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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 
 
 .„._„, Copyright No,„. 
 
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 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 
 
JAMES G. BLAINE 
 
 ON THE 
 
 MONEY QUESTION 
 
 AND OTHER PSYCHIC ARTICLES. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 ^TNA PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
 MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. 
 
 

 Entered according to Act of Congress 
 in the year 1896 by 
 
 ^TNA PUBLISHING COMPANY, 
 
 in the office of the Librarian of Congress,, 
 at Washington, D. C. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Parting with friends is temporary death, 
 As all death is. We see no more their faces, 
 Nor hear their voices, save in memory; 
 But messages of love give us assurance 
 That we are not forgotten. Who shall say 
 That from the world of spirits comes no greeting, 
 No message of remembrance? It may be 
 The thoughts that visit us, we know not whence, 
 Sudden as inspiration, are the whispers 
 Of disembodied spirits, speaking to us 
 As friends, who wait outside a prison wall 
 Through the barred windows speak to those within. 
 
 — Longfellow 
 
 The message from James G. Blaine, herewith published, 
 was received at nine sittings, by members of the North- 
 western Society of Occult Philosophy, by means of a 
 "Ouija" board, and was read at a recent meeting of that 
 society. 
 
 The board differs from an ordinary "Ouija" board, in 
 that it is larger, is a hard wood board, without paint or 
 varnish, and, in addition to the letters of. the alphabet and 
 the numerals, has printed upon it some words most fre- 
 quently used. The "traveler" also differs from the "trav- 
 eler" accompanying an ordinary "Ouija" board. It has 
 no legs, and is a piece of a cigar box, slightly warped, with 
 a square hole cut in the center. It is laid upon the "Ouija" 
 board with the concave side down, and, when in use, the 
 hole in the center rests over the letter, numeral or word 
 intended. 
 
4 Introduction. 
 
 Early in January, 1896, by means of this board, commu- 
 nications upon philosophical subjects began to be re- 
 received from a gentleman, with whom the persons receiv- 
 ing them had been acquainted, when he was in earth life. 
 This gentleman was Frank G. Peters. Mr. Peters was a 
 graduate of Yale College, a lawyer, and a gentleman of fine 
 attainments. He was about thirty years of age when he 
 passed over, which event occurred about three years ago. 
 
 One of Mr. Peters' communications follows Mr. Blaine's 
 message. 
 
 These communications continued at sittings held regu- 
 larly until February 9, 1896 when Mr. Peters withdrew in 
 favor of Mr. Blaine. The last communication from Mr. 
 Blaine included in the message was received March 9, 1896. 
 
 It will be noticed that there is a mistake of one day in 
 the date of the '"Act to codify the coinage laws," as given 
 in one place in Mr. Blaine's message. The correct date 
 is February 12, instead of 13, as shown by the record. 
 
 Mr. Blaine is probably not responsible for this mistake, 
 and it was very likely caused by the fact that the numerals 
 on the board are so close together that the hole in the "trav- 
 eler" sometimes overlaps parts of two figures, making un- 
 certain which is intended. 
 
 Mr. Blaine gives the correct date in another place in the 
 message. He calls the act, "An act to codify the coin- 
 age laws." The title of the act is "An Act Revising 
 and Amending the Laws Relative to the Mints, Assay 
 Offices, and Coinage of the United States." 
 
 "The Act to Strengthen the Public Credit" and the 
 contract between the Rothschild-Belmont-Morgan Syndi- 
 cate referred to in the message will be found in the ap- 
 pendix. 
 
 The message is published more as a contribution to oc- 
 cult literature than as a financial argument, and is pub- 
 lished at the urgent and repeated request of the sender. 
 Those who believe that it is a genuine communication 
 
Introduction. 5 
 
 from the spirit of Mr. Blaine, will undoubtedly give it the 
 same weight which they would accord to a like expres- 
 sion from Mr. Blaine if he were still living as a mortal. 
 
 As an argument it is not elaborate, and could not well 
 be under the difficult and tedious method in which it was 
 transmitted. 
 
 The results at the different sittings varied greatly, some- 
 times a comparatively long communication, and at other 
 times a very short one being received. The inequality in 
 the length of the communications may be attributed to 
 difference in atmospheric, magnetic or electric conditions, 
 or in the physical condition of the sitters, or possibly to a 
 difference in conditions on the other side the veil. To- 
 wards the close of each sitting the "traveler" moved very 
 slowly, showing that the power was being exhausted. On 
 one or two occasions Mr. Blaine stated that he was com- 
 pelled to stop by reason of the unfavorable conditions ex- 
 isting. All introductory and closing statements not part 
 of the argument are omitted, and whatever is in parenthesis 
 was spoken by some person present. One of the receivers 
 of the message was, and still is, a believer in the gold 
 standard, although he confesses that he is profoundly im- 
 pressed by the message, and it is apparent that his faith 
 is very much shaken. ^. 
 
 The following resolution was adopted by the North- 
 western Society of Occult Philosophy: 
 
 "Resolved, That we have heard with great pleasure the 
 message from James G. Blaine, which has been received 
 by means of a "Ouija" board, by some of our members; 
 that in our opinion it furnishes very strong proof of the 
 possibility and practice of spirit communion with mortals, 
 and is both an important contribution to occult science 
 and a profound discussion by a high authority of the most 
 vital economic question before the American people." 
 
JAMES Q. BLAINE ON THE MONEY 
 QUESTION. 
 
 A Message to His Country. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 Sunday, February 9, i896.^-(Mr. Peters, are you here?) 
 
 Yes. (Will you talk for Mr. ?) What does he 
 
 want me to talk about? (Can you tell us anything more 
 about God?) I have found no more than I had before. 
 (Are spirits controlled by natural laws?) We are con- 
 trolled by natural laws; everything is. I am forced to give 
 way to another who has never before communicated with 
 earth. He has a message of great importance for his 
 country. (All right, give it.) By all that is good do not 
 neglect this which I admonish you to do. The country is 
 in peril; the monster which would tear it to fragments is 
 abroad in the land. Every patriotic citizen must help or 
 it will be too late. It is on the verge of destruction. (Who 
 is writing?) JAMES G. BLAINE. (How are we to rem- 
 edy matters?) Stop bond issues; the home loans espe- 
 cially. There is a dark and dangerous conspiracy to plun- 
 der the whole country. The East does not see it yet, and 
 the West, with its better and quicker perception, is nearly 
 as much in the dark. There is a plan to draw all the ready 
 money from the channels of business in all parts of the 
 country, and thus paralyze business. Under the guise, or 
 
8 James Q. Blaine on the Money Question. 
 
 better, disguise, of a popular loan they are drawing from 
 hiding all the gold in the country, only to be shipped to 
 Europe as soon as it gets to the United States treasury. 
 That in itself is sufficient to condemn the wTiole trans- 
 action, because it depletes the very sinews of the country 
 by such contraction of the circulation of the active and 
 potential capital. It is further proposed to retire many 
 millions of greenbacks by taking them in payment for 
 these bonds and leaving them in the treasury, which will 
 contract the currency that much more. The currency is 
 now too low for the legitimate business of the country, 
 and this course will be the last straw to break the camel's 
 back. There have many excellent financial institutions 
 perished during the last two or three years, which would 
 have been all right today but for the unnatural condition 
 of affairs. More money and not less is what the country 
 must have, or every man, who owes a dollar, will be a 
 pauper without hope, and the country will not be worth 
 its bonds in the appreciated coin which is being paid. 
 
 I spoke of a dark conspiracy; I should have used the 
 plural, for their name is legion. They are confined to no 
 party, nor faction, nor country. They are being produced 
 in all conceivable and inconceivable places. The great 
 financial problem is but the result of many conspiracies. 
 
 The people of the United States have already paid the 
 national debt several times. There have been schemes 
 concocted, developed and executed, one after the other, 
 by which under equivocal names and various pretences the 
 debt has, or rather, the evidences of indebtedness have, 
 been enhanced from time to time since the large amount 
 of bonds were launched into existence in the early '6o's. 
 
James G. Blaine on the Money Question. 9 
 
 As a result the debt is as large as ever and the payments 
 have gone for naught. The national debt is larger today 
 than it was at the close of the war. It will take more of 
 the produce of the country to pay it now than it would 
 have taken in 1865.* You are told that the reason for this 
 state of affairs is because prices have fallen, but such is not 
 the fact. The value of the dollar has been so astutely 
 manipulated by these successive conspiracies, that the nom- 
 inal decrease in the debt has- been more than offset by the 
 increase in the value of the money or units in which it is 
 payable. As a matter of right the national debt has been 
 more than twice paid; as a matter of fact, not a cent of it 
 has been paid; and as a matter of prophecy, it will never 
 be paid nor decreased as long as the bondholders control 
 national legislation. The wealth of the fields, forests, 
 mines and commerce of the country may pour in golden 
 streams into this maelstrom forever, and it will still be as 
 capacious, hungry and insatiable as ever. 
 
 There is a remedy, or at least a partial one, for the future. 
 The past cannot be prevented nor its evils remedied. It 
 is gone, and the future must profit by experience, or the 
 vaunted freedom of American citizens will degenerate into 
 the most abject slavery. 
 
 I spoke of the equivocal names under which the machina- 
 tions of the conspirators cloaked their nefarious purposes. 
 The most prominent act of Congress in the years shortly 
 succeeding the close of the war, was called "An Act to 
 Strengthen the Public Credit," passed March 18, 1869. 
 which declared that all bonds should be paid in coin.* The 
 
 \See note 1 in Appendix. 
 *See note 2 in Appendix. 
 
10 James G. Blaine on the Money Question. 
 
 bonds had been purchased with paper which had fluc- 
 tuated from 35 cents on the dollar to par, and the discount 
 was the greatest when the debt was being contracted the 
 fastest. The average price paid for the bonds in gold was 
 but little more than fifty cents on the dollar. The act 
 above referred to made the bonds worth two dollars for 
 every dollar they had cost. 
 
 Another equivocal name for an act to disguise a sinister 
 purpose was the act to codify the coinage laws, passed 
 February 13, 1873, often referred to now as the "Crime 
 of '73." By this act the value of the dollar was so manipu- 
 lated that the bonds were again doubled in value, making 
 them worth four times their cost price. The interest has 
 nominally been reduced to an average of four per cent, 
 but in fact you are paying four per cent on four times 
 the debt you should, and paying it in a currency worth 
 four times that in which the debt was contracted; so in 
 fact you are paying sixteen per cent. 
 
 Stop for a moment and consider the position the country 
 is in and the position it would have been in had the value 
 paid on the national debt been justly applied as between 
 man and man. The amount that has been paid in prin- 
 cipal and interest is very near five billions of dollars, and 
 in fact more than fourteen billions reckoned in the cur- 
 rency in which the debt was contracted. What is the situa- 
 tion today? You have paid as much as the total valuation 
 of all property in the United States in 1880, both real and 
 personal, and you still owe as much as you did at the close 
 of the war. Had this money which has been paid been 
 properly and justly applied, the nation would now be free 
 from debt and the balance that has been paid above what 
 
James G. Blaine on the Money Question. 11 
 
 was necessary to discharge, the nation's obligations would 
 have purchased every railroad, telegraph and telephone 
 line in the United States, and would have dug every canal 
 ever proposed in the country and the Nicaraguan to boot. 
 Numerous other acts have been passed at various times, 
 such as refunding laws by which the bonds were given a 
 new lease of life for a long period at an apparently lower 
 rate of interest; and right here I wish to let you know of 
 a plot that is now being concocted in the same direction, 
 but by means never before resorted to. I told you the 
 first time I was with you to stop the popular loans. The 
 capitalists of Europe are cornering the gold. After get- 
 ting legislation making nearly everything payable in gold 
 and by collusion with executive officers making every 
 obligation payable in gold by construction, they now have 
 the matter where they can handle it, and can now proceed 
 to draw the gold to Europe and store it until the next 
 bonds are due, and as there will not be any gold in the 
 country with which to pay them, they will force the gov- 
 ernment to again extend the period of payment for a long- 
 term of years. The popular loans are simply to pick up 
 all the loose change in the way of gold that is scattered 
 through the country and get it into the United States 
 treasury, whence the road to Europe is a steep down grade. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The remedy for the present condition of affairs is what 
 you are looking for, but there is no reason for being too 
 precipitate. You would better first consider the conse- 
 quences in case you apply no remedy, so you may more 
 
12 James G. Blame on the Money Question. 
 
 fully appreciate the gravity of the disease you are to rem- 
 edy. 
 
 I will tell you of a small-sized conspiracy which is being 
 consummated at the present time. It is a wheel within a 
 wheel, and though it is large enough, I call it small, be- 
 cause it pales into insignificance, when compared with the 
 great or principal plot. 
 
 It is in connection with the recent bond sale by means 
 of sealed bids. There were nearly ten millions of bonds 
 awarded at a fraction over 115, which were defaulted by 
 the bidders failing to make the deposit of their money as 
 required by the regulations of the secretary, and those 
 bonds were given to the Morgan syndicate at a fraction 
 over no. The difference in the amount received by the 
 government and what it should have received is about 
 $500,000. This was planned in advance, and the parties 
 whose bids for the bonds were accepted and who then 
 defaulted, will get the same bonds from the Morgan syn- 
 dicate and will divide the difference. 
 
 There is no necessity for drawing this tale to a great 
 length. The country has poured its wealth into the 
 pockets of greedy bondholders until its resources have 
 become decimated, the people have become discouraged, 
 and the ambition, which formerly characterized the Ameri- 
 can people, has nearly disappeared. The country, richest 
 in natural resources and richest in its citizenship, has fallen 
 before an invisible foe which worked in the dark, boring 
 slowly but surely toward the heart of this puissant nation. 
 A few marks of the pen have accomplished that which all 
 the armies and navies of the world could not have done — 
 another illustration of the pen being mightier than the 
 sword. 
 
James G. Blaine on the\Money Question. 13 
 
 If the country had some business men at its head in- 
 stead of politicians, there would be some hope for its re- 
 covery. There is much that can never be remedied; but if 
 the affairs of the nation could for a time be run as a private 
 citizen would run his business, there would soon be an end 
 -for its financial ills. No country has such recuperative 
 powers and possibilities as the United States of America. 
 
 You must do some figuring for yourselves. Do not be- 
 lieve when you are told that only financiers with long ex- 
 perience can understand the national finances and how to 
 manage them. If you do believe that, what do you think 
 of the chances of the country at the present time? Where 
 are the trained financiers in this administration? The 
 people must figure for themselves. Others have been fig- 
 uring for you too long and have figured the country where 
 Tommy did the frog. 
 
 The incident to which I refer occurred in a small town 
 not far from Bangor, Maine. A small boy in a rural dis- 
 trict was given an example to figure out by the teacher. 
 She said: ''Now, Tommy, if a frog is in a well and he 
 jumps up one foot every day and falls back two feet every 
 night, how long will it take him to get out of the well?" 
 Tommy figured for about two hours and covered his slate 
 and that of his seatmate with figures. "How are you get- 
 ting along, Tommy?" asked the teacher. "Oh," replied 
 Tommy, "I've got him half way to hell already." 
 
 Those who have been doing your figuring for you have 
 reached about the same result, and the more they figure, 
 the nearer they bring the country to ruin. Therefore, I 
 repeat, you must figure for yourselves. Go at it as a 
 merchant or any other business man would. The bonds of 
 
14 James Q. Blaine on the Money Question. 
 
 which I have previously spoken are payable in coin, and 
 by coin is and was meant the coin that was in use or was 
 authorized by the laws in force when the bonds were made. 
 The metal of one of the coins known to the laws at the 
 time the bonds were made can now be purchased in the 
 markets of the world for about half the cost of the other 
 metal, comparatively. If a business man owed a debt and 
 had the same option in regard to payment that the Ameri- 
 can government has, which metal would he pay it in? 
 
 Does it require a trained financier to answer that ques- 
 tion? Does it even require a business man? Cannot a 
 farmer or a mechanic, or a child give the correct answer as 
 well? 
 
 The officials at Washington are but the agents of the 
 people, and as such are bound to do the best they can for 
 their principal, the people of the United States. 
 
 Suppose you owned a farm and hired an agent to look 
 after your interests in connection therewith, and suppose 
 you owe 'a debt of a thousand dollars which your agent is 
 directed to liquidate from the crops. Suppose the debt 
 is payable either in gold at 23.22 grains to the dollar, or 
 in silver at 37 ij grains to the dollar, and supose one 
 bushel of wheat would buy sufficient silver to pay a dollar, 
 and it took two bushels of wheat to buy gold enough to 
 pay a dollar, and suppose your agent paid in gold, how 
 long would you keep him after you found it out? That is 
 exactly what your agents at Washington are doing; they 
 are taking nearly twice as much of your property as is nec- 
 essary, with which to pay your debt. 
 
 The illustration of the farmer and his wheat applies as 
 well to the merchant, manufacturer or any business or pro- 
 fession. 
 
James G. Blaine on the Money Question. 15 
 
 At the present time, fifteen yards of calico, at the mills 
 in Massachusetts, will buy 371 \ grains of pure silver, and 
 twenty-five yards will scarcely buy 23.22 grains of gold. 
 Every time a payment is made in gold, property equal to 
 the amount of the payment, and which belongs to the 
 people of the United States, is confiscated and given to 
 the bondholders. If payment were made in silver, the 
 bondholders would get back more than double the value 
 they paid. Is it just to confiscate the property of the coun- 
 try as above shown? Would it be unjust to pay the bonds 
 in a metal worth twice as much as the currency in which 
 they were purchased? 
 
 I think any one can see what I mean, but for fear they 
 may not, will say that the business of the country, 
 should be conducted on business principles. When an 
 obligation is presented for payment, pay it as cheaply as 
 you can. If the silver in a silver dollar is cheaper than 
 the gold in a gold dollar, and the debt is payable in either, 
 pay in silver as long as a fraction of a mill can be saved. 
 Rothschild would do so to you; do you even so unto him. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 I will say a few words giving my present convictions on 
 the question of the free coinage of silver. I will begin by 
 stating that I am unqualifiedly in favor of the free, unlim- 
 ited, immediate and independent coinage of silver; and I 
 will tell you why. It is the constitutional money of the 
 country. It has been the money of the world for nearly 
 three thousand years. It was the money of redemption 
 when the present debt of the country was incurred, 
 
16 James G. Blaine on the Money Question. 
 
 which made every inhabitant of the country a debtor. The 
 demonetization of silver took away one-half of the re- 
 demption money and doubled the value of what remained ; 
 it practically confiscated one-half of the property of the 
 United States. 
 
 Your property is being swept away to purchase appre- 
 ciated gold dollars to pay a debt contracted when gold, 
 silver and paper were legal tenders, and silver enjoyed the 
 same privileges at the mint that gold did. One by one 
 the legal tenders have been eliminated until there is today 
 practically but one, and that is in the hands of a few who 
 have the power to contract it at will and who are actually 
 cornering it at the present time. If you have any doubt 
 about their ability to control the gold of the world, read 
 the contract entered into in February, 1895, between the 
 United States of America, party of the first part, and the 
 Rothschild-Belmont-Morgan syndicate, parties of the sec- 
 ond part. That was made for the protection of the United 
 States treasury, and is the only protective instrument on 
 record that President Cleveland ever favored.* 
 
 I shudder to contemplate the result to the republic if 
 the great wrong done by the act of February 12, 1873, 1S 
 not remedied, and that at] once. Delay is more than 
 gerous, it is perilous. Unless everything possible is done, 
 and at once, there will be such a revolution in the United 
 States as the world never saw. Already the mutterings 
 can be heard, and I will predict that unless remedial 
 legislation is had within two years, the revolution will be 
 upon you in all its fury. 
 
 The American people are brave and long-suffering, but 
 
 *See note 3 in Appendix. 
 
James G. Blaine on the Money Question. 17 
 
 when they see the accumulations of a lifetime ruthlessly 
 stolen from them and given to heartless bondholders, they 
 will not bear it with equanimity. The prospect of laboring 
 for a lifetime and having nothing to leave his children 
 but poverty and debt is not a pleasant prospect for the 
 average citizen of a country like the United States. The 
 first thing that should be done is to restore silver to the 
 place it occupied for over eighty years in the coinage and 
 Currency of the United States. 
 
 War is justifiable when peace would be more disastrous; 
 and peace on the present terms would be more than dis- 
 astrous, it would be suicidal. 
 
 I have no more to say. I wish you would say to the 
 people among whom I lived and to the country which I 
 loved, that I still live, and still love the United States of 
 America. Tell them for me that if they love their country, 
 if they prize their liberty, if they value their property, if 
 they cherish their families and would protect their homes, 
 they must at once undo the terrible injustice perpetrated 
 on the country and its people by the demonetization of 
 silver. 
 
 I have no more to say, at least at present; I simply wish 
 this message delivered. 
 
COnriUNICATION FROfl FRANK G. PETERS. 
 
 Good Evening: I am engaged in studying life; the 
 vital principle; and I rind mvseit engulted in a labynntn, 
 more intricate, devious and insidious than the one in 
 which Theseus sought the Minotaur. In the whole the- 
 saurus of human knowledge there is not a word or syllable 
 which throws the slightest light on this greatest of subjects.* 
 
 Is it because the subject is so vast that the intellect 
 cannot compass or conceive it? Is it like space and dura- 
 tion, and should it be added to that category? Or is it so 
 simple that we cannot comprehend it? I cannot give any 
 very satisfactory results as yet, but I have found that the 
 vital principle is the same in animal and vegetable life. If 
 you cut your arm it will heal and leave a scar. If you cut 
 a gash in a tree, exactly the same result will follow. A 
 chemist can tell exactly the. amount, by weight and meas- 
 ure, of every element in a tree or a dog, but he cannot 
 make a live tree or a live dog. The vital principle may 
 remain dormant for centuries. For instance, when Her- 
 culaneum and Pompeii were excavated, atter having lain 
 under the lava of Mount Vesuvius for nearly eighteen cen- 
 turies, wheat was found, which upon being planted grew 
 as well as new wheat. 
 
 Is life but a synonym for pow r er and are the phases 
 of life incidents or expressions of omnipotence as knowl- 
 edge is of omniscience? Think of the power in one little 
 seed. Take a mustard seed for example; it is one of the 
 smallest of seeds; it grows and makes a tree and produces 
 thousands of seeds capable of doing as much as the 
 original. Think of the weight a mustard tree will support; 
 then multiply by the number of seeds, which one seed will 
 produce, and you find a mighty power. I am not much 
 given to quoting scripture, and I may make a mistake, 
 but somewhere it says, if you have faith even as a grain 
 of mustard seed, you could say to yon mountain, remove 
 hence into the sea, and it would get there. If you substi- 
 tute the word "power 1 ' for ''faith," it would be sensible and 
 according to the fact. 
 
Letters from Famous Psychical Researchers. 19 
 
 Take a tobacco seed ; it grows and produces a large 
 plant and thousands of seeds like itself. The original seed 
 contained a small particle of nicotine; the leaves contain 
 nicotine, and each seed contains as much as did the orig- 
 inal. There is more nicotine than there was before. We 
 were taught that all the accretions to the plant life came 
 from the atmosphere and frcm the earth, but what chemist 
 ever said that nicotine was in either? 
 
 I will write more another time. Good night. 
 
 LETTERS FROM THREE FAMOUS PSYCHICAL 
 RESEARCHERS. 
 
 Eastnor Castle, England, August 7, 1893. 
 Professor Elliott Coues, President World's Psychical 
 Congress — Dear Sir: I am glad to have the opportunity 
 of sending my greetings to the Congress. I trust its de- 
 liberations may be beneficial to humanity in the present 
 stage of the great and growing controversy between the 
 spiritual and the material philosophies. In my opinion a 
 clear distinction should be drawn between the interrogative 
 temper of mind in which a scientist approaches the study 
 of nature and what is called supernature, and what may be 
 designated as the affirmative temper of the credulous. The 
 danger lies in a too ready acceptance of what appear to be 
 genuine manifestations, but which are in' a great majority 
 of cases illusive and delusive if not demoralizing. For this 
 reason a scientific Congress will be of inestimable value, 
 and I wish it success. Believe me, yours very truly, 
 
 — Isabel Somerset 
 
 Professor Elliott Coues, Etc. — Kind Friend: For many 
 years I have belonged to the American, and I have recently 
 joined the British, Society for Psychical Research. For I 
 have never been one of those who hold that there are sub- 
 jects which we are forbidden to investigate; indeed, such a 
 position involves, to my mind, nothing less than downright 
 superstition. If man's reason and nature's phenomena are 
 to be kept apart at any point, then why not at many points ? 
 
20 Letters from Famous Pjschical Researchers. 
 
 Whatever exists in the universe is a legitimate subject of 
 thoughtful and reverent study by "man's illimitable mind." 
 For this reason I have always been sympathetic toward 
 the investigation, from a scientific point of view, of all 
 psychical phenomena. I do not approve of elevating 
 these investigations into a form of cult, any more than, for 
 instance, those of astronomy. As a devout disciple of the 
 Founder of the Christian religion, I would not take the 
 positions herein stated did I deem them inconsistent with 
 the gospel declaration that we are to "prove all things" 
 and "hold fast to that which is good." 
 
 Believe me, with respectful salutations to the Congress, 
 Yours with best wishes, 
 
 — Frances E. Willard. 
 
 7 Kensington Park Garden, London, July 27, 1893. 
 
 My Dear Professor Coues: ... .If you hear any rumors 
 that I have backed out of the subject because I have found 
 out that I was taken in, or in some other way found reason 
 to disbelieve my former statements, you have my full au- 
 thority — nay, my earnest request — to meet them with my 
 full denial. As far as the main facts and statements I have 
 recorded in the different papers I have published on the 
 subject of the phenomena of Spiritualism, I hold the same 
 belief about them now that I did at the time 1 wrote. I 
 could not detect at the time any loop hole for deception in 
 my test experiments; and now, with the experience of 
 nearly twenty years added on to what I then knew, I still 
 do not see how it was possible for me to have been de- 
 ceived. Read my recently published "Notes of Seances 
 wjth D. D. Home," and the introduction to these "Notes," 
 and you will see what my present attitude of mind is. 
 
 With kind regards, believe me, very sincerely yours, 
 
 — William Crooks. 
 
TRANSCENDENTAL PHYSICS ; 
 
 Or Scientific Sources of Spiritual Truth — A Classical 
 
 Essay on Some Fundamental Principles, 
 
 by Solon Lauer. 
 
 Over the clouds of scientific agnosticism is rising the 
 bright sun of a new faith, which shall illumine the world 
 as no faith has ever before illumined it. Science, which is 
 only the orderly observation of phenomena and the orderly 
 classification of obtained knowledge, is coming to the aid 
 of faith, and proving that the world-old beliefs of man 
 concerning the soul and its divine nature and powers are 
 not mere superstition, but veriest fact. Science, which 
 began by doubting and even denying spiritual truth, has 
 come to be its chief witness and its warmest friend. 
 
 In the first place, science has shown us that every form 
 of matter can be reduced to an invisible vapor; that the 
 solid world and all therein came forth out of invisible sub- 
 stance, and will sometime return to it again; thus verifying 
 the old saying of Paul, that the things that are seen are 
 temporal, but the things that are unseen are eternal. A 
 rock, a piece of steel, seem substantial, and much more 
 real than a principle of mathematics ; but chemistry can re- 
 duce these to an invisible vapor, which at once eludes all 
 our senses; while the mathematical principle remains for- 
 ever in our mind. 
 
 When we have once perceived that the physical world 
 is transient and fleeting, but that among all the changes of 
 matter there is something which does not change, namely, 
 mind, we are ready to consider the possibility of many 
 instances of the supremacy of mind over matter which 
 have come down to us in the traditions and writings gf the 
 world's great religions; for these are not peculiar to Chris- 
 tianity, but are found in every religion. We might go 
 through the gospel records, and find that most of the 
 miracles recorded therein of Jesus and his disciples are ren- 
 dered creditable by facts of present experience. The dis~ 
 
22 Transcendental Physics. 
 
 coveries in the realm of psychical research have thrown a 
 great light upon the Scripture records. 
 
 The records of the London Society for Psychical Re- 
 search are full of instances of occult power, observed by 
 men and women of unimpeachable character and of the 
 highest scientific reputation. Thought-transference is to- 
 day a fact as well established by scientific evidences as any 
 fact of psychology; and he who doubts it betrays either 
 a gross prejudice or an unpardonable ignorance. ' It has 
 been demonstrated beyond doubt that thought is a mode of 
 force; that it goes out from the mind in waves of vibra- 
 tion, just as the undulations of heat and light go out from 
 a lamp or stove, that it travels not alone over the chan- 
 nels of the nerves, but that like the force of a magnet it 
 goes out in invisible streams to affect other minds within 
 the sphere of its influence; and that so far from being lim- 
 ited to the physical agents of the body, mind has a power 
 to transcend space, to act where the body is not, and to 
 achieve results after laws of its own, which, though yet but 
 little understood, are nevertheless as capable of study and 
 demonstration as are the laws of electricity and magne- 
 tism, which are as yet but in the infancy of their develop- 
 ment. When we investigate these laws of the mind, we 
 find that they make clear many of the miracles reported in 
 the gospel; and so far from making them less wonderful, 
 render them more so, by making them a part of that 
 great mysterious nature whose laws and phenomena, how- 
 ever much investigated, must yet forever remain a source 
 of marvel and mystery to the human mind. 
 
 We find that among the phenomena of the mind which 
 science has investigated and declared real and true there 
 are many which so exactly parallel the reported miracles 
 of the Bible and other religious records, as to leave no 
 doubt in rational minds that the same laws prevail in both 
 cases. For instance, thought-transference is often mani- 
 fested by Jesus and the disciples, in a manner similar to 
 that observed in these clays. When Jesus told the women 
 of Samaria all that ever she did, he exercised a gift which 
 is n6t exclusive with him, but common to many in these 
 times. Through the law of mental sympathy, he became 
 aware of her past history, and read it as from an open 
 book. The law which rendered this possible is a law of 
 
 nature, a law of mind, and, supernatural as it may appear, 
 
Transcendental Physics. 23 
 
 is nevertheless as natural as the law of vibration in light 
 or the law of induction in electricity. 
 
 The miracles of healing reported in the gospel records 
 have been a source of much controversy among commen- 
 tators, and it is common to hear their truth denied by lib- 
 eral scholars. This denial takes from the gospel its very 
 life and spirit, for when the soul is robbed of its belief in 
 spiritual powers, religion soon ceases to be a thing of joy 
 and necessity, and becomes a mere ornament to society, a 
 sham, a farce, whose creaking formality is painful to every 
 earnest soul. There is another form of skepticism, how- 
 ever, which is equally baneful, and that is the form found 
 among many, probably most followers of orthodoxy in 
 religion. These accept the miracles of healing reported 
 in the gospejs, but deny that any such are possible today; 
 thus cutting off the present believer from those benefits 
 enjoyed by the believers of early time, and promised to 
 all who should believe. We need to use caution in the in- 
 vestigation of so-called mental cures, but there should no 
 longer be any doubt among honest minds that such cures 
 are achieved. Under the various names of Christian Sci- 
 ence, mental science, spiritual science, psycho therapeutics, 
 suggestive therapeutics, etc., cures have most certainly 
 been wrought which make easily creditable most of the 
 so-called miracles of cure wrought by Jesus and the dis- 
 ciples. We do not yet understand these laws of mind which 
 work such potent results in the realm of the body, bring- 
 ing health out of disease and sometimes seeming to snatch 
 the departing spirit back from the very door of the tomb, 
 but we understand them as well perhaps as we do the laws 
 of electricity, which, though a deep and deepening mys- 
 tery to all students, have yet been applied to human needs 
 so as to vastly lighten human labor and increase human 
 comforts. It is not long since the phenomena of electricity 
 were practically unknown. The attraction of a piece of 
 rubbed amber for straws and other light objects, the at- 
 traction of the loadstone for iron and steed, were not so 
 many years ago the sum of human knowledge upon this 
 vast subject. Even today we do not know what electricity 
 is, we do not know its nature, we know only the conditions 
 for certain of its manifestations. Our knowledge of the 
 mysterious laws of mind will certainly increase as our 
 knowledge of electricity has done; and the far-seeing soul 
 
24 Transcendental Physics. 
 
 can perceive the time when, through the well-understood 
 laws of mind, disease shall be cured without the use of 
 drugs, vicious habits shall be reformed without the employ- 
 ment of brute force, and human society shall reflect some- 
 thing of that glory which has been sung in the lines of 
 poets and chanted by the lips of prophets since time began. 
 The value of these recent researches of science to the 
 Church and to religion is apparent to every one who will 
 observe the signs of the times. The decay of belief in 
 the spiritual phenomena of the Bible is too apparent to 
 need more than statement. So-called liberal thinkers on 
 every side deny them. Orthodox believers accept them 
 as supernatural, limited to the days of the apostles, having 
 no value to us today. This unbelief, as I said before, is 
 as baneful as the other; for it makes human life today 
 poor and wretched, with no possibilities of contact with 
 those higher realms of life which made Christianity the re- 
 deeming force it was in the corrupt times of the Roman 
 Empire. It is not until we realize that God is not the God 
 of the dead, but of the living, that our theism has any vital 
 force in our own life; it is not until we realize that what- 
 ever miracle was possible to Jesus and his disciples eigh- 
 teen hundred years ago is possible to mankind today, that 
 our belief in Christianity is of any practical value to us to- 
 day. It concerns us not what has been done; but what 
 may be done today; not what sick man of Palestine was 
 cured, but what sick man of our own acquaintances may 
 be redeemed to his natural right of perfect health. The 
 wheat that grew on Judean hills will not feed the hungry 
 of today. There is wheat growing in our fields, corn in 
 our valleys. The bounty of God is never exhausted. It 
 serves the present as the past. Man's relation to God is 
 the same today as in the* days of Christ. What laws prevailed 
 in his life were laws of nature, and prevail today. Our 
 insight of nature's laws must be so deep that we can in- 
 clude all truth and all real miracle in this realm of law and 
 order. Nature is infinite, the manifestations of an Infinite 
 Mind. Her laws are revelations; her phenomena miracles 
 evermore; and as we press farther into her charmed realm, 
 our wonder ever grows and deepens. It is not faith alone 
 that can save us; but knowledge as well; for true faith is 
 not a belief, but a perception. The Church today is dying 
 of conventionality and unbelief. Her sacred aisles re-echo 
 
Transcendental Physics. 25 
 
 to the frivolous voices of men and women who have no 
 sense of the sanctity of the place. Her pulpit resounds 
 with platitudes of literary culture, with unctuous flatteries 
 of the rich and delusive doctrines of vain Utopias for the 
 poor. The stern voice of the prophet is seldom heard. 
 Ideal living, spiritual culture, the opening of the soul's 
 eyes to catch glimpses of that pure life which is man's 
 true estate, these are almost unknown in the modern 
 Church; but instead of spiritual rhapsodies and ecstatic 
 visions and glad chaunts of divine love and life, we hear 
 empty laughter, frivolous conversation, the clatter of dishes 
 at Church suppers, the clink of moneys at the tables of 
 the Church money-changers, and such other sounds as 
 befit the public market better than the holy place of God. 
 The sick are left to the tender mercy of physicians, whose 
 drugs are believed in above the power of the spirit of God, 
 which created drugs and physicians alike. Physic is more 
 potent than prayer, though history is full of the triumphs 
 of the latter. The lancet and the leech have retreated be- 
 fore more humane methods of treatment, but medicine is 
 still a secular science, not baptized with the spirit of the 
 living God. It is for the Church today to recover those 
 spiritual verities which have been the life of religion in all 
 ages, and make her sanctuary a holy place indeed, a sanc- 
 tuary of the Divine Presence. Too long we have sought 
 for religion where it abides not. It hath its temple in the 
 devout mind, in the soul at one with God; and its revela- 
 tions are words of souls smitten with the vision and ecstasy 
 of the Divine Presence in human life. Let us do somewhat 
 to recover this pristine glory of the Church; to restore re- 
 ligion to that divine estate which is her due. Our mod- 
 ern faith must be based upon modern revelation; our 
 miracles must be miracles of living men and women, not 
 records of the dead past only; our prayers must be the 
 utterance of our own faith and perception of spiritual laws; 
 the claiming of our divine heritage, which we have for- 
 gotten or sold for some wretched mess of pottage. Then 
 shall the Church be once more the abiding place of God; 
 His presence shall shine .round about us, filling our lives 
 with light and joy; sin and disease shall fade away before 
 that Presence, as fog before the rising sun; and we shall 
 live now in that kingdom which is promised to the saints, 
 a kingdom of peace, jov, and good-will among men. — Light 
 of Truth. 
 
HOW LITTLE WE ALL KNOW. 
 
 Humanity s Newest Glimpse of Infinity — Beauties All 
 
 About Us Which We Cannot See— Music to 
 
 Which Our Ears Are Not Attuned. 
 
 We read and hear a great deal nowadays about the 
 Roentgen ray. As I understand it, when a ray of sunlight 
 is separated by a prism into the different primary colors, 
 the spectrum has always shown also, both below and above 
 the colors, other lines which have not been designated and 
 which produce no effect upon the human eye. These un- 
 known rays are found to possess the quality of passing 
 through what has been estimate as solid sub- 
 stance, and. photographing more solid substances like the 
 skeleton of the human body, the adipose tissue showing 
 a mere outline. It is not photography exactly, the object 
 standing between the rays and a sensitized plate and the 
 picture being taken much as a blue print is in an engineer's 
 office. Is there anything substantial? Is everything merely 
 a form of motion? There is sound, heat, light, electricity, 
 each form of motion of greater or less intensity. We say 
 that we speak. A vibration of air through the vocal chords 
 sets in motion the sound waves which, striking upon the 
 drum of the ear and being communicated by a curious 
 mechanism to the brain, gives a sensation which we call 
 sound. It is nothing but a vibration of the air, and to 
 those whose ears are out of order there is no such 
 thing as sound. We say we see an object. From that ob- 
 ject comes a light vibration which produces a picture on 
 the retina of the eye and there it is upside down, and in 
 some way, being communicated to the brain, we say that 
 we see a tree, a house, or a friend. Do we see anything? 
 
 If the eye is out of order these things do not exist so 
 far as the blind one is concerned, except the person be- 
 comes conscious of them through some other sense. Take 
 all the senses away and there is nothing but a clod. Blood 
 may circulate in it and it may breathe air, but it is only 
 a thing. Now. does not this take the conceit out of us to 
 some extent? We are so proud of what we know, which 
 
How Little We All Know. 27 
 
 has all been obtained through the use of the senses. And 
 we think we know everything and we say we will believe 
 nothing except that which we can see and hear and touch, 
 and yet how much is there of that which exists which we 
 may become cognizant of by the use of our senses? Each 
 new discovery, like that of this Roentgen ray, shows how- 
 much there is around us of invisible forces which we have 
 not yet grasped. We have, to be sure, in the course of 
 centuries, gained considerable. We have found out some- 
 thing of the effects of electricity, although we do not know 
 what it is. We have done marvelous things with the sun- 
 light, although it is now shown that we have not known 
 much about it, and so we are beginning to discover to 
 what a small limit our human powers are hedged. We 
 sneer at the miracles and say that they are a violation of 
 law and could not possibly have occurred, but what do we 
 know of natural laws? Almost every day some new thing 
 comes up which shows conclusively that a law existed of 
 which we never knew before. How do we know that 
 Infinite intelligence, which knows all things, could not 
 set in operation forces of which we have not the slightest 
 idea? "There are more things in heaven and earth, 
 Horatio, than are dreamed of in your philosophy." There 
 are objects all around us which we cannot see, the air is 
 filled with fragrance which we cannot smell, the universe 
 is crowded with sounds which we never hear, neither do 
 we know that anything looks the same to any two of.ns. 
 I say, by a certain sensation from a lady's dress that it is 
 blue ; you also say that it is blue, but it is only by common 
 consent. The sensation which I call blue may not be at 
 all the sensation which you call blue. If we could exactly 
 get at the real truth we might find that we were far apart, 
 but having agreed to call in each of our minds a certain 
 sensation received through the eyes blue, by comparison 
 that always remains blue to us. Some people's eyes are 
 defective and do not separate these light rays and we call 
 them color blind. They cannot distinguish red from blue. 
 It looks all the same to them. And again, there are some 
 whose eyes have become so educated, like those of the 
 Florentine workers in Mosaic, or some East India workers 
 in tapestry and rugs, that they can distinguish as many 
 as 70 different shades of red and match them and differ- 
 entiate them. We know that a dog's sense of smell is such 
 
28 How Little We All Know. 
 
 that he can distinguish a scent where the human being 
 would not be able to, and can follow the trail of a person 
 uneringly ov^r miles of ground. A cat can see in the 
 night where the human eye can distinguish nothing. You 
 see our powers are limited. We do n3t know much, after 
 all. 
 
 Now, take this Roentgen ray, for instance, which is be- 
 yond the power of human eyesight If we had that capacity 
 we could look right through things, and perhaps it is 
 fortunate that we have not. But we can make an instru- 
 ment which is more sensitive than the human eye and can 
 get in that a photographic representation of it, and there- 
 fore see what we have before called the unseen. Take it 
 in sound. The lowest note on a great organ and about the 
 lowest note of which the human ear is capable of receiv- 
 ing an impression, is made up of 16 vibrations to the sec- 
 ond. The highest note, which sounds on the human ear 
 like a very thin attenuated and uncertain sound, has some 
 30,000 vibrations to the second, but there are vibrations 
 below 16 and much higher than 30,000, perhaps mounting 
 into millions. How do we know what sounds are about 
 us that we never hear? A sound once uttered is never lost. 
 As a pebble dropped into the glassy surface of the pond sets 
 waves going whose circling vibrations sweep on until they 
 break upon the shore, so a sound once uttered starts a series 
 of vibrations which, in the shoreless sea of space, we may 
 judge, go on forever. Now, suppose we could make an in- 
 strument which was capable of receiving these infinitesimal 
 sound waves still in the air that were started away back at 
 the creation, and then could magnify them by some process 
 which would make them apparent to the human ear, what 
 should we hear? The song the morning stars sang together 
 when the world was made; the mighty grinding of the cre- 
 ation, the loving words of our first parents as they walked 
 together in the garden, and mother Eve's crooning song 
 over her first born that came as a comfort for lost paradise? 
 We should hear sounds of peace and then of battles, the 
 struggles of early men with their rude weapons, the song of 
 Miriam, by the Red Sea's parted waves, the shouts of Ro- 
 man legions, the agonies of Gethsemane, the wail of Mary 
 at the cross. We should hear the surges of the great human 
 sea, the songs of gladness and the moanings of de- 
 spair. It would be one constant rolling of sound waves, of 
 
How Little We All Know. 29 
 
 the first cries of the new born child, the last gasp of dying 
 old age; one great whirling wheel of life and death and joy 
 and sadness, and so on down to today. 
 
 Or, if we could gather the light waves into some instru- 
 ment and magnify them so that they would become appreci- 
 able to the human eye, what might we see? There are fixed 
 stars whose light has been 1,000,000 years reaching this 
 earth. The light the earth returns has been, of course, 
 the same period in reaching the distant stars. Suppose we 
 were placed upon one of these stars. We would see the 
 earth light coming to us, not as it looks today, but full of 
 the pictures of 1,000,000 years ago, and there in this great 
 kinetoscope we might see pictured all the world's progress 
 from the expulsion- of Adam and Eve from the garden and 
 Noah's ark floating on the vast waste of waters, and see 
 tribes forming from families, and nations from tribes, see 
 scenes of war and scenes of peace, and watch the develop- 
 ment of civilization. 
 
 But suppose beyond that we had an instrument which 
 could bring to us the sounds immediately present about us, 
 which we do not hear, bring to our vision the objects with 
 which the air about us may be filled, and which we do not 
 see, what harmonies may exist to which our ears are not 
 attuned; what spirits of light may be all around us to which 
 our eyes are blind ? * 
 
 How small the limit of our senses! We take a telescope 
 and look into the sky and see the planets whirl in their 
 courses and beyond a misty nebulae. A more powerful 
 telescope and this cloud mist develops itself into stars, and 
 still beyond another misty belt, and so on, the limit only de- 
 pending upon the power of the instrument used, we pierce 
 the deeps above us and yet we do not begin to reach the 
 bounds of light or hardly pierce the surface of the sky. 
 And if we take a microscope and look at the world beneath 
 us we look just as far in that direction and still infinity is 
 is away beyond us. And now we are beginning to know 
 that there are forces all about us of which mankind has 
 been unconscious. What may it lead to? Are all things 
 mere shadows? May it not show after all that the unseen 
 only is the real, or, as St. Paul says : 
 
 "While we look not at the things which are seen, but at 
 the things which are not seen ; for the things which are seen 
 are temporal ; but the things which are not seen are eternal." 
 — Times, W^atertown, N. Y. 
 
A COMMON CHARGE AGAINST SPIRIT 
 COMMUNICATIONS. 
 
 In his "Defense of Modern Spiritualism," Prof. Alfred 
 Russell Walace explains the grounds of the very common 
 charge that so many of the alleged spirit communications 
 are mere repetitions and recitals of a personal rather than 
 intellectual cast, in a perfectly rational and satisfactory way, 
 and his remarks are of special worth at this time, as they 
 were at the time of their first enunciation. Referring to cer- 
 tain statements on the subject by Prof. Huxle) r , he quotes 
 a brief extract to this effect: "But supposing the phe- 
 nomena to be genuine, they do not interest me. If anybody 
 would endow me with the faculty of listening to the chatter 
 of old women and curates at the nearest cathedral town, I 
 should decline the privilege, having better things to do. 
 And if the folk in the spiritual world do not talk more 
 wisely and sensibly than their friends report them to do, I 
 put them in the same category." This pasage, Mr. Wallace 
 describes as having been writen with the caustic satire in 
 which the kind-hearted professor occasionaly indulges. But 
 he adds, it can hardly mean that, if it were proved that men 
 realy continued to live after the death of the body, that 
 fact would not interest him, merely because some of their 
 conversation was not up to the standard. 
 
 Many scientific men — Prof. Wallace proceeds to com- 
 ment — deny the spiritual source of the manifestations, on 
 the ground that real, genuine spirits might reasonably be 
 expected not to indulge in discourse upon the common- 
 place affairs which often form the body of ordinary spirit- 
 ual comunications. But surely Prof. Huxley, as a natur- 
 alist and philosopher, would not admit this to be a reason- 
 able expectation. Does he not hold the doctrine that there 
 can be no effect, mental or physical, without an adequate 
 cause? and that mental states, faculties and idiosyncrasies, 
 that are the result of gradual development and lifelong — or 
 even ancestral — habit, cannot be suddenly changed by any 
 known or imaginable cause? Ad if, as he would very 
 likely admit, a very large majority of those who daily de- 
 part this life are persons whose pleasures are sensual rather 
 
Spiritualism in the Bible. 31 
 
 than intellectual — whence is to come the transforming 
 power which is suddenly, at the mere throwing off of the 
 physical body, to change these into beings able to appreci- 
 ate and delight in high and intellectual pursuits? The thing 
 would be a miracle — the greatest of miracles; and surely 
 Prof. Huxley is the last man to contemplate innumerable 
 miracles as part of the order of Nature. — The Religio Philo- 
 sophical Journal. 
 
 SPIRITUALISM IN THE BIBLE. 
 
 No one would guess from what periodical the following 
 references are- extracted: 
 
 Spiritual Gifts — I Corinthians xii., xiii., xiv. ; Romans xii. 
 
 Spiritual Circles — Acts ii. 
 
 Dreams — Matthew i. ; Genesis xi., xxiii.. xl. 
 
 Test Mediums, Seers and Prophets — Acts v.; John iv. ; 
 I -t Samuel ix., xxviii.; Michah hi. 5, 7; Deuteronomy xvni. 
 
 Slate Writing — Exodus xxxii., xxxiv. ; Deuteronomy x. 
 
 Writing on the Wall. — Daniel v. 
 
 David a Writing Medium — 1 Chronicles xxviii. 11, 19. 
 
 Psychology — Acts xiii. 9, 11; Mark viii. 22, 25. 
 
 Obsession — 1 Samuel xvi. 14, 23; 2 Chronicles xviii. ; 
 Acts viii. 7, xix. 15. 
 
 Fire — Deuteronomy v. ; Exodus iii. ; Daniel iii. 
 
 Materialization — Luke xxvi.; Acts i., xii.; Genesis xviii., 
 xxxii.; John iv., xx. ; Exodus iii.; Ezekiel viii.; 1 Corinth- 
 ians xii. ; Joshua v. ; Numbers xxii. ; Daniel viii. 
 
 Mind Reading — Mark ii. 8, 9; Matthew xii. 25. 
 
 Healing — Mark iii., v., vii., viii.; Acts iii., v., viii., xiii., 
 xviii., xix.; John v., xi. ; Matthew vii. 15, 17; ix. 31, 34; 
 xii. ; 2 Kings iv., v., xii. : Ezekiel ii. : Samuel iii., x., xvi. 
 
 Open-eyed Mediums — Numbers xxiv. 1, 4. 
 
 Shut-eyed Mediums— Acts ix: 1, 19. 
 
 Destroying Mediumship — Acts xii. 16, 19. 
 
 Developing Mediums — Matthew x. ; Mark i.; Acts ii. 4. 
 18; viii. 15. 19; xix. 11, 12; Ezekiel ii. 1, 10; 1 Samuel iii. 
 8. 13; x. 1, 11. Prophecy — Revelation vi. 
 
 Trance and Voices — Acts x., xi., xxii. 
 
32 Spiritualism in the Bible. 
 
 Trumpet and Voices — Revelation i., iv., v., vi., viii, xviii., 
 xix., xxi. Be spiritual — i John iv. I. 
 
 These are from the Agnostic Journal. It is the most 
 surprising paper imaginable. A good half of its pages are 
 taken up with theosophy; the religion of complete revela- 
 tion, and certainty about everything, ventilatingitself in a 
 paper whose very raison d'etre is inquiry and suspension of 
 judgment. A good deal of space, too, is occupied very 
 worthily by some interesting letters of Mr. Maitland's, on 
 the relation of reason and intuition, which to quote in frag- 
 ments, would be to spoil, and which space considerations 
 forbid us to quote entire. 
 
 — Borderland. 
 
 "But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted his voice 
 and said unto them: * * * * *" 
 
 But this is that which was poken by the prophet Joel: 
 
 And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, 
 I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons 
 and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men 
 shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. 
 
 And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour 
 out, in those days, of my spirit; and they shall prophesy." 
 
 The Acts ii. 14, 18. 
 
 See Joel ii. 28, 29. 
 
IN THE SPIRIT LAND. 
 
 Mrs. A. C. Rogers Tells of a Remarkable Experience- 
 Works of Spiritualism — Commuuication Estab- 
 lished with Her Dead Husband — Some- 
 thing About Human Souls After 
 They Have Passed Away. 
 
 [Published in the Daily Inter-Oceau, of Chicago, March 23, 1896.] 
 
 Grand Hotel des Anglais, Valescure, St. Raphael, France, 
 Feb. 25. — To the Editor. — It is strange that the world has 
 been so long in satisfactorily answering the question: If a 
 man die shall he live again? All kinds of speculations have 
 been indulged in, and many volumes written to prove him 
 immortal, and yet there seems to be a majority that can 
 have no conception of a life that must survive the rigid, 
 mysterious state called death. 
 
 As the world has advanced in what is called science and 
 has striven to find an adequate cause for all human power in 
 the wonderful construction of brain and nerve, and for all 
 the phenomena of external nature in a blind force, this per- 
 plexing question has become more and more puzzling. 
 
 The double nature of man, as recognized in his primi- 
 tive state, first gave an intimation of the existence of a per- 
 sonality independent of the apparent fleshly one. The fact 
 that in dreams could be seen, felt and heard all that was 
 possible through the senses gave the idea of those phan- 
 toms "which will not down;' ghosts. A belief in these has, 
 among those thought to be most highly civilized, gener- 
 ally placed the credulous one upon a plane with savages 
 of the lowest type. 
 
 Although Herbert Spencer traces the basis of all our in- 
 stitutions, both civil and religious, to primitive ideas 
 founded upon the ghost theory, he afterwards asserts, in 
 substance, that there were no such beings in existence. His 
 reasoning faculty was quick to discern the flaw in his argu- 
 
34 In the Spirit Land. 
 
 ment, and to realize that things based upon a falsity must 
 be false in themselves. In this dilemma he aserted that 
 those imaginative people must have had a vague sense of 
 the mysterious about them to have formed such concep- 
 tions. 
 
 But religious and civil institutions were not based upon 
 indefinite conceptions, but upon specific ideas peculiar to 
 all primitive races, and some universal truth must have 
 furnished the foundation. It may be that the primitive 
 or savage races, being nearer to nature, were most suscept- 
 ible to intuitive truth and needed a peculiar guidance. They 
 felt that there was a power about them that needed to be 
 propitiated or worshipped, and having no idea of the true 
 God, they offered sacrifices to the shades of their ancestry. 
 All traditions, both sacred and profane, attempting to give 
 accounts of these initial efforts at worship record in- 
 stances where the assistance was given of voices as well 
 as visions. 
 
 It is to be doubted whether these came - from the highest 
 order of angels or spirits, for it is rational to conclude that 
 spirits of a somewhat congenial order would be in com- 
 munication. In a book purporting to have been dictated 
 by spirits the statement was made that the angels that 
 talked with Moses and others of the olden time "were of a 
 very inferior order, compared with those that surrounded 
 and guided Jesus," though they were often mistaken for the 
 God of the universe. 
 
 This might explain some of the seeming contradictions 
 and incongruities noticeable in the character of the mes- 
 sages given in the respective epochs. Sacrifices and burnt 
 offerings commanded by angels to be offered to the Lord 
 in the days of Moses were spoken of as abominations in the 
 sight of the same Lord when Christ came with a new mes- 
 sage to the world. Every age and religion seem to have re- 
 ceived the inspiration for which they were fitted, and none 
 has been left to grope in complete darkness. All begin- 
 nings, in religion as in everything else, have been crude, 
 and must have been so in order to the progress required 
 by a universal .law of nature or of God. 
 
 Notwithstanding the many instances recorded of spirit 
 influence and communion, the testimony of seers of un- 
 doubted intelligence and unimpeachable character, such as 
 Swedenborg, and of investigations in the interest of science 
 
In the Spirit Land. 35 
 
 bv psychical societies that have collected many facts cor- 
 roborative of the existence of a life and a body independent 
 of the grosser one, apparent to the senses, incredulity is 
 the rule. Under these circumstances, I feel it incumbent 
 . upon me to add my feeble testimony by giving to the public 
 a condensed account of an experience in many respects re- 
 markable. 
 
 I do this alone in the interest of truth, and because I feel 
 that I should be held accountable for keeping to myself 
 what I consider knowledge that must have been given me 
 for some other purpose than my own gratification. Perhaps 
 I should at an earlier date have made this disclosure pub- 
 lic, but in consideration of family and friends, as well as my 
 own interest, I have refrained from so doing. I have never 
 intended to carry this mystery in concealment to the grave, 
 but, having - reached the age allotted to man on this earth, 
 feel that I may not have a great while longer for delibera- 
 ation, and write while I may. 
 
 I feel sure that my paper will be read with incredulity by 
 most. Generally it will be thought that I have been de- 
 ceived in some way, and a lower estimate will be placed 
 upon my judgment and discriminating faculties. Many will 
 account for the unusual phenomena by telepathy, mind 
 reading, and perhaps some phase of hypnotism, these forms 
 of mind influence having received much attention of late. 
 I am superficially acquainted with some of the possibilities 
 claimed for the theories bearing the above names, and ad- 
 mit that some of the phenomena might have been pro- 
 duced by mind reading or telepathy; but that all, or most 
 of them, covering so long a period of time were the result of 
 these subtle powers I cannot for a moment admit. 
 
 Responisbility rests alone upon myself, and let the re- 
 sult be as it may, I must discharge what I consider to be 
 my duty. 
 
 Shortly after the sudden death of my husband. Judge 
 John G. Rogers, in 1887, a spiritualist came to me with 
 what purported to be a message from him to me. He was 
 not an acquaintance of mine, but had known my husband, 
 and after seeing and talking with him I could not doubt 
 his sincerity, and, although thinking he might be deceived 
 in some way, decided to investigate for myself. Of the 
 medium I had never heard, nor had she of myself, and no 
 one knew of the time selected for my first visit. 
 
36 In the Spirit Land. 
 
 I- found the medium in bed, and in addition to habitual 
 invalidism she was suffering from a hurt received in some 
 accident. She said she doubted whether she could, in her 
 state, give me the least satisfaction; but in a short time, 
 whilst talking upon indifferent subjects, her eyes gradually 
 closed, and she seemed to be in an unconscious state. 
 
 Then her voice and manner changed completely, and her 
 body seemed to be the organ of a man's speech. He 
 claimed to be in control of the medium, and said he knew 
 what had influenced me to make the visit — that my hus- 
 band was standing near, but was so full of emotion that 
 he doubted whether he could speak to me, but the attempt 
 would be made. In a short while her manner and voice 
 again changed, and she seemed to be controlled by one 
 laboring under deep emotion, who gave the name of my 
 husband. 
 
 He said, in a halting voice, that after realizing that he 
 was in another world, he felt he must have some word with 
 his family, and, although not believing in spiritualism, 
 sought every means of communicating, and that in his 
 perplexity a wife of the spiritualist who had brought me 
 the message told of her intercourse with her husband on 
 the earth, and offered him assistance, saying that at first it 
 would be difficult, but by practice would become easy. 
 
 The manner of the medium, and the nature of the com- 
 munication, assured me that it was really my husband 
 who was talking with me. 
 
 We mentioned facts known only to ourselves, and in 
 many ways that it would not be possible for me to explain 
 convinced me that I had communicated with one thought 
 to be dead. He begged me not to think of him in this 
 light, but as being nearer to me, and understanding me 
 better than ever before. He said the value of my visit to 
 him could not be estimated in any way, as we consider 
 values, but was worth more than all the world to him, and 
 that I must continue to come until he could talk with me 
 with less difficulty. 
 
 Under the circumstances I could not but comply with 
 his request, and have for the past eight years or so gone 
 at stated times to visit a beloved one for his pleasure, and 
 as he feels, of profit, as well as my own. I have not, how- 
 ever, gone often enough to lose any of my interest in mv 
 present life, feeling much more than befoie my experience 
 
In the Spirit Land. 37 
 
 the obligations resting upon me in a world so near and 
 in such close relationship to the one to which we must 
 soon go. 
 
 I have had communication with many others who have 
 convinced me of their identity. Parents, grandparents, 
 other relatives, and many friends, also children that passed 
 away in infancy, have been described to me in their pres- 
 ent state of maturity. For all, the first communications 
 seemed difficult, often given in whispers. 
 
 The medium, although not a woman we would call 
 cultured, impressed me as one of honesty and refinement. 
 Of her sincerity and purity of intention I could not doubt, 
 and the opinion first formed has been strengthened by the 
 acquaintance of years. She said she had possesed the power 
 to see and communicate with spirits since her earliest rec- 
 ollection, and that they seemed to her as real and not any 
 more mysterious than human beings. 
 
 Although showing a kindly and friendly disposition, she 
 seemed to have no curiosity in regard to my connections 
 and surroundings, and said she would prefer not to know 
 of them. It was two years before she knew my name. She 
 has two controls, a man and a woman, the first claiming 
 to have passed away from this life about ioo years ago, 
 and the other to have been in that world for as many as 
 600 years. 
 
 They said this was the work they had been called upon 
 to do, and that so long as the medium should live they 
 would strive to do all the good possible through her, and 
 then take up some other work. It might be they would 
 not be called upon to visit the earth again, though it would 
 always be possible. It seems natural that the familiar path 
 back to the earth would be plainer and more easily trav- 
 ersed than any leading to unknown heights. 
 
 The woman control says she is more fortunate than 
 many, in being able to go both high and low, that she can 
 witness the delights of those who have attained to bles- 
 sedness through tribulation, and the griefs of those who 
 are still struggling in sorrow and remorse. 
 
 Some of the things told me of the next life to this were 
 opposed to my preconceived ideas, and were not always 
 agreeable; but it was truth I was seeking and not to have 
 my own opinions substantiated. It had been a source of 
 pleasure to feel that with the change called death came 
 
38 In the Spirit Land. 
 
 perfect rest and satisfaction, though upon reflection this is 
 opposed to reason and the general order of nature, and 
 I was told that often the bitterest experiences came and 
 a period of darkness ensued of long or short duration 
 according to circumstances. 
 
 Remorse was felt for a misspent life, for neglect of 
 duties, and sorrow for even the mistakes of life; that it was 
 only through striving for the highest and best that light 
 appeared and happiness dawned. The character and pe- 
 culiarities of each were transferred to a different plane, 
 and that these decided the position and surroundings in 
 the new life. If the affections were strongly bound to 
 persons or things of the earth spirits would for a greater 
 or less time hover about them, and in the case of the 
 former strive to influence and bless. 
 
 The desire for communion with the earth's inhabitants 
 was almost universal, and in many cases would result in 
 mutual good; that is, where the best conditions existed. 
 
 The life there is so much more real than this, as to cast 
 over it a shadow, making it seem insignificant. 
 
 I have been told of the improvement and development 
 of some of my friends, and of their hopes for further ad- 
 vancement. 
 
 If I had needed any confirmation of the reality of these 
 communications it has been given in the case of a very 
 few friends that have passed to the next life since I have 
 had my peculiar experience, and with whom I had talked 
 about it. Of course the medium could have known noth- 
 ing of this. 
 
 In one case apologies were made for the incredulity with 
 which my narrative had been received, and it w r as said some 
 benefit had been derived from it, notwithstanding the doubt 
 with which it had been received; that a true knowledge of 
 the conditions in the next life greatly added in progress 
 and development there. 
 
 The general law of progress was said to hold there as 
 well as here, and we may reasonably conclude that it con- 
 tinues to eternity, if we can conceive of it. It would be 
 futile to conjecture as to what is possible to the spirit in 
 the ages before it. In the language of St. Paul, "It doth 
 not yet appear what we shall be." 
 
 As progress takes place slowly in the natural world, and 
 we .find no sudden breaks or transitions, we must conclude 
 
In the Spirit Land. 39 
 
 that the plane of life immediately succeeding the present 
 one must partake in some measure of the characteristics of 
 this, that it is the reality of which this is the shadow. 
 
 We could not desire a state of existence of which we 
 could form no conception for the want of a type or symbol. 
 
 We very much mistake true conditions when we ascribe 
 to spirits perfect knowledge. They often say: "We do not 
 know everything." There are the same differences of 
 opinion among them, though they have advantages over 
 the inhabitants of this sphere in increased opportunities 
 for advancement, when relieved of the trammeling influence 
 of the flesh. Aristotle is said to have thought that the 
 reasoning faculty could never do perfect work until the 
 attainment of this condition. 
 
 There must be in the next sphere spirits that adhere 
 for a longer or shorter period to their peculiar religious 
 views. I can give a case in illustration: When a young 
 girl I was frequently at the house of an aunt, who was 
 considered unusually pious. I do not remember exactly 
 when she died, though it must have been thirty-five or 
 forty years ago. She had not consciously entered my 
 mind for many years. At one time, while having a sit- 
 ting, a house was minutely described to me; I failed to 
 recognize it. 
 
 Then it was said a large, gray cat lies on the rug before 
 the fire, and the figure and face of this aunt were so graphi- 
 cally given, with the dress that was so peculiar to her, 
 that she was plainly brought to view with her surround- 
 ings. It was then said that she was just beginning to see 
 the light, and had progressed so slowly, because of erron- 
 eous views pertinaciously held. She had been looking all 
 these years for her Savior. 
 
 Another relative of mine, who had been a pronounced 
 agnostic, died at his home in St. Louis. Although not 
 thinking of him, and without expecting a communication, 
 of course, he controlled the medium, and held out trem- 
 bling hands, and, in a whisper, gave the name by which I 
 had been accustomed to call him — a very peculiar name. 
 one I am sure the medium had never in her life heard. 
 
 Before this demonstration was made, however, I was told 
 a spirit wished to talk with me, whose name was Tames, 
 as given by my mother. A confirmatory coincidence in this 
 case is that I. had never called him by the name familiar to 
 
40 In the Spirit Land. 
 
 my mother, and, in speaking to me, the one by which I 
 had called him was given. He said in a very feeble manner 
 that he would try some other time to talk with me. As he 
 never appeared again, I asked the control why it was. She 
 replied : "He was not prepared for this world and is like one 
 in prison." 
 
 Not very long after, and without having heard of my ex- 
 perience, a brother in the South wrote that while one of his 
 children was experimenting with a contrivance for telling 
 fortunes — I forget its name, though it is something in the 
 nature of a planchette — the name of this relative was dis- 
 tinctly written and after it: "I am in prison." 
 
 There are, of course, many personal details I might give, 
 but doubt whether they would make more probable the 
 truth of what I am trying to enforce, the reality of a life 
 after this, and the possibility of its being in communion 
 with this under favorable conditions. 
 
 Certainly they would not impress others as they did me, 
 and would not be considered of scientific value. The evi- 
 dence to me has amounted to demonstration, and I should 
 consider myself as deficient in reasoning powers were I to 
 reject it as worthless, or even not entirely convincing. I 
 know that all who have attempted investigations in the 
 same direction have not been so fortunate, and in many 
 instances have been sadly disappointed. 
 
 All mediums are not honest, and, besides, it seems to be 
 necessary that there should be a kind of adaptability be- 
 tween the medium and the sitter. What that is it would be 
 impossible to say. The medium through whom I talked 
 had said that for some she could get nothing satisfactory 
 and that the effect of some investigators upon herself was 
 rather distressing, they having a tendency to cause great ex- 
 haustion. She could not account for this fact herself. 
 
 I shall now try to answer a question that will be asked 
 by many. What good could come from spirit communion, 
 even if general? If no other good should ensue than set- 
 tling the question of the immortality of the soul its ad- 
 vantage could not be computed. But besides this, the 
 happiness of lives upon the earth might be greatlv en- 
 hanced. Although the change that takes place at what is 
 called death is not so great as is generally imagined, it 
 must bring its advantages. 
 
 Emerson has said: "Whatever is natural and universal 
 
In the Spirit Land. 41 
 
 must be beneficent." The flesh must be a clog to the free 
 exercise of the powers of the soul, and when freed from 
 it they must expand inconceivably in every direction. The 
 natural effect of every cause must be much more ap- 
 parent, giving an insight into the future impossible to us. 
 This might be in a measure imparted as a warning against 
 certain tendencies of thought and courses of action. 
 
 I should like to add here that I have been told by spirits 
 that nothing that would have a deleterious effect upon the 
 inhabitants of the earth would be permitted utterance. 
 
 The approach of the inevitable change called death would 
 no longer be contemplated with horror and dismay; but 
 welcomed as a friend, indispensible to conditions more to 
 be desired than any to be feared on the earth sphere. 
 
 What I have said will lead to another question more 
 difficult to answer, which is: If all these advantages would 
 result from spirit intercourse, why has it not been vouch- 
 safed to the inhabitants of the earth universally? Man's 
 own departure from the true path is the only reason I can 
 give. I am of the opinion that many intuitive truths and 
 spiritual gifts have been lost to the world through increas- 
 ing interest in the things of sense, and that research in 
 this direction for hidden and absolute truth always has 
 been and ever will be disastrous. Our scientists must make 
 a new departure before they can reach convincing and sat- 
 isfactory truth. They must learn that there are many more 
 far-reaching facts to be discovered in the subjective than 
 in the objective, and that both paths must be traversed. 
 
 With a general recognition of the fact of the nearness 
 and interest of the spirit world, what solace would come at 
 the hour of death. As the grasp of the hands of our earthly 
 friends must be relinquished at the last hour, welcoming 
 and loving ones would be extended to guide us to more 
 enduring and more blessed homes beyond. 
 
 — A. C. Rogers. 
 
SURVIVAL AFTER DEATH. 
 
 Mr. Stead Interviewed. 
 
 Mr. Stead has been interviewed in Chicago for the 
 Riligio-Philosophical Journal, of that city, and the follow- 
 ing is taken from the article which appears in the issue for 
 December 23rd: — 
 
 A PERPLEXING QUESTION. 
 
 We began by asking Mr. Stead what, in his opinion, is 
 the strongest and most convincing proof of the mind's 
 survival of the body. Mr. Stead hesitated some time be- 
 fore giving an answer, and then said that he did not think 
 he was competent to decide which was the strongest proof, 
 but, so far as he had gone, he thought that the strongest 
 proof in favor of human personality was supplied by the 
 evidences that are daily multiplying of human intelligences 
 communicating while still in the body with other persons 
 through agencies which are independent of the body. 
 "That is, it seems," said Mr. Stead, "that if my personality 
 is so much greater than, and more complex than the frag- 
 ment of it, of which alone I am conscious, and if I am able 
 to prove the existence and functioning of my own person- 
 ality, independently of my conscious mind, or of the senses 
 of the body, it seems rational to think that this mind, which 
 operates independently of the body, will continue existing 
 after the body has dissolved. So long as.it was possible 
 to imagine that human intelligence was simply a product 
 of the brain which dissolved at death, the proof seemed 
 the other way, but when you are confronted at every turn 
 with evidence that a man's personality can function inde- 
 pendently of his body, you are. no more inclined to believe 
 that you cease to exist when your body dies than that you 
 pass out of existence when vou lav down the telephone and 
 ring it off." 
 
 We then asked, "What class of so-called spirit mani- 
 festations seems to you to possess the greatest evidential 
 
Survival After Death. 43 
 
 value?" "Those manifestations," said Mr. Stead, "which 
 supply the greatest amount of evidence. The ghost is a 
 very fitful creature, and the evidence which we gather 
 from his appearance is small compared with the value of the 
 evidence obtained from manifestations which are more un- 
 der control. So far as I have seen, materializing seances do 
 not amount to much. I do not say they may not have very 
 high value some times, but, so far as I am concerned, I have 
 not seen anything that was at all conclusive in the way of 
 materialization, which is no doubt my misfortune if not my 
 fault. But I think the evidence obtained by automatic writ- 
 ing or by trance mediumship gives more conclusive evi- 
 dences than what is obtained in any other way." 
 
 IS THERE ANY POSITIVE PROOF? 
 
 "But, Mr. Stead," we asked, "do you think that there is 
 positive proof that the spirits of the departed manifest 
 themselves to those in the flesh?" "That is a subject," he 
 said, "upon which I do not wish to dogmatise. Positive 
 proof means, I suppose, proof as clear as that which demon- 
 strates a problem in arithmetic. I think that Mr. Miers, 
 when he was over in Chicago, put the truth of the matter 
 very well when he declared that he believed that when all 
 deductions had been made in the shape of coincidences, 
 telepathy, and other causes, there remains an irreducible 
 minimum of evidence in favor of the hypothesis of the 
 spirit's returning to earth, which could hardly be explained 
 away. I am not quoting his words, but I think that was 
 the gist of what he said." 
 
 "Do you think that there is proof positive that those who 
 manifest themselves are the identical persons that they 
 profess to be?" Again Mr. Stead objected to the words 
 proof positive. "All I can say is that there is a reasonable 
 degree of certainty on the subject. Of course, if Mr. Hud- 
 son's theory be correct, and the unconscious mind is as 
 omniscient as God Almighty, and is absolutely without any 
 moral sense, then such proof is absolutely impossible, be- 
 cause, according to Mr, Hudson's theory, it is easy for 
 your own unconscious mind to possess itself of all the in- 
 formation necessary to furnish the most conclusive evi- 
 dence, and at the same time to deceive you by asserting 
 
 that the information wa§ communicated by sgme dead 
 
44 Survival After Death. 
 
 friend. But Mr. Hudson's theory seems to me to be much 
 more incredible than the alternative. I have proof positive 
 just as much as the cashier of a bank has when he believes 
 the paper was drawn by the man who signed it. Bank 
 cashiers seldom have proof in a legal sense, but they have 
 reasonable assurance, and that I think we may claim to 
 have in spirit communications." 
 
 "To revert to the automatic writing, Mr. Stead. Have 
 you had any experiences since you came to this country?" 
 
 "Yes; but I have been so very busy that I have not had 
 time to conduct such experiments, and besides, when you 
 have to wait twenty days for confirmation of these expe- 
 riences it is rather a bar. At the same time I find that dis- 
 tance makes no difference, and I get messages from my 
 friends across the Atlantic as readily as from across the 
 street." 
 
 "Do you think that communication with the so-called 
 dead should be cultivated?" 
 
 "It depends upon whether or not you consider the so- 
 called dead desirable acquaintances. There are many of 
 my acquaintances with whom I do not desire to continue 
 to communicate with one moment longer than I can help, 
 but if you love anybody it seems quite as unnatural that 
 you should cease to wish to communicate with him be- 
 cause he has put off his body as because he had bought 
 a new pair of boots." 
 
 IS MEDIUMSHIP HARMFUL? 
 
 "Do you think mediumship is generally detrimental to 
 the medium?" 
 
 "My experience is not wide enough, but among my per- 
 sonal friends who have mediumistic gifts I do not know 
 of one who suffers from the exercise of them, nor do I 
 know of one who would give it up even if it did entail a 
 certain amount of physical exhaustion. I do know of 
 cases where mediums have lost control of themselves. I 
 have also known of cases in which mediums have ex- 
 hausted themselves by excessive mediumship, and have 
 been brought into a state of prostration from which they 
 have sought to emerge by means of drinking. It is some- 
 what risky business, being a medium, although I suppose 
 I am a medium in a kind of a way. I do not consider it 
 
Survival After Death. 45 
 
 dangerous being a medium as long as you have control 
 of yourself, and I have always been master of my own 
 hand, although I may allow it now and then to be used by 
 another mind than my own." 
 
 "Have you discovered much fraud practiced under the 
 name of mediumship?" 
 
 "Not so much fraud as folly. However, the flap-doodle 
 some mortals can swallow when it is vamped up with 
 spiritualistic dressing is almost inconceivable. At the same 
 time there are fraudulent mediums, and it is one of the mis- 
 fortunes of the regular practice of mediumship for pay that 
 there is a constant temptation to forge a communication 
 when no genuine message can be secured.'' 
 
 "Can you state some of the most essential, physical and 
 intellectual conditions favorable to mediumship?" 
 
 "Health, I should say, and the ability to place your mind 
 in a passive condition. Mr. Stainton Moses always be- 
 lieved that it would be useless for me to hope to obtain 
 any manifestations or make any progress in manifesta- 
 tions from the unseen world, for he said my mind was too 
 full of the vibrations of intense mental activity, and my 
 whole life was lived in an unending whirl." 
 
 THE BIBLE AND MODERN SPIRITUALISM. 
 
 "Do you find in ihe Bible confirmation of modern 
 Spiritualism ?" 
 
 The answer was, "I think you put the cart before the 
 horse. You can find in modern Spiritualism confirmation 
 enough and to spare of the Bible. In Borderland I have 
 begun a series of papers touching this subject. I began 
 the series with the Prophet Elijah. Almost all the phe- 
 nomena that I find in the Bible are being reproduced, as 
 anyone will find if he will take the trouble to inquire. The 
 gift of hearing, seeing, levitation, the gift of premonition, 
 the power to hold communication with good and evil 
 spirits, and to communicate with those who have passed 
 into the invisible world — all these are in the Bible, and, 
 as everyone who knows anything of the subject will admit, 
 they are of more or less frequent occurrence in the world 
 today." 
 
 "What have you to say as to the Satanic theory of 
 Spiritualism?" 
 
46 Survival Aiter Death. 
 
 "It is a very natural theory. Everything used to be 
 credited to the devil that people did not understand — 
 thunder-storms, earthquakes, any phenomena that were 
 out of the ordinary run, if they could not be credited to 
 some divine power, were put down to the author of all 
 evil. So it is now as to these communications from the 
 other side. If we are to try the spirits by the same rules 
 of common sense that we try communications received 
 from human beings who are still in the body, we should 
 find that some are good as good can be while others are 
 bad, while the great mass of them talk drivel and flap- 
 doodle. There is nothing satanic about it, so far as I can 
 see, unless the influence of an evil intelligence, whether 
 in the body or out of the body, can be said to be satanic " — 
 Borderland, January, 1894. 
 
VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE. 
 
 Only the grosser forms of matter are visible to the eye. 
 We cannot see an atom, a molecule, or electricity. The 
 most powerful material agents are invisible. We behold 
 a few acres of the earth ; we perceive rocks and minerals ; 
 also vegetable forms, from the tiniest flowers to the great 
 trees that have braved the storms of centuries; animal 
 growths, from the microscopic insect to the huge masto- 
 don; the illimitable universe, with no conceivable center' 
 or circumference, boundless, infinite; and finally man, en- 
 dowed with mind, soul, and, a radiant spark of the divine 
 spirit; we recognize life, consciousness, substance, and rest 
 in the conviction that the universe, visible and invisible, is 
 the thought of the Divine Mind in expression. Con- 
 sciousness is everywhere, life everywhere, substance every- 
 where. Manifestations of Supreme Power are discernible 
 in intelligence, force and matter; superior to their mani- 
 festations is the eternal and unknowable; but visible Na- 
 ture, which we can study and know, is the outward ex- 
 pression or manifestation of the invisible, the infinite and 
 the eternal. There we find, as Pope says, 
 
 "That God of nature who within us still 
 Inclines our actions, not constrains our will." 
 
 By the close study of nature we can pass from the vis- 
 ible to the invisible, as by a ladder reaching from earth to 
 heaven. . Note the steps as indicated by a modern scientist: 
 'We pass from solid matters, such as metals, to the 
 liquids; from the liquids to the gases; from the gases to 
 radiant matter; from radiant matter to the forces of na- 
 ture — gravitation, magnetism, light; from force to sensa- 
 tion; from sensation to thought, idea, purpose! Here, too, 
 as with animal and vegetable life, we may well believe, that 
 there is no break in continuity." How soon we pass from 
 the visible to the invisible. In fact we begin with the in- 
 visible. A material atom no one can see. It is the indi- 
 visible and infinitesimal form of all matter. Science can 
 weigh atoms, but not a single atom. Molecules, made up 
 of atoms, are also invisible, yet science tells us how many 
 there are in a given space, how heavy they are, and how 
 swiftly they move about. A mass, or object, the smallest 
 visible form of matter, is formed of molecules, each one of 
 
48 Visible and Invisible. 
 
 which, it is said, is "about as much smaller than a pea as an 
 orange is smaller than our earth." We fail to comprehend 
 the infinitely little or the infinitely great. 
 
 The more attenuated the forms of matter the farther 
 apart molecules are, and yet they never touch each other 
 in rock or metal. When many molecules are massed in a 
 single form matter is visible. Invisible forms of matter 
 are most powerful. Steam, in which molecules are farther 
 apart than in water, is more powerful than water. Expan- 
 sion develops power. Electricity more subtile than 
 steam, is vastly more powerful. Yet, without mind to con- 
 trol and direct it, electricity would be today an untamed 
 force and economically valueless. Even matter cannot 
 act on matter without the intervention of mind. The ham- 
 mer does not drive the nail into the board and fasten it to a 
 building. Nor is it the man's arm and head that drive it. 
 Place nail and hammer and board together; attach a dead 
 man's hand to the hammer, with head and body perfect; 
 apply steam or electricity; the nail will never be driven. 
 A higher force is needed — the force of life itself, acting 
 through the machinery of brain, body, arm and hammer, 
 all directed by intelligence. The man himself, by virtue of 
 invisible power within, drives the nail. Spenser, earliest 
 of English poets, said: 
 
 "For of the soul the body form doth take, 
 For soul is form and doth the body make." 
 The visible is a small part of human life. For the 
 child, that unconsciously breathes a few times and passes 
 away, as for the centenarian who, equally unconscious 
 from the infirmities of age, leaves a worn-out tenement, 
 this life is short. Briefest or brief rest assured the earthly 
 incarnation is essential to the evolution of the soul. Not 
 for fame, wealth, glory, do the saviors and benefactors of 
 the race perform their mission. They are apostles of the 
 Divine Unseen. Serve humanity and live. Serve self and 
 die. Such is the eternal law. This visible life is a strange 
 compound of weakness and strength. Deeply implanted is 
 the sense of immortality, and yet it is strangely set aside 
 for the baubles of space and time. Immortal aspirations 
 and desires alone can loosen the shackles that bind the soul 
 to earth. Material force is a visible manifestation of the 
 spiritual reality behind or within it. Separate from the life 
 there is no force. He who accepts the material and denies 
 the spiritual admits the effect but ignores the cause. Accept- 
 
Visible and Invisible. 49 
 
 ing both the spiritual and the material, who shall set a 
 limit to the manifestations of the former through the latter? 
 Paul's words come to mind: "For the invisible things of 
 him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being 
 understood by the things that are made." 
 
 Inspirations come to prophets, poets and seers from the 
 realms invisible to mortal eyes. Martyrs welcome torture 
 and death sustained by a mental power that renders nerves 
 insensible to pain. Desire for earthly honor never has such 
 a sublime effect. Marvelous is this occult power. Note 
 the experience of Paul with the viper fastened to his hand, 
 and the poison having no effect for "he shook off the beast 
 into the fire and felt no harm." Here w r as manifested the 
 supremacy of mind. It counteracted the effect of the poison 
 of the serpent's fangs. So, too, the invisible is the factor in 
 every life. It is no longer regarded as evidence of intel- 
 lectual weakness or delusion to accept the teachings, of 
 Christ, the Great Healer, and of his apostles, as facts that 
 may be repeated ; or to believe that angels walk by our side 
 in crowded cities and lonely woodlands, and watch us when 
 we sleep, though the human eye then sees nothing, not even 
 material objects, for it can no more discern spiritual pres- 
 ences than it can, without a microscope, see the multitude 
 of living creatures in a drop of dew or a ray of sunlight. 
 
 Scenes continually change around us; we note the im- 
 permanency of all material forms; to get the most of life 
 we too must change to a new and higher environment; 
 but here we should live near to Nature, calmly passing from 
 one day to another through nights of rest and without sor- 
 row for the dead past; live aright in the present and fear 
 not the issues of the future. The invisible furnishes a 
 lofty ideal; there is no work too humble or too great for 
 men to do; no unselfish aim too high for human endeavor; 
 and, as the cycles run their course, the highest welfare of 
 humanity is attained bv the faithful performance of present 
 duties while striving for the loftiest ideal. Thereby the 
 visible and invisible are united in achieving for the human 
 race the greatest good both now and hereafter. 
 
 "On wings of deeds the soul must mount! 
 When God shall call us, from afar. 
 Ourselves, and not our words, will count- 
 Not what we said, but what we are." 
 
 — Jackson, (Mich.) Patriot. 
 Republished in Religio-Philosophical Journal. 
 
IS SPIRITUALISM A RELIGION? 
 
 The Fundamental Principles Clearly Outlined by 
 Rev. A. J. Weaver. 
 
 Is Spiritualism a religion? That depends upon what re- 
 ligion is. If it consists of certain rites, ceremonies and 
 forms of worship; of going to church, and observing the 
 Sabbath as the Lord's day; of offering praise and prayer to 
 a personal, outside God, above nature, up in heaven, from 
 whom all blessings flow; or if it consists in believing that 
 Jesus was the Messiah, the only begotten son of God, and 
 that by no other name can we be saved; or that the 
 Bible is the word of God, and contains all we ever need to 
 know concernig immortal truth, and is a sufficient rule of 
 faith and practice; or if religion is simply faith and trust in 
 the future, in God, in the Bible, and the church, whether 
 sanctioned by reason or not; if religion consists in accept- 
 ing Christianity or any other of the great religions of the 
 world as unquestioned truth, then Spiritualism is not a re- 
 ligion, nor any part of religion. 
 
 But if religion is the recognized feeling of obligation we 
 are under to righteousness, goodness, and truth; if religion 
 is the reverence we feel for the infinite life, power and intel- 
 ligence which pervades the universe ; if religion is the desire 
 to commune with heaven, and to rise daily into higher 
 states of thought, of feeling, and of life, then most em- 
 phatically do I say that Spiritualism is a religion. 
 
 What is Spiritualism? What is the one thing that differ- 
 entiates it from every other phase of religious thought? It 
 is the recognized fact that the inhabitants of the immortal 
 world, who once were clothed in flesh, can come and iden- 
 tify themselves to us under certain conditions. By this 
 knowledge, and what grows out of it, we are separated 
 from all other bodies of religious people. 
 
 But, aside from this, we hold, in common with all the 
 Christian sects, a firm faith in all the graces and virtues of a 
 progressive, spiritual life. We trust implicitly in the good- 
 
Is Spiritualism a Religion? 51 
 
 ness, and have faith in the power of the Infinite, whose al- 
 mighty forces in nature convince us of our weakness and 
 dependence. We realize we are but a speck in the Infinite 
 presence, in which we are bathed. We acknowledge our 
 utter dependence upon a power which entirely transcends 
 our comprehension. We know we are weak and crude, but 
 we aspire for wisdom and growth in the verities of truth 
 and goodness. 
 
 Like other religious people, we accept with our whole 
 hearts every truth contained in the Bible. We recognize 
 and proclaim every noble quality exhibited in the person 
 and life of Jesus. We acknowledge our obligation to em- 
 body in thought and act every principle presented by Him 
 which will add to our spiritual growth. 
 
 We do not claim that Spiritualism is the one perfect re- 
 ligion, or possesses the whole of religious truth, or is 
 without error. But we do claim it contains more truth with 
 less error than any form of religion on earth. We admit 
 that Christianity, in all its forms, even evangelical, embod- 
 ies, in a greater or less degree, some of the enduring quali- 
 ties of a true life. Spiritualism accepts and uses all these 
 while it rejects its errors which, on its very face, are absurd 
 and in violation of nature. 
 
 Unitarianism is the best and highest form of Christianity, 
 and we accept it. But we are larger than Unitarianism. We 
 embrace it, but we rise higher, and take in other truths of 
 the greatest importance. 
 
 If Unitarians are a religious body, much more are Spirit- 
 ualists, because we are not only Unitarians, but something 
 more. 
 
 If Universalists are a religious body, much more are we, 
 because we are not only believers in the ultimate upward 
 growth of all human beings in this world or the next, or 
 both, but we accept an additional truth to which the Uni- 
 versalist body has not yet attained. 
 
 I was ordained, and preached for many years in the Uni- 
 versalist ministry. When I stepped into the Spiritualist 
 ranks I did not lay aside or leave behind any of my religion, 
 but added more religious truth to what I already had. If 
 what I believed was acknowledged by the law of the land as 
 a religion, much more is my belief now a religion, on the 
 principle that the greater includes the less. 
 
 If the truths of Christianity are a religion, then Spiritual- 
 
52 Is Spiritualism a Religion? 
 
 ism is a religion, for we accept every truth of Christianity. 
 I repeat every truth of Christianity, and we have added to 
 and enlarged that truth by the modern revelation, which 
 is but a rebirth, in a more perfect form, of the truth lost 
 amid the dogmatic strife of early Christianity: the stone 
 the builders rejected. 
 
 It is claimed by some that Spiritualism is a science. It it 
 a better statement to say it is a religion based on science, as 
 every religion should be. By this I do not deny the need of 
 faith. I do not deny there should be a place for faith in 
 every religious system. In my own thought and life I 
 give it place and recognize its use. The principle on which 
 I act is to obtain knowledge on every line of thought so 
 far as I am able, and then to trust unhesitatingly in the In- 
 finite that all will be well. 
 
 It is not Spiritualists who are infidels; who doubt the 
 everlasting integrity, uprightness and unchangeableness 
 of Infinity as manifested in the existing order of nature. It 
 is Christians who doubt this. It is Christians who claim 
 there is to be a smash up of the world, a destruction of 
 her forces, and a suspension of her laws. It is Christians 
 who regard the Infinite as unstable, having laws and yet 
 finding it needful at times to suspend them, to confer 
 some special benefit; having certain laws for this world, 
 but setting them aside in the world to come. 
 
 Spiritualists, far above orthodox Christians, believe the 
 universe is built on goodness, and is governed by wisdom. 
 They develop self-reliance by depending on self and not on 
 God so far as they have strength, but when they get be- 
 yond their depth, and mystery confronts them, they put 
 implicit confidence in the Infinite and unseen. They do not 
 pretend to know much about the almighty Power that un- 
 derlies the universe of matter and mind, but they sink into 
 the arms of slumber every night with an abiding faith that, 
 whether they awaken in this world or the next, whether 
 they meet joy or suffering, success or disaster, all is well. 
 They do not feel the Infinite need be beseeched to give to 
 them protective care; like Whittier, they believe they can- 
 not wander away from the Infinite presence and protection. 
 They rest on their own knowledge, so far as they are able, 
 because that develops inward strength; beyond that they 
 do not tremble and make life miserable by "fear of God," 
 but, like a child, trust in the wisdom and power of the un- 
 
Is Spiritualism a Religion? 53 
 
 seen, and by that sublime trust live in abiding peace. 
 
 I believe it is debasing to shrink with fear before the stu- 
 pendous mysteries of existence. It is true that more or less 
 "we walk by faith." Knowledge is first to be desired, but 
 while we are seeking for knowledge we trust and wait. We 
 cross the threshold of knowledge with uncovered head and 
 shoeless feet. We are in the presence of the Infinite. We 
 are small and weak, but the Infinite is boundless and strong. 
 We are ignorant, but wisdom fills the universe. We are 
 short-sighted, but, with the almighty forces beneath and 
 above us, we can trust. 
 
 It may be said, and it is said, that Spiritualists have no 
 religion because they reject so much of the Christian relig- 
 ion. But we reject nothing only what is false. We deny 
 that Jesus is our savior; that he is the only begotten son of 
 God; that he was the Jewish Messiah; that he was anything 
 but a man; but the Unitarians do all this, and they are a 
 religious body. 
 
 We deny the Bible to be the "word of God," but the 
 higher critics do the same, and many of them are promi- 
 nent Christians and workers in the Christian church. 
 
 The Jews go much further than some Spiritualists in 
 what they reject. They even reject Christ, the whole New 
 Testament, and Christianity itself as a divine revelation, and 
 yet the law r recognizes them as being a religious body. 
 
 It is utterly inconsistent to deny that Spiritualists are also 
 a religious body. They differ from the Unitarians only in 
 the fact that, instead of accepting a future life as a hope or 
 faith, they accept it as positive knowledge, based on actual 
 demonstration. Instead of being a weakness, this should 
 be regarded as a strength. 
 
 To be sure the Spiritualists are cut aloof from all other 
 religious people in that they believe in the reality of the 
 psychic phenomena; but the early Christians believed in 
 them, Jesus and his disciples produced them, the primitive 
 church abounded with them, and the Bible is a visible rec- 
 ord of them. 
 
 On what ground can we be denied the legal rights and 
 protection which other religious bodies enjoy? Not on the 
 ground of what we believe nor on the ground of what we 
 reject. I can find no ground except that of absolute preju- 
 dice. Such denial is unjust, inconsistent, bigoted and be- 
 neath the dignity of well-balanced minds. 
 
54 Is Spiritualism a Religion? 
 
 The time will come when civilization will look back with 
 shame and disgust upon its treatment of Spiritualism. The 
 pages of history which this age is writing in its treatment 
 of Spiritualism will, in the future, be regretted as we now 
 regret the opposition the world brought to bear against 
 Christ and early Christianity, against the discoveries of sci- 
 ence, and against the abolition of slavery and the drink 
 habit. — Light of Truth. 
 
SPIRITUALISM. 
 
 It Is Rampant in Paris. 
 
 A recent number of The Literary Digest contains the 
 following: 
 
 That an excess of skepticism or unbelief always brings a 
 reaction toward superstition is a well-known fact in the his- 
 tory* of religions. This reaction is now being experienced 
 in France, which has acquired a reputation for being the 
 most irreligious of all countries. If we are to believe Jules 
 Bois, who writes a long article on the subject of "Miracles 
 at Paris" to Le Figaro (October I2th) that country is 
 now on the return swing of the pendulum, which is just at 
 present bearing her through a spasmodic interest in Spirit- 
 ualism. Says M. Bois : 
 
 "We must say this much in justice to Spiritualism: It 
 has been the first to raise the standard of revolt against the 
 materialism in which we are wallowing. M. Zola has, per- 
 haps, created the symbolist school by the excess of his 
 naturalism. Spiritualism is a much deeper reaction against 
 the atheism of Proudhon, the skepticism of Renan, the 
 braggings of Buchner. I know that crazy people have 
 been mixed up in it, but there are weak heads everywhere. 
 In fact, it has been the consolation and pleasure of the 
 highest minds. 
 
 "Mme. de Girardin passed the last years of her life in the 
 company of Mme. de Levigne, of Sappho, of Moliere, of 
 Sedaine, of Shakespeare. 
 
 "Auguste Vacquerie, in his Miettes de 1'Historie, relates 
 that at Jersey he made the tables talk on the shores of the 
 sea. T believe in spirits as firmly as I do in donkeys,' he 
 affirmed. For him, the scale of beings reached from man 
 to the sky, as from man to the abysses of the earth. * * * 
 Victorien Sardou, thanks to the spirits, amused himself 
 with making little palaces on paper with musical notes. 
 Flammarion renewed the science of the heavens with these 
 
56 Spiritualism. 
 
 studies. M. Jules Lormina refreshed his imagination with 
 them, and M. Gilbert Augustin-Thierny, in many ro- 
 mances, exalts reincarnation, that Spiritualistic dogma. 
 
 "In our days the movement has grown in innumerable 
 directions. The painters, usually so material, have set to 
 work to reproduce the miracles. M. Odilon Redon in his 
 lithographs, recreates the terrors of the wandering ghosts. 
 M. James Tissot puts his. talent at the service of the 'ma- 
 terializations' of phantoms. Count Antoine de La 
 Rochefoucauld, yet more subtle, seizes the angelic soul at 
 the moment when it leaves the body, in the state of ecstacy. 
 M. Vatere Bernard draws harpies; M. Phillippe — Charles 
 Blache surprises the melancholy spirit at the threshold of 
 the invisible; M. Henry de Malvost invokes the devil him- 
 self with his pencil. *.*■/* The celebrated musician, 
 Mile. Auguste Holmes, receives messages from the be- 
 yond; the poetess Mme. Zola-Dorian hears the voices of 
 the invisible. 
 
 "What shall I say? The boulevard itself forgets to rail, 
 or rather dares not. On the Tortoric terrace M. Aurelien 
 Scholl relates to me the prodigies of Home, who altered 
 the hour on a clock without touching it, and Maurice 
 Montigut still shivers at the recollection of his juvenile 
 experience at table-turning. 
 
 "M. Paul Adam has suffered for more than a year from 
 the assault of a ghost, who gives him troublesome advice. 
 At the house of the Baroness Deslandes we see spirits 
 writing and rapping. * * * The modern chiefs of the 
 state have it appears ,the same love of miracles as the emper- 
 ors and kings of the Middle Ages, who lived in the com- 
 pany of astrologers sorcerers and alchemists. The corre- 
 spondent of the Daily News having asked of President 
 Carnot his religious belief, the latter answered that he was 
 a disciple of Allan Kardec, but that he adhered to the 
 Catholic religion for State reasons. And every one knows 
 of the tears shed by Queen Victoria over the death of the 
 medium who had given her the opportunity of talking 
 with the Prince Consort." 
 
 After rilling a couple of columns with stories of Parisian 
 ghosts, mediums, table-turnings and rappings, all in the 
 good old style, M. Bois closes with the following reflec- 
 tions: ' |" ::'..!. I ! -!"!"""] 
 
 "Unfortunately, the majority of the spirits are too sim- 
 
Spiritualism. 57 
 
 pie: sometimes they are even ignorant and superstitious. 
 On how many of their communications do the asses' ears 
 of King Midas appear? One of their apostles, who is 
 possessed ot a wise and inspired intellect. M. Bouvery, 
 confesses to me that in certain seances they go so far as 
 to punish the spirits. Spiritualism, to be born anew, must 
 undergo the ordeal of the phenix. Today, rebaptized in 
 America as 'the new Spiritualism,' disembarrassed of its 
 old errors, it attempts, in the hands of savants such as 
 William Crookes, Aksakoff, Richet, De Rochas, Gibier, 
 Baraduc and Dariex, to furnish experimental proof of the 
 survival of the ego. If the soul survives, what a source 
 of resignation for the suffering, what a balm for the 
 wounds of society! I know of no generous intellect capa- 
 ble of a lack of interest in so great an undertaking." 
 
 A few years ago journals like the Literary Digest would 
 have considered it a disgrace and ruinous to admit any- 
 thing to its columns bearing favorably or unfavorably 
 upon the subject of Spiritualism. 
 
 If an unbeliever or (non-knower) in the subject, Jules 
 Bois is at least fair in his treatment of it. The fact is Spir- 
 itualism is permeating the current literature of the day in 
 all languages. It is forcing its way into the churches and 
 their pulpits. It is in the air everywhere, and it is only 
 a question of time, and not very long, when it will be uni- 
 versally recognized, acknowledged and accepted as true. 
 If it does have its shades, it has also its most glorious, 
 brilliant lights, the latter more than overwhelming the 
 formen H. V. SWERINGEN. 
 
 Published in Progressive Thinker, Jan. 25, 1896. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 Note I.- 
 
 John Clark Ridpath, LL. D., in an instructive article, 
 entitled "The Bond and the Dollar," published in the 
 "Arena" for January, February and March, 1896, advances 
 some ideas similar to some expressed by Mr. Blaine. In 
 an extensive note under this article, on pages 271 and 
 272, of the January number, Mr. Ridpath gives the debt of 
 the United States, on March 1, i866,the debt of the United 
 States in November, . 1895, tne average prices current on 
 March 1st, 1866, of wheat, flour, cotton, mess pork, sugar, 
 wool, beef, bar iron and farming lands in Ohio and Missis- 
 sippi valleys (approximately) and the average prices current 
 of the same on November 10th, 1895. In this note it is 
 shown that the national debt on March 1, 1866, would pur- 
 chase 1,486,842,105 bushels of wheat and the national debt 
 at the close of 1895 w °uid purchase 2,133,620,689 bushels 
 of wheat, an excess of 646,778,584 bushels in favor of the 
 debt of 1895 ; that the debt of '66 would purchase 262,790,- 
 697 barrels of flour, and the debt of '95, 353,571,428 barrels 
 of flour, an excess in favor of the debt of 1895 of 90,780,731 
 barrels; that the debt of '66 would purchese 5,885,416,666 
 pounds of cotton and the debt of '95, 14,558,823,529 
 pounds of cotton, an excess in favor of the debt of 1895 
 of 8,673,406,863 pounds; that the debt of '66 would pur- 
 chase 99,576,313 barrels of mess pork and the debt of '95 
 I 5°?9 I 5^53 barrels of mess pork, an excess in favor of 
 the debt of '95 of 51,339,540 barrels; that the debt of '66 
 would purchase 5,330,188,679 pounds of wool and the debt 
 °f 95> 5>755>8i 3,953 pounds of wool, an excess in favor 
 of the debt of '95 of 425,625,274 pounds ; that the debt of 
 '66 would purchase 41,851,851,851 pounds of bar iron, and 
 the debt of '95 46,348,314,606 pounds of bar iron, an ex- 
 cess in favor of the debt of '95 of 4,496,462,755; that the 
 debt of '66 would purchase 25,393,348,314 pounds of sugar, 
 and the debt of '95, 24,750,000,000 pounds of sugar, an ex- 
 cess of 643,348,314 pounds in favor of the debt of '66; 
 
Appendix. 59 
 
 that the debt of '66 would purchase 181,967,213 cwt. of beef 
 and the debt of '95 130,263,136 cwt. of beef, an excess of 
 51,704,077 cwt. in favor of the debt of '66; that the debt 
 of '66 would purchase, approximately, 37,666,666 acres of 
 farming lands in the Ohio and Mississippi valleys and the 
 debt of '95, 35,357,142 acres, an excess in favor of the debt 
 of '66 of 2,309,524 acres. Thus it will be seen that the debt 
 of '95 would purchase of the first six articles mentioned 
 more than the debt of '66 would, at their respective dates, 
 by a large percentage, and the debt of '95 only fails to pur- 
 chase as much of the last three items mentioned as the debt 
 of y 66 f by a small percentage. 
 
 Note 2 — 
 
 An Act to Strengthen the Public Credit. 
 
 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 
 tives of the United States of America, in Congress assem- 
 bled, that in order to remove any doubt as to the purpose 
 of the government to discharge all just obligations to 
 the public creditors, and to settle conflicting questions and 
 interpretations of the laws by virtue of which such obliga- 
 tions have been contracted, it is hereby provided and de- 
 clared that the faith- of the United States is solemnly 
 pledged to the payment in coin, or its equivalent of all 
 the obligations of the United States not bearing interest 
 known as United States notes and of all the interest- 
 bearing obligations of the United States, except in cases 
 where the law authorizing the issue of any such obliga- 
 tion has expressly provided that the same may be paid in 
 lawful money, or other currency than gold and silver. But 
 none of said interest-bearing obligations not already due 
 shall be redeemed or paid before maturity unless at such 
 time United States notes shall be convertible into coin at 
 the option of the holder, or unless at such time the bonds 
 of the United States bearing a lower rate of interest than 
 the bonds to be redeemed can be sold at par in coin. 
 
 And the United States also solemnly pledges its faith 
 to make provision at the earliest practicable period for 
 the redemption of the United States notes in coin. 
 
 Approved March 18th, 1869. 
 
60 Appendix. 
 
 Note 3 — 
 
 'This agreement, entered into this 8th day of February, 
 1895, between the Secretary of the Treasury of the United 
 States, of the first part, and Messrs. August Belmont & 
 Co., of New York, on behalf of Messrs. N. M. Rothschild 
 & Sons, of London, England, and themselves, and J. P. 
 Morgan & Co., of New York, on behalf of J. P. Morgan 
 & Co., of London, and themselves, parties of the second 
 part, witnesseth: 
 
 Whereas, It is provided by the Revised Statutes of 
 the United States, section 3700, that the Secretary of the 
 Treasury may purchase coin with any of the bonds or 
 notes of the United States authorized by law at such rate 
 and upon such terms as he may deem most advantageous 
 to the public interests, and the Secretary of the Treasury 
 now deems that an emergency exists in which the public 
 interests require that as hereinafter provided coin shall 
 be purchased with the bonds of the United States of the 
 description hereinafter mentioned, authorized to be issued 
 under the act entitled, 'An act to provide for the resump- 
 tion of specie payments/ approved Jan. 14, 1875, being 
 bonds of the United States described in an act of Con- 
 gress approved July 14, 1870, entitled 'An act to authorize 
 the refunding of the national debt.' 
 
 "Now, therefore, the said parties of the second part 
 hereby agree to sell and deliver to the United States 
 3,500,000 ounces of standard gold coin of the United States 
 at the rate of $17.80441 per ounce, payable in United 
 States 4 per cent thirty-year coupon or registered bonds, 
 said bonds to be dated Feb. 1, 1895, and payable at the 
 pleasure of the United States after thirty years from date 
 issued under the acts of congress of July 14, 1870, Jan. 20, 
 1871 and Jan. 14, 1875, bearing interest at the rate of 4 per 
 cent per annum, payable quarterly. 
 
 First. Such purchase and sale of gold coin being made 
 on the following conditions : 
 
 1. At least one-half of all coin delivered hereinunder 
 shall be obtained in and shipped from Europe, but the 
 shipment shall not be expected to exceed 500,000 ounces 
 per month, unless the parties of the second part shall 
 consent therto. 
 
Appendix. 61 
 
 2. All deliveries shall be made at any of the sub-treas- 
 uries or at any other legal depository of the United States. 
 
 3. All gold coins delivered shall be secured on the 
 basis of twenty-five and eight tenths grains of standard gold 
 per dollar, if within limit of tolerance. 
 
 4. Bonds delivered under this contract are to be de- 
 livered free of accrued interest; which is to be assumed and 
 paid by the parties of the second part at the time of their 
 delivery to them. 
 
 Second. Should the Secretary of the Treasury desire 
 to offer or sell any of the bonds of the United States on 
 or before the first of October, 1895, he shall first offer 
 the same to the parties of the second part; but thereafter 
 he shall be free from every such obligation to the parties 
 of the second part. 
 
 Third. The Secretary of the Treasury hereby reserves 
 the right within ten days from this date, in case he shall 
 receive authority from Congress therefor, to substitute any 
 bonds of the United States bearing 3 per cent interest, of 
 which the principal and interest shall be specifically pay- 
 able in United States gold coin of the present weight and 
 fineness, for the bonds herein alluded to; such 3 per cent 
 bond to be accepted by the parties of the second part at 
 par, i. e., at $18.60465 per ounce of standard gold. 
 
 Fourth. No bonds shall be delivered to the parties of 
 the second part or either of them except in payment for 
 coin from time to time received hereunder, whereupon the 
 Secretary of the Treasury of the United States shall and 
 will deliver the bonds as herein provided at such places 
 as shall be designated by the parties of the second part. 
 Any expense of delivery out of the United States shall 
 be assumed and paid by the parties of the second part. 
 
 Fifth. In consideration of the purchase of such coin 
 the parties of the second part and their associates here- 
 under assume and will bear all the expense and inevitable 
 loss of bringing gold from Europe hereunder, and as far 
 as lies in their power will exert all financial influence and 
 WILL MAKE ALL LEGITMATE EFFORTS TO 
 PROTECT THE TREASURY OF THE UNITED 
 STATES AGAINST WITHDRAWALS OF GOLD 
 pending the complete performance of this contract. 
 
62 Appendix. 
 
 "In witness whereof the parties hereunto set their hands 
 in five parts this 8th day of February, 1895. 
 
 J. G. Carlisle, 
 Secretary of the Treasury. 
 August Belmont & Co., 
 On behalf of Messrs. N. M. Rothschild & Sons, Lon- 
 don, and themselves. 
 
 J. P. Morgan & Co, 
 On behalf of J. P. Morgan & Co, London, and them- 
 selves. 
 Attest :W. E. Curtis, Francis Linde Stetson." . 
 
 A Letter to One of the Free Coinage Champions from 
 Jay Cooke, 
 The Financial Agent and Advisor of the United States 
 During the Administration of Abraham Lincoln — The 
 Man Who Sold Our Bonds, at Home and Abroad, and 
 Lent His Great Credit and Energy to Sustain and Sup- 
 ply Our National Treasury with Funds to Carry on the 
 War of the Great Rebellion. 
 
 "Philadelphia, Sept. 3, 1895. 
 Chas. A. Towne, M. C, 
 
 Duluth, Minn.: 
 Hon. and Dear Sir: 
 
 Some one has sent me the Duluth Herald containing 
 your very able and convincing speech on the silver ques- 
 tion. I am glad to see that you are so outspoken, plain and 
 fearless, and I agree to every word you utter. 
 
 Please send me some copies of the Herald containing 
 the speech in full, and if you have it in pamphlet form I 
 will subscribe and circulate some of the pamphlets. 
 I enclose $2.00 for copies of Herald. 
 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 Jay Cooke." 
 
25 Oearxtss. 
 
 AND OTHER PSYCHIC ARTICLES. 
 
 ({ r APR 181896 
 
 *t WAS0 
 
 MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. 
 
 || JAMES G. BLAINE jj 
 
 f ( ON THE j f 
 
 II ^ I 
 
 « MONEY QUESTION 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 ^TNA PUBLISHING COMPANY, 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 022 007 428 6