Library of the Theological Seminary 
 
 PRINCETON 8 NEW JERSEY 
 
 Gift of 
 
 Samuel Agnew, Esq. 
 1855 
 
 BT 140 .S87 1847 
 Sutton, Henry. 
 
 The evangel of love 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2019 with funding from 
 Princeton Theological Seminary Library 
 
 l 
 
 https://archive.org/details/evangelofloveOOsutt 
 
THU 
 
 (( 
 
 EYANGEL OF LOYE: 
 
 INTERPRETED BY 
 
 HENRI ' SUTTON. 
 
 THAT WHICH BEFITS US, EMBOSOMED IN BEAUTY AND WONDER AS WE 
 ARE, IS CHEERFULNESS AND COURAGE, AND THE ENDEAVOUR TO REALIZE 
 OUR ASPIRATIONS." 
 
 RALPH EMERSON. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 C. A. BARTLETT, 32, PATERNOSTER ROW. 
 
 MDCCCXLVII 
 
R. SUTTON, PRINTER, BRIDLESMITII GATE, NOTTINGHAM 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Prologue... 9 
 
 I. Truth. 
 
 i. Bible Shallows. 29 
 
 ij. Bible Deeps. 46 
 
 ii. Strength. 
 
 i. Living Oracles... 55 
 
 ij. Conduct. 59 
 
 iii. Beautt. 
 
 i. Analogies of Beauty. 67 
 
 ij. Assimilation and Vision. 77 
 
 iv. Light. 
 
 i. Spiritual Illumination... 87 
 
 v. Life. 
 
 i. Life Lost and Won. 105 
 
 ij. Life Here and Hereafter. 119 
 
 iij. Life Extra-Universal. 126 
 
 iv. The Lamp-Stands.,. 134 
 
 vi. Goodness. 
 
 i. Friday in the Church. 143 
 
 ij. Friday in the World..... 152 
 
 vii. Love. 
 
 i. The Universe. 164 
 
 ij. Internal Perceptive Love. 171 
 
 iij. External Perceptive Love.201 
 
 Epilogue. 225 
 
SUMMARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSE, 
 
 Ineffable. 
 
 Ineffable. 
 
 ELEMENTS OF 1 THE UNIVERSE. 
 
 I ELEMENTiS OF | MAN. 
 Spirit.-.. — . Sojul. . — Bodysoul.—— Body. 
 
 PROVINCES OF I THE UNIVERSE. 
 
 PROVINCE 
 Spiritual. - A ni 
 
 PERSON.® OF 
 
 S OF | MAN. 
 mal.—- Vegetable.—Mineral. 
 
 THE TRINITY. 
 
 Father. 
 
 MAN. 
 
 Spirit.——Nature. 
 
 _I I 
 
 PSYCHICAL SPHElRES OF MAN. 
 
 Heaven. 
 
 Earth. 
 
 Sea. 
 
 ELEMENTS \ OF MAT TER. 
 Soul. Bodysoul. Body. 
 
 SPIRITUAL, INTELLECTUAL, CARNAL, AND SOULIC 
 
 MANIFES TATIONS. 
 
 Truth. 
 
 Li 
 
 Might. 
 
 fe. Gooc 
 
 1 
 
 Beauty. 
 
 ness. . Lo 
 
 Intelligence. 
 
 ve. 
 
 PSYCHESOMIC 
 
 | MANIFESTATIONS. 
 
 1 
 
 Light. 
 
 & 
 
 Heat. 
 
 c. & 
 
 1 
 
 Motion. 
 
 c. & 
 
 Electricity. 
 
 ,c. 
 
 BODILIC 
 
 | MANIFESTATIONS. 
 
 Hydrogen ? 
 
 1 
 
 Oxygen ? 
 
 1 
 
 Nitrogen ? 
 
 I 
 
 Carbon ? 
 
 &c. &c. & c. 
 
THE EVANGEL OF LOVE. 
 
 1. God IS ALL, IN ALL. 
 
 2. This fact forces itself irresistibly oil the minds of all tine 
 seers. Even Alexander Pope could not escape it: for he says 
 
 “ All are hut parts of one stupendous Whole, 
 
 Whose Body, Nature is ; and God, the Soul 
 
 which is both false and true. So James Thomson exclaims of 
 the Seasons 
 
 “These, as they change, Almighty Father ! these 
 Are but the varied God. 
 
 And Paul says roundly “ In Him we live and move and have our 
 being.” So Jacob Behmen :— “ All beings are but one great Being, 
 which hath breathed forth itself of itself, and hath severized and 
 formized itself.” And the same truth more imperfectly Ralph 
 Emerson expresses, when he asserts that “ The universe is the ex- 
 ternization of the Soul.” And Henry Agrippa (De Occulta Phi¬ 
 losophic) testifies : “ Democritus et Orpheus, et multi Pythagori- 
 corum, ccelestium vires inferorumque naturas diligentissime per- 
 scrutati, omnia plena diis esse dixerunt.” Thus too the old 
 Braliminical writers could not avoid recognizing the fact which 
 everywhere met their deep earnest gaze : they said “ All that exists, 
 is God: ivhatever we smell, or taste, or see, or hear, or feel, is the 
 Supreme Being.” 
 
 B 
 
10 
 
 PROLOGUE. 
 
 3. But though we admit this doctrine of pantheism, we are not 
 therefore to worship stocks and stones as God. For though the 
 essence and substance of all natural things is Godhead; yet, as 
 developements of that substance, such things are incomplete; and 
 are therefore not entitled to supreme adoration. For to worship 
 anything supremely, short of Perfection, is wickedness and 
 idolatry. 
 
 4. In the All-in-all then, let us notice three phenomena : (1) 
 Spirit : (2) Soul : (3) Body : 
 
 5. And let us remark further, that in the Spirit only, is Per¬ 
 fection to be found :—To worship the Body and the Soul of the 
 Universe supremely, is, therefore, idolatry: but to worship the 
 Spirit, is life and peace. 
 
 6. All Nature is composed of Matter: 
 
 7. And all Matter, of the Universal Body and Soul: 
 
 8. And moreover ; wdierever the Soul of Nature is, the Body 
 is; and the Body, the Soul. 
 
 9. The Soul is that which adjusts, strengthens, beautifies, en¬ 
 lightens, enlivens, utilizes, and enlovens all Nature. To it 
 alludes Virgil, when he says, 
 
 “ Principio caelum, el terras, camposque liquentes, 
 
 Spirilus ihlus at it, lotainquc infusa per arlus 
 Mens agilyl malew, et magno se corpore miscitf 
 
 And after him, Pope : 
 
 “ This, changed in all, and yet in all the same, 
 
 Great in the earth, as in the ethereal frame, 
 
 Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze, 
 
 Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees, 
 
 Lives through all life, extends through all extent, 
 
 Spreads undivided, operates unspent.” 
 
 10. This Universal Soul has seven attributes or manifesta¬ 
 tions : (1) Truth ; (2) Power ; (3) Beauty ; (4) Intelligence ; 
 (5) Life ; (6) Utility ; and (7) Love : 
 
 11. And nothing in Nature exists without every one of these 
 seven properties. [^[ 6, 7.] 
 
 12. Yet although Nature has only these seven Soulic princi¬ 
 ples, she works three successive organic achievements with them 
 and their subordinates. For the kingdom of Nature has three 
 provinces; (1) Mineral; (2) Vegetable; (3) Animal; 
 
PROLOGUE. 
 
 11 
 
 13. And all things in Nature, belong to one of these three 
 provinces. 
 
 14. The Mineral (in which term all mere gases, fluids, and 
 solids are included) has an organic Truth, Strength, Beauty, In¬ 
 telligence, Life, Utility, and Love of its own :—the Vegetable, 
 the same, of its own :—and the Animal, the same, of its own. 
 Thus we say there is a Mineral Life, a Vegetable Life, and 
 an Animal Life: not that these three are distinct principles, but 
 only three several phases or manifestations of the same principle : 
 which principle is the Life of the Universal Soul. 
 
 15. And as the Soul is in every particle of Nature, it follows 
 that there is no particle without Soitlic Intelligence, and Vitality, 
 and Love, as well as the rest of the Seven Souls; so that 
 
 “ Every grain 
 Is sentient both in unity and part, 
 
 And the minutest atom comprehends 
 A world ol‘ loves." 
 
 Thus it is wrong to say a stone is inanimate , or a gas unintelli¬ 
 gent : or to speak of dead matter. And this is the secret reason 
 why every poet must apostrophize mineral, as well as vegetable 
 existences;—and personify them. For the poet is always the 
 seer , and Nature utters through his lips the truths, which from 
 others she conceals. 
 
 16. Every vegetable is a double mineral; so that its organic 
 number would be 14 rather than 7 : for each succeeding pro¬ 
 vince of Nature includes its predecessor,—the vegetable the 
 mineral, and the animal the vegetable. So 2 consists of 1 added 
 to 1 : and 3 is 1, with 2 added, and includes both 1 and 2. 
 
 17. In the vegetable province, therefore, mineral Truth, 
 
 mineral Strength, mineral Beauty, mineral Intelligence, and 
 Vitality, and Utility or Goodness (for these are the same), and 
 Love; exist as completely as in the mineral itself; the vegetable 
 being a mineral, with an aggrandisement. v*. • 
 
 18. So also the animal province consists of both its predeces¬ 
 sors, with an enhancement. For the material of an animal’s 
 body is held together by the mineral organic influences as com4 
 pletely as is the mineral itself: and moreover, by the vegetable 
 influences as completely as the vegetable itself: for it has vege- 
 
12 
 
 PROLOGUE. 
 
 table Truth, vegetable Power, vegetable Beauty, vegetable Intel¬ 
 ligence also, and Life, and Goodness, and Love. 
 
 19. It is therefore wrong to say that an animal is not a vege¬ 
 table, or a mineral:—for every vegetable is a mineral, or it could 
 not be a vegetable; and every animal a vegetable and a mineral, 
 on the same grounds. 
 
 20. Now as Nature has only these three provinces [^[ 13] ; 
 it follows that Man must be either, at his highest, a mere animal; 
 or else Supernatural. 
 
 21. And in fact he is both Natural and Supernatural:— 
 Natural, because he is a mineral, a vegetable, and an animal:— 
 Supernatural, because he is higher than these. The highest in¬ 
 stinct in Nature is the Universal Soul : but Man has a higher 
 instinct still, which is Spirit, or the Most High. Man’s supe¬ 
 riority to the animals does not consist then in his having reason, 
 as some say ; if by ‘ reason ’ be meant the reasoning faculty ; for 
 the animals have this, though not. to so great a degree. But it 
 consists in a faculty of a wonderfully higher kind : viz., a faculty 
 of receiving of, and communing with the Most High. 
 
 22. This power of communion is not a communion by thought, 
 as some say : but is an actual positive sensation or perception : 
 for sensation is the source of all our possible knowledge; and 
 that which has never been externally or internally sensated, has 
 never been positively known. 
 
 23. For there are no innate ideas in the mind. Nor can 
 thought have any material to work upon, unless what sensation 
 had previously given. But then there are many senses, both in¬ 
 ternal and external: and there are sensations of many kinds. 
 And by ‘ sensation,’ is not meant an effect produced on a sense, 
 necessarily by an outward cause ; but perhaps only a simple con¬ 
 sciousness of its own existence and operation, which the sense has. 
 
 24. Noav if we had no real sensation of the Most High, we 
 could never positively know Him : we might indeed form an idea 
 of the existence of a God, by help of an a priori or an a poste¬ 
 riori argument, founded on one, or on divers sensations ; but 
 we should still be as far from knowing the Most High positively, 
 as before. For knowing the Most High, is not concluding, and 
 inferring, hwt feeling, or sensoting, His existence. And to Him 
 
PROLOGUE* 
 
 13 
 
 thus known, the names God, Spirit, Christ, Holy Ghost, are 
 given. 
 
 25. The Most High, thus perceived by the Spiritual organs of 
 Man’s brain, has seven modifications, or attributes : (1) Truth ; 
 
 (2) Power ; (3) Beauty ; (4) Light ; (5) Life ; (6) Goodness ; 
 (7) Love : which are called (Rev. i, 4) The Seven Spirits of 
 God. 
 
 26. Thus the Universe, as positively knowable by Man, con¬ 
 sists of four classes of facts : (1) the mineral; (2) the vegetable; 
 
 (3) the animal, provinces of Nature ; and (4) the Most High, 
 incarnated in Man. And thus the Altar, that is, the knowable 
 Universe, has four angles or horns:—“ The four horns of the 
 golden altar that is before God'' (Rev. ix, 13.) 
 
 27. And now we may see how it is that Man is both Natural 
 and Supernatural. He is Natural, because he is an animal, 
 and consequently a vegetable and a mineral. But he is a mem¬ 
 ber of the fourth province of the Altar, and thus super-Natural. 
 
 28. Of this fourth province, the three previous provinces are 
 only shadows and emblems. Or in other words, all Nature is 
 phantasmal, as Spirit is substantial: for Nature is only an index 
 which points to Supernature. Thus the man who knoivs not the 
 Most High, is living, not in real Life, but only in the representa¬ 
 tives thereof. And Nature gives no real Life, for itself is but a 
 reflection or image of such ;—an outward breathing merely, and a 
 spectral appearance. 
 
 29. And therefore to have been born in Nature only, is not 
 sufficient to confer eternal Life; but to this end, a man must be 
 born again. 
 
 30. Three sets of organs there are in Man’s brain : (1) Celes¬ 
 tial; (2) Intellectual; (3) Carnal. 
 
 31. The first are instinctible by Spirit; but the two latter are 
 only capable of being instincted, at their highest, by the Soul. 
 
 32. To these three sets, the Jewish poets have given mystic 
 names : the Spiritual faculties being called Heaven, or Air ; the 
 Intellectual, Earth, or Land ; and the Carnal, Sea. 
 
 33. And by help of this simple clue, we may now unravel 
 many of the mysteries of the Bible : and first, let us look at 
 
14 
 
 PROLOGUE. 
 
 THE PARABLE OF CREATION. 
 
 34. The history of mankind is a history of constant progress. 
 For each age does not stand on its own private base apart from 
 former ages, but is on the head always of its predecessor, and is 
 a continuation of the same. From the first appearance of the 
 race then upon the earth, to the present moment, a continuous 
 drama has been enacting, having seven acts, its acts being seven 
 Ages. So that the creation of mankind is a work of six Days, and 
 a resting on the seventh : and to each of these seven Days, its 
 own Spirit is especially given. Thus the seven Spirits are seven 
 keys, wherewith to unlock the archives of the world. 
 
 35. What then was the original condition of mankind ? In 
 the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth : but the 
 Heavens, or Spiritual faculties, were only inactive and rudi¬ 
 mentary ; and the Earth , or intellect, ivas without form and void: 
 while darkness teas upon the face of the human deep. And the 
 Spirit of God moved upon the face of the Waters. 
 
 36. But what shall we understand by the word ‘Waters’? 
 “ The Waters which thou sawest are Peoples, and Multitudes, 
 and Nations, and Tongues.” 
 
 The First Day. 
 
 37. God said, Let there be Light, —let there be Truth,— and 
 there was Truth, and God saw that it was good. And God 
 divided the light of Truth from the darkness of error, and called 
 the Truth, Day; and the error He called Night. And the reign 
 of Evening-darkness and the triumph of Morning-light was the 
 first Day. 
 
 38. The achievement of this day was the creation of the 
 Morning, or Dawn of Truth, out of the blackness of the original 
 Evening of a dark Heaven, and a formless Earth. To this also 
 allusion is made in the book of Job, where God is represented as 
 asking Hast thou commanded the Morning since thy days, and 
 caused the Day-spring to know his place, that he might take hold of 
 the ends of the Earth, that the wicked might be shaken out of it ? 
 These words have no intelligibility, except from their internal 
 meaning: the dawn of the outward light has no such tendency: 
 
PROLOGUE* 
 
 15 
 
 but this is the great mission of truth, to take possession of the 
 ends of the intellect , and to make it clean, that God’s will may 
 be done on Earth, by the intellectual men, even as it is done by 
 the Spiritual men in Heaven. 
 
 The Second Day. 
 
 39. The text referring to this day, we will dispose as follows : 
 —God said, Let there he a firmament in the midst of the Waters , 
 and let it divide the Waters f rom the Waters. And God made 
 the firmament , and divided the Waters which were under the firma¬ 
 ment from the Waters which were above the firmament; and it 
 was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And God said , 
 Let the Waters under the Heaven he gathered together unto one 
 place , and let the dry Land appear ; and it was so. And God 
 called the dry Land Earth ; and the gathering together of the 
 Waters called He Seas ; and God saw that it was good; and the 
 Evening and the Morning were the second Day. 
 
 40. Now we have here two great movements: (1) the crea¬ 
 tion of a firmament, or expansion, separating one class of people 
 from the rest: and (2) the gathering together of the rest of the 
 people into one place, generating an intellectual result. And as 
 this firmament is called Heaven, it plainly discovers that the 
 circumstance that differenced the Waters which were above the 
 firmament from those below, was simply, Spirituality. For it 
 was in this day that true Spirit was first evolved. In this day, 
 for the first time, did God succeed in separating to himself a 
 church and people. 
 
 41. Corresponding with this first developement of true 
 Religion in the world, was the arising of a sense of the necessity 
 of worship in the minds of those who were yet Unspiritual; and 
 the generation of an intellectual deputy for true Piety. For the 
 Waters which were under the Heaven, were gathered together in 
 one doctrine, in which the dry Land, or intellect , appeared, 
 instead of the true rain of Heaven. So that there were now two 
 kinds of religion in the world ; the one true, Spiritual; the other 
 false, merely intellectual, notional. 
 
 42. Now it should be known, the Seven Seals, Trumpets, and 
 Yials, spoken of by John in his Revelations, correspond with the 
 
16 
 
 PROLOGUE. 
 
 seven Ages of the world :—The first Seal, Trumpet, and Vial, to 
 the first Day ; the second to the second ; and so on. 
 
 43. When then the second Trumpet sounded, there was, as it 
 were, a great Mountain, burning with fire, cast into the Sea ;— 
 that is, into the carnal classes of mankind ; and the third part of 
 the Sea became blood. Now as the Trumpet-blasts relate to in¬ 
 tellectual events, as will by and by be seen : it follows that this 
 mountain was something intellectual. 
 
 44. And indeed, it may be observed generally, that as moun¬ 
 tains are developements of the natural earth , so the word moun¬ 
 tain is often used by the Jewish poets to signify a particular de- 
 velopement of the poetic Earth, or intellect:—that is to say, an 
 intellectual doctrine or occurrence. 
 
 45. This great Mountain, then, that was cast into the Sea, 
 was the same circumstance as we have just hinted at, in the 
 generation of the dry Land among the Waters below the Heavens : 
 the Waters below the Heaven being in fact, the Sea;—and the 
 dry Land, no other than this intellectual Mountain. And the 
 introduction of this intellectual creed and worship among the 
 Unspiritual men, was the cause of great schism and strife ; being 
 the same circumstance as is elsewhere spoken of, under the name 
 of the Tower of Babel. 
 
 46. To this same outbreak of tyranny, bigotry, and convul¬ 
 sion, further allusion is made, when the prophet represents the 
 second Vial to have been poured out upon the Sea, and it be¬ 
 came as the blood of a dead man. And just in the same way the 
 opening of the second Seal, was marked by the going out of a 
 Horse that was red. 
 
 47. The meaning of the word Horse, is intellectual doctrine. 
 —And I might show this, by quoting divers passages in 
 proof: though it sometimes means doctrine alone, as in that 
 place where it is phophesied of Christ, as type of His Gospel, 
 that He should bind his Foal to the Vine, and his Ass’s Colt 
 (and both Foal and Ass’s Colt have the same meaning) to the choice 
 Vine :—where by Vine is signified the intellectuality of the doc¬ 
 trine of the true Gospel : as will presently be shewn. But the 
 Horse of this second day was red; bloody, and violent, and it 
 was given to him that sat on this tyrannous intellectual doctrine, 
 
PROLOGUE. 
 
 17 
 
 —this Mountain cast into the Sea,—this dry Land among the 
 Waters below the firmament,—to take peace from the intellect, 
 and that they should kill one another; and there was given to 
 him a great sword. 
 
 48. This second Day is the Day of Power. The Soul of a 
 time always accords with the Spirit of the Time ; and as it is the 
 office of art to embody the Soul; it should follow that Strength 
 was a great feature in the second Day’s achievements. Accord¬ 
 ingly, let us look at the Pyramids;—have they much Beauty, 
 betray they much Intelligence or Utility P Do they teach a doc¬ 
 trine of Love, as the buildings, even in our Day, are almost be¬ 
 ginning to do ?—A certain rough Truth, a geometrical propor¬ 
 tion they have indeed, as was natural; but Strength, pure 
 Strength, is their heart and Soul. Think again of the Sphinxes, 
 and enormous remains of Egypt and the whole East, constructed 
 at this period. Rough, vast, unbeautiful, unuseful they were ; 
 but how emphatically Strong ! And consider : what is the great 
 political principle of Strength ?— Concentration of men into mas¬ 
 ses, combination, and division of labour. Accordingly, we find 
 that in this second Day, for the first time, men did become con¬ 
 centrated into masses, and to found dynasties and empires. King¬ 
 craft and Priestcraft, those two most terrible developements of 
 Strength, took origin here. Here the first great cities were built ; 
 Memphis, and Tanis, and Thebes, and Babylon. Strength 
 political was certainly a creation of this Day. 
 
 49. The Mythologies of all old nations will corroborate the 
 above. Look, for instance, at that fable of the gigantic Titons, 
 “ Sons of the Earth,” —another version of the Tower of Babel. 
 There were giants upon the Earth in those days , says the his¬ 
 torian ;—men of great force of mind, who led the rest captive at 
 their will. 
 
 The Third Day. 
 
 50. On this Day, God said, Let the Earth bring forth gras&, 
 the herb yielding seed, and the fruit-tree yielding fruit after its 
 kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the Earth : and it was so„ 
 
 51. For the intellect did, in this third Day, bring forth won¬ 
 derfully : philosophy, letters, and the. arts, first attaining any ad- 
 
 c 
 
18 
 
 rROLOGUF. 
 
 vancement then. The process did indeed begin in the second 
 Day, when the dry Land appeared; as we find that Noah, after 
 the allegorical Flood, became, literally, “ a man of the Earth,” 
 (Gen. ix, 20) an intellectualist. But it was not till the third 
 Day that the intellectual Grasses and Trees, sciences and studies, 
 did efficiently appear. 
 
 52. The third Day was the Day of Beauty. Herein lived 
 the Greeks :—read their history ; you shall find how alive they 
 were to the influences of this Soul. “ The ancient Greeks called 
 the world Ko<ry.os, Beauty .” 
 
 53. Does Greek art say anything to the point ? Look at its 
 architecture;—the express embodyment of dry cold Beauty. 
 Nor is Greek sculpture less marvellously impregnated with this 
 Soul. And what a difference there is between a Grecian statue, 
 and an Egyptian! The one is beautiful, rounded, flowing ; the 
 other, square, massive, delighting in straight lines. 
 
 The Fourth Day. 
 
 54. Light is the Spirit of the fourth Day. For on this Day 
 God said, Let there he Lights, or Lightbearers , in the church , or 
 firmament of Heaven ; let them he for signs , and for seasons , and 
 for days, and years; and let them he for Lights in the firmament 
 of the church , to give light upon the intellect. 
 
 55. And God made two great Lights : the greater Light, the 
 visible Christian church , to rule the day; and the lesser Light, 
 the Mahometan church , to rule the night: He made the Stars 
 also: and set them in the firmament of Heaven, in His own 
 mystical church, to give light upon the intellect, and to rule over 
 the day and night, and to divide the light from the darkness. 
 
 56. What is the sign and symbol of Christianity ? The Cross. 
 The Cross is the natural emblem of the Sun , as it were his rays 
 streaming out to the four quarters of the world. What is the 
 symbol of Mahometanism ? The Crescent, the lesser light, the 
 Moon : —how apt in both instances ! 
 
 57. The Redeemer Himself is reported to have alluded fre¬ 
 quently to the advent of Light in His own Day, His biographers 
 also asserted it: and Matthew quotes Isaiah to this purport; 
 The people which sat in darkness saw great Light (‘ the greater 
 
PROLOGUE. 
 
 1 § 
 
 Light,’) and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death , 
 Light is sprung up .” So Jesus Himself, as' the represen¬ 
 tative of that Faith which He came to symbolize, exclaimed, I 
 am the Light of the world: he that believeth in Me shall ndt walk 
 in darkness , but shall have the Light of Life." And again 
 He saith, I am come a Light into the world. That is the true 
 Light , which lighteth every Man coming into the world. 
 
 58. And I think no one can look at the great Spiritual Light 
 which now for the first time was eliminated, without seeing how 
 truly entitled this Day is to its own peculiar designation. Love 
 your enemies : bless them that curse you : —at what time, till then, 
 had such a sentiment achieved itself ? How amazing a develope- 
 ment of the Spirit of Light was there! 
 
 59. But then, what shall we say of the Moon, the Crescent, 
 that shineth in that dark eastern night? We must not call 
 Mahomet an impostor; he had his mission, as thou and I have 
 ours. We must not despise the Moon and the Stars which God 
 has ordained. We must not forget that the Moon, as well as the 
 Sun, is placed in God’s own mystic church—“ the firmament of 
 Heaven.” People seem to think, because God made the Sun, 
 they must therefore call the Moon ugly names; which I take to 
 he poor logic. I know God made the Sun;—what then ? He 
 made the Moon also. And why did He make the Moon ?—That 
 millions might be deluded into a piety which would, when they 
 had done their best, damn their souls ? Nay, God forbid I—let 
 lis call this, blasphemy. 
 
 60. And let us say boldly, that God made this Moon to give 
 Light upon the Earth in that benighted clime,—with the kindest 
 intention. The eastern world was never prepared for a true re¬ 
 ception of the Sun; he rose, but might not shine there, and 
 shines here instead. The great world must turn half round be¬ 
 fore his beams can reach there ; meanwhile they shall have the 
 dim illumination of the Moon. Was it not as much as their 
 weak sight could bear ? The Sun would but have dazzled their 
 owlish eyes; let them have the Moon, then, says the gracious 
 World-Lover, and solace their weak vision in its thin rays. 
 
 61. But God made the Stars also. First, there were the 
 Twelve, of whom the Saviour said, “ Ye are the Lights of the 
 
20 
 
 PROLOGUE. 
 
 . v. ' 
 
 world,;” —ye little Stars! To these also John alludes in his 
 Revelations, when he sees a great wonder in Heaven—that is in 
 the Spiritual church ;—a woman clad with the Sun,—the nominal 
 church of Christ,—and the Moon under her feet, as in the end it* 
 shall be; and upon her head, or at her beginning, a crown of 
 twelve Stars. And for the rest, let the historians tell you, what 
 multitudes of Lightbearers flourished in this fourth Day. 
 
 62. To the shining of these Luminaries, the appointed days 
 are determined. They are to he for signs, and for seasons, and 
 for days and years. But consider further; what is the chrono¬ 
 logical date by which Europe and America reckon ? The 
 Christian Era. And Asia,—what is the date most used there ? 
 The Mahometan Hegira.—Again ; Christendom measures its year 
 by Solar months, and Mahomedom by Lunar. And besides all 
 this ; let it he remembered that many of the Stars came to be 
 canonized, and so saints’ days were kept: whence we now say 
 Martin-mas, Michael- mas, and Lady- day. flow truly,—in how 
 double a sense, have the Sun, Moon, and Stars, stood for signs, 
 and for seasons, and for days and years ! 
 
 63. On the opening of the fourth Seal, there went out a pale 
 Horse , and his name that sat on him was Death , and Hell fol¬ 
 lowed with him. And power was given to them over the fourth 
 part of the men of intellect, to kill with sword, and ivith hunger , 
 and with death, and with the Beasts of the Earth. 
 
 64. - When the fourth Trumpet sounded, the third part of the 
 Sun was smitten, and the third part of the Moon, and the third 
 part of the Stars; so that the third part of them was darkened. 
 
 65. And when the fourth Vial was poured out, it was dis¬ 
 charged upon the Sun, and power was given to him to scorch 
 men with fire, and men were scorched with great heat, and blas¬ 
 phemed the name of God. 
 
 66. Here then we have plainly predicted, that extensive de¬ 
 clension of vitality in the church, which began in the latter part 
 of this fourth Day. It was this evil which, in both Sun and 
 Moon-dom, resulted in that monstrous alliance of church and 
 state, in which consists the worst of the church’s scorching and 
 blasting heat. But not only by usurping temporal power, has 
 the church thus scorched men with fire ; she has done this also 
 
PROLOGUE. 
 
 21 
 
 by that dreadful influence which she has exercised over weak- 
 minded persons, making them, through fear of her savage bug¬ 
 bears, to be in anguish and torment, and all their lifetime subject 
 to bondage. And here I chiefly allude to that infamous doctrine 
 of purgatory, and endless torments ; the mournfullest libel on the 
 God named Love, human fancy ever invented. What wonder 
 that this great heat which has so scorched men, should fail to 
 effectually win them ? What wonder, that for all this bugbear 
 of frying and burning, the world repented never, or gave God 
 glory ? 
 
 67. Upon the pale Horse [^[ 47}, pale with its own terrors, 
 which it carries on its back ;—upon this pale doctrine of terror, 
 sat Death, and Hades followed with him. And what has this 
 savage doctrine, and this unholy alliance of church and state, 
 done ? Killed with the sword, caused men to die by force for 
 ever ; and not by force only, but by hunger, by depriving them 
 of Spiritual food; and with death also, and with the Beasts, the 
 bugbears of the mind, the base, savage and blasphemous figments 
 of the Earth. 
 
 68. A certain parable spake Jesus, saying, The Reign of Heaven 
 is like unto leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures 
 of meal till the whole ivas leavened .—For the Gospel of Christ 
 was to be Three Days ; that is, during this Day of Light, and 
 the two following ones, the last of which is our own; before the 
 whole mass of humanity should be quickened thereby, and man. 
 become perfect in God’s image. 
 
 69. Go ye , said the Saviour, and tell that fox, Herod; Behold 
 I cast out devils and I do cures to-day (that is, in the Day of 
 Light), and to-morrow (the Day of Life); and the third Day (the 
 Day of Goodness) I (in my Gospel and church) shall he 
 
 PERFECTED. 
 
 70. And now what a profound meaning we may discern in the 
 sign which Christ gave to that evil generation: even the 
 sign of the prophet Jonah. It is commonly thought that this 
 type was fulfilled and practically expounded, by Christ’s lying 
 three days in the earth : but if we consider it rightly, w r e shall 
 see that both these were but signs of a more majestic sepulchrage 
 and resurrection.- And not only Jonah, but Noah also, will 
 
22 
 
 PROLOGUE. 
 
 prove to have had reference to the same fact; as will be evi¬ 
 dent from the following parallel, part of which I found in 
 Taylor’s abridged Calmet. 
 
 Noah 
 
 in the water 
 is preserved 
 by Divine power 
 in his Ark 
 in which he was 
 part of a first year, 
 the whole of a second year, 
 the beginning of a third year. 
 
 Jesus 
 
 in tie earth 
 is preserved 
 by Divine power 
 in his Tomb 
 in which he was 
 part of a first day, 
 the whole of a second day, 
 the beginning of a third day. 
 
 This is the true resurrection of Christ, of which the three former 
 occurrences were but signs. And this should teach us, that the 
 whole that Jesus underwent while in the world, was not a real 
 fulfilment, but only a sign, a figure, a mystical symbolization of a 
 glorious and universal verity. 
 
 - - . The Fieth Day. 
 
 71. The avater of the Spirit of Lite is the grand feature of 
 the fifth Day. For God said, Let the Waters bring forth abun¬ 
 dantly the moving creature that hath Life, and Foivl that may fly 
 above the intellect, in the open firmament of Heaven. And God 
 made great Fishes, and every living creature the Waters brought 
 forth abundantly after their hind, and every winged Fowl after his 
 hind. 
 
 72. Here then we have that wonderful awakening of the 
 nations, which began some hundreds of years ago, and has con¬ 
 tinued with growing energy till now. The people have been 
 vivified wonderfully, and are yet vivifying. And though the 
 
 Jonah 
 
 in the w r ater 
 is preserved 
 by Divine power 
 in his Dag (fish or ship) 
 in which he was 
 part of a first day, 
 the whole of a second day, 
 the beginning of a third day. 
 
 Christ’s true Gospel 
 in the earth 
 is preserved 
 by Divine power 
 in that Sepulchre 
 in which it was 
 part of a first Day, Light, 
 the whole of a second Day, Life, 
 the beginning of a third Day, 
 
rROLOGUJS. 
 
 23 
 
 true Gospel of Christ was indeed “ hidden in the dark places of 
 the Earth, with the weeds wrapped about its headyet it took 
 upon it a vitality unknown since its first days, both before, and 
 especially at, the time of the Reformation, when Martin Luther 
 on the one hand, and Ignatius Loyola on the other, were the 
 means of infusing a new vigour and life into the churches of 
 God. Fowl there were in abundance, not mere intellectual 
 Christians; but Christian Fowl, winged, and flying above the 
 mere Earth, in the true church and open firmament of Heaven. 
 
 73. But the most remarkable thing in connexion with this 
 fifth angel, is the circumstance that, instead of having one Day 
 only, it passes on to the next, and takes part with it in the 
 government. So that we have not done with Life yet, but shall 
 hear of it again presently. 
 
 The Sixth Day. 
 
 74. In the morning of to-Day, God said, Let the Earth bring 
 forth ! let the intellect once more produce its fruits. But not 
 merely as in the Day of Beauty; for though the Earth was 
 fruitful then, it was only of grass, and herb, and tree, yielding 
 not real useful fruit, but only a seed, which should be restrained 
 from germinating till the advent of the sixth Day. It is indeed 
 a remarkable fact, that whereas the intellect became very opera¬ 
 tive in the third Day [^f 51]; so that arts and sciences were 
 originated, which needed only a few more discoveries to have 
 rivalled those of our own time; they seemed all at once to become 
 impotent and stationary, producing no ripe fruit, but only seed. 
 This is the same fact to which John alludes, when he represents 
 it as being said, in the third Day, A measure of Wheat for a 
 denarius, and three measures of Barley for a denarius ; and see 
 that thou hurt not the Oil and the Wine. As will be shewn here¬ 
 after, Wheat, Barley, and Wine, all refer to intellectual pro¬ 
 ducts; a wonderful and strange famine in which, is hereby 
 declared. 
 
 75. This sixth Day, is the Day we live in. Of a truth the 
 intellect is bringing forth in our times abundantly, in all manner 
 of operations; whether Cattle, or Creeping Thing, or any other 
 .Beast of. the Eeuth* 
 
24 
 
 PROLOGUE. 
 
 76. For not only is Life injected into the intellect, and that, 
 too, of an unexampled character; hut also another Spirit, with its 
 Soul, is at work, even Utility or Goodness. 
 
 77. And when the angel of Life shall have conquered com¬ 
 pletely, it will triumph by shewing itself fully upon the Earth. 
 The Earth is to bring forth abundantly, not mere herbs and trees, 
 doctrines and sciences, hut the creature that hath Life, and Fowl, 
 to fly in the expanse of Heaven. In other words, that intellect, 
 that reasoning and cavilling power, which has always opposed 
 Christianity and Christianhood, is to be enlightened so far, and so 
 well enlivened, as to be freed, not by suppression , but by convic¬ 
 tion, from all those scepticisms which now convulse the world. 
 And that it may be so, see how beautifully the angel of Life 
 helps the angel of Goodness! These two work together to effect 
 this, the best and noblest of all Futilities. For Utility is Good¬ 
 ness, when genuine: since nothing is really useful, but what 
 tends to make things better .—It is this which makes our times so 
 exceedingly glorious ; for in this Day, not only are physical 
 goodnesses to be realized, nor intellectual only, but Celestial, 
 Transcendental, also. This is to be the Age of Virtue ; and to 
 this point do all things visibly tend. Man in this Day, is to 
 stand up perfect in God’s image; after Ilis likeness ; perfect, not 
 merely by individual acquisition, but by birthright also; for Men 
 shall be born spotless, ere this Day’s eve shall close. 
 
 The Seventh Day. 
 
 78. Man being complete in God’s image, and the Celestial 
 creation perfected; the seventh angel goes out, and the reign of 
 Love begins. For in this Day God will finish the work which 
 He has made, and the Seven Spirits rest from the work which they 
 have made. 
 
 79. For when the Utilitarian angel shall have done his work, 
 then shall a messenger stand upon the Sea and upon the Earth, 
 having gained the victory over those two perverse principles ; 
 and lifting up his hand to the Celestial Principles, shall swear by 
 Him that liveth for ever and ever, 'Who created the Heavenly 
 faculties, and the men who therein are; and the Intellectual 
 faculties, and the men who therein are; and (he Carnal faculties, 
 
PROLOGUE. 
 
 25 
 
 and the men who therein are; “ that there shall be no longer 
 delay f but in the Day of the seventh angel, when he shall be¬ 
 gin to sound, the Mystery of God shall be finished, the whole 
 Secret of the Universe shall be fulfilled, as He hath declared by 
 His servants the prophets. 
 
 80. Then shall the seventh angel outpour his Yial upon the 
 Air ; that is, the Heavens, or Spiritual classes; and there shall 
 come a great voice out of the Temple, saying, It is done l And 
 there shall be voices, and th underings, and a great Earth-quake, 
 an intellectual convulsion, such as has not been since man was 
 upon the intellect, so mighty an Earthquake, and so great. And 
 the cities of the nations, all creeds and divisions of men, shall 
 fall; and great Babylon shall come in remembrance before God, 
 to give unto her the fierceness of wrath. And there shall be a 
 voice in Heaven , voices among those who dwell in the Celestial 
 faculties; saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the 
 kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ , and He shall reign for 
 ever and ever. 
 
 81. Yes; Christ shall reign; for the Day will be the Day of Love. 
 And then, instead of jealousies, and heart-burnings, and un¬ 
 charities, all men shall love all men, and be one family of friends. 
 And all houses, shall be one house; for bolts and bars shall be 
 done away. So that the Earth will be one wide garden of 
 Love, with open palaces and bowers for dwellings, wherein the 
 people shall live without fears, and without suspicions. And 
 both sexes will flow together in all the occupations of life, brother 
 with sister, and the sister with her brother; for men shall learn 
 injury no more. Nor will the rich one, when wooed, scorn, for 
 his poverty, the poor one who woos her ; for all caste distinctions 
 will be done away, and the people will measure each other by 
 Manhood and Womanhood, and not by quality of clothes. Then 
 all social reservations shall be abolished; and those sexual pru¬ 
 deries, so necessary now, shall equally be abolished. And where- 
 ever a man goes, and sees a man, he will be sure to see his good 
 friend ; and to whomsoever he addresses himself, he will be cer¬ 
 tain of proving a true well-wisher. Buying and selling will be 
 diminished; but what a man has to spare, that he will spare his 
 brother; and all men will gladly keep open house, and be 
 
26 PROLOGUE. 
 
 honoured when the stranger is at their door. If any man hun¬ 
 ger, his brother will feed him; and when he thirsts, give him 
 drink. And the walls, and the hedges, will be in great part done 
 away. There will be nothing that shall hurt or defile in all GocTs 
 holy mountain. 
 
 82. Thus, dating from the Day of Christ’s appearance, we have 
 seen ! that glorious sight of human redemption which Ezekiel also 
 sdw. The Man with the line in his hand went forth Eastward, 
 and measured a thousand cubits ; a thousand years ; and brought 
 the poet through the waters of human progress, that reached up 
 to the ancles. Again he measured a thousand , and brought him 
 through the waters of the Day of Life ; and the waters were up 
 to the knees. Again he measured a thousand , and brought him 
 through the sixth Day; and the waters were up to the loins. 
 Afterwards he measured another thousand, until he had meted 
 out the Day of Love; and lo ! it was a river that could not be 
 passed over , for the waters were risen , waters to swim in , a river 
 that could not be passed over. (Ezek. xlvij.) 
 

 
 I. T R U T H 
 
For ever, 0 Lord, Thy Word is written in Heaven. 
 
§ i. BIBLE SHALLOWS. 
 
 1. What is Truth ? asks Pilate; and from his day to ours the 
 world has been echoing the query. And yet there is hut one 
 true answer to this question, and that is, God is Truth. And if 
 people would hut remember this, and understand what it really 
 means; all disputation on theological matters would he for ever 
 done away. And bearing this in mind, we shall at once see how 
 it is there is so much Babylonish questioning; for instead of 
 going to the Source of all Truth immediately, we have contented 
 ourselves with repairing to sundry cisterns, ancient or modern, 
 and so seldom tasted Truth’s living waters. For we are dislo¬ 
 cated from God; and falsities of all kinds abound, because the 
 people go not to God immediately for their oracles, but are trust¬ 
 ing papishly to the invocation and mediation of saints ; as if God 
 only could be approached through some Paul or John. Whereas, 
 if we went to Him, each one for himself, and accepted no medium, 
 however generally revered; knowledge would presently ripen 
 into true Wisdom, and all hot sectarian differences cease. 
 
 2. Because the more we assimilate to God, the nearer to Truth 
 shall we arrive, and the truer become. So that union with Spirit 
 
30 
 
 I. TRUTH. 
 
 is the royal and sole road to Truth ; and of Truth, Himself — 
 that is, Spirit, or God in man,—is the only arbitrator. 
 
 3. But the mass of professing Christians do not say so. They 
 bring you the Bible , and say ‘ There is Truth ; what that says, 
 you must believe : what that denies, you must deny forgetting, 
 or not knowing, that that and every other book of high value, 
 says and denies the same thing to different people, according to 
 the soul in which the reader is. They assert that to be the sole 
 rule of faith, the sole standard of practise, the solitary revelation 
 of the Deity, the unique Word of God. They say, 4 If you 
 would know Truth, there you must seek it; if you would learn 
 anything of God, thence you must get it; nor is it otherwhence 
 to be obtained. Because, God will tell you nothing now without 
 medium; He did indeed speak once, but has latterly been stricken 
 dumb; and of His voice nothing remains to the world but the 
 echo.’ 
 
 4. Not so , Lord! not so. The higher we rise in Being, the 
 more shall we be convinced that Revelation is not confined to any 
 book, or any age; but is in the brain of every vital Man, and 
 must be sought there , before all other places. Nor is this a new 
 discovery; Moses, David, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Plotinus, Socrates, 
 Paul, George Fox, and all truly great Men, of whatever age or 
 nation, knew and asserted the same; nor was old Henry Agrippa 
 speaking without surety, when he said, “ Quicunque seipsum 
 cognoverit, cognoscet in seipso omnia , cognoscet imprimis JDeum .” 
 
 5. And thus it must no longer be enough for you or for me, 
 that Divine words were spoken in old times :—unless the words 
 spoken to Paul or David, are respoken now to the disciple by a 
 living, and not traditionary Revelation, by an immediate internal 
 communication,—of what avail are they ? 
 
 6. This objection to old dicta, comes not from an unwillingness 
 to own the superiority in attainment of Isaiah or Samuel, to self; 
 but from a joyous and profound conviction, that the world is pro¬ 
 gressing, not receding; and that the arm of the Lord is not 
 shortened, nor His high prerogative of speech one jot abated by 
 lapse of years. For God is the same yesterday , to-day , and for 
 ever; —not eloquent yesterday, and dumb now ; but the same ,— 
 extant in all His fulness, and nowise diminished in the exercise of 
 
§ i. BIBLE SHALLOWS. 
 
 31 
 
 His powers.—Willingly would we learn through any medium ; 
 James or John, no matter whom ; if what they tell us be truly 
 correspondent to the teachings of the Great Teacher in the brain; 
 hut if not, then their words are dead branches, to he lopt off and 
 cast into the fire. For the Things of Christ are, simply and 
 entirely, Truth, Power, Beauty, Light, Life, Goodness, and Love, 
 as manifested in the Human Heavens; since Spirit has no other 
 properties or attributes than these. And it is Spirit, and not 
 Peter or James, that must take of v the Things of Christ, and re¬ 
 veal Them unto us : for against the dicta of God, there can be 
 no appeal. And whether it is right to prefer the sayings of men 
 to the true Word of God, judge ye. 
 
 7.. It must be asserted, and re-asserted, that always what Luke 
 reported, or Paul affirmed once, does not invalidate or throw sus¬ 
 picion on what God speaks now: the latter, in all its fulness, 
 must he first accepted and believed ; and then only so much of 
 the former, as is borne witness to by the latter. For what the 
 Soul of man lives on, is the Manna, the Bread coming down from 
 Heaven , or the Spiritual faculties; which, like that old Manna, 
 its type, is good only for here and to-day; if kept till to-morrow 
 it avails nothing, but spoils and putrefies. What folly is this that 
 has seized the hosts of Israel, that they are relying on what friend 
 Peter, or neighbour Paul, gathered and put into a basket yester¬ 
 day ; while all round them and upon them is falling the Heavenly 
 shower ? I will limit myself to the old Manna, when I can get no 
 new : but till then, never. If Peter had hands, so have I; and 
 every morning I will look, not into his basket, but up to Heaven , 
 and receive thence my morning meal. Paul’s Manna was good 
 when it was gathered; but that is two Days ago, and our world 
 is richer than Paul’s, by two Day’s showers. Why will people 
 prefer dead and mouldy food, to the living Bread which comes 
 down from Heaven ? 
 
 8. A certain book is put into our hands, which you tell us is 
 every word of it made true by Inspiration of God. Is it too 
 indelicate to inquire, dear friend, How know you it to he such f 
 and Where is your authority f For I tell you candidly, it is 
 nothing , that it has been received as such by a section, or by all 
 of the outward Christendom for some fifties or hundreds of years ; 
 
32 
 
 I. TRUTH. 
 
 since still recurs the question, How did the church find it out? 
 And what rightful authority of infallibility has been given to the 
 church , that its intuitions must be thought more accurate than our 
 own ? And if, on examining the Bible under proper condi¬ 
 tions, it fails to he every word of it, uncontradicted and 
 attested by Emanuel, God within us; wdiat can we do ?— 
 What, but reject with indignation so monstrous a claim; a claim 
 which would make the world a corpse, God a deceased Fact, and 
 mankind’s dearest and sacredest truths, dependant, not on the 
 constitution and basis of the Universe, hut merely on perishable 
 ink and paper ? 
 
 9. And after all, what is this Bible, that is supposed to he 
 Humanity’s ultimatum ? And by what means is it, that a series 
 of pamphlets, not considered to be a complete book, or anything 
 but a bundle of tracts, of questionable authority, till the last few 
 hundred years, should have become fixed and established as all of 
 infallible veracity ? It w^as not so in earlier times. “ By the 
 early fathers,” says Taylor’s abridgment of Calmet (written 
 to confirm the doctrine of Bible authority) “ and by men most 
 competent to investigate the subject, and the most worthy *bf our 
 confidence, the books of the present canon were not all esteemed 
 to be equally authentic. By Eusebius of Caesarea, before any 
 canon was established by authority,”— and whence came this 
 authority, I wonder ? —“they were divided into three classes. 
 (1) Those universally received; as the four Gospels, the Acts of 
 the Apostles, thirteerl Epistles of Paul, one Epistle of Peter, one 
 of John. (2) Those doubted of by some , as the Epistle to the 
 Hebrews, and the Revelations. (3) Those doubted of by many. 
 Or contradicted by most ; as the Epistle of James, the second 
 Epistle of Peter, that of Jude, and the second and third of John. 
 To this third class, Eusebius seems, in another passage, to refer 
 the Revelations. It was certainly doubted of by many; it has 
 continued to be doubted of; and Luther, in the preface to his 
 translation, strongly questions its canonical authority. The rule 
 of the church seems to have been, to admit no book into the 
 New Testament that was not the work of an apostle, or derived 
 from an apostle —[and what authority is there for this, or any 
 rule ?]—“ hence the Gospels of Mark and Luke were said to be 
 
§ i. BIBLE SHALLOWS. 
 
 33 
 
 derived from the apostles Peter and Paul, though some suppose, 
 that being historical only, and not dogmatical, they formed an 
 exception to the rule. The Epistle of James was doubted of, 
 because some questioned whether it were written by James the 
 apostle, or by another James. That of Jude was long excluded ; 
 and even lately Michaelis rather negatives its canonical authority; 
 proof of its composition by an apostle being very deficient.” 
 
 10. Here is a pretty confession, indeed, to be made by an ad¬ 
 
 vocate of the all-sufficiency and unimpeachable authority of the 
 Bible ! And indeed, it needs but a very slight examination of 
 the history of this book, to convince any one, that there never 
 was any rule given by God, or any touchstone Whatever, other 
 than internal evidence, to test the claim any pamphlets written 
 by any persons upon religious topics, might or might not have to 
 be reckoned as “ plenarily inspired.” A criterion, indeed, was 
 tried to be set up; and this proves that the necessity was always 
 felt for some such criterion; but the very best that could be 
 found, was only a notion which certain men got hold of; and to 
 prove the correctness of which, it is impossible to adduce one ex* 
 pression of scripture itself, or any other pretended authority. 
 Nay, and even supposing we granted, that the authorship of an 
 “ apostle ” (meaning one of the twelve) was the real ground of 
 distinction; even by this very rule, we must reject several books, 
 which never did pretend, and do not, to have at all emanated 
 from such a source. And as the modern church will not consent, 
 by rejecting these, to admit the validity of this “ rule We must 
 still inquire, how has this great question been at length settled ? 
 And what shadow of reason, or of authority, can you bring, to 
 convince us that the bible ought to consist of these very books, 
 with no less, and no more? - ■ - 
 
 11. But if the right of certain books to be considered canonical, 
 and their authenticity and authority, be thus a matter of necessary 
 doubt; of how much more doubt, think you, must the whole 
 book be the rightful originator, when it is remembered, that as 
 many passages are admitted by the greatest bible-advocates, to 
 have been vitiated, interpolated, or lost; so it becomes impossible 
 to say, without presumption, that any one passage stands just as 
 
 B 
 
34 
 
 I. TRUTH. 
 
 it was originally written ? If God had intended that this booh 
 should be the rule of faith for us; surely, He must also have 
 protected the text from deterioration ; since if the text have been 
 tampered with, the book must then have become an erroneous 
 guide. But if the bible have many hundreds of different, and 
 therefore doubtful readings, mistakes, and alterations, as is every* 
 where admitted by the learned; besides numbers of others, which 
 have never been discovered; is not this a clear proof that the 
 book has no infallibility ? 
 
 12. The unlearned Christian may not be aware of this; and 
 indeed, such things are very little dwelt on, as being misgiving* 
 points to those li bible-Christians ” who ever look into this matter; 
 but the fact remains the same. Even the New-testament, a com¬ 
 paratively modern book, has some hundreds of acknowledged 
 various readings; and the number is much increased, when we 
 turn to the Old. And yet when some new psychological truth is 
 enunciated in these times, it is thought an abundant answer and 
 confutation thereof, if a few scraps can but be brought forward 
 out of this book, which seem to preach a contrary doctrine. No 
 one is a more strenuous believer in bible-infallibility than a cer¬ 
 tain Alexander Campbell, w r ho, to his translation of the New 
 Testament, adds a list of 357 various readings which have been 
 detected there. “ Many of these interpolations,” says he, “ and 
 spurious readings, have crept into the text by the remissness of 
 transcribers. Few of them could have been inserted from any 
 design to favor any private opinions. In the historical books 
 many of them are taken from *the other historians; the copyist 
 of Matthew sometimes adding from his recollection” [a sure 
 proof of the little value he set oh the integrity of the text], 
 “ words from Mark, or Luke, or John.” “ The marginal read¬ 
 ings, which were added first for explanation, in process of time 
 became the fruitful source of interpolation, being frequently 
 transplanted into the text.” “ Some few y however, appear to have 
 been the result of design ” [and if a few appear, how many may 
 there not be which do not appear ?] “ After the Arian heresy 
 enlisted the passions of the belligerents in the war of orthodoxy, 
 there appears to be some ground for ascribing to the pride and 
 
§ i. BIBLE SHALLOWS. 
 
 35 
 
 jealousy of the polemics, a design to foist into the text some words 
 favorable to their distinguishing tenets. Some of these were 
 soon detected, and others have continued for many generations .” 
 
 13. It being thus admitted, by a stout biblist, that the text 
 has been adulterated ; what faith can be put, by any rational 
 person, in so decrepid and falsified a “ rule of faith ?” Surely, to 
 look at such a book as really an authoritative rule of faith, were 
 unwarrantable indeed. For we have, in the first place, no reason 
 for supposing that any one of these books must be what is called 
 
 canonicaland in the second, no certainty as to any one pas¬ 
 sage, since its veracity is rendered doubtful, not only from the 
 fact, that the transcribers were fallible, peccable creatures; but 
 also from this other fact, that the greater part of the book is 
 written in a very ancient language, to no one word of which a 
 definite, final meaning, can in most cases be given. For, as I am 
 told, there is no word of Hebrew that may not have two or more 
 collateral meanings. The consequence of this is, when a 
 Unitarian reads the bible, the bible becomes Unitarian ; when a 
 Calvinist, Calvinistic ; when an Armenian, Armenian ;— all things 
 to all men. And when all these things are considered; surely, 
 we may exclaim, surely, if it were necessary that men should 
 have a rule of faith, and God did dictate such a book for them ; 
 surely, He should have taken better care of it than so ! Why 
 suffer all this doubt, this disagreement in MSS, these difficulties 
 of translation ? Why not rather carry the ‘ miracle ’ one step fur¬ 
 ther, and ordain that the original copy should be preserved, and 
 inspire one translator for each nation ? 
 
 14. The certainty that if we had only a written rule of faith, 
 we should have no rule of faith at all, is obtained at a glance, 
 not only at the corruptions which have crept into the text; but 
 also at the fact, that it would he impossible for words ever to he 
 precise enough for that end; because (l) no words can express 
 the highest facts ; and because (2) none can read any book but the 
 soul that wrote it. 
 
 * 15. If a book is to be the final authority in all matters per¬ 
 
 taining to religion; it must be capable of conveying all such 
 matters to the mind of the reader, and thus be as wide and as 
 deep in words, as the reader’s soul can be in Being. But no 
 
36 
 
 I* TRUTH* 
 
 words can express God. None but God Himself can teach the 
 Things of God. Spiritual Facts are not amenable to language ; 
 and the moment these are attempted to be conveyed in speech, 
 the Facts overbalance the words, and make them reel and stagger. 
 If you know not God, words cannot teach you Him; if you know 
 Him, words will be unnecessary, since you have That of which the 
 words are merely attempted representations* The utmost words 
 can do, is to give a sort of hieroglyphic, which shall have no 
 meaning to him that knows it not, but shall be recognized as a 
 faint resemblance by the initiated. Thus it is said, “ God is no 
 respecter of persons and it is true. But it is true only partially; 
 and if you insist that these words are true in every meaning, or 
 anything but partial, you will have to look far for justification. 
 What? are not certain men always chosen, by Natural and 
 Supernatural Laws, for certain purposes ?—as, Moses, to lead out 
 the Israelites ; Mary, to be the mother of Christ; Paul, to be a 
 chosen vessel; Luthur, to reform; and so on ? Is not Abel 
 respected, while Cain’s sacrifice is rejected ?—and thus is this 
 sentiment both true and false; and every theosophic and psycho¬ 
 logic enunciation is true and false likewise. It is said, “ The sins 
 of the fathers are on the children to the third and fourth genera¬ 
 tion .” And it is true. If a man lose any part of his soul, sell it 
 for wealth or pleasure, his child will be deficient in that respect, 
 unless it be redeemed for the child by the virtue of the mother. 
 A lewd father has lewd children, unless the mother be of a better 
 sort. Even to the third and fourth generation, we suffer for the 
 iniquities of our parents.—Yet the strict deduction from these 
 words, would be precisely that which the Jews did draw, when 
 they said bitterly, in disparagement of God’s justice, “ The fathers 
 have eaten sour grapes , and the children's teeth are set on edge” 
 In contradiction of this, the poet declares, The son shall not hear 
 the iniquity of the father; for the soul that sinneth, it shall die. 
 So then, both these contradictory propositions, are true and false. 
 So is it always. For though no two truths can really oppose 
 each other; yet the assertions of truths will contradict each other; 
 not that the truths are at odds, but solely because of the incom¬ 
 petency of words. For in all matters that relate to Spirituals, 
 no language can avail; logic refers solely to the intellect; but 
 
§ i. BIBLE SfiAULOWS. 
 
 37 
 
 the Spiritual faculties are infinitely higher than the intellectual, 
 being, in fact, the faculties of the Most High; and as high as the 
 Heavens are above the Earth , so high are the Things of God 
 aboye the power of logical language. Hence, every good hook, 
 and every book, in proportion to its value, will contradict itself 
 oftentimes ;—none oftener than the hible. For the fact is, Truth 
 is infinite ; and words are quite finite ; and the greater cannot be 
 included in the less. Every attempted theosophical or psycho¬ 
 logical expression, only expresses a part of that particular truth 
 it is meant to express, and at the same time conveys the half of 
 some other truth, which also drags in another and another, not 
 intended, by the speaker, to he expressed. For Truth being God, 
 and God being infinite ; no particle of this infinitude can be made 
 to stand by itself; but whichever may chance to be at top, and 
 nearest to the eye, implies and alludes to all that are beneath j 
 and the Whole is present in, and expressed and represented by* 
 any particle or part. So that, as language is finite, any attempt 
 to detach and segregate part of Truth’s Infinitude, and envelope 
 it in words, must only serve to render language ridiculous ; and 
 must effect, that not any possible collection of words can stand for 
 Truth Himself, but that He must be His own interpreter, His 
 own medium, His own revelation, His own bible to every be¬ 
 liever’s mind. 
 
 16. And secondly; just as no language can convey High 
 Facts ; so no language has any intrinsic meaning ; but is merely 
 a mass of arbitrary signs, which stand for the same facts, only to 
 those persons who see them from a like point of view. For every 
 high book must be read, not philologically, not literally, but in 
 the soul in which it was written. Then only do we perceive the 
 real meaning, when we have and are what is meant; we cannot 
 press through the words, into the thing they stand for ; but must 
 first get to the thing signified, by another method ; and then, and 
 not till then, will the words be seen to represent what they were 
 put for. When we are living the Truth, then we shall know the 
 Truth, and the Truth shall make us free of all knowledge. But 
 it is in vain to think to get to know the Truth, by learning the 
 symbols that stand for it; first know the Truth, and then you 
 shall be able to interpret the symbols. Moreover, when you have, 
 
 F 
 
38 
 
 I. TRUTH. 
 
 and are, the Thing symbolized, then the symbols become needless 
 to you; and if they were destroyed, you could re-create them; 
 as the tree deals with its annual crop of leaves. Now the bible, 
 as a teacher of religion, is nothing but a collection of mere sym- 
 bols; if you have not the Fact, the symbol is useless; if you 
 have, it is needless. The tree may indeed be gladdened and 
 refreshed by its beautiful leaves; but let them fall off, and it is 
 still a tree, with all its central vigour. When leaves are again 
 wanted, it will know quite well how to reproduce them. There¬ 
 fore do we assert the superiority of the soul of man to the sym¬ 
 bols ; and deny their authority and infallibility. 
 
 * 17. How is it possible, dear friend, for any absolute rule of 
 faith and practice to be written down, since the same words stand 
 for different things, to your mind and to mine ? Certain phe¬ 
 nomena are veritable giants to Don Quixote ; though to Sancha 
 they seem to savour of the windmill. ‘ God is Love ’ means that 
 He has made a pit of endless agonies for people’s souls, to a young 
 friend of mine; while to me, it means the very contrary. For 
 the same fact appears differently to different persons; because 
 every one sees only according to the soul he is in ; and the object 
 has no absolute quality in itself, but owes its shape, colour, and 
 meaning, to the eye that views it. To a fool, the world is foolish; 
 to a knave, knavish ; to an ugly soul, very ugly ; to a saint,, 
 saintly and divine. And thus it is, that no possible combination 
 of words can have any absolute meaning in itself; and every sen¬ 
 tence expresses the truth it was meant to stand for, only when 
 read by a mind in the same soul as the writer’s. 
 
 18. How unhappy were our condition,—on what a poor basis 
 would religion be built, had God confined revelation of Himself 
 to words, which deal only with partialities and uncertainties, 
 and are always not absolute, but relative to the mind that reads 
 them! But I thank my God, this is not so. He has not trusted 
 His infinite Revelation to finite ink and paper, but it is in all , and 
 upon all them that believe. 
 
 19. You say the bible “ comes from God.'* In the first place, 
 dear friend, we shall make but little progress in true ascertain¬ 
 ment, while we talk in such vague generals. All that we can 
 know of God , meaning the Most High, is comprised in Iiis. Seven. 
 
§ i. BIBLE SHALLOWS. 
 
 39 
 
 attributes [Prol. 25] ; and every possible idea that we can 
 rightly attach to this word “ God," as the Most High, is contained 
 in these Seven properties. So that when it is said, any hook or 
 any man comes from God, meaning the Most High, all we can 
 rightly understand by that is, that he or it comes from infinite 
 Truth, Power, Beauty, Light, Life, Goodness, and Love. Now, 
 because these are not Seven Facts, but only Seven views taken 
 of the same Fact; therefore every one must harmonize, and he 
 convertible with every other of these Seven; else, if each were a 
 different Fact from the other, and not the same fact in a different 
 light; there would he Seven Infinitudes, which is impossible. 
 The Power of God, therefore, is inseparable from the Goodness of 
 God; and His Truth from His Love; and the one must always 
 harmonize and consent with, and not violate, the other.—This is 
 the great test, by which we may know what comes, and what 
 comes not, from the Most High. 
 
 20. If then a man, professing to he inspired by the Most High 
 in all his actions, evinces pride, or anger, or malice, or revenge, 
 or hatred; we may know at once that he is not in these parts of 
 his conduct, God-inspired; since Goodness is opposed to every 
 one of these, and Beauty to every one, and Love. And it will 
 be in vain to urge that this man is plenarily inspired by God, 
 while he manifests such wicked passions and feelings; since 
 Beauty is opposed to malice, Love to hatred, and Goodness to 
 anger and revenge. “By their fruits ,” said Jesus, “ye shall 
 know them" And if every man must submit to have his pre¬ 
 tensions and quality tried by this criterion, so must every 
 book. If then the bible be entirely written in Truth, Beauty, 
 Power, Light, Life, Goodness, and Love; then it is entirely from 
 the Most High : but if only partially in these, then it is part 
 divine, and part human. 
 
 21. No one more cheerfully concedes, than I, that the bible is 
 greatly and eminently from the Most High ; but it is not all so ; 
 and every word of it must submit to be tried by this rule alone, 
 before it can be admitted as plenarily inspired. And if there be 
 any laws and institutions, which this book asserts to be from the 
 Most High, then these must be tried in like manner ; and if they 
 prove not to be dictated by the Seven, then the asserter of the 
 
40 
 
 1. TRUl'll. 
 
 plenary inspiration of the book is at once proved to be mistaken. 
 When then it is said, that by God’s commandment, a woman com* 
 mitting adultery is to be stoned: shall we believe that so extreme 
 a blood-thirstiness of the law, which no modern enlightened 
 legislature would forshame to be guilty of, was enacted by infi¬ 
 nite Goodness and Love ? Nay, rather, He, and not Moses, was 
 the true representative of God, who rejected the old savage, un¬ 
 godly institute, and said to the adultress, “ Neither do I condemn 
 thee r And when it is said, “ A bastard shall not enter into the 
 congregation of the Lord; even to his tenth generation shall he 
 not enter into the congregation of the Lord;" shall we believe 
 that this brutal and unjust ordinance, which cut off from all 
 social respect, and subjected to a kind of civil death, of the 
 crudest description, the unoffending posterity of a sinful pair, 
 even to the tenth descent; could ever have been dictated bv 
 Goodness and Love ? Or that the utmost length to which 
 ferocious malice, and cowardly revenge, and detestable spite, and 
 the most diabolical passions, could go, would exceed threats 
 which it it said infinite Love uttered; such as the following in¬ 
 vention the austere Moses puts in the mouth of God ? “ If thou 
 
 wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God," to keep all 
 these trumpery commandments, and superstitious, though symbolic, 
 ceremonies; “ cursed shalt thou be in the city, and in the field; 
 cursed thy basket and store ; cursed the fruit of thy body," tby 
 poor innocent children ! “ and the fruit of thy land; cursed in 
 thy going out and in thy coming in. The Lord shall send upon 
 thee cursing , vexation, and rebuke , in all thou settest thine hand to 
 do ;" “ The Lord shall make the pestilence cleave to thee ;" “ The 
 Lord shall smite thee with a consumption, and with a fever, and 
 ivith an inflammation, and with an extreme burning, and with the 
 sword, and with blasting, and with mildew; and they shall pursue 
 thee until thou perish " “ The Lord will smite thee with the botch 
 
 of Egypt, and with the emerods, and with the scab, and with the 
 itch, whereof thou canst not be healed. The Lord shall smite thee 
 with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart," and so on, 
 through a whole chapter of horrifying imputations on the cha¬ 
 racter of God, including a curse of cannibalism; and then, over 
 all, shall this good God of Love find great enjoyment in the sight 
 
§ i. BIBLE SHALLOWS. 
 
 41 
 
 of your miseries; feast His eyes thereupon, like a blood-thirsty 
 Bashaw, and 44 rejoice over you to destroy youF (Deut. xxviij.) 
 
 22. It was said by Him who spake as never man spake, “ Love 
 your enemies; bless them that curse you; pray for them that 
 despitefully use you and persecute you .” And these words, in¬ 
 deed, are full of God. But Moses says, “ An eye for an eye ; a 
 tooth for a tooth and pretends that this also is from God. And 
 David prays for them that used him despitefully, after this 
 fashion; “ As for the head of them that compass me about , let the 
 mischief of their own lips cover them; let burning coals fall upon 
 them; let them be cast into the fire F And this also, it is said, is 
 inspired by God.— O blessed God of Love ! hoiv long shall the 
 people thus blaspheme Thee f 
 
 23. “The God of the bible,” is a phrase sometimes used by 
 theologians. If they were to speak of the Gods of the bible, 
 they would be speaking much more correctly. For indeed, it is 
 not one God that the bible tells of; its Lords are many , its Gods 
 many. Thus we are told that God is the same to-day, yesterday, 
 and for ever ; and that God is not as man, that He should lie, or 
 the son of man, that He should repent. And to this, every true 
 Theosophist must cordially subscribe. But then, another God is 
 spoken of elsewhere in the bible,—possessed of attributes alto¬ 
 gether different; having, in lieu of Power, a large infusion of 
 weakness and imbecility. For since the true God cannot repent, 
 or be at all sorry for anything He has done; it is therefore a 
 second God who is spoken of as the Creator of man by the bible, 
 when it says, “ It repented God that He had made man upon the 
 earth and “ He repented having made Saul King over the 
 Jews. y ’ So that the Creator of mankind, and setter-up of kings, 
 is not the same God who is elsewhere spoken of, as being “ with¬ 
 out any variableness , or the least shadow of a turning.” Neither 
 is the last immutable unvariable Divine Being, at all identical with 
 that Deity who begged of Moses to let Him alone, that his 
 4 wrath ’ might 4 wax hot ’ against the sinning people; and Who, 
 when Moses persisted in imploring Him 44 to turn from His fierce 
 wrath , and repent ” of that evil against His people ; making use 
 at the same time of an appeal, not to God’s mercy , but to His 
 vanity , by representing how poor a figure He would present to 
 
 G 
 
42 
 
 I. TRUTH» 
 
 the eyes of other nations, if He deserted the people of His choice : 
 - —“ repented of the evil which He thought to do unto His people .” 
 (Exod. xxxij, 14.) Here are, it is plain, two separate and dis¬ 
 tinct Gods of the hible ; the one immutable, the other mutable ; 
 as equally is the case when we compare Moses’s vaccilating and 
 fickle Diety, who had so much less spontaneous Love, and Good¬ 
 ness, and compassion, than the man who worshipped Him;—with 
 that other God, Whose tender mercies are over all His worhs , and 
 Whose mercy endureth for ever. It is this latter God of Whom 
 Jesus was the incarnation ; and Whose words were Forgive them 
 that trespass against you ; bless them that curse you ; and extend 
 your reconciliations with an offending brother, not to seven times 
 only , but even to seventy and seven. But again, this God, of 
 Whom Christ was the embodyment, is altogether a different 
 Being from Him Who declares that if we sin wilfully after hav¬ 
 ing known the Truth, “ there remains no more sacrifice for sins 
 but a certain fearful looking for of fiery indignation." (Heb. x, 
 26, 27.) For if you say, this is still the same God; then you 
 confess that He requires a greater mercifulness, a deeper compas¬ 
 sion, a more Christian temper of forgiveness, in His people, than 
 He Himself possesses; which confession is monstrous and absurd. 
 And again: though I have said every high and deep hook con¬ 
 tradicts itself in terms; yet this applies only to psychological 
 and theosophicals; and never to simple and plain matters; 
 wherein, indeed, the utmost exactness of language is not only 
 possible, but any neglect of such, when serious, is falsehood. 
 Thus, if I said in one place, that an inscription on a certain 
 building in my garden was thus—“ The Temple of Peace and 
 if, by and by, in speaking of the same inscription, I gave it so— 
 “ This is the Temple of Peace and if, in four several places, 
 wherein I had occasion to tell what the same inscription was, I 
 gave four different readings; and at the same time pretended 
 that every word in my book was inspired by truth ;—then I 
 should plainly stand mistaken. Or if I find that a 
 book, said to be written by God, is guilty of just such an 
 inaccuiacy; and am told at the same time, that “ God is truth 
 I can but do one of two things either conclude that the God 
 who inspired the book, is not the same as He Who is Truth; or 
 
§ i. BIBLE SHALLOWS. 
 
 43 
 
 else that, if there be but one God, and He Truth ; then that this 
 hook is not by Him plenarily inspired. JSTow as I find that this 
 book, in one place (Mark, xv, 26) asserts a certain inscription to 
 have been “ The King of the Jews in another place (Luke, 
 xxiij, 38) “ This is the King of the Jews in another place 
 (Matthew, xxvij, 37) “ This is Jesus , the King of the Jews 
 and in a fourth (John, xix, 19) “ Jesus of Nazareth , the King of 
 the Jews and as three of these must be falsehoods, I am forced 
 to conclude, either that the God who inspired it is not Truth ; or 
 else, that no God inspired it at all. So that the only possible 
 conclusions we can rationally come to are, (1) that there are at 
 least two several and distinct Gods ; or (2) that the bible is not 
 plenarily God-inspired. 
 
 24. I might draw these parallels to a great length, and show 
 that the bible is a polytheistic book from first to last, only that 
 time and space just now are precious, and that I am very desirous 
 of passing on to more congenial studies. Or else I might take 
 such instances as that one (I Cor., xj, 4) where the great God of 
 all is represented (according to the “ bible-Christian’s ” faith) as 
 ordaining, in the plenitude and grandeur of His wisdom, that no 
 woman shall worship Him without her bonnet on, and no man 
 with his hat! And I might from thence draw the inevitable 
 conclusion, that the God who inspired Paul in this passage, was a 
 God altogether different to, and distinct from, that other God, 
 who requires only in His worshippers the humble and the con¬ 
 trite heart:—unless I preferred to think, that Paul, in this in¬ 
 stance, was inspired by no Deity at all. But, just to shew how 
 much this bible is a book to be depended on, as a rule of faith, 
 and how much blind confidence is to be put in what it may, by 
 any translator, be supposed to say; I will avail myself (in the 
 absence of a knowledge of the Hebrew tongue) of a book called 
 “The Englishman’s Hebrew and Chaldee Concordance to the 
 Bible,” published by Longmans, a few years ago. From it I 
 learn, that the same word which is, in our English translation, 
 translated “ nostrils ” (Gen., ij, 7) ; is in another passage (Gen., 
 xxvij, 45) translated “ anger ,” because, I suppose, to have ren¬ 
 dered it “ nostrils ” in this instance, would have made the passage 
 ridiculous. But the same Hebrew word is translated in another 
 
44 
 
 I. TRUTH. 
 
 place (Gen., iij, 19) “face;" so that it depended entirely on the 
 fallible judgment of the translator, whether the passage should 
 be taken to mean “ in the sweat of thy nostrils," or “in the 
 sweat of thy anger" or “ of thy face." But yet again the same 
 word is met with, with another rendering; for (Ex., xxxiv, 6) 
 it is translated here by “ suffering;" so it seems the translators 
 had to determine whether they should say, “ The Lord God, 
 merciful and gracious, Ion g-nostrilled," or “ long-faced" or “ long- 
 angered',” or “ long-suffering" Once more (Eze., xvj, 12) we 
 meet with the same word, translated by “forehead;" so that it 
 depends on our fallible judgment, whether the “ words of God," 
 as these are called, shall be,—“ I put a jewel on thy nostrils," or 
 “ on thy face" or “ on thy suffering" or “ on thy anger," or “ on 
 thy forehead .” Take another instance. The word “ Ahbeer,” is 
 (Ps. lxxviij, 25) rendered “ angel;" “ Man did eat angels ’ food.” 
 But the same word is translated in a second instance (Ps. 1, 13) 
 “ bulls;" “ will I eat the flesh of bulls" But in a third place 
 (Lam. j, 15) the same word is supposed to mean “mighty;" 
 “ The Lord hath trodden under foot all my mighty [men] 
 which I suppose might just as easily have been rendered “ all my 
 angels ,” or “ all my bulls." Again : the same word which in 
 one place (Ex. xx, 11) is supposed to mean “bless," —“ The Lord 
 blessed the Sabbath-day ,"—is in another translated “curse" (Job, 
 i, 5),—“ And cursed God in their hearts;" and in another 
 “ blaspheme" (I Kings, xxi, 13),—“ Naboth did blaspheme God." 
 Thus it is a matter of mere guess-work, to decide whether, in any 
 instance where this word is used, it means to bless, to curse, or to 
 blaspheme. Or take another example. The word which is 
 fancied to mean “ Spirit " in one place (Gen. i, 2) is in another 
 supposed to imply “cool" (Gen. iij, 8); in another (Gen. viij, 
 
 I) “wind;" in another (Ex. xv, 8) “ blast;" in another (Jos. ij, 
 
 II) “courage;" in another (Jud. viij, 3) “anger;" in another 
 (I Chron. ix, 24) “quarters;" in another (Job, xlj, 16) “air;" 
 in another (Ps. xj, 6) “tempest;" in another (Jer. Iij, 23) “side." 
 So that, whenever you come, in the original, to this word ; you 
 have a choice of eleven different meanings,—and it may be eleven 
 to one, that you will not choose the meaning the writer had in 
 his mind. And now we may, in another way, see how it is, that 
 
§ i. BIBLE SHALLOWS. 
 
 45 
 
 the bible may be twisted into Trinitarianism, Unitarianism, and 
 all manner of isms and schisms; for it depends on the wish and 
 bias of each translator, whether of these many meanings he will 
 prefer. And though, indeed, not every Hebrew word has so 
 many meanings as these; yet perhaps there is no passage in the 
 Old-testament that may not, with equal show of propriety, be 
 rendered in several distinct, and even opposite ways. 
 
 O blest Authority!—O happy Oracle!—O precise Rule of 
 Faith!—O most infallible Guide! 
 
 God of the Universe! how long shall the people prefer a book 
 to Thee ? 
 
 H 
 
§ ij. BIBLE DEEPS. 
 
 1. Who is there that it does not pain to hear the biblereviled? 
 Who is there, of the good, that is not grieved when that blessed 
 book is evil spoken of? Who, that feels not wronged, and inr 
 jured, by every attempt to oppose it; and dreads not the man, as a 
 hateful and godless person, who calls its name in question ? And 
 yet must the truth this day be spoken, though I offend the mul¬ 
 titude of God's children. 
 
 2. I love the bible. I rate it at a royal value. And at all 
 times it is painful to hear it reviled. But I cannot see it, or 
 anything else, set up as God's vicegerent; as if He were at this 
 present day asleep or dead. Book or Pope,—the one shall be to 
 me as the other, and both protested against, when pretending to 
 supersede the Word of God in the soul. Nor dare I cease to try 
 to show them their error, who say, ‘ This bible is our God for 
 ever and ever; it shall be our Guide even unto death.' 
 
 3. Yet though the bible is not God, nor His vicegerent; not 
 the master, but the servant, of the soul; it is still, as far as it is 
 given by inspiration of God, profitable for teaching, for reproof, 
 for correction and instruction in the right way. The Christian 
 may still sit under its shadow with great delight, and find its 
 fruit sweet unto his taste. Though mostly no more an oracle of 
 
§ ij. BIBLE DEEPS. 
 
 47 
 
 God than some other books, it is an oracle of God; and contains 
 a field for study, and a mine of wealth, of exceeding depth and 
 value. For though no words can impart Truth, nor language 
 teach us God, Who must he revealed to the soul in His own 
 Godhead, and can never be conveyed in words; and though if 
 we have Truth templed in us, that is the only essential point; 
 yet whenever the intellect succeeds in giving a remote symboliza¬ 
 tion of Truth, by means of language, we feel that a triumph 
 has been won, and do rejoice with exceeding joy. Because words 
 are mirrors, which, though they cannot contain the Divine Object 
 of reflection, nor impart Him in any shape, can yet represent His 
 image ; on which, when the soul that knows the Being reflected, 
 looks, it is seized with a divine exultation and ravishment. And 
 while no words can give us the Truth, they can afford an image 
 of it; which image, when achieved, always glorifies the soul that 
 is acquainted with the original. Therefore, when we find our 
 God pourtrayed by David, or John, or Emerson; and can unite 
 with Isaiah, or Paul, or Greaves, in the same intuition; we feel 
 under incalculable obligation to the blessed words enabling us to 
 do so. And thus too high a value cannot be set on whatever 
 book inducts us into this triumphant joy; until we begin to 
 limit the canon, and debase the Present, by denying it the power 
 of realizing at any moment h similar achievement. But what 
 makes this book of such extreme value, and almost excuses the 
 adoration paid to it, is the Spirit of Prophecy in which much of 
 it is written. In this respect, indeed, it surpasses every other 
 book extant. The power of Prophecy exists in all Spiritual 
 men, to some extent; because Spirit is infinite Light or Intelli¬ 
 gence, and of this Light all His children are partakers. But 
 when a man comes with high poetic power, like Shelley, or Emer¬ 
 son, or, higher still, Ezekiel, or Moses, or John; and to this 
 poetry superadds deep Spirituality, then the whole Universe is 
 opened, and the past and the future are bared to his omniscient 
 gaze. Hence, you will find much true prophecy in Shelley; 
 more in Emerson; most of all in Moses or John. In this 
 respect, the biblical writers differ much, Paul having very little 
 of this Insight, Matthew and Mark none, Zechariah much, 
 Ezekiel more, John most of all. And it is for these prophetic 
 
48 
 
 I. TRUTH. 
 
 achievements, that the bible is to be valued more than any other 
 book,—and not for its scientific or doctrinal enunciations. Yet 
 with respect to these latter, it is truly wonderful to observe, how 
 Paul, for instance, is at times over-mastered by Spirit, and made 
 to speak much greater things than he knew. Thus, although he 
 was unaware of the real meaning of the crucifixion of Jesus, his 
 words often plainly declare it, in spite of that. In the same way, 
 James Greaves said, he himself was sometimes enabled to speak 
 from a more central ground than that of conscious knowledge; 
 
 “ Himself from God he could not free 
 
 but afterwards he found the deep intention of what he had said 
 or written. So Henry Agrippa reports Plato to have declared ; 
 “ Plerique rates postquam furoris remissus est impetus , quae scrip - 
 serunt , non satis intelligunt.” And so it is with all poets, Soulic, 
 —and much more, Spiritual; they speak more than they know. 
 And yet it is true, that the communication God makes to the 
 Christian is never a verbal one : so that all voices and miraculous 
 intimations, such as those spoken of in John Bunyan s ‘ Grace 
 Abounding, 1 must be set down as deceits of the senses, and no 
 verities. For God speaks only immediately to man, by imparting 
 Himself ’ as Truth, Power, Beauty, and so on : and then, the poet 
 having become these, they vehitulate themselves through his 
 organ of language, and are indebted to him for all their words. 
 
 4. This Spiritual Inspiration, which abounds more in the bible 
 than in any book I know, gives it its extreme value. But what 
 is to be maintained is, the bible has never yet been truly read : 
 for the church has been studying it merely intellectually, and has 
 therefore passed over the very parts which are of the highest 
 worth and importance. Thus the first chapter of Genesis has 
 always been looked at intellectually, as history , and not Spiritually, 
 as prophecy : and so its true meaning has never been understood. 
 And just the same mistake has been made with respect to the 
 prophecy of Noah and his sons. 
 
 5. Noah, it is said, became a husbandman , and planted a Vine¬ 
 yard. But in the original, the expression is not “ husbandman? 
 but a “wwzn” or “ servant of the Earth.” Now, as the Earth is 
 the intellect [Prol. 32], the meaning of this passage is simply, 
 
49 
 
 § ij. BIBLE DEEPS. 
 
 that Noah became a man or servant of the intellect: that is, he 
 became enslaved to intellectuals. And this intellectualization of 
 the church, is still further asserted when it is said, Noah planted 
 a Vineyard. 
 
 6. For it should be known, Wine, and Vine, are often used 
 poetically for intellectual activity, in the bible; as will be evident 
 from the following examples. Thus Isaiah, after crying, Behold 
 the Lord maketh the Earth empty, and mdketh it waste , and turneth 
 it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof, or 
 intellectualists; adds, in perfect connexion with the antecedent 
 sentences, The new Wine mourneth, and the Vine languisheth ; and 
 again, There is a cry for Wine in the streets. Again, it is pro- 
 phecied in Genesis, Shiloh shall come, binding His Foal to the 
 Vine, and His Asses ’ Colt to the choice Vine ; which is a figura¬ 
 tive way of saying, that the doctrine of Christ's true Gospel, on 
 its appearance in this Sixth Day [Prol. 70] shall he mighty in 
 intellect; which is still further asserted, when it is said He, that 
 is His Gospel, of which He was only a type, shall wash His Gar¬ 
 ments (doctrines) in Wine, and His Clothes with the Blood of 
 Grapes : as indeed was fitting for Him, who is to be the Prince of 
 the Kings of the Earth, the acknowledged master of all intellec¬ 
 tual men. So it said of Him again, still with the same hidden 
 intention, His Eyes shall be red with Wine; which every one 
 must say is figurative, not literal. And again it is said, still in 
 connexion with the intellect, or Earth; Thrust in thy sickle, and 
 gather the clusters of the Vine of the Earth, for her grapes are 
 fully ripe. And yet once again, speaking of that great heresy, 
 shadowed forth under the figure of Babylon, which, as I shall 
 show by and by, is the great Harlot of the intellect, Or Earth: 
 it is said, Babylon made the nations drunk with the Wine of her 
 fornication , and the inhabitants of the Earth (intellectualists) have 
 been made drunk with the Wine of her fornication. 
 
 7. Now then we may see what is meant by Noah’s becoming 
 an Earth-man, and planting a Vine- yard. And although the 
 parable here grews dark, one thing we may notice; and that is, 
 it is said more than once, and very expressly, that Ham is the 
 father of Canaan. Now in Hebrew the word Canaan means 
 Merchant ; and may therefore stand for Commerce. And as Ham 
 
50 
 
 I. TRUTH. 
 
 signifies the carnal , as Japhet and Shetn do the intellectual and 
 Celestial men;—whatever the men of this day may say to the 
 contrary, we must not allow ourselves to doubt that Ham is the 
 father of Canaan. For on what is Commerce, as now conducted, 
 founded ?— Buying at the cheapest market , and selling at the dear¬ 
 est : in other words, robbing our brothers as much as we can. 
 It is a system eminently selfish,—and therefore, diabolical; since 
 Self is the only Devil. It is a system which cannot be carried 
 on lucratively without dishonesty. Say what you will, I have 
 been among it, and I know that a man must part with his highest 
 nobilities, before he can, by trade, “ succeed in the world.” “ I 
 content myself with the fact, that the general system of our trade 
 is a system of selfishness; is not dictated by the high sentiments 
 of human nature; is not measured by the exact law of reciprocity 
 which abides by the sentiments of Love and Heroism ; but is a 
 system of distrust, of concealment, of superior keenness,-—not of 
 giving, but of taking advantage.” 44 The trail of the serpent 
 reaches into all lucrative professions and practises of men. Each 
 finds a tender and very intelligent conscience a disqualification 
 for success. Each requires of the practitioner a certain shutting 
 of the eyes, a certain dapperness and compliance; an acceptance of 
 customs; a sequestration of the sentiments of Generosity and 
 Love.”—Not that all trade is dishonest. To buy for his sake of 
 whom you purchase, as well as for your own; and to sell for his 
 sake who is your customer, as well as for your own; this is a 
 system of trade that is right and Christian; but on it a man can 
 hardly get rich. The Devil is in every lucrative business. No 
 one must dispute with me, that Ham is, under present circum¬ 
 stances, the father of Canaan. 
 
 8. In the history of the Jews, as narrated in the Hebrew 
 books, I discern the history of the church of Christ in all ages. 
 The whole is a gigantic allegory, not indeed to be read now, but 
 only to be hinted. And all that concerns us here, is to notice, 
 the beautiful meaning couched in the fact, that the Jews,—re¬ 
 presentatives of the true church of Christ, or Waters above the 
 firmament of Heaven,—had for their inheritance the land of 
 Canaan. Yes, when the church shall have travelled through the 
 wilderness (Rev. xij r 14) and reached her journey’s end; when 
 
51 
 
 § ij. BIBLE DEErS. 
 
 the promised land shall have been gained; this baleful system of 
 selfish commerce shall be done away. Every merchant shall be 
 slain that hath ventures on the Sea. The wicked Canaanites 
 Shall be uprooted from the land ; and a system of exchange and 
 labour substituted, which shall be built, not on grasping acqui¬ 
 sitiveness, but on honesty and love.—Was it to foreshew the final 
 destruction of wicked Canaan, its banishment from the Temple of 
 God ; that is, the hearts of men ; that Jesus went into the Jews’ 
 temple, and cast out them that bought and sold therein, and over¬ 
 threw the money-changers, and the seats of them that sold doves ? 
 —And is there not a visible meaning in that beautiful prophecy 
 which closes the book of Zechariah, who says in reference to the 
 Day of Love, In that Day there shall he upon the hells of the 
 Horses , or doctrines, holiness to the Lord; the vessels (or men at 
 large) in the Lord's House shall he like the howls (the holiest men) 
 before the altar; yea every vessel in Jerusalem and Judea (in all 
 the church of Christ), shall he holiness to the Lord of Sahaoth ; 
 and all they that sacrifice shall come and take of these vessels; 
 {that is, every one that worships shall do it holily ;) and there 
 
 SHALL BE NO MORE THE CANAANITE IN THE HOUSE OF THE LORD 
 
 of Hosts. 
 
 9. And this brings us back again to the narrative. When 
 Noah awoke from his intellectual infatuation, he knew what Ham, 
 the carnal passion, had done unto him. And he said,—what did 
 he say ?—“ Cursed be Ham,” the offender ?—No ; “ cursed he 
 Canaan;” cursed be commerce! “ a servant of servants shall he 
 he to his brethren.” And he said, “ Blessed of the Lord God he 
 Shem , and Canaan shall he his servant.” —But if Shem stand for 
 the church of Christ, how has Canaan served it ? Yery beauti¬ 
 fully and wonderfully. Commerce, though the son of the dark, 
 devilish Ham, is yet effecting the vastest good. It is carrying 
 civilization to the remotest parts; spreads a knowledge of 
 Christianity; and is working such a oneness of interest through¬ 
 out the world, as shall presently destroy the very possibility of 
 war. We need only to look at India and China, for instance, to 
 be convinced that Canaan is indeed the servant of the blessed 
 Shepi- 
 
52 
 
 I. TBUTH. 
 
 10. But this is not all. “ God shall enlarge Japhet enlarge 
 the Enlarger, the intellect;—as we indeed in our times see it 
 beginning to enlarge. Yea, so mightily shall he be greatened, 
 that “ he shall dwell in the tents of Shem .” Ah, Lord God, 
 Japhet shall not always oppose Thee! Reason shall not always 
 be antagonist to Faith; but Japhet shall be enlarged, strength¬ 
 ened, till it unites with Heaven, in a Rational, as well as Celestial 
 piety. 
 
 11. From the above allegory, thus partly decyphered, as well 
 as from numerous other parts of the bible already, or hereafter 
 to be, alluded to; the student may learn that in the pages of 
 this glorious eastern book, may be found mines of study and 
 research not yet dreamt of. And in enumerating its merits, let 
 us not forget the intense and exquisite beauty of some of its ex¬ 
 pressions of Spiritualities. The poetry of the Psalms, also, is 
 unrivalled for power and sweetness: and we owe an incalculable 
 debt of thanks to those men, who, amid much ignorance and 
 superstition of their own, have given us, not always literally 
 exact, but yet pricelessly valuable reports, of the sayings of our 
 Lord. 
 
II. STRENGTH. 
 
To whom should we go, but unto Thee ? Thou hast the words of 
 
 Eternal Life. 
 
§ i. LIVING ORACLES. 
 
 1. Every man his own priest; his own church; his own 
 Delphi. Trust Thyself : that is almost, in these times, the first 
 of Christian necessities.—By self-reliance, however, something 
 very different to reliance on self is meant; but it implies a re¬ 
 liance rather on God for one’s self, and a refusal to receive news 
 of Him through any living or traditionary attorney, without also 
 resorting to the means of verification which exist within every 
 man who is a child of God. To be so fixed on the Rock of Ages, 
 as to derive all your principles from that Divine Source, regard¬ 
 ing no word spoken by others as of any authority or value, ex¬ 
 cept as it is borne witness to by the God within you ; that is true 
 Strength, and conduct which must be most earnestly inculcated 
 in these times. For the Christian must have no Lord but his 
 God; must call no man his master, saint or sage, Paul, or John, 
 or Joshua; but must be a servant of God, not of men; and 
 whatever Jude or James can say, that he must carry to God at 
 once, lay it before him reverently, and see whether it be testified 
 to as true for here and to-day, before he takes it as a truth of 
 faith. For every child of God has within himself a standard by 
 which to try every spoken -word ; and must receive no saying of 
 
56 
 
 II. STRENGTH. 
 
 t 
 
 any man’s, unless Spirit, if it relate to Being ; or Reason, if it 
 relate to Thinking ; give it verification. 
 
 2. Indeed, the world has been Priestridden and Bookridden 
 long enough, and it is time these things came to a full end. If 
 any writings are to supersede the Scriptures of God in the soul; 
 if any former Inspiration is to abrogate the need for present 
 Inspiration ; if the bible exercise any other influence over us than 
 to prompt us to apply to Spirit and to Science for fresh Illu¬ 
 minations, then the bible is a usurper, has become tyrannous, 
 and must be bid to go its way. For indeed, we are wrong in 
 receiving news of God only from secondary sources; such, though 
 often useful, are never essential to the Christian : and we must 
 ourselves walk and talk with God, and receive our knowledge of 
 God from Himself wholly; for however valuable the cistern, the 
 bible, may be, it must always be understood that the Fountain 
 still exists, and must by every Man be found and drunk of. It 
 must be known, that though the cistern is very joyful to the 
 strong, and very useful to the "weak; there is That in the Foun¬ 
 tain which makes the largest cistern ridiculous ; a man’s first 
 duty being, to be a bible of God himself, and regard as secondary 
 the reading of all other bibles. Secondary sources are good, 
 but they are not the best, nor must, nor can they stand instead 
 of the Primary : at best, they can only serve as remembrancers 
 and mirrors; beautiful and serviceable as far as they go, but 
 never to be put in God’s stead. Be astonished O ye Heavens, 
 ye Spiritual faculties, whose office it is to hold original commu¬ 
 nication with the Fountain ; he ye astonished at this, and he hor¬ 
 ribly afraid; be ye very desolate, saith the Lord : for My people 
 have committed two evils ; they have forsaken Me, the Fountain of 
 Living Waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that 
 can hold no vital water. 
 
 3. Whatever Spirit; that is, the Divine Truth, Power, Beauty, 
 Light, Life, Goodness, and Love; speaks in us, that we must 
 believe and do. And remember, God speaks by communicating 
 Himself to the soul; so that His Words are not words spoken by 
 Truth, and the rest; but are Truth, Power, Beauty, Light, Life, 
 Goodness, and Love. If then the bible contradicts That which 
 
§ i. LIVING ORACLES. 
 
 57 
 
 Spirit tells us, the bible must give place; for the servant is not 
 greater than bis Lord. And it must always be especially under¬ 
 stood, that we do not derive our real knowledge of God from 
 any book whatever ; but from Himself, or rather, in Himself it 
 is we must learn the Godhead; and unless we do so, our religion 
 will be vain. Nothing that has formerly been transacted or 
 revealed, can preclude the necessity of present and original Inspi¬ 
 ration. There must be a constant Revelation going on at all 
 times. 
 
 4. The notion entertained by the stereotype church is a 
 very wrong one. They say, that all our knowledge of God 
 comes from a hook :— alas for us ! if it did. They pretend, that 
 in old times men had direct communication with the Creator; but 
 for some unaccountable reason, the canon of Inspiration was 
 closed, and the entail cut off for ever.—As if the world were 
 grown old and hoary, and now, instead of going hand in hand 
 with its Maker, as of yore, was by Him forsaken, and forced to 
 lean on a staff in its decrepitude !—thus denying the fact, that 
 it grows stronger and perfecter every day.—As if God had suf¬ 
 fered our prodigal ancestors to mortgage the inheritance of their 
 unfortunate children,—and cut them off with a shilling, or a 
 book !— Not so , Lord; not so ! 
 
 5. I thank my God always, the world does not lean upon a 
 staff: but to-day, as much as in any former age, we may be led 
 by God’s own hand; may be living Epistles, breathing Bibles, 
 instant Revelations of God. For He will speak Himself in us, 
 as He did in the writers of that glorious book; and we need no 
 other Gospel, than this living Emanuel. 
 
 6. “ Happy is he,” says Thomas a’Kempis, “ whom Truth 
 itself teaches, not by figures and words , which pass away, but by 
 an immediate communication of itself ” u The children of Israel 
 said to Moses, ‘ Speak thou to us, and we will hear; let not the 
 Lord speak, lest we die.’ Not so do I pray , not so; but rather 
 with the prophet Samuel, ‘ Speak, Lord, for thy servant 
 heareth.’ Let not Moses , or any of the prophets , speak to me ; 
 but do Thou rather talk ivith me , O God , the Inspirer and En¬ 
 lightener of the prophets , Who canst teach me without their aid." 
 —“ Trust not,” cries the Abbe de la Mennais, “ trust not thou 
 
58 
 
 II. STRENGTH. 
 
 in men who place themselves [or or placed by others] between 
 God and you, that their shadow may hide Him from you.” “ If 
 I had no hook ,” this is Jacob Behmen, “ hut only my hook , which 
 I myself am , I had hooks enough ; the whole hihle lives in me if I 
 have the Spirit of Christ: what need then any more of books ?” 
 “ Yourself be exhorted by Ralph Emerson, “ a new-horn hard 
 of the Holy Ghost , cast behind you all conformity , and acquaint 
 men at first hand with the Deity." 
 
CONDUCT. 
 
 1. Not from bible-usurpation only, is the Christian in danger 
 of losing his liberty : alas! society is in league against all true 
 Manhood, and if you would be a Man, you must consent to be 
 thought worse than a fool.—One of the young Christian’s great¬ 
 est dangers, is from a cowardly or ambitious thirst for approba¬ 
 tion. Wonderful are the sacrifices we make to this baneful God. 
 The customs of society lord it oyer us, and we dare not rebel, 
 lest society should scout us. We have little reverence for Truth, 
 for Goodness; and our greatest fear is that of incurring the frown 
 of our acquaintance. We wink at the shamefullest abuses, not 
 because we do not see what they are, but because we found them 
 here when we came into the world, and. do not think it our 
 business to amend them. 
 
 2. Tear is the only slavery ; for when I fear nothing, I have 
 full enfranchisement; but if I shrink before my fellow, if my 
 eye quail in his presence, if my tongue is dumb when it ought to 
 speak before him, then I am enslaved, am a poltroon, and deserve 
 the brand. The terror of being laughed at, and thought ill of, 
 is the worst bugbear of the young Christian. We have such an 
 objection to be thought eccentric , such a proud, genteel compas- 
 
60 
 
 II. STRENGTH. 
 
 I 
 
 sion for those who have gained that distinction, that we dare 
 not go the right road when we see it, just because it is no 
 thoroughfare. 
 
 3. See how, quite needlessly, we have enveloped ourselves in 
 a sheli of falsehoods! We begin our letters with a ‘ Dear Sir ,’ 
 or ‘ Dear Friend,' though he we write to is not of two pins’ 
 esteem with us. We subscribe ourselves ‘ His obedient servant ,’ 
 or ‘ His most respectfully ,’ though we will not serve, and do not 
 respect him. It is true, these are not lies, because they are 
 neither meant to, nor do they deceive: but at least, they are the 
 dead carcases of lies; and why not bury them ? 
 
 4. This rottenness of which we complain, has crept into the 
 bones of our social system. In our shops, our houses, our streets, 
 our churches, it is the same. There are people who would 
 never go to church, only they think it their duty, solely on ac¬ 
 count of the example! The fact is, they are afraid of being 
 called irreligious ; and to stay away is not thought respectable ! 
 When shall we learn to be Men, and not sneaking cowards, with 
 our hollow hearts and white lies ? 
 
 5. What is commoner than to hear persons speaking unkindly 
 of those behind their hacks, in whose presence they are all cor¬ 
 diality and smiles ? The Christian will not do so. He will try 
 to refrain from all speaking of others in their absence, when he 
 could not speak without using slighting words. So far fiom 
 spreading an evil tale of any one, he will never believe such: or, 
 if he must believe it, will remember how frail himself is, and 
 try to smother the report, instead of spreading it. He will, when 
 possible, refuse to listen to any story which might tend to lessen 
 his respect for another; and will try to dwell on the bright side 
 of character, and let defects pass with the least possible comment. 
 
 6. Let us, dear friends, determine from this time forth to be 
 true ; to cast off this tissue of shams, and he willing to pass, at all 
 times, for the very thing we are. Let us resolve that we will 
 get rid of this desire of maintaining appearances; and refrain, 
 with heroic self-denial, from getting-up fine speeches and 
 laboured impromptus, to impress our friends with a sense of our 
 cleverness. Why should I wish to seem other than I' am ? This 
 
61 
 
 § ij, CONDUCT. 
 
 or that cunning attempt to appear what I am not, will cost me 
 not only the trouble of it, but also much damage and death to 
 my soul. Think true, speak truth, act truly, and shame your 
 devil. 
 
 7. Young people, especially, should be put much upon their 
 guard against a certain vulgar mock-modesty, which gives the lie 
 to truth and all proper manly and womanly self-respect. So 
 long as I am proud, and entertain the feeling of superiority to 
 others, I sin; but if I depress myself below others in their sight 
 too consciously, and obtrude my modesties upon my friends, I sin, 
 perhaps, just as grievously.—Young people are apt to aspire to 
 those qualities which they see others esteemed for. And observ¬ 
 ing how beautiful true modesty is, when it does happen to be 
 observable; they at once resolve to possess this beauty. But the 
 tendency always is, to desire rather to be loved, than to be lovely 
 for its own sake :—then they assume a modest air, but forget to 
 set the jewel in their souls. Nor is this done designedly, by any 
 means; for the parties are quite unconscious of the dreadful fact, 
 that while they have been aiming at the virtue, they have merely 
 acquired its outward show. Let the person but ask himself, 
 whether or no he should be hurt, if people spoke as poorly of 
 himself before him, as he speaks of himself before them;—and 
 if he ask and answer honestly, he may know then whether his 
 be wioc^-modesty. Also, if praise please him much, let him know 
 that true modesty is not tickled or hurt by praise or blame. 
 Neither does it much visibly hang its head before others; but is 
 always firm, and truly manly; has no superfluous blushes; is 
 not anxious to be appreciated by others; and desires less to be 
 thought than to he. It is a pretty sure sign of sham humility, 
 when one makes much preface, and talks loudly about his own 
 short-comings. The humble man does indeed feel that he is 
 poor, and blind, and naked; and when placed in any apostolic 
 post, cries out with Jeremiah, “ Ah Lord God! behold, I cannot 
 speak, for I am a child.” But he does not much tell men that 
 he tells God so;—he only tells God so. There are some people 
 who, if you take their word for it, are scarce good enough to be 
 door-mats or spittoons : but no true royal Christian will be found 
 thus bragging of bis humility. 
 
 K 
 
62 
 
 II. STRENGTH. 
 
 8. Beware then, dear friend, of this proud modesty!—Are 
 you asked to exhibit any accomplishment; to play on the piano, 
 read your own verses, or shew your dr awings ? Do not affect to 
 despise what you can do ; shew it cheerfully, even though you 
 know it to he a failure: abhor this wretched wish to fish for 
 compliments, or to be thought undesirous of praise. The true 
 Christian will not be anxious to tell how badly this or that is 
 done, how much better he could have done it, had he had so and 
 so; or were he to have another trial.—Were you ever in com¬ 
 pany with one who, on being asked to play at chess, or try his 
 hand at any other little accomplishment; began to state how long 
 it was since he set his eyes on a chess-board; or to give any 
 other such prefaces and excuses ? O, be sorry for him, be sorry 
 for him!—for, granting his excuse to be quite true ; yet, as sure 
 as you are now looking at this book, that person is, whether he 
 knows it or not, a false soul, and has this mock-humility of 
 which I speak. And beware how you are injured by his society; 
 hut rather choose noble souls, true hearts, who hate all 
 such meannesses; and not these poor paint-pots; for your 
 companions. 
 
 9. Are you called upon to enounce certain truths ? Then 
 enounce them. Is then the subject of your affirmation called 
 into question ? Yet do not be angry, do not be concerned. It 
 is a sure token that a man’s heart, or at least his head, is wrong, 
 when he will argue and argue upon high points of belief. He 
 whose aim is ever increased vitality, will not do so. He who has 
 true perception of the highest truths of Faith, will learn that no 
 one can be taught them by argument; and that to allow that 
 they can be reasoned on, is to dishonor and defame them. The 
 perceptive Man is too sure of what he believes, to allow himself 
 much argument about it: it is enough for him that he sees so 
 and so to be so, without needing confirmation from others. 
 Hence, simple, manly affirmation, is the only way in which a 
 Celestial truth should ever be enunciated;—if not understood, 
 then repeat the affirmation in plainer terms, if you can; but 
 argue with none, dispute not; for the only way to make a man 
 comprehend what you say, is to induce him to lift himself into 
 the requisite soul. 
 
§ ij. CONDUCT. 
 
 63 
 
 10. All needless opportunities of, and’attempts at display, will 
 be avoided by the Christian. He will write his letters freely 
 and off-hand, without stopping to consider whether they be 
 clever or no. If introduced to an acquaintance, he will choose 
 to pass for the very thing he is, and not be anxious to exhibit his 
 abilities. And he will endeavour to fulfil all offices of friendship 
 with constant openness and simplicity, without courting flattery, 
 or in his heart asking the opinion of a man. 
 
 11. Let me recommend to the brave Christian, the abolition 
 in his own person of all titles and wordy dignities. To wish to 
 be called “ Mister,” or “ Esquire,” or “ Reverend,” or by any 
 other addition, is a plain mark of a little mind. I will instruct 
 all my friends to call me Henry, if my name be Henry; and to 
 drop this foolish ceremony. Why cannot we talk to our brother 
 as if he were our brother, and John and Thomas him in a 
 friendly way ? I had rather be called by my own name, than 
 by all the titles in the world. But of course, we need not carry 
 this opposition to extremes; and if we write to one who expects 
 his title, we will give him what he asks for; but we do not wish 
 others to serve us so. 
 
 12. The true disciple will learn to avow the truth, when 
 necessary, in all companies, even though by doing so he is certain 
 to be thought dogmatic or conceited. This is a great bugbear to 
 young people, who are apt, through dread of such a stigma, to 
 lose the dignity of Humanhood, professing to be ashamed of all 
 their own possessions and performances. What right have they 
 to he ashamed ? He who is thankful for praise, and afraid of 
 blame or scorn, shall be led into a thousand errors. What is to 
 be guarded against in these matters is, not lest we should be 
 thought conceited by others, but lest we should he conceited ; for 
 true modesty regards chiefly the latter. I want every man to 
 feel in the presence of every other man, as a god to a god; he 
 should know that he too has a dignity and majesty; that though 
 the whole world should flout him, he must respect his own indi¬ 
 viduality, and never shrink in any presence. If you think your¬ 
 self a genius, dear friend, and your book a great book, why wish 
 to disguise the fact ? Why pretend all this modesty, and lack of 
 self-esteem ? If you are asked what you think of yourself, do 
 
64 
 
 ii. 
 
 STRENGTH. 
 
 not enshroud it in humilities, any more than there is need, hut 
 tell the querist at once that you think yourself what you do 
 think yourself, and never mind his smiles and jeers. I know you 
 will he thought proud, or vain; I know they will accuse you of 
 inordinate conceit; hut let them. It must he enough for you to 
 feel that you regard talent and genius as nothing personal; no¬ 
 thing to be proud or vain of; and that you have spoken the 
 truth, have played the man, and so have won for your soul infi¬ 
 nite progressions. 
 
 13. It is impossible to insult a true vital Christian. It is cer¬ 
 tain, I am not what I ought to be, while it is in the power of any 
 mortal to give me umbrage or offend me. Admit that he has 
 said hard words of me, that he has called me fool, liar, madman, 
 rogue ;—how much the worse am I ? Here are my arms, my 
 legs, my eyes; I am sound as ever, in wfind and limb. I am as 
 good and as great as I was before. Others, indeed, may have a 
 worse opinion of me; but I am as perfect and valuable as ever. 
 Who is this man, that I should give him so much power over me, 
 as to feel insulted by him ? Every shaft should fall off from my 
 soul, armed as it is in its clean innocent mail. Whenever a man 
 thinks seriously he has been wronged by another, either by thefts 
 or defamations, he may depend upon it he is not yet a thorough 
 disciple of the Cross. In this just world, let us know, that it is 
 impossible to be wronged and cheated, except by our own selves. 
 If I allow myself to feel aggrieved or insulted by any, I let him 
 rob me of part of my possessions; and he will take it past all 
 remedy. 
 
 14. But I will not tire the reader with these didactics : if he 
 would have the rest of this chapter, let him go read Ralph 
 Emerson. 
 
III. BEAUTY. 
 
The invisible things of God from the creation are clearly seen, 
 being understood by the things that are made. 
 
§ i. ANALOGIES OF BEAUTY. 
 
 1. We have here to notice three facts of Beauty : (1) Colour; 
 (2) Form ; (3) Sound. And I wish you to consider these as 
 facts rooted and grounded very deeply in Nature. And first, let 
 us observe their connexion with the number Seven. 
 
 2. A ray of solar light through a prism resolves itself into 
 Seven colours. And because Nature is in every part of it, a 
 mirror of Spirit; therefore are these Seven colours not accidents, 
 without intention ; but on the contrary, symbols of some fact in 
 connexion with the Most High. And as we know there are 
 Seven Spirits of God; or rather, that Spirit is Sevenfold in His 
 manifestation ; so we may perceive these Seven colours are sym¬ 
 bols of the Most High Seven. I do not pretend to assign each 
 colour to its soul, except that I am sure that blue and Love cor¬ 
 respond : but all I insist on here is, that each colour is symbolic 
 of a Spirit and a Soul. 
 
 3. Bearing this in mind, let us see if no light is thrown here¬ 
 by on that singular “ sign of the covenant,” given, according to 
 the fable, to Noah on the Second Day? Not in words, but in a 
 sweet assurance of Love and hope, did God speak to Noah and 
 his sons with him thus : /, behold 7, do establish my covenant with 
 you ; neither shall there be any more a flood to destroy the Earth . 
 
68 
 
 in. BEAUTY. 
 
 This is the token of the covenant ivhich I make between Me and 
 you, and every living creature that is with you , for perpetual gener¬ 
 ations : I do set My bow in the Clouds ; and it shall be a token 
 of the covenant between Me and the intellect. —God set it there ; 
 but not in Noah’s day for the first time. It had occurred, of 
 course, whenever the sun confronted a rain-cloud; and thus we 
 have a miracle, the only possible miracle ; namely, a thing ap¬ 
 pointed naturally to appear, but still pregnant of a deep meaning, 
 in relation to the human race.—Now the rainbow, it will be re¬ 
 membered, has the Seven colours; it stands there symbolizing 
 the Seven Spirits of God; and thus it is a kind of oath which 
 the Universe takes ; an oath of God, sworn by Himself,—by all 
 His attributes,—namely, by His Truth, Power, Beauty, Light, 
 Life, Goodness, and Love;—a grand, magnificent oath and attes¬ 
 tation, that inasmuch as all God’s possible intentions towards man 
 are comprised in the harmonious action of these Seven attributes, 
 . therefore nothing shall happen to prevent their realization with 
 respect to the final subjugation of the intellect or Earth. The 
 rainbow stands there as a picture drawn time after time upon the 
 canvass of cloud, a token of the Seven great attributes of the 
 Deity, an escutcheon of God, a promise or sign of all He intends 
 to do for man. So that whenever we see the rainbow, we see 
 the history of the race, and the mystery of God, drawn out in 
 weeping hieroglyphic :—there is the human race, with its Seven 
 grand historical epochs ;—there the Divine Being, with his Seven 
 attributes. 
 
 5. But God set the bow in the clouds. Now it should be ob¬ 
 served, that in the poetic parts of the bible, “ Cloud ” generally 
 implies that the real meaning of the passage in which it occurs, 
 is not literal, but figurative; as the following examples, I think, 
 will shew. Thus, when God is poetically said to have appeared 
 unto Moses, it is said, Lo , I come unto thee in a thick Cloud, 
 implying that the appearance of Jehovah was not a literal descent, 
 or visible presence, but a Spiritual communication. So when the 
 mystic vision of God’s manifestations in the Universe was seen by 
 Ezekiel, he represents a whirlwind as coming out of the north, 
 and a great Cloud; —implying the fgurativeness of the vision. 
 We must, of course, take Luke’s words to have the same mean- 
 
§ i. ANALOGIES OF BEAUTY. 
 
 69 
 
 ing, unless we choose to believe that Luke was altogether mis¬ 
 taken : for that a voice should come out of the clouds, literally, 
 saying “ This is my beloved Son,” is not for an instant to be be¬ 
 lieved. If the anecdote be not founded on an erroneous recol¬ 
 lection, or deceit of the senses; then it must mean that the voice 
 was a figurative one ; a voice from the Clouds ; a voice to the 
 Spiritual, not to the physical fears. We must understand in the 
 same way the declaration of the Saviour ; Ye shall see the Son 
 of Man coming in a Cloud ; meaning, not that a second personal 
 visit of Jesus of Nazareth should occur; but that Christ should 
 come to reign potentially, not as a man, but as a gospel, and 
 manifestation of God. Behold, it is said, He cometh with Clouds, 
 and every eye shall see Him; as indeed every eye shall, in that 
 blessed Day of Love,—not literally, but figuratively and really. 
 John saw a mighty angel, clad with a Cloud, and a rainbow on 
 his head, subjecting the Sea and Earth to his sway; —not a literal 
 angel, an actual bodily messenger,—but a Word, but a Gospel, 
 but a Power and Energy, a Presence of the Rainbow of God in 
 the hearts and minds of men. So the two Witnesses (of whom 
 more hereafter) ascend up to Heaven in a Cloud; not up to 
 the visible sky in an actual cloud; but into the Celestial Temple; 
 — figuratively , potentially. The Day of Judgment is figured as a 
 Cloudy Day: there is a white Cloud, and upon the Cloud One 
 sits; not implying that there shall be any literal Day of Judg¬ 
 ment, in which God will sit anywhere, and men stand at a bar; 
 but only a potential judgment.—Now then we may see what is 
 the internal sense of the promise, “ I will set my bow in the cloud.” 
 It stands there, a mystical fact; a type or figure; the real mean¬ 
 ing of which has not heretofore been known. And here I may 
 just hint, that the poetic image of the Altar, with its four pro¬ 
 vinces,—I mean the Cherubim,—repeats the same phenomenon, 
 with all its mystical meaning; for “ as the appearance of the 
 bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain” was the appearance of 
 its coat of embroidered fire (Ezek. i, 28). 
 
 6. And as we have found this wonderful number Seven in 
 colour, so we may expect to find it in form also. For there are, 
 I suspect, seven radical forms, as well as seven colours; each form 
 corresponding with a colour, and a Soul. And though observa- 
 
 L 
 
7a 
 
 HI. BEAUTY. 
 
 tion has not yet enabled me to guess at the whole of these; the 
 following are suggested with great diffidence. 
 
 7. Let us fancy that the cube is the form which represents 
 Truth. The New Jerusalem coming down from Heaven lies, 
 John says, four-square ; and the height and length and breadth of 
 it are equal. What can he John’s reason for thus making the 
 church of Christ cubical ? May it not be to signify that it is 
 built on the principle of absolute Truth ? I think it may. 
 
 8. To Strength, we must certainly assign its own circular form. 
 Hence the arch derives its singular power of resisting pressure; 
 and illustrations of the same fact might be drawn from a thou¬ 
 sand familiar things. Thus, we take a newspaper, unfold it, and 
 try to hold the sheet flat and upright in our hand; hut it falls 
 down, has no Strength to stand erect, and complies with the least 
 solicitation to lean and sink in any direction. What do we do 
 then, if we wish to read the extended paper ? We give it a fillip 
 in the middle, so as to curve it backwards, and give it a degree 
 of circularity; and then it stands stiff and upright before our 
 eyes. In the muscles of the human body, observe the same. 
 The woman’s, being weaker, are more taper, and lie more in the 
 beautiful wave form; but the man’s belly out, being stronger; 
 and when in action, are remarkable for their assuming a semi- 
 circular form. 
 
 9. Hogarth has already pointed out the form of Beauty ; it 
 is the wave and gently-curving line. 
 
 10. The straight line, there can be no doubt, belongs to 
 Utility ; because it goes directest to its goal. The forms of 
 Light, Life, and Love, I have not yet guessed at. 
 
 11. Having thus glanced at colour and form, let us ascend to 
 sound. Shall we find this wonderful number here also ? If we 
 look, we shall; for music hath seven notes, “ between which and 
 the seven colours of light, when thrown by a prism on a per¬ 
 pendicular surface, naturalists have discovered a correspondence 
 and proportion truly surprising; for the lines of separation between 
 the colours mark the precise point where a musical string must 
 terminate to sound the Seven notes.” And as the colours sympa¬ 
 thize with the Spirits and Souls of God and Nature, so do sounds. 
 “ There is an agreement says Emanuel Swedenborg, one of 
 
§ i. ANALOGIES OF BEAUTY. 
 
 71 
 
 the greatest of the mystics, “ of Tones with the nature and es¬ 
 sence of Goodness and Truth? And if with these two, then with 
 all the other Spirits likewise. 
 
 12. But sound divides itself into articulate, and inarticulate ; 
 and in the former we may discover the same mystic number, 
 equally as in the latter. For there are seven, and only seven 
 pure vowels in all language; of which the fifth phonographic 
 one, as it used to be called,—I mean the vowel 4 UH,’—is cer¬ 
 tainly the vowel of Utility; and I suspect the second to be the 
 vowel of Strength ; and the seventh of Love ; this latter, be¬ 
 cause I have noticed that language, when it grows most affection¬ 
 ate, resolves most of the vowels into it, full or stopped. I sus¬ 
 pect, also, it is from the deep sympathy Love has with this sound, 
 that the dove’s sorrowful— coo , coo —has been taken as an ex¬ 
 pression of affection. 
 
 13. Colour, form, and sound, being thus symbolic, let us now 
 recollect three other facts; I mean the three provinces of 
 Nature,—of which I shall now point out certain important 
 analogies. 
 
 14. Colour is a symbol of the mineral province of Nature. — 
 For in what does the Beauty of any stone or liquid consist ? Al¬ 
 most entirely in colour. Because there is no positive Beauty of 
 form in any mere mineral; the most precious stones are shapeless, 
 and their chief true natural Beauty is in colour alone. You may 
 take this as a general rule. 
 
 15. As colour symbolizes the mineral province , so does form 
 the vegetable. To the Beauty of colour, which flowers enjoy 
 equally with the prettiest minerals, they add a higher Beauty, 
 namely, form , symmetry , proportion ; which no mineral properly 
 possesses. The excellency of the vegetable over the mineral in 
 respect of Beauty lies almost entirely in this particular. 
 
 16. As colour symbolizes the mineral province, and form the 
 vegetable, so does sound the animal. The animal province, 
 indeed, is peculiarly distinguished by the possession of voluntary 
 vocalization, which is not to be discovered among the plants or 
 minerals. 
 
 17. And now we come to further analogies. For as colour, 
 
72 
 
 III. BEAUTY. 
 
 form, and sound, symbolize the three provinces of Nature, so do 
 they also symbolize the three spheres of Man. 
 
 18. Colour symbolizes the carnal faculties. And herein lies 
 the cause of that partiality for colour which the vulgar and the 
 carnal display. The mentally undisciplined and vulgar man loves 
 the gay and the glaring; and servant girls and rude country 
 people, members for the most part of this class, may generally be 
 recognized at a single glance at the coarse shape and gay colour 
 of their clothing. Elegance of form such people have no true 
 conception of; they cannot reach that; and so their habiliments, 
 though of the most flaunting dyes, are put on without any true 
 attention to elegance and taste. The coarse ploughman will 
 soonest prefer for his sweetheart, the girl who has most colour in 
 her cheeks, no matter how clumsy her shape or features may be. 
 And why?—because there is, deep in the nature of things, a 
 real sympathy between colour and the carnal faculties of man, 
 which are the predominant spheres such people’s lives move in.— 
 But it is not to be supposed, that to admire colours is a sign 
 always of a gross mind; because, while on the one hand they re¬ 
 present the carnal faculties ; on the other, it must be remembered, 
 those faculties are sacred, when subdued to God; and besides 
 this, colours symbolize the Seven Spirits of God, and have there¬ 
 fore a sacred, as well as profane meaning. 
 
 19. As colour stands for the carnal faculties , so does eorm 
 for the intellectual. Thus the educated and refined man seeks, 
 in every object, grace and proportion ; he goes after sculptures ; 
 he thinks architecture (of which the mere carnal man has no 
 judgment) glorious and divine. The paintings he admires, are 
 not marked with that virulent, intense, gaudy colouring which 
 delights gross minds; and what he regards in them, is as well the 
 drawing as the colouring. His fair maiden will not be the coarse, 
 robust, buxom country-girl; but she must be of exquisite shape, 
 and excel in feature and form, before she comes up to his ideal. 
 And the intellectual woman will always be found to prefer shape 
 before colour, in all her adornments, and will really look far more 
 lovely in a plain mourning dress, even, with her exquisite manage¬ 
 ment of it, than the vulgar girl will, for all her glaring ribbons. 
 
§ i. ANALOGIES OF BEAUTY. 
 
 73 
 
 20. As colour symbolizes the carnal, and form the intellec¬ 
 tual spheres of Man , so does sound the Spiritual. Beauty of 
 sound is far before all other sensuous Beauties ; and he only has a 
 true ear for it, who is in communion with the Heavenly world. 
 By a true ear, however, is not meant a mere artistic appreciation; 
 for a good musician may yet be a bad man, as a good draughts¬ 
 man may be unintellectual, and a good colourist uncarnal. The 
 artistic talent depends on particular endowment in a few organs ; 
 and the carnal man may have talent for drawing, and the intellec¬ 
 tual for painting. But there is a far finer perception of forms 
 and sounds, yea, and of colours too, than the artistic appreciation; 
 and only the truly intellectual, and the truly Transcendental 
 man, can detect in the forms of natural things, and all diverse 
 sounds, the fine Soul of beauty, and feel the exquisite emotion 
 and thrill.—There is an appreciation which is merely artistic, and 
 by which many are fond of music, for its own sake, who never 
 catch any hint of those divine, vague, wandering tales, which 
 Musical souls hear in the concert of sweet sounds. But by the 
 true ear for melody, we mean a sense of awakening, and inward 
 glorying; a recognition of the Divinity, which comes like the 
 sweet apparition of a heavenly ministrant, chanting out painted 
 melodies;—a music which almost breaks the heart with its 
 angelic touch. Thus Samuel Coleridge could scarce whistle a 
 tune, and disliked the mere artistic music of Rossini; but went 
 into tears at any time, with the true music of Beethoven.—Thus 
 it is not mere musical excitement, and riotous pleasure in har¬ 
 monies, which the bacchanal can aid ; but rather a seraphic lis¬ 
 tening in still solitudes to the voice of a ravishing Whisperer, 
 speaking soft words of Heavenly mansions.—“ Away ! away ! 
 thou speakest to me of things which in all my endless life I have 
 found not , and shall not find F' 
 
 21. We listen to the tongue of music, and are rapt, and are 
 inspired ; and our hearts throb with a joy we do not understand; 
 or our souls sadden, and our eyes are wooed into fruitfulness, and 
 become living wombs of tears:—but we have not known what it 
 was these wonderful words were telling: only the shadow of 
 their import we have sometimes gathered from the tones ; for it 
 has been music’s office 
 
74 
 
 III. BEAUTV. 
 
 “ To touch the strings into a mystery 
 
 But now consider what it is music speaks of.—First, of Beauty, 
 because it is one of Beauty’s express tongues, ranking with colour 
 and form. Then, of the Seven Spirits and Souls, by virtue of its 
 Seven notes, which ringing intricate changes in all melodies, speak 
 to the soul audibly of Truth, Power, Beauty, Light, Life, Good¬ 
 ness and Love. But, besides this, it hints in another way the 
 Spiritual faculties, because it represents Heaven, by virtue of its 
 symbolization of the Divine sphere of Man [^[ 20]. So that, 
 though music sings in its own right, of the Soul of Beauty; and 
 then of the other Souls ; it sings much more of the Mystical 
 world ; and the Seven attributes of God, the High and Holy 
 place, the River and Tree of Life, are the continual burden of its 
 songs. 
 
 22. There is a passage in Percy Shelley’s “ Skylark,” which I 
 once laughed at, but now I perceive its beauty and glory. 
 
 “ Waiting or asleep. 
 
 Thou of death must deem 
 Things more true and deep 
 Than we mortals dream,— 
 
 Or how could thy notes flow in such a crystal stream ?’* 
 
 Do you think Shelley, when he Avrote this, did not in some sort 
 feel, though he could not thoroughly express, this deep sympathy 
 of melody with the Mystical sphere of Man ? For it is that 
 sphere alone, we know, which understands “ deep, true ” things 
 of Death and Being. Music being, then, the expression of the 
 Oracular faculties, this argument of Shelley’s is correct. For the 
 poets have always felt these things, though they could render no 
 reason; nor did William Shakspere write from the surface, when 
 he said 
 
 “ The man that hath no music in his soul, 
 
 Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds. 
 
 Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils ; 
 
 The motions of his spirit are dull as night. 
 
 And his affections dark as Erebus :” 
 
 adding 
 
 “ Let no such man be trusted." 
 
 23.. It is because of the deep sympathy between the Heavenly 
 faculties and music, that the latter has such a wonderful influ¬ 
 ence in softening and subduing even unbeautiful minds. The 
 
§ i. ANALOGIES OF BEAUTY. 
 
 75 
 
 anecdote of Saul and David in the hook of Samuel, is a familiar 
 instance of this overpowering influence. In Ferdinand we have 
 another illustration; 
 
 “— Sitting on a bank, 
 
 Weeping again the King my father’s wreck, 
 
 This music crept by me upon the waters, 
 
 Allaying both their fury, and my passion, 
 
 With its sweet air." 
 
 The old “ fables,” as they are called, of the power of melody 
 over brute nature, w^ere true enough ; they came, not from fancy, 
 nor invention, nor imagination, but from highest poetic Intui¬ 
 tion, and therefore were true for all times and ages; 
 
 “ — therefore the poet 
 
 Did feign that Orpheus drew trees, stones, and floods ; 
 
 Since nought so stockish, hard, and full of rage. 
 
 But music for the time doth change his nature.” 
 
 No one, I think, who has observed the w r onderful powers of 
 music over the mesmerized, will doubt of its right to the high 
 pedestal we assign it. 
 
 24. A man may have large musical faculty, I repeat, and yet 
 enshrine no music in his soul. Such a one will admire concerts 
 and grand musical demonstrations, but will be incapable of appre¬ 
 ciating still simple voices. But the Musical soul , in the low 
 moaning of the wind, can detect the Tongue it loves, and find 
 that Divine voice flowing down upon its ears from a thousand 
 streams. To it, the soft tones and crystal modulations of the 
 human voice, especially when that voice is instincted by the 
 Highest faculty, will he worth more than all architecture, and 
 sculpture, and painting. “ I do not wonder at the miracles which 
 poetry attributes to the music of Orpheus, when I remember what 
 I have experienced from the varied notes of the human voice. 
 They are an incalculable energy, which countervails all other 
 forces in nature, because they are the channel of Supernatural 
 Powers .” 
 
 25. But as sound divides itself into articulate and inarticulate; 
 it must be observed that in close connection with music, is poetry; 
 or music rendered articulate. Still, for what it gains by this ad¬ 
 dition, it loses in some proportion, by a discharge of somewhat of 
 its inarticulate sweetness ; and yet poetry is far beyond music as a 
 
76 
 
 in. BEAUTY. 
 
 tongue of Beauty. And if music symbolize the First sphere of 
 Man, or fourth province of the Universe, so also does poetry, and 
 I think, motion too. Yet I cannot class motion with colour, form , 
 and sound; for it seems to underlie all these, and to be, as it 
 were, the scabbard, in which all they do sheathe themselves. 
 
 26. Now let us recapitulate: 
 
 
 Spheres of Man. 
 
 | Symbols. 
 
 | Provinces of Nature. 
 
 1 
 
 Carnal. 
 
 Colour. 
 
 Mineral. 
 
 2 
 
 Intellectual. 
 
 Form. 
 
 Vegetable. 
 
 3 
 
 Celestial. 
 
 Sound. 
 
 Animal. 
 
 (1) Colour symbolizes the mineral province on the one hand, 
 and the carnal faculties on the other; and thus the mineral pro¬ 
 vince of Nature becomes a symbol of the carnal sphere of Man .— 
 
 (2) Form symbolizes the vegetable province on the one hand, 
 and the intellectual sphere on the other ; and the vegetable world 
 becomes the type of the intellect. —(3) Sound symbolizes the 
 animal province and the Celestial sphere; and thus the animal 
 province becomes the symbol of the Transcendental sphere. 
 
§ ij. ASSIMILATION AND VISION. 
 
 1. All good and beautiful souls delight to dwell amid beautiful 
 objects, because then they feel at home and among their friends. 
 And it is the duty of all to make themselves and their appurte¬ 
 nances as handsome as they can. And I say to all, be sure neg¬ 
 lect no simple and lawful means of making your person, your 
 actions, your dwelling, your life, as beautiful to yourself and 
 those around you, as every life and person may, and ought to be 
 made. Have flowers much about you ;—who, that is good for 
 anything, does not love flowers ? Be yourself always pleasant 
 where possible, and think it your duty to infuse as much grace 
 into everything as its nature and your means may lawfully admit 
 of. Use your eye to the contemplation of fair objects; and be 
 much among beautiful colours, and forms, and sounds; and to 
 this end, love the fine arts, and read much poetry, and converse 
 continually with fields and streams. 
 
 2. And the duty of all this, may be learnt from a considera¬ 
 tion of the law of assimilation : What a man sees he becomes. 
 For there is in the mind a principle by which what we look at 
 and dwell amongst, is transferred within us, and becomes thence¬ 
 forth part of ourselves. Therefore if a man would be a poem, 
 living a heroic and noble life, he should have his house and garni- 
 
 M 
 
78 
 
 III. BEAUTY. 
 
 ture, and diet, as simple and comely as he can. And it is from 
 the potency of this law of Assimilation, that we gather the neces¬ 
 sity every Christian is under, of avoiding much converse with lit¬ 
 tle-minded and unbeautiful souls. For by the need all things 
 have of assimilating to each other, the inevitable tendency of such 
 society is, to cramp and deface our own souls. Because there is a 
 wonderful principle deep in the constitution of things, that 
 abhors contrariety, and effects that no two things shall long abide 
 together, without endeavouring to enter into each other’s nature. 
 Therefore must every man who aims at Vitality, shun in some 
 measure promiscuous company. For it must not be hidden, that 
 the greatest damage may be suffered by much intercourse with 
 unlovely souls. And to every Christian it must be said, You 
 are a Vital fact, and you have no business to mingle much with 
 the unvital; if you do, they may rob you of your Vitality. The 
 men who are conducting life on only Natural elements, are in 
 fact dead ;—they are walking Decomposition and Dissolution ;— 
 whom we meet indeed in the market, and in the streets, and at 
 public assemblies, and see making much fuss about business, 
 doing this and that, forming leagues, repealing laws, reading and 
 writing newspapers : but who yet are dead men ;—talking, and 
 singing, and writing, and reading, and working corpses. It seems, 
 indeed, to themselves, that their vitality is complete, and they 
 would ridicule one who should assert the contrary ; and yet it is 
 so ; they are deceased ; their souls are dual, not triune : they are 
 animals, not men. What business then have you, a quick man, 
 among these dead ? Why be so fond of mixing with their busi¬ 
 nesses ? Let the dead marry and bury their dead. —It was be¬ 
 cause Moses saw this grand necessity, that he ordained, that who¬ 
 ever touched a dead body should be held unclean. Wherefore, 
 though you shall do all you can to bless and lift these people, 
 you shall not much mix with them: and every person who loves 
 strong excitement, whether of theatres, books, concerts, balls, par¬ 
 ties, races, missionary meetings, or what not; with such a person 
 you shall not much go. It is surprising what hurt the soul takes 
 from converse with the base; nay, even with many who are to 
 some extent, pious; if yet they are deficient in manliness, open¬ 
 ness, and aspiration. 
 
§ ij. ASSIMILATION. 
 
 79 
 
 3. By this law, we derive the utmost advantage from the 
 society of the beautiful. This is true, even, to some extent, with 
 regard merely to outward beauty. Therefore I seldom see a 
 handsome woman without feeling thankful for her; or a fair 
 child. For I consider it always so much gain;—gain to the 
 friends and acquaintance of such a one, because of the operation 
 of the law of Assimilation ;—and gain also to me, though I never 
 see her again. For, apart from this same law;—there is here 
 one more achievement of Humanity to be gloried in; one more 
 portrait of Him whom the soul loveth ; one more realization, in 
 this day of evil marriage, of what all shall at last possess; one 
 more assertion of the power of marriage-correspondency, even 
 though it be only in the physical spheres. Moreover, a whole¬ 
 some stimulus is applied to all Vitalized souls, by the sight of 
 Beauty written on these breathing tablets: it being a figure or 
 representation of that Fact, which he who sees, ought himself to 
 have become. For in this majestic form, this lovely face, these 
 exquisite limbs, lies a fine rebuke to the unfaithful Christian: 
 who may see here before him, drawn out in colours, forms, and 
 motions, that Loveliness which ought, before now, to have been 
 internally his own ; and if not equal to this his pattern, he has 
 been untrue to his own soul.—But if benefit may be often got 
 from the company of the merely beautiful in body, how ineffably 
 more from that of the beautiful in soul! Few blessings, indeed, 
 are there, that are greater; few, for which we should more thank 
 God. In the hour of despond, when the mind is dark, the way 
 grievous, the joy turned into the mist of tears ; when the soul, 
 beset by temptations, almost doubts of the possibility of becom¬ 
 ing clean;—O, what a comfort is it to have those with us, in 
 person or memory, who have achieved the victory, and do prac¬ 
 tically forthshew that possibility which we have been despairing 
 of! To look at some friend, beautiful in soul, if not in externals, 
 —the good and the faithful, 
 
 “ Who, rowing hard against the stream, 
 
 Sees present paradises gleam, 
 
 And does not dream it is a dream!” 
 
 I know of no greater blessing than such a friend ! And in all 
 hours, the benefit is the same. If we unite ourselves intimately 
 
80 
 
 III. BBAUTY. 
 
 with the beautiful in soul, we also shall become beautiful;—pro¬ 
 vided always our plasticability be greater than our friend's; for 
 if the contrary, our friend will suffer by the connection. And 
 hence we learn the great wrong they do themselves, who marry 
 any but the mentally beautiful; and also, the need that there is, 
 that we should ourselves have become apt for Beauty, and to a 
 great extent really beautiful, before we consent, by uniting with 
 the lovely, to peril the Beauty of our beloved. 
 
 4. It is this law which necessitates such caution in the choos¬ 
 ing, not only of our friends, but of our books. We know very 
 well what the man who reads vicious novels, scornful satires, and 
 violent pugnacious writings, is, or is becoming. There is little 
 help for the man who will insist upon feeding on such food as 
 this; but if he chooses books written by the truly great and 
 noble, then, can he but learn to know and love them, he is in 
 the way himself of becoming great and noble. For every book 
 has a magic influence, a beautiful or a terrible energy, to bring 
 the soul of its reader into the likeness of its writer. Thus a 
 bad man’s book must be bad;—must, if it use any influence over 
 the reader’s mind, use a bad one. But no man is quite good, or 
 quite bad; even Byron has his lucid intervals; and what the 
 good hour writes, may be good, though every foregoing hour 
 were insane. However, we cannot be too cautious what books 
 we go with; nor is any writer to be admitted into our study, 
 merely on the strength of a few good hours. 
 
 5. A man is known by his companions. He may go among 
 the little-minded, and read bad books, with a resolve to use the 
 strictest eclecticism, and may say, What is good in these I will 
 adopt, and what is bad, abhor. Alas! it is impossible. Only 
 gaze on Medusa’s bead, and you cannot choose but become 
 stone. Because this law acts without our leave, unawares to us; 
 acts even against our wills, by the silent working of hidden in¬ 
 stinct, which we cannot avoid, except by avoiding the conditions 
 of its working. 
 
 6. This same law of Assimilation, though a great evil to un¬ 
 decided souls, becomes one of the highest advantages of the 
 Christian. For, looking continually up to his Saviour, and with 
 open face beholding, as in a mirror, by means of the Spiritual 
 
§ ij. ASSIMILATION. 
 
 81 
 
 faculties, the glory of the Lord; he becomes, by the working of 
 this law, changed into the same image, from glory to glory, in a 
 continual ascension, even by the Spirit of the Lord. Thus do 
 we, with constant labour, gaze upon the Supreme Beauty, and 
 become more Godlike as we gaze. 
 
 7. There is one more law that has reference to Beauty, which 
 deserves noticing ; and it is this : 
 
 8. That which a man is, he sees. This is the law of Vision. 
 
 9. The truth of this law has been vouched for by all the 
 truly sublime souls that have had occasion to speak of it; men 
 who have passed, perhaps, for dark mystics in their lives and 
 afterwards, but who yet came to be true Lightbearers to those 
 who were in receptive conditions. Let us hear, for instance, 
 James Greaves, what he says; “ The more mystically real I become, 
 the more I shall, if the Spirit be not ivith you, seem dealing in 
 abstractions, in imaginations, in hypotheses , and ivhims of the brain." 
 For the Spiritual faculty only, can apprehend the Spiritual, and 
 the intellectual, the intellectual; and whoever lives in a lower 
 sphere will be unable to comprehend the higher. “ No spirit 
 (says Edward Taylor) can of his own power possibly see into any 
 other principle but in which he is, or is regenerated into and 
 Jacob Behmen enunciates the same Mystical law : “ Every spirit 
 searcheth only its own depth, and apprehends that wherein it does 
 enkindle itself; and though it searcheth its own enkindling, yet it 
 finds no more than a type or representation of things like a shadoiv 
 or dream ; it is not able to behold the Being itself: for if it 
 
 WOULD SEE THE BEING, THEN IT MUST BE IN THE BEING, AND THE 
 
 Being in it.” 
 
 10. Yet, although by this law of Vision, it is asserted that a 
 man must have become a thing, before he can behold it inti¬ 
 mately ; this is not an expression of the fact, that all we know of 
 an object, is not the object itself, but only a knowledge of 
 changes effected in ourselves by some outward cause. But it has 
 a far deeper meaning, and asserts that before a man can see a tree, 
 for instance, the nature of the tree must have its representative 
 and collateral in him. For man is a vegetable, as well as an 
 animal; as is shewn in phenomena attendant at times on death: 
 for first, the animal life expires, then the vegetable, lastly, and 
 
82 
 
 III. BEAUTY. 
 
 more slowly, the mineral. Thus, after the animal life has de¬ 
 parted, and the man is called dead; the vegetable life may still 
 be entire; and the body grows, and the hair of the head and 
 beard lengthens, it may be for several days. Then, after the 
 vegetable life is dead, the mineral endures, until it gives place to 
 decomposition. And unless man were in this way, both mineral, 
 vegetable, and animal; he could never understand anything of 
 these provinces, or be truly aware of their existence. . The 
 vegetable comprehends and appreciates the vegetable and mineral 
 existences; but has no knowledge whatever of the animals, ex¬ 
 cept inasfaf as they partake of its own nature. For all know¬ 
 ledge lies in self-consciousness; nor can the flower be at all con¬ 
 scious of the cow or the man, except to the extent in which their 
 nature is one with its own. And thus, unless vegetables were 
 minerals, the mineral world would be a blank to them ; nor 
 could they derive from it any supplies. And unless Man were a 
 vegetable, no herbs or fruits could have any influence, either 
 medicinal or sustentatory, upon him. For it is most true, as old 
 George Herbert divined, 
 
 ‘‘ Herbs gladly heal our flesh, because that they 
 Find their acquaintance there,” 
 
 And unless every province of Nature were represented in the 
 parliament of Man, he could never feel any of those sublime and 
 mysterious sympathies and promptings which commune with 
 Natural objects awakes and gives. 
 
 “ In the spring a fuller crimson comes upon the robin’s breast; 
 
 In the spring the wanton lapwing gets himself another crest; 
 
 In the spring a livelier iris changes on the burnished dove; 
 
 In the spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.’’ 
 
 The reason of this is, simply, that the birds and the man are 
 vegetables ; and at the season when the vegetable world is re¬ 
 clothing itself, and putting out new energies and beauties, the 
 robin, and lapwing, and dove, are influenced by the same vege¬ 
 table impulse ; and the man feels that there is something in him 
 which sympathizes with Nature, and, by a wonderful instinct, 
 prompts him to bud and send forth boughs like a plant. But 
 unless he were a vegetable, he would never feel this, or any other 
 sympathy with vegetable Nature ; nor indeed could he so much 
 as know of its existence. 
 
§'j. VISION. 
 
 83 
 
 11. To the Christian, if his nature he large, and his mind faith¬ 
 ful to God, all things at last become beautiful, except only the 
 workings of the selfish or carnal faculties. For we learn from 
 a consideration of the law of Vision, that always in proportion to 
 a man’s ugliness, will be his opinion of the deformity of the 
 world. And so I never like to hear any one complain of the 
 world ; depend upon it, if we cannot make ourselves blessed in it, 
 it is our own fault. “ It is dislocation and detachment from the 
 Life of God that makes things ugly.” And therefore I repeat, 
 in proportion as a man becomes Godlike, perfect in His image, 
 with highest intellectual and Spiritual faculties, so does he see as 
 God sees; and he says, Every thing that is made is good. There 
 is no real deformity except Decomposition: which is, as it were, 
 a departure from Being, a desertion of God, a falling from Life 
 towards Nonentity ; in whatsoever sphere or province that de¬ 
 composition may be. For there is a decomposition psychical, as 
 well as physical; the latter being only the emblem of the 
 former. 
 
 12. A true consideration of the bearing of this law of Vision, 
 will shew us the duty of abstaining from all controversies on 
 matters of creed. Argument never yet made a vital Christian, 
 and never will. He must be in the same soul that you are in, 
 before he can see what you can see: and the way to open his 
 eyes, is not to appeal to his reason, but to lift his life. The 
 servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men, 
 apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose. 
 It is his place to affirm the Truth, and direct others into the way 
 of verifying what he affirms; he may also talk calmly upon 
 error, and elucidate his notions at length; but directly diversity 
 tends towards strife, then the Man of God must bid good-bye. 
 Argue with no one; be sparing of replication; tell them once or 
 twice what you think, and if they cannot accept the saying, leave 
 them there. “ The more elevated their affections are,” says James 
 Greaves, “ the more from Spirit will they agree with what I have 
 written; dispute with no one about them; quarrel not in the 
 least about such high matters ;—name them for what they are, 
 and when not received, be content.” 
 
 13. For it is deeply, I cannot declare how deeply true, that no 
 
84 
 
 m. BEAUTY. 
 
 disputation can make a man understand the Truth ; he must 
 become the Truth, and live the Truth, and then he will under¬ 
 stand, but not till. What you are you see, nor can you see any 
 high Truth without being emancipated into its sphere. It was 
 from a feeling of the reality of this law of Perception, that 
 Thomas a’Kempis declares, Si quis Christi verba plene et cum 
 voluptate vult intelligere , liuic necesse est , ut omnem vitam suam 
 secundum ilium componere studeat. Hence, too, James Greaves, 
 speaking of the Bible, says, It is beyond all value to him who is 
 Divinely related , and less and less so to those who are less related 
 to Spirit. Thus Ralph Emerson declares, that the Soul that 
 wrote history must read it; the Sphinx must solve her own riddle. 
 And Paul enunciates precisely the same law, when he asks, What 
 man knoweth the things of a man , save the sold of man which is in 
 man ? Even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit 
 of God. 
 
IV. LIGHT. 
 
Marvel not that I say unto you, Ye must be born again. 
 
§ i. SPIRITUAL ILLUMINATION. 
 
 1. Except a man be born of water (liquor amnii), and of the 
 Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God.—Not of water 
 alone;—Natural generation is not enough; the man must be 
 birthed Supematurally, as well as Naturally,—must be a subject, 
 not of generation only, but of regeneration. He must be, psychi¬ 
 cally, not dual, but trine, or triune; must be Spiritually-minded, 
 as well as intellectually and carnally. 
 
 2. The New-birth is very rarely a startling, miraculous-seem¬ 
 ing event; no man is made a new creature all at once; for the 
 dual soul is dead, and there must be a re-vivification and re¬ 
 creation ; the soul must enter a second time into the matrix, and 
 a process of gestation be undergone, before the man can be trin- 
 ilized, or new-born. Not by any clap of thunder, not in any 
 instant of time, can this change be effected :—much, doubtless, 
 a good beginning, may be made at any moment; there may be a 
 sudden new-developement of the Heavens, like the sudden 
 sprouting of a tree : but the whole soul must undergo gradual 
 vivification, limb after limb, before the dead can be restored 
 fully to life again, and the lost found. By no convulsions, gal¬ 
 vanic shocks, miraculous answers to prayer, or momentary men¬ 
 tal, impressions, can any child be properly born again ; nor. is the 
 
88 
 
 IV. LIGHT. 
 
 process of Spiritual gestation at any time a completed one, but 
 the man must be for ever being converted afresh, passing from 
 sphere to sphere, undergoing nativity after nativity. 
 
 3. The Heaven is God's throne , and the Earth His footstool .— 
 The Heavens are His most delightful seat, the place where His 
 honor dwelleth. And by Heavens , we are not to understand any 
 foreign or distant place,—but here,—but now,—but upon this 
 planet, in the human being, in the Oracular faculties ; this is 
 God’s mercy-seat, His Urim and Thummin, His tabernacle with 
 man. For the Lord has prepared His throne in the Heavens, 
 and in them is He glorious; and in that palace is He known for a 
 refuge and deliverer. 
 
 4. However, it should be known, that those organs in the 
 brain which are, when Spiritual, called ‘ The Heavens,’ or 
 ‘ Heaven,’ have each two names, according as they are instincted 
 by Spirit or Soul. For no one organ is ever wholly instincted 
 by Spirit; but He appropriates to Himself the finest and most 
 exalted portion, while the lower is still empowered merely by 
 Soul. Thus, if we could see any organ of a regenerated man’s 
 mind, with respect to its mode of operation, we should observe at 
 its culmination and perfection-point, God Himself, as a pure, in¬ 
 effable Essence, without admixture with Soul. Thence gradually 
 descending, in weaker and weaker shades, being diluted with 
 more and still more of the Soul, Spirit would gradually fade off* 
 into mere Soulic energy. 
 
 5. “ For ever y O Lord ! (said the Psalmist) Thy Word is writ¬ 
 ten in Heaven.” It is therefore to Heaven that we must go for 
 all our Revelations of the Holy Ghost. The reason why the 
 people are so unwilling to trust to God for their directions, is 
 partly because they are entangled in a net of Soulic religion, 
 which is altogether superstitious, and which nothing but sound 
 reasoning can destroy. But it also lies in the fact, that the most, 
 even of professing Christians, never attain to true Spiritual en¬ 
 lightenment ; their piety is only Soulic, and therefore false; be¬ 
 cause they so wickedly let business or pleasure deform their 
 minds, and are so prone to indulge in carnalities, of eating and 
 drinking, and elsewhat, which hinder and quench Spirit in their 
 souls. Hence, when you tell such people, that they must trust 
 
§ 1. SPIRITUAL ILLUMINATION. 
 
 89 
 
 for guidance to the inner Light of God ; they are puzzled, see no 
 inner Light, hear no inner Voice which they can follow and 
 obey : and still feeling the need of some guide, run with gladness 
 into the arms of any paper-and-ink spectre of one they can find. 
 But if a man will cling faithfully to the Cross of Christ, and not 
 hinder Love-developement within him, by pernicious diets, and 
 lusts, and distractions; then he may reach true pure Spiritual 
 Illumination, and will not need help from books or men, to shew 
 him the principles of true religion, 
 
 6. That you may distinguish rightly between the Spiritual and 
 the Soulic Heaven, or rather between the true Heavens and the 
 false, I will help you to consider them as they are manifested in, 
 for one instance, the organ called “ Conscientiousness.” The 
 highest and finest part of this organ, is capable of being instincted 
 by Spirit Himself, without any Soulic adulterations ; and when 
 so, it becomes an infallible moral law, from which, and from 
 which only, there can be no appeal. But in the unregenerate 
 man, this whole organ is merely Soulicly inspired ; and the con¬ 
 scientiousness produced is a superstitious, untrue one ; not to be 
 trusted; of no real authority ; a mere thing of convenience, 
 giving tithe of mint and cummin, but neglecting the weightier 
 matters of the law; remembering the Sabbath Day to keep it—• 
 lazy; but grinding and screwing the poor in his factories, or rob¬ 
 bing and overreaching his customers in his shop, every day in the 
 working week.—Look again at “ Veneration.” When Highest 
 instincted, it is known as absolute adoration and reverential ac¬ 
 knowledgement of whatever truly deserves such homage; and it 
 is also a sure test, by which we may know what alone is, and 
 what is not truly adorable. But in its lower portions, where its 
 inspiration degenerates into Soul, it becomes Hero-worship, ex¬ 
 cessive reverence for old and great names, or rotten institutions, 
 or all manner of trumpery; being thus a mere superstitious 
 thing.—It is just the same with “ Benevolence ;” which organ, 
 when Spiritually empowered, vehiculates pure Love of God ; that 
 is, love of whatever is truly lovely;—unmistaking, infallible. 
 In a lower part, it is benevolence to one’s kind, no matter 
 -whether Godly or no; and from thence it descends, growing more 
 and more intensely Soulic, down through all shades of amiability, 
 
90 
 
 IV. LIGHT. 
 
 till it gets to a weak, foolish good-nature, which unfits a man for 
 the real duties of life.—The same duplex instinction is seen in 
 “ Hope.” This orgdn, Spiritually, is an organ of prophecy, and 
 fills the mind with all sublime and glorious, and withal, abso¬ 
 lutely true aspirations and anticipations. But thence it is shaded 
 off, till, in portions too low to be Spiritually instincted, it be¬ 
 comes mere unreasonable expectation of what cannot occur; a 
 false buoyancy, an irrational sanguineness of mood. 
 
 7. It is a great point in education to cultivate the Soulic or 
 false Heavens, if that cultivation go along with a proper en¬ 
 couragement of the rational faculties. Nevertheless, if reason be 
 cultivated by itself, it leads to scepticism; and if the Soulic 
 Heaven by itself, the patient will fall into inevitable superstition. 
 And therefore is the just antagonism or balancement of these two 
 essential to every truly educated mind. Nothing can save us 
 from false prophets, false Christs, and from being led terribly 
 astray, except a vigorous culture of the rational faculties. But 
 while the latter is attended to, let us not forget the vast impor¬ 
 tance of fostering the Natural, or false Heavens, by reading poetry, 
 cultivating taste, and studying all the arts that refine and lift the 
 mind. 
 
 8. Much error prevails as to the mode in which Spirit com¬ 
 municates with man. It is never by a miraculous communica¬ 
 tion ; never by a voice of words, a sensible sensuous impulse, or 
 anything of the kind. It is Truth, Power, Beauty, Light, Life, 
 Goodness, and Love; and what squares with these principles 
 within our Spiritual faculties, is the will of God concerning us. 
 All impulses of a sensuous character, all miraculous answers to 
 prayer, all words and voices, and sensuous visions and dreams, 
 are Soulic and delusive. God gives no miraculous intimations. 
 He gives us not words, but Things; not the verdict uttered by 
 the oracle, but the Divinity Who inspired the oracle ; not par¬ 
 ticular impulses, to tell us when to speak, to walk, to sleep, to 
 sit; but general impulses of Truth, Power, Beauty, Light, Life, 
 Goodness, and Love. These we must trust; these obey ; to these 
 we must submit ourselves. Whatever tends to thwart them, we 
 must thwart; to subdue them, we must subdue. Guided by 
 these, we shall be Divinely led into all peace and joy; and in 
 
§ i. SPIRITUAL ILLUMINATION. 91 
 
 proportion as they speak in us, will be our freedom fromgrief 
 and pain. 
 
 9. The Heavens are God's Throne, hut the Earth also is His 
 Footstool. For without it he subject to Spirit, the intellect is of little 
 value; we cannot see to any distance before us, nor what is 
 around us, properly, but are enwrapt in a dense fog. The judg¬ 
 ments we pronounce from Terrene ground only, are partial, one¬ 
 sided ; and the opinions we hold thence, are untrue, as we pre¬ 
 sently discover when we have begun to be New-born. A man 
 with a quite inferior intellectual endowment shall see clearer, and 
 form truer judgments of things, than another; if the first be, 
 and the last be not, redeemed from the warp of sin. “ The very 
 senses become false informers (says Harriet Martineau), the very 
 faculties traitors, when the intellect has lost its rectitude of 
 humility, patience, and loyalty to Truth.” “ The subtlest rea- 
 soners (says William Channing) for want of this, cheat them¬ 
 selves as well as others, and become entangled in the web of their 
 own sophistry.” 
 
 10. But if on the Heavens and the Earth Jehovah sits and 
 treads, His way also is in the Sea, and His path in the deep 
 Waters. Yea! the Lord sitteth King upon the Floods, He sit- 
 teth King for ever. But observe; this reigning is different from 
 the reigning on the Throne and Footstool; because these are fos¬ 
 tering influences, whereas that is a deadening, clarifying, or des¬ 
 troying energy. The effect Spirit works on the carnal Sea, is a 
 quieting and purifying; its waves and its billows are to go over , 
 us no more. This is very beautifully represented by the beloved 
 John, when he says, “ Before the Throne ,” that is, in the presence 
 of the Thronic faculties, upon which God sits, teas a Sea of glass, 
 like unto crystal so clear, so spotless. And afterwards he al¬ 
 ludes still further to the same thing, when he sees as it were “ a 
 Sea of glass, mingled with fire; and they that had got the victory 
 over the beast stood on the Sea of glass ;”—stood on it, masters of 
 it therefore, “ having the harps of God." 
 
 11. Are you willing to learn, dear friend, the conditions on 
 which this gift of Emanuel may be enjoyed ? Then I will tell 
 you. Believe me, the whole secret lies in going out of selfish¬ 
 ness, putting off. all selfishness, and putting on Christ the Lord. 
 
92 
 
 IV. LIGHT. 
 
 Because ; Selfishness is the only devil, and all true religion con¬ 
 sists in transcending self, and attaining God. And if it be asked, 
 by what means can we thus unclothe ourselves of the evil 
 nature ? it must be answered, first, 
 
 12. By Humility. Humility is the sine qua non of the 
 Christian character ; nothing else will supply its place. It is the 
 silver cord which binds us to Heaven, and Heaven goes if it be 
 loosed. It is a great willingness to think, not our own thoughts, 
 O Lord !—to do, not our own deeds, O our God! but to think 
 and to do Thine. And thus it comprehends a carelessness of all 
 human praise; and is for ever opposed to every species of Soulic 
 ambition. Therefore I warn all people who think to obtain 
 Spiritual progression, that so long as they have any thirst for 
 power or praise unrepressed, they cannot fully coalesce with 
 the Divine Being, cannot be true and honest children of 
 God. And I tell all such, that if they would be at all the Fact 
 it is their duty to be, they will have to reject applause, and hate 
 it, and never be flattered by praising words. For nothing can be 
 more injurious to a man, than the pleasure of being praised. We 
 must learn, dear friends, to keep ourselves out of these sweating 
 hothouses of approbation, and be content to encounter sleet and 
 wind in the cold hardy air. Every brave Christian will rather 
 shun opportunities of obtaining public applause ; will not talk 
 for shew, and write for shew; but will rest ever in a sweet 
 humility, esteeming all things that tend to lift him out of that 
 quiet valley as bitter foes. 
 
 13. Akin to humility is Resignation. A man must give 
 himself willingly into God’s hand, and believe, O yes, from his 
 heart! that whatever happens will be the very best that could 
 befall him ;—and not interrupt, by his own acting and wilfulness, 
 the intentions of Spirit respecting him. As the child is always 
 resigned to the will of its mother, and goes ever with the breast 
 that bears it, so must we cease from our own willing and would- 
 ing, and be content and best pleased to be disposed of by the 
 Father. We must be very low at God’s feet, and submit to His 
 workings as resignedly as the wave, which, called into being by 
 the mind, is ready at an instant’s notice to lose its individuality, 
 and become nothing, at the bidding of its creator. 
 
§ i. SPIRITUAL ILLUMINATION. 
 
 93 
 
 14. And akin to the two former conditions is Repentance; 
 Contrition ; sorrow to have thwarted, fought against this God of 
 Love. The man must arise and go to his Father, and say, 
 Father ! I have sinned against the Celestial faculties , and in Thy 
 sight , and am no more worthy to he called Thy son. —Yet this 
 Contrition is not a thing of over-self-consciousness, to throw a 
 man into the slough, and leave him there; or to inflict tortures, 
 and make him mad with ranting and with weeping; but it is 
 rather a low, calm, hopeful sorrow, that melts, not breaks the 
 heart. They who walk most in the way of Peace, most know how 
 happy a thing this Contrition is ; it looks dismal and sour, I 
 know, to those who have felt it not; they say, they will not live 
 in these perpetual tears ; hut they do not know that this very 
 grief is the sweetest and joyfullest of all emotions. For by its 
 influence, Spirit doth stream in upon the man, warms and irra¬ 
 diates his whole being, and says to him, with joyful recognition, 
 4 Thou art My son, this day have I begotten thee.' 
 
 15. Why is melancholy and gentle sadness so delightful to all 
 poesic minds ? It is so. Even its gloom is a pleasure, its grief 
 a satisfaction, and the joy we feel in our more riotous hours 
 shows quite gaudy and hollow by the side of that delicious sor¬ 
 row which sometimes overcreeps the heart. “ Pleasant ,” says 
 Fingal, “ is the joy of grief: it is like the shower of spring when 
 it softens the branch of the oak , and the young leaf rears its green 
 head." This is how we are so touched with a sad poem; this is 
 why 
 
 “ Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought.” 
 
 These fine pleasures are of the Soulic Heavens, and will serve as 
 an illustration of the law of Contrition. For just as Soulic sor¬ 
 row causes Soulic pleasure, so does Godly sorrow cause Life and 
 peace, to flow into the soul. 
 
 16. And this brings us to the fourth condition to be furnished ; 
 I mean Purity, or Holiness. With Humility, the right soul, 
 must go Holiness, the clean heart. To the pure, this especial 
 privilege is given, that they do see God; and this always in pro¬ 
 portion to their degree of purity. Without Holiness, no man can 
 see God’s face; because a man can only see that which he is 
 
 o 
 
94 
 
 IV. LIGHT. 
 
 [hi, ij, 8] ; and he must himself be pure, before he can discern 
 the God of purity.—There must be a careful and earnest shun¬ 
 ning of all defilements,—of thought, as well as of word and deed. 
 We must surround ourselves with clean atmospheres, and resent, 
 with holy zeal, any motion of the mind which might tend to con¬ 
 taminate them. From the love of, and thirst for the getting of 
 money, or title, or worldly influence, we must piously abstain. 
 With a whip of cords, with a devouring zeal, at all costs, must 
 the money-changers be driven out of the Temple. 
 
 17. Then, of necessity, there must be great Earnestness. 
 Naught is promised to the lukewarm. For the trifler, the 
 thoughtless, the unearnest, there is no hope.—Not that the 
 woman or man of God ought to be of demure face, shunning the 
 amenities and prettinesses of life; O no !—The Christian ought 
 to be blythe and happy, and there should always dwell in his 
 eyes a certain friendliness to smiles. A channel of joy should he 
 be, a flush of continual sweet light, a rainbow of many colours, 
 and all of them beautiful. Nevertheless, under all outward fun 
 and nonsense, there must be seriousness at bottom ; levity is only 
 graceful in those who have deeper things in them than that; and 
 then only is the merry laugh, the gleesome caper, and the rogue- 
 ish freak beautiful, 
 
 “ When the root of some deep earnest thought is understruck so rightly. 
 
 As to justify the foliage, and the waving flowers above.’’ 
 
 18. And no less essential to the Christian is Diligence and 
 Labour. Labour is the root of growth, to which all the other 
 developements of the soul that grows, are supplementary. It is 
 the purchase-money of all rights,—even of the right to live. 
 Think not that Heaven will be kept easily by the lazy-souled: 
 there must be striving, wrestling, fighting, running, sweating, 
 panting, groaning, before the race can be won, or the crown 
 worn. You must feel that, in comparison, 
 
 " Nothing i6 worth a thought beneath, 
 
 But how you may escape the death 
 That never, never dies;’’— 
 
 but how you may attain the Life that lives and reigns for ever. 
 He that will not work with Christ, neither shall he eat of His 
 Heavenly flesh. He shall have neither apprehension, relish, nor 
 
§ i. SPIRITUAL ILLUMINATION. 95 
 
 possession, of the Bread-indeed, or of the Drink-indeed. By all 
 manner of poverties, with their feet of iron, shall he be trampled 
 into the clay. 
 
 19. There cannot be a true following of Jesus, unless there be 
 Aspiration. He can be no true child of Spirit, who tries not 
 ever to climb from glory to glory. There must be an upward 
 striving of the soul, like the young ivy-branch’s striving: the 
 w T aters must spring UP in us to everlasting Life. There must be 
 a profound and central dissatisfaction with all present perform¬ 
 ance ; and a belief that it is, and a resolution that it shall be 
 practicable to realize more and more. The man who is content 
 with present acquisitions and performances,—so content, at least, 
 that, however he may wish , he does not much try to increase and 
 surpass them, is no true Christian,—so I tell him. He that is 
 unfaithful in these few things, shall be ruled over by ’many 
 things, and shall seldom enter into the joy of his Lord. 
 
 20. Then there must be Faith. Now of Faith there are two 
 kinds ; the one Soulic merely, the other Spiritual. The former 
 is of small value : the latter, a pearl beyond all price. Spiritual 
 Faith is Idealness ; a disregard of all things merely Soulic (which 
 are called ‘re«F), and a love of all Spiritualities (which are called 
 1 ideal ’). For true Faith is a conviction, and not merely that, 
 but an absolute knowledge, that the invisible things are the 
 only things really worth having; that Idealities are the only 
 Realities,—those things which are called real , being only shadows. 
 This Faith removes mountains from their solidity and base, and 
 declares them to be phantasmagoric, and Spiritual Facts the only 
 substantialities. Faith cometh by hearing : —by hearing what ? 
 Not what Peter or James can say, but by listening to Spirit in 
 our souls. For he that has learned to converse with the living 
 God, becomes, by that conversation, gifted with true Idealism ; 
 because he sees God to be the only Good, and on Him abides his 
 fixed mind. Faith cometh by hearing , and hearing by the Word 
 of God. Not by a booh; O no! that cannot give us the faculty of 
 hearing; He that formed the ear, must re-form it in us : only 
 the Creator can be the Re-creator. The Word of God only, and 
 fcot the words of any man or men, can impart Spiritual hearing ; 
 which, if a man have, he has true Idealness, or Faith. Faith is 
 
96 
 
 IV. LIGHT. 
 
 the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not 
 (outwardly) seen; the knowledge that nothing is real but the 
 Ideal. Without true Faith, it is impossible to please God; for 
 God would have us lead an Ideal life, with an eye abstracted 
 from the vanities of the world, and intently fixed on Him. But 
 false, or Soulic Faith, is nothing but belief of an intellectual kind; 
 and will do nothing for the soul. Thus many persons will tell 
 you, they believe Jesus to be the Saviour, and trust in His 
 Atonement; but this is a mere intellectual Faith; for they at no 
 time know the Saviour, by enshrining Him in their substance 
 and constitution; and live far wide of the Cross of Jesus. 
 
 21. Now be sure you do not mistake me, friend, when I speak 
 of Idealness. It is not Ideality that I allude to; for many per¬ 
 sons live in an ideal, which is only some achievement of art or 
 science, some fine scheme of the intellect, which has nothing to 
 do with true Idealness. This is a faith without works; which 
 is indeed dead, and valueless ; but true Faith is the synthesis of 
 faith and works ; or rather, it includes all the constituents of 
 the Christian character.—This is the victory that overcometh the 
 world, even -our Faith. For if we look at the external ‘ real,’ 
 we shall think that he who gets ten thousand pounds by specu¬ 
 lation, necessarily is richer than he was; but he that hath true 
 Faith, never credits this for an instant; and it is Idealness which 
 alone can release us from such an error. 
 
 22. By Faith, which means the possession of the Great Idea, 
 or Spirit, Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than 
 Cain; for Abel was a Spiritual Man; he was humble, contrite, 
 meek, innocent, like the sheep that goes dumb to the shearer. 
 Abel was ‘ a keeper of Sheep that is, a dweller in the meek and 
 Godly faculties ; but Cain was an intellectualist, ‘ a tiller of the 
 Ground ’ [i, ij, 5, Gen. iv, 2]. The mere intellectual offering, 
 Terrene Faith, cannot be received; God must have the Tran¬ 
 scendental faculties, or He accepts no sacrifice; He must have 
 Lambs of the flock, and not Fruits merely of the Ground. 
 
 23. But another of these great conditionating circumstances, 
 is Love. And we declare Love to be the Seventh Heaven, the 
 beauty of Beauty, the essence of the Esse ; a sw*eet shower fb 
 the thirsty soul, a flowery brook in the desert, a blue flash of 
 
§ i. SPIRITUAL ILLUMINATION. 
 
 97 
 
 Heavenly radiance, the tongue of jubilee, the King of Glory. 
 Without the royal mark of Love, can none of God’s noble chil¬ 
 dren be. A weak and pitiful disciple is he that hath only faint 
 phosphorescences of Love. 
 
 24. And the last condition I shall mention here, is Prater. 
 Prayer relates to all the Heavenly organs, brings all into action, 
 opens, and emancipates, and replenishes all. It is Love, and 
 Aspiration, and Penitence, and Resignation, and Humility, and 
 Faith, all in one, and is the essence of the same. It is the door 
 into Heaven, and the door of Heaven, which being opened, God 
 comes in.—Great is the mystery of Prayer. Marvel not then 
 that all language relating to it should be mystic and obscure. 
 For though we feel the great Truth we are expressing, yet no 
 intellectual symbol can ever represent the mighty Substance. 
 And thus the best enunciation of it that has ever yet been made 
 in words is poor and mean, and conveys not anything to the 
 hearer. Alas, what can any words avail, when set to symbolize 
 the mighty, almighty Verity ?—The highest truth I have yet 
 found, requires utterance, and I am dumb. 
 
 25. And yet something should be said, even here. Take then 
 the following not meaningless contortions of the mouth, and 
 accept them instead of better words. The Will of God is Truth, 
 Power, Beauty, Light, Life, Goodness, and Love; and these, not 
 Seven distinct Ideas, but Seven modifications of the same Idea; 
 so that if there be Truth, it is Loving Truth; and if Power, it 
 is a Power that must needs be Beautiful and Good. The Will of 
 God is an Almighty Energy, the Highest Law in the Universe, 
 which nothing withstands. But the conditions of its operation, 
 consist in its being translated out of the Ineffable first persona of 
 the Trinity, into the second. God the Father is powerless, ex¬ 
 cept He can work by God the Spirit or Son. But (as will be 
 shewn by and by), Spirit exists only in the organs of Man ; so 
 that the Father is inoperative in the Universe, till He enters His 
 Human Temples. Now to everything that thus empowers the 
 Father, and generates the Son, the name of Prayer belongs. So 
 that Prayer is that, and that alone, which enables the Will of 
 God to fulfil itself; and thus it is the matrix of the grand 
 Almighty Forces of the Universe. But the sole condition of this 
 
98 
 
 IV. LIGHT. 
 
 matriculation, or generation of the Son, is that all private will 
 he dispensed with, and nothing remain hut a free scope in which 
 the Will of God may develope itself. So that if there he the 
 least selfwill, whim, or partiality, in what we pray for, then it is 
 not Prayer, hut mere words ; not an Abel-sacrifice, hut a Cain- 
 sacrifice, that we are offering; and, of course, we have lost all 
 power in the Universe. 
 
 26. You see then, the grand principle of Prayer, is Resigna¬ 
 tion, or Submission. If a man were truly resigned, all things 
 would be possible to him. But who is there so resigned ? Come, 
 see the lineaments of this perfect Man, and tell me who is there 
 that can appropriate them.—Knowing in Whose gracious keeping 
 are all his ways, the Resigned Man is content to lie childly on 
 the bosom of the Father; quite sure, that by a sweet necessity, 
 everything belonging to him will be his. From all those insane 
 lustings and faithless activities which mark most men, he is free. 
 Does he distress himself because a certain party is in power, or a 
 certain act wants passing or repealing ? Oh no! but he is 
 sweetly confident that all things work together for good to God’s 
 children. He feels, in all its amazing force, that Divine law—“ I 
 love them that love Me /” He knows, with a joyful quietness, 
 that no one can cheat him, but whatever belongs to him is his. 
 
 27. Ah, it is very easy, intellectually, to say, We are resigned 
 to the Will of God; but to be resigned is not easy ! One man 
 says he believes in a Providence, that lets no sparrow fall to the 
 ground without His knowledge; hut when he feels his means of 
 subsistence going from him, and is in straits, then watch his 
 frenzies or despairings ! It is easy enough to think we are 
 resigned, till the trial comes. But to be resigned, that is of 
 Spiritual Faith, not of the intellectual; and few there he that 
 are so. 
 
 28. And yet how needless, how fruitless are all our insane 
 activities and fears! Vain is this beating about, this fluttering of 
 heart; vain this constant dread lest we should lose something for 
 want of keenness, and a cunning eye to opportunities. All that 
 belonged to us would have come to us, without this our wilful 
 agitation and anxiety. And how true, and how sweet is it, that 
 if we are but true to ourselves, nothing in the Universe can one 
 
§ i. SPIRITUAL ILLUMINATION. 
 
 99 
 
 jot hurt us, or defraud us! It seems, indeed, to the ignorant, 
 the unbelieving, that if one would have any acquisition,—if he 
 would marry a wife, for instance, he must go about to places of 
 public resort, and obtain introductions to families, that he may 
 encounter the needed person. He thinks, if he stays at home 
 and minds the business God has given him to do, he will per¬ 
 chance miss her who is due to him. But the true Christian does, 
 ot should know better. It is true, this beautiful law of gravita¬ 
 tion, “ Whatever belongs to you gravitates to you" only refers to 
 the beautiful; for it is true again, that while to the beautiful 
 God shews Himself beautiful, to the froward He shews Himself 
 froward. In other words, like to like is the law of gravitation. 
 Be what it is your duty to he, and all other things will he to you 
 what you would have them to he. But if you desert God,— 
 that is Good ,—Good or God will desert you. For all things 
 work together for good to them that love God; but the evil man 
 must receive of the fruit of his doings, and his experiences must 
 he evil. The good, however, need have no doubt that anything 
 that belongs to them will not be theirs. Thus, in this supposed 
 case, if I am a child of God, I need not seek introductions, or 
 have any anxiety; but if it would really be better for me to 
 marry than to be single, not all the machinations of my enemies, 
 if I have any, nor all the contrivances of my friends, can retard 
 or hasten such a consummation. Just at the proper time, under 
 proper circumstances, I shall, without solicitude of my own, ob¬ 
 tain a proper introduction to the proper person. If thou art 
 rightfully mine, O invisible friend ! I shall have thee, beyond all 
 question:—though thou livest at the antipodes, hast fifty suitors, 
 all more seemingly preferable than I, and thy friends abhor me ; 
 and though I stir not one foot with a desire to find thee;—not 
 all the world can prevent our union; but I shall meet thee, I 
 shall clasp thee in these arms! 
 
 29. The man who can, under all circumstances, not say this 
 merely, but act up to it, is the Man of Prayer. He is at one 
 with the secret Springs of the Universe, and is the Dispenser of 
 Fate. O it is a wonderful, a mysterious, an inexpressibly sweet 
 thing, is Prayer. Therefore hath Jesus left it upon record, that 
 men ought always to pray, and not to faint.—Prayer is the 
 
100 
 
 IV. LIGHT. 
 
 grasping of Affection’s hand, the kiss of dear Love, the appealing' 
 of the flower to the sky above it, the great key of the Universe, 
 which opens, and alone opens the grand doors ;—it opens, and no 
 man shuts, and shuts, and no man opens. No one did ever 
 really Pray, without gaining infinitely by the effort. And this 
 testimony do I bear, with truest gratitude, to the goodness of my 
 God; that I never yet asked for any unselfish thing without re¬ 
 ceiving it; never knocked, without the door being opened to me; 
 never was in a labyrinth, and prayed, but did not presently begin 
 to see my way out. In every little strait, Prayer will shew us 
 the right course of action; and there is no limit to the help it 
 will afford us. 
 
 30. And so long as we do communicate with the Father, it 
 matters less with what, or whether with any, words we come. It 
 is not the words , but it is the feeling , the furnishing of Spiritual 
 conditions, that really signifies. If indeed no prayers were an¬ 
 swered but intellectual ones, and those founded on just views of 
 the Universe, how few either could or ought to pray !—No name 
 or form of invocation can sanctify a prayerless prayer; nor can 
 any absence of such take away from the efficacy of a prayerful 
 one. So long as the Prayer be truly offered, not from Earthly, 
 but from Heavenly grounds, it is equally valid, whether offered 
 nominally through Jesus, or to Juggernaut.—Yet do not mistake 
 me. It is not asserted that a true Prayer ever is offered to Jug¬ 
 gernaut ; but only that it may be. —The maiden who believes 
 
 “ That saints will hear, if men will call,” 
 
 and prays truly , using the name of a saint withal, do you think 
 that God will not hear her, because she has a wrong notion f 
 
 ** Ave Maria, Maiden mild, 
 
 Listen to a maiden's prayer ; 
 
 Thou canst hear, though from the wild ; 
 
 Thou canst save, amid despair 
 
 Because a wrong name, a false notion, goes along with such a 
 supplication as this, do you suppose God will not impart the ful¬ 
 lest blessings ? That He will not hear and save ? Indeed, 
 indeed, dear friend, you are much mistaken. There never was, 
 nor shall there be, one real Prayer offered in vain, though it 
 were offered nominally to Vishnu or Siva, to Jupiter or Minerva, 
 
§ i. SPIRITUAL ILLUMINATION. 
 
 101 
 
 to a log of wood, or a piece of pottery : for it matters not vitally 
 with what notions Prayer is made; all that is essential, is, that it 
 be Prayer. 
 
 31. It is partly because true Spiritual Prayer has been con¬ 
 founded with intellectual requisition, that such wrong notions 
 prevail, as to the nature of that forgiveness of sins which is the 
 privilege of the Christian. We know of a surety, that God 
 works no miracles, and that no law of the Universe was ever 
 broken. And we know, that the wages of sin, which is decease, 
 always accompany the offence. So that every sin has its abso¬ 
 lutely inevitable punishment;—so much sin, so much death. And 
 if forgiveness of sins, means non-infliction of the full punishment 
 of sin, then certain it is, no sins can he forgiven. 
 
 32. And yet they are forgiven.—It is true, every sin we com¬ 
 mit slays some portion, some member of our souls. It is true, 
 every evil thought that passes through the mind, blasts and 
 putrefies a part of that mind. Every wrong emotion we suffer 
 ourselves to have, is driving a nail into our soul’s coffin. But it 
 is also true, that though a man should have lost all ability to 
 receive Spirit, owing to a gangrene of his soul’s best members; 
 so that he is perfectly defunct in trespasses and sins:—yet let 
 him but pray ; then, if he be but in earnest, presently a green 
 leaf shall bud and open on the withered stock; and a breath of 
 Life refreshingly play over him. I know there must be Grace, 
 even in the desire of Grace. There must be vitality in a man, 
 before he can so much as wish to be made alive. But it must 
 be remembered, with every man, till his bodily decease, Spirit 
 always strives; always is ready to bid him cast off his grave- 
 clothes, and Lazarus-like, come forth. This Heavenly voice, it 
 is true, will be heard more and more as the man is more vital, 
 and less and less as he is less so; but always, under the foulest 
 sphacelus and disorganization, some little seed, a tiny germ of 
 vitality is hidden. For a man’s world is never so completely 
 drowned by the flood, but that some little ark, with its living 
 tenants, floats and survives. Though he have been deceased 
 many days, except in respect of this latent germ;—though he 
 have been dead for days, and stinketh ; yet, if he will, at any 
 time shall come the voice of Christ, with a * Loose him and let 
 
 p 
 
102 IV. LIGHT. 
 
 r 
 
 him go /’ For there is hope of a tree, though it he utterly cut 
 down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch 
 thereof will reappear. Though the root thereof wax old in the 
 earth, and the stock thereof die in the ground ; yet, through the 
 influx of the Living water, it will bud, and bring forth boughs 
 like a plant. So that if a man can feel, in the faintest degree, 
 the most timid and cold aspiration towards, or admiration of, a 
 virtuous deed in another, or a soft and gentle emotion in himself, 
 let him take that as a sign, that the return to God is still possi¬ 
 ble, and that he may yet obtain the forgiveness of sins. 
 
 33. And this is what is meant by the remission of sins. The 
 punishment attends the sin, and inevitably ; but if the sin cease 
 by repentance, then God, of His great mercy, by a law , and not 
 wilfully , restores that portion of the soul which the sin had 
 destroyed. 
 
 34. These, then, are the conditions, which, by means of the 
 Cross of Christ, we are to furnish; or rather,, which we are to 
 allow to be furnished for us. For salvation is not of ourselves ; 
 of ourselves we can do nothing ; cannot think one good thought, 
 or have one right emotion; but always we have freewill and 
 ability, to let God work in us, to will and to do of His good 
 pleasure. And it must always be especially remembered, that 
 Religion consists not in doing anything at all, in the first in¬ 
 stance ; but lies in letting first; and then in doing, only as the 
 consequence of this previous sufferance. “ Your duty,” says the 
 prophet Greaves, “ is to be as God-like as possible ; to give your¬ 
 self up, or rather, give self up, that the Spirit may make you 
 what it will have you to be. It will make you more and more 
 active, if to it you become more and more passive. Let it play 
 upon you—be its instrument; and stop not with self-notions, its 
 notions. Y r ou must consent to be mystically real, and then you 
 will be a divine channel, through which the Illimitable, Unknow¬ 
 able, Boundless One, may act. Be as ready to be changed , as 
 your fingers are to be moved." 
 
V. LIFE. 
 
Upon one Stone shall be seven Eyes, which are the seven 
 
 Spirits of God. 
 
§ i. LIFE LOST AND WON. 
 
 1. The Lord God made Man, and put him in Heaven, the 
 Garden of Eden , (the knowable Universe,) to dress it, and to keep 
 it. And the Lord God commanded Man, saying, Of every Tree 
 of the Garden thou mayest freely eat, hut of the Tree of Know¬ 
 ledge of Good and Evil thou shalt not eat, for in the Day thou 
 eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. 
 
 2. At the head of the Universe, in the Garden of that Eden, 
 which from thence is parted , and becomes into four provinces or 
 heads [Prol. 26], Man and Woman were thus placed; and upon 
 them was laid this injunction, ‘Eat not;’—this law, ‘Eat and die.’ 
 There in full happiness abode they, and they were both naked, 
 psychically and corporeally; and though each was as it were 
 transparent to the other in every mental emotion, yet because of 
 their perfect innocency, they were not ashamed, either for their 
 psychical or bodily nakedness. 
 
 3. Now the Serpent, Amativeness, was more subtil than any 
 faculty of the intellect which the Lord God had made. 
 And it said to the Woman— Yea, hath God said ? —does He 
 speak in my Spiritual organs so imperatively ? May I not in¬ 
 dulge herein, and yet get off free ? Does God in me say, that I 
 
106 
 
 V. LIFE. 
 
 may not eat of every Tree of the Garden, every knowledge 
 which is possible to me—? 
 
 4. And when the Woman saw that the Tree was sweet as food, 
 and a Tree to be desired to make one experienced, she gave way 
 to the temptation, and let herself enkindle in the baleful fires. 
 And Man also did eat with her of the Serpent-tree. Then were 
 the eyes of them both opened, and seeing the new deformity of 
 each other’s soul, and the shame of their outward persons, they 
 knew, and became painfully conscious that they were naked. 
 
 5. The curse fell upon Man, and upon Woman, and on the 
 Serpent too. Unto the Serpent God said, “ Because thou hast 
 done this, thou Selfish propensity ! thou art cursed above all 
 Cattle, above every faculty of the intellect. Upon thy belly, 
 O Serpent, shalt thou go ! — and dirt shalt thou eat all the days 
 of thy life." For 11 dirt" is ever “ the Serpent's meat .” 
 
 6. “ And I will put enmity between thee and Woman" —How 
 evidently has this enmity fulfilled itself, between the Serpent and 
 the Woman! Let the thousands of unhappy creatures, who now 
 make the land to mourn so, and who have been reduced to their 
 present misery by trusting to the deceiving Serpent, speak. 
 Alas ! if a Man fall, he is not hurt in the world’s eye ; the curse 
 seems to have missed him, and he goes away apparently scatheless. 
 But with the Woman it is not so. If she fall, she rises not 
 again; 
 
 “ — The world with cruel scorn. 
 
 And false, false virtue, spurns her name 
 
 and, unless very happy in her circumstances, there is for her no 
 social redemption. It seems as if she bore all the outward pun¬ 
 ishment of the sin. 
 
 “ Help me, God ! Slay me, man ! One is mourning for both 
 
 So it always seems.— Emphatically, has enmity been put between 
 the Serpent and the Woman. 
 
 7. “ And I will put enmity between thy seed and her seed ; it 
 shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." He who 
 understands what the Sacred Marriage is, will know very well 
 what this means; and in what way the Seed of the Woman,— 
 
§ i. LIFE LOST. 
 
 107 
 
 meaning Christ, or rather, all His disciples,—are bound to bruise 
 the head of the Serpent. And though this evil principle bruise 
 the heel of the disciple now, in his load of the evil heart; yet 
 the time shall come, when universally the head of the Serpent 
 shall be bruised, yea, battered, yea, broken to pieces, and utterly 
 subdued. 
 
 8. And to the Woman God said, I will greatly multiply thy 
 sorrow arid thy conception. This indeed is the direct consequence 
 of the sin alluded to. In sorrow shalt thou bring forth , and thy 
 desire shall be to thy husband and he shall rule over thee. 
 Here then is an allusion to that social slavery endured by Woman 
 through all past ages, and still endured. However, it would be 
 a great mistake to suppose that this slavery was the effect of an 
 arbitrary curse pronounced by God. The fact is, the old Hebrew 
 poets delighted to put words into the mouth of God in an alle¬ 
 goric way: they first observed what were the natural conse¬ 
 quences of any occurrence, and then poetically represented God 
 as predicting or ordering them ; by which licence they have be¬ 
 clouded the name of Jehovah with all manner of savageries and 
 ferocities. This ‘ curse ’ upon Woman was the inevitable accom¬ 
 paniment of a degraded condition of the race :—for the more de¬ 
 graded are men’s minds, the less highly and nobly do they esteem 
 and use the other sex. 
 
 8. I do not regard the above parable as anything more than 
 the attempt of a poet to explain existing circumstances. It ex¬ 
 presses, indeed, a deep truth, in assigning the cause of declension 
 of the race, to the fulfilment of the mere Serpentine instinct, the 
 married having had little regard to those true marriage-condi¬ 
 tions, on which so largely depend the amelioration of the race. 
 And, with great propriety, it represents Woman to have been the 
 most culpable ; since the influence the mother has over the well 
 or ill-birth of the child, is much greater than that exercised by 
 the father. But I do not believe in any original fall of man:— 
 I only believe in his progress and elevation. For when I con¬ 
 sider how the creation of the world was effected : and find that 
 the progress from the lowest form of vegetable and animal exis¬ 
 tence to the highest, can be traced as clearly as the building of a 
 house from its foundation : it becomes impossible for me to think 
 
108 
 
 V. LIFE. 
 
 that Man could have been achieved by the Universe in a perfect 
 state, and otherwise than by a gradual ascension from a race of 
 being nowise superior to the mere animals, up to the full dignity 
 and majesty of Humanhood.—The present infelicities of exis¬ 
 tence—wars, pain, loss ; earthquake, flood, fire ; crime, tyranny, 
 error ;—are only stages through which an Unspiritual race must 
 pass, before it can become perfect in God’s image. And these 
 must have existed from the first moment that Man was upon the 
 earth, since they exist still; for God works no miracles. The 
 history of Man is thus not a history of a completion, a fall, and 
 a second completion; but simply a record of the elimination of 
 perfect Man, out of previous animal achievements. And the ever- 
 memorable period when Spirituality was first evolved, is for ever 
 signalized by that old account of the creation of a firmament, to 
 separate the animal Waters from the Human [Prol. 40]. 
 
 9. So much for Life Lost; now let us glance at that Life 
 which is to be Won. The wages of sin is not endless torment, 
 but death ; the soul that sinneth, it shall die. — Knowest thou 
 not this of old, since man was upon the intellect, and able to know 
 anything intellectually, that the triumph of the wicked is short, 
 and the joy of the hypocrite hut for a moment ? Though his ex¬ 
 cellency mount up to the skies, yet shall he i»erish for ever, like 
 his own dung , which is not tormented, but is transmuted by 
 Nature into new forms. He shall fly away as a dream ; so airy, 
 so unreal, so transitory, and shall not exist; yea he shall he chased 
 away as a vision of the night. —There is not a single assertion in 
 all the bible, that I can discover, of the natural immortality of 
 the soul; and if there were, it would not matter. It is asserted, . 
 and asserted again, that the soul of the wicked shall he cut off, 
 shall perish for ever, shall fly away as a shadow , shall no 
 more be found. The transgressors, it is said, shall he destroyed 
 together ; the end of the wicked shall be a cutting off. When 
 the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the workers of in¬ 
 iquity do flourish, it is that they shall he destroyed for 
 ever. To be carnally-minded is death. If ye live after the 
 flesh, ye shall of the flesh reap —what ? Endless agony ?— 
 Corruption ! 
 
 11. This being our natural doom, then ; the inquiry is, How 
 
§ i. LIFE WON. 
 
 109 
 
 can we escape this damnation of Hades ? How shall the indivi¬ 
 dual be enabled to attain to Eternal Life ?—I heard an angel 
 with a loud voice cry, Who is worthy to open the Book of Redemp¬ 
 tion, and to loose the Seven seals thereof? But no man in Hea¬ 
 ven, in any Celestial respect; nor on Earth, intellectually; nor 
 under the Earth, carnally; was pure enough, great enough to be 
 able to open the Book, neither to look thereon.— And I wept 
 much ! adds John.—He might well. 
 
 12. But hark ! the elder speaks ;—says to the sad spectator of 
 man’s misery—‘ Weep not! weep no more!’—But what is to 
 hinder these tears from falling ?—‘What,’ says the Holy One, 
 ‘but this, that I have found a Bansom ? I have laid help 
 upon one that is mighty, I have exalted one chosen out of the 
 people. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Boot of 
 David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seals 
 thereof.’—And I beheld in the midst of the Thronic faculties, and 
 of the Four Living Creatures, heads or provinces of Eden, a 
 LAMB, as it had been slain,—type of the law of psychical 
 polarity,—having seven horns, and seven eyes, which are the 
 seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the Earth. And He 
 came and took the scroll out of the hand of Him that sat upon 
 the Thronic faculties ; and when He had taken it, the four Living 
 ones, and the elders, fell down before the Lamb, having every 
 one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the 
 prayers of saints. And they sang a new song : Thou, O Christ, 
 art worthy to take the Book, and to open the seals thereof; for 
 Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy Blood, out 
 of every kindred, and tongue, and nation; and hast made us Kings 
 and Priests; and we shall reign at last in the intellect. And 
 hark ! the voice of many messengers, prophets and priests, round 
 about the Thronic faculties, the number of them ten thousand 
 times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, saying with an 
 exulting voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, to receive 
 power , and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, 
 and blessing. And let every creature which is in the Celestial' 
 faculties, and on the intellectual, and in the carnal, even such as 
 are in the Sea, unite in saying, Blessing, and honor, and glory , 
 
 Q 
 
110 
 
 V. LIFE. 
 
 and power , be unto Him that sitteth on the Thronic faculties , and 
 to the Lamb for ever ! 
 
 . 13. It has been said already [Prol. 70], that all Jesus did in 
 
 Judea, was only symbolical of grander and more universal 
 achievements. But here arises the question, If the life and death 
 of Jesus were only signs, wherein lies their significance ? And 
 in answering this question, we must take two views of this Jesus 
 Whom we preach : and we must look first, at Himself, what He 
 was ; and second, at His Mission, what it was. 
 
 14. Of Himself then, what can be said, but that He was the 
 God Whom we worship; and it must be thought no robbery to 
 account Him equal with God. For, as the Brahminical writers 
 said, “ Every one , on having lost all self-consideration, may speak 
 as assuming to be the Supreme Being." Jesus was a sinless Man ; 
 so well-born, that no cerebral taint was on Him; and therefore 
 the express and perfect incarnation of God. And thus being the 
 second persona of the Trinity, the true Word, Which was in the 
 beginning with God, and was made flesh, or rather embodied in 
 flesh, and dwelt among us ; all things, in truth, were made by 
 Him, and without him was not anything made that was made. 
 He was the A and the B, the beginning and the ending, the first 
 and the last, the blessed and only Potentate, the brightness of the 
 Father’s glory, and express image of His person. For being free 
 from all “self-consideration,” He was a perfect embodiment of 
 Spirit; and whatever epithets may rightly be applied to Spirit, 
 belong also to Jesus, and may be given Him. 
 
 15. Wonderful is His name, and Counseller; the mighty God ; 
 the everlasting Father; the Prince of Peace. Him hath God 
 highly exalted above the common condition of His fellows, to be 
 a Symbol for ever, and given a name above every name, that at 
 the name of Jesus every knee should bow, and that all that are in 
 the Heavenly faculties, and on the Terrene, and in the Sea, with 
 every tongue, should confess that He is Lord. For by being 
 perfectly regenerated, or Spiritually-birthed, He became the re¬ 
 presentative of Spirit; and thus, though all Christians must be 
 begotten of the Father , Jesus (as Spirit) is the only-begotten of 
 the first persona of the Trinity; whence no man cometh 
 
§ i. LIFE WON. Ill 
 
 to the Father (first persona) but through the (second persona, 
 or) Son. 
 
 16. Having thus discovered Who it was that came, let us con¬ 
 sider what He came for. He came to be a Sign, which should 
 be spoken against (Luke, ij, 34); as it has been and is to this day. 
 He came to unite all the Mosaic types in one grand Type ; to 
 gather all the rays of prophetic emblems into one grand focus, 
 producing an emblem, not limited to one nation only, but grand, 
 and universal enough to be the cynosure of the eyes of the 
 whole world. And just as Noah’s Ark was typical of Jonah’s 
 fish [Prol. 70] ; and the fish, of the burial of Jesus in the 
 sepulchre ; and just as the chain of types did not stop there, but 
 all these had an ulterior and diviner signification, importing the 
 resurrection of the true Gospel of God, on this the evening of 
 the third Day of its entombment: so did every other circum¬ 
 stance of Jesus’s life, while it on the one hand fulfilled and ex¬ 
 pounded an old type ; established on the other a new and grander 
 one, in the present sixth Day to be fulfilled. 
 
 17. If you ask what is the true Gospel of God, which the cru¬ 
 cifixion was to typify ? it is answered at once,—The triumph of 
 the Spiritual part of Man over the carnal,—the bruising of the 
 head of the Serpent, and not of the Serpent only, but of every 
 other evil propensity of the Seas. This is the true Atonement, 
 which Jesus came to preach and to typify.— Other foundation can 
 no man lay. 
 
 18. The theologians indeed tell us, that the Atonement of 
 Jesus was a pacification of the wrath of God.— The wrath of 
 God. —But what is it you mean, O theologian, by ‘ God f For 
 unless we have a definite idea to deal with, we shall only be en¬ 
 tangled in a web of vague notions.—The word ‘ God ’ may have 
 two significations. In the first place, it means the Father re¬ 
 vealed as Spirit , the Most High law of the Universe ;—that is, 
 infinite Truth, Force, Beauty, Intelligence, Life, Goodness, and 
 Love. In the second place, it implies the whole Universe ; in¬ 
 cluding Nature as well as Supernature. Now I Take it for 
 granted you will not use this word ‘ God ’ in the latter sense ; 
 because none of the theologians admit Nature to be a part of 
 God. But if you say Nature is one thing, and God another ; 
 
112 
 
 V. LIFE. 
 
 then you identify God with the Seven Spirits, which are all we can 
 ever know of Him, apart from Nature. 
 
 19. Now then, before we proceed further, will you tell me, 
 dear friend, by what mixture of the Seven only attributes of 
 God, you can generate such an emotion as Wrath, or Anger ? 
 Power might do it, if hatred, or revenge, or injured pride, or 
 vanity were added ; but God has no such wicked passions as 
 these ; and the Power of God never does, and cannot work, ex¬ 
 cept in harmony with Goodness and Love. Since, then, God is not, 
 and can never be possessed by such a wicked emotion as that of 
 anger; it is clear the atonement of Christ could not ‘ pacify ’ 
 God’s wrath, —there being no such passion to be pacified. 
 
 20. But supposing God could thus be set on fire of Hell: 
 how, dear friend, could the shedding of a few ounces of san¬ 
 guineous fluid in any way pacify or abate His wrath ? The 
 problem to be solved is, Given an offended Being, how shall the 
 offenders propitiate His anger ? —Surely, one would say,—by 
 endeavouring to please him, by being obedient to him, and doing 
 nothing to cause him to take further offence. But “ No," say 
 the theologians; “ The way to reconcile ourselves to the Monarch 
 was, to commit a still more grievous offence against him.—The 
 sovereign receipt for pacifying the King was, to hill his only-begot¬ 
 ten son" 
 
 21. “No," you reply, “ This is not it; the problem to be solved 
 is, How can God be just, and yet the justifier of those that sin 
 against Him ?”—It is plain, then, the argument is to be built on 
 God’s Justice, —that is, His Truth. Now that which makes 
 sin to be antagonistic to God, is the fact, that it violates His con¬ 
 stitution;—is an offence against His Truth, His Force, His 
 Beauty, His Light, His Life, His Goodness, and His Love. But 
 we are here to confine ourselves to His Truth only, leaving the 
 rest out of the present question. For the question is, How can 
 God retain His Truth, or Justice, inviolate, and yet be recon¬ 
 ciled to that man, or that race, whose sins have violated this, His 
 attribute. Now it is quite clear God can never be reconciled to 
 sin; so that so long as the man is sinful to any extent, to that 
 extent God cannot be reconciled to the man. But with every¬ 
 thing that is not sin, God must, by His nature, which is infinite 
 
§ i. LIFE WON. 
 
 113 
 
 Goodness and Love, harmonize ; because there is only one thing 
 in the Universe which is antagonistic to God, and that is evil: 
 and, therefore, to every thing hut evil, God must be unirrecon- 
 cileable. So that with everything in a man that is not evil, God 
 harmonizes, and is at one: if, therefore, the man can get any por¬ 
 tion of his soul purified from evil, God, of necessity, must he at- 
 one-d with, or reconciled to, that portion. The only thing, then, 
 needful to he effected, to make at-one-ment of God with man per¬ 
 fect, is, that the man should be perfectly purified from evil. So 
 that God’s Truth or Justice is not violated by His being 
 
 RECONCILED TO ONE THAT has SINNED, BUT U NOW PURIFIED ; BUT 
 ONLY BY BEING RECONCILED TO ONE THAT is IN SIN. 
 
 22. But now it will he necessary to form a clear idea of what 
 sin really is. Sin, then, is the predominance of the carnal facul¬ 
 ties :—the ruling over the man of those organs in his brain, 
 which oppose the Heavenly organs. Now, to be freed from sin, 
 implies only the subdual of the carnal organs, and the perfect 
 coronation of the Heavenly. So that whatever effects this, frees 
 us from sin,—to the degree in which it effects it. But to be 
 freed from sin, implies [^[21] reconciliation with God.— Subdu¬ 
 ing THEN THE CARNAL ORGANS, AND CROWNING THE CELESTIAL, IS 
 RECONCILEMENT WITH God. 
 
 23. The question that now remains, is, What is the means by 
 which this can be effected? —The theologians answer, The Cross 
 of Christ : and we answer also, The Cross of Christ. But 
 then, by the Cross of Christ, the theologians mean, if not not ac¬ 
 tually a piece of wood; yet something equally gross and material. 
 For they say, it is the circumstance of Jesus being nailed to a 
 cross, and so killed, that reconciles man to God: so then, [121, 
 22] it is this circumstance, according to them, which subdues 
 in my mind, and in yours (if they are subdued), the carnal 
 organs; and which enthrones, in my mind, and in yours (if they 
 are enthroned), the Celestial organs.—If these dear people 
 would but, in any wise, shew us how — / —How, we ask, can 
 this external circumstance effect this subdual and coronation ? 
 Or, putting the same question in different words, How can the 
 physical death of Jesus make God just , and yet the justifier of 
 those who have sinned against Him f 
 
114 
 
 V. LIFE. 
 
 24. The way to subdue any evil emotion in the mind, is to 
 stifle that emotion, and cast it out, every time it presents itself to 
 the mind. And the way to foster any set of faculties, and make 
 them rule over the man, is to dwell continually in them, by 
 cherishing the emotions that belong to, and stifling those that 
 oppose them. And as the carnal mind is that alone which is at 
 enmity with God; the faculties that are to be subdued, for the 
 sake of fostering the Heavenly ones, are the carnal faculties. 
 And this subdual of the carnal mind, for the sake of the foster¬ 
 ing of the Celestial mind, is that which we mean by the Cross of 
 Christ. Because it was this which Jesus came to teach and to 
 typify, and this was the mystic Fact, of which the crucifixion of 
 Jesus was the Sign. But the theologians deny that the cruci¬ 
 fixion had any ulterior meaning; and assert, that that mere cir¬ 
 cumstance of hanging Jesus on a cross, is the thing, and the only 
 thing which can effect this reconciliation with God,—that is [f 
 21, 22], subdue in me and you the carnal faculties, and enlarge 
 and enthrone the Spiritual. If you ask them, however, to shew 
 you how it comes to pass, that the killing of Jesus in Judea 
 nearly two thousand years ago, has anything to do with the 
 power which every man may have to-day, of subduing his evil 
 emotions, and cherishing his good ones, they do not so much as 
 pretend to render a reason. 
 
 25. “ Stop” says the theologian. “ As in Adam all died , so in 
 Christ all shall he made alive. For as Adam was the representa¬ 
 tive of the race in 1 the fall] so Jesus is the representative of the 
 race , inasmuch as He alone fulfilled the law; and His righteous¬ 
 ness is imputed to the believer” —But why?—“ To satisfy the 
 justice of God ”—Very well. 
 
 26. A week ago, let us imagine, you murdered a man. The 
 law is strong upon you ; and the law says that you must be 
 hanged. But I will tell you what I will do :—I never com¬ 
 mitted murder in my life; nothing will be necessary, then, but 
 for me to go to the authorities, and represent that fact to them. 
 I shall say, ‘ It is your object, O law-makers, to satisfy the jus¬ 
 tice of the case. It is true, my friend has broken the law, 
 violated justice, and deserves instant punishment. But I never 
 broke the law in my life :—you can have no hesitation, therefore, 
 
 i 
 
§ i. * LIFE WON. 
 
 115 
 
 in granting my friend a pardon; since, though he has broken the 
 law, I have kept it; and by my keeping it justice will he per¬ 
 fectly satisfied.’— Why, dear friend , what a plea is this! can any 
 one in his senses believe, that by any legerdemain, my righteous¬ 
 ness can be * imputed ’ to my criminal friend, so as to satisfy jus¬ 
 tice, and let the malefactor go scot-free ? Nay, but every man 
 
 SHALL DIE FOR HIS OWN INIQUITY. 
 
 27. But “ Stop again ,” says the theologian, “ Christ tasted 
 death for every man. He suffered , the just , for the unjust. To 
 
 save us from death , He underwent our punishment. He bore our 
 sins , atoned for them , and by undergoing pain for a few hours or 
 years , saved us and millions more from eternal agonies .” 
 
 28. This is all very well; but will you, dear friend, just tell 
 us how f Suppose you are under sentence of death : and I say 
 to the hangman, ‘ My friend is the murderer ; but you shall hang 
 me instead —what would the hangman and the authorities say ? 
 Would not they say at once, that instead of satisfying justice, this 
 would be a gross violation of the same ? And would not they 
 exclaim, at once, and for ever, that if the law required a victim, 
 that victim must be none other than the law-breaker ?—To be 
 sure they would : to be sure they would. 
 
 29. Jesus said, Except ye eat the Flesh of the Son of Man , 
 and drink His Blood , ye have no Vitality in you. Whoso eateth 
 My Flesh , and drinketh My Blood , hath eternal Vitality , and I 
 will raise him up at the last Day. For My Flesh is meat indeed; 
 and My Blood is drink indeed. —You do not take these words 
 literally , surely ? You confess, that by eating His Flesh , it is 
 not meant that you must obtain a piece of His actual body:— 
 and why do you not equally see, dear friend, that it is not the 
 actual blood of Christ that cleanses the soul,—but on the con¬ 
 trary, that which is called metaphorically by that name ? If you 
 ask what that is, I have told you already, Self-, or Carnal- 
 denial. For by Self-denial we mean, not the maceration of the 
 body, but only the subduing of the carnal faculties of the soul. 
 And just as by the Flesh of Christ, which is Spirit, is meant the 
 fostering of the Spiritual emotions: so by the Blood of Christ, 
 which is Self-denial, is meant the subduing of the carnal ones. 
 
116 
 
 y. LIFE. 
 
 He that eateth Christ's Flesh , and drinketh His Blood , dwelleth in 
 God and God in him. 
 
 30. And surely, when we read the memoirs of Jesus, we must 
 perceive, how that on every action of His life was written Self- 
 denial. He might, with His intellect and knowledge of the 
 laws of the Universe, His scientific and potent acquirements and 
 endowments, have wrested the sceptres from the hands of all the 
 monarchs on the globe, and established an absolute monarchy 
 over every people and nation. What is there that he might not 
 have done, had he chosen ? And yet He goes about with a few 
 fishermen, gives His cheek to the smiters, His back to the scourge, 
 His head to the crown of thorns. He made Himself of no repu¬ 
 tation, when He might have been the renowned monarch of the 
 world; and took on Himself the form of a servant, when He 
 might have made Himself King of all. And when we consider 
 what He endured, and why; when we reflect that the object of 
 His Mission was, to point out, to symbolize the Way by which a 
 fallen world might be reconciled to God;—surely, there is no one 
 who may not say, This Jesus died for me ! For was it not for 
 our sakes that He was thus made a sign and type of Christian 
 Self-denial ? Surely, He hath borne our griefs, and carried our 
 sorrows; He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised 
 for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, 
 and by His stripes we are healed. And I will tell you how His 
 stripes are our healing. Jesus being, in His sufferings, a type of 
 the crucifixion of Self; it follows, that the sign and the thing sig¬ 
 nified, may be used convertibly, and the one put, poetically, for 
 the other. Thus, we say that Jesus is our Saviour, and the 
 author and perfecter of our Faith; because as all religion con¬ 
 sists in the denial of Selfishness, of which denial Jesus was the 
 type; therefore, Jesus, or Self-denial, is the only Way of Salva¬ 
 tion. It is true, Jesus is our Saviour, in another sense; as re¬ 
 presenting in His person Spirit, or the second persona of the 
 Trinity; by Whose help only it is that we can he saved.—No 
 man cometh to the Father, but by Jesus;—and this also in a two¬ 
 fold sense; for Jesus, as Spirit , is the only way of access to the 
 first persona of the Trinity; or in other words, we can only 
 
§ i. LIFE WON. 
 
 117 
 
 know God, except in His union with ourselves. Then, secondly 
 Jesus, as Self-denial , is the only way of coming to, and being 
 reconciled with God : so that it is He Who gives us power to be¬ 
 come sons of God. 
 
 31. The Lamb was slain before the foundation of the world. 
 That is, such is the constitution of Man, in such a way was he 
 originally created, that the Heavenly and carnal faculties 
 balance each other ; of which balancing I shall presently speak 
 by the name of the law of psychical polarity. By this polarity it 
 happens, that whenever the one set of faculties increases, the other 
 must decrease ; so that if we would be great in the Kingdom of 
 Heaven, we must become small in the Kingdom of the Seas, and 
 vice versa. Thus the only way to secure the increase of the 
 former, is by the diminution of the latter. And as this Self- 
 denial it is which the slain Lamb typifies ; and as this law, by 
 which it is operative, was implanted in Man at his first creation; 
 and was, moreover, prophecied of, by the previous Natural form¬ 
 ations (as every part of the Universe hints and implies the whole); 
 so it may be poetically said, that the Lamb was slain before the 
 foundation of the world. 
 
 32. We call Jesus the Mediator between God and man, for 
 several reasons ; first, in His own person, because it is the office 
 of genius always to mediate in this way:— 
 
 “ I lay my soul before Thy feet. 
 
 That images of fair and sweet 
 May walk to other men on it.” 
 
 Then again, in His symbolic meaning, [^[ 17] ; because He re¬ 
 presents Self-denial, which is the great means, or medium, 
 through which we obtain access to Spirit. And lastly, as a puri¬ 
 fied and spotless man, lost to all “ self-consideration ” [^[ 14], we 
 speak of Him as “ assuming to be the Supreme Being,” and mean 
 Spirit when we use His name. Now as Spirit is That through 
 which alone we come to the first persona of the Trinity; Spirit 
 is thus not only God, but the Mediator also between God and 
 man.—And in like manner we use other names for Jesus; as, 
 the Atoning High Priest, the Great Sacrifice, the Author 
 and Finisher of our Faith, the Word which was made flesh, 
 Who ever liveth to make intercession for us. All which epithets 
 
 R 
 
118 
 
 V. LIFE. 
 
 and phrases, are rightly to be applied to Jesus, either as a Man, 
 or as a Type and Symbol. 
 
 33. “ Whatsoever ye shall ash in My name" said Jesus, “ that 
 will I do" And indeed, unless prayer be offered in the name of 
 Jesus, it will never avail. Do not suppose, however, you have 
 done this, when, to the end of your supplication, you have added 
 the syllables of His name. It is not, indeed, in the least essen¬ 
 tial to true prayer, that the word ‘ Jesus,’ or 4 Christ,’ should 
 once occur in it: but when you consider what is included in 
 praying in Christ’s name, you will see how essential a thing it is. 
 For to pray, or to do anything in Christ’s name, implies doing it in 
 Self-denial : and whatever we do so , is owned and blessed of 
 God. Hence it was rightly said, no one can truly say that Jesus is 
 the Sent, or Messias, unless it be given him from Above. Any 
 one, indeed, can utter the words; but only he who has entered 
 into that which Jesus was sent to typify and expound, can truly 
 know how it is Jesus was the Sent ; and to enter so must be 
 given us from Above, because we cannot do it of ourselves.— 
 Hence, also, other refuge have we none, and our helpless souls 
 hang on Jesus, because Jesus represents (1) God; and (2) Self- 
 denial, which is the only way of access to God. 
 
 34. There is yet one other light in which Jesus may be 
 viewed: and that is, as a Surety. For seeing, as we do, that 
 He was sent into the world, after having been prophecied of and 
 hinted at so long before: and marking, as we must, how wonder¬ 
 fully the Universe ordained from the beginning, that Jesus 
 should be brought into being just when He was, and for the 
 evident purpose which He fulfilled,—namely, to be a Type and 
 Sign of the final full creation of the race, and of the immediate 
 reconciliation of the individual with Spirit:—who can fail to see 
 what a beautiful assurance this gives us, that the intentions of the 
 Universe towards us are full of Goodness and Love ? If this 
 had not been so, would Jesus ever have been vouchsafed to the 
 world ? Thus, after all, there is a certain propriety in that ques¬ 
 tion of Paul’s : “ He that spared not His own Son, but freely gave 
 Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give 
 us all things ?” 
 
§ ij. LIFE HERE AND HEREAFTER. 
 
 1. In its own nature, the human soul is not immortal. 
 
 2. But before we go any further, let us clearly understand 
 what it is is meant by the human soul ; which is simply the 
 complement, or sum total of the psychical endowment of a man; 
 —that is, of his carnal, intellectual, and Celestial faculties. 
 
 3. It is true, the Natural man consists of two elements,— 
 Body and Soul: that is, he is as it were a portion of the uni¬ 
 versal Body of Nature, combined with a portion of her universal 
 Soul. But in the same way as, at death, the particles of Nature’s 
 Body comprised in the man, are re-absorbed into the universal 
 Body, thence to proceed and become an ingredient in new exis¬ 
 tences ; so is that part of Nature’s Soul which is comprised in 
 the man, received into the universal Soul, losing all individuality, 
 and having no personal identity, “ even,” said the Brahmins, “ as 
 the limited space within a jar, is united to universal space when 
 the jar is broken.”* For the Body and Soul of Nature in man, 
 are in a continual flux. And as the Body-elements I now wear 
 are not those I was born with ; so the Soul-elements within me 
 are for ever flowing out and in, going from me and being re-fur- 
 
 * “ Hindoo Superstitions,” a penny tract, published by Chambers. 
 
120 
 
 V. LIFE. 
 
 nished to me, by a gradual and insensible inhalation and tran¬ 
 spiration. That which formed the Bodily or Bodilic part of my 
 person twenty years ago, is now, perhaps, partly extant in a 
 maiden’s eye-lash, a drop of dew, a pig’s ear, a wooden trun¬ 
 cheon, or a barrel of gunpowder. So, also, that which at the 
 same period was the Soulic. part of my person, now streams be- 
 witchingly from the face of some sweet girl, or is concerned in 
 the growth and developement of a cabbage, or of a king. The 
 river is the same, bears the same name; but for these—how 
 many years! behold, it has been flowing and flowing. Here is a 
 drop that fell from an agonized brow;—there, one that was of the 
 juice of a melon ;—this was a tear dropped between joy and fear 
 by a beautiful bride on her wedding-morn;—-while that yonder, 
 was lately extant in a gas-pipe, a cloud, a carboy of sulphuric 
 acid, or a flame of fire. The river is here to-day, was yesterday, 
 and will be to-morrow ; but not a drop of the water now passing 
 is identical with any complete drop that passed an hour or a year 
 ago. 
 
 4. And now you may perceive what really is implied in the 
 words 1 human soul ;’ which merely mean the psychical consciousness , 
 or conscientity of the individual. So that ‘the immortality of 
 the soul,’ means the deathlessness of a man’s carnal, intellectual, 
 and Celestial faculties. £Tow if a man be un-Spiritual, then he 
 has no Celestial psychicality ; so that that part of his psychical 
 consciousness, or conscientity, is dead. And again, if a man beat 
 his head against a wall, and concuss the brain, then all his psy¬ 
 chical conscientity, or consciousness, is, for the time being, dead. 
 But if the soul , that is, the psychical consciousness , can die, or 
 cease for any instant of time, then it is clear, it may cease for a 
 many instants, or for ever. 
 
 5. The human body, is simply the animal, vegetable, and 
 mineral identity, or conscientity of the man: which is not 
 any principle , but merely a result, or manifestation of organiza¬ 
 tion. So, in like manner, the human soul is simply the Celestial, 
 intellectual, and carnal identity, or conscientity of the indi¬ 
 vidual : which also is not any real essence, or principle, but merely 
 a result, an operation of organization. And by organization, we 
 mean, the disposition and arrangement of the Material elements 
 
§ ij. LIFE HERE. 
 
 121 
 
 of Nature; which are, the Soul, the Psychesome (of which more 
 by and by), and the Body. Physicality and psychicality,—or 
 the body and soul of a man, are only the result of Material or¬ 
 ganization : and are not any principles , substances , or essences ; 
 hut merely effects of organization. In like manner, the strain of 
 music is not any thing , any substance , or real existence; but only 
 the result of the organization of the piano, the air, and the ear. 
 Now, if you maintain that music is immortal ,—understanding any 
 particular strain of music, or tune, now trilling on the ear; you 
 must shew that the ear and the piano do always, in their own 
 nature, bear that relation to each other which produces sound .— 
 Or, in other words, you must prove that the organization which 
 produces Celestial-, intellectual-, and carnal-ity, is, in its own 
 nature, immortal; and if you cannot do this (which you cannot, 
 of course, as all organisms are constantly dying), it is idle for you 
 to insist on the natural immortality of the human soul. 
 
 6. Much has been said of the immateriality of the soul. But 
 everything in Nature is composed of Matter [Prol. 6] ; and, 
 therefore, there is no being immaterial , except God. Hence the 
 human soul [IT 2] is strictly Material, except in its union with 
 Spirit: and it is only by getting Atonement, or union with God, 
 that we can attain for our souls any Immateriality. For God 
 is the only Immaterial Being. 
 
 7. Although the human soul, being merely the result of 
 Material organization, is necessarily mortal; yet Eternal Life is 
 ensured to all who become Immaterial, or rather, Supernatural 
 in this life ;—that is, all who become, by regeneration, the chil¬ 
 dren of God. Their present Material organization does indeed 
 wax old as a garment, and pass away; but yet they shall stand 
 in their lot at the end of the Creational Days. And if any one 
 object, that this would be a miracle, and that, by our own con¬ 
 fession, God never works miracles; such a one must be told, that 
 miracle means nothing but the violation of the laws of God’s 
 action: and that it is no proof that any thing is a miracle, 
 merely because we have not yet learned the law that it obeys. 
 Laws, as certain as the law of gravitation, are in existence, which 
 will effect this particular result. And understand what we mean 
 
122 
 
 V. LIFE. 
 
 by laws : which are nothing other than the spontaneous voli¬ 
 tions of a Being Who is without any variableness , or the least 
 shadow of a turning. And it is because God is never wilful, but 
 always works in a sublime order, that we can predict an eclipse 
 of the sun, or any other Natural appearance : such phenomena 
 being the results of the operation of the will of an immutable 
 Being. It is complained of men of science, that they would de¬ 
 prive God of His volition: but this is for want of distinguishing 
 between will and wilfulness. The latter is the necessary attri¬ 
 bute of fallible, weak creatures; the former, of an infallible and 
 perfect Being. 
 
 8. Should you ask, what surety have we, that we shall be re¬ 
 suscitated at the last day ; and what authority can we, who bow 
 not to bible-authority, shew for our belief? it need only be 
 answered, that none who devoutly and thoroughly listens to God 
 in his soul, and feels the true nature of that Divine Possession, 
 can for an instant doubt of the truth of the doctrine of Eternal 
 Life to the faithful. 
 
 9. But I would not have you ignorant, that there is no inter¬ 
 mediate state for the dead : inasmuch as psychicality cannot exist 
 apart from Material organization; and when the organs are des¬ 
 troyed, the soul is dead too, and must so continue till the organs 
 are re-organized. The most unphilosophical and wild of all 
 notions, is the notion that souls , or conscientities , can exist apart 
 from Matter;—of which they are only the result. Thus of every 
 dead person it may be said 
 
 “ Surely he takes his fill 
 Of deep and liquid rest, forgetful of all ill l" 
 
 Do not deem this a thought to shrink from. For as we are not 
 conscious of space or time when we are dead, thousands of years 
 will seem as brief, when passed, as an instant of time, to the 
 Christian at the Resurrection. For, as when we sleep without 
 any dreaming, it seems to us that we have just shut our eyes and 
 opened them again ; and any time that has passed between the 
 shutting and opening is quite ignored; so will it be at the last 
 Day, whereon all the righteous dead, both those who fell asleep 
 first, and last; will seem to have equally, merely shut their eyes 
 
§ ij. LITE HERE. 
 
 123 
 
 and re-opened them. So that if I die to-night, though many 
 hundreds of years must elapse before I am resuscitated, it will 
 seem to me no more than an instant of time. 
 
 10. Then at the grand awakening-day, the last enemy shall he 
 destroyed, and no man thenceforth shall be subject to the power 
 of the grave. And to every Christian, there shall be a new 
 Heaven, and a new Earth;—that is, a new Material frame, new 
 intellectual and Divine organs; for the first poor Heavens and 
 puny Earth I am now endowed with, shall have passed away. 
 And each individual shall be of both sexes, as to his soul.— And 
 there shall he no more Sea. Hot that there shall be no more the 
 carnal faculties : but simply that there shall no longer be a carnal 
 class of men. For were the carnal faculties quite taken away, 
 Man would no longer be completely in harmony with the Uni¬ 
 verse, which is built on the number Three. 
 
 11. But as for the men who have neglected to obtain Life for 
 themselves, through the Blood of the Lamb, they shall lie down, 
 and perish, and shall not arise. And see here how the Universe 
 still loves these, its rebellious children! For what can be kinder, 
 than that they who cannot conduct life on such principles as to 
 make it a blessing to them, shall be freed from the burden, and 
 sent to sleep, waking no more ? And though it is a grievous 
 thing to think, that so many natures, capable of the Most High 
 enjoyments, should go down Lethe-wards, and be consumed for 
 ever : yet, when I observe how wretched and restless they really 
 are, when they say least about it; how hollow their joys, how 
 prosaic and brutish their lives ;—and perceive plainly, that they 
 never will go in the Way of Peace; surely, it is a consoling 
 thought, that, after all, such weary, insane souls shall never be 
 troubled with a Resurrection. 
 
 “ There is a calm for those who weep, 
 
 A rest for the ungodly found; 
 
 They darkly and ignobly sleep 
 
 Low in the ground. 
 
 For Folly robbed their souls of worth, 
 
 And Sin to Sorrow’s arms beguiled ; 
 
 And each may cry, ‘O mother earth, 
 
 Take home thy child! 
 
124 
 
 V. LIFE. 
 
 On thy cold lap these limbs reclined, 
 
 Shall brutely moulder into thee, 
 
 Nor leave one wretched trace behind 
 Resembling me!”’ 
 
 12. Now let us glance briefly at the Life Hereafter. And 
 before we begin, let it be said that the word ‘ Heaven ,’ to imply 
 the Life-to-come, should henceforth be discarded. Because this 
 use of it begets a thorough confusion of notions, from which the 
 sooner we deliver ourselves the better. Pronounce the word 
 ‘ Heaven ’ in the ears of one unaware of its true scriptural mean¬ 
 ing, and at once arises in his mind a dim set of notions, of some 
 place “ beyond the sky” nobody knows where, in which God lives, 
 surrounded by the “ spirits ” of the just, which are there residing 
 in a disembodied state, awaiting to be joined to their bodies which 
 lie “ below.”—Of all such nonsense, the sooner we get rid, the 
 better. 
 
 13. And then, with respect to our future state, notions equally 
 unjustifiable prevail: for it is thought that the Life-to-come will 
 be quite different from the present life; all circumstances are to 
 be changed: we are to awake and find ourselves in a foreign 
 world. It is thought that we shall not even eat, and drink, and 
 sleep ; but live an unnatural, inconceivable life, in a cold foreign 
 glory, far distant from the warm flushes of Humanity. Boldly 
 must it be said, for all such notions there is not the least founda¬ 
 tion. Take away the Marine insubordination, and add a perfected 
 science, and you will have a perfect picture of the Life-to-come, 
 in the present state of being. This planet, Earth, is for us the 
 only ‘ Heaven.’—Even in the bible there is not the least real 
 warrant to be found, for anticipating that we shall not eat, and 
 drink, and sleep, just as we do now, though far more simply, 
 beautifully and truly. The Earth we live on, with its houses, 
 and trees, and rivers, and underneath these stars, will be our 
 dwelling-place as now. And it is to me an abundant satisfaction 
 to think, that I shall never “ leave this world for a better — 
 take away sin, and I want nothing better. I love these old 
 faces and circumstances ; these clouds, and trees, and skies, these 
 grasses and flowers ; I am partial to Nature as she is, with her 
 winters and summers. And though now there are many dis- 
 
§ ij. LIFE HEREAFTER. 
 
 125 
 
 agreeable phenomena, such as fogs, and floods, and thunder-holts» 
 yet, by the advancement of human science, these must in the end 
 be done away. 
 
 14. Of the vulgar error, that the present skies and earth shall 
 be destroyed, I have no occasion to speak at length : for this 
 notion has arisen from a misapprehension of the words used by 
 the Jewish poets. I know that the present Heaven and Earth, 
 Divine and Terrene faculties, shall pass away : they pass away 
 with all of us in a few years. But not so this planet.—And with 
 respect to altered circumstances ; it is said, There shall he no need 
 of the Sun , nor of the Moon , to shine upon the New Jerusalem; 
 for the glory of the Lord shall light it , and the Lamb is the Light 
 thereof And it is said again, They shall hunger no more , neither 
 thirst any more ; nor shall the Sun light on them , nor any heat. 
 And it is a very beautiful expression, this, of the truth we feel of 
 the Life-to-come. But by the Sun, we must understand the out¬ 
 ward church of Christ, which shall not shine any more with 
 authoritative radiance, as now. And no heat of persecution from 
 the bigotry of this outward church, now so rife, shall fall; for 
 old things shall have passed away. And as for Mahometanism, 
 we know surely the Moon must wane away, and wax no more. 
 But the outward Sun and Moon shall shine on as before, and all 
 things will be as now, except that the people will have a perfect 
 mastery of the elements, and a finer perception of the earth’s 
 beauty and glory. 
 
 15. By those who believe in a millenium of blessedness, it is 
 thought, that one night we shall go to sleep in this world of 
 wickedness, and on the morrow, find ourselves under quite 
 altered circumstances. Whereas by a gradual slow dawning will 
 the seventh Day come,—gradual as the march of twilight into 
 day. It will be by a series of reforms ; by repeals of evil laws, 
 destruction of evil institutions, a raising of the poorer classes, 
 and, in mere externals, a depression of the richer, that society 
 will adapt itself for the reign of Love. 
 
 16. With the notion of a special place apart from this planet, 
 in which the Deity resides, must go also the notion of special 
 inhabitants of such a place;—angels and “ beatified spirits.” 
 But it will be as well to look at this matter in a fresh section, 
 
 s 
 
§ iij. LIFE EXTRA-UNIVERSAL. 
 
 1. It is pretended that besides the Life comprehended in the 
 four provinces of the Universe, there are other phases of Life’s 
 manifestation.—Now there are two orders of minds that will be 
 interested in this subject:—the Jewish, and the Grecian.* The 
 Jews are those who accept everything on faith, and are of the 
 religion they have been brought up to ; having no strong rational 
 powers ; or, if possessing them, neglecting to use them in matters 
 of creed. The Greeks are they who must have reasons for any 
 faith that is in them; and such are generally men of science, and 
 of a sceptical turn of mind. The former adhere always to stereo¬ 
 typed forms of belief; the latter have mostly no faith at all. 
 The truly great Man, however, is an Hellenic Jew ; that is, he 
 lets his reason balance his faith, and his faith his reason. So 
 that, while on the one hand, he can believe nothing on mere dic¬ 
 tum of antiquity, or authority, and must have evidence for every¬ 
 thing he believes ; on the other, he enjoys that high Perception 
 of God, which teaches him that intellect is not the highest faculty 
 of Man; and that he that cometh from Heaven, is above all. 
 
 * “ Paul thus comprehensively expresses the national characteristic of the Jews and 
 Grreks; ‘ The Jews require a sign (*. e., a miracle), and the Greeks seek after wisdom 
 (philosophy).’”— Lewis’s History of Phiipsophy. " 
 
§ iij. LIFE EXTRA-UNIVERSAL. 
 
 127 
 
 Now this book is written for the Hellenic Jews. And to them 
 the following positions are submitted. 
 
 2. If there be a class of beings, who visit this planet, and 
 make their presence known to man; [in, ij, 8, 10] they must be 
 constituted in the conditions of this planet’s existence : if ap¬ 
 parent in this world, they must be so by possessing the consti¬ 
 tuent principles of this world. They must be composed of Mat¬ 
 ter, because all Nature is composed of Matter [Prol. 6] ; they 
 must therefore consist of the Body and Soul of Nature;—not of 
 the Soul alone, because [Prol. 8] the one cannot exist apart from 
 the other; but of the Body and Soul. Moreover, as all Matter, 
 or Nature, falls under one of three heads [Prol. 12, 13], there¬ 
 fore this class of beings must be members of the mineral pro¬ 
 vince, and may be of the vegetable and animal. And again ; if 
 this class of beings be superior to Man, as they are said to be; 
 then they must form & fifth province of .the Universe; and as 
 the fourth province is effected, only by including the former 
 three, therefore the fifth province must include the fourth [Prol. 
 16]; else the order of the Universe would be violated. And if 
 it include the fourth, then it must include the former three ; so 
 that ‘ angels ’ must be both mineral, vegetable, animal, and Hu¬ 
 man beings; as well as angelic ones. But if so, they must be 
 always possessed of tangibility, or visibility ; and must, therefore, 
 be appreciable by human senses, unless they be too minute even 
 for the microscope. And moreover, they must, with respect to 
 locomotion, comply with all mineral, vegetable, and animal con¬ 
 ditions ; must be in subjection to Natural laws ; so that they 
 must either have legs, or wings, or other adequate means of loco¬ 
 motion ; since they could not move about in any miraculous way, 
 and so violate the laws of Nature, which never were violated, 
 and never will be. If then an ‘ angel ’ have ever been seen and 
 spoken with, he must have been a solid extended body ; and, if 
 so, could not creep through a hole too small for his body, or 
 vanish away without moving gradually to a distance. Neither 
 could he hover in the air, without having some natural means of 
 rendering his body lighter than the air; which he could only 
 have done either by vigorous muscular beating of the air with 
 wings, or by attaching himself to a balloon or elsewhat, that was 
 
128 • 
 
 V. LIFE. 
 
 Very much lighter than the atmosphere. And twenty other 
 things I might mention, which he must have and do, all which 
 are utterly inconsistent with the fabulous account of ‘ angels,’ 
 who are said to possess the receipt of fern-seed, and can come 
 and go at a whisk, and do all manner of things that are un¬ 
 natural and impossible. 
 
 3. There are five provinces in the Universe :—(1) the Father, 
 or first persona of the Trinity; (2) the Son. or second persona, 
 or Spirit, or Human province; (3) the animal; (4) the vege¬ 
 table ; and (5) the mineral provinces. Here is a vast chain of 
 Being, each succeeding link of which includes its predecessor, and 
 predicts its successor. Is then the chain complete ? And more 
 especially, is there any vacuum, or deficiency, between the first 
 and the second ? Because, as Man and the second persona are 
 identical (as will be shewn more at large hereafter) ;—if ‘angels’ 
 exist, and are superior to Man, as they are said to be; it must 
 follow that their station is between Man and God. But we know 
 that Man has the privilege of becoming united with the Divine 
 Being; that is, of receiving of the adoption of Spirit, and crying 
 Abba ! Father ! And, therefore, the chain is complete without 
 any other order of beings, or province, between Man and God. 
 To have imposed another link, would have been, then, a break in 
 the order of the Universe ; a superfluity, an interruption, a mon¬ 
 strous addition, instead of a completion of the chain. Whereas 
 nothing is made or done in the Universe, except under the laws 
 of order. 
 
 4. And let me remind every rational person, that while, on the 
 one hand, for the existence of witches (which we know to be the 
 mere inventions of superstition), there are persons now living 
 who will, from pretended personal experience, vouch :—there is, 
 on the other, no one anywhere to be found, that ever pretended 
 to have seen an angel. The only ‘ evidence ’ we have of their 
 fancied existence, is contained in some old pamphlets, written in a 
 superstitious age and country, and proved to be, in many parts, 
 purely allegorical and poetical. Of the value of such ‘evidence,’ 
 judge ye. 
 
 5. And, of course, if the existence of good angels is not 
 worthy of belief, much less is it justifiable to believe in the exis- 
 
129 
 
 § iij. LIFE EXTRA-UNIVERSAL. 
 
 tence of the bad. There is no devil hut the carnal faculties of 
 man: and that any such being or beings, other than the mere 
 poetic personification of those faculties exist, must be denied, still 
 more emphatically than the other ; inasmuch as it tends to cast 
 an additional breath of sulphur on the already too much blasted 
 world. Why should we wilfully deform this fair creation any 
 farther, by accusing it of this supplementary enormity ?—Much 
 less can we credit the existence of any place appropriated to them ; 
 such a notion being the most unnecessary, as well as the most 
 horrible thing conceivable. But come,—let us look at this last 
 blasphemous fiction, and stare the shrieking chimera in the face. 
 
 6. We are come now to consider the Life that it is pretended 
 the wicked lead in the world-to-come. And though the very 
 dwelling upon the thought of so horrible a blasphemy on the 
 God of Love is painful, and scarcely to be borne : yet, as many 
 pious people are still guilty of it, owing to their forsaking God, 
 the fountain of living waters in matters of belief, and hewing out 
 to themselves a biblical, or traditionary cistern ; it may do good 
 to enlarge a little on this most mournful topic. 
 
 7. God is Love. He is also Tower, and Light: and thus 
 omnipotent, and omniscient. And by God, I here mean the whole 
 Universe ; for, according to the immutable law of Vision, no pro¬ 
 vince of the Universe can know anything but itself [iij, ij, 9, 
 10] : and, therefore, by the omniscient God, we mean the whole 
 Universe, and not any province of the same. Now, if God, hav¬ 
 ing necessarily foreknowledge of what man would do with the 
 free-will given him, and having perfect ability to prevent the 
 birth of each free-agent, could yet allow that birth to take place, 
 the consequence of it being the endless agony of the individual, 
 and thus of millions on millions of unhappy souls; then, instead 
 of being Love, and Goodness, and Beauty, God would have been 
 a horrible murderer, who, pretending affection, and weeping the 
 crocodilest tears over his miserable children, was all the while 
 voluntarily, and quite unnecessarily, consigning whole cargoes of 
 them every day to that shrieking horrible atmosphere. If God, 
 foreknowing what would occur, could allow the possibility, the 
 remotest possibility of human beings suffering eternal woes ; then 
 must it be said boldly, God is a malignant demon, infinitely, Oh! 
 
130 
 
 y. LIFE. 
 
 infinitely more deserving of those torments than the hapless crea¬ 
 tures that endure them. 
 
 8. The doctrine of endless pain-punishments is so monstrous, 
 so blasphemous, that it is amazing how it ever could have ob¬ 
 tained a moment’s credence in the world. But the fact is, we are 
 brought up to the notion; it is put into our cradles, to let us 
 play with its horrid mane; it is impressed upon our minds long 
 before we have Celestial-, or intellectual-ity enough to guess its 
 enormity ; and we never see it as it is. Who can wonder that 
 the hearts, even of the disciples, should be so savage and un¬ 
 lovely as often they are, when even the children are taught to 
 look at this fell Medusa, with the first witless glances of their 
 eyes ? 
 
 9. Will you grant me, that I am absolutely a finite being, and 
 God an infinite ? Good. I, then, am one who is less merciful 
 than God; because His mercy is infinite, while mine is finite. 
 But I am one who would not torment any one for ever; there¬ 
 fore, one less merciful than God, would not torment any one for 
 ever. And, if so, then, of course, God would not torment any 
 one for ever.—And what shall I say, dear friend ? If I were 
 left to my own carnal self, I know not but that I might wish to 
 consign some foe to the pains of endless damnation. But when I 
 find, as I do, that the more I become like my Father Who is in 
 Heaven, that the more I am conformed to His likeness, and that 
 the more of His Spirit I partake,—the less possible is it for me 
 to have any malignant desire ; and that I shrink with the more 
 horror and abhorrence from the suggestion of the possibility of 
 one human being being endlessly tormented ;—I need no other 
 proof than this, that it is impossible for God to have made any 
 such a pit as that you speak of. 
 
 10. Of every thirty persons now living, let us allow that three 
 profess Christianity. And out of these three professors, let us 
 grant that one complies with those conditions, which “ bible 
 Christians ” believe to be essential to salvation. And I think you 
 must grant, looking at the whole world, that this is a very liberal 
 allowance. If then eternal damnation be eternal pain, can any¬ 
 thing more horrible be conceived than such a state of things as 
 this ? Twenty-nine out of every thirty persons now breathing, 
 
§ iij. LITE EXTRA-UNIVERSAL. 131 
 
 called into existence by the God Who is Love, only to have their 
 -agonies protracted to an infinite duration—? 
 
 “ O horrible ! O horrible! most horrible!” 
 
 And yet this is believed —/ 
 
 11. “This consideration a little attended to, greatly embar¬ 
 rasses those among religious people who entertain juster notions 
 of the Goodness and Mercy of God. The mind cannot relish 
 that a God so good has created thirty persons, to damn at least 
 twenty-nine of them; and that, notwithstanding a sincere desire 
 He had to create them all for happiness, and not wanting the 
 means to save them, He made use of this the most dangerous and 
 doubtful: which was that of permitting them to act according to 
 their own free-wills ; and withal, with a foreknowledge of the 
 cause, absolutely knowing the ill use they would make of it.”— 
 Embarras ? — ! —I think it should embarras any one who will 
 but think of it a little! I do not wonder that Percy Shelley, 
 with his large love-faculty, should have spoken in such terms as 
 he has, of that God, Who, according to popular faith, 
 
 “ As prototype of human misrule, sits 
 High in heaven’s realm, upon a throne of gold. 
 
 Even like an earthly king; and Whose dread work, 
 
 Hell, gapes for ever for the unhappy slaves 
 Of fate, whom He created, in His sport, 
 
 To triumph in their torment when they fell.” 
 
 Is it without reason that we exclain against this monstrous fiction 
 which has been palmed upon the world ? Even if I had more 
 reverence for mere external utility than for Truth, I must de¬ 
 nounce, and denounce it. For see what this abominable lie is 
 doing. With the progress of the species, increases now every 
 year the number of the well-born. Directly, then, one of these 
 arrives at his age of choice, one of two things inevitably occurs : 
 either he becomes a sceptic to Christianity; or, to enter the 
 church, consents to a sad mutilation of the best part of him. 
 How else can he acquiesce in the damnation to eternal shrieks, 
 and sobs, and groans, of millions of his fellow-creatures ? And 
 if he find a Law in his being, which wars with this gross and 
 ferocious creed ; finding this one part of supposed * Christianity ’ 
 doubtful, will not he be liable, of course, to doubt the rest ? 
 
132 
 
 V. LIFE. 
 
 Thus is he driven into a sad restless infidelity ;—being, all the 
 while, one of those men, who, from their large and wide faculty, 
 should be, above all others, the noblest champions of the faith. 
 
 12. But it is not here only that wrong is done by this Hell- 
 fiction. For, besides dishonoring and blaspheming God, it makes 
 miserable the lives of thousands of good and radiant creatures, 
 who, otherwise, would enjoy perfect peace and Love. It gives 
 such a gloom, an austerity, a distrust to life, when we can believe 
 or suspect, that under all these beauties and glories, these ameni¬ 
 ties and prettinesses, these workings and prayings, these sweet 
 kisses and embraces, and all these deep gazings at the stars; there 
 lies— hear it , ye Heavens ! —that horrible pit, that yawning gulph 
 of flame, to catch the droppings of the world. And even though 
 we have entered the Cleft of the Rock ourselves, and taken 
 refuge there ; still the heart will shrink, and quake, and weep, 
 even though ’twere blood, at the thought of that awful furnace, 
 if not for itself, still for others, its dear friends, or fellow-throb- 
 bers. There are thousands of lives that would be lovely,— 
 soured and darkened by the apprehension of this hideous 
 (m-)possibility. Nay, who has not read in tracts, of many 
 that have been clean murdered by this horrid Phantasm,—in that 
 when some slight illness took them, they became seized with such 
 a dreadful fear, as left no room, nor rest, for their constitution to 
 overcome what was at first an insignificant malady ?—And even 
 where it proceeds not to such lengths as these, it yet takes away 
 so much of the heartiness and high un-self-consciousness of life,— 
 casts a frightful spectral and cadaverous light upon the world,— 
 breeds distrust of the Goodness of God, and a dumb “ embarrass¬ 
 ment ” at times,—till our warmest heart-gushes are apt to shrivel 
 up like parchment before these ghostly fires. How can life 
 breathe softly, healthfully, sweetly, with this hideous nightmare 
 thus grinning and astride ? 
 
 13. But I will not dwell longer on this mournful topic; 
 though surely, one might well weep, and weep, to think that 
 men,— good men, can bring themselves as they do, to believe that 
 a God, Whose name is Love, Whose tender mercies are over all 
 His works, Who wishes not the death of one sinner, but rather 
 that all should return, repent, and live ;—has made a fire, a Hell 
 
§ iij. LIFE EXTRA-UNIVERSAL. 
 
 133 
 
 of fierce and screaming agony, a pit of penal, agonizing, despair¬ 
 ing flames, in which to burn and scorch His hapless children.—• 
 Or else I might bring much evidence to shew, that even the hible 
 is not so had as it is represented to be; but that its general tenor 
 is to the effect, that the wicked “ shall be brought to the grave, 
 and shall remain in the tomb that “ the day cometh which 
 shall burn as an oven, and all the proud, yea, all that do 
 wickedly, shall be stubble, and the day which cometh shall burn 
 them up, saith the Lord of Hosts, and it shall leave them neither 
 root nor branch.”— Yes, this Hell-fiction contradicts the general 
 tenor of the scriptures; which assign, not hellish torment, but 
 death , as the punishment of the ungodly. But what is of in¬ 
 comparably more significance, it gives the lie to God Himself; 
 speaking in you, if you will listen to Him, and in me. And 
 when God speaks, Isaiah, and Luke, and Paul, may well learn to 
 hold their tongues. We will hear what God the Lord speaketh; 
 those who prefer other testimonies, and leave Jehovah’s Temple 
 to serve books and tables, may. And whatever the bible, or the 
 church, or any books, or men, may choose to assert to the con¬ 
 trary ; we shall still refuse to blaspheme God, by attributing to 
 Him such a dark ferocity. It is no longer right that the world, 
 in this sixth Day of Human history, should be hampered and 
 cribbed in the old imperfect theologies of the fourth. We live 
 in a new time, and require new garments to cover us. The 
 world will not endure, much longer, that these heathen notions 
 of God, which sufficed for its raw youth, should be imposed now 
 upon its ripening manhood. The people will venture, by and by, 
 to trust God in their own souls, rather than through the souls of 
 a dead age ; and will prefer God’s holy Word to all other oracles. 
 And then they will learn, bow wrong, how foolish, is this Hell- 
 fiction :—for I am the God of Love ; and the wages of sin is 
 DEATH ; AND THERE IS NO HELL IN My UNIVERSE, Saith my God. 
 
 T 
 
§ iv. THE LAMP-STANDS. 
 
 1. As a supplement to the foregoing, an allegory from the 
 bible will be most appropriate; for it is now my design to shew, 
 that all this grievous error, this doctrine of hell and devil, this 
 face of terror on the Gospel, this church and bible infallibility, 
 were not accidental, but necessary evils ; prophecied of by the 
 bosom-friend of Jesus;—the inevitable attendants on the progress 
 (necessarily gradual) of the human mind out of heathen dark¬ 
 ness into the true light of the Gospel, which is only just begin¬ 
 ning to warm the world. 
 
 2. Behold, then, a Candlestick, or rather, a Lamp-stand, all 
 of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it. On each side of the 
 Lamp-stand is an olive Tree; and a branch of each Tree empties 
 through its golden pipe, or quill, Oil out of the Tree into the 
 bowl. And the Oil of the bowl supplies Seven Lamps upon the 
 Lamp-stand, which are the Eyes of the Lord running to and fro 
 through the whole Earth;— the Seven Spirits of God. And the 
 messenger that talked to Zechariah said to him, Knowest thou 
 what these he ? And he answered, No. Then the messenger 
 said, This is the word of the Lord; not by might, not by power ,— 
 not by force and violence shall the intellect be subdued to 
 Christianity; but by the sweet, gentle, kindly, illuminating influ- 
 
§ iv. THE LAMP-STANDS. 
 
 135 
 
 ence of My Spirit, my Seven Spirits, saith the Lord. Who art 
 thou, 0 great mountain [Prol. 44] of intellectual opposition to the 
 gospel ? Before Zermibabel, thou shalt become a plain [Prol. 77] 
 and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, cry¬ 
 ing, Grace, grace unto it! —Then again asked Zechariah : What 
 are these two Olive Trees upon the right and left side of the 
 Lamp-stand ? and what are the two olive branches, which, through 
 the two golden pipes, empty the Oil out of themselves ? And it 
 was answered him, These are the two Sons of Oil, that stand by 
 the Lord of the whole Earth. 
 
 3. Zechariah tells of one Lamp-stand only ; but John, the be¬ 
 loved, enlarges the number to “ two Lamp-stands, standing before 
 the God of the whole Earth.” And I take it that the cause of 
 this being done was, in order that the bible might be included, 
 as one of the great means of converting the intellect; for, where¬ 
 as, by his one Lamp-stand, Zechariah symbolized the Waters 
 above the Heavens, or true church of God,—the two Olive Trees 
 that supplied it, being the Jewish and the Gentile divisions of 
 that church;—so John, prophesying of the wide and blessed in¬ 
 fluence the bible, which he was then completing, would exercise, 
 and how much it would tend, by its glorious poetry and prophecy, 
 to convince and enlighten the intellect; added it to the other, as 
 a second Lamp-stand ;—not furnishing it, however, with a second 
 Olive Tree, but leaving it to be supplied, as it was, from one of 
 the two already existing. And then John, foretelling more 
 clearly than Zechariah did, what was the influence the bible and 
 the church would exercise, and all that would befall them, from 
 the Day of the burial of Christ’s Gospel in the tomb [Prol. 70] 
 to its resurrection in our own Day; proceeds to sketch the his¬ 
 tory, in poetic style, as follows. 
 
 4. But first, let me remind you hoAV it is, that the church and 
 the bible are to serve as the means of bringing the intellect, 
 which now opposes Christ’s Gospel, into complete subjection to it: 
 not by the thunders of authority, of might and power, but by the 
 gentle influence of My Spirit, saith the Lord. Of the two, how¬ 
 ever, the church is by far the most important and effective ; and, 
 indeed, the addition of the bible would not have been made, but 
 for the enormous authority it was to usurp, and the way in which 
 
136 
 
 V. LIFE. 
 
 t was to be sequestered as it were, and separated from all other 
 books and writings. Or else the bible, being merely the offspring 
 of the church, would not have deserved a separate mention. 
 And it is true, the bible, though hitherto it has done little 
 enough towards the true conversion of the intellect, will hence¬ 
 forth have a very beneficial influence thereupon; its glorious old 
 parables and allegories being, indeed, strong confirmations of the 
 truth of the new psychology and theosophy. But it is to the 
 men of the church, principally, that the Earth is to be indebted 
 for its enlightenment;—to the Emersons and Greaveses, and the 
 many good and great men who shall contribute hereafter to this 
 end. These, through the pipe of the quill, shall act upon the 
 intellect, by the glorious Lamp-stand of their writings. 
 
 5. Now then let John tell us what it is these two Witnesses have 
 been and done. If any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of 
 their mouth and devoureth their enemies ; and if any man will hurt 
 them , he must in this manner he hilled. Here is a plain betoken- 
 ment of that supremacy which the outward church and the bible 
 have maintained, one or the other of them, almost ever since the 
 days of the Redeemer : it having always been taken for granted, 
 that one or the other was the arbitrary rule of faith. And it is 
 a fact, that whoever has endeavoured to depose them from their 
 thrones of usurpation, and to destroy their authority, has, for all 
 reformative purposes, been killed, trampled upon by them, or 
 burnt by the fires of bigotry that have proceeded out of their 
 mouths. Nothing, till the last three centuries and a half, has 
 been able to withstand their usurped authority: whoever has 
 tried to hurt them,—to depose one from the chair of infallibility, 
 without setting up the other in its place,—has been railed at, 
 excommunicated, completely talked and hissed down ; and has in 
 this manner been slain. 
 
 6. These have had power to shut Heaven , that it rained not in 
 the days of their prophecy, and have had power over Waters to 
 turn them to blood, and to smite the Earth ivith all plagues as 
 often as they willed. For have they not shut Heaven, potentially, 
 over and over again ? Nay, rather, has not Heaven been shut 
 for all authoritative purposes, during the whole time of their 
 prophecy, from John’s Day until ours? Men have been all 
 
§ iv. THE LAMP-STANDS. 
 
 137 
 
 along listening to the bible, what it says, and have forgot to 
 listen to Heaven, and what it says. Heaven has been quite shut, 
 insomuch, that, through these two Witnesses, it has become 
 generally denied that Man has any means of knowing God, out 
 of the pages of the bible, or the dicta of the church : and the 
 Witnesses have been thought greater than That of which they 
 came to testify. The rain of Heaven have they in this manner 
 restrained; have bound the sweet influences of the Holy Pleiades, 
 and denied the authority of those Seven Stars. Power also over 
 the Waters [Prol. 36] have they had,—despotic power : and 
 have turned the poor people to blood, by making them to hate, 
 and fight, and kill each other about some theological creed, or 
 w r henever these Witnesses’ authority has been impugned. They 
 have seized upon the Earth, the intellect, and have lived there , 
 instead of living in Heaven; and the intellect have they smitten 
 with plagues of contentions, and quarrellings, and fierce disputa¬ 
 tions, from the beginning of their prophecy till now. 
 
 7. But having finished their testimony, the Beast of the Abyss 
 makes war against, overcomes, and kills them. And their corpses 
 lie in the street of the great city, and the peoples and nations see 
 their dead bodies three days and a half, and suffer them not to 
 be put in graves. And they that dwell on the intellect rejoice 
 over them, and make merry, and send gifts to one another, be¬ 
 cause these two prophets tormented them that dwell upon the 
 intellect. And after three days and a half, the Spirit of Life 
 from God enters into them, and they stand upon their feet, and 
 great fear shall fall upon them that see them. And a great voice 
 from Heaven shall say, * Come up hither and they shall ascend 
 to Heaven in a cloud, and their enemies shall behold them. 
 
 8. These three days and a half, a day for a century, are now, 
 perhaps, within three years of their expiration. I think the 
 bible and the church have been made war upon, and overcome, 
 and slain ; and nothing but lifeless bodies have they been, lying 
 a dead weight upon the Earth , and yet not suffered to be buried 
 and forgotten. Completely dead, useless, for the conversion of 
 the Earth, have they been: a spectacle, and a derision. There 
 was a time, indeed, when philosophy and theology were united, 
 under the Schools ; but, about three hundred and fifty years ago, 
 
138 
 
 V. LIFE. 
 
 this alliance was broken, and since that time, the church and the 
 bible have been sundered from philosophy and science. This 
 was the war in which the Witnesses were overcome and slain ; 
 being severed from the intellect, which then took a hostile road. 
 They also that dwell upon the Earth, have been glad enough, 
 because these mischievous authorities have been destroyed : they 
 have welcomed the advance of intellect, which left the old super¬ 
 stitions in the rear, and congratulated themselves on the improved 
 rationality of the age. Alas! they could not find any real sub¬ 
 stitute for these two Leaders ; with all their boasted light, they 
 could but bring us into a hideous infidelity. 
 
 9. But the three days and a half having now nearly expired ; 
 and the mere barren “ testimony ” of these Witnesses being 
 finished ; and the time having come when they are to assume a 
 real vital efficacy in the conversion of the intellect, which they 
 have never heretofore done :—“ The Spirit of LIFE enters into 
 them —the very Spirit of the Day in which we are now living 
 [Prol. 76]. No longer, therefore, shall they bear a testimony 
 merely to the final triumph of the Gospel over the intellect; but 
 they shall be real illuminators, standing to some purpose before 
 the God of the whole Earth. And indeed, can you not conceive 
 that the church is about to take on itself a vitality and univer¬ 
 sality, a grandeur and reality, which it never yet has seen ? And 
 are not the pages of the bible now beginning to gleam and grow 
 resplendent, assuming a life and meaning hitherto unknown ? I 
 think the Spirit of Life is entering very forcibly into both the 
 church and the bible: and we may expect them to begin now 
 verily to exercise their proper enlightening influence upon the 
 Earth. Thus, then, they begin to stand upon their feet,—upon 
 their own true feet, not on the stilts of infallibility they have 
 formerly stood on. No longer prostrate, and trampled upon by 
 the ungodly, and not rising to breathe out again their old threat- 
 enings and slaughter, and call down fire upon their adversaries : 
 they now assume their true and noble position; they are seen for 
 what they are ; they are understood to be, indeed, not rules of 
 faith; not arbiters of truth ; not the God, but Lamp-stands 
 standing before the God, of the whole Earth. 
 
 10. One Spirit of this Sixth Day having thus entered into 
 
§ iV. THE LAMP-STANDS. 
 
 139 
 
 them :—is heard a great voice from Heaven, saying, ‘ Come up 
 hither .’ For the men who live in Heaven, all the great and 
 good men, hundreds who now despise the nominal church of 
 Christ, and reject the bible, and yet are true children of God, 
 because their names are written in Heaven; shall learn to love 
 both these prophets; and sitting as they do in Heavenly places, 
 shall hold out their arms in affection, with a ‘ Come up hither !’ 
 For the bible and the church shall be seen to be no messengers 
 of hate, and cruelty, and revenge, as they have been ; but tidings- 
 bearers of peace and Love; and as such shall be owned by all 
 the Redeemed of God. Yes; the invitation shall presently begin 
 to be given,—small and feeble at first, by only one or two of the 
 archangels of God ; but their numbers shall increase, and they 
 who have heretofore neglected and denounced the Witnesses, be¬ 
 cause such inordinate claims were made in their names, and be¬ 
 cause they called down so much fire, smote the Earth with so 
 many plagues, and preached such dark doctrines and forocious 
 superstitions; shall now begin to perceive that these prophets also 
 may sit beside them in that Heavenly world ; though till now 
 they have been on the Earth and in the Sea, by reason of their 
 bigotry and fierceness. By and by, more and more shall shake 
 hands with the twain, and greet them with friendly voices, and a 
 ‘ Come up hither P Until at last the whole angelic hosts shall 
 recognize these two outward and visible institutes, to be in truth 
 God’s Witnesses, though no infallible ones; and shall, with joy 
 and gladness, and universal acclaim, sing to the two prophets, 
 ‘ Come up hither !’ 
 
 11 . Then shall the Witnesses “ ascend to Heaven in a Cloud 
 —not into the outward sky, but into the Celestial faculties; not 
 into the exoteric, but the esoteric Heavens; that is, instead of 
 shutting Heaven , as they did during the dark days of their pro¬ 
 phecy, they shall subserve and obey Heaven, and aid, instead of 
 hindering, the authority of Spirit in the soul. And the same 
 hour shall there be a great Earthquake, a wide and mighty shak¬ 
 ing of the intellect, which shall continue from the time of their 
 reviviscence till they shall be rightly accepted by the Heavenly 
 hosts;—a convulsion amongst all thinking men. Marvel not, 
 then, when you see these things, and hear the fierce contentions 
 
140 
 
 Y. . LIFE. 
 
 and disputations that arise. The tenth part also of the city of 
 Babylon shall fall, and in the intellect-quake shall be slain of 
 men seven thousand, and the rest shall be awe-struck, and give 
 glory to the God of Heaven. 
 
 12. But the point which chiefly relates to the main design of 
 this section, yet remains ;—I mean that passage wherein it is said 
 that the two Witnesses should prophecy a thousand two hundred 
 and three-score years, clothed ln sackcloth. —I think we may 
 all understand what this means. I am sure the church and the 
 bible have for these many years been clad in a most dismal sack¬ 
 cloth, if it were not, rather, a sanbenito , painted all over with 
 devils and flames. See how sadly this dark sackcloth has 
 shrouded up the Gospel, and turned it from Love to terror, and 
 made it a fierce ‘ Gospel ’ of torment, and usurpation, and 
 revenge. See how mournfully, also, this dark vestment has 
 covered up the real nature of the mission of the church, and 
 of the bible; making first one, and then the ether of them, to 
 pretend to authority, blaspheming the God of Heaven. Let us 
 be thankful that we live in that happy time, when the grinning 
 mask is beginning to fall off*, and the true face of Love is beam¬ 
 ing from behind. And let every true angel of God cease to wor¬ 
 ship the Lamp-stands, and alone worship Him. And let every 
 one lend his hand to pluck off* this horrible sanbenito. 
 
VI. GOODNESS. 
 
 U 
 
The voice of one crying in the wilderness. 
 
§ i. FRIDAY IN THE CHURCH. 
 
 1. When we look at the church that goes outwardly hy the 
 name of Christ, in this the Sixth Day of Creation, the Day of 
 Goodness, the Friday of human history; we must all own, I 
 think, its state is sad, very sad. Disruption, dislocation, decease; 
 hatred, persecution, bigotry; everything and anything, rather 
 than Life and Love. We fight and quarrel with our brothers 
 for foolish forms, ceremonies, creeds : we hate each other for 
 mere words. We are a hand of swordsmen, who have sworn to 
 fight against every living thing that is not human;—then we 
 look around us, and instead of marking the general characteristics, 
 we only take count of the colour of the hair, the cast of the eye, 
 the complexion of the face, the length of the leg; and hate and 
 oppose our brethren, because on these trifling points we differ. 
 We consider Piety to belong, not to Heaven, hut to Earth ; and, 
 therefore, as intellects differ in different men, the outward 
 Christendom is filled with contentions, sects, and schisms; and we 
 believe, because a man does not think with us on certain points, 
 therefore he is almost, perhaps altogether, a son of perdition. 
 
 2. So long as we think Religion to he a thing that relates to 
 notions, we shall differ, we shall quarrel. But, indeed, the Gos¬ 
 pel of Christ has always been too much sepulchred “ in the dark 
 
144 
 
 VI. GOODNESS. 
 
 places of the Earth,” instead of being enthroned in Heaven. 
 Hence the great variety of creeds : all of them having a spice of 
 truth in them, none of them containing the whole. Hence wars, 
 and persecutions, and Earth-plagues, and Babylon the great. 
 —Do you ask what Babylon the great is ? Let us enquire. 
 
 3. Soon after the Waters under the Heavens were gathered 
 together in one place, the dry Land appeared; and that thing 
 came to pass which is told in the eleventh of Genesis ; where we 
 find the parable of the Tower of Babel. Under which simili¬ 
 tude is conveyed, a very important psychical event, of which the 
 following particulars may be gathered. 
 
 4. It is said, The whole Earth was of one lip, and of one 
 speech. And by this we are to understand, not that men had a 
 universal language ; but rather, that the intellect had no differ¬ 
 ences of creed.— And they said, go to ; let us build a City and a 
 Tower, whose top may reach to Heaven, and let us mahe a name, 
 a denomination, an establishment, lest we be scattered abroad in 
 schism, on the face of the whole intellect. Was not the raising of 
 this Tower to Heaven, a generation of particular creed and 
 formula, an assertion of the necessity of having “ right views of 
 religionby “ right views ,” meaning certain notions, such as are 
 still thought so essential in our own day ? And was not the de¬ 
 sign of this people, an ambitious scheme of monopolizing all 
 ecclesiastical authority, a sort of pristine church-and-state, the 
 beginning of that monstrous alliance which continues till now?— 
 Yes; there was a dwelling on matters of Thought, and a con¬ 
 sidering of them as essential, and the only essentials to religion. 
 And there was a determination on the part of the Nimrods of 
 the time, to take all power into their own hands, and coerce the 
 whole world to adopt the articles of their creed. A standard of 
 authority was set up, not requiring men simply to do justly, to 
 love mercy, and to walk humbly with their God ; but requiring 
 them to fix their attention on external rights and forms. 
 
 5. Then the Lord God (says the Jewish poet, in his childlike 
 style) came down to see the City and Tower, the state-and-church, 
 which the children of men did build : and said, Go to; let us 
 there confound their language, that they may not understand one 
 another's speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from 
 
§ i. FRIDAY IN THE CHURCH. 
 
 145 
 
 thence, from that Tower, that doctrine and formula, that eccle¬ 
 siastical establishment, upon the face of the intellect, and they 
 left off to build the City. Therefore is the name of it called 
 Babel,—schism ; because the Lord did there confound and 
 schismatize their lip.—I think I need scarcely say, that this con¬ 
 fusion was no miracle. It was the natural inevitable consequence 
 of the step taken. The arising of notional, or intellectual religious 
 creed, and the issuing of an act of uniformity, would at once en¬ 
 gender Babel, or Sectarianism. 
 
 6. Schism being thus generated, in that Second Day of the 
 world, by the Waters under the Heaven; behold it extant and 
 rampant in our own times. Not yet, by a long way, do we un¬ 
 derstand, as sectsmen and creedists, one another’s speech. We 
 are scattered abroad upon the faces of the intellect; we require 
 “ right vieics ,” instead of right Being ; and Babel is Babel still. 
 
 7. This is the great Harlot that sitteth on many Waters, with 
 whom the kings of the Earth, all who have derived ecclesiastical 
 authority from the intellect, have committed fornication. This is 
 MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF 
 HARLOTS, AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE INTELLECT. 
 
 8. And observe that name, MYSTERY : for if you will look 
 at every church in Babylon, you will find all have this charac¬ 
 teristic of Mystery : —some tenet, I mean, some doctrine, which, 
 while it contradicts reason, is asserted to be above the power of 
 reason to comprehend. Insomuch that, whenever you ask a 
 Babylonian to explain to you his doctrine of the miraculous in¬ 
 carnation, or the trinity in unity, or other marvellous dogma; he 
 will call your question profane, and tell you that these are 
 Mysteries too great for the poor human mind to understand. 
 
 9. And now let us clearly ascertain what Babylon the great 
 is. It is, primarily, notional religion : and secondly, the 
 schism that arises from insisting on notions in religion. And 
 wherever you find a church that will not shake hands with 
 another church, on the broad ground of Spiritual membership ; 
 there you have a Babylonish church. And wherever you find a 
 man, who violently opposes, or refuses to work heartily with 
 another, because they differ on some point of mere notional reli- 
 
146 
 
 VI. GOODNESS. 
 
 gion, such as the invocation of saints, or the trinity, or the 
 atonement; there you have a Babylonian. 
 
 10. At present how triumphant is Babel! she says, I sit a 
 queen, and am no widow. It is not yet thought, that there is hut 
 one religion in the world, but one God worshipped by all wor¬ 
 shippers, under all these forms and names. Instead of being a 
 bond to unite the most distant nations, Religion, as it is called, 
 separates, more than distance, man from his brother, and sets up 
 continual points of repulsion. The Romish abhors the English 
 Christian, for mere notions’ sake, and the English the Roman. 
 Each thinks it impossible that the other can be in God, and yet 
 hold tbis or that false notion ; and so they write furious books 
 against one another, and are with much ado kept from scratching 
 each other’s faces.—What is all this abhorrence of popery, of 
 which one hears so much ? Popery, I grant, is ugly enough, but 
 if you think it is confined to the nominal Papists, you are much 
 mistaken. Do not forget, that the Protestant Beast of the Earth, 
 with its two lamb-like horns (Lutheran and British), though it 
 does wound one of the heads of the Papish Beast of the Sea, yet 
 exerciseth all the powers of the first Beast before him, and 
 causes the intellect, and them that dwell therein, to worship the 
 first Beast, whose deadly Protestant wound was secretly healed. 
 For Protestantism has hitherto been only Popery under a mask. 
 There has been the same intolerance, the same bigotry, the same 
 usurpation, in the second Beast as in the first. And so similar in 
 temper have these two Beasts been, that John classes them both 
 together, and amalgamates them into one scarlet-coloured Beast, 
 which was to be the throne on which the Great Whore of Schism 
 should sit. Do not flatter yourself, then, that because you are 
 not nominally , therefore you are not really a Papist. Nay, dear 
 friend, already it is too plain, that by your own abhorrence of 
 the Pope, you must be taken to stand convicted of Popery. 
 
 11. '‘But we do not worship idols F —Do you not, indeed ? I 
 would you did not, dear friend. But what is it you call idolatry ? 
 —Bending to a piece of wood , a block of stone ? I think that is 
 hardly idolatry. A man may be a much truer and dearer son of 
 God than you or I, who yet bows every day to the image of 
 
§ L FRIDAY IN THE CHURCH. 147 
 
 Juggernaut or Brahma. Because real idolatry is never of ex¬ 
 ternals, but always of the heart. If we fix our heart on any¬ 
 thing, more than on the Most High, then we are idolaters. But 
 mere outward idol-worship is a different thing. Lamentable in¬ 
 deed it is, as betokening a sad want of intellectual illumination,— 
 but nothing more. For so long as I do worship God, it matters 
 not vitally , hut only as relates to my personal freedom, under 
 what name, or with what notions I approach Him. No unrefined 
 mind worships God without forming some sort of intellectual 
 conception of Him, and that conception will always he imperfect, 
 of course, because the Most High cannot be adequately conceived 
 of, intellectually, hut can only be Spiritually perceived and 
 known. Thus most people, when they pray, imagine to them¬ 
 selves a figure, more or less distinct, of some great shadowy 
 Being, with the attributes of a man: and few indeed can pray 
 without the aid of this kind of imagination. Now, to form an 
 image of God in the mind, and pray to that image, is as sinful as 
 to form one in wood or stone, and pray thereto;—that is to say, 
 neither is sinful, though both, in different degrees, betoken an 
 unelevated mind. An outward image is merely an invention for 
 the help of weak, unideal souls, to help their too feeble power of 
 realizing the presence of God; and is not a mark of sin, but only 
 of ignorance and imbecility. It is true, 0 friend, you do not 
 bow down to a piece of wood; but is it not much the same sort 
 of thing, to bow down to certain pieces of paper ? It is true, 
 you do not inspect the entrails of beasts for auguries, or let 
 Dagon, or Bel, stand to you in place of the Deity: but is it 
 much better to inspect, for oracles, a bundle of old rags re¬ 
 manufactured, and to let a piece of inked paper be your Lord 
 and God? 
 
 12. “ By this shall all men know (said Jesus) that ye are my 
 
 disciples ;— if ye love one another .” ‘ Yes,’ says the Protestant to 
 
 the Papist, ‘I love the disciples,— hut who are you?' —‘Yes,’ says 
 the Trinitarian to the Unitarian, * I love the disciples,— hut who 
 are you ?' Meanwhile the great world surveys the fold, and 
 with curled lip and triumphant eye, exclaims sarcastically,—‘ See 
 how these Christians love one another—F 
 
 13. But at length, a messenger comes down from Heaven, 
 
148 
 
 VI. GOODNESS. 
 
 having great power : this messenger being, not a man , but a mes¬ 
 sage, a reformation in our notions of God and His Gospel:—and 
 by its great power, the Earth, the intellect, is enlightened with 
 God’s glory [Rev. xviij, 1]. For hitherto the Earth has not been 
 lightened, as even the Protestant Babylonians do virtually confess, 
 when they decry the exercise of reason in creed, and caution the 
 young disciple not to read sceptical books, or to allow himself for 
 a moment to doubt of the opinions he has been brought up to. 
 A sad and sure sign this, that the Earth has not been en¬ 
 lightened. 
 
 14. Yes, Babylon the great shall fall, shall fall! In our own 
 day of Goodness shall it come to a full end. Here and there, 
 even now, the good are beginning to abhor sectarianism, and 
 speak for tolerance, unity, and peace. Here and there, live 
 those who have learnt indeed to hate the Whore, and are pre¬ 
 pared to burn her flesh with fire. Many already are obeying 
 the Divine whisper: Come out of her, My people, that ye be 
 not partakers of her sins ! Subscribe not to any sect, to any 
 creed. Be neither Papist, nor Protestant, nor Tractarian ; neither 
 Independent, nor Methodist, nor Baptist, nor Episcopalian, nor 
 Swedenborgian, nor Unitarian : be mentally of no sect, mentally 
 of no name : acknowledge yourselves only as Christians. 
 
 15. For Babylon the great shall fall, shall fall; wild beasts of 
 the desert shall lie there, and her time is come, and her days shall 
 not be prolonged.—Hark! in my ears rings the song of the com¬ 
 ing age :—How hath the oppressor ceased, the guilty City ceased! 
 The Lord hath broken the staff of the wicked, and the sceptre 
 of the rulers. The whole EARTH is at rest, and is quiet ; 
 they break forth into singing. How art thou fallen from Heaven, 
 from all the Waters that are above the Heaven, O Lucifer, son 
 of the second Day, the morning of the world? How art thou 
 bought down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! 
 For thou hast said in thy heart, I will ascend .into Heaven; I, 
 the ruler of the intellect, will build my Tower in rivalry with the 
 Skies; I will exalt my throne above the Stars of God. I will 
 ascend above the heights of the Clouds [m, i, 5],—penetrate 
 all mysteries and secrets:— yet shall thou be brought down to 
 Hades. 
 
§ i. FRIDAY IN THR CHURCH. 
 
 149 
 
 16. Yes, O my God! Babylon (he great shall fall , shall fall! 
 The merchants of the intellect shall in vain wail over her, for 
 that no man buyeth their merchandise any more. And the ship¬ 
 masters, and all the crews in ships,—traders by the Sea, —and 
 what traders do not trade by the Sea F [i, ij, 7]—shall cast dust 
 upon their heads, and cry, weeping and wailing, Alas, alas! that 
 great City, wherein were made rich all that had ships and ven¬ 
 tures in the Sea ! But let the Earthmen and the Seamen mourn: 
 not so shall they weep, whose names are written in Heaven. 
 Rejoice, O ye Heavens, ye Celestial men, ye angels of God, 
 ye holy apostles and prophets, all ye who live in Heaven; for 
 God shall avenge you on her. 
 
 17. As the Lord liveth, Babylon the great shall fall, shall fall! 
 As the Lord liveth, the nations of the intellect shall be of one 
 lip and of one speech. Then shall be heard the voice of much 
 people in Heaven, saying,—Alleluia ! Salvation, and glory, and 
 honor, and power, unto the Lord our God; for true and 
 righteous are His judgments : for He hath judged the great 
 Whore which did corrupt the intellect with her fornication, and 
 hath avenged the blood of His servants at her hand. And again 
 they cry, Alleluia ! And her smoke goeth up for ever and ever. 
 
 18. Nevertheless, so long as Christianhood is thought to be a 
 matter of creed, Babylon the great will be the great still. And 
 not until the people can be shewn, that Religion has no connec¬ 
 tion with intellectual opinion: that it is a matter, not of creed, 
 not of word, nor of doctrine ; not a book, nor a belief: but a 
 vital constitutional change,—will Babylon the great fall. 
 
 19. I wish you, then, dear friend, to form a clear conception 
 of what and wherein consists Christianhood;—what it is, that 
 essentially and necessarily differences the Christian from the un¬ 
 godly.—It is the living in Supernature, as well as in Nature. It 
 is the addition, not of a new notion, but of a new constituent, or 
 element, to the constitution of the man. It is the conversion of a 
 dual into a triune soul. It is not an intellectual,. but a Celestial 
 thing: not a matter of belief, which is of the intellect; but of 
 life : —not a Thinking, but a Being change. John, the beloved, 
 the bosom-friend of Jesus, knew this very well; and he has left 
 us a criterion, which is the same that I insist on: for he says, 
 
 x 
 
VI, GOODNESS. 
 
 150 
 
 Whoso heepeth God's word ,—not the words of Paul and Peter,— 
 hut the true living Scriptures of God, written in Heaven, — in 
 him verily is the Love of God perfected: thereby know we 
 that we are in Him. This is not what Babylon will tell you ; 
 Protestant Babel says, you must believe that the spilling of san¬ 
 guineous fluid takes away sin ; hut John knew better. “ If ye 
 knoiv (says he) that Christ is righteous , ye know that every 
 
 ONE THAT DOETH RIGHTEOUSNESS IS BORN OF HlM.” 
 
 20. The question to be asked, therefore, is not, Do you believe 
 Jesus to be God, and His blood the atonement for sin:—this 
 wafer the very body ;—or baptism necessary, or useful ?—but v 
 Are you living in the Celestial sphere or no ? Are you trini- 
 tized, Zionized, Celestialized, or no ? It is possible to disbelieve 
 the most obvious truths, and to have the brain stuffed with gross¬ 
 est absurdities, and yet to be a true child of God. The great 
 error of the Protestant Babylonians, lies in taking accidental for 
 essential and necessary concomitants. They know that they have 
 become changed in nature while holding certain tenets and no¬ 
 tions ; thence they conclude that conversion, and those tenets, 
 must always go together: that Sanctification must always follow 
 doctrine,— this doctrine, and no other. Then another man is 
 converted to Christ while holding another doctrine to be true ; 
 and he makes the same grand mistake, and supposes conversion 
 and his doctrine must go together,—or at least, that Spirit will 
 regard him with more favor for holding this particular creed. 
 Thenceforward, these two children of God are incapable of taking 
 each other’s right band of fellowship ;—because they think that 
 conformity of creed is the sign of conversion, instead of uniformity 
 of nature. 
 
 21. By the mortification of the carnal faculties of the soul it 
 is, that we are reconciled with God. And of this Reconciliation, 
 the crucifixion of Jesus is the universal symbol for all nations 
 and ages. But if we have that which the sign signifies, it is not 
 necessary that we should acknowledge the connexion between the 
 substance and the symbol. It is of very great use and value to 
 have a universal symbol, but we must learn better than to insist 
 on the symbol, as if it were the essential thing. God looks 
 within. Have the substance, and He will excuse you the symbol. 
 
§ i. FRIDAY IN THE CHURCH. 
 
 151 
 
 Mortify the deeds of the carnal mind, and then you will know all 
 that is vitally requisite, about the crucifixion of Jesus. 
 
 22. Why will not people see, that Piety is the only essential, 
 and notion merely complimentary ? And that it is not what a 
 man believes , but what he is, that makes him, or not, a Christian ? 
 It must be repeated and repeated, the all-important question is 
 not, Do you consider Jesus the second persona of the Trinity ? 
 but, Have you the second persona templed in you ? It is not, 
 Do you believe in one God, and Mahomet as His prophet ? but, 
 Are you yourself a prophet and child of God ? Are you doing 
 justly, living prayerfully, loving mercy, aspiring holily, and 
 walking humbly with your God ? If you are, shake hands, 
 shake hands! and let us strive together ever to rise higher into 
 Deity. But if not, then let me advise you, dear friend, to leave 
 your merely intellectual creeds and notions, and learn, that a 
 Thinking conversion will not help you ; for nothing will avail 
 but a Being one. Intellectual offerings, fruits of the Earth, 
 fiotions and beliefs, Cain may offer, but cannot thereby please 
 God. Nothing will be accepted but the meek, and lowly, and 
 loving heart, and that is all that is essential to the Christian. 
 
 “ Were this great truth our polestar, 
 
 "We should no longer steer 
 Unprofitable journeys, 
 
 Half by faith, and half by fear : 
 
 GOD,-” 
 
 SPIRIT, not intellectual conformity ,— 
 
 “ soon shall be our polestar, 
 
 And to H]M shall we draw near.’’ 
 
§ ij. FRIDAY IN THE WORLD. 
 
 1. I know the times at present are thick of gloom. Sad, in¬ 
 deed, must they needs be, when Superstition reigns, as it does 
 now, and Scepticism, as it does now. Sad, indeed, when half the 
 world is impatient at the mere mention of religion, and the other 
 half thinks it has disproved every modern preaching and pro¬ 
 phecy, and effectually extinguished him who asserts that the 
 Heavens, and not the Jewish writings, do rule ;—by bringing an 
 odd passage out of an old book, and quoting some good, ignorant, 
 mistaken person, Peter or Paul, I care not whom, who lived in 
 the raw boyhood of the world. Sad, indeed, when Spirit, and 
 His unceasing fresh developement with the times, is not believed 
 in by the most; and when there is such a sad lack of faith in the 
 intelligent, and of intelligence in the faithful. But amid all 
 these present evils, there is yet quite enough to convince any 
 seer, that we are approaching a Day of Goodness,—even without 
 the help of the parable of Creation. And that this is the case, I 
 shall now try to shew. 
 
 2. The first thing to he observed, in glancing at the times, is a 
 certain universal tendency towards the equalization of labour. 
 In all ages heretofore, since the fall of Lucifer, there have been 
 two classes,—the poor bees, and the rich drones. The one has 
 
§ ij. FRIDAY IN THE WORLD. 
 
 153 
 
 teen oppressed almost past endurance with physical toil, because 
 they have had, not only their own work to do, but that of others 
 also. Even the children, 
 
 “ The young, youDg children, O my brothers!” 
 
 are forced to spend their flesh and blood, for those great, bloated 
 do-littles, 
 
 “ Half-ignorant, who turn an easy wheel. 
 
 That sets sharp racks to work, to pinch and peel." 
 
 Let us joy, however, that higher views of life and duty are be¬ 
 ginning to possess the wealthy classes: that the law of labour, 
 which makes the idle person wicked and contemptible, is already * 
 a trifle better understood. That those only have a right to ex¬ 
 istence, who work for it; and that fungus and parasitism are sure 
 signs of decay. And let us joy, also, that as it is beginning to be 
 known that all must work, there is, too, an initial acknowledge¬ 
 ment that none must be over-worked ; that excessive labour in 
 any sphere is what none ought to be forced to. The rights of 
 the poor man to intellectual culture are beginning to be owned, 
 here and there : he must have time, and that he may have this, 
 he must have some means of living without all this exceeding 
 toil. Beyond all question, the change must come : it will come, 
 it will not tarry. 
 
 3. One of the poor man’s best friends is Machinery; which, 
 though it wounds the poor at first, and throws crowds out of 
 employ, is indeed one of the great prophets, as I take it, and 
 trumpets of the Love-millenium. For the time has now come, 
 when a great reform in labour can properly be begun : because 
 every man ought to have scope to fill up the full measure of his 
 bumanhood: and though this has been impossible hitherto, it 
 must now begin to be. The poor are oppressed,—denied time to 
 cultivate social sympathies, and Spiritual and intellectual health : 
 now, therefore, will God teach men how to substitute senseless 
 iron for sentient muscle, and in man’s hand puts the lamp and 
 the ring, which are to make the great Genii of Fire and Water 
 his obedient slaves. And though much evil results from the 
 superseding of manual by mechanical labour, as the starving 
 throats of hundreds have testified: yet such is always the case 
 
154 VI. GOODNESS. 
 
 when genius works change : and whenever the censer of fire is 
 thrown into the Earth [Rev. viij, 5], to effect the requisite 
 reformations, it is always attended with wailing voices, and 
 savage thunderings, and fierce lightnings, and haiL Yet, though 
 the great trumpet, as I called it, before it can sound forth the 
 clear Millenial tune, must first breathe out the damp, foul air of 
 threatening and slaughter which is within it; still the event is 
 certainly for good.—And when the reign of Life shall have 
 closed, and Goodness shall rule under the shadow of Love; men 
 will subside into that calm, healthy labour, which shall befit 
 the Sabbath dawn; and the race, having survived its measles, 
 convulsions, and green-sicknesses, shall not have one of its mem¬ 
 bers with too much toil. 
 
 4. These huge stationary forces being thus established to cur¬ 
 tail that excessive labour, in the heat of which so much of the 
 worthier part of the soul doth swail away; next comes the 
 growth of the same forces into a higher developement; and 
 wheel is put to wheel, power to power, till the whole mass moves 
 along. Now then the railway prostrates its long iron skeleton 
 upon the ground. Now almost wings and lightnings seem added 
 to wheels, and goods and persons are whirled long, enormous 
 freights at enormous speeds. 
 
 5. And mark what a bearing this has upon the Day of Good¬ 
 ness. For the dwellers in the same island must no longer be 
 aliens and foes: hand must be brought to hand now, though 
 from afar ; and heart to heart. Distance has grown grey in his 
 tyranny;—no matter ;—his commission now in great part must 
 be taken away. Sons, and sisters, and sire, must no more be 
 sundered in affection, and taught to forget to love, at the bidding 
 of a few paltry tens or hundreds of miles : but between the par¬ 
 ticles of the social mass, the noble element of goodwill is to have 
 free commerce, and none may say to it, What doest thou ? By 
 the extraordinary currency of intellectual and social, as well as 
 political wealth, the extending of marriage-ties from villages to 
 provinces, the breaking down of caste, the enlarging of intellect, 
 and then of affection, is the railway to aid in bringing on the 
 reign of Goodness. 
 
 6. But now for the same forces under another phase. Because 
 
§ ij. FRIDAY IN THE WORLD. 
 
 it is not enough that by railways all the ridges and hills of dia-. 
 lect and provincialism should be smoothed down into a level plain 
 of speech; nor that society’s vital fluids should circulate from 
 county to county merely : country and country, hemisphere and 
 hemisphere, must now be made to infuse vitalities and utilities 
 into each other, and be compelled, however unwillingly, to give 
 each other an eternal shake-hands. For this purpose., we see our 
 mechanical forces, under a third transformation, as Sea-farers y 
 going out to effect that between state and state, which their kin¬ 
 dred of the land have to do for town and town. And not the 
 least of their triumphs will be this; that all languages will be¬ 
 come one. 
 
 7. Is it not monstrous, now, that I cannot go a few hundred 
 miles to the east, without losing the ability of understanding a 
 brother’s speech ? Speech should be a universal medium : and 
 what is speech here, should be speech also in Paris, at Berlin, and 
 Copenhagen, and Constantinople. And as the Lord liveth, there 
 is not one valley, now a difficulty, that shall not be filled up ; 
 not one mountain, now an obstacle in the way of such an accom¬ 
 plishment, that shall not be laid low. All nations will have to 
 become one nation; all tribes and races of men, one race; all 
 tongues and dialects, one universal tongue. There was a time 
 when I deplored the corruption of the old simple English, by its 
 admixture with the Latin. But now I rejoice thereat: since it 
 tends to ally our language with all those which have been built 
 on the Latin tongue. And for the same reason, I am glad to see 
 new styles introduced, and all manner of innovations : as by 
 Thomas Carlyle, for instance; who is building a bridge over 
 which all Germany will have to slide into our English tongue. 
 We want new words, to make the language richer: and a large 
 infusion of new idioms. For I suppose it is the English that is 
 to be the language of the world. 
 
 8. We have thus seen our new forces, under a stationary 
 aspect,—or, to speak fancifully, under a vegetable type. We 
 have next seen them assuming rotary legs, or wheels,—becom¬ 
 ing animals, as it were,—beasts of burden on iron legs. Then 
 we have seen them, thirdly, undergo another metamorphosis, and 
 taking to themselves fins and tails, becoming fishes, plunging into 
 
156 
 
 VI. GOODNESS. 
 
 the deep, to do our national errands. Is it too rash to prophecy 
 that they will pass through another transformation ?—I see them 
 taking to themselves wings instead of wheels, to fly abroad in the 
 open firmament like birds. 
 
 9, “ We do too little feel each other’s pain: 
 
 We do too much relax the social chain 
 
 That binds us to each other.’’ 
 
 This, inasfar as it is the fruit of circumstances, must now be 
 remedied by circumstances : and as one part of the medicine, the 
 Penny Postage, is proposed, seconded, adopted. A little thing! 
 a boon at first of mere pence ! but at last, a mighty instrument, 
 a wondrous fosterer of the infant Love.—Further ; the old way 
 of writing is too tedious : it is no longer right that we should 
 need hours on hours to write what we should speak in one : 
 social intercourse, family affection, are not to be hindered, 
 thwarted, by that at present universal excuse, ‘7 would have writ - 
 ten, hut I had not time? Thought is to strike upon thought, feel¬ 
 ing upon feeling, spite of distance, spite of time. 
 
 10. Now, therefore, comes Pitman, Phonography in hand.— 
 Our living flocks of thoughts need no longer trudge it slowly 
 and wearily down the pen and along the paper, hindering each 
 other as they struggle through the strait gate of the old hand¬ 
 writing : our troops of feelings need no more crawl, as snails 
 crawl, to their station on the page: regiment after regiment may 
 now trot briskly forward, to fill paragraph after paragraph : and 
 writing, once a trouble, is now at breathing-ease. Our kind and 
 loving thoughts, warm and transparent, liquid as melted from the 
 hot heart, shall no longer grow opaque, and freeze with a tedious 
 dribbling from the pen; but the whole soul may now pour itself 
 forth in a sweet shower of words. Phonotypy and Phonography 
 will be of a use in the world not dreamt of, but by a few.—Aye, 
 and shake your heads as ye will, they will uproot the old spel¬ 
 ling, they will yet triumph over the absurdities of the dead age. 
 
 ' 11. But now another word goes out from the beneficent 
 Father, and behold! straightway the banns of marriage are pub¬ 
 lished between man’s social wants and the secret forces of the 
 earth; and wires are stretched miles away, whose distant ends 
 are to unite in swift pulsations of news. This electric postman 
 
§ ij. FRIDAY IN THE WORLD. 
 
 157 
 
 will he the salvation of millions of property, and what is of more 
 consequence, will he the help and comfort of millions of anxious 
 hearts. This wiry policeman will intimidate and deter the thief, 
 lining his path with all eyes, to make detection sure. 
 
 12. In Mesmerism and Hydropathy, I discern the beginnings 
 of a new era in medicine. As for the first of these, there can, at 
 present, he no limits set to its ultimate possibilities. And as to * 
 the last, let us he certain, that by taking a cold hath frequently, 
 and drinking cold water, instead of hot, unwholesome tea or 
 coffee, or ale and wine, we fulfil the intentions of our nature, and 
 preserve our frames in wholesome circumstances. Hard, daily 
 physical, alternating properly with psychical, exercise; exposure 
 to much open air ; frequent cold immersion; temperance in food; 
 avoidance of mental anxiety;—when these are restored to man¬ 
 kind, such a disease, for instance, as pulmonary consumption, will 
 not he once heard of. 
 
 13. Far be it from me to try to inventorize the progressions 
 and tendencies of the age; hut one more symptom I will notice, 
 and then have done. Observe, then, how that in this sixth Day, 
 a reviviscence of the Souls of all the preceding Days occurs. 
 Truth, for instance :—see what inquiry there is on all sides;— 
 how active and confident it is growing in our times. Hence the 
 soul of Reform that is everywhere so visible. The nations are 
 anxious to arrive at Truth, not only in abstract principle, but to 
 infuse it into life of every sort, and see what it is in relation to 
 politics, what to marriage, to worship, to law, to institutions. 
 Everything in our days must he catechized as to its excuse for 
 existence; and it is no longer sufficient that such and such things 
 have been hitherto; but all former criticisms, it is felt, must be 
 criticized; the world in all its particulars revised; and every¬ 
 thing set on its solid and final basis. Thus points of interroga¬ 
 tion are starting up on all sides like armed men, and each de¬ 
 mands a settling. 
 
 14. The soul of Power, as new-developed in this age, has 
 already been alluded to in part [^[ 4, 5, 6, 8] ; and by a con¬ 
 sideration of science and its advancements, you may easily, so far 
 as can yet be done, complete the picture. 
 
 15. Or look at Beauty, and then say whether this sixth Day 
 
 Y 
 
158 
 
 VI. GOOBNESS. 
 
 has no such reviviscence as I speak of. We have better poetry, 
 and more poets here living in England,—aye, and much greater 
 than most of the great names of the past,—than any former age 
 has known. And then there is a much wider-spread love of 
 poetry, than before ; though even yet, the people have little 
 enough of true judgment. But the faculty of knowing a poet 
 when they see him, will come to them by and by.—There is, too, 
 a more prevalent eye for Beauty than our fathers ever had. 
 Look only at the new houses, and the old, to be convinced of it: 
 and at the increased love for trees and flowers. The new books, 
 also, shew the same Soul, in their clean type, clear paper, exqui¬ 
 site illustrations, and neat bindings. The very dress of our men, 
 women, and children, confesses an improved eye for Beauty : we 
 have got rid of plaister, and powder, and pigtail; would that we 
 had got rid of stays, those slaughterers of our women’s health and 
 beauty, too! The men, also, are beginning timidly, and with 
 delicate caution, to shave rather less rigorously than before : and 
 by and by, we shall have them wearing what God meant them to 
 wear,—unviolated beards. All these tendencies and results, 
 prove, I am sure, that Beauty is reawakening in our times. 
 
 16. Nor is Light less energetically developing itself now. 
 We have men equal to any of past ages, with a few exceptions, at 
 the most; and our literature is a spreading tree. Look at the 
 amazing diffusion of knowledge, down till it strikes its roots into 
 the whole lower strata of the people.—Of Life and Utility, 
 nothing need be said, except one single circumspice. 
 
 17. A beautiful prefigurement of the approaching time has 
 been given us by Isaiah. —Thine ears shall hear a word behind 
 thee saying, ‘This is the way , walk ye in it,' when ye turn to the 
 right hand, and when ye turn to the left. For men shall then be 
 guided by God’s own sweet whisper, and not by any paper-and- 
 ink deity: and shall acknowledge that in every man’s nature is a 
 Voice which is the only infallible guide. Ye shall defile also the 
 covering of your graven images of silver, and the ornament of your 
 molten images of gold: ye shall say unto it, Get thee hexce. 
 And Israel shall dwell in the land of the fallen Canaanites, and 
 fortune-hunting, and all lucrative speculation shall be abhorred ; 
 and the idolatry of silver and gold shall be done away.— Then 
 
159 
 
 § ij. FRIDAY IN THE WORLD. 
 
 shall He give thee rain of thy seed , that thou shalt sow the ground 
 withal: and Bread of the increase of the Earth , and it shall he 
 fat and plenteous ; in that Day shall thy Cattle feed in large pas¬ 
 tures. Yes, the Earth shall bring forth a glad increase, as it is 
 even doing now [^[ 16]. And men shall no longer be hemmed 
 in by narrow notions, and the old obsolete modes of thought; 
 but their Cattle, their intellectuality, their thoughts and views, 
 shall have the wide Universe for a pasture ground.— And there 
 shall he upon every high Mountain, and upon every high Hill , 
 rivers and streams of Waters , in the Day of the great slaughter , 
 when the Towers fall. For on the highest intellectual eminences, 
 shall be hundreds and thousands of people, where now are only 
 units and poor tens, in the Day when all mere notional religions, 
 all Babylon, shall fall.— Moreover , the light of the Moon shall he 
 as the light of the Sun; so wide shall knowledge spread;— 
 Mahomedom shall be as intellectually enlightened as Christendom 
 is now :— and the light of the Sun shall he Sevenfold , as the light 
 of Seven Days [^[ 16], alluding to the wide-spread scientific and 
 literary knowledge which is now establishing itself, and which 
 shall be fulfilled— in the Day that the Lord hindeth up the breach 
 of His people ;—that Babel, which now multisects the church. 
 
 18. Let me quote also somewhat from the prophecies by a 
 modern prophet, who thus prefigures the approaching time. 
 “!£Tever will the sky have been so serene, nor the earth so 
 green and fertile. And instead of the dim twilight which we 
 call day, a living and pure light will shine from on high as a re¬ 
 flection of the face of God. And men will look at each other by 
 this light, and they will say, We did not know either ourselves or 
 others : We knew not what man was. Now we know." 
 
 19. “When, after long drought, a soft rain falls upon the earth, 
 it eagerly drinks the water from heaven which refreshes and fer¬ 
 tilizes it. Thus will the thirsty nations eagerly drink the Word 
 of God, when it shall come down on them as a warm shower. 
 And justice with love, and peace, and liberty, will grow up in 
 their bosom. And the age shall be as when all were brothers, 
 and there shall be no more heard the voice of the master, nor 
 the voice of the slave, the groanings of the poor, nor the sighs 
 of the oppressed, but the songs of cheerfulness and blessing. 
 
160 
 
 VI. GOODNESS. 
 
 Fathers will say to their sons, ‘ Our earlier days were troubled, 
 full of tears and anguish. Meanwhile the sun rose and went 
 down on our joy. Blessed be God, who has shewn us these favors 
 before we die !’ And mothers will say to their daughters, * Look 
 upon our brows, now so calm; vexation, grief, care, dug there 
 formerly deep furrows. Yours are as at spring time, the surface 
 of a lake agitated by no breeze. Blessed be God, who has shewn 
 us these favors before we die.’ And the young men will say to 
 the young maidens, 1 You are fair as the flowers of the field, pure 
 as the dew which refreshes them, as the light which gives them 
 colour. It is sweet to us to see our fathers, it is sweet to us to 
 be near our mothers; but when we see you, and are near you, 
 there enters into our soul that which has a name only in heaven. 
 Blessed be God, who has shewn us these favors before we die !’ 
 And the young maidens will reply, ‘ The flowers fade, they pass 
 away: a day comes when the dew does not refresh them, nor the 
 light any more give them colour. On the earth it is only virtue 
 which never fades or passes away. Our fathers are as the ear 
 which fills with corn towards the autumn, and our mothers as the 
 vine which is laden with fruit. It is sweet to us to see our 
 fathers, it is sweet to us to be near our mothers, and the sons of 
 our fathers and of our mothers are also dear to us. Blessed be 
 God, who has shewn us these favors before we die!”’ * 
 
 20. Rejoice, then, ye Heavenly hosts, ye living Stars of God. 
 I also will sing aloud. For lo the East grows rosy ripe, like 
 peaches in summer climes. I see the old chains of the world 
 rusting and consuming,—I see the evil sceptres that have been 
 stretched so long over the church and the world, like red and 
 white crystals of frozen blood and tears, liquifying and running 
 down from the hands that have so long held them. I see 
 
 “ A little wavering lumour, 
 
 Vanished now, now clear to ken,— 
 
 The hidden sun of wisdom 
 Throwing up his dawn!— and then 
 I SEE LOVE SWAY THE SCEPTRE 
 For a thousand years to men !"t 
 
 ♦ “The Words of a Believer,” translated from the French. Aylott and Jones. 
 Paternoster Row. 1845. 
 
 f Poems, by Coventry Patmore. E. Moxon, London. 1841. Price 5s. 
 
VII. LOVE. 
 
Hath He not made both one?. And wherefore one?— 
 
 That He might seek a godly seed. 
 
§ i. THE UNIVERSE. 
 
 1. Of Spiritual Love there are two kinds : (1) by internal, 
 and (2) by external Perception. And that I may speak of these 
 the more intelligibly, let us first consider the true doctrine of the 
 All. 
 
 2. The Universe hath Five provinces ; which again fall under 
 Three heads; and the Three under Two ; and the Two under 
 One. And hence the number Five may be expected to adapt 
 itself to many Natural things: as well as the number Three. 
 And take note ; when I speak of the Universe, I mean the five 
 provinces; when of Eden, or the Altar,— the first four pro¬ 
 vinces, excluding the fifth [Prol. 26] ; and when of Nature,— 
 the three lower provinces alone. 
 
 3. The fifth province we call the Ineffable,— pure, uncon¬ 
 ditioned Being: and of Him we know nothing, because we can¬ 
 not know anything per se , or noumenal: the condition of all 
 things knowable being, that they do become phenomenal. For 
 we cannot know anything except through sensation, either in¬ 
 ternal or external [Prol 22]. Yet we can conclude , by reasoning, 
 and be quite sure, that a fifth province does exist, though of 
 this we have a knowledge negative, or of the second intent , only. 
 
 4. The fourth province of the Universe, is the synthesis of 
 
164 
 
 VII. LOVE. 
 
 the fifth and the third. It is the Ineffable uniting with 
 Nature, to make Man. It is the full knowledge of God. For 
 this fourth province we have many names; as God, Cheist, 
 Spirit, Man, Jehovah, Lord. And as the fifth province is the 
 Father, so the fourth is the Son ;—the Ineffable made flesh, or 
 incarnated, and dwelling amongst us ;—God manifesting Himself 
 in and to the human being. 
 
 5. The third, second, and first provinces of the Universe, are 
 the animal, vegetable, and mineral. 
 
 6. And now see how this bears on the doctrine of the Trinity 
 of God. The first persona of the Trinity is the Ineffable, or 
 fifth province of the Universe [^f 3] : the second persona is the 
 Son [^[ 4] : and Nature the third [^[ 5].—The doctrine of the 
 Trinity, indeed, is confessed throughout all Nature : which, as I 
 have shewn her [Prol. 12] to be triune in provinces, is equally 
 triune in elements, though of these elements I have heretofore 
 contented myself with dwelling upon two. 
 
 7. In fact, Matter, of which all Nature consists [Prol. 6], has 
 three constituents, which we will name (1) Soul; (2) Psyche- 
 some, or Bodysoul ; and (3) Body. 
 
 8. As the second persona of the Trinity is the synthesis of the 
 first and third personae [^[ 4] ; so the second element of 
 Nature is the synthesis of the first and third elements: 
 for which reason we call it Psychesome, or Bodysoul, because it 
 is the union of the Body and Soul of Nature. There are, then, 
 Seven psychesomic qualities : among which are, (1) Zoenergia, or 
 the “ nervous fluid (2) Electricity; (3) Galvanism ; (4) Mag¬ 
 netism ; (5) Light; (6) Caloric. These are, like all things 
 else, the same esse, viewed in different ways. 
 
 9. And just as the Seven Souls are representatives of the 
 Seven Spirits of God, and the Seven colours, forms, and sounds 
 likewise [iii, i, 2, 6, 11, 12] ; so are the Seven Bodysouls, and the 
 Seven Bodies. This sympathetic correspondence may indeed be 
 seen, in one or two instances, very visibly : as, for example, between 
 Heat and Love, and Light and Intelligence. Thus we say, we 
 burn with affection ; call Love ardent , fervent; say it is enkindled 
 in the heart, and that its fires consume us. Heat expands bodies, 
 causes them to liquify and volatilize, till all their sharpnesses and 
 
§ i. THE UNIVERSE. 
 
 165 
 
 unevennesses are melted away. Now, precisely such an effect 
 has Love on the social world: it joins particle of society to par¬ 
 ticle ; runs men together, fuses them into one mass, one body 
 with one soul. But for Heat, this planet would be a shrunken 
 mass, hard and obdurate : and just so it is with the human 
 world; for society becomes frigid, impracticable, no better than a 
 corpse, without some small gift of Love. Company is like a dry 
 stick, a stale crust, without some small touch of sympathy: but 
 bring together the worst strangers in the world, and let a little 
 conversation, by the tone of voice and pleasantness of mien, be¬ 
 tray the presence of goodwill;—let the people begin to detect 
 some little sympathy in thought and feeling, and grow aware of 
 the existence of certain small fibres of mutual charity, which their 
 hearts are silently weaving round each other; and then, lo, how 
 the company coalesces ! Conversation briskens, eyes light up, 
 faces become eloquent, thoughts and emotions fly like electrified 
 pith-balls backwards and forwards, receiving and discharging, till 
 the parties are brought, for the time being, into a tranquil 
 equality.—Yes, there is a profound analogy between Heat and 
 Love. 
 
 10. And so it is with Light and Intelligence. For this cause, 
 the same word which expresses physical, expresses psychical illu¬ 
 mination. So we talk of the benighted soul; say the heathen sit 
 in darkness ; call such a one an enlightened person, a man of illu¬ 
 minated understanding. 
 
 11. And if these analogies exist between the elements of Mat¬ 
 ter, so do they between the trinities of the Universe, as will be 
 apparent from the following table. 
 
 1 
 
 GOD. 
 
 MAN. 
 
 | NATURE. 
 
 1 
 
 Ineffable. 
 
 Heaven. 
 
 | Soul. 
 
 2 I 
 
 Spirit. 
 
 Earth. 
 
 Bodysoul. 
 
 3 I 
 
 Nature. | 
 
 Sea. 
 
 I Body. 
 
 (1) the first persona of the Trinity, the Zion-faculties, and 
 the Soul, have an analogical correspondency with each other; 
 the two latter being images, or representatives of the former. 
 So also (2) the second persona, the intellectual sphere, and 
 z 
 
166 
 
 VII. LOVE. 
 
 the Psychesome r agree in like manner: for we know that 
 Spirit, the true Word of God, is quick and powerful, sharper than 
 any two-edged sword, penetrating all resistances : which are also 
 the characteristics of the Thinking faculty, and the psychesomic 
 elements, such as Light, Electricity, and Heat. And the same 
 correspondency is there between (3) the third persona of the 
 Trinity, the carnal faculties, and the Body. 
 
 12. Now let us return to our consideration of the All. The 
 All is an infinite Circle, the first province uniting immediately 
 with the fifth, and the fifth with the first,—the point where they 
 meet being called Nonentity. Hence the law of Circles holds 
 throughout all Nature, and hence the origin of that all-embrac¬ 
 ing proverb, extremes meet. To exemplify this proverb take 
 the following illustrations. 
 
 13. Look, for instance, at the saint and the savage. The sen¬ 
 sual man lives to the present alone; about the past he does not 
 trouble himself, and he takes no provident thought for the 
 future. Winter may bring what hunger, and kibes, and misery 
 it will: summer is here now, and that is all he cares for. But 
 let him grow more intellectual and refined, let him get out of the 
 lower into the middle sphere, and then he is apt to despise the 
 present, with its ‘ pitiful round of prosaic duties and regards 
 the past with melancholy, regret, or remorse ; and looks forward 
 to the future with great anxiety. It is not enough for him that 
 he is well and comfortable now; what perplexes him is, What 
 will tomorrow, or What will next year bring forth ? He takes 
 much thought for the future, and for it most un-lily-like toils 
 and spins. But the true Divine man, who looks more compre¬ 
 hensively at the Universe, is calm and free, and values the pre¬ 
 sent as his only treasure. He does not need the solace of the 
 thought 
 
 “ That the future has its heaven, 
 
 And the past its long-ago 
 
 but does his best to make up matters so as to extract and enjoy all 
 the marrow of to-day : the present moment shall be sterling, he 
 determines ; it shall be genuine gold. He is not anxious for the 
 future, and does not believe that God owes him a grudge, and 
 will lead him into a hobble, if he does not mind and look sharp 
 
§ i. TUB UNIVERSE. 
 
 167 
 
 about him : but knows, on the contrary, that not a sparrow falls 
 groundwards without the knowledge of his Father, and is sure 
 that he is of more value with God than many sparrows. He 
 says, To-morrow, the unborn, needs not my care: yesterday, the 
 dead, may bury its dead.—Thus the savage and the saint both 
 agree in this Epicurean philosophy ; both live for the present, 
 and as if there were to be no Hereafter. And thus the Universe 
 completes the circle, and keeps its balance true. 
 
 14. Again, in Self-consciousness, the Circular arrangement is 
 the same. It is always the middle, or intellectual class, that is 
 so intensely conscious of itself and its existence: not the sensual, 
 nor the Mystical. A dreadful thing is this “ self-consideration.” 
 The uncultivated ploughman does not trouble himself—not he ! 
 —with questions of the Why, the How, the Whence, the 
 Whither: he comes into the world, lives here for so many years, 
 takes it as a thing of course, and never once guesses what a won¬ 
 derful thing it is. It is the intellectual man who first asks him¬ 
 self such questions: he sees what a deep, prodigious secret it all 
 is. Such a one you have in Byron, in Dante, in Ilazlitt, in Ros- 
 seau. How intense, how virulent, is the self-consciousness of 
 these ! But what makes them so miserable is, that this con¬ 
 sciousness is an incomplete, partial one: could they but get it 
 completed, and enter into perfect Being.; that is, could they but 
 become less conscious of self, and more conscious of God, all then 
 would be well with them. The true Christian, the Mystical man, 
 is perfectly free from this miserable consciousness: thus resem¬ 
 bling the ploughman, or the infant, not by being at a less dis¬ 
 tance from them than the intellectual man, but by being at a 
 greater. For here also is described the circle. 
 
 15. Does the same law hold with respect to Affirmation, and 
 Certainty ?—The ignorant man is always confident of everything: 
 he thinks facts are easily ascertained, and is ready to vouch, with 
 great rashness, for the truth of anything he has at any time seen, 
 or heard, or read. He takes up the most unfounded notions : 
 reasons for what he says, he condescends not to assign, but as far 
 as assertion will go, you have every attestation from him. But 
 let him become further acquainted with Nature, and see how 
 wonderfully one fact underlies, conceals, or distorts another : and 
 
168 
 
 VII. LOVi. 
 
 let him only enquire, what is the ground and origin of all his 
 knowledge, and so forth : then he becomes abundantly sceptical, 
 distrusts all things, except his own consciousness, and dares to 
 assert and affirm very little indeed. He thinks the height of all 
 knowledge is to know that nothing can be known. But rising 
 into the Life of God, beholding the face of the Invisible, the case 
 alters. By the Divine perception now enjoyed, the man begins 
 once more to speak in decided affirmations: and while he distrusts 
 and disclaims argument, he nevertheless speaks boldly, calmly, 
 clearly, that which he knows ; testifies that which he sees ; and 
 feels that it is idle to argue about Heavenly things, as being far 
 above the reach of the intellectual powers. Once more the Cir¬ 
 cle describes itself: and the deepest dunce and the highest philo¬ 
 sopher agree. 
 
 16. I find that old Ezekiel was not without a prophetic 
 glimpse of the bearing of this universal law of Circles. For, 
 after alluding to the laws and ordinances of Eden, or the Altar, 
 of which Altar the Cherubim are the images, or symbols ; he 
 says, “ As for their wheels, it was cried unto them in my hearing , 
 O WHEEL !”—that is, O CIRCLE !—a significant enunciation 
 of the circularity which I have said belongs to the constitution of 
 the All. 
 
 17. For Being and Non-being* join hands : so that the Inef¬ 
 fable is partly in Being, and partly in Non-being ; and Nature is 
 the same. And thus, if Being be carried backward as far as it 
 may go, it merges itself in its opposite: and thus, also, Non- 
 being, sunk to its last depths below Nature, begins to ascend on 
 the other side of the wheel, and lapses through the Ineffable, 
 into perfect Being. Man is four stages above Nonentity; 
 animals, three ; vegetables, two ; minerals, one. Thus minerals 
 are the finest and merest shadows of existence, and the edge of 
 their province is shaded off into the Ineffable. Hence the plant 
 is more real, has a more real existence, than a stone: and an 
 animal than a plant.—Spirit, or Man, is the culmination-point, 
 the highest achievement of Existence : the only true unmixed 
 
 * It is the imperfection of language that compels me to speak of Nonentity, as if it 
 were an entity. The student will see the meaning very plainly, if he considers the words 
 well, in spite of the contradiction in terms forced to be used 
 
§ i. THE UNIVERSE. 
 
 169 
 
 Reality. Hence the profound propriety of than name Moses 
 gives Jehovah, or Spirit, when he allegorically and poetically 
 represents Him as calling Himself the “ I AM.” For if we could 
 ascend higher than the fourth province, we should then have be¬ 
 gun to lapse into Non-being. But this it is impossible for us to 
 do [^[ 3] ; higher than Spirit we cannot go ;—whence the pro¬ 
 priety of that other name given to Jehovah, even the “ MOST 
 HIGH.” 
 
 18. And now mark the manner of the creation. It was not a 
 descent, hut an arising. Not through Spirit downward did the 
 Ineffable work, in making the worlds; but backwards, as it were, 
 through Nonentity, working upwards, achieving first the mineral, 
 then the vegetable and animal provinces; till He finally, to com¬ 
 plete all things, after countless ages, became fully conscious of 
 Himself in Man. Thus God is rightly, though figuratively, said 
 to have made the world from Nothing: not from Spirit, and so 
 downwards; but from Nonentity, upwards. This reveals to us 
 the beautiful fact, that there has never been a moment since the 
 creation of the firmament of Heaven, in which lived no Spiritual 
 man. For it is as impossible, nay, more impossible, that the 
 good should cease from the earth, but for one moment, than that 
 the whole vegetable world should become extinct. Always since 
 that creation there has been a church; always a saint, who, amid 
 darkest times, has not bowed the knee to Baal. 
 
 19. And now let me point out a few more of those beautiful 
 analogies, which abound through all the Universe, as any one 
 who studies the matter will perceive. In Past, Present, and 
 Future, we have a symbol of the Trinity of God. The past 
 represents Nature,—antecedent to Man : the future, the Ineffable, 
 not yet attained, and unattainable. It is only in the present, 
 that we arrive at solidity and base,—only the present is our true 
 and real possession, the past and the future being shadowy and 
 incomplete. And herein Spirit and the past exactly agree. Or 
 look at another of these natural symbols of the Trinity :— Sky, 
 Earth, Sea. The sky stands for the Ineffable ; so high, so in¬ 
 accessible : would we ascend towards it, it recedes; it is not, and 
 never can be ours. The sea is like the past,—is like Nature; it 
 is only half ours : we can skim across it in our vessels, and fish 
 
170 
 
 YU. LOVE. 
 
 up from its depths odd facts now and then: hut it is not our 
 home, our real dwelling-place ; it is not, as the earth is, ours. 
 But on the earth, on the land, we are at home: it is to us some¬ 
 thing solid, as it were, and substantial. And in this it is a fit 
 type of Spirit, and of the present. 
 
 Ineffable. 
 
 Spirit. 
 
 Nature. 
 
 Future. 
 
 Present. 
 
 Past. 
 
 Sky. 
 
 Land. 
 
 Ocean. 
 
 This scale of correspondencies might be continued to an indefinite 
 extent; as Gas, Solid, Fluid; Soul, Bodysoul, Body, &c. 
 
 20. The duty of every province, is to fulfil itself, and com¬ 
 plete its own nature. And thus Aspiration towards Himself, or his 
 own proper station and dignity; viz., the fourth province of the 
 Universe; is the whole duty of Man. Thus, the unconverted 
 Man is placed at one remove from real Life, and his task and 
 great concern it is, to rise above the shadows, into Reality. And 
 the origin and ground of all our unhappiness, lies in this alone : 
 that our nature is incomplete, our high Destiny unfulfilled, our 
 lives dislocated from the fourth province, or God.— I come , said 
 Jesus, that ye might have LIFE, and that ye might have it more 
 abundantly. 
 
 21. It is the law of the Universe, that nothing shall have that 
 which it neglects to make good its claim to. Thus, directly a tree 
 ceases, by its inner energy of vitality, to assert its right to be a 
 tree, then it becomes a member of the mineral province, and 
 ceases to be a vegetable. It would go lower than the mineral 
 province, and become annihilated, only that, just as nothing can 
 climb higher than the fourth province [^[ 17], so nothing can 
 go lower than the first. No particle of Matter can ever be anni¬ 
 hilated.—And as it is with the tree, so it is with the Man. He 
 cannot be a member of the fourth province, if he will not prove 
 his title to it by work and self-denial. Hence Jesus said, Unto 
 him that hath (true Life) shall be given (more true Life) ; but 
 from him that hath not (true Being) shall be taken away even that 
 (imperfect Being) ivkich he hath. It is just, therefore, that the wicked 
 should die ; it is just, also, that the righteous should have Life 
 abundantly. And yet all is in harmony with the Universal Love. 
 
§ ij. INTERNAL PERCEPTIVE LOVE. 
 
 1. And now having attained to a more complete view of the 
 infinite All, we shall be able to treat more lucidly of Love of 
 God, by internal and external perception. And first, understand 
 clearly, what is meant by the Love of God. It is the love of 
 Spirit : the love of Spiritual Truth, Power, Beauty, Light, Life, 
 Goodness, and Love, as sensated by the internal senses. To burn 
 for, aspire after, hope for, pant for, live for these, to hunger and 
 thirst after them, avoiding everything that darkens the view of 
 them, and counting all other acquisitions as comparatively dross 
 and dung,—that is what we mean by loving God. It is not the 
 forming a conception of God in the intellect, and loving that con¬ 
 ception : but it is the having and loving the sensation of Him in 
 the Spiritual senses. 
 
 2. By help of a translation (for I do not read Greek), let us 
 hear what Plotinus can say upon the true Vision or Love of God. 
 “ With what ardent love, with what strong desire, will he who 
 enjoys this transporting vision be inflamed, while vehemently 
 affecting to become one with this supreme Beauty!... .Such a 
 one is agitated with a salutary astonishment; is affected with the 
 highest and truest love ; derides vehement affections and inferior 
 loves, and despises the beauty which he once approved.” 
 
172 
 
 VII. LOVE. 
 
 3. “ If any one should ever behold that which is the Source 
 of munificence to others, remaining in itself, while it communi¬ 
 cates to all, and receiving nothing, because possessing an inex¬ 
 haustible fulness; and should so abide in the intuition, as to be¬ 
 come similar to his nature,—what more of Beauty can such a one 
 desire ? For such Beauty, since it is supreme in dignity and ex¬ 
 cellence, cannot fail of rendering its votaries lovely and fair. 
 Add, too, that since the object of contest to souls is the highest 
 Beauty, we should strive for its acquisition with unabated ardour, 
 lest we should be deserted of that blissful contemplation, which 
 whoever pursues in the right way, becomes blessed from the 
 happy vision; and which he who does not obtain, is unavoidably 
 unhappy. For the miserable man is not he who neglects to pur¬ 
 sue fair colours and beautiful corporeal forms; who is deprived 
 of power and falls from dominion and empire; but he alone who 
 is destitute of the divine possession, for which the ample dominion 
 of the earth and sea, and the still more extended empire of the 
 heavens, must be relinquished and forgot, if, despising and leaving 
 these far behind, we ever intend to arrive at substantial felicity.” 
 
 4. “ What measures, then, shall we adopt ? What machine 
 employ, or what reason consult, by means of which we may con¬ 
 template this ineffable Beauty ?... .We must enter deep into our¬ 
 selves, and, leaving behind the objects of corporeal sight, no 
 longer look back after any of the accustomed spectacles of sense. 
 Having now closed the corporeal eye, we must stir up, and 
 assume a purer eye within [the Divine faculty], which all men 
 possess, but which is alone used by a few.” “ The soul must be 
 first accustomed to contemplate fair studies, and then beautiful 
 works; not such as arise from the operations of Art, but such as 
 are the offspring of worthy men; and next, it is necessary to view 
 the soul [Spirit] which is the parent of this lovely race. But 
 you will ask, after what manner is this Beauty of a worthy soul 
 to be perceived ? It is thus. Recall your thoughts inward, and 
 if, while contemplating yourself, you do not perceive yourself 
 beautiful, imitate the Sculptor ; who, when he desires a beautiful 
 statue, cuts away what is superfluous, smooths and polishes what 
 is rough, and never desists until he has given it all the Beauty 
 his art is able to effect. In this manner must you proceed, by 
 
§ ij. INTERNAL PERCEPTIVE LOVE. 
 
 173 
 
 lopping what is luxuriant, directing what is oblique, and, by pur¬ 
 gation, illuminating what is obscure ; and thus continue to polish 
 and beautify your statue, until the divine splendour of virtue 
 shines upon you, and Temperance, seated in pure and holy 
 majesty, rises to your view.” “If you become thus purified, 
 residing in yourself, and having nothing any longer to impede 
 this unity of mind;if, perceiving yourself thus improved, 
 and trusting solely to yourself ” [or to God in you] ; “ fix now 
 
 steadfastly your mental view.But if your eye is yet infected 
 
 with any sordid concern, and not thoroughly refined; while it is 
 on the stretch to behold this most shining spectacle, it will be im¬ 
 mediately darkened and incapable of intuition, though some one 
 should declare the spectacle present, which it might be otherwise 
 able to discern. For it is here necessary that the perceiver and 
 the thivg perceived should he similar to each other , before true 
 vision can exist.. .Every one, therefore, must become Divine, 
 and of Godlike Beauty, before he can gaze upon a God 
 
 [m, iij, !]• 
 
 5. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God ivith all thy heart and 
 soul. This is the sovereign receipt for happiness, and just in 
 proportion as we obey this injunction, do we become partakers of 
 equilibrium, or peace. Our existence by Nature is dreadfully 
 unreal: everything we touch, rings hollow, or melts away: and, 
 for ourselves, we too are forlorn phantasms, 
 
 “ Upon the skirts of Human nature dwelling.” 
 
 “ A lady, with whom I was riding in the forest, said to me, that 
 the woods always seemed to her to wait , as if the genii who in¬ 
 habited them suspended their deeds until the wayfarer had passed 
 onward.” Yes, there is always, in all Nature, some such percep¬ 
 tion, of something suggested that is not to be seen, something that 
 should be there, but is not to be found.—Touched with the re¬ 
 membrance of what I have enjoyed in the woods, or by the river, 
 I go out to enjoy Nature once more. There she is, at a distance, 
 the beautiful creature, just the same as memory painted her; but 
 I run hither and thither, up this hill, through that copse, knee- 
 deep in these kingcups, or between these furze-bushes, and among 
 these dear little hare-bells,—and alas ! I cannot find anywhere 
 2 a 
 
174 
 
 VII. LOVE. 
 
 that which I am seeking. There the nymph is, always a few 
 hundred yards in advance of me ;—everywhere but just where I 
 happen to be. Always there is a sense of something wanting,— 
 something waiting : I am an intruder, and the fairies hide them¬ 
 selves : I am out of Nature’s books, and she will not give me up 
 her honey-lees.—And the reason of it is, that Nature is not com¬ 
 plete : she is a shadow, and gives no real solace when I embrace 
 her. And in every Natural possession and enjoyment, there will 
 always he this fine deficiency : because the third persona of the 
 Universe is only a phantasm. 
 
 6. The old Hindoo writers were well aware of the unreal 
 nature of the world. They said, He who believes that from the 
 highest state of Brahma (one of the chief created deities) to the 
 lowest state of a straiv , all are delusions, and that the one 
 Supreme Spirit is the only true Beings obtains beatitude . And the 
 same perception of the phantasmal nature of the world, has hap¬ 
 pened to all the children of God. Hear Edward Taylor, for in¬ 
 stance : “ Men in every generation have sought in the treasures 
 of the creation for real happiness and rest; and after they have 
 dived into the deep, ransacked the many mysteries obvious to 
 artists, collected the scattered parcels of felicity, pierced the 
 bowels of Nature, anatomized the creatures, and summed up their 
 totals: yet still could not overtake their lovers.” “ Many have 
 sought the living amongst the dead; every creature hath told 
 them, It is not in me.” “ Snatch me (cries Thomas a’Kempis), 
 and deliver me from all the unlasting comfort of creatures, for no 
 created thing can fully comfort and quiet my desire.” “ There is 
 no beauty to be seen (says Matthew Henry), no satisfying fulness 
 to be enjoyed in the earth, but in God only.” And the same 
 truth declares Henry Scougal, when he says, “ Love must needs 
 be miserable, and full of trouble and disquietude, when there is 
 not worth and excellency enough in the object to answer the vast¬ 
 ness of its capacity.” “ It must be extremely pinched and strait¬ 
 ened when confined to any creature ; nothing below an infinite 
 Good can afford it room to stretch itself, and exert its vigour and 
 activity.” 
 
 7. The Love of God is that to which we must aspire, bacause 
 only by so doing can we obtain Life and peace. This Love is 
 
§ ij. INTERNAL PERCEPTIVE LOVE. 175 
 
 the most delightful of all emotions, nothing can he compared to it. 
 Let Him kiss me with the kisses of His mouth , says the Spirit- 
 child, for Thy Love is better than Wine [i, ij, 6]. All intellec¬ 
 tual pleasure, however refined, is but an imperfect delight; 
 
 “ A thing wherein we feel there is some hidden want:” 
 
 but at God’s right hand is fullness of joy, and pleasure for ever¬ 
 more. The solace and blessedness we draw from the sensations 
 of Spiritual Goodness and Love, in the Mystic organs, is beyond 
 all conception : nothing can be added to it: the soul cannot sug¬ 
 gest a further completion. I have stood in my lonely chamber, 
 I have walked through the crowded street, with an inward jubi¬ 
 lance, a divine glorying, a ravishing satisfaction, impossible to de¬ 
 clare. . O blessed Jesus! 
 
 “ Where can such sweetness be 
 As I have in my Saviour Imowu, 
 
 As I have found in Thee?” 
 
 “ L tell you of a truth (says the Abbe de la Mennais), he that 
 loves, his heart is a paradise. God is ivi:hin him, for God is 
 Love. Love lies in the depth of pure souls, like a drop of dew in 
 the cup of a flower. Oh, if you did but know what it is to Love /” 
 
 8. Then it matters not what we are, where we are : in poverty, 
 in distress, in pain, in peril, in solitude, on the lonely waste, or 
 forlorn on the hill of storms :— The Beloved is there. Though 
 we should take to ourselves the morning’s wings, and fly to the 
 remotest countries, even there should His hand lead us, and His 
 right hand uphold us. The love of God depends not upon cir¬ 
 cumstances : the heart’s true Idol cannot be taken away by busi¬ 
 ness, pain, disease, fickleness; but, in the sublime heights of our 
 Aifection, we become persuaded, that neither life, nor death, nor 
 distance, nor principalities, nor present nor future things, shall be 
 able to separate us from Love. Now, we can defy all tyrannies 
 and spites. Now, a thousand may fall at our side, and ten thou¬ 
 sand backslide at our right hand; but it shall never come nigh 
 us. Now, 
 
 “ Happy we that love and are beloved, 
 
 Where we may not remove, nor be removed!” 
 
 9. For a moment, in the hour of gloom, we may almost 
 despond : but let the sense of God enter the window of the soul; 
 
176 
 
 VII. LOVE. 
 
 then pulses beat, eyes glisten, chest inflates, feet dance, heart 
 sings.— The voice of our Beloved! No matter where or what 
 we are, so long as it flutters its soft wings in the gateway of the 
 ear. Ever we own its exquisite melodiousness, 
 
 “More tunable that lark to shepherd’s ear, 
 
 When wheat is green, when hawthorn buds appear.’’— 
 
 Here are indeed full fruitions, living pleasures, infinite grati¬ 
 fications, 
 
 “Mountains of myrrh, and beds of spices. 
 
 And ten thousand paradises.” 
 
 Compared to this Love, what are all mere Soulic affections ? 
 They fade, they perish, they vanish away. But true Love 
 abides for ever. No satiety here! no sorrow; no secret shrine 
 of Melancholy, in this Temple of Delight! 
 
 “ Oh, happy Love! Oh happy, happy Love ! 
 
 For ever warm, and still 10 be enjoyed. 
 
 For ever panting, and for ever young :— 
 
 All breathing human passion far above. 
 
 That leaves a heart high-sorrowful, and cloyed, 
 
 A burning forehead, and a parched tongue.” 
 
 10. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and 
 strength. Ah, blessed commandment! Ah, joyful privelege !— 
 At all times we sit under His shadow with great delight, and His 
 fruit is sweet unto our taste. He brings us also to His banquet¬ 
 ing house, and His banner over us is Love. At the mid of night, 
 when all the world is asleep around us: when the hungry dark¬ 
 ness seems to stand by our bedside, like a glaring and devouring 
 lion, to seize a prey : if then comes the soft breath of Love, we 
 feel safe and happy, for the right hand of our Beloved, we know, 
 is under our heads, and His left hand' doth embrace us. How 
 precious also are Thy thoughts to us, O our God! If we would 
 count them, they are more in number than the sand: when we 
 awake, we are still with Thee. We know that Jesus is our good 
 Shepherd, so we shall not want. He maketh us to lie down in 
 green pastures, He leadeth us beside the still waters: He restoreth 
 our soul, which we have been selling to the devil:—and leadeth 
 us in the paths of righteousness. He hath set us, we know, as a 
 seal upon His arm, as a seal upon His heart: for His Lov6 is 
 stronger than death. 
 
§ ij. INTERNAL, PERCEPTIVE LOVE. 
 
 177 
 
 11. Soulic affections may not be ours: but nothing can de¬ 
 prive us of the Spiritual. There are many, who, because they 
 lack physical grace and fine accomplishment, and have none of 
 that talent which makes their company to be thought an acquisi¬ 
 tion, are all their lifetime solitary, none thinking them worthy of 
 their love. But let us not, because we are thus destitute, envy 
 the more outwardly radiant and magnetic, or repine at our depri¬ 
 vations ;—for the Love of God is ours still. The world despises 
 us, the church misunderstands us, our relatives are ignorant of 
 us, the good and the beautiful neglect us ; we are deemed poor, 
 mean, giftless, insignificant,—by men , but GOD is ours. Scandal 
 and lies are heaped upon our names, and we are shunned, perse¬ 
 cuted, hated ; but God loves us, and that is more than all. He 
 will comfort us, though the world contemns us. Though He 
 hath put lover and friend far, far from us,—Himself is more than 
 enough to fill our souls, and all that aching void. What are all 
 social endearments and embraces, that we should be envious of 
 them, while He is clasping us in His arms ? 
 
 12. Then, when the last hour approaches, what peace is there! 
 
 “ As the pause upon the ceasing of a thousand-voiced psalm, 
 
 Is the mighty satisfaction, and the full eternal calm.” 
 
 For he who understands God, as Love, will not mistrust the 
 Universe, or dread the grave. He knows God will not leave his 
 soul in Hades, nor suffer His saint to see final corruption.—The 
 child nestles his head trustfully in the bosom of the Father, and 
 falls lovingly asleep. 
 
 13. Before I pass on to consider the other phase of Love, it 
 will be proper to give certain counsels, and point out certain things 
 which tend, very unsuspectedly, to drown the voice, and obscure 
 the vision of God in the soul. And first, let me expose, by God’s 
 help, the sin of gustative carnality. 
 
 14. The carnal mind is enmity with God. And disagreeable 
 as the news will be, to many who call themselves by the name of 
 Christ,—the only Way of Salvation lies in subduing the carnal 
 faculties,—not some of them only, but the whole. And though 
 it is a doctrine which is never preached by the Babylonian 
 churches ; it is one that must now be insisted upon by this writer, 
 though he well knows his present doom. Of what avail is it, 
 
178 
 
 VII. LOVE. 
 
 that I refrain from stealing, and thus mortify my acquisitiveness; 
 
 or from lying, and thus vanquish my secretiveness; or from 
 
 brawling, and thus suppress my combativeness; if I indulge in 
 
 all manner of dainties and delicacies, and pamper my gustative- 
 
 ness ?—From wine, from all sweetmeats and luxuries of diet, the 
 
 ' • _ ' 
 
 true follower of the Cross must piously abstain. Food must be 
 accepted as a necessity, never as a mere gratification. By flesh, 
 by wine, by strong drinks, by fruits and viands of delightsome¬ 
 ness, we rob, consume, destroy our souls. 
 
 . 15. I see the upraised brow ; the curled lip ; the shaken head. 
 I hear the words very plainly—“ fanatic “ austere “ ascetic 
 “ cruel .”—But you mistake me. It is not that you are to spend 
 a doleful life :—it is not a matter of refusing pleasure, dear friend, 
 but of choosing it; of refusing certain gratifications, for the sake 
 of securing others : the law being, that so long as we indulge in 
 the lower, incomplete, phantasmal, sensual; we lose so much 
 capacity for enjoying the higher, real, lasting, Divine,—and the 
 higher Terrene also. It is not that you are to make yourself un- 
 happy, by abstaining from pleasure: but it is, that you are to 
 abstain from little and mean delights, that you may have better 
 and greater. 
 
 16. The reason why we include flesh in the list of the tabooed , 
 is not always because it is pleasant and luxurious : for often it is 
 just the contrary. Neither is it because of the alledged cruelty 
 to animals : for much, in that particular, is to be said on both 
 sides. More do we insist on the cruelty to the butchers : and, 
 until it can be shewn me that no injury is done to the men who 
 murder the animals, I shall persist in abstaining from all animal 
 flesh for food. Other very sufficient reasons we have, which will 
 be come at by and by : but this is one that is not quite without 
 weight. I never met with a man accustomed to killing animals, 
 who had retained or obtained that part of his soul on which 
 alone I set much value. He has no aspiration, no idealness, no 
 wide human love : his soul is brutalized by his trade; and the 
 sooner the trade is destroyed, the better. 
 
 17. And observe: we care nothing for being twitted with in¬ 
 consistency, because we do not, on the same principle, denounce 
 silver, and gold, and coal, and iron, and lace, and stockings. For 
 
§ ij. INTERNAL PERCEPTIVE LOVE. 179 
 
 we are not to refrain from taking one step in the right direction, 
 because it is only one step: and from ameliorating one evil, be¬ 
 cause we cannot at once ameliorate all. The remedy for all evils 
 will come in time, and gradually: and what behoves us is, to do 
 even the little that at present lies in our power, not being 
 daunted by the fact, that at present that little is not much, and 
 that when we have done all, we must still be inconsistent. I 
 cannot do yet without oil and leather for my lamp and boots: 
 but science will, in time, find me ample substitutes for these; and 
 meanwhile, I may abstain from meat, and thus contribute to 
 sharpen invention, as well as to free the butcher from his trade. 
 The full consistency will be provided for us in the end : let us 
 not refuse, in the interim, to do the half-deed that lies in our 
 power. 
 
 18. But of the flesh-question I shall have to treat by and by, 
 and on different grounds: for the present, let us return to the 
 consideration of gustative carnality. It is here, then, that you 
 must strike a decisive blow. The philosophy of fasting from 
 luxurious food has not heretofore been understood, but the benefit 
 of it has been known in all ages. Moses, Elijah, Isaiah, John 
 the Baptist, were all abstinent men: and so was Jesus, though he 
 did not generally prefer to seem unto men to fast. Before 
 Daniel saw his great vision, he fasted, as well as prayed. And 
 not only among the Jews: but its virtues were understood by 
 the Greek and Hindoo writers. Thus Henry Agrippa reports, 
 Abstinentia suos passim observatores contra vitia et males deemones 
 familiariter munit atque tuetur , et quasi templum Dei incontamina- 
 tum reddit animum , mentemque Deo conjungit ..... Debemus in 
 sumendis cibis esse puri atque abstinentes , quemadmodum philosophi 
 Pythagorici , mensam sacram atque sobriam servantes , vitam in 
 
 omni temperantid protrahebant . Sic Bragmani nullos ad ip - 
 
 sorum admittebant collegium , nisi abstinentes a vino , et carnibus , et 
 vitiis; dicentes , neminem posse Deum intelligere , nisi qui ilium 
 divinci conversatione cemularetur : quod etiam inferiores Indos apud 
 Philostratum docuit Phraotes. 
 
 . 19. The senses by which we perceive the Divine Truth, Power, 
 
 Beauty, Light, Life, Goodness, and Love, depend for their clear¬ 
 ness and efficiency, upon the faithfulness with which we cultivate 
 
180 
 
 VII. X.OVE. 
 
 them, and subdue whatever is opposed to them. And always the 
 effect of indulging in pride, or any carnality, is a bedimning of 
 this glorious inner eye. Wherefore, if a man would see God 
 truly and constantly, and would obtain that Divine converse 
 which it is his duty to obtain ; he must abstain from every carnal 
 indulgence. There is no other way. 
 
 20. With respect to diet: as the choice is very great, so each 
 person must be his own chooser. It is said to no one, Take less 
 than your nature really requires: but it is said, Take such means 
 as shall enable you to know when you really have had enough. 
 Now the only way to do this, is to live on diet with little variety 
 in it:—variety, to some extent, there must be, but never great. 
 For the young, who are upbuilding their constitutions, a very 
 nutritive daily scale of diet may be this: one or two eggs (with¬ 
 out salt, and merely boiled), two basons of milk, sufficient bread, 
 —and water, if required. But this is sumptuous fare, and adults 
 may thrive on a much less nutritive scale than that. Rice, made 
 into a pudding (without sweetening, or other enrichment) baked 
 in quantity, and eaten always cold; with bread, and milk, or 
 water, is another capital provision. Other scales, in endless 
 variety, experience and idiosyncracy will establish : but those 
 dishes must always be chosen, which have the least intrinsic 
 temptation to appetite in them, and which require least cooking. 
 And it may be as well to hint, that he who thinks a scale larger 
 than one of only four or five articles of food is ever necessary, 
 may depend upon it, he is deceiving himself. They who are wise 
 and of discerning heart, will not do so, but will find themselves 
 better in health of all kinds, for their abstinence; stronger, 
 livelier, holier, peacefuller; more and more illumed by the 
 Heavenly rays. I tell you, dear friend, if you think you are 
 justified in using a scale of much variety, it is your own carnal 
 want-nature you are developing and indulging, instead of resolv¬ 
 ing to crucify and crucify it. And I recommend to the Christian 
 always to observe this rule, that the question need never be 
 asked, What am I to have for dinner ? For what we shall eat 
 or drink ought always to be a matter of no forethought or concern. 
 
 21. And it may be useful to state, that, at first, you will be 
 apt to be deluded into a notion that your system needs more than 
 
§ ij. INTERNAL PERCEPTIVE LOVE. 181 
 
 it really does, from the circumstance that the stomach is strained, 
 and becomes uncomfortable, if the usual hulk of matter is with¬ 
 held, though it never digested above half of that which was sup¬ 
 plied it. All that can be said is, Do not entirely trust to your 
 want-sensations at the first: persevere, even in this painful self- 
 denial ; and as your reward, I promise you, that gnawing you 
 feel will by and by trouble you no more. Some beginners, too, 
 complain of a “ sinking sensation,” whenever the accustomed in¬ 
 dulgence is withheld. This is an infallible sign that self-indul¬ 
 gence has injured their frame. They who drink no stimulants, 
 feel no inconvenience from a casual delay, even of several hours, 
 except a gentle and not a h arrassing hunger and thirst: but with 
 all who are wont to drink wine, spirits, coffee, or tea, the system, 
 in time, gets into such a morbid state, that a delay of a few 
 minutes only, makes them irritable and anxious, and gives them 
 the aforesaid ‘ sinking ’ feel. Let such know, that they are bound 
 to prefer health to continuance in disease, and that they must 
 cure themselves, whatever it costs them.—Yet I recommend no 
 one to change suddenly from an inordinate to an abstinent regi¬ 
 men. People in middle life must work gradually, with time and 
 caution; but younger people may change more rapidly. 
 
 22. “ Our simple life wants little, and true taste 
 
 Hires not the pale drudge luxury, to waste 
 The scene it would adorn : and therefore , still 
 Nature with all her children, haunts the hill.” 
 
 For few things more dispossess the landscape and exorcise the 
 sweet poesies of Nature, and rob the walk in the fields or woods 
 of its beauty and glory, than the animalization we suffer through 
 our sensual diet. Then the fawns peep, the nymphs sing, the 
 hamadryads dance, and the fairies freak no more. And if a man 
 would have Nature retain these, her children,—have them con¬ 
 tinue to haunt the hill, as they did in the days of his youth,— 
 he must himself continue, from his youth up, to shun all excite¬ 
 ment and perturbation, and to live simply and truly. 
 
 23. It is nowhere said, we are to deny ourselves all sensuous 
 pleasures; it is sensuality, not sense, that we are to smother. 
 The effect of abstaining from sensual delights, is the regaining of 
 
VII. LOVB. 
 
 182 
 
 sensuous ones, both of the external, as well as internal senses:— 
 the fixing and making unevanescent 
 
 “ The glory and the freshness of the dream.” 
 
 And it would be a very great mistake to suppose, that when we 
 denounce the carnal faculties, we are denouncing them entirely, 
 as if they were of no use or value. Indeed they are of the 
 highest value, when perfectly subjected to the Heavenly world : 
 nor could we by any means do without them. Paul, indeed, 
 says, the carnal mind is not subject to the law of God, neither , 
 indeed , can he; but in this sentiment Paul is wrong.—Look at 
 self-esteem, for instance. Nothing is more odious and hurtful, 
 than that pride which is not perfectly subjected to the Celestial 
 powers : but who is there that knows not, that there never yet 
 was a great good man, who had not a high reverence for his in¬ 
 dividual rights and liberties, and a noble sense of the importance 
 and value of that which it was given him to be and do ? It is 
 true, Jesus says, “ Learn of me , for I am meek and lowly of 
 heart but only reflect, what a noble and majestic and self-dig¬ 
 nified soul that must have been, which could give utterance to 
 such words ! And how different from the mock-modescy of many 
 professing Christians now, who go about spitting upon themselves 
 in the eyes of others, and feel never the glorious dignity and 
 grandeur of their position as inheritors of the Divine Human 
 nature. Look again at combativeness and firmness: the attri¬ 
 butes of tigers and bulls, and among the basest of all human 
 passions and feelings. But when subjected to Spirit, see how 
 useful, beautiful, necessary they are. Without these, how could 
 the prophet and the reformer stand up and be a rock to a raging 
 sea, and have boldness and strength enough to declare the truth, 
 when he knows that by so doing he is to make all men his ene¬ 
 mies, and his name to be a byword and a hissing ? The love of 
 approbation, like all the other carnal feelings, is a lawful and a 
 beautiful thing, when under Spirit-law, and hence the high value 
 we set on the smile of the beautiful and good : but the moment 
 that this feeling becomes a motive power , and that we do anything 
 from a desire of applause, then we sin, and grievously.—And so 
 
§ lj. INTERNAL PERCEPTIVE LOVE. 183 
 
 with all the faculties, which, in their abuse and riot against 
 Heaven, we call the carnal Seas : there is an abuse of them, and 
 a use too. Thus, with respect to gustativeness: to abstain 
 literally from pleasant food is wellnigh impossible, because, by 
 refraining from delicious and sensual meats, we obtain a fine 
 relish for brown bread and water, and it is pleasant to us. So it 
 is with all the senses : sight, hearing, feeling, as well as taste. 
 By refraining from over-exciting them, they preserve that delicate 
 perception and sensibility to impression, which childhood otherwise 
 alone enjoys. When the strings are pulled rudely, and made to 
 vibrate to rough enjoyments, they lose their fine tension, and will 
 not answer to light and soft touches ; but if we refrain from de¬ 
 ranging them, and foster their susceptibility to impression by 
 shunning all gross vibrations, they will keep, and even recover 
 after it is lost, that beautiful and delicate impressibility. He who 
 runs after fine shows, masquerades, races, balls, hot missionary 
 meetings, or any exciting thing, and concerns himself much with 
 political anxieties; he who feeds sensually,—smokes, drinks 
 strong drink,—shall not see Nature well, nor hear well anything 
 that Nature, any that God says. Sensuous pleasures are not 
 wasting; they take nothing from us,—unlike sensualities, which 
 ever corrode the soul. Sensuous delights are given to be a bles¬ 
 sing and comfort to us : but woe unto us, if we prefer the sensual 
 to these. Whatever tends to blunt and impair these fine appre¬ 
 ciations, to dispossess Nature, untenant the woods, dis-haunt the 
 fields, and make us deaf and blind to simple and cheap pleasures, 
 does us a real injury, and must most carefully be avoided. 
 
 24. What beautiful lives, what happy homes might we not 
 have, my friends, were this wretched hunting after sensual plea¬ 
 sures done away ! It must be said freely, we have cast out the 
 best poesies of life, through our cursed sensualism. And it must 
 be repeated and repeated, that it is of no use to complain, that 
 our everyday life is prosaic, while ourselves are wantonly making 
 it so. Life, to the most, has become a matter of mere eating, 
 drinking, sleeping, scraping: and then, having brought ourselves 
 thus low, we call Nature hard names, and are sorry the world is 
 so trumpery. In thickening the walls of our dwellings we spend 
 our years: and, having succeeded in making thetn dense, be- 
 
184 
 
 VII. LOVE. 
 
 clouded, so as to be impermeable to the glories that would stream 
 in through them, we exclaim against the poverty of our state, 
 and sigh over the “ clouds of glory ” we trailed behind us in 
 infancy, but which have now “ faded into the light of common 
 day.” 
 
 25. All flesh is not delicious to the taste of all; and, therefore, 
 though we do say, if meat be delicious to you, and excite appe¬ 
 tite, then you must forego it: we do not give this as the reason 
 for abolishing the use of meat altogether. I have already hinted, 
 that, for the sake of the butchers, we are bound to do something; 
 but the great argument for the disuse of all animal flesh for food, 
 is to be found in the injustice to woman which it occasions. I 
 cannot but look with the utmost commiseration on the wives of 
 those who form the most numerous of the middle classes, when I 
 consider how much of that time which should be spent in intel¬ 
 lectual and Divine progressions,—aye, and in physical exercises 
 in the open air,—is lost to them, owing, in great part, to our 
 present indulgence of the want-nature.—My sisters! could we 
 but abolish this abomination of cooking, how much healthier, 
 nobler, intellectualler, happier would ye become !—For the wife 
 of an artizan or tradesman to walk in the open air, and enjoy 
 herself in the fields and lanes; and to cultivate any science or 
 literary pursuit; is, at the present day, quite the exception to the 
 rule. We are not enough in the fresh air, my friends ; we shut 
 our windows, and closet ourselves up, and do not dream what 
 wealth we are losing by the immurement. Every man, woman, 
 and child, I say, that has the opportunity, ought to be out taking 
 exercise, at least two hours daily. I cannot add impressiveness 
 enough to my expression of this fundamental necessity and duty. 
 And then, think of Terrene studies, and all those fine and noble 
 enjoyments and participations, which our sensualism deprives our 
 wives and mothers of. Woman will never attain that dignity 
 and consideration which is her due, until household cooking, as a 
 system, is abolished. And I say, every true woman, who really 
 wishes the emancipation of her sex from its present debased con¬ 
 dition, is imperatively called upon, where possible, to adopt a true 
 Christian scale. 
 
 26. And I wish every man and woman to reflect, how much 
 
§ ij. INTERNAL PERCEPTIVE LOVE. 185 
 
 more money they might give to the poor, to new institutions, 
 baths for the people, and means of aiding and lifting the race,— 
 could they hut forsake their destructive sensualities. Surely I 
 need not add another word to enforce this claim! Then look at 
 the happy sovereignty over circumstances the suppression of 
 Want gives us. Dual, wantful souls, are the creatures of cir¬ 
 cumstances ; but circumstances are indifferent to him who is 
 under Spirit-law. All wantful people are slaves to their meats 
 and drinks —to beef, and tobacco, and wine, and ale, they cringe 
 and bow; 
 
 “ Things are in the saddle , 
 
 And ride mankind 
 
 and it is only by reducing our Want-nature that we become 
 partakers of that full liberty wherewith Christ makes free. A 
 man may, indeed, laugh at circumstances, when his wants are 
 bounded by 
 
 “ A scrip, with a mere crust supplied, 
 
 And water from the spring."— 
 
 No; I would not lose this blessed independency for all the deli¬ 
 cacies in the world! 
 
 27. You must reduce, you must reduce your wants, dear 
 friends ; for only by so doing can you obtain and maintain the 
 perfect peace of God. The reason why the people run after ex¬ 
 citements, and require so many outward appliances, is, that they 
 have dislocated themselves from the Innermost or Highest law : 
 and the acceptance of multifarious wants , in place of the One 
 Thing needful , is the cause of all their dissatisfaction and unhap¬ 
 piness. He who is intimately at one with Spirit, will need very 
 few outward conditions and means; and the more his inward 
 need is supplied by that union, the fewer will his outward wants 
 become. But we cannot indulge our wants, and thus accept 
 finite supplies, without ceasing to be perfectly at one with the 
 infinite Supplier; and hence, the more wantful we are, the less 
 shall we be able to submit to the Divine Voice, and the more 
 shall we experience dissatisfaction and uneasiness. “ The more 
 men separate from internal authority,” says the apostle Greaves, 
 “ the more wantful they become ; and then enter into all unitive. 
 
186 
 
 VII. LOVE. 
 
 engagements to supply the constitutional wants thus generated. 
 The more need of inward authority man has in his constitution 
 constitutionally, the more he resorts to association, to fill up the 
 uneasiness which severation causes him. While man thus seeks 
 the outward world, it is quite clear he is more disunited from his 
 source than he ought to be, which source is, internal authority. 
 External excitement would never he wanted, if men were not 
 necessitated to it, by an inward uneasiness, produced all and alto¬ 
 gether by a forgetfulness on their part of the internal authority 
 with which they should associate. When inward relationship is 
 disregarded, then outward excitement is sought, and bitter disap¬ 
 pointment inevitably follows. The soul divinely associated, needs 
 not any degree of outward excitement. Solitude is preferred to 
 its irritating and delusive vanities ; and most assuredly such a 
 soul has the fullest supply, as well as the fewest wants.” 
 
 28. I dare say it will have occurred, before this, to your mind, 
 dear friend, that the abundance of delicacies provided for the 
 gratification of the taste, in the varieties of fruits, and so on ; is 
 an argument for the goodness of God.—Without stopping to in¬ 
 terpose the consideration, that it is art, and not Nature, that has 
 provided these delicacies ; apples being originally crabs, and so 
 on : let me not hesitate to add emphatically, my ‘ So it is.' For 
 to me it is a comforting thought, that to those who have no bet¬ 
 ter pleasures, these meaner ones are given. Their proper perqui¬ 
 site are they, and God spreads for them that table in kindness 
 and mercy, and bids them welcome to the feast. See how ten¬ 
 derly, for those who will not have better gratifications, the in¬ 
 finite Mother provides even these, that so the poor people may 
 not, at all events, live and die without some taste of the Creator’s 
 bounty! And though every one has his choice, and it is a 
 grievous thing that every one chooses not the higher : yet in de¬ 
 fault of so doing, I recognize it as a beautiful and kind dispensa¬ 
 tion, that to such are furnished these inferior pleasures. 
 
 29. But you must not tell me, dear friend, that of all these 
 “ God’s good creatures,” God’s own children are to partake. Of 
 such they have no need. They must, on the contrary, fight 
 against these sensualities : they must refrain from all carnal in- 
 
187 
 
 § ij. INTERNAL PERCEPTIVE LOVE. 
 
 diligences. These luxuries were made for those who have 
 nothing better, and it is very wrong to say that they are for all. 
 Unless there were such opportunities of self-indulgence there 
 could he no church militant; for how can we fight, if there he 
 no foes ? The whole system and existence of free-will and 
 accountability hangs on the possibility of choice ; and we could 
 haye no choice, if there were no two things to choose.—To the 
 dual, or Natural men, these Soulic pleasures belong, and it were 
 wrong to attempt to deprive them of them. All such may eat 
 and drink, and enjoy the good they can so obtain : it is the gift 
 of God. But let us be sure, that no one can be a truly exalted 
 Christian, who delights himself in sensualisms; because the car¬ 
 nal mind is enmity with God. 
 
 30. This is the law of psychical polarity. The Zion and 
 carnal spheres of Man are the two contrary poles of his nature. 
 They are perpetual foes. The one cannot increase, but by the 
 decrease of the other. And for the one, the other always pays. 
 So that it is not possible to become great in the kingdom of 
 Heaven, without becoming little in the kingdom of the Seas. 
 
 31. Or you may, if you please, call this law, the law or the 
 
 Flaming Sword. When Man and Woman were driven from the 
 Garden of God, says the beautiful old fiction, “ God placed in the 
 East of the Garden, Cherubim, and a Flaming Sword , which 
 turned every way , to keep the way to the Tree of Life” Now 
 there is no other way to the Tree of Heaven, except this way of 
 the Sword, which is identical with the great Atonement [v, i, 
 17]. “ I am the way,” said Jesus: and there is but this one 
 
 way of access to God. This Sword, this law of psychical polarity, 
 is the New Covenant of Christ’s Blood, and it must be subscribed 
 to by every Christian. It is this Weapon of the Cross that Isaiah 
 alludes to, when he says, The Lord , with His great and strong 
 SWORD, shall punish Leviathan , the crooked Serpent , and slay 
 the Dragon that is in the Sea. And in the possibility of increas¬ 
 ing in the Kingdom of Heaven, by diminishing in the Kingdom 
 of the Seas, lies the sole redemption of the race.—Judge then of 
 the deep, the fearful error he is guilty of, who pretends to have 
 an interest in the Blood of Christ, and yet continues to indulge 
 
188 
 
 vn. LOVE. 
 
 his carnal appetites, his sensual propensities!—0 blessed Jesus! 
 how long will the world, which takes Thy name so in vain, be 
 ignorant of Thee ? 
 
 32. If we choose carnal pleasures above intellectual, we sin : 
 if intellectual before Mystical, still we sin. Our pleasures should 
 be first, Heavenly; second, Earthly; last, Marine. But what¬ 
 ever they be, in them there must be no strong excitement. 
 Whatever excites strongly, is injurious: take that as a universal 
 verity. Because every excitement, if not overtly, then covertly, 
 must have its compensative depression : every species of mental 
 intoxication, must be paid for by mental somnolency or discom¬ 
 fort. If you will indulge in excitements, you do not do it gratis: 
 some capacity you have lost, by the very act of enjoying finer 
 and simpler pleasures: of enjoying true life, and infusing true 
 poesy,—not mere romance,—into its common duties.—Every time 
 our passions become aroused, our feelings violently emoved, we 
 lose capacity for making all moments good and sterling. For 
 whatever intensity you heap upon one hour, must be taken from 
 other hours; and the consequence of frequenting balls, hot 
 prayer-meetings, races, wine-parties, and exciting eloquential dis¬ 
 plays, letting yourself be excited by them, is a loss of ability to 
 enjoy plain moments, and a communication of insipidity to solitary 
 chambers and every-day duties. How far this is from true hap¬ 
 piness, I leave you to judge. “ To Jill the hour , that is happiness: 
 to Jill the hour , and leave no crevice Jor a repentance or an ap¬ 
 proval. ” And it must be affirmed, that every day, every hour, 
 no matter where or with whom, ought to be, and might be enjoy¬ 
 able and enjoyed. But if we hurry on the wheels of life, and 
 crowd that zoenergia into an hour which should have served a 
 whole day; by and by we shall find a deficit, and then must 
 either make a fresh demand on the fountain, and so run in debt 
 still further; or consent to pay at once, and drag on the hours in 
 weary inanity, or sloth, or pain, till the debt is solved. Always 
 the day of reckoning comes. Because; if we take excitement, we 
 take it not from another, but from our own stock: that stock 
 from which alone we shall have to supply ourselves while we 
 live. The strictest compensation is always exacted; and however 
 
§ ij. INTERN AX PERCEPTIVE LOVE. 
 
 189 
 
 a man may think to cheat the Universe, and gain gratis, he will 
 not do it, he is fast by the leg, and must liquidate the debt. 
 Nature has him very safe in her world-prison:— and verily, 
 verily I say unto you, he shall by no means get out thence, until he 
 has paid the uttermost farthing . 
 
 33. It has been already hinted, that the Cherubim may be signi¬ 
 ficative of Eden, the Altar of God; the four Living Ones, being 
 the four provinces, or horns. Behold then, in the midst of the 
 Thronic faculties, and round about the Throne, four Living Ones, 
 —pull of eyes before and behind. These are the omniscient 
 Eyes that watch over the rights of compensation. For indeed 
 the whole Universe is vitally concerned in the maintenance of 
 these laws: and it never misses to take note of each call made on 
 them. The poet Ezekiel alludes to the same fact still more im¬ 
 pressively than John; when he says, speaking of the Cherubim, 
 —as for their rings , they were so high that they were dreadful; 
 and their rings were full of eyes round about them four.” 
 And afterwards he says,—“ their whole bodies ,”—the whole com¬ 
 position of the world,—“ and their hands, and their wings, and 
 their wheels, were full of eyes.” These Eyes, then, will see the 
 Universe righted : let no sin go unpunished, no profit be unpaid 
 for, no advantage stolen, against the laws of compensation. For 
 not only do they see every tried violation of their laws, but they 
 can avenge it- too ; for “ there appears in the Cherubim the form 
 of a man's HAND under their wings." 
 
 34. The grand aim of the Christian life, is the governing of 
 moods, and the infusing of goodness and true vitality into them 
 all. What have I gained by yesterday’s over-happiness, since 
 to-day I must be dull, and can scarce crawl about with any satis¬ 
 faction? What I want is, to have every minute sound and 
 good : and it is poor policy to make to-day rotten, through yes¬ 
 terday’s over-delicious ripeness. If I take wine, I do gain some¬ 
 thing for the time being; gain vigour, and energy, and liveliness: 
 but what avails this, when presently I must compensate, by just 
 so much deficit as will pay the debt ? The vigour I enjoyed was 
 not taken out of the wine ; but it was taken by the wine, out of 
 my constitution :—so that the exciter to whom I felt so grateful 
 for his benefactions, has been presenting me with —my own money 
 
 2 c 
 
 A 
 
190 
 
 VII. LOVE. 
 
 all the while !—taking it out of the pocket of my future, to put 
 it in my hand now. Thus it is with all excitements, no matter 
 what their nature : balls, concerts, races, novels, exciting public 
 meetings, whether for prayer or politics,—all have this fatal ob¬ 
 jection with the wise, that they spend to-morrow’s supplies 
 to-day. 
 
 35. With respect to mood, there is a certain level of life, a 
 certain fund of happiness for every day; and this level will as¬ 
 sert itself, so that if you heap up on any hour more than belongs 
 to it, what you intensate on one point must be taken from some 
 other point: if you ascend in one part, you must descend in an 
 equal degree in another part, to compensate for the ascension. 
 But this level differs much in different persons ; and in the same 
 person at different times. Labour is the only means that I know 
 of to heighten this level: by labour meaning the just exercise of 
 the faculties. For it is health that determines the height of the 
 level: and there cannot be health without labour. Labour is 
 growth, and wealth. What we work for, is ours ; house or land, 
 muscle or faculty, intellect or kingdom of Heaven :—if w r e do 
 honest labour for it, it is ours to have and to hold ; or, if not, 
 then there is no other purchase-money. And as labour is health, 
 which is the only true wealth : therefore, the idle man or woman 
 is a monster, a suspicious person, an Unchristian. And thus 
 labour is that in which v T e should all lovingly engage.—But 
 labour is not always growth above a certain standard: it often 
 pays itself by keeping us where we are,—when, without it, we 
 should have sunk to a lower level. And remember; it is impos¬ 
 sible to buy happiness of an excited, inflamed kind, by any labour. 
 Nothing but depression, or sloth, or ill-humour, can result 
 from such. The highest level of life attainable by the most 
 glorious of the archangels, never transcended calm, quiet, useful 
 peacefulness. 
 
 36. Look at the law of compensation as it bears upon property. 
 Health is the only wealth : and every acquisition must be tested 
 by this touchstone, to see if it be an acquisition; for if it add 
 not to crur health, it adds nothing to us. And herein lies the 
 remedy against mammon-hunting: for a poor man may be 
 thoroughly healthy, and a rich man can be no more. Nay, un- 
 
§ ij. INTERNAL PERCEPTIVE LOVE. 191 
 
 less he deal very warily with his money, he will be made incalcu¬ 
 lably poor : for directly the desire of wealth perturbs the mind, 
 Nature begins to take out her compensations, and forthwith you 
 lose and lose. I tell you of a truth, he who lets thirst for money, 
 or fame, or any outside acquisition, abide in his soul, is already 
 far from the kingdom of Heaven. 
 
 37. By looking at the laws of compensation, we read the 
 philosophy of gifts. Something comes to me from somebody, and 
 I am pleased with it. Then it behoves me to inquire, what it is 
 in the gift that pleases me. Because, for this pleasure I am re¬ 
 ceiving, I shall have to PAY. If the pleasure be Heavenly, I 
 must purchase it by losing capacity for enjoying pleasures of the 
 Seas. If it be a selfish pleasure, then I must pay for it with the 
 fine gold of Heaven,—according to the law of the Sword. And 
 all other pleasures must he purchased by labour. But I would 
 not have you overlook, that there are both selfish , and selfic 
 pleasures: just as there are sensual , and sensuous: the latter 
 being good, and the former not. And this shews us how we 
 must deal with all gratifications. When I feel any selfish 
 pleasure, then straightway, by the laws of compensation, I begin 
 to lose. Let me remember the great Sword. Only by relin¬ 
 quishing and rising above selfishness, can I climb into Heaven. 
 If I do enter the garden, it must be by availing myself of that 
 mighty Weapon, which keeps the way to the Tree of Life. 
 
 38. I went just now to see her whom my soul loveth, and she 
 gave me a flower. What was it sent that sweet thrill through 
 me ? And what is it makes me now lay out the beautiful corpse 
 so carefully between these sheets of paper, for its long preserva¬ 
 tion ? Why are other flowers of the kind so comparatively 
 worthless, and this so dearly prized?—Ah, it was the ges¬ 
 ture, the beaming of the eyes, and the gentle and tender curving 
 of the lip, that made the gift so precious to me.—What! did it 
 not say that I was loved ?—that that dear saint was loving me ? 
 This is a pleasure that refines and lifts the mind, and is therefore 
 wealth and health to me. But how poor in comparison,—yea, 
 how altogether worthless, was that haunch of venison, that 
 volume of Byron, or Moore, you gave me !—The flower of my 
 love’s, though not marketably worth a farthing, infused hope into 
 
Vir. LOVE. 
 
 192 
 
 my soul, made the Universe more significant to me, gave me a 
 new ardour in my efforts to become worthy of entering into all 
 relations with that noble girl, to be through life a greater bles¬ 
 sing to her: and surely, I am thereby incalculably richer than 
 before. But as for these other things,—what can they do for me? 
 
 39. A consideration of the laws of compensation, tgaches us 
 that we cannot impoverish ourselves by refusing to acquire, or 
 giving where there is need. The Christian of a great soul, looks 
 on money with the eye of a king. * You are my dish-washer 
 and scullion: aspire not, I beseech you, to my table and bed! 
 You may, O wealth, come into and go out of my hand: but into 
 my heart, never! By keeping you selfishly, I asphyxiate the 
 regalities of my soul; but by holding you loosely, and at a dis¬ 
 tance, I have leave to breathe freely; and by doing good with 
 you, my soul I replenish and enlarge.’ 
 
 40. The true nobleman also shews his nobleness in the ease 
 with which he takes, as well as imparts benefactions. And here, 
 again, see the law of circles. For the base, the selfish, are always 
 hankering after gain, and ask for the greatest boons without a 
 blush. But they who are of a higher mood, abhor this miserable 
 meanness, and would sooner starve than beg, and die than take 
 alms from their superiors. Not so the truly noble man. He 
 has none of that proud feeling, which dubs itself a “ noble inde¬ 
 pendence .” For to live without ivorking (that is, exercising my 
 faculties ,) is base: but so long as I do work faithfully, it matters 
 not whether I am at the same time maintaining myself, or being 
 maintained.—And "while the wise man receives gifts nobly, and 
 like a king, he is never profuse in his acknowledgements. This 
 blessing belonged to him, and therefore it is his. He thanks you 
 for your goodwill and readiness to be the vehicle of God’s gift, 
 but he will not flatter you : nor cares he anxiously, give, or with¬ 
 hold you, your benefaction. 
 
 41. Sometimes it is complained of the befriended, that they 
 are ungrateful. But let it be said at once, he who expects grati¬ 
 tude, is yet very far from being able to give a true gift. You 
 are to give from higher motives, and never calculate on acknow¬ 
 ledgement or return. The Christian bestows after a Godlike 
 sort, to the just and to the unjust, as falls the dew or rain. The 
 
§ ij. INTERNAL PERCEPTIVE LOVE. 
 
 193 
 
 sun, whose rays fos.ter the whole world, must not desire for him¬ 
 self the hent knee or the swung censer. Bow you must; be 
 grateful you must: but let it be most of all to the giver's Giver. 
 
 42. The Christian knows that he cannot lose by giving; can¬ 
 not retain by keeping : cannot, except by labour or idleness, be¬ 
 come really richer or poorer. And, therefore, what he must 
 keep for to-morrow, he keeps; what he must spend, he spends : 
 but what he needs not, except selfishly, that he gives away. He 
 ridicules the idea of losing by what he really bestows. Lose ? 
 Hoiv can he ? He is emptying his purse, indeed, hut he is re¬ 
 plenishing his soul. He is the richer by every penny he so dis¬ 
 poses of.—And I will tell you what true almsgiving is. For I 
 scarce call it charity to give to the lazy beggar in the streets, or 
 to any who will not work, if they can do without work, such as 
 it is proper they should perform. But to put your washing out, 
 and pay a poor person well for it: to have your linen made up 
 by those who are starving for want of employment,—when you 
 might have these things done cheaper at home ; to buy at the 
 poor man’s shop, when you might buy cheaper elsewhere:—that 
 is charity. And I will tell you what is cruelty. To make 
 millinery and fancy-work for yourself or the bazaar, when poor 
 girls are starving around you, who could well learn to do the 
 same: to bargain with a poor man for the lowest wages, instead 
 of sooner giving him more than he could get elsewhere,—that is 
 cruelty.—And I should say, no man, who is a true Man, and not 
 a selfish animal, will allow her , who has the fullest right to every 
 intellectual developement, if she he capable of such, to be wasting 
 her time in household drudgery, when he might afford to en¬ 
 franchise her. 
 
 43. And now let me once more impress on you the need there 
 is of looking well to the Flaming Sword, the Atonement of the 
 Cross, if you would truly enter the Garden of God. Learn also 
 to shun all perturbations, nor forestall your supplies, nor mort¬ 
 gage to-morrow’s goods to-day. Look well to your pleasures, 
 how it is you earn them; and ponder that saying of William 
 “Shakspere’s, 
 
 M Pain pays the income of each precious thing.” 
 
 And remember also that the carnal mind is at enmity with God: 
 
194 
 
 VII. LOVE. 
 
 and resolve, that let others do as they will, you will shun these 
 pernicious sensualities, and serve God. If any ridicule you for 
 your abstinence—and ridicule you they will: take it well of them, 
 and grow not angry with them, nor argue at all; because their 
 argument is good for their situation, as yours is for yours. So 
 long as the man who objects is what he is, it is right and proper 
 for him to eat sensually : it is to him the gift of God. “ He may 
 eat , he may drink , for to-morrow he dies.” 
 
 44. It is a very common mistake to think that religion con¬ 
 sists in excitement: that the worship of Spirit is an exciting 
 work ; and not a calm, gentle, softly-loving emotion. But patent, 
 or free religion, consists in a sweet, quiet frame of mind, accom¬ 
 panied with warm and kind gushes of adoration, and hope, and 
 the tender conscience, and the loving heart. Then God sits upon 
 His Throne, the place where His honor dwelleth. Then all is 
 peaceful enjoyment: subdued rapture: high humble aspiration : 
 a breathing in prayer; a pressing onward toward the mark; a 
 vision of Him Who is to sin invisible. God comes never benefi¬ 
 cially to the soul in the tornadoes of hot excitement; but as a 
 holy presence comes He, a sweet and gentle smile, a soft breath 
 with fanning wings, a low rich melody, a stream of sweet influ¬ 
 ence sparkling with odours. Great and strong winds rend the 
 mountains, and break in pieces the rocks ;— hut the Lord is not in 
 the wind. And after the wind, an earthquake;— hut the Lord is 
 not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake, a fire;— hut the 
 Lord is not in the fire. And after the fire, a still small Voice. —• 
 O blessed, quiet little Voice, the Lord, the God of Glory, is in 
 thee! 
 
 45. Pure free religion, that which is followed by few glooms 
 and depressions, and runs never into debt with the Universe, is 
 always a flower that grows in the way of peace.—Hot in the way 
 of excitement, not in atmospheres of unhealthy heats can its roots 
 strike, its petals open: it will grow nowhere but i# the quiets of 
 its native vale. The true healthy religious affections do not 
 jump upwards convulsively towards God; but grow very in- 
 audibly and without self-observation, as from its seed the flower 
 silently ascends into the air. The truly and wholesomely in¬ 
 spired man, shrieks not out furiously his repentance and 
 
§ ij. INTERNAL PERCEPTIVE LOVE. 195 1 
 
 Heavenly ardours; has no hysterics: does not rant, and stamp, 
 and mutter, and rave: and shuns alike the torrid and the frigid. 
 There is always superstition and drunkenness in a religion that 
 so transgresses. 
 
 46. Spirituality is twofold: (1) latent; and (2) patent, or 
 free. The first is the root; the second the flower. Free religion 
 is the enjoyment of a certain frame of mind. But that piety 
 which we call latent, lies in the effort to preserve the frame, and 
 to oppose all things that oppose it. It is a grievous mistake to 
 think that all Spirituality consists in the consciousness thereof: 
 for this consciousness is merely the beautiful blossoming of a 
 plant whose real virtue lies hid in the sterling root below. When 
 therefore you feel hard and cold, and dead to Spiritual joys, do 
 not despair of your condition; you must remember, constant 
 peace and joy, can only consist in constant health : and in the 
 present artificial state of things, this health is impossible. Some 
 never take hard out-door exercise: how can they hope to be 
 healthy ?—Some seldom cleanse the whole skin : how can they 
 expect to be healthy ?—Some load the stomach with stimulating 
 food, and drink exciting drinks : how can they think of being 
 healthy ?—And some frequent excitement-places, and read excit¬ 
 ing books, and suffer their minds to be anxious and careful: and 
 what right have they to expect to be healthy ? We must return, 
 we must return, my friends, to natural and simple conditions of 
 existence, and then we may look for perfect health. For my own 
 part, I have often felt dull and dead ; but after a long walk, or a 
 hard row in a boat, or anything that exercised my bodily powers, 
 I have found myself well again. And therefore, I do not waste 
 time in repining that I cannot always feel the surpassing peace of 
 God : but I remember, that it is not in patent, but in latent piety 
 that the root of the matter lies : and that labour , and not enjoy¬ 
 ment, is the great necessity of my nature. And thus, if I cannot 
 pray, perhaps I can write: or if not, then I can read, or take 
 muscular exercise. Remember, God will not smile on an idle 
 child. Do not stand there despairingly, because you feel lumpish 
 and dull, but work, man! work away, at the spade, the oar, the 
 art, the science, the study which you ought to practise.—Ho 
 work, no Christian. 
 
196 
 
 VH. LOVE. 
 
 47. In the Life-to-come, we shall be free from all Heaven- 
 eclipses. The gates of the city shall not he shut at all by day , as 
 they are now : they are often and often shut quite close, so that 
 we cannot glimpse the Divine presence :— And there shall he no 
 night there : none of these fitful depressions and alternations!— 
 It is said of those whose robes are made white in the Blood of 
 the Lamb, that they are before the Throne of God day and night 
 in His Temple. —Not by day only: not when enjoying patent 
 religion only : but always, in all moods, still, as they have true 
 latent piety, they are serving Him. For though the enjoyment 
 of religion be gone, the principle remains. 
 
 48. Of all the things that deprive us of our Spiritual health, 
 the most destructive are the delights of sensuality. And, unfor¬ 
 tunately, the true philosophy of religion is so little understood, 
 that that man is thought mad, who thinks it needful to oppose all 
 sensualism, and denounce miscellaneous and gross eating and 
 drinking, and excitement-seeking, as noxious to the soul. It is 
 no wonder we have such frequent darknesses and glooms, when 
 we think we are only called on to fight against a portion of the 
 devil. We might enjoy much more the light of God’s face than 
 ever we do, only that when some pleasure is due to us, by the 
 laws of compensation,—instead of taking it out in the Divine, 
 we enjoy it in the sensual sphere ; and so our souls remain in 
 darkness. 
 
 49. By the law of the Flaming Sword, there is this comfort 
 to the disciple : that every temptation faithfully baffled, makes its 
 successor’s discomfiture the easier. For by slaying an evil de¬ 
 sire, suppressing an evil thought, we not only kill one enemy, 
 but we add one at the same time to the number of our friends. 
 Every good emotion that passes through the mind, makes it easier 
 for another good one to follow : and harder for a bad one. And 
 vice versa. And, therefore, of all shocking and atrocious things, 
 that unwise mesmeric manipulation is one of the worst, which 
 scruples not to excite miscellaneously the evil organs of the 
 brain,—such as love of approbation, or combativeness, or destruc¬ 
 tiveness, or pride. It is to me a most mournful sight, to see an 
 ignorant man doing the soul of his victim a deep and lasting 
 injury, for the sake of gratifying the curiosity of an audience.— 
 
§ ij. INTERNAL PERCEPTIVE LOVE. 
 
 197 
 
 And I would strongly suggest, that in mesmerism, there lies a 
 means of education for the ill-born, of the greatest value : as by 
 exciting, and thus helping to develope the organs which are in¬ 
 juriously defective in the patient’s character, we may do much to 
 repair congenital deficiencies. 
 
 50. There are certain customs and observances, which are 
 thought by the Babylonians to be inseparably connected with the 
 internal Love of God ;—about which much misapprehension pre¬ 
 vails. And first, there is public worship of God,—a beautiful 
 and precious institution, and one which cannot yet by any means 
 be dispensed with.—But when this observance is set up as a duty , 
 then we must ever protest against it. Do not suppose a man 
 cannot be devouter than the devoutest Babylonian, and yet never 
 set foot in a church or chapel. For it is no more binding to go 
 to public worship, than it is to eat pancakes on Shrove-Tuesday. 
 For my own part, I have latterly for the most part stayed away. 
 The preachers tell me nothing that I have not heard before, and 
 many things which are unhealthy and untrue. And in the hot 
 assembly I find much less profit than in the open refreshing air. 
 I go out into the fields, and the grey evening is with me there. 
 The silence stands still like a mysterious, awe-struck priest, and 
 seems to be perspiring at every pore with the intensity of his 
 listening, so that all the grass glisters with dew. The twilight is 
 vegetating around me, and more and more densely its invisible 
 tendrils twine about me, and hem me in. I see the sun, slowly 
 rolling off the edge of the world, and a dying glory boils up 
 from that fire-globe, and laves the sky above with its billows of 
 soft-moving splendours. I see the trees, standing with bowed 
 heads and folded arms, as in silent worship,—or tossing their 
 arms to heaven, like aged Druids, with wild dishevelled air, im¬ 
 ploring the blessing of the sacred gods. my feet, the little 
 flowers look up, with quiet faces, and seem to smile a prayer 
 at the departing skies. Then around me beat the wings of innu¬ 
 merable armies of little winds, which with their tender feathers 
 soothe and lift my cheek and hair.—However hard-hearted and 
 uncouth I may have felt before, now I melt; now I become alive 
 to the Divine presence ; the great Soul around me acts upon the 
 soul within me, till it brings it into sensible union with 
 
 2 D 
 
198 
 
 VII. 
 
 LOVE. 
 
 Nature, and so with God;—and I feel my life welling up within 
 me, and streaming down every silken nerve. The light of life, 
 which just now existed in me in sparse and broken rays, those 
 even diluted to a twilight,—now casts off its drowsy adultera¬ 
 tions, and gathers into a focus to warm and burn. Piety flows in 
 upon me; for all Nature cries audibly, 4 Spring up, O Well!’ 
 My Spirituality is restored to consciousness, it leaps up, it stands 
 erect, it is a Man ! No longer the same phlegmatic being whom 
 nothing could move, I feel the pulse of the Universe throbbing 
 around me, and my own beats time to it. I am become a living 
 vessel of Love and Adoration.—Would you have me relinquish 
 this house of prayer, dear friends, for a church or chapel ? 
 
 51. I know the old strife very well between the form and the 
 soul. Nor may I, in asserting the signification, forget that the 
 symbol has its necessity too. But when an old form becomes 
 mischievous,—that right of baptism, to wit, which is now a 
 Shibboleth of distinction and difference, a Babylonish stumbling- 
 block and stone of offence, splitting the outward Christendom 
 into sects and schisms, is it not time such symbol were done 
 away ? Yet baptise, yea, and eat supper together, if you choose ; 
 but remember, a man may be a much greater Christian than you, 
 and yet reject these symbols. 
 
 52. The custom of Sabbath-observance is one which has be¬ 
 come so important in the eyes of superstitious Babylon, that it is 
 considered of equal obligation with the duty of refraining from 
 theft, and other offences against real morality: insomuch that it 
 is said, a man is no Christian who does not observe the Sabbath. 
 I should much like to know, whence the English Babylonians 
 derive authority for such a creed ? Because, I am quite sure it 
 is not to be found in the bible.—True enough, there is a com¬ 
 mandment in the Old-testament, to remember the Sabbath-day to 
 keep it holy. But then this command was to the Jews, and is no 
 more binding upon Christians, than the injunction to keep the 
 jubilee, or circumcise males on the eighth day. For if you say, 
 the decalogue is still in force : let us look at this Sabbath-day 
 commandment, and see how it bears upon you. And thus let us 
 ask you, whether you indeed do no work on this day,—you, nor 
 your son, your daughter, your man-servant, or maid-servant, 
 
§ ij. INTERNAL PERCErTIVE ^LOVR. 
 
 199 
 
 your cattle, or the stranger within your gates ? Of course, then, 
 though in the depth of winter, your maid-servant never makes or 
 mends you a fire on Sundays, much less prepares your breakfast 
 or dinner, or cleans your platter. Of course, also, you never ride 
 to church,—since, by your own law, this would be wicked and 
 atrocious. Do you demur ?—Nay: but either the command¬ 
 ment is binding, or it is not: and if binding, then every Sunday 
 you are a wicked Sabbath-breaker. 
 
 53. Two pleas are still left you. You may say, the New-tes- 
 tament enjoins this custom : or you may plead that it is binding, 
 because it has been the tradition or custom of the church. If 
 you take the latter plea, O Protestant Babylonian! then at once 
 you let in the Pope upon you ; for your only stand against him 
 is the plea that the Bible is the sole rule of the church. If you 
 take the former, you will have set yourself a task: for I tell you 
 at once, that in all the New-testament I cannot find a single hint 
 that .this custom was to be kept up, under the “ new dispensa¬ 
 tion.” Nay, there are plain assertions of the very opposite: for 
 Jesus himself, as his biographers testify, was a Sabbath-breaker, 
 and did plainly declare, in words that ought to be for ever rung 
 in your ears, THE SABBATH WAS MADE FOB MAN, 
 AND NOT MAN FOR THE SABBATH. 
 
 54. I am not saying one word against the utility of the Sab¬ 
 bath : it is a most valuable institution ;—I am only saying that 
 its observance must never be confounded with moral duty. The 
 principle on which the Sabbath should be kept is this: rest 
 should be given to all the faculties that are usually most 
 exercised ; and exercise to all that are usually deprived of means 
 of developement. It is a great mistake to think that we have a 
 right to be lazy on Sundays. No man has a right to excuse 
 himself from working, on this, or any other day;—but then, bear 
 in mind, that work means the exercise of our faculties : so that 
 walking is work, and reading, and singing, and dancing, and boat¬ 
 ing, and preaching, and talking, and praying. And the golden 
 use of the Sabbath, and its only value, lies in its giving opportu¬ 
 nity of developing and exercising powers which our regular occu¬ 
 pations do not provide for. Thus, they who are kept indoors in 
 the weekday, should use the Sabbath as a day of exercise in the 
 
200 
 
 VII. JLOVE. 
 
 open air. The physically laborious should devote this day to 
 mental labour; and the mentally, to physical. People whose 
 social sympathies are cramped usually, should on Sunday culti¬ 
 vate them especially, by visiting and working with their friends. 
 It is also a beautiful and useful thing to go to church or chapel, 
 and listen to the practical discourses of men 'who can really tell 
 you what will be instructive to you.-—In short, the aim of all 
 should be, to free all the faculties by help of this blessed day, 
 and symmetrically to develope the whole psychical and physical 
 man. 
 
 55. And therefore, I have a scruple of conscience at doing any 
 unnecessary thing, which may deprive a fellow-being of the 
 Sabbath. I do not like to cross ferries, ride, or send letters by 
 post on this day, without a sufficient reason. And though, after 
 all, trains ought to run, and letters to travel, on this as on other 
 days; it should be managed by supernumeraries, so as to allow 
 the usual clerks and drivers to be at large. And though every 
 one should have utmost liberty of conscience , I would have, in 
 general, a restriction on Sunday trade by law, not as a religious 
 observance , but as a civil expediency. 
 
§ iij. EXTERNAL PERCEPTIVE LOVE. 
 
 1. I have said that Love of God is of two kinds. And as 
 heretofore, in this chapter on Love, I have been treating of the 
 first, or internal kind : viz, the Love of Truth, Power, Beauty, 
 Light, Life, Goodness, and Love, as perceived immediately by the 
 internal Spiritual senses : so now I come to consider the second, 
 or external kind ; which may be defined—the Love of Mystical 
 Truth, Power, Beauty, Light, Life, Goodness, and Love, as ap¬ 
 prehended by the internal senses, through the medium of the ex¬ 
 ternal. In its wider sense, however, it means the love of the 
 whole knowable Universe;—a love both intellectual and 
 spiritual. Thus, the poet, in loving Nature, loves God; yet un¬ 
 less he love Man more than Nature,—the fourth province more 
 than the former three,—he is not a true partaker of this external 
 perceptive Love of the Deity. 
 
 2. More restrictedly, external perceptive Love of God, consists 
 in a seeing, desiring, and affectionating Spirit, in the looks, ges¬ 
 tures, words, and actions of the godly. We love, not so much 
 them, as God in them. Nor is this a figure of speech. For it 
 is most true, no man hath seen God at any time : for before the 
 man can see God, he must have become God; he must be a par- 
 
202 
 
 VII. LOVE. 
 
 taker of the Divine nature. Hence Jesus, the representative of 
 true Manhood, declared that no man could go to the Father, but 
 through the Son : no man can ascend to God, but through true 
 Manhood:—and hence, whoever truly loves God, must be 
 already the Divine Being: and is a new incarnation of the 
 Deity. 
 
 3. This consideration will induct us into that which Jesus 
 meant, when he took as his favorite title, the Son of Man. This 
 was giving Himself the highest of all titles. It was making 
 Himself equal with God. For the only circumstance that distin¬ 
 guishes the converted from the impenitent,—the fourth province 
 of Eden from the third,—the dual from the triune soul,—is the 
 possession of the Godhead. So that to say, ‘ I am the Son of 
 Man,’ is the same as to say, ‘ I am the Son of God.’ —Now, too, 
 we may see the real meaning of these words of Jesus : Inasmuch 
 as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren , ye 
 have done it unto Me . For in every disciple Jesus IS : not 
 metaphorically, but actually: God lives and reigns there. The 
 poorest, nakedest mortal, if he he truly a MAN, is God. Earth 
 will cavil at these sayings; but they are written, and shall be 
 read in Heaven. With the profoundest reverence for the high 
 Name, do I speak : it is not that I would think less reverently of 
 God than others, but more reverently of Man. What¬ 
 soever YOU DO TO A GODLY MAN, YOU DO TO THE INCARNATE 
 
 Deity. 
 
 4. And therefore; in loving true Women and Men, if I love 
 them because of their piety, I am, in fact, loving God. This is a 
 right and proper mode of worshipping the Deity. In the intrepid 
 assertion of truth, the victory over temptation, the giving up of 
 worldly good for the kingdom of Heaven’s sake, the heroic self- 
 denial, the humble self-abnegation, the forgiveness of injuries, 
 and the manifestations of true love in others, I am to behold and 
 adore the Deity. 
 
 5. Now if any man would know whether he do yet univer¬ 
 sally love his God; let him ask himself whether the sight of 
 Nature’s beauty, fin her fields, streams, clouds, trees, birds, give 
 him, or not, a sense of glory ? Or, more especially, when he 
 
203 
 
 § iij. EXTERNAL P.ERCEPTIVE LOVE. 
 
 sees little children hand in hand, with happy faces; or a youth 
 and maiden arm in arm, evidently in love : whether he does not 
 feel a certain glancing upwards, an inward budding, a joyful glow 
 of refreshing emotion ?—Or let him stand by himself, solemnly, 
 in a silent retired place, and softly shutting his eyes (his affec¬ 
 tions not being sexually fixed on any individual), pronounce 
 slowly, first the word ‘ Friendship,’ and then ‘ Love.’ If then 
 he find in himself a glorying, and flush of brightness, and feel 
 an inward soft gushing and up welling : if his soul seem to leap 
 within him, to spring, as it were, and to press outwards, like a 
 bird that flaps the wires with its wings ; if his heart seem on the 
 sudden to be bathed in tenderest fragrancies, and delicately to 
 effloresce, putting out on all its surface, as it were, a profusion of 
 holy, sweet, and ravishing flowers; O ! then he may know that 
 already he is, to some extent, instincted by Love. 
 
 6. External perceptive Love of God is the mark and measure 
 of the internal. In what manner, then, it must be asked, are 
 you affected by the sight and hearing of a noble, a virtuous 
 deed ? You may not understand the previous paragraph ; but 
 when you hear the love of God, and the beauty of Virtue spoken 
 of, not from the pulpit of theory, but from the even, honest 
 ground of practice; does then, secretly, your heart beat, your 
 breast dilate, your eye glisten, your soul sing with irrepressible 
 emotion ? Because, if so, then you do know, of a truth, what 
 Love of God may mean. 
 
 7. In treating more at large of the second modification of 
 Love, it will be necessary for me to allude to the most generally 
 interesting of its results, as connected with Marriage. And that 
 I may do this, I must enter more diffusely upon the grounds of 
 this union of the sexes. 
 
 8. Man, as an organized being, consists of six groups of or¬ 
 ganization: (1) Heavenly, (2) Terrene, (3) Marine, (4) animal, 
 (5) vegetable, (6) mineral. Each of these qualities divides itself 
 into seven elements, making a total of forty-two. 
 
 9. But the seven elements into which each group splits, are 
 apportioned differently to the sexes, according to the following 
 scale:— 
 
204 
 
 VII. LOVE. 
 
 MAN. 
 
 WOMAN. 
 
 Truth. 
 
 Truth. 
 
 Power. 
 
 f Power. 
 
 Beauty. 
 
 Beauty. < 
 
 Light. 
 
 ~| Light. 
 
 Life. 
 
 | Life. 
 
 Goodness. | 
 
 Goodness. 
 
 Love. \ 
 
 Love. 
 
 A glance at the diagram will shew that the man takes the greater 
 share of Power, Light, and Life, while the woman excels in 
 Beauty, and Goodness, and Love. It follows, therefore, that a 
 man by himself is not complete,—is a moiety ; and to make him 
 a whole, he must unite in all groups with woman. In this divi¬ 
 sion of humanity lies the whole secret of Natural Marriage. 
 
 10. But though, according to the above specification, the in¬ 
 stincts that make marriage desirable, and require to be fulfilled, 
 are forty-two : in reality, the number is only thirty-six. For it 
 is a singular fact, that, while all the elements in the last five of 
 the six groups I have named, are divided to the real man and 
 woman in the way shewn in the diagram ;—in the first, or Divine 
 group, there is no division. For both man and woman possess 
 equally the whole Seven Spirits, without any sexual distinction. 
 This fact did not escape Jesus our Lord; and to it He alluded, 
 when He said, that “ in the Life-to-come, they neither marry nor 
 are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in Heaven .” 
 For the angels of God,—that is, Spiritual men and women,—do 
 not marry (if marriage imply sexualityJ, in the Heavenly sphere. 
 Because there is no distinction of sex in Heaven. 
 
 11. Although thus it is shewn, that the constitution of woman 
 is on a different scale to, though with the same qualities and ele¬ 
 ments as, man's: you are not to expect to find real standard men 
 and women everywhere. For the fact is, the sexes in real life 
 are so mixed, that I am here a man ; there a woman; in this 
 part both; and in that, neither. This is a wise and beautiful 
 thing, and it is the cause of that charming variety of character 
 which gives us such pleasure in our encounters with mankind. 
 
§ iij. EXTERNAL PERCEPTIVE LOVE. 
 
 205 
 
 The evil lies in this,—that most men and women are defective, 
 and this is very much the result of our present false system of 
 marriage. It would not matter a jot, if, for every manly instinct 
 I were scant of, I had a womanly one to atone for the scant: I 
 should still be as nobly off as ever. But the mischief is, that 
 most men have too little true manliness, and no true womanliness 
 to make up for it,—and vice versa. 
 
 12. I am not all myself. Some fair being contains within 
 herself that part of me which I lack: and to her I must look for 
 that smaller portion of Light, Life, and Strength, and that 
 greater portion of Beauty, Goodness, and Love, which I need to 
 make me complete. 
 
 13. So that, in its first view, marriage goes by a law of con¬ 
 traries. Excess seeks defect. Little desires much, and much, 
 little. Hence one who is a woman by a majority of her consti¬ 
 tuents, or instincts, can never desire an effeminate man: he is not 
 the person she needs: he is negative as she is, and so they repel 
 each other. It is positiveness she wants : positive Light, Life, 
 Power, to answer to the same elements negative in her. These 
 two vacua are unintelligible to each other: they are a mutual 
 puzzle, and are in straits when brought together, for neither can 
 •constitutionally supply the other’s need. But let a plenum come 
 near, and see how vividly the vacuum will be affected! 
 
 14. On this account, the timid man can seldom ingratiate him¬ 
 self with women. What they want is manly boldness and confi¬ 
 dence : how can this poor creature help them ?—On the other 
 hand, a woman who orders people about too masterly, and has a 
 confident, consequential bearing, is always disgustful to true men: 
 she is positive to their positive, and they are repelled. Thus on 
 an Amazonian woman, I can, if I am a man, look with indiffer¬ 
 ence, if I escape feeling abhorrence : 
 
 “ But when I see her meek, and kind, and tender, 
 
 Heavens ! how desperately do I adore 
 Her winning graces ! To be her defender 
 I hotly burn : to be a Calidore, 
 
 A very Red-cross knight, a stout Leander, 
 
 Might I be loved by her like those of yore.” 
 
 This is always the manly feeling; for true men love modest and 
 retiring women, and love them all the more for the little sweet 
 2 E 
 
206 
 
 Vll. - LOVE. 
 
 timidities (when not affected) which they observe.—How the 
 boy’s heart swells, as he stands beside his beloved, to think that 
 he may some day do something to save her from peril, smooth 
 for her the way, and by daring and strong achievement contri¬ 
 bute to her comfort! How his eye glistens when, if only by 
 climbing a high rock to get her a flower, he can do the least 
 thing to add, by his braveness, to her happiness! For her, he 
 would beard the lions : and in his high romantic mood, frames to 
 himself all prodigious and fanciful dangers ;—as wrathful oppo¬ 
 nents, valleys perilous, terrible ones, wherefrom he is to save his 
 gentle girl.—Or if he be less romantic, still his aspirations are 
 equally bold: he will write a book, and compel the world to ac¬ 
 cord him fame; he will enter on this or that profession, and, by 
 his force of character and daring conduct, rise to the first ranks, 
 that he may raise her with him. But the ambitions of his 
 maiden are of a more domestic kind. 
 
 “ O! but she will love him truly; 
 
 He shall have a cheerful home; 
 
 She will order all things duly, 
 
 When beneath his roof they come ' 1 
 
 What sacrifices of personal comfort does not she long to make 
 for him ! Willing to have her peace, her sleep taken away, if so 
 be she may in anywise comfort him. She "would give her will 
 up to his; her indulgences up to his ; on him she would lean 
 with all she has and is: and there is nothing he can demand of 
 her, which, for his sake, to give him happiness, and convince him 
 of her love, she will not do. The woman takes her shape and 
 colour much from the man she loves: naturally imbibes his 
 principles, imitates his modes of thought and activity, and with a 
 most noble and perfect trust leans on his side; for is not he her 
 Life, her Light, her Strength ? 
 
 15. Although, in marriage, excess seeks defect; plenum, 
 vacuum; positive, negative ; there exists another law whereby 
 like seeks like. This law presents itself under three aspects. 
 For first, like seeks like in the Celestial group : God loves God, 
 and can love none other,—and cannot love part of Himself, 
 without loving the whole, because there is no sexuality in Heaven. 
 —Then, secondly, although plenum of Love, for instance, re- 
 
§ iij. EXTERNAL PERCErTIVE LOVE. 207 
 
 quires vacuum to correspond with it: yet woman is not a plenum 
 of Love, nor man a vacuum : for though woman has more Love 
 than man, she still needs much more Love to be supplied to her, 
 before she is completed; as a glance at the diagram 9] will 
 shew. Thus, though Love negative needs positive Love to com¬ 
 plete it,—it is yet Love that it needs, and not any other quality : 
 so that still Love seeks Love,—or like seeks like. —But, thirdly, 
 like seeks like in a diabolic way. Thus a proud man, though he 
 could never do with a proud woman, will yet admire pride in 
 another, when it comes not in collision with his own. And this 
 is an ignoble selfishness, the delight consisting in seeing one’s 
 self pictured in another; and may be called the diabolic Narcissus- 
 love. A man who is of a noble mind, loves his children only 
 for that much of their mother which they repeat and contain: 
 but a selfish one will love best those of his children who repeat 
 and contain himself.—And now mark the circularity of all things. 
 Both ends of the chain of love, in this, approach each other: for 
 as selfishness loves that which is like itself, so does God,—and 
 both can love none other. Between these two poles, the sexual 
 marriage-instincts lie, whose law is, we may say, allopathic ,— 
 contraria contrariis ;—the law of dissimilars. But each pole is 
 under a law homoeopathic ,— similia similibus :—the law of similars. 
 In other words, at the bottom of the chain, Self loves Self:— or 
 like loves like j — in the middle, positive loves negative, or like 
 loves unlike : —and at the summit, God loves God, or like loves 
 like : and thus we come round again. And again it is cried in 
 our hearing ,—‘ O WHEEL P 
 
 16. This will help us to explain how it is that I, loving 
 poetry and all poesies, could not be satisfied with my wife, unless 
 she loved them too. And many other circumstances there are, 
 in which the minds of the contracting parties should be of a like 
 turn. In all which, like desires like, and yet not selfishly : and 
 I will tell you how. The faculties which belong to the intellect, 
 comprise not only the lower perceptive and reflective faculties, 
 but those also which I have elsewhere called the Soulic Heavens : 
 —that is to say, the whole of the psychical organs of the brain, 
 that are neither carnal, nor Spiritual (that is, instincted by 
 Spirit), come under the denomination— intellectual. But as the 
 
208 
 
 VII. LOVE. 
 
 intellectual, or Soulic Heavens, by virtue of their being the same 
 class of organs as is instincted, in the triune, or Divine man, by 
 Spirit; come under the homoeopathic law of love [^[ 15]; and 
 as it is in the Soulic Heavens that the love of poetry and beauty 
 dwells ; therefore, the poetical may legally desire the poetical for 
 their companions, and are dissatisfied with all who are not so. 
 However, as the intellect also is inspired by the Soul,—the allo¬ 
 pathic law of love [^[ 13] still may apply: thus a profound 
 metaphysician, or a skilful logician, needs not require that his 
 wife should be so too: whereby it is plain, that there may either 
 be great intellectual unlikeness, or likeness between the pair, and 
 yet the most perfect harmony and love. 
 
 17. And now I will tell you what incest is. All they who 
 marry without healthy instinctive marriage-correspondency, are 
 guilty of that foul and horrible crime. For the true incestuous 
 connexion, is that between persons who are constitutionally within 
 the degrees of affinity ; and there is no other. He who marries 
 one who is intrinsically akin to him, does, in effect , marry his 
 sister, his daughter, or his mother. All pains must be taken to 
 convince the people of this. Incest,—dark, deep, and damning, 
 is the crime', and dissatisfaction in the parents ; and disease, de¬ 
 formity, deterioration, death in the offspring, are the penalty. 
 
 18. The mental character of the child obeys fixed laws : as 
 is the seed, so is the flower : as is the flower, so is the seed. 
 Although changes may be effected in the flower by education 
 and circumstances, the inward law is still a law, and must always 
 be taken into the calculation. Mechanic appliance will do some¬ 
 thing for the plant, but after all, the great thing is the dynamic 
 developing force existent in the seed. Therefore do we say, that 
 on the perfection of the nature and marriage of the parents, 
 hangs the perfection of the mental, as well as the bodily endow¬ 
 ment of the child. And though institutional appliances will do 
 much for the regeneration of the child, it must ever be remem¬ 
 bered, that constitutional agency will do much , much more. 
 
 19. ‘ Like b&eeds like * is the constitutional law. However, 
 there are many disturbing influences : and the action of these is 
 so obscure at present, that it is no wonder this law has not been 
 till latterly suspected to exist. For though like breeds like, and 
 
209 
 
 § iij. EXTERNAL PERCEPTIVE LOVE. 
 
 thus the children represent the aggregate of the parents’ proper¬ 
 ties, divided into sexes: yet it does not follow that the result of 
 a true marriage must always be health and perfection in the off¬ 
 spring, or that deficiency in the parents must inevitably effect 
 deficiency in the children. We must remember, parents’ sins are 
 on their children even to the third and fourth generation. Apart 
 from my own constitutional endowment, my grandfather operates 
 by determination in the generation of my child. As he was well 
 or ill-birthed, and as he lived well or ill, will be, to some extent, 
 the good or evil birth of my offspring. Then, of course, in the 
 birth of every child, father and mother, grandfather and grand¬ 
 mother, great-grandfather and great-grandmother, on both sides 
 of the pedigree, all are concerned : it is not I and my wife alone, 
 who are the parents of these children ;—their fathers are many, 
 their mothers many.—What insight this gives us into the wicked¬ 
 ness of sin! If I only ruined myself by my follies, it would 
 less signify; but alas, horror of horrors ! down the iniquity goes 
 to the third and fourth generation. 
 
 20. Though I must call this downward influence a terrible,— 
 I must call it also a beautiful thing, for so it is. For if I have 
 received from my parentage certain defects, or ill propensities : 
 let me only strive to cure these, and marry a woman not so 
 afflicted, and I do thereby not only increase my own happiness, 
 but am also blessing my children yet unborn. And whatever to 
 the contrary ignorant or interested parties may say ; nothing is 
 effected in the Universe without its cause , and for the congenital 
 properties of every child, its parents are to a vast degree ac¬ 
 countable. 
 
 21. Therefore do we preach the instinct-marriage, as the only 
 one justifiable by the laws of God. Therefore, also, do we de¬ 
 nounce the horrible sin they are guilty of, who bring themselves, 
 or force their children, for lucre, or title, or worldly convenience, 
 to commit, under the external sanction of the law, the incestuous 
 abomination. And we declare that man to be a malefactor to 
 all that is sacred in human life and in society, who effects a mar¬ 
 riage, in himself or his offspring, [in opposition to the marriage 
 laws. And we affirm and affirm, that the deepest sin of the 
 race, and therefore the one by which the race most cruelly suffers, 
 
210 
 
 VII. LOVE. 
 
 is the uniting those for marriage ends, who are not constitu¬ 
 tionally entitled to unite.— 
 
 “ Horrible things have been in this wide world, 
 
 Prodigious mixtures, and confusions strange 
 
 Yes, have been, and still are; but never, never, never, will the 
 world be regenerated, till regeneration comes to it through the 
 gate of generation. 
 
 22. If it be asked, what token is there by which to tell whe¬ 
 ther the instincts in the pair properly correspond ?—It is an¬ 
 swered, love is the token. There cannot be love without 
 mutual relevancy; and the more perfect the love is, the more per¬ 
 fect the correspondency. A woman who is negative to my negative, 
 affects me not: I come into her presence, and do not much feel it, 
 nor will she feel mine. But when I come near one who really meets 
 my constitutional exigency, then I am no longer dull and uncon¬ 
 cerned : but a subtle influence streams from her towards me, and we 
 are apt to change colour and evince other involuntary signs of the 
 interest our constitutions mutually take. Our organisms instruct us 
 to notice every word let fall, and use numerous ways of ascertaining 
 whether true marriage conditions exist, not only by teaching us 
 to talk to each other, but also to press each other’s hands, gaze in 
 each other’s faces, kiss each other’s lips even, to test whether there 
 be correspondency or no. These sweet arts are continued to 
 the end; nature always delighting to reassure herself that her 
 instincts are fulfilled in the object of her love. 
 
 23. But beware how you are too hasty in concluding that your 
 instincts correspond completely : for mistakes are often made, in 
 that half-correspondencies frequently exist; as, for instance, the 
 physical groups may tally, and yet the psychical be at odds. It 
 behoves us, therefore, not to rest satisfied with correspondencies 
 in part: but diligently to compare psychical instincts, as well as 
 instincts physical, and not to trust to partial instinctive 
 affection. 
 
 24. And now understand what we mean by the SACRED 
 MARRIAGE. It is the correspondency of all the thirty-five 
 sexual instincts, in subjection to the kingdom of Heaven. For not 
 only must the sexual instincts be fulfilled by the pair for each 
 other: but withal there must be a true recognition of the Divinity 
 
§ iij. EXTERNAL PERCEPTIVE LOVE. 211 
 
 in each other, so that in the union of the contracting parties, 
 there may he a union of God with God. 
 
 25. No marriage is complete, unless it he performed in the 
 Temple faculties. In other words, marriage, to he real, must be 
 Supernatural and Supersexual, as well as Natural and sexual. 
 For by Marriage we mean not sexual union merely, but union of 
 the two Spiritual natures also; and unless in the pair God be¬ 
 holds and loves God, it is no true Marriage. However refined 
 the connection may be by intellect, however confirmed by corre¬ 
 lation of all sexual instincts, it is never a real perfect mingling or 
 marriage, except it be contracted between two triune souls. 
 Standing by the side of his intellectually and physically beloved, 
 it seems as if the lover’s whole nature were striving to lose its 
 individuality, and to mix his existence in one cup with hers ; but 
 in vain. Ever must he feel an urgent need for a new marriage, 
 —so incomplete, unsatisfying, is the old. Because ; Soul, Body- 
 soul, and Body, the materials of which his love is composed, all 
 are delusions : and therefore, to marry man to woman in Nature 
 only, is to marry ghost to ghost, phantasm to phantasm.—What 
 can these poor shadows do for each other ? In vain do I obey 
 my instincts to the full, and meet her who is my wife only in 
 Natural respects, with the most passionate embracings : when we 
 have done all, we must still feel a hidden dissatisfaction, and own 
 that the attempted union has failed. For nothing but God can 
 fill the void, and satisfy the need : nothing but marriage in the 
 Godly House can supply that which the marrying really seek. 
 The tyro in the camp of love encounters in some nook an object 
 his instincts tell him he was seeking. Then he is struck ; then 
 he takes his fill of gazing, and for some time it is enough only to 
 gaze,—-only to look at her, without expecting a return. In a 
 little while, however, the instincts are more clamorous; and no¬ 
 thing will serve his turn now, but to be spoken to, if only in 
 common words, by that holy idol. Soon common words lost 
 their satisfaction; larger demands are made; and unless those 
 words are somewhat tremulous in their tones, or personal in their 
 character; and unless eyes and palms tell audibly some certain 
 tales ; all that has past hitherto is accounted nothing. The boon 
 being at length granted, the want grows; and casting his eyes 
 
212 
 
 VII. 1.0 VE. 
 
 upon all the rhymes of Nature, the dualities of the world, the 
 
 lover exclaims in his heart, 
 
 “ What are all these kisses worth 
 If I kiss not thee?" 
 
 At first, however, because he is in such a sweet prevailing awe of 
 his idol, and so fearful of paining by any unwelcome forwardness, 
 he is content to kiss only her fair hand, and deems that almost 
 too vivid a happiness. But by and by, see how ambitious he 
 grows ! for now he has it in his audacious thought to 
 
 “ —skip 
 
 From her hand unto her lip !” 
 
 and sure enough, in some happy moment of unusual confidence, 
 
 “ His erewhile timid lips jrrow bold, 
 
 And poesie with hers in dewy rhyme.” 
 
 For the present, this is a consummation the greatest and proudest 
 his boyish heart could think of: but sooner or later, larger and 
 more serious demands are sure to be made; 
 
 “ He feels that pleasures such as these 
 No longer can suffice." 
 
 Strange !—is it not ?—that he cannot see this one plain truth ; 
 that though he obtain the last consummation of Natural love, he 
 will still be no nearer what he seeks. The most extensive con¬ 
 cessions on the part of his idol now, do not give him a sweeter 
 thrill, than once, only to touch her garment’s hem. Why will 
 not people understand, that nothing can satisfy the soul’s infinite 
 want, but an infinite supply ? 
 
 26. In Christ only is this Infinitude to be found. And there¬ 
 fore, in marrying, we must make this the grand principle of mar¬ 
 riage ; as psychical beings, the pair must marry triunely , and not 
 dually. They must marry, above all things, in the sphere in 
 which alone they can find an infinite supply. They must marry 
 by external perception of God, or it is no real union. The man 
 must love his wife 
 
 “ Because her face is turned to the same skies." 
 
 —and the wife her husband. Substance must embrace Sub¬ 
 stance in the pair, as well as shadow shadow. All love built on 
 sexual marriage is unsatisfying, and fades and dies. True Love 
 
213 
 
 § iij. EXTERNAL PERCEPTIVE LOVE. 
 
 only is imperishable; and that only is true Love, wherein, 
 through the man and the woman, God loveth God. The most 
 solid, the most ravishing happiness it is, when the pair can be¬ 
 hold Spiritually, Truth, Power, Beauty, Light, Life, Goodness, 
 and Love, in each other :—all intellectual and carnal, all animal, 
 vegetable, and mineral loves are trash, when compared with this 
 exalted transport which two Human beings feel, when, through 
 their outward senses, God sees God. Solid Happiness ? —the in¬ 
 tellectual Earth sends up a mournful plaint, with winds in its 
 grass and leaves, and sighs out sorrowfully, ‘ It is not in me P 
 True Happiness ? —the sensual Sea, with all its forlorn waves, 
 roars out over its hollow caverns, like a beast in agony, and still 
 it is, ‘ It is not in me P —But in Heaven , at God’s right hand, is 
 fulness of joy, and pleasure for evermore. 
 
 27. Love of God only is durable: and that lives for ever. 
 Dearly as you hold each other, your love sooner or later fades 
 and withers, unless it be rooted and grounded in Heaven. What 
 is written there, Time rubs not out; but his remorseless sponge 
 passes over all mere sexual affections. Lay up mutually treasure 
 in Heaven, and it is yours for ever : because there neither moth 
 nor rust doth corrupt, nor do any thieves break through or steal. 
 For when, through two human beings, God embraces God, no 
 period shall ever be put to the Divine enravishment. This is the 
 real source of that intuition which all true poets have of the im¬ 
 mortality of Love. It is always admitted by these seers, in spite 
 of the scepticism of ‘ common sense,’ that this, though nothing 
 else, endures. 
 
 “ Time doth transfix the flourish set on youth, 
 
 And delves the parallels in beauty’s brow 
 
 but true Love fades not, and cannot vanish away. Thus John 
 Keats testifies, 
 
 “ The ancient harps have sung 
 Love never dies, but lives, Immortal Lord !” 
 
 And Coventry Patmore declares, 
 
 “ Before there be extinguished 
 
 One minutest flame, Love-fanned, 
 
 The pyramids of Egypt 
 
 Shall have uo place in the land. 
 
 But as a nameless portion 
 Of its ever-shifting sand.” 
 
 2 _F 
 
214 
 
 VII. LOVE. 
 
 This also, as Ralph Emerson testifies, is 
 
 “ What rainbows teach, and sunsets shew ; 
 
 Verdict which accumulates 
 
 From lengthened scroll of human fates, 
 
 Voice of earth to earth returned, 
 
 Saying, w hat is excellent, 
 
 As God lives, is permanent / 
 
 Hearts are dust, hearts' Loves remain, 
 
 Hearts’ Love will meet thee again.” 
 
 And in like manner Shakspeare affirms ; 
 
 “ Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks 
 Within his bending sickle’s compass come ; 
 
 Love alters not with his bripf hours and weeks, 
 
 But bears it out, e’en to the edge of doom. 
 
 If this be error, and upon me proved, 
 
 I never writ, and no man ever loved.” 
 
 28. The uses of marriage are of two kinds : (1) personal to 
 the pair; and (2) resnltive to the offspring. Of the first, let it 
 be said, that man never makes such effectual progress single, as 
 he might, had he a real mate, and knew how to make hymeneals 
 serve their proper ends. The personal ends of marriage are, ad¬ 
 vancement Terrene and Divine. Of these, the most important, 
 the all-important, is the last. For the great end of marriage, as 
 regards the pair, is Christian progress. In the path of peace, as 
 trinitized souls, they must live and work together, provoking each 
 other unto LOVE. Then, as the Saviour passes them through 
 sphere after sphere of life, in constant progression, beautifully shall 
 they see God in each other, and bend and worship there. It is 
 the most healthy and invigorating of things, to suffer the magni¬ 
 ficent emotions which the perception of virtuous conduct in 
 another gives : but when that other is one who is instinctively 
 correspondent with us, O what intense transport is there,—what 
 health rolls through us, down every nerve! Then we grow, 
 then we run, then we pant, and exult, and breathe the Godhead 
 of Love and joy.—And what a watchfulness dees not this happy 
 vision cause us to put upon our hands and tongues ! For when 
 a man has before him one who is herself Beautiful in word and 
 deed, he is thereby stimulated not only to correct in himself 
 whatever may make her less esteem him ; but also to deserve 
 such beauty as she brings him. So that a wife, who is a wife, 
 
§ iij. EXTERNAL PERCErTIVE LOVE. 215 
 
 and not a woman merely tacked and glued to me, is, as it were, a 
 perpetual visible Thou-God-seest-me. Through these fair eyes 
 the Omniscient One is looking : God sits and watches there . A 
 man had need guard his steps, and every motion of his mind, and 
 will feel that he must do it with tireless zeal, now that he has to 
 bear so visibly 
 
 “ This everlasting face-to-face with God T* 
 
 Thus a livelier sense of Divine supervision is wrought in the 
 
 man, and now he learns that he has—how many faults! which 
 formerly he could not see. So also is it with the woman living 
 with a godly man. And unless each does thus shew forth a true 
 life, for the encouragement and reproof of the other ; unless our 
 presence gives this beautiful yet serious sense of Divine super¬ 
 vision ; we are not husbands, we are not wives. 
 
 29. Therefore the grand end of marriage is progress in the 
 Zion-life. And thus, by true marriage, the lovers “ pass to the 
 true palace of Beauty, more and more inflame their love of it, 
 and by this love extinguishing the base affection, as the sun puts 
 out the fire by shining on the hearth, they become pure and hal¬ 
 lowed. By conversation with that which is in itself excellent, 
 magnanimous, lowly, and just, the lover comes to a warmer love 
 of these nobilities, and a quicker apprehension of them. Then, 
 he passes from loving them in one, to loving them in all, and so 
 it is that the one beautiful soul is only the door through which he 
 enters to the society of all true and pure souls. In the particular 
 society of his mate, he attains a clearer sight of any spot, any 
 taint, which her beauty has contracted from this world, and is 
 able to point it out, and this with mutual joy that they are now 
 
 able, without offence, to indicate blemishes and hindrances in each 
 other, and give to each other all help and comfort in curing the 
 same.” “ At last they discover, that all which at first drew them 
 together,—those once sacred features, that magical play of charms, 
 —was deciduous, had a prospective end, like the scaffolding by 
 which the house was built; and the purification of the intellect and 
 heart, from year to year, is the real marriage, foreseen and pre¬ 
 pared from the first.” “ Thus are we put in training for a Love 
 
216 
 
 TIT. LOVE. 
 
 •which knows not sex, nor person, nor partiality, but which 
 seeketh virtue and wisdom everywhere, to the end of increasing 
 virtue and wisdom.” 
 
 30. And then, when our further union, even though it have 
 not reached this length, would be less helpful to our growth than 
 a separation, the stroke falls, and we are severed. Nothing, how¬ 
 ever, is lost to us by the change. It is true, certain inferior and 
 unimportant instincts are unanswered now, which once were 
 answered by my sleeping angel; but that for which only she 
 was truly worth loving,—that which alone I can call by her name, 
 since to it all other properties were separable accidents, is here with 
 me, and loves me now. 
 
 “ Slie is to me the same she ever was, 
 
 A never-ceasing presence, a life-light, 
 
 In the dark watches of the silent night, 
 
 Or some far darker passages of day. 
 
 If I would weep and mourn her fancied loss, 
 
 The azure fire that wells from her calm eyes 
 Laps up my tears, and tells me she is here. 
 
 It I am sick at heart, she sits beside me, 
 
 And lays the velvet back of her white hand 
 Upon my cheek, to ask if all be well, 
 
 Or parts the hair upon my heated brows. M 
 
 For what we have once loved in God, becomes by that act ours 
 for evermore : nothing but wilful sin can rob us of our beloved. 
 A thing of Spiritual Beauty 
 
 “ is a joy for ever jj 
 Its loveliness increases ; it unit never 
 Pass into nothingness, but still will keep 
 A bower quiet for us, and a sleep 
 
 Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing ” 
 
 Let us not distrust the Father’s hand, when some angel goes; 
 harsh as it may seem to us now, in the end we shall own that our 
 Redeemer hath done all things well. “ "VVe need not fear that we 
 can lose anything by the progress of the soul.” God u may be 
 trusted to the end. That which is so beautiful and attractive as 
 these relations, must be succeeded only by what is more beautiful, 
 and so on for ever.” 
 
 31. The other great personal end of marriage, though much 
 less important than the first, is yet very necessary to be attended 
 
§ iij. EXTERNAL PERCEPTIVE LOVE. 
 
 217 
 
 to;—I mean, Terrene progression. The individual may advance 
 more rapidly, but he never makes such healthy progress, nor ad¬ 
 vances so sweetly and completely, nor with so much real profit, 
 as when he can work in company with a corresponsive soul. 
 Here then is another great and beautiful end to be served by 
 marriage. The pair must read, write, study together, intellec¬ 
 tually, as well as Mystically. Is a knowledge of Latin, German, 
 Greek; of physiology, geology, or astronomy ; useful and beau¬ 
 tiful for me? Then it should be so to my wife too, for she has 
 as great a right to it as I.—Do I hear you say, that woman has 
 less Light-faculty than man ?—But what then ?—Man has less 
 Love than woman ; is he therefore incapable of a true, vehement, 
 and lasting affection ? Or, because woman has somewhat less 
 Light than man, is she not competent to think justly, and to 
 have a truly illuminated understanding ? Apart from the fact, 
 that most females are not absolute ivomen , nor males men ;—the 
 difference between the sexes is nothing like so great as you think. 
 It is most cruel to say that woman is to be withheld from any 
 intellectual study ;—as cruel, unnatural, and foolish, as to say 
 that man must never be allowed to love.—It was said of women, 
 by one whose heart was soured by disappointment, that 
 
 “Nature made them blinder motions, bounded in a shallower brain 
 
 And this evidently alludes to the fact, that woman’s head is gene¬ 
 rally smaller than man’s. But let us beware of a too mechanical 
 phrenology. It is long since I first learnt that no faith could be 
 put in its indications. And I will tell you why.—Apart from 
 the want of parallelism between the outer and inner tables of the 
 skull; when you have taken fullest note of quantity of brain, 
 you have still the problem of quality to solve. Because there 
 is the greatest difference in the quality of brains ; there are all 
 sorts, from the exquisite organization of the archangels, to sheer 
 hasty-pudding. And not only difference of quality in different 
 brains, but difference also in different parts of the same brain, 
 owing partly to habit and education. So that, besides the two 
 measures of quantity and quality, there is a third, dominion, to 
 be taken, before you can give a true verdict. It is true, I have 
 naturally a large carnal development; but how know you that 
 
218 
 
 VII. LOVE. 
 
 the devils are not all dormant in me, paralyzed by the grace of 
 God in my soul ? It may be true, that my natural intellectual 
 powers are small. But suppose circumstances have forced me to 
 put them on the stretch,—how then ? I may be a clever man, 
 for all my native deficiencies. It is true, I have but a small 
 natural Heavenly endowment; but will your callipers tell you 
 whether that, small as it is, is not master of me, master of all the 
 other faculties,—my Lord and my God ? 
 
 32. And with respect to women; always bear in mind, 
 that though the quantity of brain may be less, the quality is 
 mostly better, and the formation and shape, as well as dominion, 
 mostly better to. We will not have it, that woman is to be 
 denied any Terrene progressions. The time will come when these 
 things shall be different; as Zechariah indeed long since pro- 
 phecied, when he said, that Corn shall make the young men cheer¬ 
 ful, and new Wine the maids. —What Wine is has already been 
 shewn [i, ij, 6] ; and thus the prophet means that women 
 shall at length become admitted to their intellectual rights.—And 
 since I have quoted this passage, I may as well shew the poetic 
 meaning of Corn. 
 
 33. As Wine refers more especially to intellectual Beauty, 
 Utility, and Love ; so Corn signifies intellectual Strength, Life, 
 and Light. Thus Isaac’s blessing upon Jacob was this : The 
 Lord God give thee of the Dew of Heaven, and of the fatness of 
 the Earth ;—that is, Divine and Terrene blessings ;—and then, 
 particularizing the latter, he adds — and plenty of Corn and 
 Wine. —Thus, when Moses blessed Jeshurun, he said— Israel 
 shall dwell in safety alone, the fountain of Jacob shall be open, a 
 land of Corn and Wine ; also his Heavens shall drop down Dew. 
 It is true, these blessings had a literal fulfilment, but they re¬ 
 ferred also to deeper and grander events; not to old Israel only, 
 but to the true Israel of God.—It was said of Ephraim, Ephraim 
 is a Heifer that is taught and loveth to tread out the Corn :— 
 Heifer being one of the beasts of the Earth, or Intellect:—re¬ 
 ferring to the intellectuality of Ephraim. So speaking of the 
 intellectual desolations of the Jews, Joel laments — the Field is 
 withered, the Land mourneth, for the Corn is wasted, and the new 
 Wine is dried up. —And Jeremiah says, He that scattereth Israel 
 
§ iij. EXTERNAL PERCEPTIVE LOVE. 219 
 
 will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock ; for 
 the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand 
 of him (Lucifer, king of Babel) who was stronger than he. 
 Therefore they shall come and sing in the heights of Zion (the 
 Heavenly faculties), and shall flow together to the goodness of the 
 Lord , for Wheat, and for Wine, and for Oil, and for the young 
 of the flock and herd —by young of the flock ,—meaning Terrene 
 acquisition. 
 
 34. But they shall flow, it is said, for Oil. And by Oil, we 
 are to understand, Heavenly influences , or Spirituality. — 
 For this reason, the old kings were anointed with Oil, upon the 
 top of the head, to shew that they ought to be great in the king¬ 
 dom of God, before they could govern the people.—So David 
 saith, Thou anointest my head with Oil ; my cup runneth over :— 
 signifying the great Spirituality with which God had blessed him. 
 —It is said, there is treasure to he desired, and Oll in the dwel¬ 
 ling of the wise; and so there is ; and it is the having of this 
 pearl of price, this Oil of Heaven, that differences the truly wise 
 from the insane.—The Lamp-stands that are before the Lord of 
 the Earth [v, iv, 2] discharge golden Oil, —that is, are a means 
 of converting to Spirit the intellectual world. And Jesus also, 
 in His parable of the virgins, beautifully represents the state of 
 the ungodly, by saying that they had no Oil in their lamps; 
 which is the characteristic of the wicked.—Other words also are 
 used to denote the fruits of the Oracular organs ; such as In¬ 
 cense, Dew, Frankincense, Milk, Butter, and Honey. Thus 
 the promised land, inherited by all the children of God, is a land 
 flowing with Milk and Honey. —The invitation given to all is, 
 Come, buy Wine and Milk, without money and without price; for, 
 indeed, not all our efforts could deserve either Terrene or Divine 
 blessings, were it not for the free mercy of God.—Thus Jesus 
 (by Whom, also, His Gospel, resuscitated in our own Day, is 
 typified) is represented as tying His Foal to the Vine, and so on, 
 
 •—implying the intellectual beauty and greatness of His Doctrine 
 [Prol. 47] ; and then it is added, His eyes shall be red with 
 Wine, —and His teeth shall be white with Milk :—to foreshew, 
 also, the Heavenliness of the gospel.—Alluding to .this same re¬ 
 surrection from the sepulchre in our own Day, it is said, The 
 
2 20 
 
 VII. 
 
 LOVE. 
 
 Mountains [Prol. 44] shall drop down new Wine, and the Hilis 
 shall flow with Milk : as they have already begun to do.—Now, 
 also, we may know what is meant by that sublime prophecy,— 
 A virgin shall conceive , and hear a Son , and shall call His name 
 Immanuel: Butter and Honey shall He eat , that He may know 
 how to refuse the evil, and choose the good. 
 
 35. I might continue these remarks at length, but I must not 
 digress longer.—To return, then, to woman: it is quite certain, 
 that in this sixth Day, she will take her just intellectual station, 
 and be filled with new Wine, Wine never yet allowed to the 
 generality of the sex. And already the fulfilment of this prophecy 
 we are beginning to see, in our Barretts, Somervilles, Martineaus, 
 and so on; who are partaking, indeed, not of the Wine only, 
 but also of the Corn. —And truly, between the married pair, 
 there must be no selfish sequestrations : the man who can delight 
 himself in any Terrene acquirement, and yet be unwilling to 
 help his wife thereto, does not deserve to have a wife,—so I tell 
 him. He does not know half her dignity and worth, half the 
 duty he owes to that noble creature at his side. Men must learn 
 heartily to subscribe to that fine saying of Matthew Henry’s :— 
 “ Woman was not made out of man’s head, to top him; nor out 
 of his feet, to be trampled upon by him; but out of his side, to 
 be EQUAL with him; under his arm, to be protected; and near 
 his heart, to be beloved.” 
 
 36. ‘This notion of yours about mutual study, is all very 
 well, 0 philosopher: but as things now are, I fear your scheme 
 is anything but practicable. And I should like to know who is 
 to bring up your children, and attend to your domestic affairs, 
 and cook your meals for you, if you are to let your wife spend 
 her time in studying languages, and sciences, and poetry, and 
 philosophy ? Is it not to be apprehended, that while she is 
 solving some deep problem, the pudding in the oven will be 
 burning ? And think you that children can be brought up, and 
 especially a large family of them, if the mother is to be reading 
 and composing ?’— 
 
 37. This is what you say, is it, my friend ?— I thought so .—* 
 But which do you think, now, is of the most consequence —that 
 the mind of the being, whom you are bound to love and cherish, 
 
EXTERNAL PERCEPTIVE LOVE. 
 
 221 
 
 § ■•• • 
 
 HJ* 
 
 should be degraded, diminished, stunted ; or that your base ap¬ 
 petites should be indulged P—Make your wife what it is your 
 duty to make her, I say ;—and let your pudding burn to cinders, 
 aye, and perish for ever, with all its tribe, rather than that any 
 portion of woman’s soul should be lost to her and you !—Alas, 
 my friends, we are destroying each other for our bellies’ sake. 
 For messes of pottage we are selling woman’s birthright. We are 
 cramping her mind, and robbing her of some of her noblest pro¬ 
 gressions,—and it is our base appetites that do it all. Were but 
 this abomination of cooking done away, among the middle and 
 lower classes ; instead of living in ignorance, and growing old in 
 a round of soul-wasting insignificant duties; our women would, in 
 a manner, grow younger and more glorious every day. 
 
 38. But you said something about the hindrance of a large 
 family.—Well, dear friend : if it be so impossible for her to cul¬ 
 tivate her soul, from the increase of family, I should like to know 
 what business she has with a large family ? And by what law 
 so imperative it is, that this increase, so deleterious, should 
 accrue ? I have not yet heard that children ever drop down 
 from the skies, or come without asking for.— No parents, let it be 
 said boldly, have a right to more children than they can do their 
 duty to. No wnman has a right to be subjected often to that 
 “ martyrdom of maternity.” The mother must educate her child: 
 and she cannot do this, if she must leave it, while very young, to 
 attend to its successor. Indeed, when the law's of human happi¬ 
 ness are universally understood, a large family will very seldom 
 be heard of. We want more parents to the same number of 
 children. It is only secondarily important that a great number 
 of children should be born ; but it is vitally important that every 
 child that does come into the world, should be birthed and 
 brought up properly. 
 
 39. For the mothers’ sake, let me plead, as well as for the 
 children:—yes, for the mothers, who might be happy in their 
 lives, and beautiful, but for these dreadful demands made upon 
 them. Have you,—O man,— O monster !—no pity, no remorse ? 
 Year after year you put a burden on your partner, which robs 
 her—see !—of her youth, her health, her happiness ; which is 
 filling your house wfith cares and troubles; which is driving 
 2 G 
 
VII. LOVE. 
 
 222 
 
 >. » 
 
 away all the poesies and loves that flutter now, alas! only over 
 the young.—We say 
 
 “ Beauty is but a vain, a fleeting good,’* 
 
 and pretend to sigh over the departed roses and glories: but it is 
 ourselves , our base appetites, gustative, and sensual of all kinds, 
 that have done it all. Were women taught to love the fresh air 
 and much exercise therein; to shun all perturbations of mind, 
 and hankering after the future ; and released from the consuming 
 toils of cooking, and the pains and penalties of a large family : 
 they would in most cases carry the freshness and bloom of youth 
 into their later years, and remain hopeful, and peaceful, and 
 lovely, and rich in physical as well as psychical charms, to an 
 advanced age. 
 
 40. It is the right of every man and woman, physically and 
 
 psychically prepared, to marry, or be married. Every custom or 
 institution that hinders this, in society, is wrong. But no one is 
 justified in bringing disease into the world ; in begetting an or¬ 
 ganization which must produce serious unhappiness.-What 
 
 right have I to cause to be born, a being, who, from hereditary 
 defect, must be the victim of an evil soul, or a diseased and painful 
 body?—Never forget, however, that of the marriages, the 
 Spiritual and intellectual are much more essential than the rest. 
 —And though it would be wrong in you to inflict your 
 ill constitution on a child, yet there is no reason why you 
 should not civilly marry or be married. If both parties are 
 willing, they have a perfect right to be united under the same 
 roof in all but Serpentine respects. But, of course, if the parties 
 cannot ensure their own mastery of passion, they must be satis¬ 
 fied to live apart.—Thus I say to none, Do not marry :—but I 
 do say, Be aware what it is you are doing, before you dare to be 
 a party in the formation of any being, who may live to have 
 cause to curse you. However, in such a case of self-denial, let 
 there be, before marriage, a proper understanding. Then, if con¬ 
 sent be accorded, let the civil contract be made. For it is good that 
 they who love should live together, the more fully to complete 
 the union of the two noble psychical natures. 
 
 41. With respect to the marriage-end, as relates to the off- 
 
§ iij. EXTERNAL PERCEPTIVE LOVE. 
 
 223 
 
 spring :—I have already said, that on the shape, quality, quantity, 
 and dominion of the cerebral organization of the parents, de¬ 
 pends the natural disposition of the child : and that all organi¬ 
 zation depends on causes existing within the organizers. And 
 though in no one case can it be predicted with exact certainty, what 
 the children of certain parents must be; since the elements to be 
 taken into account are so various and subtle : when we look from 
 individual to general instances, we shall see at once, how true, how 
 potent is the operation of this law. And when the time shall come, 
 when the Sacred Marriage shall be generally fulfilled; the result 
 will be a general beauty and perfection, physical and psychical, 
 in the offspring; and disease, defect, excess, and ugliness will be 
 the rare exception, instead of, as now, alpiost the rule. There¬ 
 fore do we say, that in this law of generation, so beautiful to the 
 beautiful, so froward to the froward, lies the only possible re¬ 
 generation of the race. The children need to be born holy and 
 pure, and thus to be freed from that original taint of sin which 
 now is mostly upon them. Institutional remedies are good, and 
 must never be overlooked; but constitutional preventives are far, 
 far better. 
 
 42. And, finally, let not those think themselves unblessed, who 
 are deprived of marriage blessings. For it is nobler to love, than 
 to be loved. True enough, we lack those outward qualities, 
 which would give us power to attract attention and love. True 
 enough, though our souls may naturally ache for human love, 
 and yearn for it, with sighs, with tears ; yet none there be will 
 love us .—None ? God loves us. We cannot sigh but He hears: 
 there is not a tear shed by us, but lo! He knoweth it altogether. 
 It is well with others, when they are blessed with friend, and 
 wife, and child ; but also, at all times, it is well with us. And, 
 after all, it does not vitally concern any of us, whether others 
 love us or no : our right aim is to be lovely and to love, and not 
 to be beloved. Oh, let us know, that if Love be ours, all is 
 ours. We want for nothing then. Let us love the trees, my 
 friends, the stones, the stars. And do not let us sit here, wetting 
 our path with these selfish tears, because we are unbeloved; but 
 go out and love these glorious men and women, and these dear 
 little children in the streets. O, there is nothing so sweet as this 
 
22 £ 
 
 VII. LOV£. 
 
 Divine enravishment of Love! For no man that lives in Love,' 
 can look at a happy face, but straightway the invisible pearls and 
 diamonds fall from him on all sides in showers of blessing. That 
 little child, with its large wondrous eyes; that girl, with calm 
 and gentle face; that fine creature* with such beautiful intention 
 in her glance ; that wan factory-girl, with face and arms white, 
 as with the reflection of the coming shroud; that poor halt one, 
 or blind, that went slowly on the way ;—all went past you, and 
 spent no thought on the seemingly unobservant stranger : but all 
 the while, you were placing a garland of flowery benison on each 
 head. Yes, this is what we are to live for; what we are to 
 strive for :—it is a little thing to be loved, but to love is all.— 
 Let us, then, love these dear people;—yea, let us, my friends! 
 The talented may think me talentless, and esteem me not; the 
 monied deem me moneyless, and heed me not; the lovely in body 
 or in soul, slight me, and pass me by ;— 
 
 “ Vet, though I cannot be beloved, 
 
 Still let me love! ” 
 
EPILOGUE. 
 
 1. And now let me urge upon you the necessity of not reading 
 this book merely, hut of living it. It is not a hook of fine 
 speculation or fine writing, that will do for holidays or so: it is 
 for home that it is written, for every-day life, there being nothing 
 herein that does not bear upon possibility and practice. Learn, 
 dear friends, to live this book, and then you will know whether 
 I speak true things. So long as you indulge in any carnality, 
 whether of eating, drinking, smoking, or elsewhat, you cannot 
 judge this doctrine truly. By ALL diabolisms,—not merely by 
 the unfashionable ones ; by any one sensual propensity indulged, 
 you in part stupefy that portion of your soul which alone can 
 judge truly the doctrine of the Atonement.— If any man , said 
 Jesus, shall do God's will , he shall know of the doctrine whether it 
 be of God. And this is the only true law of Vision :—he shall 
 see only what he is: and the higher duty carries him, the higher 
 and the clearer shall be his vision of God. If you would know 
 of the doctrine, you must learn to unsensualize your nature, that 
 so you may with some effect hear the holy One who ppeaks and 
 pleads within you. You must first do the will, by abstaining 
 from all the works of the Devil; and then, and not till then,- 
 will you truly comprehend the words. You may doubt the 
 
226 
 
 EPILOGUE. 
 
 truth of the law of Vision, but is is true, notwithstanding. 
 When first I tried to read James Greaves’s letters, I thought the 
 man mad, the book seemed such a mass of raving absurdities. 
 But having found out, about that time, that a simpler diet than I 
 had been used to, enabled me to pursue certain poetical studies 
 with more effect; and having also begun, though only in a small 
 degree, to let the Divine Agent act upon my psychical organism; 
 Greaves’s book began to be so much plainer to me, that here and 
 there I could discern, though still but fitfully, a true and lucid 
 meaning. Persevering in the same course of diet and submission 
 to the teachings of the Divine Spirit, by and by whole para¬ 
 graphs, and then whole pages of the book, became opened to me; 
 until at last, as far as I recollect, there was not a sentiment in 
 the volume, the clear meaning of which I could not see. The 
 reader of this book of the Evangel of Love, must obtain the 
 clue to its highest intention in the same way: for there is no 
 other. He will deem all I say of Spirit, madness and folly, un¬ 
 less he allows himself to be centrally instincted by Christ, anoint¬ 
 ing his eyes with the Divine eye-salve, in order that he may see.' 
 If you would judge rightly of this book, dear friends, you must 
 learn to enter into the requisite soul. It is a book to think over, 
 to tremble over, to weep over, if you will;—above all, to pray 
 over. You must not expect to see the propriety of its Spiritual 
 affirmations, unless you will live simply, pray centrally, avoid all 
 excitements and perturbations, and submit your whole soul to 
 the teachings of Him who stands at the door and knocks. You 
 may have an intellectual understanding of it, but you cannot see 
 its true mean and propriety, without you put yourself Mystically 
 en rapport with the Most High.—My doctrine, as far as it relates 
 to Spirituals, is not mine, but His that sent me. And if any 
 
 MAN WILL DO THE WILL OF MY FATHER, HE SHALL KNOW OF THE 
 DOCTRINE WHETHER IT BE OF GOD. 
 
 2. And will you have patience with me, while, before I am 
 possibly dumb to you for ever, I try earnestly to impress upon 
 you the necessity of pressing into the Atonement of Jesus, and 
 obtaining an interest in His Body and Blood ? Remember, dear 
 friends, there is no name given under heaven whereby men can 
 be saved, but the name of Jesus. Remember, Oh ! remember, 
 
EPILOGUE. 
 
 227 
 
 you cannot become happy, nor tread the way of peace, without 
 eating of Christ’s Flesh ; and you cannot eat of His Flesh, with¬ 
 out drinking of His Blood. And His Flesh is meat indeed; and 
 His Blood is drink indeed. —There is no other way of salvation 
 than by the Cross of Christ. The Tree of Life cannot be come 
 at, but by travelling in the way of the Sword. Let me point, 
 and still point, and ever point you, dear friends, to the Cross; for 
 only by that symbol can you be healed. Let me cry ever, ‘ Be¬ 
 hold the Lamb of God , that taketh away the sin of the world P 
 Do not be afraid of washing in this fountain opened for sin and 
 for uncleanness. Those who have not been baptized into Christ’s 
 Body, through his Blood, think the way rugged, and cruel, and 
 full of aching bones. And they would not have us go up, each 
 to his Calvary ;—they call it ‘ Golgotha P —the place of a grin¬ 
 ning frightful skull! But we know how healthful is the Blood, 
 how sweet the Flesh of the Heavenly Sacrament. Beautiful for 
 odour are these sorrow-flowers, that carpet the way of peace. 
 And it is a faithful saying, and worthy of ALL acceptation, that 
 Christ Jesus came once mystically, and comes manifestly always, 
 into the world, to save sinners. 
 
 3. I protest, dear friends, and protest to you, that not without 
 pains shall you well enter the kingdom of Heaven. Your own 
 lusts will fight against you; your foes shall be they of your in¬ 
 ner household, because you have begun to hate, and to crucify 
 and crucify them. I have sat at table with those who were eat¬ 
 ing delicious meats, till my whole frame has been afflicted, as 
 with a gnawing frenzy, because I would not let myself indulge. 
 I thank my God, it never is so with me now; but it will be so 
 with almost all at first, except the nobler-born. 
 
 4. It is nowhere said, that a man may not be a child of the 
 Adoption, and yet smoke, and drink sensually, and fulfil many 
 lusts. But it is asserted, that no person who does this can attain 
 to the clearest heights of Spirit, and have anything but fitful 
 vision of God. For as sure as ever he is in any point sensual, so 
 surely are some of the highest, purest portions of his soul, some 
 of the brightest and truest passages in the Sacred Scriptures of 
 God, blotted out within him, slain by the Sword. Do not listen 
 to what any such can say to you, on these sacred matters. Re- 
 
228 
 
 EPILOGUE. 
 
 member, your grand duty it is, to accept the plan of Salvation 
 Christ comes into the world to teach, in its integrity ; and that 
 without shedding of Blood there is no remission . 
 
 5. The English Babylonians will say, that your ‘new religion’ 
 is a religion of works; and that you are trusting to your own 
 merits, your own strength, for salvation. But I say, God forbid 
 you should do so ! If you rely on your own strength, you are 
 already fallen: you have been leaning on a broken reed. If 
 
 • you think your own well-doings can save you, you are fearfully, 
 grievously mistaken. The believer must cry ever, ‘ None hut 
 Christ! none hut ChristP The Christian must know always, 
 that of himself he can do nothing, except to plunge deeper and 
 deeper into the flames of hell: where the worm dieth not , and the 
 fire is not quenched. —Poor, weak, blind, naked, miserable crea¬ 
 ture ! what can man do for his own redemption ? By Grace are 
 we saved, and that not of ourselves, it is the gift of God. We 
 cannot do one good thing of ourselves;—all we can do i3, to 
 suffer God to work in us, to will and to do of His good pleasure. 
 Only by Christ strengthening us, can we do anything; but with 
 Him, we can do all. I have no merit of my own, I can harve 
 none: I disclaim all power to save one limb or vestige of my 
 soul, except by laying hold on the strength of the Divinity. I 
 rely for pardon simply and wholly on the merits of the Atone¬ 
 ment of my Saviour, which is of the free mercy of God. Forbid 
 it, Lord! that I should glory, save in the Cross of Christ my 
 
 God ; BY WHICH THE WOBLD IS CRUCIFIED TO ME, AND I UNTO THE 
 WORLD. 
 
 6. And let me also caution those who desire to press into the 
 Body through the Blood of Christ, what is the true ground of 
 the self-denial which we preach. The necessity of self-denial 
 has always been felt by men, directly they have risen into high 
 Spiritual conditions; but because the science of religion was not 
 well understood, they fell into many grievous errors. For, seeing 
 what a blessed thing it was to abstain from sensualities, they 
 thought all pleasures that were not of the Most High, were alike 
 deleterious, and so tried to make their lives as wretched as they 
 could. Eating and drinking sensually were bad, they knew : then 
 they half-starved themselves, and thought that a Christian duty. 
 
EPILOGUE. 
 
 229 
 
 And the great mistake they made, was in having too obscure 
 notions of the human constitution; for they thought man con¬ 
 sisted of a body and soul, as two distinct principles ; and that the 
 body was the cause of all their inability to enjoy Spiritual plea¬ 
 sures, the soul’s only hope being in a redemption from the dark 
 investiture of the body. They did not know, that what they 
 called their body, was not a distinct principle, but was merely 
 their mineral-, vegetabil-, and animal-ity; and that the carnal 
 mind is not in these, but is in the soul,—the third psychical 
 sphere. It is right and needful to do penances, but there only 
 are they to be done. And no bodily pain is to be voluntarily in¬ 
 flicted, unless it be unavoidable, in subduing the carnal mind. 
 The only end of self-denial is to promote the fuller, finer, and 
 higher development of the woman or man, and whatever really 
 makes us less blessed in our lives, less useful to our kind, is 
 never a justifiable self-denial. 
 
 7. The Babylonians will hate you, and revile and persecute 
 you, and will say all manner of evil against you. They will 
 look askance at you, as if you were a loathsome thing, and will 
 shun you, or frown on you in the streets. And they will call 
 you hypocrite , deist , fanatic , infidel, madman , fool , and heap 
 slander and scorn upon .your name. Yet be not angry with them, 
 but love them ; yea, love and pray for them.—However, let all 
 men know plainly, that you have not done what you have done, 
 without counting the cost:—that it may blight your worldly 
 prospects, it may make you an outcast, and an indignation ; but 
 that no sarcasm, no ridicule, no sneer, no persecution, can avail 
 against you; for that you have set your mind upon the Truth ; 
 and to the Truth you are resolved to live and die. 
 
 8. And remember, you shall have no quarrel with any on ac¬ 
 count of creed. You are to love all who, not nominally perhaps, 
 but yet really , love the Lord Jesus in sincerity. You are to take 
 them by the hand, and to bid your brother and sister heartily 
 God speed. Pagan, Mahometan, Jew, Papist, Episcopalian, or 
 Dissenter; are all to be embraced in the arms of your affection. 
 The Babylonians will not love you ; but if you refuse to love 
 them, you also will prove yourself to be a Babylonian. There 
 is but one religion in the world, though it has many names and 
 
 2 H 
 
230 
 
 EPILOGUE. 
 
 forms, and degrees of purity and corruption. And although it is 
 of very great importance indeed, that all men should learn to 
 embrace the purest and noblest form ; and although it should be 
 always matter of high rejoicing among the angels of God, when 
 a Pagan becomes elevated into a Papist, a Papist into an Episco¬ 
 palian, an Episcopalian into a truly enlarged Dissenter, or a 
 Dissenter into a Catholic Christian, and all attempts to effect such 
 a change should be most earnestly encouraged ; yet under every 
 form the angels of God may truly live and grow. The Heavenly 
 hosts do not all sit together, but are one above another, according 
 to their rank, on the sides of the Mount of God. What! shall 
 Gabriel quarrel with Michael, because sitting higher or lower 
 than he ? Shall Raphael write a fierce book, or argue with 
 Uriel, to triumph over him, because Uriel sees things less clearly 
 than he? Nay, let him rather take him by the hand, and teach 
 him how to win a patent of equal nobility with his own, for till 
 this is done, the twain can never sit in the same seat together. 
 It may very much abate any undue heat of proselytism, to con¬ 
 sider that very few, at present, could live vitally under a wide 
 form of creed. Most people need a God as wilful and personal 
 as themselves, and a rule of faith very sensuous, or they cannot 
 believe and live. Woe, indeed, unto you, if you preach not the 
 Gospel!—but then, remember, that the Gospel of Christ, is the 
 denial of the carnal, and the enthronement of the Divine facul¬ 
 ties :—and with this, creed and system have nothing to do. The 
 Gospel of Reconciliation, by the cross of self-denial, must be 
 preached faithfully to all: but it is nowise essential, that this, 
 and an enlarged view of the Universe, should go together. All 
 men will learn at last to see intellectual truth : but be not angry 
 with them because they cannot see it now. Beware of being too 
 spasmodic a reformer, and of having too little patience with the 
 old tattered creeds. You must learn to admire and love the 
 Episcopalian as well as the Dissenter, and feel an interest in the 
 efforts alike of all good men. Sitting in their assemblies, if you 
 let Spirit deeply act in you, you will find your heart filled 
 towards them with the sweetest outgushings of love. You will 
 learn to admire and esteem them, even though they frown upon 
 you; and when they revile, will not dream of reviling again. 
 
EriLOGUE. 
 
 231 
 
 You will not even hate hate, or scorn scorn; being free from all 
 hating and scorning.— Little Children in Christ , love one another! 
 
 9. Finally: am I speaking to a sister who has forsaken the 
 Guide of her youth, and forgotten the Covenant of her God ?— 
 To one whose misery it is that she has listened to the deceiver’s 
 words, 
 
 “ Thrown her affections in his charmed power, 
 
 Reserved the stalk, and given him all her flower ?” 
 
 Do I address a brother, who has run into the quags of sin, and 
 stands now bemired and despairing ? O, still, though defiled by 
 ninety and nine times, you may obtain the forgiveness of sins. 
 There is virtue in the Blood of Calvary, there is cleansing for the 
 most scarlet crimes. The voice of the Redeemer speaks to you 
 for aye, and may he heard, if you will but dip your finger in His 
 passion’s purple streams, and make the mark of the cross on your 
 soul. 
 
 “ You cannot go 
 So far, far down, but you shall know 
 That Voice, and answer from below." 
 
 Because all crimes are forgiven unto men except the sin against 
 Spirit: the finally refusing to receive Him, and become His 
 little child. You may he old, you may be dying, but still there 
 is a Door, there is a Fountain open for the worst uncleanness. 
 Will you not enter ? Will you not wash, and be made white in 
 this Blood of the Lamb ? Oh it is an easy yoke,—this Gospel 
 of Love;—a blessed life, a path of pleasantness, a way of 
 peace. 0 ye thirsty, wretched, insane souls, come hither, where 
 the springs of Life and health flow. Come ye to the Waters, 
 come, buy Wine; and, above all, Milk; without money, and 
 without price. For Spirit and the Bride say l Come ;’ and let 
 him that heareth say 4 Come :’ and I also will say l Come : yea , let 
 him that is athirst , Come and welcome;—and whosoever will , let 
 him take of the Water of Life FREELY .’ 
 
 Nottingham, May 31, 1847. 
 
SYNONYMS 
 
 1 Universe. 
 
 2 God. 
 
 3 the All. 
 
 1 Altar. 
 
 2 Eden. 
 
 3 knowable Uni¬ 
 
 verse. 
 
 1 Ineffable. 
 
 2 first persona. 
 
 3 Father. 
 
 1 Spirit. 
 
 2 Most High. 
 
 3 God. 
 
 4 Christ. 
 
 5 Holy Ghost. 
 
 6 Saviour. 
 
 7 Jesus. 
 
 8 Redeemer. 
 
 9 second persona. 
 
 10 Son. 
 
 11 Supernature. 
 
 12 Reality. 
 
 13 Being. 
 
 14 Word of God. 
 
 15 Lord. 
 
 16 Jehovah. 
 
 17 Truth. 
 
 18 Might. 
 
 19 Beauty. 
 
 20 Light. 
 
 21 Life. 
 
 22 Goodness. 
 
 23 Love. 
 
 1 Matter. 
 
 2 Nature. 
 
 3 third persona. 
 
 1 Man. 
 
 2 God. 
 
 1 Man. 
 
 2 Angel. 
 
 1 Heavenly. 
 
 2 Celestial. 
 
 3 Temple. 
 
 4 Divine. 
 
 5 Zion. 
 
 6 Mystic. 
 
 7 Spiritual. 
 
 8 Oracular. 
 
 9 Transcendental. 
 
 10 Biblical. 
 
 11 Being. 
 
 12 Thronic. 
 
 13 Supernatural. 
 
 14 Most High. 
 
 15 Godly. 
 
 16 Christly. 
 
 17 Angelic. 
 
 1 Soulic. 
 
 2 of the Universal 
 
 Soul. 
 
 1 Bodysoul-ic. 
 
 2 Psychesome-ic. 
 
 1 Bodilic. 
 
 2 of the Universal 
 
 Body. 
 
 1 Heaven, or 
 
 Heavens. 
 
 2 Scriptures of God. 
 
 3 Word of God. 
 
 4 Celestial faculties. 
 
 5 Temple of God. 
 
 6 House of God. 
 
 7 Skies. 
 
 1 Heaven, or 
 
 Heavens. 
 
 2 Air. 
 
 3 Zion. 
 
 4 Spiritual class of 
 
 men. 
 
 1 Earth, or Ground, 
 
 or Land. 
 
 2 intellectual facul¬ 
 
 ties. 
 
 1 Earth, or Land, or 
 
 Ground. 
 
 2 intellectual class 
 
 of men. 
 
 1 Sea, or Seas. 
 
 2 carnal faculties 
 
 1 Sea, or Seas. 
 
 2 carnal class of men 
 
 1 Earthly. 
 
 2 Terrene. 
 
 3 intellectual. 
 
 1 Marine. 
 
 2 selfish. 
 
 3 sensual. 
 
 4 diabolical. 
 
 5 carnal. 
 
 1 psychical. 
 
 2 of the soul or mind 
 
 1 physical. 
 
 2 of the body of an 
 
 individual. 
 
 1 trine, or triune, or 
 
 trinitized. 
 
 2 converted. 
 
 3 regenerated. 
 
 4 Supernatural. 
 
 1 dual. 
 
 2 unconverted. 
 
 3 unregenerated. 
 
 4 Natural. 
 
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