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OUR

Companions,

SANCHO QUIXOTE. \^^-^

I i

"Ceas to do evil • lerr] to do well."

" The more I think of it," says Ruskin, " I find this
conclusion more imprest upon me — that the greatest
thing a human soul ever does in this world is to see some-
vning, and to tell what it saw in a plain way. "

i ■ '

TORONTO

G. M. HOSE & SONS,

1896,

* -Th"

'fA

A .■(

2004

J-:^;.-

Lniered according to Act of the Parliament of Canada, in the year or o
thousand eight hundred and ninety-six, by G. M, Rose & SoNi,
at the Department of Agriculture.

.<.

'•K* -

'^■t'

.<^

<i|^-.

CONTENTS.

i
A'

CHAPTMi.

II.

III.

IV.

VI.

VII.

VIII.

IX.

XII.

^ XIII.

XIV.

XV.

XVI.

XVII,

XVIII.

XIX

! XX

' XXI

XXII

XXIII

XXIV

XXV

XXVI,

XXVII.

The Amenukd Spki.ing
As THK Day — a Poem ...
Introduction . . . -

Our Ant. els- .....
Making My Bow .....
About the Occult World
Worshipping Satan ....

Trapping an Enthusiast -
Still Trapping . . . . ,

The Gift of Tungs ....
My Ears ar Opknd ....

Hevenly Music fro.m Angelic Hosts -
T:iE Very Gate of Heven
Fiends and Hvpnotis.m- - * * -
The Mouth of the Pit
The Trap is Sprung by De.mons-
Inside A Lunatic Asylum ,
Luv AND Hate .....
Fiendish Persecution . - ^

Don't Mention It! - - - -
Hypnotism Means Torture
TheDemons and 1 hk Armenian Massacres
"Jesus Luver of My vSoul!"
Rejoicing as a Strong Man-
Demons Swear— Do You?
An Evolutionary Future -
What Think Ye of Christ? -

Stray Notes .....
American Civilization -
An Angkl Asks Mk, "What do Christians

Mean?"

The Time Spirit and au Revoir

To the Reeder * . • ...

.OB.

iii.

viii.

ix.

13
16

30
21

3»

43
48

77
88

99
109

116

131

127
130

J 34

140

145
160

163
223

242

26C|

^■J-

• f

• - . k. «»

THE AMENDED SPELING.

'^.

<}•

-1

• J

IF you want anythinj^- done, do it. '^Youar like others,
you dream about thin.ijs and talk about them, but
you don't do them." That was what an angel said to me
one day.

When I lernt shorthand some eighteen years ago I be-
came an advocate of fonetic spelingand expected with the
enthusiasm of youth that tlie new system would win its
way in a few years, and that the liaibarous, mossback
English wliich has tortured .so many millions of unfortun-
ates woidd soon be thrown into the wa.stebasket to be
grubbed up only by antiquarians. But the sluggards and
the traditionalists still survive to witch the world with
strange t)rthografy. .

The thanks of all ICnglish speaking pt.opl ar due to Sir
Isaac Pitnum for the splendid work he has done for spel-
ing reform. I do not like some of the characters heu.ses,
but when the legislators of English speaking countries
make up their minds that it is time to hav a new and
better language we can ea.sily find suitabl characters to re-
present the different stumils.

1 believ Engli.>;h will be the universal language. I
hav examined Volapuk to s<jme extent, and I do not think
it will ever be generally u.sed. In addition to our other
troubls, we ar afiflicted with mossback, purblind legi.slators
who do not .set'm t' understand what a fonetic language
would mean even from the sacred point of view of making
money. Our present system is wasteful in the extreme,

IV.

OUR UNSF.KN CUMl'AN KjNS.

evcnforhomcu.se, while a fonetic sy-tem would in a singl
decade, in addition to settinj^: us rijrht at home, effect u
marvelous chanj^e in our foreign relations and help to fill
our gaping pockets. •

The etymological difficulties 'ar more imaginary than
real. When I lernt to read Spanish I had no troubl what-
ever in understanding that "filosofo" ment philosopher,
and surely the lerned men should be the last V) say that
simpl changes of that sort will confuse them. They ar
not aware of the extent of their own aViilities. But even
if the origin of the word were obscured there ar diction-
aries enuf and to spare to help them out of their difficul-
ties. And there is another consideration. Even if the
origin were obscured ten times over we don't care. We
er getting defiant:. We will soon become reckless. Is
language for the use of a very, very few purists or is it
for hundreds of millions of peopl? Ar children to be
tortured from generation to generation to pleas a few
of the professors, and all of the mossbacks? The best men
ar on the side of the radical;;. The very cream of the
cream of the filologists ar with us, and we ar gO' ^g to
win, for Demos shall beJcing, yea Demos king.

It should be an easy matter t(3 make progress. There
ar thousands of stenografers in the land and it is safe to
say that they all favor a change. They practically con-
duct all the business correspondence of the couniry, and
"The Hou.se" would bow to their will if they went about
the work diplomaticallv.

The system used in this book might easily be adopted
without any volcanic eruptions. It would be sufficient to
put on the letter heds, "The system of speling used in
our correspondence is that recommended by the Filological
Societies of the United States and the United Kingdom. "
Then, in the current language "The House" would be
at the hed of the procession.

The newspapers ar never tired shrieking about what

-a

TUK AMKNDI.l* SPKI INI).

they d«> to brinj,*' about a higher civilization, but they seem
to steer clear of this reform. There is a limp in their pro-
grossiv Rait when it comes to fonctic spelinj?, yet most of
them acknowledge that it is necesbary. Why don't they
adopt it?

If our statesmen had adopted a system of fonetic
speling a quarter of a century ago, all Imotypes and type-
writers would hciv been made with the new characters;
but they were busy with "practical" work and laft at the
dreamers. It sometimes turns out tho that the dreamers
ar the practical men in the long run.

1 had my book alredy typewritn and I said to myself,
" AVhy not use the amended speling ? Why not do it in-
sted of talking about it?" And I tool; up my pen and
began to make corrections. It cost me some hard work,
but I think the result will justify it. We hav a good deal
of influence upon one another. A sing I thotless remark
of a companion set me to lern Spanish. Fn^m Spanish I
went to French and formed acquamtances, and listened
to speeches that I would never hav done but for that one
remark that Spanish was an easy language. So I hav
amended the speling becaus I know that some of my
readers will mend their manners, and make their fortunes
by adopting this reform thru having red " Our Unseen
Companions."

I hav undoubtedly mist many words, and again I hpv
drawn my pen thru some that should hav been left un-
toucht on the principl that if you giv a man an inch
he will take an el. I believ in an absolutelv fonetic
English, but it is best to take what we can get at present,
and be thankful.

If the speling you see here looks vStrange, it is simply
becaus the eye is not accustotned to it. 1 like Pitman's
speling better in one respect. *' Po.sibel "looks better, ac-
cording to my view, than "possibl," " trifel" than "trifl."
I like a language with plenty of vowels. Spanish, tor ex.-

VI.

Ol'K I'NSKI-N COMI'AMONS.

ampi. has a musical look about it. if T may employ a fig-ure
that will make the heathen ra;,'^c ; hut the aulhorities can
settl these dispuied questions when the jj;Teat lij^'ht comes,
for as yet we 'lav only Vieen skirmishing;.

I was half inclined to adopt anew ch.iracter for the Ion;.,'
"e" in such words as " believ " and " receiv," but con-
cluded not to go too far and offend the Filistines, for they
ar as shy as littl fawns. It is best to do as much as possibl
with the familiar characters at this stage and very mucl,
can be done with them if you, the reader of this book,
will act, act in the living present. I hav more faith than
ever in what we can do if we only put our shoulders
to the wheel at (jnce and not wait until to-morrow,
■when we may hav joined the anq;els who can commimi-
cate with one an Jther without any lan'.^uajie.

It would weary you to tell of the schemes I hav thot of
to brinij about a fonetic Enj^lish. By the time you finish
this book you may understand matters. No, no; that wr.^.
not the dominatinjjf id"a; (mly one am<m}^ others. Per-
haps I may hav sonu' j'ood ideas. Perha])S n(jt. You will
not be tnmbld with them, at all events, until the proper
time. In the mean time I sleep \(,'ry well indeed, thank
you, and eat a jji'ood-sized dinner.

The thanks of S])elinj4- reformers ar due also to Funk cS:
Waj,nialls, Pul)lishers, New York. They issued a circular
some nujnths aj^o with a list of more than twelv hundred
words in the amended spelinj^. The undcrstandinjj;- was
that as soon as they ^<.)t three hundred siuTi.alures of edit-
ors, authors, prominent teachers, ]Mdmincnt business
men who would aj>Tee to adopt the list they would use it
in their ])eriodicals. Two hundred and nine per.sons sent
their sii^natures at once and it is believd that the re-
quired number will .sotm be in and the conditions ful-
lild. ■ •

While I hav always been much interested in the subject
it is not likely that this Ixxjk would hav been printed as it

TMF. AMF.Nl>K!) SPEMNO.

vii.

;j^<T»

h-l

is had the list not been sent out. The spelinj^docs not go
lur enuf to suit a radical, but it is a nearer approach to
common sens than that which is in movSt of the books mine
will rub CO vet's with on the bookshelvs.

I hav introduced a littl word into the language to 'rri-
tate the ]m)f ^ssors. If you don't like it, invent one your-
selt, and out <jf the host we shall be abl to select the right
one. What is it ^ Read on, read on ! It is not plethys*
mograf, at all events.

If you ar in t .rested in the subject, as all men and
women of jirogressiv ideas should be, you can g<;t further
informati(>n from the circular by writing to MevSsrs. Funk
& Wagnalls, 30 Lafayette Place, New York. Forget t(^
enclose a stamp, as usual, and the reply will likely come
the quicker : let brotherly luv continue.

" Vou think about things, you dream about them, but
you ar like the others — you don't do them," said an angel
to me. How much longer ar we going to lay ourselves
open to this charg- ? \ . ,^

. : ir< <) . ' «

"AS THY DAY."

*t):

At this mjr dajr I O promls bleBt I
SwMii. <vordi of comfort, wnrda of rest 1
No more v.(th boding' fear I wait
To read to-morrow's hidden fate.
Whate'er its toils, whate'er its tears,
Whate'er its perils, pains or fears.
While sun and stnrs and worlds endure.
The old sweet promiSBlaudetb sure I

The hand that holds the world uptjean
My weary hart with all its cares ;
The eye that slumbers not hath seen
My (rraveyard mound with ifrasses green.
My Father's pityiugr luv has red
The pain behind the tears I shed.
How confortlnjr his words to me—
Child, AS thy day thy strenffth shall be."

Long, long ago when liis was new,
I lerut that luv, dlTine' r true.
That watchful care that cares for all :
The stars' grand march, the sparrows fall.
Long, long ago, I lernt to trust
That calm wise will and purpose Just.
Worn, weary, wounded, now at length,
I lean upon that matchless siruogth.

As this my day— my little day 1
My broken, troubtd, thwarted day.
The day whose roseate morning bloom
Was quoDcht and darkened into gloom.
The morn of giftal the noon of lobS I
The lengthening shadow of the cross t
Once more, ray Father, say to mo ;
' Child, as thy day thy strength shall be "

Mas. MA.RT H. Fi»»!».

'■:<

INTRODUCTION.

r ^

'* And many of them Mid, * He bath a devil. Why hear ye him?' Others
■aid, "i'hefie are not the words of bim that hath a devil.' "-John z , 20, 21.

♦' Write on your doors the sayingr wise and old,
* Be bold 1 b« bold 1' and everywhere ' Be bold;'
' Be not too bold !' Yet better the exoeas
Than thedcfoct. Better the more than less ;
Better like Hector in the Mold to die,
Than llkea perfumed Paris turn and fly."— LoNorar.LiOW.

y T is litt.rature of one kind and another that plays the
m mi.schief with us all Down in l.a Mancha in the
olden time the knight red and re- red his books of chival-
ry so often thni the day, and drcmt so much at night —
eyes sometimes closed, sometimes open — of the golden
days of the past and the golden days to come when he
should lay his lance in rest and clear Spain of marauders,
that he lost taste for the quiet pursuits whicli had formerly
charmed him, and found no peace unto his .soul until he
went forth a- fighting. And if his poor cousin Sancho
Quixote, master builder of castles in the .same country
spent the best part of a year in an insane asylum in these
latter days gathering wisdom that he might easily hav
found elswhere in a much plcsanter manner, and if he
past thru the horribl experiences narrated in tliis new
book of chivalry anil fool-hardy daring he owes it from
beginning to end to bad ideas, bad literature and worse
judgment.

It took a long time of preparation ; the evidences were
carefully weighed again and again, for it was a risky ven-
ture; but bad mi.stakes were made in the premi.ses and
Sancho suffered.

The average man or woman has very littl idea of the

'i^

OUR UNSEEN COMPANIONS,

■■ !' ,

L.y

influence that one mind has upon another. Ideas rule the
world, A good book lifts us up ; an evil one pulls us

down. The effect of both lasts for ever.

* » * # ♦

" Tho' losses and crosses • j,

Be lessons right severe,
,,. There's wit there, you'll get there.

Yoii '11 find no other where."

Upon a certain day, a few years ago, a millionaire was
sitting in his office in the city of Nevr York. He was one
of the rulers of our modem world with all the power but
without the trappings that his barbaric brothers of old
used to throw around themselves. He was expecting a
very important message, and had told his chief clerk to
see to it that there was no ceremony wasted when his
trusted agent appeard. Just before the time for closing
the office the door opend and a sharp-looking man
walkt in. ''Well?" said the millionaire interrogativly.
"The deal is closed," was the smiling reply, "and the
papers arall signed," "Allow me to congratulate you,"
said Midas, for this was his name. "Your share will
make you rich." The fight was over, the millionaire
was successful ; he had acquired more power, and the
two men went out the office together smiling and satis-
fied. Midas had not so much aslookt at the clothes or the
muddy shoes of his agent.

Moral number one. — Muddy shoes don't count, u iha
man who wears them brings good tidings. * * ♦ * *

You, who ar by no means a millionaire, much to your
sorrow doubtless, but just an ordinary mortal selling
sugar, or hides, or lumber, ar sitting like your rich frend
waiting for good news. The messenger boy taps at your
door and brings you in a telegram. You open it, read
the contents, and you say, "Ha, ha, the game is mine ;
things ar coming my way at last." The boy is gone and

^.,

INTRODUCTION.

XI.

you hav never so much as lookt at the shape of his cap.
Moral number two:--Caps don't count if the boy who

wears them carries a plesant messag

« ♦ * * ♦

A short time after the Batl of Flodden a weary knight
rode up the streets of Edinburgh, surrounded by anxious

citizens.

"NawBof batll Newsofbatli!

Hark 1 Tis ringinsr down the street.
And the archways and the pavement
Boar the clanK of hurryiDg feeU

'* How has the day gone, Randolff Murray ? Why hav
you left our sons and fathers ? Where ar they ?" But
the old man rode on to meet the fathers of the city. He
brot them news of fierce batl against the Southern, of
great loss, of the wreck of their hopes.

The wise old men had shaken their heds when their sons
had shouted for war with their ancient enemy to the
south, but the yung bloods led the way and would not
be gainsaid. The result was disaster. The old knight
had escaped after he had fot a good fight, but it was a sad
story he brot to the waiting burgers. _.>

Moral number three : — They believd his message, be-
caus they knew him and trusted him.

Moral number four: — It would hav been far better if
the yung bloods had listened to the counsel of those
who implored them to let well enuf alone and to
profit by the experience of their grandfathers.

Moral number five: — We would all be better littl men
and women if we would remember what happened to
the fools of old who engaged in batls that should never
hav been fot.

,>;'*

■if

i'C

, it

'* My dear yung lady," said an old gentlman in a pom-
pous way to his ward who was enjoying herself in a man-
ner that did not accord with his ideas of propriety, " I am
an old man now ; I hav seen a great deal of the world. "

Xll.

OUR UNSEF.N COMPANIONS.

" I be.(,^ your pardon, sir," she said internipting him, for
she knew what was comingf. *' But I wish to see it, too."
Moral number six : — If tlie rising generation would only —
etc. But we insist on biting the appl for ourselvs, and
we hav to spit out the ashes in the same way as our re-
spected forefathers did.

" How is the batl going ?" wa.s the question askt one
day when Napoleon was turning things upside down. " The
batl is lost, but it is only four o'clock, and there is time to
gain another. " was the reply.

Moral number seven, and last and best for both reader
and writer o- the following experiences: — We can win
all our batls in the future no matter what blunders we
hav made in the past if we will only accept the general-
ship of One who will lead us to a victory that will grow
brighter and brightei as the days go by.

.*■ '■

Let it be said at the outset, and remembered to th'? end,
that there ar^ many, very many Christian Spiritualists. I
think they ar making a serious mistake, but it may be
.said with respect to them, and also with respect to many
who. ar not Christiiuis, that not a few of our nominal
Christians who ar strictly orthodox in their views might
easily leni something from some of the Spiritualists. They
ar trying hard amid difficiilties that we all feel to luv
their neighbor as themselves and they ar succeeding
fairly well. A pity tliat we don't all do as well as some
of them ar doing.

There ar said to be several millions of Spiritualists in the
world now. A belief that is held by so many of our fel-
low beings is worthy of being fot for if it is right, and
worthy of being opposed if it is wrong. The truth will
conquer in the end, and the gates of hell shall not prevail
against it. And now hi-nds to the work.

^^M

V-"'.

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fii^t

■'■-4-

W-

CHAPTER I.

BY PERMISSION FROM THE NEW YORK. HERALD OF NOVEMBER

24TH, 1895.

Our Angels.
Angels Came and Ministered Unto Him. — Matt, iv., xi.

It is a glad surprise to the careful student of the older
and the newer Scriptures that the beings whom we call
angels occupy so prominent a position In the Father's
dealings with His children on the erth. And it is not the
least curious fact in the history of our modem religious
life that the mission of these angels should be either ig-
nored or practically discredited. We hav not been willing
to admit that God uses any secondary agencies in the ac-
complishment of his purposes. As a consequence, we suf-
fer spiritual loss, for there is great comfort to be had in
the belief that a throng of invisibl beings ar nigh at hand
in our time of troubl, pitying us in our distress and lend-
ing such aid as lies in their power. How many of our
burdens ar lightened by their succoring strength, how
frequently we ar enabled to resist temptation by their
power Jadded to our own, how often holy suggestions
come from them, which we attribute to our own minds and
harts, no one can tell. But that they do come from
heven to erth, and that our daily lives ar blest by their
presence, no one who accepts the record of Christ's minis-
try as veritabl history can possibly doubt.

Their doings run thru the pages of the Old Testament
like a golden thred in a costly fabric. The dark places in the
life of the ancient Hebrews ar illumined by them, and
every profet held communion with them and receivd from
them the mandates of the Most High, Daniel, when
speaking of the straight he was in, said: **Behold, there

*i*i*v>

OUR UNSEEN COMPANIONS.

Stood before me as the appearance of a man. . . . And
he informed me and talkt with me. " And his experience is
so multiplied by others of a like nature that we ar almost
startld by their constant recurrence. They shine like
stars on a winter night; and to them the Hebrev.s were
indeted for their courage and their national glory.

The birth of Christ was announct by an angel; the
flight into Egypt with the Child was commanded by an
angel ; when the temptation of Christ was ended He was
ministered unto by angels; when the tearful women
stood at the tomb it was an angel ' * whose raiment was
white as snow," who proclaimed the resurrection. And
when the mob followed the Lord and the discipls talkt
of resistance by force, He rebukt them, declaring that if
needful He could call on "more than twelv legions of
angels. "

I adduce only a few out of many instances, but they ar
sufficient to establish and emphasize the fact that we ar
seen tho we do not see, and that heven holds the erth in
its arms as a mother her babe. No distance forms n. b^^r-
rier either to our longing or to their respons to it. We
may not feel the hand that is placed in ours, but it is
there; we do not hear with the hearing of the ear, but
with the hearing of the hart ; we do not see these guardian
spirits with the eye, but with our inner consciousness we
ar sure that they ar close by. What a glorious relm of
thot we av exploring! What a glorious relm of fact is
revealed to us! The poor soul that is being driven along
the downward path by the fury of his passions is accom-
panied at every step by God's messengers — the messen-
gers of his pity and his luv — and with their supremest
efforts they try to bar his way to further wretchedness.
The lonely hart that has been chilld by frosty misfortune,
and falls upon c. desperate mood that regards even crime
with iiidificrcncc, i : surrounded by invisibl agents whoar
doin^ all that heven itself can suggest to make the way

OUR ANGELS.

»5

Jfi:

smoother and the sky brighter. And the mourning soul
sitting in the shadow of a great bereavment, looking up-
ward with tear-dimd eyes — is no one near to whisper con-
solation? Is God unmindful or powerless to assuage this
grief? The angels who represent God'-^ sympathy ar in
that darkened room, and the peace that comes to the
broken hart comes from abuv. »

We hav here a practical fact, but we hav made too littl
use of it. The wonder is that we hav neglected it so
long, for it is one of the most precious truths to be found
within the whole range of God's providence. Not alone„
never alone, but always in the companionship of minis-
tering spirits enjoined by the Father to do us good ser-
vice if we will allow them to do so.

And who ar chese hevenly beings? Why not those who
hav been bound to us for many years and who luv us now
more than ever? Shall they who hav been so dear, but
who were summoned to the other land, be sent far away
while strangers do His bidding for our behoof? Our
guardians ar those who hav been closest to our harts, I
believ, and they ar always redy to come at our call. They
hover about us, guide oiir wandering footsteps, avert im-
pending danger, do what they may to encourage and
cheer, and after the nightfall, when the morning comes,
they will be the first to greet us and welcome us to that
home where partings shall be forever unknown.

Geor(;e H. Hepworth.

That sermon of th6 Rev. Dr. Hepworth is one of the
best and most practical I hav ever red. I say most prac-
tical, and I am a fairly good judge as you will perhaps
acknowledge before you finish this book. The oftener
you read it, the better you see it to be. Every word of
it is true with the possibl exception of the first part of
the last paragraf. It is worth your while to read it over
again, for it is a beutiful sermon full of glorious ideas
that I knpw to be true. I know to be true, for as I used

1 6

OUR UNSF.RN COMPANIONS.

to read it demons were cursing around me, but angels
were there to cheer and encourage me to the end of j.
fight that was waged inch by inch with a savage intensity
of erncstness and hatred that astonisht, and during the
erlier stages appald me.

■'-I'v^

CIIAFTKR II.

Majcinti; My How.

There ar a great many strange doctrins in the world we
liv in, but strange indeed must be the one that does not
hav an ernest body of supporters.

There ar men who hav a firm belief in the virtues of
protection, imd theie ar others who pin their faith to free
trade, (loid, says one man, is the only proper medium
for a currency, and his neighbor across the street shriek';
for paper and confidence and is redy to march to the
stake in support of his theory if necessary. We hav
Whigs and Tories disguised under modern names, Re-
publicans and Democrats, Shakers and anti- Shakers,
Women Suffragists and those who become furious at the
mention of the subject, and we hav ernest men and wom-
en who believ in miracls and others equally ernest who re-
fuse to bow the knee. In short — for we might easily pro-
long the discussion unt'" your patience was exhausted —
whenever there is a question of any kind broacht yoii find
that thru a conception of some law on the one side, and a
want of faculty to understand that law on the other men
and women instantly take sides and begin to fight. They
hav been fighting for thousands of years over some of the
questions that agitate the human race, and they do not
seem to be much nearer a sett] men t than when they be-

.;,,,■.<.'

•f'V';

•^

■i

MAKINC. NfV now.

■ii;:i^>

!;.t/'

j:fan. Man, with all his faults, is a patient kind of a beinj3f,
and insted of lookinjj for fniii fnnii past elTort, as he cer-
tainly should in these ev'ilutionary days, he trots around
the circl as his fathers did and tries to keep happy. Much
to my surprise 1 hav been forct^to clianj^e sides on one of
these subjects as old as the hills, and 1 want to take yoxi
into my confidence and tell you all aljout it.

But for the fact that I think my experience will do some-
thing to keep other: in the narrow path this bc-ok would
never have been writn. The best thing to do as a rule
when you hav been foolish is just to take your punish-
ment and say as litil as possil")l - -just to taKe your medi-
cin, as the vernacular has it, and mi|.ke up yonr mind to
do better in the futu.'c, and, now that the sun is s. lining
as brightly as ever, this is what I would do if I '-d not
know that hundreds ar being trapt into the same belief as
I was altho few go so far.

First of all then, largely owing to my reading on the
subject in the newspapers and reviews, and principally, I
think, in tlie proceedings of the American and English
Psychical societies, I hnv bclievd for the Irst seven or
eight years that we ar, as the reverend Mr. Hepworth
says in his admirabl sermon, .surrounded b angels who
ar trying to raise ns up and help ns. Previous to that
time I did not think much about the matter, but took it
all for granted. 1 now regret to say that 1 am in a posi-
tion to giv the other side of the story and to state from
my practical experience of many months that we ar also
surrounded by fallen angels, ^-ou might call them, or de-
mons or fiends as they ar sometimes called.

Now, here is just where otir tnmbls begin. There ar
men who believ that angels of both kinds surround us in
our daily lives, and they ar so sure about it that nothing
will convince them that it is not true, but there ar also ir-
ritating men and W(jmen who look rather superior and
smile in a patronizing way when the fact is mentioned

OUR UN8KKN COMPANIONS.

and whisper in an aside to their neijjhbors that so and so
has lost what littl brains he ever had. It is worth while
to stop here long enuf to say that the plain teaching of
the Bible is with the believers, but it cotint.s for so littl
with many who are church members that it might, so far
as they are concerned, be left out of the question. It is a
pity when men within the camp are figl>ting the batls of
the enemy.

Here, then, is ^ -here the fight begins. On the one side
we hav those who accept the New Testament doctrin of
demoniac possession, and on the other we hav those who
profess their belief in it when they join a christian church
but who smile at the idea. Those outside the fold who
scout at such a thing ar, at least, not playing hypocrit.

The unfortunates who know something about posses-
sion, and hear' voices from our vmseen companions ar as-
sured by the materialists that these voices ar imaginary
and come only thru a derangement of the nervous system.
The doctors ar partly right — they do come thru a derange-
ment of the nervs, but they ar real. To hold this belief
and to maintain it in the face of the experts, as ovher un-
fortunates maintain their delusions is to convict one's self
of being insane. When hallucinations become .so persist-
ently imprest on the mind, says a good authority, as to
induce ab.solute belief in their reality as facts, and the
subject acts in conformity with such belief, his mental
condition comes within the scope of delusion, which is legal
unsoundness of mind. These be brave words, but I never
set much store by that view when I studied the subject
from a theoretical standpoint, and I set less than ever now
that I hav added reality to theory.

The doctors work from the outside. An ounce of fact
is worth a pound of theory.

"Write your experience," the voices I herd told me
time and again, '*and perhaps others will tell of theirs and
men and women will come to understand that the old idea

! I

•■l'^: .

'-i^ i'Ks--;- ••'•-•»■ •^'■'•^uii

MAKING MV ROW.

of possession is right." I herd these voices ringing in
my ears all day and every minute of the night that I
was awake. If they were imaginary then so ar the voices
you hear for the sound is the same.

While I was under the torture there was but littl relief
except when our good angels spoke to me. It was a cold
blooded, merciless persecution, and had it not been for the
frendly voices bearing me up and encouraging me thru
the horrors I could never hav come out of it.

Knowing the theory of the doctors as 1 did, I tried hard
to believ in the face of all my previous reading that the
voices were imaginary, and even when listening against
my will to their lafter at the medical authorities, to their
jeering and their cursing, I stoutly maintained that I was
mistaken and that the lerned men were right, but I had
to give it up after a time and get back to common sens.
The only way I could revenge myself was by remember-
ing that the physicians of Austria had tried to prevent the
running of railway trains erly in the century on the theory
that they would cut off the breth of the passengers owing
to the rapid motion and land them at the wrong destin-
ation. I remembered, too, that they had denied the circtila-
tion of the blood, half boiled men for fevers and other-
wise made such terribl fools of themselves that the wiser
among them now ar modest enuf to declare that medi-
cin does not possess half the virtues that the ancient quacks
used to attribute to it. This is what a good many of us
hav been suspecting for a long while, but we were half
afraid to speak before the college bred men gave the nod.

It would fill a book to tell of their lerned nonsens, and
firmly believing that they hav something to lem on the
subject of insanity, I intend, humbly enuf, to set forth my
views, to give my reasons for believing that voices ar real,
that Mahomet and Joan of Arc, to quf^t two well known
exampls, herd them, that thousands of men and women
hear them to-day, many of them to their sorrow, that

OUR? UNSEEN COMPANION?;.

many hav escaped by the skin of the teeth, and that every
one who has not herd them as nuieh as I did should fall
on his knees and thank God no matter what his surround-
ings ar.

For those who clin;, to the gospel and the old theory of
possession my story may be interesting and profitabl; for
those who cannot believ in any other than tiie orthodox
theory it will be as the story of a madman, and thcref«)re
interesting enuf in a mesure as a revelation of the work-
ings of the human brain under abnormal conditions.

■ t«m* •

CHAPTER III.

AbouT THK Occult World.

Macaulay in describing the Puritans says: "They
were men whose minds had derived a peculiar character
from the daily contemplation of superior beings and
eternal interests. The difference between the greatest
and the meanest of mankind seemed to vanish when com-
pared with the boundless interval which separated the
hole race from Him on whom their eyes were constantly
fixt. The very meanest of them was a being to whose
fate a mysterious and terribl importance belonged — on
whose slightest action the spirits of light and darkness
lookt with anxious interest. He was half maddened by
glorious or terribl illusigns. He herd the lyres of angels
or the tempting whispers of fiends. "

That is what the Puritans thot about it, and before T
had studied the occult world I often smiled on the sly at
our grim friends and their beliefs. But they were rather
a strong kind of men too. Bishop vSpalding says well, —

AHOUT VUV. tUrWI T WOkl.l).

*• T look aroitiul ine ami I d<» not know where U) find their
nuitili to-day." l""or a good many years 1 liav believd
like them that wc ar encompast round about with auj^cels,
but somehow or other I made the almost fatal n 'stake of
thinkinj^ that mine were all drest in white. I forgot al-
together alnait the blaek batallions, and they ar very in-
dustrious and very much in ernest. In ou-r modern frase
they mean business, and they work with a passionate de-
sire to drag us down to their level, and make our lives a
burden almost too bevy to bear.

I ask myself often, What is the use of saying anything
about it? The torture is over, and others ar more inclined
to laf or joke over what is a dedly serious matter than to
keep away froni it themselves and do their best to help
their neighbors from falling into the pit. I need never
have past thru the depths, for there was evidence enuf in
the world, outside of the Bibk altogether, for even a fool.
But we hav become so devout in our worship of "science"
that we must hav evidence for ourselves — we will nf)t be-
liev iinless we see the nail prints and put our hand in His
side. We will not believ Moses and the profets, and
neither will we believ even if one should rise from the
ded. This saj'ing has a new meaning for me now-a-days.

In these days when so many ar telling us wonderful
stories of the occult world and the glories therof, it may
be worth while for me to lift up my voice like one crying
in the wilderness and tell what I found. We ar all will-
ing to listen to the story of the man who si'.cceeds, but it
is well when occasion servs to lend an ear to him who
fails. The knights of old tot many a hard batl, and it
must hav been rather plesant for the victors to ride around
the lists amid the plaudits of the spectators, but some-
where there were other knights who had bit the dust and
broken harts by their failures, and to-day when we ar
fighting on other batl grounds some of the gallant gentl-
men bear off the colors, and we clap our hands and make

■■''j't

"•;,-♦ ;■

i It

1 '

I T'

OUR UNSKEN COMPANIONS.

merry and forget all about the miukll heeled creaturevS
who have fallen by the wayside or remember them only
to speal: of their folly, and to hui^f ourselves as we think
that we ar not as they were.

The vSuecessful oceultists ar like the doctors — they ar
wedded lo idols, .so that I am between two contending
hosts neither of them over wise. I shall tell the success-
ful explorers of the occult of my journey into the hidden
relm and its direful ccMisecjuences. As the motto on the
book cover says, I went out for wool and came back
shorn. Surely the men \>ho ar tcling us of their triumfs
can hav patience enuf to listen to the story of one failure,
or if they told the whole truth would some of them not
hav to say too, as I hav, that we should be content to
leave things as God has fixt them? They ar, according
to my views, in a very bad business, but we ar free-will
agents on this erth and I hav to deal only with my own
folly.

It came about in this way. I had red of gosts flying
everywhere, tabl tapping and tipping, wonderful mes-
sages thru clairaudicnce, uncanny sights thni clairvoyance,
telepathy, seances and all the various ways' in which our
unseen companions make known their presence to us. I
had been especially charmed with the statement that all
that was necessary to turn a clown into a filusofer was
simply to ccmnect him with the hidden relm, get him to
concentrate his thots, and nature herself would attend to
the rest by turning on the current and pouring whatever
knowledge he needed on his brain. This, I say, charmed
me, and lookt rather rcasonabl to one who believdin evo-
lution. Just to keep the clever, practical reader from
smiling, I might as well say before I go further that I
found the statemeiit to be true, but I found something
connected with the process that I did not quite expect. 1
still retain my old beliefs with respect to a good man 3^ of
the truths I had imbibed, but 1 now believ that the hole

S '■

m'^i

ABOUT THR OCCULT JVORLD.

»3

of the occult craze that «s sweeping over the erth comes
from Satan and belongs to him. I believ furthermore
that those who attend seances and carry on their investiga-
tions thru mediums ar doing their best to further the pro-
gress of his kingdom. Of late years I had doubted
whether there was such a being, but I am now in the
habit of painting him as black as possibl.

Singularly enuf, altho deeply interested in spiritism, as
I now call it, I had never been at a seance. I had seen
only two mesmeric exhibitions during my life. The first
I attended as a schoolboy, the last as a foo- among other
fools. I had attended only three meetings of Spiritists,
more out of curiosity than anything els, for I did not
believ much was to be lernt among them even while hold-
ing to many of their theories. At one of these meetings
I remember smiling as I herd the medium say that the
spirit of Mary Jane was in the audience anxious to com-
municate with her unci Richard Roe. Was he present?
Of cours, I did not doubt that the medium herd the voice,
but it was one thing to read of it and another to be in the
hall where it was going on. The medium lookt at me
and said, **I want no more of that smiling. This is a
serious matter." I found afterwards when in the toils
listening to the irritating question, " Do you now believ
that it is a serious matter, Sancho Quixote? Well, they
all get a warning before they enter the occult and you
got yours, "that it was indeed a serious enuf matterforme.
There is a good deal of fraud in connection with spiritism,
but many good peopl do not understand that there is a
good deal of truth too. Satan directs the machinery,
• and he likes a good ba.sis for his work. Sometimes he
, tells the truth for a purpose. Fur a few years previous to
my troubl I had ceast to believ in the divinity of Christ,
and lookt upon the various occult beliefs as a part of the
evolutionary struggl that was to lead us to Mount Olym-
pus. It is cv^mparativly easy for those who do not read or

OUR UNSFKN COMPANIONS.

even think of the strange beliefj*, the strans:c revelations
of science that ar po'iring in upon us from all quarters
to retain an unwavering faith in the New Testament, but
a man does not need to be a professor to doubt many
thing's once firmly believd. I glided into the new
faith almost insensibly, but many a man and many a
woman has suffered agonies for years over the great ques-
tio'i.

Is Darwin right or is he wrong? Is he right so far as
the vegetabl and animal kingdoms ar concerned and
wrong as to man? Was there a fall or has there been a
stedy ascent? Ar the Darwinians of to-day right or ar
they wrong? There is good and evil in each of us. Prog-
ress seems to be the law of life around us; why should
it not be continued after we hav past behind the veil, in-
sted of a change being wrot which will turn us into sin-
less beings as the angels ar' Does nature make such sud-
den jumps? Does it seem likely that the worst man, we
shall suppose, who has ever disgraced the erth should be
made an angel if he believs in Christ, while his neighbor
who has done his duty according to his lights should be
sent to hell for ever because he cannot see his way to ac-
cept the orthodox belief? Is it in accordance with law of
growth? and so on, and so on. The easiest way to liv,
< perhaps, is to go thru the world ostrich fashion, but many
ar so constituted that they cannot do so. Only very un-
charitabl people say that it is with all a question of pride of
intellect. The worst critics ar those who do not know
anything at all about the reasonablness of the vScientific
creed. I think now that it is a wretched mistake, so tar
as it refuses to accept Christ, but I can sympathize with
those who believ in it ana understand their position.

When I came back to the old belief I did not hav to
contend with the question of miracls. Whatever harm
may hav been done thru occult studies they hav at least
led many to understand that there ar so many strange

ABOUT IHK 0(Cri/r WORLD.

forces around us that a miracl to us is a very simpi matter
indeed to those behind the scenes.

I hav no doubt that Aaron's rod was turned into a ser-
pent to swallow up its wrigj^linjjf cfjuipanions, for it is
whispered around among- the adepts that Satan is still en-
gaged ill the same business, and that the magicians of old
hav their descendants to-day.

We know very littl of the hidden world, but one tliing
we do know is that, in spite of the theory of the imiversal-
ity of law never to be interfered with, God rules supe-
rior to any laws He has seen fit to reveal to us, and "in-
terferes" with them ofener than some of us imagin.
ChrivSt and His apostls performed miracls, and so did many
of the erly Christians, and so too, I believ, in spite of the
cheap talk about the chapel and the grotto do his mess-
eng^ers to-day. Messengers, you will observ.

We ar gifted with reason atid we ar expected t"> use it,
and it is plesant and desirabl to know how God creates his
worlds, but the way in which they ar created does not after
all so seriously affect our conception of Him as might
be suppo.sed. Whether is it greater to make a world in six
days or in a million years?

After the long debate we ar assured that there is not a
singl partiel of evidence to show that man follows at the
end of the chain. Very well then, let the scientists keep on
with their work and let those of us who hew wood and
draw water keep an easy mind — if we can.

I am glad to-day that I can cling to the old belief, but
1 have had some experiences that would make any one
ponder over his future destiny I wish that some of our
scientific frends would turn from their VKirren doctrin of
struggl for life and wild beast logic that I could never ac-
cept and read over the New Testament, for t(» many of
them it has become a forgotten book.

I hav always been astonisht whenever T have red or
herd of a man who denied that there was u (iod. This, oi

OUR UNSEEN (OMPANIONS.

all doctrins, is the sheerest kind of insanity that has ever
afflicted any one of our race. '

I believd that after deth our life went on as here — the
good or bad g-etting- the upper hand just as we were in-
clined, but I thot that ultimately, gradually and slowly it
might be, we would all be led onward to God and good-
ness and felicity forever. After the long evolutionary
struggl there was to be nothing but ethereal sweetness —
all other views were ruled out of court. God, I often said
to myself, would never hav creatctl beings for any other
kind of a destiny. Punishment for ever ? Nonsens.

1 had been studying social questions closely for more than
a decade, and I became more anxious every day to see
something done to put an end to the swinishness of our
modem feudalism. I wanted to see, and I want to see
more than ever to-day, a social system in which there
would be no possibility for one degenerate to acquire
a hundred million dollars in a lifetime while his brother
died of starvation. That sort of a system makes my blood
boil. I do not look for the millenium, and it happens to
be the case that I hav a far better idea of the terribl forces
arrayed against humanity than our political economists,
but I still think that we could turn this glorious world we
hav receivd frotTi God to rule, from the pig-pen it is to mil-
lions of poor unfortunates to a paradise. Environment
will do a good deal, but not quite everything, I am well
aware, I sometimes think, tho, that we really could do a
good deal, but if the rest of you still object, and the pro-
fessors frown— As for vsome of our fashionabl ministers
who ar keeping quiet and cultivating the frendshipof some
of the most selfish men — ! But I am getting off my text.
I hav started to preach insted of telling you my story.

I hav set down the abuv ])articularsto let you imderstand
to some degree, what manner of man I am. *'This so-
cial question is a pretty hard one," I said to myself.
"Could we not turn on the current from the occult, as it
>vere, and perhaps — who knows?"

•*."

■f^^^

'-'X''^;-

. ^•::''

'.\:

'v.^'

I ■:>■

CHAPTER IV.

WoRSHiPi'iNG Satan.

Fild then to the brim with these strangely quixotic
ideas I, Sancho Quixote, wenttoliv with Mr. and Mrs. B. ,
and one night the conversation turned on spiritism, and I
spoke of tabl tipping among other things. " O, that is
nothing," said Mrs. B, "We UvSed to do that at home sev-
eral years ago, and we gave it up becaus we thot it was
child's play. " I was rather surprised, for she had been
living in a small village of perhaps two hundred inhabit-
ants where, as the city men put it, they still sew the post-
age stamps on the letters. " Is it the case that this study
has penetrated everywhere?" I askt myself, "and that
even the church members ar busy with it?" '

A few days afterwards I spoke of it again, for I was too
much interested to let the chance slip without some prac-
tical demonstration of what could be done, and I pro-
posed that we should try the tabl to see if it would rise.
(It is perhaps just as well to anticipate matters a littl
here, for there ar still plenty of fools in the world, and
say that tabl ti^jping means Satan worship. If you feel
inclined to worship him, that is your own business. I
throw out the nint in time to abstain from everything of
the sort. )

I had never seen anything of the kind done, but I
was at that stage where I ment Iw r^'e it, and it was with
a curious feeling that I saw the tabl rise about a foot on
one side and hammer attain and again on the floor. There
was no possibility of any mistake. There we \v».i-e, three
of us, with no possibl chance for fraud, and no interest
one way or another.

We hav all red of seances being broken up and a satis-

':M

a 8

OUR UNSEEN COMPANIONS.

Li-t-^,,-' i

factory natural explanation given of the hole affair.
But here two of us had never seen a tabl move, and the
only one who had, had been told that it was due to some
action of the nervs and had not the least idea that there
were spirits moving it. She had not tried to do anything
for several years, but as soon as she began it rose. Mr.
B. succeeded in raising it from the floor after some time —
for we became so interested that we kept up the experi-
ments for several weeks — but I could not do anything
with it without the help of the others. This rather hurt
me. I did not like it. Was it right that I who had
studied occult fenomena, should not be abl to do what
others who had never lookt over their shoulders for a
gost did without any troubl ? Xhe gods when they want
to punish a man often giv him ju.st what he wishes.

We would take a tabl about two feet square, and it
would rise from the floor and thump do .vn till it made
the windows rati. "We .shall hav to stop this. " we some-
times said, "or the neighbors will come into see what is
the matter." The house stood alone, but the sound of the
blows was uncanny. We would sometimes take a large
kitchen tabl to vary our amusement, and it rose as easily
as the smaller one. It came down on the floor hard enuf to
make the frame house echo, but if weaskt to hav it strike
softly it toucht the floor like a f ether. We got answers
to all of our questions — suggested as I know now by evil
spirits — by the number of taps on the floor, and it became
very interesting indeed. Chairs responded to the touch
the same as the tabls, but alone I could not do anything.
This was still rather provoking, for I knew that nature's
storehouse was full of knowledge if I could only make the
connection, and thus acquire what I wanted in a way that
would put our best schoolmasters to shame. There is no
occasion for smiling just here. A cours of reading pur-
sued for a certain number of years will change your world.
Perhaps the practical men don't understand it all. .

. is" ■.

lift.

WORSHIPPING SATAN.

Now 1 know that I was blinded in the same way as mil-
lions ar who strive for welth they can never enjoy, and
torture their fellow beings to acc[uire it. One man is
caught in this way, another in that. Dollars or ideals, and
the devil pipes to all, and yoii dance to his music ofener
than you imagin.

There was something I could not at first understand,
altho I suppose I had red enuf about it. We would ask
Mrs. B. to begin alone, and she would fall nearly asleep
and we would .say: "Wliy don't you take more interest in
these things. There is .something grand behind all this,
and yet you fall asleep when we ask you to do what we
cannot do ourselves." " I cannot help it. I cannot keep
my eyes open." "That is alwciys the way." I would re-
ply, *' Altho I hav told you all about the peopl who ar en-
gaged in these investigations you won't try to help us."
I understood better afterwards where the sleep came
from. ■ . ,

But we had got something more interesting than play-
ing with tabls, vShortly after we began I spoke of auto-
matic writing and the strange experiences that so many
had had with it, and we tried to get some messages from
the occult world by this new route, and they soon came in
rapid succession. At first they came thru Mrs. B., but
later on we found that her husband was the better medi-
um.

I tried hard to do some writing but failed here too. Why
is it, I thot, that I am always left out in the cold? Do the
spirits not luv me? They came to luv me better than I
had ever expected after a short time.

We receivd all sorts of messages in answer to all sorts
of questions. How long were we to liv? Ar the lines we
see on Mars canals? Ar we doing right in continuing this
study? And so forth. We were alternately praised and
reproved, but always encouraged to continue the study,
and assured that wo were making progress. Only once,

i'.: ■yiy-'-'cfivij^'-^si'.i^j^iii'

OUR tJNSKKN COMPANIONS.

later on, when we were becoming a littl uncertain about
our cours, we got a short message to give up the hole busi-
ness and turn our thots to something of more vahie. Mrs.
B. gave it up and urged us to do so, but her husband, in
spite of my warning that it was something to be entered
upon in areverent manner, if at all, thotit a good joke and
kept up the writing.

We began to think, however, that we were keeping
company with evil spirits, and this put a diiiferent aspect
upon our " amusement." What kind of a spirit would you
think gave me the following advice? "Stop writing that
book you ar engaged with at present. You ar simply wast-
ing your time. Leav that sort of nonsens to those who
care for it. " The library shelves ar alredy overloaded ; of
making many books there is no end ; and much study is
a weariness to the flesh, but when did you ever succeed in
getting a budding author who is writing a book that is to
change the face of civilization to believ that he was labor-
ing in vain? In these days when crops of literary men ar
hanging half-ripe on every tree Solomon's doctrin is at a
discount. I put it to any of them, — Was it a good or a
bad spirit? A lady or a tiger? What would you do in a
like case if you felt certain that the knowledge you were
going to lay before your fellow mortals migl^t hav a cer-
tain effect upon the cours of the stars? You would do as I
did. "I will continue," I said to myself, "I think the
book will do good, and spirits or no spirits I will follow my
own cours."

During all these week« ,ve had a good deal of company
in the lious. Chairs rockt thru the night, and moaning
was herd, and the tapping on the walls, as distinct as any-
thing could be, went on regularly.

One night when Mr. B. and I were alone he began writ-
ing and much to our astonishment he got a very offensiv
message about a matter of which he was completely ignor-
aut. We lookt at one another in amazement for a while,

'IkAIMMNfi AN K.N I'HUSIAST.

and then we concluded to end it all there and then. It
was the first time .•inythini^' of the sort had eome, atul we
nnderstoodthen that those who jro into such studies must
tale their chances.

We wanted to get rid of our unseen companions, but.
they did not leav ns so redily. The tapping still went on,
the chairs still rockt below me, and in various ways I was
made aware that I was not alone. Then I came to under-
stand that it was just about as -well to be content with the
seen world insted of gropingafter knowledge we were never
ment to hav.

CHAI'TER V.

-■-..■ ' . . r , ,

■"•■, I-.".- , ', , ' ' ' ' •''■,'.

' .! . Ti'AinMNo AN Rnthusiast.

f ,■ ' We gave lip the '\study " of the occult after this and

i ; i were very glad indeed that wc had escaped with a hole

; skin. For about a coupl of weeks things moved ahmg all

* right, wuth the exception of the annoyances that we ex-

; pected to get rid of in time. But one night I w'enttobed
as usual and l)ef()re I fell aslcc]) I felt something move in
the pillow below my hed. The windows had been open
, ■ all day, and I suppose I ihot that sonie uninvited gest

had crawlec. in and gone to sleep before 1 disturbed him.
■ I was rather startkl, and jurii])t out of bed a littl hur-

riedly just as any other filosofer would hav done. I
V phmged my arm in the pillow case and found nothing.

"Shaw!" T said to myself, "That was a case of imagina-
tion. When did any man in his senses ever hear of a
harmless pillow behaving itself in any other than a
proper and decorous way?" I went back to bed lafing at
myself and put my hed down, and no sooner did I begin

^•1

llT../ •;

i : i'

.y 1"',''

OUR UNSKKN COMPANIONS.

to feci coinfoitJil)! than! This was just a littl more than
I liked, and 1 took to the iloor ag-ain, but I did not ex-
axnin the pillow this time, so I was makinyf progress. I
walkt around and reasoned over the matter an(' went
back to bed imabl to aceotint for it. Again it began, but
this time I lay still and felt it slowly heaving below my
cheek.

Suddenly, like an inspiration as the novelists would say,
and as I would say too, if .1 did not know by a long and
bitter experience just how and from what source inspira-
tions of that kind come, the whole thing flasht upon me.
Why had T not seen it before ? Ah, yes! And so that is
the meaning of it, is it? They were biick to see me.
They ar busy everywhere, and they ar at your side as you
read this, believ it or not.

I did not altogether like it, but such is human vanity
that T felt ratiier flattered too. It is evident after all,
then, that my hngings ar to be satisfied? Table tipping
is only for beginners. It is clear that I am on the way to
something of greater importance. Very good. And I
lay and thot over the matter seriously and felt as calm
and pleased as a slumbering child. I did not quite real-
ize then just how the thots ar sent thru our silly heds.

Perhaps you might hav jumpt you think; you could
never hav endured it alone in the dark, but as I hav al-
redy said continiic a certain cours of reading for a cer-
ttiin time and you become a new being. I knew of too
many cases to be very much alarmed. I certainly did not
believ that they were evil spirits, even after the meSvSage
we had receivd. I was simply blinded ju.st as those fool-
ish men, our millionaires ar blinded to-day, and with a
better excuse, I .still think, for it was not in any self-seek-
ing spirit that I began or continued, and that was lucky
for me.

After a .short time the pillow stopt heaving, and it
seamed that a curr^pt of air whs pumpt into my ear.

'('V

TRAPPING AN ENTHUSIAST.

Another *' inspiration" came. Now I understand --They
ar j?oin};j to make nie chiiraudient. Very ^^ood a^^ain.

The puffinijf of air continued until I fell asleep fairly
well pleased with the thot that I was on the rivjht
track.

I thot it best to say nothing on the subject next morn-
ninjT^. I wanted to see a littl further into it before alarm-
ing' my fronds. It might go away, it might continue —
the world is his who has patience.

I had been praying for light on the evils surrounding
us — on the unendurabl starvation that is driving thous-
ands in the gutter in all lands, and in this new continent
the richest part of the erth where there is more than enuf
for all of us, and — for Satan works in (jueer ways — I said
to myself, Can this be my answer? I am well aware that
it provokes a smile on the part of many church members
when they hear of any one really believing in answers to
prayer, but we ar not all constituted alike. When all
who profess to believ in Christ expect answers to prayer
as many who do not believ in his divinity do — but here
we run foul of the rocks again.

But as the days 'vvent on and the puffing likewise, morn-
ing, noon and night, I became a littl uncertain about it all.
Am I on the right track or am I making a fool of myself ?
Shall I go and get advice from some one or foot the
path alone? It is unnecessary to tell of the long debates
I had with myself. It is sufficient to say that as the work
on my ears kept stedily on I saw that I was perhaps on a
dangerous cours. Evil spirits will not approach me, Sa-
tan thot for me. I am entering into this world in a rever-
ential spirit and with the intention of doing good. There
will be no more danger for me than for others.

I red all the articls on spiritism in a magazine I had at
hand, and weighed both sides as well as I could, and con-
cluded that I was doing what was right. Had not even
Mr, Gladstone, a Christian, said that a§ far as he knew

OUK UNSKKN COMPANIONS.

there was no harm in investigating spiritualism? -for he
like others uses the wrong term. Had not even an Engli.sh
hishop spoken favorably of a doctrin that was doing a ^
great deal to bring many back to a belief in a future life?
To cut the matter short, is there not enuf and ten times
more than enuf, to one who does nol accept the Bible
for what it really is, to encourage him in going forward ?
And if you believe in ev<jlution on both sides <jf the grave
what then? And who is the judge? Those who hav red
the long argument or tho.se who hav not? And whether
do you think it better to investigate for yourself or play
the coward and gel medimns to investigate for you? I say,
play the coward, becaus I know that any man or woman
can investigate if voo choose.

What my opinion of those who do march forward is you
can gess, but I would at least be manly etiuf to do it for
myself and not drag others down.

I prayed ernestly for light, and at last the long debate
ended, and I decided on the wrong cours, as far as human
eye can see.

I had been so busy writing for a coupl of months or
more that I had forgotten to take any exen ise, and wlien
I began thii^ investigation I was more in need of open air
than of "spiritism" but the scales were over my eyes.
My frends thot that I was still busy with a book, while I
was lying in bed in the long, h>>t summer days, sweting
myself down till both weight and appetite left me. I did
not pay much attention to such trifls then, for I was too
much in ernest now that I had settld on my "duty," and
when .spoken to on the subject put it aside or blamed the
wether, and bclievd in what I was saying. No one eats
in hot wether as in cold, ergo it is (mly natural that I
should fast when the sim shines. I had never fasted vol-
untarily, so that I can claim the merit of originality even
here. But Satan does not care particularly whether you
fast in the orthodox fashion and carry it to extremes, or

•>•<•

">«'

TRAI'IMN*; \S l-.NTUl'SIAST.

■f^

take it in another way so that the end is attained. Fully?
Certainly. Clear evidence of incipient insanity? Well, I
feel like the fox who had lost his tail — I want company
before confessinjjf too much. Ar men who pass their lives
in a chavSe after money insane? Ar men who nurse hate
and keep it up for a lifetime insane? Ar fashionabl Christ-
ians insane, and doubly insane, when they know that their
brethcrn ar dying of want and, insted of flying to their
relief, defend the accursed system that is filling our cities
with the spirit of hell? I hav been in a world where the
veil is lifted, where all our petty disiiwctions ar at an end,
where men and women ar valued for what they ar and not
for what they hav, and political economists ar weighed by
the hart and not by the hed, and this same question of in-
sanity goes a far way. At any rate, after the storm is
over, I am not ashamed of the motiv that led me on. The
road to hell, in my case too, was paved with good inten-
tions.

As Dr. Hepworth says in his sermon, our good angels
strive with us to save us from the certain punishment that
they see in store for us, but we ar free will agents, -mdal-
tho I know well now that they strove with me as they do
with you in your folly, I was too determined to stop half
way. I got up from bed sometimes and walkt the floor
and thot it over, and the result was always the same — "No
backward step," I used to say, and months afterwards the
same words were thrown at me with jeering and lafter.

The political economists were primarily responsibl for
my stubbomess. This may seem strange, but as I hav
alredy told you the influence of (me mind upon another is
vSomething wonderful. • -..

Let me explain how these practical men helpt to pull
me down. I had red some of their excellent works, and
after a good many years had come to the conclusion that
nine out of ten of them had either been born fools or had
won the cap and bells in after life. " Now,' said T tomy-

H-

■ ■ ■*;

■:'%»-

OUR UNSEEN COMPANIONS.

self, "nine to ten the men I would go to for advice ur of
the same stamp. The spiritists will say, Go ahed ; the prac-
tical men will say I am a fool: I'll e'en trust to my own
judgment," — Or what was left of it, says the sarcastic
reader.

And so when I got tired lying on the left side I turned
to the right, and hung on to my task with a patience that
astonishes me to-day. A whip f or the honse, a bridl for the
'' — what's the rest of it ? It will do you good to

ass, anr

turn to your Bible and find out. Perhaps 1 ike Sancho
Quixote in those foolish days you hav almost forgotten
that such a book exists. It seems strange tht.t I did not
see that the evil scheme was to keep me in bed perspir-
ing and worrying until my hole nervous system got to
such a condition that they coulu approach me — that the
puff- puffing in my ears that kept on for months was
simply, in popular language, a blind to keep me in bed
till the work was done, but I soon had another message
that convinct me I was right. A pain in the small of my
back began to troubl me. Clearly, I thot, they mean me
to stay here and they send this as a sort of a hint that they
hav means to keep me where they wish till the work is
finishl, and it was true. They had me alredy under the
hypnotic influence altho I did not know it. I needed a
pain on the back, but it 'should hav been administerd In
the way that wise king Solomon recomended, by the ap-
plication of a rod. Let no one doubt the inspiration of
the Bible.

li went on until they had control of the emotions to a
certain extent, and then I began to get really uneasy. I
had not said a word to my frcnds, and they had not any
idea of what was going on. One night that I am not
likely to forget for vSome time, I felt that the mind was
awake while the body slept. The time had come at last,
and as if vvitha c[uick, swaying motion that wa:-' rather
agreeabl T fell into a trance, and was shockt to hear a

TRAPPING AN ENTHUSIAST. -tj

•

chorus of exultant voices far, far away, shouting again
and again, "Ha, ha, ha! Ha, lia, ha !"

For weeks during the time I had been in bed I had felt
a slight tremor run over my body almost every second or
two, and from the "inspiration " that came to me I felt
sure that it was for the piirpose of strengthening my
nervs, for the fluid, or whatever it is, to pour thru my
system. Don Quixote hurt himself with literature and
so did Sancho, and that is all there is about it.

But all this sham work was over. I was clairaudient.
I know now that I hurt my nervous system by my cours
before the trance, but that night's work did a good deal
of harm.' I had certainly red that it was necessary to
"dominate" the spirits, but it is really wonderful huw
your filosofy leaves you sometimes.

You hav undoubtedly herd the story of the man who
became alarmed at the way foolish peopl allow them-
selves to burn to deth when by the exercise of a littl filo-
sofy they might easily save themselves. He drild his
wife in her duty so that, should the fire really come,
there would not be a vacant chair in the family. As for
himself — ! Well, the fire did come, and his wife ran for
her life like a sensibl woman. He put on his clothes as
camly as if he had been dressing for church and wondered
at her haste. • Why is it that \vomen can't see that calm-
ness is the very crown and glory of a human being ? He
got dv>wn to the street in due time and began to scold her,
— " See how quietly I acted, my dear. There was really
no occasion for such a ru.sh." "Very true, John, very
true ; but why did you not put on your pants ?" There is
the hole troubl with the human race. We ar all caught
without the pants at one time or another. That was my
forgetful night.

T -"vent downstairs ana awoke Mr. and Mrs. B. and told
the hole story, and ihc/ were as mucli astonisht as
you would be if some orn) came to you at the ded of nio-ht

OUR UNSKKN COlVirANIONS

with such a trouble on his hed. I lay down on a sofa in
the next room and tried to sleep, but the time for that
was past. There was no peace. I h:id crost the border
as many a fool had done before me and many a one is try-
ing to do to-day.

The sofa seemed to be alive, by the way it moved b^-
low my cheek. I tried a chair, but the tapping all around
kept me from sleep, and there was no help for it but
to suffer. During- the worat of it it seemed asi if a hot
poker were passing across my templs. The pain was se-
vere, the heat was intens, but the skin, I was told, was
about the normal temperature. I sat thru a night of tor-
ture anxiously waiting for the morning light. The screws
had been turned on after the long preparation. When
the morning came I thot I herd voices shouting far oflf in
the woods, but I could not be certain about it. I wisht
then from the bottom of my hart that I had never red a
word about the marvels of the unseen world, so far, at
least, as our modem * 'scientific" gentlmen tell us of them.
It is a fairly good plan to let others make the investiga-
tions, is it not, while you profit by them? Selfish? Well,
this is a world where there ar always plenty of fools. It
took a long time to train my system down. Cases hav
bc^u known where peopl hav been caught at the first at-
tempt and tortured to deth. Moral: Leav it alone,
never mind what you read.

';:■./.. ;,,^

CHAPTER VI. •

Stili, Trapping.

It was Sunday and Mr. B. workt with me for some
time to very Uttl advantage. He put a wet cloth over my
face and as soon as it toucht me I was so startld that I
did not know what to make of my surroundings. My
eyes were closed, but I saw as clearly as if they had been
open. vShut your eyes when you read this and all is
black before you. You ar accustomed to this and do not
pay much attention to it. Or take a walk o;i a dark
night when, as the saying -goes, you cannot see your
finger before your face, and again all is black around you.
But suppose instcd of black you saw the deepest kind of
blue as I saw that forenoon whenever I shut my eves,
what would you think about it? ' ,

I concluded that there was only one thing to do and that
was to find a medium who might be abl to giv me some
advice. I was so exhausted that I fell asleej. in the train
going to the city, and aw<jke refresht and redy for relief
if it was to be found. We walkt the streets ior nearly
half a day but could not find a "psychic." Sunday was
apparently a day of rest even for them.

We succeeded in finding a theosofist, however, with
rather singular ideas. "We do not believ as the spirit-
ualists do," she said, "but when the spirits approach us
we know how to dominate over them." Here, indeed, was
luck. This was precisely what I Avanted, and I askt her
how the thing was done. She replied that the man who
knew the modus (jperandi from beginning to end was not
in the house just at that moment, but she invited me to
call again and see him. There was one way of relief

OUR UNSEKN COMPANIONS.

however, she said, that would help me for a short time,
and that was to smoke and smoke vigforously. This was
rather a desperate remedy, for smoking does not come
natural to me, and altho like all ambitious youths I had
struggld hard to acquire the art in my school dtrj-s, I had
less success than most. Tobacco had always floored me,
but one is redy for anything at a pinch, and on going
home I bot some cigarets to perfume the pillow and offend
the nostrils of my visitors. They did not leav me, and
as the cure was rather hard to endure I soon gave it up.
My thanks ar due to my frend nevertheless, altho her re-
cipe was not a success. She was in ernest, and she Cid
what she could. As I hav said it was Sunday, and her
Bible — "Isis Unveiled " was in her hand — a book which I
hav never red, but which I am assured is worth its weight
in gold, at which, if you will allow another pronoun, I
smile and smile again. A good many things hav been
im veiled to me since that afternoon, my unknown sister,
that I would rather not hav seen, but one of them of
some littl value is that the less we hav o do with ' ' Isis" the
better it is for us. I hope you will never hav occasion to
try the cigarets, for they ar not only unbecoming in the
mouth of a woman, but ar wors than useless to frighten
spirits. • -

I had red somewhere of a medium who complained that
her visitors could not expect messages, for they visited
her reeking with tobacco, and she held that there were
few things the spirits detested wors than the weed. I
had red this before the cigarets were recommended, and
as two and two make four I thot — I merely throw that out
as a reply to the smile that a practical man like yourself
indulged in just now. I franjcly admit that it looks fiui-
ny, but supposing that all your funny remedies for your
physical and mental evils were laid bare now? Your doc-
tor has often given you a madder kind of a cure than mine
find you have swallowed it like a Httl hild while he smile4

' 4

'■■"J*:* *,*■■/■

STILL TRAPPINfi.

,|v;'-"

'x\'. . ■

1=:' 'V

Sit you behind your back. I am afraid that our gof)d an-
gels ar often forct to smile at lus — and si^h too. The
other kind don't smile any, or els n\y experience goes
for nothinj>-.

I slept, well on the sncceedin<r night, however, after un-
dergoing the pufting in the ear that I could not get rid of,
and I began to think that I. was more afraid than hiirt;
but I concluded to see further into the matter before go-
ing ahed.

.Something rather strange happened to me on my way
to the city. Strange then, but not now. I know what is
said of those who draw inferences, as I shall sometimes do,
out of trifls, but I am as stubborn as the rest of hsfout.
A mere coincidence, those who ar not acquainted
with the literature on the subject will call it, but I know
better. Passing along the street on the way to the station
and wondering where I should find some one to giv me
coiinsel, I glanct at a news-stand, and there before me lay
a magazine devoted to the hidden world. It waspublisht
in the city, and I took vlown the address. About two
hours afterwards as I was serching for the place, for I
was a stranger in the city, I suddenly lookt up to the top
of a high building, and there was the signboard, I thc>t I
was several blocks away from my destination , I hav had
too much experience since then to be satisfied with
"chance."

From the office I went to a medium who told me he
could not do anything for me. * ' Go to Richard Roe, and
he will advise you." I found Richard after a time. He
was rather a plesant man, and the second medium that I
bad ever talkt to. *>' You hav herd voices?" he inquired
after I had stated my case. " Well, I was in a kind of a
trance." 1 replied. "I think I herd them, but I don't
want to be too positiv." '* Well, you ar a very fortunate
man." said Richard Roe " You ar in the right path, and
you will develop after a time. If you dr not care to take les-

'Uv

, i-*ii,-vQjJ,„J»^

■ 'i

1»11R .DNSK.KN COMr'ANIONS.

If-,

v>i

sons from uh\ you will (ievelop if you j^o on in your piesent
way, . 'mil rxorylhinj;* will conic out all lii^ht." A stronjj;*
fci'Iinj^ tlial I was <in the rii;ht path came over nic and I
felt happy. 1 did not know then how easily feelinj^ was
manutai. turcnl. We talkt for an hour or so, and he related
many of his strange experiences to nie, and I lisleneiland
coiiuralulated myself that I. was not in sueh a had corner
after all. lie cured tlu' ]iain in my hack in a few minutes.
It makes me laf now as I think of it. The hypn( tic in-
fhuMice was simpl\- tak<Mi otf for a short time, run! that
was liow the "cure" was etfected. .,

J rose to say good-by and he accompanied me to the
doc^r. " 'Phis hole talk of peopl gf>inj;' wrong' is iionsens.
It is lieeaus they do iu)t understand it. I could get a great
many peopl 'mt of asylums who hav gone wrong if I
only had the chance. " We parted, and Richard Roe took a
good fee? No, that is where yoiiar mistaken. He did not
take a cent, and he was not rolling in welth by anjMneans.

Now, 1 think Richard is wrong. 1 think he is in a bad
business — a forlorn audshipwreckt brother, but he seemed
to be good harted. Perhaps he knew that I w-as nearing
the rapiils, --perhaps again he did not -- but T wisa he was
out of it, for even aliho I felt perfectly certain that he had
deceivd me I could not get angry at him. During later
days the evil spirits did their worst to get me enraged at
him as at others but they did nt)t succeed, for woe to the
man who lets his temper get the better of him wdiile the
fight is going on. Insane, the}- say, and many do go in-
sane under the torture, but as a cold blooded fact there
can be no pt)ssibl crisis where you need all of your wits
so nnieh as when the cursings and blasfemies,the lies
and slanders ar howling around yon, when, do the best
you can, you ar forct to believ some of them.

Richard Re did not believ in the divinitv of Christ. I
hope he will put himself in better array for the next world,
for unlike manv he knows that there is one.

STII.I, TRATMMVf;.

1 went home convinct that I was on the rij^ht road, and
that the voices I herd were frendly ones, for I had often
red that the spirits tried to frij^hten anyone who pene-
trated into their rchn, I told my fronds that T was deter-
mined to go to the end of it, and altho they thot it folly,
I talkt lerncdly on the subject, and as I was quietened
down we concluded that it was a kind of a nightmare that
had troubld me. We laft over my scare and things went
on as usual.

Satan had an easy mark. Had I stopt there, I would
hav had some troubl, but very littl, comparativly speak-
ing. The voices stopt and I went on perspiring. They
fild me as full of soothing thots as they sometimes fill you
when you ar nearing the rapids.

Had I stopt there, however, I would still hav been a
believer in spiritism, and a disbeliever in the divinity of
Christ. It has not been all loss.

CHAPTER VII.

Thk Gift of Tungs.

I was now more firmly conyinct than ever that I was on
the right track, and I went on with a light hart. Mr. and
Mrs. B. had stopt all experiments by this time, for they
were not sure about it, and I wanted to see the outcome
before inviting anyone to keep me company on my jour-
ney.

I soon made a littl more progress. My new experience
sent me up to the clouds. I had often wondered how thot
transference was managed in India. How was it that dur-
ing the Indian mutiny the news of an important batl was
known among the nativs long before the British officials
herd of it? The best horses were at their service and yet

Ol'K I'NSKFN COMI'AMONS.

the luitivs with ii<> horses ;iL all outstript them. I thot
that the adepts had simply discovered some hiw of \Thieh
we ar as yet ij^-norant, but now, like the ministers, I think
that they ar under tlic direct control of the Kvil One. I
<mcc laft at this theory of our reverend f rends, and I
should not like to discourage any scientist who disai^rees
with them. 'JMie more we know of natural laws the better
certainly, but I W(.idd not like to set any more false views
afloat in a w<u'ld full of error. T think T am rij^ht, and that
is enuf ff)r me. Now for my experience.

One day I was sitting in an old orchard thinking of the in-
visibl world, and enjoying my.self as a man at peace with all
his fellow.s, when suddenly to my surprise, for it was the
last thing in the world I was thinking about, along sen-
tence in l^'rench was shot thru my hed as if by .some pro-
cess of mental tcfcgrafy. The writing on the brain had
come at last. I undertood it and waS exultant.

Now, I had studied French for several years ; I had livd
among French peopl, and had spoken it redily, altho I
had occasionally, likeother worthy fellow mortals, to make
a respectful circuit around some of the frases. I knew
the language fairly well ; I had red .some of the literature,
and for one year in particular I had red from ten to twelv
hours a day. In some respects then, I knew French bet-
ter than the average student for I had workt hard at it,
and hard work counts for .something here as elswhere.
But I had scarcely spoken a wcnxl for three years, and had
red but littl, so that when I had occasion to speak it I
found that it took me sometime to remember the words,
and many of the verbs, old familiar f rends, had departed.

But now there was not the least hesitation. I replied
like a flash, and for two hours I sat there, with an occa-
sional rest, which was fortunate for me, the words rolling
thru my brain like a torrent. Now, thinks I to myself, I
am at last in connection witi^ the higher intelligences and
this is what I have been waiting for, I ^as so thuroly

■-'■•«»=«?

Tin. tilKI OK TUNGS.

/'.

hypnotized that my brain was workt upon like the keys of
a piano. Had I not diverted my attention to one thinj^^
and another around me durinjij this mental process the
crisis would hav come there and then. But the work did
not continue long enuf and I escaped. Concentration is a
good thing in this world, but nature takes care that we
cannot concentrate our minds too much on one subject
for too long a time. Try it, and you will find your thots
shooting in a good many different ways. We can concen-
trate our minds sufficiently for all practical purposes and
that is enuf. Too much of it would overwork the brain
very soon as I found out afterwards • when there was no
divering thot allowed, but when the mind was kept on
the stretch.

The process is not the same as thinking. Do not let
any one think so. It is another and different sennation
altogether.

Another "inspiration" struck me during the cjurs of
the conversation. Can this be the gift of timgs? Can I
bid good-by to grammars and dictionaries?

Perhaps I ot to be ashamed to confess it, but the truth
is that I, Sancho Quixote, a member of one of the leading
houses of Spain, if not the leading one-vSauvez les papiers
de la maison de Quichotte, — can not for various reasons
that need not be specified speak my native language with
anything like the facility that characterized my lerned
cousin Don Quixote, but I can read it and venture to mum-
bl a littl of it when I am sure that none of my country-
men ar within earshoc I tried Spanish by the new route
and was so elated with the result that I could have jumpt
out of my skin. At last, after a long wait I could go
back to La Mancha without fear and without reproach.

I carried on a mental conversation in Spanish as redily
as in French or English, and just as fast. Our medical
frends can explain this as they pleas. The lact remains
that I, who had scarcely ever had occasion to speak this

i I

', I

OUR I'VSEFN COMPANIONS.

lan^juajfe, carried on a conversation in it willi my unseen
companions, and that the answers and (iticstions and gen-
eral remarks flowed as rapidly as if I had never spoken
any other latigua^e in my life. Some of my readers may
be surprised at this, but I was not in the least, for there
ar men and women alive to-day who do the same thinj^^

Then I tried Scotch -a patoi.s, .some irreverent peopl
call it, — and words and .sentences forgotten for many years
came back as tho I had never stopt using them, and I
I niled as incident after incident of my childhood and boy-
hood was brot before me in the old setting. *' Tiiis is to
be something wonderful for me. "Ithot. "Now I shall beabl
to .speak Chinese or Choctaw, hob-nob with the Laplander
and scold the Moujik in his own tung. "

Almost from beginning to end of my .sorry venture I
got just about everything I expected - they were fooling
me to the top of my bent, and luring me on. It is
true that I got something that I did not expect, but that
is a horse of another color. Don't yon think that smile
was rather \nigencrous? You think thtit it came from
you. as I did when I herd wailing that 1 thot was from my
frends suffering on my account, and my lips were smiling.
You ar mistaken. It comes from my enemy. He .sends
them regularly to you.

I tried (German, which I did not understand, and they
amused themselves with me. I could not understand
what they sent and neither could I reply. I tried other
tungs that I did not know with the same result. And
now, says my critic, tliere is an end to the gift of tungs.

It may be said that alth(^ I had never spoken vSpanish
the nde's of the language had once been lernt, and that
by some means or other the memory had been awakened
into a state of abnormal activity, as in the case of peopl
drowning whose hole life is mirrored before them in a
few seconds, and I shall hav something to say about that,
too, for the drawers of my memory were imlockt later on;

-,*■

THK r.IFT OF TirNOS.

j; ■

but for me, knowing wliat I tlo of the subject, both from
theory and cxpcrit;nce, there is no other explanation than
hypnotic influence. It is really writing on the brain as
distinct from the process of thinking as anything can b.j,
It cannot be explained, but it can be felt. And jusL sup-
pose that for, say six months, 1 had ampl time to com-
pare the two processes? And just suppose, further, that
if I let my mind go a wool gathering, as we ar all in-
clined to do, it would begin again, and that the messages
ar very often of an unplesant nature, what then?

I hav herd a good deal of French spoken, but I hav
never herd a Frenchman speak so well as I did that day.
I had never spoken much Spanish ; then I spoke it as
easily as English. Scotch I knew, and the theory of the
drawer of memory will pass there if you insist upon it
but for the other two languages it is wors than preposter-
ous it is silly. If I did not take the troubl to speak

aloud it was just becaus there was no necessity for it.

What made that long PYench sentence come to my
mind? I had no more idea of speaking or tliinking about
French at that time than of looking for the mo(»n at mid-
day. The psychic explanation is the only national one.
The wonder is that with the evidence we alredy hav there
ar n)en who doubt it.

The Puritan idea is right. We ar surrounded with good
and evil spirits, and they look upon our slightest iicts with
anxious solicitude. This world we ha\ receivd to govern
is a very serious one, and woe to the man who does not
find it out before it is too late for hi ; comfort.

It is just as well not to moralize too much, but I shall
conclude this chapter by coun.seling any one who reads it
to act at all times as if his fellow men knew his thots, for
we ar indeed surrounded by a cloud of witnesses who
know every thot which passes thru our beds.

..»'',•

"f: t'

'■ 'if

■rJS

CHAPTHK VTII.
My ICars Ai< (n'KNi). .

There was noihin.i^ for inc now but to put on full, steam
and ^u ahed. I was no longer working in the dark. The
thol transference stopt for a time, but I lookt up(m the ex-
perience in the orchard as simply an encouraging hint to
keep on wiih my work, and went to bed and perspired
and worried because I was so slow in getting to the top of
Mount Olympus. The puffing, or to be more correct I
should say, the juds beating, for it was Just as if a strong
puis was at work--went on in my ears and I was certain
that I was making rapid progress. Who was it who had
ears just like mine then? Bottom was it? Some name
like that.

I was sure my good angels were leading me on to green
pastures. Perhaps I might as well confess here before
we go further, that it is a littl embarassing for me to speak
of my good angels in spite of the assurance of Dr Hep-
worth that we all hav them. Good wine needs no bush,
and ] might hav writn this book without taking shelter
below the wing of a practiced man, but it is sometimes
well to hav good company. I hav been inclined to be re-
served about all matters connected with the next world
in the past, anil now 1 am i<>ing to lay everything bare
in a way that few do. Who \vas it who made that often
quoted remark about the religion of a gen tl man? And
why then should a Sancho f)pen his mouth, or wear his
hart upon his sleev for the rest of you to peck at? When
I was in the asylum a good natured patient told me that
his angel had told him such and such tilings, and altho I

■ > n.

MY EARS Ak Ol'K.Nl).

... f

'er-

should not hav clone it, T smiled and pitied him.
haps you smile and pity me.

The elderly Scotch woman when askt it" she knew what
luv was said that she knew in the abstract. It is one thing
to write of an,i;els in the abstract, astheletncd doctor does
and quite another to write as I am doinj^'. 1 shall speak
of good an.ufcls deliberately then, for I could easily take
another tone in this b(u;k and ^Hve scorn for scorn.

One ni.ijht shortly after this as 1 wassittinjjf on the porch

with the chair rockini^ quietly under me 1 knew where

the motiv power came from — I thot I herd a buzzing
sound all around me. T thot that it was' the voices I had
longed and workt for, and I was glad of it, but I went to
bed that night without having herd them. 1 herd some-
thing els. howevc. Likely enuf some of my readers hav
rf'd of the astral bell. Perhaps others ar a littl skeptic-
al. It is difficult to get a man to believ that there may be
a bell ringing in the air which he cannot hear, but which
his neighbor listens to. That is humanity all over. But
still it moves, said poor old (ialilcc;, and they laft at
him.

I was rather pleased to heru" the soft, delicious, liquid
sound, altho 1 do not know how it is effected I had red
something in its favor and it was becoming that I should
listen to it with plesure. There is an impressiv scene in
one of Conan Doyle's novels that deals with a British offi-
cer who herd this sound for the iirst time. " Ood help
us!" he said. That would hav been my exclamation also
had T known to what it was the prelude. It is well, in
one sens, that we cannot see far ahead.

It soimds well in fic ion, and 1 rather enjoyed it — at first.
You know altho there were a thousand peopl around
you that the soimd reaches your ear ahjue. I seldom herd
it thni the day, but as soon as I went to my room at night
it began. I waxt quite poetical over it sometimes. I thot
of Bret Hart's lines:

s«

OUR UNSEEN COMPANIONS.

k-».:

" Bells of the past whose iinforgfotten music

Still fills the wide expans, .

Tinginir the sober twilight of the present
• •■ With eolor of romance."

But the romance was soon colored with reality.

I had begun another folly that brot on the crisis sooner
than it might otherwise hav come. I had red something
of the way in which the lerners in India hypnotized
themselves by rock-cristal gazing and other means, and
shortly after the beginning of my serch for wisdom I began
to gaze hard and fast at a certain object for a short period.
I gazed so hard at the ceiling sometimes that the white
plaster appeard as if it were purpl. This lookt danger-
ous, and 1 often stopt while at it and askt myself if I was
not going too far. "No, "I would reply, "I will go to
the end of it. " " Ar you still determind to go to the end
of it Sancho ?" was a question 1 often listened to when
it was too late. *' Sweet littl man !"

One day as I was undergoing the ear-o]5ening process,
I closed my eyes, and suddenly there was a small ball of
deep-colored purpl past down before me. I saw them of-
ten enuf afterwards when I did not like them half so well
as I did the first one. ■

The ceiling was spred over for several yards at a time
with this color, and a strange pale light began to appear
before me on the wall. If, for exampl, I lookt at a door
or window and then directed my eyes to the plaster wall
the object would be fotograft before me.

T did not need t3 stare so hard in after days to hyp-
notize myself. It is no troubl to throw yourself into the
hypnotic state after you hav acquired the "habit. I do
not know, after all, if we really do it ourselves. I am in-
clined to think that there is no such thing as auto-hypno-.
tism. I do not believ that one man can hypnotize an-
other. I think that what we speak of as auto-hypnotism
is just this — That by one means or another we put our

^^^ '■

),;■

;'*r<

MY EARS AR OPEND.

S«

•■'(^

V."

nervous system into such a condition that the spirits
around us can acquire a power over us that under normal
conditions they would not hav. There ar men who seem
to us to hypnotize patients. My impression is that the
work, either for a good or a bad purpose is done behind
the scenes. There is plenty of literature on the subject
which you can read if you choose. My candid advice to
the average reader is, don't. Go out and count the trees
and you will find it a far more profitabl way of passing
the time.

At last the voices I had waited and workt for became
audibl, and surely it was a happy day in my life. The
indistinct buzzing I had herd was turned into a joyous
burst of song that made the hiils and valleys around me
seem as the gateway of the immortal city. Faint at first,
certainly, and far off, but the glorious harmony reacht
my ears and thrild me thru and thru. Whenever I
chose to open my cars it began. I had only to wish for
it and it came. I had only to wish for a certain tune and
it was redy. I smiled as I compared the reality with the
plesant romance of Mr. Bellamy.

I workt hard then. I never left my pillow for more
than an hour or so in the raiddl of the day, but when the
gloaming came I sat down at my leisure and listened to
the voices of the sirens, and .surely they never sung
sweeter to mortal man.

St. Anthony says in one of his sermons: " We walk in
the midst of demons who giv us evil thots; and also in the
midst of good angels. When these latter ar especially
present there is no disturbance, no contention, no clamor
but something so calm and gentl that it fills the soul with
gladness. The Lord is my witness that after many tears
and fastings I hav been surrounded by a band of angels,
and joyfully joined in singing with them."

CHAPTER IX.

Hevenly Music from Angelic Hosts.

" Hark, hark, my soul, anKelio songs are swellingr

O'er erth's greeu fields and ocean's wave beat shore.
How sweet the truth those blessed strains ar telling
Of that new life when sin shall bo no more.
Angels of Jesus,
Angels of light.
Singing to welcome , • !

The pilgrims of the night."

" All the efforts of ten thousand Ethical Societies will count as nothing
In the furtherance of ethical regeneration, compared with the woik of the
mpn who shall again convince the world that every human soul is immortal,
and that surh a task is not beyond the reach of man I am thuroly convlnct,—
T. DAJSiseON.

" If the proof of immortality is forthcoming, it is my conviction that
no drowning sailor ever clutcht a hencoop more tenaciously tban man-
kind will hold by such proof— whatever It may bfc."— Paor. Hdxley.

" Take nie away, or I shall cry," said Carlyleto Froude
one day as they stood in London, listening to that beuti-
fiil hymn which has toucht so many. I herd it sung- to an-
other tune than the ones we know by the beings who sur-
rounded me — a time that I still remember, altho 1 hav
forgotten many that I herd in those days.

Surely they never sung sweeter. I hav listened to some
of the finest singing of the age in a few of the great
capitals and commercial cities of the world, but that, grand
as it is and much as I luv it, is to what 1 herd as the poor
efforts of the singer in the village choir matcht with the
great vocalists, the trained voices, of Paris and Vienna.

I could not understand why they kept so far away from
me when I was so anxious to hear them, but I Ihot a part
of my training in the new school was to lern patience and
keep humbl. I know now that a great deal of it was to

.1^

HEVEMLY MUSIC FROM ANGELIC HOSTS.

4'. ■■

keep my mind on the strain. It was often hard to reach
and my efforts became correspondingly eager to meet
them half way.

I felt rewarded for the long work of the months gone
by when, as I would go out in the evening a beutiful
tenor voice such as could never come from mortal throat,
would rise and pour out a flood of liquid melody far away
on the air till my soul would swell with the joy of the
strain and long for the life of the blest. Surely this erth
is a barren wilderness compared with their abiding place.
The tenor voices were painful in their sweetness, and yet
the memory of them is half hateful to me now, for I know
what some of them were sent for.

I herd too, the high piercing notes of the sopranos an
octave abuv anything I hav ever herd from our singers,
and the altos and baritones and the deep bassos, and chor-
us after chorus soon rolled around me and fild the land
full of such glorious harmony that I thot myself in heven.
Never was such singing herd, I often thot in wonder, and
yet if I told anyone they would set me down as a madman.
And so I said nothing except to Mr. and Mrs. B. who laft
at me, but thot it all right, with an occasional doubt.

But terribl as has been my punishment I look back up-
on that time with something like a longing for the mere
joyousness of it. From first to last the joy of the singing
fild me with wonder. Call them lemons or angels they
sing with the hole hart. But when they toucht a minor
strain it was sad enuf to make one melt away in ecstacy.
I hav found out since that I was where I had no business
to be. I hav found out that there were two kinds of angels
there, and two kinds of melody — but the marvelous sing-
ing, the solos that rose on the air so sweetly as to make me
wonder how such music could be produced, the great chor-
uses of altos and sopranos and tenors, ali the different
parts flowing together like the flow of a mighty river, not
a singl flaw in the exquisit harmony, make me look back

OUR UNSEEN COMPANIONS.

to it with longing, and look forward to the time when the
chorus will greet lis on the other side of the river.

Exalt6, iin peu extasie, say some of the authorities
Not quite. I hav done some hard-heded business in my
time, and I was at it then in a hu^J heded business way
too, but to encourage them in their hallucinations I may
say that on any subject not connected with this occult
world I was just as I hav always been, just as I am now.
That is how they all ar, says Lobe Lombroso, the man
who can gage your mental status from the shape of your
ear. Qu'ils m'amuse beaucoup ces sages Italiens!.

It is wrong to digress, I know, but do you remember
what poor Robbie Burns vSaid?

*' Whene'er divinity comes across me
My readers aye ar sure to lose me. "

That is just how I feel about the Lombroso tribe, but
they will have to burn their books on tactics yet. A race
of degenerates!

There were two kinds around me. Listening to the one
band was almost painful, it was so far off and yet so
sweet. At any time I av/akened thru the night a tenor
voice would start up apparently at a long distance away
and the melody was so entrancing that I could not choose
but listen and strain my ears lest I should miss a note.
It was nil apart of the scheme that I was so slow in un-
derstanding — work on the nervs, work on the emotions
till the time came, and then tear to pieces.

With the other band it was different. When in the
horrors I made up my mind if ever I got well to write my
story to warn others, but not to say a word about the
music I herd. I was afraid that some one might venture
into the trap and get caught, but afterwards I concluded
to tell it all. If any one dallies with it after what he
reads in this book he deservs to be punisht. During many
years I had never red anything of consequencs against
the study.

;< -

■i:.

IT,
f
1

HEVKNLY MUSIC FROM ANGELIC HOSTS

"Tell both sides," the demons shouted at me, "and do
not play the coward, it it is wrong to venture in here, it
is wrong to say a word about it, as you will find out when
you do come. Tell it at your peril " — and so on for
months.

There was no need of straining the car to hear the
other band. They sung all the old hyms we luv and
sung them as if within forty or fifty yards of where I was
sitting. If grim old Thomas Carlyle felt like crying I
suppose that it is permissibl for me to confess that I was
often in tears then. Not quite plesani to confess it, but
it is true. Again, as with our reverend frend, I seek
shelter below the wing of another. But the music was
overpowering. Sometimes I could not listen for more
than a few minutes, it was so affecting. I had to close
my ears to it and rest. I still had that power, or, as I
believ, the evil spirits were not allowed to open their
batteries upon me, 1 often thot during the dark days
that I had herd a good deal that was sent for the purpose
of encouraging me for the struggl, something to show me
that altho I had made a mistake everything was done for
me that should h" - been done.

It isaplesureiii writing this to think that there is a mul-
titude of peopl who know that I am telling of facts. A
serious world indeed — yes, a feeling comes over me that
prompts me to vSay now as I think of the past, — a .sacred
world. What fools we ar, rich and poor alike!

"Rock of Ages," and "Jesus Luver of my Soul," and
"Old Hundredth," and "BalHrma " and all the old Chris-
tian hyms which hav delighted and comforted the souls
of millions were sung to me then until I felt that I was
standing upon holy ground. And "Adeste Fideles" too,
swelled high and higher in the Latin that I did not un-
derstand, and ' 'Jerusalem the Golden" and scores of the old
favorits, and still I did not ask myself why it was that
they sung Christian hyms to me an unbeliever. I was

t^i;

OUR UNSKKN COM ^•ANIO^fR.

blinded. Both sides siui}; them. Why \^ it? I wa.s
cheered by the one side with them, and lured on by the
other. • ■ ■ I ♦

That was a glorioi.s time for me. No wonder I went
on and on till the doors closed behind me. What would
you hav done? Take up your hymn books, old and neW,
and pick out your favorits as I did mine, and then think
of hearing them sung by a great choir invisibl, all the
parts harmonizing so that it seemed but as one voice, and
do your best to imagin it, and you will fall far short of
the reality. Often did I thinV of the inspired saying, —
"Eye hath not .seen, nor car lierd, neither hav entered
into the hart of man the things which God hath prepared
for them that luv Him."

" Glv nie the winps of faith to rise

Within the vail, and Boe
The saints ubuv, how great their joys,

How bright their glories be.
Many ar the frends who ar waiting to-day,

Happy on the golden Strand :
Many ar the voices calling us away

To join theirgloroiis band--
Cniling us away ! Calling us away I

Calling to the better land !"

Whatever you may think of the divinity of Christ, my
scientific frend, one thing is certain, and that is that the
Christian hymns ar sung in the next world as they ar
here. It will not do to .say that it w;;s only the demons
singing to lure me on. Long after there was no necessity
tt) lure me further I herd them as of old, and I herd, too,
another kind of singing.

"There is a happy land, far, far away," and I knew
that there was indeed a happy land for those who believd.
And on and on it went.

'• Oh, we shall sweetly sing.
Worthy IB our Savior King
Loud let bis praises ring.
Praise, praise for aye."

I hav said that I could not endure it sometimes it was
so affecting, — "They stand those halls of Zi«m, all jubi-

HKVFNI.Y MUSIC FROM AN<;KLIC HOSTS.

"lant with song!" But I often sat down determined to
keep my emotions under control, and I liav sat for hours
in the eveninif listeninjif to it as calmly as tho I had been
at a sacred concert or grand opera.

•• Liltl oUlldron, littl children,
Who luv their Redeemer,
At the jewels, precious jewels.
Hia luvand hta lost.

Like tho BtarB of the niornlnfr
His bright crown adorning
They shall shine in tJieir beuty
liri^ht gems for his crown."

All moonshine, they say, an excited brain. There ar
some who know l)etter, bnt they yield np their convic-
tions to the regular school, and thus error is perpetuated
from generation to generation. To say nothing of tho.se
who, unfortiuiately for themselves, hav had some prac-
tical experience, the list of the men who stand rm the
.side of the reality of the fenomena we encounter on the
other side of the border is respectabl enuf to be entitled
to a hearing. They ar, to say the least, as well qualified
to judge as the members of the regular school. ^

Why did the ministering spirits not save me from what
came? Why is this a world where men and women hav
free will? we might as well ask. If a child gets its hand
burnt by putting it too close to a red hot stove it is likely
that it will be a littl more careful in the future.

y " Hark, 'tis the voice of angels

Borne in a song to mo
Over tho fields of »?lory ' , .

Over the jasper sea."

'.''.-/J

^■'V

■■V

CHAPTER X. . '

Thk Vkry Gatk of IIf.vkn.

** Softly sweet, in Lydian niesure,
Soon I'll sooth your sonl to plesiire. "

The Spanish proverb says that the stone which is fit for
the building- is seldom left in the street. It is a good
thing to be fit for the building — a good thing to be abl to
rise to the occasion. Unfortunately I did not know a
singl note of music then, or els I might hav been abl to
lay some of the hymns, and songs and marches and all
kind of music that I herd before you. Just what you ex-
pected, is it? Let us reason the matter over quietly then.

I like singing and hav a fair ear, and so it happened
that I was abl to catch two or three tunes and sing them
to ^Ir. B. who understands music. He pronounct them
of an average quality, and wonderd where I got them,
for he was a littl skeptical occasionally. We threw them
aside, for I then expected that I was to listen to the music
whenever 1 so pleased, and I did not think it necessary
to preserv the paltry tunes I had caught when finer ones
could be had for the wishing. I hav often regretted that
I did not take more pains to preserv at least a littl of
what I herd, but there ar no birds in last year's nests.
Had I taken pains I could easily hav had several dozen
good tunes to vouch for my expedition into the forbidden
land — as it is I remember only four.

But four will answer my purpose fairly well. How did
it happen that I who had never made an attempt to com-
pose a tune in ray life should be abl to sing four unless I
had herd them sung to me? The other airs I herd left
me, but these four stick. I askt for Goimod's ' 'Ave Maria, "

'■H

.'"J

THK VERY r.AlE ©F HEVEN.

. .-5,, ,

^■-■"i'

•'^

and if they hav not deceive! me, as I am afraid theyhav,
for it is almost toosimpl to be taken for that piece of mus-
ic which I hav never yet herd, that is one of the four.
Tt will not matter very much whether it is or not — how
could I lern it from imaginary voices? And how did I
leru "Lochaber no more" from them if they were imaj^in-
ary? Will an inflamed or an excited brain set me com-
posing music? Do not let any one think I am insisting
on these questions too often. Tt is sufficiently wearisome
at this late day to hear men talk of "imaginary voices,"
"false hearing," and the rest of it. It involvs too, the
theory of possession, the treatment of the insane, and the
advisability of thousands of our fellow mortals, reverting
back to the holesom warnings contained in the scriptures.
We shall leav a great many things behind us when we
go to the next world, but there will be singing there as
well as here, and the rapture of it is beyond belief. If I
may use a wild figure it was as an expans of music —as if
the hole atmosf ere were swelling with harmony.*
. It was plesant to listen to "Swance River," "The Last

I* JuRt as this book is goiufr to the printer I clip the following from a re-
view of an autobioi^raphy of the lute Oail Hamilton. She bad a itrange
experience with tho unseen. The book itself I hav not red. I, too, herd
an inetrumental band.

HER SPIRIT JOURNEYS.

"To myself it seemed as if my spirit were partially detached from mjr
body— not absolutely freed from it, but floating; about, receiving impressions
with ifreat rediness, but not with entire accuracy, aa if the spirit were made
to receive Impressions thru the bodily organs, and without them oould not
rely implicitly upon its own observations. Many foolish things I undoubt-
edly said, but many 1 distinctly remember to hav refrained from saying
becaus I knew they were foolish."

To those who liv in dred of deth this woman left muoh consolation.

SHE SAW AN OLD FRIEND.

" Immediately in the distance 1 herd a sweet voice singing a familiar air.
While trying to recall the voice, A. B. (a dear frend) stood before me. She
and her band seemed to flU all space with a flood of ungelio melody, while
from a distance, .softly harmonizing with the voice of the singer, was herd the
rich strain of an instrumental band. My delight was intens; it was too
much for tny poor weak nature. X lost conseiouanoas. When again myself the
band had gone."

OUR UNSEKN COMPANIONS.

Roi^eof Summer," ••/ mie Laurie," "The Soldiers' Chorus
in Faust," and theplaintiv music of **T1 Travatore. "

I never tire of the sad wail of the "Miserere," but if our
singers herd it as I did they would behalf ashamed to bow
to the applaus that now g^reets them.

Then, for variety, I would wish to hear them sing in
rounds. The sopranos would begin, the tenors would fol-
low, and the other parts would fall in just where I wished
them to do so.

Then as I herd some of the songs rise, I would forget
everything but the music, forget the seriousness of my
position lookt at in any light, and say "Da cabo a Mes-
dames les sopranos!" and an answering voice would shout
lafing — poor fool that I was — "M. Quichotte dit da cabo a
Mesdames les sopranos." And all around me were rage
and hate that could have devoured me, and luv that pitied
me in my folly, — moorings lost and drifting out on the
ocean. " ; •

I did not understand then that there were evil spirits
around me savage with rage and anxious to get me com-
pletely under control. It is not everyone who ventures
so far among them. Do you think it was good .spirits
who sung to me the wild emotional march of the Marseil-
laise? Do you think it was they who sung the war songs
that fire our blood imtil we get redy to tranipl every law
of God under foot in our devilish rage? Ar they engaged
in that kind of singing do y(ni think? I am perhaps as
found of war songs as anyone, and I catch myself hum-
ming them often enuf, but I hav been asking myself of
late, "Is thisthe Christian spirit that recognizes no bound-
aries, to sing the songs that to-day as a hundred years ago,
inflame one pcopl against another?" I like them, I say,
passionately; they stir the blood like a trumpet, Init let it
be distinctly understood, once for all, that the spirit of the
New Testament or the spirit of many of these songs has
to bite the dust, and you who read this will help to decide

THK VKRV (lATK, OK HKVKM.

which. You don't think so? Then yon ar still in the
bonds of iniquity.

I think the sensation we feel when we wave our arms and
sin^*- ''Marchin{4- Thru (Jeorj^ia," "Scots Wha Hae," "The
Wa'oh on the Rhine," or when we shout on the Boule-
vards, "A Berlin! A Berlin!" is instilled into us by a pro-
cess that I hav felt too often. Fancy oiu' Savior with a
sword in his hand.

As I hav 1)een unwittinj^ly drawn into the subject just
look at the Christian nation of America slunitin^ a few
months ajifo for war with (ireat Britain. vSotncof our Chris-
tian trends will yet get the scales pulled off their eyes.
Talk about war here, and there ar always loud -mouthed
fools tolej^rafrnj^ t)ver the continent that they ar pr epared
to rai}>e such anil such a tnnnber of men to go to the fnmt
instantly. If such things were done in much criticised
Europe the continent would be aflame with hell in a few
weeks' time. "Patriotism" of that sort does not smell
merely ; it stinks. Enuf of it. •

As singiny does not make up all of life I tried son.e-
thing els Ixjth for instruction and variation. I would take
a French or Spanish book and keep my eyes on the page
and listen to the voice, and surely I hav never herd bet-
ter pronounciation or more careful reading. I used to think
that if T could not get the gift of tungs I would hav a fair
substitute that Would help me to keep the two languages
up t<j a respectabl standard.

When I askt myself months afterwards what it had all
ment, how it was they did not, open on me sooner than
they did, the freridly voices would say to me — "No, you
cannot understand it now, but if you knew the meaning
of it frt>m beginning to end you would be very much sur-
prised." So will we all be some day when we seethe
narrow escapes we hav sometimes had. The prayer to be
preservd from unseen dangers has a great deal of mean-
ing for me. Hay de me, senores! Que Sancho Quixote

OUR UNSEEN COMTANIONS.

A", ■ ■..
pi" '

'■r't

'A ..

estaba gran burlail<.ir y j^ran holx/ lambien en c t(»s dias!
But the chunj^^c was near at hand. One ni.t;ht I awoke
and instantly the twenty-third psalm arose. 1 hiy and
listened to it and enjoyed the sinj,nn>j as usual, but eon-
trary to r.^y prcvioiis experienee I eould not elose my
ears. On and on it went without stop. I felt that I was
in j'ather a peculiar position. If this does not stop soon,
I thot, it will drive me mad. But it eamctoan end when
I was twistinjj^ and turninji^ around in my nervousness at
the long insupportabl strain. I eoncluded that they had
been playing a littl joke upon me anil went t' sleep again.

When I awoke in the n\oruing my wh<jie body was
tingling with a strange something that surged thru me as
stedily as the beating of a puis. It went thru me from
hed to foot with a force that surprised me. Can this be
the ether, I thot, the mysterious fluid, the od, the any-
thing, that the wise men tell us goes from star to star all
thru the univers? And the answer came — for by this time
I was on sj^eaking terms with my imseen companions —
"We iw simply keying you up in tune with the univers,"
and I laft, but it sounded reasonalily enuf, for I had be-
gun to altrihuti- the marvelous harmony of the singing to
some mysterious force that held all the voices together.

Then, }'ou sec, by this time, I believd a good, many
strange things, for I was under the li}pnotie influence to
some extent. Something happened too, that made me think
that there wa.-i more or less truth in their theory. They
began to sing and told me to sing with them. Now, I
cannot sing very well, and I frankly acknowledge it and
beg to be excused in advance. There is a slight obstruc-
tion of some kind or another in my throat that simply
precludes me from humoring my frends or doing any-
thing startling in this direction, but on this and subse-
quent occasions 't was removed. My voice was altered to
some extent quite a number of times, but I speak jf these
two occasions because the change was most pronounced

•IHF VKKV f.ATK OK HKYKN.

«3

■■f •■

then. They started a tune I did not know, and I imme-
diately began to sinjjf bastj with thetn in spite of the fact
that the tune was new, and I sung^ like a trained sinj^er.
How did I keep the time? The surjriiij;r feelinj^- in my
body kept me to the exact time, long or short notes, and
I thot that T had sur])rised a great secret. , .' i

"Of PrometheuB how undaunted

Oil Olympus shining bantloiis , •

His ftudttolouH foot he planted.
Myths ar told and BOUK-H ur ohauted.
Full of Tumptlu^H and suvKOHtious. .^

Bnutlful is the tradition

Of that flight thru hcvouly purtalj) ; '
The old classic Bupurstitlon
' 0'' the theft and the traoB mission

Of too fire of the immortals I ' '

First the deed of noblo danny,

Horn of hovonwhrd aHpiralion.
Thon tho tire with mortals sharlDfir,
Then the vulturo— the deBpairlnjr

Cry of pain on crags Caucasian "

So Long-fellow tells us of it. I often thot of his poem
in later days in a lafing, comic .sort of a way, and the
shout would come. " Yes, you fool! but Prometheus
took something- with him, and you go out empty handed."

Majiy of the voices I herd at this time were those of
frends and relativs who had died or were far from me. I
knew their voices, and there was no mistake about them.
It was with a strange feeling that I listened to the
voices of those who were ded. They spoke to me, and
sung to me, and told me of their life in hcven, and spoke
of the work they had done for Christ on crth. Was it a
wonder that I should be fooled?

There was another feature about their singing that
charmed iind surprised me. Very often when I would ask
for any well-known hymn or song they would sing the
words we know. But the tune would be entirely different,

■. fMi,

•Vii

OUR UNSEKN COMPANIONS.

and there was never the least hesitation in beginning. It
is evident that improvisation is a very simpl matter in the
next world. I listened to dozens of old songs and hyms
in new settings. What a famous composer I must have
been in those days! What a pity the reporters did not
catch me in time, for we ar all a littl tired of the men who
take themselves for Czars, En perors, (irand Moguls,
Grand Muck-a-Mucks and so on. A composer might hav
given a littl variety to the story.

One of two things is true — either that singing was real
or els 1 must, in that dual, unconscious pensonality we
hav herd about, be the most famous musician who has
ever Hvd, and that theory would in vol v me into troubl
and loss of .self -respect considering what that same person-
ality developt into lateron.

But the harvest was past the summer was ended, the
leavs were falling off the trees and the quiet and enjoy-
ment 1 had hitherto experienct were near an end. Sic
transit gloria mundi, say the lemed men with a sigh, and
others of us say with our filosofical frend Sancho Panza —
Hay muchos que van por lana, y revien escjuilados.

But making all due allowance for the devil dressing him-
self as an ungel of light could it be possibl that such glori-
ous music v/as used to entrap me}

It seems iwful to me even yet. Listen to them as if
they were pouring out their souls in an ecstacy of rapture!
Do yoii heav it rising to the simpl old tune of Autum?
Could I even yet by the mere wish and a littl hard work
hear it? Does a burnt child dread the tire? But listen, —

J? :

' i

,|'7 (■■

[

• O!oriou8 things of thee ar spokeo

Zion city of our Ood ;
Ho whose word cannot be broken.

Formed thoe for His own abode.
On the Kookof Atres founded

What can shake thy sure repose 7
With salvation's walls surrounded

Tbou art safe from all tbr foes."

>A.

■li.H

i '5!-

CHAI'TER XX

FiKNDs AND Hypnotism.

•%

" Pierce he broke forth; ' And dar'st thou then
To beard the Hon in his den,
; The Douglas in his hall ?'

j 8 , And hop'Bt thou hence unscath'd to go ?

No, by St. Bride of Bothwell, no 1
Up drawb ridge (rrooms I
What warder ho
Let the portcullis fall!"

One night I awpke and herd voices that seemed to be
within th ee feet of my ear, and they were not speaking"
to me as formerly in a frendly way, but cursing and blasfem-
ing slowly and impressivly. What made it so terrifying
to me was the fact that there was no passicmin the accent.
They went on in such a concentrated way as if so sure that
they had me in their pow ^ that there was no need of
hurrying, and so they curst and blasfemed deliberately.
It was a hc^rribl awakening out of m}?- dream, but I am not
the first who has past thru it, and I hav been often as-
sured since that I shall not be the last. There ar certainly
plenty of fools in the world, and there may be some fool-
ish enuf to tamper with this forl:)idden thing even after
reading this book, but they do it at their own peril.

The horror went on and on without stopping and I be-
came half dazed. What could it all mean? 1 had really
thot, with some misgivings, that I was on the right track
to do some service to my fellow men, and I awoke to find
myself in the company of deni(ms. I had prayed ernestly,
and believd that I was undergoing a long cours of my
preparation for s<imething that was to come, and here I
was at the end of four months' strivii-t',"!^"!^^*-'' i^^ the mire

OUR UNSKKN COMPANIONS.

:' \

up to my neck. What did I do? I forgot the instruc-
tions to "dominate" the spirits, and fell upoTi my knees
and askt God to forgiv me for my blindness and trans-
gression for Jesus Christ's sake,

A trifl cowardly, you may say, but that is human nature
aften, and especially when you feel that there is a great
fight ahed of you where human aid can avail but littl. I
had believd that Christ \vas only an extraordinary man, a
man to be luvd certainly as I always had luvd him, for
who in these times when it has either to be a great for-
ward march of dogma and boundless faith as I believ, and
believd before I turned again to Christianity, or terribl
wars that will sweep this planet of ours with the besom of
destruction, — Who that has a spark of the new spirt that
is rising in all lands can help hiving the character and
spirit of Christ which wouUl put an end to war and rumors
of war if we would only let it reign? Eimerson tellsusthat
all great ages hav been ages of faith, and men of sens now
see that it has to be faith in something els than money
gathering if we ar to bring in the greatest of all the ages
which, I believ, is just ahed of us.

And Fichte told the truth when he said, — "Christianity
still carries in its bosom a power of renovation that many
ar far from suspecting. Up to the present it has only act-
ed on individuals and thru them on the state. But he who
has been al)l to appreciate its hidden spirit whether as a
believer or an independent thinker, will adnnt that one
day it will become the internal and organizing force of so-
ciety, and then it will reveal itself to th^ hole world, in all
the richness of its benedictions. "

/\ll independent thinkers, even if not Christians, know
that the New Testament is the most democratic book in
the world. If our microscopic f rends try to make it any-
thing els it is because they ar busy with the letter as an
excuse for neglecting the spirit.

Now that I hay had time to consider my change an4

FIENDS AND HVPNOTISM.

^:.

;::^^-

■1^

1 <j-

look at it quietly and smile at the momentary haste I hav
never regretted it. I hav been happier sometimes in the
midst of the torture than in periods of prosperity. Doubts
and striiggls eniif hav come, for I hav been in a strange
position, but I hav lerned to pay littl attention to feelings
for. the;- ar pumped into us very often at the; will of our
enemies. I believ that by accepting Christ then I past
thru the trial as I could not hav done witlKvut ITim, —
goggle-science to the contrary notwithstanding. Faith
is the supplement of reason. We don't know everything
yet, as I hav found out. -

But I am again abusing the privlege of an insane man
and running you along a spur insted of the main track.
It is a good rule to keep on the main line and tell all about
the spurs afterwards, but it is well known in these days
that insanity is closely allied to genius, and I am showing
the way to set ancient maxims to one side.

I concluded after I had suffered this infliction that it
was about time for me to get out of the occult world — if I
could. It is a sin to digress once more, but did you ever
read the story of the animal that went down into a well
and could not get up again? It liad to listen to some sage
advice about not venturing into a place unless the way
out was clear. Not very plesant advice, anc^ perhaps if
w'e think as highly of charity as the aposil Paul did,
not very necessary, for the poor brute was likely enuf
feeling just that way as he lookt up and saw his
critic smiling at the top. I know the feeling. I did
not visit any one for informati(m this time. I niade up
my mind that I would get out of a bad corner in due
time, and 1 had lost faith in the profets of the occult
world. 1 was in it, and theory is not nearly so convinc-
ing as reality.

T went to the city determind to find work and get rid
of the whole foolish business, to be content with this
worjd we see around us as others; ar, but 1 found that my

-.„*

W.'.

OUR UNSFF.N COMPANIONS.

enemies clung to me, as they will to us all till deth do us
part, if we ar wise in time.

Tappings went on all around me. I herd strange noises,
and whenever I sat down I knew lay certain tokens that I
was not alone. Another disturbing feature caused me a
great deal of suffering. The astral bell still kept ringing,
and as soon as 1 entered my room at night it began and
peald away in the darkness and caused me unaccomitabl
irritation. I would hav given anything to get rid of it.
What was a plesure in my salad days became uncndurabl,
but my feelings were not consulted. It began with its
soft tingling and kept on tiil I could have run any
where to escape. "What is the matter?" 1 askt myself.
"How can this bell aifect me so much? Let it ring and
pay no more attention to it than to an ordinary one in a
steepl. " I did not quite understand then that it was not
the bell itself that tortured me, but the hypnotic power
the evil spirits had acquired over me.

I was living near a railway, and as in the erly days
when they were leading me gently on to the precipice the
spirits and I were on good terms, I said one day when a
train was passing, — "Hush! Don't you know that that is
the train of that great man, the honorabl John Doe? Let
us keep quiet until it passes." A low, peculiar whistl
came as an answer, and every time a train past after this
the same soiird came to me as distinctly as tho within a
few feet of my ears. This, too, like the bell, became a
scource of torture. Can a man touch pitch without being
defiled? And when f was driven to prayer for relief
there was no peace, and I knew then what I had lost. As
soon as I began the mocking began with me, and whistling,
and bell, and jeering, and cursing, and blasfeming. A
very serious world indeed. Kindly warnings ar given us
to let it alone, but when you hav taken the first step and
come to look upon the Bible as upon the Koran and other
books of a like nature the rest is easy.

«3

FIENDS AND HYPNOTISM.

I felt an inexpressibl sens of loss when I fonnd that I
could not be alone for a minute. We ar all surrounded,
but I was conscious of it, and it makes a good deal of dif-
ference. If you think that you hav nothing els to thank
God for, you should be grateful that the veil is not lifted.
Many who to-day ar talking lernedly, and some who ar
talking scoffingly, would change their opinions if they
were brot face to face with the realities only for five short
minutes.

Strange noises were sometimes herd around the house.
One night Mr. B. and I were sitting alone when we herd
an awful clattering passing by like a whirlwind in its
speed. "What is that?" he askt, and he ran to see. The
street in front of the house wasunpaved; it was soft, and
about twenty yards past the door it landed in a medow
that was softer. There was no possibl chance of any wag-
gon passing, for it was too late and besides there was no
outlet for one. "You need not go," I replied, but he was
alredy out. I knew well enuf what it was and sat still. I
had red enuf of the experiences of others to know. He
soon came in and said that there was nothing. "Nothing
visibl," I replied. "But you know that an awful noise
past here, and I know where it came from. "

As I hav digrest often enuf alredy I shall end this chap-
ter by looking forward a few months and telling of some-
thing that I do not wish to forget, for I am writing this
book often against my will and without much regard to
arrangement. It is not altogether a plesant thing to look
back upon my folly, and I wish the task was finisht in any
reasonabl manner without paying very much attention to
systematising the work or writing it in a style to please
the dilettanti.

Doubts as to the divinity of Christ were po\ired upon
me likea flood, both in the ordinary way and by the voices
when the struggl was going on, and I often began to specu-
late in the old way. Why is there not more evidence to

OUR UNSEEN' COMPANIONS.

■k;-;

satisfy many ernest men and women who cannot believ?
God is all powerful — Why should He allow them to suffer
when He could send them relief? If Saul of Tarsus, why
not others? and the thousand and one objections that the
subtl ingrenuity of the evil spirits threw at me. At such
times when I was perhaps going too far, and inclined to
get angry over the hole business, it often happened that
the screws were applied, as it were, and after gasping for
a few minutes somehow or other a strong conviction
arose in my mind that Jesus Christ was just exactly what
He represented himself to be — the Savior of the world.

Some who to-day ar busy with their microscopes may
hav their doubts settld in the future as I had mine in a
very strange schoo). 1 make a poor preacher, but I hope
they will consider the matter in time.

I used to hav a littl jest occasionally like many of you on
the subject of evil spirits and a devil niling over them,
but my jesting was soon taken out of me when I met
them. They ar around us, but outside of the few hints
given in the Bible, I do not know why. It seems to me
that we could get along much better without them, but
that dots not change the fact that we hav to deal with
them and their dedly enmity. Do you remember some-
thing about not having to war against flesh and blood but
against principalities and powers?

"Prlnelpalities and powerp,
• Mustering theinniseen array,

Walt for thy ungarded hour^,
"Watch and pray,'*

I often thbt with bitterness that men would not believ
my .story. They hav Moses and the profets and the New
Testament besides, but if a man rose from the ded to-day
they would ask for his credentials.

It has sometimes occured to me .since, — Could it be that
the angels who were watching over me gave the evil spir-
its permission to exercise their will at those times? We
know so littl of 'vvhat is around us that it is hardlv worth

FIENDS AND HYTNOTISM.

while to speculate very much, but I hav seen my waver-
ing belief in the divinity of Christ co. \ back to me in such
a strong way under the pi ossure that the more I lookback
to it the stranger it appears.

CHAPTER XII.

The Mouth of the Pit.

The v^'.ces still kept around me. I did not expect to get
rid of them for some littl time, for it had taken me a long
while to get within range and I was as patient as possibl.
One day not very long after I was startld in the night I
went to the city. My troubls commenct shortly after I
left the house. I past a hand-organ grinding out some
popular tune and soon I herd it ringing in my ears. I
moved on as fast as possibl to get rid of it, but it was of no
use. The pretty littl poem we hav all red says that every-
where that Mary went the lamb was sure to go, and wher-
ever I went the tune followed, and rung in my ears as
distinctly as if the organ )-ad been at my side insted of
being miles awa3^ Whenever the street car was in motion
the noise was at the highest, but when it came to a stand-
still so did my organ. I found out by long experience af-
terwards that whenever I was near any hissing noise, such
as steam escaping, or indeed anything that changes the
vibration of the air the voices would be much more dis-
tinct than usual. This perhaps is only imagination. The
virbration of a railway train affects the nervs, o^ cours, say
the medical authorities, and that accounts for it. I must
then conclude that my imagination was a good deal
stronger when in the cars than. when on foot, and this is uu-

OUR UNSKEN COMPANIONS.

4,.

plesant. I feel inclined to take my stand ^vith the defunct
Austrian physicians, and with an old Scotch woman now
ded as well as they, and call for an act to prohibit the run-
ning of trains. I left the car and wandered on thru the
streets of the busy city, and whenever I met anything in
the line of music, down even to the tinkling of the bells on
the car horses, it went into my ear as a lodging place and
there tarried.

Then, too, for the first time I herd voices fairly shout-
ing and yelling £..•"! mocking at me apparently about a
mile away. I herd them for some months afterwards,
but they reacht their highest pitch that day. I went from
one place to another trying to escape, but, of cours, it was
of no use. Ah, you cannot realize what a blessed world
you liv ixi as it is, until you lift the curtain from the mouth
of the pit that is raging around you. Where is hell?
some peopl ask. Within us and around us.

*'We will follow you to the deth. We will drive you
insane. How long can a man stand this life? We know.
It is an old story to us. You fool ! Do you think we were
amusing ourselves, playing with you all that time? You
ar trapt as thousands hav been. Now you go whining to
your Savior to releas you. There is no releas in this
world. Show us a singl line in the Bible to support the
pretensions of those peopl who ar coming thru into this
world. We know it from beginning to end. Yes the Bible'
is true, you fool ! but you, like us, know too late. Accept
Christ when you were alredy in hell? Things ar not man-
aged that way here. The body ! The body ! What is the
body to us? Your mind was in hell when we frightened you
that night. Not only that, you poor idiot, but that first
night you meddld with a tabl we acquired . a power over
you. The mind was willing and that is enuf. Christ will
never accept a man who has to come to hell before he will
believ on Him. You ar with us now and you ar just go-
ing to stay and fight on this side. You fool ! You do not

THE MOUTH OF THK PIT.

hav any idea of what hypnotism is. We will simply make
you do what we want you to do, and make you luvit."

The same sickening feeling- comes over me now as I sit
here at my typewriter as I felt that day. The same in
nature, but not in degree. I remember it only too well
I was partly under their control — that is, I herd their
voices and could not get rid of them. There was as yet
no danger to myself or any one els. This I know as an
absolute fact from what took place afterwards.

They yelled at me for nearly a hole day in the same
strain as in the foregoing paragraf. Much of what they
said would hav past by me in my normal state as chaff,
but my nervous system was pretty far reduced by this
time, and I swallowed a good deal of it and my hart sunk
within me.

Yes, the Bible was really true, and I was among the
wrong kind of spirits. In the old days they used to stone
men to deth who were willing to continue communication
with them, and they reminded me often enuf of this.
Whoever knows or does not know the Bible these demons
know it from beginning to end. They gave me chapter
and verse and threw discouraging texts at me for weeks
and months. To many Christians to-day the Bible is a
strange book. Their dedly enemies know it from Genesis
to the Revelation of St. John. Indeed, as it may serv to
keep some of our ponderous frends humbl, they know
every book in every language on the face of the erth.
This wonderful pride of intellect will get some rude
shocks in the next world. It is an excellent thing to hav
knowledge if accompanied with humility, but I feel
ashamed of our species when I think of many articles I
hav red in our reviews lauding the "educated " man as if
he were a kind of demigod. Not that we should be con-
tent with a dull, indifferent ignorance either, but there is
surely middl ground.

How very littl we know of one another. I was moving

OUR UNSKEN COMPANllONS.

1' v'-'*\'":

'■*:

■'5--.

along the street as sensibl looking as my neighbors, but
they did not suspect that 1 was listening to voices yelling
at mc, and if I had told the first man I met that such was
the case he would hav thot me mad. Mad, I certainly
was, to doubt that the Bible ment what it said. But I
hav many companions. It was well for me in one sens
that I knew something of the unseen world, and managed
to control myself. But I do not wonder that many go
raving mad under the strain. That day I remembered
what Richard Roe, medium, had said to me: "There ar
peopl in insane asylums now thru hearing voices, but I
could bring many of them out if I got the chance."

I was told a few days afterwards by my invisibl com^
panions that I was completely hypnotized and that there
was only one way of getting me clear of the influence.
That was to let them put me in a trance and I would
awaken clear of voices and every other annoyance. It looks
decidedly childlike and bland now, but supposing you
were in a tight corner and a very, very sympathetic v<^ice
told you the way out? Supposing again that you really
believd that your frends were helping you now that you
were anxious to stop all folly, and you might hav been
won. Supposing they pleaded ernestly to let them save
you? Yes, I know, practical, common sens man, but the
world is helpt occasionally by dreamers too, altho
" Men hav no faith in fine-spun sentiment
Who put their trust in bullocks and in bee vs. "

I was very imwilling to do it. I had stopt everything
of the sort, and it lookt wrong to begin again, but I yield-
ed. It was to be a serious struggl I was told — no one was
to disturb me from one o'clock to five. If it was not de-
cided before that hour I had to take what came, but my
frends were determined to do their best for me.

I lay down and tried hard to fall asleep, but it was no
use. The more I struggld the worse I became. And at
^ly ear was the voice I herd all afternoon, — and I herd it

THE MOUTH OF THE PIT.

often entif afterwards mocking me with the same words —
saying to me sharply and emfatically — "Si vous pouvez,
si vous pouvez," (if you can, if you can.) How on erth
coiUd I sleep with a voice ringing in my ears? "Exactly so,
Mr. Quixote," came another voice, "such ar the conditions.
You must fall asleep with that voice going on (»r els you
take your chance. '

I sometimes arose with the perspiration flowing over
me. I cannot help lafing now at the sheer folly of hav-
ing had anything more to do with them, but if you think
you can gage the depth of their cunning you ar mistaken.
It was all madness that leavs a bad taste in my mouth to
this day. It is sometimes said that a man never amounts
to much until he has played the fool. I don't quite like
the theory, but if there is anything in it, your cousin Sancho
Quixote will astonish you one of these days, for he haslaid
the foundation for future greatness.

I went down stairs after the struggl with a kind of a
dred in my hart and said — "I am afraid that I hav got
into a wors troubl than ever. I hartily wish I had never
had anything to do with this business. " "You will get ov-
er it all right," replied Mrs. B., "if you will only let it
alone. I did not like it at all when you said that you would
try it once more." I found out afterwards that on this oc-
casion and when I was sitting among the trees with the
" gift of tungs" rolling on my brain she had been siezed
with a strange, overpowering presentiment that I was
Hearing dangerous ground, and she was anxious to see me
stop all future experiments.

She handed me a letter, which would hav kept me from
that afternoon's work had I not said that I was not to be
disturbed. I had seen a sentence in a magazine that I did
not altogether like. The writer said, as nearly as I remem-
ber — "I hav visited a good many mediums" — the more's
the pity, says Sancho Quixote, — "but as far as I can judge
I hav seen only two or three who were in communication

-:p

7ft

OUR UNSKFN COMPANIONS.

with good spirits. Mediumship usually ends in loss of
helth, morals, and reason." Another warning that I red
about the same time vspoke of the horribl coiise(|uences of
possession. I did not quite like the look of matters and
wrote to a frend for advice. He replied in about a coupl
of weeks -he may laf if he reads this, but I know how
things ar workt now, and I am vSure the devil influenct
him to delay matters. "You ar a busy men," said the
devil to him, — and he is, "take time and answer that let-
ter. Some man got a littl excited, doubtless," continued
the devil. His answer was encouraging and frendly as I
knew it would be altho I had never met him. He spoke
of the danger from spirits of a low, gross nature — so low
that the angels could not help them— evolution, eh? —
spoke also of frolicsome spirits — woe's me — but thot that
there was no harm in investigating the subject. He al.so
referred to Willie Pel- Mel, who had just about that time
became an automatic writer and was, as we say here, real
proud of it. Now, Willie is an agressiv Christian and why
should Sancho be afraid to follow if Willie leads? And I
felt comforted, for the Christians ar very busy with this
same occult study at present. They don't go quite so^far
as Sancho did, but his impression is that they had bet-
ter give up their automatic writing and all the rest of
it.

My frend referred me to an acquaintance of his who
might assist me, and I wrote to him for advice. Again
Satan engineered things, for it took about two weeks for
the answer to reach me, but when it did come it was worth
reading. I was warned to give up the hole study at once
and forever. It was rather discouraging, but it was a
common sens view of the subject of spiritism. It told me
of men and women venturing into the hidden world and
losing their reason ; of opening the door to fiends and find-
ing that they could not shut it, and told me too that medi-
umship was a sign of weakness and not of strength.

THF, MOUTH OK THE PIT,

*'Well," I thot, altho the plain facts were not very com-
forting, **r\\ get out of it all right."

Had the answers come a littl earlier, I might hav been
saved some sufFuring, but it is doubtful. Had I known
what I know now I could hav been saved the necessity of
going to an insane asylum, but I lerned some things there
that ar worth knowing. Had the proper means been taken
when I wrote the first letter the crisis would never hav
come, altho I would not hav. escaped with a hole skin by
any means.

■ »♦•

CHAPTER XIII.
The Trap is Sprung my Demons.

"He needs a long spoon who sups with the devil."

For several nights Mr. B. slept with me in order to keep
me company until the storm should pass over. One night
after I had gone to bed he sat at a tabl busy with some
work he wanted to finish. I f^U asleep in a few minutes.
Here I might as well say that for some time I had lost
considerabl sleep. Sometimes I lay awake the hole
night unabl to close my eyes ; but I had plenty of company
and plenty of conversation. On other nights again I
would sleep for only an hour or so and then the awaken-
ing would come. I could not understand it at all. I ahvay.*^
rose in the morning as fresh as if I had slept for eight or
ten hours. I had red something of hypnotism, but some-
how or other I did not understand my own case. The
lawyer who takes his own case, they say, has a fool for a

client. I seemed to be completely blinded.
6 .

OUR UNSFKN COlVlPANlONfi.

.Is

T was thnnvn into a traiu'e immediately on j^oinj^ to
bed, and my first conversation in that state bej^'an at once.
The mind was awake, bnt the body lay at rest. I s))()ke
as clearly and nnderstandini^-ly as ever I hav done in my
life. I was as fnlly conscious of what 1 was about as I
am now. I reasoned, with my unseen companions, I
argued, 1 refused to do certain things, 1 assented to
others, and the conversation went on as it does between
you and your intimate frend, with this difference — the
mind was not allowed to wander. It was concentration
with a veng'eance. There were no disturbing" thots shot
thru my mind then. ()nl\- those who hav past thru these
trances know how strange and yet how n.atural it all
seems.

I seemed to be in a kind of a biminous atmosfere speak-
ing to some unseen frends who laft at my fears, and told
me that my troubls were nearly over. They told me to
show that 1 had enuf confidence in myself and in them
by askin^i;- Mr. 11 to j^o down stairs. T awoke at once and
told him that I felt all ri^ht. cmd that there was no neces-
sity for him staying;' wiLii me. He had red the letter I
had receivd and was unwillinyf to Icav me, but at last he
consented. ITad T told him that it was at the sug-^s^estion
of the spirits that he should leav me alone he mi.^-ht hav
refused U> g"o, but with the "well-known cunnin^- of a
lunatic" hav you ever red that before? -I did not say
whence came the inspiratic^n. 1 persuaded him, and I
believd myself that T was over the dang-er line, and he
left me alone with the stars and 1 hav often been very
thankful for it since. \v these thinj^s sometimes arranged
for us? There were evil spirits near me certainly, but
there were alsc» good ones. C.n it be that it was they who
told me to tell him to leav m knowing what was to follow?

I went back to bed and fell asleep at once and soon
very strange things began' to happen. I was at once en-
j^.'ged in a ^vonderful convt.:rsatiou : The devil was there

Vk.-'i J

.%•

THE TRAP IS SPRUN(; HY DKMONS.

in person, — at least, I was so assured, and I hav since
come to the conclusion that he is not far fnnii any of us.
It was a fight for my soul, 1 was told, and I believd it.
Then there was a long dispute between the pretended
good and the bad spirits over my case, and I listened to
the discussion as I had a perfect right to do.

What do we hear with? Our ears or our brains? And
if some one has possession of the bruin cannot he make
us hear without the ears? My body lay there for fonr or
five hours that night like a log, but I was listening and
talking all that time as consciously as I am writing at
present. How littl we really know of the unseen world
around us!

Then the trial of arms came between me and Satan. I
and my king, the cardinal put it; a cardinal in our own
days spoke of "myself and (xod," as the two beings he was
most interested in, and altho there may be those who
think that I am a littl presumptions I am fairly well
cjualified to judge. I want to raise peopl up; he, accord-
ing to good authority, has been a liar and a murderer
from the beginning and wants to drag them down. Take
your choice.

Now he was winning, now I was ahed. The game was
very, very funny, but they understood the outcome and I
did not, and could not hav done anything even if I had.
They curst and swore, pretended good and bad, and I laft
and jokt and thot the whole thing a piece of fun the one
minute and a very serious matter the next. They gave
me problems that' ,had to be solved in the twinkling of an
eye and as I usually ftiilcd the laf came, -"T>o.st again, lost
again!" We do not know the savage nature of the wick-
edness that is near us, and nature is merciful, for T hav
forgotten a great deal of it but enuf remains for all prac-
tical purposes.

I tried my best to win the approbation of my "trend"
but he usually told me that I was making a sad mess of

OUR UNSEEN CO.viPANFONS.

,f, .

■t':-

'•.'*. ■

it. "It's terribl man," he would interject in a whisper.
"Be more careful; you hav no idea of the horror in front
of you if you lose."

After a time we beg-an another scheme that was
to decide whetiier my future abode was to he heven or
hell. I was getting- pretty serious aboiit it. My "frend"
warned me that I had fallen far short in the previons tests
and that this was my last chance. "Why," I said, "It is
ridiculous to stake a man's future on such tests as these."
"You hav come to this world before your time and you
must submit to the rules. If you fail at this test you fail
forever." We began.

I hav often wondered .since whether the last "test" was
to fill me with the dred of being made clairvoyant in
the fight to come. No one can hav an idea of the multi-
tude of snares and discouraging schemes that were woven
around me weeks and months in advance.

" Open your eyes! vShut your eyes! Open your eyes!
Shut your eyes!" was the nev/ test, and well 1 remember
it. They seemed to open and shut. Perhaps the nervs
were workt. I do not knc.w. I think so, and my reason
will appear in another place, for my eyelids were workt
for several minutes later on in spite of ^ hard fight
against it.

If I did as I was told things remained even. If I was
trapt by a trick and shut them when I was told t; open
them I lost «>ne point. Lf 1 caught the trap in Lime vSatan
lost two. It was a case of "Simon says thumbs up, Simon
.says thumbs down. ' "He's gaining, "he said often. "Am
I to lo.se that simpleton after all?" "Don't you trusi him,"
came the warning, " he says that to them all." "Is this
thing fair?" etc. And the discussion went on as before,
and I listened. Fnjlicsome spirits, my frend had called
them. Possum up a gum tree, my frend ; they mean busi-
ness. •

It was hard work. I felt completely exhausted when

'if- .

THE TRAP IS SPRUNG P.V DEMONS.

9ti

the winking- came to an end. "We ar ,very sorry," said
my "frondly" voice. "We hav done our best tor you, but
you hav lost. He will give you one more chance. It is
called taking the devil's mercy. It is to do as littl as you
can for him. Do nothing unless he compels you. The
life will soon kill you anyway. We tried our best and yet
)-ou failed. I tried everything to get you mad against
him" — and he did— "but you kept on thinking he was
you frend. He deceives them all that way. He is our
dedly enemy, but you kept on smiling while the rest of us
were horror struck. Do the best you can to make terms
with him. I f he tortures you, and he is savage, we shall be
near you md suffer as much .iS you do. We never saw
one wors prepared for the struggl. " 1 remember the
chilling effect of that last sentence. You may smile, but
I did not — that is, not just then.

"Oh, ho, Sancho, and so you ar caught at last?" rose
the other voice. " Well, we ar going to tear you to pieces.
You hav caused us too much troubl. Or, let me see. You
thot T was your frend, did you, when you were lafing and
sympathizing with me? You thot I was rather an ill-used
kind of a being? Now I don't like that half so much as
you imagin. But we'll let it pass. I don't want to be
hard upon you. You can go to South America or Africa
and do my work there where you ar not known. It is all
the same fo me, so that hell is raised all over the world,
Oo to Asia if you like, to Tibet among your frends. Hang
it, man, go anywhere! You ar not a bad fellow. In
spite of them doing their best to make you hate me you
had a sneaking kindness for me. You will come out all
right in my service."

How do I remember? Only two well, and a great deal
of it word for word. I found out afterwards how easily
my sympathy was manufactured. If I did not become
angry, and I tried hard enuf to do it in the trance, it was
because some power held me in control. Your nervous

OUR UNSEEN COMPANIONS.

lift'

■>«ft<

system can be injured in a trance as easily as when
awake.

It is u foolish thing to allow yourself to become hypno-
tized; something too that I hav always been surprised
at in others, and yet there I was hypnotized myse!*^. T
had sot for the occult world as for hidden tresure, and
I had found it.

" Now," continued the voice while I still remained in
the trance, "stretch yourself out in bed and 1 will come
in a few minutes and tear you to pieces. You fool, you
will hav all the torture but no one will see any difference
in the morning. We don't manage things that way in the
occult. We hav ways and means of settling all such mat'
ters so that nothing is known to outsiders. "

I did as I was told, and lay there with my arma
stretcht out, the one touching the wall and the other at
the front of the bed, expecting the agony to begin every
second, when suddenly I came to myself and jumpt on the
floor.

"What on erth does this night's work mean?" I askt
myself. "It just means, Mr. Quixote," came a calm, im-
pressiv voice out of the darkness from the corner of the
room, "that we hav won the game, and that youar caught
now. Now, sir," — for he was very polite at first, — "just
stand there where you ar on one foot till you get permis-
sion to change. You ar going into training. "

I hav been angry at it often since, but I thot that the
game was really up — I actually believd that I was at their
mercy. I think from what I hav come thru since that I
could hav refused. In fact, I am almost sure, but the
doctors will tell you differently, and I am hak-inclined to
bow to their judgment here. It was a case of partial
possession.

So I stood there as 1 was told till I thot my leg woula
break, but as soon as I made an effort to put the other one
.to the floor the order came sharply to do what I was told,

THE TRAP IS SPRUNG liV DEMONS.

«3

and keep the proper attitude. It was cruel to bear. I
know what the word tyranny means. I hav often said,
"Had I not been taken by surprise, " and soon, and so on.
The truth of the matter was that I had been in that trance
for se\x-ral hours with the brain working stedily without
any relief, and they awoke me when the proper time came.

Then there was a change. They told me to sing. I
knew at once wh}'- this order was given. Ti was to bring
Mr. and Mrs. B. to the room, but I started with my hole
soul revolting at it. I did not want to awaken them, and
made as littl lioise as possibl, but it would not work. I
was told that it would not do, and I had to sing louder and
bring them to the room.

I stood there with my eyes glaring in my hed, I hav
been told since, and as soon as the\' came to the door I
was told to spring on Mr. B. and overpower him, and
again I obeyed. We struggld for a time, and altho he is
far more powerful than I , and I was weak at the time, I
nearly got the better of him. The thot came to him like
a flash to get out of the room and lock the door, and he
caught hold of me and with an effort threw me on the
bed and escaped, I remember that during the hole
struggl altho' I believd I had to tight with him I was
anxious that he should master me.

Then the order came to break in the door, and I began
and smasht it in with a chair and wrencht it open, how
I do not know^ to this day, for I hav seen the bent lock
since. That was one of the worst attacks I had during
the hole time the fight lasted. 1 was passionately anxious
to do just what they told me at this time. It seemed that
before Mr. B. came to the room and after he left the feel-
hig was strongest. I hav often wonderetl since whether
"•hey eased uj; the pressure just when he came in and
during the struggl in order to make me feel wors over it
afterwards. I think I could hav re-fused to obey their
orders at that time as I did later, but I am afraid that if

«r*.,'*^. f>f.

OUR UNSEEN COMPANIONS.

•*(,■'

I had the pressure would hav been put on. However, I
was more than thankful at tlie outcome.

I went down stairs and found the house deserted,
obeyed another order to put the Bible in the stove — they
do not luv tliat book — and then came to myself, and
walkt up stairs, thinking I was a ruined nivan.

"(rive up Christianity at once and l>ecome a medium or
go to an insane asylum and die in three months."

"I will not give up Christianity," I replied. "You can
do your worst." I believd the hole business, and felt as
if the end of the days had come for me. This, then, was
the end of it all! I had landed in a bog of accursed dia-
bolivSm insted of in the celestial regions.

1 had told Mr. B. that if anything happened to me to
take means at once to put me in a safe place, and he soon
rf'turned with help. I was as quiet as ever I hav been
in my life by this time, and made some arrangements to
go with the men, perfectly well pleased to go, for I knew
that it was time. From the time Mr. B. came to the room
till I broke out of it, I do not think that more than a
quarter of an hour had elapst. Four months of prepara-
tion and a bad quarter of an hour to end it.

I stayed that day garded in a small room, and if hell
itself is any wors than that place was for me I would
caution anyone who may read this against going there.
You read a short paragraf and you try to imagin what it
means, but a few words describe a day's torture. It went
on from ten to twelve hours that day without a minute's rest.
Erthly tyranny is l-ad, but it is mercy compared to what
meets tliose who arca.ight as I was. You cannot escape,
*'And hav you met the spirits yet, Sancho? What do you
think of them? Do you really imagin we work for ples-
ure? It is business with us from the word go." They
used slang enuf to satisfy anyone, and the foul language
and cursing were sickening.

"Try your Christianity now you fool! You prayed to

ritK TRAP IS SPRUNC. RV r»KMONS.

«5

be yarded last nij^ht. Why did lie nut save you? Just be-
cause He c<Mild not. That was the reason. Ah, yes, my
son, we will make you disbeliev in yourself, in your God,
in everything' until you go completely raving mad."

Small sparks of fire about the size of a pin's head shot
])efore my eyes all day. I saw them for months after-
wards, but at first they were not plesant to look at when T
knew what was behind them. 1 had gazed so hard at a
piece of paper during my "training" that I had seen it
covered as with a thousand littl sparks. That cost troubl.
Now they came without exertion. Real? Wait until we
get to deli I ,um tremens, and we may talk about it. Not
that 1 hav ever had them mys6lf. One thing thathelpt me
when the waters were flowing over my soul was the fact
that during my hole life I hav been a strict abstainer from
all kinds of intoxicating liquors. But that's another story.

"There, we've caught him again in the eye. Once,
twice, thrice ! Caught again, my boy. Too bad, really,
but you see that is our business — we trap fools. " Yes, and
fools who read this ar trapt in other ways, and some of
them stand in plupits and preach ]>eace to fashionabls
while children starv and die like rotten sheep. But again
we digress and become impolite,

I tried hard to follow a plan that did me good service
afterwards. That was to keep my mind as far as possibl
on some other subject, to sing quietly to myself, to talk,
to do anything to avoid listening, but I was not strong
enuf for it and did not betome strong enuf for months.
You can try the experiment. Hav some one yell at you
and see if you can avoid listening to voo.

But the longest day passes minute by minute, and when
night came I foimd that another home had been made
redy for me. Two doctors had chatted with rac for a short
time, listened to the evidence, and as I found out after-
wards had adjudged me insane. An attendant was sent for
me, and T walkt quietly to the station with him and sor>n

;":.rr|-T-,;j;ijf;^p«)?>--WlKst::'-,rr,;.'-v7. < t ■--

DUK UNSEKN COMPANIONS.

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found myself on the way to what I thot was a sanita-
rium.

•'Go rjiit that door," they yold as I left the lOom where
1 liad been confined, "and we will tear you to pieces be-
fore you cross the threshold."

This thret was not altc^gether unplesant. 1 was rather
weary o' the sun like Ma i)eth, and if they had done
what they thretened I would not hav been sorry.

I was in the train for about two hours, but 1 had a legion
with me. From the starting point to the end of our jour-
ney they yeld and curst at me high above the noise of the
train. The vibration had such an effect upt)n the atnios-
fere, that they -were abl to come close to me, just as if
on the outside of the car wnndows, and as their means of
locomotion ar evidently as good as ours they kept me
close company.

Hav you ever past thru any experience in the cours of
your life when you felt that somehow or other you knew
what was going to happen next? When you felt on seeing
a certain object that you had seen it oefore altho you had
never past that particular place? Hav you ever known
what was coming on the next page of a book you were
reading? Many cases of this kind hav been narrated and
they :ir very interesting.

This was how I felt on my jcmrney to the asylum. I had
never been on that railroad, but I knew it. I knew what
was coming next, and I felt as if every step was plain to
me before I went forward.

And they laft in the window and shouted, — "Poor fool,
Sancho! Poor fool! Don't you see at last that you ar so
hypnotized that you beli-jv anything we want you to?
Don't you see that we make you believ you hav past this
way before? And don't you see, too, that you ar in our
power? Does this not make it plr.in?

I had many such experiences afterwards, and suffered
a great deal thru belie> ing things that in my inmost hart

THE TRAP IS SPRUNG RY DKMONS.

«7

■-m.

I could not agree with at all. We ar all, I bcliev, n^ore
or less susccptibl to the influences around us, and if you
hav ever had any experiences of the nature spcjken of you
hav been to a slight extent under the influence of your
frolicsome frends. A hevy supper will sometimes help
you along the way, for it is as miich of a sin to overeat
as to fast. But there is no danger, so do not be alarmed.
The delicate machine we walk, around in is fairly well
taken care of if we ar not too foolish.

We reacht our destination in due time, and I felt better
before I got inside the reception hall. On the way from
the depot the choir invisibl started with the softening old
melodies and calmed me. There has been a long debate
going on about this singing between the hosts that con-
tend inside of us. "It wa.s all done by us," said the de-
mons, "from beginning to end. It was to keep you list-
ening. " The other voice, -a silent one this time, said,
"By their fruits ye shall know them. Were you en-
couraged on the way from the depot by that singing? Do
you think your enemies w^ould encourage you? " Let the
reader judge.

I met Dr. Bolus, the hed engineer of the establish-
ment. I shall again anticipate a Jittl by saying that he
did all a man could be expected to do for me during the
last months of my stay under his care, and made himself
agreeabl and in this ne showed a forgiving spirit for I
had at first refused to swallow his mixtures, and very few
doctors can endure that. Now I know that it was fool-
ish, but my back was up

My first interview was a littl discouraging tho. "Puf-
fing in the ear? Hum, bad case this time evidently.
Lying in bed developing? Eh? What did you do that
for? " and I found it a poser. Ar you supposed to lay
your cherished dreams before the faculty? "You hav
been hearing voices^ Why, there ar no voices!" This
settld it with me. I had put my hed in the lion's mouth.
No voices, indeed ! ,

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OUR UNbEEN COMPANIONS.

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I ha- recoivd my training;" with respect to voices in one
school and the doctor in another, and wc had met at last.
*'I know what your science will anunmt to," I said to my-
self as I left him, "I want none of your (h'u^s," which
was foolish.

The doctor sent me to the best ward and I lay down to
sleep in a dormitory containing'' more than a hundred men,
and 1 thot it was a queer kind of a sanitarium.

Chapter thirteen, you see, has been the unlucky chapter,
I found that cliapter twelv was too lon^- jud,t(in^ from my
shorthand notes, and what I had added as I went alonj*-,
and I concluded to cut it in two. To my surpise 1 found
that the unlucky number told the evil story that matcht
it. I hav never belie vd in these littl superstitions, but
if you do T would suggest that you sleep to-night with
your hed below the bed clothes.

CHAPTER XIV.

Inside a Lunatic Asylum.

" Stoue walls do nut a priBon make.
Nor iron bars a cage ;
Mindainiioceut and quiet
Take that for an hermitage."

Very nice indeed, Sir Richard, and very true. One of
the finest lyrics in our tung with Althea whispering there
at the grates, but suppose your mind is neither quiet nor
innocent, what then?

The first day in the hermitage there was no rest, for the
voices kept me busy listening to them. I tried reading
but it was of littl use. During my noviciatel had red some-
where that when a man became acquainted with the
higher intelligencies he could dispens with books, and

INSIDK. A Lt/NATir ASYI.ITM.

they reminded me of this often euuf for many a long
day,

"Ar you g'oiu)^ back to the books like a doi; to his votnit
and like the vSow that was washt to wallow in the mire?
Why, the hole thing is preposterous. It will never do.
You ar now in a position, you know, to disj)ens vvith a
good many of the silly books you hav been reading and
confine your attention to us. Yes, my dear sir, if you
could concentrate y<.)ur mind on what you ar reading it
would be all right, but yoit cannot, becaus we will not
allow you. Ah, determined to fight, ar you? T*oor littl
child!*'

And we began the duel that lasted f(jr longer than I
like to think about. I red and tried hard to keep my
mind on the subject; they red the same word :, and tried
hard to get my mind on their voices, and do tlie best I
could they succeeded. Before I knew how it was managed
I was listening to them and merely looking at the book.
It had been plesant to read with them that way before I
knew that they were after the possession of my mind to
use me as they use others whom they hav captured, but
now I understood the plan too well to be at ease. If I fot
hard to keep my attention fixt the voices would come
close to me, then go away for a distance of a quarter of a
mile, joke, laf, and in a dozen different ways interest me
till they gained their point. It came to be very' plesant to
listen to them, too. It was .so easy compared with strug-
gling that I often yielded, and let them hav their wa} .
This was against my will, but they had the power of pull-
ing the strings to a larger extent than any one would be-
liev who has not fot them. *

'Phey stopt their foul language and blasfeming and tried
another and more interesting scheme. All sorts (;f tjues-
tions that I was interested in were discust — politics, social
(juestions, literatiire, French, Spanish or anything els,
and they went from one subject to another antl discust

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OUK UNSIib.N COMI'ANIIONS.

them all in such a way that I could not help being inier-
estcd - -oould not help listcnin^^ But when I had settld
down to listen and enjoy it, a change would come and my
ear would be over the mouth of the pit once more. Then
I tried to escape with the usual result.

"You ar bot with a price and you cannot get away. Ah,
if you could only escape and tell the rebuilt of your jour-
ney it would be really nice would it not? Well, you will
not escape."

If I tried a game of any kind it was the same, "Ah,
you ass, you mist that shot. What do you mean by^ dis-
gracing us in that way. Don't you know that you ar our
amba.ssador. Not quite so fast and a littlmoreto the left. "

And so it went on day ifter day till I would lie down in
sheer desperation and try to get relief. If you hav an
adversary on erth there is some ecjuality between you:
here the hole state of my mind was open to them, and not
only that, but they poured in any kind of a feeling they
pleased. Whenever they wanted me to suffer, I suffered;
and I often had to laf in spite of myself, but it was of no
use lying down. "Not a cursed minute, sir. (Jet up at
once. No? Inclined to be stubborn? We hav put a good
many of that sort thru the mill. Too many to stick at you. "

Then the floodgates of profanity would open right be-
low my ear, and T could not endure it. I lay down in des-
peration, and rose up in desperation.

"JUvSt curse (iod and die, Sancho (Juixote, that's your
only plan. But it look' .strange to us why He lets you suf-
fer. And your Savior too. Hav they deserted you?" And
then arose the mocking wail I ha\' herd too often. "My
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"

No spirits, they say : noob.session, no po.s.sesicm, no devil,
no anythiug. Just so. I hav since my school days atlea.st,
kept my mouth clean of profanity or foul language, and I
was glad of it then, but it was all the harder to bear.

"Stop your hypocritical whining. Vou hav listened to

INSIDK A I.IIN.A lie ASYLTM.

9«

•■S

just such lang-uiii^e on erth like the rest of your Christian
brethern, and you hav taken but littl pains to stop it.
Now when you hear us curse you pretend to be shocked."

But l)y this time I had a g^ood deal of encoura^nient
from frendly voices. It was hard to distin.s;uish the voices,
for cursing and blessing would come in the same t(me. I
had to judge by the .sentiment, and not by the soimd. I
wrote several lett<.'rs to dictation and was urged to send
them to the newspapers for publication. I hesitated and
was solemely warned whtit would come of me if I did not
obey orders. My frends would ieav me, the sky would
fall, I would g(j mad, and so on. But with the exception
of r)ne or two letters, sent to frends who took care of them,
I tore ui> whatever 1 had writn.

They, like some erthly spirits, went too far even for me
in that state.

Under such and such contingencies the world wa.s to be
• destroyed with fire and brimstone and horrors unmention-
abl, and that was gc'.rnishingthebeutiouseyeof heven just
a littl too much even for a mrm under hypnotism.

It will but confirm the medical experts in their opinions
whcMi I say that hypnotized as I was I could not be de-
ceivd with respect to any subject with which I was well
acquainted. That is, my troubls came from things we
cannot know— questions relating to the future world, or
anything of that description. I could hav attended to
business or discust any subject with which I wasaccjuaint-
ed in my usual manner. Our hypnotic frends may not
believ this, as a good many or them hav the idea that a
subject can be influcnct in any given direction, but I
know that this was not the case with me. It may hav been
becaus I hav few opinions, say <»n social (questions, that
I hav not carefully weighed and once I accept any theory
I like to hang on t(^ it till deth do its part, unless T see
good reason for changing ray c/pinion. They did their
best t-iT months to shako my views on certain subjects, but

i- }<

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9»

OUR UNSKKN COMPANIONS.

.7 .

w ,
¥■

they did not succeed, and wiih the new light I hav receivd
these opinions ar stronger than ever to-day. At the worst
I came only so far as to say, "Is it possibl that I am mis-
taken? I cannot believ it." But they carried me a long
distance when they got me to even consider the possibil-
ity <»f a mistake on the particular subject they harpt on.

They succeeded in making me believ, however, that I
was going to receiv some special revelation that was to
do a wonderful amount of good. It must be remembered
that the voices which prom ist me the revelation were to
the last degree frendly in tone -so frendly that the one
warning voice which told me on the back of the promis
that there was no revelation for me past by almost un-
heeded. At this distance it looks to me that they were
both my enemies. But I thot too, of Mahomet and Joan
of Arc. She certainly herd voices. Where did they come
from? Mahomet certainly herd them. Where did his come
from? I know now where his voices came from. They
came from the evil powers whoragearoimdus. I look up-
on these matters differently now that I believ in Christi-
anity. The result of Mahomet's inspiration was the Kor-
an as "our Bible, "as the demons called it often. And mak-
ing every due allownnce for the splendid work the Sara-
sens accompli.sht that puts us to shame in many ways, the
result of the Koran is a religion opDOsed to Christianity.
Its latest triumf is the Armenian massacres. The Koran
or the sword is an old cry.

Joseph vSmith was a dreamer too, they say. He drew
his inspiration from the wrong source as well as Mahomet.
Poligamy is downed now, but what do you think of it a' a
scheme to disriipt this continent? Satan is no fool. He
waited for six hundred years after Christ's time for Ma-
homet, but we know the result. The social system of
Utah with respect to land ownership came very nearly
making it a paradise for the starvd workers of the east,
and of Europe. Those who think this is carrying it too

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JNSIDK A LUNATIC ASYLUM

far, may liav their o)es upend if the} will read an artiel
writn for the New York Herald hy the ate Colonel Coek-
rell when on his way to Japan. I think it was Krigham
Young he spoke of as one of the three greatest men that
Ameriea has produeed. Again, I repeat, that if churehes
ar blinded to the social inic[uilies Satan is no fool. Inspir-
ation comes from him every t'.iy in the year, but some-
times he makes a bold play foi success. Hut I am again
making this a sort of anolla podrida of an narrativ.

A few days after I reacht the hermitage the writing on
the brain began again and continued for several hours.
My attention was distracted by a gof 1 many things around
me, of eours, and the crisis did not c(»me so soon as when
I had the trance, but if came soon enuf to .suit me- -and
others. I walkt the floor in astonishment that day. The
matter they poured thru me was marvelous. They made
me believ tha*. good and bad were being poured on my
brain, that it would all come back lo me afterwards, and
that my task would be to ejiarate the chaff from the wheat.
It was interesting beycmil mesure, but I did not suspect
that they were overworking my brain to precipitate a crisis.
I was amazed at the subtlty of their reasoning. Our logic
choppers ar not to be compared to them for keen-eyed
subtilty. They corner a man with their arguments before
he knows where ho is.

I took out my pencil, and as I used to be a reasonably
fast sh'^rthand writer 1 tried to take down some of their
arguments, but it was of n(.» use. Tlieir object would not
hav been attained if they had allowed me to get my at-
tention on my notes insted of on them, and the words
poured on me with the rapidity of lightning.

Shortly after this, whether the same day or the one after
I do not recollect, I was seated at dinner in a large dining-
room, and according to what seems to be unimpeachabl
testimony I placed my chair on the tabl. Now, I am not
% member of the Four Hundred— 1 am a Suneho from

■ti

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Ol'K UNSKKN COMPANIONS.

away "hack and will remain one, but I know very well that
a dining tabl is not the place for a chair. It is not C(jninie
il faui to ])ut it there. I remember all that happened to
me from the beginning of my troubl to the end, excepton
that occasion. 1 do not hav even the .slightest recollec-
tion of the naive littl incident. It may hav happened —
I do not like to be too obstinate, and I hav always ac-
cepted the statement of the eyewitnesses, but itisabhir.k
to me. T say again that it was possession, and I say fur-
thermore that [he alienist, celebrated or unknown, who
refn.ses to accept this theory di^es not know his business.

I was conveyed back to the hall, and I came to con-
sciousness and began to kick the shins of the attendants
in keeping with instructions I herd from below. This
was not only a crime- -it was a blunder, for they began to
kick back. After some littl skirmi.shing they got me
down upon the floor, and a muscular gentlman put his
fingers around my throat and squeezed hard. Now, T had
never studied fisiology, but froiu certain indicaticms I
knew that gras]) would make an end of Sancho Quixote in
a very .short time. His throat was dry and he coidd not
get breth, and that is not at all agreeabl under any c./cum-
strmccs. My unseen companions were around me too. I,
like cousin Hamlet, was the observed of all obs. rvers. but
not quite the mold of fa.shion and the glass of form. They
were literally choking the devil out of me, but it lookt as if
there would be nothing left when they fini.sht. There
were four of them, I think, and thev tni<>ht hav manaired
the thing in a more professional was-, but they soon be-
came possesst as well as myself, and the gentlman who
S(iuee7:ed went at it, as Plato says, for all he was worth.
Often as I go along writing a whiff of the same feeling
comes over me that I experienct on certain occasions, and
I remember now that scene, I hav n,)t thotof for months.
Mo.st of them ar good fellows, as I found out afterwards,
and they ar pleased to see you get well, but there is room

lUSlDK A I.UNATir aSTTT.YM,

* ■■•■

for some improvement in their manners A slij^ht dush
of Vere de Vere blood \v ukl bo of advanta;;fe.

T was taken down stairs to another ward and fot all the
way down — not with much success, for my hart was not
in it, and the hart, in Longfellow's frase, giveth grace to
every art. T thot I had to fight. I followed my instruc-
tions with hate in my hart for the hole business. I tried
hard to miss the leg of the man I was told to kick, and
the voice came thundering to attend to business. vSome-

■ thing curious happened to me just before I entered the
new hall. A voice said to me quietly as I was going in,
— "Do not obey him any more than you have to." But
I was too excited to imderstand what was ment.

I went on fighting and otherwi.se making a fool of my-
self, altho I could hav cried for sheer vexati(jn. T was
perfectly conscious of it all and went on till I could hav

. fallen to the floor with weariness. Then the order came
again to strike some of the men. I was too tired, I was

• desperate. "Do your worst," I thot, and I refused, and
then that tyrannical voice that I would know among
a thousand to-day stonr.od at me, but it was too late.
The threts poured out like a flood, but T sat still and that
ended all danger to others from me.

I was told often enuf afterwards to strike men around
me, but it was well enuf understood on my side and on
theirs that the game was up. They made a joke of it
then. The doctor would ask sometimes, "What do they

• say to you?" a leading question that always set me smil-
ing to myself as it does yet. Now, it often happened that
just before he came forward they would say impressivly,
"Sancho, strike that man by your side so that when'
your frend asks you what we say you will hav something
to tell him." They do not hav a very high opinion of the
medical faculty. They know just about what some of
their theories on insanity ar worth. Possession, my trends,
possession, that is where a good deal of your "insanity*

,. »

OUR UNSKKN (OMHANIIONS.

comes from. A physical troubl, certainly, but evil spirits
take advantu^^e of it. It is .sdd to] think that we ar
further back than the Jews were in the time of Christ, so
far as the reason for a ^reat deal of mental derangement
is concerned.

From this day on, then, there was no danger to others:
I know, whatever the authorities may say. I hav spoken
of the only two instances in which I would hav harmed
those who were near me, in order that the case may be
stated plainly. I was rather sinprised and hurt afterwards
that I should hav lost control over myself, but there ar
the facts.

No danger to others, but a good deal to myself. The
attendants had kcpt::me from seriously injuring myself at
the worst crisis, but after they saw me quietened down
and seated they left me alone. But the demons did not.
I was seated behind a wood partition out of the attend-
ants' sight when the order came again to begin work not
against others but against myself. It seems strange that
I did not refuse, but there wa., another element added to
the fight — I was now savagely anxious to do what they
told me. Anything is better than this suspens, I thot.
They were pouring the horrors of the future on me in
such a way that I thot it would be a relief to know the
worst, and imseen by the attendants I began and con-
tinued till I was faint with agony. "It has been done
before and it can be done again. Go on ! " But I had to
give it up thru exhaustion. I sat down and was uncon-
scious for about half an hour. I did not feel the slight-
est pain when I avvoke ; I hav hot to this day, and yet
under normal circumstances I would hav been perma-
nently injured.

"Whatever happens to you," I had been told by a
frendly voice shortly after my troubls began, ' =will be
made all right." The days of miracls, we ar told, ar
over, but that incident has always remained as something
very mysterioi:s to me.

IN' IDE A IT NATIC ASYLUM.

As I am on an 'iplesant subject, I may as well finish
it by saying that - is was not the only time I would hav
been glad to go a: <! see what was in store for me. I hav
always held it to tiv lo the last dei^ace impolite to go be-
fore you get permission — as cowardly as it is foolish.
Bad as it can be hiiv, T hold that we hav no right toleav
our position to go l;.\ here when we ar not wanted by
those who seek our )> Lgood. "The gift we least desire,
the unwelcome gift < ' Mfe," I herd a patient speak of in
a recitation during iiic winter. I hav never found it to
be such. Plenty of -u'Tering, but you come out of it
stronger than when jiu went in, and not quite so foolish.
Take it all thru I consiuer that only a madman will ask if
life is worth living. Ji is a glory to liv. It is glorious
to know that you ar a conscious part of an innnens uni-
vers, suffer as you m.'iv. Of cours, there ar plenty who
find this erth a kind r . a hell thru no fault of their own,
and if there is one ' ling more than another to make a
man rage it is the f^ • inishness that is crushing down the
weak to-day as if tnjy did not belong to the same species,
but that is off the '^ uestion. I mean then, to say, that I
hav enjoyed life, that I now enjoy it, and that the best
thing to do is just to grin and bear your Iroubls as well as
you can, to envy no man or woman, resting assured that
all hav, like the old man, lots of troubl on their minds.
If you get really hungry, and can't get work, perhaps it
is right to do as Cardinal Manning said, put forth your
hand and take bred. Property — sacred property - -should
not be considered when men starv. But I ment to keep
that for another occasion.

For about two months then, on a few occasions only
when the torture was at the worst I fear that if I had
beer n a position to carry out my wishes you would never
hav red this book. An intens longing came to me that
was almost unbearabl just to end it all. Perhaps I could
Jiav resisted it if I had been at liberty, but I am not cer-

,;S

OUK UNSEKN COMPANIONS.

'•3,. :' ■

¥- '■

.VI

tain, and the troubl is that once done there is no repair-
ing the damage. I knew it was my enemies who put the
desire there, but still once in a while it would come and
it was very strong. I now imderstand the verdict of tem-
porary insanity. I would amend it slightly tho. I would
make it — "Died while his mind was in the possession of
evil spirits. "

How did it come about, too, that i never felt the
slightest desire to injure myself before I was in a place
'vherc I could not do it? It never once crost my mind,
and I had one outbreak before I went to the hermitage.
It was not suggested to me either by the evil spirits.
Could it be that they were not allowed? "You ar ment
to do something when you become well," I was often
told. Could it be that I was ment to open men's eyes as
mine hav been opciid? I smiled in a kind of derision
when I was told so sometimes, and again I would believit
but incredibl as it seemed then you ar now reading my
story. "Another man with a mission," you say. Pre-
cisely. I understand the age we liv in fairly well.

A few days ago I met an old frend and he told me of a
case where a man had walkt forward to the brow of a
precipice and had to run away from it, there was such a
strong desire sprung up in him to roll over the edge.
Who put that desire there? I know. He told me of an-
other case of the same nature. A woman was sitting b»,
fore a fire with her child in her arms and she had to fight
and nm away from the strong temptation to throw the
child among the flames. Again I ask you if you remem-
ber the saying about your adversaries, — "Not flesh and
blood, but principalities and powers? " They use flesh
and blood tho as their instruments.

When I awoke from the unconscious condition — not a
trance this time — the shouting began, "Where hav you
been for the last hour? " and wonderful stories were told
me of where I had been and what I had done. They

.:,..-.«•

INRIDF A I.UNATiC ASYLUM

would charm some of our occult fronds, but they were all
bottled moonshine, like the belief that is based on such
nonsens.

That afternoon I j.aw something float past me in black
drapery. I saw the picture of a frend on the wall before
me as plainly as I hav seen it in his books. Optical illu-
sions? Perhaps not.

Some ten or twelv years ago I herd George Francis
Train lecture. He stopt in the middle of his lecture and
said, — ''Well, how do you like it as far as you hav got? "
That is what I reel inclined to ask the reader.

Suppose it had been in a novel now, the reviewers
would hav jeered. .

■4

CHAPTER XV.

LUV ANO HATt.

The campaign opend now in emest. There were no
more outbreaks; it was a question of endurance, undera
persecution that never ceast for a minute.

"We hav driven you from the best hall to one of the
worst, and even a fool can understand what that means.
The three months will soon be over and then you go out
in your coffin. Yeti, we know that is what you would
like" — for the thot came to me then that it would be ples-
ant to see the coffin at once insted of waiting so long for
it — "We put that thot into your hed, and we put it into
the heds of others too. It has been a fair fight has it not?
We ar not on your side, but we hav captured you. We
do not strike at you, but at others whom you do not see.

IOC

OtJK I'NSF.EN COMPANIONS.

»■?

but who sullcr, my boy, who suffer, to see you caught,
There is no help for you."

Their hole endevor was to irritate me, to make me
jump, to thump on the tabl, to behave bke a mailman, but
during the whole lonj,'' struj,'^;! they sueeecded only twice,
and then only for two or three minutes. Without help I
could never hav endured the siege. Left with full power
over a man they could drive him mad in two minutes. I
know what I am writing about.

*'Y()U hav red a great many books like, the other fools
on erth. Did any of them tell y<ju how to get out of your
present troubl?" One of them had told me to keep away
from it, but I was wise when it was too late.

"Take the wings of the morning and we will follow
you. CJet yourself enclosed in a burglar proof safe and we
will talk to you." And the blasfemy began, and I felt as
they wanted me to feel about it — simply horrified.

If there was anything I admired it was trampkl imder
foot; if I thotof anyone with respect the torrent Ix^gan.
"Do you know that we enj(jy it, Sancho? Do-you-know-
ihai-we-luv-to-torture-you. " And as my hart would some-
times fail when T realized the dedly struggl before me,
inch by inch, hour after hour they shouted" — Yes, curse
you, wf know how you feel and we ar glad of it." There
was no rest wheu we were out walking either. ( )ne day
it was one subject, the next another. 1 remember the yell
that greeted me once -"lie is the supreme tyrant! lie is
the su]M-cme tyrant ! Why does he not take us out of our
misery?" I felt then as I hav <jften dune since that I hrl
commited a serious mistake. It horrified me to listen to
them, to know that sometimes in spite of their high-soimd-
ing words they were in misery, and I knew that 1 had no
right to be there listening to them.

But where had I herd that frase Sui)reme tyrant? Ah,
yes. Bishop Spalding wrote an articl some years ago in
which, .speaking of social questions and of the attitude too

I'ji

■f ; ,

l.rV ANI> HATR.

lOI

many wen.' holdiiiiLif towards the future woiKl he said —
"God is solemnly tallcil the Supreme tyrant."

"Why does he not put us out of our misery then?" As
soon as I instinclivly protested aj^^ainst their assertitm this '
question was shouted at me.

"Why d(jes he not yield then." There it is. That was ,
what they a.skt me.

We ar not so frank about it, hut we pr; ctioally ask the
same question ofteuer than we tliink. Why does He not
ehan^e His plan, and adopt ours?

Some one has said that the difference between the re-
lipfion of the first century and oiirs is that then one sermon
converted three thousand men, while now it takrs three
thousand sermons to convert one man. They believd in
what they were preaching, and now some fif thc-m don't
think that there is a hi'll.

The frendly voices, helpt me ctmsiderably. If there was
only one side why should they hav eneoura[,aHl me and
tried to drajj me down at the same time? They cheered
me lip and told me that I would come out of the struggl
and liv my life with clearer lij^hts in the future.

"Concentrate your mind," they saiil, "concentrate and
keep at it. Interest yourself in scmiethinj^. (lo around
among' these men and speak to them. Never mind how
these spirits jeer ill ; ou. Keep going and you will g^rad-
ually get better. It will not make any difference where
you go. Vou will hav to fight it out, but we will help you. "
And when things were getting unendurabl they sung to
me till I got uplifted and redy for another bout.

But now I herd another kind of singing that I thot would
hav driven me mad for as you may hav alredy remarkt
I am proceeding on the assumption that I was a sane man
then. I met many of that kind in the hermitage. I was
at least, sane enuf to write the kind of literature you hav
been reading since vou egan this book.

The new singing \va:» ra' epic, fearful, past endurance.

■,?=■'"

ro2

OUR UNSEEN COMPANIONf.

Very often when the other kind began to soothe me this
started too, and murdered the harmony. It was all done
from beginning to end with the idea of destroying the poor
mortal who was in their clutches. I cannot describe the
bitter regret that filled my hart then. Would that I had
never been a fool ! A \\ ail as old as the world.

1 often thot to myself as the incredibl persecution went
on, — "If they take all this troubl to destroy me, only one
soul, they must be desperately in ernest. " It :s true.
The devil is an enthusiast, and we loll in fashionabl
churches, and gather millions and starv children, and do
his work in his own chosen way,

A great many times during this severe ordeal I felt
utterly defeated and did not care what became of me.
Perhaps a dozen times in all during several months, the
hole thing stopt for a few minutes as if by command and
I was very grateful for the short respite. "Do you know
that we can stop it whenever we pleas?" a quiet voice
sometimes askt me then.

One day the writing on the brain began again and went
on so fast that I could scarcely follow| it. I hav alredy
spoken of peopl whose past life has been flasht before
them in a few minutes. A great deal of my past was
laid open to me, but there was not so very iiuchplesure
in looking back over it, for it was mostly the unplesant
side. Who opend the drawers of memory? An excited
brain? Imagination? Things that I had done and for-
gotten a quarter. of a century ago came back one by one
to the accompaniment of the jibes of my enemies.

Some bright littl men wonder how the recording angel
is going to keep a strict account of their sins. Do not be
alarmed about any of the.n being forgotten, if you take
the evolutionary future. God's ways ar not as oiir ways.

Mr. Moody says in one of his sermons that he believs
that every man will stand speechless before God. He
thinks the record is within us. and 1 think that he is

'■'w. ' "ir '.■■■>.

l.VV AND HATE.

T03

right. It is all there. Everything wc hav said, felt,
herd or suffered. •

I understand now as I never did before what Christ
ment when He said that we would be accoui:tabl for every
word spoken by us. The result we carry with us. There
is a good deal of truth in a cert'iin kind of evolution.

The books will not need to be opend in the literal sens*
All is taken care of, and if yoii g-et in the wron.!^ com-
pany you will find that what has been done in secret will
be shouted on the housetops. I li.iv herd my sins laid
bare one after another. T know what it means. It made
me -writhe occasionally, but there was no mercy. What
fools we ar to suppose that anything can be hidden !
Memory will be hell enuf to a good many of us, if we in-
sist. After I became accustomed to it, I ceast to wonder
the hole thing lookt so natural.

The chief abiding place of these evil spirits was the
dining room. I did not understand the secret for months
afterwards. Torture a man when he is eating and you
retard his recovery, and they were at their worst during
meal hours. Voices ot fronds and rclativs living andded
would come, for these spirits take any kind of a voice
they pleas, and as soon as I sat down they began. After
they gave me good advice they would begin to curse.

"We cannot help it," they said. "It is the vSat.inic na-
ture in us. Wc ar like ycni, partly good and partly bad.
Sometimes the good gets the upper hand, sometimes the
bad."

Again I say, possum up a gum tree. It is not a very
dignified frase but it best expresses my feelings.

And so our .souls really swim around among the ether
while we sleep? Possum up a gum tree again. I know
who concocted those pretty ideas.

Back in his yung days when Suncho Quixote never
troubld himself about anything if he got enuf to eat, he
ran across a pretty littl poem ctunpounded in Cyrus tinies

■ft

■'.'V

'f4

i.>4

ocK \'Nsf>N «»»A(rx\noN>

lUMi \hv i^vnuroso v;<s \.\\c i\o\\cv thnt \V(Ui :\\\ l\.svt>. A

thoil

OS uioiubor v>l ]\'ul;viuoiU w ;r-. \« ■■)MMisi

M r

»• \t

.Sir

S'l.itVovvl havl Ihhmi tcUiuyi tho ;\ssctnMrd \\i|s ,ui>l (lullaivis
tb,U v'vpr\is \\ .vs }j«MtUi to h»' i» j>r«M«i .u>}uisit \>mi d l"<>v
nothinvi ols ihan llu* jjttiti Ircc.v. wlico iho \\\.n\ >>i" tho oo
v'asio", \v;\>U\ —

• VhP »nmi (r«<<> r(«'h In loaf una l>i«w»ou»
Tortuo \hi' tuMVo of »h* opotiHnm
In rjrpi^jn Ki'OM w ■ hopo to m-t'
Noitlu>Moi>«rr»i) up t)iAt i\o<'

Tb.al u«i i\i.<t aiii^tlior ilhi.strati>Mi o\ [he \\<MuUitul r<T<'vM

Hut \vv* h.ul omii o( possum

ot ouv" inmvl o\ rv atunnov.

\u tlu- inoantir.io,

IWtvMV niv tviot'.d whom 1 hav iu vor soon oatno to as-
sist iiu\ 1 was tolvl bo was on the waw rb.< u liis pi^turo
1 hav spok<Mi o\ was ilasht on tl\o wall.

"I an\ sittiny; in my oiVuo in tho citv ot' "topia. but
hav OvMUO tv^ hol)i N^ni. 1 am \ory bnsv n<'w. but I oamo
at tho call ot" of.r mnttial t"r<Muls. Yvmi will v-omo out oi
tbo stru.cjil all rii^ht. Ha\o no t\\>v, " Ami tbo jiirtino
\ar.i,sht. Tbo \ vmvX'' 1 bopo tv> boar ono ^bo 1 boi\l ii tor
months atui, kn>n\- it woU. H\jn\»nism or roalitv. wbiob
i^.uo mo tbiO piotviro? Ar y»Mi so vor\- suro tbal it w as
b\ 'i^not-sm ' Tbovoiois ar roal. Wo know n* \t tv> notbiui^
ot tboir powors. \Vb.\t ot" tbo pu'tiiioi*

On ;ir,otbcr oov asion 1 in^.i^i^iiul that ! s.o\ two t'voiuls
at a (iistanoe bv.t 1 was t\>v>U vl Wbon tbo porsons oanu'
noaror T s.nv tb.u T b.i»l bo^^n iV>lor blind. Tliis will .-otl
tbo picmvc wr/a the dootors.

I novor "saw" anytb.inc oxoopt on tboso ovvasions, un-
less 1 spoak ot" Muo liiibts. tbo oolor\^i boll 1 was assuroU,
and ibov K>okt s\-.spioio\ts.

I b.av SO0T1 a raan on bis knoos k'.ssnis; ,\'.\ " imav;inary"
uiotmv on tbo w..!;. bnt ho was in ernosi abo\it it. \\ as
the piot lire there' I hav seen another man spend nu^stot"
liis time ax>kinc •!* plesant pietures thrown on bis br.iin.
}{e was hypnotized to a eortaiu extent like the man who

ll'V AND HATK.

'05

kisl llic wail. Ho saw th«« pict»»ros. I saw numy in \\\v
saiuo way, aH yoti noc the hovisc you wcro boni in if you
choose to think of it, ami thoy ar n-allv plosant to look at,
hut T knew what it niont an*l vliil not ituhiljio in it. It is
ilone very eaf^ily There t;i nonceossily for nluMtin^ your
eycM, btit it moans that spirits ar workinj.;' your hrain and
that Im iu)t altoj^cthor rij^hl, if you ca«» avoid it. A littl
coiioontnitioti saves y«»u from this plesanl hut fo«)lish way
of spend inj;' yotir time.

When 1 saw the pot)r fellow on (ho floor kissin^j the wall
they lafl atul said, "I>o you .sec that nuui, Saneho? Well
that is your brother. Come, now, no denial, Wear simply
leailiu); him alonj^ another roatl."

When hod-timo eamo 1 was more than anxious to lie
down and forj^jet my aiisery. The oidy way I found life
enduraltl was to take it day by day, almost hour by hour.
The future, the futtiro, was the burdet\ of their sonj^.
Keep peopl worrying over what is j;<u*n); to liai)pen. 1 herd
them, you do not, but ^they worry you in the same way.
What will happen if the sky falls?

I.,yin^ down to sleep was only one part, however. Some-
times I had to {\^hi for a eoupl hours of before I eould get
peaee; at «)ther times T c«>uld not sleep at all. It seems
rtll very stupid nt>w, but that unfortunate remark abotit
there bein^f m> voiees made me distrtist the doetors and
insted of tolling my troubls I bit my lip and kept my
mouth shut. A warm bath would hav 8avcd me many a
night of torture. Nor did 1 take any medicin for some
time- I had more eon fidenco in nature -I did not tell of
want of sleep, I did not believ the doetqr.s could do me
mueh good. After some time T got baek scnscnuf to be-
gin to build up the body, that my enemies were trying to
pull down. But "No voices!" Every hermitage should
hav a professional liar.

And so I lay and listened to the storm of imaginations
outside the window, and felt miserabl. They that is the

':M

tyv^

io6

OUR UNSEKN COMPANIONS.

i^:

P ■■■^■

imaginations -went on at such a rapid rate as to astound
me. It sounded like the clatter of a machine. How it
was done I do not know, but it was done to destroy all
chance of thinking. I simply had to endure it. It went
on every night for several months. You read of it in
a few minutes. It wasterribl. If I awoke for a minute it
began, and again it was a fight for sleep. Sometimes a
littl noise would awaken me, a very littl carelessness, talk-
ing on the part of night watchmen, which goes on oftener
and louder than doctors imagin, a dogtor hammering thru
the ward in defiance ot common sens, and I was in the
midst of my enemies.

Sometimes they would go far away, then come back
again and begin to work hart and soul. They would come
close to my bed at the worst time and whisper — "Sancho,
do you know where you ar? Well, we know. You ar in
hell, and you will never get out. " Perhaps you smile, but
I did not. It was far too serious. Mockery and bitter-
neso and hate every night and every morning. If ever
there was a humbl man on erth I was one then. * 'What
an ass!" I said to myself. "What right had I meddling
with this business?"

I often lay and wonderd why I should hav to endure it
all, "Surely," I thot, "fool as I hav been, this is too
much."

"Too bad," they shouted, "that youar in a place where
you can't kill yourself. Take the leap man, kill yourself
somehow and come over among us, we ar waiting for you."

Some nights I herd a loud voice as if in the room next
to the dormitory shouting as long as I was awake "San-
cho Quixote, Sancho Quixote, you ar doomed, you ar
doomed." I must hav herd my name a thousand times a
night. Sometimes I herd nothing els for several minutes
running. On anl on the torrent went with a velocity that
was awful. Yes, I can smile a littl at it now, but not very
much. They jest at scars who never felt a wound.

'.'•x''

LUV AND HATE.

107

-«•

"C.xn this be myself," I askt often. "How hav T got
into Kuch a mess?"

Many an hour I hav listened to them going on like the
whirring of a machine. There were two voices, and as
they had siicceeded in getting m ^ to bel'.ev that the one
hypnotized me and the other did not, I strained my cars
to catch the frendly one and tried hard not to hear the
other; and as there was just the least shade of difference
between them I had a weary task. It is needless to say
that both were trying to drag me further down by over-
working the brain, and that the slight difference in tone
was ment to keep me worrying at my failur'^o, for as
often as not I found that I was listening to the one I did
not wish to hear. Then, of course, I was reminded of
it, and askt if I understood the seriousness of my position
or whether I was going to do my best to assist my ene-
mies. Perhaps you might have done better, but very
often the fight filld me with utter despair.

I cannot understand how such a rapidity of speech can
be exercised. It was a marvel to me when I herd it night
after night, and the more I think of it the stranger it
seems. We know exceedingly littl of the powers our
unseen companions possess : — I know far more than I like
to think about.

The race question was also toucht upon during our in-
terviews in the dining room. My companion at the
tabl for a few days was a burly negro, and I found that
these evil spirits we do not see would fain try to keep
up the same bad feeling between the races that the evil
spirits around us advocate in the newspapers and reviews.

I am glad to say that my journey into the occult world
has but confirmed my views on the race question. White
or black, brown or yellow should be on the same footing,
according to my views. You fool ! You fool ! With your
antiquated ideas. And so you would not like to see the
negro on the same plane as the white? Do you not know

io8

OUR un«;f.i-n (omfanions.

t4iat men ar brothers, not theoretically, but as a matter
of fact? I soon found out that there was no attention
paid to distinction of color amony^ the inhabitants of the
world 1 was in. If some of our|e>clusiv frends had a
short cours of lessons in that world they would under-
stand their bearin^i^s a littl better.

"There is Alck, Sancho, your brother in black, you
know. Do you hiv him? That is, do you really luv him?
'i'his is not theory now. Vou see he is at the same tabl
as you ar. Why do you not otTor him some of that cus-
tard you ar eatinj^? Is your luv for Aiek of the old sel-
fish kind we know so much about? No custard for Alek?
Just for Sancho? Perhaps he needs the custard. T)o you
supi)ose he hears voices? Do you still hear them?
Ik" kind to poor Alek, for he is a fool like yourself; curse
the hole bro(Kl of you." And then the tempest arose.

"1)(^ j'oii understand that white or black or yellow does
not make any ditYerence to us? It is a pity that the hole
race could not be swept away. Who made these men that
you sec there. Sancho? " and the answer was llasht thru
my mind by tcles^rafy which was not nearly so plesant as
when 1 first telt it in the orchard. "Then why did He
make tliem in that shape? They ar our handiwork, ar
they? What do you think of the hole scheme yourself,
vou whining hypocrit?" As I sat and listened to it per-
force, I often w(Mxlcred to myself what we were doinj; in
this world. I felt badly enuf over many thing's, but one
thing made me smile with satisfaction even at the worst,
and that was that I had done what I could for years to let
men see that it was not at all necessary to starv human
beings as we do now and fill ]M-isons and penitentiaries
and hermitages, — the natural outcome in too many cases
of our fiendish greed. Talk about men being possest
with devils! The country is full of them.

This part of the book you hav now red, practically as it
stands, was writu during my stay in the hermitage. The

I.UV AND HATK.

109

most of what follows was writn from notes taken there.
But when this chapter was completed I folded up my manu-
script, packed my valise, and said good -by to the place
where I had lernt a good many strange lessons.

You think, doubtless, that I was glad to Icav it. In one
sens, yes. But I hav found out that it is a man's mind
and not his surrf)undings altogether that make his world,
and the last three months of my stay, during which I had
a parole to walk around the extcnsiv grounds, that made
up "my estate " as 1 came to call it. had been reasonably
plcsant. The last month I look back upon as one of the
happiest I hav ever spent on erth. Erly summer had
come, the trees were in bloom and all nature was throb-
bing with joy, and I lookt upon a picturesque part of the
world's surface and smiled. » ,

I had a certain work to do, unplesant in some respects,
but T would hav no peace until it was done. Rlcssed is
the man, says Thomas Carlyle, who has found his work.
Let him seek no other blessedness.

CHAPTER XVI. .

Fiendish Persecution.

Irritation is not a good thing, but the hole object of
my tormentors was to irritate me. Had 1 not been sus-
tained I could never hav endured the vStrain.

This is how Satan works. By some means or other he

captures your nervs to a certain extent, and you simply

jump when he or his agents pull the strings. You deny

this, of cours. There was never as calm a woman as vou
8

>i.^

OUR UNSEKN COMPANIONS.

i ■"■■'

^ P:.

^ .";'.

ar. You never become anj^ry unless you hav good reason
for it, but your neighbor winks when you say so.

But if to-night, for cxampl, you herd the storm around
you, you might lose your control for a short time. We
get used to everything in time, the French proverb says.
But if you herd them at their work and they left you and
you were sinking back in a delicious sleep and suddenly
they were tearing at you again, what then? Perfectly
composed? You lern it after a while, but it is rather try-
ing at best.

"Concentrate your mind," they would she ut to you,
"concentrate, concentrate I" "You fool," the other voice
would come. "You hav no mind to concentrate. You
hav given it to us to use. Keep away from concentra-
tion. Remember what came of concentrating on the ceil-
ing. We want something done now. Both sides ar tired
of the struggl. You must make up your mind to do one
thing or another. " How would you enjoy it? It is a ter-
ribl thing to fall into a troubl of that kind.

I concentrated my mind upon a pencil occasionally to
see what would come of it. I now understand that it was
not just that kind of concentration that was needed, but
my opinions changed pretty often in those days, and I was
more than anxious to try anything that promist relief , but
the pencil and the sted^' gazing very nearly brot about
the old result. I usually got scared in time and stopt it
before trouVil came. I could not look at anything stedily
without feeling the troubl begin. 1 became very shy.
"What a ^:Ity it was that you did not hav some of that
caution a littl erlier in your career, " they shouted.

They laft often, and it was not plesant. No, it was not
plesant. It was a sore struggl. I was afraid to "concen-
trate" and afraid to leav it alone, "Why, man, just get
yourself into that state for a very short time and we will
reliev you of all your troubls. " It sounded temptingly.

I often tried the other and more sensibl plan of keeping

I -i

FIENDISH PERSECUTION.

I I I

«t

■<•

my thots as much as T could on any subjccl thai interested
me, and I mi^^ht hav understood from he opposition that
began that I was on the rij^-ht track; but we don't always
rise to the occasion.

On several of my dreary nights I saw something that 1
did not at all like. One or the men would suddenly rise and
stand in the middl of the floor and begin to shout, and
then they would say to me "Do you see that n\an,Sancho
Quixote? Do you know why he stands there and shouts?
Well," they would go on very quietly, 'it is becaus we
make him do it. Do you understand now? We*make-him-
do-it. Do you know what that means?"

I did my best to keep the idea out of my hed that
they had any such power. The mere idea, apart from my
own feelings, made me revolt. I could not endrre the
thot of men and women being used in that way.

*'You ar all pawns, every one of you, pawns, cursed
pawns." Oh, how often I herd that. There was no idea
they seemed to be so anxious to impress upon me in the
erlier days, but I always thrust it aside as much as I
could. I refused to yield to the idea, and so I refuse now,
for I believ in free will, and glory in it with all its dangers
more than ever, but I know now that there is not a littl
truth in the pawn idea.

I got one good illustration that amazed me about this
time. I hav got a good many since, but that is another
matter, for the doctors smile at them all.

I was sitting at a tabl trying hard to keep my mind fixt
upon a certain subject, while they were storming as usual,
when suddenly one of the patients who was near me rose
and came directly in front of me and began to say .some-
thing I did not understand nearly as rapidly as the spirits.
"Now, Sancho Quixote," said a voice to me, "do you yet
see that we hav ways and means of breaking up your
train of thot whenever we pleas? Do you yet begin to
see how the world is governd? Did you notice how

^»<;

I 12

OUR UNSEEN (OMP ANIONS.

([iiickly that man obeyed our orders? We sent that im-
puKs into him."

I know very well I was m a hermitage — I ot to
know fairly well that the avera^i^e man there does not stand
upon cercn'cmy — I make full allowance for all that. But
the action of this man at the particular time I speak o*'
was so deliberate that I could understand what it ment
better than I wisht. They took deli^fht, it often seemed,
in makingf men around me do just about what they sug-
j^^ested to them. Again I say I know where 1 was — again
1 say that I knew where to make allowance for any ec-
centricities that I saw. And so the lerned men say that
the dem(.)niac thci^ry of insanity has been given up? Ah,
gcntlmen, close your b(X)ks if that is all they teach you.

We ar not pawns, but we act sometimes as the me-
diums, if T may use a word I rather dislike now, of the
devil, or the mediums of God. Two courses, two ideas,
ar pkiced before us far oftener than we think, for the
mind is never idle, and we choose. Pawns do not choose.

"And you come here with your r.illy ideas of social
reform," they said. "Do you begin to realize the
magnitude of the tisk? - We forbid the banns. We
just simply forbid the banns!" A favorite ex-
pression of theirs. "Uo you think you ar the man
to change such work as you see going on behind
the scenes?"

Well, yes. I am, you ar, we all ar, for we can
not help it. We hav receivd this world to govern
and we can govern it as we choose, if we go in the direc-
tion that God wishes us to go, but there is considerabl
opposition that some of our theoretical f rends do not suf-
ficiently allow for. Guidance? Inspiration? Wisdom?
Do not be alarmed. That is always redy, on condition
that you ar willing to go in the only direction that can
bring ultimate happiness. W^e ar not dehcient in knowl-
edge, but we iir unwilling to use what \ve hav. •

KIK.NDISH PEUSFX'UTION.

t I

We say somethin}:^ kind lo a freml: that is ilic spirit of
God speaking' thru »is in the hist analysis. We say sotne-
tliinj^ unkind, and Satan is usiiitr us. The (juestion is,
How much of each spirit ar we j^oinj^- t<t allow to filter
thru us? One or the other is seckiuLi^ expression every
minute of our lives.

We all know that the tuuj^'- is an unruly member. Satan
pulls the strin,i;s, and the mischief is done. "Oct thee
behind me Satan." Satan was usin.LV Peter then, and he
uses all of us in the same way. A thousand idle thots
shot thru the mind often issue in an u,ij-ly deed. It
takes him a lonj.!f time, but the patience of these evil
spirits is marvelous.

We ^-o thru suffering, but nature is kind, lor we forget
the pain, and often we forget the lesson as well.

"Don't you see"— and this may apply to some reader as
Will as it did to me — "Don't you see that it is wrong to
wish to die. Why, it is ridiculous. You will come out of
this struggl all right yet, free to do as you pleas just like
any one els. Never mind these threts. You ot to know
by this time that they cannot harm you. Satan, — we al-
ways call him vSatan here -the evil one, tries his best to
drag you down, but you will overcome your troubls in the
end. "

This kind of talk encouraged me, but a few minutes of
the other dumpl me in the mud again. What is that that
flows thru your nervs? Do you feel it beginning? and a
feeling of despair coming with it? That is the .source of
your troubl and not the voices,

1 past thru .several trances thai! did not more than half
like when I knew what they ment. Conversations went
on around me as in the first one, but none was so bad as
that altho dangerous enuf. In due time they ceast to ray
great relief.

1 had a great many visions that amazed me. I remem-
ber one that I thot very strange. »

114

OtJR UNSKKN COMPANIONS.

■\^'

I saw two tjrcat hosts in the c-Miter of a vast plain that
sloped ji^ently np *"roni the (»pen space between them.
The (te side was all drcst in white; the other in black.
I had been told that when I past the j^reat white army
they would all lal and jeer at nie and wave their hand-
kerchiefs fij^urativ I sui)pose, to humor our present
modes of thot and shout, "Renejj^-adel renej4ade!" 'Then,"
continued my instructor, ''thru the hy])notic power we
hav over you, we will chanj^e your hart, and charj^c it fidl
of hati', and you will g;o over t() the black host." Take
service under the black flag", was the expression, — "and
that is to be you future destiny. Vour will is to be
' handed You ar to be made a new man."

Another nij^dit I had a lonj,' trance and a vision. The
devil was busy, according to what I was told, separating
my soul from my l)ody. Latterly 1 found out that his
servant had been busy trying to hold on to the power
he had.

''This is an old job with me," he went on, (piite
cheerily, and I listened to it all and was happy. "You
will soon be all right now. A short time and you will
join your frends on the other side. They ar waiting for
you. "

And they were: two companies, the one as before in
white and the other in black. I awoke and lay still. "Can
it be that I am decP " T askt myself There were no
signs of it, but I thot that perhaps the fault was mine,
and 1 rose from the bed to join my frends. Then I
groped around in the small room, and toucht the wall and
the laf arose.

" Hark ! they whisper : Angels say,
■ Sister spirit come away !'
What IH this absorbs mo quite ?
Steals my seiiseB, shuts my sight,
Drowns my spirits, draws my l)reth 7
Tell me. my soul, can this be deth 7

" The world recedes, it disappears I
Heven op«us on my eyes .' my ears

'',t«

M-

FIENDISH PKKSSCUTION.

■J

»'S

with BoiHiilH gfritflc iliijf ; •

Iitiul, UmhI yuur wliiifs I tuourit, I lly !
0<Jriivj> : whcri» Im iliy victory?

<) licit', who r«« is tliyHiInK?"

Yes, ♦here ar such lh^UJ,^s as trances, and yet there ar
those who say that when tl)e body dies that is an end ti)
it all. There is somclhin;,; that can work when the body
is lying d(jrmani. Wliat is it? .

One ni.ijht I had a plesfint dream that showed meaclear
way out of my troubls, and I awoke hapi)y I had dremt
that all I had to do t«) obtain relief was to stone the spirits,
but I realixA'd very soon after awaking that there wer
some littl diffuullies in the way, and I dro])t iKick upon
thf. pillow amid the jeers and the latter of my unseen,
frolicsome companions who had sent the dream. Some-
times 1 had visions of another kind that T think on yet
with some plesure, altho 1 do not want to be in a posi-
tion to see anything of the kind again. I seemed to see
stars whirling around in their orbits so faraway, so far
beyond the grasp of our imagination in its normal state,
that I retain even now an idea of distance, of the vastness
of space that astonishes mc. We say that the erth whirls
around on its a.sis and rolls along its orbit, but we don't
realize just what it means, but then I seemed to be con-
scious that there was nothing l)elow us, that we were
really flying thru the air and a sens of the awful grandeur
of the univcrs fild my mind when the body was lying

"Who rounded in his palm those spacious orbs?
Who bowled them flaming thru the dark profound?"

4-^

iJt

■i}

ii6

OUk UNSKKN COMPANIIONS.

CHAPTER X V I J .

Don't Mention It!

"I oould a tale UB'old whose lightest word

Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy yung blood.

Make thy two eyes like stars start from their aferes.
Thy "luoited ami corabiued locks to part

And eaob particular hair to stand ou oud
Like quills upon the fretful porcupine."

One of the vvorKt experiences has not been yet told.
Peopl in this world never know how happy they ar until
something- happens, and then they sigh for the days that
ar no more.

One day I was surprised to find a plesant odor of wall-
flower near me. I wondered what could cause it for a minute,
but that became clear like everything els. I seemed to*
liv in a garden for some time, and it was rather agree-
abl. Flowers of all kinds seemed to perfume the air
around me and I enjoyed it. It was a relief to find some-
thing of a plesant nature in the midst of the fight. "Let
them hypnotize," I thot. "I might as well enjoy some-
thing."'

Then they would throw the scent of some flower on the
air and my mind woidd wander back to boyhood. "Yes,
my son, that is how it used to be, but things ar slowly
changing for you now. You ar in a hermitage among the
other fools. You begin to realize, do you, what a happy
life the average man and woman leads on this erth? And
you wanted to reform it, did you? And you still hold on
to your ide:is do you, in spite of the fact that we hav told
you that we don't liiv them? Now, vSancho, there ar other
smells. I>o you feel that?"

DON T MKNTION IT.

Ves, I felt it and gaspt for breth. From beginning
to end I never said a word to my medical f rends on the
subject, for I knew it was no use. There ar no voices,
and no smells, and that settis it. But it does not, — that
is, not quite.

They laft and mockt at me when my calamity came,
and I could hav lain down on the floor and died. "It is
no troubl to .show goods!" they shouted. The bitter sar-
casm was hard to bear. I think that from beginning to
end this was the worst trial of all. Imagination, indeed!
No wonder the doctors scout at the theory of demoniac
possession, for that being granted a good many strange
things will follow.

"Yes, you poor fool, and you will feel it just as often as
we pleas in the future. Why, we could almost pity you
in your misery, if we had not led you on, but you see
business is business. Then what right hav you in this oc-
cult world, as you call it, hearing oiir misery? You will be
treated as we pleas now. Yes, write your littl book, if
you can, and tell your brother fools to keep away from
us and mind their own business."

Some unfortunates ar not only afflicted as I was, but
their food is turned to a putrid taste, I was mercifully
spared this trial. But I had enuf on my shoulders without
it. The chances ar that I would hav eaten my food in
spite of the taste had I been in their case, but it is hard
to tell. You say the food is all right — it is clearly hal-
lucination. Now, it looks that way on the face, but aryou
sure? Hav you quite fathomed the secrets of the hidden
world? Ar yuu quite sure that under certain circum-
stances they do not hav certain powers that make your
science of very littl moment? We thot we knew all about
the component parts of the atmosfere up till last year,
and then we were told of argon. What if there ar other
properties that we do not hav the faintest suspicion of?
What if our pretty'Jittl instruments ar not just fine enuf

' i

■■M

■ 4

' "^

ii8

OUR UNSEEN COMPANIONS.

to gage all the mysteries of the univers? But this is high
treason, and the doctors will send me back to the hermit-
age if I am not carefiil.

One thing is certain, however, and that is, I was very-
glad that I knew something of the other side of the ques-
tion, for if I had been compeld to believ that I was so
far gone as to iniagin all I felt and herd the doctors would
hav had one of the worst cases in the hermitage on their
- hands, which shows that it is well to humor a man occa-
sionally.

There ar some things that seem to be too hard to endure.
Sometimes we become

" Weiiry with draxging: the crosfius
Too hevy for mortals to bear "

The horribl smells discouraged me altogether.

"Will you tell them of this in that wonderful book you
ar going to write, Sancho? " they askt often.

They enjoyed torturing me, we may say. Sometimes
I think they did, and again, I am afraid not. It is <i law
of the univers that no being can harm another without
suffering in some wa--' for his act. And they suffer, but
they seem to liv in i. frenzy of hate that leavs no room
for reason.

We ar not so thankful as we shruld be in this world.
We do not know the dangers that surround us. I red a
vers in a French testament to-day that I liked. It was in
Ephesians 6:12. Spiritual wickedness in high pla- es, is
the English version. Evil spirits ''n the air, is In w the
French put it, and that suits me better. That is where
they ar. In the air around you.

"Now, Sancho, you understand what it is to be an un-
clean spirit. Ha, ha, ha, that is a good one! We ar all
that way." Yes, there is a bitter world arovmd us. I
.shall hav something to say of an evolutionary future after
deth for all who reject Ciirist, but just remember this and
preceding chapters when you read it. Misery, unhappi-

DON T MENTION IT.

119

ness and plenty of it. How :an it be otherwise when they
torture us? I came to understand that I had no right to
rage against tliem even while suffering. I pitied them,
for I could not help it. It is terribl.

I thot of a story of Captain Marryat, that I had red in
my school days — some Flying Dutchman legend, I think.
The imfortunate sailor had fot for years against the
demon who tortured him. Everything went wrong,
wrecks, misery, headwinds and rolling tides that- sent him
back to the old task, tired but angry, until one day he
came to himself and forgave his tormentor. I think the
worst man on erth would pity these beings. Talk about
your e\ olutionary future as you pleas, I do not want to
be in their companionship after deth.

It is the wrong they are doing. Somehow, I cannot
think otherwise than that they can ceas from doing evil
and lern to do well just as we can. God, we ar told in
the prayer book, hatcth nothing He has made. It is the
evil they ar doing and not themselves He hates. He luvs
even the rattlsnakes, and that kind of a luv is far abov
our reach.

They had told me w(4iderf ul theories of luv and hate
during the first weeks of my acquaintance with them.
Luv was necessary as well as hate. Luv was strong but
hate was stronger. Luv moved slowly, but hate went to
the mark like a flash. Satan and hate were necessary as
well as God and luv in order that the great plan of devel-
opment might be carried out, and I lay and wondered at
it r..U. Then they argued and reasoned with me about the
many theories that ar now afflicting our erth, and their
motiv from beginning to end was to show that a Savior
was not necessary — that each man was his own savior —
that it was survival of the fittest on both sides of the
grave.

They discu.st spiritism, theosofy, pre-existence and the
ologies that w" ar now occupied with, and laft at them all.

?/*

T20

OUR UNSEEN COMPANIONS.

I.I ■(

"Tell them if you like, Sancho Quixote, what you hav
herd. We do not care. We know the race too w.ell for
that, and if a man should rise from the ded we would still
be abl to deceiv them as we hav always done. Rut if you
do tell them anything at all be sure you do not forget the
smells- -stiuics we call them here. " They try to dt.-stroy
our helth : were these smells helthy?

* It is a pity that men and women will not sit down calmly
in these days and read the Bible without commentary
from Christian, agnostic, savage or filosofer. It is a true
book, but it means life as well as belief ; the **straw"epistl
of James as well as the parts that suit the taste better.
We hav forgotten the true meaning of that most sternly
democratic of all books, and used it like a thing of shreds
and patches and many of our higher critical, reverend
f rends hav led the way.

If, but here we go back to an implesant subject, — if the
smells were imaginary, why did I hav to sniff the air the
same as you do when you want to feel the odor of a flower?
You may say, why did I snuff at the air when I did not
expect to feel anything plesant but I had to — that is to
say, by some process or other, not so very mysterious after
all, the nervs in the nostrils were pulled for me. T inhaled
the air because I had to. 1 struggld hard lo keep my nos-
tils at rest but it would not work. WHio pullec them
against my will, especially when there was somet'.ing in
the air that waF not agreeabl? During the time it went
on 1 thot that the sensation was registered on the brain
without the need of anything to smell at. but why were
the ol factory nervs pulled?

When the worst of it was past too, a filosofik kind of a
thot struck me and I j)Ut my fingers to my nose and soon
the trubl ceast for the time being. Why, if it was imag-
ation? It was "in the air. "

' ..IV I

HYl'.lOTlSM MEANS TORTURE.

131

CHAPTER XVTII.

Hypnotism Means Torture,

The fight for sleep was very hard to bear. When you
ar falliiitj :/:Ieep you ar obliged to relax the will power —
you cannot very well solve a mathematical problem just as
you ar hovering on the borders, and then was the time
that they were busiest.

.A lievy, drowsy feeling would overcome me, and it
seemed as if in less than a minute I would be happy in
forgetfulness, and I often longed for the night to come,
just to get a rest, but rest came slowl iddenly, as I

would be falling over, I would get a twitch and a sharp
word — *' Attend to your masters, Sancho Quixote — " and
the soothing, delicious feeling would be gone, and I would
feel as wakeful as in the middl of a winter day. My brow
would be as cold as if it had been freezing, and I would
feel a current of cold air blowing softly over my face —
something that is very common as ''occultists" know,
"Then after a few minutes torture of this kind they would
say — "You will pleas go to sleep, Sancho, and do what
you ar told; we ar teaching you what the occult means."
The same longing for sleep, the same drowsy feeling
^vould come on; -^n ^ntens, bitter desire for rest — just to
be let alone, or to be put out of misery. Then the old
plan was followed, and I was awake in an instant. Thus
it went on for an hour or two sometimes till I l-^y and
cried with vexation and anguish.

I had often wondered how men and women had found
courage enuf to suffe rat the stake but I thot then. that there

t 22

OIJK IINSF.KN COMPANIONS.

were wors ways of torturinj:^ human beings. Deth is often
a welcome relief. One night was hn'^'l enuf,.but when it
went on regularly I could not help thinking of poor Job's
exclamation — "Wherefore is light given to him that is in
misery, and life unto the bitter in soul; which long for
deth, but it cometh not; and dig for it more than for hid-
den treasures; which rejoice exceedingly, and ar glad
when they can find the grave?" " Ar you still keeping
cheerful, Sancho Quixote? Ar you still fighting it out?
Do you understand that the game is ours, and that we
can torture you as we pleas? Do you call that torture?
You fool, you know nothing about it. Cry away, my
littl man, cry away. It will ^do no good now. T'^ars ar
of no avail in this world. Is the littl man seepy? Seepy,
seepy eyes?"

Then they came close to me and said as they often did
— " Do you not realize yet that thi.s is hell? It is a, state
of the mind, you fool. Fire and brimstone is nonsens.
Do-you-understand-matters-yet ? And do you know that
you hav had several good chances to escape, but that you
mist them all ?"

Sometimes I felt as tho things were going too far. In
spite of the encouragement I receivd from frendly voices
it was too much, and they pumpt a. savage feeling into me
that did not do me any good.

"Ah, that's it, is it ? Will you indeed? Come away,
then, Sancho Quixote, we ar waiting for you, and will
give you a cordial reception. "

Then sometimes a mock peace would come and I wuold
be told that my frends were being sacrificed for me to
giv me relief, and I would wonder why I had been bom.

" No one is being .sacrificed for yon. There is nothing
of the kind here. Be natural, be natural."

" No," the others would respond to this encouragement,
and the agony would begin again. "You cannot escape
torture bv coming here. Annihilation ? There is no

HYPNOTISM MF.ANS TORTURK

123

such thing. A nice kind of a man to attempt to destroy
spirit! Tlic thing is not done. Thutis what we want,
but we cannot get it. If you come here you will be a
wandering, imclean spirit with consciousness and mem-
ory. Take a kindly advice and remain where you ar.
All those who come by that route regret it."

And I knew that there was nothing for it but tight. T
knew the end of it if I sat down and became despondent.
In fact, I was not allowed to do so. I soon came to un-
derstand that there was help for me, but I had to do
something for myself. If I tried to sit down under it
too long the torture became worse, (rod sends us help,
but He expects us to do something ourselves. I thot, too,
that perhaps it was as well for me to fight it out even at
the worst as a matter of self-respect. I had red a good
deal about mental suggestion, and kept their influence out
of my mind as much as I could by filling it with some-
thing better — a fairly good plan for you, altho you ar not
in the toils — just yet. We read bad literature and listen
to bad talk and think but littl of it. Some day you will
fight against it for your life if you go to the evolutionary
future, and then ymi may find that it is not an easy mat-
ter to escape evil ideas.

" Don't you understand that very few come thru your
struggl. You ar ment to do something in the world yet,
and you will come out of it all right. Concentration,
faith and prayer. Concentration, faith and prayer."

And M'hen I felt that the waters were flowing over my
soul and it seemed that I could not endure it longer, help
came at once and remained with me till 1 was at peace.

For about a coupl of weeks I had a struggl with another
kind of a foe. Whatever you may call that substance —
od, or anything els you pleas, it is not altogether a ples-
ant thing to feel it in your system. It seems to pass thru
you from head to foot as stedily as tie beating of a puis.

Between eleven and one? every day for the time I speak

, Sni-t^ itiiiT^ '

124

OUR UNSEF.N COMPANIIONS.

of, it was worst. It went thru me like a flood, and it was
so strong that I thot I should hav fallen on the floor. The
desire to sleep was overpowering, butinsted of yielding to
it as I should do now, I fot against it, for 1 was afraid that
they were going to throw me into a trance and make me
speak as they pleased, and this did not suit me. •

I was strongly tempted just to lie down, to end it all,
to let them do anything they pleased with me but I strug-
gld on and on from day to day waiting for the letter that
never came.

To sleep, as our Danish frend says, would hav been
simpl en^if, but I was not quite so sure about what might
take place while in that state. Sleep is natural, certainly,
and I would run chances if called to go thru it again, but
I knew something of what happened to others when they
yielded, and that put a new light upon it. The man who
believs all the experiences we read of ar imaginary, would
never hav hesitated. A littl knowledg is troublsom.

I ventured to whisper my condition to two of the doc-
tors. One does not wish to be suspected of harboring too
many delusions in a hermitage. It is not quite plesant.

*'It seems to me, doctor, that I am under some kind of
hypnotic influence." "Sleepy, eh?" Only that and nothing
more. My unseen companions laft loud and long, as they
had a right to and I subsided. Possum up a gum tree.

And yet, and yet Dr. Charcot, who knew something of
the subject, told the French peopl that in less than fifty
years prosecutions for witchcraft under another name
would be CO Timon.

We became fixt in our ideas after a time. 1 was so set-
tld in mine, so far as these fenomena were concerned, that
it was useless to try to change them, and the medical
authorities ar just as settld in theirs.

But since I am digressing, who gave me the address of
a letter that I wrote about this time to a friend? I did
notknow where he livd, but he got the letter as I directed

■i>i

HYPNOTISM MKANS TORTURK.

125

it. I herd a voice tell me the address. Was it imagin-
ary? Very stranj^e that my imap^ination will do such
things. Very strange that such cases can be red of by
the hundred, if you ar still so far behind the times as to
need such instruction.

A frend who wrote rne said very sensibly that the hu-
man brain can only give off what it has receivd. How did
it come that I herd words that I had never listened to on
erth before, and never want to listen to again? I could
not have imagind them, and yet they came. You
wonder sometimes where a great many of the expressions
we hear come from, Think it over.

I would begin to wonder why 1 should be suffering so
much and they seldom failed with their explanation —
"Natural law, natural law. There is no use praying. We
ar all insane as well as the peopl riround you. " And some-
times they wailed in a mocking way that made me hidf
shudder, not thru fear, for you get used to everything in
time, but becaUvSe I knew they were suffering. There was
no mockery about some of their wailing.

But the time came when 1 could lie still and suffer and
be strong enuf to bear it, and then it was that all danger
to myself past away, and I felt relievd at the change. I
had said but littl abcnit my fight to any one near me, for
I had found after several trials that it did not do much
good. Nonsens! If they were real voices why should I
not hear them?

There is room for great improvement in our model her-
mitages yet. Sometimes I was shockt to see how a few
of the patients were abused. I might as well say here
that so far as personal treatment was concerned, except
on one occasion, I had nothing to complain of, but I could
not endure to see some of the other men abused. I found
that nine per cent of the attendants were really good
harted and willing to do anything for you, but a few of
them get careless and use their strength where there is no
9

' ^

1 id

OUR UNSKF.N TOMPANTONS.

occasion iur it. Very often they ar too young for such a
position.

•' Tliat is the way always," catnc a frendly voice to me
one day as I was tliinkin^ that the riyht kind of men would
not knock a man down and kick hini as some I was near
were doini*-. * 'You j^a) alon.c;- in your ordinary way well enuf
pleased, but as soon as troubl comes you want Christian
men and women to help you. '' A't this be a lesson to you. "
''Then," I replied, forg-ctting" my usual habit of not ask-
ing questions, "In spite of all the arguments we hav
herd Christ was really divine ?" Rather a singular cpies-
tion for me to ask, for I believd that lie was, but we like
sig"ns and wonders in all generations.

"Can you doubt it now after what you hav herd and
suffered?"

It would be unfair to close all the chapters without
making a humbl bow to the profession, and I will narrate
a littl incident that amused me somewhat when a laf was
valuabl.

I had fallen into the habit of keeping my teeth clenched
during the worst of it. and my frends ofen told me in a
derisiv way that I was on the wrong track. "Ah, mon
ami on the serre pas les dents ici — on serre les pens^es.
Yes, I knew that it was necessary to sc[ueeze the thots
insted of the teeth, but it was difficult work.

But it was necessary abuv all things to try to keep my
teeth shut as 1 was falling to sleep — a difficult task. If
my mouth opened the teeth came down like a i it trap
sometimes on the tung, and I did not enjoy it .>y any
means. A frend, a believer in the old fogy idea of im-
aginary voices, to whom I described this aflfliction, askt
me if T did not think that it was perhaps due to worms.
This was a new idea. I hav been obliged to take different
ground from the faculty on the questions discust in this
book, but if there is any way of making I'amende honor-
able over the worms I am redy. Serrons la main, Mes-

HYPNOTISM MKANS TORTURE.

127

sieurs, et vivent les vers, et les pommes de torre frites
aussi. ^ ■

CHAPTER XIX.

The Demons and the Armenian Massacres.

. We ar sometimes very anxious to pierce the mystery
that lies behind the veil, but, as Longfellow says, the
havens abuv listen to our impatient questioning^ and giv no
answer. We might not be quite so happy if we knew all.
It may be that we ar still not quite strong enuf to know
everything.

I ofen felt that I herd far more than was good for me.
When I realized my position I did not want to hear any
more, but I had to submit.

At first when I was under their influence I felt sickened
at the task they got me to believ lay before me. * * You
must do what every one who comes here has to do — tell
the whole story or say noihing at all. Let pcopl under-
stand this great battl that is going on between luv and
hate. Do you begin to realize what kind of a battl it is?
Did you ever hear of another trinitj^ than the Christian
one? What does the Mahomedan religion mean? The
devil is never idle, but he lays plans and works stedily.
What do you think of our plans for fighting Christianity?
Who took hold of Mahomet and used him and made him
believ he was serving God? Who took hold of men in
the olden times before Christ came and laid plans to meet
Him? Who has hold of you now in such a way that you
cannot escape? Just the devil, you fool! and he will use

'.*»

:^,^.'-:ism

128

©UR UNSKKN COMPANIONS.

you as he does others, and a great deal in your book will
be used in his service. "

I had rather admired the parlament of religions at
Chicago, but I lookt upon it now in another way. But
before we can criticise other religions very much we shall
hav to do something ourselves as well as bcliev something.
Not argument but deeds, and luv, not selfishness. One
man with a hundred millions a Christian, and another
Christian starving? Read the New Testament for shame's
sake.

When the Armenian massacres were reported from day
to day it was horribl for me to listen to the lafter and
gloating. Evolutionary future indeed!

" Who is triumfing now?" they askt. War and massa-
cre going on and ev il spirits gloating over it all, and here
the church parlors ar being turned into drill grounds, and
boys ar being taut how to kill their fellow creatures.

" Sancho Quixote," they said once as I sat and red of
the latest Turkish outbreak, " just be kind enuf to stop
your hypocrisy pleas. Do you understand that your
Christians in the United States would not giv up their
dinner to save their frends in Armenia from starvation?
Just one dinner?"

I would rather not think of what I herd at that time.
If you think it best to risk the evolutionary future I fear
that you will hav some very wicked companions, and it
may be hard to rise.

If the fashionabl churches and millionaires of our time
could only realize it, I thot often: if they knew how
things ar, they would surely change, but they hav never
changed in human history, and it begins to look as if they
would have to be forct to do their duty now as ever. The
rich men of America, says Bishop Spalding, must do
their duty or perish.

♦' We hav tumbled civilization after civilization, do you
understand ? And this one will go v;ith the others. Did

t I

THK DKMONS AND THK ARMF.NMN MASSACRK.S.

tag

you ever hear of Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, (Ireecc, Rome
and the rest of them? Ot all the fools who ever came
thru you ar the worst. Do you think that your pretty
reforms would change such a world? You ar all yung,
but we ar old hands at the business. Write these things
down if yuu dare. If peopl were stoned to deth in Old
Testament times for meddling with things they La'^ no
business with, you can judge what will come to you if you
persist in your determination to write what you hav
herd."

*' You hav prayed and you know that others ar praying
for you. How does it come that you are not yet releast?"

One day I red about two old women, both nearly ninety
years of age, who were sent to jail becaus they could nol
pay their rent. It was the only place for them it .seemed.
After their long life that was the end of it.

** Read on, read on !" a.id their voices mingled with my
mind as I lookt at the paper, and they repealed word for
word. " There is your fine Christian civilization. That
is what it means. You hav made a study of it, and know
it pretty well. "

I sometimes wonder if the crisis can be ion or delayed.
How long can it last ? Brutality and indifference on all
sides, and sneers for any one who proposes a remedy.
Was it not thus in the days of the fathers? Reform?
The idea is foolish! There is no need of it. The man
who speaks of it is a crank, r fanatic, or anything you
pleas. Down with him I and the newspapers almost
without exception stand for ths rich against the poor.
But there is a world around us where millionaires and
emperors stand upon the same footing as the man who
sweeps the streets. This world does not end the brave
show by an> means.

We do not know very much ; but we do know that good-
ness and luv, and not hate and selfishness, must rule this
world — that belief is good, but action is necessary. Our

130

OUR UNSEEN COMPANIONS.

intellectual frends ar wrong. I listened for months to
beings who ar far abuv our best in intellectual attain-
ments, but there is something v/rong with them. "Barren
intellect, barren intellect," I often sighed as I listened to

them.

They know, they feel, they suffer, and I believ we
should not jest at them, as we often do, for it is a serious
business. But we might easily lern from them that the
solution of our troubls will hav to come from heds under
the control of harts that feel for others.

'V.

-•^

CHAPTER XX.

"jEius, LuvER OF My Soul."

If you listened to any one speaking for several months
you would hear a good dea^ more than you cared to read
afterwards. It would take half a dozen volumes to write
down all I herd, but one is sufficient to enabl you to
judge whether it is wise to venture in among the inhabit-
ants of the hidden world before our time.

As a change from your ordinary condition how would you
like to go round the circl for a few weeks as if you had a
a bridl on your hed? My ears were affected in a way that
was not only painful but very provoking. It was as if
they had been made of a kind of rubber. When you press
a rubber ball with a small hole in it the air is squeezed
out— when you releas the pressure the air fills up the
space. One, two! one, two! one, two! on it went regul-
arly, exhaust and supply, and they amused themselvs at
my expens. At that time I had not come to imderstand
that the work on the pillow was jiot just what they had

JESUS, LUVKR (.)K MV SOUL.

led me to be'iev, ami I had the idea that they kept my
ears open thru this prowss. And they held me lo tli'c
beh'ef by eaiising a sensation as if the troiibl lay in some
way they acted on the atirosfere.

Yes, I smile at it now, but keep elear of hypnotism, or
you may believ some things that ar a trifl off color. "It
cannot be that there is anything of the sort in my ears," I
thot ofen.

''Indeed, indeed." the reply would come, "and what
does that mean then?" And they would "close " the ear,
and I would feel relievd for a short tinie. Then they
"opend"it again and amused themselves with me as a
cat does with a mouse.

" How does it feel to have a bridl in the ear, Sancho?
That is how we ar going to govern you when you get
'flossie?' " That was the favorit word of theirs, I hav
a fair theoretical acquaintance with slang, but I do not
remember having met their favorit at any time.

They would leav me alone for a while and I would be-
gin to think of what I would do when I left the hermit-
age. I would tell my experience so that others might be
warned; I would do this, that and the other thing to try to
do some good in the world when .suddenly they woidd be
back.

"We just took off the power for a short time to see how

you would behave and you ar back at your old flossiness

again. Now, we don't like that. We ar on the other side

of the fence, and you ar not going to carry out these fine

schemes. It's this agressivness of yours —this awful

agressivness, that bothers us. Now you ar going to be

punisht for your presumplion,"

I did not understand that they themselves had .sent all
the fine schemes into my bed and uinua.skt at the proper
time to discourage me when I thot tliat they were going
to say gO(.d-by. But they said good-by in this fashion .S()
often, that there was soon a nmtual nnderstanding that it
was played out— overworks

'■a

.,(■'.
*'-.',

T 3

%$»

OWR UNSEFH COMPANIONS.

Very often I was deceivd in thinking they were speak-
ing, when later on I found that I had been listening to
human voices on the other side of a wall or a closed door.
I say very ofen, for this was the case. I w^ould be busy
reading rr writing, and the murmur would be going on as
usual, but I, of cours, would pay as littl attention to it as
possibl. If I let my mind turn to the subject, however,
sometimes found that I had been listening to another
kind of imaginary voices — the ones you imagin you hear
when your neighbor speaks to yoa. What is it Willie
Shakespear says about imagining things?

"Or in the night imagining some fear
How easy is a bush supposed a bear."

I went further than that: I did not ,know whether the
bush was the bear, or the bear was the bush.

They took a delight, it seemed, in causing me to feel
warm spots over my body for some time. They varied in
size from a dime to a dollar. Hallucinations? Well, like
the ears, they were physically painful. When you put a
moderately hot iron to your skin it maybe a hallucination
you feel — there is a sort of an [occult sect teaching that
doctrin to-day — but Sancho Quixote would not advise you
to try the experiment. It burns; it hallucinates ; and so
did the ones I felt. Now on the hart, burning, and un-
comfortabl, now on the back, now on the arm, now any-
where they wisht them to be. Read up on hypnotism and
you will find that tliere is nothing strange about this, Hav
men not been hypnotized so that a blister on the left arm
woiild rise and another on the right applied at the same
time would nt)t? Who does the hypnotism you read of ?
Men? Some of them think so, and I used to, but now I
am not sure about it, or rather I am. Voices real, heat real,
smells real ! You ar on dangerous ground, Sancho Quixote.

Why did I not speak of all these things? Becaus I thot
that my. work in life lay outside the walls of the hennit-

JESUS, LUVER OF MV SOUL.

^3i

age. That was one very good reason for silence. With
the W. K. C. U. A. L, I knew enuf to hold my tung.

GiUj^ing of both kinds had stopt for about a coupl of
months. Those who were helping me knew that I could
not resist the temptation of listening to it, and the others
were not allowed to sing. That is what I think of it now.
Had they sung to me insted of cursing they would hav
held me far easier. But one day I was out walking among
the other patients feeling pretty discouraged over the strug-
gl, for the voices had been shouting higher than before,
when suddenly as if from the sky abuv us loud and clear,
glorious in volum, rolling along like a river, a grand chor-
us burst out singing,

" JesuB, luver of my soul.
Let me to thy bosom fly.
While the nearer waters roll,
WMle the tempest still is high."

They sung the hymn, and I listened entranct. It was a
grand, joyous burst of harmony. It remains a plesant
memory to me, for I never herd singing again during my
stay at the hermitage. - .

The New Testament is a pretty fair guide for time and
eternity. There ar evil spirits around us, as we ar told,
but there ar good spirits too, and they sing praise to the
Savior we luv on erth.

It is a pity that we.Jorget the lessons we lern in the
Bible, but being much wrot iipon, in these days, we ar
perplext in the extreme.

It was alternatelv exhileration and de.speration as it is
with others to a greater or less degree. Nature, we say,
is taking care of us. Evil spirits pour in despondency,
and we ar redy to sink, but the good Spirits take control
and our harts ri.se. In a crisis like mine both .sides mani-
fest their powers in a much more pronounct way, and I did
what I could to further the work of those v/ho were up-
building.

■-''1

- ..^

".I

,1 .('

OUR UNSEEN COMPANIONS.

1 ^^/.

"God is luv," I kept repeating to myself, as I reasoned
it out and fot inch by inch becaus I could not do any-
thing els, as despair ment more torture, " I want to rise,
and it cannot be that He will not take care of me and
help me. I must come out of this, and I will come out."
Altho a few minutes of their work soon turned me to an-
other view there was nothing for it but to begin over
again. •

Five minutes of sleep thru the day sometimes made
me feel like a new man, but it was hard to get it. When
I did succeed I was often awakened by some of the
patients touching me or hammering around in one way
or another. When I was awakened in this way the jeers
arose — ** Do you understand how the world is governed
yet? Do you see how easily we break your littl nap?"
I wanted sleep then and not theories.

CHAPTER XXI
Rejoicing as a Strong Man.

After lying around like a plutocrat for a coupl of
months I concluded that it would be better for me to do
something to keep my mind away from my persistent
enemies, and I began to write for a few hours a day on a
subject not in any way connected with my troubls. I
found it hard and tmplesant work at first. Only those
who hav past thru the trial can understand what a strong
desire rises in you to lie down and let things drift as they
will.

It is a good idea to keep occupied with some kind of

Kh'.J(JlC:iN<.; AS A STRONG MAN.

.S3

manual labor, but it is a littl risky for a doctor to put
tools in the hands of a man he is not sure about.

I \\ rote on stedily after I got in harness, a few weeks
afterv, ards, and altho the noise was kept up outside it
gradually lost distinctness of tone, and after a few months
I seldom herd the well modulated voices which had
tortured me so much.

-' You will soon be strong enuf to do without our aid,"
the frendly voices told me as I became better, and I
tried time and again to do without their enc niragenicnt,
but as often as I tried the screws were turned on and I
called for help.

'* We cannot stay with you much longer," I herd and I
felt that I could never survive if left to the mercy of the
demons. •

*'Do not listen to that," another voice would say. "We
cannot leav you. We cannot leav you, and we would not
if we could. We will be with you to help you under all
circumstances."

Then I tried again and failed, but the time came when
they left me and I never herd them again becaus I did
not expect them. I was strongly tempted to wish for
them on many occasions, but managed to resist. The evil
ones tried me a thousand times by using encouraging
words as if from my frends, but altho longing for a word
I knew that they would not comeiuiless I wisht them and
I resisted. Then I was left with the evil spirits, but the'
strength to resist them was furnisht.

I hav often felt beaten when a change would come as
if bymiracl. Some doctor said lately that if you gave
him control of your nervous system he could tuake you
smile even if plunged in the depth of grief, or change
your feelings as he pleased. Supposing, as I belicv I hav
alredy suggested, that our unseen companions hav our
nervous system partly under control and help orhinderus
;is we ourselvs decide it is t<> l)e 1)y our Hvi'S anJ by our

i3»

C.VK IJNSKKN COMPANIONS.

prayers? Hundreds of times it seemed that I coiild not
endure the savage attacks but strength came and I got thru
them.

They hung on in the dining room and t,he dormitory to
the last. My hart often sunk as I past the threshhold of
the door until I came to understand that they workt that
littl change themselves to make me feel uncomfortabl.
You ar redy by this time to accuse me of painting Satan
blacker than he is, but I cannot overdo the subject.

I found out in the earlier days that several of the bodily
functions can easily be deranged while one is under the
power, and that it is well to pay as littl attention as pos-
sibl to the feelings that arise within you in consequence.

When you understand, for exampl, how fear is produced
you ar not .somuch afraid of it.

They kept me from smiling when I was eating, and I
concluded that they were trying to derange the stomach.
I had to listen then, as only a filo.sofer can eat and con-
centrate at the same time. The stomach, the medical
men assure us, is in intimate connection with the brain,
and the evil spirits ar evidently good fisiologists.

At first they had told me to fast, and I stniggld hard
to obey their instructions, but the faculty put an end to
that cours.

" Doctor," said the attendant, "he has not eaten a bite
to-day. He refuses to eat."

I did not say why I had refused to eat. They made me
believ that it was a religious duty. Had they not fasted
in Bible times? This, however, was during the second
i week of my stay in the hermitage.

''Theu," said the youngdoctor, looking me over as he.

f thot with pride how easily science could surmount a littl

' difficulty of that kind. "Then we shall hav to toob

him, "and " toobed " I was. It was not a plesant way of

taking food, I concluded : let science whistle; I'll follow

the old route after this, and I did, altho they kept harp-

REJOTCINO AS A SIRONG MAN.

137

ing on me to fast on the sly, I did it for some time, but
the doctor gave m^e a tonic, and I became shamefully
hungry. 1 was clearly not cut out for fasting.

I felt that I could hav eaten enuf for three men, and
I usually ate enuf for two. But ravenous as I was they
put an end to it several times. I mean that I would enter
the dining room as hungry as a bear, eager to get at it,
and then I would sit down unabl to eat more than a
morsel, while they laft and jeered and curst.

"And so you expected a gorge, you swine that you ar.
That is how we stop it. " Claude Bernard said long ago —
"We may, in short, produce any disorder r^'i the organic
functions which mark the crisis of fever, for exampl, by
acting upon the nervous system and upon that alone*"

But one day we went into a new dining room and the
voices practically stopt at meal times. "Some new trick, "
I said to myself, and paid no more attention to it, but I
found that I was relievd from most of the persecution.
I was as much surprised as any one could be. What could
it mean? I could not understand it, for I had forgotten
what a good f rend wrot me after the outbreak. I was away
from the hermitage before the explanation struck me, and
here I shall digress far enuf to say that I was told that ex-
planations would come to me at the right time by a pecu-
liar process and they hav.

I did not know why the outbreak came so soon after the
trance and the writing on the brain, and I did not know
why the voices stopt in the new dining room, but I dis-
covered in time to use the information.

The voices stopt in the new building becaus it was new.
The old one was charged with the evil influences, for hun-
dreds of men met in it every day.

Did you ever smile at the idea of haunted houses? Do
you think it is a good idea to crowd so many possest men
together? Sancho Quixote, who has helpt to build a good
many houses, outside of the castls in Spain which ar his

■■-.*■ 5
■xm

■a

i3»

OUR UNSF.KN COMPANIONS.

peculiar pride, has always thot that hermitages, hospitals
and all such institittions should be built on the cottage
plan, but Sancho is a trifl erratic. If he were a czar now,
however, and had full say on the matter, as all well-bred
czars hav, he would strenuously insist on the cottage plan,
and classification of patients, let the alienists say what
they pleas. But we ar off the track again. "Herd them
together," say the alienists. **Mix 'em up and let'em
rustl. That i«^. the way to cure 'em. " Pity they don't
mix among them and liv among them themselves. That
would be a fair test of the value of their theory.

I cannot express the plesure I felt when I could sit
down and rest like other peopl. I knew what a bless-
ing it was and appreciated it more than I had ever done.
It used to be a short, sharp fight and they had me under
the spell, but now there was peace, even if I knew well
enuf they were redy at the slightest weakening on my
part to begin the old game. *

All that long persecution, after they had lost their hold
upon me, was simply to overwork the brain. When they
began to send the thots into my hed in the morning
when I was in a passiv, half-av/akened condition their
end was the same. Keep the brain working for twenty-
four hours a day if possibl, and the crisis will come. How
I escaped so easily as I did when they sometimes kept me
listening all night is a matter of surprise to me now.

It was a great relief to get rid of one of their peculiar
methods of reminding me that they still had an influence
over my system. "Now we ar going to punish you for
that," they would say, and a sharp pain would shoot thru
my hed. It seemed to rise at the base of the brain and
go over the whole hed in an instant. I was warned in time
very often, and came to expect my punishment as a mat-
ter of cours. Sometimes I would be indulging in a littl
dream of future work and the quick twitch would be given
with the words — **No more of that, pleas. You hav gon«

•a

kKJOlCINr. A?; a f^TRONd MAN,

139

far enuf. No? Yom will not stop? Then how do you like
that? And that?" I did not like either the pain or those
who inflicted it, but that did not seem to hav any effect
cm them. If these voices were ima^'-inary how did I know
beforehand when the twitch was comin^jf?

We ar very complicated machines, but one thing is
clear to me now, and that is, that we ar all acted upon
thru the nervous system whether we ar willing to believ
it or n(jt. If we allow the system to become deranged,
unplesant complications ar sure to follow. If you ar ner-
vous, you ar irritabl, becaus your system is in such a
condition that the evil spirits whose work is to make
troubl on erth can act upon you instantly.

You ar speaking quietly to your frend, for exampl,
and she says something that does not pleas you, when
suddenly, before you know how it happened the hasty
word is out and a littl more hell is let loos on erth.
" Howdid it happen?" you ask yourself afterwards. " In
my inmost hart I really do not believ what I said." It
happened because there ar unseen companions at your
side and they act upon you unmercifully if they can, and
conquer you.

I hav been a pupil in their school and they hav .shown
me the machinery at work. I hav a realization of these
things now that changes the face of the univers for me.
I used to believ that there was actually a sky abuv our
beds, but one day I came to understand that there was
nothing there but space, and I livd in a new kind of a
world. So it has been with this experience. It has not been
all loss.

It is worth something, becaus it is well that we should
take our bearings in these times. The New York Trib-
ime of April 19th, 1896, tells iv:, something of the age we
liv in that is worth reading:

" It is a glorious privilege to liv in this last decade of
the nineteenth century and to feel the pulsations of its

'J 1

JJI^^UX

A fji

t4«

OUR UNSKFN COMPANIONS.

r-eat living movements. . The young man who finds
mmself abl to take a part in the onward rush of things
to-day whether in the specialised fields of religious fil-
antropic, sociological or political eifort is indeed to' be
envied. He may and often will doubtless be puzzled • he
may, and doubtle^^ will make many mistakes, but if' he
works faithfully and conscientiously he will hav the su-
preme happiness of knowing that he has done something
to make the world better, sweeter and purer than it was
before."

CHAPTER XXII.
Demons Swkar. Do You?

" Lord of all beinK. throned afar.
Thy glory flamee from aun and star."

" O who is like the Mighty One
Whose throne lain the sky.
Who compasBeth the univers

With His all-serchlng' eye?
At whose creativ word appea.-d

The dry land and the aea?
My spirit thirsts for thee, O Lord,

My spirit thirsts for thee.

Around Him suns and systems swim

In harmony and lisrht ;
Beside Him harps angelic hymn

His praises day and night ;

Yet to the contrite in the dust

In mercy turn will He :
My spirit thirsts for thee, O Lord.

My spirit thirsts for thee."

" He taut mo language, and my profit on 't
l8 1 know how to curse."

That is what poor Caliban said, and there ar many like
him to-day who seem to think that cursing is the best use
you can put a language to. But it is a mistaken idea.

" But I say unto you swear not at all ; neither by heven,

DF.MONS SWKAR. DO VOU?

»4I

for it is God's throne; neither by tho erth; for it is His
footstool; neither by Jerusalem; for it is the dty oi the
Great King. Neither shalt thou swear by thy lied, becaus
thou canst not make one hair- white or black." This is
what our Savior said. " The fooiish and wicked practice
of profane cursing and swearing is a vice so mean and
low that every person of sens and character detests and
despises it." This is ,vhat G(jor;>e Washington said.

And yet in the land that George Wa.shington did so
much for, there is, I am afraid, more cursing and swear-
ing than in any« other under the sun. The name of Jesus
Christ who speaks so plainly on the subject of swearing
is herd from tens of thousands as a curse, and yet 1 hav
herd a friend say who had reached man'; estate before he
set foot on these shores, and who had workt among men
who used profane language, that he .lad never herd
Christ's name used in this horribl manner but once.

A writer of sens told us some years ago that the Jewish
boy used to put his hand before his mouth as a mark of
reverence when he came to the name of Jehovah; but
here the littl urchins in the street hurl it as a curse at
their companions.

While I was .it the worst of my fight I often said to the
f rends who encouraged me, "What can I ever do to repay
all this? There has been so much help that 1 feel I can
never do anything to show my gratitude. " I often thot
of the various reforms that we ar working for to-day and
wondered if the beings near me did not sympathize with
us ih our desire to make the lot of the poor easier.

"Suppose," a voice said to me gently one day. "that to
us the putting down of the awful swearing and profa lity,
and abuv all the taking of God's name in vain, would
mean far more than all these reforms? Try what you can
to put it down. Don't you remember what you herd so
often during your first days here? Godisluv! God is
luv! Do what you can to makepeopl ashamed ot this habit

•t" "iHy

'1 /, ■'/.

......

•»f!

142

OUR UNStEN COMrANIONS.

I :■

and you will find it growing more intolcrabl to you every
day."

I found the saying a littl hard. vSince my thotless school
days 1 had not been guilty of swearing, but greau r
than the Utopias and the ghjries of the new civilizati(;n?
Yes, I am inclined to think greater than these. Let us
try in our poor, feebl kind of a way to real i/X' what(iod is.
Look up at the stars. There I hav always found my
answer in the time of troubl and doubt. Awful in glory,
awful in grandeur, throned in the midst of the hevens.
must this great bring be, the Maker t.^f the univers, and
yet, and yet, we dare take His name in vain and use it as
a curse. His stars and planets, millions upcm millions,
roll around their central suns from age unto age, and
the immens systems themselves ar flying thru space
around some central point as yet unknown, Wf iv dust
before Him in one sens, and yet His sons in ano "Su-

preme tyrant" indeed! If one of our pr(Hid ones neld His
power for a day he would crush any one who dared use
his name in vain, and yet n word is more used in this
day by those who swear. God 's luv and He spares us.
It is humilating to think of it.

Do you know how men lerned to curse and swear? Has
this book opened your eyes?

There is a certain kind of excuse for almost all kinds
of sin. It is wrong, wicked and foolish, of cours, but there,
is a certain kind of a reward in it, or the devil could not
trap so many of us, but what can be said of swearing?
Does it fill the stomach, or contrilnite in any way to make
life easier? It is worse than the worst kind of in.sanity. A
man is insane to use his Maker's name as many do. It is
madness. I herd so much of it from fiends that I thot I
should hav gone wild simply to listen to it.

I used to wonder if the good spirits herd it, but the an-
swer came — "No,no, we do not hear it." — Will those who
go to the evolutionary future escape this? — "but we kn(*w
by the effect upon your mind what is going on."

DKMONS SWEAR. UO YOU?

143

i>.

Does the New Testament not speak about a great j^ulf
that is fixt between thcni? "It hurts us," they said some-
times, "to see you standing there thinkinj^ that these ar
your own thots. "

I was in the same position as John Bunyan's Christian.
How dojs honest old John put it?

•'I took notice now that poor Christian was so c(m-
founded that he did not know the sound of his own voice.
Just when he was com injjf over aj^ainst the mouth of the
burning pit one of the wicked ones got behind him and
whisperingly suggested many grevious bhisfemies to him
which he vcrily thot proceeded from his own mouth, but
he had not the discretion to stop his ears" — Alas, John
Bunyan, perhaps he could not — "or to know from whence
these bias fomies came. "

Yet it goes on in erth as in hell and we keep silence.

Now this habit can be given up. In spite of the efforts
of demons, for they send the si.'ggestion, we can keep a
watch over our tungs to that extent at least. When a
man will whisper — "Stop swearing, there ar some women, "
and the swearing comes to an end, it simply shows that
there is but littl troubl in giving it up altogether. It is
evident that we shall hav to re-write some of our books of
ettiqiiet. "Ladies" ar held in higher esteem than their
Maker, and this is not just as it should be. There is a
want of proportion about it. We hav come to look upon
cursing and swearing as matters of cours. If our eyes
were opend as Elisha's servants were we would suddenly
come to our .senses and change our lives in a good many
ways.

I herd a minister say the other day that if one in six of
the Christians in the United States .should make up their
minds that they wanted something done nothing could
stop them. I think he spoke the truth.

Robespierre once said that ten men of exalted character
who had fully made up their minds that they wanted some-
thing would end by getting it.

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OUR UNSEKN COMPANIONS.

<^':'U'

%^.i

In the old days it was a very serious matter to become
a Christian. They threw them to the wild beasts in the
arena for standing true to their convictions. And now
they stand by and hear their Maker insulted without a
YTord of protest when the law is on their side.

The voices that I had* lerned to trust spoke to me
ernestly upon this matter. "Self-respect should not
allow you to stand by and listen to it without rebuke.
What if it does hurt their feelings? What of your own
feelings? Are they not to be considered? Self-respect
ot to make you say ' Pleas do not swear in my presence,*
or something of that nature to put an end to it." Then
the other side came in with the same voice and told me to
stamp it out; to let every one I herd use language of this
sort understand that they had to giv it up on the instant.
It was the old story: speak in that tone and raise more
hate insted of doing good quietly.

I hav herd quite a number of church members cursing
and swearing as if it was a matter of no consequence. To
this complexion hav some of our Christians come. Satan
uses insane men for mouth-pieces, as a rule, but he uses
some of the pillars of the church too.

There is one oath that I hav herd men excuse in this
country by saying that it docs not mean anything. I hav
herd some really good Christian men whom I respect
using it as a matter of cours. It may be interesting to
them and to others to know that from beginning to end
of my experience I found that it was the favorit oath of
the demons. Can it be possibl that it really has a mean-
ing that we do not understand?

"Pierce the tung of the blasfemers," Savonarola
shouted in the old days in Florence. What would he say
•n modern America?

/ .

* , I

AN EVOLUTIONARY FUTURE.

'45

CHAPTER XXIII.
An Evolutionary Future.

*' The fear o' bell'H a Imairman's whip
To baud the wretch in order."— Burns.

" There's a wideness iu Ood'a lueroy

Like the wideneuB of the lea.
There's a kindness in his Justice
Which is more than libsrty.

" For the luv of God Is broader

Than the mesures of man's mind;
And the hart of the Kternal
la most wonderfully kind.

" But we make His luv too narrow
By false limits of our own,
And we tnajjrnify His strictness
With a zeal He will not own."— Fahkk.

sift

" There Is an old belief

That on some unknown shore
Beyond the sfere of prief
Dear fiond? shall meet once more.

" Beyond the sfere of time
And sin and fate's control.
Serene iu chfing:^ less prime
Of body and of soul

" This creed I fain would keep,
This hope I'll not forjo,
Eternal be the sleep.
If not to waken so."— From " Life of Carlyle," by Froude.

. ','1

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" And if there be no nioetinff past the grave.
If all is silence. darknesB, yet 'tis rest.
Be not afraid, ye waiting ones who weep.
For God still giveth Hiw beluvtd sleep.
And if an endless sleep Ho wills— so best."— rriaZey'g Tomhttont.

Mr. Gladstone said recently in the " Nc rtii American
Review," — " This much we may presume to say: Had the
divine revelation been intended to convey to us that time

^''

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146

OUU UNSKEN COMPANIONS.

'..•"S

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is an iiidispensabl incident of the future life, and that
eternity is no more nor less than the unfolding of an im-
measurabl roll of time, it seems probabl that the Bible
could and would hav employed some terminology evi-
dently adapted tu that purpose. But such is not the ter-
minology actually given us. For, in dealing with the
condition of the righteous in the world to come, our
Savior builds not upon terms of time but upon reunion
with Deity,

And in touching with greater reserv upon the condition of
the wicked the image presented to us is either simply
negativ, as in the case of the five virgins, or it is one of
suffering without reference to duration, as in the outer
darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of
teeth; or, it is associated with words which etymologically
and by use signify the indefinit rather than the infinit.
Some of the passages without doubt introduce the awful
image of finality. But such presentations arlieid by some
to be of extinction and total disappearance, rather than of
a miserabl existence co-extensiv with that of Deity, and
they may be possibly susceptibl of other explanations at
present hidden from our view, Tn any case this great
diversity of delineation may be thot to indicate .* purpu.se
of reserv."

So much from one of the foremost and most lerned men
of the age on a subject we ar all more or less interested
in. Another distinguisht man wrote a series of articls
on " Happiness in Hell" a few years ago which did not
meet the approval of his superiors at the Vatican, but the
truth is that the Sanclios canspeculate just about as wisely
or as foolishly with respect to something that none of us
knows very much about as the Gladstones or the Mivarts.
As I hav had some littl expericiice with something that
seemed to be hell enuf to satisfy any one, my views ma}-
be interesting enuf to those who ar looking for information
about a quartei that all wise men and women will shun.

AN KVOLTIONARY KUTURK.

^
i'

Another, and what seems to be a popular view of hell,
and lieven too, for that matter, is that each of us carries
his future inside of himself. ''We ar lost," the traveler
said to his Indian }:;^uide. "Indian not lost," was the
reply. ''Trciil is lost." So in the future according to
this theory the Indian cannot be lost. He remains. He
will carry his g'ood and bad ciualities across the border,
and grow better or worse as he feels disposed. If he
wants to rise he will get all the help that is necessary; if
he persists in going d(jwn the path will slope very easily
in that directitm.

On the face of it this looks a very plausible theory.
The child grows and becomes ahoy, the boy grows and
becomes a, man, the man grows after deth and bc;CGmes
an angel.

The idea of everlasting piraishment is awful: it is hor-
ribl beyt)nd description. Some years ago I walkt thru
hell under the giudancc of our gloomy frend he late Mr.
Dante of Italy. I took up his book the other day to see
what I might find to help me out in my ideas of the abode
of the wicked, but 1 threw it aside with loaihing and
disgust after I had red a few cantos, A hell of that S(;rt
would set the whole human race in rebellion. No wonder
Lombroso says that his countryman was mad. I think it
is in the beginning of the life of John Bunyan that Froude
says that such a punishment may be according to law but
it is not according to justice.

Everlasting punkshment if we could but faintly realize
what it means would turn us all mad. " I knew when I
first herd the doctrin," savs a distinguisht agnostic of this
country, "that it was a devil's lie from the hart of hell."

For a good many years I scouted at the doctrin. T could
not believ it. (rod is luv, I reasoned. Everytliiug moves
on harmoniously and in good order in His univers. He
would never create human beings for even a thousand
years of agony let alone an eternity. Put sin at its worst,

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148

OUR UNSEEN COMPANIONS.

and I belicv none of ns can conceiv of what it is in our prCvS
ent life, lie will look upon our transgressions as we look
upon tlKxse of children. He will punish us for them in
order to let us understand that it is impossibl for sin to
remain unpunisht, but it will be as when we punish a
child in some way or otlu^r to train it up to become bet-
ter. Ho must show to an intelligent univers that sin can-
not go without punishment — we ar not His only creatures.
But an eternity of punishment such as only the hart of a
savage could conceiv — for this is how most peopl feel
about it if they deal faithfully with themseivs — for a pun-
ishment of the sins of even the worst man who has ever
livd. and especially from One who knows all the various
hidden springs of human conduct? How do you like it?
I hav herd some speak of it as if it were the most natural
thing in the world, something it was not necessary for
them to troubl about. They escape, as we may all do,
but as we know very well we do not all do, for the plain
truth is that millions die without accepting Christ, but
can they remain calm when they think that tl.'eir brothers
and sisters ar going to be punisht forever?

How many men and women really believ it? How
many of them ar acting as if they believd it? Lands,
houses, ertlily glory would be of no account with you if
you really believd it. You would throw everything* aside
and plead with your fellow men ni^ht and day to escape
from the awful horror.

How many men do this? What do you think of a man
who believing this doctrin will calmly sit in his library
and i'ead till his brain turns on such subjects as the
authorship of the Pentateuch, of Isaiah and of all the rest
of the theological lumber that few men care very much
about, while he knows that many of the men and women
he meets ar on the way to an eternity of agony? I think
that his hart is in the wrong place. It will not do to say
that he opens his church and everybody is welcome to

AN EVOLtlONARY FUTURE.

149

listen to him — if they will not listen he is clear, and so
forth. Is that the way you take it? That man you talk
to sometimes — the men and women you .see pass your house
every day in the year ar on the road to an eternal hell and
you sit still and read the latest novel? You don't believ
it.

We look oui brothers and sisters in the face as we sec
them go by, and we ask ourselves, Would we do it ?
Would you do it? You might hang a man — I think it is
wrong to do so, and of late I am inclined to think he
may easily work us more harm ded than alive if he is so
disposed, but would you torture him for a year? From
every corner of the land th : ' em order would come to
put an end to it. God is luv, and yet we believ that He
would torture men eternally. We would not do it for a
year, and yet we calmly assert He will do it forever, and
we go on and amuse ourselves and crush helpless wretches
in the slums, so that the chances ar nine out of ten that
they will go in the wrong direction, and we talk of punish-
ing them eternally for it.

You hav cornmitted many sins when you were a boy,
we shall suppose. How do they look to you now ? Fool-
ish, wrong; you know that it would hav been better if
you had not sinned, but do you, now that you know the
nature of sin better, think that you deserv to suffer for
ever for the evil deeds you did in your youth?

I used to lie with hell raging all around me and specu-
late over it thru the long nights, and ask myself, How 'f
it should be like this eternally. This, I said, is for a
few months. My own folly has brot me here, and not any
visitation of God. I am here as the result of His laws be-
ing set aside in one way or another, at one time or another.
Who is to blame for the suffering on earth now ? Every
man of us who has sinned since the days of Adam down,
says Carlyle, and it is true, altho not all the truth. Others
besides mortals are at the work.

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OUR UNSEEN COMPANIONS.

JJ..1 .

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What if this should go on eternally? I thot. I am afraid
that like the agnostic I hav alredy spoken of, we would
be inclined to call God the keeper of a great penitentiary.

Sin works its own destruction. We shall be punisht if
we sin, and when after deth we realize the nature of sin
betterthan wedonow I belicv that unless we accept Christ
our suffering will be hard to bear, but without a minute's
respite from the torture? That is a hard saying. No
wonder that Barnes said that it was all dark to his soul.
I do not like the thot that any will be lost. Go over the
list of the worst men you can think of — consider their en-
vironments and dierr heredity, — consider the tempta-
tions the devil lays before us all and look into your own
hart, and you ar at least willing to acknowledge that you
would like to see the agony stop before a million years.
No? Most of us would like to see Nero singd for a time,
but after a while we would be anxious to reliev him im-
less he wisht to remain. Think it over.

One day I was seated at dinner without the usual ac-
companiment of the voices. 1 did not know what the silence
ment when suddenly the following message came — ''Men
and women who accept Christ hav their sins cast behind
God's back, while those who reject Him come here on the
evohitionary plan and take their chance. The Christians
become as the angels in heven. The others struggl as
they do on erth. Satan will tempt them here as they ar
tempted now, and the temptation will be far stronger
and many will yield and suffer." That was not all. I do
not remember the exact words of the last sentence, but it
was to the effect that some went down never to rise. If
they ar determined why not?

I was startld at the suddennes of the message and its im-
port. You know where it came from as much as I do.
Whether from good or from evil spirits you will hav to
judge for yourself, but it fits into my previous beliefs so
api ly, and provides such a reasonabl future fcr our fellow

AN KVOLUTIONARV FUTt/RK,

»5'

beinj^s that the more T think over it the better I like it —
but T do not mean to risk it. You can if you wish to. •

The reasoning' which was poured into me afterwards
was somethint; like this — God will struj^gl with us after
deth even if we did not accept Christ just as He does now.
He is not willing that any should perish. He will try to
rai.se all nearer Himself as he does now, but on the other
side of the grave there is free will as there is here, if a
man wishes to rise he will get help, — if he wi.shes to go
lower he will likewise get help, and he may find the road
easier than on erth. In short, it is simply the theory I
used to believ in with this change to me — That T now be-
liev that Christianity is true and that Christians will be
saved the struggl between gtjod and evil in the future.
God is luv, and insted of withdrawing His influence from
those who reject His grace He will even after deth con-
tinxie to help all who seek his aid, but they will suffer as
they see the result of their past folly in rejecting Christ
and accepting evolution. Suppose it is worth accepting
as this life is to any man with eyes in his hed, it will be
so far short of the calm bliss of the saints that we shall
wonder at our folly. Go further, and insted of the hor-
ribl, medieval hell we hav dreded, .suppo.se that the future
for all who wish U) rise insted of to sink will be sp far be-
yond our dreams that we sluill thank God every hour for
His great luv in creating us, what if we see that not content
with this He has provided a future for us beyond the risk
of troubl? God is luv, we say, but why do we not realize
it? What if we ar met by a gentl reproach for our folly
insted of the awful doom? lUit if we will n(.)t rise even
then is it God who curses us? Do we not curse ourselves*
If we ar determined to keep on .sinning what then?

But there will likely be great punishment in the mild
hell. The fire and brimstone will not offend you, but you
ar likely to gnash your teeth, for a good man}- of us hav
gnasht them in this worM and we need not l.-ie surprised il

Tvtf

' r

Iff

OUR UNSRF.N COMPANIONS.

•

',■:. '

1
1

7 ' '

'■',h'

'•-J

we hav to continue the practice in the next en cas que
nous ne soy on s pas sage ici bas.

Do you know what it means to hav your sin cast behind
God's back? Perhaps it means more than you imagin.
Supposing you see your sins and their effects as you hav
never seen them before. Supposing that they ar thrown
in your face till you go wild to think of them, for only
simpletons believ that anything can be cocceald, in the
future life unless as 1 hav alredy said we ar wise. Do you
expect that you can liv in such a comparativly mild hell
without an occasional twinge of agony? And when is it
to stop?

Most peopl hav done things that they do not like to be
reminded of — for where's that palace whereunto foul
things sometimes intrude not — and if the evolutionary
future is accepted the risks must be accepted with it.

You would not mix with the e\'il spirits. You ar a littl
particular about the quality of yo r acquaintanceship, we
shall suppose. Very good, but s ppose they like you too
well to leav you, and suppose that the better you grow
the more you dislike their ways, what then? Your sins,
your past folly lie all before them. That much I know;
and 1 know too just what use they make of the knowl-
edge? Oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver
me from the body of this deth? Will you risk it when
you can escape?

And remember that Mr. Moody and many others say
that the devil is deceiving us when we believ that there is
not a hell of endless torture. The very conception is hell
enuf for me, but let it pass. Peopl will be won^by luv,
but never by threts.

Happiness, devolpment, growth, luv that grows stronger
every day and yet a few minutes of torture that you can-
not escape make you writhe in the midst of your happi-
ness. You come to see something of the grandeur of
God's designs, and your luv for liim grows every hour.

^(.■■^'-

AN F.VOLUTIONARV 'MITURK.

»53

As ages roll on, we shall suppose that yon hiv him so
much that you would be willinjjf to come to erth and die
for Him if necessary, hut if you -ir in the company of
those who, jubilant at discovering- that hell is not what
they lookt for, exult ir their liberty as they did on this
erth and curse and blr'.sieme till your soul sickens at their
wickedness, what then? Ar you so fond of the sinigglon
erth? Paul was a strong man, hut was weary of it.

How can you stop communion with those whose lives
you detest? It is commonly believd that telepathy, or
telegrafy, or thot transference goes on from star to star
thruout the univcrs, and this seems a very reasonabl
theory. Will you be abl to concentrate your thots suffi-
ciently well in the future to avoid all risks? Would it not
be better to take the other plan ?

The evolutionary future as outlined here leavs much to
be desired. With memor}* the worm that never dies to
keep us in troubl, with luv pouring into our souls from
those with whom we cannot mingl, with the ccmscious-
ness that we may never reach the heven which \vc might
hav won and stand amid the throng that surrounds the
throne of (iod himself, it looks as if thci'e would be
troubl enuf laid up for those who insist on taking things
on the natiiral plan insted of acknowledging that faith is
supplementary to reason.

It is likely enuf that we shall yet he forct to acknc v-
ledge in spite of the horribl suffering around us and the
many things that we cannot understand that God's plan
was the best, and it is more th;m likely that we shall be
amazed at the folly of those who, condemning the horrors
of the present life, refuse the chance to escape the horrors
of the future. 1 herd the same voices bless and curse, as
I hav said. "We cannot help it, " they told me. "Now it
is Satan that gets the upper hand, now it is Christ. Luv
aiad hate, and so you will struggl to all eternity. It all
lies in the mind. We change your mind quickly now and

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154

OIK I'NSl-KN ( OMI- ANIONS.

nialcc you feci as we do. Tlie minds of other men, and
yours too under normal circuinstancos change slowly, and
the sutferinj^ or bliss comes with the state of the mind."

Tliero was n(Hhing' alarmingly new in that statement.
What if something of this kind is the eternal punishment
referred to? I do not mean to risk it. I do not believ in
the old fashioned hell, but as I hav got over the fingers
for my nnorthodox views lately 1 am inclined to doubt
myself now when 1 hav to believ anything that does not
agree with the Bible, and I was therefore niaeh plcasod
to find recently that such a man as Dean Farrar does not
find any warrant there for endless |mnishment.

He says in his book, -'Fiternal Hope"- ~"Yet, 1 say un-
hesitatingly, — 1 say, claiming the fullest right to speak
on this point, — I say, with the calmest and most unflinch-
ing sens of responsibility,— -I say, standing here in the
sight of God, and of my vSavior, and it may be of the
angels and spirits of the ded- -that not one of these three
expressions (he refers to the words damnaticm, hell and
everlasting) ot to stand any longer in our English Bibles
for they ar mistranslations. * * * Thus, then, finding
nothing in scripture or anywhere to prove that the fate of-
any man is at deth irrevocably determined I shake off
the hideous incubus, the atrocious conceptions — I mean
those conceptions of unimaginabl horror and fisical ex-
cruciation endlessly prolonged attached by popular ignor-
ance and false theology to the doctrin of future retribu-
tion* * * Do you believ in eternal punishment for your re-
lations who hav died impenitent? Again, T say, God for-
bid — again, 1 say. 1 fling from me with abhorrence such
a creed as that, l^et every Pharisee, if he will be angry
w ith me — that I cannot and do not believ. Scripture will
not let me; my conscience, my reason, my faith in Christ,
the voice of the spirit within my .soul, will not let me; God
will not let me."

So says Dean Farrar and he knows Greek — without

% ■

AN KVOI.UTIONAKY UTIRF.,

»55

doubt the awful image of finality is introduced, says Mr.
Gladstone, and he too, knows Greek. But is it not rather
singular that millions hav died and other millions suffered
on erth, in thinking of their belov'ed ded, and it now ap-
pears to be all owing to the difference of opinion, as^o the
meaning of some Greek word? Let those of us who don't
know Greek look up at the stars and into our own harts,
and take the mild view until the scholars shall decide the
fate of those who will not or cannot accept Christ, and
there ar both kinds. And if that endless horror which
millions in Old Testament times never herd of and never
got a chance of escaping from any more than heathens do
to-day, hinges on the meaning of one word there is some-
thing wrong.

I hav told you the message I receivd. You can
look upon it as another trap of the wicked one, another
springe to catch foolish woodcocks, if you pleas, but I am
glad to say that I can go around the streets and feel that
somehow or other God will take care of all His children
unless they ar determined not to be saved, altho we ar not
all going to the same destiny, else why did Christ die?
And yet in that far off, divine event we would like —

What did Huxley, an evolutionist say about the pres-
ent struggl? Just what Paul did without his belief. " If
some great power would agree to make me always think
what is true, and do what is right, on condition of being
turned into a sort of a clock and wound up every morn-
ing, I should close with the offer." Do you want along,
bitter struggl, or do you want peace? Not the peace that
means stagnation, for it seems to me that even the angels
must grow as the ages roll on, but it is not necessary to
hav to fight with evil in order to grow. Growth is possibi
without evil within you to drag you down.

And the angels hav something to do, I hope, and be-
liev. There ar some peopl who hav u very lazy concep
tion of heven. They ar of the same species as those who

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156

OUR UNSEEN COMPANIONS.

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on erth would like to lie below the trees and let the
peaches drop into their mouths. Who fills your mind from
childhood up with ^ood thots, and likewise with bad ones
if you ar not careful? What does "My Father works
hitherto and I work" mean? I was told that they were
busy filling our minds with ideas, the only things that last
in the imivcrs. Suppose our future work will be to train
up those we hav left behind us? To fill their minds with
good ideas?

I herd the voices of men and women I had known when
they were alive, but it is a matter of conjuncture to say
that their spirits were there. It is very likely that they
were, but afterwards when I doubted this and found that
all kinds of voices could be taken, most of my encourage-
ment came from those I did not know.

To conclude then, throw aside Satan and fallen angels
if you pleas and say the spirits I met ar but men and
women in the future state, and one thing is evident tome;
they hav fallen so low it seems as to be beyond the wish
to rise. P2vil is their good. But if they desire to rise at
any time no matter how low they hav fallen it seems to
me the way must be open. God must in His very nature
help those who wish to rise. They represent life, and
embodied or disembodied it does not matter. All life can
rise, it seems to me. But it is clear to me too, that the"-?
ar terribl dangers for those who reject Christ, and you
know what kind of punishment a life devoted only to evil
brings even here. The wages of sin is deth ; the skull
grins behind the flowers.

It seems to me, then, that there will be a chance after
deth, but think ot the present state of matters. There ar
about 1,500,000.000 peopl on this globe now. The Talmu-
dists used to say that each one had ninety-nine angels.
Considering the nimiber of peopl who hav past away from
this ei th there must be an escort of that size to each of
us if it is necessary. They ar I believ literally swarming

"7*i

AN EVOLUTIONARY FUTURE

«57

around us. Very well, then. Allow even one bad spirit
for each inhabitant of the erthand what kind of a hellhav
you? Tkey ar ferociou.s in their desire to work evil. 1
know that. There must be a hell for them, for it is in-
side of them. I fear that they hav lost the desire to rise,
yet it may not be so: there may always be a spark. But
I am afraid that innuraerabl millions hav ^one in that di-
rection, whether of our species or not I don't know any
more than you do, but I think so. Keep away from the
chance of that fate. Do you know men on erth who hav
no desire to change? Why then be surprised on the other
side? Free will, but in their case as with us too it often
leads to deterioration. I believ they can rise ; I do not
believ God will crush beings down there any more than
here; but He wants intelligent beings who choose their
own path and not machines. I do not believ it is neces-
sary for any one to sink on the other side, but I hav been
among them and I know what they ar.

Every atom in the univers has a hold upon every other
atom, and so it must be with spirit, it seems to me.
Even the angels in heven mu.'.t be influenct to some de-
gree by the other ones when it may be their hole life is
devoted to raising them and us. Not hurt by evil, but
sorrowing over it. If we were all meek, can it be that
v/e would raise up even the evil spirits? I hav often thot
so. Christianity that will save us from the future struggl
is a blessing' churchianity is a curse.

This view of the univers makes it a plesanter place
for me to liv in. No matter how fiendish these beings
ar, the very moment any one of them turns he is
helpt to rise and grow towards good, and towards his
Creator from whom he has wilfully and knowingly sepa-
rated himself, and one thing that helps him to turn is the
fact that for him as for us thei j ar no reproaches, no
matter if he be a thousand times worse than our worst
specimen. There is nothing but luy, the most terribl

nil

a :•

.58

OUK IINSFFN COMPANIONS.

'.'.;
">

force in the iinivers. A. icrriV)! struggl to vise abuv the
lower nature, a hell inside ol" himself, but no reproaches
as on erth among us.

But if tlieyset their heds in the other direction as many
of us d«) on erth what can happen ? (iod does not con-
demn them. They know, and we know, that the wages
of sin isdeth. We ar intelligent beings and not machines.
Can it be that when they go to a certain point it means
annihilation ? This theory would do away with Satan and
his hosts for they must hav orost the line long before
now, one would think. Tt is a foolish idea to su]:)pose
that when a man dies and chooses to go on sinning he is
turned into the worst of demons at once. (Growth down-
ward takes time as well as growth in the right direction.
That night they told me of the awful power that pulled
us from hell to heven (See stray note No. 4 )or vice versa
they gave me also a long, strange recital of the task be-
fore us that may pleas some to think of. In (me sens it
is true. The awful pcnver was growing, it appeard,
every day and whenever it got to a certain point every
one in tiic univers was to concentrate \no power on Satan
and kill him and then the battl w(.)uld be won.

We might lern one lesson from their story. Say good-
bye to Satan as a being, and let him represent sin. What
would kill sin on erth ? Luv, if we had plenty of it.
With luv we could transform the erth in a few years. Luv
is undoubtedly the greatest thing in the world. Luv is
God. It would pay ns to luv even the foolish millionaires.
They ar their own worst enemies, altho they hurt ns too,
for self-sacrifice is the key-note of the univers, and not
self-aggrandizement.

We must murder evil. Suppose we look at the evolu-
tionary theory for a minute. A growth from the very
lowest forms up to man, God '"interfering" whenever He
thot it necessary i make a change in a certain direction.
From plant to aniinal there is u change that "natural

'■i

AN liVOI.UTIONARY FUTURE.

150

law " does not explain, and from animal to man there is
another. Let us suppose that God breathed a spirit into
man at a certain stage of his animal development which
is typcfied in the Garden of Eden story, knowing very
well that there would be a " fall" before the temptations
of evil spirits, knowing very well that he was so brutish
from the animal side, altho the spirit were perfect for
the time being that he could not but fall, and we may
easily judge that the next step is to be, as the Bible points
out, the subjugation of the flesh to the spirit. We must
be born again. When we ar born again, we ar fild with
luv, and that is the only thing that will conquer erth and
hell too, it may be, altho I am half afraid to put it down.

And what if, to anger the theologians, we make the
angel with the sword who would not let poor Adam back
to the garden stand for the consciousness that his new
spirit gave him that whenever he let the flesh triumf he
would be punishL ? That spirit had to hav the upper
hand and not flesh and that the evolution is not over yet ?

We ar bound together. vShe may sweep past in her
carriage " worth " twenty million dollars, but if she sees
a helpless beggar " 1 the street she cannot help being
affected one way or an(ithcr, for hell and heven ride in
the carriage with her, black and white angels ar there,
and they send impressions thru her hed, and just as she
accepts or rejects them so she becomes, and there is no
escape, and so, too, with the beggar.

From the higher standpoint, therefore, it is hardly
worth while to rail at the millionaires. We should be
content to tell them the truth, but

" It'8 hardly in a body's power
To keep at times from beinK sour."

'■V.

' r

1 60

CUR UNSEEN COMPANIONS.

CHAPTER XXIV.

What Think Yk of Christ ?

#:?".

" He hived me and itave himself for mo ;
Amazioff luv, timazing sacriflce.
I'll take my harp down from the willow tree.
And bid its notes in praise of Jesus rise.

" Oh, when I stand 'mid yonder shining throng.
And on fair Cainaan'e coast my Savior see,
I'll add this chorus to my swelling song,—
* He luved me and gave Himself for me.' "

—Fergus Fbrouson.

I herd all the Christian hymns sung. Who sung them ?
If good spirits sung them what does it mean ? They know
whether the Bible is true or not and they ar well ac-
quainted with science as we know it.

I was discussing the subject of welth and its uses with
a frcnd in the hermitage and I said to him, ** What is the
use talking of it ? We know from what is going on around
us even if we do not say a word about history that there
ar thousands of men and women in poverty to-day who
would act just as the millionaires ar doing if they had the
power. Human nature is pretty much the same all over
the world and in all ages. Trust men with power, call
them kings or anything els you pleas, and most of them
will oppress you."

" Don't you see then," came the message, "that Jesus
Christ's plan of self-sacrifice is the only true way ? "

Another day when I was in a favorabl 'condition the
following message came to me when I was not expecting
anything of the kind and when my thots were miles away
ixom the subject — *' Christ died on the cross. His death

WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST?

i6i

brot redemption to men." That was all. I wrote down the
exact words, as I often did and there they ar.

What do these words mean ? Who sent them ? Would
evil spirits send such a message ? Do they admire Jesus
of Nazareth ? Nothing- .can exceed the fierce, rabid hate,
the frightful state of mind, that a sentient being can get
into, that they showed me whenever I tried to keep my
thots on Christ as the Savior of the world. It was worst
on this subject; from beginning to end there was mock-
ery of Christ and His work. Do not let us misunderstand
our position. The Bible is true. His detli brot redemp-
tion to men.

An impulsiv frend of mine says that Christ was either
what he profest to be or the worst liar who ever lived on
erth. 1 do not think that these messages I receivd ar
necessary. I do not believ that we ar ment to hav com-
munication with the unseen world except in the way God
has appointed. But there they ar as I receivd them.
Take care of your steps, lest like the base Judean you,
too, throw away a perl richer than all your tribe.

During the erlier weeks they tried hard to get me to
believ that Christianity stood on the same basis as the
other religions. I could not understand why I felt such
a peculiar sensation when they sneerd at "the Christians. "
It was hypnotized into me, and it came at every mention
of the name. The two sides, both evil spirits, kept up the
mock debate for some time day after day. " Do not be
afraid," the one side said, "you ar perfectly secure-"
"Don't you see by looking around you in the world that
the other religions ar far stronger than Christianity? Those
who followed Christ on erth, oi cours, stand by that side
here, but all religions ar the same. We ar gradually
defeating the ' Christians ' on this side."

" Do not believ that. We hav alredy conquered. The
Christians ar gaining here ;is well as bei^ide \ ou and ail
is well"

.t.f,

i6j

nUK HNXF.KN (OMT ANIONS.

The effort of both sides was to tuako nie believ that
Christ was not <livinc in 'M-der to tell yon, for they knew
I inent to write niv experience. 1 soon came to niukr-
stantl it.

But for months 1 listened tohytnns and advice and talk
of one kind and another all on the basis of the Christian
belief. The spirits around us know whether il is true or
not. What d()es it mean ? And as for the men who doubt
whether there is a God or not — I

C 11 A P T 1^: R XXV.

SlKAV NorKs,

** Whca found make a note of it." — Captain Cutti.k.

1. "It is nonsens to suppose that the foolish men whoar
cominv; thru into this world will j.;et any special revela-
tions. What is told them has been lietter told before. If
Cxod wanted to j^ive any infornuitit^n to Mis creatures He
could take any man who was willin.u to be used as His in-
strument and there ar i)lenty of such men who do -His work
without any of this torture."

2. Mental suj;j;estion is a curio\is way of intlueucinj^'
men —curious to those wht> do not believ that we ar so
acted upon. When I bei;an to write a few hours daily I
had quite a strui^iil with it. 1 came to understand it then.
I wrote on quickly in slu>rthand and tried to keep my
mind stcdily on the sul\icct insted of listjuini;" to them,
but at the least relaxation a word would be sug"gested
which would completely ehani^e the meauin^^ of the sen-
tence, and I would hav it down before 1 notict the trick.

It was not imagination that thrust in these words I did
uot want. In all niy previous writing- I had not been iu

«i'

SIRAV NUIKS.

'fM

\]\v habit of piittiti},; down hluck vvbcn I tiuMil white.
What I was Irapt into pnttitji- down was iu)tliinj^'- !o what
I chuckt.

Ill huniMiinj^i a, .miiij^- or liyinn lo ( h<MM' mysi-ll I had lo
keep my nnnd concentrated on the nicatiin^^i;- ol th( hncs*
The words w<m-c cban>,^cd. almost uncoiiscionsly il 1 'ct \uv
jniiid iiin t>n another snbjeel, and il ran on other snbjccts
Dccasioniy just as yonrs <h)os, only T found ont who laii it
fer me and yon may .''till donbt. "'IMie slionts of them
thai triunif." in "Jerusalem the j.;olden," for exampl, was
often turned [o "the shouts of them that perisli." "And
they who witli their leader hav eoufpiereil m the fij^^ht. "
I sonietiuu^s hummed "and they who with their l(\'uU'r
ar coiKiuered in the fi.i;}it. " In Achlison's be^autdul hymn
"how^ ai- thy S(Mvants blest < ), f.ord."tlie line "and breati)
in tatnt'il air," in a careless moment would eoine "and
bi"(Mtli in painted air. "

I g'iv these lines simply as diusi lat ions, but I wastra])t
so often that I had to be very cautions for a tinu.; I do
uot mean that J am out of ilan^a-r \et. any mofe than y(ai
ar. That is how Satan iloes part of his work. He may
not ehanj^e the words, but he su,i;>;x'sts an anj^rv thot and
works on your nervs until you boil, and the wa.ter is sjtilt
on the .ground and cannot be j^-atherc-d np. Rejjeatin^
that too often? "Kee|) hamuiering^ away." s/iys some one,
"Hmnanity is stupid," atid I want you to lern the lesson.

During- the two outbreaks I had used '.an^^aia^i^e that was
foreign to my lips in my normal state I remend)er sit-
insj;' quietly in the hermitaj;e after the troiiM swearing to
myself without the least sij^^n ol passion or astonishm(*nt.
How did ithap})cn'' It is wronj^, I .sniipose, bnt I cannot
help smilinj^ as 1 think of it. My uimd for that shoit time
was lu the jxissession of those who like to s[jredevi! lanj^-
uaj^e on the face of the ertli. That is what it ment.

I saw a very estimabl, )blijririo nian in tl)e Iiermitai^e
who went around swearinj^ lo himself as if )t were his

' f

164

OUR UNSKKN COM I' ANIONS.

business When spoken to he came to himself instantly,
red the newspapers as intelligently as any man, and was
interested in what he red, but if he glanct over the paper
from one part to another without keej)ing his mind con-
centrated, it very often happened that his voice was busy
at the old work.

I saw several cases of the same kind altho none so pro-
nounct. If spoken to in a way to fix their attention they
became different beings. They were tl emselves insted
of some one els. How does it come aboiit? We hav herd
a good deal about duality of consciousness in these days
— there is, according to some, an unknown being in all of
us who tells us marvelous things if we will only listen to
his vvhis|)ers. It won't work There will be another be-
ing inside of us beyond a doubt if we lei him get in, but
it is not advisabl. The true explanation is to be found in
Good, old-fashioned, New Testament, demoniac posses-
sion. They want to get inside (;f us to use our voices, and
our bodies, and our minds to work destruction, and those
who attend public entertainments where they show forth
their powers ar simply furthering the evil work.

Dean Farrar, in his "Life of Christ, "writes of demoniac
possession, and says that the evil spirits can be exorcized
by prayer. He says also that the original dc^es not war-
rant fasting thru which much damage has come.

Do you smile at New Testament demoniacs? Thev
were probably what we would call hypnotic subjects, says
a writer who discust the subject the other day. It is very
likely that they were, but hypnoti.sm involves a good deal
if the influence is not removed. The writers of the New
Testament did not hav a diploma from the Evergreen
College of Medicin, nor did they need (me.

Possession is true and so is obession. Why did the in-
fernal chorus stop sometimes when I was at the point of
desperation? If my imagination made me walk from ear-
ner to corner vainly trying to escape how did it happen

.. ^'i^UM't

STRAV NOTKS.

•65

that I couM so control it on the instant as to make it stop
wofi, ing? The voices stopt becniis they had to. They were
ordered to stop. How does it happen that if I were a com-
plete fool I could with some troubl bring back the sing-
ing-? I know 1 am repeating again, but it is from the in-
tellectual standpoint that my worry comes. Imaginary
voices at the end of the nineteenth century! The thing is
degrading from the point of view^ of intellectual attain-
ment.

3. "And so you think it is possibl to cast out demons?
Well, suppose you try that man at your side. We hav pos-
session of him as well as of you." ,

He was sitting on the same seat looking out a window
with his back toward me, but without a word he turned
round instantly and looking me straight in the eye began
to cu • e. "I know you, and what you mean."

I w:.s too much surprised to ray anything, but I left
him gently to himself. I had an idea that he had some
one directing his internal machinery and I tl'Ot it as well
to move.

4. Communication came in three ways — by voices, by
writing on the brain, and by impression, feeling or tele-
pathy. Telepathy may not be the correct word, for I am
inclined to think that the agent at the other end is at our
side.

It is a state of f »eMng. I used tolaf at the word "sens. '•
Wh.en a man ".senst" anything I used to think that he was
becoming an ultra-refined being whose proper dwelling
place was a hermitage of one kind or another, but it is the
right word to employ. You sens it — you feel it. It is dif-
ferent from thinking, even when Satan pulls the strings.

Take a pargraf <jf a newspaper, for exampl. containing
several clea:^ and distinct ideas. We cannot think, it is
said, unless we employ words, but the mind travels so
fast that the ideas go thru the brain like a flash. This is

■■■ -yif

■m

"■■■ M

■(■■
'■■*■>

/ft

■(.■": •"

OUR UNSEEN COMPANIONS.

the ordinary way of thinkinj:r, but 1 " senst " the paragraf
so much faster than by this method that I knew what
was coming before the words had anything like time to
shape themselves in my mind. I had to take time to
, spell them out, as it were, imtil 1 got to the end, or to
express it in another way 1 felt the hole of the ideas con-
veyed without the necessity of using words at all or
waiting to let them come. Do you need ^vords to express
anger or luv ? It is a state of feeling. I easily knew
what my unseen companions wanted me to understand
without the '""-cessity of going about it in the old round
about way.

Some doctor, I belie v, — there ar several clever, capabl
men among the doctors^ altho quite a number of them
hav rather bizaare ideas on certain subjects — has said that
if he could only get hold of our system in the right way
he could make us feel sad or merry as he pleased. He
must he a hypnotist. He wants to make us sens. And
I for one beg to be excused.

What if in the world to come the method of communi-
cation will be by feeling insted of by words ? What if
Faber came nearer the truth than he imagined when he
wrote,

" Where loyal harts and true,
stand ever In the light,
All rapture thru and thru
In God's most holy sight. "

It is digressing again, but according to a pretty theory
that I herd from my invisibl frends the first week at the
hermitage we ar all bound together in the future life and
in this life too in such a way that if one suffers all groan
in unison, and if t)ne is merry we all smile. This view
may delight those who luv to go elswhere than the Bible
for their information, but as I remember it there were
some slight drawbacks.

There was some ;<reaT iiypnotic power at work— some

s».;--

STRAY NOTES,

167

awful force that drew you from heven if you were not
strong" enuf to resist and planted you cheek by jowl with
some of your erring companionvS of the past. ( )f cours,
as the tide turned you mif^-ht get out of your troubl, but
there were risks. Upon the issue of the awful ball being
waged thruout the univers was to be decided whether the
future life for us all was to be in hevcn or hell. Hell, I
was assured, was almost as enjoyabl as heven. You think
I was a fool to wonder at some of it ? Ar you sure you
do not belong to the tribe yourself ? Many ar living with-
out a belief in any future state, but 1 never was so
extremely foolish as that yet. And what is sin on erth
now but such an awful force that draws you from heven
to hell, and what is luv ?

When you sens, it is as if the atmosfere around you were
charged with ideas and somehow or other they were prest
into your hed in a mass. Enuf of it, Sancho Quixote,
for they ar a-smilin' at you. .

■I

.c;<

5. We read a good deal in these times about develop-
ing the sixth sens. Whenever anything approaches you
thru the sixth sens get your nervs in order as soon as pos-
sibl. When your dedly enemies approach you thru the
sixth sens treat them as you would i»ny other enemy -that
is, get rid of them as soon as you can .

If God had ment us to liv in two wor ds at one time He
would hav given us faculties for entering into the invisibl
one around us, and we would not hav been under the
necessity of "developing" a new sens, but when you
dream all night of evolution something is bound to follow.

Go out into the sunlight and you cannot help feeling
the heat. Get your nervs into a certain condition and
you cannot help the approach of spirits.

6. The Reverend Mi not J. vSavage, the Unitarian, has
studied the occult world, from the outside, I regret to
say, as fools like company as well as wise num, and the

" ' 'I

■M

i#t

OUR UNSKEN COMPANIONS.

following excerpt from his Easter sermon of '96 may help
you to understand how it is possibl for some men to hear
voices inaudibl to others. It is quoted from the Ntw York
iSun of April 19th. If you read it carefully you may even
understand how "sensing" is possibl. " Thrilling with
an intensity of life " he says. That is correct, I believ,
and fits in with Faber's rapture thru and thru, and Sancho
Quixote's sensing. But make way for his reverence.

" I believ that those who hav past thru the experience
called deth liv in space and occupy space as much I do.
Ar they material ? Yes, in one sens they ar * * * I
believ that the souls of those that we call dcd ar not
unclothed, but, in the language that Paul tised, ar
clothed upon.

I believ that they possess bodies not as real as these,
but unspeakabl more real, thrilling with an intensity of
life of which at present we ar perhaps utterly unabl to
conceiv. Is there anything unscientific about it? No.
There is no scientific knowledge abl to discredit a belief
like this. It is perfectly rational.

We know perfectly well that the greatest, the mightiest
forces of what we call the natural imivers ar both invisibl
and intangibl. We know that it is the very smallest, tini-
est part of the real world that we can see with ourpresen
eyes. We know that it is only the smallest, tiniest part
of the infinite vibrations of the univers that produce in us
the sens of hearing." (Mark that, doctor. Now, infidel, I
hav thee on the hip!) *'If we had ears more acute, even
Mr. Huxley tells us the silences of the opening flowers
in the garden would seem to us as loud as a thunder
storm. It is not that there ar no vibrations, only that our
ears ar not adapted to take them up." Sancho Quixote
thinks that his medical fronds might as well surrender, or
at least lay aside that cutting pride.

**De leur morgue tranchante,
Rien ne nous garantit, " ;

STRAY NOTKS.

169

It is wrong to speak in church, but Sancho feels rather
gay when the one scientific man starts to maul the other
while he applauds the heretic. But to conclude, —

"So of the vibrations which produce the sens of sight.
There is an infinity of them thruout the univers, only our
eyes at present ar not adapted to being affected by them.
That is all. We ar too commonly the fools of' our eyes
and ears. We assume that we can see and hear and feel
everything that really is; while every poorest scientific
man on erth will tell you that there may be an infinity of
life in every direction with which our present senses do
not bring us into any conscious contact. "

*'I believ, then, that as the result of our thinking and
our feeling and our luving and our hating that what may
be called a fisical body is being built up in us, organized
day by day. In the process of deth we ar releast from
this outward shell very much as the butterfly is releast
from its chrysalis. There has been going on thru the
whole length of life of the cocoon the organization \)f an-
other, and to us invisibl, form Within. By and by it breaks
open, and the life comes forth and enters upon another
stage of its career.

I believ something akin to this is going on within us,
and that deth means the breaking open of the chrysalis
and the escaping out into this larger life, and that we en-
ter on that life — and here is the tremendous mora! power
of a belief like this — just the kind of men and women that
we hav made ourselves by our thots, our emotions, our
actions here, only that there, as here, is infinite opportun-
ity thru suffering, if need be, thru whatever experience
is necessary, for study, for growth, for ascent towards
the highest."

The lerned doctor has spoken like a book, but he trips
up at the end. Evolution has got him by the heels, too,
only he is more cautious than Sancho.

Is it not possibl to escape the struggl of good and evil

'^1

170

OUR UNSFFN COMPANIONS.

by entering the kinjjdom of hevcn as littl children? The
doctor s.'iys no, and his belief is shared by a }((K)d many.
Perhaps those who don't read, don't think, don't know,
and d(jn't care to know, ar a littl harsh in their judgments.
1, for one. am not inclined to torture men eternally if they
cannot heliev in the NewTestament. "Hav faith in (lod,"
says Dean Farrar. Amen. God is luv, I herd in days of
troiibl, and I read it in the Bible. 1 am afraid I could not
luv Him so much if I thot that all His creatures would not
jjet a chance to rise even after deth, thru plenty of suffer-
in j.^, T fear.

7. By a sinj^-ular coincidence .somewhat similar to that
noted in chapter thirteen, 1 put down the lucky number
seven at the head of this stray note, and I found to my
surprise that 1 was indeted for a good illustrati(m to a
man from Germany, (Germany, lerned, indefatigabl, deep-
thinking Germany, a.s Carlyle calls her, is always redy
when we need her, and her son is in luck this time for the
number is to his credit. As a supplement to Mr, Savage's
remarks the following information may help some to un-
derstand what kind of a univers we liv in. Listen to the
Teuton then. — "Suspend a pendulum in a dark room and
set it swinging at the rate of thirty beats to the second,
and y(m will hear the lowest note in mu.sic. Keep up the
motion until it reaches about forty thousand beats and
you will then hear the highest note the human ear can
grasp. The pendulum has given forth every note of music
in its progress from thirty beats to forty thousand.

"Suppose that you hav the power to keep up the
motion until it reaches six billion strokes to the sec(md,
you will see a dull red light; and if from six billion you
run it up tu fifteen you will see all the colors of the rain-
bow, until at the fifteenth universal darkness buries all.
. Now, then," continues our scientific frend, who is some-
thing of anocculisthimself, "between the forty thousand
vibrations representing tlic highest .sound and the six

STKAY NOTV.S.

billion repioscntinj; the dullest li^ht there is an enormous
gap — Jin oeean of wave motions which ar now beyond our
perception, hut which ar known to exist, for there ar no
sudden breaks in nature. Tyndall was the first to point
this out, and to sug'j'i'est that within this vast chasm of
forces — forces whi(>h no eye can see and no ear can per-
ceiv-- we must seek for an explanation of the mysterious
potentialities know as electricity and miij.,metism."

That is very interesting. How, then, did 1 hear sing-
inj( that is inaudil)l to you ? Was it because my pliysical
condition was such that 1 could reach hijjfhcr than the
forty thousand beats of the pendulum ? And why was
the singinjj^ an octave higlier, or can 1 venture to say two
octaves, it was so pierciuj^ly clear and thin ? And yet
the bass voices were deeper and richer than erthly ones.

I came to know my nervf)us condition as exactly as if
I had been registered. The voices came closer or went
further away as I became more or less affected. It is
true that they acted in the same way at the same time, as
during the first days when they seemed to be u mile dis-
tant and again close at hand, but there came a time when
there was no change of that kind; they kept always as
close as they could.

Then how do you account for the fact that the voices
ceast to troubl me when I was in the open air months
before I got rid of them when below a roof?* Does it
soothe the nervs io liv in the open air ? Ar women who
seldcmi go outside to look at the sky injuring their nervs ?
Ar all houses haunted ?

•J!»

" All liousoa wherein men hav liv<l and lied
Ar haunted houses. Thru thf> open door
The harinlesB fathoms on their errandn fr\U\c,
With feet that make no sound upon the. floor.

' The spirit world around this world of sens
Floats lilieBn atmosfere, and everywhere
Waffs thru these erthly mists and vapors dens,
A. vital ^^eth of more ethereal air." — LoN(irKi.r,ow,

17:

01: R UN'^F.K.N COMPANIONS.

After readini^ the illustrations of the two lernctl doc-
tors cHncht by the verses of the poet who "senses" things
easier than his practieal brethren, we should be redy to
aeknowled^s^c that there may really be forces in the
univers that the microscope cannot reveal to us.

8. T!ic niicrosco]:)e may not be abl to do it, but what of
the pletliysniograf ? It is the bra\'e man's policy to look
danirer in the face, Sancho Quixote is aware that the
doctors ar hard to kill. While he has been investiii'atin--
in one direction they hav been busy in another, and like
the skillfid tacticians that they ar it was only the other
day that they uncovered their batteries.

The scientists say that we cannot mesure and weigh
everything around us, and the faculty refuse to yield.
But that they ar near the end of their tether is evident,
for they hav now begun to talk of tiie " exact mesure of
mentality," and hav invented the plethysmograf, the
kymograiion, the neumograf, and the ergograf, and they
ar redy for work. Phis is cheerful news.

They ar going to mesure oui thots and our emotions
as easily as a tailor mesures a piece of cloth. Man is a
funny little creature. He wants to weigh mind now. In
Dean Swift's time he was busy trying to extract sun-
beams out of cucumbers.

The professor thus proudly explains how it is done —
•'These experiments which for the first time introduce
weight and measure into the relms of thot, ma\- lead to
other experiments having a scientific value. One devel-
opment may be another and more dcst nctiv blow at the
theosofical and spiritualistic and hypnotic explanations of
fenomenathat really depend. u])on this fact of the extreme
fallibility of the senses."

There you be, all cut and dry. This is medical science
at the end of the nineteenth cc^ntury. The Indian
medicin man knew bn'tter. O, Arturo, Arturo, compa-

STRAV NOTF!?.

173

trioto mio, a laf is n ifood thing for us all and you hav
supplied it.

Now, 1 wish foolish men and women would turn away
from theosofy and spiritism and turn to Christianity,
but if we hav to de[)end upon the plethysmos^n-af and the
kymografion, whatever they ar. for th<^ destruction of
these two beliefs, our name, as the Arabian poet said, will
be mud. Try another line, doctor,

" Nor dct!m the irrovooabl past
Ah wholly wustecJ, wt )lly vain.
If, rising in it.s wrecks at last.
To something nobler we Httain."

That 5S a vers I like to think of in these days and you
might as well lern it by hart.

The names of these instruments, even with the amended
speling, ar cnuf to condemn the whole theory. The man
who named them showed a sad lack of gumption. The
plethysmogfraf indeed! And the ergograf and the
kymografion, and the neumograf! What a pie e of
work ii- man. How inlinit in reason, says Colonel Ham-
let.

Why not the poly wog, and the iehthysaurus or -my other
chunk or monolith of polysylabie grandeur and unparalleld
imperishabl magnificence> The howling idiosyncrasies of
the.se medical inventors, the osteological, dolichocefalic
nonsens that they talk drive Saneho Quixote nearly off
the hinges.

9. Is it any wonder that men ar lernmg to distrust
science of all kinds? M. Brunetiere, of the-Revue des
Deux Mondes. the "Saturday Review" tells us. has lighted
upon a frase which is having a run ot success in I^'arce
such as he could hardly hav anticipated. It is "the bank-
ruptcy of .science. "

"According to M. ilrunetiere science is bankrupt, but

there ar some who declare that science wa? levei* so pros-

perons'as now. M. Brunt;tiere's frase. ho'vt'vc.'V. merely
1 2

\-^&

'74

OUK UNSKKN C;OM I'AN IONS.

refers to the materialistic filosofy which treats as trivial or
baneful all speculation that is beyond the range of fisical
proof. A brief quotation from his articl, \vhiL:h has been
so much discust, will suffice to show exactly what he means.

" 'From a Darwinism, barely assured of the truth of its
principls, or from a physiology that is still rudimentary,
we may appeal to a more extended Darwinism, c.r to a
more lerned physiology; but in the meantime we must liv
a life not merely animal, and no sciences of to-day cai show
us how to do this.'

"Science, then," (be Rc\iew goes on to vSay, "according
to M. Brunetiere, is bankrupt in tlie sens that it has failed
to satisfy what is in the nature of man, or t(^ explain the
mystery that surrounds him.

"Probabl}' in no i)ther country do s\ich ia])id changes
take place in the atmosfere that is formed by the perpet-
ual whirling and grinding of the wheels of the human
mind as in France. Tenor twelv years ago M. Brnne-
tiere's articl would hav been receivd with such l)histering
derision thai the approving voice would hav been drowned
by the noise. But a niarkt change has come abuiit in the
filosotical drift of the French mind of 1 ile. Voltairianism
is very nearly dcd. The polished mockery and refined but
bitter cyncism in regard to spiritual beliefs and specula-
tions which were so much relisht by an epicurean b(Mir-
geaisie, hav quite gone out of fashion.

"The faci to be noted as a mental fenomenon, to be
filosofically pondered, is that this met:.*. "Skeptical of cent-
uries is ending in France, - the fatherland of free thot-
in a disposition oi mind which, if not Christian, is more
colored by idealism than materialism.

"The very keen interest that so many French peopl of
the intellectual class hav of late years taken in Buddi-^m,
occultism and spiritualism (spiritism it is more correctly
termed in France), althv by no means approved by the
Catholic clergy, is nevertheless a symptom of the reaction

STRAY NOIF.S

'75

i'-V!!.

from the Voltarian mood which lasted ao long, and which
became so very much in ernest, so diffei'ent from Vol-
taire's humor that, had he livd long- enuf, he mii;ht hav
repudiated his own discipls. The youth of the schools hav
not grown pious, but AgnsLo Comte, Renan and Darwin
hav lost the hold that they had on the students, and their
increasmg ''mysticism" is n()ted with pain and disgust by
the skeptics who were born erlier in the century, and
whose filosofiical opinions were fashioned by a very differ-
ent wave of thot.

"But contemporary literature is pernapsthe best mirror
in which to see reflected that new movement of the French
mind which has led M. Brunetiere to speak of the bank-
ruptcy of science. Several writers of note could be named
who, from l)eing the thm"ogoing materialists that they
were some ten or fifteen years ago, hav with stedily in-
creasing boldness been reaching toward an idealism that
is almost, if not quite, religious.

"A writer in the Figaro has gtme so far as to point to the
new direction taken by M. Zola'h mind as confirmatory of
the opinions exprest by M. Brunetiere in his remarkabl
articl. What, however, we may be quite sure of is that
some great change must hav taken place in France for so
keen a man of the world as M. Zola, aiul one so richly
endowed with tlie faculty (if scenting a subject that will
prove remunerativ in the dress of liction, to cast all his
literary energy first upon the Pyrenean village that has
been made a town by Bernadette, and then u])()n the city
(»f tht popes."

lo. What the great realist himself tliinks of the age he
livs in and the change of public opinion may be judged
by the following extract wriin some two or three
years ago;-

"To tell the truth, I think all thenieans tried insufti-
cient to sto]) tbe vising tic'e of anarchist ooctrin. W'li.it.

r y

T76

OIR UNSEEN COMPANIONS.

1 am askt, will be a preventativ ? Well, I, whohav fot for
positivism, after thirty years of stnig-glinj;;- find that my
convictions liav 1)een shaken. Relig'ions faith would pre-
vent tlic propaf^'ation of such theories; but has it not
alrao.st dir,appeard now-.' days ?"

Science does not appear to till M. Zola's niesiirc full
enuf. '* Scientists of repute," says a scrap of paper
found floatin,uf on the air the other day, " now assure us
that science does not advance us one singl step as to the
kowledge of the final cans. The aggressiv scientific man
of a generation ago has now become the agaiostic if he
does not Ijeiic in the Bible as of old."

J I. But while many of the scientists ar resting on their
oars, with their boat anchored waiting for a new compass
that is long, long in coming, the men who keep a reason
that knows too littl to be an entirely safe guide, subor-
dinate to a faith that believsmuch hav taken hart of grace
once more and ar pulling for the v.,'.l haven with a flowing
sea behind them. I.isten to this from the Bostrm " Con-
gregationalist" and conti'ast it with the pessimistic utter-
ance of M. Zohi

" The religious thol of the last decade has been distin-
guisht by a revolt from creeds, by impatience with dog-
matic teaching and by a disyjosition to investigate even
the most fundamental doctrinsof the Chri.stian faith.

"While the grasp of the popular mind on creeds has
l)een loosening, interest in present life has grown intens.
Problems of individual duty and destiny hav given p;ace
to those of societ) :ind government, By way of con-
trast, dwelling <m the unseen and the future world hav
been held up as unpractical and insignificant."

As Sancho Quixote is engineering this book, just hav
patience while he interjects a remark here — one that is
straight from the shoulder, for the old Adam is swelling
up inside of him. Man\' religious paper--, manv n;inis-

sTRAV MOT KM.

»77

:1-'i'*

ter.s, ar stroiij,rl3Miislikcd hy iiumhcrs of intelligent poop\
who know something of tlie conditions of nKxiern st)ciety
becaus they ar so very ethereal in tone that they scMotti
care to discuss the starvation problem. They want to
gloss it over, and keep peace in the family, and it will not
work. They want to keep on good terms with men whom
Christ wonld scourge if he were on erth to-day. We do
not intend to be side-trackt by such ethereal talk. We do
not bury the hatchet that way. Saltan is not to rule,
altho he speaks from a pn!j)it.

1 consider the next: world very important, very much
more important than t.iis, as I consider the palace nujre
important than the vestibule. I hope that is plain enuf
to any one who has red thus far without saying more
But I hav recently had a severe reminder that body and
mind ar so intimately connected that more than ever
and I hav been called a rad^'cal in the past, f am con-
vinct that the ma . who will not take sides .;n this ques-
tion as to whether one man is to continue to acquire mill-
ions unjustly wMle another is to die of starvation is not
worthy of being listened to— is a coward and a trimmer.
It often seems to me an impertinenc i\>v us to {)ray,
''Give us this day our daily bred," imless in a spirit of
thankfulness. God has gi^'en us such a world to liv in,
overflowing with corn and fruit that starvation or want
should be impossibl for a man willing to work, a d yet
some of our f rends stand in their pulpits and defend men
who ar squeezing the life-blood out of human beings lu-
sted of telling theni the truth.

Don't make any mistake, gentlmen. There ar two
kinds of Christianity, the true and the false. ' Remeniber
that we hav a body as we- 1 as a soul. " Problems of
society and government " ji.r still g<.)ing to disturb your
welthy hearers, and the poorer brethren ar still going
to ask if men who crush their fellows ar In their
right place when they walk atound with tlie baskei on

' r

I7«

OVU UNSEF.N COMI'AN IONS,

vSuuday. But, \\{)\v that we hav called a halt just as we
were g-allopin*^ ofl" to heven, forgetting" that we still livd
on erth, we shall proceed, after excusing our littl out-
Inirst, by saying that (iod gave us reason, and He means
us to use it. Me believs in order: change your swinish
arrangements to conform to His laws, or take the conse
qnences.

"Unformulated but most positiv creeds hav been form-
ing, whose sus])tauce is responsibility to and for men
rath'-r tlian accountability to (iod. But social relations ar
stabl only when conscience rules, and conscience is with-
out authority unless it can appeal to God. Wherevermen
ar interested in living aright they want to know about
Ood, and they want what is known of (Jod stated in terms
which they can understand. They want to know what
evidences there ar that He has made revelations to men
and what ar those revelations. They hunger to believ and
welcome authoritativ statements of faith.

"There ar indications that the time is alredy at hand
when such statements will be welcomed and defended as
they hav not been hithertc^ in this generation. The peopl
ar growing weary of critical discussions of religous themes.
The}' do not respond as hartilv as they hav done to the
(juestioniug tonv. from [.)ul])it and platform, 'J"*hey ar com-
ing to listen eagerl)- for the utterance that is positiv -"

Do you understand now why the labor problem is \\p for
settlment in all countries? Becaus the intelligent men
in the ranks and out of them ar po.sitiv — "that rings with
the fervor of belief in Cxod, holy and supreme, olTeritig
pardon to lost sinners thru Jesus Christ His Son. We con-
fidently expect a revival of dogma. This word may con-
vey opprobrious meaning to some, but in its generally
accepted meaning of authorativ religious teaching we do
not hesitate to use it. We look for strong declarations,
with the tone of authority, of the essential doctrins of
Christian faith; and for responses to them in renewed in-

STRAV NOT) S,

terest in divine and hevenly things and in renewed lives.
Renewed interest in Ciod and in men's relations to Him
and in human destiny cannot fail to strengthen the fellow-
ship as well as advance the knowledge of those who believ
and obey him. With the revival of dogma will come a re-
vival of faith, hope and luv. "

You hav been led further afield than you anticipated
perhaps, but yon ar aware by this time that Suncho Quix-
ote is a littl unsettld in his ways and likewise in his spel-
ing. Yon liav had the plesure of reading the views of a
few of our fellow creatures on subjects that sensibl peopl
ar interested in. Like the voices I herd they jangl occa-
sionlaiy. Science and reason at the old fight, but they
speak each in his own tung and charm us like the
sirens.

" Al! tlie melodiea mysterious

Thru tlie droary darkutiss cliatited.
Thots ill aititiidf! imperious
Voices sort and deep and serious
Words that whispord, ?a i^s that haunted I"

12. A littl variety is agre'eabl to most of us, and before
.' plunge you into the .society of the hevy weights again I
shall tell you some fnnn}' littl incidents that happened to
me — funny to you, that is.

I hav often herd my grandfather tell a story back in —
Spain — that may serv to illustrate how every littl incident,
every word was siezed hold of by my imseen companions.

An acquaintance of his got hungry one night and scaled
a wall to steal .some appls. Thegaidener was watching on
the other side and as soon as he saw the man's hands on
the top of the wall he swung his rake and pinned him
down where he lay. I may remark here in case you hav
not quite lerned your lesson that the gardener was tem-
porarily possest by an evilspint.

"Sancho, " they used to say to me. "hav you forgotten
that storv the old man told about the rake? Well, that is

1 80

OUR UNSKKK I OMFANIONS

just how we hav yi)\\ fixt ;it in-os«'nl. A beautiful illustra-
tion "

T had n.ul Sf>me\vherc iti 'lucof Larlyle's books, I think
— of canaries bein<^ trained to fire cannons, and tliey uKule
a good deal of this ilhistration. "A very sinij.)! tliin^^- for
the canary tf) set the cannon off Vnit the silly littl creature
had no idea of what its act incut, and you ar just like it.
Vou hav s'«t off a hole park of artillery, you stu^iid canary.
Vou liav no idea of what it ment when you .stuck your
ears thru into this world. I'oor littl canar bird! Poor
littl canary! We fear that you ar goin.iC tog^et your wing's
singed,''

13. "Voices ai' not good things for nu>n and women
to listen tc;, for the simp] re;i.'>(Mi that those who listen to
them don't like to do much els and this is a univers where
every one slu>idd work."

If a man does not work, says the ajjostl, neither shall
he eat; but in these piping times those who work least eat
best, or rather get the best things to eat, which is a ctiri-
ous arrangement. And what of the ministers, apostolic
succession kind included.' But this is unfair. I shall soon
be in bad standing with the black graces, for I like the
traditional lawyers as littl as the doctors or ministers.

But what do the curled darlings say about this theory of
work? Is Tolstoy's idea that every man should do enuf
manual work to support himself correct? Again I tottch
upon a sore spot, for altho Paul made tents and his hands
smelt of tar his successors ar noL noted for doing much in
that line. They hav to ride bicycles now for "exercise/'
That first century had some drawbacks.

14. "Once for all there ar no reproaches in heven. Do
not believ anything of that kind. It is all done for a bad
purpose. There is nothing but Itiv there. Pay no atten-
tion to pust mistakes but keep yjur eyes to the future,

STkAV inOTKS.

iSi

and all will yet Ix.; well, ^'ou ai* t-xpec'tcd to do sonic-
tliiui;' \ur yourself to j^ol out. of )-(Mir tronbl. Keep vour
mind t>ocu|)ied\vith sotnethinj^' els them voices as nmeh as
possibl. Wc ar not expected to do everything;"."

" Do you swallow that stuff ? Do you not yet under-
stand that you ar caught, ar.d that is simply to keep up
\-our sjiirits as lonj.:;: as possibl. They know the end of it
all as well as we do. Yf.'U ai' bot with a price and cannot
escape. "

15. One nijj;ht hist winter I hiy in a trance and saw a
full-ri.^;^ed ship sailinij;' across the ocean. All the sails
were set antl a iair coins lay before her, but she rolled
from sidc^ to side before me as if .she would founder, and
as I wonderd what it ment when I awoke, the voices
shouted in derision- "Is your pilot on board vSancho
(Quixote? Is your pilot on board? You ar drifting" on
thorock^." And many a time afterwards I was assailed
with the (juestion, '' Ts your pilot still on board ?"

You will ?iccuse mc of moraliz.ing like the ministers,
but sit down quietly and considei the question, " Is your
pilot on board ?"

Perhaps, if you don't consider it you may hear the
questioij in the future as I herd a great many things I
had forgotten, and it will not be plesant. It will simply
be unplesant to the last degree. I know. I mean after
you hav ''taken the leap," as they exprest it, and not
before.

"Tire/, le Rideau, la farce est jouee." Not quite.
Only the opening act.

" Siinsta arid ev'Tiinp star
And uiie clear call for me ;
Aud may there be uo moaning' of the bar
When I put out to sea.
« • « « *

'* Aud the f roui out our bourne of time s^ui pUoa
Tht- tioodfj may bear iiie far.
f hope to meet tny Pilot face to facw
Wheu I have crost the bar. "

r *i

tSa

OUR iJNSEKN co^n•^^•roN^.

I*"). ''Tlu; coiu'liisi(^ii of bolh sides is tli.il you ini;sl
stop pruyini^ tor six months, Ev(:ry appeal you make lor
help will be counic! against you. Vou eaniiot be put on
the same basis as tiiosc who hav aceepted Christ on erth.
You aecepted Him after you knew the terrors, and that
kind of eonversion wil! not pass here. One, two, three,
four, five, six — t \velve-— thirty words. Preeisely. We
do not intend that you shall hav ]'eace while you ar doinj,{f
somcthiniJ^ forbidden, i'rayers ar al an end in lu^ll and
men who pray ar punisht.

" In the first place, you do not pray in faith, fully c .^ix-'ct-
mg what you ask for, and in ihc next }'ou ask in the
name of Jesus Christ and liia!: will not be accepted
from von. "

" Sant^ho Ouixote, " came an ernest voice that I knew
well, tile voice of a man still alive, ''don't you see yei
that we hav all come thru into the oceult world ai^'ainst
the commands of God ? The damage we hav done is in-
calculabl. Yes, I knew you back there. It is awful that
I, a minister of tlie g-ospel, hav to statul in my pulpit
preaehino' with my hart breaking.

" I will do the best I can fui )'ou, but we eunuoV l'ra\'
thru Jesus Christ. We must pray to the Christ tliat is i;i
each of us. There is a Christ lU each of us {larih' di--
velopt, and we must pray to that part."

"Thai is coirect, Sancho Quixote;" came the (^her
voice that I know well, altho I hav never listened to it in
the flesh, "he has told you the truth, and we must do
what we can thru one another, "

That was durin.^" the erh- days, of cours, when I was
under the influence ar.d half excusabl for believing- the
(me minuie and lafing at the folly of it all the next, but
during- convalescence if the doctors will allow the ex-
pression after what has been writn — I red a littl
]>amflel which seems to preach the same doctrin in cold
blo(.Hl Possum up a uum tree. Old wives' fables copy-

STRAY NorKS.

183

rig:htccl by Satan.is. How do you like the source of the
infoi Illation that you t^ct ribout your tied frends or your
Hvin.i,'^ ones ' (). yes, only ij^cnorant ])copl deny that they
g-iv information, but hov much is it worth, and is it right
to take it ?

^vl?i:

17. Ihit thoy were frolicsome too. My frcnd was ucjt
alt(jgetiier wrons^. I had to laf many a time at their re-
marks. The)- can be witty when the humor strikes them.
A hermitag-e is not the bt •it place to laf, but some of the
patients, I can well believ, laf becaus they cannot help
it -there is a method in their lafter altho some of their
frends il ik it is a si.s^n of vacancy. Suppose the nervs ar
gently pii^'ed so that only ati anchorite could keep grave.
vSuppo.sc ihey really listen to something they imagin to
be funny ?

1 would be fighting successfully for a time and keeping
them at bay, too niucii interested in my writing to dis-
tinguish the words when a new departure would be made.
They vvould spring in at the least sign of a wish to rest
and sh(K)t the senlonce in by the telegrafic route in ad-
vance of, <jr at the .same time as the voices, so that 1 could
not fail to catch the meaTiingevenif the words were indis-
tinct: " vSisters, what is to be dono with vSancho Quixote '
He is clearly goino to dominate us. He is gain ing the ui)per
hand. Shout it thru the occult that Sancno is gaining
the day."

The droll tone sometimes, the mock-hopeless, despair-
ing accent at others; the idea that I was dominating a
world I knew nothing about, was more than I could
endure.

O, yes, they ar very funny, very frolicsome, but when
I would become too exuberant in my temporary relief
from the cursing, they would try a new tack.

They ofen teased me by speaking with a sens of inti-
macy that I did not like at all. It was as if there was no

,.^..

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i84

OUU UNSKKN < (JMI'ANIONh.

use (.'onccaliny^ .'inytbing from nic. The game \va.> up!
I had pierced the mystery!

" Vou ar des notres, now Sancho. There is no use

being ])ack\vard. MaVe yourself at home. Don't be

alarmed. Pas de faiblesse, Danton ! Poor old daft

Sancho. That is how ])eoplc will spciI; about you in the

future- just daft Sancho."

1 8. "Is my control here ?" they had me the length of
a.^king. Yes, he was always there redy for business, but
I did not always pleas him. We hear a good deal about
"controls" that is favorabl, but as I liav paid for my
whistl I do not want to be "controld " any more,

"You hav come thru into the occult world under the
wrong contn)l." If 1 had had the right "control* I
would never hav attempted to enter the occult worh' in
that wav. T might moralize again, Init-

io. " Miracls " ar sometimes wrot by hypnotic influence.
1 lay in bed for several hours lertMng to perfcwm them.
My leg below the knee was sei/.ed by cramj) and held
until the luiin was almost unendurabl.

" You must lern to pray in faith to-night or never All
the others lernt in a shorter time than you. " I tried hard,
and the pain left me. Then it was put back in order to
give me a chance to lern ray lesson. T liecame a
" miracl " worker that night for an hour or two.

Imagination again ? Now, let me explain a littl. I hav
done some hous building iu my time, and when I first
began to use a hammer 1 occasionally struck myself on
the hnger or thumb nail — not intentionally, of cours,
for in Hiose days F was not qvnte so far gone, "'he sensa-
tion that I felt is called pain in English. No matter what
name yon giv it, it is the sensation, the feeling I am
after. If, then, the thumb-nail feeling wasa delusion, .so
was the cramp feeling. If the one was real, so was the

STRAY NOTES.

'«5

other. It was painful, sore, hard lo bear. There has
■been a good deal of plesure in writing this book, as well
as a good deal of disgust at my folly. The doetors ur too
funny not to add a littl spiee where it is needed.

20. "Ttedy now, Saneho Quixote," I say to myself as
1 feel like jumping from my seat. " Remember you ar in
a hermitage and don't eompromire yourself. What was
that ? •'

Suppose you had a needl plunged into your ear and
withdrawn on the instant how would you feel ? Not very
comfortabl. That was something like what I felt, only
that there was a fiery itch with it that nearly made me
yell. I felt it often enuf to know and dred it. That was
one of the few things I drcded. The needl was not there
but the pain n-as. The delusion, the hallucmation wasout
in force and it had a sting that was real.

How fimnyit must be for a man who does not behev in
hypnotic influence to hear a patient describe all his local
troubls. Me must take him for a comi)1ete ass or the
most acci>mplisht liar on earth. No wonder thai some
elo(juent men .vho ar not gifted with the W. K. C. O. A.
T/. stay in iiermitages while the fhjwers bloom on the
outside. They hav told .so many startling tales that the
doctors .suspect them even after they ar cured

21. Now, I shall hav to bring a fierman to the rescue
and giv vou something solid. I think the disorder mu.st
hav been well known both in (rreece and Rome in the de-
cadent days, but let the professor spe.'ik for him.self:

"INCREASING \h:RV()rSNl::SS. •

Under this rather startling titl Proi". VV. Erb. at Heidel-
berg, gave an address some time ago which demands more
than a passing notice. Professor Erb takes it for granted
iliat there is a markt increas c>f functional nervous dis

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1 86

Ol'K ITNSI.K.N lOMI'ANIONS.

r '

orders, and he believs that the g\ ents of the present cen-
tury hav naturally led to this result. The nineteenth cen-
tury began in disorder and commotion. France had past
thru a bloody revolution which was to be followed by the
excitement and exhaustion of Napoleonic adventurcfi;
restlessness, political and social, was followed by a period
of calm, but, with the advancing years, labor saving
inventions rapidly replaced man and increast welth, and
renderd communication easy. In science, in literature,
all were devolping, and v/i h ii there appeard incapacity
for restful plesures, rushing from change to change seemed
to be the only alternativ to work. With overwork there
was overcrowding and overstimulation; alcohol and to-
bacco were used in greatly increa.st (juantities; railway
traveling and its nerv-jarring motion still further tended
to nervousness: and, so Professor Erb convinces himself,
with all this there has been a clear loss of nerv tone to
the hole of the highly civilized nations. * * *

According to Professor Erb all this rapid, restless move-
ment has left an irritab and slow lecovering nervous
system, which must be considered as neurasthenic. The
essentials of this disorder, which has not been recognized
twenty years, ar increast .sensitivness, w'th weakness,
weariness, lack of power «)f endurance, ami defectiv re-
cuperativ power, 'i'his disorder is a rchnement of hys-
teria and hypochondriasis, and it is the outcome of tiie con-
ditions of 'ife. He thinks it ot to be found in all periods
of excitement and of luxury, but owns that there is r.o
evidence of its existence in Greece or in Rome. The dis-
order is to be recognized and to be met by changing con-
ditions, and nerv hygieii is to be considerd as much as
sanitation. F'rom school days to professional life the
human being is to be tended and brot uj), his mental,
moral and fisical education is to be regulated, his holi-
days ar to be methodized, his business is to be conducted
in helthy surroundings, and his cities ar to be made hel

S'IKAV No'lK.S.

,87

thy anci beiitiful, with fresh air and beutiful surroundings.
Thus the professor is a preacher of hy^denie socialism.
As we said before, we hav been charmed with the address,

but not convincl.

The old question reappears in another form. Ts in
creasing insanity and nerv(nis disorder in necessary corre-
lation to deveh)ping complexity of society? Tt must be rec-
ognized tliat the more complex the rules of society the more
frecpient will be breaches of these rules, at all events for
a time. In developing civilization, too, we hav a very
perplexing factor added in the survival and the propa-
gation of the non-fittest, and this doubtless adds to the in-
creasing number of the nervous. We ar inclined tobeliev
that there is some slight increas of nervousness, but that
there is a much greater knowledge of the subject, and with
Imowledge comes subdivision and classification. We do
not belicv more women, at all events in England, hav
"nervs" now than had fifty years ago. With the increas
of excitement there has been a still gi eater tendency to
more freedom of exercise, more freedom from conven-
tionalism and much helthier home surroundings -SriVw/t
Medical Journal.

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t !' c'

2 2. One night I had a warning to be careful what I
wrote on any subjec:. How it came about 1 do not know,
but I saw tl^.en as T had never vseen before what the etYects
of literature were. It has a terribl influence. I thot lo
myself, -'I shall never write a word aboiit my experience.
T am afraid to risk it in case I mai<e errors that will lead
others astrav," and now that 1 knew how the mental
machinery is workt 1 see it is a very serious matter indeed
to put your thots on paper.

It is high treason to whisper a wc»rd against the news-
papers, but there is ro; ni for improvement in the news
they furnish us. 1 hav howled like the other "liberal"
men for the news 'as it iiappens, good v.r bad, 1.)iit 1 hav

i8S

OUR UNSEEN i OMPANIONS.

chani^od inv tniml (MI tlic suhjcct now. ll is right io do
so wbon you soi' cans dn it. Tht* Rrv. l.vi.ian Abbot
was loeUiriu)4 to stuiletits the olhcrday aiul In-, too, wants
tbi- ticws scrvil u]> hot. It is all .1 luattor ot" t.istc. l'\'w
men ot" sous x\:iu\ the sonsaliotial trash that is disheil up
every niorninj; iu the Dailv Howiir. ))iit there seems tobe
a (kMiiaiul for it. the luore's tlie pitv

Carlyle said that the journalist is tiie true kiuj^ oi to-day,
aud there is a i;(»od deal ot" truth in the sayiu).^; if he re-
uiains eonseientious. but as it is the editorial paj^eof uiost
]>apers i-; ne.irly worthless on eeononiie tpiestious. It is a
jiartisan howl that does luU deeeiv any man of stuis. The
proprietors eare ju'ineipally for the eash box, aud ar redy
t«) slobber on their knees lufore i)ower and pri\iU\v;e, in
order to make ^moncy. They eoidil ehanije tlie face of
the world, bui they " .ir out fvir tlu- stutV." Shaw I
We kiuiw the iletetiee and the howl. It is the same in .dl
ages

There ar tons T mean t<»ns- (^f cn il literature printed

in this country, .and the very fonogiats ar tiki to the neck
with foul songs and indecent lau ruage. Do yon know
what al! this is doing' Anthony Cotnstock goes perhaps
too far in liis /eal, but 1 hav changt^d my opinion of his
work of late let them laf who will. Ivvil spirits ar ruling'
the printing 'press to a larger extent than is altt^gether
suited to my taste. I know them. Vou do not. It is .'i
dedly serious m. liter. I tell vou. and when vou laf and
think that it is of littl consequeiK^e what boys read the
devil is using }du.

There is a place tt> draw the line.

1 hav never had any taste for impure literature, but I
hav red muf of our gallic-decadt.'Ut extreme-realistic trash
to .serv for a lime. "When you get <nit do not read any
papers dealing with this occult world. Just leav it alone.
L>o not attend any meetings or hav anything" to do with
the subject " \"ery good .idvice,

SlkAV NDIKS.

i,"Sn

4 } Twice thry siicecedeO in Kfttinjr mc too cxcilcHl t<»
control nivsclf, but 1 km \v afterwards that it was not well
to let j(o the holm.

On the other side they hav better control oi themsclvs.
"Mow did it conie about that Satan presented hiinself he-
fore riod if lie is a consMinini,'- fire to all th(»se wlu^ work
eviP Answer us that (juesiion, Mr. (Juixote. Or do you
stand for partial inspiration !' Don't ^et so angr> at us.
We hav some rights perl)ai)s I hai yiui ar noL aecpiainied^
with. Vou d(>n't know so ver) much/

" And why was il that when Satan slru}.iKld with the
Arehanj;el Michael lor the body of Moses. Michael
could onlv say, "The Lord rebuke thee O, Satan.' Why
was it' he could n.ot brinj^ any railiui^ accusation a>;ainst
him? He a littl more careful of your lan).;uage. Take
care how vou revile us or in short hav anythin,i; to do with
us. No. my frend, low as w(; ar, we ar not responsib!
t"(»r the crucifixion of Christ. That we left to your race."

24. "These voices ar simijly the two \oice-; that con
tend in the soul of every licin^- on erth. They ar auilibl
to you, th.at is the only difference,

25. "If you do not stop takinj;- these notes we will be-
i(in in another way. Your name will ring in your ears
every second of your life till insanity comes. Vou ar not
jrotng to publish any of yonr experiences for the very
.i^ood reason that you arj^oing- to stay here till deth comes."

*'.'/

•4

26. "Our bnsiness is 'to der.troy faith, hut Ift us change
the subject and be^rin work. Concentrate yonr eyes mi
thai board in front of you Concentrate-your-eyes-on^
that-board." 1 kept my eyes in every other direction in
spite of a strong- desire to do what they told me and the
voice kept on with the drear) command. It became next
Jo unbeurabl to listen to it, They ar savage in their

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^u;k i;nsi,f.n companions.

cruelty. T.ookin^^ over my shorthand notes of this inci-
dent 1 find that I hav writn "Wlnit is tlie use of all liiis
tyranny? Why is it thai ])fn])l don't understand what is
l^oinj;- on behind the scenes? There is no question in my
mind that wv would he tar better to let the occult world
strictly ah me."

No (|nestion now, indeed I

27. (»nc day I was walkinj^' thru the floor of the her-
mitage wonderinjjf whetlier th(.'ri' was not nu^ro psychic
influence around us than clswhere when a fi'cTul who had
had some experience with delirium tremens came forward
and said — " Don't you think that there is a sj^ood deal
more psychic influence around us in this ])Iacc ilian 'any-
where els ?"

He just repeated the queslion ihai I was askinj; myself
and the voices arose. " Do you yet understand hcj\v we
make men and women obey our orders thru mtatal
suggestion ?"

Just a coincidence, you sa\ again, but suppose I could
tell you of a hundred '^uch " comcidences " what then?
A few establish the pnncipl just as well, for to a greater
extent than many imagin, this is how we ar acted upon.

To illustrate again, let nic icll you of something that
happened. Suppose that I wa.^ conscious of the presence
of my unseen companions and that they communicated
with me by the — impression-route, — by a route that is as
certain as if T herd the voices and that 1 was taking a few
lessons in how the world is governed. Suppo.se further,
that it i . not necessary to put down a hundred instances
to make the principl clear to those who believ in the
doctrin that we ar continually iinder the influence of two
opposing powers and we ar redy.

I was sitting in church one Sunday and as the u.shers
kiegan to take up thi.' collection the thor came to me,
and I knew where it came from, What if one of the baskets

STRAY NOTKS.

191

should f.'Ul .".nd the money should roll on the floor ? That
was not the first time the thot had come to me in a life-
time, I am well aware, but it was the first time I had ever
seen the basket fall within aminute from the time the thot
came into my mind, and the one basket was no sooner
lifted than another rolled on the ihutv acro^'s the aisle
from where I was sitting. An(] then the questit-n came
inaudibly as it had come tnany tinu's, '' Do you ^ee how
the puppets, the pawns ar acted ui)on ?"

The men who were passing the baskets let their minds
wander tor a brief second under the inlluence of their
unseen companions and the work was done.

An engineer wrecks his train and we ar horrified when
we take up the Morning Howler to see the account of the
wreck. They were at his side supplying the material for
the Spanish castls he was building. lie smiled as they
rose in the air but kept his eye ahed and his hand on the
lever. Just as they came near the switch, however, the
material was supplied for the airy tower on the corner of
the building, and the engineer wavered at the critical
minute and the damage was done. The tower had to be
built. He could not help smiling as the load of fresh
material came forward, but he saw thru it when he
tumbld off the engin.

Sometimes it is the telegraf operator who marches
around the hatlments of his castls and shouts for the
warder. Harmless enuf once m a while, but one night
they caut him napping and we red of it next morning.
And so it is in all the relations of human life.

"I hav been fortunate in typewriting this book. "I said
to myself. " I hav not spoiled a whole line since I
began." I went on and smiled, and kept on my gard, for
I know wb' sei.ds the thots now, and how necessary it is
to be careful. But I soon became so interested that I
forgot all about my caution, and before I knew how it
happend 1 had writn one line on the top of another. A

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OIJH INSRKN ( OMI'ANHINS.

Strange coincidence? A moment of foigolfulness and
you write on without chaniij^inji; the machine And the
question comes again to your mind, " Do you see liow it
is managed ?"

r went into a st<jre once to buy some wearing a])parel,
as the old frase has it. and just as the bundl was handed
me (he clerk said, •• I »on't yon want a pairot suspenders ?"
1 know that such questions ar often askt at dry goods
stores, hut this happfud to be one where they hav sens
enuf to let the custonur depart in peace after iie buys
what ,\v. wants. It so happend that I really needed the
galluses, but I had forgotten all about it.

And again my unseen trends askt me in an inaudibl way,
"Do )(ui now see why some men ar prosperous in this
world and others fail ?" The devil can help a man a good
deal if he chooses. It all depends if the man is going in
the right direction to pleas the devil. He supplies the
inspiration. Ccm we not find wclthy Christians then '
What does the New Testament say about it ? Never
mind tlie intellectual expositions of the New Testament
you hear, (io to the book itself and see what it says.

Von construct a theory, you tell tne, and make the facts
to fit it ? f know what 1 am speaking al)out. Every day
of your life you repeat the words that ar sent to you.
Your business is to walch them that you may use only
tlie right kind.

And now how do you like it as far as you hav got f
And hav you time to read over that sermon in chapter
two ? You may read it more intelligently now, for your
mind is changed since you red it last time. It really
does not matter if you ar a doctor and want to jump on
the book with both feet. Ideashav a certain influence upon
you and you c.mnot help it. The evil spirits repeated
lies to me so often that while I despised them I could
not help being alTected lo some degree, and we ar all in
the same boat, Ideas rule the v^'orld.

hTRAV VOTKS.

«9.{

28. Spoakinjif about ideas ruling' the Wf)rld, diil you
ever jiotice the low, unworthy j)ictures which appear in
our two lea(linj»' comic wceklifs? I'Zvcry man in good
helth enjoys a littl amusemeiU, l>iil 1 cannot remember
the time when I ever sa\s' anything to hif at in some of
the pictures that j^reet our eyes every week. They raise
hell. That i.^ jjlain language, but it is the truth. There
is a legitimate field for caricature, and I enjoy an amusing
picture as much as most, but look at the pictures of Irish-
men, Negroes and tranip.s, walking delegates, or anyone
who has the misfortune to displeas the masters of the "art-
ists " who draw them. Any man with a glimps of art-
istic feeling knows that there is limit to caricature, but
when you begin to draw men with as close i reseml)lance
to animals as you can, you overstep the limit. Look at
the faces you see every week. Uo yon think any man
with true artistic feeling; would draw thein"' Only tlie
bungler has to depend upon such work.

An artist can draw an amusing picture that will not
raise bail feelings in the minds ot the men who look at it.
Not very much hell, you understand -we ar always in
such a hurry — just a littl every week; a littl more con-
tempt for your fellow beings, a littl more race hate here
on American soil, where it should be forgotten, and the
work goes bravel) on.

And yet these papers go into the homes of cultured
peopl. It is very strange that Christians should take
them and spred thenj before their children every week.
They contain evil ideas, bad for the men who draw them,
and worse, if possibl, for those who look at them. We
hav herd a good deal about the raising of artistic taste,
and there is room for it, and furthermore it is an easier
matter to change the tone of all our papers than many im-
agin. The subscription ofHce rules the paper to .some
littl extent. '' Weary Waggles," '* Dusty Rhodes," and
the others hav been sadiv overworkt Could you not

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wnrnmi

>94

ODK LNSKKN COMPANIONS.

ijo irnliKtil i(» be a liltl inoii- incrtiful t<» the poor
wrclchcs'

A iiit'Uibcr of]);itl.mR'ntovtr ill Kiij^laiul ilu* other yoai
thrashed an artist whii took |;reater liberties with his
mouth than were warranted by Iey;itiinate earieature
The artist hail used the i)eneil to spoil the mouth of the
meiubcr, and tlu- member used his hand to spoil the
mouth of the artist vStduethin^ niitjht easily be said in
favor ot tin- member if foree is to rule the workl.

H). And speaking about inspiration what about inven-
tion? Ar our j^reat inventors not quite so ^reat as some
of them ima^in? What of the W(mderful inventions that
startl us sometimes' Can it be that t<t a larjje extent they
come when they ar needed and when they ar ^iven? Of
eours, we hav tt) work for them as we hav for everything"
on erth that is woith having- our minds must be oeeii-
pied in the rij^lit direction, but what if just a litll inspir-
ation is jfivcn to cheer you up when things ar jji^etting
dull?

30. How did it happen th;it Christ came when (ireek
was nearly the universal lan^uaj^e and Rome had made
the world aecessibl' In short, does the machine run loo.se
or is it carefully watched' But if Sancho Quixote goes
on much longer in this strain the heathen will rage, and
the doctors imagin vain things.

31 Wdliam Co')beti said a long while ago that a
farmer's boy usually has a better memory than a fdosofer
or a man of lerning. The man depends \ipon note books;
the boy depends upon his hed.

I hav spoken of being obliged to wait a littl for words
during the first months of the attack, and I sometimes
forgot verses of a hymn or song that had been familiar to
me. '*No, you will go on to the next vers until we allow

SIRAV NOTKH.

«o$

you to come b.ick. Wo ar ratlu-r tired of tV it Christian
anthology "

'I'lien aJ,^'lill tlu; IIxkI j^ates were opciul and 1 rtnu-m-
herd things forgotten for a (]iiarter of a century. The
experienic was ani;i iig to nie. Words. iik":is. tliots. ex
pressions, wen- resi reeled in a flood I forgot a great
many words and names and verses until the pressure was
removed, ami I rememSerd things 1 had torgotlin. What
does this mean? That our memory is at the command of
good and bad spirits? That as our system becomes out
of order the evil spirits acquire a greater power ami ex-
ercise It? '"liat we ar instruments to be played upon, but
with the power of judging and so with the power of male
ing ourselves practically what wc pleas in normal sur-
roundings? for 1 am always on my gard against some of
our cultured freiuls in the ])ulpit. 'i'he building of a
mind is a very serious matter accoriling to tins theory It
has to be llld with good, and unfortiuialely with bad thots
from infancy up, and the fight rages without an end. The
anoels hav nothing to do but .sing? Woe's me. Tell them
that, and sec what reply you wdl get.

M. Sarcey, the Parisian critic wrote an interest mg
anicl on memory for the *' Figaro " that is (pioted in the
New York "Sun " of March jgth. i8(^() He says; " Who
in conversation, in seeking a name, a date, or any detail
that fbes before the memory and escapes, has m i cried
our in a tone of impatience, ' I hav it on the ti] of my
tung '* And true enuf that name, that date, ^.»r that
detail is on the tip of the tung."

The evil s^nrits put a good many expressions on the tip
of my tung, so that it seemed strange to me that I did not
express them aloud. Can it. be that the good ones bring
what is well for us to remember to the tip of our tung
and the evil ones bring what is undesirabl when our own
memorv falters at the work '' Ar the good ones not
stroujij- enuf to tell us all that is necessary ? What about

196

OUR UNSEKN COMPANIONS.

free will excrciseil in the past, that has made our body a
machine with some slight defects acquired or inherited ?
And who knows but that we get all we need in the long
run, and who knows too but that y^rayer may change the
ccmditions and put us into a frame of mind that will enabl
the good spirits to help us more without touching our
glory and oiv danger -free agency ? But we ar perhaps
going too far. The only excuse is that Sancho Quixote
writes to mental suggestion, and it Hashes from both sides
fast enui: to alarm the skeptics. It is more than likely
that our memory works automatically but it is clear that
our un.secn companions hav power over it too.

" II seems," to go oack 10 M. Sarcey, "as if the
slightest efiort \Nould suffice to formulate it; but by what
strange fenomenon does it refuse to allow itself to be
captured ? The more you follow it the more it runs back
into the depths of the mind."

"There ar peopl with whom these failures of memory
ar frequent and insupportabl. For my own part I am
very subject to them. In conversation when I suffer from
them 1 hav Uj be resigned, but in public speaking T find
the inconvenience very painful. I am never sure that
I may not hav to stop short before the name of the author,
or of the book that I am talking about. That name
I hav pronounct alredy ten times in the cours of my
lecture; but suddenly it vanishes from my memory. I
hav it on the tip of my tung, but the timg remains
powerless.

" What is the caus of it? That is a question which
I hav often askt myself, and many others must hav askt
themselves the same question ; becaus in reality this
diseas is very common, and the theater continually
draws comical scenes out of it.

"After thirty years of exile, you return to the land
where your childhood was past, and no sooner hav your
eyes gazed upon the old town clock than a swarm of

STRAY NOTES.

^97

rccoHections that hav slept tor years becomes aroused
and hams again. .

vVhat ar we to conclude from this, if not that of ail the
recollections that ar stored in our mind, about one-third
ar constantly at our disposal for our daily 'ise, while the
other two-thirds ar put away in drawers whose keys we
hav lost." Very well saitl. M. Sarcey, but who has the
keys ?

' Maury, who publisht a very reniarkabl study of
dreams, gfivs a fact that a first sight seems marvelous.
He returned after a long- absence to his native place. One
nig-iit he dreumd that a gentlman. who, in dreamland
only, he recognized as an old acquaintance, came to see
him. When he awoke he rememberd distinctly the face
of the frend of his dream, but he didn't troubl himself
about it, and regarded the whole affair as one of those
dreams in which the imagination alone is set in motion,
and which correspond with no reality. The next day, to
his intens surprise, he met the frend of his dream, with
the same name and the same face. It was a frend for
many years forgotten. The fenomenon is singular, but
it is easily explained. During the sleep of Maury his
mind, aroused by the incidents of his voyage, opend the
drawer where the memory of that frend was sleeping,
and the chance of the meeting did the rest." Who sent
the dream, M. Sarcey ?

" During the last few years there hav been many ex-
periments made in England with what is called the 'magic
mirror.' " (Far too mi.ny.) '• These experii.ients consist
in fixing the eyes stedily for a few moments upon any
brilliant surface, a glass, or even oil poured upon a dish."
(1, Sancho Quixote, was more ambitious, and took a ceil-
ing and also white paper, where I saw a great many pretty
sparks of fire, but the glass will work just as well.) '*The
subject who fixes his eyes upon this magic mirror falls in-
t'^ a state of hypnotism, " (That is just what he does, M,

:''>.

'.f

■r

tgS

Ol'k IINSFI'.N roMPAMONS.

v^.u\\>y, aiul il vlr[K>mls ujion lu>\\ his system is whether
he j;et.seasily into it aiul oavily vui <>l il. Vcrbiini sap.)
'* There he sees \uulerthe form of imas^es lotij^lost reeol-
leetioiis. l'\)r instance, a wnnian who had eonipletely f'or-
i^ottenaii iniporiant address saw in the mirror an I'nveh^p
npon whii'h she red it. '

Hut vou know well ennf. lioeloi-, that she only itna^ind
she saw it. altlio die letter would reaeh the address all
rii^ht' Sly oKI doi^ , tile doctors. Hrinjij alonj.; tin plethys-
nu)_>;raf'

"The explanation of all is that the drawer was opend
and tlk'.t is the hole <d" it." Not quite, M. Sareey. Wht)
opendit? (. >i' supposini.; that we even aeeejJt the theory
that onee \ou .>;i-t \onr mind in a certain slate thru hyp-
notism, eonceuMatii^n, oi wIku \o\.\ plea.s, all knowledge
flows in ui)on it. lunv did FrcMich l)e,<;in to (low in »>n me
when 1 was not thinkiui; ot' il at all? Why not iMiglish?
And how does it eonie it" the mind works automatically
in this condition my tr.emoiv was \n\)t to a standstill at
the will oi those oti the other side;* "We sln)\dd bear
well in mind that we do not really know what our mem-
ory eont.iins, bi-cau.s we luiv not the power to call up at
will evi.M-ythnii; tliat it contains and tv) empty all its cor-
ners. Riit. on the other hand, those corners open some-
times ot' themselves ("■■) and pitch out before our eyes ob-
jects that we believd were lost. In this way we can ac-
count in the simplest and nu>st natural manner for all the
mysterious .momalies o( memor>'. "

Mr. Sareey, .i.^ "ThcvSun" comments, writes entertain-
ini>ly, but he w<'uld bo surprised if he underwent a eours
of traininj; in the occult school to find how easily the
memory is acted upon.

Dreams hav inteliiirences at the other end. Fill vour
stomach too full and your unseen companions begin w«.>rk
when vou sleep in order to keep vour brain on the stretch.
Good spirits ur not inclined to disturb your rest. They

STRAY NOTES.

199

know better thnn some of our political economists and
some of our ministers that when the body is not well
taken care of the nation v 11 suffer in the lon,i( run.

Alfred Russel Walhiee speaks of the number of Com-
mon|)lace i)cop1 who die every year, and ha^.rards the
conjecture that they will find part of their plesure in
fillin|Tf our minds with dreams that ar really of no conse-
quence. Dreams d(^ not c<mie of themselves — yon ar safe
to conclude tlvit. Perhaps it would be as well if, like Mr.
Cleon whom old Plutarch tells ug of, we had never had a
dream in our life. Was he a perfect specimen of tisical
manhood?

32. "And so you want to know the blackness of the
human hart, do you? Well, we will pfratify you." A
strange panorama was unfolded before me — a waitini,^ uni
vers. "Now, then, here is a univers of being's like your-
self who ar about to perish. Woidd you consent to anni-
hilation to save them?" xVnnihilation? Annihilation?
Once it had sounded half reasonabl, but now- "There is
no need of thinking- any long'er on the subject. You ar
like the rest of the human race— selfish to the core. A
race of cowards. All you Ciire for is enjoyment, cnjov-
ment. " Well, what do you think of it? We mig^ht be will-
ing to die in the body, but we expect to liv again. But
annihilation ? Forgetfulness? That may suit some of our
dreamy oriental trends, but most Anglo-Saxon peopl want
to liv tin and grow. There is something in us that rebels
at the idea of being ])ut out of existence.

3 ;. What is space!^ What is eternity? We cannot
comprehend the meaning of the expressions. They ar
beyond our reach. And then we think of God and the
awful univers he upholds. "Stop it you fool, stop it or
your hed will burst. That is lunv mad houses ar fild. "

34. Hav you ever been in the habit of frightening

ii>?

. /

«do

OUR i'nsf.i:n companions.

children with gost stories? It is surprising how many
there ar who indulge in this practice. Fill their minds
with luv and not with dred. A book of this kind should
never be placed within their reach. Should never be
writn? vSancho Quixote lookt over the field and conclud-
ed that there was room for one more book in this world.
There ar some older children who would do well to read it.

l^c,. There is one kitid of hypnotism put to two uses.
There is the devil's use, and there is another use to allay
human suffering during an operation or anything of that
nature. Is it not a kind of a miracl when used for bene-
ficent purposes? Could the operator not cure diseas in
the same way by an exercise of faith? Richard Roe
cured me and why not others. Who causes diseas? Our-
selves veiy often. Wlio acts upon the system and holds
back nature from effecting a cure? Evil spirits? And
supposing to lead others astray after false Gods they take
their influence off tme of our "prominent and influojntial
citizens" and keep it off? A dangerous business all thru,
but I thro out these hints to irritate the faculty.

36. The following articl from the '•Filadelfia Ledger" is
worthy of your attention. Sancho Quixote marks it O.K.
And how do you like the new speling of the Quaker City?

' MENTAL vSELF-CONTROL.

There is one part of personal culture which receivs very
littl consideration, i. e., the direction and guidance of the
thots. The habits we acquire, the principles we espous,
the duties we perform or neglect, the temptations w^e re-
sist or yield to. the words we speak and the influences we
exert ar matters upon which we ar often urged to be vigi-
lant; but the thots and imaginings which pass thru the
mind ar seldom brot up for scrutiny. There ar two reas-
ons for this — first, they ar so entirely hidden from gthers

STRAY NOTKS.

20I

■ J'

that all the class of motivs which include the hope of es-
teem or the fear of censure ar quite inoperativ; and,
secondly, we ar accustomed to consider them so involun-
tary as to prevent any serious sens of responsibility. The
. first of these reasons is undoubtedly operativ. No one
but ourselvs knows what we ar thinking- about; therefore,
we can be held accountabl for our reflections only to our
own consciences. The second, however, is only partly
correct. Impressions and conceptions do float thru our
minds unbidden ; but we ar not unabl to arrest them, to
correct them, to turn them into other channels, or to dis-
miss them altogfether. The power to do this resides in
every sane person, and the degree to which it is devoiopt
marks with tolerabl certainty the strength of the mind
and the manliness of the character. There ar weak and
indolent dreamers who ar slaves to their fancies, who care
not to break their chains, and whose ability to do so is
stedily dimishing. Yet even in them it may be reinstated,
nor is it ever wholly extinct, save in those unfortunate
cases when, thru diseas or injury, reason has been driven
from her throne.

The human mind is never wholly inactiv in its waking
hours. No matter how passiv or how idle we may be, the
thots and the fancies ar busy, with or without our will.
Sometimes, indeed, they act energetically, in obedience
to our purpose. We set ourselvs to work to think out a
problem, to weigh an argument, to arriv at a decision, to
fathom an idea, to consider the details of a plan or apiece
of work, and our thots serv us well or ill according to their
training. To think consecutivly and to a conclusion is
one of the supreme arts of life, and the power to do it is
one of the best gifts that education can bestow. Beyond
this, however, there is a vast amount of musing and medi-
tation that seems to go on within us involuntarily. Pictures
rise up of the past as it was or might hav been, of the
future as we hope or fear it may be. These ar tnore or

■4<

It.'. 1

■■i

•i

202

nl K rNsl.KN < (IMIWNIONS.

loss vaj^ut' ami imlistiiut ; but t hoy cither «;r(»vv in dcar-
iiess or faclo away, aooordiui; to the intorost they excite
within ns. Sonietitnos thoso lloatinyi" noti(^ns will lake the
fonn of sni;j;ostions, .iml will pass into timI jMirposos,
whioh at put into oxivution. In the Vi-nls ol anothor,
"The mitnl plavs witl the piolurcot" thoni, iiutil smUlenly
the picture has hecoino a tact." Many a oriinc, from
which iho iloor would once liav shrunk in horror, has
slowly shapeJ itself in hou's of secri-i ntcditation ; and
frotn loniLi faniiliarity in solitary ihot has lost itsrcpnlsiv-
ness. .-ind assumed astrcnv;th and proportion sutVicient to
i-roate tiie actual deed. < >n the other hand, many an act
o{ duty or solf-saeritieo, at lirsi supposed to be impt)ssibl.
has by continual contemplation become so attuned to the
dispositi(>n that it has been perfornul with eas and even
with pie sure.

Kvon where these imaiiinings ai not veali/ed in activ
life, thev promote various mental conditions and nourish
varitMis v-nnuions. A f.iint suspieioit entering the mind
anvl brooded upon will often tlcxelop into jelotisy, atiijer
and hatred; while, on the other hand, pure and noblethots
chorisht will m.ike the character more pure anil nobl. We
can brood ui)on v>nr trcnibls until they become unbearabl.
or we oati dwell n]iou »Mir blossiuos ntttil our harts ar
melted into that\ktuitu>ss. We can pt>nder over the faults
of onr noiv;hb(n\s until we ar imbued with ilisapproval and
contempt, or wo can muse upon their redeeminsij cpinHties
till the kitully svtnpathics <»f onr nature assert themselves.
Self-eompanionsiiip, indeed, is more itiflnential in form-
inj>- character .md rejjulatitii; lift' than any other intercours.
It is more constant, more nnconstraind, more absohitelv
sincere. Vet, to make its intluenco truly salutary, we
must direct its eo\irs, and not sutler it t(^ drift with wind
and tide. We must be master of t^ur thots. as well as of
our actions; we must control the mental pictures in which
we indul>;e. as nuich as the words which isbue frotn our
lips, — I\laihlriii Led^t-r.

SVK \V N(»r|.,S

••*

37. Yes, ovir tliotsar far niori" important than \vc imapin,
or clstliorc vvouKl not be such a strugj^-l bch'nd the sccnos
to keep <»ur niituls full It is an awful mystery. Our
bodies ar l>attl tidds ftdl ot eonundinj^ ii(»sts; f)ur minds
ar baltl fii'lds; uk u war with one another in eity and in
country ; nation is arrayed a^Ljainst nation and continent'
against continent, and in the unseen world there is raj»e
and unreasonin)^ hate and uu^raU ful warfare against the
calm luv. the wonderful power that hears us all up, star
upon star, sun upon sun and system upon system.

(lod is luv, we say. < lod is strife, is practically the
answer of tin* expounders t^( the survival of the fittest as
an cN-cuse tor a eonlitiiialion of the industrial tyrany that
is crushing the life out of their fellow being's. We point
to thv" st.ars llaniing around ns in tnajesty and grandeur
from gciieratioti uni<' geiuMMiion, from cycle unto cycle,
so orderly in their co.rses that the m.ui of .science can tell
to the hour when thi\\- will roll past a certain point in
their immens oibiis, anJ !he\- point to lions and tigers
teaiing one ant)ther to pieces ;is a SN-inbol of what man
made in the image of his Maker should be.

3H. We ha' I'ccu deluged witii NaiH)leonie literature
for the lasi ft-w ycai's. but how many of those who hav
red it h.iv evei' herd the voice of the Corsican? I
came to umlerstand that my business was to g'et out of
re:ich (>\ these uiu-rthlv xoiecs. but as I could not throw
them off all at one 1 lisicnd \o his voice on several
occasions. Was it hi; voice? 1 was so assured, and he
spoke good I'^rencli. 1 migln hav herd the voices of the
great i]ci\ li.ul 1 wisht. I herd the vcuces of some g'rcat
men but it was against my will. That was another of
their traps to ki. op ine wisiiing to remain anmng them.

39. 'I hey followed me to cluirch as regularly as els-
whcre. Satan and his ho.sts ar alw.ivs at church rain or

.104

OIK I;NSKKN COMI'ANIONS.

> ,

shine. It has been well said tiiat they ar the fiVst to enter
the hiiildingf and the last to leav it. They wrre always
waiting- on me at the hermitage chapel lonjj after I had
eeast to be much tnnibld with them outside. My only
relief was t(i keep my thots fi.\t on the sermon, and listen
as littl as possibl to their comments and criticisms Their
criticisms, as yon may iinajL,Mn, were ^'ery funny indeed.
Men preach to larger audiences than they see around
them.

The first sermon I lisend to in ilie hermitagfc was
from the book of Amos. 1 had been a herdsman in my
younger day like the profet, and they dubd mo "Amos
Junior " that afternoon. Very, very tunny,, without a
doubt, and I had to laf, but when the voice began it was
a very serious matter.

40. What we all lack, more or lt;ss, the medical faculty
included, is moral courage. Tt has been well said that
for a 7nan to deny the facts set forth about the unseen
world of late years is to advertize his own ignorance, but
still there ar many men who will not lern. When Dr.
Hevytop, the well known expert, says that such and
such a theory is true and sets his seal to it in that famous
book, chapter ten, page eighty-three, his professional
brethen, insted of howling at him until they ar sure he is
correct, bow the knee and sing his praises. Long liv
Hevytop, they chant; he and none other is the man
for us.

41. It is scmiewhat amusing to read of the tuss made
over thot transference in these days. On comparing
notes two f rends who ar miles apart find that they hav
had the same thot at the same time. Well, what of it ?
Satan, in the current frase, is working this occult cra'^ •
for all it is worth. Would you judge now that in nine 01; •
jc>f ten of the cases you read of that good spirits sent thw'

StRAV NOTFS.

ao5

thot, especially -Ahon y(,it make arrangements u, sit at a
certain time ^ Do you really think that the beings Dr
Hcpvvorth tells yon rbont ar engaged in that work ' A
man in Europe and another in America hav the same
tliot at the same hour, and we ar properly surprised but
suppose a spirit can flit from Europe to America or to
Mars by wishing for the change ?

" Some flay tho devil's dtnl
Anil buiip.i in KirkcaKly.
Others say lie'll rise aKtiin— "

and others say that he never died. It was a f-il.se
rumor inspired by himself. He is still alive and kicking
and the Christians sleep and tlic doctors dream. A frend
wrote me when in troubl and told me to eat plenty of
half-raw beefsteak and that made them laf. "Anew way
ot exorcising us. Sancho. It will not work. Vour freni
IS making fun of you now."

Let us all take a rest, and try the steak. Sliut your eyes
as the blood squeezes out of it, for youi nervs need
some food. The doctors hav failed but the demons will
make the women take to the open air yet. I believ that
the bicycl is an invention sent from heven to help us in due
t irae. Something was needed and it came. No, you will
not get the storage battery for a long while yet. We need
exercise, open air and sleep, and the battery would keep
your legs at rest and give yon gout. You evidently want
to go thru life on flowery beds of eas.

42. Once when they were putting the pressure on the
small ot my back, which ihey did when it suited them
I rubbed It with liniment and went to bed. I was no
sooner there than a fiery heat arose and the pain left me
But during the action of the liniment my eyes be-an to
wink so fast that I did not knr>w what to' niake^.f it
They continued for several minutes and do the best I
could I was unabl to stop them. The pressure for days
at a time would ofen rise to the top of the hed. It was

206

OVK VSHr.V.S CnMPANIONS.

I I-

not very painful, — it was as if the frolicsome spirits were
at work insted of their stern brotht^rs. I felt as if the
hole brain were prcssin^^ upwards a^'-ainst the skull. It
j,''ave me a sort of a fcelinj;' that I shoukl stretch out my
neck to further the procc'-^ or stand on tiptoe — a sort of
inclination to mount upward, as it wore. It was just the
effect of the medicin I was taking;-, I suppose, but I
hav a theory to lay before you that 1 am not quite sure
about. I thro itout in the interest of science. That feeling-
as if the skull were too small for the brain ment something.
Could it be that I was then in danj^'^er of sulTering from
the g-reat national diseas of big'-hed, or swell-hed as the
vulgar call it ? We all know how prevalent this troubl is,
and if I hav given a hint that will lead to the disco ,-ery of
the germ, bacillus, micrube or whatever }-ou call him, I
shall be only too well pleased. Anything to further
science.

It is time that .sijmething were done to cure ihis troubl.
Things hav come to such a pass that whenever a man
invents a What-Is-It and begins psyc-To-neural mesure-
ments, or gathers forty-nine dollars and fifty-three cents
and opens a bank accoimt that he is seized by the swell-
hed bacilli, and tliere ar tew recorded instances of a
complete cure. ,

tj. An(jther way in which I experienct the curious sen-
sation of the •' something " that enterd the body was as
if 1 was vibrating from hed to foot. The body did not
trembl nor .shake. It v/as more like the motion you feel
on a steamer when the enjoins m.nke it quiver from stem
to stern. It was a strong vibratory motion not altogether
iinplesant and not so overpowering as the other that
"swisht" thru me. There ar some men--great men
too, who can '-dominate" this odylic force as ea.sily as
they can dominate the sunlight, but as I said in the be-
ginning we ar not all successful. A .strange world for

STRAY NOTKS.

207

science to c^jnquer yet. and as our life is much fuller than
the life of our .ijr.ind fat hers, so our jj^ranckhildren will
smile at the ignorance of peopl who did n(U understand
the vast forces that lie between the forty thousand vibra
tions and the six billion.

But they will hav one great troubl on their shoulders.
Theyar sure to be afflicted with l'insanit6des grandeur,^ or
swell-hed. They cannot escape it if heredity is all
that the men of science claim. We ar laying a strong
foundation.

44. Satan has been reasoned out of existence. "In
our age of Downpulling and Disbelief the very Devil has
bf-en pulled down. You cannot so much as believ in a
Devil." Well, it appears to me that these evil .spirits
must hav a leader. We hav it on good authority that
Satan leads them ; but do away with him altogether, do
away with fallen angels, and say that my unseen com-
panions were simply men and women after deth, and ar
you in any better a position? Wors, T often thot. Surely,
I thot, human beings cannot descend so low. They do
evil continually They ar savage ^*n their desire to drag
us down. They foment strife, infl ime our minds against
one another and devour weak and strong, and they begin
their evil work upon children before they can walk. You
said now when you red that, " That is carrying it too far. "
Let us see. Wher.does the temper of a child come from?
Hav you ever seen them angry enuf to tear the trees up
by the roots if they had the power? Heredity? Certainly.
But if they were let alone by those who torment thein
they would remain quiet when they often yell Their
nervs are twitcht. Why apply the rod? A quoi bon?
Well, the evil spirits hav to i)e kept imder, but the par-
ents often punish the child when they themselvs need the
rod.

It is an old theorj', and I hav always lookt upon it as an

s -.

»oS

01;R tlNSK.KN COMPANIONS.

•*

i>;tiorant supcrsiiliun that evil spirits cause dispas. They
don't do it directly, but they su^j^jest the teni])tation : we
sin and suft.jr fisically, and so lay our bodies open to
their attacks. " Palpitation " is not .so hard to cans after
you get irito a certain fisical condition.

Nature would brin^i- us out of most of our troubls if they
would let her alone, but they liv to destroy. Medicin
puts us in a position to Iceep them at bay for a time and
giv nat\jre a chance. Why do they hav this power? Why
do you hav the power to eat a hevy dinner? And prayer
may ^iv j^ood spirits more power to help nature without
interferinj; with free will? The temptati«jns for tho.sc
whit yri) to the next world on the evolutionary plan with
all their hates burning may be to influence tho.se they
knew and hated on crth, and to drag them down as much
as they can. You think when you hang a man you get
rid of b.is intUience? It may be.

I hav been ernest on the subject of social reform before,
becaus 1 knew how necessary it was from the spiritual
standpoint; but never did I understand till lately the
frightful importance of proper hygienic conditions, I
don't believ in anarchy par le fait, but I am now in-
clined to think that if .some one were to blow the hole
accursed fever-breeding, helth -destroying tenements in
the air he would be a benefactor of coming generations.
Bad helth givs evil spirits power. They feed men with
ambitious ideas, they feed women with pride, and .so we
hav palaces on one side, and soul -destroying hovels
where children cannot get a breth of fresh air on
the other, and cultured preachers turn their beds the
other way, and the devil seniles at it all as of old, and hell
rejoices.

If there is no such being as vSatan it is clear that our
fellow mortals hav sunk so low in the next world that
only a foolish man would think of taking chances with
the great btruggl before him. Clearly, if the theory

STRAY NtHRS.

ao9

is tnir some of them hav been nnoqual to the task, or els
the temptations ar as .ijreat there as here, and porha^is
jfrcator, and hav dra^^;^ed them down. And then by Ic^is-
h\tinj.i Satan out of existence how do you explain the
New Testament ? Or the Old '

45. Vou ar wulkin.i,^ ahm.q; the street on a fine sum-
mer day and you S(>c a larcce crowd jjatherd around some-
thing" that seetns to be interesting^. You walk forward
and find that two do^s ar fightin^j, and the men and boys
ar urj;in}.( them on.

A littl further down the street you see another crowd
and yf>u push your way thru it and you find twomenham-
merint,^ away at one another. The bf)ys set the docfs fight-
ing but who set the men at it? Your unseen companions
ar all around you, the one side strivini^ for peace and the
other pouring hate and anger thru the nervs until the
men cannot stand the [)rcssure, for they hav yielded too
often in the past, and they spring at the Satanic work.

You go further down the street to the office of your old
frond about that littl matter you wanted settld, and the
first thing you know yo\i and he ar quarreling, and you
ar away home denouncing him in your hart for an nn-
reasonabl scoundrel. You did not know that Satan had
the trap red)-, lie knew you were going to present that
bill at that time and he had l^'en preparing to meet it.
That morning your neighbor's wife did not get the milk
for the brekfast, for the milkman had forgotten it for the
first time in six months- Satan had cant him na])ping
— and your neighbor, a mild man under ordinary trials,
has always become furious when he had no milk to his
coffee. His wife told him the truth. She had swallowed
her wrath a dozen times in their married life when the
milk was sour or the man had not called, but that morn-
ing she broke loose and the judge was piping mad when
you met him. Satan triumfed all around, Two families

aro

ovn uN^rr.N roMPANfcms.

were sopavMlrd atul kI.iuhI at one another, and the milk-
inaii was ihsoliai j^cd It was a ^rcat ilay in l\oll. I^'vcry-
ono ronnts thri'c. Wli.il is the ouro' Soniolhinu wo
don't hav nicckne>.s. vvliieli js dilTcient from inibceilil y,

of fOlltS.

Many millionaires ar eauv;lU in tin* same way. Tliey ar
bvptu)ti;.eil to swindl .nul lie and steal thru their a-'ents,
for thev ar tart<H> well hri'd lor the ilirty work themseivs
rtow, atul then to b\iiUI ehurehes with the proecods of their
villanv while the men who rc^illv «)t to know better ^o
tiowMi vu their knees b(>l(>re them and thank them ftir
their j>oodness. A mail wcvld.

Did you ever h^ok at th.d mirael a newspaper printini;'
maehine? There is half an aere of wheels at\d shafts ami
pvillcys aiul rollers if it was all spred out. Suppose wIumi
it is rollinjj otT the moininv; eilition at the r;itc of 'steenth
tl\ons;Mul copies a^x hour yon were to take a baj; of sand
and bej;in to pour it amoni> the wheels what would hap-
p(M\? A v;ood many spoiled et)pies would likely be turned
out. Suppose yoii were to take .i hammer and smash one
o\ the small wheels, the maehine would ivrind on, but
ever\' wheel ev>unts atid the loss oi {^nc means troul>l. Our
world is like aprintin^; maelui\(> rolliue, olV its thousands of
eopies every day. but thet^xil spirits di^ tioihin.i; els than
pi>ur in sand anion t;- the wheels and a i^iuhI manv of the
copies ar spoiled an«.l most ar blurred one wav oram^ther.
Sometimes they sueeeeil in bre.'.kiuj^ a wheel, as when
they tumbl a (ireeee or a Rome, .and yet it is stran.i;e that
they can only do their wvuk slowly. Httl by littl. Take
up the paper when it comes from the juess, for exampl.
and you w ill read y^\ a buililmg f.dlins; ilown .ind killini^ a
dozeti men. or of an "aeeidont" in a mine brins^inj;- about
the deih o\ a luindred, Xatural law, vou sav. Ves, but
why w.is the buiUlinii erected in ilerianee ot all the l.iws
of Q-ood construction? Why was the mine in an unsafe
condition? Becaxis oi ideas. The devil persuaded the

SlkAV NOTKS.

a 1,1

owners in hdth cases that they needed more money, and
still moif, and the result was widows and tathcrl<;ss eliil-
dren, the destrncti(»n of t heir bodily helth thru poverty,
and a (hndl's d.inrc over it all ( lood bnildin;.', laws, j(ood
sanitation, i^'ood I'aetory laws, ^^ood mining; laws defeat
the work of cvil s])irils and save souls. We hear a ^ood
deal ahoul those who ar to wear "stai less eiov«'ns. " Tliere
ar many men alivt; t(»-day who wotdd be confent to wear
them to all eternity if they eonld only improve the envir-
<»nment of their fellows here. 'IMie next time your minis
ler tells you that environment does not eount tell hini
frankly that he is an ass.

What of d«'th too -• Well, we all commit suieide. Bvery
time we sin, every time we nurse an evil idea we hurt our-
selvs I know that too, for F have been there. The wajfcs
of sin is deth. Why do so many peo|)l die before their
tim(»? Sin. Tliey may not bi' res|)oiisibl. It may iiav
l)cen the fatlun', the j.jrandfather, or even the ^reat-j^^rand-
mother, altho by that time if we were vvisc we could jii^et
rid of the efFeet of sin, but we ar not wise. I am too
[)!oud, vou ar too j)roud It ha.s been said that forecniust
rule the wH:)r]d. 'I'herc never was a more wretched mis-
take. Meekness must nde the worKl, and if we were all
meek the purposes of the demons would be utterly defeat-
ed, but ai^ain T am too proud, yon ar too])rond. and they
make pawns of us and of tenest of those who don't believ
it. It has been said that if two antrels were sent to erth,
tlie one to sweep street^ and the other to ^n)vern an em-
pire ihey would be redy to exchange tasks at any time, but
try men' Vsk his Unscrene Hij]^hness, Siii^nor Buona
parte to take a broom and see what will happen, or if you
doti't care to go so far back into history read "Society as
I hav found It," or a snob cUseussion on "What to do
with our ex-Presidents. " That is how the evil spirits get
their hold.

But as to deth all is in the hands of (.lod "Without

■:"1

f ';

*r»

OVk UNSfcEN COMl'ANIONS.

TTis loav they pass no threshold o'er." I beliov that He
"interferes" witli natural law f)('tcncr than we suppose, hut
as a rule i{ seems to hold the fieUl and it is well, it is ri^ht,
bceaus it must be. But what ai;aiii if prayer in complete
faith triumfs? I do not believ and never hav believed in
fore-ordination— 1 believ in free-will limited, of cours, by
our environments and training -You ar at liberty to set
fire to your neij^hbor's house, but you do not mean to do
it; your free-will is held \n eiieek by your eotunion sens;
God'ssovereignty and yonr free-will mareh hand in hand.

What then of bati, murder and sudden deth? Just
the result of ideas, and pursue them to their source and
you find evil spirits. What of plai;ue and pestilence?
Ideas a<^ain. Cholera sometimes comes from the Holy
Well of Mecca. They will never clean out that well. The
sky would fall if they did, and so we suffer from the ideas
which hav held tiiem by the throat fi)r centuries.

Ar we not sometimes punisht by special inflictions tho?.'
We hav to believ that or thro the Bible aside, bu« if we
ar it is again the result of sin — of our own asininity. Only,
demons and fools shriek that God is a tyrant. CJod isluv.

And when children die? Well, their bodies ar not strong
onuf to bear the attacks of discas and evil spirits assault
them and end their lives on erth, but the creation of mind
goes on after "deth. " "Tliere is no deth ; what seems so is
transition." Read Longfellow's beutiful poem of "Resig-
nation." If God sees best, these, tons, natural laws ar
overnild,butevery bullet, as a rule finds its billet accord
ing tothe laws that regulate its cours. We cannot expect
to be protected if we make targets of ourselvs. Every
plague sweeps oti' the just and the unjust.

Why. then, hav the evil spirits power to fill our minds
with ideas v^'hich when yielded to giv them power over
the body — power enuf often to bring about deth, if God
allows them in all cases to end their work? F'ree-will
again. And what becomes of these beings when they ex

■^1 KAV NO I'KS.

2T3

crciso thoir free- will this way? If yon herd them you
would be al)l to partially conL'c-iv what Jity luiv brot
thcinselvs to.

If I hav sometimes writn in a li^ht-harted way it has
been to reliev tiie dreary story I hav told,

•■ Ami Hi) bdtwooii Ilia l»iii kiionB and liiN HiiKhlnoHH
i'lit'io ()HMi K nmtiuil >f liiiioi' of great polltoni'FS '

is all well enuf, but 1 know, and want you to remember^
that theyar liars andprofessionrU murderers, and yet, and
yet they can kill us (jtily thiu ideas. They ar eumpletely
foiled by meekness, but we hav a ]arj>^e share of their
nature and cannot. Ijc meek. It is a foolish idea to suppose
that when children die it is a " visitation of God " altho
lie will l.)rin;4- the l)est possibl issue out of all troubl if we
will. It may be so in exceptional cases, but only, it
seems to me, in very cxcepticmal ones. Most die from
tlsieal causes, and many ar saved from dyin^, I believ,
thru the intervention of our unseen companions. Fresh
air would save hundreds of children in New York evcrv
year. Ood has ^iven us plenty of it; it is we who ar at
fault. Suppose that we could hav things our wa}' and hav
these helthy laws set aside we would all gv to sleep. We
ar dnv(.Mi forward by hiws from which we cannot escape,
in the direction of ])rog"ress and of the glorious civilization
that is looming up in the distance. We must come into
harmony with God's laws or suffer, rich and poor.

The demons sometimes cautioned me not to u.se
strong language against them, and I remember ns I saw
how we were surrounded and acted upon 1 ]3itied the
whole race and myself likewise, as well as the demons
and the millionaires, and 1 feel the same sentiment rising
in me now. But without a singl word or even thot against
any mortal or demon one cannot help being disgusted at
the unchristian, the mad satanic idea of increasing the
standing army, of building batl .ships, forts and armories.
The idea game from evil spirits. Uou't blame them.

'v^l

2T4

OUR UNSEEN COMPANIONS.

Mind ymirself. Force comes natural to us. We find a
thousand excuses for it. but that is how the devil rules us
and i)ours sand amon;jf the machinery. And yet after all
is said we arheld so secure; ag-ainst the assaults of demons,
if we ar anxious to go in the right way, that after you
come to your bearings you can smile at their threts.
God is luv.

46. Ar you ever troubld with insomnia ? Who causes it?
Whose interest is it to keep you in that condition ? Per-
haps it is easier to acquire a certain influence over you
than you imagin. Think it over, and if you don't like
the theory you need not become excited, for they try hard
to anger you. It has a bad effect.

47. Then if you ar not troubld with iuvsomnia do you
ever walk around in your sleep ? I was going along the
principal streets of one of our largest cities one night be-
tween ten and eleven o'clock and I saw a man rushing
along in front of me, drest, as Bill Nye would hav
said, only with an ernest face and a robe de nuit. His
eyes were closed and he did not seem to feel any pain as
his bare feet pattered ahmg the hard pavement. He
walkt on, T presume, until he met a policeman. I watcht
him until he went out of sig-ht, and the men and women
in the street made way for hira respectfully and !aft, of
cours. He was possest. Sometimes they walk along
the roof of a house or in other dangerous positions where
they wouM not venture with their eyes open. If they
ar not all hurled down as some ar it 'S only becaus we ar
cared for by other unseen companions than the evil ones.

The man I saw was fortunate in one respect, at least. I

red some years ag-o that during an earthquake scare in an

Italian town the inhabitants rusht out into the street in

their terror, clad only in distorted faces. It had been an

/ old custom, you see, and ihey had never expected to ^o

STRAY NOTKS.

215

on dress parade at the call of the bell. Next day the
report said, they ai. wended their way to the stores
determind to adopt *he new fashions, and thus civiliza-
tion goes forward even among^ the old fogies by leaps
and bounds.

Only a few weeVs ago I red of a man being buried
alive in London. . Ae stayed below the ground for the
appointed time and then he was dug up. They sow bar-
ley over their graves in India and wait till it sprouts or
ripens before they dig them up, These ar clear cases of
suspended animation — of complete possession — of men
being used to spread devil worship

48. And again the other day I red of a "hypnotist"
taking some of the poor boys he carries around with
him and exhibiting them before an audience with pins
stuck into their flesh and with all the other accompani-
ments. *Thc doctors were ihere and they surrounded the
victims watch, in hand. We read of great abuses in the
Parisian hospitals thru hypnotism, but we don't hav to go
quite so far from home sometimes.

The left puis of one of the "subjects" was made to
beat at one rate of speed, the right puis at another, and
the hart at another still, — nothing so very remarkabl
after all. Just New Testament possession at the end of
the nineteenth century, with this difTerence that it is now
applauded by Christians.

During one of my worst nights I was awakened and
went to the window of my small room and my hart b3-
gan to beat to the voices I herd. When the voices went
fast the hart followed, ..r'"" when the time was changed so
were the hart beats, and the change came every other
minute. Had a doctor of the old school put his ear to my
hart then he would hav orderd a coffin, but we shall loav
him to say whether it is good for the body when the hart
is thus excited

-li

216

OUR UNSKKN COMPANIONS.

49. We must do as Oliver Wendel Holmes recom-
mended a few years ag^o— that is choose our great-grand-
fathers and great-grandmothers and make them and
their descendants walk in the right path until we arborn.
Then we must behave like angels ourselvs and our chil-
dren will be so fisically perfect that the fiends will not
be abl to work on theirnervs. "Vile body" indeed! Some
of the old theologians were closely related to the donkeys
whether the Darwinian theory is true or false, and that
brings me again to the ministers and their neglect of
economic questicms — but what's the use.

50. How would you feel if some one should slap you
in the face or take hold v;f your no.se and pull it? We talk
about turning the other cheek and that is ihe sensibl thing
to do, as I now see, for by resisting we ar simply doing
the devil's work, but then we ar not always sensibl, and
the screws ar turnd just on s\ich occasions. I hav felt the
sensation sometimes when asleep, and herd the mocking
laf when I, somehow or another, calmed down altho the
current was poured in. The same wave of anger rises as
if you were awake and some one struck you, but we ar
sometimes better taken care of when asleep than we take
care of ourselvs when awake.

When you awaken you imderstand the game. The at-
tack was ment to hurt your nervs which can be done when
asleep as easily as when awake. A strange world, and a
strange process of building up and tearing down goes on
in us every day.

51. What is power, after all? What is knowledge?
If (iod represented only power and knowledge without
luv what would He be to us? Satan has these. I believ
that if we were let alone by evil spirits we would soon
turn this erth into a home for the gods, but they, in their
own language, raise hell every hour of the dav, and we

STRAY NOTKS.

21J

ar not always strong enuf to resist them. They send ideas
and insted of refusing to entertain them we nurse them,
and they ar so carefully hidden in some respects that we
rather like them, and nurse, and nurse until the time
comes for using them and then we tumbi.

But as to knowledge, the evil spirits know everything
on erth, altho 1 do not belie v they hav foreknowledge ex-
cept as we hav it judging from experience, and when dur-
ing my fight this thot struck me I took hart and conclud-
ed that their confident predictions as to my doom were a
littl premature.

But our books ar open to them — all the books in all the
languages of the erth — all human knowledge, chapter and
page. What then? Just this: Hav you never been
wearied in reading the reviews to find how very, very dis-
tinguisht some of your fellow mortals were — how the
"classics" made men eqxial to the gods in all beneath and
abuv the skies? Would some of these men not be better
to keep modest? Hav we not had quite enuf of the
"scholar" of late years?

Luv and not knowledge, gentlmen, is God the Maker of
heven and erth. Knowledge is only one of His attributes.
Think of these millions of worlds whirling aloft and
around us in all their terribl majesty and then remember
that the maker and upholder of them all has told you that
luv and not power and not knowledge is Himself, and
then for any sake giv us a rest on the "scholar." Try and
cultivate some sens of proportion. T hav been mingling
among a strange race of beings, ana I am afraid I shall
hav less patience with the "scholar" than ever, for the
scholarship of those I lisend to so long is abuv repr ^ach,
and I know a great many peopl who can scarcely reac who
ar far higher in the scale of being.

You see, Sancho Quixote, for his sins, it may be, has
red most of your reviews for a ;ood many years and he
knows only too well that many, far too many, of our

'■■'J

■r J

:'i

n I

WTP

218

OUR UNSEKN COMFANFONS.

scholarly frends preach the same accursed doctrin ot sel-
fishness that he listened to from another <|uartcr of late.
Of cours, ignorance does not by any means stand for hiv,
Init if we could find some way to get just tiie least littl bit
of information, for we can't grasp so very much, without
feeling that we were raised too far abuv our fellow beings,
it would be better for us. 1 f we could only persuade them
to be humbl, ))ut as the spirits told Sancho Quixote it's
this awful agressivness that troubls us.

52. When cattl ar drivn to the slauter hous why
do they sometimes try to escape for their lives? Why ar
other animals affected with the same troiibl? How do
they get the information' Mow do you get a warning of
danger sometimes? Who pour < dred upon you? And do
the animals perish after deth? When we destroy our
nervs the instrument does not respond to the players be-
hind the scenes, and the creation of mind is often stoptto
a large extent until matters ar righted, and sometimes al-
together till deth comes and then the psychical body that
Mr. Savage speaks of is redy for work on the other side.
Is it the same with the animals' Only instinct? How
do yon know? The cow of to-day is the same as the cow
in the time of Rameses? What of the man? Is he so
very much higher than the (rreeks were? He knows
more, but so does the cow. He knows what a trolley car
or a bicycle is, but so does the quadruped. He has seen
a steamship and so has .she. She still goes thru the old
process with the grass, and now the m^m has not time to
chew his food The more you begin to compare the two,
the clearer yc: see that the advantage is with the animal.
Is there a mind created in her during life? That is what
they told Sancho, and tl ey thretend to re-incarnate him
into an animal of lower degree than "the milky mother of
the herd." Rut all this is just for the purpose of riling
you, and of sending your thots in the direction of the

«iTRAV NOTKS.

219

I-

silly re- incarnation theory, vegetarianism and the infln-
jnce of spirits on animals. Ar snakt.'s possest? What of
he boa-c<jnstrictor and the cobra' Does conscience make
cowards of them all, or do they kill as cheerfiilly the last
time as the first? What of the shark? What of the lion
and the tiger, the Maltlnisian and the survival of the fit- '
test man? Possest, all of them? It is a tragic world.

53. What does that stedy ringing noise in the ear
mean ? It was usually in the left ear, but as soon as I
began to wonder why it was not in the right one as well
it turnd to it on the instant In lying down on your left
ear at night, for exampl, it begins and sings and sings
like a kettl, but if you get wearied of it and turn to the
right side the noise turns with you and helps to keep you
cheerful This atmosfere around us is worth watching.

54. Natuie gives compensation. If a man turns blind
his hearing usually becomes more acute; if he looses a leg
he has more blood for the rest of his body, and if he
plunges among demons there ar angels to meet him until
the worst of it is past. Nature gives compensation; the
back is made to fit the load, the wind is temperd to the
shorn lamb. But when we get impatient and think no
one els has a carefully draped skeleton in the closet but
ourselves, troubl comes.

I herd a good sermoi; the other dny, for altho I like to
tell the reverend gei tlmen where t'ley ar falling short,
I also like to hear them preach even if before my plunge I
bad been at church only once in two years, and the
preacher said that we were all inclined to think our own
burdens were the heviest. "Just suppose," he said,
** that there was be a parade of family skeletons down the
principal street of your city what would you lind ? Why
the worst looking skeletons would likely belong to the
peopl you had considcrd the happiest in the city." Tt

■i;-'

2 30

OUR UNSKKN COMPANIONS.

woiilil be a rare show, but il is all known behind the
scenes.

Another coincidonce will make you angry, but for the
last three Sunday nights T hav lisend to the same
sermon from three diiVcrent rninisiers in two different
ehurehes. In two cases the same opening- hymn was used
and the fangnage of the preachers and the illustrations
were practically tiie same. 1 went to the two churches by
chance, we say. Tlie last one I attended I saw only a
coupl of hoiirs before services began. I had not red any
notices, but from beginning to end it was a matter of
"chance."

I needed the lirst sermon, and came out of church in
another mood from that in which I enterd it. (iod rules
supreme, s.-aid the preacher; be reasonabl, and He wlW
take care of everything. Do not cross a bridge before
you come tt) it.

"Be reasonabl, said a different preacher in the same
church the following Sunday, put aside all worry, take no
thot for the morrow. Why look so far ahed ? Perhaps
you will be ded before those dredful things iiappen. Hav
faith in G(.»d.

Be not over anxious, said the man who told us about the
skeletons, be content with such things as you hav, and
the three men gave me the same discours. Do you know
how the world is governd? the spirits a.skt me often.

I know what is said of those who draw littl morals from
little things, but I hav had so many of these coincidences
for months that it seems 1 shall yet be forct to lern the
lesson that there are two ways of g^oveming the world —
one way thru legislation, for we hav no right to play the
cowardly sluggard, but a duty to change the social state
until our laws harmonize with the new knowledge that the
Spirit of God pours upon us from age to age, and another
way that tells us of a Father who is watching over us and
overruling our mistakes, and ; reserving us from dangers

SIRAY NOTES. 221

we Ao not know of, and giving us ouf daily bred with
punishment cnuf becaus of our accursed selfishness in
trying to heap up millions thru infamous laws that fill
the pockets of one man and starv another. There is no
waste in God's kingdoms. Look .around yt)U and see
what is going on and yo^i can i'.idgo of how much value
the theories of our clod-patec! "economists " ar worth.
Waste everywhere, audit must be stopped

Your cousin Sancho Quixote, of ten angr)' enuf at the
folly of humanity, has estimated the value of ten to
twenty times more buildings than he has ever put up, and
he has done as well as 'his neighbors. He has sat in his
office for weeks, yes, for months, figuring until the sight
of a plan was loathsome. He, has often known of from
twenty to forty men, contractors and subcontractors, busy
at the same work when he could have done it from cellar to
roof himself, and he is far too intelligent to luv that sys-
tem. He hates waste of effort. He has some belief that
that we can get along without such "competition." The
man who enjoys it is the ignorant man. Change your
silly, swinish system into harmony with the stars, becaus
that is what God wants us to do, and what demons and
clod-pated political economists do not want us to do.

55. Ar acquired characteristics transmissibl ? Hav you
red the great Spencer- Weisman debate ? No ? Neither
has your cousin Sancho, and littl did you or he ever think
that the time would come when he would thus rub shoul-
ders with the great ones of the erth.

" But 8omc whom we pasl by In Bcorn
Arcrownd with high honors now!"

The fisical machine is inherited, and by thinking on.
certain subjects t le nervs may be strengthened — or weak-
ened as great men often hav stupid sons ?— and then the
angels will hav a better instrument to play on for the
creation of mind, but as to whether Spencer or Weisman

222 OUR UNSF.KN COMPANIONS.

it> right f>ancho docs not pretend to know. He cannot in
reason be ex]^eotcd tosettl every disputed (lucstion. You
will hav to ask his f rends, the doctors.

56. You hav doubtless herd the story of the horse thief
who had come to the end of his carrer. They were lead-
iufj hiiu out lo be hanged and the Indian was there
lookin>j at him with the eye of an expert. He was as
much interested in notinj^" the bearinj,' of the poor fellow
as a vivisectionist is in watchinj,^ the struggls of his
victim.

He w. Itched him keenly but there was not the (juiver of
a muscl. He marched proudly on to the gallows, —

• O what IS iloth but partlnK breth;
On muny n hlnody plain
I've (iHrod Ills fuc), and In this piaoe
1 Bcoru him yet again. '

" He die game," the Indian grunted approvingly.

The doctors, as I hav alrcdy said, die game, but I for-
giv them. They hav studied many things but they can-
not be expected to be omni.scient. I would hav been
wiser to follow their advice when I rejected it, and so I
forgiv them— that is, all but one. T mean the man with
the plethysmograph. The man who per])etrated such a
word in these days when the dictionary makers cannot
keepahed of the free coinage of pol)silabic monstrosities
does not deserv to be forgivn.

' > !

ll&s

'<^

AMKkltAN rtVII.IZATON.

a-M

CHAPTERXXVI.

'l^

Amkrican Civilization.
" Put money in thy purse. "--Tago a ]V)ssest man.

The growth of welth and hixury, wicked, v/asteful and
wanton, as before (iod 1 declare that luxurv to be, lias
been matcht step l)y step by a deepening- and dedening
poverty which has left hole neighborhoods of j.eopl prac-
tically without hope and without aspiration. At such a
time for the church of God to sit still and be content
with theories of its duty outlawed by time and long ago
demonstrated to be grotescpiely inadequate to the de-
mands of a living situation, this is to deserv the scorn of
men and the curse of God. Take my w( rd for it, men and
brethern, unless you and I and all those who hav any gift
or stewardship of talents or means of whatever sort, ar
willing to get up out of our sloth and easand selfish dilet-.
tanteism of service, and get down among the peopl
who ar batling amid their poverty and ignorance, old and
yung alike, for one clear ray of the immortal hope - then
verily the church in its stately splendor, its apostolic or-
ders, its venerabl ritual, its decorous and dignified con-
ventions, is rcveald as simply a monstrous and insolent
impertinence. — Bishop Potter, New York.

"There spoke," says The Voice, commenting on this
part of Bishop Potter's speech at the opening of Grace
Chapel, New York, "a courageous man and a sagacious
church leader. Bishop Pptter sees, as every man should

224

OUR UNSREN COMPANION*;.

see, and as no man has any excuse in this day for not see-
ing, that the last twenty years in the life of this republic
hav developt a vast peril such as thretens us with a strain
upon our institutions greater than that imposed by the
civil war. For a condition of political freedom cannot ex-
ist in a land where industrial slavery has been establisht."

So say we all of us, so say we all. There is one way
of getting out of the troubl and the tories would be well
enuf pleasd to adopt it — that is close the schools, and go
back to the centralized Russian idea. They ar being in-
directly closed to tell the truth. There ar more than
50,000 children of school age who cannot find seats in the
rich city of New York. It must be the devil inspiring
me, for while the "respectabl" peopl say quiet things and
tell us to hold our peace 1 find strong terms rising in my
gorge. Don't speak of it. Don't seek to defend it. The
thing stinks. Money squanderd on high schools, colleges,
imiversities, and 50,000 children cannot get even a prim-
ary education ! It i''" the same in all the cities of the
country and the welthiest ar the worst. The blustering
continent! Women and children starvd and crusht as
they arin Europe, falling ded in the streets of starvation,
and the blustering, flag-waving, selfish patriots ar yelp-
ing of what their forefathers did in revolutionary times
insted of doing something themselvs.

The selfish cowards! For even in rotten Europe tl^e
welthy ar beginning to see their duty. Our rich men, says
Bishop Spalding, will hav to do their duty or perish. The
ignorant well-drest cowards who^will defend the accursed
wrongs done on helpless beings every day of the year.
Yes, I know your shoddy, selfish patriotism, and I know
the character of the men who ar shouting for it, but 1 hav
been in a world where the mask is torn off all our hisrh
soimding pretensions. Look at Europe, look at Europe,
they whine in their newspapers owned by men who ar inter-
ested in the perpetuation of the system that is filling their

AMERICAN CIVILIZATON.

22 I

own pockets; they ar worse in Europe! As if this govern-
ment were not a protest against the hole of the rotten
fabric that is grinding down men and women on the other
side of the Atlantic!

Carlyle tells us that a king of France before the revo-
lution once stopt a funeral procession and askt what the
man had died of. "Starvation" was the curt reply. The
king rode on and so did the sentiment that brot his suc-
cessor to the scaffold.

Men ar starving to-day in the cities of this continent, and
our modern kings of shreds and patches ar riding on with-
out taking the troubl to ask the question.

The new kings hav acquired power like, the old ones,
and like them they ar using it in the old way. But they
hav become pious. They ar strong supporters of the
church now. There is one consolation, however, and that
is, that their kind of church-going Christianity is not the
kind taut in tbe New Testament. The Rev. Dr.
► vSprecher was about right when he said that there was
nearly as much Christianity outside of the churches as
iiiside of them.

Our present industrial system is but another species of
feudalism. The serfs hav voies, but they hav not yet
acquired sens enuf to use them. They vote for their
oppressors and whine when they ar starvd. If it were
not for the women and children one could stand back and
contemplate the picture with not a littl satisfaction, .

How hav our shoddy kings acquired their power ? There
is littl use repeating the story. Every man of sens knows
it from beginning to end. I will say one thing tho:
not a man, not a woman >f the millionaire class has
died who would not giv anything to come back and
lead a different life and make another use of the power
voo had. A deep regret, sorrow unutterabl will possess
them, I beliv°v. Even if they go to heven ar they not to
see the effects of their life ' Even if (lod (\ists our sins

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behind His back ar we not to get a littl glimps perhaps, to
teach us in order that we may teach others. Angels ar
far higher than we, but they think, they feel, they ar not
automatons. . • • ,

Do you want to know the kind of men who ar paying
some of these blindfolded, higher critical gentlmen
to-day ? When 1 w is among the spirits and my thots,
often imder their guidance, ran on some act of some
great man, some disputed question, they would shout,
"Socrates come forward," and then it was, "I, Socrates,
deny the hole story." "I, Napoleou, denv thrt mas-
sacre at Acre. " Now, then, after that fashion let the
Mayor of Chicago stand forward.

Allusion had been made at a banquet of "our promi-
nent citizens" to the incompetence and corruptibility of
the city council, especially in the matter of granting
street franchises, and on this point the Mayor said :

"Who is it that comes into the common council and
asks for such privileges ? Who is it who ar accused
of offering bribes for such franchises ? It is the same
ones — the prominent citizens. 1 tell you these questions
come home. Talk about anarchy, talk about breeding
the spirit of communism, what does it more than the rep-
resentativ citizens of Chicago ? Is it men in the common
walks of life who demand bribes and who receiv bribes
from the hands of the legislativ'^ bodies or the common
coimcil? No. It is your representativ citizens, your
capitalists, your business men. Who is responsibl for
the condition (f affairs in the city of Chicago ? Your
representativ business men. If an assessor grows rich
while in office, with whom does he divide ? Not with tht^
common people. He divides with the man who tempts
him to make a low assessment, not the man who has the
liumbl littl hous, but the capitalist and the business
man. These ar plain words, but they ar true. "
., Perfectly? true, your Honor, now y(,)u ar excused. But

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227

is it not a littl singular that whenever a working man has
told the same truth he has been denounce! by our "inde-
dendent " press for a scoundrel, an anarchist, a man who
is seeking to uproot all our beloved institi.tions that
the fathers handed down ? If I remember rightly that
banquet, when, for once, one welthy man told the truth
to his brother capitalists, was held on a Saturday night.
Next morning these Christian gentlmen would likely
enuf put on their best smile and go to hear the reverend
doctor tell them of the lafest fase of the Pentateuch
dispute. And there is another side of it. Their wives,
good Christian women, ar sharing in the thieving. They
ar drest in the best the land affords and ar noted for their
charity, but they ar receivers of stolen goods. No, ladies,
it will not work. You see, I am certain that it is all going
to be judged on another standard than the I)un and
Bradstreet and Wall Street one, and some of you who ar
, sailing pretty high now will be so miicli lower than many
you smile at to-day, that you will not know yourselves.

I know how it is, becaiis I had my past life turned up
by a strange process, and it was not very agrceabl in
some aspects. One thing, tho, that made me smile with
a keen satisfaction thru it all was that I liav always
spoken and voted and done my best to change the swinish
system we liv under now to another where peopl would
not need to starv or accept charity if they were willing to
work, and another thing that made me smile more, was
the fact that I had managed to get thru life without
ever being tarry- fmgercd enuf to accept or giv a bribe.
I merely throw that out as a hint. Verbum sap, again.

We ar not" expected to deal with social questions, say
some of our polisht f rends in their sermons. Fau !
Don't get any lower, pleas.

Social questions ar moral questions of the highest sig-
nificance, and it is time that our ethereal frendr, knew it.
Working men refusQ to be deceived an^y longer.

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228

OUR UNSEEN COMPANIONS.

It takes a lon^ while for a question to come to a hod,
but after a certain time the trimmers hav to take a had:
seat. The currency question will shortly after this writ-
in.sf be fot out on the floor of the great political conven-
tions. Everything has been done to deceiv the peopl and
keep it in a state of see-saw, but the time has gone past
for any more trimming, as even the cowards who hav no
ct)nvictions see. They ar going to be forct to take sides.
The time for sitting on the fence is past.

So with other social questions that ar now surging over
the world from Moscow to the Golden Gate. The time
has come to take sides. For plutocracy or against it? One
or the other. For the plain doctrin of Jesus Christ that,
the cowards in pulpits ar blinking at to-day, or against it?
For God or Mammon, one or the other.

Let us hear another spirit. Lady Henry Somerset and
the present Mayor of Chicago seem to be in accord on
social qiiestions. We ar bound to come to our own some
day when even the welthy ar telling the truth. In speak-
ing at thcArt Institute of Chicago, Nov. 9th, 1893, vShe
said :

"Christianity. I believ, means to face the questions of
the day as Christ did. Descend the marbl steps of your
great churches and go down into the marketplace. Stand
there for once face to face with human beings. Come
out from the wr)rld of fashionabl Christianity; see the
wan and pallid faces of factory girls pinched in the poorly
])aid service of some pilhu" of the church. wSee the backs
bending under the burden of unrequited t<jil; come down
and see the life that is, and in all its changing fases as-
sume the attitude that Christ would hav done in the same
circumstances. That alone is Christianity,

"How do you .suppose Christ would view the prevail-
ing social distinctions' I can think of Him watchinghere
in Chicago the long lines of carriages with their occu-
pants as in our land frittering away the hour;? of ^11 the

AMERICAN CI VI 1,1 /A Tiny

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long day u> obtain the flimsy greeting of some favorit of
fashion. How would Christ look at the big banquets sup-
plied by unpaid labor? How, standing in the aisles of
fashionabl churches and seeing those there wIkj believ
that they hav done the civil thing to heven in exhibiting
f or a brief hpur their dressmakers' triumfs there? How
if from there He might wander into one street in White-
chapel district, where there ar forty saloons in the space
of one-fourth of a mile, and where all day on their dirty
windows ar the moving shadows of thinly clad women
with babies on their arms? Yet such things exist and ar
ignored by the Christian peopl of to-day. If it were not,
so where would be the women walking the stony streets
of shame? If Christianity were what it sliould be, neces-
sary evil would be a term unknown."

That is just what the socialists say and the fashionabl
Christians despise them, forgetting that Christ was a
communist even. They believ invM)luntary poverty can
be abolisht, and so do I, becaus I believ in the New
Testament.

What a race of ignorant men we hav in our pulpits to-
day! Charity, charity, charity from peopl who ar morally
stealing, and speak of justice and they v/ill not listen.
They will go down on their knees before a scoundrel who
is crushing the life out of hundreds, if he is rich enuf to
i^iv<i a large subscription to some church and smile on him
to the end. Tell him the truth before you take his money !
Why don't the masses go to church? Some of these men,
— but what's the use again?

It is, indeed, a bad business. Bishop Potter speaks of
the church, otherwise the men and women composing it,
deserving the curse of God if it fails in the present emerg-
ency. The Rev. Wm. Barry says it will be an evil day
for the church if she is not '"edy with an answer to
the questions that w rising in tbv minds of p,U men
»ow. • ,

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The curse of Gud must be a very serious uiattcr not to
be lig-htly spoken of. Before I had red the Bisliop'.s
speech I had felt something of the sensation that might
accompany it if such a thing is possibl. Can it be that we
curse ourselvs when we break His laws in our infernal
greed ?

They had me strongly under their influence and said to
me, — "Unless you do such and sucli a thing in .such a time
God Himself will curse you." Wicked, blasfemous, but
you hear worse on erth, it may be, and hold your tungs.

Whether they fild my mind with something of the feel-
ing that might be supposed to affect anyone in such a case
I do not know, but that seemd about the worst few
minutes I had. I remember saying in a knid of help-
less terror, "Not that! Not that! Anything you like but
that!" ,

Zion's Watchman, a religious paper said lately, — "Wear
living in an age of expectancy. The world wide agitation
and political complications seem not to adjust, and im-
minent and inevitabl catastrofe, perhaps world wide in
its results, is impending."

A writer in the same paper says: " The political turbu-
lence of the world is a sign of danger. Pessimists and
optimists, scientists and filosofers, politicians, potentates
and peopls, and financiers in the press, secular and relig-
ious, all stare and stand agast at the necessary 'peace (?)
mesures ' which ar exhausting the nation."

How ar our ministers as a body getting redy for the
change which is coming, and for which so many ar con-
sciously prei)aring ? Let the answer come from one of
themselvs. In a review of a newly publisht book wri-
ten exclusivly for preachers, the New York "World " says
that the keynote is in the sentence "We recognize in our-
selvs, in spite of ourselvs, a prevailing want of faith in
the reality of God and heven and hell, of the judgment
^nd eternity." «

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That is from the Rev. Dr. Greg-ory to his ministerial
brethren.

The object of the hook, says the ''World," is to call
tip in the mind of the preacher th(' living faith of the
dark ages.

Well, we need a living faith of some kind, and plus ihe
science of the nineteenth century it would work miracls.

The truth of the matter is that many of these men do
not know how working men ar living. Still allowing
them to speak for themselves take the following state-
ment from a reasonabl man among theni that shockt me
when I red it. . ; \ ;

Speaking of the poverty of Christ, Dean Fi.rrar says,
*' His poverty was not indeed, the absorbing, degrading,
grinding poverty which is always rare and almost always
remediabl. " • . .■

We ar prepared for anything in these times, but that
sotmds cool A judicious cours of starvation is what
.some of these men need. I saw the statement in an edi-
tion of his " Life of Christ " publisht in this country in
t893. He wrote that with London at his elbow. I herd
him preach in Westminster Abbey when General Booth's
book shockt the aristocratic, well-fed gentlmen of
•'Merrie England." vShockt them for a time,- that
was all. •.'■'■. J '" '- -■..'! ■■ •..:r' ■ '-.^ ,

H Dean F'arrar has changed his opinions on the ques-
tion of poverty he ot to strike such a sentence out of his
book pirated or otherwise in this country. Almost
always remediabl, is it ? Such a statement is a bitter pill
for a good many men who hav been crusht while the
Dean sits in his comfortable study, and the worst of it is
that it could be du])licated a thousand times over from the
writings of Christian men. Foxes hav holes, birds hav
nests, and Deans hav deaneries.

He says in his book " F/ternal Hoj)e ' that he fell glad
vo think that Christ never \ised the harsh language in

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, speakinjr of unfortunates that Carlylc did. We might
reply that we ar very glad indeed to think that Christ
would never hav been so blind to social conditions as to
use the kind of language that Dean Farrar does with
respect to peopl who walk the streets for months seeking
for work that they cannot iind.

We might also reply that there ar many bishops, deans
and dignitaries in the Church of England who would not
hold the fat positions iliey hav now, and Dean I'arrar m:iy
be one of them, so far as I know, if they had told the
truth as Carlyle did. I havofti;n thotof late months th.it
if I had to depend on our leading churches for my con-
ceptio!! of Christianity, I would risk the evoluiionary
future, aud I hav as fair an idea of what is in store for
those who do so as most. Oh, yes; we hav seen the
deaneries and the rectories, and the ecclesiasticrd palaces
of " Merrie England" and likewise of " Merrie America,"
but we hav also seen Whitechapel, and the slums and
dens of the new, selfish continent. And remember,
if you pleas, that Sancho Quixote has no complaint to
make for himself except in so far as the evil conditions
effect us all.

It has always been the same. Take your stand in that
window with Madam de vStael and her frend, and see the
deputies sweep past on the way to save France. The
princes of the state and the princes of the church march
along in their gorgeous habiliments, and then, says Louis
T)lanc, injurieusement separes des eve ues en rochet ct en
camail, les plebeiens de I'eglise, les cures follow in the
train of their great superiors, the welthy priests who
preacht the gospel of Him who became a carpenter. AVhen
the time of voting came the faithful cures who knew
something about social conditions voted with the com-
mon peopl who herd Christ gladly, and the nt)bls and the
"higher" clergy fot hard to retain the unjust privileges
. that were cnishing France in the mire. They fot us hard

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433

as their welthy brethern the bishops, do in 'he neighbor-
hood of Westminister to-day, but lliey were downd. The
spirit of Christ must triumf in spit:' of the evil work these
men ar doing to-day.

Their theories, as Bishop hotter says, i.r outlawed by
time. "Sancho," said the old kniglit to his foolish squire,
"there ar no birds in last year's nests. " Poor Sancho
could not understand why the pilgriniage should not con-
tinue, and many of our c iltured fr< i.ds ar i)usy discuss-
ing the '-classics" while their fellow beings starv and
wondering why it should not go on. Talk about pos-
session! These men ar possest by ihe devil of cultured sel-
fishness. They build their soul 5 a lordly plesure place
and tell us to be quiet. Peace? Peace? Too late, gentl-
men, too late! You liv n the vvrong day. Queen Anne
is ded.

Now as in the days preceding the abolition of slavery
the ministers ar ai, the tail end of the ])rocession. Em-
bassadors of Christ indeed! And the pillars of the
church fleece the poor wretch ;s ov</r whom they hav
acquired power, and it goes on and they smile and build
brick and mortar and call it C: ristianity. "Wear all,"
I herd one of them say. " han mer or anvil. " Hammer
or anvil! A truly great thing is leming;.

The troubl is that our conception of the social paradise
is a littl too exalted to suit the taste of those who ar living
on stolen goods, "There is nj more foolish idea," said
the first minister I listened to after 1 left the hermitage^
"than thai environment can n:a!ce men." Tt helps won-
derfully, but you see this, gentlman gets twelv thousand
dollars a year besides other prequisites, and he goes to
Kurope for three months annually. His environment is
plesant enuf, you willobserv. But in the city in which he
preaches hundreds of cliildren ar starvd to deth every
summer for want of food :ind i:resh air. Environment
might help them a littl. Don't yoxi think so? What

234

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do you think of putrid, blinded churchianity? No wonder
workinjLi "ion '"^tay away from church. It is as I'otten in
.some res])ecls as the Roman Catholic church was before
the reformation.

Sacred property is clearly thretend once more in the
history of the human race, and the fight is to be a serious
one. The ministers hav been preaching- luv and it does
not seem to work so well as it should, perhaps becaus they
hav been denying ju.stice which is included in luv. They
shout luv, and *.he}' will not <!;\v even justice. There is
something wrong. vSuppose we try justice and see if luv
will spring out of it. (Jiv every man justice and who
will escape whipping? True, true, very true, gentlmen,
and you would dance as lively as the rest of us it may be.

Why ar working men staying away from church in such
numbers? Just look at the matter calmly. Look back at
any of the great mov^ements in human history. Can you
point to one that happend without a cans? The move-
ment of working men away from the church has been
great enuf to be entitled to a place in contemporary his-
tory — even the ministers acknowledi.ye that — Is there not
some reason for it? Don't you suppose that they ar get-
ting tired of your ecclesiastical red tape and ten million
dollar cathedrals? What a glorious conception that was,
to be sure!

"What do you think of royalty, sire," askt a lady of his
Majesty one day. "Madam," was the reply, "that is the
business 1 make my living- by." And for the same reason
I approve of cathedral building from the selfish stand-
point, but with Christians living where they cannot get a
breth of fresh a^i-? Hush! I wish we had Paul to settl
these questions for a few hours. I like fine buildings and
look forward to the time when we shall hav something
like the faith of the middl ages that reard the glorious
buildings we admire to-day, but in the city of New York?
And novv? Clearly the devil is at work.

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What is to be the end of the hi^ht that is even now
goin<)f on in the United States between the havs and the
hav-nots in spite of the trantic denials of phitocratic jour-
nals and niaj^azines? Henry Norman, who disdngnisht
himself in the Venexnelan dilTiculty writes an articl in
Scribner's Maj,'"azine for April, 1896. He tells of a con-
versation he had with a man "who from his personal char-
acter, his intimate acquaintance with all parts of the
United vStates and his position as the most responsibl and
conspicious person in the country enj,^aged in the official
maintenance of j^ood order was the highest authority on
such a matter. " Mr. Norman askt this very distinguish!
man, who appears to bump his bed against the stars,
whether he did not think the most terrific light that has
ev^er been known between the havs and the hav-nots was
destind to take place in the United States.
*Yes," he replied, "but we will win."

"That order will win," commentsMr. Norman, "is cer-
tain, but is it not astonishing that no one seems to be pre-
paring for the conflict?"

Win what? A pig's paradivSe, for that is just what America
wculd be if some of these hnegentlmen had their way.
Win the right to trampl down human beings as has been
done for so many centuries, that is what they ar after.
And those who ar being trampld down now, know some-
thing of the past and ar determind that their children
ar not to be made into manure any longer. Yes, there is
no doubt about it, there will be a change or a con-
flict. Let us hope that it can be settld at the polls,
the devil for luvs war and his brood ar shrieking for it
to-day.

We ar told that when a man became a Christian in the
erly centuries he laid down his arms if a soldier, but we
li V in changed times. The phitocrats may win- - 1 scarcely
think so — biit evtn if they did their victory would turn
to dust and ashes in their mouths Jiooner gr later, for they

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ar living: and {jrofitini; by a system that makes e\il
spirits smile -if they ever do it.

What pnrt ar the churches going to take in the great
fight? It is to be "onward Christian soldi'^rs," it appears,
but which side ar they going to fight for? And ar they
sure they ar choosing rhe right one? They ar turning
their churcli parlors into armories and drilling their boys
in order that they may be redy for the slaughter. On
the (me side of a street in New York is thehedquartersof
the Salvation Army. On the other side, fronting it. is an
armory three or four times as large. One or the other
has to be stampt out. Which?

Sanclio Quixote made some ugly mistakes, but when
he looks over the field and .sees how his brother Christians
ar comporting them.selvs he tries to feel cheerful. It was
an eminent Christian who discourses charmingly on luv
who started this rotten, boy-,soldier, patriotic craze. He
is welcome to all the credit of the invention. wonder
where the inspiration for that brilliant con ^ .lOn of
latter day Christianity came from ?

There is something wrong. Luv thy neighbor as thy-
self is very, very plain. It would put an end to war in
a very short time, and yet it seems we must carry out
on American .soil the ideas that hav cur.st Europe for
centuries. Mr. Norman need not be so pessimistic; he
need not mourn as those who hav no hope. We hav been
making some "preparations for the conflict." Most of
our largest cities hav armories like midieval castls and the
knights ar redy to di.stinguish tliemselvs as of old. A
pity that men ar so easily trapt by the bait of welth, for
the time comes when they hav to leav it.

How many "Christians" were shrieking for war with
the United Kingdom the other day as if war were a light
matter. What did Prince Eugene say about it in his day ?
"A military man becomes so sick of bloody scenes in
war that in- peace he is avers to recommend it. I wish

AMF.RU AN nVIl.lZATlOM

aj7

the tirst tninister who is calleil U> ilecide on peaco atul
war had only seen activ servic. "

But the warriors tell us that we don't understand
Christianity. War they say, is progress. Peace means
stag-nation.

Take a trip to the frontiers of France and Germany and
you see their ideal state. They ar now hc»wling- for the
triflin.i;- sum of eighty million dollars to fortify this con-
tinent. They ar becoming anxious about their property

Now, the statesmen of Europe ar fools in some respects,
but they know enuf to let the United States alone.
Which one of them would risk it and run the chance of
setting Europe in a flame ?• — for the powder magazine is
so built that a littl carelessness at one corner will set the
hole thing in the air. Keep your minds easy, my war-
like frends Trust in (rod and do the right. There has
never been a nation in human history that has trusted
God. *' Leav your insane asylum if you like, you fool,"
they said, " but you will only go to a larger one out-
side," and when our warlike (Christians begin to shriek
for blood after going to church to worship a (iod of peace
and luv, 1 think it would be a good idea to roof in
some of our large cities and call for the doctors.

The plutocrats cannot be allowed to grasp the hole
erth. It will not do, for they would be as unhappy as
Macedonian Sandy. Listen to another living spirit.

Come forward, Dean Farrar, if your ruffld fethers ar
smoothd yet, and tell us all about Tiberius. The Dean
marches forward and speaks his piece—

'' The Roman Emperor Tiberius wa.s the most powe- ful
living man; the absolute, undisputed, defied ruler of all
that was fairest and richest in the kingdoms of the erth.
There was no control to his power, no limit to his wealth,
no restraint upon his plesures. What came of it all ?
He was. as Pliny calls him, the most gloomy of mankind.
Rarely has there been vouchsafed to the world a more over"

■'''£

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0\»t. V'N»;1tWN «HMV\N«ONS,

thai \\M\1S UMl\«Ht :\\\y] \\\-\SHh'' !\\\\\ H'» 1Ui'.f-<l <'o||(W()l tMli

1vf)>o'{<i sa»\\nMvv\>s ^\ st,(\ \hc >n,M»"U o( thr Atlnntii* li»lt\"

Anil \V( oUV plutO\V;\t5< i\r \WM\y\v\ \\\IV\ ^^lll TiImMIU'*

Tht*y wiU \u>l ioin ilio los'-on 1 \K«> \\\\' l''t»'nrl\\(lp(l
)^-\nv^<'' th,\t rhjH'kiMvv i.'lNnxo) n\ "llnnv 1'" ;iu.'\ul.''

i\\\\\ ihrtt was \vh;U ^i^on^^H hu>l \ o«. vom. inv lo|ricrtl,

volt, but «U^\\ •. \<>\» ^«M^ iho S(MM< 1 ' \\ \' powtM {hs\\ is

thrtl \{ >!* .^bout tinu* loihiuv ii ha\^p\ tuodiinu soino\>l»oro
bot\V<vn thv^ V vNiulition •>< Pibovius. riio'.lhts fu\tl srvi^rol
othot »hHV;\js( ijon<bn<-n o( noto, av; it is a?< wrll \ioi to
tnoiMuMi luwut's ol' ouv .nvu ilbistti>>iis nn>nniv'bs. .uul

\ woviKJ bVv- t>> soo tht* social stt'ti' in siu li a rotuhti.Mi
ib,it tl'st^ nian \\ hv> w .is w .linji i>^ \\«mK v'o»iU1 (>msi1\' |\uv
■\ hons of 1^is\>\\u. s.u >^l <i\o ov .i\ it>i>nis widi a Ii.hIi,
.•\»^d stcvi\ wv^-. V .-u a >;ootl \\,\jix\ All tlio lost is lotli« t .uul
prunoUa. 1 wv^ul*! ;\1s<> liko ti> soo surli .\ \]\;\\\^iv nswouW
vNMii|Vi tboso \vbv> xlul not worlv. bcniy: in j^oou hdtli. ic
«tAi"\v This is\v!\.\1 tho Ai>ostl Tanl \v,intov1,b\il it jm>hih1.'»1
1 ;4(hov hcrotKwl. vlul It nv>t * Vom n<nvsp;\)VMs will (ij^ui
that ivicA \>o you not si^'^piv tlu^ "ia]>itar"' Phov will
say t«><> \n tho frtvXM^f staivatiou that the mo^iosf i«i^;(l 1
hav set forth is attaiuabi nv^\v tvM- all whv^ ai willin)^ b-
work, auvl v>bscrv all the <H>pvK>olv virtues, but Iho
scHniti<h>cls lie. ;\ny.\ ihcy know ihat thov ho.

Oarthcji-onian civih.TativMi |hm vht in .i niqht auvl wiiai
is *hcvt? Um'i of its ijlorios f .\ ul tun a tow <•tn{>iro^^ » t'
the past hav gxM\o down in thcvlnst thru brute soltishnoss
ATVd cluss laws. It initnslers toKi the irntli about what is

AMI'lJli AN I IVIfh-'A r ION. i^tf

^iiin)4 •"* "'I ll"' MnV'"' tif ('liifnp,M (III), ilM'ff wniihl oHhiM

Itf Inll.M (lniMliilUfl \\\ tllM VVftlhl »tr fitipl I )♦»»!( IM'M ill lite

ilmiihi-it I !ini 4niiU'liltiPM |f»Mi|i|»Ml to nuitpMH- lli<-

"It Umil'l Willt MlHUC III Mill MtlM'rilll f|i»>f|rln 'I'lU'V •'•» MmI

hypv.rlN. Tlii'V knnvv witirli Midi Hmv nt <mi

I h.'iv 'tfl'it vviiiiilf'iil In llif ))fi<i| nliPlliiM A nut i'-n wmmM

J40 iltiWII (iml Ariirtl Iff t'lHlMl'll I" tiltf V (III llir- |>rf'M| IihII

Imi !i liifilu r olvilJAfiliMii.

I 1111111111 bf'lil'V M pMMMilil, I'Ml iIh- IiiiiImI, ' tlltMHMl in

«lin-'H'iU'n 1(> liniMiiii hiiIT^mIii^ iIhiI fliMrni I'-tliro^ ho fiiniiy
nl our IfMiiliiiK "ii'M |f> liny, UMniil'i iin* lo Ihink l)i(i< tin- dp
M|il«»'d Ni'j^if svniild dn Iho WMfk l»t«Upr Hum IiIm witilp
In-fillnn, fin it w<ndd MtMnn llini K lie ifl jjjivn « fnir (''hmmim
lio, IniM ii Und«n- linil. nnd Hiftl 1 mmlti fm n ^ikhI dpnl in
tllt» MnHlni'-nl mT im finnmi' 1(11'-^) imm.

I r'ntiiml lifdicM' 11 piisMiltl. Iircfiiin llni*' mi Inn iiiniiy
nnn iUwl whiimh imw wIim mi i<'i)\' t«» |;iv ii|t .nry (fjfivic
liinin<li(*v nmy lui\ mm Momi n"^ llioy Mr cfnivlni 1 lliJii Hipy
Ml wMMijj. 'rii('\' wfiiil |ti dit (ij^lil. Mild I Mih «-;iif» IIimI
thpy will 111' lid in ll»<> li>;lit dirfMHntt, Iml Kii fli«ny /if
iIkmii ni din ii'H'injijI y i^'iiniMiir 'I'lfy mi too firtrii led by
th''' iniHo KM trndf ilv n^ »«««•« ar, )in'f tliin ijirMoranctv <Wid
will Itv'id IIH, lull dofs 1lr> inn, in f lii> iwuiM'Mf fotiiinoii tipfiH,
px|KM't us til r<'Md Mini inlorni oiiiKrlvui' 'I'lif f'ihW- j«, m
^(icid ltiiiil<, lull It ilorM no! ten( li yon dirf'( tly how to irinke
H !;trnin inij^in m n.'.f flci'lricity, nml yo.\ «;tnMfri Miid i-\ri'
tri( itv linv I lianj.f'il llif> world fiinl ar fa'n iriMkin^ im
InollifMf;. Do ymi not lipljf»v tliat this l^^OntVn wiW fJook'-.
Mf thru]) hny a very I' ,v, or joiti apnblir' lihrary and j/^t
tlir insi rnlid oil yoiii liidiv V(»tinjOH ;i s^rioiR Iniwi-
-. . ,, irlij;»oiifi duty take carp foi whom yon vntf.

» 1 I It I .. ,1....»„. ii .•..!■...«:. _

2.}0

OUR UNSFKN ( OMI" A NIONS.

to the system and not to himself, but if he is still eng-aged
bribing-, what on erth can you tl<j but tell him to mend
his manners at once or take the chance of marring his
fortunes in the end? ' ' ' '

It is very strange that so many ministers refuse to
speak out on social (juestions. It is true that th<? best
policy many of them can follow is to hold their peace, for
as Professor Ely says, the ignorance on economic subjects
among all classes is dcplorabl. Hut these (juestions in-
volv so much that it is time for public teachers to take
sides. Is it to be Satan or Christ ' vSntan fills men and
women with pride, and they struggl like wild beasts to
hea]) up millions and build linccastls and strive to excel
one another in social entertainments, and in their mad
haste they trampl down men and women .md turn their
beds in another direction and go to church on Sun-
day. Wages ar reduced till the entrails of the workers
screatn for mercy, and still there is no break in the swin-
ish greed. The interest on waterd stock mu.'.t be paid
if the hevens fall, and churches ar to build. Do you say
that the picture is overdrawn^ It happens to be true in
every word The oppressors of the poor, those who grind
their face, sit in the churches to-day tliat ar built by their
l>lood money.

What is the use of writing about it ^ They ar defended
thru thick and thin by their liired men, wh(» with their
wives ar striving in their sfere to outshine t ;ieir rivals,
and thus the evil spirits gain at both ends thru luxury
and starvation. " We don't care for your churches. Sancho
Quixote," they said. " .Satan isworshipt there regularly."

When I thot of some of the men who occuijy the chief
seats in the synagog- and talk " business is bu.siness " thru
the week, I had to acknowledge that they had .some
grounds for their sneer.

Here is one man who speaks <^iit in chir/ch. Lyman
Abbot said in a recent '^ernion, -" If reli^vion is a delu-

' .;''.■

AMKklCAN ri\ IM/ATIOS

241

fjioii we want to know it. No sweet He is half so good as
the bitter truth. I can understand tlie mental attitude of
a Paine, or a Voltaire, or a BoiliuKbrooke, or even an
Ingersoll, whosays, " Tliis relij^ion is a grand delusion,
a nightmare that priests hav invented to blind the eyes of
men, a lullaby that has been invented to lull ])oor babes
to sleep," and 1 can understand men who say that re-
ligion is an inspiring, a divine truth. But the nian I
cannot understand is he who sees this great issne and
does not care. lie is so busy with his stocks and bonds;
she with her afternoon teas and social eugagements, that
they do not care whether there is a good God, whether
there is a reveald Bible, whether there is an incarnate

Chri.st.

If Christianity is true follow straight after it, md if
infidelity is true follow straight after that. Face the
issue; meet it like men.

That is the message of h'dijah at tl'o foot of Mount
Carmel. Baal is .still in the world, and Cod is still in the
world. Surely there ar in America in public life, in charge
of great newspapers, in not unknown ptdpits, in social
circls, in places o( trust and power, not a few who need to
be anjused by the profet's words: " Mow long will ye halt
and totter between two opinions ? If God be your God,
follow straight after llim, and if Baal be your (iod,
follow straight after him."

Most of us can understand language of that kind, and
it can be herd froni he nuniths of hundreds of hanl-
working, zclous minist rs who ar doing their best to im-
prove the condition of those whom vSatan has driven into
the mud very often thru the instrumentality of the vvelthy
peopl who sit in their brothers' churches and pray to the
same God. Yon say the men and women who go down
ar not (Miristians ? Do yon think it is a good way to win
them to send them to the slums and starvation >

When Paul came near a city at one time all the Chris-

L.\

-.n

243

OITR IINSKKN COMPANIONS,

tians went forth to meet him. They were .i frencllv
people evidently. When Coxey's army went thru the land
with perhaps not a few Chri.stians in it, tired and hungry
and weary of the strngjj:!, they were not allowed to halt in
some of the towns and the newspapers sneerd and laft.
In some respects we h;r' become a satanic peopl.

"There is no dout in my mind, " says Bjornstjerne
Hjornson, "that the modern state, whether you eall it
monarehy or repul)lic, is a mere leajj of the powerful
\o keep their hold upon the good things of life." No
"iout in the minds of a good many others either,
Bjornstjerne.

' .4', i' ■

CHAPTER XXVn.

An Anckl Asks Mk, "WnAr Do Chrisvans Mf.an?"

One of my plesantesi memories is a short conversation
during a lidl in the storm. A woman's voice spoke tome
— a sweet, strong voice full of conragc that made me
a.shamed of myself as it askl the (juestion- -"What do
Christians mean?"

We had been conversing on social problems and the ques-
tion came in a kind of a wondering, astonisht way as if the
conduct of Christian ptN)p1 was past speaking about. I
believ that is a common question among our unseen
trends. Do vou really think that T hav spoken too strong-
ly in the last chapter'

Take the "patriotic " ([uestion. I find that I am far too

■' 'V:

•' ! ■' :■. I

•lAk^

"What Do Christians Mkan!'"

243

■;■ ■.■:n

■ .1 V ,■'■.

idealistic. 1 red a littl speech tills riorniirc;' in whicli (jiic
lerned man spoke to others, and a'.'ter assuring tliem, as
usual, that by virtue of their lerning they were the salt of
the erth, he threw out a few hints on oatriotism. It seems,
according- to him, that the New Testament kind that re.
fuses to recognizes boimdaries is (»ut or place. The meti
who believ in it ar dreamers, and so on. So t)e it. There
is a kind of pat.notism that is justiliabl and |)foper the
feeling that a rabbit has for its hole in ilw ground, and
the luv for our country and our institutio'vs if they arbe>
ter than those of any other nation, such a Inv, for exampl,
as a nativ of the best country in the world to-day -T mean
Switzerland- -may indulge in, but the sh( ddy kind, the
fashionabl kind, the (iod bless oiir country right or- wr(nig
kind, is loathsome. And it, may be too, ir spite of the
opposition of many church members, that the New Testa-
ment kind will yet win. The satanic patriotism that
some loud moutht gcntlmen ar yelling tor to lay has
turnd Europe into a military camp.

That is what I hav th(jt on the patriotic (juestion for
some years, and wher T herd demons raging around me,
to whom all coimtr'.es and all languages ar alike, whose
one object is to drag peopl down thru satanic patriot-
ism or by any other n\eans, I felt jist a trifl bitter over
the yelpings of those num who, if they could succeed,
would turn this continent from the high destiny that I be-
liev God has laid ont for her if she walk in His ways — the
destiny to bind the peoplsof the erth together and to form
so many ties of relationship \\ ith Europe that from evx')-y
city and from every hamlet on both sides of the Atlantic
a stern protest wi.)uld rise ii]) from those w'.u) had ai y
regard for Christianity at the mere mention of war, so
that at least one peopl would get a chance to show wh.it
Christian civilization might be unhampered by tlie curse
of militaryism and vSO force the nations o( Europe to their
senses. But t,o follow Europe! What a low ideal!

■ji

344

OUR UNSr.KN COMPANIONS.

-.''•'r. (-.■;'

V '

I am rather tired of those persons who swagger around
with a chip on their shoulder spoiling for a fight. Just
suppose, now, to carry it to the limit, that you were act-
ually insulted. What, then? A war after the old brutal
Roman idea? Force, according to an editor whose opinion
I red lately, has always ruled the world and always will.
When I come to believ that 1 will quietly take hold of the
New Testament and the Old likewise and tear them to
pieces, and pitch them in the fire. I like to be on one
side or another. God say.s luv, men say force, and we know
what a hell they hav made of this world to millions thru
their satanic ideas. I would like to try it by the other
route.

And so with the millionaires. It is not likely that they
will pay much attention to what I, or any one els, may
say ; but suppose they repent, who has a right to say a
word of their past mercilessness? Nobody, according to
good sound scripture. But if they still send their brazen -
jawed, conscienceless attorneys to defeat the will of the
peopl by bribery and scoundrelisra and they fatten off
the spoil what can we say?

I believ, then, that these great beings who ar around us
often ask themselvs, "What do Christians mean?" Thous-
ands and tens of thousands of them ar doing everything
they should in a way that makes us ashamed of ourselvs
but they hav littl power compared with their welthy
brethem in a worldly sens, altho they hold the common-
welth together, but the plain truth is that if one in ten of
the nominal Christians in the United States were to liv
the doctrins of the New Testement even approximately,
there would be a revolution in our civilization before the
end of one calendar month. As for the millionaire Chris-
tians they could build the city of God that Bellamy told
us about, but that's a sore subject. The most of them
would rather build a castl in the wilderness. They ar too
ethereal to walk in the ways that Paul pointed out. They

"WHAT DO CHRISTIANS MKAN?'

245

'■n

ar the monks of the new time and want to leav the rude
world with all its strife behind them.

" O, for a lodge la some vast) wilderness.
Some boundless contiguity of shade,.
Where rumor of oppression and deceit,
. Of succeBBfulor uus.eceesful war '

Shall never reach tuo more."

"Our nation," says " Zion's Watchman," " is fast
growing away from God, and the only way to turn
aside His judgments is to lead our peopl to honor Him."

Special providences you don't believ in, you say, and
so say 1. Natural law holds the held, and that is what
the demons told me many a time when 1 did not like to
hear it in their sens, but in a higher sens it is true, only
we must understand that what we call special providences
ar open to every one if he supplies the condition.s — there
is nothing special about that, only some men will not
supply the conditions. No, my frend, the Bradstreet
standard is not the only one, and a man to your eyes
unsuccessful may come out at the right end of the horn
in the long run.

And natural law perhaps reaches further than we im-
agin. Suppose an answer to prayer is only a part of
a natural law ? Prayer should bring calmness, and
demons lose their power if we remain calm. ^.■X:; ]':

•' All Is of God! If He but wave His hand.

The mists collect, the rain fftllB thick and loud,
Till with a ami lo of light on sea and land

Lo ! He I00I18 back from the departing clouu."

What do many Christians mean, judging by the stand
they take on the question of intoxicating liquors ? How
many abstain for the sake of those who ar not strong
enuf to withstand the temptation? Do you know what
kind of a hell they create ?

I used to wonder how it was thai drunk men could act
and talk as they do, but now I know how it is d(jne. They
put their nervs in the proper ctmdition for evil spirits to
be abl to control them. When you see a man rolling

246

oi:r unsekn companions.

along drunk you see a man possest. The demon.s use
him to do their work. Some ar a1)l to resist, others
ar not.* :

Here is what Cardinal Manning said on the subject, —
'* For thirty- five years I hav been priest and bishop in
London, and now I approach my eightieth year. 1 hav
lernt some lessons and the [irst thing is this: The chief
bar to the working of the Holy Spirit of God in the souls
of men and women is intoxicating drink. I know no
antagonist to the g(jod Spirit more direct, more sutl,
more stelthy, more ul)iqiiitous, than intoxicating drink.
Tho I hav known men and women destroyed for all man-
ner of reasons, yet I know of no cans that aflects man,
women and child and home with such universal and stedy
power as intoxicating drink. " • ■

And in France, too, the land of moderate drinking,
things seem to be moving crab-fashion. Leading French-
men ar becoming alarmed over the ravages of strong
drink as any one may easily And out. The following
quotation from the *' Helth Magazine," Baltimore, will
serv as an illustration of what is going on: " A writer
in France sa}S that the manufacture and consumption of
alcohol in that country is degrading the peopl mentally,
morally and fisically, and filling the hospitals, asylums
and prisons. These lisical wrecks bring into the world
mi.serabl offspring which inlierit a weak body and soon
show the tastes of their parents. The great danger seems
to be in the consumption of liquors made from essences,

• On the liJth of September, a man kild n child In the atreeta of New Vork
■with asiiigle bio of his list. He was a well behaved man, iiidustricus, and
had never been arrested before He had swallowed a few galses of beer at
most, and the tragedy hapend shortly after. He was possest for that short
time. It was not he who struck tho bio, but the demon who possest him. He
did not know anythinyr about it when he came to himself next mornitig-. 1
was caut for about live or at most ten minutes, as described in Chapter XIV.
It '.a posacssiou, and they outoh a good many who drink.

Sum kascs ov kleptomania ar expianabl upon the same theory— a sudden
Jmpuls and the mischief is done, and the victim does not know how It hapeud
Hltbu the nurvs must bo in a uertaiu slate before the domona ge\. the power. -

*;,'

■h<';

" WHAT no CHRISTIANS MF.AN ?'*

'47

and especially absinthe, which is said to be ns iascinating'
as it is harmful. If the gfoveniment wotdd take entire
control of the manufacture of alcohol and fo-bid the
making, importation and use of dangerous essences,
the evils of drinking in France would be very much
lessened."

That would help to some extent, but whatever may be
said of Latin countries, there is only one sohition to
the question among English-speaking peopls, and that is
absolute prohibition, I hav al-vays believd that this was
the sole cure, but hav lookt upon government control as
perhaps the only thing that was practical at present. I
hav lernt some lessons lately and one of them is to go to
the root of the drink curse by' abolishing the traffic. But
what do Christians mean ? Paul has much to answer for
in that littl advice he gave Timvjthy. It has been made
the excuse for customs and debauchery tliat would make
his hair rise if he were on erth now, The stuff they
drank in those days was not to be compared to our fiery-
compounds, but the excuse holds. Paul has much to
answer for, becaus, according to my view, verbal inspira-
tion will not work.

And what do they mean with their planchets, the.r crys-
tal gazing, their medium visiting, their tabl tipping, and
all the rest of the evil work ? 1 am deceivd, thou art
deceivd, he is deceivd, we ar deceivd, you ar deceivd,
they ar deceivd. I hav givn my own experience regard
less of the experience of others. If they find nothi*?;
but good in their investigations, so be it. I know the
source of their information and yours too when you inquire
about your de>d relations.

Now, in the name of common sens, not to say anything
of Christianity, which side ar yoi: on ? vSatan worship or
the worship of God ? What do Christians mean ? A good
many seem to think that this is asortof a play ground where
they can do as they pleas, and yet every word we utter,

>-■■

24«

Ol'R (INSKKN COMPANIONS.

';;i.

»'';"'

,1.»'

every thot we think, every action wc commit, counts on
one side or the other, and as the hole univers is bound
tot^ether our influence spreds in away that should frig'hten
us occasionally. Suppose your sins ar forgivn and you
escape the evolutionary stru^gl what alwut honor ? Read
what Paul says on the subject.

Were you one of tb'J bloodthirsty Christians in the late
war scare? If so, did you realize that vSatan was usin^'
you as a mouthpiece ' Ar you building armories or
drilling- your boys to be soldiers? Can you think of
Christ with a gun in his hand ? Well, does the New
Testament mean what it says, or is it a lie ? Read Tolstoy
if you will not read it. What do they really metin ? Which
side ar they really on ? I never knew what the expression
"fig-ht like the devil " ment till lately. They fight with a
savage ernestness for war, and hate, and a g"ood many
well-drest Christian men and women fight with them.

"Our boys" was the gloating' expression I often herd
from them, and my hart sickend at it, it was so like
their jingo servants in the fle.sh, "our boys hav taken
sides, and speak out in all places and under all circum-
.stances. Why ar 'hristians so cowardly? Why is it neces-
sary to pray and roan and sing hymns as you all do when
our side does its work without any troubl?"

"You raise up even these spirits when you act after the
spirit of Christ," was what I was told. We do not know.
As T hav snid I do not want to go to the evolutionary
future, but our conduct here may help or hinder them
there. It is all speculation. I know one thing, however,
and that is. tluit if they were in our position they would
work while we sleep, for good I hope, but on one side or
another.

There is no use shutting our eyes to the fact that we ar
confronted with serious times. In the battl that is going
on between brutality, and entrench welth and selfish-
ness on the one hand, and luv on the other, which side ar

•Xa.

'•WHAr DO IHRISTIANS MKAN?'

249

\*'

you on? It has either to be God or Mammon, and no
amount of soft talk from wclthy ])ulpits can chan^^-e it.
Liiv thy neig-hbor as thyself, is far too phiin for these
jjfentry. Is it not rather singular that few ministers ar
ever seen at workingmen's meetings, or that few of them
read workingmen's papers? How did it happen that in
the erly church there was such a frendship between the
common peopl and their teachers? And what is the mat-
ter now? As I hav said, I think there is going to be a re-
vival of faith that will lead to works, but insted of thank-
ing the ministers for it, as a class, we should rather turn to
the advanct political economists who hav shown us that
God is luv, that He has sent enuf for us all, that parson
Malthus was inspired by the devil, and that only a brutal,
swinish, Roman conception of society has brot us to our
present state insted of the conception that came from
Nazareth. Read the fifth chapter of James and see if
there is a .socialist of them all who goes further, read '"Luv
thy neighbor as thy.self, " and then think of what it would
mean. Many a man has turud his back upon Christianity
in these days becaus he has mistaken some clothes-rack i.i
a pulpit foi the gospel. It is a mistake. You do not
need to depend upon them, kead the democratic book
yourself — the book that puts the pretensions of our shod-
dy, oppressing plutocracy to shame.

There ar some now-a-days who speak of the second
coming of Christ. For any sake let us put the hous in
some kind of order first. Let us copy the erly church in
some respects, at least. It was composed of "cranks,"
** fanatics," " enthusiasts," or whatever you pleas, but in
the modern frase, they ment business.

Every man has his price, is a doctrin I hav herd
preacht hundreds of times in this country, and I hav
stedily denied it even while I had no obligation as a
Christian to do so. It is a doctrin of Satan- an accursed
doctrin that would drag down any country if universally

Vff

m
m i

m f

)■,;.,

J50

(>VU UNSrCKN ("OMPANmNS.

believd in. What on crth «lo Christians me u? ? Rcntl the
reviews and you v/ill find out to what a fearful extent
bribery has j^one. Read of the sums the jjreat political
parties ar raising even nov' for corruption and make all
due allowance for exay:j4eraLion, and you will beg^in to

' sec where we ar drifting, but there ar more than seven
thousand who hav not yet bowed the knee to Baal. Deny
the lying statcmetit every time yon hear it, and you will
do a himdred times more good than some of the scoun-
drels who ar waving a flag in one hand and accepting or
giving a bribe with the other.

What do we mean by so much palm waving and twanging
of harps and walking up the golden streets ? We need a
littl bracing up ont.e in a while, but don't you think we
overdo the matter ? There is so much around us that
needs to be remedic<l that, bad as it is sometimes, I feel
that I coidd not afford to go just at present.

When we drop thru the arch, like the pilgrims in Addi-
son's strange and beutifnl vision of Mirza, it will be time

, enuf to begin palm waving. We ar not yet near the arch
as a civilii'/ation ; v\-e ar not even out of the wo.)ds, and we
ot to clear a better pathway for those who ar to follow as
the only men worth remembering did for us.

Behind all the mistery lies the wise purpose of our
Lord, The erth is full of the glory of the Lord and the
hevensshow forth Plis handiwork. His Uiv is greater than
our comprehension. Happy ar they, intleed, who, seeing
to the full the poetry and the grandeur of our present
life, open to the, humblest in some respects as well as to
the welthiest, can look forward to the glory of the life
that lies in the future when we shall scale the highest
hevens, when the misteries of to-day will be reveald
to us, and we shall see that we, and not God, were to
blame for most of our suffering.

THE TIMK SPIRII AND AU R«VOIR.

•• Till deth tho weary uplrlt fr««
Thy Qoil hath Hnid, ' 'TIh troo*i for then
To wdlk by faith and not t)y alcrht.'

Take It on truAt a lltti whtt*.
Boon Rbait thou road tho tiilaterr aright

Jo tbo f nil aunshiue uf HiH bmlln,"

351

' l\

CHAPTER XXVIH.

Thk Timk Sfmrh and Au Rkvoir.

Mgr. D'Hulst, than whom no prelate is more highly es-
teemed in Europe, says, "Every epoch has its moral
crisis. Ours manifests itself by a weariness of spirit, which
no longer knows how to grasp at truth, and which is dis-
mayed when the plain truth is reveald. The difficulty of
believing has reacht the masses and has become ignorance
and contempt of the invisibl. The result is a great moral
chill.

"The unbelief of the masses freezes the atmosfere
which we breath, and even renders more difficult for en-
lightend souls that belief which explains life, that hope
which consoles it and that charity which makes it fruitful.
Those who hav brot about this state of things hav com-
mitted a grave crime. They ar beginning to be conscious
of it, but they hesitate to confess it and they ar power-
less to repair it. Reparation will come by means of men
of great faith. The next century will giv birth to saints,
and their action will hav boundless effect, .since it will
confound those who hav utterly forgotten the gospel."

'.I

35^

OUR UNSLKN COMPANIONS.

li'!''.

( Mr

" The ZeitgeiHt strides upon bis way, oblivious to fears.
Down Fate'H grtAt turnpike thorofare that stretches thru the .voars.

•• Beside this turupilte throfare that stretches thorough the years
Lived Charles Srastus Goutoseed with numerous compeers.

" And Charles Erastus Gontoseed with terror stood agaet.
The Zeitgeist traveid (it a irait so reckless and so fast.

" So Charles Brastus GontoBeed stood in hia onward track
To restl with the Zeit{,'eibt and persuade him to hold back.

" Tho Zeitgeist saw not Goutoseed; his look was far away,
Oulleft behind bis trumpld form mlit with tho miry clay. ,^

" Beside this turnpiku thorofare that stretches thru the yeara
liivd William Henry Schlamahed with numerous compeers.

" And his impulfsiv temperament chafed in a restless wo,
Tlic Zeitgeist traveid at a gait so lumlierly and slow.

" So William Henry Schlamabnrt, tho boldest of his race,
Stole tn behind the Zeitgeist to acceierate his pace.

" Stole in behind the Zeitgeist to accelerate liis flight ,
Andluuged agHinst the Zeitgei'3t'8 back and pusht witta all \iii
might.

" Tlte Zeitgeist traveid on his tvay rapped in eternal peace,
And no one saw his rate of speed perceptibly inoreas.

" But Schlamahed he pusht so hard his nervous system l)roke.
And he lay stretchd a victim to an apoplectic shock.

" lue Zeitgeist times his marching over mouniame and ravines
To the music of an orciiestra that plays behind the scenes.

" Tho wo hear not that high, far strain, we march with all our peers.
To the music of the footfalls of the Zeitgeist thru the years

" And t,h« music of those footfalls, tho we know not what it mean;:,
Is the music of the orchestra that plays behind the scenes. "

—Sam Waltkb Fqss.
Krom the New YothSuri, by permission.

The Zeitgeist, as you see, is a peculiar kind of a being".
He is very powerful, but in spite of the abuv he can be
persuaded to go fast or slow or turn his nose in such and
suoh a direction if he is approacht in the right way. He
seems to be going in the right direction now, but the
editors say he must never be allowed to step over the red
mark they hav drawn across his path. They ar powerful
men, but he may be a littl tuo stn-ng for them. We shall

■ J

THE TIME SriRlT AND AU KtVOIR.

«53

•if.

-».

'v'l

/,;'/"'

:'*•

•rifey

watch the strugjj] with much interest. He is making-
things lively in all comers of the world now, in politics
and religion and there ar many comfortabl souls in church
and state who do not luv him, but he will not rest until
something happens.

And he is leading us in the right direction too so far as
our future destiny is concernd. There ar perhaps.some
who read this book, who like myself before my fight, hav
ceast tobeliev in the divinity of Christ. Argument is of
comparativly littl use with them. We ar endowed with
reason certainly, and we ar expected to use it, but we do
not understand everything, and it is becaus everything
is not made plain that many ar forsaking the old paths
and laying up troubl for themselvs in the future. To such
I would only say — Never mind what the great men tell
you: Read the New Testament and judge for yourselvs.
Lay aside the commentaries and ask yourselvs if the men
who rote the books were liars or honest men. Could
Christ hav been deceivd as to His mission? Read his
words and jiidge for yourself whether they ar the words
of a man who did not know what he was talkrng about.
Were the men who wrote of His resurrection liars ? You
do not believ in inspiration, you say, but yet a kind of
inspiration goes on every day in your own lied. Supose
the general meaning of the Bible is plain why troubl
yourself about technicalities ? Consider the matter care-
fully and then read the extract from 1 )r. Abbot's sermon
and take sides.

Plenary inspiration is nonsensical according to my
view. 1 thot when I came into contact with the hiddn
beings that 1 would be abi to take my pencil and begin
shorthand writing and lay some wonderful books before
you, but the idea makes nie laf now. You see, it did not
work. The book I hav ritn has cost me troubl. "God
does not want mediums, "I was told one day, "He warts
men." Precisely so, He 4oes riut want machine!?; He

- V, t

■■a: I

«54

OUR UNSEKN COMFANIONS.

§A

■i'i.

wants free-will agents who think and choose for themselvSj
who come to understand certain facts and te!l of them in
their own way. "Do not think for a minute," they told
me again, **that if you were a medium in our power only,
and not in that of your enemies ^s well .hat you would
hav an easy life. We would make you do things for
Jesus Christ's sake that you shrink from now. " That is
just it. The good angels, like the demons, mean business,
and look upon our playing as we look upon that of chil-
dren.

"Yoii will add a new book to the Bible," the other side
told me. Certainly, and I hav done it. The Bible is be-
ing added to every day. Every book publisht with sound
views, is in a manner, as this one i:i, a new book added to
the Bible, altho that stands alone as recording certain facts.
Ar Christians mad? I hav often askt myself. Is God's
Holy Spirit not pouring knowledge upon them every
day? We ar all inspired. T came to understand certain
things during my fight in a way that surprised me, but
I aiav told them to yon in my own language. Small mis-
takes may hav been made but the main points ar true.
So with the Bible, I believ. Christ was crucified in a city
of 200,000 inhabitant.s and it was not done in a corner.
The men who wrote the records of His life were helpt in
their work. They told the truth as it came to them, or
as they saw it, in their own way. They wen- not machines
or mediums, but, men. ft is God t* wish that we should
manage this world ourselvs, but He leadvS us further on
as the ages roll past.

The Sermon on thr Mount, I hhv rfd, was verv likely
reported m shorthand '

Never mind the f.sshionabl churchianity that is around
you. There is a good deal of Christianity in the world
yet, and besides, each man has to stand in his (.»wn shoe.?
without taking the hypocrisy of c)thers as an excuse for
bis* own .infidelity. Judge for yourself. In politics, rcli-

1¥^

*, y,'''

•* -l £

TA-:"*.

THE TIME SI'lRll AND KV REVOIR.

«55

:>,'■

gion, science or anything els get all the information you
can on both sides and then form your own judgment.
The world is overflowing with lemed fools with college
degrees. The most of them grow their eyes among their
back hair. J^idge for yourself.

1 know, whatever others may say, that we ar surround-
ed by a great qloud of ^witnesses, the one side trying to
rajse us up, the other trying to drag us down. It is likely
that Christ walkt thru the world and saw them — that is
Dr. Hepworth's opinion, and it seems reasonabl enuf, at
least for the years of His ministry, f know that they ar
very much in ernest and that we sleep. * Now, then, in
view of this fact which is so impressiv to me that many
of our littl worries vanish into nothingness, I would like
to advise those who ar not of the household of faith to be
warned in time, and it not a professumal exorter who
givs this advice, but one w.io has not given much of the
same kind in p.'ist years. We all get warnings, more or
less, and this is another to > ou.

It is a stranger world thad you think. I wrote all this
book in shorthand, but as I went on typewriting it from
day to day I sometimes added a few paragrafs. I would
write on without looking at my notes, and after I turnd
to them 1 would often find that 1 had ritn a hundred
words or more almost the same as lay before rue in the
shorthand that I had not yet red A few ''f the words
might be changed, but the ideas were the saui'r You may
say that writing on the same fase of the subject I uncon-
sciously chose the same woids, but it lookt strange to me
to see the words on the two papers almost the .»ame after
lying unred for weeks or n-.onths. Can M. Sarcey's theory
explain it?

There ar dozens and scores of sentences woven in the
cours of the narrativ that I receivd from voices, by rit-
ing tm the brain, or by telepathy. What does it matter
whether they ar of high or low ciuality or no (juality at all.'*

iSh

OUR UNSKKN ( OMPANIONR.

^-'V'
t:,.^

k:^

•>,"

The interesting thinj>- is that they came. From whom?
There has been my trou.^1 to decide very often.

In riting the last chapter, for exam];!, I spoke of their
being too much time devoted to pahn waving and twang;-
ing of harps, and as an ilhistration T had partly ritn
•'We ar something like Sterne, who whined over a
ded donkey, and neglected to reliev a living mother,
when we go into raptures over the future and neglect our
fellow beings. " Then it struck me that altho the illus-
tration was good in one sens it was bad in another. It is
not exactly right to speak of joyous anticipations of
heven in the v^ame breth as whining over a ded donkey.
Who suggested the illustration so apt to express my mean-
ing in one sens but of such bad odor in another? I know.

"Their defence of the present condition of affairs is
neither more nor less than the outpourings of impudent
rascality." Where do you suppo.se the last four words
came from? I was thinking over social problems one day
and they came on the brain as the French did. For what
purpose? Sent by which side? Does it do any good to
tell the truth to the millionaires and their educated lack-
eys, or is it just as well to smile and let the children die?
We know what the truth is. After acceptmg the gospel
doctrin ar we supposed to speak out or to hold our tungs?
Where do you supp<jse "educated lackeys" came from?
It was down before 1 thot of it, but it is true. Doesitdo
any good to tell the truth or shall we smile while scound-
rels bribe and the children die?.

(jrand. indeed, will be our destiny if we receiv the
Gosp'^l of Christ as littl chileren and liv as He would hav
us. If we lay aside this false, intellectual pride which
has ever been the bane of the human race, we .shall likely
enuf look back over our life on erth after we hav crost the
line that separates us from the invisibl world and wonder
at our folly in priding ourselves upon the petty scientific;
jriiwifs tJjat vJwrni us ,no>v,

THF, TrMK SPIRIT AND Al. RKVOIK.

257

■'t-'-v

How u man can he an agfnostic has always been beyond
my comprehen'<ic>n. Napoleon pointed to the stars when his
officers wonderd if there was a Goa]. Look up at the stars
and be assured that they did not grow of thernselvs any
more than you did.

And now with my opinions imchan^ed on the subject
of fashionabi churchianitv, and fashionabl ministers I,
like many others, hav to thank that Christianity which
to-day keeps our weary old world from becoming' com-
pletely rotten. Thebesc Christians ar those who do theij-
work in the world and ar seldom herd of, while the honor
of en goes to the ecclesiastical flag- wavers, but there is
another court of ajipeal where a good many of our judg-
ments will be revcrst.

I hav told the truth in this book. It has all hapend
just as T hav described it, altho to tell it fully would
take haf a dozen volumes, but it would simply be a repiti-
tion of what I hav rei)eated perhaps too ofen with the
idea of driving the lesson home. The enemy in our case
is not only at the gates, he is within the citidel and he
has murder in his hart.

I hava great many plesant memories of the struggl; it
was not all one sided, but it is needless to say that I do
not mean to meet my frends again in any other way than
God has been pleasd to arrange until we meet face to
face, and 1 hav come out of it with the con.sciousness that
but for the help we all receiv every hour of our lives, I
would be up to the neck again, and that is worth some-
thing,—

" I was not ever thus, nor iiraynd that Thoii

Shoodet lead me on,
I luvd to <3ht/(>8o and see i»iy path ; but now

Tjead Thou me on.
I luvd the garlah day, and, spite of fears

Prfde ruled my will ; remember not piisl years."

I had a deep conviction that I wovdd come out of it
scard a littl, perhaps, Init still fit for .service, and this

''A

iti

35«

OUR UNSEKN COMPANIONS.

held me up. I might as well thank some of our advaiict
political economists for the grand conception of God they
ar spreading in the world, for if I had not lernt the
lesson they taut me I would not hav had the trust in
His goodness that comforted me in troubl. The minis-
ters ar not the only preachers. They often tell us of a
God who givs one man a hundred million dollars and
starvs his neighbor, and that conception of God does not
commend and never has commended itself to me. The
new economists tell us of a (xod who has provided sufficient
for all of His children, the just and the unjust, as soon
as they will change their laws into harmony with His and
do justice. We know in whom we trust ; but it is not the
God that some of these men preach, nor in whom some of
their women hearers belicv.

The foregoing paragraf was ritn a week ago, and I
had no intention of adding more to the book, but as some
critic may still think I hav been speaking too plainly just
let me giv the following ed' /rial from the New York
* 'World" of July 3rd. I hav red a great many strange state
ments of late years, and herd some strange claims made, but
such a piece of impudence as Mr. Rockefeller's assertion
1 hav never come across. I giv it as an illustration of
the kind of God some men believ in. Mr. Rockefeller's
welth is sometimes estimated as high as $150,000,000, all
" ernd" in a lifetime. And men willing to work often
starve! Talk about insanity!

HEVEN AND TRUvST MONEY.

"In addressing the Chicago University Mr John D.
Rockefeller, one of the chief organizers and beneficia-
ries of the Standard Oil Company, made a claim to divine
right as bold as any wl ich has been advarict since the
great controversy on that subject in the time of Charles I.

■,V; - ' ;

TitK TIMK SfrklT AND All UKVOIR.

^50

•('''•t.:

I. f^

*God gave me my money and I giv it to the university,'
said Mr. Rockefeller.

" Thi.s is to some a very alluring theory, and it is fre-
quently advanct now as it was some hundreds of years
ago. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries there
was at every cross-roads a captain of industry preyii.g on
commerce and taking forct loans from trade, and out of
the vast estates thus accumulated hospitals, monasteries
and churches were built as a means of sanctifying the
sistem and establishing its divine right to exist.

"If Mr. Rockefeller has from $20,000,000 to $100,000,-
000 that he has not ernd, every newspaper reader in the
country knows that it is not the gift of Heven, but that
it came thru the Standard Oil Trust, one of the most un-
scrupulous and rapacious mon )polies ever organized. It
hasbot conventions, corrupted courts, bribed lej;nslatures
and done more to demoralize American politics than any
other singl agency. Its princi])les ar depraved, its priac-
tices degrading, its success shameful, its impudence col-
lossal.

" But no amount of impudence will ever convince any
sensibl person that it is either the business partner or the
beneficiary of God. Mr. Rockefeller must find a more
plausibl ihaoTy if he wishes sane peopl to listn to
him. " _ . ,

Yet, the theory is advanct from not a few pulpits.

There ar thick skuld ministers in this country on their
knees before this 'nan. He builds churches, and that is
enuf. If you want to know what the Trust he controls
has done read Henry I). Lloyd's book, "Welth against
Commonwelth. " The oil he sells flows freely in rivers
from the bosom of the erth. God has givn us such mai-
vtlous natural riches that it seems almost unnecessary to
piay for our daily bred, and yet thousands stai v. Did He
giv Mr. Rockefeller a title deed to the oil? Or is it your
laws thai ar at fault? God will help us, I believ, but He

200

OUR L'NSKEN COMPANIONS

W''

f ;■';)'♦,
PU

has no favorits and it is not my belief thai He makes
millionaires. He seems to believ in equality among^ His
children. He did not want the Israelites to choose aking,
nor does He want the Americans. Oil kings ar not made
by (xod, but by fools republican and fools democratic.

The retail price of the oil that Mr. Rochefeller sells
rose from 10 cents a gallon to 18 in a singl week last year.
Who gave the order for the rise in price? It is the old
story of taxation without representation.

" The luv of exercising power has been found to be so
universal," says Buckle in his " History of Civilization,"
"that i.o clfi!^" of men who hav possest authority hav
been abl to avoid abusing it."

And yet there ar thousands and tens ot thousands of
ignoramuses on this continent who believ that becaus
the name of kingly power has ])ecn done away with that
the thing itself does not exist.

" You cannot find any yung Americans now," said a
European professor, ''with any .self-sacrificing enthu-
vsiasm. All they care for is to make money."

That is carrying it too far, but what kind of yung men
and w^omen li.send to Mr. Rockefeller? Woe is me!
Ichabod, Ichabod, the glory is departed. The poor,
fooli.sh yung creatures .should hav interrupted the poor,
foolish man and told him gently that he was far astray in
his conception of God. He worships a supreme tyrant
insted of a God of luv.

It is lafabl too. No wonder they disch.Tgd one of the
professors of political economy at the Chicago University
a 5'ear ago. He was guilty of telling un^.^lesant truths.
He v/as rash enuf to condemn the foul system we liv
under. He told of a God of luv, not a demon. He spoke
of a sistem which would help men to take better care of
themselvs, save thousands from starvation and destroy
the power of Satan, and that doctrin is not popular among
those peopl to whom the demon they worship has given

THE TIME SPIRIT AND \U REVOIR.

tens of tiiillions wrun|4 from starving laborers. But God
makes the greed of men to praise Him and the sistem
will yet be changed.

And when I think of those starving, shoeleiis men fight-
ing to the deth for a principl, in the depths of winter at
Valley Forge, and then think of the toadying to welth on
the part of those who to-day sit secure thru their great
sacrifice, their patient endurance, I wonder what some
of our Mayflower gentlmen mean. But they lisnd to him
?md wisht they were in his shoes. Doing great good! A
man clearly blest by the demon! What a conception of
God men and women hav! And we speak of sending mis-
sionaries to the Sandwich Islands! Keep the good men at
home for a week or two for they ar sadly needed. "These
plutocrats," said Bishop Potter some years ago, '< ar the
enemies of religion as they ar of the state."

• O, Kerosene Johnnie, Kerosene Johnnie, it's all so funny
and so tragic too, for littl as you thot it, I am afraid that
you stood upon that platform as the mouthpiece of Satan
who is the enemy of God.

Off with his crown ! vSo much for Buckingham Rocke-
feller, alias Kerosene Johnnie.

It may pleas you to lern that your sincere cousin,
Sancho Quixote, who does not believ in lucky numbers,
days and dates, has finisht this book of his on a Thursday
in deference to your prejudices. You were doubtless
afraid that he might run it over to Friday and cast a spell
over you, but he is merciful, and knows you too well to
attempt it.

•' I dare say," writes William Makepeace Thackeray in
one of his essays, "I dare say the reader has remarkt
that the upright and independent vowel which stands in
the vowel list between E and O has formed the subject of
the main part of these essays. "

Sancho Quixote dares say that his readers hav remarkt
the same littl failing, but what was to be done ? He has

if-' ;,

»(n

OUR UN-iEKN COMPANtONS.

'X;''

(.;■-

been among folks who speak strait to the point and ai
somewhat indelicate, and he may hav fallen into bad cus-
toms. But, after r.ll, how would •* the present riter ''
style hav dorc ? or '*the one who is riting these pages?"
It would not hav sounded like your cousin Sancho at all.
Let it go as -.t is and be glad that we hav got to the end
of it together, for Sancho's conscience troubld him until
it was ritn. The style is not just what it might be, but
he has ofen, been glad to get thru it in any fashion, as he
sometimes wonderd if he had any business going over
the old ground insted of keeping his mind on something
els, so let go and some day — I

And new your cousin Sancho Quixote says au revoir to
you in a cheerful kind of a way. He has been spreding
ideas and that is the business you ar engaged in. Vhe
favorit copy-book maxim he likes ij " Envy no man, " lor
woman either, for that matter, and he manages to liv up
to it fairly well.

They sometimes askt him in the stormy days, in a jeer-
ing kind of a way, in order that he might contrast his
misery with the happiness of others, whether, if the thing
were possibl, he would not change places with so and so,
but he always declined to entertain the idea. "Which
highest mortal, in this inane .'Existence, had I not found
a Shadow hunter, or Shadow hunted, and when I lookt
thru his brave garnitures miserabl enuf ? Thy wishes hav
all been ynift aside, thot I, bat what had they even been
all granted ? Did not the boy Alexander weep becaus
he had nor. two planets to conquer or a hole solar system,
or after that a hole univers ?"

Each one of us, millionaire or pauper, has to fight his
cwn batl, and Sancho's lin**'' hav, take it all thru, been
cast in fairly plesant places. His chief worry comes from
seeing thousands and tens of thousands of human beings
UvSed for manure to foster the growth of the rich and
selfish, and he believs that trubl is bound to come of it.

THE TIME SPIRIT AND AV REVOIR.

263

America is not, as some seem to imagiu, exempt from
universal law, and God is greater than the plutocrats. He
is no respecter of persons. Free silver ten times over
will not help the class I speak of, and there will be savage
.injustice even altho you had prohibition ten times over,
as well, unless you make some other changes in your
laws.

Here is what a man rote lately of the poor of London
and it applies just as well to the poor of America, —

?;•;■

" Almighty Qod, whose Justice, like a sun.

Shall coruscate along the floors of heven ;
Halsing what's low. perfeutingr what's undone.

Breaking the proud, and making odd things erea.
The poor of Jesus Christ along the street

In your rain sodden, in your snows unshod.
They bav no herth, nor roof, nor daily meat, «

Nor even the bred of man. Almighty Qod.

" The poor of Jesus Ohrisb, whom no man hears,
Hav oalid upon your vengenoe much too long.
Wipe out not tears, but blood; our eyes bleed tears;
Cnrae, smite our damned soflstrles eo strong.
That thy rude hammer battering this rude rong.
Ring down the abyss of twice tea thousand years." ,.

— HiLAina niLLOC.

God is luv, but don't forget that He luvs those who hav
been crusht down thru the accursed system some of His
prominent Christians defend as they defended black slav-
ery. Don't forget the next time you take up your daily
newspapers and read the usual ''smart" jokes ov.er "Weary
Waggl ," "Dusty Rhodes," and the others, that it is per-
haps possibl to carry things too far. You say that they
deserv it, and so on, but you lie and in your inmost hart
you know it. Perhaps we ar going just the least bit too
far in our treatment of the submerged tenth. They re-
fused to take warning in France and we know what came
of it. The evil spirits ar around us here as well as they
were around the French peopl there. God is Itiv, but

264

olfK t'NSr.EN COMPANIONS.

I';.'

just remember (.hut He is justiee loo. Oun'tslop over
ill your discou'.ses about hi v. Let us hear a few on jus-
tice for a chiitijife. Justice in social l;nvs, I mean, where-
by a man. will come to understand the "luv" you
preach. •

A book of this kind is sometimes necessary, but justice
bcins: attended to, preach luv and not dred. Only as my
mind became fixt on the idea of a God of luv who would
take care of me for the best, no matter what hapend,
did I become strong- enuf to endure, and I see to-day,
that (jiily as we teach luv will we be successful. Angels
teach luv; demons teach dred, *'and they mag-nify His
strictness witii a zeal He will n(.»tuwn.'"

And now let me conclude with some words from Ed-
ward Everett Hale. They stiffend my backbone when it
needed some strength and as ideas rule the world they
may help you. ''Not a Christian?" "I'm sorry for it,"
quoth my uncle Toby Quixote. Bui luv is the cardinal
doctrin of Christianity and thru that doctrin alone we
shall conquer. But, in case you hav alredy forgotten it,
•the man who denies justice does not know what hiv
means. Luv is God, Justice is only one of His attri-
butes, and yet many Christians to-day bitterly oppose
justice wnile they whine about luv. But here is the con-
cluding paragraf :

"You ar a prince of the blood. You ar a son, beloved,
of the Almighty Power who rules this world and carries
it on today. You can rule body and mind with an abso-
lute control if you choose. If you wish and choose you
will be in absolute confidence with your Father and in
the closest relations with Him. Tel! Him everything
and take advice in all diffciilties. Thank Him in all
successes and go back to Him in all failures. You
will use His Almighty Power then, for the sway of
mind and body. You will be a fellow workman with
Him." Au REvoik.

.11 \i

' 1

I ,-,

TO THF, RKEDER.

365

I'
li

V :M

^i< :->»:■

■H--

TO THE RRRDER: .

If you like the speling in this book adopt it yourself
without waiting for either the mosbaks or the milenium;
if you think the book is wurth reeding tell your naibor
about it, as I want to sell 50,000 copies in the United
States alone, not to mention Europe. "Pour vaincre les
editeurs, pour les atterer que faut-H? DeTaudace, encore
de Taudace et toujours de i'auuacer'

:i'-