diff options
Diffstat (limited to '36009.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 36009.txt | 7022 |
1 files changed, 7022 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/36009.txt b/36009.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4319b71 --- /dev/null +++ b/36009.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7022 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Book Written by the Spirits of the +So-Called Dead, by C. G. Helleberg + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Book Written by the Spirits of the So-Called Dead + +Author: C. G. Helleberg + +Release Date: May 1, 2011 [EBook #36009] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A BOOK WRITTEN BY THE *** + + + + +Produced by Bryan Ness and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive.) + + + + + + + + + +[Illustration: C. G. Helleberg] + + + + + A BOOK + WRITTEN BY THE + SPIRITS OF THE SO-CALLED DEAD, + + WITH THEIR OWN MATERIALIZED HANDS, BY THE + PROCESS OF INDEPENDENT SLATE-WRITING, + + THROUGH + MRS. LIZZIE S. GREEN AND OTHERS, + AS MEDIUMS. + + + COMPILED AND ARRANGED BY + C. G. HELLEBERG, + OF CINCINNATI, OHIO. + + + Life is real! life is earnest! + And the grave is not its goal. + Dust thou art, to dust returnest, + Was not written of the soul. + --LONGFELLOW. + + + CINCINNATI: + 1883. + + + + + COPYRIGHTED, 1882, + BY C. G. HELLEBERG. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + PAGE + CHAPTER I. + + Introduction and Biographical Sketches of C. G. Helleberg, + Madam Fredrika Ehrenborg, and Mrs. Lizzie T. Green 1 + + + CHAPTER II. + + First Investigations with Mrs. Laura Mosser and Mrs. Cooper 6 + + + CHAPTER III. + + Remarkable Materialization Seance--Letters from Mrs. Ehrenborg + describing Inhabitants of other Planets 14 + + + CHAPTER IV. + + Madam Ehrenborg and others Materialize 23 + + + CHAPTER V. + + Investigations by Mrs. Jennie McKee--First Letter from Emanuel + Swedenborg and Communications from Polheim and others--Received + five beautiful Flowers from Madam Ehrenborg 26 + + + CHAPTER VI. + + Mrs. McKee passes away and her Spirit arranges her own Funeral 33 + + + CHAPTER VII. + + Investigations with Mrs. Green--Remarkable dark Trumpet Seance, + at which I received a most beautiful Flower from my Son Emil + and Miss Mary Muth 36 + + + CHAPTER VIII. + + Sure Identity of my Father-in-Law--Madam Ehrenborg writes to me + in Swedish 40 + + + CHAPTER IX. + + Information of a Spiritual Marriage--The Wedding and the Wedding + Tour to the Planet Mars 45 + + + CHAPTER X. + + Description of the Journey to Mars, and wonderful Information + furnished by Madam Ehrenborg 54 + + + CHAPTER XI. + + Communications from Emanuel Swedenborg 108 + + + CHAPTER XII. + + Communications from George Washington 141 + + + CHAPTER XIII. + + Communications from my Son Emil about Ex-President Garfield-- + Greetings from Madam Ehrenborg--Letter from Rev. Goddard and + Swedenborg's Answer 157 + + + CHAPTER XIV. + + Communications from President Garfield, Madam Ehrenborg, + Governor J. D. Williams, President Abraham Lincoln, Judge + Edmonds 163 + + + CHAPTER XV. + + New Years' Greetings from many of my dear Spirit Friends and + near Relations 170 + + + CHAPTER XVI. + + A Prayer from Madam Ehrenborg 173 + + + CHAPTER XVII. + + Greeting from Horace Greeley, J. G. Bennett, and Henry J. + Raymond to F. B. Plimpton, Associate Editor of the Cincinnati + Daily Commercial 176 + + + CHAPTER XVIII. + + Communications from Horace Greeley, Governor O. P. Morton, + A. P. Willard 180 + + + CHAPTER XIX. + + Communications from the Drunkard, a Miser, William Gailard, + William Lloyd Garrison, Wilberforce, Tecumseh, a Suicide 187 + + + CHAPTER XX. + + Communications from Thomas Paine, Margaret Fuller, and Thanks + of Spirits 199 + + + CHAPTER XXI--APPENDIX. + + Mrs. Green's Medial History 204 + + + CHAPTER XXII. + + A Visit to Split Rock, Kentucky--Christmas Greetings from + Ida to her Parents--Annie Winterburn to her Brother, John + Winterburn, and his Testimony, and her Farewell to the Medium, + Mrs. Green 222 + + + CHAPTER XXIII. + + A Spirit peels a Banana, eats some of it, and divides the rest + in four equal parts--Reports of Cincinnati Enquirer about + Spirit Seances at Mrs. Green's 231 + + + CHAPTER XXIV. + + Extracts from each of two Funeral Discourses by Bishop Simpson + and Rev. W. H. Thomas, D. D., with Conclusions of C. G. + Helleberg 239 + + + + +ERRATA. + + + Page 3, line 26, for most communications, read most of the + communications. + " 24, line 7, for Mrs. Stebbins, read Mr. Stebbins. + " 29, line 18, for are, read is. + " 30, line 27, for their, read his. + " 30, line 28, for them, read him. + " 34, line 8, for was, read were. + " 35, line 1, for this is, read these are. + " 46, line 2, for me and my wife, read my wife and I. + " 49, line 7, for Edward, read Edwin. + " 50, line 15, for Guthof, read Gustaf. + " 51, line 26, for thy, read the. + " 57, line 16, for were, read was. + " 60, line 6, for me, read us. + " 60, line 26, for a, read the. + " 63, line 21, for our, read the. + " 68, line 8, for miscreants, read misdeeds. + " 69, line 4, for Daniel, read David. + " 69, line 31, for laws, read love. + " 71, line 24, for nearly, read nearly a third. + " 76, line 30, for ever, read ever surging. + " 77, line 9, for of more, read of the more. + " 77, line 30, for rivulet, read violent. + " 80, line 27, for of, read and. + " 82, line 13, for formed, read former. + " 83, last line read, and out of the ambient. + " 84, line 17, for then, read there. + " 86, line 1, for mighty, read weighty. + " 88, line 20, omit again regained, and read required. + " 90, line 14, for glory, read misery. + " 91, next to last line for when, read where. + " 94, line 16, for constitutional, read constituent. + " 100, line 26, for beautiful, read beautifully. + " 101, line 5, for originated, read originating. + " 107, line 18, for you, read your. + " 109, last line, for question, read questioned. + " 111, line 18, for figures, read pigmies. + " 115, line 10, for needs, read needs but. + " 120, line 6, for or, read are. + " 121, line 14, for early, read latter. + " 133, line 22, for unbeliefs, read erroneous belief. + " 136, line 11, for hearsay, read heresy. + " 147, line 28, for he, read the. + " 157, line 22, for with, read by. + " 165, last line, for you thought, read your thoughts. + " 167, line 14, for nationalism, read rationalism, etc. + " 174, line 4, for almighty, read mighty. + " 174, last line for to, read through. + " 180, line 24, for arises, read arise. + " 183, line 3, for pacified, read purified. + " 184, line 27, for subsequent, read consequent. + " 187, line 25, for trifling, read toiling. + " 200, line 5, for actuate, read actuates. + " 200, line 23, for adapting, read adopting. + " 210, line 30, for J. & J. W. Gaff, read T. & J. W. Gaff. + " 211, line 14, for mission, read vision. + " 211, line 19, for literary, read literally. + " 221, line next to bottom, for assimilation, read dissemination. + " 231, line 2, for bonana, read banana. + " 240, line 21, for of, read to. + + + + +SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +INTRODUCTION. + + +The communications in this little volume, purporting to come from +disembodied spirits, came in the manner hereinafter stated, and all that I +had to do with them was to faithfully and to the letter transcribe them +from the slate on which they were written into blank memorandum books +which I procured for the purpose. Before laying before the reader the +_modus operandi_ of their delivery, I deem it proper that I should give a +brief outline of my own history, especially do I feel the importance of +this since I am little known outside of the circle of my immediate +acquaintances. It has always been my aim in life to live uprightly before +God and man, and as to the success of this noble purpose, formed in early +life, I may confidently refer to my neighbors, and many of the leading +citizens of Cincinnati, Ohio, with whom I have enjoyed an intimate social +and business acquaintance for nearly forty years. I do not know why I +should have been made the recipient and custodian of the truly remarkable +spirit communications contained in the following pages, except from a long +lifetime of honest endeavor to do right I was deemed worthy, and from the +additional consideration that the spirits interested in the work knew I +would cordially co-operate with them in laying the matter presented before +the world, and that, happily, I possessed the pecuniary means to do so. + +I was born at Grafriset, near Fahlun, in the kingdom of Sweden, March 1, +1811, and have now passed my seventy-first year. At the age of sixteen I +entered the Swedish army, and at nineteen became a student at Upsala +University, where I remained for two years. After rendering military +service for five years, and passing a successful examination, I was +permitted to enter the civil service of my country. In the capacity of +land surveyor I served for over ten years, when a desire to personally +witness the workings of republican institutions induced me to make an +application to travel in foreign countries, which permission I obtained +for the period of two years. In 1844 I left my native land for the United +States, and in 1845 located at Cincinnati, Ohio, and soon thereafter +engaged in the art of daguerreotyping, and afterwards photographing, and +in the following year married Miss Annie E. Franks, daughter of Frederick +Franks, a leading and influential citizen of the city, who is still +remembered as the proprietor of Cincinnati's early famous museum. In +religion I was raised a Lutheran, but at the time (1879) of embracing +spiritualism and for thirty years preceding I was a devout and earnest +Swedenborgian. I commenced the investigation of spiritual phenomena in +1879, and soon became convinced of the sublime truths of the spiritual +philosophy. + +As in the following pages the exalted spirit of Madam Fredrika Ehrenborg +imparts, among other things, marvelous information in regard to the +Planet Mars, of our solar system, it is deemed fitting that somewhat of +her history should be made known in this connection: + +She was born March 15, 1794, in the Province of Wermland, in the kingdom +of Sweden, and at the age of seventeen married a highly esteemed nobleman, +Casper Isac Michael Ehrenborg. He left the body in 1823, and was at the +time Chief Justice of Sweden. Madam Ehrenborg was an enthusiastic +Swedenborgian, and she passed to the higher life in the Swedish city of +Linkoeping on the 20th of May, 1873. Her life in many respects was an +eventful one, and largely devoted to literary pursuits. She translated +writings on religious subjects from several languages into Swedish, and +wrote books and pamphlets in the interest of Swedenborgianism, and visited +England, Switzerland, Denmark, Germany and France in search of materials +for her works. It was not my good fortune to have met this eminent lady +during her mortal life, but I happily enjoyed a truly instructive and +pleasant correspondence with her during the last three years of her life +in the form. + +I commenced my investigations in September, 1881, with the celebrated +medium Mrs. Lizzie S. Green, through whose mediumship most of the +communications to follow were written. For ten months I had never less +than two sittings a week, and the largest portion of that time four per +week, and have had ample opportunities to study her true character. As the +result I am justified by the truth in proclaiming to the world my thorough +conviction of her honesty, purity and simplicity of character. Her +education, as I have been informed, was sadly neglected in youth, and she +has had few opportunities to improve in later years. She married the Hon. +Edward H. Green, of Aurora, Indiana, before her eighteenth year, and has +devoted her succeeding years until recently to the domestic duties of life +and to the raising of a family, of whom only one, a daughter, survives. +Her husband served with ability a numerous and intelligent constituency in +the Indiana legislature of 1866-7, and served recently and to general +acceptance two terms of two years each as Mayor of Aurora, Indiana, his +native city. + +The communications of spirits contained in this volume were written by the +spirits with their own materialized hands, and the process was generally +as follows: A small stand of the ordinary kind in construction, covered by +a table cloth, was used, the medium placing with one hand under the +covering of the stand a slate on which was placed a small piece of pencil. +The other hand of the medium was continually exposed to full view, as was +also her entire form. Both double and single slates were used. We heard +the writing as it progressed, and when the slate was filled it would be +indicated by distinct taps on the slate and the dropping of the pencil. +The slate would be then taken out, and as the chosen scribe I would +faithfully transcribe the written matter into the book aforementioned, and +the slate would then be cleaned and returned under the stand, and in this +manner all the matter hereinafter set forth was produced. I have reported +it _verbatim et literatim_, without changing it in the slightest degree, +neither adding nor taking therefrom a single word. Each sitting would +occupy from one to two hours, and in broad daylight. I have taken occasion +to preface some of these communications with a few lines, by way of +explanation and to secure clearness of understanding in relation to them. + +This volume is truly a book written by the spirits themselves, and +whatever merit it may possess, they alone are entitled to the credit, and +whatever of demerit, if any, they alone are chargeable and responsible. Of +one thing both the mediums and myself can truly avouch, and are willing to +solemnize with our oaths, namely, that we had nothing whatever to do with +the production of the communications except so far as we may have aided +the communicating intelligences by furnishing them with the necessary and +required conditions. + +I launch forth the work not, however, without misgivings as to its +reception and fate in this age of incredulity and skepticism, and my only +hope is that it may be instrumental in doing good, if but only in a feeble +degree, which alone will be ample compensation for my time and labor. + +CARL GUSTAF HELLEBERG. + +_177 Auburn street, Cincinnati, Ohio._ + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + +My investigations of spiritualism commenced with the excellent medium, +Mrs. Laura Mosser, now Mrs. Carter, through whose mediumship I had the +first slate-writing, August 31, 1879, at her residence, No. 253 Laurel +street, Cincinnati, Ohio, from my spirit friend, William Gailard, and my +dear son Emil. My truth-loving friend, Mr. S. G. Anderson, at my request, +introduced me to Mrs. Mosser, at her residence, where we both on a clear +Sunday morning, after we had some communications between a double slate +from Mr. Gailard and my son, saw a spirit hand between us, into which Mr. +Anderson put his handkerchief, which was taken under the stand, and +afterwards came out tied in three knots. It was written on the slate at +the same time that Mr. Anderson's two sisters and his brother John, who +all many years ago had passed away in Sweden, each of them had tied a +knot. During this occurrence we had Mrs. Mosser in full view, who was +rocking in a rocking chair, and the only part hidden was her right hand +when it held the slate under the small stand. From this remarkable result +I concluded to go on with the investigation, and had many interesting +communications, mostly concerning family relations, until the 8th of +December, 1880, when I became acquainted with that most respectable lady, +Mrs. Annie Cooper, who is a true and honest medium. Through her gifts I +had many wonderful manifestations, consisting of slate-writings and +materializations, etc. I will mention only a few. On the 11th May, 1881, +among other things which appeared on the slate was the following: + +"Good morning, my dear friend. Across the deep I have communicated to you. +With great pleasure I accept the opportunity of still doing so. I am +anxious that all I hold dear should understand this phenomenon. Hope +lingers around me that I shall be able to make myself known as if on +earth. One thing I thank you for, the kind appreciation of a small tribute +of friendship I tried to bestow. Every day since I came here I have +learned something. Knowledge is not stopped by the change. My friend, many +persons think that when the change called death comes and the spirit is +released from the body, it becomes perfect at once. That is a mistake; we +come out of the earthly body with all the propensities which actuate us +while in it, and we come out of them only as we are educated and progress. +Oh, dear friend, I can see now that there are many human beings dazed at +the wiles of mistakes made by early education, instead of looking up to +something higher and brighter. Yes, man still asks, with prayerful heart, +what are his wants to be in the future? and why was he born? and why does +he die? Oh, why does man mourn over a law that was ordained for the +benefit of all mankind? Why tears fall when he stands where the form of +some loved one is laid? Is hope gone? Yes, because they know not where +they are gone and what they are now. No one should mourn at death, for +death is as legitimate as birth. Yes, no science, with all its bright +knowledge, has been able to penetrate this system or sphere peopled by +those who once dwelt as you do now. Oh, if suffering humanity could +realize these beautiful truths, it would remove every doubt and dispel +every fear that death transports man far away from earthly loved ones. My +dear friend, to you this knowledge has been like a gentle zephyr that +cools the cheeks on a warm summer evening. I am happy to be able to see +you in possession of these noble sentiments. Let eternal progression be +engraved on your banner and you will soar far above doubt and mystery, +that surround so many in earth life. Man no longer bows to an angry God, +nor needs a mediator to propitiate him. I am so happy to be able now to +enjoy and fully realize what I believed to be true, with but little +besides my own evidence and knowledge to convince me that it was a truth. +I have been reproved even for an acknowledgment, but all do not understand +alike. I was fully assured before my spirit left the physical habitation +for spiritual inheritance that I was surrounded by angels, kind and +loving, guarding and guiding me to a higher and better life. I passed +through as if in a gentle slumber, awakening to meet many bright faces, +yes, too many to number, that had gone before and landed safely on the +bright, celestial shore. Earthly views can not comprehend heavenly joys. +Oh, think of it, my friend, to meet those to whom you are bound to by the +ties of nature in early affection, never, never to part again, but to +dwell in the light of a harmonious atmosphere of love, surrounded by +angels and music from the bright realms above. There is no end to life, +the spirit is eternal, and as we travel onward we can look upward in hope, +for there is always something above. I will be able to communicate to you +on different subjects the next interview. Give my love to your dear lady. +I will now call on her, and we will yet meet, but not as strangers. In the +language of flowers, we remember in the sweet forget me not.[1] Adieu for +the present. Your most sincere friend, + + "FREDRIKA EHRENBORG." + + +This was the first communication between the double slate from Madam +Ehrenborg, and on the 19th of May she gave another one, as follows: + +"Good morning, my clear friend. In love and justice for your kindness I +come this morning. I feel like writing on that subject, justice, for it +enters into the divine unfolding of eternity. Millions stand at the bar of +the great tribune waiting to hear their sentence pronounced. Justice +enters into the majesty of universal law. What generation can gather it +and hold it in their embrace? Yes, justice is the universal law, that no +age, no nation can control or hold in subjection. When they have gained +one step in the right direction they may then think they have gained it +all, but as we ascend the steps to that mighty throne of infinity we see +justice beyond the ken of hundreds of humanity that have passed away. +Justice is so unlimited we can compass only a part of it, according to the +knowledge we possess, and have cultivated the principal subject of the +development. No people or nation can make laws to govern any other nation +or people who can succeed them or figure on this planet. What can finite +man do to control the Infinite? Can he gather and control the winds and +the seasons as they come and go with all their powerful influences on the +globe? No; neither can he gather and control the developments of minds, or +subject them to any law that he may enact. History records the rise and +fall of empires; behold, they have all passed away; each gives place to +another form of government, better adapted to the wants and conditions of +the then existing humanity. Dear friend, the heavenly trees are filled +with divine fruit, whose beauty is reflected to earth. Truth is mightier +than man, sharper than a two-edged sword, and it will mow down every +obstacle in the way of progress. The spirit world is united in trying to +lay the corner-stone of a temple so large that it will contain the whole +human family. Oh, how grand when all can offer up the highest tribute of +love to the divine unfolding spirit, and receive the sacred knowledge and +love which shall bring humanity together in peace and harmony, then in +truth all will be free. It gives me renewed strength to see the new and +beautiful ideas floating about, spirit messengers wafted to earth, +blending with man, woman and child as they go forth clearing the pathway +to their eternal home, where all is love and harmony. The light of this +beautiful truth is fast dawning, and suffering mortals will awake in joy +to the light of it, and be crowned in the glory of the morning. It is not +hard for spirits to communicate with friends on earth, but often difficult +to have conditions. Man must have some spirituality in his soul before he +can realize the truth that his loved ones are waiting, willing to help him +upwards as they stand on the bright, celestial shore. Dear friend, I am +sure I am gaining power, and would be able to say a great deal in a short +time through this medium if no change of conditions come. I hope to help +you to do what you so much desire. I can go to my dear friends across the +water and help you by impressing them that all is true. Now I must +withdraw, but will be very happy to come again to you, and give you all +the knowledge I can. I am glad to see you so interested in learning what +can only be taught by those who have passed the sands of earth life, and +are happy exploring the unexplored field of life beyond. Good by, go on, +fear not, the course you pursue is right. Your true friend in spirit life, + + "FREDRIKA EHRENBORG." + + +On the 24th of May, from 9 to 12 A. M., the same highly esteemed spirit +friend wrote on the slate: + +"Good morning, my dear friend. I greet you this morning, united with so +many of your loved ones. Your beautiful mother says it would not be heaven +if we were shut out from the knowledge of our friends in the form. No, it +could not be heaven if it made us selfish. I am glad you have reached that +part of life and find bright rays daily. Freedom brings its own reward, +and the light that has been given to you will enable you to have yours +while life lasts. You will never be bereft of friends on this shore. You +will have them in both spheres. Is it not grand to be able to understand, +and even more, to appreciate, this knowledge? Light is pouring in, and the +minds of men are becoming more active every day. Mankind are like hungry +children who want food; yes, so great do they crave the knowledge of the +immortality that it will take firm reasoning and true workers to supply +them. We rejoice, for we are sure that progress is rapid. Earth friends +often wonder what spirits find to do. If they could realize even half the +wonderful work that is going on, they would be astonished that spirits had +accomplished so much for the welfare of humanity. I am so happy my soul +expands in love. I feel I am young, and I am, for I am born again. I am +contented to have struggled so many years in earth life, for it has +brought me grand reward. All trials are worth the privilege and pleasure +we enjoy when we reach our spirit home. I can see now that it is no +hiding-place in man's true nature, and if they are not learned upon the +terrestrial planet, they will have to learn before they can become +celestial angels. Selfishness is cold and freezing, love is genial and +warms up the human soul, and thereby will promote its happiness. Let love +be cultivated by man, for it is a favorite flower, the flower of life and +the beauty of the soul, and by it humanity is renewed continually and +brought to the newness of life's beauty, truth, beauty and higher spheres +of eternal existence, and without it man can never understand or have any +conception of his heavenly home. Oh, if love were the ruling influence, +sorrow would be hard to find, heart aches would be nowhere felt. An early +writer said: 'If you can not love him whom you have seen, how can you love +them whom you have not seen and be beloved in return?' In loving one +another we love God, for God is love. His love is manifesting in man. Oh, +that it may be cultivated, and not destroyed. Dear friend, I feel I have +given you an introduction at least in my three letters of what I believe +would be a benefit to man if they could but understand how much depends +upon them, not alone for themselves, but for the welfare and happiness of +others. I will be able, as conditions are given, to write of my +surroundings in my beautiful home, where all is love and harmony, peace +reigns and all willing to submit to the ruling power. You have done more +good than you are aware of. It is the greatest workers that always feel +they are doing least. You send forth subjects that give new ideas to those +who read them, awakening interest without any desire on their part. As I +said before, if conditions are not interrupted, you will have much to read +and to write. I have said all on this subject that I can, but I am not at +a loss for something more to write about, for in spirit home how many +beautiful things that have never yet been talked about too glorious to be +enjoyed without giving the knowledge of their existence to our earth +friends! A circle surrounds you this morning of loved ones near and dear, +and your mother is cherished in loving kindness by children, children's +children. Emil is a bright spirit, and will be able to give much knowledge +to those who are a great deal older. Dear friend, I must withdraw and obey +the law that governs my comings. All looks well for you so far as I see. +No one can be really happy until their spirit is free to enjoy that +happiness which is permanent, for all earthly pleasures are but temporary. +Farewell for the present. In God's love may you continue your journey +until you arrive on the mount where no dark ravines can intervene your +happiness. Good bye for the present. Your sincere friend in spirit life, + + "FREDRIKA EHRENBORG." + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +REMARKABLE MATERIALIZATION SEANCE--LETTERS FROM MRS. EHRENBORG AND OTHERS +DESCRIBING INHABITANTS OF PLANETS. + + +In the evening of the same day I was at a materializing seance at Mrs. +Cooper's, where the following persons besides myself were present: Mr. +Cooper, his wife, Mrs. Annie Cooper, the medium; Dr. Joseph R. Wittemore, +No. 50 Dayton street; John Winterborn, No. 19 Freeman avenue; Mr. +Oberline, Mr. S. G. Anderson, and Mr. Charles Wilhelm, all of Cincinnati. + +First, Mrs. Cooper sat herself in full gas-light by the small covered +stand, under which was placed three bells, a walking stick, and my small +spring music-box, after I had wound it up. Soon after the spirits moved +the box up and down and put it on end during playing, which we could see, +because I put the box only half under the curtain. As soon as the playing +stopped, the box was taken entirely under and finally pushed out for me to +wind up. The bells were ringing and the walking stick was held up and +extended to all of us to take hold of, which we did, and the spirits shook +hands with us in that way. I had laid Madam Ehrenborg's photograph on the +table, and I expressed a wish that she would materialize, when on the +slate, which Mrs. Cooper held under the table-leaf, was written: "Good +evening, friends; yes, I am with you; I will try to appear; we are so +happy." The gas was now turned down, but not lower than we could see each +other right well, and Mrs. Cooper took her seat in a chair behind the +curtains stretched across a corner of the room, and soon after a lady +spirit greeted Dr. Wittemore, who, he said, was his first wife. His sister +also came and nodded to him. Then came a sister to Anderson and a sister +to Mr. Winterborn, together with his mother, who took a flower from him, +and nodded to him very cordially. A spirit lady did the same to Mr. +Wilhelm. Mr. Cooper brought now my music instrument, orgamina, from the +upper room and placed it before me and I played on it with the crank. Soon +after a lady spirit came, dressed in a white shining robe, and beckoned to +me, when Mrs. Cooper, who was not in a trance, invited me to come up to +the curtain where the spirit stood in the opening, and I asked if it was +my friend Madam Ehrenborg who died in Sweden, Europe, eight years ago, and +she bowed and nodded assent. Mr. Winterborn gave me a flower, which I took +and offered to Madam Ehrenborg, who took it, smelled it, and stuck it +under my nose to smell, and afterwards kept it. I expressed my gladness to +see her and she made graceful bows, which I answered with mine. I then +went back to the music instrument to play, when Madam Ehrenborg came out +again with a beautiful long piece of lace on her arm and wafted it to and +fro, and afterwards dematerialized before us. After that came a lady and +sat herself in the rocking-chair, and there dematerialized before us. Mrs. +Cooper took now a standing position in the opening of the curtain, when a +male spirit came out, stood beside her, and kissed her. When Mrs. Cooper +took her seat behind the curtain again a tall gentleman spirit came +dressed in some kind of a uniform, with a glittering star on his right +breast, and Mr. Winterborn offered him a nosegay, which he took and held +out with his hand, swinging his arm up and down, keeping time to the music +of the orgamina and that for a long time. As he came out the next time he +took hold of the rocking chair outside the curtain before him and swung it +over his head for a long time, and afterwards lowered it down to about a +foot from the floor, when he dropped it. At the same time we saw Mrs. +Cooper, who expressed her anxiety lest the chair might fall on her. Next +he placed himself at the opening of the curtain, when a lady spirit took +her place at his left side, and they kissed each other. Mrs. Cooper asked +for a glass of water, which Mr. Cooper went after, intending to give it to +his wife, but the gentleman spirit took it from him and gave it to Mrs. +Cooper, who drank the water out of the glass. The same spirit sat himself +in the lap of Mrs. Cooper and kissed her after he had placed a flower in +her hair. Mrs. Cooper was coughing, and Mr. Winterborn gave two cough +lozenges to the spirit, who gave them to Mrs. Cooper. The uniformed +gentleman spirit came again out and took the rocking-chair with his right +hand and swung it very vigorously over his head for a good while, then put +it down. All the other spirits had white robes shining as snow, and all of +us were exceedingly gratified at such wonderful performance. + +The 29th of June, 1881, among other valuable communications, came: + +"Good morning, my dear friend; it is with the greatest pleasure I again +come to communicate with you. Your star of hope is increasing in +brightness. I called on you and your dear lady last night (your night). +You appreciate the beauties of the heavens, it was indeed grand to the +natural eye." (My wife and I last evening were on the roof of our house on +Mount Auburn looking at the comet and the stars.) "Oh, I thought if I +could lift the veil and show you the inner life so brightly beaming once +again, what joy it would give. I have visited three planets, each one had +a distinct race (of people) and different one from another, and had mostly +white skin, walked erect, were all of the same physical shape, very much +like the inhabitants of our planet; their features are more regular and +not much contrast in size. On the first planet they were small in +stature--about four feet high. On the second sphere, about five feet high +and of uniform size and shape. On the third they were six feet high, with +large limbs and muscles, language quite different from ours, but were +highly educated; eat no animal food, subsist entirely on vegetable. The +day and night are of equal length; and as this last named planet was most +interesting to me I will speak first of it: They have a better system of +astronomy than we do and understand it more perfectly. This planet has +large water courses and a great deal of commerce. They have no religion, +such as Christians call religion, but a very high order of morals. They +know little of the immortality of the soul. They have no wars, no courts +nor prison houses, and murder is unheard of. They have no kings, no +politics, no religion, consequently no wars. They live in perfect +harmony; women suffer very little inconvenience in bearing children; the +families are large, with eight or ten children; they are contented and +happy. They have better painters in coloring in both landscapes and +portraits. Their architecture is perfection; their buildings are the most +beautiful I ever beheld. The climate is genial the year round, never too +hot, and never necessary to have fire to keep warm; but little variety in +temperature. Dear friend, I could say much more if I had power. I thank +you for your kind attention. I will be able another time. Good bye for the +present. Your sincere friend in spirit life, + + "FREDRIKA EHRENBORG." + + +The 27th of July at a seance at Mrs. Cooper's, her control informed me +that we meet to-day under disturbed conditions, and when I asked Mrs. +Cooper what that meant, she said her husband wanted her to move back to +Louisville, as his prospects there now were better, and she had concluded +to do so, in consequence of which she intended to pack up her furniture +immediately after the present seance. Madam Ehrenborg wrote now a +communication from which I will extract the following: "This dear, good +woman, whom the angels will bless, is the first channel through which I +have been able to reach earth and friends in this way, and now to be +disturbed and taken away for a while is a loss to us. I could go to her, +but not write as I write to you, the friendship formed between us before I +passed away gives me strength and desires I might not have in any other +way, but this form of condition will not last long. * * * I will try to +communicate to you whenever condition is given, it is so easy for me to +write here. There are but few who I could say so much through in so short +a time. * * * Mrs. Cooper, if you will sit for me next Wednesday from +there (Louisville) I hope to be able to write frequently, but not like if +he was present. Good bye for the present. Your most sincere friend in +spirit land. + + "FREDRIKA EHRENBORG." + + +Mrs. Cooper promised to do as she was requested and we agreed, as the +spirits wanted, that I at the usual hour, 9 o'clock A. M., should sit +alone at home the same time as the seance should take place in Louisville. +Wednesday, the 3d of August, I picked a few flowers and kept some of them +with me, as my spirit son Emil directed, and the rest were placed in a +glass on the stand, which was covered, and under it I put Madam +Ehrenborg's photograph and her letters sent me from Sweden. The 5th of +August I received a letter from Miss Sadie Hare, No. 222 St. Catherine +street, Louisville, Ky., wherein she states that "Mrs. Cooper came quite a +distance to our home the 3d of August to fulfill her engagement with you +and the dear spirit friends, not having conditions at her sister's that +would enable her to give opportunities to the spirits. We live a long +distance apart and some distance from the street railway, but you know the +distance would have to be very great to prevent Mrs. Cooper from keeping a +spiritual engagement. * * With this you will find your communications +which I have copied. Respectfully yours, + + "SADIE HARE." + + +"LOUISVILLE, _August 3, 1881_. + +"Yes, we see the photographs of our dear friend, and he has obeyed the +request made. We wish we could bring just one of the white blossoms he has +gathered for the occasion to you. The dear spirit friends he desired to +hear from were present when he made preparations for conditions to assist +them to come to you. Tell him all will be well with him. The knowledge he +has gained of the spirit world will not decay like the blossoms he has +gathered in his beautiful bouquet. His friend Doc." The control of Mrs. +Cooper. + +"We have come, and see that you have had a long distance to come to make +conditions for us. Emil is with me, and we will do all we can to write a +message to my dear friend C. G. Helleberg. I have reached the medium +through which I have been able to write so much in so short a time. I find +her much troubled and disturbed and will not be able to say to you what I +could if you were present as in former conditions, but remember what I +have told you, my work in spirit life has only began, and I yet hope to +say much to you and through this medium. All the changes that come to our +friends in the form are not pleasant for them, but changes that come to us +in our spirit home increases the happiness and joy that we dwell in, but +not alone, for there is no real happiness that can be enjoyed alone, for +we are united in love and harmony, and we are happy that the change called +death does not sever the friendship formed in earth life. Progression is +the highest ambition of all good spirits. + +"Man does not see or know the need of knowledge while in earth life, but +when he enters real life and knows there is no turning backwards he feels +forced by law of goodness to help all those who are yet in darkness; but, +my friend, there are so many who are forgotten as soon as the spirit has +left the form and believed to be dead by all they once held dear. I feel +like repeating over and over again the joy I continually receive, being +remembered by you who have opened the avenue for me to give and receive. +Be assured that your reward will come and inscribed in bright, shining +letters on a banner of truth--your work well done, good and faithful +servant. Emil is present, and desires to send a few words to his papa and +mamma. I know, my dear friend, how you missed the interview this morning +you would have enjoyed so much; but be reconciled, they are more disturbed +than our dear medium; but could she behold the bright spirits that stand +in circle around her she would not despair. It will not be long till the +way is cleared and we can draw nearer to communicate through her to you, +and of every thorn comes a blessing, the severest cross is a crown to +those who are willing to bear for the sake of truth and progression. I +desire, my dear friend, to have these interviews repeated. Had there not +been a kind, genial lady to sit for you to copy what was written I would +not have been able to say this much in a strange place. I thank you, my +young friend, for assistance and willingness on your part, and remember, +though the act may seem small to you, it is worth gratitude from us, and +you may rely upon an increase of spiritual influence to assist you. +Accept this, my dear friend; I hope to say more again. Your most sincere +friend in spirit life, + + "FREDRIKA EHRENBORG." + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +MADAM EHRENBORG AND OTHERS MATERIALIZE. + + +I received several other valuable letters of my spiritual friends from +Louisville, and in one of them, the 18th of August, Madam Ehrenborg wrote: + +"A request has been made for Mrs. Helleberg to write a letter to her +sister Emma and her father, that it may enable them to remain long enough +to communicate that she may hear direct from them, for they are often with +her, and want her to know it is not wrong for them to come or for her to +look for them." + +In consequence of this I persuaded my wife to write a letter to them, +which she did, and I sealed it up with red sealing wax, with my seal on, +and sent it by mail to Mrs. Cooper, without any superscription. On the +25th of August we received a letter from Miss Hare and Mrs. Cooper, +together with my wife's sealed letter unopened, and a long and beautiful +letter from her spirit sister, Emma, who had also answered for her father, +which was so true and striking that her fear melted away, and concluded to +investigate these strange facts. In October, Mrs. Cooper revisited +Cincinnati, during which time my wife and I had several very satisfactory +seances, and on invitation from her we were present at a social +materialization seance on the 28th of said month, in the evening, in +company with the following persons: Mr. and Mrs. Stebbins, Miss Sadie +Hare, Mrs. Gano, Mr. and Mrs. Green, Mr. Cooper's mother, Mr. and Mrs. +Macky, Mr. and Mrs. Nicely, Miss Sneider, Mrs. Artzman, Dr. Taylor and Mr. +Winterborn. A curtain was stretched across a corner of the room, and the +small stand was put on the floor, and under it was placed two call bells, +a big brass bell, and a drum, with sticks and a walking stick. When Mr. +Stebbins played on the violin, or we sung or played on the orgamina, the +spirits kept time with the bells and drum. The walking stick was pointed +to different individuals of the company, who had mental questions answered +when they took hold of the uplifted stick. Mr. Stebbins put the end of the +bow under the table, and the fiddle he laid on the floor, about a foot +from the table, when the spirits played on it. The table was also lifted +up and down, keeping time with our music. When Mrs. Cooper took her seat +behind the curtain soon after, several spirits materialized to many of +their relatives and friends, who recognized them, among whom were Miss +Mary Muth and Madam Ehrenborg. I and my wife went up to the curtain, when +Miss Mary Muth touched my wife's hand and took a flower from her. +Afterwards Madam Ehrenborg came in full form, dressed in a fine dark suit, +with a black lace cap, and when my wife asked if it was Mrs. Ehrenborg, +she nodded her head smilingly several times, and then dematerialized. We +took our seats, but Madam Ehrenborg came again twice, when I went up to +the curtain with Mr. Stebbins, who also saw her very plainly, how she +nodded to me and kissed my hand, which was touched by her lips, and had a +warm feeling. She afterwards dematerialized before us. At the same time +this took place we saw and conversed with Mrs. Cooper, who is never in a +trance state at any time. When we came home we examined Madam Ehrenborg's +photograph, and we found her dress and every thing else apparently exactly +the same as that in which the photograph was taken. Her features were also +the same. I had seen her materialized several times before, but always in +shining white robes, and now she took on the same garment as that worn +when the photograph was taken, probably to convince my wife of her +identity. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +INVESTIGATIONS BY MRS. JENNIE M'KEE--FIRST LETTER FROM EMANUEL SWEDENBORG, +ETC. + + +After Mrs. Cooper moved to Louisville I made acquaintance with Mrs. Jennie +McKee, a real lady of high moral and truthful qualities, who had wonderful +medial gifts, and permitted me to come to her residence, No. 47-1/2 +Sherman avenue, Cincinnati, for a slate-writing seance weekly, every +Thursday, from 9 to 11 A. M. The spirits wrote independent, in broad +daylight, when she held the slate under the stand, which was never covered +with any thing, and with a pencil so small (about one-eighth part of a +common wheat grain) that no human fingers in the body could write with it. +I commenced with her the 4th of August, 1881, and continued until she +passed away to the higher life, the 17th of November the same year. During +that time I received many highly valuable and remarkable communications +and gifts, of which I will only mention a few. On the 8th day of September +there appeared among other communications on the slate the following: + +"My friend, I come from a higher sphere of light and truth, in compliance +with your request, and I greet you this morning in God's most holy name. I +will speak to you not as I would have done when inhabited in earth form, +but with a more expanded vision, and the more profound knowledge and the +clearer understanding of the fundamental laws and governing principles of +the Great Ruler of the universe. In those days in which I wrote it would +have been a very unwise and dangerous thing to have given these spiritual +manifestations to the people, from the fact that they were not prepared to +receive the blessings, and the ultimate desire for the amelioration of +mankind would have been defeated, and the result would have been +disastrous." + +I had wished a clearer understanding about our guardian spirits, and on +the slate came: + +"At the time of birth there are two self-constituted guardians, one from +the light sphere and one from the dark, and as the child advances toward +maturity, the number is greatly increased; but whether good or bad, +depends entirely upon the persons themselves. Thus, for instance, if man +leads a life of depravity and vice, he naturally attracts spirits of a +like character; on the other hand, if a man leads a moral life of purity, +bearing in his heart love and good will to others, he is surrounded by +pure spirits, who are attracted by those elements. Thus, my friend, you +see how essential it is, both for happiness here and through all eternity, +that you conduct yourself so that the pure spirit of love can come and +minister to you. I must leave, but will shortly come again." + +Here I said to Mrs. McKee: "If he signs his name, I would like to have the +slate, so I could show it to my wife;" and he said to her (but I could not +hear him): "Put a paper on the slate." I cut a leaf from my annotation +pocket book, and we put it on the slate loose, and Mrs. McKee held the +slate, with the paper and a short lead pencil on it, under the table, and +on the paper, now in my possession, was the following: + +"Dear heart, so true to my memory, my blessing with you, + + "EMANUEL SWEDENBORG." + + +On the 13th of October, at a seance by Mrs. McKee, from 9 to 9:30 A. M., +the following communication appeared on the slate: + +"My beloved, I am with you, and I greet you with my blessing in the name +of the Most High and Ruling Power, and not only is it I who bless you, you +have attracted to you a number of highly exalted spirits, who love you for +your singleness of purpose and purity of heart, with which you are +promulgating the teachings you receive from us; that is why you have been +selected by us, because you have been upright and moral in your life; +because those who wish to investigate would be more impressed than did the +communication come from other sources. Fear not, we will be with you, and +each word will have weight. You must expect to be criticised and doubted; +but again I say, fear not, we are with you, and will turn the thought of +the people. We shall eventually see our efforts crowned with success. We +appeal to the senses; it would be a vain and useless thing to set up a +higher authority than man's own conscience, for that is the last final +tribunal at which he is judged. The errand of life, the education, +unfolding and strengthening the combination of the mind, the exigencies of +business, the duties of citizenship, the cares of the household, all this +requires the utmost seriousness of purpose and activity; but activity is +neither in the development of manhood. It is far more essential that the +mind and moral nature should have careful cultivation. Man should not care +so much concerning the short period of natural life. From this side, +through us who live by deeds, not years, in thought and feeling, instead +of figures on the dial, by the happiness we produce, is our only gauge of +time. There is an embodiment of selfishness underlying the human family +which will first have to be eradicated through education, and it is the +desire of the spirit world that man should be a brother to his fellow-man. +I go now, but will be with you as often as I can. I leave my blessing for +you and your household. + + "SWEDENBORG." + + +"My friend, I come to say how much I enjoy and sympathize with you, that +those who were blind are beginning to see, and are in better condition for +the reception and appreciation of the spiritual blessing which is being +prepared for you and yours by the loved ones who are gone before. I have +brought my dear life companion with me this morning, who is working with +me in acquiring the knowledge which will be necessary for you in the +fulfillment of the mission you have been selected for to give out the +knowledge of this glorious philosophy. It is the truth, for it is vouched +for by the testimony of every atom, every bright world you observe in the +firmament, and lastly by the spirit of the past man made perfect. You may +be called fanatic, but if spiritualism is fanaticism, it is of more value +to mankind than the whole circle of the sciences. We are called away now, +but will come this evening. + + "FREDRIKA." + + +"Dear papa, there is much joy and rejoicing among your spirit band. I am +so happy that I can come to dear mamma, and have her receive me as you do. +Kiss her for me. The power is too far gone to write any more. + + "EMIL." + + +On the 20th of October, 1881, between 9 and 11 A. M., at a seance with +Mrs. McKee, the following communication appeared on the slate: + +"Good morning, my friend. I am here, and greet you with my love and my +blessing as the one chosen by me to help me in correcting the teachings I +have put forth, and which at that time were not clearly understood even by +myself, consequently I failed to render myself sufficiently intelligible +to be properly understood by others. Now these mistakes must be rectified, +and the erroneous impression replaced by the truth. I am preparing my +statements, and they will be given to you in proper time through the +channels we have chosen. I have chosen you as my assistant, well knowing +your loyalty, steadfastness of purpose and your fearless disposition, so +like what my own was, so it would be a matter of perfect indifference +whether you received commendation of the people or only arouse their +condemnation. It was this prominent characteristic which proved the +attractive power that has drawn me to you. I ask no one to give up his +principles; I simply desire to place truth before him, and let each +individual reason according to the light surrounding him. Surely truth can +defend itself, so we will let it speak for itself. I am happy and content +with my surroundings, but I come to bring to the children of my love, the +people of the new church, more light, if they will only receive it. I am +impressed more fully each time I revisit your earth sphere that, had I +lived at the present day, my labors would have been understood and +appreciated, and I should not have felt that my best efforts were but a +sad failure in comparison to what I expected or desired. I am now called +away, so I now leave for this time, but will be with you soon. Good bye. +God bless you and yours. + + "SWEDENBORG." + + +On the 27th of October, 1881, at Mrs. McKee's, Swedenborg gave me a short +communication, both on slate and paper, and afterwards came: + +"Good morning, my friend, Swedenborg has been called away, but he has +brought me to say a word and to assist in promulgating the truth. Many +high and elevated spirits are banding together to spread the truth. + + "POLHEIM."[2] + + +On the 3d of November, 1881, I had a seance with Mrs. McKee, and after the +slate had been under the bare stand for about ten minutes a tap was heard, +by which sign it was taken out from under the stand, and five exceedingly +beautiful, fresh flowers, giving out a delicious perfume, were on the +slate, and little dew drops had made some wet spots under them. On the +slate was written the following: + +"Good morning, my friend. I bring you some flowers. Let them convey to you +the dearest essence of the high power to produce. They are the handiwork +of God. In them we see His ever living presence. + + "FREDRIKA EHRENBORG." + + +Afterwards the following communication appeared: + +"Good morning, my beloved. I am again with you, weighty with rich +blessings for you and yours, and I come also with a heart overflowing with +love, tenderness and gratitude, that I am permitted, through the goodness +and wisdom of the most High Power, to return, and through you, my +trustworthy assistant, give my thoughts and ideas to the people. We love +our mediums, our channels and our doorway, through which we come to love +and bless. Take no heed of any unkind remarks, it is only an evidence of +ignorance. Keep straight on, turn neither to the right nor to the left, +continue to scatter seeds by the way-sides, which will furnish food for +thought, and thought will lead to investigation. Investigation must +necessarily lead in the acknowledgment of the truth. You can not expect to +convince at once--it must be the work of time--and bear in mind, no one +ever yet sought to benefit mankind who was not placed under the dark ban +of suspicion. As you say, nothing can be gained by denunciation. Keep on. +My blessing with you. + + "SWEDENBORG." + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +MRS. M'KEE PASSES AWAY AND HER SPIRIT ARRANGES HER OWN FUNERAL. + + +When the seance was over, I at once took the flowers to Mrs. Minor's to +have them arranged according to her art for preservation and now have them +in all their original beauty. The 17th of November, 1881, I went to Mrs. +McKee for a slate-writing seance, as for some time I have been used to do +every Thursday morning at 9 o'clock, where I met at the door her +step-father, R. J. William, who informed me that his daughter Jennie had, +half an hour before, passed away to the spiritual world, and invited me up +on the floor above to see her body. In the death-room I found my friend, +the wonderful clairvoyant and trance medium, Mrs. Anna Rall, and Jennie's +mother, who found that her head was not quite cold. From the house of +mourning I went to Mrs. Minor's for the five flowers I had received from +my dear spirit friend, Mrs. Fredrika Ehrenborg, through the medial power +of Mrs. McKee, the 3d of November, and which now were preserved under +glass, and afterwards went to have a seance at Mrs. Green's, where I +placed those beautiful flowers on the small stand between us. Soon we +heard writing on the slate and a tap, when we found on it the following +communication: + +"Good morning, dear papa. How sad for you to look upon the face this +morning, not yet cold, that had afforded you so much real happiness, and +pure as the flowers before you that came through her medial powers. She +entered the spirit world to meet the loved ones gone before. Her suffering +is no more. She saw you, and I shook hands with her. She knew me, and she +was all smiles. She was glad she passed away on the morning she had an +engagement with you; so your heavenly influences were there to aid her +spirit. She hoped for it. She will be able to communicate to you soon and +tell you how she found the new life. She will write immediately, she +understands it. Dear papa, try to make a house not of mourning; she wants +joy, she is free from suffering and able to communicate. Will see her own +funeral and wishes to have a real spiritualist's funeral, becoming one who +has passed away in its full faith. She wants Mrs. Green to repeat that +beautiful poem that she so much admired: 'I _Still_ Live' (herself). _I +would like Mr. Green, with others, to make some consoling remarks. The +song 'There is no death,' sung._ She says that every thing so far has +turned out all right, and she wants every thing done according to her +desire. They all know what a devotee she was in spiritualism." (Here I +mentioned to Mrs. Green that I would go back to the house of mourning and +tell them of this as soon as possible, and now came.) "That is just it. +She told me all and requested me to write it. She wants them to cast away +the thoughts of her old body from their minds, and to think her free +spirit moving through the house as of old. She wants her dear old parents +not to mourn. She wants all the mediums next to her immediate family, and +spiritualists, to strengthen her so she can manifest, if possible. She +says these are her wishes; they can do as they please. Dear papa, I have +done my duty this morning for her beautiful free spirit, and happy for the +honor conferred upon me as her amanuensis. We have nothing more to +communicate this morning, only she wants Mrs. Rall, her near and dear +friend, to control affairs as far as she can, as she knows her wishes and +desires, and knows she will please her and do what is right. Love to dear +mamma; kiss her for me. + + "EMIL." + + +"Mrs. McKee says many thanks for your kindness She will be with you often. +Much love to all. + + "EMIL." + + +We were present at her beautiful funeral, where Jennie herself spoke +through Mrs. Rall over her own body, and it was in truth remarked from the +people that this was the most soul-uplifting funeral services they ever +had witnessed. The spirit communicates with me often. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +INVESTIGATIONS WITH MRS. GREEN--REMARKABLE DARK TRUMPET SEANCE AT WHICH I +RECEIVED A MOST BEAUTIFUL FLOWER FROM MY SON EMIL AND MISS MARY MUTH. + + +"My investigations through the excellent medium, Mrs. Green, commenced the +2d of September, 1881, and I received many interesting communications from +my dear and near relatives, which I value very highly, but naturally would +not have the same value for the general reader, and therefore I deem it +best to exclude most of them and take in only writings from exalted +spirits who are more generally known. + +The 19th of September came: + + "From the higher sphere of light I come + To teach you the beauties of our home, + And to impart to you the golden truth + And make you feel its real worth. + + "And to my dear old friend, your wife, + I wish to prove a future life, + And to assist her while she remains here, + And help to guide her to our heavenly sphere. + + "Oh, the beautiful birds that sing their lay, + Come to bless me every day, + The flowers of fragrance, sweet and rare, + And heavenly music fills the air. + + "From your friend, + "FREDRIKA EHRENBORG." + +The 20th of October, 1881, I was present at Mrs. Green's trumpet seance in +the evening in company with the following persons: Mr. Green, the medium's +husband; Mr. and Mrs. Stebbins, a reporter from the "Enquirer," who gave +his name as Johnson, and Mr. Walker. On the stand was placed three slates, +one of which was my own, three trumpets, one glass of water, and my spring +music-box. On the floor stood the big tin trumpet and by it laid my +guitar, and not far from Mr. Stebbins was his fiddle. After the light was +put out and the doors locked I wound up my music-box and put it on the +right hand corner of the stand before me. Soon after it was taken away +while playing and carried around all over our heads, and some of us were +touched with it. Finally it came back to me and was placed in my left hand +with the spirit, whose hand I touched with both my hands. I wound it up +again and the spirit took it away and carried it around the same as +before, but when it came back it was placed on the left hand corner of the +stand, and I laid the key close by it. Afterwards I played my orgamina +when the spirit voices of both sexes joined in with their songs, and so +they did when we sang. + +I intended to wind up the music-box again and felt for it on the corner, +when I discovered that both the box and key were gone. Soon after we heard +the box playing and going over our heads as before, and the box was +replaced on the corner of the stand with the key on top. All the trumpets +and the guitar were moving around in the air high above our heads, the +guitar was played on in time with the music, and we all were touched and +stroked on different parts of our bodies with these implements. The guitar +was laid in my lap, and I sang a Swedish song, accompanied by the guitar, +when we heard a spirit voice singing with me, and I and the others heard +the words pronounced by the spirit, which I declare were the same Swedish +words which I sung. Mrs. Stebbens was clasped around her neck by her +spirit daughter Ida, who whispered to and patted both her and Mr. +Stebbins. Mrs. Green and Mrs. Stebbens saw several spirit lights, and Mr. +Walker was informed by striking and tolling on the big tin trumpet that +his father in Kansas would soon pass away. I felt for my music-box again, +intending to wind it up, when I, to my great surprise, found a fresh, +beautiful flower on top of it, and my slate was placed in my hand. Soon +after the seance was closed and when the room was lighted up, we found +written on one slate the name of the reporter, and on my slate the +following: + +"Dear papa, we present you the flower we promised you some time ago. The +passion flower. + + "EMIL AND MARY." + + +It was a large, very beautiful, quite fresh flower, which I now have +preserved in a glass jar with deodorized alcohol. On seeing this flower my +wife's idea was that the flower had been brought from some garden, and I +thought the spirits made it, which caused me, at a slate-writing seance +the 24th of October, to ask which of us was right. On the slate was this +answer: + +"Mary and I, with the assistance of the medium's band, _created it_ for +you and dear mamma, and you will find a dove in the center." + +On a close examination we found to our astonishment a small dove there. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +SURE IDENTITY OF MY FATHER-IN-LAW--MADAM EHRENBORG WRITES TO ME IN +SWEDISH. + + +On the 8th of December, 1881, I and my wife had a slate-writing seance in +the forenoon, and were present in the evening at a trumpet seance with +Mrs. Green, and as my wife received a strong convincing test through the +name of her father, it is necessary before relating the facts to make a +short sketch of a part of his life. He was a Swedish nobleman, named Otto +Jacob Natt och Dag, who, by the favor of the dethroned King Gustaf Adolf +the Fourth, was educated in the military academy, and afterwards served as +officer in a rank regiment in Stockholm, which the new King Charles the +Fourteenth, Johan, the former Napoleon's General Bernadott, looked upon +with great favor. This young nobleman wrote an anonymous book about +reorganizing the Swedish army, in which many good and necessary reforms +were proposed. This book was not intended for sale, but a few copies had +been printed for his intimate friends. Some of his so-called friends +reported this, and mentioned his name to the King, who became enraged that +a young officer should dare to have the impertinence to interfere with his +business, and want to teach him, who had such a vast experience in +military affairs, the consequence of which was that he was transported to +serve in a common infantry regiment, far up in the northern part of the +country, a long distance from his near and dear relatives. Such treatment +naturally made him feel bad, and he asked permission to travel in foreign +countries, which he got, and went straight to Baden, in Germany, where he +called on his former King, Gustaf Adolf, and was kindly received. There he +republished his book in the German language, with some additions, which +the Swedish minister reported to the King, who then considered him a +traitor, and ordered his arrest, but his Swedish friends informed him of +this in time, and he went to America under the name of Frederick Franks, +which was the name of a German student, who gave him his passport, and +which he afterwards adopted and used until his death. The King, Charles +the Fourteenth, had him adjudged, unheard and absent, by a court for high +treason, for daring to pay a visit to the dethroned King, and the judgment +was that he should lose his place and rank in the army. Many years +afterwards the King regretted his harsh and unjust treatment of his +faithful, patriotic and skillful officer, and pardoned him, and ordered +his Swedish minister at Washington to inform him of it, so he could go +back and enjoy all his privileges; but his former guard officer had now +been for many years a republican citizen, who, with his artistic and many +other talents and business capacity, had made himself independent, and he +never went back. Nobody here but the family knew any thing of his Swedish +name, and my wife said to me that she would be more fully convinced of +her father's identity if he would sign himself with that name. + +In the slate-writing seance in the forenoon I had put my own slate, which +Mrs. Green never touched, under the side of the stand nearest me, and on +Mrs. Green's slate the following appeared: + +"Put out the slate and see if any thing is on it?" + +I did so, and on my slate the following sentence appeared: + +"God bless you both is the wish of your exalted friend, + + "FREDRIKA EHRENBORG." + + +Among other things was the following: + +"Now, dear papa and mamma, we have done all we can this morning. Much love +to you both. Grandpa will be with you to-night; Grandpa Helleberg, Mary +and Julia, too, Emil, Gustaf and Charley. You will have many bright and +beautiful spirits with you this evening to cheer you on your road to the +beautiful spirit world. There all are in peace and happiness--Emil, +Frances, Emma, Mary, Julia. + + "EMANUEL SWEDENBORG." + + +On the evening of the 8th of December, at the above-mentioned trumpet +seance were present, besides me and my wife, the following persons: Mr. +and Mrs. Stebbins, Mr. and Mrs. Taylor, Mrs. Catherine Remlin, Mr. and +Mrs. Green and Mrs. Boggs. We had spirit singing and talking, with many +other remarkable manifestations. Among the spirits who spoke were +Garfield, Washington and Lincoln, three ex-Presidents. Two slates were put +on the table by Mr. Green before the light was put out, and I had that +afternoon bought two very small silica slates, of which I gave one to my +wife, who held it in her hand, and the other, in the dark, I put on the +corner of the table nearest me, which nobody else knew any thing about. +When the seance was over several names and messages were written on the +two big slates, and on mine was the following on both sides: + +"My Dear Daughter--Oh, how happy I am that I have found a way to +communicate to you. I will be with you often. + + "O. J. N. D." + + +On the other side appeared: + +"My Dear Daughter--According to promise I am with you. I have many things +to tell you. With my heart full of love for you, + + "O. J. N. D." + + +These were the initials of my wife's father's Swedish name, Otto Jacob +Natt och Dag, and we were highly pleased with the result. Subsequently he +communicated often, signing his name in full, as above. + +On the 23d of March, 1882, at Mrs. Green's, among other communications, +was the following: + +"Dear Papa--All of your Swedish friends are here, and intend to use their +influence to-day and give you a surprise before the seance is over. All +are present except Swedenborg, who we expect very soon. We are not sure of +success, but we intend to try. The surprise will be Grandpa Franks trying +to communicate inside of the double slate, with your assistance holding +the slate and all of your friends influence combined. Madam Ehrenborg +withheld her message to-day to add her strength and help grandpa with his +surprise to mamma and you. * * * Swedenborg has come; get the slate. This +is all you will get from me to-day. Your loving son, + + "EMIL." + + +We cleaned the double slate and put it under the table, where I held on to +one end of it and pressed the two slates together with my hand, while Mrs. +Green held the other end, and we both felt and heard the writing going on +inside the two slates. The writing continued about ten minutes, after +which a tap was heard, when I took the slate out, opened it, and in my +father-in-law's handwriting found the following communication, which I had +photographed and electrotyped as seen opposite: + +On the 23d of July, from 9 to 11 A. M., at Mrs. Green's, I had cheerful +writings from our three sons and grand-daughter, Julia Muth first, and +afterwards there appeared on the slate the following communication in the +Swedish language: + +"Dyra goda waen C. J. Helleberg! Jag prsenterar dig min Hoegaktning och +evinnerlig waenskap. + + "FREDRIKA EHRENBORG." + + +Which, translated into English is: + +"Dear, good friend C. J. Helleberg, I present you my esteem and eternal +friendship. + + "FREDRIKA EHRENBORG." + + +I had it photographed, as shown. + + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +INFORMATION OF A SPIRITUAL MARRIAGE--THE WEDDING AND THE WEDDING TOUR TO +THE PLANET MARS. + + +For a long time I had regular slate-writing seances in the light and one +dark trumpet seance every week at Mrs. Green's residence, No. 309 +Longworth street, and at that time were generally present the following +persons: Mr. and Mrs. Stebbins, Mr. and Mrs. Taylor, Mrs. Remlin, Mr. and +Mrs. Helleberg, all of Cincinnati, and Mrs. Bogg, from Newport, Ky. In +these trumpet seances the spirits not only played on musical instruments, +which they carried over our heads, and very often touched us with them and +their hands, but talked and sung to us with or without the trumpet. The +12th of January, 1882, our son Emil astonished us with the information +that he was going to marry Miss Ida, the spirit daughter of Mr. and Mrs. +Stebbins, and that she would be his spirit wife. In a slate-writing +seance, the 16th of January, he informed me that Mr. Swedenborg would +perform the nuptial ceremony, and who also had determined the wedding to +take place on Washington's birthday--the 22d of February. We were also +informed that the spirit, Mr. Henry Nieman, Ida's cousin, would be the +groomsman, and the spiritual Miss Mary Muth her bridesmaid, and that a +bridal trip had been arranged in which many bright and exalted spirits +would take part, including Madam Ehrenborg. Mr. Swedenborg would make the +wedding speech on the spiritual side, and he requested Mr. Green to make +one on this side. Mr. and Mrs. Stebbins, my wife and I, agreed that this +remarkable wedding ceremony should take place at Mr. Stebbins' residence +at the appointed time--the 22d of February--and we concluded to ask the +spirits who we should invite, and the 16th day of February, 1882, came on +the slate the following names: + +"Pa and ma Stebbins, papa and mamma Helleberg, Mr. and Mrs. Green and +daughter, Mrs. Emma Muth, Mrs. Remlin, Mr. and Mrs. Taylor, Miss Nettie +Williams, and Mrs. Keenan. + + "EMIL AND IDA." + + +At a slate-writing seance, the 20th of February, came on the slate, among +many other communications, the following: + +"The ceremonies are to begin at four, and immediately after +congratulation, supper. It will take one hour, Mr. Swedenborg says, to +show the medium the ceremony and Mr. Green's address. When the vision is +through, then Mr. Green, then supper, and, after that is settled, a +trumpet seance. + + "EMIL." + + +According to this arrangement the above persons were all invited and +present, except Mrs. Keenan and Miss Nettie Williams, who could not come, +at the afternoon and evening seances the 22d, the 150th anniversary of +Washington's birthday. In the afternoon we assembled at 3 o'clock P. M., +and at 4 Mrs. Green was in full trance, and Swedenborg controlled her and +blessed the contracting parties, after which Mr. Green made a very +appropriate and beautiful address. A private clairvoyant fell in a trance +and described not only the clothing of the bride and bridegroom, but many +other spirits present. The bride's dress was pure, sparkling white, +frosted with gold dust, with long train full of the finest lace, and a +very beautiful veil, frosted also, and adorned with a handsome wreath on +her head of white flowers set with three beautiful diamonds on her +forehead. She had also a diamond brooch and necklace, with a splendid ring +on her finger, and slippers on her feet to match. Our son Emil had +knee-breeches of royal purple, with a beautiful white toga frosted with +gold, and gold tassels and a purple and gold crown set with diamonds. (At +a subsequent seance Emil said: "Mine was Mr. Swedenborg's selection, Ida's +was Madam Ehrenborg's.") During the trance state of Mrs. Green, the spirit +Winnie described the dresses in the same way as the private medium already +had told us. After we had had a splendid repast the requested trumpet +seance was arranged, at which all were present, and had the pleasure of +being spoken to by Swedenborg, Emil, Ida, and many other spirits, and some +of them patted us with their hands. Madam Ehrenborg and my wife's father, +Otto Jacob Natt-och-Dag (Frederick Franks), sung Swedish with me, and Mrs. +Jennie McKee took my hand and lifted my arm up and putting it over the +table so I had to rise. It was a beautiful and most satisfactory and +wonderful manifestation over which we all were highly delighted. + +The 23d of February, 1882, came from our spirit friends the following: + +"Good morning, dear papa, we are here yet, but will immediately after this +sitting start on our bridal tour, accompanied by Swedenborg and a great +many exalted spirits. We expect to return by next Thursday, then Mr. +Swedenborg will give the marriage ceremonies, and we hope to have +something nice to write you then. Mr. Swedenborg is very much pleased +because he is able to speak and control Mrs. Green, and was very much +pleased also with the way it was conducted on your side. He says +altogether it was a splendid affair on both sides, and I think so too, and +now I will let my wife, Mrs. Ida Helleberg, write. Your loving son, + + "EMIL HELLEBERG." + + +"Good morning, dear papa Helleberg; Emil makes me blush when he says my +wife. It used to be a joke, but now it is a reality, and that is quite +different. When we all meet on the evergreen shores of the summerland, +then we will return the compliment and have the infair at our own home, no +matter how far off it may be, you shall always receive our hospitality and +our love in the cottage. With my heart full of love for you and dear mamma +Helleberg and sister Emma, and my dear pa and ma, and Mrs. Green's family, +I bid you good morning. + + "IDA STEBBINS HELLEBERG." + + +"Good morning, Mr. Helleberg: I was very much delighted with the exercises +of yesterday afternoon and evening. It could not have been more perfect on +both sides. I was with you all the time. It was witnessed by thousands of +spirits with much interest and delight. Whatever Mr. Swedenborg, does in +the spirit world causes great commotion and interest. He is in the spirit +world like some of your great men here, a leader. His every word, look, +and gesture, is chronicled by the spirits; therefore you may imagine the +interest they manifest towards him. Nettie could not and would not leave +mother. She is so lonely without me, but she was here heart and soul in +spirit. With my highest regards for you all, I am your friend, + + "JENNIE." + + +"Good morning, my dear friend: As the marriage of our grand-daughter to +your son has united my son Edwin and your family, and that event caused or +rather brought us in a positive condition, and enabled us to pick up the +trumpet and manifest our appreciation of that event, I thought I would +write a few lines in regard to this happy marriage, and to show our very +high appreciation of this medium's family, for, as Ida said, it has +brought sunshine to her dear pa and ma that they could not find any-where +else outside the spirit communion, and express our very high appreciation +of your son Emil, and that we feel very proud of them both, and of our +hearts full of love for Edwin and his wife, and highest regards for +yourself and family and Mrs. Green's family, we subscribe ourselves your +dear spirit friends, + + "AMARIAH STEBBINS AND PERMELIA STEBBINS." + + +"Good morning, my friends, Mr. Helleberg and Mrs. Green: To say I was very +much delighted, or, in fact, I have not language at my command to express +to you my appreciation of yesterday's proceedings, and happy of the +opportunity presented that I can write to-day. Winnie described me as I +was. Love to my dear daughter and her husband (Edwin Stebbins), and regard +to all, + + "THOMAS KELLY." + + +"Good morning, dear son: Father, brother, and all of us are here to give +you our congratulations and to tell you how much we love dear Ida, and +that she is so sweet and beautiful. We were all with you last night, and +caressed you with the trumpet. It made us so happy. Father can not write +to-day, but will soon. With our blessings on you and all, your loving +mother, + + "ULRICA HELLEBERG." + + +"Good morning: I must not fail to give a few words in appreciation of the +marriage feast. It was splendid, and I was very much pleased with the +ceremony spiritually and mortal. Love to dear Anna and yourself and +highest regard to all. Francis, Emily, Susan and Joseph join me and send +much love to all. With my prayers for you all, I bid you good bye. + + "FREDRICK FRANKS." + + +"Now, dear papa, we are all through, and Gustaf and Charles join in +congratulations, and asked me to write for them, and tell you that they +are so much pleased with their sister-in-law. Mary, Henry, and little +Julia and Clarence, and many that I have not time to mention, join us with +much love for all. Two souls with but a single thought, two hearts that +beat as one, we bid you good bye, + + "EMIL AND IDA." + + +The 2d of March came: "Good morning, my dear friend. The tourists, +according to promise, have not returned. I have been sent as a messenger +from Mr. Swedenborg to report to you that their reception on the planet +Mars was so grand, and they are there so nicely entertained by the spirits +of that planet that they have all been invited to participate in a similar +feast to take place to-day, and they all send their love and best wishes +to you, and hope to be with you at your next sitting. With my highest +regard and well wishes for your future prosperity, I am your spirit +friend, + + "POLHEIM." + + +The 6th of March the exalted Swedenborg wrote on the slate: "Good morning, +friends: I am here to give you the marriage ceremony I promised in +pantomime on the 22d ultimo. It is brief, and does not include the address +and prayer given on that occasion. * * * As you have already been united +in the conjugal sense by the operation of the laws of spiritual attraction +and magnetic affiliation, no formal cementation or consecration is needed, +but in obedience to an ancient custom, originating in spirit life in the +early dawns of the physical earth-planet, and from thence projected to +mortal life, I have the pleasure of pronouncing the ceremony that blends +you, in obedience to the custom stated, into blissful spiritual +consociation as man and wife, which I now do in presence of the invited +guests here assembled. In blissful happiness you are to live in peaceful +joy, to move in heavenly love to act, so shall your onward march be +unobstructed, and as you advance increasing in wisdom, expanding and +abounding in love, and augmenting in power until the highest angels and +seraphims shall claim you for angelic companionship. Now, while the +choristers join in the marriage anthem, I present for your congratulations +this spiritually mated couple, who I now introduce as Emil Gabriel +Helleberg and Ida Stebbins Helleberg. + + "EMANUEL SWEDENBORG." + + +Just as Madam Ehrenborg's communications were being copied for the +printer, the "Banner of Light"--the oldest spiritual paper in +existence--of date July 1, 1882, was placed in my hands, in which I find a +communication from Helen Barnard Densmore, of Philadelphia, in which she +says: + +"Philadelphia has been favored recently with a course of lectures from Mr. +W. J. Colville, which have been well attended and received with +appreciation. This truly inspired speaker is doing a great work in +spreading the new gospel of spiritualism wherever he is called. His +discourses are of a high order, in an intellectual and literary sense, as +well as of great spiritual elevation. At one of the social receptions +given to him at the residence of Colonel S. P. Kase, he gave a very +interesting discourse on the physical life and development of the planets +of our solar system as compared with the earth, which was listened to with +an earnest attention and evident acceptance by those present. It was +taught in this discourse that worlds were brought into existence for the +sole purpose of furnishing a theater for souls to express themselves in +matter upon, to the end of gaining knowledge and overcoming temptations in +all forms and of all kinds; that these lives make up a system of +embodiments which closes with the soul's triumph over all the evils to be +found in material life. + +"We were told that in Mercury the attainment of a high degree of physical +perfection was the highest ambition of its inhabitants; that that planet +was in a lower state of animal, vegetable and spiritual progress than the +earth, and the cultivation of the soil was their almost universal +occupation; that Venus was in a high state of artistic and aesthetic +cultivation; that art and music were the dominant passions there, with +less intellectual and spiritual development, sensuous delights every-where +abounding, and the cultivation of the beautiful the highest aim of life. +On the earth the demon to be overcome was declared to be intellectualism, +man's intellect being here worshiped and deified at the expense of the +spiritual. + +"On Mars and Jupiter is to be found a much higher state of existence, +matter being dominated by the spirit to a much greater degree than on +either this earth or those planets nearest the sun; that exalted spirits +from those planets, especially from Mars, are sent as especial embodiments +to the earth, as teachers and messengers for spiritual truth. + +"Life on the more distant planets from the sun, beyond Jupiter, was +declared to be of such an exalted character that there is no language +understandable on earth in which to depict its glories and achievements." + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +DESCRIPTION OF THE JOURNEY TO MARS, AND WONDERFUL INFORMATION FURNISHED BY +MADAM EHRENBORG. + + +"March 9, 1882. Our party of tourists, after having been carefully +selected in accordance with their ability to utilize the magnetic currents +that connect the planets in our solar system, and their adaptability to +the electric and magnetic condition of Mars, whither we were bound, +started on the journey at, according to your time, midnight, February 23. +We proceeded without any incident of note until we reached Maluka Plains, +where we met a party of excursionists on a visit to our planet earth. +Maluka Plains, named after a great prophet of Mars, are located many +millions of miles from the circling magnetic belts of earth, and +immediately adjacent to the outer circle of the electro-magnetic +atmosphere of Mars. We were surprised to find that these excursionists +were acquainted with our guide and leader, Mr. Swedenborg, for he had +frequently visited the most interesting points of our stellar system. He +had even been at Mars in spirit while he was in the body of flesh, but he +finds many things quite different from what he thought he had discovered +during his spiritual visits when embodied. The party we met were on a tour +of scientific exploration, and gladly availed themselves of information +imparted by Swedenborg and Polheim, and we in return were greatly aided +by data and information furnished by them to us. While this conference, or +rather exchange of information, was in progress a courier was dispatched +by our newly-made acquaintances to the spiritual magnates of Mars +concerning our coming. I shall here stop and defer a description of our +first reception until our next sitting. + +"March 13. As we entered within the magnetic radius of Mars, and were +emerging from the outer into the inner concentric circles, so +characteristic of that planet, we met a reception committee of several +thousand, and after formal greetings, we were escorted to a magnificent +edifice, where were in waiting innumerable throngs of spiritual +dignitaries and others to receive us. I here desire to remark that in my +use of words I resort to your own vocabulary, for the thought language of +the Marsians is quite different from the sound of your words, and to +employ their terms would only confound you and militate against your +proper conception and understanding of the narrative. For instance, I use +the word edifice to indicate a structure, but they use an entirely +different term and form of expression, and so on _ad infinitum_. The +edifice referred to I am unable to describe, and it can only be fully +understood in thought. In dimensions so great that your city of Cincinnati +could be settled in one corner of it without attracting but very little +attention. The material of which it is composed has no fitting +representative on earth in its present state of development. Your diamonds +and precious stones are as dim and unreflecting in comparison as a cloudy, +murky day of autumn is to a bright summer day with the sun at meridian and +the horizon unobstructed by cloud or a single mist. This comparison may +serve to give you some idea of the absorbingly intense brilliancy of the +mammoth structure, yet this is of itself but as a mote in the sunbeam to +what I am assured exists in the immeasurable immensity of the higher +creations in the inconceivable and boundless universe of God. Oh, how +diminutive is this little ball of matter called earth, when we only +measurably take in the vast immensity of the infinite domain of God. And +poor, puny man, what a mere speck--a mere infinitisimal animalcule. As we +approached this mammoth structure, it seemed to be tremulous with motion, +and the motion, superinduced by such intensely penetrating, soul dazzling +strains of music as to perfectly appal with ecstatic emotion our +enraptured tourists. But for the preparation of us for it by the +scientific spirits, who they called the Ulaetta, we could not have +withstood it. I will give you this process of preparation on some future +occasion, and I am sure it will be interesting to you and valuable when +you come over. The ceremonies of reception were performed, not in speech, +but in musical opera, which, singular to state, we were enabled to +understand by the preparation mentioned. When I say musical opera I do not +mean singing accompanied by music, but that the music itself was intensely +operatic, and infused thought by the most astonishing and utterly +inexplicable process into our interior soul consciousness. It was +something worth years of suffering and pain to enjoy, and in contemplating +its inconceivable grandeur I return to my own sphere, feeling how little I +am, and to weep for the children of earth, still in ignorance and +superstition, and I lift my voice in prayerful supplication to God to +rend the veil, that poor humanity may obtain even faint glimpses of the +gorgeous splendors of God's great kingdom; but I seem to hear a voice +answering, Not yet; wait and be patient. + +"March 20. We observed the most singular fact connected with the edifice +wherein we were received. In approaching it we were unable to penetrate +into its interior with our vision. It seemed to be a solid mass of +exquisitely fine material, but on gaining admission into its interior, by +some peculiar power that seemed to affect our spiritual vision and +perceptions, we were enabled to see through and beyond it, and to perceive +objects in the far distance. In other words, the whole structure seemed to +vanish so far as to permit no obstruction to our vision far beyond its +limits, and yet it was thoroughly substantial, composed of finely +attenuated and spiritually sublimated material. I have so much to tell you +that I must forego the pleasure of indulging in details, however +interesting they might be to you. + +"The presiding personage at our reception was a figure of tall and +commanding appearance, with a benevolent face, dignified mien, and large +blue eyes, that seemed constantly tremulous with love and emotion. He held +in his hand a magic wand, which ever and anon he would wave, and in +harmony with these movements the most enchanting sounds of music seemed to +be wafted far out in the viewless spiritual ether that surrounded and +enveloped us. This wonderful fact baffles the skill of mortal pen and +mortal language to describe, and you must be content with what is said as +the best that can be said, so as to reach your comprehension. + +"As I caught the eye of this great presiding spirit I perceived the idea +emanating from his mind, 'I am glad to meet you,' yet not one of these +words was spoken. I essayed to answer to express my thankfulness for his +friendly recognition of us, and I found I could not speak audibly, but my +thought he caught immediately, and bowed in acknowledgment. He had been +many thousands of years before a sage and philosopher on the planet Mars, +and bore about the same relation to his people as Mahomet, Confucius, +Jesus, Swedenborg and others of their day have in your world; and he is +pre-eminent in music. All the great spirits of Mars are eminent musicians. +Music, intellectual expansion and spiritual growth seem to be wedded, and +go hand in hand together. These are wonderful relations, but nevertheless +are true. + +"In my next I will introduce you to some of the societies and cities of +the planet, to be followed from time to time by revelations that can not +fail to impress you with the greatest interest, and not only be +interesting and instructive, but will be of great value to you in your +after life in the spheres. My clear and venerable friend, be of good +cheer, and in the sweet bye and bye I will accompany you on this very +tour, and then you will perceive the difficulties in the way of giving a +description so as to be understood by mortals. + +"March 27. After the ceremonies of reception, the details of which, fully +set forth, would fill a large volume, we set out under the escort of a +select delegation of forty-seven in number on a tour of inspection, a few +only of the incidents of which I can imperfectly touch. Many things +observed by us I am not at liberty to mention, for the all-sufficient +reason that you would not understand them and the world is not prepared to +receive them. + +"Our first visit was to a society of literary celebrities, located in a +city of marvelous beauty. For our present use we will call the place the +City of Learning, and the society, the Society of the Literati. These +names are not the real ones, but serve our purpose fully as well, indeed +much better. The city is located on the border of a vast expanse of water +of a golden hue, and this limpid stream is a vast musical organ of sounds, +whose very vibrations, as its currents flow along, disturb the surrounding +atmosphere, resulting in the production of harmonies in musical +intonations, not only delightfully enrapturing, but far beyond the power +of portrayal in human speech. We stood upon its brink, and were enchanted +by its soul-piercing melody. Ever and anon the mellowed rays of the +spiritual sun of our solar system would strike upon the bosom of this +majestic stream, producing in their rebound such marvelous, scintillating +reflections as to cause the beautiful tints of your rainbow to pale into +utter insignificance in comparison. You must elaborate in your own mind +these feeble touches of my pen, for I can not stop to give minute +delineations, but only the idea, and you can carry it onward in your +imagination without fear of overdoing the picture or exaggerating the +facts. + +"The ladies and gentlemen composing the Society of the Literati of this +one city are numbered by the many thousands, with vast numbers of +co-operating branches in as many different localities. We are told that +there exist still higher branches, which we were not spiritually fitted +to visit and comprehend. We, as spirits from earth, lacked planetary +development, but we have the promise in the infinite justice of God's +eternal laws that in time, though very far distant, our earth, with its +encircling spiritual spheres, will reach unto the gorgeous grandeur of +Mars. Here let us pause and reflect. + +"March 29. Herein may be found ample food for study, inspiring elements +for reflection: + +"_First_--How almighty is God, yet puny man is wondering whether there is +a God. + +"_Second_--How grand and noble may all his children become. + +"_Third_--How patiently does God, through inflexible and unerring law, +work out such stupendous results. + +"_Fourth_--Man while in the flesh would arrogate unto himself the +attributes of a God, when in truth it requires ages of effort and progress +only to disclose to him that yet he is not yet an angel. But still how +grand are the possibilities before man, inviting him onward. They can not +be fully conceived by the finite mind, much less described. + +"We saw many translucent streams, whose pellucid waters were charming to +behold. There is a law appertaining to all advanced spiritual +intelligences that induces the profoundest meditation, the sublimest +adoration, when beholding, although only partially, the infinite variety +and splendors of the creation; and I must occasionally pause in my +narrative to give expression to this law of my soul. + +"We were next conducted to a vast building, wherein was deposited the +grandest library of books, and they were simply collections on scientific +subjects alone. Elsewhere were vast collections on other subjects not +intimately connected with science--books as tangible and objective to us +as the slate on which I am writing is to your touch and sight. Mr. +Swedenborg, being naturally of a scientific turn of mind, became +absorbingly interested in this department, and it was with reluctance he +took his departure therefrom. He made arrangements to return to study some +things to be found here and which he has not been able to find elsewhere. +He is promised aid by the members of the Society of the Literati. + +"We then visited an assembly of representative men, and I am now about to +tell you something that will surprise you, but it is nevertheless true. +When I use the expression representative men I mean that each planet has +representatives to every other planet in the solar system. I must reserve +the next sitting for a description of the grand system of planetary +diplomacy--envoys extraordinary or ministers plenipotentiary, as you would +call them. The power is too nearly exhausted to enter upon the subject at +this sitting. We notify you now that by these ministrations and recitals +you are living many, many years in advance of this age of your planet. + +"April 3. In your solar system you only claim eight planets, exclusive of +the Asteroids between Mars and Jupiter, but the truth is there are +thirteen in number; five of them have long since passed into their +spiritual orbits, and consequently are not objective to your telescopes, +and this state is to be the ultimate of all planets. Every planet, +including the earth, is continually undergoing change, that is to say, +gradually passing from the gross to the more refined, and by a +continually advancing series of geologic and progressive changes from the +lower to the higher, from the crude to the more refined, from the material +toward the spiritual, all will ultimately in time pass into spiritual +conditions or orbits. But as this theme is scientific, and not directly in +the line of or pertinent to my narrative, I will abandon it, at least for +the present. + +"In my last I told you that each planet was favored with representatives +from every other planet in our system, and it is from this system, +spiritually originating, that you have derived your system of +international representation. I do not mean that any spirit communicated +this to the nations, but that in the early formation of nationalities and +the commercial intercourse between nations, susceptible public men, by +reason of their exceeding impressibility, got the inspiration from +surrounding spiritual influences, and to a certain degree and extent +carried it into execution in the establishment of ambassadorial relations +between friendly governmental powers. But there is a marked difference +between your nations and the spiritual worlds in the objects and purposes +of such system. In the spiritual worlds representatives are deputed one to +the other for an entirely different purpose from yours in sending +ministers to England, France, Russia, etc. Your accredited agents of +government abroad are simply spies to watch other countries, lest some +trivial advantage may be gained against you in some minor and unimportant +matter. Selfishness is the law by which they are to be governed. They are +expected to be, and generally are, lorded and feasted, dined and wined, +all in the high-sounding names of civilization and national urbanity. +Ours are sent on an entirely different mission--to gather knowledge for +the benefit of all. Our public and representative men are not engaged in +learning the rules and laws of the stock market, how to manipulate it and +how to create corners in the bountiful productions vouchsafed by the +Infinite, nor how to secure safe investments with large and profitable +margins, but to learn the laws of the planets, to the end that they may be +utilized in the development and progress of their varied and numerous +peoples. Through whatever other planets, farther advanced than ours--have +passed, we, too, must pass, and hence by our representative spirits +learning of their varied progressive experiences, they are enabled to +prepare for and assist in the changes that must inevitably ensue. + +"I can not carry my thought further than to say in addition that our solar +system, as a system in its entirety, has representatives to thousands of +other solar systems revolving in space, circling around their respective +central suns. You perceive that the grandeur of creative glory is looming +up before us in majestic proportions, far beyond our power to comprehend +and portray. We look forward with great pleasure to each succeeding +meeting, when we hope to continue our narrative if conditions continue to +favor us. + +"April 6. After feasting in the examination of the library of the Society +of the Literati I felt an intense desire to learn something in regard to +the religious teachings on the planet in its past, as applied to the +embodied Marsians, in the curious desire to find out whether their +theological and religious history bore any resemblance to ours, and if +dissimilar, wherein by contrast the dissimilarity consisted. Of course, +in the very nature of things, this opened up a wide field of +investigation, and I can only give you points condensed and with the +utmost brevity, and without any attempt at elaboration. As I have already +informed you, the denizens of Mars do not use our language or mode of +speech, and therefore I am compelled to transfer their thoughts into our +language, and you must consider that much will be lost in the +transmission. + +"The planet Mars, in point of time, is much older than the earth, and +consequently has passed through many more changes; these successive +changes or epochs have had their respective theologies, and I was utterly +surprised to learn that in some respects they resembled ours--that is to +say, their earlier theology--the later and truer has no resemblance +whatever to ours or any that we have had in the past. The people of Mars +in the dim and distant ages of the bygone have had many gods and many +bibles. Their older books or bibles are now treasured as simple +curiosities belonging to the infancy of the race, and the wonder now is +how it was possible at any period of their history that a people could be +found seemingly so hopelessly ignorant as to believe them. The same fate, +my friend, awaits your Bibles, Korans, Zend-Avestas, etc. But in all their +speculations in religion they were never taught to believe that their +remote ancestors had fallen from an imaginary state of perfection, nor +that somebody else's sufferings and death were imperatively necessary to +extricate them from the peril, and to reinstate them into the loving +esteem and saving grace of their creator. While they had many follies in +their early history, they had none like unto our own. They never believed +God to be angry and revengeful nor that he would ever destroy their own or +any other world by water, fire or otherwise, nor that men were made out of +dust and women from ribs, nor that fish swallowed men, preserved them in +good condition in their stomachs, and delivered them subsequently and in +safety upon the dry land. These silly recitals of your bible will be +ridiculed and laughed at some of these coming happy days." + +"April 10: If you could be instantaneously transferred to the planet Mars +just as you are in the form you could not live a moment of time. The +intensely rarefied and etherealized atmospheres surrounding that planet +would not maintain animal life such as yours. Yet the time has been when +beings more crude, dense and undeveloped have lived and figured on the +stage of Mar's history. The law of evolution or unceasing progression +applies to all planets and in a degree of unfoldment according to the +periodic duration of time of each. Hence, under the operation of this +inexorable law of the creation you can readily and with quick discerning +eye see the ultimate destiny of all--that is to say, the utter overcoming +of the crude and unrefined by the spiritual absorption of the whole, and +yet this law that lifts the lower into the higher has no limit or ending. +You can therefore see in the myriad ages of future time with this law, all +the while actively working, how inexpressibly refined and sublimated will +become spiritual beings and spiritual essences. This constitutes a grand +revelation, and presents in contemplation the grand possibilities in +store for man and the fittest of all things material. While the +constituent elements are the same, yet in outward manifestation the atoms +composing your physical bodies, and those in the form on Mars, are quite +dissimilar. The same elements that exist here, either as applied to the +spiritual or material, are essentially the same as exist in the remotest +realms of the creation. They only differ in presentation or outward +manifestation, and in the degree of their development and progression. +Here is another theme for contemplation and study, and the fact as here +disclosed ought to fill us with proud satisfaction, for the inherent +elements and qualities possessed by the millions of worlds, revolving in +the unexplored immensity of space and their countless myriad hosts of +people, are possessed by our world and our denizens, only differing in the +intensity of their action and the degree of unfoldment or approximation +toward maturity--ah, a maturity that never matures. While the law of +progression is infinite it deals with the finite, and as the finite can +only advance toward but never become infinite, so will this mighty law of +progression carry us onward and onward, upward and upward through all +coming time, and yet will never cease from its labors or find repose. What +a mighty destiny before and for man! + +"April 14. In this and my next I will tell you some things that will +surprise you, but they are veritably true. I am dealing with you in +verities, however absurd and preposterous they may appear to the +unprogressed mind. This is said, by your people, to be a remarkable age, +and in many respects it is so. You are receiving some matter far in +advance of the age in which you are living, but it will be properly +recognized and appreciated in the years to come. + +"On the planet Mars jails and prison houses for the confinement and +punishment of malefactors are only historic reminiscences of the past. +There are now no punishments inflicted because there are no offenders to +punish. + +"The doctrine of sacrificial atonement, with its retarding influence, was +never taught to the people of that planet. They have always been taught +the supreme goodness of the creator conjoined with wisdom and almighty +power. God being supremely good, and supreme in the exercise of goodness, +they have not for thousands of years last past entertained the slightest +apprehension that any onslaught upon their peace, happiness, and future +felicity, would be permitted. From this ennobling conception of God came +the desire to manifest a spirit of devotion and veneration, and +consequently at an earlier period of the history of Mars the worship of +the people was low and groveling somewhat resembling, as I am informed, +the ancient idol worship of the Egyptians and Israelites. At the present +time the two worlds--the spiritual and material--of Mars are so closely +allied and interblended that the spiritual forces are enabled to exercise +a positively restraining influence over the conduct and actions of those +still connected with the physical, so they can not, if they would, commit +wrong, or perpetrate infractions upon the law of right. By reason of this +high condition of development those passing out of the material form are +at once intromitted into the higher conditions of the spiritual world, +because they are fitted for them. All are mediums and subject absolutely +to spiritual action and control. This is what your spirit world is seeking +to do for you, so, if possible, to pass over and beyond some of the rough +experiences of other planets, and your people do not seem to have the good +sense to see it. On Mars there are no murders, arsons, robberies, +forgeries, slanders, and other crimes and misdeeds, for they have +progressed beyond them. Do you not perceive the sublimity of this +condition? and will it not be a most glorious consummation when you shall +have reached the same altitude of progress. + +"April 17. Another subject of inquiry engrossed my attention, namely, +marriage. I became interested to know something of the history of this +people on this subject, and I found it to be an exceedingly interesting +one. At this period of Mars there is no such institution as marriage in +the sense you regard it. It is not an exaggeration to say that a very +large per cent of your marriages are brought about as the result of the +most unholy motives. Passion, lust, avarice, etc., are generally the +impelling influences, and seldom is witnessed a union from purely +spiritual causes. It is needless to say these marriages are not only +temporal, ending with the death of the body, if not sooner by an unholy +judicial system of divorcement, but entail a cruel blighting curse upon +the race. + +"The history of your own planet on the subject of marriage is but feebly +understood by you. Enough however is known to induce all lovers of +humanity to loathe and detest it as it has been practiced in the past. It +is claimed that God created animate creatures in pairs, male and female, +and that, as applied to man, he cemented a union of one man and one woman +in the marriage relation, and that this occurred at the commencement of +the creation in the Garden of Eden. Your conspicuous bible characters, +such as Abraham, David, Solomon, and others, have not only ignored and +trampled upon virtue in its simplest and purest forms, but with the +hellish gluttony of the vampire feasting on blood, they debauched +innocence, prostituted virtue to their unholy lust, and thereby destroyed +the holiest relation of life. Their numerous wives and concubines attest +this, and yet your pious Christians are waging a relentless warfare upon +the Mormons of Utah and vehemently thundering against the polygamous +practices of the Latter Day Saints. Shame for Christian consistency. On +this subject your advanced thinkers do not discuss those eternal and +enduring spiritual laws of attraction by magnetic and soul affinity upon +which alone shines forth in eternal splendor the blending of soul with +soul in an everlasting conjugal union. The people of Mars understand and +adopt these laws, or rather harmonize and abide in them, and now while +embodied their marriages are for all unending future time. As the result +we discover on that planet a race of people almost perfect in their +mental, moral, and physical developments, requiring only time, experience, +and progression, to disclose the still more wonderful proportions of their +being. The union of one man and one woman under spiritual conditions is +the highest type of marriage, and constitutes the paramount and supreme +intention of the deity, and is the ultimatum and consummation of the law +of conjugal love--all others are fleeting, dishonoring, and only evil. + +"April 20. Your candidates for matrimony, first obtaining each other's +consent, and the approval of parents or guardians, apply to the legally +constituted authorities for a license or permit to enter the holy state, +and when procured they repair to a priest or magistrate, who for a few +shekels pronounces a few stereotyped phrases, followed by the solemn +declaration pronouncing them man and wife, closing generally with the +ludicrous and farcical command, 'whom God has joined together let no man +put asunder.' Oh, what a caricature and farce. It is bad enough to declare +whom the law has joined together, and so forth, but to assume with such +solemn gravity that God has joined in wedlock's sacred union many of the +marriage alliances which are mere caricatures of marriage, is not only +blasphemy, but the very apex of nonsense, and is the widest possible +departure from truth. + +"If it be true that God joins them together, no power, save himself could +put asunder or disunite. To assert otherwise would amount to affirming +that God is the author of failures. The difference between marriages that +only have their basis in consent, license, and ceremony, and that marriage +which God cements when two are joined by the divine laws of soul affinity +and magnetic attraction--the one is of the earth earthy, the other is from +the Lord through and by the operation of eternal law, and is therefore +heavenly. Oh, that the children of earth might learn and conform to these +subtle and glorious laws for their own good and in the interest of those +to come after them. + +"On the planet Mars the people have no license system on any subject. +While you on earth are wrangling about licensing the sale of intoxicating +beverages, on Mars they have none to license. While here you are exercised +over measures of taxation to raise revenue to support the government, on +Mars no taxes whatever are imposed, and public affairs for the general +public good are administered freely and without compensation, purely as a +labor of love. The truth is that the mundane affairs of Mars are more +regulated, controlled, and conducted by the spiritual powers of the planet +than by those in the form. The two worlds are so intimately related to +each other, and are so closely brought together, that this is not only +practicable but desirable and profitable. + +"April 21. There is on the planet Mars a subterranean passage through it +from pole to pole, which Mr. Swedenborg informs me he has thoroughly +explored. There is more truth than poetry in what is known as Symmes' hole +as applied to your earth. When the time comes by the settlement of your as +yet vast millions of uninhabited acres, and a change takes place in +northern temperature and conditions, the people of that day will discover +within and through the very heart center of your earth a country nearly a +third as large as the exterior surface, and by that time every thing +therein will be sufficiently progressed and developed to supply the wants +and invite the ambition and energies of the people of that period. But +this discovery, or rather the occupation of this subterranean country, is +very far off in point of time, and the human race of earth will then be +quite different from what it is now. They will have so changed by the +lapse of time and the law of progress as to be enabled to pass into the +new country by way of the north pole with ease and safety. The north pole +is the true opening, and can not be reached until the fullness of time, as +I have indicated. As the area of territory of Mar's surface was about +being densely covered by population, and apprehensions were being +entertained for the future of the race, lo and behold, the new interior +country was discovered and subsequently peopled. By the time it is crowded +no more will be needed, for the planet by that time will have passed into +its spiritual orbit and into the ocean of spiritual ether, where suffering +can never come from lack of room. This will be the future history of your +planet, and you will pass through the same experiences and reach the same +ultimate. Behold how infinitely wise all things are forearranged. Just as +we need by our development new limits, new appliances and new things, they +are ready for our use, and are never disclosed until we are ready for and +need them. + +"April 24. At this time those living on the planet Mars do not die or pass +through the change called death as you do here. They have no diseases that +cause the untimely taking off of the inhabitants. Disease has long since +been banished. All of the procreating elements of disease residing in the +materiality of the globe or the surrounding atmosphere have been by +progressive development eliminated. And even before this had fully +occurred the people had learned the laws of health and the process of +neutralizing and rendering harmless the lurking germs that remained. You +may perceive from this what a happy people they are. There are no untimely +deaths on Mars. Children grow up to manhood and womanhood; yet there is +no fixed standard of time when all die, that is, no definite and +invariable period of longevity. And right here comes in a great law, now +operative on Mars, that the people of earth know nothing about, for it has +never been communicated before, namely, children can not die there. It was +never designed that they should die here. Marriage being brought about, as +before stated, by the grand law of magnetic attraction or spiritual +affinity, and all diseases being banished and their producing causes +annihilated, nothing but absolutely sound and perfect physical and mental +organizations are imparted to offspring by their progenitors. You see at +once the idea, for I must be brief--the children being perfect in health +of body and mind by procreation, and there being no diseases to affect +them after birth, death can not touch them, in fact can touch none before +the time arrives, varying in point of longevity for the separation of +spirit and body. None die before the full maturity of stature, and some +live to be a very advanced age. After reaching complete development or +stature, they pass out of and away from the material in point of time, +according to the antecedent conditions of their varied being. Some arrive +after maturity to the estate of progressive experience in the form sooner +than others, and when this period arrives, whether it be at thirty, forty, +fifty or a hundred years, they pass on to their ultimate and higher state +of being in the spiritual spheres. It is known when each shall pass out of +the form long before the event transpires, and all due preparation is +accordingly made therefor. Your scientists have discovered, and rightly, +too, that about every seven years the atoms and particles composing your +physical organizations change and give way to new ones. But this is +gradual and imperceptible. On Mars, at this period of development, the +changes are much more frequent, and these successive changes determine the +approach of dissolution, and instead of death in an hour or a day, it goes +on perceptibly and without pain or suffering for years. Every change +lessens the material composites of the body, and at each a nearer approach +to the spiritual takes place, until finally the physical, by the gradual +process of embodied sublimation or attenuation, passes away, and the +spiritual becomes supreme. This culmination is equivalent to what you call +death, except that there is no attending pain, no death struggle, and no +physical body afterwards to take care of and lay away. The body, by +successive changes, has seemingly vanished into nothingness and been +absorbed in the atmosphere. + +"April 27. We have been expecting you to inquire of us how the people live +on the planet Mars, what kind of architecture in the construction of their +business houses, habitations, etc.; what kind of food they eat, and with +what raiment are they clothed, etc. + +"You will have observed from what we have heretofore made known to you +that the services of four classes of professional worthies have been +dispensed with, simply because the people have progressed beyond their +utility, namely, lawyers, doctors, preachers and politicians. Lawyers can +only thrive and exist professionally in a land where conscience is not +permitted to exercise its native simplicity and positive purity, and where +the lower passions and propensities are largely dominant. When +conscience, active, pure and simple, is allowed to manifest its functions +in perfect unrestraint, and to act as the governing power in the +regulation of human conduct, the presence and office of the barrister are +no longer of use. Lawyers flourish as a general proposition on strife and +contention, bad faith and unfair dealing; and when these shall happily +end, like poor cashiered Cassio, their occupation will be gone. The +doctors grow opulent by medication, because of the ignorance of the people +with reference to the true laws of marriage, proper antenatal conditions, +neglect of proper hygiene, and ignorance as to overcoming or rendering +harmless the deleterious conditions, both atmospheric and from the +undeveloped state of inherent nature. But when, by progressing beyond +their harmful influences, or by enlightenment and healing gifts, the +people shall obtain a complete mastery over them, disease shall be +banished, then the avocation of the physician ends, and he will have to +seek a livelihood in other pursuits. + +"The preacher lives in comfortable indolence because of the ignorance and +superstition of the people. His office is one of hypocrisy and fraud. +Hypocrisy, because if he is not a fool, he knows his teachings are not +true, and of fraud, because by dissembling he extorts from his parishoners +a dishonorable subsistence. When the people grow sufficiently wise they +will be taught by the denizens of the spirit world truth and +righteousness. Then the mission or office of the sacerdotal gentlemen will +be closed, and they can seek employment in the many more honorable +occupations. The politician, cunning and subtle, swims along smoothly upon +the rolling current of the credulity of the people and his own duplicity. +He prospers because you have not as yet grown into full political manhood, +and he succeeds in hoodwinking you with the belief that his heart is +overflowing with patriotism and anxious solicitude for the public weal. +But I must leave this class--the politicians--to the tender mercies of +several gentlemen who are waiting the opportunity to contribute their part +to your enterprise. + +"April 28. The coarse food necessary for you in order to keep up the crude +materiality of which your physical make-up is composed, is not needed by +the denizens of Mars. In the composition of your physical bodies is a +representative of all the material elements in nature--iron, calcium, +wood, earth, etc.--and it is easily demonstrated by microscopic inspection +and chemical analysis, that in every drop of blood in the human system all +these varied and numerous elements are represented. Hence man may be +safely considered a microcosm, or nature in her vast domain, reflected in +miniature. But you still exist in the realm of the crude, and yet you are +vastly more refined than in the ages past, and forward, onward, and upward +is the line of march marked out for you by the infinitely wise director of +all things. On the planet Mars no animal food is used, because among other +reasons the physical properties of the body do not require the elements of +animal flesh to replace nature's wastes. Thousands of former species of +animals have become extinct, swallowed up in the ever surging maelstrom of +progression or absorbed in the higher forms. Vegetation in the planet Mars +is quite different, both in expression or appearance, and constituent +composition from the vegetation of your planet. Here the aroma residing +in the vegetable and escaping therefrom, is largely absorbed and +neutralized by the grossness of the vegetable itself, while on Mars the +grossness has become so diminished that to the senses the aroma has almost +become tangibly objective, and this aroma is food strengthening and +invigorating, is nearly sufficient of itself to support existence in the +form without the assistance of the more substantial fibers of the parent +vegetable. Yet in a certain prepared form the substantial material is +used. The time is not very far distant, as I am assured, when the people +there will subsist on aromatic emanations from material productions, aided +by magnetic, electric, and other atmospheric properties used simply by +inhalation. In the water you use are to be found teeming millions of +living and moving animalcules. They are enabled to live on the elements of +the water in its present gross state, but on the planet Mars the water has +been dispossessed of its life germinating and life sustaining properties +to aquatic productions, and has thus progressed with all other things and +beings. No life or form of life is now brought into being there, but such +higher types as are fitted to pass with the planet into spiritual +conditions; and the water being so purified by nature's refining processes +is as different from your ordinary water as clear, sparkling sprays +projected from your fountains and dancing in the sunbeams are to the murky +waters of your rivulets immediately after a violent rain-storm. I will +resume this subject in my next. + +"May 1. On Mars they have learned how to produce from the soil itself any +vegetable that naturally grows therefrom. In the soil itself reside all +the constituent elements of all vegetation in their infinite variety. You +may thoughtlessly answer, that in order to produce any species of +vegetation used for table consumption, the seed or germ must first be sown +in the soil beneath the surface, but you forget that this process is but +the result of civilization and art, and that originally, that is before +you learned how to obtain and use seed, the products sprang of themselves +and apparently spontaneously from the earth. Whence did they come? and +whence were their germinating and generating powers obtained? Think a +little deeply on the subject, and you will be led irresistibly to the +correct conclusion that in the soil exists all the requisite elements in +the production of vegetation by growth. The people of Mars have acquired +the knowledge which enables them to produce out of the soil, abstractly +considered, all the essential qualities of the vegetable without waiting +for the tedious process of growth. This process is purely chemical, and +everybody there understands it. Hence you see they do not have to buy +vegetables, for all can have their essential qualities for food without +cost to the consumer. Long since the ownership of the soil by individuals +was abandoned for the general common good, and on this subject the +primitive condition of affairs in your planet prevails universally on +Mars--that is to say everybody owns realty, one just as much as another. +This is pure unadulterated agrarianism in its highest and most perfect +form. + +"It is often asked in your intercourse with the world of spirits: What are +the employments of spirits? what are they about? what do they do? etc. It +is pertinent to inquire, What are the employments of the people of Mars +still embodied? What do they do since we have discovered that they do not +now toil for the acquisition of riches, because they have no possible use +for them; no taxes to pay, no governmental machinery to support, no +lawyers to annoy, no preachers to vex, torture, and maintain, no doctors +to nauseate with their drugs, no politicians to hoodwink the people and +feed at the public crib, no grocery bills to look after and liquidate, +etc. Before we answer these and many other important queries, we shall see +what the people do for raiment with which to clothe themselves, and what +they do for shelter, if, indeed, shelter is necessary. If we shall +discover that these are free gifts from the father, then the employments +of the embodied Marsians becomes a question of very interesting and +pressing importance. + +"May 4. I suspect that you already anticipate the tenor of what we have to +tell you in regard to the clothing of the people of Mars, what texture, +how derived, etc. Your keen perceptions and astute comprehension enables +you to see at a glance that if this law of progression, as applied to the +material, whereby the lowest forms are reached and operated upon, lifting +with its strong arms into higher and still higher conditions, be true, it +must be true and in regard to all material things--the soil, rock, wood, +water, etc., animal and vegetable life, and as we shall have occasion to +show further on, to the mundane atmosphere surrounding the planet. All +things progress and advance in like and equal ratio, leaving nothing +behind or unaffected by the law. This advancing march of matter from the +crude and gross into the more refined and sublimated is seemingly slow, +but nevertheless sure and unerringly, indiscriminate, and precise. +Therefore the raiment worn by the denizens of Mars has reached the same +altitude of refinement as all other material things. + +"The seasons, once resembling yours, spring, summer, autumn, and winter, +have nearly merged, that is to say, have nearly blended into one perpetual +season of summer loveliness. The austerity of winter, with its stormy +blasts and cold, piercing wind waves has long since ceased to be; no +frosts to nip and blight the fruits and flowers; no chilling autumns, with +withering leaf, to inspire with melancholy and sadness. What will surprise +you in this connection is, that, while the cold temperature has wrought +its work in the development of the past, and is only known to have once +existed by historic relation, the intense heat of summer has also +disappeared. When you have severely cold winters, almost unendurable even +in your temperate zones, your wise philosophers theorize that your +ultimate destiny is to freeze out; that the icebergs and ice glaziers of +the north are ultimately either to roll over the now fair portions of the +earth, destroying all things animate, or that their freezing breath will +sweep over the globe involving in death all the fair and lovely forms of +nature's productions, including godlike man, the apex and crowning glory +of creation. But lo! when the earth straightens up on her axis and the +cold waves retreat and sink away in their northern hiding place, and the +genial and vernal season with its pleasant temperature returns, these same +philosophers take a breathing spell, rest awhile, and conclude that it has +not been so very cold after all; and when the summer comes, if it happens +to be unusual in the intensity of its heat, and the solar rays seem to +almost melt into molten ruin all things, and to scorch the forest leaves +and wilt the waving harvests, these same philosophical wiseacres change +tactics, reverse their position, and with one heroic bound jump to a +directly opposite conclusion, namely: that we are all destined ultimately +to burn up and become annihilated in a general conflagration by solar heat +igniting the combustible material of the planet and its surrounding +atmosphere. Oh, how impotent in philosophy! A simple and humble inquiry +settles the question. Why destroy this fair earth, daily and hourly +becoming still fairer? Does God do any thing without an allwise and +beneficent purpose? Is it possible for Him to do a silly, foolish thing? +He would certainly not destroy the earth unless there was thereby some +noble and beneficent purpose to subserve. What grand purpose, good and +wise, can be accomplished by ending the existence of a planet that has as +yet scarcely begun to live? To assume that He will do such a thing, is to +assume that He has become disappointed and disgusted with his own +creation, which annuls His wisdom and foresight, or that He delights in +folly, making a world and then destroying it because He can, or for any +other silly and insufficient reason. To thus assume is to dishonor Him as +a God, and to invest Him with the attributes of a devil. + +"Wonderful changes do occur marking epochs, or cycles, in the history of +all planets. Where you live to-day, thousands upon thousands of years ago +another race of human beings lived, attaining a certain degree of +development in science and art, but upon the fulfillment of their mission +they passed away from the face of the earth. Where you now live was once +swept over by old ocean, and where the deep waters and angry billows of +the Atlantic now roll and revel once lived a race of people called the +Atlantians, but their land with its embellishments of art and progressive +development became submerged by the changes of the mighty waters, and now +lies buried beneath its rolling deep and lashing waves. But observe in all +this that the globe goes on, and succeeding developments of man and +material things come forth far in advance of the former order of things. +What, if in the womb of time it is reserved for Atlantis to arise from her +watery entombment and to flourish again with renewed and increased +grandeur, involving the submersion of other portions of the earth's +surface, including your own? This would not be death to any portion of the +planet in any high and exalted sense, but a progressive change, a +revivifying of life, a quickening and impulsion of being in the grand +advancing march of development and sublimation. As we write, the theme +expands and enlarges, and as the power begins to wane we find we have not +discoursed minutely on the subject of raiment, and beg your indulgence for +a resume of the subject in our next. + +"May 5. There being, at this stage of development on Mars, no winter with +its concomitants of winds and storm, snow and ice, you have no difficulty +in apprehending that very light material only is needed to protect and +render comfortable the persons of the people. Material of the texture of +your lightest flannel underwear would be oppressively and uncomfortably +warm, and indeed insufferable. Thin and quite gauzy robes composed of +finely attenuated and exquisitely refined material constitute their +apparel. I have told you hitherto that of the animal kingdom only the +fittest have survived the marvelous successive changes in the infinite +series of progressive advancements. Among those now living with the +ability of propagation is an animal species somewhat resembling your +sheep, but so exceedingly refined as to be remarkably striking in +contrast. Of course, and in the very nature of things, the fleecy wool, +or, rather velvety down, that grows upon this noble animal, so +distinguished for innocence, aesthetic tastes in food and refinement in +habits of life, is eminently suited for purposes of habilament, and +accordingly is thus utilized. They are propagated in unlimited numbers, +live to an advanced age, are the common property of all the people, and +have within themselves the qualities of eternal being. + +"The forest and other trees, shrubs and flowers, have advanced under the +same law of progress. Very many species of the olden time +disappearing--the fittest only having survived. Among those now extant on +the planet, is a peculiar and quite extensively cultivated species, from +which is produced a fabric resembling somewhat your cotton production, +with the same difference in refinement of texture as exists between your +wool and that developed on Mars as herein stated. This is utilized for +raiment also. Besides the people there have mastered the law that spirits +employ in the materialization of garments at your materializing seances, +only much finer, and out of the ambient atmosphere, filled as it is with +sublimated atoms and emanations, they are enabled to collect and magnetize +into solidified form appropriate garments for their use and comfort. When +thus magnetized into objective and tangible being it partakes of and +assumes a varied hue and color, according to the progressed and advanced +state of the person using the garments. In other words the magnetic aura +and spiritual emanations proceeding from the individual infiltrates and +becomes interwoven in the delicate fibers of the new garment extracted and +brought into being from the viewless air, imparting hue and coloration +presenting different appearances, whereby the grade or degree of +advancement of the individual wearer is made known and determined. Here +you inquire of the spirits to know what sphere you are fitted to enter in +the spirit world, there they know by this means in advance of leaving the +body. Your spirits in imparting light and knowledge to you concerning +their state, tell you that a spirit and its proper sphere are known by the +peculiar aura, or surroundings and clothing of the individual spirit, and +this is true to the letter. But on Mars this law of spirit designation +that belongs to the spiritual spheres of your planet, reaches out and +reveals itself in the persons of the people of Mars before they have +actually entered upon the spiritual journey of life in the spiritual +spheres. + +"Now the additional fact is disclosed to you that by reason of this mode +of obtaining raiment the avocation of the merchant is of slender +dimensions, and the manufacturer's art and pursuit, except as known and +practiced by all alike, are now unknown on the planet Mars. + +"In our next we will discourse on buildings, habitations, etc. We had +hoped to reach this part of the subject in this communication, but as we +advance the themes and subjects broaden and expand, and we sincerely +regret that the power by this process--independent slate writing--although +the purest of all, will not last us at one sitting sufficiently to fully +elaborate our thoughts and descriptive delineations on a given subject. It +has this advantage, however, it comes directly from the materialized +fingers of the spirit without the direct use of the brain of another in +transmission. Adieu until our next. + +"May 8. The same reasons assigned in our last, why very light garments +only were needed for the bodily comfort and happiness of the people of +Mars apply with equal propriety, force, and truth, to the subject of their +habitations. + +"Your rains are produced by vapors, mists, and emanations from your +oceans, rivers, lakes, etc., which by virtue of solar attraction or a +reversal of the law of gravitation the vapors, mists, etc., are drawn +upward in space until a certain density is reached, differing in altitudes +of height, when they become congealed by the force of the cold attenuated +atmosphere there into small particles called rain drops, and these are +carried along by the undercurrents of uncongealed clouds until a certain +electro-magnetic condition is reached, when the clouds begin to empty and +rid themselves of their burdened contents. + +"Now we have informed you of the progress the water of Mars has made in +being dispossessed of its gross and weighty elements; hence there are +none of these to ascend and to commingle in the formation of rain drops; +hence none but the purer and refined elements of the water are exhaled and +drawn upward, and consequently none but the pure and refined descend. +These are in themselves comparatively light and of greatly diminished +gravity, and therefore mild and pleasant in their effect. Especially does +this become true as a resulting necessity, from the fact that there are no +fierce winds or storms or cold temperature in the surrounding atmospheric +belts or zones. The rains on Mars are more like your gentle dews of early +autumn than your rains and showers. You at once take in the situation from +this and preceding statements of facts that crude material structures are +not necessary, even if the material for their construction could be found, +and we have seen that such is not the case, for all things, including the +material in detail out of which edifices are constructed, have progressed +beyond and above their crude grossness. + +"In some portions of Mars no structures are used at all, owing to the +mildness of the climate and the total absence of inclemency in the +slightest degree. In other portions the beautifully developed trees, and +especially those that spread out their branches near the surface of the +soil, are ample for the purposes of shelter. Still in others they have a +sort of building which is a grand pavilion, embracing a vast area of +territory, thousands of miles in extent, under the same roof or cover, +which during certain periods of the year and day become luminous and +transparent. The temples and gorgeous structures, cities, and magnificent +edifices have been transferred in spiritual essence to the spiritual +spheres, and have ceased to be as material entities, so when the planet +passes into the spiritual condition outright and in toto, all that Mars +could ever boast of in architectural grandeur and excellence is preserved +and perpetuated with additional luster and beauty from the finishing +spiritual touches by the Infinite Master Builder. And now you perceive +that other questions come up right here and require recognition and +treatment. Among them these: Do the people on Mars sleep? If so, how often +and how much? + +"May 11. Why is it that you require repose in sleep? In the infinitely +wise arrangement of all things there are amply satisfactory reasons for +every demand, every requirement, every manifestation, and therefore there +are reasons why sleep is induced and is an imperative necessity in your +present and past states of existence. + +"When rest in sleep is long deferred from nervous derangements or other +causes, your physicians administer narcotics to induce it, for they well +know, as you all do, that sleep is necessary after intervals of +wakefulness in order to protract your being in the form, and why? + +"You have voluntary and involuntary functions or organs; the voluntary +only, the involuntary never, can be suspended for certain periods of time. +Your respiration and blood circulation are involuntary, and as long as you +remain embodied in flesh will continue to perform their appropriate +functions, whether you wake or sleep, for they are not subject to or +influenced by the will. And it is by the unconscious operation of these +that your voluntary functions when suspended in sleep are replenished and +reinvigorated. You are, as at present constituted, made up corporally of +gross material, which becomes wearied and exhausted by the active exercise +or operation of the voluntary functions, and the nerve force will expend +itself unless periodically reimbursed and replenished, and restored to its +normal condition by the intervention and recuperative power of sleep. When +in the ages to come your people lose this grossness in their material +composition, your inclination to sleep and the necessity for it will abate +and become lessened correspondingly to your successive stages of +advancement in progressive development. + +"Thus is revealed to you the fact that on Mars, at this time, the +inhabitants have but very little need of sleep. They sleep, but in a +modified sense as to periods, duration and manner. They rest when +fatigued, and for brief periods pass into a state of languor or stupidity, +to some extent analogous to your sleeping state, which is never required +oftener than once a week, and then only for a few hours. + +"Your spirit friends will tell you that they never sleep, but rest, and +ever keep in mind that the people of Mars are closely approximating the +spiritual. Then, again, on Mars they do not have night as you do, and +consequently not the same nocturnal influences to suggest and invite +sleep. This suggests another subject germane to our line of thought. In +nature you find always two extremes, that seem to stand in antipodal +relations to each other. Let us give a few instances in illustration: You +have day and night, cold and heat, male and female, fire and water, good +and evil, etc. Some of these seem to be at fierce war with each other, +and yet what a delusion! This seeming antagonism is but the working of a +law that shall eventuate in the production of the completest harmony. +Undeveloped people, ignorant of the jewel-crowned truths, as yet concealed +from them in the grand arcana of nature and the progressive sciences, +laugh and sneer at the idea of marriages in spirit life, when the +unvarnished truth is that man, considered in his independent and separate +sexual relation, is but a half man, and can not become rounded out into +fully developed manhood until consociated in conjunctive union with the +opposite sex--not indeed and truly until the man and woman become twain, +one flesh, or, in better phraseology, spiritually unitized. + +"The day and night will continue until finally and by gradual processes +the night is banished, and vanishes in the splendor of a continuously +refulgent and sunlit atmosphere. On Mars this condition is almost reached, +and the night there resembles the shadings thrown over the earth when a +cloud passes over the face of your moon at hightide, and ultimately even +this shall be no more, for in the spiritual spheres of Mars, as in your +exalted ones, there are no shadows to obscure or mar the radiant light of +the spiritual sun, and Mars itself is fast approaching this sublime +condition. We must withhold what we have to say in regard to the seeming +strife between good and evil for our next. + +"May 12. The people of christendom have had it rung in their ears for +nearly two thousand years that man is essentially bad, unutterably wicked, +unspeakably depraved, and, worst of all, this horrid state comes to him, +not of his own creating, but by inevitable and unavoidable inheritance. +In our ignorance and credulity how we have wept over the weakness and +folly of our first parents in yielding to the flattery and persuasive +eloquence of the cruel serpent in the pure and primitive bowers of Eden. +Our tears have flown and flown, with no gentle, soothing hand to touch our +eyes and bid them cease; no voice panoplied with authority to speak to; no +words of hope and cheer. We have been told in answer to our anxious +entreaties for blissful hope and loving counsel that there is a +superabundance of evil in us, and a trifling, insignificant quantity of +good, and that nothing short of a miracle of regeneration can save us from +unutterable and unending misery in the life to come; that without this +miraculous interposition of divine grace, the little good that is in us +will be swallowed up and devoured by the appalling evil of our sinfully +inherited natures. Oh, man, how you degrade your true nobility, your +godlike and divine nobility, by bowing the knee to this hideous monster of +falsehood, and by kneeling at this unholy shrine. In direct opposition to +this abominable and degrading doctrine stands the truth in its pristine +and noble beauty. + +"According to this Christian doctrine we behold in man a combination of +good and evil, and in the struggle for the mastery the evil is to be +mightier than the good. The good emanating from and partaking of the +majestic excellence of the eternal, infinite God must, alas, succumb to +and be overthrown by evil, its unholy rival. Can man conceive of a scheme +more degrading and heartless, and more completely dishonoring to God and +his infinite perfections of wisdom, goodness and power--a doctrine more +utterly subversive of moral goodness, deific excellence, and that more +completely wrecks the moral government of God and dumps into one common +funeral heap the hopes and happiness of the human race. No, no, this is +not true; it is false, false, basely false. + +"What is the true theory of good and evil? Man, oh, man, hearken to the +voice of truth, and be wooed and won by its gentle entreaties. Let the +scales of ignorance and superstition fall from your eyes. Look upward for +truth, and be baptized in its beauteous light, and cleansed in its pure +and holy waters. Evil is the assemblage of elements in the concrete, if I +may be permitted so to speak, and is simply undeveloped good, or good in a +lesser degree. Evil is evanescent and transitory, good is permanent and +eternally enduring. The fittest of all things in the grand scheme of +progression only survive, while all else is doomed to perish. The good and +the true are as enduring and everlasting as the eternal God himself, while +the evil and the false are fleeting, unenduring, and carry within +themselves the insatiate and unappeasable elements of ultimate +annihilation. Be assured of this, for no truth in God's illimitable +universe has been more firmly established on a more indestructible +foundation. Good day. + +"May 15. Astronomers will tell you that in their observations through the +telescope the planet Mars presents a red brilliancy not observably +characteristic of the other planets in your solar system, which they are +unable to account for. Considering the vastness of the subject, the +immense distance in space where the scintillating orbs are chanting their +silent songs of praise to God, the difficulties in the way of +observation, etc., the discoveries in the domain of astronomy have been +fully as remarkable, important, and satisfactory, as in any other field of +scientific investigation. But still only a very little compared with the +immensity of the subject has been disclosed and some of that mixed and +interlarded with error. Astronomy will become the greatest of all sciences +when by new apparatus and new appliances the spiritual spheres belonging +to the various planets shall have been discovered. This success will be +achieved in the coming time. On Mars the people have mastered this +problem, and I was surprised to learn that they knew all about our +spiritual spheres from their far distant standpoint of observation, and +that they knew minutely all the characteristic and inherent qualities of +your planetary atmosphere. They have long since invented instruments by +which they are enabled to photograph in minute detail and perfect fidelity +of representation every material object on the earth. And you will be +surprised when I tell you that I inspected Stockholm, London, Paris, New +York, your own queen city, Cincinnati, etc., in a more perfect form of +presentation than your artists can reproduce on canvas with pencil and +brush, and at the same time I was standing in spirit in the immeasurable +immensity of space on the planet Mars. I can not give you even in outline, +much less in detail, the modus operandi of this achievement, and will only +say that the rays of light in reflective power will yet dawn upon your +scientists and philosophers as the agent of discoveries and +accomplishments not now even dreamed of by the people of earth. I want to +add right here a prophetic statement, which you may carefully note, that +the time is not so very far distant when your inspired inventors will +devise and construct an instrument that will disclose to the human +material eye, to the astonishment of the world, your own spirit land; for +let it be well understood that your spirit world has a real, tangible, +objective existence, that will yet yield its rich treasures in scientific +revealments for the enlightenment and progress of your race. In very truth +the spirit world is the only real and permanent one, constructed by the +infinite master builder for all eternal time, while your physical and +material, except their spiritual essences, are but the shadows and +temporary projections from the spiritual. Logically and metaphysically +speaking, the spirit world is the pre-eminent cause of your world, the +mere transitory effect. This being true, your keen sense hastens you at +once to the conclusion, founded in reason and truth, that an effect can +not be greater or more enduring than the cause that produced it, but must +of necessity and in the very nature of things be infinitely less. + +"May 18. A people so pre-eminently advanced in all that appertains to the +sublimation of their being, and all that surrounds them, and in which they +come in contact, must necessarily be exceedingly refined and aesthetic in +their mannerisms, habits of life, intercourse with each other, and in +their vocations and employments. In the very nature of things it could not +be otherwise. From what has been heretofore said relating to the highly +favored and inestimably progressed denizens of Mars, it is not difficult +to see that their pursuits must necessarily and almost entirely relate to +the realm of the intellectual and spiritual, as they have passed beyond +the requirements and demands of that which pertains to the material phase +of existence. Physical wants require physical exertion to supply them. +Material requirements necessitate attention to and labor in the domain of +the material, and this, for obvious reasons, that need not be stated or +discussed. It may be prudent, however, to premise that when the physical +constitution requires substantially gross materials to keep up and +maintain the corporealities of our nature, we must look to the productions +of the farm and the fruitage of the forest, and also to animal food, which +are always in quality and degree in exact correspondence to our status or +state of progression. But when we lose the constituent elements of +corporeal being that belong to the lower strata of the constitution of +things, we require something more refined and sublimated, and lo, always +it is at hand to meet the exigency, for let it ever be borne in mind that +the law that is incessantly and without intermission working away in +solving the great problem of life and being, moving upward from the lower +to the higher, is not confined in its operations to only form or species +of being, but applies to and operates upon all, whether rational or +irrational, animate or inanimate, and pushes all forward and upward with +perfect and precise equability and in exact and equally proportional +degree, none advancing more rapidly than the rest and none lagging behind. +Thus, you perceive the infinite order and the beautiful symmetry of the +great law of evolution and progression. Herein is necessitated varied +changes in the value and character of vocation and employments, suited to +the continued mutations of things in the endless series of progressive +changes. + +"At one period in the history of Mars the art of photography was +discovered. Of course it attracted great attention and challenged +admiration. It was regarded not only as wonderful but marvelous. The +discoverer was almost deified, for he was thought to be endowed with +something of the divine nature not discoverable in others, until the art +advanced step by step, improvement on improvement, when the divinity with +which the discoverer had been invested by the admiring multitudes dwindled +into insignificance, and the very sensible conclusion reached that he was +merely highly gifted and spiritually inspired, but altogether human still. +Compare the primitive system of photography, limited as it was, to objects +of immediate presence to that now existing, whereby worlds and systems of +worlds are made tributary to its discoveries and achievements. Now, +instead of the wonders of the art inspiring hero worship of the men +engaged in its studies and who produce the wondrous results, a feeling of +awe and veneration for the continually increasing wonders of the creation +is inspired. The admiration is justly transferred from man to the creator +and the stupendous majesty of his laws and works. On Mars photography is +now and has been for a long time a favorite and delightful employment +pursued by the many, for all have the advantages of it. Therefore the +study, not only of their own world, but numerous others, constitutes a +pleasant, instructive, and intellectually remunerative employment. Nor is +this confined and limited to material worlds, but reaches out and +embraces the spiritual spheres of each. + +"Again, take the science of chemistry. It once only dealt with material +solids, but now on Mars it has reached a higher plane or sphere, and the +sublimated substances, still possessed of modified degrees of matter, +likewise atmospheric and spiritual substances, come within the purview and +yield obedience to its powerful processes of analysis. This is still and +ever will be an instructive and profitable field for those aspiring minds +of the Marsians bent on the acquisition of knowledge and the understanding +of the infinitely varied and universal laws by which all nature and the +universe are governed and controlled. + +"May 22. On Mars the people are divided up into a very great many +societies. The membership of these societies is not a matter of choice and +volition. Here you have degrees of social society, and you say there are +three grades--the lower, middle and upper. This is so in the deceptive +seeming, but in fact you have many more, but you do not understand the +subtle laws governing in their formation and diversity. You also have +secret societies, into which you require the consent of a certain number +to gain admission, while at the same time a certain other number may +object. Certain arbitrary votes in number control the question of +application, and by them your admission or rejection is determined. In +your social society quite a different rule or policy prevails. In a +certain grade or stratum true merit and worth are not considered of any +moment, but wealth and pecuniary par excellence constitute the law of +attraction. In other words, and what ought to burn your cheeks with shame, +it matters not how morally depraved or utterly abandoned to all real +intrinsic worth of manhood or womanhood, a large supply of the world's +fleeting possessions constitutes the real standard of respectability, and +the sure passport into the higher walks of social life. On Mars they have +long since passed beyond and above this purely human, unspiritual and +unholy rule. There they are known and estimated as they really are, for +they can not disguise their moral and spiritual status; it is read in the +look, the walk, the thought-words, and most potently in the aura emitted, +permeating and coloring the very garments worn, thereby disclosing by +shades of color the moral, mental and spiritual degree of advancement. You +have an old adage, which contains a very great truth, namely: 'Birds of a +feather will flock together,' 'like draws like.' Under the operation of an +immutable law of attraction and repulsion the societies of Mars are +formed, and this law, so utterly disregarded by embodied man on the earth, +applies to and is operative in the spiritual spheres of all the +innumerable worlds of the vast, illimitable universe of God. And this law +of attraction and repulsion is indiscriminate and recognizes no +distinction on account of wealth, social standing or prominence among men. +It deals with spiritual laws and spiritual truths and spiritual things. +There being different societies on Mars, formed and governed by this great +and inexorable law of selection or attraction and repulsion, you see +readily that their employments must of necessity and in some regards be +quite different. + +"May 29. We have endeavored to keep before you, at the risk of being +censured for occasional reiteration and repetition, the great primary and +fundamental fact that all things under the divine arrangement advance in +the ascending scale of infinite and unending progression by regular and +gradual series, and in equal ratio; but you must note an important fact in +this connection, namely, that all do not at the same time reach the same +degree of unfoldment--some a little in advance of others, and so on. The +question necessarily arises, why is this so? We only desire to say in +answer at this time that all do not start out on their career of animate +being at precisely the same time or under the same conditions, nor with +the same or equal antenatal advantages. This carries us back behind our +mere entrance into physical life, through and by the laws of human +physical procreation, into a domain as yet unexplored, except feebly, by +mortal man. It seems to me if men could only perceive and understand the +grand sublimity and variety of their antecedent being, they would no +longer be blinded to the future greatness and glory in store for them. +This subject, if you ever enter upon it, you will find prolific of vast +knowledge, immense and perfectly astounding revelations. But the time has +not yet arrived for them. The people on Mars, like your own, not starting +out on life's eventful and momentous journey with the same or equal +advantages, have necessarily attained unto different degrees of +progressive unfoldment, and by reason of this are their different and +somewhat differing societies formed. In the same circle, order or stratum +of society on earth, the good, the bad and the indifferent associate and +seem to harmoniously blend and assimilate. But this is not true in fact. +The degree of perfection attained in moral and spiritual excellence does +not govern in their formation, and they are therefore incongruous, +unsatisfactory and transitory. On Mars two unequals in progression can not +harmonize, for the law rebels, interposes insurmountable barriers, and +will not allow it. Those only are associated who harmonize and resemble +each other, not in the accumulations of wealth, not in stature, not in +facial expressions or outward physical conformation, but those who are +drawn together by a sort of soul kinship, of absolute union of soul +feeling, sympathetic inclinations and aspirations, having for their basis, +as of prime and first importance, an equal degree of spiritual unfoldment. +Thus divided and separated, there are very many different societies or +orders, each differing in development, inclinations and aspirations, they +inevitably have dissimilar pursuits and employments, suited to tastes, +wants and abilities, but all conspiring for the general good of all. + +"June 1. The people of Mars are not so large in stature as on your earth, +nor are they as large as at former periods of their history. The process +of progression in casting off the gross, and also by affecting the laws of +propagation, has materially reduced the present inhabitants in their +physical proportions. Their feet, except in the lower order, are either +not shod at all, or are covered by a very light and refined material +substance. The nearer the spiritual the people become the less they are +affected by grosser atmospheric elements, and this is directly the +opposite of your experience. Here the coarser the material make-up the +better can the severer conditions of your temperature be borne, and the +reason is plain. + +"Here some are progressed, physically speaking, in advance of the progress +of the elements, and therefore they are detrimentally affected and +influenced by them, whereas on Mars a regular advance in development has +been reached, and all things now smoothly and evenly pass under the +operations of the law. After awhile the same law will commence to thus +orderly and regularly operate with you when this difficulty will be +happily overcome. The grandest achievement made by progression on Mars has +produced the greatest result in the formation of the heads of the people. +Phrenology here on earth is but feebly and imperfectly understood, +although there is in it a grand and most salutary scientific truth. Here, +however, as yet, you have the angular and uneven formation of the cranium, +with its attendant angularity of temperament and disposition. On Mars the +heads are so exquisitely formed and so harmonious in the external, and so +perfectly symmetrical, that you observe and note it at first glance, and +following this high and beautiful development is discovered a degree of +wisdom and learning perfectly astonishing to a visitor from a foreign, +though neighboring planet. The hair on these magnificent heads is of a +fiber and texture resembling your finest silk, and from under a +beautifully arched brow you behold a mild yet brilliant eye, beaming with +intelligence and affection, and they can convey thoughts and ideas without +the use of words or the intervention of audible sound. + +"June 5. Hundreds, yea, thousands of years ago, the development of mind on +the planet Mars was extraordinary, and you can conceive what it must be +now. Many causes, of course, conspired and aided in bringing about this +result. The natural process of development would have ultimately +accomplished it unassisted by other agencies, but a wise and humane +governmental system was adopted, originating in the spirit world, which +constituted a complete innovation upon and revolution in previous systems, +and which gave a marked impetus to the growth and advancement of mind, and +which produced also a wonderful improvement in the physical constitutions +of succeeding generations. That system consisted of a legislative policy +of the controlling government, rigidly and unexceptionally enforced, which +provided that all children born into physical life should be given up and +relinquished to the control and direction of the government, and by the +government reared, educated, and prepared for the duties and requirements +of life. Elaborate buildings, elaborately and artistically embellished and +beautified were constructed at proper and convenient locations, where at a +certain period of gestation, very early indeed, the expectant mother was +taken and kept until a certain and proper time after parturition, when the +mother was discharged and restored to freedom, and the new-born babe was +taken charge of, raised and maintained by the fostering care of the +government. Between the period of conception and parturition, the mother +was continually kept under the most elevating influences, both of body and +mind. Her soul was kept enraptured by the ennobling influences of music, +and such music, of which you as yet have no conception. This produced in +the mother the desired condition of harmony, which had a corresponding +effect upon the little one concealed from mortal view. Twice or thrice a +week lecturers, under the pay and patronage of the government, visited +these asylums and discoursed to the inmates on scientific, literary, and +moral subjects. + +"June 8. These discourses were not only designed but efficacious in +directing the minds and hearts of the auditors into the most elevating and +progressively intellectual channels, and left their inevitable and +unfailing impress upon the forthcoming offspring. In addition works of +art, rare paintings, and exhibitions of sculpture were at certain times +presented for inspection, study, and reflection, inspiring noble thoughts +of the sublime and beautiful. Artists of superior attainments and national +renown occasionally visited these places and gave exhibitions of their +skill in transferring to canvas, in an impromptu manner, their loftiest +conceptions of the beautiful in landscapes, scenes, etc., which were of +the rarest beauty of design. Books treating of the noblest subjects were +placed within ready reach and convenient access, and the inmates read them +with avidity and delight. They understood that they were thus preparing +the new generations, as yet unushered into life, to take their places, and +that their success largely depended on the assiduity with which they +availed themselves of their opportunities. The government, as before +stated, took charge of the young and trained and educated them in art, +music, and the sciences, and the result was soon manifest in producing a +race of intellectual giants, and distinguished for their ability in the +arts and sciences, and the benevolence or their religious natures. And +to-day you can not find a man or woman of adult age who is not perfectly +versed in all the higher branches of learning, and eminently proficient in +music. If a thousand of them could be bodily transferred to America, and +with her exceptional advantages, and live, they would soon, by the sheer +force of intellect, rule this world, and lift it morally and +intellectually upon a plane that would dazzle you to behold. And yet, my +dear friend, it is laid up in the womb of time that you of earth shall +reach this sublime height. + +"The denizens of earth may wonder at and disbelieve these relations, but +nevertheless they are as true as that the eternal God is truth. They point +to the destiny in store for the future inhabitants of earth, and intimate +to poor disheartened mortals the certainty and greatness of the future, in +which they are to figure in no mean way nor act no inconsequential part. + +"July 10. On Mars the doctrine of discrimination on the score of sex was +never taught, but the equality of the sexes has always been recognized. +This indiscrimination has always been operative in employments and in the +choosing of persons to fill official station at a period of their history +when officers were paid out of the public exchequer for their services. Of +course, at this time when office is administered without compensation the +rule remains undisturbed. Your troubles, that is, many of them, in the +present and past have arisen either from a misunderstanding of the truth +or a misapplication of it and its requirements. Can it be rationally +maintained that truth and justice require a discrimination to be made +adverse to the female? If so, there must be ample reasons for it, and what +are they? We are told that, comparatively speaking, woman is the weaker. +Is this true? and if so, pray tell wherein? You answer physically, and +thus you would establish her status in all other regards, by the rule of +mere brute force, powers of endurance, and physical capabilities. Do you +not know that the ox and the horse, for precisely the same reason, can +largely discount you? Do you not realize that by this argument you are +appealing to the lowest element of your nature, that which only +distinguishes you as connected with matter, and which as we have already +seen, is transitory and fleeting? Pray lift the subject upon a higher and +nobler plane and then let us have your arguments and reasoning. Is man +superior to woman morally? Now, if you are honest, you must blush. In +morals, man superior to woman! We all know this is not true. And do morals +count for naught in the scale of being? In what pertains to the finer +sensibilities and spiritual pureties is woman inferior? If not, are these +of no moment compared with mere physical brute force? Do women survive +death as men do; if so, which will be of greatest value in the beautiful +hereafter--brute force and physical prowess, which only have existence in +the lower realms of the spiritual world, or those finer spiritual +qualities possessed by woman in a much higher degree than by man as they +manifest in embodied life, and which belong to the higher spiritual sphere +of being in the other life? + +"Beware, oh man, how you treat angelic woman, for the future will teach +you many lessons, brought about by your arbitrary and utterly indefensible +assumptions and arrogations, among which will be classed your illiberal +and unjust treatment of woman. She is your equal, and your great weakness +is in withholding it from her. + +"July 13. In giving briefly and very imperfectly a sketch of what I saw +and learned on the planet Mars I have been compelled necessarily to omit +many things, among other reasons, because they would not only be not +believed, but in many instances incite unfavorable comments, if not +absolute ridicule. I am not unconscious of the fact that many things +contained in the foregoing narrative, although literally true, will meet +with unfavorable criticism, but I have not been writing to please or to +avoid censure, but to deliver the truth, much of which I am aware is far +in advance of the age in which you now live on the planet earth. But it +has been thought that a little work of this kind would be kindly received +and amiably treated by at least progressed minds--those who had +inspirationally and intuitively drank at the fountain of spiritual wisdom +and spiritual things; and, as to others, it was hoped it might cause them +to think it possible, if not probable, that man is something more than a +mere fleeting bauble, a mere creature of a moment. + +"To awaken in man the consciousness of the augustness of his being, and +the mighty destiny before and awaiting its development, can not fail in +this transition period, when you are passing from old theological theories +and religious systems into something better, higher, holier, to subserve +great and lasting good. In this transition process the great effort is to +be made to direct the great body of advancing minds into the right +channels, for in many cases the tendency is found to be toward the cold +barrenness of materialism. + +"The question that is to confront you in the future is not in regard to +creeds and dogmas, for they are passing away, but whether these few +fleeting years of physically embodied life is the all of your being, +whether death is the setting forever of the bright star of our being in +the night and gloom of ended existence, or whether there is for man a +glorious life of endless progress beyond the life and transitory scenes of +physical embodiment. + +"July 14. With this my labors for the present end. The effort has been +more irksome than you may conceive. The difficulties attending the act of +communicating are more numerous and troublesome than the world would allow +if they were fully explained. But we have done the best we could. + +"To you, Mr. Helleberg, I return my thanks and the thanks of those +co-operating with me, for the patience, earnestness and honesty which have +characterized your association with us in this work. Our blessings rest +upon you, and be assured that your greatest reward will be in the happy +land which your aged footsteps are nearing. We shall shield and bless you +here, and crown you in the land of immortal beatitudes. + +"We would be ungrateful beyond measure not to speak in acknowledgment of +the virtues and noble qualities of the medium, through whose superbly +developed medial powers we have been enabled to speak to the world. In +consequence of our frequent contact with her noble and pure soul our first +admiration for her has grown into the deepest, truest and holiest +affection. Heaven bless her in all her ways and walks. Her noble band of +spirits, tireless, indefatigable and upright, have rendered us vast +assistance, without which we could not have succeeded in the slightest +degree. They are capable, true and honest, and able to guard and protect +their instrument, before whom is a great future career of usefulness, and +she may confidently trust them in all things. + +"To those who may read my feeble lines I bespeak that charity you would +like extended to you. Judge not harshly, but with generous impulse. You +are in the realm of crude materiality, in the tenement of flesh, +influenced more or less by many disadvantageous surroundings, which are +not spiritually inspiring or elevating, but by and by you will survive and +pass beyond them. Let me entreat you to study and learn of the great law +of PROGRESSION, which we have constantly endeavored to keep before you. In +that law and its manifold manifestations reside all wisdom, love and +truth. It is that law that assures your future greatness and happiness, +and will work out for you a destiny, the grandeur and glory of which you +can but faintly comprehend and know. You can not die. You must live +forever. You can not retrace your steps, nor recede in the development of +your being; neither can you stand still. Therefore you must move forward, +onward and upward, forever and forever. + + "FREDRIKA EHRENBORG." + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +COMMUNICATIONS FROM EMANUEL SWEDENBORG. + + +The following communications, purporting to come from the spirit of +Emanuel Swedenborg, at Mrs. Green's, are arranged in the order of their +reception: + +September 26, 1881: + +"I greet you; good morning. You hail from dear old Sweden, my native land. +The same native blood that coursed through my veins flows through yours. +For a long time I have realized that your thoughts have been on me and the +doctrines I taught on earth, some of which I would gladly recant. In my +day nothing else could have been projected through my brain, and nothing +less violent, though more truthful, would have engaged attention or +commanded respect. My writings, as I now see them, were a strange +commingling of truth and error, though I believe with truth largely +predominant. I want the world, especially my followers, the disciples of +the Church of New Jerusalem, to eliminate, in the interest of truth, the +errors and crudities that unwittingly, though reverentially, crept into my +theological writings. The hells as I portrayed them I now know were +magnified into undue and absurd proportions, colored and distorted by my +own preconceived notions, and, moreover, largely attributable to the +religious temper and theologic thought of the time in which I wrote. Tell +your good companion and others of like convictions to discard at once and +fearlessly my unwarranted denunciation against holding intercourse with +the inhabitants of the spiritual world. I misapprehended, and, alas, +misinterpreted the holy visions given me. I was allowed to see +prophetically that the two worlds would be brought into close +communicating relations, and I ought to have seen farther--that it would +occur through and by the permission and co-operative agency of God and his +laws, and ought not therefore to be interdicted. This has given me vast +annoyance, and I am very solicitous indeed that this shall be righted. +Hold fast to this spiritualism, for therein only can be found light and +love and wisdom. My power to maintain control is weakening, and I must +close for the present. I will meet you here again. Good bye. + + "EMANUEL SWEDENBORG." + + +October 3, 1881 + +"In my communication a week ago I referred, not incidentally, but +purposely, to my followers of the Church of the New Jerusalem. It is +gratifying to me to know that they are in the main honest, faithful and +intelligent people; but I regret that they have deemed it proper to +resolve themselves into an exclusive sect; for, disguise it as you may, +all sects are more or less exclusive. Among the many curses that afflict +your mortal humanity, none are to be more deplored than sectarianism and +dogmatic theology. Do you know that in the most ambitious moments of my +earthly career, much less in the lofty moods of my medial inspiration, I +never dreamed that I was to become the founder of a religious sect, +especially one based on dogmatic formulas. The affirmations of material +science now no longer questioned that in all organized structures reside +the underlying, all-pervading and continually operating elements. +Disintegration, decay and ultimate destruction of the organized form apply +with equal and unerring certainty to ecclesiastical bodies. Modern +spiritualism in this, that it is specifically and rigidly scientific, +clustering beauteously around the family hearthstone, adorning and +hallowing the family altar, may be distinguished by its infinite +superiority to all other systems, it having no creed to establish, and +steadfastly repelling all attempts at organization, is destined to survive +the wreck and demolition of all theological teaching standing in +antagonistic relations to it; and this God-given, heaven-inspiring +humanity, embracing soul-uplifting spiritualism, is to become the +universal religion of mankind. I will continue to administer to your wants +and remove the scales from the eyes of the people, especially my +followers. More anon. + + "EMANUEL SWEDENBORG." + + +On October 17, 1881, the following communication appeared on the slate: + +"The blessings of the most high God and the benediction of His holy angels +and spirits on you and yours. What I most desire to say to you to-day is +that since our last interview here I have participated with others in a +discussion relative to a recent scientific discovery in the spirit world +which, when imparted to the world of embodied man, will strike the learned +savants of your life with mingled feelings of awe and consternation. Our +recent experiments were exceedingly satisfactory, and the questions that +remain open are, when, to who and through whom shall it be given to the +children of earth. The general expression of our society favored some time +towards the close of the coming year as best adapted. In this view I +concurred, for many reasons. My revered friend, let me say to you to-day, +with great and positive emphasis, that the year 1882, earth time, will be +the most marvelous year of the world's history, and will be characterized +by the most stupendous events in all the circling centuries of past time. +In that year and the succeeding one astounding spiritual revelations will +be made to the denizens of this earth, utterly upsetting old, effete +theological doctrines, and mercilessly demolishing now considered well +established scientific conclusions, and your scientists' tests, +self-complacent and arrogant in their pretensions, and possessed most +fully of the spirit of vaulted ambition, the creation of their +self-conceit, will awake to the consciousness that they have been mere +pigmies in scientific research, and that on many subjects may have been so +superficial as not to penetrate beyond the mere shadows and surface of +things. I promise you that when the proper time arrives for this +disclosure you shall not be overlooked or neglected. Bound to you in +fraternal relation of a common brotherhood, embracing in grand +reciprocation the inhabitants of both the mundane and supermundane worlds, +I am yours, devoted for the truth, + + "EMANUEL SWEDENBORG." + + +June 12, 1882 + +"If we concede for the sake of argument that there really exists a literal +hell, as depicted by theological teaching, and which constitutes an +article of faith in most of the Christian sects, we are forced to inquire +(and it is a legitimate subject of inquiry from the assumed premises), Was +hell made for man, or man for hell? and this involves the question of +duration of existence in point of time antecedent. Whichever way we +determine, and our determination of the question from a terrestrial +standpoint can only arise from speculation and conjecture, and not from +proofs, one conclusion we can not escape, namely, the malevolence of the +author. If hell was established prior to the time when the _fiat_ went +forth bringing man into being, and was designed for his abode and +accommodation, we can not reconcile the goodness of the Lord with such +utterly unjust and malevolent purpose, because to concede this much admits +the possession of sufficiency of power to have ordered otherwise, which +precludes impotency and concludes the will and purpose to so order and +arrange. + +"If the creation of hell and man as arbitrary acts of the Deity was +coeval, then the same conclusion inevitably follows, before and behind the +act of these creations resided in the Lord the power to have differently +ordered; hence we must assume that the simultaneous creation of hell and +man was predetermined, and in accordance with the will-pleasure and +purpose of the Creator. + +"If, furthermore, man was first created without any reference to hell or +any preconceived purpose or expectancy to establish it, and that its +creation was necessitated from man's unexpected disobedience, and as the +only proper means of gratifying the vengeance of an insulted God, then we +unwittingly and in a very silly way declare the absence of foreknowledge +in the Lord, and degrade him to the level of a puny, passionate man. + +"To assume any of these puerile positions to be true is to assume that the +Lord, however august in power, and the physical, mental and spiritual +ability to order and to direct, is nevertheless a moral weakling, and +wholly devoid of moral excellence in degree superior to the meanest of his +creatures." + +June 15, 1882: + +"If hell exists, it is plain to be seen there was a necessity for it. If +created before man, there was no necessity for its existence, for the Lord +is governed by the idea of uses, and there was present no use for it. Will +it be maintained that the Lord would create any thing without a use and +wise purpose? It is the uses of things that so signally distinguish his +creative and moral governments. + +"If it is said in reply that when hell was fashioned and established the +Lord had in contemplation the creation of man, and that it was to be +subsequently rendered useful as a place of punishment for disobedience, +which implies that the Lord knew in advance of man's creation that he +would be disobedient, then, oh, man, you are surely in the hands and under +the power of a merciless demon, falsely called God. If this indeed is the +true character of our Lord, then truly may his weak and helpless children +bow their heads in sorrow and despair. + +"These teachers of false theology, these false interpreters of simple +truth, these false prophets of a false conception, affirm that this +appalling hell, offspring of a monster creative agency, is a fixed +location somewhere, which they have the candor to say, they know not. + +"The theologians perceiving throughout the vast domain of universal nature +two confronting opposites or extremes, and that there scheme must fall if +hell were left alone to be the final destiny of the entire human family, +erect another falsity and construct another place or harbor for the +sojourners and pilgrims of earth, and consequently they say that the Lord +has established somewhere in space a heaven, the location of which, +although a locality, can not be ascertained. + +"The same questions, with equal propriety, might be propounded in +reference to heaven and the same conclusions follow. Was it made for man +or man for it? Was it made before or after man was made? Where is it +situate; who go there and why do they go there, and for what purpose? If +the theologians answer these pertinent questions in harmony with their +creeds, they would make my friend John Calvin, who accompanied me here +this morning and is now standing by my side, blush with shame. He now, as +a noble spirit, pities the ignorance and credulity that characterized him +in his religious frenzy when in the form, and the credulity and weakness +of his followers." + +June 19, 1882: + +"The original conception of a literal local heaven and hell was a feeble +monstrosity and far exceeding the intuitions and anticipations of its +originators, it has assumed huge and alarming proportions. Originally it +was treated either as a human created joke, or as a wild vagary of the +imagination, and in both cases without even the shadow of a foundation in +fact. But as time moved along it began to grow seriously in the minds of +the morbidly curious and credulously constituted, and it found many +earnest advocates and believers, and they were not altogether limited to +the ignorant. Had this been the case it would have been harmless and +short-lived. The poet in depicting the career of vice aptly illustrates +the history of this conception: + + "'Vice is a monster of such frightful mien, + As to be dreaded needs but to be seen. + Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face, + We first pity, then endure, and then embrace.'" + +"I unhappily lived in a day when it had been largely embraced. Had I lived +in the day when it was conceived and promulgated, or approximately near it +and been possessed of the physical, mental and spiritual organization with +which I was favored in earth life, I would have undoubtedly earnestly +combated it. But in my time it had grown into prominence and general +acceptance among Christian sects, including the Lutheran, to which I +adhered before my spiritual illumination; and hence while my spiritual +mediumistic unfoldment, mental adaptabilities and capabilities would not +allow me to accept the literal teaching of purblind theology on the +subject, I was disqualified from perceiving and promulgating the real +truth. I endeavored, however, to do what the theologians have never +attempted, namely, to assign reasons for the existence of heavens and +hells in justification and defense of the Lord. The groundlessness of my +philosophy and the impotency of my reasoning I was unable to understand +until the lapse of years after my entrance into the spiritual world, and +then only by slow and discreet degrees. Step by step only did I receive +the influx of spiritual light and truth, opening my eyes to the truth and +impressing my soul with the consciousness of the errors and falsities of +my teachings when on the earth embodied. + +"In the spiritual world we are not allowed to perceive truth except by +degrees and interior growth, and only as we are enabled to outgrow and +disown error. Our errors, whether of acts and deeds committed, duties +omitted, or false theories, either taught or believed by us when in the +form, follow us to the spiritual world and cling to us with a perfectly +amazing and persistent tenacity, and this constitutes hell and it exists +nowhere else." + +June 22, 1882: + +"In my philosophy of correspondences there was much truth, with here and +there a shade of error. It was argumentative, speculative, and +characterized by analogous reasoning, but not sufficiently intuitive to +reach the full height of spiritual induction. But whatever errors may have +crept into this department of my writings, they have been comparatively +harmless. + +"What has given me the greatest annoyance since my departure from the +flesh, or rather since I have better understood the subject; and what has +given me the greatest anxiety to have eradicated from the minds of those +who read me believingly, are my teachings on the subject of the hells in +the spiritual world. I desire here to lay down a proposition I know to be +true, whoever may state to the contrary, namely: No embodied spirit was +ever enabled, no matter how highly developed the organism of the subject, +to leave the body, go into the spiritual spheres, undergo experiences +there, behold scenes, hold converse with their inhabitants, witness events +and occurrences transpiring there, then return to the body, bring it back +into normal action, and then correctly and in detail and in purity of +narrative give to the world through the physical organism of the body, +what it had seen, heard, and witnessed, during its temporary absence. If +it were otherwise, and the spiritual world a real, fixed and objective +reality, all who visited it in spirit during physical embodiment, would on +returning and reanimating the body with the returning spiritual influx +impart the same information and recite the same story. The directly +opposite of this is true, and settles the question irrevocably in the +negative as to the absolute reliability of knowledge imparted by spirits +while inhabiting the natural body, although permitted by the operation of +a certain law which is neither wholly spiritual nor physical, but a +combination of both, to leave for a short period its tenement of flesh. +Even then the spirit entire does not vacate the body, even for an instant +of time, for if it did life in the body would become immediately extinct. +However far the _consciousness_ of the spirit may wander away from its +home in the material house it must maintain an inseparable connection with +it, at least by a portion of the magnetism of itself. Therefore during its +visits away it is nevertheless all the while connected with the body, and +hampered and fettered by it, and more or less governed by its laws and +conditions. It can not, therefore, on returning, and it has never been +wholly absent, give fully, purely, and correctly its spiritual +observations and experiences. + +"When I visited the spiritual world during my embodied life I was governed +by this same law and subjected to the same limitations, and hence what I +related was not entitled to full credence and belief. So it has been in +all cases of trance in the past, and will continue to be in the future for +ages yet to come. In my next I shall speak of some instances illustrative +of this truth." + +June 26, 1882: + +"As illustrative of the proposition submitted in my last I will only +mention a few among numerous instances. + +"The book of Revelations states that John visited the Isle of Patmos on +the Lord's day, and was then and there in the spirit. (I should have used +the expression 'entranced' or 'trance state,' or that 'the Lord permitted +me to see.') While thus in the spirit or trance state he was taken to the +heavens. After resuming his normal condition in the body he essays to +write out what he thinks he saw, or so much of it as he is enabled to +retain in memory, and call up after again fully controlling the physical +body. He says that he saw beasts worshiping around the throne of God, and +that he saw a beast rise out of the sea with seven heads and ten horns; +that a book written in heaven was handed him with the command that he eat +it, which he assures us he did, etc. Does any one believe that these were +veritable occurrences, 'that there were beasts in heaven full of heavenly +love, evinced in worshiping before the throne, and that books were written +in heaven for men to eat? The Koran of Mahomet is an improvement on this, +for it was not eaten, but preserved for use. + +"Now, I want to say to the world, especially the New Church people, that +my visions of the hells had no more foundation in fact than John's beasts, +dragons and golden candlesticks. The difference between John and myself, +that is, the important difference, consisted in the fact that John's +symbolic visions were explained to be unrealities, while I was left to +believe mine to be absolute verities. In fact one was as unreal as the +other, and only forcibly illustrates the unreliability of this mode of +deriving true and genuine spiritual knowledge. + +"Your own Andrew Jackson Davis is another instance corroborative of my +proposition. He avers that he has been, not 'in the spirit,' like John, +nor 'in the trance state,' like myself, but, in more aesthetic phraseology, +'in the superior state.' They all practically mean the same thing. Davis +says he located while in the 'superior state' the spirit world proper, and +found it to be in or beyond the 'milky way,' thus inflicting a cruel blow +upon the science of astronomy. Astronomy teaches, and correctly, too, as +every well informed spirit knows, that the 'milky way' is a vast +assemblage or constellation of suns, worlds and systems of solar worlds, +and yet Mr. Davis was honest. + +"Judge John Worth Edmonds, in his earlier mediumship and spiritualistic +experiences, visited the other world in spirit, and his description of the +hells recorded in his work entitled 'Spiritualism,' was somewhat analogous +to mine, and very much in harmony with it. His temperament, mental methods +and spiritual development were not very dissimilar to mine, and he had +been previously as thoroughly grounded in Calvinism as I had been in +Lutheranism. So it was but natural that we should see and interpret much +alike. Yet in final conclusions we were in absolute antagonism, differing +fully as widely as the poles are separated in distance by terrestrial +measurement. + +"Truth can not dissemble nor assume deceptive garbs, and all seeing the +same things differently, proves that neither could be relied upon, for if +they had been true and genuine verities, all would have seen and reported +them alike." + +June 29, 1882: + +"Since I have been inducted into higher light and blessed with the true +knowledge I have been utterly amazed in reviewing my writings, resulting +in the discovery of two facts, namely, their prolixity in matter and +stupendousness in folly. It seems to me now as almost utterly incredible +that in my efforts at the spiritual interpretation of the scriptures I +should have written so many absolutely silly and unmeaning things. It +becomes my duty, and I can not be happy without it, to make this +declaration, however humiliating it may be to me, viewed from your +standpoint, but the truth and the peace, happiness and progress of my +spirit require it. No work was ever written but what an ingenious +metaphysician might not twist out of its every paragraph an assumed +interior and mysterious meaning. + +"But, after all, I was fortuitous in advancing many ennobling and +wholesome truths. In all that I wrote I take greater pride and unto myself +much rejoicing in my assaults upon the Lutheran doctrine of justification +by faith alone, and in my enjoining love to the neighbor. However, to +believe in and teach the doctrine of love one to another, or 'love thy +neighbor as thyself,' does not require an inspiration from heaven. It is +the doctrine taught by universal nature and in-worked in the web and woof +of human nature. To realize and understand it we have only to become even +partially civilized and to commune with nature and ourselves. + +"A great portion of my life has been devoted to secular pursuits and the +study of natural science. I also possessed some inventive genius, and +during my purely secular career I was always contemplating, by silent +meditation, employing the latter part of my life in the study of the +properties of the human soul and its relation to the Lord and human life. +Therefore when I came to engage the subject, it was not a spontaneous +impulsion to it, as some have supposed, although it was immediately +attended and characterized by a degree of spiritual illumination and +inspiration. I did not approach the examination of the subject wholly free +and untrammeled by prejudice and uninfluenced by bias. I had previously +conceived thoroughly deep convictions relating to this subject, and I now +know no amount of spiritual aid could have possibly eradicated them +sufficiently to have allowed the presentation of the plain, unadulterated +truth. + +"Oh, how effectually are we enslaved by education, association and mental +training. The man who can overcome them in the pursuit of truth is far +superior in all that goes to make up true manhood to the crowned heads and +pampered ones of earth; yea, he is not only grand and noble in the full +stature of his manhood, but he is more--he is godlike." + +July 3, 1882: + +"I do not affirm the non-existence of heaven and hell, but what I would be +understood as affirming is their non-existence as separate, independent +and fixed localities. If you will interpret heaven to mean happiness, and +hell its opposite, that is, misery, we can fully agree, for this +interpretation implies what is veritably true, namely, that they are +conditions, and not localities. As conditions they not only exist in the +spiritual world, but also in the sensual or material, and apply to both +embodied and disembodied man. + +"It is related that Jesus said, 'The kingdom of heaven is within you,' and +never was truth more completely and potently uttered. At the time he was +talking to men in the body, and to _them_ he declares, 'The kingdom of +heaven is _within you_.' + +"If he is entitled to credit as an authority on the subject, and +Christians certainly will not gainsay it, then it is quite clear that +heaven, being in the human, spiritual beings is as a locality nowhere +else. And inasmuch as it could not exist in the human being as a location, +for this would give us millions upon innumerable millions of localized +heavens, one for each breathing human embodied man, to become destroyed at +the death of each, which is too absurd to be seriously discussed, it must +necessarily follow, and as clear as the sunlight of heaven, that whatever +that kingdom may in fact be, it is simply and absolutely a condition. And +we can therefore readily see that as a condition, different with every +human being, owing to the moral status and spiritual development of each, +it perpetuates itself as truly and fully as does the spirit itself survive +the dissolution of the aggregated physical atoms and forces of the +material body, and moreover accompanies the real man into the spiritual +world. So with its opposite--hell. + +"If this is conceded, and no Christian can deny it with any degree of +consistency, for the moment he does he dishonors Jesus as an authority, +then the whole foundation of a local permanent hell is swept away, and the +loathsome superstructure erected thereupon falls to the ground forever. + +"Heaven and hell, viewed in any sense, are opposites, and wherever they +exist they must exist simultaneously, for some are in heaven and some in +hell all the time, and therefore if the kingdom of heaven is in the +children of men, so also must be the kingdom of hell, or it does not exist +at all. + +"With my limited power I can not elaborate this point, or even present it +as I should like to, and you must be content with a bare and imperfect +statement." + +July 6, 1882: + +"Before the mythologists of antiquity had constructed a hell they had on +their hands a personal, individualized spirit of evil, known as the +serpent or satan, and more modernly as the devil. Investing this +mythological creature with all the distinguishing attributes of the Lord, +save that of goodness, they must have a localized place of sufficient +capacity, and properly arranged for the enjoyment by him of the fruits of +his labors. Divesting him of all goodness _per se_, the hell of their +creation must necessarily represent his newly-acquired condition of total +depravity, for previously he had been an angel in heaven, and must +possess the proper and sufficient elements to enable him to gratify his +hatred of the Lord in the punishment of his children. It was but natural +in that day that the element of fire should be chosen, as it was supposed +to be the most destructive element in nature, and best calculated in its +very nature to induce the most intense and excruciating suffering to +physical and material bodies possessed of the animating principle of +animal life. In their unspiritual and ignorant state they supposed and +believed that the bodies in the other world would be similar to those in +this, and therefore subject to similar effects from heat and fire. What a +monstrous conception, and how utterly inexplicable that it should ever +have been believed. Even John the Revelator took a material view of hell, +and described it as a 'lake of fire and brimstone.' + +"I was compelled, or rather impelled, from reason or from experiences +sufficiently clear, in my frequent moods or states of spiritual exaltation +to depart from this grossly materialistic view. While my hells were in the +plural, yet I fell into nearly as great error in my creations. They were +the progeny of imperfect visions, imperfectly understood and grossly +erroneous in their relation. + +"You have only to think a moment seriously to discover the utter folly of +my hells, and I will only present one instance among many equally absurd. +You will find in my 'memorable relations' that I spoke of a certain class +of Jews and others wading through mud, quagmires and swamps, and being +injuriously affected by them, and this for the purposes of punishment. +Now, the conception of a spirit, composed largely of pure ether, wading +in the mire and wallowing in spiritual miasmatic swamps and filthy dirt, +is only equaled by the mythological conception believed in and advocated +by Christians that a spirit could be effected to any degree of suffering +by material fire and brimstone. Both conceptions are as false as God is +true. + +"In reference to the mythological arch fiend of mankind let us summarize: +First an angel in heaven; then a rebel; then a war in the peaceful realms +of heaven, instigated by this fiend; then the fall from the angelic state; +then a transformation into a terrible and grim devil; then the building of +a hell for his use, convenience and felicity, and then turning over to his +control and malignant fiendishness three-fourths or more of poor, weak +beings, creatures of an Infinite God, and you have fitly spoken a system +that could only have originated in an orthodox hell, figuratively +speaking, and by an orthodox devil, and which for malevolence far exceeds +any thing ever thought of in this or any other world." + +July 17, 1882: + +"The bible makers having established a heaven and hell, with God presiding +over the one and the devil over the other, were driven to the necessity of +concocting a scheme for populating them. The God of their creation they +represent to be possessed of infinite perfections and glory, and heaven +the very ideal of grandeur and beatitude. One would very naturally +conclude that in their scheme they would have so arranged that God would +have had the first choice, and heaven the destination of the best and +wisest of the denizens of earth. Nothing short of this could have so +completely enamored us of the conception and rendered heaven devoutly to +be wished for; but here the arrangement in value and superlative worth +meets with a severe set back. One of the weak and frail points in the +scheme consists in not allowing this infinite God to have his own choice +in selecting those to become consociated with him in enjoying celestial +delights in heaven. Human nature, by the fall in the Garden of Eden, +became weak and subjected to malign influences with an inadequacy of +repellant power to overcome them. The cruel authors of this system, while +they establish their god in heaven, a far distant locality, and keep him +there constantly occupied and absorbed with the music and praises of the +ransomed few, turn the devil loose to roam at will, and invest him not +only with the deific attribute of omnipresence, but also confer upon him +the extraordinary power without restraint of assuming angel's garbs even +to the deceiving of the elect. In addition they place under his authority +and to do his bidding an unlimited number of smaller devils, whose +services have been utilized by him in preying upon the peace and happiness +of the children of this world, and in preparing their souls for eternal +punishment and subservience to his will in the world to come." + +July 20, 1882: + +"To counteract this terrible invisible influence of evil no power of equal +potency is furnished. They say that God's holy spirit in conjunctive +co-operation with the saints embodied (they mean, of course, the preachers +and good church people) is seeking man's deliverance and salvation. They +confess, however, that this agency is impotent when compared with the +power wielded by the devil and his invisible cohorts. They make Jesus say +substantially that the road that leads to heaven is narrow and +circumscribed and few travel in it, while the road that leads to hell is +broad and the many travel therein, 'many shall be called, but few chosen,' +etc., etc. + +"If their system be true we are forced inevitably to conclude that when +the creative energies residing in man have succeeded in producing a high +order of intellection the devil straightway captures them, leaving heaven +to be peopled without the presence of the great and godlike in mental +power. It would seem prudent and wise that this should have been otherwise +arranged in order to have rendered heaven reasonably and fairly +intellectual. No wonder, therefore, that their highest conceptions of +worship and gratitude consisted in keeping up around the throne of the +Lord a continual musical concert, both vocal and instrumental. Such +distinguished and illustrious souls as Washington, Jefferson, Webster, +Clay, Lincoln, Garfield, Paine, Voltaire, and others, could not be induced +to participate for all future time in such exercises, for their mental +constitutions were too robust and great and their souls too much +interested in other and more ennobling pursuits. This kind of heaven would +not suit souls of such intellectual proportions, and the orthodox hell, if +accompanied by suffering, would be preferable to them, because their +associations, at least, would be intellectual, for the devil is said to be +exceedingly wise, and all wise souls live and delight in kindred +consociations." + +July 21, 1882: + +"According to the orthodox scheme, heaven, hell, and the devil, all go +together, or, in other words, they are inseparably connected with and +belong to the plan. Heaven would be the destination of all without a hell +and _vice versa_. Heaven and hell are in antagonism, and there would be no +strife but by and through the devil, and therefore his existence is a +necessity to this end. God is too good to take part in this strife, and is +either indifferent or too weak to avert it. Even when the war in heaven, +according to Milton, was waged between the devil and the Lord, with +relentless fury, he would take no direct and active part, but commissioned +Michael his generalissimo. How could he now be expected to take an +immediate and active part, even to save his own defenseless children. +Earthly parents act quite differently when their offspring are in peril, +and so do the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air. I am talking +ironically only to show the utter folly of the whole matter. + +"In this connection did you ever think why it is that the devil is +continually seeking the moral overthrow and eternal ruin of the human +family? It is not because he has any ill feeling for cause against the +children of men. They have never given him any occasion, and as we have +seen, in their helpless condition, they could not if they would. According +to the bible and the claims of Christians they have always done just as +the devil wanted them to. He wanted Adam and Eve to eat the apple and they +did so. He wanted Abraham to debauch Hagar, and after her ruin to turn her +loose with her helpless babe on her bosom amid the wilds of the wilderness +of Beersheba, and Abraham did so. He wanted Noah to drink of the wine and +become drunken, and Noah hesitated not, etc. So in fact the assumption +can not be maintained that the devil in capturing nine-tenths of the human +family is actuated by any malignant feeling towards his victims. The +reason lies elsewhere. We are assured by the bible theologians and their +coadjutors that the devil is solely actuated by his intense hatred of the +Lord and the purpose of wreaking vengeance upon him for banishing him from +heaven and the angelic state. If this is true common justice and sympathy +for the suffering of the unoffending impose most seriously the duty upon +the Lord, either to conciliate the devil in the interest of harmony, peace +and concord, and to save his helpless children, or destroy outright this +malignant enemy of his. If he will do neither, nor arrest him in his +diabolical work, then truly are we justified not only in withholding +homage from him, but also in regarding him equally at enmity with our +welfare and a party (_particeps criminis_) in causing our sufferings and +preparing our eternal doom." + +July 27, 1882: + +"Why seriously discuss questions that are fast fading out of sight? The +advancement of mind and the development of spiritual discernment are on +the eve of relegating old antiquated theories and ideas to the past ages +of heathen darkness, where they properly belong. Total depravity throwing +its dark mantle over tender infancy--parent of the doctrine of infant +damnation--is no longer taught or believed by enlightened clergymen and +their followers. It only has a sickly foothold where the people are +spiritually dominated by an ignorant or pusillanimous priesthood. Why, +therefore, seek to revive by serious discussion any interest in dogmas +now almost inanimate and staggering to their final fall and eternal sleep. +Let them die serenely if they can, and be buried out of sight without pomp +or regret. We have questions of greater moment and of much more value to +mankind, and to them let us address ourselves. All things are not only +progressive but eternally progressing. Must we therefore resolve that +systems of religion and theological dogmas are finished and settled +forever. If so, when did this divinely appointed consummation take place? +It certainly, if true, must be an event of recent date. By whom settled, +how and when? Certainly not by the old Romish Church and the hierarchy +established at Nice and Laodicia, for their history since has been +characterized by quarrels and dissensions, which at times have threatened +their very existence. And certainly no one will seriously maintain that +they have reached the high altitude of final and definite settlement by +Luther, Calvin and others in their departure from the original faith. Some +of the articles of faith of these have either been discarded or quietly +abandoned, and those left have been modified, and are scarcely an +improvement on the originals. In candidly looking over the whole field +among the religious sects now extant, only one thing is discovered to be +mutually agreed upon, and that is that man lives after death. We hardly +need to stop to except those semi-materialistic Christians who claim that +a future existence at all depends wholly on the physical resurrection of +the material body at some vague and indefinite period of future time. This +doctrine is so unscientific and so disconsonant with reason that we pass +it by with a mere reference to it." + +July 28, 1882: + +"The Catholics have three states for the dead, Heaven, Hell and Purgatory; +the thorough orthodox Protestants two, striking out purgatory; while the +Universalists insist on expunging hell from the catalogue. Some will have +one God, and others a trinity of them. But they differ materially as to +the course to pursue in order to obtain the divine favor, holy unction and +saving grace of the Lord. Here they are put to the severest test. It is +infinitely of less moment to ascertain how many gods rule above, or how +many states of the dead, as it is to know how to reach the much desired +haven of peace and happiness in the eternal world. + +"A prudent man would be comparatively indifferent as to how many ruling +sovereigns over the destinies of man, or how many locations of consignment +for their souls, so he is enabled to attain unto the highest good, and +this consideration more imperatively absorbs his attention. Knowledge of +the former would be valueless without knowledge of the latter. And hence +in seeking to become familiar with the latter is where he becomes lost in +the labyrinthian mazes of divergent and perplexingly diversified +theologies. + +"One would have you attend to the confessional, do penance and observe and +conform to the dictums emanating from the Roman Pontiff and the imperious +mandates of priests, thereby securing absolution from the consequences of +sin, and due preparation for the next world. Another admonishes you that +your salvation depends on the nature and degree of faith in the atoning +sacrifice. Another that you must become regenerated and washed of +inherited and committed sins by belief in and conformity to certain +specific and definitely prescribed tenets. And still another, that a good, +moral life is the one thing needful, Jesus having paid the penalty of sin +and triumphed over it for the whole of mankind. And so on, scarcely +without limit, do these various and varied systems present themselves to +perplex and annoy." + +July 31, 1882: + +"Instead of there being one, two or three states of the dead, the truth is +there are an infinite number and variety of conditions in which the +children of men exist in the spiritual world with the qualification that +they do not remain in them longer than they are enabled to progress out of +them into other and higher ones. The plain truth is, as every intelligent +and fairly progressed returning spirit will tell you, that faith and +belief have nothing whatever to do in determining your status in the +spiritual world, nor will what a man believes, however erroneous it may +verily be, if he is honest in it, have any potency in preparing the +spiritual conditions or assigning him his spiritual sphere. Here we must +be clearly understood, that we may avoid both misapprehension and +misrepresentation. I do not affirm that false beliefs and erroneous +conceptions of the hereafter do not have any effect on the spirit. They do +have a very troublesome effect. They do not, however, in the slightest +degree, determine the spiritual status, for this is regulated by other +considerations--moral conduct, noble acts, spiritual unfoldment, etc. But +when the proper sphere is reached after death, for which the new-comer is +spiritually fitted, they halt him there, and for a time impede and retard +his progress, at least until he shall have outgrown false beliefs and +conceptions while in the material body. A man may sincerely believe that +the veritable orthodox devil is his constant companion, or that the air is +swarming with malevolent creatures bent on his ruin, or that he is totally +depraved by inheritance, and destined to utter and endless wretchedness in +the other world, or any thing else, however absurd and untrue, and yet +that man's whole earth life may have been justly distinguished for +charitable deeds, love of the neighbor, and in all his habits, walks and +ways all that the severest moralists could require, do you not at once see +that in all justice and righteousness the man's life, acts and deeds must +inevitably determine his sphere or spiritual condition, without the +slightest interference by what foolish things he may have believed. And +yet it is nevertheless not difficult to see further, that he must disabuse +his mind of those errors of conception and belief before he can make any +appreciable and valuable progress. And I tell you these erroneous belief +and unfounded conceptions cling to the man with more obdurate persistency +than the most of mankind could be induced to believe. Hence the prime +importance of forming correct ideas of the future while still animating +the material body." + +August 3, 1882: + +"Acts of charity and deeds of benevolence are estimated by the spiritual +laws of our being in just correspondence to the motives inspiring and +actuating them. By the motives prompting them, more than the acts and +deeds themselves, do they become either valuable or valueless to our +spiritual promotion and good. I have known men who devoted a lifetime of +arduous labor in the acquisition of wealth, all the while wholly +regardless of the interests and wants of others, and toward the end of the +puny life, and in anticipation of the near approach of death, they +bequeathed their accumulations to charitable and benevolent institutions, +only to find themselves the merest spiritual paupers in the spiritual +world. And why? Because being governed a lifetime by grasping and selfish +motives, they only dispensed the accumulated results of the cultivated +spirit of avarice and cupidity under the selfish and painfully delusive +motive of enhancing their interests in a world to which their aged +infirmity admonished them they were hastening. Upon their entrance to the +spiritual world the motive met them, and overshadowed them with its +pitiless condemnation. + +"Had charity and benevolence characterized their lives all along for the +sake of doing good and blessing others, it would have been quite otherwise +with them in the eternal world of justice and truth. + +"Charities bestowed only possess eternal value when done for sweet +charity's sake, and with the unselfish object of helping others. This +constitutes love and genuine love of the neighbor, and is consequently +divine and heavenly and of permanent and enduring value. + +"The Confucian doctrine, 'Do unto others as you would they should do unto +you,' reiterated by the man Jesus, contains the great and salutary rule of +life, which if practiced with the holiest and most disinterested motives +will inevitably work out a most glorious future reward for the spirit. +The shepherd kings promulgated this rule in a finer sense and reduced it +to the fine realm of mind. The Confucian rule related to the _actions_ of +men, one to the other, but the other declares, 'Think of others as you +would have others think of you.' If your thoughts and actions are governed +by these rules you may conclude you are not far from the kingdom of heaven +or angelic sphere. If you observe these because you love the right, you +can not fail to love the Lord with all your heart and the neighbor as +yourself, thus fulfilling the law of spiritual growth and development +while in the temple of flesh, and insuring a condition of superlative +happiness in the spiritual world. If in your present state of development +you can not do this, you can, at least, make the honest and persevering +effort to do it, and your reward shall be great." + +August 7, 1882: + +"Abstain from evil-doing from the conscientious conviction that it is +wrong to do evil and right to abstain. Do not allow yourself, in choosing +between right and wrong, to be governed by a fear of future punishment, or +hope of future reward, for this is cowardly and pusillanimous and of no +practical value to your future happiness. Do right for the sake of the +right and not from the selfish motive of deriving a personal benefit. You +have in your world two very injurious and reprehensible doctrines taught +by learned men, namely: materialism and forgiveness of sins. They are both +degrading and far reaching in their baleful consequences. Christians treat +materialism with scornful derision, and yet it is just as true as that the +misdeeds of life can be overcome and rendered harmless in their following +consequences by death-bed repentance and the blood of atonement. One is as +true as the other, and my presence here in spirit proves materialism to be +groundless. Materialism is the doctrine of one world only, a mere passing +moment of life, and suggests very naturally to make the most out of it. I +do not mean to be understood as asserting that there are not good honest +people who believe in this doctrine, but that they are good and honest in +spite of their belief and not as a result of it. The theological heresy +which proclaims the necessity of conversion, new birth, and regeneration +(they are convertible terms) would be much more plausible if not +supplemented by the more alarming and reprehensible doctrine of obtaining +full pardon for repeated crimes and misdeeds just preceding or at the +imminent moment of departing from the material body by so-called death. +The first becomes bereft of its value, if indeed it has any, by the +latter. It is tantamount to asking a man to liquidate an indebtedness now, +when, under the law, he has ten or twenty years option. In a purely +business view he realizes that the possession and use of his money for ten +or twenty years is to him a matter of pecuniary interest and profit. So +likewise is it with the man of the world with an organization tending to +licentiousness and vice. He perceives no wisdom or practical use in +becoming regenerated in the days of his youth, when in old age the +opportunity is afforded to repent and thereby avoid the consequences of +the loose indulgences and vices of a lifetime. Every villain who has run a +lifetime unwhipt of justice and unpunished for his crimes, must be +fascinated with this indulgent fallacy, while all truly noble souls must +silently, if not avowedly, abhor and detest it." + +August 10, 1882: + +"While the Universalists are considered liberal and progressive, yet their +doctrine is equally dangerous and untrue. Indeed, I have more respect for +the others. They (the Universalists) claim to stand upon the Word, and +affirm that the blood and death of one man propitiated sin so far as the +future life is concerned, and that therefore sinning entails no hurtful +consequences but such as are met with along the journey of life from the +cradle to the grave. In other words, that the consequences of sin are +visited upon us during our earth life, or not at all. They attempt to +justify and defend their doctrine by a mere play upon words found in +isolated passages in the bible, especially the epistles in the New +Testament. The declarative assumptions of the bible, as translated for +your use and guidance, are utterly at war with their teachings, and it is +folly to deny it. In this age when the human heart and mind are reaching +out for something better it is useless and unproductive of good to go back +to the root of words in originals to bolster up a doctrine founded in +error. The effort will always prove unprofitable and must inevitably fail +of its purpose. + +"I am aware that some advanced and more spiritually minded Universalists +believe in progression in the future life, and in this regard their +conclusions are better and far in advance of their premises. + +"I would say to those, however good and pure, who expect to awake to +consciousness in an ideal world of transcendent beatitudes without shadows +and crosses that they will realize a most perplexing disappointment. They +will find a world more natural than this, because more substantial and +enduring, and what is more they will find they lack very much of being +perfect, more perfect indeed in undevelopment than in that soul growth and +unfoldment that would enable them to command the joys and delights +vouchsafed by association with progressed spiritual beings in the higher +walks and spheres of the spiritual world. To attain unto this state is the +work of time and the reward of labor. + +"The true doctrine is, as all shall know in time, that conscious and +willful sinning, that is, where volition in choosing between the right and +the wrong was within our power, is treasured up in the memory of the +spirit and confronts us in the spiritual world, and will remain until +outgrown and overcome by arduous effort. Happiness can only be enjoyed by +the finite in contrast with misery, and shadows and crosses will fall upon +us, marring our joys, until in the ages of coming time we shall so expand +and grow towards deific perfections and excellences as to think no evil, +thus not only rendering our actions submissive to the highest wisdom, but +our hearts and minds to the divine love, and in a happy union of love, +wisdom, and the will, we shall become something more than finite in our +approach to the infinite." + +August 11, 1882: + +"Nevertheless let it be said to the humblest, struggle on, strive to +battle for the right as you perceive it. If you see it not aright in good +time it will be revealed unto you. Be of good cheer. You must needs +suffer, for suffering in the right is spiritual growth--you are +continually encircled by infinite love. You shall rise step by step, +unfolding this latent power and that, gradually and by discreet degrees +casting aside this harrowing and distressing memory and that, all the +while aided by those spirits who have passed through tribulations and +sorrows into higher unfoldments and joys, until finally you shall rejoice +in blissful disenthrallment from the imperfections of your past being. +Then you will be enabled to see why you have thus suffered and rejoice +that it has been so. No pang will afflict you worse than those you have +inflicted upon others, or of greater magnitude than thousands and millions +have endured. Be kind and forbearing to the erring, be merciful to all, +even the humblest creature of the creation. Deal justly with all, live +uprightly, fear nothing but evil and fly from it. Be brave for the right. +Love your neighbor, which being spiritually interpreted, means all +mankind. Endeavor to learn and believe truth wherever found; try, if +possible, to think no evil; worship at no shrine but that of eternal +truth, and no harm can come to you in the everlasting realms of immortal +souls. No shadows shall darken the pathway of your progress other than +those incident to your connection with matter and your undeveloped +spirituality. And these shall be dissipated, facilitated, and accelerated, +by the sweet memories of good deeds and good thoughts. + +"In the feeble communications I have given you, by the permission of the +Lord, I have not been able to impart my ideas in the same language and +style that characterized my writings when embodied. I know they will be +subjected to this criticism, but the difficulties of projecting my ideas +into form in words have been many and great. If they were explained they +in turn would be criticised with equal virulence. When coming within the +radius of mediumistic aura we encounter obstacles great and difficult to +overcome at their state of mediumship. Happily in time these difficulties +will be surmounted. The aura of the medium and sitter blending with my +spirit magnetism, your continued thinking and also the medium, thereby +disturbing the equability of the magnetic and electric emanations, and to +a corresponding degree affecting the psychic forces of the communicating +spirit, and other things you would not understand if told you, all +conspire to enfeeble the spirit intellectually, and, to a certain extent, +limit it to the mental sphere of those present, especially the medium, +upon whom we are so largely dependent. If you understood the subject as it +really is, you would be surprised that we could even do so well. You, my +dear Swedish friend, have aided us nobly; your motives being so pure and +honest, we found in that itself a great auxiliary, and we sincerely thank +you. I shall be with you often, and shall reward your many kindnesses by +helping your sweet and interesting children in spirit life and others dear +to you, to learn spiritual wisdom in their progress, and shall take a deep +interest in you when you come to our life. + +"God bless this medium, for she is worthy. In earnest supplication we +invoke the blessings of the Lord, angels and spirits upon you both. + + "EMANUEL SWEDENBORG." + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +GEORGE WASHINGTON. + + +On the 16th of June the following communication was received, and those +following at the dates mentioned, from the spirit of George Washington: + +"From my home and congenial associations in the spirit world I come to you +to-day feeling and hoping that I may possibly be of some service to my +country, which I have never ceased to love with the tenderness of a +mother's love for her children. Indeed, my country--the noble young +republic--was kind to and considerate of me far above my merits. + +"In the memorable struggle for independence I was assigned to duty at the +head of the colonial army, and by this circumstance occupied a position +that attracted to me more general attention than to others who were in +nowise less meritorious. After seven long years of patient suffering, +heroic endurance, and almost superhuman exertion, our gallant and +illy-provided army won an honorable peace, and I trust an imperishable +renown. A nation of freemen was brought into being, and a system of +government established far in advance of its predecessors. The old Roman +republic, grand in many respects and a marvel of excellence for its time, +was still in many regards vastly inferior to our own. Being at the head of +the brave army whose herculean efforts, exerted under many disadvantageous +circumstances, eventuated so gloriously, it was natural, although no more +worthy than many others who rendered patriotic services, that I should be +chosen the first executive of the young republic. This, to me, was a most +flattering testimonial of the high appreciation of and affection for the +gallant citizen soldiery who so valiantly acted in the stirring and +sanguinary events of the memorable contest. Regarding my elevation to the +chief magistracy of the nation as a reflection of public sentiment as +indicated more than as a personal compliment to myself, it behooved me by +discreet official conduct and patriotic action to show that the general +appreciation and esteem for that noble soldiery was not misplaced nor +unworthily bestowed. + +"If I have rendered worthy services to my country, either in the line of +military duty or in the performance of civil trust, or both, they must +proclaim my right to speak from my higher conscious life to my countrymen +on matters pertaining to their best and dearest interests. If the gallant +army that fought to a successful issue the battles of freedom in the +infancy of its struggles here have claims upon the attention and +consideration of the present generation, and those of the future, they beg +you to earnestly consider the words that may fall from my lips and pen. I +have marshaled those mighty hosts of noble souls in spirit land, and with +them have recounted our struggles and sacrifices for you and those to come +after you, and they are in hearty accord with what I shall deem proper to +say to the nation through the much abused and little understood channel of +human mediumship. You will hear from me in the immediate future in +obedience to the purpose indicated." + +June 23, 1882: + +"Your complex system of government needs and will receive reconstruction +or remodeling. When we emerged from the revolutionary struggle, and came +to give the fruits of our hard earned victory some definite shape in the +formation of a government for the new nation, we adopted the articles of +confederation as the best we could then devise. It required but a short +time to teach us that they were defective, and that prudence and wisdom +dictated something different and better. The constitution was consequently +fashioned and superseded the confederation, and there has never been any +disagreement as to the superior wisdom of the constitutional form of +government, at least, as an improvement on the original confederation +form. When this had been accomplished we were fully persuaded that the +reorganization of the government under the constitution was the apex of +statesmanship and the acme of the science of governmental construction, +and were consequently happy and content. But alas, for poor human +foresight. It very soon became evident that the new arrangement was +imperfect, if not absolutely defective, and twelve amendments to the new +constitution were proposed by Congress and ratified by the states. After +and as the result of the late unhappy conflict between discordant states, +or, rather, rebellion of certain states by secession against the rightful +authority and sovereignty of the federal government, several additional +amendments became necessary and imperative, and they were accordingly +incorporated and ingrafted upon the already amended constitution. And now +others are earnestly talked of and advocated; and does this not teach you +the plain lesson that your system is still imperfect? + +"The trouble is found to be that statesmanship is without foreknowledge, +and is either blind to or oblivious of the requirements of the future. In +other words, that the ceaseless mutations of human affairs, the ever +acting and onward march of the law of change and progression, fail to +strike the consciousness of statesmen or to secure their recognition. Of +one thing you may be assured, your plan of government will be revised and +remodeled to its vast betterment. When the time comes this will be most +vehemently resisted by those who on all questions affecting the interests +of the race and the happiness of mankind persist in remaining with the +bats and owls of past ages rather than to be baptized in the light of the +present and the foregleams of the future. But they must get out of the way +of the car of progress or be crushed beneath its merciless and continually +revolving wheels." + +June 30, 1882: + +"In the formation of your present system of government three co-ordinate +branches were established--the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial--and +they were designed to be checks, one upon the other. If in the zeal and +frenzy of partisan strife, or under the baleful influence of venality and +corruption, the legislative department should exceed its constitutional +authority or enact legislation inimical to the public interests, the +executive was invested with the veto privilege whereby the evil might be +arrested. If, however, the President should be found to be in accord and +sympathy with the legislative branch in its hurtful legislation, and gave +thereto the sanction of his approving signature; or, in case the President +exercised his veto power in the particular matter, and Congress should +pass the measure over his objections by the requisite two-thirds of each +branch, then and in either of these events there still remained the +supreme court with its supervisory power or power of final determination. + +"But it may be very properly asked, what if the supreme court should be +influenced by the same or similar considerations as the other co-ordinate +branches, what help, relief, or remedy, is left to the people and the +nation? It can only be answered--force, revolution, rebellion. Does not +this plain statement present a dangerous contingency and indicate a +palpable weakness? + +"It should be remembered that in our form of republican government all +powers are derived from the people, and it should be furthermore very +emphatically understood that all powers belong to them. If this view is +correct, then in the hypothetical case mentioned for the purpose of +illustration, the people themselves should be the last court of resort, or +the high court of appeals. + +"It was thought by the founders of your government that the judiciary +would always be pure and safe, but unfortunately experience has taught us +quite differently. It is humiliating to an American citizen, whether he be +in or out of the body, to be compelled to make this confession. But truth +not only justifies but demands it, and it is best that it be frankly made +and acknowledged." + +August 14, 1882: + +"We are not permitted, for prudential reasons, to tell you how the new +system is to be fashioned. To do so would not facilitate its +accomplishment, but might possibly operate detrimentally by inducing +premature consideration and discussion. Suffice it to say that the subject +has been deliberately considered and the plan carefully matured by wise +statesmanship in the realm of causation, and will be given to your world +at the proper time and in the proper way. + +"I desire to briefly discuss two propositions: + +"1st. What are the duties of the citizen to the government, or what the +government has the right to exact of and from the citizen? + +"2d. What are the duties of the government to the people, or what the +people have the right to exact of and from their government? + +"First. The citizen owes the government affection and homage. This springs +from patriotism and self-interest. + +"Second. To render a cheerful obedience to and acquiescence in all +lawfully constituted authority, reserving always and of primary importance +the natural and inalienable right when all civil remedies prove +unavailing, of revolution against and resistance to, tyranny, usurpation, +and oppression. + +"Third. Prompt compliance with all the lawful edicts and mandates of +government. If they are deemed unlawful, unjust, and oppressive, first +appealing to judicial supervision and all lawful means for relief and +protection--revolution the dernier ressort. + +"Fourth. Loyally protecting, defending, and sustaining the government when +assailed from within or without, and when waging a just war upon a +foreign foe, or in the suppression of an unjust and indefensible internal +war, insurrection, or rebellion. + +"Fifth. Aiding the government both in peace and war by being honest to and +with it in official station, and by helping to uphold and foster its +credit and honor. + +"These comprise mainly the duties of the citizen to his government. He +owes other duties to society and the local community in which he resides, +but they are not considered pertinent or germane to our proposition. + +"I speak of sustaining the government in war. War is a terrible thing to +contemplate, and we would gladly crush it out in its every vestige, but +you seem as yet not to have outgrown and developed above and beyond it, +and therefore we are compelled to notice the subject, however painful and +sorrowful it may be. The time is not so very far distant in the future +when nations and men will progress beyond this horrible relic of +barbarism, when the fierce god of war will give place to the sweet and +gentle spirit of peace and brotherly love; when all differences will be +amicably adjusted without a resort to the arbitrament of the sword and the +instruments of devastation, bloodshed, and death." + +August 17, 1882: + +"In a certain sense the people are the children of the government, and in +a still more important sense the government is the offspring of the +people. If you ask me what, under the law of your present state of +development, are the duties of the child to the parent, I answer +obedience, maintenance, and protection. If you ask me the duties of the +parent to the child, I answer maintenance, education, and protection. The +family government was the first government in the infancy of the race from +which all other governments naturally and progressively sprang, and their +relations and reciprocating duties are much the same. + +"I now reach the second proposition: What are the duties of the government +to the people, or what have the people the right to demand of their +government? It is the bounden duty of the government, under the +constitution, to afford ample and plenary protection to the citizen in the +exercise and enjoyment of civil and religious liberty. This protection is +due to the humblest as well as the most exalted. The powers of your +government are adequate to this end, if properly and effectively wielded, +and if exercised without fear or favoritism. + +"Again, it is the duty of government to see that public affairs are so +managed that its burdens may fall lightly upon the people and mostly upon +those ablest to bear them. A judicious system of obtaining revenue to meet +the exigencies of government and the liquidation of the national public +debt by taxing incomes on accumulated wealth and its investment in various +speculative methods, would be most salutary to the attainment of the +object. + +"In order that the wise purposes of good government be carried out, and +that honesty, frugality, and the most rigid economy should characterize +every department of the public service, it is essentially and +indispensably important that honesty and capacity alone should be regarded +as commanding qualities for public official positions. Dishonesty and +corruption and bribery in public stations ought to be severely punished, +else there remains no safety and security to confiding constituencies. +When your government offices reek with corruption and no alarm is +manifested and no corrective measures adopted, you are not far from the +yawning brink of the precipice over which your liberties and free +institutions are sure to be precipitated. It is the duty of the +government, in the interest of a confiding trusting people to hunt down +the official vampires and parasites who thus insidiously prey upon the +vitals of government, and inflict upon them such penalties as are +commensurate with their enormous crimes. To allow them to go on with +impunity and exempt from punishment is to invite and encourage corruption, +and to suggest the safety of its increase." + +August 18, 1882: + +"It is the duty of government to foster, uphold, and defend labor in its +unequal struggle against the greed of capital to the end that capital may +not utterly crush it beneath its scornful and merciless heel. I tell you +in all seriousness that on this subject you are approaching the verge of a +volcano whose wrathful pent-up fires can not be much longer controlled, +nor is it desirable that they should be unless a speedy change in the +treatment of labor by capital, involving justice and right, is brought +about. It is a delusion and in opposition to all human experience to +expect capital, uncompelled by law, to become quickened in conscience and +pervaded by a sense of equity and right. The government must stretch forth +its strong arm and compel the exercise by authoritative and coercive +power of a spirit of justice and fair dealing that belongs to a common +humanity. Revivify and re-adopt that virtuous and beneficent doctrine of +the earlier patriotic statesmanship of the republic, namely: 'The greatest +good to the greatest number.' The men and women who toil and sweat in +poverty constitute the greatest number, and he must indeed be blind to +truth and deaf to justice who fails to discover or concede that the +toiling millions have wrongs done them by the greedy rapacity of capital, +and which appeal with vehement persistency for redress--aye, we fear in a +little while, for retaliative and retributive vengeance. They have the +right to claim protection from the steady and stealthy encroachments of +capital whereby the rich grow richer and the poor poorer. Capital and +labor are mutually interested in each others' welfare and prosperity, and +are alike equally entitled to protection when dealing justly with each +other, but under the present order of things labor is at the mercy of +capital, and receives not justice at its hands. And this great government +fought into existence by the common people, defended in every succeeding +struggle by the common people, and which claims to be a government of the +people and by the people and for the people, stands idly by with folded +arms and with an apparent serene complacency permits the great masses of +the people to become hopelessly impoverished, while the exclusive and +favored few become enormously enriched. Verily has the government by its +inaction and failure to interpose, become truly and in the sight of heaven +a _particeps criminis_ in producing this wretched and deplorable condition +of affairs." + +August 21, 1882: + +"You have a tariff system, which for unrighteousness in the cruelty of its +exactions, is without a parallel in modern times. It is unjust and +oppressive; wholly indefensible, and with scarcely a palliating feature. +My circumscribed power in communicating will not allow me to argue the +question _in extenso_, or as I would like to. Your tariff is not only +unjustly discriminative, but painfully oppressive in its operations, +especially so far as the interests of the consumers are concerned. Why do +you not honestly examine the subject in its bearings in the laudable +endeavor to ascertain to whose benefit it inures. The government to some +extent is benefited in the matter of revenue, but the capitalists are more +largely the beneficiaries, and it is for them and their interests that you +legislate. Have you not yet discovered, if not by close and analytical +reasoning, at least by an observance of its practical operations, that the +poor artisans, skilled mechanics, and other labors immediately connected +with your manufactures, are not favored by high rates of tariff, and that +protection to home manufacturing by imposts on imported commodities does +not enhance the interests or confer blessings upon the consumers of your +manufactured articles. Have you not yet realized the fact that exorbitant +and restrictive protection fosters only the interests of invested capital, +with no real advantage to the toiling operatives and to the oppressive +detriment of consumers? If the operatives in your manufacturing +establishments were benefited by high tariffs it would be manifested and +plainly discernible in prosperous accumulations and in their happy +contentment. The opposite of all this is true, and it does not require a +philosopher to discover it. Why trades unions, repeated and frequent +strikes, and an unmistakably unhappy condition of unrest, if the benefits +accruing from the system beneficially inured to the workmen? The masses of +your toiling people are inclined to suffer and bear injuries and injustice +with a patience and forbearance not characteristic of any other people +under the broad canopy of heaven, and when they protest by strike or +otherwise you may safely assume that they are in the right, and have just +grievances. The people not directly connected with the manufacturing +interest, but who are the purchasers of its products, have exhibited a +still more remarkable degree of patient forbearance, for they are much +more numerous and less directly dependent. They have been sorrowfully +blinded to their true interests by unconscionable politicians and +political tricksters, and most dearly have they paid for their confidence +and ignorance. We see signs of the awakening of the hitherto slumbering +sensibilities of the people, and feel assured that in the not remote +future will be aroused a sentiment among the masses that will compel a +change of front on this subject in the meting out of even-handed and +impartial justice." + +August 24, 1882: + +"Another subject of engrossing importance to your weal is the threatening +and dangerous attitude of monopoly and corporate power. Your railroad +corporations are assuming gigantic proportions, and bode no good to you if +left uncontrolled and unregulated by law. Your liberties are not only +menaced for many causes, but by this corporate power all the avenues and +departments of your government are being influenced detrimentally to the +general public interest, if not absolutely sullied by the corroding +elements of corruption. These corporations, by the many influences they +are enabled to exert, if left unrestrained by legislation, will control +your government and its vast machinery as effectually and completely as +the planets perform their circuits in obedience to the inflexible and +unerring laws of the universe. + +"It is nonsense to talk about the absence of constitutional power over the +subject. Your national legislature has ample warrant, under the +constitutional provision conferring authority upon Congress to regulate +commerce among the states, and Congress should exercise that authority +promptly and fearlessly. Railroads are common carriers, and are, when +considered in connection with this power conferred upon Congress, public, +and not private, highways. The Supreme Court of the United States has +frequently affirmed this power as residing in the legislative department +of the government. Unless regulated and restrained, these corporations may +impose such exorbitant rates of transportation as to destroy ordinary +profits on manufactured and other commodities, and necessitate an +insufferable and unbearable increase to meet the exigency of increased +rates of transportation, and, of course, to the detriment and oppression +of consumers. The government must take the matter in hand for the +protection of the people. Competition will prove unavailing without +restrictive legislation; for the railroads would engage in pooling, and +thereby render nugatory the natural advantages of competition. This +monopoly constitutes the most threatening element in the country, and will +be felt too soon, if not prevented by judicious exercise of governmental +authority. The use of steam, as applied to railroads, steamboats, and +steamships, was unknown to the founders of your government and the framers +of your constitution, or more definite provisions would have been made in +relation to the subject of regulating commerce. Why can not your statesmen +be as patriotic and as true to the public? + +"Although mainly chartered by the states, they are not authorized by +implication or otherwise to pursue the selfish course of only subserving +the interests of capital, but for the convenience and benefit of the great +body of the people in commerce and travel as well. They have, by +exercising all undue influence, corrupted courts and legislatures, and +will, ere long, as they have already to some extent, invade the sacred +precincts of your elections, corrupting the sanctity of the ballot-box, +and demoralizing the independence of electors. Then your government will +become a farce, and your free institutions subject to the whims and +caprices of unholy and unconscionable monopoly power." + +August 25, 1882: + +"The great agricultural interests upon which you mostly depend for all of +your material prosperity receive no protection from your tariff +legislation, but are compelled to pay tribute to manufacturing by paying +tariffs on manufactured agricultural implements used on the farm by the +increased prices on the same. Besides, this great interest (agricultural) +is at the mercy of railroad corporations in high rates of transporting +the products of the farm to market, and in the end the burden falls on the +consumers of such products. + +"The recent tariff commission created by Congress, and its members +appointed by the President, is a miserable subterfuge and sham, as you +will ultimately ascertain. The dodging of the responsibility by Congress, +of an immediate revision of the tariff and the correction of its abuses +and vices, ought to be vigorously condemned. There exists no valid reason +why the old war tariff rates should be continued in this era of profound +peace and general prosperity of trade and business. Under the +constitution, tariff taxation can only be imposed on imported articles for +the purposes of revenue to the government, and this, however arranged, is +amply sufficient to afford incidental protection to home manufactories. +The time is coming when free trade and open, untrammelled commerce with +all nations will be the policy of all wise governments, and the sooner it +is brought about the better. + +"The currency policy will also be changed, and a great wrong therein +righted. The national banking system projected into being early in the +late war, and which had its necessities for an apology, will be abrogated +and done away with, and a currency furnished directly by the government to +the people, without the intervention and agency of private banking +corporations. This will be cheaper, safer, and more durable, predicated, +as it will be, upon the good faith of the American people and their +government, and secured by their prosperity. + +"The time will come when the flag of the American republic will float over +Canada, all the British Possessions on this continent, the island of +Cuba, the natural key to the Gulf of Mexico, as well as over the +cultivated valleys, arid plateaus, and towering mountains of the land of +the Montezumas, beyond the Rio Grande. Then will your system of government +be remodeled and reconstructed upon a plan infinitely superior to your +present one, and the United States will not only become the greatest +nation the earth has ever known, but the nucleus around which, in time, +all other nations will cluster and revolve, shouting the anthem of human +equality and freedom and universal liberty. + + "G. WASHINGTON." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +COMMUNICATION FROM MY SON EMIL ABOUT EX-PRESIDENT GARFIELD--GREETINGS FROM +MADAM EHRENBORG--LETTER FROM REV. GODDARD, AND SWEDENBORG'S ANSWER. + + +On the 26th of September, 1881, at the hour of 9 o'clock, forenoon, it +being the same memorable day on which the body of the late lamented +Garfield was buried, I went to Mrs. Green, 309 Longworth street, for an +independent slate-writing seance. I had previously prepared the following +paper, which I laid on the table, writing downwards, and which Mrs. Green +had no means of reading, viz: + +"Will our dear exalted spirit friends be so kind as to give us some +information of James A. Garfield, our late beloved President." + +On the slate soon came the following, signed EMIL, the name of my spirit +son. + +"Good morning, dear papa. Many spirits are here to greet you. Our beloved +and martyr President's work has just begun. He awoke immediately to +consciousness and to the reality of a future life, of which he had slight +knowledge. He was met by Washington, the father of his country, and the +martyr Lincoln, with a crown prepared for him, and with many other loving +kindred spirits, who had gone before to prepare for his reception, and it +was the grandest one he ever had. He has been introduced to our spiritual +congress, where he will finish his work, and where he will be more useful +to his country. You will soon see a communication from the President in +the papers." + +Then immediately came: + +"Dear papa, weep not for those who pass from this to higher spheres. Think +of them free from sorrow and pain, and wipe away your tears. + + "EMIL." + + +Oct. 10. Through Mrs. Green. "My highly esteemed friend, good morning. +Baron Swedenborg is prevented from meeting you to-day by reason of a +called special session of the scientific institute or harmonial order of +savants, of which he is a prominent member. Matters of transcendent import +and pressing moment now engross the attention of that honorable body of +advanced spiritual minds. He requested me to thus announce his enforced +absence to-day, and to say that it will afford him pleasure to be with you +at your next sitting. I avail myself of this opportunity, by the kind +permission of the mediums' guides, to give my blessings, and to again urge +you to go on with your investigations, and to push forward the noble work +set before you by the spirit world. The elements for your spiritual +unfoldment are constantly at work, and will continue to work out for you a +rich reward far exceeding your most confident anticipations. Only fully +co-operate with these elements and continue to act conjointly with your +spirit friends and all will be well. + + "Bright spirits of light around you stand, + Whom you have attracted from the summerland; + They come to bless you with their spirit light, + And make your life all beauteous and bright. + + "Press forward, then, with fearless tread, + And learn from those the world call dead; + The veil is rent, their presence ever near, + Your soul to bless and heart to cheer. + + "FREDRIKA EHRENBORG." + + +The communications from Swedenborg of the 8th of September, 1881, through +Mrs. Jennie McKee (the first one from him), and those through Mrs. Green +of the 26th of September and 3d of October, 1881, I had printed in a small +pamphlet, and sent them to divers parties, and one to the Rev. John +Goddard, a minister of the New Church in Cincinnati, with the hope that he +would afford the members of his congregation the opportunity to read them. +In answer, I received the following reply from Mr. Goddard, viz: + + "PRICE'S HILL, _August 19, 1881_. + + "_Dear Mr. Helleberg_: Your communication with your pamphlet came to + me to-day. I hardly know what to say in reply, for I fear that nothing + I can say will be of any use. I have no doubt in the world that there + is such a thing as communication with spirits, nor has any intelligent + and well informed New Churchman. Nor have I any doubt whatever that + they are a very low order of spirits, and scarcely ever those whom + they personate. It is clear that Swedenborg never sent any such + communications as these. To believe otherwise would be to believe that + intelligent men in the other world lose their wits instead of + increasing in wisdom. Doubtless this is permitted as a forcible and + compelling offset to the tremendous and increasing materialism of the + day. I can not conceive of any use in it to those who desire to be led + by the Lord in freedom and reason. Not only Swedenborg declares the + thing disorderly, but all experience coincides with his repeated + warnings and emphasises the need of our keeping close to the Lord in + his divine word. I say to you frankly that I do not feel warranted in + putting this pamphlet before the society, for knowing as I do the + seductive and tremendously persuasive power of this influence and + realizing the evil in it, I should be doing violence to my sense of + duty in bringing the matter to their notice. To those capable of + better things it is a delusion and a snare. With kind personal + feelings to you and all your family, and deploring your connection + with this dreadful sphere, I remain sincerely yours in truth, + + "JOHN GODDARD." + +On November the 7th I repaired to Mrs. Green's, taking with me Mr. +Goddard's letter, which I did not allow Mrs. Green to see, nor did I speak +to her any thing in regard to its contents. I had also prepared a +communication to Mr. Swedenborg, which I took along with me, in words as +follows: + +"To my exalted spirit friend, Emanuel Swedenborg: For conferring on me the +honor of receiving your communications for the people who you seek to +bless with the truth, I appreciate in the highest degree, and my only hope +and wish is that I may be able to do this work in a proper and efficient +way. The letter before you from the Rev. John Goddard, minister of the +Church of the New Jerusalem here, in answer to my pamphlet containing your +three first letters to me, is a sample of what may be expected from that +class. I have had the opinion that the preachers of every denomination +will be the very last to accept this most beautiful truth, and, therefore, +I have concluded to send the pamphlet only to free, advanced minds, and to +the individual members of the different churches of the New Jerusalem, if +it receives your approval. With love and sincere affection, I am your +willing and obedient servant, + + "C. G. HELLEBERG." + + +Placing Goddard's letter with mine on the stand, the following +communication came on the slate: + +"In the adorable name of the Lord I salute you good morning. The course +you have pursued in regard to my communications to you meets my hearty +approval. In the future be governed by the directions of your immediate +guides, in whom I have the utmost confidence, for they are constantly with +you, and are more intimately related to your sphere, and know best how and +what to direct. I am advised of the purport of the letter to you from our +good brother, Mr. Goddard, and have lately visited him for the purpose of +observing his surroundings and perceiving his mental operations. As the +result, I believe him honest and nearer your platform than he is willing +to make known. He certainly concedes enough in his letter to fortify your +faith, and to satisfy those under his influence that modern spiritualism, +so called, sprang from the great store house of the father's love, and is +in his keeping. May the good brother become so illuminated as to reach the +grander conclusion fully in consonance with the truth, that his religion +emanated not from the Lord direct, but from the writer hereof under the +spiritual instruction suited to that age, and that in lifting the veil +between the two worlds of embodied and disembodied man, and permitting, +yea compelling, the intercommunion between their denizens, the heavenly +father has not made an assortment of evil only for you, for this would be +malevolence under whatever pretext, but that all may, if they desire, hold +intercourse with the terrestrial sphere. I have neither lost my wits nor +retrograded in wisdom, but since I left the body I have lost much of my +arrogance and pride, and am now more interested in imparting plain, simple +truth, than in the construction of embellished sentences and high sounding +and beautifully rounded periods. The humility taught by Jesus and others +anterior to his day and since embodies a sublime law of the spiritual +spheres, underlying all true progression, to which I cheerfully bow in +reverential adoration. If my dear brother will only humble himself as a +little child, forgetting for awhile his books, and casting aside the +imperious demands of his system of belle-lettres, he will then from that +truly spiritually elevated altitude begin to perceive and to drink in the +beauties of spiritual truth and the glories of the Lord. + + "EMANUEL SWEDENBORG." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +COMMUNICATIONS FROM PRESIDENT GARFIELD, MADAM EHRENBORG, GOVERNOR J. D. +WILLIAMS, PRESIDENT ABRAHAM LINCOLN, JUDGE EDMONDS. + + +Nov. 21. Among other things during this sitting with Mrs. Green I received +the following: + +"Good morning friends of truth. On passing out of the physical form and +awakening to the consciousness of the perpetuity of my being, and a +realization of my continued individuality, I was overwhelmed with the +triumph of the spirit over the empire of crude matter, and as I gazed upon +the worn, shattered and emaciated body, and in the presence of many +kindred and other loving spirit friends, the first thought that occupied +my mind was, is it possible that I have lived so long in the presence of +this great truth and have known so little about it? Then followed a +feeling of self-chiding, yea remorse, that I had neglected so many +opportunities to learn that wisdom so much needed by the newly arisen +spirit, and how much I had really missed by not acquiring knowledge of the +spirit world, the future of the spirit, and the laws of spiritual +government. Resulting from reflections like these came the impelling +desire to return through whatever avenue I might find to speak to a fond +mother, devoted wife, loving children, and sympathizing friends, to +announce, if no more, that I not only still lived, but was fully conscious +of and keenly alive to their grief and sorrow. But I would do more. Having +passed safely and gloriously the ordeal of so-called death, and crossed +the dreaded rubicon, I am now employing my best energies in learning the +initial and rudimentary laws appertaining to spirit life and spirit +growth, which I ought to have learned on earth, in the fervent hope and +desire that I may be of service to my country and countrymen. If I have a +friend who would hear and heed me, I would say to him as my best counsel, +see to it that you learn more of the spiritual side of life while here in +the body, that when you pass to the higher life your spirit may be +accelerated in its onward march along the highways of progress in the +heavenly spheres. + + "J. A. GARFIELD." + + +At the seance the 7th of November, 1881, I placed a sealed letter, with no +address on the envelope, on the stand, and no one in the body except +myself knew the contents, as I had written it early in the morning at my +home, on Mt. Auburn. I deem it best to give my letter and the answer to it +in full, as it demonstrates beyond all possible controversy the ability of +spirits to read and understand written matter effectually concealed from +mortal view by being securely sealed up. + +"To my dear exalted spirit friend, Madam Fredrika Ehrenborg: You always +was on earth a valued friend of mine. Since your entrance into the spirit +world I have been lead to appreciate more fully your good qualities of +head and heart; and your kind spiritual ministrations to me I fear I can +never repay. They have made me very happy indeed. You brought the highly +exalted Swedenborg, and your angel husband to make God's truths clearer +to us, and we know we can not return this loving kindness in any other way +than in by trying to live up to them in our daily lives, and in making +them known to others. During my whole life I have had so very few real +friends outside of my family, but I now know that my good spirit friends +have more than restored the loss of earthly friends, who I may have +lamented. For a long time I have been thinking to send you a special +offering of my sincere, heartfelt thanks, which I now do. Your sincere and +humble earth friend, + + "C. J. HELLEBERG." + + +The answer soon came in the following words on the insides of the double +slate: + +"To my highly respected earth friend, C. J. Helleberg: I know since my +entrance upon a higher life more than before that you value my friendship +to a very high degree, which I have tried with my spirit to reciprocate. +You need not feel yourself under obligations to me or mine, for I take +great pleasure in administering to your wants, and I am exceedingly happy +to be able to do so, and that you appreciate we know. We are aware that +our communications to you have made you and yours happy, and it rejoices +us to know that we have been the instruments in doing good, and as you +say, 'You can not return our loving kindness in any other way than by +trying with all your might to live up to them in your daily lives, and in +making them known to others.' That is just what your spirit friends wish +you to do. You need not grieve for earthly friendship; those ties have +soon to be broken, but have your thoughts on spirit life and friends? My +noble husband and Mr. Swedenborg are here with us. Accept my heartfelt +thanks for your good wishes toward me, and for your kind allusion to my +noble companion. Love to your dear companion, and believe me ever your +friend and guide. This is in answer to your sealed letters. + + "FREDRIKA EHRENBORG." + + +The 23d of January, 1882, came the following from the former Governor of +Indiana: "Good morning my dear friend in the cause of truth. I have been +present at many of your sittings, and this morning I feel the power strong +enough to write and give expressions to a few humble thoughts in regard to +what I have done since my entrance to the spirit world. My battles here +were to put down aristocracy and the expenses of our government. I fought +hard for that. I did not believe in drinking ice tea at the expense of the +government. I was satisfied with a good old fashion tea like my mother +made, and a suit of blue jeans. I am still at work in our spiritual +congress to that end. If there is not something done speedily our +government of our forefathers is gone, and instead a stronger one, or +monarchy. Capitalists gnawing at its vitals, and it must inevitably +succumb. Spirit world is constantly at work to change the influence. We +are coming to every channel we can to speak, and our prayers are that we +may be heard and heeded. With my blessing on you both, I bid you good day. + + "J. D. WILLIAMS." + + +"A. Lincoln, J. A. Garfield, O. P. Morton, A. P. Willard, Emanuel +Swedenborg, Fredrika Ehrenborg, Madam Amalia de Frese, Polheim, +Wilberforce and Otto Jacob Natt-och-Dag are present. + + "EMIL." + + +December 12th came the following: + +"Kind friends: I am with you this morning to encourage you by the +utterance of a few thoughts. The authority of the priesthood over the +consciences and judgments of men is fast losing its hold, and creeds are +in the course of ultimate extinction. The overthrow of the institution of +slavery in the United States was precipitated by war, and I shudder to +contemplate even the possibility that the final conflict between the +prevalent creeds predicated on false theology, and succored by +superstition on the one hand, and an enlightened rationalism, etc. on the +other, may unhappily eventuate in bloody issues. Creeds are doomed to +perish. God grant they may pass away without the costly sacrifice of +blood. The pages of both sacred and profane history record crimes of the +darkest and deepest magnitude enacted in the holy name of religion. In her +fair name the soil of the earth has been crimsoned with the precious blood +of martyrs, and the ghastly horrors of the inquisition have been feebly +and imperfectly told. The real truth of those horrid deeds has been +faithfully chronicled in the archives of the spirit world. Without malice, +and in all charity, I speak of them to-day, but the truth must be boldly +stated. The history of the Christian system of religion is, in part, a +history of foul assassination, bloodshed and rapine, and all under the +impious pretext of advancing the kingdom of heaven and magnifying the +glory of the Lord. Not only have the brave souls who dared to lift voice +or hand against the hideous monster of religious fanaticism and tyranny +been sacrificed as heretics, but noble and queenly women--yea, innocent +and unoffending children--have fallen victims to its merciless cruelty and +gluttonous rapacity for greed and power. Religion and tyranny have marched +hand in hand together along the highways of the past, and with the stake, +the javelin, the executioner's ax, and every conceivable instrument of +torture, have left behind them ruin, desolation and death as fitting and +enduring monuments of their utter unrighteousness. Does this terrible +history, so replete with evil, offer us evidences of Godlike excellence? +Can such a religious system, founded in falsehood, fostered by +superstition, nourished by the blood of innocence, and pre-eminently +distinguished by so frightful a history, much longer command the tolerant +and kindly consideration of the advanced intelligence of the world, or +continue to inspire the conviction that it emanated from God, and has been +sustained all these centuries by the fostering care of his goodness and +love? In view of all this, is it surprising to any one that He who taketh +cognizance of the minutest details of human conduct has commissioned his +angels and the spirits who have escaped the environments and passed beyond +the limitations of the flesh to return to those in mortal on the +redemptive mission of demonstrating a continued life beyond the grave, and +revolutionizing the religious thought, moral tendencies and spiritual +conceptions of mankind. I repeat, creeds are doomed to perish, and this +angel ministry, fraught with freedom, truth and righteousness, will erect +her gorgeous temples over their buried ruins. Thanks be to God that I +obeyed the majestic voices wafted from the spirit world, inducing, as they +did, the liberation in our land of four millions of the enslaved children +of chattel bondage. Enjoying the communion with spirits, and learning of +them and their bright homes, the heritage of the father's love, I was, +while yet inhabiting the tabernacle of clay, made glad and filled with +superhuman joy, and in consequence was the recipient of strength and +happiness in this glorious land of the spirit. Go ye, therefore, and do +likewise. Good day. + + "A. LINCOLN." + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +NEW YEARS' GREETINGS FROM MANY OF MY DEAR SPIRIT FRIENDS AND NEAR +RELATIVES. + + +The 29th of December, 1881, I received with many others the following +communication: + +"Good morning, my dear friends, for such I will call you, although I have +never had the pleasure of seeing you in the body, but as magnetic +attraction seems to be the topic, I will write a few lines to you. Some +years ago I corresponded with this medium's husband, and I had the +pleasure of calling her my pupil, because her mediumship was so much like +that of mine and my daughter Laura. I took so much interest in her and her +future success, and predicted that she would be a wonderful medium in +time, and now I come as her teacher to congratulate her on her success and +to give her words of cheer, and to tell her that she has only ascended +half way up the ladder of fame as a spirit medium; and, also, that I have +come to-day by magnetic attraction, and will be here often to aid her in +her development. With my prayers for you both and for your success, I bid +you good morning. + + "JUDGE EDMONDS." + + +The 2d of January, 1882, in the forenoon, came on the slate the following: + +"Good morning, dear papa. We are all here with our happy New Year's +greetings--Emil, Charles, Gustaf, Mary, Julia, Grandpa and Grandma +Helleberg, Grandpa Natt-och-Dag, Swedenborg, Madam Ehrenborg, Madam de +Frese, and a host of others. Dear Emil forgot me; I am last, but I hope +not the least, in sending you a happy New Year's greeting. He says I am +able to do that myself, and so I am, and happy to do so. Nothing affords +me more real pleasure than to communicate to you. Wishing you many +beautiful spirit communications this coming year, I bid you good day. + + "JENNIE." + + +After this came the following from a highly esteemed noble lady, who +recently passed to the higher life, leaving an only daughter remaining in +the form. Madam de Frese was distinguished in her native land--Sweden--for +her literary tastes and labors and the purity of her character. It was a +great surprise by reason of her having passed on so recently: + +"Good morning, my dear friend. With the assistance of Mr. Swedenborg and +our kind friend Madam Ehrenborg, and with the aid of this medium's very +highly gifted and intelligent band, I am able to write a few more lines to +those I love who are yet in the body." (At this moment I said to the +medium, "It is my impression that this communication is from my friend, +Amelia de Frese, and it may be a help to convince the New Church people in +Sweden, and her daughter, of the spiritual truth and power.") + +And then came: + +"Yes, that is my object, to send them a New Year's greeting from my +beautiful spirit home, and to tell my dear daughter that I am not far from +her, but able to advise her and control affairs mundane, and that by +impression. She will be directed in the right way, and although she does +not imagine that I am with her, still it is a reality. Tell her to have no +fear, she will be directed to do my will, and now that the dark pall is +before her, and that to penetrate through it seems an impossibility, but +'ere long she will get glimpses of the summer land and of the loved ones +gone before. Though the clouds may lower and thicken fast and the +mutterings of the storm king is heard, fear not, mother is near to ward +off danger. She will know my meaning. She is in mental trouble, the weight +is almost overpowering. This will help to remove it somewhat, and what she +longs for. She thinks, 'Oh, if mother could tell me what to do.' As a +parting word, tell her that the sunshine of Spiritualism will scatter the +clouds and mists that now surround her, and that she will be made doubly +happy by its introduction into her troubled heart, and every pulsation of +that member of the body will beat with joy. With the blessings of +Swedenborg and Madam Ehrenborg, and with my heart full of love for her and +highest regards for yourself and companion, and thanks for this privilege +of communicating, I bid you adieu. + + "MADAM AMALIA DE FRESE, + of Stockholm, Sweden." + + +January 9th I received the following from the same spirit: + +"Thanks, my dear old friend, Mr. Helleberg, for sending the communication +to my daughter. I will be there when she reads it, and make her feel my +presence. I am your friend, + + "AMALIA DE FRESE." + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +A PRAYER FROM MADAM EHRENBORG. + + +Jan. 26, 1882. And the following came on the slate, which I then copied +word for word, and herewith reproduce _verbatim et literatum_: + +"My dear old friend. According to promise I am here, and I will endeavor +to write you a prayer: + +"Oh, thou Infinite Spirit of Truth, soul of all things, we humbly approach +Thee at this hour. We know our praises can not exalt Thee for Thou art +already infinitely exalted. We know how vain are our adulations of Thee, +and that we can not change or make Thee other than what Thou art, a being +permeating all things, ever pure and changeless. We know Thou hast existed +in all the past, and for Thee and Thine there is no ending in all the +measureless immensity of future time. Thou art infinite and perfect in all +Thy great attributes of love, wisdom, and power, the true and everlasting +trinity. We know we serve Thee best when we seek and labor for the good of +Thy children, whether they be in realms of spirit being or in mortal life. +We feel the inspiration of Thy words--'Do good to all'--wafted to our +anxious ears on every breeze, and we bow in reverence before the eternal +words written on all the works of Thy mighty creation, 'Love one another +even as I love all.' We look not for Thee in temples of human +construction, or in buildings vainly dedicated to Thy worship, but we +discover Thee in all that Thou hast brought into being by the creative +energies of Thy almighty power. We hear Thy majestic voice in the mighty +roar of old ocean and in the gentle murmurings of the brooklet. We hear +Thy voice in the thunderings of the storm king and in the soft whisperings +of the zephyrs. We behold Thee in the stately form of the oak and in the +sweet blossoming and blooming flowers. Wherever we go, wherever we look, +and in whatever we behold there Thou art ever present. Oh, Thou mighty +master spirit of the universe, bless Thy children every-where. Strengthen +Thy messengers, ministering spirits from the land immortal, to teach those +still in the bonds of the flesh the sublime and eternal truths of +immortality. May Thy children in mortal learn that wisdom which teaches +righteous living, heroic dying, life-unending and eternal progression. +Shower divine blessings on this aged brother who is seeking to know of +Thee through Thy ministering angels. Strengthen his faith, increase his +knowledge, cheer his heart, and as he nears the end of the journey of +mortal life fill his soul with that joy that can only be bestowed by the +spirits of dear ones who have passed to the better land. Bless, oh Father, +this noble medium, a chosen instrument of the spirit world, through whom +to transmit messages of love. Bless all such instruments. Encourage and +invest with continually increasing powers this noble band of spirits, and +enable them through their chosen and beloved medium to bless and cheer the +hearts of many by the impartation of light divine, and may that light +radiate through their souls as the sunbeams descending from the golden +orb of day illuminates the physical world. Accept, oh Lord, from the +fulness of our souls this our earnest prayer. Amen." + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +GREETINGS FROM HORACE GREELEY, J. G. BENNETT, AND HENRY J. RAYMOND, TO F. +B. PLIMPTON, ASSOCIATE EDITOR OF THE CINCINNATI "DAILY COMMERCIAL." + + +During the visit of the celebrated medium, Henry Slade, to Cincinnati, +recently, a reporter of the Cincinnati "Daily Enquirer" visited him and +secured a sitting, during which Mr. F. B. Plimpton, associate editor of +the Cincinnati "Daily Commercial," by invitation was present. The day +following, the "Enquirer" reporter, in speaking of the seance in the +columns of his paper, referred to Mr. Plimpton in disparaging terms as +being a believer in Spiritualism, etc. In the succeeding issue of the +"Enquirer" Mr. Plimpton had published over his proper signature the +following rejoinder: + + +DR. SLADE AND HIS "CONFEDERATE." + +_To the Editor of the Enquirer._ + +Your reporter makes much of my accidental meeting with him at the rooms of +Dr. Slade. I had called on the doctor's general invitation (he being an +entire stranger to me), not with the thought of witnessing any of the +so-called manifestations, but to have a chat with him touching some points +of his European experience. + +In the course of our conversation he incidentally mentioned that he had an +appointment with a press representative, and shortly afterward your +reporter came in, and was introduced to me as "Mr. Culbertson." Having met +the young gentleman on a recent social occasion, when he was introduced to +me under his right name, his identity was not obscure to me, but it would +have been the height of impoliteness on my part, an invited guest, to have +interfered with any little plan he may have formed to entrap the magician. +It is a trivial and common form of deception, and as Dr. Slade does not +profess to be a mind-reader, it is as easy for a stranger to impose on him +in that way as upon an ordinary person. So, as "Mr. Culbertson" your +reporter remained from the beginning to the end of the sitting. + +Why Dr. Slade changed his mind and allowed me to remain during the seance +I do not know, and do not care to know. It seems, however, to have excited +the suspicions of your acute reporter, who amusingly presents me to your +readers in the light of a confidante of the doctor. This is too ridiculous +to receive serious refutation. It was the sheerest accident that I was +present at all. + +Your reporter very fairly states the phenomena witnessed, except where his +lively imagination charmingly interferes with strict accuracy, and tempts +him to adorn his narrative with divers brass ornaments of his own +invention. But he must pardon me if I decline to accept him as an expert +at his own valuation, since by his own statement he stands condemned of +practicing the only deception at all explicable, and then not telling the +truth about it. + +He is, however, entitled to his own conclusions, which must be very +valuable, considering the time he has devoted to investigation. There is +no accounting for the superior insight which a young man has into +phenomena, that have baffled old heads after years of patient study. It +may be remarked, however, that to denounce as trickery and fraud phenomena +otherwise not easily explained is a ready way of ridding one's self of the +whole business. + +Though not giving much attention of late years to the subject, I am a +Spiritualist, and not ashamed to own it. The time has passed when it is +necessary to doff one's hat and apologize in this or any other intelligent +community for being a Spiritualist. It is, at least, as creditable as to +discourse without knowledge and condemn without investigation. + + F. B. PLIMPTON. + + +On Thursday, February 2d, at Mrs. Green's, among other matter received +came the following: + +"Respected Sir: We are here this morning to ask you to go and see Mr. +Plimpton, of the "Commercial," and say to him for us, that we not only +thank but congratulate him for his recent bold and manly utterances in +favor of truth. The time has arrived for those blessed with the knowledge +presented by Spiritualism to bravely avow it, and we are glad that he has +taken the initiative in the Queen City of the West. The time has truly +passed when such avowal entails social ostracism or any kind of +persecution. The banner of truth has been unfurled, and ye brave souls +marshal the veteran hosts under it and onward to victory. You will find +less obstruction than you think, for believers in this much-abused gospel +of light are more numerous than you conceive. Besides you have myriad +hosts of heaven at your backs. Falter not, move onward with firm and +confident step. Be steadfast and true and bright laurels await you. The +victory is not always to the strong, but to the active, the vigilant, and +the brave. The army of Spiritualism has already swollen into huge +proportions, and its ranks are being daily augmented. The decree has gone +forth and the triumph will come. Truth shall arise for the eternal years +of God are her's, and nothing can stay or retard the onward march to +victory of the grand army of invisible hosts. + + "HORACE GREELEY. + "J. G. BENNETT, SR. + "HENRY J. RAYMOND." + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +COMMUNICATIONS FROM HORACE GREELEY, GOVERNOR O. P. MORTON, AND A. P. +WILLARD. + + +On the 7th of April, among other things, I received the following: + +"Unless some changes are made in the conduct of your government direful +consequences are to be apprehended. Under the present mode of +administration it is continually subjected to very heavy straining, and it +can not much longer stand it. Many reforms are needed, and the +requirements of patriotism demand that they be seriously considered and +acted upon. Your civil service is entirely wrong, and can not be continued +much longer without serious detriment to your form of government. The +integrity and stability of your institutions are constantly menaced by it. +You claim that you have an elective government. Is the claim true? +Thousands of important public offices are not filled by the elective voice +of the people. They are filled by appointment from purely partisan +considerations--for partisan purposes and as a reward for party services +and party zeal. Fitness and worthiness are secondary and minor +considerations. Hence arise clamorings of party strife, and the +engendering of the festering sore curses of corruption. The Presidential +office had better be abolished than to continue it invested with such vast +patronage in dispensing official appointments. There exists no valid +reason why the people themselves should not select from their neighbors +postmasters, revenue officers, etc., as well as state, county, and +township officers. The Presidential office should either be dispensed with +or its incumbent elected by a direct vote of the people without the +intervention of the cumbersome and corrupting electoral machinery. The +electing of men to elect other men to office is the dodging of a +responsibility and the surrendering of a right of the people that can not +be defended upon sound principles. + +"Another danger confronts you menacingly and demands watchful attention. +It is the startling aggregations of wealth among the few, and wrung from +the sweat of labor. These immense accumulations find utilization in the +creation of merciless monopolies which have already assumed gigantic and +threatening proportions in the United States. + +"Stock gambling is not a whit better in morals than any of the games of +cards by which the unwary are fleeced out of their hard earnings. The +participants and operators in the one are no better than in the other, and +yet the one, under your Christian civilization is applauded while the +other is denounced. How long yet will the people continue to be hoodwinked +and handicapped by designing political tricksters. We have seen the star +of hope, but now behold the star of promise rising in its refulgent +splendor, and therefore we take heart. + + "H. GREELEY." + + +HON. O. P. MORTON. + +On the 13th of April the following communication was received, purporting +to come from the late United States Senator from Indiana, Oliver P. +Morton, viz: + +"Amid the rancor and jealousies of party strife I came in for a full share +of abuse and vituperation. I was denounced most bitterly as an ambitious +man, wholly unconscionable and indifferent as to the means employed in the +accomplishment of party ends. Now, I frankly confess that I was not a +saint in politics, nor always, politically speaking, perfectly orthodox. I +am free to admit that I was so constituted that when I once believed a +certain view to be sound and right I never hesitated to use all the +appliances and machinery of party to secure its triumph. I was called a +bold man in politics. I am proud of this, for it is in contradistinction +to all that is sneaking. I aimed to always be right, and believed, in a +certain qualified and honorable sense, that the ends justified the means. +Those who are vociferating so loudly and screaming so painfully about bad +and corrupt men, are generally traveling in the same boat, with the same +sails spread to the breeze. In my mind and heart the country's good was +always a paramount consideration, and I have as few regrets as most men +who have devoted as long a period to public life. The man out of office +feels himself called upon to denounce the man who is in, and affects to +believe himself especially endowed with the requisite qualities to purify +the public service, but when safely ensconced in the incumbency he too +soon finds himself a Barkis, who "is willing." There are many good and +true men engaged in public political life, but none perfect, and you would +be as successful in ransacking _hades_ for an angel of light in your +efforts to find a perfect politician. Whatever is wrong and corrupt in +your public service and political life will never be corrected and +purified by the politicians alone. As well might you hope for a deadly +eating cancer to eradicate itself, or the upas tree, with its deadly +emanations, to give forth health-breeding and life-sustaining exhalations. +The remedy rests alone and wholly with the great masses of the people. The +prostitution of office to the debasing influences of bribery and +corruption must be made odious by fixing austere penalties against the +offender, and the prompt and indiscriminate enforcement of them. +Misfeasance and malfeasance in public office ought to be considered an +unpardonable crime, and the guilty dealt with accordingly. Let the people +teach their officials the doctrine that a continuation of political +existence depends wholly on fidelity to the public interests, and the +honest, faithful and efficient administration of their official trusts. +When there is willful dereliction of duty, or a failure by grossly +reprehensible conduct to meet the just public expectations, not only +relegate the offender to the walks of private life, but impose such +punishment as shall be deemed adequate to the enormity of the crime, and +will deter others from the commission of like offenses. + + "O. P. MORTON." + + +GOV. A. P. WILLARD. + +May 19, 1882, I received the following from Ashbel P. Willard, who I learn +was at one time Governor of the State of Indiana, viz.: + +"Good morning, sir. I was, during my earth life, a politician, and, to a +certain extent, a successful one, if success may be measured and +determined by captivating the masses, and thereby securing elevation to +office. I was in early life surrounded by poverty, and arose from humble +conditions to the chief magistracy of the great commonwealth of Indiana. I +was of the common people, always kept myself closely allied to them and +their interests, and if you will excuse the egotism, always felt that I +was near their hearts. I was called an orator, and probably to some extent +this was true, for nature had favored me highly in that direction by +organization, and I have occasion to be thankful that whatever gifts I may +have possessed, they were aimed to be exercised for the promotion of the +public good and the happiness and prosperity of the people. In youth I +obtained a common education and taught school, and by teaching the young +the rudiments of education I was enabled to study and observe the +different tendencies and characteristics of mind. While engaged in this +pursuit I discovered some properties of my own mind and some gifts of +speech, which, in public utterance, subsequently distinguished me--not so +much in the forum as on the "hustings" during periodical political +excitements. I soon discovered that the power I was enabled to wield in +political disputations was attracting the people to me, and their voices +at the ballot-box soon called me into official position and consequent +prominence. + +"Whatever faults I may have had, it is a proud satisfaction for me to know +that it was never charged that I ever betrayed either a private or public +trust. But in my day things were quite different from what they are now. +The politicians in my day were imbued with a different and a higher +patriotic sense of obligation to the public interests and the general +public weal. The great war of the rebellion seems to have poisoned the +divine streams of patriotism, and the politicians of to-day seem to have +drank too freely therefrom. You have passed through evil times, and they +are still upon you. + +"The best minds of the spirit world are hard at work seeking to purify the +waters of political life. It must begin at the fountain head. The people, +the great masses who constitute the fountain of all political power, must +be awakened to a realization of the wretched condition into which they +have permitted public affairs to drift. There must be a quickening of the +public conscience and a revivifying of the patriotism of the early fathers +of the republic. The sanctifying influences of the patriotism of the +revolution must again permeate the hearts of the people. The politicians, +always cunning and watchful of the tendencies and driftings of the public +mind, will either fall in with the new order of things, or be forced to +retire and subside from public notice. The great minds and patriotic +hearts of Washington, Lafayette, Adams, Jefferson, Franklin, Hancock, +Paine, Webster, Clay, Douglas, Lincoln, Garfield, and hosts of others, are +coming from the skies, leaving for awhile the glorious pursuits and joys +of spirit unfoldments to speak to the people, and to lead them away from +the demoralizing and corrupting influences of the partisanship of the day +into better channels and loftier patriotism. + +"How shall the work of purifying the public service, restimulation of +patriotism, and the placing of the waning fortunes of the country upon the +high road of prosperity be done? _First._ What is needed to be done? +_Second._ How shall it be done? These questions, so pregnant with mighty +results, should engage your earnest and prayerful consideration. These +matters may be discussed and presented to you, and I am glad that the +means will be furnished to lay them before the people. + +"If what I have said will be the means of arousing one patriotic citizen +to the necessity of the governmental reformation now in contemplation by +our spiritual congress, I shall feel then supremely happy that the little +effort in writing these feeble lines was not in vain. + +"I was known when in the form, and am still, as + + "ASHBEL P. WILLARD." + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +COMMUNICATIONS FROM THE DRUNKARD, A MISER, WILLIAM GAILARD, WILLIAM LLOYD +GARRISON, WILBERFORCE, TECUMSEH, A SUICIDE. + + +On May 25, 1882, came the following communication from a spirit, who +declined to give his name, for reasons which he claimed to be prudential +and personal to himself. It is here given in his own words: + +"The band of spirits who have this medium in charge, together with other +exalted ones and one who is co-operating with them temporarily, have not +only allowed, but invited me, unworthy as I am, to come and tell my story. +It is a short and terrible one, and in deep sorrow and humiliation I +proceed to tell it. + +"I was called, and justly so, a drunkard. By nature I was blessed with a +strong and robust constitution, and I was, what is too often a curse, the +child of wealthy parents. My father was rich, and this circumstance proved +my ruin. I was nursed in the lap of luxury, never knew what it was to +want, and consequently had no sympathy for those that suffered, or those +immersed in the fierce struggles of poverty. I disdained to work with my +hands for bread, and knew not the hardships and sorrows of the toiling +millions. My brow was never moistened by the sweat of labor, and I grew up +in the belief that the poor were intended and purposely created to serve +the rich, and were deserving of naught but a bare scanty subsistence. My +life of indolence and ease, my uninterrupted hours of leisure, produced +their inevitable fruit in their accompaniments of vice and immorality. +Idleness, as I now know, is the parent of vice, and riches too frequently +constitute the propagating life germs of wickedness. It was sadly true in +my unhappy case. Oh, fathers, mothers, heed my warning counsel: Train your +children to labor--to work, work, work. Allow but few idle hours for +dissipation and vice. Keep them away, if possible, from the club room, +where intoxicating beverages are indulged in and made inviting by +temptation, and where lascivious conversations only tend to stimulate and +develop the lower passions and propensities of their natures. Wine, fair +to look upon and with frequent imbibations exhilarating, contains within +its alluring embrace a terrible lurking serpent whose venomous sting is +fatal to all that is noble, grand, and holy. It strikes, figuratively +speaking, its poisoned teeth into the very vitals of our being, and the +effect follows us to the other life with its terrible retributive +vengeance. Oh, pity the poor inebriate, and erect all possible barriers +against the terrible ravages of the fell destroyer. + + "THE DRUNKARD." + + +A MISER. + +April 24, 1882, came the following: + +"I am permitted to come to you to-day to relate something of my history. +There is a twofold purpose in my visit. I am told that this will greatly +benefit me as a spirit still bound to my idol--gold--and that I may be +instrumental in warning others to avoid my condition. + +"I lived in the flesh more than three score years and ten, and when I laid +down to die the only thing I regretted leaving was my gold and hoarded +wealth. Oh, I thought, if I could only take it all with me how happy I +would be. The world said I was a noble man, because being avaricious and +greedy, I was successful in acquiring riches. My nobility of character was +measured entirely by my ability to accumulate money and property. I want +to publish it to the world that money, stocks, and landed estates, are +poor capital to bank on in the spirit world. They will do here, and as the +world goes, will make you respectable, your society and influence coveted +and all that, but you need a different kind of capital on this side of +life. Gold here has great purchasing power. It buys the luxuries of life, +it even buys honor, virtue, and innocence, at a fearful sacrifice and cost +to others, but its power, except its terrible evil following, ends with +your life in the body. Nothing but good deeds, noble charities, and +upright living pass current in the land of souls. I was a miserable, +soulless miser, and my occupation and delight consisted in adding to my +coffers, and in this endeavor I forgot and ignored conscience and every +thing in the pathway of the pursuit of my idol. + +"I belonged to a fashionable church, owned a pew, attended the services, +and flattered myself that this was all that was needful to prepare my soul +for happiness in the other world. No appeals of charity were ever strong +enough to touch my sympathies or open my purse strings. The tears of the +widow, the wails of the orphan, or the cries of the suffering, however +piteous, never touched my heart or obtained from me a single penny. I +stinted myself and family and contributed nothing towards the relief of +want and suffering, for I was so completely enslaved by the accursed love +of and passion for money. This is a humiliating confession to make, but it +is, alas, for my happiness, too true. I tell you money has been my curse, +and oh, how terribly have I suffered. Years upon years have rolled by, and +I have only partially paid the penalty of my folly. No wonder the rich man +wanted some one to go back and tell his brethren of his fate. I hope I may +hereby be the humble instrument in warning others against the pitfall into +which I have fallen. My gold came up before me here to greet my fond gaze, +and when I would joyously reach out for it, behold it would elude my +grasp, thus teaching me that it had no real existence except as the +haunting specter of my unholy life struggle for its possession. The light +of redemption now begins to beam upon me, flooding my soul with its bright +rays of hope. I feel this will do me good, and I am very thankful for the +opportunity. Let me be simply known as + + "THE MISER." + + +WILLIAM GAILARD. + +William Gailard was an old personal friend, and the first one who called +my attention to the subject of Spiritualism. He had been a Swedenborgian, +and at times had officiated as a preacher in England before he came to the +States. At a sitting with Mrs. Green, June 2, 1882, I was pleased to +receive the following communication from him: + +"My old friend, Mr. Helleberg. I know you have been waiting and wanting to +hear from me, and I have been just as anxious to respond. Here in the +spirit world we have order and system, and each one must bide his time. +My time has come to speak a few words to you, and I assure you, my dear +old friend, I seize the opportunity with pleasure I can not fully express. + +"I remember that the new light of spiritual truth came to me first, and I +was the humble instrument in the hands of higher intelligences to assist +you in obtaining it. I was a medium for exalted spirits to lead you and +others into the light, and that for a great and noble purpose, for way +back to that time the plans were laid for the work in which you are now +engaged so nobly and fearlessly. You are also, my dear friend, a medium, +for it is true that all persons whom spirits can influence, however +unconscious it may be to themselves, are mediums in the true sense of the +word. + +"You are helping others to grow and expand in spiritual knowledge, and you +will be astonished when you come over to look back and see the work you +have done, and to receive the plaudit, 'Well done, good and faithful +servant.' I have been blessed beyond measure for the little I was enabled +to do, but your reward will be greater than mine. Your opportunities were +greater and you cheerfully yielded your energies, time, and means, to the +work. + +"If Spiritualists could only realize the treasures they are laying up for +themselves by advancing the banner of truth, and the joys in consequence +that await them on the golden shore, they would spare no pains or means +and omit no effort in spreading the gospel of glad tidings. Oh, how I +would exult with joy if the New Church people would see and preach this +beautiful and blessed truth. They will yet get their eyes open, and step +out of their little creed-bound narrowness, and stand upon the broad and +heavenly platform of the Lord and this spiritual truth, for they are one +and the same. Swedenborg will speak to them from the higher life, and I +pray they may heed him. Your old friend, + + "WILLIAM GAILARD." + + +WM. LLOYD GARRISON. + +At the sitting June 9, 1882, came the following: + +"For long years before the emancipation of the slaves I waged a fierce and +bitter warfare against the institution of African slavery in the United +States. The overthrow of that accursed institution became the absorbing +and central idea of my soul from my early manhood. All other themes, +questions, and subjects, I subordinated to that one dominant purpose of my +life. When I had lived to see that institution swept out of existence, +equal civil rights secured, and manhood suffrage conferred, irrespective +of race, color, or previous condition of servitude, I felt a sweet +heavenly calm rest upon my soul, accompanied by the consciousness that I +had not lived in vain. I felt that my efforts, however feeble, had helped +to forward to a glorious consummation that long eventful struggle, and +that by aiding in pushing along the car of progress and freedom, the world +had not suffered by my having lived in it. When the victory had been +achieved I had advanced far 'into the vale of years,' and realized that my +life forces were well nigh exhausted. They had been mainly expended in my +life work as editor, lecturer, etc., in a warfare upon an unholy condition +in which upward of four millions of human beings, with God-given souls, +had been placed by sheer force and without their own consent. I saw and +still see needed reforms that call aloud for help, willing souls, and +ready hands. Reform in the currency, reform in the tariff, reform in the +civil service, a complete overhauling and reconstruction of government, +the overthrow of rum, and the enfranchisement of women. God will and is +raising up noble souls for this noble work, and you may be assured that +the spirit world is neither indifferent nor inactive. Spirit bands are +forming every-where, instrumentalities are being chosen, and agencies are +being arranged for the work. The millions of high and exalted souls of the +higher life will, ere long, descend upon the children of earth with their +inspiring and propelling influence, and a revolution in the realm of mind +will be inaugurated that shall eventuate in the accomplishment of needed +reforms. I shall be among the number with all my strength and soul. + + "WM. LLOYD GARRISON." + + +WILBERFORCE. + +July 7, 1882, at a sitting this day the following came: + +"The main struggle of my life was to secure the liberation of the enslaved +in the dominions under the authority and jurisdiction of the British +government. I lived to witness the glorious success of my labors and to +rejoice thereat and therein. I fought human slavery; I mean that slavery +which is recognized by law--the right of one man to own another as a +chattel, and to either transfer that ownership to another for a pecuniary +or other consideration, or to transmit it as an inheritance. In doing so I +had to combat wealth, prejudice, and biblical religion, for the bible +recognizes this right. The struggle was long, eventful, and bitter, but +victory finally crowned the effort. The civilized world concedes now the +justness of my cause and the value to mankind of its success. And yet you +are now fastening upon yourselves a slavery more appalling and degrading +than African slavery ever was, or the slavery of the heathen and strangers +of the olden time. (See Leviticus, 25th chapter, 44, 45 and 46th verses.) + +"The slavery to which I refer now is the slavery of labor to capital. If I +were back again in the body, with my present light on the subject, I would +fight this accursed slavery more bitterly than I did that other species of +slavery, which was bad enough, but infinitely less reprehensible than that +which I am now discussing. + +"No oppression is so utterly merciless and unconscionable as that of +capital upon labor, and no other form of oppression can be so serious and +hurtful in its consequences. Here we behold a mighty conflict between +capital and labor. Capital making cruel and unreasonable exactions, +seeking to obtain labor for an almost starvation pittance, while labor, +unequal in the struggle, seeks to wrest from its adversary a decent and +honorable requitement for its sweat. Capital triumphs and labor suffers. +Let me tell you to-day, sir, and I would have the capitalists hear me, +this contest will not always continue thus. Unless a spirit of justice and +fair dealing shall speedily characterize the treatment of the poor toilers +by their wealthy employers a mighty crash will come, an outburst of +indignation in revolution that will render the bloody scenes of the past +of trivial moment in comparison. The elements are generating, the storm +clouds are surely gathering, and at a moment when least expected they will +burst upon the country and the world in proportions only equaled by the +fierceness of the conflict and its bloody issues. Let those whom it +concerns beware. I beseech them, beware in time. + + "WILBERFORCE." + + +TECUMSEH. + +On the 4th day of August, 1882, between the hours of 9 and 11 A. M., came +the following, which can not fail to be of interest to all who feel that +our Indian policy has been either wrong or ineffective, and that the +Indians have not been rightly treated. The eloquent simplicity of the +communication can not fail to be observed: + +"A large delegation of Indians are here and wish to be heard. We have +concluded to let them speak. I will write what their leader says in as +nearly his own words as possible. + + "NETTIE, _the Control_." + +"We come to speak to palefaces at Washington. Me talk for my people--the +redfaces in the hunting-grounds in the Far West where the sun goes down. +Poor redfaces, nearly all gone. Paleface kill many and drive them from +their old and much loved hunting grounds. You tell them to go on +reservation, and the big father at Washington take good care of them. They +go. Big chief at big city send paleface agents to give them blankets, +ponies, guns, and bread to eat. Paleface agent start big store in wigwam +and cheat redface, and give him fire-water to make him mad and crazy. +When my people see how they are cheated they get mad, and put on war paint +and kill much. Big paleface chief say to blue-coat warriors, go and kill +redface and make them come back, and let paleface agent swindle much more. +Now this is all wrong, and if wrong, why not make wrong right. Redface +only handful, paleface mighty--like the leaves on trees. If redface mighty +and paleface weak, how then you like it? You then like redface be honest +and not cheat, and do as big preach say about golden rule. Me no like you +give my people fire-water or guns. Me much like better if you give red +braves horses and plows, and build school-houses for little papooses. +Teach them how to read and make big scratch (writings) and let them learn +other papooses. Don't cheat. Put paleface clothes on redface, especially +redface papooses, and learn them how to build big houses and how to raise +big much to eat and sell. Then soon redface no more like hunting ground, +but will love paleface and paleface ways. This much better than kill. +Great Spirit no like paleface to kill redface or redface kill paleface. +All die soon enough anyhow. Upper hunting grounds are full of redfaced +spirits, and they all feel bad and sorry for redface in your land. Me no +talk much more. Me sorry--me could cry. Poor redface few--soon all be +gone. Be good to few left, and Great Spirit and redfaced spirits love you +much. Spirit chiefs Ouray and Black Hawk and many more are here, and all +plead for their people in lower hunting grounds. They all feel much bad. +Good bye, chief and squaw. Me thank much for this big scratch. + + "TECUMSEH." + + +AN UNKNOWN SUICIDE. + +August 28, 1882, the following was received, viz: + +"I lived in the body thirty-five years and eight months. I went out by my +own hand into the great beyond. I was a singularly constituted man, and a +very unfortunate one. Self-love is said to be a great ruling passion, but +I never loved myself, and of course could not be expected to love anybody +else. My parents were in no way assimilated and lived very unhappily +together. They quarreled and wrangled constantly, and this embodies my +earliest recollection when a child, and it made an impression upon me from +the influence of which I never recovered. They seemed to hate each other, +and I was created and grew up under the same influence of hate, and hate +accompanied by a feeling of vengeance and revenge became a predominating +trait of my character. My parents both belonged to church, and I have seen +them both shout in church (they were Methodists) and go home, quarrel and +fight for hours afterwards. Father would get drunk and mother would eat +opium. I tell you this disgusted me with religion, and I concluded it was +all a farce. I believed death ended all, and that religion was either a +delusion or downright hypocrisy. Besides I had a very delicate and feeble +physical organization which made me more morose and sullen. Melancholy +finally seized me as a victim, and in a moment of utter despondency I blew +out my brains and ended life in the body. But I could not get away from +life--death I found to be but the commencement of another life, and I had +made the great blunder and committed the foul deed of taking my life into +my own hands. Seventy-seven years have passed since, and the terrible +shadow of the act of suicide still hovers over me and gives me pain and +anguish. But thank God, I begin to climb up the mount of progression--but +the summit is still far away. Oh, people of earth, I pray you become not +the suicide. Wait with patience until nature's laws calls thee hence. +Remember the fate of the suicide is terrible and hard to overcome. And in +my sad history fathers and mothers may learn an instructive and profitable +lesson, for my father and mother have suffered more than I. Thanks for +your goodness. Good bye. + + "A SUICIDE." + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +COMMUNICATIONS FROM THOMAS PAINE, MARGARET FULLER, AND THANKS OF SPIRITS. + + +Aug. 31, 1882. The following from the spirit of Thomas Paine, on capital +punishment, was received: + +"I am here to-day, sir, to say a few words in opposition to capital +punishment. What is the argument in its favor? One citizen has taken the +life of another citizen, and you say he has thereby forfeited his right to +live. From whence do you get this doctrine? Does it belong to and is it a +reflex of your boasted Christian civilization? The Mosaic law demanded an +eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, but is this the doctrine of Jesus, +the assumed founder of Christianity? If you think so, you certainly have +not read him attentively, and it may be profitable to you in considering +the subject to read the Sermon on the Mount, as recorded in the fifth +chapter of Matthew, especially the thirty-eighth and thirty-ninth verses. + +"You coolly and with the utmost deliberation usher these imperfectly +developed souls out of one life into another, thereby ridding yourselves +of human monsters and fiends by sending them to be cares, pests, and +annoyances to the people of another world. And this you call Christian +charity, benevolence, and fair dealing. But you say they can repent before +they are shuffled off by the hangman, and thus be saved. If this be true, +the best service you can render all villains and evil disposed persons is +to hang them as the surest means of saving their souls in heaven, for if +they are permitted to live and die natural deaths the chances are that +they will never repent, and all consequently go to hell. But this is a +subterfuge. It is the unholy spirit of revenge that actuates you, and you +consider not the victim's good. Certainly heaven is not yearning for these +cutthroats and outlaws, and hell, according to orthodoxy, is already +crowded and overpopulated. One man, either through ungovernable passion or +malice prepense, takes the life of another. Now, he generally has some +real or imaginary grievance, but without even this excuse your courts take +the other life, just as if one wrong justified another. Your plea that +protection to society demands this course is untenable. Is it true that no +adequate protection can be afforded except by judicial murder? Would not +the confinement of the culprit subserve the same purpose, with the +additional humane advantage of allowing the opportunity to reform and +become better, and best of all, to let the voice of God, through natural +law, call him from time to eternity. + +"Christians can not rise up to the sublime altitude of adopting, in +practical life, the ennobling teachings of the Nazarene including love and +forgiveness, as long as they believe the God of their worship to be a +vindictive and passionate being full of spleen and vengeance. To believe +in such a God naturally inspires the effort to imitate his +characteristics, and hence they become spiteful and vengeful, and in favor +of taking human life on the scaffold, because a badly organized mortal in +a fit of rage or in the pursuit of revenge for, perhaps, an imaginary +wrong done him, slays his neighbor. The killing of one man by another is +no worse than judicial murder, and both are relics of barbarism and a past +heathen age, and you ought to have done with them. To-morrow, Margaret +Fuller on prayer. + + "THOMAS PAINE." + + +MARGARET FULLER. + +Sept. 1, 1882, came the following writing from the spirit of Margaret +Fuller: + +"True prayer is the yearning of the soul for something it feels the need +of. It need not be expressed in silent words or oral declamation. Every +aspiration is in the true sense a prayer. Every aspiration, though silent, +has its potencies, reaches out and attracts its kindred spiritual +affinities. If your soul-yearnings and aspirations are of a sordid and +purely earthly nature, they affect and attract corresponding influences in +the invisible realm of being, permeate your soul and limit it to that +sphere. If, on the other hand, your aspirations pertain to the realm of +the lofty and beautiful, you render yourself thereby receptive to the +grand and ennobling influences of the pure and heavenly. If you pray for +riches in a worldly sense you prepare the mental, moral, and spiritual +conditions to attract the spirit misers and the selfish. If you pray for +spiritual illumination and aspire to moral excellence, you bring to your +sphere and aid the noble and unselfish children of the more exalted +spiritual spheres. If you meditate a wrong deed or action you will be +successful in drawing to your assistance those unfortunates of the spirit +world who have not outgrown the tendencies, inclinations, and +imperfections, of their earthly careers and conditions. Hence the very +great importance of being mindful for what you pray. The spiritual +influences that you attract and which thereby become associated with you, +exert a powerful influence in directing your footsteps, molding your +actions, and in the construction of your spiritual temple in the new life +just before you. Would you desire the companionship of spirit paupers and +spirit tramps, become one yourself, and you may depend on success. Would +you prefer rather to be attended by good and noble spirit and spiritual +influences, aspire to be good and noble yourself, and your success is +assured. Of one thing be enlightened, your spirit attendants during your +mortal journey will be no worse than you are yourself. It is yourself that +prepares the conditions and not they. If your actions are upright, your +aspirations noble, and your thoughts elevated toward the divine, you +thereby exert a positive repellant power that no evil can overcome, and in +such a generated atmosphere an evil influence can no more dwell than oil +can mix with water. Bear this great law in mind, and take advantage of it +and you are safe and all will be well. Heed it not in conduct and thought +and it will rebound upon you with damaging effect. + +"Hesitate not to invite undeveloped spirits to your seances if your +purpose be to benefit them. For such a motive on your part will draw +around you the encircling influences of angels and the divine protecting +love, and no harm can befall you, but much good to the poor spiritual +wanderers in spiritual darkness. They must be lifted up, and you can be of +great service as auxiliaries to the advanced spirits who labor for their +redemption. By such a course you are praying such prayers as will bring +upon you blessings from the angelic spheres + + "MARGARET FULLER." + + +At the same sitting came the following closing remarks by the medium's +immediate control: + +"I am requested to state that with this ends the present book, and to +express to you, Mr. Helleberg, the thanks of the spirits who have +communicated for your attentiveness, painstaking, and honest purposes. The +band of the medium have done all they could to assist them and from them +have received benedictions. Besides it has been a labor of love on our +part to be, in any sense, assistants to so many exalted spirits. + +"We also thank you for your gentlemanly deportment towards our medium, and +for the earnest and honest interest you take in her welfare. I speak for +the entire band. + + "NETTIE, _the Control_." + + + + +[APPENDIX.] + +CHAPTER XXI. + +MRS. GREEN'S MEDIAL HISTORY. + + +The following is a partial history of the development and mediumistic +experiences of Mrs. Lizzie S. Green, the medium chosen by the spirits in +transmitting the matter contained in this volume: + +She was born in Jefferson county, Kentucky, on the second day of December, +1844, and consequently at this writing is in her thirty-eighth year. + +The following narrative of her mediumship was written by her husband, +dictated by herself, and when written out was pronounced by her to be +correct, and she adopts it her own. It is believed that this briefly +recited history can not fail to be interesting to the general reader, +since it contains matter and experiences not only absorbingly interesting +but truly wonderful, and evidences the existence of a power that all +thoughtful and candid persons will agree is worthy of investigation. + +Those who have enjoyed Mrs. Green's acquaintance socially for years +invariably speak of her as a truly honest woman, faithful wife, loving +mother, steadfast friend, in intellectual capacity far above and beyond +her educational advantages, and as possessed of many other sterling +qualities of heart. Those who have come in contact with her in the +exercise of her medial gifts can not fail to have been impressed with +her frankness, simplicity of character, and the unquestionable honesty of +her nature. + + +[Illustration] + + +This tribute to her integrity and moral worth is given because well +merited, and by one who not desiring notoriety and fame wishes simply to +be known as + + A FRIEND. + + +NARRATIVE OF HER MEDIUMSHIP. + +"My conscious mediumship began in the fall of 1868. It commenced by the +opening of my spiritual vision, enabling me to see spirits, scenes, +landscapes, etc., in their spirit world. When in the proper state or +condition of passivity I have been permitted to behold innumerable throngs +of spirits, and at times to hear their voices. The phase of clairaudience +added to my clairvoyance I prized highly, and sorely regret that shortly +afterwards a fit of sickness deprived me of the gift of hearing spirit +voices, and for a time seriously retarded my other mediumistic +development. I am happy to be able to state, however, that with my gradual +restoration to health my clairvoyant perceptions began to increase in +power and beauty, and now the voices of the arisen dear ones again greet +my anxious and ever attentive ears. + +"I desire to state in this connection that in all my intercourse with +spirits they have never deceived me in a single isolated instance. They +have always been truthful and straightforward in their statements and +dealings with me. + +"In the earlier stages of my mediumship and still sometimes I was +frequently controlled to personate the peculiar and characteristic +idiosyncracies of spirits during earth life, and to delineate their +sickness and death. Sometimes I would be rendered entirely unconscious and +at other times only partially so. I shall never forget one memorable +occasion of complete unconsciousness and the occurrence during it as +related subsequently by eye witnesses. An old lady was present in the +circle who I had never met before, and of whose history I had no means of +obtaining the slightest knowledge. At the time I was wholly ignorant as to +whether she had ever been a mother or the maternal head of a family, until +I saw and described minutely a spirit standing by her side, who she +readily recognized as her deceased son. 'What was the cause of his death?' +she eagerly inquired. Almost instantly my consciousness was suspended, +preceded by a violent tremulous motion all over my frame. I fell to the +floor in a violent fit, and so terrible was it, and so true to nature in +all its terrible details that no little alarm was manifested by the +various members of the circle. It thoroughly demoralized and threw them +into consternation. I need only add that old Mother Thompson (for that was +her name) has never since doubted the return of the spirit of her son +George, for the poor man had not only suffered a quarter of a century from +that appalling affliction, epileptic fits, but actually died in one. I +soon recovered my normal condition and received the apology from the +spirit for having used me so roughly, stating that his extreme anxiety to +convince his beloved mother of his presence induced him to disregard +delicacy and to overcome all obstacles in the way of the accomplishment of +his purpose. + +"A little girl came to me on a certain occasion and said to me, 'Please go +and see my mother and tell her I am not dead.' 'Where does your mother +live?' I inquired. After giving me the necessary directions where and how +to find her, I said: 'But your mother is a stranger to me, and perhaps if +I go to her on an errand of that kind she will drive me from her door.' +'No she won't,' interposed the little pleader, 'she will be glad to learn +that I am not under the cold ground but alive.' I marshaled the courage to +go, yet I greatly feared the result. I was met at the door by the one I +desired to see, and without giving sufficient time to explain the object +of my call, I was cordially welcomed indoors. After being seated, and +after the usual courtesies had passed, I opened the subject by saying, +'You have a little girl that has gone to the other world?' 'Yes,' said +she, falling into tears, 'she was a dear, darling child, and I have had no +rest since she left me. She was the idol of my heart, and it seems that I +can never become reconciled to her death. Really, at times, I can scarcely +realize that she is dead.' Here a pause ensued, and her grief was so +intense that the waters of sympathetic sorrow involuntarily flowed down my +own cheeks. Rallying, however, as quickly as I could, I said: 'My good +woman, your Mary is not dead. She stands there by your side and wants me +to say to you, 'Mother, I am not dead; do not weep for me, for I am still +with you.' 'How! What does this mean?' exclaimed the mother in apparent +bewilderment, 'I saw her poor little precious body consigned to the cold +and cheerless grave.' 'Yes,' I interrupted, 'but her spirit--the immortal +and only valuable part of herself--was not buried beneath the ground. +Hold, she wishes me to describe her, and further, to prove her identity. +She is a bright, blue-eyed girl of eleven or twelve summers, light auburn +hair naturally inclined to curl, and falls in beautiful ringlets around +her neck, forehead of the Grecian mold, face even and rounded, with a mark +resembling a raspberry under her right eye, and she died from scarlatina.' +'Why, did you know Mary when she was living?' was immediately asked. I +assured her I did not. 'Does the description fit her?' I inquired. +'Perfectly,' was the reply; 'who told you about her,' she added. I +answered: 'My good woman, believe me, until to-day I did not know you were +in existence. The facts I have stated to you I obtained from your Mary +without the slightest knowledge of either your or her history.' After +further conversation on the subject, and after describing other spirits, +whom she readily recognized, the interview terminated, with a pressing +invitation to return, and the assurances that she had derived from my +visit inexpressible joy and happiness. In a few days thereafter I was +unexpectedly called away from St. Louis and have never returned. Letters +from friends who were cognizant of the circumstance as related by herself, +inform me that Mrs. Collins is happy in the knowledge of spiritualism, has +become reconciled to the temporary absence as to physical form of her +child, and sends me her benedictions. + +"In 1869 while holding a circle at Aurora, Ind., composed of a few +intimate friends and neighbors, a gentleman--a stranger to all of +us--applied for admission, stating that he had been left by the east bound +train, and not being able to resume his journey until the following +morning, and hearing of my mediumship, he desired, if agreeable, to have a +sitting, or be allowed to join the circle for that occasion. My husband +cordially assented. Our stranger friend had been seated but a short time +when I saw a spirit forming by his side. I watched the process, and to my +utter astonishment, which I at once made known, the spirit had a rope +around his neck and presented a frightful appearance. I observed, 'I see a +spirit with a rope around his neck, with tongue protruding,' etc. +'Describe him, madam, if you please,' spoke the stranger. I did so; the +spirit for the purpose changing his appearance to that of his natural +condition. The stranger became very much excited, arose, seized his hat, +and nervously remarked, 'This is a great test to me. Several years ago I +was sheriff of an interior county in Indiana, and that man, Jim Roberts, +was sentenced to be hanged for the murder of his father-in-law, and I am +the one who executed the sentence of the court.' When in the act of taking +his departure, he suddenly turned around, and plaintively inquired: 'Has +Jim got any thing against me? I only did my duty as an officer of the +law.' On being assured that no ill feeling was entertained by the spirit +against him, but that he appeared as he did more for the purpose of a test +than any thing else, he took his departure. I have never seen him since. +He gave me, however, considerable notoriety in the community by relating +his wonderful experience with a spiritual medium, and advised every one to +shun mediums unless they were prepared and willing to have every thing +connected with their past lives revealed and made known. Perhaps this +abused spiritualism may yet become the instrumentality of compelling +people to walk uprightly in their dealings with their fellowmen. + +"These are a few among hundreds of such instances that I might relate, but +the space allotted will not permit. I wish now briefly to refer to another +phase of my mediumship. At various intervals I have had prophetic warning, +and prophetic revelations have also been given me. I have also had what +might be appropriately termed panoramic visions of past events of those +both in and out of the body, and of events to transpire in the future of +earth life. These visions, especially those prognostic of the future, have +been truly wonderful. It is an oft quoted saying that 'coming events cast +their shadows before,' and there remains no doubt in my mind but what +spirits--whether all, I am not prepared to say--can sufficiently forecast +the future as to reveal events and actions concealed from mortal +discernment in the bosom of coming time. Let me mention a few instances in +my own experience as evidence of the existence of this power. + +"In 1869, myself and husband were holding a seance alone, at Aurora, Ind. +We were living in the lower part of the city, near the river bank. Aurora +is situated on the banks of the Ohio river, twenty-five miles below +Cincinnati, Ohio. A little above the center of the city fronting the river +a small stream, called Hogan creek, empties into the Ohio. Three or four +hundred yards above the junction of the two streams and on the banks of +the aforementioned creek, is located the mammoth distillery, owned by +Messrs. T. & J. W. Gaff & Co. It has been consumed three times by fire and +as often rebuilt. At the time of which I am speaking, we put blankets up +to the windows in the room to be used for our dark circle, and by this +means effectually excluded all external light. After extinguishing our +lamp light, we sat patiently, awaiting manifestations. In the course of a +half hour I saw and said, 'I see a large brick building on fire. The light +from its ascending flames is flooding the river in front of the city. +There, I see a poor man burning up in the fire. I see its majestic walls +crumbling to pieces and falling into a huge mass of ruins.' At this +juncture, we heard out doors the cry of fire! fire! and soon the bells of +the quiet little city began to announce to its citizens that the insatiate +fire-fiend was engaged in his terrible work of devastation and ruin. We +hastened to the door only to behold, true to the vision previously given, +the bosom of the river as brilliantly lighted up as though illuminated by +the rays of the sun at his meridian height. T. & J. W. Gaff & Co.'s +distillery was on fire and burned to ruins, and another concomitant of the +vision was too sadly verified--a man was literally burned to ashes. + +"Soon after this occurrence, a very dear lady friend called to see me. She +contemplated a trip to Indianapolis, and intended to start on the morrow +train. I said to her, 'Do not start to-morrow. Defer it until the +succeeding day. I see an accident on the road, and I see written in the +air these words, "Within twenty-four hours." I prevailed on her to +postpone the trip in accordance with the warning of the vision. She had no +occasion to regret it for the train on which she intended to be a +passenger jumped the track before it reached its destination, and while no +one was very seriously injured, yet it might have been otherwise had my +friend been on board. She might not have escaped so luckily. + +"The shocking casualty of the collision between the United States mail +steamers America and the United States, on the Ohio river, between +Cincinnati and Louisville, will be well remembered, especially by the +people along the line of that route. The night of the painful occurrence I +was a member of a circle held at the residence of Mr. Lewis Shirley, of +Jeffersonville, Ind. I saw the collision, the boats on fire, etc., at an +hour antedating by several hours the time when the unfortunate event +transpired. So thoroughly was I convinced that the verification of the +vision was close at hand that I prevailed on a son of Mr. Shirley to meet +the carrier-boy at the ferry landing early the following morning to +procure a copy of a Louisville daily paper. When the boy returned with the +paper I was not surprised to find in its columns an account of the +disaster, which I had plainly and vividly seen a number of hours prior to +its actual occurrence. + +"On another occasion I saw a fire raging. I saw it was a two-story brick +house. I saw men rolling barrels out of the burning structure, and from +the rapidity of their movements and the ease and facility with which the +barrels seemed to be handled and propelled along, I concluded they were +empty and so expressed myself. My husband inquired, 'Where is the fire +at?' I placed myself in as passive a state as possible, but could get no +answer. The questions were then asked: 'Is it Louisville?' 'No.' 'Is it +Jeffersonville?' 'No.' 'New Albany?' 'No.' 'Indianapolis?' 'Yes.' These +answers respectively I saw written in the air or what appeared so to me. +On that night, as we learned by the papers subsequently, a large barrel +factory at Indianapolis was destroyed by fire. + +"I will now relate one of a more startling nature and of more recent +occurrence. The ill-fated steamer Pat Rogers was at the time of her +destruction in the mail line service, and plied between Cincinnati, Ohio, +and Louisville, Kentucky. She left port Louisville for Cincinnati at 2 P. +M. At 4 o'clock, same afternoon, and two hours after her departure from +Louisville, and nine or ten hours before the terrible casualty, I saw +written in the air, 'Steamboat disaster to-night.' My husband remarked: +'See if you can not get the name of the boat.' Presently I saw plainly the +name PAT ROGERS, which was immediately followed by presenting the whole +vision, the conflagration, and passengers struggling for life amid the +angry and turbulent waves. + +"I might narrate many more instances of this kind that belong to my +individual experience, and volumes might be written if similar experiences +of others should be included. + +"I come now to speak of my present powers and their development. When my +husband had entered upon his second term as Mayor of the city of Aurora, +he built us a home in a high altitude on a hillside overlooking the +beautiful city in the valley below. Here in the purer atmosphere with +quiet surroundings were my present powers brought forth by a noble and +trusty band of spirits whom I shall never cease to love for their fidelity +to me and to truth, and for their ability and unceasing and intelligent +efforts to advance the great and blessed cause of spiritualism. My dear +spirit sister, Alice Vernette Winesburgh _nee_ Shirley, who, in her day, +was a marvelous physical medium, has been and still is the active +controlling spirit of my band, with others great and good, who sustain and +aid her. She always signs her name simply NETTIE, by which she was called +and known in earth life. She has clung to me with the true devotion of a +sister, and has sustained herself in the position assigned her by the band +with signal fidelity and ability. I shall speak more of this band toward +the close. + +"In obedience to the request of the spirits we formed a circle for +development, and found two gentlemen and their wives who were sufficiently +liberal, and who had natural tendencies toward a belief in spiritualism. +They agreed and we met twice each week, and it was not long before we +discovered that power for physical manifestations was being developed. We +sat in the dark around an ordinary plain stand, on which was placed a +slate and pencil, a small bell, and a paper horn. We also would place on +it a goblet filled with water. The manifestations began by the stand +moving around and tipping. This phenomenon soon occurred in the light, and +by means of it we at first were directed and instructed, using the +alphabet in spelling out words. We met regularly and sat patiently. For a +few months the development was slow but surely indicated progress, and the +invisible operators continually exhorted us to patience, promising certain +results from time to time, which they invariably performed. They stated to +us what may not be generally known, namely, that all developments with a +view to permanence are slow, advancing cautiously, step by step, leaving +nothing neglected or uncared for. Besides the health and well being of the +medium should be carefully guarded and too oft by hurrying forward the +development ruinous consequences resulted to the instrument and the +success of the mediumship. We soon noted the fact that we were in the +hands of careful, prudent, and able spirits, and we therefore implicitly +obeyed their directions, and have never since had any occasion to regret +it. Finally the bell began to ring, and the various members of the circle +were touched by materialized spirit hands. Also, names and words were +written on the slate and occasionally materialized locks of hair would be +found on the stand upon closing the seance, which, in a few hours, would +wholly dematerialize. This indicated materialization of spirit forms and +was so announced to us. The next step was whispering to us through the +paper trumpet, and by that means they were now enabled to give directions. +After the lapse of about twelve months we were directed to procure a +curtain for materialization, which we accordingly did, but before this the +manifestations in the dark had become simply remarkable, not to say +extraordinary. On putting up the curtain and taking my position behind it, +several sittings passed without any appreciable result, until finally +faces were discovered protruding from behind and above the curtain, two or +three at a time, and after this it was not long until full form +materializations were obtained. Upon the expiration of my husband's term +of office, the band insisted that we should move to Cincinnati, if only +for a year, assigning as the important reason, that they would be enabled +there to collect and appropriate new elements necessary in the completion +of the development. We had by this time learned that the wisest thing was +to obey, and consequently in July, 1881, we moved to the Queen City. Soon +after we got there the band concluded to abandon for the time being any +further attempt to perfect the phase of materialization and demanded a tin +trumpet, which was made according to their directions. In length, +thirty-eight inches; at large end, four and one-half inches in diameter, +and at the small opening one-half inch; and we commenced holding trumpet +seances with amazing and astonishing results. Hundreds of the best +citizens of Cincinnati can testify to the wonders of the trumpet circle in +my presence. One seance written up by Judge A. G. W. Carter, of +Cincinnati, I here insert as illustrating partially only the magnitude of +this power. It appeared in that excellent paper, _Mind and Matter_, of +Philadelphia: + +"My wife and myself, by invitation, were present on Thursday night, +January 26th, at a seance given to a select circle of ladies and gentlemen +by Mr. and Mrs. Green, at No. 309 Longworth street, this city, where Mrs. +Green daily and nightly sits, giving private seances through her +mediumship to any person or persons who desire to converse with the +spirits, or see manifestations, and learn about the spirit world. There +were about twelve persons, ladies and gentlemen, present, and being seated +according to the direction of the spirits, a dark circle for spirit +manifestations was held, and with extraordinary success. There was a large +trumpet or horn standing beside the table, and a small music box and a +guitar and a tambourine on the table. + +"It was not long before the music box began its music, as well as the +guitar and tambourine, and they all floated through the air, around the +circle, and above our heads, and sometimes touching each one of the +circle, as they were giving forth their music. Singing was indulged in by +the members of the circle, and during the songs, the long horn or trumpet +moved from its place, and went about the circle, through the air; and +through it, or inside of it, different spirits accompanied the singing +with their voices; sometimes so loudly as to take the full burden of the +songs upon themselves. Then, when there was a cessation of singing, by +means of the trumpet the spirits would freely converse with us--some in +whispers, and others in sonorous voices, so that the whole company could +readily hear and easily distinguish what was said. + +"At one time one of the company, a Swede, Mr. Helleberg, sang a Swedish +song, accompanying himself on the guitar; and in singing and playing this +song in his native and, to us, foreign language, he was accompanied by a +loud female voice, singing in his language, through this same horn. Mr. +Helleberg then sang a Swedish love song, and was again, in perfect soprano +harmony, accompanied by the female spirit voice. + +"These demonstrations I thought were most remarkable, as I had never seen +nor heard the like before, and they fairly attested the great mediumistic +ability of Mrs. Green. At this time, and indeed during the whole seance, +Mrs. Green was in a profound trance at the table, and kept so by a rough +and gruff Indian spirit, who called himself 'Chip,' and occasionally spoke +to us in a rough and gruff way about his 'medy,' and the power he had to +invoke and exercise in keeping her in the profound trance condition. Ever +and anon, also, a smart, witty and talkative Indian maiden, who called +herself 'Winnie,' by the permission and condescension of 'Chip,' would +take possession of the medium, and talk most freely and interestingly to +each and all of the members of the circle. + +"And, by the way, I must relate this peculiar and remarkable fact, the +only time of its occurrence in all my long experience with the spirits. +There was in the circle another trance medium, Mrs. Taylor, who was put +into the trance condition very easily and readily. Well, this spirit +'Winnie' would exchange from Mrs. Green to Mrs. Taylor every once in a +while, talking through each medium with equal facility, and to the great +delight and edification of the members of the circle. This was indeed +something remarkable, and I ventured to inquire of the spirit 'Winnie' if +this was a common occurrence. She replied, through one of the mediums, +that it was so uncommon that she never knew of it occurring at a circle +sitting before; that spirits always had their own medium, and it was very +seldom that they would or could talk through more than one chosen medium, +and especially at the same sitting of a circle, as was the case with us. + +"To narrate all that occurred at this remarkable seance would fill many +printed columns. Sufficient for the present to say, that we had all sorts +of manifestations from the spirits through the gifted medium, Mrs. Green, +for the long period of three full hours, and yet the medium or the spirits +were not at all exhausted, and apparently not even fatigued. The +manifestations, it seems to me, were quite equal to any I ever witnessed +from Maud Lord, or any of the best mediums, and convinced me beyond all +manner of doubt, that the gifted Mrs. Lizzie S. Green is destined to take +a prominent and important stand in the glorious domain of mediumship. +Angels bless and take care of her in all her ways. + + "A. G. W. C." + + +"In the meantime, the independent slate writing progressed wonderfully, +and now constitutes one of my best and most highly cherished phases. They +write now with the utmost facility with their own materialized hands, and, +strange as it may seem, they have actually written without the presence of +any visible pencil at all. They have written long messages on the inner +surfaces of double slates, the parties holding on to them at the time the +messages were being written. They have done this for me in the presence of +C. G. Helleberg, John Winterburn and William Layton, and others, honorable +people of Cincinnati, who will take great pleasure in certifying to the +same. I do not refer to these truly marvelous things in a spirit of +egotism or self-boasting, for I am entitled to no credit except in so far +as I may have, by prudent conduct, honest living and carefulness, assisted +in securing the proper conditions for the invisible intelligences--I mean +invisible to mortal eyes only. While I naturally feel proud of these noble +gifts, I have learned to be humble with them, as my spirit guides have so +often admonished me to be. And I feel like using them for the benefit of +humanity and the upbuilding of truth. + +"My clairvoyance was an early and permanent development and still remains +with me, the other development not seeming to materially interfere with +it. + +"I have had with me for many years two Indian spirits, from whose +association I have derived great pleasure; and I have ever found them +true, faithful and honest. The male Indian has never given me his full and +proper name, telling me that it was ugly. He was of the Chippewa tribe, +and has always been known as 'Chip.' Chip abhors fire-water and tobacco, +and every thing immoral, and in very many respects widely differs from the +leading characteristics of his people. The Indian maiden, whom we call +WINNIE, came to me in 1868, and gave her name as Winniepesaga, and said +while quite young she was drowned in a stream of water in the Far West. +She is sprightly, quite talkative, exceedingly smart and interesting in +conversation. Naturally gifted with clairvoyant powers and prophetic +abilities, she has given very many remarkable tests, and by reason of her +equability of temper, general good disposition and real cleverness in +colloquial gifts, she is generally well liked by all who have come in +contact with her spirit ministrations. She has controlled me for years, +does yet, and her influence is sweet, soothing and strengthening. Captain +Oliver C. Curry died at Jeffersonville, Ind., in 1874, and was a lawyer by +profession, and was for a long time city attorney of that city. He was a +cousin of mine, and has belonged to the band for two years, and has been +exceedingly active, especially in the trumpet seances. By his suavity, +intelligence and witty sayings, he has made himself quite a favorite with +many. Assisting in the development, I have had with me several spirits +familiar with the laws of science, including a distinguished French +scientist, our own Franklin and Professor Mapes. They seem to have only +been engaged with the band temporarily in aiding the advancement of the +development. They have my sincere thanks and profound gratitude. I come +now to speak of another spirit, although of an humble name, yet a grand +and highly progressed one, who has been my leading counsellor, adviser and +friend. In 1868, I laid away the lifeless form of a dear little boy, and +in my unutterable grief this noble spirit first appeared to me and gave me +words of consolation. He has been with me ever since. He passed out of the +form in the State of Georgia at the early age of thirty-three and had been +at the time he came to me upwards of fifty years in spirit life. He always +inspires me as being the very embodiment of purity itself, and his whole +ambition seems to be to do good. This spirit also possesses wonderful +prophetic power, and communicates with me only in case of an exigency, +when I am in trouble, or otherwise need the sustaining and guiding power +of the angel world. He gives me his name as HENRY TEANEY, and no Christian +ever worshiped the gentle Nazarene with more devotion than I do my friend +and guide, Henry Teaney. He is pure, noble and godlike, loves the right, +hates the wrong, and never condescends to any thing little, hateful, or +mean. + +"Here I close after again returning thanks from the inmost recesses of my +heart to my honored and noble band of spirits engaged with and through me +in the great work of advancing the kingdom of God in the dissemination of +truths vouchsafed to the children of earth through spirit communion." + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +A VISIT TO SPLIT ROCK, KENTUCKY--CHRISTMAS GREETINGS FROM IDA TO HER +PARENTS--ANNIE WINTERBURN TO HER BROTHER JOHN WINTERBURN, AND HIS +TESTIMONY AND HER FAREWELL TO THE MEDIUM, MRS. GREEN. + + +Mrs. Green's home proper, is at Aurora, Dearborn county, Indiana. Aurora +is a beautiful and enterprising little city of five or six thousand +inhabitants, and is located on the western bank of the Ohio river, +twenty-five miles or thereabouts below Cincinnati, Ohio. It can be reached +from Cincinnati in less than an hour's ride over the Ohio and Mississippi +railroad, which passes through it. While her husband pursues the legal +profession at Aurora, Mrs. G., in obedience to the wishes of her spirit +guides and attendants, devotes her time and medial gifts at Cincinnati +from Monday until Saturday of each week, returning to her companion and +daughter each Saturday, and remaining with them over the Sabbath. This +statement is deemed proper in view of and as prefatory to what I am about +to relate as occurring recently, and which can not fail to be estimated as +a truly remarkable spirit manifestation. + +By the invitation of Mr. Green, Mr. Edwin Stebbins, of Cincinnati, and +myself accompanied Mrs. Green to her home at Aurora on Saturday, August +the 5th, for the purpose of joining a small party of excursionists on the +day following to the celebrated Split Rock, some three miles down the +river from Aurora, on the Kentucky side of the Ohio. Our host had +chartered a small propeller steamboat known as the Wave, which we boarded +early Sunday morning (the 6th), and it required less than a half hour to +land us at our destination. Our party consisted of our host and hostess +and their daughter, Cora B. Green; Mr. B. F. Vandegrift, his wife, three +daughters and son; James W. Shirley, wife, and two small children. + +During the afternoon we were threatened with a rain-storm, and our party +divided, some going into the caves for shelter, others repaired to a +farm-house near by. The rain passed around us, after which a party of five +in number, namely, Mr. and Mrs. Green, Mr. and Mrs. Vandegrift, and +myself, reassembled on the summit of the elevation overlooking the Split +Rock. It was suggested by me that we have a spirit seance, but we had no +stand, slate or pencil. The novelty of a spirit seance on that noted spot +was sufficiently suggestive and interesting to induce us to improvise a +seat for the medium, which consisted of a couple of stakes driven into the +ground and a fence rail placed on them. I took out my annotation book and +with lead pencil placed it on Mrs. G.'s lap, and she threw over them a +rubber circular, making the necessary condition of darkness. We formed a +semi-circle in front of the medium thus seated, and sang the "Sweet Bye +and Bye," and "Nearer My God to Thee." In a few moments the covering over +the writing material was raised up and down three times, indicating +thereby that the writing had been accomplished. In this way we received in +rapid succession three communications, which I hereby transcribe and +number them in the order of their production. + + +_Number One._ + +"Good afternoon. Nice picnic. Many spirits with you, including Madam +Ehrenborg and Swedenborg. Nettie, Emil, and Ida send much love to Mr. +Helleberg and Mr. Stebbins." + + +_Number Two._ + +"Mr. and Mrs. Vandegrift's friends send their greetings from summer land. +Also, Mr. Green's friends and relatives. All happy to be with you." + + +_Number Three._ + +"God bless you all, and hope we may all meet on this spot again. Good bye. + + "NETTIE AND CURRY." + + +We were not only delighted but enthusiastic over the success of our +enterprise. Here on this spot, both romantic and famous in history, with +illy-provided conditions, we had communed with the loved ones from the +land of immortal souls. + +As the spirit daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Stebbins, of Cincinnati, Ohio, is +mentioned as belonging to the party of tourists that visited the planet +Mars, and as communicating with others at Split Rock, Kentucky, and for +other good reasons, I have deemed it not inappropriate to incorporate +herein a letter of Mr. Stebbins to the _Spiritual Offering_, a paper +recently established at Ottumwa, Iowa, and which is ably conducted and +devoted to the advancement of spiritualism. + + +[For the "Spiritual Offering."] + +INDEPENDENT SLATE WRITING, + +BY + +EDWIN STEBBINS. + +On Christmas evening myself and wife secured an independent slate-writing +sitting with Mrs. Lizzie S. Green, at 309 Longworth street, Cincinnati, +Ohio, and we received the following communication from our dear spirit +daughter, viz: + +"Merry, merry Christmas to you all! I do not know of a better Christmas +gift than to give you a spirit communication on this memorable day. I am +so happy and excited I can not write good. Oh, I have a beautiful home and +am advancing in music all the time. I have a beautiful library of books. I +am a teacher, and have a nice little class. We do not have as many +scholars here in the spirit world as you do. We can not teach every one +like we did here. We have to be attracted to each other magnetically. +Therefore our work is not in vain, for by this method spiritual growth +must ensue. We work in harmony together, and nothing occurs to retard our +progress in learning. You would be surprised, and I rather think you are +now, even at my style of composition. If you could see me as I am here, +and hear me talk, you would see how fast I have progressed. Oh, how happy +I am in my spirit home, but my heaven is not there. It is with my dear pa +and ma, but duty calls and I must obey. I have been made extremely happy +by your obedience to my will and all will be well. Henney says this is +quite new to him, but when he saw you and me at his funeral his happiness +was beyond expression. When you laid away my form of clay you did not +think to see me here to talk and write to my loved ones dear. + + "When you're sad and sometimes cry, + Remember your Ida, dear, is nigh, + To bless and comfort you while here, + And guide you to a brighter sphere. + +"And when the time comes for you to go we will meet you with our golden +boat, and row you safely over the beautiful river to our home that I have +helped prepare for you. Now, thanking Mrs. Green for her kindness to you +and Ida, I bid you good night. All the relatives are here, and send you +their Christmas greetings. + + "Good night, good night, to all that's here, + I leave and go to a brighter sphere. + +Wishing you all success in the new year, dear pa and ma, ever hold sacred +the Christmas gift I present you to-day. Good night, Mr. Green, wife and +daughter. Good night, my dear pa and ma. This indeed is the happiest +Christmas I have spent since I left my earthly home. I must leave, but it +is hard. Your loving daughter, + + "IDA." + +"My daughter passed away on the 18th day of December, 1875, at the age of +seventeen, and she was an only child. The above message from her possesses +peculiar value to me, for therein are a number of valuable tests and +evidences of her identity. My belief in the return of the spirits of the +departed is of brief duration in point of time antecedent, and was mainly +brought about, through the mediumship of Mrs. Green. I can not express the +real happiness I enjoy since I have been the recipient of this new light +divine and I can only say, 'God speed the good work.' + +"Cincinnati, Ohio." + + +ANNIE WINTERBURN. + +"_Dear Brother_: Oh, how happy I am to-day to be able to write you on the +inner surface of a double slate with your own precious hands holding it +with the medium. You did not need this as a test, for your mind is clear +and your heart is in the cause, but we give it to you because others have +been thus favored, and we have resolved that you shall not be neglected +when the good things pertaining to spirit intercourse are being given to +others. Oh, John, you do give us so much real happiness by your noble and +upright conduct, and by the opportunities you give us to hold sweet +communion with you. Thus our lives become interblended, and the happiness +of all increased. Spirits do derive great benefit from mortals, and to +that extent are dependent on them. When a child dies in the tender years +of infancy unschooled in the multifarious concernments of mortal life, it +is brought back into contact with human affairs that it may learn those +experiences of earth which were denied it by its early and untimely +departure from the form. In all the pursuits of your life each individual +is constantly attended by spirits interested in the same, and in these and +many other ways are spirits aided in their progress and happiness. +Whenever and by whomsoever you are told differently heed it not, but rely +on what I have stated. We are interested in your proper instruction, and +we will not lead you astray or into error. All those near and dear to you +are here, and bid me to send you their love greetings. They pray without +ceasing that you may be kept steady and firm in your high resolves and +noble purposes until the end, when you shall rejoice in the anthem of +victory. Hold up your head, dear and precious brother; be brave and +resolute in the hour of temptation. Do no harm, but all the good you can +in the world. And when the blessed angel called Death shall beckon you +away from the labors and vicissitudes of mortal life to the sunlit +evergreen shores of the summer land, be assured that among the hosts of +others who will meet and welcome you with happy and rejoicing hearts you +will see and be enfolded lovingly in the arms of your loving sister, + + "ANNIE." + +"I, John Winterburn, resident of Cincinnati, Ohio, do hereby certify that +the above and foregoing communication from my spirit sister came in the +manner, to wit: I examined a double slate, and found it clean and without +any writing whatever upon it. A small piece of slate pencil not larger +than a grain of wheat was placed upon it and the slate closed. I then held +on to one side of the slate, holding it tight together as folded, and the +medium, Mrs. Green, held on to the other side. Soon we heard writing, and +in the course of fifteen minutes the signal was given indicating that the +writing was completed, whereupon the slate was opened, and on both sides +of the inner surfaces was found, neatly written, the above communication. +The t's were crossed, and the i's were dotted. I know, as well as I am +capable of knowing any fact requiring the exercise of my senses in their +normal state, that the communication was written by invisible power, and +I firmly believe it comes from the source it purports to come, namely: my +dear sister, now in spirit life. The seance was in broad daylight, and +under circumstances that precluded fraud or deception on the part of the +medium or any one else in the body. + + "JOHN WINTERBURN, 185 Longworth street." + +"This same Mr. Winterburn has had regularly one sitting a week with Mrs. +Green for seven or eight months, and among other spirit relatives and +friends who were active in communicating with him was his spirit sister +Annie. She seems to possess considerable poetic ability, and occasionally +wrote poetry to her brother. Recently Mr. Winterburn visited his mother +country, England, and the last sitting with Mrs. G. before his departure, +his sister Annie addressed the medium in the following feeling stanzas, +which Mr. Winterburn copied as they came on the slate, viz: + + "Dear medium friend, both good and true, + 'Tis hard that we must part from you, + And though we cross the surging main, + We will return to you again. + + "Returning with our spirits' love and power + From British isle or sunlit bower, + Our fond hearts' loving blessings to impart + To comfort and cheer your noble heart. + + "Dear brother's heart you have made glad, + Dispersing sorrow and conditions sad; + And where'er we roam, on land or sea, + Our hearts shall turn in love to thee. + + "Farewell, dear medium friend, farewell, + To thee our gratitude we ne'er can tell, + We can only say heart's full of love, + We'll meet you on the shores above. + + "And there, in that bright land of joy, + Where mingles naught of earth's alloy, + We'll lead thy steps with blessings rare + To our homes above our joys to share. + + "Angels of light, refulgent bright, + Be with you when you take you flight + From scenes of strife and sorrows here + To a just reward in a higher sphere. + + "Farewell, farewell, alas! farewell, + The parting is like a funereal knell; + But when you climb the golden stair, + Your true friend, Annie, will meet you there." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +A SPIRIT PEELS A BANANA, AND EATS SOME OF IT, AND DIVIDES THE REST IN FOUR +EQUAL PARTS--REPORTS OF CINCINNATI ENQUIRER ABOUT SPIRIT SEANCES AT MRS. +GREEN'S. + + +I desire to speak of a recent manifestation, which baffles my ability to +understand, and proves that spirits by some chemical process are enabled +to operate upon material substances and cause them to vanish. I only give +one instance, and leave the reader to his own reflections and to adopt his +own theory. I shall simply give the fact as it occurred. + +I have a little grand daughter, Julia Muth, in the spirit world. When in +the form she was partially fond of bananas. On the occasion of the recent +anniversary of her eighth birthday, the 13th of July, 1882, I went to Mrs. +Green for a seance, taking with me a large banana. These slate-writing +seances, as has been heretofore explained, take place in the full light. I +sat, as usual, opposite to Mrs. Green, with the small stand between us. I +placed the fruit on a slate, with a short letter of greeting, and put it +under the covering of the stand, while Mrs. Green held another slate of +her own. The spirits, after writing on Mrs. Green's slate for about an +hour, wrote as follows: "Grandpa, take your slate from under the stand," +which I immediately did, and on the slate was written, "I peeled the +banana, and ate some of it, too; your little Julia Muth." + +We removed the cloth covering from the stand and found the peelings on +the floor, and on my slate the banana divided in four equal parts after +the end piece had disappeared. We searched diligently, but without our +effort being rewarded by the discovery of the missing portion of the +fruit. Whither had it gone? + +The _Cincinnati Daily Enquirer_ is a leading as well as an extensively +circulated paper, published at Cincinnati, Ohio, and, in October, 1881, +Mrs. Green was visited by a reporter of that paper, who was present at two +of her trumpet seances. Although probably not a believer, he turned out to +be a fair minded man who would not allow his prejudices, if he had any, to +interfere with an honest account of what he saw and witnessed. In three +issues of that paper, to wit, October 16th, 18th and 21st, 1881, appeared +his report of a visit to Mrs. Green, and two seances he attended. They are +here inserted, in the order of the dates given. + +Issue of October 16th: + +"In a neatly furnished suit of rooms over No. 309 Longworth street lives +Mrs. L. S. Green, a spiritualist medium. Upon her last evening a +representative of the _Enquirer_ called. He was cordially received by the +lady's husband, being tendered a seat in a parlor in which was a piano, a +pretty set of furniture; while an old-fashioned kerosene lamp threw its +brightest rays over the room from a mantel-piece. Seated in a +rocking-chair was Mrs. Green, plainly dressed, of a modest and retiring +disposition, and features that stamped her as a faithful and loving wife. +The mission of the newspaper man was quickly explained. Her husband +replied that as a rule mediums avoided reporters, as they were liable to +distort and ridicule their statements. But where the thing is conducted +honestly and openly, 'I can not,' he said, 'see what we have to fear from +publication.' + +"In reply to a question, Mrs. Green said that she was about thirty-eight +years old, and had been a clairvoyant since 1868, her first mediumistic +inclinations having developed that year. Her history since that time as a +spiritualist has been quite full of interest. Previous to her becoming a +medium she was a member of the Christian Church, and was as great a +skeptic as one could find. So, in fact, was her husband. While a member of +the Indiana Legislature in 1867 he attended a seance, where he received a +message from his dead mother. At a subsequent one, another spiritual +letter came to him, telling him that his wife possessed the powers of a +medium, and asking him to bring her to one of the circles. After some +persuasion he finally gained her consent to go. She there saw her first +spirits, that of an uncle of the medium of the assemblage, who had his +head cut off by a train of cars. From that time her powers began to +develop, showing themselves in messages that she wrote on paper or beheld +in the air. Spirits as high as five hundred a day presented themselves to +her view. Her continued increase as a medium so worked upon her that she +lost her health, and she was compelled for the time being to abandon the +business. About twelve months ago she resumed her writing--this time on +slates. Messages Were written on the inside of folded slates, and often, +after a seance, a fluid would be found on the outside of the slate, which, +unless washed off then, could never be removed. This had been taken to +chemist after chemist for analysis, and one and all had failed to make any +thing out of it. + +"One evening a small lock of hair was found in the corner of the slate, in +the center of which was a small lead pencil. At that time this was +believed to have been placed there by some one in the circle. It was +folded in a piece of paper to be retained, but the next day it +disappeared. From this time out Mrs. Green's materializing abilities +began. She had great success in her seances, and frequently described +catastrophes which, on the following morning, were found to be exceedingly +accurate. She foreshadowed the explosion of the steamer Pat Rogers, and +graphically described the collision of the United States with the America. +The details of a fire at a neighboring place one evening were recited by +her. The next day it was learned that the hour and facts were most +wonderfully correct. + +"While the reporter and his friend were talking Mrs. Green called their +attention to two spirits who were standing besides them, one a +brother-in-law of the first-named, and the other a friend of the latter +who died twelve years ago. Both were accurately described, much to the +surprise and astonishment of the two skeptics. Mrs. Green, in explaining +her power, said that she was entirely controlled by one spirit, and that +when she first began to work it was shown by slaps on the hand, by shocks +in her arms, etc. She did only as her influence compelled her to act, and +while writing, etc., she knew not what she did, much to the surprise and +astonishment of the two skeptics. Many startling results of seances were +recited, such as the sounding of trumpets, the ringing of bells, singing, +and the appearance of different spirits were detailed." + +Insertion of October 18th: + +"Mrs. L. S. Green, the medium, gave a seance last evening to a few +friends at her house, No. 309 Longworth street. There were five people +present, three of whom were skeptics of the worst kind. The gathering was +seated in a medium-sized; plainly-furnished room. In the center was a +small stand, over which was placed a heavy green spread. As an opening, +the lady took a small slate upon which was laid a bit of slate pencil. +This she held with one hand in under the table, and several messages were +written on it in a clear and distinct hand. Then the cloth was removed, +and on the table were placed a bell, two slates, washed clean, a glass of +water, and a leather trumpet. At some distance from the medium stood a +guitar, leaning against the wall, and a large trumpet, while near the +newspaper man were two small trumpets. The light was then extinguished, +the doors locked, and the seance begun. All took hold of hands, and one of +the party sang. In a few minutes came a gentle tapping on the slates, then +the bell rang violently, seeming to pass through air, returning and +falling on the floor. The various members were touched about the face and +body, and one exceedingly lady-like spirit took occasion to rub her hand +down the reporter's face, testing fully the power of his nervous system. +Singing was continued, when the guitar was heard to play, rising in the +air, apparently passing around over the different persons' heads, hitting +them lightly in the face, and finally landing in the reportorial lap. + +"A breathing spell was taken when one of the party varied the programme +with a selection upon the orgamina. The favorite old song, 'John Brown,' +was given, and it pleased the spirits hugely, as a deep bass voice was +heard to join in with an occasional blast from the trumpet. Then the +trumpet took a trip around the circle, announcing its coming with a rap on +the head or shoulders of each one. The bell rose in the air tingling +rapidly and landed this time on the table. The familiar taps on the person +were continued, then there was a tremendous note from the trumpet, and a +sweet voice joined in with Mrs. Green, as she sang, 'Nearer My God to +Thee.' Although the manifestations were quite good, especially to the +reporter, who was continually dodging imaginary trumpets and blows, the +medium said the weather was bad for the most satisfactory work. The +spirits announced that they were about ready to depart by a loud rap on +the table and a sprinkling of those present with water. The light being +turned on, the following communication was found on one of the slates: + +"'Good evening, gentlemen. We are glad to meet you. The spirit band of the +medium authorize and request me to thank the representative of that great +metropolitan journal, the _Enquirer_, for the terms employed in reference +to their medium and her gifts in yesterday's issue of that paper. This +treatment, so rare, betokens a spirit of candor and fairness commensurate +with this transcendently important subject. We extend you a cordial +invitation to visit us whenever and as often as it suits your convenience, +and we shall always endeavor to treat you with courtesy and respect. + + "'NETTIE.' + +"The lines were very regular, the i's and t's are dotted, and the +signature was especially plain, it being the name of one of Mrs. Green's +controls." + +The third and last appeared in the issue of October 21st, and is as +follows: + + +"QUITE INTERESTING--A SEANCE HELD LAST EVENING--SKEPTICS AND BELIEVERS +ASSEMBLE TOGETHER. + +"A very interesting seance was held last evening at the residence of Mrs. +L. S. Green, 309 Longworth street. Seven persons were present, including +two mediums. The spirits were unusually frisky, and the manifestations +were particularly gratifying to the believers, and rather dumbfounding to +the skeptics. The arrangements and room were the same as in the others +previously described, except that there were more musicians present. Very +excellent music was rendered by an orgamina, a violin, a guitar, and a +music-box. The selections given were sweet enough to summon the most +bashful friends of the medium from their spiritualistic retreat. The +departed were less inclined to epistolary efforts, and slate-writing was +not conducted with any favorable results. + +"During the evening one of the gentlemen sang a Swedish song, accompanying +himself on the guitar. A female voice at one time, and a powerful bass +later, were heard plainly in concert with him. The human singer alleged +quite emphatically that his spiritual aids rendered the air in the same +language he did. The guitar took numerous trips around the room, sometimes +high in the air, again touching those present on the head and different +parts of the body. A huge tin trumpet was blown most furiously, the blast +sounding like the greatest effort of the bass-horn. Then it was pounded +and thumped, creating a most awful din. This was explained as being the +doings of a very powerfully materialized spirit. The statement was +acquiesced in by a skeptic, who received a vigorous whack on the knee, +fully convincing him that muscle, lots of it, too, backed the trumpet. + +"A little music-box was taken from the table and wafted through the room, +playing its peculiarly sweet airs all the time as it sailed toward the +ceiling and over those about the table. It could be heard in every corner, +high and low, and if a medium or friend was carrying it, said person must +have been exceedingly lively, climbing over chairs, a bed, etc., without +making any noise. It was claimed that when the box ran down it was wound +up by those who took it through the air. + +"Whenever songs were sung, or selections were played upon the instruments, +soprano or bass voices joined in plain to all present. Members were +delicately touched in the face and body. The tolling of a great bell was +most cleverly imitated, and a little one was rung frequently. The spirits +of loved ones were reported as standing at the sides of different members, +some of whom were quickly recognized by the description given. Water was +sprinkled on all, and the goblet filled with this fluid was passed around, +touching some in the face, others on the body. No communications were +received except very brief ones." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +EXTRACTS FROM EACH OF TWO FUNERAL DISCOURSES BY BISHOP SIMPSON AND REV. W. +H. THOMAS, D. D., WITH CONCLUSIONS OF C. G. HELLEBERG. + + +In closing it has been deemed advisable and proper to append an extract +from each of two funeral discourses delivered by two eminent divines--one +the eminent Methodist Bishop, Mr. Simpson, and the other a distinguished +minister of Chicago, who, of late, experienced some little annoyance from +his flock, who were mere sticklers for forms and creeds, and because their +shepherd had grown a little beyond their cramped and narrow limits. + + +BISHOP SIMPSON. + +"The very grave itself is a passage into the beautiful and glorious. We +have laid our friends in the grave, but they are around us. The little +children that sat upon our knee, into whose eyes we looked with love, +whose little hands have clasped our neck, on whose cheek we have imprinted +the kiss, we can almost feel the throbbing of their hearts to-day. They +have passed from us, but where are they? Just beyond the line of the +invisible. And the fathers and mothers who educated us, that directed and +comforted us, where are they but just beyond the line of the invisible? +The associates of our lives that walked along life's pathway, those with +whom we took sweet counsel and who dropped from our side, where are they +but just beyond us? not far away; but now it may be very near us. Is there +any thing to alarm us in this thought? No. It seems to me that sometimes +when my head is on the pillow there come whispers as of joy that drop into +my heart--thoughts of the sublime and beautiful and glorious, as though +some angel's wing passed over my brow, and some dear one sat by my pillow +and communed with my heart to raise my affections to the other and better +world. The invisible is not dark, it is glorious. Sometimes the veil +becomes so thin it seems to me that I can almost see the bright forms +through it, and my bending ear can almost hear the voices of those who are +singing their melodious strains. Oh, there is music all around us, though +in the busy scenes of life we recognize it not. The veil of the future +will soon be lifted and the invisible shall appear." + + +REV. W. H. THOMAS, D. D., OF CHICAGO. + +"How can we linger over the bier of the departed and go in the eventide to +their graves, and sit down in the stillness there, hoping in some way to +come in communion with them. They carry their loves over to the other +side, and is it unreasonable to suppose that a mother who has passed from +these shores should still seek to be the guardian angel of the children +she watched over in this life? Is it unreasonable that the great hosts of +life, column on column, world on world, that have gone out from this +state, should seek to come with their higher wisdom and tenderer sympathy +to minister to those they loved in this life, and help them to cling to +the truth that saves? To me this doctrine of the spirit life, the +eminence and presence of helping and guiding spirits is a comforting +thought. It brings me into the presence of the innumerable host that +people the spirit land. It gives me somehow a consciousness of the great +fact of immortality. It gives me a sweet consciousness that my friends +live on the other shore; that to me they will come as ministering angels +in the dying hour to receive the spirit, tired by work, weakened by +sickness, wearied with years, pale from death, and bear it to the love and +life above." + + * * * * * + +If these utterances are not in harmony with spiritualism, and its central +and prominent idea of the very nearness of our spirit friends and the +spirit world, then I am wholly incapable of recognizing and understanding +the force of plain and direct language. They can have but one meaning, and +that in perfect accordance with spiritualism. + +I find these extracts published in the Auburn _Advertiser_, of New York, +from which I copied them. There they are; read them carefully, and then +propound the question to your own heart and intelligence, namely: What +does all this mean if spiritualism be false? And if spiritualism be true, +how can these men and those holding similar views, oppose spiritualism and +be consistent and maintain their self-respect? + + C. G. HELLEBERG. + + + + +Footnotes: + +[1] This has reference to forget-me-not seeds which she sent me from +Sweden. + +[2] This Polheim was Sweden's greatest architect, mathematician and +builder, who projected the canal between Stockholm and Gottenburg. + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_. + +Punctuation has been corrected without note. + +Errata corrections have been applied to the text. + +Errors in the Errata page and line number references have been corrected +without note. + +The following misprints have been corrected: + "Erhenborg" corrected to "Ehrenborg" (ToC) + "the the" corrected to "the" (page 19) + "Swendenborg" corrected to "Swedenborg" (page 45) + "acqainted" corrected to "acquainted" (page 54) + "enternal" corrected to "eternal" (page 69) + "farcial" corrected to "farcical" (page 70) + "achievment" corrected to "achievement" (page 92) + "enlightment" corrected to "enlightenment" (page 93) + "spiriritual" corrected to "spiritual" (page 161) + "righteouness" corrected to "righteousness" (page 168) + "afteward" corrected to "afterward" (page 177) + "Chistian" corrected to "Christian" (page 199) + "succeessful" corrected to "successful" (page 201) + missing "by" added (page 216) + "beyong" corrected to "beyond" (page 239) + "J." standardized to "T." (page 211) + +Other than the corrections listed above, inconsistencies in spelling and +hyphenation have been retained from the original. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Book Written by the Spirits of the +So-Called Dead, by C. G. Helleberg + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A BOOK WRITTEN BY THE *** + +***** This file should be named 36009.txt or 36009.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/0/0/36009/ + +Produced by Bryan Ness and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. |