"Mr Coleman then put the address to the meeting, which was carried with unanimity.

"Mr. Peebles then rose, and in an off-hand manner said in substance:

"MR. PRESIDENT, LADIES, AND GENTLEMEN,- The privilege of meeting you upon the present occasion affords me intense pleasure. Personally strangers, yet for years I have known some of you, at least through your public lectures, authorship, and contributions to the English and American press: and I am exceedingly happy this evening in the privilege of clasping your warm hands, looking into your earnest faces, and coming into closer relationships with you socially and spiritually. Delegated by the "Universal Peace Society of America," planting my feet upon your soil, I held in my earnest right hand the olive-branch of peace; and the other day, numbering one of that thirty or forty thousand assembled in the Crystal Palace, and seeing suspended over those eight thousand choralists the national flags of England, Ireland, Scotland, and America, responding seemingly in holy quietness to the melody of Oliver Wendell Holmes's peace-hymn, so touchingly rendered at the Peace Jubilee in Boston, and immortalized melodies from Handel, Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Rossini, and other masters, my soul throbbed in gladness: and for the moment I fancied myself in Syrian lands, listening to the echoing refrain, "Peace on earth, and good will toward men." Your own Lord Brougham said, "I abominate war, as unchristian. I hold it the greatest of human crimes." England and America, as elder and younger brother, united by the common sympathy of race, speaking one language, and connected by thousands of commercial and social interests, should never breathe the word 'war.' All nations should settle their civil and international differences by arbitration and congresses of nations. The genius of the age calls for the practice of these divine peace-principles."

"I am very happy this evening in seeing before me Mrs. George Thompson. I speak of the Hon. George Thompson as an old friend, never forgetting the pleasant conversa

tion we held together at the residence of J. C. Woodman, Esq., Portland, Me.; in fact there is a common sympathy, which tends to make our philosophy, our science, our spiritual gospel of reform, in this age a practical one; and we should bring it down to every-day life, and live it, that others may see "our good works, and be led to glorify God." The principles of Spiritualism are marching on rapidly in America, and gaining attention in every circle of society. It has been estimated that there are eleven millions of Spiritualists in America: this, probably, includes those still in the churches, and whose religion simply recognizes the fact, that spirits can communicate. The lowest estimate, however is four millions. The phenomena are abundant. Their reality has been conclusively demonstrated.

"We have a National Association, several State conventions, hundreds of organized societies and progressive lyceums, which that highly illuminated seer, Andrew Jackson Davis, first saw in the spirit-land. In these progressive lyceums, to the importance of which many of our American Spiritualists are not yet educated, our children are taught to develop their whole being, mentally, morally, physically, and spiritually. . . The great power of the sectarian churches consists in warping and training the young in their superstitions and dogmas; and the Roman Catholics know that, if they can get the charge of the children for the first few years, they need have no fear of their becoming Protestants, a hint which Spiritualists should turn to good account. If we would liberalize the race, we must educate the young; and this Spiritualists should accomplish through children's progressive lyceums, progressive libraries, new educational institutions, the support of our periodical literature, and the encouragement of mediums and speakers: and thus the work of progress would go forward on a broad liberal basis of sympathy and harmony, laboring to educate and spiritualize ourselves and our race.

"The Rev. Mr. Bengough, M. A., of Christ's College, Cambridge, who has just taken his seat, deeply interested me, as did the subsequent stirring words of Rev. M. D. Conway, so

well known in the Unitarian circles of America. His welltimed sentences reminded me of a half-day spent in the library of Emerson.

"Whittier says, "The destroyer should be the builder too;" and Carlyle insists, that he who "goes forth with a torch for burning," should also carry a "hammer for building." Many have yet to learn the full import of the term " toleration," the meaning of the word "charity." Intellectually we may, we necessarily must, differ; but our hearts, all touched and tuned to the Christ principle of love, may beat as one. The angels do not ask, What do you believe? but, What do you do? what are your life-aims? what practical work have you wrought for humanity?""

Mr. Peebles published editorially in the Universe lively descriptions of English scenes, entertainments and institutionsenough to make a large volume. Indeed he found enough to keep him extremely busy while sojourning in London, spending a good portion of his time in the British Museum and great libraries. The seven great parks, situated mainly at the West End, were local features of much interest. London's population is about equal to the whole state of New York. Individuals may drive sixteen miles in a straight line upon any one of London's diameters." The Tower of London he found "stern and gloomy, and its traditions repulsive." He also remarked the existence of a great gulf between the people and the nobility. The latter "clutch dead bones to knock the life out from progressive souls."

Learning that there are a hundred and sixty-five thousand paupers in the city of London, with their concomitant degradations glaring out on every side,- observing the rule, where royalty is, is poverty, the two extremes of society,- and painting an editorial picture of the cost of monarchical crowns, that Queen Victoria being worth a hundred and twenty-one thousand pounds, he exclaims, "O Christian England! feed your hungry, educate your ignorant. . . . Queen Victoria, sell your crown, and give the proceeds to the honest, struggling poor!"

In London, Mr. Peebles had an opportunity to corroborate

the affirmations of his ancient spirits respecting civilizations, recalling his conversation with "Aphelion," who "lived 16,000 years ago." Calling on Dr. Birch, the Egyptologist of the British Museum, then reading hieroglyphs relating to the Books of the Dead," he was informed that "the farther we go back in Egyptian history, the higher is the culture and civilization."

66

"O thou dreamer,- thou dreamer, thou dreamer of dreams,
What seems to be is not, what is not seems.

Thou art the seer of that which is;
Thine eye looketh through pretenses;
Forms that seem fair are foul to thee,
Forms that are plain are fair to thee.
Thou the spirit in all dost see,
The spirit that hath reality."

XXVIII

SOJOURN IN FRANCE

Leaving London about the 1st of October, 1869, Mr. Peebles crossed the English Channel from Dover to Calais, in a steamer good as the best, which he styles "filthy and positively detestable." The French soldiery, the peasants in their harvests, the luxurious gardens, and entrance into Paris, all assured him he was surely in a foreign land. "How unlike England!" he exclaimed. "There all is solid; here all is gay and volatile." During four weeks' residence in Paris, after steeping his senses in its floral exuberance, traversing its fashionable streets, and walking its superb boulevards, he thus summed up his observations in a letter to The Universe, dated Oct. 6, 1869:

"Paris is France. Sundays are its gala-days. The citizens are proud of their fountains, gardens, beautiful boulevards, and massive libraries,- all open to the public. Under this display and grandeur, however, lies a maddened volcano. Its fire and flame already cause a half-subdued rumble. Gog and Magog are sharpening their weapons. That Napoleon's health is frail, none dispute. The sins of his youth are fruiting out into fearful pains and penalties. The grave invites his body to hasten: a rich worm-feast is promised. Then comes another revolution: mark the prophecy!"

In less than a year this prophetic forecast was in large part fulfilled in the war between France and Prussia. Napoleon was a prisoner, the empire was broken, Paris under siege, a republic organized, and all Europe in a political ferment.

During his sojourn in Paris, Mr. Peebles was the guest of Mr. Gledstanes, an English gentleman who has traveled extensively in India and China, and from whom he obtained many valuable items on Oriental politics, religion, and social