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A MEDIUM NECESSARY IN EVERY CIRCLE.

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these, or somewhat else, it would lead me too far from my present purpose to consider. At present, I would only point out the fact that the presence of one such person at least is necessary in every circle before any spiritual manifestation can be obtained. Such persons in past times have been variously called 'seers,' 'prophets,' 'revelators,' inspired persons,' 'gifted persons,' instruments,' &c. They are now called Mediums." If our author would say "to enable spirit," the result of cerebration, to act upon matter, and not "spirits," I should agree with him. My theory is that the medium, from peculiarity of constitution, intensifies the spirit atmosphere, so as to bring the other members of the circle into communion with it, and that the manifestations are the often unconscious

*As a mere physical illustration of how spiritual force may be en rapport with some minds and not with others, let me mention an interesting experiment by Professor Tyndall. He says:-"Let me give you one other illustration of the influence of Synchronism on musical vibrations. Here are three small gas-flames inserted in three glass tubes of different lengths. Each of these flames can be caused to emit a musical note, the pitch of which is determined by the length of the tube surrounding the flame. The shorter the tube the higher the pitch. The flames are now silent within their respective tubes, but each of them can be caused to respond to a proper note sounded anywhere in this room. I have here an instrument called a syren, by which I can produce a powerful musical note. Beginning with a low pitch, and ascending gradually to a higher one, I finally reach the note of the flame in the longest tube. The moment it is reached, the flame bursts into song. I stop and re-excite the syren, to enable you to hear that its note and the flame's note are identical. But the other flames are still silent within their tubes. I urge the instrument on six higher notes; the second flame has now started, and the third alone remains. But a still higher note starts it also. Thus, as the sound of the syren rises gradually in pitch, it awakens every flame in passing, by striking it with a series of waves whose periods of recurrence are similar to its own." Lecture delivered in the Royal Institution, January 19th, 1866, on "The Relations of Radiant Heat to Chemical Constitution, Colour, and Texture."-Fortnightly, February 15.

reflex of their mental states, intensified by the influx from without. This influx or inspiration is poured out only through the organization or vessels present, and is mixed with what is found there. From predominating propensities and active passions we get devilish manifestations, and vice versa when the aesthetic, the religious, or the moral feelings predominate. But we not only have the reflex of the minds forming this circle, but often that of others not present with whom these are en rapport by means of the all pervading spirit atmosphere. Of course the difficulty here, and that which has necessitated the assumption of separate individual spirits, is the existence of consciousness and will without any of the persons present being conscious of exercising either. The difficulty, however, is not greater than in the unconsciousness that attends somnambules and the mesmeric states, and in the unconscious cerebration which regulates the great majority of all our actions supposed to be voluntary, and which originally were so. From having been drilled hard in Murray in my school days, I can now repeat the whole of my adverbs, prepositions, and conjunctions, while thinking of something else, in the same way that ladies will play polkas and quadrilles, or other familiar tunes, and carry on a conversation at the same time. The difficulty is merely with the Will, because we do not at present understand what is its power, or the nature and extent of its action. Physiologists tell us that although the action of the cerebral hemispheres and many other parts of the nervous system must be attended by sensibility and consciousness, still there must be a great generation of nervous force attended with no consciousness, and that the channels through which this discharges itself depends upon the nature and acquired tendencies of the organism. Can we say what is the Will power of Somnambules? It is Will power that has created and sustains the

THE ABODES OF SPIRITS.

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Universe, and who shall say what may be the limit and amount that may be exercised by each individuality, or how this individual force may act when joined to others. But if there is a difficulty attending my explanation, that attending the theory of spirits that have passed away-the existence of disembodied sentient being,-is "ponderous" indeed.

The Spirits; their Abodes and Occupations.

We are told by Mrs. de Morgan that "Within the body is the soul, which passes away at the first change, death, and, animated by the spirit, becomes the body of the new life. * The internal of the man, is the external of the spirit, and extending the principle from individuals to the mass, we find that the inner state of the material world forms the outer or phenomenal form of the spiritual sphere." * * * ("From Matter to Spirit," p. 268.) "Clairvoyants also assert," we are told, "that their perceptions resemble those of persons immediately after death, when the soul has become the body, and the entranced person holds converse with those dwellers in the spirit spheres with whom he is in harmony or affinity." * (Ibid, p. 269.) "Whatever the impressing spirit thinks, the medium sees, and the same idea may be conveyed by saying, that, as every thought or feeling in the earth-life leaves its impress on the soul, the soul, when it becomes the body of the spirit, has only to recall the memory of any particular condition to produce the appearance required." (p. 264.) Bacon thought that the spirit evolved from the body is the body of the mind; that as the body is to this spirit, so is this spirit to mind. * There seems considerable similarity between the two ideas, but Mrs. de

* Man's Nature and Development, p. 270.

Morgan goes considerably farther, and describes the whole process of the new birth into the spirit world, which persons whose spiritual eyes are opened have repeatedly witnessed. It has a marked resemblance to our birth into this world, some of the spirits of the departed generally attending as midwives; and we are told that sensitives can always distinguish these new-born spirits, and also that "a person whose spiritual eye is opened will always see the spirits with whom he is en rapport." (Ibid, p. 247.) However, the whole process of the "new birth" so much resembles the old that the "spirits" cannot be said to be more than the children of those from whom they had their birth on earth, and can no more be said to be the same people than the son can be said to be his own father. The Spirits so born are not called away, as we might expect, to inhabit other worlds in this illimitable universe, but remain in different spheres in close contiguity with this earth, the distance varying according as the spirit retains more or less of its gross, earth-clinging tendencies:" the best among them, however, are not so far off but that for half-a-crown, paid to a medium, they may generally be summoned to "communicate," or to answer any questions that may be put to them, and from their replies we may justly conclude that they strictly limit themselves to the capacity of their questioners. The occupations of those "earth-tending spirits" who continue in close contiguity with this earth, do not seem always of the most dignified or desirable character. They are in attendance on former friends and relations,—at the elbow of the new husband or wife who is saying just the same things over again as were said on the former happy occasion; or they are putting good or evil thoughts into people's minds, or attending the tables of spiritualist circles, or waiting upon the sick or dying. And, as the soul-bodies of all who have existed are present, they must be rather thick upon the

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SPIRITUALISM AND A FUTURE STATE.

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ground, so that we may soon be again occupied with the questions that so much interested the middle ages, as to how many angels can stand upon the point of a needle at once, or, if a spirit were in vacuo, whether the void could truly be called perfect? Mr. Gully says, "spiritual bodies that have quitted fleshly bodies may be at work. I, for one, wish that it may be proved to be so; for a more solemn discovery than that of a means of communication between embodied and disembodied sentient beings cannot be imagined." The discovery, if it has been made, has certainly not yet been attended with all the solemnity that Mr. Gully anticipated; and as to the communication between the embodied and the disembodied, one can at least imagine many occasions in which it would not be thought desirable. It is probable that nothing in the world of mind. worth retaining has ever been lost to the race: it has been preserved to us in improved organizations, by tradition, and by printing; and the intercourse we can all have with the minds. of the great and good that have departed, in our libraries, furnishes a higher response than anything that has yet been got out of the tables.

The pictures which the less gross spirits give of "the future life" in their higher spheres, show such a world as poetical young ladies would have made this had they been consulted about it, full of flowers and green fields and glory; but when such pictures and other information cannot be received literally by such sensible, grown-up women as Mrs. de Morgan, they are accepted symbolically, that is, they are translated into a language of preconceived ideas.

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But spiritualism, we are told, proves the existence of a future state": it certainly may make people doubt, for the first time perhaps, whether such a future state is desirable. It is also said to prove the Immortality of the Soul; now, nothing is better proved than that all force or spirit is per

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