the lightning with a hempen cord, and bring it harm. less from the skies." The imperious and supercilious merchant is startled with intelligence that his "clerk" is a medium. The college-bred priest-full of shadowy notions of the other world, and yet as dogmatic about it as a Calvin-is awe-stricken to learn that mediums have come out from his own congregation. The proud wife of the respectable banker is humbled by the news, that her absent daughter is a "very interesting medium for the sounds," and the family are of necessity forced to concede something favorable to the New Dispensation.

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Thus again do we rejoice at the spread of the manifestations. Call them what you will-" unpleasant," ridiculous,' ""absurd," ""nonsensical,” “magnetism," a new law of mind," a "demonological delusion," or any other name; nevertheless we welcome them as the premonitory signs of a mental and social Revolution, which shall exalt man, open his understanding, blend the nations, annihilate superstition, and render this world a lighter, better, happier habitation for the children of men. We do not look for infinite and perfect wisdom through the manifestations. The communications are occasionally replete with extravagant promises. Many of them are not superior to the mental capacity, nor much different from the structure of the mind, of the medium. The ideas are few; the words innumerable. The orthography is sometimes defective; the grammar ̧ is frequently unfinished; the thoughts without breadth or point. But these are exceptions. The rule is the reverse of this. The question, however, turns upon another center-i. e., the influence exerted by these new

developments upon the institutions of society. I think I have sketched the good already appearing and likely to be done.

We welcome them as the glimmerings of another sphere. We welcome them as a beautiful mystery, without miracle, as a bursting of light through the thin crust of ordinary existence, without superstition, opening new passages in the universe. We welcome them, with all their sudden transitions from the grave to the gay, from the horrible to the grotesque and absurd, as a demonstration in favor of Freedom. We welcome them as a banner of promise unrolled across the horizon, bearing this glorious device: Emancipation from all Fear and Superstition.

The doctrine of the progressive development of man's organic and mental nature-the legitimate doctrine that the next state of existence is a perpetuation of, and improvement upon, this, the rudimental-furnishes the mind with all adequate explanations of contradictory and boisterous manifestations. It may be laid down as an immutable law, that the less developed a spirit is, the more adequate is its power to move and act upon inorganic and terrestrial substances. A physical spirit, so to express it, is one who can readily cast its will-power, and personal influence, upon certain media-causing them to gesture, impersonate, speak, &c.—while a more fully-developed and perfected spirit can not do any thing of this character, except through intermediate powers, or by proxy.

And furthermore, the law may be accepted, that every person has a particular guardian spirit, which— whenever that person is in a situation to receive any

special influence or instruction-is ever ready to com municate; and this guardian, let it be recollected, is constitutionally and phrenologically congenial to the earthly charge—that is, the two are similar in organization, inclination, and desires, with this exception, that the guardian is always better, wiser, and more advanced, enough so in truth to be positive to the terrestrial mind. This fact is illustrated in the likeness visible between many thoughts and words employed and communicated by Galen, and those common to myself our mental conformations being considerably analogous. Hence there is discoverable, in all media, a general sameness of ideas-or, as it were, a similitude between thoughts spiritually derived and those drawn from the medium's own brain--giving the external investigator the impression of self-deception in the subject's mind.

It is, therefore, an unwarrantable thing to look for perfect wisdom, or for instruction much superior to the mental development of the medium; because, when the whole field is carefully examined, it will be found that persons in this world do not, as they suppose, communicate promiscuously with Swedenborg, Washington, and other illustrious minds, but always immediately with their own particular and congenial guardian spirit. If the higher spirits desire to impart thoughts, they do so by attorney. A long chain of "mediums " is at times formed between some exalted mind in the next sphere and a person on the footstool-but the spirit in closest sympathy with the earthly mind, is its own congenial protector. For an illustration, and I may add, a fulfillment, of this law, the reader is referred to

the preceding volume, page fifty-seven, where may be found this sentence: "A high society of angels desire, through the agency of another and a more inferior society, to communicate in various ways to the earth's inhabitants." Here, you perceive, spiritual media are acknowledged to exist, as well as terrestrial channels-the immediate spirit being, in almost every instance, the guardian of the person communicating. If these laws of interpretation be accepted, together with much to be hereafter said, the reader will find no difficulty in extricating his mind from doubts, arising from contradictions.

HOW TO OBTAIN PHYSICAL EVIDENCES.

PHYSICAL evidences are useful as incentives to investigation. These evidences may be either compound or simple. The demonstrations may occur in all parts of the room, or be confined to the immediate vicinity of the table, the circle, and mediums. All this is determined by the success of the circle in the act of me diumizing the table, the room, or the subjects of the demonstrations. The substratum of vital electricity necessary for successful physical evidences of spirit power, is the chief reason why many persons accept only the electrical explanation of the consequent phenomena. There are very few who understand how wonderful a galvanic battery is the physical constitution of man. In my various works may be found references to this remarkable fact. The modus operandi of the

generation of this organic electricity is thus correctly set forth by the distinguished Dr. Gregory in his work on chemistry:

"The remarkable fact of the existence, in all parts of the body, of an alkaline liquid, the blood, and an acid liquid, the juice of the flesh, separated by a very thin membrane, and in contact with muscle and nerve, seems to have some relation to the fact now established of the existence of electric currents in the body, and particularly to those which occur when the muscles contract. The animal body may be regarded as a galvanic engine for the production of mechanical force. This force is derived from the food, and, with the food, is derived from the solar rays. A workingman, it has been calculated, produces, in twenty-four hours, an amount of heating or thermal effect equal to raising 14,000,000 lbs. to the height of one foot-heat being one form of mechanical effect. But, from causes connected with the range of temperature, he can only produce, in the form of actual work done, about as much mechanical effect as would raise 3,500,000 lbs. to the height of one foot, and that in twenty-four hours. Even this is a prodigious amount of force; and whether we regard it as derived from heat, electricity, or chemical action, it is ultimately derived from the luminous solar rays, on which vegetation depends."

The spiritual theory is forcing materialistic minds into intimate fellowship with the electrical attributes of the body. We hail the dawning of this better knowledge of man's nature, because on this alone can securely rest a philosophical understanding of the prerequisite conditions of spiritual intercourse. The phenomenon