would be called miracles, or attributed 
 to conjuration, prestigiation, necromancy, sorcery, leger- 
 demain, jugglery, witchcraft, humbug, demonisra, elec- 
 tricity, or odylic force, by the ignorant or wicked. 
 They are made to speak in tongues entirely unknown 
 to the medium, such as Hebrew, Greek, French, Ital- 
 ian, etc. ; and write in the precise hand of others,, de- 
 ceased and unknown to them. They are made to j)er- 
 form in the most masterly manner on* the piano, flute, 
 guitar, and other instruments to which they were per- 
 fect strangers, and execute pieces of music of which 
 they know nothing. But the easiest and most elemen- 
 tary though not the surest and most satisfactory way 
 for the unprogressed and inexperienced medium is 
 through some convenient, simple, ponderable substance, 
 as a table or chair. That a table raps, tips, without 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 189 
 
 the application of adequate force, is strange; tiiat a 
 tabic moves up through the air, without the application 
 of any visible force whatever, is still more strange ; 
 that the raps, tips, and movements of a table should 
 convey intelligence and indicate the presence of some 
 other mind, becomes mysterious and vastly interesting ; 
 and that this intelligence thus conveyed should indicate 
 thoughts, opinions, feelings, diiferent from and contrary 
 to all those present, showing it .to be not the mere mes- 
 meric or psychologic reflex of others in the flesh, is 
 more mysterious and interesting still, and absolutely 
 inexplicable upon any known principle or imaginable 
 hypothesis, except that invariably avowed by the author 
 of the intelligence itself, to-wit: the excarnated spirit 
 that has passed the portal of dissolution. This table- 
 intelligence, communicating through the raps' or tips .)f 
 the table, is the A B C of spirit intercourse. For in- 
 stance, have it understood that one rap shall mean yes, 
 two no, etc., or call the letters of tlje alphabet, either 
 orally or mentally, and whenever the proper letter is 
 called to sj^ell out what the spirit Avishcs to communi- 
 cate, the tabic will rap. This is the first and most sim- 
 j)le but not most certain mode of intercommunication 
 between the two states of existence. The experienced, 
 progressed, and proficient mediums have an internal, 
 direct mental communication, independent of the tem- 
 poral or physical sensorium, and thus see and feel and 
 "onverse with their spirit friends through this mystic 
 medium of mentality, with as much certainty and celer- 
 ity as with their friends in the flesh, and much more 
 interest, satisfiiction and pleasure. You know that in 
 electricity two positive conditions repel, as well as the 
 
190 ■ PHIT^OSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 negatives repel, eacli other; but the positive and nega- 
 tive attract each other. All creations, from the most 
 infinitessimal inorganic atom to man, the highest devel- 
 opment of the earth-plane, and no doubt throughout 
 the solar, stellar and all astronomic creations, are en- 
 dowed vfith two principles of electricity, positive and 
 negative, or opposite magnetic polarities, the similar of 
 which repel and the. dissimilar attract each other; or 
 endowed with, two oj)posite sexes, positive and neg- 
 ative, the dissimilar of which, like the other electric 
 principles, have an affinity for each other — the Iho and 
 Hohi, the male and female, and the Elohi and Eloho, 
 the good and evil principle of the ancient Gymnaso- 
 phists. One person in the positive condition of elec- 
 tricity can perceive and influence another person in 
 the negative to him, when in rapport with each 
 other and all their conditions harmonious, regard- 
 less of intervening clothes, flesh, brick-walls, or dis- 
 tance. This is effectuated through the all-pervading, 
 omnipresent, universal element or agent that permeates 
 every atom as well as all space — ^there is really no va- 
 cant space, for this element fills up all that might seem 
 such — an extremely attenuated and refined electricity 
 or subtle fluid which we call electro-ether, which we 
 can not perceive through our physical senses any more 
 than we can see sound, hear light, or feel either, or 
 taste, smell, or in any other sensual way perceive mag- 
 netism. Now in just this way, through this agent, 
 this great nerve-power of the universe, excarnated men 
 communicate with incarnated men. Here is the phi- 
 losophy in nuoe. The receptive medium, isolated from 
 all surroundings, is negative to and comes in rapport 
 
PHILOSOrHY OF LIFE. 191 
 
 with the exearnated spirit, who then controls and uses 
 the physical organism of the medium at will, just as 
 the psychological operator controled and used the per- 
 sons I have already described. But I will explain 
 more in extenso. And it is due to say that much of this 
 philosophy I get from the learned and legal mind of 
 Tiffany, the erudite and recondite Professor Hare, and 
 the clear and practical Mr. Putnam, all whose works 
 on spiritualism I can truly recommend ; and from Par- 
 ker's " Natural Philosophy," (should be called physi- 
 cal, for all philosophy is natural,) from Youmans, 
 Dods, and others not necessary here to mention, as T 
 quote from none without due credit. 
 
 Why are these certain conditions necessary, you ask? 
 If it can be done by one exearnated to one incarnated, 
 why not by all the former and to all the latter ? I ask 
 in return, why not thus among men in the flesh, in 
 mesmerism, clairvoyance, psychology ? But we know 
 
 is not : only by and to certain persons in certain con- 
 ditions. And this is in strict accordance Avith all the- 
 known analogies of nature. In all its elemental ope- 
 rations nature is very exact anid specific. Eight parts 
 of oxygen and one of hydrogen, by weight, or one of 
 oxygen to two of hydrogen by measure, and no other 
 proportions will make pure water. The seed wnll not 
 germinate except in certain conditions of heat and 
 moisture ; the lightning w^ill not leap forth except in 
 certain conditions of positive and negative. It is only 
 on certain and propitious conditions that the human 
 race is elaborated and perpetuated. Why does it re- 
 quire a metalic wire instead of a tow-string to make a 
 telegraph? And why has that wire to be insulated* 
 9* 
 
192 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 from all other conductors? just as the spirit medium 
 has to be isolated from all other distractions ? And 
 hear what the wise man of the Bible says on this 
 point, who wrote as if he fully understood it : " There 
 is no man that hath power over the sj)irit to retain the 
 spirit." (Ecc. viii.) And Jesus showed himself not 
 to all, but only a few chosen witnesses, etc. (Acts x.) 
 Rapport is a French word, and is defined relation or 
 affinity. I use it to mean a peculiar nervous affinity or 
 congenial mental sympathy. I may come into rapport 
 with you by bringing my nerve system into harmony 
 with yours and yours with mine. In this condition — 
 if I am in the negative — if you have a pain any where, 
 I will feel the same pain the same where. This is the 
 principle of spiritual inspiration. Two strings of equal 
 length, size, kind and' tension will both vibrate together 
 in perfect unison if but one is touched and sounded by 
 the hand ; it will communicate its vibration through the 
 intervening atmosphere to the other, and thus cause it 
 to vibrate in perfect unison with itself. This is har- 
 mony. Again, it is said that two strings equal in every 
 respect except that one is fixed permanently and the 
 other so strung as to be capable of yielding, when the 
 fixed one is constantly vibrated, the other receiving 
 these vibrations through the air will, after a while, 
 adapt itself to the same and vibrate in unison. We 
 know that the strings of a violin, when kept constantly 
 in tune, will sound and accord much better than when 
 left in a contrary condition ; and also that one sound, 
 as of thunder for example, will effect the glass, another 
 the window frames, another the house, etc., varying not 
 in volume and power, but in some other peculiarity^^ 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF TJFE. 193 
 
 and seeming to receive ready response from those 
 objects only which are in unison in this peculi- 
 arity. It is said that fine sand spread in a thin 
 layer over a thin sheet of membrane draAyn tightly 
 over a wine glass, will form regular lines and figures 
 with astonishing celerity, varying with the sound. Sir 
 Isaac Newton discovered that the prismatic rays of 
 light correspond in perfect harmony with the diatonic 
 scale of music. And see the various effects of music 
 upon men. In some it excites a martial ambition; in 
 others a sweet serenity ; in yet others and by far the 
 greatest number, it excites mirth and hilarity, and 
 sfarts the feet instinctively to dancing; in me, if you 
 will excuse the egotism — and so in others, no doubt, — 
 it stirs my eloquence, if I have any, at least it makes 
 me feel eloquent, and excites a desire to stand before a 
 large concourse of enlightened men, and pour out my 
 full feelings in a stream of impassioned words on some 
 sublime subject. Much is due to the character of th« 
 music, I admit, in exciting these various emotions; but 
 more to the character of the mind or subject. A cer- 
 tain kind of music will arouse one person, and a differ- 
 ent kind another; but all will be touched or stirred in 
 the predominating characteristic. This again is har- 
 mony, and harmony is a fundamental, if not the funda- 
 mental principle of the universe. Pythagoras, twenty- 
 three centuries ago, saw this ; and believed the spheres 
 made musie in their revolutions; and by the way this 
 illustrious and illuminated man not only first discovered 
 the circulation of the blood, as I've already stated, but 
 was the first who taught the immortality of the soul^ 
 under the appellation and theory of metempsychosis. 
 
194 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 though he lived cotemporaneous with some of the hiter 
 prophets. He also founded the Confederacy of Cro- 
 tona — the perfect utopia and model of human happi- 
 ness and human government. . We also know that the 
 magnetic ileedle when allowed to rest with the proper 
 polar point to the north will remain more true and 
 reliable than when left in any other position. Thus^ 
 also, if a straight bar of soft iron be held in a nearly 
 vertical position, with the lower end deviating to the 
 north, and struck several times with a hammer, it will 
 acquire the properties of a magnet ; and if the iron 
 be pure and soft and the experiment repeated, it will 
 become thoroughly magnetised ; but soft iron will not 
 retain the magnetism, like hard or imj)ure iron, of 
 which consists the permanent native magnet. Mag- 
 netism is another form of electricity, the similar prop- 
 erties of which repel, and the dissimilar attract each 
 other. From these illustrations we may derive one 
 reason for the rapid proficiency of practiced mediums 
 over those out of practice, or out of tune, or not in the 
 proper harmonic condition ; and also analogical demon- 
 stration of mediumistic educability. The powers of a 
 medium, like those of a magnet, are impaired or lost 
 by disuse ; and as heat weakens or destroys the powers 
 of a magnet, so it does those of a medium. In con- 
 nection with this let us remember that electricity itself 
 is cold. The chemical result of fire on combustible 
 substances as for instance when lightning strikes and 
 sets fire to a tree, is caused by intense mechanical fric- 
 tion, like the instantaneous and powerful impact of a 
 cannon ball. This subtle and tremendous agent pos- 
 sesses both mechanical and chemical powers, physically, 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 195 
 
 and mental or spiritual power metaphysically, or at 
 least is an agent of the latter. And as nothing affects 
 the magnet but those things for which it has an affin- 
 ity; so nothing aflk-ts a medium but those spirits for 
 whom it has an affinity. And further, as nothing is 
 impervious to the penetration or prevents the flow and 
 action of magnetism, so nothing is impervious to the 
 penetration or prevents tiic flow and action of the elec- 
 tro-spirit-cther. This mesmeric magnetism is destined 
 yet to develop more startling wonders in the grand 
 economy of creation. You should not be astonished 
 at my assertion that there is a galvanic, mesmeric, (so 
 called because discovered by Gal van i and Mesmer), 
 magnetic, electric, ethereal medium of spirit pervading 
 our entire planetary system, and probably solar system^ 
 and perhaps all systems, when I inform you that 
 according to Farraday, the variations of our magnetic 
 needle correspond with the variations of the spots in 
 the sun ; that the periodicity of both these variations 
 has become a visible fact; both increase or decrease 
 together, embracing a period of ten years; thus estab-- 
 lishing solar, stellar and terrestrial magnetism in mutual 
 and reciprocal connection. All these subtile refined 
 media move by undulatory, vibratory, or pulsatory 
 wave movement, as light, sound, heat, electricity, the 
 magnetic polarization with which all bodies and atoms 
 are endowed: and just so moves our nervous fluid 
 through which mind operates upon mind in or out of 
 the flesh ; and just so moves the vital current of our 
 animal organism. 
 
 Then when my nerve fluid vibrates in unison with 
 yours, as two musical strings in accord, we are in rap- 
 
196 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 port with each other. This is spiritual harmonic uni- 
 son. Tiie operator in mesmerizing his subject becomes 
 positive to the subject, and will succeed as soon as he 
 comes into rapport Avith him, in unisonant nervous 
 vibration, and never before. Just so with the excar- 
 nated spirit and earthly medium, the latter being neg- 
 ative and receptive, quiescent and plastic, completely 
 subject to the positive will of the spirit. Some of us 
 are naturally in this condition to some other person 
 either in or out of the flesh ; all may become so by 
 proper effort — not eifort of positive energetic action, 
 but of calm, quiescent, confiding condition of pure, 
 sincere desire of good. This is the condition of prayer. 
 ISTot to inform or dictate to God, to change his mind, 
 his will, his laws, or in any way interfere with his 
 plans or his providence; for it is simply impious and 
 ridiculous to attempt it. Nor can the Deity thus vio- 
 late his own laws or "nature of things" and gratify 
 our ignorant and selfish petitions, for God can not lie 
 But- in fervent silence and sincerity, in negative and 
 receptive condition of feelings, with exalted aspirations 
 for the good and the true, with all the outside world 
 and its selfish animalities shut out from the soul, and 
 thoughts and desires lifted up after higher spheres, 
 some pure spirit from those higher spheres in sympa- 
 thetic unison, will come and comfort us and enlighten 
 and lift us up and communicate through the mystic 
 medium of inspiration. This is true prayer, and 
 "availeth much." If we would have the influx of 
 inspiration from pure spirits we must become pure our- 
 selves; we must bring ourselves up to this high plane 
 that higher angels may reach us. You know the direc- 
 
PHTLOSOniY OF LIFE. 197 
 
 tion was not to go into the public places and do tall 
 talking and big blowing, but retire in the silence and 
 sincerity of the soul, lifting up fervent aspirations for 
 higher influences. The reason Moses was not taught 
 and elevated as was Socrates and the man of Nazareth 
 to return good for evil, is because he did not occupy 
 the high plane of inspiration. In the words of Tiffany, 
 "Paul, Peter, John, etc., were not equal to their mas- 
 ter because they had not attained his elevated condi- 
 tion of natural harmonic development ; had they occu- 
 pied his pure plane, God could have communicated to 
 them as well as to their teacher; and it would not have 
 been necessary for them to have a middle man to come 
 between them and God. When you have risen to this 
 plane of communication, the communication is internal. 
 You have no outward form of expression because you 
 have the thought itself by inspiration. In the lan- 
 guage of the apostle^ God writes his language in your 
 understandings and in your affections. All communi- 
 cations with the spiritual world, proceeding according 
 to this law, each man's communication will be accord- 
 ing to his plane; if in the low plane of lust, his com- 
 munications will be of that character; if in love, his 
 communications will be of that character. But even 
 the lowest, by putting himself in the condition of 
 prayer, by aspiring ibr the good and the holy, by put- 
 ting up earnest petitions for aid, will always find a 
 spiritnear to sustain and elevate him." Generally, men 
 will pray when there is need for it ; it is as natural to 
 invoke the help of higher and purer powers when we 
 require it, as it is to call for food when hungry. Gen- 
 erally, I say, but not invariably, for exceptional cases 
 
198 rniLosoPHY of life. 
 
 occur here as well as in all of nature's operations. As 
 a morbid cotidition of the physical system sometimes 
 feels no hunger when the system requires food, and at- 
 others craves food when it is not rec|uired, so in 
 the morbid condition of a sin-seared man ; he feels 
 not the disposition of praying for superior help, when 
 he really needs it, and in others prays intensely for 
 supernal aid when he is guilty of no heinous sin and 
 no such supervenient help is needed. To continue the 
 philosophy. 
 
 Continuous interposing media- are necessary for all 
 communication. My present communication to you is 
 through the physical atmosphere which conveys the 
 sound of my words to your organs of hearing. I might 
 also make pantomimic representations or communica- 
 tions through the continuous interposing medium of 
 light, transmitting them from me to your organs of 
 sight. So also it is with the nerve medium. If I would 
 communicate my mental impressions to you without 
 using any of the consensual agencies there must be a 
 nervous or mental medium, continuous and interposing 
 to transmit my thoughts to your perceptions, indepen- 
 dent of physical media in either me or you. In my 
 physical form I am present to your perceptions through 
 the undulations of light to your visual organs, and the 
 vibrations of sound from my voice through the physi- 
 cal atmosphere. I have but this one form, and yet 
 there are four or five hundred, or as many of my forms, 
 or images of my form, as there are minds here to per- 
 ceive it. If there were ten thousand persons present 
 there would be as many representatives of me. There 
 is a difference then between the form itself and that 
 
nilLOSOPHY OF LIFE. 190 
 
 which represents the form. The media through which 
 you become conscious of my presence, are omnipresent. 
 I am not omnipresent but that which represents me is. 
 The perception of all existence external to conscious- 
 ness is by representation. I will read from a philo- 
 sophical work entitled ''Spiritualism explained/' but a 
 more appropriate title would be The New Philosophy: 
 " Did I wish to communicate with a S]>irit, who has un- 
 folded in him a spirit-consciousness, which can be ad- 
 dressed in any other way than through the physical eye 
 or ear or touch, and being so divested of this physical 
 form that my mind comes in absolute, contact with this 
 sjnrit-medium which permeates all space, and wliich 
 internally and spiritually corresponds to light external 
 and physical, and passes through bodies opaque to 
 liglit — then my spirit form acts upon the spirit medi- 
 um which is not impeded by this wall, but which passes 
 through it as light through transparent glass, carrying 
 my image with it. We say that glass is transparent, 
 because light passes freely through it, and brings the 
 image of that which it would represent. We see an 
 individual or tree [images?] coming freely through the 
 glass into the room. Now if v/e have a medium 
 which will pass as freely through a board, then that 
 board is as transparent to that medium as glass is to 
 linht. The magnetic medium by which the magnetic 
 needle is influenced, passes freely through a board even ; 
 therefore to that medium the board is as transparent as 
 glass is to light. It is also well to understand that this 
 nerve medium, as well as the spiritual medium corre- 
 sponding to the mind — which is to the mind what the 
 medium of light is to the eye— passes freely through. 
 
200 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 tliese opaque bodies. Therefore the individual brought 
 in contact with tliis medium will see spirit existences, 
 not by their presence in the consciousness, but by that 
 which represents the presence there. Hence it is that 
 the clairvoyant (when you have proceed-ed with your 
 manipulation, until you have insulated the mind, or 
 brought it into clear rapport with this spiritual medium 
 or atmosphere so that he sees by the spiritual sight and 
 hears with the spiritual ear, and no longer sees with the 
 physical eye or hears Math the physical ear) comes in 
 contact with this spiritual medium, and can look out 
 into another room and tell what is transpiring, who is 
 there, etc., just as we can look through glass and tell 
 what we see. The principle is jjrecisely the same. The 
 medium by which he perceives things in another room 
 freely permeates or passes through the intervening 
 walls ; so that although my spiritual form is still in 
 this body, yet it is actually exerting its influence on 
 this spiritual medium throughout the world — through- 
 out not only this world, but throughout the solar sys- 
 tem. [Our author doubtless means our planetary sys- 
 tem, consisting of the planets revolving directly around 
 our sun; including the latter; which is diiFerent from 
 our solar system consisting of a system of suns includ- 
 ing ours, etc.j 
 
 " Wherever this sj^iritual medium extends, this spir- 
 itual image of mine is taken and carried out through 
 that medium, just as my physical image is carried out 
 through the medium of light; and who ever comes 
 into rapport with that spirit-medium and influence, and 
 undulates to the same motion, will perceive that form. 
 Hence coming into the clairvoyant condition, I being 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 201 
 
 in New York, may see a person in I^ondon or Pekin, 
 if it so happen that the iindnlation of my mind on this 
 medium be such as to harmonize with that of the indi- 
 vidual in London or Pekin — not that his spirit is per- 
 sonally hero present, or my spirit personally present 
 there, (but I am here in my spirit conseiousness and he 
 there in his spirit consciousness), but because his image 
 as well as mine is here and there and every where else. 
 The idea that my mind goes to London, or his comes 
 here, is altogether a misconception. I perceive that 
 individual in London, not by his absolute presence, but 
 by that which represents that presence here ; just as I 
 see you, not by your presence in my mind, but by that 
 which represeiTts your presence there. I am looking on 
 this congregation, and therefore the person seeing me 
 sees me surrounded by this congregation. He does not 
 see you, but since you are in my mind, your image goes 
 with mine. The person coming into rapport with me, 
 sees you as your image exists in my mind. If any one 
 doubts this law, I am ready to be questioned. Bring 
 up any case you please, either from the temporal or 
 S]>iritual world, and I will show that this is the law. 
 It is a fallaceous idea that spirits can not communicate 
 without being actually present and any O'ther place at 
 the same time. They can be present whenever there is 
 a mind in rapport with them to see that presence. 
 
 "People talk about their being so rapid in their pas- 
 sage from here to Boston or London, etc. This is all 
 explained when you understand the law of manifesta- 
 tion. 'Why are not all mediums?' ' Why can not 
 all get communications, and at all times?' etc. If we 
 wish to get a communication we must conform to the 
 
202 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 conditions required by tlie law ; and if we do not con- 
 form to these conditions God himself could not give it 
 to us. The laws of manifestation and communication 
 are as fixed and immutable as God's own being. ..I was 
 once one of those things called mediums, and am now 
 perhaps to some extent. When I was partially asleep 
 there would be very loud raps, and if you could come 
 in without waking me up you might get a communica- 
 tion, and it has ever been so when I am peculiarly quiet 
 mentally, but the moment I rouse up and ask questions 
 I can get no reply. There are others who require ex- 
 actly opposite conditions, whose bodies are too active 
 for their minds, in whose presence you can get rappings 
 by reducing the action of the body. But change them 
 from that point, the manifestation ceases. There are 
 others who in the normal state seem to comply with all 
 the conditions necessary; that is whose vital and ner- 
 vous systems are the same ; but you stir or excite them 
 any way, and the manifestations cease, simply because 
 there is no harmonic action between the mental and 
 physical systems. Persons boast, at iimes, of being 
 able to destroy the power of mediums ; but nothing 
 could be simpler, for a pQwerful battery may have its 
 action stopped by lifting out the connecting wire. It 
 is often the case that the entrance of a person into a 
 circle where manifestacions are occurring causes their 
 discontinuance, and the person is perhaps astonished to 
 think the spirits should be so contrary. It was simply 
 because he had come in and violated the conditions by 
 which they could manifest. He had, so to speak, dis- 
 turbed one of the plates of the battery. One class of 
 individuals in the sphere of lust — in what we call the 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF TJFI-:. 203 
 
 liAv aiul polluted plane — can not come into rapport with 
 those occupying a higher plane. ' There is an impassa- 
 ble gulf between them.' It is useless to open doors or 
 windows for sjiirits to enter, fen* a door is as transpa- 
 rent to the medium by which tliey arc represented as a 
 pane of glass is to the medium of light. ^ Jesus ap- 
 peared in the midst of his disciples though they were 
 shut up ; and when the time came for his disappear- 
 ance, he ceased to be seen not by going out of the door 
 or window, but by disturbing the conditions by which 
 he was represented to their consciousness. In respect 
 of spiiit mansions, etc., in the spiritual world, we are 
 very liable to mistake representation for actuality. We 
 are very liable to mistake images of things — crea- 
 tions, so to speak, proceeding from the minds of the 
 spirits — for actualities. We are very apt to perceive 
 animals. Some think that animals have a living form 
 and exist in tiie spiritual world ; but I pretend to say 
 it is not true. I know very well how they appear there. 
 I know very well how it is that persons suppose they 
 do exist, and wdiy spirits in the spiritual world appear 
 to have their dogs, cats — their pet animals. The con- 
 dition of immortality cannot pertain to the mere ani- 
 mal being.; The representations of animals, forests, 
 fields and things of this kind, have no basis upon that 
 which has a material or actual existence in the universe. 
 They are ordy developed under the law of representa- 
 tion. If you will only investigate the law of repre- 
 sentation, you will have no difficulty in accounting for 
 these things in the spiritual world." 
 
 Again : "AVhcn I go to the spirit world, I must take 
 that ',vith me of which I must be conscious, else T sludl 
 
204 ' PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 not take my individuality with me — else I become anni- 
 hilated. Just to the extent I leave my affections be- 
 hind me, shall I be annihated as a spiritual being-^ 
 When I go to the spiritual world, I must take my 
 character with me — that which is made an integral part 
 of my spiritual character by its development in me. 
 Of. course, then, where ever I go that must go. The 
 love that rules within me must go with me until that 
 ruling love is changed, or until some holier love shall 
 call me to a higher plane of action. I am prepared to 
 maintain that when we go to the spiritual world, we 
 shall take with us all the loves, affections, thoughts, 
 feelings and sentiments which characterize us as indi- 
 vidual beings," 
 
 Again : " The idea that when a spirit leaves the body 
 he gets rid of all his impurity, has caused many to 
 greatly venerate spiritual communications ; and attach 
 to them much authority. I remember that it was with 
 much deference that I listened to the first communica- 
 tions that came from the spirit world ; but I very soon 
 learned that a spirit was not necessarily wiser because 
 of his separation from the body, and that he required 
 quite as much watching as one in the body. Not that 
 they are below the world; for when you have taken an 
 average of th^ justice and wisdom of the world, you 
 will. find that the standard it could set up would not 
 -be very high. When you look over the earth and wit- 
 ness the very low state of character of the human race 
 here, why should y©u wonder that spirits qf a very low 
 character should hover around u& and manifest them- 
 selves to the world." 
 
 And again : " I know that spirits do communicate — 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 205 
 
 (h e.visf. It is not with uie a matter of conjecture at 
 all — I KNOW it/' etc. 
 
 I will also quote from an interesting pamphlet, called 
 "Spirit-works Real but not Miraculous." Davis, in 
 his "Philosophy of Spiritual Intercourse," says "Spir- 
 its, in all past times where they have commnnicated 
 with man, observed, though they did not well under- 
 stand, the great principles of aromal intercourse," 
 which our author Mr. Putnam thu.'- elucidates: "Place 
 a small bunch of fragrant violets in each of two vases 
 upon your center table, and the aroma or fragrance of 
 each bunch will extend to the other, and blend with 
 the other's aroma both around and in the bunch, and 
 through all the space between the two. Now these 
 lines or rays of fragrance from one, that intermix with 
 and run parallel to similar lines from the other, may be 
 telegraphic wires- along which the violets might, if 
 intelligent, send back and forth their mutual thoughts 
 and feeling. Remove one bunch of violets and put a 
 rose in its place, and the blended rays will produce a 
 different odor, which might be more agreeable to some 
 «»f us, and less so to others. A similar blending of 
 electrical aromas doubtless takes place when any two of 
 us meet, and also between each of us and any spirit that 
 may be in attendance upon us. Such aroma, though it 
 escapes our senses, is yet perceived by the dog, and the 
 dog's power of discernment teaches that no two of us 
 give off effluvia that are precisely alike. Now the elec- 
 trical evolutions of one human body may be such as 
 will readily combine with the electrical emanations from 
 some spirits, and the two in close and concordant alli- 
 ance, like muscle and nerve, may be adequate to the 
 
206 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 performance of sucli works as we are now considering. 
 Some such affinity and coalescence, I suppose, takes 
 place when ever one is what we call a medium. But 
 the same electrical condition in a spirit v\^hich adapts. 
 1dm or her to work through some one of us, may yet 
 be unsnited to work kindly xnth another person whose 
 electrical aroma is either much more or much less posi- 
 tive. Spirits may diifer as much in power to use men, 
 as men diifer in susceptibilities to be used by the spir- 
 its. The vv^ork is done through an aromal intercourse, 
 and it is only when the spirit aroma, and the mundane 
 aroma combine in harmonious equilibrium — making as 
 it were but one, and that one subject to the spirit's will, 
 that man becomes the spirit's instrument. Violet and 
 violet may furnish an efficient mixture, while violet 
 and rose combined may be unfit for use." 
 
 Again, beautifully : " Life's pathway has seemed to 
 
 myself and many others to be illumined wdth a new 
 
 liglit—either an ignis fatuus, a false light, luring to 
 
 dismal swamps of error and disquietude — or it is^a 
 
 sun conceived from creation's dawn, in nature's living 
 
 iaws — now but beginning to shine on man with steady 
 
 light, and promising to guide his steps to long hidden 
 
 fountains of truth and gladness. Is it a phantom or a 
 
 sun ? Is it a creature of deluded human brains, or is 
 
 it the handiwork of the eternal God ? Having used 
 
 my own senses—those, to me, best possible witnesses — 
 
 ?jid having used them in this work for more than a 
 
 year, I am prepared to receive the light that is now 
 
 struggling through the mists around us, as the dawn 
 
 of a new day. And if it has been my lot, as we are 
 
 performing our march over life's hill-tops and down 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. * 207 
 
 across its valleys — if it has been my lot to stand on a 
 spot where its earlier beams have met my eye — why 
 shall I not speak of the cheering event to those, whether 
 before or behind me, who are now marching in the 
 shaded valley ?" 
 
 Can any thing that springs from the human heart 
 be more angelic than these extracts? Will it detract 
 from or add to their accreditation when I inform you 
 that their author is a clergyman? My own opinion is 
 that so much as this information may detract from the 
 cliaracter of the production, just so much it will add to 
 the character of the clergyman. If the clerical pro- 
 fession generally were half such as he (Mr. Putnam) 
 in charity, humanity, truth and love, to say nothing of 
 talents, study and honest eflPort, how gladly would I 
 retract my bitter animadversions and expend them my 
 right hand of cordial greeting. 
 
 And again from the same author, to whom I wrote 
 asking the privilege of quoting the above. In his 
 j)rivate letter to me he says (and I hope he will pardon 
 this liberty) : " It gives me great pleasure to learn 
 tiiat my early lecture has found favor with one who can 
 a})preciate and is disposed to speak to the world upon 
 the spiritual philosophy of life. If it has been my 
 privilege to furnish the world with any thing instruct- 
 ive and useful concerning the intercourse of spirits with 
 mortals, I desire to thank God and his ministering 
 si)irits for the opportunity and the power. The little 
 whieli I have published is at the service of any one 
 ^vho judges that he can make it useful." After kindly 
 invitations he concludes : '' May wisdom from heavenly 
 founts inflow your mind and fit you to produce a work 
 10 
 
208 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 Avliicli shall tend to the elevation and purification of 
 man/^ 
 
 I'll now read from his "Mesmerism, Spiritualism, 
 Witchcraft and Miracle/' which he kindly sent me: 
 " The old records abound in facts which might be 
 adduced in evidence that Witchcraft is resolvable into 
 Mesmerism and Spiritualism, and therefore into the 
 legitimate operations of natural laws. But we have 
 given to this topic all the space we can aiford, till we 
 pass beyond our facts to some speculations and reflec- 
 tions. . 
 
 " The clear-sighted logician will see, I think, that, 
 from the point now reached, a direct path extends on 
 to the seeress of Prevorst^ to Swedenborg, to Scottish 
 seers, to Joan of Arc, to Mahomet, to Roman augurs, * 
 Grecian priestesses, and all who have given their con- 
 temporaries assurances that they saw spirit-forms and 
 conversed with the departed, or with angels. The 
 prophets, seers, and magicians of all ages and nations; 
 may have been all that they claimed to be, and yet 
 have been only mesmeric subjects and spirit mediums. 
 This view starts the inquiry whether any of the Scrip- 
 ture miracles were the acts of unseen finite intelligences, 
 ;using their normal powers in submission to fixed laws. 
 The question is legitimate and proper. And it gives 
 me pleasure to make an affirmative answer, for, in doing 
 that, I behold a God so perfect that his wisdom and 
 power were, from the beginning, competent to devise 
 such laws as should without violation, without suspen- 
 sion, admit under and in obedience to themselves all the 
 light and all the angel-visitations which his children 
 .on earth might 'ever need. When man shall see and 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE, 209 
 
 feel that heaven's inhabitants may come to earth by 
 natural processes, and work among us just according to 
 their several abilities and characters, then the greatest 
 difficulties of philosophical faith in the BiWe as a record 
 of teachings from on high will melt away, and the 
 wisdom of God himself will appear to us more com- 
 plete. The departed Samuel did appear to the woman 
 of Endor and to Saul ; Moses and Elias did appear to 
 Jesus and his companions, and, as spirits are seen and 
 conversed with in our day, the fair presumj^tion is tliat 
 the processes of return were the same then as now. 
 Angels rolled the stone frc^m the mouth of the sepul- 
 chre; they opened Peter's prison-doors. Spirits move 
 heavy bodies now; and why not by the same laws as 
 then? In olden times such works were done in the 
 dark; they are mostly and most successfully done in 
 the dark now, and thus give ground for presumption 
 that both are manifestations of one law. Unlearned 
 apostles spoke in languages which they had never talked 
 or studied before — many mediums now do the same. 
 The sick were healed by a look or a touch — the same 
 thing is frequently done now. Jesus, in a certain 
 place, performed but few mighty works, because of the 
 unbelief which surrounded him, and at this day unbe- 
 lief on the part of those present is a formidable bar to 
 spirit manifestation. Jesus walked upon the water — 
 Margaret Rule floated in the air — and so have others 
 c^uite recently. These and other points of resemblance 
 in the manifestations indicate a- compliance with the 
 same law or laws. » The above conclusion by no means 
 requires one to ascribe the same wisdom and holiness 
 to the spirits who come now ns to those who came of 
 
210 PHILOSOrilY OF LIFE. 
 
 old ; nor does it bring tlie moral and religious charac- 
 ter of Jesus and the apostles into comparison with that 
 of modern mediums. Formerly there was occasion to 
 ' try the spirits/ and most surely the need exists at the 
 present day. Far back in the Jewish history, God said 
 he would put a lying spirit in the mouth of his 
 prophet, and it is written that an evil spirit from the 
 Ijord troubled Saul. Lying and evil spirits from some 
 source, as well as truthful and good ones, find their way 
 into mediums now. The mediums themselves are not 
 all supposed to be above treachery and deceit. Tliere 
 was one Judas of old — perhaps our times furnish many 
 There were both good and bad spirits and prophesiers 
 in Bible times, and there are both good and bad spirits 
 and mediums, too, at the present day. One fact of 
 Scripture, shov/ing the immediate author or authors of 
 John's inspiration when writing the Apocalypse, may 
 throw a bright light upon the subject of spirit action. 
 Jesus sent his angel to John, 'in the spirit;' John saw 
 and heard that angel, and learned from him that he 
 was not God, but one of John's brethren, the prophets. 
 This seems to be a clear statement that the spirit of 
 one who had been a prophet on earth was sent by Jesu- 
 ±0 John ; and that when the angel was present, John 
 " in the spirit ' (trance ?) saw and heard the things 
 which he described and recorded. That angel was a 
 :speaker to John, and it is his words in part which 
 .come to us as inspiraticn. Let that light shine back 
 upon the Book of Daniel, and some other parts of the 
 .Scriptures, and see if the Bible itself does not contain 
 internal proof that individaal, finite spirits furnished 
 manj parts of it to the recording mediums^ and th»s 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF I.IFP. 211 
 
 indicate that iiis])iration from above comes in obedience 
 to some universal law. Let a view like this l^ecome 
 general, and then, if its effects upon those who already 
 take it warrant a prophecy, the world ^vill turn to tlw 
 Bible with fresh interest and find there, more than ever 
 before, a storehouse richly furnished with treasures of 
 trutli and love and wisdom from the heavens. The 
 Bible will hereafter find its truest friends, its only 
 invincible defenders, among those who shall gnard it 
 within the walls of Spiritualism, and read it there in 
 tlie liglit of heavenly inspiration. If enough has been 
 exhibited to furnish plausible reason for asking whether 
 mesmerism is not a key which may unlock many long- 
 closed chambers of mystery, then I have no occasion 
 for further presentation of facts, but may, in the future 
 pages, indulge in some explanations and reflections. 
 Every reader has doubtless asked, ' What is mesmer- 
 ism T This being put forth as a solvent of many great 
 mysteries of all times and among all people what is 
 this mesmerism itself? Frankly, it is itself quite a 
 mystery yet, but it is not looked upon as involving any 
 thing supernatural, devilish, or in such a sense miracu- 
 lous as to imply either a suspension or a violation of 
 natural laws in its processes of manifestation. Through 
 it we learn that some men, by a concentrated applica- 
 tion of th.eir mental forces, aided often by the eye or 
 the hand, can either take from or impart to certain per- 
 sons some property or fluid which enables the operator 
 to become master in the subject's house or body. 
 Through that other body he manifests himself; but he 
 does this only imperfectly. He has power there, but 
 not power equal to that which he can display through 
 
212 PHILOSOPHY OP LIFE. 
 
 his own organs. A' man is cramped when he has to 
 take a borrowed body^ therefore a spirit well may be 
 so too. In successful mesmerism^ the subject will walk 
 or sit or kneel or lie down ; will move this way 
 or that; will say this thing or that; will perform 
 the most ludicrous or the most appropriate acts; 
 will see one object or another; will taste or smell 
 or feel any imaginable substance^ whether present or 
 not^ just according to the will of the operator. But 
 this is not all; frequently such possession effects a lib- 
 eration of the subject's intellectual and perceptive fac- 
 ulties from the control, not of the operator alone, but 
 also from the crampings of his own external organs, 
 and thus enables him to look out through walls of solid 
 masonry, through hills of granite, and into the most 
 interior recesses of the human body, or any other ani- 
 mal or vegetable organism. He seems to possess per- 
 ceptive faculties which enable him to see and hear and 
 sense through all material objects, at vast distances and 
 in all directions. Thus conditioned he can read the 
 autobiography of any natural object, scan the distant 
 and get glimpses of the future. He seems like one 
 freed from the body and endowed with organs which 
 use electricity as their medium of sight and sound, and 
 thus can he see and hear through whatever electricity 
 can penetrate; that is, through almost if not quite all 
 material objects. Some men, then, possess and can put 
 forth such will-power as makes certain other men their 
 abject and unresisting tools, simple unconscious organs 
 by which to express their own thoughts and purposes. 
 Sometimes such control is absolute, but in more cases 
 only partial, and such a subduing force when carried 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 213 
 
 beyond a certain point pushes the subject's intellectual 
 and perceptive faculties into unwonted freedom and 
 independence, and makes him a more independent and 
 gifted man than before. 
 
 " Such are the results of human magnetism, called 
 mesmerism only because Mesmer applied it and drew 
 attention to it more definitely and extensively than any 
 one had done before his time. The getting control of 
 another's organism, either by abstracting from it or im- 
 parting to it human magnetism, is mesmerism. It is 
 the action of one mind, in connection with its envelop- 
 ing body, upon another's body and its indwelling mind. 
 It is some action of the living upon the living, and not 
 upon tables and chairs. 
 
 " Many tell us that Spiritualism is nothing but mes- 
 merism. Of course such a statement admits that it is 
 as much as mesmerism — that it is, in fact, the same 
 thing:. Thanks for this concession: because mesmer- 
 ism, if permitted to mature, may ripen. into Spiritual- 
 ism. Our tree, like the orange, often shows flowers 
 and green fruit and ripe at the same time. Much that 
 is supposed to be only mesmerism is, in fact. Spiritual- 
 ism; also much of wh'H is regarded as Spiritualism is 
 only mesmerism. Often, when man magnetizes, he 
 puts his subject into such a state that some spirit 
 quietly slips in and works there, and yet the spirit's 
 presence is not suspected. At such times an angel is 
 entertained unawares. Spiritualism is there under the 
 name of m(^merism. On the other hand our spirit- 
 mediums often get mesmerized by the company present 
 so as to become claivoyant and clairaudient. The inter- 
 nal or spirit eyes and ears of the mediums get opened 
 
214 PHILOSOPEY OF LIFE. 
 
 by the undesigned, unwilled flowings of human mag- 
 netism to or from those around them. Their words 
 may report to us spirit-utterances and describe spirits 
 and spirit-scenes, and yet the real speakers may be only 
 entranced mortals, listening to the voices above, and 
 looking into the homes of the ascended. There may 
 be a pure mesmerism which opens a Avay for mortals 
 to see and hear the departed. What then is a distinc- 
 tion between mesmerism and Spiritualism ? Mesmer- 
 ism is something which a man do«s while he has his 
 clothes on — Spiritualism is a similar act of his after 
 his clothes have been put off. Suppose I magnetize 
 you to-day, and that I, the mesmerizer, speak, write, 
 act, through you, you being unconscious — ^this is mes- 
 merism. Suppose, further, th«-t I die to-night, and 
 that to-morrow I, a spirit, come and magnetize you, 
 and then speak, Avrite, act, through you — this is Spir- 
 itualism. Here Ave have the same operator working 
 upon and through the same subject, the only difference 
 being that to-day I, the operator, am in the body — 
 having my clothes on, while to-m'orrow I am to be out 
 of the body, or to have my clothes off. Such is the 
 only essential difference between mesmerism and Spir- 
 itualism in some of its form-s. If man's powers are 
 not diminished by the death of his body, then some 
 spirits can mesmerize susseptible subjects. No increase 
 of power is needed — no miracle is Avanted. Mesmer- 
 ism and Spiritalism may differ no more than the green. 
 fruit and the ripe on the same tree. They are nour- 
 ished through the same roots, the same trunk — one 
 ripens into the other. Those Avho are so inclined may 
 phick all the oranges from their OAvn trees while the 
 
PHii.osornY OF lifi 215 
 
 fruit is yet green ; but I beg of them to leave mine 
 npon the branches, and when an orange there shall have 
 become fully ripe, I trust they will not dissuade nie 
 from eating it, by alleging that their own green ones 
 have never tasted good. Spirits, then, often have to 
 perform the difficult and uncertain process of inducing 
 a full mesmeric sleep before they can manage the hand 
 of the flesh. Several persons, who are susceptible to 
 both the mesmeric and the spirit influence, have told 
 me that when the controling fluid comes to them from 
 one in the body they feel it flowing in horizontally 
 and entering mostly about the region of the eyes? but 
 when it comes from spirits the stream is verticle and 
 enters through the spiritual organs on the crown of the 
 head. That the process of mesmerizing and of sjiirit- 
 ualizing a subject are very similar, might be argued 
 from the fact that both succeed best under like circum- 
 stances. Both are most easily performed where alii 
 minds are quiet or passive; both ask for good air and 
 an harmonious circle, and both generally succeed best 
 with the same organism and temperaments ; in other 
 words, in most cases but not in all, good spirit mediums 
 can be eafeily magnetized. The difference, then, be-- 
 tween mesmerism and Spiritualism in some of its 
 forms is not enough to let us regard them as generically 
 different. 
 
 " If any spirit can visit earth and work here whv 
 can not all others? If my spirit friend can communi- 
 cate through a stranger, why can he not do the same- 
 through me? Why can not all spirits come? Why 
 are not all persons mediums? Such questions have- 
 some up in every mind. You have said,, if spirits- 
 10* 
 
216 , niii.osoPHY or lifp:. 
 
 come why do they not come to and through me? 
 Probably they are hindered by natural obstacles, inhe- 
 rent in either them or yourself. How is it in mesmer- 
 ism? There are but few successful magnetizers, but 
 few facile subjects. Mr. can very easily mag- 
 netize several of my acquaintances and friends, but he 
 can produce no effect upon me. Why this difference? 
 Feed two oxen alike for years and then bring them to 
 tlie shambles — you may find the meat of one tender 
 and juicy, that of the other tough and dry. One man 
 has fine and soft hair, while another's is coarse and 
 hard. Why so? Who can tell me why? The facts 
 are obvious, but the reasons for them can not be given. 
 We can only say such are the results of God's modes 
 of working.. Now, then, if in our fibres and fluids 
 and emenations we differ one from another why may 
 not some of us be very susceptible to certain influences 
 which others cannot feel at all ? Why may not some 
 impart much more easily and powerfully than others? 
 Till the mesmerist can magnetize any one person just 
 as easily and as thoroughly as he can any other, why ex- 
 pect that spirits can? Till all men are efficient mag- 
 netizers, why think that all spirits can be? Till all 
 men are facite- subjects for the embodied" magnetizer, 
 why suppose that they can- be for a disembodied one ? 
 The hidden reasons A^hich exist in the one case, 
 ought, as we view these subjects, to exist also in the 
 other. We believe that they do. Beyond a certain 
 point mesmerism fails to fnrnish illustration of Spirit- 
 ualism. 
 
 " We come now to the raps and tips. This working 
 outside of and distant from the medium's body, and 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFK. 217 
 
 tills Infusion of animation and intelligence into inan- 
 imate wood, is more than mesmerism has ever claimed 
 or seemed to perform. The visible, living man, acting 
 upon a visible, living organism, is always involved in 
 mesmerism, but many of the physical manifestations of 
 Spiritualism imply some invisible power revealing 
 intelligence through inanimate matter. The raps and 
 knockings and table-tippings liave never come out 
 among the works of mesmerism. The harsh pound- 
 ings, the childish tiltings, the unmannerly antics of 
 heavy pianos and large dining tables, are, as many say, 
 too low and vulgar for any decent mind in the body 
 to wish for or to prompt ; no well bred mesmerist ever 
 calls for sucli results. True, true ; but would they 
 come if he did call for them ? No ; he does not show 
 the raps and tips. x4nd why not? Simply because he 
 can not"? These low and ridiculed works lie beyond 
 the farthest stretch of his powers. A table rising and 
 floating gently in the air, a piano dancing to the tune 
 that is being played upon itself, a human form rising 
 gently from the floor toward the ceiling and moving 
 dovelike around the room, a chair tipping in answer to 
 questions, and all this where neither muscle nor 
 machinery, nor any tangil)le mechanical power, was 
 applied; these things, and others like them, which are 
 happening every month, and are seen over and over 
 again by many credible v;itnesses — these things are not 
 found in nusmerisra. Did animal magnetism, did 
 electricity, did odyle, did either or all of these consti- 
 tute^ the intelligent actor in the chair which answered 
 my questions ■? No; these fluids or forces of nature 
 arc not mind.. 
 
218' PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 "They do not, they can not guide and control action' 
 so as to converse with man. They may be and doubt- 
 less are instruments through which one mind imparts 
 intelligence to another, butr they, in and of themselves^ 
 are not mind, and can not think nor act intelligently. 
 Let the most powerful embodied mesmerizer which the 
 world contains try his will upon the insensible chair^ 
 and will the chair move at his bidding? ISo; not the 
 fraction of an inch, Charge the chair, even incased in 
 glass or coated with sealing-wax — charge it with all 
 the magnetism, electricity and odylic fluid imaginable^ 
 and will they all generate in it or convey into it mind 
 enough to- understand and to answer my question ? No^ 
 obviously no. You know that if an embodied mes- 
 merizer should will the chair to move, and keep on 
 mlling it to move for hours, that it would not stir an 
 inch unless he applied his hand to it. His will-power 
 controls only living organism. You know, too, that 
 neither magnetism, electricity, nor odyle, could be made 
 to give or to generate a mind in the chair ; yet its mo- 
 tions proved that mind was- there. Common sense 
 demands the admission of" this. But mind needs tools 
 or organs Avhen it gives intelligent movements to mat- 
 ter. We usually find it expressing itself through the 
 eyes, the face, the tongue, the hand. The acting mind 
 surely needed a hand or sometlimg with the powers of 
 a hand, to move that chair. So also did the one angel 
 to roll away the stone^ and the other angel to unlock 
 the prison-door. Something with the powers of a hand 
 was needed in each ease. Perhaps a hand was there. 
 Spirits profess to have power under favorable circum- 
 stances to gather up and use some (to us) invisible em- 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 219 
 
 Giiations from the bodies of our mediums, and elements 
 from the atmosphere in some loealities^, and to combine 
 these with certain properties inherent in themselves, 
 and from these materials to construct hands, arms, etc., 
 varvint^ jn strength according; to their own inherent 
 powers and the qualities of the foreign materials used, 
 thev profess to 1)C able to form hands, arms, etc., vary- 
 ing in strength from those of a feeble infant up to 
 those of a veritable Samson. When such tools have 
 been constructed, tlic invisible ones work .out by aid of 
 them results which man can see and hear and feel. 
 Then raps and tips are heard and seen ; then the low 
 thiuffs become high. A hand from out of the invisible 
 did once appear and wn-ite upon the \ra\h of a banquet- 
 room, and the form of another w^as put forth and took 
 Ezekiel by a lock of his head, and the spirit lifted hini 
 up between the earth and the heaven. When were the 
 laws repealed by which such hands were formed and did 
 their work ? Our whole train of remark implies sup- 
 position, that refined electricity, magnetism, odyle, or 
 some unknown but yet eternal and universal fluid has 
 been an essential instrument in all parts of spirit com- 
 munication, as well in Judei as in other lands. It im- 
 plies, too, that this instrument can never have been 
 wanting in any age; Why, then, have angel visits 
 been so ' few and far between f We need not answer 
 a querrv like this because of any bearing it may have 
 u})on the question whether spirits come now. That 
 ocean and those winds had always existed which bore 
 Columbus to the New World, but the question why 
 Europeans had so seldom, if ever, reached America be- 
 fere, could not iuvalidhte tlie fact that Columbus him- 
 
220 PHILOSOPHY OF LiFEf. 
 
 self had reached it. If it be proved that spirits come' 
 now, the iiifrequenoy of their visits heretofore will not 
 disprove the fiiet. Still the question why they should 
 come so mu-ch more frequently and generally now than 
 in former times^ is a very natural and proper^one, and 
 is worthy of the best answer we can give. That 
 answer^ hovv^ever, will have little weight with any but 
 those who are already prepared to give some credence 
 where statements are backed by no authority beyond 
 that of utterances through spirit mediums. Is it im- 
 possible that modes and means of using the subtile 
 fluids in man and nature are better miderstood even by 
 the spirits now than they were in ages past? Can the 
 departed continue to make advances in scientific and 
 practical knowledge ? Who among us can tell ? Elec- 
 tricity and magnetism have always existed ; yet it was 
 but quite recently that man became acquainted with 
 their extent and nature, and that he learned how to 
 subject them in any degree to his control ; still more 
 recent did he invent the telegraph. Man, by his dis- 
 coveries in electricity and steam within the last half 
 century, has become able to convey his thoughts and 
 his person much more widely, speedily and definitely 
 to people and places on the earth now than he could 
 before. Possibly spirits may have made recent discov- 
 eries and inventions, by v/hicli they can come to us 
 more easily, speedily, and definitely, and make them- 
 selves more distinctly felt and better understood by us 
 than formerly." 
 
 Thus you see the same philosophy evolved and enter- 
 tained by this gentleman and myself, cotemporaneoush' 
 and unknown to each other., 
 
PHII.OSOPIIY OF lAFE. 221 
 
 Before this s})iritual ])hilosophy was evolved by 
 modern seienee, Cuvier, whose brain was the largest 
 ever measured, who eould define the genus and even 
 species of an animal from an inspection of one of its 
 pnmarv bones^ and who was honorc^l of emperors for 
 liis profound science in paleontoloiry, comparative anat- 
 omy, zoology, physiology and geology, said tliat " It 
 scarcely admits of further doubt that the proximity of 
 two' livino- bodies in certain circumstances and M'ith 
 certain movements, has a real effect independently of 
 all participation of the imagination- of one o-f thetwo;" 
 and he further adds : " It appears now clearly enough 
 that the effects are due to some communicatio-n estab- 
 lished between their nervous systems." This is seien- 
 flfio presnence. In connection with Cuvier I'll relate 
 an anecdote illustrating the coniidenoc of mind and 
 science, and another equally illustrating the trepidation 
 of nicre mitter and nescience : In a dream the devil 
 appeared to Cuvier, and said he had come to devour 
 him. Cuvier surveyed him thoroughly and exclaimed, 
 " Horns, hoofs, r/rammiverous — I'm not afraid of you." 
 His Satanic Majesty also presented himself to one of 
 the sable sons of Ham, whose race the Puritans are so 
 eager to take to their bosoms, and who, it must be con- 
 fessed, are equals of the latter in every thing save 
 shoddv, or the power of pecuniosity, and nasal psalm- 
 singing on Sundav, in Avhich latter, liowever, there is 
 great rythmic concord. Says Ham, '• AViio dat?" 
 " The Devil, come after Ham." " Ham not here — 
 Ham ain't bin here dese two months!" was the quick 
 and sillv answer of the ignorant and frightened Afric 
 hero. I will now read from "Spiritualism Scicntifi- 
 callv Demonstrated:" 
 
222 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFL. 
 
 " The facts which I have noticed in relation to mcdi- 
 umship, are certainly among the most inexplicable in 
 nature. 
 
 " Tliere are two modes in which spiritual manifesta- 
 tions are made through the influence or sub-agency of 
 media. In the one mode, tliey employ the tongue to 
 speak, the lingers to write, or hands to actuate tables 
 ar instruments for communication ; in the other, they 
 act upon ponderaljle matter directly, through a halo or 
 aura appertaining to media; so- that although the 
 muscular power may be incapacit ited for aiding them, 
 they will cause a body to move, or produce raps intelli- 
 gibly so as to select letters conveying their ideas, unin- 
 fluenced by those of the medium. 
 
 " Even where they act through the muscular frame 
 of the media, their vision may be intercepted by a 
 screen, so that they cannot influence the selection of the 
 letters requisite to a communication, (Plate 1.) 
 
 " Rappings or tappings are made at the distance of 
 many feet from the medium, and ponderable bodies, 
 such as bells, are moved or made to undergo the motion 
 requisite to being rung. 
 
 "It will be perceived that my spirit father, in reply 
 to the queries put in relation to this mystery^ asks, 
 ' How do you move your limbs — carry the body where- 
 soever it goeth ? how does God cause the movements of 
 astronomical orbs ? ' 
 
 "Evidently some instrument must intervene between 
 the Divine will and the bodies actuated thereby, and 
 in humble imitations between the human will and the 
 limbs. Upon the viscera our will has no influence. 
 The heart moves without the exercise of volition.. 
 
rHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 223 
 
 "As ihero is an ethereal medium by means of wliioli 
 light moves throngli spaee from tlie remotest visible 
 fixed star to tlic eye, at the rate of two hundred thou- 
 sand miles per secoiid ; tlirough an affeetion oi the 
 same ether frietional cleetricitv moves, aceording; to 
 ■ Whcatstono's estimate, with a veloeity exceeding that 
 of light — so may v/e not infer that the instrument of 
 Divine will acts with still greater velocity, and that in 
 making man in this respect after His own image, so far 
 as necessarv' to an available existence, gives liim one 
 degree of power over the same element while in the 
 mortal state, and another higher degree of power in the 
 spiritual state. J>ut if there be an element tlirough 
 which a spirit within his mortal frame is capable of 
 actuating that frame, may noc this element of actuation 
 be siLsceptiLle of becoming an instrument to the will of 
 another spirit in the immortal state? 
 
 "The aura of a medium which thus enables an im- 
 mortal spirit to do within its scope things which it 
 cannot do O'therwise, appears to vary with the human 
 being resorted to; so that only a few are so endowed 
 with this aura as to be competent as media. Moreover, 
 in those who are so constituted as to be competent 
 instruments of spiritual actuation, this competency is 
 various. There is a gradation of competency, by which 
 the nature of the instrumentality varies from that v/hich 
 empowers violent loud knoeJcing and the moving of 
 p-jnderable bodies without actual contact, to the grade 
 which confers power to make intellectual communica- 
 tions of the higher order without that of audible knock- 
 ing. Further, the power to em})Ioy these grades of 
 niediumsliip varies as the sphere of the spirit varies. 
 
224 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE, 
 
 '' It has been stated that mortals have each a halo 
 perceptible to spirits, by which they are enabled to 
 determine the sphere to which any individual will go 
 on passing death's portal. Spirits cannot approach 
 effectively a medium of a sphere much above, or below 
 that to which they belong. 
 
 " As media, in proportion as they are more capable 
 of serving for the higher intellectual communications 
 are less capable of serving for mechanical demonstra- 
 tions, and as they are more capable of the latter are less 
 competent for the former, spirits likewise have a higher 
 or lower capacity to employ media. It has been men- 
 tioned that having made a test apparatus, my spirit 
 sister alleged that it could not be actuated by her with- 
 out assistance of spirits from a lower sphere. I in- 
 quired whether she could not meet me again, accompa- 
 nied by the requisite aid. The reply was in the affirm- 
 ative, and accordingly she met me at an appointed 
 hour, and my apparatus was actuated effectually under 
 test conditions. (Plate 4, dd, ii, kk.) 
 
 " After I had read over an exposition of my informa- 
 tion respecting the spirit world to the spirit of the illus- 
 trious Washington, I requested him to give me a con- 
 firmation while the medium should be under test con- 
 ditions. (Plate 4, kk.) I placed the hand of the me- 
 dium upon the board lever of the instrument, of which 
 a representation has been given (Plate 1, Plate 4), so 
 as to be on the outer side of the fulcrum, and requested 
 him to attest the reliability of the medium during the 
 previous intercommunion. In reply it was alleged not 
 to be within his power to give me that test ; I urged 
 that this test had been given in his presence. 'We 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 225 
 
 had an eni])loYce then/ was his rejoiner. Fortunately 
 I had ^contrived a test instrument requiring less of the 
 mechanical power, so that by means of it he was ena- 
 bled to perfect the evidence by bringing the index to 
 the affirmative, under conditions wliich put it out of 
 the power of the medium to produce that result. (See 
 Plate 4 and description.) 
 
 " These facts make the subject of mediumship a most 
 complicated mystery; but the creation teems with 
 mystery, so that inscrutability cannot be a ground of 
 disbelief of anything. The only cases M'herein tliere is 
 absolute incredibility, arc those in which the definition 
 of the premises contradicts those of the inferences or 
 conclusions. 
 
 " It is evident from the creative power v.hich the 
 spirits aver themselves to possess, that they exercise 
 faculties which they do not understand. Their expla- 
 nation of the mysteries of mediumship only substitutes 
 one mystery for another. 
 
 " If we undertake to generalize, it must come pretty 
 near what I have said above, that spirits are endowed, 
 as my spirit father alleges, with a ' magic M'ill,' capa- 
 ble of producing, as they allege, wonderful results 
 within their own world, nevertheless that this will does 
 not act by itself directly on mundane bodies. An inter- 
 medium is found in the halo or aura wdthin or without 
 certain human organizations. The halos thus existing 
 are not all similarly endowed ; some having one, some 
 another capability. Some are better for one object, 
 some for another object. Again, the Avill-power varies 
 as the sphere of the spirits is higher or lower, so that 
 the medium suited for one is not suited for another. 
 
226 PHILOSOPflY OF LIFE. 
 
 " Thus the means by which they are capable of com- 
 municating are various, and moreover precarious, ac- 
 cording to the health and equanimity of the mortal 
 being under whose halo they may strive to act. 
 
 " Concerned in the processes of mediumship, it is 
 manifest that there is none of that kind of electricity 
 or magnetism of which the laws and phenomena have 
 been the subject of Faraday's researches and which are 
 treated of in boolcs, under the heads of frictional or 
 mechanical electricity, galvanism, or electro-mag- 
 netism, 
 
 '• Frictional electricity, such as produced usually by 
 the friction of glass in an electrical machine, or of aque- 
 ous globules generated by steam escaping from a boiler, 
 is always to be detected by electrometers, or the spark 
 given to a conducting body when in communication 
 Avith the earth ; the human knuckle, for instance. 
 When not sufficiently accumulated to produce these 
 evidences of its presence, it must be in a very feeble 
 state of excitement. But even in highest accumula- 
 tion by human means, as in the discharge of a power- 
 fully charged Ley den battery, it only acts for a time 
 inconceivably brief, and does not move ponderabW 
 masses as they are moved in the instance of spiritual 
 manifestation. It is only in transitu, that frictional 
 electricity displays much ])ower, and then its path is 
 extremely narrow, and the duration of its influence 
 inconceivably minute. According to Wheatstone's ex- 
 periments and calculations, it would go round the earth 
 in the tenth part of a second. 
 
 "How infinitely small, then, the period required to 
 go from one side of a room to another ! Besides, there 
 
reiLOrtOPHY OF iJFE. 227 
 
 are neither means of generating sueh electricity, nor 
 of securing that insulation which must be an indispen- 
 sable precursor of accumulation. Galvanic or voltaic 
 electricity does not act at a distance so as to produce 
 any recognized effects, exccj^t in the case of magnetic 
 metals, or in tlie state of transition produced by an elec- 
 tric discharge. In these plienomcna the potent effects 
 arc attainable only by means of perfect insulated con- 
 d.uctors, as we see in the telegraphic apparatus. Xo 
 reaction with imperfect conducting bodies competent to 
 toss them to and fro, or up and down, can be accom- 
 plished. The decomposing influence, called electrolytic, 
 is only exhibited at insensible distances, within a fila- 
 ment of tl\e matter affected. 
 
 " It has appeared to me a great error on the part of 
 .-•pirits, as well as mortals, that they should make efforts 
 to explain the ph.enomena of the s})irit world by the 
 ponderable or imponderable ageuts of the temporal 
 world. The fi.ict that the rays of our sun do not affect 
 the spirit world, and that there is for that region an 
 appropriate luminary whose rays we do not perceive 
 (415), must demonstrate that the imponderable element 
 to which they owe their peculiar light differs from the 
 ethereal fluid which, according to the undulatory 
 theory, is the means of producing liglitin the terrestrial 
 creation. 
 
 "In one of the replies made by the convocation (571), 
 the idea was sanctioned of the effulgence of tlic spirit 
 being due to an appropriate ethereal fluid, analogous 
 to that above alluded to. But it has, I think, been 
 shoAvn by me, that as light is due to the undulations of 
 ouretner, so electricity is due to waves polarization. 
 
228 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 But if undulations produce light in the ether of the 
 spiritual universe as well as in ours, why may not po- 
 larization produce in the ether of the spirit world an 
 electricity analogous to ours ? Thus, although in spir- 
 itual manifestations our electricity takes no part, their 
 electricity maybe the means by which their will is trans- 
 mitted effectually in the phenomena which it controls. 
 
 "The words magnetism and magnetic are used in 
 this world in two different senses. In one, it signifies 
 the magnetism of magnets or electro-magnets ; in the 
 other, the animal magnetism of which the existence was 
 suggested by Mesmer, and which is commonly galled 
 mesmerism. 
 
 "This mesmerical magnetism seems to be dependent 
 rather on properties which we have as immortals en- 
 cased in a corporeal clothing, than as mortals owing 
 our mental faculties to that frame. If it be the spirit- 
 ual portion of our organization which is operative in 
 clairvoyancy, spiritual electricity may be the interme- 
 dium both of that faculty and of mesmeric influence. 
 
 " All spirits are clairvoyant more or less, and where 
 this faculty is exercised it seems to be due to an un- 
 usual ascendency of the spiritual powers over the cor- 
 poreal, so that clairvoyants possess some of the faculties 
 which every spirit, after shuffling off the mortal coil, 
 must possess to a greater or less extent. 
 
 " The only explanation of which I can conceive is, 
 that spirits, by volition, can deprive bodies of vis iner- 
 iim and move bodies, as they do themselves, by their 
 will. But the necessity of the presence of a medium to 
 the display of this power, granting its existence, is a 
 myst-ery>. 
 
THILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 229 
 
 " That the spirit should, by its ' magic ' will-power, 
 take possession of the frame of a human being, so as to 
 make use of its brain and nervoas system, depriving its 
 appropriate owner of control, is a wonderful fact suffi- 
 ciently difficult to believe, yet, neverthelcas, intelligi- 
 ble. The aura which surrounds a medium must be 
 imponderable. No volition of the medium can, through 
 its instrumentality, move ponderable bodies, nor cause 
 raps or consequent vibrations in the wooden boards. 
 Hence, the presence of a medium imparts power to 
 spirits which the medium does not possess. 
 
 " The aura on the one side, and the spirit on the 
 other, are inert unless associated. Thus the volition of 
 the spirit gives activity to an effluvium, by itself, so 
 devoid of efficacy that it wholly escapes the perce])tion 
 of the possessor or the observation of his mundane com- 
 panions. It has been already alleged, that the usual 
 reference to mundane electricity must be wholly un- 
 satisfactory to all acquainted with the phenomena and 
 laws associated under that name ; since no such move- 
 ments have ever been produced Jby such electrical 
 means, nor is it consistent with these mundane electri- 
 cal laws, nor the facts which electricians have noticed, 
 that such movements should be produced. Those 
 movements which have been produced by electricity 
 have never been effected without surfaces oppositely 
 charged, nor, of course, without the means of charging 
 them. Neither are there associated with the spriritual 
 manifestations means at hand of creating nor of holding 
 charges either [even?] much more minute than those 
 which display perceptible force or cause audible sound. 
 Electro-magnetic phenomena require the use of power- 
 
230 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 fui galvanic batteries or magiietic metals. Galvanic 
 series, of the most powerful kind, do not act at the 
 minutest distance without contact. 
 
 " Even lightning could not move a table backward 
 and forward, though it might shatter it into pieces, if 
 duly interposed in a circuit. Electrical sparks produce 
 snapping sounds in the air, not knockings or rappings 
 upon sonorous solids. An incredulity liable to be 
 overcome by the rensjn by which it has been created 
 does not form a bar ; but where an impregnable bigotry 
 has been introduced merely by education, so that the 
 person under its influence would have been a Catholic, 
 Calvinist, Unitarian, Jew, or Mohammedan by a 
 change of parentage, cannot usually be changed by any 
 evidence or argument. Spirits will not spend their 
 time subjecting their manifestations to such impregna- 
 ble bigotry, or to predetermined malevolence. 
 
 " On this account such persons -find it hard to obtain 
 the manifestations which they seek with ill-will to 
 Spiritualism, and a predisposition to ridicule and per- 
 vert it. 
 
 " Besides this difficulty, there is no doubt a constitu- 
 tional state, the inverse of that which creates a medium. 
 The atmosphere of persons so constituted neutralizes 
 that of those who are endowed with that of medium- 
 ship. 
 
 " It were impossible for any one to be more incredu- 
 lous than I was when I commenced my investigations ; 
 but in the first place my recorded religious impressions, 
 founded on more than a half century of intense reflec- 
 tion, in no respect conflicted with the belief which 
 Spiritualism required. As I said to a clergyman, 1 
 
PIITI>OSOPHY OF LIFE. 231 
 
 wish I knew as well what I ought to believe, as I can 
 perceive what I ought not to believe. I was ardently 
 desirous that the existence of a future state should be 
 established in a way to conform to positive science, so 
 that they might start together. This M'as perceived 
 by my spirit friends, and that they had only to give 
 me sufficient evidence of the existence of spirits and 
 their world to make me lay down in the cause my com- 
 paratively worthless mortal life, could I be more useful 
 to truth in dying than in living, 
 
 " Thus it appears that there is a mesmeric electricity, 
 or spiritual electricity, which may be considered as ap- 
 propriate to the spirit world as their vital air is; but 
 which, like that air, may influence our spiritual bodies 
 while in their numdane tenement. It may, as Avell as 
 the vital air of the spirit world, belong in common to 
 tlie inhabitants of that world, and to us as vspirits, being 
 a polarizing affection of the spiritual ethereal medium 
 of which the undulations constitute the peculiar rays 
 ot their spiritual sun. 
 
 "That this spiritual or mesmeric electricity should 
 be auxiliary to the efficacy of the magic will-power of 
 spirits, is of course one of those mysteries which, like 
 that of gravitation, may be ascertained to prevail, and 
 yet be to spirits as well as mortals inexplicable. 
 
 " We live in a wonder-working universe, which be- 
 comes more and more wonderful as we learn more of it, 
 instead of being brought more withiu our comprehen- 
 sion. When we compare what we know with the 
 knowledge of savages, it may appear a mountain of 
 learning and science; but this very learning and 
 science only makes us see still more how great is our 
 ignorance ! " 
 11 
 
232 
 
 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 Thus I have given you the philosophy of spiritual 
 intercourse as understood by some of our most able 
 enlightened and scientific minds, as well as by myself; 
 and if you feel but half the interest in it that you 
 should^ or that I feel, I advise you to obtain these 
 works and study them, for their profound philosophy 
 requires study; and not only them, but also procure 
 others, both for and against the new philosophy, for we 
 cannot arrive at trrttli on a controverted question with- 
 out thorough investigation of both sides — though I 
 confess, and I am proud I can in truth make the con- 
 fession, thi t I have ever felt an intuition of the truth 
 and sublimity of this philosophy. Now as to the in- 
 formation thus conveyed through this spirital agency : 
 First, that we are beyond incertitude or doubt immor- 
 tal ; that our immortality is demonstrated by ocular, 
 tangible, positive proof; that this immortality consi Is 
 of our very hsecceity, our real personal self, our loves, 
 friendships, memories, knowledge, intelligence. And 
 science proves that we must take these with us or we 
 take nothing, for nothing of ourself remains more than 
 seven years, except these m,oral memories, these spirit- 
 ual principles. We retain them here through all our 
 years — shall we lose them there ? They constitute our 
 personality, our haecceity here; if we do not take them, 
 what will constitute ns there ? That we shall recoar- 
 
 o 
 
 nize each other by physical features and form unchanged, 
 bul refined and improved by the shaking off of the old 
 clay covering^, and shall unerringly knoweach other by 
 spirit acting direct upon spirit, without obstruction, or 
 deception, of animal covering and deceitful flesh ; hy- 
 pocrisy will lose its mark. Second, that our present 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF IJFF. 233 
 
 plane of existence being one and the first of seven, there 
 are six concentric circles, zones, or spheres around us, 
 each rising higher above the other in the blue ether ; 
 the first commencing about fifty miles above us, where 
 our atmosphere is sup]>osed by some to cease, but which 
 I suppose has no definitive bounds, but is gradually 
 merged and lost in the bright circumambient realm of 
 pure and spotless spirituality. That these spheres thus 
 near and adjacent to us, with a connecting and continu- 
 ous element of intercourse and intercommunication, are 
 the bright abodes of our departed friends and all pro- 
 gressed excarnated men and women. That we enter 
 those spheres just as we leave this plane, with our vices 
 or virtues, ignorance or intelligence; with every fea- 
 ture and linpament of face and limb, as developed in 
 the body ; the same form and configuration in the 
 spiritualized state, of which in fact the body was the 
 mere visible representative, and from which took its 
 form; with personal identity and individuality intact 
 and uncharged. That the first of these spheres next 
 adjoining our present rudimental plane is comparatively 
 dark and imperfect, a Gehenna, Hades, Sheol, Tarta- 
 rus, or Hell, in which all unprogressed, low, ignorant, 
 vicious, wicked spirits of men congregate by a natural 
 affinity or spiritual gravitation. That this region is 
 thus dark — I give it as my philosophy uf the fact — 
 because intermediate from the earth plane where phys- 
 ical light is produced by atmospheric undulations, and 
 the higher spheres where purer light is the result of a 
 spiritual illumination. Beyond our atmosphere is 
 probably no physical, but all spiritual light, increasing 
 as we leave the earth's^ opaque surface. That the more 
 
234 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 progressed and enlightened^ the true and the good, 
 with angelic aspirations, will be attracted to the second 
 or higher spheres, suited to their tastes, capacities, con- 
 genialities and developments. That progress, univer- 
 sal progress, all working a perfect optimism, is God's 
 grand, primordial, fundamental law, by which the 
 wicked and low in the first sphere will gradually im- 
 prove and unfold into higher spheres of intelligence 
 and happiness ; and that all will progress and develop 
 into new beatitudes, new grandeurs and new glories, 
 ever enjoying without satiety, ever ascending without 
 exhaustion, forever fed and sustained by the all-prolific 
 fountain of a 1 spirit, the eternal Father. O, what a 
 sublime philosophy is this for the vision of the soul ! 
 what a happy consolation, an ever-present bliss always 
 welling up in the heart of the good and the true, the 
 pure and the splendid and may be poor and despised 
 in the view of the vain — and there are millions such in 
 this death-drifting stream of time — to contemplate and 
 hope for, aye, to feel an assurance of and to know this 
 immortal heaven as the heritage of eternity. A homs 
 of happiness unalloyed, of purity unspotted, mind im- 
 maculate, and of eternal, expanding, progressive, 
 boundless felicity. The bruised and broken heart healed 
 .and made whole; loved and long-lost friends regained-;' 
 cherished friendships of the buried years of time re- 
 claimed ; sacred associations, hallowed memories re- 
 vived to burn on imperishable altars ; tender feelings, 
 .blasted hopes, deep devoted love of children, kindred, 
 friends and families and all the splendid affections ot 
 the human soul divine, that glow like jewels in this 
 dim old casket of earth, shall be restored, reunited^ 
 
PHILOSOrHY OF LIFE. 235 
 
 gathered up to the fountains of the Father, and kin- 
 dled with the new lustre of immortal glory. O, the 
 rapturous, transporting joy of this heavenly reunion! 
 Perhaps, wlien we leave onr tenantless body and look 
 back at our friends of earth weeping over the cold 
 casket, the first to hail us at the portals of tho,«e blest 
 abodes will be a cherub child, whose prattling ceased 
 on earth ere it felt the stain of sin, or learned a sigh of 
 rtorrow ; or a loved, adored, long-lost mother's voice 
 that so often sootlied our little storms of trouble, and 
 who so many a time and oft, bedewed onr infant pillow 
 with tears tliat none but she could shed, will be the 
 first to welcome and embrace in that radiant realm of 
 love. These are some of the beatitudes of this heaven 
 promised in tliis scientific revelation to the honest, and 
 energetic, and true. And the unsullied atmosphere of 
 intellect, unfettered from the flesh, intellect disencum- 
 bered and eliminated from the gross manacles of this 
 animal world — to move in mind, mind mutually mir- 
 rored in its majesty — creation mapped before us with 
 its mvriad suns and svstems that constitute the jrreat 
 dome of God's universe, all radiant with the luminous 
 beams of infinite Avisdom that pervade the outskirts of 
 creation, and the whole a splendid panorama of enrap- 
 tured vision : these are some of the privileges and 
 pleasures which shall doubtless be fully realized by the 
 exalted denizens of these glorious mansions of immor- 
 tality. 
 
 I lot imagination wing me down the distant stream 
 of future time and througrh a vista of prophetic ken 
 limn the lineaments of unborn centuries, and behold 
 the august procession of the solemn centuries, the reti- 
 
236 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 nue of time, by which we mark the circling cycles of 
 duration. See again ! the continents are reticulartecl 
 with the electric telegraph and with a retiform network 
 for the thoroughfare of thought it girdles the globe. 
 
 Aerial palaces, constructed of a new and burnished 
 metalj aluminum, extracted everywhere from ( ommon 
 clay, with the strength of iron, but small specific grav- 
 ity and conducting powers, navigate the circumambient 
 ocean of air, propelled by lightning. Palatial man- 
 sions made of the same universal and abundant mate- 
 rial, free from oxydation and corrosion, and imperisha- 
 ble, stud the land like the stellar gems set around the 
 sky. New and improved types of man inhabit th<? 
 earth, and hold constant communion with the spirit 
 spheres. The orbitual eclipse of our earth has gradu- 
 ally lessened from its original cometic condition of ex- 
 treme ellipticity, both orbicular and orbitual, until it 
 has become a perfect circle, and now the globe, like 
 ripe fruit, glows in perennial spring ; and the monthly 
 revolution of the globe instead of diurnal, and the ab- 
 sence of physical light and heat from the contracted 
 sun and spheres is succeeded by spiritual illumination 
 and the normal mental and temperamental temperature 
 of a perfect and permanent equilibration. The cessa- 
 tion of solar radiation, the result of completed contrac- 
 tion, equalises the seasons, and the poles, and the equa- 
 tor become isotlicrmal. Under the talismanic touch 
 of science and its magic ameliorations, in the process 
 called death, in the dissolution from his second mother, 
 like that from his first, man passes the portal without 
 a pang. The Malthusian ideas promulged and little 
 heeded in the 19th century, are proven both practical 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 237 
 
 and practicable, indeed are practicalized and practiced, 
 for the philosophy of reproduction and science of i^en- 
 eration are understood, controlled and adapted to earth's 
 increased but crowded capacities. Men quietly and of 
 choice, by mere will, leave their mortal tabernacles, or 
 lie down and die like going to sleep. Under the 
 mighty ameliorations of }3rogressive science and the 
 weird of spiritual inspiration, the personal equanimity 
 and happiness of a perfect cupepsy, hath taken the 
 place of the irritability and misery of old-time dyspep- 
 sia ; and the political stability and felicity of a perfect 
 eunomy and isonomy hath succeeded the turbulence 
 and terror of old and obsolete dysnomy, the great prin- 
 ciple of autonomy is vindicated, and despotism is un- 
 known. The gallows and the jail, signs of antique 
 civilization, have given place to the school-house and 
 the lecture-room or lyceuui. Nearly all our maladies 
 are found to originate in the nervous system as being 
 the most refined of all our organic elements, and there- 
 fore more liable to become deranged by contact with 
 this rndiraental corporeity, and magnetism or electricity, 
 positive or negative, the remedy. Noxious plants 'and 
 venomous reptiles have disappeared — mephitic exhala- 
 tions have dried up — death-dealing drugs and drug 
 doctors have died out, and are remembered only in the 
 satire of song — the spouting politician and his loved 
 acclamations and conclamations of the vulgar rabble 
 have vanished in distant echo, and live only in the exe- 
 crations of history — hotsam and jetsam, scutage and 
 tithe, probation and purgation, legal, theological and 
 medical, have grown grim in the dim distance of olden 
 time — dogmatic dysnomy is swept away — jiragmatic 
 
238 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 preaching has played out — and faith is lost in philoso- 
 phy. The hero-worship of mifeathered gvese, and silly 
 gallantry of gallinaceous cocks which spoil the women 
 and hence also the men, have become antiquated cus- 
 toms of disgust. The "profession of arms/' which 
 made machines of many men to bleed barbaric glory 
 for the favored few, has now become a bloody barbar- 
 ism of weak and vain ambition; and valor is a virtue 
 only as moral heroism represses wrong and vindicates- 
 right by its own inherent, fearless fortitude — fearless 
 of others' opinions. The world is nationalized, and 
 for local judicatories to adjudicate individual differences 
 and vindicate personal rights, there are instituted by 
 the people elective spidie councils, which also are the 
 electors of a college from whom is selected and com- 
 posed a grand ecumenical Avitenagemote or amphicty- 
 onic congress to determine the differences of State mu- 
 nicipalities and national sovereignties.. Time was 
 when a single individual murder was a crime and 
 properly punished, but national wholesale slaughter, at 
 the behests of ambitious political demagogues, and for 
 th? glory of diabolical despots, was legitimate and hon- 
 orable ; now the magnitude of these wholesale murders 
 is comprehended, and popular intelligence has provided 
 commensurate safeguards and universal protection 
 against the unprogressed of any number. An ecu- 
 menic Crotona, a world-wide, an universal Utopia pic- 
 tured by the splendid Pythagoras in the early annals of 
 time, is now fully developed and realized. The early 
 labors of Grotius and Vattel on the Jus Gentium have 
 grown and culminated into an universal Crotona. 
 Moore's Utopian island has expanded and extended 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 239 
 
 until all natioiuil heterogeneities are harmonized into 
 one universal happy homogeneity. With a spirit of 
 emulation every municipal community studies electric- 
 ity as the science of the soul and the philosophy of life. 
 Ever and anon new truths are elicited, new grandeurs 
 evolved, new lights leap forth to lend to love a higher 
 hope and higher heaven. This science of the spirit, 
 this philosophy of life— it has sounded a new harmony 
 in the symphonies of creation and robed in radiance 
 the dark old centuries. From its grand natal day in 
 its native America, where magnetism has its strongest 
 pole, where liberty is leagued with law, and science 
 swavs the trident of empire, it learned the lightning, 
 and* with electric keys unlocked the chambers of angelic 
 life and spoke with the spirits of the spheres. It hath 
 lettered the lightning's wing and bid it speed o'er the 
 peopled earth that all may read the immortality of 
 their love. 
 
 It has gilded the sea-girt isle of Britain and made 
 her great pulsations beat the march of immortal life to 
 the nations of men, through the vibrations of her great 
 commercial arteries. 
 
 France, from the dark December of her destiny, has 
 come forth clothed in the green garniture of this bloom- 
 ing Spring time; and the hope of I'fe, like a bird of 
 paradise, rises from the ruins of her Bastile. 
 
 Italy, the land of love, of liberty and of song, beholds 
 a nev»' lustre in her cerulean sky. 
 
 The Panhellenium of old Greece that used to riug^ 
 with the thunders of Pericles, the eloquence of M^- 
 chines and the philipics of. Demosthenes, has agaii\ 
 quickened with a new vitality. 
 11* 
 
240 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 Cold, frigid, ice-bound, soul-bound Russia catcher 
 the faint echoes that reverberate from the mountains of 
 her Caucasus and Obossia ; and the mighty iceberg of 
 her people has melted and become warm under the 
 genial rays of the new dispensation. 
 
 The land of philosophy, mystic Germany, whose fer- 
 tile mind gave birth to the mighty engine which gives 
 wings to wisdom that it may fly to every home and 
 hamlet on earth; makes knowledge public property 
 that all may obtain, and renders her springs imperish- 
 able ; a chariot whose wheels are winged with lightning 
 that the revelation of a heaven may fl^y and spread over 
 the earth like the electric clouds that mantle her canopy, 
 and become as ubiquitous as its God — lives and feasts 
 on this grand philosophy. 
 
 Continental Europe is vocal with the melodies and 
 rings out the echoes of this spirit I'eveille from a thou- 
 sand mountains and valleys ; while her old desolated 
 plains, erstwhile crimsoned with the gore of a thousand 
 battles, are bloooming all over with this rose of the 
 celestial Sharon ; and from her slain in battle, now im- 
 paradised above, has sprung the spirit of peace to still 
 the tocsin -of war. The night has rolled away, the 
 morning's broke and gilds the eastern hill-tops. 
 
 Poor, pitied, benighted Africa holds out her helpless 
 hands, and lo ! her native jungles resound with the 
 shouts of her unfortunate children just stepping on this 
 new threshold of life. 
 
 Old Asia has awakened from htr deep skep of cen- 
 .turies and looks with wonder on this shining morning. 
 
 The land of the Pyramids, with forty centuries upon 
 her hoary brow, looks with love on this new era of 
 Ihuraan life. 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF lAFE. 241 
 
 The .sealed casket of the Japanese heart is unlocked, 
 ^uid the mist of its mind rolls up and melts away before 
 ^his bright star of eternity. 
 
 And the Celestial Empire, the land of Confucius, that 
 •Inisy hive of Sabian beings, so long the sealed cemetery 
 of a moral death that felt not the ponderous tread ol 
 ■centuries, nor ever heard the drum-beat of revolution 
 ^vithin her massive walls until now, is energized and 
 <[uickened into life, and the heart of vitality now beats 
 ■in the moss grown precincts of that ancient tomb. 
 
 In the bosom of the Southern ocean a continent had 
 slumbered in the silence of centuries; but now this 
 large, last discovered habitation of man teems with 
 new lypes of his happy children. Nor creeds, nor 
 cross, crescent or crucifix, church fashion, Sunday-sham, 
 sacrament, ba2)tism, nor eucharistic blessing, nor pon- 
 tilf, nor caliph, nor prelate, nor preacher, with the 
 ^' imposition of hands" — aye, the impoMtion of all — 
 Demiurgic Druid, Dominican Friar, Carthusian Monk, 
 and all the anointed saints of official benefice — had ever 
 cursed with their direful dogmas this antarctic conti- 
 nent. No; all these liad passed away to moulder 
 among the dry bones of old superstitions, and art 
 known only in the historic fables of earth's earlier ages. 
 The life of true liberty and light, of philosophy, science 
 and full freedom of conscience, is the native birth-right 
 of this illumined and progressive people. Tlie lettered 
 lightning's wing of immortal life is full unfurled above 
 her starry skies and voiced to liappy millions the rap- 
 turous refrain of angelic anthems. 
 
 And everywhere, over all the gilded continents and 
 jeweled isles, from the silvery-streaipe(;\ sunrise to the 
 
242 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 golden-gatcd sunset^ from the torrid zaharas of the 
 equator to the icy mountains of either pole, we hear 
 the roll of revolution — not that revolution which slays 
 its thousands that a Ctesar might be great — not the 
 little drum-beat of bloody battle — but the full-toned 
 thunder-roll of a revolution of the human soul, shaking 
 off the shackles that bind it to the limits of earth, 
 breaking loose the chains that drag it to the chariot 
 wheels of death, asserting its divine fountain, claiming 
 its divine destiny, laying its hold upon the pavilions of 
 eternity and anchoring its hope within the storied, tem- 
 ple of God's immortal heaven ! 
 
 We leave the plane of earth and its mouldering urns — 
 the sarcophagus and mausoleum of classic Greece and 
 monumental Rome ; the catacombs of the Orientals 
 and the tumuli of the Occidentals, and all this wide; 
 sepulchre of earth's 'ashes, every square foot of which 
 has its silent dust of departed generations, which has 
 mixed and intermixed, mingled and commingled, and 
 fused and diffused and interfused into new animal or- 
 ganizations. Our own dust, erstwhile the proud habi- 
 tations of ourselves, since wafted by wind and wave to 
 diverse- and distant points, now enters into the corpo- 
 real composition of other men and constitutes their 
 living ten-ements. We leave these mouldering urns of 
 mutation and traixsmutation, and sail the celestial ether 
 of the- spirit spheres. Where atmospheric air attenuant 
 mingles intO: ether, we enter the first sphere of disem- 
 bodied spirits^ Here the low, the groveling and un- 
 progressed, since their earthly elimination, begin to 
 imbibe those angelic influences which are to unfold 
 them into fairer fields. Do we here find our friends ? 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 243 
 
 No; they have progressed and gone on higher. Up 
 and onward we soar, passing tlie second, the third, the 
 fonrtli, and entering the fifth and sixth spheres we pause 
 in our onward flight. O, the mighty outburst of mag- 
 nificence that greets our dazzled vision! Throughout 
 our spheral flight from the second upward, what se- 
 raphic melodies that pour upon the raviahed ear, the 
 anthemic raptures of immortal life and immortal love 
 that gush from beatific millions imparadised in these 
 radiant realms of love, with powers of progression ex- 
 panding into new orders of being — as wc rise from 
 sphere to sphere — new developments of might and 
 magnificence, new altitudes of intellect to soar up and 
 on, and heights upon heights of mind ethereal, seraphic 
 and sul)lime, as alps on alps arise, and new extensions 
 of intelligencies to tovv'er anon and forever toward the 
 Godhead; the full-toned chorus of enrapturing glory 
 that rolls up and reverberates along the illimitable ex- 
 panse of the celestial star-gemmed canopy; and the 
 angelic hierarchies that rise higher and higher in 
 boundless expansion, order npon order in endless suc- 
 cession as seraph realms around the eternal central 
 throne; until at a far off" epoch in future eternity the 
 louver spheres appear as distant creations of dim splen- 
 dor. In these blest abodes, in these vast elysian fields, 
 among these angelic hosts, we see our friends of other 
 years in the calendar of time. Long, long ago they 
 passed the portals of earthly elimination, and have pro- 
 gressed from sphere to sphere in purity and perfection. 
 Some yet linger in the second, some are in the third^ 
 others have attained the fourth, and a few bask in the 
 beatiEc blaze of the fifth supernal sphere. Methiuks I 
 
244 PHILOSOl'flY OF LIFE. 
 
 see glorious old Socrates and just below him his faithful 
 friend Crito. The immortal Milton, too, and Franklin, 
 "and Washington, and a countless host of earth's purest, 
 best, spirits of power, purity and perfection. I think 
 I see some of you, my best and truest friends -of old 
 earth, unfolding la this elysian eden with your fathers 
 and families in full felicity. I also see, O happy vis- 
 ion! my long-lost mother, who never knew me on the 
 earth plane but an infant ; ray revered father; and my 
 loved babes whom I never Icnew but as babes, now full 
 grown men and developed angels, with all their loved 
 lineaments of feature and form unchanged, who have 
 all gone before me, and all together now, living on 
 love, and waiting patiently to w^eleome me to their full- 
 flowing fountains of felicity. O, glorious God of crea- 
 tion ! where is tire bound to thy power, perfections and 
 love ? Would we on tireless wing assay to soar still 
 higher in the bright ethereal blue ? No; here is full- 
 ness enough, and overflowing beyond our capacitieSj 
 expanded as they are ; and the electro-ether beyond is 
 too refined for the Icarian waxen wings of earth, and 
 our pinions fail. The transcendent glories that gather 
 there preclude all but archangels' highest development, 
 and silence sits upon our tongues; our wild words fail, 
 and language sinks without a syllable. The transcend- 
 ent splendor, the supernal sublimity of mind, the grand 
 galaxy of glories gathered in those central solar realms 
 where the swift-winged comets, those fiery flambeaux, 
 God's telegraphic messengers of the skies, receive their 
 electro-magnetie charge to equalize the universe, and 
 where the seraphim and archangel pluck the central 
 ftuns to deck the diadem of Deity. But language sinks 
 
rilll.O.SOPHY OF LIFE. 245 
 
 -powerless, ami imagination overwhelnit?(l, shrinks baek 
 exhausted, and returns a^-ain to its native tenement of 
 old earth to take the dull realities as tliey are presented 
 in our plodding plane of this nineteenth century, and 
 wait impatiently till the stream of naturc's destiny 
 <lrifts us to those suhlime scenes we have l>jen viewing 
 and depicting: Enough to startle into life the dull ear 
 of death, and make vitality spring forth rtyuvenated 
 from the cold casket of the tomb; enough to voice in 
 song all the tongues of nature, to make her mountains 
 clap their hands in joy, and the grand organ of ocean 
 hymn anthems of adoration ! 
 
 Of the earth's internal ocean of molten matter we 
 know little or nothing; and of life beyond the seventh 
 spiritual sphere we are equally ignorant ; l)ut between 
 these, positive science has taught us the philosophy of 
 our life, which is the })hilosophy of nature. Wq learn 
 that the concentric realms encircling round above us 
 teem with the angelic life of all earth's past generations, 
 as the earth below us in its every fluid, liquid and solid 
 atoms teems with infusorial life — all tendin to, 
 people the spheres with spiritual intclligencics. From 
 this internal central mass, constituting our globe or its 
 crust, ascending outward, lirst comes the solid, hard 
 primitive granite, the rocks ; next the less hard iron, 
 the metals; next the less solid mineral earths; next 
 the still lass solid soils ; next the more fluid water ; 
 next the still more fluid atmosphere; and this becomes 
 more attenuant and refined as v,e ascend, until lost in 
 super-refined magnetic fluid and celestial ether : from 
 original incondcnsed to solid, then liquid, juriform, 
 and ethereal. And everything from the aboriginal 
 
246 PHILOSOPF 
 
 OF LIFE. 
 
 plutonic granite, is evolving something higher ; and all 
 nltimating in immortal man ; thus the rocks into met- 
 als; the metals into mineral earths; these into soils* 
 these into vegetation ; vegetation into animal life ; and 
 this through various grades to its highest type, man, 
 susceptible of this immortal principle of evolution into 
 higher spiritual spheres — susceptible of those high 
 principles of love and spiritual felicity that give him a 
 desire for immortality and invest him with the nature 
 and character of God and his children ; and thus ca- 
 pacitated and endued we will live on in our loves as 
 long as God shall live, through eternity, ever unfold- 
 ing into nevv^ felicities. And all <'onscious mind or 
 immortal spirit, by the same philosophy, rises into 
 more rarified and ethereal regions, because more subli- 
 mated and ethereal itself than the grosser and more 
 ponderous matter below it; and the altitude and purity 
 of this region, in which it will locate under this same 
 law, wall be in proportion to its own ethereality and 
 purity ; and not stopping here, still under this unceas- 
 ing philosophy and ever-working and universal law of 
 evolution will become yet more sublimated, and rise 
 and continue to rise to higher altitudes of ethereality, 
 purity and ultimate perfection. What then ? you may 
 ask : finite knowledge cannot answer : perhaps ab- 
 sorbed in the Godhead. Then you may say our con- 
 scious individuality, our cherished hsecceity, will be 
 lost, l^ot necessarily so : the God may be thus indi- 
 vidualized and immortalized into His own hsecceity, 
 from the multitude of spiritualities below Him, just as 
 these were individualized into their hsecceity from the 
 multitude of inorganic atoms below them : and all na- 
 
PHILOaOPJlY OF LIFE, 247 
 
 tare thus ultimaiing in this grand Deific concentration 
 and centralization of immortal hfficceitics. But this is 
 running into mere speculation beyond the i)hilosophy 
 of human science. Tliis is tlie end and aim and object 
 of our life, the grand purpose of this mundane nature^ 
 viz : to unfold higher forms and evolve higher ])riuci- 
 ples into higher realms and altitudes of ethereality, 
 spirituality, intolleetuality, immortality and perfected 
 felicity. From this primary and fundamental philoso- 
 phy of our life ^ye derive u supervenient philoso])hy of 
 practical ethics for our every day feelings and personal 
 deportment, viz : that we always presen-e and main- 
 tain a perfect equmiraity of temper and uniformity of 
 character, because Ave should always feel a perfect com- 
 posure and resignation, contentment and happiness ; 
 and we should ever thus feel, because we know that 
 every secniiug adversity, disa}>[)ointment, suffering, or 
 sorrow, is but transient, and will soon pass away : that 
 they are but the earthly soil from which the ro.se of 
 immortal life will spring and blossom forever; that all 
 our sufferings can but end in dissolution, from Vihich 
 we shall rise in renevred vigor, purity, beauty and per- 
 fection, with all our loved lineaments and memories 
 retained and improved and progressed into higher 
 spheres of happiness. That we should live as we wish 
 to-die, in the sweet serenity and certainty of undying 
 reunion ; and not as Zcno lived, like a stoic, and met 
 death like an animal or a stone ; nor as Bolingbroke 
 lived in doubt and, according to some biographers, died 
 with frantic fear and remorse ; nor the creed-cursed 
 Christian with interminable b.ell and everlasting dam- 
 Tiation before his tortured vision; nor as Cromwel} 
 
248 PITTI.OSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 died, an angry ocean lashing in fury the shores of his 
 sea-girt isle, while his stormy spirit stejiped into eter- 
 nity ; nor as I^apoleon lived in the storm of war, and 
 on his rock-ribbed, ocean-bound prison of Helena, died 
 in the delirium of battle, with nature's elements howl- 
 ing his dirge during his death, and singing a wild-wind 
 requiem as his grand serenade out of time, with " Tete 
 de armee " last upon his lips : For us, be our exit from 
 these shores of sorrow, calm, tranquil and serene as the 
 zephyrs of a spirit morn ; if 
 
 " An angel's arm can't snatch us from the tomb, 
 Legions of angels can't confine us there;" 
 
 that our friends behind may sing of us, 
 
 "Night dews fall not more gently to the ground, 
 Nor wearj', worn-out winds expire so soft." 
 
 '■'• 'Tis the last pang, he calmly said. 
 To mo, O death ! thou hast no dread — 
 
 Father I come ! 
 Spread but thine arms on yonder shore — 
 I see ! ye waters bear me o'er : 
 
 There is my home !" 
 
 I speak of death — pardon me and pardon my thana- 
 topsis — there is no such thing, no such principle, posi- 
 tive or negative, no such operation, active or passive, as 
 death in its usual acceptation, throughout God's crea- 
 tion. Nothing can die but that which has personal 
 consciousness, which is self-knowledge. All animal 
 and vegetable creations undergo change, mutation, 
 metamorphosis, continually, in the economy of nature; 
 but this is not death to them, for they have not this 
 personal consciousness or knowledge of life or death, 
 though it appears so to us who have this knowledge. 
 Man is the only creation of our principial plane of 
 earth, capable of comprehending life and death, and if 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 249 
 
 he were to cease to exist, tins would be death; but this 
 very self-conscious personality with which he is en- 
 dowed or endued is the principle of immortal life that 
 assimilates him to the angels a«d connects him with the 
 creator. The animal and the vegetable consist of cer- 
 tain combinations of certain elements in certain projior- 
 tions which make certain forms of animal or vegetable ; 
 and this form of animal or vegetable is as unconscious 
 of life, as a boon or principle of existence, as the ele- 
 ments were before their combination into the organic 
 form. As chlorate of potash, fulminate of mercury, by 
 percussion, /)r saltpetre, and sulphur and charcoal, or 
 <?otton steeped in nitric and sulphuric acids, by a spark 
 of fire or electricity, will exert a pressure, the former of 
 1000 lbs. and the latter 800 lbs. per square inch ; or 
 chloride of nitrogen in another combination will ex- 
 [)lode by the application of a drop of oil, with a pressure 
 not computed, so much greater than all others — all 
 inert without the combination — and all vanish after 
 their displosion. So the animal and vegetable after 
 their ephemeral life in i)liysiology, but not as evanescent 
 in their action as the former in chemistry, dissolve 
 away and back into their original elements which, as 
 elementary principles, exist forever, and enter again 
 into new organic combinations, but all unconscious of 
 their metamorphoses: just as the physical constitution 
 or organization of man is unconscious of its continual 
 aggregation and segregation, integration and disinte- 
 gration — unconscious of the constant destruction, coun- 
 tervailed by as constant construction, of every bone, 
 blood, tissue and integument of his corporeal tenement. 
 True the undeveloped infant is unconscious as the 
 
250 l^HTLOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 brute^ but the subnascent germ is there, as the germ of 
 the oak is in the acorn, and Avill develop the tree of 
 immortal life, independent of the bodily organism 
 which may go to ruins, imbibing its vital principle of 
 development from the s|>iritual ether above, just as the 
 acorn will develop into the oak, independent of the 
 body of the parent tree which may go to ruins, imbibing 
 its vital, or rather organic principle from the earth of 
 heat and moisture below. No; there is no death in 
 nature : God has given unconscious organizations to 
 unconsciously perish or again disorganize, for the pur- 
 pose of ultimating a high and superior being of conscious 
 life ; but this conscious life He never gave for a conscious 
 death. AVe must and shall be born again — a spiritual 
 birth — and the parturition of this second birth, like the 
 lirst, may under the meliorations of science now, and 
 yet to come, be in comparative ease and quietude, or 
 under ignorance in travail and agony. From the 
 inexorable logic of science and all nature's analogies 
 relative and correlative, we derive this lesson of sur- 
 passing comfort, that we shall not die, but shall be born 
 again into a higher world of light, life and love. The 
 moment of our dissolution is but the short midnight 
 between the cloudy evening of our infantile earthly life, 
 and the bright morning of our developed heavenly life. 
 Silvered over with the lights of science is death's dark 
 doorway whicli but opens into the lighted chambers of 
 life in truth. We do not, as Bryant says, "wrap the 
 drapery of our couch around us and lie down to 
 dreams;" but we throw off the drapery of death, shake 
 off the couch, and rise up to glorious reality. 
 
 "Is it his death-bed? No, it is his shrine: 
 Behold him there just rising to a god." 
 
I'HtLOSOPHY OP LIFE 251 
 
 Another very common, though less important error. 
 I'll notice in this connection : It is generally believed 
 t]uit heat is tlie condition and even test of life, whereas 
 the contrary is the real truth. Heat is the result of 
 oxydation, or decay and decomposition; and where 
 tliis oxydizing, dissolving process is not going on, no 
 heat is evolved or perceived — the elements of heat, or 
 whatever evc4ves it, for heat itself is not an element — 
 may, in a dormant condition called latent heat, be there 
 and everywhere for au.ght we know ; but no heat is 
 evolved or perceived, except in the process of oxydation. 
 And beyond our atmosphere through which the rays or 
 emissions of the physical sun undulate and produce or 
 evolve heat, it must, according to my philosophy, be 
 (Mmparatively cold and of uniform temperature, not 
 subject to the climatic fluctuations of our atmosphere; 
 and the spiritual residents of those relatively cold and 
 etherco-electric climes should also be cold, L c, evolve 
 no heat to our present perceptions, as they are not 
 suljject to our material oxydation — if they were they 
 ^'ould not be immortal. Xow all those in this rudi- 
 mental sphere of flesh who have touched and felt their 
 cxcarnated spirit friends, invariably represent them as 
 cold to their present feelings. Moreover, the estimated 
 temperature of the planetary spaces is, 58° F., accord- 
 ing to men of science. Our present normal tempera- 
 ture, be it remembered, is 98 F., 156° higher. Thus 
 the uneducated medium announces and attests the truths 
 of science. A profound philosophy is here. 
 
 As giving additional authority to this philosophy 
 which I have but adumbrated, an extract from Herbert 
 Spencer's "First Principles of a New Philosophy," -just 
 
252 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 published^ is here inserted : " And here remains to be 
 added the further corollary, that just as in the case of 
 the smaller members of the solar system, the heat 
 generated by concentration, long ago in great part, 
 radiated into space, has left only a central residue that 
 now escapes but slowly ; so in the case of that im- 
 mensely larger mass forming the smi, the immensely 
 greater quantity of heat generated and still in process 
 of rapid diffusion,, must, as the concentration approaches 
 its limit, diminish in amount, and eventually leave 
 only an inappreciable internal remnant. With or 
 without the accompaniment of that hypothesis of nebu- 
 lar condensation, whence, as we see, it naturally follows, 
 the doctrine that the sun is gradually losing his heat, 
 has now gained considerable currency ; and calculations 
 have been made, both respecting the amount of heat 
 and light already radiated, as compared with the amount 
 that remains, and respecting the period during which 
 active radiation is likely to continue.. Prof. Helmholtz 
 estimates, that since the time wdien, according to the 
 nebular hypothesis, the matter composing the solar 
 system extended to the orbit of Neptune, there has been 
 evolved by the arrest of sensible motion, an amount of 
 heat 454 times as great as that which the sun still has 
 to give out. He also makes an approximate estimate 
 of the rate at which this remaining l-454th is being 
 diffused : showing that a diminution of the sun's diame- 
 ter to the extent of 1-10,000, would produce heat, at 
 the present rate, for more than 2000 years; or in other 
 words, that a contraction of 1-20,000,000 of his diame- 
 ter, suffices to generate the amount of light and heat 
 annually emitted; and that thus,, at the present rate of 
 
f»triLOSOrHY OF LIFE, 2o3 
 
 expenditure, the sun's diameter will diminish by some- 
 thing like 1-20 in tb.e hipse of the next million years.* 
 Of eourse these conclusions are not to be considered as 
 more than rude approximations to the truth. Until 
 quite recently, we have been totally ignorant of the 
 sun's chemical composition; and even now have ob- 
 tained but a superficial knowledge of it. We know 
 nothing of his internal structure; and it is quite possi- 
 ble (probable, I believe,) that the assumptions resj^ect- 
 ing central density, made in the foregoing estimates, 
 are wrong. But no uncertainty in the data on which 
 these cakiulations proceed, and no consequent error in 
 the inferred rate at which the sun is expending his 
 reserve of force, militates against the general proposi- 
 tion that this reserve of force is being expended ; and 
 must in time be exhausted. Though the residue of 
 undiifused motion in the sun may be much greater 
 than is above concluded ; though the rate of radiation 
 cannot, as assumed, continue at a uniform rate, but 
 must eventually go on with slowly decreasing rapidity ; 
 and though the period at which the sun will cease to 
 afford us adequate light and heat, is very possibly far 
 more distant than above implied; yet such a period 
 must sometime be reached, and this is all which it 
 here concerns us to observe." — " It has been con- 
 tended, by Prof. lielmholtz, that inappreciable as may 
 be its eifect within known periods of time, th(! friction 
 of the tidal wave nuist be slowly diminishing the earth's 
 rotary motion, and must eventually destroy it. Now 
 
 *Spe paper " On the Intor-actioii Natural Forces," by Prof. Helniholtz, traim- 
 lat«d by Prof. Tyndall. and published in the Philosophical Magazine, supple- 
 ment to Vol. XI. fourth series. 
 
2-54 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE 
 
 though it seems an oversight to say that the earth's 
 rotation can thus be destroyed, since the extreme effect, 
 to be reached only in infinite time by such a process, 
 would be an extension of the earth's day to the length 
 of a lunation; yet it seems clear that this friction of 
 the tidal wave is a real cause of decreasing' rotation. 
 Slow as its action is, wc must recognize it as exempli- 
 fying, under another form, the universal progress 
 towards equilibrium." 
 
 Thus it is perceived the profound philosophy, the 
 germ or shadow of which I foresaw, is evolved into 
 plausible verisimilitude if not absolute verity, by 
 cotero.poraneous intellectual students of both celestial 
 and terrestrial physics. Now, as this state of our 
 planet is approached, without physical heat and physical 
 light, its inhabitants, under the great law of evolution 
 or progression, will attain thac condition of spiritual 
 differentiation and development as to require neither 
 physical heat nor physical light — thus evincing the 
 wonderful wisdom, power and beneficence of the 
 universal God. As for the diminution in velocity of 
 the earth's axial rotation, or the extension of our day 
 of 24 hours into 30 days, it will amount to nothing for 
 the same reasons just stated. Everything is elaborating 
 mutual adaptation and will cuhninate in permanent 
 equilibration. 
 
 But with the moral summary of our practical lesson, 
 anon : That we should strive for improvement, moral, 
 mental, physical, and be kind, charitable and sympa- 
 thetic with each other, crushing every impulse of anger 
 and cherishing every impulse of love; knowing that 
 we all here inherit the same or equal frailties, and that 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 255 
 
 others too have their wrougs, v/hich are parts of our 
 patrimony wo cannot help, nor the creator himself 
 avoid, but which will all be ultimately purged off under 
 His great law of progression ; that those we hear of as 
 so great and good become less so as intimate acquain- 
 tance discloses weakness and bad traits; and also those 
 I'eputcd as weak and bad improve as acquaintance dis- 
 covers traits of goodness and mentality — in short, that 
 none are so good and so great, or so bad and so simple 
 as we hear; that intercourse tends to equalize, as also 
 all knowledge and progression; tliat the bubble of 
 popular reputation floats with fortuities and is quick- 
 ened and sustained by adventitious circumstances ; and 
 that we shall yet all meet in realms unfringed with 
 wrong, where we shall truly know each other by an 
 unerring aromal emanation, or electric radiation, or 
 magnetic eliluxion, for mind will then act upon and 
 perceive mind direct, unencumbered with gross inter- 
 vening animal sensoria. xVnd the anguish of parting 
 from a loved friend — O, this is the bitterest word of 
 juy language, the bitterest momentof my life — parting, 
 parting from my loved — forever ! 
 
 Great God ! who can stand it? No: thanks to His 
 philo^sophy of our life ; but for a few fleeting moments, 
 mere dewdrops of time to the vast ocean of eternity, in 
 which we will all meet and live in love where parting 
 shall be known no more. For this, O Great Architect 
 of creation's temple, I would send a shout of gratitude 
 and glory to ring and echo along thy grand aisles and 
 corridors through all the eternal world I I part from 
 you to-morrow — leave a more congenial people for a 
 more congenial climate — this my last speech is but a 
 friend's farewell — Forever? Nav 12 
 
256 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 " Congenial spirits part to meet again." 
 
 Did Campbell comprehend the glorious truth he thus 
 enunciated in his mellifluent verse? Yes, to meet 
 again, to meet again ! friends forever ! O, the heavenly 
 hallelujahs that reverberate along the vaulted spheres 
 and peopled worlds, and echo from all the orbs of light 
 that spangle this vast vault around us, teeming with 
 intelligencies imparadised in eternity. Not an ecclesi- 
 astical Jubilate Deo for " the plan of salvation," which 
 is but a more pleasing term for the plan of damnation ; 
 but a grand gush of gratitude that swells the symjiho- 
 nies of all His immortal creations for the glorious plan 
 of progression that leads us to the radiant realms of His 
 own glory, the glory of universal and immortal love. 
 And yet this sublime science that thus traces our 
 origin, and opens the portals of our glorious destiny of 
 reunion, and gives us the cream of our conduct and 
 daily happiness, is assailed and opposed with energy 
 and malignity. This opposition consists of two classes 
 and motives : those who really and ardently desire and 
 believe it to be true, and fearing the wish is father to 
 the thought, oppose it with the sole view of eliciting 
 more liglit in order to have all their doubts dispelled 
 to their entire satisfaction; and those who do not desire 
 it to be true or to be accepted, because it will wofully 
 interfere with the fleshpots that keep fat on their dog- 
 mas — it is this class that evince such malignity. As 
 for the many articles published in the hebdomadal 
 press of the day, casting odium or derision on spiritual 
 mediums — many of whom also deserve it — it is gener- 
 ally done to please the people and pander to their igno- 
 rajit prgudices, and tlms promote iha popularity of the 
 
PHILOSOPHY OP LIFE. 257 
 
 paper; often at the expense and sacrifice of truth. I 
 know editors who do this and secretly laugh at the 
 ignorance of their readers, and who believe in the truth 
 and the science, and admire the grandeur of the philos- 
 ophy. And so they praise a popular man with prestige 
 and position, wdiom they heartily hate. They lack the 
 nerve to stem the popular current, which it is the duty 
 of every journalist to direct, and not float with it. 
 There is another class who are totally indifferent, and 
 are actuated by two different motives : first, because 
 they have no higher aspirations than the prosperity of 
 their potato patch, or cotton field, counter or card-table ; 
 second, those that have immortal longings, but fear " it 
 is too good to be true," and being cold and calculating 
 themselves they feel safe if it is true, and if not true 
 had better stick to old faith as the safer course, ugly as 
 it is, thus governed alone by the selfish impulse of fear, 
 with no feeling of philanthropy to proclaim the glorious 
 truth to their fellow men. For myself, true to my 
 instincts, my inspirations and my impulses, I shall pro- 
 claim this glorious philosophy through print as well as 
 speech to my fellow men. I'll make the paper speak, 
 the silent types vocal with love, and every page elo- 
 quent of immortiility. I have reached the time of life 
 and amount of experience and misfortune, that my 
 heart has become callous to the simple, silly sayings o 
 those vain, unprogressed around and below me, re- 
 gardless of all connections ; my ambition has bounded 
 beyond the reach of envious ignorance, and finds its 
 gratulations among the intelligential and progressed 
 my aspirations soar above the sounds of senseless, soul- 
 less gossip of human animals, and find a full fruition in 
 
258 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 the fountains that flow through the reahns of immortal 
 mind. I have suffered so much unkindncss, injustice 
 and wrongs at the hands^, too, most frequently, of such 
 low, inferior beings, that I feel reckless of at least their 
 approbation, and all their kith, so closely kin to the 
 porcine species that know no gratitude, and are incapa- 
 ble of progress. They look up at me and think they 
 are looking down ; they know not the direction of up 
 or down, and cannot apprehend, much less comprehend, 
 and still less appreciate, the idea of moral altitude; 
 they sprout, vegetate and rot where they were planted, 
 or live, flourish and fall where they were born, mor- 
 ally. Swine will never exchange a wallow for a par- 
 lor — there it was raised and there it will remain ; nor 
 would the ignorant herd of biped genus homo exchange 
 their finical parlors of animal gab and gossip for the 
 cerebral halls of intellectual immortalities ; there they 
 were reared and there they would remain. Panoplied 
 in truth and always a devoted v/orshipper at its altar, with 
 all my faults and misfortunes, my sins and my sorrows 
 and they are not few; prompted in my every impulse 
 by hoaesty and sincerity, and with such friends as you 
 who know me well^ I fear not the fumes of falsehood, 
 or venomous vituperation, nor much regard popular 
 opinion, public or private. Enough of this— I'm sorry 
 for human nature. I cannot withhold this healing 
 balm to the bleeding hearts of my friends, this ineffable 
 comfort for the sorrowing souls of those who can ap- 
 preciate and appropriate it, v/hen by a little effort it is 
 within my power to impart it. For even if it be false 
 we are thus made happy here, and shall never wake 
 mo hereafter to know or realize its falsity. As for tlie 
 
PHILOSOPHY OP LIFE, 259 
 
 iutenninable hell, that old orthodoxy would have catch 
 me for thus proclaiming this happy philosophy, I spurn 
 the degrading idea that I should for a moment invest 
 the character of my creator with the diabolic cruelty of 
 thus punishing me forever for not believing in this 
 very diabolism, or for believing in a philosophy that 
 while it gives a glory to Him, also gives happiness to 
 me. The lear of this interminable hell has crazed 
 many a weak brain — and isn't it enough? — and poured 
 bitterness in the fountains of many a life stream on 
 earth. INIany a pitied parent has poured out a life in 
 sorrov>' over the premature death of an adult uncon- 
 verted child. What would heaven be, vdiat could it 
 be to such a parent with such a child in such a hell ? 
 Let not this dread chimera disturb you, my friends : 
 DO EIGHT AND FEAP. NOTHING ; our God ncver 
 made His children to be victims of fear, nor stamped 
 eternity on misery : nor do 11 is w'orks tend downwards ; 
 and if your wicked child reach Gehenna, he will soon 
 be lifted hence, and by the help of your own hands. 
 So cheer thee, bleeding mother, devoted father ! tliy 
 loved child is not lost, nor can be, while God and His 
 philosophy endure. We shall all soon fall into the 
 embraces of a sweet sleep and serene slumber, from 
 which notliing will ever disturb us; or we shall wake 
 up to meet our friends again in higher and happier 
 realms of life and love. And let us fear not that this 
 incessant stream from God's vast empire of life, forever 
 ])Ouring into those higher spheres, will at some period 
 in future eternity, howsoever remote, ultimately fill 
 them beyond capacity for more : for be it remembered. 
 His infinity of domain is equal to His eternity of dura- 
 
260 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 tion : one is co-extensive with the other, and both illim- 
 itable. And though we follow science as the footsteps 
 of God, and would analyze the higher heavens, and 
 anatomize archangel life, and analyze the deep arcana 
 of all hereafter, we yet must know that mystery and 
 wonder will ever rise above and hover around our 
 heads as the sunlight dazzles our physical eyes. This 
 is enough for the philosophic mind. 
 
 Among the many theories invented to crush out this 
 sublime science by which every man can learn and see 
 for himself the positive demonstration of his own im- 
 mortality with all his loved, independent of hieroph an- 
 tic officiation, was first, that it was 'produced — I mean 
 the physical manifestations — by the snapping of the 
 knee and toe joints. This was ridiculous. Then next 
 came the theory that it was all produced by the brain 
 centres and nerve centres of minds in the body. This 
 was more philosophical; but they were both soon 
 abandoned. Next came the "pine table" epoch, orig- 
 inating in the puritanical, fanatical, hypocritical, diabol- 
 ical, for they are all inseparable if not synonyms. New 
 York Tribune audits kindred sheets ; but the " pine 
 table" did more than was contracted for — it proved 
 too much — it turned to talking : it was dropped as a 
 child drops hot iron, instanter, and without being told. 
 The "intellectual giant," Rev. Mahan, then entered 
 the ring, but he was soon ruled out as doing the oppo- 
 sition mischief, for he acknowledged the facts but failed 
 to explain them. The learned Faraday spoke from 
 across the water, and pronounced it the " involuntary 
 contraction and motion of the muscles of the medium " — 
 weak indeed for a savan ; but his theory, too, soon ex- 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 261 
 
 piretl. Anon appeared the great Bovee Dods, with his 
 psychological theory, the " front brain, back brain," 
 etc. — the only rational theory yet presented : indeed it 
 is through the principles of psychology that spirit in- 
 tercourse is effected, the excarnated being one party 
 and the incarnated the other, instead of both parties 
 being incarnated; and it requires discrimination to 
 know when the manifestations are really from the ex- 
 carnated spirits instead of being a mere reflection of, or 
 reflected image, or idea existing in some other mind 
 present in the flesh. I now refer to the higher mental 
 manifestations, not the physical. But Dods himself 
 has surrendered his theory and embraced spiritual 
 agency ; for he has witnessed a number of communica- 
 tions that precluded any and every other hypothesis, 
 and established in his opinion excarnated spirit inter- 
 course. 
 
 It is remarkable how rapidly all these vanous theo- 
 ries in opposition to spirit agency have disappeared ; 
 and how, soon as one theory was advanced, the mani- 
 festations immediately ceased in that way and assumed 
 another form ; and so throughout, as fast as new theo- 
 ries were devised for their explanation, so fast they 
 assumed new phases, as if to refute them. 
 
 It is now styled, I believe, by its opposers, an inex- 
 plicable intellectual epidemic — being inexplicable to 
 them, it must be inoredible to all. Now to the follow- 
 ers of the Bible, of whatever name or creed, I will 
 prove in few words and by the Bible itself, that modern 
 Spiritualism is true : The wise man of the Bible in 
 Ecclesiastes, the Preacher, says "What has been is 
 what shall be ; what has been done shall be done again." 
 
262 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 But many and divers manifestations of angels, disem- 
 bodied spirits of men, have been made to men in the 
 flesh through all the ages, according to Bible record ; 
 therefore these manifestations must be made again, and 
 modern Spiritualism is true — or the Bible is false. This 
 is conclusive, for it is evident the rule was intended as 
 general for all time, and not restricted to the apostolic 
 or any other age. Again : its disciples say T must take 
 the Bible and believe it all as I find it, and not believe 
 a part only, else I am no believer of the Bible, I con- 
 tend that I may be a believer and yet reject those por- 
 tions which are evidently false, as the dogmatic creeds. 
 
 Now I ask them if they believe Joshua really stopped 
 the sun or the world; they answer no. Hence, by 
 their own rule, they are not Bible believers, but by 
 my rule I am a believer in its cardinal truths founded 
 in philosophy. 
 
 To my Christian friends of open hearts and liberal 
 minds — not those who draw their heads like the tor- 
 toise within their own chelonian shells, afraid to feel or 
 face the light ; not those whose highest ambition is to 
 attend the fashionable church, whose highest piety is to 
 take the sacrament, be baptized and pay the preacher; 
 not those of vindictive cruel religion v/ho are ever 
 ready to shout, " hang him, kill him, crucify him," for 
 every little human weakness or peccadillo of which 
 themselves are the very impersonation and embodiment ; 
 not those whose credenda are their consistories, the 
 sacrament their shibboleth of faith, their faith the foun- 
 dation of their hope, and this hope their only comfort, 
 linked as it is with hell on one hand — I would say that 
 the evidence in favor of this religion of philosophy is 
 
PHIIiOSOPHY OF LIFE. 263 
 
 greatly more powerful and conclusive in character, 
 kind and amount tlran that in favor of the religion of 
 faith. In character, because of its direct living wit- 
 nesses of the most intelligent and estimable men, in- 
 stead of deceased, hearsay, traditional testimony of 
 ignorant men ; in kind, because of the scientific facts, 
 instead of the old mythic fables of miracles against 
 known laws of nature; and in amount, because of the 
 living millions among us and everywhere all attesting 
 of their personal knowledge of the res gestae, to the same 
 thing. You believe twelve men or twelve hundred 
 men if you please, and ignorant men, too, 1800 years 
 ago, whose testimony is contrary to all our experience 
 and to nature's eternal laws; but you would disbelieve 
 twelve thousand men now living, and enlightened men, 
 too, whose testimony is in accordance with Icnown laws 
 of nature, and well understood in modern science. 
 You say those twelve apostles of the old religion had 
 no motive to mislead, but only incurred obloquy by 
 their course. Now i ask what motive have these 
 tvrelve thousand living apostles of the new philosophy, 
 and don't you heap equal obloquy and opprobrium upon 
 them ? Answer this to your own conscience. Is this 
 intelligence, or is it common honesty ? You thus strain 
 at the gnat of philosophy, and swallow the camel of 
 faith. Every principle of evidence and rule of judi- 
 cial practice, Greenleaf to the contrary notwithstanding, 
 would, if strictly api)lied, invalidate popular theology 
 and establish Spiritual philosophy. It is not the 
 amount of human testimony we rely upon in favor of 
 this philosophy, nor should you, my Christian friends,, 
 thus relv, for we are both greatly overj)owered by the 
 12* 
 
I 
 
 264 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 Heathen and the Mohammedan in numbers, and fully 
 equalled if not excelled in devotion; it is the irrefragi- 
 ble demonstrative evidence, independent of human feel- 
 ings, human fears, or human numbers — ^immutable and 
 immaculate. The character of this evidence is a stran- 
 ger to all other religions, and makes this the religion 
 of philosophy. As the cross is the symbol of faith, 
 Christian, and the crescent the symbol of sensuality, 
 Moslem, I would have the scroll as eoncinnous^ consen- 
 taneous and significant the symbol of the Spiritual reli- 
 gion. As man's life spirally unfolds from a central 
 cell, and thence unfurls and expands and enlarges his 
 lightning-lettered life; so the scroll unfolds from a 
 central point and thence unfurls and expands and en- 
 larges its lettered intelligence. It is also peculiarly 
 appropriate in other respects for an emblem of the Spir- 
 itual religion : as the scroll of life, the scroll of fame, 
 the scroll of the heavens, the scroll of philosophy, the 
 scroll of immortality, the scroll of science. It is like- 
 wise significant of intelligence and of letters. 
 
 The tj'pic cross, the crescent, and the scroll, 
 Symbols of faith, of passion, and of soul :— 
 Unfurl the lettered scroll ! angel emblem 
 Of the grand Spiritual philosophy ; 
 Unrolling life around the' starry spheres. 
 Unfolding angels of immortal life. 
 And op'ning the destinies of heaven. 
 
 And as supersecular and supervenient to all others, 
 this new philosophical religion has its own inherent 
 evidence which every one can see and witness for him- 
 self, for all may obtain or witness by proper effort these 
 spiritual manifestations. 
 
 But, says the Christian of miraculous faith, we feel 
 and witness a like internal evidence, and know whereof 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 265 
 
 we speak. Now, right here we open an interesting 
 metaphysical, pneumatological, psychical question, illus- 
 trated and displayed to a great degree at popular 
 camp meetings and other religious revivals. This 
 phenomenon is scientifically known as pathetism. I 
 wish my time could admit a full exposition of its phi- 
 losophy, for my present argument depends upon its 
 elucidation. I have witnessed and experienced it my- 
 self in its most wonderful displays. We have seen 
 proud, strong men fall in fear and trembling under its 
 mighty influence ; and young, guileless girls of sixteen 
 summers, cry in the most piteous accents of deep agony 
 and travail of soul, and pour out their tender hearts in 
 tears, for mercy, from sure, sudden and impending 
 doom. Mercy for what? Had they ever sinned, these 
 guileless girls ? Aye, and w'e have seen them rise in 
 renewed strength, suddenly energized from an unseen 
 source, and heard shouts of happiness ring out from 
 their little temples like echoes of immortal melodies, 
 while bright effulgence gleamed through their glisten- 
 ing tears like the play of sparkling sunlight through 
 pearly rain-drops. Now Avhence and wherefore is this? 
 You affirm it to be "conversion" by the direct action 
 of God. I aver it is not " conversion," for their after 
 lives, soon as the transient influence is over,* proves no 
 change of heart, or change of life, or permanent con- 
 version of any kind. Neither is it the direct action of 
 the great God, for He cannot thus contravene His own 
 character and immutable laws by working a miracle in 
 a human " conversion " to be immediately set aside, 
 frustrated and falsified. The true philosophy of pathet- 
 ism as evinced in revivals is, first, a great many minds 
 
266 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 are so constituted that they may persuade themselves 
 by constant assiduous eifort to believe anything they 
 have an intense will and desire to believe; hence, by 
 this intense will and effort they believe they are con- 
 verted, which cannot be retorted on the evidence of 
 science ; or, second, the well known mesmeric sympathy 
 epidemic in a crowd of high wrought feeling; or, third 
 the psychological power of the operator (preacher) over 
 the congregation; or, fourth, the actual presence of angelic 
 or spirit friends blessing them in their then peculiar 
 condition of receptivity, which is the true condition and 
 result of sincere prayer — and which, when kept up and 
 persevered in, as is the case in a few instances, the 
 " conversion " will continue and be permanent to this 
 extent, no more. 
 
 All these wonderful manifestations and mysterious 
 phenomena we witness at large revivals, are wrought 
 by and through some or all of these means, the natural 
 operations of causes well known and understood by the 
 scientific philosopher. The great differences and vari- 
 ations in the act and process of " conversion," according 
 to the different characters and temperaments of the 
 various subjects, some requiring long continued and 
 persistent efforts, others proving of ready facility, com- 
 port with the same differences in mesmeric subjects 
 and spiritual mediums, all under the same principles 
 and laws, some requiring long laborious efforts, others 
 evincing a ready aptitude to this peculiar influence 
 under the control of mind or spirit whether in or out 
 of the flesh: they are mutually corroborative and 'ex- 
 pository. This likewise accounts for the otherwise 
 unaccountable and anomalous fact that the most wicked 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 267 
 
 and hardened sinners are often the easiest of conversion, 
 and the most upright and exemplary characters the 
 most difficult of conversion. And this philosophy also 
 exi)lains the otherwise inexplicable mystery of some 
 preachers, like Canghey and Spurgeon, for examples, 
 beino; so successful in revivals, for it cannot be attrib- 
 nted to extra piety, as it is well known that they are 
 frequently vain and vindictive — unless this be consid- 
 ered extra piety, which indeed is according to the 
 principles and practices of some religionists. While on 
 the other hand some of the most humble, honest, pious 
 and self-denying preachers are the least successful in 
 the cause of revivals and conversions. Everybody has 
 this element in greater or less degree, susceptible of 
 mesmeric influence or spiritual control, called " conver- 
 sion." But while you assert in those phenomena of 
 revivals, a supernal and supernatural agency, you deny 
 it in all others. You aver all other modern spiritual 
 manifestations are not preternatural or supernal, but 
 the result of deception, delusion, an intellectual epi- 
 demic, or some mysterious unknown incarnated agency 
 of mundane nature ; while I affirm them to be demon- 
 strations of spiritual or supernal agency. In the case 
 of revivals you assert them to be due to supernal 
 agency, and I to well known causes and elements ex- 
 isting in the human mind while incarnated as well as 
 excarnated. The difference is, 1 can account for and 
 explain mv opinions on principles of natural philoso- 
 phy ; but you cannot account for or explain yours on 
 any known principles whatever — unless you claim mere 
 faith as the principle, which is accepting my philosophy 
 of the delusion. Spirit intercourse you reject through 
 
268 PHILOSOPHY OF LIPL. 
 
 blind ignorance ; revival conversion you accept tlirough 
 blind faith : when here we have a philosophy which 
 explains both on scientific principles of demonstration. 
 Will you plunge the abysmal Scylla and Charybdis of 
 faith and ignorance, on the one hand ; or on the other, 
 climb the clear mountain of philosophy and truth, 
 around whose summit play the selectest lights of science. 
 Nor can it be retorted on Spiritualists that they are as 
 liable to delusion in believing in spiritual insj)iration 
 as the old religionists in believing in conversion by the 
 Holy Ghost, or the special pardon of sins by the direct 
 act of God. We have the natural laws of a natural 
 philosophy to explain and vindicate ours, while they 
 have no law and no philosophy to account for theirs, 
 but all in contravention : all known laws of nature and 
 philosophy refute their faith as futile and delusive, but 
 not detrimental or pernicious to a large portion of the 
 human fimily. In short and pithy anecdote, "conver- 
 sion" frequently amounts to this: "Parson ^, have 
 
 you noticed any change in B. since he was converted 
 and joined the church?" " O yes, very great; before, 
 when he went out to mend his fences on Sunday, he 
 carried his axe on his shoulder, but now he carries it 
 under his overcoat." 
 
 A great many Protestant Christians, especially of 
 the Episcopalians, deny this sudden change of heart, 
 or change of life called conversion ; but St. Paul is 
 generally cited and urged as a case in point and proof 
 of instantaneous conversion. This case of St. Paul, 
 however, is not one of miracle, but of philosophy just 
 stated like all others of the same analogy. I would 
 like to argue this question at some length, but must 
 
PHILOSOPHY OP LIFE. 269 
 
 desist. Nevertheless, as I condenm dogmatics in 
 others I must not be guilty myself of dogmatism; 
 therefore I feel bound to say that while this " conver- 
 sion " by the direct act of God Himself or His Holy 
 Ghost, as claimed by the orthodox, may be within the 
 bounds of possibility, it is certainly much more rational 
 and reasonable and natural to believe it eflPected as I 
 have said, in accordance with known laws of nature 
 and a beautiful philosophy, which indeed detracts noth- 
 ino- from its intrinsic value, but rather adds to its com- 
 forts to know that our angel friends are ever round and 
 near to hear and heed and hefp us. And whether the 
 influence be the direct action of our Father God, or of 
 a vicarious Christ, or of a mysterious Holy Ghost, or 
 of our progressed excarnated and spiritualized friends 
 in the form of angels, it is hallowed and happy, purify- 
 ing and felicitous, and should be encouraged, cultivated 
 and cherished ; not merely embraced during temporary 
 popular excitement, to be immediately disregarded and 
 derided as popular illusion — all puerile excitement may 
 be thus derided, but not these true, splendid spiritual 
 manifestations and happy impartations of the heavenly 
 world, called by some " conversion," or any other name. 
 This rational and natural philosophy — rational because 
 natural, and natural because rational — also explains 
 and clears the mystery from the condition- of trance, so 
 frequent, particularly in revival excitements. St. Paul's 
 celebrated trance, as well as his conversion, all come 
 within the sphere and purview of this splendid philos- 
 ophy of spirit power and angelic influence and inter- 
 course. It likewise explicates the otherwise strange 
 medical fact, that persons in this condition of trance, 
 
270 PHILOSOPEY OF LIFE. 
 
 or in any under the control of spirit power, invariably 
 recover after remaining for hours pulseless and appa- 
 rently lifeless, as for instance the case recorded by Dr. 
 Chegne of Col. Townshend, of Scotland, whose heart 
 ceased to beat, no pulse, no respiration, his entire frame 
 cold and rigid, features shrunk and colorless, all to 
 such extent that three medical men pronounced him 
 dead. Now we know that this condition of the physi- 
 cal system, originating from functional, structural, or 
 any other cause than spiritual, is certain dissolution. 
 Spiritual mediums are thus controlled for hours, and 
 we have seen persons at revival meetings in the same 
 condition, with their vital energies prostrated and 
 physical functions almost, some entirely, suspended, 
 and wondered at their easy and perfect recovery with- 
 out injury, when they are, as most frequently, of fragile 
 frames and feeble vitality, and much weaker cause and 
 less excitement otherwise Avould prove fatal. This 
 philosophy of modern science explains it all satisfacto- 
 rily and consolitorily. 
 
 But you may ask, if this Spiritualism be true — this 
 philosophy of God — why was it not discovered and 
 promulgated sooner ? Why is it that man has lived 
 6000 years in ignorance of this great truth? In an- 
 swer, I ask, why is it that electricity has not been 
 known until now ? why its discovery so neoteric ? 
 The lightning through which we communicate and 
 which speaks for us, is the same lightning that flashed 
 o'er Grecian glory or Roman ruin, aye, that played 
 upon the peaks of Sinai. Science had not then shed its 
 scintillations in the mind of Moses, Servius, or Lycur- 
 gus ; nor is it a gratuity of nature or gift of Provi- 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 271 
 
 dence: it has to be learned, culled, colleeted, collated, 
 and appropriated by our honest efforts, from which avc 
 may weave the philosophy of our life. Like our daily 
 bread and the glittering jewel, it is by honest effort 
 alone that truth is evolved, and our progression devel- 
 oped. As your religion of faith professes to have been 
 lievjilded by a grand providential speciality, and could, 
 of course, have been thus promulgated early as well as 
 late, why was it not heralded with the birth of man? 
 and why its evulgation so imperfect in extent as well 
 as time? But man has to labor for the bread of his 
 body, and so he bias to labor for tlie philosophy of his 
 life — and this is his true religion. 
 
 You may again object that these new revelations 
 abound in platitudes, inconsistencies and contradictions. 
 Granted : But does not your old Revelation still more 
 abound in absurdities,, inconsistencies ar.d contradic- 
 tions, as I have already shown ? Your Great Master 
 tells you in one breath to " seek your salvation ;" and 
 in the next, " he that seeks to save his life shall lose 
 it." My religion of philosophy explains these discrep- 
 ancies, and thus can reconcile the contradictions, or 
 their causes, of your master, Jesus Christ, as where 
 your Bible says, " believe not every spirit," etc. (1 
 John, iv, and Jer. 29) ; but your religion of faith 
 cannot explain tiiem, and they must, consequently, for- 
 ever remain irreconcilable, and believed by none but 
 those who h.ave no eyes and fallow faith through fear 
 and feeling. And through this feeling of fear many 
 pretend to ridicule the religion of philosophy, because 
 tlieir religion of faith liolds over their heads, in terro- 
 rem, a devil and damnation ; for does it not tell them 
 
272 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 if they believe anything else they believe a lie, and 
 shall be damned ? We carry no such scorpion lash of 
 terror for the timid — philosophy has no horrors for 
 the honest, enlightened and true. When we think of 
 the low, very low condition of the human family in 
 this our first sphere of life, especially in the splendid 
 principle of truth that assimilates the angels to the 
 Deity — for truth compels me to say that mankind is, as 
 the general rule, a race of liars, the men of truth only 
 form the exceptions, who become such more from the 
 progressive development of moral effort than original, 
 native inheritance — when we consider man as yet but 
 a higher order of animal in whom the germ exists, and 
 from whom it will spring into immortality — when we 
 see his resemblance to the lower animals in so many 
 traits, as striking and not very refined instances, a cer- 
 tain large, sluggish, carniverous and voracious bird of 
 the buteotic species or genus, when he finds his dainty 
 repast, with great gravity raises his arms or wings and 
 says " grace," or " holds pra'rs," like the church digni- 
 taries, big and little, looking as saintly, sanctified and 
 sanctimonious as a Puritan psalm-singer ; and the great 
 gallantry of the gaudy and gallinaceous cock, which no 
 doubt brought the observation of Plato, that the " fash- 
 ionable urban cooX's-comb is but a biped without feath- 
 ers ;" and still more striking, the desperately contested 
 battle between two heroes of the anserine tribe, which 
 couldn't hurt an infant, and then the flattering greet- 
 ings and fulsome adulations bestowed upon the victor 
 by the applauding tribe, and his proud bearing and 
 vain conceit upon his brilliant victory. What a bur- 
 lesque upon human nature, and especially woman na- 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 273 
 
 ture (glorious, heavenly exceptions, of course), for it is 
 she mainly ^\'ho ineites men to battle, and showers her 
 smiles upon the bloody hero, just as the females of the 
 goose tribe, just mentioned, cackle their encomiums on 
 the o-allant gander. Woman often starts the burning 
 besom of war, as black-eyed Helen, of Troy, and then 
 always waters the ashes of its sweeping desolations with 
 the free torrents of her tears. She who loves less her 
 son, her husband, father, or brother, than her vanity or 
 ambition, under the specious guise of patriotism, or any 
 other ism, is not the woman with woman's warm heart 
 gushing with tenderness and love. But to return from 
 this subsecutive train. Viewing this phase of human 
 nature, I say, how can we wonder at the discordant 
 and contradictory revelations or statements from spirits 
 who have perhaps just entered the spheres, and have 
 made little progress in wisdom, love and truth ? This 
 alone is enough to explain all our discrepancies ; and 
 the fallibility of the spirit communicator, the imperfec- 
 tion of the media, and the liability to other impressions 
 pre-existing of the recipient, fully explicate all myste- 
 rious discordancies : and this is philosophy. But you 
 reject fact, explanation, philosophy, everything but — 
 faith. Faith, my friends, cannot bring bread for the 
 body, nor salvation for the soul. This word, " faith," 
 however, has no well-defined meaning. According to 
 its common acceptation by strict orthodoxy, it is a 
 mere myth of superstition and ignorance; but if it 
 means intense energy and inexorable resolution, with un- 
 swerving confidence in them, it then becomes at once a 
 truth and a philosophy. The answer of the Baptist 
 preacher to the question, "Are you not afraid your prose- 
 
^'^4 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 lytes Will take cold, immersing them in mid-winter V" 
 Ao danger of catching cold, if they've got fliith enouc^h" 
 -has a truth which he knew, and a philosophy which he 
 irnew not. It is well known to scientific physicians 
 that this IS a potent principle in the human mind to 
 keep off and cure disease. This determined will can 
 take a man unscathed through a pestilence. There is 
 no more truthful and philosophical saying thair" where 
 heres a will there's a way." By ^nature's general 
 laws everything accomplishes its purpose, and this 
 positive well-defined, intelligent, earnest, aspiring, de- 
 vout .../^, will accomplish its purpose. It is well said 
 by Emerson, "The..///, that is the man." So much 
 and no more of faith and will. And right here, thoud. 
 somewhat abrupt, I'll add some eloquent extracts from 
 a good LttJe book just published, under the unpretend- 
 ing itle of -Plain Guide to Spiritualism," by Uriah 
 Oark, wno writes like one fully endued with the 
 Wenly dews: "For more than a quarter of a cen- 
 tuiy the Christian press and church were filled with 
 prayers and predictions that God would open the heav- 
 ens auew that the Holy Ghost would come down with 
 Po^er, that Jesus Chiist would descend in glory and 
 ^ajesty, that angel armies would marshal themselyes 
 to fresh battles with earth and hell, that some mighty 
 ^^anifestatmn would be made from the skies to Led 
 eaita with overwhelming showers and flame, like 
 tongues offi.re, and thunder with vibrations to auake 
 the_ dead souls of the apathetic masses, and jar from 
 their centre the very walls and foundations where mul- 
 titudes congregated. But the very first faint sound 
 coming m response to these prayers and predictions 
 
rriiLosoriiY of tjfe. zvo 
 
 sent terror into the hoart of modern Christendom. 
 While in tlic very act of praying and predicting that 
 some celestial manifestations of power and majesty 
 might be made, lo, a fceolc sound v>'as heard on the 
 altar floor or jmlpit case, and priest and people were 
 seized v/ith alarm; they turn pale with affright; their 
 prayers shake them, and they take them back; they 
 pray God to forgiye them for asking more than they 
 were prepared to receive ; Catholics cross themselves 
 and Protestants beg to be absolved; throngh the blue 
 goggles of their- dogmas they see "hydras, gargons, 
 chimeras dire," pale phantoms of alarm, skrieking 
 ghosts, wandering wild in the midnight air, and weird 
 hags like those mumbling in Macbeth; and they cry 
 out, Delusion, Beelzebub ! Back, demons damned, ye 
 legioned throngs clothed in tlie alluring light of the 
 spheres. 
 
 ^'Practical Spiritualism is summed up in one v.ord — 
 Love ; love to God, manifest in love to humanity. 
 While Spiritualists seek no central creed, no fixed 
 platform of intellectual opinion, no rigid system of 
 theology, binding the conscience and trammeling free- 
 dom, they are united in the one grand, central element 
 of fraternal love encircling the family of earth and 
 lieaven. We can all agree, without controversy, in 
 reo-ard to this central principle, for there is one common 
 chord of benevolence running through the great heart 
 of humanity, which needs only to be touched aright to 
 vibrate in harmony vath the angel world. But men 
 may quarrel everlastingly about abstract creeds and 
 systems, addressed to the head alone, without coming 
 to anv uniform opinion, while their hearts are rent 
 
276 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 with discord, or left cold, desolate, untouched. The 
 religious world for ages has endeavored to unite in 
 creeds and forms to save humanity; but with what 
 lamentable results ! It has not saved even itself, and 
 to-day the churches are found waning and powerless ; 
 and while they are contending over the "dry bones" 
 of old faiths and formulas past all resurrection, millions 
 of the ignorant, erring, fallen, and unbelieving are left 
 to pine and perish outside the pale of redemption. 
 
 " In this emergency Spiritualism makes its advent. 
 It is scouted by sectarians and would-be philosophers, 
 because it begins with no rigid creed or system, but 
 leaves each individual conscience and intellect free to 
 seek and decide for itself, while it first aims to reach 
 the heart and awaken those divine religious affections 
 paramount over every other department of human na- 
 ture. We thank God and the angel world that Spirit- 
 ualism comes as a religion of tlie affections. It em- 
 braces all science, philosophy, reason, intellect ; but its 
 angel hands reach down through all these and first 
 seek to lay hold of the slumbering chords of the human 
 heart. ' He that loveth, is born of God, and knoweth 
 God ; for God is love.' 
 
 " John goes on to say, in substance, that divine love 
 was manifest in Jesus; that men may know whether 
 they have this love by the spiritual witness within 
 them, and that no man can love God without loving 
 his brother man. 1 John iv. Recognizing God as the 
 Father Spirit of all souls, whose essence is love, every 
 spirit or angel commissioned of God to visit humanity 
 must come on errands of love, and is a manifestation 
 of the Christ-principle, the Holy Ghost, or the Holy 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF lift:. 277 
 
 Host of heaven, whether tliat spirit or angel be one of 
 the departed saints of sacred history or a little child 
 just gone from the humblest home below. There is no 
 small or great in the spiritual kingdom now being in- 
 augurated on earth, no high or low, no rich or poor, 
 but all are one in the fellowship of love engirting the 
 universe. Could we take some lofty stand-point in 
 the spirit world, and gaze down through all the tran- 
 sient grades and conditions of humanity, seeing as an- 
 gels see, we should discover one central element of love 
 more or less pervading all souls, and learn that most 
 of the evils, errors, and diifercnccs existing among the 
 millions below were less than our false judgment had 
 apprehended, while every being would reveal a germ of 
 divinity destined to mount and burn with glory among 
 the celestial hosts of eternal progress. The rapidity 
 with which manifestations have spread, and the avidity 
 wiih which they arc believed, together with the fact 
 that all past ages have demonstrated something similar, 
 suggest to us, that man has a spiritual nature which 
 cannot be satisfied without a belief in Spiritualism. 
 This belief expands his soul with all the great hopes 
 and aspirations which leap beyond the skies, and is the 
 citadel on which he stands when all other foundations 
 are swept away on the winds and waves of time. With- 
 out a consciousness of something within him which 
 shall survive the mutations of time, something allied 
 to God and another realm of higher intelligences, what 
 Avere this life to the suffering millions? And it is to 
 this consciousness we must appeal, if we would have 
 Spiritualism reach the hearts of the people. You go 
 to your skeptical brother, and tell him of the wonder- 
 
:78 
 
 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE, 
 
 fill manifestations you have seen and wliicli he may 
 see ; but perhaps he treats your story with levity. But 
 you then appeal to his own interior nature ; you ask if 
 he has not some hopes, some desires, some" afrections 
 which reach beyond the grave; if some dear one has 
 not gone before him, with whom he would like to com- 
 mune, and if he would not feel happier and better to 
 know all this. And he will cease his levity, and per- 
 chance, while his bosom heaves, a tear wdll steal into 
 his eyes ; and he will turn away, resolved to seek for 
 light, and to search his own soul. O, could we but 
 touch the right chord in the hearts of our brothers and 
 sisters, we should no longer suffer their railery, but 
 feel their hands grasped in warm fellowship and see 
 their faces wet with streams of joy and love ! The dull 
 multitudes plodding along life as though there were 
 nought to do but eat, drink and die, are" startled with 
 new views of the mission of man, and begin to feel 
 there is a divinity within allied to God, and destined 
 to walk eternity in the companionship of angels. The 
 poor, the lowly, the lost are lifted up in communion 
 with worlds and beings of kingly glory and grandeur, 
 and no longer feel they are the reprobates of God and 
 the offcasts of creation. This gospel equalizes all 
 grades and conditions in one band of fraternity, and 
 makes the rich and the poor sit down together as 'com- 
 mon guests at the board around which angels minister 
 celestial messages. I^o lines are drawn in'tlie kingdom 
 of spiritual love and truth. The opening lieavens shine 
 down as brightly through lowly hamlets and dingy 
 dungeons, as on gilded palaces and proud spires pierc- 
 ing the clouds; and with noiseless flight the spirit- 
 
rr.i:. ::' .' :'Y r :> r :fe 'J7.) 
 
 bands wing their way down over the wide planes of 
 humanity, whispering the music of the spheres to 
 attune our souls in harmony with the sons of God 
 shouting their anthems amid the melody of the morn- 
 ing stars of primeval creation. And they come with 
 light to shine along the darkest path of life, and with 
 beacons to point our way over the billows which shall 
 soon waft our spirits whither the generations of the 
 past have gone before us. No Sinai shall quake, no 
 Olympus shall thunder, no Jerusalem shall be clothed 
 in the tragic drapery of Calvary, no war gods shall rat- 
 tle their fiery chariots over continents deluged in blood, 
 no dogmas of human terror, like volcanic flames, shall 
 heave forth edicts of damnation on trembling millions; 
 but the mountain-tops of the century shall gleam with 
 the sunlight of angel faces, and echo the harmonic 
 songs of the empyrean. Tidings already break from 
 the myriad lips of the beloved and beautified bending 
 with benedictions over the hearts and homes of human- 
 ity. Fear not! Hells may clang with alarms, and 
 millions turn pale amid revolutions threatening thrones 
 and republics, but the guardians of the Eternal sit calm 
 in the council-chambers of heaven, and over the turbu- 
 lent sea of human discord breathe the air and pour the 
 oil of celestial harmony. Sit calm in the temple of 
 thine own soul amid the din and jar of the outer world 
 and thou shalt hear cadences echoing down from the 
 grand anthem ever more sounding through the corri- 
 dors of the upper world. Scenes shall soon unfold to 
 human vision transcending what olden seers and sages 
 longed to behold. Millions of mortals shall bathe in 
 the coming Pentecost of ages. Arise, priests, rulers, 
 13 
 
280 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 and people, arise! Gird on your sanda'ls anew, and 
 catch the mantles of the ascended as they come back in 
 chariots of lightning with the flames of living inspira- 
 tion. Dash each tear from thine eye, stifle each fear, 
 fling thy sighs to the wind?, walk forth with the tread 
 of a god in thy footstep, fighting life's battles side by 
 side with that celestial army ' whose white tents are 
 already struck for the morning march of eternity.' 
 The Lord God Omnipotent reigneth! The council- 
 chambers of the eternal world stand open, and the con- 
 gresses of celestial empires are seeking to guide the 
 destiny of nations. The ascended saints, sages, and 
 patriots of America, the heroes and victofs of battle- 
 fields once red with blood and glorious with the tro- 
 phies of freedom, and all the armies bearing palms on 
 the plains of immortal life, now bend witli wisdom over 
 the conflict rending your continent, bidding you 
 still remember the brotherhood of the race ; and above 
 the clamor of belligerent hosts, the clash of arms and 
 thunder of artillery, listen once more to angel anthems 
 of peace and good will," 
 
 But, quoth the fossiliferous remains of the ox-cart 
 ages, Newton, Washington, our fathers, all believed; 
 hence we, too, ought to believe and follow them as they 
 followed their fathers, back to Jacob, Isaac and Noah. 
 This proves too much, if it proves anything. We 
 ought now to be wearing sandals instead of shoes, bus- 
 kins instead of boots, fig leaves and bearskins instead 
 of silk dresses and broadcloth; should live in rustic 
 idylie tents instead of marble modish residences, to 
 practice the primitive art of castrametation instead of 
 the elegant arts of palatial refinement; should cultivate 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 281 
 
 the soil and carry on commerce with the ox instead of 
 steam, viewing this last scie«itific innovation as a Sa- 
 tanic device to subvert the provi<len€e of God; should 
 oiFer sacrifices of he-goats and bullocks to appease the 
 Deity, who might be wrathy with us; should say our 
 prayers to priests and worshij) images of the Virgin 
 Mar}^, who lived a mother and died a rirgin(f). But 
 we have deviated and departed from the path of our 
 fathers in everything, even the most sacred symbols 
 and religious rites; for instance — before those great 
 iconoclastic innovators, Luther and Calvin, the bread 
 and wine of the eucharist^ were viewed as the veritable 
 body and blood of Christ; now they are viewed by 
 Protestants as merely typical, and the old sacred tran- 
 substantiation is utterly rejected — just as all the old 
 sacred superstitions will ultimately be rejected by fu- 
 ture Protestants under the light of progressive science. 
 And if your old Revelation is from the omniscient God, 
 as it professes and you believe, why should it, how can 
 it, have the least inconsistency, to say nothing of con- 
 tradiction and absurdity ? Evidently impossible. I 
 tell 3^ou, my Christian friends, the Bible and Spiritual- 
 ism must stand or fall together; rather Spiritualism 
 may stand, can stand, will stand, independent of the 
 Bible; but the Bible cannot stand amid the bright 
 blaze of modern science, without the support of Spirit- 
 ualism. If Moses and Isaiah, Paul and Peter, of the 
 prophets and apostles, were spiritually inspired in the 
 olden time, so are Davis and Harris, Hume and Gor- 
 don, to a less or greater extent, mediums of the jjresent 
 day, spiritually inspired; or, if the mediums of the 
 present day are not thus inspired, neither were the 
 
282 PHILOSOPHY OP LIFE. 
 
 prophets and apostles, for the same philosophy runs 
 through and underlies it all from the Hindu E-ama to 
 John on Patmos, as well as all the ancient sybils, ora- 
 cles and college of augurs, of which Cato and Cicero 
 were members. The present generation of Edmunds 
 and Talmadge is as much spiritually inspired de facto 
 and dejure, as were the generations of John, of Isaiah, 
 of Zoroaster, or of Budha, Brahma, and much more 
 intelligibly, as modern science lends its light to illume 
 the midnight mysteries enveloping them. The same 
 elements or media of communication exist now that 
 existed then, and science is evolving the philosophy, 
 and building a pillar of support that will sustain the 
 truths of these revelations when all the churches, with 
 their creeds, their canons, and consistories, and conven- 
 tionalisms will fall into ruins, like Herculaneum and 
 Pompeii, Persepolis and Palmyra, under the earth- 
 quake tread of moral revolutions. 
 
 Says Rev. Charles Beecher, a very diiferent man 
 from Henry Ward — this fanatic buifoon and pulpit 
 braggart will not attain in a life-time this side his flu- 
 vial Jordan the learning and honor of the former — in 
 his official report on the new spiritual revelations: 
 " Whenever odylic conditions are right, spirits can ni9 
 more be repressed from communicating than water 
 from jetting through the crevices of a dyke. 
 
 "Whatever physiological law accounts for odylic 
 phenomena in all ages, will, in the end, inevitably 
 carry itself through the Bible. Its prophecies, ecsta- 
 cies, visions, trances, theophanies, angelophanies, physi- 
 ology and anthropology, are highly odylic, and must 
 be studied as such. As such it will be found to har- 
 
t '.OSOPHY OF LIFE. 283 
 
 monize with the general principles of human experi- 
 ence in such matters in all ages. If a theory be adapted 
 everywhere else but in the Bible, excluding spiritual 
 intervention by odylic channels in toto, and accounting 
 for everything physically, then will the covers of the 
 Bible prove but pasteboard barriers. Such a theory 
 M'ill sweep its way through the Bible and its authority ; 
 its plenary inspirations will be annihilated." 
 
 In the language of another, " Is it likely that one 
 who has seen doors open and shut, heavy substances 
 moved about, and a human body upborne and without 
 mortal contrivance or effort, will believe less that 
 Christ walked on the water ; that an angel rolled away 
 a great stone from the sepulchre ; or that Peter was 
 released from prison by a spirit ? Because one has seen 
 lights and appearances of flame, caused as he verily 
 believes by spirits, will he have less faith that the an- 
 gel of God manifested himself to Moses in a burning 
 bush, or that tongues of fire sat on the apostles at the 
 great spiritual manifestation of Pentecost? Shall one 
 hear all manner of sounds, caused by sjiiritual agency, 
 even to a thundering roar, which shakes the whole 
 house, and therefore grow more skeptical about the 
 thunders of Sinai, or the 'great noise as of a mighty 
 rushing wind,' and shaking of the house where the 
 apostles prayed ? Shall one be convinced that spirits 
 actually write on paper, wood and stone, with pencil, 
 pen, etc., with their own visible hands, and therefore 
 have less faith that a mighty angelic spirit inscribed 
 the decalogue on tables of stone and reached them forth 
 out of a thick cloud to Moses ? or grow more skeptical 
 at the reality of the handwriting on the wall at Bel- 
 shazzar's feast ? 
 
284 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 "Will men who are sure tliey have conversed with 
 the spirits of departed friends for hours, therefore doubt 
 whether Moses and Elias conversed with Jesus on the 
 mount? Anti-Bible skepticism does not thrive on 
 such nourishment, neither does irreligion or immorality 
 gain strength by the moral and reformatory communi- 
 cations made in connection with those manifestations." 
 
 For these extracts I am indebted to a little tract 
 called " What's O'clock," by a New Orleans merchant, 
 to whom I personally expressed my gratitude — from 
 which tract I derived more comfort in the midst of 
 affliction on the loss of a little child, than from any 
 preaching, profession, or philosophy I had ever heard, 
 read, or studied; and I recommend this little pamphlet 
 as not only interesting but unaKSwerable, humrble as it 
 may be. Rev. Mr. Ferguson, Ptotestant, of Nashville, 
 says — and I give it but as- an exampfe of raany others — 
 "I believe, I ^now, that I have heid, and now fre- 
 quently hold, communion intelligible and improving, 
 with kindred and elevated spirits who have passed 
 from fleshly sight." 
 
 The Catholic church acknowledges the verity of 
 spiritual communications, but ascribes them to the devil 
 or diabolical agency. (The Lord send us more of these 
 devils with their pure preceptions and lights of immor- 
 tality !) E contrario, the Abbot Almignana, Doctor of 
 the Canon Law, etc., writes : " Having witnessed some 
 extraordinary phenomena, and desiring to assure my- 
 self as to the presence of a diabolical agency in these 
 manifestations, as I had been persuaded to believe — 
 profiting by the opportunity offered by some mediums 
 magnetised by others and not by myself, I was induced 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 285 
 
 to pray, to invoke the sacred names of God and Jesus, 
 to make the sign of the cross on the subjects, and went 
 so far as to sprinkle thorn with holy water, with the 
 design of driving out the Devil should he have taken 
 possession of them." [You must remember, according 
 to the Catholic ritual, sublata causa tolliim' efectus, re- 
 move the cause and the eifect ceases; the names ot 
 Jesus, holy water, etc., will drive ofP the evil one.J 
 " However, as not one of these mediums lost in my 
 presence, the smallest part of their powers, I was led 
 to infer that the Devil had nothing to do with the 
 phenomena." In another instance he says, "the me- 
 dium, instead of repelling the cross as he expected, 
 seized it, and smiling, pressed it to his lips in the most 
 affectionate manner," etc. Again, the eloquent pre- 
 late, Lacordaire, proclaims from the pulpit m the 
 church ofNotre Dame, of Paris, that "this phenome- 
 non belonged to the order of prophecy, and that it was 
 a provision of the divinity to humble the pride of ma- 
 terialism." 
 
 Thus you see the enlightened and honest ot the 
 preachers and priests investigate and attest the truth of 
 these new scientific revelations. But to the captious, 
 cavilous clergy, of whatever creed, caste, or clan, for 
 they are generally clanish and gregarious, one clinch- 
 ing, comprehensive question : Do the facts and philoso- 
 phy claimed for Spiritualism tend to confirm and sub- 
 stantiate the similar facts and revelations of Brahma in 
 the Rug Vedas, Boodh in the Bedagat, Zoroaster in 
 the Zend-Avesta, of Isaiah in the Hebrew Talmud, 
 of Mohammed in the Koran, of John in the New 
 Testament, and all the past revelations of excarnated to 
 
286 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 incarnated man, attesting human immortality ? Or do 
 they tend to render them all incredible and impossible ? 
 Spare us the senseless, satanic hue and howl of hum- 
 bug, delusion, deception, insanity, profanity, infidelity, 
 free-love, etc., which is irrelevant as the cry of steam- 
 boat, small-pox, earthquake, comet; but plead to the 
 issue and give a sensible, honest answer, if you can, 
 and demean yourselves accordingly. And while, in 
 the plentitude of your piety, you roll up the whites of 
 your eyes in holy horror of my " blasphemy," for not 
 believing Christ to be the God of creation, and for my 
 honesty and independence in avowing it, I %varn you to 
 take care that you do not commit the " unpardonable 
 sin " in denying the holy spiritual agency of my phi- 
 losophy, and which Christ claimed and proclaimed. 
 This is sacred soil, hallowed ground: tread lightly^ 
 softly. Now to men of science, those philosophical 
 minds who float with iate and drift with destiny, see- 
 ing no certain light, but uncertain hope, whose faint 
 effulgence only leads their ardent aspirations to disap- 
 pointment and despair; to the rationalistic infidel and 
 scientific materialist I would specially address"* myself^ 
 and with the deepest sympathies of my soul. You are 
 free from partiality and prejudice, untrammeled with 
 sects and sectaries, untinged with sacramental symbols, 
 above the narrow bounds of bigotry, and seek truth, 
 free, untarnished truth, as it beams from the burnished 
 throne through all the works of nature's gmnd econ- 
 omy. I give you cordial greeting on this splendid 
 tribune of truth, where science gathers her jewels, and 
 from her starry wings sheds them on her votaries. 
 You are disgusted with human nature — sick of the 
 
PHILOSOPHY OP LIFE. 287 
 
 world and its ways, and turn from the follies brought 
 on the new philosophy by human weakness and de- 
 pravity. We should not wonder at the huge humbug- 
 gery and charlatanism, the jugglers and tricksters that 
 have gathered around these glorious revelations, for 
 such has been the case with all the simpler and less 
 alluring or less inviting apocalypses of all past time, of 
 all the Bibles from Brahma to Mohammed, and espe- 
 cially with the Jewish Bible and Christian revelations. 
 See what stupendous fabrics of superstition have been 
 reared and perpetuated on this simple revelation. It 
 is all poor human nature. Let us independently inves- 
 tigate the credibility and philosophy of the phenomena, 
 and not abjectly submit to the forged formularies of a 
 paid priesthood ; otherwise we never shall be free ; for 
 it is still poor human nature we have to deal with. If 
 thousands profess to be called of God specially to 
 preach, we should not wonder at other thousands pro- 
 fessing to be inspired and communicated with by angels 
 of their own ilk, for certainly it is greatly less preten- 
 tious to hold communion with our own kith and kin 
 excarnated, than with the great God and creator, whom 
 no man hath seen, or can see, or hear. Your towering 
 aspirations have soared in vain to find an exalted home 
 of purity, permanence and peace beyond the hazy hori- 
 zon of mundane mutations. You have seen the utter 
 inadequacy, the futility, the absurdity and the falsity 
 of all the revelations as expounded and proclaimed by 
 pontiff and preacher, calif and clergy. Science has 
 lighted up to you the dark vaults of their superstitions, 
 and exposed their corruptions to your enlightened 
 view. You can have no hope here. And even discard- 
 13* 
 
288- FHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 ing the disgusting dogmas interpolated in the Christian 
 Bible and embracing its fundamental enunciations as 
 of divine origination, as interpreted by its official dig- 
 nitaries, the diabolical anathemas of hell and damna- 
 tion without end to his children, invest the character 
 of our creator mth an attribute of cruelty and malig- 
 nity which, coupled with His omnipotence, would trans- 
 form Hi& whole universe into a boumiless and illimita- 
 ble hell,, without a pulse of pleasure to beat to the dead 
 march of mourning millions unnumbered. No hope 
 here. And even its heaven in the dim and uncertain 
 distance of hereafter,, so loudly glorified ; and the plan 
 of salvation so much lauded as the paragon of perfec- 
 tion in divine wisdom and love, indeed as the mount 
 on which mercy and justice kissed each other, fail^ 
 utterly fail to still the troubled throbbings of the en- 
 lightened human heart that beats with philanthropy 
 and philosophy in unison with the angels.. Only a 
 modicum of earth's millions ever hear an echo of this- 
 salvation, and but a fraction of this modicum ever 
 reach the portals of that distant heaven, dismal in the 
 distance. But of those favored few that do pass within, 
 its pearly portals — their memories — where are they 2 
 The cherished endearments of time — do they live for- 
 ever? Our memories are either taken with us after- 
 death and retained in heaven, or they are not. If re- 
 tained, the recollections of loved and lost friends, now 
 in a hopeless hell of eternal damnation, must wake an 
 echo to mar the music of that celestial sphere, and in- 
 flict an anguish to throb in the very bosom of bliss ; 
 aye, will wake a wail of woe that shall sound upon the 
 long roll of eternal years, as ever and anon the constant 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 289 
 
 ciy of "he cometh not, he cometh not," shall ring out 
 upon the cycles of eternity ! But if our memories are 
 not retained, then the hallowed associations, the sacred 
 friendships and loves, our foretaste of heaven, nay, our 
 very hfecceity, must die out with death, and this 
 heaven is no reunion of kindred spirits; the pure emo- 
 tions of earth that assimilate us to the angel life, are 
 not to be rekindled in the Christian heaven. Will 
 death roll a lethean stream over all earth's love, and 
 the wave of oblivion bury forever the cherished remi- 
 nescences of time ? Here the vortices of Scylla and 
 Charybdis open before us. No hope here. In agony 
 and despair you leave all the miraculous revelations 
 and look to science. She was teaching you that spirit 
 is but the result of physical organism, and must perish 
 with the dissolution of the material organization — that 
 we have no undying nature. 
 
 In despair again, but not in agony, you seek the 
 solace of oblivion, and suck sweetness from the cup of 
 nothing — nepenthe from oblivion — you claim and court 
 the Brahminical privilege of Nirvana, and implore the 
 great Baldeva to still your throbbing heart, and cool 
 your fevered brow in Lethe's turbid wave ; for is not 
 this eternal sleep a sweet repose in comparison with 
 the bitter life of all these old revelations ? 
 
 You draw a virtue from this stern necessity and call 
 on the grave to cover you forever with its cold clods, 
 and extinguish, O death, this little lamp of life, that it 
 may flicker no more amid the damps of death, where 
 the oxygen of hope only buds out the blossoms of the 
 human heart for the nitrogen of death to blast and 
 wither. O put out this little light that only illumes 
 
290 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 the wrecks of hope and the ruins of love. The ruins 
 of love! who can picture them ? Who paint the hu- 
 man hopes that bud out like blossoms of the human 
 heart — for what ? to fruit a heritage of hereafter ? No ; 
 to be crushed and consigned to the ruins of love ! The 
 ruins of love ! beside which Volney's ruins are the 
 playthings of children. Imagine the pillared universe 
 dissolving, the throne of Deity crumbling, the sera- 
 phim, and cherubim, and all the archangel host, falling 
 and tumbling from their high-sphered beatitudes in 
 undistingui&hable ruin, and you may then conceive the 
 mighty meaning and significance of the ruins of love. 
 You look to science and this is the lesson she taught 
 you. That all your hopes mil fall in wrecks, and all 
 your loves dissolve in ruins> and the silence of sleep 
 enwrap you forever in the shroud of oblivion. No 
 hope, no hope ! You would sink under your iliad of 
 woes. But stay yet longer mth me on this favored 
 tribune of truth, where science drops her gems and 
 sheds her sweetest rays serene. Know ye not she's 
 culled another, and her highest truth, to crown the 
 character of mankind ? Know ye not her last and 
 mightiest truth, that unlocks the chambers of angelic 
 life, and opens portals of immortality for the aspirations 
 of the true? And against this grand and mightiest 
 truth of science, which connects its electric wires of 
 mind to spheres where the wrecks of hope and ruins of 
 love are unfeared and unknown, beyond the regions of 
 convolving vapor, charged with unequal lightning and 
 muttering thunder — against this sweet serene of science 
 are hurled the shafts of bitter invective and cruel cal- 
 umny by those for whom it weaves a mantle of undy- 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 291 
 
 ing love and charity — some who look to science, but 
 fear opinion. 
 
 This bright luminary that science has unfolded in 
 the firmament is inveighed against, barked at and as- 
 sailed by the poor canine kindred of the human family, 
 who follow science less than fear and prejudice. Just 
 so, you know, was the great Watt opposed, and his 
 great labor-saving discovery, because it would supplant 
 and save human labor, just as this will supplant prelatic 
 officiation and save human sorrow ; and so the mighty 
 man of Wirtemberg was maligned and menaced be- 
 cause he lettered the language for earth's pitied chil- 
 dren, and the printing press was ascribed to diabolism. 
 And so the opposition to the establishment of the Royal 
 Society, because it was asserted that the experimental 
 philosophy was subversive of the Christian faith ; and 
 the readers of D'Israeli will remember the telescope 
 and microscope were stigmatized as atheistical inven- 
 tions, which perverted our organ of sight and made 
 everything appear in a false light. So late as 1806 
 the Anti-Vaccination Society denounced the discovery 
 of vaccination as a gross violation of religion, morality, 
 law and humanity. It was denounced from the pulpit 
 as diabolical, tempting of God's providence, an inven- 
 tion of Satan, a wresting out of the hands of the Al- 
 mighty the divine dispensation of Providence, and its 
 abettors were charged with sorcery and atheism. 
 When fanning machines were first introduced to win- 
 now the chaif from the wheat by producing an artificial 
 current of air, it was argued that winds were raised by 
 God alone, and it was irreligious in man to attempt to 
 raise wind for himself and by efforts of his own ; and 
 
292 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 one Scottish clergyman refused the holy communion to 
 those of his parishioners who thus irreverently raised 
 the Devil's wind. 
 
 You remember how the innocent recreation of 
 dancing is denounced by the puritanical pious- — " that 
 the dance is the Devil's procession — the woman that 
 singeth in the dance is the prioress of the Devil, and 
 those that answer are his clerks, and the beholders are 
 his parishioners, and the music are the bells, and the 
 fiddlers are the ministers of the Devil," etc. (often bet- 
 ter ministers than some others of greater pretensions 
 we wot of). The great Kepler, for his grand astro- 
 nomic revelations, was accused of conjuration with the 
 Devil ; and see how were treated Gallileo, Faust, So- 
 crates and a host of other moral luminaries, represen- 
 tative men — no, not all — for some lived in supernal 
 spheres, many centuries beyond their age and genera- 
 tion. And Jesus Christ, who preached peace and 
 charity on earth, and happiness and immortality in 
 heaven, to the good, was crucified because he claimed 
 to be a son of our common Father. What boots it, 
 then, if we, too, be contemned and ostracised? Let 
 the old th cologne plod the path that pays, the rampant 
 preacher valiantly demolish the man of straw he 
 builds ; and let the wrangling politician intrigue and 
 trade for the spoils of office, or labor for the ephemeral 
 glory of a momentary notoriety: be it our mission, 
 both humble and proud, or public or private, to trace 
 the glimmering threads of light that reach us from a 
 higher world, investigate the organon of nature, teach 
 charity and truth, inculcate love as the element of im- 
 mortality, and claim, and cherish, and cultivate kin- 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 293 
 
 dred with the angel world. This world of fools may 
 call us infatuated, mad, crazy. Did they not call the 
 great Chatham mad because he denounced the Crown 
 and declared Britain " never could conquer America, 
 never, never !" Then call us mad because we denounce 
 the crown of popular prejudice, and declare death and 
 hell never can conquer our loves, never, never ! Did 
 they not call the great orator and scientific statesman 
 and philosopher, Edmund Burke, whose name illumin- 
 ates Irish and British history, mad, because he foretold 
 the unhappy results of the French Kevolution, and in 
 fiery denunciations of the Ministry, thundered^ to the 
 Chair of the Commons the words of St. Paul, " I am 
 not mad, most noble Festus, but speak the words of 
 truth and soberness," and predicted that in twenty 
 years the world would call his accusers mad ; and also, 
 because in his tender and affectionate memory for his 
 deceased son, whom he feared, and perhaps believed, 
 he would never meet again, for the world then had no 
 proof to satisfy his philosophic mind of immortality— 
 because he would embrace and caress in the most touch- 
 ing manner his son's favorite horse ! I, too, have done 
 the same thing, and do now caress and pet the favorite 
 horse of my son— lost and loved— so like his young 
 master, so spirited and yet so gentle; and so, likewise, 
 does his sister, so devoted to his memory ; indeed, his 
 memory is now our family shrine. Am I and my art- 
 less, innocent and affectionate daughter, then— aye, and 
 everybody who has this deep devotion of love, this 
 idiocy, or idiocrasy, or idiosyncrasy, as the callous brute 
 might' call it— infatuated, mad? Aye, we would in- 
 deed be mad if that noble son and brother, though 
 
294 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 " unconverted," were consigned by God to an endless 
 hell, or endless nihility, that we never more should 
 meet his manly form, nor share his genial sympathies, 
 or meet 'mong devils damned. Is this quenchless love 
 unfolded from our life like the unconscious flower from 
 the earth, a pretty principle to fade forever after a 
 fleeting hour ? Or is it an infant attribute, an emana- 
 tion of the eternal God, to light our life forever, 
 quenchless as yon fires that light the firmament ? Even 
 now, while inditing this brief and fitting addendum, I 
 look out through the windows of my country cottage 
 and see the faithful animal conten tedly grazing in the 
 green pastures of my rural home. Is he who hath left 
 our carnal sight contentedly, happily ranging the spirit 
 pastures of the angel home ? O, for an evidential view 
 of that spirit home, that happy home in the bright blue 
 ether that enzones us in a circean cincture, like a girdle 
 of glory ! All the fauna and flora of our earth have 
 country, climate, seasons and even colors, with natures, 
 desires and dispositions, mutually adapted one for the 
 other. Shall the horse, conscious of nothing but his 
 pasture and our kindness, be fully gratified ; while he, 
 with his superb soul and aspiring spirit, and we, with 
 undying hope to meet him, are thus endued and en- 
 dowed to be tantalized with the merest mockery and 
 direst cruelty ? And would a wise Creator have a great 
 globe, with a surrounding and encompassing space of 
 vast extent, for nothing but the single surface? Not 
 so : these circumjacent realms are to be peopled with 
 those for whom they are mutually adapted, one for the 
 other, as in the fauna and flora of this sphere. Yet, 
 notwithstanding this and other illative arguments of 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 205 
 
 inductive analogy proving immortality, apart from the 
 demonstrations of spiritual science, I, nevertheless, like 
 Burke, sometimes doubt; even with these demonstra- 
 tions I doubt, and yet I believe ; I believe, and yet I 
 doubt; doubting, I believe, and believing, I doubt. 
 When I witness the innocent suffering and death around 
 me, I doubt demonstration itself of immortality. What 
 a glorious, unspeakable blessing these spiritual demon- 
 strations would have been to such a mind as Burke's! 
 The celebrated philosophical historian, David Hume, 
 of whom Adam Smith observed that " he approached 
 as nearly to the idea of a perfectly wise and virtuous 
 man as the nature of human frailty will permit," says 
 " doubt irremediable is the sole inheritance of our race." 
 I have inherited my full share of this universal patri- 
 mony, to the extent that it frequently shakes my phi- 
 lol^phy (T have no faith) and mars the happiness of 
 my anticipations. For this frank avowal I may be 
 called skeptic, infidel. I am willing, and can afford to 
 be called skeptic, deluded, infatuated, mad, to be de- 
 rided, ridiculed, but never insulted. Let us investigate 
 and be patient, trusting to the goodness of that God 
 who has planted our path with the myrtle and the rose, 
 and strewed our bed with flowers to gratify our love 
 for the pure and the beautiful with which He hath en- 
 dowed us, that He will yet gratify all our loves, and 
 plant us, too, among the fadeless flowers of the spheres 
 where love immortal blooms ! You will recollect how 
 Franklin, and Fulton, and Fitch were derided, and the. 
 greatest and best men of the world ridiculed and in- 
 suited. But all this is passing away before the march 
 of mind, and will not deter your honest and fearless 
 
296 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 spirits of moral heroism. "The world moves for all 
 that." Science marches on^ and destiny develops, and 
 philosophy unfolds, silent as the circle of the sun, steady 
 as the travel of a star, and sure as the annals of 
 eternity. 
 
 I ask you to investigate this philosophy^ — ^for it is 
 open to all, and specially invites you philomathic men 
 of wisdom — examine its records, inspect its muniments, 
 test its truth, and appropriate the precious, priceless 
 pearl, to glitter in the galaxy of your loves. Study 
 well this mysterious and hitherto unknown principle of 
 the human mind and of nature, which, as Dr. Franklin 
 informed Cabanis, " frequently unfolded to him in his 
 dreams the bearings and issue of political events which 
 had puzzled him when awake;" that presented to 
 Condorcet, in his visions, the con* lusions of the most 
 abstruse calculations, which he could not arrive at when 
 awake ; the dream of Lord Bacon, in France, of the 
 death of his father, in England, which he afterwards 
 found realized to the letter and the moment ; the mys- 
 terious female spectre that appeared both day and night 
 to Cromwell, and his strange presentiment and de- 
 meanor on the bloody fields of Dunbar and Naseby ; 
 the mysteries of the Seeress of Provorst ; the vaticina- 
 tions of Nostradamus, which were bitterly fulfilled 
 several centuries after their utterance ; and the distin- 
 guished lawyer of Edinburgh, who had been consulted 
 in a most difficult ease of great importance, and had 
 been studying it with intense anxiety and attention. 
 After several days had been occupied in this manner, 
 he was observed by his wife to rise from his bed in the 
 night and go to a writing desk which stood in the bed- 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 297 
 
 room. He then sat down and wrote a long paper, 
 which he pnt carefully by in the desk, and returned to 
 bed. The following morning he told his wife that he 
 had a most interesting dream ; that he had dreamed of 
 delivering a clear and luminous opinion respecting a 
 case M'hich had exceedingly perplexed him ; and that 
 he would give anything to recover the train of thought 
 wdiich had passed before him in his dream. She then 
 directed him to the writing desk, where he found the 
 opinion clearly and fully written out, and which was 
 afterwards found to be perfectly correct. And most 
 especially I entreat you to analyze the w^onderful mys- 
 teries of modern contemporaneous record ; search the 
 secret of the startling phenomena of daily development 
 and occurrence around us, as chronicled in the periodi- 
 cal press of Spiritual literature, so accessible to all ; the 
 thrilling incidents and startling intelligence in the 
 youth and early years of deceased friends, intelligence 
 long forgotten or entirely unknown, contrary to the 
 impressions and opinions of all in carnal connection, 
 but afterwards found to be true, and which could have 
 been communicated by none but those who thus avow 
 themselves, we know to be deceased ; also, of ponderous 
 bodies moving about like feathers, beyond the power 
 of all human effort, and many and divers manifestations 
 of supernal spirit power ; as illustrative instance, a 
 piano will give forth the most rapt and ravishing mu- 
 sic unknown to all in the room, by the medium simply 
 laying her hands upon it, even on the opposite side 
 (most generally female, as in the days of Spiritual j)ower 
 recorded in the Bible, because more negative, and re- 
 ceptive, and susceptible, and impressible, spiritually as 
 
298 WiiLosol^HV OF l:?2, 
 
 well as physically, than the other and more positive 
 sex) ; the speaking of a young, guileless girl of superior 
 sentiments and in tongues unknown to her ; the minute 
 and specific description of form, feature, peculiarities of 
 character, constitution, dress, etc., of some near relative 
 long since deceased and when a child, unknown to the 
 medium and all present, but afterwards, upon inquiry, 
 found to be correct; the announcement of new scientific 
 truths and their philosophy, at the time totally un- 
 known, but ascertained and established by subsequent 
 investigation. 
 
 As simple and touching examples, a spirit, through 
 the mf^dium, communicates : We ask, " What is your 
 name?" Answer — "John Doe." We question — 
 " Where did you die ?" Answer — " I am not dead ; I 
 left the form at Petersburg." Question — "How long 
 have you been in the spirit world ?" Answer — " Three 
 months." Question — " Did you know us while in the 
 flesh ?" Answer — " No." Question^" Have you any- 
 thing to communicate ?" Answer — " Yes ; I want you 
 to write to my dear wife and tell her that I am not in 
 the cold, dark grave. My spirit is free. I am with 
 her often, and try to impress ' her with my presence. 
 Our t.wo little children, Ann and Charlie, are with me, 
 and we are happy." Question — " What is your wife's 
 name ?" Answer — " Jane Doe." We write to Peters- 
 burg and find all true. 
 
 Again : A young lady is engaged to be married to 
 a gentleman who is a fine musician, particularly on the 
 piano, and the day and hour set. Before the appointed 
 time of their nuptial consummation, he is accidentally 
 killed. At her house grief takes the place of joy. 
 
PIllLOSOrHY OP LIFE. 299 
 
 When the appointed day arrives, and the clock strikes 
 the liour when hilarity and happiness momentary 
 should have reigned supreme, alas ! gloom, grief and 
 woe usurp their place; tears flow instead of smiles, and 
 the mansion is draped in mourning. But hark! From 
 the neglected piano, on which the lost intended had so 
 often performed, in the deserted parlor, suddenly come 
 ravishing strains of gushing music and melody. The 
 startled family rush into the parlfir and find the instru- 
 ment pouring forth his favorite piece, which it had so 
 often discoursed under his magic touch, and not a per- 
 son in contact or present. 
 
 And again : Rev. T. L. Harris, author of " Lyric 
 of the Golden Age," a poem about the size of Milton's 
 Paradise Lost, and which, if not equal to the latter in 
 fertility of invention, as it is not an epic, has more 
 than Miltonic grandeur and sublimity, and which was 
 composed and dictated in ninety-four hours, under an 
 inspirational influence transcending in correctness and 
 statelincss of style, and beauty and sublimity of senti- 
 ment, everything uttered by Valmika, or Homer, or 
 Zoroaster, or Solomon, or David, or Isaiah, or Paul, or 
 John, or Mahomet, or any and all Biblical writers and 
 inspired men of other days; of whom "it is alleged 
 that when spirits enter his sphere they become visible 
 to others ; that persons of refined habits and acute sen- 
 sation both see and hear them ; that the spirits are able 
 to cause atmospheric undulations, and to produce the 
 most delicate chemical combinations and sensational 
 impressions — all made manifest to the outer senses of 
 men by distinct vibrations, concussions, vocal and in- 
 strumental music, and also by the diffusion of delight- 
 
300 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 fill aromas, like the perfume of jessamine flowers, etc., 
 through the common atmosphere, which is not intrin- 
 sically improbable, since all the simple elements of 
 which the aromas consist are everywhere diflPused in 
 the earth and atmosphere, and it needs but the subtile 
 chemism of the spirit to so combine them as . to render 
 their presence manifest to the senses ; was called upon 
 in December, 1852, by Mrs. C, in the hope of obtain- 
 ing some evidence of immortality which might afford 
 her the consolation she needed in a season of deep 
 affliction. Her husband had departed this life, and 
 her spirit yearned for the assurance that life was re- 
 newed and love immortal beyond the grave. Mr. 
 Harris knew nothing of her history, and had no exter- 
 nal perception of the object of her visit, but becoming 
 entranced in her presence, all was revealed to him. 
 He informed the lady that her husband was an United 
 States officer, described his mental and physical pecu- 
 liarities, his dress, a scar on his face, and said that he 
 carried a repeater watch, and was in the frequent habit 
 of applying it to his ear and striking the hour. The 
 father of Mrs. C, an eminent divine, was also described 
 on the same occasion, and the lady declared that the 
 delineations were in every essential particular true to 
 nature and the facts. 
 
 During the same month another interesting illustra- 
 tion of the author's (Harris) mediumship occurred. A 
 professional gentleman at the South was invited to hear 
 Mr. Harris lecture on Spiritualism, but declined, hav- 
 ing no faith in the alleged manifestations from spirits. 
 On being requested to make "a personal visit to Mr. H., 
 he consented, at the same time affirming that no spirit 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 301 
 
 could reveal the facts in the life of the person that pur- 
 ported to communicate, in such a manner as to insure 
 Identification, as all the phenomena were mere psycho- 
 logical hallucinations, which he himself could produce 
 at pleasure. This gentleman was accordingly intro- 
 duced to Mr. Harris, and after a brief interview, the 
 latter — ^being under the magnetic influence of some 
 
 ;^pli'it retired to his interior plane of observation. 
 
 The visitor was informed that the spirit of a young 
 female attended him as a guardian. Her personal ap- 
 pearance, costume, and other things connected with the 
 life on earth, were described; the relation which had 
 previously existed between the gentleman and his 
 spirit-guardian was intimated ; the nature of her life, 
 and the circumstances of her death, were referred to ; 
 the spirit also gave him an impressive communication, 
 indicating her condition in the spirit-world, the habits 
 of her earthly friend, and concluded by admonishing 
 him to reform. At the close of this interview the gen- 
 tleman went away, but not long after called on Mr. 
 Harris again, and related the story of the life and death 
 of the young girl whose spirit had so unexpectedly 
 addressed him, affirming, at the same time, that he was 
 fully satisfied of the truth of Spiritualism, from the 
 astonishing accuracy of the disclosures made through 
 Mr. H. The gentleman also expressed his conviction 
 that the medium could not have derived his impres- 
 sions by psychological process from his own mind, and 
 that this was rendered evident to him from the state- 
 ment of an important fact respecting the spirit, which, 
 until that hour, was neither known nor conceived of 
 by himself. Since the first interview a personal inves- 
 
302 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 tigatlon had fully established^ in his mind, the truth of 
 the statement." 
 
 For this I'm indebted to Brittan's superb and splen- 
 did Introduction to the " Lyric of the Golden Age." 
 
 And yet again : The most splendid and perfect oil pic- 
 tures of deceased children and friends are often produced 
 in less than an hour by mediums who knew nothing of 
 them — entire strangers — to the unbounded delight and 
 joy of living parents and friends. And sometimes the 
 very air is vocal with the choral melodies of these an- 
 gelic spirits who formerly wore the flesh of men. 
 These facts and millions more, occurring in all ages 
 and generations, and in our own age and in our own 
 midst, as well avouched and authenticated as any other 
 facts not within our personal cognition, and which 
 urgently invite personal cognizance, certainly challenge 
 and should command your most devoted investigation. 
 Is it psychometry ? If so, how could the psychometer 
 perceive them, unless they or their representatives were 
 somewhere and accessible where in actual existence? 
 Then it must be ocular demonstration of immortality. 
 Is it psychologic illusion? If so, whence come the 
 facts unknoAvn to all at the time? Is it due to an ab- 
 normal excitation, or mysterious mental exuberation ? 
 If so, whence the cause of this condition, when in a 
 state of perfect passivity ? and whence the source of the 
 great truths utterel ? I call upon the learned to ex- 
 plicate these occult elements, unfold the latent agencies 
 of these potent phenomena, under test conditions that 
 admit of no collusion or deception, if they be not, as 
 invariably claimed, messages of immortality from our 
 friends who have passed the mystic portal. Hear the 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 3C3 
 
 burning words through the mouth of a medium, 
 from the great Greek whose fame like him of Latium two 
 centuries later, fills the spheres of our world ; a fame 
 that has no ensanguined track of victims to deplore, no 
 writhing desolation to bewail like Titus and Vespasian 
 over Jerusalem in ruins, with its bleeding sons, and 
 famishing mother devouring her child ; no weltering 
 Waterloo to weep over, like Wellington when his melt- 
 ing eyes surveyed the bloody carnage he had wrought ; 
 whose escutcheon is untarnished with a tear and un- 
 stained with a drop of human blood ; whose melody is 
 unmarred with the widow's moan or an orphan's sigh, 
 pure and sj)otless as the cerulean ether that poured its 
 inspirations into his great soul : " Had you asked me 
 concerning God a thousand years ago, I could have told 
 you all about him — but now, after I have walked the 
 highway of celestial worlds for more than two thousand 
 years, I am so far lost and overpowered amid the splend- 
 ors of infinitude I can s'^y nothing. Height on height 
 beyond the penetration of finite vision, I see the dim 
 outlines of a deitific universe ; i feel the flood-tides of 
 Divinity flowing down through all the avenues of my 
 immortal being ; I hear peal after peal of archangel 
 eloquence ringing through the endless archways of the 
 empyrean, evermore sounding into my ears the name 
 of God, God, God ! I'm silent, dumb." Isn't this 
 Demosthenaic, and is it his inspiration, or is it due to 
 the genius of the medium ? Suppose the medium 
 youthful, artless and without genius, and pouring forth 
 such eloquent thoughts as is frequently, or at least some- 
 times, the case, then whence the source and what the 
 philosophy, if it be not as invariably avowed from 
 14 
 
304 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 present immortals of the spirit world ? The theory 
 of a diseased or morbid or abnormal condition of the 
 brain, will not, can not, explain the unknown intelli- 
 gence. This new science of Psychometry deserves 
 more than a passing notice. As recorded in the " Eclec- 
 tic Magazine of Foreign Literature," taken from " Wel- 
 don's Register " — Prof. Plitchcock in his well known 
 book, " The Religion of Geology," speaking of the in- 
 fluence of light upon bodies, and of the formation of 
 pictures upon them by means of it, says : " It seems, 
 then, that this photographic influence pervades all 
 nature, nor can we say where it stops. We do not know 
 but it may imprint upon the world around us our fea- 
 tures as they are modified by various passions, and thus 
 fill nature with daguerreotype impressions of all our 
 actions that are performed in daylight. It may be, 
 too, that there are tests by which nature, more skillful 
 than any human photographer, can bring out and fix 
 these portraits, so that acuter senses than ours shall see 
 them as on a great canvass spread over the material 
 universe. Perhaps, too, they may never fade from that 
 canvass, but become specimens in the great picture gal- 
 lery of eternity." One Dr. Denton and his wife Eliza- 
 beth — that they are Americans need scarcely be said — 
 have just published a book, called " The Soul of 
 Things; or, Psychometric Researches and Discoveries," 
 in which they assert that what Prof. Hitchcock thus 
 says " perhaps may be," really is. They say that radiant 
 faces are passing from all objects to all objects, every mo- 
 ment of time, and photographing the appearances of each 
 upon the other, every action, every movement being thus 
 infalibly registered for coming ages. " The pane of 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 305 
 
 glass in the window, the brick in the wall, and the 
 paving-stone in the streets catch the pictnres of all 
 passers-by and carefully preserve them. Not a leaf 
 waves, not an insect crawls, but each motion is recorded 
 by a thousand faithful scribes, in infalible and indelible 
 scriptures." This having always been so, there is thus 
 stored up in nature the most faithful memorials of 
 the entire past— of the early world and its tides of 
 liquid fire, its rushing floods and steaming vapors ; of 
 every plant, from the club-moss to the tree-fern ; of 
 every animal, from the polyp to the pachyderm ; and 
 of every tribe and nation and race of man. All have 
 set for their portraits, and " there the portraits all are 
 faithfully daguerreotyped in this divine picture-gallery 
 for all time." And it is not sights alone that are regis- 
 tered, but sounds as well. Nature is not only a picture- 
 gallery, but a whispering-gallery, too. As no scene is 
 ever effaced, so no sound ever dies out. " The lullaby 
 sung by our cradle, the patter of the rain upon the 
 roof, the sighing of the winds, the roll of the thunder, 
 the dash of falling waters, the murmur of affection, 
 the oath of the inebriate, the hymn at the church, the 
 song at the concert, the words of wisdom and folly, the 
 whisper of love— all are faithfully registered." " All 
 sounds record themselves on all objects within their in- 
 fluence, and these phonotypes, as tliey may be termed, 
 are almost, if not entirely, as enduring as the objects 
 themselves." Neither the "phonotypes" nor the 
 " portraits " may be brought out, or " developed," by 
 any known chemical application, but in some individu- 
 als the brain is sufficiently seusative to perceive them 
 when it is brought into proximity with the objects on 
 
306 PHILOSOPHY Of LIFE. 
 
 which they are impressed." Persons thus sensative 
 are called " Psychometers/' and of the sights which 
 such persons have seen, and of the sounds which they 
 have heard, when exercising their peculiar faculty, this 
 book sets forth one hundred and fourteen instances, all 
 of which are indeed " wonderful, if true." A piece of 
 brick or stone from an ancient city has enabled them to 
 see and hear all that was ever done or uttered in its 
 vicinity ; a piece of fossil animal has taken them back 
 to the world in which that animal lived and moved and 
 had its being, and enabled them to observe minutely its 
 physical condition, and all characteristics alike of its 
 vegetable productions and of its brute inhabitants ; a 
 bit of granite has made them spectators of the primeval 
 chaos, amid whose throes the mountain whence it was 
 taken had its birth, and a fragment of an aerolite has 
 given them wings on which to travel through the limit- 
 less fields of space. It is obvious that, if '■ Psychome- 
 try " be true, nature will no longer have " mysteries," 
 nor history " secrets ;" we shall no longer be puzzled 
 by theories as to the origin of the antiquity of man, 
 or as to the methods by which the infinite variety of 
 complicated results which we see in the three kingdoms 
 of nature have been produced. All the processes 
 which are going on, or ever have gone on, in nature, 
 will be unveiled to the gaze of the " Psychometer," 
 and all that man, in any age or country, have said or 
 done, will bo similarly present to his eye and ear. 
 So far the latest development of American psychology. 
 Well may we ask Mr. Cobden's question, " What next — 
 and next?" Now that the phenomeni of spiritualism 
 aretrue^ you will not, can not deny ; but the question to 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 307 
 
 investigate is, are they the result of supernal si^iritual 
 agency, or of some other occult philosopy ? I have 
 said psychology furnishes a rational though not satis- 
 factory explanation — indeed spiritualism is psychology 
 extended to the spirit world ; and I now assert j)sychome- 
 try to bo a rational theory of explanation for the 
 siiiritual phenomena ; but this, like the other, fails in 
 practice under strict test conditions and trials. Can 
 psychometry or psychology as confined to flesh, or can 
 any degree of mental excitation, independent of super- 
 nal spiritual inspiration, account for and explain how 
 ApoUonius, when discoursing at Ephesus, suddenly ex- 
 claimed, " Strike, strike the tyrant ! courage, my friends, 
 for at this very moment the tyrant is slain," — and 
 subsequent intelligence proved that the reigning tyrant 
 Domitiau was assinatcd at that very hour; and how 
 the preacher, among the grampian hills of Scotland, 
 when in the midst of his prayer, he suddenly stopped, 
 and trembling with peculiar nervous emotion, ex- 
 claimed : " rejoice my people, we are free ; Charles 
 Stuart speaks no more, his tongue hangs out and th^y 
 can never get it back again " — became impressed with 
 this idea, and was so suddenly and unexpectedly in- 
 formed of this fact, which was totally unknown, and 
 indeed only transpired at that very moment, hundreds 
 of miles distant, and precisely as he was impressed and 
 expressed it — his tongue protruding immediately after 
 death,and his attendants unsuccessfully striving to replace 
 it ? Can any conceived or conceivable philosophy ex- 
 plicate these cases, other than that of spiritual influence, as 
 avowed by the authors themselves in spirit life ? In 
 this case just refered to, there can be no psychometric 
 
308 nilLOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 picture of the sensitive brain of the preacher, for the 
 subject of the picture had not existed until now ; nor 
 could human psychology have operated, for the fact 
 was unknown at the time outside of the immediate circlte 
 who witnessed it. And if mind itself is capable of this 
 mighty expansion, why does it not perceive human 
 mortality or death, if such be fa.it, or why, if this last 
 be the philosophy, does it always perceive human im- 
 mortality, if such be not the fact ? And I ask this 
 question of all these and a.11 other philosophies and 
 theories that have been, or may be put forth, to explain 
 these spiritual phenomena, why is it that they all, in- 
 variably, point to spiritual philosophy or reveal spirit 
 life and spirit foi'm — human immortality or superior, 
 if not ubiquitous^ intelligence ? This is very signifi- 
 cant. And yet ag^iin : Ignatius Loyola, the founder e-f 
 the Jesuits, whom I've been religiously reared to hate, 
 who svas sincere and devout in his religious lustrations 
 notwithstanding the atrocities of his later sectators, was 
 frequently, as it is related, taken up bodily during his- 
 religious exercise Prior to the modern philosophy of 
 spirit, I woukl have rejected this and all kindred 
 stories, as fabulous ; but now I am prepared to believe 
 it and receive as true, these marvelous histories of the 
 past, because we have them enacted now, at the present 
 day, and have found a philosophy for them. Mr. 
 Home is frequently taken up, without visable agency, 
 and carried around in a room near the ceiling. Now 
 what operation of physical science or principle of 
 physical philosophy, does all this? We know not, and 
 no body knows a physical element or combination of 
 .such elements, adequate to this phenomenon, beyond our 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF UFi 309 
 
 detection. The only solution is mental or spiritual, 
 and whence, and who, and where the mind or spirit, if 
 it be not our excarnated friends, now immortal angels, 
 in contiguous spheres near to and communicating with 
 us? Then ye men of science fully unfold this mighty 
 philosophy of a new element in human nature, a potent 
 principle for no good, no purpose, to tlie creator or the 
 creature, unless it reaches to a kindred spirit land 
 whose love attractions draw us to those sweet shores of 
 spirit empire, where we shall drink from near the foun- 
 tain and imbibe the vitalizing azure air that develop 
 angelic intelligencies — the mighty multitude of happy 
 life that God is gathering around him, as a father 
 gathers his children and binds their brows with gar- 
 lands of beauty and love. 
 
 Let not the follies, falsities and fatuities of charla- 
 tans, for they swarm everywhere, so disgust you as to 
 turn you from the transcendent splendor of the phi- 
 losophy. 
 
 Trace those '• strings, or threads of distant contact" 
 by which the blind man perceived and recognised 
 others, of which Abercrombie speaks, before the spiri- 
 tual philosophy was known ; or " the fine thread of 
 light which moves the medium," as a spirit lately 
 spoke ; and see if they don't draw you to those spheres 
 where flows the ambrosial nectar of the gods. O my 
 coevals and co-equals in philanthropy, philosophy and 
 science ! You whose aspirations thrill responsive to my 
 own ! I ask you, I urge you, to come up closer to this 
 warm sun of the soul and receive new life, and relume 
 your love where ruin is unknown, and warm your 
 hearts so chilled by the cold creeds of old theology. 
 Come, let us worship at the shrine of philosophy, for 
 
310 riTL^OSOPHY OP LIFE. 
 
 this is the true Avorship of the true God. Listen, listen 
 to this new, near music of the circumambient spheres. 
 
 Hear the harmonies that thrill these near concentric 
 realms of pure and spotless spirituality. March to the 
 music of those melodies that roll and reverberate an- 
 themic raptures along the grand corridors of all eternity. 
 Awake, ye who shall awake while the centuries sleep ! 
 You shall be my kindred and my colleagues and co- 
 laborators in this glorious path of progress that leads 
 us to higher life, and points to the portals of immortal 
 love, where ambrosial dews and theobromal streams per- 
 meate the azure ether and fertilize immortal mind. 
 
 Arouse the dormant energies of your universal love^ 
 and shake off the apathy of ignorance and the bigotry 
 of blind education that invest our fellow men as ves- 
 tures of triple steel. 
 
 If our determined will has the power to control 
 nature, why not control human destiny, for what is 
 destiny but nature ? What is any thing, or every 
 thing, known and unknown, but nature? Then let us 
 determine by a pure, resolute and honest will, to live 
 like philosophers and die like gods, or the sons of God — • 
 die but to put on immortal mantles and claim the legiti- 
 mate legacy of our Father. 
 
 Let U.S spurn the sneers of the ignorant but self- wise 
 scoffer, pity the poor pulings of the soulless slave to 
 gross matter; rise in the true majesty af developed 
 man ; vindicate the true magnificence of our destiny ; 
 assert the divinity within us ; exalt our love ; exj>and 
 our thoughts; unfurl the latent pinions of our immor- 
 tal being and soar amid the radiant realms of a spiritual 
 universe for those splendid pavilions encircling the 
 sky of science and the shrine of philosophy ! 
 
THE ETERNITY OF TRUTH. 
 
 DEDICATED TO THE TRUE. 
 
 The God is Truth : and long ere earth sprung forth, 
 
 Or sun streamed light 'pon orbs just emerging 
 
 Into life, Truth was. Away back upon 
 
 The distant pathway of the past, before 
 
 The first anthem startled sleeping spirits 
 
 Of immortality — before the first 
 
 Music of a sphere thrilled melody on 
 
 The infant ears of a new creation — 
 
 Truth sat enthroned in the heaven of its 
 
 Own eternity. Pavilioned in light, 
 
 Enrobed in radiance of glory there. 
 
 It burned and beamed upon an universe 
 
 Slumbering in the dark midnight of chaos, 
 
 Without a pulse to strike the lyre of life. 
 
 Or ear to catch echo of existence ; 
 
 Until the co-eternal Father, big 
 
 With love, upon the vast void around Him 
 
 Poured forth His all-prolific beam, and breathed 
 
 Vital energy into creation. 
 
 In all the bright eflFulgent realms of light 
 
 Truth rules and gilds the glory of its God ; 
 
 And he who worships Truth becomes its child, 
 
 InA ested with its own eternity, 
 
 And clothes himself in immortality. 
 
 As floating clouds obscure the light of day. 
 
 Or intervening orbs eclipse the sun, 
 
 Or thunders break the silence of the earth, 
 
 Or mars the harmonies of the heaven. 
 
 The veil of sin may dim a transient hour, 
 
 14* 
 
312 cRJGrNAL lOhMS. 
 
 And hand in hand with hate, may weave a woe ; 
 
 Falsehood's forked tongue may pierce night's dull ear^ 
 
 And make music to its mongrel minions ; 
 
 Wander's S(.^ared soul may slime the tracks of Truth, 
 
 And strew her ])eacefal ])at,hs with thorny shafts; 
 
 Envy's ever-eating, insatiate maw 
 
 May strike its tooth' in to the- tender heart 
 
 Of injured innocence and purity ; 
 
 Diabolic hatred's heli-heated heart. 
 
 Whose best and warmest bosom 's in the church. 
 
 May throb and thrill its bitter poison 
 
 Into the veins of virtuous innocence, 
 
 And true high-hearted, manly misfortune ; 
 
 Parasitic knavery may b.^g a smile, 
 
 And venal voracity bark fur more ;■ 
 
 Sacerdotal sanclity may hurlits hell 
 
 'Gainst aberrations of erratic love;; 
 
 And cleric^al hypocrisy may scowr 
 
 A lurid g'are in truth's transient eclipse. 
 
 And hold high carnival ot crime in night 
 
 Hid'ous with Satanic saturnalia ; 
 
 And all the canine kindre>l of mankind 
 
 And moral vipers of the human race 
 
 That glory in the midnight of character, 
 
 Tliat. ever in their own pollutions ])ro\vl, 
 
 Mxy fasten thiir fangs iu tlid victimof chance, 
 
 Anl weave a web of \v,k'. to fringe a facj, 
 
 And fain to cast a shadbw o'er its shining — 
 
 Yet ever and anon Truth shall triumph 
 
 In its own illustrious eternity,. 
 
 And with a radiance of celestial hue,. 
 
 S'lall bend the brow of all her votaries. 
 
 There is an immaculate chancery 
 
 In tliH jurisjjrudence of the Heavens, 
 
 And on its ermine Truth sits chancellor. 
 
 Whose decrees, pure and unappellatory, 
 
 Vindicate the true slander-stricken soul, 
 
 And eternise beautitude of right. 
 
 Anl all who Truth truly embrace and wed^ 
 
 Become invested in eternity. 
 
ORIGINAL POEMS. 313 
 
 Splendid denizens of infinitude, 
 
 Robed in mantles of immortality ! 
 
 The murky nisrlit shall melt to dewy morn, 
 
 And transient twilight twinkle into day, 
 
 With time the serfs of sin shall pass away : 
 
 Falsehood's fumes, rumor's tongues and slander's spleen, 
 
 And envy's hate, deceit and ignorance. 
 
 And all the dire satanic train of time 
 
 Shall die, and, confined in oblivion. 
 
 Cease to shadow life's cerulean sun. 
 
 Old earth itself, sin-scarred and seared with crime, 
 
 May lapse again to second night chaotic. 
 
 Nor longer murmur her children's miseries : 
 
 Aye, nature's grand gigantic frame may fail, 
 
 Its deep foundations shake, its columns crack. 
 
 The stary arches crumble into ruin. 
 
 The pillared universe dissolve in flame 
 
 Anil creation uncreated nothing; 
 
 Yet truth shall rise and rule triumphant o'er 
 
 All its wrecks, its riots and its ruins, 
 
 A principle immutable, divine, 
 
 And robed in light, wing'd with immortalitj 
 
 And gilded in its chariot of glory, 
 
 'Mid the whirlwind ashes of sec;)nd chaos 
 
 Chant the dirge o'er nature's vast mausoleum. 
 
 Yes, shall live on when nature sinks in years. 
 
 The honor of man, the glory of Ood, 
 
 Pierian fount of seraph minstrel&y, 
 
 Supernal nectar of immortal gods ; 
 
 And wide athwart the circumambient air. 
 
 And over all the blest abodes of bliss. 
 
 Shall beam around the bro« of Deity, 
 
 Undimed, iqiperisliable, eternal. 
 
314 ORIGINAL POEIMS, 
 
 THE HIGH RESOLTK 
 
 FOK THE KESOLTJTE. 
 
 Ill plume again my eagle heart on high, 
 To claim the kindred lightnings as they fly. 
 And every thunder roll that rends the sky 
 Shall echo immortality to die. 
 
 Ill wing me through creation like a bee, 
 And sip the flowers of life's immortal tree ;. 
 I'll taste the spheres and join the jubilee 
 Of all the angels grand eternity. 
 
 In this luxurious faith I'll wrap my soul 
 
 As in a robe, nor heed earth's idle roll ; 
 
 I'll bask in bliss and range from pole to pole; 
 
 And drink, truth's stream, the nectar of the soul. 
 
 With eagle eye and nature of the dove, 
 I'll soar amid the sunlit realms above, 
 Beyond the bounds where sin and sorrow rove,. 
 And live and lave in everlasting love. 
 
 "OTHERS AND T'-ORIGINAL- ENERaY. 
 
 FOK THE INDEPENDENT. 
 
 As the spheres their regular circuits run-. 
 And rise and roll around their central sun. 
 Nor stops, nor start, nor fly to wander far 
 From orbits old of ev'ry central star ; 
 So other men their settled circles keep, 
 Nor turn to penetrate the outer deep 
 Of nature's dark and deep unseen domain, 
 But, content, live o'er other's lives again. 
 
ORIGINAL POEMS. ZW 
 
 As the comet cleaves nature's unknown night, 
 For future v, orkls, the j)ionoer, and light — 
 Now bathed in heat intense of solar ray ; 
 Then shooting out beyond the skirts of day : 
 So I, no well-worn pathway to pursue, 
 But launching through the deep ether'eal blue. 
 Now soar 'inong suns and then anon away, 
 Where morning never blushed into the day. 
 
 Independent Energy is the fire 
 
 That survives human nature's funeral pyre, 
 
 Whore virtue, truth and love immortal gleam 
 
 Around enraptured life's eternal stream. 
 
 The deep impulsions of the ardent soul, 
 
 The fiery flashings that intensely roll 
 
 In beams that burn, seraphic and sublime. 
 
 But symbolize the high impyreal clime. 
 
 Where mind, upon its altar v.ni its shrine 
 
 Shall glow undimmed, immortal and divine. 
 
 OUR CHILDREN GONE BEFORE. 
 
 DEDICATED TO THEIR MOTHER, MRS. ANN REMBERT. 
 
 Our children gone before 
 
 To that celestial shore 
 Where life is all immortal and divine. 
 
 Will meet us at the door 
 
 With fountains running o'er 
 Of loves that flow forever round their shrine. 
 
 Our little Andrew first 
 
 Who never felt the thirst 
 That burns our brains and heaves the bitter sigh 
 
 Next Lizzie, cherub child ; 
 
 Then gentle Mary mild ; 
 And sprightly Nannie, of the bright blue eye ; 
 
316 OEIGTNAL, POEMS. 
 
 Then George, the manly boy, 
 
 His mother's brightest joy ; 
 Next Andrew, the noble man of noble fame. 
 
 His father's hope and pride. 
 
 His pillar and his guide, 
 Image of my noble sire with his name ; 
 
 And Andi-ew, third and last, 
 
 Whose infant life but passed 
 Into the pearly portals of the sky ; — 
 
 Mother, they've gone ahead, 
 
 Not lying with the dead. 
 Bat living the elysian life on high. 
 
 Or else they sweetly sleep. 
 
 While we their vigils keep. 
 Nor ought allow their slumbers to disturb ; 
 
 And we shall join their rest 
 
 With nothing to molest 
 And nothing e'er our spirits to perturb. 
 
 In that sweet summer land, 
 On that bright starry strand, 
 
 Where winteis never chill the azure air; 
 And on that shining shore 
 With all our children o'er, 
 
 O mother! when shall we be gathered there? 
 
 Before us they are born, 
 
 And we are left forlorn — 
 O mother, when shall we be born again ? 
 
 Oar angels at their home, 
 
 May greet us when we come 
 To join their happy life and sweet refrain. 
 
 Let us banish sadness. 
 
 Sing for very gladness. 
 Our loved ones gone before are angels grown ; 
 
 Come, wipe away your tears. 
 
 And vanish all our fears, 
 For we s'aall kn )w them all as we are known. 
 
ORIGINAL POEMS. 317 
 
 MY BROTHER 
 
 Imorovisa:! oa hoirhr,' ray youthful ml devoted daughter, Margaret Rem- 
 bert— it) lik3 her brHhjr, tha no!)lest, R)inai of us all— play on the piano 
 and sing, " Bring my Brother Back to mj," and dedicated to her by her father. 
 
 Don't bring my brother back agaiiT, 
 
 O don't disturb his sweot repose ; 
 Don't bring him to this world of pain, 
 
 Of siglis, of sorrows and of woes. 
 From bloody battle fields afar. 
 
 From deaili, fr.im carnage an 1 from crime. 
 Beyond the giare an 1 gl(K)m of war, 
 
 Beyond the toil and strife of time ; 
 In the bright ethereal blue, 
 
 The air of the angels above, 
 The homo of the good and the true. 
 
 The cerulean realms of love. 
 My noble brother's now at home. 
 
 The ange'.s' home of peace and love, 
 God's bright benignant spheral dome. 
 
 Prepared for all the pure above ; 
 Where seraphs sing and augtds hymn 
 
 Harmonious in the azure air ; 
 Up there in perenial spring. 
 
 My hapi)y brother lives up there. 
 Some loved <mes too, who've gone before. 
 
 Are with him on that other shore 
 Where life's fall S[)rings are running o'er, 
 
 Fioiving with joys for ver more. 
 Then bring not back my brother liere. 
 
 Return him not to earth again ; 
 I'll go to him and meet him there. 
 
 Where love and life immortal reign. 
 'Tis Well, the time an 1 way he died. 
 
 His fame so full, his death so bright ; 
 For future strife might turn aside 
 
 And cloud his fame anl dim his light. 
 His memory is now our slirice ; 
 
318 ORIGINAL POEMS. 
 
 His spirit presence fills our fane ; 
 His youthful life has grown divine — 
 
 O incarnate him not again. 
 Maternal is his mother's love, 
 
 Paternal is his father's heart, 
 Fraternal thoughts his brothers move. 
 
 Eternal love his sister's part. 
 Soon all these loves again will meet. 
 
 And foremost in the happy throng. 
 My angel brother blest I'll greet 
 
 With my true and triumphant song ! 
 
 INVOCATION. 
 
 [in ACATALECTIC line — FOR THE PHILOSOPHIC.] 
 
 Thou great Creator of the elements, 
 Sire of nature and God of creation ! 
 Mighty Majesty of the Universe, ^ 
 And Father of all the heavens and earths ! 
 Seated in centre of the central sun, 
 Around which revolve the myriad suns 
 With their circling systems of peopled worlds ! 
 To whom the suns with their circlets of light 
 Beside Thy spiritual effulgence. 
 Are but the dark draperies of thy robes. 
 Thou whose presence permeates the planets 
 And the distant planetary spaces ! 
 Whose omniscient vision views infinitude 
 Of limitless domain, the happy home 
 Of all Thy limitless developments 
 Of endlessly recurring processes, 
 Of interminable immortalities 
 Throuarhout interminable duration : 
 
ORIGINAL POEM3. 319 
 
 Thy profound infinity of domain 
 
 And vast oternityof duration 
 
 Are co-equal and illimitable ! 
 
 O, Thou, Father! canst Thou see, wilt Thou hear. 
 
 Thy child of sorrow in this distant earth, 
 
 Born in ign'rance and i)anting for knowledge; 
 
 Abounding in kindness and affection, 
 
 i\nd surrounded in selfishness and hate ; 
 
 Kapt in hope and warm with heavenly love 
 
 Amid human icebergs of frozen hearts; 
 
 Feeding on the memories of the dead, 
 
 And on the h(jpes of the unknown future ; 
 
 On the urns^ of other generations 
 
 Walking and weeping in a world of graves; 
 
 Like him on the eve of death-dealing battle, 
 
 Should I pray " O God, if there be a God, 
 
 Save my soul, if I have a'soul '>." Whnt more ? 
 
 O Creator, what more can Thy creature ? 
 
 Or another Gallic soldier, full of faith : 
 
 " God, if in battle I forget Thee, 
 
 Do not Thou forget me !" Dost Thou thus mind? 
 
 Dost heed the futile faith of feeble man ? 
 
 Or, as Trismegistus expressed of Thee 
 
 On Egyptian temples, ere Plato spoke : 
 
 " I am all that was, or is, or shall be ;" 
 
 Or, the Russian in Miltonic measure : 
 
 "I am, O God, and surely Thou must be." 
 
 And shall this " I am " ever cease to be V 
 
 Or should I pray like Socrates of old. 
 
 Not presuming to the gods to dictate. 
 
 Nor knowing what to ask, but only good. 
 
 Thee we pray, Eternal God, our Father, 
 
 And all Thy agents and Thy elements. 
 
 Like the ancient Hindoo philosopher, 
 
 Weeping, I entered life while others smiled ; 
 
 Direct me so to live that when I dit;, 
 
 Smiling I'll leave the world while others weep. 
 
320 ORIGINAL POEMS. 
 
 Let no vengeful Nemesis arraign me 
 Wifh unrelenting, ruthless retribution. 
 Or I sink like CiBsar, and forever. 
 O help, Thy child of sorrow help, Father ! 
 
 Illustrious Christ and gentle Jesus ! 
 The Christian's hope, Redeemer, God ; 
 And one of the regal Tiberian gods ; 
 Contemned by men and honored by angels ; 
 Who marked, and led, and died the way to life, 
 And from highest heav'n looks with love on man : 
 O, to my troubled elements of life, 
 And to my fiery nature, speak peace, 
 And inspire me with thy philosophy. 
 Endue me with thy love and charity. 
 Thy long-suffering and philanthropy. 
 That illustrated sociology, . 
 During thy incarnated life 'mong men. 
 
 Ye swift-^vinged winds that round me roar and sweej* 
 This little earth, or in gentle zephyrs, 
 Like an infant's kiss, cool my fevered brow ; 
 Come waft away my sorrows and my sighs, 
 And wing my spirit to a port of peace. 
 
 Ye wild waters, that roll from pole to pole. 
 Largest part of my body and the globe. 
 Nature's solvent ; wash all my sins away. 
 And on your bosom bear me to a shore 
 Where curse of crime and dirge of death are not. 
 
 Ye elements of nature and of life. 
 That elaborate my hsecceity ; 
 O, fulfill your mission, complete your task. 
 And in your current drift me home to truth. 
 
 And thou, consuming fire, invisible, 
 That segregates again the elements 
 Of corpore'ty to cineration ; 
 
ORIGINAL POEMS, 321 
 
 O, pnrify and prepare my spirit 
 For the liigli and pure electrie ether. 
 
 Supernal ether of the angel realms,. 
 Celestial sunshine of immortal gods. 
 That develops all immortalities ; 
 Pour thy fountains in my thirsty spirit, 
 And ripen me for thy radiant realms. 
 
 And music, music of the spheres sublime. 
 That hailed an infant universe at birth, 
 And hymns forever its im-mnrtal march ; 
 Reverberating now from world to world 
 Anthemic raptures through the vocal voids. 
 And angel anthems of eternal love ; 
 Sweet minstrelsy and melody of heav'n. 
 Flowing foro'er unheard by carnal man ; 
 Grand oratorio of creation : 
 Roll your harmonies, sound yoi.r symphonies. 
 On the dull tympanum of my spirit, 
 That I may thrill responsive to the sjdieres^ 
 Me from discord and dissonance relieve, 
 Or from dismal death's sepulchral silence;: 
 Give me concord and consonance instead. 
 With cheerful life's angelic melodies. 
 Let soothing sounds and ravishing refrains 
 In rapturous floods wake my solitude. 
 O, that I may hear the hymns of heaven, 
 And catch an echo of that angel band. 
 That serenade the suns and fill the spheres f 
 
 And thou, too, O Time, infinite presence. 
 Embryo of eternity begun ! 
 That covers all worlds and between pervades, 
 Tha.t silent sits and broods from nature's birth„ 
 From nature's earliest morn of life to noon. 
 Eternal noon, without an eve or night, 
 Reachiug back from first forever forward,. 
 
S22 ORIGINAL POEMS. 
 
 From everlasting to everlasting ; 
 
 That bears us on buoyant, boundless bosom 
 
 Along thy ceaseless, overflowing stream, 
 
 From life's bright morning to death's dismal chasm- 
 
 Ou this side to view so dark and dismal, 
 
 On the other, bright and jiearly portal ; 
 
 Great cyclic chronicler of creation : 
 
 Remember me ! and in thy ceaseless flow. 
 
 Forever flowing and without a shore. 
 
 Buoy me from the mud and mire of nature 
 
 Into her clear air of angelic life. 
 
 Ye loved ones gone before me — angels now — 
 Who linger round my silent couch at night, 
 Minist'ring spirits of my daily walks. 
 Breathing the ether of the spirit spheres 
 And imbibing from deific fountains 
 That fertilize the realms of life and love ! 
 O, who'll first hail me at your happy home ? 
 What shall I do, what can I do but wait. 
 To inherit your legacy of life. 
 To realize my heritage of hope ? 
 Then patience teach and twine around my heart. 
 Stimulate all indolent apathy. 
 Regulate my redundant energy ; 
 Surround me with all those influences, 
 Whether of penal fear or grateful love, 
 That will restrain the evil of my flesh, 
 And help my feeble, fluttering spirit. 
 Struggling ever for the good and the true. 
 Still my ton:;ue ere it shall utter error, 
 Hold my hand ere it indite delusion ; 
 But endue them with Promethean fire 
 To proclaim the truth of life, and if true, 
 To herald the soul's immortal heaven. 
 0, give to me an evidential view 
 To know you live, and love and linger lound me I 
 Reach forth your hands and hold my aching head. 
 And bear me to your bright and blest abodes 
 Where life and truth and love immortal blooms. 
 
 Ye spirits pure, who ride on rays of light, 
 
ORTGTNAL POEMS. 323 
 
 Intermediaries of God and men, 
 
 Coparcenaries of enlightened minds 
 
 In estates eternal and elysian ! 
 
 Relume my love, rekindle all anew 
 
 On your own Vjriglit shores of seraphic life, 
 
 The flame that erstwhile burned so brightly hera. 
 
 To burn forever in your vestal fanes ! 
 
 Give m«3 to drink of your ambrosial drauglits, 
 
 Nectar'ous streams and thcobromal dewa 
 
 That breed yoiir divinity and your gods, 
 
 And fructify your apotheosis. 
 
 And all ye winds, and waves, and starry spheres -, 
 And ye elements of immortal life ; 
 And choral anthems of angel orchestras ; 
 And Time's ubiquitous infinitude ; 
 And Christ-anointed truth and charity ; 
 And winged spirits of celestial air; 
 Dear friends of former days, all angels now, 
 Developed denizens of Paradise ; 
 And Thou, loved God, and Father of us all — 
 Fan this feeble, flickering flame into 
 A meteor of immortality ! 
 Fit me for the spheres, ripen and pluck me ! 
 And all earth's pitied children gather up, 
 For happy homes of purity fit them ; 
 And bind us all in bands of love and truth 
 That shall break never, and live forever! 
 
 O, all ye agencies and elements 
 Tliat evoke, evolve and evolute us 
 To mifold forever into higher. 
 Higher harmonies and greater glories, 
 For ye all perform your parts appointed ; 
 And Thou, Jeliovah, universal god ! 
 Prepare, fit us, poor children of the earth. 
 So strangely mixed of angel and devil. 
 Enlightened love and dark diabolism. 
 Peaceful Ariels and bloody Molochs, 
 To become members of that vast family 
 From our neighbors Mercury to Neptune, 
 
i^24 OBIGTNAL POEMS. 
 
 And distant Arctunis and Orion, 
 
 Still more remote where telescopic ken 
 
 Ne'er penetrated tlieir deep arcana, 
 
 To be fit members of tliat countless host ; 
 
 That mighty multitude of angel life 
 
 That throng round ev'ry sky of ev'ry world, 
 
 And read the letters of the distant spheres. 
 
 Their ev'ry leaf of sky and starry type,. 
 
 Bright and beaming, sheets lettered with the stars. 
 
 The stellar page and lightning — lettered scroll ; 
 
 That vocalize with love immortal and divine 
 
 The corridors of all eternity, 
 
 And ring round the pillars of all the worlds, 
 
 Or echo 'long the aisles of a.11 the orbs. 
 
 Or so nd among the arches of the suns. 
 
 And fill with universal melody 
 
 The dome of the universal heaven ! 
 
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